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THE ANCIENT FAITH IN
MODERN LIGHT

THE

ANCIENT FAITH

MODERN LIGHT

A SERIES OF ESSAYS

/ BY

/ /

T. VINCENT TYMMS, EDWARD MEDLEY,
ALFRED ^CAVE, SAMUEL G. '^GREEN,
R. VAUGHAN^PRYCE, SAMUEL"^NEWTH,
JOSEPH '^PARKER, WILLIAM '^BROCK,
J. GUINNESS "^ROGERS, and the late
HENRY ROBERT'^REYNOLDS

EDINBURGH
T. & T. CLARK, 38 GEORGE STREET

XS97

PRINTED BY MORRISON AND GIBB LIMITED
FOR

T. & T. CLARK, EDINBURGH

LONDON : SIMPKIN, MARSHALL, HAMILTON, KENT, AND CO. LIMITED

NEW YORK : CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS

TORONTO: THE WILLARD TRACT DEPOSITORY

PREFACE

The following Essays, by members of a society of ministers
accustomed to meet for free and brotherly conference, are
intended to reassert, from a modern point of view, great
fundamental verities of the Christian Faith, and to indicate
some of their varied applications.

To distinguish between the permanent and the tran-
sient in Religion is one of the gravest and hardest tasks
of the theologian. In every age there is a " removing
of those things that are shaken, as of things that have
been made, that those things which are not shaken maj-
remain." Too often, indeed, in the eager desire for pro-
gress, the distinction is missed ; and in the criticism of
human theories and systems the Divine thought that
underlies them is left out of sight. To avoid this error
has been the great aim of the Essayists, whose long experi-
ence as Christian teachers, with much close observation of
the thoughts and tendencies of the time, has led them to
cling with ever-increasing confidence to the truths which
are unchanging and essential.

No complete survey of theological truth has been
attempted ; nor has it lain within the writers' scope to
discuss those forms of modern criticism which arc thought

vi PREFACE

by some to have weakened the very foundations of the
Ancient Faith. Considerable light, it is gratefully acknow-
ledged, has been thrown, in the course of such criticism, on
the Sacred Records ; while there has undoubtedly been
much that is conjectural and extravagant, and is already
proving to be ephemeral. But, apart from all this, there
are grounds of sure belief on which the Christian apologist
may rest, changing, it may be, in some respects his line of
defence, but confident in the ever-abiding Truth.

Considerable space has been devoted in this volume to
the practical applications of Christianity in social, domestic,
and public life. These also are of growing importance.
On the philosophic side, it is more than ever needful to
show the connection of the Ancient Faith with all that is
sound and true in modern psychology and ethics ; and
amid the pressing questions of our day, going down to the
very roots of the social order, all who can set forth the
influence of Theology on human affairs, and vindicate the
place of Christian teaching among the forces which regulate
Society, will render valuable service alike to the Churches
and the People.

The several writers, although thus actuated by a
common purpose, and in full agreement regarding essential
truth, are in details independent of one another. No one,
save the Editor, has seen, prior to publication, any Essay
but his own ; and no editorial alterations whatever have
been made. Each writer has no doubt given utterance to
views which others would have expressed differently, or
from which they might dissent; but it was thought that
the end in view would best be served by leaving the entire
responsibility of the Essays with their several authors.

PREFACE vii

The Essay, or Fragment, placed at the end of the
volume requires no apology for its incompleteness. Its
author, the beloved and lamented Henry ROBERT Rkv-
NOLDS, was the friend of all who have co-operated in this
volume, and was for some years a member of their society.
He took the keenest interest in the project ; and one of his
last works on earth was to lay the foundation, in this
paper, of an extended Essay on the Personality and Work
of the Holy Spirit. His associates are grateful for the
permission to lay before the readers of this volume these
latest fruits of so richly endowed a mind, and so beautiful
and devoted a life.

CONTENTS

I'AGE

CHRISTIAN THEISM

By T. Vincent Tvmms, D.D.
Principal of Raivdon College^ Leeds

I. Scope of this Essay defined. Christian Theism compared

with Hebrew and other Theistic systems ... 3

II. Hebrew Theism reviewed —

1. Some open questions of Old Testament criticism set

aside as irrelevant to the discussion ... 4

2. The primary thought of Hebrew Theology ; God the

sole Author of the Cosmos 5

No reasoned theory of unity in the Old Testament . 5

The cosmogony of Gen. i. the logical basis of Mono-
theism, which excludes Henotheism : it provides
for personal, and therefore ethical relations between
God and man .....••• 5

3. Hebrew Theism essentially anthropomorphic . . 7
This not a literary time-mark, but persistent in the

latest documents 8

Anthropomorphic expressions common in ancient and
modern philosophy and science ; but more signifi-
cant in the language of Theists ; their effect on the
mind depends on our conception of man . . y

The language of the Old Testament, when analysed,

yields the constituents of personality ... 10

God regarded in the Old Testament as in ceaseless

and varied relations with men . . • • ' '

God Invisible and Inscrutable, yet not Unknowable
because self-revealed . . • • • • ' -

4. Hebrew Theism included a doctrine of divine

revelation . . • • ■ • '-'

CONTENTS

Doctrine of angelic representation .... 13
Theophanies of the Old Testament representative only 14

5. Hebrew Theism included a doctrine of the Holy

Spirit. Origin of this name. Its place in the
doctrine of Revelation 17

6. The crowning glory of Hebrew Theism ; its ethical

idea of God and His relations with men . . 18

The God of the Old Testament not wrathful, but

gracious ......... 20

Significance of the fact that love is the fundamental

demand of the law ....... 22

God's declared Name, the hope of the penitent and

contrite .22

HI. New Testament Theism —

1. The Unity of God : a doctrine to which Christianity

is pledged ........ 23

Ecclesiastical creeds not authoritative ... 24

One God or no God 25

Modern objections to Theism based on the difficulty
of combining the doctrines of Divine Personality

and Divine Unity 25

Unitarianism not a haven of intellectual simplicity . 25
Witness of Agnosticism and Pantheism ... 26
Dr. Martineau's Theistic Theory examined. Its
failure shown. Its admissions constitute a renun-
ciation of ancient objections to Trinitarianism . 27

2. John's doctrine of the Logos : the unsolved problems

of Hebrew and modern philosophical Theism corre-
spond : John's doctrine a solution of both . . 33
Agreement of the New Testament with the Old
regarding the Invisibility and Inscrutability of
God ; the correlative doctrine ; revelation in Christ 34
The Incarnation not a solitary and exceptional event 35

God's self-expression must be eternal .... 36

John's doctrine of the Logos interpreted ... 36
The innermost secrets of the Godhead unsearchable . 38
Finite connotations of language not contradictions of
the Infinite in relation to Space, Time, Force, or a
Personal God ........ 39

John's doctrine of the Logos, as an eternal self-
expression of God, solves the philosophical problem

of Divine Personality 39

Also supplements the O.T. doctrine of Revelation . 39

CONTENTS

I'AGR

Man's cravinjj for some objective form universal :
idolatry its historical manifestation, but no proof of
its unworthincss . 40

The true evil of idolatry ...... 42

The worship of Christ, as the image or self-expression

of God, not idolatrous 42

A Divine Word the only conceivable link between

the Infinite and the Finite 42

The Holy Spirit : necessary incompleteness of an

objective revelation 43

Its difficulties not mitigated, but increased by great-
ness .......... 45

These difficulties interpret Christ's language about

the Holy Spirit 45

God not only transcendent, but immanent; the Logos
God's self-expression ; the Holy Spirit God's self-
impartation ; inspiration the complement of Reve-
lation 48

Ethical Problems ; as inherited by Christianity from
Judaism 49

These problems not raised by Greek philosophy . 49

Ethical problems presuppose a Personal God who
has power to please Himself; His character, not
His power, is in question 5'

Paul's distinction between Lcnu as an eternal order,

and laws as partial and temporary expressions of it 52

Change of educational discipline does not import a
change of purpose or \\ill ; the removal of legal
obligations indispensable to man's highest ethical
development ........ 53

Forgiveness reconcilable with an eternal order,
because an essential part and not a breach of it ;
conditioned by repentance 53

Christian Theism treats the invisible spiritual realm
as real and of primary importance ; thoughts and
states of mind, therefore, more important than
actions ......... 54

Repentance recognised by God as a new mind,
involving new relations with the universal order . 55

Forgiveness does not involve immediate or total
i-emoval of consequences ; Christ teaches, not only
the righteousness of mercy, but the mercifulness of
severity .......•• 5^

Christ God's self-expression in death as in life . . 56

The Cross the living synthesis of law and forgiveness 57

xil CONTENTS

PAGE

Note A. The Higher Criticism 58

Note B. Anthropomorphism in the Psalter . . . 61

Note C. Anthropomorphism in recent Science . . 61

Note D. The Meaning of Logos 62

THE PERMANENT SIGNIFICANCE OF THE BIBLE

By Edward Medley, B.A.
Professor of Apologetics, Regenfs Park College, London.

The permanent significance of the Bil)le questioned :

criticism not to be deprecated ...... 67

I. The Bible has been significant in the past .... 69
Evidenced by —

1. The indebtedness of later Scripture writers to

the earlier ....... 69

2. The value of Old Testament to religious in-

quirers after Septuagint Version made . . 70

3. The place the Bible occupied in Roman,

Mediaeval times, and in the Renaissance . 72

4. The place it at present fills in life and thought

of the world ....... 74

Summary of present position ..... 75

II. The Bible will continue to be significant .... 76

From the past can the future be foretold ? The sug-
gestion that the growing knowledge of the mode
of the composition of the books of Scripture lessens
the value of them ....... 76

The grounds for believing that the Bible will continue to
be significant —

1. Its literary beauty ....... 77

Exemplified by the Creation story, the lives of the

patriarchs, the prophets, the Psalms, the Gospels,

the Pauline Epistles ...... 78

Need for the consideration of this aspect of the

Bible 82

2. Its historical value ..".... S3
Man desires to know the origin of things, and the

Bible is essentially a book of origins ; it gives an
account of the origin and growth of Monotheistic
Judaism and of Christianity ..... 84

CONTENTS xiii

I'AGK

3. Its moral value ..... . . 90

The worth of moral teaching outside the Bible, yet

Bible morality supreme . . . . 91

Mistaken view concerning it ; the remedy ; the Dible

to speak for itself, and to be considered as a whole 92

It is the record of a gradual moral enlightenment ;
this illustrated by the history of the Jews . . 9:

Such graduated teaching looks for a consummation ;
this the New Testament supplies ; it contains the
ultimate morality ....... 94

Contrast between New Testament morals and the
schemes of moralists. It teaches not only by pre-
cept, but by the presentation of a perfect human
life 95

Jesus Christ the incarnation of a perfect morality ;

unaffected by drift of His time .... 96

Said to be a mythical creation, but in fact He differs
absolutely from traditional, mediaeval, theological
Christs 97

4. Its spiritual value 98

Man a spiritual being; his desire for God and for for-
giveness. The Bible supremely a book ministering

to the spiritual in man, all else subordinate to this . 98
It contains a progressive revelation of God as

Redeemer — the whole to be judged by its end . 99
The Creation story again ; the education of the
Jewish people ; the Psalter ; the Law. The Old

Testament lacks finality loi

The final revelation ; God and man one in Jesus
Christ ; the place of the Cross. The Acts and the
Epistles 102

Something further needed before finally aftirming
permanent significance of the Bible. This sup-
plied by the fact that the record has been the
means of setting up a personal relation between
men and Christ, repeating the experiences of the
Gospels; its seal in changed lives . . . .103
The Bible is involved in the deepest life of man ; it
is more than literature, history, morals ; it is the
record of the movements of God in the redemption
of mankind ; as such it cannot cease to be signi-
ficant until man ceases to be what he is . . . 105

Note. Theories of Inspiration unnecessary . .105

XIV

CONTENTS

III

THE BIBLE VIEW OF SIN

By Alfred Cave, B.A., D.D.

Principal of Hack7iey College^ Lofidon

The subject one of ceaseless interest and importance .

To be considered under several heads, viz. — . . . .

I. The problems with which any doctrine of sin deals —

Preliminary definitions — of sin, and of evil, physical,

moral, and spiritual .......

Problems of physical evil numerous ....

And of moral evil

And of spiritual evil

Various non-Biblical solutions of problem of evil during

human history, viz.- —

1. The Demonic solution .....

2. The Dualistic solution .....

3. The Pessimist solution

4. The Retributive solution ....
The Biblical solution clearer, more detailed, and more

consistent than the ethnic

The Biblical doctrine of evil a doctrine of sin .

II. According to the Bible, evil is contingent, not necessary
For the Bible has very distinct teaching as to the primi
tive sinless state of man ......

Seeing that the Bible doctrine of man is —

1. Monogenic .......

2. Dichotomic .......

3. A doctrine of man's creation in the divine image

4. A doctrine of man's conditional mortality

5. A doctrine of ceqiiale teuipej-aiiuntmn

6. A doctrine of man's capacity for infinite progress

7. A doctrine of necessary probation .

8. A doctrine of progress by uninterrupted com-

munion with God

9. A doctrine of parentage . ....

III. According to the Bible, the origin of sin in man has a clear
history — in the story of the Fall .....
The essential features of which as told in Genesis are —

1. Man was created innocent .....

2. Innocence could only become holiness by the

exercise of choice ......

3. Choice involves alternatives .....

4. Alternatives were presented by an express divine

command ........

PAGE

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109

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113
113

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115

115
115

116

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117
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120

121

122

123

CONTENTS XV

PAGE

5. In free exercise of choice, man disobeyed the com-
mand, and sin began 123

This story of (Genesis a postulate of whole Dible . . 124

This story eminently consistent with itself and with human

experience . . . . . . . , .125

IV. According- to the Bible, the Adamic consequences of sin
were as follows, namely, that —

1. Mortality was no longer conditional . , .126

2. The cequale te}nperai/tcfitu»i ce^std . . . 127

3. Growth became retrogressive from the divine

image 127

V. According to the Bible, the generic consequences of sin
show themselves in a peccatinn originis .
As is testified to by the patriarchal records
And the Levitical law .....
And the Psalmists and Prophets .
And the words of Jesus ....
And of Paul and John .....

128
129
129
132
132
133

VI. According to the Bible, the generic consequences of sin
more carefully studied are —

1. Universal depravity 135

2. Universal sin . . . . . . . .136

3. Universal guilt 137

4. Universal punishment (which is nothing but death) 138
Death being the evolving effects of God's withdrawal

from man . . . . . . . . . 13S

And, more at length, being

1. Loss of balance . . . . . . • '39

2. Depravity and disease • '39

3. Decease . . . . . . . . • '39

4. The consequents of decease 141

VII. According to the Bible, the personal consequences of sin
are graded, viz., as in

1. The stage prior to moral consciousness . . .142

2. The stage of moral consciousness .... J42

3. The stage of Christianised consciousness . . 144

4. The stage of sin against the Holy Ghost . . 146
This supreme stage of sin showing

1. The supreme guilt '4^

2. The supreme death, which is the supreme spiritual

loss, and what is connoted thereby . . .148

VIII. The light thrown by the doctrine of sin upon the problem

of redemption '49

XVI

CONTENTS

DEITY AND HUMANITY OF CHRIST

By Samuel G. Green, B.A., D.D.
London

I. Introduction — Direction of modern thought to our Lord's
earthly Hfe .........

The sense of His Deity not thereby impaired, but en-
hanced ..........

Illustration from the teachings of the Apostle John

157

158
158

II. The fact of our Lord's Deity established —

1. From the records of His life .

Christ as portrayed in the Synoptics
His self-assertion ....
Testimony of the Fourth Gospel .

2. From His living power in the Church

Apostolic representations : " In Christ '
Christ in the individual soul .
Annals of Christian work : Missions

Inefficiency of Unitarianism

Quotations from Dr. Channing and Mrs. Hum
phry Ward ....

3. From the direct testimony of Scripture

Proof-texts, how far valuable
Criticisms : Old Testament .
New Testament

III. The belief stated-

Attempts at theory ....
Unconscious heresies of devout minds
Early history of the Church
Definitions, not explanations
Chalcedon ....

The Athanasian Creed
The Westminster Confession .
Heresies arising from attempted explanations : Arian
ism, Nestorianism, Apollinarianism .

IV. Inductions from the Gospel history —

Our conclusions must be conditioned by facts

Preconceived notions of divine humanity

Scripture statements of a Hmitation

Paul's statement of Kcnosis ....

Kenosis a mark of omnipotence

Distinct features of our Lord's history —

I. His miracles ......

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163
163
163

164
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166
167

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168
168
168
169
169
170

170

171

172
172

174

CONTENTS

XVU

Often wrought by comjiiuiiicated energy
Assertions of His own power .
:. His knowledge .....
Increase in wisdom ....

Dorner's theory of progressive incarnation
Information sought on ordinary matters
Knowledge, absolute and acquired .
Our Lord's emotions of surprise, etc.
Contrast with His divine insight
His claim as a Revcaler of truth
Disclosure of spiritual realities
The day and hour of judgment
Knowledge here complete and infallible
Testimony to O.T. Scripture
Perfection through discipline .
This the greatest mystery
Sorrow and temptation
Testimony of the Epistle to the Hebrews
Note on Heb. ii. lo (Prof S. W. Green, iM.A., of

Regent's Park College)
Perfection through suffering
The temptation of Christ

174
174
175
'75
176

177
177
178
178
179
179

179
180
180
181
181
i8r
182

182

183
184

V, Principles of Incarnation —

" Kenotic theories" : how far admissible
Man akin to the Divine .....
Our Lord the Son of Man ....
Incarnate Holiness and Love ....
Was the Incarnation the result of sin ? .
Conditioned by sin, and culminating in sacrifice
More than a simple revelation of God
Incarnation and Atonement ....

.85
186
186
187
188
189
189
189

THE REDEMPTIVE WORK OF THE LORD JESUS CHRIST

By R. Vaughan Prvck, M.A., LL.I3.
Principal of New College, Lotnlon

Acceptance of Christian doctrine often hindered by mode of
statement ; extreme views on one side leading to extreme
views on the other. The object of the Essay to gather from
the New Testament, and especially from the sayings of
Christ, the Doctrine of the Vicarious Sacrifice . . • '93

CONTENTS

The scriptural facts may be grouped under the following heads : —

I. A mysterious efficacy is assigned to the death of Christ.
Reasons why Christ did not speak much about His
death; showing the significance of what He did say.
His own testimony both clear and sufficient to the
mysterious virtue of His death. Evidence of this . 195

II. Wherein lies this efficacy.''

1. His death was not necessary in order to win the

love of God for us : it is the expression of that

love 198

2. The efficacy of His death {ovc^A, firstly^ in this, that

by it there is remission of sin. Salvation from
sin intimately connected with the work the
expected Messiah was to accomplish. Christ
Himself testifies that His blood was shed in
order to this . . . . . . .198

3. This efficacy found, secondly^ in this, that only

through His death could the new life, of which
He is the source, pass into us. This mysterious
fact not obscurely hinted at. Men must eat His
flesh and drink His blood to have life in them . 200

4. This efficacy seen, thirdly^ in His mysterious con-

flict with the powers of darkness. This conflict
the meaning of the temptation : renewed in
Gethsemane ; completed on the Cross. The
conflict referred to in the Epistles, especially in
that to the Colossians, and not found alone in
the Gospels. A threefold efficacy, therefore, is
assigned in the Gospels to the death of Christ.
So far certain ideas frequently associated with
the work of Christ have not appeared . . 202

III. Exposition of certain terms throwing light on the method
of salvation —
I. The term Propitiation. Certain views of the
meaning of the term are derived from the
heathen conception of what it implied, and not
from the Christian revelation, where alone light
should be sought. The penal theory of Christ's

atonement noticed 206

Christ speaks of a new covenant in His blood.
He becomes surety for mankind in a covenant
of grace. The nature of this covenant — the
second Adam vicariously "died unto sin once
for all" on man's behalf, thus presenting Him-

CONTENTS xix

I'AGE

self an acceptable oblation to God, and be-
coming man's surety, at once pledging him, and
aiding him, to a like death 208

The doctrine of mystical union with Christ is at the
root of the doctrine of Propitiation as thus under-
stood. Significance of this . . . .211

The subject viewed in the light of other apostolic
statements ; as in 2 Cor. v. — where, inter alia,
the expression "made to be sin" is considered,
and in Gal. iii. 13 212

2. The term Reconciliation. Not simply of man to

God. The " wrath of God " considered. This
a fact, and this affected by the propitiatory
sacrifice 216

3. The term Redemption. The idea of compensation

foreign to the scriptural idea, the term having
in Scripture a sacrificial and not a commercial
reference. While, however, there is no ransom
paid to anyone, His blood was the price of His
victory in the mysterious conflict with evil . . 217

IV. History of the doctrine, so far as to indicate the elements

that came later into the Christian creed . . . 218

Augustine and Athanasius taught substantially what has
been presented in this Essay ; laying stress on the
mystical union of Christ and humanity, and on the
vicarious dying unto sin on behalf of humanity . . 219

Anselm fixed his thought on sin rather than on its effects.
The notion of a debt which must be paid : which
Christ paid for humanity . . . . . .221

Luther and Calvin departed further from the simplicity
of Scripture ; introducing ideas drawn from criminal
courts, and other fictions 222

Concluding remarks 224

NEW TESTAMENT WITNESS CONCERNING
CHRISTIAN CHURCHES

By Samuel Newth, M.A., D.D.
Lafe Principal of New College, London

Introduction— Language of the New Testament on "Churches"

and " The Church " -9

CONTENTS

I. A Church a company of Christian men and women express-
ing their union with Christ, and therefore with one

another 230

II. No formal direction in N.T for the constitution of a

Church 231

Contrast between Christianity and O.T. law . . 232

Liberty a note of the gospel 233

III. New Testament models —

1. The earliest Church : its constitution. Four leading

principles signified by the gift of the Holy Spirit . 236

(a) God's truth to be made known to all men . . 237

(d) Blessings of the gospel open to all ... 238

known the truth 238

(d) This not the function of a special class . . 238

2. First election of Church officers ..... 240
"The Seven." Distinction from subsequent deacon-
ships . . . . . . . . .241

3. Formation of Churches in different centres . . 241
Comparative withdrawal of the apostles from the

scene ......... 242

4. First appearance of " Elders "..... 244
No record of their appointment or special functions . 245

5. Intercommunion of Churches ..... 246
Appeal from Antioch to Jerusalem .... 247
The so-called " Council of Jerusalem," a meeting of

the whole Church in that city .... 247

6. Two orders of ministers in the Churches . . . 249
Elders called also "Bishops" or "Overseers," and

"Deacons" 249

Their character and qualifications defined rather than

their functions . . . . . . . .250

7. No record of further developments . . . .251
(rt) Special missions, as of Timothy and Titus . . 252
(d) No permanent authority conferred . . . 252

["Angels of the Churches" in Asia] . . . 253

8. Inferences from the above —

Church organisation a growth ..... 254

Institutions subservient to needs .... 254

No data for fixed or permanent organisations . 254

IV. Leading principles embodied in N.T. Church life —

I. Deference to be paid to the ecclesia .... 255
The whole Church consulted ; in the election of an
apostle, the appointment of the Seven, the dis-
cussion of Peter's work at Cxsarea . . . 256

CONTENTS

2. Teaching addressed to the Churches directly, not

mediately .... . .

Addresses of the Epistles .....

3. References to Church officials occasional and slight

4. Discipline to be exercised by the Church collectively

5. Special relationship of the apostles to the Churches
Messengers ; Evangelists ; Witnesses

All believers are "successors of the apostles" as
servants of Christ ......

None are their successors in their distinctive office

256
257
257
258
259
259

261
261

V. Application to the Churches of the present day —

1. Organisation subject to the well-being of a Church . 262
Hence possible and permissible varieties . . . 262

2. This freedom subject to conditions .... 264
(a) No human mediator between God and the soul . 264

All believers a priesthood under Christ the High

Priest 265

(i) The word of God, as made known in Scripture,

the supreme standard of appeal . . . 265

for himself 266

The Holy Spirit the one authoritative interpreter

in direct communication with each soul . . 267
Meaning of the phrase " The Bible, and the Bible

only, the religion of Protestants "... 267
These conditions forbid (a) priestly claims, (d)

State supremacy, and (c) papal assumption . 268

(d) The co-operation of Churches in the service of

Christ is obligatory -69

Every barrier to such co-operation should be
removed

Note A. Church life of many types -7°

Note B. Growmg life demands a fuller organisation . . .271

\TI
THE NEW CITIZENSHIP

By Joseph Pakklr, D.D.
Mtm's/er of the City Temple, London

Old subjects may be affected by new conditions . . • -275
Citizenship, or State-life, is distinctly one of those subjects . .275
The " State " has undergone a very marked evolution . • .276

xxii CONTENTS

PAGE

The evolution has created new opportunities and consequently

new responsibilities ......... 276

The " State," as known in Great Britain, has pushed beyond its

old narrow and mechanical limits 277

The " State " of to-day defined 277

The " State " now claims to be more than military — more than
commercial — more than disciplinary — it claims to be bene-
ficent in the largest and most active sense .... 277

This is the critical point 279

What is beneficence ? 280

Is it mechanical, or spiritual .'' Is it superficial, or profound? . 280

Ought such a " State" — thus evolved and defined — to elect and
support a religious institution called the Church, or a
Church, or a«_y Church ? If not, why not ? .... 280

Assuming that a State can be religious — or even ought to be
religious — does it follow that a State must also be ecclesi-
astical ? 281

The difference between a State being ecclesiastical and being

religious . . . . . . . . . . .281

It being assumed that a People or State, as such, may be
religious, what can the organised political "Ctesar" do to
express and confirm his religiousness .'' . . . . .281

Some things he must not do ....... . 282

Some things which his very religiousness will forbid him to do . 285

The Evangelical Faith, herein known as the Ancient Faith,
believes not only in individuality but also in " nations " ; it is
charged by its Author to " teach all nations " . . . . 289

Nor is the Ancient Faith only national ; it is international and
cosmopolitan; — it is divinely charged to subdue the "world"
to Christ ........... 293

The Ancient Faith claims to be the exponent and guardian of

true Socialism .......... 293

What is the socialism of Christ ? 293

The " State " is not an invention of Atheism .... 294

Providence must not be banished from the State that it may be

adored in the Church 294

Nor must " State " be narrowed down to " politics "... 294
The Ancient Faith is, first of all, a religion of individualism . 294

Its motto is one by one, man by man, brought under the dominion
of Christ, — after that, and as a necessity of that, it proceeds

to families, neighbourhoods, nations 295

Its keynote is personal regeneration. The Ancient Faith at
work. How it works ; how it begins ; in what temper it

operates 296

Forecast of the coming century 298

CONTENTS xxiii

PACE

In bringing these suggestions and purposes to bear, the Ancient
Faith must be largely indebted to earnest preaching for exposi-
tion and popular acceptance ....... 300

Along this line preachers will find living and truly original themes 302

A living picture ; the proletarian's appeal 306

Where is evangelism needed most ?...... 307

Controversies and speculations hushed l^y the spirit of charity . 309

Note. — The State Church conception is, if certain fundamental
assumptions are ignored, simply ideal in nobleness: the counter-con-
ception at once lessens and increases its own influence by its intense
spirituality, — its contention being that Church and Nation are not
synonymous, but that the Church is that particular or specialised portion
of the Nation which has been brought into living personal experience
of the law and love of God as revealed in the person and priesthood of
His Incarnate Son. It is not enough to dismiss this conception as
metaphysical, because (i) in all things the metaphysical is the per-
manently real ; and (2) if what is metaphysical is on that account to be
discarded, the whole Christian conception of the Godhead can no longer
be retained. Controversy as between opposing communions cannot be
settled apart from an accepted and final definition of the term Church.
This paper is a contribution towards that definition.

VIII

CHRISTIANITY AND THE CHILD

By William Brock
Minister of the Baptist Church, Hampstcad

Subject— How best to present Christian truth to the English
child of the present day

I. Some existing facts which prompt the inquiry—

1. Church teaching ....

2. Agnostic teaching

3. The tendency of laissez-faire

4. The Nonconformist position

5. The demand of the child himself

3'4
314
315
316

317

II. Some recent changes which influence the inquiry—

1. Decline of authority in matters of belief

2. Criticism and its eflTect on the conception of the

Bible ....

3. Growth of humanitarian sentiment . . • -325

4. Fainter sense of the supernatural . . • • 3-7

■;->->

XXIV

CONTENTS

III. Some positive conclusions to which the inquiry may lead —

1. The nature of the child ...... 329

Signs of a fall and of an origin .... 329

The darker side — early indications of " lawlessness " 330
The brighter side — capacities and dispositions

needing to be developed ..... 331
Nature and necessity of conversion, and reality of

the new birth ....... 333

2. The child's thoughts of God and the unseen world . 334

Imaginations of heaven 334

Impressions regarding Satanic influence . . . 335
First idea of God, that of a Providence, leading to

that of a Father ....... 335

The sovereignty of Fatherhood. Omniscience of

God 336

The majesty of the Creator, seen in His works, and

exalting the idea of Fatherhood .... 337

3. The child and our Lord Jesus Christ .... 339

The study to be approached on the historical side . 339

Christ becomes His own interpreter —

Beauty of His example ..... 341

Simplicity and power of His teaching . . 342

Proves Himself the Divine Saviour . . . 343

The living Christ. The communion of the Holy

Spirit 343

4. The child and the Church 344

The Church a spiritual body. Youth no dis-
qualification for membership. Personal faith

necessary ........ 345

Reality of church-membership ; the positive value

of the Congregational principle . . . 346

The Church as " the household of faith " . . 347

as the training ground for service . 348

as the school of sacred learning . . 349

Conclusion 350

THE PULPIT AND THE PRESS

By J. Guinness Rogers, B.A., D.D.
Minister of the Congrci^ational CJiurcJi, Claphavi

The preacher the object of constant criticism
This inevitable from the nature of his claim

353
353

CONTENTS

XXV

Faithfulness to be maintained at the risk of unpopularity
Yet wise methods to be adopted for winning souls: "All things
to all men "......

His duty to use and improve all his talents .

But to guard against false estimates of success

Dangers of popularity and notoriety .
His only claim that of a " Servant of God " .

Contrast with the claims of other teachers .

Paul on Mars' Hill

His only power that of a Divine message

Preaching to his intellectual superiors

The "foolishness of the preaching" mighty
His great message already given to man

He has but to expound and enforce it

The spiritual " expert " . . . .
His task rather exhortation than instruction .

Difiference from preaching in early times .

Novelty of Paul's message ....

His reasonings and appeals a model .
Preaching and other callings ....

Professionalism and the world-spirit to be shunned

Wealth and fame best sought elsewhere

Disinterestedness demanded even by the worldly
The Apostle Paul the type of the true minister

His words disclose the man himself .

His passionate earnestness : Festiis .

His absolute sincerity

His independence of extrinsic qualification
Courage and independence in the pulpit

Criticisms and taunts ....

Temptations to the surrender of freedom
Loftiness of the preacher's ideal

He is no mere lecturer or student

Nor Church functionary or official
The Divine call

Signs of the call : the " heavenly vision"

An "ambassador for God" (Mr. Ruskin)

Different classes of ambassadors

Simply to obey God's commission

The message to be unfettered by human creeds
The Preacher and novelties of the day

Novelties in speculation

Novelties in method ....
Messenger, not representative
Functions of the press and the pulpit .

Their essential distinction .

Journalism : its special work

PAGB

354

355

356

357

358

359

360

361

362

363

364

365

367

368

369

370

371

m
374
375
376
376
376
376
m
378
379

XXVI

CONTENTS

The preacher in relation to public cjuestions
Mistaken parallel with the Jewish prophets
Unsuitable topics for the pulpit : disappointed hearers
The preacher's one mission : to lead souls to God

Influences of the day

Increase of knowledge unaccompanied by faith

Competition with literature

Sceptical fashions of the times .

The fiction of the day ....

Lawlessness, sensuality, disguised paganism
Preaching not a spent force ....
Shown by the eager appeal to ministers to
questions ......

The anti-Christian spirit of the times

The name of " Puritan " scorned
Greatness of the work, and assurance of final victory

take up public

PAGE
380

383
383
383
384
386

389
390

390
391
391
391

APPENDIX

THE WITNESS TO THE SPIRIT

By Henry Robert Reynolds, B.A., D.D.

Late Principal of Chcshunt College

Witness of "the Spirit and our spirits": Can these be dis-
tinguished .........

For some, the fact is sufficient, without further analysis
But thought leads to the fundamental idea of God as Spirit .

Analogue in our own nature

Testimony of Scripture : Spirit the great expression for the

Almighty

Father, Son, Lord, King : differentiations of this conception
" Father," the most comprehensive of these ....
Father and Son, an eternal relation

Infinite Subject and Object

The Spirit in the Cosmos : " God " and " Word" .

The Spirit the self-consciousness of God : the Father and the Son

The Spirit of God as set forth in the Old Testament .

His indwelling in the Universe

Preparations and presages of redeeming work .

God drawing near to man in manifold ways
The Incarnation, as wrought by the Spirit ....
Consciousness of the God-man, imaged in our own : Temples of
the Holy Spirit

The life of the Spirit in man

395
396
396
396

397
397
398
398
398
398
399
399
400
400
401
401

402
403

CONTENTS

xxvu

The double life within us .... .
Operations of the Spirit beneath our consciousness
Progressive unveilings : "Comings of the Lord"
Witness to the co-action of the Spirit with our spirits
Testimony of observation .....
Phenomena disclosing Divine will and purpose
In the workings of intellect .
In the achievements of genius
In the grace given to elect souls
All three are forms of revelation
Testimony of experience ; the inward witness
* * * *

PAGE

403
404
404
405
405
405
405
406
407

Index

409

CHRISTIAN THEISM

By T. VINCENT TYMMS

Christian Theism

Christian Theism differs fundamentally from all other
forms of Theistic Theory or Faith. It is not merely Theism
as interpreted by Christ's teachings ; nor is it Theism with
Christ added to the God whom non-Christians worship. It
is a faith which cherishes an idea of God to which not only
Christ's words but His personality have contributed elements
which in the estimation of Christian thinkers render Theism
more satisfying, both to the intellect and to the heart.

To many, Christianity appears to be, not an enrichment,
but a corruption of Theism. Modern Jews are inclined to
claim Christ as a national prophet, and some revere Him
as the crowning glory of Israel ; but they abhor His worship
as idolatry, and cleave to their own ancient religion as the
only historical exponent of Monotheism, and one which
they exult in as divinely predestined to be the conquering
creed of the world.

There are other Theists who reject Judaism as an his-
torical religion, because in their judgment its great truths
are mixed up with national prejudices and idle traditions
and myths ; but after eliminating these elements, they agree
with Jews in their belief in a personal God, and in their
refusal to regard Christ as more than a man of prophetic
genius, and the heroic founder of a sect which has chiefly
erred in exalting Him to a scat on the throne of God.

An adequate treatment of the theme thus presented

4 THE ANCIENT FAITH IN MODERN LIGHT

would involve a comparative study of all Theistic Theories,
but such a gigantic task immeasurably exceeds the compass
of an Essay, My less ambitious effort must be to exhibit
some of the more salient points of agreement and of differ-
ence between Old Testament and New Testament Theism ;
and to point out the higher beauty and reasonableness of
Christian Theism, and its greater credibility in the search-
ing light of modern philosophy.

I. In attempting this task it becomes necessary to state
what we understand to be the Old Testament idea of God.
At the outset a grave difficulty looms threateningly across
our path. We are assured with no small claims to authority
that the Old Testament contains no single and persistent
doctrine of God. Happily, however, we are not obliged to
discuss the question thus raised. It is one of extreme in-
terest, and deserves all the labour and time which modern
scholarship is expending upon it. The antiquity of ethical
Monotheism, and its true relation to the Henotheism and
Polytheism which undoubtedly prevailed among the Hebrew
people before their Eastern captivity, must be decided on
critical grounds ; but the decision has no effect on my
present purpose, which is, not to trace the history of ethical
Monotheism to its source, but to compare it in its highest
and purest form with Christianity, which I regard as its con-
summation and crown. Without prejudice, therefore, to any
critical opinions respecting the authorship, date, or inspiration
of our documentary sources, we may range over the whole
area of Hebrew literature, and, taking the highest thoughts
of God we can discover, may say, " Here is Hebrew Theism.
This is the religion which Christ found at His coming, and
on which He exerted so stupendous an influence, that He
turned it from a national cultus into a religion which has.

CHRISTIAN THEISM 5

its disciples in every race ; and has translated the oracles
of Israel into almost every language spoken among men." ^

2. The primary thought of Hebrew Theism is that God
is the sole author of the Cosmos ; and it is this which
constitutes it a true Monotheism. Henotheism permits the
worship of only one national God, but it does not deny
that there may be other gods to whom foreigners owe equal
fealty. It has not reached the conception of a cosmos or
universal order, and consequently does not gather up all
causality and authority into one sole God. By a severe, and
perhaps unwarranted, treatment of language, Henotheism
may be attributed to some of the writers of the Old Testa-
ment ; and without question multitudes of Israelites failed
to attain a broader faith ; while in the face of the clearest
teaching, multitudes sank into the meanest idolatry, and
deserved the scathing contempt of the prophets as wor-
shippers of many despicable deities. But for centuries before
the coming of Christ the conception of a divinely-ordered
cosmos was clearly a ruling idea among thinking Hebrews,
and it finds frequent and sublime expression in their writings.

Whatever its age, the opening chapter of Genesis ex-
hibits the logical basis of this Monotheism. " In the begin-
ning God made the heavens and the earth." Neither here nor
elsewhere is there any trace of a reasoned theory of Unity
such as we find in early Greek speculation. The writer has
not groped his way from the Many to the One ; and his
language is neither scientific nor philosophical. He gives
us a faith, not a theory ; nor an account of facts ascertained
by search and set in order by reflection on their significance.
His aim is distinctly theological and his style poetic. He
boldly describes the process of creation as one before whose
eyes the slow development of ages passed in vision. His
composition has the sublime simplicity of a mind which
beholds God's work with childlike wonder, rather than the
1 Cf. Note A, p. 58.

6 THE ANCIENT FAITH IN MODERN LIGHT

speculative audacity of a philosopher who presumes to ex-
plain the universe to his fellows. He writes for men and
women who have looked on the sun and moon and stars,
on the sea and on the dry land, and have marvelled at the
riches of life in air and earth and water ; who have also
looked within, and been awed by the mystery of conscious
being, each individual life gliding from an unremembered
source towards an unforeseen bourne, — a trembling traveller
on a road hidden before and behind by darkling mist.
Whence came I and my fathers ? Whence came this world
and all its marvels ? To these inquiries the answer of the
poetic seer is summed up in one word — " God."

This cosmogony is specially significant for the student
of Hebrew Theism, because of the place in nature to which
it assigns man, and the basis it provides for personal and
therefore ethical relations between God and man. It offers
no account of God's nature and attributes, but it represents
Him as a Person who first conceives an ideal Cosmos, and
then by an effortless volition calls its material counterpart
into existence. " God said," implies the existence of an
Eternal Mind which is not imprisoned in itself like the God
of Aristotle, but active because living, rich in thought
as the universe is rich in its realised expressions, and also
capable of effecting wise designs without work or handicraft,
but simply by the energy of will as betokened by the human
analogy of a spoken command. Everything which is ex-
panded in the beautiful poem in praise of " Wisdom " in
Prov. viii. lies implicitly in Gen. i., and the whole history of
ethical religion has a worthy basis in the declaration that
man was made in the " image " and " after the likeness " of
this personal God.

If we ask what the writer meant by these words " image "
and " likeness," it becomes clear that they are not intended
to convey the gross idea that God wears a shape of which
man's body is an imitation. The word " likeness " seems to

CHRISTIAN THEISM 7

have been added to obviate a materialistic interpretation of
" image " ; and the definition of man's business in life as the
acquisition of dominion over the earth, with all its living
occupants, makes it plain that intelligent lordship is the
chief point of resemblance between man and his Maker.

If this interpretation required support it might be found
in the following chapter, which contains a second account
of man's creation. This is commonly accepted as more
ancient, and more strongly anthropomorphic than the former ;
but while using vividly picturesque language, it draws a
marked distinction between the human body which was
formed of the dust, or material substance of the soil, and
the " life " breathed into it by God. Thus both narratives
represent man as in some unique sense a partaker of the
divine nature. He is a member of the physical cosmos,
and is of the earth earthy, and destined to return to the dust
whence he was taken and by whose products he is nourished ;
but he has also received an effluence from God, and is akin
to Him in a sense which is true of no other creature upon
the earth. Like God, he has a mind which can think, and
can express his thoughts in words and actions. He can
therefore hold intercourse with his Maker, if He will con-
descend to communicate with His offspring in ways adapted
to their faculties. He can converse with his fellows, thought
answering to thought ; and this converse in which he reveals
himself, and receives a revelation from others, indicates at
least the possibility of that rational intercourse with the
Creator which is the essential condition of religion as under-
stood by Christian Theism.

3. This brings before us a second but equally fundamental
characteristic of Hebrew Theism, viz., that it was essentially
anthropomorphic. It is a strange mistake to suppose that
this is a time-mark, peculiar to an early stage of religious
thought and literary expression. I have declined to discuss
the chronology of the Hebrew Scriptures ; but without break-

8 THE ANCIENT FAITH IN MODERN LIGHT

ing this self-imposed rule am free, and indeed obliged, to
offer one observation by way of calling attention to an indis-
putable truism. No analysis of documents and no theories
of compilation will avail to relieve late writers from the re-
proach of anthropomorphism at the expense of less cultured
predecessors. Criticism may, and no doubt does, discover
evidences of late editorial work, but it cannot reverse the
process and throw back a more modern author's faults on
an old-fashioned but long deceased reviser ! But those
vivid pictorial phrases which are found in the most antique
portions of Genesis may be matched, not only in the latest
canonical books of the Old Testament, but in those of a
much more recent date, e.g. " The Book of Wisdom," which
was written in Greek, and is one of the most philosophical
and Hellenised works produced by Hebrew thinkers before
the Christian era, and is held by some to be a product of
Alexandrian thought in the apostolic age. In this book,
written for men who were not unacquainted with the teach-
ings of Greek philosophy, we find again the oldest imagery,
and even a revival of what is called " the old mythological
conception of the world as the work of God's hands, and of
an arbitrary omnipotence," which was supposed to have
been " cut away at a blow " ^ several centuries before by the
author of Prov. viii. Thus we read, "Thy almighty hand,
that made the world of formless matter, lacked not means to
send among them a multitude of bears," etc. (xi. 17). " God
shall laugh them to scorn. . . . He shall rend them, and
cast them down headlong. . . . He shall shake them from
the foundation " (iv. 18, 19). "Thou canst show Thy great
strength at all times when Thou wilt ; and who may with-
stand the power of Thine arm ? . . . Thou canst do all
things, and winkest at the sins of men, that they may
repent" (xi. 21-23). These are but samples of a multi-
tude of passages which might be quoted, but they are
^ CheynQ, Job atid Solotnon, p. 161.

CHRISTIAN THEISM 9

sufficient to prove that neither the jealous care of Jewish
Tahnudists nor the searching discrimination of Christian
critics can relieve us of any difficulty, or deprive us of any
advantage which may spring from anthropomorphic termin-
ology as a characteristic of Hebrew Theism, not only in its
most primitive form, but in its most matured developments.^
Having thus assisted to fasten the reproach of anthro-
pomorphism upon Hebrew Theists, I hasten to affirm that
if this ponderous word can be justly esteemed a reproach,
it is one which has been incurred, not only by Judaism,
but by many distinguished philosophers. Thus Plato,
who is supposed to have been destitute of the modern
conception of personality, found himself compelled to
employ an anthropom.orphic vocabulary when describing
the emergence of the phenomenal universe from abstract
ideas. The Stoics used it freely in writing of the universal
Reason. Agnostic exponents of physical science are so
habituated to its use that even trees and climbing plants are
credited with purpose and method in their strife for survival,
while molecules, " Forces " and " Laws," appear as conscious
agents in the writings of materialistic evolutionists. Can
this be because, like Gen. i., these works have been con-
descendingly written " for an untutored age"? In view of
these literary phenomena we need not pity the ancient
believers in a " Living God," because their religious rever-
ence found no release from the inexorable law which makes
all language analogical; — and which even compels Euclid to
describe the ideal " points " and " lines " of pure mathematics
by terms which imply some occupancy of space ; terms which
have to be elaborately deprived of their common signifi-
cance by arbitrary definitions before they can be used in
elementary propositions. So obstinate, however, is the
"original sin" of human language, that these definitions
are violated in the printed figures which exhibit problems to
' .See Note B, p. 6i.

lO THE ANCIENT FAITH IN MODERN LIGHT

the eye, and in the demonstrations which discuss them as
forms which can be produced by the human hand ! ^

This defensive comparison is not intended to mask the
fact that anthropomorphic expressions in the Old Testa-
ment mean more than they do in many other cases. They
cannot be interpreted by mere freedom of expression ; but
evidently imply, and were intended to imply, that God
is a Person. Their authors speak of Him in terms derived
from man's knowledge of himself, because they believe that
man was made in His likeness. We have not the advantage
of being acquainted with any superhuman persons, or they
might supply us with more dignified forms of speech. Some
may think it wiser to speak of the Eternal Being in abstract
terms, and for safety may deal only in negations ; but
nothing impersonal can express personality, and thus anthro-
pomorphic language is the only form of speech in which
Theism can utter its thoughts.

It is important to remember that the feelings excited
by such language must necessarily differ according to the
estimate we have formed of man's origin, nature, and destiny.
If we dwell chiefly upon man's anatomical resemblance to
the lower animals, and ignore or deny those spiritual faculties
which distinguish him from anthropoid apes, we shall have a
very mean idea of God as a sort of anthropoid deity ; — a
being who stands about as much above us as our nearest
earthly kinsfolk stand, or once stood, below. But in propor-
tion as we recognise the true glory of man's self-conscious,
rational, and volitional nature, we shall feel that the highest,
and indeed only tolerable ideal of man's Creator and Lord,
is that of a being who is not less, but more than men ; and
therefore cannot lack those essential elements of personality
which give man his place of royalty in the universe.

When the anthropomorphic expressions of the Old
Testament have been duly analysed, they yield these essen-
^ See Note C, p. 6i.

CHRISTIAN THEISM I I

tial constituents of Personality. It is not suggested that
Hebrew Theists ever found or even sought for a philosophical
definition of Personality. Had they done this they would
have been in advance of the greatest thinkers of Greece, for
the problem which still occasions perplexity was scarcely
apprehended as a problem until forced upon attention by
controversy respecting the Person of Christ. But while, in
common with all ancient writers, they had no abstract
doctrine of Personality, whether human or div^ine, their
idea of God's nature though exceedingly simple, and held
without any consciousness of the metaphysical problems
involved, nevertheless answered to the most satisfactory
modern idea of Personality. Throughout the Old Testa-
ment it is assumed, as in Gen. i., that God is a self-conscious
Being : that He possesses what we call Thought to designate
the essential faculty of Mind ; that He knows Himself and
views His creation as other than Himself; that, like men. He
has feelings, — likes and dislikes, with power of choice
among objects ; and will or self-determination, which may
be influenced by external objects and occurrences, but is not
controlled by them, nor even by subjective desires. It is
assumed that God thus possesses that spontaneity which
enables Him to move without being moved, and so to
become the only conceivable First Cause of the Cosmos. It
is always assumed also that God is like man in this: that
He distinguishes between right and wrong in the relations
of rational beings ; and that He rules His own actions in
accordance with those eternal principles which human
science may or may not discover or verify, but which arc
as necessary and unalterable as the truths of mathematics
in another sphere.

In strict accordance with these fundamental and per-
sistent assumptions, God is always regarded in the Old
Testament as holding the most varied and ceaseless rela-
tions with men. Modern Judaism in its most cultured

12 THE ANCIENT FAITH IN MODERN LIGHT

type is rather a philosophy than a faith, and probably
owes more to Spinoza than to the prophets ; but the
Hebrew Theism we are dealing with never evaporated into
a pantheistic mist, and never congealed into an icy Deism
which hides God in an abyss beneath a mechanical universe
in which He has no part. For the prophets and their dis-
ciples He was not merely the First Cause, but the perpetual
upholder and governor of nature, and above all the interested
Friend and Master of man. To them He was never a
passionless spectator of the human tragedy, but always an
ardent sympathiser with men of good intent, a succourer of
all who served Him, and a Hearer of all suppliant souls.
They called Him by many names which described His
various relations. He was The Strong One, The Righteous
One; He was King, Lawgiver, Judge, Saviour, Kinsman,
Father, and Friend, He was a Potter fashioning men and
nations, while leaving them free to sin, free to repent, and
free even to defy. He was the Shepherd, the Vineyard
Keeper. He was everything that man could need, every-
thing and more than all that man could think of as
desirable and good. Always active in thought and work
among the striving peoples, always aiming at a final good
for the world, always faithful, compassionate, and merciful ;
yet always changeless in His hatred of falsity, cruelty,
oppression, and lustfulness in men.

Of all the relations with the Cosmos thus lightly sketched,
the ethical were the most supremely important ; but before
speaking of these it may be well to emphasise three other
characteristics of Hebrew Theism which affect the mode in
which these relations were held to be maintained.

However paradoxical it may appear to some minds, it is
certainly a fact that although God was worshipped as a
Personal Being in closest intercourse with men. He was

CHRISTIAN THEISM

quite as positively regarded as Invisible, i.e. without a shape
discernible by the senses, and Inscrutable, i.e. unsearchable
by the human intellect.

Opinions may differ as to the antiquity of either or both
of these beliefs, but no one questions that they were held
and guarded with extreme jealousy for many generations
before the Christian era. Whether such views can or cannot
be reasonably reconciled with a belief in Revelation and
Inspiration, the fact remains that they were firmly held
together. The vacant Holy of Holies, in which no figurative
emblem of God was hidden behind the shrouding veil, was
a symbol to the later Jews, if not to their remote ancestors,
of God's invisible presence in the Cosmos ; yet it was also a
symbol of the truth that He could commune with men.
Man was unable by searching to find out God as he might
find hidden treasure ; nor could he ascend to the " secret
of the Lord " by an effort of speculative thought. Yet God
had revealed Himself to men. He was the Inscrutable but
not the Unknowable; He was the Invisible but not the
absent, or the absolute God of dialectics.

4. In close connection with this idea of God as Invisible
and Inscrutable, yet in close relations with man, we find
a most striking characteristic of Hebrew Theism in the
doctrine of Angelic Representation.

The Old Testament contains no explanatory account
of mediating messengers between heaven and earth ; but
it speaks familiarly of their existence, and assumes the
prevalence of belief in their activity. They appear in
many narratives as rational beings, with intellectual
faculties similar to man's, capable of appearing in a man-
like form, and of speaking to men in their own language.
Their office is described in their generic name, which
signifies a messenger, and they move in space unimpeded
by gross material bodies. Modern science has no negative

14 THE ANCIENT FAITH IN MODERN LIGHT

to pronounce against the possibility or probability of their
existence as travelling servants of Omnipotence. A dis-
tinguished savant has argued with much force that their
hypothetical acceptance would fill a great gap in his
scientific theory of the universe. Even the doctrine of
evolution favours the probability that such beings will
hereafter be evolved, if they have not already been pro-
duced. I am not anxious, however, to vindicate the Hebrew
belief, and only wish at present to note its theological
significance, as offering a partial explanation of divine
revelation to men ; and even this I refer to mainly in order
to point out how very partial is the explanation it supplies.

Closely examined, the so-called Theophanies of the Old
Testament seem reducible to divine appearances only in
a representative sense. E.g. one of Abraham's three
mysterious visitants is spoken of in the same narrative as
a man and as an angel, and yet again is identified with
God, and speaks with divine authority to the patriarch.^
These are either absurd discrepancies which stamp the
author as below the intellectual level of an Arabian story-
teller, or they prove that the narrator meant to indicate an
angelic being who at least for the occasion wore a manlike
form, and who spoke with authority as the plenipotentiary
of God. This was the interpretation adopted by all those
among the later Rabbins who did not, like Philo, refine the
historical narrative into an allegory. Their elaborated
angelology was puerile and preposterous ; but they were
acute critics, and were not without scriptural data for
their belief that there is one highest creature, fitly called
" the Angel of the Face," because allowed an altogether
unique privilege of access to God's presence. They also
held that this representative was always present as an inter-
mediary whenever God was said to have appeared to men.

The most significant passages in support of this view
^ Gen. xviii. 2, 16, 23, 26, xix. i, 29.

CHRISTIAN THEISM I5

occur in what are supposed to be among the most ancient
portions of the Hexateuch. In Ex. xxiii. 20, God is intro-
duced as speaking thus to Moses : " Behold, I send an Angel
before thee to keep thee by the way, and to bring thee into
the place which I have prepared. Take ye heed of him,
and hearken unto his voice, provoke him not ; for he will
not pardon your transgression : for My name is in him." In
Ex. xxxiii. 12-23, where God is said to be speaking with
him " as a man speaketh unto his friend," Moses pleads that
he is still ignorant of God's " ways," and therefore does not
know Him. Hence he entreats that God will reveal Himself
more perfectly. Thus in the midst of a supposed " Theo-
phany" the human servant cries out for a still unattained
vision of God, exclaiming, " I beseech Thee, show me Thy
glory." In response, the Invisible One declares, " Thou
canst not see My face : for there shall no man see Me and
live " ; but He makes this promise, " I will make all My
goodness pass before thee, and I will proclaim the name
of the Lord before thee." I shall have occasion hereafter
to call attention to the deeper theological teaching which
ensues as the fulfilment of this promise, but wish to call
attention here to the fact that an angelic representative is
so identified with God, that the power to deal with human
transgression is imputed to him, and his attendance upon
Israel is treated as equivalent to the divine presence. The
denial that God can be seen is ^vX into the lips of one
who was " face to face " with Moses ; and the voice which
promises to declare, and subsequently does declare, the name
of the Lord, is therefore evidently the voice of the being
in whom God's name is affirmed to be resident. Thus the
Theophany is entirely representative ; and, apart from its
declaration of God's ethical nature, the deepest thought of
the narrative, even if we regard it as mythological poetry,
or the account of some entranced seer's vision, is that God
can only be revealed to men by some chosen finite agent.

1 6 THE ANCIENT FAITH IN MODERN LIGHT

The doctrine of angels thus illustrated, relieved the
Hebrews who accepted it of a great difficulty by estab-
lishing a living channel of communication between man
and the unseen world ; but obviously it only removed the
mystery of God's primary revelation of Himself to an
invisible region, and left the higher philosophical problem
untouched. Manifestly the most exalted angel could only
receive by revelation that knowledge of God's nature which
qualified him to act and speak in His name. He might
excel man in enlightenment as the sun excels a taper, but
he could have no light until illumined from the eternal
source of light in the divine self-knowledge. How, then,
did revelation pass from the Divine Sender to the angelic
messenger? Here Hebrew Theism was confronted with a
problem which it was powerless to solve. Even a human
mind cannot be searched by another mind similar to itself.
Every self-conscious thinker, though he be but a child, is
utterly unknowable until he gives expression to his thoughts.
The revelation of an unseen mind is, indeed, a fact of hourly
experience, and familiarity conceals its mysteriousness from
multitudes ; but as soon as we begin to reflect upon the
human analogy, we are compelled to acknowledge that
neither man nor angel could " know the things of God "
unless it pleased God to reveal His invisible thought by
presenting some intelligible signs which correspond to
human speech. Thus Hebrew Theism in its highest de-
velopments left a great gulf between God and man. It
affirmed God as an Eternal and Invisible Person, the Author
and Active Ruler of the Cosmos. It affirmed the fact of
revelation. It described God as speaking, and assigned to
His word creative energy. It affirmed that wisdom came
forth out of His mouth, and reached men as rivers of
instruction in law and prophecy ; it held that God was
revealed representatively by messengers from heaven ; but
how the things of God's self-knowledge were, or conceiv-

CHRISTIAN THEISM I 7

ably could be, first transmitted to a made and finite mind,
Hebrew Theism either feared to ask or totally failed to answer.

5. In close connection with this problem, but without
pretension to be esteemed its solution, we find another
characteristic of Hebrew Theism in its doctrine of the Spirit
of God. The name was derived from the wind, or breath,
which mysteriously blows from an unseen source in the
heavens, and is essential to the life of plants and animals,
including man. It is not easy to define what was meant by
this expression. The Cosmogonist of Gen. i. speaks of this
wind or spirit as brooding upon the face of the waters,
and apparently intends to suggest that this "brooding"
originated the order and life which followed. The author

of Gen. ii., though using another word, speaks of God as
breathing into man's nostrils as a means of imparting a
human soul to a body already created from the dust. Some-
times this Spirit appears to be an impartation of energy which
increases a man's active powers, but has no moral or intel-
lectual effect. Sometimes it seems to be a poetic name for
a reviving, refreshing, or sustaining influence which can be
poured out like rain upon the parched earth ; sometimes it
comforts, sometimes it troubles ; but in either case it stimu-
lates the emotional nature as a penalty or as a boon.
Sometimes it exalts the intellectual powers, and lifts men
above their normal level of thought and utterance ; freeing
them from material restrictions, and enabling them to hold
fellowship with angelic guests, and to receive communica-
tions, reaching them through various media, from above.

But the highest form in which the Spirit of God appears
in the Old Testament is that in which personality is attri-
buted ; and this personality is distinctly regarded as the
actual and active presence of God. As compared with
accounts of external and representative manifestations,
many allusions to the Spirit exhibit a belief that Invisibility

1 8 THE ANCIENT FAITH IN MODERN LIGHT

does not mean absence, nor Inscrutability imply human
nescience. God was thought of as one who revealed
Himself occasionally by representatives, and commonly
by objective symbols of thought, in nature, in the law
and by the prophets, but as always nigh at hand, and
always acquainted with the secret thoughts of men. He
was thought of as specially approachable in the Temple at
appointed seasons, and for sacrificial worship ; but as always
and everywhere near to lowly and contrite hearts, and closer
than any outward form to such as thirsted for His presence.
His Spirit could never be escaped by guilty fugitives whom
it saw and judged, and awaited in the uttermost parts of the
earth, and even in the grave. As a friendly helper, guide,
and inspiring guest this Spirit might be given or withdrawn
at will ; but withdrawal never meant absence, but only a
penal deprivation of inward comfort and sanctifying aid ;
and giving meant God's own bestowment of His favour and
love. In all cases the Spirit of the Lord appears in the Old
Testament as either God's invisible energy or as the invisible
God acting to create ; to impart life ; to sustain and enrich
the life already given. It is specially spoken of as given to
strengthen and quicken man in body, soul, or spirit ; to exalt
the mental faculties so that men are enabled to see and
understand what must otherwise remain unknown ; to impel
and enable utterance and action in a fashion otherwise im-
possible : but it never appears to do away with the necessity
for the objective presentation of truth.

6. We come now to that characteristic of Hebrew Theism
which is its unique and crowning glory as an ancient faith,
namely, that it is essentially ethical in its idea of God and
His relations with man.

Ethical Monotheism has its necessary basis in the doctrine
of man's creation in God's likeness. The relation thus set
up necessarily yields the idea of moral obligation. Given

CHRISTIAN THEISM 1 9

two persons similar to ourselves in powers of thought, desire,
choice, and volition, and the necessity for the golden rule
is given also. We are so constituted that we cannot even
think of the Creator without forming some opinion of what
He ought to do and ought not to do. These opinions may-
vary, and may often be absurd and profane, but the Old
Testament recognises that their existence is inevitable in
rational beings. God is commonly represented by the pro-
phets as making His appeal to them, and as stooping to
reason with men as One who desires to be rightly judged
and understood. The chief motive and spring of divine
revelation is constantly set before us as the yearning of a
righteous God to be truly known, and therefore trusted and
obeyed by His people.

Perhaps the richest and most fundamental passage in
the Old Testament as an expression of ethical Monotheism,
is the declaration of God's name in Ex. xxxiv. in re-
sponse to the prayer of Moses, which has already been
noticed. Whatever the age of its present literary form, and
it is certainly ancient, its content is a thought of God which
underlies and unifies the whole Scriptures. I have no wish
to emphasise or to divert attention from the supernatural
elements of the narrative in which this proclamation of God's
nature occurs ; but I would earnestly submit to any readers
who may find these elements a stumbling-block, and are
tempted to withhold their serious attention on this account,
that no theory of interpretation should be allowed to obscure
the grandeur of the theology itself. Some will read the
narrative without misgiving as the unadorned history of
a miraculous event in which physical phenomena were
witnessed by human eyes ; others may read it as a poetic
myth designed to arrest attention, and enchain the admiring
interest of multitudes, while preserving a sublime truth in a
form of beauty which the world would not willingly let die.
In any case the doctrine is the same. The glory of the Lord

20 THE ANCIENT FAITH IN MODERN LIGHT

is not material splendour, but moral excellence. The answer
to Moses' prayer was not a blinding fire mist, not a storm
cloud sweeping past his craggy shelter, but a declared char-
acter, and in particular the character of God as He stands
related to erring and sinful men.

We are frequently assured that the God of the Old
Testament is a harsh and vindictive being, quite unlike the
Father whose name was declared by Christ. He is painted
for us as the author of a lex talionis which fittingly repre-
sents His own vengeful justice as the punisher of sin. But
here God is said to have revealed Himself to Moses as One
whose essential nature is not austerity but graciousness, not
implacability but mercifulness. As clearly as words can
speak the Lord proclaims Himself the friend of sinners ; and
to paraphrase John's words respecting Christ we may almost
say, " And Moses beheld His glory, the glory of a Father,
full of grace and truth."

It is significant that in Num. xiv. Moses pleads that
mercy may be shown to the people on the ground of the
glorious name thus proclaimed. He sees (or the author of
the passage sees) that forgiveness is greater than implac-
ability; and therefore appeals to the divine magnanimity,
and deprecates its failure under provocation. " Let the
power of the Lord be great, according as Thou has spoken,
saying, ' The Lord is slow to anger, and plenteous in mercy,
forgiving iniquity and transgression, and that will by no
means clear the guilty.' . . . Pardon, I pray Thee, the iniquity
of this people according unto the greatness of Thy mercy,
and according as Thou hast forgiven this people from Egypt
until now." This prayer for mercy, in the faith that it is
God's eternal nature and glory to forgive, is the keynote to
all the sweetest songs of Israel. Throughout the Psalms
and Prophets pardon is sued for, and every kind of blessing
besought for God's name sake. There is not a single
instance of prayer for mercy based on any trust in the

CHRISTIAN THEISM 2 1

efficacy of sacrifice to take away sin, while the futility and
offensiveness of sacrifice when offered as a substitute for
mercy or justice is indignantly declared.^ These expressions
are in profound harmony with the letter and spirit of the
ceremonial institutes.^ The ritual law gave no encourage-
ment to any belief that sin-offerings were available for
deliberate transgression. Such offerings were enjoined,
and had a definite educational value ; but their scojDe was
strictly limited, and for wilful offences were as sternly for-
bidden by the Priestly Code as they were indignantly
denounced by the psalmists and prophets. The " Old
Covenant" savours throughout of inexorable demand, and
no more provides forgiveness for its own breach, than the
English criminal law contains assurances of mercy. But it
is a grave, though common, mistake to imagine that this is
incompatible with a belief that there is mercy in God. The
function of law is to obtain obedience and to punish rebellion ;
but the administration of mercy by the Supreme Lawgiver
is not relinquished or impeded by the fact that the terms
of its bestowal are not formulated in statutes. Remission
remains within His authority, and is conditioned only by
regard for the sanctity of those objects which laws are
enacted to protect. Hence in the highest and holiest minds
among the Hebrews, as expressed in Ps, cxix., veneration
for divine law blended with faith in divine mercy. The
consciousness of legal guilt was intensified, while at the
same time it was deprived of its natural power to crush
the sinner into a demoralising state of despair, by a faith,
which was often a saving faith, in the divine graciousncss
and mercy as revealed by the Name in which generations
had trusted.

^ Cf. I Sam. XV. 22 ; Ps. li. 16, 17 ; Hos. vi. 6.

* That the same fundamental principle runs through codes of different
dates is evident. Cf. Lev. xx. 10 ; Num. xv. 27-30, xxxv. 30, 34 ; Deut.
>vii. 2-13, xxii. 22-25.

2 2 THE ANCIENT FAITH IN MODERN LIGHT

The ethical conception of God which thus emerges into
view becomes clearer when we consider the relation of the
Divine Name to the laws with which it stands connected,
not only in a particular section of Exodus, but in the entire
Hexateuch as it existed in pre-Christian times. The funda-
mental demand of the Decalogue is love. " Thou shalt love "
is the universal ordinance, and all the rest is explanation or
application to the various relations of life. " Thou shalt
love the Lord thy God " comes first, and then follows, " Thou
shalt love thy neighbour." What, then, are the legitimate
deductions which may be drawn from these precepts respect-
ing the character of the God to whom they are attributed ?
Clearly that He Himself is lovable, and that He loves men.
Whether we criticise the admonitions as divine, or as human
compositions, devoid of any supernatural authority, they
assuredly disclose the writer's idea of God. No man who
regarded Him as a stern and remorseless despot, would
have conceived the preposterous notion of ascribing to His
heart a thirst for man's affection, or a considerate insistence
on love as due to all His creatures from each other.

If we pass on to examine the remainder of the Decalogue,
and even the multifarious statutes which touch the details of
social commerce, the same deduction may be drawn. Even
the severest sanctions and the much abused lex talionis ex-
hibit an inexorable abhorrence of cruelty and of selfishness
in every form. They teach that God will not smile upon
any act by which one man hurts another. God will watch
over the rights of the humblest bondman, and will judge the
harsh master, the unjust ruler, the unfair trader, the injurious
person of every station and degree. Every victim of wrong
was thus taught to believe that he had a friend and
champion in God. Every high-handed criminal was taught
that he had ultimately to reckon with God, and must
account to Him for his offences. Yet still the name of God
remained the hope of the penitent and contrite heart.

CHRISTIAN THEISM 23

The Hebrew idea of God shines out with pecuHar beauty
in a large class of admonitions which no human law could
enforce, because demanding justice, kindness, and mercy in
multifarious details of conduct which no finite mind could
judge. After many of these ethical but extra-legal injunc-
tions there is written, with sublime faith in Him who
ponders the heart, " Thou shalt fear the Lord thy God." ^
The quiet reserve which delivers no threat where it cannot
enact a penalty, yet holds up God before the man who fails
to love his brother, reveals an ethical conception of God
which harmonises with the Sermon on the Mount, and with
Christ's vivid parable of judgment between the sheep and
the goats. It recognises the superficiality of all statute law
as clearly as Paul discerned it, and unmistakably declares
that God will be satisfied with nothing less than the
genuine, heartfelt, handwrought love which the Decalogue
solemnly requires.

The limits assigned to this Essay preclude even a
brief review of the meeting between Jew and Greek,
and their reciprocal influence on each other, nor will
they permit a complete examination of the way in which
Hebrew Theism is reproduced and consummated in the
New Testament. I shall therefore deal only with those
characteristics of Christianity which are denounced by Jews
as corruptions, or are attacked by anti-Theistic writers
as incredible. In pursuance of this purpose I shall have to
speak — I. Of the Unity of God (a) as a doctrine to which
Christianity is pledged, and by which all its tenets must
consent to be judged ; {d) as a doctrine which is declared
by many anti-Theistic writers to be philosophically unthink-
able. 2. The Invisibility and Inscrutability of God in rela-
tion to various theories of manifestation. 3. The Christian
J Cf. Lev. xix. 13, 14, 3-) ''>^^'- 17, 35-38, 43.

24 THE ANCIENT FAITH IN MODERN LIGHT

view of God's manifestation as an elucidation of the problem
of Unity. 4. The Ethical conception of God as interpreted
by the New Testament doctrine of Salvation.

I. Christian Theism, as formulated by some ecclesiastical
creeds, is thought by many critics, both inside and outside
the Church, to be utterly incompatible with faith in the Unity
of God. I am not careful to discuss the justice of this
opinion. It may be true that some documents which were
framed as rigidly as possible to exclude Arians and Sabel-
lians from the ancient Church, are incurably Tritheistic in
their only intelligible meaning ; but assuredly their authors
never intended to affirm a plurality of Gods ; nor can any
individual teacher of acknowledged position, or any Church
which now retains these creeds as symbols of the true faith,
be charged with consciously defending them as Tritheistic.
It is neither my business nor my ambition to defend or attack
these formulae. They may conceivably, though it requires a
large imagination, be reconcilable with the doctrines of the
New Testament and with the religious beliefs of their own
authors. To me, however, their interest is chiefly historical.
Christian Theism has no authoritative exposition outside the
original documents which have come down to us from the
Founders of the Church, and I shall be content to insist that
the authors of the New Testament as reporters and exponents
of Christ's doctrine emphatically teach the Unity of God.

No statements could be stronger or less ambiguous than
those of the New Testament on this subject, e.g. it is
recorded that on one occasion Christ quoted, with entire
approval, the ancient words, " Hear, O Israel ! the Lord our
God is one Lord " (Mark xii. 29-32). At another time He
said, " Call no man your father on the earth : for one is your
Father, which is in heaven " (Matt, xxiii. 9). Similarly,
John writes, " And this is life eternal, that they might know
Thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom Thou hast
sent " (John xvii. 3). Paul frequently reiterates the same

CHRISTIAN THEISM 25

truth. " But to US there is but one God, the Father, of whom
are all things, and we in Him ; and one Lord Jesus Christ,
by whom are all things, and we by Him"(i Cor. viii. 6).
" Now, a Mediator is not a mediator of One ; but God is
One" (Gal. iii. 20). "One God and Father of all, who is
above all, and through all, and in you all " (Fph. iv. 6). " For
there is one God, and one Mediator between God and men,
the man Christ Jesus" (i Tim. ii. 5). James is equally
explicit, " Thou believest that there is one God ; thou doest
well" (Jas. ii. 19). These are not exceptional passages, but,
in short, pithy phrases, they sum up the truth which per-
meates the New Testament from end to end.

There is no uncertainty in these clarion notes. It may
be urged that other doctrines of the New Testament are at
variance with them, and such a plea deserves examination.
But the doctrine of Divine Unity is so clearly stated, and is
so strongly confirmed by reason and by the intuitions of the
heart, which cannot divide its worship of the Highest, that
nothing which conflicts with this fundamental idea can have
any claim to be respected. It is impossible to put back the
human mind behind the hard-won victories of Hebrew faith
and Greek philosophy, which, from their remote and inde-
pendent positions, witness to mankind that we liv'e in a
Cosmos, and not in the midst of a chaotic concourse of
fragments, or under a divided and uncertain rule. There
is either One God or there is No God. This is the ulti-
matum which philosophy and theology are with one accord
presenting to the nations which still worship many gods ;
and the last great fight between faith and unbelief is being
simplified to this one issue.

It will not be necessary to insist upon the fact that the
New Testament agrees with the Old in representing God as
a Person, and that, yielding to the inexorable necessities of
human language and thought, it speaks of Mim in anthropo-

26 THE ANCIENT FAITH IN MODERN LIGHT

morphic terms. It is only necessary to refer to this obvious
truth, because we have now to deal with a difficulty which
arises from the combination of the doctrine of the Divine
Personality with that of Unity. Probably the most serious
objection which Theists have ever had to face is that which
affirms that the existence of a Sole Eternal Person is
inconceivable. Many earnest thinkers when perplexed by
the mysteries of Trinitarianism are inclined to flee into what
is inconveniently called Unitarianism as a haven of intel-
lectual simplicity and rest. In reality it is neither a simple
nor a restful position, and is assailed by Pantheists and
Agnostics with immense force.

Mr. Herbert Spencer is so absolutely certain that in all
consciousness of self, a not-self, or an other-than-self is given,
that in discussing the necessary but unknowable source of all
things he ceases to be an Agnostic, at least to this extent,
that he knows that whatever else it is, it cannot be a
conscious person. He tells us that consciousness is "con-
stituted of ideas and feelings caused by objects and
occurrences,"^ and therefore there cannot be an Eternal
Being who is both subject and object to Himself. I have
criticised this sentence elsewhere as an altogether one-
sided statement,^ but it is none the less cogent as a positive
assertion of the truth that a subject mind cannot exist
without an object, because it fails to affirm what is equally
true, namely, that an object cannot exist without a subject,
and that the two are correlative terms.

Pantheism presses the same difficulty against all
believers in a personal God, and to this extent agrees
with Mr. Spencer that such a Being cannot be the First
and Sole Cause of the now existent universe, because
without an objective world He could have no conscious-
ness. Pantheism affirms in various forms that God is the

^ Nineteenth Century, Jan. 1884.
2 The Mystery of God., p. 70.

CHRISTIAN THEISM

eternal and infinite substance beside which, or as it fanci-
fully says, " beside Whom," there is and can be none else ;
and it denies consciousness to the All, as the Infinite One,
because the whole of all that is cannot leave room for an
object to itself, and cannot be an object to an outside
or transcendent mind, seeing that by definition such a
mind cannot exist outside the All.

In some of its less extreme forms Pantheism affirms
that God becomes conscious in man or in similar beings,
because the Infinite One is also the manifold, and so within
the Eternal Unity there is the ceaseless play of subject and
object. According to this view consciousness belongs to
God only as He issues forth into finite and changing forms
of self-manifestation, i.e. His own finite parts discern their
self-existence as distinct from other parts ; but can never
be viewed as objects by the great All, because in that All
they are themselves included. Pantheism therefore bears
powerful witness to a philosophic principle which, if valid,
appears to be fatal to every non-Christian form of Theism,
namely, that the Personality of the One God can only
be conceived of as possible by virtue of an internal variety
in His own Being, some play of inward relationships in His
own nature. Unless Theists can meet the demands of this
principle without lapsing into Pantheism, they can only
retain their faith as an unreasoned conviction, and can never
hope to give it a philosophical interpretation.

Three questions are likely to arise in the minds of cul-
tured men who have not read widely on this particular subject.
I. Do Theists admit the force of the difficulty thus urged
by Agnostics and Pantheists? 2. Has any non-Christian
Theist successfully grappled with it ? 3. P^ailing this, does
Christian Theism possess a unique solution of the problem ?

In replying to these questions I cannot do better than
take Dr. Martineau as the most distinguished and capable
writer who has discussed the problem from a Thcistic

28 THE ANCIENT FAITH IN MODERN LIGHT

standpoint, which excludes any assistance which the Logos
doctrine of John may be able to afford. The Christian
Theism which incorporates this doctrine stands apart from
any other faith or theory, and as Dr. Martineau rejects it, he
properly represents what for the purposes of this discussion
must be called non-Christian systems of Theism. By placing
him in this position I am not denying him the name Chris-
tian in any sense in which he would accept its application.

That Dr. Martineau admits the gravity of the difficulty
under review is well known to readers of his works, and will
be made evident here by adequate quotations. His Study
of Religion contains lucid and beautiful discussions of many
Theistic problems, but it lamentably fails to discover an
" other-than-self " for God, while admitting with Mr. Spencer
and all Pantheists that without such an object a Divine
Subject cannot conceivably exist. In his later work on the
Seat of AutJwrity in Religion^ this failure is tacitly confessed
by the making of a new attempt in which additional
elements are introduced. The nature of the problem is
thus stated : " The moment we conceive of mind at all, or
any operation of mind, we must concurrently conceive of
something other than it as engaging its activity. . . . God
therefore cannot stand for us as the sole and exhaustive
term in the realm of uncreated being: as early and as long
as He is, must also be somewhat objective to Him."^
Hence he sets out anew in search of an eternal " other-
than-self" for God, and the penalty of failure is either to
find faith in God evaporating into Pantheism, or dying out
into an Agnosticism which at least knows this — that the
First Cause of the Cosmos is impersonal.

As a fundamental basis for such an " other-than-self,"

Dr. Martineau postulates the existence of matter as a

solid substance which occupies space, "as the rudimentary

object for the intellectual and dynamic action of the

^ Scat of Authority in Religion, p. 32.

CHRISTIAN THEISM 29

Supreme Subject." He speaks in a singularly hesitant
way about this datm/t, and is well aware that many will
refuse the concession ; but finally he grasps it as a neces-
sary factor, and proceeds to build his theory on this eternal
rock, which may or may not be solid in reality, but must be
solid for his theory. But when we have granted this
hypothetical but not unreasonable datuni^ we are frankly
told that it is not a sufficient objective, because it gives
"no scope for the alternatives of will or the exercise of
creative reason." In beautiful language we are led through
various stages of creative activity whereby God puts His
power into matter and produces inorganic and organic forms,
and at length living creatures. These created objects are
declared to have always been in existence, partly because
creation in time is unthinkable, partly because, if temporal
creation were admitted, this would leave God without an
object prior to the first creative act. Hence the " Solitary
God inhabiting eternity," who used to figure largely in some
.systems of theology, has been renounced as an impossible
being. The eternal creation of an infinite series of temporal
things must therefore be conceded. Such a datum is large
and involves peculiar difficulties, but it is confessedly still
too small. " The power thus lodged " in things made " still
remains in one sense subjective to God," i.e. such an eternal
creation is little if anything more than our old acquaintance
the Stoic's Cosmos, which is the vesture of one universal
intelligence, and all its movements are the activities of this
immanent soul. Dr. Martineau is quite aware of this, and
again declares that it is only when " we emerge into the
conscious ego of intellectual existence, which finally sets up
another person," that we find an objective to God which
does not identify " all power with His will. . . . The
full security against the dissolving mists of Pantheism
is first obtained when we .... stand in the presence of
the supernatural in man, to whom an alternative is given,

30 THE ANCIENT FAITH IN MODERN LIGHT

and in whom is a real mind or miniature of God, consciously
acting from a selected end in view. Here it is that we first
learn the solemn difference between what is and what might
be ; and carrying the lesson abroad, discover how faint a
symbol is visible nature of its ideal essence and Divine
Cause. . . . The outward world is not God's characteristic
sphere of self-expression. . . . The silence is first broken,
the self-expression comes forth in the moral phenomena
of our life." ^

Passing over much which invites attention in the inter-
mediate stages of this New Genesis, let us fix our attention
on the " other - than - self" which is provided in manlike
beings, assumed to be eternally created, and so truly in the
likeness of God as to be described as His " miniatures."

With sincere regret I am compelled to point out that
Dr. Martineau has not arranged for the creation of these
" miniatures." They are presented as the culminating
triumphs of an ascending scale of created works ; yet
without their existence God could not have produced the
lowest effect on matter, seeing by hypothesis He can only
be a Person, because other persons live to give scope for the
play of His faculties. Eternal creation is postulated, but
this convenient phrase must not conceal from us the obvious
truth, that God can no more be thought of as producing
the conditions of His own Personality eternally than at a
point in time. If these miniatures eternally exist, it must
be either because God contains in Himself the independent
power to produce them, or because, like matter, they
eternally coexist with God, and are not caused by Him,
but are themselves multitudinous causes of movement in the
Cosmos. On this point I must quote against the author an
apparently forgotten dictum of his earlier book : " I think of
a Cause as needing something else in order to work, z.e. some
condition present with it. . . . If there be a condition requis-
^ Sea^ of Authority in Religion^ pp. 35, 36.

CHRISTIAN THEISM 3I

ite for the Divine Cause, it must from the nature of the case
be already there, i.e. be self-existent with Him."^ This
sentence was written when Dr. Martineau was contemplat-
ing " matter " and " space " as the only discoverable data for
choice, but it is quite as axiomatic if for matter we substitute
" manlike" persons. If they are the necessary conditions of
God's Personality, they must "be self-existent with Ilim,"
and He is no more their Creator than they collectively are
His. It thus appears that Dr. Martineau is impaled on the
horns of a dilemma, either of which is fatal to his theory.
If God actually created all finite persons, it must be con-
ceded that some uncreated " other-than-self" existed with
God, or within God's personal fulness of being, as the indis-
pensable condition of His own causality. If, on the other
hand, God did not create all finite persons. He is not the
First Cause of the universe, and Theism disappears. Where
Dr. Martineau has thus failed it is unlikely that any living
or coming philosopher will succeed. He has failed where
Plato and Aristotle and Zeno failed, and where all the
trained hosts of metaphysicians have failed for centuries.
He has had the vain attempts of the past before him, and,
confessing their failure, has laboured hard and skilfully to
supply what was lacking in them, and to avoid their defects,
while still persistently refusing to acknowledge the value
even to philosophy of that Eternal Self-expression which the
inspired fisherman of Galilee described as the Word. The
outcome of his labour is that he has virtually demonstrated
the impossibility of the Unitarian position. His arguments
to show that the First Cause must be One and Personal are
admirable ; but his attempt to render such a Being conceiv-
able breaks down. Hence it is not unreasonable to affirm,
that if God is to be revered by philosophic minds as the
Creator of the Cosmos and of man ; if we are not to reel
back into the insensate folly of a materialistic evolution
^ Study of Religion^ vol. i. p. 381, 2nd cd.

32 THE ANCIENT FAITH IN MODERN LIGHT

which could not start itself, and has no starter ; or if in
flying from this ghastly absurdity we are not to deceive our
religious yearnings by using the word God as an ideal name
for a godless universe, — we must discover some adequate
Objective or Divine Self-expression, which so enriches our
conception of the Divine Personality, that we can think of
God as containing in Himself all the conditions of self-
conscious and spontaneous volitional energy of life.

Before advancing to another stage of this discussion, it
may be well to register certain remarkable features of Dr.
Martineau's theory, (i) The very existence of a personal
God is staked upon a theory of matter which the author
regards as uncertain, and which in his Study of Religion
he felt obliged to relinquish as useless. Were this scientific
hypothesis, to which he resorts despairingly in his later work,
disproved, his theology would have to be shifted to a new
foundation, or perish. (2) The existence of a personal God
is furthermore staked on the eternal existence of some " Self-
expression " which is only discoverable in man or some
manlike creature. (3) The peculiar difficulty which besets
the theory, when eternal matter has been given, is the
production of some self-expression which shall not itself be
divine. The hypothesis of God eternally issuing into some
self-expression which may be identified with Himself is
unwittingly shown to be free from the peculiar difficulties
which the theory has been elaborated to overcome. It is
not a part of the created universe, and therefore its identifi-
cation with God has no Pantheistic tendency ; and it does
not stake God's existence on the eternity of matter and
finite creatures. Thus we are taught, none the less surely
because quite unintentionally, that it is more philosophic to
think of a Divine Self-expression which was always "with
God " and " zuas God" than of one which was not God, yet
was with Him in the beginning. (4) Eternal creation being
not only conceded, but demanded, the antiquated arguments

CIIRISTIAX TIIF.ISM 33

and sneers of Arians, Socinians, and Jews against Internal
Sonship are consigned to the limbo of metaphysical anti-
quities. If eternal creation be more thinkable than creation
in time, an eternal Son must be more thinkable than the
Arian Son, who once began to be. These contributions
towards a true philosophy of Theism would have made the
heart of Athanasius sing for joy.

2. It will be remembered that in our examination of the
Hebrew doctrine of God's self - revelation, we found an
unbridged gulf between the Infinite Mind and finite
thinkers, and we saw that the doctrine of angels onl)'
removes the difficulty to a distance. Incidentally Dr. Mar-
tineau assists our faith in the existence of these manlike
creatures by asserting the absolute necessity of some such
beings to philosophical Theism. Those who smile at such a
belief as childish may well take note of this significant fact.
But we have not found any relief to the Old Testament
difficulty. The rational believer as well as the rational
sceptic is compelled to acknowledge that the mere postula-
tion of these creatures under any name leaves the problem
of revelation unsolved. It seems remarkable, but is in truth
quite natural, that the gap in Hebrew theology should thus
closely correspond to the gap in philosophical Theism.
Assuredly it is profoundly significant that if without sacri-
ficing Divine Unity we can discover a divine self-expression,
we shall at the same time solve the double problem of
Personality for Philosophy and of Revelation for Theology.
If John's "Word" can be received, not as a second God,
but as the necessary and eternal self-expression of the One
God, it supplies at once an objective for the Divine Mind
and a manifestation of God to His creatures.

Seeing that these two topics are inseparably conjoined,
and that Christian Theism offers one doctrine of God's
Person as a solution of both mysteries, I shall preface our

34 THE ANCIENT FAITH IN MODERN LIGHT

examination of this doctrine by pointing out that the New
Testament agrees with the Old in maintaining the In-
visibility and Inscrutability of God as the correlatives of its
doctrine of Revelation.

The statements made on this subject are as clear as
those which affirm the Divine Unity. " No man hath seen
God at any time." He is " the King eternal, incorruptible,
invisible, the only God." " The blessed and only Potentate,
the King of kings and Lord of lords, who only hath
immortality, dwelling in light unapproachable ; whom no
man hath seen at any time, neither can see." The in-
scrutability of man is made an illustration and a proof of the
assertion that the human intellect has no power to discern
the unrevealed mind of God. " For who among men
knoweth the things of a man, save the spirit of a man that is
in him ? Even so the things of God none knoweth, save the
Spirit of God."^ The visible works of nature declare some-
thing of their author ; but, as we have just heard, they are
not the characteristic sphere of His self-expression. To our
deepest questions they have no reply. They shed no light
on the mystery of our future. Sin, Sorrow, Pain, Aspiration,
Hope, and Fear are all made terrible, and their issues
are wrapped in thick darkness by death. In view of this
appalling mystery we ask. What does God think of us ?
What will He do with us ? How shall we be judged, and on
what principle will our lot be appointed in that awakening
which most men anticipate yet know not whether to desire
or dread ? These heart-shaking questions are not illumined
by the wonders of the sky or earth or sea. To all our
agonised inquiries Nature answers, " Such wisdom is not in
me." If we but knew what God is, and what His thoughts
are in relation to our lives, such knowledge would be more
than all the sciences. But divine thoughts are at least as
unsearchable as man's. We can guess, we can draw reason-
1 Cf. John i. i8 ; i Tim. i. 17, vi, 15, 16 ; I Cor. ii. 11.

CHRISTIAN THEISM 35

able inferences ; but we cannot find out God as we find out
worlds and elements and laws.

At this point the New Testament still agrees with the
Old, in the conviction that though man cannot ascend to
achieve the scientific observation of God, yet God can impart
to man a true knowledge of Himself. The dictum, " no man
hath seen God at an}' time," covers the ancient stories of
so-called " Theophanies," and it coincides with rabbinical
opinion that God was never imagined by the authors of the
Old Testament to have been displayed to human vision
except in a representative sense ; but the entire burden of
the New Testament may be summed up in the statement
that God has revealed Himself to the world in Christ.

The subject of the Incarnation is treated in another cssa\-,
but some reference to it here is inevitable. When we are
asked to think of God as manifesting Himself by assuming
human nature as a vestment of visibility and an organ of
active intercourse, we are constrained to recognise the sole
fitness of a Person to represent Him who is invisible. But
the more thoroughly this principle is appreciated the more
inclined we are to ask. Is this manifestation to mankind in
the midst of earthly time and on this insignificant globe a
solitary and exceptional event, or may we regard it as a
special and temporary form of a personal revelation which is
eternal as God? It is difificult, and to many minds virtual!}-
impossible, to believe in such an event when regarded as a
solitary and exceptional incident in the history of God's
relations with the cosmos. There may be something
exceptional in the state of mankind, which rendered a Divine
manifestation in a finite form a wise and needful expedient ;
but the more we reflect upon the declared purpose and
benefits of such a revelation, the more strongly it is borne
in upon our minds that if needful here for redemptive or
educational reasons, it must be needful wherever manlike, i.e.
intelligent, moral beings exist throughout the universe. It

^6 THE AXCIKNT FAITH IX MODERN LIGHT

is indeed inconceivable that He who is for ever changeless
should issue into \isibility once only, and but for a few
moments in the midst of eternal ages, and on one of the
least of many millions of worlds. The difficulty may seldom
be articulated, but it lies deep in many minds, and is one of
the ill-defined causes of doubt which prevail among cultured
men and women to-day.

But how differently we can view the Incarnation when
illuminated by the thought that it is God's eternal nature to
issue into knowable form, and that His self-expression is
eternal ! This is the thought which the proem to John's
Gospel was evidently written to diffuse. " In the beginning
was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word
was God." The main purport of this sublimely simple
saying is that God was never without a self-expression. In
Himself, i.e. in His self-conscious Life, God never was and
never can become visible. We have no eyes which can read
unuttered thought, or search the dark depths of another
consciousness ; nor can we conceive of any finite intelligence
which could be capable of exploring the sanctuary of another
self But John while assuming that his readers are acquainted
with Luke's story of the nati\-ity, and including that earthly
incident in the statement " the Word became flesh," yet
views it in its eternal setting, and places it before the world
as the coming into the region of our sense-perceptions and
into the circle of our social life on earth of One who had
been God's self-expression, God's Word, in that eternal past
which includes what to our infirmity must be called " the
beginning " when " God made the heavens and the earth."

Neither in his Gospel nor in his ist Epistle does John
affect to tell us or even to know what the Logos Form was
prior to the Incarnation, and in relation to the universe at
large, but his language distinctly attributes personality to
the Logos. Other interpretations are offered, but they are
very superficial, and fail to satisfy the conditions of a sound

CHRISTIAN THEISM 37

exegesis.^ The least unsatisfactory of these, and the only
one which can be noticed here, accounts for the description
of Christ as the Word become flesh, by stating that all God's
earlier messages which had come to men as law and pro-
phecy were summed up in Jesus as a living messenger who
is thus constituted the living truth of God. There is beauty
and truth in this proposed explanation. It is quite scrip-
tural, but it is only a fragment of John's thought. It leaves
out of account John's eternal prospect, which includes not
only man's tuition, but man's creation and the creation of
the cosmos, and melts away into the haze where thoughts of
time and temporal succession are lost. It offers no inter-
l^retation of the fact that the Word is declared by John to
have been already existent when the "beginning" is reached
b\' human imagination. It fails to deal with the statement
that all things came into existence through Him. If this
had been all that John wanted to say, the world would never
have had those marvellous chapters which have had such an
immeasurable influence on philosophy as well as on theology
for so many centuries. Some of John's sentences may be
attenuated to this meagre meaning, but when all are fairly
read tcjgether, they exhibit a Word who did not at first
loecome personal in Christ ; not an impersonal message
embodied in a personal messenger, but a living One of
whom it can be said historically, " and the Life was mani-
fested, and we have seen, and bear witness, and declare unto
you the life, the eternal life, whicli was with the Father, and
was manifested unto us." The " life " thus manifested in
time to the apostles is the Word which was with God, and
" was God."

Such language must transcend our exposition, for it con-
tains a thought so vast and many-sided that its utterance
inevitably becomes paradoxical. It cannot, however, be
called obscure. A word or discourse is just!)- termed a
' Note I J, p. 62.

38 THE ANCIENT FAITH IN MODERN LIGHT

thought because it is an uttered thought, yet there is a sense
in which we can distinguish between the utterance and the
thought uttered. So the Logos may be spoken of in one
clause as only " with God " and in the next as God. The
doctrine is that the Invisible God, to whose self-conscious
life no man can penetrate, has never been without expression
in a knowable personal form. This form is not another
individual of a limited species collectively called God, but
is God ; so that the Word may be conceived of as for ever
saying to the Universe, " He that hath seen Me hath seen
the Father. ... I and My Father are One."

Into the innermost secrets of the Godhead we cannot
hope to pass, nor can we ever speak of divine things in
other than metaphorical language. Attempts to define the
infinite, and to get behind the manifesting Word so as to
apprehend the innermost relations of the Revealed One to
the Revealer, have not helped the faith or enlightened the
intellects of men. Hence I make no presumptuous effort
to explain precisely how the living Word may constitute
what philosophy desiderates as an objective for God which
exists with Him and fulfils the conditions of Personality and
Causality, without being separated from Him as one finite
person is separated from another. It is inevitable that
thought and language should prove unequal to such a task.
Our nearest approach to success must lie in the use of
anthropomorphic analogies, with a distinct proviso that they
connote finite limitations which they are not intended to
denote. When we speak of " another-than-self " for God, we
are entitled to add that we do not mean another self in the
sense of a second personal God, but something which corre-
.sponds to another self in the case of finite creatures. An
eternal and self-existent person must contain in Himself
what we can only find in other finite beings outside our-
selves, or He cannot exist. But this is no disproof of His
existence, it is only an admission that His nature must con-

CHRISTIAN TIIKIS.M 3^

tain a fulness which corresijonds to at least dual personality in
finite beings. Our conception of Space is that of measurable
extension, but this is no evidence that space is not im-
measurable or infinite. Our conception of Time is that of
measurable duration, )'et we cannot get rid of the idea of
eternity, because our time imagery fails. When Mr. Spencer
reaches the inevitable conclusion that there is an eternal and
inexhaustible Force, he is obliged to insist that this force
which persists is not the force we know, for among other
reasons the laws of force as known to us absolutely require
previous work done as the condition of activity. Hence,
according to every philosophical analogy, it is certain that
an Eternal and self-existent Person must if spoken of at all
be spoken of in terms which, like those which refer to time
and space and force, require to have their finite connotations
denied.

Subject, therefore, to this explanation it appears that
the Logos affirmed by John is an " other-than-self " for
God, which satisfies all the requirements of the case as
excellently stated by Dr. Martineau, and in a way which
escapes all the fatal objections to his own conjectural
datum. A self-existent person cannot be dependent on
His own created objects for His personality. That which
corresponds to an Objective for Him must belong to His
own uncreated nature. Given, therefore, such an eternal
self-expression as John declares, and the First Cause stands
before our thought in complete and undivided unity.

In passing from this consideration of John's doctrine, as
a solution of the problem of Divine Personality, to view it
as supplementary to the Hebrew doctrine of Revelation,
we enter a region where thought is less difficult, and where
the language of Scripture is more varied and explicit. The
inward or Godward relation of the Logos is more distinctly
expressed in the Greek (•rpoc tw Oiou) than a translation can

4b THE ANCIENT EAITII IN MODERN LIGHT

show, but still it is not dealt with in a way to suggest that
John was consciously dealing with the psychological problem.
But the outward and manward, or more broadly the
creatureward relations of the eternal Word are dwelt upon
as an integral part of the Christian revelation. He is the
"effulgence" of God's glory, "the very image of His sub-
stance," and God has spoken to us in Him. Thus the Logos
dwelt with God as form dwells with substance, and as the
visible presentment of a man dwells with the man and is
the man, and though the man is not merely what we see,
yet we know him, and can come to him in no other way.
One of the most beautiful and simple of scriptural metaphors
is disclosed to English readers by the revised translation of
Rev. xxi. 23. Speaking of the future city of the saints, John
writes : " For the glory of God did lighten it, and the lamp
thereof is the Lamb." As translated in the Authorised
Version, the verse suggested that God and the Lamb were
two distinct light-givers ; but when John's distinction be-
tween the light and the luminary is uncovered, we see that
every gleam of radiance flows from the one eternal and in-
approachable source in God who is Light, but that this sole
light is enshrined for modulated diffusion in Christ, so that
all illumination reaches the inhabitants of the city through
Him. This answers to all the language which speaks of
God as " in Christ," and it beautifully expresses the truth
that the Logos is God's necessary self-manifestation — God's
medium of self-revelation to the universe.

We are tempted perhaps by philosophic habit, or by
contempt for idolatry, to exhaust our powers of analysis in
stripping the idea of God of everything which limits Him
within the outlines of a form. But what is our reward ? Is
it not that we find God reduced to a mere negation of finite
qualities without a residuum of reality? By such a cold
abstraction religious yearning is mocked. Our hearts would
embrace a person, but are chilled by a white cloud which

CHRISTIAN THEISM 4I

vanishes into nothingness. We have created a vacuum and
called it God, and neither in the heavens above us to-day
nor in the ages of futurity, can we hope for anything hke
that beatific vision of the Living God for wliicli the soul
pants in the arid wilderness of speculation.

Such feelings are not peculiar to any individual or class.
Looking back on the history of religion we see how pcnver-
fully the yearning for some objective form has operated.
The tendency to idolatry has been practically universal.
Within historic times it has defied the clearest teachings of
Theism, and has survived, or revived, in spite of indignation
and contempt. The iconoclastic l^uddha has become an
image. Image-worshi}) prevailed in Israel for centuries
after the prophets wrote their scathing denunciations. In
large portions of Christendom image-worship and the adora-
tion of the Host almost supersede spiritual wcjrship, and
the visible priest takes the place of an unseen Christ. Even
Positivism follows the same course, and assists its worship
of idealised Man by [portraits of canonised men. Such facts
as these prove that the craving for Form is ineradicable. Men
cannot worship Plato's Ideas or Aristotle's Mind. From such
metaphysical figments the Stoics fled to Nature and adored
the universal Reason as expressed in the visible cosmos.
Thus Pantheism, which assumes such airs of superiority
to " anthropomorphic " Theism, is a last and most extreme
illustration of man's demand for form. Its most fascinating
thought is that the cosmos is the one but manifold image
of the invisible, the vestment and self-expression of God.

The universality and power of this craving for form for-
bids us to treat it as a contemptible infirmity. We shall be
wiser to respect it as the natural demand of finite minds,
and so incpiirc whether it cannot have some legitimate
satisfaction which does not involve idolatry. Readers of
the Ihble owe much of their abhorrence of idolatry to the
iconoclastic 7.eal of the prophets, and the stringent prohibi-

42 THE ANCIENT FAITH IN .MODERN LIGHT

tion of image-making by the Jewish law. Yet no one can
deny that, according to the Old Testament, God condescends
to meet man's craving for Form to assist his idea of God.
The old " Theophanies," the cloud of glory, and prophetic
dreams and visions, are all examples of this condescension.
The curtained space in the Temple, with a seat on which no
visible shape rested, helped to focalise men's thoughts ; and
even the act of turning towards the sanctuary when praying
afar off, must have saved many from the sense of vagueness
and unreality which thousands now complain of when trying
to commune with a silent and shapeless Omnipresence.
Coming to the New Testament we find idolatry still
denounced as a sin ; yet the Incarnation is placed before
us as God's provision for man's need, and Christ is distinctly
declared to be the Image of the Invisible God.

Wherein, then, lies the folly and criminality of idolatry,
and how can it be distinguished from the worship of Christ?
The answer is perfectly clear and adequate. Idolatry
cannot be wrong merely because an image is a form which
helps to express and show forth a thought, but because
it is an expression of man's own thought of God, and is not
God's self-expression to man. It is the symbol of an idea,
and therefore a word ; but it is not God's word ; it is not
God's answer to man's inquiry, but man's poor and illusory
effort to answer himself. Human nature is mocked and
deluded when induced to invent, or to accept what other
men have invented. As an image of God, it makes little
difference whether the image be carved in stone, draped in
poetry, or coldly outlined in a proposition. In any case,
the man-made image is only an unauthenticated guess which
may have little or no likeness to the Divine Truth. Man's
god-making, whether literary, artistic, or logical, is to be
refused as a pretended portrait of an unseen Being. But
none the less it is true that, without an image of some kind,
no man can think of God. The Formless Void of dialectics

CHRISTIAN TIIEIS.M 43

is no more God than is a figure sculptured in marble. It is
more truly Not-Being than lieing. We can no more truly
reach God by anal)'sis than by imagination. The onl)-
conceivable satisfaction of our intellectual and affectional
thirst for a living God, is some living Image which God
Himself supplies.

In substance, these considerations are of universal
validity. Man's sensuous nature may demand an Incarna-
tion, while creatures of finer constitution may be able to
discern things and persons which elude our faculties ; but
as we have seen in dealing with Hebrew Theism, the
Infinite Mind must be inscrutable to the loftiest created
intelligence until He manifests Himself. Thus a Divine
Word is the only conceivable link between the infinite and
the finite. The first step towards communion must be
God's, and John fills the gap which yawns in every non-
Christian system of Theism by declaring that God has never
been without a Living Self-expression.

3. The absolute necessity for an Objective Form for the
Revelation of Invisible Personality must not tempt us to
exaggerate its efficiency. Let us also confess that there
is a knowledge of Persons, which Form, whether conceived
of as a material figure or an intellectual ex[3ression, cannot
convey. The Love which is not a mere passionate desire,
finds that the most intimate communion which is possible
between human beings is still a remote intercourse. There
is still a gulf fixed which neither beholder can cross. In
supreme hours, such as come with great perils, or in the
chamber of death, v.e look into the faces of beloved ones
and yearn for a sight of the hidden life. We hear their
words, but they sound like voices from afar. In times of
trouble when comforters visit us, we know that they cannot
penetrate to the innermost secret of our sorrow. In times
of misjudgment we long to lay bare our true selves, but

44 THE ANCIENT FAITH IX MODERN LIGHT

words fail, explanations darken, even tears misrepresent,

and we know ourselves unknown. " Self-expression " is,

indeed, the most difficult of all the arts. The highest poetry

is a failure to the poet, and all preaching is a failure to the

prophetic soul —

" For words, like Nature, half reveal
And half conceal the Soul within."

The greater a man is, the more difficult it becomes to find
language for his inspiration, and to show himself aright to
his fellows. With fuller knowledge and loftier aims, his
methods of work must of necessity be perplexing and often
inexplicable to others. Reverential sympathy may trust his
wisdom and goodness while labouring for remote objects, but
the multitude he strives to benefit are likely to regard him
with suspicion, and his ways with contempt. Is not this a
partial interpretation of the divine sorrow which is frequently
affirmed by the prophets, " My people have not known me"?
Is it not also an interpretation of Christ's plaint to His
disciple, " Have I been so long time with you, and dost thou
not know Me, Philip " ? The alien and unfit saw Christ, and
in John's phrase they also saw and heard and handled the
Word of Life ; yet these phenomena conveyed to them
no Truth, and made not manifest the Life enshrined within.
The chosen few walked and talked with the Word Incar-
nate, yet after three years they were still incapable of read-
ing Him as He and they desired. The finite form and
human attributes which, according to Christian Theism, were
indispensable vehicles of revelation, were also hindrances
and limitations. There were truths which, as Christ told
Peter, "flesh and blood" could not reveal. For the Infinite
Lord the "form of a servant" was in some respects a dis-
guise, and the early removal of that material object was as
essential as its temporary use. Hence it was that Christ
said to His friends, " It is expedient for you that I go away:
for if I go not away, the Paraclete will not come to you. . . .

CHRISTIAN THEISM 45

When He, the Spirit of 'I'ruth, is come, lie sliall guide you
into all the truth. . . . He shall glorify Me; for He shall
take of Mine and shall declare it unto you." ^

Until the inherent difficulty of self-revelation is appre-
hended, we ha\e no clue to the significance of Christ's
teaching respecting the Spirit. Even those who take a
strictly humanitarian view of Christ's person must confess
that for Him, as at least a peerless son of man, the task of
showing Himself was singularly difficult. But how sup-
remely difficult appears this task if, with John, we believe that
Christ knew Himself to be not merely a man, but a man
and something more, — a man in whom the Father dwelt for
revelation ! It may for a moment be thought that the diffi-
culty would be lessened by the possession of extraordinary
powers ; but this relief is illusor\'. Finite minds can only
comprehend finite symbols, and the modes of communication
open for God's use are limited by the inexorable necessity
of using a language which His creatures have learned. He
must use an imperfect medium of communication, or else
create new faculties of which we have no conception. How,
then, can we estimate the difficulty of bringing even the most
intimate associates of Christ to see that the Divine Spirit was
present in the human Friend they revered, but were religi-
ously afraid to worship? Without endangering that loyalty
to God for which He had chosen them, and which He had
come, not to weaken, but to nourish, He could only lead
them little by little into the consciousness of a divine com-
panionship ; nor could He assert His own Divinity in words
until they were thus prcp.ired to believe the amazing truth.
When this dawned upon them thc\' were in danger of
cleaving to the human Form with an exaggerated affection.

The veil needed to be rent that they might .see the Life of
which it was a vestment. The bodih' form also needed to

be withdrawn that they might live in ceaseless communion
' |()hn xvi. 7-14.

46 THE ANCIENT FAITH IN MODERN LIGHT

with One who was confined to no human temple, and was
as truly everywhere as in the body which He had made His
vestment for a season.

In reading Christ's words about the Spirit, we therefore
need to regard them as the language of One whose purpose
in life was to reveal Himself to a world, which was dark and
devil-haunted for lack of the Truth hidden in His own self-
consciousness. If any reader shrinks from such a standpoint
as beyond the reach of present faith, let him remember that,
rightly or wrongly, this was John's standpoint, and therefore
his interpreters must take their places at least hypothetically
by his side, or can never hope to know what he meant to
teach.

Viewing Christ thus, we see that He had to impart ideas
which no language spoken among men could embody in their
wholeness. He was obliged to give broken lights or leave
men in darkness. His disciples thought of God as Invisible,
and He must confirm their belief ; yet must He also con-
vince them that the Father was showing His mind and
heart ; was showing Himself in and through the Son who
had come into their midst. He must prepare them for His
removal from their midst as one who walked and talked and
lived within the range of sense-perception. Yet He must
assure them that this removal did not mean absence. He
must convince them that He, the Jesus Christ of Nazareth,
would not be holden of death, but be raised up to a glorified
life of intimate union with the Father ; and yet He must
make it clear that while, in the terms of a poor earthly
analogy. He sat enthroned above the highest heavens. He
would be as truly their Master and Friend, and as truly the
hearer of their words and reader of their thoughts, as while
He dwelt as a brother in their midst. Hence we find in the
profoundest and most spiritual discourses reported in John's
Gospel, phrases which are as picturesquely anthropomorphic
as any in the Old Testament. " I go to prepare a place for

CHRISTIAN Tni;is.M 47

you." " I go unto the Father." " I will pray the Father, and
He shall give you another Comforter, that He may be with
you for ever, even the Spirit of Truth." " I will not leave you
desolate, I will come unto you." " A little while and the world
beholdeth Me no more ; but ye behold Me." " If a man love
Me, he will keep My word : and My Father will love him,
and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him."
" These things have I spoken unto you while yet abiding with
you. But the Comforter, even the Holy Spirit, whom the
Father will send in My name. He shall teach }'ou all things,
and bring to remembrance all that I have said unto you."

If we take these, with many similar utterances, and
attempt to harmonise them literally, we find contradictory
absurdities. If we try to analyse them, and then so recom-
pose their parts as to frame a doctrine of three persons,
with separate offices and functions, no clear division can be
made. In some places the Spirit appears to be a person ;
in others, an almost passive influence, proceeding from the
Father ; in others, as a subordinate being who has no spon-
taneity of action, no claim to personal recognition, and no
function but to magnify the Son. The same things are
attributed to Father, Son, and Spirit. Christ will come and
dwell with His disciples. Christ and the Father will come
together as though two invisible guests. The Spirit also is
to abide in us for ever, while Christ goes away to the Father.
These are a few of the confusions which abound in the letter,
and they are enough to kill all faith if criticised without
sympathetic insight into Christ's purpose and the inherent
difficulties of His task. But with this clue to guide us, the
meaning is not indistinct. Christ does not reduce the God-
head into a species which consists of three individuals, with
separate departmental offices, and are One God only as collect-
ive humanity is man. Nor does Christ darken counsel by
loose statements in which names are interchanged without
reason. He meets human infirmity of thought by language

4S TIJF. ANCIKNT FAITH IX MODERN LKllIT

which enables us to think of the Father in heaven as also here
on earth, and in possession of the innermost sanctuary of our
personal life. God comes to us objectively in Christ, and thus
sets a living image before mankind which gives a definite and
intelligible idea of Himself. This image is as truly, if not as
vividly, before men's minds to-day in the recorded life as it
was during the period of fleshly residence on earth ; and in
seeing the significance of this objective revelation we see
into the heart of the Invisible Father. But the record of this
objective self-expression does not suffice. We need inspira-
tion to appreciate its riches of knowledge. We crave to
know also that the Being whose glory passed before the first
disciples is accessible to us, and that we are not living out
of His ken and care. Hence the doctrine of the Spirit has
been given to teach that God is not only transcendent, but
immanent. He not only came once, but is always coming ;
yet is never coming, because always here. He who made
us has access to our minds not only through the avenues of
sense ; He can enter by a door no physical hand can open ;
He can speak without moving waves of air to break upon
our ears. He does not miraculously dispense with our
ordinary faculties for the discernment of truth, but He has
power to quicken spiritual energy, to add the mystic music
of a spiritual voice to the words \\hich would otherwise be
like those of a deceased author. Christ is God's self-
expression, but the Spirit is His self-impartation ; He is
God in living touch with us, and helping our infirmities, so
that we may have purified eyes to see the things He has
revealed, and be strengthened with might in the inner man
as by a new breath from the Creator's mouth, so that we
may be able to comprehend His love, and do the things
He has commanded. Helped by this never-absent Friend,
we see God in nature as far as nature can declare Him ; we
also see God's thought in the Scriptures, and, above all,
God's character in Christ. Thus Inspiration is the comple-

CHRISTIAN THEISM. 49

mcnt of Revelation ; and the Love of God, commended to the
world by the life and dying of the Word made flesh, is shed
abroad in each believing heart by the Spirit.

4. Christianity inherited from Judaism its profoundly
ethical idea of God ; but this goodly heritage came bur-
dened with certain problems which the Old Testament
never formally discussed, though it thrust them into promi-
nence, and contained in at least an implicit form most
important clues to their solution. We have seen that
devout Israelites firmly believed in the immutability of the
divine character and the inviolable sanctity of moral law ;
yet they also believed in the efficacy of repentance, in the
possibility of forgiveness, the remission of penalty, and in
the ultimate deliverance of the godly from the destructive
consequences of sin. But these beliefs were not intellect-
ually harmonised. Each belief was held fast as a doctrine
of revelation ; each was found satisfactory to the reason and
heart while viewed apart ; but speculative attempts at con-
ciliation seem to have been arrested by a religious reverence
for God's supremacy, coupled with a restful intuition that
the Judge of all the earth must needs do right.

It has often been said, and notably by the late Dr.
Hatch, that it was Greek philosophy which forced upon the
Church the twofold problem of the relation of the idea of
forgiveness to that of law; and the relation of the conception
of a Moral Governor to that of free will.^ But this is a most
misleading statement. Both these are problems raised by
ethical Monotheism and peculiar to it, and were discussed
between Jews and Christians before Greek philosophy
exerted any appreciable effect on Christian thought. All
the factors of the problem are prominent in the Old Tes-
tament, and their solution is the ethical raison d'etre of
Christianit}'. That Greek habits of thought forced the dis-

1 T/ic Hibbcrt I.atuycs^ 1SS8, p. 226.
4

50 THE ANCIENT FAITH IN MODERN LIGHT

cussion of these problems in an apologetic and philosophic
form upon the Church need not be questioned ; but when
this happened their solution had not to be invented, but
only to be brought forth. It had already been provided
in the teachings of Christ, and by Paul's interpretation of
Christ's life and death.

The Greeks had no conception of a moral order
centring in and administered by an Eternal and Righteous
God. They had the conception of an order to which
gods and men were subject, and by their highest minds
this order was believed to be rational and therefore right ;
but the ethical content of this conception was exceedingly
small. It was virtually the thought of an automatic
Destiny, working out its necessary decrees without regard
for man's inward life, and without anger or pity, approval
or disapproval for men or gods. The wicked man had
therefore cause to fear the Nemesis which would bring to
him the natural consequences of his deeds ; the good
man might hope to reap some benefits resultant from his
virtue : but the man who regretted his misdeeds could
never imagine that Heaven would forgive his crime, or
cut the threads of fate for his relief. In such an order
the problems now before us had no possible place. A
cosmos thus dominated by an impersonal principle of
necessity is not a moral order, and it leaves no room
for one to be developed. In such a cosmos, v/hether
conceived in a materialistic or pantheistic sense, all things
work out an endless continuity of sequences without
possibility of choice within or control from above. There
is no Moral Governor, no government, no free will, con-
sequently there can be no sin, and therefore neither
forgiveness nor punishment, but only necessary action
followed by necessary effects. In such a cosmos strictly
ethical problems cannot arise. Only in a cosmos created
and governed by a Person can any collision between law

CHRISTIAN THEISM 5 1

and forgiveness, or moral agents and a Moral Governor,
have any imaginable place.

Happily the same idea of God which renders these
ethical problems possible, also paves the way for their
solution. .\s a preliminary consideration it enables us to
affirm, that a Personal Creator cannot be powerless to act
on the universe for the purpose of giving effect to His
ethical judgments. He is not only the First Cause in the
order of temporal succession, but the permanent principle of
causality: He is the continuous and persistent Cause of all
movement and life, and can touch the sequence of events
in the physical realm, so as to bend and direct their
currents by methods of which man's \olitional control of
nature is a type. Hence there is no such incompatibility
between salvation and natural law in a Theocentric Cosmos,
as there is, or would be, in a godless world. Unless
restrained by some immutable ethical principle, God can
avert the natural consequences of human transgression.
The fact that potential!)' God can do these things is not
only the antecedent condition of any ethical question
coming before our minds, but when tlie c^uestion has
come it compels us to deal with it on purely ethical
grounds.

Again, a Personal Creator and Ruler, who issues and
administers Laws which include punitive sanctions, may
conceivably annul or alter these laws in the exercise of the
same authority which imposed them. Here again the
question raised is purely ethical, and is one which pagan
philosophy, whether ancient or modern, is peculiarly incom-
petent to discuss, because it can only be dealt with even
hypothetically in relation to a Theocentric Cosmos in
which the will of a Personal God is free, and His power
supreme. It touches the immutability of God's character,
the inviolability of His word, the stability of His purpose,
and the moral continuity of His work. But in relation to

52 THE ANCIENT FAITH IN MODERN LIGHT

each of these points the problem presupposes God's exist-
ence, and His power to please Himself.

How, then, does Christian Theism deal with this strictly
ethical problem? In respect of the law, considered as a
Jewish code or series of codes, Christianity denies that
God ever tied His own hands by any enactments. It
affirms that the Judaic dispensation was national and
transitory, and that its laws were not universal or per-
petual expressions of God's will. It distinguishes between
Law as an eternal and necessary order, which even God
cannot alter or relax without unrighteousness, and a par-
ticular set of regulative commands. The Jewish law in
this latter sense had become almost a fetich to the
Pharisees, and Paul's treatment of it as a local and
temporary instrument of discipline for an immature people,
excited their vehement anger. But Paul urged with
irresistible force, that a legal code was powerless to
produce righteousness, i.e. to carry men into perfect con-
formity with that eternal law of righteousness of which it
was a partial and provisional expression. He insisted that
although God's will for men is changeless, His method of
moral culture may change, as parental discipline changes
when children's ideas of right and wrong become developed,
and the higher motives of honour and affection come into
play. We can have no sympathy, then, with the obstruc-
tionist pride of the Jews, who thought that the Mosaic
dispensation was as sacred and unalterable as the eternal
principles of moral government. It has become plain, not
only to Christians, but to many Agnostics, that conduct
which is actuated by considerations of personal security
or advantage, or of legal obligation, is ethically less pure
than conduct which springs from a free spirit of love. On
this point Paul's discussions anticipated all that is most
beautiful in Mr. Herbert Spencer's Data of Ethics^ in
which he adopts the Christian ideal of conduct, while emu-

CHRISTIAN THEISM 53

lating the ancient alchemists by a scientific endeavour to
transmute the base metal of selfishness into the fine gold
of altruism. Paul found in the love of God in Christ
an element of such potent virtue, that it could transform
human character by changing the thoughts of the heart and
creating an enthusiasm for the Father's kingdom and glory.
Hence he was able to say that for transmuted character the
Jewish law was obsolete. But he always insisted that this
change of dispensation was in the interests of righteousness,
and not, as the Jews supposed, a specious anarchism.

No fair-minded reader of the New Testament can regard
Christianit}- as a surrender of the Divine will, or an abdica-
tion of the duties of a Moral Governor. The ancient moral
law was translated into an exemplary life by Christ. His
Life is an interpretation of that eternal law of Love which
was less vividly expressed in the Decalogue, and His actual
character is fairer than any ethical ideal which the best of
men had previously conceived. The injunction to follow
Christ is not an imperious mandate, but it includes every
" Thou shalt" and " Thou shalt not " in the practical ethics
of Moses. Likeness to Christ is held up before men as the
goal of individual aspiration, and those who have no such
aspiration are declared to be none of His, and are forbidden
to expect a place in His kingdom. The ethical standard,
therefore, is not lowered but raised ; the environment of
human life is widened from a nation to the universe, and
from this brief span of existence to eternity ; but God's
inexorable hatred of sin, and His purpose to exterminate it,
is declared to be the chief reason for Christ's advent and
death.

l^ut granting this inflexible ethical intent, it is demanded,
How can the doctrine of forgiveness be reconciled with
the divine maintenance of an eternal and immutable Moral
Order? The answer to this inquiry is written large in the
New Testament. It is one of Christ's most fundamental

54 THE ANCIENT FAITH IN MODERN LIGHT

doctrines, that under certain definite conditions, forcjix eness
is not a breach, but is itself an integral and essential part of
the moral order. By His personal example and by His verbal
teachings, Christ thus elevated forgiveness into a supreme
duty. There are, according to Christ, only two things which
God will not forgive, namely, the sin against the Holy Spirit,
which cannot here be discussed, and the sin of refusing to
forgive them that sin against us. "If ye forgive not . . .
neither will your heavenly Father forgive you." In His
model prayer He teaches us to imprecate vengeance on our-
selves if unmerciful, by saying, " Forgive us our trespasses,
as we forgive them that trespass against us." Pardon is
therefore not viewed by Christ as moral laxit}-, or as a
departure from the strict course of righteousness, but as
a primary law of moral life, and as a fundamental principle
in the society He came to found, on a declaration of God's
righteousness in "passing by iniquity, transgression, and
sin."

This law of forgiveness is strictly conditioned in Christian
ethics by genuine repentance. Among men the reality of
repentance can seldom be verified ; but so urgent is Christ
to prevent any denial of mercy to the truly penitent, that He
throws all the risk of error into the scale against suspicion,
and commands us to forgive a brother as often as he may
turn and only say, " I repent." God's forgiveness is not to be
obtained without a repentance which is real in His unerring
sight ; but allowing for the difference between fallibility and
infallibility, God's forgiveness is represented to us as granted
on the same condition as man's is enjoined.

To those who look on conduct as consisting of outward
and visible acts, this inclusion of forgiveness among the
virtues must appear anomalous. But the ethical glory
of Christian Theism lies in the fact that it carries our minds
into a more purely spiritual region, and bids us look, not only
on acts, but on motives and on states of mind, which are

CHRISTIAN THEISM 55

infinitcl}- more iinportaiit ; because they are the hidden
springs whence proceed the issues of love, and because they
are, indeed, the realities with which ethical science, as distinct
from legislative authority, is mainly concerned. Christ
carries out to its full development the ancient truth — As a
man " thinketh in his heart, so is he." Hence, in His judg-
ment of men, now and hereafter, He is a discerner of "the
secrets of men." Mere outward rectitude cannot satisfy
Him, nor can outward acts of wrong render Him unjust to
one who has erred through ignorance or weakness, or
through direful temptation. In the superficial judgment
which regards action only, repentance appears valueless and
inoperative, for it cannot alter the past, nor can it heal
the wounds which sin has made, nor stay the external
plague of corruption, disorder, and disaster which trans-
gression has caused. But in the inner realm, where ethical
distinctions have validity, the significance of repentance
is inestimable. True repentance means the production
of an entirely new mind, and with it a complete change
in the man's relations with the eternal moral order. Before
repentance the transgressor was an anarchist, a revolter,
and disturber of the world's peace — he was like a broken
bone in the social body, a discordant voice in the great
chorus ; — but after repentance he reveres, and yearns to con-
form himself to the law of righteousness; and this man of
renovated thought, affection, and volition is like a bone reset,
a voice attuned to the concerted harmony of life. To refuse
to recognise this change of nature and relations is therefore
essentially unjust, and the treatment of the new heart as if it
were an enemy to righteousness is an offence which a holy
God cannot commit, and cannot condone in His creatures.

In a mechanical cosmos, if such terms can be combined, a
new heart counts for as little as the cry of a drowning man ;
but in a Father's estimation it counts for more than many
stars. It hv no means follows, however, that because f(M--

56 TIIK ANCIENT FAITH IN MODERN LIGHT

giveness has thus a primary place in an ethical order, it must
include an immediate, or total removal of all the grievous
consequences of wrong-doing. Having seen that God's
power must be regarded as sufficient to give effect to His
judgments, we are compelled to exclude dynamical considera-
tions from this higher stage of the discussion, but there are
benignant reasons why even repentance should not be allowed
to cancel the connection between sowing and reaping. For-
giveness recognises the veracity of the new mind, it releases
the individual from the pangs of perpetual condemnation,
it assures him of renewed trust in his rightness of spirit, and
thus throws open the door of fellowship with God, and co-
operation in His service with all who live in loyalty to Him.
But forgiveness is not inconsistent with chastisement for the
deepening of right impressions on the individual, and for the
instruction of his acquaintances; nor does it require or
permit such an interference with the natural order of
physical causation and social sequence as would encourage
procrastination and conceal the enormity of sin, and so
screen the pardoned individual at the cost of undermining
the foundations of the moral schoolhouse in which we have
been placed. Hence, while showing the righteousness of
forgiveness, Christ teaches also the mercy of severity ; and
among the many rays of ethical truth which shine from the
Cross, this comes to us, That God will spare no anguish
to Himself or His sons, which may be necessary to
conserve and solemnise the sanctity of Law.

At this point our thoughts approach that mystery of
Atonement which is dealt with by another pen, but no
statement of Christian Theism can omit to say that, as in
His life, so in that Death, which was its crowning action,
Christ was the Self-expression of God. The Cross is the
interpretation to humanity of that Name, which had been
written long before in wonderful, but still weak Hebrew
words. " The Lord, a God full of compassion and gracious,

CHRISTIAN THKISM 57

slow to anc;cr, and [plenteous in mercy and truth, kcepinij
mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity, and transgression,
and sin, and that will by no means clear the guilty."

Thus understood, the Cross becomes an assurance, that
the Creator is faithful to all the moral responsibilities of
Creation, and that He Himself is in eternal harmony with
the moral order in which He disciplines mankind. He
made men, foreseeing and permitting the tragical develop-
ment of their free experiments in self-direction. He knew
that generations of erring men would hand down to posterity
a woeful heritage of weakened moral power, evil example,
entangling circumstance, and bewildering theories of life;
and we are taught by Christ that in all this God found, not
a reason for dooming all His erring creatures to perpetual
ruin, but an irresistible appeal to His justice and compassion ;
and a cry for help, which a faithful Creator could not dis-
regard. Like as a father pities the children he has begotten
into a world of pain and strife — pities their frailty, their
ignorance, their inevitable mistakes ; and while blaming their
wilful faults, yet feels intense compassion, because nothing is
so sad as sin : like as a wise father chastens an erring son
because he loves him, and strives by every method in his
power to awaken better thoughts, greets the first move-
ments of repentance with delight, fosters them with words
of sympathetic trust in their sincerity : like as a good earthly
father, when he sees retribution falling, stoops to bear the
son's burden of shame, and will often sacrifice both health
and wealth, and even lay down his life to save the contrite
prodigal from ruin ; — even so the Cross teaches us that the
Father in heaven pities His children, and takes upon Himself
the burden and sacrifice of their salvation.

The Cross is thus the living synthesis of Law and For-
giveness. It is the conciliation of the ancient paradox, " A
just God and a Saviour." It is God fulfilling the eternal law
of Love towards His creatures, and so constraining all who

58 THE ANCIENT FAITJl I\ MOIH'.UN LIGHT

duly apprehend the truth to love Him because He has first
loved us. In loving Him, men learn to love His law, and to
hate the things which grieve His Spirit and disturb the order
of His world. Thus Christian Theism is not only an ethical
Monotheism, but is also a regenerative force, to bring the
torn and distracted race of man into happy relations with
the universal order, which ethically binds the Creator and
His creatures into one family. It is therefore no vain thing
to anticipate that, as Christian Theism becomes the light and
power of human society, the world will be filled with the
music of concerted lives, and all the earth be hallowed
as one mansion in the Father's House.

NOTE A (p. 5)

Having referred to the work of the Higher Criticism,
without endorsing or disputing its validity, it may not be
superfluous to say that I regard it with respect and hope-
fulness when conducted in a scientific spirit. As to its
legitimacy there can be no question, luery village dame
who reads Deut. xxxiv. becomes, unconsciously, a " higher
critic," by perceiving that Moses could not have written the
account of his own death, or the eulogy which declares,
" And there hath not arisen a prophet since in Israel like
unto Moses." Those who would limit the analysis of the
Old Testament within the limits of such a reader's acumen
must be very few, and may be disregarded. The same law
which justifies belief in a later authorship of this fragment
must be universally applicable, and therefore the claim of
critics to pursue their calling is indisputable. No rational
person can imagine that the religious value of Deuteronomy
is diminished by the discovery that Moses did not write the
last chapter, and only a feeble faith can anticipate with
alarm the ultimate results which analysis may yield. Strong
faith will always say. Let us know, if possible, the truth, the
whole truth, and nothing but the truth ; that we may
adjust our thoughts to the facts, and not tamper with facts
to spare a little mental agitation. All this seems to be
almost axiomatic. But between the cordial admission of

CIIRISTLW THKIS.M 59

tlic principle and an immediate ov wliolesale ap[)ro\'al (jf all
the handiwork which is offered as its legitimate fruitage,
there is an appreciable difference. When inferences drawn
from probable, not to speak of improbable, data, are treated
as certainties, when guesses are given as " results," and
when intuition and " fancy " take the place of proof, scepticism
is not unjustifiable. May 1 add, that if specialists in criticism
could be a little more patient with those who desire nothing
but the truth, but like their truths verified, some heart-
burning might be spared, and religion would suffer less from
the recriminations of different orders of ser\-ants. Nothing
is so unbecoming in a critic as the assumption that agree-
ment with himself is a standard by which scholarship, insight,
and courage are to be measured. Professor Cheyne has
done much to infuse a religious spirit into English criticism,
but his book on T/ie Founders of Old Testament Criticism
is not pleasant reading, because marred by the fault just
mentioned. I deprecate his disparaging comments on
Professor Driver and other fellow - workers who have
sufficient " caution," " moderation," and " sobriety " not to
follow him implicitl)'. Such comments are neither fitted
to soothe their feelings nor likely to augment public
confidence. Professor Cheyne pleads for a free use of the
" historic imagination " in conjunction with the critical
faculty. He cannot even see that the word " fanciful," as
applied to one of his hypotheses by Professor Robertson
Smith, expresses a good reason for its non-acceptance. But
while it may be conceded that without imagination there can
be " no vivifying the lifeless conclusions of a cold criticism,"
a sharp distinction must be drawn between the legitimate
exercise of this faculty for the literary grouping and arraying
of historical material, and the unscientific use of it for the
provision of facts.

At the present moment it would be impossible to print
in many coloiu's a Resultant Old Testament which would
represent a general consensus of critical opinion, or have any
pretensions to be regarded as final. Until critics and archx^o-
logists can agree respecting the antiquity of literary culture
and some other fundamental questions, no theory of the Old
Testament can be wisely accepted as more than a mere
working hypothesis. Theologians and preachers are not
free to run the risk of building upon sandy surmises. They
ought to be, and I belie\-c that most of them'are, prepared to
welcome and build upon all historical facts as these arc
ascertained and verified ; but in their recognition of these

6o THE ANCIENT FAITH IN MODERN LIGHT

facts they will certainl}- prefer to be guided by men who do
not offer them complex, fanciful, and imaginative theories as
scientific results.

In this connection the history of New Testament critic-
ism is instructive. For many years Lightfoot, Westcott, and
other defenders of the traditional view of the Christian
documents were slighted as men who lacked " the historical
sense " and the " highest scholarship," and even as
" endowed advocates " of ecclesiastical traditions ; and
Christian ministers were openly charged by Professor
Huxley and many others with ignorance, or worse with
dishonesty, in concealing from the public the "results of
critical scholarship " ; yet to-day these results are given up.
The present position is well summed up by a candid though
reluctant witness : " There was a time — the great mass of
the public is still living in such a time — in which people felt
obliged to regard the oldest Christian literature, including
the New Testament, as a tissue of deception and falsifica-
tions. That time is past. . . . The oldest literature of the
Church is, in the main points and in most of its details, from
the point of view of literary history, veracious and trust-
worthy. In the whole New Testament there is probably but
a single writing which can be called, in the strictest sense of
the word, pseudonymous, the Second l^^istle of Peter." ^

I agree with those who deprecate a hasty conclusion that
Old Testament criticism will suffer a similar humiliation.
There was an anti-Christian animus in the criticism of the
New Testament which cannot be discovered among the fore-
most Old Testament critics in England and America, and is
comparatively rare in Germany; and this fact adds immensely
to the value of any judgments which find general acceptance.
It must also be remembered that the historical problem now*
before the Church is vaster and more complex than the one
just closed. The Christian Scriptures came into existence
in a literary age and under circumstances of international
publicity. Within a few years the chief documents were
published in many parts of the world, and in various
languages. They passed into the hands of numerous,
remote, and independent organised communities, and in the
course of a few generations they became the subject of
polemical criticism and discourse. These facts have no
parallel in the case of the Old Testament, which carries us

1 Professor Harnack, Tlie CJiroitology of Ancient Cliristian Litera-
ture down to the Time of Eusehiiis. Quoted and translated by Dr.
Sanday in the Guardian for January 20th, 1897.

CHRISTIAN THEISM 6 1

back into vast and dimly lighted periods, of which even the
external history is obscure, and into circumstances which
render traditional views less likely to be accurate. But when
due allowance has been made for these differences, it remains
true that the fallibility of criticism has been impressively
exhibited. It is gratif}-ing that a brilliant group of luiglish
critics has triumphed over many boastful and disdainful
opponents ; but they owe their success very largely to the
opportune discovery of new documentary evidence. Hence
it behoves us to avoid dogmatic conclusions respecting the
Old Testament, which may be contradicted by archrcological
research. Records of the past, more precious than gold or
silver, are being sought for, and are likely to be found, in
Egypt, Assyria, Palestine and adjacent lands. A few years
may witness a final confirmation of some conjectural recon-
structions of Hebrew history ; but it is not impossible that
some traditional views may have a surprising vindication.
In any case archaeology must have the last word, and that
last word may not be heard by this generation.

NOTE B (p. 9)

In bringing the Psalter^ down to a late age, Professor
Cheyne was confronted with those anthropomorphic features
which have often been regarded as proofs of barbarism ; but
concerning this he well observes, " The freedom with which
the psalmists use anthropomorphic, or let us say mythic
expressions, is a consequence of the sense of religious
security which animates them. They have no expectation
of being taken literally : they know that each member of
the Church has a key to their meaning."

NOTE C (p. lo)

This anthropomorphic language is so extreme in some
recent works that it almost amounts to a scientific defence
of those primitive superstitions which personified the objects
of nature. Thus, in a work which contains a laudatory
preface by Mr. Grant Allen, we are told, " Trees . . . are
.sentient beings, very much alive to the circumstances of
their surroundings. It is all very well to ascribe this energy
to the action and reaction of temi)crature, sunlight, and rain-
' Orii^in of the Psallt)\ p. 286.

62 TIIK AN'CIENT FAITH I\ MODERN LIGHT

fall . . . but a purely mechanical process is impossible. . . .
When a man gains some particular object for which he has
long been striving, we call him persevering, energetic, and
industrious ; and when a tree does the same we can hardly
do less than give it due credit. . . . Of the five senses they
(plants) possess three, feeling, taste, and smell . . . admitting
that these senses are possessed . . . must we not conclude
that they are discriminately used?"^ The argument thus indi-
cated by an ardent evolutionist may be profitably read in arrest
of the scorn cast on anthropomorphic conceptions of the First
Cause. The scientific repudiation of mechanical evolution
as inadequate to account for the phenomena of a tropical
forest, is equally valid as applied to the Cosmos. It is a
confession that evolution implies intelligent purpose and
volition. Hence, if we deny a personal First Cause and
Intelligent Evolver of Nature, we are compelled to attribute
man-like qualities to inanimate things. Lest Mr. Rodvvay's
language should be thought unusually imaginative, here is a
sentence which I have just met with in an elementary Text-
Book of Agricultural Botany: "Each organism, whether
animal or vegetable, will pursue a similar course of conduct,
using different means to attain the same end."

NOTE D (p. 37)

The interpretation of the Logos doctrine criticised in the
text has been well expounded by Dr. J. Drummond, whose
close study of Alexandrian philosophy preserved him from
the common fallacy of confounding John's doctrine with that
of Philo.-

I have not attempted to discuss those theories which,
with various modifications, treat John's Logos as the affirma-
tion of a purely ideal pre-existence of Christ, because their
adequate treatment would require more space than the entire
essay now occupies. Some interpreters define the Logos as
the sum of all God's thoughts, the fountain of all eternal
wisdom and truth. Others narrow it down to God's ideal of
manhood, which first found a perfect realisation in Christ.
But, however phrased, such mystical conceptions are foreign
to the sublimely simple thought of John, and cannot be fitted
into a thorough and detailed exegesis of his prologue.
Moreover, all these views are false to New Testament usage

^ James Rodway, /;; tJic Guiana Forest^ pp. 21 1-223.
- Via^ Veritas, Vita, ]3. 307.

CHRISTIAN THEISM 63

(jf the term Logos, and on this ground alone would have to
be dismissed. This statement directly contradicts many-
writers whose names carry great weight, but I shall close this
note by showing how arbitrary and uncritical are the grounds
on which the conclusions of great j^hilological authorities may
sometimes be based. For this purpose I cannot tlo better than
quote the dictum of Professor Max Miiller, who thus writes:
" This Greek ^\•ord, whatever meaning was assigned to it by
Christian thinkers, tells us in language that cannot be mis-
taken that it is a word and a thought of Greek workmanship.
Whoever used it, and in whatever sense he used it, he had
been under the influence of Greek thought, he was an intel-
lectual descendant of Plato, Aristotle, or of the Stoics and
Neo-Platonists, nay, of Anaxagoras and Heraclitus. To
imagine that either Jews or Christians could adopt a foreign
terminology without adopting the thoughts embedded in it,
shows a strange misapprehension of the nature of language.
. . . Why do we use a foreign word if not because we feel
that the word, and the exact thought which it expresses, are
absent from our own intellectual armoury ? " ^

Respecting this utterance, I venture to observe that a
more misleading or inaccurate statement has seldom found
its way into print through the bias or carelessness of a great
scholar. The author entirely overlooks the fact that Logos
found its way into Jewish use, not as a foreign word imported
into Hebrew to supply a felt defect, or because " the precise
word and the exact thought which it " expressed was absent
from the intellectual armoury of the Jews, but as the best
Greek equivalent which could be found for a Hebrew term
which had to be translated if the "intellectual armoury"
contained in the Old Testament was to be presented to the
Greek-speaking world. Many generations before the Gospel
of John was written, the LXX. version of the Old Testament
determined the value of Aoyoc, in relation to Hebrew thought,
by using it almost interchangeably with pjjrjM to render the
force of i3"n. It was an excellent word for this purpose ; for
even its secondary meanings ^excepting only its later philo-
sophical meaning; correspond with extraordinary accuracy
to those of in"!. Furthermore, it can, if needful, be demon-
strated that when the Hebrew authors of the New Testament
wrote in Greek for the diffusion of their ideas throughout
the Gentile world, they followed the example of the LXX.
translators in their usage of the term Logos. When John
wrote his Gospel and ICpistles this term must have long passed
' Thcosopliy (Uid Psyclioloi^ical Ri-//i;ioii, p. 380.

64 THE ANCIENT FAITH IN MODERN LIGHT

into currency in churches, and it impHes no acquaintance
with philosophy in the writer or in his readers.

Serious argument, however, is rather out of place in
dealing with Professor Max Miiller's dictum. Its quality may
best be tried by applying it to two test cases, (i) In the
enunciation of his philological law the Gifford lecturer
resembled the New Testament writers in the fact that he
was trying to express his ideas to foreigners, and also in
the fact that in order to do so he adopted what is for himself
" a foreign terminology." Will he, then, pay Englishmen
the compliment of admitting that he did so because the
" exact thoughts which it expresses " were " absent from "
his " own intellectual armoury " ? If not, how shall we apply
his dictum to the apostles? (2) The New Testament has
been translated into upwards of 300 languages. Have the
translators adopted all the heathen ideas "embedded " in the
foreign terminology they have used? If not, how shall we
apply the new law to the Septuagint version, in which Logos
appears some hundreds of times ? Unfortunately the law so
lucidly proclaimed in 1892 has been too often assumed in
Biblical criticism, and pagan ideas have thus been read into
the words of men who abhorred them. Christian theology
has suffered much, and still suffers, from this subtle source of
corruption, and the mischief recurs in every country to which
missionaries are sent. They can only use the language of
their hearers, and are sorely perplexed to find out ways of
purging these terms of the false and often vile thoughts
" embedded in them," and of gradually filling them with the
ideas of Christ. That uncultured and prejudiced heathen
peoples should misunderstand their foreign teachers is par-
donable, but that one of the foremost scholars of our genera-
tion should elaborately justify their blunder leaves us divided
between amazement and regret.

THE PERMANENT SIGNIFICANCE OF
THE BIBLE

By EDWARD MEDLEY

The Permanent Significance of the Bible

Has the Bible outlived its welcome? Has it any longer a
living message for mankind ? Is it a force, once powerful,
but now exhausted, to be examined with a merely anti-
quarian interest, as one might examine the literature of an
extinct people, and picture to ourselves its ancient charm,
but for us, here and now, a dead thing?

To hear some of the voices which are clamorous in
the world, one might think that these questions must be
answered in the affirmative. Already the Bible has been
bowed off the active stage ; its funeral oration has been
pronounced, and all its doings are spoken of as being in
the past tense. It has had its day, it is said ; its sceptre
has passed into hands more competent to present-day
affairs ; its kingdom has been given to another. This,
and much else, is now being said ; and yet when we have
taken breath again, and begin to look round, this fact
becomes clear, namely, that whilst the Bible has been
submitted to the fiery ordeal of criticism, legitimate and
illegitimate, ever since its Canon was finally settled, it yet
lives and works with a sort of deathless energy.

Certainly no body of ancient literature has ever under-
gone a scrutiny so varied, so prolonged, and so penetrating as
that which the Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments
have had to endure. Dates, authorship, subject-matter,
history, morality, religious teaching, all these have been
thrown with impartial hand into the crucible ; whatever

68 THE ANCIENT FAITH IN MODERN LIGHT

has not in it an immortal principle ought by this time to
have been consumed. Of this searching critical process
we should not complain. It is everyway right that books,
for which so much is claimed, should be tried in a manner
that would be superfluous in the case of a humbler litera-
ture. If the Scriptures in their substance convey the
mind of God to man, then our faith should be robust
enough to see with equanimity their trial by fire. Of this
we may be assured, nothing of permanent value will suffer
abiding loss — whatever ultimately goes ought to go.

It should not be forgotten that criticism, not too
friendly, has been invited by affirmations made on behalf
of the Bible, which it does not seem to make for itself.
Keen-eyed opponents have been supplied — gratuitously, it
might be said — with material on which to exercise their
skill by those who, if they love the Bible well, love it not
too wisely. Thus it has been affirmed that Moses was the
author of the entire Pentateuch, together, probably, with
the Book of Job ; that the Creation narratives of Genesis
are scientifically accurate, anticipating to a nicety our
latest discoveries. It has been stoutly declared that the
prophetic books were written in their entirety by the great
men whose names they bear, in each case the man being
one, and his book one too. The headings of the psalms
have been taken as authoritative, every psalm, for instance,
attributed to David being from his pen. It has been
urged that quotations which are attributed to names popu-
larly accepted as the authors of them at the time a scrip-
ture was written, without doubt authoritatively declare who
the real authors were. And, finally, as silencing every
objection, the saying, " All scripture inspired of God is
profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruc-
tion in righteousness," has been taken to mean that every
jot and tittle of scripture, as we have it, is so inspired. It
may be, but it is not there said.

THE PERMANENT SIGNIFICANCE OF THE BlBLE 69

These statements, and they might be indefinitely multi-
plied, have supplied only too abundant matter for unfriendly
critics, who, in not a few instances, have deftly handled them
as though they were integral parts of the original record ;
and the disproof of any one of them has been held to be
tantamount to a disproof of Scripture itself. It is as
though the defeat of volunteers, who, unasked, should
have put on the uniform of the regular army, were held to
be equivalent to a defeat of the army itself. In this way
many sincere minds have been disturbed and distressed.

The disturbance and distress are greatly to be deplored,
but surely no thoughtful mind can regret the process by
which Scripture questions have been relieved of extraneous
difficulties. It is a pure gain to have the field cleared of
these most human encumbrances, for they have impeded
the friends of the Bible, and have been a godsend to those
who are hostile to it. The temper of critics, here and
there, is strongly to be deprecated ; but criticism, even of
a drastic sort, may prove to be nothing else than a divine
fire, with which God shall give public proof as to what has
in it His own life and Spirit. Certainly, in spite of all the
conflict which has raged round the Bible, it has been of all
books the most abidingly significant.

Whilst the Scriptures were in the very process of
formation, the early parts profoundly influenced the men
who, in the providence of God, were to become the writers
of the later pages. That is, a mere fragment of the Bible
was a potent element in the education and spiritual prepara-
tion of the great men who are acknowledged to be amongst
the foremost minds of the race. The earlier writers were
evidently well acquainted with the fragments of Scripture
already in existence, whilst they, in their turn, helped to
mould the writers of a later generation. Thus, if we take
a book like that of the prophet Hosea, the date of which

yO THE ANCIENT FAITH IN MODERN LIGHT

can be defined with tolerable precision, we find that he
was evidently acquainted with many of the facts recorded
in the Pentateuch (though we cannot say that he possessed
it in the form we have it). He imports into his work
sayings from the pen of Amos, whilst he himself is used
as a quarry by Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and Zechariah.
These men, forming a group pre-eminent for mental
capacity, moral fervour, and spiritual insight, did not
think it beneath them to embody in their wonderful pages
quotations from the ruder prophet of early Israel. And
when from the Old Testament we turn to the New, the
same fact is in evidence. References to Hosea, direct and
indirect, are found both in the Gospels and the Epistles.
Paul can find nowhere else words better fitted to express
his thought than those of a man who lived and wrought
in the eighth century before Christ.

This is an example the like of which might be multi-
plied. The Scriptures are interknit by an intimate know-
ledge on the part of the writers of them of the work of
those who had gone before. That is, the Bible in its com-
ponent parts was immensely significant to the men who
were themselves amongst the most influential men of the
times in which they lived.

Turning to later ages, we find the book still held its
own. When the Septuagint version was made, the sphere
of Old Testament influence extended amongst Greek speak-
ing peoples ; and many an inquiring mind from amongst
the Gentiles began to turn to the ancient Hebrew literature
as to a light set in a dark place. The instances related in
the New Testament, we may be sure, are but samples of
what was constantly happening ; there were many centurions,
many men of Ethiopia, many Greeks coming up to worship
at the feast, besides those whose cases are recorded there.
Serious minds, feeling the weight of great problems, the
nobler men, who formed the better part of their generation,

THE PERMANENT SIGNIFICANCE OF THE BIBLE 7 1

were glad to find a literature that carried with it a strange
note of authority. It was radically different from the
literature with which they were already acquainted ; much
of that was noble, but it was avowedly a speculation. It
did not say I know, but I think ; not. Thus saith the Lord,
but, The conclusions of reason look in this direction or in
that. Men were weary and burdened, and it was con-
solatory to them to find a body of writings which professed
to relate the actions of God in history, and to record the
sayings of men who were filled with a Spirit divine.

In the early years of the second century of our era the
New Testament was practically complete ; though the Canon
was not finally settled, the books, very much as we have
them, had taken their place as a religious literature without
a rival. That far-reaching principle of the survival of the
fittest had operated ; out of a most diverse literature the
Gospels, the Acts, the Epistles, and the Apocalypse had
emerged as the best of their sort that the world contained.

A dark time was in store for mankind ; the great
structure of the Roman Empire began to rock towards
its fall, and it looked as though the Christian Churches
scattered over the length and breadth of it would be
involved in the general ruin ; but as it was said of the
City of the Seven Hills, so long as the Colosseum stands
Rome shall stand, so it might have been said of Christianity,
so long as the Scriptures stand the Christian faith shall
stand also. Through the dreary chaos of a dissolving
state the Bible held its own, and men found in its messages
strong consolation and clear guidance for their time of need.

In process of time a great change came about. For
the Christian ministry a priestly hierarchy was gradually
substituted ; the Church began to gather to herself an
authority over men which previously had been reserved
for the Scriptures, as containing a divine word, or for
Christ Himself The Bible fell into the background, its

72 THE ANCIENT FAITH IN MODERN LIGHT

main use being to supply a repertory of proof texts where-
with to sustain the enormous claims which the Church, or
the clergy as representing the Church, put forth. In fact,
the Scriptures, and even Christ Himself, became subordinate
to that Church which was supposed to exist only by means
of their teaching and His living rule. Yet even in those
days, when the book, as a whole, seemed shorn of its power,
it exerted a penetrating influence.

Its precepts and spirit touched the law, and infused a
tenderer tone into the harsh body of Roman jurisprudence ;
it taught men to love mercy as well as justice. In places
of religious retreat, to which men, despairing of the times,
had repaired, copies of the Scriptures were to be found ;
these were read and studied, and deeply influenced men
who, with many faults, were yet amongst the better spirits
of their time. Even in the very thick of what are called
the Dark Ages, there never failed a succession of godly
people whose best life was fed from the life of God in
the Scriptures, The lamp burned low, but it was never
extinguished.

Men like Bernard of Clairvaux, Francis of Assisi,^
and Louis of France, masters of men as they were, looked
to the Bible for light and guidance. No doubt in some
ways they terribly misread it, and, armed with a text, they
disavowed some of the fairest elements of the life of man
as God made it. But, be this as it may, they were deeply

^ It is related that on one occasion an inquirer, Bernard by name,
came to the cell of St. Francis with the question, what should a man do
who had received from the Lord possessions which he wished no longer
to keep? to whom the saint replied, "We will go at morning-tide to the
church, and will learn, through the holy gospel book, as Christ taught
His disciples." And in the early morning they two, inquirer and teacher,
went to the church and prayed the Lord that He would vouchsafe to
show them His will by the first opening of the book. So the story runs ;
and, whether true or untrue, shows how the hearts of good men turned
in a dark age to the Bible, as to a light shining in a dark place. See
S/otcs and Saints, by Baldwin Brown,

THE PERMANENT SIGNIFICANCE OF THE BIBLE 'J ^

affected by the book ; it helped to shape and inspire them,
as they, in their turn, helped to shape and inspire whole
generations in mediaeval Europe.

Later came the revival of learning called the Renais-
sance : that movement, south of the Alps, shaped itself into
a study of the ancient pagan literature ; men holding high
office in the papal Church, whilst they retained the names
that belonged to the Christian faith, drew their real
inspiration from the poets and philosophers of the Greek
and Roman world ; they were baptized pagans, only they
were baptized first and became pagan afterwards. But,
north of the Alps the Renaissance meant a return to the
primary Christian literature. The Bible came forth from
its comparative obscurity ; in this matter Erasmus was
at one with Martin Luther, for he did noble service in
giving the Scriptures to the people. His appeal against
Pope and Church was to Christ and His apostles. The
Reformation was really due to the impulse which the
study of the Bible created. Men, sick at heart, desiring
religion, and yet repelled by the narrowness and greed of
churchmen, turned to the book, and found there the
undimmed revelation — God in creation, God in history,
God in prophecy, and, finally, God in His Son. The Bible
became more and more the people's book, and proved itself
living and capable of putting forth energy ; it moulded the
best life of Teutonic and Anglo-Saxon Europe. It is a
plain fact of history that the race which, with all its faults,
has more virile energy than any other, the race which has
conquered India, peopled an American continent, and is
now peopling Australia, New Zealand, and habitable Africa,
is the race that has preserved the Bible as an open book.
It is found in countless homes, and in quiet hours is the
chosen companion and counsellor of all sorts and conditions
of men. In spite of continual attacks, in spite of that
spiritual apathy which is immeasurably more dangerous

74 THE ANCIENT FAITH IN MODERN LIGHT

than any direct attack, it is more widely circulated and
read than any other book in the North American continent
and in these British Isles.

Moreover, it has this singular distinction, the Bible is
not the possession of any one class. There are ancient
classics that are part of the paid-up literary capital of the
race ; they are known and valued by educated men, and
deservedly exert a large influence, but in a direct way they
do not affect the million. The labouring man is not
acquainted with Thucydides ; he knows nothing of the
philosophy of Plato or the ethics of Aristotle ; Socrates is
a name to him, and nothing more. But the Scriptures, in
countless instances, are fixed in his memory ; his language,
in its nobler parts, has been moulded by them ; Scripture
phrases are welded into his speech ; he is prepared for life
and death by the words he finds there.

Use and wont blind us to the significance of the fact,
that every Lord's day throughout the habitable globe there
are to be found assemblies of men and women engaged,
with more or less seriousness of attention, in listening to
the Bible read in their hearing. No doubt, to some extent,
this is done in obedience to a conservative instinct which
loves to preserve an ancient custom because it is ancient ;
and it is done, further, under the influence of great historic
Churches which have woven Scripture into the order of
their public service, that order holding apart from the
active assent of those who use it. But, making all
allowance for these collateral influences, the fact still
remains that people, gentle and simple, people endowed
with the latest culture and people plain and unadorned,
are found ready to listen, often with great inward comfort
and manifest delight, to words taken from a literature, part
of which dates back nearly three thousand years ago.

And this public reading of the Christian Scriptures is
rooted in a private reading which is quite as wonderful.

THE PERMANENT SIGNIFICANCE OF THE BIBLE 75

Some people read the Bible in a dull mechanical way ;
some people read it as though the mere fact that they had
read so much would be credited to their account in the
final audit ; some people read it because of the music of
its songs, the simplicity of its narratives, the splendour of
its prophetic diction, for, as we have it in our tongue, it is
a well of English undefiled. But how many are there who
read it because, as they believe, it speaks to them from God,
it conveys His mind, and enshrines the great facts of His
redemption ? In their times of stress and trouble, in the
sunshine of prosperity and in the dark shadows of adver-
sity, they say of it, as David did of the sword of Goliath,
" Give me that ; there is none like it ! "

The Bible at this present has penetrated every sphere
of civilised life. It has inspired art and moulded law ;
it has lifted up the moral standard of the race. Some
acquaintance with it is part of a liberal education. Its
phrases are embedded in our speech. They have become
l)art of the current coin into which is minted man's highest
wisdom. Men quote it without knowing the source upon
which they have drawn ; it has been used in the Senate
house and the great assemblies ; orators have found in it
some of their finest illustrations and most pertinent appli-
cations. And, more than all, men have discovered in it,
so they believe, the answers to their most vital questions.
It has deepened their sense of spiritual need, and then
satisfied it. In the book they have heard the voice of
their God and Saviour.

This brief sketch indicates the position which the Bible
has held in the past. The verdict is decisive — of all books
the Bible has been the most significant. Omit all refer-
ence to it, suppose that by some intolerable catastrophe
every trace of it had vanished from the world, then the
student of history would find himself face to face with an
insoluble perplexity. He would be compelled to suppose

76 THE ANCIENT FAITH IN MODERN LIGHT

the existence of a power in human life which had com-
pletely disappeared from it. As the astronomer, from the
variations in the course of a planet, deduces the existence
of another body not then visible, so the historian would
have to conceive to himself an extinct literature which had
proved itself the greatest factor in the making of the most
pregnant movements of history. He would have, as it were,
to re-create the book, passages from which are inscribed on
every great landmark in the progress of mankind. So
much is clear, in the past the Bible has exerted an un-
rivalled influence.

From these facts can the horoscope of the future be
cast ; can it be said that a book that has been thus powerful
shall continue to exert an influence coeval with the race?
Is the Bible like the sun, which shall bless the earth with
its light and heat so long as the present system of things
shall continue ? Or is it like some cosmic force, which
once wrought powerfully in the formation of the globe,
but now has become quiescent, and can no longer be
counted upon as an active energy ?

Certainly this generation is being told by voices that
do not lack assurance that less and less will the Bible exert
an influence upon the lives of men. By a curious con-
fusion of thought, for which the friends of the Bible are
themselves, to some extent, answerable, it has been im-
agined that a more accurate knowledge of the methods of
its composition rob it of its value. It is as though a sounder
acquaintance with the w^ay in which our earth came to be,
a more perfect mapping out of geological processes and
periods, would rob our hills and valleys of their beauty,
and make our fields less fruitful.

These questions and affirmations can only be satis-
factorily answered by an examination, however brief, of
the reasons that have given the Christian Scriptures their

THE I'ERMANENT SIGNIFICANCE OF THE J5IRLE //

present hold upon the world ; though it might be said
beforehand that it is not unreasonable to suppose that a
literature which has become wrought into the very roots of
human life and thought has in it elements that cannot die.
We must part with our sober judgments if, in a panic, we
are to give up as a dead thing a book which, from the
composition of its first fragmentary pages up to this pre-
sent hour, has never ceased to be living and to put forth
energy. After all, men may be foolish, but the race is not
in this way befooled. Time tries all things. The things
that can be shaken disappear, and, as they vanish, make
only more evident the things that cannot be shaken. These
remain, and the Bible remains amongst them.

]^lrst amongst the reasons that have secured for the
Bible its pre-eminence, is its literary beauty. It is some-
times said that if only men get the truth, it is of no moment
in what form it is presented ; if the meal be good, it can be
served up as well on delf as on china. But the parallel
is misleading, for there is an essential connection between
matter and language. Style is much more than a mere
trapping, which can be dispensed with and the substance
remain intact ; it is thought in visible and audible expres-
sion. Men are right when they expect that revelation shall
ally itself with fitting language, and that great truths shall
be set forth in a way that is great. As a matter of fact,
there is (happily) no exception to the law that poor litera-
ture dies off. If a book is to live, it must be good of its kind.

The Bible submits to this demand ; held together by an
inner unity of thought and of purpose, it is yet infinitely
varied, and in it every note is touched, from a limpid sim-
plicity to the flashing splendours of the most fervent speech
human lips can frame. With what dignity is the Creation
story related in the Book of Genesis ; the subject and the
language march abreast. The narratives of the patriarchs
are as though they fell from the lips of some heaven-born

78 THE ANCIENT FAITH IN MODERN LIGHT

speaker, who relates by the camp-fires the incidents that
befell his fathers. Not a word can bear omission ; very-
few descriptive epithets are employed, and yet in the end
the reader becomes possessed of a human character. He
sees rising before him a man with distinctive qualities who
brings his lesson with him. We discover, without being
directly bidden to note it, the faith of Abraham ; the tough
secular temper, touched with grace, of Jacob ; the frank,
generous triviality of Esau ; the purity of Joseph, who was
at once a man of the world and a man of God. Moses
appears a superb figure, yet not superhuman, rather a most
human soul, gradually trained to become the prophet and
father of a nation ; a man of ample powers, yet gracious
and pitiful, having compassion on the ignorant and them
that were out of the way.

These men, notable as they were, do yet tread the solid
earth. Let a critical reader carefully consider such a narra-
tive as that which relates Abraham's purchase of a burial-
place for his wife from Ephron the Hittite, in which the
colours are as fresh as though laid on but yesterday ; or
the story of Joseph and his brethren ; or the brief paragraph
that relates how Moses courteously helped the daughters of
Jethro, and protected them from the boorish rudeness of
the shepherds, — and then ask himself whether he is not
dealing with men who were of God's nobility, and yet were
bone of our bone and flesh of our flesh. The vehicle is
exactly suited to the subject which it has to convey ; it is
artless, and yet reaches the end of the highest art. Such
narratives the world will not let die.

Or let him turn to the pages of the prophets. Without
doubt their style is very varied. Hebrew literature, like all
other, has its ruder period, its golden age, its time of de-
cadence ; and these are to be discovered in the prophetic
books. But it may fairly be affirmed that no other body
of literature contains, within so small a compass, so much

THE PERMANENT SIGNIFICANCE OF THE BIBLE 79

that is penetrating, magnificent, and sublime. Under the
influence of historical criticism some of the prophetic books
have been rediscovered for our generation. They have been
put back into their actual setting, and educated men have
confessed that they did not know what a wealth of imagery,
what intense realism, what moral fervour, what a noble trust
in God, are to be found in them.

Take but one example from the Minor Prophets.
Habakkuk lived and wrote, probably, at the close of the
seventh century B.C. The conditions of his life were about
as different from our own as it is possible to conceive ; and
yet let a man who is perplexed and staggered by what is
permitted under the government of God turn to his pages,
he will find set forth, in language that is immortal, the
struggles of a soul that felt as he feels, facing his doubts,
and slowly beating his music out, until he reaches the haven
of a perfect trust. Such a man is indeed our brother — we
clasp hands across the centuries : a trust such as his is the
goal of all philosophy and of all religion.

Perhaps the most modern book in the Old Testament
is the Book of Job. It is fearless in its expression of those
questions which, above all, beset and perplex the good.
It refuses the common-place solutions with which men try
to silence the anguished cries of the conscience, it even
vindicates them. In the end, the much-tried sufferer is
righted by God Himself, and he becomes the intercessor
for his well-meaning but tedious and exasperating friends.
All is handled with a breadth of view, a wealth of imagery,
and a splendour of diction that sets the book in the front
rank of the dramatic literature of the world.

The Psalms contain a body of devotional literature
which is unique. In a manner they are dateless com-
positions ; it is of comparatively small moment when they
were written or by whom. Feeling, experience, despair,
and trust — these belong to a world in which already time

8o TIIK ANCIENT FAITH IN MODERN LIGHT

is no more. It adds to the interest of the 23rd Psalm
if we can be assured that it was written by David ; the
90th Psalm becomes more significant if we can believe
that Moses was its author, and that he wrote it as he led
the Israelites up and down the aimless wilderness. But
such points are not vital ; they do not affect the tender
sweetness, the quiet trust of the one psalm, nor do they
make the other less fitted to express man's sense of his
mortality ; its words fall upon our ear like the tolling of a
funeral bell ; nowhere else is the brevity of man's life and
the eternity of God so set forth. The Psalms have sup-
plied the battle songs to men fighting for home and freedom,
they have been sung in the hour of victory, and men have
gone down to the grave with the words of them upon their
lips. And these things have been so because, amongst
other reasons, they supply the most exquisite vehicle for
the expression of spiritual experience which the world
contains. This is but to say that in their way, and for
their end, they are perfect as literature. Put them away,
and one great aspect of the deeper life of man would cease
to find its final setting forth.

From a literary point of view the New Testament
stands upon a somewhat different level from that occupied
by the Old. The Gospels (as we shall see more fully —
later) are dominated by one supreme personality, and the
function of the evangelists is to set down, without pre-
judice, what they had seen and heard concerning Him.
The writer has to be obliterated by his subject ; rhetoric,
finished phrases — these have their value, and are not to be
despised ; but they are out of place when a man has to tell
of the things which Jesus began both to do and to teach.
When heaven comes down to this world, we do not want
to know what the recording angel may think of the
apocalypse, but what actually happens, and this is what
the evangelists have succeeded in describing. With an

THE PERMANENT SIGNIFICANCE OF THE IHBLE 8 1

unfailing self-restraint, without adjectives or marks of
admiration, with a transparent simplicity, they have
sketched a perfect life, lived under the ordinary con-
ditions of humanity. They have done what was never
done before or since, they have made actual a figure
which without their words could only have been thought
of as ideal. The humanity and the Deity are unimpaired,
and stand in unimagined combination ; they coalesce, and
yet the orb of each is complete. Many persons are
introduced into the Gospel narratives, many characters are
developed, but nothing is permitted to interfere with the
main purpose, which is to set forth the Christ ; we see
no man save Jesus only.

It is vain to tell us that the Greek of the evangelists
is poor, lacking classical finish ; that sentences are often
rude, and that Aramaic phrases abound : all such criticism
is a triviality, — the main end is accomplished, and that
it is, means that the writings that do it are of the very
highest order.

In the Epistles the reader moves again in a different
field. In them history is subordinate ; broken threads of
it can be discovered here and there and pieced together ;
there are personal references, but the main purpose of
the apostolic letters is to unfold and develop the signi-
ficance of the facts which the Gospels supply. These
facts are not exhausted when they are narrated, they
do not end in themselves, and by a necessary instinct
men look for some light upon the inner meaning of
them. Moreover, the Christian life created new experi-
ences, and these had to be brought into line. And thus,
whilst, like every other part of the Bible, the Epistles of
the New Testament were written with some immediate
purpose in view, — to correct an error, to expand a truth,
or to express affection, — they are yet for all time.

In James the Christian rabbi speaks, in Peter the
6

82 THE ANCIENT FAITH IN MODERN LIGHT

Christian pastor, in John the Christian mystic, in Paul
reason and feehng are fused into an incomparable dialectic.
And whilst it must be admitted that sometimes the fire in
his thought melts the mould of words into which it is cast,
so that the grammarian and verbal commentator are driven
to despair, yet are there passages from the pen of the
Apostle of the Gentiles that hold a supreme place in the
literary treasures of the race. The eulogium upon love,
and the resurrection chapter in the ist Corinthian Epistle,
the apostolic prayer for the Ephesians, and the Epistle
to Philemon, come to mind as examples.

In venturing to speak about the literary element in
the Bible as supplying one source of its permanent
significance, it seems as though an apology were due to the
devout reader, to whom it sounds almost profane to speak
thus about books that for him contain the words of his
Saviour and the messages of redemption ; he becomes
impatient about a point of view that seems to give
significance to what, after all, in infinite matters, is so
subordinate, that it may well be dismissed. But such
need to remember that the Scriptures have to be con-
sidered as they affect the great common world, into
the thick of which they are cast. If all men had reached
the purely spiritual point of view, then, perhaps, the
literary aspect of the Bible might be put aside. But all
men have not reached that point, they are attracted or
they are repelled by the vehicle in which divine things
are conveyed to them. If the Scriptures, as literature,
had not risen above the level of the Koran or Mormon
Bible, we may be quite sure that they would have been
neglected. Even in them the heavenly treasure is com-
mitted to an earthen vessel ; but that vessel is of great
fitness and beauty. It has attracted, and it will not
cease to attract, all sorts and conditions of men who are
open to the influence of cadence and of rhythm, of sweet

THE PEKMAXKNT SIGNIFICANCE OF THE BIBLE S^

thoughts sweetly spoken, of a noble message nobly
expressed.

From the literary aspect of the Bible we may advance
to the historic, as supplying another reason for belief in
its permanent significance. It is native to the mind of
man to desire to know how things came to be. We cannot
contemplate a great building, a venerable form of govern-
ment, or an ancient philosophy, without desiring to know
who were the founders and builders of them ; we would
see the process of their formation and growth. Looked
at from this point of view, the Bible is a unique book of
origins ; it alone supplies some account of the beginnings of
certain facts which are of pre-eminent moment to mankind.

It opens with the story of the creation of the world
and of man. The story is composite, and bears evidence
of points of contact with other cosmogonies, the biblical
account being peculiar in this, that it is free from puer-
ilities ; it moves with unequalled dignity, and it is so
composed as not to compel to any one theory of the
mode of creation, whilst it maintains intact the primary
facts of a Creator distinct from His works, and a creation
produced by an orderly process of development which
makes man the summit and crown of the whole creative
movement. It is a record that can be appreciated by
the unlettered man, conveying to his mind certain cardinal
truths ; and yet it appeals no less to the man who has
already learned much from the records embedded in the
strata of the earth, and from the advancing formations of
animal life.

No doubt there have been biblical commentators, more
courageous than wise, who have tried to compel the Crea-
tion story to move to their music ; they have boldly made
it a partisan, and it has suffered obloquy when they have
suffered defeat. But when one asks how better could some

84 THE ANCIENT FAITH IN MODERN LIGHT

rough outline of the creative process be conveyed to man-
kind in a way that should have a message for all men, our
question gets no reply.

The story is told, not prosaically, not scientifically, but
dramatically— that is, in a human way, in which great facts
are rather shadowed forth than closely described. The
end being to teach us that the builder and maker of all
things is God ; that He works from the rudimentary to the
complex ; and that, at last, man appeared upon a stage
already prepared for his advent, akin to the earth he trod
and yet akin to the God that made him ; a living soul,
innocent, free, open to temptation, capable of rising, no
less of falling, the one possibility involving the other.
This creature of God is tempted from without ; tried, but
not coerced, he yields, and in yielding casts the blame,
as ever, upon another. And thus sin came into the
world, and the Creator, if He is not to be defrauded of
His choicest work, must become Redeemer. The record
of the Fall, God being of an infinite compassion, supplies
the preface to the story of Redemption.

Passing from the beginnings of all history, there stand
now two facts which dominate the religious interests of
mankind — these are Judaism and Christianity. Whatever
may be men's attitude with regard to them, these two facts
remain unmoved ; they are not subjective developments,
which may be true for one man but of no moment to his
neighbour ; they are the master facts in religion, and man
by nature is a religious being.

We know that when man advanced above the low
levels of animal life, and began to look about him ; when
he saw the wide heavens, and the great stars, and the
glowing sun ; when he felt the forces of nature play round
him, and marked the succession of the seasons, seedtime
and harvest, summer and winter, — then his thoughts took
shape, he filled the world with gods grotesque and loath-

Till-: rERMANENT SIGNIFICANCI'. OF THE niliLl-: 85

some, or of exquisite beauty ; he pictured to himself lords
many and gods many. On the plains of Babylonia, by
the sea-coasts of Palestine, in I'^gypt, and in sunny Greece,
men worshipped gods and demi-gods innumerable. Art,
science, philosophy — all these were powerless to clear the
world's Pantheon. Presently there appeared, situated
geographically right in the very thick of the ruling nations
of the world, a handful of people, l^y race they were akin
to their Semitic neighbours ; they were a pastoral and
agricultural people, not clever in the arts, not conversant
with philosophy ; living for generations in a rude way, such
luxuries as they had being imported. But in one point
they differed from all other peoples about them, they wor-
shipped one God ; in a world full of polytheists they were
monotheists. That is a remarkable fact. They had their
lapses ; but spite of these, they gradually grew firmer in
their faith. Political deterioration and ruin did not hinder
their religious advance. Finally, they cast away all other
gods, and worshipped the one God, Jehovah the God of
Israel.

The attempt has been made to explain this wonderful
difference between the Jews and their neighbours on the
ground of what has been called the Semitic instinct.
Different races, it has been said, possess different char-
acteristics ; some are more religiously disposed than others ;
some, under the influence of a prolific imagination, are
polytheists, whilst the Semite was naturally given to mono-
theism. But the facts do not sustain this ingenious
suggestion. The Semitic nations of Syria, Phcjenicia, and
Mesopotamia were polytheists, like the rest of mankind.
They worshipped Dagon, Ashtaroth, and Baal.^ What,
then, made the difference ; what gave rise to monotheistic

* "Anion.L(st the theocratically Ljovcrncd nations of the East, the
Hebrews seem to us as sober men anions^ drunkards" (Lotze, Micro-
cosmus, vol. ii. p. 267, Eng. trans.).

86 THE ANCIENT FAITH IN MODERN I.TGIIT

Judaism ? The Bible, and tlic Bible alone, gives the
answer.

It relates the history of Abraham — his call, his separa-
tion from his polytheistic kindred, his migration, and the
rise of the Jewish race. It describes, in broad outlines,
here and there more detailed, the long process of education
through which the Hebrew nation passed. We see them
at times lusting exceedingly after other gods, trying to
unite the worship of Baal with the worship of Jehovah;
we see the revelation becoming clearer, their hold upon
it more firm, until at last, though politically a discredited
people, they appear as the guardians of the one funda-
mental truth which carries within itself all else — God is
one and His name one.

After Judaism, the next great religious fact is Christianity.
It is greater than Judaism, as the finished product is greater
than the raw material wrought up into its substance, or as
the end is greater than the steps by which it has been
reached. Christianity is not an appendix of Judaism,
though there was a time in its history when some would
have made it that ; it is rather its completion, the haven
of its rest. Judaism, in its essential elements, was an ad
intei'ini dispensation ; it was a religion of symbols and
shadows. If nothing had come after it, if it had remained,
as the orthodox Jew of to-day believes it did remain, its
prophecy still unfulfilled, nursing empty hopes and looking
for the consolation of a larger revelation, which, after all,
had never come, then it would have been discredited.

But Christianity has come to be ; it stands in the world
the most significant of all religious facts. It cannot be
denied that it exists, that for many years it has existed,
and that it exerts a most potent influence upon the thought
and the actual life of mankind. For many centuries its
history has been interwoven with the history of the race.
No author who undertakes to give an account of the

THE rKRMANKNT SIGXIFICANCK OF TTTi: rJP.LE Sy

development of national life in I^Lurope and in .America
can afford to ignore it. There is not only the fact that the
peoples, in whose hands are the governing forces of the
world to-day, have covered their lands with sanctuaries
dedicated to Jesus Christ, and that Christian worship binds
the earth together with a girdle of prayer and praise, — there
is the deeper fact, of which such things are the tangible
evidence, that it has laid a powerful hand upon the very
springs of the life of man ; it has moulded philosophies,
inspired art, shaped social customs, changed ideas. The
contrast between the Europe of the first century and the
Europe of the nineteenth, immense as it is, could not be
accounted for upon any theory of natural development,
unless that movement were aided by some such force as
Christianity supplies.

These things being so, it is a singular fact that secular
history, which relates the advance of the Christian faith,
gives the very scantiest account of its origin, gives in-
deed no account at all. There are fragmentary notices in
Josephus and the younger Pliny, there are records of
early persecutions, but no clear, concise, definite account
is obtainable of the beginnings of that new faith which was
presently to shake the Roman world, and finally to seat
itself upon the throne of empire. It seems as though the
men who might have rendered this inestimable service were
smitten with mental blindness ; the whole Christian move-
ment was to them so small, so weak, so entirely unimportant
that it never occurred to them to trace it to its source.
They held it to be a local folly, a provincial fanaticism,
which might well be left alone with good-natured con-
tempt.^ Indeed, there are many evidences that the ruling

1 Mr. Lecky remarks that nothing is more remarkable than the
unconsciousness of pagan writers of the second and third centuries of
the power that was growing up amongst them prior to the hour of
its triumph.

88 THE ANCIENT FAITH IN MODERN LIGHT

powers in the first century desired to let it severely alone ;
but when Christianity became strongly aggressive, then it
was dealt with, not as a bad religion, but as a political
nuisance, which, for the sake of peace, must be put down
with a strong hand.

Where it came from, how it came to be, its true
relation to Judaism, and the hostility of traditional Judaism
to Christianity — about these questions little inquiry was
made, and the world, with one solitary exception, was
actually left without information as to the source of an
influence which has wrought upon it more powerfully than
any other ; it knew no more about that than did the
Egyptians of the fountainhead of that great river Nile
which assured their country of fertility and wealth.

That one solitary exception was supplied by the historical
books of the New Testament. These tell us of the birth of
the Founder of Christianity ; they relate how, trained in no
human school, in due time He came forth to be the teacher
of a new religion ; they succeed in portraying a unique
figure, absolutely simple and unofficial, with no mark of
conventional authority, living a stainless life, doing deeds
that won for Him the hearts of men ; in His speech moving
easily amidst the sublimest topics, talking of God as His
Father, and of heaven as His home. They relate how,
later, He became the object of suspicion and hatred to the
priesthood of His nation, these never relenting until they
had brought Him to His Cross. With no change of style,
these books, as they have spoken of the Cross and death
and burial of Christ, go on to tell of His resurrection, of
the fellowship which men had with Him after He had
risen, and, finally, of His departure from this visible scene
a living person.

Later, one of the evangelists takes up his pen, and,
with the significant reference to his Gospel as the relation
of that which Jesus began both to do and to teach, — as

THE TERMANKXT SKINIFICANCK OF THE ])n;LE 89

though he were about to continue the story of the same
life, gives an account of the followers of Jesus. They were
very unlike their Master, a truly human combination of
iron and clay and fine gold, making mistakes, failing to
apprehend the full significance of the faith they held,
carried by the irresistible force of circumstances far beyond
the ideas with which they had started, until the circle
widens, and from Jerusalem the new religion spread to
Judea, to Samaria, and, at last, to the Gentile world. The
later history gathers about one man, once intensely hostile,
but presently won over to the faith of Christ ; and we see
him carrying that faith into the ruder parts of what is now
Asia Minor, then pressing forward to the shores of the
^gean Sea, thence making the critical passage to Europe,
founding Christian communities in the chief cities of Greece ;
and finally, though in a manner he had not foreseen, this
man is found in Rome itself, ministering, even in his prison
house, to a Church which he had not founded, but which
owed more to him than to any other Christian teacher.

At that point the narrative breaks off; only by a
careful comparison of notices scattered up and down the
Pauline Epistles can we make out anything of a later date.

But, indeed, nothing further is needed ; our curiosity
desires more, but the necessities of the case have been
answered. The origin of Christianity, its Founder, its
early struggles for existence, its spread throughout the
length and breadth of that empire which was then almost
co-extensive with the known world- — all this is secured to us.
It is for others to say whether this precious fragment of
history sufficiently accounts for what came after, whether it
does or does not supply an adequate starting-point for the
amazing development that followed. But this much is
clear, the book that contains it must be of permanent
significance to every generation of men. It is inconceiv-
able that so priceless a record should be permitted to drop

90 THE ANCIENT FAITH IN MODERN LIGHT

into oblivion. By reason of the missing link in the world's
deepest history which it supplies, the Bible stands, and
must stand, a volume of inestimable worth.

In dwelling thus upon the literary and historical value
of Holy Scripture as sustaining a belief in its continued
pre-eminence, the subject has moved on lower levels, which
cannot, however, be omitted from our survey, for they
furnish the foot-hills of a loftier range. There follows the
consideration of the moral and spiritual worth of the Bible
as making it certain that it shall live and work so long as
man exists upon this earth. The moral and the spiritual
shade off by imperceptible degrees into each other ; together
they form the religious, but it is convenient to view them,
to some degree, as distinct.

By the moral is meant, in the first instance, that which
has to do with manners, or, deeper, with the quality of
conduct ; by moral law is meant that complex of laws that
should rule the complex of conduct. Man is a creature
possessing a conscience and freedom ; he is a moral being.
As such, in spite of his frightful lapses, his immoralities,
his fallen estate, he has, in the person of his best men,
elaborated ethical systems ; he has devised schemes of
conduct, and pictured to himself ideals ; he has felt the
force of that word — ought, which seems to set up a
standard outside himself, indicating what he should do,
and what he should abstain from doing. And thus,
throughout the ages, in nearly every land, great moral
teachers have arisen. It would be wrong to condemn
them, or to pay them but a grudging homage ; it would
be untrue to say that outside Scripture all is dark, and
within all is luminous ; there are bright points outside the
Bible, and there is twilight within it. But in these matters
we must judge, not by the steps of a process so much as
by the end arrived at. It is conceivable that at points the

tup: pkrmanknt significance of the bible 9 1

lower system may outstrip the hitrher, and yet itself, in the
end, be wholly surpassed. And thus it has been, when we
take the best of the world's moral teaching, so far as we
can disentangle it from Christian ethics, and put it side by
side with the final moral teaching of the Bible, then there
can be no question where the pre-eminence and perfection
lie. This must be looked at somewhat in detail, for there
has been not a little confusion of thought.

The Bible has been spoken of as though it were what
the Mohammedan holds the Koran to be — a book of an
equal moral value all through. Leviticus and Esther have
been put upon the level of the Epistle to the l^^phesians or
the Gospel of John. It has been imagined that if it came
from God, then every part must be, not simply relatively
perfect or good for its end, but absolutely so. Which is as
much as to say that the bud, the blossom, the inchoate form
are as the fruit which comes at the end of the series ; that
the babe and the child are as the full-grown man.

When once this conception has been adopted, then
there follows, of necessity, a perversion of facts and of
moral judgments in order to sustain it. The lives of the
patriarchs, not only in some noble element in them which
the Divine I'rovidence was educating and perfecting, but in
the details of conduct, have been held up as models for
Christian men in the nineteenth century. The wars of
early Israel have been supposed to give a divine sanction
to racial cruelties ; slavery has been supported out of the
Bible ; the imprecatory psalms have been defended in a
way that has been something other than a defence of
healthy, righteous indignation. In a word, it has been
supposed that the Author of revelation has been honoured,
and His cause defended, by ignoring that process of gradual
development and enlightenment which reigns supreme in
every other field of the divine activity.

The effect of this method of handling Scripture has

92 THE ANCIF.XT FAITH IN MODERN LIGHT

been painfully disastrous. Opponents have not been slow
to avail themselves of it, and have put disturbing, and even
unanswerable, questions. They have won an easy victory
by asking whether a man who should act as some of the
early patriarchs are reported to have done would now be
permitted to exist outside bedlam or a prison ; or whether
wars conducted on the lines of the Hebrew invasion of
Canaan would not now awaken universal execration.

The remedy is to let the book speak for itself, — to view
it as a whole, which, growing slowly through the centuries,
begins with Adam and ends with Christ. The wider
survey reveals the fact, which becomes increasingly clear
as it is considered, that we have in it the record of a
growing moral enlightenment,— an enlightenment which
has been gained, both through the workings of Providence
in human history, and by luminous teaching dropped into
that course from above. It has been well said that the
general formative truths of the Old Testament were pro-
gressive forces in early history. The story of the creation,
which has been already touched upon in another connec-
tion, has been of inestimable service to the moral progress
of mankind. It reveals, in a unique way, God as Creator,
and as akin to man ; it indicates the source of evil in the
world as springing from man's abuse of freedom ; it is
dead against fatalism, idolatry, pantheism, and atheism.

The story of the Jewish people, though in parts sad
reading, is the story of a slow but real growth in moral
ideals. The nation is seen gradually ceasing to be a wild
and savage horde, difficult to govern, and ever ready to
drop into abominable excesses. Step by step it emerged
into a condition in which a higher law obtained, and men
acknowledged the claims of righteousness. It was a true
instinct that led the Jews to group their historical Scrip-
tures with the prophetic books, for they are written mainly
from the prophetic standpoint : policies are judged, kings

THE PERMANENT SIGNIFICANCE OF THE IJIIJLE 93

and the rise and fall of nations, according as they discover
obedience or disobedience to divine law, so far as that was
then revealed. Political wisdom was conceived of as sub-
mission to the will of God, and political astuteness, however
keen, was held to be but unwisdom if it rebelled against
that.

The prophets, as a class, were found in Israel alone.
Other nations had their soothsayers, their astrologers and
stargazers, — the Jews themselves were not without a taste
for such professors of black arts, — but the prophets are not
to be confounded with these men. The prophet was a
man possessed by a vivid consciousness of the presence 01
the living God, before whom, in his thought, he ever stood.
If need were, he could stand up alone against king, priest,
and people ; he spared none, his passion was for righteous-
ness. There are words in the old prophetic books of the
Bible that are amongst the very finest pleas for just laws,
honest judges, a respect for the poor, a care for the outcast,
for social righteousness. The moral fervour of the prophet
was amazing ; it lifted him above all externals. With purged
eyes, penetrating into the heart of things, he declared that
religious worship, the trampling of temple courts, sacrifices,
and incense were an abomination when allied with iniquity.
It were useless to mourn and fast and smite the breast, and
then use a false balance and light weights. To praise God
in a psalm, and then to exact the last farthing of usurious
interest, was infinitely worse than to be a dumb dog in
religion all your days.

It was this blending together of social duties with the
sense of God, making them part of His service, that set the
prophet a man by himself — a veritable word of the Lord,
quick and powerful. lie saw that worship, precious as it
is, is but a means to an end, and that end is that men
should do justly, love mercy, and walk humbly with God.
God was in the heaven, yea, the heaven of heavens could

94 THE ANCIENT FAITH IN MODERN LIGHT

not contain Him, but He was to be obeyed in this present
secular world by the homely graces of truthfulness, kindli-
ness, and faithfulness to duty.

Other nations had noble minds that built up in a philo-
sophic way ethical systems ; other nations had patriotic
leaders and righteous men ; but the Jew only had the pro-
phetic man, who, knowing little of schemes of ethics, and often
but little of policies, did yet surpass all others in his know-
ledge of human duty as an interpretation of God's will into
conduct. In the Old Testament the moral trend is upward.
We do not find in it the perfect ideal, but we do find in it
that ascending movement which prepared for it that shining
stairway by which one passes from the Decalogue to the
Sermon on the Mount. God was at work from the earliest
dawn of the race, beginning with man as He found him,
and with infinite patience leading him forward, preparing
him for the larger revelation and the perfect redemption,
even as the dawn prepares for the coming of the day.

If we once admit that God has mankind under training,
the lessons of necessity starting from the lower levels ; and,
further, that the Old Testament contains the critical pas-
sages in the earlier parts of this educative process, — then we
are bound to look for a consummation, and it is this which
the New Testament supplies. We have there what has
been called the ultimate morality, which took up into itself
the best of all that had gone before. There is nothing
original in this sense that it can afford to dissociate itself
from all that precedes it ; to imagine such a thing is to
condemn the past, and the Maker of it, in order to glorify
the present. In this sense, then, of dissociation from the
past, New Testament morality is not original ; but it is
original in this, that it possesses a perfect balance, a
rounded completeness ; that it makes the principle of faith
a motive force in morals ; and that it is expressed, not
simply in a succession of precepts, but in the character

THE PERMANENT SIGNIFICANCE OF THE BIBLE 95

and conduct (jf a person. One at length appeared who
could say, If you would be good, follow Me ; do as I do, be
as I am, and you will fulfil all moral law.

This balance and completeness of New Testament
morals gives the book a unique value. As a rule, ethical
teachers have tried to enforce their views of duty by the
exaggeration of one aspect of conduct to the detriment of
others equally important, or by restricting themselves to a
single section of society. One deals with men and masters,
but has little to say about women, and nothing about the
slave. Another emphasises manners, but pays little atten-
tion to the real core of conduct, the motive and the heart.
Still another would have a man create for himself an
impossible world, in order that he may the better culti-
vate his own character. Life — rough, secular life — is felt
to be an evil not to be overcome ; it must therefore be
evaded, in order to be good. Or the body is held to be
the original seat and source of evil, and therefore, in the
name of a higher good, must be denied its rights and put
under ban. Whole schemes of morals have been built up
which omit God, whilst others have so leaned towards the
divine aspect that they no longer walk this solid earth ;
they lack the practical note. It is only by a tedious com-
bination, a sort of eclectic policy, that out of the moralities
with which the world abounds a rounded and balanced
teaching can be constructed.

In the New Testament all is different ; it lays its hand
upon every section of society ; it does not legislate for a
class, but for all, because it deals with man as man. The
body is respected, and the common life of the world. Man
is held to be a creature belonging to two worlds, having
duties to his fellows, to himself, and to his God. What a
man is stands there above what he does, and yet conduct
is not neglected. The Sermon on the Mount, with its
beatitudes, its heavenly air, its glorious ideals, is not con-

96 THE ANCIENT FAITH IN MODERN LIGHT

tradicted by the plain homespun of Paul's exhortations to
diligence, to sobriety, to the modest mind ; or by his appeals
to masters and servants, to husbands and wives and chil-
dren. Together they form a perfect whole ; or better, here
is a world with plenty of sky-room above it, and sunshine
over all. What has appeared to be an insoluble difficulty
has been overcome ; body and soul, earth and heaven, man
and God, have each received what is due.

But more than this ; in the New Testament the question,
What is goodness ? is answered, not only by a wide variety
of precepts and ideals (which are precepts glorified), but by
the presentation of a Person who did Himself exemplify
all that He taught. He was the only teacher that the world
has ever had who was Himself all that He demanded.
" Follow Me " was with Him the sum-total of duty.

As men stand before the figure depicted in the Gospels,
they are at once humbled and charmed ; they feel, here is
one immeasurably their superior, and yet not less, but more
human than they are themselves. He did not live by rule
a life of visible, external separation from the world ; He
did not maim one part of Him in order that the rest might
thrive the better. Only let men be what He was, let them
live as He lived, and heaven would be begun.

When He is considered more closely, it is discovered
how far He was from the conventional type of goodness
accepted in His day and country. He differed from it
down to the very roots of character, for He started from
a different conception of God. All about Him were men
honest and sincere, who did verily believe that the way to
please God was to live under the dominion of footrules,
balances, and calendars; with them a day had been well spent
in which, with unspeakable labour and endless caveats, they
had kept within the letter of the law, as that was inter-
preted by the tradition of the elders. He lived amongst
these people, yet He was uninfluenced by them ; in com-

THE PERMANENT SIGNIFICANCE OF THE BIBLE 97

parison, His life was as free as a bird's. He loved nature,
it supplied Him with material for exquisite parables setting
forth God and human duty ; He loved men with a deep
and passionate affection ; He had His intimates, He enjoyed
their companionship ; of one of them it is said, in a truly
human way, that He loved him. In His deepest sorrows
He clung to these men, but His love was wider; it em-
braced all sorts and conditions, even as the heavens over-
span and embrace the earth. He was gracious, unassuming,
always ready to spend and be spent for others, and yet
withal He had a capacity for righteous indignation that
at times flamed up and almost consumed those whom it
touched, Jesus Christ was the incarnation of a perfect
morality, and that fact claims for Him and for the pages
that enshrine Him a certain immortality.

It is said, indeed, that this unique person is a mythical
product, that in process of time, having got hold of a
noble personality, men accumulated imaginary matter about
Him, they added the halo and the nimbus. One would
like to know where are the men who, rising above the
level of human nature, were able by any conceivable process
to create Jesus Christ ; for, if they are to be found, let us
go and worship them. But they are not to be found.
Happily, though in a manner sadly enough, we have plenty
of examples of man's handiwork in this matter. We know
something of the Christ of earthly tradition, we know the
mediaeval Christ, we know the theological Christ, we know
the Christ evacuated of deity in order to save His humanity,
we know the Christ evacuated of humanity in order to save
His deity, and we know that they differ as much from the
Christ of the Gospels as does the stiff and grotesque figure
in a painted window from the living man.

The Christ of the evangelists in the broad outlines of
His character stands shining clear in His own light, the
child, the son, the guest, the citizen, the teacher, the friend,
7

98 THE ANCIENT FAITH IN MODERN LIGHT

the lover of mankind, translating into daily conduct His
own highest utterances, living and dying in such wise as to
supply the final pattern for all human goodness. In Him
the noble outline of the Old Testament is fulfilled, for He
did justly, loved mercy, and walked humbly with God.
He is immeasurably greater than the book that contains
the records of what He was ; He secures for it a perpetual
significance ; it can never be that the world will let fall into
oblivion the words that describe the Son of Man.

The subject of this discussion has now reached its
climax. Man is a spiritual being ; he has commerce with
the invisible, and is at home in the eternal. Supply his
bodily wants, meet his aesthetic tastes, fill him with music
and with song, expand his mind, let him take science and
philosophy as his field, endow him with troops of friends ;
and yet, if this be all, he is discontented, disconsolate, and
these moods of depression deepen into misery and gloom,
and that because the nobler part of him is unmet. Is
there, he asks, one greater than all other, a God ? And if
so, of what sort is He ? How does He regard man ? And
what of these sins : this sense of disobedience that seems
to betoken, not simply an abstract rule of right broken, but
a personal relation violated ?

True, we are told with much elaboration of statement
that tribes of men have been discovered who cannot count
beyond ten, and who appear to know and care nothing
for a God. It is suggested that these are examples of
man in his natural state, unconscious of spiritual needs
and unperplexcd by religion, and that in them the great
problem is stated in its genuine simplicity. And hence,
that the thirst for God and for forgiveness are figments,
concocted by theologians and foolish people of that order.
This is the sort of reasoning that would prove that it is not
native to the eagle to breast the roomy air and gaze upon

THE TERMANKNT SIGNIFICANCE OF THE BIELE 99

the sun, because an eagle has been known to refuse to quit
its cage when the door has been thrown open ; or, that
man, left to himself, loves confinement and hugs his chains
because a captive has been discovered who chose a prison
rather than freedom. The answer surely is that in judging
of mankind from man, he must be looked at when at his best;
and, further, our view must be extended over long spaces
of time and wide areas of this habitable earth. When that
is done, it becomes clear that man stretches out his hands,
after God, if, haply, he may feel after Him and find Him..
The Hebrew psalmist spoke for the race when he cried:.
" My soul thirsteth for God, for the living God."

It is here that the Bible stands unapproachable ; it
handles matters of undying interest ; it is the record of a
divine revelation. Its literary beauty, its historical value,,
its moral worth, are all embraced in this larger purpose ;
they are not unimportant, but they are subordinate.

It is, as this conception is grasped, the Bible, the record!
of a revelation which in its nature is progressive, that wc-
arc able to hold its various parts in due perspective ; there
is found to be an ascending order of values, and the whole
is to be judged by its end. Much that is imperfect, viewed
absolutely, is then discovered to be relatively perfect as a
step in a process, the end of which is the coming of the
Son of God in the flesh.

It opens, not with an argument in favour of theism,
but with the bold declaration, " In the beginning God
created the heavens and the earth " ; it moves forward to
tell the story of lives that are inexplicable without Him.
I le is the one element common to them all ; there is many
a failure, many a gross blot; yet did these men live and
die in the faith that takes hold on God.

Its course expands into the history of a nation of which
hard things can be said, — a dark, perverse, and passionate
people, inferior in many things to the nations in the midst

lOO THE ANCIENT FAITH IN MODERN LIGHT

of which they lived, only by slow and painful steps advanc-
ing to a more spiritual conception of God. In spite of
themselves they were under education, and this singular
fact emerges, that national decay did not mean that the
great lessons of their history had been lost upon them ; for
at last, when they had been reduced in numbers and in
spirit, they were found to have ceased from idolatry, and
to abhor it ; in theory as a whole, and in practice as to
their best men, they became (as we have seen) Monotheists,
who believed that God is, and that He is a rewarder of
them that diligently seek Him.

Their worship, crusted over with formalism as it was,
and defaced by rabbinical tradition, was yet the Avorship
of a God, living, working, ruling, holy, invisible, whose very
name was not to be pronounced by unclean lips. The
moral element shades off into the spiritual, and the Hebrew
psalter, part of it doubtless of a late date, remains the
highest expression of the life of a human spirit in its inter-
course with the Father of spirits. Here, again, God is not
the climax of our argument ; He is a postulate, without
whom the deepest experience of the heart of man becomes
only so much subjective movement, indicative of nothing
save his immense capacity for self-deception ; his anguish
and his tears, his splendid hopes and hallelujah songs,
though they inspire him to faithful living and holy dying,
are but fond things fondly conceived, unless, indeed, there
be a God who loves and saves.

And thus the history reveals God at work in the world,
J;he supreme factor whose power is everywhere ruling and
.overruling in heathen kingdoms as well as in Israel, the
>God of all the earth. The prophets reveal a God of perfect
righteousness, w4io smites the evil-doer, man or people, and
yet withal pities, yearns over the lost, and is ready to
forgive. The law, considered not only in its rudimentary
enactments, but in its expansion in the provisions of the

THE PERMANENT SIGNIFICANCE OF THE BIBLE lOI

priestly code, and all the details of a ceremonial system,
reveals a God educatin<r a dull-hearted people — in part
through the eye, in primary truths about themselves and
Himself. The psalter reveals a God who can commune
with His creatures, holding sweet converse with them,
many psalms being so constructed as to convey the speech
of God to man, as well as the speech of man to God.

The Old Testament is thus in its broad outlines the
record of the various phases of an advancing revelation ; it
deals with subjects that can never fail to interest any man
who thinks and feels and has in him a conscience. But it
lacks finality ; it is as one who stands upon his watch-tower
with his hand shading the eyes, in the attitude of expect-
ancy ; it has what has been called a forward look.

Has that forward look been disappointed ; are hands
still stretched out as in the vacant, irresponsive air?

So far it has been God in history, God inspiring men,
God educating them, God communing with them ; and in
all these acts and persons God has been revealed. Yet not
fully, not in suchwise as that the nameless millions of every
tribe and kindred and tongue could find and know Him.
It were impossible to think that the world were to be
judaised in order to enter the kingdom of heaven. In the
fulness of time there came the final revelation, not God in
the man as He was in the Hebrew prophets and saints, but
God and man for ever become one in Jesus Christ, in whom
we see what God is, and what man was meant to be and
may become. If man had not fallen, perhaps this might
have been all; but man being what he is — a sinner — the
revelation of God that should not blight and destroy, but
bless and save him, must recognise that fact, meet it, deal
with it, forgive and overcome it. The Gospels are the
record of that redeeming revelation of God in a life lived in
this world, ending in a death that was as other deaths, and
yet absolutely different, in that it gathered up into itself

102 THE ANCIENT FAITH IN MODERN LIGHT

elements that express God's judgment upon sin as unspeak-
ably grievous and hateful, His compassion for sinners, and
man's consent through the representative man to the suffer-
ing and sacrifice it involves if it is to be overcome. The
fourfold record ends with the affirmation, variously stated,
that He who died lives again, and doth for ever live.

The Book of the Acts is broadly the record of that
revelation at work in the world, coming into contact with
the Jew, the Samaritan, the proselyte, and the Gentile pure
and simple, and in this way becoming absorbed into the
life-blood of the race. The book looks like a fragment ; it
ends abruptly, as though the author had it in mind to write
further pages, and yet it has a sort of completeness ; it begins
with Jerusalem and Pentecost, and ends with universal
Rome.

The Epistles of the New Testament stand upon a some-
what different plane ; they consist mainly of explanations
of the great redemptive acts of Christ, together with the
application to actual life of the moral standard, which finds
its pattern and inspiration in Him.

These things are infinitely significant, and they impart
something of their own quality to the book that tells the
story of them ; and yet one thing more is needed if we are
to affirm the permanent significance of the Bible. For there
are many pages in history, there are the records of many
lives that move men deeply, they form part of the inalien-
able possession of all the generations ; but they are not
personal to us, they are not in actual vital contact with us
as are our living friends, they can do nothing for us apart
from our own initiative, they do not break down our re-
serves ; unless we take the first step, they are to us as though
they were not. There are many persons who regard the
Christ, about whom the Scriptures finally gather, as they
regard other noble and excellent persons who have lived
and wrought for humanity ; so far as their consciousness

THE PERMANENT SIGNIFICANCE OF THE BIBLE IO3

goes, He is a dead man down in Judca, He can only rule
them from His urn. There is no guarantee that for them
He may not be eclipsed by some other interest, and with
His disappearance the book that tells about Him would
lose its pre-eminence.

But there are other experiences to be met with through-
out the Christian centuries, and to-day they exist the wide
world over. They are in no sense provincial, they are
universal, in that they have been found for nearly two
millenniums, and in all lands. There have been, and there
are, those who affirm that for them Jesus Christ lives, that He
is of all most real, and that they want to give Him of their
very best in the way of reverence, of affection, of trust, of
loyal service and devotion. He is the most potent and
energetic factor in their lives, and, mutatis mutandis, their
experiences are a prolongation of the experiences of the
men and women with whom Christ had to do when on
earth. In some wonderful way the record found in the
written page has actually been the means of setting up a
personal relation, a living experience. In a sense the letter
has given place to the spirit ; that fact makes the letter even
of the Gospels a means and not an end, but at the same
time it invests the letter with perpetual worth.

The Bible has upon it the seal of many and manifold
experiences, it is the vehicle of a revelation which no other
book contains, and this revelation lives and works with
deathless energy. The book li\cs because He lives who
superintented its production, and that Redeemer lives to tell
of whom is its final function. The revelation justifies itself
in changed lives, and conduct set to a heavenly note, in
courage, patience, purity, and homely goodness. And thus
the book stands firm in its own essential fitness and beaut)',
and in the work it accomplishes.

If by an effort of the imagination we could call up to

I04 THE ANCIENT FAITH IN MODERN LIGHT

view some of the countless phases of human experience that
have been created by its words, and could place the record
of them side by side with the printed text, what a volume
we should have ! By this scripture a tempted soul stood
firm ; by this a poor struggler entered into rest ; by this a
golden light broke out upon a clouded world ; by this
despair was conquered and gave place to a peace ineffable ;
yes, and by this a timid heart went forth without a tremor
to meet the shadow feared of man. Indeed, there is no
aspect of our existence in this world that has not been
knit up with the words of the Bible, approving them in
this way to have come from God.

This book, then, is involved in the deepest life of man ;
it at once meets his needs as a sinful creature with the
record of a revelation that justifies itself in his experience,
and it supplies him with the most perfect vehicle the world
contains for the expression of his religious aspirations, his
hopes and fears, his penitence, and his trust.

It is but to expand this fact to say that life finds its
best commentary in the Bible, even as the Bible finds
its best commentary in human life. There is a curious
correlation between the two ; the procession of the ages,
the widening and deepening of experience, do not carry
either the individual or the race beyond Scripture, but
make it more significant. There is surely truth in the
profound observation of Butler, that if the Bible contain a
revelation from God, it may contain truths as yet undis-
covered, and that events, as they come to pass, may open
and ascertain the meaning of Scripture. (See C. A. Row on
Butler, Analogy, pt. II. cap. iii.) The Bible is not a some-
thing outside the order of things, but is itself part and
parcel of that order. It contains the keynote of a process
of revelation which is even now going on, and he who reads
and thinks and prays, keeping an open eye upon events
personal to himself and upon the wider fields of time and

THE PERMANENT SIGNIFICANCE OF THE BIBLE IO5

of the world, will discover an increasing and continuous
correspondence between the book and the life. This is
what might have been looked for if the dispensation of
the Spirit succeeded to the manifestation of the Word
made flesh.

The Bible is literature and more than literature ; it is his-
tory and more than history. It contains the highest morals
in solution, not set forth in a system, but exemplified in
human lives and in a unique life; yet it is more than a
book of morals. It contains the story of the movements
of God in the redemption of mankind ; it gains its author-
ity from the message it conveys ; it is written that men
might believe that Jesus is the Christ, and that believing
they might have life through His name. Until man
ceases to sin, until he ceases to be a creature desiring to
know about the God that made him, and his own origin
and prospects, — until then the Bible will continue to be of
abiding significance to every generation of men ; and as
the knowledge of its contents grows, so will its influence
increase. On its head are many crowns, and of its kingdom
there shall be no end.

NOTE

In this essay the writer has said nothing about the question
of Inspiration ; it has seemed to him unnecessary. Finally,
the Bible will have to be judged as are other books, by its
contents. If these approve themselves, standing the test of
time and of experience ; if in them men find that which,
when accepted, supplies a working scheme for life, peace with
God, and courage in the presence of death, — then theories of
inspiration become subjects of interesting inquiry, but they
are not vital. A genuine faith in Christ will not be gained
through the acceptance of the inspiration of the four Gospels ;
nor will it perish because those Gospels lack some of the

I06 THE ANCIENT FAITH IN MODERN LIGHT

notes which, d priori, have been laid down as essential to it.
It is possible to believe in the inspiration of the Bible
without being able to formulate a theory that shall embrace
all the facts, even as one can believe in the existence of
light without accepting in its entirety the undulatory theory
of its propagation. In a word, the fact and the complete
rationale of it are not to be confounded. It is enough if men
come to see that in some unique way the Bible contains the
word of God.

Ill

THE BIBLE VIEW OF SIN
By ALFRED CAVE

107

Ill

The Bible View of Sin

Time was when the doctrine of sin dominated every system
of theology, and thus, filtering down through pulpit and
school, bulked immensely in the popular mind. To-day it
is commonly asserted that neither the doctrine nor the fact
of sin has its due place in human thinking. To what
extent such a statement is true, possibly He only knows
before whose searching gaze lie bare the secrets of all
hearts. One thing is certain, the subject of Sin is one
of ceaseless interest and importance, opinions thereupon
colouring the entire range of Christian truth as understood
by us. Nor needs more be said by way of emphasising
either the high significance or the awful fascination of our
theme. Moreover, if truth is to be found anywhere upon so
appalling a relation of man to God, it will be found in the
Bible.

First, then, let us consider what the problems are with
which any Doctrine of Sin deals.

And in order to smooth the path to the following
discussion, let a few distinctions be made. By Sin, for
instance, is meant here, transgression of the divine law by
a moral agent. The definition is provisional, and will need
elucidation later on ; but for the present two things arc
regarded as constituting an act sinful, namely, transgression
of a law by a moral agent, and transgression of a divine

109

IIO THE ANCIENT FAITH IN MODERN LIGHT

law. There can be no sin where there is no responsibility.
The transgression of a human law only becomes sin as well
as crime when the relationship of the crime to God is
considered. Again, Evil is what is painful ; Good is what is
pleasurable. But there are varieties of evil as there are
varieties of good, these varieties being classifiable according
to their source. Thus there are physical evil and physical
good, those pains and pleasures, namely, which have their
source in the natural world ; and there are moral evil and
moral good, those pains and pleasures which have their
source in the moral world (wherein it often happens that
physical evil is moral good, and physical good is moral
evil). Further, there are spiritual evil and spiritual good,
those pains and pleasures which have their source in the
spiritual world.

Now, concerning all these three classes of evil many
problems arise, problems which have occupied and agitated
man since ever man was.

For physical evil is known to every man. From the
cradle to the grave pain dogs his steps. The life which
begins in a cry ends in a moan. The painful, what is not
physically good, meets us everywhere. In nature there is
storm as well as calm, disease as well as health. Trees
feed, but poison ; beasts toil, but tear. The genial sky
sometimes thunders, and the quiet sea often raves. All
around, in man's physical environment, are enormities,
discords, dangers. Hail ruins his husbandry; epidemics
destroy his cattle ; lightning rives his dwelling. Moreover,
within as well as without his bodily frame, man is conscious
of improprieties of desire, faults of appetite, taints of blood.
To physical pain of multifarious kinds man knows himself
to be heir. Now what do all this disorder and misery
mean, man cannot but ask.

And moral evil is also known by man. As Harless
has said, in his Christliche Ethik, " When man, laid hold of

THE BIDLE VIEW OF SIN I I I

by the power of conscience, sits in judgment on himself, he
exercises this judgment both /;/ the thoughts of his heart
and on the thoughts of his heart." Conscience delivers
judgment on the state of our hearts. For painfully
enough our state of heart does not seem to us identical
with ideal goodness. All men know what it is to have an
evil conscience, a moral pain. Man is also conscious of the
powerlessncss which has fallen upon his will. Conscience
denies to man the power of wholly, and of his own motion,
overcoming the selfish dictates of his heart. In short, man
does as well as suffers evil, causing pain to his neighbours.
Thus, if, on the more exalted side of his nature, man is
superior to the animal, this very superiority makes him the
more consciously and poignantly the subject of evil. The
higher his moral life, the direr is the reaction ; the deeper
the suffering, the intenser the agony, and ultimately the
more excruciating the final separation of death. Now what
means all this refinement of pain, consequent on moral
relations, man cannot but ask.

And spiritual evil is known to man. He is environed
by a spiritual realm, connection with which for the most
part causes him pain. The savage peoples the universe —
trees and earth and stars and all things — with spirits
whom he dreads, and whom he strives to propitiate. A
Hindu fears to go out after dark lest he meet a demon.
Nor, as we rise in the scale of existence, do we find the
consciousness of spiritual evil lessening. The two facts
known to all men — of the existence of God, and the reality
of conscience — transform breaches of human order into
transgressions of divine law, rendering man despondent
and even despairing in face of the spiritual facts of life.
Whence comes spiritual evil, therefore, he cannot but ask.
What is its story ? Is it neutralisable ? Is it capable
of entire conquest ?

Problems indeed there arc, pressing and profound, in

112 THE ANCIKNT FAITH IN MODERN LIGHT

connection with human suffering. Personally aware of
these common facts of physical and moral and spiritual
evil, often conscious of sin, man has inevitably asked —
why such things are ? What are their causes ? What are
their consequences ? Are causes and consequences related ?
Is pliysical evil an effect of moral evil, or does moral evil
result from physical ? Is there any causal relation between
spiritual evil and moral evil, or between spiritual evil and
physical ? Does man necessarily suffer because he has
a moral nature, or because he has a physical nature, or
because he has a spiritual nature? Does the present state
of our race show moral improvement or moral degeneracy ?
How are we to account for man's habitual self-dissatisfac-
tion ? Is man a free agent? Was man ever a free agent?
To what extent does moral freedom exist in man to-day ?
Why should the existence of an external law be so neces-
sary to human welfare, when an external law presumably
should have nothing like the cogency of conscience ? Why
do the moral judgments of men vary? How can moral
and spiritual disabilities be removed ? How, especially, can
their inherited consequences be counteracted ? How, in
short, can man be saved? Inevitably, let it be repeated,
the evil experience and the evil environment and the evil
practice of mankind have compelled much thought.

And human speculations have been as daring as evil
has been patent. Nor has consideration of the causes of
evil been a matter of cold intellect merely, or of cool resolve ;
it has been, even in the savage, associated with emotion
the most intense, with terror the most disruptive, with
sacrifices the most heartrending, with atonements the most
sickening. His frightful inheritance of evil has stirred
man's inmost soul, and evoked his most persistent energy.
Never failing to observe how powerful nature is for harm
as well as for help, never ceasing to reflect how, in human
story, darkness and terror and violence alternate with light

THE BIBLE VIEW OF SIN II3

and joy and repose, never able to divest himself of the
suspicion that a world demonic is always close at hand to
annoy and to crucify, men of all classes and ages have
made the awful facts of evil, as universal as dolorous, the
theme of protracted study. Priests, too, have traded upon
the perplexities of man when confronted by the dire
problems of evil ; rites the most horrible have been
invented to at once express and appease mysteries of
pain the most appalling.

Nor is it without its interest to observe what solutions
have been offered of these ever-present mysteries of physical
and moral and spiritual evil.

Whence comes evil ? And the savage has often replied,
from evil spirits, from devils, from demons, my restless
torturers and enemies. That evil is, I know well, both in
in me and in my life, says this crude philosopher ; that evil
comes from the mischief and hate of evil spirits, to propitiate
whom is manifestly my interest and my necessity, I verily
believe. How natural such a reply has been, will be best
understood by the careful student of the religions of the
native races of Africa, America, and the South Seas (what
arc technically called the "animistic" faiths). "To the
minds of the lower races it seems that all nature is.
possessed, pervaded, crowded with spiritual beings,"^ says.
Dr. E. B. Tylor. In such an attitude of mind the readiest
solution of the problem of evil is to attribute evil to-
inimical spirits ; and many have rested in the demonic
solution of the problem of evil.

Again, whence comes evil ? A second reply has been,
that evil, whether in the world or man, is due to an
omnipotent and omnipresent Spirit of Evil. This is the
dualistic creed of Zoroastrianism. Here there is a pro-
founder philosophy. Evil is not due, it is thought, to
innumerable disconnected agents, but to one gigantic
' Primitive Culture, by E. B. Tylor, vol. ii. pp. 1S4, 185.

Il4 THE ANCIENT FAITH IN MODERN LIGHT

spiritual principle behind nature, and even, indeed, to an
Evil Principle coequal and coexistent with the Good
Principle. It is true that there are many passages in the
Zend-Avesta which seem to rise above the idea of the
existence of evil as w^ell as of good in the essential struc-
ture of the universe ; nevertheless, Parsi religious thought
never really surmounted this fundamental dualism, which
has been so prominently associated with it ; and if, in some
of the hymns of the Parsi scriptures, the Good Spirit is
spoken of as ruling all, in others the Evil Spirit is conceded
rank alongside of the Good Spirit. This dualism, too, has
appeared again and again during the course of Christian
history, lying, for instance, at the basis of several Gnostic
solutions of the problems of evil.

Again, whence comes evil, spiritual and moral as well
as physical, men have asked. And many have replied that
evil is inseparable from existence, is the inevitable associate
of our bodily life, is consequent upon contact with things
material. In this view, life is misery. So have taught both
Brahmanism and Buddhism. At the base, indeed, of all
Hindu religion is the doctrine that everything is for the
worst in the worst of all possible worlds. All the sacred
books of India harp on the same string. Their real object
is not to investigate truth, but to devise a scheme for reliev-
ing the horrors believed to result from bodily existence.
Be it remembered, too, that suicide, the gospel of Seneca,
is no gospel to the Hindu. A doctrine of metempsychosis
aggravates the Hindu doctrine of evil. To commit suicide
was simply to pass into another life where the same chains
of causes would produce the same terrific misery. To
Buddha, also, life is misery. The life of sense, the life of
sentiment, the life of thought on its active side, are all
evil in the Buddhist view. Nirvana — Perfection — is the
extinction of conscious life. In the early Christian world,
Neo-Platonism taught the same doctrine, identifying evil

THE BIBLE VIEW OF SIN I I 5

with finite being. The pessimism of Schopenhauer takes
its start from the same conception.

A fourth theory of evil remains. It appears in many
rehgions as a causal judgment. It is more distinctly allied
to the teaching of a few religions. According to this fourth
theory, — evil, physical, moral, and spiritual, — finds its cause
in perverted human volition. This view of things underlies
the old Greek tragedy. " Orestes, for instance," says
M. Maury, " so often represented on the Athenian stage,
was the great mythologic type of the chastisement which
dogged the criminal." ^ The ancient religion of Egypt, too,
insisted strongly upon evil as the punishment of wrong-
doing. Renouf is the authority for saying that " the
triumph of Right over Wrong is the burden of nine-tenths
of the Egyptian texts which have come down to us."-
The same characteristic theory of evil as punishment for
wrongdoing appears occasionally in the Parsi religious
books, in some of the Hindu books, and conspicuously
in the Koran.

Thus has man striven to solve the staring and gigantic
problem of evil by a Demonic theory of things, or by a
Dualistic theory, or by a Pessimist theory, or by a Retribu-
tive theory. At best, how scant is the solution ! how
perplexing is the issue !

Here comes in one great characteristic of the Sacred
Books of Christendom. The Bible offers a clear, detailed,
and consistent theory of evil. Its doctrine of evil is a
doctrine of sin.

According to the biblical solution of the awful problem
of evil, evil is not associated with all things essentially, but
historically. Evil, that is to say, is contingent, not necessary.
Evil is an incident — in logical phrase an accident — in the
life of the universe. There was a time when evil was not.

' Maury, Religions de la Grccc Auiiquc^ vol. iii. p. 43.
- Hibbcri Lecture^ P- 7i-

Il6 THE ANCIENT FAITH IN MODERN LIGHT

A time is coming when evil shall not be. Thus Zoroastrian
dualism finds no place in the Bible, although the truth
thus exaggerated of the awful reign of evil does find fitting
recognition. Again, an inimical evil world, involving the
most earnest wrestling " against the principalities, against the
powers, against the world-rulers of this darkness, against the
spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places,"^ — the
truth, that is to say, that there is in the demonic theory,
— is clearly recognised in the Bible, whereas the horrible
fear thereby engendered in the ethnic mind is transformed
into rejoicing that by " the shield of faith ... all the fiery
darts of the evil world " may be quenched. Again, that
life entails great misery, the Bible acknowledges more
fully than any Oriental or Western theory of pessimism ;
but the Bible also knows, as pessimism does not, the
gradual extinction of sorrow in the Kingdom of God. So,
too, the inkling of great retributive principles, which form
the salt of the higher ethnic faiths, becomes, on the very
threshold of the Bible, clear and full, and even inspiriting.
For the biblical doctrine of evil is a doctrine of sin, but a
doctrine which declares sin to be, if awful, incidental, and
if painful, rerqediaye,

Secondly, let us consider at more length how, accord-
ing to the Bible, evil is but an incident in human history.

According to the Bible man was neither created that
he might suffer, nor, having suffered, is his agony incurable.
Pain, and especially moral and spiritual pain (physical pain
may be a moral or spiritual good), is an accident, not an
attribute, of humanity. In proof, consider the distinctively
biblical teaching of the primitive state of man. It is true
that upon the original state of man biblical and scientific
anthropology do not coincide. Of the two favourite postu-

J Eph. vi. 12.

THE IJIBLF. VIi:\V OF SIN I I 7

latcs of modern anthropology, on the one hand, that the
primitive condition of man was one of utter barbarism,
human development consequently having been from primi-
tive savagery to derivative culture, and, on the other hand,
that the religious progress of mankind has been from
Fetichism through I'olythcism to Monotheism, — of these
two postulates the Bible makes no use from Genesis to
Revelation. The biblical standpoint is different, and it
can certainl)' cite very many facts in its favour.

The first point in the biblical anthropology is that " in
the day that God created man, male and female created
He them." ^ The Bible declares for monogeny, not
polygeny.

The second point in the biblical anthropology is the
dichotomy of man's nature. Dichotomy asserts that man
has a dual constitution, consisting of flesh and spirit. Not
that this dual conception is exactly equivalent to our
common phrases, " matter and mind," " body and soul."
The contrast is between the animal and the divine in
man's nature, the carnal and the spiritual, Man is regarded
everywhere as flesh or animal part, and spirit or spiritual part.

A third point in the biblical anthropology is the
creation of man in the divine image. This is a feature
in the biblical representation of preponderating import,
affecting, as it does, our whole theory of man, and especi-
ally our theory of his redemption. Now, what is meant by
creation in the divine image? The answer is not difficult.
Abstract from the biblical idea of God all those attributes
which are exclusively divine, and the answer follows.
God, in the biblical idea, is immutable, absolutely perfect,
superior to time and space and limitation, omnipresent,
omniscient, and omnipotent, infinite in His wisdom and
in His holiness and in His love. Man can be none of
these. But God is Spirit — personality that is — -self-

^ Gen. i. 27.

I 1 8 THE ANCIENT FAITH IN MODERN LIGHT

conscious and self-determined. So man was created spirit
— personality — at once self-conscious and self-determined.
Moreover, man, created in the image of God, resembled God
in character as well as constitution. He was pure in intelli-
gence, and therefore could know truth ; he was pure in heart,
and therefore was capable of sinlessness ; he was pure in
will, and therefore unbiassed. Well may we be told how,
as man stood before his Creator, perfect in every limb, flaw-
less in every feature, with the radiance of intelligence upon
his face, with the white flower of purity on his heart, and
the magnetism of right resolve upon his brow, the eye of
God rested upon him with complacency, and the voice of
God pronounced him good.

The fourth point in the biblical anthropology is man's
conditional mortality. Life, as we know it, involves deca-
dence and death. It is the peculiarity of the biblical
standpoint that at the beginning a means was provided
for arresting decay and for banishing death. The remark-
able, the profound teaching, is that but for disobedience,
which was sin, man's body would not have died. It would
appear that the point of view is that had Adam retained
his initial integrity, his body might have been developed
and transfigured without the intervention of death. Less
cannot be meant by the symbolism of " the tree of life."
Having transgressed the divine command, man must be
banished from the garden, " lest he put forth his hand, and
take of the tree of life, and eat, and live for ever." -^ So,
too, the representation of the Book of Revelation is similar,
" Blessed are they that wash their robes, that they may
have the right to come to the tree of life." '' This idea,
described by him as the transmutation of the psychical into
the pneumatic body, occurs in the writings of Paul again
and again.

A fifth point of the biblical anthropology is the balance
' Gen. iii. 22. 2 Rev. xxii. 14.

THE BIBLE VIEW OF SIN II9

of flesh and spirit in man as created, the ceqiialc tenipera-
mentum, as the technical term runs. In man, at creation,
there was no conflict, no divarication. Spirit controlled
flesh ; flesh obeyed spirit. Sensuous impulses and appe-
tites were servants, not masters. There was no inborn
tendency to the carnal. Man knew neither disease nor
vice nor sin. He enjoyed physical and moral and spiritual
health. Yet was this perfection provisional and not fixed,
relative and not absolute, critical and not final, mundane
and not eternal. " Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye
touch it, lest yc die" '^ ran the divine declaration.

The sixth point of the biblical anthropology was man's
capacity for an infinite progress. This is a feature of the
biblical teaching much overlooked in the great systems of
Protestant scholasticism, to the confusion and concealment
of much Christian teaching. Yet, created in the image of
God, and perfect for the initial step of his career, there was
an image of God into which man had to grow as his nature
developed. God-likeness was the goal of his career as well
as its starting-point, the final being so different from the
initial God-likeness. The divine image after which man
was formed, was, in short, partly original endowment and
partly destination. Probably the crucial passage in Genesis
suggests as much, which runs, " Let us make man in our
image, after our likeness," " where the Hebrew use of the
prepositions seems to imply, the one, " in," a certain form
in which man was actually made ; the other, " according
to," a certain norm or model according to which he was
created. In such a view the verse would signify, " Let us
make man in Our image now, to become more and more
like unto Us as the ages pass." But, whether this inter-
pretation be warranted or not, the whole story of man's
primitive state implies a capacity in man for indefinite
growth. If man was pure at creation, he was untried. If
^ Gen. iii. 3. - Cicn. i. 26.

I20 THE ANCIENT FAITH IN MODERN LIGHT

he had splendid native faculties, he was inexperienced.
His was a limited perfection. He was perfect in the sense
of having no imperfections, not in the sense of having
attained to all perfectness. The narrative itself, which
informs us of man's primary goodness, directs attention
to a more perfect state yet to be attained ; for, observe
the suggestive words, " And the Lord God said. Behold,
the man is become as one of us, to know good and evil :
and now, lest lie put fortJi his hand, aiid take also of the
tree of life, and eat, and live for ever ; therefore^ etc.^ At
creation, in scholastic phrase, man had received the graces
posse non niori and posse non peccare ; he had to grow into
the graces non posse peccare and 7io7i posse inori. All the
native faculties of mind and body required exercise and
development, and a series of worlds formed the environ-
ment, material, mental, and spiritual, which should woo
to an infinite development, physical, mental, and spiritual.

A seventh point in the biblical anthropology may be
stated thus, — that probation was a necessity in man's
moral advance ; probation, be it observed, but not sin.
Probation borne righteously would have implied advance,
not decline. " That evil is a necessary transition to good,"
says Thomasius justly, " is Satan's doctrine and philosophy."
At creation the first man was in a state of innocence : he
did good automatically. If he was to pass into a state of
holiness, in which good was to be done deliberately and
of set purpose, there was no other way except through
moral trial. Childlike innocence can only become manlike
holiness by the agency of temptation. Of course, tempta-
tion, itself the necessary passage from unconscious to con-
scious doing of good, does not essentially involve fall.
Resistance to the evil alternative would have strengthened
virtue in the same proportion in which submission thereto
strengthened vice. Moral progress demanded temptation,

^ Gen. iii. 22.

THE BIBLE VIEW OF SIN 121

a choice of alternatives, and temptation straightway became
probation.

An eighth point of biblical anthropology is that unin-
terrupted communion with God, unbroken contact with the
divine, was a cardinal law of human progress. At his
creation, in the biblical view, man was more than animal.
Man was spirit as well as flesh. Further, as both flesh
and spirit, man was sinless, not in the sense of being
incapable of sin, but in the sense of being innocent thereof.
Man was innocent, but not yet holy. Goodness was by
constitution not resolve, instinctive not deliberate, auto-
matic not volitional. At the same time man jjossessed
a perfect moral and physical health, having no tendency
whatever to wrong-doing because of either ethical or cor-
poreal taint. Further, as we have seen, man was capable
of infinite development. The main lines of that develop-
ment follow. Innocent man was to become holy, — uncon-
scious, instinctive, automatic goodness becoming a goodness
conscious, intentional, and intelligent. Mortal man was to
become immortal, conditional mortality passing into uncon-
ditional immortality, posse non mori becoming 7ion posse
viot'i. Inexperienced man was to become mature, all his
faculties entering upon a persistent and continuous develop-
ment by means of constant exercise in the physical, mental,
and spiritual worlds. Here an important question arises.
To human advance is exercise the only requisite ? Does
the worthy growth of human faculty demand a divine
co-operation ? Is the gift of a divine energy as indis-
pensable to human development as is human activity ?
The biblical reply is clear, as profound as lucid, and as
true as subtle. If man was to become deliberately holy
as well as instinctively innocent, this ethical development
could only supervene upon the constant co-operation of
the Spirit of God with the spirit of man. If immortality
was to ensue, the postulate is a constant divine inspiration.

122 THE ANCIENT FAITH IN MODERN LIGHT

If the bodily and mental development of man find their
food and air and raiment in the physical and moral
environment into which man was divinely introduced,
none the less a balanced and perfect growth, bodily,
intellectual, emotional, volitional, religious, demands the
environment of spiritual suggestions and forces ; in other
words, demands uninterrupted communion with God. The
most vital condition of balanced and complete human
culture, was sustained fellowship with Deity.

The last point characteristic of the biblical anthro-
pology is that parentage was conferred on man. Con-
cerning Adam it is said, as we have seen, " And God said,
Let us make man in our own image, after our likeness." ^
Concerning Adam's son it is said, " And Adam lived an
hundred and thirty years, and begat a son in his own
likeness, after his image." -

In these biblical teachings concerning man lies, it is
believed, a profoundly true philosophy, the common ignor-
ance of which renders so much modern study of man an
inadequate solution of the problems presented by human
life. But whether this be so or not, our contention is
surely proved to the hilt, that sin, in the biblical view, is
incidental and not essential to human story. What once
was not, some day may once more not be.

III

Thirdly, let us consider the origin of sin in man,
according to the biblical representation.

Undc vialnvi ct quare, many have asked besides Ter-
tullian. From the dawn of civilisation the origin of evil
has excited the curiosity, and exercised the ingenuity of
philosophic minds. But, be it observed, in this essay we
are not concerned with the perplexing problem of the
1 Gen. i. 26. - Gen. v. 3.

THE BIBLE VIEW OF SIN 1 23

origin of evil. Nor are we concerned with the several
solutions of the stupendous problem which have been pro-
posed during the course of history, allusion to which has
been already made. Our concern is with the origin of sin
in man, according to the Bible.

For the origin of human sin (where by sin is meant
transgression of the divine law), the Bible conducts us to
the opening chapters of Genesis. To what extent the
so-called story of the Fall of IMan is simple fact, or parable,
is a question of slight concern here. After all, it is but a
minutely different thing to say that the narrative of the
Fall is bare fact, or to say that the narrative is fact under
the guise of parable. It may have pleased God to reveal
truth to us by parable in the Old Testament as well as in
the New, The important thing is, not whether we have
literal fact in every detail, but whether, in reading, what-
ever be the literary dress, we think nolentcs volcntes of
innocence and immortality and God, not without longing,
and whether, whatever be the literary dress, we think
nolentcs volcntes, and not without pain, of innocence lost,
and immortality jeopardised, and God estranged.

The essential features of the origin of sin in man as
told in the Bible are as follows : —

At creation man was in a state of innocence. Good he
did instinctively.

Next, man, such was his constitution, could only pass
from a state of innocence, that is, of instinctive goodness, to a
state of holiness, or deliberate goodness, by conscious choice.

Choice involves alternatives.

Alternatives were offered by the utterance of an express
command, which might, on reflection, be obeyed or dis-
obeyed.

In the free exercise of choice, man disobeyed, and thus
sin, conscious disobedience of the divine will, entered into
the human sphere.

124 THE ANCIENT FAITH IN MODERN LIGHT

F"urther, although the suggestion to disobey was not
self-originated, temptation was not necessarily fall ; tempta-
tion to disobey is not necessarily disobedience.

Nor does the course of the temptation, indubitably
subtle though it was, so palliate the act of disobedience as
to excuse it. The story of man's first disobedience is the
story of so much of man's later disobedience. An appeal
is made by the tempter to an innocent appetite, accom-
panied by the foul suggestion that the means of gratification
are arbitrarily withheld. The appeal is sympathetically
listened to, the selfish and anti-divine attitude commencing.
Then the tempter pursues his advantage by a denial of
the divine veracity, and by charges against God of jealousy
and wrong, answered by the woman by further self-isolation
and antagonism to God. Then, in rapid sequence come
the familiar stages of unbelief, pride, lust, fall. The general
truth of the story, as witnessed to by the human heart, is
simply marvellous.

Moreover, dubious as some are to-day (for reasons
which need not be discussed here) concerning the truth of
the fall of man, as represented in Genesis, there is another
element in the case which must not be overlooked. The
fall of man is the postulate of the entire Bible. It under-
lies the narratives of the patriarchal age ; the law assumes
it everywhere : the utterances of the prophets require some
such original. " Thy first father sinned," says Isaiah, " and
thy interpreters have transgressed against Me." ^ Said
Jesus to the Pharisees : " Ye seek to kill Me. ... Ye do
the deeds of your father. ... Ye are of your father the
devil, the lusts of your father your will is to do. He was
a murderer (manslayer) from the beginning. When he
speaketh a lie. he speaketh of his own ; for he is a liar, and
the liar's father." ^ As for Paul, he bases his very system-
atic teaching upon this very postulate, explaining sin by
^ Isa. xlii'. 27. * John viii. 44.

THE BIBLE VIEW OF SIN I 25

the sin of the first man, and declaring most distinctly that
the universaHty of sin and of death among men stands in
unbroken connection with the sin of the first man.^ Finally,
in the Revelation, the cycle of human history completes
itself by the restoration of Paradise, where sin is no more,
where the curse is abolished, and where the tree of life is
restored."

There is also a remarkable self-consistency about the
whole biblical presentation. Study it carelessly, and objec-
tions crowd in upon the mind ; study it closely, and the
objections vanish. For instance, let the question be asked,
why did God permit sin ? Is not the answer evident on the
biblical data? A mechanical world may be sinless; a
moral world, in the very nature of the case, may be sinful.
Where there is choice, there may be the choice of evil. If
God would create beings who should intelligently seek His
glory and fellowship, He — be it said with all reverence —
must take the risk ; for creatures, who are free agents, may
prefer to use their intelligence to ignore His honour and
refuse His friendship. Again, if it be asked, how could a
holy being fall ? the answer is again given in the biblical
data. " Holy " sometimes means instinctively righteous,
and sometimes deliberately righteous. Undoubtedly it is
better to restrict the word holy to intentional and conscious
doing of good ; but the use of the word for automatic
goodness causes the difficulty so often felt in the sin of a
holy being. Really there is no possibility of conscious holy
act until there is also a possibility of conscious sinful act.
Or again, if it be asked, why God did not restrain Satan
from tempting, the question is seen to be irrelevant.
Whether Satan was the tempter or not, if man was to
become a conscious moral agent, he could not but be
placed in circumstances of temptation, temptation being

^ Compare especially Rom. v. 12-21, and i Cor. xv. 21-49.
^ Rev. xxii.

126 THE ANCIENT FAITH IN MODERN LIGHT

the presentation of alternative good and evil to a free
agent. However, as has been said, temptation is not fall.
If Satan had spoken subtly, God had spoken solemnly.

Fourthly, let us consider the consequences to the first
sinner of his sin, as biblically presented.

" And the Lord God said. Behold, the man has become
as one of us, to know good and evil."^ Man had passed
from the stage of instinctive goodness (instinctive and
unconscious because, as yet, no contrast of evil had pre-
sented itself) to a state of deliberate knowledge. But the
knowledge had been terribly gained. The knowledge of
good and evil man had won was a diabolic and not a
divine knowledge. Instead of good being act and evil
being the contrasted idea, evil was act and good was idea.
Probation had begun, but fall as well. Good was known
by experience of evil, whereas evil might have been known
by an experience of good.

Man had sinned, — had broken the commandment of
God. Consequences were immediate ; sin became guilt.
Upon transgression of the law, liability to punishment
straightway ensued. That punishment, which was instant
in commencement, took a twofold form, — the ground was
cursed, man's environment changing, and the penalty of
death was pronounced, death really being all that evolution
of pain which became consequent on God's relinquishment
of man to his own devices. Expulsion from the Garden
meant, whatever else it signified, access to God barred, a
fact with many consequences.

Let us think this out in the light of the previous ex-
position. The characteristics of man at creation were, as
we have seen, monogeny, or the creation of a single pair, —

^ Gen. iii. 22.

THE BIBLE VIEW OF SIN 12/

dichotomy, or a constitution consisting of flesh (or animal
part) and of spirit (or divine part), — creation in the divine
image, or creation as a free and intelHgent being,-— conditional
mortality or mortality only upon sin, — the ccqtialc teuipera-
inenticni, or the equipoise of flesh and spirit, — a capacity
for infinite growth on many sides, — moral development by
probation, — growth into the stature of the perfect man by
ceaseless divine co-operation with human endeavour — and
parentage. Upon parentage, nothing needs be said for the
moment. Upon the facts of man's creation as a single
pair, as flesh and spirit, and in the divine image, no change
is produced by sin ; they remain facts, whether man has
sinned or not. But upon the remaining characteristics
effects are produced by sin of a most vital kind. Mortality
is no longer conditional ; the balance of flesh and spirit is
disturbed ; growth becomes infinite retrogression from the
divine image. Upon these dire consequences of trans-
gression more must be said presently ; but already it is
evident that immediately upon the first sin mortality
supervened ; the preponderance of the flesh commenced ;
and development apart from the divine co-operation began
its awful course. Upon sin followed guilt ; upon guilt
followed penalty, the penalty being, as \wc shall see more
clearly presently, death (in a frightful inclusive sense).

Fifthly, let us consider generally the consequences of sin
upon our race, as biblically presented.

Thus far our analysis of the biblical teaching has been
of a somewhat simple kind, but more profound and stagger-
ing problems await us. For instance, if the growth of sin-
ful habit is sufficiently alarming, there is a development of
sin more disconcerting still. The fact of parentage cannot
be longer put out of sight. By the hereditary relation sin

128 THE ANCIENT FAITH IN MODERN LIGHT

in the individual becomes sin in the race. The moral
disturbance which affects the parents, in due course affects
the offspring. That there is such generic sin is a profound
characteristic of the biblical teaching.

At the outset of this discussion sin was defined as
transgression of the divine law by a moral agent. But
must this transgression necessarily be conscious ? Conscious
transgression of the divine law by a moral agent is, as we
have seen, certainly sin. But does transgression of the
divine law by a moral agent cease to be sin if it is no
lonerer conscious ? Is the hardened and habitual and
unconscious transgressor also a sinner ? Nay, more, is the
new-born child a sinner too ? Does the hereditary relation
involve the child in sin prior to its own sinful acts ?

The Bible reply is clear : " There is no distinction ; for
all have sinned, and fall short of the glory of God." ^ Nor
is this utterance of Paul's individualistic. That transgression
of the law of God, on the part of moral agents, is sin,
whether the transgression be conscious or unconscious, is
just one of those profound truths binding the whole of
Scripture into one great unity. Sin is chattath, a swerving
from the direct rule of life ; aivon, a bending from the right
rule ; pcshar, a breach of the covena?ited rule ; Jimnartia, a
deviation from the straight rule ; anomia, a refusal of the
ordered rule ; asebeia, a forgetting of the pious rule ;
paraptoma, a trespass against the declared rule ; or, omitting
all the varying figures, sin is transgression of the divine
rule of life, conscious or unconscious. Unconscious as well
as conscious transgression of law is sin. There is a state
of sin as well as an act ; there is a habit of sin as well as
a single sinful deed, or a succession of single sinful deeds.
In medical phrase sin is symptomatic as well as idiopathic.
Thus, throughout the Old and New Testaments, even good
men are regarded as sinful, and their common characteristic
^ Rom. iii. 22, 23.

THE BIBLE VIEW OF SIN I 29

is abasement before God, a conspicuous feature in the
Psalms and in the Prophets, Again, the New Testament
phase of experience is ahvays represented as commencing
with repentance.

But this awful conception of sin appears, so to speak,
from the first page of the Bible to the last. Very early
does the testimony come, " the earth was also corrupt before
God ; and the earth was filled with violence. And God looked
upon the earth, and, behold, it was very corrupt : for all flesh
had corrupted His way upon earth " ; ^ but the testimony
goes on to add, " And God saw the wickedness of man was
great in the earth, and tJiat the whole imagination of his
heart was only evil continually" or, in another phrase,
" the imagination of man's heart is evil from his youths ^
This habitual disposition is especially depicted in the line
of the descendants of Cain, and in the line of Ham, and
in the line of Lot.

Observe, too, the teaching of the Levitical Law. It is
true that a great modern writer has expressed himself in
the following manner. " Sin," he says, " is not simply a
religious, but a specifically Christian notion. . . . Judaism
knew crime, which was an offence against the God who
had instituted the State, and uncleanness, which was an
offence against the ritual of the temple or the traditions
of the schools ; but there was too little of the spirit and the
truth in its Deity to enable it to comprehend the awful
idea of sin. Indeed, nothing so marks the Levitical
system, as a whole, as its inadequate sense of sin and its
consequent defective notion of sacrifice." ^ But does not
such a view overlook some characteristic facts of the
Levitical system ? And is uncleanness adequately de-
scribed as an offence against the ritual of the temple or
the traditions of the schools ?

^ Gen. vi. 11, 12. ^ Gen. vi. 5, viii. 21.

^ A. M. Fairbairn, The Place 0/ Christ in Modern Theo/oi;y, p. 454.
9

130 THE ANCIENT FAITH IN MODERN LIGHT

For consider, on the one hand, the Levitical references
to impurity and uncleanness. The laws of purification are
a very distinct and striking branch of the great legal code,
and they have an important bearing on the subject before
us. Under the Law, certain physical conditions debarred
their subject from approaching the sanctuary. " Moreover,
the soul that shall touch any unclean thing, as the unclean-
ness of man," so ran the Law, " or any unclean beast, or
any abominable unclean thing, and eat of the flesh of the
sacrifice of peace - offerings which pertain to the Lord,
even that soul shall be cut off from his people " ; ^ and what
was said of the peace-offerings applied to all divine service.
There were, then, certain physical conditions which rendered
their subject " unclean " ; and the " unclean " were excom-
municated from the privilege of the Israelites, whether
priest or common person. Further, these forfeited theo-
cratic privileges were restored upon the dutiful fulfilment
of the ordained rites of purification. Now, be it observed
that uncleanness arose from contact or association with a
human or animal corpse, from the normal or abnormal
action of the generative organs, from leprosy or proximity
to a leper, and from certain duties connected with the
ceremonies of the Day of Atonement and the slaughter of
the red heifer, the ashes of which were used in removing
the contamination of death. Under one or other of these
classes all the numerous rites of cleansing may be placed.
Let these several classes be carefully examined, and the
fact straightway appears that " uncleanness " was not the
consequence of deliberate wrong-doing, was not, that is
to say, the result of a sinful act, but was, as far as the
subject of it was concerned, involuntary, or, at least, so
interwoven with the present constitution of things as almost
to deserve the name of involuntary. Childbirth, for in-
stance, was in the nature of things ; so were the functions

^ Lev. vii. 21.

THE BIBLE VIEW OF SIN I3I

and disorders of the generative organs. A man could not
help leprosy attacking him. To minister to the dying and
dead must be the duty of someone. And, as regards the
marriage relations, the ideal of the Jew was neither a
virgin nor a childless life. The notable thing, then, about
this Levitical " uncleanness " was, that it was contracted in
ways never declared by the Law to be themselves flagitious.
To be unclean followed from the natural course of things.
Moreover, — and the fact is striking, — uncleanness was not
only consequent upon the constitution of things, but it was
incidental to those ceremonial or natural processes which,
according to the Levitical view, stood in most intimate
connection with sin. In a word, " uncleanness " was the
remote consequence of sin. It pointed to generic sin, to
sin as state. Those who sinned with intent became parents
of children who unintentionally sinned. The proof is easy.
The several rites of cleansing were reducible, as we have
seen, to four classes, — those which concerned contact with
the dead, action of the generative organs, leprosy, and
certain prominent sin-offerings. Of the last class more
need not be said ; the scapegoat and the red cow were so
manifestly the bearers of human sin. But consider leprosy,
that living death ; it was always considered by the Jew
as a most awful embodiment of the results of sin. The
fact is that the Levitical doctrine of uncleanness, uttered
in pathetic form, for all who seriously examined it, the truth
that association with the sinner is sin.-^

And consider, on the other hand, the Levitical atone-
ment for sins done inadvertently. For sins done deliber-
ately and with a high hand there was no atonement
provided. For open rebellion, blatant sin, the Law provided
no atonement. Nevertheless, the Law ordained a whole
series of atoning sacrifices, which were called sin-offerings.

1 Compare The Scriptural Doctrine of Sacrifice and Atonement,
pp. 98-100.

132 THE ANCIENT FAITH IN MODERN LIGHT

The point to be seized is, for what faults were sin-offerings
presented ? The answer is distinct, for sins of ignorance
and a few analogous sins. The very name is suggestive,
for what are sins of ignorance but unconscious sins ? Is
it not a very remarkable fact that the Levitical Law made
so much of these sins of ignorance, and emphasised so
strongly the need of atonement by blood for these sins
of ignorance ? Wherever the contents of the Law were
known, object-lessons innumerable were given that man,
as man, was under sin, and that, whether his sins were
acts or habits, conscious or unconscious, personal or
generic.

A similar testimony is borne by the psalmists and
prophets : " Behold I was shapen in iniquity, and in sin
did my mother conceive me." ^ " Can the Ethiopian
change his skin, or the leopard his spots ? Then may
ye also do good, that are habituated to do evil ! " ^ But
this point of view is not peculiar to one book or one
period ; it pervades the entire Old Testament literature.
At the commencement of the history there is described
the moral fall of man, necessitating a sinful development
of the entire race. In the Old Testament sin is an
habitual presence in all men.

The same thing is true in the New Testament. The
conception of sin as a universal breach of the law of God
underlies the entire presentation of truth. Hear the words
of Jesus : " And He called the multitude, and said unto
them, Not that which goeth into the mouth defileth a man,
but that which cometh out of the mouth, this defileth a
man. . . . Do ye not yet understand, that whatsoever
entereth in at the mouth goeth into the belly, and is cast
out into the draught ? But those things which proceed
out of the mouth come forth from the heart ; and they
defile the man. For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts,.
1 Ps. li. 5. ^ Jer. xiii. 23.

THE BIBLE VIEW OF SIN 1 33

murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blas-
phemies." ^ Or again, " Either make the tree good, and
his fruit good ; or else make the tree corrupt, and his fruit
corrupt : for the tree is known by his fruit. O brood of
vipers, how can ye, being evil, speak good things ? for
out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh.
A good man, out of the good treasure of the heart, bringeth
forth good things ; and an evil man, out of the evil trea-
sure, bringeth forth evil things." ^ Of the parallel teaching
of Paul and John, it is surely needless to give examples.
Their testimony is identical. " Through one man sin
entered into the world, and death through sin ; and so
death passed unto all men, for that all sinned."^ "The
whole world lieth in evil : " 'O K6a/xo<i 6\o<; iv tm irovripu)

KeLTUl}

Thus, then, with respect to the two great disputants
of the fourth century of our era, the Bible sides with
Augustine, and not with Pelagius. To Pelagius sin was
simply /^et~catu;n voluntatis, a sinful act, or a series of sinful
acts, each the free determination of a free will. According
to Augustine, sin was in the first man indubitably a fault
of will, but in every subsequent man a fault of nature as
well. To \}l\q. peccatuni voluntatis should be added ^pcccatum
originis, a peccatuvi originale. So far Augustine was surely
correct, though he pushed his conclusions to unwarrantable
issues, into which we need not follow him. Such is the
solidarity of man, that if the parents sin, their children
are involved in the sin and the consequent ruin.

Sixthly, let us consider the generic results of sin more
carefully.

^ Matt. XV. 17 ; Mark vii. 19. 2 ;viatt. xii. 33 35.

^ Rom. V. 12. ^ I John v. 5

134 THE ANCIENT FAITH IN MODERN LIGHT

Sin produced many changes. These modifications
might be suitably tabulated as those produced upon God,
those produced upon the cosmos, and those produced upon
man. Interesting as the fuller study of the consequences
upon God and the cosmos would be, space only permits a
rapid survey of the third class of changes. Even the con-
sequences of sin upon man are desirably subdivided for
study. For there are the consequences of sin upon the first
man, as we have seen, and — a more perplexing study —
there are the consequences of sin upon his posterity.
Further, sin in man's posterity may be regarded either as
the generic consequences or (seeing that the whole dis-
cipline of life addresses itself to bringing each man into
personal relations with the spiritual sphere) the personal
consequences. At anyrate, such a line of treatment will
tend to clearness, as will soon be apparent.

The generic consequences of sin, then, are those
which are visible in every child of Adam. They are
depravity, sin, guilt, penalty. Presently we shall see that
death is the one penalty, depravity being but a phase of
death.

The consequences of the sin of Adam could not end
with Adam. There is a solidarity in the human race.
Man being endowed with the faculty of propagating his
kind, the consequence of Adam's first sin and of his sinful
habit passed to his descendants. In the language of the
great theologians of the sixteenth centMry^peccatuin oi-iginans
hecdLvaQ peccatii in originatiivi. From generation to genera-
tion the consequences were transmitted, throwing a tremend-
ous emphasis of experience upon the ancient words : " I
the Lord thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity
of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth
generation." ^ Now, as has been said, these generic conse-
quences of sin may be conveniently surveyed as universal

1 Ex. XX. 5.

THE BIBLE VIEW OF SIN 1 35

depravity, universal sin, universal guilt, and universal
punishment.

And, first, of universal depravity.

By depravity is meant a depraving, a degeneracy, a
deterioration, a lowering of tone, from father to son, and
from age to age. The ccqiiale temperavicntuni is no more.
Health, sanity, has gone : the mens sajia in corpora sano
is an ideal to be dreamt of only. Depressed function is
everywhere, — a depression of function increasing with the
ages, — showing itself in the body as debility and disease
and death ; showing itself in the soul as depraved percep-
tion, depraved intellect, depraved heart, depraved will \
showing itself, in other words, as dulled intuition of the
true, the beautiful, the good, the divine, as fettered freedom,
as enslaved intellect or sensuality, as perverted heart or
selfishness. Together with this false and accentuated love
of self comes a falsified and insubordinate love of God. In
short, depravity is a depravity of all functions ; as Melanc-
thon expressed it, " A perpetual decline of nature, an inward
disorder." And this depravity is universal. In this belief
the teaching of the Bible harmonises with deliverances of
teachers of heredity. If Job say, " Oh, for a clean thing
out of an unclean ; there is not one " ; ^ David says, " There
is none that doeth good, no, not one "; ^ and an Isaiah,
" All we like sheep have gone astray " ; ^ and a Jeremiah,
" The heart is deceitful above all things, and woefully sick " ; ■*
and a Paul, " For I know that in me, that is, in my flesh,
dwelleth no good thing." ^

Besides, the biblical position has commended itself (quite
unconsciously apparently) to many who have approached
the staring problem of man's nature from a purely philo-
sophic standpoint. A Plato writes, " Men do more evil
than good, beginning even from their childhood " ; and, in

1 Job xiv. 4. - Ps. xiv. I. ^ Isa. liii. 6.

^ Jer. xvii. 9. ^ Rom. vii. 18.

136 THE ANCIENT FAITH IN MODERN LIGHT

another place, " The cause of corruption is from our parents,
so that we never reHnquish their evil way, or escape the
blemish of their evil habits." A follower of Plato, as John
Howe reminds us in his Living Temple, described the
experience of man emblematically by speaking of " a
potion of error, proffered to every man at his first coming
into the world, whereof all drink." Kant reminds us of
" a radical evil in human nature," and Comte uses a
parallel phrase, and speaks of " the radical imperfection of
human nature." " No man," says John Howe, " that takes
a view of his own dark and blinded mind, his slow and
dull apprehension, his uncertain, staggering judgment,
roving conjectures, feeble and mistaken reasonings about
matters that concern him most, ill inclinations, propension
to what is unlawful to him and destructive, aversive to his
truest interest and best good, irresolution, drowsy sloth,
exorbitant and ravenous appetites and desires, impotent
and self-vexing passions, — can think human nature in him
is in its primitive integrity." How innumerable are parallel
opinions ! All we know of ourselves and man compels
the feeling —

" He finds a baseness in his blood
At such strange war with what is good ;
He cannot do the thing he would."

The fact of depravity compels attention. It is true
that extravagant words have been made by some respecting
total depravity, as if every faculty of man was altogether
depraved. Such an opinion is an exaggeration. But if
there be not in the early stage of human evolution a total
depravity of every human faculty, there is a depravity of
every faculty, — a fact sufficiently suggestive and awful. If
the royal attributes of conscience and intellect are not
wholly deposed from seat, they are manifestly reduced in
function.

A second characteristic of the generic consequences o

THE BIBLE VIEW OF SIN 1 37

sin is universal sin. So, again, the solidarity of our race
would lead us to infer — " If one member suffers, every
member suffers with it." ^ But this pervasive disobedience
of the divine commands, this inevitable disobedience, has
already been considered. Conscious and deliberate sin is
not alone recognised as sin. According to the biblical
standpoint, father and children are in a common trans-
gression— " all are included under sin."

A third consequence follows. Upon the heel of
universal sin treads universal guilt. By sin man has
passed, as a race, under the penal inflictions of the divine,
and necessarily just, law. In brief, human sin, man's sin
as a race, deserves punishment. There may be depravity
without guilt, as in the saved sinner ; and there may be
guilt without depravity, as in the sinner's Saviour, " made
to be sin (guilt) for us, who knew no sin " ; - but generic
depravity, which is pollution, is associated with generic
guilt, which is punition. To this universal guiltiness the
Bible constantly bears witness. " Enter not into judgment
with thy servant," it is said in the Psalms ; " for in thy
sight shall no man living be justified " ; ^ and the words are
typical of the entire range of Old Testament experience.
*' For we have before accused both Jews and Gentiles that
they are all under sin . . . that every mouth may be
stopped, and all the world become guilty before God," *
says Paul ; and the Pauline opinion is not by any means
exclusively Pauline. Further, our guilt before God, does
not conscience affirm ? everyday experience demonstrate ?
the voice of all nations lament ? Has not life shown us
that the absence of a sense of guilt is a sure sign of moral
decay? We do not enter upon the several theories,
so-called of imputation, which deal with the connection of
Adam's sin and the guilt of the race, concerning which

' I Cor. xii. 26. ^ 2 Cor. v. 21.

^ Ps. cxliii. 2. ■* Rom. iii. 19.

138 THE ANCIENT FAITH IN MODERN LIGHT

indubitably many unwise and many misleading words have
been spoken, but to the universality of guilt the conscience
of man as well as the Bible testifies.

From universal guilt it is but a step to universal
punishment, the universal punishment of death. " So death
passed upon all men, for that all have sinned." ^ Death is
a great generic consequence of sin. Nay,— let the assertion
be weighed, — death is the solemn and only punitive con-
sequence of sin. In saying death, we say spiritual loss,
we say suffering, we say disease, we say decease, we say
the second death. Depravity itself is an effect as well as a
cause of sin, being but one phase of that changed relation,
that godless relation, which the Bible calls death.

For what is death? Or rather, what in the biblical
view is death? The question is of painful interest. The
solution, too, supplies just that one unifying idea which
imports a philosophical consistency into the biblical
utterances, and which at the same time both explains and
justifies the divine action towards sinful man. Universal
sin brings universal guilt ; universal guilt implies universal
punishment ; the universal punishment is nothing but
death ; and death is nothing but the consequence of God's
doing what man wished Him to do, namely, withdraw
Himself. God with man is life ; God removed from man
is death. The punishment of sin is simply the working
out of the spiritual laws of the universe.

For, consider the biblical conception of death.
Recall the following characteristics of primitive man,
as previously educed from the biblical record. What, in
the divine idea, was the chief end of man ? In the
familiar words of the Shorter Assembly's Catechism we
might suitably reply, " To glorify God, and to enjoy Him
for ever." Certainly " to enjoy Him for ever." Or let
us put the reply into the form of language previously

1 Rom. V. 12.

THE BIBLE VIEW OF SIN 1 39

used. The divine idea in the creation of man was an
infinitely progressive life, under the stimulus and nourish-
ment of a prearranged environment of worlds, physical,
mental, and spiritual, and especially under the stimulus and
nourishment of unbroken fellowship with God, Balanced
and perfect growth during an infinitely graded approxima-
tion to the divine likeness demanded uninterrupted com-
munion with God, Sustained contact with Deity was life,
growing life, ever-enlarging life, ceaseless realisation of the
divine image, constant climbing of the widening avenue
whose further end is God.

If God with us is life, God withdrawn is death. Contact
broken with Deity is death, growing death, ever-enlarging
death, increasing failure to realise the divine image,
constant falling down the decreasing avenue whose further
end is self at its worst. On man's preferring self to God,
God withdraws Himself, Man suffers a frightful spiritual
loss, the loss of that vitalising Spirit which would have
given full and ever-renewed and ever-enlarging life. Con-
sequent upon this divine withdrawal from man, the ccquale
tempeyanientum is lost; growth Godward is lost; body rules
spirit in ever-increasing measure ; with the removal of the
vitalising element, disturbance comes of all functions ; then
ensue suffering, disease, non-sanity, decease, and what is
beyond decease. With God is life ; without God is death.
Death is being without God.

Moreover, all this, which is but inference from the
biblical doctrine of the primitive state of man, is also
expressly taught concerning the nature of death. The
sentence of death pronounced upon man is a sentence, the
meaning of which a long and frightful experience could
alone enlighten concerning.

Indeed, those cannot but misapprehend many important
features of the biblical revelations who understand by death
" the shuffling off this mortal coil," the cessation of the

140 THE ANCIENT FAITH IN MODERN LIGHT

physical functions, the syncope which terminates the con-
nection with this present Hfe. Unquestionably death often
means dissolution in scriptural phrase ; but dissolution does
not exhaust the Bible use of the word. Death in the
Scriptures, as in all language, is commonly more than
decease. The Scriptures mean by death more than the
margin of mortality. Time, for example, would have
demonstrated our Lord's words to have been false when
He cried in the court of the temple, " If a man shall
keep My saying, he shall never see death," if by death He
meant decease. Or, again, what meaning on such a sup-
position could be attached to the words of John : " We know
that we have passed from death unto life, because we love the
brethren: he that loveth not his brother abideth in death? "^

An analysis of the biblical usage of the word death
reveals the following variety. Frequently death is dis-
solution, whether natural or violent. Sometimes the word
stands for capital punishment, the extreme penalty of the
law. From this the meaning is not far off, that death
is all or any of the primitiv^e effects of sin ; thus, an
irresponsive and incapable volition, such as sin engenders,^
that conflict between desire and fruition which every sinner
experiences,^ the spiritual decadence in its several stages
which is the conscious result of sin,* the excision from
Christian privileges which is the penalty of sin,^ nay, the
final doom of the impenitent, which is otherwise designated
" eternal fire," " Gehenna," " the lake which burneth with
fire and brimstone " — each of these is denominated death
in the Bible. Whatever penalty God has attached to
human sin, that is death.

The very first occasion of the use of the word death is
suggestive. " Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch

1 Scriptural Doctrme of Sacrifice and Atonement^ pp. 312-317.
^ Rom. vii. 13. ^ Rom. vii. 19.

* I John V. 16 ; Rom. vii. 11. * i John v. 16.

THE BIBLE VIEW OF SIN I4I

it, lest ye die," was the divine proclamation to x'\dam and
Eve, — a proclamation which the issue proved to be com-
pletely false if death signified physical demise, but most
awfully true if death was all the penal consequences of sin
— of alienation, unrest, predisposition to wrong, physical
weakness, and all the manifold phases of that painful
history which culminates in the grave and what it leads
to.

Death, in short, in the biblical usage of the word, is
more than decease. Death is a great inclusive term for
all that evolution of punishment which is consequent upon
the evolution, because of sin, of the divine withdrawal from
man. This evolution of penalty is seen primarily in the
disturbed balance between flesh and spirit, next in develop-
ing depravity and disease, next in decease, and, finally, in
that supreme divine withdrawal from man which is called
the Second Death.

Certainly there are many problems which such a survey
of the generic consequences of sin suggests. But many of
them answer themselves as we proceed.

VII

Seventhly, let us more carefully consider the conse-
quences of sin in the individual.

The study, as we have seen, of the consequences of sin
conveniently falls under three categories, the Adamic, the
Generic, and the Personal Consequences. Under each
category, too, as we have also seen, the consequences are
the same in kind, namely, sin, guilt, and death. A further
fact must also have become evident in our discussion,
namely, that in passing from Adam to and through the
race, there has been an evolution of sin, and an evolution
of guilt, and an evolution of death. Sin, guilt, death ;
and the implications of death, namely, spiritual loss, de-

142 THE ANCIENT FAITH IN MODERN LIGHT

pravity, suffering, disease, and decease, are more terrible
experiences to Adam's distant descendants than to Adam.
The evolution still continues as we pass from the race to
the individual, as will be speedily evident if we depict the
several stages of sin.

In its complete development the stages of sin are four.
First comes the stage prior to moral consciousness, when
the generic consequences rule. Next comes the stage of
moral consciousness, when the generic consequences still
rule, but in increased measure. Next comes the stage of
Christianised consciousness, where an accentuated per-
sonality makes sin most intelligently and most deliberately
personal. Last comes the stage of persistent and wholly
conscious sin, the state of obduracy, with its sequence of
second and final death. Of each stage in order.

The first stage of individual sin is that prior to the
awakening of the moral consciousness. At this stage
each personality participates in the sin of the race. Sin,
guilt, and death are of the generic type, already sufficiently
sketched.

The next stage of individual sin is that subsequent to
the awakening of the moral consciousness. There then
ensues upon generic sin a sin that is deliberate and per-
sonal. Then we become sinners by act as well as by
nature. Intelligibly, therefore, a personal penalty follows
upon the race penalty. To racial sin, racial guilt, racial
death, there is added personal sin, and personal guilt, and
personal death. Indeed, seeing that every human being is
apparently destined by God to become an actual person-
ality, good or evil, there is no ripeness of development,
no ripeness in relation to the divine laws and order, until
the stage of moral consciousness and moral freedom is
reached.

In this connection, observe how the Bible again and
again distinguishes between the first and unripe moral

THE BIBLE VIEW OF SIN I43

stage and the second or riper moral stage, between con-
stitutional sin, so to speak, and personal transgression.
It was just here that the older orthodoxy went so far
wrong. No difference was seen between phases of sin,
no difference between phases of guilt, and consequently
no degrees were seen in punishment. According to its
teaching, eternal punishment equally fell upon the hardened
sinner who had deliberately refused the yoke of Christ and
upon the unawakened sinner who broke the divine com-
mands very largely in ignorance, nay, even upon the
newborn child, who had not deliberately transgressed at
all. But, difficult as this whole subject of penalty is, no
theory should have shut the eyes against those passages of
Scripture which distinctly point to degrees of culpability
and therefore to degrees of punishment. To say that all
are guilty before God, is not to say that all are equally
guilty ; and there are passages of Scripture which should
have given pause. " I was alive," writes Paul, " apart from
the law, once; but when the commandment came, sin
revived, and I died " ; ^ and again, " Now to him that
worketh, the reward is not reckoned as of grace, but as of
debt";2 and again, "Sin is not imputed when there is
no law." ^ Or what mean our Master's words, " If ye
were blind, ye would have no sin " ? ■* Or what mean
these words of His, " It shall be more tolerable for Tyre
and Sidon in the day of judgment than for you, — it shall
be more tolerable for the land of Sodom in the day of
judgment than for thee " ? ^ Or these words, " That
servant, which knew his lord's will, and made not ready,
nor did according to his will, shall be beaten with many
stripes ; but he that knew not, and did things worthy of
stripes, shall be beaten with few stripes ; and to whomso-

^ Rom. vii. 9. - Rom. iv. 4.

^ Rom. V. 13. * John i.\. 41.

^ Matt. X. 15, xi. 24 ; Mark vi. 11 ; Luke x. 12.

144 THE ANCIENT FAITH IN MODERN LIGHT

ever much is given, of him shall much be required ; and
to whom they commit much, of him will they ask the
more " ? ^ Or why emasculate the Master's dying prayer,
" Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do"?^
Surely, too, there is meaning in Paul's conviction, " How-
ever, I obtained mercy, because I did it ignorantly in
unbelief" ^ The distinctions of the Levitical Law, pre-
viously considered, will recur to mind, concerning sins
done unwittingly and sins done deliberately, concerning
sins of ignorance and sins done with a high hand.

But this stage of personal life, which superadds volun-
tary to involuntary sin, is not yet the highest development
of the personal life. It is a fettered state ; it is a depraved
state ; it is an ignorant state ; it is a shortsighted state ; it
is an enslaved state. Although declarative of personal sin,
and therefore of personal guilt, it is not definitive. It does
not as such settle the ultimate fate. There is a higher
moral condition conceivable, and there is a higher moral
condition arranged for in the providence of God.

Upon the stage of ordinary moral consciousness there
follows the third stage of supernaturally quickened or
Christianised consciousness. By this is not meant what is
often called the Christian consciousness, that developed
sense of spiritual things which is the product of a deliberate
submission to the law of Jesus Christ, and of a deliberate
copying of His example. By a Christianised consciousness
something much less than this is meant. A Christianised
consciousness is a consciousness supernaturally brought to
stand upon the Christian plane of things. It is not all the
experiences of the developed Christian life, but that element-
ary experience, without which there cannot be said to be
a consciousness of the Christian type at all. By the grace
of God, by the inbreathing of the Holy Ghost, by the

^ Luke xii. 47, 48. 2 Luke xxiii. 34.

^ I Tim. i. 13.

THE BIBLE VIEW OF SIN I45

indwelling of the soul of Jesus, — for all three phrases
emphasise the same remarkable fact, namely, the neutral-
isation of inherited tendency by divine influence, — man is
brought to know the Christian standpoint. If it is marvel-
lous, it is matter of fact, that an hour comes, by divine
interference in human affairs, when the fetters of the past
cease to bind, and when with absolutely free (because with
divinely-vitalised) will man is enabled to declare for good
or for evil. If there is a generic state of consciousness, in
which man's will is identified with the will of the race, if
there is a personal state of consciousness, in which man's
will takes on an individual character (although that will has
but the tiniest margin of freedom, being so fettered by the
manacles forged by our entire past) ; so, in the providence of
God, there is a state of Christianised consciousness, when
in contact with Christian truth, influenced by Christian life,
inspired by the Holy Spirit whom Christ sends into us, the
soul is as able to decide for right or for wrong as Adam in
his first temptation. This is the stage of crisis. This is
the hour of personal free decision. This is the phase of
human story in which the depravity which characterises
intellect and heart and will is divinely counteracted, in
which freedom is as real as probation, in which temptation
assumes its most acute phase, and in which the decision
arrived at is not only momentous, but may be final. In the
mercy of God the wilful soul often has many such critical
hours, but the repetition is of mercy, not necessity. In any
such experience the man can know, feel, and act as if he
were not the subject of the constitutional consequences of
generic and personal sin. In such an experience the man
can freely decide for God or against Him. There is no
hereditary compulsion to reject God's way, for that com-
pulsion has been divinely neutralised ; nor is there any
divine compulsion to accept God's way, for the decisive
choice must be man's, not God's. Alas ! too, such choosing
10

J 46 THE AVCIENT FAITH IN MODERN LIGHT

of side can never be subsequently regarded as mitigated by
ignorance. The stage of knowledge and freedom attained
is such that there can be no complaint if the issue be final.
Both divine revelation and divine inspiration have concen-
trated their forces upon the soul ; for the crisis has been
produced by the truth as it is in Jesus, rendered intelligible,
credible, and forcible by the act of the Holy Spirit. In
such a crisis man has, so to speak, come of age. The days
of minority are no more. Now, and only now, is he ripe
for eternal salvation or eternal death.

The rejection, then, of the life and truth of Christ in
this crisis of Christianised experience is really the supreme
sin. At the same time, it is a sin against the Holy Ghost.
Straightway a series of biblical references, long regarded as
well-nigh insoluble, start into prominence, inviting their
examination. One variety of sin, and one alone, is described
in the Bible as the sin which cannot be forgiven in this
world or the next. The biblical passages may be desirably
quoted. " Therefore," said Jesus once to the Pharisees, " I
say unto you, every sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven
unto men, but the blasphemy against the Spirit shall not be
forgiven ; and whosoever shall speak a word against the
Son of Man, it shall be forgiven him ; but whosoever shall
speak a word against the Holy Spirit, it shall not be for-
given him, neither in this world, nor in that which is to
come." ^ The same ideas rule in the passage in Mark,
which runs, "Verily I say unto you, all their sins shall be
forgiven unto the sons of men, and their blasphemies
wherewith soever they shall blaspheme ; but whosoever
shall blaspheme against the Holy Spirit hath never forgive-
ness, but is guilty of an eternal sin." " Here, too, come in
alarming words of the Apostle John's, namely, " If any man
see his brother sinning a sin not unto death, he shall ask,
and God will give him life for them that sin not unto death.
1 Matt. xii. 31, 32. - Mark iii. 28, 29.

THE BIBLE VIEW OF SIN 1 47

There is a sin unto death; not concerning this do I say
that he should make request." ^ In this connection some
serious words of Dr. Dorner's deserve careful weighing-
" Those," says this eminently sober religious thinker, " whom
Jesus warned had attributed His works to the evil spirit,
and had thereby calumniated Christ, just as afterwards they
crucified Him. For all that He says : Blasphemy against
the Son of Man may be forgiven, but not blasphemy against
the Holy Ghost. With their sin against Jesus, therefore,
sin against the Holy Ghost was not essentially committed,
although they were to be warned of the near danger into
which they were about to fall. In the commencement of
His self-revelation He might be rejected in that ignorance
for which He prayed on the Cross. But if the Holy Spirit,
who takes of the things of Christ and brings Christ inwardly
near to the heart, is blasphemed, that is, if His work within,
the divine impression of the Person of Christ which He
arouses in man, is despised, is characterised as falsehood,
there is no forgiveness more. For this sin, therefore, inter-
cession is not to be made." Indeed, it would appear that
the sin against the Holy Ghost is the deliberate rejection of
the revelation of Christ when that revelation has been made
fully and unmistakably in the individual soul by the work
of the Holy Ghost. Not that the sin against the Holy
Ghost is to be regarded necessarily as an isolated act.
Conceivably it may even be a single act. Rather is this
sin, as Dr. A. H. Strong says, " The external symptom of a
heart so radically and finally set against God that no power
which God can consistently use will ever save it : the sin
can only be the culmination of a long course of self-
hardening and self-depraving." " Further," continues Dr.
Strong, as convincingly as firmly, " the sin against the
Holy Ghost cannot be forgiven, simply because the soul
that has committed it has ceased to be receptive of divine
' r John V. i6.

148 THE ANCIENT FAITH IN MODERN LIGHT

influences, even when those influences are exerted in the
utmost strength which God has seen fit to employ." The
same point is pressed by the saintly and sainted Julius
Muller : " It is not," he says, " that divine grace is absolutely
refused to anyone who in true penitence asks forgiveness
of sin ; but he who commits it never fulfils the subjective
conditions upon which forgiveness is possible, because the
aggravation of sin to this ultimatum destroys in him all
susceptibility of repentance ; the way of return is closed to
no one who does not close to himself."

The sin against the Holy Ghost, in short, is the
climacteric, the supreme sin. For this there is no forgive-
ness. The supreme sin produces the supreme guilt, and
the supreme guilt will be visited by the supreme death.

Hence the tragic side of the preacher's life. " Now,
thanks be unto God," the true witness to the gospel of
Jesus can say with Paul, " which always leadeth us in
triumph in Christ, and maketh manifest through us the
savour of His knowledge in every place." Why ? " For
we are a sweet savour of Christ unto God, in them that
are being saved ; and " (oh the agony of the thought !)
" in them that are perishing." ^ . . . " To the one a savour
from death unto death ; to the other a savour from life
unto life." ..." And Jesus said. For decision I am come
into the world, that they which see not might see, and
that they which see might be made blind." ^

Sin, guilt, death, — this, apart from Christ, is the
sequence for every child of Adam, however immature his
moral development. Sin, guilt, death, — this, apart from
Christ, is the sequence for him who has arrived at moral
decision. Sin, guilt, death, — this, if Christ be not accepted,
is the sequence for him who, by the grace of the Holy Ghost,
has been brought to the hour of supreme decision. Manifestly
the sin increases from stage to stage. Does not the guilt
1 2 Cor. ii. 14, 16. 2 joj^r, jj^_ 29.

THE BIBLE VIEW OF SIN 1 49

develop as well? And docs not the death vary too? Is
the solution of the problems which here press upon us,
this — that, in the providence of God, every soul (if not
in this world, in the world to come) shall be brought to the
hour of supreme crisis, when, with perfect understanding,
he will accept or reject the saving help of the Lord Jesus ?
or is the solution this — that, as there are grades of sin,
and consequently grades of guilt, there are grades of death?
Perhaps on the evidence presented by the Bible it is
impossible to decide. The Great Revealer may have
withheld such knowledge from us. Yet would there be
a very welcome harmony in His gracious revelations to us,
if there were reason to believe that final doom (whatever the
second death may mean) will only be reached after the
stage of Christianised consciousness had been reached. In
that case, as Christ is to be the final judge for all, so, rela-
tion to Christ, as interpreted by the Holy Spirit, would be
the final test for all.

VIII

Difficult as the problems are which have just suggested
themselves, one consequence, at anyrate, follows from our
examination of the biblical teaching concerning sin. Vivid
light is thrown thereby upon the method as well as the
need of salvation. For, as we have seen, sin is trans-
gression of the divine law, and calls for atonement ; and
sin has resulted in death, and calls for regeneration.

Let us recall the way we have travelled in this
essay.

Observe, once again, the first state of man. Man was
created morally pure, but peccable ; healthy, but con-
ditionally mortal ; inexperienced, but capable of a great
development. For at his creation man was more than
animal. By the inspiration of God, man was spirit as
well as body. As body and spirit, man was sinless, not

150 THE ANCIENT FAITH IN MODERN LIGHT

in the sense of being incapable of sin, but in the sense
of being innocent and ignorant of sin. Man was innocent,
but not yet holy; his goodness was by nature, not by
resolve. Further, healthy though man was, he was liable
to death. Further, man was made, not with the limited
needs of the animal, but with the power of an endless
life and growth. In short, man was created pure, but
liable to sin ; healthy, but liable to death ; inexperienced,
but capable of a vast development.

Observe, next, the final state of man in the divine
idea. Automatic was to become deliberate goodness.
Immortality was to supplant potential death. Rudiment-
ary experience in heart and will and mind, was to become
endless growth of heart and will and mind.

Observe, further, the supreme condition of passage from
the first to the final state of man. That condition was an
uninterrupted communion between God and man. The
innocent was to become holy ; the potentially mortal was
to become immortal ; the inexperienced was to become
developed : so we have interpreted the biblical position.
But how ? By the constant co-operation of God with
human endeavour. All life was to be a sacrament, an
outward and visible sign of an inward and spiritual grace.
That is to say, that if man was to become deliberately
holy, it could only be by the co-operation of the Divine
Spirit and the human spirit ; and if the human body and
spirit were to cease to be liable to death, it could only be
by the co-operation of the Divine Spirit ; and if the spirit
of man, the rational spirit, that which differentiated man
from the animal, was to grow, as grow it might, intel-
lectually, morally, emotionally, religiously, this growth could
only result upon the continued gift to man of the Divine
Spirit. The point is notable. In the divine idea, the
perfection of human nature could only be attained in union
with God, not in human isolation or self-seeking, which

THE BIBLE VIEW OF SIN I 5 I

is sin. Man had been created perfect, as the phrase ran
in the late sixteenth century theologians, but not perfect
in their sense. Man had been created perfect as the first
Adam, not as the second Adam was perfect, — perfect, that
is, not in himself and apart from God, but only perfect in
submission to and in fellowship with the Divine Author
of his being. In other words, fellowship, intercourse,
communion (whichever term be preferred) remaining un-
broken between man and his Maker, deathlessness would
result, and, in addition to incapability of death, — whatever
death may mean in reference to spirit as well as flesh, — the
harmonious interaction of both sides of human nature would
be maintained, spirit controlling flesh, and flesh submitting
to spirit ; moreover, the continuity of the divine intercourse
with man remaining, that growth of the entire man would
be secured which promised so much more for the future
than even the priceless possession of moral balance. Man,
flesh and spirit, innocent, sane in frame and mind, though
inexperienced as a babe, was to become man, holy, undying,
cultured on all sides of his nature, always growing, from
father to son and from age to age, towards a more perfect
stature, and all by the maintenance of one supreme con-
dition— association with God, vitalisation by the Divine
Spirit. Let man preserve his contact with Deity, and he
would develop without hindrance or intermission into the
fullest likeness with God possible to such a nature. For
such progress of man, from his initial to his final God-like-
ness, this mundane universe was made.

Now observe the lamentable result of the intercalation
of sin. Man turned from God, and God withdrew from
man. Disordered relations were introduced into the moral
cosmos. On man's sinful choice of masters, and the pre-
ference of self and Satan to God, the holy wrath of Deity
broke forth. It could not but break forth. For God, much
more than for man, to recognise sin is to condemn it ; to

152 THE ANCIENT FAITH IN MODERN LIGHT

condemn sin is to condemn it with abhorrence; to con-
demn sin with abhorrence is to show by suitable act the
intensity of the divine displeasure. The holiness of God,
that integrity of the divine life which guarantees the
integrity of the universe, and especially the integrity of
the moral universe; that divine holiness, the preservation
and assertion of which secures the well-being and orderly
development of the created world, — breaks forth in righteous
resentment, in righteous indignation, at human sin. In holy
indignation against sin, the Deity permits penalty to fall upon
the sinner. That penalty was death ; and death is a terrible
evolution of punishment, beginning in loss of balance
between spirit and flesh, continuing in the domination of
the carnal appetites, passing into a new phase at decease,
and culminating in what is called the second death. Nay,
the biblical conception of death may be probed further.
The very cause of death is God's withdrawal of His Spirit
from man. The spirit of man, as we have seen, can only
fulfil its destiny in constant communion with the Divine
Spirit ; but when man, exercising his spiritual faculty of
will, prefers Satan and self to God, then the penalty decreed
by the holy Lawgiver is that the intercourse between the
Divine Spirit and the human spirit ceases. As an inevitable
result, the human spirit which " lives " with God " dies "
without Him.

What the Bible means by the death of the spirit may
be understood by recalling what we have recently said as
to the divine idea in the creation of man. Man, we saw,
was created pure, but not incapable of sin ; healthy, but
not incapable of death ; immature, but not incapable of
growth. Further, as we have also seen, man was to
become holy as well as pure, immortal as well as healthy,
the subject of an infinite and gradedly perfect develop-
ment. And again, as we have also seen, all this fulfilment
of divine plan was — let the fact be emphasised again — to

THE BIBLE VIEW OF SIN I 53

be consequent upon uninterrupted communion with God.
As man's body might grow by its appropriate food and
exercise, so man's spirit was to grow by its appropriate
food and exercise. So we have seen. But now let us
suppose that in moral indignation at sin, the Divine Ruler
of all feels it imperative to withdraw His divine aid from
man, what will follow? Will not these effects? Man will
become unholy instead of pure ; diseased and dying instead
of healthy ; gifted still with a capacity of long-continued
development, but away from, and not towards, goodness
and God ; and all this in increasing manner as the ages
pass. How terrible a comment upon such speculations has
human history been !

If the discussion is close, it admits into the arcana of
any doctrine of redemption. Another element of the case
calls for reminiscence. For man is part of a series. No
man can be good without affecting others for good, and no
man can be bad without exerting a pernicious influence.
But even this is not the whole case. One generation has a
subtle and penetrative influence upon the generation follow-
ing. In the constitution of things, the hereditary relation
has a wide-reaching effect, A righteous race would pro-
pagate a race with a predisposition to righteousness. A
sinful race propagates a race with a predisposition to sin.
Not only are there consequences which follow individual
sinful acts, but there are constitutional effects of sin woven
into our very natures.

Now consider the bearing of all this upon the work of
salvation. The problem of salvation is to counteract the
twofold effects of sin, namely, the constitutional effects
and the cosmic effects. Transgression, the breach of
divine law, calls for penal suffering in expiation. De-
pravity, the effect of sin upon man's nature, calls for
divine life in neutralisation. Sin, as affecting man's
nature, presents a need which must be met before man

154 THE ANCIKNT FAITH IN MODERN LIGHT

can be saved. Sin, as affecting the moral universe, pre-
sents another need, which must be met before man can
be saved. Thus, then, the problem of saving man is to
counteract the effects of sin as nature, and of sin as
transgression.

The statement of the problem is the clue to its solu-
tion. If the constitutional effects of sin have been pro-
duced through generations by the cessation of fellowship
between the spirit of man and the Spirit of God, manifestly
these constitutional effects require for their neutralisation the
restoration to man of the Divine Spirit : death ceases when
life commences. This restoration of the Divine Spirit it is
the prerogative of Jesus to effect. By such restored vital
union between man and God, we, and our children after us,
may be increasingly saved from the corruption which is in
us because of sin. The counteraction of the effects of sin
as transgression, the necessary atonement for the infringed
law, is a more difficult problem. But the revelation and
act of God make clear to us that the death and sufferings
of Christ have fully met the demands of holy law and
made atonement. Normal relations are established in the
universe between man and God by the atonement of
Jesus : the neutralisation of the constitutional effects of
sin are effected by the regeneration there is in Christ, a
regeneration which is really God with us again.

DEITY AND HUMANITY OF CHRIST

By SAMUEL G GREEN

155

IV
Deity and Humanity of Christ

The most significant fact in connection with modern theo-
logical study is the growing concentration of thought upon
our Lord's human character and life. Of all forms of serious
literature the Divine Biography is the most popular. The
Life of Christ is written, in every conceivable form, for
critics, philosophers, and scholars, no less for the general
reader and for the little child. Endeavours are made,
often with distinguished success, to reproduce the details
connected with His abode among men, the outward scenery,
the habits of His contemporaries, their social and political
condition, their religious beliefs and hopes. So far as the
environment is concerned, we know Him better than any
generation has known Him since the age when He appeared.
But beyond all this, a new and deeper emphasis has been
laid upon the " Mind of the Master," the " Words of the
Master," the " Teaching of Jesus." Such phrases recall the
titles of some of the most eagerly-studied books of our age.
There is an increasing desire to understand Him, to listen
to Him. Religious teaching, which, within the memory of
some, concerned itself chiefly with what He has done for
us, now dwells rather upon the antecedent question, Who
and what He was. The consciousness of the early Church
reappears in modern days ; and the discussions of Nicaca
and Chalcedon are, with a difference, revived.^

^ See Dr. Fairbairn's Christ in Modern Theology. Introduction,
" The Return to Christ."

157

158 THE ANCIENT FAITH IN MODERN LIGHT

Now it has sometimes been apprehended that the larger
and deeper study of our Lord's humanity would in a
measure impair the sense of His Deity. There has been
a not unnatural fear of approaching too near to Him, of
knowino- Christ "after the flesh." His Manhood and His
Deity have been treated as truths in sharp antithesis, each
in turn to be guarded from the risk of damaging admissions.
To combine the two great verities into one harmonious
whole, has ever been the difficulty of theologians.

It was a difficulty anticipated and frankly met, in the
very beginning, by the Apostle John. No other evangelist
laid such constant stress upon the divine nature of our Lord.
" The Word was God " is the keynote of his Gospel. At the
same time, there is no apostle who dwelt with a deeper em-
phasis upon Christ's manhood. In part, this was rendered
necessary by the doketic^ tendencies already apparent in
the Church. But these only give him the occasion of affirm-
ing what he evidently regards as a fundamental truth. To
deny " Jesus Christ come in the flesJi" is to be " an Anti-
christ." Twice is this solemnly asserted, in his General
Epistle and in that to the Elect Lady. It had become
needful to make this decided stand. The first great heresy
as to the Person of Christ was already in the air, and this
was the denial, not of His Deity, but of His manhood. Who
could best meet it but he who best knew the Master to be
divine ? The truths are kindred ; it is hardly too much to
say, identical ; standing, not in mysterious and inexplicable
contrast, but in perfect and glorious harmony.

I. Nor is it from John's testimony alone that we learn
the kindrcdship of these fundamental verities. Much con-

^ For the apparently pedantic spelling of this word the sufficient
reason has been given, that it clearly shows its true derivation from
"hfix-iiv (seem), not docere (teach).

DEITY AND HUMANITY OF CHRIST 1 59

troversy as to the Fourth Gospel has taken its tone from the
feeling on both sides that the gist of the question as to our
Lord's divinity lay there. Establish the Johannine author-
ship, and the doctrine of the Word made flesh receives its
most powerful attestation ; refute it, and we have, it is said,
in the Synoptic Gospels only the picture, however lovely and
transcendent, of the man Christ Jesus. Is this so? Let us
leave the Fourth Gospel (with its companion Epistles) for
the moment out of the question ; what do we find in
Matthew, Mark, and Luke ? No abstractions of divine
philosophy, that is confessed ; no declarations of apologetic
purpose ; these evangelists never stop to say, " These
things are written that ye might believe." Their record
of words and deeds is artless and simple, as of men
unconscious of the grandeur that lay behind the outward
facts. These facts they present, leaving us for the most
part to draw our own conclusions. But to what con-
clusions are we irresistibly led concerning the Son of Man
whom they depict ?

Before answering this question, let us suppose a case.
We may bring up before our imagination a man of surpass-
ing genius, commanding intellect, and immaculate morals ;
keen in insight, profound in wisdom, and tender in sympathy.
Let such a man have taken it as his mission to teach and
help his fellows, dedicating himself to the task in a spirit of
heroic courage and absolute self-abnegation. Thus he goes
about doing good, accessible to all, with unwearied com-
passion for the miserable, and sublime forbearance even for
the sinner whom he rebukes. What personal characteristics,
we may ask, would complete our picture of such a man?
First of all, beyond doubt, the absence of self-assertion. The
spirit, face to face with truth, and awed by its majesty, has
no place for personal claims. Egoism disappears. To his
disciples he will ever say, " P^ollow not me, but the Supreme
Good ; be true and pure, not for my sake, but for the sake of

l6o THE ANXIENT FAITH IN MODERN LIGHT

that which is infinite and eternal. Take my words, not
because I utter them, but because they are in themselves
divine." That such self-effacement has ever been the spirit
of the world's greatest teachers, I need not stay to prove.
Or if ever a touch of self-consciousness has intruded upon
the soul in communion with infinite truth and purity, the
result has been an inevitable self-abasement. " I had heard
of Thee by the hearing of the ear, but now mine eye seeth
Thee ; wherefore I abhor myself, and repent in dust and
ashes." " Woe is me, for I am undone ; because I am a
man of unclean lips."

How different from all this is the representation of Christ
given us in the Synoptic Gospels ! He places His own
personality always in the foreground : " Verily, verily, / say
unto you." Among a people that venerated the Law of
God uttered from heaven to their fathers, He declares, as
though the Mount on which He sat were another Sinai : " It
was said to them of old time . . . but / say unto you." To
the poor and heavy-laden He says : " Come unto Me, and I
will give you rest." He demands allegiance to Himself as
the very condition of entering into life : " Whosoever shall
confess Me before men, him will I confess before My Father
which is in heaven." Nay, He subordinates the most sacred
relationships of mankind to the service which He claims :
" He that loveth father or mother more than Me, is not
worthy of Me ; and he that loveth son or daughter more
than Me, is not worthy of Me." He represents Himself as
conversant with the sublimest mysteries of truth : " No one
knoweth the Son, save the Father ; neither doth any know
the Father, save the Son, and he to whomsoever the Son
willeth to reveal Him." Such words, evidently genuine,
recorded by those who do not seem to apprehend all their
greatness, are not, and could not have been, the words of
the wisest and greatest of human teachers. The wiser and
greater they might be, the more sensitively would they have

DEITY AND HUMANITY OF CHRIST l6l

shrunk from making any demands like these upon faith and
obedience. In a word, Jesus asks, in entire calmness and
simplicity, for a trust and allegiance due to none but God
Himself. So in the end of all He says to His ambassadors :
" Go ye and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing
them into the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of
the Holy Ghost . . . and, lo, I am with you always, even
unto the consummation of the age."

On account of this wonderful self-assertion, the moral
perfection of Jesus has been denied.^ Nor is there any
escape from the old dilemma: Aut Detis, ant homo non
bonus.

And this irresistible inference from the Synoptics is
more than sustained by the explicit testimony of the Fourth
Gospel. In confining the argument hitherto to the former,
I do not in the least undervalue the words of Jesus as
recorded by the disciple whom He loved. Only here the
task becomes that, not so much of exposition as of defence.
Admit this Fourth Gospel, and the witness of the Three is
crowned by a series of declarations in which the conscious-
ness of Godhead is apparent in every phrase : " I am the
Bread of Life"; " I am the True Vine"; " I am the Way, and
the Truth, and the Life " ; "I am the Light of the world."
For ages had the devout among the Jews dwelt upon the
familiar words, " Jehovah is my Shepherd, I shall not
want"; and now here is One who announces, "I am the
Good Shepherd." One and another psalmist had cried to
the Eternal, " My spirit thirsteth for Thee, the living God" ;
and, as if in response, One stands up in the Temple and
says, " If any man thirst, let him come unto Me and
drink." What must the readers of the ancient Scrip-

^ See especially F. W. Newman, Phases of Faith, ch. vii. In refer-
ence to a critic (Dr. James Maitineau) who had maintained, from the
Unitarian standpoint, the moral perfection of Jesus, Mr. Newman
remarks, " My friend ought to publish an expurgated Gospel.'^

1 62 THE ANCIENT FAITH IN MODERN LIGHT

tures have made of claims like these? We know how, in
fact, they did regard them : and when they took up stones
to stone Him, they gave unconscious testimony to the fact,
that, in accord with ancient prophecy, the Lord Himself had
suddenly come to His Temple. If possible, as Dr. Bushnell
acutely remarks, "the very negatives He uses concerning
Himself as related to the Father are even more convincing
still. Thus, when He says, ' My Father is greater than I,'
how preposterous for any mere human being of our
race to be gravely telling the world that God is superior
to Him ! " The wonder is that the disciples themselves
who listened to His words did not comprehend all that
they implied, until, as the same evangelist records, one
of them, in belated but irresistible conviction, exclaimed,
"My Lord and my God!" The risen Christ accepts the
confession : " Thomas, because thou hast seen Me thou hast
believed : blessed are they that have not seen and yet
have believed." Words could scarcely more expressively
claim from the Church of all time the acknowledgment of
His Deity.

2. In accord with this conclusion is the language of the
Apostles throughout. Apart from their express declarations,
the thought of Christ as Divine pervades their teachings.
Especially may we note the way in which the Apostle Paul,
in reiterated and varied forms, asserts Christ to be his life.
It is the definition of the Christian character, to be "in
Christ." Now, whatever the full significance of this deep,
dark saying, it is plainly inapplicable to one's relation with
his fellow-man. / am in Paul — zVz John ; how unmeaning
would be the phrase ! In its unique application to the
Master, it must mean this at least — that He, ever present
to the spirit by faith, is the ground of the spirit's true life.
"Christ in us" is the correlative phrase, expressing an ideal,
which on the sceptical side becomes but a vaguely beautiful
aspiration —

DEITY AND HUMANITY OF CHRIST 1 63

" O may I join the choir invisible
Of those immortal dei.d who live again
In minds made better by their presence ; live
In pulses stirred to generosity,
In deeds of daring rectitude ; in scorn
Of miserable aims that end with self,
In thoughts sublime that pierce the night like stars,
And with their mild persistence urge men's minds
To vaster issues."

This cry of a soul nurtured in a faith afterwards forsaken,
might have been learned at the feet of Jesus ! Only for the
" immortal dead " we look to Him who lives, an all-pervad-
ing Presence, a Personal power in the life, teaching us to
aspire, and enabling us to live. In a very important sense,
Christ is Christianity.

Nor is this a mere theory. We read it not only in the
Fourth Gospel, the Synoptics, and the Epistles, but in the
great volume of Christian experience everywhere. For
surely the history of the Church and the records of missions
are sufficient to prove that wherever the living Christ is
preached in fellowship with men's souls, demanding faith,
obedience, consecration, there is spiritual life. We must go
to Him as to our God, else we sadly miss the way. One
fact, uniformly and mournfully apparent in the annals of
Unitarianism, is its absence of transforming and vitalising
power. It does not convert. This is simply the testimony of
its adherents, — their constant, sorrowful confession. In many
cases they are earnest, sincere, devout. They would spend
and be spent, if they could only win men's souls to right-
eousness, purity, and love. Personally, they strive to live
near to God, and to learn His will. But when from their
secret place of communion with Him, into which we will
not venture to follow them, they go forth into the w'orld, it
is only too sadly manifest that they bear with them no spell
to reach the depths of human conscience, or to raise the
spiritually dead. We hear them often pathetically asking
why this should be. The answer is that there is but one

1 64 THE ANCIENT FAITH IN MODERN LIGHT

gospel for mankind. In one of his most highly- wrought
discourses, Dr. Channing powerfully maintains that "Uni-
tarian Christianity is most favourable to piety" ;^ but the
argument is a priori from beginning to end. On its show-
ing, we should expect to find that wherever the Churches
had come under Unitarian influence they had become
vigorous, devout, filled with spiritual life ; that the renuncia-
tion of Trinitarian belief had become the signal for new
earnestness and larger success in efforts to evangelise man-
kind; and that the power of Christ to move the world was
the most profoundly felt where He was preached and
believed in only as a man. It is now more than seventy
years since that discourse was preached — a period distin-
guished by the Church's activities in innumerable directions.
In the face of the high claims made by the eloquent
expositor of Unitarian doctrine, we are at least entitled to
ask, Where are its triumphs to be seen, in the turning of
men from sin to righteousness, from darkness to light ?
The best and noblest men of Dr. Channing's school are the
first to confess their disappointment, and often pathetically
seek the reason.

A brilliant author of our own day has raised the ques-
tion anew- — Why is it that Unitarianism makes so little
progress ? And part of the explanation, alas ! is found
in the remains of Puritanisju that cling to it. " Uni-
tarianism wants more beauty and more enthusiasm." Yes;
" more enthusiasm " without doubt ! but the experience of
ages has shown that this is to be truly, lastingly enkindled
by the passionate presentation of the message of " God in
Christ reconciling the world unto Himself." Here, too, is
"beauty," the beauty of a truth everywhere adapted to
man's needs, and of a love that wins the world unto itself.

1 Works (1840), vol. iii. p. 163, "Discourse at the Dedication of a
Unitarian Church at New York, 1826."

* Unitarians and the Future, by Mrs. Humphry Ward, 1894.

DEITY AND HUMANITY OF CHRIST 1 65

" If it would be like its Master," continues the gifted writer,
"let it speak in coloured, parabolic, stimulating ways, using
the natural sensuous impulses for its own purposes, appeal-
ing, without fear for itself, to those sources of delight —
colour, music, ordered speech, and magnificent action."
Hence the appeal to "the young, especially in the Free
Churches, to spend time, love, craft, and money in the
attempt to make beautiful what they believe." Vain will be
the attempt ! For, unless we have read amiss the experi-
ence of all the Christian ages, no splendour of adornment or
pomp of ritual will give life to a Church when Christ as the
divine and only Master is not the object of worship, the
centre of trust and love.^

By a twofold line of argument, then ; — from the records
of Christ's earthly life, and from the proofs of His presence
and power in the individual believer and in the whole
history of the Church, we are led to the recognition and
acceptance of His highest claims. Testimony and experi-
ence alike reveal to us His humanity and Deity as
correlated truths, each shedding upon the other its own
illumination, and together constituting the light and life of
men.

3. Other modes of reaching the same conclusion might
be adopted, but are too familiar to make it needful to insist
upon them largely here. Much stress has been rightly laid
by Christian apologists on the direct testimony of Scripture.
In discussions of the subject it is common to find long lists
of " proof-texts " on every phase of the argument; and the
array of such authorities is unquestionably valuable. Still
it is doubtful whether this mode of arguing has not some-
times obscured the real issue. Irrelevant texts have been
pressed into service ; while opponents have regarded every
single critical confutation as a victory on the main question.
There was a dreary volume, published more than fifty years
' See Browning's Christinas Eve and Easter Day.

1 66 THE ANCIENT FAITH IN MODERN LIGHT

ago, the object of which was to collect all the passages from
the Old Testament and the New which had been supposed
by one or another Trinitarian expositor to teach the doctrine
of the Triune Godhead or the Deity of the Son, and then
to quote other critics belonging to the same school, to
show that the text was susceptible of another interpreta-
tion. The result was a most promiscuous and bewildering
collection of criticisms, but little more. In truth, one
might go a long way with these " concessions " without any
prejudice to faith. The battle is neither to be lost nor won
by such insistence upon details ; and on both sides there is
the danger of what we may call subjectiveness in criticism.
We are told sometimes by the cynical that a man's theo-
logical position will determine his critical or exegetical
conclusions ; that if we only know beforehand his views of
the Divine Sonship, we shall know what estimate he will
take, for instance, of the authorities for and against the
reading "Only-begotten God" in John i. i8 ; or the vocative
translation " O God," or the nominative " God " in Heb. i. 8.
No doubt our greatest critics and expositors are mainly
free from such prepossessions ; but where the stress of the
argument is made to rest on individual texts, there is
always the danger of unconscious bias, or else of the appre-
hension that some new development in the critical process
should shake the foundations of the faith. Thus a student
of the Old Testament will be alarmed lest he should
have to surrender the current interpretation of Isaiah's
" Emmanuel," or that of " the Mighty God, the Everlasting
Father " ; or lest the Eternal Wisdom of the Book of
Proverbs should be transformed from a personality into a
personification ; or lest the " goings forth from everlasting "
in Micah, or the " Desire of all nations " in Haggai, should
be seen to have a merely mundane significance. These are
respectively matters for fearless and independent inquiry ;
and thankful as we are when a fair and thorough examina-

DEITY AND HUMANITY OF CHRIST 1 67

tion of such passages reveals in them the great Mystery of
Godliness, we have solid grounds for faith independent of
them all.

So, again, in summing up the witness of the New Testa-
ment to the Godhead of the Son, we are not dependent
for our belief in God manifested in flesh on discovering
" whether the line in the O can be detected with the aid of
spectacles " ; ^ nor do we cease to honour Christ as " God
over all, blessed for evermore," although what has been read
as a declaration concerning the Son should prove on a
sounder interpretation to be a doxology to the Father ;-
nor do we renounce our assurance that the Sacrifice which
redeemed the Church was Divine, though critics should
agree that in Acts xx. 28 we should read "the Church of
the Lord." Such points are unquestionably of high interest
and importance ; but we can afford to discuss them impar-
tially, as those who rest in a faith which Criticism did not
give, and cannot take away,

III

It is when we pass from the simplicity of faith to its
analysis that the chief difficulties of the question begin.
To the happy consciousness of innumerable Christians, God
is in Christ. They have no thought of the Divine but that
which comes through Him. He has shown to them the
Father, and it sufficeth them. Yet the intellect craves some
further satisfaction, and seeks to bring under its own laws
the method and conditions of the great revelation. Hence
the theories which have in different ages aroused the dis-
cussions of the Church, and which have been either rejected
as heresies or hardened into dogmas. In considering these
it is necessary to premise two things : first, that the truth
is independent of the theory respecting it. Possibly we
may not be able to bring the fact of Incarnation, unique as
* F. I). Maurice. ^ Rom. ix. 5.

1 68 THE ANCIENT FAITH IN MODERN LIGHT

it is in the history of our race, within our intellectual grasp ;
but the truth itself, accepted on the Divine warrant, is inde-
pendent of our ability to do so. And, secondly, it will
follow that our faith does not depend upon our power to
explain the doctrine. If what may be said in the remainder
of this Essay should be shown to be erroneous, faith in the
great reality remains unshaken. A mistaken explanation
is not a denial. It is necessary, indeed, to proceed very
warily amongst the manifold forms of speculation and belief
on this subject. Many an inquirer finds himself in the
course of his speculations precipitated into some heresy
without knowing it. How common, for instance, for the
youthful student to incur unconsciously the charge of
Tritheism ! And perhaps there is a stage in the inquiries
of most serious thinkers when the Sabellian theory of a
threefold mmiifestation of the One God, rather than the
Triune distinction, seems to offer a fascinating solution of
the mystery. The first crude stages of individual thought
all had their prototype in the early history of the Church ;
and there is no record in the history of human beliefs
more fraught with interest and suggestiveness than the long
story of the endeavour to shape a definition of what the
Christian consciousness felt from the beginning to be the true
" Mystery of Godliness," — the " open secret of the devout
life," — the manifestation in humanity of the Divine.

Reference has already been made to the foremost
place which this Mystery occupied in the earliest Christian
thought. As soon as the martyr-age of the Church was
over, men's minds turned, as by divinely-given instinct, to
the contemplation of the Person of Christ as the basis of all
Christian theology. The old simple definitions sufficed no
longer, and other questions lay by until this was settled.
Even on such momentous subjects as Atonement and
Inspiration no theories as yet were formulated. These
lay implicitly in the Christian consciousness ; but an im-

DEITY AND HUMANITY OF CHRIST 1 69

perative necessity was felt for declaring, with a greater
definiteness than heretofore, what the Church believed
respecting the Divine Sonship and glory of the Christ.
Hence the discussions of Nicaea, and all that followed ;
culminating in the declaration of Chalcedon, A.D. 451, due
chiefly to the genius of Leo the First.

" Following the holy Fathers, we unanimously teach one and the
same Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, complete as to His Godhead, and
complete as to His manhood ; truly God and truly man, of a reason-
able soul and human flesh subsisting ; consubstantial with the Father
as to His Godhead, and consubstantial also with us as to His man-
hood ; like unto us in all things, yet without sin ; as to His Godhead,
begotten of the Father before all worlds, but as to His manhood, in
these last days born for us men and for our salvation of the Virgin
Mary, the God-bearer ; ^ one and the same Christ, Lord, Only-begotten,
known of two natures, without confusion, without conversion, without
severance, and without division,^ the distinction of the natures being in
no wise abolished by their union, but the peculiarity of each nature
being maintained, and both concurring in one Person and Hypostasis.
We confess, not a Son divided and sundered into two persons, but one
and the same Son, and Only-begotten, and God-Logos, our Lord Jesus
Christ, even as the prophets had before proclaimed concerning Him,
and He Himself hath taught us, and the symbol of the Fathers hath
handed down to us."

It will be observed that this declaration is merely
assertive: it contains no philosophy of the Incarnation.
Throughout these contests of early times, it was almost
invariably the dissident who constructed theories ; while the
great body of Christian believers were content to define
without philosophising. The Athanasian Creed itself — that
document or " hymn " of unknown authorship which summed
up the conclusion of the great debate long after the days of
Athanasius — does not attempt, as often alleged, to explain
the mysteries of Trinity and Incarnation. It simply states
and restates them, in forms of words carefully chosen to
meet the several repudiated theories ; and every apparent
reiteration contains a side-stroke at some distinct heresy.
Nor, apart from its " damnatory clauses," do we know where

' T-^y OiOTiiKOX). ^ (lCTVyXVT03i, (ITpeTTTCOS, d8iaip(T(t>S, ll)(^0>j)LaT(l)S.

170 THE ANCIENT FAITH IN MODERN LIGHT

to find a more lucid summary of what the Church beheves
concerning its divine Lord.

The one point to be grasped and held firmly is that
expressed by the formula " Two Natures in One Person," a
phrase to which modern psychology can take no objection.
The language of the Westminster Confession may well be
compared with that of Chalcedon —

"The Son of God, the Second Person in the Trinity, being very and
eternal God, of one substance, and equal with the Father, did, when the
fulness of time was come, take upon Him man's nature and common
infirmities thereof, yet without sin, — being conceived by the Holy Ghost,
in the womb of the Virgin Mary, of her substance. So that two whole,
perfect, and distinct natures, the Godhead and the manhood, were
inseparably joined together in one person, without conversion, compo-
sition, or confusion. Which Person is very God and very Man, yet one
Christ, the only Mediator between God and man."

This, it will be seen, is but a restatement of the Chalce-
donian formula, and affirms the two Natures in One Person
without attempting further definition of the terms. In like
manner speak all the great Confessions of Christendom.
Each truth stands on its own irrefragable basis of evidence.
He is God, He is Man ; and yet His whole life attests that
in every attribute of personality He is one and the same
Christ.

Almost every form of intellectual resistance to this two-
fold verity has its modern counterpart. This may be said
even of Arianism, although to a smaller extent than is the
case with other theories. That strange instructive episode
in the history of religious thought has passed away, without
possibility of revival. Long since has the Arian hypothesis
been clearly seen to be fatal to all true mediation. "The
infinite chasm which separates creature from Creator," writes
Ferdinand C. Baur, " remains unfilled, and there is nothing
really mediatory between God and man, if between the two
there be nothing more than some created and finite exist-
ence, or such a Mediator and Redeemer as the Arians

DEITY AND HUMANITY OF CHRIST I/I

conceive the Son of God in His essential distinction from
God ; not begotten from the essence of God and co-eternal,
but created out of nothing and arising in time." It is not
too much to say with Mr. A. J. Balfour, that "such simplifi-
cations as those of the Arians are so alien and impossible
to modern modes of thought, that if they had become incor-
porated with Christianity, they must have destroyed it."^

Much more specious are the theories of Nestorius on the
one hand, and of Apollinarius on the other. These heresi-
archs have among the thinking Christians of to-day many
followers who never heard their names. Wherever men
virtually attribute a double consciousness to the Son of Man,
assigning certain utterances and deeds to His Divine and
others again to His Human nature, they are implicitly
Nestorians. Where, again, they think of the spirit that
animated Him as only and altogether Divine, the Logos
simply taking the place of man's "reasonable soul," they
are unconscious Apollinarians — so far, at least, as modern
psychology permits. Both lines of thought illustrate the
difficulties into which those are led who seek to make clear
to the logical understanding the philosophy of their faith.

Our thoughts on this great subject must, like all true
scientific thinking, be conditioned by the facts of the case.
There is no topic, perhaps, on which theological precon-
ceptions are permitted to play so large a part in the
interpretation of phenomena. We go to the gospel history,
not only with reverence and faith, but with a definition of
the Divine, in accordance with which we read the whole.
Possessed as we are, and justly so, with the conviction of
our Lord's Deity, we regard His personal life from that
point of view alone. Thus I have seen comments on the
Sermon on the Mount which represent the Divine Speaker
^ Fotmdaiioiis of Belief ■, p. 279.

172 THE ANCIENT FAITH IN MODERN LIGHT

as having, while He uttered the discourse, outspread before
His omniscient view all the philosophies of the ancient
world ; speaking in full cognisance of the aspirations of
Eastern and Western sages after the True, the Good, the
Beautiful ; knowing their vain thoughts and baffled hopes,
and preaching a divine philosophy which would lead man-
kind in the end to new light and life. In like manner, as
He pointed to the birds of the air, and to the lilies of the
field, He is thought to have had consciously before Him
the marvels of their organisation and growth, with all the
records of Creation from the remotest past. As a poet of
our day has expressed it —

" Nature her fine transmuting powers

Laid open to His piercing ken,
The lives of insects and of flowers,

The lives and hearts and minds of men,
Depths of the geologic past,

The mission of the youngest star :
No mind had ever grasp so vast.

No science ever dived so far ;
All that our boldest guess sees dim,
Lay clearly visible to Him."

So it umst have been, it is reasoned, because He was God,
and our theory of the Divine so requires. A surer way is
to turn to the evangelic records themselves, and to learn
from them how, in fact, it was that the Son of God was
manifested. We may find some things contrary to our pre-
conceptions ; but it is our business to take them all fairly
into account.

These facts unquestionably show a certain limitation
placed upon the exercise of divine attributes and powers.
How far such limitation extended, whether it embraced the
exercise of His omniscience and omnipotence, it is not for
us to decide by any metaphysical or other a priori con-
siderations. We have but to study and fairly to interpret
what He said and did.

The Apostle Paul affords us a key to the mystery by his

DEITY AND HUMANITY OF CHRIST 1 73

expressive word, He "emptied Himself" — iccvrov iKivooai'^ —
a phrase which perhaps more than any other in Scripture
engages the best and deepest thought of our time. There
is, I cannot but think, on more sides than one, considerable
rashness in its interpretation. Kenotic theories are proposed
on every hand : that only will abide the test which consists
with the facts of the gospel history.

Plainly, our Lord laid something aside. And that this
was more than the external manifestation of His glorj',
seems implied in the very form of the expression. There
was something intrinsic that it was possible for Him to
surrender, remaining still Divine. His attributes, it has been
said by some theologians, may be regarded as twofold —
immanent and relative. Holiness, veracity, love, were im-
manent; omniscience and omnipotence relative. The former
remained unchanged, the latter might be laid aside or
reduced to " quiescence." And thus in the union of the two
natures while yet on earth, our Lord took upon Him certain
limitations in the one direction, though not in the other.
The theory undoubtedly harmonises many facts in the his-
tor}'', although open to the objection that it seems to divide
the attributes of our Lord in an arbitrary way. Other
thinkers would restrict the statement to the independent
exercise of His attributes. He chose not to employ them, and
entered into a state of entire dependence upon the Father.

It was a proof of His love that He did this, as the
apostle so strongly puts it ; making the self-renunciation of
our Lord the great example of sacrifice for the good of
others. Nor less did it display His omnipotence. "The
entire process of condescension is a display, not of weakness,
but of infinite moral strength. What we should venerate in
the Ketwsis of the Son of God is the triumphant power of an
unswerving will, persisting under the utmost pressure of

^ " Exaninivit" ; Vulgate and Beza. Hence the word exitianitioUy
which alternates with Kenosis in many modern writings.

174 THE ANCIENT FAITH IN MODERN LIGHT

distress and trial in a morally glorious action. As Gregory
of Nyssa well says, ' That the omnipotence of the divine
nature should have had strength to descend to the lowliness
of humanity, furnishes a more manifest proof of power
than even the greatness and supernatural character of the
miracles. ... It is not the vastness of the heavens and the
bright shining of its constellations, the order of the universe
and the unbroken administration over all existence, that so
manifestly displays the transcendent power of the Deity, as
this condescension to the weakness of our nature, — the way
in which sublimity is actually seen in lowliness, and yet the
loftiness descends not.' " ^

Such a view is confirmed by certain distinct features of
our Lord's earthly life and history, as recorded by the
evangelists.

I. His Miracles. — It is unquestionable that both He
Himself and His biographers often represent these works as
wrought by a comnmnicated energy. It is not always so, and
so far there is ground for arguing from them to His inherent
omnipotence. We might quote His august words to the
leper of Galilee, " I will, be thou clean " ; His command to
the winds and waves of Gennesaret, " Peace, be still " ; His
cheering assurance to the nobleman of Capernaum, " Go thy
way, thy son liveth"; His repeated summons to the dead,
" Maiden, arise " ; " Young man, I say unto thee, Arise." The
utterances are those of a divine authority.^ But in general
His miracles are represented as works which God did by
Him. "I can," He said, "of Myself do nothing." "The
Father that dwelleth in Me, He doeth the works." His
miracles, like His whole life, betokened His constant and
indissoluble fellowship with the Father. " God anointed Him
with the Holy Ghost and with power ; He went about doing

^ The Doctrine of the Iticarnaiion, by Robert L. Ottley, M.A., vol. ii.
p. 287.

^ See Matt. viii. 3 ; Mark iv. 39 ; John iv. 50 ; Mark v. 41 ; Luke vii. 14.

DEITY AND HUMANITY OF CHRIST 1 75

good, and healing all that were oppressed of the devil, for
God was with Him." Of one memorable occasion it is
recorded, " There were Pharisees and doctors of the law
sitting by, which were come out of every village of Galilee
and Judaea and Jerusalem ; and there was the Power of the
Lord that He should heal." ^ " The Lord " here is, of course,
the Jehovah of the Old Testament. So when He was about
to work His crowning earthly miracle, He " lifted up His eyes
and said, P'ather, I thank Thee, that Thou heardcst Me. . . .
And when He had thus spoken, He cried with a loud voice,
Lazarus, come forth." Thus emphatically was it shown,
" because of the multitude standing around," that the
miracle was wrought in the power of the Father. In
this respect also He was made like unto His brethren, to
whom He said, " He that believeth on Me, the works that I
do shall he do also ; and greater works than these shall he
do, because I go unto the Father."

2. His Knoivledge. — We are here unquestionably on more
difficult ground. It is comparatively easy to conceive the
exercise of power to be suspended by an act of will ; it is
less so to suppose a voluntary abdication of knowledge.
How could the Divine-Human cease to be omniscient?
The question has sorely perplexed many serious minds,
and is perhaps insoluble, our metaphysics not reaching to
the comprehension of that unique Personality. We can but
employ the method of induction, and instead of reading the
facts of the history in the light of foregone theory, must
inquire into the facts themselves.

Now, in the first place, there is the distinct and explicit
statement that He " increased in wisdom " as well as in
stature. A very general way of understanding this state-
ment has been to suppose it to refer to His human intellect
only, the divine remaining consciously omniscient. This

' Luke V. 17. See Revised Text {avTov for avrwi). The Revised
Version hardly conveys the striking force of the original.

176 THE ANCIENT FAITH IN MODERN LIGHT

view, however, really denies His one Personality; it is a lapse
into Nestorianism. Sometimes, again, it has been urged that
the growth was only apparent, observers interpreting pro-
gressive manifestations of His inherent and infinite wisdom
according to human analogies — a subtle form of Doketism.
The fact in its simple statement requires no such meta-
physical solutions. We are told, if plain words are plainly
to be construed, that as one condition of the Incarnation,
the consciousness of the Son was led on by degrees to the
apprehension of truth, both human and divine.

To remove the unquestioned difficulties attending this
conception, the theory of Dr. Dorner, author of the History
of the Development of the Doctrine of the Person of Christy
demands some notice. He supposes a progressive, gradual
Incarnation — a continual " becoming," through the stages
of His earthly growth ; distinct epochs of this progression
being noted in His meeting with the " Doctors " in the
Temple and at His Baptism. "The being and actuality of
the Logos remained metaphysically and morally unchanged ;
but Jesus of Nazareth possessed the Logos merely so far as
was compatible with the truth of human growth and the
capacity of His expanding consciousness. In other words,
the eternal personality of the Divine Logos entered into the
humanity of Jesus as it grew and became capable and
worthy of receiving it. . . . The process of union began with
the supernatural conception, and was completed with the
Ascension." ^ This attempt, like others, to bring the Kenosis
within the grasp of human thought, deals with matters too
high for us. It is enough to know that with Him the
advance of knowledge and wisdom was a reality and not a
semblance only.

A second fact bearing in the same direction is the
perfectly natural way in which He seeks information on
ordinary matters : " How many loaves have ye " ? " Where
^ Dr. Philip Schafif in Herzog, Encycl., art. " Christology."

DEITY AND HUMANITY OF CHRIST I 77

have ye laid him?" "He came to the fig-tree, if haply
He might find anything thereon." The exposition seems
forced and artificial, which makes Him ask, as a teacher,
for instance, asks his pupil, respecting what was already
well known to Him. No doubt there were such questions,
in which the answer was thus known — questions put, not
to elicit information, but to test knowledge and character:
" Whose is this image and superscription ? " " Who do men
say that the Son of Man is?" " What was it that ye dis-
puted by the way?" But the inquiries to which I refer
belong to a different category — sometimes they even con-
tain the element of surprise : " How is it that ye sought
Me? wist ye not that I must be in My Father's house?"
On these words of the Child Jesus it has been well
remarked : " It is well-nigh impossible to believe that He
knew that Joseph and Mary were leaving Jerusalem, that
He knew them to be unaware of His tarrying behind,
that He knew the sorrow which they were experiencing
in searching for Him, and that He deliberately did what
He did for the express purpose of teaching them a
lesson." ^

Then, besides such questions, there are passages which
intimate from the very words employed that on many sub-
jects He gained information. Bishop Westcott, in a note on
John ii. 24, dwells on the distinction between knowledge
absolutely possessed (sihsvcci) and knowledge acquired {yivoj-
(TKSiv), and points out passages in which our Lord is said to
"come to know" certain incidents and facts. Thus Jesus
came to know that the Pharisees had heard of the numbers
that His disciples were baptizing ; He came to know that
the impotent man at Bethesda " had been a long time in
that case." He came to know that the people designed " to

^ T/te Co7iditions of our Lord's Life on Earthy by Arthur James
Mason, D.D., Lady Margaret Professor of Divinity, Cambridge, 1896,

p. 147.
12

178 THE ANCIENT FAITH IN MODERN LIGHT

come by force and make Him a king." At the table of
the Last Supper He came to know of a question that
His disciples were desirous to ask of Him.^ Akin to such
instances are those in which He is represented as filled with
wonder, roused to indignation, moved with compassion.
"Wonder," says Canon Mason, "is the shock, whether
agreeable or otherwise, of the strange and unexpected.
Wonder is the result of a new and significant truth being
forced upon our consciousness, which cannot all at once be
co-ordinated with what was known or thought before." So
in the last dread scene of all, " He began to be greatly
amazed and sore troubled," and cried from the depths of
His sacrificial agony, " If it be possible." ^

But, on the other hand, there are instances of His know-
ing what He could not have learned from any ordinary
means of information — proofs of Divine intuition, of Divine
insight, of nothing less than omniscience. This appears in
the case of many an incident. He knew of the fish with
the stater in its mouth, of the colt " where two ways met "
at Bethphage, of the poverty of the widow who cast two
mites into the treasury. Of these things He spoke, as of
obvious matter within His ken. But more : He " knew all
men " — their very thoughts. " He knew from the beginning
who they were that believed not, and who should betray
Him." He foretold the denials of Peter. He predicted the
fall of Jerusalem. Again and again He answered, not so much
the words of those who surrounded Him, as their unspoken
thoughts. The proofs of such insight led Nathanael to
exclaim, " Rabbi, Thou art the Son of God !" and the woman
of Samaria to say, " Come, see a man that told me all things
that ever I did; can this be the Christ?" Hence, too, the

1 John iv. I, V. 6, vi. 15, xvi. 19. To these instances Canon Mason
adds Matt. xii. 15, xxii. 18, xxvi. 10; Mark ii. 8, viii. 17.

2 See on this whole subject, Our Lord's Knowledge as Man, by W. S.
iSwayne, M.A., 1891.

DEITY AND HUMANITY OF CHRIST 1 79

touching appeal of Peter's faith and love, " Lord, Thou
knowest all things. Thou knowest that I love Thee ! "

In full accord with these manifestations of divine know-
ledge are the claims He makes as a Revealer of Truth.
" Verily, verily, I say unto you, We speak that we do know,
and bear witness of that we have seen," There was a sphere
of knowledge which He retained within His conscious com-
mand, including all that was required for the great purposes
for which He became incarnate. In the words of Hooker :
" As the parts, degrees, and offices of that mystical admini-
stration did require, which He voluntarily undertook, the
beams of Deity did in operation always accordingly either
restrain or enlarge themselves."^ All that men need to
know concerning God He came to reveal ; as a Teacher He
was infallible; He was "full," not only of "Grace" but of
" Truth." He retained what was needful for man's salva-
tion ; of the rest He "emptied Himself."

In this light the passage, of which opponents of our
Lord's Deity have made so much use, loses its difficulty.
Of tlie day and hour of final judgment He said: "No one
knoweth, not even the angels in heaven, neither the Son,
but the Father."^ Many have been the expedients em-
ployed to reconcile the plain sense of this declaration with
the omniscience of the Son. Thus, " He knew not as man,
while He knew as Son of God " — implicit Nestorianism. " He
knew, but was not commissioned to reveal " ; an explana-
tion recognising part of the truth, but for the rest having
recourse, for theological reasons, to non-natural interpreta-
tion. Such refinements, however, with other more elaborate
expositions that have been propounded,^ appear needless
if once we place the passage side by side with those which

' Eai. Pol., bk. V. § 54.
- Mark xiii. 32 ; Matt. xxiv. 36 (R.V.).

•" For a good summary of these, with patristic and other quotations,
sec Liddon, Bmnpton Lectures, viii.

l8o THE ANCIENT FAITH IN MODERN LIGHT

assert or imply a limitation. That knowledge, which it was
no part of His saving purpose to reveal, did not, in fact, lie
within the sphere of His present consciousness. Not to
possess it was a part of His voluntary renunciation.

But whenever His work required it, knowledge was com-
plete, infallible. This much He distinctly claims. As a
Teacher, He had the confidence which comes of conscious
infallibility. The very fact that in one case He declares
His limitation of knowledge, implies that wheresoever He
speaks with authority there is no questioning His words.
The great illustration of this is His testimony to Old
Testament Scripture. True, we must be careful to under-
stand the extent of this testimony. We must not quote
His authority for conclusions which He nowhere authorises.
It is perfectly supposable, for instance, that in His citations
and references He employs the current designations of one
and another book or section. It was no part of His mission
— it would have distracted attention from His message — to
set men right on details like these. What is certain is, that
He recognises the divine authority of the Sacred Books,
and rests explicitly on this for attestation of His highest
claims. To disregard their teaching was fatal : "Ye search
the Scriptures because ye think that in them ye have eternal
life ; and these are they which bear witness of Me. And ye
will not come to Me, that ye may have life." " The Scrip-
ture cannot be broken." "It is written," was for Him the
end of all controversy regarding conduct or belief. Did the
Pharisees err? It was in that they made void the word of
God because of their traditions. The Sadducees ? It was
because they knew not the Scriptures nor the power of God.
After He had risen from the dead, He made the great
assertion, " All things must needs be fulfilled which are
written in the Law of Moses, and the Prophets, and the
Psalms, concerning Me." The three parts into which the
Jews divided their Scriptures are thus enumerated, and to

DEITY AND IfUMANITY OF CHRIST 161

all of them, separately and combined, He gives His solemn
attestation.

So of individual parts of the Old Testament: "Moses
wrote of Me"; "David in the Spirit called Him Lord."
Here the validity of the appeal again depends upon the
broad fact that these great saints of old had given their
prophetic witness to the Son of God. Thus far, it may be
admitted, we have no questions before us of such literary
criticism as we may well suppose to have lain outside our
Lord's cognisance ; but we have undoubtedly the truth
declared that He came as Heir of all the ages, and that
God's messengers in the past were His heralds to mankind.
The subject is one that may be followed out into large and
various detail. Our Lord's use of Old Testament Scripture
is a topic of immense interest, on which the last word has
not yet been spoken. But accepting Him as our Teacher,
we are distinctly bound to receive "the things written afore-
time for our learning, that through patience and through
comfort of the Scriptures we might have hope."

3. Perfecting tJwough Discipline. — The sorrows and
temptations of our Lord are in some points of view the
most mysterious, as they are the most affecting, parts of His
earthly history. That the Infinitely Blessed One should be
"acquainted with grief " is wonderful ; more wonderful still,
that the Infinitely Holy should be "tempted in all points
like as we are." Hence, with an unconscious Doketism,
these solemn declarations are too often explained away.
His temptations in particular arc virtually made a kind of
acted parable — a lesson to ourselves from that which affected
Him only in outward semblance. Bodily pangs can be
understood ; the mystery lies in the deeper anguish of the
spirit. There is thus a prevailing tendency with some
classes of religionists to dwell almost exclusively on the
physical and outward aspect of His suffering — the scourge,
the thorns, the nails, the cross. Religious art, as of the

1 82 THE ANCIENT FAITH IN MODERN LIGHT

great Italian painters, and many hymns, both ancient and
modern, express this tendency. Ecce Homo ! is the appeal
to which the heart most passionately responds, — misinter-
preting, or failing altogether to apprehend, the "travail of
His soul."

Now the remark made at the outset,^ that the very
apostle who more than any other sets forth our Lord's divine
greatness, also insists most earnestly upon His humanity,
may with equal force be applied to the Epistle to the
Hebrews. It is noteworthy that the great declarations
respecting Him as " the effulgence of the Father's glory, and
the very image of His substance," of whom it is said, " Let
all the angels of God worship Him," and whose " throne
is for ever and ever," should lead on directly to the repre-
sentation of Him as "partaking of flesh and blood," "made
in all things like unto His brethren," and "perfected through
sufferings." This last declaration is explicit. It is thus
that He brings many sons unto glory.'--' The statement has,

1 Seep. 158.

^ Heb. ii. 10 : enpeTrev yap avTco . . . noXkovs vlovs els 86^av ayayovrn
TOP dp^rjyuv rrjs ccoTrfpias avTcov Sta nadr]puT(x)v Te\eia}(Tai.

R.V. " For it became Him ... in bringing {inarg. having brought)
many sons unto glory, to make the author {mai-g. captain) of their
salvation perfect through sufiferings."

The interpretation of this much-discussed passage centres in the
aorist participle ayayovra; (1) to whom does it refer? (2) is it prior in
time to reTieiaxTai, or contemporaneous with it ?

1. The suggested reference to dpxrjyov may be at once dismissed :
even if we could suppose that those who in the next verse are called our
Lord's "brethren" are here His "sons," in anticipation of v. 13, the
order of the words is decisive. The only tolerable connection is with
avTa.

2. It may be admitted that the more obvious rendering would be to
make the participle prior in time to the infinitive : " It became Him,
having brought many sons," etc. And on this view many varied inter-
pretations have been advanced ; chiefly, " having actually brought
many sons to glory," i.e. the saints of the O.T. dispensation, or "having
in His eternal counsels brought," etc. Neither seems natural or adequate ;
the thought gains both force and simplicity if we may render "in bring-
ing." Will the Greek permit ? Certainly the aorist participle may

DEITY AND HUMANITY OF CHRIST 1 83

I know, been often explained as having respect to our
Lord's work, rather than to Himself. The perfection is
defined as completeness in the issues of that work : the full
salvation of those who follow Him as their Saviour. Such
exegesis can be dictated only by supi)Osed theological
necessities ; and the parallel passage, " Though He were a
Son, yet learned He obedience by the things which He
suffered," might have suggested the deeper personal appli-
cation of the words. He was to regain, as the result and
reward of submission to divine discipline, that which He
had put from Him. His essential character of goodness,
patience, courage, self-sacrifice, was to be elicited in full
manifestation ; and thus He grew, if we may so say, to the
perfectness which placed Him upon the throne of Heaven.
" Wherefore, God highly exalted Him, and gave unto Him the
name which is above every name." He had won that name
— had won it back — through trial, obedience, and suftering.

express action contemporaneous with that of the verb with which it is
connected, e.i^: dvoKpLdels elrrfv, He answered and said ; ivpoa-fv^djxfvoi
(inov, they prayed saying (see also Rom. iv. 20 ; Phil. ii. 7). But it
also seems true that in these and similar instances the part of the
complex action expressed by the participle is in a subordinate and
a modal relation to that of the main verb : thus, " He said in the
way of answer," "they said in the way of prayer," "He emptied Him-
self by taking the form of a servant." A strict parallel here would
rather require transposition of participle and infinitive : (Trpenev oltc5
. . . ciyayelv . . . re>iacocrai'Ta, "it became Him ... to bring ... by
perfecting." On the whole, while retaining the rendering " in bringing,'
it seems best to regard the aorist participle as exceptional if not unique.
.A perfectly normal usage would have been the prcse7it participle ayovra
- iv rw ayeiy, "in the course or process of bringing"; but the writer
apparently wishes to avoid the suggestion that the perfecting of Christ
l^y sufferings is one step only in a process : it is something involved in
the very fact of the bringing many sons unto glory. Had the infinitive
construction been chosen we should have had, not iv tS liyav, but tv
Tw dyayiiv ; and as the one could by common usage be replaced Ijy the
present participle, so is the other e.xceptionally, but quite intelligibly,
replaced by the aorist participle.

In any case the interpretation of rsXf tcoo-at stands good.

.S. W. G.

184 THE ANCIENT FAITH IN MODERN LIGHT

In reference to our Lord's temptations, while we cannot
fully understand them, two considerations may afford some
key to the mystery. The first is, that the power of a
temptation to affect the soul lies not so much in any sense
of weakness, as in the purity and holiness that are assailed.
These form an element of sensitiveness, and in proportion
to the saintliness will be the horror at the assaults of evil.
He, therefore, by whom the temptation would be felt more
exquisitely than by any of the sons of men, was the Son of
God. The second thought is that the recorded temptations
of Jesus lay in the line of His work as the Messiah. They
presented to His mind one and another way of attaining
His great purpose, different from the chosen path of sub-
mission and self-sacrifice. Assert Thine own power to
supply Thy needs ! " Command that these stones become
bread." This failing, through His trustful dependence on
the Father, the next seductive appeal was to reveal that
confidence to all men : " Cast Thyself down from hence."
When this, too, proved fruitless, the question was urged
whether the kingdom of the world might not be won, after
all, by worldly ways. Do homage to the god of this world,
and the " kingdoms and the glory of them " may easily be
Thine. It was then that, with a scorn divine. He declared
that His only possible path was that of obedience and
service; and the tempter vanished.^ Only, however, to
reappear. Virtually, it was the same appeal which the un-
knowing disciple addressed to Him at Cssarea Philippi.
The Cross, the suffering, "this shall not be unto Thee"!
Our Lord recognises what such an appeal implied. " Get
thee behind Me, Satan ; thou art a stumbling-block unto
Me: for thou mindest not the things of God, but the
things of men." Such were the temptations that beset
His career, and would have hindered His purpose, while

^ On the Temptation, see especially Dr. Fairbairn, Studies in the
Gospels.

DEITY AND HUMANITY OF CHRIST 1 85

apparently carrying it forward to consummation ; and by
resistance He won His way to perfection and to victory.

Such, then, are some of the aspects of what is called
the doctrine of Kenosis. The term is undoubtedly a con-
venient one, but we must not press it too far. It is simply
the adoption of an apostolic phrase, to sum up the
records and declarations of the New Testament respecting
the earthly life of the Son of God ; accepted, as these
are, by devout thinkers of our day with an almost un-
precedented fearlessness and sincerity. The attempt has
been repeatedly made to include these facts under some
larger generalisation ; and the several " Kenotic theories "
of our time, with varying success, endeavour to bring the
grand reality within the conditions of our thought.^ But
as Dr. James Denney observes, "The idea (of Incarnation
as described by Paul in the passage referred to) impresses
the imagination and touches the heart rather than aids the
intelligence ; the attempts that have been made in what
are known as the Kenotic Christologies to interpret it
metaphysically, hardly take us much further on."- The
progress of thought is soon arrested ; and we who can
so dimly understand the union of body, soul, and spirit
in ourselves, or analyse the movements of our own free
will under the sway and impulse of the Divine, need not
wonder if we fail to explain the union of God and man in
the unique personality of Jesus.

And yet we may reverently advance by another line of
thought to some apprehension of the mystery. Without
theorising as to what the Divine renunciation may mean,
we may at least take note how very nearly the Eternal may

' See an admirable summary of these theories in Dr. A. B. Bruce's
Hioiiiliatiini of Christ, Lecture iv.
- Studies in Theology, i'^94j P- 57'

1 86 THE ANCIENT FAITH IN MODERN LIGHT

approach to man. He who pervades the universe with
His presence, whom we may trace in the atom, the flower,
the star, chooses as His temple the spirit of man. This
is not Pantheism ; nor, confessedly, is it Incarnation ; yet
the thought may do something to bridge over the vast
expanse between God and man. The saint and the pro-
phet, especially, are God-filled, and are most truly them-
selves when "the Spirit of the Almighty" takes possession
of their powers, and brings them into harmony with the
Supreme Goodness and Truth.

Man, in his ideal, is akin to the Divine. " In the like-
ness of God" man was created. "A man," writes the
Apostle Paul, " is the image and glory of God." ^ Such
declarations cover far more than any outward character-
istics ; they suggest affinity, of which communion with God
is for us the highest possible expression, and of which
Incarnation is the crown. The method we can never
understand ; but the fact itself is in the line of all other
Divine manifestations to His intelligent and spiritual crea-
tion ; only infinitely transcending them. God " in very
deed, with man upon the earth," prepares us for God in
man, and for Him whose name is Immanuel.

Hence the deep significance of the fact that the title
which the Lord Jesus when upon earth especially assumed
was that of " Son of Man." He alone employs it. To His
disciples He was Teacher, Master, Son of God. The title
is a direct claim to lordship, associated as it was with
Daniel's vision of "one like unto a Son of Man," who
" came even to the Ancient of Days." ^ But this reference
to prophecy does not exhaust the meaning of the phrase.
We are all sons of men -.^ He alone sums up our race, in its
highest ideal and with all its possibilities of perfection. To

^ I Cor. xi. 7. 2 Dan. vii. 13.

3 See Bishop Chadwick, " The Gospel of St. Mark," in the Expositor's
Bible, p. 54.

DEITY AND HUMANITY OF CHRIST 1 67

speak of Him as "the ideal man" is inadequate: such a
title might conceivably be given to one of merely human
birth, who might, by a process of divinely-guided develop-
ment, come forth at length as the consummate flower and
crown of humanity. Yet such a man, however sanctified
from the womb, would still be born with the hereditary
defect of our race, and would need that the stain of original
sin should be purged away. The Holy One of God, virgin
born, appeared under entirely different conditions. As has
often been pointed out, He came, not as a man with whom
the Divine Logos was pleased to associate Itself, but as
God-man from the first, the Son of Humanity, " the Second
Man, the Lord from heaven."

And in the mystery which must attend the truth of His
renunciation after all our thoughts and reasonings concern-
ing it, the highest aspect of the Incarnation — that in which
it comes most nearly home to ourselves — must never be
forgotten. As a revelation of perfect purit}-, and of perfect
love, it requires no metaphysical subtleties, or fine-drawn
distinctions, or exegetical acumen, to bring it within the
range of our reverent and adoring thought. It may be that
the theologians of our time have dwelt somewhat dispro-
portionately on the possibilities of limitation in the Divine
Humanity, to the comparative neglect of the certainties of
life and love and grace and truth which, in full-orbed glor}',
that Humanity reveals. From pondering the Kciiosis of
which Paul speaks, it is good to turn to the proem of John's
Gospel, and to read the open secret of the Incarnation there.
To reveal the Infinite Holiness, translated into human life,
to manifest the Eternal Love and the Eternal Righteousness,
as in reality and essence One, and thus to become the Light
and Life of men, was the great intent of His mission. In a
world of sin this Love declared itself mainly in self-sacrifice,
" Hereby know we Love, because He laid down His life for us."^

' I John iii. 16.

l88 THE ANCIENT FAITH IN MODERN LIGHT

It was an ancient question, much debated, whether the
manifestation of God in flesh was the consequence of human
sin. The question characteristically exercised the school-
men;^ in our own day Dorner and Martensen, among
others, have revived it. They argue that this most glorious
fact in the universe may, for the honour of God, be best
conceived as apart from the introduction of sin into the
world. And it is added, with great force, that since the
God-man abides for ever, to remain the centre of faith and
worship after sin has been destroyed, it is reasonable to
suppose that there must be some eternal purpose, uncondi-
tioned by the Fall, in such a manifestation.^ " The thought,"
writes Bishop Westcott, "that the Incarnation, the union of
man with God, and of creation in man, was part of the
Divine purpose in creation, opens unto us, as I believe,
wider views of the wisdom of God than we commonly
embrace, which must react upon life. It presents to us the
highest manifestation of Divine love as answering to the
idea of man, and not as dependent on that which lay outside
the Father's will. It reveals to us how the Divine purpose is
fulfilled in unexpected and unimaginable ways in spite of
man's selfishness and sin." ^ There is something sublime in
the speculation, impossible as it may be, on either philo-
sophical or exegetical grounds, to affirm its truth : the fact
that it has laid hold of so many minds may show how
congenial is the thought of God revealed in manhood, and
so revealed eternally.

But as it is, the revelation is conditioned by sin ; it
culminates in sacrifice, and the " Lamb slain " is " in the
midst of the throne." We are thus led to the crowning

^ See Bishop Westcott's Epistles of St. John, note on the " Gospel
of Creation," pp. 277-299, for a summary of their arguments.

2 See Dorner, History of the Doctrine of the Person of Christ, div. ii.
vol. ii. p. 80, Clark's trans. The question is discussed by Principal
Edwards, The God-man, p. 84 sq.

^ Epistles of St. John, p. 315.

DEITY AND HUMANITY OF CHRIST 1 89

purpose of the manifestation as it respects ourselves. It was

made, not simply that we might gaze upon its surpassing

glory, and by the power of its attractiveness be ourselves

moulded into the image of the Divine, but that sin might

be put away, in what we are entitled to say was the only

possible method. This great aspect of the subject will be

treated elsewhere in the present volume. Only, the twofold

truth stands clearly forth ; that none but man could atone

for man, and that none but God could "make an end of sin."

It is the more necessary to insist upon this aspect of the

doctrine, from the fact noted at the beginning of this Essay,

that the centre of Christian belief has somewhat changed.

If it was only too possible, when the problems of Soteri-

ology occupied chief attention, to become egoistic and even

selfish in our religious thought; it is possible, on the other

hand, to forget, in the larger Christology of the day, that what

we need is more than a revelation, however attractive and

sublime. It is true that as we look upon " the glory of God

in the face of Jesus Christ" we are "changed into the same

image, from glory into glory." So far the Ritschlian

theology, which has fascinated so many thoughtful minds,

is undoubtedly right. But sinful as we are, we are not in a

position to behold that glory until a transforming change

has been wrought upon ourselves. Most impressively is this

truth brought out in the two most magnificent delineations

which the Epistles contain of our Lord's divine majesty.

He, " being the effulgence of the glory of God and the very

image of His substance, and upholding all things by the

word of His power, zvhcti He had made purification of sins,

sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high " ; and

so the sublime representations of His Sonship and divine

greatness that follow, all culminate in the thought that " it

behoved Him in all things to be made like unto His

brethren, that He might be a merciful and faithful high

priest in things pertaining to God, to make propitiatio7i for

I90 THE ANCIENT FAITH IN MODERN LIGHT

the sins of the people." The vital element in the great
revelation is Atonement for sin. So in the Epistle to the
Colossians. There, in the unveiling of the Mystery of God,
Redemption, the Forgiveness of sins, stands first : then comes
the wonderful description of Him who is the image of the
invisible God, the " First-born of all creation " ; and after the
resources of language have been exhausted in the expres-
sion of His Divine greatness, the apostle returns to this as
the climax of all, that by the Blood of the Cross is the
universal reconciliation. Atonement is first and last ; and it
is the law of Sacrifice which conveys to us the deepest
significance, both theological and ethical, of the Divine
Humanity of the Word, the Son of Man, the Son of God.

THE REDEMPTIVE WORK OF THE
LORD JESUS CHRIST

By R. VAUGHAN PRYCE

191

The Redemptive Work of the Lord Jesus Christ

There can be little doubt that, in the minds of many,
acceptance of the Christian Doctrine of Redemption by-
Jesus Christ has been greatly hindered by the way in
which the doctrine has been set forth by theologians ; by
the views to which they have given expression. It has
been affirmed that sin is a debt due to God, and that God
rigidly exacts payment of that debt, and that Christ has
paid our debt to the uttermost farthing. It has been held
that Christ, by His sacrifice on the Cross, appeased the
wrath of an angry, if not vindictive God ; and disposed
Him to look with favour on a sinful race, which, but for
that sacrifice. He was prepared to destroy. It has been
taught that God insists on punishing the guilty, but is
nevertheless willing to punish the innocent in place of the
guilty ; and that Christ has been substituted for us, and
become the bearer of the punishment which was our due,
in our stead. A highly artificial doctrine of imputed
righteousness has been maintained ; and we have been told,
that though we arc not actually righteous, yet, through
faith in Christ, God regards us as if we were, because of the
imputation to us of the righteousness of Christ. By these
and kindred conceptions, prejudices have been created
against a doctrine which is certainly contained in Scripture,
and which has been a source of consolation and comfort to
multitudes of stricken souls.

On the other hand, it has been affirmed, commonly in a
13

194 THE ANCIENT FAITH IN MODERN LIGHT

reactionary spirit and temper, that the only redemption
man needs, is redemption from ignorance, which is effected
by knowledge, and not redemption from sin by any costly
process of mediation. It has been affirmed that the gospel
of Jesus Christ is not a gospel of remission of sins through
the blood of Jesus; that His gospel is contained in the
Sermon on the Mount, and in His general teaching con-
cerninp- the Fatherhood of God and the Brotherhood of Man.

It is affirmed that the Parable of the Prodigal Son teaches
all we need to know, or can know, concerning the relations
of God to man, and of man to God ; that this beautiful,
illustration of the willingness of the Divine Father to
receive the returning prodigal negatives any doctrine of
mediation, or of reconciliation effected by the death of
Jesus Christ, and that all such views must be abandoned in.
favour of what is called a simpler and more rational faith.

The present essay is designed to call attention to certain
teachings of Scripture which seem to be overlooked in the
affirmations of the second paragraph in the above, and to be
strangely perverted in the affirmations that precede these.
The attempt will be made, in the light of the views that
have been described, to collect from the New Testament,,
and especially from the sayings of Christ, the doctrine of
His vicarious sacrifice. No attempt will be made to
fathom the unfathomable mystery of godliness. Therei
will be no direct discussion of the nature of the atonement,
though light may fall even on this mystery in the effects
which it produces. Where Scripture is silent, speculation-
will, as far as possible, be avoided. It will be taken for
granted that, without the aid of the Divine Spirit, man can
never know how real and appalling sin is, and can there-
fore never know what kind of redemption can alone meet
his need. It is perhaps hardly to be doubted that when
men come to the Scriptures for their thoughts about sin,,
they will be ready to welcome the teaching of Scripture

REDEMPTIVE WORK OF THE LORD JESUS CHRIST 1 95

concerning redemption from sin. Be this as it may, on the
subject in hand our only appeal is to Scripture, as it is the
only source of knowledge.

The New Testament writers declare, and they repre-
sent their Master as declaring, that a mysterious efficacy
attached to His death ; a significance which is not
explained by many interpretations of that event, as when
it is said that He died a martyr to truth, and the like.
These writers affirm that in some mysterious way the
death of Christ availed for the redemption of man. This
is a declaration of Scripture and not a revelation of reason,,
and must be so regarded.

The leading passages in which this efficacy is taught
will be considered below. It is enough to remark now,
that the testimony of the New Testament on this point is
so clear and full that no statement of the doctrine of the
redeeming work of the Lord Jesus Christ can be accounted
scriptural which fails to discern and appraise this truth. If
it be said that Jesus Himself did not speak much about it,
this must be granted ; but the reasons for this become
obvious on a little consideration. First of all, the thought
of what was awaiting Him gave Him anguish, and made it
natural that He should shrink from speaking of it. Noth-
ing, moreover, can be clearer than that His audience, even
when consisting of His most intimate disciples, was wholly
unprepared for any announcement on the point, and that
they were incapable of understanding Him. If, then. He
docs speak at any time of the event which threw a
shadow across His life, and on which the efficacy of His
work depended, we may be quite sure that His words will
be charged with the deepest significance.

V/ith these considerations in mind, let us recall the
words of the evangelist Luke (xii. 50), wherein he tells us'

196 THE ANCIENT FAITH IN MODERN LIGHT

of the baptism of suffering to which Christ was looking
forward. We shall probably see reason presently for
supposing that the meaning of the temptation of Christ
was that the inducement was held out before Him of
ascending His throne without suffering ; but whether this
be so or not, the language of Jesus, as recorded by the
evangelist, implies that there was a profound purpose in
His passion and death. Then there are allusions, scattered
throughout the Gospels, to the efficacy of His death, show-
ing His own view on the subject. Indeed it seemed to be
in the very consciousness of Christ, not only that He was
born to be a King, but that it was only by passing through
suffering and death that He could ascend His throne,
or be glorified.

In His conversation with Nicodemus, at the outset of
His ministry, speaking of the purpose of His coming, He
•declared that He must needs be lifted up in order that the
, disease from which humanity suffered might be cured.
That this lifting up refers to the Cross is made tolerably
. evident by a subsequent allusion in the same Gospel, where
the writer says that the lifting up of Christ meant His
• death (John xii. 32). Here power to heal humanity is
virtually made dependent on His death. Again, He says,
according to the same evangelist (chap, vi.), that His flesh
is to be given for the life of the world, where He could not
be referring to His incarnation, for the event was yet in the
future. He could only be referring to His death. Else-
where, He says (Matt. xx. 28) that He came to give His
life a ransom for many. What ransom means we shall
investigate later ; the point now is that the reference is to
His death, and to the mysterious efficacy that belonged to
it. The words were spoken a week before the Passion.
He had been announcing to the apostles His approaching
death, with the fearful details, — the judgment, the delivery
to the Romans, the mocking, scourging, and crucifying, — to

REDEMPTIVE WORK OF THE LORD JESUS CHRIST 1 97

be followed by the resurrection. Then immediately after-
wards He sums up the doctrine of His death, as in a word,
saying, " The Son of man came to give His life a ransom for
many." Nothing could more clearly point to the virtue of
His death than these words from His own lips. With these
words the apostles are in abundant agreement, as when Peter
declared (i Pet. i. 18, 19), not to multiply illustrations,
that we were redeemed, " not with corruptible things, with
silver or gold . . . but with precious blood, as of a lamb
without blemish and without spot, even the blood of Christ."
Only one other example. At the Passover, just before His
Passion (Matt. xxvi. 26), when He was instituting the great
memorial feast alone with His disciples. He shows to them
the profound efficacy of His death, telling them that His
blood was about to be shed for the remission of sins. Let
this suffice on the efficacy assigned to the passion and
death of the Lord Jesus Christ. The evidence is drawn
from the Gospels ; but it would be easy to quote similar
testimony from the Epistles, showing how apostles under-
stood their Lord.

If it be asked. What is the efficacy attributed to the
death of Christ ? the answer is complex, but for the most
part clear. A threefold efficacy is assigned by the New
Testament to the death of Christ. It is suggested, if not
stated, that there was a threefold necessity for His death.
It was necessary in order to the remission of sins. It was
necessary, also, in order to the imparting of the new life.
It was also necessary in order that the tempter might be
vanquished. It may seem presumptuous to speak of a
necessity that He should die who called Himself the
Saviour of the world, yet Scripture appears amply to justify,
if not to encourage, this mode of speech.

198 THE ANCIENT FAITH IN MODERN LIGHT

1. Men have sometimes spoken and written as though
the atoning death of Christ was necessary in order to win
the love of God for us. The Scriptures never speak in that
way. Christ is never spoken of as though He were the
procuring cause of the divine love, but always as its gift.
He is not the spring of the divine love, but its expression.
Evangelists and apostles agree that the gift of Christ to the
sinful race was a manifestation of the amazing love of God ;
that it was of God's tender love, and unspeakable com-
passion, that Christ died for us while we were yet sinners.
It is emphatically His death for us that supremely expresses
this love. He taught edifying doctrine, and that was good.
He gave utterance to lofty precepts, which was also good.
He gave men an encouraging example, and consolatory
promises which have cheered the hearts of saints and
martyrs. But none of these are presented as the great and
supreme expression of the divine love for us, while His
death is so presented. It is here that the profound purpose
of God is to be seen — in His death.

2. The remission of sins is attributed to the death
of Christ. The idea is a sacrificial one, and is essentially
involved in the Old Testament sacrifices. Accordingly,
when the Messiah is spoken of as about to appear, salvation
from sin is intimately connected with the work He is to
accomplish. At the time of the Advent the Jewish people
were expecting their Messiah. The Gospels make this
evident. And it is equally evident that their notions of
what He would be and do were shaped, in great measure,
by the representations in the Book of Isaiah, the fifty-third
and fortieth chapters of that book being interpreted by the
Rabbis as Messianic in character.

Accordingly, we are not surprised to find the Baptist
pointing Christ out to his disciples as the Lamb of God
who would bear away the sin of the world. The expression

REDEMPTIVE WORK OF THE LORD JESUS CHRIST 1 99

has its explanation in the prophetic forecast. Then, again,
we have Zacharias the priest, the father of John the Baptist,
describing', in prophetic song, the mission of his own son,
and saying of him, that he would be the prophet of the
Most High, going before the face of the Lord to pre-
pare His ways, to give knowledge of salvation unto His
people in the remission of their sins. The evangelist
Matthew, moreover, sees in Christ's miracles of healing
a proof that He was the sin-bearer whom Isaiah had
prefigured.

In perfect harmony with this we find Christ Himself
declaring — and three evangelists tells us this — that His
blood would effect a new covenant for the remission of sins,
whereby He would lift men into a new relation to God,
one of favour and forgiveness. The reference is to what
took place in the upper room on the night of His Passion.
He took bread and called it His body, broken for them,
and bade them eat of it. In Jewish sacrifices the offerer
often partook : it would therefore hardly surprise the
disciples that they should be invited to eat of the bread.
When, however, he poured the wine, and said that it repre-
sented His blood poured out in sacrifice for them. He
performed an act which had no analogy in Israel ; and He
points to a mysterious efficacy attaching to the shedding of
Mis blood which had no counterpart in the sacrifices of
old, for it was specially ordained in the Levitical Law that
the blood of the sacrifices might not be drunk on pain
of death, but was to be poured away at the base of the
altar.

The peculiarity is striking. The Levitical Law said :
Kat the blood and you shall die. The reason is added : The
blood is the life, and it is it which maketh atonement by
reason of the life that is in it. The command of Christ is :
J3rink ye all of it ; and the reason is given : For this is My
blood of the new covenant which is shed for many for the

200 THE ANCIENT FAITH IN MODERN LIGHT

remission of sins. The blood of the sacrifices under the
old economy might not be eaten, and the prohibition was
grounded in the very reason which is urged in the new
covenant for taking it, namely, that the blood is the life
that makes atonement, the fact being that the blood of
the animal had no value except as a symbol ; whereas
the blood of Christ was the reality which it symbolised.
The former had no real efficacy, being but the blood of
bulls and of goats, which could never take away sins. The
latter, the blood of Christ, of which the wine was the
symbol, was really efficacious. Augustine is a sound inter-
preter when he says that the blood might not be eaten in
the one case, because it simply prefigured the most precious
blood which makes atonement by means of the soul that
is in it. In the blood of the beasts there was no soul
that could be spiritual food, and therefore it may not be
eaten.

3. There is another reason given for the death of
Christ, and this will bring us, perhaps, more nearly face
to face with the mysteries of the spiritual world. It is
frequently suggested that there was some mysterious
necessity for the death of Christ as the alone condition of
the life of Christ — the vital principle of His own life —
passing into us. Indeed, the symbolical act, to which
attention has just been called, seems to suggest this, while
the words of Christ elsewhere hardly leave us in doubt on
the point.

Conversing with Nicodemus, and speaking of the
purpose of His coming. He says, that it was for the
regeneration of men, that they might be born anew. The
Lord hints to Nicodemus how His death would effect this.
When He had been lifted up, i.e. crucified, healing virtue
would go forth from Him ; a new life, new in vigour, new in
principle, even the divine life, would be infused into the

REDEMPTIVE WORK OF THE LORD JESUS CHRIST 20I

believer. This is elsewhere said to be His own life.
Before it could enter into man, however, it must needs be
first poured out or forth. This is not directly affirmed in
this passage, but it is implied.

On a subsequent occasion, discoursing to the multitude
that followed Him over the Sea of Gcnnesaret, He further
illustrates this thought — a thought which frequently appears
in John's narratives of His discourses. His death, it is
affirmed, was necessary, in order that His divine life,
infused into man, might regenerate him ; and it is affirmed
that this was the gift of the Heavenly Father to mankind
in the death of His Son. Christ declares that the bread
that perishes is a symbol of Himself; that His divine
nature is the bread, the true bread, the nourishing principle
of our eternal life ; and that it was to be communicated to
man by the eating of His flesh and the drinking of His
blood.

The exaltation of Himself as the object of faith is
noteworthy. So is His statement that He was about to
give His flesh for the life of the world ; clearly indicating a
close connection between His impending death and the life
of the world ; as also that that death was necessary in
order to this giving of life.

The murmuring of the Jews at this expression has
often been repeated since. His added words, on that
occasion, are intended to show that what He would do
would be done after His death. When the Lord speaks,
\\ith the emphasis involved in the expression " except," of
the eating of His flesh and the drinking of His blood as
essential to the life of man, He uses mysterious words.
But if we understand Him to be referring to His death on
behalf of sinners, and to the effect of faith in Him who
thus died, light falls on the words which otherwise are
inexplicable. An old divine says that the best way to
understand this verse is to make trial of, and feed on, Him

202 THE ANCIENT FAITH IN MODERN LIGHT

by faith, and that we shall then soon discover how true the
words are. Christian experience vouches that this is so.
One of a very different school of thought says that the
eating of the flesh of Christ, and the drinking of His blood,
is faith in the death of Christ ; so that the sense is, if ye
use not the death of the Son of God as meat and drink, ye
have not the life of the Spirit in you. The writer's mean-
ing is that in the fullest and noblest sense the soul's needs
are met in Him.

4. There is a third purpose of His death — showing at
once its efficiency and the virtue or necessity of it — to
which mysterious, but obvious, reference is made. The
Lord's pregnant discourses, on the eve of His Passion,
contain plain hints of a mysterious conflict with the power
or powers of darkness ; a conflict which began on the
mountain of temptation, which was renewed in the shades
of Gethsemane, and which reached its height on the
Cross, when the words, " My God, My God, why hast
Thou forsaken Me ? " reveal a heart on the point of
breaking.

After the institution of the Supper, the Master and His
disciples left the upper chamber, and passed in the moon-
light into Gethsemane. On the way He speaks to them of
the coming of the prince of the world ; a coming, of course,
for conflict, because of the necessary antagonism between
the spirit of truth, incarnate in Jesus Christ, and the spirit
of evil. It was the renewal of an old conflict. Most
significant are the words of the evangelist at the conclusion
of the narrative of the first temptation, " Then the devil
departed from Him for a season." We now become aware
of the renewal of that conflict, of the return of the tempter
for the final trial of strength. Jesus is aware that the
assault is impending, but the agony of the conflict is not
as yet upon Him, and the high priestly prayer testifies

REDEMPTIVE WORK OF THE LORD JESUS CHRIST 2O3

to the as yet unbroken calmness of His spirit. The
Shepherd and the httle flock are alone together, and His
tranquil spirit communes with His Father in holy words
of prayer.

He had, however, already warned them that the wolf
was coming ; and now the conflict is at hand, and there is
no escape from it. Gethsemane has ever since been a
sacred name, because it witnessed the mysterious agony or
conflict — for that is the meaning of the word — which was
soon to issue in triumph on the Cross, where He would
vanquish him that had the power of death by Himself
dying. Gethsemane was the scene, and is the symbol, of the
intense spiritual conflict called forth by the approach from
without of a being who nevertheless had nothing in Him.
It was the hour and power of darkness. Christ's heel
would be bruised by him whose head He Himself would
bruise. Save for the final assault on the Cross, to which in
a moment of extreme weakness He had to submit, this
perhaps was the climax of the struggle between the Son
of God and the prince of the world. So did the Good
Shepherd give His life for the sheep. He chose to die,
that by death He might vanquish him who had the power
of death, that is, the devil, and might deliver all them who
through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to
bondage. By death He brought to nought him that had
the power of death, and effected the deliverance of his
.subjects (Heb. ii. 14, 15).

There are frequent references to this great spiritual
conflict elsewhere in the New Testament. Thus we find
the evangelist John saying that one purpose of the mani-
festation of Christ was, that He might destroy the works of
the devil. The Apostle Paul is clearly in accord with this.
While the writer of the Epistle to the Hebrews boldly
declares that the assumption of humanity by Jesus Christ,
and His subjection to temptation, even to the uttermost,

204 THE ANCIENT FAITH IN MODERN LIGHT

was necessary in the interests of humanity; that only by
Christ's resistance of temptation to the uttermost, even
unto death, could the ascendancy which the tempter had
secured over the race be effectually destroyed. If it be
asked how Christ's death effected this destruction of the
lord of death, the answer is given by this writer when he
goes on to explain a second purpose of the death of Christ,
namcl}% that He was the expiation of the sins of the
world ; and this, in reality, is the central idea in the whole
subject.

As has been said, Paul also presents this aspect of the
work of Christ to us, as in his letter to the Colossians,
where he describes the work of Christ as a vicarious triumph
over our spiritual foes. His reason for viewing the subject
in that light, in writing to this Church, is given in the
circumstances of the Church. The faith of the Colossian
believers was disturbed by two forces. The one was
represented by Judaism, the religion of formal observances ;
the other, by a Gnosticism akin to the theosophy of the
Essenes. The teachers of the latter doctrine laid stress on
the principalities and powers of the unseen universe ; and it
is in reference to this belief that Paul sets forth the work of
Christ as a work of triumph over the spiritual adversaries of
the Christian. There are powers of darkness from which
we needed to be delivered, as well as evil inclinations
within ; and in Christ we have our deliverance from these.
Christ took on Himself our human nature, with all its
temptations, says Paul, as the writer of the Epistle to the
Hebrews also says. The powers of evil gathered about
Him. They assailed Him again and again in His history,
ever, however, suffering defeat. They assailed Him in the
suggestion of Peter, "This shall not be. Lord." They
assailed Him often. At length the crisis came, and the final
defeat. The powers of evil, which had clung like a Nessus
robe to His humanity, — so Lightfoot, — were torn off and

REDEMPTIVE WORK OF THE LORD JESUS CHRIST 205

thrown aside for ever. And in the victory of Christ our
victory is involved. In His Cross we, too, are divested of
the poisonous clinging garments of temptation, sin, death.
Thus does Paul set forth the effect of the death of Christ
on the powers of evil. He entered into personal conflict
with the tempter, triumphed over the tempter, and
apparently lessened his power for ever over us. What
that struggle cost Him we cannot tell. The advantage
that comes to man through His vicarious suffering happily
we may share, but the "price" of our redemption was His
Passion. We can hardly be wrong, then, in saying, that
His mysterious agony opens to our view something of the
transcendent meaning of His death. It was necessary
that, in this way, he should be vanquished whose was the
power of death, whose it was alone to make death other
than God intended it to be.

Let this suffice on the threefold necessity of the death
of Christ as the Scriptures seem to declare it. He died in
order that forgiveness of sins might be possible. He died in
order that the flow of the life of God into the human soul
might be possible. He died in order that evil might be
vanquished — might be deprived of its triumphant power,
and ultimately of its dominion. The reader will not fail to
observe the absence of certain ideas which have found a
place in some modern systems of theology. There is
nothing here about appeasing the anger of God. There is
nothing here about the satisfying of an exacting creditor
who will be paid to the uttermost farthing. So far the
effectiveness of the death of Christ may be set forth in
three terms : forgiveness, life, moral victory.

Ill

This is not all that is told us on this momentous theme.
Attention must now be turned to certain terms and ex-

206 THE ANXTENT FAITH IN MODERN LIGHT

pressions which not only throw light on the necessity and
the efficacy of the death of Christ, but which also reveal
to us something concerning the method of the great
salvation accomplished by that death. The reference is
to such terms as Propitiation, Expiation, Reconciliation,
Covenant, and the like.

I. And, in the first place, let us consider the term
Propitiation.

It is not possible to solve the mystery of the death of
Christ. All that is possible is to understand what Scrip-
ture says. Light enough is given for guidance, not enough
to satisfy the speculative intellect. As elsewhere, so here,
the revelations given in Scripture are abundant, many
rays of light converging on the Cross. We have allusions
to the death of Christ in a great variety of forms : in sacrifice
and type, in prophecy, in apostolic doctrine ; and by these
light is thrown on the mysterious significance of that death.

Meanwhile, let us not seek to be learned beyond what
Scripture teaches, or to be definite where Scripture is
obscure, or to put an undue strain on figurative language.
Some have taught that the sufferings of Christ were penal.
They have declared that Christ was punished instead of
the sinner, — that this was necessary in order to reconcile
the attributes. Justice required that sin should be punished ;
mercy required that compassion should be shown towards
the sinner. Christ bore the punishment which justice
demanded, and mercy let the sinner go free, the claims
of justice having been satisfied by the Innocent One
standing in the place of the guilty. Precisely what the
punishment was that Christ bore presented a difficult
problem, and various attempts were made to solve it by
those who, nevertheless, agreed that what Christ bore was
a substitutionary penalty. Some went so far as to say
that He endured the very pains of hell, the exact equivalent

REDEMPTIVE WORK OP^ THE LORD JESUS CHRIST 20/

of what sinful humanity deserved to suffer. Others, Hke
Grotius, shrinking from this conception of the work of
Christ, nevertheless maintained that He endured penalty
instead of man, as far as would suffice to prove the justice
of God, and to deter from light thoughts of sin. It was
on views of this kind that the theory of imputation was
grafted, the theory which taught that the sin of man was
imputed to Christ, and that the righteousness of Christ
was imputed to man.

There is in such views so much that is artificial, not
to speak of the element of injustice which seems to be
involved, that many of the best minds have been repelled.
They have turned away from all exposition of the doctrine
of the atonement, or they have sought an explanation of
it elsewhere, in some view that would be less offensive to
the moral feeling. The notion of a transaction between
the justice of God and His mercy is not attractive, and
almost inevitably becomes in thought a transaction between
the Father and the Son, leading naturally to the Arian
position. Then it is not easy to see what penalty Christ
bore, thereby saving us from bearing it. It cannot be
death, inasmuch as all alike suffer it, the saved and the
unsaved alike ; while none affirm that Christ bore the
penalty of eternal death.

These views were not known to the early Fathers of
the Church, and they have never become Catholic doctrine.
There are, however, some terms in which it is supposed
that this doctrine may be found, and propitiation is one
of these. Hence we must inquire into the meaning of this
term. What, then, is the idea to be attached to it ? Now,
at the outset it must be observed that this term Pro-
pitiation is one of the terms found in pagan religions as
well as in Scripture. It does not, however, follow that
the meaning attached to the word by pagans is the mean-
ing attached to it by the Scriptures ; and to overlook this

208 THE ANCIENT FAITH IN MODERN LIGHT

is to introduce confusion and error. The heathen man,
no doubt, when he brought an offering to his god, hoped
thereby to win his favour. He would appease the wrath
of the angry god. He would induce him to relax the
claims of his law in return for the compensation the
worshipper offered, and so to pass by the sinner's sin.
There is no such idea in Scripture, though it has appeared
in theology. Let us now try and understand what the
scriptural idea of propitiation is.

And, first, as to the problem. The Scriptures teach us,
that between God and what is sinful the incompatibility is
complete. Sin, therefore, must be put away from the
sinner before he can be acceptable to the holy God. If,
then, there can be no communion between the holy God
and what is sinful, how shall man enter into communion
with God ? If he could clear himself of sin, he could
commune with God. If he cannot do this, then, apart
from a helper, he must remain separate from God. The fall
of man means living in estrangement from God ; and, in
the language of Scripture, so to live is to be dead, — dead to
God, which is the only death man need dread. How then
shall that change be effected in him which his condition
and the holiness of God alike require ? There is a way
revealed of God, and to know this is to know what we
may of the great propitiatory work. What then is this
work ?

The Lord Jesus Christ, at the final Passover feast,
when instituting the ordinance which the Christian Church,
in all its branches, has reverently observed for so many
centuries, spoke to His disciples of " a new covenant in His
blood." The account is given us by three of the evangelists,
and may therefore be regarded as sufficiently attested.
Light is here thrown on the method of the Redeemer's
work — on the process chosen of God by which to effect
our redemption. In the service of God everything depends

REDEMPTIV^E WORK OF THE LORD JESUS CHRIST 209

on the aflfections and the will, and this is fully regarded in
the method we are now to consider.

A new covenant in Christ seems to mean that Christ
becomes surety for mankind in a covenant of grace. The
nature of this covenant must, if possible, be ascertained.
The statement may perhaps be hazarded, that if humanity
could of itself cease absolutely from sin, or, to use the
scriptural expression, could " die unto sin," so that sin no
longer had any place in it, or power over it, it would in
that case do for itself what Christ did for it. He, of His
own free will, in this sense took our place, and did vicari-
ously what we could not do, " died unto sin " once for all
on behalf of humanity, and thereby, of His own free will,
presented to God a vicarious oblation, the second Adam
doing on behalf of humanity what humanity ought to do
of itself, but could not, and Himself entering into covenant
that, through His grace and help, humanity should do-
what, apart from that grace and help, it could not do,,
should die unto sin and live unto righteousness, and so-
meet the requirements of the holy will of God, and return
to fellowship with Him. Christ became, as the writer of
the Epistle to the Hebrews has it (vii. 22), the Mediator
of the new covenant, our sponsor, pledge, and surety on
our behalf in a covenant. Had mankind been able to-
fulfil that condition which He fulfilled vicariously, had it
been able to present itself to God a sinless offering, ng
redemption would have been required. Man was made for
the sinless service of God. That had become impossible
to him. Christ undertook for us, died unto sin for us, that
is, in our nature lived the perfect life well-pleasing unto
God, and so to say answered for us. Responde pro me is
the Vulgate rendering of Hczckiah's prayer, " O Lord,
undertake for me " ; " be surety for me " is the rendering
of the Hebrew phrase as given by Gesenius.

VVe have here an illustration of the meaning of the
14

2IO THE ANCIENT FAITH IN MODERN LIGHT

work of Christ viewed from the present standpoint. As
the Representative of the race, as the Prince of salvation,
as the second Head of humanity, He fulfils the condition
we could not fulfil, and at once pledges us, and enables all
who believe in Him — all who by faith enter into union
with Him — to do what God's will requires. Gathering
aid from the writer of the Epistle to the Hebrews, and
anticipating what we shall presently learn from the Epistle
to the Romans, this is the interpretation we seem bound
to put on the Redeemer's own words. In the light thus
shed some other teachings become plain. We now see
what the Lord meant in His high-priestly prayer when He
spoke of consecrating, sanctifying or consecrating. Himself,
that the disciples might be sanctified or consecrated. This
is what the Apostle Paul refers to, or at least it lies beneath
his teaching, when he speaks of one dying for all, and
affirms therefore that all virtually died in that act. This
is what the Catholic Church means, and has always meant,
by Its doctrine of satisfaction. The idea with which we
have to become familiar is that of the ratification of a
covenant, wherein Christ becomes the surety or sponsor of
humanity. To use the words of Athanasius, God's law
was fulfilled by the sacrifice of Christ, inasmuch as all died
in Him, and in Him took a new beginning of life; thus
man was saved, while the supreme consistency of God's
holiness was safeguarded. Here, then, is another reason
why the death of Christ was necessary. His death ratified
this new covenant, the covenant of forgiveness.

We may turn, for fuller information, to the apostle's
account of the meaning and effect of Christ's death as given
in the sixth chapter of the Epistle to the Romans. He is
there really replying to a question, or objection. Some-
body supposes, or is conceived as doing so, that the
apostle's doctrine excuses sin, for the more we sin, says
the objector, the more we magnify the grace of God in

REDEMPTIVE WORK OF THE LORD JESUS CHRIST 211

forgiving sin. His argument in this chapter is directed
against that position, his purpose being to show that the
acceptance of God's grace, and continuance in sin, are
incompatible. And the reason he assigns is, that the
acceptance of the gospel, and dying unto sin, are one and
the same thing. And it is in this connection that we have
one of the best scriptural expositions of the great doctrine
of Christ's propitiatory or vicarious work. " tlow shall we
who died unto sin live any longer therein ? " The believer
is pledged to die unto sin by the dying unto sin, on his
behalf, and as his surety, of Jesus Christ. The intelligent
acceptance of Christ means that, like Him, we become dead
to the suggestions and the commandments of sin : are as
unmoved by these things, says Chrysostom, as a corpse
would be. Such a doctrine, says the apostle, cannot lead
to Antinomianism. He, the Head, the Representative and
Summation of the race, did for us what we could not do for
ourselves ; did it vic^iriously : and by accepting Him we
place ourselves beneath the absolute obligation at once
to die unto sin and to live unto God.

There lies beneath this argument, and exposition of the
apostle, the momentous fact that by accepting Christ we
become united with Him, spiritually one with Him in mystic
union. We are incorporated with Christ. For the doctrine
of the incarnation is not that Christ became a man, but it
is that Christ became the man, the second Adam, humanity
recapitulated in one, the second Head of the race, the
Representative of humanity as a whole, and not of this
man or that in particular. By faith we become incorpor-
ated with Christ. The apostle's term is one which cannot
be exactly rendered, but it is the strongest he could
employ. The " planted together " of the Authorised
Version has become, in the Revised Version, " become
united with Him, by the likeness of His death, united with
the likeness." The meaning cannot be expressed in a

212 THE ANCIENT FAITH IN MODERN LIGHT

word. It is best expressed in our Lord's discourse con-
cerning the Vine and the Branches, where the natural union
between these is made to set forth the spiritual union
between believers, between renewed humanity, and Himself.

Paul's theology cannot be understood unless this spiritual
union between the redeemed and the Redeemer is recog-
nised. In order to apprehend the meaning of Christ's
dying unto sin, we must apprehend the meaning of Christ's
incorporation of humanity, of all mankind, into Himself.
That was His offering to God. The sinless Head of the
race died unto sin for the race, in covenant, promising that
through Him men should die unto sin, and pledging them
to do so. The early Fathers make frequent allusion to this
idea of incorporation. They knew nothing of the later
doctrine of imputation, and of the imputed righteousness of
Christ, — a fiction invented by men who had departed from
the simplicity of early times.

The matter may be stated otherwise and still be Pauline,
There are two natures in us, the one needing to be slain,
the other needing to be quickened. The death of Christ
effected the former : it is an accomplished fact, in the
apostle's view, inasmuch as our Representative died. The
resurrection of Christ effected the latter. How ? By virtue
of our mystical union with Him ; since His incarnation
we are " homogeneous with Christ."

This subject is further developed by the apostle in some
other of his Epistles. And further development is needed,
because it is easy to see that the self that died in Christ
was sinless, and was not therefore the sinful self that needed
to die, and the question arises. How is this to be explained ?
How is it to be reconciled with the doctrine of the mystical
union ? The apostle has not lost sight of this question.
In the fifth chapter of his Second Epistle to the Corinthians
there is a passage which more or less closely relates itself
to this.

REDEMPTIVE WORK OF THE LORD JESUS CHRIST 213

He has been speaking of his work as an apostle. He
describes it in a sentence. It was his supreme pur-
pose in life to publish abroad the good news of what
Christ had accomplished for man, and to explain how
it might be appropriated by man. His life was given
up to this service of man, and the motive of his service
was the love of Christ. Christ died for us : Paul would
live to tell it.

But how are we to conceive of Christ's death? of His
work in dying for man ? Paul here expresses himself on
this point. " Christ died on behalf of all, and therefore
all died." What does he mean ? We cannot imagine him
to mean that Christ died in order that men might not die.
He rather means that Christ died to secure their death
in the only sense in which death is of significance, namely,
that they should die to self and sin and thus live to God.
He cannot mean that Christ died instead of their dying,
because the same expression is used in reference to Christ's
resurrection, and none imagine that Christ rose instead of
our rising. There must therefore be some other meaning
than this.

May we not understand the apostle to say, that in that
one death for all, potentially all died ; and that a mysterious
virtue belonged to the death of Christ, and a mysterious
meaning? That His death was virtually the death of
humanity summed up in Him? That as far as sufficiency
is concerned, the death of Christ meant the death of all ;
and that as far as efficiency is concerned, all who are united
to Him by faith actually die unto sin and live unto God?
And if this is his meaning, then we can easily understand the
apostle to agree with his Lord in affirming that Christ died
as a sponsor or surety in a covenant, and rose again in the
same capacity ; and thus guarantees the dying unto sin of
man, and his living unto God. Here, then, would seem
to be the meaning that we are to attach to the teaching of

2 14 THE ANCIENT FAITH IN MODERN LIGHT

Scripture concerning the propitiatory death of Christ.
Christ's death on behalf of men pledges men to die unto
sin as He did. Moreover, He enables men — also a part of
His pledge in the covenant — to do so. He died, the just
for the unjust, to bring us to God.

The apostle then goes on to say how absolutely different
is the Christian view of things from the carnal view. We
no longer judge after the flesh but after the Spirit ; and that
is so in regard to the Head as well as in regard to the race
which He has redeemed. And then the apostle emphasises
a point which should never be lost sight of, that the whole
work must be traced to the purpose of God, to the resolve
of God to be reconciled to His children at all costs. It was
He who was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself,
striking out of His account their transgressions, and laying
it on the apostles to proclaim this. And then he proceeds
to show, in the twenty-first verse, how the sinless Christ
identified Himself with sinful humanity, the fact being that
" Him who knew no sin, God made to be sin on our behalf,
that we might become the righteousness of God in Him."
What does the apostle mean ?

In proceeding to examine into the meaning of these
words, we may set aside Augustine's interpretation as
untenable. He makes sin here to mean sin-offering, taking
a view which puts him at variance with all the Greek
Fathers. What, then, is the meaning of the phrase " made
to be sin for us " ? Let us approach the question by
asking what sin really means. What do we mean when
we speak of humanity as sinful ? If we take the case of an
infant, it is quite clear that he can know no sin, if by sin
is meant actual transgression, for he has not been guilty
of it. But then the infant shares the lot of the race which
is by heredity infected in nature, which is in a wrong rela-
tion to God, as an infected nature inevitably must be.
Separate these two ideas or facts, actual sin, and the

REDEMPTIVE WORK OF THE LORD JESUS CHRIST 21 5

wrong relation to God which an infected nature implies,
and it will be seen how possible it was for Christ to share
the one without sharing the other. Without actual trans-
gression there may be such an identification with man, in
his present lot and condition, that Christ may be said to
share his wrong relation to God — in His case voluntarily
adopted for a purpose ; in our case inherited. And if so,
then there is a sense in which the sinless Head became
like us, shared our sinful condition, in order that He might
restore us to our right relation to God. The sinless Head
of the race is, by His incarnation, identified with the sinful,
in order thereby to work out their redemption.

There are two views of this passage with which the
above is in obvious contrast. There is the view of those
who would explain away the passage by making it refer
simply to the indignities endured by Christ at the hands
of men. The affirmation is that the Lord received from
the hands of men a treatment which wore the appearance
of, and might be construed as if it were, the treatment
given to a sinner. The statement of the apostle, however,
is not that men reputed Him to be a sinner, but that God
made Him to be sin. There is more here than semblance
or appearance ; nor is the reference to what He received at
the hands of men, but to what He was by the will of God.
The words do not merely mean that men entertained ill
thoughts of Christ, and treated Him as though He were
a sinner, for they say that He was made sin for us. The
other view is that Christ, the sinless One, the realised ideal
of humanity, wrapt Himself in His people's sins, and was
constituted sin, by His Father's act and His own, in such a
manner that at the bar of God He was no longer innocent.
Before men, indeed. He was not guilty, but before God He
was. It is further maintained that this guiltiness before
God was not by any infusion, but by objective imputation,
which carried with it punitive consequences precisely as

2l6 THE ANCIENT FAITH IN MODERN LIGHT

though the sin were His own. The obvious objection to
this view is that it is artificial, and without foundation, other
than in the fancy of men. The exigencies of a system
or creed may require it, but Scripture does not give it.

There is a remarkable passage in the Epistle to the
Galatians (iii. 1 3), which says that the curse of the law
rested on man on account of sin. That we can well under-
stand, inasmuch as man has failed to fulfil the require-
ments of the divine law, which itself says, " cursed is
everyone that continueth not therein." From that curse
we are delivered by Christ, and especially by His death;
but how? Not by His becoming accurst of God in our
place and stead, as some have dared to say, but by His
dying as our Representative, Sponsor, Surety, in the cove-
nant of grace ; by His so identifying Himself with us that
He might " die unto sin once for all " for us. Here is the
vicariousness of His death. The affirmation has been
made, that he that hangeth on a tree is accursed of God.
Paul did not say that, and in regard to Christ it is not true.
This is an imported idea : it seems better to interpret the
passage in harmony with the general teaching of the New
Testament on our subject.

2. The New Testament has a doctrine of Reconcilia-
tion. The reconciliation is no doubt of man to God. But
is this a complete expression of the truth? We read in
Scripture of the wrath of God, and the conviction is deep
in human nature that there is that in God which prevents
the outflow of the divine graciousness towards sinners.
The holy God cannot look on sin but with abhorrence,
cannot regard sinful humanity as though it were pure;
and it is probably of this that we have to think when
we speak of the wrath of God. It is no passion, it is
no mere emotion, but it is the moral antipathy of the
holy God to sin and defilement as such, — a defilement

REDEMPTIVE WORK OF THE LORD JESUS CHRIST 217

which separates between God and the sinful race that
nevertheless He wills to save. Now this wrath is repre-
sented as having been affected by the propitiatory sacrifice
of the Lord Jesus Christ : propitiation being the ground of
reconciliation : reconciliation meaning that on the ground
of what Christ has done for humanity that in God which
hinders the outflow of His love has been removed, while
all who believe are put into such relation to God, that
the healing and purifying process may now begin, of
which the conclusion is complete sanctification.

3. We have seen that under one aspect the vicarious
office of Jesus Christ represents Him as in conflict with
the evil one, and as effecting for man deliverance from
the bondage and power of evil. It is under this aspect
that Redemption must be considered, the term representing,
so to speak, the price which the deliverance cost.

In the early history of the Church, and by many
responsible men, it was thought that Christ paid a ransom
to the evil one as the condition of man's deliverance. That
view did not survive Anselm's refutation. But a similar
notion has corrupted Christian doctrine a good deal since ;
the notion, namely, that Christ paid a ransom price by His
death to someone in order that man might be redeemed
from bondage to evil. This misapprehension has arisen
from the circumstance that the Greek word for ransom
has been rendered by theologians by the word redemption,
a Latin word which does not convey the same idea. In
the Septuagint version of the Old Testament, the Greek
word for ransom represents a Hebrew word which has
definite reference to sacrifice ; it therefore represents what
the Lord intended. The idea of compensation forms no
part of its suggestion or significance ; and, therefore, the
question, to whom the ransom was paid, ought never to
have arisen. The Hebrew reader would understand the

2l8 THE ANCIENT FAITH IN MODERN LIGHT

reference to be to the sacrificial work of the Lord Jesus
Christ ; and what that sacrificial work was would need to
be sought elsewhere.

But while there was no ransom paid to anyone, never-
theless His blood, or life, was what it cost Him to gain
the victory for us for ever over him who had the power
of death. Through death Christ destroyed him who had
the power of death, that is, the devil (Heb. ii. 14, 15).
The Good Shepherd gave His life for the sheep. In
Gethsemane, and on the Cross, Christ gained a personal
victory over the great enemy of man. The benefit of this
victory all may share, for the common foe is weakened for
ever ; and to effect this was part of the work of Christ.

We are not told much about that mysterious conflict,
and conjecture is vain ; but the fact that through agony,
of which we have no conception, a victory was won, is a
blessed fact. If we say that the price paid for it was
infinite, we shall probably not exceed the truth. None
can imagine the horribleness of the evil to be faced, as
none can conceive the susceptibility and the dignity of
Him who became our champion.

It will be interesting, perhaps it is needful, to glance
at the history of the doctrine so far as to indicate the
elements that have come later into the Christian creed.

In the early Church a singular view, suggested by
Clement, was formulated by Origen, who affirmed that
the death of Christ was a ransom price paid to Satan in
compensation for his lost rights in humanity. Apart from
this view, which was effectually set aside by Anselm,
special stress was laid in the early Church on the doctrine
of the Mystical Union. Here the idea that comes into
prominence is that of the vicarious dying unto sin of the

REDEMPTIVE WORK OF THE LORD JESUS CHRIST 219

Lord Jesus on behalf of humanity, wherein He pledges
Himself to effect in man really what in Him was effected
sacramentally or representatively. It is, indeed, true that
Dorner has sought to maintain that as early as Justin the
doctrine of substitution, or vicarious punishment, is to be
seen. But this is an extreme position. Dorner has been
refuted by Pressense and others, who show that no such
doctrine was known to Justin ; while illustration of the
prevalent belief is abundant in both Augustine and
Athanasius.

Augustine often speaks of the restoration of our fallen
nature by Christ. No doubt he sometimes speaks as
though this were effected by the incarnation. Neverthe-
less he is frequent in affirming that Christ was the true
sin-offering of which that under the law was only a
shadow. He says of Christ that He died unto sin sacra-
mentally that we might die unto sin actually. He, the
sinless One, was mystically united with our sinful nature;
and hence it became possible for Him, who did not need
on His own account to die, to die for our sakes as the
pledge or surety for us, that, through His virtue, we should
die unto sin and live unto righteousness.

The thought in the mind of Augustine is never that
which is represented by the modern term imputation, nor
that which is represented by the notion of a forensic
justification. These potent ideas of later theologians are
not the ideas of Augustine. His belief is in the mystical
union of Christ with those whose nature He assumed.
This is with him a governing idea, and it is to this that
he sees the Apostle Paul referring when he speaks of
Christ being in the " likeness of flesh." This mystical
union made that possible which otherwise could not have
been. He took our flesh upon Him. The curse of sin
fell on Him: and through Him the righteousness of God
becomes ours, because He puts us into right relation to

2 20 THE ANCIENT FAITH IN MODERN LIGHT

God, and thus begins the work which ends in the absolute
death unto sin of the regenerated nature. His idea is
not that Christ died to appease the wrath of God, but
rather that by this mystical union death, or the curse of
sin, accrued to Christ, and righteousness to those who
believe. He certainly does speak of the blood of Christ
as the price paid for man's redemption ; but whatever he
may mean by that, he does not mean what Origen had
taught, that Christ paid by His death a compensation to
Satan. His thought is in quite another direction. He is
thinking of the eternal law of holiness which needed to be
fulfilled if the righteous Father was to forgive. Christ
died unto sin for us, fulfilling the requirements of that
law, and through Him we die unto sin. To the eternal
law of holiness mankind, so to speak, stood in debt. That
debt Christ paid. The figure is maintained in both
clauses, but it is a figure. The fact is that we are
incorporated with Christ by faith ; and, like Him, and
through Him, die unto sin and live unto righteousness,
and so fulfil on our part the law which He, our Surety,
vicariously and sacramentally fulfilled for us.

Athanasius is in substantial agreement with Augustine.
The problem and the solution as he conceived them may
be presented in a few words. The problem was this.
Death had been threatened at the beginning as the penalty
of transgression, — a death consisting in estrangement from
God, the only source of life, and implying the complete
ruin of man. On the one hand, the divine veracity in
threatening must be upheld, while, on the other hand,
God's moral creation must not be left to perish in its
alienation, as that would be inconsistent with the divine
goodness. The problem was how to safeguard the divine
veracity, and at the same time, under the promptings of
mercy, to effect the salvation of men. The solution of the
problem is found in the doctrine of the Logos or Word.

REDEMPTIVE WORK OF THE LORD JESUS CHRIST 22 1

Christ alone is competent to renew men. Pie becomes
incarnate ; the Word becomes flesh, with a view to the
atoning sacrifice. He took our nature on Him, a nature
subject to the corruption of death. He offered it to the
Father, delivering it to death of His own will, a vicarious
act for us all. All died in Him, and thus the law-
requiring death was met once for all by Him in our
nature, and love and veracity are in equipoise. Athanasius
is clear on the vicarious character of the Lord's death, but
he does not mean by this that Christ was punished for the
sinners. It is quite another idea that has possession of his
mind. Christ dying a ransom for man means that, in the
way described, the law of holiness, which is the expression
of the very nature of God, is satisfied in Christ.

With both Augustine and Athanasius sin is regarded
in its effects rather than in itself, and the aim is to vindicate
the divine veracity while giving scope to the divine love.
Sin is a disease which can only be removed by the renewal
of man, and this is secured by the incoming and indwelling
of the divine Logos or Word, Jesus Christ.

If we now pass on to Anselm and the scholastics, we
shall find ourselves in quite a different atmosphere. Other
ideas will be presented to us than those on which
emphasis has been laid in the pages of this essay, and
other than those of the writers whose views have now been
expounded. Athanasius, as we have seen, held sin to be
a disease which has defiled man's nature, and needs to be
cured. Anselm conceives of sin as a debt which must be
paid. The one regards sin in its effects, viewing it in a
practical light. The other regards sin in its nature, and
becomes at once speculative and scholastic. Anselm's
scheme of thought is shaped by his leading idea. The
motive of the atonement is not the love of God, but God's
sense of what is justly due to Himself; and the method of
the salvation is not the regeneration of man, in order to his

222 THE ANCIENT FAITH IN MODERN LIGHT

own fulfilment of the will of God, so much as amends
to God for the wrong done to Him by sin. Sin is an
insult to His honour, for which satisfaction must be made.
The Son of God by His death has made this ; He alone
could do this. His death on the cross was the voluntary
payment by Him on our behalf of this debt which we
were not of ourselves able to pay. Hence the necessity of
the atonement ; not to compensate Satan, as Origen taught,
— that view is put aside,- — but as a satisfaction to God : not
that the death of Christ was our punishment inflicted on
the innocent One in our stead ; that view had not yet
appeared ; it came later as men departed further from the
simplicity of Scripture.

Anselm's scheme of thought appealed to the men of his
time. He stood at the beginning of a period called the
Scholastic Period, of which the characteristics were a love
of abstract thought, of logical precision of statement, and
of dialectic subtleties. Ideas that gave the dialectician
trouble, because they did not admit of scientific statement,
fell into disfavour. Problems involving the conception of
free will, of sin as a disease of human nature, of the
mystical union between Christ and man, and of the mystic
life flowing from faith and fellowship with Christ, do not
admit of scholastic treatment. Hence there is nothing in
Anselm about dying unto sin in Christ and rising unto
righteousness with Him. On the other hand, undue
emphasis is laid on expressions in Scripture which seem
to be rather illustrations of truth than expositions of it.
Be this as it may, Anselm supplants Athanasius. It is
like the evening star in place of the sun.

Scholastic doctrine prevailed till time gave birth to
Luther and Calvin. Luther's doctrine was shaped under
controversy by his antagonism to Romish conceptions. A
brief reference to the position of things must suffice. The
Church of Rome taught that the original righteousness

REDEMPTIVE WORK OF THE LORD JESUS CHRIST 223

which the first man possessed was no part of man's nature,
but was a supernatural gift added thereto, and that at the
Fall man lost this. The divine image remained, but the
divine likeness or similitude was gone. Man lost no
natural faculty, was still capable of good, except that, as
the inevitable result of the Fall, his natural faculties fell
into disorder. His actual loss was that of a supernatural
gift and not of any natural power. So the Romanist
maintained.

The Reformers, led by Luther, held that what man lost
by the Fall was nothing superadded and supernatural, but
something which naturally belonged to him. The image
of God was obliterated. The capacity, aptitude, power for
spiritual things was lost. The faculty whereby God is
known, and the will to do what God required, were lost ;
and there was no recuperative power left in him. More than
this. Not only was man thus deprived and helpless, but
sin took possession of him, rushed in, so to speak, to fill
the vacuum. There followed " an ineffable corruption of
his whole nature, with all its powers " ; so that he became
essentially and by nature sinful. So Luther maintained.

Far - reaching consequences were involved in this
doctrine, but they need not be considered here. We need
only notice the bearing of all this on the doctrine of
justification. The whole work of Christ in justifying was
regarded as external to the man, as would naturally be
the case since man had left to him neither faculty for God
nor power of co-operation. Justification became acquittal
from sin and from its penalties as the result of the appro-
priating of the merits of Christ by faith, the righteousness of
Christ being imputed to the believer though not possessed
by him. It was taught, moreover, not simply, as had
already been taught, that Christ's obedience was an
acceptable sacrifice to God, giving meaning and efficacy to
His death, but that His obedience was accepted of God,

2 24 1'li^ ANCIENT FAITH IN MODERN LIGHT

instead of the obedience we owed and could not pay. And
still further. For the first time in history the death of
Christ was viewed as a vicarious punishment, inflicted by
the F"ather on Him instead of on us. He, our Substitute,
was punished and accursed of God for us. Luther does
not hesitate to say this. God could not pardon without
satisfaction. Justice required the punishment of sin. But
it was conceived consistent with justice so far to relax the
law, that another, and an innocent person, should be
punished instead of the sinner. Hence it was inferred
that Christ endured in His Passion the pains of hell, and
this was regarded as a necessary part of the idea of satis-
faction. Calvin consents to the doctrine of Christ's sub-
stituted obedience and punishment. Our liability and
obligation to punishment and the curse of sin were trans-
ferred to Christ. He suffered the actual torments of the
damned. So taught Calvinism. If Anselm is properly
objected to on account of what he omits, these have surely
added to the teaching of Scripture much that is utterly
repugnant to its spirit.

For the first time in the history of the Christian
Church we now get such dogmas as these : that the
sufferings of Christ were inflicted by the Father ; that the
punishment of sin is remitted because an equivalent
punishment has been borne ; that the alone guiltless is
accounted guilty, and that the unholy are accounted holy
by an artificial system of imputation. Certainly Athan-
asius reads no such thoughts into the Scriptures, and it is
not easy to understand how conscience could ever be
brought to acquiesce in such notions. It is not to be
wondered at that a whole crop of misbeliefs sprang up
from this mischievous sowing ; but these need not
detain us.

In conclusion. If the account given above of the work
of the Lord Jesus Christ is substantially true, then clearly

REDEMPTIVE WORK OF THE LORD JESUS CHRIST 2 25

the Redeemer's work cannot be confined to His office as
Teacher. Man's supreme need is not deliverance from
ignorance, but from sin, and it was to effect this that
Christ came and died. Our moral need is greater than
our intellectual need. We know more than we do, and
the problem is how to bridge the chasm between knowledge
and obedience, how to overcome moral reluctance, how to
get rid of sin.

No doubt the teaching of Christ concerning God and
man, concerning life and duty, concerning the temporal
and the eternal, is most precious ; the Sermon on the
Mount is a noble charter ; the Parable of the Prodigal Son
is a priceless boon. Beyond doubt we cannot think too
highly of His example of self-sacrificing love, as we find
it in the Gospels. No doubt His death may be regarded
as confirmatory of His doctrine, and of the fidelity of His
spirit. But Scripture says more than this concerning His
death. He is not said to save us by His teaching, or by
His example, not even by His example of self-sacrificing
love. In all these respects He may be admitted to be
supreme, but in them He is not unique. A unique virtue,
however, is attributed to Him by His apostles, and is
involved in His own words. There is something which is
true of Him, and of no other. There is an objective work
wrought by Christ on behalf of sinful humanity, which can
only be described by the term unique. And if so, then He
is separated from all other beings whatsoever. That is our
contention and belief Consequently we regard Him as
having a unique claim on the love and allegiance of men.

Writers on the subject of the atonement often lay
supreme emphasis on the fact that Christ, in dying on the
Cross for us, removed the condemnation into which sin had
brought the human race. Supreme emphasis has been laid
in these pages on the fact that the object of the atonement
is to produce holiness. This aspect of the work of Christ,
15

2 26 THE ANCIENT FAITH IN MODERN LIGHT

in the writer's view, is the one that needs to be insisted
upon to-day. As to God's judgment concerning sin, happily
there can be no doubt that sin lies beneath His condemna-
tion. It cannot be otherwise. The sense of fitness within
us testifies that it must be so. Conscience would be robbed
of its meaning if it were not so. The apostle declares that
the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all un-
godliness and unrighteousness of men. The relation that
exists between our unrighteousness and God's righteous-
ness is that of condemnation ; it would be inexpressibly sad
to conceive it otherwise. The evidence of the universality
of sin is complete. Sin means death in the only sense in
which death is to be feared. Death means dissolution ; in
nature, the dissolution which involves the loss of the natural
life ; in the soul, the dissolution of the inward life of
righteousness, which is the true life of man. Sin is more.
Besides destroying our true life, it calls down on us the con-
demnation of God. That is our condition, condemned by
our own hearts, condemned by Him who is greater than our
hearts, and who knows all things. That the death of Christ
had relation to this condition may be freely and thankfully
admitted, without saying that this is the aspect of the
subject that has supreme consequence to-day, when the
moral tendencies of the doctrine of atonement have been so
seriously impugned. The aim of this essay has been to
show that the Christian doctrine of atonement cannot be
rightly interpreted by any who obscure its moral purpose.
This is its supreme purpose. Its great aim is to produce
holiness.

NEW TESTAMENT WITNESS CONCERN-
ING CHRISTIAN CHURCHES

By SAMUEL NHWTH

■i-27

New Testament Witness concerning Christian
Churches

"All the churches of Christ." — RoM. xvi. i6.

"So ordain I in all the churches." — i CoR. vii. 17.

"As in all the churches of the saints." — i COR. .\iv. ^;^.

"The brother whose praise in the gospel is spread through all the
churches." — 2 COR. viii. 18.

" That which presseth upon nte daily, anxiety for all the churches."
— 2 Cor. xi. 28.

"The churches of Judica which were in Christ." — Gal. i. 22.

"The churches of God which are in Judcea." — i Thess. ii. 14.

"The church of God which is at Corinth." — i COR. i. 2.

"The church that is in their house." — ]\OM. xvi. 5.

Churches, and not The Church, are the subject of the
l^rcsent essay. The latter term, as used in the New Testa-
ment, bears a very special and a very sacred meaning ; and
it is misleading, may we not add, irreverent, to use it in
senses widely diverse from this. When, for instance, one
tells us that his friend has " entered the church," meaning
thereby that he has become a clergyman ; another, that an
acquaintance has " gone over to the church," meaning that
he has attached himself to the Episcopal Church, whether
of England or America ; and yet a third, that some of his
neighbours are seeking to " destroy the chin-ch," when all
he means, or ought to mean, is that they arc seeking to
remove some invidious privileges conferred upon the clergy
of one denomination, and to free them from irksome obliga-
tions consequently laid upon them, — then, in either case,
language is used which is both alien to the Neu- Testament,

230 THE ANCIENT FAITH IN MODERN LIGHT

and a stumbling-block to many through the erroneous
inferences it suggests.

In the New Testament, "The Church" denotes the great
company which no man can number, which is gathered
before the throne of God out of every nation, of all tribes
and peoples and tongues, and which is figuratively described
as the body of Christ, of which He is the Head. The
places in which the term is so used are, it should be noticed,
comparatively few, and occur in passages which are pro-
phetical rather than historical, when the writer is speaking
of the ideal and future, and not of what is present and
actual. In all historical passages the New Testament
writers speak of churches either explicitly or by implica-
tion ; the singular number, with the definite article prefixed,
being used only when it is some one out of " all the
churches" that is spoken of; and even then, for the most
part, some differentiating epithet is appended, making it
clear to which church out of the many reference is made.
The passages quoted above exhibit the predominating
language of the New Testament on this matter, and show
how great is the contrast between the thought and speech
of the apostles and that of many who claim to be in a pre-
eminent degree their successors.

Churches, as we meet with them in the apostolic
writings, are companies, whether small or large, of Chris-
tian men and women, associated for purposes directly
arising out of their personal relationship to Christ. And
by a Christian we mean one who is trusting in Christ
as his Saviour, hearkening to Christ as his Teacher, and
serving Christ as his Master and Lord. To this association
he is drawn by the attraction of a common affection and
a common interest. No one who has so *' learned Christ "

N. T. WITNESS CONCERNING CHRISTIAN CHURCHES 23 1

needs that any should suggest to him such an association,
or that any command should be laid upon him to seek it.
That he should do so follows necessarily from the constitu-
tion of his nature, and from the circumstances of the case.
The spontaneous response of his heart to the mercies he
has received, prompts him to render to Christ the homage
we denominate worship ; or, in Scripture phraseology, to
" bow the knee to Him " in the exalted dignity — " the
name which is above every name " — to which He has been
raised, and to praise Him by the glad confession that He
is " Lord of all," His newly-awakened sense of the beauty
of the Saviour's character and the blessedness of His
mission of mercy, impels him to an open testimony to
His wondrous work and inspiring words ; and his realisa-
tion of the meaning of the new relationship into which
he has been brought, moves him to the earnest endeavour
to do to others, and for them, all that he knows his Lord
would have him to do, — having freely received, he would
freely give. In order to fulfil efficiently this threefold
purpose of worship, witness, and work, he finds himself
dependent upon the help of others like-minded with him-
self For, though he could in some measure fulfil them
alone and apart, experience and instinct conspire in teach-
ing that he can best do it when united in fellowship with
others, and aided by their co-operation and sympathy ; and
it is of his best that he would mve to his Lord.

But while the association of Christians in churches thus
follows by a natural sequence from their personal union
with Christ, the inquiry at once arises, — are any directions
given by our Lord, or His disciples, as to the manner
in which this association is to be regulated, the functions
it may properly assume, the distribution of those functions

232 THE ANCIENT FAITH IN MODERN LIGHT

amongst its members, and the authority of the associated
body over the individuals composing it ?

In times not far removed from our own, the answer to
this inquiry was very commonly sought under the assump-
tion that such directions would be given, if given at all,
in the form of definite enactments, laying down for all time
a completed plan of organisation from which nothing was
to be taken away, and to which nothing was to be added.
The almost unquestioned acceptance of this assumption
was one of the hurtful results which flowed from that
serious defect under which both professed theologians and
private Christians then laboured, namely, the absence of
perspective in their studies of the sacred records, and the
consequent failure to apprehend, in any adequate measure,
the progressiveness of the divine method in the education
and discipline of mankind.

Instead of assuming that because of old formal direc-
tions w^ere supplied for the construction of the tabernacle,
together with a code of laws authoritatively prescribing the
forms of its worship and the appointment of its priests,
therefore the fellowship and worship of Christian churches
were to be regulated in like manner, the very opposite to
this ought to have been anticipated.

For, under the Christian dispensation, man is not, in
the realm of his personal relationship with God, subjected
to a system of formal law, but is emancipated into the
guidance and control of great and far-reaching principles.
Infancy, childhood, youth, and manhood are not more dis-
tinctly marked in the life of the individual than they are
in the religious history of the race. The primeval, the
patriarchal, the Jewish, and the Christian, are four con-
nected and progressive dispensations — four successive
classes in the school of the Great Teacher. Both in the
lessons taught and in the methods of discipline employed,
there is a corresponding advance from a lower to a higher

N. T. WITNESS CONCERNING CHRISTIAN CHURCHES 233

stage. In the first, man is taught his dependence upon
God — the truth which Hes at the foundation of all religion,
and which may be summarised in the words, " apart from
Me ye can do nothing." In the second, he is trained to
the exercise of faith, of faith in its simpler forms as suited
to the childhood of the race ; of faith, too, whose rewards
were often visible to sense and not long delayed. In the
Mosaic economy, with its moral and ceremonial law, its
sacrifices and oft-repeated purifications, its distinctions of
clean and unclean, its solemn sanctuary and its holy place,
man is further taught his own impurity and the need of
holiness. Christianity, while it embodies and expands all
these previous lessons, advances to a higher stage, and her
mission is to train man, not to a religion of mere depend-
ence on a Creator, nor of simple faith in a Lord and King,
nor to a religion of moral righteousness only, but to a
religion of holy love. Her distinctive formula is embodied
in the words : " God is love ; and he that abideth in love
abideth in God, and God abideth in him." Christianity
stands related to Judaism as manhood is related to youth.
The Jews, as still in a state of immaturity, were governed
by laws. As the apostle expresses it, they were as chil-
dren " under guardians and stewards." Though the heirs
of a great inheritance, they differed " nothing from a bond-
servant." Christianity confers the full privileges of sonship.
The age of immaturity gives place to the age of trusted
and honoured affection. The son rises to an intelligent
perception of his father's purposes. The father's will is
no longer an expression of pure authority to be unhesi-
tatingly submitted to, but an exhibition of wisdom and
moral excellence in which he increasingly delights. Obedi-
ence is no longer mere duty, it is a holy pleasure. Ser\Mce
is rendered " not by constraint, but willingly." Law is
displaced by love. Such a spirit has plainly passed
beyond the "beggarly rudiments." To place it under

234 THE ANCIENT FAITH IN MODERN LIGHT

the rigid constraint of formal laws would be to impose
upon it a terrible bondage. It would be to sentence a
man to the humiliation of a lasting pupilage. It would
be the rejection by a father of the intelligent and honour-
ing affection of a son for the blind and imperfect fondness
of a child. To no such bondage, however, have we been
subjected. We are not under law, but under grace. The
appeal, in the determination of what is for us right or
wrong before God, is not made to definite enactments,
but to our own consciousness of what is in harmony with
the character of God, and with His will as expressed in
His written word. Christian obligation is thus wider and
more spiritual than the Jewish. That which under the
Law had of necessity a limited range of application, and
was referable for the most part to external conduct, becomes
expanded into a principle of far-reaching authority, extend-
ing to the innermost springs of thought and feeling. The
personal discipline of the soul thus becomes of the very
highest kind. It is no longer the passive discipline of simple
abstinence from things forbidden, but is an earnest and per-
petual striving after the highest excellence. God's voice in
the soul is no longer a solemnly reiterated " thou shalt not,"
but the gentler and mightier " learn of Me." Our aim is not
just to do what God has bidden, but to become what God is.
Such, under the Christian dispensation, is God's method
of dealing with us in our personal relations with Himself;
and it being so, we ought to anticipate that a like method
would be followed when He is dealing with us in our
relations with one another. If, in the high matters per-
taining to the former. He honours us by confiding in our
love, it would be a strange phenomenon if in that depart-
ment of our religious life where we honour Him in His
creatures, and serve our Lord by serving the least of these
His brethren, Christian fidelity and Christian affection
should not be trusted to observe His will and interpret

N. T. WITNESS CONCERNING CHRISTIAN CHURCHES 235

His wishes. To one who has felt the joy of the spirit of
freedom which Christianity breathes, and how' greatly man
is blessed by the confidence God condescends to repose in
him, and how healthful is the exercise to which his spiritual
powers are put by the constant effort of studying the char-
acter of God and the great principles of His government,
and of applying these to the varying circumstances of
human life, it would be a perplexing anomaly if, in the
matter of church organisation, the Christian man were
placed under the fetters of a rigid law. That any, there-
fore, should assume the existence of such a law, or have
assented to those who affirmed it, without surprise at its
inconsistency with the spirit of the gospel, and without the
consciousness of the incapacity implied by it, would appear
to be next to an impossibility. hLxperience, however,
teaches how common it is, even in these Christian times,
to advance no further in the religious life than the earlier
stages, and how many never get beyond the Judaic state.
Law rather than love rules within them. Their main
inquiry is, what must we do ? rather than what may or
ca}i wc do ? And hence as the gospel says very little of
what we must do — contains hardly an\'thing in the form
of a positive and absolute precept, and the>' have not yet
learnt to act from the promptings of a generous love, their
religious life is at the minimum, they arc " all their lifetime
subject to bondage," and it is nothing to be wondered if,
in regard to the government of churches, they are altogether
legal in their thoughts and requirements.

Here we are reminded how intimately the power of
rightly investigating matters relative to the spiritual life
is dependent upon the state and style of our personal
piety. God's ways and thoughts are not as man's, and
unless we are earnestly seeking to press forward in God's
ways, and are diligently striving to apprehend His groat and
holy thoughts, the record of His spiritual work in the world

236 THE ANCIENT FAITH IN MODERN LIGHT

will be set before us in vain. It will speak in a language
that sounds strangely in our ears ; its characters will appear
grotesque and unmeaning ; the key to unlock its secret
treasures will not be ours ; and we " cannot know them,
because they are spiritually judged."

Ill

But, it will be asked, does not the apostolic organisa-
tion of the churches supply us with an authoritative model,
in accordance with which all future churches should be
framed ; and is not therefore all we need for our guidance
to be found in the example they have set us ?

The right answer to this inquiry can only be gained
from a careful and unprejudiced study of the history of
their procedure as given in the apostolic writings ; and to
such a study wc now invite our readers.

I. The story of the apostolic organisation of the
churches commences naturally with that of the first church,
the church at Jerusalem. At its first meeting, held within
the seven or eight days which intervened between the
Ascension and the day of Pentecost, it proceeded, on the
suggestion of Peter, to the election of an apostle in the
place of Judas, Respecting this meeting, we are told that
the number of those present was about one hundred and
twenty, and that all alike took part in the important
business then transacted. A few days later occurred the
solemn inauguration of this church, when, on the day of
Pentecost, it received its baptism of consecration and its
public investiture with power from on high. Passing over
many of the circumstances connected with this event, and
dwelling only upon those which, directly or indirectly, bear
upon our present inquiry, two significant facts present
themselves to notice. These are, first, that on this day a

N. T. WITNESS rOXCERMNr, CHRISTIAN CHURCHKS 237

large number of brethren were assembled (Acts ii. i) in a
private house (Acts ii. 2). At the least there would be the
hundred and twenty previously spoken of, and in all proba-
bility many more; for as there were five hundred brethren
to whom our Lord showed Himself after His resurrection, we
may fairly suppose a larger gathering on an occasion which
would bring to Jerusalem many who did not usually dwell
there. And secondly, that whether the number were larger or
smaller, the tongue-like flames " sat upon each one of them,
and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit, and began to
speak with other tongues as the Spirit gave them utter-
ance." This, the devout reader will acknowledge, was not
a mere wonder, but a " sign." God teaches by symbol as
well as by word, and those flames of fire and those other
tongues have their meaning. Four lessons, then specially
needed, and which those present, accustomed as they were
to pictorial teaching, would readily recognise, were set forth
in a vivid and impressiv-e form. These are —

{a) That God's truth is to be made hiozvn to all men.
The spirit of exclusiveness, whether springing from the
misuse of Jewish privilege or from intellectual pride, is
not to be the spirit of Christianity. God's truth is God's
gift to man, and no one may withhold it from his fellow.
It is not a "mystery," a secret to be wrapped up and
hidden, but a " gospel," glad tidings of great joy to all
people. God Himself leads the way in this world-wide
proclamation of the truth. The power of His Spirit con-
strains His servants, overpowers their natural hesitation
and unwillingness, and even against themselves makes
them, so to speak, that " Parthians, and Medes, and
Klamites, and the dwellers in Mesopotamia, in Juda:a and
Cappadocia, in Pontus and Asia, in Phrygia and Pamphylia, in
Egypt and the parts of Lyba about Gyrene, and sojourners
from Rome, Cretes and Arabians," every one in his own
tongue, heard them speaking the mighty works of God.

2 3'S THE ANCIENT FAITH IN MODERN LIGHT

(/;) With no less distinctness did the sign teach,
secondly, That the special blessings resultiiig from the
Saviotir's death ivere open to the acceptatice of all. The
o-ift of the Holy Spirit, in a measure altogether distinct
from any earlier bestowal, is set before us in the Scriptures
as the result of the Saviour's work. It was so announced
by the forerunner : " He shall baptize you with the Holy
Ghost"; and it was so affirmed by the Saviour Himself
when He said : " I will pray the Father, and He shall
give 5'ou another Comforter . . . even the Spirit of truth."
This specially Christian gift, this crowning boon of the
Saviour's mercy, is now conferred upon all in this praying
and waiting assembly : they were all filled with the Holy
Ghost ; all, not a favoured few only, not the distinguished
leaders only, not the chosen apostles only, but all in that
large assembly, where, though possibly there may have
been a Nicodemus and a Joseph of Arimathcxa, yet
certainly the large majority were humble and undis-
tinguished men.

(r) Again, the peculiar form under which the power
of the Spirit was manifested in those who received the
gift teaches, That the priniaiy work giveii to Christ's
servants to do is to publish abroad His truth. " They
began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them
utterance." It was by the gift of the Spirit that they
were to be " clothed with power " for their work, and the
immediate effect of the bestowal of that gift was to
impel them to " speak the mighty works of God." Most
distinctly, then, were the followers of Christ taught that
their special work in the world was not priestly, but pro-
phetical ; not to offer sacrifice, but to make known His
message of love and mercy — in apostolic phrase, to wield
" the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God."

{d') Further, the " sign " teaches, That participation in
this Christian ivork teas not to be confined to any one

N. T. WITNESS CONCERNING CHRISTIAN CHURCHES 239

class of CJivisfs folloivcrs. To be the minister of God, in
the sense of a servant conunissiotied to declare His will, is
an honour which all ages have regarded as amongst the
highest within human reach ; an honour to be jealously-
guarded from intrusion, and which, in most cases, has
been appropriated to a family or tribe. So was it with
the Mosaic priesthood, the honour might be attained only
by a few. But not so now : " the priesthood being changed,
there is made of necessity a change also of the law." "Arc
not all these which speak Galilaeans ? " Outcasts, as many
of them were in the estimate of current opinion, they are
all God's chosen instruments, " clothed with power from on
high," to go forth as His messengers, and declare amongst
the nations the glad tidings of great joy.

Of this company of believers, thus inaugurated, we are
further told that they were in the habit of joining in an act
of daily worship in the temple, and of afterwards partaking
of a common meal in their own place of meeting (Acts ii.
46 ; v. 42) ; and that so great was the bond of brotherl}-
affection amongst its members that each regarded all that
he possessed as property to be held in trust for the common
good. Throughout the period embraced by the first five
chapters of the Acts of the Apostles, the church at Jeru-
salem is a single assembly of worshipping and loving
Christians. Organisation has proceeded no further than
its first stage of voluntary association — voluntary, that is,
so far as concerns human relations, for " the Lord added
to them day by day those that were being saved." Of
organisation there is just so much as implied in this, and
nothing more — no officers, no distinction of function amongst
the associated brethren. Service is rendered by one to
another, not in virtue of office, but in the exercise of the
gifts with which he had been endowed. I le who had
wealth, because he had it, gave to the needy ; he who
had the gift of knowledge and utterance, because he had

240 THE ANCIENT FAITH IN MODERN LIGHT

it, communicated what he knew to the ignorant ; and
those who had the largest knowledge about Christ, the
apostles, were on that account the most prominent in
the instruction of the brethren. They " had all things
common."

2. In the sixth chapter of the Acts an account is given
us of a second step taken by the church at Jerusalem in
the matter of organisation. Superadded to the one assembly
are its seven officials, equal in rank and identical in func-
tion. But what the nature of that function was, we have
no sufficient information for determining. We are indeed
told that the occasion of their appointment was the com-
plaint of the Hellenistic Jews, that their widows were
neglected in the " daily ministration " ; but what is indi-
cated thereby, whether it were a distribution of alms to the
poor, or a distribution of food, or attendance upon those
met at the social meal, or any two or more of these com-
bined, is altogether uncertain.

Further, it is to be noticed that no name or title dis-
tinctive of their office is anywhere given to the men now
appointed to " this business." As a body of officers, they
are nowhere else referred to, nor is any instance recorded
of the actual performance of the duty here assigned to
them. In one passage only have we any subsequent recog-
nition of their appointment, and there Philip the evangelist
is simply described as " one of the seven " (Acts xxi. 8).
Moreover, the tenure of office by " the seven " was but
temporary. For shortly after the death of Stephen, the
members of the Jerusalem church were all scattered
abroad, " except the apostles." Accordingly we find
Philip, the only one of the seven, besides Stephen, of
whom there is any separate mention, engaged in preaching
the gospel in all the cities between Azotus and Caesarea,
and subsequently dwelling with his family in the latter

N. T. WITNESS CONCERNING CHRISTIAN CHURCHES 24 1

city. Any further attendance upon widows at Jerusalem
was therefore, in his case, precluded. Whether, if the ser-
vice of the seven at Jerusalem had not been so suddenly
and so sharply interrupted, their office would in time have
become identical with that afterwards known as the
deacons', is one of those imaginary questions that can
never be answered ; and certainly it should not be assumed
that the two offices were identical.

3. The three or four years following the death of
Stephen present a new and important chapter in Christian
history. We now read of many centres of Christian life
and love instead of one. " They that were scattered
abroad went about preaching the word," and with such
success that companies of disciples are gathered in various
parts of Palestine and Syria. The first breach, moreover,
is now made in the wall of partition between the Jew and
Gentile ; and it is interesting to notice how gradually, yet
surely, events move on towards its accomplishment. First,
the gospel is preached in Samaria, and Christian love
repeals the law of exclusiveness, which forbade the Jew
to have dealings with the Samaritans. " Philip went down
to the city of Samaria, and proclaimed unto them the Christ."
Next, the Ethiopian eunuch, a Gentile, to some extent
indeed embracing Judaism and embraced by it, for " he
had come to Jerusalem for to worship," but as a eunuch
inadmissible to the congregation of Israel, — this man is
received by the same Philip into the congregation of the
Lord, and becomes, as Eusebius expresses it, " the first-
fruits of the believers throughout the world " (//. E. ii. i ).
After this we hear of the conversion of Cornelius, with the
distinct acknowledgment by the church at Jerusalem that
" to the Gentiles also hath God granted repentance unto
life." And lastly, contemporaneously with this event,
perhaps rather somewhat preceding it, is the founding of
16

242 THE ANCIENT FAITH IN MODERN LIGHT

the first Gentile church in Antioch through the labours of
" the men of Cyprus and Cyrene," who in that city " spake
unto the Greeks also, preaching the Lord Jesus."

One striking fact of this period is the almost complete
withdrawal of the apostles from the scene. It might have
been expected that they would have been the foremost in
this work of evangelisation, and have assumed the post of
leadership and command. What were the reasons that
led them to remain behind in Jerusalem, it is not for us
positively to determine. It may have been that with the
remembrance of their former weakness, when they all " left
Him and fled," they were now more distrustful of themselves,
and waited for a clearer intimation of the divine will until
they left the city. It may have been that they did not yet
realise that all that was involved in their Lord's command
to stay in Jerusalem until they were clothed with power from
on high was now fulfilled. Or it may even have been that
some special intimation had been given them that for a
season they should withdraw into comparative retirement.
But, whatever the reason, the fact remains that in this
outburst of Christian activity the apostles took no leading
part. It did not originate in any proposal of theirs ; God's
providence originated it by scattering the members of the
one church. Instead of taking a prominent share in it,
they did but slowly and cautiously recognise it. It was
not by apostolic lips that the gospel was first preached to
the Gentiles, nor by apostolic labours that the first Gentile
church was gathered. They send Peter and John to
Samaria, but that was after they had heard of Philip's
successful labours there ; and though it is by Peter that
Cornelius is received into Christian fellowship, this event
occurs at the close of the period we are speaking of, when,
in consequence of the great work which had been already
wrought, they began to leave their retirement and visit the
disciples. " It came to pass as Peter went throughout all

N. T. WITNESS CONCERNING CHRISTIAN CHURCHES 243

parts, he came down also to the saints which dwelt at
Lydda " (Acts ix. 32). The great work of church exten-
sion now accomplished is presented to us as springing from
the free impulse of the Spirit on the hearts of believers.
It was not the result of the labours of persons officially
appointed thereto. Wc read of no special commission
granted to these zealous Christians. No call to ofifice is
given to these founders of churches. No apostolic ordina-
tion is conferred upon these first evangelists. The only
commission is the general commission given to every man
to tell what he knows, and testify of what he has seen.
The only call is that universal one, in virtue of which the
strong is called to help the weak, and the rich to aid the
poor. It is God who ordains by the gifts He bestows and
the opportunities He provides. It is the Spirit who
chooses, as He sees fit, the instruments of this wider
manifestation of His power.

Another fact also to be noticed is the entire silence of
the history respecting any appointment to office in these
newly-gathered churches. Occasions are not wanting when
reference to those who held office in them would naturally
be made, if any such existed. Peter and John came to
Samaria on an important mission as the representatives of
the apostles, but no special charges are given to any recog-
nised heads of the community, they themselves appoint no
elders, and they lea\-c without directing the appointment of
any. When the trembling and astonished Saul is brought
into Damascus, it is " a certain disciple " named Ananias
who is sent to minister to him. When Dorcas falls sick
and dies, and is laid in the upper chamber, it is " the
disciples " who send two men to Peter, and it is to "the
saints and widows" that Peter presents her alive. And of
the church at Antioch, we are simply told that " even for a
whole year Paul and l^arnabas were gathered together with
the church, and taught much people."

244 THE ANCIENT FAITH IN MODERN LIGHT

4. A fresh period in the history of Christian evangelism
is opened up to us, when, in the providence of God, the
apostles, who had hitherto tarried in Jerusalem, now under-
stood that the time had come in which they must set
themselves to fulfil their Lord's command, and " go into
all the world " ; when, too, from the church at Antioch,
Barnabas and Saul were " sent forth by the Holy Ghost "
on the work whereunto He had called them. It is now
that, for the first time, we read of elders in the churches,
namely, in the church at Jerusalem, and in the four Asiatic
churches founded by Paul and Barnabas on their first
missionary journey. Of the time and manner of the
appointment of these in the church at Jerusalem there
is no mention ; and respecting the nature of their office, we
have no positive statement. From the title, we can infer
only that it was some such general superintendence as the
head of a family might exercise over his household. The
social habits of the Easterns, with their strong family
feeling and their reverence for age, might naturally lead
here, as it had already done in the synagogue, to the
appointment for the most part of elder men to the chief
place of authority, and so to the use of the term presbyter
or elder as the designation of the office. Concerning the
duties of the elder at a subsequent period, we have fuller
information. At present we have only the name and the
single fact that it was to the elders that the money
raised by the Christians at Antioch for the relief of the
brethren in Judaea was sent ; and as the natural inference is,
that they undertook the charge of the gifts thus intrusted
to them, we are left to the conclusion that now at least
their office was not confined to spiritual concerns.

The appointment of elders in the churches of Derbe,
Lystra, Iconium, and the Pisidian Antioch took place when
the two missionaries who had founded these churches were
taking farewell of them on their return to the city " from

N. T. WITNKSS CONCERNING CHRISTIAN CHURCHES 245

whence they had been committed to the grace of God for
the work which they had ' now fulfilled.' " Respecting the
manner of their appointment, all that is told us is contained
in the short passage which tells us that " when they (Paul
and Barnabas) had appointed for them (the disciples) elders
in every church, and had prayed with fasting, they com-
mended them (the disciples) to the Lord in whom they had
believed." But whether we are to understand by this that
the two missionaries nominated to the office those whom
they deemed the most suitable, or that, following the method
pursued by the apostles in the election of the Seven, they
suggested to the several churches that they should choose
some of their number, is wholly indeterminate. The lan-
guage employed admits of either interpretation.

That more than one elder was appointed in each
church, though not expressly stated, is more than probable.
It was certainly so in the church at Jerusalem, and so, too,
at a later date in that at Ephesus ; for, when reaching
Miletus on his last journey to Syria, Paul " sent to Ephesus
and called to him the elders of the church." Wc may
therefore safely presume that it was so here also.

Of any official members in the church at Antioch in
Syria, there is no mention. The names are given us of
certain gifted brethren there, described as prophets and
teachers ; but that they are so described is no evidence
that they sustained any official relation to the church.
They were men specially qualified by the Holy Spirit to
edify others by their gifts of utterance, the teachers being
those who were fitted for the quieter and more continuous
instruction of the disciples ; and the prophets those upon
whom the I loiy Spirit came more suddenly, and at
intervals, and impelled to speak in a more thrilling and
impassioned style upon the higher themes of the spiritual life.
Whilst favoured with the presence of such men as these,
the church at Antioch, like the church at Jerusalem while

246 THE ANCIKNT FAITH IN MODERN LKillT

the apostles were still amongst them, would feel no need
for formally appointed officials. None at least are referred
to, and the silence is expressive. For it is not a mere
handful of believers that is set before us, a feeble company
in some obscure spot, unequal to the ordinary functions of
a Christian church, but a vigorous and active community
in the metropolis of Syria, entering warmly into the spirit
of Christian evangelism, alive to the claims of their suffering
brethren in Judaea, and sending forth its missionaries to the
busy cities of Asia. We read of no elders in Antioch ;
and that no such office as that commonly understood as
the deacons' had been created there, is shown by the fact
that Barnabas and Saul are employed by the church to
convey their pecuniary aid to the brethren in Judaea. And
this was not done because the two missionaries happened
to be then going to Jerusalem, for this was the business on
which they went ; and as soon as they had discharged it,
they "returned from Jerusalem" (Acts xii. 25).

5. The fifteenth chapter of the Acts records for us
certain memorable proceedings in which, for the first time, the
sisterhood of the churches is openly recognised. Paul and
Barnabas had just returned to Antioch from their Asiatic
journeyings, and had given an account of their mission to
the brethren there, as to men who had a right to expect it
from them, and had a common interest in their work. It
was at this epoch, when, as we may well suppose, the Chris-
tians in this city were rejoicing at the encouraging report
now made to them, and probably preparing for new efforts,
that " certain men came down from Judaea and taught the
brethren, saying, Except ye be circumcised after the manner
of Moses, ye cannot be saved." These men, as the sub-
sequent narrative shows, had received no commission from
the church at Jerusalem. They came to Antioch on their
own prompting, and the opportunity of exercising the gift

N. T. WITNESS CONCERNING CHRISTIAN CHURCHES 247

of teaching is freely conceded to them on the simple ground
of their common brotherhood in Christ. Their testimony,
however, is freely canvassed and warmly discussed, till
ultimately Paul and Barnabas, with certain others, amongst
whom was Titus (Gal. ii. i), were appointed to go to
Jertsalem about this question ; and an interesting picture
is presented of the simplicity of manners and community
of feeling then exhibited by the Christians at Antioch, in
the statement that they joined in accompanying their
delegates over the first stage of their journey.

This reference to Jerusalem is the voluntary act of the
chirch at Antioch, and not in consequence of any claim to
authority on the part of the former. It was under the
circumstances the most natural course to be pursued. The
men who had troubled the church at Antioch and opposed
its teachers had come down from Judcea, and had un-
deiignedly, or otherwise, spoken as if they had received the
sanction of the apostles and brethren there. It was there-
fore fitting to send, in the first place, to know whether this
was indeed the case. In the brief statement of Acts xv. 2,
we are told that the delegates were sent to consult " the
apostles and elders " at Jerusalem ; but that it is meant
thereby that they were sent to consult them only is more
than doubtful. In point of fact, the question at issue is
discussed by the church at large ; for on the arrival of the
delegates they were received of " the church and the
apostles and the elders " ; and at a second meeting held
" to consider the matter," the entire company of the
brethren were present, and join in the decision arrived at.
At the former meeting the discussion was started by
" certain of the sect of the Pharisees who believed," affirm-
ing the necessity of circumcision and of the observance of
the Mosaic law. More, as we gather from the words of
Paul in the Epistle to the Galatians, was intended by this
than the assertion of a general principle. One at least of

248 THE ANCIENT FAITH IN MODERN LIGHT

the delegates was an uncircumcised Gentile ; and the words
of the speakers were meant to apply to the Gentiles now
present. A personal animus was thus introduced, and
there was, Luke tells us, " much questioning " : " to whom,"
Paul adds, " we gave place in the way of subjection, no, not
for an hour." /

The question thus submitted to the brethren at Jerusa-
lem was, it should be noted, one in which all Christians iiad
a common interest. It was not a point of internal economy,
not a mere matter of private discipline, but a grave question
affecting their common Christianity. It so happened that it
first came up in a definite form at Antioch, but it concerred
all churches, and not the least that church out of whi:h,
more or less directly, all churches had sprung. It affected
the form in which Christianity was to be exhibited to the
world, and their methods of labour as Christian evangelists.
It affected also, and that most intimately, the communion
of Christians with each other. It was therefore a service
rendered to the brethren in Judaea, to bring the subject to
their notice. Accordingly Paul is not directed by the Holy
Spirit to settle the question at once, by an exercise of h's
apostolic authority. The will of God upon the matter had
been distinctly made known to him, but he is not directed
to authoritatively announce it. The question concerns the
churches at large. He is therefore directed to go to
Jerusalem. He " went up by revelation."

As the result of the discussion, the teaching of the
" troublers " is emphatically disowned, and by a unanimous
vote of the church, two brethren are courteously appointed
to convey to Antioch in a written form its judgment on the
question submitted to them. The transaction does not
issue in the institution of any formal bond by which the
union of the churches was to be maintained, still less in any
by which the subordination of one to the other was either
asserted or contemplated. The narrative given us is worthy

N. T. WITNESS CONCERNING CHRISTIAN CHURCHES 249

of careful study, not only for the facts which it relates, but
also for those which are conspicuous by their absence ; the
more so that by giving it the title of the Council of Jeru-
salem, many have been led to identify it with those semi-
and more than semi-political assemblies of later time, which,
under the name of Councils, have wielded so unchristian a
tyranny.

6. Coming now to the period embraced by the Pauline
letters, we read of churches with two classes of church-
officers, termed respectively bishops and deacons. They
are named together for the first time in Phil. i. i : " Paul
and Timothy, bondservants of Jesus Christ, to all the saints
in Christ Jesus which are in Philippi, with the bishops and
deacons." The former of these two terms is now acknow-
ledged, by all trustworthy expositors, to denote the same
persons as those heretofore spoken of as elders.^ As
regards the nature of the office thus indifferently designated,
no precise definition is given. The new name of " bishop "
or "overseer" does but confirm what has before been
gathered from the designation " elder," that the distinctive
duty of the office was the general superintendence of the
associated brethren — the care of their interests (i Tim.
iii. 5), and a watchful outlook against everything that would
imperil their well-being, whether from within or without :
"they watch in behalf of your souls" (Heb. xiii. 17). It
was, as Peter teaches us, like that of the shepherd who feeds
and tends the flock ; in fact, the two words are conjoined as
approximate synonyms, when he speaks of our Lord as the

^ The evidence may be briefly summarised thus : i. In three passages
the two terms are expressly identified, viz. Acts xx. 17 compared with
ver. 28, Tit. i. 5 com])ared with ver. 7, and i Pet. v. i compared with
ver. 2. 2. In two other places bishops and deacons are spoken of, but
no mention is made of presbyters, Phil. i. i and i Tim. iii. 3. In no
instance are the three terms, bishops, presbyters, and deacons, found thus
in combination.

250 THE ANCIENT FAITH IN MODERN LIGHT

"Shepherd and Bishop" of our souls (i Pet. ii. 25). In
the list of qualifications for this office given in the First
Epistle to Timothy, are included a skilfulness in ruling and
an aptness to teach ; the latter being also described in the
ICpistle to Titus as the ability " to exhort in the sound
doctrine, and to convict the gainsayers." Clearly, then,
ruling and teaching are amongst the prominent functions of
the office ; yet not so exclusively as to preclude any who
were able to edify the church from the due exercise of their
gift in its proper season. " All can edify one by one, that
all may learn, and all may be encouraged" (i Cor. xiv. 31).
Rut while all who were competent so to do might occa-
sionally teach, it was upon the elders of the church, also
called bishops, that the responsibility rested of providing
for the regular and orderly instruction of the ecclesia. The
duty was theirs specifically and emphatically.

Further, inasmuch as a plurality of pastors, whatever
the name by which they are designated, was the rule in the
apostolic churches, it would naturally come about that a
distribution of function amongst them would to some extent
be made. Those of their number who became noted for
their skill in administration would have yielded to them the
lead in ruling, and those who were pre-eminently gifted as
preachers or teachers would, as a matter of course, take the
more prominent share in the exhortation and instruction of
the church. Hence, as might be expected, we read of
some elders who " ruled well," of some " who labour (toil
hard) in the word and in teaching," and of some also who
were distinguished in both of these departments of service.

Respecting the duties of the deacons, nothing whatever
is told us by the apostles. They are referred to in two
passages only. One is that quoted above (Phil. i. i), where
they are simply named ; and the name alone tells us nothing
of their office. The term is exceedingly wide in its signifi-
cation, and is applied in the New Testament to anyone

X. T. WITNESS CONCERNING CHRISTIAN CIlURCIli;s 25 I

who may render to another any service of any kind, from
the very highest, that rendered by our Lord Himself (Rom.
XV. 8), down to the very lowest, that rendered by a personal
attendant (Acts xiii. 5), and lower still, even to the wicked
service of wicked men, who in 2 Cor. xi. i 5 are called the
" deacons of Satan."

The other passage is the third chapter of the First
Epistle to Timothy, and this, though speaking of qualifica-
tions, is silent respecting duties. It tells us that deacons
" must be grave, not double-tongued, not given to much
wine, not greedy of filthy lucre " ; that they must hold the
mystery of the faith in a pure conscience ; that before their
appointment they must be proved, and that those only are
to serve who are found irreproachable ; that they are to be
the husbands of one wife, and of a wife who conducts
herself well ; and, lastly, that they are able to maintain good
order in their own households. To draw from this list of
diaconal qualifications any exact delineation of diaconal
duties, seems to me to demand more than a prophet's
illumination. I, at least, can lay claim to no such super-
human skill, and must decline to accept the claims of any
who may profess to possess it.

7. Of any further developments we have in the New
Testament no record, not even of such a change as would
be made, if in place of several bishops in a church one only
were appointed. Still less is there any record of the creation
of an office superior to that of the presbyter-bishop. The
Epistles to Timothy and Titus have indeed been appealed
to as showing that two young disciples of the Apostle Paul
had been appointed to such an office ; but the arguments
by which this conclusion is reached rest upon a scries of
doubtful assumptions. Into the discussion of these we do
not here enter ; it is enough for our present purpose to note
that they are assumptions, and that therefore the inferences

252 TIIK ANCIENT FAITH IN MODERN LIGHT

built Upon them are too uncertain as a basis for an authori-
tative rule of church order. Advices given by Paul the
aged to his son Timothy respecting his personal demeanour
towards the Christian men and women ^ at Ephesus, are
arbitrarily transformed into commissions of office ; and an
imaginary contrast is drawn between the charge given at
Miletus to the Ephesian elders and that given to Timothy,
to the effect that the former are invested with authority
over the laity only, while the latter has authority over the
clergy also. Even i Tim. v. i, strange to say, is quoted
as proving that Timothy was authorised to administer
rebuke to bishops ; whereas, even if the passage refer to
bishops at all, he is expressly bidden not to rebuke them.

With regard to the work of these two e\-angelists, it is
to be noticed — {a) That they were sent, the one to Ephesus
and the other to Crete, on a special and temporary mission
only. This, in the case of Timothy, was to oppose the
false teaching of those speakers of perverse things whom
Paul had foreseen would, after his departure, arise in the
Ephesian church. In the case of Titus, it was to give to
the new converts whom Paul had recently gathered in
Crete further instruction respecting the conduct becoming
Christians, and to provide for the preservation and con-
tinuance of the good work already wrought in that island.
What Paul had done for the churches in Asia, but had,
from some cause unknown to us, been unable to do for
Crete, this Titus is left behind to arrange : he is to
" appoint elders in each city," that is, wherever any company
of believers were gathered together. And

(/^) That neither the giving of counsel nor even the
administering of rebuke implies the exercise of an official
authority. There is a wide and manifest difference between

' Called in i Tim. iii. 5 the house, i.e. household, of God. Compare
the house of Onesiphorus, 2 Tiin. iv. 19 ; the house of Stephanas, i Cor.
xvi. 15.

N. T. WITNESS CONCERNING CHRISTIAN CHURCHES 253

the two things. To convey a message of admonition
(i Tim. i. 3), to put a brother in remembrance (i Tim. iv. 6),
to communicate what one has learnt of the truth (2 Tim.
ii. 2), are not the special functions of an official. They
are duties common to all ; every Christian, in the measure
of his ability, is bound to fulfil them. The power to do so
is that of moral suasion, and arises from the personal char-
acter of the speaker, and the authority of the truth he utters.
The same applies to the investigation of charges brought
against an elder ; the full confidence of the parties concerned
is all that is implied, not official position. Such confidence
would necessarily be given to one who came as the friend and
companion of an apostle, and sent by him to communicate
instruction from him on various points of faith and
practice.

The " angels " of the " seven churches which are in
Asia " have also been adduced by some as seven instances
of an order of ministry superior to that of the presbyter-
bishop. But imagery used in so highly symbolical a
book as the Apocalypse is very untrustworthy evidence
for matters of fact ; and even if it were quite certain that
the "angel" of each of these churches was its presiding
minister, this would be no proof that the office he held was
different from any that we have previously met with in the
historical passages of the New Testament.

8. In concluding this part of our subject, we notice
— First, the absence of any rigid uniformity in the apostolic
organisation of the churches. We read of the same church
in various stages, and of contemporary churches in different
stages. We have the simplest i)ossiblc type of organisation,
and we have a more complex organisation of various degrees.
The apostles do not commence with a matured form in
accordance with which they frame each church as it was
gathered. Organisation is not so much imposed on the

2 54 THE ANCIENT FAITH IN MODERN LIGHT

churches as left to grow naturally out of their necessities. In
this we may recognise a mark of the divine wisdom bestowed
upon the apostles. Their procedure in this is in harmony with
God's own method. With Him the life is more than meat,
and the body more than raiment. Organs, forms, relations
are determined by the circumstances of life, do not deter-
mine them. His institutions are subservient to the wants
of His creature, do not create them. " The Sabbath was
made for man, not man for the Sabbath." It is man's
way, not God's, to aim at " acts of uniformity." It is our
proneness to walk, not by faith, but by sight, that leads us
to think more of the form than of the spirit. It is our
short-sightedness that trembles at the decay or destruction
of the shell as if it must needs involve the decay or destruc-
tion of the life it enshrines, forgetting that the Great
Teacher has said, " Except a grain of wheat fall into the
earth and die, it abideth by itself alone ; but if it die, it
beareth much fruit."

Secondly, the data furnished in the Scriptures are
clearly insufficient for the construction of a model form
of church organisation. Not only is there no sign that
the apostles themselves had devised a form, according to
which they would mould each separate society ; but, as if
they had, of set purpose, endeavoured to guard future times
from finding an absolute model in their administration,
the notices they have left on record are of the briefest kind.
They have given the barest outlines of their proceedings.
We have one office mentioned, the general character of
whose functions can be determined with a fair measure of
certainty ; we have another named, but nothing said about
its functions. No rule is given respecting the creation of
other offices : no law forbidding it. The outline which the
apostles have left us admits of being filled up in an almost
endless variety of ways. There might be an exact con-
formity with apostolic practice in each of two churches

N. T. WITNESS CONCERNING CHRISTIAN CHURCHES 255

which, notwithstanding, presented manifold differences in
the forms of their internal regulations. An open door is
thus left for diversities of organisation, and no one church
is entitled to claim the title " apostolic " as its peculiar
possession.

The apostolic organisation of the churches, however,
though not intended to supply us with an authoritative
model-form is, nevertheless, of the highest value for the
principles it embodies and the example it has set. From
the manner in which, as wise master-builders, they laid
the foundations, we may learn how we should build
thereon.

I. And foremost amongst the instructive features of
their example, is the marked respect and deference paid
invariably by them to the ecclesia, the assembly of the
brethren.

At the very first meeting of the church, this keynote
of the apostolic administration is given in the clearest and
most emphatic manner, when, in the important step of
the election of a successor to Judas, the choice of the two
names to be submitted to the lot is freely intrusted to the
entire company. If at any time the apostles might, with
propriety, have exercised an exceptional prerogative, it
would be at this early period of weakness and immaturity.
We should have felt no surprise if, in this the infant state of
the church, the apostles had acted as in loco parentis, and
had done on its behalf what, in ordinary times, it would
have been left to do for itself. Their doing so would have
been challenged by none, and the appointment they made
or recommended would have been readily accepted. The
more expressive, therefore, is their abstinence, and the more
distinctly marked is their recognition of the rights of the
Christian brotherhood.

256 THE ANCIENT FAITH IN MODERN LIGHT

Still more significant, if possible, is the conduct of the
apostles at the election of the Seven. It was the first
occasion of any discord in the Christian family, and might
therefore seem to furnish a just occasion for the assertion
of a special authority ; yet they act simply as advisers of
the brethren. The propriety of adopting some measure
to meet the necessities of the case is submitted to their
approval ; the election of those who were to carry out their
wishes is committed to them unconditionally ; and the
assurance is given them beforehand, that whomsoever
they may choose, these the apostles will without question
institute.

When intelligence is brought to the church at Jerusalem
that the Gentiles had received the word of God, and Peter's
action in holding Christian fellowship with Cornelius is
challenged by some of its members, the criticism is not
resented either by Peter or by his fellow-apostles. To call
in question the action of an apostle is not treated as an
act of rebellion against constituted authority. The brethren
are not told that it is no business of theirs. On the contrary,
their interest in the matter is acknowledged without demur.
As one amongst them, Peter gives an account of what had
happened in the house of Simon at Joppa, and in that of
Cornelius at Ceesarea ; and his conduct is cleared by the
proof so distinctly given, that the admission of Cornelius
into the Christian brotherhood was the act, not of Peter,
but of God ; for before any outward baptism by water,
he received, without human intervention, the baptism
of the Holy Ghost, even as they themselves had at the
beginning.

2. The policy, if one may so term it, pursued in these
several instances, is maintained throughout the entire course
of the apostolic history. The great bulk of their teaching
is given to the churches directly and not mediately. Alike
of the doctrines which they unfold, of the inspired precepts

N. T. WITNESS CONCERNING CHRISTIAN CHURCHES 257

which they enforce, and of the acts of discipHne which they
either recommend or command, is it true that they are
expressly addressed to the brethren who arc associated in
Christian fellowship. It is to the church of the Thessalonians,
to the church which is at Corinth, to all that are in Rome
called to be saints, to the churches of Galatia, to all the
saints in Christ Jesus which are at Philippi, to the saints
and faithful brethren in Christ which are at Colossal, to
the saints which are at l^phesus . . , that Paul addresses
nine out of his thirteen Epistles. It is to the sojourners of
the Dispersion, and not to any chief men amongst them,
that Peter sends his apostolic instructions ; to these also
that James, " servant of the Lord Jesus Christ," addresses
his weighty exhortations. And it is to the " little
children," "young men," and "fathers," that the beloved
and loving apostle writes his last words of love and
warning.

3. It is in just accord with this, and is, in itself, a
significant fact, that in these ICpistles the references to
church - officers are so occasional and so slight. In the
apostles' conception of a church, it is never its ministers
who stand in the forefront, shutting out of view the company
of the brethren, but, contrariwise, the ministers are in the
background, the brethren in the front of the picture. In
the Epistle to the Philippians the bishops and deacons arc,
as we have seen, associated with the saints in the address ;
but it is so done in this l^pistlc alone. In i Thcss. none
arc mentioned, though the presence in that church of some
of the former class is to be inferred from the exhortation,
" to know them that labour among you, and are over you
in the Lord." In the Papistic to the Colossians allusion is
made to the " ministry of Archippus," but what that
ministry or service was is unknown by us — it may have
been simply some service rendered to the saints by a visit
of benevolence; but even if it were that he was then holding
17

258 THE ANCIENT FAITH IN MODERN LIGHT

office in the church at Colossae, the passage would be still
more expressive, since the church is directed to admonish him,
and not he the church. In Romans, i and 2 Corinthians,
Galatians, Ephesians, and 2 Thessalonians, no references
to officers in the churches addressed, direct or indirect, are
to be found.^ This silence does not, of course, warrant the
inference that no bishops or deacons existed in these several
churches, for, in the case of Ephesus, we know that it was
otherwise ; but it does show how clearly in the mind of the
apostle, and in the mind of the Spirit by whom he was
guided, the essential idea was that of the ecclesia of saints
and faithful brethren ; it shows how thoroughly all the
members of the church were recognised as having a personal
responsibility in the well-being of the whole ; and how far
it was from being the case that the clergy were the
representatives of the church, still less that they constituted
it. Though rulers of the church whose ministers they
were, they are not treated as distinct from it, but as
members of it, as some among the brethren using their
particular gifts for the good of the whole, just as others
used theirs, and therefore presenting no imperative
reason for being singled out from the rest for special
notice.

4. One further point in the apostolic example claims
to be emphasised, namely, that the duty of maintaining
the purity of a church is not exclusively laid upon its
pastors and rulers. It is devolved with all the force of
apostolic authority as a responsibility in which all its
members share. It is the Corinthian Christians, not certain
officers of the church, who are charged to " put away the
wicked man from among " themselves, and to " be not
unequally yoked with unbelievers." It is the Thessalonian

^ Gal. vi. 6 is no exception. The right of a teacher to pecuniary
support, quite apart from any official relation, is implied in i Cor. ix.
4-14.

N. T. WITNESS CONCERNING CHRISTIAN CHURCHES 259

church, not the men who " were over " them, who are bidden
to " admonish the disorderly," to " withdraw from every
brother that walketh disorderly," and to " have no company "
with anyone who disobeyed the apostolic word. It is the
Hebrew Christians, not those "who rule over" them, who
are charged to look " carefully, lest there be any man that
falleth short of the grace of God, lest any root of bitterness
springing up trouble " them.

5. What, then, we may here conveniently ask ourselves,
was the relation, as set forth in their own acts and words,
of the apostles to the churches gathered by them ? We
have seen how carefully they abstain from the assertion
of personal or official authority in matters pertaining to
the internal arrangements of the churches ; and throughout
their history they never appear as sustaining the position of
a supreme ruler over any one of them. In so acting they
are acting in accord with all that has gone before, and with
the honoured title they bear. Above all else they are
Christ's messengers, sent to announce a message of un-
speakable preciousness. As at their first appointment they
were " sent forth to preach the kingdom of God," and, in
obedience to the Master's word, " went throughout the
villages preaching the gospel and healing everywhere " ;
so now, with the Saviour's last words still sounding in
their ears and bidding them " go unto all the world, and
preach the gospel to the whole creation," they do not fail
to recognise that their supreme function is to make known,
as widely as may be, the words and the work of the Great
Redeemer. They are the Lord's evangelists, intrusted
with His evangel, commissioned by Him to announce it,
and, for the discharge of their mission, clothed by Him
with i)Ower from on high.

How they regarded their apostolic commission, and
what in their view was an essential qualification for it, is
distinctly set forth in the words of Peter : " Of the men, there-

26o THE ANCIENT FAITH IN MODERN LIGHT

fore, which have companied with us all the time that the
Lord Jesus went in and went out among us . . . must
one become a witness with us of His resurrection." The
special function of an apostle is here expressly described ;
the occasion required that it should be. He was to bear
witness of what Christ had said and done, and emphatically
of that which was the crowning fact of the Saviour's
ministry and the confirmation of the whole. His resurrec-
tion from the dead. With equal distinctness is the same
declared in the words addressed to Paul on the journey to
Damascus : " To this end have I appeared unto thee, to
appoint thee a minister and a witness, both of the things
wherein thou hast seen Me, and of the things wherein I
will appear unto thee." It is reaffirmed in the words of
Ananias : " The God of our fathers hath appointed thee,
to know His will, and to see the Righteous One, and
to hear a voice from His mouth. For thou shalt be a
witness for Him unto all men of what thou hast seen
and heard." And the apostle himself, in proof that he
possessed the qualification needed for the office, twice
appeals to the Lord's appearance to him : " last of all,
as unto one born out of due time, He appeared unto me
also." " Am I not an apostle ? have I not seen Jesus our
Lord ? "

Such, then, was their work, and such its qualification.
They were, if one may so say, the living depositaries of the
gospel of Christ. Others of their contemporaries might be
able to bear testimony to the same facts, and according to
their gift expound the same truths, but with the apostles it
was a business to do it ; they were " set " to this work,
appointed to it by the Lord Himself, and specially
qualified for it. And this work they fulfilled, not only to
the men of their own day, but to the men of all time.
What the apostles themselves were to the first churches,
their written testimony is to us. In so far as they were

N. T. WITNESS CONCERNING CHRISTIAN CHURCHES 26 1

the ministers, the servants, of Jesus Christ, doing His will
and proclaiming His message, all true believers are their
successors, but in that which distinguished them from
other disciples they can have none. Their apostleship
they could not transfer to another ; they had neither the
authority to do it, nor the power to confer the qualification
needed for it. In the proper sense of the term, the New
Testament Scriptures are the only successors of the
apostles.^

I. We gather, then, from all that has gone before, that,
according to New Testament teaching, the organisation of
the churches of Christ has been committed as a solemn trust
to the honour and fidelity of 1 1 is servants, and that a large
measure of liberty has been left to them in this department
of their service. The apostles themselves pursued no
uniform method. They nowhere lay upon us an authori-
tative precept to act in this matter precisely as they did.
They nowhere forbid any addition to their plans, or any
departure from them. We are, it is true, forbidden to
forsake the assembling of ourselves together" (Ileb. x. 25) ;
but for this we have, as already seen, a higher law than
even that of an apostle, the law of love, the all-controlling
love of Christ. The apostolic example is, indeed, full of
instruction in the spirit they manifest, and in the general
principles which governed their conduct. Even the details
of their procedure demand our reverent consideration, and
are presumably the wisest and best for us to adopt under

^ It is worthy of notice in tliis connection, tliat in liis Gos])c] and
Epistles the Apostle John never once uses the term "apostle"' either of
himself or any other of the Twelve, but completely identifies himself
and them with the j^eneral company of his Lord's followers, by givinj^
them no other title than that borne in common by all, namely,
"disciples." If he has occasion to individualise a fellow-apostle, he
speaks of him simply as "one of the Twelve."

262 THE A^•CIENT FAITH IN I\IODERN LIGHT

circumstances similar to theirs. But alike by their speech
and by their silence, by what they do and by what they
refrain from doing, they make it plain that it was not their
intent to lay these upon us as laws of the kingdom. They
in no way fetter our Christian liberty, they put no restraint
upon our freedom of action in obeying the impulses of the
Holy Spirit, or in using as best we may the opportunities
which God's providence may open before us in the chang-
ing circumstances of human history. Thus much at least
we may learn from their example, that varieties in church
organisation are not an evil to be deprecated, are not even
necessarily a defect to be remedied. As in their days
some churches had less of organisation and others more,
so may it rightly be now. As with them organisation
was variable in its forms and its extent, modified by the
varying conditions of social or public life, so may it be now.
Organisation is but a means to an end, and should foster,
and never check, the full expression of the spiritual life of a
church. As that grows, so must it grow ; ordinarily by
slow and gradual changes, since such will ordinarily be the
growth of the life. But not so always. Whenever the
windows of heaven are opened wide, and a more abundant
blessing is poured down upon a church, so that it rises to a
higher perception of duty, to a more intense response to
the Saviour's love, and a larger sympathy in the travail of
the Saviour's soul, — then, like the bursting of the buds
under the warm breath of spring, there may be a sharp
breach of continuity, and the arrangements of the past be
cast aside as no longer suited to the needs of the present.
In a word, the organisation of a church must be subordi-
nated to the well-being of the church. The spiritual life
which the Head of the church has through His Spirit
enkindled, must be sacredly cherished as a " gift from the
Lord," and His servants must watchfully see to it that
by no self-imposed restrictions they hinder the adoption of

N. T. WITNESS COxNXERNING CHRISTIAN CHURCHES 263

any measure that may be found to contribute thereto.^
The Hberty of action which He has allowed to us, is also
itself a gift in whose faithful use we arc both honoured and
blest. To shrink from the responsibility it involves, or to
sanction arrangements which prevent its rightful exercise, is
a traitorous act, more traitorous than his who mutilates
his limbs to escape the service of his country. In this we
have been " called for freedom," and may not entangle
ourselves again in any " yoke of bondage." Loyalty to
Christ demands of every church that in all its arrange-
ments it maintain its full freedom to adopt whatever may
promote the healthier and more efficient discharge of the
primary functions for which its fellowship has been formed.
Whatever will conduce to the fuller and more reverent
expression of its faith and love in the worship it renders to
God ; whatever may help to a more intelligent appre-
hension of the meaning and extent of the redeeming work
of Christ, or to a fuller experience of the operations of the
Holy Spirit, and so to the utterance of a more powerful
and more winsome testimony ; whatever may promote the
readier exercise of Christian activity in the new fields,
which a quickened perception may recognise as white
already unto the harvest, — these, be they what they may, a
faithful church will keep itself free to adopt, even though
they demand that some things very helpful in the past
should now vanish away. Against this freedom, organisa-
tion need not militate. Organisation is not of necessity
antagonistic to liberty. If the latter be viewed under its
positive rather than its negative aspects, as the power to do
rather than the mere absence of restraint, organisation may
be its minister and not its foe. A solitary in the desert
may be free from the restraint which social and political
organisations involve, and nevertheless be as effectually
deprived of power to accomplish his wishes as a culprit in
^ See Notes A and B, pp. 270, 271.

2 04 '^^^^^ ANCIENT FAITH IN MODERN LIGHT

the stocks or a prisoner in his cell. Organisation, there-
fore, may even be essential to freedom ; and when this is
the case it is not allowable merely, it is obligatory.

2. Are there, then, no limits to this freedom, no rules to
guide and control its exercise? To this it might suffice
to reply, that here, as elsewhere, loyalty to Christ must be
the supreme law. His appeal in granting us this freedom
is to our loyalty to Him, and our response is to be given in
the faithful and prayerful and constant endeavour to learn
what it is He would have us to do. All that we need for
our guidance is really summed up in this. There are,
however, some general principles involved in the new life
which Christ has given us, and permeating the teachings of
the New Testament, which mark out for us certain bounds
beyond which we may not transgress ; and with a brief
exposition of these, this essay will conclude.

(a) First and foremost : no Christian man, and there-
fore no Christian church, may allow any human mediator to
come between the soul and God.

In the kingdom of Christ the peculiar offices and
privileges described by the word " priestly " are conferred,
not upon some, but upon all. Under former dispensations
and in other religions a priestly order is a predominant
leature. Intercourse between man and God is not direct
and personal, but indirect and mediate. The priest is the
channel of communication between the creature and the
Creator. It is through him that the worshipper offers his
homage to the Supreme, and by him that blessings are
conveyed from the Great Giver to the objects of His
bounty. From the bondage of this earthly mediation the
Christian is freed. He comes himself to the throne of
grace, and himself enters as a priest into the holy place
by " a new and living way." Everywhere and always can
he himself offer acceptable sacrifice through Jesus Christ.
" There is one Mediator between God and men, Christ

N. T, WITNESS CONCERNING CHRISTIAN CHURCHES 265

Jesus." The official priesthood being thus abolished, a
Christian church is in the highest sense a brotherhood. It
is not a community composed partly of privileged and
partly of dependent classes. All sustain the same high
relation to the Heavenly Father, and, by thus bringing us
near to God, Christianity has brought us nearer to one
another. It has removed the great gulf that separated
man from man, when to one there was free access to the
throne of God, and against the other the door of the
heavenly temple was firmly barred. How far off from
himself, and more painful still, how unreachably above him-
self, must the ordinary worshipper have felt the priest to be ;
and how little able was the priest from his exalted station
to enter into the troubles and cares of those around him.
In but a scanty measure was he " touched with the feeling
of our infirmities." In gathering us all around our Father's
throne, Christ has taken away this root of bitterness out of
the family of the Lord, and through the fulness of His grace
has joined the hearts of His children in a newer, closer
bond, so that, according to His prayer, "they may all be
one, even as Thou, Father, art in Me and I in Thee." In the
emphatic words of Scripture, Christ has " made us to be
priests unto God," " a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual
sacrifices," and has given us " boldness to enter into the
holy place b)^ the blood of Jesus," to " offer up a sacrifice
of praise to God continually." A boon so blessed the
Christian man may never forego. Between himself and the
Heavenly Presence he may not suffer another to come, nor
may he dare to interpose the darkness and chill of his own
jjresumptuous mediation between a brother's soul and the
beamings of His Saviour's love. Over the portals of every
church must be written large and clear, " No Priest but
Christ."

(d) Secondly, for the Christian man, and therefore for
every Christian church, the supreme appeal is to the

266 THE ANCIENT FAITH IN ^lODERN LIGHT

word of God as made known to us in the Holy Scrip-
tures.

Amongst the unclean things which God forbids His
servants to touch, and separation from which is the con-
dition of His approval and presence, is the recognition of
any authority as co-ordinate with, or superior to, His own.
The claim to such authority is denounced as the spirit of
the antichrist who opposeth and exalteth himself against
all that is called God, setting himself forth as God : and
against submission to it the Christian is solemnly warned,
lest he " receive of her plagues." To us the Bible is the
divinely attested record of the revelation of Himself which
God has made through prophets and apostles. The
assurance of this comes, with an ever-increasing strength,
from what we have felt and handled of this word of life. It
is through it that we have " heard the gospel of our
salvation," have been " sealed with the Holy Spirit of
promise," have been " strengthened with power through His
Spirit in the inner man," and have been brought " to know
the love of Christ which passeth knowledge." And it
stands alone in this high place ; we know of none like it ;
and we need none other, for its fulness has never been
exhausted. Its authority over us is and must be supreme,
since through it the eyes of our understanding have been
enlightened to know what is excellent. All teaching, all
rules and methods of action, must be tested by it, and can
only have authority over our conscience and our life as
they are based upon it. Whatever the excellence attaching
to any merely human authority, and whatever the respect to
which on many accounts it may be entitled, if it claim for
itself any jurisdiction over the churches of Christ, any
authority over their members to bind or loose, it is usurping
the throne of God, and must be cast out as an unholy
thing.

N. T. WITNESS CONCERNING CHRISTIAN CHURCHES 26/

another his personal obh'gation to study the divine word, or
invest any human teacher with authority to determine for
him the will of God.

The one authoritative interpreter is the Holy Spirit,
whom the Saviour, according to His promise, sends to guide
us into " all the truth." It is He who takes of Christ's and
declares it unto us, who teaches us all things, and brings to
our remembrance all that our Lord has said. None else
has been appointed by our Lord to fulfil this office; and
nowhere have we been discharged from the duty of learning
His will, each one for ourselves. In humble dependence
upon the promised helper we are to seek continually to
" know the truth." The obligation springs from our
personal relation to Christ, and is constant and paramount.
.Another, under the teaching of the Spirit, may have learnt
some lessons to which I have not as yet attained, have
seen some larger meaning in the words of Christ than I as
yet have apprehended, or been vouchsafed some clearer
vision of God's spiritual operations than any I have as yet
beheld ; — the revelations made to him can be no revelation
to me until I, too, have learnt through the same Spirit to
hear in them the Father's voice, and to see that they are in
very deed new light breaking forth from the holy word.

This, I take it, is the real meaning of the famous
sentence—" The Bible and the Bible only the religion of
Protestants." It is not a blind worship of a book. It is
not a perverse obliviousness to the rcxclation God is ever
making in the creation He sustains and in the government
He exercises. Still less is it the denial or disregard of the
presence and operation of the Holy Spirit. It is, in
summary phrase, the assertion of our individual respon-
sibility to the revelation God has given us of our personal
obligation to learn and obey His truth. Instead of a
slavish bondage to the letter, and a worship of the outer
garb of truth, it is the earnest recognition of the essential

2 68 THE ANCIENT I'AITH IN MODERN LIGHT

difference between the letter and the spirit, and the con-
fession tliat the truth which is revealed is far higher than
the medium through which it is revealed. For the truth is
ever spiritually discerned, and only as we diligently cultivate
the powers of the soul, and in answer to our humble prayers
and earnest strivings receive the teaching of the Spirit, can
we enter into its presence and learn to " know the truth."

This responsibility is enforced by all we have found the
" word " to be through the experience of the past. It is
the gospel of our salvation ; it is for us to know it that we
may rejoice in the glad tidings it brings. It is the charter
of our privileges ; it is for us to be familiar with it, that we
may stand fast in the freedom it confers. It is the guide
of our life ; it is for us to study it, that we may walk in the
way it reveals. And it is the commission of our office ; it
is for us to examine it, that we may work the work it gives
us to do. The words in which another, however holy or
wise, may express his apprehension of the truth of God,
may nev^er take the place of our own earnest study of our
Father's will. It becomes an act of idolatry if we yield
to them any authority in the temple of God, and an act of
treason if we impose them as authorities on the consciences
of others.

In the loyal observance of these principles must every
system of church organisation be framed. They may be
briefly summarised as, Christ the only Priest, the Bible the
only law-book, the Holy Spirit the only authoritative inter-
preter. They are, as will be seen, in direct antagonism to
the evils which at various times have caused discord
amongst the churches of Christ. The first condemns the
introduction of a priestly class : the second repudiates the
supremacy of the State : and the third rejects the assumptions
of the papacy. Those post-apostolic developments which
have culminated in the Roman usurpations have either
sprung directly from the violation of these principles, or

N. T. WITNESS CONXERNING CHRISTIAN CHURCHES 269

derived their power for mischief mainly therefrom. The
root, however, of all the evil is to be traced to the violation
of that one rule which has been placed the first. It was
this which dragged the rest in its train, and enlarged and
intensified the mischief which followed each separate
violation of the " law of the house."

(c/) One other principle, clearly involved in what has
been already stated, yet for obvious reasons calling for
especial mention, is this. No Christian church may deprive
itself of the power of ready co-operation with other churches,
in the service of their common Lord and King. The same
law which forbids a Christian man to cripple his own power
of service, forbids, with equal emphasis, a Christian church
to create for itself any inability for any service to which its
Lord may call it. Whenever, in the providence of God, the
opportunity is given for a larger work than a single church
can efficiently accomplish, and when the concurrence and aid
of one or more other churches is imperatively demanded, then
loyalty requires that such co-operation be, on the one hand,
unhesitatingly asked, and, on the other, be cheerfully and
generously given. Both reason and experience teach that
such opportunities may be confidently anticipated, and no
artificial barriers ought therefore to be erected in any church
which would hinder it, cither in asking or in receiving the
assistance of another. Should any such barrier, unhappily,
exist, the call of the Master must override all inferior con-
siderations, the barrier must unhesitatingly be overturned,
and the way be left open wide for the needed fellowship in
service. His sheep hear His voice, and they follow Him,

Let the spirit of the apostolic example be faithfully
followed, and the general principles enunciated above be
loyally observed, in the organisation of the churches, and
we make straight paths for our feet, W'e can advance
with a firm step whithersoever the providence of God may
direct. Distinguishing between the permanent and the

270 THE ANCIENT FAITH IN MODERN LIGHT

transitory, the essence and the accident, we can feel the
fullest freedom to alter or enlarge the arrangements of
the past. We escape from the reproach and the weakness
of a timid and tenacious clinging to the very pattern of the
tabernacle which our fathers have shown to us ; and can
venture to remove the parts which have become unsightly
or useless. The additions which will give it both beauty
and strength can be wisely framed, the waste places be
built up, and " the desolations of many generations " be
repaired.

May the Great Head of the Church give His servants
wisdom and grace thus to work His will, that through His
blessing " the little one may become a thousand and the
small one a strong nation " ; our beloved Zion be " no more
termed Forsaken " nor our land " Desolate " ; that " the sons
of them that afflicted " her may " come bending unto " her,
and " they that despised " her " bow themselves down at
the soles " of her feet and call her " The city of the Lord,
the Zion of the Holy One of Israel."

NOTE A

To one who reverently studies the operations of the life-
giving Spirit, it is sufficiently manifest that the church life
must needs be of many types. The life which He imparts
and sustains is not in each case the same in degree, or the
same in its manifestations. It is not a life which is instant-
aneous in its unfolding, or which is limited in its growth.
And it is as true of man religiously as it is of him physi-
cally, that no one is the exact counterpart of another, but
that each one has his personal characteristics and his dis-
tinguishing features. Hence our church life, the life of
associated Christian men, must necessarily be diverse,
according to the degree of spiritual life possessed by the
associated members, and according also to the special type
of that life which may predominate amongst them. And,
as a matter of fact, such diversities of church life have ever

N. T. WITNESS CONCERNING CHRISTIAN CHURCHES 27 1

existed. Similarities of spiritual tastes, the common sense
of special and urgent needs, the pressure of like perils or
temptations, the longing after the realisation of the same
ideal, the concurrent recognition of a call to some new
Christian enterprise, have in all ages drawn men together
by the strong attraction of spiritual resemblances, — the like
unto its like, — and so given distinctive and varied features
to their religious associations. . . . And such diversities will
ever be. They are at once the result and the evidence of
the present operation of the Spirit of life upon the hearts
of men. In the degree in which that life pervades the
churches, these di\'ersities are the more manifold and the
more manifest. They only cease to show themselves when
that life declines. They onl}- cease to be when that life
departs. — Christian Union, by Samuel Newth, M.A., D.D.,
pp. 26, 27.

NOTE B

Though the life of a church is something greater and
more precious than its polity, polity nevertheless sustains
an important relation to the life ; just as food and clothing
are necessary for the sustenance of the body, even though
the life is more than meat and the body than raiment. As
is the life of a church, so is the organisation most suited to
it — the simpler the life, the simpler the organisation it will
need ; the more complex the life, the more complex the
organisation it will demand. According to the special
characteristics of a church's life will be the need of special
arrangements by which that life may be fulfilled. As the
life of a church expands, as it increases in vigour, as it
acquires new faculties and larger sensibilities — so with the
capacity to exercise new and larger functions, and to sustain
new and wider relations, will it demand an enlarged organ-
isation. Two obvious principles of duty hence arise. It
follows, first, that we may not force upon any church either
a larger organisation than its energies can employ, or one
unsuited to its distinctive peculiarities. The law which
enjoins a sacred reverence for life should teach us to rever-
ence most of all the life which the Holy Spirit enkindles in
the soul, and we may not depress it by the imposition of a
burden disproportionate to its strength, or distort it by
pro\-iding only unsuitable channels for its e.xcrcise. With
equal distinctness it follows also that we may not withhold
from a church the fuller organisation which its growing life
may require, or prevent by any artificial restrictions the free

272 THE ANCIENT FAI-TII IN MODERN LIGHT

play of its maturer energies. It is wrong to increase organ-
isation when there is no natural need for it ; it is equally
wrong to restrain it when growing life demands it. In-
creased organisation is a hindrance, a dead weight, an evil
to be shunned if it be uncalled for by any present need ; it is
a good to be desired when it answers to increased capacity,
or to the conscious recognition of a widening sphere of
Christian duty. — Christian Union, p. 30.

VII
THE NEW CITIZENSHIP

By JOSEPH PARKER

VII

The New Citizenship

In asking whether the Christian Church should be estab-
lished by the political State, it must be admitted that the
inquiry is old ; on the other hand, it can easily be shown
that to-day this old inquiry is raised under conditions so
unforeseen as to invest it with some degree of novelty.
Nonconformists rightly suppose that for themselves they
settled the question a long time ago ; but the world moves,
society re-makes itself under completer discipline, and civil-
isation — daily enriched on every hand — now^ promptly
answers the spur of deeper and subtler motives. It is
because of the New Citizenship, the environment being so
palpably modern, that the question may be raised, without
any reminiscence of old tempers or alienations happily
forgotten. The whole Christian Church has grown in
many directions as well as the State : education has filled
up many a valley, and mutual knowledge, as between both
individuals and communions, has made some rough places
plain. Happily there is now no suppression of spiritual
sympathies and longings which indicate dispositions, and
forebode exertions, in the direction of brotherhood and
peace. What part, if any, has the Ancient Faith, by
which, throughout this paper, I mean the Evangelical
Faith, played in all the holy and beneficent evolution ?

In the course of this silent evolution, the somewhat
ambiguous word " State " has re-defined its range, and

276 THE ANCIENT FAITH IN MODERN LIGHT

clothed itself with responsibilities certainly not expressed
in earlier and rougher definitions. That word was once as
a grain of mustard seed ; it is now as a great tree. We
are face to face with a new state — a new citizenship — a
new political and social apparatus. We are not now to
look to dictionaries for a complete definition of the variable
word " State," but to the facts of our rapidly changing
national life. Dictionaries cannot keep pace with daily
evolution ; they must wait for successive editions, and
carefully abstain from confusing prophecy and etymology.
In all that is vital in immediate service the real dictionary
is made on the streets, and is only mechanised and formu-
lated in the tranquil library.

That we may not be lost in foreign places let us, in
the first instance at least, think only of the British State,
and directly ask whether that particular State should,
under new circumstances, sustain any special and co-
operative relation to the religion of Jesus Christ. What
is this institution which in Great Britain we call the State ?
Is it atheistic, non-theistic, agnostic, or what ? Is it
essential to a perfect State that it should be non-religious ?
Is the State simply an organised police, a great money-
machine, a standing army, a bank protected by a man-of-
war ? What is the State ? May it punish crime but not
prevent it ? May it handcuff a man but not educate him ?
What has given England, as a borrower, its great repute
among the nations, — its navy or its conscience ? Let us
look at some of the answers to such questions.

The State, as self-defined by evolution, does
not now confine itself to money-making, it goes so
far beyond this as constantly to consider the wel-
fare and progress of the whole people : the State
educates its children and, in some rough, but

THE NEW CITIZENSHIP 277

slowly-improving, way, it houses its helpless poor :
the State has immensely advanced upon the policy
of merely punishint^ its criminals, by endeavouring
to reform them : the new State encourages thrift,
promotes emigration, subsidises technical education:
the State insists that there shall be one law for the
rich and the poor, and it openly tolerates religious
opinions which at one time it would have officially
rebuked and punished. The State now protects
women and children, shields the lower animals
from wanton cruelty, looks carefully after the public
health, and places its consolidated strength at the
service of infirmity and helplessness of every degree.

That is the new State, the State of to-day. But is not
such beneficence on the part of the State a phase of mere
morality? All who truly believe the Ancient Faith will
deny that it is, and they will do so because they trace all
fundamental morality back to the deepest religiousness.
They know nothing of a sufficing morality that does not
find its sufficiency in the living and ever-redeeming Christ.
Evangelical believers consider that apart from the Person
and Priesthood of Christ there is no vital or permanent
morality. More than this, if an organised State can be
spiritually moral it can have a conscience, and if it can
have a conscience it can have a religion, and if it has a
living and energetic religion it must in some official and
adequate way express and propagate its piety. We must
constantly keep in mind the fact that the State is always,
consciously or unconsciously, encroaching upon religious
ground. This process of encroachment should be watchctl.
The State that would prevent crime as well as punish it
must set itself at the very spring and fount of conduct by
bringing the strongest considerations to bear upon motive,
and motive is the innermost sanctuary of character. At

278 THE ANCIENT FAITH IN MODERN LIGHT

first the motive may not be the highest, but inasmuch as
it is motive of some kind it belongs to a region of Hfe and
o-rowth far away from the beaten road of mechanical and
sordid politics. What, indeed, is this but religion? Those
who have adopted the Ancient Faith cannot allow appeals
to motive and conscience to be regarded as secular, for
by their very nature such appeals are spiritual and funda-
mental. When the State touches constructive character it
becomes religious. The State cannot construct individual
character without ultimately constructing organised char-
acter, and organised character is the State at its best.
The State may thus unconsciously be transforming itself
into a church. The evangelical believer finds religion in
unexpected places, not in some fanciful way, but in a way
substantial and obvious. He will contend, for example,
that there is not a proposition in arithmetic or geometry
that is not religious either in its philosophy or in its uses.
Two and two are four is surely not a religious proposition ?
Yes, it is distinctly religious ! In itself it may be only an
assumption, but being accepted it henceforth becomes a
law which no man may alter; it is a partial definition of
righteousness ; it is the corner-stone of commerce ; it is so
sacred and so important that the man who trifles with
the canon loses his character and is put away as a thief.
Two and two are four has come to be a deeply religious
proposition. Without it, or something equivalent to it,
civilisation would be impossible. It is a creed ; a dogma ;
a religion. No private judgment is allowed in such a case.
The freethinker abandons his miscalled freedom when he
worships at this venerable arithmetical altar, — he is the
bond-slave of a dogma ! The freethinker may dispute the
proposition, but he must not act upon his faith, or he will
be put in prison until he becomes orthodox or harmless.
A very melancholy aspect of the situation is that the
freethinker himself was not consulted in the matter ! He

THE NEW CITIZENSHIP 279

was, with no consent of his own, born into a world which
accepted the narrow and legal dogma that two and two
are four. My immediate point in this connection is that
a proposition which in abstraction is purely intellectual
becomes in practice sensitively moral, and consequently
that the State whilst intending to be strictly political may
as to practical issues be intensely religious.

Ought a State thus enlarged and re-
defined to elect and support a religious
institution, under the name, say, of Church?
Is the new State a department of the
Church? Is the Church the highest aspect
of the new State ?

There is an infinite difference between religion and
theology. Forgetting this, we have been plunged into
many a wordy controversy. Theology is academic, scien-
tific, formal, credal, clerical, — it is, indeed, a kind of
manufacture ; a form manipulated by experts and guarded
by ordained stipendiaries. There is no salvation by
theology, otherwise salvation would be by science and
intellect and culture. On the other hand, religion may
be unformulated, unwritten, spiritual, a thrilling and up-
lifting inflluence in the heart and life of the simplest
believer, — a great faith, an ennobling inspiration, a re-
generated and faithful conscience, — a two -commandment
Law, lofty as " God," social as " neighbour." Can the
State, even the State of modern evolution, be cclectically
theological ? No. Can the State be religious ? Yes.
Why cannot the State be cclectically theological ? Be-
cause there may be a dozen contradictory theological
dogmas, and the right or wrong of them is not to be

28o THE ANCIENT FAITH IN MODERN LIGHT

settled by voting, especially by the voting of men who
themselves may know nothing of any theology, and whose
concern may be as limited as their knowledge. The
absurdity of such voting must surely be seen by all.
What member of Parliament would bring in a Bill for the
codification of Modern Empirical Philosophies of Religion ?
Or a Bill to terminate the controversies which have been
occasioned by the Ignatian Literature ! How, then, can
the State elect an Orthodoxy, or choose one from a dozen
competitors ? Obviously it cannot do anything of the kind.
But it has done the very thing which we have declared it
impossible to do. The English State has adopted an
English Church ! This many-headed State, this money-
borrowing, ship-building, blood-shedding, aggressive, and
belligerent State has picked out a Theology and stamped
it with the Queen's head. But when did it do this ?
Precisely. That is the vital question. This selection was
made centuries before the people were educated, centuries
before the democracy and its day-school had appeared,
centuries before the agricultural labourer had a vote to
cast. But it is this very State, bearing so many historical
epithets of shame, that has created the democracy, and
made the agricultural labourer a man in politics. Certainly,
and the State must take the consequences of its own
evolution. As it makes men it unmakes slaves. As
education comes in, fetters fall off. The bottles and the
wine must be readapted. What, then, must be the relation
of the totally new State to the religion of Jesus Christ ?

My submission is, that whilst the State cannot be
theological it may undoubtedly be religious : the State
cannot be mechanically ecclesiastical, yet it may in many
practical and legitimate ways foster the religious life of the
country : the State cannot have a religious creed, but it
can express religious sympathy. My nonconformity in

THE NEW CITIZENSHIP 28 I

relation to a specific Church by no means implies that I
would expect the State to be atheistic ; on the contrary, I
would labour the more for the evangelisation of the com-
monwealth, and I would have the State more thoroughly
impregnated with a sense of responsibility in relation to
all religious activities. I could imagine such a State as
we find in England saying in effect —

I cannot pretend to distinguish between almost
innumerable Christian communions : indeed it is
no part of my function to prefer one Church to
another : I recognise them all ; I value them all ;
I protect them all ; I am told by those who most
carefully study the national life that Sunday-
school teachers are the best policemen, that
ministers render the utmost service to the com-
monwealth, and that religious institutions are
amongst the strongest securities of the nation. In
what way, if any, can I best show my appreciation
of such service and influence ?

This is very different to choosing a special Church,
endowing a particular Establishment, or endorsing an
official Orthodoxy. Evangelical nonconformity will never
subordinate the spiritual to the temporal, nor will it pro-
pagate itself at the expense of public taxation. But is
there not another course open to it? Whilst it con-
sistently declines State patronage, need it prevent the
practical expression of State gratitude ? In resenting
control, is it necessary to repel sympathy? Its watchword
has ever been, " Render unto Caesar the things that are
Caesar's, and unto God the things that are God's." But
has Caisar himself nothing to render? Is Caesar an
atheist? Is Caesar an outcast? Whose idea is it that
organised Society is a mere accident, without vital relation

282 THE ANCIENT FAITH IN MODERN LIGHT

to the currents of purpose and tendency which we call
Providence? Certainly no such idea can be traced to
Jesus Christ. In itself it is a vicious and mischievous
conception, and should be treated as such by the most
strenuous separatists of Church and State. Society, the
organised unit, the noun of multitude, cohering through
lofty moral considerations, is a divine structure, quite as
much as the solar system, and may therefore be a Caesar
which has religious responsibilities. We may not have
formed a proper conception of that multitudinous unit
which we call the State or Society, therefore it may be
timely to look into the nature of that unit as it has been
evolved and inspired by new conditions. From that unit
we expect education but not religion, honour but not
piety, justice but not worship, honesty but not reverence.
Is this right on our part ? Are we not partitioning
morality and religion, and keeping each on its own side
of the wall? Are we not sacrificing the largest relations
of things to pedantic and clamant prejudices? Can a
severer accusation be brought against us than that by a
narrow and ill-natured conscience we have manufactured a
Caesar incapable of prayer and independent of God ?

But what can Ccesar do ? To my mind it is clear that
he cannot prefer one Church to another, at least not with-
out an invidiousness that would be fatal to the common
sentiment and the common peace. But is it equally clear
that Caesar cannot materially and systematically help
certain departments of all Christian service? Is there
not a temporal side to church life ? There are sites to
be bought, estates to be conveyed, buildings to be erected,
dilapidations to be renewed, and many other temporalities
to be adjusted and sustained. Can Caesar render no assist-
ance to his most reliable and beneficent supporters ? He
need not, and must not, interfere with creed, ritual, or

THE NEW CITIZENSHIP 28

spiritual service ; there need be no control over faith, or
prayer, or sacrament : Csesar would not be called upon for
charity, but he might be permitted to express official
thankfulness. But would not thankfulness imply control ?
By no means, though it might imply inquiry, consideration,
and account. But even in the matter of patronage and
control are Nonconformists quite clean-handed? In the
very dissidcncc of dissent do they get quite rid either of
control or patronage? Let us see some of the aspects
and degrees of State patronage and control clearly marked
in the position of Nonconformists : —

Nonconformists owe their liberties and their
rights to Acts of Parliament ; their trust-deeds
are enrolled in the Court of Chancery; in cases
of dispute their trust-deeds are interpreted and
determined by Courts of law ; their places of wor-
ship are licensed and registered by the State ; their
weddings are watched by the State registrar, and
are charged for by him according to a scale fixed
by the State; the inlet and outlet of their buildings
are settled by State authority ; they are so watched
by the State that they cannot legally shut out the
public during the hours of service ; all their collec-
tions for purposes not specified in the trust-deed
are subject to income-tax ; they subject themselves
to parochial rates if they sell their own hymn-
books on their own premises ; they are exempted
from parochial and other rates on the ground that
their chapels are places of religious worship ; their
ministers are exempted from service on juries and
from service in the army, and thus the State con-
cedes a standing which is denied by the very
Church which claims Cajsar as its head, and as
the defender of the faith !

284 THE ANCIENT FAITH IN MODERN LIGHT

In doing all this, Caesar claims no dominion over the
doctrine or ritual of Nonconformist Churches. May he
not, therefore, continue and complete his consistency by
giving those Churches, under carefully-guarded conditions,
and under limitations fixed by the Churches themselves,
temporal assistance for distinctively temporal purposes?
If not, why not? May he not facilitate the acquisition of
building sites ? May he not exempt all ecclesiastical and
collegiate property from every form of taxation, and permit
such property to be used for any remunerative purposes its
trustees may approve ? If not, why not ? May not Csesar
exempt from legacy duty every bequest or endowment given
for religious uses ? Might he not exempt pastoral salaries
from income-tax ? Might he not increase every legacy
and endowment by a certain scale of increment ? Might
he not facilitate clerical insurance and other forms of clerical
thrift ? If not, why not ? Csesar would in this way be
encouraging the influences which constantly make for
the consolidation and the security of his own empire.

There could be no serious difficulty in working out
some such scheme of benefaction, for nearly all Christian
communions have their organs or certified mediums of
service, such as synods, unions, conferences, assemblies,
and local associations, besides which the whole operation
would be conducted under the watchful eyes of public critic-
ism. The supreme advantage of such an arrangement
would be the satisfaction of a kind of sentiment and con-
science by no means difficult to understand. There are
people who are shocked at what they would call a church-
less State, a godless State, a prayerless State. All this
feeling would subside if the State adopted some such
policy (always open to modification) as has just been out-
lined, for instead of having a sectarian State, we should
have a State doing all in its power to extend and uphold

THE NEW CITIZENSHIP 285

the entire religious influence of the country. Under such
an arrangement could Parliament be daily opened with
prayer? Certainly, Righteously. Most profitably. The
Bishop of London, the moderators of the Presbyterian
Assemblies, the presidents of the Methodist Conferences,
the chairman of the Congregational Union, and the appointed
heads of other Christian communions, could be formed into
a committee of arrangement, and the happiest results, not
in one way only, but in many ways, would follow, to the
surprise and satisfaction of the whole Christian Church. I
would personally go even further in defining the religious
character of the State, for in the House of Commons I
would secure seats for three bishops, and for the chairmen
of all the Christian communions in the country. With-
drawing the bishops from the House of Lords, considering
them no longer lords of the realm, but fathers and pastors
of the people, I would place them, with all other ministers,
representatively, in the House of Commons. Why not ?
Parliament is called upon to legislate upon peace, educa-
tion, temperance, health, thrift, labour, and who could
better advise upon such matters than men whose lives are
devoted to the highest interests of the people? Thus, in
the most practical way, I would avoid the reproach of
making an atheistic nation.

In all this line of suggestion my intention has been to
draw, not only a broad, but a vital distinction between
assistance that is temporal and oversight that is spiritual.
Upon that distinction I must repeatedly and firmly insist.
The State cannot justly elect any one Church for special
privilege and support ; in doing so it would at once become
a theological partisan, and place itself in a relation of hos-
tility, negative if not positive, towards all other Christian
communions. It would create an ecclesiastical orthodoxy,
and it would offend a certain common instinct of justice.

2 86 THE ANCIENT FAITH IN MODERN LIGHT

The Anglican might fairly say, Why does the State adopt
the thorny theology of Presbyterian catechisms, with all
their metaphysical definitions, and all their elaborate
incoherence of mangled texts? The Presbyterian might
retort, Why should a Protestant State adopt a book of
ritual and devotion full of rank popery or sacerdotal reser-
vations and priestly tricks ? Methodism might say, Why
be bound down by prayers that are often little better than
pompous addresses to an invisible Shah, and that exclude
the liberty and the passion of living and glowing devotion ?
Others would object to what they would call a theological
Act of Parliament ; and others again would have strong
scruples about adopting or signing any stereotyped form,
if on no other ground, certainly on the ground that lan-
guage itself changes, and thus impairs or forfeits the
authority of precision. Congregationalism, for example,
has no written creed or formal standard that must be
subscribed : it is held together by certain spiritual agree-
ments, but authoritative verbal forms are unknown to it.

If the State arrogated to itself the right to prefer one
ecclesiastical form to another, it must take along with that
perverted right the right to condemn and persecute all
other forms. This, of course, will be denied, but denial is
futile. Paradoxical as it may appear. Toleration is itself
persecution. We do but vulgarise the term persecution
when we think only of fine and imprisonment, and stake
and block and exile. Persecution can be cruelly negative.
Fashion can inflict the deadliest social contempt without
imposing fines or striking blows. How unfashionable must
he be who separates himself from the Church of the nation,
the shrine of the monarch, the altar of the nobles ! How
infatuated, how conceited, how dangerously eccentric !
Avoid him, stigmatise him, suspect him, laugh at him,
but tolerate him ! Eighteen centuries ago they would

THE NEW CITIZENSHIP 287

hav'c crucified him ; to-day they tolerate him, and thus
increase and prolong his agonies. Of course he will be
supported by his conscience ; but for such support he is in
no degree indebted to the State, which first made him a
heretic, and then shunned him as a pedant. By and by, as
education extends and civilisation takes a wider and juster
view of social relations, the State will come to see that it
can only pursue such a policy at the risk of its own dis-
integration, for no State can with impunity continue to
insult its own tax-payers, and sneer at the conscience of
its own citizens.

I low would the State then stand in
relation to the question of Conformity and
Nonconformity ? Would not the same irri-
tation continue? Would not ecclesiastical
controversy be embittered ?

The State would have no relation either to Conformity
or Nonconformity. Nonconformity is much more than
simple dissent from the establishment of a particular
Church. Many Nonconformists have been believers in
such an institution. Nonconformity has been in many
quarters more a question of doctrine than of policy. If
the National Church were national no longer, there is a
sense in which Nonconformity would be as definite as ever.
Romanism is not established by law, yet Protestantism
encounters it with undiminished vigour. The difference
would be that the doctrine opposed by evangelical and
Protestant nonconformity would not be promulgated in
the name, and, as it were, by the authority of the nation.
It would become a creed, for which the nation as such
would have no responsibility, and would consequently take
its place amongst other creeds, securing for itself whatever

288 THE ANCIENT FAITH IN MODERN LIGHT

ini^ht be due to the intelligence, the zeal, and the influence
of its believers. The Anglican and the Presbyterian would
simply be nonconformists to each other. Dissent of this
kind, enlightened and forbearing, is not to be discouraged,
for it may be educative, emulous, and quickening. We need
have no fear that by such mutual dissent we should pro-
mote the baser sort of individualism. We might, indeed,
thus realise and express the larger unity. To belong to each
other, to complete each other, to help each other, is the very
desire of the heart of Him in whom we find the ideal of God.

The State could be religious without having a privileged
Church. In losing an institution, it need not lose a char-
acter. It might, indeed, justly claim that it became less
ecclesiastical as it became more spiritual, less sectarian as
it became more sympathetic. I have contended that the
great composite unit that we call the Nation may have an
individual character, and I may add that this character is
happily not at the mercy of the ill-disposed and ill-
mannered persons, who are a disgrace and a weakness to
any community. It would be true to speak of England as
Christian England, though thousands of its citizens never
enter a place of worship. It would be true to speak of
England as an honest country, though its jails are some-
times full of thieves, and its courts of bankruptcy are in
session all day long. It would be true to speak of Eng-
land as a healthy country, though hospitals and infirmaries
and dispensaries are standing in every shire, and in well-
nigh every parish. We thus regard the national unit as a
whole. A country has a genius as well as a geography.
England may be valorous, though your next-door neigh-
bour may be a coward, and your own son a poltroon. I
could therefore by analogy have no difficulty in thinking
of England as a sincerely religious country though it
should abolish the special privileges of any favoured com-

THE NEW CITIZENSHIP 289

munion. On the other hand, I could not regard England
as necessarily a religious country simply on the ground
that it established and endowed any particular Church.
A country may buy a reputation, or sop its conscience
that it may gratify its lust. An assassin may wear a ring.
The character of the State does not depend upon any one
institution, how good or bad soever : we must know all the
facts before we can form a sound conclusion. As I walk
along Newgate Street towards the City, I find on my right
hand the notorious jail, where men have been imprisoned
and hanged, generation after generation ; and on my left
hand I find the famous Bluecoat School, where generations of
children have been trained : by which institution shall I judge
the character of England ? So, I argue that the character
of the State does not depend on church or chapel, bank or
jail, school or factory, but on a certain something affected
by them all, yet different from any of them, as climate may
be different from weather. And so I return to the doctrine
that the State has an entity of its own, or is an entity by
itself, and that it is much less a human structure than it
sometimes seems to be. I repeat my conviction that
Society is a divine idea, a divine organism, a divine instru-
ment, a holy potentiality. Therefore, as the State includes
all sorts of elements, all ages and conditions of people, all
temperaments and dispositions, all characters and services,
it may be in its very heart truly religious, though it may
pick out no Church for special privilege and distinction.

I have no difficulty in connecting this whole line of
suggestion with the innermost spirit of the ICvangelical
faith. That faith contemplates the discipling of " nations,"
and proposes nothing less than the conversion of " every
creature," It throws its holy spell upon both the nation
and the individual. It will have nothing to do with ethnic
divisions, barbarian or Scythian, caste or bigotry, Jew or
19

290 THE ANCIENT FAITH IN MODERN LIGHT

Gentile. It insists that God has made of one blood all
nations of men, and it rebukes with holy violence the
pitiable falsehood that God is a respecter of persons. The
Evangelical religion is the religion of universal humanity.
It claims the dominion of the heart, making that heart holy
and humble and self-sacrificial. It is not an alms-collector,
as if alms were a bribe or a price : it so affects the soul as
to draw it into the joy and the high rapture of continual
gift and service. This is what is meant by " the voluntary
principle," the principle of a regenerated, a sanctified, and a
consecrated will. To this, and not to State aid, does it
look for the propagation of the gospel in all the regions of
the world. It will not work either by compulsion or taxa-
tion,— it works under the power of the grace of Christ, —
under the infinite inspiration of a pathos deep and tender
as the love of God. This pathos is the crowning power of
the Evangelical faith. It creates missions. It gives to the
world a new heroism. No merely intellectual system could
do what is done by sanctified pathos. Philosophy need
not be philanthropic. Science need not make personal
sacrifices. Even Poetry need not at any inconvenience go
beyond her own flowering and fragrant paradises. But the
love of Christ must preach the gospel to every creature,
and capture for Jesus ev^ery people and tongue : storm and
tempest cannot deter it ; fever and plague cannot quench
its passion ; it hath its way in the whirlwind, and it dis-
covers *' a path which the vulture's eye hath not seen." It
neither fears the frown nor courts the patronage of Cjesar.
All other kings are as a vapour beside the King of kings.
All other necessities are frivolous compared with the need
of the New Birth and the New Name. That divinest love
must finally conquer, for its resources are infinite, and its
patience cannot be outworn. Then why should it seek the
patronage of the State ? It never does. Why should it
eke out by taxation what is left undone by sympathy ? It

THE NEW CITIZEXSIIIP 29 1

never does. Then why suggest that the State may help
the common work of the whole company of the churches ?
Precisely for the reasons stated, and under the limitations
so guardedly defined. The State is not an invention of
atheism. Corporate man is the work of the beneficent
Creator. As already submitted, Cnssar himself is a unit
with a conscience, an entity with moral responsibilities.
But even if Caesar could be penetrated by the love of
Christ, one result of the penetration would be, not the
election of a privileged communion, but a grateful and
impartial appreciation of the purpose and service of the
entire Christian Church. Never, at the risk of being
tedious, forget what may be called the personality even
of Caesar : we speak of the national conscience, the national
health, the national credit, the national honour, why not of
the national religion, not as a sect, but as a sentiment and
a responsibility?

The doctrine that "the State has to do with politics
only," may be an aphorism which has gathered a kind of
authority from the fact that its conciseness may have
obscured its sophistry. What is the proper scope even
of politics ? Who has any revelation upon this inquiry ?
Has God told any man that politics must be restricted to
the protection of life and property, the lust of territory, and
the extension of commerce ? Admitting that something of
the kind may have been the rough limit of politics in the
elementary condition of society, is no account to be taken
of social evolution ? A better citi/cn means a better
citizenship. Increasing liberty means increasing responsi-
bility. We must not therefore allow the term " State " to
remain as a rudimentary term, ignoring the facts of evolu-
tion. The State that has improved its prisons must have
improved its conduct. The State that teaches little children
to read may be awakening to new responsibilities. The
State that is pushing out its franchises in all directions

292 THE ANCIENT FAITH IN MODERN LIGHT

may have become possessed with a new sense and a new
appreciation of manhood. So I come back to my first
position and demand, if the argument is to be complete,
that the term " State " must be taken in all its latest
significance. That significance would show the agricultural
labourer in quite a new light. A hundred years ago the
position of the agricultural labourer was far enough from
being what it is to-day. His description, therefore,
must be re-defined. The field labourer has his parliament-
ary vote, his parish council vote, his village library, and
twenty things, all of significant value, which his brother
labourer never dreamed of half a century ago. " Agricul-
tural labourer" once meant a smock-frock, nine shillings
a week, and " pastors and masters." All this is changed.
How has the change been brought about ? Not by a
hereditary nobility, not by a feudal Church, not by an
exclusive plutocracy. The change has been very largely
effected by the Evangelical faith constantly inspiring
evangelical missions in which the agricultural labourer has
been primarily considered. The agricultural labourer owes
himself very largely to Methodism, — evangelising, soul-
saving, sensational Methodism. The agricultural labourer,
as we now find him, is the spiritual child of John Wesley.
What is true of the agricultural labourer is true, within
proper limitations, of the whole State. The State owes
itself, in all its larger patriotism, to services which it has
never been asked to subsidise, — to services which, in its
barbarous and priest-ridden days, it persecuted and de-
nounced and banned. Being now a new State, what does
it owe by way of simple gratitude to the religion that has
saved it ? Patronage and control that religion will never
accept ; but it insists that the favoured communion shall
be made to rank with other communions, and that then
the State may consider in what form it will express its
gratitude to the Churches which have given it stability and

THE NEW CITIZENSHIP 293

reputation, those Churches reserving their indefeasible right
to determine whether, or on what terms, they can accept the
help of a State they have done so much to develop and enrich.

Socialism, altruism, collectivism, communism, are names
that may at least represent mischievous influences. 1 can-
not, therefore, accept them without careful definition. They
arc terms that may be full of sophistry and deceit, mere
cries of pedantry and selfish calculation. The socialism
of Christ is universal. That distinguishes it from the
altruism of parochial selfishness. Evangelical socialism
says : " Preach the gospel to every creature " ; " teach all
nations " ; " God hath made of one blood all nations of
men " ; " God is no respecter of persons ; in every nation
he that feareth God and worketh righteousness is accepted
of Him " ; " there is no difference between the Jew and the
Greek, for the same Lord over all is rich unto all that
call upon Him." "Have we not all one Father? Hath
not one God created us ? To us there is but one God . . .
and one Lord Jesus Christ." If that is socialism, I am in
favour of it — it is world-wide, man-including, international,
cosmopolitan, big as the heart of God. But there is another
socialism only to be reprobated with indignation. It is the
socialism that works for classes and cliques, and unionisms
and petty local interests, whatever may become of the rest
of the world. We can never be truly patriotic until we are
truly cosmopolitan. For true cosmopolitanism we are in-
debted to the Evangelical faith — the only faith on whose
banner may be read " every creature," " all nations," " one
blood," " one Father." On that crimson banner we do not
read, " England for the English," " No Irish need apply,"
" Let the Armenians take care of themselves," " No Inter-
vention," " Foreigners not admitted," — these are written on
the black flag of the devil, not on the blood-red banner of
Christ.

294 THE ANCIENT FAITH IN MODERN LIGHT

It has been thought the EvangeHcal faith had nothing
to do with States and poHcies, and commerce and labour
and wages. That is not so. The Evangelical creed
penetrates the individual soul, penetrates the life of States,
and penetrates the genius of organised civilisation. It is
the greatest of creeds — generous as the sun, inflexible as
the geometric square, vast and tender as the love of God.
This is the true Christian socialism. But there is a
socialism that is not Christian. There is a devil's creed
that would boycot and starve a man if he did not belong
to certain unions, or if he claimed the independence and
liberty of a man : a creed that would drive the Chinaman
out of California because he can work skilfully and live
without wasting his wages ; a creed that would drive out
the German clerk, the French artisan, the Italian waiter,
because they can beat the English on English ground.
That is not Evangelical socialism. Evangelical socialism
would stir us to noble and generous emulation, saying to
each country, " Work so well that no other country can
compete with you " ; " the palm be his who wins it " ; " see
that no man take thy crown." The object of Evangelical
socialism is to get rid of the word " foreigner." It is a
carnal word ; it is stained with sin ; the brand of Cain is
upon it ; in every sense, personal, social, political, we are
to be " no more strangers and foreigners " ; we are to be
loving children in our Father's household. Every opposing
socialism is organised selfishness, and should only be named
in the pulpit of the world-loving Christ to be denounced
and repudiated.

The Ancient Faith is, first of all, a religion of in-
dividualism. Under its action souls are saved singly —
one by one — man by man — each heart regenerated or
born again, as if it were the only heart in the world.
" Every creature " precedes " all nations." But no sooner

THE NEW CITIZENSHIP 295

is a soul fully and savingly brought under the power of
Christ's grace than it determines to bring other souls under
the same blessed dominion. This is the root of true
socialism, and, indeed, I doubt whether there is or can be
any other root. Outside the Bible, where does the word
" neighbour " occur ? We are now so familiar with the
word that we think we invented it, whereas it is exactly as
special and distinctive as the word " God." The two words
come together in the two great commandments of the law.
Socialism, therefore, in its true sense is an under-theology,
— the supremest thought brought down into daily practice,
■ — the Eternal Silence broken up into songs of the house
and melodies of kindliest brotherhood. The word " neigh-
bour " is a syllable in the word " God," that word itself,
though only a syllable, being the very sky of language, the
very fount of all the rivers of speech. In the New Testa-
ment there are three words for " neighbour," but two of
them occur only once, leaving o irXrja-Lov some twelve uses
of its own, — " the one near, — a fellow-man, — any other
member of the human family." It was Christ who, both
in the Old Testament and the New, made " thy neigh-
bour," not the mere iro\Lr7]<;, the townsman, but 6 irXiialov,
the near one, the kinsman, the other heart, a word which
may express the nearness of Sychar to Jacob's well, or the
closer nearness of the Samaritan to the wounded Jew.
Thus Christ seeks the individual soul, and the individual
soul consequently seeks the other man, makes him his
" neighbour," and lavishes on him the new-born and ever-
enduring love. It is most important to bear this in mind,
lest, forgetting the fount and origin of true neighbourli-
ness, we should be tempted to imagine that a mechanical
socialism is more benevolent than the all-redeeming love of
God. There are lights which look like human inventions,
are announced as such, are patented as such, are publicly
sold as such, yet all those little lights arc sparkles of a fire

295 THE ANCIENT FAITH IN MODERN LIGHT

we never kindled ; so in morals there are conceptions of
right and wrong, theories of social regeneration, and codes
of duty and honour, which may owe all their value to the
inspiration they deny. Who can tell to what skeleton
shapes they would be reduced if they could be made to
stand apart from the sustaining and beautifying influences
which constitute Christian civilisation, and from the many
outlines and forces which give perspective and colour to
what would otherwise be an infinite void ? We have not
sufficiently magnified this consideration in forming our
estimate of human progress. I am distinctly in favour of
claiming all this outlying property in the name of Christ,
Every good thing is His alone. Every battle of right
against might is Christ's war ; every encroachment of
knowledge upon ignorance is Christ's invasion ; every
search for that which is lost is Christ's quest ; every stoop
over the bed of pain or death is Christ's own condescension.
If, as Christians, we were not first in those holy services,
we ought to have been ; and if we have been outrun in
this sacred race, we must find the reason in our own lack
of energy, for it certainly is not to be found in the will or
purpose of Christ.

The teacher of the Ancient Faith, if a tactician and
a man of apostolic skill, can begin his work at the point
of thinking, which has no suspected relation to Christian
theology, and thus show many people how they uncon-
sciously touch the highest possible lines of thought. He
can show that many of the world's own established phil-
osophies, axioms, and canons of wisdom, find their true
correction, their natural expansion, and their divine apoca-
lypse, in the very religion which they are supposed to
ignore. He may show that Faith, instead of being a
superstition, is the larger Reason. Without opening the
Bible he can find innumerable texts, and without the form

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of a sermon he can make known the saving gospel. Hence
my distinct approval of some methods of popular lecturing,
which, at first sight, se^m to be not only irregular, but
extravagant and undignified. I cannot recall one indis-
putable axiom in worldly wisdom that does not imme-
diately point to its higher self as developed and completed
in Christianity, nor can I find in practical Christianity
a single doctrine that does not claim its counterpart in
some law of nature, some habit of human thought, some
guiding principle in civilised society, showing in how deep
a sense it is true that in the beginning God created the
heavens and the earth, that man was made in the image
and likeness of God, and that Reason is always carving
and inscribing marble slabs in honour of a power unknown,
but undeniable. In view of such facts the Christian
preacher need not shrink, in public or in private, from
taking his texts from the oldest of all Bibles — the Bible
of Nature and the Bible of human consciousness and
experience. The great doctrine of vicarious suffering
would seem to be the mother- doctrine of every sphere
of life. If Christians walk by faith and not by sight, so
do secularists, so do agnostics, so do atheists. Discovery
is, in its own sphere, but another name for revelation in
things spiritual. Prayer is but the uppermost meaning
of all the heart's dumb yearning. If a large induction
of facts has led to the discovery of a law, a still larger
induction of still clearer facts has led to the revelation of
a Father. The Christian preacher has so much to begin
with in the actual life of his hearers ! They supply him
with his starting-points and with the weapons which he
turns ui)on themselves in the faithful application of his
argument. lie finds them in quest of pleasure, and in
offering them eternal joy he has the support of an instinct
which cannot be safely suppressed ; he finds them in a
multitude of cases providing against fire and flood, famine

298 THE ANCIENT FAITH IN MODERN LIGHT

and pestilence, and boldly calls upon them to complete
their own prudence by providing for the larger time and
the deeper need ; he finds them planting sweet flowers
upon the graves where love lies buried, and he tells them
that men may so die as to bloom in heaven's warm
summer ; and if you ask him, as he changes his base of
operation, adapts his methods to new circumstances, begins
at all accessible points, why he varies the lines of his
ministry, he will answer, " I have made myself servant
unto all, that I might gain the more. I am made all
things to all men, that I might by all means save
some."

In my forecast of the impending century— the twentieth
since the summer of Bethlehem — I see clearly that Churches
and ministers may have to accept larger definitions of theo-
logical and ecclesiastical terms ; I see a time, may it come
soon, w^hen all terms will be regarded as symbols pointing
to truths infinitely greater than themselves. The telescope
is not the constellation. I have come to see that it is
more important that a man should believe in God, than
that he should accept my particular and, perhaps, variable
theory of God ; and that it is of infinitely greater con-
sequence that he should believe in Immortality, than that
he should select some special theory because of its tem-
porary intellectual fascination. The supreme ideas will,
by their moral sublimity, keep the man right as to his
spirit ; the conflicting theories must be determined by life-
long prayer and life-long education, — nay, more perhaps
than life-long, — for we may have to pursue and complete in
eternity what we could but imperfectly begin in the cloudy
and troubled light of time. With regard to the Church,
it would not surprise me to find, as the result of much
ill-spent invention and much abortive effort — so much that
the recollection of it would burn us like a furnace, if we

THE NEW CITIZENSHIP 299

had not learned to match the rapidity of production by the
rapidity of forgetfulncss, — it would not surprise me, I say,
to find that, instead of havini^ to create a Church, we have
simply to recognise one. Church-making is no business
of ours ; when we attempt it, we usurp the Divine preroga-
tive. The outer congregation we may, in some secondary
and hmited sense, attempt to set in orderly array, but the
Church — the inner, spiritual, holy sacrifice — lies beyond
the province of our hands. It is not conceivable by me
that the material creation can be so much larger than our
thought can grasp, and the spiritual creation so much
smaller ; yet men who have stood in reverential awe before
huge masses of matter, and pronounced them incalculable,
have stood in the presence of the Church, and reduced
it to quotable statistics. The astronomer has forgotten
that he himself is a greater mystery than the astronomy
Avhich he worships. The meanest child is to mc infinitely
more unthinkable than arc the constellations which hide
themselves from the inquiry of science. This would seem
to be the evolution through which biblical thought itself
has passed. David considered the heavens, the moon, and
the stars, and wondered that God should make account of
the son of man. Peter, a man in ever)' way likely to be
impressed by bulk and force and radiance, having been
with Jesus and learned of Ilim, — having seen the white
flame on Tabor, which Saul afterwards saw at the gate
of Damascus, — looked upon the infinite pomp, and pre-
dicted the noise of its departure and the smoke of its
dissolution. Have we spiritually grown in the same direc-
tion ? If so, we must have cause to know that the Church
is as much larger than the churches, as Uie spirit is larger
than the body, and that the universe was made for man,
and not man for the universe. Looking in the direction
pointed out by this suggestion, I am prepared to believe
that many men are in the Divine Church who may not

300 THE ANCIENT FAITH IN MODERN LIGHT

be in the human congregation, and that the divine recog-
nition of men in the final census will not more surprise the
men themselves than shock, with unutterable astonishment,
the scribes who were prepared to abridge the labours of
Omnipotence by handing in a revised and corrected register
of men fit for the kingdom of heaven. The Lord will
graciously keep Creation and Judgment in His own hands,
for men could never be trusted with absolute Fiat and
Doom.

Ill

All that is vital in these doctrines must
be largely indebted to the Christian preacher
for exposition and popular acceptance.

To my mind, the divinely qualified Christian preacher
is the greatest man in the world. It is easily possible
to misrepresent ministers by dismissing them as " theo-
logians," and easily possible for ministers to misrepresent
themselves by heedlessly accepting that designation. Be-
fore it is accepted it should be clearly defined. It is
sometimes accompanied with a smile, which is not the
less suggestive that it is friendly. It means, without
bitterness, that the minister is a superior kind of woman,
too full of Greek and catechism to know much about the
ways of the world. He is, at least outwardly, revered so
profoundly as to be profoundly ignored upon all practical
questions. He is the victim of an idolatry so sentimentally
complete as to amount to practical annihilation. There
is a sense in which the term " theologian " amounts to
apotheosis in the kingdom of shadows, and there is also
a sense in which it becomes the highest title that can be
sustained by the most illustrious of mankind. I cannot
but hold, let me repeat, that the Christian minister, when
he realises his full vocation, when adequately equipped and

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wholly consecrated, has no superior in all the world : great
in intellectual capacity, supreme in spiritual insight, strong
in the instinct and in the practice of justice. The Chris-
tian minister is not a chatterer of other- world phrases, but
a true interpreter of life's mystery and sacrifice. We must
get rid of the lie that the minister is a priest, — a kind of
celestial broker, — even if, in getting rid of it, the minister
has to do something which a narrow judgment may regard
as non- ministerial. Ministers do not minister simply
because they can do nothing else, but because they con-
sider that by comparison nothing else is worth doing.
This was the estimate of values which determined the
action of the Apostle Paul. A mind so capacious and
energetic could have even glorified any sphere of human
activity ; }'et, gathering together all the privileges of
ancestry, all the dignities of office, all the temptations of
sense, he burned them all on the altar of the Cross^ and
counted their sacrifice a gain.

" But let every man take heed how " he preaches. A
new citizenship demands a new pulpit; not a new doctrine,
but a new method, a living adaptation. Jesus Christ took
his texts from what was going on around Him : " when He
saw how . . . He said unto His disciples"; "when a cer-
tain lawyer stood up tempting Him, . . . He said." The
living minister must dwell upon living themes. He should
be a man of the people. Christ lived on the highwa}', in
the market-place, in the open air. He did not recite His
own compositions, or make a literary display, or give ex-
amples of finished rhetoric, or exemplify the mechanical art
of homiletics : He "taught," He "talked," He " answered."
He was infinitely natural because He was infinitely sincere.
He preached of Abraham; He did not preach to him.
Christ never addressed the absentees; He looked His
audience in the face, and bore straight in upon the heart.

302 THE ANCIENT FAITH IN MODERN LIGHT

There never were such discourses. They cut men in
pieces ; they comforted the wounded with healing balm ;
they made the sea boil, and lulled the raging of the waters ;
they unmasked and scorched hypocrisy ; they cheered, as
with light, souls that were struggling in solitary prayer.
What great talking was the talking of Christ ! He
whispered with infinite delicacy. " He cried with a loud
voice." I cannot imagine Jesus reading an essay to His
hearers. Nor can I imagine Paul doing so. Nor fervent
Peter. Talk need not be jejune. Conversation need not
be gossip. The people gather round a man who has
a gospel, and believes it, and wants it to be accepted
at once.

The only man who can destroy preaching is the
preacher, and in all truthfulness he can most surely
destroy it utterly. Let him forget or neglect his central
subject, and his own overthrow is certain. The truly
consecrated and fervent Christian preacher does not preach
to trades, professions, scholastic certificates, or university
degrees; these "shoes" are to be "put off" outside the
sanctuary, and within that holy place nothing is to be
recognised but the sinfulness of the human heart, the
universal need of Christ's vicarious sacrifice, and the neces-
sity of being born again by the gracious and mighty energy
of God the Holy Ghost. " O son of man, I have set thee
a watchman unto the house of Israel ; if the watchman see
the sword come, and blow not the trumpet, and the people
be not warned ; if the sword come and take any person
from among them, he is taken away in his iniquity ; but
his blood will I require at the watchman's hand." It is
a question of blood ! The blood of murdered men is on
the skirts of unfaithful ministers ! In vain do we give men
new ideas of the universe, new conceptions of spiritual
truths, brilliant answers to intellectual objections, and dazz-

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6^6

ling displays of many-coloured erudition, if we keep back
the saving gospel, the humbling Cross, the redeeming blood,
— if we let men slumber in their iniquity, if we hide the
bottomless pit, if we make light of sin, if we turn the
ministry into one of the learned professions, — the blood
of murdered men will be required at the watchman's hand.
A thrill of horror paralyses the soul as we think of the
appalling meaning of the term " damnation " : who can
measure its darkness, who can express its pain, who can
follow the mystery of its agony ? but to what infinite
significance is the meaning of the term raised when the
man who is damned is a nominal minister of Christ, —
driven away because of unfaithfulness, banished because
he kept back the truth, damned because he murdered the
souls of men !

When Paul speaks of " the foolishness of preaching,"
he is not referring to preaching as an art, or even as
a method ; he is referring only to the foolishness of the
thing preached ;— and what is that foolish thing, that
contemptible absurdity, that meanest of all symbols ? It
is the Cross. It pleased God to make a thing so shameful
the symbol of a conquest so glorious. It is God's inscrut-
able way. He used " things that are not," — things that
cannot come into visibleness and measurement, — things
that can only be dimdy and remotely thought of as
transcendently negative — " to bring to nought things that
are." It is a holy wonder, — it humbles our vanity, — it
quenches our cleverness, and drives us out of ourselves
for inspiration and strength. If I have in any degree
entitled myself by long service to give advice to the
next generation of preachers, I would plead with them
to preach from the foot of the Cross. I would beg
them to avoid all fanciful topics and all fantastic methods,
and to give their whole time and strength to the unfold-

304 THE ANCIENT FAITH IN MODERN LIGHT

ing of the love of God, as shown in the person and
priesthood of Jesus Christ who died for us and rose
ao-ain. We can best approach even social questions from
the Cross. Labour and capital can only be reconciled
at the Cross. Family disputes must be settled in the
spirit of the Cross. International misunderstandings perish
when discussed within the sanctuary of the Cross. My
brethren who are on their way to the pulpit need have
no fear of being behind " the times," if they look at the
whole movement of life from the standpoint of Christ's
world-saving Cross. I believe that if preachers would
be truly " original," the one thing they have to avoid
is novelty. They must get back to divine beginnings,
even to the original thought and purpose of God. They
must get rid of all superficial and temporary methods of
treating the corrupt and pestilent heart, and must there-
fore work from the Cross, — from One who was slain from
before the foundation of the world. The ancient is the
truly modern. The eternal in the longrun rules the
transient. It will be a day of woe for the Christian pulpit
when its hireling occupants play popular tricks to win
popular applause. Only one pulpit theme can last, and
it lasts because it is none else than the unspeakable love
of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Let us look at this matter in a living picture: Imagine
the gathered hordes of ignorance, misfortune, misery, and
shame, having gone the round of all the Unions, Con-
ferences, Assemblies, and Convocations held in the course of
the ecclesiastical year : imagine one of the members of that
suffering community representing his comrades, and putting
their sorrows and their wishes into words, and his speech
might take some such turn as this : — " We have had a full
year among you, and we cannot very well make out what
you are driving at. We do not know most of the long

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words you use. You are all well dressed and well fed, and
you are D.D.'s and M.A.'s and B.A.'s. We do not know
what you are, or what you want to be at. From what we
can make out, you seem to know that we poor devils are all
going straight down to a place you call hell ; there we are to
burn for ever and ever, and gnash our teeth in pain that
can never end ; we are to be choked with brimstone, stung
by serpents, laden with chains ; — then why don't you stop
us on the road ? Why don't you stand in front of us, and
keep us back from the pit, and the fire, and the worm that
cannot die ? We read the inky papers which you call
your " resolutions," but in them there is no word for us that
is likely to do us real good. They say nothing about our
real misery ; nothing about our long hours, our poor pay,
our wretched lodgings. Why don't you pass resolutions
about the distiller, the brewer, and the publican ? We
cannot stagger to our warrens and rookeries, where the
chairs are stones, and the beds are straw, and the pictures
our own black shadows, without passing the public-house
and catching tempting whiffs of the hot drinks that make
us worse than beasts. The publican robs us, mocks us,
poisons us, and turns us out of doors. Why don't }'ou
call him robber and murderer, and drive him out of the
land ? He takes your pews, sings your hymns, passes your
resolutions, presides at your meetings, and throws a crust
to the orphan whose father he killed. You call yourselves
men of God ? What God ? Where is He ? What docs
He say? What does He want? When you come
amongst us, you come against your will ; some of you liv^e
upon us almost as much as the publican does, by writing
tales about us, making speeches about us, drawing pictures
of us in papers and books, getting our secret off us, and then
selling it for silver. We have been watching you, and we
"have formed our opinion of you just as certainly as }'ou
have formed your opinion of us. Wo ha\c seen the
20

306 THE ANCIENT FAITH IN MODERN LIGHT

auctioneer knock down the cure of souls to the highest
bidder ; we have heard the chapel man haggle for higher
pay, and boast of the respectability of his pew tenants and
the o-entility of his neighbourhood ; we have heard your
backbiting of one another: — open graves, whited sepul-
chres, impostors all ! How can ye escape the damnation
of hell ! "

It is easy to see how many protests can be urged
against this violent speech, and how many pleas could be
set up in palliation of its savage judgment ; it would be
easy to summon a little army of self-denying clergymen,
ministers, ladies, philanthropists, teachers, and visitors,
who are labouring in the most degraded and repulsive
parts of London ; it might be possible to discriminate
between one publican and another so as to show wide
difference of character, — but when every mitigation has
been completed and every abatement has been allowed,
there is enough left in that fierce charge to compel the sad
and compassionate attention of Christian teachers and
workers. Its opening sentences struck me as full of pain-
ful suggestion. As a matter of fact, we may most uncon-
sciously often use words which many people may not under-
stand,— uncouth words, technical phrases, pulpit idioms,
or mediaeval barbarities ; our style may be too literary, too
pompous, too refined ; and we may be so partially and
perversely educated, as to be more anxious to establish a
proposition than to save a soul. An eminent critic has said
that in the style of English which the historian Gibbon
adopted, it was impossible to tell the truth. The critic
meant that Gibbon's style was too majestic and stately to
take up and set forth in glittering vividness the petty
details, the minute and contemptible particulars and little-
nesses, which make up no small part of the life of every
aggressive and advancing people. So it may be with

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Christian preachers. By the use of stilted phrases, long-
dragging polysyllables, and a species of majestic slang that
would not be tolerated in Parliament or at the Bar,
preachers may easily create wide distance between the
pulpit and the pew. Nothing, in my judgment, can meet
this difficulty but pureness and earnestness of heart. A
Christlike heart will have one object and only one, and that
is to save men ; and in carrying out that object, if either
dignity or simplicity must be sacrificed, it will be dignity
that must suffer death.

If I might add a word on an immediately related
question, it would be to the effect that our evangelism is in
danger of devoting its energies almost exclusively to what
are known as " the masses." I must protest against this
contraction, on the ground that it is as unjust to Christi-
anity as it is blind to the evidence of facts. If the city
missionary (he being a highly qualified man) is wanted
anywhere, he is specially wanted where business is degraded
into gambling, where conscience is lulled by charity which
knows nothing of sacrifice, and where political economy
is made the scapegoat for oppression and robbery. But
to lecture the poor is easier than to accuse the rich. Have
we not lost one bold tone out of the music of preaching?
Who now dare say, " Yc adulterers and adulteresses, know
ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God ?
whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the
enemy of God " (Jas. iv. 4) ; " Woe unto you that are
rich, for ye have received your consolation " (Luke vi. 24) ;
" Behold, the hire of the labourers who have reaped down
your fields, which is of you kept back by fraud, crieth :
and the cries of them which have reaped arc entered into
the ears of the Lord of Sabaoth " (Jas. v. 4). That is a
branch of evangelistic service which cannot be neglected
with impunity. There is only one class worse than the

308 THE A.N'CIENT FAITH IN MODERN LIGHT

class known as "outcast London," — worse in every feature
and in every degree, — and that class is composed of those
who " have lived in pleasure on the earth, and been
wanton," and who " have nourished their hearts as in a day
of slaughter." The " cry " is " bitterer " in many tones at
the West End than at the East ; the ennui, the love of
pleasure, the satiety of appetite, the speculation in marriage,
the gambling in politics, the thousand social falsehoods
that mimic the airs of Piety and proclaim the protection of
Usage, — these seem to be distress without alleviation, and
to constitute a heathenism which Christ Himself might
view with despair. I am not able to look upon poverty as
many do. It is to my mind not an accident, not a
symptom, not a problem awaiting political solution, but a
mystery in human discipline and redemption, a dark
necessity in the completeness of the immediate situation. I
cannot but feel that the world would be the poorer but for
its poverty, and I feel it the more when I remind myself of
the historian's testimony, that when the Romans lost their
poverty they began their vices. That the lot of many of
the poor can be improved no one disputes ; that a charge,
an impeachment, tremendous in its justice, can be brought
against parochialism, officialism, and the vicious species of
landlordism, admits of no question — I am speaking of the
greater poverty ; the solemn mystery of suffering ; that
poignant and chastening appeal which, as Christ said, is
" always " with us. I am of opinion that every Christian
assembly should make a serious question of the Poor Laws
of England. The workhouse as at present managed is a
disgrace to us. We have no right to huddle all poor
people together indiscriminately, as if they belonged to
one class, nor should we content ourselves with the rough
classification of criminal and non-criminal paupers ; the
classification should be scrupulously graded, so that every
necessitous person could go into the right company with-

THE NEW CITIZENSHIP 3O9

out sense of degradation or injustice. The State would
spend money wisely in providing neat and cheerful homes,
guarded by humane and sympathetic discipline, for the
honourable poor, and would thus show that poverty is not
of necessity criminal or degrading, but may be compatible
with social uprightness and deeply religious feeling. I
have nothing to say for the ill-behaved, my one concern
is for the virtuous and sensitive poor. But in order to
address ourselves to questions of this nature, we must by
pureness and Christlikeness of heart rid ourselves of the
bitter controversies which are hindering the consolidation
of Christian energies. If some controversies and specu-
lations must, by a mysterious necessity of the human mind,
ever continue, we ought to find in human charity the
balance to intellectual speculation. Where mental excite-
ment is not followed by beneficent activity, the head will
develop at the expense of the heart, and the issue will be a
pedantry that can only criticise, and a vanity that cannot
stoop to see, the Cross. Hard work must balance hard
thinking. Transfigurations on the mountain must be
followed by miracles of healing at the mountain base.
Thus, and thus only, will the whole nature be kept strong
and sweet, the head glorious with light, the heart more
glorious with love. Whilst sympathising with my whole
heart with every well-considered movement for the better
housing of the poor, I must always protest against the
vicious sophism, that character is the product of circum-
stances,— a narrow and cruel doctrine which is not onK' in
direct opposition to the deepest teaching of Christianity,
but is directly contradicted by the most obvious facts in
human history. Any action based on so palpable a sophism
must be empirical, superficial, and in the longrun abortive.
It is this conviction which determines the methods of
Christian philanthropists, and exposes those methods to the
sneer of the energetic reformers, who with impotent vigour

3IO THE ANCIENT FAITH IN MODERN LIGHT

address themselves exclusively to the readjustment of
circumstances. To the worldly mind nothing can be much
more ridiculous than to mock the poor by the erection of
mission-halls. But the mockery may easily be in excess
of the information. The mission - hall is itself but a
symbol ; a symbol which, being interpreted, means, care of
the body ; care of the mind ; advice under difficulty ; pro-
tection against injustice ; the way to the saving Cross ; an
answer to the heart's weariest trouble ; bread for the soul's
intolerable hunger. In a word, the mission-hall symbolises
the solemn truth that the stream cannot be cleansed until
the fountain is purified.

VIII

CHRISTIANITY AND THE CHILD

By WILLIAM BROCK

VIII

Christianity and the Child

The aiin of the present Essay is to inquire in what definite
form Christian truth may be most fitly presented to luiglish
children of the present day. Such an incjuiry, while less
strictly theological than those which have already occupied
the reader, has the advantage of suggesting a practical test
of the value of our theories ; and it is by no means irrelevant
to the general purpose of the volume. If the substance of
the Ancient Faith is to be preserved intact, nowhere is it
more essential to guard it than in the instructions of the
Home and the School. But nowhere is it more indispcnsaVjle
so to present it that its beauty and majesty may only shine
the clearer in all the searching blaze of Modern Light.

It is proposed to consider, first, some of the existing
facts which point to the necessity for such an inquiry ;
then, some of the more recent changes which must influence
its course ; and, further, some of the specific results to which
it may reasonably conduct.

I. SOME EXISTING FACTS IN REGARD TO RELIGIOUS
TEACHING

The present condition of religious teaching in our
Homes and Schools discloses a variety of opinion and
practice which is sufficient to emphasise both the interest
and the urgency of the discussion.

I. There is one system of religious instruction under

314 I'U^^ ANCIENT FAITH IN MODERN LIGHT

which a large proportion of the children of the land are
growing up, which, whatever we may think of its tendency,
is at least perfectly definite and coherent. " Church teach-
ing," as it is expressed in various catechisms and manuals
for the young, sounds its one monotonous note with
unmistakable significance. The Church, whether it be the
Church of Rome or the Church of England, and in either
case, external, visible, represented by its priests and operat-
ing through its sacraments, is the kingdom of heaven.
Membership in the Church is salvation. The child is
taught, that in his baptism he entered the Church, and
passed into a state of grace ; that from the Church he must
receive what he is to believe, and what he is to do ; that
the Church, by her ministers, will absolve him from his
actual sins, and confer on him the gift of the Holy Spirit ;
and that at death the Church will supply him with his
viaticum, and secure his entrance into glory. The creeds of
the Church, no doubt, instruct the learner in the doctrines
common to all Christians, and direct him to the divine
fountain of salvation. But it is one of the facts with which
we have to reckon, that the tremendous stress laid on the
priest and the sacrament must certainly obscure the sense
of the invisible realities, and tend to arrest numbers of our
}-oung pilgrims on the threshold of the shrine.-^

2. There is, at the opposite extreme of opinion, the dis-
position to bring the child up in avowed Agnosticism or
active unbelief. It is impossible to judge to what extent
such a disposition prevails. It would appear to be confined
at present to a section of the cultured classes ; for the vast
majority of our working people, whatever their own regard
or disregard for religion may be, send their children to be

' The curate in charge of a parish in the South of England had been
mslructing the children of the Sunday school in the dignities of the
priestly office, and wound up by asking, "Tell me, what am I ?" A
little girl volunteered the answer, " Please, sir, you are God."

CIIRISTIAMTV AND THE CHILD 315

instructed in its truths. I'^ven among some of the most
advanced Agnostics, there is a laudable reluctance to bring
young people up in the atmosphere of doubt. There is no
more jjathctic passage in the life of that fearless and candid
spirit, the late Mr. Romanes, than the letter in which, while
himself as yet unable to accept the Christian faith, he avows
his desire that his boy should be spared as long as possible
the knowledge of his own uncertainty, and, meanwhile,
should be surrounded witli Christian influence.^ But it is
scarcely to be expected that unbelievers in general would
exercise such a reverent constraint. Marie Corelli's tragic
story of TJie Mighty Atom, with all its exaggeration, is,
perhaps, the index to a growing movement of the actively
destructive order, as it is no unfair exposure of the melan-
choly result which such a movement involves. It may
well startle us to think that English boys and girls are
being taught, as John Stuart Mill was taught in an earlier
generation, to look upon all religion as superstition, and
the Christian religion, in particular, as a tissue of fables.

3. A much wider tendency is in a less positive direction.
It is a reaction, and, to a certain extent, a wholesome
reaction, from the stiff catechetical discipline which required
from the child definitions of original sin and effectual
calling, of the nature of evil spirits, and the wrath to come.
All will sympathise with the wise caution that we should
not unnecessarily burden the opening mind with the per-
plexing problems of theology. But the reaction may
extend till it involves the exclusion of all definite religious
conceptions. Children are then allowed to form their own
fancies on the most august realities. Teachers limit their
instructions to ethics, and are contented if their scholars
grow uj) fairl)- well-behaved. In point of fact, there are
many cases like that of the late Lord Shaftesbury, in which
the child would be left in absolute religious ignorance but
' Li/e and Letters of C. J. Romanes, p. 159.

3l6 THE ANCIENT FAITH IN MODERN TIGHT

for the gracious influence of a Christian nurse. Parents
abdicate their hoHest functions, and suffer their children to
grow up uninstructed even in their Bibles, and in the simplest
truths of religion. A recent American writer affirms that
among college students in that country " an ignorance of
the Bible exists to an extent that would have been incon-
ceivable a generation ago. Some of them are victims to
the idea that the Bible should not be read by the young,
for fear that they should be prejudiced in a religious way.
The fundamental cause of the ignorance is the neglect of
its use in the home in childhood." ^ A still more serious
statement has been made by a writer of great authority at
home. " Look how the English people treat their children.
They have ceased, almost consciously ceased, to have any
moral ideal at all." '"

4. What, then, is the position occupied by Evangelical
Nonconformists in relation to the religious culture of the
young? We stand equally opposed to the Romanist and
the Agnostic ; but it is often urged that our own teaching
has become colourless and undefined. Our fathers had
catechisms ; we have only hymn - books. Their lessons
were clear, even if they were cold ; ours, it is said, are apt
to be vague and negative, and even to degenerate into
what a friendly critic has described as " a feeble evangelical
dilution." Now, if we are to count in the energetic onward
movements of the day, we must have some distinct con-
ception of what we wish our children to believe. It may,
or may not, take the old method of question and answer.
It must, of course, be simple and elementary ; it must be
open to modification ; it must be drawn direct from the
New Testament ; but it will be a " form " or " pattern " ^ of

^ Harper's Magazine, Alarch 1895, "The Bible in America," by the
Editor. The Bishop of Winchester, in a speech at Guildford, has lately
uttered a similar warning in regard to English boys and girls.

-' Natural Religion, p. 134. ^ Rom. vi. 17 ; cf. 2 John 4.

CHRISTIANITY AND TIIK CHILD 317

teaching in the apostolic sense, and it will embody what
we conceive to be the substance of saving truth.

The attitude taken up by Nonconformists in regard to
religious instruction in schools supported by the State has
given rise to considerable misunderstanding. Because some
object to the teaching of the Bible in those schools, it has
been concluded that they are indifferent to the teaching of
it anywhere ; whereas it is their very reverence for the
Bible that makes them anxious that it should be taught in
the right place and by the right person, not as a mere
school - book, but as a divine revelation. Because others
have expressed themselves satisfied with the method of
Bible instruction adopted, for instance, by the London
School Board, it has been taken for granted that they
desire nothing further for their children, and " undenomi-
national " has been made, in some quarters, synonymous
with " Nonconformist." Now it is true that many of us
are content with the so-called " compromise " ; but it is
because nothing more can be fairly taught at the expense
of the ratepayers, and we are jealous of any infringement
of the present limit. It is a mistake to imagine that in
our own religious culture of the young we have nothing
more positive to inculcate. We teach the whole subject
of religion in our voluntary Sunday schools, in a manner
in which we should never dream of asking to have it taught
in the day schools of the State. No Episcopalian can be
more earnest on behalf of definite Church teaching than
many a Nonconformist parent is to indoctrinate his children
with the truths which have been the life of his own soul.
We can agree with Canon Gore that " we need accepted
religious truths — that is, dogmas — to give power to our
common life." ^ Only we maintain that spiritual things
must be taught by spiritual men.

5. There is yet another voice to be heard; and it is
' Creed of the Christian^ p 5.

31 8 THE ANCIENT FAITH IN MODERN LIGHT

that of the person most immediately concerned. The
thoughtful child is indeed, after his own manner, a theo-
logian already. Our literature has recently been rich in
incidents illustrating the excursions of his fresh and vivid
ima""ination into the world of the unseen. The humour
which marks them is not so impressive as their pathos,
" The poor little hard-pressed brain " is seen striving to
graj^ple with the meaning of the universe. Its curious
questionings are the outstretching of a hand that seeks a
"uide. Doubtless the response may often have to take
the tone rather of restraint than of stimulus ; but it should
never take the tone of contempt. We do not want our
children to become pedants or dreamers ; we do want them
to think, and we should encourage them in thinking. We
should avoid overdoses of doctrine as we would overdoses
of physic. But as we decline to give them the run of the
medicine chest, and are at pains to make the proper
selection for them, so, since they will have religious ideas
of some sort, we must take care that those ideas are
true.

To send them out into the world without any such
careful preparation, is to place them at an unfair disadvant-
age. They ought, indeed, by degrees to form convictions
of their own ; and no sensible teacher will expect or desire
that his scholars should accept unquestioned the precise
articles of his own faith. Let our young soldiers win their
own spurs ; but do not send them unarmed and untrained
into the battle. The uninstructed youth is apt to become
the ready victim of a shallow scepticism or a blind
superstition. On the other hand, the strongest and surest
believers, in innumerable instances, trace their faith, not
merely to the general religious influence of the home, but
to the definite religious lessons imparted there. Timothy
had only to " continue in the things which he had learned
and been assured of." The theology of Augustine had its

CIIKISTIAXITY AND THE CHILD 319

germ in " what he heard as a boy of the eternal Hfe promised
by means of the humility of the Lord condescending to our
pride," ^ Doddridge and the Wesleys illustrate the same
law of continuity. Mr. Ruskin can refer us to the very
chapters of the Bible by the truths of which, as he says,
his soul was established in life. Even where there has
been a complete change of opinion, there is sometimes to
be detected a strange survival of the earlier beliefs. The
fresh sweet current of Christian truth runs far out into
the salt sea of doubt or unbelief. " I should urge you,"
writes George Eliot to her friend Mrs. Ponsonby, " to con-
sider your early religious experience as a portion of valid
knowledge, and to cherish its emotional results in relation
to ideas which arc either substitutes or metamorphoses of
the earlier." " The sigh of the exile for the home he has
left sounds in such words. What is so precious and so
enduring it must be well worth the utmost effort to pro-
vide ; and to provide in a form the most distinct, the moist
attractive, and the most consistent with modern investi-
gation and enlightenment.

II. SOME RECENT CHANGES IN THE TENDENCY OF
RELIGIOUS THOUGHT

The difficulties of the task are accentuated, because the
changes of the last half-century have been in all directions
unusually large and rapid. The effect on the whole
religious atmosphere has amounted to a revolution. Some
observers express their doubt whether " the Reformation
itself left a world so different from that which it found." ■'•
We look at the same spiritual landscape as our fathers
looked at ; but the entire perspective is shifted ; objects
once prominent lie in shadow; other objects have emerged,

' Coifessions, i. 17. - Life of George E/iof, vol. iii. p. 253.

^ Miss Wedgwood, Nineteenth Century, September 1896, p. 422.

320 THE ANXIENT FAITH IN MODERN LIGHT

and stand out clearly, and challenge the attention. The
Ancient Faith must be adjusted to the Modern Light if it
is to be visible to the modern eye. And if the caution is
everywhere necessary, where should it be more carefully
observed than in the training of the men and women of the
next half- century, destined, perhaps, to witness a still
greater advance than their fathers?

When we speak of change, however, it is easy to fall
into exaggeration and panic. " The firm foundation of
God standeth," a rock in the midst of the rolling waters.
The substance of truth which the English mother of to-day
lias to impart is what was taught by Lois and Eunice in
the first century, by Monica in the fifth, by Robert Raikes
and Hannah More in more recent times. Even in form
and method much which we learned in childhood is far
from being obsolete. Oliver Wendell Holmes recurs in one
of his later letters to the " hymns of dear old Dr. Watts,
which lulled me when a babe, and will mingle, I doubt not,
with my last wandering thoughts." There are questions
and answers in the " Child's Catechism " by the same
author which survive in some memories, and still commend
themselves to some understandings. The older school of
thought can teach us much. The majesty of God was
often upon their lips ; His omniscience also, and His
righteousness, and the grandeur of His moral government.
They saw vividly the guilt and misery of sin, and, with a
corresponding clearness, the wonders of redeeming grace.
They produced a noble type of character ; sterner and more
austere than ours, perhaps less sensitive to sorrow, certainly
less widely sympathetic; but, on the other hand, distinguished
by a faith that rarely doubted, and a loyalty that never
quailed, and religious emotions as strong and deep as they
were silent and still. We have outgrown some of their
opinions, but it will take a long while to outgrow them ;
and while it may be an advantage not always to express

CHRISTIANITY AND THE CHILD 32 1

our teaching in their words, it would be a calamity if it
were ever to become divorced from their spirit.

It may be convenient at this point to indicate some of
the more active influences of the age which have to be
borne in mind in our religious instruction of the young.
Four in particular may be selected, the decline of mere
authority in matters of belief, the rise of Biblical Criticism,
the growth of humanitarian sentiment, and the widespread
sense of the remoteness of the Supernatural.

I, Authority in Matters of Belief

Fifty years ago, authority was still the accredited
instrument in general education. The lesson in language
or in history was learned by rote from the text-book with
little effort at explanation by the teacher, and still less
opportunity of inquiry by the scholar. The spirit of
inquiry was apt to be mistaken for a spice of rebellion ;
and a boy who might suggest some difficulty in a Scripture
passage was silenced by a frown. Now authority must
always enter largely into the earlier stages of instruction.
We must all begin by accepting something on the testimony
of others. But the w^hole tendency of modern education is
to subordinate authority to reason. The scholar is en-
couraged to question, to doubt, to require a reason for the
things which he is told. As he advances, his prime
business becomes inquiry and investigation ; " scepticism
the highest of duties, and blind faith the one unpardonable
sin." It is inevitable that a disposition of mind thus
acquired in ordinary studies should make itself felt in
religion. We may rightly point out that scepticism is not,
after all, so unmixed a virtue as is represented, and that
there are regions of thought where the faculty of faith
is indispensable. But we cannot any longer meet the
questions of our young people with the reply, " I say so," or
" the Church says so," or even " the Bible says so." Why

32 2 THE ANCIENT FAITH IN .MODERN LIGHT

does the Bible say so, is the instant challenge of the active
mind. We must be ready to explain its meaning, and
to show the reasonableness of its declarations ; we must
appeal, not only to the instinct of obedience and trust, but
to the verdict of the understanding and the conscience. We
should stimulate reverent inquiry, rather than attempt to
silence it. Nor need this be done with reluctance or
regret. It is the apostolic counsel to " prove all things."
It is the fundamental principle of Protestantism that " we
do not accept the truth of the teaching of Holy Scripture
merely because we acknowledge the authority of Holy
Scripture ; it would be more accurate to say that we
acknowledge the authority of Holy Scripture because we
accept the truth of its teaching." ^ Our Lord Himself
while speaking with the highest authority, constantly
challenges the consent of the candid mind. " Everyone
that is of the truth heareth My voice."

2. Our Conception of the Bible and its Use

The development of critical inquiry has had the effect
of modifying, in some respects, our conception of the Bible.
We have a conviction as firm as our fathers had of its
unique character as a record of divine revelations ; and
we teach our children to turn its pages with the olden
reverence and love. But we cannot present it to them
exactly as it was taught to us. It is no longer the
mysterious aerolite, fallen in one glowing mass from heaven,
and incapable of analysis ; it is rather a succession of
stratified deposits, each with its own history to be ascertained,
and its characteristic contents to be explored. It is a
book, but it is still more a library or a literature, com-
parable in extent and variety " to a selection of English
literature from Bede to Milton." It comprises poetry and
philosophy, tradition and history, familiar letters and pro-
^ Dale, Protestantism^ p. 63.

CHRISTIANITY AND THE CHILD 325

found treatises, the regular narrative of the biographer and
the raptured vision of the seer. It has its outer and inner
courts, its sanctuary, and its HoHest of all. It must be
taught with a fine sense of proportion, a light touch on
matters of more transitory interest, and a stress upon
essential truths. The old axiom, which assumed that
every pin of the tabernacle was as precious as the altar or
the ark, can be no longer admitted. It is the very reverse
of the fact. There are indeed persons now living who can
well remember how they trembled in their childhood, lest
in their Scripture lessons they should misplace a letter
or mispronounce a word, and so bring the curse of Rev.
xxii. 19 upon their heads. It was time that such
bondage should be broken. It is not for the monotone
of an awful oracle that the child is to listen when the
Bible is read, but for the varying cadences of the voice of
a friend.

If the literary composition of the book, and its other
human elements, are properly explained, it is scarcely
necessary to instruct the young scholar in the detailed
results of Biblical Criticism. He will now be prepared in
due time to consider them on their own merits without any
painful shock to the understanding or the heart. It will not
disturb him, as it has disturbed some brought up under
an older discipline, to discover that the first chapters in
Genesis do not teach strict science or actual history ; that
David did not write all the Psalms, or Moses all the
Pentateuch ; and that there are discrepancies of detail, and
signs of addition and correction, in the Gospels themselves.
No secret should be made of acknowledged facts like these ;
but we need not be in haste to make critics of our children.
There seems still a certain incongruity, even where the
work is ably and cautiously done, in presenting the Bible
" as rearranged by modern criticism " to boys and girls of
twelve years old and upwards. It needs the maturer mind

324 THE ANCIENT FAITH IN MODERN LIGHT

to give proper consideration to the various problems which
are involved in such inquiries, and to allot them their true
value. They are apt simply to confuse the young scholar
and draw off his thoughts from that which he most needs to
learn, the divine substance of saving truth. He cannot see
the wood for the trees.

Still less can the suggestion find favour, that, because of
the new light thrown by Criticism on the Old Testament,
we should restrict the religious instruction of children to the
New. It is quite likely that, in the choice of Bible lessons,
there has been too little discrimination ; an unwise attempt
to cover the whole field, and a failure to focus attention on
the central facts. " The Story of Christ and His People "
as contained in the Gospels and the Acts is undoubtedly
the principal storehouse from which the steward of truth
should be careful to draw. But can anyone who recalls
the experience of his own childhood willingly forego the use
of the Old Testament in his teaching of the young? The
Book of Proverbs was compiled purposely for the religious
training of the young Israelite ; and it is curious to find a
place of honour allotted to it in one of the most modern
school-books, the " Chicago Bible," selections from Scripture
made in 1895 foi* use in the elementary day schools of that
city. The Old Testament, however, has larger light than
the wisdom of the Proverbs. " What children need most,"
it has been well said, " is some teaching to kindle their
emotions, give them an ideal impulse, and start them on the
upward path." Prudence and self-interest are splendid
safeguards ; but for spiritual development we need a nobler
nurture —

" We live by admiration, hope, and love."

Hence the value of the Psalms, with their sunny heights
of praise and their depths of awe and wonder ; and of the
biographies of patriarch and king, showing us the struggles
of the true man, and his defeats and his victories ; and of

CHRISTIANITY AND THE CHILD 325

the ancient histories and traditions, disclosing the Eternal
in His creative activity, His mighty providence, and His
righteous rule. It is the Old Testament, in many of its
parts, which the child, so far from stumbling at them,
understands better than the man. His imagination over-
leaps the prosaic difficulties of the story, and grasps the
spiritual reality behind. While we are fretting over dis-
crepancies and hesitating at miracles, he takes the inner
fact in its simplicity, and clothes it with its ideal beauty or
magnificence. Genesis itself has been described as a book
for babes rather than for scholars. The child wanders with
Adam in Eden, or with Abraham among the hills and dales
of Canaan, untroubled by variations between Jehovist and
Elohist, careless of the line between the historic and the
prehistoric, but quite sure that God is in the company.
He would lose some of his most precious inspirations if he
were cut off from the heroes and saints of the Old Testa-
ment. Surely he may retain them without serious detri-
ment to his intelligence. If there are interpolations in the
story of David and Goliath, they do not touch the courage
and the faith of the adventurous Bethlehemite, or make
him a less authentic example of these virtues to the young
scholar of to-day.

3. Growth of the Humanitarian Sentiment

Another powerful influence on religious thought is the
remarkable growth of the humane or altruistic spirit. Half
a century ago there were noble philanthropists ; but the
mass of society was seldom stirred by the sense of impera-
tive duty to the distressed and the downtrodden. It was a
sterner and less pitiful world, and we must be thankful for
the change. But with increased sensitiveness and sympathy
there has come a certain softening of character and a decay
of the severer discipline, which is nowhere more perceptible
than in school and home. Parental control satisfies itself

26 THE ANCIENT FAITH IN xMODERN LIGHT

with milder restrictions, and too often hesitates to act in
presence of the growing self-assertion of the child. Teachers
are slow to punish, and even censure is made lenient. It is
inevitable that the effect should be felt alike in the form
and the colour of religious teaching. The element of fear
was never absent from the lessons of our childhood. Some-
times it was even an element of terror. " Why are you
afraid of God's anger ? " is asked in the Child's Catechism,
prepared by Isaac Watts for children of three or four years
old. " Because He can kill my body," the child is to
answer, " and make my soul miserable after my body is
dead." The very cradle song, otherwise so simple and
beautiful, with which the mother lulled her little one to
rest, contains such a verse as this —

" 'Twas to save thee, child, from dying,
Save thee from the burning flame.
Bitter groans and endless crying,
That thy blest Redeemer came."

No mother could sing that verse now ; no teacher could
dictate that answer. We have moved, during the lifetime
of men in middle age, out of one atmosphere into another.
The pendulum of change has indeed swung to the opposite
extreme. Many parents would now hesitate to speak to
their children of divine punishments at all. In their estimate,
sin is but a slip or an infirmity, venial in a man, and almost
imperceptible in a child ; and judgment and condemnation
have passed into figures of speech. God is an indulgent
and almost an indifferent Father, embracing bad and good
in His universal but shallow benevolence. If it is impos-
sible for children to escape the influence of such opinions,
it is impossible for us to ignore them. The humanitarian
sentiment has softened our views of religion, but it must not
be allowed to emasculate them. We shall take no step
backward toward the old unnatural harshness ; for it was a
slur on the nature of God, and a contradiction to His word ;

CHRISTIANITY AND THE CHILD 327

and we shall studiously guard our little ones against alarm.
But it is equally culpable to conceal from them, as they
grow older, the more awful aspects of truth. A God in
whose Fatherhood there is no reserve of severity, a universe
whose soft sunshine is never darkened by cloud or disturbed
by thunder, are as useless as they are unreal. " There is
no nerve," says Dr. Kushnell, " in a Gospel of mere specu-
lative philanthropism." If we are silent about the fires of
hell, let us make perfectly plain the permanence of the
moral law, and the certainty of retribution. We may prefer
in our instructions to dwell most on the mercy of God ; but
that mercy must be presented in its true majesty, moving
hand in hand with righteousness, and bringing pardons
sealed with blood.

4. Fainter Sense of the Supernatural

There remains the most serious of all the changes with
which we have to reckon. The last forty years have
witnessed the exaltation of natural science almost into a
religion, and a corresponding decline in the sense of the
supernatural. The earlier tendency of the principle of
evolution, in particular, was to banish the idea of God to a
great distance, and to dim the vision of a world behind
the veil. It is true that the materialism with which we
were once threatened is now seen to be by no means
involved in the new philosophy ; and the first alarm has
given place to interest and inquiry. But a new atmosphere
of thought has been created, which the young scholars of
our day inhale with their early lessons, with the literature
which they read, and the conversation to which they listen ;
and it must affect their apprehension of religion. They
must, if they have any intelligence, look at the history of
mankind, and at the proofs of creative intelligence, from
a new standpoint and in a new light. They may be
tempted to relegate all religious questions to the region

328 THE ANCIENT FAITH IN MODERN LIGHT

of the unknown. For if nature is once made all in all, God
may be dispensed with — " mis en disponibilitc" is the recent
French phrase — and forgotten. And it may follow, in the
words of F. W. Myers, " that the portion of the educated
world which Science leads, will wake up to find that the
great hope of a future life, which inspired their fathers,
is insensibly vanishing away." ^

The theory of evolution has its acknowledged limita-
tions ; and the extent to which it may modify the expression
of theological thought is matter for inquiry. We should
point out to the learner that it does not profess to touch
the substance of religious truth. " Spiritual powers," says
Mr. Darwin, " cannot be compared or classed by the
naturalist." " We should show where and how it may
properly influence our conceptions of particular doctrines.
But above all, we should seek to reinforce the sense of the
supernatural by pointing to the positive present facts of
Christian experience and conduct, to the movements of
God in history and daily life, to the revelations of Scrip-
ture, and to Jesus Christ. If only the reality of His
mission is acknowledged, a door is at once opened into
heaven, and the Father is revealed in the Son.

III. SOME RESULTING OUTLINES OF RELIGIOUS
TEACHING

It remains to inquire in what form the particular truths
which we desire to teach emerge from the legitimate influ-
ences of the age, and how they should be presented to the
opening mind. It is only an approach to the answer that
can be here attempted ; and even the approach is made
with diffidence,

^ Science and a Fid lire Life, p. 2.
" Descent 0/ Ma?t, vol. i. p. 186.

CHRISTIANITY AND THE CHILD 329

I . TJic Nature of the Child

The child has to be taught something of his own
nature ; and this is the first point on which the teacher
must desire to be accurately informed. He will draw his
conclusions largely from his own observations ; but he takes
advantage of such careful " Studies of Childhood " as
Professor Sully has recently collected, of the results of
Christian experience, and of the unerring guidance of the
New Testament.

There is one element of confusion from which at the
outset we may keep our subject clear. The idea that the
child comes into the world under God's wrath and curse,
and that, if he dies in infancy, he is excluded from God's
presence, has no place in our belief. Equally foreign to it
is the corresponding doctrine, that by the waters of baptism
the sinful little soul is washed white and made a possessor
of eternal life. We know no distinction between infants
baptized and unbaptized. The blessing of our Lord fell upon
all children, when He took the little ones of Capernaum
in His arms and claimed them as His own.

The child comes into the world, it is true, with an
inheritance of evil. The signs of a Fall, for which any
authentic theory of evolution must find room, soon make
themselves manifest, and a bias is disclosed which could not
have sprung from the will of the Creator. But this is not
his only inheritance. His nature is like a pool where sweet
and bitter waters mingle, or like a plant with a root of one
kind and a graft of another. A pure and pious ancestry
may bequeath its benediction to the generations that follow
in an innate disposition to virtue and godliness. But above
all, the impress of the Father of spirits is to be discerned.
The child arrives already to some extent furnished and
prepared for the life which he has to lead. There are signs
soon evident of an Origin as well as of a Fall ; of moral

OJ^

THE ANCIENT FAITH IN MODERN LIGHT

faculties which are surely direct gifts from God ; of a per-
sonal will, apart from all heredity, which will presently
make it possible for him to appropriate the revelations of
heavenly love, and so to overcome the less favourable
tendencies of his nature and environment.

No one who knows children would venture to claim
for them the reputation of angels or saints, Saintliness
and the deeper spirituality are the attainment of long
and painful experience. The innocence of childhood is
beautiful ; but it is of an equilibrium as unstable as that
of primitive man. If " sin is lawlessness," ^ the germs of
it may very early be detected in the child. " I won't "
and " I don't care " — words which so soon find utterance
— betray at least a certain moral imperfection. The cool
falsehoods of some children, the mean excuses of others,
the bursts of passion, the signs of greed or jealousy or
even malice, are not, it is true, to be judged too seriously
in such youthful culprits ; but they are the seed out of
which may easily develop the sins and shames of later life.
Even among some of those brought up under religious
influence there arise sad instances of evil which show the
unregenerate nature, active from an early age, and too
strong for ordinary education. There are few grown boys
or girls whom we need hesitate to teach what was taught
with many proofs and particulars a generation ago, that
they have " sinned against God in thought, word, and deed,
and deserved His anger." To exclude the mention of sin
is to attempt to obliterate a spiritual fact. Experienced
observers express no uncertainty here. " I am daily more
and more struck," wrote Dr. Arnold from the midst of his
Rugby work, " with the difficulty of meeting the various
temptations, both intellectual and moral, which stand
in the way of boys ; a school shows as undisguisedly as
any place the corruption of human nature, and the

^ I John iii. 4.

CHRISTIANITY AND THE CHILD 33 1

monstrous adv'antasje with which evil starts in its contest
with good." ^

On the other hand, the child comes up into life with
many right dispositions, and many splendid capacities for
good. His endless questions about God and the unseen
disclose a surprising readiness of understanding. He is
eager to know all that we can tell him on such themes, and
full of quaint fancies and ingenious explanations of his own.
He can submit cheerfully to law as well as defy it. Like
his elders, he approves the right even when he follows the
wrong. He is capable of self-sacrifice as well as self-
seeking. He can readily be taught to pray ; and his
prayers are often of the most sincere and pathetic character.
Love to God and an anxious desire to please Him are
sometimes manifest at a very early age. It is untrue to
speak of the child nature as utterly depraved. Examples
of depravity can easily be presented, and considering the
environments in which they are formed, they are not sur-
prising. But in the heart of the roughest lads, if only the
teacher digs deep enough, he comes at last to the waters of
repentance ; and from the same class the " Boys' Brigades "
are fast producing an altogether unexpected power of order
and obedience. Capacity for uprightness and honour, for
kindness and generosity, for religious faith and loyalty,
shows itself among all classes of our English youth. And,
indeed, most of us can point to some favoured instances in
which children seem to grow up almost without blame,
so consistent is their conduct and so sweet and devout
their disposition.

There is an aspect, therefore, of the nature of the child
in which its movements need to be developed rather tlian
repressed. The moral faculty waits to be instructed, and
the religious experience to be cultivated and confirmed.

" To live by duty is in itself rudimentary religion."
' .Arnold's Life and Correspondence, \'ol. i. p. 33S.

332 THE ANCIENT FAITH IN MODERN LIGHT

Morality is the basis of religion. The theologians of the
past generation might have objected to the statement ; but
it would be well if in our practical instructions we laid the
stress which they laid on morality. For indeed the Ten
Commandments, wisely understood, have as real a bearing
on religion as the Lord's Prayer. " Thou shalt," and " Thou
shalt not," make plain the path of the child, and hedge it
in with wholesome warning and restriction, " Children,
obey " is the one special word which Paul addresses to the
young.^ Let obedience take the wider form and breathe
the warmer spirit of the Sermon on the Mount, and it is
already the germ of faith and love. Encourage the child to
be dutiful to his parents, and affectionate and self-forgetful,
and you have prepared him to accept the higher obligations ;
and if he is willing to accept the obligations of religion, he
is not far from accepting its offers of strength and salvation.
A child's religious experience is often very beautiful
and true. It is also as a matter of course imperfect and
onesided ; and the earnest teacher has often been in too
much haste to correct it. He has tried to fix the child's
thoughts in a particular mould, or to force them to an
unnatural maturity. He has been dissatisfied unless the
child could feel himself a great sinner, and accept in all its
fulness the divine way of salvation. Sometimes words ot
ecstatic devotion have been put into his lips ; or a public
confession of faith has been prematurely asked of him, and,
perhaps, prematurely made, with unhappy consequences at
a later stage. Now all these things may properly follow
as his experience increases ; but a child should be allowed
to remain a child. " Line upon line " is the rule to be
observed in his instruction. Let him yield Jesus frank
and loyal service, and pray with unquestioning trust to his

Obedience, prompt, implicit, and almost unconscious, is the first
thing to be taught to a child ; and he can have no peace for his soul
without it."— Sir Henry Taylor.

CHRISTIANITY AND THE CHILD ^^^

Father in heaven ; and by degrees the deeper sense of things
will dawn. Let him be taught to Hsten to the voice of
conscience, and he will soon discover the reality of sin and
the need of pardon. Let him be encouraged to fight his
own battle, and sense of his weakness will awaken the cry
for heavenly aid. In many instances our young pilgrims
may pass onward from grace to grace, not without many
faults and shortcomings, but spared at least the dreary
waste of ungodly years, or the catastrophe of a great trans-
gression. The blossom may fall, but the fruit will follow ;
and we might be more successful in our spiritual husbandry,
if we acted more on this expectation.

Such a conception of the child's religious life in no way
contradicts the necessity for conversion. Conversion is
turning to God, and turning to God may be the work of an
instant or the gradual movement of years. Those are the
most striking instances in which the turning-point is marked,
as in the case of Saul of Tarsus or Augustine, by a voice
from heaven at a given time and place ; but conversion is
as true when it comes slowly like the verdure of an English
spring. Those who seem to us the best and most blame-
less will respond to the appeal to " turn to God." They,
too, are conscious of having " turned every one to his own
way." Struggles pass in their young hearts of which they
rarely speak. They have convictions of sin which, if they
were freely uttered, would astonish us. They understand
the Parable of the Barren Fig Tree. They understand that
of the Prodigal Son, and it is often with tears and prayers
like his that they arise and come to their Father.

It is most desirable that all young persons, before they
pass into manhood or womanhood, should be personally
confronted with their duty in this respect. The Church of
England has its Confirmation Service ; and a hallowed hour
it has been to many of her sons when, with their own con-
sent, they were pledged to " confess the faith of Christ

334 THE ANCIENT p-AITH IN MODERN LIGHT

crucified, and to continue His faithful soldiers and servants
unto their life's end." We also ought to summon our boys
and girls to decision in the same great Name, It should
be made less easy than it often is for them to slip out into
the world unconverted. For to do so is to miss their
grandest opportunity. " Rejoice that such a word as con-
version, signifying such a thing, has come to light in our
modern era. Here a man's spiritual majority commences ;
henceforth he works in well-doing with the spirit and clear
aims of a man." ^

" All things are of God " ; and the regenerating grace
of His Spirit is as active in the development of the new life
in Timothy as in the sudden awakening of the Philippian
jailer. We hold as firmly as our fathers held the necessity
for the new birth. Perhaps we look for the traces of it
over a wider field. It is always God who works in us for
our salvation, whether He snatches a wandering sheep out
of the very jaws of the lion, or leads the lambs of His flock
forth along the paths of peace. " We know that everyone
that doeth righteousness is born of Him." "

2. TJie Child's TJioughts of God and the Unseen Wor/d

A firm belief in an unseen world seems to be among
the earliest experiences of the child. His imagination
quickly seizes on the dream of a fairyland peopled with
mysterious forms and full of unlikely adventures. More
serious teaching prompts him to construct a heaven, if not
also a hell, after his own mind, and to fill it with orders of
supernatural beings. There is perhaps no direction in
which, without scorning his flights of fancy, it is more
necessary to guide and sober them. We do not grudge
him his glowing material conception of heaven. Streets of
gold, a shining river, palms and crowns and a white-robed
multitude stand as inspired parables of the eternal fact.

^ Carlyle, Sartor Resartus^ ii. lo. - i John ii. 29.

CHRISTIANITY AND THE CHILD 335

But when it is believed, as some American children are said
to believe, that " good people, when they die, go to the
country," or that God "lives up on the hill," and can be
approached by climbing the apple tree,^ there is surely room
for a little spiritual colouring to be added to the materialism
of the thought. A child may easily be made to understand
that heaven is first a character and then a place, and that
to cultivate the character is the best way toward under-
standing the place. It is a change almost entirely for the
better that the continual mention of heaven and its angelic
inhabitants, once so marked a feature in children's hymns
and stories, has given place to a more robust and practical
presentation of the Christian life.

Whatever weight we may attach to Satanic influence,
the less our children think of it the better. Their minds
are singularly apt to weave the notion of the devil into all
kinds of forms, some horrible and some merely grotesque.
Both the alarm and the amusement thus occasioned are
unhealthy. Mephistopheles may be very real to the man ;
there is no need for him to be allowed to haunt the child.
His very image should be kept far in the background.
" Do you not believe in the devil, sir ? " was once asked of
Robert Hall. " No, sir," he replied ; " I believe in God."
He well knew the power of the enemy ; but his faith was
fixed on his everlasting Friend.

The first idea of God which a child naturally receives
is from the watchful and tender mother, and it becomes
the idea of a Providence. " He keeps me from harm by
night and by day, and He is always doing me good," is
the earliest confession of the child's faith ; it often remains
the principal religious conviction of the man. With the
attempts at prayer, that dim sense of Providence con-
denses into the clearer thought of a Father in heaven ;
and this should by degrees develop into a persuasion of
• Sully, Studies of Childhood^ pp. 122, 126.

^2,6 THE ANCIENT FAITH IN MODERN LIGHT

the present Friend and Helper, waiting to be gracious,
to forgive, and to restore. The love of God is the con-
stant element and the frequent theme of our religious
instructions. No theological scruple need now paralyse the
mother's tongue, or leave the earnest child trembling in the
chill of the outer courts. The universal Fatherhood, of
course, embraces him, and the tenderest illustrations drawn
from human love are applicable to the divine.

It is perhaps more necessary to be reminded that the
thought of sovereignty must go side by side with that of
Fatherhood. There is an easy and familiar conception of
God's goodness which robs Him of all dignity and all
authority. It was never more necessary to teach the
child that in the human family the father is also the king.
But the Heavenly Father is the Supreme King; in His
discipline " all's love, yet all's law," The child must never
be allowed to suppose that God can be weak or variable.
He must be taught that the law of right and wrong is
God's law ; that conscience is God's voice ; that penalty
follows sin, and is God's judgment; and that God's eye
watches him, justly and kindly, moment by moment.
Children, it is said, will not now brook the thought of
God's omniscience. " I'm very sorry, dear, I can't believe
you," was the rejoinder of one precocious little man of three
years old to his sister's teaching on the subject.-^ If the
truth was put in the threatening and hostile tone once so
common, such scepticism would not be surprising. But
the image of the Father's loving and searching eye, if at
times unwelcome, is not incredible even to the youngest.
No motive is better fitted to penetrate the child's mind with
a wholesome reverence and awe. Let it be coupled with
the thought of stainless holiness, unerring justice, and tender
consideration and compassion, and it becomes one of the
strongest aids in the formation of a true religious principle.
^ Sully, Studies of Childhood, p. 129.

CHRISTIANITY AND THE CHILD 337

The old Hebrew Psalm, which presents the all-encompass-
ing Jehovah in such imposing forms, overawes, but does not
embitter or confuse ; and its issue is a prayer full of child-
like confidence and hope," Lead me in the way everlasting."
No opportunity should be lost of impressing on the
child's mind the majesty of the Creator. Simple and
picturesque his thought of God must be ; but with the
wonders of the universe in view, it need never be allowed
to become mean or unworthy.^ The youngest mind may
be led upward to the throne by the splendour of a starry
night, or the roll of the ocean, or the yearly miracle of
spring. Nor need the child lose his wonder as he advances
in his knowledge. His new conceptions of the order and
immensity of nature ; of the vast prehistoric ages, and the
immeasurable spaces in which countless systems roll ; of
the wonders of the infinitely little, and the complex pro-
cesses that have issued in the life of the world of to-day,
should but kindle his apprehension of the Infinite God
from whom all things proceed. It is not science that
makes our young agnostics ; it is the want of a positive
religious belief, such as should have been interwoven with
their earliest impressions. A child trained to believe in
the Creator interprets the fuller discoveries of riper years
in the light of his faith. The steady ascent of the hill of
knowledge does not dwarf the height of the heavens ;
from the summit they seem to soar even more glorious
than from the plain —

" At Nature dost thou shrink amazed ?
God is it that transcends."

It is urged that we cannot point out to our children
the mind of the Creator at work in the direct and specific
way in which we ourselves were taught to discern it. The

'"The little brain,"' mixing; religious instruction and fairy-lore
together, is apt to " picture God as an angry or amiable old giant."
— Sully, Studits of Childhood, p. 125.
22

338 THE ANCIENT FAITH IN MODERN LIGHT

form and colour and perfume of a flower were once accounted
for by the answer, God made it so. They are now explained
by the history of the species, and the action of its environ-
ment. The botanist, it is suggested, has superseded the
theologian. In point of fact, he has been his assistant.
The more curious and complex the natural evolution, the
more admirable must be the intelligence which has assured
so fine an issue from so remote an origin. And the vaster
the universe appears, with the ever -fresh discoveries of
science, the more majestic is the power which created and
sustains the whole —

" A motion and a spirit that impels
All thinking things, all objects of all thought,
And rolls through all things."

We may still tell the child, God made the flowers.
He can be no more denied His own flowers than, to adapt
an expression of Mr. Romanes,^ He can be denied His own
universe. Train the child's eye to observe all the delicate
processes of natural causation ; but accustom his mind to
travel upward to the source of life, and to discern every-
where the present God. The example of men like Faraday
and Clerk Maxwell shows how fitly a childlike faith may
blend with the largest knowledge and the strongest under-
standing.

Such an assurance enables us to give the child, not
only a just conception of the universe, but a fuller and
worthier thought of God. It is this august Creator to
whom he prays, who watches over him, whom he calls
his Father. It is this vast and profound intelligence
which searches his heart, weighs his actions, and controls
his destiny. These lips of thunder pronounce his pardon,
and he may find his home and shelter in these everlasting
arms. It gives a new grandeur to the gospel when he is

1 " God is still grudged His own nn'wtvsQ:' — Thoughts ojt Religion,
p. 122.

CIIKISTIAMTV Ai\D THE CHILD 339

taught to recognise in Jesus, half-concealed behind the veil
of his human nature, the very Word of God, by whom all
things were made.

3. The Child and our Lord Jesus Christ

Jesus Christ is emphatically the children's Friend, and
they should be allowed to draw their impression of Him
direct from His own life and lips. It was usual, not so
very long ago, to present II im even to the young in the
full panoply of theological definition as " the Redeemer of
Ciod's elect, the eternal Son of God, God and man in two
distinct natures and one person for ever." All a mother's
tact and tenderness must have been needed to bring out of
that description a Jesus whom her boy could love. The
true method is to start from the historical and the human
side, and so to come gradually to the conviction that He
whose footsteps we trace is the Divine Saviour of the
world.

The teacher's first endeavour, therefore, must be to
plant " the story of Christ " firmly in the memory, the
understanding, and the heart. The very structure of the
New Testament canon shows how carefully this was pro-
vided for in the first ages of the Church. The Gospels
hold the place of honour ; and of the Gospels, the Synoptic
narratives, with their homely tale of all that Jesus did and
taught, precede the more elaborate memoirs of John. John
begins his Epistle by founding all that is to follow on the his-
tory of which he and his brethren had been eye-witnesses.
The history is presupposed in the other Epistles. It is the
scientific order ; first the facts, then the inferences and the
laws. " A certain nucleus of ascertained fact has been in
all ages regarded as a needful prerequisite of faith." ^ The
evangelists, it is evident, thought no pains too great in
order to secure to young and old an accurate and con-
' F. W. Myers, Science ami a Future Life, p. 122.

340 THE ANCIENT FAITH IN MODERN LIGHT

nected view of the whole course of events from the first to
the last.^

The utmost value is to be attached to whatever may help
to make the gospel narrative vivid and impressive to the
mind of the child. Travel and research have now almost
reproduced for us the environment of actual scenery and
human life in which it was enacted. The poorest child can
tell, from the maps and prints on the schoolroom walls,
where the Lake of Galilee or the Mount of Olives
lie, and what they are like ; he has before his eyes the
image of the Pharisee, and the Roman soldier, and the
Arab robber from the desert ; he can picture the kind of
home in which Jesus lived, the food He ate, the dress He
wore, the boat He sailed in, the Cross on which He suffered,
and the sepulchre from which He rose. It is a pleasant
province of the teacher's art to bring such illustrations to
bear on the various scenes in the history, and to add others
drawn from his own larger information. But another
element must be also supplied before the sacred story is
made real. The heavenly atmosphere is as essential to its
understanding as the earthly environment. The soul of
the thing has to be reached. No painting of the contours
and colours of Hermon, however exact and vivid, can
make us feel the Transfiguration as it really was ; it
needs the spiritual touch of a Raphael. No traveller's
description of Bethlehem or Calvary can bring the child
much nearer to the Cradle or the Cross ; Mrs. Alexander's
simple hymns will make them both leap to life in his
ready imagination. " Ecce Homo," even on the lowest
view of what He was, involves so much more than the
colour of the robe He wore, or the species of the thorns
which formed His crown ! The child's mind is ready for
the whole fact in all its wonder and mystery ; and the
teacher's task is not fulfilled till he has led him to the
' Luke i. 1-4 ; Acts i. 1-3 ; John \x. 30, 31.

CHRISTIANITY AND THE CHILD 34 1

heart of the story, and presented Jesus in some measure as
He was.

We thus approach our Lord's Person on His human
side, and allow the Son of Man to become His own
interpreter. It is the course recommended to us by His
training of the first disciples. " Not direct dogmatic asser-
tions about Himself led up to the first Christian con-
fession, Thou are the Christ, the Son of the living God,
but the united and accumulated impression of all He was
and did, upon a sincere and receptive soul." ^ Let a
child be taught to watch Jesus at His work, healing the
leper, comforting the widow, forgiving the sinful, raising
the dead, and he will find out for himself how wonderful
He is ; he will be prepared to hear of the saving virtue of
His death, and he will not be startled at His resurrection
and ascension.

After the opening glories of the birth, which colour all
that follows, the learner will be led, by the short glimpses
of the boyhood, to think of Jesus as his pattern of
obedience, piety, and faithfulness in common things. The
example has itself an immense attraction, and no one
appreciates it more keenly than an intelligent child. It
starts from his own level in the quiet home at Nazareth ; it
leads him on by its purity, its gentleness, its tender compas-
sion and benevolence ; and if it ov^erawes him at last by its
sublime self-sacrifice, it only confirms his admiration. The
enthusiasm which an ordinary gathering of men can be
roused to exhibit at the name of Jesus, shows how deep a
dint must have been made by I lis character on their hearts
in younger and more susceptible days.

Starting from the example, we arrive at the words antl

the works of Jesus. They form one great revelation of

truth ; for the works are " signs," and every miracle is also

a parable of grace. The child is at home with the Great

' Denney, Studies in Theology, p. 25

342 THE ANCIENT FAITH IN MODERN LIGHT

Teacher. Philosophers cannot exhaust that heavenly
wisdom ; but it is " revealed to babes." Clearer perhaps to
them than it sometimes is to us, is the vision of the king-
dom which He came to establish, and over which He rules.
They can understand that its citizens must be the humble
and the holy and those who hunger after righteousness.
They can appreciate the beauty of its laws, under which all
are to care for one another, and to do right without seek-
ing for reward. They see that they have only to be true
children, simple and trustful, in order to belong to it them-
selves. No less transparent to them is the thought of
the Father in heaven, who cares for the lilies and the
sparrows, and to whom we pray alike for the coming of
the kingdom and for daily bread. By the Parable of the
Barren Fig Tree they learn how neglect and ingratitude are
sins. From that of the Publican and Pharisee they are
taught humility. Faith shows itself in the cries and move-
ments of Bartimaeus ; and every blind eye opened and
every palsy healed becomes a picture of salvation. The
child looks and listens and believes ; for, as Vinet has said,
" faith is simple looking, as a child looks, with no attempt
to analyse the object, but receiving it just as it is into the
soul."

So, line upon line, he learns of Jesus ; and if the pro-
cess has been wisely ordered, the theological result will not
be seriously wrong. The child's idea will answer to
Peter's great confession. There is little need, by arguments
from without, to prove Him divine : the difficulty is to
imagine that He can be anything else. The word atone-
ment may scarcely have arrested his attention ; the various
theories that attempt to explain it are beyond his depth ;
but he sings his simple creed and understands it —

" He died that \vc might be forgiven.
He died to make us good ;
That we might go at last to heaven,
Saved by His precious blood."

CHRISTIANITY AND THE CHILD 343

Nor, with the great sacrifice in view, need he take long to
learn that salvation is free, needing no sacrament to con-
vey, no priest to mediate, no Church to confirm it ; " it is
Christ that died," and rose and reigns.

It must be the living Christ, our Advocate before the
throne, and through His Spirit the indwelling life of our
souls, in whom the child is encouraged to believe. " Every
child, before it is capable of choice," says Dr. Dale, " is
environed by Christ's protection and grace ; and its earliest
moral life may be a life in Christ." ^ Surely, if the
assurance may be given to any portion of the flock that
the Good Shepherd is close at hand with a personal
knowledge and care for all, it must be to the lambs whom
He carries in His bosom. They cannot be too soon
accustomed to hear His call and look up into His face.
A child's prayers indeed take for granted that Jesus is
quite near, that He understands everything, that He inter-
cedes for us with God. Luther's little daughter was
sometimes surer of it, as her father confesses, than Luther
himself. The boy -martyrs of the early age went in that
persuasion cheerful to their cruel death ; and Savonarola's
glowing faith found no response in all Florence like that
which came from the youthful bands whom he sent singing
the Saviour's praises through its streets. It is still an
immense moral and spiritual reinforcement, when children
feel the Divine Saviour at their side and in their hearts.
It gives a clear centre to their thoughts ; it makes it
easy to conceive of God as approachable, a Father to be
loved as well as feared. It nerves the young heart
to withstand temptation, and bear pain, and overcome
the dread of ridicule, and breast the stiff ascent of
unwelcome duty. It ma)^ well be believed that the
presence of the Lord was hardly more real and precious
to Moffat or Paton when the spear of the savage was
^ lectures on the Epistle to tJic Ephcsians, p. 379.

344 THE ANCIENT FAITH IN MODERN LIGHT

pointed at their breasts, than it is to many an EngHsh
boy standing up to-day among his schoolfellows for
conscience and for Christ.

Thus by their own simple experience may our chil-
dren be taught the meaning of " the communion of the
Holy Spirit"; and, without any elaborate definition of the
Trinity, be led on to associate it with " the grace of the
Lord Jesus Christ " and " the love of God." The whole
gospel is theirs as well as ours. It is " not by lowering
the truth, but by raising the mind," that the end we have
in view for them is reached.

4. TJie CJiild and the Church

The distinctive mark of the Christian Church is its
spiritual character. The nation represents unity of race ;
the family, unity of parentage ; the political party, unity of
opinion ; but the Church " is held together by unity oi
faith." ^ Nor is this unity of faith simply intellectual and
doctrinal ; it is even more the unity of soul, which knits a
man by bonds of trust and love, first to his Lord, and then
to all his brethren. Wherever a company of such disciples
is found, however small and obscure, there is a Church.
Where that spiritual mark is wanting, there may be creeds
and confessions, sacraments and priesthood, an establish-
ment of religion and all the externals of worship, but there
is no Church in the Christian sense, for a Church is com-
posed of saints. Now the saintly character, even in its
germ, is the result of a personal conversion. Christians are
not born Christians ; they become Christians by their
obedience to the call of God and the inward working of
His Spirit. The basis of church membership is the trust
of the whole soul in Jesus Christ as Saviour and King, the

^ Westcott, Epistles of St. John, Essay on "The Church and the
World," p. 248.

CHRISTIANITY AND THE CHILD 345

surrender of the will to His authority, and the confession of
His name.^

The fitness or unfitness of a child for membership,
therefore, is not to be decided by his age. Youth is no
disqualification. Just as the phrase "adult baptism" be-
trays a misconception of the position of Baptists, so to
confine the fellowship of the Church to persons of an older
growth is to mistake the principle on which that fellowship
rests. It is the baptism of believers that Baptists teach
and practise, and the ordinance is refused to no one on the
score of his youth. So into the privileges of the Church
Baptists and Independents welcome with equal warmth
" both young men and maidens, old men and children," if
only they " belong to Christ." It may be expedient, in
certain circumstances, that a very young disciple should,
for his own sake, wait until he has had some opportunity
to test his loyalty by contact with a larger world. It is
unadvisable even to attempt to force our older boys and
girls into the Church. Let them come of their own accord.
But when the desire appears intelligent and well founded,
we cannot resist it ; for the Church is the household of
faith, and the youngest believer has a right to be there.

The same principle, however, equally requires that we
do not receive children into membership merely because
they are children. The Church should cherish all children
with the tenderest care, and, both in home and school,
encompass them with holy influences ; but the profession of
faith in Christ must be their personal choice. It is not
children as baptized children, or as children of believing
parents, who are citizens of the kingdom of heaven ; but
children in whom the spiritual ideal of childhood is in some
measure realised. Neither birth nor baptism avails here,
but " faith which worketh by love " ; and what admits to

' .See the excellent Primer of Cliurch Fellowship for Use in Con-
jrregational Churches, pp. 22-26.

346 THE ANCIENT FAITH IN MODERN LIGHT

the kingdom admits also to the Church. The ancient gloss
on the narrative of Philip and the Ethiopian still holds
o-ood : " if thou believest with all thy heart, thou mayest."
So considered, church membership appears in its true
di^-nity as neither a dead form nor a barren sentiment, but
the natural expression of a valid and joyful experience.

It is the reality of the whole thing that we chiefly
desire to impress upon our children. We are jealous for
Congregational Church principles, not from a mere sectarian
prejudice, but from the conviction that they embody, more
closely than any others, the New Testament idea and the
purpose of Christ. We are often reminded that our
practice falls short of our principles, and we do not deny
it ; but it is better to strive after the real than to be con-
tented with the unreal. It was no shadow for which our
fathers strove and suffered when they stood alike against
Prelatist and Puritan for the freedom and spirituality of the
Churches ; nor must we fail in holding fast and handing-
down the same immortal principle to the generation
following. But we do not train them to be chiefly con-
troversialists ; we are more anxious that they should find
a strength for their own inner life in the Church of Jesus
Christ ; a true home, and a school of sacred learning, and
an exercise-ground where they may be trained for the
service of their fellow-men.

Canon Gore has drawn a vivid and attractive picture,
from his own point of view, of the Church as the Household
of Grace.^ He represents her as receiving the newborn
child into her arms at baptism, and making him thereby a
member of Christ. As childhood ripens into youth, she
meets him in Confirmation with the gift of the Holy Ghost,
and thereafter nourishes his new life with the body and
blood of Jesus. If he wanders, she revives and restores
him with the sacrament of penance. She sanctifies his
^ Creed of a CJirisltaii, pp. 76, 77.

CHKISTIAMTV AND THE CHILD 34/

marriage with her benediction ; slie comes to him in sick-
ness with the holy oil or other holy ministries ; and, in
the last great issue, it is she who " ushers his soul into the
unseen world."

Such a description does not commend itself to our
acceptance, however it may awaken our interest ; for it
seems to us to set the Church, her ministers, and her
sacraments, where only Christ should be. But if we reject
that picture, we may substitute for it one of our own. The
parent among us is left at first with the whole responsibility
for the child. The Church has its classes and its services
where it rejoices to receive him, and where ministers and
teachers do their utmost for his good ; and the members of
the Church are usually full of a warm interest in one
another's families. But no one comes between child and
parent ; and if the parent fulfils his duty, there is no need
for other teachers ; for no religious influence can be so
beneficial as a Christian mother's personal instructions.
Only when the child expresses a desire to make a pro-
fession of his faith does the Church directly intervene.
Then, according to Congregational order, the name is
announced at a meeting of the members ; the community
inquire into the application, and the community receive the
candidate. He takes his place at the Table of the Lord,
welcomed with the right hand of fellowship, recognised as a
brother, and henceforth watched over as a son. His own
friends and his father's friends gather round him with con-
gratulations on his decision and prayers for his perseverance.
He feels himself one of the Lord's household ; and there, as
the years pass on, he finds his truest happiness. The com-
munion (love-feast and memorial service in one) binds him
constantly afresh to his Saviour and his Christian comrades.
Somewhere in the Church's enterprises he is introduced to
his own post of service, and contributes in his measure to
its usefulness. He also, when the time comes for him

34^ THE ANCIENT FAITH IN MODERN LIGHT

to marry, receives the benediction of the Church, as
precious to him as if it were called a sacrament ; if he
falls ill, he is sustained by the visits and the prayers of his
brethren ; if he wanders or grows cold, they seek him out
and labour to restore him ; and when death is drawing
near, they encompass him with the strong sympathy of
devout hearts, more effectual than any sacred wafer or
priestly absolution. That, at least, is the ideal which we
cherish ; and that is what we desire our children to find in
the " household of faith."

The Church, however, is more than a home. The days
arc past when a young Christian might settle down, unre-
proved, to the enjoyment of his own privileges and the care
of his own soul. There is rather on his own part likely to
be " a longing for something more magnanimous than the
calm and indulgent Christianity "i which is still not un-
common. There are budding Greathearts among our sons;
and if some of our daughters are adorned with the meek
and quiet spirit of Mercy, others are as brave as Christiana.
It should not be necessary for such ardent spirits to leave
the fellowship of the Church in search of adventure. The
Church should be a centre of lofty opportunities and aspira-
tions, like King Arthur's hall at Camelot —

" Where every morning brought a noble chance,
And every chance drew forth a noble knight."

But so also should it be a training-ground for the feebler
and less enterprising. Even the blind and the lame must
have some post found for them on the walls of our
Jerusalem ; for the law of the kingdom is, " to every one
his work," A youth or maiden may have at first to
be contented with a humble office, and must follow rather
than lead ; but the sacred discipline will have begun ; and
as the French soldier is said to carry a marshal's baton in his

' The words were used of Alice Le Strange, afterwards Mrs.
Laurence Oliphant.

CHRISTIANITY AND THE CHILD 349

knapsack, so, from teaching the youngest group of children
in the Sunday school, or managing the smallest department
of the Guild, a way may open to the career of the preacher,
the missionary, or the social reformer. The business of the
Church is to keep the sacred passion of humanity alive in
the hearts of her children, and to prepare them to become,
by their Master's grace, the benefactors of the world.

The Church must continue to instruct as well as inspire ;
for growth in knowledge is necessary in order to sustained
and effectual endeavour. Our young converts, indeed,
according to the suggestions of this Essay, are alread}'
scholars in the elements of divine learning, and that scholar-
ship will be of signal value. They will be able at once to
impart simple lessons from the Bible with intelligence and
effect, or to explain to an inquirer what he must do to be
saved. But the more they are called to teach others, the
more eager they should be to advance themselves. The
student of medicine goes from his clinical practice in the
hospital back to his lecture-room and his books. Practice
makes his eye keen and his hand expert, but science must
guide them both. Sometimes a young Christian becomes
so soon absorbed in active service that his own learning
comes to a standstill. He may do excellent work; but it
will be a lifelong weakness and regret that he did not stay
longer in the school of divine knowledge, and that no
Aquila and Priscilla were found to " expound to him the
way of God more carefully." Let the Churcn see to it that
her teachers are taught, and that her evangelists have a full
apprehension of the gospel which they preach. Where the
home and the school have laid the foundation, let the pre-
paration class, the biblical lecture, the library, the exposi-
tions of the pulpit, build up the solid walls of truth. The
wise damsels of the House Beautiful take Christiana's boys
in hand on their arrival, test their acquirements, approve
their answers, and proceed to instruct them further. They

350 THE ANCIENT FAITH IN MODERN LIGHT

do not spare the noble Christian himself. They have him
not only into the armoury, but into the study ; " and there
they read to him records of the greatest antiquity, and
showed him the pedigree of the Lord of the hill, and the
acts that He had done, and the names of His servants, and
many other famous things." " These," says Bunyan, " are
among the rarities of that place " ; and, thus instructed, the
pilgrim went forth to enlighten and edify the weaker souls
he met with in the way.

There are changes even among the inmates of the
Palace Beautiful ; and it is impossible for modern church
members to discourse together in the language which
sounds so natural and appropriate from the lips of Prudence,
Piety, and Charity. Every age must have its own forms of
Christian language and thought. Our children's children
will not use the exact dialect in which we speak one with
another of eternal things. The expression may be allowed
to vary, if the substance remains. Every night, in the old
village life, the bank of wood or turf which had built up the
tribal fire was swept away, and another w^as constructed in
the morning. But one glowing ember was selected, care-
fully placed upon the hearth, and covered over with ashes.
It was called " the seed of fire." The fuel for the new day
was piled round it, and caught from it heat and light.
Theological systems are the construction of the age, and
every generation may be left to build its own. But here
also the " seed of fire " is a sacred trust. The central
faith, " once for all delivered to the saints," has been
reverently preserved and handed down from the days of
the apostles ; it has warmed and comforted us ; and we in
turn bequeath it to our children. That fire, indeed, burns
on the altar of the penitent and loving heart in every
generation, and shall never go out ; for it is " the word of
■God which liveth and abideth for ever."

IX
THE PULPIT AND THP: PRESS

By J. GUINNESS ROGERS

361

The Pulpit and the Press

It is not too much to say of the Christian preacher, what
was once said of the Church, of which he is one of the most
conspicuous agencies, that he has been and is " everywhere
spoken against." It must be added that, the higher his sense
of his vocation and the more fully he realises it, the keener
will this criticism become. If he be faithful, he must be a
power, and a power which must be obnoxious to all the evil
against which it is directed. Were he simply a lecturer on
some subject of general interest — on science or literature,
politics or ethics — he would be sure to provoke some com-
ments more or less hostile, as well as others of a friend!}-
character. His teaching would probably become the subject
of controversy, and be discussed with more or less feeling ;
but the feeling would be imported, since it is not necessarily
involved in the difference of opinion on any scientific or
literary subject. It will probably not be often absent, for
the differences are so often due to the temperament, or the
training, or the surroundings of the disputants, that warmth
of feeling is very easily induced. But in the case of a
preacher it is present from the first He speaks with an
authority which itself provokes revolt. He is charged with
a message from God, and on that very account has to meet
with hostile criticism. Certainly he of all men has reason
to distrust himself when all men speak well of him. The
world has not so entirely changed its character that he can
retain its favour, and, at the same time, be faithful to the
gospel which he is commissioned to preach.
23

354 THE ANCIENT FAITH IN MODERN LIGHT

It is here that one of the chief practical difficulties of
a minister of Christ is found. If he does not reach his
audience, he is regarded, perhaps comes to regard himself, as
a failure. The peril is lest he should seek to secure hearers
by appeals which lose sight of the highest ends of his
mission, and which, in fact, mean infidelity to his trust.
Popularity, it is a mere truism to say, is not a conclusive nor,
indeed, an essential element of success. John the Baptist
was a mighty preacher, and yet his was the voice of one
crying in the wilderness. For a time he attracted crowds,
but they did not believe, and he soon found himself deserted.
A preacher may be forced into this splendid isolation if he
would be faithful, and the loss of popularity may in reality
be the most striking evidence of his real greatness and
power. A prophet has simply to publish the message of
God that (to use the expressive words of Ezekiel), whether
men will hear or whether they will forbear, yet shall know
that a prophet hath been among them. The supreme con-
sideration for him is, that he be true to the trust committed
to him.

But while a faithful servant of Christ may often have
to forego all chances of personal distinction, sometimes to
separate himself from chosen friends, and continually to
expose himself to misconstruction, this is hardly his
normal position. Nor is it one which a man of sane mind
would willingly choose for himself. His ardent desire — that
which must, indeed, be the passion of his soul — is to save
men. But how can he hope to save them unless he can
secure an audience from them ? While, therefore, he has at
times to set his face like a flint, and, indeed, must be ready
to do it at all times rather than compromise his message in
a solitary point, he has, so far as fidelity to his great com-
mission permits, to set himself to secure the attention, win
the sympathy, persuade the understanding, awake the con-
science of men. " Knowing, therefore, the fear of the Lord,

THE PULPIT AND THE PRESS 355

we persuade men," and in order to effect this, Paul tells us that
he " became all things to all men." That single phrase is of
itself sufficient to indicate the difficulty of the situation.
Interpret it as the apostle did in his whole spirit and conduct,
and it is a description of one of the grandest of human lives.
Here is a man who is able to cast away all his own prejudices,
to be indifferent to all considerations of personal feeling or
glory, to put himself in touch with the thought and sentiment
of other men at the furthest possible remove from his own, to
study and humour their weaknesses, to sympathise with their
difficulties and doubts — simply in order that he may help
them in the battle of life. Clearly everything depends on the
motive. Change that, and alas ! it is only too easily changed,
so that a purely unselfish desire to glorify God in the salva-
tion of men sinks into a base and sordid ambition for
personal aggrandisement, and the whole character of the
man's work is debased accordingly. The line of action is
largely the same. There is the same close study of
humanity, the same elasticity of thought and expression in
the effort to meet even its caprices, the same anxious care
to avoid that which gives offence, and to play upon all the
peculiar tastes and fancies of the individual. But every
trace of nobility is gone, and the whole action is degraded
into a piece of mere selfish scheming of the most unworthy
kind. The lowering of the motive must have some effect
even upon the methods employed ; for men will stoop to
actions for the purpose of securing their own personal ends
from which they would have turned away with scorn and
loathing had they been possessed by the Christlike passion
for saving the lost. Still the essential difference is in the
one motive, and the struggle of the Christian preacher is,
while following the example of the great apostle, to keep
his heart unspotted from the world.

It is necessary to point out how difficult this must often
be. The man, who has given himself to the work of the

356 THE ANCIENT FAITH IN MODERN LIGHT

ministry, in the belief that God has called him to the service,
is solemnly bound to use the talents with which he is en-
dowed. To neglect the gift that is in him is to fail in one
essential part of his duty. It is sheer fanaticism, and fan-
aticism of a very bad type — essentially selfish, though
unctuous in its pious professions, to indulge in the fancy
that God is honoured by a trust in some direct inspiration
from heaven which will obviate the necessity for personal
effort. But it is manifest that such effort means the study
of the methods and arts by which popular success is won.
The preacher, if he is wise, will ponder and seek out until
he find acceptable words. There will be no department
of knowledge with which he will not, to the measure of his
abilities and opportunities, seek to make himself familiar.
Especially will he carefully study the great masters of
human speech, whether in oratory or in song. In these
ways he may learn how to employ his own talents to the
highest advantage. But this is success, as the world judges
success. Perhaps the best preservative against the deroga-
tory and even debasing influence of the popularity which
may thus be won is for him ever to remember that this is
not success. How far it may be the first step towards it
will be very largely determined by the spirit in which it is
regarded. It may in truth be the most serious hindrance to
those grand results in the absence of which the most popular
ministry must be pronounced a failure. " Neither at any time,"
says Paul, " were we found using words of flattery, as ye know,
nor a cloke of covetousness ; God is witness ; nor seeking
glory of man, neither from you nor from others." But even
had a man the self-renouncing and self-forgetting spirit of
Paul when the honour, even though unsought, comes, it is
not easy always to detach the heart from it.

The difficulty is increased in our own times by the in-
creased attention which is given to the pulpit and its work by
the press. At first sight it might appear as though this were

THE I'ULPIT AND THE PRESS 357

a distinct gain. But there is, to say the least, another side to
it, and one of sufficiently grave import. The preacher of
to-day lives under very different conditions from those in
which our fathers did their work. The journalist thinks it
worth his while to study him, to chronicle some of his pro-
ceedings, to criticise any of his special utterances. Now
and then we have the " booming " of some eloquent preacher
who, for one reason or another, happens to be prominent.
He is favoured with the visits of interviewers who seek his
views on an infinite variety of subjects, and reproduce them
with more or less accuracy. He is made the subject of
" pen and ink " sketches, in which he is pleasantly informed
as to his virtues and also as to his defects. All this is
interesting as a tacit recognition that the pulpit is a force,
and a force of a very different kind from that which is
suggested by the correspondence on the decay of preaching,
which is one of the most common annuals of the silly
season. But there are dangers lurking in it, especially to
the preacher himself. For the standpoint of the journalist,
and that from which a Christian minister should con-
template his own work, are not only different but often
distinctly antagonistic. The wisdom of this world is foolish-
ness with God to-day as much as when Paul indited that
pregnant and memorable statement as to the kind of success
which the gospel had achieved. The successes, therefore,
which an observer who judges by a purely worldly standard
most appreciates and applauds, may in truth be successes
of which, in the higher experiences of his spirit, the preacher
may feel heartily ashamed. The critic is not to be blamed
for this, for he necessarily judges according to the standard
of the world, but the preacher cannot be influenced b)' him
without lowering the whole tone of his ministry.

For to come back to our starting-point, he is a servant of
God, or he has no special claim to be heard. It is this which
differentiates the pulpit from all other instruments for

358 THE ANCIENT FAITH IN MODERN LIGHT

influencing the world, and this which must always expose it
to a specially keen and searching criticism. If a man has
only private theories to ventilate, these may be examined
without any special irritation. The discussion is a mere
intellectual exercise, in which argument is met by counter-
vailing argument on the opposite side, and the victory
remains with him who can show the highest skill and
mastery in logic. Man wrestles with man, and there is the
end of it. But if this is all the preacher has to say for him-
self, he is indeed in evil condition. For wherein consists his
title to instruct or exhort men in relation to the most
tremendous realities of their being here and hereafter ?
There are numbers who know more as to the world and its
inhabitants than he professes to do. Yet he, forced to con-
fess his inferiority to the scientist in one sphere and the
statesman in another, to the literary man and the historian
on one side, and to the man of affairs on the other, still claims
to speak to them all with authority on the question which
transcends in grandeur and interest all others. It is hardly
wonderful that these wise men of the world should be ready
to cry with their prototypes on Mars' Hill, " What will this
babbler say ? "

That celebrated incident stands on the page of sacred
story, a striking representation of what is going on around
us to-day. There were many subjects on which Paul would
have had to admit the superiority of those Epicureans
and Stoics. If it had been a battle of human philosophy,
it might have been extremely doubtful whether it would be
wise for him to enter the lists. His teaching to them
was mere babbling — a vain superstition — an idle dream — a
sign of madness, not of reasonable thought. Why should
they give heed to these visionary fancies of an unlearned
Jew? And if this had been the entire account, they would
have been right. There was no reason why Paul should
instruct them, or why they should listen, if he was simply

THE PULPIT AND THE PRESS 359

evolving ideas out of his own brain. But had that been
Paul's estimate, it is certain he would never have been
addressing philosophers on the Areopagus, or indeed have
visited Athens at all. He went there as he went every-
where, under the constraint of the divine necessity. If he
was mistaken in this, and God did not speak through him, he
had no place there at all.

So is it to-day. The preacher has to address himself
continually to men at whose feet he might often be content
to sit as a disciple, instead of attempting to be their teacher.
They could and often do instruct him on matters of high,
though not of the highest, import, and he not only listens
with interest, but gratefully makes use of their teachings in
order to illustrate and enforce his own. Nothing that has to
do with the world and its tenants is alien to him. In every
field of intellectual activity he finds that which will help him
in his own distinct work, and he is grateful to all by whose
labours he profits. But he claims that even to those whom
he regards as in many respects his intellectual superiors he
has a message to deliver. They may scoff at his pretensions,
and if it were a question merely of human wisdom, their
scoff might have considerable justification. But that is
precisely what the preacher does not claim. He speaks in the
name of the Lord God, and only as men feel this can he
have power at all. Let this be felt, and the difficulty dis-
appears, Paul explains it when he says, " God chose
the foolish things of the v/orld that He might put to shame
them that are wise ; and God chose the weak things of the
world that He might put to shame the things that are
strong ; and the base things of the world, and things that
are despised did He choose, yea, and the things that are not,
that He might bring to nought things that arc." That sums
up the story of the pulpit. If the gospel has been the mighty
power to salvation, and has justified its right to this distinc-
tion through all the centuries, the power has been of God.

360 THE ANCIENT FAITH IN MODERN LIGHT

It has still been the foolishness of preaching in the eyes of
those who had neither faith in its truth nor sympathy with
its aims, but by it God has saved them that believe.

There is no idle fanaticism here. The preacher does not
profess to have some special revelation from God, enjoyed
only by such as are permitted to know the secret thoughts
of the Most High, and intrusted with a message to men
which they are required to receive on his authority. The
message has already been given, and men may study it
without his intervention at all. He may be enabled to
illustrate it by the results of his study, his observation, or
his experience ; but he must beware how he assumes the
character of an expert. In the understanding of the gospel
he is not the best expert who has the ripest knowledge of
the language in which it was first given, or the circumstances
under which it was delivered ; but he whose sympathy with
its spirit and submission to its teaching has given him the
spiritual insight which makes him quick to discern its true
meaning. There are still things hidden from the wise and
prudent which are made known to the babes ; and to the
end the childlike spirit will serve the student of the divine
message better than the most cultured intellect.

The preacher's first and chief work, especially in a
country like ours, is not so much instruction as exhortation.
No doubt there are prejudices to be removed, mistakes to be
corrected, neglected views of the truth to be more clearly
presented. The mind harbours many a false thought which
has to be cast out before there can be a humble acceptance
of the divine call. But the intellectual difficulties in the
way of belief are comparatively small. The most grave and
serious ones are those whose home is in the heart. " Com-
mending ourselves to every man's conscience " is the apostle's
description of his own work. He, be it remembered, was in
a position very different from that of his successor in the
pulpit of to-day. His message was a novelty. It must have

THE PULl'IT AND THE PRESS 36 1

had about it that charm of freshness which we so eagerly
covet. Sometimes, in depressed hours, we think — would we
could have the privilege of telling this wonderful story of
the Cross to those who had never listened to it before ; that
we could see their faces light up with interest as they
followed it through all its pathetic and moving details ; that
we could mark the tear as it glistened in their eye, and then,
as their nature had been stirred to its very depths by the
wondrous recital, listen to a cry as anguished as that which
burst from the multitude who were moved by Peter's first
sermon to that outburst of penitence and longing: "Men
and brethren, what shall we do ? " Alas ! we tell the story
to those who have heard it so often that the recital becomes
to them as the sound of one that hath a pleasant voice and
can play well on an instrument. There may be novelty in
the mode of presentation, but in the message none. All
this (they may say in reply to the most graphic description)
have we heard from our childhood up. In our own times
the pulpit or the Bible class has not been left a monopoly of
the teaching. The stage as well as the novel has undertaken
to tell it also, and there have been Christians ready to
applaud the effort, without pausing to consider how far this
tends to weaken the unique impression of the sacred nar-
rative, without contributing a solitary element of instruction
or abiding influence.

Paul had a very different task. His audience listened to
the story he had to tell with all the excitement of curiosity
and all the high-wrought sensation due to a new and strange
marvel. Even the callous and indifferent Athenians were
roused by the story of Jesus and the Resurrection. These
were new gods, and the very mention of them stirred the
stagnant current of their feelings to an unwonted pitch of
passion. To-day the preacher has no such aid. Yet even
the apostle, speaking to those who were thus uninstructed,
still addresses himself to their conscience. If they were to

362 THE ANCIENT FAITH IN MODERN LIGHT

be converted, the conscience must be awakened. It had to
be approached through the understanding, and therefore
he preached Christ and Him crucified. But in beseeching men
to be reconciled to God through Christ, he did not arrogate
to himself any authority to which men were required to
submit. He did not speak as a lord over men's consciences,
but he persuaded them. He reasoned with them out of the
Scriptures, if they were Jews. If they were Greeks, he
appealed to the testimony of nature as interpreted by their
own poets. Nothing could be more intensely human, and
yet his success was due to the secret conviction wrought in
their hearts that the power of God was with him. That is
the special character of the preacher. He is a power in the
only sense in which he desires or can expect such distinction,
only as God is with him. If the conscience approve his
message that it is the word of God, it has authority, but
not authority due to his official position, nor even to any
special knowledge he possesses, but solely to the fact that
he has been touched by the Divine Spirit.

This distinction between the preacher and the member of
any profession needs to be strongly accentuated. Having
once dismissed the idea of a supernatural character
attaching to it, in virtue of which a man is entitled to claim
a superiority to his fellow-men, and to exact from them an
allegiance which would not be rendered to him because of
his personal worth or eminent service, it is hardly possible
to insist too strongly on the points which differentiate the
preacher from a lecturer or professor. The latter does his
work as any other toiler does his. It is work of the
brain, and it may even be of the heart, but it is done as the
work of the daily life, with its proper remuneration attached.
In short, it is professional, and no shadow of reproach rests
upon it because it is so. It does not affect to be anything
else, and there is nothing derogatory in the fact that that is.

THE PULPIT AND THE PRESS 363

its character. There is a strange but not unfrequent
tendency to upbraid men with their care for the pecuniary
reward of their honest toil as writers or speakers. It is not
only unjust, but it is at once absurd and insincere. That
care can easily become excessive, and, what is worse, it may
have recourse to unwarranted means in order to secure its
objects. But in itself there is nothing unworthy in it. The
man who has chosen literature or art or science as his pro-
fession is not to be considered mercenary because he insists
on having a fair remuneration for his efforts.

Up to a certain point this is true of the Christian
preacher. Those who avail themselves of his services should,
even in their own religious interest, and still more in that
of the great religious work to which they have a common
attachment, so provide for his needs that the carking
cares of this world shall not hinder the concentration of
thought and feeling on spiritual work. But if his first care
be to achieve professional success, whether for the sake of
the emolument it brings or the honour by which it is
attended, he forgets the true end of his ministry, and ensures
its failure. It is idle to pretend to superhuman virtues, and
foolish to expect it. Preachers are men of like passions and
infirmities with their hearers. They cannot wholly escape
the taint of the world-spirit. They are not free from the
aspirings of ambition or the weak suggestion of vanity.
They have to fight the devil in their own hearts quite as
strenuously as on the broad field of battle in the world.
But at all events they must have their ideal. Even if they
fail to reach it, the contemplation of it and the endeavour to
approach it has itself an elevating influence. And that ideal
leaves no room for the presence of a purely professional
temper.

It may be urged, in all fairness, that were this spirit
dominant a successful preacher would choose some other
calling than that of the Christian ministry, especially in

364 THE ANCIENT FAITH IN MODERN LIGHT

the Free Churches. There are prizes in a national hierarchy-
such as the law has established in this country, which may
tempt ministers. But they have no existence in Non-
conformist communities. It is no vain boast to say that
those who achieve distinguished position in their pulpit
might have secured in some other career returns both of
wealth and fame far in excess of any that the most envied
among them has been able to attain. If a man's motives be
of the earth, earthy, he had better stifle all inclinations
drawing him towards the pulpit. For even success would
not bring him what he desires, and, what is to him of even
more importance, the very strength of his ambition would be
the most serious hindrance to the coveted success. Even
the world expects — surely the expectation is not unreason-
able— that the preacher of the gospel should be superior to
the influences which govern the Stock Exchange, and the
moment the dominance of such motives comes to be
suspected there will be a gradual decay of the influence
which is the evidence of success.

This demand of the world is, we have said, not un-
reasonable. True, the world is itself possessed by the love
of self. Its philosophy is saturated with the spirit of selfish-
ness. Its heroes are men who have learned how to take care
of self " Men will praise you when you do well to yourself"
is as true to-day as it was in the distant century when it was
first penned. But all this notwithstanding, it looks to its
religious teachers for the exhibition of a different spirit.
Even in the political world this is the ideal it would have its
leaders keep before themselves. The noble Roman who was
called from his farm to save his country, and who, when the
task was done, laid down the dictator's robe and returned to
his farm, has been the theme of many a glowing eulogy.
To-day there is no charge which tells more against a
.statesman than an impeachment of his unselfish patriotism,
as there is no virtue which exalts him more in the public

THE PULPIT AND THE PRESS 365

esteem than a disinterestedness which is above even the
reach of suspicion. A statesman who through long years
of conflict has steadily pursued a course of conscientious
integrity, who has shown a calm indifference to the opinions
of men, and, whether in sunshine or in storm, has been
true to his own ideas of the right, commands respect
independent of any judgment which may be passed on his
policy. Much more is this kind of virtue required from
the preacher of the gospel. If he is not moved by a
passion for souls, an unquenchable faith in the gospel, and
a glowing enthusiasm for Christ, better that he never
preached at all.

In the Apostle Paul we have the finest type of the true
minister of the New Testament. His conception of his
special functions, his clear apprehension of the message he
had to deliver, his recognition of the necessary limitations of
his life and work, cannot be too closely studied by the
preacher. Unfortunately, we know little of his sermons.
We hear of the effect produced on those who listened to
him, and we have the broad view of the subject of which he
treated. He had to preach the "unsearchable riches of
Christ," and he found in that theme enough, and more than
enough, to occupy all his powers, without undertaking to
discuss the many problems which were agitating the schools
of philosophy, or endeavouring to redress all the grievances
under which the world was " groaning and travailing in
bondage " then as now. But especially is it from the man
himself that we have to learn. There is in him a spiritual
grandeur, which in itself is stimulating. Christ has so
possessed him, that the work which the almighty constraint
of love has laid upon him is the passion of his life. There
has grown up of late a habit of criticising the great Apostle
of the Gentiles, to the depreciation of his actual work, which
is unjust to him and ungenerous in those by whom it is

366 THE ANCIENT FAITH IN MODERN LIGHT

indulged. It is not easy in studying him to leave out of
consideration the fact of his inspiration, and it may be
useful to make an honest attempt to study him as he may
have appeared to an observer who regarded him simply as a
preacher, deriving such influence as he possessed either from
the convincing force of his doctrine or from the personal
character of the man.

As we study the record, we cannot but feel that the first,
the strongest, the most abiding impression which he would
produce, was that of one so passionately in earnest, that to
him his work was everything. On this point the verdict of
Festus is as decisive as it was undoubtedly and transparently
honest: "Paul, thou art beside thyself." His was the un-
doubting faith and the consuming zeal which, to a mere
self-seeker, with a strong vein of cynicism, must always be
unintelligible, and is therefore treated as a mental delusion.
Such devotion is so far outside the region of thought and
experience in which such a man moves, that he can find no
other explanation. No suggestion could be more natural ;
for if Paul was not mad, Festus undoubtedly was. Their
spirits were moving in orbits so entirely apart, that it was
impossible to conceive that they could both be in healthy
condition. So far, then, this testimony is peculiarly valuable.
It is the verdict of an enemy who had opportunities for
judgment, and gives us an estimate of character which con-
firms all the ideas we should have gained, whether from the
records of Paul's life or the spirit of his writings. If there
had been any reason to suspect the apostle's motive, — any
single fact on which to rest a suggestion of insincerity or
self-seeking, — any ground on which he might have been
branded as an impostor who was seeking to deceive the
people, — it would certainly have been presented. But no
such hint falls from the lips of the sceptical Roman. He
spoke under the influence of an irritation which made him
forget the dignity of the Roman patrician ; but, even in the

THE PULPIT AND THE PRESS 367

heat of his passion, he does not venture to suggest that Paul
was false. His earnestness had this effect, that the governor
could only escape from the influence it might otherwise
have produced upon him, by treating it as a manifestation
of madness.

It is to be accepted as a conclusive evidence that this
great preacher lost himself in his subject. What men might
think of Paul was to him a matter of no importance : his
only concern was, that they should believe in the Lord Jesus
whom he preached. Renan is very fond of speaking of him
as the " ugly little Jew." There is nothing very dignified, or
refined, or telling in the description ; but it may be true.
He does not shrink from telling the Corinthians that his
enemies said that in bodily presence he was weak and in
speech contemptible. It may have been so ; but what then ?
It simply shows that the power which he undoubtedly
possessed was not due to any external qualities, not even to
the grace or vehemence of his eloquence ; and we are thus
forced to seek another explanation of his undoubted in-
fluence. It is to be found in the impression which he
produced everywhere, that his soul w^as possessed by his
message. The man who can do this will always be a power.
So strong is this force as an element of pulpit power, that
it is open to question whether the gospel has suffered most
from preachers who have set forth the truth in such a style
as to give the impression that it is an unreality to them-
selves, or from those, on the other hand, who have thrown
into the instruction which "causcth to err" a fervour and an
earnestness which have secured for their teaching a hold on
the minds of men, to which, on its own merits, it was not
entitled. Behind the sermon is the preacher, and the extent
to which men are affected by his personality, as apart either
from the doctrine taught or the form in which it is presented,
is a point which the most careful and discriminating analysis
may fail to determine This, however, may safely be said,

368 THE ANCIENT F.MTII IN MODERN LIGHT

that a preacher of the gospel can never hope to wield any
enduring power, however brilliant his gifts or wide his
culture, unless he produce in the minds of his hearers a
conviction that the gospel which he proclaims to others
has come to his own heart as the very message of God.
Under the influence of that, he is filled with that courage
which is indispensable to the prosecution of his work. The
coward in the pulpit is one of the most pitiable of spectacles ;
and yet there are temptations to a weakness, as contemptible
as it is injurious alike to the man himself and to those who
listen to a word which does not so much express his own deep
convictions of the truth, as his ideas of what will be most
expedient for the hour, best fitted to produce a sensation,
in harmony with the Zeitgeist, calculated to extend his own
reputation and improve his position. These temptations
haunt men everywhere, and critics of the pulpit are not slow
to point them out.

" The pulpit's laws the pulpit's patrons give,
And they who live to preach must preach to live,"

was the taunt adapted by Lord John Russell from Dr.
Johnson, and directed against Dissenting ministers. It was
unworthy of a statesman, and especially of one who owed so
much to those whom he thus held up to the ridicule of those
who were his foes as well as theirs. It suggests the action
of one of the meanest of motives as governing the public
ministry of men whose one fault, which lays them open to
his criticisms, is that they do not become the stipendiaries
of the State. The preacher would not escape the reproach
were he to adopt the contrary course. " Would," says Mr.
Goldwin Smith, "that the clergy could write with perfect
freedom." Whether this remark is to be restricted to the
clergy of his own Church may be doubtful, but it certainly
includes them ; and, in support of his view, it were easy to
quote many a reference from the latest work of the season —

THE PULPIT AND THE PRESS 369

the most attractive biography of a singularly attractive man,
the great Master of Balliol. Tennyson puts it in a different
form when he makes the " Northern Farmer " to describe the
preacher in those oft-quoted words —

" An' I 'eerd 'um a bummin' awaiiy loike a buzzard-clock ower my 'ead,
An' I niver knaw'd whot a meiin'd but I thowt a 'ad summut to saay,
An' I thowt a said whot a owt to 'a said an' I coom'd awaay."

The notion common to all these is, that the preacher is
not necessarily true to himself ; and one more fatal to his
influence it would not be easy to conceive. If the speaker
is not a real man, who out of the abundance of the heart
gives to others the lessons which he himself has learned
from God, but preaches only what he thinks men will be
pleased to hear, and what he is bound by law to preach, —
if he is more careful to abide by some legal standard of
orthodoxy, than to set forth the truth which has been
revealed, — better that he should undertake any other office
than that of the minister of the gospel. He, at least, should
be a man of the strongest, noblest type — a man who, like
the great preacher of the Scottish Reformation, never
quailed before the face of man.

There is nothing which so helps a man to this fearless
attitude as a true and adequate sense of what the office of
the preacher is. Paul's ideal was lofty, and it is set forth
very distinctly in his Epistle to the Corinthians. " We are
ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech you by
us : w^e pray you in Christ's stead, be ye reconciled to God."
The man who realises this, dare not allow himself to seek
the praise or tremble at the frown of man. He has to
deliver a message from God ; and to be turned aside from
his duty by the fear of man, is simply to confess himself
unworthy of his calling. The definition of the office itself
excludes many who have too readily, perhaps thoughtlessly,
assumed its functions. A lecturer on religion, who professes
24

370 THE ANCIENT FAITH IN MODERN LIGHT

himself greatly interested in all the problems connected with
the human soul and its relation to the infinite ; who has closely
studied and compared the different ages and countries, and
has sought to solve them ; who is familiar with the specula-
tions of philosophy, perhaps a master of the science (if such a
thing there be) of comparative religion, but has no experience
of the living force of spiritual truth, is certainly not a minister
of the gospel in the New Testament sense. He may or may
not be a searcher after truth, but he certainly is not an
ambassador from God, who, having a message to deliver, is
straitened until his mission is accomplished. Or the mere
Church functionary, who has undertaken to do the particular
service which the Church has assigned to him, and to do it in
accordance with the obligations he has voluntarily contracted,
— whose one concern is that he should not transgress the laws
of the Church, and who is for ever appealing to its authority
as supreme and decisive, — falls very short of the apostolic
conception of the ofifice. Far be it from me to suggest that
among the philosophic students or the Church officials there
may not be true ambassadors from God. What I insist
upon is, that unless they have the divine call, — unless, like
the old prophets, they have the "burden of the Lord," and
are constrained to speak the divine message which they
have received, — they have no rightful j^lace in the pulpit.

It is necessary to emphasise the need of the divine call ;
but it IS not necessary to throw around it anything of a
mystical character. It comes in the deepening sense of the
grandeur of eternity and its realities ; in the hold which
Christ and His salvation take of the mind, imagination, and
heart ; in the quickening of conscience to a sense of the
obligation which the love of Christ lays upon all who have
felt its renewing power ; in the widening and deepening
sympathy with humanity which matures into that passion
for saving souls, which fired Paul, and which has fired every
man who has caught anything of the Master's spirit, and,

THE rULPIT AND THE PRESS 37 1

like Him, has been intent on working out the divine thought,
to seek and to save that which was lost. These are the
heavenly visions to which the true minister of Christ cannot
be, dare not be, disobedient. These are the divine calls
which may appear ridiculous to the mere man of the world,
but which are sufficiently intelligible to all who are en-
lightened as to the things of the Spirit of God. The man,
thus stirred, to whom the message of the divine love is the
one truth which men need to hear, and who is possessed
with the passion to tell it, and to tell it so that men may
believe and live, is marked out as an ambassador for God.
Such a man speaks, not because he holds the office of
a speaker or preacher, but because he cannot help speaking ;
and he does not trouble to inquire whether his speech is
such as man expects or approves. But while he muses the
fire burns — then speaks he with his tongue.

It does not follow that what he says, even under this
inspiration, is to be received as infallible, or that he is speak-
ing as an ambassador from God, in God's stead ; but he
has authority only as he speaks the divine message. Mr.
Ruskin's exposition of the text, and his exposure of the way
in which it has sometimes been perverted, are as admirable
in expression as sound in exegesis :

" Ecclesiastical tyranny has, for the most part, founded
itself on the idea of Vicarianism, one of the most pestilent
of the Romanist theories, and most plainly denounced in
Scripture. Of this I have a word or two to say to the
modern 'Vicarian.' All powers that be are unquestionably
ordained of God ; so that they that resist the Power, resist
the ordinance of God. Therefore say some in these offices,
We, being ordained of God and having our credentials, and
being in the English Bible called ambassadors for God, do
in a sort represent God. We are Vicars of Christ, and stand
on earth in place of Christ. I have heard this said by
Protestant clergymen. Now, the word ambassador has a
peculiar ambiguity about it, owing to its use in modern
political affairs ; and these clergymen assume that the word,
as used by St. Paul, means an ambassador plenipotentiary ;

372 THE ANCIENT FAITH IN MODERN LIGHT

representative of his king, and capable of acting for his
kino-. What right have they to assume that St. Paul meant
this ? St. Paul never uses the word ambassador at all. He
says simply, 'We are in embassage from Christ; and Christ
beseeches you through us.' Most true. And let it further
be granted, that every word that the clergyman speaks is
literally dictated to him by Christ ; that he can make no
mistake in delivering his message ; and that, therefore, it is
indeed Christ Himself who speaks to us the word of life
through the messenger's lips. Does, therefore, the messenger
represent Christ ? Does the channel which conveys the
waters of the Fountain represent the Fountain itself?
Suppose, when we went to draw water at a cistern, that all
at once the Leaden Spout should become animated, and
open its mouth, and say to us, ' See, I am Vicarious for the
Fountain. Whatever respect you show to the P'ountain,
show some part of it to me.' Should we not answer the
Spout, and say, ' Spout, you were set there for our service,
and may be taken away and thrown aside if anything goes
wrong with you. But the Fountain will flow for ever.' "

This eloquent passage, pregnant in suggestiveness, con-
tains some truths which need to be strongly accentuated. It
is hardly too much to say, that on the due appreciation of
their full bearings rests a right conception of the functions
and powers of the pulpit. The preacher, as we have already
seen, is not a theological expert, to whom men may refer
difficult spiritual problems, even as a barrister is consulted
on questions of law, or an eminent physician on pathology
or hygiene. The simple-minded believer in Christ may be^
indeed often is, as capable of imparting wisdom to the
eminent theological scholar as the latter is to instruct him.
Often in reading the elaborate discussions on nice points of
doctrine, in which much metaphysical subtlety is shown, but
no certain result reached, one cannot help longing for the
plain words of some unlettered disciple, perhaps some nine-
teenth century Priscilla, who would deal with our philosophic
divine as she did with the young Apollos, and in a few plain
words, drawn from personal experience, set forth the way of
the Lord. Still less is the preacher to be a pioneer in the

THE PULPir AND TlIK PRESS 373

path of speculation, startling the world by ideas evolved
out of his own ingenuity or spiritual consciousness. He is
simply a servant intrusted with a definite commission — an
ambassador for God, with a message to deliver to man,

Ruskin rightly comments on the ambiguity of the term.
He may be a plenipotentiary with a certain liberty of action,
for the wise exercise of which he is responsible ; or he may
be a Minister commissioned to arrange a friendly under-
standing, but on definite terms from which he must not
depart ; or he may be a mere functionary of the State which
employs him, its representative, in the common details of
business, or on grand ceremonial occasions, such as are an-
ticipated at our own Court during this memorable year. Of
course, when these special historic occasions come, there is
care that the dignity of the individual may give a certain
importance to the office, and thus be a sign of the high
consideration in which the friendly Court is held. The
qualifications for the right discharge of such a service are
not of the most exalted character. It is enough that the
dignity of the State be supported with a due measure of
"pomp and circumstance." Courtly manners, personal
dignity, due regard to the severest demands of etiquette and
custom are all that is really essential. If this were a fit
analogy for the minister of Christ, if he was simply to play
a prominent part in the ceremonials of religion, there would
be no occasion for any distinguished qualities either of head
or heart. Originality of thought, power of expression,
tenderness of sym[x-ithy, spiritual wisdom, the rare charm
which gives some such power over souls, are almost wasted
in the office of a mere functionary. He should be correct,
precise, formal, even dignified, but there is no demand on
the soul. A subordinate work at its best this of the priest;
and if proof were necessary of its inferior character, it may
be found in the eagerness the priest shows about the mint
and the anise and the cummin ; the extraordinary value he

374 THE ANCIENT FAITH IN MODERN LIGHT

attaches to times and seasons, as though changes of feeling
must follow the revolutions of the earth ; the care he bestows
on the cut of a vestment or the colour of an altar-cloth ;
the minute directions he observes as to gesticulations and
attitudes. What a miserable conception of religion underlies
it all ! for if this be the work of the ministry, what must the
religion be which gives him no higher service? It is not his
work to lead to profounder reverence or larger philanthropy,
to make men thrill again with zeal for righteousness or love
for God or man, to be an inspiration to languid souls or a
stern reproof to wicked ones. He is simply the leader in an
imposing form and a majestic ceremony. There is no
difficulty in the multiplication of priests. The prophet or
the preacher is not to be manufactured, but is called of
God.

But there is an ambassador of a different kind. He has
a definite service to perform, and one on the success of which
the prosperity or power, nay even the very existence of his
nation may depend. He is sent to avert war and secure
reconciliation between parties who are at variance. On his
conduct very much may depend. He may, by lack of judg-
ment or even of tact, widen the breach he was sent to heal,
and hasten the war which, it was hoped, he might avert, or
at least postpone. It is needful, therefore, that he be a man of
exceptional endowments, with power to humour the feelings
of others as well as to control his own ; with insight, therefore,
into the character of men and the tendency of events ; with
well-balanced mind and sympathetic temper. To be lacking
in any of these points may be to ensure failure. Especially
is it necessary that he understand the policy which he is sent
to carry out, and that he be loyal to it in every point. He is
employed not to throw out unauthorised suggestions of his
own, not to present his individual wishes, but to represent
those of his nation. Else he may betray his trust, and make
confusion worse confounded. This is the type of the

THE PULPIT AND THE PRESS 375

Christian minister. He is not even a plenipotentiary for
Heaven. If he addresses men on God's behalf, it is God's
truth, the word of His message, which he has to speak.

The great apostle never leaves us in any doubt as to his
conception of what that message is. He is not ever waiting
for some fresh revelation which he has to communicate, and
which may in fact alter all that has gone before. He has a
distinct proclamation, and it is always and everywhere the
same. There is to be neither diminution nor development,
but the repetition in every varied form and with all strength
of emphasis of the one message. You find it in the " word of
faith " spoken to the Romans, " Whosoever shall confess that
Jesus is Lord, and with the heart shall believe that God
raised Him from the dead, shall be saved." You have it
set forth as the gospel which had been preached to the
Corinthians, and in which they lived, that Jesus Christ died
for our sins, and that He rose again, according to the
Scriptures. You hear it in the earnest appeal to the same
Corinthians — that they would be reconciled to the God who
was in Christ reconciling the world unto Himself It was
the text of Paul's first recorded sermon, and it rings in the
echoes of his entire ministry: "Through this man is preached
unto you forgiveness of sins.''

An ambassador simply has to do his sovereign's will,
and the will of our King is that all men should turn to
repentance and live. It is for His servants to publish the
terms of peace, and beseech men to accept them. If this
were better understood and remembered, it might save us
from many an error and many a weakness. There arc some
whose minds are possessed by what they hold to be sound
beliefs. Unfortunately that faith does not work by love.
It has not deepened their reverence nor kindled their
enthusiasm. It has led them rather to think of God as
though He were like unto themselves, and to judge their
brethren by some arbitrary standards which they have been

2,j6 THE ANCIENT FAITH IN MODERN LIGHT

pleased to set up. They are bitter in their judgments as
they are shrivelled in their creeds, dwarfed and contracted in
all their sympathies. They test men not by their accept-
ance of the message, but by their agreement with their
theological theories. Too long has this tyranny sat heavy
upon the Church. Men are at last shaking it off, once and
for ever, and are not to be affrighted by the angry grow^ls or
bitter denunciations of the survivors of that old regime, its
fossilised representatives, who are for ever prophesying the
decay of the Church and the death of faith, because at last
Christian teachers are insisting on the message in its sim-
plicity, and refusing to add to or subtract from the plain truth :
" Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you shall be saved."

It is just as necessary to guard against the wild novelties
in which some delight as it is to emancipate the mind from
the bondage of old systems. The attention given to-day to
the theories and speculations in which men so love to
indulge is one of the phenomena of the time. A theory may
be crude, absolutely unsupported by evidence, inconsistent
indeed with all our own experience and observation, yet if
it have about it enough of a sensational character, if it be
indorsed by a popular or even a striking preacher, — above all,
if it be boomed by some journal, — it must be treated as
having some claim to serious attention, and be discussed with
a gravity becoming a proposition resting on some weighty
authority. But the one authority to which all Christians
must bow is that of the message. If it be not according
to this word, there is no life in it. Men may be eminent
for their gifts and conspicuous in their graces, but at best
they are only Christ's ambassadors, and they have simply to
speak in His name the word which He Himself has taught
them.

Any authority which belongs to the minister of the
gospel is that of the King's messenger, not of His represen-

THE PULPIT AND THK PRKSS 37/

tative. He has to preach the gospel of the grace of God,
not some theory of his own. There is abundant room for
the exercise of the highest gifts with which a man is endowed
in the proclamation of that truth ; but whatever the
variations in mode of treatment, the theme must still be
the same. The true character of the servant of Christ is
sacrificed for that of a preacher of speculations, novelties,
personal fancies or hopes, and the power to affect souls is
lost. All this seems very simple, and it is in fact only
elementary truth, but it is truth which is continually for-
gotten. There are men who are continually seeking to
discover what God has not revealed, and in their diligent
study of the mysteries are neglecting the loving and eternal
truths which ought to be the substance of their teaching.
They fatigue themselves in useless attempts to explain
what has only to be set forth as the divine message, and
they are never weary of taking their hearers into the con-
fidence of their own uncertainties or misgivings. They may-
be ingenious, clever, brilliant, but they are not powerful
ministers of the New Testament. Yet men are excited by
them. They are said to be interesting, as they are certainly
startling ; and those who are carried away by the originality
of their thinking, or the eloquence of their periods, do not
stop to inquire whether they have really been listening to a
message of Divine Love from Heaven, or whether, in fact,
the pulpit has not wholly changed its character and been
converted into the rostrum of a religious lecture-room, or
the stage of a religious theatre, on which arc periodically
given performances for the moral or religious good of the
audience.

The press has always regarded tlic pulpit with a certain
amount of jealousy, and it may be admitted that it is not
altogether unnatural or even unreasonable. But, to say the
least, it is carried to excess, and ought to be corrected by an

3/8 THE ANCIENT FAITH IN MODERN LIGHT

intelligent and discriminating view of the difference between
their respective spheres and functions. Taking the press in
its broadest sense, and regarding the distinction between
the two agencies as that between spoken and written
thought, it may be assumed that they represent two entirely
different kinds of influences, A preacher may combine
both — he may move great congregations by his sermons as
delivered, or he may affect them by his printed volumes.
But this twofold success is secured by the exercise of two
different classes of faculties. The discourses which produce
the most abiding impression on the reader are not for the
most part those which have been most effective when
delivered. The true preacher is abundantly conscious of
this, and probably will make changes in the sermon as
spoken, which will adapt it to the uses of the study and the
sickroom. Too well he knows how impossible it is for him
to reproduce some of the qualities which have made the
sermon most effective — the light touches of pathos or even
of humour, the words of gracious sympathy, the tender
appeals which have been quite unpremeditated, and which,
had they been, would have lost most of their charm and
power. From personal experience, I should say that the
most telling (in the truest and deepest sense of the word)
parts of a sermon are those which are intuitions — what I
heard Hugh M'Neile once describe as "sparks struck off
from a blacksmith's apron." These have a vitality and
point, and produce an impression which cannot be revived
by the same sentences read, without any of the accessories,
on the printed page. There is really no place for rivalry
between pulpit and press. They use entirely different
weapons, and practically their work admits of no com-
parison.

But taking the press in its more restricted signification
as applying to journalism, there is, if possible, even less room
for hostility. It is not difficult to understand, indeed, that

THE PULPIT AND TilE PRESS 3/9

the press should chafe under the authority which is often
claimed by and for the pulpit. But the claim is unwar-
ranted, and is never urged by those who have a true concep-
tion of the preacher's office. On a great number of subjects,
and those with which the press is chiefly conversant, he has
no particular claim to speak at all. There are men, indeed,
and among them are some journalists, who are continually
calling on ministers of the gospel for deliverances on some
of the burning questions of the time. The requirement is
unreasonable, but it shows in itself an utter misconception
of the sphere in which the minister of Christ claims to speak
with any measure of authority. If this were more clearly
defined, and the limitations strictly preserved, there would
be less rivalry and less clashing.

It may be worth while to try and mark out the bound-
aries of the two territories over which pulpit and press
respectively exercise jurisdiction. We have recently been
discussing the question of foreign policy, especially as
regards Crete, Turkey, Greece, and the European Concert.
A journalist looks at them with the eye of one who has
access to special intelligence, and who is assumed to have
a special aptitude for interpreting its full significance. The
preacher, on the other hand, makes no such professions, and
therefore when he speaks on details of policy is dealing with
problems for the solution of which he has no peculiar
aptitude. But in laying down the broad principles on which
all these questions are to be determined, in expounding the
great law of righteousness as applied to nations as well as
individuals, in urging his hearers to trust in God and use all
their influence as citizens to promote a policy of right, he is
doing the work to which he is called.

Whether the journalist can be an effective critic of the
preacher is a question to which different answers may be
given. If the sphere of the pulpit is to be extended after
the fashion which finds fa\our in some quarters, and is to be

380 THE ANCIENT FAITH IN MODERN LIGHT

occupied with the discussion of the "burning question " of
the day, then of course its utterances will have to be sub-
ject to the same kind of treatment which is accorded to all
public deliverances. The pulpit loses its distinctive char-
acter when the preacher undertakes to discuss vexed points
on political, social, or ecclesiastical controversy, and so con-
verts his pulpit into a platform. The expediency of such a
course is open to very grave doubt, which our observation of
the movements in this direction does not help to modify or
abate. There do come from time to time great crises in
national affairs when the Christian minister may speak with
great advantage ; but the less frequent this intervention, and
the more careful he is in the selection of his opportunities,
the more likely is he to be effective. But the inevitable
tendency is to make these utterances more frequent ; and
my own strong conviction is that it is one which is full of
peril, and ought to be resisted at all costs. For, I venture
to repeat, the preacher has his message to deliver, and his
first care should be that it neither be neglected nor pre-
judiced by the intrusion of other matters not directly related
to it. The extent to which the special work of the pulpit
itself may be hindered by the introduction of topics which
are ungrateful to the hearer, and which do not in the
remotest degree touch his spiritual well-being, it is impossible
to determine ; and whatever may be said in favour of this
wider view of the sphere of the pulpit, it remains true that
these do not belong to the special business of the preacher,
and that in all probability he has no particular competence
for handling them.

The example of the old prophet is often urged as a
justification for this wider view of the preacher's office with
which we are dealing. But the analogy is too incomplete to
justify such a conclusion. There need be no objection to
men who are competent for it following in the steps of the

THE PULPIT AND THE PRESS 38 I

old prophet. To rebuke unrighteousness in public as well
as in private affairs, to bring all issues connected with
national and social life to the test of God's truth, to treat
all great public questions on the basis of Christian principle,
is certainly a high function of a minister of Christ. He is
to be a preacher of national righteousness in every sphere of
human life. But he has so many other platforms on which he
can make his voice heard on these and other questions, that
the expediency of using the pulpit, save on very rare and
exceptional occasions, for this purpose is, to say the least,
very questionable.

There are, too, very obvious objections which may be
noted. The almost certain result of such a course of action
must be to stamp a partisan character upon congregations.
Numbers go to the sanctuary with a desire for spiritual
refreshment and help. They are weary of the world, its
disappointments, its vexations, its hollowness. They want
spiritual quickening and help ; and if they are treated to
discussions on the claims of the democracy or Christian
Socialism, or perhaps even some one of the questions which
have been occupying the public mind during the week, they
go away disappointed, possibly in a state of semi-irritation,
probably with a half-formed determination to seek a different
kind of ministry in the future. Of course there must be
diversities in congregations, and the result of the divergence
may only be the creation of a fresh variety. But it would
scarcely be a desirable addition to existing diversities. For
if it were to be accepted, there would be sure to come the
second evil, which would be an antagonism of Churches —
probably even of the same order — on purely political
grounds.

It would be worse than folly to try and limit the freedom
of the pulpit. But to return to the point from which this
digression started, it must be admitted that the more the
preacher confines himself to the grand aim of his ministry,

382 THE ANCIENT FAITH IN MODERN LIGHT

the less room is there for rivahy between him and the
journalist. So far as the latter is concerned, he may, on the
one hand, keenly resent the intrusion of the preacher into
what he regards as his own pecuHum, and in all probability
will do so if the position which he takes is hostile to his
own. With treatment of this sort we are all familiar, and
it is the very last kind of suggestion which would be likely
to influence an honest, independent, and courageous man.
It is essential to the right discharge of ministerial duty that
a man should sometimes defy the censure of public opinion
in support of what he believes to be right. But it is quite
as necessary on the other side that he should be on his
guard against the seductive influence of the praise which
commends action, the wisdom of which, at all events, may
be doubtful. It is but few journalists, indeed, who arc
competent judges of the preacher. They may be perfectly
competent both from their intellectual and moral qualifica-
tions to judge of the literary character of his sermon. They
may even be well fitted to pronounce on its theological
■correctness — they certainly can often present the most vivid
sketch of its style and delivery, and even to form a just
estimate of the immediate effect of the sermon. It is not
to be denied that these are all matters of importance, and
the preachers will be wise to take heed to any valuable
suggestions which may be made in the course of these com-
ments. There is no man who more needs wise and yet
kindly criticism, and no man who is less likely to get it. If
a newspaper supplies it, the newspaper is doing him a real
service, by which he should seek to profit. But such instruc-
tion needs to be received with care. The purely newspaper
test of success is not that by which a true minister of Christ
will be content to judge his work.

To-day the newspaper is at work everywhere, and I am
one of those who believe that the publicity which it gives
and the interest which it awakens in preachers and their

THE PULPIT AND THE PRESS 383

work is, on the whole, decidedly good. But it would be a
melancholy thing if, in a desire to be boomed by a news-
paper, a preacher was to forget his own special and distinc-
tive mission.

That mission is to lead human souls to God. A failure
to accomplish that would be simply spiritual disaster. He
might even do other good work in the Church and in the
world, work not to be underrated, much less despised. But
the special service which he is called upon to render to God
is to win souls, and if he fail in that, he has lost his true
crown. That work has its own peculiar difficulties. There
are those who suggest that, though in the early days of the
Church it was necessary that Paul should make the preach-
ing of the message and the pleading with the souls of men
his special business, the necessity for this in a country
saturated with Christian ideas, and to congregations who
have been trained in the midst of them, is not so obvious.
The argument is very crude and inconclusive. We have
certainly to deal with difficulties of a different kind. But it
is doubtful whether they are really less serious. Knowledge
is not always accompanied by faith. Familiarity with the
gospel does not always imply a sympathy with its aims, or
a ready susceptibility to its appeals. A careful survey of a
modern congregation certainly would not suggest the idea
to a devout Christian preacher that the need for careful
exposition and earnest appeal did not exist. Take, for
example, its young people. It is true that they have been
nurtured in Christian traditions, instructed in Christian
truths, probably even have a certain sympathy with Chris-
tian aims. But they are acted on by a thousand and one
influences of an entirely different character. There was a
time when the pulpit, if not the sole instructor, had com-
paratively few competitors for influence over congregations.
Literature, at all events, was an extremely insignificant,
almost unknown, factor. Among the many changes which

384 THE ANCIENT FAITH IN MODERN LIGHT

have marked the Victorian era, few are more important than
that which has taken place in this respect. We have been
living in a time of intellectual development, so continuous
and so extensive, that it amounts to little short of a revolu-
tion. The daily penny newspaper and the electric telegraph,
which has made it so vivid a representation of the world's
life ; the cheap issues of classic books, which have brought
the choicest works of literature within the reach of the
humblest readers ; the railway bookstall, a survey of which
itself has so appetising an effect on the mind that it even has
a certain educational value, are among the influences which
have been at work to change the mental habits of large
sections of the community. It is only necessary to try to
imagine ourselves without these ordinary accessories of
modern civilisation, in order to get some idea of the change
which their introduction has wrought. There is no desire to
exaggerate their real value. It may be that very much of
the knowledge which is thus obtained is superficial, and not
of a high order even of that. A mind which feeds itself on
the scraps which are so popular will certainly not acquire
any real force nor much knowledge of any particular
subject. But, at all events, the diffusion even of snippety
literature of this kind is a sign of the times, and is not
without its effect. After all possible discount has been
made, it is not to be denied that the number of readers has
enormously increased in this generation. It is not too
much to say that this age realises the description of the
old prophet, " Many run to and fro, and knowledge is
increased."

It is no comfort to a preacher who has to deal with this
state of things, to be told that the mental furniture of a
large section — indeed of the great majority — of readers is
extremely imperfect. As a general rule, the less a man
knows the more dogmatic is he about everything. The
class with whom the preacher finds it most difficult to deal

THE rULriT AND THE PRESS 385

is the quarter-educated, who have not learned enough to
perceive the depths of their ignorance, and who are able to
chatter about all things in heaven and in earth in
unconsciousness — happy so far as they themselves are
concerned, but very provoking to their hearers — that at
every point they are only showing how much they need
that some one should teach them the very alphabet of
knowledge. The increase in the numbers of this class
cannot well be exaggerated, and it is not to be doubted
that it is at once a difficulty and a danger. Occasionally
we hear one of them declaiming probably on a political
platform, and it is curious to observe the facility with which
he can dispose of problems that have exercised some of the
keenest intellects the world has ever produced, who have
been forced to dismiss them unsolved — the dogmatism with
which he can pronounce on questions which most sharply
divide the world, the quiet assurance with which he can
set up his own authority as though it were conclusive. He
is provoking and yet instructive, for, after all, he is a
superior example of a type of mind which is very common,
and with which the preacher has continually to deal.
Young people, possibly well trained in their early days,
are liable to be affected, not so much by men of this order
but by the influences which have formed them and made
them what they are. They, too, are likely to catch the
same conceit of their own wisdom, the same foolish notion
that those who do not accept all the new ideas thereby give
proof of their own intellectual inferiority, the same super-
cilious contempt for the past, the same surprising assurance
that whatever is new must on that account alone be
absolutely true, at all events until it is superseded by some-
thing that is newer still.

It does not need any keen insight to perceive how
difficult and yet how necessary the work of the preacher
must be under such conditions. His gospel cannot have
25

386 THE ANCIENT FAITH IN MODERN LIGHT

the surpassing charm of freshness with which the message
of the apostles must have come to men to whom the idea of
a loving Father in Heaven, who sent His own Son into the
world to die for the sins of men, had all the surprise and
marvel of a revelation. It is an oft-told tale, which, alas!
the hearers of whom I speak are disposed to treat with
cynical indifference, perhaps with sceptical disbelief.
Through the week their minds have been detained among
an entirely different set of subjects. Their reading may
probably have inclined them to treat the spiritual world and
all belonging to it as a mere illusion. Day by day they are
reading or hearing that the march of thought is leading men
away from the gospel of Christ, that the most intelligent
preachers, in the hope of keeping in touch with the Zeitgeist,
are quietly putting aside the ideas on which their fathers
most relied, and that those who still cling to them are either
too old to learn, and therefore to be pitied as venerable
relics of a bygone dispensation, or too cowardly to break
loose from established tradition, and therefore to be
despised. The man who would meet and counteract this
needs, indeed, to be a strong man. Let him beware, how-
ever, how he tampers with it, and seeks to meet it by con-
cessions for peace' sake. The appetite for concession is
certainly one which grows by what it feeds upon. It is for
the servant of truth to preach what he believes to be truth,
whether men bear or whether they will forbear. Concession
is a word that can have no proper place in his vocabulary,
and if it be once introduced the only result must be the
weakening of his influence. If new light has broken in
upon his soul, he must give his congregation the benefit of
it. But this is not a concession to their tastes, or an act of
homage to the fashion of the times. It is an act of simple
loyalty to conscience and truth — a ministering to others of
that which the Spirit of God has first taught him. In this
will be found his true power. The only man, it may be

THE PULPIT AND THE PRESS 387

confidently said, who can really influence a restless genera-
tion, such as I have described, is one who makes it feel that
he speaks only what he believes, and because, so believing,
he must speak.

Where writers, and especially the writers of fiction, have
so large a constituency, the religious tendencies of the
literature which is so popular must be a matter of supreme
interest and importance to the preacher. As a matter of
fact, the novels of the day are so largely talked about, and,
perhaps, even so widely read (though it by no means follows
that everybody who talks about them, and even criticises,
has read them) by members of congregations, that the
preacher is almost compelled to take into account the
influence which they are likely to exert. It is not suggested
that he ought to make them the topic of his sermons, and
deal directl}' with what he regards as the mistaken ideas
which they are propagating. It may be necessary occa-
sionally to do even this. But it is a kind of work which
needs extreme delicacy and judgment. It is rather as an
element in determining the character of his own teaching
that the presence and power of this literary force has to be
taken into account. The books which have obtained a
^' record " circulation, which are found lying about on
drawing-room tables, which are eagerly discussed in social
circles, which are continually boomed in newspapers of
accepted authority, and which, in fact, occupy a good deal
of thought and attention during the week, cannot safely be
ignored by Christian teachers.

Haifa century ago these books would have been placed
under a strict boycot. But in the present generation we
have changed all that. Our grandfathers prohibited the
reading of Scott or Fenimore Cooper. To-day even Sarah
Grand is tolerated. It is only one of the many examples
of the swing of the pendulum. But it is a matter of vital

2)8S THE ANCIENT FAITH IN MODERN LIGHT

moment, and needs careful consideration. Some years ago
a distinguished lawyer of the Baptist persuasion gave me
an account of a conversation between himself and a lady of
society, whom he happened to take down to dinner. Her
first question to him was, " Have you seen such a play ? " —
naming the popular play of the hour. " Never go to the
theatre," was the reply. " Dear me ! " was the exclamation
of surprise. But the answer to the next question caused

her still greater astonishment. " Have you read " ?■

naming the popular novel. " I do not read novels," was the
amazing response. Possibly the lady may have thought it
all explained when the next piece of information communi-
cated was that he never went to church. When this was
followed by the statement, in answer to other queries, that
he did go to chapel, and that some of his favourite
reading was Milton's prose works, the state of mind to
which the lady was reduced may be safely left to the
reader's imagination. Whether the lady thought that her
neighbour was an escaped lunatic, or an antiquated fossil,
may be a matter of question. I know him to be a man of
keen intelligence, as well as high character. He is a strong
type of Puritanism as it was in its best forms. It is possible
that it might be for the benefit of English Nonconformity if
it had retained more of this spirit. The extreme severity
might have been modified with advantage. But the un-
restrained latitude which is at present enjoyed is, to say the
least, of more than doubtful benefit.

At all events, no preacher can safely forget that the
fiction of the day helps to produce an intellectual and moral
atmosphere, which its readers are breathing for six days in
the week. To say the least, it is not conducive to robust-
ness of religious conviction or depth of spiritual feeling.
There is in it a widespread and resolute determination to
ignore the restraints of religion. They are included under
the general name of Puritanism, and to the writers in

THE PULPIT AND THE PRESS 389

question Puritanism is a thing abhorred. Then there are
the eternal discussions of what is euphemistically called the
sex problem, which in their ultimate result undermine the
very foundations of morality itself. It is quietly assumed
that considerations of art must override all others, and, in
fact, that any endeavour to modify its realism is to be
regarded as a proof of Philistine stupidity. The pulpit,
which has to deal with minds saturated with ideas that are
thus borrowed from popular literature, and disseminated
widely by a certain section of the press, has no easy task.

Two features in particular demand his most thoughtful
attention if he is to supply the necessary corrective. The
first is the lawlessness, which is defiant not only of precedent
or conventionalism, but of all authority, human or divine.
The second, which is like unto it, and, in fact, is only its
legitimate development, is godlessness. Happily, there are
modern novels of a different spirit, and the popularity which
they have achieved is the best evidence that numbers have
felt the need of something different from the books which
had for some time been the fashion. But the press still
pours forth a number of publications, the general tendency
of which is towards a thinly -disguised paganism. It
certainly cannot be combated by mere sensational ex-
pedients, and still less by unwarranted compromises. The
man who is to effect it must be one who makes his hearers
feel the reality of his manhood, the breadth of his sympathy,
the firmness of his intellectual grasp of the problems of
the hour, the depth and intensity of his convictions, the
enthusiasm of his loyalty for Christ, and the fervour of his
desire for the salvation of the souls of men. The qualities
essential to his success are very different, but they are not
antagonistic. It is possible to preserve a due respect for the
old, and yet to be free from that hard Conservatism which
will listen to no charmer charming never so wisely, if in his
music there be any fresh note. The most devoted service of

390 THE ANCIENT FAITH IN MODERN LIGHT

the truth does not necessarily mean a hard judgment even
of those who stumble through unbelief; nor is a high
spirituality of thought and aim at all inconsistent with a
sympathetic recognition of the work which the man of the
world has to do in the sphere of daily life. In a word,
largeness of heart may exist where there is an eagle's keen-
ness of vision and a lion's strength of limb. This is the
ideal which the preacher must keep before himself.

In conclusion, it may truly be said that the very
difficulty of his task should only make the work of the
preacher of to-day more attractive to a man fired with
unselfish spiritual ambition. There is no more foolish talk
than that of those who represent it as a spent force. The
wish is father to the thought. But its futility is shown by
the eager appeals which are continually made to the
preacher to throw the weight of his influence into some
popular movement, and the bitter complaints which are
made by those who do not secure this assistance. The
preacher himself is the only man who can destroy his own
power. If he be a mere slave of precedent, seeking to form
himself upon some model of past times, without regard to
his own capabilities or the necessities of the age ; if he dwell
in a cloister, and is disposed to glory in his isolation ; if he
mumble out old formulas, instead of speaking living and
loving words, it is certain that men will not be greatly
moved by him. Or if, on the other hand, he seeks to tickle
the ears of men instead of moving their hearts ; if he
trembles before the prejudice he ought to defy, and tries to
conciliate by compromise the error he ought to oppose to
the death ; or if he parades before men his doubts and
difficulties, instead of the certainties of his faith, there can
be but one issue. He may obtain momentary popularity,
but of spiritual and enduring success he can have no hope.
No strength of resolution, on the one hand, can be too

Till-: PULPIT AND THE PRESS 39 1

forcible, no wealth of tenderness too rich, as a qualification
for him who has to grapple with the spirit of the times, as
seen alike in its literature, its science, and its politics.
That spirit is distinctly anti-Christian ; it is, as we have
seen, ready to scoff at moral restraints, and fancies that it
has passed a sufficiently condemnatory verdict upon them
when it describes them as Puritan. The contempt thus
poured upon one of the noblest names both in our religious
and civil history is itself one of the most significant and
painful indications of tendencies that are at work amongst
us ; and that must have their effect upon the youthful mind.
The minister of Christ, who has to commend the gospel
to men affected by the literary, the scientific, and, last but
not least, the social temper of the age, certainly cannot
afford to regard his special work with indifference. His
opportunities are few, and it is for him diligently to improve
them. It is a small matter to him whether he attract
public attention. He may well be content to remain, if
need be, in obscurity, provided only that at the close he be
amongst those who, having turned many to righteousness,
shall shine as the brightness of the firmament and as the
stars for ever and ever.

APPENDIX

THE WITNESS TO THE SPIRIT

(A FRAGMENT)

By henry ROBERT REYNOLDS

The plan of this book originaUy included an Essay tipon the Doctrine of
the Holy Spirit, as set forth in Scripture and verified in human experience.
The topic ivas ejitriisted to the Rev. Hejiry Robert Reynolds, D.D., Principal
of Cheshunt College, who entered upon his task with much readitiess and
delight. It is matter for lasting regret that he lived to acco?nplish only a
small part of his scheme ; but the section here given, complete in itself, is
so characteristic of Dr. Reynolds' thought and style, and so full of interest,
that it has been detennined not to withhold it. The paper has been inserted
by kind permission of the author s surviving representatives.

Further discnssioti of the doctrine, in others of its varied aspects, will be
found in the First Essay, the plan of which was modified in consequence of
Dr. Reynolds' decease.

APPENDIX

The Witness to the Spirit

My theme is not confined to the theological doctrine of the
witness of the Holy Spirit with our spirits that we are the
children of God (Rom. viii. i6) ; yet that very remarkable
phrase covers and names one of the root facts of our
spiritual history, apart from which we should not know
whether there be any Holy Spirit. The widely spread dis-
inclination to concede the idea of the so-called "personality"
of the Holy Spirit, as distinct from that of "the Father" or
" the Son," turns on the possible discrimination or otherwise
we can make between these two testimonies. Can we, or
can we not, discern any difference between the witness of
our reason and affections that the Eternal God is our Father
and that we are His children, and the supernatural testimony
borne in the depths of our own conscience to the same
surprising fact, by God Himself, and God known to us as
distinct from "the Father" or "the Son" (or "the Logos"),
and yet separable in thought from the fundamental idea
of " God " ? Many answer this question with a reverent
negative, and are content with a pious agnosticism in dealing
with such mystic realities. Others, by long habituation with
the formula of theology touching the Holy Trinity, can, or
at least do answer the question with strong affirmatives of
entire confidence, and even do more, discriminate the per-
sonal convictions of our own conscious ego, from the gentle
ministry of the Spirit of Christ, and also from the indwelling
of the Holy Spirit of the Father and of the Son.

395

396 THE ANCIENT FAITH IN MODERN LIGHT

Some are content to do without any doctrine or teaching
concerning the Spirit, using perhaps all these familiar terms
— Father, Spirit, Son, Lord, Grace, as virtually equivalent
or equipollent in meaning. They leave, moreover, to the
theologians to draw their distinctions, which connote
differences imperceptible to the practical mind. Grave
charges must be brought against any theological system
which must go back sixteen hundred years to find philo-
sophical terms to use for these transcendent themes, and
cannot find all that is necessary in the deliverance of
consciousness, or at least in the testimonies of the Lord,
of the prophetic word, and of the current teaching of the
apostles. Whatever Christian doctrine we examine, whether
it has to do with God or man, with the nature or the
redemption of man, with the Word, or the Church, or the
Sacraments of the divine life, we seem led by irresistible
mental processes, to the idea of " the Spirit," " the Spirit of
God," "the Holy Spirit." In fact, the most fundamental
idea of God, given in consciousness and preserved in the
most venerable fragments of religious speculation, is that
God's own essential nature is " Spirit," as antithetic to
matter or to chaos, or to body, or to things without life.
Our own ego contrasts itself sharply with all that is not ego ;
and that utterly irreducible element in which our conscious-
ness abides, discriminates itself from all beside. The infinite
non-ego, including even our own bodies — which are not
ourselves — divides itself, as we do divide ourselves, into
Spirit, and any or all of its great antitheses. This is the
most essential analogue and measure of the Deity. What
we call Spirit thinks ; persists through all its own states, and
is more than they ; operates in all its parts ; pervades all that
is not conscious self ; is the order, force, purpose, meaning
of the whole. The beginning of inquiries into the nature
of God, whether in uncultivated heathenism, in Indian or
Hellenic thought, supposes the underlying energy that

THE WITNESS TO THE SPIRIT 397

pervades nature to be akin to that which thinks, feels, acts
in the worshipper. From the beginning of Genesis to the
end of Revelation, " the Spirit " is the most characteristic
expression for the Almighty, in His great acts, His omni-
presence in the universe, His accessibility to man, His
special working in souls, in conscience, and in the providential
government of the world. The idea of "Father" or "Son,"
of " Lord " or of " King " are later differentiations of the
stupendous and more simple conception of the Spirit, In
some frames of mind we seem to need nothing more than
this presence and power deeply interfused, this " motion and
Spirit" which fills eternity and thrills through all things,
and works in us, and is the life of our life and "the light of
all our seeing," the Person with whom we have to do, to
whom, so far as we are free creatures, we are responsible for
every act and habitude. Many want no more, are satisfied
with the simple creed that " God is (a) Spirit," and suppose
by avoiding such terms as " Father," " Son," they escape from
the bete noire of anthropomorphism. They are not, however,
emancipated so easily, for the word " Spirit " is perhaps the
most perfect anthropopatheia possible. It would seem as
though, say what we will, we are so made that we cannot
but think of the supreme Presence, which the Fetishist and
Hcnotheist, the Hylotheist or Christian philosopher, dreams
of as akin to that which is within us, which wills and thinks,
spirit rather than body, spirit rather than matter, spirit
rather than " things /^a' se'' If we allow ourselves a step
further, and dare for our own solace to name the character
or functions of the Spirit, and assign the most comprehensive
term to His relations with us, the highest minds of our
ancestors, as well as some of the most vigorous, have called
Him " Father." This has been done by those who meant
by it our " Creator," or the Governor of the Universe — "the
Father of Gods and Men " — but in the highest revelations, or
even call them " speculations " of our race, the Great Spirit

398 THE ANCIENT FAITH IN MODERN LIGHT

has been hailed as "the Father in Heaven," one who has
actually assumed towards us parental functions, who has
given us His own spiritual nature, who has breathed it into
us, and thus made us what we are, " children of God," with
all corresponding relations and obligations. But the thought
of a Father has led to the sublime conception of one who is
a Father per se, who has always been throughout finite time,
the Father of spirits like His own, the Giver and the Lover
of natures like His own. If always, then He has been so
" in the beginning," from before all time ; and His Eternal
Nature as Father looms upon us out of the very depth of the
Eternal Spirit, as generating the perfect image and perfect
likeness of Himself, with whom all subsequent creatures
share a common life. The idea of "the Father and the
Son" posits an eternal relation, the infinite Subject and
Object, both of thought and love; we see without effort the
Son in the bosom of the Father, the archetypal Child of the
Eternal, in whom all other life consists, as eternal as eternity.

And thus, " the Spirit of God " being the primal conception
of Deity, the mind has flowed on to the twofold conception
of " Father" and " Son," as the very basis of all rational and
moral relations with spirits that have been breathed into
Being from Himself and after His likeness.

In like manner, the idea of the Spirit as God (^£&s) in the
process of emergence from the one to the many — from
the Eternal Silence and Stillness to the Universe, the " all
things " ('xavra) — including not merely " spirit," but -/.oa/j^og,
" world," and t,oj7i, " life " — had shadowed itself forth as the
eternal relation between (Ss6g and Xo'yof) " God " and " The
Word." Eternal Thought and eternal Word have been or
been felt to be inseparable. As in the case of Father and
Son, this is only another name of the same eternal relation,
when we are helped by great and well-known sentences to
grapple with some of the most fascinating problems ever
presented to human minds, and even to concede that

THE WITNESS TO THE SPIRIT 399

"the Word was" not only "with God," but "God" Himself,
that "all things came into being through Him," that in Him
was " Life " and " Light."

Is it not, however, possible to move one step nearer to
the central mystery, as early and later thinkers have done,
when they have endeavoured to name more closely the
relation of the Spirit to the Father and to the Son ? The
Apostle Paul taught the Corinthians " Who of men knoweth
the things of a man, save the spirit of man w^hich is in him ?
In the same manner also no one hath known the things of
God, save the Spirit of God" (i Cor. ii. 11). The Spirit
of God is then the self-consciousness of God. This term
connotes the self-consciousness of the Father, and also the
self-consciousness of the Son ; and the whole analogy of
nature shows us that these two are one. The Eternal Spirit
is the unity of the Father and of the Son, the unity of the
Godhead, the thinking, loving, central reality of the stupendous
conception of Him with whom we have to do.

In the Old Testament, in the sublime record of the
dealing of God with man, this great concept transcends in
operation even the more familiar " Jahveh " or " Lord of
Hosts." He is represented as brooding over the formless
void, and causing it to teem with life ; as the Creator of all
things ; as the efficient cause of the difference between the
life in man and in all other creatures ; as striving with man
when in his waywardness he pursues his self-centred and
sinful life ; as working in the hearts of men to give to them
special faculties, the sense of beauty, the skill to express it,
the craft to give utterance to the throes of genius ; He is the
source of all the higher feats and great achievements of
the understanding, the joy of the world, the subconscious
leader of His people, the wisdom to guide them and strength
to rule them. The whole underlying wonder of persistent
force, which constitutes the reality of all things, is the
indwelling and abiding and native Spirit of God. We reach

400 THE ANCIENT FAITH IN MODERN LIGHT

the very limit of our faculty if we try to think out for
ourselves, what we are taught by science to believe is the
behaviour of a solitary atom. Still more baffling does it
become, if we stretch our imagination to conceive the great
masses of matter, and the world of space ; still further, to
apprehend the mysterious wonder of the life cells of plant
and animal, the balance between their respective kingdoms,
and constant operation upon every point of the created
universe ; of the physical forces in their ceaseless correlation
and inexhaustible fulness and conspiracy of all together
to evolve a harmony and charm of co-operation and progress,
which embraces every element of wonder and splendour,
and calls for every emotion of adoration and praise. Nothing
less than God can accomplish any of these physical effects.
His thought and purpose are required at every atomic centre
of energy throughout the universe, for every infinitesimal
fraction of time. Thus we reach the concept of the Great
Spirit, not as a delegated angel of the Eternal Presence,
but as the living, loving God Himself. The complicated
rhythm of the infinite fulness of activity in which we and all
other things whatsoever live and move and have their being,
becomes a revelation of the Spirit of the Lord God, the
unity of the Father and the Son, the unity of God and the
Word, the God of the spirits of all flesh, in the amplitude
of whose embrace they all are living.

The greatness of this conception becomes more con-
spicuous in the preparation made by the Spirit of God to
perfect the work of redemption and renewal, in bringing the
Eternal Son into closer and final union with humanity. Great
was the working of the Spirit with every soul of man. Mar-
vellous were the special functions which the Spirit of sonship,
the spirit of the Logos, wrought in the elect souls of the race.
Measureless was the augmentation of the faith of Abraham,
the courage, the insight, the prophetic energy of Moses,
the royal powers and poetry of David, the vision of Isaiah,

THE WITNESS TO THE SPn<lT 4OI

the sublime poetry of Job, and the profound practical wisdom

of the Proverbs, the throbbing sense of the nearness of God

to Humanity as conceived by the Baptist. Nay, may we

not attribute to the same divine source, the intensity of the

conscience of Socrates, the self-mastery and enlightenment

of Buddha, the realisation of divine realities of justice and

purity in the wisdom of Confucius and Lao-tse, in the Vedic

songs and the poems of Pentaur, with the snatches of

heavenly wisdom in the Orphic fragments? In every case

there was a coming together of man and God, of untold

value to mankind. It was in these cases capable of being

put into precious words which have lived and will never die ;

but the supreme contact between God and man, the actual

doing of the Eternal will from the ground of human nature,

was not yet. Not until the Great Spirit Worker prepared a

body and soul of such consummate perfection, that, thougli

the brother of the most needy. He proved to be Lord of all,

did the Eternal Son come into living, actual union with

Him. The Incarnation of the Word and Son of God, in the

life and death of Him who was in His own recorded

self-consciousness both " Son of God " and " Son of Man,"

wrought such a unity, that the lightest things of human

life were not beneath His notice, nor the basest and most

wretched corruptions of human nature below His pity and

redeeming might ; while He was at the same time always

conscious of eternity, coming from heaven, revealing the

heather, absolutely doing His will ; answering, down to the

depth of the humanity He assumed, the good pleasure of

the Eternal. The relation of His human life to the divine

was a kind to which we have been led by all the inworking

of the Spirit of the living God, in the Cosmos, and in human

life and teaching; but the kind has transcended every

previous and later example of such mutual indwelling of

God and man. He who is the Unity of the Father and the

Son is the veritable union and unity of the Son of God and
26

402 THE ANCIENT FAITH IX MODERN LIGHT

Son of Man. The Eternal Spirit of the Lord, the Holy
Spirit for ever in God, and dwelling in the Son of Man
without measure, and also working in our poor troubled
flesh, is from the hour of the glorification of the Son of Man,
presenting to men all the truth, all " the things " of the Lord
Jesus. The measure of His capacity to bless and rectify and
perfect the soul has always been conditioned by the affluence
of the material at His disposal. Formerly He took the
mystery of the kingdom of God and brought it to bear upon
human life and destiny ; now He takes of the things of
Christ and shows them unto His own. He searcheth the
deep things of God, and man becomes under this divine
tutelage and indwelling one with God, able to think His
thoughts, to accept His discipline, and to cry from the depth
of his consciousness, " Thy will be done."

I am not concerned to discriminate too closely the high
functions of the Spirit ; but so far as we are concerned, the
Spirit of the Christ — the underlying consciousness of the
God-man — is that which manifests the highest conceivable
operation of the Holy Spirit upon us and within us. The
Apostle John tells us that notwithstanding all previous
activities of the Spirit in nature and humanity, as recorded
by Himself and the sacred writers in general, " the Holy
Spirit was not yet (given), because Jesus was not yet glorified "
(John vii. 39). The previous activities, however splendid and
abundant in their fulness, were incommensurable with the
glory of His work, when, as the Union of God and Man, He
began to change our poor damaged nature into the nature of
the glorified Jesus, from glory to glory ; to dwell in us, to
abide in our poor life, to hallow and cleanse it down to its
roots, to think through us, so that our thoughts and His
thoughts are veritably blended, so that our desires are His
purposes, our characteristic and personal functions become the
glorious intentions of His divine personality. We are temples
of the Holy Spirit, we are creatures of His might ; we are

HIE WITNESS TO THE Sl'IRIT 4O3

certainly endowed with new and most overwhelming re-
sponsibilities, for we can resist His ministry, we can choke
and silence the inner voice, we can quench the Holy Spirit,
either in ourselves or others, we can crucify the Lord Christ
who is dwelling by His Spirit within us, we can reject,
betray, deny, insult, and put to open shame our " gentle,
awful Holy Guest," and we need every moment of our inner
life, to pray in the Spirit, to walk in the Spirit, to war with
the flesh in the power of the Spirit, and to live in such
conscious union with the Lord that we gain the victory and
fully realise the Life Eternal.

But these great results need further contemplation and
deeper analysis. In proportion as we realise the double
life within us, we can bear our testimony to the reality of the
Holy Ghost, and " His witness with our spirits that we are
the children of God."

Before proceeding to this, we must put ourselves upon
our guard. It would be presumption to suppose that all the
operations of the Spirit are by any means present to our
consciousness. How much He has wrought in us, " before
our infant hearts conceived from whom those blessings
flowed " ! Infinitely numerous are the ways in which the
Holy One prepares us for full interpretation of Himself
before, independently of, within and beneath our conscious-
ness ! We arc prepared for this by the reflection that we
have only as yet, with all the dazzling disclosures of modern
science, done no more than give names to certain methods of
nature, or rather of God in it, which had been hid from the
ages and generations that preceded us. We do not know
now, nor can we even think what is gravitation, or heat, or
light ; or what are electric states and activities, or magnetic
mysteries. They have been going on during all the history
of the cosmos, and new facts of the same kind have been
looming out of the mists of darkness, and continue to do so ;

404 THE ANCIENT FAITH IN MODERN IJGIIT

but we recognise, as soon as we are told of these things,
that the Spirit, the Will, the Power and Wisdom of the
Supreme Being has been acting along these lines before
the foundation of this world. We are getting to "think
His thoughts after Him," as Kepler put it, but it is only the
whisper of a word that we catch. The forms — the funda-
mental forces or methods of the One Great Spirit's action —
are in all probability but the veriest alphabet of what is still
to be observed. Some new discoveries as wonderful as that
of Gravitation, or Evolution, or the recent disclosure of the
penetrating powers of light, await the immediate future,
which will modify all our previous knowledge, and throw a
new glamour over the universe. In like manner, the Spirit
of God has been working in human life, far below the con-
sciousness, and has awaited some suitable moments for His
self-revelation to men. Events as momentous to the spiritual
progress of the race, as that of Sinai, or Bethlehem, or Cal-
vary, or Olivet, or Pentecost — " Comings of our Lord " in
power and great glory — await the world, which will tran-
scend all the rest when they have come into consciousness
and become part of human life. It is, then, with deepest
reverence that we bear our faint whispers of testimony to
the grace and working of the Holy Spirit within our con-
sciousness, which tell us of timeless, constant operations
upon us, which we cannot " name," and which eye hath not
seen, nor ear heard, and which no heart has conceived.

This leads me to premise that the first testimony we
can bear to the co-action of the Spirit with our spirits is the
testimony borne to it by other spirits. The intelligent
portion of the human family has from early times been
accustomed to feel about some phenomena of nature into
which the human will or personality enters ; " This or that
was not any human cleverness, or the simple mechanical
contact of the human purpose with surrounding conditions.

THE WITNESS TO THE SPIRIT 405

of physical nature. TJiis or tJiat is the finger of God. Here
or there — in some undiscovered region of experience — is
another Purpose, another Will-power infinitely transcending
what we know of nature or man." The very power that
" looses the bands of Orion," the skill that sculptures the
car, that adapts the eye to light, that opens the stomata on
the back of every blade of grass, that provides food of
plant, animal, bird, insect, and fish, that kindles the phos-
phorescence of the deep sea — all this strikes us aghast and
dumb with wonder, and gives the special sense of the " Pre-
sence of God," reveals the will and purpose of the Almighty.
There are certain workings of the minds of men which
impress the witness of them with the sense of the infinite
Power and Wisdom which is at the back of all conscious-
ness. The laws of mind themselves show the transcendent
operation of the Source and Spirit of all things, and are
but phenomena of the will that established these very laws.
To these we cannot but refer the great discoveries of the
scientist, the visions of lofty genius, the combinations of art
and science, by which an introduction is effected to the
nameless, untellable glories of music, painting, sculpture.
We cannot follow, by any of the laws of thought that we
know, the mighty stride which a brother makes into the
invisible realities ; we do but approximate the myster>^
We fall back upon the infinite One. We say this is the
breath of the eternal activities of heart, mind, and will, that
are more than human heart, mind, and will. We catch the
notes of the almighty voice, of an infinite Wisdom, of the
I'lternal Love and Purpose.

So we trace in the operation of certain minds, more,
even infinitely more, than those minds in the utmost tension
could have produced. We discern certain minds travailing
with comprehensive thoughts which are divine revelations,
which lose themselves in the skirts of His garments, which
are the Secrets of God Himself, hidden in their folds, the

406 THE ANCIENT FAITH IN MODERN LIGHT

drawing near of the Eternal One to His loved children.
Thus the luminous thoughts of a (ew become the heritage of
generations. Poetry and all true art of the highest kind,
which are beyond the power of education or circumstance
or analogy of nature to produce, do mediate the thoughts,
wishes, and ideals of the Most High God upon us and the
world.

We must not underestimate the extent of these revelations,
these coming near to our consciousness, of what is of the
nature of consciousness, but is not the human will, or the
human spontaneity. Certain flashes of (what we call) genius
have revolutionised the world. Certain forth-breathings of
melody and harmony there are, leading the way into the
region of the unnameablc glories of reality and eternity.
The chords and movements of sweet sounds convey what
cannot be put into any human words, what cannot be
expressed in any other methods known to us, what is more
than and different from any known emotions. Fragments
are they, snatches of a reality, which none of us have yet
explored. Many things in our human life transcend our
sense, our reason, our imagination, our emotions, and are yet
" the master light of all our seeing." Science, music, art
of every kind, rest upon invisible, intangible, unnameable
realities of what is below our consciousness, and yet is
probably the far larger part of our Ego ; which, though
transcending all our X6yo; of every dimension or intensity,
and never coming into consciousness, is yet never excluded
from it. The finest moments, the grandest situations of
history, give the nearest approximations to the articulate
voice of the Almighty.

The voice, or seeming voice, which convinced the greatest
teachers of our race of some of the positive characteristics —
so far as we can think or feel them — of Him " who is and was,
and is to come," who says, " I am what I am," who said,
" My Father and your Father," " My Father, into Thy hands I

THE WITNESS TO THE SPH^IT 407

commend My spirit," " My grace is sufficient for thee '' —
this voice we call " revelation," and its confirmation comes
ill some answering echo from the depths of our consciousness.
Throughout the whole history of the true Church of God,
i.(\ of elect souls, "the testimonies" which could take shape
in consciousness have been augmented ; and yet comparatively
speaking they are few and Catholic. They are infinitely
precious, and those who accept them as X070; cast their
plumb-line into fathomless abysses, and say, " Oh the depth ;
oh the depth."

This leads the brotherhood of the one fellowship into
very blessed interchanges of common love and hope, and
oneness in that which is Eternal. Still this testimony of the
brotherhood of God's elect, of the fellows of the Son of God,
vast, deep, and impressive as it is, does fall short of the
testimony which we find within ourselves ; for, apart from
the true imvard witness to the divine and infinite reality,
the other voice, if voice it be, will be unheard.

INDEX

Acts, the Book of, a fragment, 102.
Agnostic teaching of the young, 314.
Agnosticism and antluopomorphism, 8,

61, note.
Agricultural labourers, influence of

evangelical teaching upon, 292.
'All things to all men,' meaning,

354-
Altruism, modern, 325.
Ambassador, (]ualihcation of an, 374 ;

'Ambassadors for Christ,' 371.
Angels, as described in O.T. , 13, 16

blood, 200 ; on ' Christ made sin for
us,' 214 ; on restoration through
Christ, 219 ; on his own early Chris-
tian training, 318 ; and Pela iritis, on
Sin, 133. '
Authority, of Scripture as interpreted
by the Holy Spirit, 267 ; in matters
of belief, 321.

Balfour, A. J., on Arianism, 171.
Baptism, 345 ; infant, 329.
/>ai(r, F. C, on Arianism, 170.

'Angel of the Face,* 14 ; 'Angels of Belief, sound, without love, 375.

the Churches,' 253
Anglo-Saxon race, the, and the Bible,

73-.
Animistic views of evil, 113.

Anselni, on Ransom, 217, 2x8; on
Satisfaction, 221.

Anthropology, modern; views of man's
origin, 117.

Anthropomorphic terms in N.T. , 26.

Anthropomorphism, Hebrew, 7 ; of
l^lato, 9 ; and personality, 10 ; in
describinginanimate objects, 62, iiole;
in the idea of ' Spirit,' 389.

Apollinarianism, 1 71.

Apostles, the, and early evangelisation,
242 ; relation to the Churches, 259 ;
successors of, 261.

Apostolic organisation of the Churches,
236.

Arianism, 170.

Aristotle, the (]od of, 6.

Arnold, Dr. 'J'., on early signs of de-
pravity, 330.

' Athanasian Creed,' the, 169.

Athanasiiis, on Law fulfilled in Sacri-
fice, 210 ; on the Vicarious Sacrifice,
220.

Atonement, the, Christ the self-expres-
sion of (iod in, 56, and Incarnation,
190 ; the expression of Divine Love,
198 ; holiness, the object of, 225.

Attributes of our Lord, distinction in
the, 173.

Aiigttstine, on the prohibition to cat

Beneficence, in Stale enactments, 277.

Bible, the, 'and the Bible only,' 267 ;
conceptions of, 322 ; general ignor-
ance of, 316 ; instruction in ele-
mentary schools, 317. See Scrip-
tures.

Biblical criticism, and the teaching of
the young, 323.

Bishops and deacons, 249.

Blood, the life, in sacrifice, 200.

' Book of Origins,' the Bible a, 83.

Brahmiiiical and Buddhistic pessimism,
III.

Bread of Life, the, 201.

'Bringing many sons unto glory,' 182,
vole.

Bruce, Dr. A. B., 'Humiliation of
Christ,' 185, note.

Bunyaii, John, his types of Christian
character and Church life, 348, 349,

350-
Bits/inell, Dr. H., on Christ's testimony
to Himself, 162.

Call, Divine, to the ministry, 370.

Calvin, on Substitution, 224.

Carlyle, T., on Conversion, 334.

Catechisms succeeded by liie Hymn-
book, 316.

Centre of Christian belief readjusted,
189.

Chad'i'iik, Bishop, on the title ' .Son of
Man,' 186, note.

Chalcedon, Formula of, 169.

i09

410

INDEX

C'lanniiio, Dr., on Unitaiianism and
I'iety, 164.

Character of a country to be judged as
a whole, 288.

Charles, Mrs. E. A'., on our Lord's
Knovvledije, 172.

Chastisement of the forgiven, 56.

Cheync, Prof., 'Job and Solomon,' 8,
'Founders of O.T. criticism,' 59:
on anthropomorphism in the I'saltcr,
6r, note.

Childhood, moral imperfection in, 330 ;
its capacities for good, 331 ; religion
of, 332.

Child-theologians, 318.

Christ, not understood by His own
followers, 45 ; His removal not
absence, 46 ; the embodiment of
perfect morality, 97 ; His Deity and
Humanity correlated truths, 158;
increased attention given to His Life
157 ; His self-assertion a proof of
I3eity, 159; the f.ife of the believer,
162 ; Revealer of Truth, 179 ; witness
to the Old Testament, 180 ; teaching
of, respecting His death, 195 ; per-
fected through discipline, 181 ; the
Representative of our race, 210;
'made Sin for us,' 214; the chil-
dren's Friend, 339 ; His Life the
study of childhood, 340 ; in the hearts
of the young, 343.

Christian, a, defined, 230 ; ( hrislian
life, and the Spirit, 39S.

' Christianised consciousness,' 144, 149.

Christianity, not an appendix to Juda-
ism, 86; ignored by secular historians,
87 ; a religion of principles rather
than precepts, 232 ; connexion with
morals, 296 ; practical, its counter-
parts in nature, 297.

Church, the Christian, its early ex-
tension, 241, 243 ; no model form for
its organisation, 254 ; appeals to, on
doctrine and discipline, 256, 25S; no
authority in matters of faith, 266 ;
its life of many types, 270, note ;
larger than the Churches, 299 ; fit-
ness of a child for membership in.
345 ; a home, 347 ; a sphere of
service for the young, 343 ; a school
of instruction, 349.

Church-making, no business of ours,
299.

'Church Teaching,' 314.

Churches and the Church, 229, 299.

Colossians, Epistle to the, its motive, 204.

Comings of the Lord, manifold, 404.

Communion with God, a condition of
human progress, 121.

Comte, A., on radical impeifection of
human nature, 136.

' Confirmation,' religious value of, j^^.

Conflict of Christ with powers of dark-
ness, 202.

Congregational Church principles, 346.

Conscience of the State, 277.

Consequences of wrong-doing not
wholly removed by forgiveness, 56.

Constitutional sin and personal trans-
gression, 143.

Controversies, a hindrance to good
work, 309.

Conversion, necessity of, 333.

Co-operation among the several
Churches, 269.

Corelli, Marie, ' The Mighty Atom, '315.

Cosmogony, the Hebrew', 6.

Cosmopolitanism, true, 293.

Covenant, the new, 199.

Creation, the, history of, 85 ; second
narrative of, 78.

Crisis, the, of a man's spiritual history,
145.

Criticism, fallibility of N.T., 61, note.

Criticisms, various, of preachers and
preaching, 356, 376. See ' Higher.'

Cross, the. Synthesis between Law and
Forgiveness, 57.

Dale, Dr. H. IV., on the basis of
Scripture authority, 322 ; on the re-
ligion of childhood, 343.

Darwin, Charles, on spiritual powers,
328.

Davidson, Bishop Randall, on neglect
of Bible teaching, 316.

Deacons, their office probably not
identical with that of ' the Se\'en,'
241 ; passages where mentioned, 250.

Death, meaning of, in connection with
the Fall, 126, 138; is God with-
drawn, 139 ; various biblical usages
of the word, 140 ; general meanmg
of, in Scripture, 226.

Death of Christ, its mysterious efficacy,
195 : that efficacy threefold, 197 ;
the Life of the world, 201, 213 sq.

Debt of mankind, as paid l)y Christ,
220.

Decision, religious, to be urged on the
young, 334- _

Definiteness in religious teaching, 315-

Denney, Dr. James, 'Studies in Theo-
logy,' 341 ; on Kenotic Christologies,
185.

Depravity, universal, 135.

Destiny, as viewed by the Greeks, 50.

Dichotomy of man's nature, 1 17.

Discoveries, new, ever to be made, 404.

INDEX

411

Disinterestedness of the preacher, 364.
Dissent, a quickening iniluence, 2S8.
Divine image in man, limitations of,

."7.

Divine in tlie Human, 401.

Divine Sulf-expression, 32.

Doctrine imlependent of criticism, 166.

Doddridge, Dr. K., an example of
religious training, 319.

Dogmas of the Reformation era, 224,

Dogmatism and ignorance, 3S5.

Doketic views ot our Lord's Person,
158, 176, 181.

Doriier, Dr. J. A., on the Sin against
the Holy Ghost, 147 ; on progressive
Incarnation, 176; on the eternal
purpose of Incarnation, 188; on the
history of the doctrine of Substitu-
tion, 219.

Dri7\r, Prof. , criticised by Prof. Cheyne,

59, «'"''■•
Drtiinmond, Prof. _/., ' Via, \'erita:^,

Vita,' 62.
Dualism, 113.

Earnestness and sincerity in preach-
ings 367-

■ Eating the Flesh ' and ' drinking the
Blood ' of Christ, 201.

Edwards, Principal, 'the dod-Man,'
1 88, note.

Elders of the Churches, 244 ; identical
with Bishops, 249, 7iotc.

Eliot, George, ([uoted, 163 ; her early
Christian experience, 319.

Epistles, the, as Literature, 81.

Erasmus and the Bible, 73.

Lstablishment of a Church by the
State, 281.

Eternal Sonship thinkable, t,}, ; ' Eter-
nal Creation,' 30.

llthical religion, its basis, 6; standard
of Christ, the, 53.

Eicsehius on ' the first-fruits of be-
lievers,' 241.

Evangelical Faith, the, cosmopolitan,

293-
Evil contingent, not necessary, 115.
J'lvolution, anti-supernatural tendencies

in the theory of, 327.
Exhortation, the preacher's chief

function, 360.
' Exinanition,' 173, note.
Experience, testimony of, to the living

Christ, 103.
' ICxperts' in the Gospel, 360.

Fact, the prerequisite of Faith, 339.
Fairlhiirn, Dr. A. A/., on Sin as a
specifically Christian notion. 129; on

the ' Return to Christ,' 157 ; on
Christ's Temptation, 184, note.

Faith, the larger Reason, 296 ; incor-
poration with Christ by, 212.

Fall of man, the, 123 ; a postulate of
the entire Bible, 124; results of, 127;
signs of, 329.

Father, the Divine, and His children,
57 ; ' Father in Heaven,' 390.

Fatherhood and Sovereignty of God,
336 ; P'atherhood and Sonship, an
eternal relation, 398.

Fear, place of, in religious training,
326.

Fellowship, Christian, a result of union
with Christ, 231.

Festus and Paul, 365.

Fiction, modern, 387.

' Finger of God,' the, recognised, 404,

Flesh and Spirit, once harmonious, 1 19.

' Foolishness of Preaching,' the, 303.

Forgiveness, how related to law, 49 ;
a part of the moral order, 54 ; con-
ditioned by Repentance, it'. ; con-
sistent with chastisement, 5O.

Form in the Divine, ineradicable crav-
ing for, 41.

Fourth Gospel, the, Christ's Deity in,
161.

Francis of Assist and the Bible, 72.

Genesis, its declaration of Mono-
theism, 5 ; First cliapter of, com-
pared with Proverbs viii., 6.

Genius, intuitions of, divine, 405.

Gethsemane, the Agony in, 203.

' Glory of the Lord,' the, 19.

God, invisible and inscrutable, but not
unknowable, 13, 34; often reduced
in thought to a negation, 40 ; as
revealed in the Prophets, a postu-
late of man's deepest experiences,
100 ; in Christ, the creed of the
simple believer, 167 ; the child's
thoughts of, 335, 336 ; fundamental
idea of, 396 ; an all-pervading Power,
400.

Good and evil, knowledge of, 116;
their varieties cla>;sified, ill.

Go7-e. Canon, on Dogma, 317; on the
Cluirch as the ' Household of Grace,'

346.

Gospel history, the basis of laith, 339.

Gospel, the, adapted to literary, scien-
tific, and social needs, 391.

Gospels, the, as Literature, 81.

Greek Philosophy, on Moral Govern-
ment and Free-svill. 49; Tragedy,
its view of Evil and Retribution, 50,
•15-

412

INDEX

Gregory of Nyssa, on Christ's Conde-
scension, 174.
Guilt, the accompaniment of Sin, 137.

Hall, Hobekt, on 'believing in the

UevJl,' 335.
Hard thinking and hard work, 309.
Harnack, l^rof., ' Chronology of

Ancient Christian Literature,' 60,

note.
Hatch, Dr., ' Hibbert Lectures,' 49.
Hearers of sermons, unsatisfied, 3S1.
Heaven, the child's thoughts of, 334.
Hebrews, Epistle to the, on the Divine

Humanity, 182,
lienotheism among the Hebrews, 4, 5 ;

distinguished from Monotheism, ib.
Heresies regarding our Lord's Person,

168, 171.
' Higher Criticism,' the, legitimate in

itself, 58, note ; unscientific use of,

59, note.
Histories, Jewish, classed with pro-
phecies, 92.
Holtnes, Oliver Wendell, on Watts'

Hymns, 32c.
Holy of Holies, the vacant, a symbol,

13-
Home and School, as guardians of the

Ancient Faith, 313.
Hosea, his quotations from earlier

writers, 70.
' House Beautiful,' the, 350.
//ozve, John, on human Depravity,

136.
Human Suffering, problem of, iii.

Ideal, lofty, of the preacher's office,
369-

Idolatry, general tendency to, 41 ;
ground of its criminality, 42.

Image of God, man made in the, 7.

Imputation, 219; theory of, 207.

' In Christ,' import of the phrase, 163.

Incarnation, a special form of an eternal
revelation of God, 35 ; God's neces-
sary Self- manifestation, 40 ; de-
manded by man's sensuous nature,
43 ; reveals perfect Holiness and
Love, 187 ; culminates in Sacrifice,
188 ; a recapitulation of Humanity,
211 ; human life, and divine, 401,

Individual Responsibility, 267.

Individualism in Religion, 294,

Inductive method, applied to the Gospel
History, 171, 172.

Innocence and Holiness, 120.

Inspiration, the complement of Revela-
tion, 48 ; theories of, 105, note.

' Inward witness,' the, 407.

Iaiiveh, in the Old Testament, 399.
Jerusalem, church-assembly at, not a

' Council,' 247, 249.
Jews, modern, and Christianity, 3.
Job, the Book of, 79.
John, the Baptist, as a preacher, 364.
John's Gospel, Proem to, 37, 187.
Journalism and preachers, 357.
Jo-weft, Fro/., reference to his Life, 36b.
Judaism, as regarded by Theists, 3;

modern, rather a Philosophy than a

Faith, 12.
Judgment, day and hour of, unknown

to the Son, 179.

A'i.vr, Immanuel, on radical Evil in

Human Nature, 136.
' Kenosis,' 187 ; Kenotic Theories,

.I73> 185.
Kingdom of Christ, apprehended by

the child, 342.
Knowledge, Christ's, intrinsic and im-

^parted, 175.
Knox, John, a type of fearlessness, 369.

Law, and Mercy, 21 ; from the point
of view of Christianity, 52 ; trans-
lated into Love by Christ, 53.

Lawlessness, modern, 389.

Laws, rigid, of Church organisation,
not in N.T., 235.

Leo the First, and the Chalcedon
formula, 169.

Letter, the, and the .Spirit of Revela-
tion, 103.

Levitical Law, its teaching on Sin, 129.

Liberty, Christinn. restrictions upon,
264 ; in Church organisation, 262.

Liddon, Canon, ' Bampton Lectures,'
179, note.

Life, human, and the Bible, a mutual
Commentary, 104.

Life of Christ in us, because of His
death, 200.

' Light ' and ' Luminary ' ; God and the
Lamb, 40.

Literary Beauty of the Bible, "]"] ; and
spiritual value of the Bible com-
pared, 82,

Literature, modern, largely anli-
Christian, 387 set].

Logos, the, 398; inadequateexplanations
"f^> 37i 62; in the Septuagint, (}},, note.

Love, the fundamental demand of the
Law, 23.

Lnther, on Justification, 223 ; his little
daughter, 243.

M.\N, a 'miniature of God,' 30;
created in the Divine image, 117;

INDEX

akin to the Divine, 186 ; greater

than the material universe, 299.
Man-made images of God, 42.
Martenscn, J)r. II., on the Internal

purpose of Incarnation, 188.
Martincau, Dr. /. , on Christ's moral

perfection, 161 ; on the Paternal

Objective, 29.
Mason, Prof. A. J., ' Conditions of our

Lord's Life on Earth,' 177, 178.
Masses, tlie, not the only ht objects for

Evangelism, 307.
Matiry, HI., on Ancient Greek Re-
ligion, 115.
Mediator, no human, between the soul

and God, 264.
Alelaiic/ithon, P., his definition of

Depravity, 135.
Mercy, as revealed in O.T. , 20.
Message of the Gospel, the great, 375.
Methodism, and the agricultural

labourer, 292.
Mill.John Stitarf,\\\>, early training, 31 5.
Mind, workings of, a revelation of the

Infinite, 397.
Ministry, a common privilege and

duty, 239 ; the Christian, might lie

represented in Parliament, 2S5.
Miracles of Christ, 175.
Mission-halls, 310.
' Monogeny,' the teaching of Scripture,

Monotheism, Jewish, not a ' Semitic

instinct,' 85.
Moral need of mankind, met in Christ,

"5:
Morality, Divine training in, 94 ; and

religion, 27, 282, 296, 332.
Mortality, conditional, 118.
Motives, a preacher's, 355.
Mailer, Dr. Julius, on ttie Sin against

the Holy Ghost, 148.
Mailer, Prof. Max, on the Logos, 63,

note.
Music, suggestions in, of unexplored

realities, 39S.
Mysteries in the natural world, 403 ;

theological, often stuilicd to the

neglect of practical truth, 377.
Mythical theories concerning Christ, 97.

Name of God, the, as declared to
Moses, 19 ; the hope of the contrite,
22 ; interpreted by the Cross, 56.

National Discipleship, 289 ; Religion,
how far possil)lc, 291.

' Neighbour,' the word as used in
Scripture, 295.

Nestorian theory of our Lord's Person,
171.

New Covenant, the, in Christ's Blood,

208.
New Testament, completion of the

Canon, 71 ; histcjric records in the,

88.
New Testament on the Divine Unity, 25;

Criticism, results of, confirmatory

of the Ancient P'aith, 60, nole \ Ethics

of, balanced and complete, 95.
Neivinau, F. 11'., on the Self- Assertion

of Christ, 161, no/e.
Newspa]ier tests of success, 382,
Nonconformists and tiie vState, 283 ;

on Religious Instruction in Schools.

317-
Nonconformity, two aspects of, 287.
Novelties, theological, of our day, 376.

OFFiciiKS of the Churches, silence of
the history concerning, 243, 246 :
slightness of apostolic reference to.
257.

Old Testament, the, its idea of God, 4 ;
discordant criticisms respecting, 59,
nole ; Influence of, in the Greek
world, 70 ; Christ's witness to, 180 ;
a Book for the young, 324.

Older schools of thought, value of their
Teachings, 320.

Oldest of all Bibles, the, 297.

Omnipotence, displayed in Christ's
Self-humiliation, 173.

One God, or No God, the only alter-
native, 25.

Organisation of a Church to be propor-
tioned to its life, 271, Jiole.

t);7'^'(7/, his doctrine of Ransom, 218,220.

Origin, Divine, shown in human life, 329.

OUlej', I\. L., on Incarnation, 174.

Panthkism, 26.

Papacy, the assumptions of, 268.

Pastors, plurality of, in apostolic
Churches, 250.

Patriarchal histories, naturalness of, 78.

Paul, his treatment of the law, 52 ; a
type of the true minister, 365 ; on
Mars' Hill, 358; and Festus, 366.

Pentecostal symbols, meaning of, 237.

Persecution, modern forms of, 286.

Personality, 11 ; of God, affirmed in
N.T. , 25 ; and moral consciousness,
142.

Persons, known otherwise than by
Form, 43.

Perspective of .Scripture, 99.

Pliilo, his allegori>ing, 14 ; anthropo-
morphic vocabulary of, 8.

Plato, testimony of, to man's depravity,
135-

414

INDEX

Politics and Religion, association of,
279, 291.

Polytheism among the Hebrews, 4, 5.

Populaiity not success, 356.

Poverty, uses of, 30S.

Power in preaching, secret of, 362.

Preacher, the, and actual life, 297 ; his
true greatness, 300 ; doom if un-
faithful, 303; his chief claim, 357 ;
his true sphere, 379; his chief diffi-
culties, 354 ; not a mere teacher or
professor, 362 ; or theological ex-
pert, 371 ; or lecturer on religion,
369 ; or Church official, 370 ; or
a pioneer in speculation, 372 ; or
dignified functionary, 373 ; must defy
censure and be indifferent to praise,
382 ; his message to intellectual
superiors, 359.

Preaching, in primitive times, 241 ;
new methods in, 301 ; after the
model of Christ's, 301 ; that misses
the mark, 306 ; [jrimitive compared
with modern, 383 ; much criticised,
353 ; as a profession, 363.

Press, the, its increased attention to
thepulpit,356 ; often jealous of it, 377.

Priesthood of Christians, universal,
265.

Priestly authority substituted for that
of Scripture, 71 ; priestly spirit, the,

373-
Priscilla, a modern, needed, 372.
Probation, necessary to moral advance,

120.
Progress, infinite, man's capacity for,

119.
■^ Proof-texts' on Christ's Deity, 165.
Prophet and preacher, 380.
Prophets, Jewish, their ethical value,

93 ; as Literature, 79 ; in New

Testament times, 245.
Prophetical, not priestly commission to

Christ's Disciples, 238.
Propitiation, 206.
Proverbs, the Book of, 324 ; the eighth

chapter and Genesis i., 6.
Providence and Society, 282.
Psalms, the, 79.
Public questions and the Christian

ministry, 379.
Punishment, universal of guilt, 138.
'Puritan,' modern contempt for the

name, 391.
Puritanism, Unitarians charged with,

164 ; a modern type of, 388.

' Ransom,' and ' Redemption,' different

words, 217.
Reason, the Christian appeal to, 322.

Reconciliation of God to man, 2i6.

Redemption, a doctrine often mis-
conceived 193; some inadequate
views of, 194 ; illustrated by the
Doctrine of Sin, 153 ; as Deliver-
ance, 217.

Regeneration through Christ's Death,
200.

Religion and Morality, 277 ; of a State,
how to be understood, 277.

Religious training of Mankind, 232.

Remission of Sins, a Sacrificial idea,
198.

Renaissance, the, and Bible Studies,
72.

Reiian, Hf., on the Apostle Paul, 367.

Renonf, M., ' Hibbert Lecture,' 1 15.

Repentance, its nature and value, 55.

Retreat, religious, and Bible Study, 72.

Revelation, how made possible, 16 ;
stages of its advance, loi ; confirmed
by consciousness, 398.

Rich, preaching to the, 307.

Ritschlian theory of Divine Mani-
festation, 189.

Romanes, G. J., 'Thoughts on Reli-
gion,' 338.

Ruskin, J., on early Bible training,
316 ; on ambassadors for God, 371.

Russell, Lord John, on the Dissenting
ministry, 368.

Satanic influence, as conceived by
children, 335.

vSatisfaction, the Doctrine of, 210.

Sa7'ouarola, and the Children, 343.

Scepticism, a habit of thought, 321.

Scholastic Theology, characteristics of,
222.

Schopenhauer, pessimism of, 1 15.

Science, leading to Faith, 337.

Scientific spirit, the modern, 327.

Scripture, unwarranted affirmations re-
specting, 68 ; spiritual value of its
earlier parts, 69 ; adapted to every
class, 74 ; its influence on Literature
and Art, 75 ; its value unimpaired
by critical research, 76 ; its historic
value, 83 ; its moral and spiritual
worth, 90 ; a record of growing
moral enlightenment, 91 ; and the
volume of human experience, 104.

Sectarian preferences by the State
repudiated, 286.

' Seed of Fire,' the, 350.

Self-consciousness of Ciod, 391.

Self-revelation, difficulty of, 44.

Sermons, spoken and written, 378.

' Seven, The,' officers of the Church,
240.

iNni:x

415

Shaflesbury, Lor J. chiklhuod of, 315. ]
.Sin, a cry for help to Cjod, 57 ; j
Doctrine of, in old and recent
Theology, 109 ; ]jostulates Responsi-
bility and Law, 110 ; and Crime dis-
criminated, 110; its origin according
to Scripture, 122 ; characterises the
whole human race, 128, 132, 134,
136; conscious or unconscious, 128 ;
before and after the awaking of
moral consciousness, 142 ; con-
demned in Christ. 226 ; sins of
ignorance, 144 ; Sin against the
lloiy (Jhost, 146.
,Sin-l)earer, the. prefigured in Isaiah,

.'99-
Sin-offerings, not available for wilful

transgression, 21.
Smith, GohkiHit, on clerical restraints,

368.
Smith, Prof. Robertson, on Prof.

Cheyne, 59, note.
Social questions, best approached from

the Cross, 304.
Socialism, Christian, 293, 294.
Society, a Divine structure, 282.
■ Son of (iod,' import of the title, 1S7.
Soul-winning, 383.
Source and Spirit of all things, the,

405-.
Sovereignty and Fatherhood of Cod,

336. ^ .

Speech, imaginary, on the Churches
and the People, 304.

Spencer, Herbert, on the Personality of
God, 26; on Eternal and Inexhaust-
ible Force, 39 ; adopts the Cliristian
ideal of conduct, 52.

.Spirit of Ciod, O.l'. doctrine of the,
17, 18; the revelation of God as,
immanent, 48 ; the persistent force
in all things, 399 ; the Self-imparta-
tion of Christ, ibid. ; ' Spirit ' and
' P'ather,' 397 ; in the souls of men,
400 ; witness of the, distinguished
from that of the reason and affection,
395 ; not always present to con-
sciousness, 403.

Spiritual cravings of Humanity, 99.

State, the, re-defmed, 275 ; not atheistic,
281, 291 ; its supremacy over the
Church repudiated, 248 ; what it
might legitimately do for tiie Church,
284.

State Church, the, 280.

Stromr, Dr. A. H., on the Sin against
the Holy Ghost, 147.

•Subject and Object in the Divine
Nature, 27, 398.

.Substitution, different views of, 206.

Sufferings f)f Christ regarded as penal.

206.
Sully, Prof., 'Studies of Childhood.'

329- 335> 336) 337-
Supernatural, declining sense of the,

337.
.Surety of the Covenant, Christ the.

209.
Swayne, IV. S., 'Our Lord's Know-
ledge as Man,' 178, note.
I Synoptic Gospels, their witness to
\ Christ's Deity, 159.

j Taylor, Sir II., on Obedience, 332,

note.
j Teaching of Christ, subordinate to Hi.>

Sacrifice, 225.
! Teaching, the function of, widely dis-
i tributed, 361.
; Temporal side to Church life, 282.

Temptation, 124; not fall, 126.

Temptations of our Lord, the, 184.

Tennysojj, A.,'' The Northern Farmer,'

; 369-

' Terminology, heathen, employed for
• Christian ideas, 64, note.
Testimonies to the co-action of the

Spirit with our spirits, 404.
Theism, O.T., essentially ethical, 18;
Christian, and the Unity of God, 24 ;
a regenerative force, 58.
Theology, and Religion different things,
j 279; of childhood, 343.
1 Tlieological Definitions and the Child,

315-
Theophanics in the O.T. history, 14,

Thoughts that are divine revelations,

.405-

Timothy and Titus, their mission tem-
porary and special, 252.

IVee of Life, the, 118.

'Tritheism, implicit, of some ancient
Creeds, 24 ; unconscious in modern
thinkers, 168.

Triumph of Christ, vicarious, 204.

Twentieth Century, Forecast of the,
298.

I'ylor, Dr. E. P., on animistic faith,
113-

Unckk'i AiNTiF.s and misgivings, un-
suitable for the pulpit, 377.

Uncleanness, Levitical doctrine of, 130.

Unconscious heretics, 168, 171.

Uniformity, not found in apostolic
Church organisation, 253.

Uniqueness of Christ's redeeming work.
225.

Unitari.inism, metaphysically unten-

4i6

INDEX

able, 31 ; not a home of rest, 26 ;
spiritual inefficacy of, 163.
Universality of the Gospel message,
237 ; of Christ's gifts, 238.

Vicarious suffering, 297.

Vinet, Dr. Alexander, on Faith, 342.

Voluntary principle, the, 290.

Ward, Mrs. Humphry, on defects
in Unitarianism, 165.

IVails, Dr., Hymns and Child's Cate-
chism, 320.

Wedgwood, Miss Jtilia, on changes in
religious thought, 319.

Wesleys, the, religious training of, 319.

Westcoii, Bishop, on Our Lord's Know-
ledge, 177 ; on the eternal purpose

of Incarnation, 188 ; on the Church

and the World, 344.
Westminster Assembly, on our Lord's

Person, 170.
Wine of the Covenant, the, contrasted

with Levitical symbol, 199.
' Wisdom,' the Book of, 8.
'Word,' the, the necessary and eternal

Self-expression of the One God, 33 ;

the Eternal, 398. See Logos.
Word of God in Scripture, the sole

authority in faith, 265.
Words descriptive of Sin in O.T. and

N.T., 128.
Work, the supreme, of the Spirit, 402.

Zeitgeist, the, 386.
Zoroastrian dualism, 113.

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of the leading cliaracteristics of the Gospel. The linguistic analysis leaves nothing to
be desired.' — The Record.

' We feel heartily that it will bring credit to English scholarship ; and that in its
carefulness, its sobriety of tone, its thoiightfulness, its reverence, it will contribute to-
a stronger faith in the essential trustworthiness of the Gospel record.' — The Guardian.

' Dr. Plummer's St.. Luke is full and rich. The volume is indeed the largest yet
issued in this series; nevertheless, its space is used to the uttermost; so skilfully
indeed, that, numerous as the pages are, their number is a feeble indication of the
wealth of matter the book contains. ... In short, this seems to be the edition of St.
Luke we have waited for so long. It will take its place without disparagement beside
Dr. Driver's Deuteronomy and Dr. Sanday's Romans. These works have made the name
of " The Critical Commentary " a household word, not in our country only, even on the
Continent also. Where they have gone Dr. Plummer will follow, and we dare predict
as favourable a reception.' — The Expository Times.

The Spirit of Power : As set forth in the Book of the Acts of the
Apostles. By Eev. Thomas Adamson, B.D, Small 8vo, price Is.

Principal Moule wi-ites : ' It will repay not only reading, but reading again and
again, . . . A book of rare and solid value.'

The Right of Systematic Theology. By Professor B. B.
"Warfield, D.D., Princeton University. With an Introduction by
Professor J. Orr, D.D., Edinburgh. Crown 8vo, price 2s.

Contemporary Theology and Theism. By Professor
E. M. Wenley, M.A,, D.Phil., D.Sc, University of Michigan.
Crown 8vo, price 4s. 6d.

Christian Life in Germany: As seen in the State and the
Church. By Edward F. Williams, D.D. Now ready, post 8vo,
price 4s.

' The number of English speaking youth in the Universities and Technical Schools in
Germany is increasing every year. It is interesting to know what kind of religious
influences are within their reach even if in their student life they do not yield to these
influences. Great Britain and America owe a debt of gratitude to Germany for the
literature she has furnished their people, for the contributions blie has made to Christian
song, and for her devotion to higher Clnistian learning. In the attention given to the
results of special studies, particularly to the results of the so-called Higher Criticism,,
both countries are in danger of overlooking equally important contributions in practical
Christian work. Few people, either in Great Britain or iu America, realise the extent
and importance of the Foreign Missionary work which the German Churches are
carrying on, or of that still more wonderful home work which is embraced under the
general term Inner Mission. . . . The purpose of this book is to set forth, in as few
words as possible, the real condition of the Protestant Churches in Germany, to describe
their present spiritual condition, and to furnish data on which to form an opinion of
their probable future.' — Extract from the Peeface.

T. & T. CLARK, 38 GEORGE STREET, EDINBURGH.
LONDON: SIMPKIN, MARSHALL, HAMILTON, KENT, & CO. LTD.

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