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+*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 41280 ***
+
+  CHRISTIANITY
+
+  AND
+
+  MODERN THOUGHT.
+
+
+
+
+  BOSTON:
+  AMERICAN UNITARIAN ASSOCIATION.
+  1873.
+
+
+
+
+  Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1872, by
+
+  THE AMERICAN UNITARIAN ASSOCIATION,
+
+  In the Office of the Librarian of Congress at Washington.
+
+
+
+
+  CAMBRIDGE:
+  PRESS OF JOHN WILSON AND SON.
+
+
+
+
+INTRODUCTION.
+
+
+The following discourses were delivered in Boston, at Hollis-Street
+Church, on successive Sunday evenings, and repeated at King's Chapel on
+Monday afternoons, during the winter of 1871-72, in response to an
+invitation of the Executive Committee of the American Unitarian
+Association, whose purpose was thus declared in the letter of
+invitation:--
+
+     "It is not proposed that the course shall be a merely popular one,
+     to awaken the indifferent and interest them in familiar religious
+     truths; but rather to meet the need of thoughtful people perplexed
+     amid materialistic and sceptical tendencies of the time. Nor is it
+     desired simply to retrace in controversial method the beaten paths
+     of sectarian or theological debate; but rather, in the interest of
+     a free and enlightened Christianity, to present freshly the
+     positive affirmations of faith."
+
+The several discourses were prepared independently, without conference
+or concerted plan; and for their statements and opinions the
+responsibility rests solely with their respective authors.
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS.
+
+
+                                                     PAGE
+
+  Introduction                                          v
+
+  Break between Modern Thought and Ancient Faith
+    and Worship                                         3
+
+          By Henry W. Bellows.
+
+
+  A True Theology the Basis of Human Progress          35
+
+          By James Freeman Clarke.
+
+
+  The Rise and Decline of the Romish Church            61
+
+          By Athanase Coquerel, Fils.
+
+
+  Selfhood and Sacrifice                              101
+
+          By Orville Dewey.
+
+
+  The Relation of Jesus to the Present Age            129
+
+          By Charles Carroll Everett.
+
+
+  The Mythical Element in the New Testament           157
+
+          By Frederic Henry Hedge.
+
+
+  The Place of Mind in Nature and Intuition in Man    179
+
+          By James Martineau.
+
+
+  The Relations of Ethics and Theology                209
+
+          By Andrew P. Peabody.
+
+
+  Christianity: What it is not, and what it is        231
+
+          By G. Vance Smith.
+
+
+  The Aim and Hope of Jesus                           273
+
+          By Oliver Stearns.
+
+
+
+
+THE BREAK BETWEEN MODERN THOUGHT
+
+AND
+
+ANCIENT FAITH AND WORSHIP.
+
+By HENRY W. BELLOWS.
+
+
+There is evidently a growing disrelish, in an important portion of the
+people of our time, for professional religion, technical piety, and
+theological faith. These were always unpopular with youth, and people in
+the flush of life and spirits; but this was because they called
+attention to grave and serious things; and youth, as a rule, does not
+like even the shadow of truth and duty to fall too early or too steadily
+upon it. Restraint, care, thoughtfulness, it resists as long as it can;
+and none who recall their own eager love of pleasure and gayety, in the
+spring-time of life, can find much difficulty in understanding or
+excusing it. Of course, too, careless, self-indulgent, sensual, and
+frivolous people have always disliked the gravity, and the faith and
+customs, of people professing religion, and exhibiting special
+seriousness. They were a reproach and a painful reminder to them, and
+must be partially stripped of their reproving sanctity, by ridicule,
+charges of hypocrisy, and hints of contempt. But, all the while this was
+going on, the youth and frivolity of previous generations expected the
+time to come when they must surrender their carelessness, and be
+converted; and even the worldly and scoffing shook in their secret
+hearts at the very doctrines and the very piety they caricatured. The
+old relations of master and pupil describe almost exactly the feeling
+which youth and levity held toward instituted faith and piety, a
+generation or two since. The schoolboy, indeed, still thinks himself at
+liberty to call his master nick-names, to play tricks upon him, and to
+treat with great levity, among his fellow-pupils, all the teaching and
+all the rules of the school. But he nevertheless sincerely respects his
+teacher; believes in him and in his teachings, and expects to derive an
+indispensable benefit from them, in preparing himself for his coming
+career. So it was with the religion and piety of our fathers. The people
+profoundly respected the creed, the elders in piety, and the eminent
+saints in profession and practice, although the young had their jibes
+and jests, their resistance to church-going, their laugh at sanctimony;
+and the majority of people then, as now, were not fond of the restraints
+of piety, or the exercises of devotion.
+
+But the alienation to which I wish to draw your attention now is
+something quite different from the natural opposition of the young to
+serious thoughts; or the gay, to grave matters; or those absorbed in the
+present, to what belongs to the future; or of those charmed with the use
+of their lower or more superficial faculties and feelings, to the
+suggestions and demands of their deeper and nobler nature. That the body
+should not readily and without a struggle submit to the mind; that
+thoughtlessness should not easily be turned into thoughtfulness; that
+youth should not readily consent to wear the moral costume of maturity,
+or the feelings and habits of riper years; that the active, fresh,
+curious creature, who has just got this world with its gay colors in
+his eye, should not be much attracted by spiritual visions, and should
+find his earthly loves and companions more fascinating than the
+communion of saints or the sacred intercourse of prayer,--all this, to
+say the least of it, is very explicable, and belongs to all generations,
+and hardly discourages the experienced mind, more than the faults and
+follies of the nursery the wise mother who has successfully carried many
+older children through them all.
+
+It is quite another kind of antipathy and disrelish which marks our
+time. It is not confined to youth, nor traceable to levity and
+thoughtlessness. The Church and its creed on one side, the world and its
+practical faith on the other, seem now no longer to stand in the
+relation of revered teachers and dull or reluctant pupils; of
+seriousness, avoided by levity; of authoritative truth, questioned by
+bold error; of established and instituted faith, provoking the
+criticisms of impatience, caprice, ignorance, or folly. An antagonism
+has arisen between them as of oil and water,--a separation which is
+neither due to period of life, nor stage of intelligence, nor even to
+worth of character; which does not separate youth from maturity, the
+thoughtless from the thinking, the bad from the good, but divides the
+creeds, observances, and professions of Christians, from a large body of
+people who insist that after a certain fashion they are Christians too,
+and yet will have little or nothing to do with professions of faith, or
+pious pretensions, or religious ways of feeling, talking, or acting.
+
+Clearly, it would not do any longer to say that the worth and virtue and
+influence of society, in this country, could be estimated by the number
+of communicants in the churches, by the degree of credit still given to
+any of the long-believed theological dogmas, deemed in the last
+generation the sheet-anchors of the State. We all know hundreds of
+people, who could sign no creed, and give no theological account of
+their faith, whom we do not count as necessarily less worthy in the
+sight of God or man than many who have no difficulty in saying the whole
+Athanasian Creed. Nay, there are some millions of people in this
+country, not the least intelligent or useful citizens in all cases, who
+never enter a church-door. A generation or two back, you would safely
+have pronounced all these absentees to be worldly, careless people,
+infidels, atheists, scoffers. Do you expect to find them so now? Some,
+of course, but not the majority. Indeed, you would find a great many of
+these people supporting churches, to which their families go, and not
+themselves; or to which others go, for whom they are glad to provide the
+opportunity. They would tell you, if they could discriminate their own
+thoughts, something like this: "Public worship and church organizations,
+and creeds and catechisms, and sermons and ceremonies, and public
+prayers and praises, are doubtless very good things, and very useful up
+to a certain stage of intelligence, and for a certain kind of character.
+But we have discovered that the real truth and the real virtue of what
+people have been misnaming religion is a much larger, freer, and more
+interesting thing than churches, creeds, ministers, and saints seem to
+think it. Here is this present life, full of occupations and earnest
+struggles and great instructions. Here is this planet, not a thousandth
+part known, and yet intensely provoking to intelligent curiosity; and
+science is now every day taking a fresh and an ever bolder look into it;
+and we want our Sundays to follow these things up. That is our idea of
+worship. Then, again, the greatest philosophers are now writing out
+their freest, finest thoughts about our nature; and, if we go to church,
+we are likely to find some fanatical and narrow-minded minister warning
+us against reading or heeding what these great men say; and it is a
+thousand times fresher and grander and more credible than what he says
+himself! Why, the very newspapers, the earnest and well-edited ones,
+contain more instruction, more warning, more to interest the thoughtful
+mind, than the best sermons; and why should a thinking man, who needs to
+keep up with the times, and means to have his own thoughts free, go
+where duty or custom makes it common to frown upon inquiry, doubt, and
+speculation,--to shut out knowledge and testimony, and stamp a man with
+a special type of thinking or professing?"
+
+For there are, you observe,--in justice to these thoughts,--these two
+instructors to choose between in our generation. Here is the Church,
+with its ecclesiastical usages and its pious exhortations; its Sunday
+school for the children; its devotional meeting in the week, and its
+Sunday teaching and worship,--all acknowledged as good for those that
+like them, and are willing to accept what people thought or believed was
+true a hundred or five hundred years ago; and here is the modern press,
+with the wonderful profusion of earnest and able books, cheap and
+attractive, and treating boldly all subjects of immediate and of
+permanent interest; and here are the reviews, quarterly and monthly,
+that now compress into themselves and popularize all that these books
+contain, and furnish critical notices of them; and then, again, here are
+the newspapers, wonderful in variety and ability, that hint at, suggest,
+and bring home all the new and fresh thoughts of the time. And the
+marvel is, that most of these books, reviews, papers, are in the
+interest of, and seem inspired by, something larger, freer, fresher,
+truer, than what the churches and the creeds are urging. Thus church
+religion and general culture do not play any longer into each other's
+hands. If you believe what the men of science, the philosophers, the
+poets and critics, believe, you cannot believe, except in a very general
+way, in what the creeds and churches commonly profess. Accordingly, the
+professors in college, the physicians, the teachers, the scientists, the
+reformers, the politicians, the newspaper men, the reviewers, the
+authors, are seldom professing Christians, or even church-goers; and if
+they do go to church from motives of interest or example, they are free
+enough to confess in private that they do not much believe what they
+hear.
+
+Assuming that this is a tolerably correct account--although doubtless
+exaggerated for pictorial effect--of the existing state of things among
+the reading and thinking class of this country, what is the real
+significance of it? Is it as new as it seems? Is it as threatening to
+the cause of religious faith as it seems? Reduced to its most general
+terms, is it any thing more or other than this? The faith and worship of
+this generation, and the experience and culture of a portion of this
+generation, have temporarily fallen out; and, as in all similar
+quarrels, there is, for the time, helpless misunderstanding, mutual
+jealousy and misrepresentation. The faith and piety of the time
+pronounce the culture, the science, the progressive philanthropy, the
+politics, the higher education and advanced literature, to be godless
+and Christless; and the culture of the age retaliates, perhaps, with
+still greater sincerity, in pronouncing the faith and worship of the
+time to be superstitious, antiquated, sentimental, and specially fitted
+only to people willing to be led by priests and hireling ministers.
+
+Now, if this were a quarrel between experience and inexperience, between
+good and bad, between truth and falsehood, it would be easy to take
+sides. But faith and knowledge have both equal rights in humanity.
+People who are sincerely in love with knowledge and science and
+philosophy are not thereby made enemies of God or man; certainly are not
+to be discouraged and abused for their devotion to practical and
+scientific truth, their search for facts, their interest in the works of
+the Creator, even if they are not possessed of what the church properly
+calls faith and piety. And, on the other hand, however shocked
+established faith and piety may naturally be by the handling which
+religion and its creeds and worship receive from modern inquisitors,
+ought the deeper believers to be seriously alarmed for the safety of its
+root or its healing leaves, on account of the shaking which the tree of
+life is now receiving? However slow science and culture may often show
+themselves to be in recognizing the fact, can any reasonable and
+impartial mind, acquainted with history or human nature, believe that
+faith itself is an inconstant or perishable factor in our nature? prayer
+a childish impulse, which clear-seeing manhood must put away? the
+conscience, not the representative of a holiness enthroned over the
+moral universe, but an artificial organ, which social convenience has
+developed, much like the overgrown liver in the Strasburg goose? In
+short, who that considers the part that faith and worship have played in
+the history of the race, can doubt their essential and permanent place
+in human fortunes? The question of _some_ religion, of _some_ worship,
+for the people, does not seem debatable. The only alternative among
+nations has been a religion in which mystery, awe, and fear prevailed,
+clothing themselves in dread and bloody sacrifices, or else a religion
+in which more knowledge, more reason, more love, embodied themselves in
+a simpler and gentler ritual. The nations have had only a choice--not
+always a wholly voluntary one--between terrific superstitions and more
+or less reasonable religions. Christianity has prevailed in civilized
+nations, since Constantine, by accommodating its theological dogmas and
+external ritual to the needs of successive eras; beginning with coarser
+and more heathenish symbols, and running itself clearer and more clear,
+as the mind and taste and experience of the race have developed
+"sweetness and light." But does this make Christianity only a human
+growth, and so predict a coming decay, which many seem to think has
+already begun? On the contrary, the decisive fact about Christianity is,
+that, while its intellectual history is changing, its early records are
+in form fixed and permanent, and that its real progress has been
+uniformly a return towards its original simplicity. Other faiths
+develop. It is we who develop under Christianity, and are slowly changed
+unto the original likeness of Christ. Christ's statements, Christ's
+character, Christ's words, do not become antiquated. We are not called
+upon to explain away, as superstitions of the time, any of the _certain_
+words he said, or thoughts he had, or commandments he left. True, there
+are critical embarrassments about the record, and room enough to
+question how it was made up; and we cannot always trust the reporters of
+that age, or our own. But when we get, as we certainly do get in
+hundreds of cases, at Christ's own words; or when we really see--as by a
+hundred vistas, through all the _débris_ and rubbish of the age, we may
+see--the true person and bearing and spirit of Jesus, we behold, we
+recognize, we know, a Being who, transferred to this age, and placed in
+the centre of the choicest circle of saints and sages whom culture and
+science and wisdom could collect, would bear just the same exalted
+relation of superiority to them that he did to the fishermen and
+publicans and kings and high-priests and noble women and learned rabbis
+of his own day. We should not hesitate, any more than they did, to call
+him Master and Lord; to say, "To whom else shall we go? Thou hast the
+words of eternal life."
+
+Those, then, who fear that true culture, that science or philosophy
+boldly pushed, that learning and logic impartially applied,--whether in
+studying God's method in creation, or his method in revelation,--can
+injure permanently faith and piety, or endanger Christianity, as a
+whole, must either think the religious wants of man very shallow or very
+artificial, or the providence of God very easily baffled, and the
+harmony of his word and works very badly matched. If there be in nature
+or in man, in earth or in our dust, in chemistry, astronomy,
+anthropology; in geology, the language of dead eras; or in language, the
+geology of buried races, any thing that disproves the existence and
+providence of a living God, the holiness and goodness and
+trustworthiness of his character; the moral and religious nature of man,
+his accountableness, his immortality; the divine beauty and sinless
+superiority of Jesus Christ, and the essential truth of his
+religion,--by all means let us know it! Why should we allow ourselves
+to be beguiled by fables and false hopes and make-believes? But the
+faith of religious experience, the confidence of those who know and love
+and have become spiritually intimate with the gospel of Jesus Christ, is
+usually such that they would sooner mistrust their senses than their
+souls. They have found a moral and spiritual guidance, a food and
+medicine in their Christian faith, which enables them calmly to say to
+criticism, to science, to culture, "We do not hold our faith, or
+practise our worship, by your leave, or at your mercy." Faith leans
+first on the spiritual nature of man, and not on demonstrable science.
+It would not be faith, if it were only a sharper sight. It is insight,
+not sight. It springs from its own root, not primarily from the
+intellect. As we love our wives and children with something besides the
+judgment, or the logical faculty, so we love God with the heart, and not
+with the understanding. We stand erect, with open eyes, when we are
+seeking truth; we fall on our knees with closed eyelids, when we are
+seeking God! Religion is not the rule of three, but the golden rule; it
+is not the major and minor premises and copula of logic, but the sacred
+instinct of the soul, which Jesus Christ has satisfied, and guided, and
+owned, and directed, in an inestimable way.
+
+But when faith and worship have taken this true and independent tone,
+let them not join the foolish bigots, who think that because faith rests
+on other foundations than science, therefore it owes nothing to science
+and culture, and can wholly separate its fortunes and future from them.
+True, _faith_ and _culture_, religion and science, in spite of their
+general and permanent agreement and connection, when they cannot get on
+honestly together, had better for the time separate; for they embarrass
+each other, and it is in their insulation that they sometimes ripen and
+prepare in separate crucible elements that are ultimately to blend in a
+finer compound than either ever knew before. Thus faith, driving science
+and culture out of her cell, and closing the doors on fact and
+observation, wrapt in devotion, has sometimes caught visions of God
+through her purely spiritual atmosphere, which sages in their
+laboratories have never seen. The great religious inspirations have not
+come from scholars, but from seers; from men of soul, not men of sense.
+"How knoweth this man letters, having never learned?" said his
+contemporaries of Christ. Well, he knew no letters, but he had what
+letters never teach,--divine wisdom! He knew God, that end of knowledge;
+he knew man, that last of philosophy. Faith therefore often recruits
+itself in a temporary divorce from science, just as Romanism profitably
+drives her priests into periodical retreats for prayer and exclusive
+meditations on God and Christ. It is beautiful to study even those
+humble and uninstructed Christian sects, whose simple and implicit faith
+is protected, yes, and exalted, by their providential indifference to
+science or unacquaintance with speculative difficulties. It is not their
+ignorance that kindles their devotion, but it is faith's vitality, which
+in certain exceptional natures and times beams and glows most purely,
+fed only on its own sacred substance. When you have reached the inner
+kernel of a true Moravian, or even a true Catholic heart, and found a
+solid core of faith, unsupported by any other evidence than that which
+the Scripture described in the words, "Faith is the substance of things
+hoped for, the evidence of things not seen," you have gone far towards
+fathoming the holiest secret in our nature, the well of living water.
+And, on the other hand, how much better, both for faith and science,
+that science should, at a time like this, go without religious ends into
+physical or metaphysical pursuits, investigate, inquire, test, question,
+in absolute independence of theological or spiritual results. It is only
+when thus free and bold and uncommitted that her testimony is worth any
+thing. Think of Newton, meditating and exploring the solar system, in
+the simple love of truth, without let or hindrance from ecclesiastical
+intermeddlers, and compare him with Galileo, lifting his telescope under
+the malediction of the priesthood of Rome.
+
+No: let science be as free as light, as brave as sunbeams, as honest as
+photography! Encourage her to chronicle her conclusions with fearless
+and unreproached fidelity. She will doubtless make many things which
+have been long associated with religion look foolish and incredible. But
+it is only so religion can shed some husks, and get rid of some
+embarrassments. It is, in short, only just such assaults and criticisms
+from science and experience that ever induces religion to strain out the
+flies from her honey; to dissociate what is accidental in faith from
+what is essential and permanent. And, when science and culture have
+gathered in the full harvest of this wonderful season of discovery and
+speculation, we may expect to find faith stripped of many garments, now
+worshipped, which ignorance and fear put upon her for protection and
+defence; but really strengthened in substance, by the free movements
+allowed her lungs, and the dropping of the useless load upon her back.
+Then, too, science and philosophy will again resume their places at the
+feet of the master-principle in our nature, until again driven away, by
+new disagreements, to return again by the discovery of a finer harmony.
+
+Self-culture will never supersede worship, more than golden lamps
+burning fragrant oils will ever supersede the sun; more than digging and
+hoeing and planting will supersede sunshine and rain from heaven.
+Self-culture? Yes: by all means, and in any amount, but not as an end.
+When people look to ornamental gardening for the crops that are to feed
+the famine-smitten world, and not to the pastures and prairies, as they
+lie in the light of the common sun, they will look to self-culture for
+the characters, the hearts, the souls that glorify God and lift and
+bless the world. "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart,
+and thy neighbor as thyself." That is the irrepealable law of growth.
+"Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all other
+things shall be added unto you." Worship, faith, duty, devotion to God,
+Christ, humanity, to justice, freedom, truth,--these, and not
+self-culture, have lifted the race and the world. Learn, acquire,
+cultivate, improve, develop yourselves, by art, music, reading,
+languages, study, science, experience, but do it all in seeking to know
+and love and serve God and man. Seek to know Christ, and you will learn
+more, indirectly, than though you sought all knowledge without this
+thirst. Seek to know God, and you shall find all science and culture
+healthful, sacred, harmonious, satisfying, and devout.
+
+The break between modern thought and ancient creeds and worship, thus
+considered, though serious, and worth the utmost pains to heal, by all
+arts that do not conceal or salve over, without curing the wound, is not
+permanently discouraging to earnest and well-considered Christian
+faith. Nor are all the signs of the times one way. For--after all that
+has been said about the restless and dissatisfied condition of the
+critical and conscious thought of the time, and the scepticism of the
+learned, or the speculative class, or of the new thinkers born of the
+physical progress of the age, and the decay of worship in the literary
+and artistic, the editorial and poetical circles--it remains to be said,
+that, leaving this important and valuable body of people aside,--not
+badly employed, and not without personal warrant for their doubts and
+withdrawal from positive institutions,--there remains a mighty majority,
+on whom the Christian religion and historical faith and the external
+church have a vigorous and unyielding hold; whose practical instincts
+and grand common-sense and hereditary experience anchor them safely in
+positive faith, while the scepticism raves without and blows itself
+clear, and passes over. Christianity first addressed itself to common
+people, not to avoid criticism, but to secure the attention of the moral
+affections and the spiritual powers, instead of the meaner
+understanding. It has lived on the heart and conscience and needs and
+yearnings of the masses, from and to whom practical wisdom and fixed
+institutions and simple faith always come and always return. Common
+sense is not the sense that is common, but the sense that is _in_
+common. And popular faith is not the faith of private ignorance massed,
+but of that wisdom which alone enables ignorant people to find a basis
+for feelings and actions that all feel to be beyond and above their
+private ignorance or self-will. The common people were the first to hear
+Christ gladly: they will be the last to hear any who deny him.
+
+It is easy to exaggerate the decline of modern faith, and to misread the
+tendencies of the time on which we have been dwelling. Thus, paradox
+though it seem, it were just as true to say that more people are
+deliberately interested in Christian faith and worship to-day than at
+any previous era in the history of our religion, as to asseverate that
+more people doubt and regret it than ever before. Both statements are
+true; and they are reconciled only by the fact that it is only in this
+century that the claims of faith and worship have been popularly
+debated, or that the people were expected or allowed to have any
+independent opinion about them. The general soil of our humanity is for
+the first time surveyed and sown; and it is found that, with more
+_wheat_ than ever, there are also more _tares_. With more intelligent
+and convinced worshippers, there are more wilful or logical neglecters
+of worship; with more genuine believers, more sceptics; with more
+religious activity, more worldliness. Without an army in the field,
+there will be no deserters; without a common currency of genuine coin,
+no counterfeits; without a formidable body of affirmers, few deniers.
+
+The positive institutions of Christianity decline in one form, to spring
+into new life in other and better forms. Doubtless, fourfold more money
+is expended to-day upon temples of worship than in what have been
+falsely called the ages of faith,--rather the ages of acquiescence.
+Religion does not decline as a costly interest of humanity with the
+progress of doubt, freedom, intelligence, science, and economic
+development. It is a permanent and eternal want of man, and is always
+present, either as a vast, overshadowing superstition, or as a more or
+less intelligent faith. Nowhere has it a stronger hold on society than
+in free America, which false prophets, with their faces to the past,
+muttered was about to become its grave. This busy, delving, utilitarian
+country, without a past, denied the influence of ruins and the memory of
+mythic founders, a land without mystery or poetry,--how could so tender
+and venerable a sentiment as reverence live in its garish day? how so
+sweet a nymph as Piety kneel in its muddy marts of trade, or chant her
+prayers in its monotonous wilderness, ringing with the woodman's axe or
+the screeching saw? But now delegates of all the great religious bodies
+in the Old World are visiting America, for religious instruction and
+inspiration. Nowhere, it is confessed, is there to be found a people so
+generally interested in religion, ready to make so great sacrifices for
+it, or so deeply convinced that its principles and inspirations are at
+the root of all national prosperity. Nowhere do churches and chapels
+spring up with such rapidity, and in such numbers; nowhere is the
+ministry as well supported, or its ministers as influential members of
+society; nowhere do plain men of business and intelligence, I do not say
+of science and philosophy, participate so freely in religious worship.
+And since all political compulsion has been taken off from the support
+of religion, and it has been made purely voluntary, its interests have
+received even more care. There is little doubt that the decline of
+religious establishments, the decay of priestly authority, the complete
+withdrawal of governmental patronage, the discrediting of the principle
+of irrational fear, the dispersion of false dogmas, the clearing up of
+superstition, the growth of toleration and charity, instead of weakening
+true faith or lessening public worship, will greatly increase and
+strengthen both. For it is not man's ignorance, weakness, and fears,
+that lead him most certainly to Christian worship and faith. There is a
+worship and a faith of blindness and dread; but they have no tendency to
+develop a moral and spiritual sense of the character of God, or the
+character becoming man, or to survive the spread of general intelligence
+and mental courage. If thought, if courage of mind, if inquiry and
+investigation, if experience and learning and comprehensive grasp, if
+light and sound reason, and acquaintance with human nature, tended to
+abolish a living God from the heart and faith of man, to disprove the
+essential truths of Christianity, or to make life and the human soul
+less sacred, aspiring, and religious, the world would be on its rapid
+way to atheism. But I maintain that science itself, philosophy and free
+inquiry, however divorced from religious institutions and dogmas, were
+never so humble, reverential, and Christian as since they partly
+emancipated themselves from theological or ecclesiastical censure and
+suspicion. For ages science knelt to religion as she went to her
+crucible or laboratory, like the sexton passing the altar in a Catholic
+cathedral, and with as little thought or feeling as he, simply to avert
+censure, while she pursued inquiries she knew would banish the
+superstition she pretended to honor. Faith and knowledge were at
+opposite poles; religious truth and scientific truth, finally and
+permanently amenable to different standards. How dishonoring to religion
+was this distrust of light and knowledge! how faithless in God, this
+faith in him which could not bear investigation! how compromising to
+Christianity, the sort of trust which refuses as blasphemous the
+application of all the tests and proofs which are required in the
+certification of every other important conviction! Religious faith rests
+on the spiritual nature; but its basis is not less real for being
+undemonstrable, like the axioms of mathematics. That is not real faith
+which dares not investigate the grounds of its own being. It is
+irreverent to God, to affirm that he does not allow us to try his ways;
+to demand proofs of his existence and righteous government; to ask for
+the credentials of his alleged messengers; to doubt until we are
+rationally convinced. If the artificial feeling that faith is opposed to
+reason; religious truth to universal truth; that belief in unseen things
+is less rational or less capable of verification than the radical
+beliefs of the senses,--if these prejudices were sound, or not the
+reverse of true, the world would be on its inevitable way to universal
+infidelity and godless materialism. But is that the tendency of things?
+Is it that religion is growing _less_ mystic? or only science more so?
+Have not real and affecting mysteries been very much transferred for the
+time from theology to philosophy, from the priest to the professor? I
+doubt very much whether men of science are not more truly on their knees
+than men of superstition, in our days. Never did such candor, such
+confessions of baffled insight, such a sense of inscrutable wisdom and
+power, such a feeling of awe and dependence, seem to prevail in science
+as now, when so many theologians are raising the eyebrow, and seeking to
+alarm the world at what they call the atheism of the most truth-loving,
+earnest, and noble men. I would sooner have the scepticism--reverent and
+honest and fearless--of these solemn and awed inquisitors in the inner
+shrines of nature, than the faith of self-bandaged priests, who are
+thinking to light the way to heaven with candles on the mid-day altar,
+or to keep faith in God alive only by processions in vestments of purple
+and gold.
+
+Nor has Christianity any thing permanently to fear from the disposition
+which now so largely prevails, to separate it from its accidents, its
+accretions, and its misrepresentations. The days have not long gone by
+when men were counted as entitled to little respect, if they did not
+wear side-swords and bag-wigs. You recollect how our Benjamin Franklin
+surprised, shocked, and then delighted all Europe, by appearing at the
+court of France in plain citizen's clothes? Religion, too, has had her
+court-dress, and her sounding court-titles, and official robes, and
+circuitous ceremonies. The world has felt horror-stricken whenever any
+brave and more believing spirit has ventured to ask the meaning of one
+of these theological tags and titles. But how much less wholesome is
+living water, if drunk out of a leaf, or the palm of one's hand, than if
+presented on a salver, in a curiously jewelled flagon, by a priest in
+livery? How much has theological ingenuity of statement and systematic
+divinity, which it takes the study of a life to understand, added to the
+power of the simplicity of Christ as he unfolds himself in the Sermon on
+the Mount? Yet, if any one has dared to be as simple as Christ himself
+was in his own faith, he has been said to deny the Lord that bought him.
+It has been called infidelity, to think Christ meant only just what he
+said, and was understood to say, in his simple parables. You must
+believe something not less incredible and abstruse than the church
+Trinity; something not less contrary to natural justice and common sense
+than the church vicarious atonement; something not less cruel and
+vindictive than the eternal misery of all who through ignorance, birth,
+or accident, or even perversity and pride, do not hear of, or do not
+accept, the blood of Christ as their only hope of God's mercy and
+forgiveness, or you are no Christian. Now I hold these dogmas themselves
+to be unchristian in origin and influence, although held by many
+excellent Christian men. I believe that they are the main obstacles with
+many honest, brave, and enlightened men in our day, to their interest in
+public worship; and that millions repudiate the Church, and
+Christianity, which is a different thing, simply because they suppose
+her to be responsible for these barnacles upon the sacred ship. It would
+be just as reasonable to hold the Hudson River responsible for the filth
+the sewers of the city empty into it; or to hold the sun answerable for
+the changes in its beams, caused by the colored glass in church-windows.
+
+Christianity, the Christianity of Christ, is simple, rational,
+intelligible, independent of, yet in perfect harmony,--if it be often an
+unknown harmony,--with philosophy, ethics, science; true, because from
+God, the God of nature as well as grace; true, because the transcript of
+self-evident and self-proving principles; true, because guaranteed by
+our nature; true, because of universal application, unimpeached by time
+or experience. It affirms the being and authority of a righteous, holy,
+and all-loving God, whom man can serve and love and worship because he
+is made in his image; can know, by studying himself; and to whom man is
+directly related by reason, conscience, and affections. It affirms
+divine science and worship to consist in obedience to God's laws,
+written on man's heart, and for ever urged by God's Spirit. It affirms
+the present and persistent penalty, the inevitable consequences, of all
+moral and spiritual wrong-doing and disobedience; the present and future
+blessedness of well-doing and holiness. It sets forth Jesus Christ as
+the Son of God and Son of Man,--appellations that, deeply considered,
+really mean the same thing,--the direct messenger, representative, and
+plenipotentiary of God,--his perfect moral image. It insists upon men's
+putting themselves to school to Christ, honoring, loving, and following
+him; forming themselves into classes,--another name for churches,--and
+by prayer, meditation, and study of his life, informing their minds and
+hearts, and shaping their wills in his likeness, which is the ideal of
+humanity. Its clear object is to dignify and ennoble man, by presenting
+God as his father; to show him what his nature is capable of, by
+exhibiting Christ in the loveliness, sanctity, and power of his awful
+yet winning beauty; to make him ashamed of his own sins, and afraid of
+sin, by arousing moral sensibility in his heart; safely to fence in his
+path by beautiful and sacred customs,--the tender, simple rites of
+baptism and communion; the duty of daily prayer, the use of the
+Scriptures, and respect for the Lord's Day.
+
+Here is a Christianity without dogmatic entanglement; plain, direct,
+earnest, simple, defensible, intelligible to a child, yet deep enough to
+exhaust a life's study. For it is the simplicities of religion that are
+the permanent and glorious mysteries that never tire. They draw our
+childhood's wonder, our manly reverence, and age's unquenched curiosity
+and awe. Do we ever tire of the stars, or the horizon, or the blue sky,
+or the dawn, or the sunset, or running water, or natural gems? Do we
+ever tire of the thought of a holy, all-wise, all-good Spirit of
+spirits, our God and our Father, or of hearing of the reverence and
+trust, the obedience and the love, due to him? Do we ever tire of Jesus
+Christ, considered as the sinless image, within human limitations, of
+God's love and truth and mercy and purity? Do we ever tire of hearing
+the wondrous story of his obedient, disinterested, and exalted life and
+sacrifice? or of the call to follow his graces and copy his perfections
+into our own hearts and lives? Are we ever weary of hearing of the
+blessed hope of immortality, with the comfortable expectation of
+throwing off the burden of our flesh, and winging our way in spiritual
+freedom nearer to God and the light of our Master's face? Who can
+exhaust, who can add to, the real force and attraction and fulness of
+those truths and promises? Truly received, they grow with every day's
+contemplation and use; they fill the soul with an increasing awe and
+joy; they prove only less common-place as they are more nearly
+approached, more copious as they are more drawn upon, and more sacred as
+they are more familiar.
+
+It is the common, simple, universal truths that are the great,
+inexhaustible, powerful, and never-wearying truths. But doubtless it
+requires courage, personal conviction, and self-watchfulness, to
+maintain personal piety or religious institutions under free and
+enlightened conditions, when they are just beginning. When sacramental
+mysteries are exploded, when the official sanctity of the ministry is
+disowned, when the technical and dogmatic conditions of acceptance with
+God are abandoned, when every man's right of private judgment is
+confessed, when common sense is invited into the inner court of faith,
+when every man is confessed to be a king and a priest in that temple of
+God which he finds in his own body and soul, when real, genuine goodness
+is owned as the equivalent of religion, then it is evident that the
+support of religious institutions, of public worship, of the church and
+the ordinances, must appeal to something besides the ignorance, the
+fears, the superstitions, the traditions of the Christian world. They
+must fall back on the practical convictions men entertain of their
+intrinsic importance. They must commend themselves to the sober, plain,
+and rational judgment of men of courage, reflection, and observation.
+They fall into the same category with a government based not on the
+divine right of kings, or the usages of past generations, the artificial
+distinctions of ranks and classes, owing fealty each to that which is
+socially above itself, but resting on the consent of the governed, and
+deriving its authority and its support from the sense of its usefulness
+and necessity. We have not yet achieved fully, in this country, the
+passage of the people over from the Old World status of _subjects_ to
+the New World status of _citizens_. We are in the midst of the glorious
+struggle for a State, a national government, which rests securely on the
+love and service of hearts that have created it, and maintain and defend
+it on purely rational and intelligible grounds. It is so new, so
+advanced, so sublime an undertaking, that we often falter and faint, as
+if man were not good enough, nor reasonable enough, to be entitled to
+such a government. We often doubt if we can bear the dilution which the
+public virtue and good sense in our native community suffers from the
+flood of ignorance and political superstition coming with emigrants from
+other and coarser states of society and civil organizations. We are not
+half alive to the glory and grandeur of the experiment of free political
+institutions, and do not press with the zeal we ought the general
+education, the political training, the moral discipline, which can alone
+save the State, when it has no foundation but the good-will, the
+respect, and the practical valuation of the people. But is the State or
+the nation ever so truly divine as when it is owned as the voice of God,
+calling all the people to maintain equal justice, to recognize universal
+interests, to embody Christian ethics in public law? And despite our
+local mortifications and occasional misgivings, what nation is now so
+strong and firm, what government so confident and so promising, as our
+own? What but freedom, fidelity to rational principles and ideal
+justice, give it this strength? What is it, on the other hand, but
+traditions that represent the ignorance and accidents and injustice of
+former ages,--what is it but authority usurped and then consecrated,
+social superstitions hardened into political creeds,--that is now
+proving the weakness and peril of European nationalities, and imperial
+or monarchical governments? Knowledge, science, literature, progress,
+truth, liberty, become sooner or later the enemies of all governments,
+and all social institutions, not founded in abstract justice and equal
+rights. Yet how fearful the transition! Who can contemplate the downfall
+of the French empire, and then look at the architects of the new
+republic, working in the crude material of a priest-ridden or unschooled
+populace, without dismay? Yet the process is inevitable. Democratic
+ideas are abroad: they are in the air. They corrode all the base metal
+they touch; and thrones and titles, and legalized classes, and
+exceptional prerogatives, are predestined to a rapid disintegration. How
+blessed the nation that has transferred its political homage from
+traditions to principles; from men or families, to rights and duties;
+from a compromise with ancient inequality and wrong, to an affirmation
+of universal justice and right! Yet never had a people so grave and so
+constant and so serious duties as we have. And there is nothing in our
+principles or government that _must_ save our country, in spite of the
+failure of political virtue, intelligence, and devotion, in our private
+citizens. God has buried many republics, because the people were
+unworthy of them. Their failure was no disproof of the principle
+involved, but only an evidence that the people fell wholly below their
+privileges and ideas. America may add another to this list of failures,
+but can do nothing to discredit the truth and glory and final triumph of
+the democratic idea. I do not believe we shall fail; on the contrary, I
+have an increasing faith in the sense and virtue and ability of the
+people of this country. But the success of American political
+institutions depends very much on the success of the Christian and
+religious institutions that match them, and are alone adapted to them.
+We cannot long guarantee religious institutions, in a country of free
+schools, public lyceums, unlicensed newspapers, unimpeded inquiry, and
+absolute religious equality, if they do not rest on grounds of reason
+and experience and sober truth. Mere authority, mere ecclesiasticism,
+mere sacred usages, mere mystery, or mere dogmatism, will not long
+protect the creeds and formularies of the church. They are undergoing a
+species of dry-rot, like to that which the rafters of my own church
+lately suffered from the confinement and unventilated bondage in iron
+boxes in which their ends had been placed for greater security. They
+wanted air and light, and more confidence in their inherent soundness;
+and, if they had been permitted it, they would have lasted a hundred
+years. It is precisely so with the Christian religion, boxed up in
+creeds. It grows musty, worm-eaten, and finally loses its life and hold.
+A certain timid and constitutionally religious portion of the community
+will cherish any creed or usage which is time-honored; and the less
+robust and decisive minds of the time will rally about what is
+established and venerable, however out of date, incredible, or
+irrational. But it is what is going on in the independent and free mind
+of the common people, that should have our most serious regard. What is
+the faith of the fairly educated young men and women who are now
+springing up in America? Certainly, it is not, in the more gifted or the
+most thoughtful part of it, in sympathy with any form of sacramental or
+dogmatic Christianity. It is not Trinitarian; it is not biblical; it is
+not technical. It is hardly Christian! It is bold, independent,
+inquisitive, questioning every thing, and resolute in its rights of
+opinion. It is alienated from church and worship to a great degree. It
+suspects the importance of religious institutions, and reads and thinks
+and worships in books of poetry and philosophy. A timid heart might
+easily grow alarmed at the symptoms, and think that irreligion, and
+decay of worship and fellowship in the Christian Church, were upon us.
+But sad and discouraging as the present symptoms are to many, I see more
+to hope than fear in these tendencies. They are a rebuke to formal and
+technical theology,--to mere ecclesiasticism, to outworn ways. They are
+bringing a violent assault upon the hard crust of a stifling belief, of
+which the world must get rid before the gospel of Christ can emerge, and
+be received in its primitive simplicity. It is the only way in which
+faith is ever purified,--by doubt and denial. The gospel requires a new
+statement. It must come out of its ecclesiastical bulwarks. It must
+abandon its claim to any other kind of judgment than all other truth
+claims and allows. It must place itself by the side of science,
+experience, and philosophy, and defy their tests. It must invite the
+most rigid investigation. It must claim its foundations in eternal
+truth. It must prove its efficiency, not with the weak, but the strong;
+not with the ignorant, but the learned; not with the bound, but the
+free. And then it will recover its lost ground, and take a stronger and
+diviner position than it ever had before.
+
+This is the work that Liberal Christianity has in hand; a difficult,
+slow, and often discouraging work, but one that is intensely patriotic,
+intensely practical, intensely necessary. That which was the mere
+fortress into which the enlightened and free-minded people of
+Massachusetts fled for refuge from ecclesiastical tyranny, a
+half-century ago,--Unitarianism,--is now become a recognized crusade for
+religious liberty for the American people. The liberty is coming fast
+enough, and surely enough; but will the worship, will the Christian
+seriousness, will the fellowship of faith, will the piety that gives
+aromatic beauty as well as health to the soul, come with it? If it were
+not to come, liberty would be only license and secularity and
+worldliness. Every firm, well-ordered, earnest and religious
+congregation of the liberal faith; exhibiting stableness, order,
+solemnity; doing religious work among the poor, and cultivating piety in
+its own youth; making sacrifices to its own ideas, and upholding its own
+worship,--is an argument of the most solid kind, an example of
+contagious power, an encouragement of priceless cheer, for those who
+think that Christian liberty necessarily leads to license and decay of
+worship; or that Christ is less revered and loved and trusted when he is
+accepted in the derived and dependent character he claimed,--the only
+tenable, rational, possible character in which a century hence he can be
+received by any unsuperstitious persons. We have a sacred privilege, a
+glorious opportunity. We only need to show ourselves warm, earnest,
+united, attached to worship, fruitful in piety, devoted to good works,
+zealous for God's glory and man's redemption, sincere, humble, yet
+rational and free followers of Christ, to win an immense victory for the
+gospel in this inquiring and doubting age. I have no great _immediate_
+hopes, but hopes beyond expression in the gracious development of
+another generation. I bate not a jot of heart or hope that absolute
+liberty in religion will favor the growth of piety, as much as political
+freedom has favored the growth of order and peace and prosperity. Oh!
+not a thousandth part the power of Christian truth and righteousness has
+yet been shown in the world. The love of God, the love of man, have only
+begun their glorious mission. Christ yet waits for his true throne.
+Humanity is just come of age, and, with some wild festivity, is claiming
+its heritage. But God is with and over it; and Jesus Christ is its
+inspirer and guide. He will not lose his headship. He will be more
+followed when less worshipped; more truly loved when less idolized; more
+triumphant when more clearly understood! Darkness, wrath, threats,
+enchantments, sacraments, prostrations, humiliations of reason,
+emotional transports, affectations of belief, belief for its own
+sake,--none of these things are truly favorable to Christ's kingdom or
+the glory of his gospel. God is light, and in him is no darkness at all.
+Christ is the Sun of righteousness. When reason, conscience, affection,
+rule the world; when love and justice, and mild and tender views of life
+and humanity, of God and Christ, displace the cruel terrors and
+superstitions that have survived the social and political meliorations
+of the age, we shall begin to see that love is the fulfilling of the
+law, and liberty of thought the greatest friend of worship, the finest
+result of Christ's coming, and the throne from which he commands the
+whole human heart and history.
+
+
+
+
+A TRUE THEOLOGY THE BASIS
+
+OF
+
+HUMAN PROGRESS.
+
+By JAMES FREEMAN CLARKE.
+
+
+The subject of the present lecture is "A True Theology the Basis of
+Human Progress." And, in order to strike the key-note, and to indicate
+the object at which I aim, I will read four or five passages from the
+New Testament, which describe such a Theology in its spirit and root.
+
+The Apostle Paul says:[1] "I count not myself to have apprehended: but
+this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and
+reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the
+mark." So he declares himself a Progressive Christian.
+
+[Footnote 1: Phil. iii. 13.]
+
+Again he says:[2] "We know in part, and we prophesy [or teach] in part.
+But when that which is perfect is come, then that which is in part shall
+be done away." So he declares that all intellectual statements, his own
+included, are relative and provisional. He is here speaking, doubtless,
+not of rational insights, but of the insight when elaborated by the
+intellect into a statement; not of intuitional knowledge, but that which
+comes from reflection. In regard to all such propositions, he would
+accept the modern doctrine of the Relativity of Knowledge; thus cutting
+up by the roots the poisonous weed of Bigotry.
+
+[Footnote 2: 1 Cor. xiii. 9, 10.]
+
+Again: "Brethren, be not children in understanding: howbeit, in malice
+be ye children, but in understanding be men."[3] He thus requires and
+authorizes a manly, intelligent Theology.
+
+[Footnote 3: 1 Cor. xiv. 20.]
+
+Again: "Who also hath made us able ministers of the New Testament; not
+of the letter, but of the spirit: for the letter killeth, but the spirit
+giveth life."[4] He here rejects the Theology of the letter, including
+the doctrine of Literal Inspiration.
+
+[Footnote 4: 2 Cor. iii. 6.]
+
+Again: "God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of
+love, and of a sound mind."[5]
+
+[Footnote 5: 2 Tim. i. 7.]
+
+My Thesis to-night is not a truism; my argument is not unnecessary or
+uncalled for. Nothing is more common than to undervalue the importance
+of Theology; to regard it as having no bearing on life, no influence on
+human progress, no causative power in regard to civilization. Mr.
+Buckle, one of the most recent English philosophical historians,
+contends that Theology is the result rather than the cause of national
+character; that it is merely symptomatic of the condition of a people.
+If they are in a good condition, they have a good Theology; if in a bad
+condition, a bad one. He even thinks it owing to a mistaken zeal that
+Christians try to propagate their religion, because he believes that
+savages cannot become Christians. Civilization, Mr. Buckle supposes,
+depends greatly upon soil, upon climate, upon food, upon the
+trade-winds; but not much upon religious ideas. He says that, in
+England, "theological interests have long ceased to be supreme." "The
+time for these things has passed by." And this is also a very common
+opinion among ourselves. Many reformers have a notion that we have done
+with Theology, that we can do without it. Some men of science tell us
+that Theology has nothing to do with the advance of civilization, but
+that this comes from discovery in the sphere of physical science. But I
+believe that the one thing which retards the progress of reform is a
+false philosophy concerning God and man, a false view of God's ideas
+concerning this world; and that the one thing needful for Human Progress
+is a deeper, higher, broader view of God and his ways. And I hope to be
+able to show some grounds for this opinion.
+
+The religious instinct in man is universal. Some individuals and some
+races possess more of it, and others less; but the history of mankind
+shows that religion in some form is one of the most indestructible
+elements of human nature. But whether this religious instinct shall
+appear as faith or as fanaticism; whether it shall be a blind enthusiasm
+or an intelligent conviction; whether it shall be a tormenting
+superstition or a consoling peace; whether it shall lead to cruel
+persecutions or to heavenly benevolence; all this, and more, depends on
+Theology. Religion is a blind instinct: the ideas of God, man, duty,
+destiny, which determine its development, constitute Theology.
+
+The same law holds concerning Conscience and Ethics. Conscience in the
+form of a moral instinct is universal in man. In every human breast
+there is a conviction that something is right and something wrong; but
+what that right and wrong is depends on Ethics. In every language of
+man, there are words which imply ought and ought not, duty,
+responsibility, merit, and guilt. But what men believe they ought to do,
+or ought not to do,--that depends on the education of their conscience;
+that is, on their Ethics.
+
+Conscience, like religion, is man's strength, and his weakness.
+Conscience makes cowards of us all; but it is the strong-siding champion
+which makes heroes of us all. Savages are cruel, pirates are cruel; but
+they cannot be as cruel as a good man, with a misguided conscience. The
+most savage heart has some touch of human kindness left in it, which
+nothing can quite conquer,--nothing but conscience. That can make man as
+hard as Alpine rock, as cold as Greenland ice. The torture-rooms and
+_autos da fe_ of the Inquisition surpass the cruelties of the North
+American Indian. The cruelties of instinct are faint compared with the
+cruelties of conscience. Now what guides conscience to good or to evil?
+Theology, in the form of Ethics, is the guide of conscience. For, as
+soon as man believes in a God, he believes in the authority of his God
+to direct and control his actions. Whatever his God tells him to do must
+be right for him to do. Therefore religion in its inward form is either
+a debasing and tormenting superstition or a glad faith, according to the
+Theology with which it is associated. And religion, in its outward form,
+is either an impure and cruel despotism or an elevating morality,
+according to the idea of God and Duty which guide it; that is, according
+to its associated Theology.
+
+Some persons, like Lucretius, seeing the evils of Superstition, Bigotry,
+and Fanaticism, and perceiving that these have their root in religion,
+have endeavored to uproot religion itself. But could this be effected,
+which is impossible, it would be like wishing to get rid of the
+atmosphere, because it is sometimes subject to tempests, and sometimes
+infected with malaria. Religion is the atmosphere of the soul, necessary
+to the healthful action of its life, to be purified, but not renounced.
+
+Every one has a Theology, who has even a vague idea of a God; and every
+one has this who has an idea of something higher and better than
+himself, higher and better than any of his fellow-men. The Atheist
+therefore may have a God, though he does not call him so. For God is not
+a word, not a sound: he is the Infinite Reality which we see, more or
+less dimly, more or less truly, rising above us, and above all our race.
+The nature of this ideal determines for each of us what we believe to be
+right or wrong; and so it is that our Theology rules our conscience, and
+that our conscience determines with more or less supremacy the tendency
+and stress of our life.
+
+No one can look at the History of the Human Race without seeing what an
+immense influence religion has had in human affairs. Every race or
+nation which has left its mark on Human Progress has itself been under
+the commanding control of some great religion. The ancient civilization
+of India was penetrated to the core by the institutions of Brahmanism;
+the grand development of Egyptian knowledge was guided by its
+priesthood; the culture of China has been the meek disciple of Confucius
+for two thousand years. Whenever any nation emerges out of darkness into
+light,--Assyria, Persia, Greece, or Rome,--it comes guided and inspired
+by some mighty religion. The testimony of History is that religion is
+the most potent of all the powers which move and govern human action.
+
+Such is the story of the past. How is it at the present time? Has
+mankind outgrown the influence of religion to-day? Has the spread of
+knowledge, the advance of science, the development of literature, art,
+culture, weakened its power in Christendom? Never was there so much of
+time, thought, effort, wealth, consecrated to the Christian Church as
+there is now. Both branches of that Church, the Catholic and Protestant,
+are probably stronger to-day than they ever were before. Some few
+persons can live apart from religious institutions; but mankind cannot
+dispense with religion, and they need it organized into a Church or
+Churches.
+
+Religion is a great power, and will remain so. But what is to determine
+the character of this power? It may impede progress or advance it; it
+may encourage thought or repress it; it may diffuse knowledge or limit
+it; it may make men free or hold them as slaves; it may be a generous,
+manly, free, and moral religion or a narrow, bigoted, intolerant,
+fanatical, sectarian, persecuting superstition. It has been both: it is
+both to-day. What is to decide which it shall be? I answer, its
+Theology; the views it holds concerning God, man, duty, immortality, the
+way and the means of salvation. Religion is an immense power: how that
+power is to be directed depends on Theology.
+
+Proceeding then with my theme, I shall endeavor to show how false ideas
+in Theology tend to check the progress of humanity, and afterward how
+true ideas always carry mankind onward along an ascending path of
+improvement.
+
+But first let me say that my criticism is of ideas, not of sects,
+churches, nor individuals. By a true Theology, I mean neither a
+Unitarian nor a Trinitarian Theology, neither a Catholic nor a
+Protestant Theology. I do not mean Calvinism nor Arminianism. I have
+nothing to say concerning these distinctions, however important they
+may be; and I, for one, consider them important. But I refer to a
+distinction more important still, lying back of these distinctions,
+lying beneath them; a difference not of opinions so much as of ideas and
+spirit.
+
+By a true Theology, I mean a manly Theology, as opposed to a childish
+one; a free, as opposed to a servile one; a generous, as opposed to a
+selfish one; a reasonable and intelligent Theology, as opposed to a
+superstitious one.
+
+By a true Theology, I mean one which regards God as a father, and man as
+a brother; which looks upon this life as a preparation for a higher;
+which believes that God gives us freedom, inspires our reason, and is
+the author of whatever is generous, self-forgetting, and noble. I find
+something of this Theology in all sects and churches; from the Roman
+Catholic at one extreme, to the Universalists and Unitarians, the
+Spiritualists and Come-outers, at the other. And the opposite, the false
+Theology, dishonorable to God, degrading to man, I find in all sects,
+and accompanying all creeds. And if I shall show, as truth compels me to
+show, that certain parties and persons are specially exposed to danger
+in one or another direction, I wish distinctly to state my belief that
+sincere and earnest men continually rise above the contagion of their
+position, and live untainted in an atmosphere which may have in it some
+special tendency to disease.
+
+One false idea in Theology, which opposes human progress, is that
+Pantheistic view of the Deity, which loses sight of his personality, and
+conceives of him as a blind, infinite force, pervading all Nature, and
+carrying on the universe, but without intelligence and without love.
+
+I know indeed that many views have been accused of being Pantheism which
+are not. I do not believe in a God outside of the universe. I believe
+that he is one "in whom we live, and move, and have our being," one
+"from whom, and through whom, and to whom are all things,"--a perpetual
+Creator, immanent in his world. But this view is quite consistent with a
+belief in his personal being, in his intelligent, conscious, loving
+purpose. Without such a belief, hope dies out of the heart; and without
+hope mankind loses the energy which creates progress. Unless we have an
+intelligent Friend who governs the universe, it will seem to be moving
+blindly on toward no divine end; and this thought eats out the courage
+of the soul.
+
+In some poetical natures, as in the case of Shelley, this Pantheism
+takes the form of faith in a spirit of beauty, or love, or intellectual
+power, pervading all things. In more prosaic minds it becomes a belief
+in law, divorced from love. It turns the universe into a machine, worked
+by forces whose mutual action unfolds and carries on the magnificent
+Cosmos. Often this view comes, by way of a reaction, against an
+excessive Personality of Will. When the Christian Church speaks of the
+Deity as an Infinite Power outside of the world, who creates it and
+carries it on according to some contrivance, of which his own glory is
+the end, it is perhaps natural that men should go to the other extreme
+and omit person, will, and design from their conception of Deity. But
+thus they encounter other and opposite dangers.
+
+A gospel of mere law is no sufficient gospel. It teaches prudence, but
+omits Providence. This utilitarian doctrine, which reduces every thing
+to law,--which makes the Deity only a Great Order, not a Father or
+Friend,--would soon put a stop to the deepest spring of human progress.
+It takes faith and hope out of our life, and substitutes observation,
+calculation, and prudence. But the case of Ecclesiastes and of Faust
+teaches us what comes from knowledge emptied of faith. He who increases
+such knowledge increases sorrow. The unknown, wonderful Father; the
+divine, mysterious Infinite; the great supernatural power and beauty
+above Nature, and above all,--these alone make life tolerable. Without
+this brooding sense of a Divine love, of a Heaven beyond this world, of
+a Providence guiding human affairs, men would not long have the heart to
+study, because all things would seem to be going nowhere. Without such a
+Heavenly Friend to trust, such an immortal progress to hope, all things
+would seem to revolve in a circle. Not to believe in something more than
+a God of Law is to be without God in the world, is to be without hope.
+And hope is the spring of all progress, intellectual progress as well as
+all other. Intellect, divorced from faith, at last kills intellect
+itself, by destroying its inner motive. It ends in a doctrine of
+despair, which cries continually, "What is the use?" and finds no
+answer. And so the soul dies the only death the soul can die,--the death
+of torpor and inaction.
+
+Another false idea in Theology, which interferes with human progress, is
+that of ecclesiastical authority in matters of faith and practice. When
+the Church comes between the soul and God, and seeks to be its master
+rather than its servant, it takes from it that direct responsibility to
+God, which is one of the strongest motives for human effort. I know that
+this has always been done from a sincere desire, at any rate in the
+beginning, to save men from apparent dangers. The Church has assumed
+authority, in order to do good with it. It has commanded men not to
+think for themselves, lest they should err. But God has meant that we
+should be liable to error, in order that we should learn to avoid it by
+increased strength. Therefore Christ said, "Be not called Rabbi; be not
+called Masters, and call no man father on earth." His church, and his
+apostles, and he himself are here, not to be masters of the soul, but to
+be its servants.
+
+The Roman Catholic Church is a great organization, which has gradually
+grown up, during a thousand years, the object of which has been to
+educate men in Christian faith and Christian conduct. It has sincerely
+endeavored to do this. But, unfortunately, it took a narrow view of
+Christian education; supposing that it meant instruction and guidance,
+restraint and tuition, but not development. It has magnified its own
+authority, in order to produce docility in its pupils. It has not
+allowed them freedom of inquiry nor liberty of conscience. It has not
+said, like Paul, "Be not children in understanding;" on the contrary, it
+has preferred to keep them children, so as to guide them more easily. It
+has not said, with Paul, "Stand fast in the liberty wherewith Christ has
+made you free;" for it has come to hate the very name of liberty. What
+is the result? You may read it to-day in France, where, as Mr. Coquerel
+tells us, that Church has prevented the steady development of free
+institutions. It has always supported the principle of authority in the
+State, as the natural ally of authority in the Church. There are so few
+republicans in France to-day, because the people have been educated by
+the Church to blind submission. The priests are not to blame, the people
+are not: it is the Roman Catholic Theology which is to blame. That
+Theology teaches that the soul is saved by the reception of external
+sacraments, and not by vital, independent convictions of truth.[6]
+
+[Footnote 6: The proof of this may be amply found in the famous
+Encyclical and Syllabus of Pius IX., Dec. 8th, 1864. In the Syllabus he
+denounces as errors such propositions as the following:--
+
+That "every man is free to embrace and profess that religion which
+guided by the light of reason, he holds to be true." § 15.
+
+That "one may well hope, at least, for the eternal salvation of those
+who are in no wise in the true Church of Christ." § 17.
+
+That "the Church has no power to employ force." § 24.
+
+That "men emigrating to Catholic countries should be permitted the
+public exercise of their own several forms of worship." § 78.
+
+That "the Roman Pontiff can and ought to reconcile and harmonize himself
+with progress, with liberalism, and with modern civilization." § 80.]
+
+Or, if you wish another illustration of the same thing, look at New
+York. Why have republican institutions in New York almost proved a
+failure? Why were a few robbers able to take possession of the city, and
+plunder the citizens? Because they could control the votes of the Irish
+Catholics in a mass; because this vast body of voters were unable to
+vote independently, or to understand the first duties of a free citizen.
+And why was this? Not because the Irish are naturally less intelligent
+than the New-Englanders, the English, the Germans. No; but the Roman
+Catholic Church, which has had the supreme control over the Irish
+conscience and intellect for a thousand years, has chosen to leave them
+uneducated. Of course, the Roman Church, if it had pleased to do so,
+might long ago have made the Irish nation as enlightened as any in
+Europe. But its Theology taught that education might lead them into
+heresy, and so take them out of the true Church, and that ignorance _in_
+the Church was infinitely better than any amount of intellectual and
+moral culture _out_ of it. The fatal principle of Roman Catholic
+Theology--"Out of the true Church there is no salvation"--has been the
+ruin of the Irish nation for hundreds of years, and has very nearly
+entailed ruin on our own.
+
+Do you wonder that the priests oppose our school system? If I were a
+Roman Catholic priest, I should oppose it too. Should I run the risk of
+poisoning my child's body by accepting as a gift a little better food
+than that I am able to buy? And shall I risk the vastly greater evil of
+poisoning its soul, by allowing it to be tainted with heretical books
+and teachers in free schools? The Roman Catholic priest is consistent:
+it is the Theology which teaches salvation by sacraments that is to
+blame. It is a theology which naturally, logically, necessarily, stands
+opposed to human progress. It says, "In order to be children in malice,
+you must also be children in understanding."
+
+When the Protestant Reformation came, it brought with it a manly
+Theology. It put the Bible into all men's hands, and asserted for each
+the right of private judgment and liberty of conscience. Therefore the
+Reformation was the cause of a great forward movement in human affairs.
+It awakened the intellect of mankind. Science, literature,
+invention,--all were stimulated by it. It ran well, but something
+hindered. Its reverence for the Bible was its life; but, unfortunately,
+it soon fell into a worship of _the letter_. It taught a doctrine of
+verbal inspiration. It forgot the great saying of Paul, "not of the
+letter, but the spirit; for the letter killeth." Very soon that saying
+was fulfilled. Reverence for the letter of the Bible killed the spirit
+of the Bible. That spirit is as free as air. It teaches no creed, it
+demands no blind acceptance of any dogma. It declares that where the
+spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. But the letter-theology has
+opposed nearly all the discoveries of science and all moral reforms with
+the words of the Bible. It has set Genesis against geology, and the book
+of Psalms against the Copernican system. Because the Book of Genesis
+says the heavens and earth were made in six days, the letter-theology
+declared that the fossil shells were made in the rocks just as they are,
+or were dropped by pilgrims returning from the Holy Land. Because the
+book of Psalms said that "God hath established the earth so that it
+shall not be moved for ever," the letter-theology denied its daily and
+yearly revolution. Because Noah said, "Cursed be Canaan," the
+letter-theology defended the slavery of the negro. Because Noah also
+said, "He who sheddeth man's blood, by man shall his blood be shed," the
+letter-theology has defended capital punishment as a religious duty.
+Because the Jews were commanded to rest on the seventh day, the
+letter-theology forbids the Boston Public Library to be open on the
+first. Becoming ever more timid and more narrow, it clings to the letter
+of the common English translation, and the received text. It even
+shrinks from alterations which would give us the true letter of the
+Bible, instead of the false one.
+
+Some years ago the American Bible Society appointed a committee of the
+most learned scholars, from all Orthodox denominations, to correct the
+text and the translation of our common English Bible, so as to make it
+conform to the true Hebrew and Greek text. They were not to make a new
+translation, but merely to correct palpable, undoubted errors in the old
+one. They did their work; printed their corrected Bible; laid it before
+the Bible Society,--_and that Society refused to adopt it_. They had not
+the slightest doubt of its superior correctness; but they feared to make
+any change, lest others might be called for, and lest the faith of the
+community might be disturbed in the integrity of the Scriptures. Jesus
+had promised them the Holy Spirit to lead them into all truth, to take
+of his truth and show it to them; but they did not believe him. They
+preferred to anchor themselves to the words chosen by King James's
+translators than to be led by the Spirit into any new truth. So it is
+that "the letter killeth." It stands in the way of progress. It keeps us
+from trusting in that ever-present Spirit which is ready to inspire us
+all to-day, as it inspired prophets and apostles of old. It is an
+evidence not of faith, but of unbelief.
+
+Thus, this false idea in Theology, that inspiration rests in the letter
+of a book or a creed rather than in its spirit, is seen to be opposed to
+human progress.
+
+And then there is another Theology which is opposed to human progress.
+It is the Theology of Fear. It speaks of hell rather than of heaven; it
+seeks to terrify rather than to encourage; it drives men by dread of
+danger rather than leads them by hope. Its ruling idea is of stern,
+implacable justice; its God is a God of vengeance, who cannot pardon
+unless the full penalty of sin has been borne by some victim; whose
+mercy ceases at death; who can only forgive sin during our short human
+life, not after we have passed into the other world. To assuage his
+anger, or appease his justice, there must be devised some scheme of
+salvation, or plan of redemption. He cannot forgive of pure, free grace,
+and out of his boundless love.
+
+Now those who hold such a Theology as this will apply its spirit in
+human affairs. It will go into penal legislation, into the treatment of
+criminals. It will make punishment the chief idea, not reformation.
+Jesus taught a boundless compassion, an infinite tenderness toward the
+sinful, the weak, the forlorn people of the world. He taught that the
+strong are to bear the burdens of the weak, the righteous to help the
+wicked, and that we are to overcome evil with good. When this principle
+is applied in human affairs, the great plague spots of society will
+disappear: intemperance, licentiousness, pauperism, crime, will be cured
+radically. Society, purified from these poisons, will go forward to
+nobler achievements than have ever yet been dreamed of. But this
+principle will not be applied while the fear-theology prevails, and is
+thought more of than that of love. The progress of human society depends
+on the radical cure of these social evils, not their mere restraint. And
+they can only be cured by such a view of the divine holiness and the
+divine compassion as is taught by Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount and
+the Parable of the Prodigal Son; showing the root of crime in sin, and
+inspiring a profound faith in God's saving love.
+
+It may seem to some persons that I go too far in asserting that a true
+Theology is at the basis of human progress. They may ascribe human
+progress to other causes,--to the advance of knowledge, to scientific
+discovery, to such inventions as printing, the steam-engine, the
+railroad, and the like. But I believe that spiritual ideas are at the
+root of all others. That which one thinks of God, duty, and
+immortality,--in short, his Theology,--quickens or deadens his interest
+in every thing else. Whatever arouses conscience, faith, and love, also
+awakens intellect, invention, science, and art. If there is nothing
+above this world or beyond this life; if we came from nothing and are
+going nowhere, what interest is there in the world? "Let us eat and
+drink, for to-morrow we die." But if the world is full of God,--if we
+come from him and are going to him,--then it becomes everywhere
+intensely interesting, and we wish to know all about it. Science has
+followed always in the steps of religion, and not the reverse. The Vedas
+went before Hindoo civilization; the Zend-Avesta led the way to that of
+Persia; the oldest monuments of Egypt attest the presence of religious
+ideas; the Laws of Moses preceded the reign of Solomon; and that
+civilization which joined Greeks, Romans, Goths, Vandals, Franks, and
+Saxons in a common civilization, derived its cohesive power from the
+life of Him whose idea was that love to man was another form of love to
+God. "The very word _humanity_," says Max Müller, "dates from
+Christianity." No such idea, and therefore no such term, was found among
+men before Christ came.
+
+But it may be said that these instances are from such obscure epochs
+that it is uncertain how far it was religion which acted on
+civilization. Let us, then, take one or two instances, concerning which
+there is less uncertainty.
+
+In the deserts, and among the vast plains of the Arabian Peninsula, a
+race had slumbered inactive for twenty centuries. Those nomad-Semitic
+tribes had wandered to and fro, engaged in perpetual internecine
+warfare, fulfilling the prediction concerning Ishmael, "He will be a
+wild man; his hand will be against every man, and every man's hand
+against him." No history, no civilization, no progress, no nationality,
+no unity, could be said to exist during that long period among these
+tribes. At length a man comes with a religious idea, a living, powerful
+conviction. He utters it, whether man will bear or forbear. He proclaims
+the unity and spirituality of God in spite of all opposition and
+persecution. At last his idea takes hold of the soul of this people.
+What is the result? They flame up into a mighty power; they are united
+into an irresistible force; they sweep over the world in a few decades
+of years; they develop a civilization superior to any other then extant.
+Suddenly there springs up in their midst a new art, literature, and
+science. Christendom, emasculated by an ecclesiastical and monastic
+Theology, went to Islam for freedom of thought, and found its best
+culture in the Mohammedan universities of Spain. Bagdad, Cairo,
+Damascus, Seville, Cordova, became centres of light to the world. The
+German conquerors darkened the regions they overran: the Mohammedans
+enlightened them. The caliphs and viziers patronized learning and
+endowed colleges, and some of their donations amounted to millions of
+dollars. Libraries were collected. That of a single doctor was a load
+for four hundred camels. That of Cairo contained a hundred thousand
+manuscripts, which were lent as freely as those in the Boston Public
+Library. The College Library of Cordova had four hundred thousand. In
+these places grammar, logic, jurisprudence, the natural sciences, the
+philosophy of Aristotle, were taught to students who flocked to them
+from all parts of Christendom. Many of the professors taught from
+memory: one man is reported to have been able to repeat three thousand
+poems. The Saracens wrote treatises on geography, numismatics, medicine,
+chemistry, astronomy, mathematics. Some, like Avicenna, went through the
+whole circle of the sciences. The Saracens invented pharmacy, surgery,
+chemistry. Geber, in the eighth century, could prepare alcohol,
+sulphuric acid, nitric acid, corrosive sublimate, potash, and soda.
+Their astronomers measured a degree of the earth's meridian near Bagdad,
+and determined its circumference as twenty-four thousand miles. They
+found the length of the year, and calculated the obliquity of the
+ecliptic. Roger Bacon quotes their treatises on optics. Trigonometry
+retains the form given it by the Arabs, and they greatly improved
+Algebra. We received from them our numerical characters. We all know the
+beauty and permanence of their architecture, and much of our musical
+knowledge is derived from them. They also made great progress in
+scientific agriculture and horticulture, in mining and the working of
+metals, in tanning and dying leather. Damascus blades, morocco,
+enamelled steel, the manufacture and use of paper, the use of the
+pendulum, the manufacture of cotton, public libraries, a national
+police, rhyme in verse, and our arithmetic, all came to us from the
+Arabs.
+
+All this fruitful intellectual life must be traced directly back to the
+theological impulse given by Mohammed to the Arab mind; for it can be
+derived from no other source.
+
+It is not quite so easy to define the precise influence on human
+progress given by the doctrines of the Reformation; for, before Luther,
+these were in the air. But no one can reasonably doubt that the demand
+for freedom of conscience and the right of private judgment in religion
+has led to liberty of thought, speech, action, in all other directions.
+To the war against papal and ecclesiastical authority in concerns of the
+soul we owe, how much no one can say, of civil freedom, popular
+sovereignty, the emancipation of man, the progress of the human mind.
+The theses of Luther were the source of the Declaration of Independence.
+And modern science, with the great names of Bacon and Newton, Descartes
+and Leibnitz, Goethe and Humboldt, is the legitimate child of Protestant
+Theology.
+
+It is true that printing and maritime discoveries preceded Luther. But
+these inventions came from the same ideas which took form in the
+Lutheran Reformation. The discovery of printing was a result, no less
+than a cause. It came because it was wanted; because men were wishing to
+communicate their thoughts more freely and widely than could be done by
+writing. If it had been discovered five hundred years before, it would
+have fallen dead, a sterile invention, leading to nothing. And so the
+steam-engine and the railroad did not come before, because they were not
+wanted: as soon as they were wanted they came. That which lies at the
+root of all these inventions is the wish of man to communicate easily
+and rapidly and widely with his brother-man; in other words, the sense
+of human brotherhood. Material civilization, in all its parts and in all
+times, grows out of a spiritual root; and only faith leads to sight,
+only the things unseen and eternal create those which are seen and
+temporal.
+
+The two Theologies at the present time which stand opposed to each other
+here are not Calvinism and Armenianism, not Trinitarianism and
+Unitarianism, not Naturalism and Supernaturalism. But they are the
+Theology of discouragement and fear on one side, that of courage and
+hope on the other. The one thinks men must be driven to God by terror:
+the other seeks to attract them by love. The one has no faith in man,
+believes him wholly evil, believes sin to be the essential part of him.
+The other believes reason a divine light in the soul, and encourages it
+to act freely; trusts in his conscience enlightened by truth, and
+appeals to it confidently; relies on his heart, and seeks to inspire it
+with generous affections and disinterested love. That this Theology of
+faith is to triumph over that of fear who can doubt? All the best
+thought, the deepest religion, the noblest aspiration of the age, flows
+in this direction. Whether our handful of Unitarian Churches is ever to
+become a great multitude or not, I do not know; but I am sure that the
+spirit which inspired the soul of Channing is to lead the future age,
+and make the churches which are to be. It is not now a question of Unity
+or Trinity, but something far deeper and much more important. While
+endeavoring to settle the logical terms of Christ's divinity and
+humanity, we have been led up higher to the sight of the Divine Father
+and the Human Brotherhood. Like Saul, the son of Kish, we went out to
+seek our father's asses, and have found a kingdom.
+
+We have recently been told about a Boston Theology. If there is any
+thing which deserves to be called a Boston Theology it is this doctrine
+of courage and hope. For it is shared by all the leading minds of all
+Protestant denominations in this city. Whatever eminent man comes here,
+no matter what he was when he came, finds himself, ere long, moving in
+this direction. The shackles of tradition and formality fall from his
+limbs, his eyes open to a new light; and he also becomes the happy
+herald of a new and better day.
+
+But a better word still, if one is wanted by which to localize these
+ideas, would be "The New England Theology." For in every part of New
+England, from the beginning; in every one of the multiform sects, whose
+little spires and baby-house churches have spotted our barren and rocky
+hills, there have never failed men of this true Apostolic succession;
+men believing in truth, and brave to utter it; believing that God loves
+truth better than falsehood; that he desires no one to tell a lie for
+his glory, or to speak words of wind in his behalf. With all our
+narrowness, our bigotry, our controversial bitterness, our persecuting
+zeal,--of which, God knows, we have had enough in New England,--the
+heart of New England has been always free, manly, and rational. Yes: all
+the way from Moses Stuart to William Ellery Channing, all along the road
+from the lecture-rooms on the hills of Andover to the tribune of
+Theodore Parker standing silent in the Music Hall, we have had this same
+brave element of a manly Theology. This has been the handful of salt
+which has saved New England. Hence it is that from the days of the early
+Puritans, men and women, of Harry Vane, Mrs. Hutchinson, and Roger
+Williams, who stood up for the rights of the human soul against priestly
+tyranny, down through the ministers of the Revolution who went with
+their people to the camp of Washington at Cambridge; down to the days of
+the Beechers,--there has never failed a man in the New England pulpit to
+stand up for justice, freedom, and humanity. From our bare hill-tops New
+England men and women have looked up to the sky and seen it not always
+nor wholly black with superstitious clouds, but its infinite depths of
+blue interpenetrated evermore with the warm living light of a God of
+Love. And therefore has New England been the fountain of Progress, the
+fruitful parent of Reforms, "the lovely mother of yet more lovely
+children."
+
+I have quoted several striking passages from the Apostle Paul. One
+expresses his longing for greater excellence, and declares that he
+forgets every thing already attained, and is reaching out for better
+things, for more truth and more love. Another passage calls on his
+disciples to think for themselves, and be rational Christians, not
+children in understanding. A third asserts that he is the minister of
+the spirit of the gospel, not its letter; a fourth that his religion is
+not one of fear, but of power and love and a sound mind; a fifth says,
+Stand fast in freedom, and be liberal Christians; and in other places he
+exhorts his brethren not to be narrow, nor bigoted; but to look at every
+thing beautiful, lovely, true, and good, no matter where they find it.
+But a little while before he said these things Paul himself was one of
+the most narrow, and intolerant of men, opposed to progress wholly. What
+made this great change in his soul? It was that he had found a true
+Theology. He learned from Christ to trust simply in the divine love for
+pardon and salvation. He learned that God was the God of Heathen and
+Pagans as well as of Jews. He learned that no ritual, ceremony,
+sacraments nor forms, but only the sight of God as a Father and Friend,
+can really save the soul from its diseases, and fill it with immortal
+life. A true Theology was the secret of Paul's immense progress, and of
+his wonderful power to awaken and convert others. There are many who
+suppose his Theology obscure and severe. But when we penetrate the veil
+of Jewish language, we find it one of Freedom, of Reason, of Love, manly
+and tender, generous and intelligent. And this same Theology passing in
+its essence from Paul to Augustine, to Luther, to Wesley, has always
+been the motive power of human civilization and human development. It
+has been the friend of free thought, liberty of conscience, and
+universal progress.
+
+I mean then by a true Theology what Paul meant when he said that God
+"has not given to us a spirit of fear, but of power, and of love, and of
+a sound mind." I mean what he said when he declared that God had made
+him a minister of the New Testament, not of the letter but of the
+spirit; for the letter killeth, but the spirit giveth life.
+
+I mean the Theology which places the substance above the form; the thing
+before the name; which looks at the fact, not at the label.
+
+Let us then, brethren, who call ourselves Unitarians, be glad and
+grateful for the gospel of faith and hope which we enjoy. And let us
+give to others what we have ourselves received. If it be true, as we
+have tried to show, that human progress depends largely on a true
+Theology we cannot help mankind more than by diffusing widely that which
+God has given us of his truth. Freely you have received, freely give.
+You who have always lived in this community, surrounded by this mellow
+warm light of peace and freedom, do not know, cannot tell, what those
+suffer who have been taught from early childhood to fear God, and to
+distrust his light in their soul. Do your part in spreading abroad the
+beams of a better day. Give to the world that religion which is not a
+spirit of fear, but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind.
+
+
+
+
+THE RISE AND DECLINE
+
+OF THE
+
+ROMISH CHURCH.
+
+By ATHANASE COQUEREL, Fils.
+
+
+We live in a time of great and manifold changes. There is one church
+that for centuries has had her principal glory in asserting that she
+never has changed,--that she has at all times been exactly the same; but
+now she can hardly deny that either in accordance with her own will, or
+by the force of circumstances, very great changes have been wrought in
+her during the last few years. This, if it is true, must change also the
+nature, the system, the course of our controversy with her. The
+controversy between the two churches has not always, perhaps, been quite
+fair; and I should not like to be unfair to any adversary, whoever he
+may be. I should not be at ease in my conscience if I thought I had been
+unfair to any thing, especially to any thing religious, of whatever kind
+that religion may be; because in any religion, even the most imperfect,
+there is some aspiration from this earth to the sky; at least, from
+human souls to what they hope or believe to be God. And especially I
+could not pardon myself for being in any way unjust to that great church
+which has for centuries comforted and sustained a multitude of souls,
+and made them better and happier by her teachings. It is a Christian
+church; and though I think that Romish Christianity has been in a very
+great degree alloyed, and mixed with grave errors,--and that is exactly
+what I wish to show,--yet, even under that veil of human errors, I
+recognize, I acknowledge, religion, Christianity; and therefore I bow
+before it.
+
+I think, however, the changes that have taken place have not altered the
+essential character of the Roman Church. I think the changes that have
+happened are in conformity with the nature of that church; really were
+to be expected, and have nothing absolutely new in them. We might,
+perhaps, for a long time have seen them coming; and, if we had had
+foresight enough, we might have seen them from the very first times of
+that church. Let us try to understand exactly what she is, what she
+means; let us try to see what there is under that name, "Roman Catholic
+Church." She calls herself _catholic_, which means _universal_, and at
+the same time she has a local name. She is for the whole world; but at
+the same time she belongs to one city, and she bears the name of that
+city. Why? This is the question; and though it seems only a question of
+name, I think we shall find by other ways that it is a question of
+facts. A second advance requires a change in our polemics with Roman
+authority. A new science has been created in our time, which gives us
+better means of judging and studying other churches than our own; that
+science is called the comparative history of religions. In England Max
+Müller, in France Burnouf, and in this country James Freeman Clarke,
+have compared the history of several religions. According to that
+comparative history, there are rules to be understood, to be
+acknowledged, in the development of religion. One of the rules which I
+think we can deduce from any comparative history of religion may be a
+startling one; and I will use a very homely comparison, to make myself
+perfectly understood. Have you ever seen over a shop door a sign-board,
+where the name of the old shop-keeper was painted; and, when his
+successor came in, he had the same board covered with a new color, and
+his own name painted over the old one? But in time the new paint wore
+off, so that the old name reappeared under the new, in such a way that
+it became perhaps difficult to distinguish clearly which letters or
+lines belonged to the old, and which to the new. If this image appears
+somewhat too familiar, let me ask you if you remember what scholars call
+a palimpsest. Sometimes in the Middle Ages it was difficult to find
+well-prepared parchment on which to write, and there were a great many
+monks who had nothing else to do--and it was the best use they could
+make of their time--but write or copy the Bible or other religious
+books. When they found parchments where were copied the comedies and
+tragedies or other works of the heathen, they thought those were of very
+little use, and they could very easily have the writing on those
+parchments washed out, or covered over with white paint, in such a way
+that what had been written there was no more visible. Then on those
+parchments they would write the Bible, or sermons, or any document they
+thought useful. But the same thing happened then that happened with the
+sign-board,--the old writing reappeared after a time; the white covering
+spread over the page disappeared. And thus it happens that scholars are
+sometimes pondering for a long time over a page from a sermon of Saint
+Augustine, or John Chrysostom, in which they find a verse from some
+comedy of Terence or Aristophanes; then they have perhaps some trouble
+in making out which is comedy and which is sermon, in distinguishing
+exactly what of the writing is old and what is new; and they have not
+always perfectly succeeded in that effort.
+
+Now what we see in the sign-board we see also in the religion of the
+different churches, when a whole multitude, at one time, pass from one
+worship to another. Then, against their will, and perhaps without their
+knowing it, they never come into the pale of their new church
+empty-handed: they carry with them a number of ideas, and habits, and
+turns of thought, which they had found in their old worship. And thus,
+after a time, when the fervor of the early days is over, you find in the
+new religion, or new worship, a real palimpsest: the old one is
+reappearing under the new. That makes itself manifest in a good many
+ways; sometimes in ways the most strange and unexpected.
+
+If you ask me, now, remembering this rule, what means the name, "Roman
+Catholic Church," I answer: Christianity absorbed into itself the Roman
+empire; the Roman empire became Christian in a very few years, with a
+most rapid, with a most admirable sway; souls became conquered in large
+numbers; they became Christian. But afterwards it appeared that they
+were not so perfectly unheathenized as they were thought to be, or as
+they thought themselves: many of their heathenish habits of life,
+thoughts, and customs remained even in their very worship. Thus, after
+Christianity had absorbed the Roman world, it appeared that the Roman
+world had penetrated and impregnated the whole of Christianity; and this
+is the Roman Catholic Church. She is Christian, but she is full of the
+errors and superstitions that belonged to the old Roman heathenish
+world.
+
+To understand what this means we must now try to comprehend what the old
+Roman genius was. Here I ask you not to confound it with the Greek
+genius, which was in many respects highly superior, but which had, at
+that time, passed away in a large measure, and been replaced everywhere
+by the Roman genius. What were the especial traits of character of the
+Romans? The first, and a very striking one to those who have travelled
+and studied in those countries, is a most vivacious love for tradition.
+In Rome, at the present day, you find things that are done, that are
+said, that are believed, that are liked, because they were two thousand
+years ago, without the people themselves having a very clear notion of
+it. Their custom--and it is born in their flesh, and in their blood--is
+to look backwards, and to see in the past the motives and the precedents
+for their acts and for their belief. Of this I could quote to you a
+number of instances. I will choose but one. The first time I was in Rome
+I stopped, as every traveller does, on the _Piazza del Popolo_. In the
+midst of that square is an obelisk, and on one side of the pedestal of
+that obelisk is written: "This monument was brought to Rome by the High
+Pontiff, Cæsar Augustus." I went round the monument, and on the other
+face of the same pedestal I read: "This monument, brought to Rome by the
+High Pontiff, Cæsar Augustus, was placed in this square by the High
+Pontiff, Sextus V." And then I remembered that one of those High
+Pontiffs was a Roman heathen, an Emperor; and that the other was a
+Christian, was a priest, was a pope; and I was astonished, at first
+sight, to find on two faces of the same stone the same title given to
+those two representatives of very different religions. Afterwards, I
+observed that this was no extraordinary case, but that in many other
+places in Rome instances of the same kind were to be found. I inquired a
+little more deeply, perhaps, than some other travellers, into the
+meaning of those words. I asked myself why this pope, Sextus V., and
+this Emperor Augustus, should each be called "pontiff." What is the
+meaning of "pontiff"? "Pontiff" means bridge-maker, bridge-builder. Why
+are they called in that way? Here is the explanation of that fact. In
+the very first years of the existence of Rome, at a time of which we
+have a very fabulous history, and but few existing monuments,--the
+little town of Rome, not built on seven hills as is generally supposed;
+there are eleven of them now; then there were within the town less than
+seven even,--that little town had a great deal to fear from any enemy
+which should take one of the hills that were out of town, the Janiculum,
+because the Janiculum is higher than the others, and from that hill an
+enemy could very easily throw stones, fire, or any means of destruction,
+into the town. The Janiculum was separated from the town by the Tiber.
+Then the first necessity for the defence of that little town of Rome was
+to have a bridge. They had built a wooden bridge over the Tiber, and a
+great point of interest to the town was that this bridge should be kept
+always in good order, so that at any moment troops could pass over it.
+Then, with the special genius of the Romans, of which we have other
+instances, they ordained, curiously enough, that the men who were a
+corporation to take care of that bridge should be sacred; that their
+function, necessary to the defence of the town, should be considered
+holy; that they should be priests, and the highest of them was called
+"the high bridge-maker." So it happened that there was in Rome a
+corporation of bridge-makers, _pontifices_, of whom the head was the
+most sacred of all Romans, because in those days his life, and the life
+of his companions, was deemed necessary to the safety of the town.
+Things changed; very soon Rome was large enough not to care about the
+Janiculum; very soon Rome conquered a part of Italy, then the whole of
+Italy, and finally almost the whole of the world. But when once
+something is done in Rome, it remains done; when once a thing is said,
+it remains said, and is repeated; and thus it happened that the
+privilege of the bridge-makers' corporation, as beings sacred and holy,
+remained; and that privilege made everybody respect them; gave them a
+sort of moral power. Then kings wanted to be made High Bridge-makers;
+after kings, consuls; later, dictators; and, later, emperors themselves
+made themselves High Bridge-makers, which meant the most sacred persons
+in the town.
+
+When Constantine, who is generally called the first Christian
+emperor,--but who was very far from being a real Christian,--when
+Constantine became nominally a Christian, he did not leave off being the
+high bridge-maker of the heathen. He remained high priest of the heathen
+at the same time he was a Christian emperor; and he found means, as well
+as his son after him, to keep the two functions. He acted on some
+occasions as high pontiff of the heathen; on other occasions, he called
+councils, presided over them, and sent them away when he had had enough
+of their presence; declared to the bishops that he was in some sense one
+of them, and acted to all intents and purposes as popes have acted after
+him. Thus that title remained the type of whatever was most sacred in
+Rome; and the bishop of Rome, when an opportunity came,--when the title
+had been lost in Rome by emperors,--took it up again. And thus we see on
+the same stone, at the present time in Rome, the name of a high
+bridge-maker who is a heathen emperor, and the name of a high
+bridge-maker who is a pope, who is the head of the Christian Catholic
+Church. Thus you see an old superstition, an old local superstition,
+established with a political meaning, has survived itself, has survived
+centuries, has survived the downfall of heathenism, and is at the
+present time flourishing. You all know that the present pope is called
+_Pontifex Maximus_; it is his title; and everywhere you see, even on the
+pieces of money, that Pio Nono is _Pontifex Maximus_,--the great
+bridge-maker, which means the highest of all priests, of all sacred
+beings. Thus has tradition, on that special spot, and in connection with
+the history and with the antiquities of that spot, established an
+authority unequalled anywhere else.
+
+Though the Roman Catholic Church is special to that place, and inherits
+the local habits and traditions, it pretends also to universality. This
+is, again, perfectly Roman. The heathen Romans had thought for centuries
+that the world was made to be conquered by them; that unity was
+represented by Rome; that Rome was all in all; and at the present time
+the Pope, on Thursday of every Easter week, gives his solemn blessing,
+as you know, to the town first, and the world afterwards,--_urbi et
+orbi_. All countries, both hemispheres, all nations, all languages, are
+lost in that great unity. One town and one world, of which that town is
+the capital,--that was the wish, the hope of the heathenish Romans for
+centuries; and that has been the aim, the assumption of papal Rome for
+centuries also. When the present Pope said, on a celebrated day, after
+enumerating the great acts of his pontificate, that he had created more
+bishoprics than any other pope, he was right. He has created, on his own
+authority, bishoprics in Holland, in England, and in other countries;
+cut out bishoprics on the map of those countries. And he did that
+because, as pope, he is the spiritual sovereign of the world; because
+England and Holland belong to him; because Rome is the capital of the
+world; and he cuts off a part of any country, in America as well as in
+Europe, in order to make of it the see or dominion of a bishop. The old
+Roman idea was that nobody knew how to govern except Romans. They
+assumed--and often, if an unscrupulous government was the best of all,
+if a tyrannical government was the best of all, they were right--to
+govern better, more wisely, and with more acute politics, than any other
+nation. They said, "Other sciences, other arts, may be the share of
+other nations; but our share in the great things of this world is
+_government_." I hardly dare to speak Latin in an English country,
+because I cannot pronounce Latin as you do; but though I pronounce it as
+a Frenchman, which is, perhaps, a shade less bad than to pronounce it as
+you do in England and America, you may guess what I mean when I recall
+to the memory of some of you the famous lines of Virgil, where he says
+what must be, in this world, the function of the Romans:--
+
+    "Tu regere imperio populos, Romane, memento;
+    Hæ tibi erunt artes."
+
+That is to say, "You Romans! remember that you are made to govern the
+nations; that must be your office; all the arts come after this; this is
+the special Roman art." I declare to you that at this present moment
+the clergy, the cardinals, the bishops, the prelates, the court of Rome,
+think, and have never ceased to think, that they are the people to
+govern better than any other political body; and that the government of
+the world has been providentially reserved to that town; first, in a
+temporal way, for the heathen; and, secondly, in a spiritual way, for
+the Christians, for the Catholic countries of the world. And as they
+believe spiritual things are a great deal more important than temporal
+things, they think their government is a great deal more important, and
+greatly superior to any government of any kind.
+
+Let us now turn back a little again, and try more fully to understand
+what the old Roman genius was in its way of government. They governed by
+laws. You all have heard about Roman law, about Roman jurisprudence. It
+has been said for centuries that they were men who, better than any
+other, understood the art of making laws,--very precise, full of
+foresight, forgetting nothing, or few things, and giving in the most
+exact terms the decisions to be enforced in all possible cases, at least
+in all the cases with which they had occasion to deal. It is said also,
+it has always been said, that their laws were hard; but they accepted
+them, though hard: "_dura lex, sed lex_." And certainly there was
+something noble and good in this respect for law, whatever the law was:
+there was something just, really in the interest of nations, in this
+love of law. But at that time this love of law was accompanied by the
+fact that the law was exceedingly hard in a great number of cases. Yet
+that hardness was in conformity with the general temperament of the
+nation at that time: the Romans were hard.
+
+I have no time to stop to show you how different they were from the
+Greeks; but you remember that when the Greeks assembled in one of their
+great annual festivals, they heard music, they listened to poetry, they
+listened to the works of the historian; or they saw men run races, or
+engage in one of those contests that were not cruel, that were only
+displays of strength, agility, or training. That was the pleasure of the
+Greeks in their annual festival. What did the Romans do? You all know.
+They had immense amphitheatres where they assembled to see men kill one
+another. Their pleasure was to see people die, to see people suffer, to
+see people maimed, and weltering in their blood: that was their favorite
+amusement. And ambitious men in that day secured votes by bringing
+lions, hyenas, and tigers, in large numbers, to Rome, and by giving the
+people the diversion of seeing those animals killing men, devouring
+living men, women, and children, living Christians, often. That was the
+punishment in fashion at that time: Christian men, women, and children
+were killed, were devoured, were mangled before the eyes of the people,
+and for their pleasure. In their hardness they had a taste for the
+formal, precise execution of their law, whatever it might be.
+Christianity came and swept away their abominable pleasures,--this
+cruelty, which was contrary to every human feeling; but the habit of a
+sort of hardness, in the infliction of the penalties of law, remained in
+Rome more than it did in any other place. And this was allied to another
+feeling of a different nature, but which very well connected itself with
+it. I mean the Roman love for the literal in every thing. They did not
+like to understand any thing as metaphorical, as poetry: they liked to
+take every thing literally; and it was in consequence of this
+characteristic of the Roman mind that they were able to enforce their
+law. Even if the result of what the law demanded was absurd, they
+maintained, for the honor of the law, that it must be literally
+understood, and literally executed; and they permitted none of those
+different ways of alleviating the hardships of the law that have been in
+other places not only allowed, but ordered, by those in command. This is
+of extreme importance. Perhaps at first sight it does not strike you so,
+but it is. Remember from what country Christianity came. Christianity
+came from the East, came from Asia, came from the Jews. The Apostles,
+the first propagators of Christianity, were Oriental men, were Jews. I
+have seen part of the Levant, I have seen those very countries, and I
+can speak of it as a fact known for centuries, that the people of the
+Orient never speak otherwise than by images. They do not like the
+shortest way from one point to another; they make the way long. They use
+flowers, and rays of light, and moonshine, or any thing else that gives
+an image and color to their speech. They bring these things in
+continually, whatever may be the subject they speak of.
+
+Perhaps I may give here an illustration that will make you understand
+me. I was in a house made of branches of trees, where lived a sheik. He
+told me that every thing in that house, his own person, his own family,
+were mine; and he said this with the greatest protestations. This is
+exactly the same as if you should say to a foreigner, coming into your
+house, "You are welcome." Nothing more. If, on going away, I had taken
+any thing from that house, the man would immediately have shot me;
+though he had given me every thing, even to his own person and his own
+family; because he would have had this idea: "This man is a thief; I
+have a thief in my house." If I had said, "But you gave me every thing
+in the house," he would have answered me, "You come from a country where
+people have no politeness. I gave you these things: that means
+_welcome_, and nothing more." Thus a man of the Orient never says any
+thing in the simple short way that Western nations do: they always want
+some poetry, some rhetoric, some image about it. And you must remember
+that many of the most admirable teachings of the Bible are in images,
+are in poetry, and are extremely beautiful and eloquent by their poetry.
+We are accustomed to this, so that we know that it is poetry; and we
+understand it. But the Romans, accustomed to their principle, that the
+law may be hard, but that law is law, and must be understood literally,
+and executed literally, understood every thing literally, and in that
+way they spoiled many of the great Christian truths. I will not here
+quote many instances, though it would be exceedingly easy to bring them
+in large numbers before you. I will take the most striking and best
+known of all. When our Lord, a few hours before being separated from his
+disciples, to die on the cross, gave them of the bread that was on the
+table, and said, "Eat, this is my body," it was absolutely impossible
+for Eastern people to misunderstand him; it was impossible for them not
+to understand that he meant, "This represents my body." The idea that
+what he held in the hands of his own body was his own body again; that
+he gave them his own body to eat, and that he ate some of it himself
+with them,--that idea could not for a moment have entered the head of
+one of those who were there. And if a multitude had been there, instead
+of the twelve Apostles, it would have been exactly the same. Nobody
+would have understood, when the Lord said, "I am the way," or when he
+said, "I am the door," that he was really, in fact, a path or a gate;
+everybody knew that he meant, "I am the leader; you must come with me; I
+show you the way." Everybody in the Orient understood that. But here
+comes the Roman genius, taking every thing literally; and they repeat,
+"He said, 'This is my body,' and this _is_ his body." They repeat: "You
+Protestants do not accept the truth coming from the lips of your Master.
+He says, 'This is my body,' but you Protestants say, 'No, it is not his
+body, it represents his body.'" Thus it seems we are convicted of crime;
+it seems we will not accept the teachings of our Lord; yet we are
+perfectly true to his own meaning, to his real meaning, that could not
+be misunderstood in the East, but that was misunderstood when it was
+carried to Rome, a country where people gloried in taking every thing in
+a literal sense. So they did with many other most beautiful and delicate
+things in the Bible. The Roman genius--I cannot help saying it--had
+something clumsy in it. They were like giants, having very strong arms,
+and enormous hands, to take every thing, and to dominate over every
+thing. But any thing very delicate, very poetic, like flowers from the
+East, they could not touch without the flowers being broken and faded,
+losing their charm and their color. That was their way of treating many
+of the most beautiful things of the Bible, which they did not
+understand; which they made absurd or repulsive, by taking in a literal
+sense what was said, and ought to be taken, in a spiritual sense. They
+acted exactly as we should, if we received an Oriental letter and
+understood as literal every thing contained in it.
+
+I will give another instance to make this clear. I remember having seen
+two letters, written one by a French General, and another by
+Abd-el-Kader, the chief of the enemies of the French in Algeria. These
+letters were intended to convey identically the same thing; that is to
+say, that some prisoners on one side were to be exchanged for the same
+number of prisoners on the other side. It had been decided that the
+French General and the Arab chief should say the same thing. I have seen
+both. The French General writes two lines; very clear, distinct, and
+polite, with nothing but the exact meaning he wanted to convey. But
+Abd-el-Kader, meaning to write the same thing, writes a whole page,
+about flowers, and jewels, and roses, and moonshine, and every thing of
+the kind. His intention was to say exactly the same thing, to convey
+identically the same meaning; but these things, translated from one
+language to another, pass, as a celebrated German scholar says, "from
+the Shemitic to the Japhetic; from the poetic language of the sons of
+Shem, to the precise language of the sons of Japhet." This has been the
+fault of the Roman Catholic Church in many dogmas, in many points of
+very high importance: the sons of Japhet could not understand what the
+sons of Shem meant. They thought they understood it, when they were
+entirely in error, and gave to it a meaning altogether different from
+what was intended.
+
+I must add, that what helped them along in this belief of things, taken
+in a literal sense, was Roman superstition. In that town, and in Italy,
+have always prevailed the strangest superstitions. The most celebrated
+Romans, men whose wisdom and whose glory have filled the world, if they
+met, when they went out of their house in the morning, a hare in the
+way, re-entered their house on the instant, and renounced any thing they
+had to do, because meeting a hare was ominous of misfortune, and any
+thing they should undertake that day would result in their confusion or
+misfortune. When they put their foot in the wrong way, the left before
+the right, or the right before the left, on the stone at the entrance of
+a house, they stopped there and returned to their house, because every
+thing they should do in that house would prove unfortunate, since they
+had made a mistake in putting the wrong foot foremost when they entered
+the house.
+
+So there were a multitude of superstitions. You know when they were to
+decide the greatest questions of peace or war, they consulted their
+sacred chickens. They gave them grains of wheat, and if the chickens ate
+it, or if they refused to eat it, or if they ate it too fast, or if the
+chickens let fall a grain of wheat from their mouths,--these signs meant
+that war would be successful, or that it would not be, and they decided
+according to these whether there should be a war or not. And those great
+magistrates, who were sometimes men of the greatest eminence, like
+Cicero, were augurs. You know what Cicero says, "Two of us cannot meet
+without laughing;" because they knew that their auguries were utterly
+worthless, but the multitude thought they were true. So the Romans were
+superstitious to the highest degree, and they have never ceased to be
+so. There is superstition in the marrow of their bones. Many Romans are
+ready to believe any thing to-day, at the present moment. I shall allude
+to a single fact. They all believe devoutly in the evil eye; that there
+are people who, if they look at you, will bring upon you some horrible
+misfortune, disease, or death. They believe this so fully, that they
+have a gesture, representing with their fingers a pair of horns; and,
+when they meet any one who is supposed to have the evil eye, they
+endeavor, in a secret way, to make that sign, to prevent misfortune from
+coming upon them. It is believed, in Rome, that the present pope, who is
+to them God on earth, who is to them the successor and vicar of Jesus
+Christ, that he, as a man, has the evil eye. And when he passes through
+the streets of Rome, a great many women, devoutly kneeling before him,
+with their heads almost in the dust, craving to receive his blessing, as
+he passes in his carriage, will, under their aprons, make this sign, to
+preserve themselves from the effects of the evil eye. This is no
+disparagement to his person; they think that the poor man cannot help
+it; that there is no ill will in it; that it is fate; he has the evil
+eye.
+
+I could cite many other instances of this superstition; perhaps it will
+be enough to refer to one more, and one that disgusted me completely. It
+is the worship with which they surround the _Santo Bambino_. There is on
+the Capitoline Hill a church that was formerly a heathen temple, and
+which has kept an old name, "_Ara C[oe]li_," or "altar of Heaven." In
+that church, the Franciscan monks keep a very ugly doll. This doll is
+said to have been sculptured out of one of the olive-trees on the Mount
+of Olives, and then Saint Luke is supposed to have painted it over.
+Saint Luke must have been the painter of the poorest daubs that ever
+were in the world, and the angels who took it to him must have been very
+far from being connoisseurs of painting. This doll is covered with
+diamonds, emeralds, sapphires, and other precious stones, of greatest
+price. It is kept in a box on the altar, and, when you ask to see it,
+the monks pray before the door, they light tapers, they produce the box,
+and then the box is opened, and you see the hideous little wooden image.
+Now, this _Santo Bambino_ is supposed to have healing properties. He
+heals people, when they are rich enough to pay a good salary to him; he
+is not a physician who heals for nothing. He has a magnificent carriage
+of his own, and servants with his own livery; and, when any rich man
+wants to be cured by him, the _Santo Bambino_ goes in his own carriage
+to the man's house, carried on the knees of Franciscan monks, and cures
+the patient,--if he can. Such is the belief of the country. But I could
+not see any very great difference between that doll and the idols that
+the old Romans had, and used in the same way. The idea is this: they
+suppose that the _Santo Bambino_ represents Christ as a little child.
+
+Not only were the old Romans superstitious, but we know, by historical
+testimony coming from the heathen themselves, that at the time when
+Christianity appeared there was an increase of superstition; there was a
+general feeling of a want of something definite, something like a sort
+of atonement; and at that time all sorts of ceremonies, all sorts of
+bloody sacrifices, were introduced from Syria, from Libya, from the most
+remote countries, and the Romans tried to find for their consciences
+some satisfaction in those rites. For instance, you all know they had a
+custom of having their sins expiated by means of what they called
+_taurobolium_. A man had a grave dug in the ground, and then over that
+grave was put a marble slab, with a great many holes in it, like a
+sieve. In that grave the man stretched himself at full length, and over
+the marble slab a bull was killed, in such a way that the blood fell
+through the holes into the grave. When the bull was taken away, and the
+marble slab was lifted, the man rose out of that grave perfectly covered
+with the blood of the bull, entirely bathed in that blood. Then he was
+supposed to be a new man, supposed to be washed of all his sins. He
+believed that from that moment the anger of the gods had passed to the
+bull, and that the blood of the bull had been shed instead of his own.
+We find in Ovid, one of the poets of the time, the prayer of a man for
+whom was about to be offered up the sacrifice of the black hen. He asks
+the gods to take the heart of the hen instead of his own, the fibres of
+the hen's body instead of the fibres of his own body. The poor black hen
+was sacrificed in the most cruel way they could find; she must suffer as
+long as possible, because then the anger of some god who was supposed to
+pursue the man found full satisfaction. The ferocity of the god had
+ample satisfaction in the torture of the poor black hen, and the sins of
+the man were expiated. Then there was superstition upon superstition,
+because, when the mangled remains of the unfortunate hen were thrown
+into the street, if any person unconsciously put his foot on that body,
+then he became the inheritor of the crimes of the first man, and of the
+anger of the gods. They had a special name for those bloody remains of
+the sacrificed fowl: they called them _purgamentum_, because they
+thought that such a sacrifice purged a man of his sins. As nobody dared
+lift or touch the body of the victim, they put a fence around it; and,
+as long as there remained on the ground in the streets of Rome a vestige
+of the poor bird, nobody would tread on that place; and the fence was
+put there to prevent this. These were the superstitions of that time;
+and Plutarch wrote a treatise to which he gives the title
+[Greek: Deisidaimonia], which is translated very often by the word
+"superstition;" but it means more than that, it means "terror of the
+gods." It means that feeling which was more and more prevailing in the
+Roman world, that the gods were to be feared; that there was anger in
+heaven; that the earth could not defend itself against the bad will of a
+supernatural power. We can very well understand that when Christianity
+was preached to those people they were happy to take that religion of
+hope, that religion of regeneration and sanctification. It was to them a
+marvellous deliverance to be out of that old doctrine and in the new
+one. But they carried with them many habits of thought, many things
+which were inherent in the ancient religion. Among those things was the
+habit of multiplying the divine being. They had been for a long series
+of centuries polytheists, believing in many gods. With their
+superstitious fears, they were always afraid there were not gods enough.
+That was saying a good deal, for they had more than 30,000 of them at
+the time of Christ. It was recognized that nobody could even know them
+all by name.
+
+Again you will excuse me if I use here a very familiar illustration to
+make the leading thought of polytheism understood.
+
+You know that in fairy tales the fairies are always called in to the
+festival at the baptism of the infant child. The intention is to invite
+them all, but there is always one forgotten; and that one curses the
+child in some way or other; and then all the gifts of all the good
+fairies cannot prevent the child from suffering, at least for a time,
+from the bad will of the one that has been forgotten. This involves the
+essential idea of polytheists. They had always the thought that all the
+good gods whom they worshipped could not prevent any malevolent one who
+had been neglected from hurting them; and they were always in search of
+that one. They were always making altars "to the unknown god or gods,"
+to be certain in that way to include them all. They were constantly
+asking what gods were worshipped in such a country, in such a place; and
+if it was a god that was not known among them, straightway they prepared
+a place for his worship. They said, "He has no existence, very likely;
+but if he has, if he lives, then we must sacrifice to him, to prevent
+his spoiling the happiness that the other good gods wish to give us." So
+there was an incessant adding to the immense number of gods. At the time
+of Christ, they had so many of them that, from the time a grain of corn
+was put into the ground to the time the harvest commenced, they had nine
+different deities who in succession took charge of the corn that had
+been put into the ground, and thus it passed from one god to another.
+Nine of them were necessary while the grain was in the ground. Thus,
+when the heathen became Christians, they had been in the constant habit
+of adding gods to their heaven, of adding good men to their gods, and
+also men not good, but whom they feared,--for all the emperors were made
+gods the moment they died, so that one of them, who was rather a wit,
+when he was dying said, "I feel that I am becoming a god." The heathen
+had become so habituated to this that, when they became Christians, they
+continued very naturally to multiply the number of the objects of
+worship. They soon ceased to make the slightest difference between
+Christ and the Father. In good time they unconsciously put Mary, the
+mother of Christ, above Christ; now, without ever having this intention,
+they put, in fact, Mary above the Father. And so on, adding always a new
+god to a new worship, and always making the new worship as binding and
+as efficacious as possible, to satisfy that polytheistic craving. They
+did not understand their error in keeping between the infinite God and
+themselves an immense number of minor deities. This craving was
+unwholesome, but very sincere. That unconscious wish to multiply gods
+and make saints has continued to this day; and no pope has canonized so
+many saints as the present one, who is always trying to show that he
+does more in this way than any of his predecessors.
+
+This will suffice to give you an idea of what the old spirit of Rome
+was, the whole tendency of the Roman mind, and what was brought by them
+into the church. I must now ask you to go in imagination with me to the
+tomb of one of those old Romans, who were not burned, according to the
+custom of that period, say the Scipios. Suppose one of the Scipios taken
+out of his tomb; and bring him into a Roman Catholic Church: do you
+think he will be very much astonished? He will be astonished at one
+thing,--by the crucifix, the image of the crucified Son of God. That was
+completely contrary to the Roman ideal and their habit of thought. But
+all the other things he will see will not astonish him at all. He had
+seen them all his life in his own time. You believe, perhaps, that the
+shape of a Roman Catholic Church at Rome will astonish a pagan? Not at
+all. Cato had given the Romans the pleasure of enjoying, for the first
+time, a portico with three ranges of columns, the middle aisle being
+broader than the others; and at the end was what we call an apse, but
+the ancients a conch. The end was rounded off, and thrown into the form
+of a semi-circle, and the tribunal for the prætor or judge was placed in
+that half-circle at the end. This portico was called a _stoa basilica_,
+and the first Roman Christian churches were built on that plan.
+Afterwards, the idea came of making the church in the shape of a cross;
+and then a smaller basilica was placed across the other, forming the
+transept of the church. But those long ranges of columns remained, with
+the same wide space in the middle, and narrower aisles on either side.
+The basilica was the form of public buildings most in fashion in Rome at
+that time. There the gothic style was never popular. Even now, of four
+or five hundred churches in Rome, only one, the Minerva, is gothic. When
+Christian architecture was born, Christian architecture accepted the
+heathen plan.
+
+In the new church, in that _basilica_, what do we find? We find holy
+water at the door. That was exactly what you found in the pagan temple,
+only it was called lustral water. In the temple, my Scipio, who goes
+with me, recognizes all his old habits of thought, all the old emblems
+of his religious devotion. He sees a number of statues, or images; but
+he has seen those all his life. There is not only a central shrine, but
+there are small chapels. The saints have a golden circle round their
+heads: Christians call it the _aura_, the ancients called it the
+_nimbus_; but it was exactly the same thing. They had it around the
+heads of their deities in painting and sculpture, and so on. There are
+censers and there are tapers burning there; and there are all the
+ornaments a pagan was accustomed to see in his temple. All those things
+had been kept, had been re-established, and the pagans had brought them
+with them into the Catholic churches. When I went for the first time to
+Naples, the man who showed me the museum there showed me feet, legs, and
+arms, hands, eyes, and ears, in stone. He said, "These are _ex voto_."
+People who were ill gave to some of the gods, the ones they chose, these
+things as marks of gratitude for having been cured. The cicerone told
+me, "You see, sir, it is exactly the same thing we have in our
+churches." And so it is. In all the churches in Naples and Rome, and in
+the Roman Catholic churches all over Spain and France, you see, in wax,
+in gold, in silver, and in stone, such legs and arms, eyes and ears. It
+is exactly the same thing. The heathen man said to his god, "I will pay
+you by this mark of honor and gratitude, by this mark of your power and
+your glory, if you cure me." The Roman Catholic says exactly the same
+thing to a saint, to the Virgin, sometimes to Jesus, and very rarely to
+God.
+
+I cannot mention here all the other details, like funeral services at
+the end of the year, like funeral chapels, like many other institutions
+that exist in the Roman Catholic Church, that are practised every day in
+it, and that are exactly the same, so far as religious ideas go, as were
+practised in the pagan churches. But I must add something of more
+consequence than that, about the worship of human beings, and especially
+of the worship of the Virgin Mary. It was nothing new to the Pagans to
+worship a woman, and especially to worship a virgin. That was one of the
+ideas the most familiar to their devotion. In Rome they had the temple
+of Hestia or Vesta, who was supposed to be a virgin; and she had around
+her nuns who were pledged to live in celibacy, and punished by death if
+they did not remain true to their vow. In Greece it was the same thing
+with Pallas. Perhaps you all know that in Athens, the largest, most
+perfect, and most beautiful of the Greek temples--immensely superior to
+any edifice I ever saw in any country--is called the Parthenon, which
+means the Virgin Temple. That temple is the temple of Pallas,--Athene,
+or Minerva,--who was the principal deity of Athens. Thus that idea was
+perfectly familiar to them, and they only kept it, and brought it with
+them into Christianity.
+
+I have spoken of monks. You must not believe that the monks are by any
+means a Roman Catholic invention. In the East there have been monks in
+all times and in all religions. It seems to have been a special habit or
+taste of the people of the East to give some men no other business, no
+other work to do, but to live in solitude, and pray for them; and some
+men have always, in those very hot countries, where it is exceedingly
+tiresome to work, liked to live in perpetual prayer better than any
+other more fatiguing labor. We find the monk in all times and countries
+in the East, then in the West; and he has been imported from paganism
+into Christianity, like all the rest. I do not believe there is a
+religion more completely contrary to the monastic feeling than the
+religion of Christ. I do not think there was ever a type more radically
+contrary to the type of the monk, than the figure of Christ as we find
+it in the Bible. However, that old monkish spirit of the Orient was
+always known to the Romans from the beginning; for they had priests and
+monks from the time their city began. That spirit has, like other
+things, been smuggled into the Church, though it was contrary to the
+spirit of Christianity.
+
+I must recall one last rite of great importance. Both the old Romans and
+the old Jews had, as a principal part of their worship, the rite of
+sacrifice. The origin of it was simply this: that men in the first place
+possessed nothing but flocks, and they gave to God one head of their
+flock, one sheep, or one bull, as being the only riches they had to
+give. Before they had houses, before they had garments, before they had
+any other thing,--money they were very far from having,--men had to eat,
+and they had flocks because they wanted to have meat to eat; and thus
+they gave to God the only necessity of life to them, the only thing they
+understood the importance of. And they gave him the whole animal, not
+reserving to themselves any part of it, in some cases; in other cases, a
+part of it only, making a meal of the rest for themselves. To give a
+part to God was one essential element of their worship, the rite of
+sacrifice; and we find that the rite grew out of that, and nothing else.
+It was a habit deeply rooted in the Roman mind, and at the same time
+already familiar to the Jews; and when those Christians who had been
+Jews spoke of Christ to the Romans, they could not prevent that Roman or
+Jewish habit from taking double force, and double space in religion.
+What happened? It happened that the old Romans and old Jews wanted a
+sacrifice; wanted to give something to God; wanted a victim; and then
+came this strange fact, very easy to understand however, of which we
+find traces in the first days of Christianity,--that there was no better
+victim to offer to God than Christ. When they had identified completely
+Christ with the Father, then there was no greater victim to offer to
+God than God himself. Therefore, they had a sacrifice that is called
+"the mass." You know the official name is "sacrifice of the mass." It
+consists in this. The priest takes the host, which is merely bread,--it
+is nothing but a little flour and water, made into bread,--he pronounces
+the consecrating words; then, after he pronounces them, there is no
+bread, there is no flour; instead of the bread, instead of the flour,
+there is Jesus Christ. According to the Council of Trent, that _is_
+Jesus Christ, his body, his blood, his soul, and his divinity; it is
+Jesus Christ; is perfect God. And this has been, by an old Roman
+Catholic writer, very clearly expressed in these three words: "The
+priest, what is he? what does he do? _Creatus Creatorem creat._" He is a
+creature who creates the Creator. After that comes the second great part
+of the sacrifice of the mass. There is God, and the priest sacrifices
+God to God. And how? _Sacrificat manducando._ That is to say, according
+to the formal explanation, he sacrifices God by eating God. This is the
+sacrifice of the mass. If the Roman mind had not been accustomed, as I
+have shown you, to superstition, to all literalism, to the love of the
+law and the letter, even when the law or the letter was absurd, they
+would not easily have accepted all this; but with their turn of mind,
+with their way of taking things, that was exactly what they wished for,
+and that was what they adopted. Not at once: it was very long in
+elaborating itself. It was so completely, I cannot say otherwise, so
+completely absurd, that it required a great deal of time to make it so
+precise; but they attained to that at last, and they could not but do
+so. See, then, what a man the priest is. He has before him bread, and he
+makes God; he afterwards sacrifices God; he is almost a God himself. At
+the moment when he makes God, he seems to be superior to God; at the
+moment when he sacrifices God, by eating him, he seems superior to God.
+Thence comes the immense power of the priesthood, of priestcraft. And as
+if this were not enough, in the mass, as you know, the priest has not
+only the host, but he has the wine, the cup. The other members of the
+church have not the cup, because they must not be equal to the priest
+even in the communion; even in the act of uniting themselves with God.
+Laymen cannot arrive at the height of glory to which the priest arrives;
+they must eat the host when it is given to them, but they cannot touch
+the cup; that is reserved to the priest, a sort of heavenly, or divine,
+or godlike character. Even as the Romans had respected their old
+bridge-makers, their old _pontifices_, their old priests, whom they
+considered the bulwarks of their town, they respected afterwards the
+priests of the Roman Catholic Church. So the mass was established, with
+all its consequences.
+
+This is not all. I must explain exactly how a part of the heathenish
+religion answered, in the time of Jesus, the wants of the heathen better
+than the more natural religion of the Christians. At the time of Christ,
+many Romans did not believe in thirty thousand gods and in all the
+absurd and indecent history of those thirty thousand deities, but they
+had a form of worship that had become purer and purer. They had what
+they called "Mysteries." In Greece, and in Rome also, there were
+"Mysteries." These were ceremonies in which great philosophic and
+religious lessons were given. There exists a very touching letter from
+Plutarch to his wife, written at the time he lost his only daughter, and
+when they were in the deepest affliction and desolation. He writes to
+his wife, who was separated from him at that time, a very kind and
+loving letter, trying to give her comfort and hope. He says to her,
+"Remember the beautiful things we have seen together in the Mysteries of
+Bacchus." You must not believe, as many would at first believe, that the
+Mysteries of Bacchus were nothing but drunkenness and disorder: they
+were something else. They were like the Mysteries of Ceres, the Goddess
+of Corn, and like the representations, in other cases, of the
+immortality of the soul. They were a sort of tragedy in which, less by
+word than by singing, and by acting especially, was shown to men that,
+when the body is interred in the ground, the soul lives, and the soul
+shall rise to fulness of life. A grain of wheat hidden in the ground
+remained hidden there for weeks before coming to life. That was the
+emblem of the new life of immortality. Now, this teaching, good in
+itself, true in itself, but given in dramatic images, was at that time
+the very best, soundest, most human, and most natural part of
+heathenism. And then it happened that Mysteries were acted, not only in
+the heathen churches, but in Christian churches; that the history of
+Christ, that the death of Christ, that the resurrection of Christ, took
+the place of the resurrection of Proserpine, the daughter of Ceres, who
+represented wheat and corn; and then Christianity became a sort of
+subject of sacred myths, sacred plays, that were very devoutly acted,
+and that kept their title of "Mysteries." As soon as we see something of
+the dark ages, and what the practice of worship was, we see this same
+thing. It is going on in all countries in some measure. You may see it
+in the Roman Catholic churches during Easter week. You may see then
+that, when Christ dies, all the lights are put out, save one very small
+light, because that represents the moment when the sky was covered with
+darkness at his death. And you hear in a choir some persons sing the
+words of the people who screamed "Crucify him!" and others repeating the
+words of Caiaphas and the words of Christ. This "Mystery," this serious,
+devout play, is acted in all Roman Catholic churches. When Christ is
+dead, the host is taken away from the altar, and it is carried into the
+tomb, carried into some lower chapel, from which it comes back to the
+great altar on Easter morning, on the day of the resurrection. That
+solemn play is going on in all Roman Catholic countries at the present
+time, and that is a "Mystery." Such is also the "Mystery" that was
+played in Germany, at Oberammergau (Bavaria), during the last year, and
+is played there every ten years. It is a devout, religious, serious,
+dramatic representation of our Lord's suffering, death, and
+resurrection. The mass in itself was in the beginning a Mystery; it is
+often called so; it is often called in old Roman Catholic books and
+often in modern ones the "Mystery of the Mass." It was a representation
+of the death and sacrifice of Jesus; but the Roman Catholic spirit
+coming in declared that this Mystery was not, like others, a mere
+representation, a sacred play, but a reality; and according to the
+doctrine proclaimed by the Council of Trent, three hundred years ago,
+the sacrifice of the mass is much more than a representation of Christ's
+death, of Christ's sacrifice, for he is sacrificed anew, he suffers
+death really anew. And it has been declared, because some Protestant
+opponents were astonished at it, that every time any priest says
+mass,--and every priest must say mass at least once every day,--every
+time a priest says mass, Christ suffers again, and dies again,
+sacrificed by the priest for the redemption of human kind. This is the
+doctrine of the mass, and this gives it a very tragic, grand, and solemn
+effect in the eyes of those who believe in it. Yet this again is nothing
+but Roman literalism, the Roman way of taking every thing literally.
+
+Is all this real Christianity? At all events I have said enough, I hope,
+to give you an idea of the way in which the religion of Jesus of
+Nazareth, as he was called, preached by him on the hills of Galilee,--a
+religion that was quite spirit, and quite truth; a religion that had at
+that time no bleeding, no consecrated man, but that was alive by the
+Spirit of God in the conscience and in the hearts of men,--how that
+religion, purely spiritual as it was, became all the pomp, all the
+exterior complications, all the dramatic intricacies of the Church of
+Rome.
+
+And here I stop to ask again, Can all this suit the urgent necessities
+of our times? Is that the truth after which our souls hunger and thirst?
+
+Now I must, before I end, say a few words to you about the late changes.
+Do those changes make matters better or worse? Let us pass over ages and
+centuries, and come to the present day, because I say we must make some
+change in our way of resisting the Church of Rome. I must state, and
+very rapidly, what these changes are. There are three of them. The first
+is, that a new dogma has been established. The new dogma amounts to
+this, without going into details, that Mary, the mother of Christ, was
+created, at the moment she began to exist, exempt from original sin. All
+human beings are guilty of Adam's sin, with one exception, and that
+exception is Mary. That exception dates from the very first instant of
+her existence. She never was, even in thought or in feeling, a sinner;
+she is consequently out of the pale of humanity; she is not a human
+being; she is more than a woman, she is something godlike from before
+her birth. That is the dogma. It is not new; it was invented in Spain;
+it is a Spanish, an Andalusian dogma. It was invented at a time when the
+Catholics in Spain were laboring very hard to expel from their country
+the Moors, the African Moslems, who were masters of a great part of
+Spain, and who had more science, more art, and more literary culture
+than the Christians of Spain, but who had absurd doctrines about the
+family and about religion, as well you know. Nothing could displease
+them more, could astonish them more, or could confound all their ideas
+more, than to tell them that a woman was godlike. They thought, as all
+Moslems have thought, that a woman had no soul; and here was a woman who
+was a goddess before her birth, who was always a goddess. This was
+something absolutely incredible to them, and it showed the great
+difference between Christians and Moslems, between Spaniards and Arabs.
+This became the general rule among the Spaniards of the southern part of
+the country, in Andalusia especially; and when they met one another they
+did not salute with words of good greeting, but for centuries it was the
+habit in Andalusia, when one Spaniard met another, to say to him, _Ave
+Maria purissima_, and the other answered, _Sin pecado concepida_, which
+means that that dogma was proclaimed every time two persons met. This
+dogma has been taken into special favor by the very powerful order of
+Jesuits. They thought it was important to the church; it was putting
+Mary in the highest honor, to have that dogma become the law of the
+church. But up to the present century, up to last year in the Roman
+Catholic Church, people could believe it or not; now the Pope has
+declared that henceforth every man who does not believe that dogma is
+eternally lost and damned. This he has decreed, after consulting with
+some bishops, with whom he conferred about it, but declaring that he did
+so of his own accord, because, as pope, he had a right to decide on
+that. He said, it is no new doctrine; it has always been in the church.
+As the great writer Father Perrone wrote, "That dogma has been
+developing itself in the church a long time." When I saw the Church of
+Rome speaking of a dogma "developing itself," I thought, This is the
+beginning of the end. If they understand that dogmas develop themselves,
+that they have not fallen like aerolites from the heavens, it seems to
+me that that is the end of infallibility. Some people think it was the
+beginning of infallibility, that it was the Pope for the first time
+declaring a dogma for all men without consulting officially or legally
+any one, and that when he had done this he had augmented his power. I
+must remark here, that when a pope is very weak, the general rule is, he
+does something extremely strong. When he is extremely weak, politically,
+materially, he generally makes some great demonstration of spiritual
+power. When Pope Gregorius VII. kept Henry in his shirt a whole night at
+the door of the castle of Canossa without opening the door to him,
+saying, "You are a sinner, do penance,"--when he did that, the Pope had
+been expelled from Rome, he had lost Rome, therefore he must prove his
+immense spiritual power, because his temporal power was lost. And when
+the present Pope has done acts of authority greater than any other pope,
+it has not been because he was strong, but because he was weak; to
+remain on his throne he wanted to have the bayonets of Louis Bonaparte
+to keep him in power. His own subjects would very soon have shown him a
+second time the way to the frontier, if they had not been prevented by
+the bayonets of that man. Thus the Pope did more towards asserting and
+confirming his own power than any of his two hundred and fifty odd
+predecessors. When afterwards he took a new step, it was in continuance
+of this. He called a council when three hundred years had elapsed since
+an [oe]cumenical council had been called. I know old Roman Catholic
+families who had been waiting for centuries for the moment when an
+[oe]cumenical council should assemble, to denounce before that council
+the encroachments of the Pope, and to ask that the popedom be kept
+within bounds for the future. Pio IX. had an [oe]cumenical council
+called, and held it in his own house, in the Vatican. And there, in one
+end of one of the transepts of the immense church of Saint Peter, the
+Pope had himself declared infallible by the council. Thus all the other
+councils which had been the hope of such persons in the church as could
+not accept every word of the Pope, all those councils have been
+sacrificed, have abdicated, in the last of them, at the foot of the
+Pope. Now, the Roman Catholic Church has become very logically, what it
+ought to become, the same thing in the spiritual world that the Roman
+Empire became in the temporal world. The Roman Emperor was every thing;
+there had been priests and magistrates who had great powers; then the
+emperor made himself dictator, consul, tribune of the people; made
+himself high bridge-maker; took upon himself all dignities. He was every
+thing; and then the whole Roman Empire was one man; and sometimes it
+happened that that man was a mad man like Caligula, who said, "I am
+sorry that all men have not one head that I might cut it off." Such was
+the unity of the Roman Empire, and we see the same fact in the Roman
+Catholic Church to this extent, that there is one human brain that
+thinks for all Roman Catholics in the world, and if that human brain
+decides that such a thing is or is not, all other human brains must
+believe it, or be damned eternally; there is no choice. This is
+perfectly logical; this is not an unexpected change; this must have come
+to pass. As the Pope became physically weak, the more absolute became
+the necessity that this should be done. Now, he is weak, he has lost
+Rome. Although it was not in my way, I passed through Rome a few months
+ago for the purpose of seeing Rome free, and it was an immense joy to
+see that. I had seen Rome groaning under that proud, domineering
+government of the priests, who declared that their government was the
+best in the world, while the whole world called it emphatically _il mal
+governo_. Now I have seen it free; and I think no Bonaparte of France,
+nor any French Government, nor any other government, had any right to
+give up Rome to the priests, to prevent the Romans from being masters in
+their own house, from being free in their own city. I must declare to
+you, that if in one sense the Roman Catholic Church has lost a great
+deal because she has lost that great tradition, lost that long habit of
+ruling in Rome, and the high prestige that comes from it, yet the Roman
+Catholic Church has gained more perhaps than she has lost in this. You
+must not believe that the Roman Catholic Church is to disappear
+to-morrow, or the next day: that shall not happen. There are hundreds of
+thousands of souls who like better to have one man on a throne thinking
+for them, taking on his conscience and his honor the question of their
+salvation,--they like that better than to think for themselves; and
+there will be Roman Catholic churches for a long time to come. They will
+even be stronger in one sense, because that temporal power was so
+exercised that it caused great weakness; and now the Pope will be
+strengthened; will find more interest and sympathy, because he is a king
+without a crown, a king without a throne: in his weakness he will find
+new strength.
+
+What must we do, we Protestants, in the presence of this fact? Must we
+exaggerate, must we be unfair in our attacks? No. Must we go to sleep,
+thinking there is nothing to do? No, not that either. We must work; we
+must work steadily to give light and instruction to all. We have
+here,--and I have tried in a very rapid way to give you an idea of
+it,--we have here history. That is the greatest of weapons in such a
+case as this. Usurpers never like history, because they know very well
+that history condemns them. We must make history known, make the facts
+known, and proclaim liberty and the rights of the human conscience. We
+must do that over the whole world. I do not believe that Protestantism,
+as it has often been said, is nothing else but Roman Catholicism
+stripped of some of its abuses, and without some of its errors. It is
+something else. If there were time, and I could begin now instead of
+ending, I would try to show you that in the history of Protestantism,
+and even before Protestantism appeared, there has always been, next to
+that stream of power of Roman Catholicism, always becoming stronger and
+more encroaching up to these last days, another current of protest;
+there have always been men struggling for faith with liberty, who said,
+"That cannot be;" who understood better the Gospel, who liked the spirit
+of the Gospel, the spirit of God in Christ, better than the spirit of
+Rome. For centuries their mouths may have been closed; their speaking
+and teaching punished by death; but always they became more and more
+numerous, and active, and vigorous; and then came the great day of
+Luther. Protestantism has not been a negation, a remnant of Roman
+Catholicism, the negative side of Christianity. I cannot adopt that idea
+in the least. True Protestantism is full of the spirit of the Gospel; it
+is the living soul of Christ in the Church, it embodies the perfect
+conviction that there is truth, that there is salvation, that there is
+liberty, in the Gospel, and nowhere else so completely.
+
+Now, we must consider the Roman Catholic Church as being an organization
+of power, the most dreadful, the most tyrannical, the most crushing
+organization of power that ever was. It is the master-piece of Roman
+genius. It has been preparing during centuries, and it has been complete
+only since yesterday. It is a great organization against liberty,
+against man's rights, against man's conscience, for the honor of a
+church and of a man. And this we must resist, too. In my country, I
+declare that the cause of all our ills, the fact that is at the basis of
+all our suffering and all our misfortunes, is nothing else than Roman
+Catholicism. This is against the conscience of many souls; this throws
+many people into sheer Atheism, because they see no choice between
+kissing the shoe of the Pope, as is done in ceremonies, and denying the
+existence of God. So they deny God rather than submit to the Pope. We
+must give them sound teaching, religious teaching; we must give them
+the Gospel. And I came to this country to say these things to you; to
+ask you to help us with all your might, and with all your heart, to do
+what is necessary should be done in France to-day; what will be
+necessary to be done in this country sooner or later, and what will be
+necessary to be done in all countries, to show more and more that "where
+is the Spirit of the Lord, there is liberty."
+
+
+
+
+SELFHOOD AND SACRIFICE
+
+By ORVILLE DEWEY.
+
+
+The title which I have chosen for this discourse, is Selfhood and
+Sacrifice. My purpose is, to consider what place these principles have
+in human culture. I use the word, selfhood, rather than self-regard or
+self-interest, because I wish to go back to the original
+principle--selfhood, according to the analogy of our language,
+describing the simple and absolute condition in which self exists; as
+manhood does that of man, or childhood, that of a child. And I say
+sacrifice, rather than self-sacrifice, because the true principle does
+not require the sacrifice of our highest self, but only of that which
+unlawfully hinders outflow from self.
+
+The subject of culture has been brought before the public of late, by
+Professor Huxley, and Matthew Arnold, and Mr. Shairp. I do not propose
+to enter into the questions which have engaged their able pens, but to
+go back to those primary and foundation principles, which I have
+proposed to consider--the one of which is the centre, and the other, the
+circumference of human culture,--Selfhood and Sacrifice.
+
+It is the object of this course of lectures, in part at least as I
+understand it, to discuss this subject--to discuss, _i.e._ the
+principles and grounds, on which right reason and rational Christianity
+propose to build up a good and exalted character. Now with regard to
+what Christianity teaches, has it never occurred to you, or has it never
+seemed to you, in reading the Gospels, that they appeal to
+self-interest, to the desire to be saved, in a way that is at variance
+with the loftiest motives? But it is appealed to, and therefore is, in
+some sense, sanctioned. And yet, as if this self-interest were something
+wrong, the prevalence of it in the world, the world's selfishness in
+other words, is represented by many preachers, as if it were the sum of
+all wickedness, the proof indeed, of total depravity. Here then, it
+seems to me, whether we look at Christianity or at the teachings of the
+pulpit, there is urgent need of discrimination. And there is another
+aspect of the same subject, which seems to require attention; and that
+is what is called, individualism--the mentally living, if not for, yet
+in and out of ourselves; claiming to find all the springs and forces of
+faith and culture within ourselves, to the exclusion of the proper
+influence of society, of Christianity, of the whole great realm of the
+past, by which we have been trained and formed; individualism, which
+says, "I belong to myself, and to nobody else, and do not choose to be
+brought or organized into any system of faith or action with anybody
+else." This, indeed, is an extreme to which, perhaps, but few minds go;
+but there is a tendency of this kind, which needs to be looked into.
+
+Now there is a way of thinking, in matters of practical expediency, to
+which I confess that I am committed by my life-long reflections; and
+which has always prevented me from going to the extreme with any party,
+whether in reforms, in politics, in religious systems, or in any thing
+else; and that is, to look to the mean in things; to look upon human
+nature and human culture, as held in the balance between opposing
+principles. With this view, I shall first undertake to show that the
+principle of self-regard, or of individualism, is right and lawful--is
+indeed, an essential principle of culture.
+
+There is a remarkable passage in the old "Theologia Germanica," which
+hits, I think, the very point in this matter of self-regard. Speaking of
+its highest man, it says, "All thought of self, all self-seeking,
+self-will, and what cometh thereof, must be utterly lost, surrendered
+and given over to God, _except in so far as they are necessary to make
+up a person_." This personality, this stand-point, we must hold to, go
+where we will.
+
+But let me state more precisely what it is, that is here conceded, and
+must be maintained; and why it is important to defend and justify it. I
+call it selfhood; and the word, I conceive, is philosophically necessary
+to meet the case. Because it is a principle, that goes behind
+selfishness; and of which selfishness is the excess and abuse.
+Selfishness calculates, overreaches, circumvents. But selfhood is
+simpler. It is the instinctive, instantaneous, uncalculating rush of our
+faculties, to preserve, protect and help ourselves. Selfishness proposes
+to take advantage of others; selfhood only to take care of itself. It is
+not, as a principle of our nature, a depraved instinct; animals possess
+it. It is not moral, or immoral, but simply unmoral. It is a simple
+force, necessary to our self-preservation, to our individuality, to our
+personality. The highest moral natures feel it as well as the lowest.
+The martyr, who gives up every thing else, holds his integrity fast and
+dear. It is written of the great Martyr, that, "for the joy that was set
+before him, he endured the cross, despising the shame." No being that
+is not an idiot, can be divested of all care and regard for himself. And
+not only does necessity enforce, but justice defends the principle. If
+happiness is a good, and there are two equal amounts of it, the one of
+which is mine, and the other my neighbor's, I may in strict justice,
+value and desire my own as much as his. If I love his more than my own,
+I go beyond the commandment. It is not worth while to put any Utopian
+strain upon the bond of virtue; nay, it does positive harm.
+
+Yet this is constantly done; to the injury of virtue, of conscience, and
+of a proper self-respect. In our theories of culture, we demand of
+ourselves, what is impossible, what is unjust to ourselves, what
+repudiates a part of the very nature we would cultivate. We demand of
+ourselves, and we suppose that Christianity demands of us, a certain
+unattainable perfection,--or what we call perfection,--a sinking of
+ourselves out of sight, and an absorption into the love of God and men,
+quite beyond our reach: and failing of that--thinking it entirely out of
+our sphere, we give up the proper rational endeavor to be Christians. We
+make the highest virtue something exceptional, instead of regarding it
+as a prize for us all. We imagine that some few have attained it; that
+Jesus did, and that a few persons, denominated _saints_, have approached
+him; but that for the common run of men, this is all out of the
+question. The fact is, that Christianity is regarded by many, as an
+enigma, a secret of the initiated, as an idle vision or hard
+exaction--not as a rational culture. Listen to the conversation of the
+mart or the drawing-room, you will find that the high Christian law is
+but a mocking dream in their eyes. "Giving to him that asketh, and from
+him that would borrow, turning not away, and to him that takes from us
+our coat, giving our cloak also; and turning the other cheek to the
+smiter;"--what is this, they say, but extravagance and fanaticism? As if
+they did not know that there is such a figure of speech as hyperbole;
+and that it was perfectly natural, in a society where the poor and the
+weak were trodden under foot, for the greatest heart that ever was, thus
+to pour out itself in pleadings for sympathy, commiseration and
+kindness. But the same Master said, "It is profitable for thee--it is
+better for thee," to have some of thy pleasures cut off--thine offending
+hand or eye; rather _that_, than to have thy whole being whelmed in
+misery.
+
+It is really necessary in this matter, not only to vindicate
+Christianity as a reasonable religion, but to vindicate human nature to
+itself; to save it from the abjectness of feeling that the necessity of
+self-help is an ignoble necessity. Men say, "Yes, we are all selfish, we
+are all bad;" and they sink into discouragement or apathy, under that
+view.
+
+The conditions of true culture are attracting increased attention at the
+present time; and it is natural that they should, when men's minds are
+getting rid of theologic definitions and assumptions, and are coming to
+take broad and manly views of the subject. I am endeavoring to make my
+humble contribution to it; and with this view, to show, in the first
+place, what part our very selfhood, both of right and of necessity, has
+in it.
+
+This principle lies in the very roots of our being; and it is developed
+earliest in our nature. Before the love of right, of virtue, of truth,
+appears this self-regard. Disinterestedness is of later growth. Infancy
+comes into the world like a royal heir, and takes possession, as if the
+world were made for itself alone. Itself is all it knows; it will by and
+by, take a wider range. There is a natural process of improvement in the
+very progress of life. "You will get better," says a dramatic
+satirist,[7] "as you get older; all men do. They are worst in childhood,
+improve in manhood, and get ready, in old age, for another world. Youth
+with its beauty and grace, would seem bestowed on us, for some such
+reason, as to make us partly endurable, till we have time to become so
+of ourselves, without their aid, when they leave us. The sweetest child
+we all smile on, for his pleasant want of the whole world to break up,
+or suck in his mouth, seeing no other good in it--would be roughly
+handled by that world's inhabitants, if he retained those angelic,
+infantile desires, when he has grown six feet high, black and bearded;
+but little by little, he sees fit to forego claim after claim on the
+world, puts up with a less and less share of its good as his proper
+portion, and when the octogenarian asks barely for a sup of gruel or a
+fire of dry sticks, and thanks you as for his full allowance and right
+in the common good of life,--hoping nobody will murder him--he who began
+by asking and expecting the whole world to bow down in worship to
+him--why, I say, he is advanced far onward, very far, nearly out of
+sight."
+
+[Footnote 7: Browning: A Soul's Tragedy, p. 250.]
+
+This advancement, thus springing out of the very experience of life, I
+am yet to consider, and have it most at heart to consider. It is of such
+priceless worth, it so embraces all that is noble in humanity, that the
+importance of the opposite principle, is liable to be quite overlooked.
+Selfishness, which is the excess of a just self-regard, is the one form
+of all evil in the world. The world cries out upon it, and heaps upon it
+every epithet, expressive of meanness, baseness and guilt. And let it
+bear the branding scorn; but let us not fail to see, though selfishness
+be the satirist's mark, and the philosopher's reproach, and the
+theologian's argument, the real nature and value of the principle, from
+which it proceeds.
+
+Selfhood I have preferred to call it; self-love, be it, if you please.
+It is that, which satire and false criticism have misconstrued, when
+they have said that love of kindred, of friends, of country, of God
+himself, is but self-love. The mistake arises from that primal and vital
+part and participation which ourself has in every thing that we enjoy or
+love or adore. This magnificent _I_--and I emphasize it, because all
+meanness is thought to be concentred in that word--this mysterious and
+magnificent _I_--this that one means, when he says I--we may utter, but
+can never explain, nor fully express it. There are great men in the
+world, whose lives are of far more importance than mine--statesmen,
+commanders, kings--but _I_--no being can feel an intenser interest in
+his individuality than I do in mine; no being can be of more importance
+to himself than I am to myself; the very poles of thought and being turn
+upon that slender line; that simple unity, like the unit in figures,
+swells to infinite multiplication; that one letter, that single stroke
+of pen or type, may be varied and complicated, till it writes the
+history of the world. "I think, therefore I am," said the philosopher;
+but the bare utterance of the word I, yields a vaster inference. No
+animal ever knew what that word means. It is some time before the little
+child learns to say, I. It says, "Willy or Ellen wants this or
+that--will go here or there." What is insanity, but the wreck of this
+personality? The victim loses himself. And the morally insane, the
+prodigal, when he returns to reason and virtue, comes to himself.
+
+"A man's self," says Thackeray, "must always be serious to him, under
+whatever mask or disguise or uniform he presents it to the public." Yes,
+though it were as mime, harlequin, jester fool almost; nor could there
+be a more deplorable or desperate condition for a human being, than to
+account himself nothing, or nothing worth, or worthy only to be the butt
+of universal scorn and contempt. From this utter ruin, every man is
+protected by that mysterious and momentous personality that dwells
+within him. We may be little in comparison with the general mass of
+interests, little in comparison with kingdoms, little in comparison with
+the swelling grandeur of thrones and empires, little in comparison with
+the great orb that rolls round the sun, and bears millions of such; but
+we are forever great in the sense of individual destiny. _This_ swells
+beyond kingships, grandeurs, empires, worlds, to infinitude and
+eternity.
+
+There is another element in this selfhood, to be considered, besides its
+conscious importance, and that is free will--itself also unmoral, but
+indispensable. For imagine a rational being to be placed in this world,
+_without_ free will. He can choose neither wrong nor right. He has a
+conscience, but no freedom; no power to choose any thing. It is, I
+think, an incongruous and impossible kind of existence; but imagine it.
+Evils, troubles, temptations press against this being, and he can do
+nothing; he cannot even will to resist. Could there be a condition more
+horrible? No; man is a nobler and happier being than this amounts to.
+Free will is put in him, on purpose to fight the great battle against
+evil. He could not fight, if he could not will. He could not choose the
+right, without being free to choose the wrong; for choosing one path
+without being at liberty to take the other, would be no choosing. Free
+will is to fight the battle. It is a glorious prerogative. And man, I
+believe, is out of all proportion, happier, with this power, all its
+aberrations included, than he would be without it. I am glad for my
+part, that I am not passing through this world, like a car on a
+railroad, or turning round like a wheel in a mill; that I can go, this
+way or that, take one path or another; that I can read, or write, or
+study, or labor, or do business; and that when the great trial-hour,
+between right and wrong, comes, though I may choose the wrong, yet that
+I _can_ choose the right. What better would there be for me than
+this--what better constitution of a rational nature? I know of no better
+possible.
+
+Selfhood, then--this interest in ourselves, being seen to be right, and
+the play of free will which is a part of it desirable; let us turn
+finally to the useful working of the principle. You may have said in
+listening to me thus far, "What need of insisting so much upon
+self-regard, which we all perfectly well understand?" I doubt whether it
+is so well understood; and this must be my apology. We have seen that
+the principle is native and necessary to us; let us look a moment, at
+its utility.
+
+I am put in charge of myself--of my life, first of all. So strong is the
+impulse to keep and defend it, that self-preservation has been called
+the first law of our being. But that argues an antecedent
+fact--self-appreciation. Why preserve that which we value not? We
+defend ourself, because we prize ourself. We defend our life, with the
+instant rush of all our faculties to the rescue. "Very selfish," one may
+say; "And why does a man care so much for himself; he isn't worth it."
+He can't help it. He obeys the primal bond; he is a law to himself. Is
+it not well? Man's life would perish in a thousand ways, if he did not
+thus care for it. The great, universal and most effective guardianship
+over human life everywhere, is--not government nor law, not guns nor
+battlements, not sympathy, not society--but this self-care.
+
+I am put in charge of my own comfort, of my sustenance. I must provide
+for it. And to provide for it, I must have property--house, land,
+stores, means--something that must be my own, and not another's. If I
+were an animal, I might find food and shelter in the common storehouse
+of nature's bounty. But I have other wants; if I have no provision for
+them that is my own; if some godless International League, or Agrarian
+Law, could break down all the rights of property, there would be an end
+to industry, to order, to comfort, and eventually to life itself.
+Whatever evils, whatever monstrous crimes come of the love of gain, its
+extinction would be infinitely worse.
+
+I am put in charge of my good name, my place among men. I must regard
+it. I am sinking to recklessness about virtue if I cease to value
+approbation. Even the martyr, looking to God alone, seeks approval. And
+good men's approbation is the reflection of that. To seek honor from men
+at the expense of principle, is what the Master condemns--not the desire
+of honor. It has been made a question whether the love of approbation
+should be appealed to, in schools. It cannot be kept out, from there,
+nor from anywhere else. If it could, if the vast network of social
+regards, in which men are now held, were torn asunder, society would
+fall to pieces.
+
+Finally, I am put in charge of my virtue--of that above all. And that I
+must get and keep for myself; no other can do it for me. Another may
+stretch out the hand to defend me from a fatal blow; another may endow
+me with wealth; another may give me the praise I do not deserve; but no
+friendly intervention, no deed of gift, no flattery, no falsity, can
+give me inward truth and integrity. That solemn point in human
+experience, that question upon which every thing hangs--shall I do
+right?--or shall I do wrong?--is shrouded in the secrecy and silence of
+my own mind. All the power in the world, cannot do for me the thing that
+I must do for myself. To me, to me, the decision is committed.
+
+Now what I have been saying, is this; it is well that that self-regard,
+upon which so much is devolved, should be strong; that there should be
+no apathy, no indifference, upon this point; that if ever a man wanders
+away into recklessness, into idleness, into disgrace, into utter moral
+delinquency and lawlessness, he should be brought to a stand, and
+brought back again, if possible, by this intense and uncontrollable
+regard for himself--for his own well-being. I do not resolve every thing
+in human nature, into the desire of well being. I do not say that the
+love of life, of property, of reputation, still less of virtue, is the
+same as the love of happiness; but I say that to the pursuit of all
+these a man is urged, driven, almost forced, by this love of his own
+well-being; nay more to the pursuit of the highest eventually, and that,
+by the very laws of his nature.
+
+Let us now turn to the other principle which I propose to discuss--that
+which opens the whole field of our culture--the principle that carries
+us out of, and beyond ourselves.
+
+It has been no part of my design, in discussing the principle of
+selfhood, to show the hinderance to culture, and the evil every way,
+that come from the abuse of it. That will be sufficiently manifest, if
+it be made to appear, that all culture and happiness are found in the
+opposite direction. But if I wanted to put this in the strongest light,
+I should point to the pain and obstruction which are experienced in a
+diseased self-consciousness. It would be a powerful argument for that
+going out of self, which I am about to speak of. Self, if it is a
+necessary stand-point, is yet liable to be always in our way. A morbid
+anxiety about our position, our credit with men, the good or ill opinion
+others have of our talents, tastes or merits, causes more misery, I am
+inclined to think, than any other form of human selfishness. See a
+company of persons, inthralled with music, charmed by eloquence,
+transported by some heroic action set before them; and they forget
+themselves; they do not think, how they look, how they are dressed, what
+others think of them, in their common delight.
+
+The sense of this, I believe it was, that lay at the bottom of the old
+Buddhist doctrine of Nirwana--_i.e._, self-oblivion. To lose this
+wearisome, diseased self, seemed to Gautama, the great apostle of
+Buddhism, to be the chief good. Nirwana has been taken to mean absolute
+annihilation. I do not believe the Buddhists meant that; for to me, it
+is incredible, that any great sect, numbering millions, should have so
+totally given up the natural love of existence, and desire of
+immortality; and Max Müller and others have brought that construction
+of the Buddhist creed, into doubt. Individuals may go that length.
+Unhappy Blanco White, tortured in body and mind, could say that he
+desired no more of life, here or hereafter. A German naturalist could
+say, "Blessed be the death hour--the time when I shall cease to be." But
+this revolt against self and very self-existence, whether ancient or
+modern, I advert to, only to show the necessity of going out from it, in
+order to build up the kingdom of God within us. It is notable; it is
+suggestive; but it is neither healthy, nor true to human nature. Far
+truer is that admirable little poem of David Wasson's, originally
+entitled "Bugle Notes," which in unfolding the blessing and joy of
+existence, touches, I think, the deepest and divinest sense of things.
+
+But let us proceed to consider the law of sacrifice--not sacrifice of
+happiness nor improvement, but the finding of both, in going out from
+self, to that which is beyond and above it.
+
+A man's thought starts from himself; but if it stopped there, he would
+be nothing. All philosophy, science, knowledge presuppose certain
+original faculties and intuitions; but not to cultivate or carry them
+out, would leave their possessor to be the mere root or germ of a man. A
+line in geometry presupposes a point; but unless the point is extended,
+there can be no geometry; it is a point barren of all science, of all
+culture.
+
+Every intellectual step is a step out of one's self. The philosopher who
+studies _himself_, that he may understand his own mind and nature, is
+but studying himself objectively; his very self _then_ lies out of
+himself, and is an abstraction to him. And the mathematician, the
+astronomer, the naturalist, the poet, the artist, each one goes out of
+himself. His subject, his theorem, his picture it is, that draws
+him--not reward, not reputation. Doubtless Newton or Herschel, when he
+left his diagram or his telescope, and seated himself in the bosom of
+his family, might say, "We must live; I must have income; and if public
+or private men offer to remunerate and sustain me, it is right that they
+should do so." But the moment he plunges into deep philosophic
+meditation, he forgets all that. Nature has more than a bridal charm,
+science more than golden treasures, truth more than pontifical
+authority, to its votaries. Not wooing, but worship, is found at its
+shrines and altars. In the grand hierarchies of science, of literature,
+of art, there is a veritable priesthood, as pure, as unworldly, as can
+be found in any church. It is delightful to look upon its work, upon its
+calm and loving enthusiasm. The naturalist brings under his microscope,
+the smallest and most unattractive specimen of organized matter, and
+goes into ecstasies over it, that might seem ridiculous; but no, this is
+a piece of _holy nature_--a link in the chain of its majestic harmonies.
+
+And so every intellectual laborer, when his work is noblest, forgets
+himself--the lawyer in his case, the preacher in his sermon, the
+physician in his patient. Is it not true then, and is it not noteworthy,
+that all the intellectual treasures that are gathered to form the
+noblest humanity, all the intellectual forces that are bearing it
+onward, come of self-forgetting?
+
+Equally true is it--more true if possible, in the moral field. The man
+who is revolving around himself, must move in a very small circle.
+Vanity, self-conceit, thinking much of one's self, may be the foible of
+some able and learned men, but never of the greatest men: because the
+wider is the circle of a man's thought or knowledge, at the more points
+does he see and feel his limitations. Vanity is always professional,
+never philosophic. It belongs to a narrow, technical, never to the
+largest, moral culture. And all the moral _forces_ in the world, are
+strongest, divinest, when clearest of self. When the public man seeks
+his own advancement, more than the public weal, he is no more a
+statesman, but a mere politician; and when the reformer cares more for
+his own opinion than for the end to be gained, the people will not
+regard nor respect him. The world may be very selfish, but it will have
+honesty in those whom it permits to serve it.
+
+The truth is that the whole culture of the world, is built on sacrifice;
+and all the nobleness in the world lies in that. To show that, it is
+only necessary to point to those classes of men and spheres of action,
+which exert the widest influence upon the improvement and welfare of
+mankind. They will all be found to bear that mark.
+
+Look, first, at the professional teachers of the world--the authors,
+artists, professors, schoolmasters, clergymen. In returns of worldly
+goods, their services have been paid less, than any other equal ability
+and accomplishment in the world. Doubtless there have been exceptions;
+some English bishops and Roman prelates have been rich; and some authors
+and artists have gained a modest competence. More are doing it now, and
+yet more will. But the great body of intellectual laborers, has been
+poor. The instruction of the world, has been carried on by perpetual
+sacrifice. A grand army of teachers--authors, artists, schoolmasters,
+professors, heads of colleges--have been through ages, carrying on the
+war against ignorance; but no triumphal procession has been decreed to
+it; no spoils of conquered provinces have come to its coffers; no crown
+imperial has invested with pomp and power. In lonely watch-towers the
+fires of genius have burned, but to waste and consume the lamp of life,
+while they gave light to the world.
+
+It is no answer to say that the victims of intellectual toil, broken
+down in health or fortune, have counted their work, a privilege and joy.
+As well deny the martyr's sacrifice, because he has joyed in his
+integrity. And many of the world's intellectual benefactors, have been
+martyrs. Socrates died in prison, as a public malefactor; for the
+healing wisdom he offered his people, deadly poison was the reward.
+Homer had a lot so obscure, at least, that nobody knew his birthplace;
+and indeed some modern critics are denying that there ever was any
+Homer. Plato travelled back and forth from his home in Athens to the
+court of the Syracusan tyrant, regarded indeed and feared, but
+persecuted and in peril of life; nay, and once sold for a slave. Cicero
+shared a worse fate. Dante, all his life knew, as he expressed it,--
+
+    "How salt was a stranger's bread,
+    How hard the path still up and down to tread,
+    A stranger's stairs."
+
+Copernicus and Galileo found science no more profitable than Dante found
+poetry. Shakspeare had a home; but too poorly endowed to stand long in
+his name, after he left it; the income upon which he retired was barely
+two or three hundred pounds a year; and so little did his contemporaries
+know or think of him, that the critics hunt in vain for the details of
+his private life. "The mighty space of his large honors," shrinks to an
+obscure myth of a life in theatres of London or on the banks of the
+Avon.
+
+I might go on to speak, but it needs not, of the noble philanthropists
+and missionaries, often spoken of lightly in these days, because what is
+noblest must endure the severest criticism; of inventors, seldom
+rewarded for their sagacity and the immense benefits they have conferred
+upon the world; of soldiers, our own especially, buried by thousands, in
+unknown graves--green, would we fain say, green forever be the mounds
+that cover them! Let processions of men and women and children, every
+year, bring flowers, bring garlands of honor, to their lowly tombs!
+
+But there is another form of self-consecration which is yet more
+essential, and which is universal. And yet _because_ it is essential and
+universal, the very life-spring of the world's growth; because it is no
+signal benefit, but the common blessing of our existence; because it
+moulds our unconscious infancy, and mingles with our thoughtless
+childhood, and is an incorporate part of our being, it is apt to be
+overlooked and forgotten. The sap that flows up through the roots of the
+world--it is out of sight. The stately growths we _see_; the trees that
+drop balsam and healing upon the nations, we _see_; the schools, the
+universities, the hospitals, which beneficence has builded, we _see_;
+but the stream that, through all ages, is flowing from sire to son, is a
+hidden current.
+
+It is one of the miracles of the world--this life that is forever
+losing, merging itself in a new life. We talk of martyrdoms; but there
+are ten thousands of martyrdoms, of which the world never hears.
+Beautiful it is to die for our country; beautiful it is to surrender
+life for the cause of religious freedom; beautiful to _go forth_, to
+bear help and healing to the sick, the wounded, the outcast and forlorn;
+but there are those who _stay at home_, alone, unknown, uncelebrated, to
+do and to bear more than is ever done, in one brief act of heroism or
+hour of martyrdom. In ten thousand homes are those, whose life-long care
+and anxiety wear and waste them to the grave. They count it no praise;
+they consider it no sacrifice. I speak not, but for the simple truth, of
+that which to me, is too holy for eulogy. But meet it is, that a
+generation coming into life, which owes its training and culture and
+preservation to a generation that is passing away, should be sensible of
+this truth--of this solemn mystery of Providence--of this law of
+sacrifice, of this outflow from self into domestic, into social life,
+which lies at the very roots of the world.
+
+There is one further application of the principle of disinterestedness,
+which goes beyond classes and instances such as I have mentioned, and
+embraces men simply as fellow-men. Much has been said among us of late
+years, and none too much, of the dangers of an extreme individualism. We
+began as a religious body, in a strong assertion of the rights of
+individual opinion; and we went on in that spirit for a considerable
+time; till it seemed, at length, as if we were liable to lose all
+coherence and to fall to pieces in utter disintegration. But a few years
+ago, moving in that zig-zag line which marks all human progress, we
+awoke to the dangers of the situation; and happily found that if we
+could not agree upon any technical definition of Christian faith, we
+_could_ combine for Christian work. The National Conference was formed;
+a new impulse was given; new funds were poured into our treasury; we are
+circulating books and tracts more widely than we have ever done before;
+we are helping feeble churches and founding new ones, besides doing
+something for missions abroad: in short, we are trying to do the work
+which, in common with other Christian communions, properly belongs to
+us.
+
+But there is another movement, which I regard with equal interest, and
+which promises in fact, to go deeper than any thing else we can do. I
+allude to those Unions, in which, I think the city of Providence leads
+the way: and in which New Bedford, Worcester, and Brooklyn have followed
+the example. These associations provide a public room or rooms, well
+lighted and warmed, for those who will, to resort to them; but
+especially for the young, who most need good culture, entertainment and
+encouragement; and in these rooms are found books, pictures, games, and
+music perhaps; and classes for regular instruction may be formed, and
+lectures occasionally given, or discussions held; in fact, whatever will
+contribute to the general improvement and to the pleasant and profitable
+passing of social evenings, may be introduced. This kind of institution
+is especially adapted to our smaller cities; and may be extended to our
+country villages. Our people in the country, live too much apart and
+alone; and besides the direct advantages of these gatherings together, a
+mutual acquaintance and a kindly feeling would be promoted, which are of
+scarcely less importance.
+
+Let me add that there is a new ideal of life, which, I think, is slowly
+arising among us; and which, when it is fully carried out, I believe,
+will make an impression upon society, never before seen in the world.
+This is the idea of mutual helpfulness; of every man's living not to
+himself, but to God, in loving and helping his kind. Helpfulness, I
+say--that which Mr. Ruskin describes as the most glorious attribute of
+God himself; and which has so seized upon his imagination, that he
+ventures to substitute for "Holy, holy, holy is the Lord," Helpful,
+helpful, helpful, is the Lord God Almighty! This will not do; but it
+indicates a glorious tendency of modern thought. The old ideal of life
+has been, to get together the means of comfort and enjoyment; to get
+wealth, to get a fine house, to get luxuries for wassail and feasting,
+or to get books and pictures; and then to sit down and enjoy all this
+good estate, and transmit it to fortunate heirs, with little thought of
+others--with some charities perhaps, but without taking into heart or
+life, the common weal, happiness and improvement of all around.
+
+What a millennium would it begin, if, instead of this, every man should
+be thinking, just so far as he can go beyond taking care of his own body
+and soul, what he can do for others--not in any merely eleemosynary way;
+not merely to instruct and improve men, with the pharisaic assumption of
+being better or better off than they; but by acting a brotherly part
+towards them, speaking neighborly words, doing neighborly deeds,
+smoothing the path, softening the lot, seeing all erring and sorrow, and
+joy and worth, as if they were their own; and wherever there is any
+difficulty or trial or need, to "lend a hand." Whenever such a spirit
+enters into and pervades society, it will make a world, compared with
+which, _our_ time will sink back among the dark ages.
+
+In short, when is it, that a man does and is, the highest that he is
+capable of? The answer is, when forgetting himself, forgetting
+advantage, gain, praise, fame, he pours himself out, in intellectual or
+moral, and, any way, beneficent activity. When does culture or art in
+him attain to the highest? It is when going beyond all thoughts of
+culture and art, he flings himself, in perfect sympathy and free
+communion, into the great mass of human interests. It is so that the
+greatest things have been achieved in all the higher fields of human
+effort--in writing, in eloquence, in painting and sculpture and music;
+and it is so, especially, that the doers of great things, have become
+the noblest men. "Art for art's sake," has been the motto for culture,
+with some. And to a certain extent, that is true. It is fine to work for
+the perfection of the work, and without any intrusion of self. But a man
+may work so, upon a theme of little or no significance to the world's
+improvement or welfare. He may work so, with small thoughts, small
+ideals, for which nobody cares, or has any reason to care. But so can he
+not work grandly, however finished be the result. Art is for the sake of
+something beyond itself. Only when it goes out into great ideals that
+mingle themselves with the widest culture and improvement of men, only
+when it strikes for the right, for liberty, for country, for the common
+weal, does it achieve its end.
+
+We have had literature enough, and have it now, in which the writer
+seems hardly to go beyond himself--writing out of himself and into
+himself--occupied with making fine sentences, without any earnest
+intent; and which readers, used to feed upon the honest bread of plain
+English speech, hardly know what to make of. Very fine, these sparkling
+sentences may be, very beautiful, very apt to strike with admiration;
+but they divert attention with surprises, or cover up thought with
+coruscations. They are like gems that lie scattered upon the table; they
+are not wrought into any well-woven fabric; they do not move _on_ the
+subject to any conclusion.
+
+Men may win great admiration and great fame, but not great love; though
+they gain, perhaps, as much as they give. Only by writing out of the
+bosom of a great humanity _to_ the great humanity, can one fill the
+measure of good art or good culture. Even Goethe, of whom Professor
+Seeley says, that "he found every thing interesting except the fact that
+Napoleon was trampling upon Germany"--a fatal exception: even Goethe,
+with all his art, his marvellous versatility and fine accomplishment,
+failed to reach the highest place, either in the best self-culture, or
+in men's best love. _Savant_, poet, novelist, of high mark, as he was,
+he has no such place as Newton, Wordsworth, and Walter Scott, in men's
+love. Schiller and Richter, I believe, are more beloved in Germany, than
+Goethe.
+
+In mere art, in perfection of style, no writers have equalled Homer and
+Shakspeare. But _they_ did not say, "Art for art's sake." They had no
+thought but to communicate their thought. If singular felicities appear
+in their style, little eddyings of exquisitely turned conceits, as
+especially in Shakspeare, they made a part of, and swept on the strong
+current of their ideas. They were not introduced for their own sake, or
+merely to please the writer.
+
+It has been said that great authors are born of great occasions. Some
+remarkable era, some turn or tide in human thought, or in human affairs,
+have borne them on to their supreme greatness. Will not the time come,
+when men shall so look into the depths of the human heart, into the
+tragic or blissful experiences of all human life, that no great era
+shall be necessary to make great writers?
+
+I believe it. I believe in a perpetual human progress--progress in every
+kind, material, mental, moral, religious, divine; and I greatly desire
+to say a few words in close, if you will indulge me upon this point. For
+I found this faith in progress, on the two principles which I have been
+considering in this lecture. Selfhood obliges a man to take care of
+himself. To go out of himself is the only way, in which he can
+take care of himself--can take care, that is to say, of his own
+improvement and happiness. In selfhood, necessary as it is, there is
+no virtue, and little joy. Outflow from it--love, generosity,
+disinterestedness--embraces the whole sphere of our culture and welfare.
+
+Can there be any doubt upon either of these points--either the culture
+or welfare?
+
+Upon the culture, I say; upon what makes for human improvement. There is
+evil enough in the world; but what nation or age ever approved of it?
+What people ever praised selfishness, injustice, falsifying of speech or
+trust? No literature ever celebrated them. No religion ever enjoined
+them. No laws ever enacted them. Imagine a law that proposed to reward
+villains and to punish honest men. The world would spit upon it. Imagine
+a book or essay or poem or oration, that plainly set about to tell what
+a beautiful and noble thing it is, to lie, to defraud, to wrong,
+corrupt, and ruin our fellows. No man ever had the face to do such a
+thing. No; books may have taught such things, but they never taught them
+as noble things. The man never lived, that would stand up and say, "It
+is a glorious thing to betray trust, or to ruin one's country, or to
+blaspheme God." Men do such things, but they don't reverence nor respect
+themselves for doing them.
+
+This then being settled--and it is a stupendous fact--the right
+principle about culture, being thus set up, high and irrepealable in the
+human conscience and in the sentiments of all mankind--what says the
+common judgment of men about the happiness or misery of following the
+right? Does it say--"It is a blessed thing to be a bad man; it is good
+and wise to be a base or cruel man." Does it say--"Happy is the miser,
+the knave, the drunkard." No, it does not. There is temptation to do
+wrong; _that_ all know; there is a notion that it may promote some
+temporary interest or pleasure; there is a disposition in many, to
+prefer some sensual gratification to the purer satisfactions of the
+higher nature; but there is, at the same time, a deep-founded
+conviction, that misery in the long run must follow sin; that the
+everlasting law of God has so ordained it to _be_; and that only the
+pure, the noble, the heroic, the good and godlike affections can ever
+make such a nature as ours, content and happy.
+
+Here then is another stupendous principle settled. And now, I say, this
+being is a lover of happiness. He is not wise; he is not clear-seeing;
+he is not good either--_i.e._, he is not fixedly and determinately good;
+he is weak too; he is easily misled; he is often rebellious to the
+higher laws of his nature; but--I hold to that--he is a lover of
+happiness; and happiness, he knows, can never be found, but in obedience
+to those higher laws. He is a lover of happiness, I say; he cannot be
+worse off, without wishing to be better off; if he is sick, he wants to
+be well; if his roof lets in the rain, he will have it repaired; if the
+meanest implement he uses, is broken, he will have it mended. Is it not
+natural--is it not inevitable, that this tendency should yet develop
+itself in the higher concerns of his being? Is it not in the natural
+order of things, that the higher should at length gain the ascendency
+over the lower, the stronger over the weaker, the nobler over the
+meaner? How can it be thought--how can it _be_, in the realm of Infinite
+Beneficence and Wisdom, that meanness and vileness, sin and ruin should
+be strong and prevail, and gain victory upon victory, and spread curse
+beyond curse, and draw their dark trail over the bright eternity of
+ages!
+
+No, in the order of things, this cannot be. Grant that there are evils,
+difficulties, obstacles in the way. But in the order of things,
+principles do not give way before temporary disturbances. Law does not
+yield to confusion. Gravitation binds the earth, notwithstanding all the
+turmoil upon its bosom. Light prevails over darkness, though cloud and
+storm and night interrupt its course. The _moral_ turmoil upon earth's
+bosom, war and outbreak and widespread disaster, the cloud and storm and
+darkness of human passions and vices, the bitter struggles and sorrows
+of humanity, the dark shadows of earthly strife and pain and sin, are
+yet to give place to immutable law, to all-conquering might and right,
+to everlasting day.
+
+I am as sure of it, as I am of the being of God--as I am of my own
+being. The principles of progress are laid in human nature. If man did
+not care for himself, I should have no hope of him. If he could not go
+out from himself, and find therein his improvement, virtue and
+happiness, I should have no hope of him. But these two principles yoked
+together, in the Heaven-ordained frame of our being, will draw on to
+victory.
+
+
+
+
+THE RELATION OF JESUS
+
+TO THE
+
+PRESENT AGE.
+
+By CHARLES CARROLL EVERETT.
+
+
+The writer to the Hebrews affirms that Jesus Christ is "the same
+yesterday, to-day, and for ever." Paul exclaims to the Corinthians,
+"Though we have known Christ after the flesh, yet now henceforth know we
+him no more." Christ was the same; yet before the generation that he
+left upon the earth had passed away his relation to the earth had
+changed. Thus does the work of Christ shape itself afresh to meet the
+needs of every generation. Compare together the Christ of the first
+century, the Christ of the thirteenth, the Christ of the sixteenth, and
+the Christ of the nineteenth centuries, and you would hardly think they
+all represent the same personality. Christ is always the same. His work
+is always substantially the same; but because the ages change, the
+method of this work changes. The same needs always exist in the heart of
+humanity, but in different ages these needs manifest themselves in
+different ways, and are to be met by different instrumentalities. And,
+further, it is not merely because the needs of humanity continually
+change their aspect that the work of Christ is ever changing. No age is
+a recipient alone. There is no action without reaction Each age
+contributes something to the work of Christ. It adds new forces, new
+methods, new machinery. Its spirit, and by this I mean its real, vital,
+energizing spirit, becomes united with the spirit of Christ, as it is
+present and active in the world.
+
+In considering the relation of Christ to the present age, we have then
+to consider it under two aspects. We have to consider each as a giver,
+and each as a receiver. We may help to make this double relation clear
+by saying that Christ is present to this nineteenth century at once as a
+problem and as a power. No questions have stirred more deeply the heart
+of the age than those which have to do with the person and the office of
+Christ. The answers to these questions shape the aspect in which he
+stands to the age, and become therefore parts and elements of the power
+by which he acts upon the world. But this statement does not exhaust the
+twofold relation of which I speak. That which the age gives to Christ is
+not merely its thought about him. The secular thought and life of the
+age bring their contribution, they are themselves a contribution to him.
+They furnish one part of that complete organism of which Christ
+furnishes the other. If the age, in any fundamental forms of its thought
+and life, seems to stand in opposition to Christ, this apparent
+opposition is only the antithesis of elements which belong together. If
+what we call the spirit of the age seems, in any respect, to stand in
+opposition to the spirit of Christ, this only shows the need that each
+has of the other. The spirit of this nineteenth century needs the spirit
+of Christ, and the spirit of Christ needs the spirit of this nineteenth
+century. It is not then merely that the thought of the age clears away
+something of the obscurity and the misconception that have gathered
+about the person and the work of Christ. If all he said and did were as
+truly comprehended now as they could have been at the first, no less
+real, no less important, would be the offering which this age would
+bring to him. Neither does the fact, that the work of Christ needs the
+work, and that his spirit needs the spirit, of the century in which we
+live, necessarily imply any imperfection in his original work, or any
+thing originally lacking in his spirit. The question as to what he had
+in reserve, as to the limit, or the lack of limit, of his insight and
+comprehension, is one that I do not need, and do not intend here to
+raise. There is a kind of work that cannot be done all at once. There is
+a fulness of spirit that cannot manifest itself all at once. It is
+sufficient to know that Christ recognized this fact as well as we can.
+He affirmed it as clearly and as confidently as it is possible for us to
+do. "I have," he said to his disciples, "yet many things to say unto
+you, but ye cannot bear them now. Howbeit, when he, the Spirit of truth,
+is come, he shall lead you into all truth." All, so far as we can see,
+that it was possible for any spirit to do at one moment, Christ did. He
+infused into the world a spirit of love and faith and consecration, a
+principle of enthusiasm for humanity. He added to these the vitalizing
+power that came from his personality. This he did, and with this he was
+forced to be content. He told us the nature of his work, and foretold to
+us its history. It was to be as a little leaven which a woman hideth in
+a measure of meal till the whole is leavened. He hid in the world the
+leaven of his truth. That was all that he could do. It is for us to
+witness, and to contribute to, the completion of his work.
+
+In considering the theme before us, I shall speak, first, of the
+external history of Christ, next of his teaching, and finally of his
+personality, in their relation to the present age.
+
+In considering the relation of Christ to the present age, we are met,
+then, first by the most external form of this relation. The external
+history of Christ, the very framework of many of his highest and purest
+teachings, contains elements that are utterly opposed to the habits of
+thought which are most peculiar to the present century. I refer to
+whatever in the history of Christ implies the exercise of any miraculous
+power by him.
+
+The idea of a miracle is opposed to the fundamental axioms of the
+popular thought of the present. The writers who best represent this
+thought do not hold it necessary to disprove the fact of miracles. They
+simply affirm, with Strauss, that the time is past when a miracle can be
+believed. On the other hand, the miraculous is inextricably intertwined
+with the history of Christ. We find miracles recognized, not merely in
+records the genuineness of which has, with or without reason, been
+suspected. In Epistles of Paul, the genuineness of which no critic of
+repute has ever dreamed of assailing, the miraculous element is
+recognized as distinctly as in the Gospels. We have at least the
+testimony of Paul--one of the grandest souls that ever lived, a man whom
+we know and honor as we know and honor few--that he believed himself to
+have wrought miracles, and that he believed the other apostles had done
+and were in the habit of doing the same. And we further have his
+testimony, with that of others indorsed by him, in regard to the most
+important of the miracles of Jesus; namely, the manifestation by Jesus
+of himself to his disciples after his death.
+
+Here is a collision between the form of the external manifestation of
+Christ and the spirit of the age. The age itself has given such
+prominence to this that we cannot overlook it. The idea of miracle is so
+foreign to the spirit of the age that it has a fascination for it. It
+has less importance than any thing else in the history of Jesus, and yet
+nothing has more occupied the thoughts of the thinkers of the present
+generation.
+
+For the reasons already stated, we must concede a certain degree of
+right to both sides of the great controversy. If we cannot eliminate the
+miraculous from the history of Jesus, neither can we, nor would we if we
+could, eliminate from the spirit of the age that element which finds it
+hard to accept a miracle. The very antagonism between the two, the right
+which each maintains being granted, shows the need that each has of the
+other. Each has a contribution for the other which could be received
+from no other source.
+
+In the first place, the absolute incredulity with which the most
+thorough representatives of the thought of the time receive any story of
+the miraculous shows that now, for the first time, a miracle is seen to
+be in the truest sense of the word a miracle. To the child or the savage
+a miracle is hardly possible. Either every thing is a miracle or nothing
+is. It is only as the absoluteness of law is recognized that a miracle,
+which is in appearance a violation of this law, begins to produce its
+full impression. The present age has placed behind miracle a mighty
+background of law. From out this does miracle first stand forth in its
+true nature, as something demanding yet defying credence. Those who
+blame the spirit of the age for lack of faith in this direction should
+at least give it credit for this immense contribution to the idea of
+miracle, by which, for the first time, a miracle stands forth absolutely
+in its true nature.
+
+Not only does the spirit of the age thus furnish to miracles the
+background that they need: it furnishes to them also a content. The
+thought of law does not stop with the background of laws of which I
+spoke. Laws may be finite: law is infinite. The miracle sets at defiance
+the great background of recognized laws; but itself can be only the
+manifestation of some higher, grander, more comprehensive law. Thus does
+a miracle more truly than ever before come as a real revelation. For the
+first time it has its full and logical meaning. It was before expected
+to prove something which from the nature of the case it could not prove.
+No miracle, however stupendous, can prove the truth of a principle in
+morals. It can show, indeed, some superiority, in some respect, in him
+who works the miracle; but this superiority may not be of a nature to
+demand implicit confidence towards the person in all respects. It may be
+like the superiority of the European over the ignorant savage. The
+missionary may win the trust of the simple barbarian by sending a
+message written upon a chip; but the sailor, bringing the seeds of all
+the vices of civilization, can "make the chip speak" as well as the
+missionary. But when the miracle testifies of the comprehensive law
+which it manifests, then first does it have a meaning which cannot be
+wrested out of it. Nay, then first does it become really sublime.
+Before, it was a single meteor flashing in short-lived brightness across
+the sky. Now, it is the first manifestation of a vast system of worlds
+of which we had not dreamed. Such is the contribution which the spirit
+of the age, through the very antagonism of which I spoke, makes to the
+miracles which constitute so much of the external form in which Christ
+meets it.
+
+On the other hand, miracle brings a no less important contribution to
+the spirit of the age. This spirit tends, not only to look upon law as
+absolute, but to look upon the system of laws which it has discovered as
+final. These laws tend continually to become narrow and hard. They tend
+to become merely a system of physical forces. There is danger that the
+spirit may become shut up within these physical laws as in a
+prison-house. The miracle demonstrates to the senses that these physical
+laws are not absolute, even in their own realm; that these physical
+forces are encompassed and interpenetrated by spiritual forces; that
+matter is at the last subordinate to spirit. It may not reveal the
+nature of these spiritual forces; but it does reveal their presence. All
+do not need this demonstration. The same truth may be reached in other
+ways. The laws of thought reveal it. The spiritual consciousness may be
+sufficient unto itself. Christ himself regarded his miracles as of
+comparatively small account. He wrought them because he was moved to use
+whatever power he had to bless mankind. If he healed the sick, it was
+because he loved to heal them. He sympathized with sorrow and suffering,
+and, so far as he could, would remove their cause. But the miracles
+carry, as we have seen, their own revelation with them; and they have
+their place, however lowly, in regard even to the spiritual
+consciousness. The albatross, we are told, with all its magnificent
+sweep of wing, cannot lift itself from the flat surface of the deck on
+which it may be lying. Just because its wings are so strong and large,
+it needs to be lifted a little, that they may have space to move, that
+they may have freedom to smite the air. When this freedom has been given
+it, then it mounts upward, sustained by its own inherent strength. So is
+it, sometimes, with the spirit. It has strength of its own. It has a
+self-sustaining power. But it sometimes needs to be lifted a little way
+above the dead level of its daily life, above the plane of physical
+relations, before its wings find strength and freedom to beat the air.
+Then, leaving its temporary support behind it, it mounts in glad flight
+heavenward. Such help many have found, and may yet find, in the miracles
+of Jesus. The miracle may lift the level surface of life as if into a
+wave, from the crest of which the spirit may start upon its flight.
+
+From the external manifestation of the history of Christ, and the
+external relations in which through this he stands to the present age,
+we pass to the inner power of this life. Within these external
+manifestations we find his teachings. We have, then, next to consider
+the relation in which Christ stands to the present age as a teacher. We
+shall find here the same twofold relation which we have found before;
+and the external may thus stand as a type and illustration of the
+internal. We will first consider, under this aspect, the basis and form
+of the teaching of Christ, and next its substance.
+
+The spirit of the age is truth-seeking. We speak often of the eagerness
+for wealth that marks the age. I think that when, from the distant
+future, men shall look back upon this period of the world's history, the
+search for wealth will not be seen to fill the place that to us it seems
+to occupy. The age will be seen to be animated by a nobler quest than
+this. The search for truth will be seen to be the quest by which it is
+marked most really. We speak of the corruption of the age, of the
+trickeries of trade, of the unscrupulousness of speculation, of the
+pretence and display of fashion, of the venality of politics. All this
+is true. These things deserve the denunciation of the moralist and the
+preacher. But behind all this is the life which truly marks the age. It
+is the life of patient, earnest, honest search for truth. I believe that
+never and nowhere has there been manifested, to so great extent, such
+conscientious and self-forgetful love of truth for its own sake as may
+be found in the scientific investigations of the present day. Such
+accuracy of research, such microscopic delicacy of measurement, such
+patient and unprejudiced examination, I believe to be unequalled in the
+history of man. This proves that, in spite of the frauds and falseness
+of which I spoke, the age is really sound at heart. Theologians
+sometimes speak of the flippancy and conceit of the science of the day.
+The terms would be more true applied in the opposite direction. Theology
+is more open to such charges than science. A love of truth that would
+fling away even the highest glory of the earth and the hope of heaven,
+if so be truth may stand pure and perfect, has something sublime about
+it. Well might the theologian take a lesson from the man of science in
+regard to this consecration to truth. For theology, with its
+presumption, its prejudice, its pretence, its glossing over of
+difficulties, its leaning upon authority which it feels at heart is not
+authority, its saying what it does not exactly believe, that it may not
+contradict those who perhaps do not believe exactly what they say, may
+well stand ashamed in the presence of the science of the day that has
+left all to follow truth. Theology should give to science not
+tolerance, not patronage, but reverence. While it utters fearlessly the
+truth that is given it to speak, it should in its turn seat itself as a
+learner at the feet of science, and seek not only to gather the facts
+which it has to teach, but to catch something of its spirit, the spirit
+that loves truth, and that will suffer nothing to take the place of
+this.
+
+But Christ was not a truth-seeker. It does not appear that he ever
+doubted or questioned. Pilate asked the question, What is truth? It does
+not appear that Jesus ever did. Jesus came not to seek the truth, but to
+announce it. "To this end," he cried, "was I born, and for this cause
+came I into the world, that I should bear witness unto the truth." He
+came to bear witness unto the truth, but it was truth that came to him
+without his seeking. Neither does it appear that Christ loved truth
+above all things. To the Jesuit there is something better than truth,
+and to this he will sacrifice truth itself. I assert nothing like this
+in regard to Christ. Truth was to him fundamental and essential. He
+would not accept or tolerate what was false. But still to know was not
+the great object of his life. There was something better to him than
+truth; namely, life. He would rather be than know. At his touch truth
+sprang into life. If he came to bear witness to the truth, this was only
+a step in his grander work, the work which he proclaimed at the very
+beginning of his mission, when he cried, "I am come that they might have
+life, and that they might have it more abundantly." And, further, Christ
+did not merely teach life through truth: he taught truth through life.
+"If any man," he said, "will do his will, he shall know of the
+doctrine." And John was full of the spirit of his Master when he cried,
+"The life is the light of men."
+
+We see more clearly the antithesis between Christ as a teacher on the
+one side, and the present age on the other, in this fact: viz., that
+Christ speaks with authority to an age which rejects authority. The cry
+of the age, in the world of the intellect as well as in that of
+politics, is for liberty. But to this age, as to every age, Christ comes
+as a master. "My yoke," he says, "is easy;" but it is a yoke none the
+less.
+
+If the relation of Christ to his truth is so different from that of the
+spirit of the age to its truth, it must follow that the two forms of
+truth rest on different bases. The faculties by which the age seeks
+truth must be different from those through which the truth came unsought
+to Jesus. This age seeks truth by the discriminating and investigating
+power of the understanding. Truth came to Jesus through the intuitions
+of the soul. In him the moral and spiritual faculties were full of
+strength. He lived as naturally in the world of spiritual realities as
+other men live in the world of physical realities. As we need only open
+our eyes and see, so his spirit had only to open its eyes and it saw. As
+the voices of the outward world come to us without our listening for
+them, so the voice of God came to him whether he would or no. And this
+was the ground of the authority with which he spoke. Whoever speaks from
+the moral and spiritual consciousness to the moral and spiritual
+consciousness may and must speak with authority. We may illustrate this
+by an extreme case. When a man is lurking for the commission of some
+crime, or after he has committed it, he feels the mastery of all
+innocent things. The rustle of a leaf may excite his dread. To a voice
+denouncing his crime, or crime like his, he listens as to the voice of
+God. This recognition of the mastery of a higher degree of life after
+its own kind is felt at every stage of moral and spiritual development.
+If the soul be comparatively guilty, it recognizes this mastery with
+dread. If it be comparatively innocent, it recognizes it with joy. Such
+was the authority with which Jesus spoke. Though he spoke with
+authority, what he said did not rest on this authority. It was the
+authority with which the awakened calls to the sleeper, bidding him
+awake, for the world is bright with the morning. The voice penetrates to
+the obscured consciousness of the sleeper. He stirs himself, he opens
+his eyes, and rejoices for himself in the morning brightness. So Christ
+called to a sleeping world. Nay, he called to those who were dead in
+trespasses and sin, and they that were dead heard the voice of the Son
+of Man and lived.
+
+If the truth taught by Jesus and the truth that is sought by the present
+age rest on such different bases, they must be, we should suppose, in
+some respects different each from the other. But, if each be truth, they
+must be the complements each of the other. And, if they are the
+complements each of the other, they must need one another. Each must be
+imperfect without the other. Each must find a certain confirmation and
+support from the other, and each must complete for the other the circle
+of truth. We are thus led to look at some points in the teaching of
+Christ, and to see how these complete and are completed by the truth
+which the present age seeks and finds.
+
+In the first place, Christ teaches us of the loving providence of God.
+He awakens in our hearts all childlike instincts of trust and
+confidence. He tells us that God is our father, that his love watches
+over all his children, that it follows the prodigal in his wandering
+and greets him on his return, that even a sparrow does not fall to the
+earth without it. This teaching is sufficient for the spiritual
+necessities of our nature. The spirit that has adopted these principles
+into itself will live a strong and blessed life. They have been the
+inspiration of the centuries ever since Christ uttered them. They
+contain all that could be told of God in the age when Jesus lived. But
+they do not exhaust the truth of God. They leave space for
+misconception. Love may be universal, and yet be not without caprice.
+Providence may watch over all, and yet in every case be only a special
+providence. God may watch over every individual of the race, but over
+each merely as an individual. If there may be the caprices of love, then
+it is not a long step to the possibility of caprices which spring from
+the lack of love. Love may alternate with hate. If each individual be
+dealt with singly, as though he existed by himself, the step is not a
+long one to the thought of discrimination between individuals. The
+caprices of love may become favoritism, and the special favor shown to
+one implies the neglect of another. All these things are foreign from
+the spirit and the teaching of Christ. They contradict the fundamental
+principles of his teaching. And yet, men's habits of thought being such
+as they were, the teaching of Christ could not be absolutely fortified
+against them. He told men that the love of God was like the sunshine
+that visits all alike, but the words passed through their ears unheeded.
+Thus Christianity all along has been corrupted by misrepresentations of
+its truth in which the thought of love had suggested caprice, and the
+thought of special love and special providence had suggested the thought
+of favoritism, and favoritism had suggested discrimination and neglect.
+All men were seen to stand in the presence of God as individuals, which
+is true; and merely as individuals, which is false.
+
+The truth that God is love needs to be supplemented by another truth;
+namely this, that God is Law. The great truth of the absoluteness of law
+cannot be taught in a single lesson. No man can tell it to another. It
+must be demonstrated to be believed. It must be shown in its myriad and
+unvarying applications to all forms of being before it can be felt as a
+reality. One must see for one's self the grand march of the order of the
+universe, the unfailing sequence of cause and effect, the mathematical
+exactness of the correlation of all the forces of the world, before one
+can have a sense of the truth which lies at the basis and forms the
+culmination of scientific thought to-day. This truth has not been
+reached suddenly. The ages have been groping after it. This age has
+reached, by slow and patient thought, a comprehension of this truth
+which is its inspiration. The ages to come will only add to it new
+illustrations as they follow its mighty sweep. This truth is what seems
+at times to put this age into antagonism with the spirit of Christ. It
+is really the offering which the thought of the age brings to Christ.
+The teaching of Christ needs, as we have seen, this truth as its
+complement. The antithesis between the two shows the intimate
+relationship between them. When we bring the two together in one
+thought, we have the most sublime conception that ever dawned upon the
+mind of man. The truth of Christ finds a body: the truth of the age
+finds a soul. On the one side, all possibility of caprice is driven from
+our thought of God. The love of God, as strong and tender as the lips
+of Jesus could describe it, is seen to be as regular and as calm as the
+movements of the heavens. This truth only adds to the strength and the
+clearness of our thought of the love of God. We see demonstrated before
+us how his care pursues all things, how not a sparrow falls to the earth
+unfollowed by this watchful providence, how every grain of dust that
+floats in the summer sun has its place and work in the great whole, not
+a single mote forgotten. We learn in what direction to look for the
+action and succor of this providence. We do not look for it to come to
+us in weakness, but in strength. We see that this perfect order is the
+truest providence, that the care of each is most perfect that recognizes
+each in its relations to all the rest. So soon as we recognize the
+divinity of law and the love that is enshrined in it, we feel the
+omnipresent might of this divinity, the omnipotence of this love. The
+restlessness and passion of our hearts are stilled. Trust in God takes
+on the peace and the calmness of the heavens. Such is the offering which
+the age brings to Christ. It brings a body in which his spirit may
+incarnate itself afresh.
+
+The result of the union of the thought of the age with the thought of
+Christ may be seen in all the relations in which the soul stands to God.
+Christ bade his followers preach his gospel to every creature. The age
+has taught us the necessity of educating and civilizing the barbarian,
+if we would christianize him. Christ taught us to love the sinner while
+hating sin. This has seemed to some paradoxical; but the age has removed
+some of the difficulty by showing how much of what we call character is
+the result of inherited tendencies and outward circumstances. Jesus
+taught the doctrine of immortality. Men have tended to look upon the
+future life as something standing over against the present. The age
+teaches us that such a break in life is impossible, that if there be an
+immortality it must lie hidden in the present. It teaches, too, that the
+judgments of God, if there be a God, are never arbitrary. He does not
+hold blessing in one hand and cursing in another, and give each, by an
+outward bestowal, as he may see that it is deserved. Men's acts drag
+their consequences after them. Thus the old Scripture phrases are just
+coming to their meaning. It is not an angry God that pursues the sinner:
+it is his own sin that has found him out. Men do reap the fruit of their
+own sowing. There is no scientific truth of the day that stands in any
+stronger antagonism to the truth of Christ than is implied in such
+antitheses as have been referred to. Even the theories of development,
+so rife at present, do not stand in the way of Christ. Christ looks not
+downward but upward, not backward but forward. Such theories, if
+established, would only show the progressive power of spirit, the
+omnipotence of life.
+
+But if the thought of Jesus needs that of the present age, still more
+does the thought of the age need that of Jesus. If the spirit needs a
+body, still more does the body need a spirit. The laws, the forces on
+which the thought of the age dwells, until this divineness is added to
+them are hard and cold. The body, which could carry on all the functions
+of its life, yet without life, would be a machine, perfect indeed and
+wonderful, but a machine none the less. The thought of the age, taken by
+itself, uninspired by Christian truth, tends to drag down the soul, to
+imprison it in mere mechanism, to take from it its divine inspiration;
+and while we need the thought of the present age to illustrate to us the
+methods of God's dealings with the soul, none the less does the thought
+of the age need the knowledge that there is a soul. Among all the forces
+of the universe, the power of the soul, the culmination of them all, is
+apt to be lost sight of. The thought of the age tends to look upon
+things from without, and to lose that which is their essence. It needs
+the voice that shall awaken its own inner life, and thus bring it to a
+consciousness of the life that lies at the heart of all things.
+
+Thus we see how the thought of Christ and the thought of the age need
+and complement each other. The thought of Christ is spiritual, the
+thought of the age tends to become material. In this world we are
+neither wholly spiritual nor wholly material. And we must bear in mind
+that the two elements should not exist over against one another in our
+thought. We must not hold the two conceptions, however opposite they may
+appear, as two. In life the spirit and the body do not exist as two but
+as one. As soon as they exist as two, there is death. So must the truth
+of Jesus and the truth of this present age be blended in one thought. We
+must not say love and law, but love in law. We must not see the divine
+power setting at work forces that by their natural operation shall
+reward or punish the spirit. We must see the divine power working in and
+through these forces. Then, as science makes us feel that we are
+encompassed by law, the words will not need translating to us; for we
+shall feel that we are encompassed by God.
+
+The relation which we have found to exist between the intellectual
+teaching of Christ and the thought of the age is no less marked between
+the moral teaching of Christ and the life of the age. The moral teaching
+of Christ is absolutely true. It is as true as his thought of God; yet
+like that it needs its complemental truth. Further, the moral teaching
+of Christ needs instrumentalities. Love, however strong, cannot work
+without means. The heart needs the hands and the feet.
+
+In both of these respects the age brings its offering to Christ. Christ
+teaches love and self-sacrifice. He bids us do for others as we would
+have them do for us. He bids us give to him that asks, and lend to him
+that would borrow. These principles are the very life of society. They
+are the very truth of God. But yet these principles carried out, without
+explanation and qualification, would produce harm as well as good. The
+church of every age, in striving to carry out these precepts, has done
+much good; but it has done much harm also. It has done good by bringing
+succor to the lives that needed it. It has done immeasurable good by
+keeping alive on the earth the spirit of Christian love. Men have been
+blest by the power of the spirit, even more than by its specific acts of
+mercy. But, while it has relieved the poor, it has too often tended to
+perpetuate poverty. Indiscriminate alms-giving, mere alms-giving, is the
+very mother of pauperism. We see in some Catholic countries how the
+alms-giving which the church has taught in the very words of Christ has
+degraded whole populations, has taken from manhood its real dignity and
+strength. We need, then, not only the principle of love, but also a
+knowledge of all social laws. The science of political economy must be
+understood; but this, like physical science, cannot be taught in a day.
+Ages must teach the lesson. The present age has only half learned it.
+But it has learned enough to bring a magnificent contribution to Christ.
+Christ bids us help men: the age, in its poor blundering way, is just
+beginning to tell us how to help them. It teaches that the best way to
+help the poor is to strike at the root of poverty. No less does the age
+furnish means for carrying out the principles of Jesus. It brings the
+ends of the earth together. Christ bids us love our neighbor. This age
+has made those from whom the sea parts us our neighbors. There is
+famine, or some more sudden calamity, on the other side of our
+continent, or in a foreign land. Christ bids us help those who need. How
+shall we carry sudden help unless we hear at once the story? How shall
+we send prompt help if there be no strong and swift messenger waiting at
+our door? But now the lightning tells the story the moment in which
+there is a story to be told, and the unwearied steam bears our gifts as
+soon as they can be gathered. The commands of Jesus are absolute. The
+power of the age to fulfil these commands is approaching absoluteness.
+Thus does the age add to the teaching of Christ the completeness that it
+needs.
+
+But does not the age in turn need this teaching? Materialism and
+mechanism in thought are bad enough: they are worse in life. The life of
+the age has a tendency to materialism and mechanism. The science of
+political economy tends to become a hard system of rules, in which the
+spontaneous sympathy of the helper and the individuality of the helped
+are lost together. The eagerness of the world after material prosperity
+tends to a practical absorption in these ends. Thus we have the greed,
+the excitement, the madness, the display, the corruption that to so
+great an extent characterize the age. We have seen that there is a
+deeper life beneath this superficial one; but these evils, however
+superficial, need prompt and constant care lest they eat into the very
+heart. The body needs the spirit, or it will sink into decay.
+
+I have spoken of the two elements which we are considering as if they
+stood simply over against one another. This is in some respects true.
+The thought and life of the age are, indeed, largely indebted to the
+stimulus of Christianity; but they are not, like the painting and
+architecture of the Middle Ages, the direct outgrowth of it. The science
+of the present day is self-developed and self-sustained. The machinery
+of the world has been invented for the world's uses. Its political
+economy has been thought out to facilitate its own ends.
+
+But though the two elements, to some extent, stand over against one
+another, yet each, by its natural development, is approaching the other,
+and each is becoming penetrated by the other. On the one side, religion
+is catching the spirit of the age, and is approaching the clearness and
+accuracy of scientific thought. On the other side, science is becoming
+conscious of truth which is unattainable by its methods, and which is to
+it therefore the unknowable. Already does Herbert Spencer, who
+represents the foremost thought of the time, feel the awe of this
+mystery, and see gleaming through it something of the presence of the
+infinite love. The life of the age, also, by bringing men near to one
+another, tends to produce the sense of human brotherhood. Its vast
+business enterprise, in some of its aspects, does more for the cause of
+humanity than many a professed charity. Further, the age is, to some
+extent at least, directly inspired by Christianity. Its zeal for
+humanity, its sympathy with the oppressed and suffering everywhere, its
+gigantic and unparalleled charities, show it to be more truly Christian
+than any age that has preceded it.
+
+If however, in spite of all this, we are sometimes tempted to doubt
+whether the power of the truth which Christ represents is to win the
+mastery, or whether it is destined to be lost in the great struggle, we
+must remember that its authority is that of elements that are
+fundamental in human nature. The spiritual instincts may be repressed:
+they cannot be exterminated. As in every little creek and inlet along
+the shore the water answers to the call of the ocean, and feels the
+might of the outgoing and the incoming tide, so in human life deep
+answers unto deep.
+
+We must remember, too, that Christ is not a mere teacher. His power is
+not alone that of the truth he utters. It is no mere accident of history
+that the higher truth and life which we have been considering confront
+the age as Christian truth and life. They receive a power from their
+union with Christ which they could not have received, even had the
+thought of men attained to them, without this. We have looked at the
+external form of his life and at his teaching in their relation to the
+age. There is yet another step to take. There is still an inner reality
+to be unveiled. Behind the power of his teaching is the power of his
+personality. In this is found the climax of the antithesis in which he
+stands to the present. The tendency of the present age is, consciously
+or unconsciously, to disown personality. The laws which make the
+substance of its thought, the mechanism that makes the framework of its
+life, both tend to assert themselves against the power of a free
+personality. We may illustrate this by the modern method of warfare. In
+ancient times the victory depended on the strength of the individual arm
+and the courage of the individual heart. Now it depends more upon the
+drill of the army and the clear head of the general.
+
+This tendency of the thought of the age is not based on error. It brings
+to our thought of personality the correction that it needs. The tendency
+of the past has been to look upon personality as existing by and for
+itself. It has recognized no limits to the power of freedom. Each
+individual stood by and for himself in the universe. Now we see a common
+element in all lives. All lives are entwined together. We see limits
+which freedom cannot pass. We understand something of the limits of each
+individual. We understand something of the laws of descent and of the
+power of education. Even the personality of Jesus does not stand by
+itself as it seemed to once. We see in him the power of the common
+nature. We see in him the effect of forces which had been in operation
+since the world was. He was no stranger upon the earth. He was the Son
+of God, but he was no less the Son of man. He was the flowering of a
+nation's history, the flowering of humanity. The flower is drawn forth
+by the sun, but it is drawn out from the plant. Even the sun can kindle
+the flame of no rose upon the bramble's stalk. While, however, the age
+teaches us what is the background out from which the power of
+personality stands forth, and what are the elements that are fused
+together in it, personality itself remains too much unrecognized. But, I
+repeat, the integrity of human nature can never be violated; and
+personality is the culmination of human nature. The power of a modern
+army, we have seen, depends largely on its drill; yet even here the
+impetuous courage of a leader may infuse a life into this vast machine
+that shall decide the victory. Mere signals, it is found, upon a ship
+will not answer the purpose of communication between the captain and the
+men. In times of peril, in the midst of the fury of the storm, the
+sailor needs the inspiration of the captain's voice, ringing with a
+force that is mightier than the tempest; namely, the force of human will
+and courage. No matter how mechanical the age may become, no matter how
+the idea of freedom may be eliminated from its thought, the great heart
+of humanity beats still in its bosom, and the voice of a strong, free
+personality will sooner or later arouse it to an answering
+consciousness. The very bands which it sets about personality will make
+its power more strongly felt when it is perceived. Its very knowledge of
+the elements that are united in it will make it feel more really the
+might of the force which can fuse these into one burning point.
+
+Personality involves three elements. The first is freedom; the second, a
+purpose freely chosen; the third, devotion to this purpose. There is no
+slavery like sin. Absolute freedom, and thus absolute personality, can
+be found only in a nature wholly pure and unselfish. Christ was thus
+free. His purpose was the vastest that any human soul has grasped; and
+he gave himself to it with all the power of his nature. Thus Christ
+possessed the most intense personality ever felt upon the earth. His
+teaching came forth glowing with its fire. We feel to-day the effect
+which his personality produced upon those who came into direct contact
+with it. This influence has propagated itself from age to age. The
+Church grew out of it, and its influence is felt to-day far beyond the
+limits of the Church. Besides this indirect power of the personality of
+Jesus, we may feel its force directly, as we bring ourselves into
+personal relation with him. It has not lost its original might. It still
+tends to reproduce itself in the present.
+
+The form in which truth first utters itself has a power which no
+subsequent repetition can equal. There is a kind of work that can be
+done only once. The first discoverer or announcer of any truth stands in
+a relation to it which no other can ever fill. Many navigators have
+crossed the sea, but there is only one Columbus. Many astronomers have
+searched the heavens, but there has been no second Newton. This fact is
+most noticeable in regard to truths that represent not merely the
+intellect, but the whole moral and spiritual nature of him who first
+uttered them in their fulness. There is a fact in science strange,
+apparently illogical, but yet unquestionable. It is this: The power of
+heat-bearing rays to pass through any resisting medium depends not upon
+the temperature of the rays, but upon that of the body from which they
+come. The heat-bearing rays of the sun that approach the earth hardly
+differ in temperature from the rays that are reflected from it; but the
+former pass almost unimpeded through the atmosphere by which the latter
+are to a great extent imprisoned. The rays reach the earth without
+difficulty, but are entrapped by the principle referred to, and remain
+to bless the world. The first have this power to pass through the
+atmosphere because they come direct from the burning body of the sun.
+The reflected rays have lost this power, because they proceed from the
+colder earth. This law is as true in the intellectual and spiritual as
+it is in the physical world. The power of moral and spiritual truths to
+penetrate to the hearts of men has this strange dependence upon the
+moral and spiritual power of him who utters them. The very spontaneity
+of this utterance is a revelation of this power. It is because the truth
+that Jesus uttered came forth from his glowing heart of love, it is
+because it sprang fresh and spontaneous from the intensity of his
+spiritual life, that it has such power to-day to touch the hearts of
+men. As the sun's rays preserve their penetrating force through all the
+interplanetary spaces, so the teachings of Christ have preserved it
+through all the reaches of history. No subsequent repetition of these
+truths can ever have quite the power that their first complete utterance
+still retains. And the power that they exercise is largely in this, that
+they excite in the hearts of men a spiritual life akin to that from
+which they originally sprang. Scientific truths are taught by
+demonstration. Spiritual truths are taught chiefly by stimulating the
+spiritual life. When we live merely in the contemplation of laws, in the
+study of external relations, our intellect is stimulated, but our moral
+and spiritual nature may be comparatively dormant. Our life is
+stimulated as we are brought into living relationship with the universe.
+As our inner nature is thus stimulated, as it rounds itself into
+completeness, the moral and spiritual consciousness is awakened. This is
+the reason why it so often happens that spiritual truths are so real in
+moments of sorrow. In its sorrow the soul lives wholly in love, and it
+receives the enlightenment of love. Our nation had almost forgotten God;
+but in those terrible years of war, when every soul was full of life and
+earnestness, the earth and the heavens were full of God. Our nation's
+history became transparent to us, as the history of the Hebrews was
+transparent to them, and we saw God's providence in it all. Theology has
+wrestled vainly with science. In such a struggle it will always be the
+loser. Christian theology can never conquer science. Christian life must
+absorb science into itself.
+
+The truths that Jesus uttered, as they have been absorbed into the
+common thought of men, or as they are received directly from the record
+of his life, have a mighty power to purify the thought and elevate the
+hearts of men. But I think that the greatest power of Christ to-day is
+that of imparting his life to the men and women who are now living in
+the world. The power of the Church will depend upon its power to receive
+this life and to impart it. It is well to have a true theology; but the
+church that has the most of the life of Christ will accomplish the most
+for men. It brings to this truth-seeking and law-investigating age the
+pure personality which it needs. And it will at last possess the truest
+theology, for now and evermore it is the life that is the light of men.
+
+
+
+
+THE MYTHICAL ELEMENT
+
+IN THE
+
+NEW TESTAMENT.
+
+By FREDERIC HENRY HEDGE.
+
+    "[Greek: Philosophôteron kai spoudaioteron poiêsis historias estin.]"
+
+                                                   Aristotle.
+
+
+When Dr. Strauss, thirty-five years ago, in his "Life of Jesus,"
+advanced and applied to the narrative of the New Testament a theory of
+interpretation, in principle the same with that which a Christian Father
+of the third century had employed in his treatment of the Old, the
+theological world was profoundly shocked by what seemed to be the last
+impiety of criticism. A hundred champions rushed with drawn pen to the
+rescue of the old interpretation of the text. The truth of Christianity
+was supposed to be assailed; the belief in Christianity as divine
+revelation was felt to be imperilled by a theory which substituted
+mythical figment for historic fact. That no such harm was intended, or
+was likely to ensue from his labors, the author himself assures us in
+the preface to that extraordinary work. "The inner kernel of Christian
+faith," he declares, "is entirely independent of all such criticism.
+Christ's supernatural birth, his miracles, his resurrection and
+ascension, remain eternal truths, however their reality as facts of
+history may be called in question."
+
+In this declaration I find a fitting text for the following discourse.
+
+How far does the cause of Christianity depend on the facts, or alleged
+facts, of the Gospel narrative? Or, to state the question in other
+words, Is the truth of Christianity identical and conterminous with the
+literal truth of its record?
+
+It is obvious at the start that a certain amount of historic truth must
+be assumed as implied in the very existence of any religion which dates
+from a personal founder whose thought it professes to embody, and whose
+name it bears. Christianity purports to be founded on the ministry of a
+Jewish teacher, entitled by his followers "the Christ." We have the
+testimony of a nearly contemporary Latin historian to the fact that an
+individual so named was the leader of a numerous body of religionists,
+and was put to death by command of Pontius Pilate, in the reign of
+Tiberius. But, without this confirmation, the very existence of the
+Christian Church compels us to accept as historic facts, the ministry of
+Jesus, the strong impression of his word and character, his purity of
+manners and moral greatness, his life of beneficent action, his martyr
+death, and his manifestation to his disciples after death, however that
+manifestation be conceived, whether as subjective experience or as
+objective reality. So much, beyond all reasonable question, must stand
+as history, vouched by documentary evidence, and by the existence, in
+the first century, of a church universally diffused, which affirmed
+these facts as the ground of its being, and in the strength of them
+overcame the world.
+
+But, observe, it is Christianity that assures the truth of these facts,
+and not the facts that prove Christianity. To base the truth of
+Christianity on the credibility, in every particular, of the Gospel
+record; to measure the claims of the religion by the strict historic
+verity of all the narrative of the New Testament, is to prejudice the
+Christian cause in the judgment of competent critics. It is to challenge
+the cavil and counter-demonstration of unbelief.
+
+Christianity assures the truth of certain facts; but by no means of all
+the facts affirmed by the writers of the New Testament. Faith in
+Christianity as divine dispensation does not imply, and must not be held
+to the belief, as veritable history, of all that is recorded in the
+Gospel. Not the historic sense, but the spiritual import; not the facts,
+but the ideas of the Gospel, are the genuine topics of faith.
+
+Christianity, like every other religion, has its mythology,--a mythology
+so intertwined with the veritable facts of its early history, so braided
+and welded with its first beginnings, that history and myth are not
+always distinguishable the one from the other. Every historic religion,
+that has won for itself a conspicuous place in the world's history, has
+evolved from a core of fact a nimbus of legendary matter which criticism
+cannot always separate, and which the popular faith does not seek to
+separate, from the solid parts of the system. And in one view the
+legends or myths which gather around the initial stage of any religion
+are as true as the vouched and substantial facts of its record: they are
+a product of the same spirit working, in the one case, in the acts and
+experiences; in the other, in the visions, the ideas, the literary
+activity of the faithful. It is one and the same motive that inspires
+both the writer and the doer.
+
+When I speak of historic religions, I mean such as trace their origin
+to some historic personage, and bear the impress of his idea, in
+contradistinction to those which have sprung from unknown sources, the
+wild growths of nature-worship as found in ancient Egypt, in the Indian
+and Scandinavian peninsulas, and in Greece.
+
+No distinction in religion is so fundamental as that between the wild
+religions and those which have sprung from the word of a human sower
+going forth to sow; the religions of sense and those of reflection, the
+"natural" and the "revealed." The prime characteristic of the former is
+polytheism; that of the latter, monotheism. Mosaism, Mohammedism,
+Buddhism,--so far as it knows any God,--even Parsism, is monotheistic in
+as much as its dualism is resolvable into the final triumph and
+supremacy of the good. No founder of a religion ever taught a plurality
+of gods.
+
+Another characteristic of the wild religions is their transitoriness.
+The Egyptian, the Greco-Roman, the Scandinavian, perished long ago.
+Bramanism, the last survivor of the ancient polytheisms, is fast melting
+beneath the advancing heats of Islam and the Brahmo Somaj. The
+"revealed" religions on the contrary are permanent. No religion of
+historic origin, so far as I know, has ever died out. Judaism, the
+eldest of them, still flourishes: never since the destruction of
+Jerusalem has it flourished with a greener leaf than now. Mohammedism is
+pushing its conquests faster than Christianity in the East, Parsism is
+still strong in Bengal, Buddhism in one or another form calls a third
+part of the population of the globe its own.
+
+All religions have their mythologies, but with this distinction:
+polytheism is mythical in principle as well as form, in soul as well as
+body, and mythical throughout. Its whole being is myth. Whatever of
+scientific or historic truth may be hidden in any of its legends, such
+as the labors of Herakles, the fire-theft of Prometheus, or the rape of
+Europa, is matter of pure conjecture. In the "revealed" religions, on
+the contrary, the mythical is incidental, not principial, and always
+subordinate to doctrine or fact. Always the truth shines through the
+myth, explains it, justifies it.
+
+Before proceeding any farther, I desire to explain what I mean by myth
+in this connection. I shall not attempt a philosophic definition, but
+content myself with this general determination. I call any story a myth
+which for good reasons is not to be taken historically, and yet is not a
+wilful fabrication with intent to deceive, but the natural growth of
+wonder and tradition, or a product of the Spirit uttering itself in a
+narrative form. The myth may be the result of exaggeration, the
+expansion of a veritable fact which gathers increments and a _posse
+comitatus_ of additions as it travels from mouth to ear and ear to mouth
+in the carriage of verbal report; or it may be the reflection of a fact
+in the mind of a writer, who reproduces it in his writing with the color
+and proportions it has taken in his conception; or it may be the poetic
+embodiment of a mental experience; or it may be what Strauss calls "the
+deposit[8] of an idea," and another critic "an idea shaped into fact." I
+think we have examples of all these mythical formations in the New
+Testament; and I hold that the credit of the Gospel in things essential
+is nowise impaired, nor the claim of Christianity as divine revelation
+compromised, by a frank admission of this admixture of fancy with fact
+in its record. On the contrary, I deem it important, in view of the
+vulgar radicalism which confounds the Christian dispensation and its
+record, soul and body, in one judgment, to separate the literary
+question from the spiritual, and to free the cause of faith from the
+burden of the letter.
+
+[Footnote 8: Niederschlag.]
+
+It has been assumed that the proof of divine revelation rests on
+precisely those portions of the record which are most offensive to
+unbelief. On this assumption the Christian apologists of a former
+generation grounded their plea. Prove that we have the testimony of
+eye-witnesses to the miracles recorded in the Gospels, and Christianity
+is shown to be a divine revelation. In the absence of such proof (the
+inference is) Christianity can no longer claim to be, in the words of
+Paul, "the power of God unto salvation." This is substantially Paley's
+argument. Planting himself on the premise that revelation is impossible
+without miracles, in which it is implied that miracles prove revelation,
+he labors to establish two propositions: 1. "That there is satisfactory
+evidence that many professing to be original witnesses of the Christian
+miracles passed their lives in dangers, labors, and sufferings,
+voluntarily undergone in attestation of the accounts which they
+delivered, and solely in consequence of their belief in those accounts;
+and that they also submitted from the same motives to new rules of
+conduct." 2. "That there is _not_ satisfactory evidence that persons
+pretending to be original witnesses of any other similar miracles have
+acted in the same manner in attestation of the accounts which they
+delivered, and solely in consequence of their belief in the truth of
+those accounts." The argument is stated with the characteristic
+clearness of the author, and as well supported perhaps as Anglican
+church-erudition in those days would allow; but the case is not made
+out, and, if it were, the argument fails to satisfy the sceptical mind
+of to-day. To say nothing of its gross misconception of the nature of
+revelation, which it makes external instead of internal, a stunning of
+the senses instead of mental illumination, an appeal to prodigy and not
+its own sufficient witness,--waiving this objection, the argument fails
+when confronted with the fact that, in spite of the evidence which
+scholars and critics the most learned and acute of all time have arrayed
+in support of the genuineness of the Gospels, the number is nowise
+diminished, but rather increases, of intelligent minds that find
+themselves unable, on the faith of any book, however ancient, to receive
+as authentic a tale of wonders which contradict their experience of the
+limits of human ability and their faith in the continuity of nature. For
+myself, I beg to say, in passing, I am not of this number. I do not feel
+the force of the objection against miracles drawn from this alleged
+constancy of nature, which it seems to me reduces the course of human
+events to a dead mechanical sequence, makes no allowance for any
+reserved power in nature or any incalculable forces of the Spirit, and
+virtually rules God, the present inworking God, out of the universe. I
+can believe in any miracle which does not actually and demonstrably
+contravene and nullify ascertained laws, however phenomenally foreign to
+nature's ordinary course. But the possibility of miracles is one thing,
+the possibility of proving them another. With such views as these
+objectors entertain of the constancy of nature, I confess that no
+testimony, not even the written affidavit of a dozen witnesses taken on
+the spot, supposing that we had it, would suffice to convince me of the
+truth of marvels occurring two thousand years ago, of the kind recounted
+in the Gospels. My Christian prepossessions might incline me to believe
+in them: the weight of evidence would not. No wise defender of the
+Christian cause, at the present day, will rest his plea on the issue to
+which Paley committed its claims. After all that Biblical critics and
+antiquarian research have raked from the dust of antiquity in proof of
+the genuineness and authenticity of the books of the New Testament,
+credibility still labors with the fact that the age in which these books
+were received and put in circulation was one in which the science of
+criticism as developed by the moderns--the science which scrutinizes
+statements, balances evidence for and against, and sifts the true from
+the false--did not exist; an age when a boundless credulity disposed men
+to believe in wonders as readily as in ordinary events, requiring no
+stronger proof in the case of the former than sufficed to establish the
+latter,--viz., hearsay and vulgar report; an age when literary honesty
+was a virtue almost unknown, and when, consequently, literary forgeries
+were as common as genuine productions, and transcribers of sacred books
+did not scruple to alter the text in the interest of personal views and
+doctrinal prepossessions. The newly discovered Sinaitic Code, the
+earliest known manuscript of the New Testament, dates from the fourth
+century. Tischendorf the discoverer, a very orthodox critic, speaks
+without reserve of the license in the treatment of the text apparent in
+this manuscript,--a license, he says, especially characteristic of the
+first three centuries.
+
+These considerations, though they do not discredit the essential facts
+of the Gospel history,--facts assured to us, as I have said, by the
+very existence of the Christian Church,--might seem to excuse the
+hesitation of the sceptic in accepting, on the faith of the record,
+incidental marvels of a kind very difficult of proof at best. I recall
+in this connection the remarkable saying of an English divine of the
+seventeenth century. "So great, in the early ages," says Bishop Fell,
+"was the license of fiction, and so prone the facility of believing,
+that the credibility of history has been gravely embarrassed thereby;
+and not only the secular world, but the Church of God, has reason to
+complain of its mythical periods."[9]
+
+[Footnote 9: Tanta fuit primis seculis fingendi licentia, tam prona in
+credendo facilitas, ut rerum gestarum fides graviter exinde laboraverit,
+nec orbis tantum terrarum sed et Dei ecclesia de temporibus suis
+mythicis merito queratur.]
+
+It is not in the interest of criticism, much less of a wilful
+iconoclasm, from which my whole nature revolts, but of Christian faith,
+that I advocate the supposition of a mythical element in the New
+Testament. I am well aware that in this advocacy I shall lack the
+consent of many good people who identify the cause of religion with its
+accidents, and fancy that the sanctuary is in danger when a blind is
+raised to let in new light. I respect the piety that clings to idols
+which Truth has outgrown, as Paul at Athens respected the religion which
+worshipped ignorantly the unknown God. But Truth once seen will draw
+piety after it, and new sanctities will replace the old. No Protestant
+in these days feels himself bound to accept as history the
+ecclesiastical legends of the post-apostolic age. Some of them are quite
+as significant as some of those embodied in the canon; but no Protestant
+scruples to reject as spurious the story of the caldron of boiling oil
+into which St. John was thrown by order of the Emperor Domitian, and
+from which he escaped unharmed, or that of the lioness which licked the
+feet of Thecla in the circus at Antioch, or Peter's encounter with
+Christ in the suburbs of Rome. If we talk of evidence, I do not see but
+the miracles said to be performed by the relics of martyrs at Milan,
+attested by St. Augustine, and those of St. Cuthbert of Durham, attested
+by the venerable Bede, are as well substantiated as the opening of the
+prison doors and the liberation of the Apostles by an angel, attested by
+Luke. The Church of Rome makes no such distinction between the first and
+the following centuries: she indorses the miracles of all alike. But
+modern Protestantism draws a line of sharp separation between the
+apostolic and the post-apostolic ages. On the farther side the portents
+are all genuine historic facts: on the hither side they are all
+figments. While John the Evangelist, the last of the twelve, yet
+breathed, a miracle was still possible: his breath departed, it became
+an impossibility for evermore. And yet when Conyers Middleton first ran
+this line between the ages, and published his refutation of the claim of
+continued miraculous power in the Church, religious sensibility
+experienced a shock as great as that inflicted in our day by Strauss,
+and resented with equal indignation the affront to Christian faith. The
+author of the "Free Inquiry" published in 1748 was assailed by
+opponents, who "insinuate" he tells us "fears and jealousies of I know
+not what consequences dangerous to Christianity, ruinous to the faith of
+history, and introductive of universal scepticism." The larger work had
+been preceded by an "Introductory Discourse" put forth as a feeler of
+the public pulse; for "I began," he says, "to think it a duty which
+candor and prudence prescribed, not to alarm the public at once with an
+argument so strange and so little understood, nor to hazard an
+experiment so big with consequences till I had at first given out some
+sketch or general plan of what I was projecting." The experiment which
+required such careful preparation was to ascertain how far the English
+public in the middle of the eighteenth century would bear to have it
+said that the miracles affirmed by Augustine and Chrysostom and Jerome,
+as occurring in their day, were not as worthy of credit as any of the
+wonders recorded in the New Testament. Up to that time, English
+Protestants as well as Romanists had given equal credence to both, and
+esteemed the former as essential to Christian faith as the latter. Men
+like Waterland and Dodwell and Archbishop Tillotson held that miracles
+continued in the Church until the close of the third century, and were
+even occasionally witnessed in the fourth. Whiston, the consistent
+Arian, maintained their continuance up to the establishment of the
+Athanasian doctrine in 381, and "that as soon as the Church became
+Athanasian, antichristian, and popish, they ceased immediately; and the
+Devil lent it his own cheating and fatal powers instead."
+
+To me, I confess, the position of the Church of Rome in this matter
+seems less indefensible than that of Middleton and modern Protestantism.
+Either deny the possibility of miracles altogether to finite powers, or
+admit their possibility in the second century, and the third century, as
+well as the first, and in all centuries whenever a worthy occasion
+demands such agency. I can see no reason for separating, as Middleton
+does, the age of the Apostles from all succeeding. Had he drawn the line
+between the miracles of Christ and those ascribed to his followers, the
+principle of division would have been more intelligible, and more
+admissible on the ground of ecclesiastical orthodoxy.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+But the question here is not of the possibility or probability of
+miracles, as such, in one age rather than another. It is a question
+simply of Biblical interpretation,--whether the literal sense of the
+record is in every case the true sense, whether history or fiction is
+the key to certain Scriptures. Those who insist on the verbal
+inspiration of the New Testament will be apt to likewise insist on the
+literal historic sense of every part of every narrative. And yet that
+mode of interpretation is by no means a necessary consequence or logical
+outcome of that theory. Origen believed in the verbal inspiration of the
+Old Testament, but Origen did not accept in their literal sense the
+Hebrew theophanies: he allegorized whatever seemed to him to degrade the
+idea of God. The Spirit can utter itself in fiction as well as fact, and
+in communicating with Oriental minds was quite as likely to do so. And
+surely, for those who reject the notion of verbal inspiration, the way
+is open, in perfect consistency with Christian faith, for such
+interpretation as reason may approve or the credit of the record be
+thought to require. The credit of the record will sometimes require an
+allegorical interpretation instead of a literal one.
+
+It is a childish limitation which in reading stories can feel no
+interest in any thing but fact; and a childish misconception which
+supposes that where the form is narrative, historic fact must needs be
+the substance. Recount to a little child a fable of Pilpay or Æsop, and
+his questions betray his inability to apprehend it otherwise than as
+literal fact. He has no doubt of the truth of the story; "what did the
+lion say then?" he asks; and "what did the fox do next?" The maturer
+mind has also no doubt of the truth of the story, but sees that its
+truth is the moral it embodies. Of many of the Gospel stories the moral
+contained in them is the real truth. In the height of our late civil war
+there appeared in a popular journal a story entitled "A Man without a
+Country," related with such artistic verisimilitude, such minuteness of
+detail, such grave official references, that many who read it not once
+suspected the clever invention, and felt themselves somewhat aggrieved
+when apprised that fiction, not fact, had conveyed the moral intended by
+the genial author. But those who saw from the first through the veil of
+fiction the needful truth and the patriotic intent were not less edified
+than if they had believed the characters real, and every incident
+vouched by contemporary record. The story of William Tell was once
+universally received as authentic history: it was written in the hearts
+of the people of Uri, and so religiously were all its incidents
+cherished, that when a book appeared discrediting the sacred tradition
+it was publicly burned by the hangman at Altorf. For five centuries the
+chapel on the shore of the Lake of the Four Cantons has commemorated a
+hero whose very existence is now questioned, of whom contemporary annals
+know nothing, of whose tyrant Gessler the well-kept records of the
+Canton exhibit no trace, whose apple placed as a mark for the father's
+arrow on the head of his child is proved to have done a foregone service
+in an elder Danish tale. The story resolves itself into an idea. That
+idea is all that concerns us; and that idea survives, inexpugnable to
+criticism, a truth for evermore. In the world of ideas there is still a
+William Tell who defied the tyrant at Altorf, and slew him at Küsnacht,
+and whose image will live while the mountains stand that gave it birth.
+
+And so all that is memorable out of the past, all that tradition has
+preserved, the veritable facts of history as well as the myths of
+legendary lore, pass finally into ideas. Only as ideas they survive,
+only as ideas have they any abiding value. The anecdote recorded of
+Aristides--his writing his own name at the request of an ignorant
+citizen on the shell that should condemn him--embodies a noble idea
+which has floated down to us from the head-waters of Grecian history. Do
+we care to know the evidence on which it rests? If by critical
+investigation the fact were made doubtful, would that doubt at all
+impair the truth of the idea? The story of Damon and Pythias, reported
+by Valerius Maximus, for aught that we know, may be a myth: suppose it
+could be proved to be so, the truth that is in it would be none the less
+precious. We do not receive it on the faith of the historian, but on the
+faith of its own intrinsic beauty. There is scarcely a fact in the
+annals of mankind so vouched and ascertained as to be beyond the reach
+of historic doubt, if any delver in ancient documents, or curious
+sceptic, shall see fit to call it in question. But, however the fact may
+be questioned, the idea remains. We have lived to see apologies for
+Judas Iscariot, and the literary rehabilitation of Henry VIII. But Judas
+is none the less, in popular tradition, the typical traitor, the
+impersonation of devilish malice; and Henry VIII. is no less the
+remorseless tyrant whose will was his God. When Napoleon I. pronounced
+all history a fable agreed on, he reasoned better perhaps than he knew.
+The agreement is the thing essential; but that agreement is never
+complete, is never final. Every original writer of history finds
+something to qualify, and often something to reverse, in the judgment of
+his predecessors. How can it be otherwise, when even eye-witnesses
+disagree in their observation and report of the same transaction; when
+even in a matter so recent as the siege of Paris, or the conflagration
+of Chicago, the verification of facts is embarrassed by contradictory
+accounts? The best that history yields to philosophic thought is not
+facts, but ideas. These are all that remain at last when the tale is
+told,--all, at least, that the mind can appropriate, all that profits in
+historical studies, the intellectual harvest of the past. A fact means
+nothing until thought has transmuted it into itself: its value is simply
+the idea it subtends. Homer's heroes are as true in this sense as those
+of Plutarch. Ajax and Hector are as real to me as Cimon or Lysander; Don
+Quixote's battle with the windmills which Cervantes imagined is as real
+as the battle of Lepanto in which Cervantes fought; and Shakespeare's
+Hamlet is incomparably more real than the Prince of Denmark whom Saxo
+Grammaticus chronicles.
+
+I do not underrate the importance of facts on their own historic plane.
+The historian, as annalist, is bound by the rules of his craft with
+conscientious investigation to ascertain, substantiate, and establish,
+if he can, the precise facts of the period he explores. I only contend
+that historic truth is not the only truth; that a fact,--if I may use
+that term in this connection for want of a better,--that a fact which is
+not historically true may yet be true on a higher plane than that of
+history, true to reason, to moral and religious sentiment and human
+need. The story of Christ's temptation is none the less true, but a
+great deal more so, when the narrative which embodies the interior
+psychological fact is conceived as myth, than when it is interpreted as
+veritable history. The truth that concerns us is that the Son of Man
+"was tempted in all points as we are," not that he was taken by the
+Devil and set on a pinnacle of the Temple, and thence spirited away
+"into an exceeding high mountain."
+
+We have now attained a point of view from which to estimate on the one
+hand the real import of what I have ventured to call the myths of the
+New Testament, and on the other hand to overrule the petulant radicalism
+which, not distinguishing truth of idea from truth of fact, contemns
+these legends, and perhaps contemns the Gospel, on their account. I have
+wished to show how unessential it is to the right enjoyment or
+profitable use of those portions of the record that we receive them as
+fact; to show that, if we seize and appropriate the idea, those
+narratives are quite as edifying from a mythical as from an historical
+point of view; in other words, that the Holy Spirit may and does
+instruct by fiction as well as fact. If I am asked to draw the line
+which separates fact from fiction, or to fix the criterion by which to
+discriminate the one from the other, I answer that I do not pretend to
+decide this point for myself, much less should I presume to attempt to
+settle it for others. I am not disposed to dogmatize on the subject. It
+is a matter in which each must judge for himself. I will only say that
+for myself I do not place the line of demarcation between miracle and
+the unmiraculous, for the reason that it seems to me, as I said before,
+unphilosophical to make our every-day experience of the limits of human
+power and the capabilities of nature an absolute standard by which to
+measure the possible scope of the one or the other.
+
+I content myself with a single illustration of what I regard as a
+mythical formation. My example is the story known as "The Annunciation."
+Luke alone, of all the evangelists, records the tale. The angel Gabriel
+is sent to a virgin named Mary, and surprises her with the tidings,
+"Thou shalt conceive in thy womb, and shalt bring forth a son, and shalt
+call his name Jesus. He shall be great, and shall be called the Son of
+the Highest. And the Lord God shall give unto him the throne of his
+father David. And he shall reign over the house of Jacob for ever, and
+of his kingdom there shall be no end." This beautiful legend, the most
+beautiful, I think, of all the legends connected with the birth of
+Christ, the favorite theme of Christian art, so lovingly handled by Fra
+Angelico, by Correggio, Raphael, Titian, Andrea del Sarto, and a host of
+others, is best understood as a Jewish-Christian conception, taking an
+historic form and "shaped into a fact." The legend represents the
+humility and faith of a pious maiden communing with the heavenly
+Presence, drawing to herself divine revelations of grace and promise,
+and thus sanctioning the hope so dear to every Jewish maiden,--that of
+becoming the mother of the Messiah. The sudden inspiration of that hope
+is the angel of the Annunciation.
+
+A word more. How far is our idea of Christ affected by a mode of
+interpretation which supposes a mingling of mythical with historic
+elements in the Gospel record? That idea is based on the representations
+of the evangelists. Will not our confidence in those representations be
+impaired by this view of their contents? I see no cause to apprehend a
+result so distressing to Christian faith. The mythical interpretation of
+certain portions of the Gospel has no appreciable bearing on the
+character of Christ. The impartial reader of the record must see that
+the evangelists did not invent that character; they did not make the
+Jesus of their story; on the contrary, it was he that made them. It is a
+true saying that only a Christ could invent a Christ. The Christ of
+history is a true reflection of the image which Jesus of Nazareth
+imprinted on the mind of his contemporaries. In that image the spiritual
+greatness, the moral perfection, are not more conspicuous than the
+well-defined individuality which permeates the story, and which no
+genius could invent.
+
+If the Christ of the Church, of Christian faith, is, as some will have
+it, an ideal being, it was Jesus of Nazareth who made the ideal. The
+ideal in him is simply the result of that disengagement from the earthly
+vestiture which death and distance work in all who live in history. By
+the very necessity of its function, history idealizes. The historic
+figure and the individual represented by it, though inseparably one in
+substance, are not so identical in outline that the one exactly covers
+the other, no more and no less. The individual is the bodily presence as
+it dwells in space; the historic figure is the image of himself which
+the individual stamps on his time, and, so far as his record reaches, on
+all succeeding time,--his import to human kind. That image is a
+veritable portrait, but not in the sense of a _fac-simile_. A material
+portrait, a portrait painted with hands, if the painter understands his
+art, is not a _fac-simile_: it presents the chronic idea or
+characteristic mode, not the temporary accidents, "the fallings off, the
+vanishings," of the person portrayed. In the hero-galleries of
+Tradition, as in the visions of the Apocalypse, they are seen with white
+robes, and palms in their hands, and unwrinkled brows of grace, who in
+life were begrimed with the dust and furrowed with the cares of their
+time. St. Paul is there without his thorn in the flesh, Luther without
+his impatience, Washington without his fiery choler, Lincoln without his
+coarseness, Dante and Milton without their scorn. History strips off the
+indignities of earth when she dresses her heroes for immortality. And
+the transfigurations she gives us are nearer the truth than the
+limitations of ordinary life. The man is more truly himself in the epic
+strain of public action, with spirit braced and harness on, than in the
+subsidence and undress of the closet. It is not the gossiping anecdotes,
+the spoils of the ungirt private life, so dear to antiquaries and
+literary scavengers, but the things which history hastens to record,
+that show the man. We must take the life at full-tide; we must view it
+in its freest determination, in its supreme moment, to know the deepest
+that is in him. And the deepest that is in him is the true man. That is
+his idea, his mission to the world, his historic significance. It is
+this that concerns us in all the great actors of history,--the historic
+person, not the individual. And the more the historic person absorbs the
+individual, the higher we rise in the scale of being until we reach the
+idea of God, from which all individuality is excluded, and only the
+Person remains, filling space and time with the ceaseless procession of
+his being.
+
+We misread the Gospel and reverse the true and divine order, if we
+suppose the ideal Christ to be an essence distilled from the historical.
+On the contrary, the ideal Christ is the root and ground of the
+historical; and without the antecedent idea inspiring, commanding, the
+history would never have been.
+
+It has not been my intention in any thing I have said to make light of
+the record. The record to me is a literary relic of inestimable value,
+aboriginal memorial of the dearest and divinest appearance in human form
+that ever beamed on earthly scenes. I sympathize with every attempt to
+clear up and verify its minutest details, with the labors of all critics
+and archæologists devoted to this end. I rejoice in all topographical
+adjustments and illustrations; in all that local researches, following
+in the steps of "those blessed feet," have gleaned from the soil of
+Palestine. But all this is important only as it draws its inspiration
+from and leads my aspiration to the ideal Christ, "the same yesterday,
+to-day, and for ever." Dissociated from this idea, the acres of
+Palestine are as barren as any which the ebbing of a nation's life has
+left desolate.
+
+
+
+
+THE PLACE OF MIND IN NATURE
+
+AND
+
+INTUITION IN MAN.
+
+By JAMES MARTINEAU.
+
+    "Behold, there went forth a Sower to sow."--Mark iv. 3.
+
+
+That the universe we see around us was not always there, is so little
+disputed, that every philosophy and every faith undertakes to tell how
+it came to be. They all assume, as the theatre of their problem, the
+field of space where all objects lie, and the track of time where events
+have reached the Now. But into these they carry, to aid them in
+representing the origin of things, such interpreting conceptions as may
+be most familiar to the knowledge or fancy of their age: first, the
+_fiat of Almighty Will_, which bade the void be filled, so that the
+light kindled, and the waters swayed, and the earth stood fast beneath
+the vault of sky; next, when the sway of poetry and force had yielded to
+the inventive arts, the idea of a _contriving and adapting power_,
+building and balancing the worlds to go smoothly and keep time together,
+and stocking them with self-moving and sensitive machines; and now,
+since physiology has got to the front, the analogy of _the seed or
+germ_, in itself the least of things, yet so prolific that, with history
+long enough, it will be as spawn upon the waters, and fill every waste
+with the creatures as they are. The prevalence of this newest metaphor
+betrays itself in the current language of science: we now "_unfold_"
+what we used to "_take to pieces_;" we "_develop_" the theory which we
+used to "_construct_;" we treat the system of the world as an
+"_organism_" rather than a "_mechanism_;" we search each of its members
+to see, not what it is _for_, but what it is _from_; and the doctrine of
+_Evolution_ only applies the image of indefinite growth of the greater
+out of the less, till from some datum invisible to the microscope arises
+a teeming universe.
+
+In dealing with these three conceptions,--of _Creation_, _Construction_,
+_Evolution_,--there is one thing on which Religion insists, viz., that
+_Mind is first, and rules for ever_; and, whatever the process be, is
+_its_ process, moving towards congenial ends. Let this be granted, and
+it matters not by what path of method the Divine Thought advances, or
+how long it is upon the road. Whether it flashes into realization, like
+lightning out of Night; or fabricates, like a Demiurge, through a
+producing season, and then beholds the perfect work; or is for ever
+thinking into life the thoughts of beauty and the love of good; whether
+it calls its materials out of nothing, or finds them ready, and disposes
+of them from without; or throws them around as its own manifestation,
+and from within shapes its own purpose into blossom,--makes no
+difference that can be fatal to human piety. Time counts for nothing
+with the Eternal; and though it should appear that the system of the
+world and the ranks of being arose, not by a start of crystallization,
+but, like the grass or the forest, by silent and seasonal gradations, as
+true a worship may be paid to the Indwelling God who makes matter itself
+transparent with spiritual meanings, and breathes before us in the
+pulses of nature, and appeals to us in the sorrows of men, as to the
+pre-existing Deity who, from an infinite loneliness, suddenly became the
+Maker of all. Nay, if the poet always looks upon the world through a
+suppliant eye, craving to meet his own ideal and commune with it alive;
+if prayer is ever a "feeling after Him to find Him," the fervor and the
+joy of both must be best sustained, if they are conscious not only of
+the stillness of His presence, but of the movement of His thought, and
+never quit the date of His creative moments. In the idea, therefore, of
+a gradual unfolding of the creative plan, and the maturing of it by
+rules of growth, there is nothing necessarily prejudicial to piety; and
+so long as the Divine Mind is left in undisturbed supremacy, as the
+living All in all, the belief may even foster a larger, calmer, tenderer
+devotion, than the conceptions which it supersedes. But it is liable to
+a special illusion, which the others by their coarsely separating lines
+manage to escape. Taking all the causation of the world into the
+interior, instead of setting it to operate from without, it seems to
+dispense with God, and to lodge the power of indefinite development in
+the first seeds of things; and the apprehension seizes us, that as the
+oak will raise itself when the acorn and the elements are given, so from
+its germs might the universe emerge, though nothing Divine were there.
+The seeds no doubt were on the field; but who can say whether ever "a
+Sower went forth to sow"? So long as you plant the Supreme Cause at a
+distance from His own effects, and assign to Him a space or a time where
+nothing else can be, the conception of that separate and solitary
+existence, however barren, is secure. But in proportion as you think of
+Him as never in an empty field, waiting for a future beginning of
+activity, as you let Him mingle with the elements and blend with the
+natural life of things, there is a seeming danger lest His light should
+disappear behind the opaque material veil, and His Spirit be quenched
+amid the shadows of inexorable Law. This danger haunts our time. The
+doctrine of Evolution, setting itself to show how the greatest things
+may be brought out of the least, fills us with fear whether perhaps Mind
+may not be last instead of first, the hatched and full-fledged form of
+the protoplasmic egg; whether at the outset any thing was there but the
+raw rudiments of matter and force; whether the hierarchy of organized
+beings is not due to progressive differentiation of structure, and
+resolvable into splitting and agglutination of cells; whether the
+Intellect of man is more than blind instinct grown self-conscious, and
+shaping its beliefs by defining its own shadows; whether the Moral sense
+is not simply a trained acceptance of rules worked out by human
+interests, an inherited record of the utilities; so that Design in
+Nature, Security in the Intuitions of Reason, Divine Obligation in the
+law of Conscience, may all be an illusory semblance, a glory from the
+later and ideal days thrown back upon the beginning, as a golden sunset
+flings its light across the sky, and, as it sinks, dresses up the East
+again with borrowed splendor.
+
+This doubt, which besets the whole intellectual religion of our time,
+assumes that we must _measure every nature in its beginnings_; admit
+nothing to belong to its essence except what is found in it then; and
+deny its reports of itself; so far as they depart from that original
+standard. It takes two forms, according as the doctrine of Evolution is
+applied to Man himself, or to the outward universe. In the former case,
+it infuses distrust into our self-knowledge, weakens our subjective
+religion or native faith in the intuitions of thought and conscience,
+and tempts us to imagine that the higher they are, the further are they
+from any assured solidity of base. In the latter case, it weakens our
+objective religion, suggests that there is no originating Mind, and that
+the divine look of the world is but the latest phase of its finished
+surface, instead of the incandescence of its inmost heart. Let us first
+glance at the theory of HUMAN evolution, and the moral illusions it is
+apt to foster.
+
+I. Under the name of the "Experience Philosophy," this theory has long
+been applied to the _mind of the individual_; and has produced not a few
+admirable analyses of the formation of language and the tissue of
+thought; nor is there any legitimate objection to it, except so far as
+its simplifications are overstrained and cannot be made good. It
+undertakes, with a minimum of initial capacity, to account for the
+maximum of human genius and character: give it only the sensible
+pleasures and pains, the spontaneous muscular activity, and the law by
+which associated mental phenomena cling together; and out of these
+elements it will weave before your eyes the whole texture of the perfect
+inner life, be it the patterned story of imagination, the delicate web
+of the affections, or the seamless robe of moral purity. The outfit is
+that of the animal; the product but "a little lower than the angel." All
+the higher endowments--our apprehension of truth, our consciousness of
+duty, our self-sacrificing pity, our religious reverence--are in this
+view merely transformed sensations; the disinterested impulses are
+refinements spun out of the coarse fibre of self-love; the subtlest
+intellectual ideas are but elaborated perceptions of sight or touch;
+and the sense of Right, only interest or fear under a disguise. If this
+be so, how will the discovery affect our natural trust in the
+intimations of our supreme faculties? Does it not discharge as dreams
+their most assured revelations? By intuition of Reason we believe in the
+Law of Causality, in the infinitude of Space, in the relations of
+Number, in the reality of an outside world, in all the fundamental
+conceptions of Science; but here are they, one and all, recalled to the
+standard of Sense, which they seem to transcend, and emptied of any
+meaning beyond. By vision of Imagination we see an ideal beauty
+enfolding many a person and many a scene, and appealing to us as a
+pathetic light gleaming from within; but here we find it all resolved
+into curvature of lines and adjustments of color. By inspiration of
+Conscience we learn that our sin is the defiance of a Divine authority,
+and, though hid from every human eye, drives us into a wilderness of
+Exile,--for "the wicked fleeth, though no man pursueth;" but here we are
+told that the ultimate elements of good and evil are our own pleasures
+and pains, from which the moral sanction selects as its specialty the
+approbation and disapprobation of our fellow-men. Thus all the
+independent values which our higher faculties had claimed for their
+natural affections and beliefs are dissipated as fallacious; they are
+all based upon a _sentient measure_ of worth which lies at the bottom;
+they are like paper money, refined contrivances representative of the
+ultimate gold of pleasure, but, where not interchangeable with this,
+intrinsically worthless. And so the feeling almost inevitably spreads,
+that we are dupes of our own characteristic capacities; that the loftier
+air into which they lift us is a tinted and distorting medium, and
+shows us glories that are not there; that the idea of an eternal Fount
+of beauty, truth and goodness, behind the pleasingness and concinnity of
+phenomena, is an illusion; and that the tendency, irresistible as it is,
+to cling to this idea as something higher than its denial, is but a part
+of the romance. Is this scepticism imaginary? Let any one, in studying
+the modern writers of this school, compare the solid, manly, sensible
+way in which they deal with every thing on the physiological and
+sensational level, with their manner towards all the convictions and
+sentiments usually recognized as the supreme lights of our nature; the
+tone now of forbearing indulgence, now of sickly appreciation, often of
+hardly concealed contempt, that is heard beneath the interminable
+conjectural analyses of Moral and Religious affections,--and he will
+feel the difference between the honor that is paid to truth, and the
+constrained patience towards what other men revere.
+
+By a recent extension, the theory of Evolution has been applied to the
+whole natural history of our race; and the resources of _Habit_, already
+serviceable in explaining the aptitudes of individuals, have been turned
+to account on the larger scale of successive generations, transmitting
+by inheritance the acquisitions hitherto made good. In the training of a
+nature, the world thus becomes a permanent school, the interruption of
+death is virtually abolished, and life is laid open to continuous
+progress. By this immense gain of power, it is supposed, all the
+differences which separate Man from other animals may be accounted for
+as gradual attainments; and many an intuition of the mind, too immediate
+and self-evident to be a product of personal experience, may yield to
+analysis as a more protracted growth, and stand as the compend of ages
+of gathering feeling and condensing thought. Among creatures that herd
+together for common safety, each one learns to read the looks of anger
+or of good-will in its neighbors, and discovers what it is that brings
+upon him the one or other; and insensibly he forms to himself a rule for
+avoiding the displeasure and conciliating the favor in which he has so
+large an interest. This rudimentary experience imprints and records
+itself in the nervous organization, and descends to ulterior generations
+as an original and instinctive recoil from what offends and impulse
+towards what gratifies the feeling of the tribe: so that the lesson
+needs not be gone over again; but the offspring, taking up his education
+where the parent left off, accumulates his feeling, quickens his mental
+execution, and hands down fresh contributions to what at last emerges as
+a Moral Sense. In this way, it is contended, the Conscience is a hoarded
+fund of traditionary pressures of utility, gradually effacing the
+primitive vestiges of fear, and dispensing itself with an affluence of
+disinterested sympathy. And the religious consciousness that visits the
+soul in its remorse, of an invisible Witness and Judge who condemns the
+sin, comes, we are told, from the deification of public opinion, or the
+fancy that some dead hero's ghost still watches over the conduct of his
+clan.
+
+This vast enlargement of the doctrine of Evolution, while increasing its
+power, and removing it from the reach of accurate tests, alters neither
+its principle nor its practical effect. It undertakes to exhibit the
+highest and the greatest in our nature as ulterior phenomena of the
+lowest and the least. And it usually treats as a superstition our
+natural reverence for the rational, moral, and religious intuitions as
+sources of independent insight and ultimate authority; and, in order to
+estimate them, translates them back into short-hand expressions of
+sensible experience and social utility. Nor can we wonder at this
+scepticism. If the only reality at bottom of the sense of duty is fear
+and submission to opinion, whatever it carries in it that transcends
+this ground, and persuades us of an Obligation in which fear and opinion
+have no voice, is an ideal addition got up within us by causes which
+produce in us all sorts of psychological figments. If the only facts
+that lie in our idea of Space are a set of feelings in the muscles and
+the skin and the eye, then whatever beliefs it involves which these
+cannot verify are naturally discredited, and treated as curiosities of
+artificial manufacture. If our human characteristics are throughout the
+developed instincts of the brute, differing only in degree, then the
+moment they present us with intuitions which are distinct _in kind_,
+they begin to play us false; and those who see through the cheat
+naturally warn us against them. And so we are constantly told that our
+highest attributes are only the lower that have lost their memory, and
+mistake themselves for something else.
+
+It is not my present intention to call in question either of these
+varieties of evolution. Inadequate as the evidence of them both appears
+to be, I will suppose their case to be made out: and still, I submit, it
+does not justify the sceptical estimate which it habitually fosters of
+the intellectual, moral, and religious intuitions of the human mind.
+For,
+
+(1) Though animal sensation, with its connected instinct, should be the
+raw material of our whole mental history, it is not on that account
+entitled _to measure all that comes after it_, and stand as the
+boundary-line between fact and dream, between terra firma and "airy
+nothing." That which is first in Time has no necessary priority of rank
+in the scale of truth and reality; and the later-found may well be the
+greater existence and the more assured. If it is a development of
+Faculty, and not of incapacity, which the theory provides, the process
+must advance us into new light, and not withdraw us from clearer light
+behind: and we have reason to confide in the freshest gleams and inmost
+visions of to-day, and to discard whatever quenches and confuses them in
+the vague and turbid beginnings of the Past. With what plea will you
+exhort me, "If you would rid yourself of intellectual mysteries, come
+with us, and see the stuff your thought is made of: if you would stand
+free of ideal illusions, count with us the medullary waves that have run
+together into the flood-tide of what you call your conscience: if you
+would shake off superstition, look at the way in which the image of dead
+men will hang about the fancy of a savage, or the personification of an
+abstract quality imposes on the ignorance of simple times"? Is our
+wisdom to be gathered by going back to the age before our errors? And
+instead of consulting the maturity of thought, are we to peer into its
+cradle and seek oracles in its infant cries? If the last appeal be to
+the animal elements of experience, we can learn only by unlearning; and
+by shutting one after another of the hundred ideal eyes of the finished
+intellect, we shall have a chance of seeing and feeling things as they
+are. If nothing is to be deemed true but what the pre-human apes saw,
+then all the sciences must be illusory; with the suicidal result that,
+with them, this doctrine of Evolution must vanish too. Or if, stopping
+short of this extreme distrust of the acquired intuitions, you make a
+reservation in favor of the new visions of the intellect, what right can
+you show for discharging those of the conscience? The tacit assumption
+therefore that you upset a super-sensual belief, by tracing the history
+of its emergence among sensible conditions, is a groundless prejudice.
+
+(2) Further, the question to be determined may be presented as a problem
+in physiology, to be resolved by corresponding rules: What is the
+_function_ of certain parts of our human constitution, viz., the Reason
+and the Moral Faculty? Now it is a recognized principle that, in
+estimating function, you must study the organ, not in its rudimentary
+condition, before it has disengaged itself from adjacent admixtures and
+flung off the foreign elements, but in its perfect or differentiated
+state, so as to do its own work and nothing else. In order to give the
+idea of a timepiece to one who had it not, you would not send him to one
+of the curious mediæval clocks which could play a tune, and fire a gun,
+and announce the sunrise, and mark the tides, and report twenty
+miscellaneous things besides; but to the modern chronometer, simple and
+complete, that, telling only the moment, tells it perfectly. And in
+natural organizations, to learn the capabilities and project of any
+structure, you would not resort to the embryo where it is forming but
+not working: you would wait till it was born into the full presence of
+the elements with which it had to deal; not till then could you see how
+they played upon it, and what was its response to them. In conformity
+with this rule, whither would you betake yourself, if you want to
+measure the intrinsic competency of our intellectual faculty, and
+determine what its very nature gives it to know? Would you take counsel
+of the nurse who held you "when you first opened your eyes to the
+light,"[10] or otherwise study "the first consciousness in any infant,"
+"before the time when memory commences,"[11] and disregard every thing
+"subsequent to the first beginnings of intellectual life"?[12] On the
+contrary, you would avoid that soft inchoate promise of nature, only
+nominally born, where the very structures of its finer work have not yet
+set into their distinctive consistency and form; and will hold your
+peace till the faculty is awake and on its feet, and can clearly tell
+you what it sees for itself, and what it makes out at second-hand: just
+as, to gauge the lunar light, you must have patience while the thin
+crescent grows, and wait till the full orb is there. Still less can you
+take the report of the Moral Faculty from the confessions of the cradle,
+or from the quarrels and affections of the apes; the conditions being
+not yet present for the bare conception of a moral problem. The most
+that can be asked of an intuition is, that it shall keep pace with the
+cases as they arise, and be on the spot when it is wanted; and if you
+would know what provision our nature holds for dealing with its Duty and
+interpreting its guilt, you must go into the thick of its moral life,
+and bid it tell you what it sees from the swaying tides of temptation
+and of victory. The "purity" of intuitions is not "pristine," but
+ultimate; cleared at length from accidental and irrelevant dilutions,
+and with essence definitely crystallized, they realize and exhibit the
+idea that lay at the heart of all their tentatives, and constitutes
+their truth. Am I told that it is hopeless at so late an hour to
+separate what is an indigenous gift from what is implanted by education?
+I reply, it no doubt requires, but it will not baffle, the hand of
+skilled analysis; it is a difficulty which, in other cases, we find it
+not impossible to overcome; for there are assuredly instincts and
+affections, strictly original and natural, that make no sign and play no
+part till our maturer years, yet which are readily distinguished from
+the products of artificial culture.
+
+[Footnote 10: Mill's Examination of Hamilton, 3d ed. p. 172.]
+
+[Footnote 11: Ibid.]
+
+[Footnote 12: Ibid., p. 160.]
+
+If, to find the functions of our higher faculties, we must look to their
+last stage, and not to their first, we at once recover and justify the
+ideal conceptions which the expositors of Evolution are accustomed to
+disparage as romance. For among these functions are present certain
+Intuitive beliefs--for the Reason, in Divine Causality; for the
+Conscience, in Divine Authority; together blending into the knowledge of
+a Supreme and Holy Mind. These august apprehensions we are entitled to
+declare are not the illusions, but the discoveries, of Man; who, by
+rising into them, is born into more of the Universe of things than any
+other being upon earth, and is made conscious of its transcendent and
+ultimate realities. If these trusts are indeed the growth of ages, from
+seeds invisibly dropped upon the field of time, be it so; it was not
+without hand: there was _a Sower_ that went forth to sow.
+
+II. We turn now to the Second Form of doubt raised by the doctrine of
+Evolution: under which it weakens our objective trust in an originating
+Mind.
+
+A naturalist who to his own satisfaction has traced the pedigree of the
+human intellect, conscience, and religion, to Ascidian skin-bags
+sticking to the sea-side rocks, is not likely to arrest the genealogy
+there, at a stage so little fitted to serve as a starting-point of
+derivative being. Or, if his own retreat should go no further, others
+will take up the regressive race, and, soon passing the near and easy
+line into the vegetable kingdom, will work through its provinces to its
+lichen-spotted edge: and, after perhaps one shrinking look, will dare
+the leap into the dead realm beyond, and bring home the parentage of all
+to the primitive elements of "matter and force." To give effect to this
+extension over the universe at large of the theory of Evolution, the
+scientific imagination of our day has long been meditating its projected
+book of Genesis, and has already thrown out its special chapters here
+and there; and though the scenes of the drama as a whole are not yet
+arranged, the general plan is clear: that the Lucretian method is the
+true one; that nothing arises for a purpose, but only from a power; that
+no Divine Actor therefore is required, but only atoms extended,
+resisting, shaped, with spheres of mutual attraction and repulsion;
+that, with these _minima_ to begin with, a growth will follow of itself
+by which the _maxima_ will be reached; and that thus far the chief and
+latest thing it has done is the apparition of Mind in the human race and
+civilization in human society, conferring upon man the melancholy
+privilege of being, so far as he knows, at the summit of the universe.
+
+The main support of this doctrine is found in two arguments, supplied
+respectively by physical science and by natural history; each of which
+we will pass under review.
+
+i. The former relies on the new scientific conception of the _Unity of
+Force_. When Newton established the composition of Light in his treatise
+on Optics, and the law of Gravitation in his Principia, he conceived
+himself to be treating of two separate powers of nature, between which,
+quick as he was to seize unexpected relations, he dreamt of no
+interchange. Yet now it is understood that when collisions occur of
+bodies gravitating on opposite lines, the momenta that seem to be killed
+simply burst into light and heat. When Priestley's experiments detected
+the most important chemical element on the one hand, and the fundamental
+electrical laws on the other, he seemed to move on paths of research
+that had no contact. Yet, in the next generation, chemical compounds
+were resolved by electricity; which again turns up in exchange for
+magnetism, and can pass into motion, heat, and light. To see the
+transmigration of natural agency, trace only through a few of its links
+the effect of the sunshine on the tropic seas. So far as it warms the
+mass of waters, either directly or through the scorched shores that they
+wash, it stirs them into shifting layers and currents, and creates
+_mechanical_ power. But it also removes the superficial film; and thus
+far spends itself, not in raising the temperature, but in changing the
+form from liquid to vapor, and so altering the specific gravity as to
+transfer what was on the deep to the level of the mountain-tops. It is
+the Pacific that climbs and crowns the Andes, resuming on the way the
+liquid state in the shape of clouds, and as it settles crystallizing
+into solid snow and ice. The original set of solar rays have now played
+their part, and made their escape elsewhere. But there is sunshine among
+the glaciers too, which soon begins to resolve the knot that has been
+tied, and restore what has been stolen. It sets free the waters that
+have been locked up, and lets their gravitation have its play upon their
+flow. As they dash through ravines, or linger in the plains, they steal
+into the roots of grass and tree, and by the tribute which they leave
+pass into the new shape of _vital_ force. And if they pass the
+homesteads of industry, and raise the food of a civilized people, who
+can deny that they contribute not only to the organic, but to the
+_mental_ life, and so have run the whole circuit from the lowest to the
+highest phase of power? That the return back may be traced from the
+highest to the lowest, is shown by every effort of thought and will;
+which through the medium of nervous energy in one direction sets in
+action the levers of the limbs, and in another works the laboratory of
+the organic life, and forms new chemical compounds, of which some are
+reserved for use, while others pass into the air as waste. Still
+further: all doubt of identity in the force which masks itself in these
+various shapes is said to be removed by the test of direct measurement
+before and after the change. The heating of a pound of water by one
+degree has its exact mechanical equivalent;[13] and a given store of
+elevated temperature will overcome the same weights, whether applied
+directly to lift them, or turned first into a thermo-electric current,
+so as to perform its task by deputy.[14] The inference drawn from the
+phenomena of which these are samples is no less than this: that each
+kind of force is convertible into any other, and undergoes neither gain
+nor loss upon the way; so that the sum-total remains for ever the same,
+and is only differently represented as the proportions change amongst
+the different forms of life, and between the organic and the inorganic
+realms. Hence arises the argument that, in having _any_ force, you have
+virtually _all_; and that, assuming only material atoms as depositories
+of mechanical resistance and momentum, you can supply a universe with an
+exhaustive cosmogony, and dispense with the presence of Mind, except as
+one of its phenomena.
+
+[Footnote 13: Viz., the fall of 772 lbs. through a foot. See Mr. Joule's
+Experiments in Grove's Correlation of Physical Forces, p. 34, 5th ed.]
+
+[Footnote 14: See Grove's Correlation, p. 255, 5th ed.]
+
+To test this argument, let us grant the data which are demanded, and
+imagine the primordial space charged with matter, in molecules or in
+masses, in motion or rest, as you may prefer. Put it under the law of
+gravitation, and invest it with what varieties you please of density and
+form. Thus constituted, it perfectly fulfils all the conditions you have
+asked; it presses, it moves, it propagates and distributes impulse, is
+liable to acceleration and retardation, and exhibits all the phenomena
+with which any treatise on Mechanics can properly deal. In order,
+however, to keep the problem clear within its limits, let us have it in
+the simplest form, and conceive the atoms to be all of _gold_; then, I
+would fain learn by what step the hypothesis proposes to effect its
+passage to the _chemical_ forces and their innumerable results. _Heat_
+it may manage to reach by the friction and compression of the materials
+at its disposal; and its metal universe may thus have its solid, liquid,
+and gaseous provinces; but, beyond these varieties, its homogeneous
+particles cannot advance the history one hair's breadth through an
+eternity. It is not true, then, that the conditions which give the first
+type of force suffice to promote it to the second; and in order to start
+the world on its chemical career, you must enlarge its capital and
+present it with an outfit of _heterogeneous_ constituents. Try,
+therefore, the effect of such a gift; fling into the pre-existing
+caldron the whole list of recognized elementary substances, and give
+leave to their affinities to work: we immediately gain an immense
+accession to our materials for the architecture and resources for the
+changes of the world,--the water and the air, the salts of the ocean,
+and the earthy or rocky compounds that compose the crust of the globe,
+and the variable states of magnetism and heat, which throw the
+combinations into slow though constant change. But with all your
+enlargement of data, turn them as you will, at the end of every passage
+which they explore, the _door of life_ is closed against them still; and
+though more than once it has been proclaimed that a way has been found
+through, it has proved that the living thing was on the wrong side to
+begin with. It is not true, therefore, that, from the two earlier stages
+of force, the ascent can be made to the vital level; the ethereal fire
+yet remains in Heaven; and philosophy has not stretched forth the
+Promethean arm that can bring it down. And if, once more, we make you a
+present of this third phase of power, and place at your disposal all
+that is contained beneath and within the flora of the world, still your
+problem is no easier than before; you cannot take a single step towards
+the deduction of sensation and thought: neither at the upper limit do
+the highest plants (the exogens) transcend themselves and overbalance
+into animal existence; nor at the lower, grope as you may among the
+sea-weeds and sponges, can you persuade the sporules of the one to
+develop into the other. It is again not true, therefore, that, in virtue
+of the convertibility of force, the possession of any is the possession
+of the whole: we give you all the forms but one; and that one looks
+calmly down on your busy evolutions, and remains inaccessible. Is, then,
+the transmigration of forces altogether an illusion? By no means; but
+before one can exchange with another, _both must be there_; and to turn
+their equivalence into a universal formula, _all_ must be there. With
+only one kind of elementary matter, there can be no chemistry; with
+only the chemical elements and their laws, no life; with only vital
+resources, as in the vegetable world, no beginning of mind. But let
+Thought and Will with their conditions once be there, and they will
+appropriate vital power; as life, once in possession, will ply the
+alembics and the test-tubes of its organic laboratory; and chemical
+affinity is no sooner on the field than it plays its game among the
+cohesions of simple gravitation. Hence it is impossible to work the
+theory of Evolution upwards from the bottom. If all force is to be
+conceived as One, its type must be looked for in the highest and
+all-comprehending term; and Mind must be conceived as there, and as
+divesting itself of some specialty at each step of its descent to a
+lower stratum of law, till represented at the base under the guise of
+simple Dynamics. Or, if you retain the forces in their plurality, then
+you must _assume_ them _all_ among your data, and confess, with one of
+the greatest living expositors of the phenomena of Development, that
+unless among your primordial elements you scatter already the germs of
+mind as well as the inferior elements, the Evolution can never be
+wrought out.[15] But surely a theory, which is content simply to assume
+in the germ whatever it has to turn out full-grown, throws no very
+brilliant light on the genesis of the Universe.
+
+[Footnote 15: Lotze's Mikrokosmus, B. iv. Kap. 2, Band ii. 33, seqq.]
+
+ii. The second and principal support of the doctrine under review is
+found in the realm of natural history, and in that province of it which
+is occupied by _living beings_. Here, it is said, in the field of
+observation nearest to us, we have evidence of a power in each nature to
+push itself and gain ground, as against all natures less favorably
+constituted. There is left open to it a certain range of possible
+variations from the type of its present individuals, of which it may
+avail itself in any direction that may fortify its position; and even if
+its own instincts did not seize at once the line of greatest strength,
+still, out of its several tentatives, all the feeble results would fail
+to win a footing, and only the residuary successes would make good their
+ground. The ill-equipped troops of rival possibilities being always
+routed, however often they return, the well-armed alone are seen upon
+the field, and the world is in possession of "the fittest to live." We
+thus obtain a principle of self-adjusting adaptation of each being to
+its condition, without resorting to a designing care disposing of it
+from without; and its development is an experimental escape from past
+weakness, not a pre-conceived aim at a future perfection.
+
+I have neither ability nor wish to criticise the particular indications
+of this law, drawn with an admirable patience and breadth of research,
+from every department of animated nature. Though the logical structure
+of the proof does not seem to me particularly solid, and the
+disproportion between the evidence and the conclusion is of necessity so
+enormous as to carry us no further than the discussion of an hypothesis,
+yet, for our present purpose, the thesis may pass as if established; and
+our scrutiny may be directed only to its bearings, should it be true.
+
+(1) The genius of a country which has been the birthplace and chief home
+of Political Economy is naturally pleased by a theory of this kind;
+which invests its favorite lord and master, _Competition_, with an
+imperial crown and universal sway. But let us not deceive ourselves with
+mere abstract words and abbreviations, as if they could reform a world
+or even farm a sheep-walk. _Competition_ is not, like a primitive
+function of nature, an independent and original power, which can of
+itself do any thing: the term only describes a certain intensifying of
+power already there; making the difference, under particular conditions,
+between function latent and function exercised. It may therefore turn
+the less into the more; and it is reasonable to attribute to it an
+_increment_ to known and secured effects; but not new and unknown
+effects, for which else there is no provision. It gives but a partial
+and superficial account of the phenomena with which it has concern; of
+their degree; of their incidence here or there; of their occurrence now
+or then: of themselves in their characteristics it pre-supposes, and
+does not supply, the cause. To that cause, then, let us turn. Let us
+consider what must be upon the field, before competition can arise.
+
+(2) It cannot act except in the presence of some _possibility of a
+better or worse_. A struggle out of relative disadvantage implies that a
+relative advantage is within grasp,--that there is a prize of promotion
+offered for the contest. The rivalry of beings eager for it is but an
+instrument for _making the best of things_; and only when flung into the
+midst of an indeterminate variety of alternative conditions can it find
+any scope. When it gets there and falls to work, what does it help us to
+account for? It accounts certainly for the triumph and _survivorship of
+the better_, but not for there _being a better to survive_. _Given_, the
+slow and the swift upon the same course, it makes it clear that the race
+will be to the swift; but it does not provide the fleeter feet by which
+the standard of speed is raised. Nay more; even for the prevalence of
+the better ("or fitter to live") it would not account, except on the
+assumption that whatever is _better_ is _stronger_ too; and a universe
+in which this rule holds already indicates its divine constitution, and
+is pervaded by an ideal power unapproached by the forces of necessity.
+Thus the law of "natural selection," instead of dispensing with anterior
+causation and enabling the animal races to be their own Providence and
+do all their own work, distinctly testifies to a constitution of the
+world pre-arranged for progress, externally spread with large choice of
+conditions, and with internal provisions for seizing and realizing the
+best. On such a world, rich in open possibilities, of beauty, strength,
+affection, intellect, and character, they are planted and set free;
+charged with instincts eagerly urging them to secure the preferable line
+of each alternative; and disposing themselves, by the very conditions of
+equilibrium, into a natural hierarchy, in which the worthiest to live
+are in the ascendant, and the standard of life is for ever rising. What
+can look more like the field of a directing Will intent upon the good?
+Indeed, the doctrine of "natural selection" owes a large part of its
+verisimilitude to its skilful imitation of the conditions and method of
+Free-will;--the indeterminate varieties of possible movement; the
+presentation of these before a selective power; the determination of the
+problem by fitness for preference,--all these are features that would
+belong no less to the administration of a presiding Mind; and that,
+instead of resorting for the last solution to this high arbitrament, men
+of science should suppose it to be blindly fought out by the competing
+creatures, as if they were supreme, is one of the marvels which the
+professional intellect, whatever its department, more often exhibits
+than explains.
+
+(3) But, before competition can arise, there must be, besides the field
+of favorable possibility, _desire or instinct_ to lay hold of its
+opportunities. Here it is that we touch the real dynamics of evolution,
+which rivalry can only bring to a somewhat higher pitch. Here, it must
+be admitted, there is at work a genuine principle of progression, the
+limits of which it is difficult to fix. Every being which is so far
+individuated as to be a separate centre of sensation, and of the
+balancing active spontaneity, is endowed with a self-asserting power,
+capable, on the field already supposed, of becoming a self-advancing
+power. Under its operation, there is no doubt, increasing
+differentiation of structure and refinement of function may be expected
+to emerge; nor is there any reason, except such as the facts of natural
+history may impose, why this process should be arrested at the
+boundaries of the species recognized in our present classifications.
+Possibly, if the slow increments of complexity in the organs of sentient
+beings on the globe were all mapped out before us, the whole teeming
+multitudes now peopling the land, the waters, and the air, might be seen
+radiating from a common centre in lines of various divergency, and,
+however remote their existing relations, might group themselves as one
+family. The speculative critic must here grant without stint all that
+the scheme of development can ask; and he must leave it to the
+naturalist and physiologist to break up the picture into sections, if
+they must. But then, _Why_ must he grant it? Because here, having
+crossed the margin of animal life, we have, in its germ of feeling and
+idea, not merely a persistent, but a self-promoting force, able to turn
+to account whatever is below it; the mental power, even in its
+rudiments, dominating the vital, and constraining it to weave a finer
+organism; and, for that end, to amend its application of the chemical
+forces, and make them better economize their command of mechanical
+force. Observe, however, that, if here we meet with a truly fruitful
+agency, capable of accomplishing difficult feats of new combination and
+delicate equilibrium, we meet with it _here first_; and the moment we
+fall back from the line of sentient life, and quit the scene of this
+eager, aggressive, and competing power, we part company with all
+principle of progress; and consequently lose the tendency to that
+increasing complexity of structure and subtlety of combination which
+distinguish the organic from the inorganic compounds. Below the level of
+life, there is no room for the operation of "natural selection." Its
+place is there occupied by another principle, for which no such wonders
+of constructive adaptation can be claimed;--I mean, the dynamic rule of
+_Action on the line of least resistance_,--a rule, the working of which
+is quite in the opposite direction. For evidently it goes against the
+establishment of unstable conditions of equilibrium, and must therefore
+be the enemy rather than the patron of the complex ingredients, the
+precarious tissues, and the multiplied relations, of sentient bodies;
+and on its own theatre must prevent the permanent formation of any but
+the simpler unions among the material elements. Accordingly, all the
+great enduring masses that form and fill the architecture of inorganic
+nature,--its limestone and clay, its oxides and salts, its water and
+air,--are compounds, or a mixture, of few and direct constituents. And
+the moment that life retreats and surrenders the organism it has built
+and held, the same antagonist principle enters on possession, and sets
+to work to destroy the intricate structure of "proximate principles"
+with their "compound radicals." With life and mind therefore there
+begins, whether by modified affinities or by removal of waste, a
+_tension_ against these lower powers, carrying the being up to a greater
+or less height upon the wing; but with life it ends, leaving him then to
+the perpetual gravitation that completes the loftiest flight upon the
+ground. Within the limits of her Physics and Chemistry alone, Nature
+discloses no principle of progression, but only provisions for
+periodicity; and out of this realm, without further resources, she could
+never rise.
+
+The downward tendency which sets in with any relaxation of the
+differentiating forces of life is evinced, not only in the extreme case
+of dissolution in death, but in the well-known relapse of organs which
+have been artificially developed into exceptional perfection back into
+their earlier state, when relieved of the strain and left to themselves.
+Under the tension of a directing mental interest, whether supplied by
+the animal's own instincts or by the controlling care of man, the
+organism yields itself to be moulded into more special and highly
+finished forms; and a series of ascending variations withdraws the
+nature from its original or first-known type. But wherever we can lift
+the tension off, the too skilful balance proves unstable, and the law of
+reversion reinstates the simpler conditions. Only on the higher levels
+of life do we find a self-working principle of progression: and, till we
+reach them, development wants its dynamics; and, though there may be
+evolution, it cannot be self-evolution.
+
+These considerations appear to me to break the back of this formidable
+argument in the middle; and to show the impossibility of dispensing with
+the presence of Mind in any scene of ascending being, where the little
+is becoming great, and the dead alive, and the shapeless beautiful, and
+the sentient moral, and the moral spiritual. Is it not in truth a
+strange choice, to set up "_Evolution_," of all things, as the negation
+of _Purpose_ pre-disposing what is to come? For what does the word mean,
+and whence is it borrowed? It means, to unfold from within; and it is
+taken from the history of the seed or embryo of living natures. And what
+is the seed but a casket of pre-arranged futurities, with its whole
+contents _prospective_, settled to be what they are by reference to ends
+still in the distance. If a grain of wheat be folded in a mummy-cloth
+and put into a catacomb, its germ for growing and its albumen for
+feeding sleep side by side, and never find each other out. But no sooner
+does it drop, thousands of years after, on the warm and moistened field,
+than their mutual play begins, and the plumule rises and lives upon its
+store till it is able to win its own maintenance from the ground. Not
+only are its two parts therefore relative to each other, but both are
+relative to conditions lying in another department of the world,--the
+clouds, the atmosphere, the soil; in the absence of which they remain
+barren and functionless:--and _this_, from a Cause that has no sense of
+relation! The human ear, moulded in the silent matrix of nature, is
+formed with a nerve susceptible to one influence alone, and that an
+absent one, the undulations of a medium into which it is not yet born;
+and, in anticipation of the whole musical scale with all its harmonies,
+furnishes itself with a microscopic grand-piano of three thousand
+stretched strings, each ready to respond to a different and definite
+number of aerial vibrations:--and _this_, from a Cause that never meant
+to bring together the inner organ and the outer medium, now hidden from
+each other! The eye, shaped in the dark, selects an exclusive
+sensibility to movements propagated from distant skies; and so weaves
+its tissues, and disposes its contents, and hangs its curtains, and
+adjusts its range of motion, as to meet every exigency of refraction and
+dispersion of the untried light, and be ready to paint in its interior
+the whole perspective of the undreamed world without:--and _this_, from
+a Cause incapable of having an end in view! Surely, nothing can be
+evolved that is not first involved; and if there be any thing which not
+only carries a definite future in it, but has the whole _rationale_ of
+its present constitution grounded in that future, it is the embryo,
+whence, by a strange humor, this denial of final causes has chosen to
+borrow its name. Not more certainly is the statue that has yet to be,
+already potentially contained in the pre-conception and sketches of the
+artist, than the stately tree of the next century in the beech-mast that
+drops upon the ground; or the whole class of Birds, if you give them a
+common descent, in the eggs to which you choose to go back as first; or
+the entire system of nature in any germinal cell or other prolific
+_minimum_ whence you suppose its organism to have been brought out.
+Evolution and Prospection are inseparable conceptions. Go back as you
+will, and try to propel the movement from behind instead of drawing it
+from before, development in a definite direction towards the realization
+of a dominant scheme of ascending relations is the sway of an overruling
+end. To take away the ideal basis of nature, yet construe it by the
+analogy of organic growth, will be for ever felt as a contradiction. It
+is to put out the eyes of the Past, in order to show us with what secure
+precision, amid distracting paths, and over chasms bridged by a hair, it
+selects its way into the Future.
+
+If the Divine Idea will not retire at the bidding of our speculative
+science, but retains its place, it is natural to ask, what is its
+relation to the series of so-called Forces in the world? But the
+question is too large and deep to be answered here. Let it suffice to
+say, that there need not be any _overruling_ of these forces by the will
+of God, so that the supernatural should disturb the natural; or any
+_supplementing_ of them, so that He should fill up their deficiencies.
+Rather is His Thought related to them as, in Man, the mental force is
+related to all below it; turning them all to account for ideal ends, and
+sustaining the higher equilibrium which else would lapse into lower
+forms. More truly, yet equivalently, might we say, these supposed
+forces, which are only our intellectual interpretation of classes of
+perceived phenomena, are but varieties of His Will, the rules and
+methods of His determinate and legislated agency, in which, to keep
+faith with the universe of beings, He abnegates all change; but beyond
+which, in His transcendent relations with dependent and responsible
+minds, He has left a glorious margin for the free spiritual life, open
+to the sacredness of Personal Communion, and the hope of growing
+similitude.
+
+
+
+
+THE RELATIONS
+
+OF
+
+ETHICS AND THEOLOGY.
+
+By ANDREW P. PEABODY.
+
+
+My subject is the mutual relations of Ethics and Theology.
+
+Ethics is the science of the Right; and we would first inquire whether
+this science is a mere department of theology, or whether it has its own
+independent existence, sphere, and office. Our opening question then is:
+What is the ground of right? Why are certain acts right, and certain
+other acts wrong? Are these characteristics incidental, arbitrary,
+created by circumstances; variable with time or place, or the
+intelligence of the agent; contingent on legislation, human or Divine?
+Or are they intrinsic, essential, independent of command, even of the
+Divine command?
+
+We can best answer this question by considering what is implied in
+existence. Existence implies properties, and properties are fitnesses.
+Every object, by virtue of its existence, has its place, purpose, uses,
+relations. At every moment, each specific object is either in or out of
+its place, fulfilling or not fulfilling its purpose, subservient to or
+alienated from its uses, in accordance or out of harmony with its
+relations, and therefore in a state of fitness or of unfitness as
+regards other objects. Every object is at every moment under the control
+of the intelligent will either of the Supreme Being or of some finite
+being, and is by that will maintained either in or out of its place,
+purpose, uses, and relations, and thus in a state of fitness or
+unfitness as regards other objects. Every intelligent being, by virtue
+of his existence, bears certain definite relations to outward objects,
+his fellow-beings, and his Creator. At every moment each intelligent
+being is either faithful or unfaithful to these relations, and thus in a
+state of fitness or unfitness as regards outward objects and other
+beings. Thus fitness or unfitness may be predicated at every moment of
+every object in existence, of the volitions by which each object is
+controlled, and of every intelligent being with regard to his voluntary
+position in the universe. Fitness and unfitness are the ultimate ideas
+that underlie the terms _right_ and _wrong_. These last are metaphorical
+terms: right, _rectus_, straight, upright, according to rule, and
+therefore _fit_; wrong, _wrung_, distorted, twisted out of place,
+abnormal, and therefore _unfit_. We are so constituted that we cannot
+help regarding fitness with esteem and complacency; unfitness, with
+disesteem and disapproval, even though we ourselves create it or
+impersonate it.
+
+Fitness is the law by which alone we have the knowledge of sin, by which
+alone we justify or condemn ourselves. Duty has fitness for its only aim
+and end. To whatever object comes under our control its fit place or use
+is due; and our perception of that _due_ constitutes our _duty_, and
+awakens in us a sense of obligation. To ourselves and to other beings
+and objects, our fidelity to our relations has in it an intrinsic
+fitness; that fitness is their and our due; and the perception of that
+_due_ constitutes our _duty_, and awakens in us a sense of obligation.
+
+Conscience is the faculty by which we perceive fitness or unfitness. Its
+functions are not cognitive, but judicial. Its decisions are based upon
+our knowledge, real or imagined, from whatever source derived. It judges
+according to such law and evidence as it has; and its verdict is always,
+relatively, a genuine _verdict_ (_verum dictum_), though potentially
+false and wrong by defect of our knowledge,--even as in a court of law
+an infallibly wise and incorruptibly just judge may pronounce an utterly
+erroneous and unjust decision, if he have before him a false statement
+of facts, or if the law which he is compelled to administer be
+unrighteous. What we call the education of conscience is merely the
+accumulation and verification of the materials on which conscience is to
+act; in fine, the discovery of fitnesses.
+
+Permit me to illustrate the function of conscience by reference to a
+question now mooted in our community,--the question as to the moral
+fitness of the temperate use of fermented liquors. Among the aborigines
+of Congo and Dahomey, there being no settled industry, no mental
+activity, and no hygienic knowledge as to either body or mind, it seems
+fitting, and therefore right, to swallow all the strong drink that they
+can lay their hands upon; for it is fitted to produce immediate animal
+enjoyment,--the only good of which they have cognizance. Among civilized
+men, on the contrary, intoxication is universally known to be opposed to
+the fitnesses of body and mind, an abuse of alcoholic liquors, and an
+abuse of the drinker's own personality; and it is therefore condemned by
+all consciences, by none more heartily than by those of its victims.
+But there still remains open the question as to the moderate use of
+fermented liquors; and this is not, as it is commonly called, a question
+of conscience, but a mere question of fact,--of fitness or unfitness.
+Says one party, "Alcohol, in every form, and in the least quantity, is a
+virulent poison, and therefore unfit for body and mind." Says the other
+party, "Wine, moderately used, is healthful, salutary, restorative, and
+therefore fitted to body and mind." Change the opinion of the latter
+party, their consciences would at once take the other side; and, if they
+retained in precept and practice their present position, they would
+retain it self-condemned. Change the opinion of the former party, their
+consciences would assume the ground which they now assail. Demonstrate
+to the whole community--which physiology may one day do--the precise
+truth in this matter, there would remain no differences of conscientious
+judgment, whatever difference of practice might still continue.
+
+From what has been said, it is necessarily inferred that right and wrong
+are not contingent on the knowledge of the moral agent. Unfitness,
+misuse, abuse, is none the less wrong because the result of ignorance.
+If the result of inevitable ignorance, it does not indeed imply an
+unfitness or derangement of the agent's own moral powers. Yet it is none
+the less out of harmony with the fitness of things. It deprives an
+object of its due use. It perverts to pernicious results what is
+salutary in its purpose. It lessens for the agent his aggregate of good
+and of happiness, and increases for him his aggregate of evil and of
+misery. In this sense--far more significant than that of arbitrary
+infliction--the maxim of jurisprudence, _Ignorantia legis neminem
+excusat_ ("Ignorance of the law excuses no one"), is a fundamental
+principle of human nature.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+We are now prepared to consider the relation of moral distinctions to
+theology. In the first place, if the ground which I have maintained be
+tenable, ethical science rests on a basis of its own, wholly independent
+of theology. Right and wrong, as moral distinctions, in no wise depend
+on the Divine will and law; nay, not even on the Divine existence. The
+atheist cannot escape or disown them. They are inseparable from
+existence. For whatever exists, no matter how it came into being, must
+needs have its due place, affinities, adaptations, uses; and an
+intelligent dweller among the things that are cannot but know something
+of their fitnesses and harmonies, and, so far as he acts upon them,
+cannot but feel the obligation to recognize their fitnesses, and thus to
+create or restore their harmonies. Even to the atheist, vice is a
+violation of fitnesses which he knows or may know. It is opposed to his
+conscientious judgment. He has with regard to it an inevitable sense of
+wrong. I can therefore conceive of an atheist's being--though I should
+have little hope that he would be--a rigidly virtuous man, and that on
+principle.
+
+But while atheism does not obliterate moral distinctions, or cancel
+moral obligation, these distinctions are a refutation of atheism; and
+from the very fitness of things, which we have seen to be the ground of
+right, we draw demonstrative evidence of the being, unity, and moral
+perfectness of the Creator: so that the fundamental truths of theology
+rest on the same basis with the fundamental principles of ethics. Let me
+ask you to pursue this argument with me.
+
+Every object, as I have said, must, by virtue of its existence, have its
+fit place and use; but, in a world that was the dice-work of chance,
+there would be myriads of probabilities to one against any specific
+object's attaining to its fit place and use. This must be the work of
+will alone. If chance can create, it cannot combine, co-ordinate,
+organize. If it can throw letters on the ground by the handful, it
+cannot arrange them into the Iliad or the Paradise Lost. If it can stain
+the sky or the earth with gorgeous tints, it cannot group them into a
+Madonna or a landscape. Its universe would be peopled by straylings,
+full of disjointed halves of pairs,--of objects thrown together in such
+chaotic heaps that seldom could any one object find its counterpart or
+subserve its end.
+
+The opposite is the case in the actual world. The first discoveries
+which the first human being made were of the fitnesses of the objects
+around him to himself and to one another. With every added year his
+microcosm enlarged, so that, before he left the world, he had within his
+cognizance a range of fitnesses and uses sufficient to guide his own
+activity, and to enable him to predict its results, together with
+numerous other results not contingent on his own agency. Beyond this
+microcosm, indeed, lay a vast universe impenetrable to his search, in
+which he could trace no relations, no filaments of order; in which all
+seemed to him a medley of chaotic confusion, mutually intruding systems,
+clashing and jarring forces. On this realm of the unknown man has ever
+since been making perpetual aggressions; and every step of his progress
+has been the discovery of fitnesses, relations, reciprocal uses, among
+the most remote, diverse, and at first sight mutually hostile objects,
+classes, and systems. Natural history, physics, and chemistry, are the
+science of mutual fitnesses and uses among terrestrial objects.
+Astronomy is the science of harmonies among all the worlds,--of
+fitnesses in their relations and courses to the condition of things in
+our own planet, approximately to other bodies in the solar system, and,
+by ascertained analogies, to those distant orbs of which we know only
+that they stand and move ever in their order. Geology is the science of
+mutual fitnesses in former epochs and conditions of our own planet, and
+of prospective fitnesses in them to the needs and uses of the present
+epoch; so that by harmonies which run through unnumbered æons we are the
+heirs, and sustain our industries by the usufruct, of the ages, the
+great moments of whose history we are just beginning to read.
+Mathematical science reveals geometrical and numerical fitnesses,
+proportions, and harmonies, which are traced alike in the courses of the
+stars and in the collocation of the foliage on the tree, and which
+promise one day to give us the equation of the curve of the sea-shell,
+of the contour of the geranium-leaf, of the crest of the wave. There is
+still around us the realm of the unknown; yet not only are daily
+aggressions made upon it, but science has advanced so far as to render
+it certain that there is no department or object in the universe, which
+is not comprehended in this system of mutual fitnesses, harmonies, and
+uses.
+
+Now consider the relation of organized being to this system. What is an
+organ? It is the capacity of perceiving, choosing, and utilizing a
+fitness. The rootlets of the tree by the river-side perceive the
+adjacent water, elongate themselves toward it, in a drought make
+convulsive and successful efforts to reach it; while the corolla of the
+heliotrope perceives the calorific rays, and turns toward their source
+in the heavens. The organs of the plant select from the elements around
+it such substances as are fitted to feed its growth, and appropriate
+them to its use, even though they be found in infinitesimal
+proportions, in masses of alien substance. In all this there is a
+semi-self-consciousness, corresponding, not indeed to the action of
+mind, but to that of the spontaneous life-processes in intelligent
+beings.
+
+The animal carries us a step higher. His instincts are an unerring
+knowledge of fitnesses and uses within his sphere. He seeks what is
+fitted, shuns what is unfitted to his sustenance and growth, is never
+deceived when left to his own sagacity, and fails only when brought into
+anomalous relations with the superior knowledge of man. He lives, merely
+because he is conscious of the fitnesses of nature, and yields up his
+life to a stronger beast, in accordance with those same
+fitnesses--beneficent still--by which all realms of nature are kept
+fully stocked, yet never overstocked, with healthy and rejoicing life.
+
+The fitness which thus pervades and unifies the entire creation, man as
+an animal perceives, as a living soul recognizes and comprehends; and to
+his consciousness it is an imperative law, obeyed always with
+self-approval, disobeyed only with self-condemnation. Of disobedience he
+alone is capable, yet he but partially. In order to live, he must obey
+in the vast majority of instances; still more must he obey, if he would
+have society, physical comfort, transient enjoyment of however low a
+type; and the most depraved wretch that walks the earth purchases his
+continued being by a thousand acts of unintended yet inevitable
+obedience to one of voluntary guilt. Man's law--the law which, in
+violating or scorning it, he cannot ignore or evade--is the very same
+fitness which runs through all inorganic nature, and which the
+semi-conscious tree, shrub, or flower, the imperfectly self-conscious
+bird, fish, or beast uniformly obeys.
+
+Now can chance have evolved this universal fitness, and the souls that
+own their allegiance to it? Is it not the clear self-revelation of a
+God, one, all-wise, omnipotent? Has it any other possible solution?
+Bears it not, in inscriptions that girdle the universe in letters of
+light, the declarations of the Hebrew seer, "In the beginning God
+created the heavens and the earth," and "The Lord our God is one Lord"?
+I am not disposed to cavil at the argument from design in the structure
+and adaptations of any one organized being; but immeasurably more cogent
+is this argument from a consenting universe, in which filaments of
+fitness, relation, and use cross and recross one another from bound to
+bound, from sun to star, from star to earth, from the greatest to the
+least, from the order of the heavens to the zoöphyte and the microscopic
+animalcule. In the human conscience I recognize at once the revelation
+and the perpetual witness of this all-pervading adaptation, this
+universal harmony. Conscience is the God within, not in figure, but in
+fact. It is the mode in which He who is enshrined in all being, who
+lives in all life, takes up his abode, holds his perpetual court, erects
+his eternal judgment-seat, within the human soul.
+
+We pass to the consideration of the moral attributes of the Creator. I
+have spoken of moral distinctions as logically separable from and
+independent of the Divine nature. From this position alone can we
+establish the holiness, justice, and mercy of the Divine Being. In
+order to show this, let me ask your attention to the distinction
+between necessary and contingent truths; that is, between truths which
+have an intrinsic validity, which always were and cannot by any
+possibility be otherwise than true, and truths which were made true,
+which began to be, and the opposite of which might have been.
+Mathematical truth is necessary and absolute truth,--not made truth even
+by the ordinance of the Supreme Being, but truth from the very nature of
+things, truth co-eternal with God. Omnipotence cannot make two and two
+five, or render the sum of the angles of a triangle more or less than
+two right angles, or construct a square and a circle of both equal
+perimeter and equal surface. In our conception of mathematical truth we
+are conscious that it must have been true before all worlds, and would
+be equally true had no substance that could be measured or calculated
+ever been created. Every mathematical proposition is an inherent
+property or condition of the infinite space identical with the Divine
+omnipresence, or of the infinite duration identical with the Divine
+eternity.
+
+Moral truth is of the same order, not contingent, but necessary,
+absolute. This is distinctly declared in one of the most sublime bursts
+of inspiration in the Hebrew Scriptures. If you will trace in the book
+of Proverbs the traits of Wisdom as personified throughout the first
+nine chapters, you will find that it is no other than a name for the
+inherent, immutable, eternal distinction between right and wrong. It is
+this Wisdom, who, so far from confessing herself as created, ordained,
+or subject, proclaims, "Jehovah possessed me in the beginning of his
+way, before his works of old. I was set up from everlasting, from the
+beginning, or ever the earth was.... When he prepared the heavens, I
+was there.... When he appointed the foundations of the earth, then I was
+by him, AS ONE BROUGHT UP WITH HIM; and I was daily his delight,
+rejoicing always before him."
+
+It is only on the principle thus vividly set forth that we can affirm
+moral attributes of the Supreme Being. When we say that He is perfectly
+just, pure, holy, beneficent, we recognize a standard of judgment
+logically independent of his nature. We mean that the law of fitness,
+which He promulgates in the human conscience, and which is our only
+standard of right, is the self-elected law of his own being. Could we
+conceive of omnipotence and omniscience devoid of moral attributes, the
+decrees and acts of such a being would not be necessarily right.
+Omnipotence cannot make the wrong right, or the right wrong; nor can it
+indue either with the tendencies of the other, so that the wrong, that
+is, the unfitting, should produce ultimate good, or the right, that is,
+the fitting, should produce ultimate evil. God's decrees and acts are
+not right because they are his; but they are his because they are right.
+On no other ground, as I have said, can we affirm moral attributes of
+him. If his arbitrary sovereignty can indue with the characteristics of
+right that which has no intrinsic fitness, beauty, or utility, then the
+affirmation that He is holy, or just, or good, is simply equivalent to
+the absurd maxim of human despotism, "The king can do no wrong." It is
+only when we conceive of the abstract right as existing of necessity
+from a past eternity, and as a category of the Divine free-will and
+perfect prescience, in which the creation had its birth and its
+archetypes, that holiness, justice, and goodness, as applied to the
+Divine character, have any meaning.
+
+We thus see that our ethical conceptions underlie our theology, and
+that, however explicit the words of revelation may be as to the Divine
+nature, he alone can understand them, who recognizes in his own heart
+the absoluteness and immutableness of moral distinctions. How many
+Christians have there been in every age since the primitive, who, in
+using the terms _just_ and _holy_ with reference to the Almighty, have
+employed them in an entirely different sense from that in which they are
+applied to human conduct, and with regard to supposed dispositions and
+acts, which in man they would call unjust and cruel! And this simply
+because they have attached no determinate meaning, but only a
+conventional and variable sense to ethical terms, and have imagined that
+arbitrary power could reverse moral distinctions, or that God could
+impose on man one law of right, and himself recognize another.
+
+We have thus seen that theology is indebted to the fundamental
+principles of ethics for the most luculent demonstration of the being,
+omnipotence, and omniscience of God, and for the clear conception of his
+moral attributes.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+We will now consider the reciprocal obligations of ethics to theology;
+and, in the first place, to Natural Religion. Pure theism attaches the
+Divine sanction to the verdicts of conscience, makes them the will, the
+voice of God, enforces them by his authority, and elevates the
+conception of virtue by establishing a close kindred between the
+virtuous man and the Ruler of the universe. And this is much, but not
+for many. It has raised some elect spirits to a degree of excellence
+which might put Christians to shame. It has conjoined virtue with lofty
+devotion and earnest piety in a Socrates and a Marcus Antoninus, and
+refined it into a rare purity, chasteness, and tenderness of spirit in a
+Plutarch and an Epictetus. But on the masses of mankind, on the worldly
+and care-cumbered, on the unphilosophic and illiterate, it has exerted
+little or no influence. Moreover, while among the virtuous men of
+pre-Christian times and beyond the light of the Jewish revelation, we
+recognize some few of surpassing excellence, we find not a single
+ethical system, or body of moral precepts, which does not contain
+limitations, deficiencies, or enormities utterly revolting to the moral
+sense of Christendom. Thus Plato had lofty conceptions of virtue, but
+there are directions in which his precepts give free license to lust and
+cruelty; and even Socrates sanctioned by his unrebuking intimacy and
+fondness the leaders and ornaments of the most dissolute society in
+Athens.
+
+The acme of extra-Christian piety, and consequently of moral excellence,
+is presented in the writings and lives of the later Stoics, whose
+incorruptible virtue affords the only relief to our weariness and
+disgust, as we trace the history of Rome through the profligacy of the
+declining commonwealth and the depravity of the empire. We find here the
+Simeons and Annas of the Pagan world, who, though with the fleshly arm
+they embraced not the Son of God, needed but to see him to adore and
+love him. Yet in nothing was Stoicism more faulty than in its exalted
+sense of virtue. For it had no charity for sin, no tolerance even for
+the inferior forms of goodness. It was the ethics of the unfallen. It
+proffered no hope of forgiveness; it let down no helping hand from the
+heavens; it uttered no voice from the eternal silence; it opened no
+Father's house and arms for the penitent. In Moore's "Lalla Rookh" the
+Peri, promised forgiveness and readmission to Paradise on condition of
+bringing to the eternal gate the gift most dear to heaven, returns in
+vain with the last drop of the patriot's blood. Again, when she brings
+the expiring sigh of the most faithful human love, the crystal bar moves
+not. Once more she seeks the earth, and bears back the tear of penitence
+that has fallen from a godless wretch melted into contrition by a
+child's prayer; and for this alone the golden hinges turn. Stoicism
+could boast in rich profusion the patriot's blood, could feed the torch
+of a love stronger than death; but it could not start the penitential
+tear,--it failed of the one gift of earth for which there is joy in
+heaven.
+
+Let us rise, then, from the purest philosophy of the old world to
+Christianity in its ethical relations and offices.
+
+Christianity, as a revelation, covers the entire field of human duty,
+and gives the knowledge of many fitnesses, recognized when once made
+known, but undiscoverable by man's unaided insight. The two truths which
+lie at the foundation of Christian ethics are human brotherhood and the
+immortality of the soul.
+
+1. _Human brotherhood._ The visible differences of race, color, culture,
+religion, customs, are in themselves dissociating influences. Universal
+charity is hardly possible while these differences occupy the
+foreground. Slavery was a natural and congenial institution under Pagan
+auspices, and the idea of a missionary enterprise transcends the
+broadest philanthropy of heathenism. We find indeed in the ancient
+moralists, especially in the writings of Cicero and Seneca, many
+precepts of humanity toward slaves, but no clear recognition of the
+injustice inseparable from the state of slavery; nor have we in all
+ancient literature, unless it be in Seneca (in whom such sentiments
+might have had more or less directly a Christian origin), a single
+expression of a fellowship broad enough to embrace all diversities of
+condition, much less of race.[16] Even Socrates, while he expects
+himself to enter at death into the society of good men, and says that
+those who live philosophically will approach the nature of the gods,
+expresses the belief that worthy, industrious men who are not
+philosophers will, on dying, migrate into the bodies of ants, bees, or
+other hard-working members of the lower orders of animals.
+
+[Footnote 16: The verse so often quoted from Terence, "Homo sum; humani
+nihil a me alienum puto," will probably occur to many as inconsistent
+with my statement. The sentiment of this verse is, indeed, as it stands
+by itself, truly Christian; but in the Comedy from which it is quoted,
+so far from having a philanthropic significance, it is merely a
+busy-body's apology for impertinent interference with the concerns of
+his neighbor.]
+
+The fraternity of our entire race--even without involving the mooted
+question of a common human parentage--is through Christianity
+established, not only by the Divine fatherhood so constantly proclaimed
+and so luculently manifested by Jesus, but equally by the unifying
+ministry of his death as a sacrifice for all, and by his parting
+commitment of "all the world" and "every creature" to the propagandism
+of his disciples. Though the spirit of this revelation has not yet been
+embodied in any community, it has inspired the life-work of many in
+every age; it has moulded reform and guided progress in social ethics
+throughout Christendom; it has twice swept the civilized world clean
+from domestic slavery; it has shaken every throne, is condemning every
+form of despotism, monopoly, and exclusiveness, and gives clear presage
+of a condition in which the old pre-Christian division of society into
+the preying and the preyed-upon will be totally obliterated.
+
+2. _The immortality of the soul_, also, casts a light, at once broad and
+penetrating, upon and into every department of duty; for it is obvious,
+without detailed statement, that the fitnesses, needs, and obligations
+of a terrestrial being of brief duration, and those of a being in the
+nursery and initial stage of an endless existence, are very wide
+apart,--that the latter may find it fitting to do, seek, shun, omit,
+endure, resign, many things which to the former are very properly
+matters of indifference. Immortality was, indeed, in a certain sense
+believed before Christ, but with feeble assurance, and with the utmost
+vagueness of conception; so that this belief can hardly be said to have
+existed either as a criterion of duty or as a motive power. How small a
+part it bore in the ethics of the Stoic school may be seen, when we
+remember that Epictetus, than whom there was no better man, denied the
+life beyond death; and in Marcus Antoninus immortality was rather a
+devout aspiration than a fixed belief. In the Christian revelation, on
+the other hand, the eternal life is so placed in the most intimate
+connection with the life and character in this world as to cast its
+reflex lights and shadows on all earthly scenes and experiences.
+
+Christianity, in the next place, makes to us an ethical revelation in
+the person and character of its Founder, exhibiting in him the very
+fitnesses which it prescribes, showing us, as it could not by mere
+precepts, the proportions and harmonies of the virtues, and
+manifesting the unapproached beauty, nay, majesty, of the gentler
+virtues,--_virtutes leniores_, as Cicero calls them,--which in
+pre-Christian ages were sometimes made secondary, sometimes repudiated
+with contempt and derision.
+
+It is, I know, among the commonplaces of the rationalism and secularism
+of our time, that the moral precepts of the Gospel were not original,
+but had all been anticipated by Greek or Eastern sages. This is not
+literally and wholly true; for in some of the most striking of the
+alleged instances there is precisely the same difference between the
+heathen and the Christian precept that there is between the Old
+Testament and the New. The former says, "Thou shalt not;" the latter,
+"Thou shalt." The former forbids; the latter commands. The former
+prescribes abstinence from overt evil; the latter has for its sum of
+duty, "Be thou perfect, as thy Father in heaven is perfect." But the
+statement which I have quoted has more of truth in it than has been
+usually conceded by zealous champions of the Christian faith; and I
+would gladly admit its full and entire truth, could I see sufficient
+evidence of it. The unqualified admission does not in the least detract
+from the pre-eminent worth of Him who alone has been the Living Law. So
+far is this anticipation of his precepts by wise and good men before him
+from casting doubts on the divinity of his mission upon earth, that it
+only confirms his claims upon our confidence. For the great laws of
+morality are, as we have seen, as old as the throne of God; and strange
+indeed were it, had there been no intimation of them till the era of
+their perfect embodiment and full promulgation. The Divine Spirit,
+breathing always and everywhere, could not have remained, without
+witness of right, duty, and obligation in the outward universe and in
+the human conscience. So, struggling through the mists of weltering
+chaos, were many errant light-beams; yet none the less glorious and
+benignant was the sun, when in the clear firmament he first shone,
+all-illumining and all-guiding.
+
+But in practical ethics a revelation of duty is but a small part of
+man's need. According to a Chinese legend, the founders of the three
+principal religious sects in the Celestial Empire, lamenting in the
+spirit-land the imperfect success which had attended the promulgation of
+their doctrines, agreed to return to the earth, and see if they could
+not find some right-minded person by whose agency they might convert
+mankind to the integrity and purity which they had taught. They came in
+their wanderings to an old man, sitting by a fountain as its guardian.
+He recalled to them the high moral tone of their several systems, and
+reproached them for the unworthy lives of their adherents. They agreed
+that he was the very apostle they sought. But when they made the
+proposal to him, he replied, "It is the upper part of me only that is
+flesh and blood: the lower part is stone. I can talk about virtue, but
+cannot follow its teachings." The sages saw in this man, half of stone,
+the type of their race, and returned in despair to the spirit-land.
+
+There is profound truth in this legend. It indicates at once the mental
+receptivity and the moral inability of man, as to mere precepts of
+virtue. It is not enough that we know the right. We know much better
+than we do. The words which Ovid puts into the mouth of Medea, _Video
+meliora, proboque, deteriora sequor_ ("I see and approve the better, I
+pursue the worse"), are the formula of universal experience. We, most of
+all, need enabling power. This we have through Christianity alone. We
+have it: 1. In the Divine fatherhood, as exhibited in those genial,
+winning traits, in which Jesus verifies his saying, "He that hath seen
+me hath seen the Father,"--a fatherhood to feel which is to render glad
+and loving obedience to the Father's will and word; 2. In the adaptation
+of the love, sacrifice, and death of Christ to awaken the whole power of
+loving in the heart, and thus by the most cogent of motives to urge man
+to live no longer for himself, but for him who died for him; 3. In the
+assurance of forgiveness for past wrongs and omissions, without which
+there could be little courage for future well-doing; 4. In the promise
+and realization of Divine aid in every right purpose and worthy
+endeavor; 5. In institutions and observances designed and adapted to
+perpetuate the memory of the salient facts, and to renew at frequent
+intervals the recognition of the essential truths, which give to our
+religion its name, character, and efficacy.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Thus, while right and obligation exist independently of revelation, and
+even of natural religion, Christianity alone enables us to discern the
+right in its entireness and its due proportions; and it alone supplies
+the strength which we need, to make and keep us true to our obligations,
+under the stress of appetite and passion, cupidity and selfishness,
+human fear and favor.
+
+Morality and religion, potentially separable, are yet inseparable in the
+will of God, under the culture of Christ. It used to be common to place
+the legal and the evangelical element in mutual antagonism. Nothing can
+be more profane or absurd than this. That which is not legal is
+evangelical only in name and pretence. That which is not evangelical is
+legal to no purpose. The religious belief or teaching, which lays not
+supreme stress on the whole moral law, is an outrage on the Gospel and
+the Saviour. The morality, which rests on any other foundation than
+Jesus Christ and his religion, is built on the sand, the prey of the
+first onrush or inrush of wind or wave. "What therefore God hath joined
+together, let not man put asunder."
+
+
+
+
+CHRISTIANITY:
+
+WHAT IT IS NOT, AND WHAT IT IS.
+
+By G. VANCE SMITH.
+
+
+I.
+
+In looking back upon the past history of Christianity, it is easy to
+trace the existence of two very different ideas of the nature of that
+religion. Their influence is discernible in what may be termed its
+incipient form, in perhaps the earliest period to which we can ascend,
+while it has been especially felt during the last three hundred years,
+as also it materially affects the position and relations of churches and
+sects at the present moment. From obvious characteristics of each, these
+ideas may be respectively designated as the _ritualistic_, or
+sacerdotal, and the _dogmatic_, or doctrinal. It is scarcely necessary
+to add, that the two have been constantly intermingled and blended
+together, acting and reacting upon each other, and either supporting or
+else thwarting each other with singular pertinacity. Neither of them is
+found, in any instance of importance, existing wholly apart from the
+other, so as to be the sole animating principle of a great religious
+organization. The nature of the case renders this impossible.
+Ritualistic observances cannot be rationally followed without dogmatic
+beliefs. The former are the natural exponents of the latter, which
+indeed they are supposed to represent and to symbolize. Nor can
+doctrinal creeds, again, wholly dispense with outward rites and forms.
+Even the most spiritual religion requires some outward medium of
+expression, if it is to influence strongly either communities or
+individuals. It must, therefore, tacitly or avowedly adopt something of
+the dogmatic, if not of the ritualistic, idea, although this may not be
+put into express words, much less formed into a definite creed or test
+of orthodoxy.
+
+A common factor of the greatest importance enters into the two
+conceptions of Christianity just referred to, though not perhaps in
+equal measure. I allude to the moral element, which may also be denoted
+as the sense of duty,--duty towards God and towards man. It may, indeed,
+be said to be a distinguishing glory of Christianity, that it can hardly
+exist at all, under whatever outward form, without being more or less
+strongly pervaded by the moral spirit of which the ministry of Christ
+affords so rich and varied an expression. It is true, however, that the
+ritualistic idea has constantly a tendency to degenerate into a mere
+care for church observances, devoid of any high tone of uprightness and
+purity in the practical concerns of ordinary life. It is a common thing,
+in that great religious communion of Western and Southern Europe which
+is so strongly animated by this idea, to see people in the churches
+ceremoniously kneeling in the act of prayer, while all the time they are
+busy, with eager eyes, to follow every movement in the crowd around
+them. In certain countries, many of the ritualistically devout, it is
+well known, have no scruple in practising the grossest impositions upon
+strangers; a statement which is especially true of those lands that in
+modern times have been governed and demoralized beyond others by the
+influence of the priestly class, with their religion of material
+externalities. A Greek or an Italian brigand, it is said, will rob and
+murder his captive with a peaceful conscience, provided only that he
+duly confesses to the priest, and obtains his absolution. This last is a
+gross and, happily, a rare case. But, equally with the more innocent
+acts, it illustrates the natural tendencies of ritualistic Christianity
+among various classes of persons. In ordinary civilized society, such
+tendencies are kept powerfully in check by other influences. Hence it is
+not to be denied that, throughout the Christian world, devotional
+feeling and the sense of duty are usually deep and active in their
+influence, and that the practical teachings of Christ, directly or
+indirectly, exercise a potent control, whatever may be the ritualistic
+or the dogmatic idea with which they are associated.
+
+The ritualistic conception now spoken of offers us a Christianity which
+secures "salvation," by the intervention of a priest,--a man who,
+though, to all outward appearance, but a human being among human beings,
+yet alleges, and finds people to believe, that he can exercise
+supernatural functions, and has the power of opening or closing the
+gates of heaven to his fellow-men. It is needless to say how large a
+portion of Christendom is still under the influence of this kind of
+superstition, or how pertinaciously the same unspiritual form of
+religion is, at this moment, struggling to establish itself, even in the
+midst of the most enlightened modern nations.
+
+Nor is it necessary here to argue, with any detail, against the notion
+of its being either inculcated upon us within the pages of the New
+Testament, or enforced by any legitimate authority whatever. Probably
+no one who cares to hear or to read these words would seriously maintain
+that the Gospel of Christ consists, in any essential way, in submission
+to a priesthood, fallible or infallible, in the observance of rites and
+ceremonies or times and seasons, or in a particular mode or form of
+church government, whatever doctrines these may be supposed to embody or
+to symbolize. Such things have, indeed, variously prevailed among the
+Christian communities from the beginning. Generation after generation
+has seen priests, and Popes, and patriarchs, and presbyters, without
+number. These personages have decked themselves out in sacred garments,
+assumed ecclesiastical dignities and powers, and sought, many of them,
+to heighten the charm and the efficacy of their worship by the aid of
+altars and sacrifices, so called, of prostrations, incense, lamps and
+candles, and many other such outward accessories. But are such things to
+be reckoned among the essentials of Christian faith or Christian
+righteousness? Does the presence or the blessing of the Spirit of God,
+to the humble, penitent, waiting soul of man, depend upon any thing
+which one calling himself a priest can do or say for us? Will any one,
+whose opinion is worth listening to, say that it does?
+
+The teaching of Christ and his Apostles is, in truth, remarkably devoid
+of every idea of this kind. So much is this the case, that it may well
+be matter of astonishment to find men who profess to follow and to speak
+for them holding that in such matters there can be only one just and
+adequate Christian course,--that, namely, which commends itself to
+_their_ judgment! It is evident, on the contrary,--too evident to be in
+need of serious argument,--that the very diversities of opinion and
+practice which prevail in the world--as expressed by such names as
+Catholic and Protestant, Greek Church and Latin Church, Church of
+England and Church of Scotland, Episcopalian, Presbyterian,
+Congregational--prove conclusively that nothing imperative has been
+transmitted to us. The great Christian brotherhood, in its various
+sections and diverse conditions, has manifestly been left, in these
+things, to its own sense of what it is good and right to follow. Thus,
+too, if we will not close our eyes to the plainest lessons of His
+Providence, the Almighty Father gives us to understand that He only asks
+from us the service of heart and life that is "in spirit and in truth;"
+and, consequently, that we may each give utterance to our thoughts of
+praise and thanksgiving, to penitence for sin, to our prayer for the
+divine help and blessing, in whatever form of words, through whatever
+personal agency, and with whatever accompaniment of outward rite and
+ceremony we may ourselves deem it most becoming to employ.
+
+The second, or dogmatic, conception of the Gospel has been less
+generally prevalent than that of which I have been speaking. Yet, ever
+since the days of Luther, not to recall the older times of Nicene or
+Athanasian controversy, it has been possessed of great influence in some
+of the most important Christian nations. Protestant Christianity is
+predominantly dogmatic. Under various forms of expression, it makes the
+Gospel to consist in a very definite system of _doctrines_ to be
+believed; or, if not actually to consist in this, at least to include
+it, as its most prominent and indispensable element. We are informed,
+accordingly, that a man is not a Christian, cannot be a Christian, and
+perhaps it will be added, cannot be "saved," unless he receives certain
+long established doctrines, or reputed doctrines, of Christian faith.
+
+What these are, it is not necessary here minutely to inquire. It is
+well, however, to note with care that there would be considerable
+differences of opinion in regard to them, among those who would yet be
+agreed as to the necessity of holding firmly to the dogmatic idea
+referred to. A Roman Catholic, of competent intelligence, would not by
+any means agree with an ordinary member of the Anglican church equally
+qualified. Both of these would differ in essential points from a member
+of the Greek church; and the three would be almost equally at variance
+with an average representative of Scotch Presbyterian Calvinism, as also
+with one whose standard of orthodoxy is contained in the Sermons, and
+the notes on the New Testament, of the founder of Methodism. Nay, it is
+well known, even within the limits of the same ecclesiastical communion,
+differences so serious may be found as are denoted, in common phrase, by
+the terms _ritualistic_ and _evangelical_, and by other familiar words
+of kindred import.
+
+Among the great Protestant sects the want of harmony under notice is,
+doubtless, confined within comparatively narrow limits. But there is
+diversity, not to say discord, even here. No one will dispute the fact
+who has any knowledge of the history of Protestant theology, or who is
+even acquainted with certain discussions, a few years ago, among
+well-known members of the English Episcopal Church, or with others, of
+more recent date, among English Independents,--in both cases on so
+weighty a subject as the nature of the Atonement.[17] Moreover, in the
+same quarters, varieties of opinion are notorious on such topics as
+Baptismal regeneration, the authority of the Priesthood, the inspiration
+of Scripture, eternal punishment,--all of them questions of the most
+vital importance, in one or other of the popular schemes of the
+doctrine.
+
+[Footnote 17: Between Archbishop Thomson, in _Aids to Faith_, and some
+of the writers of _Tracts for Priests and People_; also between several
+eminent Independent Ministers, in the _English Independent_ newspaper
+(August, 1871).]
+
+Now the indisputable fact referred to--the existence of this most
+serious diversity and opposition of opinion and statement--affords the
+strongest reason for considering it an error of the first magnitude to
+regard Christianity as essentially consisting in a definite system of
+theological dogmas. For is it possible to believe that a divine
+revelation of doctrine, such as the Gospel has been so commonly supposed
+to be, would have been left to be a matter of doubt and debate to its
+recipients? Admitting, for a moment, the idea that the Almighty
+Providence had designed to offer to men a scheme of Faith, the right
+reception of which should, in some way, be necessary for their
+"salvation," must we not also hold that this would have been clearly
+made known to them? so clearly, plainly stated as to preclude the
+differences just alluded to, as to what it _is_ that has been revealed?
+It is impossible, in short, on such an assumption, to conceive of
+Christianity, as having been left in so doubtful a position that its
+disciples should have found occasion, from age to age, in councils and
+assemblies and conferences, in books and in newspapers, to discuss and
+dispute among themselves, often amidst anger and bitterness of spirit,
+upon the question of the nature or the number of its most essential
+doctrines. Of all possible suppositions, surely this is the least
+admissible, the most extravagantly inconsistent with the nature of the
+case.
+
+To this consideration must be added another, of even greater weight. We
+gain our knowledge of Christianity, and of the Author of Christianity,
+from the New Testament. And, in this collection of Gospels and Epistles,
+it nowhere appears that it was the intention of Christ or of the early
+disciples, to offer to the acceptance of the future ages of the world a
+new and peculiar Creed, a Confession of faith, a series of Articles of
+belief in facts or in dogmas, such as the speculative theologian of
+ancient and of modern times has usually delighted to deal with. This is
+nowhere to be seen in the New Testament, although it speedily made its
+appearance when the Gospel had passed from the keeping of the primitive
+church into that of Greek and Hellenistic converts.
+
+The only thing that can be supposed to approach this character, within
+the sacred books themselves, occurs in such phrases as speak of faith in
+Jesus Christ, or also of "believing" in the abstract, without any
+expressed object. But in none of these instances can a dogmatic creed be
+reasonably held to be the object implied or intended. What is meant, is
+simply belief in Jesus as the Christ,[18] as may be at once understood
+from the circumstances of the case, and may easily be gathered from a
+comparison of passages. In the early days of the Gospel, the great
+question between the Christians and their opponents was simply this,
+whether Jesus of Nazareth was the Christ or not. One who admitted this,
+and received him in this character, had _faith_ in him, and might be an
+accepted disciple. One who denied and rejected him, as the multitudes
+did, was not, and could not be, so accepted. A man could not, in a word,
+be a Christian disciple, without recognizing and believing in the
+Founder of Christianity.
+
+[Footnote 18: Comp. Matt. xvi. 14-16; Acts ix. 22, xvi. 31; Rom. iii.
+22, viii. 6, 9.]
+
+This explanation of the nature of the Faith of the Gospel will be found
+to apply throughout the New Testament books. An illustration may be seen
+in one of the most remarkable passages, the last twelve verses of St.
+Mark's Gospel,--a passage, it should be noted, usually admitted to be of
+later origin than the rest of the book. Here (v. 16) we read, "He that
+believeth and is baptized shall be saved, but he that believeth not
+shall be damned" (condemned). The meaning is explained by a reference to
+the related passage, in chapter xxv. of the first Gospel. Here we learn
+that at the second Advent, shortly to come to pass, those who, having
+received Jesus as Lord, had approved themselves by their works obedient
+and faithful disciples, would by him be recognized as his, and admitted
+to share in the blessings of the promised kingdom of heaven: those who
+had not done so should be rejected and driven from his presence. It is
+clear that there is, in such ideas, no sufficient ground for supposing
+faith or belief in a creed or a dogma to have been intended by the
+writer of either Gospel.
+
+Let me further illustrate my meaning by a brief reference to an ancient
+and, by many persons, still accepted formula of orthodox doctrine. This
+professes to tell us very precisely what is the true Christian faith. In
+plain terms it says, Believe this, and this, and this: believe it and
+keep it "whole and undefiled;" unless you do so, "without doubt" you
+shall "perish everlastingly."
+
+Now my proposition is, that this kind of statement, or any thing like
+it, is not to be met with in the teaching of Christ, or in any other
+part of the New Testament. Had it been otherwise,--had he plainly said
+that the form of doctrine now referred to, or any other, was so
+essential, there could have been no room for hesitation among those who
+acknowledged him as Teacher and Lord. But he has manifestly not done
+this, or any thing like this. Hence, as before, we are not justified in
+thinking that the religion which takes its name from him, and professes
+to represent his teaching, consists, in any essential degree, in the
+acceptance, or the profession, of any such creed or system of doctrine,
+exactly defined in words, after the manner of the churches,--whether it
+may have come down to us from the remotest times of ante-Nicene
+speculation, or only from the days of Protestant dictators like Calvin
+or Wesley; whether it may have been sanctioned by the authority of an
+[oe]cumenical council, so called, or by that of an imperial Parliament,
+or only by some little body of nonconformist chapel-builders, who, by
+putting their creed into a schedule at the foot of a trust-deed, show
+their distrust of the Spirit of Truth, and their readiness to bind their
+own personal belief, if possible, upon their successors and descendants
+of future generations.
+
+We may then be very sure that, if the Christian Master had intended to
+make the "salvation" of his followers dependent upon the reception of
+dogmas, whether about himself or about Him who is "to us invisible or
+dimly seen" in His "lower works," he would not have left it to be a
+question for debate, a fertile source of angry contention or of
+heartless persecutions, as it has often virtually been, _what_ the true
+creed, the distinctive element of his religion, really is. The very fact
+that this _has_ been so much disputed, that such differences do now so
+largely exist before our eyes, forms the strongest possible testimony to
+the non-dogmatic character of the primitive or genuine Christianity. The
+same fact ought to rebuke and warn us against the narrow sectarian
+spirit in which existing divisions originate, and which is so manifestly
+out of harmony with "the spirit of Christ."
+
+
+II.
+
+This absence from the Christian records of all express instruction, on
+the subjects above noticed, clearly warrants us in turning away from any
+merely dogmatic or ecclesiastical system, if it be urged upon us as
+constituting the substance, or the distinctive element of Christianity.
+We are thus of necessity led to look for this in something else. But to
+what else shall we turn? In what shall we find an answer to our inquiry,
+as to the true idea of the Christian Gospel?
+
+The reply to this question is not difficult. The true idea of Christ's
+religion can only be found in the life and words of the Master himself.
+And these it may well be believed, in their simple, rational, spiritual,
+practical form, are destined to assume a commanding position among
+Christian men which they have never yet held, and, in short, to suppress
+and supersede the extravagancies alike of ritualism and its related
+dogmatism, whatever the form in which these may now prevail among the
+churches and sects of Christendom.
+
+This conclusion is readily suggested, or it is imperatively dictated, by
+various expressions in the New Testament itself. "Lord, to whom shall we
+go? Thou hast the words of eternal life:"--such is the sentiment
+attributed to the Apostle Peter by the fourth Evangelist. Paul has more
+than one instance in which he is equally explicit: "Other foundation
+can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ;" while in
+another place he writes, "If any man have not the spirit of Christ, he
+is none of his." Jesus himself speaks in terms which are even more
+decided, when he declares, "_I_ am the Way, the Truth, and the
+Life."[19]
+
+[Footnote 19: John vi. 68; 1 Cor. iii. 11; Rom. viii. 9; John xiv. 6.]
+
+In such expressions as these we may, at the least, plainly see the
+surpassing importance, to the judgment of the earliest Christian
+authorities, of the personal Christ, of his teaching and example. We are
+thus emphatically taught, in effect, that we must look to CHRIST, and
+take HIM, in his life, his words, his devout and holy spirit, as the
+impersonation of his religion. When it is asked, then, What is the true
+idea of Christianity, no better answer can be given than by saying, it
+is Christ himself; that it is _in_ Christ himself, in what he was and
+says and does, in all that made him well pleasing in the sight of God,
+as the beloved Son of the Almighty Father.
+
+What Jesus was, in his visible life among men, we learn from the Gospel
+records. We learn it from them alone; for nowhere else have we
+information respecting him that deserves to be compared with theirs in
+originality or fulness of detail. It is not necessary to our present
+purpose to enter at length into the particulars which they have
+preserved for us, or into the differences between the three synoptical
+Gospels and the Fourth, in regard to the idea which they respectively
+convey of the ministry of Christ. The latter Gospel, it may, however, be
+observed, is usually admitted to be the last of the four in order of
+time. It is also, without doubt, the production of a single mind; and
+cannot be supposed, like the others, simply to incorporate, with little
+change, the traditions handed down among the disciples, for perhaps a
+long series of years before being committed to writing. But whatever
+accidental characteristics of this kind may be thought to belong to the
+respective Gospels, they all agree in the resulting impression which
+they convey, as to the high character of Jesus. And, it will be
+observed, they do this very artlessly, without any thing of the nature
+of intentional effort or elaborate description. They state facts, and
+report words, in the most simple manner, often with extreme vagueness
+and want of detail. It thus, however, results, that the image of Christ
+which the Evangelists, and especially the first three, unite to give us
+is, above all things, a moral image only; in other words, it has been
+providentially ordered that the impression left upon the reader is
+almost entirely one of moral qualities and of character.
+
+It may even be true, as some will tell us, that we have in each of the
+first three Gospels, not simply the productions of as many individual
+writers, but rather a growth or a compilation of incidents, discourses
+and sayings from various sources, and drawn especially from the oral
+accounts which had long circulated among the people, before they were
+put together in their present form. But even so, the result is all the
+more striking. The identity and self-consistency of the central object,
+the person of Christ, is the more remarkable. Such qualities lead us
+safely to the conclusion that one and the same Original, one great and
+commanding personality, was the true source from which all were more or
+less remotely derived. Hence, even the imperfect or fragmentary
+character of the Gospel history becomes of itself a positive evidence
+for the reality of the life, and the peculiar nature of the influence,
+of him whose career it so rapidly, and it may be inadequately, places
+before us.
+
+It is, however, to be distinctly remembered that we reach the mind of
+Christ only through the medium of other minds. So far as can now be
+known, no words of his writing have been transmitted to our time, or
+were ever in the possession of his disciples. To some extent, therefore,
+it would appear, the thoughts of the Teacher[20] may have been affected,
+colored and modified, by the peculiar medium through which they have
+come down to us. Under all the circumstances of the case, this inference
+is natural and justifiable. It is one too of some importance, inasmuch
+as it directly suggests that, in all probability, the actual Person
+whose portraiture is preserved for us by the Evangelists must have
+surpassed, in his characteristic excellences, the impression which the
+narratives in fact convey. The first generation of disciples were
+evidently men who were by no means exempt from the influence of the
+national feelings of their people, or of the peculiar modes of thought
+belonging to their class. In the same degree in which this is true, they
+would be unable rightly to understand, and worthily to appreciate the
+teaching and the mind of Christ. This remark applies perhaps more
+especially to the first three Gospels, but it is not wholly inapplicable
+to the Fourth. Indeed, the fact referred to comes prominently out to
+view at several points in the Evangelical narrative,--as in the case of
+Peter rebuking his Master for saying that he must suffer and die at
+Jerusalem; in that of the request made by the mother of Zebedee's
+children; and in the anticipations ascribed by the first three
+Evangelists to Jesus himself, of his own speedy return to the
+earth,--anticipations which are recorded very simply, and without any
+corrective observation on the part of the writer.[21]
+
+[Footnote 20: The term _Teacher_ is constantly used of Christ in the
+Gospels, though usually disguised in our English version under the
+rendering "Master." Comp. e.g. Mark ix. 17, 38; Luke x. 25.]
+
+[Footnote 21: Matt. xvi. 22, xx. 20, xxiv. 24-36; Mark viii. 31-33, x.
+35-45, xiii. 24-30; Luke xviii. 31-34.]
+
+But, whatever the hindrances of this kind in the way of a perfectly just
+estimation by the modern disciple, the portrait of Christ preserved for
+us by the Evangelists is, in a remarkable degree, that of a great
+Religious Character. The Christ of the Gospels is, before all things, a
+Spiritual Being, unpossessed, it may even be said, of the personal
+qualities which might mark him off as the product of a particular age or
+people. He is, in large measure, the opposite of what the disciples were
+themselves, free from the feelings and prejudices of his Jewish birth
+and religion. This he evidently is, without any express design of
+theirs, and by the mere force of his own individuality. He is thus, in
+effect, the Christ[22] not merely of his immediate adherents, or his own
+nation, but of all devout men for all ages. He stands before us, in
+short, so wise, and just, and elevated in his teaching, so upright and
+pure in the spirit of his life, so engaging in his own more positive
+example of submission to the overruling will, and touching forbearance
+towards sinful men, that innumerable generations of disciples, since his
+death, have been drawn to him and led to look up to him even as their
+best and highest human representative of the Invisible God Himself.
+
+[Footnote 22: That is to say, "anointed," or _King_,--in other words,
+Leader, Teacher, Saviour from sin, as the Gospels also expressly term
+him.]
+
+It is very probable, however, that all this was not so fully seen by
+those who stood nearest to Jesus during his brief and rapid career, as
+it has been since. At least many, even the vast majority of his day,
+failed to perceive it. And yet, to a Hebrew reader of the Gospels, the
+greatness of his character could be summed up in no more expressive
+terms than by claiming for him that he was the Christ; that he embodied
+in himself the moral and intellectual pre-eminence associated with that
+office. In this light he is especially represented in the first three
+Gospels. In John, too, we have substantially the same thing, though very
+differently expressed. In that Gospel, he is also the Christ, but he is
+so by the indwelling of the divine Word. "The Word became flesh and
+dwelt among us," and the glory which had been seen among men, "full of
+grace and truth," was the glory even "as of the only-begotten of the
+Father." Probably no language could have been used that would have
+conveyed to a reader of the time a higher idea of the moral and
+spiritual qualities of any human being. And this corresponds entirely
+with the impression given by other writers of the New Testament, to some
+of whom Jesus was personally known,--by Peter, for example, by James, by
+Paul, and by the writer to the Hebrews. They evidently looked back to
+their departed Master, and up to the risen Christ, as a person of
+commanding dignity and spiritual power, and this not merely on account
+of the official title of Messiah which, rightly or wrongly, they applied
+to him, but for the lofty moral virtues with which his name was to them
+synonymous.[23] He "who did no sin, neither was guile found in his
+mouth," was, without doubt, the most perfect example which they could
+cite of all that was acceptable in the sight of God. "The spirit of
+Christ," without which we are "none of his," could be nothing else, and
+nothing less, than a participation in Christ-like goodness; nor can it
+therefore possibly be wrong, if we too lay the main emphasis of the
+Christian profession precisely _here_, where it is laid by the apostles;
+if, in other words, we pass over, or leave out of sight, as altogether
+of secondary importance, or of none, those various and often conflicting
+dogmas and forms and "diversities of administration," about which the
+Christian world is so sorely, and for the present, so irreparably
+divided.
+
+[Footnote 23: 1 Pet. ii. 21, seq.; iv. 1-5, 13-16; James ii. 1, seq.;
+Gal. vi. 22-24; Eph. iv. 13-15 and _passim_; Phil. i. 27, seq.; ii.
+1-11; Rom. xiii. 14; 2 Cor. iv.]
+
+The character of Christ stands in very intimate relations with the
+miraculous powers attributed to him by the Gospels. Those powers, it is
+needless to say, have been seriously called in question, as actual facts
+of history, by the critical investigations of recent times. Many
+persons, it may be, cannot see, and will not admit, that their value has
+been affected by the inquiries alluded to. To such persons the miracles
+will naturally retain whatever efficacy they may be conceived to possess
+as evidence of the divine, that is, supernatural, claims of him who is
+recorded to have wrought them. They are entitled to their own judgment
+in the case, as well as to whatever support to Christian faith they
+think they can derive from such a quarter. At the same time other
+inquirers may be permitted to think differently. If the lapse of time
+and the increasing grasp and penetration of critical knowledge
+necessarily tend to lessen the certainty of the miraculous element of
+the Evangelical history, may not this too be a part of the providential
+plan--contemplated and brought about for great and wise ends? May it
+not be that now the spiritual man shall be left more entirely free to
+discern for himself the simple excellence of the Christian teaching and
+example? left increasingly without that support from the witness of
+outward miracle which has usually been deemed so important, and which is
+unquestionably found to be the more commonly thus estimated, in
+proportion as we descend into the lower grades of intelligence and moral
+sensibility.[24]
+
+[Footnote 24: In illustration of this remark, it is scarcely necessary
+to mention the "miracles" of the Roman Catholic Church in all ages.]
+
+But, on the other hand, if this be true, one who may thus think need not
+of necessity also hold that the miracles of the Gospels did not take
+place, but that the history relating to them is the mere product of weak
+and credulous exaggeration. For, in truth, the ends which might be
+subserved by such manifestations are easily understood. Occurrences so
+unwonted and remarkable could not fail both to secure the attention of
+the spectator, and make him ponder well upon the words of the
+miracle-worker, and also to awaken in him new feelings of reverence
+towards the mysterious Being who had given such power to men. Thus it is
+readily conceivable, that a miracle might be a thing of the highest
+utility to those who witnessed it and to their generation. But then, on
+the other hand, it is not to be alleged that such occurrences are needed
+now to show us that God is a living Spirit in the world; or,
+consequently, that religious love and veneration are in any way
+dependent upon them, either as facts beheld by ourselves, or as
+incidents recorded to have been seen by others who lived many centuries
+ago. And, if this be so, surely we may look with indifference upon the
+most destructive operations of literary or scientific criticism, being
+anxious only, and above all things, for the simple truth, whatever it
+may be.
+
+Again, however, it is not to be denied that the possession of miraculous
+power may have been for Christ himself, not less than for those who saw
+his works, of the deepest spiritual import. The formation of a character
+like his would seem peculiarly to require the training that would be
+afforded by such an endowment. We know how, with ordinary men, the
+command of unlimited power is, in fact, a test of rectitude,
+self-government, unselfishness, of the most trying and, it may be, most
+elevating, kind. The temptations which necessarily accompany it are
+proverbial. Was Christ exempt from that kind of moral discipline, that
+supreme proof of fidelity to God? Allowing, for a moment, what the
+narratives directly intimate, that he felt within himself the force of
+miraculous gifts, and the capacity to use them, if he had so willed, for
+purposes either of personal safety or of political ambition;[25] in
+this, we may see at once, there would be an end to be served of the
+greatest moment both to himself and to the future instruction of his
+disciples. By such an experience, the moral greatness of his example
+might be doubly assured. It would be made possible to him to deny and
+humble himself,--even, in apostolical phrase, to "empty" himself of his
+Messianic prerogatives, in order the better to do the Heavenly Father's
+will, and, preferring even the cross to a disobedient refusal of the cup
+which could not pass from him, to be "made perfect through suffering,"
+thus showing himself worthy to be raised up at last to be, as he has
+been, the spiritual Lord of the Church.
+
+[Footnote 25: Matt. iv. 1, seq.]
+
+This idea was, in fact, a familiar one to Paul, as to others of the
+Christian writers.[26] Its literal truth is enforced by the
+consideration of the strange improbability that one by birth a Galilean
+peasant, without any special gifts or powers to recommend him to the
+notice of his people, should yet be acknowledged by many of them as the
+promised Messiah; should, in spite of an ignominious death, be accepted
+in that character by multitudes; and finally, in the same or a still
+higher character, should acquire the love and reverential homage of half
+the world.
+
+[Footnote 26: 2 Cor. viii. 9; Eph. i. 20-23; Phil. ii. 5-11; Heb. ii. 9,
+10, 18; 1 Pet. ii. 21.]
+
+And yet it may remain true that, as time passes, this consideration
+shall lose much of its weight, in the judgment of increasing numbers of
+earnest inquirers. They, accordingly, will cease to place reliance on
+the outward material sign. Jesus, nevertheless, may still be to them as
+an honored Master and Friend, whose name they would gladly cherish, for
+what he is in himself. To those who thus think his character and words
+will appeal by their own intrinsic worth. He will be Teacher, Saviour,
+Spiritual Lord, simply by the inherent grace and truth spoken of by the
+Evangelist of old.
+
+If this be the destined end, we may gladly acknowledge the providential
+guiding even in this; and we shall certainly guard ourselves against
+judging harsh or uncharitable judgment in reference to those who on this
+subject may not see as we see, or feel as we feel;--who, nevertheless,
+in thought and deed and aspiration, may not be less faithful to Truth
+and Right, or less loyally obedient to all that is seen to be highest
+and best in Christ himself.
+
+
+III.
+
+Christ, then, I repeat, thus standing before us in the Evangelical
+records of his ministry, is the impersonation of his religion. What we
+see in Him is Christianity. Or, if it be not so, where else shall we
+look with the hope to find it? Who else has ever had a true _authority_
+to place before us a more perfect idea, or to tell us more exactly what
+the Gospel is? The _Church_, indeed, some will interpose, has such
+authority! But examine this statement, and its untenable character
+speedily appears. The Church at any given moment is, and has been,
+simply a body of fallible mortals, like ourselves. If the Christian men
+of this present day cannot suppose themselves to be preserved from
+intellectual error in matters of religion, neither can we think the
+Christian men of the past to have been more highly privileged. In fact,
+it must be added, as we ascend into the darker periods of Church
+history, we come upon the most undeniable traces of ignorance,
+misunderstanding, worldliness and folly, on the part of the
+ecclesiastics of the early and the middle ages, such as deprive their
+judgments on the subject before us of all right or claim to unquestioned
+acceptance. Let any one read, for example, the accounts given by
+trustworthy historians[27] of that great assembly of the Church which
+produced the Nicene Creed. Will any one allege that in the passion and
+prejudice, the smallness of knowledge, the subtlety of speculation, and
+narrowness of heart, pervading the majority of that assembly, the Divine
+Spirit was peculiarly present to dictate or guide the decision arrived
+at, and make it worthy of the blind adhesion of future Christian
+generations? And, if we cannot thus admit the peculiar idea of
+Christianity _there_ approved, it will surely be in vain to look to any
+similar quarter, either of the past or of the present, for what shall
+supersede the living "grace and truth," seen in Christ himself.
+
+[Footnote 27: E.g., in Dean Stanley's _History of the Eastern Church_.]
+
+This conclusion is greatly strengthened by the briefest reference to the
+negative results of unbelief and irreligion, so prevalent in those
+countries which have been the longest under the influence of the old
+ritualistic idea of the Church and the priesthood. Positively speaking,
+this idea, it is needless to add, has largely failed in almost every
+thing except the encouragement among the people of the grossest
+superstitions[28]--superstitions of which there is no trace whatever in
+immediate connection with the Christian Master. Not, however, to dwell
+in detail on this unpromising theme, let us rather turn to the
+considerations by which our leading position may be confirmed; from
+which too we may learn that a better future is yet in store for us.
+
+[Footnote 28: A good authority has recently observed, "Catholicism,
+substituted for Christ, has turned the thought of Southern Europe to
+simple Infidelity, if not to Atheism; let us take heed that
+Protestantism does not bring about the same thing in another way in the
+North."--Bishop Ewing, in a _Letter_ to the Spectator newspaper, April
+8, 1870. The remark here quoted is of much wider application than the
+Bishop himself would probably admit!]
+
+The experience of past ages, the existing sectarian divisions of
+Christendom, the errors and superstitions involved in the grosser
+assumptions of Church authority, all unite to compel us to the
+conclusion of the essentially erroneous character of the old ritualistic
+and dogmatic conceptions of the nature of the Gospel. They show us not
+only that dogmas and rites about which the most earnest men are so
+utterly at variance cannot possibly be of the essence of Christianity,
+but further that the latter is nowhere to be found except in Him whom in
+spite of diversities all alike agree to hold in honor. And, in truth,
+his life, brief and fleeting as it was, may well be said to constitute
+the Christian revelation. That it does so, and was intended to do so,
+may, as already observed, be seen better in our day, than it was by the
+earliest disciples. Their thoughts were preoccupied, their vision
+obscured, by various influences which prevented them from clearly
+discerning the one thing needful. The temporal kingdom of their Master
+for which they were, many of them, so eagerly looking; his speedy return
+to judge the world,--an expectation of which there are so many traces in
+Gospels and Epistles alike; the great and urgent question of the Law and
+its claims, with that of the admission of the Gentiles to the faith of
+Christ without the previous adoption of Judaism;--such thoughts and such
+cares as these largely engaged and filled the minds of the disciples,
+within the limits of the period to which the origin of the principal New
+Testament books must be assigned. After the close of that period, fresh
+subjects of controversial interest continually arose, until these were
+gradually overshadowed by the rising authority of the Church and the
+later growth of sacerdotal power, followed in due course of time by the
+grosser corruptions of the primitive Gospel which marked the
+Christianity of the darker ages, and which have by no means as yet spent
+their power. Thus has it pleased the Great Disposer that men should be
+led forward to truth and light through error and darkness. Even as the
+Hebrews of old were gradually brought by many centuries of experience,
+and in the midst of imperfections and backslidings innumerable, to their
+final recognition of the One Jehovah, so have the Christian generations
+been slowly learning and unlearning according as their own condition and
+capacities allowed. Thus the great development has been running its
+destined course, and will doubtless conduct us eventually to yet better
+and truer ideas of what the Almighty purposes had, in Christ, really
+designed to give to the world.
+
+To vary the form of expression, the life of Christ itself constitutes
+the revelation of His will which the Almighty Father has given to man by
+His Son. And that life does constitute a revelation, in the most full
+and various import of this term. It shows us, in a clear and engaging
+light, the One God and Father of all, the Just and Holy One, who will
+render to every man according to his deeds. It shows us the high powers
+and capacities of man himself; for, while and because it tells him to be
+perfect even as the Father in Heaven is perfect, it not only recognizes
+in him the capability to be so, but also abundantly affords the
+spiritual nutriment by which the higher faculties of his nature may be
+nurtured and strengthened within him. It shows us how to live a life of
+religious trust and obedience to the commands of duty, and, amidst many
+sorrows and trials, still to preserve a soul unstained by guilt. It
+shows us that this high devotion to the sacred law of Truth and Right is
+that which is well pleasing to God; and that His will is that man should
+thus, by the discipline of his spirit, join the moral strength and
+sensibility in this world which shall fit him, if he will, to enter upon
+the higher life of the world to come. All this we see plainly expressed
+and announced in Christ, constituting him the _Revealer_ in the best
+sense of this term. All this we do see, even though it may be very hard
+to find any doctrinal creed laid down in definite words, or any system
+of rites and ceremonies of worship, of Church government, or of priestly
+functions and dignities, placed before us as constituting an
+indispensable part of our common Christianity.
+
+And it is here an obvious remark that, while Christian men have so often
+questioned and disputed with one another about the essentials of their
+religion; while they have sometimes, again, been forgetful of its
+spirit, in their controversies as to its verbal and written forms,--all
+this time they have been substantially agreed as to the matters which
+are the greatest and weightiest of all. About the Gospel as embodying
+and expressing man's faith in God and in heaven, and as setting forth
+the highest moral law with its exemplification in an actual human life;
+about the Gospel in these, which are surely its most serious and
+interesting aspects, there has been no dispute. The great spiritual
+principles taught by Christ, and the power of his practical exhibition
+of human duty, have been constantly admitted and--may it not be
+added?--constantly felt in the world, among all the sects and parties of
+Christendom, in spite of the differences of forms and creeds which have
+separated men from each other.
+
+This fact suggests a further consideration of obvious interest. Regarded
+as a dogmatic or an ecclesiastical system, the Gospel is one of the
+greatest failures which the world has seen, no two sects or churches,
+scarcely any two congregations, being agreed as to some one or other of
+what are deemed its most essential elements. Regarded as a moral and
+spiritual energy and instructor among men, it is and always has been a
+quickening power,--tending directly, in its genuine influences, to
+support and to guide aright, and, even amidst the worst distractions or
+perversions of human passion and error, whispering thoughts of hope,
+comfort, and peace, to many troubled hearts. This should not be
+forgotten in our estimates of the part played by Christianity in past
+times, or in the judgments sometimes so lightly uttered by a certain
+class of its critics, who show themselves so ready to confound the
+religion with its corruptions, and to include it and them in one
+indiscriminate condemnation. It should help to call us back to juster
+views of the nature and the function of Christ's religion, and lead us
+the better to see that these consist, not in its capacity or its success
+as an imposer of dogmas or of ceremonial acts to be received and
+carefully performed by either priests or people, but in its power to
+strengthen with moral strength, to guide in the path of duty, to save us
+from our sins, to breathe into us the spirit of Christ, and so to bring
+us nearer to God. Such is the true function and the real power of the
+Gospel, even though it may constantly have had to act in the midst of
+gross ignorance, or of false and exaggerated dogmatic conception; nor is
+it too much to say that this its highest character has not been
+altogether wanting to it, even in the darkest periods of man's
+intellectual experience, during the last eighteen centuries.
+
+And not only is this so; but, further, it is evidently not through the
+_peculiar_ doctrines of his church or sect that a man is most truly
+entitled to the name of Christian, but rather by his participation in
+what is _common_ to all the churches and sects which are themselves
+worthy of that name. For let us call to mind, for a moment, some of the
+more eminent Christian men and women of modern times, to whatever
+sectarian fold they may have owned themselves to belong. Recall the
+names of a Fénelon, an Oberlin, a Vincent de Paul, a Xavier, a
+Melancthon, a Milton, a Locke, a Chalmers, a Clarkson, a Wilberforce, a
+Mrs. Fry, a Keble, a Heber, a Wesley, a Lardner, a Priestley, a
+Channing, a Tuckerman, with innumerable other true-hearted followers of
+him who both bear witness to the truth, and "went about doing good." In
+such persons we have representatives of nearly all the churches, with
+their various peculiarities of doctrinal confession. And must we not
+believe that such men and women were true Christians? If so, will it not
+follow that in every one of their differing communions true Christians
+are to be found? Probably no man, unless it be one of the most bigoted
+adherents of Evangelical or high Anglican orthodoxy, would venture to
+deny this. There are, then, good Christians, let us gladly admit, in all
+the various sects and parties of Christendom; men whom Christ himself,
+if he were here, would acknowledge and welcome as true disciples. But
+what is it that entitles such persons all alike to the Christian
+character and name? It cannot be any thing in which each _differs_ from
+the rest, but rather something which they all have in common. It cannot
+be any thing that is peculiar to the Roman Catholic alone, for then the
+Protestant would not have it; nor any thing that is peculiar to the
+Protestant alone, for then the Roman Catholic would not have it; nor any
+thing that is peculiar to the Trinitarian alone, for then the Unitarian
+would not have it. It must be something apart from the distinctive creed
+of each. It is then something which all must possess, otherwise they
+would not be truly Christian; which they must have in _addition_ to
+their several distinguishing doctrines,--in company with which the
+latter may indeed be held, but which is not the exclusive property of
+any single church, or sect, or individual, whatever.
+
+What then do all the Christian sects and parties, of every name, hold in
+common, and never differ about? Is it not simply in this, that they
+receive and reverence Jesus as the beloved Son in whom God was well
+pleased? that they hold the Christian faith in the Father in Heaven,
+with all that this involves of love to God and love to man? that they
+accept the law of righteousness, placed before us in the "living
+characters" of Christ's own deeds and words, and strive to obey it in
+their conduct? that they hold the same common faith as to the presence
+and the providence of God, the future life and the judgment to come?
+This Christian allegiance, it is true, is expressed under the most
+different forms of statement, and in many a case it may hardly be
+definitely expressed at all; but yet even this, and such as this, is, by
+belief and practice, the common property of every Christian man; and so
+far as he lives in the spirit of this high faith is he truly a disciple
+and no further whatever may be the church or sect, or forms of doctrine
+and worship, to which he may attach himself. And all this, I repeat, is
+most plainly revealed to us in the spirit and the life of
+Christ,--insomuch that we feel the statement to be incontrovertibly
+sure, that he is the truest Christian of all whose practical daily
+spirit and conduct are the most closely and constantly animated and
+governed by the spirit and precepts and example of the Master Christ.
+
+It seems strange, when we think about it, that men should have gone so
+far astray, in times past, from the more simple and obvious idea of
+Christianity thus laid before us. We may have difficulty in explaining
+how this has come to pass; how it is that so much of the weight and
+stress, as it were, of the Christian religion should have been laid upon
+obscure metaphysical creeds and dogmas, the obvious tendency of which
+is, and always has been, to divide men from each other, to degenerate
+into gross superstition, and destroy the liberty "wherewith Christ has
+made us free," and which, moreover, are nowhere contained in the
+Scriptures, and cannot even be stated in the language of the Scriptures;
+how it is, again, that so little emphasis should be laid in these
+dogmatic formulas upon that obedience which is better than sacrifice,
+even that doing the Heavenly Father's will, which--strange to tell!--is
+the only condition prescribed by Christ for entering into the kingdom.
+
+Truly this question is not without its perplexities. But some
+explanation may be found. It is the obvious law of Divine Providence, it
+is and has been a great law of human progress, that Truth shall not be
+flashed upon the mind at once, either in religion or in any other of the
+great fields of interest and occupation to man; but that it shall be
+conquered and won through the medium of slow and gradual approach, even
+in the midst and by the help of misunderstanding and error. It is thus,
+doubtless, that men are trained to appreciate rightly the value of the
+truths and principles which they ultimately gain. In other words, past
+experience goes far to show us that moral excellence and the
+apprehension of truth, by such a being as man, can only be acquired by
+means of previous conflict with evil and untruth, in some one or other
+of their manifold forms; or, if not by an actual personal conflict for
+each of us individually, at least by means of the observed or recorded
+experience of others, more severely tried than ourselves.
+
+Thus it has doubtless been with the reception and gradual prevalence of
+Christian truths and principles. Men have had slowly, by a varied and
+sometimes painful experience, to learn that it is not by saying, Lord,
+Lord, by confessing some formal creed, or being included within the
+limits of some visible church; not by forms and ceremonies of any kind,
+such as baptism at the hands of a priest, or the confession of sin into
+his ear, that we may become truly recipients of the light and strength
+of the Gospel of Christ; but much rather by personal communion with the
+Spirit of God, by doing the things which the Lord hath said, by striving
+to be like Christ, in heart and in life, active in goodness, submissive
+to the Heavenly Father's will, and ready to the work of duty which He
+has given us to do.
+
+In proportion as this conception of Christianity comes forward into
+view, and assumes the pre-eminence to which it is entitled, and which is
+either implied or expressly declared in the principal writings of the
+New Testament, in the same degree must the merely dogmatic and
+sacerdotal idea sink into insignificance. It will be seen that moral and
+spiritual likeness to the Christian Head is what is all-important; and,
+consequently, that within the limits of the same communion, bound
+together by the common principle of Christian faith,--the principle of
+love and reverence for the one Master, Christ,--there may exist the most
+complete mental freedom, and even, to a very large extent, the most
+diverse theological beliefs.
+
+
+IV.
+
+But here I may be met by certain objections which will hardly fail to
+occur to different classes of readers.
+
+In the first place, it may be said, the idea of the Gospel above
+presented is itself dogmatic; and indeed that the conception of
+Christianity as involving definite forms of doctrine is not to be got
+rid of. This remark I am by no means concerned wholly to escape.
+Doubtless the Gospel, as it is given in the words of Christ, includes
+various clearly stated truths respecting the Divine Providence and Will,
+and the retributions of this world and the next,--truths, I may add,
+which are not only level to the apprehension of the human faculties, but
+also in harmony with the highest dictates of the natural conscience and
+reason of man. But these great truths are not dogmatically laid before
+us in the Gospel. The mind of each reader is left free to gather them
+for itself. They are so stated as to quicken and elevate, not to stupefy
+or render useless, the religious and moral sense of the disciple. They
+serve thus, in the result, to arouse in him the strength of deep
+individual conviction, without which they could have little practical
+value. The teaching function of the Gospel is of _this_ kind, rather
+than dogmatic and denunciatory, in the manner of the creeds. It does not
+attempt to put before us a ready-made body of doctrine, in such a way as
+to save the disciple the trouble of inquiry and reflection for himself,
+as though it would make him the mere recipient of what is imposed upon
+him from without. Not in this mechanical way, either in the world of
+outward nature, or in the Gospel of His Son, does the Great Parent speak
+to the hearts of His children; but chiefly by awakening their higher,
+devouter sensibilities, and letting them feel the force of truth and
+right within their own secret spirits. No imposition from without could
+fitly accomplish this divine work; and we may be well assured that no
+man living, and no church or sect on earth, has a legitimate authority
+to define exactly the limits within which Christian belief shall confine
+itself, or beyond which belief shall not extend, without ceasing to be
+Christian. Obviously and unquestionably Christ himself has nowhere
+attempted to dictate his religion in such a way; neither has any of his
+apostles, not even the ardent and impetuous Paul. On the contrary, the
+latter, like his Master, constantly attaches the greatest importance to
+the practical virtues, and to a devout spirit,--in no case making his
+appeal to a dogmatic statement, or giving us to understand that he had
+the least idea of any dogmatic system whatever, similar, in spirit or in
+form, to the creeds of modern orthodoxy.
+
+A second objection may be urged by a defender of the prevailing forms
+and dogmas of the churches. Such a person may say that, in taking Christ
+as the measure and representative of his own religion, we leave out of
+sight all that may have been contributed to its development by the
+Apostles, to say nothing of their successors, and that the Epistles of
+the New Testament contain much that is not met with in connection with
+him. In reply, let it be observed in what terms the Apostles speak of
+their Master, and of the obedience, the faith, and veneration due to
+him. Paul, for example, in various forms, tells them to "put on the Lord
+Jesus Christ;" to let his mind be in them, his word dwell in them
+richly, to acquire his spirit, to follow him in love and self-sacrifice.
+He will know nothing, he says, "save Jesus Christ, and him crucified;"
+and we know how closely he treads in his Master's steps, in the
+absolute preference which he gives to the Love which, he declares, is
+greater than faith, and the very fulfilling of the law itself. The same
+strain is held by others of the Apostles; and there can be no doubt that
+Christ, under God, was constantly looked up to by them as the great
+object of the faith, the love, and the imitation of every disciple. It
+is true, indeed, that there are many things in the Apostolical writings
+other than we find in connection with Christ's personal life; but these
+will be found to belong, almost exclusively, to the peculiar
+circumstances and controversies of the times succeeding his death. In
+truth, they belong so entirely to them as to have little of practical
+reference, or utility, beyond. Paul's Epistles, for instance, are full
+of the long debated question as to the claims of the law upon Gentiles,
+and the mystery which, he says, had been hidden "from the foundation of
+the world," that the Messiah should be preached even to those who were
+not of the fold of Israel. But these are only temporary incidents of the
+early career of Christianity. They have no intimate connection with the
+permanent influence of Christ; and we of modern times have little
+concern with them, except only to be on our guard against letting them
+unduly sway our judgment and turn us away from subjects of greater
+consequence,--as too often has happened to the ingenious framers of
+theological systems. Christianity, in a word, has been only perplexed
+and impeded in its course, by those thoughtless or over-zealous
+expounders who have insisted upon constructing schemes of orthodoxy out
+of the antiquated disputes of Jews and Gentiles.[29]
+
+[Footnote 29: See, e.g., the Essay on the Death of Christ, in _Aids to
+Faith_.]
+
+In all his Epistles St. Paul, in the true spirit of his Master, gives us
+clearly to know what is of chief importance. After treating, as he
+usually does, of the local and passing concerns and disputes which
+engaged many of his correspondents, he never fails to turn at last to
+speak of the practical goodness, the purity of heart and life, the
+kindly affections towards one another, the reasonable service of love
+and duty, by which the Christian disciple may be known, by which alone
+he can present himself as a "living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto
+God." In such qualities as these, the attainment or the practice of
+which he so earnestly urges upon his friends, we have precisely what
+constitute the most marked features in the life and the teachings of
+Christ. Thus we are brought once more to the old conclusion that in
+faithful loyalty to Christ, to the highest ideal presented to us of his
+spirit and character, are to be found the true light and joy and peace
+of the Christian Gospel.
+
+A third objection is of a different character. There are some things, it
+will be said, in immediate connection with him whom we term Teacher and
+Lord, some things in his words and ideas, if not in his actions, which
+are far from being in perfect harmony with the highest truth, as known
+to men in these later times. For example, when he speaks as though he
+believed diseases and insanity to be caused by the presence of a devil,
+or demon, in the afflicted person, are we to attach importance to this,
+so as ourselves to think that such disorders are (or were) so
+produced?--or shall we not rather follow the guidance of modern science,
+and believe that the various infirmities which, in ancient times, were
+attributed to evil spirits arose from natural causes, and that the
+manner in which such things are spoken of in the New Testament is a
+product simply of the imperfect knowledge of those days?
+
+In reply, there need be no hesitation in saying that we are bound, as
+beings of thought and reason, to follow the best guidance which God has
+given us, in these and all other subjects; and by the term _best_ can
+only be understood that which commends itself most forcibly to our
+rational intelligence. It can in no way be claimed for Christ that he
+was intellectually perfect; that he did not share in the prevailing
+beliefs of his countrymen, and partake even of their ignorance. Such a
+claim as this is certainly nowhere advanced in the New Testament, but
+the _contrary_; and those who, in our time, would bring it forward
+should ask themselves whether, by so doing, they are most likely to
+benefit, or to injure, the cause which doubtless they would desire to
+support. Jesus himself makes no pretension to intellectual
+infallibility, but lets us see, in no uncertain way, that he was not
+unconscious of the limitation of his own knowledge.[30]
+
+[Footnote 30: Mark xiii. 32.]
+
+In general terms it may be added, the Gospel, when first preached in the
+world, was necessarily adapted to the people to whom it was addressed.
+It conformed, in many respects, to their ideas and modes of expression,
+and also made use of these for its own ends. Had it not done so, how
+could it have touched and moved them as it did, and as, through them, it
+has touched and moved the world ever since? Jesus, therefore, himself,
+and those who took up his work after him, were, in a large degree, men
+of their own day, imbued with prevailing ideas and feelings, and
+employing these in their speaking and preaching in the most natural
+manner. Is it not even so with ourselves at the present moment? For how,
+indeed, can it be otherwise? And if many of the primitive Christian
+ideas were more or less erroneous and ill-founded, it is easy to
+understand that, while the overruling Providence made them its
+instruments for leading men on by degrees to something better, still it
+can have been no part of the great design of God that misunderstanding
+and ignorance should be removed by any other process than by the natural
+growth of knowledge among men. They were not to be supernaturally
+refuted, but left to be corrected in due course of time; and the needed
+correction was and is to come even as men grow wiser and more thoughtful
+and able to bear it.
+
+Hence, it is not to be questioned, many errors, chiefly of the
+intellectual kind, attached to the early preaching of the Gospel, and
+some certainly did to the words of Christ himself; just as very much of
+human ignorance and prejudice has since and continually been involved in
+the ideas prevailing as to the character and purposes of his religion.
+As before observed, man has been made by his Creator to find his way up
+to light and truth from the most imperfect beginnings, and by a
+prolonged conflict against and amidst darkness and manifold error. Such
+is our human nature, and the position which the Divine Will has assigned
+to us. And so in the early ages after Christ there sprung up the
+idolatrous worship of the Virgin Mary and of innumerable saints; nor is
+the world yet free, though it is slowly freeing itself, from the
+influence of these superstitions and their related errors of thought.
+Successive generations inherit much of the evil as well as the good, the
+ignorance as well as the knowledge, of those who have been before them.
+Thus does the Almighty Father exercise and discipline his human family
+in patience, in self-control, in the search after truth, even by letting
+us suffer and work for the good fruits of knowledge and righteousness,
+instead of giving them to the world at once without thought or effort of
+our own. This is eminently true in connection with the whole course of
+Christian development. In Christ's own teachings and those of the
+Apostles, as time has amply shown, erroneous ideas were not wanting.
+Peter denied his Master, and thought at first that only Jews could be
+disciples. Both he and Paul, as well as James, with probably all the
+early Christians, long cherished the hope of their Master's return to
+the earth within that generation; a belief which is to be traced also,
+equally with that in demoniacal possessions, in the recorded words of
+Jesus himself. Other instances of a similar kind might easily be
+mentioned.
+
+But, while all this seems perfectly undeniable, has not Divine
+Providence so ordered that what is really wrong and false in men's ideas
+of Christian truth shall sooner or later be seen in its real character,
+in the advancing progress of human knowledge?--and therefore, if we are
+ourselves only patient and faithful, each of us, to what we see, or
+think we see, to be right and good, that the untrue in our ideas shall
+be eventually separated from the true, however close may be the
+connection which at any time may subsist between them? Such is,
+doubtless, the Almighty purpose, such the all-sufficient process
+provided in His wisdom for securing the training and growth of the races
+and generations of men in the knowledge of Divine things. It follows,
+again, that whatever in the Christian teaching, as in other teaching,
+shall stand the test of advancing knowledge, and still approve itself
+as true and honest and just and pure and lovely and of good report[31]
+to the purified conscience and practised intellect of man, that shall be
+God's everlasting Truth; that too He must have designed not only by the
+word of Christ, but through the living souls of His rational children,
+to proclaim to the world with the mark of His Divine approval.
+
+[Footnote 31: Philip. iv. 8.]
+
+It is not necessary here to ask in detail what it is in existing schemes
+of Christian theology, or in the outward forms and arrangements of
+priesthoods and of churches, that will bear this test of advancing
+knowledge, and this scrutiny of the educated intellect and conscience.
+Doubtless much in the popular creeds of our day will do so; but much
+more will only be as chaff before the wind, or stubble before the
+devouring flame. Among the perishable things will surely be the
+ecclesiastical systems which vary with every different country and
+church, and along with these the claims to priestly and papal authority
+and infallibility, about which we again hear such angry contention.
+Truly, none of these will bear the test and strain of time and
+knowledge; but only those great and unchangeable principles of spiritual
+truth, and those deep-lying sentiments of moral right, which are
+_common_ to _all_ the different sects and parties of Christendom. These
+will retain their place among the great motive forces of the world, even
+because their roots are firmly planted by the Divine hand itself in the
+very nature of man, and made to be a part of the constitution of his
+mind; while, also, it is true, and the Christian disciple will ever
+gratefully acknowledge, they owe their best and highest expression and
+exemplification to Jesus the Christ, the "beloved Son," in whom God was
+"well pleased."
+
+We may conclude then, as before, that in the mind and life of
+Christ,--in his unshaken trust in the Heavenly Father, and in the heaven
+to be revealed hereafter,--in his readiness to obey the call of Duty,
+wherever it might lead him, even though it might be to the shame and the
+agony of the cross,--in his faithful adherence to the right, and earnest
+denunciation of falsehood, hypocrisy, and wrong-doing,--in his gentle
+spirit of forgiveness and filial submission even unto death,--we have
+the lessons of Christian truth and virtue which it most of all concerns
+us to receive and to obey. In this high "faith of Christ" we have the
+true revelation of God's will for man; the Gospel speaking to us in its
+most touching and impressive tones,--either reproaching us for our
+indifference and calling us to repentance, or else aiding and
+encouraging us onward in the good path of righteousness.
+
+So long as Christianity shall be thus capable of speaking to the world,
+so long will it, amidst all the varieties of outward profession, be a
+living power for good; and vain will be the representation which would
+tell us that it is now only a thing of the past, unfitted for the better
+knowledge and higher philosophy of these modern times. Surely not
+so!--but, rather, until we have each individually attained the moral
+elevation even of Christ himself, and can say that we too, in character
+and conduct, in motive and aspiration, are well pleasing in the sight of
+Heaven, until we _are_ this, and can feel and say this with truth, the
+religion of Christ will be no antiquated thing of the past to _us_; but
+from its teaching and its spirit--the teaching and the spirit of
+Christ--we shall still have wisdom and truth to learn.
+
+May the time speedily come, which shall see Christ's spirit ruling the
+individual lives of all around us,--more truly inspiring the thoughts
+and efforts of our lawgivers,--teaching men everywhere to be just and
+merciful towards each other; and thus making Christianity, in deed and
+in truth, the "established religion," the guiding and triumphant power
+of this and all other lands! Then, indeed, will the daily prayer of all
+Christian hearts be answered, and the "kingdom of heaven" on earth be
+truly come.
+
+
+
+
+THE AIM AND HOPE OF JESUS.
+
+By OLIVER STEARNS.
+
+
+A learned Historian of the Christian Theology of the Apostolic age
+observes that what most distinguishes the Jewish religion, at least in
+its last centuries, is not so much monotheism as faith in the future.
+While elsewhere we see the imagination of men complacently retracing the
+picture of a golden age irrecoverably lost, Israel, guided by its
+prophets, persisted in turning its eyes towards the future, and attached
+itself the more firmly to a felicity yet to come, the more the actual
+situation seemed to give the lie to its hopes.[32]
+
+[Footnote 32: Reuss, History of the Christian Theology of the Apostolic
+Age.]
+
+What these hopes were in relation to the future of that people and of
+the world, what the Messianic ideas and expectations were, we learn from
+the New Testament, particularly from the Gospels. And we find our
+impressions from this source made more clear in some points, and in all
+confirmed, by a study of the Apocalyptic literature,--of those writings
+of which it was the object to give both shape and expression to the
+Hebrew thought of the kingdom of heaven, and of the brilliant and
+miraculous events which would introduce and establish it.
+
+Jewish Theology in the age of Jesus Christ divided the whole course of
+time into two grand periods; one, comprehending the past and the
+present, was that of suffering and sin; the other, embracing the future,
+a period of virtue and happiness. The last years of the former period
+formed the most important epoch in the History of Humanity, the
+transition to a new order of things, and was designated by a peculiar
+phrase,--the consummation of the age and the last days. It would be
+introduced by the appearance of the great Restorer or Deliverer of the
+people of God, and of the world, whom the prophets predicted; and who
+was called the Messiah, the Anointed of the Lord,--_i.e._, the King by
+eminence, the King of Israel. He was to be the successor and the son of
+David. The precise moment of his appearance was not known. The Jewish
+theologians tried to determine the precursive signs of the near approach
+of his advent. The first of these was the period of great wickedness and
+suffering, marked by a particular name, the anguish, and compared to the
+pangs of child-birth. Immediately preceding the advent of the King, a
+prophet of the Old Covenant would be restored to life to announce it,--a
+part in the miraculous drama commonly assigned to Elijah. The Messiah
+himself would come on the clouds of heaven, with a retinue of angels,
+and with a pomp and splendor which would leave no doubt of the fact of
+his advent. He would come to found the kingdom of God. This implied the
+political, moral, and religious regeneration of the people. A series of
+most imposing scenes would follow the advent. At the sound of a trumpet,
+the dead would arise and appear for the judgment of the last day. The
+just would take part in the judgment of the reprobate, who would be
+thrown into the lake of fire, prepared for the devil and his angels to
+suffer eternal torture. And the kingdom of God or of the Messiah would
+be established immediately on the earth, which, with the whole of the
+universe of which it was the centre, would be gloriously transformed to
+fit it to be the abode of the elect of God.
+
+Into the circle of these ideas and expectations Jesus was born. In it he
+passed his life, acted and suffered; and claimed to found the kingdom of
+God. He claimed in some sense to be the Messiah; and, though rejected by
+his people and put to death, he has borne the name in history, and now
+bears it. He is Jesus, the Christ. How did he regard these ideas and
+expectations? Did he adopt them? And, if at all, how far? Did he claim
+to be such a Messiah as the Jews expected? If so, then Christianity may
+be what it has been called, "a natural development of Judaism." It is
+not essentially a new religion. It is not an evolution of a perfect
+universal, from an imperfect and partial, religion. It is essentially
+Judaism still; and "the kingdom of God, which Jesus preached in both a
+temporal and spiritual sense, developed naturally and logically into the
+Popedom, which is the nearest approximation to the fulfilment of the
+claim of Jesus. Judaism is germinal Christianity, and Christianity is
+fructified Judaism." Christianity is only what is weakest and most
+fantastic in Judaism gone to seed. _The fruit_ is the Roman Hierarchy
+and Ritual. That which is alone characteristic of it is limited and
+perishable. Jesus himself, though his ambition was a lofty one, was
+mistaken in an essential point of his self-assertion; and the gospel is
+not destined to be an universal religion, but only to make some moderate
+contributions thereto.
+
+It is an important question, then,--one which concerns his worth and
+position as a man, as well as his wisdom as a founder of a
+religion,--What did Jesus aim at? and what did he expect as the result
+of his movement? The answers that have been given may be reduced to
+three principal forms: 1. He expected to found a political Empire; 2. He
+expected to introduce a vast Theocracy, to which believers of other
+nations should be admitted, and which was to be established on the
+renovated earth, after his death, at his return to take possession of it
+as King, to reward his followers, and to put all opposition under his
+feet; 3. He expected to found a purely spiritual communion or society in
+which he should continue to exercise for ages, by his spirit, word, and
+life, a power of truth and love over the minds and hearts of men,
+filling them with the most exalted sense of God.
+
+The first view has been presented by some able adversaries of
+Christianity, among whom Reimarus led the way in a fragment "On the Aim
+of Jesus," published with others anonymously in 1778. He charged Jesus
+with using religious motives as merely a means to a political end; but
+supposed that, after he found death impending, he renounced the
+political aim, and pretended that his purpose was only a moral one. A
+few able scholars have been disposed to blend the last view with the
+others. They suppose an original Theocratic purpose to have been
+entertained by Jesus, in which the moral and religious principle
+predominated, but which was not at first exclusive of the political
+element. They suppose, however, a progress in his aim; that after his
+rejection by the people, "which he regarded as God's rejection of any
+national limitation of his work," he inferred that his mission was to
+found a spiritual kingdom. Though the direct imputation of a political
+aim has not been a favorite expedient with ultra-rationalist critics
+since Reimarus was answered by Reinhard and others, it ought not to be
+passed without consideration. It is continually reappearing in modified
+forms. And this happens, because it is impossible to present the
+hypothesis that Jesus intended to be a Jewish Messiah without involving
+the supposition of something political in his object, and in his means
+of accomplishing it. Accordingly a very recent critic[33] of
+Christianity, writing in the interest of "Free Religion," and
+representing Jesus as claiming to be a Jewish Messiah, after saying very
+truly that "the popular hope of a Priest-king transformed itself in the
+soul of Jesus into the sublime idea of a spiritual Christ ruling by
+love," is constrained to say, inconsistently, in another place, that, if
+Jesus had assumed the office, he would not have hesitated to discharge
+its political duties, and to exercise political sway. Here, then, is a
+revival of the imputation to Jesus of a political aim. But I am not
+aware that it is anywhere in recent criticism enforced with any new
+strength of argument. It is obviously contradicted by the general
+bearing of his actions, and by the whole tone of his teachings when
+rightly apprehended. It is contradicted by his utter neglect of
+political measures. He could not be induced or forced to take the
+position of a political ruler. Admirers wished to proclaim him King: he
+sent them away, tore his disciples from them, and went himself into the
+mountain to commune with God. Asked to settle a dispute about property,
+he says he has never been constituted an administrator of civil justice.
+When shown the tribute-money, and inquired of if it were lawful to pay
+tribute unto Cæsar, he makes the memorable reply in which he at once
+acknowledges the rights of the government _de facto_; and the rights of
+conscience and religion, which to deny would be usurpation. He was the
+first to distinguish the spheres of the church and of the state so
+intimately related, but never to be blended. And this is just what the
+political Messiah, the Priest-king, could not have conceived. The
+outlines of his church may serve as the model of a free church to-day.
+There was no political motive to enter it. It had no officer who could
+exercise political power. There was no authority but in the
+congregation. It was amenable to no political head. Its fundamental
+truths were the equal relation of all men with God as his children, and
+the common relation of all men with one another as brethren. The only
+end of his church was the moral and spiritual development of its members
+and of all men; the only condition of membership, the recognition of
+this end; and, with it, of the providential gift of truth and life given
+in Jesus Christ's consciousness of God, and an appropriating and
+co-operative sympathy with his character and purpose. Its method was
+free conference and prayer in the spirit of unity, and in devotion to
+the regeneration of the human family; a method, the results of which, he
+assured them, would be the reaching of decisions which would be in
+essential harmony with his own spirit, the Spirit of God. He drew more
+from the synagogue than from the temple. Worship might ascend anywhere
+from the heart. One need not go to Jerusalem. No political Messiah could
+have thought of any centre of the restored Theocracy but the holy city,
+to which the tribes should repair with their sacrifices, and the
+converted heathen bring their votive offerings to Jehovah, the God of
+Jews; but the temple must be destroyed, and not one stone of it left
+upon another, according to Jesus, in order to prepare for that worship
+of the Father by men in spirit and in truth, which he, as the Christ,
+would inaugurate.
+
+[Footnote 33: See "The Index," Toledo, Jan. 1 and Jan. 8, 1870.]
+
+We thus come naturally to another point in the discussion. The theories
+which recognize the political aim of Jesus commonly suppose that he
+regarded it as his personal mission to restore Mosaism to its primitive
+purity. And, if he shared in the hope of the restoration of the
+Theocracy, he would probably take the most conservative ground in regard
+to the Levitical institutions and the Mosaic precepts. He would believe
+the Jewish people must be made independent, in order to give supremacy
+to those institutions. The Roman yoke must be broken, and the coming
+kingdom be inaugurated with war. Nothing of this, however, is found in
+the ministry of Jesus Christ. When he preached "the kingdom of heaven is
+at hand," it was no summons to war. The characteristic qualities of
+those who belonged to this kingdom were opposed to the Theocratic
+spirit. And the Sermon on the Mount taught, as clearly as the formal
+declaration before Pilate, that it was not of this world. Why should his
+followers be ready to suffer social persecution, if his aim tended in
+the direction regarded with social favor? What mean the non-resistant
+exhortations, instructing his followers to waive their rights for the
+sake of the higher interests they were living for, if he and his
+adherents are charged with the political duty of driving the invader
+from the sacred soil? The rise and progress of this kingdom, Jesus said,
+on another occasion, could not be observed like those of an empire
+founded by force: it would not "come with observation." It had already
+come unobserved. It began to come with John the Baptist, until whose
+work the law was in the ascendant; but since whom men had been pressing
+into the kingdom of heaven, which was tending to supplant the law. And,
+on still another occasion, if he expected his movement to leave the
+Jewish ritual intact, how could he say, with pregnant significance, that
+new wine must not be put into old wineskins, lest they break, and the
+wine be lost. I know great stress is laid upon his saying, "Think not
+that I have come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I have not come to
+destroy, but to fulfil. For truly do I say to you, Till heaven and earth
+pass away, not one jot or one tittle shall pass from the law, till all
+be fulfilled." But, if taken literally, they prove too much; for,
+according to other passages, his teaching on some points--as, for
+instance, divorce, and, as many think, the Sabbath--directly conflicted
+with that of Moses. He threw doubt directly upon the tradition that God
+rested on the seventh day. God, he said, had been always working up to
+that hour, and in his own acts of healing done on the Sabbath he had
+been co-operating with God. We must therefore interpret freely this
+language, and understand by it the everlasting law. The smallest
+requirement of the true law, however overlooked and despised it may have
+been in the popular exegesis, would have its emphasis in the new
+teachings; and whoever slighted it would be the least in the kingdom of
+heaven. There is not a word which can be fairly construed into
+commendation of the Levitical priesthood. He gives to the Mosaic
+precepts cited the most spiritual interpretation, or sets them aside
+when they cannot be wrought into a more profound system of natural
+morality. He implies his superiority to all preceding teachers,
+including Moses. "It was said to the ancients, but _I_ say unto you."
+Indeed, his tone in this discourse is any thing but that of a Jewish
+Rabbi of his period. It is that of the most human and universal
+teaching. It asserts, when we penetrate beyond the immediate occasion of
+it to its principle, that which is true in all times and places. Those
+affirmations with which it opens, what are they but declarations, the
+substantial verity of which it is possible for every man, if he know not
+now, yet sometime to know in himself. "Blessed are the poor in spirit:
+for theirs is the kingdom of heaven." The spirit of those who can set a
+limit to their wants and curb ambition, who do not live blinded by
+interests to the demands of a pure soul,--the spirit of such is always
+blessed. Happy he who imbibes it from the circumstances of his life; and
+happy he who, amidst the blandishments of riches, is taught it by the
+discipline of Heaven. These are they to whom has come the kingdom of
+heaven from Jesus' day until now. Then, "Blessed are the pure in heart:
+for they shall see God." And is not a pure mind the very moral
+atmosphere in which man sees God as he is, and rejoices in the sight? A
+man's moral sentiments are the medium through which comes to him the
+thought of God. Let those sentiments be perverted, and he imagines
+either that God is not or that he is different from what he is. His
+wrong mind either obstructs entirely the beam which darts from the
+Divine essence, or scatters the spotless white of that Sun, the pure
+aggregate of Divine perfections, into the particolored tints of the
+earthly and sensual soul itself. Again, "Blessed are the merciful: for
+they shall obtain mercy." It is even so. Those who sympathize with
+human wants will feel the sympathy of God flowing into their souls, and
+can never lack assurance of the Divine mercy so long as they keep in
+themselves that pledge of it,--the merciful spirit. And so it is a grand
+caution, which every one who has wantonly condemned others knows he
+ought to keep in memory,--"Condemn not, lest ye be condemned." For the
+undeserved, heavy sentence of condemnation which a man lifts high to
+hurl with malignant intent at his brother is arrested by an interposing
+law of Providence, and falls from his weak hand with its full weight
+upon his own head. And at length we come to what might be thought a
+studied satire upon the boasted maxims of human wisdom: "Blessed are ye
+when men shall speak evil of you falsely for my sake." Is this the sober
+truth? Is not Christ, so true elsewhere, mistaken here? It is a verity
+as certain as the laws of God. Do not minds advance unequally in truth,
+in all the successive phases of a soul's spiritual growth? Whoever goes
+before others in thought and life will find men laying this to his
+charge. But, if by following the command of Christian truth to his
+conscience he has opened upon himself the battery of human
+censoriousness, he may exult; for every unjust word or groundless
+suspicion will but remind him of his unbribed devotion, and be changed
+before it touches his deepest happiness into the benediction of God.
+
+Were we to go through what was spoken on the Mount, we might show its
+truth commanding unquestionably the assent of our moral natures. It all
+takes hold of our mind and life. It comes to us to throw light on what
+we do and suffer, and to borrow confirmation from it in turn. Though we
+fall so far short of it, and could not have conceived it originally and
+from ourselves, as Jesus did, it so accords with the laws of our being
+as to seem to be the suggestion of our experience, some admonition
+floating to us by intent of God on that ever-heaving sea of life, of
+ambition, of passion, of mutual misunderstanding, of strong loves and
+piercing griefs, of various mingling sympathies, on whose shore we do
+now stand, and whose tide, for our few seconds here in time, laves our
+feet and dashes upon us its spray.
+
+We might turn over other pages of Jesus' instruction beyond that
+introductory statement of the principles of the kingdom of God, and
+evolve its sense in terms presenting an undeniable spiritual fact to all
+our race. For instance, "To him who hath shall be given, and he shall
+have abundance; but from him that hath not shall be taken away, even
+that which he seemeth to have." How true! It is verified in the mental
+condition of every man at this moment. We only seem to have the faculty
+we do not use. There is no long, healthy sleep to the mind and the moral
+will any more than to the body; but the alternative is, live or die. And
+thus Jesus was ever holding up the law of the spiritual life to the
+light of that day which dawned with his advent. He dwelt on what is
+inward. Although you cannot find that once, in his popular teaching, he
+laid stress upon observances, times without number he studiously
+distinguished between every thing of the nature of ceremonial and those
+everlasting obligations of justice and humanity, of inward and outward
+purity, which ought to be recognized in the home and in the state, in
+all the intercourse of man with man, and in watching over the secret
+heart. We may not infer that he was hostile to religious forms. He
+observed them. He knew that man needed them, and that souls instinct
+with life would perpetuate them and adapt them to their own wants. But
+he saw in the spirit of the Scribes the evil of teaching that any
+arbitrarily imposed outward act can in itself please God; and, in regard
+to such, the whole emphasis of his teaching was, "These ought ye to have
+done, and not to have left the other undone." He quoted from the
+prophets habitually, "I will have mercy and not sacrifice."
+
+Such is the genius of Christianity,--of Christianity as it came from its
+Founder,--the religion which is said to have ripened into the mediæval
+theology and the Roman hierarchy. Too little, indeed, has this genius of
+Christianity been regarded! The old Judaic spirit which brought Jesus to
+the cross has, among Protestants as well as Catholics, too often
+crucified the Christianity of Christ. Human metaphysics have been put
+into creeds and catechisms. Sects have been founded and built up on the
+importance attached to the form of a rite as a part of essential
+Christianity. Disputes have raged which the traditions of the Church and
+the letter of Scripture have failed to settle, and about which Jesus, if
+teaching among us, would not waste a minute's breath.
+
+If further proof were wanting of the breadth and spirituality of Jesus'
+view, it might be found in the fact that he was brought to the cross by
+the pro-Judaism party. His friends would interpret him differently from
+his enemies. The universality and spirituality of his aim were not at
+once apprehended by his followers. Their very trust in him would make
+them slow to perceive his radical meaning; for, to impute to him what
+was in his mind, would seem to be distrust. They would put a limited
+construction upon what he said. It would be otherwise with his enemies,
+who would be sharp and quick to see the full extent to which his words
+would carry him.
+
+The movement of Jesus, then, may be called revolutionary, not in the
+sense of aiming directly at political revolution, but in the sense of
+his expecting to found a free, spiritual, and universal religion, which
+would uproot and remove in time the partial religions, Judaism included.
+Still he designed to connect himself with the Old Dispensation. He
+recognized the Divine mission of Moses and the Providential office of
+the prophets in preparing for him. In the expectations which they
+fostered there was something true as well as something false. When they
+depicted a glorious and happy political condition of the Jewish nation
+under the Messiah as an earthly king, Jesus must have regarded them as
+being in error. We find him pronouncing John the Baptist the greatest of
+the prophets of the old order, and declaring that the least in the
+kingdom of heaven was greater than he; and the reason is shown by the
+context of the words (Matt. xi.) to be that John as a Jewish prophet
+regarded the kingdom of God in part as a political kingdom. But the
+fundamental idea of the Theocracy, that other nations would be united
+with Israel under the dominion of the One True God, was one in harmony
+with Jesus' thought.[34] This expectation Jesus regarded it as his
+mission to realize and fulfil. He had only to separate from the
+Theocratic predictions of the prophets the partial political element, to
+bring them into unison with his universal aim. Whatever in the hitherto
+prevailing ideas and hopes was capable of expansion he absorbed into
+himself, that it might be given out in a wider and higher form, and
+live for ever. A case somewhat parallel might be found in the changes
+wrought by our late war. Those who took a radical view of the issue of
+the contest were exposed to the charge of being revolutionary and
+destroying the Constitution. They could reply, "Yes: the issue will be
+revolutionary. There will be a new state of law, and of the relations of
+the people in important respects, effected by carrying out fundamental
+principles. But those principles were the essence of the Constitution;
+and to carry them out is only fully to accomplish its purpose, by
+annihilating transient provisions at war with liberty and social
+justice, and giving scope to the principles of the Declaration of
+Independence. We hold to the Constitution. We have come not to destroy,
+but to fulfil." So Jesus Christ came not to destroy all that had gone
+before, but to fulfil whatever in it was fundamental to the Divine
+purpose in relation to man. In this feeling of a real connection between
+his movement and the Hebrew ideas and hopes is to be found the principal
+explanation of his confining his labors, and those of the apostles when
+first sent forth, chiefly to Judea and Galilee. Not only must his own
+work be limited in its local scope,--for he could not go
+everywhere,--but the historical basis of his movement lay in the Hebrew
+history. Among the Hebrew people only could he find suitably prepared
+immediate disciples. Salvation was to be from the Jews. And, foreseeing
+that the nation as such would reject him, he saw that it was essential
+to the extension among the Gentiles of the truths and hopes he inherited
+as a Jew, essential to the breaking down of the partition wall which now
+kept out the true doctrine of God from the heathen world, that he should
+come to a distinct issue with the Jewish authorities, and make it clear
+and notorious that it was the narrow spirit of Pharisaism and legal
+formality which crucified him. (If he were lifted up, he would draw all
+men to him.) And from the first the ruling sect, with the acute instinct
+of self-interest, discerned the revolutionary character of his
+movement,--that it elevated man above the Jew, and struck at the root of
+the idolized Hebrew pre-eminence.
+
+[Footnote 34: See Noyes's Introduction to his Translation of the
+Prophets.]
+
+I pass now to a more subtle hypothesis, that Jesus expected to establish
+the Theocratic empire by angelic assistance on occasion of his return to
+earth, which would occur at the same time with the great outward change
+of the world. It is founded on such passages as this: "For the Son of
+Man is to come in the glory of his Father, with his angels; and then he
+will render to every one according to his works." (Matt. xvi. 27. Comp.
+Matt. xiii. 41, and xxvi. 29-60.) It is thus stated by Strauss:[35] "He
+waited for a signal from his heavenly Father, who alone knew the time of
+this catastrophe; and he was not disconcerted when his end approached
+without his having received the expected intimation." His Messianic hope
+was not political or even earthly. He referred its fulfilment to a
+supermundane theatre.
+
+[Footnote 35: Life of Jesus, Part II. § 66. The charge of enthusiasm is
+retained, but not discussed, in his Life of Christ for the German
+people.]
+
+Strauss speaks of Jesus' hope as corresponding with the Messianic ideas
+of the Jews. It took its form from those ideas. Scherer also represents
+Jesus' idea of the kingdom as wholly Apocalyptic. The _first_ criticism
+to be made upon this hypothesis is, that a Theocratic idea arising out
+of the Jewish expectations and conformed to them could not dispense with
+all thought of earthly conflict. The struggle could not have been
+altogether upon a supermundane theatre, nor the triumph of the Messiah
+achieved without common warlike agencies. The common Jewish idea was
+founded on the language of some Hebrew prophets, and appears in the
+Apocalyptic writings of Christ's age; and his own mind in cherishing the
+hope attributed to him must have quite surrendered itself to the popular
+expectation. This expectation supposed some outward conflict as the
+occasion of supernatural interference. Nor do I know any ground for
+thinking that in Christ's time the Jews expected the Messiah to prevail
+with angelic aid without a conflict of arms. Whoever will read Ezekiel
+and Daniel will see that those prophets expected a contest on earth with
+earthly weapons, as the occasion for the intervention of Jehovah. And
+whoever will read the wars of the Maccabees will see how Jewish courage,
+fired with the expectation of celestial assistance, never stopped to
+compare the apparent strength of the respective forces. Nor did the
+Apocalyptic seers dismiss this thought of earthly battle. The book of
+Enoch speaks of the unconverted as delivered at the judgment into the
+hands of the righteous, whose horses shall wade in the blood of sinners,
+and whom the angels shall come to help.[36] The Apocalypse of the New
+Testament presents the picture of the Messiah as mounted on a white
+horse, and riding forth to judge and make war; and the comment of Dr.
+Noyes on this and similar passages is that, in the mind of the writer,
+there was to be war in heaven and upon earth, before Christ should reign
+in final triumph.[37] This theory has no distinctive character without
+supposing the angels acting on the stage of sense and time, and giving
+the Hebrews the victory. With this expectation is probably connected the
+"sign from heaven" demanded of Jesus by the Pharisees, a sign which
+should stimulate Hebrew faith to irresistible warlike ardor. The
+unconverted were to be vanquished by some mysterious exercise of
+Messianic power. Hence many were not satisfied with Christ's miracles;
+not that they disputed their reality, but as being not decisive of his
+Messianic character. Now, if this had been the thought of Jesus, he
+would have been disposed to seek an occasion for such interference from
+on high. It is true, in saying this, we say he must have given himself
+up to the enthusiasm which so often fanatically manifested itself in his
+age, and was always ready to break forth. But the idea supposed, when
+one's whole being was yielded to it,--as Jesus did yield his whole being
+to the ideas which possessed him,--could not have stopped short of
+practical action. He must have been prepared in his thought to act with
+fanaticism. Strauss says, "He did not try to bring about all this by his
+own will; but awaited a signal from his heavenly Father." The actual
+Jesus did undoubtedly as Strauss says; but the supposed Jesus would have
+at some time believed the signal to be given. The idea, and the sort of
+faith in supernatural aid which accompanied it, would lead him to think
+the moment had come for this demonstration. "If such were the ideal of
+Jesus in fact, why did he not seek to realize it at once? Why did he
+prefer the way of renunciation and self-sacrifice to the possession of
+the kingdoms of the world? Why, in the place of the Son of Man, have we
+not a Mahomet six hundred years in advance." The logical and necessary
+result of belief in his Messiahship, and of faith in this sort of
+supernatural aid in realizing it, was that he should bring about an
+occasion for this demonstration. It was an encounter with the Romans, in
+the hope that Jehovah and the angels would fight for God's people, and
+be more than strong enough against all odds. "The Messianic Theocracy
+could not exist as a Roman province."[38] But Jesus studiously avoids
+conflict with Rome. Besides, the second part of the temptation of Christ
+sets aside at once this ideal. His early consciousness of wonderful
+power had not the effect of disposing his mind favorably toward such
+Jewish Messianic ideas. That consciousness tended rather to spiritualize
+his thought: we may say, it subdued him. It made his whole feeling
+moderate, and his whole thought wise and temperate. This is a very
+remarkable part of the representation of him by the evangelists.
+
+[Footnote 36: Book of Enoch, Dillman, ch. 100.]
+
+[Footnote 37: Rev. xix. 11; comp. Christian Examiner, May, 1860, p.
+382.]
+
+[Footnote 38: Hase's Life of Jesus.]
+
+But, secondly, I will now suppose the expectation of Jesus to have been
+purified from every notion of warlike action. The regeneration
+(palingenesia) was to be not a political revolution, but a renovation of
+the earth and the heavens, attended by a resurrection of the dead, of
+whom the accepted were to dwell with Christ in the renovated world,--not
+the present earth, but the earth restored,--and that his presence and
+return were to be visible. This is his coming with the angels to set up
+his kingdom and to reign.
+
+I. The very language which this hypothesis is adopted to explain, taken
+in its proper sense, proves too much. Jesus was to be a king on the
+renewed earth, yet his kingdom was to be different from those of this
+world. "It is not," he says, "of this world." It is a real kingdom as
+much as that of David; but it is not to be a worldly rule on the one
+hand, nor a purely spiritual rule on the other. It is political, and not
+political. According to the writer of the Apocalypse, whose views are
+supposed to have been sanctioned by Jesus, this king must reign until he
+has put all enemies under his feet. When the kingdom is consummated, he
+is to surrender it to his Father. The hypothesis under consideration
+represents the kingdom as to be consummated at the time of the
+world-catastrophe which, with the second or real coming of Jesus as
+Messiah, will occur, according to the alleged words of Christ himself,
+immediately after the destruction of the city. Why shall not the kingdom
+be given up immediately to the Father? This king in "the proper sense,"
+and in no purely spiritual sense, who comes visibly, will have no
+occasion for a reign in the proper sense of the word. Strauss says,
+"Jesus expected to restore the throne of David, and with his disciples
+to govern a liberated people. But in no degree did he rest his hopes on
+the sword of his adherents, but on the legions of angels which the
+Father would send him. He was not disconcerted when his end approached
+without the kingdom having come. It would come with his return." But how
+when he returned was the throne of David to be restored, and a proper,
+literal reign to exist, and not a mere spiritual reign? This king has no
+business to perform: his work is all accomplished immediately by a
+stupendous miracle. And he and his apostles have nothing to do but to
+sit on idle thrones, or to feast at tables loaded with luxuries which
+are at the same time mundane and supermundane; to enjoy a sensual
+paradise, which differs from a Mohammedan paradise only in that it does
+not consist of the coarsest forms of sensual life. They are to partake
+of an actual wine, a fruit of the vine,--a new kind of wine; to observe
+the passover with supermundane food, but food pleasurable to the taste.
+This Jesus is thought to have expected and promised.[39] I sometimes
+think this attempt to find a half-way doctrine of Jesus' expectation
+concerning the future ascribes to him an apocalypticism more inept and
+fatuous than that of the Jews themselves. It attempts to unite the
+contradictory. It cannot be stated by Strauss in any thing like the
+literal sense of the passages on which it is founded, without supposing
+something of that political element which it is designed to exclude; or
+else entirely dropping that relation to Jewish hopes to which it is
+believed to owe its origin, and thus leaving it unexplained. For, if
+Jesus gave up all expectation whatever of a kingdom of this world, we
+have no occasion for a visible return.
+
+[Footnote 39: See Renan's Life of Jesus, first edition.]
+
+II. The second objection to this view is that it is incompatible with
+the most important expressions and opinions of Jesus.
+
+1. The kingdom is to come with the world-catastrophe; and the King is
+then to come in some mysterious manner on the clouds of heaven. How,
+then, could Jesus say the kingdom of God cometh not with _observation_?
+Could any political kingdom arise in a more outwardly striking manner?
+How does that saying of Christ comport with his promising a literal
+miraculous light in the heaven (Matt. xxiv. 30) which shall betoken his
+own coming and the great world-change? That form of coming with a
+precursive sign in the heaven is just what he contradicted. Such a
+kingdom would come with a sign which could be watched for,--a sign very
+different from those signs of the time, the moral indications, which a
+spiritual insight might discern. How could he say the kingdom of God was
+among them _already_, if it were yet to come at the time of the great
+world-change? How could he say to Caiaphas: "Yes, I am the Messiah; and
+moreover _from this moment_ you shall see the Son of Man sitting on the
+right hand of power and coming on the clouds of heaven"? It was
+equivalent to saying, "You have arrested me, you have already doomed me
+to death. But I am the Anointed of God to introduce the new spiritual
+kingdom of Humanity; and, from this moment in which you decree my death,
+my cause takes a Divine impulse, and my purpose strides on to the
+triumph God has destined for it."
+
+2. This expectation is incompatible with what he says on other topics
+related to the kingdom, the resurrection, and the future life. This
+expectation implies the Apocalyptic view of the resurrection. The
+Messiah was to come to raise the dead. (The Christian world has
+generally entertained the same view.) The visible return and the
+resurrection coexisted, probably, in Jesus' mind. If he held the one, he
+held the other. The two opinions were Siamese twins, connected by a
+vital bond; separate them and you would kill them both. But Jesus gave a
+view of the resurrection and the future life totally different from the
+Apocalyptic one. He taught the _continuance_ of life. His argument with
+the Sadducees proves that doctrine, or it amounts to nothing. God is the
+God not of the dead, but of the living. The Rich Man and Lazarus, of the
+parable, are already in a future state of retribution. He who believes
+on him has "already passed from death unto life." Jesus could not
+suppose that one who had received from him the quickening of spiritual
+life could pass into the under-world, and grope as a shade in the
+intermediate state. "Whosoever liveth and believeth in him shall never
+die." Now, to one who is satisfied that Jesus was emancipated from the
+doctrine of an intermediate state, it must be evident that he could not
+have held the Apocalyptic notion resting on it of a raising of the dead
+at the coming of the Messiah, and could not have held to the visible
+coming of the Messiah who was to come to do that very thing.
+
+The same observation is to be made of the judgment. Jesus shows himself
+emancipated from the common notion of the judgment, and of a future
+simultaneous judgment-day. He that believeth on him is not judged. He
+that believeth not is judged already, in that he has not believed in the
+only-begotten Son of God. God sent him not to judge or to punish the
+world, but to save it. The judgment of the world is not to be
+exclusively at a remote day. It has begun. It is _now_. Christ says, Now
+is the judgment of this world; now is the Prince of this world to be
+cast out; now, when Jesus is about to consummate by dying the moral
+means of that result. Jesus is not to be a personal Judge of men at a
+remote time. His principles are for ever to judge men, to judge them
+finally. Not himself as the personal Logos, or as the reappearing
+Messiah, is to judge men, but "the word he has spoken." These thoughts
+in the fourth Gospel must have come from Jesus, not from the writer, who
+shows himself in places not emancipated from the view of his time.
+
+3. The doctrine of Christ's expectation which I am considering is not
+congruous with the means which he contemplates for accomplishing his
+work, and with the view he took of the progress of his kingdom, and of
+the moral duties and retributions of Humanity. Nothing is clearer than
+that his kingdom of God was to be a communion of men on earth bound
+together by the same consciousness of the heavenly Father. It was to
+extend into another life. But it was to spread more and more widely, and
+subdue the world to his spiritual dominion. By moral influence he is to
+be King. This communion is to be the salt of the earth, the light of the
+world. It is to extend its influence by holy example, by good works. He
+will be in spirit with the apostles and with his church. He trains them
+to carry on his work, and tells them to preach the good news to all
+nations. He does this as if founding a work which shall go on
+indefinitely. He declares early, in a discourse designed to explain his
+kingdom, that the law shall not pass away; that it shall in its moral
+requirements be all realized. Heaven and earth shall not pass away until
+all shall _be_. And he directs his disciples to pray as much as for
+daily bread that God's kingdom may come, and that God's will may be done
+_on earth_ as it is done in heaven. Is it possible that this teacher
+expects all this to be closed in thirty or forty years, by a violent
+catastrophe, and by the substituting of a universal miracle for this
+moral instrumentality? He says it is not the Father's will that one of
+the lowliest shall perish. Did he mean to limit the opportunity of
+salvation for the race to forty years, and to consign to the torment of
+Gehenna all who did not accept the new truth in that time? And all this
+impossibility is heightened by the nature of some of those parables in
+which he treated of his kingdom. "If the kingdom of God were to be
+established by an irresistible miracle, on a fixed day, in a manner so
+splendid, what signify those admirable parables of the mustard-seed, of
+the leaven, of the net, of the grain growing from itself, which suppose
+a development, slow, regular, organic, proceeding from an imperceptible
+point, but endowed with a Divine vitality, and displaying successively
+its latent energies?"[40] Besides, no one ever more strictly enjoined
+the duties of life, the everlasting obligations. He contemplates such
+duties as are to be done in such a world as ours was then and is now, as
+the essential sphere in which the heavenly spirit must be formed in man.
+His principle of final judgment is, "Inasmuch as ye have done the duties
+of Humanity unto your fellow-men, ye have done them unto me. Come, ye
+blessed of my Father." Could that teacher suppose that the opportunity
+for performing such duties would cease for ever before the last of his
+apostles should have died? Could he think that within that time the
+destinies of Humanity as he knew it would be closed?
+
+[Footnote 40: Réville, Review of Renan's Life of Jesus.]
+
+These are the principal reasons which determine me to believe that Jesus
+did not expect to return visibly to raise the dead, judge the world, and
+be the head of an external Theocratic kingdom on the renewed earth.
+What, then, shall be said of the language which appears to express that
+opinion? "Ye shall drink the wine new with me in my Father's kingdom."
+"Ye shall sit on thrones judging the twelve tribes of Israel," &c. Two
+considerations are to be kept in sight in establishing the views and
+expectations of Jesus: first, that he used this language--so far as he
+used it--in a figurative sense, to represent spiritual and providential
+facts as he conceived them; second, that the evangelists may have
+sometimes given to his language a precision and a connection which did
+not belong to it, as delivered. That he could not have employed this
+language as it is reported to us, in its literal and proper sense, is to
+my mind a necessary conviction in the premises. This would suppose that
+he entertained two orders of conceptions, which were opposed to one
+another, with a clear profound conviction, and gave them as revelations
+of God: one his spiritual and rational beliefs; the other his
+Apocalyptic beliefs. This supposition is the vice of Renan's seventeenth
+chapter. The language of the Apocalyptic beliefs Jesus might use to some
+extent as a vehicle for conveying the spiritual and rational to others;
+and the most explicit language in which he conveyed his spiritual
+beliefs, so far as it was retained in their feebler minds, might be
+forced into harmony with their traditional opinions. But that in Jesus'
+mind, so original, so manifestly filled with fresh thought on every
+theme of Providence and man, these spiritual apprehensions of a kingdom
+or communion of God which should act under and within the state,
+renovating human life and society; of a Messiah who by such a kingdom
+should fulfil the missionary function of Israel to the race of man; of a
+resurrection which should be the uninterrupted continuance of the
+blessed life, or an immediate renewal of the sense of wasted opportunity
+and law violated on earth; of a judgment both immediate and continual of
+every soul despising the truth revealed to it; of a retribution to civil
+societies according to Divine law,--should arise as original
+conceptions, be held with firm decisive grasp, be of the essence of his
+instruction, and so pronounced in him that our most advanced modern
+thought is but the distant echo of his profound and distinct
+enunciations; and that at the same time he should hold those Apocalyptic
+traditions, of a visible coming, of a Theocratic throne before whose
+splendor that of Cæsar would fade away, of a simultaneous resurrection
+and judgment,--hold them in unimpaired conviction, as truths to be
+solemnly insisted upon as a part of his revelation,--this, it seems to
+me, comes as near a psychological contradiction as we can well conceive.
+And besides, if Jesus had clung to those beliefs as Divine convictions,
+the language ascribed to him would have had the unity of that of the
+Epistles and the Apocalypse on this subject. We should not be perplexed
+with apparent contradictions. As it is, we are obliged to use those
+words which inculcate his spiritual thought for explaining that part of
+his language which is conformed to Jewish conceptions.
+
+But, it is said, this language would naturally create misunderstanding,
+and that it is too bold to be taken in a figurative sense. In regard to
+the misunderstanding of it, let it be said, if we suppose a mind
+inspired by God to see far deeper and further than its contemporaries,
+it must be liable to be misunderstood in proportion to the poverty of
+the vernacular language. Jesus' inspiration and insight gave his speech
+a character such as the highest poetic endowment always gives, and made
+it bold. It is not to be forgotten that he belonged to the east and to
+the people who have given us the Old Testament prophecies. The boldest
+tropes were natural to him. In moments of strong moral excitement, they
+fly from him as sparks from the flint or lightning from the charged
+cloud. It exposes him to the charge of mysticism. We forget that he was
+not a lecturer, a systematic teacher; but a prophet, a converser in the
+streets, a popular teacher, a poet sent from God to re-create humanity.
+Necessity concurred with inspiration to make his speech tropical and
+often liable to be misapprehended. He was obliged to use images and
+terms which the people and the schools applied to the Messiah in order
+to claim, as he meant to claim, a predetermined, providential connection
+with Hebrew history and hope. When he said to Pilate, "I am a king," it
+was a truth; but it was a trope. "I am the bread of life,"--a truth, but
+a trope. "I am come to send a sword on the earth, not peace;" "This cup
+of wine is my blood sealing the new covenant,"--truths, but compact with
+the boldest tropes. When he said, "I am the Messiah," it was a truth,
+but a trope. It was liable to be misunderstood; but, without it, it was
+impossible that he should be understood. He saw Satan, after the seventy
+returned from their mission and related their success, "falling like
+lightning from heaven." If he foresaw political revolutions which would
+occur within a generation, and believed they would be employed by
+Providence to further the establishment of his principles or kingdom,
+which would then reach a point from which it would be evident, to a
+sympathizing mind quick to catch the glimpses of a new day, that they
+would become dominant in humanity, would it be too bold a figure for him
+to say, "The coming of the Son of Man will be as the lightning which
+shoots from horizon to horizon," or too bold a figure to describe those
+precursive overturns and downfalls of the old in language borrowed from
+Isaiah and Joel, the prophets whom he loved and knew by heart? Might he
+not believe, identifying his religion and the Divine spirit which would
+spread it, that at the time of these changes, conspiring providentially
+with the labors of apostles and evangelists, his voice would call the
+chosen, those prepared by mental and moral affinity, to the new
+life-work, to the new order of things; that his call to his own would be
+like the supposed call of the last trumpet summoning them to come into a
+spiritual communion of blessed work, and blessed hope? These figures
+were naturally, almost inevitably, formed in these circumstances.
+
+He used the language given him in the speech of his time in a figurative
+sense, partly because of the want of proper terms suited to his purpose,
+and partly because as a popular teacher, desirous to impress the common
+mind, he could not sacrifice all the associations connected with that.
+But we often find in proximity with it words of his own, or something in
+the occasion, which he might expect to constrain the listeners to
+reflect that he was speaking figuratively; as John vi., "My words, they
+are spirit and they are life," and the reply Luke xxii. 38, to the
+information, here are two swords, "It is enough." Were the accounts more
+full, it is fair to suppose we might have more such expressions. They
+would not be so likely to be remembered as the striking, figurative
+words.
+
+There are words of Christ at the Last Supper which seem to me to have
+occasioned quite unnecessary perplexity. "I say unto you I will not
+henceforth drink of the fruit of the vine until that day when I drink it
+new with you in my Father's kingdom." They were the spontaneous outflow
+of mingled sadness, affection, and hope. He might expect them to be
+interpreted to his disciples by his situation, by all he had said of
+leaving them, and by his habit of conveying spiritual thought under the
+sensuous images suggested by the moment. They referred to the kingdom he
+died to establish. They were as natural as to say, "Where two or three
+are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them." But
+they have been a stumbling-block to students whom we should have
+expected to be able better to _orient_ themselves in the Master's genius
+and style.
+
+Colani has spent a page to ridicule it, and show that it is not fit for
+its place.[41] Yet a similar figure is used by occidental preachers, who
+would not expect to be reproached for coarseness. A young minister
+on an occasion not unlike that on which Jesus sat with his
+disciples--occurring as did that passover in the midst of sacrifice and
+revolution, the Thanksgiving day celebrated after the close of our great
+war, in our land at once so afflicted and so blessed--addressed his
+hearers, some of whom had lost sons or brothers in camp or field, in
+figurative but very appropriate and touching language, in which we may
+suppose he felt the inspiration of his Master's words at the last meal.
+It was to the effect that, although those who had fallen in the strife
+could no more partake with us in the bounty with which the Thanksgiving
+table would be spread, they would in all future festivals be with us in
+spirit, and rejoice in the blessings ever more and more to be realized
+which had been purchased by their sacrifices for our disinthralled
+country.
+
+[Footnote 41: Jesus Christ and the Messianic Beliefs of his Time.]
+
+Nor do I see any better cause of the offence which is taken at the
+language ascribed to Jesus in Matt. xix. 28, in the offer of thrones:
+"In the regeneration, when the Son of Man shall sit on the throne of his
+glory, ye also shall sit on twelve thrones judging the twelve tribes of
+Israel." Let us think how Jesus must have longed to communicate his
+thought and his hope to those chosen ones; how he would not be willing
+to drive them away by his very greatness as he sometimes drove away the
+careless and cavilling; how his mind, if he were a human being and not
+an automaton, would alternate between the sternest truth-speaking and
+the necessity of coming closer to them, and giving them hope, and
+lifting them a little nearer to himself; how like the mother bird,
+enticing her brood to their first flight, and finding he had at one
+moment gone beyond them, he would come back, and alight on a point
+nearer to their apprehension, that he might tempt them to use the
+untried pinions of their thought,--and we need have no difficulty in
+seeing that he meant thrones of moral power. I do not know how those men
+received it; but I do not believe they thought then of political power.
+If, after Jesus left them, they recalled this and every other such
+expression as a means of nourishing the hope of an Apocalyptic return
+and kingdom, the great Teacher and Comforter was not accountable for
+that perversion.
+
+Jesus' language, then, can be explained without supposing him to have
+expected visibly to return after death to erect a kingdom of God of
+which he should be the visible head.
+
+The result of our inquiries is, that Jesus did not aim at any political
+sovereignty, that he rose by the force of the special endowment of his
+nature above the Apocalyptic superstition of his age, and that he looked
+and labored immediately for the moral and spiritual renovation of
+humanity on this earth. He claimed to be a Messiah; not a Messiah after
+the Jewish conceptions, but a man anointed and endowed of God, to
+perfect by the manifestation of the Divine in the human, the means of
+this moral renovation of humanity. He regarded the spiritual Messiahship
+as a divinely appointed means to this end. He aspired to spiritual rule
+for no end but this, and his aspiration was disinterested, godlike. It
+has been said that he was ambitious, though it is allowed that his
+ambition was the most elevated. And he has been compared with
+disadvantage to Socrates, whose ambition, it is said, was "_to serve
+without reigning_," while that of Jesus was "_to reign by serving_," and
+the former is justly thought to be the nobler purpose. It is no time to
+institute a comparison between Jesus and Socrates. I have no wish to
+disparage the great Pagan. I will allow Grote's estimate, that the
+Apology as given by Plato is the speech of one who deliberately foregoes
+the immediate purpose of a defence, the persuasion of his judges; who
+speaks for posterity without regard to his own life. The aim of Socrates
+was disinterested, but not so elevated as that of Jesus. The aim of
+Socrates belonged to the realm of the understanding; the aim of Jesus,
+to the realm of the Spirit. They both took delight in the exercise of
+their gift: this is innocent, when not an exclusive motive; but Socrates
+more consciously sought this delight than Jesus. No self-abnegation can
+be conceived more entire than that of the Christ as represented by the
+evangelists with every mark of truth. He sought to reign only as all
+seek to reign who put forth their powers to assist the development of
+other minds. He would reign only so, and so far, as this might be to
+serve his race. He had no ambition. His purpose was not _to reign by
+serving_, but _to reign that he might serve_. He respected the freedom
+of the mind. He appealed to reason and conscience. He claimed authority
+in the name of reason and conscience, and believed that he thus claimed
+it in the name of God. And if his reign has been more extensive, more
+durable, and more beneficent than that of others, it is because he has
+acted by the highest kind and with the largest measure of truth and
+life, on the highest powers and tendencies of man.
+
+
+Cambridge: Press of John Wilson and Son.
+
+
+  Transcriber's Notes:
+
+  Obvious punctuation errors were repaired.
+
+  Phrases in italics are indicated by _italics_.
+
+  Words in the text which were in small-caps were
+    converted to ALL-CAPS.
+
+  Greek text is transliterated and surrounded by [Greek: ].
+
+  The "oe" ligature is indicated by "[oe]" (e.g. [oe]cumenical).
+
+  On pg. 77, the Latin phrase for "altar of Heaven"
+    is transcribed as "Ara C[oe]li" (it might be "Ara Cæli").
+
+  Typo corrected:
+    "phenonema" changed to "phenomena"
+    (pg. 206, "classes of perceived phenomena")
+
+
+
+
+
+End of Project Gutenberg's Christianity and Modern Thought, by Various
+
+*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 41280 ***