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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/32006-8.txt b/32006-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..ea0cab8 --- /dev/null +++ b/32006-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,5369 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Modern Substitutes for Christianity, by +Pearson McAdam Muir + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Modern Substitutes for Christianity + +Author: Pearson McAdam Muir + +Release Date: April 16, 2010 [EBook #32006] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MODERN SUBST. FOR CHRISTIANITY *** + + + + +Produced by Al Haines + + + + + + + + + + +_THE EXPOSITOR'S LIBRARY_ + + + +MODERN SUBSTITUTES + +FOR CHRISTIANITY + + + +BY THE VERY REV. + +PEARSON McADAM MUIR D.D. + + +MINISTER OF GLASGOW CATHEDRAL + +CHAPLAIN IN ORDINARY TO THE KING + + + + +_Christus vincit, Christus regnat, Christus imperat_ + + + +HODDER AND STOUGHTON + +LONDON -- NEW YORK -- TORONTO + + + + +First Published . . . December 1909 + +Second Edition . . . October 1912 + + + + +IN MEMORIAM + +S. A. M. + +JUNE 3, 1847. OCTOBER 5, 1871 + +FEBRUARY 12, 1907 + + + + +{vii} + +CONTENTS + + +I PAGE + +POPULAR IMPEACHMENTS OF CHRISTIANITY . . . . . 1 + + +II + +MORALITY WITHOUT RELIGION . . . . . . . . . . 31 + + +III + +THE RELIGION OF THE UNIVERSE . . . . . . . . . 63 + + +IV + +THE RELIGION OF HUMANITY . . . . . . . . . . . 91 + + +{viii} + + +V + +THEISM WITHOUT CHRIST . . . . . . . . . . . . 125 + + +VI + +THE TRIBUTE OF CRITICISM TO CHRIST . . . . . . 171 + + +APPENDICES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 219 + +AUTHORITIES CONSULTED . . . . . . . . . . . . 257 + +INDEX . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 265 + + + + +{2} + +I + +POPULAR IMPEACHMENTS OF CHRISTIANITY + + + +'Why call ye Me Lord, Lord, and do not the things which I say?'--S. +LUKE vi. 46. + +'The name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles through you.'--ROMANS +ii. 24. + +'What if some did not believe? shall their unbelief make the faith of +God without effect?'--ROMANS iii. 3. + +'By reason of whom the way of truth shall be evil spoken of.'--2 S. +PETER ii. 1. + +'So is the will of God, that with well-doing ye may put to silence the +ignorance of foolish men.'--1 S. PETER ii. 15. + + + +{3} + +I + +POPULAR IMPEACHMENTS OF CHRISTIANITY + +That there is at present a widespread alienation from the Christian +Faith can hardly be denied. Sometimes by violent invective, sometimes +by quiet assumption, the conclusion is conveyed that Christianity is +obsolete. Whatever benefits it may have conferred in rude, +unenlightened ages, it is now outgrown, it is not in keeping with the +science and discovery of modern times. 'The good Lord Jesus has had +His day,'[1] is murmured in pitying condescension towards those who +still suffer themselves to be deceived by the antiquated superstition. +The statements in which our forefathers embodied the relations {4} +between God and man are no longer, except by a very few, considered +adequate; and there is everywhere a demand that those statements should +be recast. Is not all this an irresistible proof that the beliefs of +the Church have been abandoned, that the old notions of the Divine +care, the spiritual world, the everlasting life, cannot be maintained, +must be relegated to the realm of imagination? The blessings with +which Christianity is commonly credited spring from other sources: the +evils with which society is infected are its result, direct or indirect. + + +I + +Such accusations, it may occur to us, cannot be made seriously: they +bear their refutation in the very making; they cannot be propounded +with any expectation of being accepted. This may seem self-evident to +us: it is not self-evident to multitudes of eager, {5} earnest men. +The accusations are persistently made by vigorous writers and +impassioned speakers, and are received as incontrovertible +propositions. However astonishing, however painful, it may be for us +to hear, it is well that we should know, what, in largely circulated +books and periodicals, and in mass meetings of the people, is said +about the Faith which we profess, and about us who profess it. + +Listen to some of the terms in which Christianity is impeached. + +'I undertake,' says Mr. Winwood Reade, 'I undertake to show that the +destruction of Christianity is essential to the interests of +civilisation; and also that man will never attain his full powers as a +moral being, until he has ceased to believe in a personal God, and in +the immortality of the soul. Christianity must be destroyed.'[2] + +'The hostile evidence,' says Mr. Philip {6} Vivian, 'appears to be +overwhelming. Christianity cannot be true. Provided that we see +things as they really are, and not as we wish them to be, we cannot but +come to this conclusion. We cannot get away from facts. Modern +knowledge forces us to admit that the Christian Faith cannot be +true.'[3] + +'I want,' exclaims Mr. Vivian Carey, who has apparently, like Lord +Herbert of Cherbury, received a revelation to prove that no revelation +has been given, 'I want to destroy the fetich of centuries and to +instil in its place a life of duty, and of faith in God and man, and I +believe there is a power that has impelled me to attempt this task.... +A system that has produced such results must be essentially bad.... It +will not be difficult to create a faith and a religion that will serve +the needs of humanity, where Christianity has so deplorably failed.'[4] + +{7} + +'If Christianity,' argues Mr. Charles Watts, 'were potent for good, +that good would have been displayed ere now.... The ties of domestic +affection, the bonds of the social compact, the political relations of +rulers and ruled, all have surrendered themselves to its influence. +Yet with all these advantages, it has proved unable to keep pace with a +progressive civilisation.'[5] + +'In a really humane and civilised nation,' Mr. Robert Blatchford +contends, 'there should be and need be no such thing as Ignorance, +Crime, Idleness, War, Slavery, Hate, Envy, Pride, Greed, Gluttony, +Vice. But this is not a humane and civilised nation, and never will be +while it accepts Christianity as its religion. These are my reasons +for opposing Christianity.'[6] 'Christianity,' he iterates and +reiterates, 'is not true.'[7] + +'Onward, ye children of the new Faith!' {8} exultantly cries Mr. +Moncure D. Conway. 'The sun of Christendom hastes to its setting, but +the hope never sets of those who know that the sunset here is a sunrise +there!'[8] + +Such is the manner in which the downfall of Christianity is now +proclaimed. And the impression is prevalent that, though in all ages +Christianity has been the object of doubt and of scorn, yet never has +it been rejected with such intensity of hatred as now, never have keen +criticism and deep earnestness, wide learning and shrewd mother-wit +been so combined in the attack. It is not merely the reckless, the +dissolute, the frivolous who turn away from its reproofs, seeking +excuses for their self-indulgence, but it is the thoughtful, the +austere, the high-principled, the reverent, the unselfish, who are +engaged in a crusade against all that we, as Christians, hold dear. +'To the old spirit of mockery, coarse or refined, to the old wrangle of +argument, {9} also coarse or refined, has succeeded the spirit of +grave, measured, determined negation.'[9] Men whose integrity and +elevation of character are beyond suspicion, take their places among +the rebels against the authority of Christ. They are fighting, they +assert, not for the removal of a check to their vices, but for the +introduction of a nobler ideal. In the demolition of Christianity, in +the sweeping away of every vestige of religious belief, religious +custom, religious hope, they imagine themselves to be conferring +inestimable benefits upon mankind. Christianity, in their view, is the +product of delusion and the buttress of all social ills. + + +II + +The contrast which so many are drawing between the present and the past +is not a little exaggerated. There have been few periods in which +Christianity has not been the {10} object of animadversion and attack, +in which its speedy downfall has not been confidently predicted. It +was two hundred years ago that Dean Swift wrote _An Argument to prove +that the Abolishing of Christianity in England may, as things now +stand, be attended with some Inconveniences, and perhaps not produce +those many good effects proposed thereby_': the Dean, with scathing +sarcasm, ridiculing at once the conventional customs by which +Christianity was misrepresented, and the supercilious ignorance which +assumed that it was extinct.[10] It was about a quarter of a century +later that Bishop Butler, in the advertisement to his _Analogy of +Religion to the Constitution and Course of Nature_, stated, 'It is +come, I know not how, to be taken for granted by many persons that +Christianity is not so much as a subject of inquiry, but that it is +now, at length, discovered to be fictitious. And accordingly they +treat it as if, {11} in the present age, this were an agreed point +among all people of discernment; and nothing remained but to set it up +as a principal subject of mirth and ridicule, as it were, by way of +reprisals for its having so long interrupted the pleasures of the +world.' And the Bishop drily gave as the aim of the _Analogy_: 'Thus +much, at least, will be here found, not taken for granted but proved, +that any reasonable man who will thoroughly consider the matter, may be +as much assured as he is of his own being, that it is not, however, so +clear a case that there is nothing in it.' + +The assumption that Christianity is a thing of the past can hardly be +more prevalent now than it was then; and the groundlessness of the +assumption then may lead to the conclusion that the assumption is +equally groundless now. Since the days of Butler or of Swift, the +progress of Christianity has not ceased: its developments of thought +and {12} life have been among the most remarkable in its whole career. +The exultation over its decay in the twentieth century may possibly be +found as premature and as vain as the exultation over its decay in the +eighteenth century, or in any of the centuries which have gone before. + + +III + +The most popular impeachments of Christianity are mainly these. + +It is a mass of false and superstitious beliefs long exploded. It is +the opponent of progress and inquiry, the discoveries of science having +been made in direct defiance of its teaching and its influence. + +It is the champion of oppression and tyranny. It aims at keeping the +poor in ignorance and destitution. It prostrates itself before the +rich and seeks the patronage of the great. + +It so insists on people being absorbed in {13} the thought of heaven +that it practically precludes them from doing any good on earth. + +It is a system of selfishness, inculcating the dogma that no one need +care for anything except the salvation of his own soul.[11] + +It is the foster-mother of all the evil and misery by which society is +distressed. Dishonesty, cruelty, slavery, war, persecution, avarice, +drunkenness, vice, would seem to be its natural fruits. + + 'How calm and sweet the victories of life,' + +shrieked Shelley in one of his early poems. + + 'How terrorless the triumph of the grave ... + ... but for thy aid + Religion! but for thee, prolific fiend, + Who peoplest earth with demons, hell with men, + And heaven with slaves! + Thou taintest all thou look'st upon!'[12] + +What shall we say to these accusations? Christians have been credulous +and superstitious, have argued and acted as if only in {14} the +abnormal and exceptional could the Divine Presence be found, as if God +were a hard Taskmaster and capricious Tyrant. They have resisted +progress and inquiry, blindly refusing to see the light which was +streaming upon them. They have unquestionably been guilty of miserable +pride towards inferiors in wealth or in station, and guilty of +miserable sycophancy towards the rich and the powerful. Christians +have too frequently neglected the material well-being of the community, +have suffered disgraceful outward conditions to remain without protest, +have not striven to shed abroad happiness and brightness in squalid and +wretched lives. Christians have been art and part in fostering such +conditions as wrung from compassionate and indignant hearts the _Song +of the Shirt_ and the _Cry of the Children_. Christians have imagined +that correctness of belief would make up for falseness of heart, and +loudness of profession for depravity of {15} practice. Christians have +supposed that in religion all that has to be striven for is the +salvation of one's own soul, have even represented the joy of the +redeemed as heightened by a contemplation of the torments of the lost. +Christians must bear the responsibility of much of the abounding vice +which they have not earnestly tried to combat where it already exists, +and which, in various forms, they have introduced into regions where it +was unknown before. Lawlessness and degradation in the slums, fraud +and dishonesty in trade, gross revelations in the fashionable world; +bigotry, slander, scandals in the ecclesiastical world; plots, wars, +treacheries, assassinations, in the political world: these things ought +not so to be. The fiercest denunciations, the most withering satires, +which unbelievers have employed, do not exceed in intensity of +condemnation the judgment which Christian preachers and Christian +writers have pronounced.[13] + +{16} + +In all ages of the Church the most powerful weapon against Christianity +has been the example of Christians. The Faith which they nominally +hold has been judged by the lives which they actually lead.[14] +'Christianity,' said a bishop of the eighteenth century, 'would perhaps +be the last religion a wise man would choose, if he were guided by the +lives of those who profess it.'[15] But is this to admit that the hope +of the world lies in renouncing Christianity? that in confining +ourselves to the seen and the temporal, we shall best elevate mankind? +that the prospect of annihilation and the absence of wisdom, love, and +Providence in the order of the universe constitute the most glorious +gospel which can be proclaimed? Nothing of the kind. It is only +proved that many Christians are not acting according to their belief, +that their practice does not square with their {17} profession. The +belief and the profession are not proved to be wrong and bad. It would +be unreasonable to argue that, because a man who has been vehemently +sounding the praises of truthfulness is convicted of deliberate lying, +therefore truthfulness is shown to be worthless. It is equally +unreasonable to identify Christianity with everything to which it is +most definitely opposed, to represent it as the enemy of everything +which it was intended to maintain, and then to conclude that +Christianity is discredited.[16] As we should argue from the detection +of a liar, not that lying is right, but that he should return to the +ways of truth, so we should argue from the lives of Christians who live +in flagrant contradiction to the precepts of our Lord and His Apostles, +not that the precepts should be rejected, but that they should be kept; +not that Christianity should be abolished, but that it should be obeyed. + +{18} + +Christians have created prejudice, hatred, against Christianity, but it +is not Christianity which they have been exhibiting. We repudiate the +hideous travesty which they have made, the hideous travesty which is +credulously or maliciously accepted by assailants as a correct +representation. Christianity is not a religion of darkness and +superstition: it calls to its disciples 'Be children of light: prove +all things: hold fast that which is good.' Christianity does not +sycophantishly court the rich and despise the poor: it tells the +stories of the Rich Man and Lazarus, and of the Rich Fool, and it +declares 'Ye cannot serve God and Mammon.' Christianity does not teach +that the life which a man leads is of less consequence than the belief +which he professes: it demands, 'Why call ye Me, Lord, Lord, and do not +the things which I say?' Christianity is not selfish, is not a system +which inculcates the saving of one's own soul as the first and last of +duties: {19} 'He that loveth his life shall lose it. Bear ye one +another's burdens, and so fulfil the law of Christ. By this shall all +men know that ye are My disciples if ye have love one to another.' It +is surely reasonable to demand that Christianity shall be judged, not +by its misrepresentations, but by what it is in itself, not as it has +been perverted by bitter enemies, or by false disciples, but as it is +proclaimed and manifested in its Author and Finisher. + + +IV + +In the face of such tremendous indictments, what is the duty incumbent +on us who profess and call ourselves Christians? Certainly not that we +should abjure the name, but that we should remember what the name +signifies. We ought to consider our ways, to give ourselves to +self-examination. There must be something amiss when such hideous +portraits can be painted with any expectation of their being taken as +correct likenesses. It is right {20} that we should repel with +indignation the ludicrous and intolerable caricatures which are +presented as our belief, the unwarrantable consequences which are +deduced from it. It is right that we should remove misapprehensions +and refute calumnies; but, above all it is necessary that we should +take heed to our own conduct and our own character. The scandals which +we have so much reason to deplore owe their existence, not to +Christianity, but to the absence of Christianity. And the very sneers +which greet any departure from rectitude or morality on the part of a +professing Christian prove that such a departure is not a +manifestation, but a renunciation of Christianity, that what is +expected of Christians is the highest and the best that human nature +can produce. + +'If,' argues Mr. Blatchford, 'if to praise Christ in words and deny Him +in deeds be Christianity, then London is a Christian city and England +is a Christian nation. For it is {21} very evident that our common +English ideals are anti-Christian, and that our commercial, foreign, +and social affairs are run on anti-Christian lines.'[17] As Mr. +Blatchford's life is spent in deploring the baseness of 'our common +English ideals,' and in exposing the iniquity of the methods in which +'our commercial, foreign, and social affairs' are conducted, the +logical inference would seem to be that, as anti-Christian ideals and +anti-Christian lines have so signally failed, it might be well to give +Christian ideals and Christian lines a trial. 'In a really humane and +civilised nation,' Mr. Blatchford maintains, 'there should be, and +there need be, no such thing as Poverty, Ignorance, Crime, Idleness, +War, Slavery, Hate, Envy, Pride, Greed, Gluttony, Vice. But,' he +continues his curious argument, 'this is not a humane and civilised +nation, and never will be while it accepts Christianity as its +religion. These,' {22} so he adds as an irresistible conclusion, +'these are my reasons for opposing Christianity.'[18] Very good +reasons, if Christianity taught such a creed and encouraged such a +morality. But that any human being should give such a description of +the purpose of Christian Faith indicates either that the describer is +swayed by blindest prejudice or else that no genuine Christian has ever +crossed his path. + +'What if some do not believe? shall their unbelief make the faith of +God of none effect? God forbid: yea, let God be true, but every man a +liar.' Truth continues to be truth, though people who talk much about +it may be false. Goodness continues to be goodness, though people who +sing its praises may be thoroughly depraved. Generosity does not cease +to be generosity, though its beauty should be extolled by a miser. +Courage does not cease to be courage, though its heroism should be +extolled by a coward. Temperance {23} is temperance, though we should +be assured of the fact by the thick speech of a drunkard. The virtue +is admirable, even when those who acknowledge how admirable it is do +not practise it. + +That Christianity towers so far above the attainments of its average +disciples, nay, above the attainments of its saintliest, is itself a +kind of evidence of its divine origin. 'When the King of the Tartars, +who was become Christian,' says Montaigne, 'designed to come to Lyons +to kiss the Pope's feet, and there to be an eyewitness of the sanctity +he hoped to find in our manners, immediately our good S. Louis sought +to divert him from his purpose: for fear lest our inordinate way of +living should, on the contrary, put him out of conceit with so holy a +belief. And yet it happened quite otherwise to this other, who going +to Rome to the same end, and there seeing the dissolution of the +Prelates and people of that time, settled {24} himself so much the more +firmly in our religion, considering how great the force and dignity of +it must necessarily be that could maintain its dignity and splendour +amongst so much corruption and in so vicious hands.' God's truth +abides whether men receive it or deny it. Christ is the Way, the +Truth, and the Life, though every so-called Christian should become +apostate. The woes of the world are to be cured by more Christianity, +not by less; and on us, in whose hands have been placed its holy +oracles, rests the responsibility of proving its inestimable advantage +ourselves and of conferring it on all mankind. + +Wherever Christianity has really flourished, untold blessings have been +the result.[19] With all the sad deficiencies and sadder perversions +by which its course has been chequered, no influence for good can be +compared with it in elevating character, in diffusing peace and {25} +goodwill, in fitting men to labour and to endure. The diffusion of the +spirit of Christianity is a synonym for the diffusion of all that tends +to the true well-being of the world. Only as genuine Christianity, the +Christianity of Christ, prevails, will mankind be morally and +spiritually lifted into a higher sphere. Put together the wisest and +most ennobling suggestions of those who regard Christianity as obsolete +and you find that it is virtually Christianity which is delineated. It +is in the prevalence of principles and practices which, however they +may be designated, are in reality Christian, that the salvation of +society and of individuals will be found. In the absence of such +principles and practices will be found the secret of ruin, disorder, +dissolution, and decay. + +It is false Christianity against which the tornado of abuse is really +directed. Where genuine Christianity appears, and is recognised as +genuine, it commands respect. {26} Even the most virulent of recent +assailants, who seriously considers that, until we get rid of the +'incubus of the modern Christian religion, our civilisation will so +surely decay that we shall become an entirely decadent race,' and who +complacently announces that 'it will not be difficult to create a faith +and a religion which will serve the needs of humanity where +Christianity has so signally failed,' even he is graciously pleased to +allow, 'I have no quarrel with Christianity as a code of morals. The +Sermon on the Mount, no matter who preached it, is quite sufficient, if +its teaching was only practised instead of preached, to make this world +an eminently desirable place in which to live. My quarrel is concerned +with the professional promoters and organisers of religion who have +made the very name of Christianity to stink in the nostrils of honest +men.' In other words, it is not to Christianity, but to Christians by +whom it is misrepresented, that he is opposed, and he {27} cannot +refrain from granting, though surely with transparent inconsistency, +that it is by the noble lives of Christians that Christianity has been +so long preserved. 'It won, with its beauty and sentiment, the +allegiance of many who were true and manly. And it is such as these +who have raised the Gospel from the slough of infamy. It is such as +these who, in the darkest ages, have perpetuated by the goodness of +their lives the faith that is left to-day. It is the virtues of +Christians, not the virtue of Christianity, that keeps the faith +alive.'[20] The very opposite is nearer the truth. The virtues of +Christians are simply the outcome of the virtue of Christianity: it is +the vices of Christians which compose the deepest 'slough of infamy' +into which the Gospel has ever been plunged. + +But from all these charges and counter-charges, it would seem to be +clear that real {28} Christianity compels respect even where it is +viewed with aversion, that its progress is hindered by nothing so much +as by the unworthiness of its adherents, that it gains assent by +nothing so much as by the manifestation of Christian lives. + +Will any one venture to deny that the world would be vastly improved +were every one in it to be a genuine Christian, animated by Christian +motives, doing Christian deeds? The revolution would be immense, +indescribable: it would be the end of all evil: it would be the +establishment of all good. No man's hand would be against another, all +would strive together for the welfare of the whole, there would be no +contention save how to excel in love and in good works. The human +imagination cannot depict anything more glorious, more ennobling, than +the will of God done on earth as it is done in heaven, and this is what +would be if the thoughts of every heart were brought {29} into +captivity to the obedience of Christ. The most splendid dreams of the +most exalted visionaries would be more than fulfilled: everything true +and lovely and of good report would be ratified and confirmed: +everything false and vile would be changed and purified, and nothing to +hurt or destroy or defile would remain. The fulfilment of that ideal +is simply the universal prevalence of Christianity, the universal +triumph of Christ. + +The systems and tendencies at which we are about to glance owe their +vitality to the Faith which they attempt to supersede. They are, in so +far as they are good, either tending towards Christianity or borrowing +from it. The insufficiency of mere material well-being, the +irresistible association of Religion with Morality, the worship of the +Universe, the worship of Humanity, all are signs of the ineradicable +instinct of the Unseen and Eternal, of the unquenchable thirst for the +Living God; and belief in the Living {30} God finds its noblest +illustration and confirmation in Him Who said, 'He that hath seen Me +hath seen the Father,' in Him to whom the searching scrutiny of +critical inquirers, as well as the fervid devotion of believers, bears +so marvellous a witness. We hope to show not only that the abolition +of Christianity might 'be attended with sundry inconveniences,' or that +the assumption of there being 'nothing in' Christianity is 'not so +clear a case,' but we hope to show that if, amid present perplexity and +estrangement, many feel themselves obliged to go back and walk no more +with Christ, we, for our part, as we hear His voice of tender reproach, +'Will ye also go away?' can only, with heartfelt conviction, give the +answer, 'Lord, to whom shall we go? Thou hast the words of eternal +life.' + + + +[1] Tennyson, _In the Children's Hospital_. + +[2] _The Martyrdom of Man_. + +[3] _The Churches and Modern Thought_. + +[4] _Parsons and Pagans_. + +[5] _Secularists' Manual_. + +[6] _God and my Neighbour_. + +[7] _Ibid_. + +[8] _Earthward Pilgrimage_. + +[9] Dean Church, _Pascal and other Sermons_, p. 348. + +[10] Appendix I. + +[11] Appendix II. + +[12] _Queen Mab_. + +[13] Hans Faber, _Das Christentum der Zukunft_. + +[14] Appendix. + +[15] Sir Leslie Stephen, _English Thought in the Eighteenth Century_, +vol. i. p. 144 + +[16] Appendix IV. + +[17] _God and my Neighbour_. + +[18] _God and my Neighbour_, ch. ix. p. 197. + +[19] Appendix V. + +[20] _Parsons and Pagans_. + + + + +{32} + +II + +MORALITY WITHOUT RELIGION + + + +'I am sought of them that asked not for Me: I am found of them that +sought Me not.'--ISAIAH lxv. 1. + +'Not the hearers of the law are just before God, but the doers of the +law shall be justified. For when the Gentiles, which have not the law, +do by nature the things contained in the law, these, having not the +law, are a law unto themselves; which shew the work of the law written +in their hearts, their conscience also bearing witness, and their +thoughts the meanwhile accusing or else excusing one another.'--ROMANS +ii. 13-15. + +'Strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope and without +God in the world.'--EPHESIANS ii. 12. + +'The acknowledging of the truth which is after godliness.'--TITUS i. 1. + + + +{33} + +II + +MORALITY WITHOUT RELIGION + +That Religion and Morality have no necessary connection is a popular +assumption. In books, in pamphlets, in magazines, on platforms, in +ordinary conversation, it is loudly proclaimed or quietly insinuated +that the morality of the future will be Independent Morality, Morality +without Sanction. Morality, it is iterated and reiterated, can get on +quite well without Religion: Religion is a positive hindrance to +Morality. This view is, no doubt, extreme. Perhaps it is only here +and there in the writings which fall into the hands of most of us, or +in the circles with which most of us mingle, that the matter is stated +so bluntly and so plainly. But in {34} not a few writings of wide +circulation, and in whole classes of the community, the statement is +made as if beyond contradiction. Even in works which we are all +reading, and in companies where we daily find ourselves, the logical +conclusion of arguments, the natural inference from assumptions, would +be simply that extreme position. There is no use in evading the fact +that if some highly popular opinions are accepted, no statement of the +uselessness of Religion in any form or system can be too extreme. The +mere assurance that Religion is a reality, is a benefit, is a +necessity, though it may not seem a great deal to establish, though it +may leave a host of problems still to solve, would be a gain to many, +would sweep away the chief doubts by which they are perplexed. + +There need not, on our part, be any hesitation in declaring, to begin +with, that Religion {35} without Morality is worthless. The attempt to +keep them apart, to regard them as independent of each other, has often +enough been made by nominal champions of Religion. The upholding of +certain views regarding God and His relations to mankind has been +considered sufficient to make up for neglect of the duties incumbent on +ordinary mortals. The performance of certain rites and ceremonies has +been considered an adequate compensation for the commission of +deliberate crimes. Instances might easily be cited of persons engaged +in villainous schemes, achieving deeds of dishonesty which will cause +ruin to hundreds of innocent victims, executing plots of fiendish +revenge, with little regard for human life, and no regard at all for +truth, but exceedingly punctilious in attention to religious +observances. One of the most cold-blooded murderers that ever +disgraced the habitable globe was careful not to neglect any act of +devotion, and while {36} perpetrating the most nefarious basenesses +never failed to write in his diary the most pious sentiments. That +kind of religion is worse than nothing, was rightly regarded as +increasing the horror and loathsomeness of the monster's life. In a +minor degree, we have all seen illustrations of the same incongruity, +we may even have detected indications of it in ourselves, the tendency +to imagine that the more we go to church or frequent the Sacraments or +read the Bible, we are entitled to latitude in our conduct. There is +no tendency against which we need to be more constantly on our guard, +none which is more strongly, more terrifically, denounced in the Old +Testament and in the New, by prophets and apostles, and by the Lord +Jesus Christ Himself. Unbelievers in Christianity are perfectly right +when they say that Religion without Morality is absolutely worthless. + + +{37} + +II + +We may go further. We may admit, nay, we must vehemently maintain, +that Morality without Religion is far better than Religion without +Morality. Look at this man who makes no profession of Religion, but +who is temperate, honest, self-sacrificing for the public good. Look +at that man who made a loud profession, but who was leading a life of +secret vice, who was false to the trust reposed in him, who +appropriated what had been committed to his charge. Can there be any +doubt, we are triumphantly asked, that of these two, the religious is +inferior to the irreligious? There can be no doubt whatever, would be +the reply of every well-instructed Christian. Morality without +Religion is incalculably better than Religion without Morality. But +what does this prove with regard to Christianity? It simply proves how +eternally true is the parable {38} of our Lord: 'A certain man had two +sons, and he came to the first and said, Son, go work to-day in my +vineyard. He answered and said, I will not, but afterwards he repented +and went. And he came to the second and said likewise. And he +answered and said, I go, sir, and went not. Whether of them twain did +the will of his father? They say unto Him, The first,' and our Lord +confirmed the answer. + + +III + +That kind of comparison between Religion and Morality is most +misleading, for such 'Religion' is not Religion at all. It may be +hypocrisy, it may be superstition, it may be self-deception: +Christianity it is not, and never can be. The contrast is not really +between Morality and Religion, but between Morality and Immorality, +Falsehood, Fraud, and Wilful Imposition. Whatever else the Kingdom of +God may be, it is at least {39} Righteousness: where there is no +Righteousness, there can be no Kingdom of God. Whatever else Christian +doctrine may be, it is at least a doctrine according to godliness, a +teaching in accordance with the eternal laws of righteousness. For +purposes of analysis and convenience, we may distinguish between +Religion and Morality, and show them working in different spheres, but +it is utterly erroneous to suppose that they can be actually divorced. +In every right and rational representation of the Christian Religion, +Morality is included and imbedded, otherwise it is only a maimed and +mutilated Religion which is held out for acceptance. On the other +hand, in all true Morality, especially in its highest and purest +manifestations, Religion is present. It is possible to decry Morality. +'Mere Morality,' in the current acceptation of the phrase, may lack a +good deal, may be a phase of self-righteousness, self-interest, cold +calculation, {40} a keeping up of appearances before the world, but +Morality itself is of a higher strain: it is the fulfilment of every +duty to one's self and to one's neighbour: it implies that each duty is +done from the right motive: the purer and loftier it becomes the more +it encroaches on the religious domain: it is crowned and glorified with +a religious sanction: it is, visible or hidden, conscious or +unconscious, a doing of the will of God. Morality, to hold its own, +must be 'touched by emotion,' and Morality touched by emotion is +identical with Religion. To admit moral obligation in all its length +and breadth, and depth and height, is to admit God.[1] + + +IV + +A curious illustration of the fact that Morality, to be permanent, +needs the inspiration of Religion, that Morality, at its best and +purest, tends to become Religion, is {41} afforded in such a work as +Dr. Stanton Coit's _National Idealism and a State Church_. Dr. Coit +has for twenty years been engaged in founding ethical societies, and +his high and disinterested aims need not be called in question. But +the book is evidence that in order to support the lofty principles +which he so earnestly expounds, he is obliged to call in the aid of +principles which he imagined himself to have discarded. He begins by +denying the Supernatural in every shape and form. He will have none of +a personal God, or of a personal immortality. There is no higher being +than Man. All trust must be shifted from supernatural to human +agencies. 'Combined human foresight, the general will of organised +society, assumes the rôle of Creative Providence.' 'This is, then, the +presupposition of all moral judgment in harmony with which I would +reconstruct the religions of the world: that no crime and no good deed +that happens in this world shall {42} ever be traced to any other moral +agencies than those actually inhabiting living human bodies and +recognised by other human beings as fit subjects of human rights and +privileges.' In other words, Morality, Morality alone, Morality +without any sanction from Above, or any hope from Beyond, is the +all-sufficient strength and ennoblement of man. + +But what is the superstructure which Dr. Stanton Coit proceeds to build +upon this foundation? One would naturally expect that Prayer and +Churches and Sacraments would have no place. But these are exactly +what he insists on retaining; these will apparently be more important, +more necessary, in the future than in the past. 'We should appropriate +and adapt the materials furnished us by the rites and ceremonies of the +historic Church. As the woodbird, bent on building her nest, in lieu +of better materials makes it of leaves and of feathers from her breast, +so may we use what is familiar, old, {43} and close at hand. It is all +ours; and the homelike beauty of the Church of the future will be +enhanced by the ancient materials wrought into its new forms.' So much +enhanced, indeed, that most people will be inclined to tolerate the new +forms simply because of the ancient materials which are allowed to +remain. Among the ancient materials which Dr. Coit appropriates or +adapts, prayer occupies a prominent place. And he is severe upon +those, _e.g._, Comte and Dr. Congreve, who would banish petition from +the sphere of worship. He delights in pointing out that, in despite of +themselves, they include requests for personal blessings. Nor is +prayer to be a mere aspiration or inarticulate longing of the soul. +'No mental activity can become definite, coherent, and systematic, and +remain so, except it be embodied and repeated in words.... A petition +that does not, or cannot, or will not, formulate itself in words, and +let the lips move to shape them, and the {44} voice to sound them, and +the eye to visualise them on the written or printed page, becomes soon +a mere torpor of the mind, or a meaningless movement of blind unrest, +or a trick of pretending to pray. Perfected prayer is always spoken.' + +To whom, or to what, this prayer, uttered or unexpressed, is to be +offered, may be difficult of comprehension. It is not to God, as we +have hitherto employed that sacred name; but Dr. Coit insists that the +word 'God' shall be retained, and that we have no right to deny to this +God the attribute of Personality. 'Any one who worships either a +concrete social group or an abstract moral quality may justly protest +against the charge that his God is impersonal: he may insist that it is +either superpersonal or interpersonal, or both.' The worship of Nature +appears to be discouraged, and to be considered as of comparatively +little worth. 'We dare never forget that moral qualities stand to us +in a {45} different dynamic relation from the grass and the stars and +the sea--no effects upon us or upon these will result from petitions +even of a most righteous man to them. But no one can deny that prayers +to Purity, Serenity, Faith, Humanity, England, Man, Woman, to Milton, +to Jesus, do create a new moral heaven and a new earth for him who +thirsts after righteousness.' Leaving the name of our Lord out of the +discussion, why should a prayer to Serenity have more moral influence +than a prayer to the Sea? Why should a prayer to the Stars be less +efficacious than a prayer to Milton, whose soul was like a star and +dwelt apart? We have only to invest the stars and the sea with certain +qualities evolved from our own imagination to make them as worthy of +worship as either Milton or Serenity. Dr. Coit is scathing in his +criticism of the Positivist prayers, whether of Comte or of Dr. +Congreve: they are 'screamingly funny': 'the most monstrous {46} +absurdity ever perpetrated by a really good and great man.' The +epithets are possibly justified; but are they quite inapplicable to one +who supposes that an invocation of the Living and Eternal God means no +more than an invocation of England, or Faith, or Woman? It is only +when God has become to us an abstraction that an abstraction can take +the place of God. + +A manual of services fitted to a nation's present needs is what, +according to Dr. Coit, is required to ensure the progress and triumph +of the ethical movement. 'Until the new idealism possesses its own +manual of religious ritual, it cannot communicate effectively its +deeper thought and purpose. The moment, however, it has invented such +a means of communication, it would seem inevitable that a rapid moral +and intellectual advancement of man must at last take place, equal in +speed and in beneficence to the material advancement which followed +{47} during the last century in the wake of scientific inventions.' +The ritual of ethical societies will not outwardly differ much from the +ritual to be found in existing religions. Its details have yet to be +arranged or 'invented.' The only things certain are that a book of +prayers ought to be provided at once, and that in Swinburne's _Songs +before Sunrise_ may be found an 'anthology of prayer suitable for use +in the Church of Humanity,' prayers 'as sublime and quickening in +melody and passion as anything in the Hebrew prophets or the Litany of +the Church.' + +Dr. Coit does not denounce theology as theology, he even insists on +being himself ranked among theologians. His readers may be surprised +to learn on what doctrines he dwells with particular fondness. He +laments that belief in the existence and power of the devil should be +waning. 'We may not believe in a personal devil, but we must believe +in a devil who acts very like a person.' {48} He predicts that teachers +will more and more teach a doctrine of hell-fire. Out of kindness they +will terrify by presenting the evil effects, indirect and remote, of +selfish thoughts and dispositions. 'We must frighten people away from +the edge of the abyss which begins this side of death.' Finally, +though, of course, the word is not used in the ordinary sense, the +necessity of the doctrine of the Incarnation is upheld. 'The +Incarnation must for ever remain a fundamental conception of religion. +Until all men are incarnations of the principle of constructive moral +beneficence, and to a higher degree, Jesus will remain pre-eminent; and +it is quite possible that in proportion as he is approached, gratitude +to him will increase rather than diminish.' 'Even should any one ever +in the future transcend him, still it will only be by him and in glad +acknowledgment of the debt to him. There never can in the future be a +dividing of the world into Christianity {49} and not Christianity. It +will only be a new and more Christian Christianity, compatible with +liberty and reason.' + +Thus the drift and tendency of this book bring us back, however +unintentionally, to the Faith of which it appears, at first sight, to +be the renunciation. It establishes irresistibly that Morality, to be +living and permanent, must have religious sanction and inspiration, +that we need to be delivered from the awful thraldom of evil, that the +supreme realities are the things which are unseen; that prayer is the +life of the soul; that public worship is a necessity; that in Christ +the greatest redemptive power has been embodied, and the purest vision +of the Eternal has been granted; and that, in its adaptation to human +needs, its fostering of human aspirations, its ministering to human +sorrows, its renewal of human penitence, its consecration of life and +its hope in death, no Ethical Society yet devised gives any {50} +symptom of being able to supplant the Church of Him Who said, 'Come +unto Me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden and I will give you +rest.' + + +V + +Now, from the fact that Morality at its best assumes a religious tinge, +merges itself in Religion, we may legitimately infer that, without the +inspiration of Religion, Morality at its best will not long prevail.[2] +'Love, friendship,' said Sir James Fitzjames Stephen, 'good nature, +kindness carried to the height of sincere and devoted affection, will +always be the chief pleasures of life, whether Christianity is true or +false; but Christian Charity is not the same as any of these, or all of +these put together, and I think that if Christian Theology were +exploded, Christian Charity would not survive it.'[3] At present, when +Religion has pervaded everything with its sacred sanctions, it is easy +to say that Religion {51} would not be greatly missed were it +discarded, and that Morality would be unaffected. This is pure +conjecture. To test its worth we should need a state of society from +which every vestige of Religion had disappeared. It will not do to +retain any of the beliefs or the customs which owe their origin to a +sense of the Unseen and Eternal, to a sense of any Power above +ourselves, ruling our destinies and instilling into our minds thoughts +and desires and hopes beyond the visible and the material. If +Morality, in the limited acceptation of the term, is sufficient for the +elevation and welfare of mankind, it is not to be supported by any +admixture of Religion: it must prove its power by itself. Religion +must be utterly abolished, its every sanction must be universally +rejected, its every impulse must have universally ceased before it can +be contended with any measure of assurance that the world will be none +the worse, may be even the better, for its vanishing. + +{52} + +If Religion is a delusion, remember what must be eliminated from our +convictions. There can be no higher tribunal than that of man by which +our actions can be judged.[4] A life of outward propriety is the +utmost that can be demanded of us, if it is only against the wellbeing +of our neighbour or the promotion of our own happiness that we can +transgress. What has human law to do with our hearts? What +legislation can deal with 'envy, hatred, malice, and all +uncharitableness,' unless they manifest themselves in outward acts? A +base, unloving, impure, acrimonious, untruthful man may crawl through +life, never having been arrested, never having been sentenced to any +term of penal servitude. He can stand erect before all the laws of the +country and say, 'All these have I kept from my youth up.' And unless +there be a higher law than the law of man, unless there be a law +written on our hearts by the Finger of {53} God, unless there be One to +whom, above and beyond all earthly appearances, we can mournfully +declare, 'Against Thee, Thee only, have I sinned,' nothing more can be +reasonably demanded. If there is nothing higher than the visible, it +can be only visible results which are of any value. The giving of +money to help the needy, and the giving of money in order to obtain a +reputation for generosity, must stand on the same level. The widow's +mite will be worth infinitely less than the shekels which come from +those who devour widows' houses. If there be none to search the heart, +none save poor frail fellow-mortals to whom we must give account, what +an incentive to purity of motive and loftiness of aspiration is +removed! But let men talk as they will, there is a conscience in them +which whispers, It does matter whether our hearts as well as our +actions are right; it does matter whether we have good motives, good +intentions; there is a scrutiny of hearts, {54} making and to be made +more fully yet; there is One before Whom, even though we have not +broken the law of the land, we confess with anguish, Against Thee have +I sinned and done evil in Thy sight: where I appear most +irreproachable, Thine eye detecteth error: it is not the occasional +trespass that I have chiefly to lament, it is the sin that is almost +part and parcel of my very being, the sin that corrodes even where it +does not glare, the sin that undermines even where it does not crash. + + +VI + +The most thoughtful of those who have lost faith in the Living God and +in fellowship with Him hereafter, look on this life with a pessimistic +eye. Without trust in the Unseen and Eternal, life is worthless, an +idle dream. With its harassing cares, with its petty vexations, with +its turbulence and strife, its sorrows, its breaking up of old +associations, its quenching the light of our {55} eyes, 'O dreary were +this earth, if earth were all!' On the stage of the world, 'the play +is the Tragedy Man, the hero the conqueror worm!' + +We cannot but extend the deepest sympathy, the warmest admiration to +those who, bereft of belief and of hope, yet cling tenaciously to moral +goodness.[5] 'What is to become of us,' asks the pensive Amiel, 'when +everything leaves us, health, joy, affections, the freshness of +sensation, memory, capacity for work, when the sun seems to us to have +lost its warmth, and life is stripped of all its charms? ... There is +but one answer, keep close to Duty. Be what you ought to be; the rest +is God's affair.... And supposing there were no good and holy God, +nothing but universal being, the law of the all, an ideal without +hypostasis or reality, duty would still be the key of the enigma, the +pole star of a wandering {56} humanity.'[6] Who does not see that it +is the lingering faith in God which gives strength to this conviction +and that, were the faith obliterated, the natural conclusion would be +for the cultured, 'Vanity of vanities: all is vanity'; and for the +multitudes, 'Let us eat and drink, for to-morrow we die.' 'I remember +how at Cambridge,' says Mr. F. W. H. Myers of George Eliot, 'I walked +with her once in the Fellows' Garden of Trinity on an evening of rainy +May: and she, stirred somewhat beyond her wont, and taking as her text +the three words which have been used so often as the inspiring trumpet +calls of men--the words _God, Immortality, Duty_--pronounced with +terrible earnestness, how inconceivable was the _first_, how +unbelievable the _second_, and yet how peremptory and absolute the +_third_. Never, perhaps, have sterner accents affirmed the sovereignty +of impersonal and uncompromising Law. I {57} listened and night fell: +her grave, majestic countenance turned toward me like a sibyl's in the +gloom, and it was as though she withdrew from my grasp one by one the +two scrolls of promise, and left me the third scroll only, awful with +inevitable fates. And when we stood at length and parted, amid that +columnar circuit of the forest trees, beneath the last twilight of +starless skies, I seemed to be gazing, like Titus at Jerusalem, on +vacant seats and empty halls, on a sanctuary with no presence to hallow +it, and heaven left lonely of a God.'[7] + +Withdraw belief in a God above and in a life beyond, the only reason +for obedience to Duty and Morality will be either our own pleasure, the +doing what is most agreeable to ourselves; or sympathy, the bearing of +others' burdens, in the hope that when we have passed away there may be +some on earth who will reap the harvest which we have {58} sown; or +public opinion, the views which are prevalent in a particular time in a +particular region; and these reasons are hardly likely to produce a +morality which will be other than that of self-indulgence, of despair, +or of conventionality.[8] + +'We can get on very well without a religion,' said Sir James Fitzjames +Stephen, 'for though the view of life which Science is opening to us +gives us nothing to worship, it gives us an infinite number of things +to enjoy. The world seems to me a very good world, if it would only +last. It is full of pleasant people and curious things, and I think +that most men find no difficulty in turning their minds away from its +transient character.' If it would only last! But it does not last: +those dearer to us than ourselves are snatched away. Could anything be +more selfish, more despicably base than to go about saying, All that is +of no {59} consequence, so long as I meet with pleasant people and have +an infinite number of things to enjoy? It is true that an infinite +number of my fellow-creatures may not be enjoying an infinite number of +things, may have trouble in recalling almost anything worthy of the +name of enjoyment, but why should I be depressed by that? I find no +difficulty in turning away my mind from the misfortunes of others. 'We +can get on very well without religion.' No doubt without it some of us +can have agreeable society and a variety of pleasures more or less +refined; but this does not prove that religion is no loss. On the same +principle, we can get on very comfortably without honesty, without +sobriety, without purity, without generosity. We can get on very +comfortably indeed without anything except without a heart which is +intent on self-gratification, and which excludes all thought of the +wants and woes of the world. 'Let us eat and drink, for {60} to-morrow +we die,' is the irresistible, though rather inconsistent, conclusion of +that sublime austerity which so indignantly repudiates the merest hint +of reward or hope within the veil, and which so sensitively shrinks +from the mercenariness of the Religion of the Cross. + + 'The wages of sin is death: + if the wages of Virtue be dust, + Would she have heart to endure for the life + of the worm and the fly!'[9] + + +What are the facts? What is the growing tendency where men think +themselves strong enough to do without religious beliefs, when they +have been proclaiming that the suppression of Religion will be the +exaltation of a purer Morality? There are plenty of indications that +the laws of Morality are found to be as irksome as the dictates of +Religion. The first step is to cry out for a higher Morality, to +censure the Morality of {61} the New Testament as imperfect and +inadequate, as selfish and visionary. The next step is to question the +restraints of Morality, to clamour for liberty in regard to matters on +which the general voice of mankind has from the beginning given no +uncertain verdict. The last step is to declare that Morality is +variable and conventional, a mere arbitrary arrangement, which can be +dispensed with by the emancipated soul. The literature which assumes +that Religion is obsolete does not, as a rule, suffer itself to be much +hampered by the fetters of Morality. The non-Religion of the Future is +what, we are confidently told, increasing knowledge of the laws of +Sociology will of necessity bring about. Should that day ever dawn, or +rather let us say, should that night ever envelop us, it will mean the +diffusion of non-Morality such as the world has never known.[10] + + + +[1] Appendix. + +[2] Appendix VI. + +[3] _Nineteenth Century_, June 1884. + +[4] Appendix VII. + +[5] Appendix VIII. + +[6] _Journal Intime_, ii. + +[7] _Modern Essays_. + +[8] Appendix IX. + +[9] Tennyson, _Wages_. + +[10] Appendix X. + + + + +{64} + +III + +THE RELIGION OF THE UNIVERSE + + + +'Whither shall I go from Thy spirit? or whither shall I flee from Thy +presence.'--PSALM cxxxix. 7. + +'Do I not fill heaven and earth? saith the Lord.'--JEREMIAH xxiii. 24. + +'The heaven and heaven of heavens cannot contain Thee.'--1 KINGS viii. +27. + +'In Him we live, and move, and have our being.'--ACTS xvii. 28. + +'One God and Father of all, Who is above all, and through all, and in +you all.'--EPHESIANS iv. 6. + +'Of Him, and through Him, and to Him are all things: to Whom be glory +for ever. Amen.'--ROMANS xi. 36. + +'That God may be all in all.'--1 CORINTHIANS xv. 28. + + + +{65} + +III + +THE RELIGION OF THE UNIVERSE + +Among proposed substitutes for Christianity, none occupies a more +prominent place than Pantheism, the identity of God and the universe. +'Pantheism,' says Haeckel, 'is the world system of the modern +scientist.'[1] Pantheism, or the Religion of the Universe, is, in one +aspect, a protest against Anthropomorphism, the making of God in the +image of man. It is in supposing God to be altogether such as we are, +to be swayed by the same motives, to be actuated by the same passions +as we are, that the most deadly errors have arisen. Robert Browning, +in _Caliban upon Setebos_, represents a half-brutal {66} being who +lives in a cave speculating upon the government of the world, wondering +why it came to be made, and what could be the purpose of the Creator in +making it. Every motive that could sway the savage mind is in turn +discussed: pleasure, restlessness, jealousy, cruelty, sport. 'Because +I, Caliban,' such is the process of his reasoning, 'delight in +tormenting defenceless animals, or would crush any one that interfered +with my comfort, or do things because my taskmaster obliges me to do +them, so must it be with Him Who made the world.' With great +grotesqueness, but with marvellous power, the degraded monster argues +as to the reasons which could have prompted the Unseen Ruler to frame +the earth and its inhabitants. Everything that he attributes to God is +in keeping with his own base nature. What is the explanation of the +horrors which have been perpetrated in the Name of God? The sacrifice +of human {67} beings, of vanquished enemies, or of the nearest and the +dearest, the agonies of self-torture, did not these originate in the +transference to the Invisible God of the emotions and principles by +which men were guiding their own lives? They had no notion of +forbearance and forgiveness and patience, therefore they did not think +that there could be forgiveness with God. They were to be turned aside +from their fierce, revengeful purposes by bribes and by the protracted +sufferings of their foes, therefore they thought that God might be +bribed by gifts or propitiated by pains. What they were on earth, +delighting in bloodshed and conquest and revelry, that, they supposed, +must be the Being or the Beings who ruled in the world unseen. + + +I + +God is not as man is, this was a lesson which ancient prophets +struggled to teach. He is not a man that He should lie, or a son {68} +of man that He should repent. He is not to be conceived as influenced +by the petty hopes and fears and jealousies which influence the mass of +mortals. 'My thoughts are not as your thoughts, neither are your ways +my ways, saith the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, +so are My ways higher than your ways and My thoughts than your +thoughts.' He is infinitely exalted above the best and wisest of His +children and to see in Him only their likeness is not to see Him +aright. It is not to be denied that the writers of the Old Testament +employ anthropomorphic language to vivify the justice and goodness of +the Eternal. They speak of His Eyes and of His Face, of His Hands and +of His Arm and of His Voice. They speak of Him walking in the Garden +and smelling a sweet savour. They speak of Him repenting and being +jealous and coming down to see what is done on earth. Such figures, +however, as a rule, have a force {69} and an appropriateness which +never can become obsolete or out of date. They even heighten the +Majesty and Spotless Holiness of God. They are felt to be, at most, +words struggling to express what no words can ever convey: they are the +readiest means of impressing on the dull understanding of men their +practical duty, of letting them know with what purity and righteousness +they have to do. It is not in such figures that any harm can ever lie. +The error of taking literally such phrases as 'Hands' or 'Arm' or +'Voice' is not very prevalent, but the error of framing God after our +moral image is not distant or imaginary. There is a mode of speaking +about Divine Purposes and Divine Motives which must jar on those who +have begun to discern the Divine Majesty, to whom the thought of the +All-Embracing Presence has become a reality. + + +{70} + +II + +The representation of the Almighty and Eternal as one of ourselves, as +animated by the lowest passions and paltriest prejudices of mankind, as +a 'magnified and non-natural' human being, is recognised as ludicrously +inadequate and terribly distorted. The representation of the Creator +as 'sitting idle at the outside of the Universe and seeing it go,' as +having brought it into being and afterwards left it to itself, as +mingling no more in its events and evolution, is utterly discarded. It +is, however, to such representations that the assaults of modern +critics are directed, and in the overthrow of such representations it +is imagined that Christianity itself is overthrown. The assailants +maintain that Christianity in attributing Personality to God makes Him +in the image of man, and separates Him from the Universe. But what is +meant by Personality? It does not mean a {71} being no higher than +man, with the limitations and imperfections of man.[2] Mr. Herbert +Spencer, who would not ascribe Personality to God, yet affirmed that +the choice was not between Personality and something lower than +Personality, but between Personality and something higher. 'Is it not +just possible that there is a mode of being as much transcending +Intelligence and Will as these transcend mechanical motion?'[3] The +description of Personality given by the author of the _Riddle of the +Universe_ would be repudiated by every educated Christian. 'The +monistic idea of God, which alone is compatible with our present +knowledge of nature, recognises the divine spirit in all things. It +can never recognise in God a "personal being," or, in other words, an +individual of limited extension in space, or even of human form. God +is everywhere.'[4] That conclusion,--we {72} are not concerned with +the steps by which the conclusion is reached,--does not strike one as a +modern discovery. In what authoritative statement of Christian +doctrine God is defined as _not_ being everywhere, or 'an individual of +limited extension in space, or even of human form,' we are unaware. +There is apparent misunderstanding in the supposition that we have to +take our choice between God as entirely severed from the world, and God +existing in the world. God, it is asserted in current phraseology, +cannot be both Immanent and Transcendent; He cannot be both in the +world and above it. 'In Theism,' so Haeckel draws out the comparison, +'God is opposed to Nature as an extra-mundane being, as creating and +sustaining the world, and acting upon it from without, while in +Pantheism God, as an intra-mundane being, is everywhere identical with +Nature itself, and is operative within the world as "force" or {73} +"energy."'[5] If there is no juggling with words here, it can hardly +be juggling with words to point out that so far as 'space' goes, an +intra-mundane being, rather than an extra-mundane, is likely to be +'limited in extension.' + + +III + +The imagination that the Christian God is a Personality like ourselves, +and is to be found only above and beyond the world, finds perhaps its +strangest expression in some of the writings of that ardent lover of +Nature, the late Richard Jefferies. 'I cease,' so he writes in _The +Story of my Heart_, 'to look for traces of the Deity in life, because +no such traces exist. I conclude that there is an existence, a +something higher than soul, higher, better, and more perfect than +deity. Earnestly I pray to find this something better than a god. +There is something superior, higher, more good. For this I search, +labour, {74} think, and pray.... With the whole force of my existence, +with the whole force of my thought, mind, and soul, I pray to find this +Highest Soul, this greater than deity, this better than God. Give me +to live the deepest soul-life now and always with this soul. For want +of words I write soul, but I think it is something beyond soul.' Could +anything be more pathetic or, at the same time, more self-refuting? +How can anything be greater than the Infinite, more enduring than the +Eternal, better than the All-Pure and All-Perfect? It could be only +the God of unenlightened, unchristian teaching, Whom he rejected. The +God Whom he sought must be not only in but beyond and above all created +or developed things. It was, indeed, the Higher than the Highest that +he worshipped. It was for God, for the Living God, that his eager soul +was athirst, and it is in God, the Living God, that his eager soul is +now, we humbly trust, for ever satisfied. + + +{75} + +IV + +'The heaven and heaven of heavens cannot contain Him.' 'Whither shall +I go from Thy Spirit? or whither shall I flee from Thy presence?' 'My +thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways saith the +Lord.' 'In Him we live and move and have our being.' 'Of Him and +through Him and to Him are all things, to Whom be glory for ever. +Amen.'[6] Now it cannot be denied that some who have striven to +express after this fashion the unutterable majesty and the universal +presence of God, who have endeavoured to demonstrate that God is in all +things, and that all things are in God, have at times failed to make +their meaning plain. Either from the obscurity of their own language, +or from the obtuseness of their readers, they have been considered +Atheists. While vehemently asserting that God is {76} everywhere, they +have been taken to mean that God is nowhere. The actual conclusion to +be drawn from the treatises of Spinoza, the reputed founder of modern +Pantheism, is still undecided. But no one now would brand him with the +name of Atheist. He was excommunicated by Jews and denounced by +Christians, yet there are many who think that his aim, his not +unsuccessful aim, was to establish faith in the Unseen and Eternal on a +basis which could not be shaken. So far from denying God, he was, +according to one of the greatest of German theologians, 'a +God-intoxicated man.' 'Offer up reverently with me a lock of hair to +the manes of the holy, repudiated Spinoza! The high world-spirit +penetrated him: the Infinite was his beginning and his end: the +Universe his only and eternal love.... He was full of religion and of +the Holy Spirit, and therefore he stands alone and unreachable, master +in his art above the profane multitude, {77} without disciples and +without citizenship.'[7] Dean Stanley went so far as to say that 'a +clearer glimpse into the nature of the Deity was granted to Spinoza, +the excommunicated Jew of Amsterdam, than to the combined forces of +Episcopacy and Presbytery in the Synod of Dordrecht.'[8] Such a +judgment is rather hard upon the divines who took part in that +celebrated Synod, but at any rate it indicates that the great +philosopher, misunderstood and persecuted, was elaborating in his own +way, this great truth, 'In him we live and move and have our being.' +'Of Him, and through Him are all things.' + + +V + +In their loftiest moments, contemplating the marvels of the heavens +above and the earth beneath, devout souls have, wherever they looked, +been confronted with the Vision of God. 'What do I see in all {78} +Nature?' said Fénelon, 'God. God is everything, and God alone.' +'Everything,' said William Law, 'that is in being is either God or +Nature or Creature: and everything that is not God is only a +manifestation of God; for as there is nothing, neither Nature nor +Creature, but what must have its being in and from God, so everything +is and must be according to its nature more or less a manifestation of +God.' + +It is the thought which has inspired poets of the most diverse schools, +which has been their most marvellous illumination and ecstasy. + +Now it is Alexander Pope: + + All are but parts of one stupendous whole + Whose body Nature is, and God the soul. + + +Now it is William Cowper: + + There lives and works + A soul in all things and that soul is God. + + +Now it is James Thomson of _The Seasons_: + + These, as they change, Almighty Father! these + Are but the varied God. The rolling year + Is full of Thee. + +{79} + +Now it is William Wordsworth: + + I have felt + A Presence that disturbs me with the joy + Of elevated thoughts, a sense sublime + Of something far more deeply interfused, + Whose dwelling is the light of setting suns, + And the round ocean and the living air, + And the blue sky, and in the mind of man + A motion and a spirit which impels + All thinking things, all objects of all thought, + And rolls through all things. + + +Now it is Lord Tennyson: + + The sun, the moon, the stars, the seas, the hills and the plains, + Are not these, O Soul, the vision of Him Who reigns? + * * * * * + Speak to Him thou, for He hears, and Spirit with Spirit can meet. + Closer is He than breathing and nearer than hands or feet. + + +Certainly, we may say, nothing atheistic in utterances like these: they +are the utterances of lofty thought, of profound piety, of soaring +aspiration, and of childlike faith. They have a pantheistic tinge: +what is there to dread in Pantheism? Not much in {80} Pantheism of +that kind: would there were more of it! But it will be observable +that, in the instances cited, though God is in Nature and manifesting +Himself through it, there is a clear distinction between Nature and +God. It may seem as if it were merely the sky, the sun, the stars, the +ocean, that are apostrophised: in reality it is a Life, a Spirit, a +Power not themselves, in which they live and move and have their being: +not to them, but to That, are the prayers addressed. And, we venture +to think, it is scarcely ever otherwise: scarcely ever is the Visible +alone invoked: identify God as men will with the material universe, or +even with the force and energy with which the material universe is +pervaded, when they enter into communion with it, in spite of +themselves they endow it with the Life and the Will and the Purpose +which they have in theory rejected. But the absolute identification of +God and the Universe, the assumption that above and {81} beneath and +through all there is no conscious Righteousness and Wisdom and Love +overruling and directing, _that_ is a belief to be resisted, a belief +which enervates character and enfeebles hope.[9] 'Whoever says in his +heart that God is _no more_ than Nature: whoever does not provide +_behind the veil of creation_ an infinite reserve of thought and beauty +and holy love, that might fling aside this universe and take another, +as a vesture changing the heavens and they are changed, ... is bereft +of the essence of the Christian Faith, and is removed by only +accidental and precarious distinctions from the atheistic worship of +mere "natural laws."'[10] 'In our worship we have to do, not so much +with His finite expression in created things as with His own free self +and inner reality ... all _religion_ consists in _passing Nature by_, +in order to enter into direct personal relation {82} with Him, soul to +soul. It is _not_ Pantheism to merge all the life of the physical +universe in Him, and leave Him as the inner and sustaining Power of it +all. It is Pantheism to rest in this conception: to merge Him in the +universe and see Him only there: and not rather to dwell with Him as +the Living, Holy, Sympathising Will, on Whose free affection the +cluster of created things lies and plays, as the spray upon the +ocean.'[11] + + +VI + +God is _not_ as we are, and yet He _is_ as we are. God is not made in +the image of man, but man is made in the image of God. It is through +human goodness and human purity and human love that we attain our best +conceptions of the Divine Goodness and Purity and Love. 'If ye being +evil know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more will +your Heavenly Father {83} give the Holy Spirit to them that ask Him?' +Picture to yourself what is highest and best in the human relationship +of father and child: be sure that the Heavenly Father will not fall +below, but will infinitely transcend, that standard. All the justice +and goodness which we have seen on earth are the feebler reflection of +His. It is by learning that the utmost height of human goodness is but +a little way towards Him that we learn to think of Him at all aright. +But the justice and the love by which he acts are different only in +degree, and not in kind, from ours. When we think of God as altogether +such as we are, we degrade Him, we have before us the image of the +imperfect; when we try to think of Him under no image and to discard +all figures, He vanishes into unreality and nothingness, but when we +see Him in Christ, we have before us that which we can grasp and +understand, and that in which there is no imperfection. + +{84} + +If there is no God but the universe, we have a universe without a God. +Worship is meaningless, Faith is a mockery, Hope is a delusion. If the +universe is God, all things in the universe are of necessity Divine. +The distinction between right and wrong is broken down. In a sense +very different from that in which the phrase was originally employed, +'Whatever is, is right.' Nothing can legitimately be stigmatised as +wrong, for there is nothing which is not God. 'If all that is is God, +then truth and error are equally manifestations of God. If God is all +that is, then we hear His voice as much in the promptings to sin as in +the solemn imperatives of Conscience. This is the inexorable logic of +Pantheism, however disguised.'[12] 'I know,' says Mr. Frederic +Harrison, 'what is meant by the Power and Goodness of an Almighty +Creator. I know what is meant by the genius and patience {85} and +sympathy of man. But what is the All, or the Good, or the True, or the +Beautiful? ... The "All" is not good nor beautiful: it is full of +horror and ruin.... There lies this original blot on every form of +philosophic Pantheism when tried as the basis of a religion or as the +root-idea of our lives, that it jumbles up the moral, the unmoral, the +non-human and the anti-human world, the animated and the inanimate, +cruelty, filth, horror, waste, death, virtue and vice, suffering and +victory, sympathy and insensibility.'[13] Where these distinctions are +lost, where this confusion exists, what logically must be the +consequence? Honesty and dishonesty, truth and falsehood, purity and +impurity, kindness and brutality, are put upon a level, are alike +manifestations of the One or the All. + +It is said that in our day the sense of sin has grown weak, that men +are not troubled {86} by it as once they were. There is a morbid, +scrupulous remorsefulness for wrong-doing, a desponding conviction that +repentance and restoration are impossible, which may well be put away. +But that sin should be no longer held to be sin, that evil should be +wrought and the worker experience no pang of shame, would surely +indicate moral declension and decay. Were the time to come when, +universally, mankind should commit those actions and cherish those +passions which, through all ages in all lands, have gone by the name of +sin, should become so heedless to the voice of conscience, that +conscience should cease to speak, the time would have come when men, +being past feeling, would devote themselves with greediness to anything +that was vile, so long as it was pleasant, the bonds of society would +be loosened and destruction would be at hand. The Religion of the +Universe ignores the facts of life, the sorrow, the struggle, {87} the +depravity, the need of redemption. Fortunately, human beings in +general are still inclined to mourn because of imperfection or of +baseness: still they are inclined at times to cry out, 'Who shall +deliver me from the body of this death?' and still they have the +opportunity of joyfully or humbly saying, 'I thank God through Jesus +Christ our Lord.' + +'And now at this day,' listen to the ungrudging admission of perhaps +the most earnest English apostle of Pantheism, Mr. Allanson Picton: 'We +of all schools, whether orthodox or heterodox so-called, whether +believers or unbelievers in supernatural revelation, all who seek the +revival of religion, the exaltation of morality, the redemption of man, +draw, most of us, our direct impulse, and all of us, directly or +indirectly, our ideals from the speaking vision of the Christ. Such a +claim is justified, not merely by the spiritual power still remaining +in the Church, {88} but almost as much by the tributes paid, and the +uses of the Gospel teaching made in the writings of the most +distinguished among rationalists.... Such writers have felt that +somehow Jesus still holds, and ought to hold, the heart of humanity +under His beneficial sway. Excluding the partial, imperfect and +temporary ideas of Nature, spirits, hell, and heaven, which the +Galilean held with singular lightness for a man of His time, they have +acquiesced in and even echoed His invitation to the weary and heavy +laden, to take His yoke upon them and learn of Him. And that means to +live up to His Gospel of the nothingness of self, and of unreserved +sacrifice to the Eternal All in All.'[14] If such is the conclusion of +Rationalism and of Pantheism, how much more ought it to be the +conclusion of Christianity. The imagination of a God confined to times +and places, visiting the world only occasionally, {89} manifesting +Himself in the past and not in the present, ought to be as foreign to +the Christian Church as to any Rationalist or Pantheist. Be it ours to +show that we believe in God Who filleth all things with His presence, +Who is from Everlasting to Everlasting, that to us there is but one God +the Father, by Whom are all things and we in Him, and one Lord, Jesus +Christ, by Whom are all things and we by Him, that God has identified +Himself with us in Jesus Christ, His Son. Be it ours to lose ourselves +in Him. For, after all our questionings as to the government of the +world, as to abounding misery and degradation, as to what lies beyond +the veil for ourselves and for others, this is our hope and our +confidence: 'God hath concluded all in unbelief that He might have +mercy upon all. O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and +knowledge of God! how unsearchable are His judgments and His ways past +finding out. For who hath {90} known the mind of the Lord? or who hath +been His counsellor? or who hath first given to Him, and it shall be +recompensed unto Him again? For of Him and through Him and to Him are +all things: to Whom be glory for ever. Amen.' + + + +[1] _Riddle of the Universe_. + +[2] Appendix XI. + +[3] _First Principles_. + +[4] _Confession of Faith of a Man of Science_. + +[5] _Riddle of the Universe_. + +[6] Appendix XII. + +[7] Schleiermacher. + +[8] _St. Andrews Addresses_. + +[9] Appendix XIII. + +[10] Martineau, _Hours of Thought_, ii. p. 110. + +[11] Martineau, _Hours of Thought_, ii. p. 114. + +[12] _Faith of a Christian_. + +[13] _Creed of a Layman_, p. 203. + +[14] _Religion of the Universe_. + + + + +{92} + +IV + +THE RELIGION OF HUMANITY + + + +'And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our +likeness.'--GENESIS i. 26. + +'When I consider Thy heavens, the work of Thy fingers, the moon and the +stars which Thou hast ordained, what is man that Thou art mindful of +him? and the son of man that Thou visitest him? For Thou hast made him +a little lower than the angels and hast crowned him with glory and +honour.'--PSALM viii. 3-5 + +Thou hast put all things in subjection under His feet. For in that He +put all in subjection under Him, He left nothing that is not put under +Him. But now we see not yet all things put under Him. But we see +Jesus Who was made a little lower than the angels for the suffering of +death crowned with glory and honour, that He by the grace of God should +taste death for every man.'--HEBREWS ii. 8, 9. + + + +{93} + +IV + +THE RELIGION OF HUMANITY + +The position which Religion, and especially the Christian Religion, +assigns to man, to man as he ought to be, is very high. He is made in +the image of God, he is a little lower than the angels, a little lower +than God, he is a partaker of the Divine Nature. But as the corruption +of the best is the worst, there is nothing in the whole creation more +miserable, more loathsome, than man as he has forgotten his high estate +and plunged himself into degradation. 'What man has made of man,' is +the saddest, most deplorable sight in all the world. Amid the awful +splendour of the winning loveliness of Nature, 'only man is vile.' +That is the terrible {94} verdict which may be pronounced upon him +renouncing his birthright, surrendering himself to the powers which he +was meant to keep in subjection. It is not the verdict to be +pronounced on Man as Man, the child of the highest and the heir of all +the ages. The appeal of Religion, the appeal of Christianity above +all, has continually been, O sons of men, sully not your glorious +garments, cast not away your glorious crown. + + +I + +It is irreligion, it is unbelief, which comes and says, Lay aside these +fantastic notions as to your greatness: you are the creatures of a day: +you belong, like other animals, to the world of sense, and you pass +away along with them: a man hath no pre-eminence above a beast. Banish +your delusive hopes; confine yourselves to reality; waste not your time +in the pursuit of phantoms: make the best of the world in {95} which +you are: seize its pleasures: shut your eyes to its sorrows: enjoy +yourselves in the present and let the future take care of itself: +follow the devices and desires of your own hearts in the comfortable +assurance that there is no judgment to which you can be brought, save +that which exists in the realm of imagination. + +Listening to such whispers, obeying such suggestions, walking in such +courses, the spectacle which man presents can be viewed only with +compassion, with horror, or with disdain. His ideals, his aspirations, +his self-sacrifices are only so many phases of self-deception. The +natural conclusion to be drawn from denying the spiritual origin and +eternal prospects of man must be that he is of no more account than any +of the transitory beings around him, that, if he has any superiority +over them, it is only the superiority of a skill with which he can make +them the instruments of {96} his purposes. With no glimpses of a +higher world, with no inspirations from a Spirit nobler than his own, +he can hardly regard the achievements of heroism as other than acts of +madness, he can be fired with no desire to emulate them, he cannot well +be trusted to perform ordinary acts of honesty and morality, let alone +extraordinary acts of generosity and magnanimity, should they come in +collision with his objects and ambitions. + + Unless above himself he can + Erect himself, how mean a thing is Man! + +Deny his divine fellowship, extirpate his heavenly anticipations, and +it might seem as if no race on earth would be so poor as do him +reverence. + + +II + +One thing is assumed by not a few, the absurdity of the Almighty caring +for such a race, and therefore the impossibility of the Incarnation. +'Which,' asks Mr. Frederic {97} Harrison, 'is the more deliriously +extravagant, the disproportionate condescension of the Infinite +Creator, or the self-complacent arrogance with which the created mite +accepts, or rather dreams of, such an inconceivable prerogative? His +planet is one of the least of all the myriad units in a boundless +Infinity; in the countless ćons of time he is one of the latest and the +briefest; of the whole living world on the planet, since the ages of +the primitive protozoon, man is but an infinitesimal fraction. In all +this enormous array of life, in all these ćons, was there never +anything living which specially interested the Creator, nothing that +the Redeemer could care for, or die for? If so, what a waste creation +must have been! ... Why was all this tremendous tragedy, great enough +to convulse the Universe, confined to the minutest speck of it, for the +benefit of one puny and very late-born race?'[1] + +{98} + +But is it not the fact that along with the discovery of Man's utter +insignificance, there has come the discovery of powers and faculties +unknown and unsuspected, so that more than ever all things are in +subjection to him, his dominion has become wider, his throne more +firmly established? Is it not the fact that the whole realm of Nature +is explored by him, is compelled to minister to his wants or to unfold +its treasures of knowledge? Is it not the fact that more than ever it +can be said: + + The lightning is his slave: heaven's utmost deep + Gives up her stars, and, like a flock of sheep, + They pass before his eye, are numbered, and roll on. + The tempest is his steed: he strides the air. + And the Abyss shouts from her depth laid bare + 'Heaven, hast thou secrets? Man unveils me: I have none.'[2] + +Is it not the fact that deposed from his position of proud pre-eminence +as centre of the universe, Man has by his labours and his ingenuity +reasserted his high prerogative {99} to be lord of the creation? The +printing-press, the railway, the telegraph, how have inventions like +these invested him with an influence which he did not possess before! +And is it not the fact that when most conscious of our nothingness +before the immensities around us, when humbled and prostrate before the +Infinite of which we have caught a transitory glimpse, we are also most +conscious of our high destiny, we are lifted above the earthly to the +heavenly, we discern that, though we cannot claim a moment, yet +Eternity is ours? 'What, then, is Man! What, then, is Man! He +endures but an hour and is crushed before the moth. Yet in the being +and in the working of a faithful man is there already (as all faith, +from the beginning, gives assurance) a something that pertains, not to +this wild death element of Time; that triumphs over Time, and _is_, and +will be, when Time shall be no more.'[3] {100} Man's place in the +universe may, according to Dr. Alfred Russel Wallace, be nearer the +centre of things than has so commonly come to be accepted. Modern +discovery, he maintains, has thrown light on the interesting problem of +our relation to the Universe; and even though such discovery may have +no bearing upon theology or religion, yet, he thinks, it proves that +our position in the material creation is special and probably unique, +and that the view is justified which holds that 'the supreme end and +purpose of this vast universe was the production and development of the +living soul in the perishable body of man.' And another, a convinced +and ardent disciple of Evolution, the late Professor John Fiske, argues +that, 'not the production of any higher creature, but the perfecting of +humanity is to be the glorious consummation of Nature's long and +tedious work.... Man seems now, much more clearly than ever, the chief +among God's {101} creatures.... The whole creation has been groaning +and travailing together in order to bring forth that last consummate +specimen of God's handiwork, the Human Soul.'[4] If this be so, this +conclusion arrived at by those who do not hold the ordinary faith of +Christendom, then the objection that the Incarnation could not have +taken place for the redemption of such a race as ours, in a world which +is so poor a fraction of the infinite universe, falls to the ground; +and the protest of a devout modern poet carries conviction with it: + + This earth too small + For Love Divine! Is God not Infinite? + If so, His Love is infinite. Too small! + One famished babe meets pity oft from man + More than an army slain! Too small for Love! + Was Earth too small to be of God created? + Why then too small to be redeemed?[5] + +Man may, or may not, occupy a 'central position in the universe': other +worlds may, {102} or may not, be inhabited: this earth may be but a +minute and insignificant speck amid the mighty All, this at least is +certain, that not by mere magnitude is our rank in the scale of being +to be decided, and that in the spirit of man will be found that which +approaches most nearly to Him who is Spirit. 'The man who reviles +Humanity on the ground of its small place in the scale of the Universe +is,' according to Mr. Frederic Harrison, 'the kind of man who sneers at +patriotism and sees nothing great in England, on the ground that our +island holds so small a place in the map of the world. On the atlas +England is but a dot. Morally and spiritually, our Fatherland is our +glory, our cradle, and our grave.'[6] + + +III + +Hence, one of the ablest attempts to supersede Christianity is that +which goes by {103} the name of Positivism or the Religion of Humanity, +which sets Man on the throne of the universe, and makes of him the sole +object of worship. 'A helper of men outside Humanity,' said the late +Professor Clifford, 'the Truth will not allow us to see. The dim and +shadowy outlines of the Superhuman Deity fade slowly away from before +us, and, as the mist of His Presence floats aside, we perceive with +greater and greater clearness the shape of a yet grander and nobler +figure, of Him who made all gods and shall unmake them. From the dim +dawn of history, and from the inmost depths of every soul, the face of +our Father _Man_ looks out upon us with the fire of eternal youth in +His eyes, and says, "Before Jehovah was, I am." The founder of the +organised Religion of Humanity was Auguste Comte, who died in the year +1857. He held that in the development of mankind there are three +stages: the first, the Theological, in which {104} worship is offered +to God or gods; the second, the Metaphysical, in which the human mind +is groping after ultimate truth, the solution of the problems of the +universe; the third, the Positive, in which the search for the illusive +and the unattainable is abandoned, and the real and the practical form +the exclusive occupation of the thoughts. On Sunday, October 19, 1851, +he concluded a course of Lectures on the General History of Humanity +with the uncompromising announcement, 'In the name of the Past and of +the Future, the servants of Humanity, both its philosophical and +practical servants, come forward to claim as their due the general +direction of this world. Their object is to constitute at length a +real Providence, in all departments, moral, intellectual, and material. +Consequently they exclude, once for all, from political supremacy, all +the different servants of God, Catholic, Protestant, or Deist, as being +at once behindhand and {105} a source of disturbance.' All religions +were banished by the truly 'uncompromising announcement': they were all +condemned as futile and unreal. The best that could be said of the +worship of the past was that it directed 'provisionally the evolution +of our best feelings, under the regency of God, during the long +minority of Humanity.' + +But the fact that Religion will not be banished, that it must somehow +find expression, never received fuller verification. We do not dwell +upon the private life of Comte, its eccentricities and inconsistencies, +but this at least cannot be omitted: he practised a course of austere +religious observances, he worshipped not only Humanity at large, but he +paid special adoration to a departed friend such as hardly the +devoutest of Roman Catholics has ever paid to the Virgin Mary. +Positivism became, what Professor Huxley called it, 'Catholicism +_minus_ Christianity.' Comte laid down for the guidance of his {106} +disciples, who are potentially all mankind, rules which no existing +religious communion can surpass in minuteness. The Supreme Object of +Worship is the Great Being, Humanity, the Sum of Human Beings, past, +present, and future. But as it is only too evident that too many of +these beings in the past and the present, whatever may be said about +the future, are not very fitting objects of worship, Humanity, the +Great Being, must be understood as including only worthy members, those +who have been true servants of Humanity. The emblem of this Great +Being is a Woman of the age of thirty, with her son in her arms; and +this emblem is to be placed in all temples of Humanity and carried in +all solemn processions. The highest representatives of Humanity are +the Mother, the Wife, and the Daughter; the Mother representing the +past, the Wife the present, and the Daughter the future. These are in +the abstract to be regarded as the guardian {107} angels of the family. +To these angels every one is to pray three times daily, and the +prayers, which may be read, but which must be the composition of him +who uses them, are to last for two hours. Humanity, the World, and +Space form the completed Trinity of the Positivist Religion. There are +nine sacraments: Presentation, Initiation, Admission, Destination, +Marriage, Maturity, Retirement, Transformation, Incorporation. There +is a priesthood, to whom is committed the duties of deciding who may or +may not be admitted to certain offices during life, of deciding also +whether or not the remains of those who have been dead for seven years +should be removed from the common burial-place, and interred in 'the +sacred wood which surrounds the temple of humanity,' every tomb there +'being ornamented with a simple inscription, a bust, or a statue, +according to the degree of honour awarded.' The priests are to receive +so comprehensive {108} a training that they are not to be fully +recognised till forty-two years of age. They are to combine medical +knowledge with their priestly qualifications. Three successive orders +are necessary for the working of the organisation: the Aspirants +admitted at twenty-eight, the Vicars or Substitutes at thirty-five, and +the Priests proper at forty-two. + +The Religion of Humanity has a Calendar, each month of twenty-eight +days being in one aspect dedicated to some social relation, and in +another to some famous man representing some phase of human progress: +Moses, Homer, Aristotle, Cćsar, St. Paul, Gutenberg, Shakespeare. Each +day of the year is dedicated to one or more great men or women, five +hundred and fifty-eight in number, and the last day of the year is the +Festival of All the Dead. 'Our Calendar is designed to remind us of +all types of the teachers, leaders, and makers of our race: of the many +modes in which the servants of Humanity {109} have fulfilled their +service. The prophets, the religious teachers, the founders of creeds, +of nations and systems of life: the poets, the thinkers, the artists, +kings, warriors, statesmen and rulers: the inventors, the men of +science and of all useful arts.... Every day of the Positivist year is +in one sense a day of the dead, for it recalls to us some mighty +teacher or leader who is no longer on earth.... But the three hundred +and sixty-four days of the year's calendar have left one great place +unfilled.... Those myriad spirits of the forgotten dead, whom, no man +can number, whose very names were unknown to those around them in life, +the fathers and the mothers, the husbands and the wives, the brothers +and the sisters, the sturdy workers and the fearless soldiers in the +mighty host of civilisation--shall we pass them by? ... It is those +whom to-night we recall, all those who have lived a life of usefulness +in their generation, though {110} they tugged as slaves at the lowest +bank of oars in the galley of life, though they were cast unnoticed +into the common grave of the outcast, all whose lives have helped and +not hindered the progress of Humanity, we recall them all to-night.'[7] + + +IV + +The Religion of Humanity has numbered among its adherents, in part or +in whole, several celebrated persons in this country, such as Richard +Congreve, Dr. Bridges, Professor Beesley, Cotter Morison, George Eliot. +But at present it has no more eloquent and earnest advocate than Mr. +Frederic Harrison, who, in _The Creed of a Layman_, and several other +recent volumes, has passionately proclaimed its principles. For more +than fifty years he has been its apostle: 'every other aim or +occupation has been subsidiary and instrumental to this.'[8] It {111} +is true that in some points he has retained his independence, and while +those outside accuse him of fanaticism, some of his fellow-believers +suspect him of heresy.[9] But he himself is assured that in the +worship of Humanity he has obtained the solution of his doubts[10] and +the satisfaction of his spirit, and on his gravestone or his urn he +would have inscribed the words, _He found peace_.[11] There is much +that is marvellously elevated in thought as well as exquisite in +expression, profoundly devout as well as brilliantly argued, in the +narrative of his progress towards his present position. But when his +vehement statements are carefully examined, it will almost inevitably +be seen that all that is good and sensible in them is an unconscious +reproduction of Christianity. His negations disappear: the +affirmations which he makes are those which the Church has always {112} +maintained. The faith of his childhood permeates and strengthens and +beautifies the creed which he adopted in his maturer years. The unity +of mankind, the memory of the departed, the necessity of living for +others, these are no novelties in Christianity. It is in Christ that +they have specially been brought to light, in Him that they find their +highest ratification, without Him they remain unfulfilled, with Him +they attain to consistency and power. + +The Great Being, Humanity, is only an abstraction.[12] 'There is no +such thing in reality,' Principal Caird reminds us, 'as an animal which +is no particular animal, a plant which is no particular plant, a man or +humanity which is no individual man. It is only a fiction of the +observer's mind.' There is logical force as well as humorous +illustration in the contention of Dean Page Roberts, that there is no +more a humanity apart {113} from individual men and women than there is +a great being apart from all individual dogs, which we may call +Caninity, or a transcendent Durham ox, apart from individual oxen, +which may be named Bovinity.'[13] Nor does the geniality of Mr. +Chesterton render his argument the less telling: 'It is evidently +impossible to worship Humanity, just as it is impossible to worship the +Savile Club: both are excellent institutions to which we may happen to +belong. But we perceive clearly that the Savile Club did not make the +stars and does not fill the universe. And it is surely unreasonable to +attack the doctrine of the Trinity as a piece of bewildering mysticism, +and then to ask men to worship a being who is ninety million persons in +one God, neither confounding the persons nor dividing the +substance.'[14] + +Can it be doubted that the Great Being, {114} the sum of human beings, +is less conceivable, less worthy of worship than the Great Being, the +God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ?[15] Can it be doubted that +the claim of Humanity to worship is less credible if we exclude the +Perfect Man, Christ Jesus, from our view? Can it be doubted that the +Positivist motto, 'Live for others,' gains a force and a meaning +unapproached elsewhere from the Life and Death of Him Who said, 'The +Son of Man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister and to give +His Life a ransom for many?' Humanity knit together in One, purified +from every stain, glorious and adorable, is a lofty and inspiring idea, +but nowhere has it been disclosed save in the Man Christ Jesus, the +Word made Flesh, the Brightness of the Father's glory and the Express +Image of His Person. + + +{115} + +V + +Dr. Richard Congreve owns that much of the Religion of Humanity exists +already in the Christian Faith, but, in one respect, he asserts that +the Religion of Humanity can claim to be entirely original. 'We +accept, so have all men. We obey, so have all men. We venerate, so +have some in past ages, or in other countries. We add but one other +term, we love.'[16] That is what distinguishes this new religion and +proves its superiority to the old: its votaries have attained this new +principle and mode of life: they love one another. The boldness of the +claim may stagger us. We turn over the pages of the New Testament. We +see that Love is the fulfilling of the Law; is the end of the +commandment; is the sum of the Law and the Prophets; is placed at the +very summit of Christian graces; is the bond of perfectness; {116} is +manifested in a Life and a Death which, after nineteen centuries, +remain without a parallel. We recall the touching legend that in his +old age the Apostle S. John was daily carried into the assembly of the +Ephesian Christians, simply repeating to them, over and over, the +words, 'Love one another. This is our Lord's command, fulfil this and +nothing else is needed.' We recall that in early centuries the +sympathy and helpfulness by which Christians of all ranks and races +were united called forth from heathen spectators the amazed and +respectful exclamation, 'See how these Christians love one another!' +Recalling these things, we cannot but be startled that, in the +nineteenth century of the Christian era, a teacher should, with any +expectation of being believed, have ventured to affirm that the great +discovery which it has been reserved for the present day to make is +that of loving one another. Ignorance of Christianity, +misrepresentation {117} of Christianity, we may well call it: ignorance +inconceivable, misrepresentation inconceivable: and yet, as we consider +the state of Christendom, do we not see what palliates the ignorance +and the misrepresentation? Have we not reason to confess that, if the +commandment be not new, universal obedience to it would be new indeed? +May the calm assurance that love is foreign to Christianity not startle +us into the conviction that we have forgotten what, according to our +Lord's own declaration, the chief feature of Christianity ought to be? +'By this shall all men know that ye are My disciples, if ye have love +one to another.' + + +VI + +'How can we,' it has been well said, 'be asked to give the name of +Religion of Humanity to a religion that ignores the greatest human +being that ever lived, and the very source from which the Religion of +Humanity {118} sprang?'[17] Man in himself, man so full of +imperfections, man having no connection with any world but this, man +unallied to any Power higher, nobler than himself, is this to be our +God? Which is more reasonable: to set up the race of man, unpurified, +unredeemed, worthless and polluted, as the object of adoration, or to +maintain that 'Man indeed is the rightful object of our worship, but in +the roll of ages, there has been but one Man Whom we can adore without +idolatry, the Man Christ Jesus'?[18] The Religion of Humanity, so +called, would have us worship Man apart from Christ Whom yet all +acknowledge to be the glory of mankind, but we call on men to worship +Christ Jesus, for in Him we see Man without a stain, we see our nature +redeemed and consecrated, we see ourselves brought nigh to the Infinite +God. We adore Humanity, but Humanity {119} in its purity: we adore +Humanity, but only as manifesting in the Only Begotten Son the glory of +the Eternal Father. Thus we place no garland around the vices of the +human race: thus we abase, and thus we exalt: thus are we humbled to +the dust, thus are we raised to the highest heavens. Apart from +Christ, the magnitude of the creation may well depress and overwhelm: +apart from Christ the human race is morally imperfect instead of being +a fit object of blind adoration. Seeing Christ, we not only feel our +inconceivable nothingness in presence of the Infinite Majesty, but we +stand erect and unpresumptuously say, 'We wonder not that Thou art +mindful of those for whom that Son of Man lived and died, we are in Him +partakers of the Divine Nature. There thou beholdest Thine Own Image.' + +Made in the image of God, such is the ideal of Man that comes to us +from the beginning of his history; and such is the ideal {120} that +once, and once only, has been realised. '_Ecce Homo_! Behold the +Man!' said Pontius Pilate, in words more full of significance than he +knew, pointing to the victim of priestly hatred and popular fickleness. +Behold the Man! man as he ought to be, the Image of God. Before that +Divine Humanity we reverently bow, to that Divine Humanity we humbly +consecrate ourselves, in fellowship with It alone we learn and manifest +the true worth and dignity of Man. + +One writing frantically to exalt mankind and to depreciate +Christianity, tells us how he sat on a cliff overhanging the seashore +and gazed upon the stars, murmuring, 'O prodigious universe, and O poor +ignorant, that could believe all these were made for him!' but the +sight of a steamship caused him to rejoice at the triumph of Art over +Nature, and to exclaim, 'If man is small in relation to the universe, +he is great in relation to the earth: he abbreviates distance and time, +{121} and brings the nations together.' Then he saw that man is +ordained to master the laws of which he is now the slave; he believed +that if man could understand this mission, a new religion would animate +his life, and, in the strength of this revelation, the writer says that +he sang in ecstasy to the waters and winds and birds and beasts, he +felt a rapture of love for the whole human race, he resolved to preach +the New Gospel far and wide, and proclaim the glorious mission of +mankind.[19] + +On the whole the Old Gospel will be found as ennobling, as inspiring, +as practical as the New. All that this new Gospel aims at, we, as +Christians, already believe: and we possess a Divine Token, a Sacred +Pledge which is foreign to it: we believe that a higher destiny is in +store for us than even the construction of wonders of mechanical +skill.[20] Stripped of all rhetoric, the conclusion of unbelief in God +and Immortality can only {122} be 'Man is what he eats': the conclusion +of Christianity, 'There is but one object greater than the soul, and +that is its Creator.' + +One in a certain place testified, saying, 'What is man, that Thou art +mindful of him, or the son of man that Thou visitest him? Thou madest +him a little lower than the angels: Thou crownest him with glory and +honour, and didst set him over the works of Thy hands: Thou hast put +all things in subjection under his feet.' For in that He put all in +subjection under him, He left nothing that is not put under him. But +now we see not yet all things put under him. But we see JESUS Who was +made a little lower than the angels for the suffering of death, crowned +with glory and honour. We see Him Who is our Brother and our +Forerunner within the veil; and in His Exaltation we behold our +own.[21] No vision of the future can surpass that which the Christian +Church {123} has cherished from the beginning, that we shall all 'come +in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto +a Perfect Man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ +... from Whom the whole body fitly joined together and compacted by +that which every joint supplieth, according to the effectual working in +the measure of every part, maketh increase of the body unto the +edifying of itself in love.' + + + +[1] _Creed of a Layman_, p. 67. + +[2] Shelley, _Prometheus Unbound_. + +[3] Thomas Carlyle. + +[4] _Man's Destiny_, p. 31, + +[5] Aubrey de Vere. + +[6] _Creed of a Layman_, p. 76. + +[7] Frederic Harrison, _Creed of a Layman_. + +[8] _Memories and Thoughts_, p. 14. + +[9] _Memories and Thoughts_, p. 15. + +[10] Appendix XIV. + +[11] _Creed of a Layman_. + +[12] Appendix XV. + +[13] _Some Urgent Questions in Christian Lights_. + +[14] _Heretics_, p. 96. + +[15] Appendix XVI. + +[16] Appendix XVII. + +[17] E. A. Abbott, _Through Nature to Christ_. + +[18] Frederick William Robertson, _Sermon on John's Rebuke of Herod_. + +[19] Winwood Reade, _The Outcast_. + +[20] Appendix XVIII. + +[21] Appendix XIX. + + + + +{126} + +V + +THEISM WITHOUT CHRIST + + + +'Ye believe in God, believe also in Me.'--S. JOHN xiv. 1. + +'I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life: no man cometh unto the Father +but by Me.'--S. JOHN xiv. 6. + +'He that hath seen Me hath seen the Father.'--S. JOHN xiv. 9. + +'Neither is there salvation in any other; for there is none other name +under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved.'--ACTS iv. 12. + +'He that abideth in the doctrine of Christ, he hath both the Father and +the Son.'--2 S. JOHN 9. + + + +{127} + +V + +THEISM WITHOUT CHRIST + +By Theism without Christ is not meant a system like Judaism or +Mohammedanism, but a modern school which maintains that faith in God +becomes weakened and impaired by being associated with faith in Jesus. +There are those who cling with tenacity to the first article of the +Apostles' Creed, 'I believe in God the Father Almighty,' but who reject +with equal fervour the second article of the Creed, 'And in Jesus +Christ, His only Son, our Lord.' They resist with horror the +suggestion that the world is under no overruling Providence, or that +the humblest human being is not regarded with the tender love of the +Infinite God: they rival the most {128} mystical worshipper in the +ardour of the language with which in prayer they address the Father in +Heaven, but they refuse to bow in the Name of Jesus: they go to the +Father, as they think, without Him: they assert that to look to Him is +virtually to look away from God. They are as hostile as we can be to +the Substitutes for Christianity which we have been considering. They +have no sympathy with those who loudly deny that there is a God, or +with those who say that it is impossible to find out whether there is a +God or not, or with those who think that the Creator and the Creation +are one, that the universe is God, or with those who, not believing in +any Unseen and Eternal God, insist that the proper object of the +worship of mankind is man. In the proclamation of the existence of an +All-Wise and All-holy Being, in the proclamation that He has made the +world and rules it to its minutest detail, in the proclamation that +{129} there is a life beyond the grave, they are the allies of the +Christian Church. But then they go on to argue, For those who hold +these doctrines, Christ is quite superfluous: to hold them in their +purity Christ must be dethroned and His name no longer specially +revered. Some may still wish to speak of Him as among the Great +Teachers of the world, but some, in order to preserve these precious +truths unmixed, decline in a very fanaticism of unbelief to assign Him +even that position. + + +I + +The declaration of our Lord, 'No man cometh unto the Father but by Me,' +has been a chief stumbling-block and rock of offence. Are we to +believe, it is asked, that only the comparatively few to whom the +knowledge of Jesus Christ has come can possibly be accepted of the +Father? When the words were spoken the number of His disciples was +exceedingly small. Did he mean that the {130} Father could be +approached only by that handful of people, that all beyond were +banished from the Divine Presence and must inevitably perish? That +this is what He meant both the friends and the foes of Christianity +have at times been agreed in holding. The friends have imagined that +they were thereby exalting the claim of Christ to be the One Mediator. +It may be a terrible mystery that the vast majority of the human race +should have no opportunity of believing in Him, should be even +unacquainted with His Name. We can only bow before the inscrutable +decree, and strive with all our might, not only that our own faith may +be deepened, but that the knowledge of Christ may be diffused over all +the earth, so that some here and there may be rescued. There is little +wonder that such a view should have given rise to questionings and +opposition, should have been rejected as inconsistent with mercy and +with justice. It is an {131} interpretation on which hostile critics +have laid stress as incontestably proving the narrowness and bigotry of +the Christian Creed. + +If we bear in mind Who it is that is presumed to say, 'No man cometh +unto the Father but by Me,' the misconception disappears. It is not +merely an individual man, separate from all others, giving Himself out +as a wise and infallible Teacher. He Who makes the stupendous claim is +One Who by the supposition embodies in Himself Human Nature in its +perfection, Who is identified with His brethren, Who says, 'He that +hath seen Me hath seen the Father.' The Life which He manifests is the +Life of God. He is set forth as the Way to the Father: in mercy and in +blessing the Way is disclosed in Him: it is not in harsh and rigid +exclusiveness that He speaks, debarring the mass of mankind: it is in +tender comprehensiveness, inviting all without distinction of race or +circumstance, opening a new {132} and living way for all into the +Holiest. It is the breaking down of all barriers between man and man, +between man and God, not the setting up of another barrier high and +insurmountable. When Christ declares 'No man cometh unto the Father +but by Me,' He is not declaring that the way is difficult and +impassable, He is pointing out a way of deliverance which all may +tread. So far from laying down a hard and burdensome dogma to be +accepted on peril of pains and penalties, He is imparting a hope and a +consolation in which all may rejoice. + +If we believe Him to be the Word of God made Flesh, if we see in Him +the Brightness of the Father's glory, it becomes a truism to say that +only through Him can life and healing be imparted to mankind. When He +Himself says, 'I am the Way, the Truth and the Life,' it is natural for +Him to add, 'No man cometh unto the Father but by Me.' It will {133} +be granted by all who believe in God that, apart from God, no soul of +man can have life eternal. The most strenuous advocate of the +salvation of the virtuous heathen will grant that their salvation does +not descend from the idol of wood and stone before which they grovel. +It is from the True God, the Living God, that the blessing proceeds. +It is His touch, His Spirit, His Presence which has consecrated the +earnest though erring worship of the poor idolater. No one who +believes in the Infinite and Eternal God could possibly say that the +monstrous image whose aid is invoked by the devout heathen is itself +the answerer of his prayer, the cause of his deliverance from sin, the +bestower of immortality upon him. The utmost that can be said is that +in the costly sacrifices, the painful penances, the passionate prayers +which he presents to the object of his adoration, the Almighty Love +discerns a longing after something nobler and better, {134} and accepts +the service as directed really, though unconsciously, to Him. + + The feeble hands and helpless, + Groping blindly in the darkness, + Touch God's right hand in that darkness + And are lifted up and strengthened.[1] + +But it is the hand of God that they touch. It is from the One +Omnipotent God that every blessing comes: it is the One Omnipotent God +Who turns to truth and life and reality every sincere and struggling +and imperfect attempt to serve Him on the part of those who know not +His Nature or His Name. + +And what is true of God is equally true of Christ, the manifestation of +God. Only grant Him to be the Incarnate Word of God, and it becomes +plain that salvation can no more exist apart from Him than apart from +the Father. This Word of God is the Light that lighteth every man. +Whatever truth, whatever knowledge of the Divine, anywhere {135} exists +is the result of that illumination. The sparks which shine even in the +darkness of heathendom betoken the presence of that Light, not wholly +extinguished by the folly and ignorance of man. That is the One Sun of +Righteousness which gives light everywhere, though in many places the +clouds are so dense that the beams can scarcely penetrate. Now, if +that Word has become Flesh, if that Light has become embodied in Human +Form, we are still constrained to say, There is no true Light but His, +it is in His Light that all must walk if they would not stray, there is +no Guide, no Deliverer, save Him. Christ discloses, brings to view, +all the saving health which has ever been, all the power of restoring, +cleansing, healing, which has ever worked in the souls of men. The one +Power by which any human being, in any age or in any land, has ever +been fitted for the presence of the All Holy God, is made manifest in +Christ. 'Neither is there {136} salvation in any other, for there is +none other name under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved.' + +We need have no hesitation in asserting that all who in any age or in +any land, or in any religion, have come to the Father must have come +through the Son of Man, the Eternal Word made Flesh. We do not +contend, as has too frequently been contended, that beyond the limits +of Christianity, beyond, it may be, the limits of one section of +Christianity, there is no truth believed, no acceptable service +rendered. We hail with gratitude the lofty thoughts and the noble +achievements of some who do not in word acknowledge Christ as Lord. In +the vision of the Light that lighteth every man, we see + + How light can find its way + To regions farthest from the fount of day.[2] + +'Now,' as is well said by the present Bishop {137} of Birmingham, who +will hardly be accused of any tendency to minimise the claims of +Christianity, 'this is no narrow creed. Christianity, the religion of +Jesus, is the Light: it is the one final Revelation, the one final +Religion, but it supersedes all other religions, Jewish and Pagan, not +by excluding, but by including all the elements of truth which each +contained. There was light in Zoroastrianism, light in Buddhism, light +among the Greeks: but it is all included in Christianity. A good +Christian is a good Buddhist, a good Jew, a good Mohammedan, a good +Zoroastrian; that is, he has all the truth and virtue that these can +possess, purged and fused in a greater and completer light. +Christianity, I say, supersedes all other religions by including these +fragments of truth in its own completeness. You cannot show me any +element of spiritual light or strength which is in other religions and +is not in Christianity. Nor can you {138} show me any other religion +which can compare with Christianity in completeness of light: +Christianity is the one complete and final religion, and the elements +of truth in other religions are rays of the One Light which is +concentrated and shines full in Jesus Christ our Lord.'[3] + + +II + +From whatever cause, whether as a reaction against the mode in which +this great truth has been at times presented, there have been, and +there are, attempts to supersede Christianity because of its +narrowness. Religion must not be identified with any one name: God +manifests Himself to all, and no Mediator is needed. Theism, +therefore, the worship of the One Almighty and Eternal Being, not +Christianity, in which a Human Name is associated with the Divine Name, +can alone pretend to be the Universal Religion, the {139} Religion of +all Mankind. It is not the first time that such an attempt to do +without Christianity and to do away with it has been made. In the +eighteenth century there was a similar movement. To this day at +Ferney, near Geneva, is preserved the chapel which Voltaire erected for +the worship of God, of God as distinguished from Christ as Divine or as +Mediator between God and man. Voltaire thought that he could overthrow +and crush the Faith of Christ, but he none the less erected a temple to +God. The Deists upheld what they called the Religion of Nature and +repudiated Revelation. _Christianity not Mysterious; Christianity as +old as the Creation_, were among the works issued to show the +superiority of Natural Religion, its freedom from difficulties, its +agreement with reason, its universality. The most enduring memorial of +the controversy is Bishop Butler's _Analogy of Religion to the +Constitution and Course of Nature_, {140} in which it was argued that +the Natural Religion of the Deists was beset by as many difficulties as +the Revelation of the Christians, that those who were not hindered from +believing in God by the problems which Nature presented need not be +staggered by the problems which were presented by Christianity. Bishop +Butler's argument was directed against a special set of antagonists, an +argument, it may be said, of little avail against the scepticism of the +present day. The argument seems to have been unanswerable by those to +whom it was addressed. The grounds on which they rejected the +Revelation of Christ were shown to be inadequate. When they accepted +this or that article of Natural Religion, they had accepted what was as +difficult of belief as this or that part of the Revelation which they +rejected. The mysteries which existed in the religion with which they +would have nothing to do were in harmony with the {141} mysteries which +existed in the religion which they declared to be necessary for the +welfare of society. That retort may be made with even more effect to +those who so far occupy that same ground to-day. They rejoice to +believe that there is a God, that He is not far off, that He +communicates Himself to their souls, that the love which we bear to one +another is but a faint image of the love which He bears to us, that the +noblest qualities which exist in us exist more purely, more gloriously +in Him, that we are in very deed His children and are called to +manifest His likeness. It is by prayer, both in public and in private, +both in congregations and alone with the Alone, that His Love and His +Help can be comprehended and used. He is no absent God: His Ear is not +heavy that it cannot hear, nor His arm shortened that it cannot save. +With this belief we, as Christians, have no dispute: we gladly go along +with Theists in asserting it: we {142} only wonder at their +unwillingness to go along with us a little further. For if God be such +as they glowingly depict Him, if our relations to Him be such as they +esteem it our greatest dignity to know, there is nothing antecedently +impossible in the thought that One Man has heard His Voice more +clearly, has surrendered to His Will more entirely, than any other in +the history of the ages and the races of mankind: nothing antecedently +impossible in the thought that to One Man His Truth has been conveyed +more brightly, more fully than to any other; that in One Man the +lineaments of the Divine Image may be seen more distinctly than in any +other. If God be such, and if our relations to God be such, as Theists +describe, why should they shrink with distrust or with antipathy from a +Son of Man Who has borne witness to those truths in His Life and in His +Death with a steadfastness of conviction which none other has ever +surpassed; Who, according {143} to the records which we possess of Him, +habitually lived to do the Father's Will and died commending His Spirit +into the Father's Hands: a Son of Man Who could truly be said to be in +heaven while He was on earth? If God be such, and our relations to God +be such, as Theists describe, would not that Son of Man be the +confirmation of their thoughts? Would not His testimony be of infinite +value on their side? Would He Himself not be the radiant illustration, +the eagerly longed for proof of the truth for which they contend? They +believe in God: why should it, on their own showing, be so hard to +believe in Christ? + + +III + +The Theism of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries is in some +respects different from the Deism of the eighteenth. It is not so +cold, the God in whom it believes is not so distant from His creatures. +But it is not {144} less vehement in its depreciation of Christianity +as a needless and even harmful addition to the Religion of Nature. +Conspicuous among the advocates of this modern Theism have been Francis +William Newman, Miss Frances Power Cobbe, and the Rev. Charles Voysey. + +Francis Newman, in his youth, belonged, like his brother the famous +Cardinal, to the strictest sect of Evangelicals, but, like the Cardinal +also, drifted away from them, though in a totally different +direction.[4] As he found the untenableness of certain views which he +had cherished, the insufficiency of certain arguments which he had +employed, he came with much anguish of mind to the conclusion that the +whole fabric of historical Christianity was built upon the sand. He +rapidly renounced belief after belief, and caused widespread distress +and dismay by a crude attack upon the moral perfection of {145} our +Lord. His conviction that Christianity had nothing special to say for +itself, and that one religion was as good as another, seems to have +been mainly brought about by a discussion which he had with a +Mohammedan carpenter at Aleppo. 'Among other matters, I was +particularly desirous of disabusing him of the current notion of his +people that our Gospels are spurious narratives of late date. I found +great difficulty of expression, but the man listened to me with much +attention, and I was encouraged to exert myself. He waited patiently +till I had done and then spoke to the following effect: "I will tell +you, sir, how the case stands. God has given to you English many good +gifts. You make fine ships, and sharp penknives, and good cloth and +cottons, and you have rich nobles and brave soldiers; and you write and +print many learned books (dictionaries and grammars): all this is of +God. But there is one thing that God has withheld {146} from you and +has revealed to us; and that is the knowledge of the true religion by +which one may be saved."'[5] + +But although Newman was led to give up Christianity, and practically to +hold that one religion was as good as another, he clung tenaciously to +what he supposed to be common to all religions, belief in God, a belief +deep and ardent. The rationalism of the Deists did not approve itself +to him. 'Our Deists of past centuries tried to make religion a matter +of the pure intellect, and thereby halted at the very frontier of the +inward life: they cut themselves off even from all acquaintance with +the experience of spiritual men.'[6] He nourished his soul with psalms +and hymns: he sought communion with God. He saw the weakness of +Morality without the inspiring power of Religion. 'Morals can seldom +gain living energy without the impulsive force derived from +Spirituals.... However {147} much Plato and Cicero may talk of the +surpassing beauty of virtue, still virtue is an abstraction, a set of +wise rules, not a Person, and cannot call out affection as an existence +exterior to the soul does. On the contrary, God is a Person; and the +love of Him is of all affections by far the most energetic in exciting +us to make good our highest ideals of moral excellence and in clearing +the moral sight, so that that ideal may keep rising. Other things +being equal (a condition not to be forgotten) a spiritual man will hold +a higher and purer morality than a mere moralist. Not only does Duty +manifest itself to him as an ever-expanding principle, but since a +larger and larger part of Duty becomes pleasant and easy when performed +under the stimulus of Love, the Will is enabled to concentrate itself +more on that which remains difficult and greater power of performance +is attained.'[7] Where shall we find a more {148} vivid or more +spiritual description of the rise and progress of devotion in the soul +than in the words of this man, who placed himself beyond the pale of +every Christian communion? 'One who begins to realise God's majestic +beauty and eternity and feels in contrast how little and transitory man +is, how dependent and feeble, longs to lean upon him for support. But +He is _outside_ of the heart, like a beautiful sunset, and seems to +have nothing to do with it: there is no getting into contact with Him, +to press against Him. Yet where rather should the weak rest than on +the strong, the creature of the day than on the Eternal, the imperfect +than on the Centre of Perfection? And where else should God dwell than +in the human heart? for if God is in the universe, among things +inanimate and unmoral, how much more ought He to dwell with our souls! +and they, too, seem to be infinite in their cravings: who but He can +satisfy them? Thus a restless {149} instinct agitates the soul, +guiding it dimly to feel that it was made for some definite but unknown +relation towards God. The sense of emptiness increases to positive +uneasiness, until there is an inward yearning, if not shaped in words, +yet in substance not alien from that ancient strain, "As the hart +panteth after the water-brooks, so panteth my soul after Thee, O God; +my soul is athirst for God, even for the Living God."'[8] + +Mr. Newman, in his later days, we understand, had modified the +bitterness of his opposition to historical Christianity and was ready +to avow himself as a disciple of Christ. + +Miss Frances Power Cobbe was another devout spirit who, with less +violence but equal decisiveness, accepted Theism as apart from +Christianity. In her case, even more visibly than in Mr. Newman's, it +was not Christianity which she rejected, but sundry distortions of it +with which it had in her mind become {150} identified. She wrote not a +few articles so permeated with the Christian spirit and imbued with the +Christian hope that the most ardent believer in Christ could read them +with entire approval and own himself their debtor. She took an active +part in many philanthropic movements, and she was an earnest and +eloquent advocate of faith in the Divine Ordering of the world and in +human immortality. + +'Theism,' she said, 'is not Christianity _minus_ Christ, nor Judaism +_minus_ the miraculous legation of Moses, nor any other creed +whatsoever merely stripped of its supernatural element. It is before +all things the positive affirmation of the Absolute Goodness of God: +and if it be in antagonism to other creeds, it is principally because +of, and in proportion to, their failure to assert that Goodness in its +infinite and all-embracing completeness.'[9] 'God is over us, and +heaven {151} is waiting for us all the same, even though all the men of +science in Europe unite to tell us there is only matter in the universe +and only corruption in the grave. Atheism may prevail for a night, but +faith cometh in the morning. Theism is "bound to win" at last: not +necessarily that special type of Theism which our poor thoughts in this +generation have striven to define: but that great fundamental faith, +the needful substruction of every other possible religious faith, the +faith in a Righteous and Loving God, and in a Life of man beyond the +tomb.'[10] + +'All the monitions of conscience, all the guidance and rebukes and +consolations of the Divine Spirit, all the holy words of the living, +and all the sacred books of the dead, these are our primary Evidences +of Religion. In a word, the first article of our creed is "I BELIEVE +IN GOD THE HOLY GHOST." After this fundamental dogma, we accept {152} +with joy and comfort the faith in the Creator and Orderer of the +physical universe, and believe in GOD THE FATHER ALMIGHTY, MAKER OF +HEAVEN AND EARTH. And lastly we rejoice in the knowledge that (in no +mystic Athanasian sense, but in simple fact) "_these two are One_." +The God of Love and Justice Who speaks in conscience, and Whom our +inmost hearts adore, is the same God Who rolls the suns and guides the +issues of life and death.'[11] + +In an able paper, _A Faithless World_, in which Miss Cobbe combated the +assertion of Sir James Fitzjames Stephen, that the disappearance of +belief in God and Immortality would be unattended with any serious +consequences to the material, intellectual, or moral well-being of +mankind, she forcibly said, 'I confess at starting on this inquiry, +that the problem, "Is religion of use, or can we do as well without +it?" seems to me {153} almost as grotesque as the old story of the +woman who said that we owe vast obligations to the moon, which affords +us light on dark nights, whereas we are under no such debt to the sun, +who only shines by day, _when there is always light_. Religion has +been to us so diffused a light that it is quite possible to forget how +we came by the general illumination, save when now and then it has +blazed out with special brightness.' The comment is eminently just, +but does it not apply with equal force to Miss Cobbe herself? The +Theism which she professed was the direct outcome of Christianity, +could never have existed but for Christianity, was, in all its best +features, simply Christianity under a different name. + +That Theism, as a separate organisation, gives little evidence of +conquering the world is shown by the fact that, after many years, it +boasts of only one congregation, that of the Theistic Church, Swallow +Street, Piccadilly, {154} of which the Rev. Charles Voysey is minister. +Mr. Voysey was at one time vicar of a parish in Yorkshire, where he +issued, under the title of _The Sling and the Stone_, sermons attacking +the commonly accepted doctrines of the Church of England, and was in +consequence deprived of his living. He is distinctly anti-Christian in +his teaching; strongly prejudiced against anything that bears the +Christian name: criticising the sayings and doings of our Lord in a +fashion which indicates either the most astonishing misconception or +the most melancholy perversion. But his sincerity and fervour on +behalf of Theism are unmistakable. He describes it as _Religion for +all mankind, based on facts which are never in Dispute_. The book +which is called by that title is written for the help and comfort of +all his fellowmen, 'chiefly for those who have doubted and discarded +the Christian Religion, and in consequence have become Agnostics or +{155} Pessimists.' It is prefaced by a dedication, which is also a +touching confession of personal faith: 'In all humility I dedicate this +book to my God Who made me and all mankind, Who loves us all alike with +an everlasting love, Who of His very faithfulness causeth us to be +troubled, Who punishes us justly for every sin, not in anger or +vengeance, but only to cleanse, to heal, and to bless, in Whose +Everlasting Arms we lie now and to all eternity.'[12] + +Mr. Voysey has compiled a Prayer Book for the use of his congregation. +The ordinary service is practically the morning or evening service of +the Book of Common Prayer, with all references to our Lord carefully +eliminated. The hymn _Jesus, Lover of my Soul_ is changed to _Father, +Refuge of my Soul_; and the hymn + + Just as I am without one plea, + But that Thy blood was shed for me, + And that Thou bidst me come to Thee, + O Lamb of God, I come, + +{156} is rendered: + + Just as I am without one plea, + But that Thy lore is seeking me, + And that Thou bidst me come to Thee, + O loving God, I come. + +The service respecting our duty, and the service of supplication have +merits of their own, but, except for the wanton omission of the Name +which is above every name, there is nothing in them which does not bear +a Christian impress. 'Christianity _minus_ Christ' would seem to be no +unfair definition of their standpoint: and without Christ they could +not have been what they are. The Father Who is set forth as the Object +of worship and of trust is the Father Whom Christ declared, the Father +Who, but for the manifestation of Christ, would never have been known. +Far be it from us to deny that the Father has been found by those who +have sought Him beyond the limits of the Church: this only we affirm +that those by whom He {157} has been found, have, consciously or +unconsciously, drawn near to Him by the way of Christ. Nothing of +value in modern Theism is incompatible with Christianity: nothing of +value which would not be strengthened by faith in Him Who said, 'He +that hath seen Me hath seen the Father.' + + +IV + +The strange objection to faith in Christ is sometimes made that it +interferes with faith in the Father. The notion of mediation is +regarded as derogatory alike to God and to man. There is no need for +any one to come between: no need for God to depute another to bear +witness of Him: no need for us to depute Another to secure His favour, +as from all eternity He is Love. The assumption, the groundless +assumption, underlying this conception is that the Mediator is a +barrier between man and God, a hindrance not a help to fellowship with +the Divine: that one {158} goes to the Mediator because access to God +is debarred. Whatever may occasionally have been the unguarded +statements of representatives of Christianity, it is surely plain that +no such doctrine is taught, that the very opposite of such doctrine is +taught, in the New Testament. 'We do not,' says M. Sabatier, 'address +ourselves to Jesus by way of dispensing ourselves from going to the +Father. Far from this, we go to Christ and abide in Him, precisely +that we may find the Father. We abide in Him that His filial +consciousness may become our own; that the Spirit may become our +spirit, and that God may dwell immediately in us as He dwells in Him. +Nothing in all this carries us outside of the religion of the Spirit: +on the contrary, it is its seal and confirmation.'[13] + +The whole object of the work of Christ, as proclaimed by Himself, or as +interpreted {159} by His Apostles, was to show the Father, to bring men +to the Father. 'Believest thou not that I am in the Father, and the +Father in Me? the words that I speak unto you I speak not of Myself: +but the Father that dwelleth in Me, He doeth the works.' He 'came and +preached peace to you which were afar off and to them that were nigh. +For through Him we both have access by one Spirit unto the Father.' To +argue that to come to Christ is a substitute for coming to God, is an +inducement to halt upon the way, is an absolute travesty and +perversion. To refuse to see the glory of God in the Face of Jesus +Christ is not to bring God near: it is to remove Him further from our +vision. That God should come to us, that we should go to God, through +a mediator, is only in accordance with a universal law. 'Why,' says +one, who might be expected from his theological training to speak +otherwise, 'Why, _all_ knowledge is "mediated" even of {160} the +simplest objects, even of the most obvious facts: there is no such +thing in the world as immediate knowledge, and shall we demur when we +are told that the knowledge of God the Father also must pass, in order +to reach us at its best and purest, through the medium of "that Son of +God and Son of Man in Whom was the fulness of the prophetic spirit and +the filial life?" ... Of this at least I feel convinced, that where +faith in the Father has grown blurred and vague in our days, and +finally flickered out, the cause must in many instances be sought--I +will not say in the wilful rejection, but--in the careless letting go +of the message and Personality of the Son.'[14] So far from the +thought of the Father being ignored or set aside by the thought of +Christ, we may rather say with S. John, 'Whosoever denieth the Son, +the same hath not the Father: he that confesseth the Son hath the +Father also.' 'He {161} that abideth in the doctrine of Christ, he +hath both the Father and the Son.' + + The homage that we render Thee + Is still our Father's own; + Nor jealous claim or rivalry + Divides the Cross and Throne.[15] + + +V + +The notion that Theism as contrasted with Christianity is a mark of +progress and of spirituality is a pure imagination. 'More spiritual it +may be than the traditional Christianity which consists in rigid and +stereotyped forms of practice, of ceremonial, of observance, of dogma: +but not more spiritual than the teaching of Christ Himself, the end and +completion of Whose work was to bring men to the Father, to teach them +that God is a Spirit, and to send the Spirit of the Father into the +hearts of the disciples. It would be a strange perversity if men +should reject Christ in the name of spiritual {162} religion when it is +to Christ, and to Him alone, that they owe the conception of what +spiritual religion is.'[16] To preach the doctrines of Theism without +reference to Christ is to deprive them of their most sublime +illustration, their most inspiring force, and their most convincing +proof. + +It is as Christ is known that God is believed in. The attempt to +create enthusiasm for God while banishing the Gospel of Christ meets +with astonishingly small response. The 'Religion for all Mankind' +makes but little progress, is, in spite of the labours of +five-and-thirty years, confined, as we have seen, almost to a solitary +moderately sized congregation. And whether or not the 'facts' on which +the religion is based 'are never in dispute,' the religion itself is +often-times disputed very keenly. Modern assaults upon religious faith +are, as a rule, directed quite as much against Theism as {163} against +Christianity.[17] It is the Love, or even the existence, of the Living +God, it is human responsibility, it is life beyond the grave, that are +called in question as frequently as the Resurrection of Christ. The +assurance that God at sundry times and in divers manners has spoken by +prophets renders it not more but less improbable that He should speak +by a Son: the assurance that there is life beyond the grave for all +renders it not more but less improbable that Jesus rose from the dead. +Conversely those who believe in Jesus believe with a double intensity +in Him Whom He revealed. 'Ye believe in God,' said Christ, 'believe +also in Me.' For many of us now, it is because we believe in Christ +that we believe also in God. The Almighty and Eternal is beyond our +ken: the grace and truth of Jesus Christ come home to our hearts. The +Word that was in the beginning with God and was God, {164} is wrapt in +impenetrable mystery: the Word made Flesh can be seen and handled: has + + wrought + With human hands the Creed of Creeds + In loveliness of perfect deeds, + More strong than all poetic thought.[18] + +And however it may be in a few exceptional cases, where people +nominally renouncing Christ desperately cleave to a fragment of the +faith of their childhood, the fact remains that, where He ceases to be +acknowledged, faith in the Father Whom He manifested tends, gradually +or speedily, to vanish. + + +VI + +The superiority of Theism to Deism simply consists in its being more +Christian. With the ideas of God which 'Theists' hold, we can, as +Christians, most cordially sympathise. We can sincerely say, 'Hold to +them firmly, they are your life: let no man rob you of {165} them by +any vain deceit.' But we cannot help also asking, 'Whence have you +drawn those lofty ideas? where have you obtained so exalted a +conception of the Divine Being in His mingled Majesty and lowliness, in +His inconceivable greatness, and His equally inconceivable compassion? +We turn from the picture of God which, with so much labour, so much +skill, so much moral earnestness, you have exhibited, and we behold the +Original in Christ and His Teaching. However unconsciously, it is His +Truth, it is His Features, that you have reproduced. You have been +brought up in the Church of Christ, or you have been brought into +contact with its influences, and you have imbibed its teachings, +perhaps more deeply than some who would not dare to question its +smallest precepts. Still, Christ's teaching you have not outgrown, +from Christ Himself you have not escaped. You cannot go from His +presence or flee from His Spirit. Those {166} views which you hold so +strongly, which are to you the most ennobling that have ever been given +of God and of religion, where is it that alone they are to be found? +In places where Christianity has gone before. + +No doubt, belief in God is not confined to Christian countries: worship +of the Maker of heaven and earth exists where the name of Christ has +never been heard, but not such belief, _such_ worship, as that for +which those persons contend. The God Whom they adore will not be found +anywhere save where Christianity has penetrated. In this country it is +the desperate clinging to one portion of the Christian Faith when all +else has been abandoned: in other lands, in India, for example, where +representatives of this way of thinking are not uncommon, it is the +rapturous welcome of one of the sublime truths of Christianity before +which the idolatries of their forefathers are passing away. It is safe +to call it a transition stage: {167} it will either part with the +fragment of Christianity which it retains and become merged in doubt +and speculation and unbelief; or it will include yet more of the +Christianity of which it has grasped a part: its belief in God will be +crowned and confirmed by its belief in Christ. + +For, speaking to those who cherish faith in the All-Righteous and +All-Loving God as the only hope for the regeneration of mankind, we +cannot shut our eyes to the fact that where faith in Christ fades, +faith in God has a tendency to become vague and dim. He ceases to be +thought of as a Friend and Help at hand: He is resolved into a Creator +infinitely distant or into a Law, immovable, inexorable, a blind, +unconscious Fate. It is Christ Who gives life to the thought of God. +It is the Word made Flesh that makes the Eternal Word more real. The +attempt of the Deists to purify religion by the preaching of a God who +had not {168} revealed Himself, and could not reveal Himself, in a Son, +came to nothing. Voltaire's chapel at Ferney still stands, but nobody +worships in it. Religion seemed to slumber: belief in God seemed to be +decaying, when the preaching of the name and the work of Christ again +aroused it into life. And so it is now. Whatever the ability, +whatever the sincerity of the advocates of belief in God without +reference to Christ, it lacks motive-power, it lacks the missionary +spirit. If we may judge by the past, Theism without Christ is a faith +which will not spread, which will not lay hold on the labouring and the +heavy laden: which may be maintained as a theory, but which will not be +as a fire in the souls of men diffusing itself by kindling other souls. +It is from Christ alone, from Christ the manifestation of what God is +in Heart and Mind, from Christ the manifestation of what man ought to +be, from Christ Who said, 'In My Father's house are many {169} +mansions: he that hath seen Me hath seen the Father,' that there comes +with an authority to which, in face of the difficulties besetting the +present and the future, the human soul will bow, with a soothing power +to which the human spirit will gladly yield--it is from Christ alone +that there comes the Divine injunction, 'Let not your heart be +troubled, ye believe in God, believe also in Me.' It is as He is +clearly seen and truly known that the clouds of error and superstition +vanish from the Face of God, and men are drawn to worship and to trust. + + + +[1] Longfellow, _Song of Hiawatha_. + +[2] Keble, _Christian Year_. + +[3] Bishop Gore, _The Christian Creed_. + +[4] Appendix XX. + +[5] _Phases of Faith_. + +[6] _The Soul: its Sorrows and Aspirations_. + +[7] _The Soul: its Sorrows and Aspirations_. + +[8] _The Soul_. + +[9] _Alone to the Alone_. + +[10] _Alone to the Alone_. + +[11] _Alone to the Alone_. + +[12] Appendix XXI. + +[13] _The Religions of Authority and the Religion of the Spirit_. + +[14] J. Warschauer, _Coming of Christ_. + +[15] Whittier, _Our Master_. + +[16] R. B. Bartlett, _The Letter and the Spirit_: Bampton Lecture. + +[17] Appendix XXII. + +[18] Tennyson, _In Memoriam_. + + + + +{172} + +VI + +THE TRIBUTE OF CRITICISM TO CHRIST + + + +'For their rock is not as our Rock, even our enemies themselves being +judges.'--DEUTERONOMY xxxii. 31. + +'He asked His disciples, saying, Whom do men say that I, the Son of +Man, am? And they said, Some say that Thou art John the Baptist; some +Elias; and others Jeremias or one of the prophets.'--S. MATTHEW xvi. +13, 14. + +'What think ye of Christ? Whose Son is He?--S. MATTHEW, xxii. 42. + +'And there was much murmuring among the people concerning Him: for some +said, He is a good man: others said, Nay, but He deceiveth the +people.'--S. JOHN vii. 12. + +'Then said Jesus unto the twelve, Will ye also go away? Then Simon +Peter answered Him, Lord, to whom shall we go? Thou hast the words of +eternal life.'--S. JOHN vi. 67, 68. + + + +{173} + +VI + +THE TRIBUTE OF CRITICISM TO CHRIST[1] + +Of the investigations of modern criticism the most serious are those +which have concerned the person of our Lord. It has been felt both by +assailants and by defenders of the Faith that, so long as His supremacy +remains acknowledged, Christianity has not been overthrown. Other +doctrines once considered all-important may fall into comparative +abeyance: whether they are upheld or rejected or modified, matters +little to Christianity as Christianity. But more and more it has grown +clear that Christ Himself {174} is the Article of a standing or a +falling Church. If this doctrine is not of God, if He is not the Way, +the Truth, and the Life, Christianity, whatever benefits may have been +associated with its career, must be ranked among religions which have +passed away. But so long as He is admitted to be the Authority and +standard in the moral and spiritual realm, so long as His name is above +every name, the work of destruction is not accomplished. + +Hence, renewed attempts have of late been made to tear the crown from +His brow, to reduce Him to the level of common men, to relegate Him to +the domain of myth, even to deny that He ever existed. Although, in +certain quarters at present, this last and extreme position is loudly +asserted, it is hardly necessary to occupy much time in examining it, +the trend of all criticism, even of the most rationalistic, being so +decidedly opposed to {175} it. To deny that He existed is commonly +felt to be the outcome of the most arbitrary prejudice, the conclusions +of Whately's _Historic Doubts relative to Napoleon Buonaparte_ +remaining grave and weighty in comparison. That Jesus of Nazareth +lived and taught and was crucified, that, immediately after His Death, +His disciples were proclaiming that He had risen, and was their living +inspiration, these are facts which can be denied only by the very +extravagance of scepticism. And the admission of these simple facts +implies a great deal more than is commonly supposed. + + +I + +It is the fashion for hostile critics to say, 'Christianity is not +dependent upon Christ: it is the creation of the semi-historical Paul, +not of the unhistorical Jesus. There is at best no more connection +between Christendom and Christ than between America and {176} Amerigo +Vespucci.[2] See how much Christians have been obliged to give up: see +how belief after belief has had to be surrendered; see how they are now +left with the merest fragment of their ancient Creed, how evidently +they will soon be compelled to part with the little to which they still +desperately cling.' The conclusion is somewhat hasty and premature. +The fragment which remains is after all the main portion of the Creed +of the early disciples. Where that fragment is declared and held and +lived in, there is the presence and the power of the Christian Faith. +We need not trouble ourselves about sundry points which, at one epoch +or another, have come to be denied or ignored: we need not say anything +either for them or against them. We have to take our stand on what is +accepted, not on what is rejected. And for the moment we may {177} +venture to take our stand only on what is accepted by the critics least +biassed in favour of the traditional views of Christendom. Those who +have come to imagine it to be a mark of advanced culture to break with +all religion, to confine their attention to the fleeting present, to +reject all that claims to have Divine sanction, may listen with respect +to the words of some who appear in fancied hostility to Christianity. + +We are not assuming that because men are great in Science or History or +Philosophy they must be great in spiritual things. Their achievements +in their own sphere, let us gratefully recognise; their uprightness, +their single-heartedness, let us imitate; and if by chance they are +sincere Christians as well as able men, let us rejoice; if they are not +professing Christians at all and yet bear witness to the beneficial +influence of Christianity and the unique power of the words and +character of Christ, let us hail with {178} pleasure their tribute of +admiration as a testimony impartial and unanswerable to the +pre-eminence of our Lord, but let not our faith in God, our knowledge +of our Saviour, be dependent on their verdict. The Faith of the Gospel +does not stand or fall with their approval or disapproval. In matters +of criticism we do well to defer to scholars, in matters of science we +do well to defer to men of science. But in matters pertaining to the +inner life, to the development of character, to the knowledge of things +pure and lovely and of good report, such men have no exclusive claim to +be listened to. And it would be absurd to say that we cannot make up +our minds as to whether Christ is worthy to be revered and loved and +followed until we have ascertained what is said about Him by +authorities in physics, or geology, or astronomy, by statesmen or +novelists or writers of magazine articles, by inventors of ingenious +machines or authors of {179} sensational stories. If they speak +scoffingly, if they do not recognise any sacredness in His Spirit and +Life, it will be impossible for us to take Him as our Moral and +Spiritual Guide. + +We might almost as well say that we will not trust the truthfulness or +goodness of our father or mother or brother or friend of many years, +unless, from persons eminent in literature or science or politics, we +have testimonials assuring us that our affection for those with whom we +are so closely associated is not a delusion. That is a matter, we +should all feel, with which the great and distinguished, however justly +great and distinguished, have really nothing to do. It is a matter for +ourselves, a matter in which our own experience is worth more than the +verdict of people, however learned in their own line, who do not, and +cannot, know the friend or relative as we know him ourselves. Still, +we regard it as an additional {180} compliment to his worth, and an +additional confirmation of our own faith, if those who have been +jealously scrutinising his conduct declare that they can find no fault +in him.[3] + +If it is made plain that the positive teaching of men unconnected with +any Church, untrammelled by any creed, is a virtual assertion of much +that is most dear to Christianity, if it is made plain that even where +there is strong denial there is also much reference to Christ, it may +have more weight than the most cogent arguments or the most glowing +appeals of orthodox divines or devout believers. The Evangelists +delight to record instances of unexpected, unfriendly, unimpeachable +testimony to the power of Christ. It is not only that the +simple-minded people were astonished at His doctrine, but that the +soldiers who were sent to silence Him {181} returned, smitten with +amazement, saying, 'Never man spake like this Man.' It is not only +that a grateful penitent washed His Feet with tears, but that the +unprincipled governor who sentenced Him to death declared 'I find in +Him no fault at all.' It is not only that an Apostle confesses, 'Thou +art the Christ the Son of the Living God,' but that the centurion who +watched over His Crucifixion exclaimed, 'Certainly this was a Righteous +Man: this was a Son of God.' It is similar unprejudiced witness that +we may hear around us still, the witness of those who profess to have +another rule of life than ours, and to be in no degree influenced by +our traditions. We must not expect too much from this kind of +evidence: we must not expect clear logical proof of every article +rightly or wrongly identified with the popularly termed 'orthodox' +Creed. It would destroy the value of the evidence {182} simply to +quote orthodox doctrines in orthodox language. What we rather offer is +the testimony of those who have resigned their grasp on much that we +may deem essential. It is because in a sense we may call them +'enemies' that we ask them to be 'judges' in the great controversy. It +is exactly because they are incredulous, or sceptical, or irreligious +that we cite them at all. We confine ourselves to the utterances of +men who are commonly cited as hostile to the commonly accepted Faith of +Christ, or who do not rank among the number of His nominal disciples, +or who at least have discussed His claims by critical and historical +methods, endeavouring fairly to take into account all the facts which +the circumstances warrant. We say to those who disown the authority of +Christ: It is not to the words of Evangelists or preachers that your +attention is sought: it is to the words of those whom you {183} profess +to respect, of those because of whose supposed antagonism to +Christianity you are rejecting Him. We ask you to listen to them and +to consider whether He of Whom such men speak in such terms is to be so +lightly set aside as you have fancied. + + +II + +It will be strange if, accepting even that scanty creed, we do not find +ourselves speedily accepting much more. When it is heartily +acknowledged that Jesus of Nazareth lived and died, and that His first +followers found strength and irresistible power in the conviction that +He had conquered death and the grave, it is of necessity that we go +further. The extreme sceptics who maintain that He never existed are, +for the purpose of controversy, wise in their generation, for, once His +existence is admitted, His mysterious power begins to tell. We are +confronted {184} with an Influence by which, consciously or +unconsciously, we must be affected, a knowledge which we must acquire, +an Authority to which we must bow. Let us not think merely of those +who have, in utter devotion, yielded their hearts and souls to Him +through all the centuries, of the institutions and customs which owe +their existence directly to Him; let us think of the manifestations +which are so often visible in those who do not suspect whence the +manifestations come, let us think of the tributes of affection, of +homage, of devotion which are paid by those to whom the ancient faith +in His Divinity appears to be an illusion or an impossible exaggeration. + +Scarcely any critic of recent years has been regarded as more +destructive than Professor Schmiedel. Indignant attack after indignant +attack has been made upon him for arguing that only nine sayings +attributed to our Lord can be accepted as genuine, that {185} all else +is involved in suspicion. What Schmiedel really does maintain is that +these nine sayings must of necessity be accepted as genuine, cannot be +rejected by any sane canon of criticism, and that the acceptance of +these nine sayings, these 'foundation-pillars,' compels the acceptance +of a great deal besides. '_What then have I gained in these nine +foundation pillars_? You will perhaps say "Very little": I reply, "I +have gained just enough." Having them, I know that Jesus must really +have come forward in the way He is said to have done.... In a word, I +know, on the one hand, that His Person cannot be referred to the region +of myth; on the other hand, that He was man in the full sense of the +term, and that, without of course denying that the Divine character was +in Him, this could be found only in the shape in which it can be found +in any human being. I think, therefore, that if we knew no more we +should {186} know by no means little about Him. But as a matter of +fact the foundation-pillars are but the starting-point for our study of +the life of Jesus.'[4] And this study, he concludes, gives us nothing +less than 'pretty well the whole bulk of Jesus' teaching, in so far as +its object is to explain in a purely religious and ethical way what God +requires of man and wherein man requires comfort and consolation from +God.' The standpoint of Professor Schmiedel is not the standpoint of +the Church as a whole: he fearlessly and aggressively endeavours to +remove any misconception on that subject: all the more remarkable that, +renouncing so much, he incontrovertibly establishes so much, +incontrovertibly establishes, we may not unreasonably contend, a great +deal more than he admits: he cannot, we may think, stop logically where +he does. All this may, or may not, be legitimately argued: there can +{187} be no doubt that one whose dislike of traditional dogmas is +excessive, and whose scrutiny of the Gospel records is minute and +unsparing, forces us to say of Jesus, What manner of Man is this? + +It is the same with the general tendency of modern criticism. From the +day that Strauss accomplished his destructive work, the Figure of Jesus +as a Historical Reality has been more and more endowed with power.[5] +No age has so occupied itself with Him, none has so endeavoured to +recall the features of His character, to apply His teachings to the +solution of social questions, as this age of ruthless inquiry. The +inquirers may have abjured tradition, but almost without exception they +have profoundly reverenced, if they have not actually worshipped, Jesus +of Nazareth, and they have found in His Gospel moral and spiritual +light and life. + +{188} + +Some thirty years ago, M. André Lefčvre, a fervid disciple of +Materialism, an uncompromising and bitter opponent of every symptom of +religious manifestation, could not help discerning 'with the +clairvoyance of hatred,' the influence of Christianity in modern +thought. 'Descartes, Leibnitz, Locke, Condillac, Newton, Bonnet, Kant, +Hegel, Spinoza himself, Toland and Priestley, Rousseau, all are +Christians somewhere.... Voltaire himself has not completely +eliminated the virus: his Deism is not exempt from it.'[6] The same +thing is still occurring. In the most unexpected quarters we find the +fascination of Christ remaining. Men not acknowledging themselves to +be His followers, defiantly proclaiming that they are not His +followers, that they can hardly be even interested in Him, are yet +perpetually returning, in what they themselves will confess as their +higher moments, to the thought of {189} Him, trying to make plain why +it is that for them there is in Him no beauty that they should desire +Him. For example, this is how Mr. H. G. Wells, the popular author of +so many imaginative works, attempts frankly to explain his attitude: + +'I hope I shall offend no susceptibilities when I assert that this +great and very definite Personality in the hearts and imaginations of +mankind does not, and never has, attracted me. It is a fact I record +about myself without aggression or regret. I do not find myself able +to associate him in any way with the emotion of salvation.' But Mr. +Wells goes on to say: 'I admit the splendid imaginative appeal in the +idea of a divine human friend and mediator. If it were possible to +have access by prayer, by meditation, by urgent outcries of the soul, +to such a being whose feet were in the darknesses, who stooped down +from the light, who was at once great and little, limitless in power +{190} and virtue, and one's very brother; if it were possible by sheer +will in believing to make and make one's way to such a helper, who +would refuse such help? But I do not find such a being in Christ. I +do not find, I cannot imagine such a being. I wish I could. To me the +Christian Christ seems not so much a humanised God as an +incomprehensibly sinless being, neither God nor man. His sinlessness +wears his incarnation like a fancy dress, all his white self unchanged. +He had no petty weaknesses. Now the essential trouble of my life is +its petty weaknesses. If I am to have that love, that sense of +understanding fellowship which is, I conceive, the peculiar magic and +merit of this idea of a Personal Saviour, then I need some one quite +other than this image of virtue, this terrible and incomprehensible +Galilean with his crown of thorns, his bloodstained hands and feet. I +cannot love him any more than I can love a man {191} upon the rack.' +'The Christian's Christ is too fine for me, not incarnate enough, not +flesh enough, not earth enough. He was never foolish and hot-eared and +inarticulate, never vain, he never forgot things, nor tangled his +miracles.'[7] + +There is no disputing about tastes; and it is impossible to refute one +who tells us that he cannot see and cannot understand, though we may +lament and be astonished at his disabilities. Why a man upon the rack +should not be loved, or why the prime qualification for the Saviour of +mankind should be the plentiful possession of petty weaknesses, or why +it should be necessary for Him to be sometimes foolish and to have a +bad memory, or what necessary connection there is between hot-ears and +the salvation of the world, need not detain us long. For in spite of +this apparently curious longing for a Deliverer who shall be weak and +vain {192} and forgetful and hot-eared, and foolish, and of the earth +earthy, Mr. Wells shows us that the urgent outcry of his soul is for a +Being limitless in power and virtue and one's very brother; and though +he says that he does not find such a Being in Christ, it is exactly +what Christians have in all ages been finding. 'We have not an High +Priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities, but +was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin. Let us +therefore come boldly unto the Throne of Grace that we may obtain mercy +and find grace to help in times of need.' + + +III + +The instance which we have cited is exceptional among modern doubters, +among those who have deliberately set themselves without violent +prejudice to study the claims of Christianity. Be it in poetry or +prose, in scientific criticism or in imaginative {193} biography, with +remarkable unanimity, while stubbornly refusing to accept the Creed of +the Church, they so depict Him that the natural conclusion of their +representation is, 'Oh, come let us adore Him.' There is scarcely any +of them who would not sympathise with the admission and aspiration of +B. Wimmer in his confession, _My Struggle for Light_: 'I cannot but +love this unique Child of God with all the fervour of my soul, I cannot +but lift up eyes full of reverence and rapture to this Personality in +whom the highest and most sacred virtues which can move the heart of +man shine forth in spotless purity throughout the ages. Even if many a +trait in His portrait, as the Gospels sketch it for us, be more +legendary than historical, yet I feel that here a man stands before me, +a man who really lived and has a place in history like that of no other +man: indeed I feel that even the legends concerning Him possess a truth +in that they spring from the {194} Spirit which passed from Him into +His Church. I know what I have to thank Him for. I would in my inmost +self be so closely united with Him that He may live in my spirit and +bear absolute sway in my soul. I will not be ashamed of His Cross and +I will gladly endure the insults which men have directed, and still +often enough direct, against Him and His truth.' + +That is the characteristic and dominant note of the more recent +criticism. The almost universal conclusion is that the Perfect Ideal +has been depicted in the Christ of the Gospels, and has been depicted +because the Reality had been seen in Jesus of Nazareth.[8] Is it not +allowable to declare that the writers, let them say what they will +about their rejection of the doctrine of the Church concerning the +Incarnation and the Atonement of Christ, are practically His disciples, +that the ardour of their faith in Him not {195} infrequently puts to +shame the coldness of us who call Him Lord?[9] There is scarcely +extravagance in the assertion that, as we recognise the part which +Strauss and Renan played, and the unconscious help which they rendered, +'we may well say now "_noster_" Strauss and "_noster_" Renan. They +were, in their measure, and, according to their respective abilities, +defenders of the Faith.'[10] While it is possible to lament that among +Christian apologists there are timid surrenders and faithless +forebodings, it is yet more possible to reply that 'Whereas our critics +were at one time infidels and our bitter enemies, they are now proud of +the name of Christian and ready to be the friends, as far as that is +permitted, of every form of orthodoxy in Christianity.'[11] + +The language in which, at any rate, they express their conception of +Him is sometimes {196} more devout, more exalted, than the language +which used to be employed by professed apologists. The Hindu Theist, +Protab Chandra Mozoomdar, who stood outside the fold of Christianity, +joyfully proclaimed, 'Christ reigns. As the law of the spirit of +heavenly life, He reigns in the bosom of every believer.... Christ +reigns as the recogniser of Divine humanity in the fallen, the low, and +the despicable, as the healer of the unhappy, the unclean, and the sore +distressed. Reigns He not in the sweet humanity that goes forth to +seek and to save its kin in every land and clime, to teach and preach, +and raise and reclaim, to weep and watch and give repose? He reigns as +sweet patience and sober reason amid the laws and orders of the world; +as the spirit of submission and loyalty He reigns in peace in the +kingdoms of the world.... Christ reigns in the individual who feebly +watches His footprints in the tangled mazes of life. {197} He reigns +in the community that is bound together in His name. As Divine +Humanity, and the Son of God, He reigns gloriously around us in the New +Dispensation.'[12] + +Or listen to the rhapsody with which Mrs. Besant, once an Atheist, now +a Theosophist, depicts His influence from age to age: 'His the steady +inpouring of truth into every brain ready to receive it, so that hand +stretched out to hand across the centuries and passed on the torch of +knowledge, which thus was never extinguished. His the Form which stood +beside the rack and in the flames of the burning pile, cheering His +confessors and His martyrs, soothing the anguish of their pains and +filling their hearts with His peace. His the impulse which spoke in +the thunder of Savonarola, which guided the calm wisdom of Erasmus, +which inspired the deep ethics of the God-intoxicated Spinoza.... His +the beauty that allured Fra {198} Angelico and Raphael and Leonardo da +Vinci, that inspired the genius of Michael Angelo, that shone before +the eyes of Murillo, and that gave the power that raised the marvels of +the world, the Duomo of Milan, the San Marco of Venice, the Cathedral +of Florence. His the melody that breathed in the Masses of Mozart, the +sonatas of Beethoven, the oratorios of Handel, the fugues of Bach, the +austere splendour of Brahms. Through the long centuries He has striven +and laboured, and, with all the mighty burden of the Churches to carry, +He has never left uncared for and unsolaced one human heart that cried +to Him for help.'[13] When we read sentences like these by themselves +we say, Here is unqualified acceptance of the Christian Faith. And +even when we are told that we must not take the sentences in their +literal and natural meaning, that they apply not to Him Whose earthly +{199} career is sketched in the Gospels, but to an Ideal Being evolved +out of the writer's imagination, we are surely entitled to answer, It +is of Jesus that the words are spoken, whether their meaning is to be +taken literally or figuratively; if they have any meaning at all, they +indicate a Being without a parallel. That there should be so +extraordinary a conflict of opinion regarding Him, that the greatest +intellects as well as the simplest souls should hail Him as Divine, +that the most critical should still find their explanations +insufficient to account for the impression which He made upon His +contemporaries and continues to wield to this day, at least renders Him +absolutely unique. Men may disbelieve a great deal; they cannot +disbelieve that this Amazing Personality has a place in the heart of +the world which no other has ever occupied. The alleged imaginary +Ideal has had on earth only one approximate Embodiment. Nay, we are +{200} forced to confess, without the actual Character disclosed from +Nazareth to Calvary, the Ideal would never have been conceived. + + +IV + +Robert Browning has described in his _Christmas Eve_ a certain German +professor lecturing upon the myth of Christ and the sources whence it +is derivable. But as the listeners wait for the inference that faith +in Him should henceforth be discarded, 'he bids us,' says the supposed +narrator of the story, 'when we least expect it take back our faith': + + Go home and venerate the myth + I thus have experimented with. + This Man, continue to adore Him + Rather than all who went before Him, + And all who ever followed after. + + +This is a correct though humorous summary of much prevalent scepticism. +While critics destroy with the one hand, they build up {201} with the +other; while they seem intent on rooting out every remnant of trust in +Christ, they frequently conclude by passionately beseeching us to make +Him our Model and our King, our Pattern and our Guide. If there is +anything which is calculated at once to arouse us who profess and call +ourselves Christians and to make us ashamed, it is that the diligence +with which His Example is followed, the earnestness with which His +words are studied, by some whom we hold to have abandoned the Catholic +Faith, throw into the shade the obedience, the love, the earnestness +which prevail among ourselves. They who follow not with us are casting +out devils in His name. It is with us, they are careful to say, and +not with Him that they are waging war. They may dispute the incidents +of His recorded Life: they may insist on reducing Him to the level of +humanity, but they also insist that in so doing they act according to +His Own {202} Mind, that they refuse, for the very love which they bear +Him, to surround Him with a glory which He would have rejected. Devoid +of the errors which have led astray His successors, exalted far above +the wisest and the best of those who have spoken in His Name, it is the +function of criticism to show Him in His fashion as He lived, to sweep +away the falsehoods which have gathered round Him in the course of +ages.[14] + +We do not seek to read into the emotional language of such writers a +significance which they would repudiate, but we are surely entitled to +point out that in spite of themselves they are bringing their tribute +of homage to the King of the Jews, the King of all mankind. They grant +so much that, it seems to us, they must grant yet more. We, at any +rate, cannot stop where they deem themselves obliged to stop. We must +go further, we hear other voices swell the {203} chorus of adoration, +we have the witness not only of those who, in awe and wonderment have +exclaimed, 'Truly this was a Son of God,' but we have the witness of +those who from heartfelt conviction are able to say, 'The life which I +now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, Who loved +me and gave Himself for me.' And to them we humbly hope to be able to +respond, 'Now we believe not because of the language of others, whether +honest doubters or devout disciples, for we have heard Him ourselves, +and know that this is indeed the Christ, the Saviour of the world.' + +'Restate our doctrines as we may,' to sum up all in the words of one +who began his career as a teacher in the confidence that Jesus of +Nazareth was merely a man, but whom closer study and deepening +experience have brought to a fuller faith, 'reconstruct our theologies +as we will, this age, like every age, beholds in Him the Way to God, +the {204} Truth of God, the Life of God lived out among men: this age, +like every age, has heard and responds to His call, "Come unto Me all +ye that labour and are heavy laden and I will give you rest": this age, +like every age, finds access to the Father through the Son. These +things no criticism can shake, these certainties no philosophy +disprove, these facts no science dissolve away. He is the Religion +which He taught: and while the race of man endures, men will turn to +the crucified Son of Man, not with a grudging, "Thou hast conquered, O +Galilean!" but with the joyful, grateful cry, "My Lord and my God."'[15] + + +V + +He who was lifted up on the Cross is drawing all men to Himself, wise +and unwise, friend and foe, devout and doubting, is ruling even where +His authority is disavowed, is {205} causing hearts to adore where +intellects rebel. The patriotic English baron, Simon de Montfort, as +he saw the Royal forces under Prince Edward come against him, was +filled with admiration of their discipline and bearing. 'By the arm of +S. James,' he cried, recalling with soldierly pride that to himself +they owed in great measure their skill, 'they come on well: they +learned that not of themselves, but of me.' The Church of Christ, when +confronted with the benevolence, the integrity, the zeal of some who +are arrayed against her, may naturally say, 'They live well indeed: +they learned that not of themselves, but of me.' 'You are probably,' +was the homely expostulation of Benjamin Franklin with Thomas Paine, +'you are probably indebted to Religion for the habits of virtue on +which you so justly value yourself. You might easily display your +excellent talents of reasoning upon a less hazardous subject, and +thereby obtain a rank amongst {206} our most distinguished authors. +For among us,' continued Franklin satirically, 'it is not necessary, as +among the Hottentots, that a youth, to be raised into the company of +men, should prove his manhood by beating his mother.' The blows +inflicted on Christianity come from unfilial hands and hearts, from +hands and hearts which have been strengthened and nurtured on +Christianity itself, from hands and hearts which, but for the lingering +Christianity that still impels them, would soon be paralysed and dead. +The ideals which systems intended to supersede Christianity set before +them are, to all intents and purposes, only Christianity under another +name. Where the ideals go beyond ordinary Christian practice, they are +only a nearer approximation to the Supreme Ideal which has never been +fulfilled save in Jesus Christ Himself. Wherever there is truth in +them which is not generally accepted, or which comes as a surprise, +investigation {207} will show that it is an aspect of Christianity +which Christians have been neglecting, that it is a manifestation of +the mind of Christ, a development of His principles. Look where we +will, the men that are making real moral and spiritual progress are +those who are in touch with Him. Their beliefs about Him may not be +accurate, their conception of His nature and work may be defective, but +it is His Name, His Spirit, His Power, it is Himself that is the secret +of their life. One part of His teaching has sunk into their hearts, +one element of His character has mysteriously impressed them. They +have touched the hem of His garment, the shadow of His Apostle passing +by has glided over them, and they have been roused from weakness and +death. 'He that was healed wist not Who it was, for Jesus had conveyed +Himself away.' So it happened in the days of His flesh: so is it +happening still: they that are set free may not yet know to Whom {208} +their freedom is to be ascribed. Now, as on the way to Emmaus, when +men are communing together and reasoning, Jesus Himself may be walking +with them, though their eyes are holden that they do not know Him. +John Stuart Mill, whose acute intellect, whose spotless rectitude, +whose public spirit, whose non-religious training naturally made him +the idol of those to whom Christianity was a bygone superstition, came +in his later days, not indeed to accept the orthodox creed, but yet to +stretch out his longing hand to Christ, believing that He might have +'unique commission from God to lead mankind to truth and virtue.' +George Eliot, whose genius was ever labouring to fill up the void which +the rejection of her early faith had made, consoled her dying hours, as +she had inspired her most ennobling pages, with the _Imitation of +Christ_. Matthew Arnold, most cultured of critics, joins hands with +the most fervid of evangelists in maintaining that {209} 'there is no +way to righteousness but the way of Jesus.' The name of Christ--none +other name under heaven given among men will ever prove a substitute +for that. + +Renouncing faith in Christ, is there life, is there salvation for man +to be found in the doctrines, the names, the influences which are so +vehemently extolled? Is there one of them which so satisfies the +cravings of the heart, which enkindles such glorious hopes, which +inspires to such holy living, which inculcates so universal a +brotherhood, as Christianity? Is there one of them which, at the best, +is more than a keeping of despair at bay, than a resolute acceptance of +utter overthrow, than a blindness to the tremendous issues which are +involved?[16] Will the culture which is devoted, and cannot but be +devoted, exclusively to the outward, which imparts a knowledge of +Science or Art or Literature, be found sufficient to {210} rescue men +from the slavery of sin or from the torment of doubt? Will the +progress which is altogether occupied with the material and the +physical, with providing better houses and better food and better +wages, produce happiness without alloy and remove the sting and dread +of death?[17] Will the reiteration of the dogma that we are but +fleeting shadows, that there is nothing to hope for in the future, that +we are all the victims of delusion, tend to elevate and benefit our +downcast race? Will the attempt to worship what has never been made +known, what is simply darkness and mystery, be more successful in +raising men above themselves than the worship of the Righteousness and +the Love which have been made manifest in Christ? Will the attempt to +supplant the worship of Jesus Christ, in Whom was no sin, by the +worship of Humanity at large, of Humanity stained with guilt and crime +as {211} well as illumined here and there with deeds of heroism, of +Humanity sunk to the level of the brutes as well as exalted to the +level of whatever we may suppose to be the highest, seeing that there +is really no higher existence with which to compare it--will this +worship of itself, with all its baseness and imperfection, this turning +of mankind into a Mutual Adoration Society, make Humanity divine? Will +even the assurance that far-distant ages will have new inventions, +fairer laws, more abundant wealth be any deliverance to us from our +burdens, any salvation from our individual sorrow and guilt and shame? +Can we to whom the likeness of Christ has been shown, can we imagine +that any of these efforts to answer the yearning of mankind for +deliverance from the body of this death will prove an efficient +substitute for Him? And if we forsake Him, it must be in one or other +of these directions that we go. + + +{212} + +VI + +But the signs of the times are full of hope. In social work at home, +in the progress of missions abroad, in revivals of one kind and +another, in growing reverence for holy things, in a renewed interest in +religion as the most vital of all topics, even in strange spiritual +manifestations not within the Church, we have, amid all that is +discouraging and depressing, indication of the coming kingdom. The +cry, 'Back to Christ,' with all the truth that is in it, is only half a +truth if it does not also mean 'Forward to Christ.' He is before us as +well as behind us, and the Hope of the World is the gathering together +of all things in Him. Should there be, as there has been over and over +again in days gone by, a widespread unbelief, a rejection of His Divine +Revelation, of this we may be sure--it will be only for a time. When +the sceptical physician, in Tennyson's poem, murmured: + + 'The good Lord Jesus has had his day,' + +{213} the believing nurse made the comment: + + 'Had? has it come? It has only dawned: it will + come by and by.' + +A thought most sad, though most inspiring. 'Only dawned.' Why is +Christianity after all these centuries only beginning to be manifested? +It is at least partly because of the apathy, the divisions, the evil +lives of us who profess and call ourselves Christians, because we have +wrangled about the secondary and the comparatively unimportant, and +have neglected the weightier matters of the law, because we have so +left to those beyond the Church the duty of proclaiming and enforcing +principles which our Lord and His Apostles put in the forefront of +their teaching. We have narrowed the Kingdom of Christ, we have +claimed too little for Him, we have forgotten that He has to do with +the secular as well as with the spiritual, that He must be King of the +Nation as well as of the Church. But now in the growing {214} +prominence of Social Questions, which so many fear as an evidence of +the waning of religion, have we not an incentive to show that the +social must be pervaded by the religious, that our duties to one +another are no small part of the Kingdom of Christ? For all sorts and +conditions of men, for masters and servants, for rulers and ruled, for +employers and employed, there is ever accumulating proof that only as +they bear themselves towards each other in the spirit of the New +Testament can there be true harmony and mutual respect; that only, in +short, as the kingdoms of this world become the kingdom of our Lord and +of His Christ will men in reality bear one another's burdens; that only +as the Everlasting Gospel of the Everlasting Love prevails will all +strife and contention, whether personal or political or ecclesiastical +or national, come to an end; that only as men enter into the fellowship +of that Son of Man Who came not to be {215} ministered unto but to +minister and to give His Life a ransom for many will the glorious +vision of old be fulfilled: I saw in the night vision, and behold One +like the Son of Man came with the clouds of heaven and came to the +Ancient of Days and they brought Him near before Him. And there was +given Him dominion and glory and a kingdom, that all people, nations +and languages shall serve Him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion +which shall not pass away and His kingdom that which shall not be +destroyed. + + + +[1] In this Lecture are included some paragraphs from a sermon long out +of print, _The Witness of Scepticism to Christ_, preached before the +Synod of Lothian and Tweeddale. + +[2] G. Lommel, _Jesus von Nazareth_ (quoted in Pfannmüller's _Jesus im +Urteil der Jahrhunderte_). + +[3] Appendix XXIII. + +[4] _Jesus in Modern Criticism_. + +[5] H. Weinel, _Jesus im neunzehnten Jahrhundert_. + +[6] Quoted in E. Naville, _Le Témoignage du Christ_. + +[7] _First and Last Things: a Confession of Faith and Rule of Life_. + +[8] Appendix XXIV. + +[9] Appendix XXV. + +[10] _Lux Hominum_, Preface. + +[11] _Lux Hominum_, p. 84. + +[12] _The Oriental Christ_. + +[13] _Esoteric Christianity_. + +[14] Appendix XXVI. + +[15] J. Warschauer, _The New Evangel_. + +[16] Appendix XXVII. + +[17] Appendix XXVIII. + + + + +{219} + +APPENDICES + + +APPENDIX I + +'I hope no reader imagines me so weak to stand up in defence of real +Christianity such as used in primitive times (if we may believe the +authors of those ages) to have an influence upon men's beliefs and +actions. To offer at the restoring of that would indeed be a wild +project: it would be to dig up foundations: to destroy at one blow all +the wit and half the learning of the kingdom, to break the entire frame +and constitution of things, to ruin trade, extinguish arts and +sciences, with the professors of them; in short, to turn our courts, +exchanges, and shops into deserts; and would be full as absurd as the +proposal of Horace, where he advises the Romans all in a body, to leave +their city, and seek a new seat in some remote part of the world, by +way of cure for the corruption of their manners.'--DEAN SWIFT, _An +Argument to Prove that the Abolishing of Christianity in England may, +as things now stand, be attended with some Inconveniences_. + + + +{220} + +APPENDIX II + +While the state of our race is such as to need all our mutual +devotedness, all our aspiration, all our resources of courage, hope, +faith, and good cheer, the disciples of the Christian Creed and +Morality are called upon, day by day, to work out their own salvation +with fear and trembling and so forth. Such exhortations are too low +for even the wavering mood and quacked morality of a time of +theological suspense and uncertainty. In the extinction of that +suspense and the discrediting of that selfish quacking I see the +prospect for future generations of a purer and loftier virtue, and a +truer and sweeter heroism than divines who preach such self-seeking can +conceive of.'--HARRIET MARTINEAU, _Autobiography_, vol. ii. p. 461. + + +'Noble morality is classic morality, the morality of Greece, of Rome, +of Renaissance Italy, of ancient India. But Christian morality is +slave morality _in excelsis_. For the essence of Christian morality is +the desire of the individual to be saved: his consciousness of power is +so small that he lives in hourly peril of damnation and death and +yearns thus for the arms of some saving grace.'--_F. Nietzsche_, by A. +R. Orage, p. 53. + +{221} + +'They [Christians] have never learnt to love, to think, to trust. They +have been nursed and bred and swaddled and fed on fear. They are +afraid of death: they are afraid of truth: they are afraid of human +nature: they are afraid of God.... They deal in a poor kind of old +wives' fables, of lackadaisical dreams, of discredited sorcery, and +white magic, and call it religion and the holy of holies. They wander +about in a sickly soil of intellectual moonshine, where they mistake +the dense and sombre shadows for substances. They want to stop the +clocks of time that it may never be day, and to hoodwink the eyes of +the nations that they may lead the people as so many blind.'--ROBERT +BLATCHFORD, _Clarion_, March 3, 1905. + + + +{222} + +APPENDIX III + +'In Georgia, indeed, as the Jesuits had found it in South America, the +vicinity of a white settlement would have proved the more formidable +obstacle to the conversion of the Indian. When Tounchichi was urged to +listen to the doctrines of Christianity, he keenly replied, "Why, there +are Christians at Savannah! there are Christians at Frederica!" Nor +was it without good apparent reason that the poor savage exclaimed, +"Christian much drunk! Christian beat men! Christian tell lies! +Devil Christian! Me no Christian!"'--SOUTHEY, _Life of John Wesley_, +vol. i. p. 57. + + +'I was then carried in spirit to the mines where poor oppressed people +were digging rich treasures for those called Christians, and heard them +blaspheme the name of Christ, at which I was grieved, for to me His +name was precious. I was then informed that these heathens were told +that those who oppressed them were the followers of Christ, and they +said among themselves, "If Christ directed them to use us in this sort, +this Christ is a cruel tyrant."'--_Journal of John Woolman_, p. 264. + + + +{223} + +APPENDIX IV + +'What many upright and ardent souls have rejected is a misconception, a +caricature, a subjective Christianity of their own, a traditional +delusion, which no more resembles real Christianity than the +conventional Christ of the painted church window resembles Jesus Christ +of Nazareth. It is true that at this moment the great majority of the +people of this country never go to any place of worship, and this is +yet more the case on the Continent of Europe. Does it in the least +degree indicate that the masses of the European nations have weighed +Christianity in the balance and found it wanting? Nothing of the sort. +The overwhelming majority of them have not the faintest conception of +what Christianity is. I myself have met a great number of so-called +"Agnostics" and "Atheists" in our universities, among our working-men, +and in society, but I have never yet met one who had rejected the +Christianity of Christ.'--HUGH PRICE HUGHES, Preface to _Ethical +Christianity_. + + + +{224} + +APPENDIX V + +'Wheresoever Christianity has breathed it has accelerated the movement +of humanity. It has quickened the pulses of life, it has stimulated +the incentives of thought, it has turned the passions into peace, it +has warmed the heart into brotherhood, it has fanned the imagination +into genius, it has freshened the soul into purity. The progress of +Christian Europe has been the progress of mind over matter. It has +been the progress of intellect over force, of political right over +arbitrary power, of human liberty over the chains of slavery, of moral +law over social corruption, of order over anarchy, of enlightenment +over ignorance, of life over death. As we survey this spectacle of the +past, we are impressed that this study of history is the strongest +evidence for God. We hear no argument from design but we feel the +breath of the Designer. We see the universal life moulding the +individual lives, the one Will dominating many wills, the Infinite +Wisdom utilising the finite folly, the changeless truth permeating the +restless error, the boundless beneficence bringing blessing out of +all.... And what shall we say of the future? ... Ours is a position in +some respects analogous to that of the mediaeval world: the landmarks +of the past are fading, the lights in the future are but dimly seen. +Yet it is the study of the landmarks that helps us to wait for the +light, and our highest hope is born of memory. In the view {225} of +that retrospect, we cannot long despair. We may have moments of +heart-sickness when we look exclusively at the present hour: we may +have times of despondency when we measure only what the eye can see. +But looking on the accumulated results of bygone ages as they lie open +to the gaze of history, the scientific conclusion at which we must +arrive is this, that the course of Christianity shall be, or has been, +the path of a shining light, shining more and more unto the perfect +day.'--G. MATHESON, _Growth of the Spirit of Christianity_ (chap, +xxxviii., 'Dawn of a New Day'). + + + +{226} + +APPENDIX VI + +'Shadows and figments as they appear to us to be in themselves, these +attempts to provide a substitute for Religion are of the highest +importance, as showing that men of great powers of mind, who have +thoroughly broken loose not only from Christianity but from natural +Religion, and in some cases placed themselves in violent antagonism to +both, are still unable to divest themselves of the religious sentiment +or to appease its craving for satisfaction. + +'That the leaders of the anti-theological movement at the present day +are immoral, nobody but the most besotted fanatic would insinuate: no +candid antagonist would deny that some of them are in every respect the +very best of men.... But what is to prevent the withdrawal of the +traditional sanction from producing its natural effect upon the +morality of the mass of mankind? ... Rate the practical effect of +religious beliefs as low and that of social influences as high as you +may, there can surely be no doubt that morality has received some +support from the authority of an inward monitor regarded as the voice +of God.... + +'The denial of the existence of God and of a future state, in a word, +is the dethronement of Conscience: and society will pass, to say the +least, through a dangerous interval, before social conscience can fill +the vacant throne.'--GOLDWIN SMITH, 'Proposed Substitutes for +Religion,' _Macmillan's Magazine_, vol. xxxvii. + + + +{227} + +APPENDIX VII + +'It no less takes two to deliver the game of Duty from trivial pretence +and give it an earnest interest. How can I look up to myself as the +higher that reproaches me? issue commands to myself which I dare not +disobey? ask forgiveness from myself for sins which myself has +committed? surrender to myself with a martyr's sacrifice? and so +through all the drama of moral conflict and enthusiasm between myself +in a mask and myself in _propria persona_? How far are these +semblances, these battles in the clouds, to carry their mimicry of +reality? Are we to _worship_ the self-ideality? to _pray_ to an empty +image in the air? to trust in sorrow a creature of thought which is but +a phenomenon of sorrow? No, if religious communion is reduced to a +monologue, its essence is extinct and its soul is gone. It is a living +relation, or it is nothing: a response to the Supreme Reality. And +vainly will you search for your spiritual dynamics without the Rock +Eternal for your [Greek] _pou stô_'--JAMES MARTINEAU, Essays iv. 282, +_Ideal Substitutes for God_. + + + +{228} + +APPENDIX VIII + +'It is an awful hour--let him who has passed through it say how +awful--when life has lost its meaning and seems shrivelled into a +span--when the grave appears to be the end of all, human goodness +nothing but a name, and the sky above this universe a dead expanse, +black with the void from which God himself has disappeared. In that +fearful loneliness of spirit ... I know but one way in which a man may +come forth from his agony scathless: it is by holding fast to those +things which are certain still--the grand, simple landmarks of morality. + +'In the darkest hour through which a human soul can pass, whatever else +is doubtful, this at least is certain. If there be no God and no +future state yet even then it is better to be generous than selfish, +better to be chaste than licentious, better to be true than false, +better to be brave than to be a coward. Blessed beyond all earthly +blessedness is the man who, in the tempestuous darkness of the soul, +has dared to hold fast to these venerable landmarks. Thrice blessed is +he who, when all is drear and cheerless within and without, when his +teachers terrify him and his friends shrink from him, has obstinately +clung to moral good. Thrice blessed, because his night shall pass into +clear bright day.'--F. W. ROBERTSON, _Lectures, Addresses, etc._, p. 49. + + + +{229} + +APPENDIX IX + +'Let me say at once that if after the elimination of all untruths from +Christianity, we could build a belief in God and Immortality on the +residue, we should then have a far more powerful incentive to right +conduct than anything that I am about to urge.'--PHILIP VIVIAN, +_Churches and Modern Thought_, p. 323. + + + +{230} + +APPENDIX X + +'Without prejudice, what would be the effect upon modern civilisation +if the Divine Ideal should vanish from modern thought? + +'It would be presumptuous to attempt a description, rather because it +is so hard to picture ourselves and our outlook deprived of what we +have held during thousands of generations, our very _raison d'ętre_, +than because we cannot calculate at least a part of what would have to +happen. Without pretending to undertake that exercise, it may not be +too bold to conclude definitely, what has been suggested +argumentatively throughout: namely, that moral goodness, as we trace it +in the past, as we enjoy it in the present, as we reckon upon it in the +future, would be found undesirable and therefore impracticable. A new +"morality" would doubtless take its place and set up a new ideal of +goodness; but the former would no more represent the elements we so far +call moral than the latter would embody the conceptions we now call +good: the more logically the inevitable system were followed up, the +more progressively would moral inversion be realised. + +'It does not seem credible that the new morality could escape being +egoistic and hedonistic, and these principles alone would dictate +complete reversal of all our present notions as to what is noble, what +is useful, what is good. An egoist hedonism that should not be selfish +and sensual is a fond {231} superstition; it would have to be both and +frankly. All the prophylactic expedients whereby a reciprocal egoism +must safeguard its sensuous rights would certainly be there; and they +represent in spirit and in practice whatever we have learned to +consider execrable. We do not require Professor Haeckel[1] to inform +us, with the triumphal rhetoric that accompanies a grand new discovery, +of the prudential homicide which is to confer a supreme blessing upon +humanity, for it has raged throughout antiquity, and still stalks +abroad in daylight wherever the kingdom of men is not also the kingdom +of Christ. Ten minutes' thought is sufficient to convince any rational +man or woman what must inevitably follow in a world of animal +rationalism, where no souls are immortal, where the human will is the +supreme will and there is eternal peace in the grave. It could +scarcely transpire otherwise than that "euthanasia" should replace care +of the chronic sick and indigent aged; that infanticide should be in a +large category of circumstances encouraged, and in some compelled; that +suicide should offer a rational escape from all serious ills, leaving a +door ever hospitably ajar to receive the body bankrupt in its capacity +for sensual enjoyment, the only enjoyment henceforth worthy of the +name. These are the "virtues" under the new morality; there are other +things of which it were not well to speak. Imagination turns its back. +In a world that has never been without its gods, among human creatures +who have never existed without a conscience, deeds have been done and +horrors have been practised through centuries, through ages, that make +annals read like ogre-tales and books of travels like the works of +morbid novelists; and the worst always goes unrecorded. What then +ought we to anticipate for a world yielding obedience to nothing +loftier {232} than the human intellect, seeking no prize obtainable +outside the individual life time, logically incapable of any +gratification outside the individual body, convinced of nothing save +eternal oblivion in the ever-nearing and inevitable grave, and reposed +on the calm assurance that "goodness" and "badness," "virtue" and +"vice" (whatever these terms may then correspond to) are recompensed, +indifferently, by nothing better and nothing worse than physical animal +death?'--JASPER B. HUNT, B.D., _Good without God: Is it Possible_? p. +51. + + + +[1] See _The Wonders of Life_, chap. v., popular translation, and other +works. + + + +{233} + +APPENDIX XI + +'When we say that God is personal, we do not mean that He is localised +by mutually related organs; that He is hampered by the physical +conditions of human personality. We mean that He is conscious of +distinctness from all other beings, of moral relation to all living +things, and of power to control both from without and from within the +action of every atom and of every world. This is what we mean by +personality in God. It is not a materialistic idea. It is essentially +spiritual. It is a breakwater against the destruction of the very +thought of God, or the submersion of it in the mere processes of +eternal evolution. There is a Pantheism which obliterates every trace +of Divine personality, which takes from God consciousness, will, +affection, emotion, desire, presiding and over-ruling intelligence. +But such Pantheism is better known as Atheism. It destroys the only +God who can be a refuge and a strength in time of trouble. It +annihilates that mighty conscience which drives the workers of iniquity +into darkness and the shadow of death, if possible, to hide themselves. +It closes the Divine Ear against the prayer of faith. It abolishes all +sympathy, all communion between the Father and the children. It makes +God not the world's life, but the world's grave. Therefore, against +all such Pantheism our being revolts.'--PETER S. MENZIES, _Sermons_ +('Christian Pantheism'). + + + +{234} + +APPENDIX XII + +'There is an Old Testament Pantheism speaking unmistakably out of the +lips of the Prophets and the Psalmists, ... so interwoven with their +deepest thoughts of God, that any hesitation to receive it would have +been traced by them most probably to purely heathen conditions of +thought, which ascribes to every divinity a limited function, a +separate home, and a restricted authority.... But undoubtedly the most +unequivocal and outspoken Pantheist in the Bible is St. Paul. He +speaks in that character to the Athenians, affirming all men to be the +offspring of God, and, as if this were not a sufficiently close bond of +affinity, adding, "In Him we live and move and have our being." His +Pantheistic eschatology casts a radiance over the valley of the shadow +of death, which makes the 15th chapter of 1st Corinthians one of the +most precious gifts of Divine inspiration which the holy volume +contains. "And when all things shall be subdued unto Him, then shall +the Son also Himself be subject unto Him that put all things under Him, +that God may be all and all." Nor, if he had wished to administer a +daring shock to the ultra-Calvinism of our own Confessional theology, +could he have uttered a sentiment more hard to reconcile with any view +of the Universe that is not Pantheistic than that contained in the 32nd +verse of the present chapter: "For God hath concluded them all in +unbelief that He might have mercy upon all." It {235} is quite clear +in the face of all this Scripture evidence that there is a form of +Pantheism which is not only innocent, defensible, justifiable, but +which we are bound to teach as of the essence of all true theology. +Nothing could be more childish than that blind horror of Pantheism +which shudders back from it as the most poisonous form of rank +infidelity.'--PETER S. MENZIES, _Sermons_ ('Christian Pantheism'), + + + +{236} + +APPENDIX XIII + +'Pantheism gives noble expression to the truth of God's presence in all +things, but it cannot satisfy the religious consciousness: it cannot +give it escape from the limitations of the world, or guarantee personal +immortality or (what is most important) give any adequate +interpretation to sin, or supply any adequate remedy for it.... +Christian theology is the harmony of Pantheism and Deism. On the one +hand Christianity believes all that the Pantheist believes of God's +presence in all things. "In Him," we believe, "we live and move and +are; in Him all things have their coherence." All the beauty of the +world, all its truths, all its goodness, are but so many modes under +which God is manifested, of whose glory Nature is the veil, of whose +word it is the expression, whose law and reason it embodies. But God +is not exhausted in the world, nor dependent upon it: He exists +eternally in His Triune Being, self-sufficing, self-subsistent.... God +is not only in Nature as its life, but He transcends it as its Creator, +its Lord--in its moral aspect--its Judge. So it is that Christianity +enjoys the riches of Pantheism without its inherent weakness on the +moral side, without making God dependent on the world, as the world is +on God.'--BISHOP GORE, _The Incarnation of the Son of God_, p. 136. + + + +{237} + +APPENDIX XIV + +'The Supreme Power on this petty earth can be nothing else but the +Humanity, which, ever since fifty thousand--it may be one hundred and +fifty thousand--years has slowly but inevitably conquered for itself +the predominance of all living things on this earth, and the mastery of +its material resources. It is the collective stream of Civilization, +often baffled, constantly misled, grievously sinning against itself +from time to time, but in the end victorious; winning certainly no +heaven, no millennium of the saints, but gradually over great epochs +rising to a better and a better world. This Humanity is not all the +human beings that are or have been. It is a living, growing, and +permanent Organism in itself, as Spencer and modern philosophy +establish. It is the active stream of Human Civilization, from which +many drop out into that oblivion and nullity which is the true and only +Hell.'--F. HARRISON, _Creed of a Lagman_, p. 72. + + + +{238} + +APPENDIX XV + +Mr. Frederic Harrison's Creed 'is open to every objection which he so +justly brings against what he regards as Mr. Spencer's Creed. These +reasons are broad, common, and familiar. So far as I know they never +have been, and I do not believe they ever will be, answered. The first +objection is that Humanity with a capital H (Mr. Harrison's God) is +neither better nor worse fitted to be a God than his Unknowable with a +capital U. They are as much alike as six and half-a-dozen. Each is a +barren abstraction to which any one an attach any meaning he likes. +Humanity, as used by Mr. Harrison, is not an abstract name for those +matters in which all human beings as such resemble each other, as, for +instance, a human form and articulate speech.... Humanity is a general +name for all human beings who, in various ways, have contributed to the +improvement of the human race. The Positivist calendar which +appropriates every day in the year for the commemoration of one or more +of these benefactors of mankind is an attempt to give what a lawyer +would call "further and better particulars" of the word. If this, or +anything like this, be the meaning of Mr. Harrison's God, I must say +that he, she, or it appears to me quite as ill-fitted for worship as +the Unknowable. How can a man worship an indefinite number of dead +people, most of whom are unknown to him even by name, and many of whose +characters {239} were exceedingly faulty, besides which the facts as to +their lives are most imperfectly known? How can he in any way combine +these people into a single object of thought? An object of worship +must surely have such a degree of unity that it is possible to think +about it as distinct from other things, as much unity at least as the +English nation, the Roman Catholic Church, the Great Western Railway. +No doubt these are abstract terms, but they are concrete enough for +practical purposes. Every one understands what is meant when it is +asserted that the English nation is at war or at peace; that the Pope +is the head of the Roman Catholic Church; that the Great Western +Railway has declared a dividend; but what is Humanity? What can any +one definitely assert or deny about it? How can any one meaning be +affixed to the word so that one person can be said to use it properly +and another to abuse it? It seems to me that it is as Unknowable as +the Unknowable itself, and just as well, and just as ill, fitted to be +an object of worship.'--SIR JAMES FITZJAMES STEPHEN, 'The Unknowable +and Unknown,' _Nineteenth Century_, June 1884. + + + +{240} + +APPENDIX XVI + +'Deism and Pantheism are both so irrational, so utterly inadequate to +explain the simplest facts of our moral and spiritual life that neither +of them can long hold mankind together. Positivism, which has made a +systematic and memorable attempt to fill the gap, itself bears witness +to the craving of human nature for some stronger bond than such systems +can supply; while its appreciation of the necessity of Religion gives +it an importance not possessed by mere Agnosticism. Yet it is +impossible to look at an encyclopćdic attempt to grasp all knowledge +and all history, such as that made by the founder of Positivism, +without a deep, oppressive sadness.... + +'Can men heap fact upon fact and connect science with science in a +splendid hierarchy and find no better end than this? Is such a review +to come to this, that we must worship either actual humanity with all +its meanness and wickedness, or ideal humanity which does not yet +exist, and, if this world is all in all, may never come into being? ... +For ideal humanity, however moral and enlightened, if unaided by God, +as the Posivitist holds, is still earth-bound and sense-bound.... We +are told that it is common sense to recognise that much is beyond us. +Perfectly true. But it is not common sense to worship an ignorant and +weak humanity which certainly made nothing, and has in itself no +assurance {241} of continuance in the future, nay rather, a very clear +probability of destruction, if simply left to itself. + +'What Positivism surely needs to give it hope and consistency is the +doctrine of the Logos, of the Eternal Word and Reason, the Creator, +Orderer, and Sustainer of all things, Who has taken a stainless human +nature that He might make men capable of all knowledge. This Divine +Humanity of the Logos, drawing mankind into Himself, is indeed worthy +of all worship. In loving Him, we learn really what it is to "live for +others." In looking to Him we cease from selfishness and pride. Such +a worship of humanity is not a mere baseless hope, but a reality +appearing in the very midst of history, a reality apprehended by Faith +indeed, but by a Faith always proving itself to those, and by those, +who hold it fast in Love. There is room, then, ample room, and a loud +demand for the re-establishment of a Christian Philosophy based upon +the Incarnation.'--JOHN WORDSWORTH (Bishop of Salisbury), _The One +Religion_, pp. 307-309. + + + +{242} + +APPENDIX XVII + +The invariable laws under which Humanity is placed have received +various names at different periods. Destiny, Fate, Necessity, Heaven, +Providence, all are so many names of one and the same conception: the +laws which man feels himself under, and that without the power of +escaping from them. We claim no exemption from the common lot. We +only wish to draw out into consciousness the instinctive acceptance of +the race, and to modify the spirit in which we regard them. We accept: +so have all men. We obey: so have all men. We venerate: so have some +in past ages or in other countries. We add but one other term--we +love. We would perfect our submission and so reap the full benefits of +submission in the improvement of our hearts and tempers. We take in +conception the sum of the conditions of existence, and we give them an +ideal being and a definite home in space, the second great creation +which completes the central one of Humanity. In the bosom of space we +place the world, and we conceive of the world and this our Mother Earth +as gladly welcomed to that bosom with the simplest and purest love, and +we give our love in return. + + Thou art folded, thou art lying + In the light which is undying. + + +'Thus we complete the Trinity of our religion, Humanity, the World, and +Space. So completed we recognise power to {243} give unity and +definiteness to our thoughts, purity and warmth to our affections, +scope and vigour to our activity. We recognise its powers to regulate +our whole being, to give us that which it has so long been the aim of +all religion to give--internal union. We recognise its power to raise +us above ourselves and by intensifying the action of our unselfish +instincts to bear down unto their due subordination our selfishness. +We see in it yet unworked treasures. We count not ourselves to have +apprehended but we press forward to the prize of our high calling. But +even now whilst its full capabilities are unknown to us, before we have +apprehended, we find enough in it to guide and strengthen us.'--'_The +New Religion in its Attitude towards the Old_: A Sermon preached at +South Field, Wandsworth, Wednesday, 19th Moses 71 (19th January 1859), +on the anniversary of the birth of Auguste Comte, 19th January 1798, by +RICHARD CONGREVE.' J. Chapman: 8 King William Street, Strand, London. + + + +{244} + +APPENDIX XVIII + +'We have compared Positivism where it is thought to be strongest with +Christianity where it is thought to be weakest. And if the result of +the comparison even then has been unfavourable to Positivism, how will +the account stand if every element in Christianity be taken into +consideration? The religion of humanity seems specially fitted to meet +the tastes of that comparatively small and prosperous class who are +unwilling to leave the dry bones of Agnosticism wholly unclothed with +any living tissue of religious emotion, and who are at the same time +fortunate enough to be able to persuade themselves that they are +contributing, or may contribute, by their individual efforts to the +attainment of some great ideal for mankind. But what has it to say to +the more obscure multitude who are absorbed, and wellnigh overwhelmed, +in the constant struggle with daily needs and narrow cares, who have +but little leisure or inclination to consider the precise rôle they are +called on to play in the great drama of "humanity," and who might in +any case be puzzled to discover its interest or its importance? Can it +assure them that there is no human being so insignificant as not to be +of infinite worth in the eyes of Him Who created the Heavens, or so +feeble but that his action may have consequence of infinite moment long +after this material system shall have crumbled into nothingness? Does +it offer consolation to those who are in grief, hope to those who {245} +are bereaved, strength to the weak, forgiveness to the sinful, rest to +those who are weary and heavy laden? If not, then whatever be its +merits, it is no rival to Christianity. It cannot penetrate or vivify +the inmost life of ordinary humanity. There is in it no nourishment +for ordinary human souls, no comfort for ordinary human sorrow, no help +for ordinary human weakness. Not less than the crudest irreligion does +it leave us men divorced from all communion with God, face to face with +the unthinking energies of Nature which gave us birth, and into which, +if supernatural religion be indeed a dream, we must after a few +fruitless struggles be again resolved.'--RIGHT HON. ARTHUR J. BALFOUR, +_The Religion of Humanity_. + + + +{246} + +APPENDIX XIX + +'Truly if Humanity has no higher prospects than those which await it +from the service of its modern worshippers its prospects are dark +indeed. Its "normal state" is a vague and distant future. But better +things may yet be hoped for when the true Light from Heaven shall +enlighten every man, and the love of goodness shall everywhere come +from the love of God, and nobleness of life from the perfect Example of +the Lord.'--JOHN TULLOCH, D.D. LL.D., _Modern Theories in Philosophy +and Religion_, p. 86. + + + +{247} + +APPENDIX XX + +Mr. Frederic Harrison came under the influence of both the Newmans. +'John Henry Newman led me on to his brother Francis, whose beautiful +nature and subtle intelligence I now began to value. His _Phases of +Faith, The Soul, The Hebrew Monarchy_ deeply impressed me. I was not +prepared either to accept all this heterodoxy nor yet to reject it; and +I patiently waited till an answer could be found.'--_The Creed of a +Layman_. + + + +{248} + +APPENDIX XXI + +Even Mr. Voysey admits the constraining power of the Cross: + +'That is still the noblest, most sublime picture in the whole Bible, +where the Christ is hanging on the Cross, and the tears and blood flow +trickling down, and the last words heard from His lips are "Father, +forgive them, for they know not what they do." That love and pity will +for ever endure as the type and symbol of what is most Divine in the +heart of man. Thank God! it has been repeated and repeated in the +lives and deaths of millions besides the Christ of Calvary. But +wherever found it still claims the admiration, and wins the homage of +every human heart, and is the crowning glory of the human race.--C. +VOYSEY, _Religion for All Mankind_, p. 105. + + + +{249} + +APPENDIX XXII + +'Not only the Syrian superstition must be attacked, but also the belief +in a personal God which engenders a slavish and oriental condition of +the mind, and the belief in a posthumous reward which engenders a +selfish and solitary condition of the heart. These beliefs are, +therefore, injurious to human nature. They lower its dignity, they +arrest its development, they isolate its affections. We shall not deny +that many beautiful sentiments are often mingled with the faith in a +personal Deity, and with the hopes of happiness in a future state; yet +we maintain that, however refined they may appear, they are selfish at +the core, and that if removed they will be replaced by sentiments of a +nobler and purer kind.'--WINWOOD READE, _Martyrdom of Man_, p. 543. + + + +{250} + +APPENDIX XXIII + +'There is a servile deference paid, even by Christians, to incompetent +judges of Christianity. They abjectly look to men of the world, to +scholars, to statesmen, for testimonies to the everlasting and +self-evidencing verities of heaven! And if they can gather up, from +the writings or speeches of these men, some patronising notices of +religion, some incidental compliment to the civilising influence of the +Bible, or to the aesthetic proprieties of worship, or to the moral +sublimity of the character or gospel of Christ, they forthwith proclaim +these tributes as lending some great confirmation to the Truth of GOD! +So we persist in asking, not "Is it true? true to our souls?" or, "Has +the Lord said it?" but, "What say the learned men, the influential men, +the eloquent men?" Shame upon these time-serving concessions, as +unmanly as they are fallacious. Go back to the hovels, rather, and +take the witnessing of the illiterate souls whose hearts, waiting there +in poverty or pain, or under the shadow of some great affliction, the +Lord Himself hath opened.'--F. D. HUNTINGDON, _Christian Believing and +Living_. + + + +{251} + +APPENDIX XXIV + +'It is foreign to our purpose to discuss the various theories which +have been advanced to explain the genesis and power of the Christian +Religion from the cynical Gibbon to the sentimental Renan and the +Rationalist Strauss. One remark may be permitted. It has been our lot +to read an immense amount of literature on this subject, and with no +bias in the orthodox direction, we are bound to admit that no theory +has yet appeared which from purely natural causes explains the +remarkable life and marvellous influence of the Founder of +Christianity.'--HECTOR MACPHERSON, _Books to Read and How to Head Them_. + + + +{252} + +APPENDIX XXV + +The Song of a Heathen Sojourning in Galilee, A.D. 32. + + If Jesus Christ is a man, + And only a man, I say + That of all mankind I cleave to Him, + And to Him will I 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. + + + +{253} + +APPENDIX XXVI + +'I distinguish absolutely between the character of Jesus and the +character of Christianity--in other words between Jesus of Nazareth and +Jesus the Christ. Shorn of all supernatural pretensions, Jesus emerges +from the great mass of human beings as an almost perfect type of +simplicity, veracity, and natural affection. "Love one another" was +the Alpha and Omega of His teaching, and He carried out the precept +through every hour of His too brief life.... But how blindly, how +foolishly my critics have interpreted the inner spirit of my argument, +how utterly have they failed to realise that the whole aim of the work +is to justify Jesus against the folly, the cruelty, the infamy, the +ignorance of the creed upbuilt upon His grave. I show in cipher, as it +were, that those who crucified Him once would crucify Him again, were +He to return amongst us. I imply that among the first to crucify Him +would be the members of His Own Church. But nowhere surely do I imply +that His soul, in its purely personal elements, in its tender and +sympathising humanity was not the very divinest that ever wore earth +about it.'--ROBERT BUCHANAN in Letter of January 1892 to _Daily +Chronicle_ regarding his poem _The Wandering Jew_. _Robert Buchanan: +His Life, Life's Work, and Life's Friendships_, by Harriett Jay, pp. +274-5. + + + +{254} + +APPENDIX XXVII + +'I do not believe I have any personal immortality. I am part of an +immortality perhaps, but that is different. I am not the continuing +thing. I personally am experimental, incidental. I feel I have to do +something, a number of things no one else could do, and then I am +finished, and finished altogether. Then my substance returns to the +common lot. I am a temporary enclosure for a temporary purpose: that +served, and my skull and teeth, my idiosyncrasy and desire will +disperse, I believe, like the timbers of the booth after a fair.'--H. +G. WELLS, _First and Last Things_, p. 80. + + + +{255} + +APPENDIX XXVIII + +'The estate of man upon this earth of ours may in course of time be +vastly improved. So much seems to be promised by the recent +achievements of Science, whose advance is in geometrical progression, +each discovery giving birth to several more. Increase of health and +extension of life by sanitary, dietetic, and gymnastic improvement; +increase of wealth by invention and of leisure by the substitution of +machinery for labour: more equal distribution of wealth with its +comforts and refinements; diffusion of knowledge; political +improvement; elevation of the domestic affections and social +sentiments; unification of mankind and elimination of war through +ascendency of reason over passion--all these things may be carried to +an indefinite extent, and may produce what in comparison with the +present estate of man would be a terrestrial paradise. Selection and +the merciless struggle for existence may be in some measure superseded +by selection of a more scientific and merciful kind. Death may be +deprived at all events of its pangs. On the other hand, the horizon +does not appear to be clear of cloud.... Let our fancy suppose the +most chimerical of Utopias realised in a commonwealth of man. Mortal +life prolonged to any conceivable extent is but a span. Still over +every festal board in the community of terrestrial bliss will be cast +the shadow of approaching death; and the sweeter life becomes the more +bitter death will be. {256} The more bitter it will be at least to the +ordinary man, and the number of philosophers like John Stuart Mill is +small.'--GOLDWIN SMITH: _Guesses at the Riddle of Existence_ ('Is There +Another Life?'). + +'In return for all of which they have deprived us, some prophets of +modern science are disposed to show us in the future a City of God +_minus_ God, a Paradise _minus_ the Tree of Life, a Millennium with +education to perfect the intellect, and sanitary improvements to +emancipate the body from a long catalogue of evils. Sorrow no doubt +will not be abolished; immortality will not be bestowed. But we shall +have comfortable and perfectly drained houses to be wretched in. The +news of our misfortunes, the tidings that turn the hair white, and +break the strong man's heart will be conveyed to us from the ends of +the earth by the agency of a telegraphic system without a flaw. The +closing eye may cease to look to the land beyond the River; but in our +last moments we shall be able to make a choice between patent furnaces +for the cremation of our remains, and coffins of the most charming +description for their preservation when desiccated.'--Archbishop +ALEXANDER: _Witness of the Psalms to Christ and Christianity_, p. 48. + + + +{257} + +AUTHORITIES CONSULTED + + +Abbott, E. A., _Through Nature to Christ_. + +Armstrong, E. A., _Back to Jesus; Man's Knowledge of God; Agnosticism +and Theism in the Nineteenth Century_. + +Arthur, W., _God without Religion; Religion without God_. + +Aveling, F. (edited by), _Westminster Lectures_. + + +Balfour, A. J., _Religion of Humanity; Foundations of Belief_. + +Ballard, F., _Clarion Fallacies; Miracles of Unbelief_. + +_Barker, Joseph, Life of_. + +Barry, W., _Heralds of Revolt_. + +Bartlett, R. E., _The Letter and the Spirit_. + +Besant, Annie, _Esoteric Christianity_. + +Blatchford, R., _God and My Neighbour_. + +Blau, Paul, '_Wenn ihr Mich Kennetet_.' + +Bousset, W., _Jesus; What is Religion?; The Faith of a Modern +Protestant_. + +Brace, G. Loring, _Gesta Christi_. + +Bremond, H., 'Christus Vivit' (Epilogue of _L'Inquiétude Religieuse_). + +Broglie, L'Abbé Paul de, _Problčmes et Conclusions; La Morale sans +Dieu_. + +Brooks, Phillips, Bishop, _The Influence of Jesus_. + +Butler, Bishop, _The Analogy of Religion_. + + +{258} + +Caird, E., _The Evolution of Religion; The Social Philosophy and +Religion of Comte_. + +Caird, J., _Fundamental Ideas of Christianity_. + +Cairns, D. S., _Christianity in the Modern World_. + +Carey, Vivian, _Parsons and Pagans_. + +Caro, E., _L'Idée de Dieu et ses Nouveaux Critiques; Études Morales; +Problčmes de Morale Sociale_. + +Chesterton, G. K., _Heretics; Orthodoxy_. + +Church, K. W., _Gifts of Civilization; Pascal and other Sermons_. + +Clarke, J. Freeman, _Steps to Belief_. + +Cobbe, Frances Power, _A Faithless World; Broken Lights; Autobiography_. + +Coit, Stanton, _National Idealism and a State Church_. + +Comte, Auguste, _Catechism of Positive Religion_ (translated by Richard +Congreve). + +_Contentio Veritatis_. + +Conway, Moncure D., _The Earthward Pilgrimage_. + +Craufurd, A. H., _Christian Instincts and Modern Doubt_. + +Crooker, J. H., _The Supremacy of Jesus_. + + +D'Alviella, G., _Revolution Religieuse Contemporaine_. + +Davies, O. Maurice, _Heterodox London_. + +Davies, Llewelyn, _Morality according to the Lord's Supper_. + +_Do we Believe_? (Correspondence from _Daily Telegraph_.) + +Drawbridge, C. L., _Is Religion Undermined_? + +Drummond, J., _Via, Veritas, Vita_. + +Du Bose, W. P., _The Gospel and the Gospels_. + + +Eaton, J. R. T., _The Permanence of Christianity_. + + +Faber, Hans, _Das Christentum der Zukunft_. + +Fairbairn, A. M., _Christ in Modern Theology_. + +{259} + +Farrar, A. S., _Critical History of Free Thought_. + +Farrar, F. W., _Seekers after God; Witness of History to Christ_. + +Fiske, John, _The Idea of God as Affected by Modern Knowledge; Through +Nature to God; Man's Destiny_. + +Fitchett, W. H., _Beliefs of Unbelief_. + +Flint, R., _Theism; Anti-Theistic Theories_. + +Footman, H., _Reasonable Apprehensions and Reassuring Hints_. + +Fordyce, J., _Aspects of Scepticism_. + +Forrest, D. W., _The Christ of History and of Experience_. + +Frommel, Gaston, _Études Religieuses et Sociales; Études Morales et +Religieuses_. + + +Gindraux, J., _Le Christ et la Pensée Moderne_ (Translation from +Pfennigsdorf). + +Gladden, Washington, _How Much is Left of the Old Doctrines_? + +Gore, O., Bishop, _The Incarnation of the Son of God; The Christian +Creed_. + +Guyau, M., _L'Irréligion de l'Avenir; La Morale sans Sanction_. + + +Haeckel, E., _Riddle of the Universe; The Confession of Faith of a Man +of Science_. + +Harnack, Adolf, _What is Christianity?; Christianity and History_. + +Harrison, A. J., _Problems of Christianity and Scepticism_. + +Harrison, Frederic, _Memories and Thoughts; The Creed of a Layman_. + +Haw, George (edited by), _Religious Doubts of Democracy_. + +Henson, H. Hensley, _Popular Rationalism; The Value of the Bible_. + +Hillis, N. D., _Influence of Christ in Modern Life_. + +{260} + +Hoffmann, F. S., _The Sphere of Religion_. + +Hunt, Jasper B., _Good without God_. + +Hunt, John, _Christianity and Pantheism_. + +Hutton, R. H., _Essays Theological and Literary; Contemporary Thought +and Thinkers; Aspects of Religious and Scientific Thought_. + +Huxley, T. H., _Evolution and Ethics_. + + +Illingworth, J. R., _Personality Human and Divine; Divine Immanence_. + +_Is Christianity True_? (Lectures in Central Hall, Manchester). + + +Jastrow, Morris, _The Study of Religion_. + +Jefferies, Richard, _The Story of my Heart: My Autobiography_. + +Jones, Harry (edited by), _Some Urgent Questions in Christian Lights_. + + +Kutter, Herrmann, _Sie Müssen_. + + +Lecky, W. E. H., _History of European Morals_. + +Liddon, H. P., _The Divinity of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ; Some +Elements of Religion_. + +Lilly, W. S., _The Great Enigma; The Claims of Christianity_. + +Lodge, Sir Oliver, _The Substance of Faith_. + +Lucas, Bernard, _The Faith of a Christian_. + +_Lux Hominum_. + +_Lux Mundi_. + + +Maitland, Brownlow, _Theism or Agnosticism; Steps to Faith_. + +Mallock, W. H., _Reconstruction of Belief_. + +{261} + +Marson, O. L., _Following of Christ_. + +Martin, A. S., 'Christ in Modern Thought' (Hastings's _Dictionary of +Christ and the Gospels_, Appendix). + +Martineau, Harriet, _Autobiography_. + +Martineau, James, _Ideal Substitutes for God; A Study of Religion; +Hours of Thought_. + +Matheson, G., _Growth of the Spirit of Christianity_. + +Matheson, A. Scott, _The Gospel and Modern Substitutes_. + +Menzies, Allan, _S. Paul's View of the Divinity of Christ_. + +Menzies, P. S., 'Christian Pantheism' (in _Sermons_). + +Momerie, A. W., _Belief in God; Immortality; Origin of Evil_. + +Monod, Wilfrid, _Aux Croyants et aux Athées; Peut-on rester Chrétien_? + +Mories, A. S., _Haeckel's Contribution to Religion_. + +Morison, J. Cotter, _The Service of Man_. + +Mozoomdar, Protab Chandra, _The Oriental Christ_. + +Myers, F. W. H., _Modern Essays_. + + +Naville, Ernest, _Le Pčre Céleste; Le Christ; Le Temoignage du Christ +et l'Unité du Monde Chrétien_. + +Neumann, Arno, _Jesus_. + +Newman, F. W., _The Soul: Its Sorrows and Aspirations; Phases of Faith_. + +Nolloth, C. F., _The Person of our Lord and Recent Thought_. + + +Oxenham, H. N., _Essays Ethical and Religious_. + +_Oxford House Tracts_. + + +Palmer, W. S., _An Agnostic's Progress; The Church and Modern Men_. + +Peile, J. H. F., _The Reproach of the Gospel_. + +Pfannmüller, Gustav, _Jesus im Urteil der Jahrhunderte_. + +{262} + +Picard, L'Abbé, _Christianity or Agnosticism?; La Transcendance de +Jésus Christ_. + +Picton, J. Allanson, _The Religion of the Universe; Pantheism: Its +Story and Significance_. + +Plumptre, E. H., _Christ and Christendom_. + +_Present Day Tracts_ (R. T. S.). + +Pringle-Pattison, A. Seth, _Man's Place in the Cosmos_. + + +Reade, Winwood, _The Martyrdom of Man; The Outcast_. + +_Religion and the Modern Mind_ (St. Ninian's Society Lectures). + +Renesse, _Jesus Christ and His Apostles and Disciples in the Twentieth +Century_. + +Robinson, O. H., _Human Nature a Revelation of the Divine; Studies in +the Character of Christ_. + +Romanes, G. J., _Thoughts on Religion_. + + +Sabatier, A., _The Religions of Authority and the Religion of the +Spirit_. + +Sanday, W., _Life of Christ in Recent Research_. + +Savage, M. J., _Religion for To-day; The Life Beyond_. + +Schmiedel, P. W., _Jesus and Modern Criticism_. + +Seaver, R. W., _To Christ through Criticism_. + +_Secularist's Manual_. + +Seeley, J. R., _Ecce Homo; Natural Religion_. + +Sen, Keshub Chunder, India asks, _Who is Christ_? + +Sheldon, H. O., _Unbelief in the Nineteenth Century_. + +Simpson, P. Carnegie, _The Fact of Christ_. + +Smith, Goldwin, _Guesses at the Riddle of Existence; Lectures on the +Study of History; The founder of Christianity_. + +Smyth, Newman, _Old Faiths in New Light_. + +Stanley, A. P., 'Theology of the Nineteenth Century' (in _Essays on +Church and State_); _Christian Institutions_. + +{263} + +Stephen, J. Fitzjames, 'The Unknowable and Unknown' (_Nineteenth +Century_, June 1884); _Liberty, Equality, and Fraternity_. + +Stephen, Leslie, _An Agnostic's Apology; English Thought in the +Eighteenth Century_. + +Swete, H. B. (edited by), _Cambridge Theological Essays_. + +Swift, Dean, _The Abolishing of Christianity_. + + +_Topics for the Times_ (S. P. C. K.). + +Tulloch, J., _Modern Theories in Theology and Philosophy; Movements of +Religious Thought_. + + +Van Dyke, H., _The Gospel for an Age of Doubt; The Gospel for a World +of Sin_. + +Vivian, Philip, _The Churches and Modern Thought_. + +Voysey, C., _Religion for All Mankind_. + + +Wace, H., _Christianity and Morality_. + +Wallace, Alfred Russel, _Man's Place in the Universe_. + +Warschauer, J., _The New Evangel; Jesus: Seven Questions; Anti-Nunquam; +Jesus or Christ?_ + +Watkinson, W. L., _Influence of Scepticism on Character_. + +Weinel, H., _Jesus im Nevmzehnten Jahrhundert_. + +Welsh, R. E., _In Relief of Doubt_. + +Wells, H. G., _First and Last Things, A Confession of Faith and Rule of +Life_. + +Wilson, J. M., _Problems of Religion and Science_. + +Wimmer, R., _My Struggle for Light_. + +Wordsworth, John, Bishop, _The One Religion_. + + +Young, John, _The Christ of History_. + + + + +{265} + +INDEX + + +Abbott, Edwin A., 117. + +Alexander, Archbishop, 256. + +Amiel, H. F., 55. + +Anthropomorphism, 65, 68, 82. + +Arnold, Matthew, 208. + + +'Back to Christ,' 212. + +Balfour, A. J., 244. + +Bartlett, R. E., 161. + +Besant, Mrs., 197. + +Blatchford, Robert, 7, 20, 221. + +Browning, Robert, 65, 200. + +Buchanan, Robert, 253. + +Butler, Bishop, 10, 139. + + +Caird, Principal, 112. + +Calendar, Positivist, 108. + +_Caliban upon Setebos_, 65. + +Carey, Vivian, 6, 26. + +Chesterton, G. K., 113. + +Christ the only Way, 129, 207. + +---- the substance of Christianity, 173. + +Christianity, influence of, 24, 28. + +---- misrepresentation of, 18, 223. + +Christians, inconsistency of, 16, 19, 213, 222, 253. + +_Christmas Eve_, 200. + +Church, Dean, 9. + +Clifford, W. K., 103. + +Cobbe, Frances Power, 144, 149. + +Coit, Dr. Stanton, 41. + +Comte, Auguste, 103. + +Congreve, Richard, 115, 242. + +Conway, Moncure D., 8. + +Cowper, William, 78. + +Criticism, 173. + + +Deism, 139, 143, 164, 236, 240. + +De Vere, Aubrey, 101. + + +Eliot, George, 56, 208. + +Enemies, witness of, 177. + + +Fénelon, 78. + +Fiske, John, 100. + + +Gilder, R. W., 252. + +Gore, Bishop, 136, 236. + +Great Being of Positivism, 106, 112, 114. + + +Haeckel, 71. + +Harrison, Frederic, 84, 96, 102, 108, 110, 237, 238. + +Hughes, Hugh Price, 223. + +Humanity, Christ, the Ideal of, 118. + +---- Religion of, 93, 103, 105, 237, 238, 242. + +Huntingdon, Bishop, 250. + + +Immortality, denial of, 54, 60, 254. + +Impeachments of Christianity, 12, 249. + +Incarnation, 48, 96. + + +Jefferies, Richard, 73. + + +Law, William, 78. + +Lefčvre, A., 188. + + +Macpherson, Hector, 251. + +Man, 93. + +Martineau, Harriet, 220. + +---- James, 227. + +Material Progress, 255, 256. + +Matheson, George, 224. + +Mediation, 157. + +Menzies, P. S., 233, 234. + +Mill, John Stuart, 208. + +Montaigne, 23. + +Morality and Religion, 33, 39, 146, 229, 230. + +---- Religion without, 34. + +Mozoomdar, P. C., 196. + +Myers, F. W. H., 56. + + +Newman, F. W., 144, 247. + +Nietzsche, 220. + + +Pantheism, 65, 81, 233, 234, 236. + +Personality of God, 44, 70, 147, 233. + +Picton, J. Allanson, 87. + +Pope, Alexander, 78. + +Positivism, 93, 103, 211. + +Prayer, 43. + + +Reade, Winwood, 5, 120, 249. + +Renan, E., 192. + +Roberts, W. Page-, Dean, 112. + +Robertson, Frederick William, 118, 228. + + +Sabatier, A., 158. + +Schleiermacher, 77. + +Schmiedel, P. W., 184. + +Shelley, 13, 98. + +Sin, Sense of, 86. + +Smith, Goldwin, 226, 255. + +Spencer, Herbert, 71. + +Spinoza, 76. + +Stanley, Dean, 77. + +Stephen, Sir J. F., 50, 58, 238. + +---- Sir Leslie, 16. + +Strauss, D. F., 195. + +Swift, Dean, 10, 219. + + +Tennyson, 60, 79, 212. + +'Theism,' 127, 150, 164. + +Thomson, James, 78. + +Tulloch, John, 246. + + +Uniqueness of Christ, 199, 252. + + +Vivian, Philip, 5, 229. + +Voltaire, 139, 168. + +Voysey, Rev. Charles, 153, 248. + + +Wallace, Alfred Russel, 100. + +Warschauer, J., 159, 203. + +Watts, Charles, 7. + +Wells, H. G., 189, 254. + +Wesley, John, 222. + +Wimmer, R., 193. + +Woolman, John, 222. + +Wordsworth, John, Bishop, 240. + +---- William, 79. + + + + + Printed by T. and A. CONSTABLE, Printers to His Majesty + at the Edinburgh University Press + + + + + + +The Expositors Library + +Cloth, 2/- net each volume. + + +THE NEW EVANGELISM. Prof. HENRY DRUMMOND, F.R.S.E. + +THE MIND OF THE MASTER. Rev. JOHN WATSON, D.D. + +THE TEACHING OF JESUS CONCERNING HIMSELF. Rev. Prof. JAMES STALKER, +D.D. + +FELLOWSHIP WITH CHRIST. Rev. R. W. DALE, D.D., LL.D. + +STUDIES ON THE NEW TESTAMENT. Prof. F. GODET, D.D. + +THE LIFE OF THE MASTER. Rev. JOHN WATSON, D.D. + +STUDIES OF THE PORTRAIT OF CHRIST.-- + Vol. I. Rev. GEORGE MATHESON, D.D. + +STUDIES OF THE PORTRAIT OF CHRIST.-- + Vol. II. Rev. GEORGE MATHESON, D.D. + +THE JEWISH TEMPLE AND THE CHRISTIAN + CHURCH. Rev. R. W. DALE, D.D., LL.D. + +THE TEN COMMANDMENTS. Rev. R. W. DALE, D.D., LL.D. + +THE FACT OF CHRIST. Rev. P. CARNEGIE SIMPSON, M.A. + +THE CROSS IN MODERN LIFE. Rev. J. G. GREENHOUGH, M.A. + +HEROES AND MARTYRS OF FAITH. Prof. A. S. PEAKE, D.D. + +A GUIDE TO PREACHERS. Principal A. E. GARVIE, M.A., +D.D. + +MODERN SUBSTITUTES FOR CHRISTIANITY. Rev. P. McADAM MUIR, D.D. + +EPHESIAN STUDIES. Right Rev. H. C. G. MOULE, D.D. + +THE UNCHANGING CHRIST. Rev. ALEX MCLAREN, D.D., D.LITT. + +THE GOD OF THE AMEN. Rev. ALEX MCLAREN, D.D., D.LITT. + +THE ASCENT THROUGH CHRIST. Rev. E. GRIFFITH JONES, B.A. + +STUDIES ON THE OLD TESTAMENT. Prof. F. GODET, D.D. + + +LONDON: HODDER AND STOUGHTON + + + + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Modern Substitutes for Christianity, by +Pearson McAdam Muir + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MODERN SUBST. 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You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Modern Substitutes for Christianity + +Author: Pearson McAdam Muir + +Release Date: April 16, 2010 [EBook #32006] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MODERN SUBST. FOR CHRISTIANITY *** + + + + +Produced by Al Haines + + + + + +</pre> + + +<BR><BR> + +<H4 ALIGN="center"> +<I>THE EXPOSITOR'S LIBRARY</I> +</H4> + +<BR><BR> + +<H1 ALIGN="center"> +MODERN SUBSTITUTES +<BR> +FOR CHRISTIANITY +</H1> + +<BR><BR> + +<H4 ALIGN="center"> +BY THE VERY REV. +</H4> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +PEARSON McADAM MUIR D.D. +</H3> + +<BR> + +<H4 ALIGN="center"> +MINISTER OF GLASGOW CATHEDRAL +<BR> +CHAPLAIN IN ORDINARY TO THE KING +</H4> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<H4 ALIGN="center"> +<I>Christus vincit, Christus regnat, Christus imperat</I> +</H4> + +<BR><BR> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +HODDER AND STOUGHTON +<BR> +LONDON — NEW YORK — TORONTO +</H3> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<H5 ALIGN="center"> +First Published . . . December 1909 +<BR> +Second Edition . . . October 1912 +</H5> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +IN MEMORIAM +<BR> +S. A. M. +<BR> +JUNE 3, 1847. OCTOBER 5, 1871 +<BR> +FEBRUARY 12, 1907 +</H3> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="Pvii"></A>vii}</SPAN> + +<H2 ALIGN="center"> +CONTENTS +</H2> + +<TABLE ALIGN="center" WIDTH="80%"> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="center" VALIGN="top" WIDTH="90%">I</TD> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top" WIDTH="10%">PAGE</TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap01">POPULAR IMPEACHMENTS OF CHRISTIANITY </A> +</TD> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">1</TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="center" VALIGN="top">II</TD> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top"> </TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap02">MORALITY WITHOUT RELIGION</A> +</TD> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">31</TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="center" VALIGN="top">III</TD> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top"> </TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap03">THE RELIGION OF THE UNIVERSE</A> +</TD> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">63</TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="center" VALIGN="top">IV</TD> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top"> </TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap04">THE RELIGION OF HUMANITY</A> +</TD> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">91</TD> +</TR> + +</TABLE> + + +<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="Pviii"></A>viii}</SPAN> + + +<TABLE ALIGN="center" WIDTH="80%"> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="center" VALIGN="top" WIDTH="90%">V</TD> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top" WIDTH="10%"> </TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap05">THEISM WITHOUT CHRIST </A> +</TD> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">125</TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="center" VALIGN="top">VI</TD> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top"> </TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap06">THE TRIBUTE OF CRITICISM TO CHRIST </A> +</TD> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">171</TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#appendix">APPENDICES </A> +</TD> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">219</TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#authorities">AUTHORITIES CONSULTED </A> +</TD> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">257</TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#index">INDEX </A> +</TD> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">265</TD> +</TR> + +</TABLE> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap01"></A> + +<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P2"></A>2}</SPAN> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +I +</H3> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +POPULAR IMPEACHMENTS OF CHRISTIANITY +</H3> + +<BR><BR> + +<P CLASS="intro"> +'Why call ye Me Lord, Lord, and do not the things which I say?'—S. +LUKE vi. 46. +</P> + +<P CLASS="intro"> +'The name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles through you.'—ROMANS +ii. 24. +</P> + +<P CLASS="intro"> +'What if some did not believe? shall their unbelief make the faith of +God without effect?'—ROMANS iii. 3. +</P> + +<P CLASS="intro"> +'By reason of whom the way of truth shall be evil spoken of.'—2 S. +PETER ii. 1. +</P> + +<P CLASS="intro"> +'So is the will of God, that with well-doing ye may put to silence the +ignorance of foolish men.'—1 S. PETER ii. 15. +</P> + +<BR><BR> + +<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P3"></A>3}</SPAN> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +I +</H3> + +<H4 ALIGN="center"> +POPULAR IMPEACHMENTS OF CHRISTIANITY +</H4> + +<P> +That there is at present a widespread alienation from the Christian +Faith can hardly be denied. Sometimes by violent invective, sometimes +by quiet assumption, the conclusion is conveyed that Christianity is +obsolete. Whatever benefits it may have conferred in rude, +unenlightened ages, it is now outgrown, it is not in keeping with the +science and discovery of modern times. 'The good Lord Jesus has had +His day,'[<A NAME="chap01fn1text"></A><A HREF="#chap01fn1">1</A>] is murmured in pitying condescension towards those who +still suffer themselves to be deceived by the antiquated superstition. +The statements in which our forefathers embodied the relations +<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P4"></A>4}</SPAN> +between God and man are no longer, except by a very few, considered +adequate; and there is everywhere a demand that those statements should +be recast. Is not all this an irresistible proof that the beliefs of +the Church have been abandoned, that the old notions of the Divine +care, the spiritual world, the everlasting life, cannot be maintained, +must be relegated to the realm of imagination? The blessings with +which Christianity is commonly credited spring from other sources: the +evils with which society is infected are its result, direct or indirect. +</P> + +<BR> + +<H4 ALIGN="center"> +I +</H4> + +<P> +Such accusations, it may occur to us, cannot be made seriously: they +bear their refutation in the very making; they cannot be propounded +with any expectation of being accepted. This may seem self-evident to +us: it is not self-evident to multitudes of eager, +<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P5"></A>5}</SPAN> +earnest men. +The accusations are persistently made by vigorous writers and +impassioned speakers, and are received as incontrovertible +propositions. However astonishing, however painful, it may be for us +to hear, it is well that we should know, what, in largely circulated +books and periodicals, and in mass meetings of the people, is said +about the Faith which we profess, and about us who profess it. +</P> + +<P> +Listen to some of the terms in which Christianity is impeached. +</P> + +<P> +'I undertake,' says Mr. Winwood Reade, 'I undertake to show that the +destruction of Christianity is essential to the interests of +civilisation; and also that man will never attain his full powers as a +moral being, until he has ceased to believe in a personal God, and in +the immortality of the soul. Christianity must be destroyed.'[<A NAME="chap01fn2text"></A><A HREF="#chap01fn2">2</A>] +</P> + +<P> +'The hostile evidence,' says Mr. Philip +<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P6"></A>6}</SPAN> +Vivian, 'appears to be +overwhelming. Christianity cannot be true. Provided that we see +things as they really are, and not as we wish them to be, we cannot but +come to this conclusion. We cannot get away from facts. Modern +knowledge forces us to admit that the Christian Faith cannot be +true.'[<A NAME="chap01fn3text"></A><A HREF="#chap01fn3">3</A>] +</P> + +<P> +'I want,' exclaims Mr. Vivian Carey, who has apparently, like Lord +Herbert of Cherbury, received a revelation to prove that no revelation +has been given, 'I want to destroy the fetich of centuries and to +instil in its place a life of duty, and of faith in God and man, and I +believe there is a power that has impelled me to attempt this task.... +A system that has produced such results must be essentially bad.... It +will not be difficult to create a faith and a religion that will serve +the needs of humanity, where Christianity has so deplorably failed.'[<A NAME="chap01fn4text"></A><A HREF="#chap01fn4">4</A>] +</P> + +<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P7"></A>7}</SPAN> + +<P> +'If Christianity,' argues Mr. Charles Watts, 'were potent for good, +that good would have been displayed ere now.... The ties of domestic +affection, the bonds of the social compact, the political relations of +rulers and ruled, all have surrendered themselves to its influence. +Yet with all these advantages, it has proved unable to keep pace with a +progressive civilisation.'[<A NAME="chap01fn5text"></A><A HREF="#chap01fn5">5</A>] +</P> + +<P> +'In a really humane and civilised nation,' Mr. Robert Blatchford +contends, 'there should be and need be no such thing as Ignorance, +Crime, Idleness, War, Slavery, Hate, Envy, Pride, Greed, Gluttony, +Vice. But this is not a humane and civilised nation, and never will be +while it accepts Christianity as its religion. These are my reasons +for opposing Christianity.'[<A NAME="chap01fn6text"></A><A HREF="#chap01fn6">6</A>] 'Christianity,' he iterates and +reiterates, 'is not true.'[<A NAME="chap01fn7text"></A><A HREF="#chap01fn7">7</A>] +</P> + +<P> +'Onward, ye children of the new Faith!' +<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P8"></A>8}</SPAN> +exultantly cries Mr. +Moncure D. Conway. 'The sun of Christendom hastes to its setting, but +the hope never sets of those who know that the sunset here is a sunrise +there!'[<A NAME="chap01fn8text"></A><A HREF="#chap01fn8">8</A>] +</P> + +<P> +Such is the manner in which the downfall of Christianity is now +proclaimed. And the impression is prevalent that, though in all ages +Christianity has been the object of doubt and of scorn, yet never has +it been rejected with such intensity of hatred as now, never have keen +criticism and deep earnestness, wide learning and shrewd mother-wit +been so combined in the attack. It is not merely the reckless, the +dissolute, the frivolous who turn away from its reproofs, seeking +excuses for their self-indulgence, but it is the thoughtful, the +austere, the high-principled, the reverent, the unselfish, who are +engaged in a crusade against all that we, as Christians, hold dear. +'To the old spirit of mockery, coarse or refined, to the old wrangle of +argument, +<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P9"></A>9}</SPAN> +also coarse or refined, has succeeded the spirit of +grave, measured, determined negation.'[<A NAME="chap01fn9text"></A><A HREF="#chap01fn9">9</A>] Men whose integrity and +elevation of character are beyond suspicion, take their places among +the rebels against the authority of Christ. They are fighting, they +assert, not for the removal of a check to their vices, but for the +introduction of a nobler ideal. In the demolition of Christianity, in +the sweeping away of every vestige of religious belief, religious +custom, religious hope, they imagine themselves to be conferring +inestimable benefits upon mankind. Christianity, in their view, is the +product of delusion and the buttress of all social ills. +</P> + +<BR> + +<H4 ALIGN="center"> +II +</H4> + +<P> +The contrast which so many are drawing between the present and the past +is not a little exaggerated. There have been few periods in which +Christianity has not been the +<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P10"></A>10}</SPAN> +object of animadversion and attack, +in which its speedy downfall has not been confidently predicted. It +was two hundred years ago that Dean Swift wrote <I>An Argument to prove +that the Abolishing of Christianity in England may, as things now +stand, be attended with some Inconveniences, and perhaps not produce +those many good effects proposed thereby</I>': the Dean, with scathing +sarcasm, ridiculing at once the conventional customs by which +Christianity was misrepresented, and the supercilious ignorance which +assumed that it was extinct.[<A NAME="chap01fn10text"></A><A HREF="#chap01fn10">10</A>] It was about a quarter of a century +later that Bishop Butler, in the advertisement to his <I>Analogy of +Religion to the Constitution and Course of Nature</I>, stated, 'It is +come, I know not how, to be taken for granted by many persons that +Christianity is not so much as a subject of inquiry, but that it is +now, at length, discovered to be fictitious. And accordingly they +treat it as if, +<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P11"></A>11}</SPAN> +in the present age, this were an agreed point +among all people of discernment; and nothing remained but to set it up +as a principal subject of mirth and ridicule, as it were, by way of +reprisals for its having so long interrupted the pleasures of the +world.' And the Bishop drily gave as the aim of the <I>Analogy</I>: 'Thus +much, at least, will be here found, not taken for granted but proved, +that any reasonable man who will thoroughly consider the matter, may be +as much assured as he is of his own being, that it is not, however, so +clear a case that there is nothing in it.' +</P> + +<P> +The assumption that Christianity is a thing of the past can hardly be +more prevalent now than it was then; and the groundlessness of the +assumption then may lead to the conclusion that the assumption is +equally groundless now. Since the days of Butler or of Swift, the +progress of Christianity has not ceased: its developments of thought +and +<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P12"></A>12}</SPAN> +life have been among the most remarkable in its whole career. +The exultation over its decay in the twentieth century may possibly be +found as premature and as vain as the exultation over its decay in the +eighteenth century, or in any of the centuries which have gone before. +</P> + +<BR> + +<H4 ALIGN="center"> +III +</H4> + +<P> +The most popular impeachments of Christianity are mainly these. +</P> + +<P> +It is a mass of false and superstitious beliefs long exploded. It is +the opponent of progress and inquiry, the discoveries of science having +been made in direct defiance of its teaching and its influence. +</P> + +<P> +It is the champion of oppression and tyranny. It aims at keeping the +poor in ignorance and destitution. It prostrates itself before the +rich and seeks the patronage of the great. +</P> + +<P> +It so insists on people being absorbed in +<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P13"></A>13}</SPAN> +the thought of heaven +that it practically precludes them from doing any good on earth. +</P> + +<P> +It is a system of selfishness, inculcating the dogma that no one need +care for anything except the salvation of his own soul.[<A NAME="chap01fn11text"></A><A HREF="#chap01fn11">11</A>] +</P> + +<P> +It is the foster-mother of all the evil and misery by which society is +distressed. Dishonesty, cruelty, slavery, war, persecution, avarice, +drunkenness, vice, would seem to be its natural fruits. +</P> + +<P CLASS="poem"> +'How calm and sweet the victories of life,'<BR> +</P> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +shrieked Shelley in one of his early poems. +</P> + +<P CLASS="poem"> +'How terrorless the triumph of the grave ...<BR> +... but for thy aid<BR> +Religion! but for thee, prolific fiend,<BR> +Who peoplest earth with demons, hell with men,<BR> +And heaven with slaves!<BR> +Thou taintest all thou look'st upon!'[<A NAME="chap01fn12text"></A><A HREF="#chap01fn12">12</A>]<BR> +</P> + +<P> +What shall we say to these accusations? Christians have been credulous +and superstitious, have argued and acted as if only in +<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P14"></A>14}</SPAN> +the +abnormal and exceptional could the Divine Presence be found, as if God +were a hard Taskmaster and capricious Tyrant. They have resisted +progress and inquiry, blindly refusing to see the light which was +streaming upon them. They have unquestionably been guilty of miserable +pride towards inferiors in wealth or in station, and guilty of +miserable sycophancy towards the rich and the powerful. Christians +have too frequently neglected the material well-being of the community, +have suffered disgraceful outward conditions to remain without protest, +have not striven to shed abroad happiness and brightness in squalid and +wretched lives. Christians have been art and part in fostering such +conditions as wrung from compassionate and indignant hearts the <I>Song +of the Shirt</I> and the <I>Cry of the Children</I>. Christians have imagined +that correctness of belief would make up for falseness of heart, and +loudness of profession for depravity of +<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P15"></A>15}</SPAN> +practice. Christians have +supposed that in religion all that has to be striven for is the +salvation of one's own soul, have even represented the joy of the +redeemed as heightened by a contemplation of the torments of the lost. +Christians must bear the responsibility of much of the abounding vice +which they have not earnestly tried to combat where it already exists, +and which, in various forms, they have introduced into regions where it +was unknown before. Lawlessness and degradation in the slums, fraud +and dishonesty in trade, gross revelations in the fashionable world; +bigotry, slander, scandals in the ecclesiastical world; plots, wars, +treacheries, assassinations, in the political world: these things ought +not so to be. The fiercest denunciations, the most withering satires, +which unbelievers have employed, do not exceed in intensity of +condemnation the judgment which Christian preachers and Christian +writers have pronounced.[<A NAME="chap01fn13text"></A><A HREF="#chap01fn13">13</A>] +</P> + +<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P16"></A>16}</SPAN> + +<P> +In all ages of the Church the most powerful weapon against Christianity +has been the example of Christians. The Faith which they nominally +hold has been judged by the lives which they actually lead.[<A NAME="chap01fn14text"></A><A HREF="#chap01fn14">14</A>] +'Christianity,' said a bishop of the eighteenth century, 'would perhaps +be the last religion a wise man would choose, if he were guided by the +lives of those who profess it.'[<A NAME="chap01fn15text"></A><A HREF="#chap01fn15">15</A>] But is this to admit that the hope +of the world lies in renouncing Christianity? that in confining +ourselves to the seen and the temporal, we shall best elevate mankind? +that the prospect of annihilation and the absence of wisdom, love, and +Providence in the order of the universe constitute the most glorious +gospel which can be proclaimed? Nothing of the kind. It is only +proved that many Christians are not acting according to their belief, +that their practice does not square with their +<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P17"></A>17}</SPAN> +profession. The +belief and the profession are not proved to be wrong and bad. It would +be unreasonable to argue that, because a man who has been vehemently +sounding the praises of truthfulness is convicted of deliberate lying, +therefore truthfulness is shown to be worthless. It is equally +unreasonable to identify Christianity with everything to which it is +most definitely opposed, to represent it as the enemy of everything +which it was intended to maintain, and then to conclude that +Christianity is discredited.[<A NAME="chap01fn16text"></A><A HREF="#chap01fn16">16</A>] As we should argue from the detection +of a liar, not that lying is right, but that he should return to the +ways of truth, so we should argue from the lives of Christians who live +in flagrant contradiction to the precepts of our Lord and His Apostles, +not that the precepts should be rejected, but that they should be kept; +not that Christianity should be abolished, but that it should be obeyed. +</P> + +<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P18"></A>18}</SPAN> + +<P> +Christians have created prejudice, hatred, against Christianity, but it +is not Christianity which they have been exhibiting. We repudiate the +hideous travesty which they have made, the hideous travesty which is +credulously or maliciously accepted by assailants as a correct +representation. Christianity is not a religion of darkness and +superstition: it calls to its disciples 'Be children of light: prove +all things: hold fast that which is good.' Christianity does not +sycophantishly court the rich and despise the poor: it tells the +stories of the Rich Man and Lazarus, and of the Rich Fool, and it +declares 'Ye cannot serve God and Mammon.' Christianity does not teach +that the life which a man leads is of less consequence than the belief +which he professes: it demands, 'Why call ye Me, Lord, Lord, and do not +the things which I say?' Christianity is not selfish, is not a system +which inculcates the saving of one's own soul as the first and last of +duties: +<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P19"></A>19}</SPAN> +'He that loveth his life shall lose it. Bear ye one +another's burdens, and so fulfil the law of Christ. By this shall all +men know that ye are My disciples if ye have love one to another.' It +is surely reasonable to demand that Christianity shall be judged, not +by its misrepresentations, but by what it is in itself, not as it has +been perverted by bitter enemies, or by false disciples, but as it is +proclaimed and manifested in its Author and Finisher. +</P> + +<BR> + +<H4 ALIGN="center"> +IV +</H4> + +<P> +In the face of such tremendous indictments, what is the duty incumbent +on us who profess and call ourselves Christians? Certainly not that we +should abjure the name, but that we should remember what the name +signifies. We ought to consider our ways, to give ourselves to +self-examination. There must be something amiss when such hideous +portraits can be painted with any expectation of their being taken as +correct likenesses. It is right +<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P20"></A>20}</SPAN> +that we should repel with +indignation the ludicrous and intolerable caricatures which are +presented as our belief, the unwarrantable consequences which are +deduced from it. It is right that we should remove misapprehensions +and refute calumnies; but, above all it is necessary that we should +take heed to our own conduct and our own character. The scandals which +we have so much reason to deplore owe their existence, not to +Christianity, but to the absence of Christianity. And the very sneers +which greet any departure from rectitude or morality on the part of a +professing Christian prove that such a departure is not a +manifestation, but a renunciation of Christianity, that what is +expected of Christians is the highest and the best that human nature +can produce. +</P> + +<P> +'If,' argues Mr. Blatchford, 'if to praise Christ in words and deny Him +in deeds be Christianity, then London is a Christian city and England +is a Christian nation. For it is +<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P21"></A>21}</SPAN> +very evident that our common +English ideals are anti-Christian, and that our commercial, foreign, +and social affairs are run on anti-Christian lines.'[<A NAME="chap01fn17text"></A><A HREF="#chap01fn17">17</A>] As Mr. +Blatchford's life is spent in deploring the baseness of 'our common +English ideals,' and in exposing the iniquity of the methods in which +'our commercial, foreign, and social affairs' are conducted, the +logical inference would seem to be that, as anti-Christian ideals and +anti-Christian lines have so signally failed, it might be well to give +Christian ideals and Christian lines a trial. 'In a really humane and +civilised nation,' Mr. Blatchford maintains, 'there should be, and +there need be, no such thing as Poverty, Ignorance, Crime, Idleness, +War, Slavery, Hate, Envy, Pride, Greed, Gluttony, Vice. But,' he +continues his curious argument, 'this is not a humane and civilised +nation, and never will be while it accepts Christianity as its +religion. These,' +<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P22"></A>22}</SPAN> +so he adds as an irresistible conclusion, +'these are my reasons for opposing Christianity.'[<A NAME="chap01fn18text"></A><A HREF="#chap01fn18">18</A>] Very good +reasons, if Christianity taught such a creed and encouraged such a +morality. But that any human being should give such a description of +the purpose of Christian Faith indicates either that the describer is +swayed by blindest prejudice or else that no genuine Christian has ever +crossed his path. +</P> + +<P> +'What if some do not believe? shall their unbelief make the faith of +God of none effect? God forbid: yea, let God be true, but every man a +liar.' Truth continues to be truth, though people who talk much about +it may be false. Goodness continues to be goodness, though people who +sing its praises may be thoroughly depraved. Generosity does not cease +to be generosity, though its beauty should be extolled by a miser. +Courage does not cease to be courage, though its heroism should be +extolled by a coward. Temperance +<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P23"></A>23}</SPAN> +is temperance, though we should +be assured of the fact by the thick speech of a drunkard. The virtue +is admirable, even when those who acknowledge how admirable it is do +not practise it. +</P> + +<P> +That Christianity towers so far above the attainments of its average +disciples, nay, above the attainments of its saintliest, is itself a +kind of evidence of its divine origin. 'When the King of the Tartars, +who was become Christian,' says Montaigne, 'designed to come to Lyons +to kiss the Pope's feet, and there to be an eyewitness of the sanctity +he hoped to find in our manners, immediately our good S. Louis sought +to divert him from his purpose: for fear lest our inordinate way of +living should, on the contrary, put him out of conceit with so holy a +belief. And yet it happened quite otherwise to this other, who going +to Rome to the same end, and there seeing the dissolution of the +Prelates and people of that time, settled +<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P24"></A>24}</SPAN> +himself so much the more +firmly in our religion, considering how great the force and dignity of +it must necessarily be that could maintain its dignity and splendour +amongst so much corruption and in so vicious hands.' God's truth +abides whether men receive it or deny it. Christ is the Way, the +Truth, and the Life, though every so-called Christian should become +apostate. The woes of the world are to be cured by more Christianity, +not by less; and on us, in whose hands have been placed its holy +oracles, rests the responsibility of proving its inestimable advantage +ourselves and of conferring it on all mankind. +</P> + +<P> +Wherever Christianity has really flourished, untold blessings have been +the result.[<A NAME="chap01fn19text"></A><A HREF="#chap01fn19">19</A>] With all the sad deficiencies and sadder perversions +by which its course has been chequered, no influence for good can be +compared with it in elevating character, in diffusing peace and +<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P25"></A>25}</SPAN> +goodwill, in fitting men to labour and to endure. The diffusion of the +spirit of Christianity is a synonym for the diffusion of all that tends +to the true well-being of the world. Only as genuine Christianity, the +Christianity of Christ, prevails, will mankind be morally and +spiritually lifted into a higher sphere. Put together the wisest and +most ennobling suggestions of those who regard Christianity as obsolete +and you find that it is virtually Christianity which is delineated. It +is in the prevalence of principles and practices which, however they +may be designated, are in reality Christian, that the salvation of +society and of individuals will be found. In the absence of such +principles and practices will be found the secret of ruin, disorder, +dissolution, and decay. +</P> + +<P> +It is false Christianity against which the tornado of abuse is really +directed. Where genuine Christianity appears, and is recognised as +genuine, it commands respect. +<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P26"></A>26}</SPAN> +Even the most virulent of recent +assailants, who seriously considers that, until we get rid of the +'incubus of the modern Christian religion, our civilisation will so +surely decay that we shall become an entirely decadent race,' and who +complacently announces that 'it will not be difficult to create a faith +and a religion which will serve the needs of humanity where +Christianity has so signally failed,' even he is graciously pleased to +allow, 'I have no quarrel with Christianity as a code of morals. The +Sermon on the Mount, no matter who preached it, is quite sufficient, if +its teaching was only practised instead of preached, to make this world +an eminently desirable place in which to live. My quarrel is concerned +with the professional promoters and organisers of religion who have +made the very name of Christianity to stink in the nostrils of honest +men.' In other words, it is not to Christianity, but to Christians by +whom it is misrepresented, that he is opposed, and he +<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P27"></A>27}</SPAN> +cannot +refrain from granting, though surely with transparent inconsistency, +that it is by the noble lives of Christians that Christianity has been +so long preserved. 'It won, with its beauty and sentiment, the +allegiance of many who were true and manly. And it is such as these +who have raised the Gospel from the slough of infamy. It is such as +these who, in the darkest ages, have perpetuated by the goodness of +their lives the faith that is left to-day. It is the virtues of +Christians, not the virtue of Christianity, that keeps the faith +alive.'[<A NAME="chap01fn20text"></A><A HREF="#chap01fn20">20</A>] The very opposite is nearer the truth. The virtues of +Christians are simply the outcome of the virtue of Christianity: it is +the vices of Christians which compose the deepest 'slough of infamy' +into which the Gospel has ever been plunged. +</P> + +<P> +But from all these charges and counter-charges, it would seem to be +clear that real +<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P28"></A>28}</SPAN> +Christianity compels respect even where it is +viewed with aversion, that its progress is hindered by nothing so much +as by the unworthiness of its adherents, that it gains assent by +nothing so much as by the manifestation of Christian lives. +</P> + +<P> +Will any one venture to deny that the world would be vastly improved +were every one in it to be a genuine Christian, animated by Christian +motives, doing Christian deeds? The revolution would be immense, +indescribable: it would be the end of all evil: it would be the +establishment of all good. No man's hand would be against another, all +would strive together for the welfare of the whole, there would be no +contention save how to excel in love and in good works. The human +imagination cannot depict anything more glorious, more ennobling, than +the will of God done on earth as it is done in heaven, and this is what +would be if the thoughts of every heart were brought +<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P29"></A>29}</SPAN> +into +captivity to the obedience of Christ. The most splendid dreams of the +most exalted visionaries would be more than fulfilled: everything true +and lovely and of good report would be ratified and confirmed: +everything false and vile would be changed and purified, and nothing to +hurt or destroy or defile would remain. The fulfilment of that ideal +is simply the universal prevalence of Christianity, the universal +triumph of Christ. +</P> + +<P> +The systems and tendencies at which we are about to glance owe their +vitality to the Faith which they attempt to supersede. They are, in so +far as they are good, either tending towards Christianity or borrowing +from it. The insufficiency of mere material well-being, the +irresistible association of Religion with Morality, the worship of the +Universe, the worship of Humanity, all are signs of the ineradicable +instinct of the Unseen and Eternal, of the unquenchable thirst for the +Living God; and belief in the Living +<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P30"></A>30}</SPAN> +God finds its noblest +illustration and confirmation in Him Who said, 'He that hath seen Me +hath seen the Father,' in Him to whom the searching scrutiny of +critical inquirers, as well as the fervid devotion of believers, bears +so marvellous a witness. We hope to show not only that the abolition +of Christianity might 'be attended with sundry inconveniences,' or that +the assumption of there being 'nothing in' Christianity is 'not so +clear a case,' but we hope to show that if, amid present perplexity and +estrangement, many feel themselves obliged to go back and walk no more +with Christ, we, for our part, as we hear His voice of tender reproach, +'Will ye also go away?' can only, with heartfelt conviction, give the +answer, 'Lord, to whom shall we go? Thou hast the words of eternal +life.' +</P> + +<BR><BR> + +<P CLASS="footnote"> +<A NAME="chap01fn1"></A> +[<A HREF="#chap01fn1text">1</A>] Tennyson, <I>In the Children's Hospital</I>. +</P> + +<P CLASS="footnote"> +<A NAME="chap01fn2"></A> +[<A HREF="#chap01fn2text">2</A>] <I>The Martyrdom of Man</I>. +</P> + +<P CLASS="footnote"> +<A NAME="chap01fn3"></A> +[<A HREF="#chap01fn3text">3</A>] <I>The Churches and Modern Thought</I>. +</P> + +<P CLASS="footnote"> +<A NAME="chap01fn4"></A> +[<A HREF="#chap01fn4text">4</A>] <I>Parsons and Pagans</I>. +</P> + +<P CLASS="footnote"> +<A NAME="chap01fn5"></A> +[<A HREF="#chap01fn5text">5</A>] <I>Secularists' Manual</I>. +</P> + +<P CLASS="footnote"> +<A NAME="chap01fn6"></A> +[<A HREF="#chap01fn6text">6</A>] <I>God and my Neighbour</I>. +</P> + +<P CLASS="footnote"> +<A NAME="chap01fn7"></A> +[<A HREF="#chap01fn7text">7</A>] <I>Ibid</I>. +</P> + +<P CLASS="footnote"> +<A NAME="chap01fn8"></A> +[<A HREF="#chap01fn8text">8</A>] <I>Earthward Pilgrimage</I>. +</P> + +<P CLASS="footnote"> +<A NAME="chap01fn9"></A> +[<A HREF="#chap01fn9text">9</A>] Dean Church, <I>Pascal and other Sermons</I>, p. 348. +</P> + +<P CLASS="footnote"> +<A NAME="chap01fn10"></A> +[<A HREF="#chap01fn10text">10</A>] <A HREF="#append01">Appendix I.</A> +</P> + +<P CLASS="footnote"> +<A NAME="chap01fn11"></A> +[<A HREF="#chap01fn11text">11</A>] <A HREF="#append02">Appendix II.</A> +</P> + +<P CLASS="footnote"> +<A NAME="chap01fn12"></A> +[<A HREF="#chap01fn12text">12</A>] <I>Queen Mab</I>. +</P> + +<P CLASS="footnote"> +<A NAME="chap01fn13"></A> +[<A HREF="#chap01fn13text">13</A>] Hans Faber, <I>Das Christentum der Zukunft</I>. +</P> + +<P CLASS="footnote"> +<A NAME="chap01fn14"></A> +[<A HREF="#chap01fn14text">14</A>] <A HREF="#appendix">Appendix.</A> +</P> + +<P CLASS="footnote"> +<A NAME="chap01fn15"></A> +[<A HREF="#chap01fn15text">15</A>] Sir Leslie Stephen, <I>English Thought in the Eighteenth Century</I>, +vol. i. p. 144 +</P> + +<P CLASS="footnote"> +<A NAME="chap01fn16"></A> +[<A HREF="#chap01fn16text">16</A>] <A HREF="#append04">Appendix IV.</A> +</P> + +<P CLASS="footnote"> +<A NAME="chap01fn17"></A> +[<A HREF="#chap01fn17text">17</A>] <I>God and my Neighbour</I>. +</P> + +<P CLASS="footnote"> +<A NAME="chap01fn18"></A> +[<A HREF="#chap01fn18text">18</A>] <I>God and my Neighbour</I>, ch. ix. p. 197. +</P> + +<P CLASS="footnote"> +<A NAME="chap01fn19"></A> +[<A HREF="#chap01fn19text">19</A>] <A HREF="#append05">Appendix V.</A> +</P> + +<P CLASS="footnote"> +<A NAME="chap01fn20"></A> +[<A HREF="#chap01fn20text">20</A>] <I>Parsons and Pagans</I>. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap02"></A> + +<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P32"></A>32}</SPAN> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +II +</H3> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +MORALITY WITHOUT RELIGION +</H3> + +<BR><BR> + +<P CLASS="intro"> +'I am sought of them that asked not for Me: I am found of them that +sought Me not.'—ISAIAH lxv. 1. +</P> + +<P CLASS="intro"> +'Not the hearers of the law are just before God, but the doers of the +law shall be justified. For when the Gentiles, which have not the law, +do by nature the things contained in the law, these, having not the +law, are a law unto themselves; which shew the work of the law written +in their hearts, their conscience also bearing witness, and their +thoughts the meanwhile accusing or else excusing one another.'—ROMANS +ii. 13-15. +</P> + +<P CLASS="intro"> +'Strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope and without +God in the world.'—EPHESIANS ii. 12. +</P> + +<P CLASS="intro"> +'The acknowledging of the truth which is after godliness.'—TITUS i. 1. +</P> + +<BR><BR> + +<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P33"></A>33}</SPAN> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +II +</H3> + +<H4 ALIGN="center"> +MORALITY WITHOUT RELIGION +</H4> + +<P> +That Religion and Morality have no necessary connection is a popular +assumption. In books, in pamphlets, in magazines, on platforms, in +ordinary conversation, it is loudly proclaimed or quietly insinuated +that the morality of the future will be Independent Morality, Morality +without Sanction. Morality, it is iterated and reiterated, can get on +quite well without Religion: Religion is a positive hindrance to +Morality. This view is, no doubt, extreme. Perhaps it is only here +and there in the writings which fall into the hands of most of us, or +in the circles with which most of us mingle, that the matter is stated +so bluntly and so plainly. But in +<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P34"></A>34}</SPAN> +not a few writings of wide +circulation, and in whole classes of the community, the statement is +made as if beyond contradiction. Even in works which we are all +reading, and in companies where we daily find ourselves, the logical +conclusion of arguments, the natural inference from assumptions, would +be simply that extreme position. There is no use in evading the fact +that if some highly popular opinions are accepted, no statement of the +uselessness of Religion in any form or system can be too extreme. The +mere assurance that Religion is a reality, is a benefit, is a +necessity, though it may not seem a great deal to establish, though it +may leave a host of problems still to solve, would be a gain to many, +would sweep away the chief doubts by which they are perplexed. +</P> + +<P> +There need not, on our part, be any hesitation in declaring, to begin +with, that Religion +<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P35"></A>35}</SPAN> +without Morality is worthless. The attempt to +keep them apart, to regard them as independent of each other, has often +enough been made by nominal champions of Religion. The upholding of +certain views regarding God and His relations to mankind has been +considered sufficient to make up for neglect of the duties incumbent on +ordinary mortals. The performance of certain rites and ceremonies has +been considered an adequate compensation for the commission of +deliberate crimes. Instances might easily be cited of persons engaged +in villainous schemes, achieving deeds of dishonesty which will cause +ruin to hundreds of innocent victims, executing plots of fiendish +revenge, with little regard for human life, and no regard at all for +truth, but exceedingly punctilious in attention to religious +observances. One of the most cold-blooded murderers that ever +disgraced the habitable globe was careful not to neglect any act of +devotion, and while +<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P36"></A>36}</SPAN> +perpetrating the most nefarious basenesses +never failed to write in his diary the most pious sentiments. That +kind of religion is worse than nothing, was rightly regarded as +increasing the horror and loathsomeness of the monster's life. In a +minor degree, we have all seen illustrations of the same incongruity, +we may even have detected indications of it in ourselves, the tendency +to imagine that the more we go to church or frequent the Sacraments or +read the Bible, we are entitled to latitude in our conduct. There is +no tendency against which we need to be more constantly on our guard, +none which is more strongly, more terrifically, denounced in the Old +Testament and in the New, by prophets and apostles, and by the Lord +Jesus Christ Himself. Unbelievers in Christianity are perfectly right +when they say that Religion without Morality is absolutely worthless. +</P> + +<BR> + +<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P37"></A>37}</SPAN> + +<H4 ALIGN="center"> +II +</H4> + +<P> +We may go further. We may admit, nay, we must vehemently maintain, +that Morality without Religion is far better than Religion without +Morality. Look at this man who makes no profession of Religion, but +who is temperate, honest, self-sacrificing for the public good. Look +at that man who made a loud profession, but who was leading a life of +secret vice, who was false to the trust reposed in him, who +appropriated what had been committed to his charge. Can there be any +doubt, we are triumphantly asked, that of these two, the religious is +inferior to the irreligious? There can be no doubt whatever, would be +the reply of every well-instructed Christian. Morality without +Religion is incalculably better than Religion without Morality. But +what does this prove with regard to Christianity? It simply proves how +eternally true is the parable +<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P38"></A>38}</SPAN> +of our Lord: 'A certain man had two +sons, and he came to the first and said, Son, go work to-day in my +vineyard. He answered and said, I will not, but afterwards he repented +and went. And he came to the second and said likewise. And he +answered and said, I go, sir, and went not. Whether of them twain did +the will of his father? They say unto Him, The first,' and our Lord +confirmed the answer. +</P> + +<BR> + +<H4 ALIGN="center"> +III +</H4> + +<P> +That kind of comparison between Religion and Morality is most +misleading, for such 'Religion' is not Religion at all. It may be +hypocrisy, it may be superstition, it may be self-deception: +Christianity it is not, and never can be. The contrast is not really +between Morality and Religion, but between Morality and Immorality, +Falsehood, Fraud, and Wilful Imposition. Whatever else the Kingdom of +God may be, it is at least +<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P39"></A>39}</SPAN> +Righteousness: where there is no +Righteousness, there can be no Kingdom of God. Whatever else Christian +doctrine may be, it is at least a doctrine according to godliness, a +teaching in accordance with the eternal laws of righteousness. For +purposes of analysis and convenience, we may distinguish between +Religion and Morality, and show them working in different spheres, but +it is utterly erroneous to suppose that they can be actually divorced. +In every right and rational representation of the Christian Religion, +Morality is included and imbedded, otherwise it is only a maimed and +mutilated Religion which is held out for acceptance. On the other +hand, in all true Morality, especially in its highest and purest +manifestations, Religion is present. It is possible to decry Morality. +'Mere Morality,' in the current acceptation of the phrase, may lack a +good deal, may be a phase of self-righteousness, self-interest, cold +calculation, +<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P40"></A>40}</SPAN> +a keeping up of appearances before the world, but +Morality itself is of a higher strain: it is the fulfilment of every +duty to one's self and to one's neighbour: it implies that each duty is +done from the right motive: the purer and loftier it becomes the more +it encroaches on the religious domain: it is crowned and glorified with +a religious sanction: it is, visible or hidden, conscious or +unconscious, a doing of the will of God. Morality, to hold its own, +must be 'touched by emotion,' and Morality touched by emotion is +identical with Religion. To admit moral obligation in all its length +and breadth, and depth and height, is to admit God.[<A NAME="chap02fn1text"></A><A HREF="#chap02fn1">1</A>] +</P> + +<BR> + +<H4 ALIGN="center"> +IV +</H4> + +<P> +A curious illustration of the fact that Morality, to be permanent, +needs the inspiration of Religion, that Morality, at its best and +purest, tends to become Religion, is +<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P41"></A>41}</SPAN> +afforded in such a work as +Dr. Stanton Coit's <I>National Idealism and a State Church</I>. Dr. Coit +has for twenty years been engaged in founding ethical societies, and +his high and disinterested aims need not be called in question. But +the book is evidence that in order to support the lofty principles +which he so earnestly expounds, he is obliged to call in the aid of +principles which he imagined himself to have discarded. He begins by +denying the Supernatural in every shape and form. He will have none of +a personal God, or of a personal immortality. There is no higher being +than Man. All trust must be shifted from supernatural to human +agencies. 'Combined human foresight, the general will of organised +society, assumes the rôle of Creative Providence.' 'This is, then, the +presupposition of all moral judgment in harmony with which I would +reconstruct the religions of the world: that no crime and no good deed +that happens in this world shall +<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P42"></A>42}</SPAN> +ever be traced to any other moral +agencies than those actually inhabiting living human bodies and +recognised by other human beings as fit subjects of human rights and +privileges.' In other words, Morality, Morality alone, Morality +without any sanction from Above, or any hope from Beyond, is the +all-sufficient strength and ennoblement of man. +</P> + +<P> +But what is the superstructure which Dr. Stanton Coit proceeds to build +upon this foundation? One would naturally expect that Prayer and +Churches and Sacraments would have no place. But these are exactly +what he insists on retaining; these will apparently be more important, +more necessary, in the future than in the past. 'We should appropriate +and adapt the materials furnished us by the rites and ceremonies of the +historic Church. As the woodbird, bent on building her nest, in lieu +of better materials makes it of leaves and of feathers from her breast, +so may we use what is familiar, old, +<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P43"></A>43}</SPAN> +and close at hand. It is all +ours; and the homelike beauty of the Church of the future will be +enhanced by the ancient materials wrought into its new forms.' So much +enhanced, indeed, that most people will be inclined to tolerate the new +forms simply because of the ancient materials which are allowed to +remain. Among the ancient materials which Dr. Coit appropriates or +adapts, prayer occupies a prominent place. And he is severe upon +those, <I>e.g.</I>, Comte and Dr. Congreve, who would banish petition from +the sphere of worship. He delights in pointing out that, in despite of +themselves, they include requests for personal blessings. Nor is +prayer to be a mere aspiration or inarticulate longing of the soul. +'No mental activity can become definite, coherent, and systematic, and +remain so, except it be embodied and repeated in words.... A petition +that does not, or cannot, or will not, formulate itself in words, and +let the lips move to shape them, and the +<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P44"></A>44}</SPAN> +voice to sound them, and +the eye to visualise them on the written or printed page, becomes soon +a mere torpor of the mind, or a meaningless movement of blind unrest, +or a trick of pretending to pray. Perfected prayer is always spoken.' +</P> + +<P> +To whom, or to what, this prayer, uttered or unexpressed, is to be +offered, may be difficult of comprehension. It is not to God, as we +have hitherto employed that sacred name; but Dr. Coit insists that the +word 'God' shall be retained, and that we have no right to deny to this +God the attribute of Personality. 'Any one who worships either a +concrete social group or an abstract moral quality may justly protest +against the charge that his God is impersonal: he may insist that it is +either superpersonal or interpersonal, or both.' The worship of Nature +appears to be discouraged, and to be considered as of comparatively +little worth. 'We dare never forget that moral qualities stand to us +in a +<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P45"></A>45}</SPAN> +different dynamic relation from the grass and the stars and +the sea—no effects upon us or upon these will result from petitions +even of a most righteous man to them. But no one can deny that prayers +to Purity, Serenity, Faith, Humanity, England, Man, Woman, to Milton, +to Jesus, do create a new moral heaven and a new earth for him who +thirsts after righteousness.' Leaving the name of our Lord out of the +discussion, why should a prayer to Serenity have more moral influence +than a prayer to the Sea? Why should a prayer to the Stars be less +efficacious than a prayer to Milton, whose soul was like a star and +dwelt apart? We have only to invest the stars and the sea with certain +qualities evolved from our own imagination to make them as worthy of +worship as either Milton or Serenity. Dr. Coit is scathing in his +criticism of the Positivist prayers, whether of Comte or of Dr. +Congreve: they are 'screamingly funny': 'the most monstrous +<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P46"></A>46}</SPAN> +absurdity ever perpetrated by a really good and great man.' The +epithets are possibly justified; but are they quite inapplicable to one +who supposes that an invocation of the Living and Eternal God means no +more than an invocation of England, or Faith, or Woman? It is only +when God has become to us an abstraction that an abstraction can take +the place of God. +</P> + +<P> +A manual of services fitted to a nation's present needs is what, +according to Dr. Coit, is required to ensure the progress and triumph +of the ethical movement. 'Until the new idealism possesses its own +manual of religious ritual, it cannot communicate effectively its +deeper thought and purpose. The moment, however, it has invented such +a means of communication, it would seem inevitable that a rapid moral +and intellectual advancement of man must at last take place, equal in +speed and in beneficence to the material advancement which followed +<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P47"></A>47}</SPAN> +during the last century in the wake of scientific inventions.' +The ritual of ethical societies will not outwardly differ much from the +ritual to be found in existing religions. Its details have yet to be +arranged or 'invented.' The only things certain are that a book of +prayers ought to be provided at once, and that in Swinburne's <I>Songs +before Sunrise</I> may be found an 'anthology of prayer suitable for use +in the Church of Humanity,' prayers 'as sublime and quickening in +melody and passion as anything in the Hebrew prophets or the Litany of +the Church.' +</P> + +<P> +Dr. Coit does not denounce theology as theology, he even insists on +being himself ranked among theologians. His readers may be surprised +to learn on what doctrines he dwells with particular fondness. He +laments that belief in the existence and power of the devil should be +waning. 'We may not believe in a personal devil, but we must believe +in a devil who acts very like a person.' +<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P48"></A>48}</SPAN> +He predicts that teachers +will more and more teach a doctrine of hell-fire. Out of kindness they +will terrify by presenting the evil effects, indirect and remote, of +selfish thoughts and dispositions. 'We must frighten people away from +the edge of the abyss which begins this side of death.' Finally, +though, of course, the word is not used in the ordinary sense, the +necessity of the doctrine of the Incarnation is upheld. 'The +Incarnation must for ever remain a fundamental conception of religion. +Until all men are incarnations of the principle of constructive moral +beneficence, and to a higher degree, Jesus will remain pre-eminent; and +it is quite possible that in proportion as he is approached, gratitude +to him will increase rather than diminish.' 'Even should any one ever +in the future transcend him, still it will only be by him and in glad +acknowledgment of the debt to him. There never can in the future be a +dividing of the world into Christianity +<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P49"></A>49}</SPAN> +and not Christianity. It +will only be a new and more Christian Christianity, compatible with +liberty and reason.' +</P> + +<P> +Thus the drift and tendency of this book bring us back, however +unintentionally, to the Faith of which it appears, at first sight, to +be the renunciation. It establishes irresistibly that Morality, to be +living and permanent, must have religious sanction and inspiration, +that we need to be delivered from the awful thraldom of evil, that the +supreme realities are the things which are unseen; that prayer is the +life of the soul; that public worship is a necessity; that in Christ +the greatest redemptive power has been embodied, and the purest vision +of the Eternal has been granted; and that, in its adaptation to human +needs, its fostering of human aspirations, its ministering to human +sorrows, its renewal of human penitence, its consecration of life and +its hope in death, no Ethical Society yet devised gives any +<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P50"></A>50}</SPAN> + +symptom of being able to supplant the Church of Him Who said, 'Come +unto Me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden and I will give you +rest.' +</P> + +<BR> + +<H4 ALIGN="center"> +V +</H4> + +<P> +Now, from the fact that Morality at its best assumes a religious tinge, +merges itself in Religion, we may legitimately infer that, without the +inspiration of Religion, Morality at its best will not long prevail.[<A NAME="chap02fn2text"></A><A HREF="#chap02fn2">2</A>] +'Love, friendship,' said Sir James Fitzjames Stephen, 'good nature, +kindness carried to the height of sincere and devoted affection, will +always be the chief pleasures of life, whether Christianity is true or +false; but Christian Charity is not the same as any of these, or all of +these put together, and I think that if Christian Theology were +exploded, Christian Charity would not survive it.'[<A NAME="chap02fn3text"></A><A HREF="#chap02fn3">3</A>] At present, when +Religion has pervaded everything with its sacred sanctions, it is easy +to say that Religion +<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P51"></A>51}</SPAN> +would not be greatly missed were it +discarded, and that Morality would be unaffected. This is pure +conjecture. To test its worth we should need a state of society from +which every vestige of Religion had disappeared. It will not do to +retain any of the beliefs or the customs which owe their origin to a +sense of the Unseen and Eternal, to a sense of any Power above +ourselves, ruling our destinies and instilling into our minds thoughts +and desires and hopes beyond the visible and the material. If +Morality, in the limited acceptation of the term, is sufficient for the +elevation and welfare of mankind, it is not to be supported by any +admixture of Religion: it must prove its power by itself. Religion +must be utterly abolished, its every sanction must be universally +rejected, its every impulse must have universally ceased before it can +be contended with any measure of assurance that the world will be none +the worse, may be even the better, for its vanishing. +</P> + +<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P52"></A>52}</SPAN> + +<P> +If Religion is a delusion, remember what must be eliminated from our +convictions. There can be no higher tribunal than that of man by which +our actions can be judged.[<A NAME="chap02fn4text"></A><A HREF="#chap02fn4">4</A>] A life of outward propriety is the +utmost that can be demanded of us, if it is only against the wellbeing +of our neighbour or the promotion of our own happiness that we can +transgress. What has human law to do with our hearts? What +legislation can deal with 'envy, hatred, malice, and all +uncharitableness,' unless they manifest themselves in outward acts? A +base, unloving, impure, acrimonious, untruthful man may crawl through +life, never having been arrested, never having been sentenced to any +term of penal servitude. He can stand erect before all the laws of the +country and say, 'All these have I kept from my youth up.' And unless +there be a higher law than the law of man, unless there be a law +written on our hearts by the Finger of +<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P53"></A>53}</SPAN> +God, unless there be One to +whom, above and beyond all earthly appearances, we can mournfully +declare, 'Against Thee, Thee only, have I sinned,' nothing more can be +reasonably demanded. If there is nothing higher than the visible, it +can be only visible results which are of any value. The giving of +money to help the needy, and the giving of money in order to obtain a +reputation for generosity, must stand on the same level. The widow's +mite will be worth infinitely less than the shekels which come from +those who devour widows' houses. If there be none to search the heart, +none save poor frail fellow-mortals to whom we must give account, what +an incentive to purity of motive and loftiness of aspiration is +removed! But let men talk as they will, there is a conscience in them +which whispers, It does matter whether our hearts as well as our +actions are right; it does matter whether we have good motives, good +intentions; there is a scrutiny of hearts, +<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P54"></A>54}</SPAN> +making and to be made +more fully yet; there is One before Whom, even though we have not +broken the law of the land, we confess with anguish, Against Thee have +I sinned and done evil in Thy sight: where I appear most +irreproachable, Thine eye detecteth error: it is not the occasional +trespass that I have chiefly to lament, it is the sin that is almost +part and parcel of my very being, the sin that corrodes even where it +does not glare, the sin that undermines even where it does not crash. +</P> + +<BR> + +<H4 ALIGN="center"> +VI +</H4> + +<P> +The most thoughtful of those who have lost faith in the Living God and +in fellowship with Him hereafter, look on this life with a pessimistic +eye. Without trust in the Unseen and Eternal, life is worthless, an +idle dream. With its harassing cares, with its petty vexations, with +its turbulence and strife, its sorrows, its breaking up of old +associations, its quenching the light of our +<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P55"></A>55}</SPAN> +eyes, 'O dreary were +this earth, if earth were all!' On the stage of the world, 'the play +is the Tragedy Man, the hero the conqueror worm!' +</P> + +<P> +We cannot but extend the deepest sympathy, the warmest admiration to +those who, bereft of belief and of hope, yet cling tenaciously to moral +goodness.[<A NAME="chap02fn5text"></A><A HREF="#chap02fn5">5</A>] 'What is to become of us,' asks the pensive Amiel, 'when +everything leaves us, health, joy, affections, the freshness of +sensation, memory, capacity for work, when the sun seems to us to have +lost its warmth, and life is stripped of all its charms? ... There is +but one answer, keep close to Duty. Be what you ought to be; the rest +is God's affair.... And supposing there were no good and holy God, +nothing but universal being, the law of the all, an ideal without +hypostasis or reality, duty would still be the key of the enigma, the +pole star of a wandering +<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P56"></A>56}</SPAN> +humanity.'[<A NAME="chap02fn6text"></A><A HREF="#chap02fn6">6</A>] Who does not see that it +is the lingering faith in God which gives strength to this conviction +and that, were the faith obliterated, the natural conclusion would be +for the cultured, 'Vanity of vanities: all is vanity'; and for the +multitudes, 'Let us eat and drink, for to-morrow we die.' 'I remember +how at Cambridge,' says Mr. F. W. H. Myers of George Eliot, 'I walked +with her once in the Fellows' Garden of Trinity on an evening of rainy +May: and she, stirred somewhat beyond her wont, and taking as her text +the three words which have been used so often as the inspiring trumpet +calls of men—the words <I>God, Immortality, Duty</I>—pronounced with +terrible earnestness, how inconceivable was the <I>first</I>, how +unbelievable the <I>second</I>, and yet how peremptory and absolute the +<I>third</I>. Never, perhaps, have sterner accents affirmed the sovereignty +of impersonal and uncompromising Law. I +<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P57"></A>57}</SPAN> +listened and night fell: +her grave, majestic countenance turned toward me like a sibyl's in the +gloom, and it was as though she withdrew from my grasp one by one the +two scrolls of promise, and left me the third scroll only, awful with +inevitable fates. And when we stood at length and parted, amid that +columnar circuit of the forest trees, beneath the last twilight of +starless skies, I seemed to be gazing, like Titus at Jerusalem, on +vacant seats and empty halls, on a sanctuary with no presence to hallow +it, and heaven left lonely of a God.'[<A NAME="chap02fn7text"></A><A HREF="#chap02fn7">7</A>] +</P> + +<P> +Withdraw belief in a God above and in a life beyond, the only reason +for obedience to Duty and Morality will be either our own pleasure, the +doing what is most agreeable to ourselves; or sympathy, the bearing of +others' burdens, in the hope that when we have passed away there may be +some on earth who will reap the harvest which we have +<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P58"></A>58}</SPAN> +sown; or +public opinion, the views which are prevalent in a particular time in a +particular region; and these reasons are hardly likely to produce a +morality which will be other than that of self-indulgence, of despair, +or of conventionality.[<A NAME="chap02fn8text"></A><A HREF="#chap02fn8">8</A>] +</P> + +<P> +'We can get on very well without a religion,' said Sir James Fitzjames +Stephen, 'for though the view of life which Science is opening to us +gives us nothing to worship, it gives us an infinite number of things +to enjoy. The world seems to me a very good world, if it would only +last. It is full of pleasant people and curious things, and I think +that most men find no difficulty in turning their minds away from its +transient character.' If it would only last! But it does not last: +those dearer to us than ourselves are snatched away. Could anything be +more selfish, more despicably base than to go about saying, All that is +of no +<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P59"></A>59}</SPAN> +consequence, so long as I meet with pleasant people and have +an infinite number of things to enjoy? It is true that an infinite +number of my fellow-creatures may not be enjoying an infinite number of +things, may have trouble in recalling almost anything worthy of the +name of enjoyment, but why should I be depressed by that? I find no +difficulty in turning away my mind from the misfortunes of others. 'We +can get on very well without religion.' No doubt without it some of us +can have agreeable society and a variety of pleasures more or less +refined; but this does not prove that religion is no loss. On the same +principle, we can get on very comfortably without honesty, without +sobriety, without purity, without generosity. We can get on very +comfortably indeed without anything except without a heart which is +intent on self-gratification, and which excludes all thought of the +wants and woes of the world. 'Let us eat and drink, for +<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P60"></A>60}</SPAN> +to-morrow +we die,' is the irresistible, though rather inconsistent, conclusion of +that sublime austerity which so indignantly repudiates the merest hint +of reward or hope within the veil, and which so sensitively shrinks +from the mercenariness of the Religion of the Cross. +</P> + +<P CLASS="poem"> +'The wages of sin is death:<BR> +<SPAN STYLE="margin-left: 2em">if the wages of Virtue be dust,</SPAN><BR> +Would she have heart to endure for the life<BR> +<SPAN STYLE="margin-left: 2em">of the worm and the fly!'[<A NAME="chap02fn9text"></A><A HREF="#chap02fn9">9</A>]</SPAN><BR> +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +What are the facts? What is the growing tendency where men think +themselves strong enough to do without religious beliefs, when they +have been proclaiming that the suppression of Religion will be the +exaltation of a purer Morality? There are plenty of indications that +the laws of Morality are found to be as irksome as the dictates of +Religion. The first step is to cry out for a higher Morality, to +censure the Morality of +<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P61"></A>61}</SPAN> +the New Testament as imperfect and +inadequate, as selfish and visionary. The next step is to question the +restraints of Morality, to clamour for liberty in regard to matters on +which the general voice of mankind has from the beginning given no +uncertain verdict. The last step is to declare that Morality is +variable and conventional, a mere arbitrary arrangement, which can be +dispensed with by the emancipated soul. The literature which assumes +that Religion is obsolete does not, as a rule, suffer itself to be much +hampered by the fetters of Morality. The non-Religion of the Future is +what, we are confidently told, increasing knowledge of the laws of +Sociology will of necessity bring about. Should that day ever dawn, or +rather let us say, should that night ever envelop us, it will mean the +diffusion of non-Morality such as the world has never known.[<A NAME="chap02fn10text"></A><A HREF="#chap02fn10">10</A>] +</P> + +<BR><BR> + +<P CLASS="footnote"> +<A NAME="chap02fn1"></A> +[<A HREF="#chap02fn1text">1</A>] <A HREF="#appendix">Appendix.</A> +</P> + +<P CLASS="footnote"> +<A NAME="chap02fn2"></A> +[<A HREF="#chap02fn2text">2</A>] <A HREF="#append06">Appendix VI.</A> +</P> + +<P CLASS="footnote"> +<A NAME="chap02fn3"></A> +[<A HREF="#chap02fn3text">3</A>] <I>Nineteenth Century</I>, June 1884. +</P> + +<P CLASS="footnote"> +<A NAME="chap02fn4"></A> +[<A HREF="#chap02fn4text">4</A>] <A HREF="#append06">Appendix VII.</A> +</P> + +<P CLASS="footnote"> +<A NAME="chap02fn5"></A> +[<A HREF="#chap02fn5text">5</A>] <A HREF="#append08">Appendix VIII.</A> +</P> + +<P CLASS="footnote"> +<A NAME="chap02fn6"></A> +[<A HREF="#chap02fn6text">6</A>] <I>Journal Intime</I>, ii. +</P> + +<P CLASS="footnote"> +<A NAME="chap02fn7"></A> +[<A HREF="#chap02fn7text">7</A>] <I>Modern Essays</I>. +</P> + +<P CLASS="footnote"> +<A NAME="chap02fn8"></A> +[<A HREF="#chap02fn8text">8</A>] <A HREF="#append09">Appendix IX.</A> +</P> + +<P CLASS="footnote"> +<A NAME="chap02fn9"></A> +[<A HREF="#chap02fn9text">9</A>] Tennyson, <I>Wages</I>. +</P> + +<P CLASS="footnote"> +<A NAME="chap02fn10"></A> +[<A HREF="#chap02fn10text">10</A>] <A HREF="#append10">Appendix X.</A> +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap03"></A> + +<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P64"></A>64}</SPAN> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +III +</H3> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +THE RELIGION OF THE UNIVERSE +</H3> + +<BR><BR> + +<P CLASS="intro"> +'Whither shall I go from Thy spirit? or whither shall I flee from Thy +presence.'—PSALM cxxxix. 7. +</P> + +<P CLASS="intro"> +'Do I not fill heaven and earth? saith the Lord.'—JEREMIAH xxiii. 24. +</P> + +<P CLASS="intro"> +'The heaven and heaven of heavens cannot contain Thee.'—1 KINGS viii. +27. +</P> + +<P CLASS="intro"> +'In Him we live, and move, and have our being.'—ACTS xvii. 28. +</P> + +<P CLASS="intro"> +'One God and Father of all, Who is above all, and through all, and in +you all.'—EPHESIANS iv. 6. +</P> + +<P CLASS="intro"> +'Of Him, and through Him, and to Him are all things: to Whom be glory +for ever. Amen.'—ROMANS xi. 36. +</P> + +<P CLASS="intro"> +'That God may be all in all.'—1 CORINTHIANS xv. 28. +</P> + +<BR><BR> + +<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P65"></A>65}</SPAN> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +III +</H3> + +<H4 ALIGN="center"> +THE RELIGION OF THE UNIVERSE +</H4> + +<P> +Among proposed substitutes for Christianity, none occupies a more +prominent place than Pantheism, the identity of God and the universe. +'Pantheism,' says Haeckel, 'is the world system of the modern +scientist.'[<A NAME="chap03fn1text"></A><A HREF="#chap03fn1">1</A>] Pantheism, or the Religion of the Universe, is, in one +aspect, a protest against Anthropomorphism, the making of God in the +image of man. It is in supposing God to be altogether such as we are, +to be swayed by the same motives, to be actuated by the same passions +as we are, that the most deadly errors have arisen. Robert Browning, +in <I>Caliban upon Setebos</I>, represents a half-brutal +<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P66"></A>66}</SPAN> +being who +lives in a cave speculating upon the government of the world, wondering +why it came to be made, and what could be the purpose of the Creator in +making it. Every motive that could sway the savage mind is in turn +discussed: pleasure, restlessness, jealousy, cruelty, sport. 'Because +I, Caliban,' such is the process of his reasoning, 'delight in +tormenting defenceless animals, or would crush any one that interfered +with my comfort, or do things because my taskmaster obliges me to do +them, so must it be with Him Who made the world.' With great +grotesqueness, but with marvellous power, the degraded monster argues +as to the reasons which could have prompted the Unseen Ruler to frame +the earth and its inhabitants. Everything that he attributes to God is +in keeping with his own base nature. What is the explanation of the +horrors which have been perpetrated in the Name of God? The sacrifice +of human +<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P67"></A>67}</SPAN> +beings, of vanquished enemies, or of the nearest and the +dearest, the agonies of self-torture, did not these originate in the +transference to the Invisible God of the emotions and principles by +which men were guiding their own lives? They had no notion of +forbearance and forgiveness and patience, therefore they did not think +that there could be forgiveness with God. They were to be turned aside +from their fierce, revengeful purposes by bribes and by the protracted +sufferings of their foes, therefore they thought that God might be +bribed by gifts or propitiated by pains. What they were on earth, +delighting in bloodshed and conquest and revelry, that, they supposed, +must be the Being or the Beings who ruled in the world unseen. +</P> + +<BR> + +<H4 ALIGN="center"> +I +</H4> + +<P> +God is not as man is, this was a lesson which ancient prophets +struggled to teach. He is not a man that He should lie, or a son +<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P68"></A>68}</SPAN> +of man that He should repent. He is not to be conceived as influenced +by the petty hopes and fears and jealousies which influence the mass of +mortals. 'My thoughts are not as your thoughts, neither are your ways +my ways, saith the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, +so are My ways higher than your ways and My thoughts than your +thoughts.' He is infinitely exalted above the best and wisest of His +children and to see in Him only their likeness is not to see Him +aright. It is not to be denied that the writers of the Old Testament +employ anthropomorphic language to vivify the justice and goodness of +the Eternal. They speak of His Eyes and of His Face, of His Hands and +of His Arm and of His Voice. They speak of Him walking in the Garden +and smelling a sweet savour. They speak of Him repenting and being +jealous and coming down to see what is done on earth. Such figures, +however, as a rule, have a force +<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P69"></A>69}</SPAN> +and an appropriateness which +never can become obsolete or out of date. They even heighten the +Majesty and Spotless Holiness of God. They are felt to be, at most, +words struggling to express what no words can ever convey: they are the +readiest means of impressing on the dull understanding of men their +practical duty, of letting them know with what purity and righteousness +they have to do. It is not in such figures that any harm can ever lie. +The error of taking literally such phrases as 'Hands' or 'Arm' or +'Voice' is not very prevalent, but the error of framing God after our +moral image is not distant or imaginary. There is a mode of speaking +about Divine Purposes and Divine Motives which must jar on those who +have begun to discern the Divine Majesty, to whom the thought of the +All-Embracing Presence has become a reality. +</P> + +<BR> + +<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P70"></A>70}</SPAN> + +<H4 ALIGN="center"> +II +</H4> + +<P> +The representation of the Almighty and Eternal as one of ourselves, as +animated by the lowest passions and paltriest prejudices of mankind, as +a 'magnified and non-natural' human being, is recognised as ludicrously +inadequate and terribly distorted. The representation of the Creator +as 'sitting idle at the outside of the Universe and seeing it go,' as +having brought it into being and afterwards left it to itself, as +mingling no more in its events and evolution, is utterly discarded. It +is, however, to such representations that the assaults of modern +critics are directed, and in the overthrow of such representations it +is imagined that Christianity itself is overthrown. The assailants +maintain that Christianity in attributing Personality to God makes Him +in the image of man, and separates Him from the Universe. But what is +meant by Personality? It does not mean a +<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P71"></A>71}</SPAN> +being no higher than +man, with the limitations and imperfections of man.[<A NAME="chap03fn2text"></A><A HREF="#chap03fn2">2</A>] Mr. Herbert +Spencer, who would not ascribe Personality to God, yet affirmed that +the choice was not between Personality and something lower than +Personality, but between Personality and something higher. 'Is it not +just possible that there is a mode of being as much transcending +Intelligence and Will as these transcend mechanical motion?'[<A NAME="chap03fn3text"></A><A HREF="#chap03fn3">3</A>] The +description of Personality given by the author of the <I>Riddle of the +Universe</I> would be repudiated by every educated Christian. 'The +monistic idea of God, which alone is compatible with our present +knowledge of nature, recognises the divine spirit in all things. It +can never recognise in God a "personal being," or, in other words, an +individual of limited extension in space, or even of human form. God +is everywhere.'[<A NAME="chap03fn4text"></A><A HREF="#chap03fn4">4</A>] That conclusion,—we +<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P72"></A>72}</SPAN> +are not concerned with +the steps by which the conclusion is reached,—does not strike one as a +modern discovery. In what authoritative statement of Christian +doctrine God is defined as <I>not</I> being everywhere, or 'an individual of +limited extension in space, or even of human form,' we are unaware. +There is apparent misunderstanding in the supposition that we have to +take our choice between God as entirely severed from the world, and God +existing in the world. God, it is asserted in current phraseology, +cannot be both Immanent and Transcendent; He cannot be both in the +world and above it. 'In Theism,' so Haeckel draws out the comparison, +'God is opposed to Nature as an extra-mundane being, as creating and +sustaining the world, and acting upon it from without, while in +Pantheism God, as an intra-mundane being, is everywhere identical with +Nature itself, and is operative within the world as "force" or +<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P73"></A>73}</SPAN> +"energy."'[<A NAME="chap03fn5text"></A><A HREF="#chap03fn5">5</A>] If there is no juggling with words here, it can hardly +be juggling with words to point out that so far as 'space' goes, an +intra-mundane being, rather than an extra-mundane, is likely to be +'limited in extension.' +</P> + +<BR> + +<H4 ALIGN="center"> +III +</H4> + +<P> +The imagination that the Christian God is a Personality like ourselves, +and is to be found only above and beyond the world, finds perhaps its +strangest expression in some of the writings of that ardent lover of +Nature, the late Richard Jefferies. 'I cease,' so he writes in <I>The +Story of my Heart</I>, 'to look for traces of the Deity in life, because +no such traces exist. I conclude that there is an existence, a +something higher than soul, higher, better, and more perfect than +deity. Earnestly I pray to find this something better than a god. +There is something superior, higher, more good. For this I search, +labour, +<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P74"></A>74}</SPAN> +think, and pray.... With the whole force of my existence, +with the whole force of my thought, mind, and soul, I pray to find this +Highest Soul, this greater than deity, this better than God. Give me +to live the deepest soul-life now and always with this soul. For want +of words I write soul, but I think it is something beyond soul.' Could +anything be more pathetic or, at the same time, more self-refuting? +How can anything be greater than the Infinite, more enduring than the +Eternal, better than the All-Pure and All-Perfect? It could be only +the God of unenlightened, unchristian teaching, Whom he rejected. The +God Whom he sought must be not only in but beyond and above all created +or developed things. It was, indeed, the Higher than the Highest that +he worshipped. It was for God, for the Living God, that his eager soul +was athirst, and it is in God, the Living God, that his eager soul is +now, we humbly trust, for ever satisfied. +</P> + +<BR> + +<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P75"></A>75}</SPAN> + +<H4 ALIGN="center"> +IV +</H4> + +<P> +'The heaven and heaven of heavens cannot contain Him.' 'Whither shall +I go from Thy Spirit? or whither shall I flee from Thy presence?' 'My +thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways saith the +Lord.' 'In Him we live and move and have our being.' 'Of Him and +through Him and to Him are all things, to Whom be glory for ever. +Amen.'[<A NAME="chap03fn6text"></A><A HREF="#chap03fn6">6</A>] Now it cannot be denied that some who have striven to +express after this fashion the unutterable majesty and the universal +presence of God, who have endeavoured to demonstrate that God is in all +things, and that all things are in God, have at times failed to make +their meaning plain. Either from the obscurity of their own language, +or from the obtuseness of their readers, they have been considered +Atheists. While vehemently asserting that God is +<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P76"></A>76}</SPAN> +everywhere, they +have been taken to mean that God is nowhere. The actual conclusion to +be drawn from the treatises of Spinoza, the reputed founder of modern +Pantheism, is still undecided. But no one now would brand him with the +name of Atheist. He was excommunicated by Jews and denounced by +Christians, yet there are many who think that his aim, his not +unsuccessful aim, was to establish faith in the Unseen and Eternal on a +basis which could not be shaken. So far from denying God, he was, +according to one of the greatest of German theologians, 'a +God-intoxicated man.' 'Offer up reverently with me a lock of hair to +the manes of the holy, repudiated Spinoza! The high world-spirit +penetrated him: the Infinite was his beginning and his end: the +Universe his only and eternal love.... He was full of religion and of +the Holy Spirit, and therefore he stands alone and unreachable, master +in his art above the profane multitude, +<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P77"></A>77}</SPAN> +without disciples and +without citizenship.'[<A NAME="chap03fn7text"></A><A HREF="#chap03fn7">7</A>] Dean Stanley went so far as to say that 'a +clearer glimpse into the nature of the Deity was granted to Spinoza, +the excommunicated Jew of Amsterdam, than to the combined forces of +Episcopacy and Presbytery in the Synod of Dordrecht.'[<A NAME="chap03fn8text"></A><A HREF="#chap03fn8">8</A>] Such a +judgment is rather hard upon the divines who took part in that +celebrated Synod, but at any rate it indicates that the great +philosopher, misunderstood and persecuted, was elaborating in his own +way, this great truth, 'In him we live and move and have our being.' +'Of Him, and through Him are all things.' +</P> + +<BR> + +<H4 ALIGN="center"> +V +</H4> + +<P> +In their loftiest moments, contemplating the marvels of the heavens +above and the earth beneath, devout souls have, wherever they looked, +been confronted with the Vision of God. 'What do I see in all +<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P78"></A>78}</SPAN> +Nature?' said Fénelon, 'God. God is everything, and God alone.' +'Everything,' said William Law, 'that is in being is either God or +Nature or Creature: and everything that is not God is only a +manifestation of God; for as there is nothing, neither Nature nor +Creature, but what must have its being in and from God, so everything +is and must be according to its nature more or less a manifestation of +God.' +</P> + +<P> +It is the thought which has inspired poets of the most diverse schools, +which has been their most marvellous illumination and ecstasy. +</P> + +<P> +Now it is Alexander Pope: +</P> + +<P CLASS="poem"> +All are but parts of one stupendous whole<BR> +Whose body Nature is, and God the soul.<BR> +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +Now it is William Cowper: +</P> + +<P CLASS="poem"> +<SPAN STYLE="margin-left: 3em">There lives and works</SPAN><BR> +A soul in all things and that soul is God.<BR> +</P> + +<BR> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +Now it is James Thomson of <I>The Seasons</I>: +</P> + +<P CLASS="poem"> +These, as they change, Almighty Father! these<BR> +Are but the varied God. The rolling year<BR> +Is full of Thee.<BR> +</P> + +<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P79"></A>79}</SPAN> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +Now it is William Wordsworth: +</P> + +<P CLASS="poem"> +<SPAN STYLE="margin-left: 5em">I have felt</SPAN><BR> +A Presence that disturbs me with the joy<BR> +Of elevated thoughts, a sense sublime<BR> +Of something far more deeply interfused,<BR> +Whose dwelling is the light of setting suns,<BR> +And the round ocean and the living air,<BR> +And the blue sky, and in the mind of man<BR> +A motion and a spirit which impels<BR> +All thinking things, all objects of all thought,<BR> +And rolls through all things.<BR> +</P> + +<BR> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +Now it is Lord Tennyson: +</P> + +<P CLASS="poem"> +The sun, the moon, the stars, the seas, the hills and the plains,<BR> +Are not these, O Soul, the vision of Him Who reigns?<BR> +<SPAN STYLE="margin-left: 2em">* * * * *</SPAN><BR> +Speak to Him thou, for He hears, and Spirit with Spirit can meet.<BR> +Closer is He than breathing and nearer than hands or feet.<BR> +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +Certainly, we may say, nothing atheistic in utterances like these: they +are the utterances of lofty thought, of profound piety, of soaring +aspiration, and of childlike faith. They have a pantheistic tinge: +what is there to dread in Pantheism? Not much in +<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P80"></A>80}</SPAN> +Pantheism of +that kind: would there were more of it! But it will be observable +that, in the instances cited, though God is in Nature and manifesting +Himself through it, there is a clear distinction between Nature and +God. It may seem as if it were merely the sky, the sun, the stars, the +ocean, that are apostrophised: in reality it is a Life, a Spirit, a +Power not themselves, in which they live and move and have their being: +not to them, but to That, are the prayers addressed. And, we venture +to think, it is scarcely ever otherwise: scarcely ever is the Visible +alone invoked: identify God as men will with the material universe, or +even with the force and energy with which the material universe is +pervaded, when they enter into communion with it, in spite of +themselves they endow it with the Life and the Will and the Purpose +which they have in theory rejected. But the absolute identification of +God and the Universe, the assumption that above and +<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P81"></A>81}</SPAN> +beneath and +through all there is no conscious Righteousness and Wisdom and Love +overruling and directing, <I>that</I> is a belief to be resisted, a belief +which enervates character and enfeebles hope.[<A NAME="chap03fn9text"></A><A HREF="#chap03fn9">9</A>] 'Whoever says in his +heart that God is <I>no more</I> than Nature: whoever does not provide +<I>behind the veil of creation</I> an infinite reserve of thought and beauty +and holy love, that might fling aside this universe and take another, +as a vesture changing the heavens and they are changed, ... is bereft +of the essence of the Christian Faith, and is removed by only +accidental and precarious distinctions from the atheistic worship of +mere "natural laws."'[<A NAME="chap03fn10text"></A><A HREF="#chap03fn10">10</A>] 'In our worship we have to do, not so much +with His finite expression in created things as with His own free self +and inner reality ... all <I>religion</I> consists in <I>passing Nature by</I>, +in order to enter into direct personal relation +<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P82"></A>82}</SPAN> +with Him, soul to +soul. It is <I>not</I> Pantheism to merge all the life of the physical +universe in Him, and leave Him as the inner and sustaining Power of it +all. It is Pantheism to rest in this conception: to merge Him in the +universe and see Him only there: and not rather to dwell with Him as +the Living, Holy, Sympathising Will, on Whose free affection the +cluster of created things lies and plays, as the spray upon the +ocean.'[<A NAME="chap03fn11text"></A><A HREF="#chap03fn11">11</A>] +</P> + +<BR> + +<H4 ALIGN="center"> +VI +</H4> + +<P> +God is <I>not</I> as we are, and yet He <I>is</I> as we are. God is not made in +the image of man, but man is made in the image of God. It is through +human goodness and human purity and human love that we attain our best +conceptions of the Divine Goodness and Purity and Love. 'If ye being +evil know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more will +your Heavenly Father +<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P83"></A>83}</SPAN> +give the Holy Spirit to them that ask Him?' +Picture to yourself what is highest and best in the human relationship +of father and child: be sure that the Heavenly Father will not fall +below, but will infinitely transcend, that standard. All the justice +and goodness which we have seen on earth are the feebler reflection of +His. It is by learning that the utmost height of human goodness is but +a little way towards Him that we learn to think of Him at all aright. +But the justice and the love by which he acts are different only in +degree, and not in kind, from ours. When we think of God as altogether +such as we are, we degrade Him, we have before us the image of the +imperfect; when we try to think of Him under no image and to discard +all figures, He vanishes into unreality and nothingness, but when we +see Him in Christ, we have before us that which we can grasp and +understand, and that in which there is no imperfection. +</P> + +<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P84"></A>84}</SPAN> + +<P> +If there is no God but the universe, we have a universe without a God. +Worship is meaningless, Faith is a mockery, Hope is a delusion. If the +universe is God, all things in the universe are of necessity Divine. +The distinction between right and wrong is broken down. In a sense +very different from that in which the phrase was originally employed, +'Whatever is, is right.' Nothing can legitimately be stigmatised as +wrong, for there is nothing which is not God. 'If all that is is God, +then truth and error are equally manifestations of God. If God is all +that is, then we hear His voice as much in the promptings to sin as in +the solemn imperatives of Conscience. This is the inexorable logic of +Pantheism, however disguised.'[<A NAME="chap03fn12text"></A><A HREF="#chap03fn12">12</A>] 'I know,' says Mr. Frederic +Harrison, 'what is meant by the Power and Goodness of an Almighty +Creator. I know what is meant by the genius and patience +<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P85"></A>85}</SPAN> +and +sympathy of man. But what is the All, or the Good, or the True, or the +Beautiful? ... The "All" is not good nor beautiful: it is full of +horror and ruin.... There lies this original blot on every form of +philosophic Pantheism when tried as the basis of a religion or as the +root-idea of our lives, that it jumbles up the moral, the unmoral, the +non-human and the anti-human world, the animated and the inanimate, +cruelty, filth, horror, waste, death, virtue and vice, suffering and +victory, sympathy and insensibility.'[<A NAME="chap03fn13text"></A><A HREF="#chap03fn13">13</A>] Where these distinctions are +lost, where this confusion exists, what logically must be the +consequence? Honesty and dishonesty, truth and falsehood, purity and +impurity, kindness and brutality, are put upon a level, are alike +manifestations of the One or the All. +</P> + +<P> +It is said that in our day the sense of sin has grown weak, that men +are not troubled +<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P86"></A>86}</SPAN> +by it as once they were. There is a morbid, +scrupulous remorsefulness for wrong-doing, a desponding conviction that +repentance and restoration are impossible, which may well be put away. +But that sin should be no longer held to be sin, that evil should be +wrought and the worker experience no pang of shame, would surely +indicate moral declension and decay. Were the time to come when, +universally, mankind should commit those actions and cherish those +passions which, through all ages in all lands, have gone by the name of +sin, should become so heedless to the voice of conscience, that +conscience should cease to speak, the time would have come when men, +being past feeling, would devote themselves with greediness to anything +that was vile, so long as it was pleasant, the bonds of society would +be loosened and destruction would be at hand. The Religion of the +Universe ignores the facts of life, the sorrow, the struggle, +<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P87"></A>87}</SPAN> +the +depravity, the need of redemption. Fortunately, human beings in +general are still inclined to mourn because of imperfection or of +baseness: still they are inclined at times to cry out, 'Who shall +deliver me from the body of this death?' and still they have the +opportunity of joyfully or humbly saying, 'I thank God through Jesus +Christ our Lord.' +</P> + +<P> +'And now at this day,' listen to the ungrudging admission of perhaps +the most earnest English apostle of Pantheism, Mr. Allanson Picton: 'We +of all schools, whether orthodox or heterodox so-called, whether +believers or unbelievers in supernatural revelation, all who seek the +revival of religion, the exaltation of morality, the redemption of man, +draw, most of us, our direct impulse, and all of us, directly or +indirectly, our ideals from the speaking vision of the Christ. Such a +claim is justified, not merely by the spiritual power still remaining +in the Church, +<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P88"></A>88}</SPAN> +but almost as much by the tributes paid, and the +uses of the Gospel teaching made in the writings of the most +distinguished among rationalists.... Such writers have felt that +somehow Jesus still holds, and ought to hold, the heart of humanity +under His beneficial sway. Excluding the partial, imperfect and +temporary ideas of Nature, spirits, hell, and heaven, which the +Galilean held with singular lightness for a man of His time, they have +acquiesced in and even echoed His invitation to the weary and heavy +laden, to take His yoke upon them and learn of Him. And that means to +live up to His Gospel of the nothingness of self, and of unreserved +sacrifice to the Eternal All in All.'[<A NAME="chap03fn14text"></A><A HREF="#chap03fn14">14</A>] If such is the conclusion of +Rationalism and of Pantheism, how much more ought it to be the +conclusion of Christianity. The imagination of a God confined to times +and places, visiting the world only occasionally, +<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P89"></A>89}</SPAN> +manifesting +Himself in the past and not in the present, ought to be as foreign to +the Christian Church as to any Rationalist or Pantheist. Be it ours to +show that we believe in God Who filleth all things with His presence, +Who is from Everlasting to Everlasting, that to us there is but one God +the Father, by Whom are all things and we in Him, and one Lord, Jesus +Christ, by Whom are all things and we by Him, that God has identified +Himself with us in Jesus Christ, His Son. Be it ours to lose ourselves +in Him. For, after all our questionings as to the government of the +world, as to abounding misery and degradation, as to what lies beyond +the veil for ourselves and for others, this is our hope and our +confidence: 'God hath concluded all in unbelief that He might have +mercy upon all. O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and +knowledge of God! how unsearchable are His judgments and His ways past +finding out. For who hath +<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P90"></A>90}</SPAN> +known the mind of the Lord? or who hath +been His counsellor? or who hath first given to Him, and it shall be +recompensed unto Him again? For of Him and through Him and to Him are +all things: to Whom be glory for ever. Amen.' +</P> + +<BR><BR> + +<P CLASS="footnote"> +<A NAME="chap03fn1"></A> +[<A HREF="#chap03fn1text">1</A>] <I>Riddle of the Universe</I>. +</P> + +<P CLASS="footnote"> +<A NAME="chap03fn2"></A> +[<A HREF="#chap03fn2text">2</A>] <A HREF="#append11">Appendix XI.</A> +</P> + +<P CLASS="footnote"> +<A NAME="chap03fn3"></A> +[<A HREF="#chap03fn3text">3</A>] <I>First Principles</I>. +</P> + +<P CLASS="footnote"> +<A NAME="chap03fn4"></A> +[<A HREF="#chap03fn4text">4</A>] <I>Confession of Faith of a Man of Science</I>. +</P> + +<P CLASS="footnote"> +<A NAME="chap03fn5"></A> +[<A HREF="#chap03fn5text">5</A>] <I>Riddle of the Universe</I>. +</P> + +<P CLASS="footnote"> +<A NAME="chap03fn6"></A> +[<A HREF="#chap03fn6text">6</A>] <A HREF="#append12">Appendix XII.</A> +</P> + +<P CLASS="footnote"> +<A NAME="chap03fn7"></A> +[<A HREF="#chap03fn7text">7</A>] Schleiermacher. +</P> + +<P CLASS="footnote"> +<A NAME="chap03fn8"></A> +[<A HREF="#chap03fn8text">8</A>] <I>St. Andrews Addresses</I>. +</P> + +<P CLASS="footnote"> +<A NAME="chap03fn9"></A> +[<A HREF="#chap03fn9text">9</A>] <A HREF="#append13">Appendix XIII.</A> +</P> + +<P CLASS="footnote"> +<A NAME="chap03fn10"></A> +[<A HREF="#chap03fn10text">10</A>] Martineau, <I>Hours of Thought</I>, ii. p. 110. +</P> + +<P CLASS="footnote"> +<A NAME="chap03fn11"></A> +[<A HREF="#chap03fn11text">11</A>] Martineau, <I>Hours of Thought</I>, ii. p. 114. +</P> + +<P CLASS="footnote"> +<A NAME="chap03fn12"></A> +[<A HREF="#chap03fn12text">12</A>] <I>Faith of a Christian</I>. +</P> + +<P CLASS="footnote"> +<A NAME="chap03fn13"></A> +[<A HREF="#chap03fn13text">13</A>] <I>Creed of a Layman</I>, p. 203. +</P> + +<P CLASS="footnote"> +<A NAME="chap03fn14"></A> +[<A HREF="#chap03fn14text">14</A>] <I>Religion of the Universe</I>. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap04"></A> + +<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P92"></A>92}</SPAN> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +IV +</H3> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +THE RELIGION OF HUMANITY +</H3> + +<BR><BR> + +<P CLASS="intro"> +'And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our +likeness.'—GENESIS i. 26. +</P> + +<P CLASS="intro"> +'When I consider Thy heavens, the work of Thy fingers, the moon and the +stars which Thou hast ordained, what is man that Thou art mindful of +him? and the son of man that Thou visitest him? For Thou hast made him +a little lower than the angels and hast crowned him with glory and +honour.'—PSALM viii. 3-5 +</P> + +<P CLASS="intro"> +Thou hast put all things in subjection under His feet. For in that He +put all in subjection under Him, He left nothing that is not put under +Him. But now we see not yet all things put under Him. But we see +Jesus Who was made a little lower than the angels for the suffering of +death crowned with glory and honour, that He by the grace of God should +taste death for every man.'—HEBREWS ii. 8, 9. +</P> + +<BR><BR> + +<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P93"></A>93}</SPAN> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +IV +</H3> + +<H4 ALIGN="center"> +THE RELIGION OF HUMANITY +</H4> + +<P> +The position which Religion, and especially the Christian Religion, +assigns to man, to man as he ought to be, is very high. He is made in +the image of God, he is a little lower than the angels, a little lower +than God, he is a partaker of the Divine Nature. But as the corruption +of the best is the worst, there is nothing in the whole creation more +miserable, more loathsome, than man as he has forgotten his high estate +and plunged himself into degradation. 'What man has made of man,' is +the saddest, most deplorable sight in all the world. Amid the awful +splendour of the winning loveliness of Nature, 'only man is vile.' +That is the terrible +<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P94"></A>94}</SPAN> +verdict which may be pronounced upon him +renouncing his birthright, surrendering himself to the powers which he +was meant to keep in subjection. It is not the verdict to be +pronounced on Man as Man, the child of the highest and the heir of all +the ages. The appeal of Religion, the appeal of Christianity above +all, has continually been, O sons of men, sully not your glorious +garments, cast not away your glorious crown. +</P> + +<BR> + +<H4 ALIGN="center"> +I +</H4> + +<P> +It is irreligion, it is unbelief, which comes and says, Lay aside these +fantastic notions as to your greatness: you are the creatures of a day: +you belong, like other animals, to the world of sense, and you pass +away along with them: a man hath no pre-eminence above a beast. Banish +your delusive hopes; confine yourselves to reality; waste not your time +in the pursuit of phantoms: make the best of the world in +<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P95"></A>95}</SPAN> +which +you are: seize its pleasures: shut your eyes to its sorrows: enjoy +yourselves in the present and let the future take care of itself: +follow the devices and desires of your own hearts in the comfortable +assurance that there is no judgment to which you can be brought, save +that which exists in the realm of imagination. +</P> + +<P> +Listening to such whispers, obeying such suggestions, walking in such +courses, the spectacle which man presents can be viewed only with +compassion, with horror, or with disdain. His ideals, his aspirations, +his self-sacrifices are only so many phases of self-deception. The +natural conclusion to be drawn from denying the spiritual origin and +eternal prospects of man must be that he is of no more account than any +of the transitory beings around him, that, if he has any superiority +over them, it is only the superiority of a skill with which he can make +them the instruments of +<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P96"></A>96}</SPAN> +his purposes. With no glimpses of a +higher world, with no inspirations from a Spirit nobler than his own, +he can hardly regard the achievements of heroism as other than acts of +madness, he can be fired with no desire to emulate them, he cannot well +be trusted to perform ordinary acts of honesty and morality, let alone +extraordinary acts of generosity and magnanimity, should they come in +collision with his objects and ambitions. +</P> + +<P CLASS="poem"> +<SPAN STYLE="margin-left: 2em">Unless above himself he can</SPAN><BR> +Erect himself, how mean a thing is Man!<BR> +</P> + +<P> +Deny his divine fellowship, extirpate his heavenly anticipations, and +it might seem as if no race on earth would be so poor as do him +reverence. +</P> + +<BR> + +<H4 ALIGN="center"> +II +</H4> + +<P> +One thing is assumed by not a few, the absurdity of the Almighty caring +for such a race, and therefore the impossibility of the Incarnation. +'Which,' asks Mr. Frederic +<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P97"></A>97}</SPAN> +Harrison, 'is the more deliriously +extravagant, the disproportionate condescension of the Infinite +Creator, or the self-complacent arrogance with which the created mite +accepts, or rather dreams of, such an inconceivable prerogative? His +planet is one of the least of all the myriad units in a boundless +Infinity; in the countless ćons of time he is one of the latest and the +briefest; of the whole living world on the planet, since the ages of +the primitive protozoon, man is but an infinitesimal fraction. In all +this enormous array of life, in all these ćons, was there never +anything living which specially interested the Creator, nothing that +the Redeemer could care for, or die for? If so, what a waste creation +must have been! ... Why was all this tremendous tragedy, great enough +to convulse the Universe, confined to the minutest speck of it, for the +benefit of one puny and very late-born race?'[<A NAME="chap04fn1text"></A><A HREF="#chap04fn1">1</A>] +</P> + +<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P98"></A>98}</SPAN> + +<P> +But is it not the fact that along with the discovery of Man's utter +insignificance, there has come the discovery of powers and faculties +unknown and unsuspected, so that more than ever all things are in +subjection to him, his dominion has become wider, his throne more +firmly established? Is it not the fact that the whole realm of Nature +is explored by him, is compelled to minister to his wants or to unfold +its treasures of knowledge? Is it not the fact that more than ever it +can be said: +</P> + +<P CLASS="poem"> +<SPAN STYLE="margin-left: 1em">The lightning is his slave: heaven's utmost deep</SPAN><BR> +<SPAN STYLE="margin-left: 1em">Gives up her stars, and, like a flock of sheep,</SPAN><BR> +They pass before his eye, are numbered, and roll on.<BR> +<SPAN STYLE="margin-left: 1em">The tempest is his steed: he strides the air.</SPAN><BR> +<SPAN STYLE="margin-left: 1em">And the Abyss shouts from her depth laid bare</SPAN><BR> +'Heaven, hast thou secrets? Man unveils me: I have none.'[<A NAME="chap04fn2text"></A><A HREF="#chap04fn2">2</A>]<BR> +</P> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +Is it not the fact that deposed from his position of proud pre-eminence +as centre of the universe, Man has by his labours and his ingenuity +reasserted his high prerogative +<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P99"></A>99}</SPAN> +to be lord of the creation? The +printing-press, the railway, the telegraph, how have inventions like +these invested him with an influence which he did not possess before! +And is it not the fact that when most conscious of our nothingness +before the immensities around us, when humbled and prostrate before the +Infinite of which we have caught a transitory glimpse, we are also most +conscious of our high destiny, we are lifted above the earthly to the +heavenly, we discern that, though we cannot claim a moment, yet +Eternity is ours? 'What, then, is Man! What, then, is Man! He +endures but an hour and is crushed before the moth. Yet in the being +and in the working of a faithful man is there already (as all faith, +from the beginning, gives assurance) a something that pertains, not to +this wild death element of Time; that triumphs over Time, and <I>is</I>, and +will be, when Time shall be no more.'[<A NAME="chap04fn3text"></A><A HREF="#chap04fn3">3</A>] +<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P100"></A>100}</SPAN> +Man's place in the +universe may, according to Dr. Alfred Russel Wallace, be nearer the +centre of things than has so commonly come to be accepted. Modern +discovery, he maintains, has thrown light on the interesting problem of +our relation to the Universe; and even though such discovery may have +no bearing upon theology or religion, yet, he thinks, it proves that +our position in the material creation is special and probably unique, +and that the view is justified which holds that 'the supreme end and +purpose of this vast universe was the production and development of the +living soul in the perishable body of man.' And another, a convinced +and ardent disciple of Evolution, the late Professor John Fiske, argues +that, 'not the production of any higher creature, but the perfecting of +humanity is to be the glorious consummation of Nature's long and +tedious work.... Man seems now, much more clearly than ever, the chief +among God's +<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P101"></A>101}</SPAN> +creatures.... The whole creation has been groaning +and travailing together in order to bring forth that last consummate +specimen of God's handiwork, the Human Soul.'[<A NAME="chap04fn4text"></A><A HREF="#chap04fn4">4</A>] If this be so, this +conclusion arrived at by those who do not hold the ordinary faith of +Christendom, then the objection that the Incarnation could not have +taken place for the redemption of such a race as ours, in a world which +is so poor a fraction of the infinite universe, falls to the ground; +and the protest of a devout modern poet carries conviction with it: +</P> + +<P CLASS="poem"> +<SPAN STYLE="margin-left: 3em">This earth too small</SPAN><BR> +For Love Divine! Is God not Infinite?<BR> +If so, His Love is infinite. Too small!<BR> +One famished babe meets pity oft from man<BR> +More than an army slain! Too small for Love!<BR> +Was Earth too small to be of God created?<BR> +Why then too small to be redeemed?[<A NAME="chap04fn5text"></A><A HREF="#chap04fn5">5</A>]<BR> +</P> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +Man may, or may not, occupy a 'central position in the universe': other +worlds may, +<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P102"></A>102}</SPAN> +or may not, be inhabited: this earth may be but a +minute and insignificant speck amid the mighty All, this at least is +certain, that not by mere magnitude is our rank in the scale of being +to be decided, and that in the spirit of man will be found that which +approaches most nearly to Him who is Spirit. 'The man who reviles +Humanity on the ground of its small place in the scale of the Universe +is,' according to Mr. Frederic Harrison, 'the kind of man who sneers at +patriotism and sees nothing great in England, on the ground that our +island holds so small a place in the map of the world. On the atlas +England is but a dot. Morally and spiritually, our Fatherland is our +glory, our cradle, and our grave.'[<A NAME="chap04fn6text"></A><A HREF="#chap04fn6">6</A>] +</P> + +<BR> + +<H4 ALIGN="center"> +III +</H4> + +<P> +Hence, one of the ablest attempts to supersede Christianity is that +which goes by +<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P103"></A>103}</SPAN> +the name of Positivism or the Religion of Humanity, +which sets Man on the throne of the universe, and makes of him the sole +object of worship. 'A helper of men outside Humanity,' said the late +Professor Clifford, 'the Truth will not allow us to see. The dim and +shadowy outlines of the Superhuman Deity fade slowly away from before +us, and, as the mist of His Presence floats aside, we perceive with +greater and greater clearness the shape of a yet grander and nobler +figure, of Him who made all gods and shall unmake them. From the dim +dawn of history, and from the inmost depths of every soul, the face of +our Father <I>Man</I> looks out upon us with the fire of eternal youth in +His eyes, and says, "Before Jehovah was, I am." The founder of the +organised Religion of Humanity was Auguste Comte, who died in the year +1857. He held that in the development of mankind there are three +stages: the first, the Theological, in which +<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P104"></A>104}</SPAN> +worship is offered +to God or gods; the second, the Metaphysical, in which the human mind +is groping after ultimate truth, the solution of the problems of the +universe; the third, the Positive, in which the search for the illusive +and the unattainable is abandoned, and the real and the practical form +the exclusive occupation of the thoughts. On Sunday, October 19, 1851, +he concluded a course of Lectures on the General History of Humanity +with the uncompromising announcement, 'In the name of the Past and of +the Future, the servants of Humanity, both its philosophical and +practical servants, come forward to claim as their due the general +direction of this world. Their object is to constitute at length a +real Providence, in all departments, moral, intellectual, and material. +Consequently they exclude, once for all, from political supremacy, all +the different servants of God, Catholic, Protestant, or Deist, as being +at once behindhand and +<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P105"></A>105}</SPAN> +a source of disturbance.' All religions +were banished by the truly 'uncompromising announcement': they were all +condemned as futile and unreal. The best that could be said of the +worship of the past was that it directed 'provisionally the evolution +of our best feelings, under the regency of God, during the long +minority of Humanity.' +</P> + +<P> +But the fact that Religion will not be banished, that it must somehow +find expression, never received fuller verification. We do not dwell +upon the private life of Comte, its eccentricities and inconsistencies, +but this at least cannot be omitted: he practised a course of austere +religious observances, he worshipped not only Humanity at large, but he +paid special adoration to a departed friend such as hardly the +devoutest of Roman Catholics has ever paid to the Virgin Mary. +Positivism became, what Professor Huxley called it, 'Catholicism +<I>minus</I> Christianity.' Comte laid down for the guidance of his +<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P106"></A>106}</SPAN> +disciples, who are potentially all mankind, rules which no existing +religious communion can surpass in minuteness. The Supreme Object of +Worship is the Great Being, Humanity, the Sum of Human Beings, past, +present, and future. But as it is only too evident that too many of +these beings in the past and the present, whatever may be said about +the future, are not very fitting objects of worship, Humanity, the +Great Being, must be understood as including only worthy members, those +who have been true servants of Humanity. The emblem of this Great +Being is a Woman of the age of thirty, with her son in her arms; and +this emblem is to be placed in all temples of Humanity and carried in +all solemn processions. The highest representatives of Humanity are +the Mother, the Wife, and the Daughter; the Mother representing the +past, the Wife the present, and the Daughter the future. These are in +the abstract to be regarded as the guardian +<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P107"></A>107}</SPAN> +angels of the family. +To these angels every one is to pray three times daily, and the +prayers, which may be read, but which must be the composition of him +who uses them, are to last for two hours. Humanity, the World, and +Space form the completed Trinity of the Positivist Religion. There are +nine sacraments: Presentation, Initiation, Admission, Destination, +Marriage, Maturity, Retirement, Transformation, Incorporation. There +is a priesthood, to whom is committed the duties of deciding who may or +may not be admitted to certain offices during life, of deciding also +whether or not the remains of those who have been dead for seven years +should be removed from the common burial-place, and interred in 'the +sacred wood which surrounds the temple of humanity,' every tomb there +'being ornamented with a simple inscription, a bust, or a statue, +according to the degree of honour awarded.' The priests are to receive +so comprehensive +<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P108"></A>108}</SPAN> +a training that they are not to be fully +recognised till forty-two years of age. They are to combine medical +knowledge with their priestly qualifications. Three successive orders +are necessary for the working of the organisation: the Aspirants +admitted at twenty-eight, the Vicars or Substitutes at thirty-five, and +the Priests proper at forty-two. +</P> + +<P> +The Religion of Humanity has a Calendar, each month of twenty-eight +days being in one aspect dedicated to some social relation, and in +another to some famous man representing some phase of human progress: +Moses, Homer, Aristotle, Cćsar, St. Paul, Gutenberg, Shakespeare. Each +day of the year is dedicated to one or more great men or women, five +hundred and fifty-eight in number, and the last day of the year is the +Festival of All the Dead. 'Our Calendar is designed to remind us of +all types of the teachers, leaders, and makers of our race: of the many +modes in which the servants of Humanity +<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P109"></A>109}</SPAN> +have fulfilled their +service. The prophets, the religious teachers, the founders of creeds, +of nations and systems of life: the poets, the thinkers, the artists, +kings, warriors, statesmen and rulers: the inventors, the men of +science and of all useful arts.... Every day of the Positivist year is +in one sense a day of the dead, for it recalls to us some mighty +teacher or leader who is no longer on earth.... But the three hundred +and sixty-four days of the year's calendar have left one great place +unfilled.... Those myriad spirits of the forgotten dead, whom, no man +can number, whose very names were unknown to those around them in life, +the fathers and the mothers, the husbands and the wives, the brothers +and the sisters, the sturdy workers and the fearless soldiers in the +mighty host of civilisation—shall we pass them by? ... It is those +whom to-night we recall, all those who have lived a life of usefulness +in their generation, though +<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P110"></A>110}</SPAN> +they tugged as slaves at the lowest +bank of oars in the galley of life, though they were cast unnoticed +into the common grave of the outcast, all whose lives have helped and +not hindered the progress of Humanity, we recall them all to-night.'[<A NAME="chap04fn7text"></A><A HREF="#chap04fn7">7</A>] +</P> + +<BR> + +<H4 ALIGN="center"> +IV +</H4> + +<P> +The Religion of Humanity has numbered among its adherents, in part or +in whole, several celebrated persons in this country, such as Richard +Congreve, Dr. Bridges, Professor Beesley, Cotter Morison, George Eliot. +But at present it has no more eloquent and earnest advocate than Mr. +Frederic Harrison, who, in <I>The Creed of a Layman</I>, and several other +recent volumes, has passionately proclaimed its principles. For more +than fifty years he has been its apostle: 'every other aim or +occupation has been subsidiary and instrumental to this.'[<A NAME="chap04fn8text"></A><A HREF="#chap04fn8">8</A>] It +<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P111"></A>111}</SPAN> +is true that in some points he has retained his independence, and while +those outside accuse him of fanaticism, some of his fellow-believers +suspect him of heresy.[<A NAME="chap04fn9text"></A><A HREF="#chap04fn9">9</A>] But he himself is assured that in the +worship of Humanity he has obtained the solution of his doubts[<A NAME="chap04fn10text"></A><A HREF="#chap04fn10">10</A>] and +the satisfaction of his spirit, and on his gravestone or his urn he +would have inscribed the words, <I>He found peace</I>.[<A NAME="chap04fn11text"></A><A HREF="#chap04fn11">11</A>] There is much +that is marvellously elevated in thought as well as exquisite in +expression, profoundly devout as well as brilliantly argued, in the +narrative of his progress towards his present position. But when his +vehement statements are carefully examined, it will almost inevitably +be seen that all that is good and sensible in them is an unconscious +reproduction of Christianity. His negations disappear: the +affirmations which he makes are those which the Church has always +<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P112"></A>112}</SPAN> +maintained. The faith of his childhood permeates and strengthens and +beautifies the creed which he adopted in his maturer years. The unity +of mankind, the memory of the departed, the necessity of living for +others, these are no novelties in Christianity. It is in Christ that +they have specially been brought to light, in Him that they find their +highest ratification, without Him they remain unfulfilled, with Him +they attain to consistency and power. +</P> + +<P> +The Great Being, Humanity, is only an abstraction.[<A NAME="chap04fn12text"></A><A HREF="#chap04fn12">12</A>] 'There is no +such thing in reality,' Principal Caird reminds us, 'as an animal which +is no particular animal, a plant which is no particular plant, a man or +humanity which is no individual man. It is only a fiction of the +observer's mind.' There is logical force as well as humorous +illustration in the contention of Dean Page Roberts, that there is no +more a humanity apart +<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P113"></A>113}</SPAN> +from individual men and women than there is +a great being apart from all individual dogs, which we may call +Caninity, or a transcendent Durham ox, apart from individual oxen, +which may be named Bovinity.'[<A NAME="chap04fn13text"></A><A HREF="#chap04fn13">13</A>] Nor does the geniality of Mr. +Chesterton render his argument the less telling: 'It is evidently +impossible to worship Humanity, just as it is impossible to worship the +Savile Club: both are excellent institutions to which we may happen to +belong. But we perceive clearly that the Savile Club did not make the +stars and does not fill the universe. And it is surely unreasonable to +attack the doctrine of the Trinity as a piece of bewildering mysticism, +and then to ask men to worship a being who is ninety million persons in +one God, neither confounding the persons nor dividing the +substance.'[<A NAME="chap04fn14text"></A><A HREF="#chap04fn14">14</A>] +</P> + +<P> +Can it be doubted that the Great Being, +<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P114"></A>114}</SPAN> +the sum of human beings, +is less conceivable, less worthy of worship than the Great Being, the +God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ?[<A NAME="chap04fn15text"></A><A HREF="#chap04fn15">15</A>] Can it be doubted that +the claim of Humanity to worship is less credible if we exclude the +Perfect Man, Christ Jesus, from our view? Can it be doubted that the +Positivist motto, 'Live for others,' gains a force and a meaning +unapproached elsewhere from the Life and Death of Him Who said, 'The +Son of Man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister and to give +His Life a ransom for many?' Humanity knit together in One, purified +from every stain, glorious and adorable, is a lofty and inspiring idea, +but nowhere has it been disclosed save in the Man Christ Jesus, the +Word made Flesh, the Brightness of the Father's glory and the Express +Image of His Person. +</P> + +<BR> + +<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P115"></A>115}</SPAN> + +<H4 ALIGN="center"> +V +</H4> + +<P> +Dr. Richard Congreve owns that much of the Religion of Humanity exists +already in the Christian Faith, but, in one respect, he asserts that +the Religion of Humanity can claim to be entirely original. 'We +accept, so have all men. We obey, so have all men. We venerate, so +have some in past ages, or in other countries. We add but one other +term, we love.'[<A NAME="chap04fn16text"></A><A HREF="#chap04fn16">16</A>] That is what distinguishes this new religion and +proves its superiority to the old: its votaries have attained this new +principle and mode of life: they love one another. The boldness of the +claim may stagger us. We turn over the pages of the New Testament. We +see that Love is the fulfilling of the Law; is the end of the +commandment; is the sum of the Law and the Prophets; is placed at the +very summit of Christian graces; is the bond of perfectness; +<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P116"></A>116}</SPAN> +is +manifested in a Life and a Death which, after nineteen centuries, +remain without a parallel. We recall the touching legend that in his +old age the Apostle S. John was daily carried into the assembly of the +Ephesian Christians, simply repeating to them, over and over, the +words, 'Love one another. This is our Lord's command, fulfil this and +nothing else is needed.' We recall that in early centuries the +sympathy and helpfulness by which Christians of all ranks and races +were united called forth from heathen spectators the amazed and +respectful exclamation, 'See how these Christians love one another!' +Recalling these things, we cannot but be startled that, in the +nineteenth century of the Christian era, a teacher should, with any +expectation of being believed, have ventured to affirm that the great +discovery which it has been reserved for the present day to make is +that of loving one another. Ignorance of Christianity, +misrepresentation +<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P117"></A>117}</SPAN> +of Christianity, we may well call it: ignorance +inconceivable, misrepresentation inconceivable: and yet, as we consider +the state of Christendom, do we not see what palliates the ignorance +and the misrepresentation? Have we not reason to confess that, if the +commandment be not new, universal obedience to it would be new indeed? +May the calm assurance that love is foreign to Christianity not startle +us into the conviction that we have forgotten what, according to our +Lord's own declaration, the chief feature of Christianity ought to be? +'By this shall all men know that ye are My disciples, if ye have love +one to another.' +</P> + +<BR> + +<H4 ALIGN="center"> +VI +</H4> + +<P> +'How can we,' it has been well said, 'be asked to give the name of +Religion of Humanity to a religion that ignores the greatest human +being that ever lived, and the very source from which the Religion of +Humanity +<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P118"></A>118}</SPAN> +sprang?'[<A NAME="chap04fn17text"></A><A HREF="#chap04fn17">17</A>] Man in himself, man so full of +imperfections, man having no connection with any world but this, man +unallied to any Power higher, nobler than himself, is this to be our +God? Which is more reasonable: to set up the race of man, unpurified, +unredeemed, worthless and polluted, as the object of adoration, or to +maintain that 'Man indeed is the rightful object of our worship, but in +the roll of ages, there has been but one Man Whom we can adore without +idolatry, the Man Christ Jesus'?[<A NAME="chap04fn18text"></A><A HREF="#chap04fn18">18</A>] The Religion of Humanity, so +called, would have us worship Man apart from Christ Whom yet all +acknowledge to be the glory of mankind, but we call on men to worship +Christ Jesus, for in Him we see Man without a stain, we see our nature +redeemed and consecrated, we see ourselves brought nigh to the Infinite +God. We adore Humanity, but Humanity +<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P119"></A>119}</SPAN> +in its purity: we adore +Humanity, but only as manifesting in the Only Begotten Son the glory of +the Eternal Father. Thus we place no garland around the vices of the +human race: thus we abase, and thus we exalt: thus are we humbled to +the dust, thus are we raised to the highest heavens. Apart from +Christ, the magnitude of the creation may well depress and overwhelm: +apart from Christ the human race is morally imperfect instead of being +a fit object of blind adoration. Seeing Christ, we not only feel our +inconceivable nothingness in presence of the Infinite Majesty, but we +stand erect and unpresumptuously say, 'We wonder not that Thou art +mindful of those for whom that Son of Man lived and died, we are in Him +partakers of the Divine Nature. There thou beholdest Thine Own Image.' +</P> + +<P> +Made in the image of God, such is the ideal of Man that comes to us +from the beginning of his history; and such is the ideal +<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P120"></A>120}</SPAN> +that +once, and once only, has been realised. '<I>Ecce Homo</I>! Behold the +Man!' said Pontius Pilate, in words more full of significance than he +knew, pointing to the victim of priestly hatred and popular fickleness. +Behold the Man! man as he ought to be, the Image of God. Before that +Divine Humanity we reverently bow, to that Divine Humanity we humbly +consecrate ourselves, in fellowship with It alone we learn and manifest +the true worth and dignity of Man. +</P> + +<P> +One writing frantically to exalt mankind and to depreciate +Christianity, tells us how he sat on a cliff overhanging the seashore +and gazed upon the stars, murmuring, 'O prodigious universe, and O poor +ignorant, that could believe all these were made for him!' but the +sight of a steamship caused him to rejoice at the triumph of Art over +Nature, and to exclaim, 'If man is small in relation to the universe, +he is great in relation to the earth: he abbreviates distance and time, +<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P121"></A>121}</SPAN> +and brings the nations together.' Then he saw that man is +ordained to master the laws of which he is now the slave; he believed +that if man could understand this mission, a new religion would animate +his life, and, in the strength of this revelation, the writer says that +he sang in ecstasy to the waters and winds and birds and beasts, he +felt a rapture of love for the whole human race, he resolved to preach +the New Gospel far and wide, and proclaim the glorious mission of +mankind.[<A NAME="chap04fn19text"></A><A HREF="#chap04fn19">19</A>] +</P> + +<P> +On the whole the Old Gospel will be found as ennobling, as inspiring, +as practical as the New. All that this new Gospel aims at, we, as +Christians, already believe: and we possess a Divine Token, a Sacred +Pledge which is foreign to it: we believe that a higher destiny is in +store for us than even the construction of wonders of mechanical +skill.[<A NAME="chap04fn20text"></A><A HREF="#chap04fn20">20</A>] Stripped of all rhetoric, the conclusion of unbelief in God +and Immortality can only +<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P122"></A>122}</SPAN> +be 'Man is what he eats': the conclusion +of Christianity, 'There is but one object greater than the soul, and +that is its Creator.' +</P> + +<P> +One in a certain place testified, saying, 'What is man, that Thou art +mindful of him, or the son of man that Thou visitest him? Thou madest +him a little lower than the angels: Thou crownest him with glory and +honour, and didst set him over the works of Thy hands: Thou hast put +all things in subjection under his feet.' For in that He put all in +subjection under him, He left nothing that is not put under him. But +now we see not yet all things put under him. But we see JESUS Who was +made a little lower than the angels for the suffering of death, crowned +with glory and honour. We see Him Who is our Brother and our +Forerunner within the veil; and in His Exaltation we behold our +own.[<A NAME="chap04fn21text"></A><A HREF="#chap04fn21">21</A>] No vision of the future can surpass that which the Christian +Church +<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P123"></A>123}</SPAN> +has cherished from the beginning, that we shall all 'come +in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto +a Perfect Man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ +... from Whom the whole body fitly joined together and compacted by +that which every joint supplieth, according to the effectual working in +the measure of every part, maketh increase of the body unto the +edifying of itself in love.' +</P> + +<BR><BR> + +<P CLASS="footnote"> +<A NAME="chap04fn1"></A> +[<A HREF="#chap04fn1text">1</A>] <I>Creed of a Layman</I>, p. 67. +</P> + +<P CLASS="footnote"> +<A NAME="chap04fn2"></A> +[<A HREF="#chap04fn2text">2</A>] Shelley, <I>Prometheus Unbound</I>. +</P> + +<P CLASS="footnote"> +<A NAME="chap04fn3"></A> +[<A HREF="#chap04fn3text">3</A>] Thomas Carlyle. +</P> + +<P CLASS="footnote"> +<A NAME="chap04fn4"></A> +[<A HREF="#chap04fn4text">4</A>] <I>Man's Destiny</I>, p. 31, +</P> + +<P CLASS="footnote"> +<A NAME="chap04fn5"></A> +[<A HREF="#chap04fn5text">5</A>] Aubrey de Vere. +</P> + +<P CLASS="footnote"> +<A NAME="chap04fn6"></A> +[<A HREF="#chap04fn6text">6</A>] <I>Creed of a Layman</I>, p. 76. +</P> + +<P CLASS="footnote"> +<A NAME="chap04fn7"></A> +[<A HREF="#chap04fn7text">7</A>] Frederic Harrison, <I>Creed of a Layman</I>. +</P> + +<P CLASS="footnote"> +<A NAME="chap04fn8"></A> +[<A HREF="#chap04fn8text">8</A>] <I>Memories and Thoughts</I>, p. 14. +</P> + +<P CLASS="footnote"> +<A NAME="chap04fn9"></A> +[<A HREF="#chap04fn9text">9</A>] <I>Memories and Thoughts</I>, p. 15. +</P> + +<P CLASS="footnote"> +<A NAME="chap04fn10"></A> +[<A HREF="#chap04fn10text">10</A>] <A HREF="#append14">Appendix XIV.</A> +</P> + +<P CLASS="footnote"> +<A NAME="chap04fn11"></A> +[<A HREF="#chap04fn11text">11</A>] <I>Creed of a Layman</I>. +</P> + +<P CLASS="footnote"> +<A NAME="chap04fn12"></A> +[<A HREF="#chap04fn12text">12</A>] <A HREF="#append15">Appendix XV.</A> +</P> + +<P CLASS="footnote"> +<A NAME="chap04fn13"></A> +[<A HREF="#chap04fn13text">13</A>] <I>Some Urgent Questions in Christian Lights</I>. +</P> + +<P CLASS="footnote"> +<A NAME="chap04fn14"></A> +[<A HREF="#chap04fn14text">14</A>] <I>Heretics</I>, p. 96. +</P> + +<P CLASS="footnote"> +<A NAME="chap04fn15"></A> +[<A HREF="#chap04fn15text">15</A>] <A HREF="#append16">Appendix XVI.</A> +</P> + +<P CLASS="footnote"> +<A NAME="chap04fn16"></A> +[<A HREF="#chap04fn16text">16</A>] <A HREF="#append17">Appendix XVII.</A> +</P> + +<P CLASS="footnote"> +<A NAME="chap04fn17"></A> +[<A HREF="#chap04fn17text">17</A>] E. A. Abbott, <I>Through Nature to Christ</I>. +</P> + +<P CLASS="footnote"> +<A NAME="chap04fn18"></A> +[<A HREF="#chap04fn18text">18</A>] Frederick William Robertson, <I>Sermon on John's Rebuke of Herod</I>. +</P> + +<P CLASS="footnote"> +<A NAME="chap04fn19"></A> +[<A HREF="#chap04fn19text">19</A>] Winwood Reade, <I>The Outcast</I>. +</P> + +<P CLASS="footnote"> +<A NAME="chap04fn20"></A> +[<A HREF="#chap04fn20text">20</A>] <A HREF="#append18">Appendix XVIII.</A> +</P> + +<P CLASS="footnote"> +<A NAME="chap04fn21"></A> +[<A HREF="#chap04fn21text">21</A>] <A HREF="#append19">Appendix XIX.</A> +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap05"></A> + +<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P126"></A>126}</SPAN> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +V +</H3> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +THEISM WITHOUT CHRIST +</H3> + +<BR><BR> + +<P CLASS="intro"> +'Ye believe in God, believe also in Me.'—S. JOHN xiv. 1. +</P> + +<P CLASS="intro"> +'I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life: no man cometh unto the Father +but by Me.'—S. JOHN xiv. 6. +</P> + +<P CLASS="intro"> +'He that hath seen Me hath seen the Father.'—S. JOHN xiv. 9. +</P> + +<P CLASS="intro"> +'Neither is there salvation in any other; for there is none other name +under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved.'—ACTS iv. 12. +</P> + +<P CLASS="intro"> +'He that abideth in the doctrine of Christ, he hath both the Father and +the Son.'—2 S. JOHN 9. +</P> + +<BR><BR> + +<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P127"></A>127}</SPAN> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +V +</H3> + +<H4 ALIGN="center"> +THEISM WITHOUT CHRIST +</H4> + +<P> +By Theism without Christ is not meant a system like Judaism or +Mohammedanism, but a modern school which maintains that faith in God +becomes weakened and impaired by being associated with faith in Jesus. +There are those who cling with tenacity to the first article of the +Apostles' Creed, 'I believe in God the Father Almighty,' but who reject +with equal fervour the second article of the Creed, 'And in Jesus +Christ, His only Son, our Lord.' They resist with horror the +suggestion that the world is under no overruling Providence, or that +the humblest human being is not regarded with the tender love of the +Infinite God: they rival the most +<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P128"></A>128}</SPAN> +mystical worshipper in the +ardour of the language with which in prayer they address the Father in +Heaven, but they refuse to bow in the Name of Jesus: they go to the +Father, as they think, without Him: they assert that to look to Him is +virtually to look away from God. They are as hostile as we can be to +the Substitutes for Christianity which we have been considering. They +have no sympathy with those who loudly deny that there is a God, or +with those who say that it is impossible to find out whether there is a +God or not, or with those who think that the Creator and the Creation +are one, that the universe is God, or with those who, not believing in +any Unseen and Eternal God, insist that the proper object of the +worship of mankind is man. In the proclamation of the existence of an +All-Wise and All-holy Being, in the proclamation that He has made the +world and rules it to its minutest detail, in the proclamation that +<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P129"></A>129}</SPAN> +there is a life beyond the grave, they are the allies of the +Christian Church. But then they go on to argue, For those who hold +these doctrines, Christ is quite superfluous: to hold them in their +purity Christ must be dethroned and His name no longer specially +revered. Some may still wish to speak of Him as among the Great +Teachers of the world, but some, in order to preserve these precious +truths unmixed, decline in a very fanaticism of unbelief to assign Him +even that position. +</P> + +<BR> + +<H4 ALIGN="center"> +I +</H4> + +<P> +The declaration of our Lord, 'No man cometh unto the Father but by Me,' +has been a chief stumbling-block and rock of offence. Are we to +believe, it is asked, that only the comparatively few to whom the +knowledge of Jesus Christ has come can possibly be accepted of the +Father? When the words were spoken the number of His disciples was +exceedingly small. Did he mean that the +<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P130"></A>130}</SPAN> +Father could be +approached only by that handful of people, that all beyond were +banished from the Divine Presence and must inevitably perish? That +this is what He meant both the friends and the foes of Christianity +have at times been agreed in holding. The friends have imagined that +they were thereby exalting the claim of Christ to be the One Mediator. +It may be a terrible mystery that the vast majority of the human race +should have no opportunity of believing in Him, should be even +unacquainted with His Name. We can only bow before the inscrutable +decree, and strive with all our might, not only that our own faith may +be deepened, but that the knowledge of Christ may be diffused over all +the earth, so that some here and there may be rescued. There is little +wonder that such a view should have given rise to questionings and +opposition, should have been rejected as inconsistent with mercy and +with justice. It is an +<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P131"></A>131}</SPAN> +interpretation on which hostile critics +have laid stress as incontestably proving the narrowness and bigotry of +the Christian Creed. +</P> + +<P> +If we bear in mind Who it is that is presumed to say, 'No man cometh +unto the Father but by Me,' the misconception disappears. It is not +merely an individual man, separate from all others, giving Himself out +as a wise and infallible Teacher. He Who makes the stupendous claim is +One Who by the supposition embodies in Himself Human Nature in its +perfection, Who is identified with His brethren, Who says, 'He that +hath seen Me hath seen the Father.' The Life which He manifests is the +Life of God. He is set forth as the Way to the Father: in mercy and in +blessing the Way is disclosed in Him: it is not in harsh and rigid +exclusiveness that He speaks, debarring the mass of mankind: it is in +tender comprehensiveness, inviting all without distinction of race or +circumstance, opening a new +<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P132"></A>132}</SPAN> +and living way for all into the +Holiest. It is the breaking down of all barriers between man and man, +between man and God, not the setting up of another barrier high and +insurmountable. When Christ declares 'No man cometh unto the Father +but by Me,' He is not declaring that the way is difficult and +impassable, He is pointing out a way of deliverance which all may +tread. So far from laying down a hard and burdensome dogma to be +accepted on peril of pains and penalties, He is imparting a hope and a +consolation in which all may rejoice. +</P> + +<P> +If we believe Him to be the Word of God made Flesh, if we see in Him +the Brightness of the Father's glory, it becomes a truism to say that +only through Him can life and healing be imparted to mankind. When He +Himself says, 'I am the Way, the Truth and the Life,' it is natural for +Him to add, 'No man cometh unto the Father but by Me.' It will +<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P133"></A>133}</SPAN> +be granted by all who believe in God that, apart from God, no soul of +man can have life eternal. The most strenuous advocate of the +salvation of the virtuous heathen will grant that their salvation does +not descend from the idol of wood and stone before which they grovel. +It is from the True God, the Living God, that the blessing proceeds. +It is His touch, His Spirit, His Presence which has consecrated the +earnest though erring worship of the poor idolater. No one who +believes in the Infinite and Eternal God could possibly say that the +monstrous image whose aid is invoked by the devout heathen is itself +the answerer of his prayer, the cause of his deliverance from sin, the +bestower of immortality upon him. The utmost that can be said is that +in the costly sacrifices, the painful penances, the passionate prayers +which he presents to the object of his adoration, the Almighty Love +discerns a longing after something nobler and better, +<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P134"></A>134}</SPAN> +and accepts +the service as directed really, though unconsciously, to Him. +</P> + +<P CLASS="poem"> +The feeble hands and helpless,<BR> +Groping blindly in the darkness,<BR> +Touch God's right hand in that darkness<BR> +And are lifted up and strengthened.[<A NAME="chap05fn1text"></A><A HREF="#chap05fn1">1</A>]<BR> +</P> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +But it is the hand of God that they touch. It is from the One +Omnipotent God that every blessing comes: it is the One Omnipotent God +Who turns to truth and life and reality every sincere and struggling +and imperfect attempt to serve Him on the part of those who know not +His Nature or His Name. +</P> + +<P> +And what is true of God is equally true of Christ, the manifestation of +God. Only grant Him to be the Incarnate Word of God, and it becomes +plain that salvation can no more exist apart from Him than apart from +the Father. This Word of God is the Light that lighteth every man. +Whatever truth, whatever knowledge of the Divine, anywhere +<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P135"></A>135}</SPAN> +exists +is the result of that illumination. The sparks which shine even in the +darkness of heathendom betoken the presence of that Light, not wholly +extinguished by the folly and ignorance of man. That is the One Sun of +Righteousness which gives light everywhere, though in many places the +clouds are so dense that the beams can scarcely penetrate. Now, if +that Word has become Flesh, if that Light has become embodied in Human +Form, we are still constrained to say, There is no true Light but His, +it is in His Light that all must walk if they would not stray, there is +no Guide, no Deliverer, save Him. Christ discloses, brings to view, +all the saving health which has ever been, all the power of restoring, +cleansing, healing, which has ever worked in the souls of men. The one +Power by which any human being, in any age or in any land, has ever +been fitted for the presence of the All Holy God, is made manifest in +Christ. 'Neither is there +<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P136"></A>136}</SPAN> +salvation in any other, for there is +none other name under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved.' +</P> + +<P> +We need have no hesitation in asserting that all who in any age or in +any land, or in any religion, have come to the Father must have come +through the Son of Man, the Eternal Word made Flesh. We do not +contend, as has too frequently been contended, that beyond the limits +of Christianity, beyond, it may be, the limits of one section of +Christianity, there is no truth believed, no acceptable service +rendered. We hail with gratitude the lofty thoughts and the noble +achievements of some who do not in word acknowledge Christ as Lord. In +the vision of the Light that lighteth every man, we see +</P> + +<P CLASS="poem"> +<SPAN STYLE="margin-left: 3em">How light can find its way</SPAN><BR> +To regions farthest from the fount of day.[<A NAME="chap05fn2text"></A><A HREF="#chap05fn2">2</A>]<BR> +</P> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +'Now,' as is well said by the present Bishop +<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P137"></A>137}</SPAN> +of Birmingham, who +will hardly be accused of any tendency to minimise the claims of +Christianity, 'this is no narrow creed. Christianity, the religion of +Jesus, is the Light: it is the one final Revelation, the one final +Religion, but it supersedes all other religions, Jewish and Pagan, not +by excluding, but by including all the elements of truth which each +contained. There was light in Zoroastrianism, light in Buddhism, light +among the Greeks: but it is all included in Christianity. A good +Christian is a good Buddhist, a good Jew, a good Mohammedan, a good +Zoroastrian; that is, he has all the truth and virtue that these can +possess, purged and fused in a greater and completer light. +Christianity, I say, supersedes all other religions by including these +fragments of truth in its own completeness. You cannot show me any +element of spiritual light or strength which is in other religions and +is not in Christianity. Nor can you +<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P138"></A>138}</SPAN> +show me any other religion +which can compare with Christianity in completeness of light: +Christianity is the one complete and final religion, and the elements +of truth in other religions are rays of the One Light which is +concentrated and shines full in Jesus Christ our Lord.'[<A NAME="chap05fn3text"></A><A HREF="#chap05fn3">3</A>] +</P> + +<BR> + +<H4 ALIGN="center"> +II +</H4> + +<P> +From whatever cause, whether as a reaction against the mode in which +this great truth has been at times presented, there have been, and +there are, attempts to supersede Christianity because of its +narrowness. Religion must not be identified with any one name: God +manifests Himself to all, and no Mediator is needed. Theism, +therefore, the worship of the One Almighty and Eternal Being, not +Christianity, in which a Human Name is associated with the Divine Name, +can alone pretend to be the Universal Religion, the +<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P139"></A>139}</SPAN> +Religion of +all Mankind. It is not the first time that such an attempt to do +without Christianity and to do away with it has been made. In the +eighteenth century there was a similar movement. To this day at +Ferney, near Geneva, is preserved the chapel which Voltaire erected for +the worship of God, of God as distinguished from Christ as Divine or as +Mediator between God and man. Voltaire thought that he could overthrow +and crush the Faith of Christ, but he none the less erected a temple to +God. The Deists upheld what they called the Religion of Nature and +repudiated Revelation. <I>Christianity not Mysterious; Christianity as +old as the Creation</I>, were among the works issued to show the +superiority of Natural Religion, its freedom from difficulties, its +agreement with reason, its universality. The most enduring memorial of +the controversy is Bishop Butler's <I>Analogy of Religion to the +Constitution and Course of Nature</I>, +<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P140"></A>140}</SPAN> +in which it was argued that +the Natural Religion of the Deists was beset by as many difficulties as +the Revelation of the Christians, that those who were not hindered from +believing in God by the problems which Nature presented need not be +staggered by the problems which were presented by Christianity. Bishop +Butler's argument was directed against a special set of antagonists, an +argument, it may be said, of little avail against the scepticism of the +present day. The argument seems to have been unanswerable by those to +whom it was addressed. The grounds on which they rejected the +Revelation of Christ were shown to be inadequate. When they accepted +this or that article of Natural Religion, they had accepted what was as +difficult of belief as this or that part of the Revelation which they +rejected. The mysteries which existed in the religion with which they +would have nothing to do were in harmony with the +<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P141"></A>141}</SPAN> +mysteries which +existed in the religion which they declared to be necessary for the +welfare of society. That retort may be made with even more effect to +those who so far occupy that same ground to-day. They rejoice to +believe that there is a God, that He is not far off, that He +communicates Himself to their souls, that the love which we bear to one +another is but a faint image of the love which He bears to us, that the +noblest qualities which exist in us exist more purely, more gloriously +in Him, that we are in very deed His children and are called to +manifest His likeness. It is by prayer, both in public and in private, +both in congregations and alone with the Alone, that His Love and His +Help can be comprehended and used. He is no absent God: His Ear is not +heavy that it cannot hear, nor His arm shortened that it cannot save. +With this belief we, as Christians, have no dispute: we gladly go along +with Theists in asserting it: we +<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P142"></A>142}</SPAN> +only wonder at their +unwillingness to go along with us a little further. For if God be such +as they glowingly depict Him, if our relations to Him be such as they +esteem it our greatest dignity to know, there is nothing antecedently +impossible in the thought that One Man has heard His Voice more +clearly, has surrendered to His Will more entirely, than any other in +the history of the ages and the races of mankind: nothing antecedently +impossible in the thought that to One Man His Truth has been conveyed +more brightly, more fully than to any other; that in One Man the +lineaments of the Divine Image may be seen more distinctly than in any +other. If God be such, and if our relations to God be such, as Theists +describe, why should they shrink with distrust or with antipathy from a +Son of Man Who has borne witness to those truths in His Life and in His +Death with a steadfastness of conviction which none other has ever +surpassed; Who, according +<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P143"></A>143}</SPAN> +to the records which we possess of Him, +habitually lived to do the Father's Will and died commending His Spirit +into the Father's Hands: a Son of Man Who could truly be said to be in +heaven while He was on earth? If God be such, and our relations to God +be such, as Theists describe, would not that Son of Man be the +confirmation of their thoughts? Would not His testimony be of infinite +value on their side? Would He Himself not be the radiant illustration, +the eagerly longed for proof of the truth for which they contend? They +believe in God: why should it, on their own showing, be so hard to +believe in Christ? +</P> + +<BR> + +<H4 ALIGN="center"> +III +</H4> + +<P> +The Theism of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries is in some +respects different from the Deism of the eighteenth. It is not so +cold, the God in whom it believes is not so distant from His creatures. +But it is not +<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P144"></A>144}</SPAN> +less vehement in its depreciation of Christianity +as a needless and even harmful addition to the Religion of Nature. +Conspicuous among the advocates of this modern Theism have been Francis +William Newman, Miss Frances Power Cobbe, and the Rev. Charles Voysey. +</P> + +<P> +Francis Newman, in his youth, belonged, like his brother the famous +Cardinal, to the strictest sect of Evangelicals, but, like the Cardinal +also, drifted away from them, though in a totally different +direction.[<A NAME="chap05fn4text"></A><A HREF="#chap05fn4">4</A>] As he found the untenableness of certain views which he +had cherished, the insufficiency of certain arguments which he had +employed, he came with much anguish of mind to the conclusion that the +whole fabric of historical Christianity was built upon the sand. He +rapidly renounced belief after belief, and caused widespread distress +and dismay by a crude attack upon the moral perfection of +<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P145"></A>145}</SPAN> +our +Lord. His conviction that Christianity had nothing special to say for +itself, and that one religion was as good as another, seems to have +been mainly brought about by a discussion which he had with a +Mohammedan carpenter at Aleppo. 'Among other matters, I was +particularly desirous of disabusing him of the current notion of his +people that our Gospels are spurious narratives of late date. I found +great difficulty of expression, but the man listened to me with much +attention, and I was encouraged to exert myself. He waited patiently +till I had done and then spoke to the following effect: "I will tell +you, sir, how the case stands. God has given to you English many good +gifts. You make fine ships, and sharp penknives, and good cloth and +cottons, and you have rich nobles and brave soldiers; and you write and +print many learned books (dictionaries and grammars): all this is of +God. But there is one thing that God has withheld +<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P146"></A>146}</SPAN> +from you and +has revealed to us; and that is the knowledge of the true religion by +which one may be saved."'[<A NAME="chap05fn5text"></A><A HREF="#chap05fn5">5</A>] +</P> + +<P> +But although Newman was led to give up Christianity, and practically to +hold that one religion was as good as another, he clung tenaciously to +what he supposed to be common to all religions, belief in God, a belief +deep and ardent. The rationalism of the Deists did not approve itself +to him. 'Our Deists of past centuries tried to make religion a matter +of the pure intellect, and thereby halted at the very frontier of the +inward life: they cut themselves off even from all acquaintance with +the experience of spiritual men.'[<A NAME="chap05fn6text"></A><A HREF="#chap05fn6">6</A>] He nourished his soul with psalms +and hymns: he sought communion with God. He saw the weakness of +Morality without the inspiring power of Religion. 'Morals can seldom +gain living energy without the impulsive force derived from +Spirituals.... However +<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P147"></A>147}</SPAN> +much Plato and Cicero may talk of the +surpassing beauty of virtue, still virtue is an abstraction, a set of +wise rules, not a Person, and cannot call out affection as an existence +exterior to the soul does. On the contrary, God is a Person; and the +love of Him is of all affections by far the most energetic in exciting +us to make good our highest ideals of moral excellence and in clearing +the moral sight, so that that ideal may keep rising. Other things +being equal (a condition not to be forgotten) a spiritual man will hold +a higher and purer morality than a mere moralist. Not only does Duty +manifest itself to him as an ever-expanding principle, but since a +larger and larger part of Duty becomes pleasant and easy when performed +under the stimulus of Love, the Will is enabled to concentrate itself +more on that which remains difficult and greater power of performance +is attained.'[<A NAME="chap05fn7text"></A><A HREF="#chap05fn7">7</A>] Where shall we find a more +<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P148"></A>148}</SPAN> +vivid or more +spiritual description of the rise and progress of devotion in the soul +than in the words of this man, who placed himself beyond the pale of +every Christian communion? 'One who begins to realise God's majestic +beauty and eternity and feels in contrast how little and transitory man +is, how dependent and feeble, longs to lean upon him for support. But +He is <I>outside</I> of the heart, like a beautiful sunset, and seems to +have nothing to do with it: there is no getting into contact with Him, +to press against Him. Yet where rather should the weak rest than on +the strong, the creature of the day than on the Eternal, the imperfect +than on the Centre of Perfection? And where else should God dwell than +in the human heart? for if God is in the universe, among things +inanimate and unmoral, how much more ought He to dwell with our souls! +and they, too, seem to be infinite in their cravings: who but He can +satisfy them? Thus a restless +<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P149"></A>149}</SPAN> +instinct agitates the soul, +guiding it dimly to feel that it was made for some definite but unknown +relation towards God. The sense of emptiness increases to positive +uneasiness, until there is an inward yearning, if not shaped in words, +yet in substance not alien from that ancient strain, "As the hart +panteth after the water-brooks, so panteth my soul after Thee, O God; +my soul is athirst for God, even for the Living God."'[<A NAME="chap05fn8text"></A><A HREF="#chap05fn8">8</A>] +</P> + +<P> +Mr. Newman, in his later days, we understand, had modified the +bitterness of his opposition to historical Christianity and was ready +to avow himself as a disciple of Christ. +</P> + +<P> +Miss Frances Power Cobbe was another devout spirit who, with less +violence but equal decisiveness, accepted Theism as apart from +Christianity. In her case, even more visibly than in Mr. Newman's, it +was not Christianity which she rejected, but sundry distortions of it +with which it had in her mind become +<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P150"></A>150}</SPAN> +identified. She wrote not a +few articles so permeated with the Christian spirit and imbued with the +Christian hope that the most ardent believer in Christ could read them +with entire approval and own himself their debtor. She took an active +part in many philanthropic movements, and she was an earnest and +eloquent advocate of faith in the Divine Ordering of the world and in +human immortality. +</P> + +<P> +'Theism,' she said, 'is not Christianity <I>minus</I> Christ, nor Judaism +<I>minus</I> the miraculous legation of Moses, nor any other creed +whatsoever merely stripped of its supernatural element. It is before +all things the positive affirmation of the Absolute Goodness of God: +and if it be in antagonism to other creeds, it is principally because +of, and in proportion to, their failure to assert that Goodness in its +infinite and all-embracing completeness.'[<A NAME="chap05fn9text"></A><A HREF="#chap05fn9">9</A>] 'God is over us, and +heaven +<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P151"></A>151}</SPAN> +is waiting for us all the same, even though all the men of +science in Europe unite to tell us there is only matter in the universe +and only corruption in the grave. Atheism may prevail for a night, but +faith cometh in the morning. Theism is "bound to win" at last: not +necessarily that special type of Theism which our poor thoughts in this +generation have striven to define: but that great fundamental faith, +the needful substruction of every other possible religious faith, the +faith in a Righteous and Loving God, and in a Life of man beyond the +tomb.'[<A NAME="chap05fn10text"></A><A HREF="#chap05fn10">10</A>] +</P> + +<P> +'All the monitions of conscience, all the guidance and rebukes and +consolations of the Divine Spirit, all the holy words of the living, +and all the sacred books of the dead, these are our primary Evidences +of Religion. In a word, the first article of our creed is "I BELIEVE +IN GOD THE HOLY GHOST." After this fundamental dogma, we accept +<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P152"></A>152}</SPAN> +with joy and comfort the faith in the Creator and Orderer of the +physical universe, and believe in GOD THE FATHER ALMIGHTY, MAKER OF +HEAVEN AND EARTH. And lastly we rejoice in the knowledge that (in no +mystic Athanasian sense, but in simple fact) "<I>these two are One</I>." +The God of Love and Justice Who speaks in conscience, and Whom our +inmost hearts adore, is the same God Who rolls the suns and guides the +issues of life and death.'[<A NAME="chap05fn11text"></A><A HREF="#chap05fn11">11</A>] +</P> + +<P> +In an able paper, <I>A Faithless World</I>, in which Miss Cobbe combated the +assertion of Sir James Fitzjames Stephen, that the disappearance of +belief in God and Immortality would be unattended with any serious +consequences to the material, intellectual, or moral well-being of +mankind, she forcibly said, 'I confess at starting on this inquiry, +that the problem, "Is religion of use, or can we do as well without +it?" seems to me +<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P153"></A>153}</SPAN> +almost as grotesque as the old story of the +woman who said that we owe vast obligations to the moon, which affords +us light on dark nights, whereas we are under no such debt to the sun, +who only shines by day, <I>when there is always light</I>. Religion has +been to us so diffused a light that it is quite possible to forget how +we came by the general illumination, save when now and then it has +blazed out with special brightness.' The comment is eminently just, +but does it not apply with equal force to Miss Cobbe herself? The +Theism which she professed was the direct outcome of Christianity, +could never have existed but for Christianity, was, in all its best +features, simply Christianity under a different name. +</P> + +<P> +That Theism, as a separate organisation, gives little evidence of +conquering the world is shown by the fact that, after many years, it +boasts of only one congregation, that of the Theistic Church, Swallow +Street, Piccadilly, +<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P154"></A>154}</SPAN> +of which the Rev. Charles Voysey is minister. +Mr. Voysey was at one time vicar of a parish in Yorkshire, where he +issued, under the title of <I>The Sling and the Stone</I>, sermons attacking +the commonly accepted doctrines of the Church of England, and was in +consequence deprived of his living. He is distinctly anti-Christian in +his teaching; strongly prejudiced against anything that bears the +Christian name: criticising the sayings and doings of our Lord in a +fashion which indicates either the most astonishing misconception or +the most melancholy perversion. But his sincerity and fervour on +behalf of Theism are unmistakable. He describes it as <I>Religion for +all mankind, based on facts which are never in Dispute</I>. The book +which is called by that title is written for the help and comfort of +all his fellowmen, 'chiefly for those who have doubted and discarded +the Christian Religion, and in consequence have become Agnostics or +<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P155"></A>155}</SPAN> +Pessimists.' It is prefaced by a dedication, which is also a +touching confession of personal faith: 'In all humility I dedicate this +book to my God Who made me and all mankind, Who loves us all alike with +an everlasting love, Who of His very faithfulness causeth us to be +troubled, Who punishes us justly for every sin, not in anger or +vengeance, but only to cleanse, to heal, and to bless, in Whose +Everlasting Arms we lie now and to all eternity.'[<A NAME="chap05fn12text"></A><A HREF="#chap05fn12">12</A>] +</P> + +<P> +Mr. Voysey has compiled a Prayer Book for the use of his congregation. +The ordinary service is practically the morning or evening service of +the Book of Common Prayer, with all references to our Lord carefully +eliminated. The hymn <I>Jesus, Lover of my Soul</I> is changed to <I>Father, +Refuge of my Soul</I>; and the hymn +</P> + +<P CLASS="poem"> +Just as I am without one plea,<BR> +But that Thy blood was shed for me,<BR> +And that Thou bidst me come to Thee,<BR> +<SPAN STYLE="margin-left: 1em">O Lamb of God, I come,</SPAN><BR> +</P> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P156"></A>156}</SPAN> +is rendered: +</P> + +<P CLASS="poem"> +Just as I am without one plea,<BR> +But that Thy lore is seeking me,<BR> +And that Thou bidst me come to Thee,<BR> +O loving God, I come.<BR> +</P> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +The service respecting our duty, and the service of supplication have +merits of their own, but, except for the wanton omission of the Name +which is above every name, there is nothing in them which does not bear +a Christian impress. 'Christianity <I>minus</I> Christ' would seem to be no +unfair definition of their standpoint: and without Christ they could +not have been what they are. The Father Who is set forth as the Object +of worship and of trust is the Father Whom Christ declared, the Father +Who, but for the manifestation of Christ, would never have been known. +Far be it from us to deny that the Father has been found by those who +have sought Him beyond the limits of the Church: this only we affirm +that those by whom He +<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P157"></A>157}</SPAN> +has been found, have, consciously or +unconsciously, drawn near to Him by the way of Christ. Nothing of +value in modern Theism is incompatible with Christianity: nothing of +value which would not be strengthened by faith in Him Who said, 'He +that hath seen Me hath seen the Father.' +</P> + +<BR> + +<H4 ALIGN="center"> +IV +</H4> + +<P> +The strange objection to faith in Christ is sometimes made that it +interferes with faith in the Father. The notion of mediation is +regarded as derogatory alike to God and to man. There is no need for +any one to come between: no need for God to depute another to bear +witness of Him: no need for us to depute Another to secure His favour, +as from all eternity He is Love. The assumption, the groundless +assumption, underlying this conception is that the Mediator is a +barrier between man and God, a hindrance not a help to fellowship with +the Divine: that one +<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P158"></A>158}</SPAN> +goes to the Mediator because access to God +is debarred. Whatever may occasionally have been the unguarded +statements of representatives of Christianity, it is surely plain that +no such doctrine is taught, that the very opposite of such doctrine is +taught, in the New Testament. 'We do not,' says M. Sabatier, 'address +ourselves to Jesus by way of dispensing ourselves from going to the +Father. Far from this, we go to Christ and abide in Him, precisely +that we may find the Father. We abide in Him that His filial +consciousness may become our own; that the Spirit may become our +spirit, and that God may dwell immediately in us as He dwells in Him. +Nothing in all this carries us outside of the religion of the Spirit: +on the contrary, it is its seal and confirmation.'[<A NAME="chap05fn13text"></A><A HREF="#chap05fn13">13</A>] +</P> + +<P> +The whole object of the work of Christ, as proclaimed by Himself, or as +interpreted +<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P159"></A>159}</SPAN> +by His Apostles, was to show the Father, to bring men +to the Father. 'Believest thou not that I am in the Father, and the +Father in Me? the words that I speak unto you I speak not of Myself: +but the Father that dwelleth in Me, He doeth the works.' He 'came and +preached peace to you which were afar off and to them that were nigh. +For through Him we both have access by one Spirit unto the Father.' To +argue that to come to Christ is a substitute for coming to God, is an +inducement to halt upon the way, is an absolute travesty and +perversion. To refuse to see the glory of God in the Face of Jesus +Christ is not to bring God near: it is to remove Him further from our +vision. That God should come to us, that we should go to God, through +a mediator, is only in accordance with a universal law. 'Why,' says +one, who might be expected from his theological training to speak +otherwise, 'Why, <I>all</I> knowledge is "mediated" even of +<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P160"></A>160}</SPAN> +the +simplest objects, even of the most obvious facts: there is no such +thing in the world as immediate knowledge, and shall we demur when we +are told that the knowledge of God the Father also must pass, in order +to reach us at its best and purest, through the medium of "that Son of +God and Son of Man in Whom was the fulness of the prophetic spirit and +the filial life?" ... Of this at least I feel convinced, that where +faith in the Father has grown blurred and vague in our days, and +finally flickered out, the cause must in many instances be sought—I +will not say in the wilful rejection, but—in the careless letting go +of the message and Personality of the Son.'[<A NAME="chap05fn14text"></A><A HREF="#chap05fn14">14</A>] So far from the +thought of the Father being ignored or set aside by the thought of +Christ, we may rather say with S. John, 'Whosoever denieth the Son, +the same hath not the Father: he that confesseth the Son hath the +Father also.' 'He +<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P161"></A>161}</SPAN> +that abideth in the doctrine of Christ, he +hath both the Father and the Son.' +</P> + +<P CLASS="poem"> +The homage that we render Thee<BR> +<SPAN STYLE="margin-left: 1em">Is still our Father's own;</SPAN><BR> +Nor jealous claim or rivalry<BR> +<SPAN STYLE="margin-left: 1em">Divides the Cross and Throne.[<A NAME="chap05fn15text"></A><A HREF="#chap05fn15">15</A>]</SPAN><BR> +</P> + +<BR> + +<H4 ALIGN="center"> +V +</H4> + +<P> +The notion that Theism as contrasted with Christianity is a mark of +progress and of spirituality is a pure imagination. 'More spiritual it +may be than the traditional Christianity which consists in rigid and +stereotyped forms of practice, of ceremonial, of observance, of dogma: +but not more spiritual than the teaching of Christ Himself, the end and +completion of Whose work was to bring men to the Father, to teach them +that God is a Spirit, and to send the Spirit of the Father into the +hearts of the disciples. It would be a strange perversity if men +should reject Christ in the name of spiritual +<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P162"></A>162}</SPAN> +religion when it is +to Christ, and to Him alone, that they owe the conception of what +spiritual religion is.'[<A NAME="chap05fn16text"></A><A HREF="#chap05fn16">16</A>] To preach the doctrines of Theism without +reference to Christ is to deprive them of their most sublime +illustration, their most inspiring force, and their most convincing +proof. +</P> + +<P> +It is as Christ is known that God is believed in. The attempt to +create enthusiasm for God while banishing the Gospel of Christ meets +with astonishingly small response. The 'Religion for all Mankind' +makes but little progress, is, in spite of the labours of +five-and-thirty years, confined, as we have seen, almost to a solitary +moderately sized congregation. And whether or not the 'facts' on which +the religion is based 'are never in dispute,' the religion itself is +often-times disputed very keenly. Modern assaults upon religious faith +are, as a rule, directed quite as much against Theism as +<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P163"></A>163}</SPAN> +against +Christianity.[<A NAME="chap05fn17text"></A><A HREF="#chap05fn17">17</A>] It is the Love, or even the existence, of the Living +God, it is human responsibility, it is life beyond the grave, that are +called in question as frequently as the Resurrection of Christ. The +assurance that God at sundry times and in divers manners has spoken by +prophets renders it not more but less improbable that He should speak +by a Son: the assurance that there is life beyond the grave for all +renders it not more but less improbable that Jesus rose from the dead. +Conversely those who believe in Jesus believe with a double intensity +in Him Whom He revealed. 'Ye believe in God,' said Christ, 'believe +also in Me.' For many of us now, it is because we believe in Christ +that we believe also in God. The Almighty and Eternal is beyond our +ken: the grace and truth of Jesus Christ come home to our hearts. The +Word that was in the beginning with God and was God, +<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P164"></A>164}</SPAN> +is wrapt in +impenetrable mystery: the Word made Flesh can be seen and handled: has +</P> + +<P CLASS="poem"> +<SPAN STYLE="margin-left: 5em">wrought</SPAN><BR> +<SPAN STYLE="margin-left: 1em">With human hands the Creed of Creeds</SPAN><BR> +<SPAN STYLE="margin-left: 1em">In loveliness of perfect deeds,</SPAN><BR> +More strong than all poetic thought.[<A NAME="chap05fn18text"></A><A HREF="#chap05fn18">18</A>]<BR> +</P> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +And however it may be in a few exceptional cases, where people +nominally renouncing Christ desperately cleave to a fragment of the +faith of their childhood, the fact remains that, where He ceases to be +acknowledged, faith in the Father Whom He manifested tends, gradually +or speedily, to vanish. +</P> + +<BR> + +<H4 ALIGN="center"> +VI +</H4> + +<P> +The superiority of Theism to Deism simply consists in its being more +Christian. With the ideas of God which 'Theists' hold, we can, as +Christians, most cordially sympathise. We can sincerely say, 'Hold to +them firmly, they are your life: let no man rob you of +<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P165"></A>165}</SPAN> +them by +any vain deceit.' But we cannot help also asking, 'Whence have you +drawn those lofty ideas? where have you obtained so exalted a +conception of the Divine Being in His mingled Majesty and lowliness, in +His inconceivable greatness, and His equally inconceivable compassion? +We turn from the picture of God which, with so much labour, so much +skill, so much moral earnestness, you have exhibited, and we behold the +Original in Christ and His Teaching. However unconsciously, it is His +Truth, it is His Features, that you have reproduced. You have been +brought up in the Church of Christ, or you have been brought into +contact with its influences, and you have imbibed its teachings, +perhaps more deeply than some who would not dare to question its +smallest precepts. Still, Christ's teaching you have not outgrown, +from Christ Himself you have not escaped. You cannot go from His +presence or flee from His Spirit. Those +<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P166"></A>166}</SPAN> +views which you hold so +strongly, which are to you the most ennobling that have ever been given +of God and of religion, where is it that alone they are to be found? +In places where Christianity has gone before. +</P> + +<P> +No doubt, belief in God is not confined to Christian countries: worship +of the Maker of heaven and earth exists where the name of Christ has +never been heard, but not such belief, <I>such</I> worship, as that for +which those persons contend. The God Whom they adore will not be found +anywhere save where Christianity has penetrated. In this country it is +the desperate clinging to one portion of the Christian Faith when all +else has been abandoned: in other lands, in India, for example, where +representatives of this way of thinking are not uncommon, it is the +rapturous welcome of one of the sublime truths of Christianity before +which the idolatries of their forefathers are passing away. It is safe +to call it a transition stage: +<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P167"></A>167}</SPAN> +it will either part with the +fragment of Christianity which it retains and become merged in doubt +and speculation and unbelief; or it will include yet more of the +Christianity of which it has grasped a part: its belief in God will be +crowned and confirmed by its belief in Christ. +</P> + +<P> +For, speaking to those who cherish faith in the All-Righteous and +All-Loving God as the only hope for the regeneration of mankind, we +cannot shut our eyes to the fact that where faith in Christ fades, +faith in God has a tendency to become vague and dim. He ceases to be +thought of as a Friend and Help at hand: He is resolved into a Creator +infinitely distant or into a Law, immovable, inexorable, a blind, +unconscious Fate. It is Christ Who gives life to the thought of God. +It is the Word made Flesh that makes the Eternal Word more real. The +attempt of the Deists to purify religion by the preaching of a God who +had not +<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P168"></A>168}</SPAN> +revealed Himself, and could not reveal Himself, in a Son, +came to nothing. Voltaire's chapel at Ferney still stands, but nobody +worships in it. Religion seemed to slumber: belief in God seemed to be +decaying, when the preaching of the name and the work of Christ again +aroused it into life. And so it is now. Whatever the ability, +whatever the sincerity of the advocates of belief in God without +reference to Christ, it lacks motive-power, it lacks the missionary +spirit. If we may judge by the past, Theism without Christ is a faith +which will not spread, which will not lay hold on the labouring and the +heavy laden: which may be maintained as a theory, but which will not be +as a fire in the souls of men diffusing itself by kindling other souls. +It is from Christ alone, from Christ the manifestation of what God is +in Heart and Mind, from Christ the manifestation of what man ought to +be, from Christ Who said, 'In My Father's house are many +<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P169"></A>169}</SPAN> +mansions: he that hath seen Me hath seen the Father,' that there comes +with an authority to which, in face of the difficulties besetting the +present and the future, the human soul will bow, with a soothing power +to which the human spirit will gladly yield—it is from Christ alone +that there comes the Divine injunction, 'Let not your heart be +troubled, ye believe in God, believe also in Me.' It is as He is +clearly seen and truly known that the clouds of error and superstition +vanish from the Face of God, and men are drawn to worship and to trust. +</P> + +<BR><BR> + +<P CLASS="footnote"> +<A NAME="chap05fn1"></A> +[<A HREF="#chap05fn1text">1</A>] Longfellow, <I>Song of Hiawatha</I>. +</P> + +<P CLASS="footnote"> +<A NAME="chap05fn2"></A> +[<A HREF="#chap05fn2text">2</A>] Keble, <I>Christian Year</I>. +</P> + +<P CLASS="footnote"> +<A NAME="chap05fn3"></A> +[<A HREF="#chap05fn3text">3</A>] Bishop Gore, <I>The Christian Creed</I>. +</P> + +<P CLASS="footnote"> +<A NAME="chap05fn4"></A> +[<A HREF="#chap05fn4text">4</A>] <A HREF="#append20">Appendix XX.</A> +</P> + +<P CLASS="footnote"> +<A NAME="chap05fn5"></A> +[<A HREF="#chap05fn5text">5</A>] <I>Phases of Faith</I>. +</P> + +<P CLASS="footnote"> +<A NAME="chap05fn6"></A> +[<A HREF="#chap05fn6text">6</A>] <I>The Soul: its Sorrows and Aspirations</I>. +</P> + +<P CLASS="footnote"> +<A NAME="chap05fn7"></A> +[<A HREF="#chap05fn7text">7</A>] <I>The Soul: its Sorrows and Aspirations</I>. +</P> + +<P CLASS="footnote"> +<A NAME="chap05fn8"></A> +[<A HREF="#chap05fn8text">8</A>] <I>The Soul</I>. +</P> + +<P CLASS="footnote"> +<A NAME="chap05fn9"></A> +[<A HREF="#chap05fn9text">9</A>] <I>Alone to the Alone</I>. +</P> + +<P CLASS="footnote"> +<A NAME="chap05fn10"></A> +[<A HREF="#chap05fn10text">10</A>] <I>Alone to the Alone</I>. +</P> + +<P CLASS="footnote"> +<A NAME="chap05fn11"></A> +[<A HREF="#chap05fn11text">11</A>] <I>Alone to the Alone</I>. +</P> + +<P CLASS="footnote"> +<A NAME="chap05fn12"></A> +[<A HREF="#chap05fn12text">12</A>] <A HREF="#append21">Appendix XXI.</A> +</P> + +<P CLASS="footnote"> +<A NAME="chap05fn13"></A> +[<A HREF="#chap05fn13text">13</A>] <I>The Religions of Authority and the Religion of the Spirit</I>. +</P> + +<P CLASS="footnote"> +<A NAME="chap05fn14"></A> +[<A HREF="#chap05fn14text">14</A>] J. Warschauer, <I>Coming of Christ</I>. +</P> + +<P CLASS="footnote"> +<A NAME="chap05fn15"></A> +[<A HREF="#chap05fn15text">15</A>] Whittier, <I>Our Master</I>. +</P> + +<P CLASS="footnote"> +<A NAME="chap05fn16"></A> +[<A HREF="#chap05fn16text">16</A>] R. B. Bartlett, <I>The Letter and the Spirit</I>: Bampton Lecture. +</P> + +<P CLASS="footnote"> +<A NAME="chap05fn17"></A> +[<A HREF="#chap05fn17text">17</A>] <A HREF="#append22">Appendix XXII.</A> +</P> + +<P CLASS="footnote"> +<A NAME="chap05fn18"></A> +[<A HREF="#chap05fn18text">18</A>] Tennyson, <I>In Memoriam</I>. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap06"></A> + +<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P172"></A>172}</SPAN> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +VI +</H3> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +THE TRIBUTE OF CRITICISM TO CHRIST +</H3> + +<BR><BR> + +<P CLASS="intro"> +'For their rock is not as our Rock, even our enemies themselves being +judges.'—DEUTERONOMY xxxii. 31. +</P> + +<P CLASS="intro"> +'He asked His disciples, saying, Whom do men say that I, the Son of +Man, am? And they said, Some say that Thou art John the Baptist; some +Elias; and others Jeremias or one of the prophets.'—S. MATTHEW xvi. +13, 14. +</P> + +<P CLASS="intro"> +'What think ye of Christ? Whose Son is He?—S. MATTHEW, xxii. 42. +</P> + +<P CLASS="intro"> +'And there was much murmuring among the people concerning Him: for some +said, He is a good man: others said, Nay, but He deceiveth the +people.'—S. JOHN vii. 12. +</P> + +<P CLASS="intro"> +'Then said Jesus unto the twelve, Will ye also go away? Then Simon +Peter answered Him, Lord, to whom shall we go? Thou hast the words of +eternal life.'—S. JOHN vi. 67, 68. +</P> + +<BR><BR> + +<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P173"></A>173}</SPAN> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +VI +</H3> + +<H4 ALIGN="center"> +THE TRIBUTE OF CRITICISM TO CHRIST[<A NAME="chap06fn1text"></A><A HREF="#chap06fn1">1</A>] +</H4> + +<P> +Of the investigations of modern criticism the most serious are those +which have concerned the person of our Lord. It has been felt both by +assailants and by defenders of the Faith that, so long as His supremacy +remains acknowledged, Christianity has not been overthrown. Other +doctrines once considered all-important may fall into comparative +abeyance: whether they are upheld or rejected or modified, matters +little to Christianity as Christianity. But more and more it has grown +clear that Christ Himself +<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P174"></A>174}</SPAN> +is the Article of a standing or a +falling Church. If this doctrine is not of God, if He is not the Way, +the Truth, and the Life, Christianity, whatever benefits may have been +associated with its career, must be ranked among religions which have +passed away. But so long as He is admitted to be the Authority and +standard in the moral and spiritual realm, so long as His name is above +every name, the work of destruction is not accomplished. +</P> + +<P> +Hence, renewed attempts have of late been made to tear the crown from +His brow, to reduce Him to the level of common men, to relegate Him to +the domain of myth, even to deny that He ever existed. Although, in +certain quarters at present, this last and extreme position is loudly +asserted, it is hardly necessary to occupy much time in examining it, +the trend of all criticism, even of the most rationalistic, being so +decidedly opposed to +<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P175"></A>175}</SPAN> +it. To deny that He existed is commonly +felt to be the outcome of the most arbitrary prejudice, the conclusions +of Whately's <I>Historic Doubts relative to Napoleon Buonaparte</I> +remaining grave and weighty in comparison. That Jesus of Nazareth +lived and taught and was crucified, that, immediately after His Death, +His disciples were proclaiming that He had risen, and was their living +inspiration, these are facts which can be denied only by the very +extravagance of scepticism. And the admission of these simple facts +implies a great deal more than is commonly supposed. +</P> + +<BR> + +<H4 ALIGN="center"> +I +</H4> + +<P> +It is the fashion for hostile critics to say, 'Christianity is not +dependent upon Christ: it is the creation of the semi-historical Paul, +not of the unhistorical Jesus. There is at best no more connection +between Christendom and Christ than between America and +<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P176"></A>176}</SPAN> +Amerigo +Vespucci.[<A NAME="chap06fn2text"></A><A HREF="#chap06fn2">2</A>] See how much Christians have been obliged to give up: see +how belief after belief has had to be surrendered; see how they are now +left with the merest fragment of their ancient Creed, how evidently +they will soon be compelled to part with the little to which they still +desperately cling.' The conclusion is somewhat hasty and premature. +The fragment which remains is after all the main portion of the Creed +of the early disciples. Where that fragment is declared and held and +lived in, there is the presence and the power of the Christian Faith. +We need not trouble ourselves about sundry points which, at one epoch +or another, have come to be denied or ignored: we need not say anything +either for them or against them. We have to take our stand on what is +accepted, not on what is rejected. And for the moment we may +<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P177"></A>177}</SPAN> +venture to take our stand only on what is accepted by the critics least +biassed in favour of the traditional views of Christendom. Those who +have come to imagine it to be a mark of advanced culture to break with +all religion, to confine their attention to the fleeting present, to +reject all that claims to have Divine sanction, may listen with respect +to the words of some who appear in fancied hostility to Christianity. +</P> + +<P> +We are not assuming that because men are great in Science or History or +Philosophy they must be great in spiritual things. Their achievements +in their own sphere, let us gratefully recognise; their uprightness, +their single-heartedness, let us imitate; and if by chance they are +sincere Christians as well as able men, let us rejoice; if they are not +professing Christians at all and yet bear witness to the beneficial +influence of Christianity and the unique power of the words and +character of Christ, let us hail with +<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P178"></A>178}</SPAN> +pleasure their tribute of +admiration as a testimony impartial and unanswerable to the +pre-eminence of our Lord, but let not our faith in God, our knowledge +of our Saviour, be dependent on their verdict. The Faith of the Gospel +does not stand or fall with their approval or disapproval. In matters +of criticism we do well to defer to scholars, in matters of science we +do well to defer to men of science. But in matters pertaining to the +inner life, to the development of character, to the knowledge of things +pure and lovely and of good report, such men have no exclusive claim to +be listened to. And it would be absurd to say that we cannot make up +our minds as to whether Christ is worthy to be revered and loved and +followed until we have ascertained what is said about Him by +authorities in physics, or geology, or astronomy, by statesmen or +novelists or writers of magazine articles, by inventors of ingenious +machines or authors of +<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P179"></A>179}</SPAN> +sensational stories. If they speak +scoffingly, if they do not recognise any sacredness in His Spirit and +Life, it will be impossible for us to take Him as our Moral and +Spiritual Guide. +</P> + +<P> +We might almost as well say that we will not trust the truthfulness or +goodness of our father or mother or brother or friend of many years, +unless, from persons eminent in literature or science or politics, we +have testimonials assuring us that our affection for those with whom we +are so closely associated is not a delusion. That is a matter, we +should all feel, with which the great and distinguished, however justly +great and distinguished, have really nothing to do. It is a matter for +ourselves, a matter in which our own experience is worth more than the +verdict of people, however learned in their own line, who do not, and +cannot, know the friend or relative as we know him ourselves. Still, +we regard it as an additional +<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P180"></A>180}</SPAN> +compliment to his worth, and an +additional confirmation of our own faith, if those who have been +jealously scrutinising his conduct declare that they can find no fault +in him.[<A NAME="chap06fn3text"></A><A HREF="#chap06fn3">3</A>] +</P> + +<P> +If it is made plain that the positive teaching of men unconnected with +any Church, untrammelled by any creed, is a virtual assertion of much +that is most dear to Christianity, if it is made plain that even where +there is strong denial there is also much reference to Christ, it may +have more weight than the most cogent arguments or the most glowing +appeals of orthodox divines or devout believers. The Evangelists +delight to record instances of unexpected, unfriendly, unimpeachable +testimony to the power of Christ. It is not only that the +simple-minded people were astonished at His doctrine, but that the +soldiers who were sent to silence Him +<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P181"></A>181}</SPAN> +returned, smitten with +amazement, saying, 'Never man spake like this Man.' It is not only +that a grateful penitent washed His Feet with tears, but that the +unprincipled governor who sentenced Him to death declared 'I find in +Him no fault at all.' It is not only that an Apostle confesses, 'Thou +art the Christ the Son of the Living God,' but that the centurion who +watched over His Crucifixion exclaimed, 'Certainly this was a Righteous +Man: this was a Son of God.' It is similar unprejudiced witness that +we may hear around us still, the witness of those who profess to have +another rule of life than ours, and to be in no degree influenced by +our traditions. We must not expect too much from this kind of +evidence: we must not expect clear logical proof of every article +rightly or wrongly identified with the popularly termed 'orthodox' +Creed. It would destroy the value of the evidence +<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P182"></A>182}</SPAN> +simply to +quote orthodox doctrines in orthodox language. What we rather offer is +the testimony of those who have resigned their grasp on much that we +may deem essential. It is because in a sense we may call them +'enemies' that we ask them to be 'judges' in the great controversy. It +is exactly because they are incredulous, or sceptical, or irreligious +that we cite them at all. We confine ourselves to the utterances of +men who are commonly cited as hostile to the commonly accepted Faith of +Christ, or who do not rank among the number of His nominal disciples, +or who at least have discussed His claims by critical and historical +methods, endeavouring fairly to take into account all the facts which +the circumstances warrant. We say to those who disown the authority of +Christ: It is not to the words of Evangelists or preachers that your +attention is sought: it is to the words of those whom you +<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P183"></A>183}</SPAN> +profess +to respect, of those because of whose supposed antagonism to +Christianity you are rejecting Him. We ask you to listen to them and +to consider whether He of Whom such men speak in such terms is to be so +lightly set aside as you have fancied. +</P> + +<BR> + +<H4 ALIGN="center"> +II +</H4> + +<P> +It will be strange if, accepting even that scanty creed, we do not find +ourselves speedily accepting much more. When it is heartily +acknowledged that Jesus of Nazareth lived and died, and that His first +followers found strength and irresistible power in the conviction that +He had conquered death and the grave, it is of necessity that we go +further. The extreme sceptics who maintain that He never existed are, +for the purpose of controversy, wise in their generation, for, once His +existence is admitted, His mysterious power begins to tell. We are +confronted +<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P184"></A>184}</SPAN> +with an Influence by which, consciously or +unconsciously, we must be affected, a knowledge which we must acquire, +an Authority to which we must bow. Let us not think merely of those +who have, in utter devotion, yielded their hearts and souls to Him +through all the centuries, of the institutions and customs which owe +their existence directly to Him; let us think of the manifestations +which are so often visible in those who do not suspect whence the +manifestations come, let us think of the tributes of affection, of +homage, of devotion which are paid by those to whom the ancient faith +in His Divinity appears to be an illusion or an impossible exaggeration. +</P> + +<P> +Scarcely any critic of recent years has been regarded as more +destructive than Professor Schmiedel. Indignant attack after indignant +attack has been made upon him for arguing that only nine sayings +attributed to our Lord can be accepted as genuine, that +<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P185"></A>185}</SPAN> +all else +is involved in suspicion. What Schmiedel really does maintain is that +these nine sayings must of necessity be accepted as genuine, cannot be +rejected by any sane canon of criticism, and that the acceptance of +these nine sayings, these 'foundation-pillars,' compels the acceptance +of a great deal besides. '<I>What then have I gained in these nine +foundation pillars</I>? You will perhaps say "Very little": I reply, "I +have gained just enough." Having them, I know that Jesus must really +have come forward in the way He is said to have done.... In a word, I +know, on the one hand, that His Person cannot be referred to the region +of myth; on the other hand, that He was man in the full sense of the +term, and that, without of course denying that the Divine character was +in Him, this could be found only in the shape in which it can be found +in any human being. I think, therefore, that if we knew no more we +should +<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P186"></A>186}</SPAN> +know by no means little about Him. But as a matter of +fact the foundation-pillars are but the starting-point for our study of +the life of Jesus.'[<A NAME="chap06fn4text"></A><A HREF="#chap06fn4">4</A>] And this study, he concludes, gives us nothing +less than 'pretty well the whole bulk of Jesus' teaching, in so far as +its object is to explain in a purely religious and ethical way what God +requires of man and wherein man requires comfort and consolation from +God.' The standpoint of Professor Schmiedel is not the standpoint of +the Church as a whole: he fearlessly and aggressively endeavours to +remove any misconception on that subject: all the more remarkable that, +renouncing so much, he incontrovertibly establishes so much, +incontrovertibly establishes, we may not unreasonably contend, a great +deal more than he admits: he cannot, we may think, stop logically where +he does. All this may, or may not, be legitimately argued: there can +<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P187"></A>187}</SPAN> +be no doubt that one whose dislike of traditional dogmas is +excessive, and whose scrutiny of the Gospel records is minute and +unsparing, forces us to say of Jesus, What manner of Man is this? +</P> + +<P> +It is the same with the general tendency of modern criticism. From the +day that Strauss accomplished his destructive work, the Figure of Jesus +as a Historical Reality has been more and more endowed with power.[<A NAME="chap06fn5text"></A><A HREF="#chap06fn5">5</A>] +No age has so occupied itself with Him, none has so endeavoured to +recall the features of His character, to apply His teachings to the +solution of social questions, as this age of ruthless inquiry. The +inquirers may have abjured tradition, but almost without exception they +have profoundly reverenced, if they have not actually worshipped, Jesus +of Nazareth, and they have found in His Gospel moral and spiritual +light and life. +</P> + +<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P188"></A>188}</SPAN> + +<P> +Some thirty years ago, M. André Lefčvre, a fervid disciple of +Materialism, an uncompromising and bitter opponent of every symptom of +religious manifestation, could not help discerning 'with the +clairvoyance of hatred,' the influence of Christianity in modern +thought. 'Descartes, Leibnitz, Locke, Condillac, Newton, Bonnet, Kant, +Hegel, Spinoza himself, Toland and Priestley, Rousseau, all are +Christians somewhere.... Voltaire himself has not completely +eliminated the virus: his Deism is not exempt from it.'[<A NAME="chap06fn6text"></A><A HREF="#chap06fn6">6</A>] The same +thing is still occurring. In the most unexpected quarters we find the +fascination of Christ remaining. Men not acknowledging themselves to +be His followers, defiantly proclaiming that they are not His +followers, that they can hardly be even interested in Him, are yet +perpetually returning, in what they themselves will confess as their +higher moments, to the thought of +<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P189"></A>189}</SPAN> +Him, trying to make plain why +it is that for them there is in Him no beauty that they should desire +Him. For example, this is how Mr. H. G. Wells, the popular author of +so many imaginative works, attempts frankly to explain his attitude: +</P> + +<P> +'I hope I shall offend no susceptibilities when I assert that this +great and very definite Personality in the hearts and imaginations of +mankind does not, and never has, attracted me. It is a fact I record +about myself without aggression or regret. I do not find myself able +to associate him in any way with the emotion of salvation.' But Mr. +Wells goes on to say: 'I admit the splendid imaginative appeal in the +idea of a divine human friend and mediator. If it were possible to +have access by prayer, by meditation, by urgent outcries of the soul, +to such a being whose feet were in the darknesses, who stooped down +from the light, who was at once great and little, limitless in power +<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P190"></A>190}</SPAN> +and virtue, and one's very brother; if it were possible by sheer +will in believing to make and make one's way to such a helper, who +would refuse such help? But I do not find such a being in Christ. I +do not find, I cannot imagine such a being. I wish I could. To me the +Christian Christ seems not so much a humanised God as an +incomprehensibly sinless being, neither God nor man. His sinlessness +wears his incarnation like a fancy dress, all his white self unchanged. +He had no petty weaknesses. Now the essential trouble of my life is +its petty weaknesses. If I am to have that love, that sense of +understanding fellowship which is, I conceive, the peculiar magic and +merit of this idea of a Personal Saviour, then I need some one quite +other than this image of virtue, this terrible and incomprehensible +Galilean with his crown of thorns, his bloodstained hands and feet. I +cannot love him any more than I can love a man +<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P191"></A>191}</SPAN> +upon the rack.' +'The Christian's Christ is too fine for me, not incarnate enough, not +flesh enough, not earth enough. He was never foolish and hot-eared and +inarticulate, never vain, he never forgot things, nor tangled his +miracles.'[<A NAME="chap06fn7text"></A><A HREF="#chap06fn7">7</A>] +</P> + +<P> +There is no disputing about tastes; and it is impossible to refute one +who tells us that he cannot see and cannot understand, though we may +lament and be astonished at his disabilities. Why a man upon the rack +should not be loved, or why the prime qualification for the Saviour of +mankind should be the plentiful possession of petty weaknesses, or why +it should be necessary for Him to be sometimes foolish and to have a +bad memory, or what necessary connection there is between hot-ears and +the salvation of the world, need not detain us long. For in spite of +this apparently curious longing for a Deliverer who shall be weak and +vain +<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P192"></A>192}</SPAN> +and forgetful and hot-eared, and foolish, and of the earth +earthy, Mr. Wells shows us that the urgent outcry of his soul is for a +Being limitless in power and virtue and one's very brother; and though +he says that he does not find such a Being in Christ, it is exactly +what Christians have in all ages been finding. 'We have not an High +Priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities, but +was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin. Let us +therefore come boldly unto the Throne of Grace that we may obtain mercy +and find grace to help in times of need.' +</P> + +<BR> + +<H4 ALIGN="center"> +III +</H4> + +<P> +The instance which we have cited is exceptional among modern doubters, +among those who have deliberately set themselves without violent +prejudice to study the claims of Christianity. Be it in poetry or +prose, in scientific criticism or in imaginative +<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P193"></A>193}</SPAN> +biography, with +remarkable unanimity, while stubbornly refusing to accept the Creed of +the Church, they so depict Him that the natural conclusion of their +representation is, 'Oh, come let us adore Him.' There is scarcely any +of them who would not sympathise with the admission and aspiration of +B. Wimmer in his confession, <I>My Struggle for Light</I>: 'I cannot but +love this unique Child of God with all the fervour of my soul, I cannot +but lift up eyes full of reverence and rapture to this Personality in +whom the highest and most sacred virtues which can move the heart of +man shine forth in spotless purity throughout the ages. Even if many a +trait in His portrait, as the Gospels sketch it for us, be more +legendary than historical, yet I feel that here a man stands before me, +a man who really lived and has a place in history like that of no other +man: indeed I feel that even the legends concerning Him possess a truth +in that they spring from the +<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P194"></A>194}</SPAN> +Spirit which passed from Him into +His Church. I know what I have to thank Him for. I would in my inmost +self be so closely united with Him that He may live in my spirit and +bear absolute sway in my soul. I will not be ashamed of His Cross and +I will gladly endure the insults which men have directed, and still +often enough direct, against Him and His truth.' +</P> + +<P> +That is the characteristic and dominant note of the more recent +criticism. The almost universal conclusion is that the Perfect Ideal +has been depicted in the Christ of the Gospels, and has been depicted +because the Reality had been seen in Jesus of Nazareth.[<A NAME="chap06fn8text"></A><A HREF="#chap06fn8">8</A>] Is it not +allowable to declare that the writers, let them say what they will +about their rejection of the doctrine of the Church concerning the +Incarnation and the Atonement of Christ, are practically His disciples, +that the ardour of their faith in Him not +<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P195"></A>195}</SPAN> +infrequently puts to +shame the coldness of us who call Him Lord?[<A NAME="chap06fn9text"></A><A HREF="#chap06fn9">9</A>] There is scarcely +extravagance in the assertion that, as we recognise the part which +Strauss and Renan played, and the unconscious help which they rendered, +'we may well say now "<I>noster</I>" Strauss and "<I>noster</I>" Renan. They +were, in their measure, and, according to their respective abilities, +defenders of the Faith.'[<A NAME="chap06fn10text"></A><A HREF="#chap06fn10">10</A>] While it is possible to lament that among +Christian apologists there are timid surrenders and faithless +forebodings, it is yet more possible to reply that 'Whereas our critics +were at one time infidels and our bitter enemies, they are now proud of +the name of Christian and ready to be the friends, as far as that is +permitted, of every form of orthodoxy in Christianity.'[<A NAME="chap06fn11text"></A><A HREF="#chap06fn11">11</A>] +</P> + +<P> +The language in which, at any rate, they express their conception of +Him is sometimes +<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P196"></A>196}</SPAN> +more devout, more exalted, than the language +which used to be employed by professed apologists. The Hindu Theist, +Protab Chandra Mozoomdar, who stood outside the fold of Christianity, +joyfully proclaimed, 'Christ reigns. As the law of the spirit of +heavenly life, He reigns in the bosom of every believer.... Christ +reigns as the recogniser of Divine humanity in the fallen, the low, and +the despicable, as the healer of the unhappy, the unclean, and the sore +distressed. Reigns He not in the sweet humanity that goes forth to +seek and to save its kin in every land and clime, to teach and preach, +and raise and reclaim, to weep and watch and give repose? He reigns as +sweet patience and sober reason amid the laws and orders of the world; +as the spirit of submission and loyalty He reigns in peace in the +kingdoms of the world.... Christ reigns in the individual who feebly +watches His footprints in the tangled mazes of life. +<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P197"></A>197}</SPAN> +He reigns +in the community that is bound together in His name. As Divine +Humanity, and the Son of God, He reigns gloriously around us in the New +Dispensation.'[<A NAME="chap06fn12text"></A><A HREF="#chap06fn12">12</A>] +</P> + +<P> +Or listen to the rhapsody with which Mrs. Besant, once an Atheist, now +a Theosophist, depicts His influence from age to age: 'His the steady +inpouring of truth into every brain ready to receive it, so that hand +stretched out to hand across the centuries and passed on the torch of +knowledge, which thus was never extinguished. His the Form which stood +beside the rack and in the flames of the burning pile, cheering His +confessors and His martyrs, soothing the anguish of their pains and +filling their hearts with His peace. His the impulse which spoke in +the thunder of Savonarola, which guided the calm wisdom of Erasmus, +which inspired the deep ethics of the God-intoxicated Spinoza.... His +the beauty that allured Fra +<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P198"></A>198}</SPAN> +Angelico and Raphael and Leonardo da +Vinci, that inspired the genius of Michael Angelo, that shone before +the eyes of Murillo, and that gave the power that raised the marvels of +the world, the Duomo of Milan, the San Marco of Venice, the Cathedral +of Florence. His the melody that breathed in the Masses of Mozart, the +sonatas of Beethoven, the oratorios of Handel, the fugues of Bach, the +austere splendour of Brahms. Through the long centuries He has striven +and laboured, and, with all the mighty burden of the Churches to carry, +He has never left uncared for and unsolaced one human heart that cried +to Him for help.'[<A NAME="chap06fn13text"></A><A HREF="#chap06fn13">13</A>] When we read sentences like these by themselves +we say, Here is unqualified acceptance of the Christian Faith. And +even when we are told that we must not take the sentences in their +literal and natural meaning, that they apply not to Him Whose earthly +<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P199"></A>199}</SPAN> +career is sketched in the Gospels, but to an Ideal Being evolved +out of the writer's imagination, we are surely entitled to answer, It +is of Jesus that the words are spoken, whether their meaning is to be +taken literally or figuratively; if they have any meaning at all, they +indicate a Being without a parallel. That there should be so +extraordinary a conflict of opinion regarding Him, that the greatest +intellects as well as the simplest souls should hail Him as Divine, +that the most critical should still find their explanations +insufficient to account for the impression which He made upon His +contemporaries and continues to wield to this day, at least renders Him +absolutely unique. Men may disbelieve a great deal; they cannot +disbelieve that this Amazing Personality has a place in the heart of +the world which no other has ever occupied. The alleged imaginary +Ideal has had on earth only one approximate Embodiment. Nay, we are +<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P200"></A>200}</SPAN> +forced to confess, without the actual Character disclosed from +Nazareth to Calvary, the Ideal would never have been conceived. +</P> + +<BR> + +<H4 ALIGN="center"> +IV +</H4> + +<P> +Robert Browning has described in his <I>Christmas Eve</I> a certain German +professor lecturing upon the myth of Christ and the sources whence it +is derivable. But as the listeners wait for the inference that faith +in Him should henceforth be discarded, 'he bids us,' says the supposed +narrator of the story, 'when we least expect it take back our faith': +</P> + +<P CLASS="poem"> +Go home and venerate the myth<BR> +I thus have experimented with.<BR> +This Man, continue to adore Him<BR> +Rather than all who went before Him,<BR> +And all who ever followed after.<BR> +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +This is a correct though humorous summary of much prevalent scepticism. +While critics destroy with the one hand, they build up +<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P201"></A>201}</SPAN> +with the +other; while they seem intent on rooting out every remnant of trust in +Christ, they frequently conclude by passionately beseeching us to make +Him our Model and our King, our Pattern and our Guide. If there is +anything which is calculated at once to arouse us who profess and call +ourselves Christians and to make us ashamed, it is that the diligence +with which His Example is followed, the earnestness with which His +words are studied, by some whom we hold to have abandoned the Catholic +Faith, throw into the shade the obedience, the love, the earnestness +which prevail among ourselves. They who follow not with us are casting +out devils in His name. It is with us, they are careful to say, and +not with Him that they are waging war. They may dispute the incidents +of His recorded Life: they may insist on reducing Him to the level of +humanity, but they also insist that in so doing they act according to +His Own +<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P202"></A>202}</SPAN> +Mind, that they refuse, for the very love which they bear +Him, to surround Him with a glory which He would have rejected. Devoid +of the errors which have led astray His successors, exalted far above +the wisest and the best of those who have spoken in His Name, it is the +function of criticism to show Him in His fashion as He lived, to sweep +away the falsehoods which have gathered round Him in the course of +ages.[<A NAME="chap06fn14text"></A><A HREF="#chap06fn14">14</A>] +</P> + +<P> +We do not seek to read into the emotional language of such writers a +significance which they would repudiate, but we are surely entitled to +point out that in spite of themselves they are bringing their tribute +of homage to the King of the Jews, the King of all mankind. They grant +so much that, it seems to us, they must grant yet more. We, at any +rate, cannot stop where they deem themselves obliged to stop. We must +go further, we hear other voices swell the +<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P203"></A>203}</SPAN> +chorus of adoration, +we have the witness not only of those who, in awe and wonderment have +exclaimed, 'Truly this was a Son of God,' but we have the witness of +those who from heartfelt conviction are able to say, 'The life which I +now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, Who loved +me and gave Himself for me.' And to them we humbly hope to be able to +respond, 'Now we believe not because of the language of others, whether +honest doubters or devout disciples, for we have heard Him ourselves, +and know that this is indeed the Christ, the Saviour of the world.' +</P> + +<P> +'Restate our doctrines as we may,' to sum up all in the words of one +who began his career as a teacher in the confidence that Jesus of +Nazareth was merely a man, but whom closer study and deepening +experience have brought to a fuller faith, 'reconstruct our theologies +as we will, this age, like every age, beholds in Him the Way to God, +the +<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P204"></A>204}</SPAN> +Truth of God, the Life of God lived out among men: this age, +like every age, has heard and responds to His call, "Come unto Me all +ye that labour and are heavy laden and I will give you rest": this age, +like every age, finds access to the Father through the Son. These +things no criticism can shake, these certainties no philosophy +disprove, these facts no science dissolve away. He is the Religion +which He taught: and while the race of man endures, men will turn to +the crucified Son of Man, not with a grudging, "Thou hast conquered, O +Galilean!" but with the joyful, grateful cry, "My Lord and my God."'[<A NAME="chap06fn15text"></A><A HREF="#chap06fn15">15</A>] +</P> + +<BR> + +<H4 ALIGN="center"> +V +</H4> + +<P> +He who was lifted up on the Cross is drawing all men to Himself, wise +and unwise, friend and foe, devout and doubting, is ruling even where +His authority is disavowed, is +<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P205"></A>205}</SPAN> +causing hearts to adore where +intellects rebel. The patriotic English baron, Simon de Montfort, as +he saw the Royal forces under Prince Edward come against him, was +filled with admiration of their discipline and bearing. 'By the arm of +S. James,' he cried, recalling with soldierly pride that to himself +they owed in great measure their skill, 'they come on well: they +learned that not of themselves, but of me.' The Church of Christ, when +confronted with the benevolence, the integrity, the zeal of some who +are arrayed against her, may naturally say, 'They live well indeed: +they learned that not of themselves, but of me.' 'You are probably,' +was the homely expostulation of Benjamin Franklin with Thomas Paine, +'you are probably indebted to Religion for the habits of virtue on +which you so justly value yourself. You might easily display your +excellent talents of reasoning upon a less hazardous subject, and +thereby obtain a rank amongst +<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P206"></A>206}</SPAN> +our most distinguished authors. +For among us,' continued Franklin satirically, 'it is not necessary, as +among the Hottentots, that a youth, to be raised into the company of +men, should prove his manhood by beating his mother.' The blows +inflicted on Christianity come from unfilial hands and hearts, from +hands and hearts which have been strengthened and nurtured on +Christianity itself, from hands and hearts which, but for the lingering +Christianity that still impels them, would soon be paralysed and dead. +The ideals which systems intended to supersede Christianity set before +them are, to all intents and purposes, only Christianity under another +name. Where the ideals go beyond ordinary Christian practice, they are +only a nearer approximation to the Supreme Ideal which has never been +fulfilled save in Jesus Christ Himself. Wherever there is truth in +them which is not generally accepted, or which comes as a surprise, +investigation +<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P207"></A>207}</SPAN> +will show that it is an aspect of Christianity +which Christians have been neglecting, that it is a manifestation of +the mind of Christ, a development of His principles. Look where we +will, the men that are making real moral and spiritual progress are +those who are in touch with Him. Their beliefs about Him may not be +accurate, their conception of His nature and work may be defective, but +it is His Name, His Spirit, His Power, it is Himself that is the secret +of their life. One part of His teaching has sunk into their hearts, +one element of His character has mysteriously impressed them. They +have touched the hem of His garment, the shadow of His Apostle passing +by has glided over them, and they have been roused from weakness and +death. 'He that was healed wist not Who it was, for Jesus had conveyed +Himself away.' So it happened in the days of His flesh: so is it +happening still: they that are set free may not yet know to Whom +<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P208"></A>208}</SPAN> +their freedom is to be ascribed. Now, as on the way to Emmaus, when +men are communing together and reasoning, Jesus Himself may be walking +with them, though their eyes are holden that they do not know Him. +John Stuart Mill, whose acute intellect, whose spotless rectitude, +whose public spirit, whose non-religious training naturally made him +the idol of those to whom Christianity was a bygone superstition, came +in his later days, not indeed to accept the orthodox creed, but yet to +stretch out his longing hand to Christ, believing that He might have +'unique commission from God to lead mankind to truth and virtue.' +George Eliot, whose genius was ever labouring to fill up the void which +the rejection of her early faith had made, consoled her dying hours, as +she had inspired her most ennobling pages, with the <I>Imitation of +Christ</I>. Matthew Arnold, most cultured of critics, joins hands with +the most fervid of evangelists in maintaining that +<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P209"></A>209}</SPAN> +'there is no +way to righteousness but the way of Jesus.' The name of Christ—none +other name under heaven given among men will ever prove a substitute +for that. +</P> + +<P> +Renouncing faith in Christ, is there life, is there salvation for man +to be found in the doctrines, the names, the influences which are so +vehemently extolled? Is there one of them which so satisfies the +cravings of the heart, which enkindles such glorious hopes, which +inspires to such holy living, which inculcates so universal a +brotherhood, as Christianity? Is there one of them which, at the best, +is more than a keeping of despair at bay, than a resolute acceptance of +utter overthrow, than a blindness to the tremendous issues which are +involved?[<A NAME="chap06fn16text"></A><A HREF="#chap06fn16">16</A>] Will the culture which is devoted, and cannot but be +devoted, exclusively to the outward, which imparts a knowledge of +Science or Art or Literature, be found sufficient to +<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P210"></A>210}</SPAN> +rescue men +from the slavery of sin or from the torment of doubt? Will the +progress which is altogether occupied with the material and the +physical, with providing better houses and better food and better +wages, produce happiness without alloy and remove the sting and dread +of death?[<A NAME="chap06fn17text"></A><A HREF="#chap06fn17">17</A>] Will the reiteration of the dogma that we are but +fleeting shadows, that there is nothing to hope for in the future, that +we are all the victims of delusion, tend to elevate and benefit our +downcast race? Will the attempt to worship what has never been made +known, what is simply darkness and mystery, be more successful in +raising men above themselves than the worship of the Righteousness and +the Love which have been made manifest in Christ? Will the attempt to +supplant the worship of Jesus Christ, in Whom was no sin, by the +worship of Humanity at large, of Humanity stained with guilt and crime +as +<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P211"></A>211}</SPAN> +well as illumined here and there with deeds of heroism, of +Humanity sunk to the level of the brutes as well as exalted to the +level of whatever we may suppose to be the highest, seeing that there +is really no higher existence with which to compare it—will this +worship of itself, with all its baseness and imperfection, this turning +of mankind into a Mutual Adoration Society, make Humanity divine? Will +even the assurance that far-distant ages will have new inventions, +fairer laws, more abundant wealth be any deliverance to us from our +burdens, any salvation from our individual sorrow and guilt and shame? +Can we to whom the likeness of Christ has been shown, can we imagine +that any of these efforts to answer the yearning of mankind for +deliverance from the body of this death will prove an efficient +substitute for Him? And if we forsake Him, it must be in one or other +of these directions that we go. +</P> + +<BR> + +<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P212"></A>212}</SPAN> + +<H4 ALIGN="center"> +VI +</H4> + +<P> +But the signs of the times are full of hope. In social work at home, +in the progress of missions abroad, in revivals of one kind and +another, in growing reverence for holy things, in a renewed interest in +religion as the most vital of all topics, even in strange spiritual +manifestations not within the Church, we have, amid all that is +discouraging and depressing, indication of the coming kingdom. The +cry, 'Back to Christ,' with all the truth that is in it, is only half a +truth if it does not also mean 'Forward to Christ.' He is before us as +well as behind us, and the Hope of the World is the gathering together +of all things in Him. Should there be, as there has been over and over +again in days gone by, a widespread unbelief, a rejection of His Divine +Revelation, of this we may be sure—it will be only for a time. When +the sceptical physician, in Tennyson's poem, murmured: +</P> + +<P CLASS="poem"> +'The good Lord Jesus has had his day,'<BR> +</P> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P213"></A>213}</SPAN> +the believing nurse made the comment: +</P> + +<P CLASS="poem"> +'Had? has it come? It has only dawned: it will<BR> +<SPAN STYLE="margin-left: 2em">come by and by.'</SPAN><BR> +</P> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +A thought most sad, though most inspiring. 'Only dawned.' Why is +Christianity after all these centuries only beginning to be manifested? +It is at least partly because of the apathy, the divisions, the evil +lives of us who profess and call ourselves Christians, because we have +wrangled about the secondary and the comparatively unimportant, and +have neglected the weightier matters of the law, because we have so +left to those beyond the Church the duty of proclaiming and enforcing +principles which our Lord and His Apostles put in the forefront of +their teaching. We have narrowed the Kingdom of Christ, we have +claimed too little for Him, we have forgotten that He has to do with +the secular as well as with the spiritual, that He must be King of the +Nation as well as of the Church. But now in the growing +<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P214"></A>214}</SPAN> +prominence of Social Questions, which so many fear as an evidence of +the waning of religion, have we not an incentive to show that the +social must be pervaded by the religious, that our duties to one +another are no small part of the Kingdom of Christ? For all sorts and +conditions of men, for masters and servants, for rulers and ruled, for +employers and employed, there is ever accumulating proof that only as +they bear themselves towards each other in the spirit of the New +Testament can there be true harmony and mutual respect; that only, in +short, as the kingdoms of this world become the kingdom of our Lord and +of His Christ will men in reality bear one another's burdens; that only +as the Everlasting Gospel of the Everlasting Love prevails will all +strife and contention, whether personal or political or ecclesiastical +or national, come to an end; that only as men enter into the fellowship +of that Son of Man Who came not to be +<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P215"></A>215}</SPAN> +ministered unto but to +minister and to give His Life a ransom for many will the glorious +vision of old be fulfilled: I saw in the night vision, and behold One +like the Son of Man came with the clouds of heaven and came to the +Ancient of Days and they brought Him near before Him. And there was +given Him dominion and glory and a kingdom, that all people, nations +and languages shall serve Him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion +which shall not pass away and His kingdom that which shall not be +destroyed. +</P> + +<BR><BR> + +<P CLASS="footnote"> +<A NAME="chap06fn1"></A> +[<A HREF="#chap06fn1text">1</A>] In this Lecture are included some paragraphs from a sermon long out +of print, <I>The Witness of Scepticism to Christ</I>, preached before the +Synod of Lothian and Tweeddale. +</P> + +<P CLASS="footnote"> +<A NAME="chap06fn2"></A> +[<A HREF="#chap06fn2text">2</A>] G. Lommel, <I>Jesus von Nazareth</I> (quoted in Pfannmüller's <I>Jesus im +Urteil der Jahrhunderte</I>). +</P> + +<P CLASS="footnote"> +<A NAME="chap06fn3"></A> +[<A HREF="#chap06fn3text">3</A>] <A HREF="#append23">Appendix XXIII.</A> +</P> + +<P CLASS="footnote"> +<A NAME="chap06fn4"></A> +[<A HREF="#chap06fn4text">4</A>] <I>Jesus in Modern Criticism</I>. +</P> + +<P CLASS="footnote"> +<A NAME="chap06fn5"></A> +[<A HREF="#chap06fn5text">5</A>] H. Weinel, <I>Jesus im neunzehnten Jahrhundert</I>. +</P> + +<P CLASS="footnote"> +<A NAME="chap06fn6"></A> +[<A HREF="#chap06fn6text">6</A>] Quoted in E. Naville, <I>Le Témoignage du Christ</I>. +</P> + +<P CLASS="footnote"> +<A NAME="chap06fn7"></A> +[<A HREF="#chap06fn7text">7</A>] <I>First and Last Things: a Confession of Faith and Rule of Life</I>. +</P> + +<P CLASS="footnote"> +<A NAME="chap06fn8"></A> +[<A HREF="#chap06fn8text">8</A>] <A HREF="#append24">Appendix XXIV.</A> +</P> + +<P CLASS="footnote"> +<A NAME="chap06fn9"></A> +[<A HREF="#chap06fn9text">9</A>] <A HREF="#append25">Appendix XXV.</A> +</P> + +<P CLASS="footnote"> +<A NAME="chap06fn10"></A> +[<A HREF="#chap06fn10text">10</A>] <I>Lux Hominum</I>, Preface. +</P> + +<P CLASS="footnote"> +<A NAME="chap06fn11"></A> +[<A HREF="#chap06fn11text">11</A>] <I>Lux Hominum</I>, p. 84. +</P> + +<P CLASS="footnote"> +<A NAME="chap06fn12"></A> +[<A HREF="#chap06fn12text">12</A>] <I>The Oriental Christ</I>. +</P> + +<P CLASS="footnote"> +<A NAME="chap06fn13"></A> +[<A HREF="#chap06fn13text">13</A>] <I>Esoteric Christianity</I>. +</P> + +<P CLASS="footnote"> +<A NAME="chap06fn14"></A> +[<A HREF="#chap06fn14text">14</A>] <A HREF="#append26">Appendix XXVI.</A> +</P> + +<P CLASS="footnote"> +<A NAME="chap06fn15"></A> +[<A HREF="#chap06fn15text">15</A>] J. Warschauer, <I>The New Evangel</I>. +</P> + +<P CLASS="footnote"> +<A NAME="chap06fn16"></A> +[<A HREF="#chap06fn16text">16</A>] <A HREF="#append27">Appendix XXVII.</A> +</P> + +<P CLASS="footnote"> +<A NAME="chap06fn17"></A> +[<A HREF="#chap06fn17text">17</A>] <A HREF="#append28">Appendix XXVIII.</A> +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="appendix"></A> +<A NAME="append01"></A> + +<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P219"></A>219}</SPAN> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +APPENDICES +</H3> + +<BR> + +<H4 ALIGN="center"> +APPENDIX I +</H4> + +<P> +'I hope no reader imagines me so weak to stand up in defence of real +Christianity such as used in primitive times (if we may believe the +authors of those ages) to have an influence upon men's beliefs and +actions. To offer at the restoring of that would indeed be a wild +project: it would be to dig up foundations: to destroy at one blow all +the wit and half the learning of the kingdom, to break the entire frame +and constitution of things, to ruin trade, extinguish arts and +sciences, with the professors of them; in short, to turn our courts, +exchanges, and shops into deserts; and would be full as absurd as the +proposal of Horace, where he advises the Romans all in a body, to leave +their city, and seek a new seat in some remote part of the world, by +way of cure for the corruption of their manners.'—DEAN SWIFT, <I>An +Argument to Prove that the Abolishing of Christianity in England may, +as things now stand, be attended with some Inconveniences</I>. +</P> + +<BR><BR> + +<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P220"></A>220}</SPAN> + +<A NAME="append02"></A> +<H4 ALIGN="center"> +APPENDIX II +</H4> + +<P> +While the state of our race is such as to need all our mutual +devotedness, all our aspiration, all our resources of courage, hope, +faith, and good cheer, the disciples of the Christian Creed and +Morality are called upon, day by day, to work out their own salvation +with fear and trembling and so forth. Such exhortations are too low +for even the wavering mood and quacked morality of a time of +theological suspense and uncertainty. In the extinction of that +suspense and the discrediting of that selfish quacking I see the +prospect for future generations of a purer and loftier virtue, and a +truer and sweeter heroism than divines who preach such self-seeking can +conceive of.'—HARRIET MARTINEAU, <I>Autobiography</I>, vol. ii. p. 461. +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +'Noble morality is classic morality, the morality of Greece, of Rome, +of Renaissance Italy, of ancient India. But Christian morality is +slave morality <I>in excelsis</I>. For the essence of Christian morality is +the desire of the individual to be saved: his consciousness of power is +so small that he lives in hourly peril of damnation and death and +yearns thus for the arms of some saving grace.'—<I>F. Nietzsche</I>, by A. +R. Orage, p. 53. +</P> + +<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P221"></A>221}</SPAN> + +<P> +'They [Christians] have never learnt to love, to think, to trust. They +have been nursed and bred and swaddled and fed on fear. They are +afraid of death: they are afraid of truth: they are afraid of human +nature: they are afraid of God.... They deal in a poor kind of old +wives' fables, of lackadaisical dreams, of discredited sorcery, and +white magic, and call it religion and the holy of holies. They wander +about in a sickly soil of intellectual moonshine, where they mistake +the dense and sombre shadows for substances. They want to stop the +clocks of time that it may never be day, and to hoodwink the eyes of +the nations that they may lead the people as so many blind.'—ROBERT +BLATCHFORD, <I>Clarion</I>, March 3, 1905. +</P> + +<BR><BR> + +<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P222"></A>222}</SPAN> + +<A NAME="append03"></A> +<H4 ALIGN="center"> +APPENDIX III +</H4> + +<P> +'In Georgia, indeed, as the Jesuits had found it in South America, the +vicinity of a white settlement would have proved the more formidable +obstacle to the conversion of the Indian. When Tounchichi was urged to +listen to the doctrines of Christianity, he keenly replied, "Why, there +are Christians at Savannah! there are Christians at Frederica!" Nor +was it without good apparent reason that the poor savage exclaimed, +"Christian much drunk! Christian beat men! Christian tell lies! +Devil Christian! Me no Christian!"'—SOUTHEY, <I>Life of John Wesley</I>, +vol. i. p. 57. +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +'I was then carried in spirit to the mines where poor oppressed people +were digging rich treasures for those called Christians, and heard them +blaspheme the name of Christ, at which I was grieved, for to me His +name was precious. I was then informed that these heathens were told +that those who oppressed them were the followers of Christ, and they +said among themselves, "If Christ directed them to use us in this sort, +this Christ is a cruel tyrant."'—<I>Journal of John Woolman</I>, p. 264. +</P> + +<BR><BR> + +<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P223"></A>223}</SPAN> + +<A NAME="append04"></A> +<H4 ALIGN="center"> +APPENDIX IV +</H4> + +<P> +'What many upright and ardent souls have rejected is a misconception, a +caricature, a subjective Christianity of their own, a traditional +delusion, which no more resembles real Christianity than the +conventional Christ of the painted church window resembles Jesus Christ +of Nazareth. It is true that at this moment the great majority of the +people of this country never go to any place of worship, and this is +yet more the case on the Continent of Europe. Does it in the least +degree indicate that the masses of the European nations have weighed +Christianity in the balance and found it wanting? Nothing of the sort. +The overwhelming majority of them have not the faintest conception of +what Christianity is. I myself have met a great number of so-called +"Agnostics" and "Atheists" in our universities, among our working-men, +and in society, but I have never yet met one who had rejected the +Christianity of Christ.'—HUGH PRICE HUGHES, Preface to <I>Ethical +Christianity</I>. +</P> + +<BR><BR> + +<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P224"></A>224}</SPAN> + +<A NAME="append05"></A> +<H4 ALIGN="center"> +APPENDIX V +</H4> + +<P> +'Wheresoever Christianity has breathed it has accelerated the movement +of humanity. It has quickened the pulses of life, it has stimulated +the incentives of thought, it has turned the passions into peace, it +has warmed the heart into brotherhood, it has fanned the imagination +into genius, it has freshened the soul into purity. The progress of +Christian Europe has been the progress of mind over matter. It has +been the progress of intellect over force, of political right over +arbitrary power, of human liberty over the chains of slavery, of moral +law over social corruption, of order over anarchy, of enlightenment +over ignorance, of life over death. As we survey this spectacle of the +past, we are impressed that this study of history is the strongest +evidence for God. We hear no argument from design but we feel the +breath of the Designer. We see the universal life moulding the +individual lives, the one Will dominating many wills, the Infinite +Wisdom utilising the finite folly, the changeless truth permeating the +restless error, the boundless beneficence bringing blessing out of +all.... And what shall we say of the future? ... Ours is a position in +some respects analogous to that of the mediaeval world: the landmarks +of the past are fading, the lights in the future are but dimly seen. +Yet it is the study of the landmarks that helps us to wait for the +light, and our highest hope is born of memory. In the view +<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P225"></A>225}</SPAN> +of +that retrospect, we cannot long despair. We may have moments of +heart-sickness when we look exclusively at the present hour: we may +have times of despondency when we measure only what the eye can see. +But looking on the accumulated results of bygone ages as they lie open +to the gaze of history, the scientific conclusion at which we must +arrive is this, that the course of Christianity shall be, or has been, +the path of a shining light, shining more and more unto the perfect +day.'—G. MATHESON, <I>Growth of the Spirit of Christianity</I> (chap, +xxxviii., 'Dawn of a New Day'). +</P> + +<BR><BR> + +<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P226"></A>226}</SPAN> + +<A NAME="append06"></A> +<H4 ALIGN="center"> +APPENDIX VI +</H4> + +<P> +'Shadows and figments as they appear to us to be in themselves, these +attempts to provide a substitute for Religion are of the highest +importance, as showing that men of great powers of mind, who have +thoroughly broken loose not only from Christianity but from natural +Religion, and in some cases placed themselves in violent antagonism to +both, are still unable to divest themselves of the religious sentiment +or to appease its craving for satisfaction. +</P> + +<P> +'That the leaders of the anti-theological movement at the present day +are immoral, nobody but the most besotted fanatic would insinuate: no +candid antagonist would deny that some of them are in every respect the +very best of men.... But what is to prevent the withdrawal of the +traditional sanction from producing its natural effect upon the +morality of the mass of mankind? ... Rate the practical effect of +religious beliefs as low and that of social influences as high as you +may, there can surely be no doubt that morality has received some +support from the authority of an inward monitor regarded as the voice +of God.... +</P> + +<P> +'The denial of the existence of God and of a future state, in a word, +is the dethronement of Conscience: and society will pass, to say the +least, through a dangerous interval, before social conscience can fill +the vacant throne.'—GOLDWIN SMITH, 'Proposed Substitutes for +Religion,' <I>Macmillan's Magazine</I>, vol. xxxvii. +</P> + +<BR><BR> + +<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P227"></A>227}</SPAN> + +<A NAME="append07"></A> +<H4 ALIGN="center"> +APPENDIX VII +</H4> + +<P> +'It no less takes two to deliver the game of Duty from trivial pretence +and give it an earnest interest. How can I look up to myself as the +higher that reproaches me? issue commands to myself which I dare not +disobey? ask forgiveness from myself for sins which myself has +committed? surrender to myself with a martyr's sacrifice? and so +through all the drama of moral conflict and enthusiasm between myself +in a mask and myself in <I>propria persona</I>? How far are these +semblances, these battles in the clouds, to carry their mimicry of +reality? Are we to <I>worship</I> the self-ideality? to <I>pray</I> to an empty +image in the air? to trust in sorrow a creature of thought which is but +a phenomenon of sorrow? No, if religious communion is reduced to a +monologue, its essence is extinct and its soul is gone. It is a living +relation, or it is nothing: a response to the Supreme Reality. And +vainly will you search for your spiritual dynamics without the Rock +Eternal for your [Greek] <I>pou stô</I>'—JAMES MARTINEAU, Essays iv. 282, +<I>Ideal Substitutes for God</I>. +</P> + +<BR><BR> + +<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P228"></A>228}</SPAN> + +<A NAME="append08"></A> +<H4 ALIGN="center"> +APPENDIX VIII +</H4> + +<P> +'It is an awful hour—let him who has passed through it say how +awful—when life has lost its meaning and seems shrivelled into a +span—when the grave appears to be the end of all, human goodness +nothing but a name, and the sky above this universe a dead expanse, +black with the void from which God himself has disappeared. In that +fearful loneliness of spirit ... I know but one way in which a man may +come forth from his agony scathless: it is by holding fast to those +things which are certain still—the grand, simple landmarks of morality. +</P> + +<P> +'In the darkest hour through which a human soul can pass, whatever else +is doubtful, this at least is certain. If there be no God and no +future state yet even then it is better to be generous than selfish, +better to be chaste than licentious, better to be true than false, +better to be brave than to be a coward. Blessed beyond all earthly +blessedness is the man who, in the tempestuous darkness of the soul, +has dared to hold fast to these venerable landmarks. Thrice blessed is +he who, when all is drear and cheerless within and without, when his +teachers terrify him and his friends shrink from him, has obstinately +clung to moral good. Thrice blessed, because his night shall pass into +clear bright day.'—F. W. ROBERTSON, <I>Lectures, Addresses, etc.</I>, p. 49. +</P> + +<BR><BR> + +<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P229"></A>229}</SPAN> + +<A NAME="append09"></A> +<H4 ALIGN="center"> +APPENDIX IX +</H4> + +<P> +'Let me say at once that if after the elimination of all untruths from +Christianity, we could build a belief in God and Immortality on the +residue, we should then have a far more powerful incentive to right +conduct than anything that I am about to urge.'—PHILIP VIVIAN, +<I>Churches and Modern Thought</I>, p. 323. +</P> + +<BR><BR> + +<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P230"></A>230}</SPAN> + +<A NAME="append10"></A> +<H4 ALIGN="center"> +APPENDIX X +</H4> + +<P> +'Without prejudice, what would be the effect upon modern civilisation +if the Divine Ideal should vanish from modern thought? +</P> + +<P> +'It would be presumptuous to attempt a description, rather because it +is so hard to picture ourselves and our outlook deprived of what we +have held during thousands of generations, our very <I>raison d'ętre</I>, +than because we cannot calculate at least a part of what would have to +happen. Without pretending to undertake that exercise, it may not be +too bold to conclude definitely, what has been suggested +argumentatively throughout: namely, that moral goodness, as we trace it +in the past, as we enjoy it in the present, as we reckon upon it in the +future, would be found undesirable and therefore impracticable. A new +"morality" would doubtless take its place and set up a new ideal of +goodness; but the former would no more represent the elements we so far +call moral than the latter would embody the conceptions we now call +good: the more logically the inevitable system were followed up, the +more progressively would moral inversion be realised. +</P> + +<P> +'It does not seem credible that the new morality could escape being +egoistic and hedonistic, and these principles alone would dictate +complete reversal of all our present notions as to what is noble, what +is useful, what is good. An egoist hedonism that should not be selfish +and sensual is a fond +<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P231"></A>231}</SPAN> +superstition; it would have to be both and +frankly. All the prophylactic expedients whereby a reciprocal egoism +must safeguard its sensuous rights would certainly be there; and they +represent in spirit and in practice whatever we have learned to +consider execrable. We do not require Professor Haeckel[<A NAME="chap07fn1text"></A><A HREF="#chap07fn1">1</A>] to inform +us, with the triumphal rhetoric that accompanies a grand new discovery, +of the prudential homicide which is to confer a supreme blessing upon +humanity, for it has raged throughout antiquity, and still stalks +abroad in daylight wherever the kingdom of men is not also the kingdom +of Christ. Ten minutes' thought is sufficient to convince any rational +man or woman what must inevitably follow in a world of animal +rationalism, where no souls are immortal, where the human will is the +supreme will and there is eternal peace in the grave. It could +scarcely transpire otherwise than that "euthanasia" should replace care +of the chronic sick and indigent aged; that infanticide should be in a +large category of circumstances encouraged, and in some compelled; that +suicide should offer a rational escape from all serious ills, leaving a +door ever hospitably ajar to receive the body bankrupt in its capacity +for sensual enjoyment, the only enjoyment henceforth worthy of the +name. These are the "virtues" under the new morality; there are other +things of which it were not well to speak. Imagination turns its back. +In a world that has never been without its gods, among human creatures +who have never existed without a conscience, deeds have been done and +horrors have been practised through centuries, through ages, that make +annals read like ogre-tales and books of travels like the works of +morbid novelists; and the worst always goes unrecorded. What then +ought we to anticipate for a world yielding obedience to nothing +loftier +<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P232"></A>232}</SPAN> +than the human intellect, seeking no prize obtainable +outside the individual life time, logically incapable of any +gratification outside the individual body, convinced of nothing save +eternal oblivion in the ever-nearing and inevitable grave, and reposed +on the calm assurance that "goodness" and "badness," "virtue" and +"vice" (whatever these terms may then correspond to) are recompensed, +indifferently, by nothing better and nothing worse than physical animal +death?'—JASPER B. HUNT, B.D., <I>Good without God: Is it Possible</I>? p. +51. +</P> + +<BR><BR> + +<P CLASS="footnote"> +<A NAME="chap07fn1"></A> +[<A HREF="#chap07fn1text">1</A>] See <I>The Wonders of Life</I>, chap. v., popular translation, and other +works. +</P> + +<BR><BR> + +<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P233"></A>233}</SPAN> + +<A NAME="append11"></A> +<H4 ALIGN="center"> +APPENDIX XI +</H4> + +<P> +'When we say that God is personal, we do not mean that He is localised +by mutually related organs; that He is hampered by the physical +conditions of human personality. We mean that He is conscious of +distinctness from all other beings, of moral relation to all living +things, and of power to control both from without and from within the +action of every atom and of every world. This is what we mean by +personality in God. It is not a materialistic idea. It is essentially +spiritual. It is a breakwater against the destruction of the very +thought of God, or the submersion of it in the mere processes of +eternal evolution. There is a Pantheism which obliterates every trace +of Divine personality, which takes from God consciousness, will, +affection, emotion, desire, presiding and over-ruling intelligence. +But such Pantheism is better known as Atheism. It destroys the only +God who can be a refuge and a strength in time of trouble. It +annihilates that mighty conscience which drives the workers of iniquity +into darkness and the shadow of death, if possible, to hide themselves. +It closes the Divine Ear against the prayer of faith. It abolishes all +sympathy, all communion between the Father and the children. It makes +God not the world's life, but the world's grave. Therefore, against +all such Pantheism our being revolts.'—PETER S. MENZIES, <I>Sermons</I> +('Christian Pantheism'). +</P> + +<BR><BR> + +<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P234"></A>234}</SPAN> + +<A NAME="append12"></A> +<H4 ALIGN="center"> +APPENDIX XII +</H4> + +<P> +'There is an Old Testament Pantheism speaking unmistakably out of the +lips of the Prophets and the Psalmists, ... so interwoven with their +deepest thoughts of God, that any hesitation to receive it would have +been traced by them most probably to purely heathen conditions of +thought, which ascribes to every divinity a limited function, a +separate home, and a restricted authority.... But undoubtedly the most +unequivocal and outspoken Pantheist in the Bible is St. Paul. He +speaks in that character to the Athenians, affirming all men to be the +offspring of God, and, as if this were not a sufficiently close bond of +affinity, adding, "In Him we live and move and have our being." His +Pantheistic eschatology casts a radiance over the valley of the shadow +of death, which makes the 15th chapter of 1st Corinthians one of the +most precious gifts of Divine inspiration which the holy volume +contains. "And when all things shall be subdued unto Him, then shall +the Son also Himself be subject unto Him that put all things under Him, +that God may be all and all." Nor, if he had wished to administer a +daring shock to the ultra-Calvinism of our own Confessional theology, +could he have uttered a sentiment more hard to reconcile with any view +of the Universe that is not Pantheistic than that contained in the 32nd +verse of the present chapter: "For God hath concluded them all in +unbelief that He might have mercy upon all." It +<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P235"></A>235}</SPAN> +is quite clear +in the face of all this Scripture evidence that there is a form of +Pantheism which is not only innocent, defensible, justifiable, but +which we are bound to teach as of the essence of all true theology. +Nothing could be more childish than that blind horror of Pantheism +which shudders back from it as the most poisonous form of rank +infidelity.'—PETER S. MENZIES, <I>Sermons</I> ('Christian Pantheism'), +</P> + +<BR><BR> + +<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P236"></A>236}</SPAN> + +<A NAME="append13"></A> +<H4 ALIGN="center"> +APPENDIX XIII +</H4> + +<P> +'Pantheism gives noble expression to the truth of God's presence in all +things, but it cannot satisfy the religious consciousness: it cannot +give it escape from the limitations of the world, or guarantee personal +immortality or (what is most important) give any adequate +interpretation to sin, or supply any adequate remedy for it.... +Christian theology is the harmony of Pantheism and Deism. On the one +hand Christianity believes all that the Pantheist believes of God's +presence in all things. "In Him," we believe, "we live and move and +are; in Him all things have their coherence." All the beauty of the +world, all its truths, all its goodness, are but so many modes under +which God is manifested, of whose glory Nature is the veil, of whose +word it is the expression, whose law and reason it embodies. But God +is not exhausted in the world, nor dependent upon it: He exists +eternally in His Triune Being, self-sufficing, self-subsistent.... God +is not only in Nature as its life, but He transcends it as its Creator, +its Lord—in its moral aspect—its Judge. So it is that Christianity +enjoys the riches of Pantheism without its inherent weakness on the +moral side, without making God dependent on the world, as the world is +on God.'—BISHOP GORE, <I>The Incarnation of the Son of God</I>, p. 136. +</P> + +<BR><BR> + +<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P237"></A>237}</SPAN> + +<A NAME="append14"></A> +<H4 ALIGN="center"> +APPENDIX XIV +</H4> + +<P> +'The Supreme Power on this petty earth can be nothing else but the +Humanity, which, ever since fifty thousand—it may be one hundred and +fifty thousand—years has slowly but inevitably conquered for itself +the predominance of all living things on this earth, and the mastery of +its material resources. It is the collective stream of Civilization, +often baffled, constantly misled, grievously sinning against itself +from time to time, but in the end victorious; winning certainly no +heaven, no millennium of the saints, but gradually over great epochs +rising to a better and a better world. This Humanity is not all the +human beings that are or have been. It is a living, growing, and +permanent Organism in itself, as Spencer and modern philosophy +establish. It is the active stream of Human Civilization, from which +many drop out into that oblivion and nullity which is the true and only +Hell.'—F. HARRISON, <I>Creed of a Lagman</I>, p. 72. +</P> + +<BR><BR> + +<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P238"></A>238}</SPAN> + +<A NAME="append15"></A> +<H4 ALIGN="center"> +APPENDIX XV +</H4> + +<P> +Mr. Frederic Harrison's Creed 'is open to every objection which he so +justly brings against what he regards as Mr. Spencer's Creed. These +reasons are broad, common, and familiar. So far as I know they never +have been, and I do not believe they ever will be, answered. The first +objection is that Humanity with a capital H (Mr. Harrison's God) is +neither better nor worse fitted to be a God than his Unknowable with a +capital U. They are as much alike as six and half-a-dozen. Each is a +barren abstraction to which any one an attach any meaning he likes. +Humanity, as used by Mr. Harrison, is not an abstract name for those +matters in which all human beings as such resemble each other, as, for +instance, a human form and articulate speech.... Humanity is a general +name for all human beings who, in various ways, have contributed to the +improvement of the human race. The Positivist calendar which +appropriates every day in the year for the commemoration of one or more +of these benefactors of mankind is an attempt to give what a lawyer +would call "further and better particulars" of the word. If this, or +anything like this, be the meaning of Mr. Harrison's God, I must say +that he, she, or it appears to me quite as ill-fitted for worship as +the Unknowable. How can a man worship an indefinite number of dead +people, most of whom are unknown to him even by name, and many of whose +characters +<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P239"></A>239}</SPAN> +were exceedingly faulty, besides which the facts as to +their lives are most imperfectly known? How can he in any way combine +these people into a single object of thought? An object of worship +must surely have such a degree of unity that it is possible to think +about it as distinct from other things, as much unity at least as the +English nation, the Roman Catholic Church, the Great Western Railway. +No doubt these are abstract terms, but they are concrete enough for +practical purposes. Every one understands what is meant when it is +asserted that the English nation is at war or at peace; that the Pope +is the head of the Roman Catholic Church; that the Great Western +Railway has declared a dividend; but what is Humanity? What can any +one definitely assert or deny about it? How can any one meaning be +affixed to the word so that one person can be said to use it properly +and another to abuse it? It seems to me that it is as Unknowable as +the Unknowable itself, and just as well, and just as ill, fitted to be +an object of worship.'—SIR JAMES FITZJAMES STEPHEN, 'The Unknowable +and Unknown,' <I>Nineteenth Century</I>, June 1884. +</P> + +<BR><BR> + +<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P240"></A>240}</SPAN> + +<A NAME="append16"></A> +<H4 ALIGN="center"> +APPENDIX XVI +</H4> + +<P> +'Deism and Pantheism are both so irrational, so utterly inadequate to +explain the simplest facts of our moral and spiritual life that neither +of them can long hold mankind together. Positivism, which has made a +systematic and memorable attempt to fill the gap, itself bears witness +to the craving of human nature for some stronger bond than such systems +can supply; while its appreciation of the necessity of Religion gives +it an importance not possessed by mere Agnosticism. Yet it is +impossible to look at an encyclopćdic attempt to grasp all knowledge +and all history, such as that made by the founder of Positivism, +without a deep, oppressive sadness.... +</P> + +<P> +'Can men heap fact upon fact and connect science with science in a +splendid hierarchy and find no better end than this? Is such a review +to come to this, that we must worship either actual humanity with all +its meanness and wickedness, or ideal humanity which does not yet +exist, and, if this world is all in all, may never come into being? ... +For ideal humanity, however moral and enlightened, if unaided by God, +as the Posivitist holds, is still earth-bound and sense-bound.... We +are told that it is common sense to recognise that much is beyond us. +Perfectly true. But it is not common sense to worship an ignorant and +weak humanity which certainly made nothing, and has in itself no +assurance +<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P241"></A>241}</SPAN> +of continuance in the future, nay rather, a very clear +probability of destruction, if simply left to itself. +</P> + +<P> +'What Positivism surely needs to give it hope and consistency is the +doctrine of the Logos, of the Eternal Word and Reason, the Creator, +Orderer, and Sustainer of all things, Who has taken a stainless human +nature that He might make men capable of all knowledge. This Divine +Humanity of the Logos, drawing mankind into Himself, is indeed worthy +of all worship. In loving Him, we learn really what it is to "live for +others." In looking to Him we cease from selfishness and pride. Such +a worship of humanity is not a mere baseless hope, but a reality +appearing in the very midst of history, a reality apprehended by Faith +indeed, but by a Faith always proving itself to those, and by those, +who hold it fast in Love. There is room, then, ample room, and a loud +demand for the re-establishment of a Christian Philosophy based upon +the Incarnation.'—JOHN WORDSWORTH (Bishop of Salisbury), <I>The One +Religion</I>, pp. 307-309. +</P> + +<BR><BR> + +<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P242"></A>242}</SPAN> + +<A NAME="append17"></A> +<H4 ALIGN="center"> +APPENDIX XVII +</H4> + +<P> +The invariable laws under which Humanity is placed have received +various names at different periods. Destiny, Fate, Necessity, Heaven, +Providence, all are so many names of one and the same conception: the +laws which man feels himself under, and that without the power of +escaping from them. We claim no exemption from the common lot. We +only wish to draw out into consciousness the instinctive acceptance of +the race, and to modify the spirit in which we regard them. We accept: +so have all men. We obey: so have all men. We venerate: so have some +in past ages or in other countries. We add but one other term—we +love. We would perfect our submission and so reap the full benefits of +submission in the improvement of our hearts and tempers. We take in +conception the sum of the conditions of existence, and we give them an +ideal being and a definite home in space, the second great creation +which completes the central one of Humanity. In the bosom of space we +place the world, and we conceive of the world and this our Mother Earth +as gladly welcomed to that bosom with the simplest and purest love, and +we give our love in return. +</P> + +<P CLASS="poem"> +Thou art folded, thou art lying<BR> +In the light which is undying.<BR> +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +'Thus we complete the Trinity of our religion, Humanity, the World, and +Space. So completed we recognise power to +<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P243"></A>243}</SPAN> +give unity and +definiteness to our thoughts, purity and warmth to our affections, +scope and vigour to our activity. We recognise its powers to regulate +our whole being, to give us that which it has so long been the aim of +all religion to give—internal union. We recognise its power to raise +us above ourselves and by intensifying the action of our unselfish +instincts to bear down unto their due subordination our selfishness. +We see in it yet unworked treasures. We count not ourselves to have +apprehended but we press forward to the prize of our high calling. But +even now whilst its full capabilities are unknown to us, before we have +apprehended, we find enough in it to guide and strengthen us.'—'<I>The +New Religion in its Attitude towards the Old</I>: A Sermon preached at +South Field, Wandsworth, Wednesday, 19th Moses 71 (19th January 1859), +on the anniversary of the birth of Auguste Comte, 19th January 1798, by +RICHARD CONGREVE.' J. Chapman: 8 King William Street, Strand, London. +</P> + +<BR><BR> + +<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P244"></A>244}</SPAN> + +<A NAME="append18"></A> +<H4 ALIGN="center"> +APPENDIX XVIII +</H4> + +<P> +'We have compared Positivism where it is thought to be strongest with +Christianity where it is thought to be weakest. And if the result of +the comparison even then has been unfavourable to Positivism, how will +the account stand if every element in Christianity be taken into +consideration? The religion of humanity seems specially fitted to meet +the tastes of that comparatively small and prosperous class who are +unwilling to leave the dry bones of Agnosticism wholly unclothed with +any living tissue of religious emotion, and who are at the same time +fortunate enough to be able to persuade themselves that they are +contributing, or may contribute, by their individual efforts to the +attainment of some great ideal for mankind. But what has it to say to +the more obscure multitude who are absorbed, and wellnigh overwhelmed, +in the constant struggle with daily needs and narrow cares, who have +but little leisure or inclination to consider the precise rôle they are +called on to play in the great drama of "humanity," and who might in +any case be puzzled to discover its interest or its importance? Can it +assure them that there is no human being so insignificant as not to be +of infinite worth in the eyes of Him Who created the Heavens, or so +feeble but that his action may have consequence of infinite moment long +after this material system shall have crumbled into nothingness? Does +it offer consolation to those who are in grief, hope to those who +<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P245"></A>245}</SPAN> +are bereaved, strength to the weak, forgiveness to the sinful, rest to +those who are weary and heavy laden? If not, then whatever be its +merits, it is no rival to Christianity. It cannot penetrate or vivify +the inmost life of ordinary humanity. There is in it no nourishment +for ordinary human souls, no comfort for ordinary human sorrow, no help +for ordinary human weakness. Not less than the crudest irreligion does +it leave us men divorced from all communion with God, face to face with +the unthinking energies of Nature which gave us birth, and into which, +if supernatural religion be indeed a dream, we must after a few +fruitless struggles be again resolved.'—RIGHT HON. ARTHUR J. BALFOUR, +<I>The Religion of Humanity</I>. +</P> + +<BR><BR> + +<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P246"></A>246}</SPAN> + +<A NAME="append19"></A> +<H4 ALIGN="center"> +APPENDIX XIX +</H4> + +<P> +'Truly if Humanity has no higher prospects than those which await it +from the service of its modern worshippers its prospects are dark +indeed. Its "normal state" is a vague and distant future. But better +things may yet be hoped for when the true Light from Heaven shall +enlighten every man, and the love of goodness shall everywhere come +from the love of God, and nobleness of life from the perfect Example of +the Lord.'—JOHN TULLOCH, D.D. LL.D., <I>Modern Theories in Philosophy +and Religion</I>, p. 86. +</P> + +<BR><BR> + +<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P247"></A>247}</SPAN> + +<A NAME="append20"></A> +<H4 ALIGN="center"> +APPENDIX XX +</H4> + +<P> +Mr. Frederic Harrison came under the influence of both the Newmans. +'John Henry Newman led me on to his brother Francis, whose beautiful +nature and subtle intelligence I now began to value. His <I>Phases of +Faith, The Soul, The Hebrew Monarchy</I> deeply impressed me. I was not +prepared either to accept all this heterodoxy nor yet to reject it; and +I patiently waited till an answer could be found.'—<I>The Creed of a +Layman</I>. +</P> + +<BR><BR> + +<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P248"></A>248}</SPAN> + +<A NAME="append21"></A> +<H4 ALIGN="center"> +APPENDIX XXI +</H4> + +<P> +Even Mr. Voysey admits the constraining power of the Cross: +</P> + +<P> +'That is still the noblest, most sublime picture in the whole Bible, +where the Christ is hanging on the Cross, and the tears and blood flow +trickling down, and the last words heard from His lips are "Father, +forgive them, for they know not what they do." That love and pity will +for ever endure as the type and symbol of what is most Divine in the +heart of man. Thank God! it has been repeated and repeated in the +lives and deaths of millions besides the Christ of Calvary. But +wherever found it still claims the admiration, and wins the homage of +every human heart, and is the crowning glory of the human race.—C. +VOYSEY, <I>Religion for All Mankind</I>, p. 105. +</P> + +<BR><BR> + +<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P249"></A>249}</SPAN> + +<A NAME="append22"></A> +<H4 ALIGN="center"> +APPENDIX XXII +</H4> + +<P> +'Not only the Syrian superstition must be attacked, but also the belief +in a personal God which engenders a slavish and oriental condition of +the mind, and the belief in a posthumous reward which engenders a +selfish and solitary condition of the heart. These beliefs are, +therefore, injurious to human nature. They lower its dignity, they +arrest its development, they isolate its affections. We shall not deny +that many beautiful sentiments are often mingled with the faith in a +personal Deity, and with the hopes of happiness in a future state; yet +we maintain that, however refined they may appear, they are selfish at +the core, and that if removed they will be replaced by sentiments of a +nobler and purer kind.'—WINWOOD READE, <I>Martyrdom of Man</I>, p. 543. +</P> + +<BR><BR> + +<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P250"></A>250}</SPAN> + +<A NAME="append23"></A> +<H4 ALIGN="center"> +APPENDIX XXIII +</H4> + +<P> +'There is a servile deference paid, even by Christians, to incompetent +judges of Christianity. They abjectly look to men of the world, to +scholars, to statesmen, for testimonies to the everlasting and +self-evidencing verities of heaven! And if they can gather up, from +the writings or speeches of these men, some patronising notices of +religion, some incidental compliment to the civilising influence of the +Bible, or to the aesthetic proprieties of worship, or to the moral +sublimity of the character or gospel of Christ, they forthwith proclaim +these tributes as lending some great confirmation to the Truth of GOD! +So we persist in asking, not "Is it true? true to our souls?" or, "Has +the Lord said it?" but, "What say the learned men, the influential men, +the eloquent men?" Shame upon these time-serving concessions, as +unmanly as they are fallacious. Go back to the hovels, rather, and +take the witnessing of the illiterate souls whose hearts, waiting there +in poverty or pain, or under the shadow of some great affliction, the +Lord Himself hath opened.'—F. D. HUNTINGDON, <I>Christian Believing and +Living</I>. +</P> + +<BR><BR> + +<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P251"></A>251}</SPAN> + +<A NAME="append24"></A> +<H4 ALIGN="center"> +APPENDIX XXIV +</H4> + +<P> +'It is foreign to our purpose to discuss the various theories which +have been advanced to explain the genesis and power of the Christian +Religion from the cynical Gibbon to the sentimental Renan and the +Rationalist Strauss. One remark may be permitted. It has been our lot +to read an immense amount of literature on this subject, and with no +bias in the orthodox direction, we are bound to admit that no theory +has yet appeared which from purely natural causes explains the +remarkable life and marvellous influence of the Founder of +Christianity.'—HECTOR MACPHERSON, <I>Books to Read and How to Head Them</I>. +</P> + +<BR><BR> + +<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P252"></A>252}</SPAN> + +<A NAME="append25"></A> +<H4 ALIGN="center"> +APPENDIX XXV +</H4> + +<P> +The Song of a Heathen Sojourning in Galilee, A.D. 32. +</P> + +<P CLASS="poem"> +If Jesus Christ is a man,<BR> +<SPAN STYLE="margin-left: 1em">And only a man, I say</SPAN><BR> +That of all mankind I cleave to Him,<BR> +<SPAN STYLE="margin-left: 1em">And to Him will I cleave alway.</SPAN><BR> +</P> + +<P CLASS="poem"> +If Jesus Christ is a God,<BR> +<SPAN STYLE="margin-left: 1em">And the only God, I swear</SPAN><BR> +I will follow Him through heaven and hell,<BR> +<SPAN STYLE="margin-left: 1em">The earth, the sea, and the air!</SPAN><BR> +</P> + +<P CLASS="poem"> +<SPAN STYLE="margin-left: 3em">RICHARD WATSON GILDER.</SPAN><BR> +</P> + +<BR><BR> + +<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P253"></A>253}</SPAN> + +<A NAME="append26"></A> +<H4 ALIGN="center"> +APPENDIX XXVI +</H4> + +<P> +'I distinguish absolutely between the character of Jesus and the +character of Christianity—in other words between Jesus of Nazareth and +Jesus the Christ. Shorn of all supernatural pretensions, Jesus emerges +from the great mass of human beings as an almost perfect type of +simplicity, veracity, and natural affection. "Love one another" was +the Alpha and Omega of His teaching, and He carried out the precept +through every hour of His too brief life.... But how blindly, how +foolishly my critics have interpreted the inner spirit of my argument, +how utterly have they failed to realise that the whole aim of the work +is to justify Jesus against the folly, the cruelty, the infamy, the +ignorance of the creed upbuilt upon His grave. I show in cipher, as it +were, that those who crucified Him once would crucify Him again, were +He to return amongst us. I imply that among the first to crucify Him +would be the members of His Own Church. But nowhere surely do I imply +that His soul, in its purely personal elements, in its tender and +sympathising humanity was not the very divinest that ever wore earth +about it.'—ROBERT BUCHANAN in Letter of January 1892 to <I>Daily +Chronicle</I> regarding his poem <I>The Wandering Jew</I>. <I>Robert Buchanan: +His Life, Life's Work, and Life's Friendships</I>, by Harriett Jay, pp. +274-5. +</P> + +<BR><BR> + +<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P254"></A>254}</SPAN> + +<A NAME="append27"></A> +<H4 ALIGN="center"> +APPENDIX XXVII +</H4> + +<P> +'I do not believe I have any personal immortality. I am part of an +immortality perhaps, but that is different. I am not the continuing +thing. I personally am experimental, incidental. I feel I have to do +something, a number of things no one else could do, and then I am +finished, and finished altogether. Then my substance returns to the +common lot. I am a temporary enclosure for a temporary purpose: that +served, and my skull and teeth, my idiosyncrasy and desire will +disperse, I believe, like the timbers of the booth after a fair.'—H. +G. WELLS, <I>First and Last Things</I>, p. 80. +</P> + +<BR><BR> + +<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P255"></A>255}</SPAN> + +<A NAME="append28"></A> +<H4 ALIGN="center"> +APPENDIX XXVIII +</H4> + +<P> +'The estate of man upon this earth of ours may in course of time be +vastly improved. So much seems to be promised by the recent +achievements of Science, whose advance is in geometrical progression, +each discovery giving birth to several more. Increase of health and +extension of life by sanitary, dietetic, and gymnastic improvement; +increase of wealth by invention and of leisure by the substitution of +machinery for labour: more equal distribution of wealth with its +comforts and refinements; diffusion of knowledge; political +improvement; elevation of the domestic affections and social +sentiments; unification of mankind and elimination of war through +ascendency of reason over passion—all these things may be carried to +an indefinite extent, and may produce what in comparison with the +present estate of man would be a terrestrial paradise. Selection and +the merciless struggle for existence may be in some measure superseded +by selection of a more scientific and merciful kind. Death may be +deprived at all events of its pangs. On the other hand, the horizon +does not appear to be clear of cloud.... Let our fancy suppose the +most chimerical of Utopias realised in a commonwealth of man. Mortal +life prolonged to any conceivable extent is but a span. Still over +every festal board in the community of terrestrial bliss will be cast +the shadow of approaching death; and the sweeter life becomes the more +bitter death will be. +<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P256"></A>256}</SPAN> +The more bitter it will be at least to the +ordinary man, and the number of philosophers like John Stuart Mill is +small.'—GOLDWIN SMITH: <I>Guesses at the Riddle of Existence</I> ('Is There +Another Life?'). +</P> + +<P> +'In return for all of which they have deprived us, some prophets of +modern science are disposed to show us in the future a City of God +<I>minus</I> God, a Paradise <I>minus</I> the Tree of Life, a Millennium with +education to perfect the intellect, and sanitary improvements to +emancipate the body from a long catalogue of evils. Sorrow no doubt +will not be abolished; immortality will not be bestowed. But we shall +have comfortable and perfectly drained houses to be wretched in. The +news of our misfortunes, the tidings that turn the hair white, and +break the strong man's heart will be conveyed to us from the ends of +the earth by the agency of a telegraphic system without a flaw. The +closing eye may cease to look to the land beyond the River; but in our +last moments we shall be able to make a choice between patent furnaces +for the cremation of our remains, and coffins of the most charming +description for their preservation when desiccated.'—Archbishop +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="authorities"></A> + +<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P257"></A>257}</SPAN> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +AUTHORITIES CONSULTED +</H3> + +<BR> + +<P CLASS="books"> +Abbott, E. A., <I>Through Nature to Christ</I>. +</P> + +<P CLASS="books"> +Armstrong, E. A., <I>Back to Jesus; Man's Knowledge of God; Agnosticism +and Theism in the Nineteenth Century</I>. +</P> + +<P CLASS="books"> +Arthur, W., <I>God without Religion; Religion without God</I>. +</P> + +<P CLASS="books"> +Aveling, F. (edited by), <I>Westminster Lectures</I>. +</P> + +<BR> + +<P CLASS="books"> +Balfour, A. J., <I>Religion of Humanity; Foundations of Belief</I>. +</P> + +<P CLASS="books"> +Ballard, F., <I>Clarion Fallacies; Miracles of Unbelief</I>. +</P> + +<P CLASS="books"> +<I>Barker, Joseph, Life of</I>. +</P> + +<P CLASS="books"> +Barry, W., <I>Heralds of Revolt</I>. +</P> + +<P CLASS="books"> +Bartlett, R. E., <I>The Letter and the Spirit</I>. +</P> + +<P CLASS="books"> +Besant, Annie, <I>Esoteric Christianity</I>. +</P> + +<P CLASS="books"> +Blatchford, R., <I>God and My Neighbour</I>. +</P> + +<P CLASS="books"> +Blau, Paul, '<I>Wenn ihr Mich Kennetet</I>.' +</P> + +<P CLASS="books"> +Bousset, W., <I>Jesus; What is Religion?; The Faith of a Modern +Protestant</I>. +</P> + +<P CLASS="books"> +Brace, G. Loring, <I>Gesta Christi</I>. +</P> + +<P CLASS="books"> +Bremond, H., 'Christus Vivit' (Epilogue of <I>L'Inquiétude Religieuse</I>). +</P> + +<P CLASS="books"> +Broglie, L'Abbé Paul de, <I>Problčmes et Conclusions; La Morale sans +Dieu</I>. +</P> + +<P CLASS="books"> +Brooks, Phillips, Bishop, <I>The Influence of Jesus</I>. +</P> + +<P CLASS="books"> +Butler, Bishop, <I>The Analogy of Religion</I>. +</P> + +<BR> + +<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P258"></A>258}</SPAN> + +<P CLASS="books"> +Caird, E., <I>The Evolution of Religion; The Social Philosophy and +Religion of Comte</I>. +</P> + +<P CLASS="books"> +Caird, J., <I>Fundamental Ideas of Christianity</I>. +</P> + +<P CLASS="books"> +Cairns, D. S., <I>Christianity in the Modern World</I>. +</P> + +<P CLASS="books"> +Carey, Vivian, <I>Parsons and Pagans</I>. +</P> + +<P CLASS="books"> +Caro, E., <I>L'Idée de Dieu et ses Nouveaux Critiques; Études Morales; +Problčmes de Morale Sociale</I>. +</P> + +<P CLASS="books"> +Chesterton, G. K., <I>Heretics; Orthodoxy</I>. +</P> + +<P CLASS="books"> +Church, K. W., <I>Gifts of Civilization; Pascal and other Sermons</I>. +</P> + +<P CLASS="books"> +Clarke, J. Freeman, <I>Steps to Belief</I>. +</P> + +<P CLASS="books"> +Cobbe, Frances Power, <I>A Faithless World; Broken Lights; Autobiography</I>. +</P> + +<P CLASS="books"> +Coit, Stanton, <I>National Idealism and a State Church</I>. +</P> + +<P CLASS="books"> +Comte, Auguste, <I>Catechism of Positive Religion</I> (translated by Richard +Congreve). +</P> + +<P CLASS="books"> +<I>Contentio Veritatis</I>. +</P> + +<P CLASS="books"> +Conway, Moncure D., <I>The Earthward Pilgrimage</I>. +</P> + +<P CLASS="books"> +Craufurd, A. H., <I>Christian Instincts and Modern Doubt</I>. +</P> + +<P CLASS="books"> +Crooker, J. H., <I>The Supremacy of Jesus</I>. +</P> + +<BR> + +<P CLASS="books"> +D'Alviella, G., <I>Revolution Religieuse Contemporaine</I>. +</P> + +<P CLASS="books"> +Davies, O. Maurice, <I>Heterodox London</I>. +</P> + +<P CLASS="books"> +Davies, Llewelyn, <I>Morality according to the Lord's Supper</I>. +</P> + +<P CLASS="books"> +<I>Do we Believe</I>? (Correspondence from <I>Daily Telegraph</I>.) +</P> + +<P CLASS="books"> +Drawbridge, C. L., <I>Is Religion Undermined</I>? +</P> + +<P CLASS="books"> +Drummond, J., <I>Via, Veritas, Vita</I>. +</P> + +<P CLASS="books"> +Du Bose, W. P., <I>The Gospel and the Gospels</I>. +</P> + +<BR> + +<P CLASS="books"> +Eaton, J. R. T., <I>The Permanence of Christianity</I>. +</P> + +<BR> + +<P CLASS="books"> +Faber, Hans, <I>Das Christentum der Zukunft</I>. +</P> + +<P CLASS="books"> +Fairbairn, A. M., <I>Christ in Modern Theology</I>. +</P> + +<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P259"></A>259}</SPAN> + +<P CLASS="books"> +Farrar, A. S., <I>Critical History of Free Thought</I>. +</P> + +<P CLASS="books"> +Farrar, F. W., <I>Seekers after God; Witness of History to Christ</I>. +</P> + +<P CLASS="books"> +Fiske, John, <I>The Idea of God as Affected by Modern Knowledge; Through +Nature to God; Man's Destiny</I>. +</P> + +<P CLASS="books"> +Fitchett, W. H., <I>Beliefs of Unbelief</I>. +</P> + +<P CLASS="books"> +Flint, R., <I>Theism; Anti-Theistic Theories</I>. +</P> + +<P CLASS="books"> +Footman, H., <I>Reasonable Apprehensions and Reassuring Hints</I>. +</P> + +<P CLASS="books"> +Fordyce, J., <I>Aspects of Scepticism</I>. +</P> + +<P CLASS="books"> +Forrest, D. W., <I>The Christ of History and of Experience</I>. +</P> + +<P CLASS="books"> +Frommel, Gaston, <I>Études Religieuses et Sociales; Études Morales et +Religieuses</I>. +</P> + +<BR> + +<P CLASS="books"> +Gindraux, J., <I>Le Christ et la Pensée Moderne</I> (Translation from +Pfennigsdorf). +</P> + +<P CLASS="books"> +Gladden, Washington, <I>How Much is Left of the Old Doctrines</I>? +</P> + +<P CLASS="books"> +Gore, O., Bishop, <I>The Incarnation of the Son of God; The Christian +Creed</I>. +</P> + +<P CLASS="books"> +Guyau, M., <I>L'Irréligion de l'Avenir; La Morale sans Sanction</I>. +</P> + +<BR> + +<P CLASS="books"> +Haeckel, E., <I>Riddle of the Universe; The Confession of Faith of a Man +of Science</I>. +</P> + +<P CLASS="books"> +Harnack, Adolf, <I>What is Christianity?; Christianity and History</I>. +</P> + +<P CLASS="books"> +Harrison, A. J., <I>Problems of Christianity and Scepticism</I>. +</P> + +<P CLASS="books"> +Harrison, Frederic, <I>Memories and Thoughts; The Creed of a Layman</I>. +</P> + +<P CLASS="books"> +Haw, George (edited by), <I>Religious Doubts of Democracy</I>. +</P> + +<P CLASS="books"> +Henson, H. Hensley, <I>Popular Rationalism; The Value of the Bible</I>. +</P> + +<P CLASS="books"> +Hillis, N. D., <I>Influence of Christ in Modern Life</I>. +</P> + +<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P260"></A>260}</SPAN> + +<P CLASS="books"> +Hoffmann, F. S., <I>The Sphere of Religion</I>. +</P> + +<P CLASS="books"> +Hunt, Jasper B., <I>Good without God</I>. +</P> + +<P CLASS="books"> +Hunt, John, <I>Christianity and Pantheism</I>. +</P> + +<P CLASS="books"> +Hutton, R. H., <I>Essays Theological and Literary; Contemporary Thought +and Thinkers; Aspects of Religious and Scientific Thought</I>. +</P> + +<P CLASS="books"> +Huxley, T. H., <I>Evolution and Ethics</I>. +</P> + +<BR> + +<P CLASS="books"> +Illingworth, J. R., <I>Personality Human and Divine; Divine Immanence</I>. +</P> + +<P CLASS="books"> +<I>Is Christianity True</I>? (Lectures in Central Hall, Manchester). +</P> + +<BR> + +<P CLASS="books"> +Jastrow, Morris, <I>The Study of Religion</I>. +</P> + +<P CLASS="books"> +Jefferies, Richard, <I>The Story of my Heart: My Autobiography</I>. +</P> + +<P CLASS="books"> +Jones, Harry (edited by), <I>Some Urgent Questions in Christian Lights</I>. +</P> + +<BR> + +<P CLASS="books"> +Kutter, Herrmann, <I>Sie Müssen</I>. +</P> + +<BR> + +<P CLASS="books"> +Lecky, W. E. H., <I>History of European Morals</I>. +</P> + +<P CLASS="books"> +Liddon, H. P., <I>The Divinity of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ; Some +Elements of Religion</I>. +</P> + +<P CLASS="books"> +Lilly, W. S., <I>The Great Enigma; The Claims of Christianity</I>. +</P> + +<P CLASS="books"> +Lodge, Sir Oliver, <I>The Substance of Faith</I>. +</P> + +<P CLASS="books"> +Lucas, Bernard, <I>The Faith of a Christian</I>. +</P> + +<P CLASS="books"> +<I>Lux Hominum</I>. +</P> + +<P CLASS="books"> +<I>Lux Mundi</I>. +</P> + +<BR> + +<P CLASS="books"> +Maitland, Brownlow, <I>Theism or Agnosticism; Steps to Faith</I>. +</P> + +<P CLASS="books"> +Mallock, W. H., <I>Reconstruction of Belief</I>. +</P> + +<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P261"></A>261}</SPAN> + +<P CLASS="books"> +Marson, O. L., <I>Following of Christ</I>. +</P> + +<P CLASS="books"> +Martin, A. S., 'Christ in Modern Thought' (Hastings's <I>Dictionary of +Christ and the Gospels</I>, Appendix). +</P> + +<P CLASS="books"> +Martineau, Harriet, <I>Autobiography</I>. +</P> + +<P CLASS="books"> +Martineau, James, <I>Ideal Substitutes for God; A Study of Religion; +Hours of Thought</I>. +</P> + +<P CLASS="books"> +Matheson, G., <I>Growth of the Spirit of Christianity</I>. +</P> + +<P CLASS="books"> +Matheson, A. Scott, <I>The Gospel and Modern Substitutes</I>. +</P> + +<P CLASS="books"> +Menzies, Allan, <I>S. Paul's View of the Divinity of Christ</I>. +</P> + +<P CLASS="books"> +Menzies, P. S., 'Christian Pantheism' (in <I>Sermons</I>). +</P> + +<P CLASS="books"> +Momerie, A. W., <I>Belief in God; Immortality; Origin of Evil</I>. +</P> + +<P CLASS="books"> +Monod, Wilfrid, <I>Aux Croyants et aux Athées; Peut-on rester Chrétien</I>? +</P> + +<P CLASS="books"> +Mories, A. S., <I>Haeckel's Contribution to Religion</I>. +</P> + +<P CLASS="books"> +Morison, J. Cotter, <I>The Service of Man</I>. +</P> + +<P CLASS="books"> +Mozoomdar, Protab Chandra, <I>The Oriental Christ</I>. +</P> + +<P CLASS="books"> +Myers, F. W. H., <I>Modern Essays</I>. +</P> + +<BR> + +<P CLASS="books"> +Naville, Ernest, <I>Le Pčre Céleste; Le Christ; Le Temoignage du Christ +et l'Unité du Monde Chrétien</I>. +</P> + +<P CLASS="books"> +Neumann, Arno, <I>Jesus</I>. +</P> + +<P CLASS="books"> +Newman, F. W., <I>The Soul: Its Sorrows and Aspirations; Phases of Faith</I>. +</P> + +<P CLASS="books"> +Nolloth, C. F., <I>The Person of our Lord and Recent Thought</I>. +</P> + +<BR> + +<P CLASS="books"> +Oxenham, H. N., <I>Essays Ethical and Religious</I>. +</P> + +<P CLASS="books"> +<I>Oxford House Tracts</I>. +</P> + +<BR> + +<P CLASS="books"> +Palmer, W. S., <I>An Agnostic's Progress; The Church and Modern Men</I>. +</P> + +<P CLASS="books"> +Peile, J. H. F., <I>The Reproach of the Gospel</I>. +</P> + +<P CLASS="books"> +Pfannmüller, Gustav, <I>Jesus im Urteil der Jahrhunderte</I>. +</P> + +<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P262"></A>262}</SPAN> + +<P CLASS="books"> +Picard, L'Abbé, <I>Christianity or Agnosticism?; La Transcendance de +Jésus Christ</I>. +</P> + +<P CLASS="books"> +Picton, J. Allanson, <I>The Religion of the Universe; Pantheism: Its +Story and Significance</I>. +</P> + +<P CLASS="books"> +Plumptre, E. H., <I>Christ and Christendom</I>. +</P> + +<P CLASS="books"> +<I>Present Day Tracts</I> (R. T. S.). +</P> + +<P CLASS="books"> +Pringle-Pattison, A. Seth, <I>Man's Place in the Cosmos</I>. +</P> + +<BR> + +<P CLASS="books"> +Reade, Winwood, <I>The Martyrdom of Man; The Outcast</I>. +</P> + +<P CLASS="books"> +<I>Religion and the Modern Mind</I> (St. Ninian's Society Lectures). +</P> + +<P CLASS="books"> +Renesse, <I>Jesus Christ and His Apostles and Disciples in the Twentieth +Century</I>. +</P> + +<P CLASS="books"> +Robinson, O. H., <I>Human Nature a Revelation of the Divine; Studies in +the Character of Christ</I>. +</P> + +<P CLASS="books"> +Romanes, G. J., <I>Thoughts on Religion</I>. +</P> + +<BR> + +<P CLASS="books"> +Sabatier, A., <I>The Religions of Authority and the Religion of the +Spirit</I>. +</P> + +<P CLASS="books"> +Sanday, W., <I>Life of Christ in Recent Research</I>. +</P> + +<P CLASS="books"> +Savage, M. J., <I>Religion for To-day; The Life Beyond</I>. +</P> + +<P CLASS="books"> +Schmiedel, P. W., <I>Jesus and Modern Criticism</I>. +</P> + +<P CLASS="books"> +Seaver, R. W., <I>To Christ through Criticism</I>. +</P> + +<P CLASS="books"> +<I>Secularist's Manual</I>. +</P> + +<P CLASS="books"> +Seeley, J. R., <I>Ecce Homo; Natural Religion</I>. +</P> + +<P CLASS="books"> +Sen, Keshub Chunder, India asks, <I>Who is Christ</I>? +</P> + +<P CLASS="books"> +Sheldon, H. O., <I>Unbelief in the Nineteenth Century</I>. +</P> + +<P CLASS="books"> +Simpson, P. Carnegie, <I>The Fact of Christ</I>. +</P> + +<P CLASS="books"> +Smith, Goldwin, <I>Guesses at the Riddle of Existence; Lectures on the +Study of History; The founder of Christianity</I>. +</P> + +<P CLASS="books"> +Smyth, Newman, <I>Old Faiths in New Light</I>. +</P> + +<P CLASS="books"> +Stanley, A. P., 'Theology of the Nineteenth Century' (in <I>Essays on +Church and State</I>); <I>Christian Institutions</I>. +</P> + +<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P263"></A>263}</SPAN> + +<P CLASS="books"> +Stephen, J. Fitzjames, 'The Unknowable and Unknown' (<I>Nineteenth +Century</I>, June 1884); <I>Liberty, Equality, and Fraternity</I>. +</P> + +<P CLASS="books"> +Stephen, Leslie, <I>An Agnostic's Apology; English Thought in the +Eighteenth Century</I>. +</P> + +<P CLASS="books"> +Swete, H. B. (edited by), <I>Cambridge Theological Essays</I>. +</P> + +<P CLASS="books"> +Swift, Dean, <I>The Abolishing of Christianity</I>. +</P> + +<BR> + +<P CLASS="books"> +<I>Topics for the Times</I> (S. P. C. K.). +</P> + +<P CLASS="books"> +Tulloch, J., <I>Modern Theories in Theology and Philosophy; Movements of +Religious Thought</I>. +</P> + +<BR> + +<P CLASS="books"> +Van Dyke, H., <I>The Gospel for an Age of Doubt; The Gospel for a World +of Sin</I>. +</P> + +<P CLASS="books"> +Vivian, Philip, <I>The Churches and Modern Thought</I>. +</P> + +<P CLASS="books"> +Voysey, C., <I>Religion for All Mankind</I>. +</P> + +<BR> + +<P CLASS="books"> +Wace, H., <I>Christianity and Morality</I>. +</P> + +<P CLASS="books"> +Wallace, Alfred Russel, <I>Man's Place in the Universe</I>. +</P> + +<P CLASS="books"> +Warschauer, J., <I>The New Evangel; Jesus: Seven Questions; Anti-Nunquam; +Jesus or Christ?</I> +</P> + +<P CLASS="books"> +Watkinson, W. L., <I>Influence of Scepticism on Character</I>. +</P> + +<P CLASS="books"> +Weinel, H., <I>Jesus im Nevmzehnten Jahrhundert</I>. +</P> + +<P CLASS="books"> +Welsh, R. E., <I>In Relief of Doubt</I>. +</P> + +<P CLASS="books"> +Wells, H. G., <I>First and Last Things, A Confession of Faith and Rule of +Life</I>. +</P> + +<P CLASS="books"> +Wilson, J. M., <I>Problems of Religion and Science</I>. +</P> + +<P CLASS="books"> +Wimmer, R., <I>My Struggle for Light</I>. +</P> + +<P CLASS="books"> +Wordsworth, John, Bishop, <I>The One Religion</I>. +</P> + +<BR> + +<P CLASS="books"> +Young, John, <I>The Christ of History</I>. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="index"></A> + +<SPAN CLASS="pagenum">{<A NAME="P265"></A>265}</SPAN> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +INDEX +</H3> + +<BR> + +<P CLASS="index"> +Abbott, Edwin A., <A HREF="#P117">117</A>. +</P> + +<P CLASS="index"> +Alexander, Archbishop, <A HREF="#P256">256</A>. +</P> + +<P CLASS="index"> +Amiel, H. F., <A HREF="#P55">55</A>. +</P> + +<P CLASS="index"> +Anthropomorphism, <A HREF="#P65">65</A>, <A HREF="#P68">68</A>, <A HREF="#P82">82</A>. +</P> + +<P CLASS="index"> +Arnold, Matthew, <A HREF="#P208">208</A>. +</P> + +<BR> + +<P CLASS="index"> +'Back to Christ,' <A HREF="#P212">212</A>. +</P> + +<P CLASS="index"> +Balfour, A. J., <A HREF="#P244">244</A>. +</P> + +<P CLASS="index"> +Bartlett, R. E., <A HREF="#P161">161</A>. +</P> + +<P CLASS="index"> +Besant, Mrs., <A HREF="#P197">197</A>. +</P> + +<P CLASS="index"> +Blatchford, Robert, <A HREF="#P7">7</A>, <A HREF="#P20">20</A>, <A HREF="#P221">221</A>. +</P> + +<P CLASS="index"> +Browning, Robert, <A HREF="#P65">65</A>, <A HREF="#P200">200</A>. +</P> + +<P CLASS="index"> +Buchanan, Robert, <A HREF="#P253">253</A>. +</P> + +<P CLASS="index"> +Butler, Bishop, <A HREF="#P10">10</A>, <A HREF="#P139">139</A>. +</P> + +<BR> + +<P CLASS="index"> +Caird, Principal, <A HREF="#P112">112</A>. +</P> + +<P CLASS="index"> +Calendar, Positivist, <A HREF="#P108">108</A>. +</P> + +<P CLASS="index"> +<I>Caliban upon Setebos</I>, <A HREF="#P65">65</A>. +</P> + +<P CLASS="index"> +Carey, Vivian, <A HREF="#P6">6</A>, <A HREF="#P26">26</A>. +</P> + +<P CLASS="index"> +Chesterton, G. K., <A HREF="#P113">113</A>. +</P> + +<P CLASS="index"> +Christ the only Way, <A HREF="#P129">129</A>, <A HREF="#P207">207</A>. +</P> + +<P CLASS="index"> +—— the substance of Christianity, <A HREF="#P173">173</A>. +</P> + +<P CLASS="index"> +Christianity, influence of, <A HREF="#P24">24</A>, <A HREF="#P28">28</A>. +</P> + +<P CLASS="index"> +—— misrepresentation of, <A HREF="#P18">18</A>, <A HREF="#P223">223</A>. +</P> + +<P CLASS="index"> +Christians, inconsistency of, <A HREF="#P16">16</A>, <A HREF="#P19">19</A>, <A HREF="#P213">213</A>, <A HREF="#P222">222</A>, <A HREF="#P253">253</A>. +</P> + +<P CLASS="index"> +<I>Christmas Eve</I>, <A HREF="#P200">200</A>. +</P> + +<P CLASS="index"> +Church, Dean, <A HREF="#P9">9</A>. +</P> + +<P CLASS="index"> +Clifford, W. K., <A HREF="#P103">103</A>. +</P> + +<P CLASS="index"> +Cobbe, Frances Power, <A HREF="#P144">144</A>, <A HREF="#P149">149</A>. +</P> + +<P CLASS="index"> +Coit, Dr. Stanton, <A HREF="#P41">41</A>. +</P> + +<P CLASS="index"> +Comte, Auguste, <A HREF="#P103">103</A>. +</P> + +<P CLASS="index"> +Congreve, Richard, <A HREF="#P115">115</A>, <A HREF="#P242">242</A>. +</P> + +<P CLASS="index"> +Conway, Moncure D., <A HREF="#P8">8</A>. +</P> + +<P CLASS="index"> +Cowper, William, <A HREF="#P78">78</A>. +</P> + +<P CLASS="index"> +Criticism, <A HREF="#P173">173</A>. +</P> + +<BR> + +<P CLASS="index"> +Deism, <A HREF="#P139">139</A>, <A HREF="#P143">143</A>, <A HREF="#P164">164</A>, <A HREF="#P236">236</A>, <A HREF="#P240">240</A>. +</P> + +<P CLASS="index"> +De Vere, Aubrey, <A HREF="#P101">101</A>. +</P> + +<BR> + +<P CLASS="index"> +Eliot, George, <A HREF="#P56">56</A>, <A HREF="#P208">208</A>. +</P> + +<P CLASS="index"> +Enemies, witness of, <A HREF="#P177">177</A>. +</P> + +<BR> + +<P CLASS="index"> +Fénelon, <A HREF="#P78">78</A>. +</P> + +<P CLASS="index"> +Fiske, John, <A HREF="#P100">100</A>. +</P> + +<BR> + +<P CLASS="index"> +Gilder, R. W., <A HREF="#P252">252</A>. +</P> + +<P CLASS="index"> +Gore, Bishop, <A HREF="#P136">136</A>, <A HREF="#P236">236</A>. +</P> + +<P CLASS="index"> +Great Being of Positivism, <A HREF="#P106">106</A>, <A HREF="#P112">112</A>, <A HREF="#P114">114</A>. +</P> + +<BR> + +<P CLASS="index"> +Haeckel, <A HREF="#P71">71</A>. +</P> + +<P CLASS="index"> +Harrison, Frederic, <A HREF="#P84">84</A>, <A HREF="#P96">96</A>, <A HREF="#P102">102</A>, <A HREF="#P108">108</A>, <A HREF="#P110">110</A>, <A HREF="#P237">237</A>, <A HREF="#P238">238</A>. +</P> + +<P CLASS="index"> +Hughes, Hugh Price, <A HREF="#P223">223</A>. +</P> + +<P CLASS="index"> +Humanity, Christ, the Ideal of, <A HREF="#P118">118</A>. +</P> + +<P CLASS="index"> +—— Religion of, <A HREF="#P93">93</A>, <A HREF="#P103">103</A>, <A HREF="#P105">105</A>, <A HREF="#P237">237</A>, <A HREF="#P238">238</A>, <A HREF="#P242">242</A>. +</P> + +<P CLASS="index"> +Huntingdon, Bishop, <A HREF="#P250">250</A>. +</P> + +<BR> + +<P CLASS="index"> +Immortality, denial of, <A HREF="#P54">54</A>, <A HREF="#P60">60</A>, <A HREF="#P254">254</A>. +</P> + +<P CLASS="index"> +Impeachments of Christianity, <A HREF="#P12">12</A>, <A HREF="#P249">249</A>. +</P> + +<P CLASS="index"> +Incarnation, <A HREF="#P48">48</A>, <A HREF="#P96">96</A>. +</P> + +<BR> + +<P CLASS="index"> +Jefferies, Richard, <A HREF="#P73">73</A>. +</P> + +<BR> + +<P CLASS="index"> +Law, William, <A HREF="#P78">78</A>. +</P> + +<P CLASS="index"> +Lefčvre, A., <A HREF="#P188">188</A>. +</P> + +<BR> + +<P CLASS="index"> +Macpherson, Hector, <A HREF="#P251">251</A>. +</P> + +<P CLASS="index"> +Man, <A HREF="#P93">93</A>. +</P> + +<P CLASS="index"> +Martineau, Harriet, <A HREF="#P220">220</A>. +</P> + +<P CLASS="index"> +—— James, <A HREF="#P227">227</A>. +</P> + +<P CLASS="index"> +Material Progress, <A HREF="#P255">255</A>, <A HREF="#P256">256</A>. +</P> + +<P CLASS="index"> +Matheson, George, <A HREF="#P224">224</A>. +</P> + +<P CLASS="index"> +Mediation, <A HREF="#P157">157</A>. +</P> + +<P CLASS="index"> +Menzies, P. S., <A HREF="#P233">233</A>, <A HREF="#P234">234</A>. +</P> + +<P CLASS="index"> +Mill, John Stuart, <A HREF="#P208">208</A>. +</P> + +<P CLASS="index"> +Montaigne, <A HREF="#P23">23</A>. +</P> + +<P CLASS="index"> +Morality and Religion, <A HREF="#P33">33</A>, <A HREF="#P39">39</A>, <A HREF="#P146">146</A>, <A HREF="#P229">229</A>, <A HREF="#P230">230</A>. +</P> + +<P CLASS="index"> +—— Religion without, <A HREF="#P34">34</A>. +</P> + +<P CLASS="index"> +Mozoomdar, P. C., <A HREF="#P196">196</A>. +</P> + +<P CLASS="index"> +Myers, F. W. H., <A HREF="#P56">56</A>. +</P> + +<BR> + +<P CLASS="index"> +Newman, F. W., <A HREF="#P144">144</A>, <A HREF="#P247">247</A>. +</P> + +<P CLASS="index"> +Nietzsche, <A HREF="#P220">220</A>. +</P> + +<BR> + +<P CLASS="index"> +Pantheism, <A HREF="#P65">65</A>, <A HREF="#P81">81</A>, <A HREF="#P233">233</A>, <A HREF="#P234">234</A>, <A HREF="#P236">236</A>. +</P> + +<P CLASS="index"> +Personality of God, <A HREF="#P44">44</A>, <A HREF="#P70">70</A>, <A HREF="#P147">147</A>, <A HREF="#P233">233</A>. +</P> + +<P CLASS="index"> +Picton, J. Allanson, <A HREF="#P87">87</A>. +</P> + +<P CLASS="index"> +Pope, Alexander, <A HREF="#P78">78</A>. +</P> + +<P CLASS="index"> +Positivism, <A HREF="#P93">93</A>, <A HREF="#P103">103</A>, <A HREF="#P211">211</A>. +</P> + +<P CLASS="index"> +Prayer, <A HREF="#P43">43</A>. +</P> + +<BR> + +<P CLASS="index"> +Reade, Winwood, <A HREF="#P5">5</A>, <A HREF="#P120">120</A>, <A HREF="#P249">249</A>. +</P> + +<P CLASS="index"> +Renan, E., <A HREF="#P192">192</A>. +</P> + +<P CLASS="index"> +Roberts, W. Page-, Dean, <A HREF="#P112">112</A>. +</P> + +<P CLASS="index"> +Robertson, Frederick William, <A HREF="#P118">118</A>, <A HREF="#P228">228</A>. +</P> + +<BR> + +<P CLASS="index"> +Sabatier, A., <A HREF="#P158">158</A>. +</P> + +<P CLASS="index"> +Schleiermacher, <A HREF="#P77">77</A>. +</P> + +<P CLASS="index"> +Schmiedel, P. W., <A HREF="#P184">184</A>. +</P> + +<P CLASS="index"> +Shelley, <A HREF="#P13">13</A>, <A HREF="#P98">98</A>. +</P> + +<P CLASS="index"> +Sin, Sense of, <A HREF="#P86">86</A>. +</P> + +<P CLASS="index"> +Smith, Goldwin, <A HREF="#P226">226</A>, <A HREF="#P255">255</A>. +</P> + +<P CLASS="index"> +Spencer, Herbert, <A HREF="#P71">71</A>. +</P> + +<P CLASS="index"> +Spinoza, <A HREF="#P76">76</A>. +</P> + +<P CLASS="index"> +Stanley, Dean, <A HREF="#P77">77</A>. +</P> + +<P CLASS="index"> +Stephen, Sir J. F., <A HREF="#P50">50</A>, <A HREF="#P58">58</A>, <A HREF="#P238">238</A>. +</P> + +<P CLASS="index"> +—— Sir Leslie, <A HREF="#P16">16</A>. +</P> + +<P CLASS="index"> +Strauss, D. F., <A HREF="#P195">195</A>. +</P> + +<P CLASS="index"> +Swift, Dean, <A HREF="#P10">10</A>, <A HREF="#P219">219</A>. +</P> + +<BR> + +<P CLASS="index"> +Tennyson, <A HREF="#P60">60</A>, <A HREF="#P79">79</A>, <A HREF="#P212">212</A>. +</P> + +<P CLASS="index"> +'Theism,' <A HREF="#P127">127</A>, <A HREF="#P150">150</A>, <A HREF="#P164">164</A>. +</P> + +<P CLASS="index"> +Thomson, James, <A HREF="#P78">78</A>. +</P> + +<P CLASS="index"> +Tulloch, John, <A HREF="#P246">246</A>. +</P> + +<BR> + +<P CLASS="index"> +Uniqueness of Christ, <A HREF="#P199">199</A>, <A HREF="#P252">252</A>. +</P> + +<BR> + +<P CLASS="index"> +Vivian, Philip, <A HREF="#P5">5</A>, <A HREF="#P229">229</A>. +</P> + +<P CLASS="index"> +Voltaire, <A HREF="#P139">139</A>, <A HREF="#P168">168</A>. +</P> + +<P CLASS="index"> +Voysey, Rev. Charles, <A HREF="#P153">153</A>, <A HREF="#P248">248</A>. +</P> + +<BR> + +<P CLASS="index"> +Wallace, Alfred Russel, <A HREF="#P100">100</A>. +</P> + +<P CLASS="index"> +Warschauer, J., <A HREF="#P159">159</A>, <A HREF="#P203">203</A>. +</P> + +<P CLASS="index"> +Watts, Charles, <A HREF="#P7">7</A>. +</P> + +<P CLASS="index"> +Wells, H. G., <A HREF="#P189">189</A>, <A HREF="#P254">254</A>. +</P> + +<P CLASS="index"> +Wesley, John, <A HREF="#P222">222</A>. +</P> + +<P CLASS="index"> +Wimmer, R., <A HREF="#P193">193</A>. +</P> + +<P CLASS="index"> +Woolman, John, <A HREF="#P222">222</A>. +</P> + +<P CLASS="index"> +Wordsworth, John, Bishop, <A HREF="#P240">240</A>. +</P> + +<P CLASS="index"> +—— William, <A HREF="#P79">79</A>. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<H5 ALIGN="center"> +Printed by T. and A. CONSTABLE, Printers to His Majesty<BR> +at the Edinburgh University Press<BR> +</H5> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<HR> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap10"></A> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +The Expositors Library +</H3> + +<H4 ALIGN="center"> +Cloth, 2/- net each volume. +</H4> + +<BR> + +<PRE> +THE NEW EVANGELISM. Prof. HENRY DRUMMOND, F.R.S.E. + +THE MIND OF THE MASTER. Rev. JOHN WATSON, D.D. + +THE TEACHING OF JESUS CONCERNING HIMSELF. Rev. Prof. JAMES STALKER, D.D. + +FELLOWSHIP WITH CHRIST. Rev. R. W. DALE, D.D., LL.D. + +STUDIES ON THE NEW TESTAMENT. Prof. F. GODET, D.D. + +THE LIFE OF THE MASTER. Rev. JOHN WATSON, D.D. + +STUDIES OF THE PORTRAIT OF CHRIST.-- + Vol. I. Rev. GEORGE MATHESON, D.D. + +STUDIES OF THE PORTRAIT OF CHRIST.-- + Vol. II. Rev. GEORGE MATHESON, D.D. + +THE JEWISH TEMPLE AND THE CHRISTIAN + CHURCH. Rev. R. W. DALE, D.D., LL.D. + +THE TEN COMMANDMENTS. Rev. R. W. DALE, D.D., LL.D. + +THE FACT OF CHRIST. Rev. P. CARNEGIE SIMPSON, M.A. + +THE CROSS IN MODERN LIFE. Rev. J. G. GREENHOUGH, M.A. + +HEROES AND MARTYRS OF FAITH. Prof. A. S. PEAKE, D.D. + +A GUIDE TO PREACHERS. Principal A. E. GARVIE, M.A., D.D. + +MODERN SUBSTITUTES FOR CHRISTIANITY. Rev. P. McADAM MUIR, D.D. + +EPHESIAN STUDIES. Right Rev. H. C. G. MOULE, D.D. + +THE UNCHANGING CHRIST. Rev. ALEX MCLAREN, D.D., D.LITT. + +THE GOD OF THE AMEN. Rev. ALEX MCLAREN, D.D., D.LITT. + +THE ASCENT THROUGH CHRIST. Rev. E. GRIFFITH JONES, B.A. + +STUDIES ON THE OLD TESTAMENT. Prof. F. GODET, D.D. +</PRE> + +<BR> + +<H5 ALIGN="center"> +LONDON: HODDER AND STOUGHTON +</H5> + +<BR><BR><BR><BR> + + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Modern Substitutes for Christianity, by +Pearson McAdam Muir + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MODERN SUBST. FOR CHRISTIANITY *** + +***** This file should be named 32006-h.htm or 32006-h.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/3/2/0/0/32006/ + +Produced by Al Haines + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, +set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to +copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to +protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. Project +Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you +charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission. 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You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Modern Substitutes for Christianity + +Author: Pearson McAdam Muir + +Release Date: April 16, 2010 [EBook #32006] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MODERN SUBST. FOR CHRISTIANITY *** + + + + +Produced by Al Haines + + + + + + + + + + +_THE EXPOSITOR'S LIBRARY_ + + + +MODERN SUBSTITUTES + +FOR CHRISTIANITY + + + +BY THE VERY REV. + +PEARSON McADAM MUIR D.D. + + +MINISTER OF GLASGOW CATHEDRAL + +CHAPLAIN IN ORDINARY TO THE KING + + + + +_Christus vincit, Christus regnat, Christus imperat_ + + + +HODDER AND STOUGHTON + +LONDON -- NEW YORK -- TORONTO + + + + +First Published . . . December 1909 + +Second Edition . . . October 1912 + + + + +IN MEMORIAM + +S. A. M. + +JUNE 3, 1847. OCTOBER 5, 1871 + +FEBRUARY 12, 1907 + + + + +{vii} + +CONTENTS + + +I PAGE + +POPULAR IMPEACHMENTS OF CHRISTIANITY . . . . . 1 + + +II + +MORALITY WITHOUT RELIGION . . . . . . . . . . 31 + + +III + +THE RELIGION OF THE UNIVERSE . . . . . . . . . 63 + + +IV + +THE RELIGION OF HUMANITY . . . . . . . . . . . 91 + + +{viii} + + +V + +THEISM WITHOUT CHRIST . . . . . . . . . . . . 125 + + +VI + +THE TRIBUTE OF CRITICISM TO CHRIST . . . . . . 171 + + +APPENDICES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 219 + +AUTHORITIES CONSULTED . . . . . . . . . . . . 257 + +INDEX . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 265 + + + + +{2} + +I + +POPULAR IMPEACHMENTS OF CHRISTIANITY + + + +'Why call ye Me Lord, Lord, and do not the things which I say?'--S. +LUKE vi. 46. + +'The name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles through you.'--ROMANS +ii. 24. + +'What if some did not believe? shall their unbelief make the faith of +God without effect?'--ROMANS iii. 3. + +'By reason of whom the way of truth shall be evil spoken of.'--2 S. +PETER ii. 1. + +'So is the will of God, that with well-doing ye may put to silence the +ignorance of foolish men.'--1 S. PETER ii. 15. + + + +{3} + +I + +POPULAR IMPEACHMENTS OF CHRISTIANITY + +That there is at present a widespread alienation from the Christian +Faith can hardly be denied. Sometimes by violent invective, sometimes +by quiet assumption, the conclusion is conveyed that Christianity is +obsolete. Whatever benefits it may have conferred in rude, +unenlightened ages, it is now outgrown, it is not in keeping with the +science and discovery of modern times. 'The good Lord Jesus has had +His day,'[1] is murmured in pitying condescension towards those who +still suffer themselves to be deceived by the antiquated superstition. +The statements in which our forefathers embodied the relations {4} +between God and man are no longer, except by a very few, considered +adequate; and there is everywhere a demand that those statements should +be recast. Is not all this an irresistible proof that the beliefs of +the Church have been abandoned, that the old notions of the Divine +care, the spiritual world, the everlasting life, cannot be maintained, +must be relegated to the realm of imagination? The blessings with +which Christianity is commonly credited spring from other sources: the +evils with which society is infected are its result, direct or indirect. + + +I + +Such accusations, it may occur to us, cannot be made seriously: they +bear their refutation in the very making; they cannot be propounded +with any expectation of being accepted. This may seem self-evident to +us: it is not self-evident to multitudes of eager, {5} earnest men. +The accusations are persistently made by vigorous writers and +impassioned speakers, and are received as incontrovertible +propositions. However astonishing, however painful, it may be for us +to hear, it is well that we should know, what, in largely circulated +books and periodicals, and in mass meetings of the people, is said +about the Faith which we profess, and about us who profess it. + +Listen to some of the terms in which Christianity is impeached. + +'I undertake,' says Mr. Winwood Reade, 'I undertake to show that the +destruction of Christianity is essential to the interests of +civilisation; and also that man will never attain his full powers as a +moral being, until he has ceased to believe in a personal God, and in +the immortality of the soul. Christianity must be destroyed.'[2] + +'The hostile evidence,' says Mr. Philip {6} Vivian, 'appears to be +overwhelming. Christianity cannot be true. Provided that we see +things as they really are, and not as we wish them to be, we cannot but +come to this conclusion. We cannot get away from facts. Modern +knowledge forces us to admit that the Christian Faith cannot be +true.'[3] + +'I want,' exclaims Mr. Vivian Carey, who has apparently, like Lord +Herbert of Cherbury, received a revelation to prove that no revelation +has been given, 'I want to destroy the fetich of centuries and to +instil in its place a life of duty, and of faith in God and man, and I +believe there is a power that has impelled me to attempt this task.... +A system that has produced such results must be essentially bad.... It +will not be difficult to create a faith and a religion that will serve +the needs of humanity, where Christianity has so deplorably failed.'[4] + +{7} + +'If Christianity,' argues Mr. Charles Watts, 'were potent for good, +that good would have been displayed ere now.... The ties of domestic +affection, the bonds of the social compact, the political relations of +rulers and ruled, all have surrendered themselves to its influence. +Yet with all these advantages, it has proved unable to keep pace with a +progressive civilisation.'[5] + +'In a really humane and civilised nation,' Mr. Robert Blatchford +contends, 'there should be and need be no such thing as Ignorance, +Crime, Idleness, War, Slavery, Hate, Envy, Pride, Greed, Gluttony, +Vice. But this is not a humane and civilised nation, and never will be +while it accepts Christianity as its religion. These are my reasons +for opposing Christianity.'[6] 'Christianity,' he iterates and +reiterates, 'is not true.'[7] + +'Onward, ye children of the new Faith!' {8} exultantly cries Mr. +Moncure D. Conway. 'The sun of Christendom hastes to its setting, but +the hope never sets of those who know that the sunset here is a sunrise +there!'[8] + +Such is the manner in which the downfall of Christianity is now +proclaimed. And the impression is prevalent that, though in all ages +Christianity has been the object of doubt and of scorn, yet never has +it been rejected with such intensity of hatred as now, never have keen +criticism and deep earnestness, wide learning and shrewd mother-wit +been so combined in the attack. It is not merely the reckless, the +dissolute, the frivolous who turn away from its reproofs, seeking +excuses for their self-indulgence, but it is the thoughtful, the +austere, the high-principled, the reverent, the unselfish, who are +engaged in a crusade against all that we, as Christians, hold dear. +'To the old spirit of mockery, coarse or refined, to the old wrangle of +argument, {9} also coarse or refined, has succeeded the spirit of +grave, measured, determined negation.'[9] Men whose integrity and +elevation of character are beyond suspicion, take their places among +the rebels against the authority of Christ. They are fighting, they +assert, not for the removal of a check to their vices, but for the +introduction of a nobler ideal. In the demolition of Christianity, in +the sweeping away of every vestige of religious belief, religious +custom, religious hope, they imagine themselves to be conferring +inestimable benefits upon mankind. Christianity, in their view, is the +product of delusion and the buttress of all social ills. + + +II + +The contrast which so many are drawing between the present and the past +is not a little exaggerated. There have been few periods in which +Christianity has not been the {10} object of animadversion and attack, +in which its speedy downfall has not been confidently predicted. It +was two hundred years ago that Dean Swift wrote _An Argument to prove +that the Abolishing of Christianity in England may, as things now +stand, be attended with some Inconveniences, and perhaps not produce +those many good effects proposed thereby_': the Dean, with scathing +sarcasm, ridiculing at once the conventional customs by which +Christianity was misrepresented, and the supercilious ignorance which +assumed that it was extinct.[10] It was about a quarter of a century +later that Bishop Butler, in the advertisement to his _Analogy of +Religion to the Constitution and Course of Nature_, stated, 'It is +come, I know not how, to be taken for granted by many persons that +Christianity is not so much as a subject of inquiry, but that it is +now, at length, discovered to be fictitious. And accordingly they +treat it as if, {11} in the present age, this were an agreed point +among all people of discernment; and nothing remained but to set it up +as a principal subject of mirth and ridicule, as it were, by way of +reprisals for its having so long interrupted the pleasures of the +world.' And the Bishop drily gave as the aim of the _Analogy_: 'Thus +much, at least, will be here found, not taken for granted but proved, +that any reasonable man who will thoroughly consider the matter, may be +as much assured as he is of his own being, that it is not, however, so +clear a case that there is nothing in it.' + +The assumption that Christianity is a thing of the past can hardly be +more prevalent now than it was then; and the groundlessness of the +assumption then may lead to the conclusion that the assumption is +equally groundless now. Since the days of Butler or of Swift, the +progress of Christianity has not ceased: its developments of thought +and {12} life have been among the most remarkable in its whole career. +The exultation over its decay in the twentieth century may possibly be +found as premature and as vain as the exultation over its decay in the +eighteenth century, or in any of the centuries which have gone before. + + +III + +The most popular impeachments of Christianity are mainly these. + +It is a mass of false and superstitious beliefs long exploded. It is +the opponent of progress and inquiry, the discoveries of science having +been made in direct defiance of its teaching and its influence. + +It is the champion of oppression and tyranny. It aims at keeping the +poor in ignorance and destitution. It prostrates itself before the +rich and seeks the patronage of the great. + +It so insists on people being absorbed in {13} the thought of heaven +that it practically precludes them from doing any good on earth. + +It is a system of selfishness, inculcating the dogma that no one need +care for anything except the salvation of his own soul.[11] + +It is the foster-mother of all the evil and misery by which society is +distressed. Dishonesty, cruelty, slavery, war, persecution, avarice, +drunkenness, vice, would seem to be its natural fruits. + + 'How calm and sweet the victories of life,' + +shrieked Shelley in one of his early poems. + + 'How terrorless the triumph of the grave ... + ... but for thy aid + Religion! but for thee, prolific fiend, + Who peoplest earth with demons, hell with men, + And heaven with slaves! + Thou taintest all thou look'st upon!'[12] + +What shall we say to these accusations? Christians have been credulous +and superstitious, have argued and acted as if only in {14} the +abnormal and exceptional could the Divine Presence be found, as if God +were a hard Taskmaster and capricious Tyrant. They have resisted +progress and inquiry, blindly refusing to see the light which was +streaming upon them. They have unquestionably been guilty of miserable +pride towards inferiors in wealth or in station, and guilty of +miserable sycophancy towards the rich and the powerful. Christians +have too frequently neglected the material well-being of the community, +have suffered disgraceful outward conditions to remain without protest, +have not striven to shed abroad happiness and brightness in squalid and +wretched lives. Christians have been art and part in fostering such +conditions as wrung from compassionate and indignant hearts the _Song +of the Shirt_ and the _Cry of the Children_. Christians have imagined +that correctness of belief would make up for falseness of heart, and +loudness of profession for depravity of {15} practice. Christians have +supposed that in religion all that has to be striven for is the +salvation of one's own soul, have even represented the joy of the +redeemed as heightened by a contemplation of the torments of the lost. +Christians must bear the responsibility of much of the abounding vice +which they have not earnestly tried to combat where it already exists, +and which, in various forms, they have introduced into regions where it +was unknown before. Lawlessness and degradation in the slums, fraud +and dishonesty in trade, gross revelations in the fashionable world; +bigotry, slander, scandals in the ecclesiastical world; plots, wars, +treacheries, assassinations, in the political world: these things ought +not so to be. The fiercest denunciations, the most withering satires, +which unbelievers have employed, do not exceed in intensity of +condemnation the judgment which Christian preachers and Christian +writers have pronounced.[13] + +{16} + +In all ages of the Church the most powerful weapon against Christianity +has been the example of Christians. The Faith which they nominally +hold has been judged by the lives which they actually lead.[14] +'Christianity,' said a bishop of the eighteenth century, 'would perhaps +be the last religion a wise man would choose, if he were guided by the +lives of those who profess it.'[15] But is this to admit that the hope +of the world lies in renouncing Christianity? that in confining +ourselves to the seen and the temporal, we shall best elevate mankind? +that the prospect of annihilation and the absence of wisdom, love, and +Providence in the order of the universe constitute the most glorious +gospel which can be proclaimed? Nothing of the kind. It is only +proved that many Christians are not acting according to their belief, +that their practice does not square with their {17} profession. The +belief and the profession are not proved to be wrong and bad. It would +be unreasonable to argue that, because a man who has been vehemently +sounding the praises of truthfulness is convicted of deliberate lying, +therefore truthfulness is shown to be worthless. It is equally +unreasonable to identify Christianity with everything to which it is +most definitely opposed, to represent it as the enemy of everything +which it was intended to maintain, and then to conclude that +Christianity is discredited.[16] As we should argue from the detection +of a liar, not that lying is right, but that he should return to the +ways of truth, so we should argue from the lives of Christians who live +in flagrant contradiction to the precepts of our Lord and His Apostles, +not that the precepts should be rejected, but that they should be kept; +not that Christianity should be abolished, but that it should be obeyed. + +{18} + +Christians have created prejudice, hatred, against Christianity, but it +is not Christianity which they have been exhibiting. We repudiate the +hideous travesty which they have made, the hideous travesty which is +credulously or maliciously accepted by assailants as a correct +representation. Christianity is not a religion of darkness and +superstition: it calls to its disciples 'Be children of light: prove +all things: hold fast that which is good.' Christianity does not +sycophantishly court the rich and despise the poor: it tells the +stories of the Rich Man and Lazarus, and of the Rich Fool, and it +declares 'Ye cannot serve God and Mammon.' Christianity does not teach +that the life which a man leads is of less consequence than the belief +which he professes: it demands, 'Why call ye Me, Lord, Lord, and do not +the things which I say?' Christianity is not selfish, is not a system +which inculcates the saving of one's own soul as the first and last of +duties: {19} 'He that loveth his life shall lose it. Bear ye one +another's burdens, and so fulfil the law of Christ. By this shall all +men know that ye are My disciples if ye have love one to another.' It +is surely reasonable to demand that Christianity shall be judged, not +by its misrepresentations, but by what it is in itself, not as it has +been perverted by bitter enemies, or by false disciples, but as it is +proclaimed and manifested in its Author and Finisher. + + +IV + +In the face of such tremendous indictments, what is the duty incumbent +on us who profess and call ourselves Christians? Certainly not that we +should abjure the name, but that we should remember what the name +signifies. We ought to consider our ways, to give ourselves to +self-examination. There must be something amiss when such hideous +portraits can be painted with any expectation of their being taken as +correct likenesses. It is right {20} that we should repel with +indignation the ludicrous and intolerable caricatures which are +presented as our belief, the unwarrantable consequences which are +deduced from it. It is right that we should remove misapprehensions +and refute calumnies; but, above all it is necessary that we should +take heed to our own conduct and our own character. The scandals which +we have so much reason to deplore owe their existence, not to +Christianity, but to the absence of Christianity. And the very sneers +which greet any departure from rectitude or morality on the part of a +professing Christian prove that such a departure is not a +manifestation, but a renunciation of Christianity, that what is +expected of Christians is the highest and the best that human nature +can produce. + +'If,' argues Mr. Blatchford, 'if to praise Christ in words and deny Him +in deeds be Christianity, then London is a Christian city and England +is a Christian nation. For it is {21} very evident that our common +English ideals are anti-Christian, and that our commercial, foreign, +and social affairs are run on anti-Christian lines.'[17] As Mr. +Blatchford's life is spent in deploring the baseness of 'our common +English ideals,' and in exposing the iniquity of the methods in which +'our commercial, foreign, and social affairs' are conducted, the +logical inference would seem to be that, as anti-Christian ideals and +anti-Christian lines have so signally failed, it might be well to give +Christian ideals and Christian lines a trial. 'In a really humane and +civilised nation,' Mr. Blatchford maintains, 'there should be, and +there need be, no such thing as Poverty, Ignorance, Crime, Idleness, +War, Slavery, Hate, Envy, Pride, Greed, Gluttony, Vice. But,' he +continues his curious argument, 'this is not a humane and civilised +nation, and never will be while it accepts Christianity as its +religion. These,' {22} so he adds as an irresistible conclusion, +'these are my reasons for opposing Christianity.'[18] Very good +reasons, if Christianity taught such a creed and encouraged such a +morality. But that any human being should give such a description of +the purpose of Christian Faith indicates either that the describer is +swayed by blindest prejudice or else that no genuine Christian has ever +crossed his path. + +'What if some do not believe? shall their unbelief make the faith of +God of none effect? God forbid: yea, let God be true, but every man a +liar.' Truth continues to be truth, though people who talk much about +it may be false. Goodness continues to be goodness, though people who +sing its praises may be thoroughly depraved. Generosity does not cease +to be generosity, though its beauty should be extolled by a miser. +Courage does not cease to be courage, though its heroism should be +extolled by a coward. Temperance {23} is temperance, though we should +be assured of the fact by the thick speech of a drunkard. The virtue +is admirable, even when those who acknowledge how admirable it is do +not practise it. + +That Christianity towers so far above the attainments of its average +disciples, nay, above the attainments of its saintliest, is itself a +kind of evidence of its divine origin. 'When the King of the Tartars, +who was become Christian,' says Montaigne, 'designed to come to Lyons +to kiss the Pope's feet, and there to be an eyewitness of the sanctity +he hoped to find in our manners, immediately our good S. Louis sought +to divert him from his purpose: for fear lest our inordinate way of +living should, on the contrary, put him out of conceit with so holy a +belief. And yet it happened quite otherwise to this other, who going +to Rome to the same end, and there seeing the dissolution of the +Prelates and people of that time, settled {24} himself so much the more +firmly in our religion, considering how great the force and dignity of +it must necessarily be that could maintain its dignity and splendour +amongst so much corruption and in so vicious hands.' God's truth +abides whether men receive it or deny it. Christ is the Way, the +Truth, and the Life, though every so-called Christian should become +apostate. The woes of the world are to be cured by more Christianity, +not by less; and on us, in whose hands have been placed its holy +oracles, rests the responsibility of proving its inestimable advantage +ourselves and of conferring it on all mankind. + +Wherever Christianity has really flourished, untold blessings have been +the result.[19] With all the sad deficiencies and sadder perversions +by which its course has been chequered, no influence for good can be +compared with it in elevating character, in diffusing peace and {25} +goodwill, in fitting men to labour and to endure. The diffusion of the +spirit of Christianity is a synonym for the diffusion of all that tends +to the true well-being of the world. Only as genuine Christianity, the +Christianity of Christ, prevails, will mankind be morally and +spiritually lifted into a higher sphere. Put together the wisest and +most ennobling suggestions of those who regard Christianity as obsolete +and you find that it is virtually Christianity which is delineated. It +is in the prevalence of principles and practices which, however they +may be designated, are in reality Christian, that the salvation of +society and of individuals will be found. In the absence of such +principles and practices will be found the secret of ruin, disorder, +dissolution, and decay. + +It is false Christianity against which the tornado of abuse is really +directed. Where genuine Christianity appears, and is recognised as +genuine, it commands respect. {26} Even the most virulent of recent +assailants, who seriously considers that, until we get rid of the +'incubus of the modern Christian religion, our civilisation will so +surely decay that we shall become an entirely decadent race,' and who +complacently announces that 'it will not be difficult to create a faith +and a religion which will serve the needs of humanity where +Christianity has so signally failed,' even he is graciously pleased to +allow, 'I have no quarrel with Christianity as a code of morals. The +Sermon on the Mount, no matter who preached it, is quite sufficient, if +its teaching was only practised instead of preached, to make this world +an eminently desirable place in which to live. My quarrel is concerned +with the professional promoters and organisers of religion who have +made the very name of Christianity to stink in the nostrils of honest +men.' In other words, it is not to Christianity, but to Christians by +whom it is misrepresented, that he is opposed, and he {27} cannot +refrain from granting, though surely with transparent inconsistency, +that it is by the noble lives of Christians that Christianity has been +so long preserved. 'It won, with its beauty and sentiment, the +allegiance of many who were true and manly. And it is such as these +who have raised the Gospel from the slough of infamy. It is such as +these who, in the darkest ages, have perpetuated by the goodness of +their lives the faith that is left to-day. It is the virtues of +Christians, not the virtue of Christianity, that keeps the faith +alive.'[20] The very opposite is nearer the truth. The virtues of +Christians are simply the outcome of the virtue of Christianity: it is +the vices of Christians which compose the deepest 'slough of infamy' +into which the Gospel has ever been plunged. + +But from all these charges and counter-charges, it would seem to be +clear that real {28} Christianity compels respect even where it is +viewed with aversion, that its progress is hindered by nothing so much +as by the unworthiness of its adherents, that it gains assent by +nothing so much as by the manifestation of Christian lives. + +Will any one venture to deny that the world would be vastly improved +were every one in it to be a genuine Christian, animated by Christian +motives, doing Christian deeds? The revolution would be immense, +indescribable: it would be the end of all evil: it would be the +establishment of all good. No man's hand would be against another, all +would strive together for the welfare of the whole, there would be no +contention save how to excel in love and in good works. The human +imagination cannot depict anything more glorious, more ennobling, than +the will of God done on earth as it is done in heaven, and this is what +would be if the thoughts of every heart were brought {29} into +captivity to the obedience of Christ. The most splendid dreams of the +most exalted visionaries would be more than fulfilled: everything true +and lovely and of good report would be ratified and confirmed: +everything false and vile would be changed and purified, and nothing to +hurt or destroy or defile would remain. The fulfilment of that ideal +is simply the universal prevalence of Christianity, the universal +triumph of Christ. + +The systems and tendencies at which we are about to glance owe their +vitality to the Faith which they attempt to supersede. They are, in so +far as they are good, either tending towards Christianity or borrowing +from it. The insufficiency of mere material well-being, the +irresistible association of Religion with Morality, the worship of the +Universe, the worship of Humanity, all are signs of the ineradicable +instinct of the Unseen and Eternal, of the unquenchable thirst for the +Living God; and belief in the Living {30} God finds its noblest +illustration and confirmation in Him Who said, 'He that hath seen Me +hath seen the Father,' in Him to whom the searching scrutiny of +critical inquirers, as well as the fervid devotion of believers, bears +so marvellous a witness. We hope to show not only that the abolition +of Christianity might 'be attended with sundry inconveniences,' or that +the assumption of there being 'nothing in' Christianity is 'not so +clear a case,' but we hope to show that if, amid present perplexity and +estrangement, many feel themselves obliged to go back and walk no more +with Christ, we, for our part, as we hear His voice of tender reproach, +'Will ye also go away?' can only, with heartfelt conviction, give the +answer, 'Lord, to whom shall we go? Thou hast the words of eternal +life.' + + + +[1] Tennyson, _In the Children's Hospital_. + +[2] _The Martyrdom of Man_. + +[3] _The Churches and Modern Thought_. + +[4] _Parsons and Pagans_. + +[5] _Secularists' Manual_. + +[6] _God and my Neighbour_. + +[7] _Ibid_. + +[8] _Earthward Pilgrimage_. + +[9] Dean Church, _Pascal and other Sermons_, p. 348. + +[10] Appendix I. + +[11] Appendix II. + +[12] _Queen Mab_. + +[13] Hans Faber, _Das Christentum der Zukunft_. + +[14] Appendix. + +[15] Sir Leslie Stephen, _English Thought in the Eighteenth Century_, +vol. i. p. 144 + +[16] Appendix IV. + +[17] _God and my Neighbour_. + +[18] _God and my Neighbour_, ch. ix. p. 197. + +[19] Appendix V. + +[20] _Parsons and Pagans_. + + + + +{32} + +II + +MORALITY WITHOUT RELIGION + + + +'I am sought of them that asked not for Me: I am found of them that +sought Me not.'--ISAIAH lxv. 1. + +'Not the hearers of the law are just before God, but the doers of the +law shall be justified. For when the Gentiles, which have not the law, +do by nature the things contained in the law, these, having not the +law, are a law unto themselves; which shew the work of the law written +in their hearts, their conscience also bearing witness, and their +thoughts the meanwhile accusing or else excusing one another.'--ROMANS +ii. 13-15. + +'Strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope and without +God in the world.'--EPHESIANS ii. 12. + +'The acknowledging of the truth which is after godliness.'--TITUS i. 1. + + + +{33} + +II + +MORALITY WITHOUT RELIGION + +That Religion and Morality have no necessary connection is a popular +assumption. In books, in pamphlets, in magazines, on platforms, in +ordinary conversation, it is loudly proclaimed or quietly insinuated +that the morality of the future will be Independent Morality, Morality +without Sanction. Morality, it is iterated and reiterated, can get on +quite well without Religion: Religion is a positive hindrance to +Morality. This view is, no doubt, extreme. Perhaps it is only here +and there in the writings which fall into the hands of most of us, or +in the circles with which most of us mingle, that the matter is stated +so bluntly and so plainly. But in {34} not a few writings of wide +circulation, and in whole classes of the community, the statement is +made as if beyond contradiction. Even in works which we are all +reading, and in companies where we daily find ourselves, the logical +conclusion of arguments, the natural inference from assumptions, would +be simply that extreme position. There is no use in evading the fact +that if some highly popular opinions are accepted, no statement of the +uselessness of Religion in any form or system can be too extreme. The +mere assurance that Religion is a reality, is a benefit, is a +necessity, though it may not seem a great deal to establish, though it +may leave a host of problems still to solve, would be a gain to many, +would sweep away the chief doubts by which they are perplexed. + +There need not, on our part, be any hesitation in declaring, to begin +with, that Religion {35} without Morality is worthless. The attempt to +keep them apart, to regard them as independent of each other, has often +enough been made by nominal champions of Religion. The upholding of +certain views regarding God and His relations to mankind has been +considered sufficient to make up for neglect of the duties incumbent on +ordinary mortals. The performance of certain rites and ceremonies has +been considered an adequate compensation for the commission of +deliberate crimes. Instances might easily be cited of persons engaged +in villainous schemes, achieving deeds of dishonesty which will cause +ruin to hundreds of innocent victims, executing plots of fiendish +revenge, with little regard for human life, and no regard at all for +truth, but exceedingly punctilious in attention to religious +observances. One of the most cold-blooded murderers that ever +disgraced the habitable globe was careful not to neglect any act of +devotion, and while {36} perpetrating the most nefarious basenesses +never failed to write in his diary the most pious sentiments. That +kind of religion is worse than nothing, was rightly regarded as +increasing the horror and loathsomeness of the monster's life. In a +minor degree, we have all seen illustrations of the same incongruity, +we may even have detected indications of it in ourselves, the tendency +to imagine that the more we go to church or frequent the Sacraments or +read the Bible, we are entitled to latitude in our conduct. There is +no tendency against which we need to be more constantly on our guard, +none which is more strongly, more terrifically, denounced in the Old +Testament and in the New, by prophets and apostles, and by the Lord +Jesus Christ Himself. Unbelievers in Christianity are perfectly right +when they say that Religion without Morality is absolutely worthless. + + +{37} + +II + +We may go further. We may admit, nay, we must vehemently maintain, +that Morality without Religion is far better than Religion without +Morality. Look at this man who makes no profession of Religion, but +who is temperate, honest, self-sacrificing for the public good. Look +at that man who made a loud profession, but who was leading a life of +secret vice, who was false to the trust reposed in him, who +appropriated what had been committed to his charge. Can there be any +doubt, we are triumphantly asked, that of these two, the religious is +inferior to the irreligious? There can be no doubt whatever, would be +the reply of every well-instructed Christian. Morality without +Religion is incalculably better than Religion without Morality. But +what does this prove with regard to Christianity? It simply proves how +eternally true is the parable {38} of our Lord: 'A certain man had two +sons, and he came to the first and said, Son, go work to-day in my +vineyard. He answered and said, I will not, but afterwards he repented +and went. And he came to the second and said likewise. And he +answered and said, I go, sir, and went not. Whether of them twain did +the will of his father? They say unto Him, The first,' and our Lord +confirmed the answer. + + +III + +That kind of comparison between Religion and Morality is most +misleading, for such 'Religion' is not Religion at all. It may be +hypocrisy, it may be superstition, it may be self-deception: +Christianity it is not, and never can be. The contrast is not really +between Morality and Religion, but between Morality and Immorality, +Falsehood, Fraud, and Wilful Imposition. Whatever else the Kingdom of +God may be, it is at least {39} Righteousness: where there is no +Righteousness, there can be no Kingdom of God. Whatever else Christian +doctrine may be, it is at least a doctrine according to godliness, a +teaching in accordance with the eternal laws of righteousness. For +purposes of analysis and convenience, we may distinguish between +Religion and Morality, and show them working in different spheres, but +it is utterly erroneous to suppose that they can be actually divorced. +In every right and rational representation of the Christian Religion, +Morality is included and imbedded, otherwise it is only a maimed and +mutilated Religion which is held out for acceptance. On the other +hand, in all true Morality, especially in its highest and purest +manifestations, Religion is present. It is possible to decry Morality. +'Mere Morality,' in the current acceptation of the phrase, may lack a +good deal, may be a phase of self-righteousness, self-interest, cold +calculation, {40} a keeping up of appearances before the world, but +Morality itself is of a higher strain: it is the fulfilment of every +duty to one's self and to one's neighbour: it implies that each duty is +done from the right motive: the purer and loftier it becomes the more +it encroaches on the religious domain: it is crowned and glorified with +a religious sanction: it is, visible or hidden, conscious or +unconscious, a doing of the will of God. Morality, to hold its own, +must be 'touched by emotion,' and Morality touched by emotion is +identical with Religion. To admit moral obligation in all its length +and breadth, and depth and height, is to admit God.[1] + + +IV + +A curious illustration of the fact that Morality, to be permanent, +needs the inspiration of Religion, that Morality, at its best and +purest, tends to become Religion, is {41} afforded in such a work as +Dr. Stanton Coit's _National Idealism and a State Church_. Dr. Coit +has for twenty years been engaged in founding ethical societies, and +his high and disinterested aims need not be called in question. But +the book is evidence that in order to support the lofty principles +which he so earnestly expounds, he is obliged to call in the aid of +principles which he imagined himself to have discarded. He begins by +denying the Supernatural in every shape and form. He will have none of +a personal God, or of a personal immortality. There is no higher being +than Man. All trust must be shifted from supernatural to human +agencies. 'Combined human foresight, the general will of organised +society, assumes the role of Creative Providence.' 'This is, then, the +presupposition of all moral judgment in harmony with which I would +reconstruct the religions of the world: that no crime and no good deed +that happens in this world shall {42} ever be traced to any other moral +agencies than those actually inhabiting living human bodies and +recognised by other human beings as fit subjects of human rights and +privileges.' In other words, Morality, Morality alone, Morality +without any sanction from Above, or any hope from Beyond, is the +all-sufficient strength and ennoblement of man. + +But what is the superstructure which Dr. Stanton Coit proceeds to build +upon this foundation? One would naturally expect that Prayer and +Churches and Sacraments would have no place. But these are exactly +what he insists on retaining; these will apparently be more important, +more necessary, in the future than in the past. 'We should appropriate +and adapt the materials furnished us by the rites and ceremonies of the +historic Church. As the woodbird, bent on building her nest, in lieu +of better materials makes it of leaves and of feathers from her breast, +so may we use what is familiar, old, {43} and close at hand. It is all +ours; and the homelike beauty of the Church of the future will be +enhanced by the ancient materials wrought into its new forms.' So much +enhanced, indeed, that most people will be inclined to tolerate the new +forms simply because of the ancient materials which are allowed to +remain. Among the ancient materials which Dr. Coit appropriates or +adapts, prayer occupies a prominent place. And he is severe upon +those, _e.g._, Comte and Dr. Congreve, who would banish petition from +the sphere of worship. He delights in pointing out that, in despite of +themselves, they include requests for personal blessings. Nor is +prayer to be a mere aspiration or inarticulate longing of the soul. +'No mental activity can become definite, coherent, and systematic, and +remain so, except it be embodied and repeated in words.... A petition +that does not, or cannot, or will not, formulate itself in words, and +let the lips move to shape them, and the {44} voice to sound them, and +the eye to visualise them on the written or printed page, becomes soon +a mere torpor of the mind, or a meaningless movement of blind unrest, +or a trick of pretending to pray. Perfected prayer is always spoken.' + +To whom, or to what, this prayer, uttered or unexpressed, is to be +offered, may be difficult of comprehension. It is not to God, as we +have hitherto employed that sacred name; but Dr. Coit insists that the +word 'God' shall be retained, and that we have no right to deny to this +God the attribute of Personality. 'Any one who worships either a +concrete social group or an abstract moral quality may justly protest +against the charge that his God is impersonal: he may insist that it is +either superpersonal or interpersonal, or both.' The worship of Nature +appears to be discouraged, and to be considered as of comparatively +little worth. 'We dare never forget that moral qualities stand to us +in a {45} different dynamic relation from the grass and the stars and +the sea--no effects upon us or upon these will result from petitions +even of a most righteous man to them. But no one can deny that prayers +to Purity, Serenity, Faith, Humanity, England, Man, Woman, to Milton, +to Jesus, do create a new moral heaven and a new earth for him who +thirsts after righteousness.' Leaving the name of our Lord out of the +discussion, why should a prayer to Serenity have more moral influence +than a prayer to the Sea? Why should a prayer to the Stars be less +efficacious than a prayer to Milton, whose soul was like a star and +dwelt apart? We have only to invest the stars and the sea with certain +qualities evolved from our own imagination to make them as worthy of +worship as either Milton or Serenity. Dr. Coit is scathing in his +criticism of the Positivist prayers, whether of Comte or of Dr. +Congreve: they are 'screamingly funny': 'the most monstrous {46} +absurdity ever perpetrated by a really good and great man.' The +epithets are possibly justified; but are they quite inapplicable to one +who supposes that an invocation of the Living and Eternal God means no +more than an invocation of England, or Faith, or Woman? It is only +when God has become to us an abstraction that an abstraction can take +the place of God. + +A manual of services fitted to a nation's present needs is what, +according to Dr. Coit, is required to ensure the progress and triumph +of the ethical movement. 'Until the new idealism possesses its own +manual of religious ritual, it cannot communicate effectively its +deeper thought and purpose. The moment, however, it has invented such +a means of communication, it would seem inevitable that a rapid moral +and intellectual advancement of man must at last take place, equal in +speed and in beneficence to the material advancement which followed +{47} during the last century in the wake of scientific inventions.' +The ritual of ethical societies will not outwardly differ much from the +ritual to be found in existing religions. Its details have yet to be +arranged or 'invented.' The only things certain are that a book of +prayers ought to be provided at once, and that in Swinburne's _Songs +before Sunrise_ may be found an 'anthology of prayer suitable for use +in the Church of Humanity,' prayers 'as sublime and quickening in +melody and passion as anything in the Hebrew prophets or the Litany of +the Church.' + +Dr. Coit does not denounce theology as theology, he even insists on +being himself ranked among theologians. His readers may be surprised +to learn on what doctrines he dwells with particular fondness. He +laments that belief in the existence and power of the devil should be +waning. 'We may not believe in a personal devil, but we must believe +in a devil who acts very like a person.' {48} He predicts that teachers +will more and more teach a doctrine of hell-fire. Out of kindness they +will terrify by presenting the evil effects, indirect and remote, of +selfish thoughts and dispositions. 'We must frighten people away from +the edge of the abyss which begins this side of death.' Finally, +though, of course, the word is not used in the ordinary sense, the +necessity of the doctrine of the Incarnation is upheld. 'The +Incarnation must for ever remain a fundamental conception of religion. +Until all men are incarnations of the principle of constructive moral +beneficence, and to a higher degree, Jesus will remain pre-eminent; and +it is quite possible that in proportion as he is approached, gratitude +to him will increase rather than diminish.' 'Even should any one ever +in the future transcend him, still it will only be by him and in glad +acknowledgment of the debt to him. There never can in the future be a +dividing of the world into Christianity {49} and not Christianity. It +will only be a new and more Christian Christianity, compatible with +liberty and reason.' + +Thus the drift and tendency of this book bring us back, however +unintentionally, to the Faith of which it appears, at first sight, to +be the renunciation. It establishes irresistibly that Morality, to be +living and permanent, must have religious sanction and inspiration, +that we need to be delivered from the awful thraldom of evil, that the +supreme realities are the things which are unseen; that prayer is the +life of the soul; that public worship is a necessity; that in Christ +the greatest redemptive power has been embodied, and the purest vision +of the Eternal has been granted; and that, in its adaptation to human +needs, its fostering of human aspirations, its ministering to human +sorrows, its renewal of human penitence, its consecration of life and +its hope in death, no Ethical Society yet devised gives any {50} +symptom of being able to supplant the Church of Him Who said, 'Come +unto Me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden and I will give you +rest.' + + +V + +Now, from the fact that Morality at its best assumes a religious tinge, +merges itself in Religion, we may legitimately infer that, without the +inspiration of Religion, Morality at its best will not long prevail.[2] +'Love, friendship,' said Sir James Fitzjames Stephen, 'good nature, +kindness carried to the height of sincere and devoted affection, will +always be the chief pleasures of life, whether Christianity is true or +false; but Christian Charity is not the same as any of these, or all of +these put together, and I think that if Christian Theology were +exploded, Christian Charity would not survive it.'[3] At present, when +Religion has pervaded everything with its sacred sanctions, it is easy +to say that Religion {51} would not be greatly missed were it +discarded, and that Morality would be unaffected. This is pure +conjecture. To test its worth we should need a state of society from +which every vestige of Religion had disappeared. It will not do to +retain any of the beliefs or the customs which owe their origin to a +sense of the Unseen and Eternal, to a sense of any Power above +ourselves, ruling our destinies and instilling into our minds thoughts +and desires and hopes beyond the visible and the material. If +Morality, in the limited acceptation of the term, is sufficient for the +elevation and welfare of mankind, it is not to be supported by any +admixture of Religion: it must prove its power by itself. Religion +must be utterly abolished, its every sanction must be universally +rejected, its every impulse must have universally ceased before it can +be contended with any measure of assurance that the world will be none +the worse, may be even the better, for its vanishing. + +{52} + +If Religion is a delusion, remember what must be eliminated from our +convictions. There can be no higher tribunal than that of man by which +our actions can be judged.[4] A life of outward propriety is the +utmost that can be demanded of us, if it is only against the wellbeing +of our neighbour or the promotion of our own happiness that we can +transgress. What has human law to do with our hearts? What +legislation can deal with 'envy, hatred, malice, and all +uncharitableness,' unless they manifest themselves in outward acts? A +base, unloving, impure, acrimonious, untruthful man may crawl through +life, never having been arrested, never having been sentenced to any +term of penal servitude. He can stand erect before all the laws of the +country and say, 'All these have I kept from my youth up.' And unless +there be a higher law than the law of man, unless there be a law +written on our hearts by the Finger of {53} God, unless there be One to +whom, above and beyond all earthly appearances, we can mournfully +declare, 'Against Thee, Thee only, have I sinned,' nothing more can be +reasonably demanded. If there is nothing higher than the visible, it +can be only visible results which are of any value. The giving of +money to help the needy, and the giving of money in order to obtain a +reputation for generosity, must stand on the same level. The widow's +mite will be worth infinitely less than the shekels which come from +those who devour widows' houses. If there be none to search the heart, +none save poor frail fellow-mortals to whom we must give account, what +an incentive to purity of motive and loftiness of aspiration is +removed! But let men talk as they will, there is a conscience in them +which whispers, It does matter whether our hearts as well as our +actions are right; it does matter whether we have good motives, good +intentions; there is a scrutiny of hearts, {54} making and to be made +more fully yet; there is One before Whom, even though we have not +broken the law of the land, we confess with anguish, Against Thee have +I sinned and done evil in Thy sight: where I appear most +irreproachable, Thine eye detecteth error: it is not the occasional +trespass that I have chiefly to lament, it is the sin that is almost +part and parcel of my very being, the sin that corrodes even where it +does not glare, the sin that undermines even where it does not crash. + + +VI + +The most thoughtful of those who have lost faith in the Living God and +in fellowship with Him hereafter, look on this life with a pessimistic +eye. Without trust in the Unseen and Eternal, life is worthless, an +idle dream. With its harassing cares, with its petty vexations, with +its turbulence and strife, its sorrows, its breaking up of old +associations, its quenching the light of our {55} eyes, 'O dreary were +this earth, if earth were all!' On the stage of the world, 'the play +is the Tragedy Man, the hero the conqueror worm!' + +We cannot but extend the deepest sympathy, the warmest admiration to +those who, bereft of belief and of hope, yet cling tenaciously to moral +goodness.[5] 'What is to become of us,' asks the pensive Amiel, 'when +everything leaves us, health, joy, affections, the freshness of +sensation, memory, capacity for work, when the sun seems to us to have +lost its warmth, and life is stripped of all its charms? ... There is +but one answer, keep close to Duty. Be what you ought to be; the rest +is God's affair.... And supposing there were no good and holy God, +nothing but universal being, the law of the all, an ideal without +hypostasis or reality, duty would still be the key of the enigma, the +pole star of a wandering {56} humanity.'[6] Who does not see that it +is the lingering faith in God which gives strength to this conviction +and that, were the faith obliterated, the natural conclusion would be +for the cultured, 'Vanity of vanities: all is vanity'; and for the +multitudes, 'Let us eat and drink, for to-morrow we die.' 'I remember +how at Cambridge,' says Mr. F. W. H. Myers of George Eliot, 'I walked +with her once in the Fellows' Garden of Trinity on an evening of rainy +May: and she, stirred somewhat beyond her wont, and taking as her text +the three words which have been used so often as the inspiring trumpet +calls of men--the words _God, Immortality, Duty_--pronounced with +terrible earnestness, how inconceivable was the _first_, how +unbelievable the _second_, and yet how peremptory and absolute the +_third_. Never, perhaps, have sterner accents affirmed the sovereignty +of impersonal and uncompromising Law. I {57} listened and night fell: +her grave, majestic countenance turned toward me like a sibyl's in the +gloom, and it was as though she withdrew from my grasp one by one the +two scrolls of promise, and left me the third scroll only, awful with +inevitable fates. And when we stood at length and parted, amid that +columnar circuit of the forest trees, beneath the last twilight of +starless skies, I seemed to be gazing, like Titus at Jerusalem, on +vacant seats and empty halls, on a sanctuary with no presence to hallow +it, and heaven left lonely of a God.'[7] + +Withdraw belief in a God above and in a life beyond, the only reason +for obedience to Duty and Morality will be either our own pleasure, the +doing what is most agreeable to ourselves; or sympathy, the bearing of +others' burdens, in the hope that when we have passed away there may be +some on earth who will reap the harvest which we have {58} sown; or +public opinion, the views which are prevalent in a particular time in a +particular region; and these reasons are hardly likely to produce a +morality which will be other than that of self-indulgence, of despair, +or of conventionality.[8] + +'We can get on very well without a religion,' said Sir James Fitzjames +Stephen, 'for though the view of life which Science is opening to us +gives us nothing to worship, it gives us an infinite number of things +to enjoy. The world seems to me a very good world, if it would only +last. It is full of pleasant people and curious things, and I think +that most men find no difficulty in turning their minds away from its +transient character.' If it would only last! But it does not last: +those dearer to us than ourselves are snatched away. Could anything be +more selfish, more despicably base than to go about saying, All that is +of no {59} consequence, so long as I meet with pleasant people and have +an infinite number of things to enjoy? It is true that an infinite +number of my fellow-creatures may not be enjoying an infinite number of +things, may have trouble in recalling almost anything worthy of the +name of enjoyment, but why should I be depressed by that? I find no +difficulty in turning away my mind from the misfortunes of others. 'We +can get on very well without religion.' No doubt without it some of us +can have agreeable society and a variety of pleasures more or less +refined; but this does not prove that religion is no loss. On the same +principle, we can get on very comfortably without honesty, without +sobriety, without purity, without generosity. We can get on very +comfortably indeed without anything except without a heart which is +intent on self-gratification, and which excludes all thought of the +wants and woes of the world. 'Let us eat and drink, for {60} to-morrow +we die,' is the irresistible, though rather inconsistent, conclusion of +that sublime austerity which so indignantly repudiates the merest hint +of reward or hope within the veil, and which so sensitively shrinks +from the mercenariness of the Religion of the Cross. + + 'The wages of sin is death: + if the wages of Virtue be dust, + Would she have heart to endure for the life + of the worm and the fly!'[9] + + +What are the facts? What is the growing tendency where men think +themselves strong enough to do without religious beliefs, when they +have been proclaiming that the suppression of Religion will be the +exaltation of a purer Morality? There are plenty of indications that +the laws of Morality are found to be as irksome as the dictates of +Religion. The first step is to cry out for a higher Morality, to +censure the Morality of {61} the New Testament as imperfect and +inadequate, as selfish and visionary. The next step is to question the +restraints of Morality, to clamour for liberty in regard to matters on +which the general voice of mankind has from the beginning given no +uncertain verdict. The last step is to declare that Morality is +variable and conventional, a mere arbitrary arrangement, which can be +dispensed with by the emancipated soul. The literature which assumes +that Religion is obsolete does not, as a rule, suffer itself to be much +hampered by the fetters of Morality. The non-Religion of the Future is +what, we are confidently told, increasing knowledge of the laws of +Sociology will of necessity bring about. Should that day ever dawn, or +rather let us say, should that night ever envelop us, it will mean the +diffusion of non-Morality such as the world has never known.[10] + + + +[1] Appendix. + +[2] Appendix VI. + +[3] _Nineteenth Century_, June 1884. + +[4] Appendix VII. + +[5] Appendix VIII. + +[6] _Journal Intime_, ii. + +[7] _Modern Essays_. + +[8] Appendix IX. + +[9] Tennyson, _Wages_. + +[10] Appendix X. + + + + +{64} + +III + +THE RELIGION OF THE UNIVERSE + + + +'Whither shall I go from Thy spirit? or whither shall I flee from Thy +presence.'--PSALM cxxxix. 7. + +'Do I not fill heaven and earth? saith the Lord.'--JEREMIAH xxiii. 24. + +'The heaven and heaven of heavens cannot contain Thee.'--1 KINGS viii. +27. + +'In Him we live, and move, and have our being.'--ACTS xvii. 28. + +'One God and Father of all, Who is above all, and through all, and in +you all.'--EPHESIANS iv. 6. + +'Of Him, and through Him, and to Him are all things: to Whom be glory +for ever. Amen.'--ROMANS xi. 36. + +'That God may be all in all.'--1 CORINTHIANS xv. 28. + + + +{65} + +III + +THE RELIGION OF THE UNIVERSE + +Among proposed substitutes for Christianity, none occupies a more +prominent place than Pantheism, the identity of God and the universe. +'Pantheism,' says Haeckel, 'is the world system of the modern +scientist.'[1] Pantheism, or the Religion of the Universe, is, in one +aspect, a protest against Anthropomorphism, the making of God in the +image of man. It is in supposing God to be altogether such as we are, +to be swayed by the same motives, to be actuated by the same passions +as we are, that the most deadly errors have arisen. Robert Browning, +in _Caliban upon Setebos_, represents a half-brutal {66} being who +lives in a cave speculating upon the government of the world, wondering +why it came to be made, and what could be the purpose of the Creator in +making it. Every motive that could sway the savage mind is in turn +discussed: pleasure, restlessness, jealousy, cruelty, sport. 'Because +I, Caliban,' such is the process of his reasoning, 'delight in +tormenting defenceless animals, or would crush any one that interfered +with my comfort, or do things because my taskmaster obliges me to do +them, so must it be with Him Who made the world.' With great +grotesqueness, but with marvellous power, the degraded monster argues +as to the reasons which could have prompted the Unseen Ruler to frame +the earth and its inhabitants. Everything that he attributes to God is +in keeping with his own base nature. What is the explanation of the +horrors which have been perpetrated in the Name of God? The sacrifice +of human {67} beings, of vanquished enemies, or of the nearest and the +dearest, the agonies of self-torture, did not these originate in the +transference to the Invisible God of the emotions and principles by +which men were guiding their own lives? They had no notion of +forbearance and forgiveness and patience, therefore they did not think +that there could be forgiveness with God. They were to be turned aside +from their fierce, revengeful purposes by bribes and by the protracted +sufferings of their foes, therefore they thought that God might be +bribed by gifts or propitiated by pains. What they were on earth, +delighting in bloodshed and conquest and revelry, that, they supposed, +must be the Being or the Beings who ruled in the world unseen. + + +I + +God is not as man is, this was a lesson which ancient prophets +struggled to teach. He is not a man that He should lie, or a son {68} +of man that He should repent. He is not to be conceived as influenced +by the petty hopes and fears and jealousies which influence the mass of +mortals. 'My thoughts are not as your thoughts, neither are your ways +my ways, saith the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, +so are My ways higher than your ways and My thoughts than your +thoughts.' He is infinitely exalted above the best and wisest of His +children and to see in Him only their likeness is not to see Him +aright. It is not to be denied that the writers of the Old Testament +employ anthropomorphic language to vivify the justice and goodness of +the Eternal. They speak of His Eyes and of His Face, of His Hands and +of His Arm and of His Voice. They speak of Him walking in the Garden +and smelling a sweet savour. They speak of Him repenting and being +jealous and coming down to see what is done on earth. Such figures, +however, as a rule, have a force {69} and an appropriateness which +never can become obsolete or out of date. They even heighten the +Majesty and Spotless Holiness of God. They are felt to be, at most, +words struggling to express what no words can ever convey: they are the +readiest means of impressing on the dull understanding of men their +practical duty, of letting them know with what purity and righteousness +they have to do. It is not in such figures that any harm can ever lie. +The error of taking literally such phrases as 'Hands' or 'Arm' or +'Voice' is not very prevalent, but the error of framing God after our +moral image is not distant or imaginary. There is a mode of speaking +about Divine Purposes and Divine Motives which must jar on those who +have begun to discern the Divine Majesty, to whom the thought of the +All-Embracing Presence has become a reality. + + +{70} + +II + +The representation of the Almighty and Eternal as one of ourselves, as +animated by the lowest passions and paltriest prejudices of mankind, as +a 'magnified and non-natural' human being, is recognised as ludicrously +inadequate and terribly distorted. The representation of the Creator +as 'sitting idle at the outside of the Universe and seeing it go,' as +having brought it into being and afterwards left it to itself, as +mingling no more in its events and evolution, is utterly discarded. It +is, however, to such representations that the assaults of modern +critics are directed, and in the overthrow of such representations it +is imagined that Christianity itself is overthrown. The assailants +maintain that Christianity in attributing Personality to God makes Him +in the image of man, and separates Him from the Universe. But what is +meant by Personality? It does not mean a {71} being no higher than +man, with the limitations and imperfections of man.[2] Mr. Herbert +Spencer, who would not ascribe Personality to God, yet affirmed that +the choice was not between Personality and something lower than +Personality, but between Personality and something higher. 'Is it not +just possible that there is a mode of being as much transcending +Intelligence and Will as these transcend mechanical motion?'[3] The +description of Personality given by the author of the _Riddle of the +Universe_ would be repudiated by every educated Christian. 'The +monistic idea of God, which alone is compatible with our present +knowledge of nature, recognises the divine spirit in all things. It +can never recognise in God a "personal being," or, in other words, an +individual of limited extension in space, or even of human form. God +is everywhere.'[4] That conclusion,--we {72} are not concerned with +the steps by which the conclusion is reached,--does not strike one as a +modern discovery. In what authoritative statement of Christian +doctrine God is defined as _not_ being everywhere, or 'an individual of +limited extension in space, or even of human form,' we are unaware. +There is apparent misunderstanding in the supposition that we have to +take our choice between God as entirely severed from the world, and God +existing in the world. God, it is asserted in current phraseology, +cannot be both Immanent and Transcendent; He cannot be both in the +world and above it. 'In Theism,' so Haeckel draws out the comparison, +'God is opposed to Nature as an extra-mundane being, as creating and +sustaining the world, and acting upon it from without, while in +Pantheism God, as an intra-mundane being, is everywhere identical with +Nature itself, and is operative within the world as "force" or {73} +"energy."'[5] If there is no juggling with words here, it can hardly +be juggling with words to point out that so far as 'space' goes, an +intra-mundane being, rather than an extra-mundane, is likely to be +'limited in extension.' + + +III + +The imagination that the Christian God is a Personality like ourselves, +and is to be found only above and beyond the world, finds perhaps its +strangest expression in some of the writings of that ardent lover of +Nature, the late Richard Jefferies. 'I cease,' so he writes in _The +Story of my Heart_, 'to look for traces of the Deity in life, because +no such traces exist. I conclude that there is an existence, a +something higher than soul, higher, better, and more perfect than +deity. Earnestly I pray to find this something better than a god. +There is something superior, higher, more good. For this I search, +labour, {74} think, and pray.... With the whole force of my existence, +with the whole force of my thought, mind, and soul, I pray to find this +Highest Soul, this greater than deity, this better than God. Give me +to live the deepest soul-life now and always with this soul. For want +of words I write soul, but I think it is something beyond soul.' Could +anything be more pathetic or, at the same time, more self-refuting? +How can anything be greater than the Infinite, more enduring than the +Eternal, better than the All-Pure and All-Perfect? It could be only +the God of unenlightened, unchristian teaching, Whom he rejected. The +God Whom he sought must be not only in but beyond and above all created +or developed things. It was, indeed, the Higher than the Highest that +he worshipped. It was for God, for the Living God, that his eager soul +was athirst, and it is in God, the Living God, that his eager soul is +now, we humbly trust, for ever satisfied. + + +{75} + +IV + +'The heaven and heaven of heavens cannot contain Him.' 'Whither shall +I go from Thy Spirit? or whither shall I flee from Thy presence?' 'My +thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways saith the +Lord.' 'In Him we live and move and have our being.' 'Of Him and +through Him and to Him are all things, to Whom be glory for ever. +Amen.'[6] Now it cannot be denied that some who have striven to +express after this fashion the unutterable majesty and the universal +presence of God, who have endeavoured to demonstrate that God is in all +things, and that all things are in God, have at times failed to make +their meaning plain. Either from the obscurity of their own language, +or from the obtuseness of their readers, they have been considered +Atheists. While vehemently asserting that God is {76} everywhere, they +have been taken to mean that God is nowhere. The actual conclusion to +be drawn from the treatises of Spinoza, the reputed founder of modern +Pantheism, is still undecided. But no one now would brand him with the +name of Atheist. He was excommunicated by Jews and denounced by +Christians, yet there are many who think that his aim, his not +unsuccessful aim, was to establish faith in the Unseen and Eternal on a +basis which could not be shaken. So far from denying God, he was, +according to one of the greatest of German theologians, 'a +God-intoxicated man.' 'Offer up reverently with me a lock of hair to +the manes of the holy, repudiated Spinoza! The high world-spirit +penetrated him: the Infinite was his beginning and his end: the +Universe his only and eternal love.... He was full of religion and of +the Holy Spirit, and therefore he stands alone and unreachable, master +in his art above the profane multitude, {77} without disciples and +without citizenship.'[7] Dean Stanley went so far as to say that 'a +clearer glimpse into the nature of the Deity was granted to Spinoza, +the excommunicated Jew of Amsterdam, than to the combined forces of +Episcopacy and Presbytery in the Synod of Dordrecht.'[8] Such a +judgment is rather hard upon the divines who took part in that +celebrated Synod, but at any rate it indicates that the great +philosopher, misunderstood and persecuted, was elaborating in his own +way, this great truth, 'In him we live and move and have our being.' +'Of Him, and through Him are all things.' + + +V + +In their loftiest moments, contemplating the marvels of the heavens +above and the earth beneath, devout souls have, wherever they looked, +been confronted with the Vision of God. 'What do I see in all {78} +Nature?' said Fenelon, 'God. God is everything, and God alone.' +'Everything,' said William Law, 'that is in being is either God or +Nature or Creature: and everything that is not God is only a +manifestation of God; for as there is nothing, neither Nature nor +Creature, but what must have its being in and from God, so everything +is and must be according to its nature more or less a manifestation of +God.' + +It is the thought which has inspired poets of the most diverse schools, +which has been their most marvellous illumination and ecstasy. + +Now it is Alexander Pope: + + All are but parts of one stupendous whole + Whose body Nature is, and God the soul. + + +Now it is William Cowper: + + There lives and works + A soul in all things and that soul is God. + + +Now it is James Thomson of _The Seasons_: + + These, as they change, Almighty Father! these + Are but the varied God. The rolling year + Is full of Thee. + +{79} + +Now it is William Wordsworth: + + I have felt + A Presence that disturbs me with the joy + Of elevated thoughts, a sense sublime + Of something far more deeply interfused, + Whose dwelling is the light of setting suns, + And the round ocean and the living air, + And the blue sky, and in the mind of man + A motion and a spirit which impels + All thinking things, all objects of all thought, + And rolls through all things. + + +Now it is Lord Tennyson: + + The sun, the moon, the stars, the seas, the hills and the plains, + Are not these, O Soul, the vision of Him Who reigns? + * * * * * + Speak to Him thou, for He hears, and Spirit with Spirit can meet. + Closer is He than breathing and nearer than hands or feet. + + +Certainly, we may say, nothing atheistic in utterances like these: they +are the utterances of lofty thought, of profound piety, of soaring +aspiration, and of childlike faith. They have a pantheistic tinge: +what is there to dread in Pantheism? Not much in {80} Pantheism of +that kind: would there were more of it! But it will be observable +that, in the instances cited, though God is in Nature and manifesting +Himself through it, there is a clear distinction between Nature and +God. It may seem as if it were merely the sky, the sun, the stars, the +ocean, that are apostrophised: in reality it is a Life, a Spirit, a +Power not themselves, in which they live and move and have their being: +not to them, but to That, are the prayers addressed. And, we venture +to think, it is scarcely ever otherwise: scarcely ever is the Visible +alone invoked: identify God as men will with the material universe, or +even with the force and energy with which the material universe is +pervaded, when they enter into communion with it, in spite of +themselves they endow it with the Life and the Will and the Purpose +which they have in theory rejected. But the absolute identification of +God and the Universe, the assumption that above and {81} beneath and +through all there is no conscious Righteousness and Wisdom and Love +overruling and directing, _that_ is a belief to be resisted, a belief +which enervates character and enfeebles hope.[9] 'Whoever says in his +heart that God is _no more_ than Nature: whoever does not provide +_behind the veil of creation_ an infinite reserve of thought and beauty +and holy love, that might fling aside this universe and take another, +as a vesture changing the heavens and they are changed, ... is bereft +of the essence of the Christian Faith, and is removed by only +accidental and precarious distinctions from the atheistic worship of +mere "natural laws."'[10] 'In our worship we have to do, not so much +with His finite expression in created things as with His own free self +and inner reality ... all _religion_ consists in _passing Nature by_, +in order to enter into direct personal relation {82} with Him, soul to +soul. It is _not_ Pantheism to merge all the life of the physical +universe in Him, and leave Him as the inner and sustaining Power of it +all. It is Pantheism to rest in this conception: to merge Him in the +universe and see Him only there: and not rather to dwell with Him as +the Living, Holy, Sympathising Will, on Whose free affection the +cluster of created things lies and plays, as the spray upon the +ocean.'[11] + + +VI + +God is _not_ as we are, and yet He _is_ as we are. God is not made in +the image of man, but man is made in the image of God. It is through +human goodness and human purity and human love that we attain our best +conceptions of the Divine Goodness and Purity and Love. 'If ye being +evil know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more will +your Heavenly Father {83} give the Holy Spirit to them that ask Him?' +Picture to yourself what is highest and best in the human relationship +of father and child: be sure that the Heavenly Father will not fall +below, but will infinitely transcend, that standard. All the justice +and goodness which we have seen on earth are the feebler reflection of +His. It is by learning that the utmost height of human goodness is but +a little way towards Him that we learn to think of Him at all aright. +But the justice and the love by which he acts are different only in +degree, and not in kind, from ours. When we think of God as altogether +such as we are, we degrade Him, we have before us the image of the +imperfect; when we try to think of Him under no image and to discard +all figures, He vanishes into unreality and nothingness, but when we +see Him in Christ, we have before us that which we can grasp and +understand, and that in which there is no imperfection. + +{84} + +If there is no God but the universe, we have a universe without a God. +Worship is meaningless, Faith is a mockery, Hope is a delusion. If the +universe is God, all things in the universe are of necessity Divine. +The distinction between right and wrong is broken down. In a sense +very different from that in which the phrase was originally employed, +'Whatever is, is right.' Nothing can legitimately be stigmatised as +wrong, for there is nothing which is not God. 'If all that is is God, +then truth and error are equally manifestations of God. If God is all +that is, then we hear His voice as much in the promptings to sin as in +the solemn imperatives of Conscience. This is the inexorable logic of +Pantheism, however disguised.'[12] 'I know,' says Mr. Frederic +Harrison, 'what is meant by the Power and Goodness of an Almighty +Creator. I know what is meant by the genius and patience {85} and +sympathy of man. But what is the All, or the Good, or the True, or the +Beautiful? ... The "All" is not good nor beautiful: it is full of +horror and ruin.... There lies this original blot on every form of +philosophic Pantheism when tried as the basis of a religion or as the +root-idea of our lives, that it jumbles up the moral, the unmoral, the +non-human and the anti-human world, the animated and the inanimate, +cruelty, filth, horror, waste, death, virtue and vice, suffering and +victory, sympathy and insensibility.'[13] Where these distinctions are +lost, where this confusion exists, what logically must be the +consequence? Honesty and dishonesty, truth and falsehood, purity and +impurity, kindness and brutality, are put upon a level, are alike +manifestations of the One or the All. + +It is said that in our day the sense of sin has grown weak, that men +are not troubled {86} by it as once they were. There is a morbid, +scrupulous remorsefulness for wrong-doing, a desponding conviction that +repentance and restoration are impossible, which may well be put away. +But that sin should be no longer held to be sin, that evil should be +wrought and the worker experience no pang of shame, would surely +indicate moral declension and decay. Were the time to come when, +universally, mankind should commit those actions and cherish those +passions which, through all ages in all lands, have gone by the name of +sin, should become so heedless to the voice of conscience, that +conscience should cease to speak, the time would have come when men, +being past feeling, would devote themselves with greediness to anything +that was vile, so long as it was pleasant, the bonds of society would +be loosened and destruction would be at hand. The Religion of the +Universe ignores the facts of life, the sorrow, the struggle, {87} the +depravity, the need of redemption. Fortunately, human beings in +general are still inclined to mourn because of imperfection or of +baseness: still they are inclined at times to cry out, 'Who shall +deliver me from the body of this death?' and still they have the +opportunity of joyfully or humbly saying, 'I thank God through Jesus +Christ our Lord.' + +'And now at this day,' listen to the ungrudging admission of perhaps +the most earnest English apostle of Pantheism, Mr. Allanson Picton: 'We +of all schools, whether orthodox or heterodox so-called, whether +believers or unbelievers in supernatural revelation, all who seek the +revival of religion, the exaltation of morality, the redemption of man, +draw, most of us, our direct impulse, and all of us, directly or +indirectly, our ideals from the speaking vision of the Christ. Such a +claim is justified, not merely by the spiritual power still remaining +in the Church, {88} but almost as much by the tributes paid, and the +uses of the Gospel teaching made in the writings of the most +distinguished among rationalists.... Such writers have felt that +somehow Jesus still holds, and ought to hold, the heart of humanity +under His beneficial sway. Excluding the partial, imperfect and +temporary ideas of Nature, spirits, hell, and heaven, which the +Galilean held with singular lightness for a man of His time, they have +acquiesced in and even echoed His invitation to the weary and heavy +laden, to take His yoke upon them and learn of Him. And that means to +live up to His Gospel of the nothingness of self, and of unreserved +sacrifice to the Eternal All in All.'[14] If such is the conclusion of +Rationalism and of Pantheism, how much more ought it to be the +conclusion of Christianity. The imagination of a God confined to times +and places, visiting the world only occasionally, {89} manifesting +Himself in the past and not in the present, ought to be as foreign to +the Christian Church as to any Rationalist or Pantheist. Be it ours to +show that we believe in God Who filleth all things with His presence, +Who is from Everlasting to Everlasting, that to us there is but one God +the Father, by Whom are all things and we in Him, and one Lord, Jesus +Christ, by Whom are all things and we by Him, that God has identified +Himself with us in Jesus Christ, His Son. Be it ours to lose ourselves +in Him. For, after all our questionings as to the government of the +world, as to abounding misery and degradation, as to what lies beyond +the veil for ourselves and for others, this is our hope and our +confidence: 'God hath concluded all in unbelief that He might have +mercy upon all. O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and +knowledge of God! how unsearchable are His judgments and His ways past +finding out. For who hath {90} known the mind of the Lord? or who hath +been His counsellor? or who hath first given to Him, and it shall be +recompensed unto Him again? For of Him and through Him and to Him are +all things: to Whom be glory for ever. Amen.' + + + +[1] _Riddle of the Universe_. + +[2] Appendix XI. + +[3] _First Principles_. + +[4] _Confession of Faith of a Man of Science_. + +[5] _Riddle of the Universe_. + +[6] Appendix XII. + +[7] Schleiermacher. + +[8] _St. Andrews Addresses_. + +[9] Appendix XIII. + +[10] Martineau, _Hours of Thought_, ii. p. 110. + +[11] Martineau, _Hours of Thought_, ii. p. 114. + +[12] _Faith of a Christian_. + +[13] _Creed of a Layman_, p. 203. + +[14] _Religion of the Universe_. + + + + +{92} + +IV + +THE RELIGION OF HUMANITY + + + +'And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our +likeness.'--GENESIS i. 26. + +'When I consider Thy heavens, the work of Thy fingers, the moon and the +stars which Thou hast ordained, what is man that Thou art mindful of +him? and the son of man that Thou visitest him? For Thou hast made him +a little lower than the angels and hast crowned him with glory and +honour.'--PSALM viii. 3-5 + +Thou hast put all things in subjection under His feet. For in that He +put all in subjection under Him, He left nothing that is not put under +Him. But now we see not yet all things put under Him. But we see +Jesus Who was made a little lower than the angels for the suffering of +death crowned with glory and honour, that He by the grace of God should +taste death for every man.'--HEBREWS ii. 8, 9. + + + +{93} + +IV + +THE RELIGION OF HUMANITY + +The position which Religion, and especially the Christian Religion, +assigns to man, to man as he ought to be, is very high. He is made in +the image of God, he is a little lower than the angels, a little lower +than God, he is a partaker of the Divine Nature. But as the corruption +of the best is the worst, there is nothing in the whole creation more +miserable, more loathsome, than man as he has forgotten his high estate +and plunged himself into degradation. 'What man has made of man,' is +the saddest, most deplorable sight in all the world. Amid the awful +splendour of the winning loveliness of Nature, 'only man is vile.' +That is the terrible {94} verdict which may be pronounced upon him +renouncing his birthright, surrendering himself to the powers which he +was meant to keep in subjection. It is not the verdict to be +pronounced on Man as Man, the child of the highest and the heir of all +the ages. The appeal of Religion, the appeal of Christianity above +all, has continually been, O sons of men, sully not your glorious +garments, cast not away your glorious crown. + + +I + +It is irreligion, it is unbelief, which comes and says, Lay aside these +fantastic notions as to your greatness: you are the creatures of a day: +you belong, like other animals, to the world of sense, and you pass +away along with them: a man hath no pre-eminence above a beast. Banish +your delusive hopes; confine yourselves to reality; waste not your time +in the pursuit of phantoms: make the best of the world in {95} which +you are: seize its pleasures: shut your eyes to its sorrows: enjoy +yourselves in the present and let the future take care of itself: +follow the devices and desires of your own hearts in the comfortable +assurance that there is no judgment to which you can be brought, save +that which exists in the realm of imagination. + +Listening to such whispers, obeying such suggestions, walking in such +courses, the spectacle which man presents can be viewed only with +compassion, with horror, or with disdain. His ideals, his aspirations, +his self-sacrifices are only so many phases of self-deception. The +natural conclusion to be drawn from denying the spiritual origin and +eternal prospects of man must be that he is of no more account than any +of the transitory beings around him, that, if he has any superiority +over them, it is only the superiority of a skill with which he can make +them the instruments of {96} his purposes. With no glimpses of a +higher world, with no inspirations from a Spirit nobler than his own, +he can hardly regard the achievements of heroism as other than acts of +madness, he can be fired with no desire to emulate them, he cannot well +be trusted to perform ordinary acts of honesty and morality, let alone +extraordinary acts of generosity and magnanimity, should they come in +collision with his objects and ambitions. + + Unless above himself he can + Erect himself, how mean a thing is Man! + +Deny his divine fellowship, extirpate his heavenly anticipations, and +it might seem as if no race on earth would be so poor as do him +reverence. + + +II + +One thing is assumed by not a few, the absurdity of the Almighty caring +for such a race, and therefore the impossibility of the Incarnation. +'Which,' asks Mr. Frederic {97} Harrison, 'is the more deliriously +extravagant, the disproportionate condescension of the Infinite +Creator, or the self-complacent arrogance with which the created mite +accepts, or rather dreams of, such an inconceivable prerogative? His +planet is one of the least of all the myriad units in a boundless +Infinity; in the countless aeons of time he is one of the latest and the +briefest; of the whole living world on the planet, since the ages of +the primitive protozoon, man is but an infinitesimal fraction. In all +this enormous array of life, in all these aeons, was there never +anything living which specially interested the Creator, nothing that +the Redeemer could care for, or die for? If so, what a waste creation +must have been! ... Why was all this tremendous tragedy, great enough +to convulse the Universe, confined to the minutest speck of it, for the +benefit of one puny and very late-born race?'[1] + +{98} + +But is it not the fact that along with the discovery of Man's utter +insignificance, there has come the discovery of powers and faculties +unknown and unsuspected, so that more than ever all things are in +subjection to him, his dominion has become wider, his throne more +firmly established? Is it not the fact that the whole realm of Nature +is explored by him, is compelled to minister to his wants or to unfold +its treasures of knowledge? Is it not the fact that more than ever it +can be said: + + The lightning is his slave: heaven's utmost deep + Gives up her stars, and, like a flock of sheep, + They pass before his eye, are numbered, and roll on. + The tempest is his steed: he strides the air. + And the Abyss shouts from her depth laid bare + 'Heaven, hast thou secrets? Man unveils me: I have none.'[2] + +Is it not the fact that deposed from his position of proud pre-eminence +as centre of the universe, Man has by his labours and his ingenuity +reasserted his high prerogative {99} to be lord of the creation? The +printing-press, the railway, the telegraph, how have inventions like +these invested him with an influence which he did not possess before! +And is it not the fact that when most conscious of our nothingness +before the immensities around us, when humbled and prostrate before the +Infinite of which we have caught a transitory glimpse, we are also most +conscious of our high destiny, we are lifted above the earthly to the +heavenly, we discern that, though we cannot claim a moment, yet +Eternity is ours? 'What, then, is Man! What, then, is Man! He +endures but an hour and is crushed before the moth. Yet in the being +and in the working of a faithful man is there already (as all faith, +from the beginning, gives assurance) a something that pertains, not to +this wild death element of Time; that triumphs over Time, and _is_, and +will be, when Time shall be no more.'[3] {100} Man's place in the +universe may, according to Dr. Alfred Russel Wallace, be nearer the +centre of things than has so commonly come to be accepted. Modern +discovery, he maintains, has thrown light on the interesting problem of +our relation to the Universe; and even though such discovery may have +no bearing upon theology or religion, yet, he thinks, it proves that +our position in the material creation is special and probably unique, +and that the view is justified which holds that 'the supreme end and +purpose of this vast universe was the production and development of the +living soul in the perishable body of man.' And another, a convinced +and ardent disciple of Evolution, the late Professor John Fiske, argues +that, 'not the production of any higher creature, but the perfecting of +humanity is to be the glorious consummation of Nature's long and +tedious work.... Man seems now, much more clearly than ever, the chief +among God's {101} creatures.... The whole creation has been groaning +and travailing together in order to bring forth that last consummate +specimen of God's handiwork, the Human Soul.'[4] If this be so, this +conclusion arrived at by those who do not hold the ordinary faith of +Christendom, then the objection that the Incarnation could not have +taken place for the redemption of such a race as ours, in a world which +is so poor a fraction of the infinite universe, falls to the ground; +and the protest of a devout modern poet carries conviction with it: + + This earth too small + For Love Divine! Is God not Infinite? + If so, His Love is infinite. Too small! + One famished babe meets pity oft from man + More than an army slain! Too small for Love! + Was Earth too small to be of God created? + Why then too small to be redeemed?[5] + +Man may, or may not, occupy a 'central position in the universe': other +worlds may, {102} or may not, be inhabited: this earth may be but a +minute and insignificant speck amid the mighty All, this at least is +certain, that not by mere magnitude is our rank in the scale of being +to be decided, and that in the spirit of man will be found that which +approaches most nearly to Him who is Spirit. 'The man who reviles +Humanity on the ground of its small place in the scale of the Universe +is,' according to Mr. Frederic Harrison, 'the kind of man who sneers at +patriotism and sees nothing great in England, on the ground that our +island holds so small a place in the map of the world. On the atlas +England is but a dot. Morally and spiritually, our Fatherland is our +glory, our cradle, and our grave.'[6] + + +III + +Hence, one of the ablest attempts to supersede Christianity is that +which goes by {103} the name of Positivism or the Religion of Humanity, +which sets Man on the throne of the universe, and makes of him the sole +object of worship. 'A helper of men outside Humanity,' said the late +Professor Clifford, 'the Truth will not allow us to see. The dim and +shadowy outlines of the Superhuman Deity fade slowly away from before +us, and, as the mist of His Presence floats aside, we perceive with +greater and greater clearness the shape of a yet grander and nobler +figure, of Him who made all gods and shall unmake them. From the dim +dawn of history, and from the inmost depths of every soul, the face of +our Father _Man_ looks out upon us with the fire of eternal youth in +His eyes, and says, "Before Jehovah was, I am." The founder of the +organised Religion of Humanity was Auguste Comte, who died in the year +1857. He held that in the development of mankind there are three +stages: the first, the Theological, in which {104} worship is offered +to God or gods; the second, the Metaphysical, in which the human mind +is groping after ultimate truth, the solution of the problems of the +universe; the third, the Positive, in which the search for the illusive +and the unattainable is abandoned, and the real and the practical form +the exclusive occupation of the thoughts. On Sunday, October 19, 1851, +he concluded a course of Lectures on the General History of Humanity +with the uncompromising announcement, 'In the name of the Past and of +the Future, the servants of Humanity, both its philosophical and +practical servants, come forward to claim as their due the general +direction of this world. Their object is to constitute at length a +real Providence, in all departments, moral, intellectual, and material. +Consequently they exclude, once for all, from political supremacy, all +the different servants of God, Catholic, Protestant, or Deist, as being +at once behindhand and {105} a source of disturbance.' All religions +were banished by the truly 'uncompromising announcement': they were all +condemned as futile and unreal. The best that could be said of the +worship of the past was that it directed 'provisionally the evolution +of our best feelings, under the regency of God, during the long +minority of Humanity.' + +But the fact that Religion will not be banished, that it must somehow +find expression, never received fuller verification. We do not dwell +upon the private life of Comte, its eccentricities and inconsistencies, +but this at least cannot be omitted: he practised a course of austere +religious observances, he worshipped not only Humanity at large, but he +paid special adoration to a departed friend such as hardly the +devoutest of Roman Catholics has ever paid to the Virgin Mary. +Positivism became, what Professor Huxley called it, 'Catholicism +_minus_ Christianity.' Comte laid down for the guidance of his {106} +disciples, who are potentially all mankind, rules which no existing +religious communion can surpass in minuteness. The Supreme Object of +Worship is the Great Being, Humanity, the Sum of Human Beings, past, +present, and future. But as it is only too evident that too many of +these beings in the past and the present, whatever may be said about +the future, are not very fitting objects of worship, Humanity, the +Great Being, must be understood as including only worthy members, those +who have been true servants of Humanity. The emblem of this Great +Being is a Woman of the age of thirty, with her son in her arms; and +this emblem is to be placed in all temples of Humanity and carried in +all solemn processions. The highest representatives of Humanity are +the Mother, the Wife, and the Daughter; the Mother representing the +past, the Wife the present, and the Daughter the future. These are in +the abstract to be regarded as the guardian {107} angels of the family. +To these angels every one is to pray three times daily, and the +prayers, which may be read, but which must be the composition of him +who uses them, are to last for two hours. Humanity, the World, and +Space form the completed Trinity of the Positivist Religion. There are +nine sacraments: Presentation, Initiation, Admission, Destination, +Marriage, Maturity, Retirement, Transformation, Incorporation. There +is a priesthood, to whom is committed the duties of deciding who may or +may not be admitted to certain offices during life, of deciding also +whether or not the remains of those who have been dead for seven years +should be removed from the common burial-place, and interred in 'the +sacred wood which surrounds the temple of humanity,' every tomb there +'being ornamented with a simple inscription, a bust, or a statue, +according to the degree of honour awarded.' The priests are to receive +so comprehensive {108} a training that they are not to be fully +recognised till forty-two years of age. They are to combine medical +knowledge with their priestly qualifications. Three successive orders +are necessary for the working of the organisation: the Aspirants +admitted at twenty-eight, the Vicars or Substitutes at thirty-five, and +the Priests proper at forty-two. + +The Religion of Humanity has a Calendar, each month of twenty-eight +days being in one aspect dedicated to some social relation, and in +another to some famous man representing some phase of human progress: +Moses, Homer, Aristotle, Caesar, St. Paul, Gutenberg, Shakespeare. Each +day of the year is dedicated to one or more great men or women, five +hundred and fifty-eight in number, and the last day of the year is the +Festival of All the Dead. 'Our Calendar is designed to remind us of +all types of the teachers, leaders, and makers of our race: of the many +modes in which the servants of Humanity {109} have fulfilled their +service. The prophets, the religious teachers, the founders of creeds, +of nations and systems of life: the poets, the thinkers, the artists, +kings, warriors, statesmen and rulers: the inventors, the men of +science and of all useful arts.... Every day of the Positivist year is +in one sense a day of the dead, for it recalls to us some mighty +teacher or leader who is no longer on earth.... But the three hundred +and sixty-four days of the year's calendar have left one great place +unfilled.... Those myriad spirits of the forgotten dead, whom, no man +can number, whose very names were unknown to those around them in life, +the fathers and the mothers, the husbands and the wives, the brothers +and the sisters, the sturdy workers and the fearless soldiers in the +mighty host of civilisation--shall we pass them by? ... It is those +whom to-night we recall, all those who have lived a life of usefulness +in their generation, though {110} they tugged as slaves at the lowest +bank of oars in the galley of life, though they were cast unnoticed +into the common grave of the outcast, all whose lives have helped and +not hindered the progress of Humanity, we recall them all to-night.'[7] + + +IV + +The Religion of Humanity has numbered among its adherents, in part or +in whole, several celebrated persons in this country, such as Richard +Congreve, Dr. Bridges, Professor Beesley, Cotter Morison, George Eliot. +But at present it has no more eloquent and earnest advocate than Mr. +Frederic Harrison, who, in _The Creed of a Layman_, and several other +recent volumes, has passionately proclaimed its principles. For more +than fifty years he has been its apostle: 'every other aim or +occupation has been subsidiary and instrumental to this.'[8] It {111} +is true that in some points he has retained his independence, and while +those outside accuse him of fanaticism, some of his fellow-believers +suspect him of heresy.[9] But he himself is assured that in the +worship of Humanity he has obtained the solution of his doubts[10] and +the satisfaction of his spirit, and on his gravestone or his urn he +would have inscribed the words, _He found peace_.[11] There is much +that is marvellously elevated in thought as well as exquisite in +expression, profoundly devout as well as brilliantly argued, in the +narrative of his progress towards his present position. But when his +vehement statements are carefully examined, it will almost inevitably +be seen that all that is good and sensible in them is an unconscious +reproduction of Christianity. His negations disappear: the +affirmations which he makes are those which the Church has always {112} +maintained. The faith of his childhood permeates and strengthens and +beautifies the creed which he adopted in his maturer years. The unity +of mankind, the memory of the departed, the necessity of living for +others, these are no novelties in Christianity. It is in Christ that +they have specially been brought to light, in Him that they find their +highest ratification, without Him they remain unfulfilled, with Him +they attain to consistency and power. + +The Great Being, Humanity, is only an abstraction.[12] 'There is no +such thing in reality,' Principal Caird reminds us, 'as an animal which +is no particular animal, a plant which is no particular plant, a man or +humanity which is no individual man. It is only a fiction of the +observer's mind.' There is logical force as well as humorous +illustration in the contention of Dean Page Roberts, that there is no +more a humanity apart {113} from individual men and women than there is +a great being apart from all individual dogs, which we may call +Caninity, or a transcendent Durham ox, apart from individual oxen, +which may be named Bovinity.'[13] Nor does the geniality of Mr. +Chesterton render his argument the less telling: 'It is evidently +impossible to worship Humanity, just as it is impossible to worship the +Savile Club: both are excellent institutions to which we may happen to +belong. But we perceive clearly that the Savile Club did not make the +stars and does not fill the universe. And it is surely unreasonable to +attack the doctrine of the Trinity as a piece of bewildering mysticism, +and then to ask men to worship a being who is ninety million persons in +one God, neither confounding the persons nor dividing the +substance.'[14] + +Can it be doubted that the Great Being, {114} the sum of human beings, +is less conceivable, less worthy of worship than the Great Being, the +God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ?[15] Can it be doubted that +the claim of Humanity to worship is less credible if we exclude the +Perfect Man, Christ Jesus, from our view? Can it be doubted that the +Positivist motto, 'Live for others,' gains a force and a meaning +unapproached elsewhere from the Life and Death of Him Who said, 'The +Son of Man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister and to give +His Life a ransom for many?' Humanity knit together in One, purified +from every stain, glorious and adorable, is a lofty and inspiring idea, +but nowhere has it been disclosed save in the Man Christ Jesus, the +Word made Flesh, the Brightness of the Father's glory and the Express +Image of His Person. + + +{115} + +V + +Dr. Richard Congreve owns that much of the Religion of Humanity exists +already in the Christian Faith, but, in one respect, he asserts that +the Religion of Humanity can claim to be entirely original. 'We +accept, so have all men. We obey, so have all men. We venerate, so +have some in past ages, or in other countries. We add but one other +term, we love.'[16] That is what distinguishes this new religion and +proves its superiority to the old: its votaries have attained this new +principle and mode of life: they love one another. The boldness of the +claim may stagger us. We turn over the pages of the New Testament. We +see that Love is the fulfilling of the Law; is the end of the +commandment; is the sum of the Law and the Prophets; is placed at the +very summit of Christian graces; is the bond of perfectness; {116} is +manifested in a Life and a Death which, after nineteen centuries, +remain without a parallel. We recall the touching legend that in his +old age the Apostle S. John was daily carried into the assembly of the +Ephesian Christians, simply repeating to them, over and over, the +words, 'Love one another. This is our Lord's command, fulfil this and +nothing else is needed.' We recall that in early centuries the +sympathy and helpfulness by which Christians of all ranks and races +were united called forth from heathen spectators the amazed and +respectful exclamation, 'See how these Christians love one another!' +Recalling these things, we cannot but be startled that, in the +nineteenth century of the Christian era, a teacher should, with any +expectation of being believed, have ventured to affirm that the great +discovery which it has been reserved for the present day to make is +that of loving one another. Ignorance of Christianity, +misrepresentation {117} of Christianity, we may well call it: ignorance +inconceivable, misrepresentation inconceivable: and yet, as we consider +the state of Christendom, do we not see what palliates the ignorance +and the misrepresentation? Have we not reason to confess that, if the +commandment be not new, universal obedience to it would be new indeed? +May the calm assurance that love is foreign to Christianity not startle +us into the conviction that we have forgotten what, according to our +Lord's own declaration, the chief feature of Christianity ought to be? +'By this shall all men know that ye are My disciples, if ye have love +one to another.' + + +VI + +'How can we,' it has been well said, 'be asked to give the name of +Religion of Humanity to a religion that ignores the greatest human +being that ever lived, and the very source from which the Religion of +Humanity {118} sprang?'[17] Man in himself, man so full of +imperfections, man having no connection with any world but this, man +unallied to any Power higher, nobler than himself, is this to be our +God? Which is more reasonable: to set up the race of man, unpurified, +unredeemed, worthless and polluted, as the object of adoration, or to +maintain that 'Man indeed is the rightful object of our worship, but in +the roll of ages, there has been but one Man Whom we can adore without +idolatry, the Man Christ Jesus'?[18] The Religion of Humanity, so +called, would have us worship Man apart from Christ Whom yet all +acknowledge to be the glory of mankind, but we call on men to worship +Christ Jesus, for in Him we see Man without a stain, we see our nature +redeemed and consecrated, we see ourselves brought nigh to the Infinite +God. We adore Humanity, but Humanity {119} in its purity: we adore +Humanity, but only as manifesting in the Only Begotten Son the glory of +the Eternal Father. Thus we place no garland around the vices of the +human race: thus we abase, and thus we exalt: thus are we humbled to +the dust, thus are we raised to the highest heavens. Apart from +Christ, the magnitude of the creation may well depress and overwhelm: +apart from Christ the human race is morally imperfect instead of being +a fit object of blind adoration. Seeing Christ, we not only feel our +inconceivable nothingness in presence of the Infinite Majesty, but we +stand erect and unpresumptuously say, 'We wonder not that Thou art +mindful of those for whom that Son of Man lived and died, we are in Him +partakers of the Divine Nature. There thou beholdest Thine Own Image.' + +Made in the image of God, such is the ideal of Man that comes to us +from the beginning of his history; and such is the ideal {120} that +once, and once only, has been realised. '_Ecce Homo_! Behold the +Man!' said Pontius Pilate, in words more full of significance than he +knew, pointing to the victim of priestly hatred and popular fickleness. +Behold the Man! man as he ought to be, the Image of God. Before that +Divine Humanity we reverently bow, to that Divine Humanity we humbly +consecrate ourselves, in fellowship with It alone we learn and manifest +the true worth and dignity of Man. + +One writing frantically to exalt mankind and to depreciate +Christianity, tells us how he sat on a cliff overhanging the seashore +and gazed upon the stars, murmuring, 'O prodigious universe, and O poor +ignorant, that could believe all these were made for him!' but the +sight of a steamship caused him to rejoice at the triumph of Art over +Nature, and to exclaim, 'If man is small in relation to the universe, +he is great in relation to the earth: he abbreviates distance and time, +{121} and brings the nations together.' Then he saw that man is +ordained to master the laws of which he is now the slave; he believed +that if man could understand this mission, a new religion would animate +his life, and, in the strength of this revelation, the writer says that +he sang in ecstasy to the waters and winds and birds and beasts, he +felt a rapture of love for the whole human race, he resolved to preach +the New Gospel far and wide, and proclaim the glorious mission of +mankind.[19] + +On the whole the Old Gospel will be found as ennobling, as inspiring, +as practical as the New. All that this new Gospel aims at, we, as +Christians, already believe: and we possess a Divine Token, a Sacred +Pledge which is foreign to it: we believe that a higher destiny is in +store for us than even the construction of wonders of mechanical +skill.[20] Stripped of all rhetoric, the conclusion of unbelief in God +and Immortality can only {122} be 'Man is what he eats': the conclusion +of Christianity, 'There is but one object greater than the soul, and +that is its Creator.' + +One in a certain place testified, saying, 'What is man, that Thou art +mindful of him, or the son of man that Thou visitest him? Thou madest +him a little lower than the angels: Thou crownest him with glory and +honour, and didst set him over the works of Thy hands: Thou hast put +all things in subjection under his feet.' For in that He put all in +subjection under him, He left nothing that is not put under him. But +now we see not yet all things put under him. But we see JESUS Who was +made a little lower than the angels for the suffering of death, crowned +with glory and honour. We see Him Who is our Brother and our +Forerunner within the veil; and in His Exaltation we behold our +own.[21] No vision of the future can surpass that which the Christian +Church {123} has cherished from the beginning, that we shall all 'come +in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto +a Perfect Man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ +... from Whom the whole body fitly joined together and compacted by +that which every joint supplieth, according to the effectual working in +the measure of every part, maketh increase of the body unto the +edifying of itself in love.' + + + +[1] _Creed of a Layman_, p. 67. + +[2] Shelley, _Prometheus Unbound_. + +[3] Thomas Carlyle. + +[4] _Man's Destiny_, p. 31, + +[5] Aubrey de Vere. + +[6] _Creed of a Layman_, p. 76. + +[7] Frederic Harrison, _Creed of a Layman_. + +[8] _Memories and Thoughts_, p. 14. + +[9] _Memories and Thoughts_, p. 15. + +[10] Appendix XIV. + +[11] _Creed of a Layman_. + +[12] Appendix XV. + +[13] _Some Urgent Questions in Christian Lights_. + +[14] _Heretics_, p. 96. + +[15] Appendix XVI. + +[16] Appendix XVII. + +[17] E. A. Abbott, _Through Nature to Christ_. + +[18] Frederick William Robertson, _Sermon on John's Rebuke of Herod_. + +[19] Winwood Reade, _The Outcast_. + +[20] Appendix XVIII. + +[21] Appendix XIX. + + + + +{126} + +V + +THEISM WITHOUT CHRIST + + + +'Ye believe in God, believe also in Me.'--S. JOHN xiv. 1. + +'I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life: no man cometh unto the Father +but by Me.'--S. JOHN xiv. 6. + +'He that hath seen Me hath seen the Father.'--S. JOHN xiv. 9. + +'Neither is there salvation in any other; for there is none other name +under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved.'--ACTS iv. 12. + +'He that abideth in the doctrine of Christ, he hath both the Father and +the Son.'--2 S. JOHN 9. + + + +{127} + +V + +THEISM WITHOUT CHRIST + +By Theism without Christ is not meant a system like Judaism or +Mohammedanism, but a modern school which maintains that faith in God +becomes weakened and impaired by being associated with faith in Jesus. +There are those who cling with tenacity to the first article of the +Apostles' Creed, 'I believe in God the Father Almighty,' but who reject +with equal fervour the second article of the Creed, 'And in Jesus +Christ, His only Son, our Lord.' They resist with horror the +suggestion that the world is under no overruling Providence, or that +the humblest human being is not regarded with the tender love of the +Infinite God: they rival the most {128} mystical worshipper in the +ardour of the language with which in prayer they address the Father in +Heaven, but they refuse to bow in the Name of Jesus: they go to the +Father, as they think, without Him: they assert that to look to Him is +virtually to look away from God. They are as hostile as we can be to +the Substitutes for Christianity which we have been considering. They +have no sympathy with those who loudly deny that there is a God, or +with those who say that it is impossible to find out whether there is a +God or not, or with those who think that the Creator and the Creation +are one, that the universe is God, or with those who, not believing in +any Unseen and Eternal God, insist that the proper object of the +worship of mankind is man. In the proclamation of the existence of an +All-Wise and All-holy Being, in the proclamation that He has made the +world and rules it to its minutest detail, in the proclamation that +{129} there is a life beyond the grave, they are the allies of the +Christian Church. But then they go on to argue, For those who hold +these doctrines, Christ is quite superfluous: to hold them in their +purity Christ must be dethroned and His name no longer specially +revered. Some may still wish to speak of Him as among the Great +Teachers of the world, but some, in order to preserve these precious +truths unmixed, decline in a very fanaticism of unbelief to assign Him +even that position. + + +I + +The declaration of our Lord, 'No man cometh unto the Father but by Me,' +has been a chief stumbling-block and rock of offence. Are we to +believe, it is asked, that only the comparatively few to whom the +knowledge of Jesus Christ has come can possibly be accepted of the +Father? When the words were spoken the number of His disciples was +exceedingly small. Did he mean that the {130} Father could be +approached only by that handful of people, that all beyond were +banished from the Divine Presence and must inevitably perish? That +this is what He meant both the friends and the foes of Christianity +have at times been agreed in holding. The friends have imagined that +they were thereby exalting the claim of Christ to be the One Mediator. +It may be a terrible mystery that the vast majority of the human race +should have no opportunity of believing in Him, should be even +unacquainted with His Name. We can only bow before the inscrutable +decree, and strive with all our might, not only that our own faith may +be deepened, but that the knowledge of Christ may be diffused over all +the earth, so that some here and there may be rescued. There is little +wonder that such a view should have given rise to questionings and +opposition, should have been rejected as inconsistent with mercy and +with justice. It is an {131} interpretation on which hostile critics +have laid stress as incontestably proving the narrowness and bigotry of +the Christian Creed. + +If we bear in mind Who it is that is presumed to say, 'No man cometh +unto the Father but by Me,' the misconception disappears. It is not +merely an individual man, separate from all others, giving Himself out +as a wise and infallible Teacher. He Who makes the stupendous claim is +One Who by the supposition embodies in Himself Human Nature in its +perfection, Who is identified with His brethren, Who says, 'He that +hath seen Me hath seen the Father.' The Life which He manifests is the +Life of God. He is set forth as the Way to the Father: in mercy and in +blessing the Way is disclosed in Him: it is not in harsh and rigid +exclusiveness that He speaks, debarring the mass of mankind: it is in +tender comprehensiveness, inviting all without distinction of race or +circumstance, opening a new {132} and living way for all into the +Holiest. It is the breaking down of all barriers between man and man, +between man and God, not the setting up of another barrier high and +insurmountable. When Christ declares 'No man cometh unto the Father +but by Me,' He is not declaring that the way is difficult and +impassable, He is pointing out a way of deliverance which all may +tread. So far from laying down a hard and burdensome dogma to be +accepted on peril of pains and penalties, He is imparting a hope and a +consolation in which all may rejoice. + +If we believe Him to be the Word of God made Flesh, if we see in Him +the Brightness of the Father's glory, it becomes a truism to say that +only through Him can life and healing be imparted to mankind. When He +Himself says, 'I am the Way, the Truth and the Life,' it is natural for +Him to add, 'No man cometh unto the Father but by Me.' It will {133} +be granted by all who believe in God that, apart from God, no soul of +man can have life eternal. The most strenuous advocate of the +salvation of the virtuous heathen will grant that their salvation does +not descend from the idol of wood and stone before which they grovel. +It is from the True God, the Living God, that the blessing proceeds. +It is His touch, His Spirit, His Presence which has consecrated the +earnest though erring worship of the poor idolater. No one who +believes in the Infinite and Eternal God could possibly say that the +monstrous image whose aid is invoked by the devout heathen is itself +the answerer of his prayer, the cause of his deliverance from sin, the +bestower of immortality upon him. The utmost that can be said is that +in the costly sacrifices, the painful penances, the passionate prayers +which he presents to the object of his adoration, the Almighty Love +discerns a longing after something nobler and better, {134} and accepts +the service as directed really, though unconsciously, to Him. + + The feeble hands and helpless, + Groping blindly in the darkness, + Touch God's right hand in that darkness + And are lifted up and strengthened.[1] + +But it is the hand of God that they touch. It is from the One +Omnipotent God that every blessing comes: it is the One Omnipotent God +Who turns to truth and life and reality every sincere and struggling +and imperfect attempt to serve Him on the part of those who know not +His Nature or His Name. + +And what is true of God is equally true of Christ, the manifestation of +God. Only grant Him to be the Incarnate Word of God, and it becomes +plain that salvation can no more exist apart from Him than apart from +the Father. This Word of God is the Light that lighteth every man. +Whatever truth, whatever knowledge of the Divine, anywhere {135} exists +is the result of that illumination. The sparks which shine even in the +darkness of heathendom betoken the presence of that Light, not wholly +extinguished by the folly and ignorance of man. That is the One Sun of +Righteousness which gives light everywhere, though in many places the +clouds are so dense that the beams can scarcely penetrate. Now, if +that Word has become Flesh, if that Light has become embodied in Human +Form, we are still constrained to say, There is no true Light but His, +it is in His Light that all must walk if they would not stray, there is +no Guide, no Deliverer, save Him. Christ discloses, brings to view, +all the saving health which has ever been, all the power of restoring, +cleansing, healing, which has ever worked in the souls of men. The one +Power by which any human being, in any age or in any land, has ever +been fitted for the presence of the All Holy God, is made manifest in +Christ. 'Neither is there {136} salvation in any other, for there is +none other name under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved.' + +We need have no hesitation in asserting that all who in any age or in +any land, or in any religion, have come to the Father must have come +through the Son of Man, the Eternal Word made Flesh. We do not +contend, as has too frequently been contended, that beyond the limits +of Christianity, beyond, it may be, the limits of one section of +Christianity, there is no truth believed, no acceptable service +rendered. We hail with gratitude the lofty thoughts and the noble +achievements of some who do not in word acknowledge Christ as Lord. In +the vision of the Light that lighteth every man, we see + + How light can find its way + To regions farthest from the fount of day.[2] + +'Now,' as is well said by the present Bishop {137} of Birmingham, who +will hardly be accused of any tendency to minimise the claims of +Christianity, 'this is no narrow creed. Christianity, the religion of +Jesus, is the Light: it is the one final Revelation, the one final +Religion, but it supersedes all other religions, Jewish and Pagan, not +by excluding, but by including all the elements of truth which each +contained. There was light in Zoroastrianism, light in Buddhism, light +among the Greeks: but it is all included in Christianity. A good +Christian is a good Buddhist, a good Jew, a good Mohammedan, a good +Zoroastrian; that is, he has all the truth and virtue that these can +possess, purged and fused in a greater and completer light. +Christianity, I say, supersedes all other religions by including these +fragments of truth in its own completeness. You cannot show me any +element of spiritual light or strength which is in other religions and +is not in Christianity. Nor can you {138} show me any other religion +which can compare with Christianity in completeness of light: +Christianity is the one complete and final religion, and the elements +of truth in other religions are rays of the One Light which is +concentrated and shines full in Jesus Christ our Lord.'[3] + + +II + +From whatever cause, whether as a reaction against the mode in which +this great truth has been at times presented, there have been, and +there are, attempts to supersede Christianity because of its +narrowness. Religion must not be identified with any one name: God +manifests Himself to all, and no Mediator is needed. Theism, +therefore, the worship of the One Almighty and Eternal Being, not +Christianity, in which a Human Name is associated with the Divine Name, +can alone pretend to be the Universal Religion, the {139} Religion of +all Mankind. It is not the first time that such an attempt to do +without Christianity and to do away with it has been made. In the +eighteenth century there was a similar movement. To this day at +Ferney, near Geneva, is preserved the chapel which Voltaire erected for +the worship of God, of God as distinguished from Christ as Divine or as +Mediator between God and man. Voltaire thought that he could overthrow +and crush the Faith of Christ, but he none the less erected a temple to +God. The Deists upheld what they called the Religion of Nature and +repudiated Revelation. _Christianity not Mysterious; Christianity as +old as the Creation_, were among the works issued to show the +superiority of Natural Religion, its freedom from difficulties, its +agreement with reason, its universality. The most enduring memorial of +the controversy is Bishop Butler's _Analogy of Religion to the +Constitution and Course of Nature_, {140} in which it was argued that +the Natural Religion of the Deists was beset by as many difficulties as +the Revelation of the Christians, that those who were not hindered from +believing in God by the problems which Nature presented need not be +staggered by the problems which were presented by Christianity. Bishop +Butler's argument was directed against a special set of antagonists, an +argument, it may be said, of little avail against the scepticism of the +present day. The argument seems to have been unanswerable by those to +whom it was addressed. The grounds on which they rejected the +Revelation of Christ were shown to be inadequate. When they accepted +this or that article of Natural Religion, they had accepted what was as +difficult of belief as this or that part of the Revelation which they +rejected. The mysteries which existed in the religion with which they +would have nothing to do were in harmony with the {141} mysteries which +existed in the religion which they declared to be necessary for the +welfare of society. That retort may be made with even more effect to +those who so far occupy that same ground to-day. They rejoice to +believe that there is a God, that He is not far off, that He +communicates Himself to their souls, that the love which we bear to one +another is but a faint image of the love which He bears to us, that the +noblest qualities which exist in us exist more purely, more gloriously +in Him, that we are in very deed His children and are called to +manifest His likeness. It is by prayer, both in public and in private, +both in congregations and alone with the Alone, that His Love and His +Help can be comprehended and used. He is no absent God: His Ear is not +heavy that it cannot hear, nor His arm shortened that it cannot save. +With this belief we, as Christians, have no dispute: we gladly go along +with Theists in asserting it: we {142} only wonder at their +unwillingness to go along with us a little further. For if God be such +as they glowingly depict Him, if our relations to Him be such as they +esteem it our greatest dignity to know, there is nothing antecedently +impossible in the thought that One Man has heard His Voice more +clearly, has surrendered to His Will more entirely, than any other in +the history of the ages and the races of mankind: nothing antecedently +impossible in the thought that to One Man His Truth has been conveyed +more brightly, more fully than to any other; that in One Man the +lineaments of the Divine Image may be seen more distinctly than in any +other. If God be such, and if our relations to God be such, as Theists +describe, why should they shrink with distrust or with antipathy from a +Son of Man Who has borne witness to those truths in His Life and in His +Death with a steadfastness of conviction which none other has ever +surpassed; Who, according {143} to the records which we possess of Him, +habitually lived to do the Father's Will and died commending His Spirit +into the Father's Hands: a Son of Man Who could truly be said to be in +heaven while He was on earth? If God be such, and our relations to God +be such, as Theists describe, would not that Son of Man be the +confirmation of their thoughts? Would not His testimony be of infinite +value on their side? Would He Himself not be the radiant illustration, +the eagerly longed for proof of the truth for which they contend? They +believe in God: why should it, on their own showing, be so hard to +believe in Christ? + + +III + +The Theism of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries is in some +respects different from the Deism of the eighteenth. It is not so +cold, the God in whom it believes is not so distant from His creatures. +But it is not {144} less vehement in its depreciation of Christianity +as a needless and even harmful addition to the Religion of Nature. +Conspicuous among the advocates of this modern Theism have been Francis +William Newman, Miss Frances Power Cobbe, and the Rev. Charles Voysey. + +Francis Newman, in his youth, belonged, like his brother the famous +Cardinal, to the strictest sect of Evangelicals, but, like the Cardinal +also, drifted away from them, though in a totally different +direction.[4] As he found the untenableness of certain views which he +had cherished, the insufficiency of certain arguments which he had +employed, he came with much anguish of mind to the conclusion that the +whole fabric of historical Christianity was built upon the sand. He +rapidly renounced belief after belief, and caused widespread distress +and dismay by a crude attack upon the moral perfection of {145} our +Lord. His conviction that Christianity had nothing special to say for +itself, and that one religion was as good as another, seems to have +been mainly brought about by a discussion which he had with a +Mohammedan carpenter at Aleppo. 'Among other matters, I was +particularly desirous of disabusing him of the current notion of his +people that our Gospels are spurious narratives of late date. I found +great difficulty of expression, but the man listened to me with much +attention, and I was encouraged to exert myself. He waited patiently +till I had done and then spoke to the following effect: "I will tell +you, sir, how the case stands. God has given to you English many good +gifts. You make fine ships, and sharp penknives, and good cloth and +cottons, and you have rich nobles and brave soldiers; and you write and +print many learned books (dictionaries and grammars): all this is of +God. But there is one thing that God has withheld {146} from you and +has revealed to us; and that is the knowledge of the true religion by +which one may be saved."'[5] + +But although Newman was led to give up Christianity, and practically to +hold that one religion was as good as another, he clung tenaciously to +what he supposed to be common to all religions, belief in God, a belief +deep and ardent. The rationalism of the Deists did not approve itself +to him. 'Our Deists of past centuries tried to make religion a matter +of the pure intellect, and thereby halted at the very frontier of the +inward life: they cut themselves off even from all acquaintance with +the experience of spiritual men.'[6] He nourished his soul with psalms +and hymns: he sought communion with God. He saw the weakness of +Morality without the inspiring power of Religion. 'Morals can seldom +gain living energy without the impulsive force derived from +Spirituals.... However {147} much Plato and Cicero may talk of the +surpassing beauty of virtue, still virtue is an abstraction, a set of +wise rules, not a Person, and cannot call out affection as an existence +exterior to the soul does. On the contrary, God is a Person; and the +love of Him is of all affections by far the most energetic in exciting +us to make good our highest ideals of moral excellence and in clearing +the moral sight, so that that ideal may keep rising. Other things +being equal (a condition not to be forgotten) a spiritual man will hold +a higher and purer morality than a mere moralist. Not only does Duty +manifest itself to him as an ever-expanding principle, but since a +larger and larger part of Duty becomes pleasant and easy when performed +under the stimulus of Love, the Will is enabled to concentrate itself +more on that which remains difficult and greater power of performance +is attained.'[7] Where shall we find a more {148} vivid or more +spiritual description of the rise and progress of devotion in the soul +than in the words of this man, who placed himself beyond the pale of +every Christian communion? 'One who begins to realise God's majestic +beauty and eternity and feels in contrast how little and transitory man +is, how dependent and feeble, longs to lean upon him for support. But +He is _outside_ of the heart, like a beautiful sunset, and seems to +have nothing to do with it: there is no getting into contact with Him, +to press against Him. Yet where rather should the weak rest than on +the strong, the creature of the day than on the Eternal, the imperfect +than on the Centre of Perfection? And where else should God dwell than +in the human heart? for if God is in the universe, among things +inanimate and unmoral, how much more ought He to dwell with our souls! +and they, too, seem to be infinite in their cravings: who but He can +satisfy them? Thus a restless {149} instinct agitates the soul, +guiding it dimly to feel that it was made for some definite but unknown +relation towards God. The sense of emptiness increases to positive +uneasiness, until there is an inward yearning, if not shaped in words, +yet in substance not alien from that ancient strain, "As the hart +panteth after the water-brooks, so panteth my soul after Thee, O God; +my soul is athirst for God, even for the Living God."'[8] + +Mr. Newman, in his later days, we understand, had modified the +bitterness of his opposition to historical Christianity and was ready +to avow himself as a disciple of Christ. + +Miss Frances Power Cobbe was another devout spirit who, with less +violence but equal decisiveness, accepted Theism as apart from +Christianity. In her case, even more visibly than in Mr. Newman's, it +was not Christianity which she rejected, but sundry distortions of it +with which it had in her mind become {150} identified. She wrote not a +few articles so permeated with the Christian spirit and imbued with the +Christian hope that the most ardent believer in Christ could read them +with entire approval and own himself their debtor. She took an active +part in many philanthropic movements, and she was an earnest and +eloquent advocate of faith in the Divine Ordering of the world and in +human immortality. + +'Theism,' she said, 'is not Christianity _minus_ Christ, nor Judaism +_minus_ the miraculous legation of Moses, nor any other creed +whatsoever merely stripped of its supernatural element. It is before +all things the positive affirmation of the Absolute Goodness of God: +and if it be in antagonism to other creeds, it is principally because +of, and in proportion to, their failure to assert that Goodness in its +infinite and all-embracing completeness.'[9] 'God is over us, and +heaven {151} is waiting for us all the same, even though all the men of +science in Europe unite to tell us there is only matter in the universe +and only corruption in the grave. Atheism may prevail for a night, but +faith cometh in the morning. Theism is "bound to win" at last: not +necessarily that special type of Theism which our poor thoughts in this +generation have striven to define: but that great fundamental faith, +the needful substruction of every other possible religious faith, the +faith in a Righteous and Loving God, and in a Life of man beyond the +tomb.'[10] + +'All the monitions of conscience, all the guidance and rebukes and +consolations of the Divine Spirit, all the holy words of the living, +and all the sacred books of the dead, these are our primary Evidences +of Religion. In a word, the first article of our creed is "I BELIEVE +IN GOD THE HOLY GHOST." After this fundamental dogma, we accept {152} +with joy and comfort the faith in the Creator and Orderer of the +physical universe, and believe in GOD THE FATHER ALMIGHTY, MAKER OF +HEAVEN AND EARTH. And lastly we rejoice in the knowledge that (in no +mystic Athanasian sense, but in simple fact) "_these two are One_." +The God of Love and Justice Who speaks in conscience, and Whom our +inmost hearts adore, is the same God Who rolls the suns and guides the +issues of life and death.'[11] + +In an able paper, _A Faithless World_, in which Miss Cobbe combated the +assertion of Sir James Fitzjames Stephen, that the disappearance of +belief in God and Immortality would be unattended with any serious +consequences to the material, intellectual, or moral well-being of +mankind, she forcibly said, 'I confess at starting on this inquiry, +that the problem, "Is religion of use, or can we do as well without +it?" seems to me {153} almost as grotesque as the old story of the +woman who said that we owe vast obligations to the moon, which affords +us light on dark nights, whereas we are under no such debt to the sun, +who only shines by day, _when there is always light_. Religion has +been to us so diffused a light that it is quite possible to forget how +we came by the general illumination, save when now and then it has +blazed out with special brightness.' The comment is eminently just, +but does it not apply with equal force to Miss Cobbe herself? The +Theism which she professed was the direct outcome of Christianity, +could never have existed but for Christianity, was, in all its best +features, simply Christianity under a different name. + +That Theism, as a separate organisation, gives little evidence of +conquering the world is shown by the fact that, after many years, it +boasts of only one congregation, that of the Theistic Church, Swallow +Street, Piccadilly, {154} of which the Rev. Charles Voysey is minister. +Mr. Voysey was at one time vicar of a parish in Yorkshire, where he +issued, under the title of _The Sling and the Stone_, sermons attacking +the commonly accepted doctrines of the Church of England, and was in +consequence deprived of his living. He is distinctly anti-Christian in +his teaching; strongly prejudiced against anything that bears the +Christian name: criticising the sayings and doings of our Lord in a +fashion which indicates either the most astonishing misconception or +the most melancholy perversion. But his sincerity and fervour on +behalf of Theism are unmistakable. He describes it as _Religion for +all mankind, based on facts which are never in Dispute_. The book +which is called by that title is written for the help and comfort of +all his fellowmen, 'chiefly for those who have doubted and discarded +the Christian Religion, and in consequence have become Agnostics or +{155} Pessimists.' It is prefaced by a dedication, which is also a +touching confession of personal faith: 'In all humility I dedicate this +book to my God Who made me and all mankind, Who loves us all alike with +an everlasting love, Who of His very faithfulness causeth us to be +troubled, Who punishes us justly for every sin, not in anger or +vengeance, but only to cleanse, to heal, and to bless, in Whose +Everlasting Arms we lie now and to all eternity.'[12] + +Mr. Voysey has compiled a Prayer Book for the use of his congregation. +The ordinary service is practically the morning or evening service of +the Book of Common Prayer, with all references to our Lord carefully +eliminated. The hymn _Jesus, Lover of my Soul_ is changed to _Father, +Refuge of my Soul_; and the hymn + + Just as I am without one plea, + But that Thy blood was shed for me, + And that Thou bidst me come to Thee, + O Lamb of God, I come, + +{156} is rendered: + + Just as I am without one plea, + But that Thy lore is seeking me, + And that Thou bidst me come to Thee, + O loving God, I come. + +The service respecting our duty, and the service of supplication have +merits of their own, but, except for the wanton omission of the Name +which is above every name, there is nothing in them which does not bear +a Christian impress. 'Christianity _minus_ Christ' would seem to be no +unfair definition of their standpoint: and without Christ they could +not have been what they are. The Father Who is set forth as the Object +of worship and of trust is the Father Whom Christ declared, the Father +Who, but for the manifestation of Christ, would never have been known. +Far be it from us to deny that the Father has been found by those who +have sought Him beyond the limits of the Church: this only we affirm +that those by whom He {157} has been found, have, consciously or +unconsciously, drawn near to Him by the way of Christ. Nothing of +value in modern Theism is incompatible with Christianity: nothing of +value which would not be strengthened by faith in Him Who said, 'He +that hath seen Me hath seen the Father.' + + +IV + +The strange objection to faith in Christ is sometimes made that it +interferes with faith in the Father. The notion of mediation is +regarded as derogatory alike to God and to man. There is no need for +any one to come between: no need for God to depute another to bear +witness of Him: no need for us to depute Another to secure His favour, +as from all eternity He is Love. The assumption, the groundless +assumption, underlying this conception is that the Mediator is a +barrier between man and God, a hindrance not a help to fellowship with +the Divine: that one {158} goes to the Mediator because access to God +is debarred. Whatever may occasionally have been the unguarded +statements of representatives of Christianity, it is surely plain that +no such doctrine is taught, that the very opposite of such doctrine is +taught, in the New Testament. 'We do not,' says M. Sabatier, 'address +ourselves to Jesus by way of dispensing ourselves from going to the +Father. Far from this, we go to Christ and abide in Him, precisely +that we may find the Father. We abide in Him that His filial +consciousness may become our own; that the Spirit may become our +spirit, and that God may dwell immediately in us as He dwells in Him. +Nothing in all this carries us outside of the religion of the Spirit: +on the contrary, it is its seal and confirmation.'[13] + +The whole object of the work of Christ, as proclaimed by Himself, or as +interpreted {159} by His Apostles, was to show the Father, to bring men +to the Father. 'Believest thou not that I am in the Father, and the +Father in Me? the words that I speak unto you I speak not of Myself: +but the Father that dwelleth in Me, He doeth the works.' He 'came and +preached peace to you which were afar off and to them that were nigh. +For through Him we both have access by one Spirit unto the Father.' To +argue that to come to Christ is a substitute for coming to God, is an +inducement to halt upon the way, is an absolute travesty and +perversion. To refuse to see the glory of God in the Face of Jesus +Christ is not to bring God near: it is to remove Him further from our +vision. That God should come to us, that we should go to God, through +a mediator, is only in accordance with a universal law. 'Why,' says +one, who might be expected from his theological training to speak +otherwise, 'Why, _all_ knowledge is "mediated" even of {160} the +simplest objects, even of the most obvious facts: there is no such +thing in the world as immediate knowledge, and shall we demur when we +are told that the knowledge of God the Father also must pass, in order +to reach us at its best and purest, through the medium of "that Son of +God and Son of Man in Whom was the fulness of the prophetic spirit and +the filial life?" ... Of this at least I feel convinced, that where +faith in the Father has grown blurred and vague in our days, and +finally flickered out, the cause must in many instances be sought--I +will not say in the wilful rejection, but--in the careless letting go +of the message and Personality of the Son.'[14] So far from the +thought of the Father being ignored or set aside by the thought of +Christ, we may rather say with S. John, 'Whosoever denieth the Son, +the same hath not the Father: he that confesseth the Son hath the +Father also.' 'He {161} that abideth in the doctrine of Christ, he +hath both the Father and the Son.' + + The homage that we render Thee + Is still our Father's own; + Nor jealous claim or rivalry + Divides the Cross and Throne.[15] + + +V + +The notion that Theism as contrasted with Christianity is a mark of +progress and of spirituality is a pure imagination. 'More spiritual it +may be than the traditional Christianity which consists in rigid and +stereotyped forms of practice, of ceremonial, of observance, of dogma: +but not more spiritual than the teaching of Christ Himself, the end and +completion of Whose work was to bring men to the Father, to teach them +that God is a Spirit, and to send the Spirit of the Father into the +hearts of the disciples. It would be a strange perversity if men +should reject Christ in the name of spiritual {162} religion when it is +to Christ, and to Him alone, that they owe the conception of what +spiritual religion is.'[16] To preach the doctrines of Theism without +reference to Christ is to deprive them of their most sublime +illustration, their most inspiring force, and their most convincing +proof. + +It is as Christ is known that God is believed in. The attempt to +create enthusiasm for God while banishing the Gospel of Christ meets +with astonishingly small response. The 'Religion for all Mankind' +makes but little progress, is, in spite of the labours of +five-and-thirty years, confined, as we have seen, almost to a solitary +moderately sized congregation. And whether or not the 'facts' on which +the religion is based 'are never in dispute,' the religion itself is +often-times disputed very keenly. Modern assaults upon religious faith +are, as a rule, directed quite as much against Theism as {163} against +Christianity.[17] It is the Love, or even the existence, of the Living +God, it is human responsibility, it is life beyond the grave, that are +called in question as frequently as the Resurrection of Christ. The +assurance that God at sundry times and in divers manners has spoken by +prophets renders it not more but less improbable that He should speak +by a Son: the assurance that there is life beyond the grave for all +renders it not more but less improbable that Jesus rose from the dead. +Conversely those who believe in Jesus believe with a double intensity +in Him Whom He revealed. 'Ye believe in God,' said Christ, 'believe +also in Me.' For many of us now, it is because we believe in Christ +that we believe also in God. The Almighty and Eternal is beyond our +ken: the grace and truth of Jesus Christ come home to our hearts. The +Word that was in the beginning with God and was God, {164} is wrapt in +impenetrable mystery: the Word made Flesh can be seen and handled: has + + wrought + With human hands the Creed of Creeds + In loveliness of perfect deeds, + More strong than all poetic thought.[18] + +And however it may be in a few exceptional cases, where people +nominally renouncing Christ desperately cleave to a fragment of the +faith of their childhood, the fact remains that, where He ceases to be +acknowledged, faith in the Father Whom He manifested tends, gradually +or speedily, to vanish. + + +VI + +The superiority of Theism to Deism simply consists in its being more +Christian. With the ideas of God which 'Theists' hold, we can, as +Christians, most cordially sympathise. We can sincerely say, 'Hold to +them firmly, they are your life: let no man rob you of {165} them by +any vain deceit.' But we cannot help also asking, 'Whence have you +drawn those lofty ideas? where have you obtained so exalted a +conception of the Divine Being in His mingled Majesty and lowliness, in +His inconceivable greatness, and His equally inconceivable compassion? +We turn from the picture of God which, with so much labour, so much +skill, so much moral earnestness, you have exhibited, and we behold the +Original in Christ and His Teaching. However unconsciously, it is His +Truth, it is His Features, that you have reproduced. You have been +brought up in the Church of Christ, or you have been brought into +contact with its influences, and you have imbibed its teachings, +perhaps more deeply than some who would not dare to question its +smallest precepts. Still, Christ's teaching you have not outgrown, +from Christ Himself you have not escaped. You cannot go from His +presence or flee from His Spirit. Those {166} views which you hold so +strongly, which are to you the most ennobling that have ever been given +of God and of religion, where is it that alone they are to be found? +In places where Christianity has gone before. + +No doubt, belief in God is not confined to Christian countries: worship +of the Maker of heaven and earth exists where the name of Christ has +never been heard, but not such belief, _such_ worship, as that for +which those persons contend. The God Whom they adore will not be found +anywhere save where Christianity has penetrated. In this country it is +the desperate clinging to one portion of the Christian Faith when all +else has been abandoned: in other lands, in India, for example, where +representatives of this way of thinking are not uncommon, it is the +rapturous welcome of one of the sublime truths of Christianity before +which the idolatries of their forefathers are passing away. It is safe +to call it a transition stage: {167} it will either part with the +fragment of Christianity which it retains and become merged in doubt +and speculation and unbelief; or it will include yet more of the +Christianity of which it has grasped a part: its belief in God will be +crowned and confirmed by its belief in Christ. + +For, speaking to those who cherish faith in the All-Righteous and +All-Loving God as the only hope for the regeneration of mankind, we +cannot shut our eyes to the fact that where faith in Christ fades, +faith in God has a tendency to become vague and dim. He ceases to be +thought of as a Friend and Help at hand: He is resolved into a Creator +infinitely distant or into a Law, immovable, inexorable, a blind, +unconscious Fate. It is Christ Who gives life to the thought of God. +It is the Word made Flesh that makes the Eternal Word more real. The +attempt of the Deists to purify religion by the preaching of a God who +had not {168} revealed Himself, and could not reveal Himself, in a Son, +came to nothing. Voltaire's chapel at Ferney still stands, but nobody +worships in it. Religion seemed to slumber: belief in God seemed to be +decaying, when the preaching of the name and the work of Christ again +aroused it into life. And so it is now. Whatever the ability, +whatever the sincerity of the advocates of belief in God without +reference to Christ, it lacks motive-power, it lacks the missionary +spirit. If we may judge by the past, Theism without Christ is a faith +which will not spread, which will not lay hold on the labouring and the +heavy laden: which may be maintained as a theory, but which will not be +as a fire in the souls of men diffusing itself by kindling other souls. +It is from Christ alone, from Christ the manifestation of what God is +in Heart and Mind, from Christ the manifestation of what man ought to +be, from Christ Who said, 'In My Father's house are many {169} +mansions: he that hath seen Me hath seen the Father,' that there comes +with an authority to which, in face of the difficulties besetting the +present and the future, the human soul will bow, with a soothing power +to which the human spirit will gladly yield--it is from Christ alone +that there comes the Divine injunction, 'Let not your heart be +troubled, ye believe in God, believe also in Me.' It is as He is +clearly seen and truly known that the clouds of error and superstition +vanish from the Face of God, and men are drawn to worship and to trust. + + + +[1] Longfellow, _Song of Hiawatha_. + +[2] Keble, _Christian Year_. + +[3] Bishop Gore, _The Christian Creed_. + +[4] Appendix XX. + +[5] _Phases of Faith_. + +[6] _The Soul: its Sorrows and Aspirations_. + +[7] _The Soul: its Sorrows and Aspirations_. + +[8] _The Soul_. + +[9] _Alone to the Alone_. + +[10] _Alone to the Alone_. + +[11] _Alone to the Alone_. + +[12] Appendix XXI. + +[13] _The Religions of Authority and the Religion of the Spirit_. + +[14] J. Warschauer, _Coming of Christ_. + +[15] Whittier, _Our Master_. + +[16] R. B. Bartlett, _The Letter and the Spirit_: Bampton Lecture. + +[17] Appendix XXII. + +[18] Tennyson, _In Memoriam_. + + + + +{172} + +VI + +THE TRIBUTE OF CRITICISM TO CHRIST + + + +'For their rock is not as our Rock, even our enemies themselves being +judges.'--DEUTERONOMY xxxii. 31. + +'He asked His disciples, saying, Whom do men say that I, the Son of +Man, am? And they said, Some say that Thou art John the Baptist; some +Elias; and others Jeremias or one of the prophets.'--S. MATTHEW xvi. +13, 14. + +'What think ye of Christ? Whose Son is He?--S. MATTHEW, xxii. 42. + +'And there was much murmuring among the people concerning Him: for some +said, He is a good man: others said, Nay, but He deceiveth the +people.'--S. JOHN vii. 12. + +'Then said Jesus unto the twelve, Will ye also go away? Then Simon +Peter answered Him, Lord, to whom shall we go? Thou hast the words of +eternal life.'--S. JOHN vi. 67, 68. + + + +{173} + +VI + +THE TRIBUTE OF CRITICISM TO CHRIST[1] + +Of the investigations of modern criticism the most serious are those +which have concerned the person of our Lord. It has been felt both by +assailants and by defenders of the Faith that, so long as His supremacy +remains acknowledged, Christianity has not been overthrown. Other +doctrines once considered all-important may fall into comparative +abeyance: whether they are upheld or rejected or modified, matters +little to Christianity as Christianity. But more and more it has grown +clear that Christ Himself {174} is the Article of a standing or a +falling Church. If this doctrine is not of God, if He is not the Way, +the Truth, and the Life, Christianity, whatever benefits may have been +associated with its career, must be ranked among religions which have +passed away. But so long as He is admitted to be the Authority and +standard in the moral and spiritual realm, so long as His name is above +every name, the work of destruction is not accomplished. + +Hence, renewed attempts have of late been made to tear the crown from +His brow, to reduce Him to the level of common men, to relegate Him to +the domain of myth, even to deny that He ever existed. Although, in +certain quarters at present, this last and extreme position is loudly +asserted, it is hardly necessary to occupy much time in examining it, +the trend of all criticism, even of the most rationalistic, being so +decidedly opposed to {175} it. To deny that He existed is commonly +felt to be the outcome of the most arbitrary prejudice, the conclusions +of Whately's _Historic Doubts relative to Napoleon Buonaparte_ +remaining grave and weighty in comparison. That Jesus of Nazareth +lived and taught and was crucified, that, immediately after His Death, +His disciples were proclaiming that He had risen, and was their living +inspiration, these are facts which can be denied only by the very +extravagance of scepticism. And the admission of these simple facts +implies a great deal more than is commonly supposed. + + +I + +It is the fashion for hostile critics to say, 'Christianity is not +dependent upon Christ: it is the creation of the semi-historical Paul, +not of the unhistorical Jesus. There is at best no more connection +between Christendom and Christ than between America and {176} Amerigo +Vespucci.[2] See how much Christians have been obliged to give up: see +how belief after belief has had to be surrendered; see how they are now +left with the merest fragment of their ancient Creed, how evidently +they will soon be compelled to part with the little to which they still +desperately cling.' The conclusion is somewhat hasty and premature. +The fragment which remains is after all the main portion of the Creed +of the early disciples. Where that fragment is declared and held and +lived in, there is the presence and the power of the Christian Faith. +We need not trouble ourselves about sundry points which, at one epoch +or another, have come to be denied or ignored: we need not say anything +either for them or against them. We have to take our stand on what is +accepted, not on what is rejected. And for the moment we may {177} +venture to take our stand only on what is accepted by the critics least +biassed in favour of the traditional views of Christendom. Those who +have come to imagine it to be a mark of advanced culture to break with +all religion, to confine their attention to the fleeting present, to +reject all that claims to have Divine sanction, may listen with respect +to the words of some who appear in fancied hostility to Christianity. + +We are not assuming that because men are great in Science or History or +Philosophy they must be great in spiritual things. Their achievements +in their own sphere, let us gratefully recognise; their uprightness, +their single-heartedness, let us imitate; and if by chance they are +sincere Christians as well as able men, let us rejoice; if they are not +professing Christians at all and yet bear witness to the beneficial +influence of Christianity and the unique power of the words and +character of Christ, let us hail with {178} pleasure their tribute of +admiration as a testimony impartial and unanswerable to the +pre-eminence of our Lord, but let not our faith in God, our knowledge +of our Saviour, be dependent on their verdict. The Faith of the Gospel +does not stand or fall with their approval or disapproval. In matters +of criticism we do well to defer to scholars, in matters of science we +do well to defer to men of science. But in matters pertaining to the +inner life, to the development of character, to the knowledge of things +pure and lovely and of good report, such men have no exclusive claim to +be listened to. And it would be absurd to say that we cannot make up +our minds as to whether Christ is worthy to be revered and loved and +followed until we have ascertained what is said about Him by +authorities in physics, or geology, or astronomy, by statesmen or +novelists or writers of magazine articles, by inventors of ingenious +machines or authors of {179} sensational stories. If they speak +scoffingly, if they do not recognise any sacredness in His Spirit and +Life, it will be impossible for us to take Him as our Moral and +Spiritual Guide. + +We might almost as well say that we will not trust the truthfulness or +goodness of our father or mother or brother or friend of many years, +unless, from persons eminent in literature or science or politics, we +have testimonials assuring us that our affection for those with whom we +are so closely associated is not a delusion. That is a matter, we +should all feel, with which the great and distinguished, however justly +great and distinguished, have really nothing to do. It is a matter for +ourselves, a matter in which our own experience is worth more than the +verdict of people, however learned in their own line, who do not, and +cannot, know the friend or relative as we know him ourselves. Still, +we regard it as an additional {180} compliment to his worth, and an +additional confirmation of our own faith, if those who have been +jealously scrutinising his conduct declare that they can find no fault +in him.[3] + +If it is made plain that the positive teaching of men unconnected with +any Church, untrammelled by any creed, is a virtual assertion of much +that is most dear to Christianity, if it is made plain that even where +there is strong denial there is also much reference to Christ, it may +have more weight than the most cogent arguments or the most glowing +appeals of orthodox divines or devout believers. The Evangelists +delight to record instances of unexpected, unfriendly, unimpeachable +testimony to the power of Christ. It is not only that the +simple-minded people were astonished at His doctrine, but that the +soldiers who were sent to silence Him {181} returned, smitten with +amazement, saying, 'Never man spake like this Man.' It is not only +that a grateful penitent washed His Feet with tears, but that the +unprincipled governor who sentenced Him to death declared 'I find in +Him no fault at all.' It is not only that an Apostle confesses, 'Thou +art the Christ the Son of the Living God,' but that the centurion who +watched over His Crucifixion exclaimed, 'Certainly this was a Righteous +Man: this was a Son of God.' It is similar unprejudiced witness that +we may hear around us still, the witness of those who profess to have +another rule of life than ours, and to be in no degree influenced by +our traditions. We must not expect too much from this kind of +evidence: we must not expect clear logical proof of every article +rightly or wrongly identified with the popularly termed 'orthodox' +Creed. It would destroy the value of the evidence {182} simply to +quote orthodox doctrines in orthodox language. What we rather offer is +the testimony of those who have resigned their grasp on much that we +may deem essential. It is because in a sense we may call them +'enemies' that we ask them to be 'judges' in the great controversy. It +is exactly because they are incredulous, or sceptical, or irreligious +that we cite them at all. We confine ourselves to the utterances of +men who are commonly cited as hostile to the commonly accepted Faith of +Christ, or who do not rank among the number of His nominal disciples, +or who at least have discussed His claims by critical and historical +methods, endeavouring fairly to take into account all the facts which +the circumstances warrant. We say to those who disown the authority of +Christ: It is not to the words of Evangelists or preachers that your +attention is sought: it is to the words of those whom you {183} profess +to respect, of those because of whose supposed antagonism to +Christianity you are rejecting Him. We ask you to listen to them and +to consider whether He of Whom such men speak in such terms is to be so +lightly set aside as you have fancied. + + +II + +It will be strange if, accepting even that scanty creed, we do not find +ourselves speedily accepting much more. When it is heartily +acknowledged that Jesus of Nazareth lived and died, and that His first +followers found strength and irresistible power in the conviction that +He had conquered death and the grave, it is of necessity that we go +further. The extreme sceptics who maintain that He never existed are, +for the purpose of controversy, wise in their generation, for, once His +existence is admitted, His mysterious power begins to tell. We are +confronted {184} with an Influence by which, consciously or +unconsciously, we must be affected, a knowledge which we must acquire, +an Authority to which we must bow. Let us not think merely of those +who have, in utter devotion, yielded their hearts and souls to Him +through all the centuries, of the institutions and customs which owe +their existence directly to Him; let us think of the manifestations +which are so often visible in those who do not suspect whence the +manifestations come, let us think of the tributes of affection, of +homage, of devotion which are paid by those to whom the ancient faith +in His Divinity appears to be an illusion or an impossible exaggeration. + +Scarcely any critic of recent years has been regarded as more +destructive than Professor Schmiedel. Indignant attack after indignant +attack has been made upon him for arguing that only nine sayings +attributed to our Lord can be accepted as genuine, that {185} all else +is involved in suspicion. What Schmiedel really does maintain is that +these nine sayings must of necessity be accepted as genuine, cannot be +rejected by any sane canon of criticism, and that the acceptance of +these nine sayings, these 'foundation-pillars,' compels the acceptance +of a great deal besides. '_What then have I gained in these nine +foundation pillars_? You will perhaps say "Very little": I reply, "I +have gained just enough." Having them, I know that Jesus must really +have come forward in the way He is said to have done.... In a word, I +know, on the one hand, that His Person cannot be referred to the region +of myth; on the other hand, that He was man in the full sense of the +term, and that, without of course denying that the Divine character was +in Him, this could be found only in the shape in which it can be found +in any human being. I think, therefore, that if we knew no more we +should {186} know by no means little about Him. But as a matter of +fact the foundation-pillars are but the starting-point for our study of +the life of Jesus.'[4] And this study, he concludes, gives us nothing +less than 'pretty well the whole bulk of Jesus' teaching, in so far as +its object is to explain in a purely religious and ethical way what God +requires of man and wherein man requires comfort and consolation from +God.' The standpoint of Professor Schmiedel is not the standpoint of +the Church as a whole: he fearlessly and aggressively endeavours to +remove any misconception on that subject: all the more remarkable that, +renouncing so much, he incontrovertibly establishes so much, +incontrovertibly establishes, we may not unreasonably contend, a great +deal more than he admits: he cannot, we may think, stop logically where +he does. All this may, or may not, be legitimately argued: there can +{187} be no doubt that one whose dislike of traditional dogmas is +excessive, and whose scrutiny of the Gospel records is minute and +unsparing, forces us to say of Jesus, What manner of Man is this? + +It is the same with the general tendency of modern criticism. From the +day that Strauss accomplished his destructive work, the Figure of Jesus +as a Historical Reality has been more and more endowed with power.[5] +No age has so occupied itself with Him, none has so endeavoured to +recall the features of His character, to apply His teachings to the +solution of social questions, as this age of ruthless inquiry. The +inquirers may have abjured tradition, but almost without exception they +have profoundly reverenced, if they have not actually worshipped, Jesus +of Nazareth, and they have found in His Gospel moral and spiritual +light and life. + +{188} + +Some thirty years ago, M. Andre Lefevre, a fervid disciple of +Materialism, an uncompromising and bitter opponent of every symptom of +religious manifestation, could not help discerning 'with the +clairvoyance of hatred,' the influence of Christianity in modern +thought. 'Descartes, Leibnitz, Locke, Condillac, Newton, Bonnet, Kant, +Hegel, Spinoza himself, Toland and Priestley, Rousseau, all are +Christians somewhere.... Voltaire himself has not completely +eliminated the virus: his Deism is not exempt from it.'[6] The same +thing is still occurring. In the most unexpected quarters we find the +fascination of Christ remaining. Men not acknowledging themselves to +be His followers, defiantly proclaiming that they are not His +followers, that they can hardly be even interested in Him, are yet +perpetually returning, in what they themselves will confess as their +higher moments, to the thought of {189} Him, trying to make plain why +it is that for them there is in Him no beauty that they should desire +Him. For example, this is how Mr. H. G. Wells, the popular author of +so many imaginative works, attempts frankly to explain his attitude: + +'I hope I shall offend no susceptibilities when I assert that this +great and very definite Personality in the hearts and imaginations of +mankind does not, and never has, attracted me. It is a fact I record +about myself without aggression or regret. I do not find myself able +to associate him in any way with the emotion of salvation.' But Mr. +Wells goes on to say: 'I admit the splendid imaginative appeal in the +idea of a divine human friend and mediator. If it were possible to +have access by prayer, by meditation, by urgent outcries of the soul, +to such a being whose feet were in the darknesses, who stooped down +from the light, who was at once great and little, limitless in power +{190} and virtue, and one's very brother; if it were possible by sheer +will in believing to make and make one's way to such a helper, who +would refuse such help? But I do not find such a being in Christ. I +do not find, I cannot imagine such a being. I wish I could. To me the +Christian Christ seems not so much a humanised God as an +incomprehensibly sinless being, neither God nor man. His sinlessness +wears his incarnation like a fancy dress, all his white self unchanged. +He had no petty weaknesses. Now the essential trouble of my life is +its petty weaknesses. If I am to have that love, that sense of +understanding fellowship which is, I conceive, the peculiar magic and +merit of this idea of a Personal Saviour, then I need some one quite +other than this image of virtue, this terrible and incomprehensible +Galilean with his crown of thorns, his bloodstained hands and feet. I +cannot love him any more than I can love a man {191} upon the rack.' +'The Christian's Christ is too fine for me, not incarnate enough, not +flesh enough, not earth enough. He was never foolish and hot-eared and +inarticulate, never vain, he never forgot things, nor tangled his +miracles.'[7] + +There is no disputing about tastes; and it is impossible to refute one +who tells us that he cannot see and cannot understand, though we may +lament and be astonished at his disabilities. Why a man upon the rack +should not be loved, or why the prime qualification for the Saviour of +mankind should be the plentiful possession of petty weaknesses, or why +it should be necessary for Him to be sometimes foolish and to have a +bad memory, or what necessary connection there is between hot-ears and +the salvation of the world, need not detain us long. For in spite of +this apparently curious longing for a Deliverer who shall be weak and +vain {192} and forgetful and hot-eared, and foolish, and of the earth +earthy, Mr. Wells shows us that the urgent outcry of his soul is for a +Being limitless in power and virtue and one's very brother; and though +he says that he does not find such a Being in Christ, it is exactly +what Christians have in all ages been finding. 'We have not an High +Priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities, but +was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin. Let us +therefore come boldly unto the Throne of Grace that we may obtain mercy +and find grace to help in times of need.' + + +III + +The instance which we have cited is exceptional among modern doubters, +among those who have deliberately set themselves without violent +prejudice to study the claims of Christianity. Be it in poetry or +prose, in scientific criticism or in imaginative {193} biography, with +remarkable unanimity, while stubbornly refusing to accept the Creed of +the Church, they so depict Him that the natural conclusion of their +representation is, 'Oh, come let us adore Him.' There is scarcely any +of them who would not sympathise with the admission and aspiration of +B. Wimmer in his confession, _My Struggle for Light_: 'I cannot but +love this unique Child of God with all the fervour of my soul, I cannot +but lift up eyes full of reverence and rapture to this Personality in +whom the highest and most sacred virtues which can move the heart of +man shine forth in spotless purity throughout the ages. Even if many a +trait in His portrait, as the Gospels sketch it for us, be more +legendary than historical, yet I feel that here a man stands before me, +a man who really lived and has a place in history like that of no other +man: indeed I feel that even the legends concerning Him possess a truth +in that they spring from the {194} Spirit which passed from Him into +His Church. I know what I have to thank Him for. I would in my inmost +self be so closely united with Him that He may live in my spirit and +bear absolute sway in my soul. I will not be ashamed of His Cross and +I will gladly endure the insults which men have directed, and still +often enough direct, against Him and His truth.' + +That is the characteristic and dominant note of the more recent +criticism. The almost universal conclusion is that the Perfect Ideal +has been depicted in the Christ of the Gospels, and has been depicted +because the Reality had been seen in Jesus of Nazareth.[8] Is it not +allowable to declare that the writers, let them say what they will +about their rejection of the doctrine of the Church concerning the +Incarnation and the Atonement of Christ, are practically His disciples, +that the ardour of their faith in Him not {195} infrequently puts to +shame the coldness of us who call Him Lord?[9] There is scarcely +extravagance in the assertion that, as we recognise the part which +Strauss and Renan played, and the unconscious help which they rendered, +'we may well say now "_noster_" Strauss and "_noster_" Renan. They +were, in their measure, and, according to their respective abilities, +defenders of the Faith.'[10] While it is possible to lament that among +Christian apologists there are timid surrenders and faithless +forebodings, it is yet more possible to reply that 'Whereas our critics +were at one time infidels and our bitter enemies, they are now proud of +the name of Christian and ready to be the friends, as far as that is +permitted, of every form of orthodoxy in Christianity.'[11] + +The language in which, at any rate, they express their conception of +Him is sometimes {196} more devout, more exalted, than the language +which used to be employed by professed apologists. The Hindu Theist, +Protab Chandra Mozoomdar, who stood outside the fold of Christianity, +joyfully proclaimed, 'Christ reigns. As the law of the spirit of +heavenly life, He reigns in the bosom of every believer.... Christ +reigns as the recogniser of Divine humanity in the fallen, the low, and +the despicable, as the healer of the unhappy, the unclean, and the sore +distressed. Reigns He not in the sweet humanity that goes forth to +seek and to save its kin in every land and clime, to teach and preach, +and raise and reclaim, to weep and watch and give repose? He reigns as +sweet patience and sober reason amid the laws and orders of the world; +as the spirit of submission and loyalty He reigns in peace in the +kingdoms of the world.... Christ reigns in the individual who feebly +watches His footprints in the tangled mazes of life. {197} He reigns +in the community that is bound together in His name. As Divine +Humanity, and the Son of God, He reigns gloriously around us in the New +Dispensation.'[12] + +Or listen to the rhapsody with which Mrs. Besant, once an Atheist, now +a Theosophist, depicts His influence from age to age: 'His the steady +inpouring of truth into every brain ready to receive it, so that hand +stretched out to hand across the centuries and passed on the torch of +knowledge, which thus was never extinguished. His the Form which stood +beside the rack and in the flames of the burning pile, cheering His +confessors and His martyrs, soothing the anguish of their pains and +filling their hearts with His peace. His the impulse which spoke in +the thunder of Savonarola, which guided the calm wisdom of Erasmus, +which inspired the deep ethics of the God-intoxicated Spinoza.... His +the beauty that allured Fra {198} Angelico and Raphael and Leonardo da +Vinci, that inspired the genius of Michael Angelo, that shone before +the eyes of Murillo, and that gave the power that raised the marvels of +the world, the Duomo of Milan, the San Marco of Venice, the Cathedral +of Florence. His the melody that breathed in the Masses of Mozart, the +sonatas of Beethoven, the oratorios of Handel, the fugues of Bach, the +austere splendour of Brahms. Through the long centuries He has striven +and laboured, and, with all the mighty burden of the Churches to carry, +He has never left uncared for and unsolaced one human heart that cried +to Him for help.'[13] When we read sentences like these by themselves +we say, Here is unqualified acceptance of the Christian Faith. And +even when we are told that we must not take the sentences in their +literal and natural meaning, that they apply not to Him Whose earthly +{199} career is sketched in the Gospels, but to an Ideal Being evolved +out of the writer's imagination, we are surely entitled to answer, It +is of Jesus that the words are spoken, whether their meaning is to be +taken literally or figuratively; if they have any meaning at all, they +indicate a Being without a parallel. That there should be so +extraordinary a conflict of opinion regarding Him, that the greatest +intellects as well as the simplest souls should hail Him as Divine, +that the most critical should still find their explanations +insufficient to account for the impression which He made upon His +contemporaries and continues to wield to this day, at least renders Him +absolutely unique. Men may disbelieve a great deal; they cannot +disbelieve that this Amazing Personality has a place in the heart of +the world which no other has ever occupied. The alleged imaginary +Ideal has had on earth only one approximate Embodiment. Nay, we are +{200} forced to confess, without the actual Character disclosed from +Nazareth to Calvary, the Ideal would never have been conceived. + + +IV + +Robert Browning has described in his _Christmas Eve_ a certain German +professor lecturing upon the myth of Christ and the sources whence it +is derivable. But as the listeners wait for the inference that faith +in Him should henceforth be discarded, 'he bids us,' says the supposed +narrator of the story, 'when we least expect it take back our faith': + + Go home and venerate the myth + I thus have experimented with. + This Man, continue to adore Him + Rather than all who went before Him, + And all who ever followed after. + + +This is a correct though humorous summary of much prevalent scepticism. +While critics destroy with the one hand, they build up {201} with the +other; while they seem intent on rooting out every remnant of trust in +Christ, they frequently conclude by passionately beseeching us to make +Him our Model and our King, our Pattern and our Guide. If there is +anything which is calculated at once to arouse us who profess and call +ourselves Christians and to make us ashamed, it is that the diligence +with which His Example is followed, the earnestness with which His +words are studied, by some whom we hold to have abandoned the Catholic +Faith, throw into the shade the obedience, the love, the earnestness +which prevail among ourselves. They who follow not with us are casting +out devils in His name. It is with us, they are careful to say, and +not with Him that they are waging war. They may dispute the incidents +of His recorded Life: they may insist on reducing Him to the level of +humanity, but they also insist that in so doing they act according to +His Own {202} Mind, that they refuse, for the very love which they bear +Him, to surround Him with a glory which He would have rejected. Devoid +of the errors which have led astray His successors, exalted far above +the wisest and the best of those who have spoken in His Name, it is the +function of criticism to show Him in His fashion as He lived, to sweep +away the falsehoods which have gathered round Him in the course of +ages.[14] + +We do not seek to read into the emotional language of such writers a +significance which they would repudiate, but we are surely entitled to +point out that in spite of themselves they are bringing their tribute +of homage to the King of the Jews, the King of all mankind. They grant +so much that, it seems to us, they must grant yet more. We, at any +rate, cannot stop where they deem themselves obliged to stop. We must +go further, we hear other voices swell the {203} chorus of adoration, +we have the witness not only of those who, in awe and wonderment have +exclaimed, 'Truly this was a Son of God,' but we have the witness of +those who from heartfelt conviction are able to say, 'The life which I +now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, Who loved +me and gave Himself for me.' And to them we humbly hope to be able to +respond, 'Now we believe not because of the language of others, whether +honest doubters or devout disciples, for we have heard Him ourselves, +and know that this is indeed the Christ, the Saviour of the world.' + +'Restate our doctrines as we may,' to sum up all in the words of one +who began his career as a teacher in the confidence that Jesus of +Nazareth was merely a man, but whom closer study and deepening +experience have brought to a fuller faith, 'reconstruct our theologies +as we will, this age, like every age, beholds in Him the Way to God, +the {204} Truth of God, the Life of God lived out among men: this age, +like every age, has heard and responds to His call, "Come unto Me all +ye that labour and are heavy laden and I will give you rest": this age, +like every age, finds access to the Father through the Son. These +things no criticism can shake, these certainties no philosophy +disprove, these facts no science dissolve away. He is the Religion +which He taught: and while the race of man endures, men will turn to +the crucified Son of Man, not with a grudging, "Thou hast conquered, O +Galilean!" but with the joyful, grateful cry, "My Lord and my God."'[15] + + +V + +He who was lifted up on the Cross is drawing all men to Himself, wise +and unwise, friend and foe, devout and doubting, is ruling even where +His authority is disavowed, is {205} causing hearts to adore where +intellects rebel. The patriotic English baron, Simon de Montfort, as +he saw the Royal forces under Prince Edward come against him, was +filled with admiration of their discipline and bearing. 'By the arm of +S. James,' he cried, recalling with soldierly pride that to himself +they owed in great measure their skill, 'they come on well: they +learned that not of themselves, but of me.' The Church of Christ, when +confronted with the benevolence, the integrity, the zeal of some who +are arrayed against her, may naturally say, 'They live well indeed: +they learned that not of themselves, but of me.' 'You are probably,' +was the homely expostulation of Benjamin Franklin with Thomas Paine, +'you are probably indebted to Religion for the habits of virtue on +which you so justly value yourself. You might easily display your +excellent talents of reasoning upon a less hazardous subject, and +thereby obtain a rank amongst {206} our most distinguished authors. +For among us,' continued Franklin satirically, 'it is not necessary, as +among the Hottentots, that a youth, to be raised into the company of +men, should prove his manhood by beating his mother.' The blows +inflicted on Christianity come from unfilial hands and hearts, from +hands and hearts which have been strengthened and nurtured on +Christianity itself, from hands and hearts which, but for the lingering +Christianity that still impels them, would soon be paralysed and dead. +The ideals which systems intended to supersede Christianity set before +them are, to all intents and purposes, only Christianity under another +name. Where the ideals go beyond ordinary Christian practice, they are +only a nearer approximation to the Supreme Ideal which has never been +fulfilled save in Jesus Christ Himself. Wherever there is truth in +them which is not generally accepted, or which comes as a surprise, +investigation {207} will show that it is an aspect of Christianity +which Christians have been neglecting, that it is a manifestation of +the mind of Christ, a development of His principles. Look where we +will, the men that are making real moral and spiritual progress are +those who are in touch with Him. Their beliefs about Him may not be +accurate, their conception of His nature and work may be defective, but +it is His Name, His Spirit, His Power, it is Himself that is the secret +of their life. One part of His teaching has sunk into their hearts, +one element of His character has mysteriously impressed them. They +have touched the hem of His garment, the shadow of His Apostle passing +by has glided over them, and they have been roused from weakness and +death. 'He that was healed wist not Who it was, for Jesus had conveyed +Himself away.' So it happened in the days of His flesh: so is it +happening still: they that are set free may not yet know to Whom {208} +their freedom is to be ascribed. Now, as on the way to Emmaus, when +men are communing together and reasoning, Jesus Himself may be walking +with them, though their eyes are holden that they do not know Him. +John Stuart Mill, whose acute intellect, whose spotless rectitude, +whose public spirit, whose non-religious training naturally made him +the idol of those to whom Christianity was a bygone superstition, came +in his later days, not indeed to accept the orthodox creed, but yet to +stretch out his longing hand to Christ, believing that He might have +'unique commission from God to lead mankind to truth and virtue.' +George Eliot, whose genius was ever labouring to fill up the void which +the rejection of her early faith had made, consoled her dying hours, as +she had inspired her most ennobling pages, with the _Imitation of +Christ_. Matthew Arnold, most cultured of critics, joins hands with +the most fervid of evangelists in maintaining that {209} 'there is no +way to righteousness but the way of Jesus.' The name of Christ--none +other name under heaven given among men will ever prove a substitute +for that. + +Renouncing faith in Christ, is there life, is there salvation for man +to be found in the doctrines, the names, the influences which are so +vehemently extolled? Is there one of them which so satisfies the +cravings of the heart, which enkindles such glorious hopes, which +inspires to such holy living, which inculcates so universal a +brotherhood, as Christianity? Is there one of them which, at the best, +is more than a keeping of despair at bay, than a resolute acceptance of +utter overthrow, than a blindness to the tremendous issues which are +involved?[16] Will the culture which is devoted, and cannot but be +devoted, exclusively to the outward, which imparts a knowledge of +Science or Art or Literature, be found sufficient to {210} rescue men +from the slavery of sin or from the torment of doubt? Will the +progress which is altogether occupied with the material and the +physical, with providing better houses and better food and better +wages, produce happiness without alloy and remove the sting and dread +of death?[17] Will the reiteration of the dogma that we are but +fleeting shadows, that there is nothing to hope for in the future, that +we are all the victims of delusion, tend to elevate and benefit our +downcast race? Will the attempt to worship what has never been made +known, what is simply darkness and mystery, be more successful in +raising men above themselves than the worship of the Righteousness and +the Love which have been made manifest in Christ? Will the attempt to +supplant the worship of Jesus Christ, in Whom was no sin, by the +worship of Humanity at large, of Humanity stained with guilt and crime +as {211} well as illumined here and there with deeds of heroism, of +Humanity sunk to the level of the brutes as well as exalted to the +level of whatever we may suppose to be the highest, seeing that there +is really no higher existence with which to compare it--will this +worship of itself, with all its baseness and imperfection, this turning +of mankind into a Mutual Adoration Society, make Humanity divine? Will +even the assurance that far-distant ages will have new inventions, +fairer laws, more abundant wealth be any deliverance to us from our +burdens, any salvation from our individual sorrow and guilt and shame? +Can we to whom the likeness of Christ has been shown, can we imagine +that any of these efforts to answer the yearning of mankind for +deliverance from the body of this death will prove an efficient +substitute for Him? And if we forsake Him, it must be in one or other +of these directions that we go. + + +{212} + +VI + +But the signs of the times are full of hope. In social work at home, +in the progress of missions abroad, in revivals of one kind and +another, in growing reverence for holy things, in a renewed interest in +religion as the most vital of all topics, even in strange spiritual +manifestations not within the Church, we have, amid all that is +discouraging and depressing, indication of the coming kingdom. The +cry, 'Back to Christ,' with all the truth that is in it, is only half a +truth if it does not also mean 'Forward to Christ.' He is before us as +well as behind us, and the Hope of the World is the gathering together +of all things in Him. Should there be, as there has been over and over +again in days gone by, a widespread unbelief, a rejection of His Divine +Revelation, of this we may be sure--it will be only for a time. When +the sceptical physician, in Tennyson's poem, murmured: + + 'The good Lord Jesus has had his day,' + +{213} the believing nurse made the comment: + + 'Had? has it come? It has only dawned: it will + come by and by.' + +A thought most sad, though most inspiring. 'Only dawned.' Why is +Christianity after all these centuries only beginning to be manifested? +It is at least partly because of the apathy, the divisions, the evil +lives of us who profess and call ourselves Christians, because we have +wrangled about the secondary and the comparatively unimportant, and +have neglected the weightier matters of the law, because we have so +left to those beyond the Church the duty of proclaiming and enforcing +principles which our Lord and His Apostles put in the forefront of +their teaching. We have narrowed the Kingdom of Christ, we have +claimed too little for Him, we have forgotten that He has to do with +the secular as well as with the spiritual, that He must be King of the +Nation as well as of the Church. But now in the growing {214} +prominence of Social Questions, which so many fear as an evidence of +the waning of religion, have we not an incentive to show that the +social must be pervaded by the religious, that our duties to one +another are no small part of the Kingdom of Christ? For all sorts and +conditions of men, for masters and servants, for rulers and ruled, for +employers and employed, there is ever accumulating proof that only as +they bear themselves towards each other in the spirit of the New +Testament can there be true harmony and mutual respect; that only, in +short, as the kingdoms of this world become the kingdom of our Lord and +of His Christ will men in reality bear one another's burdens; that only +as the Everlasting Gospel of the Everlasting Love prevails will all +strife and contention, whether personal or political or ecclesiastical +or national, come to an end; that only as men enter into the fellowship +of that Son of Man Who came not to be {215} ministered unto but to +minister and to give His Life a ransom for many will the glorious +vision of old be fulfilled: I saw in the night vision, and behold One +like the Son of Man came with the clouds of heaven and came to the +Ancient of Days and they brought Him near before Him. And there was +given Him dominion and glory and a kingdom, that all people, nations +and languages shall serve Him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion +which shall not pass away and His kingdom that which shall not be +destroyed. + + + +[1] In this Lecture are included some paragraphs from a sermon long out +of print, _The Witness of Scepticism to Christ_, preached before the +Synod of Lothian and Tweeddale. + +[2] G. Lommel, _Jesus von Nazareth_ (quoted in Pfannmueller's _Jesus im +Urteil der Jahrhunderte_). + +[3] Appendix XXIII. + +[4] _Jesus in Modern Criticism_. + +[5] H. Weinel, _Jesus im neunzehnten Jahrhundert_. + +[6] Quoted in E. Naville, _Le Temoignage du Christ_. + +[7] _First and Last Things: a Confession of Faith and Rule of Life_. + +[8] Appendix XXIV. + +[9] Appendix XXV. + +[10] _Lux Hominum_, Preface. + +[11] _Lux Hominum_, p. 84. + +[12] _The Oriental Christ_. + +[13] _Esoteric Christianity_. + +[14] Appendix XXVI. + +[15] J. Warschauer, _The New Evangel_. + +[16] Appendix XXVII. + +[17] Appendix XXVIII. + + + + +{219} + +APPENDICES + + +APPENDIX I + +'I hope no reader imagines me so weak to stand up in defence of real +Christianity such as used in primitive times (if we may believe the +authors of those ages) to have an influence upon men's beliefs and +actions. To offer at the restoring of that would indeed be a wild +project: it would be to dig up foundations: to destroy at one blow all +the wit and half the learning of the kingdom, to break the entire frame +and constitution of things, to ruin trade, extinguish arts and +sciences, with the professors of them; in short, to turn our courts, +exchanges, and shops into deserts; and would be full as absurd as the +proposal of Horace, where he advises the Romans all in a body, to leave +their city, and seek a new seat in some remote part of the world, by +way of cure for the corruption of their manners.'--DEAN SWIFT, _An +Argument to Prove that the Abolishing of Christianity in England may, +as things now stand, be attended with some Inconveniences_. + + + +{220} + +APPENDIX II + +While the state of our race is such as to need all our mutual +devotedness, all our aspiration, all our resources of courage, hope, +faith, and good cheer, the disciples of the Christian Creed and +Morality are called upon, day by day, to work out their own salvation +with fear and trembling and so forth. Such exhortations are too low +for even the wavering mood and quacked morality of a time of +theological suspense and uncertainty. In the extinction of that +suspense and the discrediting of that selfish quacking I see the +prospect for future generations of a purer and loftier virtue, and a +truer and sweeter heroism than divines who preach such self-seeking can +conceive of.'--HARRIET MARTINEAU, _Autobiography_, vol. ii. p. 461. + + +'Noble morality is classic morality, the morality of Greece, of Rome, +of Renaissance Italy, of ancient India. But Christian morality is +slave morality _in excelsis_. For the essence of Christian morality is +the desire of the individual to be saved: his consciousness of power is +so small that he lives in hourly peril of damnation and death and +yearns thus for the arms of some saving grace.'--_F. Nietzsche_, by A. +R. Orage, p. 53. + +{221} + +'They [Christians] have never learnt to love, to think, to trust. They +have been nursed and bred and swaddled and fed on fear. They are +afraid of death: they are afraid of truth: they are afraid of human +nature: they are afraid of God.... They deal in a poor kind of old +wives' fables, of lackadaisical dreams, of discredited sorcery, and +white magic, and call it religion and the holy of holies. They wander +about in a sickly soil of intellectual moonshine, where they mistake +the dense and sombre shadows for substances. They want to stop the +clocks of time that it may never be day, and to hoodwink the eyes of +the nations that they may lead the people as so many blind.'--ROBERT +BLATCHFORD, _Clarion_, March 3, 1905. + + + +{222} + +APPENDIX III + +'In Georgia, indeed, as the Jesuits had found it in South America, the +vicinity of a white settlement would have proved the more formidable +obstacle to the conversion of the Indian. When Tounchichi was urged to +listen to the doctrines of Christianity, he keenly replied, "Why, there +are Christians at Savannah! there are Christians at Frederica!" Nor +was it without good apparent reason that the poor savage exclaimed, +"Christian much drunk! Christian beat men! Christian tell lies! +Devil Christian! Me no Christian!"'--SOUTHEY, _Life of John Wesley_, +vol. i. p. 57. + + +'I was then carried in spirit to the mines where poor oppressed people +were digging rich treasures for those called Christians, and heard them +blaspheme the name of Christ, at which I was grieved, for to me His +name was precious. I was then informed that these heathens were told +that those who oppressed them were the followers of Christ, and they +said among themselves, "If Christ directed them to use us in this sort, +this Christ is a cruel tyrant."'--_Journal of John Woolman_, p. 264. + + + +{223} + +APPENDIX IV + +'What many upright and ardent souls have rejected is a misconception, a +caricature, a subjective Christianity of their own, a traditional +delusion, which no more resembles real Christianity than the +conventional Christ of the painted church window resembles Jesus Christ +of Nazareth. It is true that at this moment the great majority of the +people of this country never go to any place of worship, and this is +yet more the case on the Continent of Europe. Does it in the least +degree indicate that the masses of the European nations have weighed +Christianity in the balance and found it wanting? Nothing of the sort. +The overwhelming majority of them have not the faintest conception of +what Christianity is. I myself have met a great number of so-called +"Agnostics" and "Atheists" in our universities, among our working-men, +and in society, but I have never yet met one who had rejected the +Christianity of Christ.'--HUGH PRICE HUGHES, Preface to _Ethical +Christianity_. + + + +{224} + +APPENDIX V + +'Wheresoever Christianity has breathed it has accelerated the movement +of humanity. It has quickened the pulses of life, it has stimulated +the incentives of thought, it has turned the passions into peace, it +has warmed the heart into brotherhood, it has fanned the imagination +into genius, it has freshened the soul into purity. The progress of +Christian Europe has been the progress of mind over matter. It has +been the progress of intellect over force, of political right over +arbitrary power, of human liberty over the chains of slavery, of moral +law over social corruption, of order over anarchy, of enlightenment +over ignorance, of life over death. As we survey this spectacle of the +past, we are impressed that this study of history is the strongest +evidence for God. We hear no argument from design but we feel the +breath of the Designer. We see the universal life moulding the +individual lives, the one Will dominating many wills, the Infinite +Wisdom utilising the finite folly, the changeless truth permeating the +restless error, the boundless beneficence bringing blessing out of +all.... And what shall we say of the future? ... Ours is a position in +some respects analogous to that of the mediaeval world: the landmarks +of the past are fading, the lights in the future are but dimly seen. +Yet it is the study of the landmarks that helps us to wait for the +light, and our highest hope is born of memory. In the view {225} of +that retrospect, we cannot long despair. We may have moments of +heart-sickness when we look exclusively at the present hour: we may +have times of despondency when we measure only what the eye can see. +But looking on the accumulated results of bygone ages as they lie open +to the gaze of history, the scientific conclusion at which we must +arrive is this, that the course of Christianity shall be, or has been, +the path of a shining light, shining more and more unto the perfect +day.'--G. MATHESON, _Growth of the Spirit of Christianity_ (chap, +xxxviii., 'Dawn of a New Day'). + + + +{226} + +APPENDIX VI + +'Shadows and figments as they appear to us to be in themselves, these +attempts to provide a substitute for Religion are of the highest +importance, as showing that men of great powers of mind, who have +thoroughly broken loose not only from Christianity but from natural +Religion, and in some cases placed themselves in violent antagonism to +both, are still unable to divest themselves of the religious sentiment +or to appease its craving for satisfaction. + +'That the leaders of the anti-theological movement at the present day +are immoral, nobody but the most besotted fanatic would insinuate: no +candid antagonist would deny that some of them are in every respect the +very best of men.... But what is to prevent the withdrawal of the +traditional sanction from producing its natural effect upon the +morality of the mass of mankind? ... Rate the practical effect of +religious beliefs as low and that of social influences as high as you +may, there can surely be no doubt that morality has received some +support from the authority of an inward monitor regarded as the voice +of God.... + +'The denial of the existence of God and of a future state, in a word, +is the dethronement of Conscience: and society will pass, to say the +least, through a dangerous interval, before social conscience can fill +the vacant throne.'--GOLDWIN SMITH, 'Proposed Substitutes for +Religion,' _Macmillan's Magazine_, vol. xxxvii. + + + +{227} + +APPENDIX VII + +'It no less takes two to deliver the game of Duty from trivial pretence +and give it an earnest interest. How can I look up to myself as the +higher that reproaches me? issue commands to myself which I dare not +disobey? ask forgiveness from myself for sins which myself has +committed? surrender to myself with a martyr's sacrifice? and so +through all the drama of moral conflict and enthusiasm between myself +in a mask and myself in _propria persona_? How far are these +semblances, these battles in the clouds, to carry their mimicry of +reality? Are we to _worship_ the self-ideality? to _pray_ to an empty +image in the air? to trust in sorrow a creature of thought which is but +a phenomenon of sorrow? No, if religious communion is reduced to a +monologue, its essence is extinct and its soul is gone. It is a living +relation, or it is nothing: a response to the Supreme Reality. And +vainly will you search for your spiritual dynamics without the Rock +Eternal for your [Greek] _pou sto_'--JAMES MARTINEAU, Essays iv. 282, +_Ideal Substitutes for God_. + + + +{228} + +APPENDIX VIII + +'It is an awful hour--let him who has passed through it say how +awful--when life has lost its meaning and seems shrivelled into a +span--when the grave appears to be the end of all, human goodness +nothing but a name, and the sky above this universe a dead expanse, +black with the void from which God himself has disappeared. In that +fearful loneliness of spirit ... I know but one way in which a man may +come forth from his agony scathless: it is by holding fast to those +things which are certain still--the grand, simple landmarks of morality. + +'In the darkest hour through which a human soul can pass, whatever else +is doubtful, this at least is certain. If there be no God and no +future state yet even then it is better to be generous than selfish, +better to be chaste than licentious, better to be true than false, +better to be brave than to be a coward. Blessed beyond all earthly +blessedness is the man who, in the tempestuous darkness of the soul, +has dared to hold fast to these venerable landmarks. Thrice blessed is +he who, when all is drear and cheerless within and without, when his +teachers terrify him and his friends shrink from him, has obstinately +clung to moral good. Thrice blessed, because his night shall pass into +clear bright day.'--F. W. ROBERTSON, _Lectures, Addresses, etc._, p. 49. + + + +{229} + +APPENDIX IX + +'Let me say at once that if after the elimination of all untruths from +Christianity, we could build a belief in God and Immortality on the +residue, we should then have a far more powerful incentive to right +conduct than anything that I am about to urge.'--PHILIP VIVIAN, +_Churches and Modern Thought_, p. 323. + + + +{230} + +APPENDIX X + +'Without prejudice, what would be the effect upon modern civilisation +if the Divine Ideal should vanish from modern thought? + +'It would be presumptuous to attempt a description, rather because it +is so hard to picture ourselves and our outlook deprived of what we +have held during thousands of generations, our very _raison d'etre_, +than because we cannot calculate at least a part of what would have to +happen. Without pretending to undertake that exercise, it may not be +too bold to conclude definitely, what has been suggested +argumentatively throughout: namely, that moral goodness, as we trace it +in the past, as we enjoy it in the present, as we reckon upon it in the +future, would be found undesirable and therefore impracticable. A new +"morality" would doubtless take its place and set up a new ideal of +goodness; but the former would no more represent the elements we so far +call moral than the latter would embody the conceptions we now call +good: the more logically the inevitable system were followed up, the +more progressively would moral inversion be realised. + +'It does not seem credible that the new morality could escape being +egoistic and hedonistic, and these principles alone would dictate +complete reversal of all our present notions as to what is noble, what +is useful, what is good. An egoist hedonism that should not be selfish +and sensual is a fond {231} superstition; it would have to be both and +frankly. All the prophylactic expedients whereby a reciprocal egoism +must safeguard its sensuous rights would certainly be there; and they +represent in spirit and in practice whatever we have learned to +consider execrable. We do not require Professor Haeckel[1] to inform +us, with the triumphal rhetoric that accompanies a grand new discovery, +of the prudential homicide which is to confer a supreme blessing upon +humanity, for it has raged throughout antiquity, and still stalks +abroad in daylight wherever the kingdom of men is not also the kingdom +of Christ. Ten minutes' thought is sufficient to convince any rational +man or woman what must inevitably follow in a world of animal +rationalism, where no souls are immortal, where the human will is the +supreme will and there is eternal peace in the grave. It could +scarcely transpire otherwise than that "euthanasia" should replace care +of the chronic sick and indigent aged; that infanticide should be in a +large category of circumstances encouraged, and in some compelled; that +suicide should offer a rational escape from all serious ills, leaving a +door ever hospitably ajar to receive the body bankrupt in its capacity +for sensual enjoyment, the only enjoyment henceforth worthy of the +name. These are the "virtues" under the new morality; there are other +things of which it were not well to speak. Imagination turns its back. +In a world that has never been without its gods, among human creatures +who have never existed without a conscience, deeds have been done and +horrors have been practised through centuries, through ages, that make +annals read like ogre-tales and books of travels like the works of +morbid novelists; and the worst always goes unrecorded. What then +ought we to anticipate for a world yielding obedience to nothing +loftier {232} than the human intellect, seeking no prize obtainable +outside the individual life time, logically incapable of any +gratification outside the individual body, convinced of nothing save +eternal oblivion in the ever-nearing and inevitable grave, and reposed +on the calm assurance that "goodness" and "badness," "virtue" and +"vice" (whatever these terms may then correspond to) are recompensed, +indifferently, by nothing better and nothing worse than physical animal +death?'--JASPER B. HUNT, B.D., _Good without God: Is it Possible_? p. +51. + + + +[1] See _The Wonders of Life_, chap. v., popular translation, and other +works. + + + +{233} + +APPENDIX XI + +'When we say that God is personal, we do not mean that He is localised +by mutually related organs; that He is hampered by the physical +conditions of human personality. We mean that He is conscious of +distinctness from all other beings, of moral relation to all living +things, and of power to control both from without and from within the +action of every atom and of every world. This is what we mean by +personality in God. It is not a materialistic idea. It is essentially +spiritual. It is a breakwater against the destruction of the very +thought of God, or the submersion of it in the mere processes of +eternal evolution. There is a Pantheism which obliterates every trace +of Divine personality, which takes from God consciousness, will, +affection, emotion, desire, presiding and over-ruling intelligence. +But such Pantheism is better known as Atheism. It destroys the only +God who can be a refuge and a strength in time of trouble. It +annihilates that mighty conscience which drives the workers of iniquity +into darkness and the shadow of death, if possible, to hide themselves. +It closes the Divine Ear against the prayer of faith. It abolishes all +sympathy, all communion between the Father and the children. It makes +God not the world's life, but the world's grave. Therefore, against +all such Pantheism our being revolts.'--PETER S. MENZIES, _Sermons_ +('Christian Pantheism'). + + + +{234} + +APPENDIX XII + +'There is an Old Testament Pantheism speaking unmistakably out of the +lips of the Prophets and the Psalmists, ... so interwoven with their +deepest thoughts of God, that any hesitation to receive it would have +been traced by them most probably to purely heathen conditions of +thought, which ascribes to every divinity a limited function, a +separate home, and a restricted authority.... But undoubtedly the most +unequivocal and outspoken Pantheist in the Bible is St. Paul. He +speaks in that character to the Athenians, affirming all men to be the +offspring of God, and, as if this were not a sufficiently close bond of +affinity, adding, "In Him we live and move and have our being." His +Pantheistic eschatology casts a radiance over the valley of the shadow +of death, which makes the 15th chapter of 1st Corinthians one of the +most precious gifts of Divine inspiration which the holy volume +contains. "And when all things shall be subdued unto Him, then shall +the Son also Himself be subject unto Him that put all things under Him, +that God may be all and all." Nor, if he had wished to administer a +daring shock to the ultra-Calvinism of our own Confessional theology, +could he have uttered a sentiment more hard to reconcile with any view +of the Universe that is not Pantheistic than that contained in the 32nd +verse of the present chapter: "For God hath concluded them all in +unbelief that He might have mercy upon all." It {235} is quite clear +in the face of all this Scripture evidence that there is a form of +Pantheism which is not only innocent, defensible, justifiable, but +which we are bound to teach as of the essence of all true theology. +Nothing could be more childish than that blind horror of Pantheism +which shudders back from it as the most poisonous form of rank +infidelity.'--PETER S. MENZIES, _Sermons_ ('Christian Pantheism'), + + + +{236} + +APPENDIX XIII + +'Pantheism gives noble expression to the truth of God's presence in all +things, but it cannot satisfy the religious consciousness: it cannot +give it escape from the limitations of the world, or guarantee personal +immortality or (what is most important) give any adequate +interpretation to sin, or supply any adequate remedy for it.... +Christian theology is the harmony of Pantheism and Deism. On the one +hand Christianity believes all that the Pantheist believes of God's +presence in all things. "In Him," we believe, "we live and move and +are; in Him all things have their coherence." All the beauty of the +world, all its truths, all its goodness, are but so many modes under +which God is manifested, of whose glory Nature is the veil, of whose +word it is the expression, whose law and reason it embodies. But God +is not exhausted in the world, nor dependent upon it: He exists +eternally in His Triune Being, self-sufficing, self-subsistent.... God +is not only in Nature as its life, but He transcends it as its Creator, +its Lord--in its moral aspect--its Judge. So it is that Christianity +enjoys the riches of Pantheism without its inherent weakness on the +moral side, without making God dependent on the world, as the world is +on God.'--BISHOP GORE, _The Incarnation of the Son of God_, p. 136. + + + +{237} + +APPENDIX XIV + +'The Supreme Power on this petty earth can be nothing else but the +Humanity, which, ever since fifty thousand--it may be one hundred and +fifty thousand--years has slowly but inevitably conquered for itself +the predominance of all living things on this earth, and the mastery of +its material resources. It is the collective stream of Civilization, +often baffled, constantly misled, grievously sinning against itself +from time to time, but in the end victorious; winning certainly no +heaven, no millennium of the saints, but gradually over great epochs +rising to a better and a better world. This Humanity is not all the +human beings that are or have been. It is a living, growing, and +permanent Organism in itself, as Spencer and modern philosophy +establish. It is the active stream of Human Civilization, from which +many drop out into that oblivion and nullity which is the true and only +Hell.'--F. HARRISON, _Creed of a Lagman_, p. 72. + + + +{238} + +APPENDIX XV + +Mr. Frederic Harrison's Creed 'is open to every objection which he so +justly brings against what he regards as Mr. Spencer's Creed. These +reasons are broad, common, and familiar. So far as I know they never +have been, and I do not believe they ever will be, answered. The first +objection is that Humanity with a capital H (Mr. Harrison's God) is +neither better nor worse fitted to be a God than his Unknowable with a +capital U. They are as much alike as six and half-a-dozen. Each is a +barren abstraction to which any one an attach any meaning he likes. +Humanity, as used by Mr. Harrison, is not an abstract name for those +matters in which all human beings as such resemble each other, as, for +instance, a human form and articulate speech.... Humanity is a general +name for all human beings who, in various ways, have contributed to the +improvement of the human race. The Positivist calendar which +appropriates every day in the year for the commemoration of one or more +of these benefactors of mankind is an attempt to give what a lawyer +would call "further and better particulars" of the word. If this, or +anything like this, be the meaning of Mr. Harrison's God, I must say +that he, she, or it appears to me quite as ill-fitted for worship as +the Unknowable. How can a man worship an indefinite number of dead +people, most of whom are unknown to him even by name, and many of whose +characters {239} were exceedingly faulty, besides which the facts as to +their lives are most imperfectly known? How can he in any way combine +these people into a single object of thought? An object of worship +must surely have such a degree of unity that it is possible to think +about it as distinct from other things, as much unity at least as the +English nation, the Roman Catholic Church, the Great Western Railway. +No doubt these are abstract terms, but they are concrete enough for +practical purposes. Every one understands what is meant when it is +asserted that the English nation is at war or at peace; that the Pope +is the head of the Roman Catholic Church; that the Great Western +Railway has declared a dividend; but what is Humanity? What can any +one definitely assert or deny about it? How can any one meaning be +affixed to the word so that one person can be said to use it properly +and another to abuse it? It seems to me that it is as Unknowable as +the Unknowable itself, and just as well, and just as ill, fitted to be +an object of worship.'--SIR JAMES FITZJAMES STEPHEN, 'The Unknowable +and Unknown,' _Nineteenth Century_, June 1884. + + + +{240} + +APPENDIX XVI + +'Deism and Pantheism are both so irrational, so utterly inadequate to +explain the simplest facts of our moral and spiritual life that neither +of them can long hold mankind together. Positivism, which has made a +systematic and memorable attempt to fill the gap, itself bears witness +to the craving of human nature for some stronger bond than such systems +can supply; while its appreciation of the necessity of Religion gives +it an importance not possessed by mere Agnosticism. Yet it is +impossible to look at an encyclopaedic attempt to grasp all knowledge +and all history, such as that made by the founder of Positivism, +without a deep, oppressive sadness.... + +'Can men heap fact upon fact and connect science with science in a +splendid hierarchy and find no better end than this? Is such a review +to come to this, that we must worship either actual humanity with all +its meanness and wickedness, or ideal humanity which does not yet +exist, and, if this world is all in all, may never come into being? ... +For ideal humanity, however moral and enlightened, if unaided by God, +as the Posivitist holds, is still earth-bound and sense-bound.... We +are told that it is common sense to recognise that much is beyond us. +Perfectly true. But it is not common sense to worship an ignorant and +weak humanity which certainly made nothing, and has in itself no +assurance {241} of continuance in the future, nay rather, a very clear +probability of destruction, if simply left to itself. + +'What Positivism surely needs to give it hope and consistency is the +doctrine of the Logos, of the Eternal Word and Reason, the Creator, +Orderer, and Sustainer of all things, Who has taken a stainless human +nature that He might make men capable of all knowledge. This Divine +Humanity of the Logos, drawing mankind into Himself, is indeed worthy +of all worship. In loving Him, we learn really what it is to "live for +others." In looking to Him we cease from selfishness and pride. Such +a worship of humanity is not a mere baseless hope, but a reality +appearing in the very midst of history, a reality apprehended by Faith +indeed, but by a Faith always proving itself to those, and by those, +who hold it fast in Love. There is room, then, ample room, and a loud +demand for the re-establishment of a Christian Philosophy based upon +the Incarnation.'--JOHN WORDSWORTH (Bishop of Salisbury), _The One +Religion_, pp. 307-309. + + + +{242} + +APPENDIX XVII + +The invariable laws under which Humanity is placed have received +various names at different periods. Destiny, Fate, Necessity, Heaven, +Providence, all are so many names of one and the same conception: the +laws which man feels himself under, and that without the power of +escaping from them. We claim no exemption from the common lot. We +only wish to draw out into consciousness the instinctive acceptance of +the race, and to modify the spirit in which we regard them. We accept: +so have all men. We obey: so have all men. We venerate: so have some +in past ages or in other countries. We add but one other term--we +love. We would perfect our submission and so reap the full benefits of +submission in the improvement of our hearts and tempers. We take in +conception the sum of the conditions of existence, and we give them an +ideal being and a definite home in space, the second great creation +which completes the central one of Humanity. In the bosom of space we +place the world, and we conceive of the world and this our Mother Earth +as gladly welcomed to that bosom with the simplest and purest love, and +we give our love in return. + + Thou art folded, thou art lying + In the light which is undying. + + +'Thus we complete the Trinity of our religion, Humanity, the World, and +Space. So completed we recognise power to {243} give unity and +definiteness to our thoughts, purity and warmth to our affections, +scope and vigour to our activity. We recognise its powers to regulate +our whole being, to give us that which it has so long been the aim of +all religion to give--internal union. We recognise its power to raise +us above ourselves and by intensifying the action of our unselfish +instincts to bear down unto their due subordination our selfishness. +We see in it yet unworked treasures. We count not ourselves to have +apprehended but we press forward to the prize of our high calling. But +even now whilst its full capabilities are unknown to us, before we have +apprehended, we find enough in it to guide and strengthen us.'--'_The +New Religion in its Attitude towards the Old_: A Sermon preached at +South Field, Wandsworth, Wednesday, 19th Moses 71 (19th January 1859), +on the anniversary of the birth of Auguste Comte, 19th January 1798, by +RICHARD CONGREVE.' J. Chapman: 8 King William Street, Strand, London. + + + +{244} + +APPENDIX XVIII + +'We have compared Positivism where it is thought to be strongest with +Christianity where it is thought to be weakest. And if the result of +the comparison even then has been unfavourable to Positivism, how will +the account stand if every element in Christianity be taken into +consideration? The religion of humanity seems specially fitted to meet +the tastes of that comparatively small and prosperous class who are +unwilling to leave the dry bones of Agnosticism wholly unclothed with +any living tissue of religious emotion, and who are at the same time +fortunate enough to be able to persuade themselves that they are +contributing, or may contribute, by their individual efforts to the +attainment of some great ideal for mankind. But what has it to say to +the more obscure multitude who are absorbed, and wellnigh overwhelmed, +in the constant struggle with daily needs and narrow cares, who have +but little leisure or inclination to consider the precise role they are +called on to play in the great drama of "humanity," and who might in +any case be puzzled to discover its interest or its importance? Can it +assure them that there is no human being so insignificant as not to be +of infinite worth in the eyes of Him Who created the Heavens, or so +feeble but that his action may have consequence of infinite moment long +after this material system shall have crumbled into nothingness? Does +it offer consolation to those who are in grief, hope to those who {245} +are bereaved, strength to the weak, forgiveness to the sinful, rest to +those who are weary and heavy laden? If not, then whatever be its +merits, it is no rival to Christianity. It cannot penetrate or vivify +the inmost life of ordinary humanity. There is in it no nourishment +for ordinary human souls, no comfort for ordinary human sorrow, no help +for ordinary human weakness. Not less than the crudest irreligion does +it leave us men divorced from all communion with God, face to face with +the unthinking energies of Nature which gave us birth, and into which, +if supernatural religion be indeed a dream, we must after a few +fruitless struggles be again resolved.'--RIGHT HON. ARTHUR J. BALFOUR, +_The Religion of Humanity_. + + + +{246} + +APPENDIX XIX + +'Truly if Humanity has no higher prospects than those which await it +from the service of its modern worshippers its prospects are dark +indeed. Its "normal state" is a vague and distant future. But better +things may yet be hoped for when the true Light from Heaven shall +enlighten every man, and the love of goodness shall everywhere come +from the love of God, and nobleness of life from the perfect Example of +the Lord.'--JOHN TULLOCH, D.D. LL.D., _Modern Theories in Philosophy +and Religion_, p. 86. + + + +{247} + +APPENDIX XX + +Mr. Frederic Harrison came under the influence of both the Newmans. +'John Henry Newman led me on to his brother Francis, whose beautiful +nature and subtle intelligence I now began to value. His _Phases of +Faith, The Soul, The Hebrew Monarchy_ deeply impressed me. I was not +prepared either to accept all this heterodoxy nor yet to reject it; and +I patiently waited till an answer could be found.'--_The Creed of a +Layman_. + + + +{248} + +APPENDIX XXI + +Even Mr. Voysey admits the constraining power of the Cross: + +'That is still the noblest, most sublime picture in the whole Bible, +where the Christ is hanging on the Cross, and the tears and blood flow +trickling down, and the last words heard from His lips are "Father, +forgive them, for they know not what they do." That love and pity will +for ever endure as the type and symbol of what is most Divine in the +heart of man. Thank God! it has been repeated and repeated in the +lives and deaths of millions besides the Christ of Calvary. But +wherever found it still claims the admiration, and wins the homage of +every human heart, and is the crowning glory of the human race.--C. +VOYSEY, _Religion for All Mankind_, p. 105. + + + +{249} + +APPENDIX XXII + +'Not only the Syrian superstition must be attacked, but also the belief +in a personal God which engenders a slavish and oriental condition of +the mind, and the belief in a posthumous reward which engenders a +selfish and solitary condition of the heart. These beliefs are, +therefore, injurious to human nature. They lower its dignity, they +arrest its development, they isolate its affections. We shall not deny +that many beautiful sentiments are often mingled with the faith in a +personal Deity, and with the hopes of happiness in a future state; yet +we maintain that, however refined they may appear, they are selfish at +the core, and that if removed they will be replaced by sentiments of a +nobler and purer kind.'--WINWOOD READE, _Martyrdom of Man_, p. 543. + + + +{250} + +APPENDIX XXIII + +'There is a servile deference paid, even by Christians, to incompetent +judges of Christianity. They abjectly look to men of the world, to +scholars, to statesmen, for testimonies to the everlasting and +self-evidencing verities of heaven! And if they can gather up, from +the writings or speeches of these men, some patronising notices of +religion, some incidental compliment to the civilising influence of the +Bible, or to the aesthetic proprieties of worship, or to the moral +sublimity of the character or gospel of Christ, they forthwith proclaim +these tributes as lending some great confirmation to the Truth of GOD! +So we persist in asking, not "Is it true? true to our souls?" or, "Has +the Lord said it?" but, "What say the learned men, the influential men, +the eloquent men?" Shame upon these time-serving concessions, as +unmanly as they are fallacious. Go back to the hovels, rather, and +take the witnessing of the illiterate souls whose hearts, waiting there +in poverty or pain, or under the shadow of some great affliction, the +Lord Himself hath opened.'--F. D. HUNTINGDON, _Christian Believing and +Living_. + + + +{251} + +APPENDIX XXIV + +'It is foreign to our purpose to discuss the various theories which +have been advanced to explain the genesis and power of the Christian +Religion from the cynical Gibbon to the sentimental Renan and the +Rationalist Strauss. One remark may be permitted. It has been our lot +to read an immense amount of literature on this subject, and with no +bias in the orthodox direction, we are bound to admit that no theory +has yet appeared which from purely natural causes explains the +remarkable life and marvellous influence of the Founder of +Christianity.'--HECTOR MACPHERSON, _Books to Read and How to Head Them_. + + + +{252} + +APPENDIX XXV + +The Song of a Heathen Sojourning in Galilee, A.D. 32. + + If Jesus Christ is a man, + And only a man, I say + That of all mankind I cleave to Him, + And to Him will I 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. + + + +{253} + +APPENDIX XXVI + +'I distinguish absolutely between the character of Jesus and the +character of Christianity--in other words between Jesus of Nazareth and +Jesus the Christ. Shorn of all supernatural pretensions, Jesus emerges +from the great mass of human beings as an almost perfect type of +simplicity, veracity, and natural affection. "Love one another" was +the Alpha and Omega of His teaching, and He carried out the precept +through every hour of His too brief life.... But how blindly, how +foolishly my critics have interpreted the inner spirit of my argument, +how utterly have they failed to realise that the whole aim of the work +is to justify Jesus against the folly, the cruelty, the infamy, the +ignorance of the creed upbuilt upon His grave. I show in cipher, as it +were, that those who crucified Him once would crucify Him again, were +He to return amongst us. I imply that among the first to crucify Him +would be the members of His Own Church. But nowhere surely do I imply +that His soul, in its purely personal elements, in its tender and +sympathising humanity was not the very divinest that ever wore earth +about it.'--ROBERT BUCHANAN in Letter of January 1892 to _Daily +Chronicle_ regarding his poem _The Wandering Jew_. _Robert Buchanan: +His Life, Life's Work, and Life's Friendships_, by Harriett Jay, pp. +274-5. + + + +{254} + +APPENDIX XXVII + +'I do not believe I have any personal immortality. I am part of an +immortality perhaps, but that is different. I am not the continuing +thing. I personally am experimental, incidental. I feel I have to do +something, a number of things no one else could do, and then I am +finished, and finished altogether. Then my substance returns to the +common lot. I am a temporary enclosure for a temporary purpose: that +served, and my skull and teeth, my idiosyncrasy and desire will +disperse, I believe, like the timbers of the booth after a fair.'--H. +G. WELLS, _First and Last Things_, p. 80. + + + +{255} + +APPENDIX XXVIII + +'The estate of man upon this earth of ours may in course of time be +vastly improved. So much seems to be promised by the recent +achievements of Science, whose advance is in geometrical progression, +each discovery giving birth to several more. Increase of health and +extension of life by sanitary, dietetic, and gymnastic improvement; +increase of wealth by invention and of leisure by the substitution of +machinery for labour: more equal distribution of wealth with its +comforts and refinements; diffusion of knowledge; political +improvement; elevation of the domestic affections and social +sentiments; unification of mankind and elimination of war through +ascendency of reason over passion--all these things may be carried to +an indefinite extent, and may produce what in comparison with the +present estate of man would be a terrestrial paradise. Selection and +the merciless struggle for existence may be in some measure superseded +by selection of a more scientific and merciful kind. Death may be +deprived at all events of its pangs. On the other hand, the horizon +does not appear to be clear of cloud.... Let our fancy suppose the +most chimerical of Utopias realised in a commonwealth of man. Mortal +life prolonged to any conceivable extent is but a span. Still over +every festal board in the community of terrestrial bliss will be cast +the shadow of approaching death; and the sweeter life becomes the more +bitter death will be. {256} The more bitter it will be at least to the +ordinary man, and the number of philosophers like John Stuart Mill is +small.'--GOLDWIN SMITH: _Guesses at the Riddle of Existence_ ('Is There +Another Life?'). + +'In return for all of which they have deprived us, some prophets of +modern science are disposed to show us in the future a City of God +_minus_ God, a Paradise _minus_ the Tree of Life, a Millennium with +education to perfect the intellect, and sanitary improvements to +emancipate the body from a long catalogue of evils. Sorrow no doubt +will not be abolished; immortality will not be bestowed. But we shall +have comfortable and perfectly drained houses to be wretched in. The +news of our misfortunes, the tidings that turn the hair white, and +break the strong man's heart will be conveyed to us from the ends of +the earth by the agency of a telegraphic system without a flaw. The +closing eye may cease to look to the land beyond the River; but in our +last moments we shall be able to make a choice between patent furnaces +for the cremation of our remains, and coffins of the most charming +description for their preservation when desiccated.'--Archbishop +ALEXANDER: _Witness of the Psalms to Christ and Christianity_, p. 48. + + + +{257} + +AUTHORITIES CONSULTED + + +Abbott, E. A., _Through Nature to Christ_. + +Armstrong, E. A., _Back to Jesus; Man's Knowledge of God; Agnosticism +and Theism in the Nineteenth Century_. + +Arthur, W., _God without Religion; Religion without God_. + +Aveling, F. (edited by), _Westminster Lectures_. + + +Balfour, A. J., _Religion of Humanity; Foundations of Belief_. + +Ballard, F., _Clarion Fallacies; Miracles of Unbelief_. + +_Barker, Joseph, Life of_. + +Barry, W., _Heralds of Revolt_. + +Bartlett, R. E., _The Letter and the Spirit_. + +Besant, Annie, _Esoteric Christianity_. + +Blatchford, R., _God and My Neighbour_. + +Blau, Paul, '_Wenn ihr Mich Kennetet_.' + +Bousset, W., _Jesus; What is Religion?; The Faith of a Modern +Protestant_. + +Brace, G. Loring, _Gesta Christi_. + +Bremond, H., 'Christus Vivit' (Epilogue of _L'Inquietude Religieuse_). + +Broglie, L'Abbe Paul de, _Problemes et Conclusions; La Morale sans +Dieu_. + +Brooks, Phillips, Bishop, _The Influence of Jesus_. + +Butler, Bishop, _The Analogy of Religion_. + + +{258} + +Caird, E., _The Evolution of Religion; The Social Philosophy and +Religion of Comte_. + +Caird, J., _Fundamental Ideas of Christianity_. + +Cairns, D. S., _Christianity in the Modern World_. + +Carey, Vivian, _Parsons and Pagans_. + +Caro, E., _L'Idee de Dieu et ses Nouveaux Critiques; Etudes Morales; +Problemes de Morale Sociale_. + +Chesterton, G. K., _Heretics; Orthodoxy_. + +Church, K. W., _Gifts of Civilization; Pascal and other Sermons_. + +Clarke, J. Freeman, _Steps to Belief_. + +Cobbe, Frances Power, _A Faithless World; Broken Lights; Autobiography_. + +Coit, Stanton, _National Idealism and a State Church_. + +Comte, Auguste, _Catechism of Positive Religion_ (translated by Richard +Congreve). + +_Contentio Veritatis_. + +Conway, Moncure D., _The Earthward Pilgrimage_. + +Craufurd, A. H., _Christian Instincts and Modern Doubt_. + +Crooker, J. H., _The Supremacy of Jesus_. + + +D'Alviella, G., _Revolution Religieuse Contemporaine_. + +Davies, O. Maurice, _Heterodox London_. + +Davies, Llewelyn, _Morality according to the Lord's Supper_. + +_Do we Believe_? (Correspondence from _Daily Telegraph_.) + +Drawbridge, C. L., _Is Religion Undermined_? + +Drummond, J., _Via, Veritas, Vita_. + +Du Bose, W. P., _The Gospel and the Gospels_. + + +Eaton, J. R. T., _The Permanence of Christianity_. + + +Faber, Hans, _Das Christentum der Zukunft_. + +Fairbairn, A. M., _Christ in Modern Theology_. + +{259} + +Farrar, A. S., _Critical History of Free Thought_. + +Farrar, F. W., _Seekers after God; Witness of History to Christ_. + +Fiske, John, _The Idea of God as Affected by Modern Knowledge; Through +Nature to God; Man's Destiny_. + +Fitchett, W. H., _Beliefs of Unbelief_. + +Flint, R., _Theism; Anti-Theistic Theories_. + +Footman, H., _Reasonable Apprehensions and Reassuring Hints_. + +Fordyce, J., _Aspects of Scepticism_. + +Forrest, D. W., _The Christ of History and of Experience_. + +Frommel, Gaston, _Etudes Religieuses et Sociales; Etudes Morales et +Religieuses_. + + +Gindraux, J., _Le Christ et la Pensee Moderne_ (Translation from +Pfennigsdorf). + +Gladden, Washington, _How Much is Left of the Old Doctrines_? + +Gore, O., Bishop, _The Incarnation of the Son of God; The Christian +Creed_. + +Guyau, M., _L'Irreligion de l'Avenir; La Morale sans Sanction_. + + +Haeckel, E., _Riddle of the Universe; The Confession of Faith of a Man +of Science_. + +Harnack, Adolf, _What is Christianity?; Christianity and History_. + +Harrison, A. J., _Problems of Christianity and Scepticism_. + +Harrison, Frederic, _Memories and Thoughts; The Creed of a Layman_. + +Haw, George (edited by), _Religious Doubts of Democracy_. + +Henson, H. Hensley, _Popular Rationalism; The Value of the Bible_. + +Hillis, N. D., _Influence of Christ in Modern Life_. + +{260} + +Hoffmann, F. S., _The Sphere of Religion_. + +Hunt, Jasper B., _Good without God_. + +Hunt, John, _Christianity and Pantheism_. + +Hutton, R. H., _Essays Theological and Literary; Contemporary Thought +and Thinkers; Aspects of Religious and Scientific Thought_. + +Huxley, T. H., _Evolution and Ethics_. + + +Illingworth, J. R., _Personality Human and Divine; Divine Immanence_. + +_Is Christianity True_? (Lectures in Central Hall, Manchester). + + +Jastrow, Morris, _The Study of Religion_. + +Jefferies, Richard, _The Story of my Heart: My Autobiography_. + +Jones, Harry (edited by), _Some Urgent Questions in Christian Lights_. + + +Kutter, Herrmann, _Sie Muessen_. + + +Lecky, W. E. H., _History of European Morals_. + +Liddon, H. P., _The Divinity of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ; Some +Elements of Religion_. + +Lilly, W. S., _The Great Enigma; The Claims of Christianity_. + +Lodge, Sir Oliver, _The Substance of Faith_. + +Lucas, Bernard, _The Faith of a Christian_. + +_Lux Hominum_. + +_Lux Mundi_. + + +Maitland, Brownlow, _Theism or Agnosticism; Steps to Faith_. + +Mallock, W. H., _Reconstruction of Belief_. + +{261} + +Marson, O. L., _Following of Christ_. + +Martin, A. S., 'Christ in Modern Thought' (Hastings's _Dictionary of +Christ and the Gospels_, Appendix). + +Martineau, Harriet, _Autobiography_. + +Martineau, James, _Ideal Substitutes for God; A Study of Religion; +Hours of Thought_. + +Matheson, G., _Growth of the Spirit of Christianity_. + +Matheson, A. Scott, _The Gospel and Modern Substitutes_. + +Menzies, Allan, _S. Paul's View of the Divinity of Christ_. + +Menzies, P. S., 'Christian Pantheism' (in _Sermons_). + +Momerie, A. W., _Belief in God; Immortality; Origin of Evil_. + +Monod, Wilfrid, _Aux Croyants et aux Athees; Peut-on rester Chretien_? + +Mories, A. S., _Haeckel's Contribution to Religion_. + +Morison, J. Cotter, _The Service of Man_. + +Mozoomdar, Protab Chandra, _The Oriental Christ_. + +Myers, F. W. H., _Modern Essays_. + + +Naville, Ernest, _Le Pere Celeste; Le Christ; Le Temoignage du Christ +et l'Unite du Monde Chretien_. + +Neumann, Arno, _Jesus_. + +Newman, F. W., _The Soul: Its Sorrows and Aspirations; Phases of Faith_. + +Nolloth, C. F., _The Person of our Lord and Recent Thought_. + + +Oxenham, H. N., _Essays Ethical and Religious_. + +_Oxford House Tracts_. + + +Palmer, W. S., _An Agnostic's Progress; The Church and Modern Men_. + +Peile, J. H. F., _The Reproach of the Gospel_. + +Pfannmueller, Gustav, _Jesus im Urteil der Jahrhunderte_. + +{262} + +Picard, L'Abbe, _Christianity or Agnosticism?; La Transcendance de +Jesus Christ_. + +Picton, J. Allanson, _The Religion of the Universe; Pantheism: Its +Story and Significance_. + +Plumptre, E. H., _Christ and Christendom_. + +_Present Day Tracts_ (R. T. S.). + +Pringle-Pattison, A. Seth, _Man's Place in the Cosmos_. + + +Reade, Winwood, _The Martyrdom of Man; The Outcast_. + +_Religion and the Modern Mind_ (St. Ninian's Society Lectures). + +Renesse, _Jesus Christ and His Apostles and Disciples in the Twentieth +Century_. + +Robinson, O. H., _Human Nature a Revelation of the Divine; Studies in +the Character of Christ_. + +Romanes, G. J., _Thoughts on Religion_. + + +Sabatier, A., _The Religions of Authority and the Religion of the +Spirit_. + +Sanday, W., _Life of Christ in Recent Research_. + +Savage, M. J., _Religion for To-day; The Life Beyond_. + +Schmiedel, P. W., _Jesus and Modern Criticism_. + +Seaver, R. W., _To Christ through Criticism_. + +_Secularist's Manual_. + +Seeley, J. R., _Ecce Homo; Natural Religion_. + +Sen, Keshub Chunder, India asks, _Who is Christ_? + +Sheldon, H. O., _Unbelief in the Nineteenth Century_. + +Simpson, P. Carnegie, _The Fact of Christ_. + +Smith, Goldwin, _Guesses at the Riddle of Existence; Lectures on the +Study of History; The founder of Christianity_. + +Smyth, Newman, _Old Faiths in New Light_. + +Stanley, A. P., 'Theology of the Nineteenth Century' (in _Essays on +Church and State_); _Christian Institutions_. + +{263} + +Stephen, J. Fitzjames, 'The Unknowable and Unknown' (_Nineteenth +Century_, June 1884); _Liberty, Equality, and Fraternity_. + +Stephen, Leslie, _An Agnostic's Apology; English Thought in the +Eighteenth Century_. + +Swete, H. B. (edited by), _Cambridge Theological Essays_. + +Swift, Dean, _The Abolishing of Christianity_. + + +_Topics for the Times_ (S. P. C. K.). + +Tulloch, J., _Modern Theories in Theology and Philosophy; Movements of +Religious Thought_. + + +Van Dyke, H., _The Gospel for an Age of Doubt; The Gospel for a World +of Sin_. + +Vivian, Philip, _The Churches and Modern Thought_. + +Voysey, C., _Religion for All Mankind_. + + +Wace, H., _Christianity and Morality_. + +Wallace, Alfred Russel, _Man's Place in the Universe_. + +Warschauer, J., _The New Evangel; Jesus: Seven Questions; Anti-Nunquam; +Jesus or Christ?_ + +Watkinson, W. L., _Influence of Scepticism on Character_. + +Weinel, H., _Jesus im Nevmzehnten Jahrhundert_. + +Welsh, R. E., _In Relief of Doubt_. + +Wells, H. G., _First and Last Things, A Confession of Faith and Rule of +Life_. + +Wilson, J. M., _Problems of Religion and Science_. + +Wimmer, R., _My Struggle for Light_. + +Wordsworth, John, Bishop, _The One Religion_. + + +Young, John, _The Christ of History_. + + + + +{265} + +INDEX + + +Abbott, Edwin A., 117. + +Alexander, Archbishop, 256. + +Amiel, H. F., 55. + +Anthropomorphism, 65, 68, 82. + +Arnold, Matthew, 208. + + +'Back to Christ,' 212. + +Balfour, A. J., 244. + +Bartlett, R. E., 161. + +Besant, Mrs., 197. + +Blatchford, Robert, 7, 20, 221. + +Browning, Robert, 65, 200. + +Buchanan, Robert, 253. + +Butler, Bishop, 10, 139. + + +Caird, Principal, 112. + +Calendar, Positivist, 108. + +_Caliban upon Setebos_, 65. + +Carey, Vivian, 6, 26. + +Chesterton, G. K., 113. + +Christ the only Way, 129, 207. + +---- the substance of Christianity, 173. + +Christianity, influence of, 24, 28. + +---- misrepresentation of, 18, 223. + +Christians, inconsistency of, 16, 19, 213, 222, 253. + +_Christmas Eve_, 200. + +Church, Dean, 9. + +Clifford, W. K., 103. + +Cobbe, Frances Power, 144, 149. + +Coit, Dr. Stanton, 41. + +Comte, Auguste, 103. + +Congreve, Richard, 115, 242. + +Conway, Moncure D., 8. + +Cowper, William, 78. + +Criticism, 173. + + +Deism, 139, 143, 164, 236, 240. + +De Vere, Aubrey, 101. + + +Eliot, George, 56, 208. + +Enemies, witness of, 177. + + +Fenelon, 78. + +Fiske, John, 100. + + +Gilder, R. W., 252. + +Gore, Bishop, 136, 236. + +Great Being of Positivism, 106, 112, 114. + + +Haeckel, 71. + +Harrison, Frederic, 84, 96, 102, 108, 110, 237, 238. + +Hughes, Hugh Price, 223. + +Humanity, Christ, the Ideal of, 118. + +---- Religion of, 93, 103, 105, 237, 238, 242. + +Huntingdon, Bishop, 250. + + +Immortality, denial of, 54, 60, 254. + +Impeachments of Christianity, 12, 249. + +Incarnation, 48, 96. + + +Jefferies, Richard, 73. + + +Law, William, 78. + +Lefevre, A., 188. + + +Macpherson, Hector, 251. + +Man, 93. + +Martineau, Harriet, 220. + +---- James, 227. + +Material Progress, 255, 256. + +Matheson, George, 224. + +Mediation, 157. + +Menzies, P. S., 233, 234. + +Mill, John Stuart, 208. + +Montaigne, 23. + +Morality and Religion, 33, 39, 146, 229, 230. + +---- Religion without, 34. + +Mozoomdar, P. C., 196. + +Myers, F. W. H., 56. + + +Newman, F. W., 144, 247. + +Nietzsche, 220. + + +Pantheism, 65, 81, 233, 234, 236. + +Personality of God, 44, 70, 147, 233. + +Picton, J. Allanson, 87. + +Pope, Alexander, 78. + +Positivism, 93, 103, 211. + +Prayer, 43. + + +Reade, Winwood, 5, 120, 249. + +Renan, E., 192. + +Roberts, W. Page-, Dean, 112. + +Robertson, Frederick William, 118, 228. + + +Sabatier, A., 158. + +Schleiermacher, 77. + +Schmiedel, P. W., 184. + +Shelley, 13, 98. + +Sin, Sense of, 86. + +Smith, Goldwin, 226, 255. + +Spencer, Herbert, 71. + +Spinoza, 76. + +Stanley, Dean, 77. + +Stephen, Sir J. F., 50, 58, 238. + +---- Sir Leslie, 16. + +Strauss, D. F., 195. + +Swift, Dean, 10, 219. + + +Tennyson, 60, 79, 212. + +'Theism,' 127, 150, 164. + +Thomson, James, 78. + +Tulloch, John, 246. + + +Uniqueness of Christ, 199, 252. + + +Vivian, Philip, 5, 229. + +Voltaire, 139, 168. + +Voysey, Rev. Charles, 153, 248. + + +Wallace, Alfred Russel, 100. + +Warschauer, J., 159, 203. + +Watts, Charles, 7. + +Wells, H. G., 189, 254. + +Wesley, John, 222. + +Wimmer, R., 193. + +Woolman, John, 222. + +Wordsworth, John, Bishop, 240. + +---- William, 79. + + + + + Printed by T. and A. CONSTABLE, Printers to His Majesty + at the Edinburgh University Press + + + + + + +The Expositors Library + +Cloth, 2/- net each volume. + + +THE NEW EVANGELISM. Prof. HENRY DRUMMOND, F.R.S.E. + +THE MIND OF THE MASTER. Rev. JOHN WATSON, D.D. + +THE TEACHING OF JESUS CONCERNING HIMSELF. Rev. Prof. JAMES STALKER, +D.D. + +FELLOWSHIP WITH CHRIST. Rev. R. W. DALE, D.D., LL.D. + +STUDIES ON THE NEW TESTAMENT. Prof. F. GODET, D.D. + +THE LIFE OF THE MASTER. Rev. JOHN WATSON, D.D. + +STUDIES OF THE PORTRAIT OF CHRIST.-- + Vol. I. Rev. GEORGE MATHESON, D.D. + +STUDIES OF THE PORTRAIT OF CHRIST.-- + Vol. II. Rev. GEORGE MATHESON, D.D. + +THE JEWISH TEMPLE AND THE CHRISTIAN + CHURCH. Rev. R. W. DALE, D.D., LL.D. + +THE TEN COMMANDMENTS. Rev. R. W. DALE, D.D., LL.D. + +THE FACT OF CHRIST. Rev. P. CARNEGIE SIMPSON, M.A. + +THE CROSS IN MODERN LIFE. Rev. J. G. GREENHOUGH, M.A. + +HEROES AND MARTYRS OF FAITH. Prof. A. S. PEAKE, D.D. + +A GUIDE TO PREACHERS. Principal A. E. GARVIE, M.A., +D.D. + +MODERN SUBSTITUTES FOR CHRISTIANITY. Rev. P. McADAM MUIR, D.D. + +EPHESIAN STUDIES. Right Rev. H. C. G. MOULE, D.D. + +THE UNCHANGING CHRIST. Rev. ALEX MCLAREN, D.D., D.LITT. + +THE GOD OF THE AMEN. Rev. ALEX MCLAREN, D.D., D.LITT. + +THE ASCENT THROUGH CHRIST. Rev. E. GRIFFITH JONES, B.A. + +STUDIES ON THE OLD TESTAMENT. Prof. F. GODET, D.D. + + +LONDON: HODDER AND STOUGHTON + + + + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Modern Substitutes for Christianity, by +Pearson McAdam Muir + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MODERN SUBST. 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