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CHRIST  &  CIVILIZATION 

Edited  bv 


REV  dOHN  B.  PATON,  D.  D 
SIR  HERCn-'  \X/.%IJNTING,  M.A 


RE\ 


?^^^E,D.D, 


^:?^ 


GIFT   OF 
MICHAEL  REESE 


Digitized  by  the  Internet  Archive 

in  2007  with  funding  from 

IVIicrosoft  Corporation 


http://www.archive.org/details/christcivilizatiOOpatorich 


CHRIST    AND    CIVILIZATION 


CHRIST 
AND  CIVILIZATION 

A  SURVEY  OF  THE  INFLUENCE  OF  THE 

CHRISTIAN  RELIGION  UPON  THE 

COURSE  OF  CIVILIZATION 


Edited  for  the 
National  Council  of  the  Evangelical  Free  Churches 

by 
REV.     JOHN    BROWN     PATON,     D.D., 
SIR  PERCY  WILLIAM  BUNTING,  MA., 
REV.  ALFRED   ERNEST  GARVIE,   D.D. 


LONDON 

NATIONAL    COUNCIL   OF    EVANGELICAL    FREE   CHURCHES 

THOMAS   LAW    MEMORIAL  HALL,  E.C 

1910 


Butler  &  tanner, 

The  Selwood  Printing  works, 

FK.OME,  and  London. 


Preface 

While  such  classics  as  Plato's  Republic  and  More*s 
Utopia  show  that  the  problem  of  society  has  engaged 
the  world's  great  thinkers  in  former  times  ;  yet  it 
may  be  truly  said  that  no  previous  age  was  so  much 
occupied  with  social  questions  as  the  present.  From 
this  widespread  and  still  growing  interest  the  Christian 
Churches  cannot  stand  aloof ;  and  the  record  of  the 
function  of  Christianity  in  history  sketched  in  the 
volume  justifies  the  conviction  that  they  ought  not. 
The  Christian  Church  has  in  the  past  exerted  a  pro- 
found moral  influence  on  society,  and  has  brought  about 
far-reaching  changes  in  social  conditions.  This  series 
of  essays,  each  of  which  is  written  by  a  scholar  specially 
qualified  by  his  previous  studies  for  the  task  he  has 
undertaken,  aims  at  exhibiting  not  only  the  principles 
which  from  time  to  time  have  found  recognition  as 
constituting  the  Christian  Ideal  of  Society,  but  also 
the  methods  by  which  that  Ideal  has  -been  partially 
realized  under  varying  circumstances.  It  is  hoped  that 
in  fulfilling  this  purpose  the  volume  will  not  only 
suggest  changes  which  are  to-day  desirable,  but  also 
means  of  bringing  those  about  which  are  practicable. 
In  the  Introduction  the  Modern  Social  Problem 

V 

240067 


vi  PREFACE 

is  presented  as  a  summons  to  the  Christian  Churches 
to  think  and  work  out  its  solution.  As  the  roots  of 
Christianity  are  in  Judaism,  the  first  chapter  sketches 
the  Social  Ideals  in  the  Old  Testament.  The  second 
chapter  shows  how  the  Christian  Ideal  was  revealed 
in  Jesus.  Since  at  a  very  early  stage  in  its  history 
the  Christian  Church  found  an  entrance  into  the 
Graeco-Roman  World,  the  preparation  for  the  reception 
of  the  Gospel  engages  attention  in  the  third  chapter. 
How  far  this  Christian  ideal  was  realized  in  the 
Primitive  Church  the  fourth  chapter  seeks  to  prove. 
Within  three  centuries  the  Christian  Church  spread 
throughout  the  Roman  Empire  ;  by  what  means  the 
fifth  chapter  inquires.  How  the  Roman  Empire 
was  influenced  by  the  Christian  Church  is  discussed 
in  the  sixth  chapter.  After  the  fall  of  the  Roman 
Empire  the  Church  transmitted  its  bequest  of  civiliza- 
tion to  the  new  nations  then  formed.  The  seventh 
chapter  exhibits  the  Influence  of  the  Christian  Church 
on  Social  and  Ethical  Development  during  the 
Middle  Ages.  While  the  Reformation  was  primarily 
religious,  yet  it  formulated  social  principles,  and  had 
social  effects  ;  and  both  these  are  described  in  the 
eighth  chapter.  After  the  Reformation  the  most 
important  event  for  the  Protestant  Churches  of  Great 
Britain  was  the  Evangelical  Revival  in  the  eighteenth 
century.  How  this  was  the  inspiration  of  the  philan- 
thropy which  marked  the  beginning  of  the  nineteenth 
century  the  ninth  chapter  demonstrates.  So  import- 
ant has  been  the  influence  of  the  French  Revolution 


PREFACE  vii 

on  modern  social  theories  that  the  tenth  chapter  has 
been  devoted  to  this  subject.  In  no  modern  enterprise 
of  the  Christian  Church  to-day  is  its  social  influence 
so  fully  or  clearly  illustrated  as  in  Foreign  Missions  ; 
the  proof  of  this  is  given  in  the  eleventh  chapter. 
As  the  Christian  Church  can  effect  its  social  mission 
only  in  co-operation  with  other  factors  of  human 
progress,  it  seemed  necessary  for  the  purpose  of  the 
volume  that  the  last  chapter  should  give  some  account 
of  modern  scientific  and  philosophical  thought  regard- 
ing human  society.  May  this  record  of  the  past  awaken 
an  interest,  and  spur  on  to  an  effort  in  the  present, 
which  will  make  the  Christian  Church  of  the  future 
a  more  constant  and  potent  force  for  the  good  of 
human  society  than  it  has  ever  yet  been  ! 


Contents 


PAGE 

Preface  v 

Introduction  :  The  Modern  Social  Problem,  by  the  Rev. 
John  Scott  Lidgett,  M.A.,  D.D.,  Warden  of  the  Ber- 
mondsey  Settlement,  and  ex-President  of  the  National 
Free  Church  Council  .......         3 

CHAPTER   I 
Social  Ideals  in  the  Old  Testament,  by  the  Rev.  W.  H. 
Bennett,  M.A.,  Litt.D.,  D.D.,  Professor  of  Old  Testa- 
ment Language  and  Literature  in  New  and    Hackney 
College,  London  .......       45 

CHAPTER   II 

The  Christian  Ideal  revealed  in  Jesus,  by  the  Rev. 
Alfred  E.  Garvie,  M.A.,  D.D.,  Principal  of  New  College, 
London      .         .         .         .         .         .         .         .         .81 

CHAPTER    III 
The    Preparation  for    the    Christian    Ideal    in    the 
Gentile  Environment  of  the  Primitive  Church,  by 
C.  Franklin  Angus,  IVT.A.,  Fellow  and  Classical  Lecturer 
of  Trinity  Hall,  Cambridge         .         .         .         .         .119 

CHAPTER   IV 

The  Christian  Ideal  as  realized  in  the  Primitive  Church, 
by  the  Rev.  J.  Vernon  Bartlet,  M.A.,  D.D.,  Pro- 
fessor of  Church  History  in  Mansfield  College,  Oxford     153 


X  CONTENTS 

PAGE 

CHAPTER   V 

The  Factors  in  the  Expansion  of  the  Christian  Church, 
by  the  Rev.  James  Orr,  M.A.,  D.D,,  Professor  of  Apolo- 
getics and  Systematic  Theology  in  the  United  Free 
Church  College,  Glasgow 191 

CHAPTER    VI 

The  Influence  of  the  Christian  Church  upon  the  Roman 
Empire,  by  the  Rev.  H.  H.  Scullard.  M.A.,  D.D., 
Professor  of  Church  History  in  New  and  Hackney  College, 
London      .........     237 

CHAPTER   VII 

The  Influence  of  the  Christian  Church  on  the  Social 
AND  Ethical  Development  of  the  Middle  Ages, 
by  the  Rev.  H.  B.  Workman,  D.Lit.,  Principal  of 
Westminster  Training  College,  London  .         .         .     273 

CHAPTER   VIII 

The  Social  Principles  and  Effects  of  the  Reformation, 
by  the  Rev.  H.  Andrews,  B.A.,  Professor  of  New  Testa- 
ment Exegesis  and  Criticism  in  New  College,  London     335 

CHAPTER   IX 

The  Evangelical  Revival  and  Philanthropy,  by  the 
Rev.  Thomas  Cuming  Hall,  D.D.,  Professor  of  Christian 
Ethics  in  Union  Theological  Seminary,  New  York, 
Author  of  **The  Social  Meaning  of  Modern  Religious 
Movements  in  England "     .         .         .         .         .         .     377 

CHAPTER    X 
Christianity  and  the  French  Revolution,  by  J.  Holland 
Rose,    Litt.D.,    Author    of    "The    Revolutionary    and 
Napoleonic  Era." 411 


CONTENTS  xi 

PAGE 

CHAPTER   XI 

The  Social  Influence  of  Christianity  as  illustrated 
BY  Modern  Foreign  Missions,  by  the  Rev.  James  S. 
Dennis,  D.D.,  Author  of  "  Christian  Missions  and  Social 
Progress "  ........     447 


CHAPTER   XII 

Modern  Scientific  and  Philosophic  Thought  regarding 
Human  Society,  by  Henry  Jones,  M.A.,  LL.D.,  Pro- 
fessor of  Moral  Philosophy  in  the  University  of  Glasgow    491 

Index 523 


Introduction 

THE  MODERN  SOCIAL  PROBLEM 
By  the  Rev.  J.  SCOTT  LIDGETT,  M.A.,  D.D.,  Warden  of 

THE    BeRMONDSEY    SETTLEMENT,    EX-PrESIDENT  OF  THE 

National  Free  Church  Council. 


C.c.  B 


ARGUMENT. 

Introductory. 
(i)  The  aim  of  the  Volume  Historical  and  Practical. 

(2)  Satisfaction  with  the  Past  out  of  place. 

(3)  A   Clear   and   Convincing   Indication    of  the    Social   Meaning   and   the 

Moral  Effects  of  the  Christian  ReUgion  needed. 

(4)  Christianity  Absolute  as  the  Fulfilment  of  the  Old  Testament  Religion — 

its  hope  of  the  Kingdom  of  God  in  Christ, 

(5)  The  Forces  of  the  Christian  Religion  and  the  Social  Problem  of  to-day. 

(6)  The  Social  Problem  still  Unsolved  and  more  Manifest. 

(7)  The  Presuppositions  of  this  Volume. 

I.  The  Modern  Social  Problem. 
(i)  The  Situation  constantly  altering  in   Relief  of  the   Problem. 

(2)  Remaining   Problem  Economic  with  Religious,   Moral  and  Intellectual 

Elements. 

(3)  The  Fact  and  the  Sense  of  Insecurity  and  the  Consequences. 

(4)  The  Deadly  Effect  of  the  Environment  of  the  Slum. 

(5)  The  State  of  Things  often  pronounced  Inevitable. 

(6)  The  Problem  of  the  City  Slum  one  with  the  Social  Problem  elsewhere. 

(7)  The  Luxury  of  the  Rich  at  the  other  end  of  the  scale. 

II.  The  Solution  of  the  Problem. 
(i)  No  hope  of  a  Solution  from  the  Purely  Economic  Standpoint. 

(2)  The  Palhatives  of  the  Poor  Law  and  Charitable  Relief  unsatisfactory. 

(3)  The  Social  Problem  above  all  Spiritual,  although  conditioned  by  Economic 

Facts  and  Laws,  and  affected  by  Political  Action.? 

III.  The    Peculiar    Responsibility    of   the   Christian   Church. 
(i)  The  Minor  Reasons  for  its  Action. 

(2)  The  Christian  view  of  Suffering  as  Discipline  no  Objection. 

(3)  The  Relation  of  Organized  Christianity  to  the  Social  Problem  the  difficulty. 

(4)  The  Laws  of  Christ  not  for  His  Church  only,  but  through  it  Universal. 

(5)  The   Christian   Personality   Reahzed   in   Social    Relations. 

(6)  The    Christian  Religion,    while  Spiritual    and  Transcendent,    sovereignly 

immanent  in  human  society. 

(7)  The  Conflict  in  the  Legislative  application  of  Spiritual  Principles  inevit- 

able, yet  Consistent  with  the  Church's  Spiritual  Mission. 

(8)  The  Church's  Main   Service  as  Influential  Witness  to  Ideals  in  a  truly 

Christian  and  Catholic  Spirit. 

(9)  The  Decisive  Results  in  the  Modern  Social  Problem  of  the  Manifestation 

of  this  Temper. 

/lo)  The  Practical  Service  of  the  Churches  outside  the  Field  of  Public  Life. 
(11)  The  Redemptive  Mission  of  Christianity. 


Introduction 

THE  MODERN  SOCIAL  PROBLEM 

The  aim  of  this  volume,  though  primarily  historical, 
is  above  all  practical.  It  sets  forth  the  nature  and 
growth  of  great  social  ideals,  which  were  fulfilled  in 
Christ,  and  thereby  for  ever  included  both  in  the  con- 
tent of  His  religion  and  in  the  commission  of  His 
Church.  It  traces  the  working  of  these  ideals  and  the 
way  by  which  they  passed  from  being  merely  the 
spiritual  heritage  of  the  Church  into  motive  forces 
playing  a  great  part  in  moulding  and  transforming 
Western  civilization.  The  reason,  however,  of  this 
attempt  to  represent  historic  facts  is  rather  to  provide 
guidance  for  the  future  than  to  encourage  satisfaction 
with  the  past. 

For  many  reasons  such  satisfaction  would  be  out 
of  place.  Leaving  out  of  account  for  the  moment  our 
existing  social  evils,  which  are  deeply  rooted  in  the 
past,  it  is  undeniable  that  Christ's  ideals  have  been 
but  imperfectly  apprehended  even  by  the  best  of  His 
followers,  and  have  been  largely  misconceived  by  the 
majority.  The  endeavour  faithfully  to  apply  even 
the  imperfect  apprehension  of  them  to  the  life  of  the 
Church  itself  has  only  for  brief  periods  been  strenuous 
and  has  often  failed  altogether.     Any  sustained  at- 


INTRODUCTION 


tempt  to  base  civilization  in  its  entirety  upon  them 
has  yet  to  come  into  existence.  The  downward  drag 
of  human  inertia  and  the  clash  of  selfish  interests  within 
the  Church  have  often  led  to  almost  flat  contradiction 
of  the  precepts  of  Christ,  and  to  complete  denial  of 
His  Spirit.  The  vindication  of  Christ — though  it  should 
be  offered  as  a  tribute  and  not  as  a  defence — can  only 
be,  taking  history  as  a  whole,  by  the  condemnation, 
always  of  the  limitations  and  often  of  the  infidelity  of 
His  Church.  Such  vindication  will  take  the  form  of 
showing  the  permanent  sufficiency  of  the  ideals  which 
Christ  revealed,  or  to  which  He  gave  the  sanction  of 
His  authority,  of  describing  their  sustained  influence 
upon  mankind  throughout  the  ages  and,  above  all, 
at  seasons  of  spiritual  revival,  and  of  demonstrating 
from  the  transforming  and  uplifting  results  of  their 
partial  application  that  all  that  is  required  for  the 
redemption  of  mankind  is  that  they  should  be  embraced 
with  such  faith  and  devotion  as  will  give  them  full 
play. 

Hence  what  is  mainly  required  is  a  clear  and 
convincing  indication  of  the  social  meaning  and  the 
normal  effects  of  the  Christian  religion.  Such  an  indi- 
cation will  be  largely  given  by  the  two  inductive 
methods  of  difference  and  of  concomitant  variations. 
That  is  to  say  it  will  exhibit  the  normal  effects  upon 
civilization  exerted  by  the  introduction  of  the  Chris- 
tian religion,  and  will  show  that  human  and  civil  well- 
being  have  varied  directly  as  the  faith  of  Christ  has 
been  truly  embraced  and  resolutely  applied  to  the 
problems  and  tasks  of  human  society.  The  most 
beneficent  effect  of  such  an  endeavour  will  be  to  supply 
an  incentive  for  the  future  :  for  the  verification  of 
Christianity,  at  least  on  its  practical  side,  must  lie  in 
its  complete  realization  and  in  its  full  application  to 


THE   MODERN  SOCIAL   PROBLEM  5 

human  affairs.  Hence  the  present  investigation  of  the 
influence  of  Christianity  upon  the  evolution  of  civiliz- 
ation is  intended  so  to  illustrate  its  principles  and  to 
reveal  its  relations  to  human  nature  and  progress,  as 
to  supply  inspiration  and  guidance  for  a  vast  task  that 
is  quite  obviously  incomplete. 

The  claim  is  made  that  the  religion  of  Christ  is  the 
absolute  religion.  Yet  it  is  absolute,  not  as  a  creation 
out  of  nothing,  but  as  the  fulfilment  of  the  Old  Testa- 
ment religion  out  of  which  it  sprang,  and  through 
which  it  stands  connected,  as  well  as  contrasted,  with 
the  other  religions  of  mankind.  Now  the  distinctive 
mark  of  Old  Testament  religion  was  that  it  offered  to 
faith  the  prospect  and  assurance  of  a  supreme  his- 
toric end  which  should  satisfy  every  power,  meet  every 
need,  and  idealize  every  relationship  of  mankind. 
That  end  is  the  Kingdom  of  God ;  not  only  His  sove- 
reign gift,  but  His  spiritual  manifestation  within  the 
whole  realm  of  human,  and  even  natural,  existence. 
The  advent  of  this  kingdom  was  represented  as  neces- 
sary to  satisfy,  not  so  much  the  material  cravings, 
as  the  spiritual  demands  which  the  religion  of  Jehovah 
had  itself  created  in  the  heart  of  His  people.  <Jhe 
promise  of  the  Kingdom  of  God  affirmed  the  worth, 
and  suggested  the  permanence  of  personal  existence. 
It  declared  the  sacredness  of  human  society,  morally 
ordered  and  spiritually  inspired.  It  founded  the 
social  order  in  God  and  set  forth  its  perfecting  as 
the  final  act  of  God  and  the  characteristic  hope  of 
true  religion.  Hence  inevitably  the  consummation, 
divinely  promised,  became  the  ideal  of  human  effort 
and  the  test,  as  the  prophets  insisted,  of  human  char- 
acter^ The  spirituality  of  Christ  led  to  the  fusing  of 
the  Apocalyptic  and  the  moral  elements  of  the  Old 
Testament  in  a  perfect  whole.     Neither  element  can 


6  INTRODUCTION 

be  ignored.  The  union  between  them  is  not  always 
apparent  in  the  Gospel  narratives  as  they  stand.  It 
must  be  found  in  our  Lord's  treatment  of  the  Father- 
hood of  God  and  of  the  sonship  of  men,  and  in  the  truth, 
contained  therein,  that  the  recreative  activity  of  God 
begins  in  the  character  and  influence  of  His  children. 
Hence  as  crude  Apocalyptic  hopes  passed  away  from 
the  Christian  Church,  the  earnest  of  the  true  Apocalypse 
began  to  appear  in  more  far-reaching  social  endeavour. 
This  volume  will  show  how  far-reaching  such  endeavour 
became,  how  it  reappeared  in  every  phase  of  Christian 
development,  and  how  its  principles  worked  even  in 
movements,  like  the  French  Revolution,  which  were 
ostensibly  a  revolt  against  organized — but  in  reality 
travestied — Christianity. 

The  vital  question,  however,  remains.  What 
forces  can  the  religion  of  Christ  bring  to  bear  upon  the 
Social  Problem  of  to-day  ?  Every  age  involves  a 
crisis  for  civilization,  for  the  gains  of  the  past  can  only 
be  preserved  by  the  continued  advance  of  the  present. 
Yet  in  some  respects  the  present  crisis  is  unique,  both 
by  reason  of  the  demands  it  makes  and  equally  by 
reason  of  the  new  means  of  meeting  them.  On  the 
one  hand  is  the  extent  and  intimacy  of  our  world-rela- 
tions, which  are  fast  making,  humanity  to  stand,  not 
merely  for  a  common  nature,  but  for  a  Commonwealth. 
In  addition,  there  is  the  vast  development  of  our 
industrial  system,  with  all  the  moral,  economic,  and 
physical  problems  involved  in  it.  Accompanying 
this  development  is  the  colossal  and  cosmopolitan 
organization  of  financial  power  that  is  almost  imper- 
sonal— that  certainly  either  claims  to  be  or  submits 
to  become  devoid  of  those  restraining  and  guiding 
influences  which  moral  personality  stands  for.  If 
these  elements  in  combination  give  unique  gravity 


THE   MODERN   SOCIAL   PROBLEM  7 

to  the  problem  of  modern  civilization,  on  the  other 
hand  the  present  age  has  unique  powers  of  dealing 
with  it.  Democracy  has  come  into  being,  a  deeper 
sympathy  is  everywhere  at  war  with  inherited  and 
vulgar  callousness,  while  the  advance  of  science  is 
every  day  increasing  the  resources  available  for  hu- 
mane sympathy,  when  it  becomes  a  democratic  pur- 
pose. The  practical  object  of  this  volume  will  best 
be  served,  therefore,  by  examining  at  the  outset  the 
challenge  which  the  modern  Social  Problem  offers  to 
Christianity. 

In  what  has  already  been  said  it  is  implied  that  so 
far  from  the  social  problem  having  been  solved  in  the 
past — whether  by  the  Christian  religion  or  by  other 
means — its  full  nature  and  dimensions  are  only  now 
for  the  first  time  in  human  history  becoming  manifest. 
Particular  evils  have  been  overcome.  But  the 
development  of  human  life  in  modern  times,  although 
on  the  whole  it  has  meant  real  progress,  has  been 
attended  by  serious  drawbacks  and  has  given  rise  to 
a  multitude  of  incidental  evils  that  are  not  the  less 
dangerous  or  evil,  because  they  may  be  treated  as 
incidental.  Moreover,  the  standards  of  society — whether 
political,  economic,  or  social — in  so-called  Christian 
countries  have  never  made  and  do  not  now  make  any 
pretence  of  being  completely  Christian.  This  is  not 
merely  a  complaint  on  the  part  of  those  who  take  the 
Christian  religion  seriously.  The  average  opinion  of 
the  present  day  pronounces  the  religion  of. the  Sermon 
on  the  Mount  to  be  an  impracticable  ideal  and  holds 
that  any  attempt  systematically  to  apply  it  would  be 
attended  by  almost  fatal  disaster.  So  long  as  this 
state  of  mind  prevails  convinced  and  consistent  Chris- 
tians can  find  little  satisfaction  in  the  social  condition 
of  the  age,  and  will  draw  the  inference  that  great  as 


8  INTRODUCTION 

has  been  the  influence  of  Christ  it  is  destined  to  become 
greater  and  more  far-reaching  in  the  future.  The 
Christian  view  of  the  world,  while  not  optimist  as  to 
any  particular  stage  of  historic  development,  (is  pro- 
foundly so  as  to  the  ultimate  possibihties,  nay  certain- 
ties, as  it  regards ,  them.}  ^he  Christian  believer  is 
conscious  of  spiritual  forces  within  himself  and  the 
Church,  which  would  quickly  transform  the  world  if 
they  had  full  play  and  became  universale  Further, 
he  is  profoundly  convinced  that  the  nature  of  the  uni- 
verse is  so  constituted  and  its  course  so  ordered  that 
all  things  must,  of  necessity,  conspire  to  further  every 
true  attempt  to  translate  the  Christian  ideal  into 
actuality.  Hence,  leaving  out  of  account  such  social 
evils  as  are  obviously  caused  by  deliberate  wrong- 
doing. Christians  are  constrained  to  regard  all  social 
evil  which  rests  upon  collective  volition  embodied  in 
laws  and  customs,  as  being  due  to  imperfect  under- 
standing and  unfaithful  application  of  the  spirit  and 
laws  of  Christ,  and  will  insist  that  the  true  remedy  is 
to  be  found  in  a  fuller  acceptance  and  expression  of 
His  revelation.  Hence  Christianity  cannot  be  satis- 
fied with  the  achievements  of  the  past.  To  begin  with, 
because  great  as  they  have  been  they  have  yet  been 
so  largely  ineffectual.  In  the  next  place,  because 
Christianity  is  a  continuous  spiritual  life,  which  flour- 
ishes only  so  long  as  it  puts  forth  victorious  energy 
for  the  transformation  of  the  world.  And,  finally, 
because  the  essential  nature  of  its  spiritual  life  de- 
mands the  most  far-reaching  social  expression.  The 
history  of  the  relations  between  Christianity  and  civil- 
ization cannot,therefore,  be  a  completed  book.  (Neither 
Christianity  nor  civilization  has  been  completed,  nor 
will  either  reach  its  consummation  till  its  relations 
with  the  other  have  been  perfected. )  The  history. 


THE   MODERN   SOCIAL   PROBLEM  9 

therefore,  is  chiefly  useful  as  giving  both  guidance  and 
inspiration  for  present  and  future  efforts.  It  will 
supply  principles  rather  than  precedents  ;  vital  ends 
and  not  accidental  means.  It  will  instruct  us  by  its 
shortcomings  as  well  as  by  its  achievements.  In  par- 
ticular it  will  teach  the  all-important  lesson  that  Chris- 
tianity has  most  truly  served  the  cause  of  social  pro- 
gress by  the  creative  fearlessness,  which  has  shrunk 
from  no  innovation,  or  even  revolution,  which  has  been 
possible  and  needful  in  order  to  full  realization  of  its 
distinctive  life.  To  celebrate  the  triumph  of  Christian 
principles  and  movements  in  the  past,  without  asking 
what  kindred,  and  even  greater  service  they  prompt 
us  to  render  in  the  present,  is,  as  our  Lord  has  taught 
us,  to  build  the  sepulchres  of  the  prophets  and  thereby 
show  ourselves  to  be  the  children  of  those  who  slew 
them.  The  prophetic  succession  is  the  only  tribute 
that  the  prophets  can  receive.  Hence  the  present 
inquiry  seeks  to  elucidate  the  characteristic  influence 
of  Christ  in  order  to  show  that  the  modern  social  pro- 
blem not  only  makes  an  imperative  demand  upon  the 
Churches,  but  also  that  it  can  only  be  solved  by  the 
means  that  the  Churches  can  bring  to  bear. 

The  point  of  view  of  this  volume  is  governed  by 
certain  important  presuppositions.  To  begin  with, 
it  is  assumed  that  our  present  social  condition  is 
unsatisfactory.  In  the  next  place  it  is  suggested 
that  the  problem  set  |by  the  present  social  condition 
is  one.  However  many  elements  may  he  present, 
they  go  to  make  up  one  organic  whole.  Further, 
it  is  assumed  that  the  social  problem  of  the  ages  has 
a  distinctively  modern  form,  claiming,  therefore,  a 
treatment  special  to  our  own  age.  Again  the  form 
prescribed  for  our  investigation  takes  for  granted  that 
the  problem  will  not  solve  itself.     A  remedy  cannot 


10  INTRODUCTION 

be  hoped  for  in  automatic  action,  but  only  by  de- 
liberate effort.     Moreover,   such   effort   must  not  be 
confined  within  those  limits  of  practical  life  wherein 
the  problem  finds  external  manifestation.     If  it  were 
so,  the  only  people  concerned  with  it  would  be  the 
statesmen,  economists  and  organizers  of  commercial 
and  industrial  life.     On  the  positive  side,  it  is  pre- 
supposed that  the  problem  is  in  the  last  resort  spiritual, 
concerned  rather  with  the  wills  of  men  than  with  in- 
adequate or  refractory  conditions  of  their  lot.     If  it 
were  the  latter,  men  would  not  be  called  to  solve  a 
problem,   still  less  would  spiritual  influences  be  in- 
voked.    Humanity  must,   in   that  case,   organize  its 
ambulance  service  and  be  content.     Being  held  to  be 
a  spiritual  problem,  the  social  problem  is  treated  as  a 
call  to  the  Christian  forces  of  the  nation.     Finally,  it 
is  suggested  that  the  problem  is  soluble,  if  treated  as 
ultimately  spiritual  and  dealt  with  by  spiritual  means. 
All  these  assumptions  must  be  considered  before  we 
are  enabled  to  show  what  Christians  ought  to  do,  and 
to  make  an  appeal  to  them  well  grounded  alike  in  the 
nature  and  history  of  their  religion  to  discharge  their 
duty,  in  the  faith  and  obedience  of  Christ.     It  is  well, 
therefore,  that  we  should  start  with  a  clear  recognition 
of  the  imperfection  of  our  existing  civilization  and  of 
the  task  that  this  fact  imposes  upon  Christians. 

What,  then,  is  the  Modern  Social  Problem  ?  It  is 
impossible,  within  our  space,  to  attempt  a  detailed 
description  of  it  for,  while  existing  everywhere  through- 
out the  country,  it  differs  very  much  in  detail  and  in 
degrees  of  acuteness,  according  as  we  consider  urban 
or  rural  populations  ;  and  in  regard  to  the  former 
greatly  depends  upon  the  size  of  the  population  and 
upon  the  differing  conditions  of  local  industry.  Again, 
we  are  living  in  times  of  rapid  legislative  and  adminis- 


THE   MODERN   SOCIAL   PROBLEM         ii 

trative  changes,  and  when  such  changes  are  chiefly 
directed  towards  alleviating  social  evils.  The  situa- 
tion alters  constantly.  The  grant  of  Old  Age  Pen- 
sions, for  example,  has  profoundly  affected  it,  not  so 
much  because  of  the  immediate  relief  given  to  the  aged 
poor,  but  because  of  the  reforms  both  in  regard  to  the 
relations  of  the  State  to  industry,  and  in  regard  to  the 
Poor  Law,  which  are  involved  in  it.  Again,  the  hous- 
ing problem,  at  any  rate  in  the  towns,  is  by  no  means 
as  grave  as  it  was  a  few  years  ago,  owing  in  part  to 
the  carrying  out  of  great  housing  schemes  both  by 
municipal  and  private  activity,  and  still  more  to  the 
multiplication  of  facilities  for  cheap  transit,  which 
have  sensibly  relieved  the  congested  areas  of  the  great 
cities,  and  will  tend  to  the  reduction  of  rents.^  The 
Housing  and  Town-planning  Act  recently  passed, 
though  by  no  means  as  effective  a  measure  as  could 
have  been  desired,  is  likely  to  accelerate  this  remedial 
process,  while  doing  something  to  increase  the  amen- 
ities and  therefore  the  healthfulness  of  large  towns, 
at  any  rate  so  far  as  their  future  growth  is  concerned. 
Once  more,  the  treatment  of  the  social  problem  may 
easily  create  a  feeling  of  undue  pessimism,  because 
the  brighter  features,  both  of  the  retrospect  and  the 
prospect,  are  inevitably  left  out  of  account.  We  must, 
however,  not  forget  that  the  great  increase  of  the 
national  wealth,  although  it  has  not  been  attended 
by  an  equitable  distribution  of  it,  has  greatly  raised 
the  standard  of  living  for  the  successful  in  all  classes 

^  See  the  Return  of  the  number  of  Empty  Houses  in  the  great 
cities  and  towns  of  the  United  Kingdom  presented  to  the  House 
of  Commons  by  the  President  of  the  Local  Government  Board  in 
August  1909.  It  must  be  remembered,  however,  that  such  empty 
houses  owing  to  their  character  and  situation,  are  often  not  available 
for  relieving  congestion  elsewhere,  even  in  the  same  town. 


12  INTRODUCTION 

of  society.  In  addition,  the  cheapening  of  the  neces- 
saries of  Hfe  that  has  resulted  from  Free  Trade  and 
from  the  poHcy  of  selecting  luxuries  and  superfluities, 
instead  of  necessaries,  for  taxation  has  increased  the 
purchasing  power  of  the  poor.  The  steady  develop- 
ment of  popular  education,  despite  many  obstacles 
and  much  obstruction,  has  accomplished  much  and 
promises  still  more.  The  industrial  classes,  moreover, 
have  won,  after  long  struggles,  complete  liberty  of 
combination.  The  skilled  trades  have,  therefore,  been 
enabled  to  secure  higher  wages  and  better  conditions 
of  labour,  though  some  serious  deductions  must  be 
made  in  respect  of  the  insecurity  resulting  from  trade 
depression,  ill-health  and  other  causes.  The  extension 
of  the  franchise  and  the  estabUshment  of  representa- 
tive authorities  for  local  government,  with  steadily 
rising  ideals  and  increasing  powers  to  deal  with  social 
conditions  are  important  factors,  the  possibiUties  of 
which  must  be  fully  recognized.  If  it  is  not  our  busi- 
ness now  to  dwell  upon  these  relieving  features  they 
must  not  for  a  moment  be  forgotten. 

Yet  an  immense  problem  remains,  which  is,  to 
begin  with,  economic,  but  which  includes  reUgious, 
moral,  and  intellectual  elements  that  are  of  profound 
importance.  A  large  proportion  of  the  population, 
both  in  town  and  country,  have  to  exist  permanently 
upon  less  than  a  living  wage,  that  is  upon  less  than  is 
necessary  so  to  feed,  clothe  and  house  an  average 
family  as  to  secure  physical  well-being,  with  some 
small  margin  for  needful  recreation.^  This  is  the 
case,    not    merely    in    so-called    sweated    industries, 

^  See  upon  this  subject  Rowntree's  Poverty  (Macmillan,  is.). 
The  writer's  estimate  of  the  proportion  of  the  population  that 
comes  short  of  enjoying  a  living  wage  may  be  somewhat  excessive. 
But  on  any  calculation,  the  facts  are  sufficiently  serious. 


THE   MODERN   SOCIAL   PROBLEM         13 

but  in  regard  to  the  great  mass  of  unskilled  labour 
both  in  town  and  country.  Still  more  serious,  per- 
haps, is  the  lack  of  security,  of  which  more  must  be 
said  later  on.  Owing  to  these  causes,  the  industrial 
movement  upwards  is  accompanied  by  a  terrible  drift 
downwards  which,  as  will  be  seen  subsequently  is 
extending  in  area,  and  is  filling  the  centres  of  our  great 
cities  with  almost  hopeless  wrecks  of  humanity.  If, 
then,  we  wish  to  realize  the  meaning  of  the  Modern 
Social  Problem  we  must,  first  of  all,  explore  the  city 
slum,  and  not  only  the  slum,  properly  so-called,  but 
the  ever-widening  areas  of  our  great  cities,  especially 
of  London,  which  are  the  headquarters  of  unskilled 
labour.  Here  the  insufficiency  of  wages  to  maintain 
health,  the  rise  of  rents  owing  to  pressure  of  popula- 
tion (in  the  case  of  London  because  its  imperfect 
unification  leaves  the  poorer  districts  unjustly  bur- 
dened with  the  cost  of  sanitation  and  other  local 
charges),  and  the  insecurity  of  labour  are  to  be  found 
at  their  worst.  To  these  centres  have  come  the  victims 
of  agricultural  depression  in  the  country,  often  dis- 
placing from  employment  the  less  vigorous  town-bred 
labourer.  Hither  drift  the  unfit  of  every  kind.  Here 
is  to  be  found  the  hopeless  competition  of  scores  or 
even  of  hundreds  of  men  to  obtain  one  job. 

While  not  dwelling  on  the  obvious  physical  evils 
of  such  a  state  of  things,  it  is  necessary  to  point  out 
some  aspects  of  the  matter  which  are  little  realized 
by  the  well-to-do.  Above  all,  is  the  fact  and  the  sense 
of  insecurity.  At  any  moment  depression  of  trade, 
the  introduction  of  labour-saving  machinery,  or  the 
failure  of  a  business  firm  may  bring  the  most  deserv- 
ing face  to  face  with  the  horrors  of  unemployment. 
Such  an  experience  is  bewildering  in  itself,  but  still 
more  so  if  it  be  borne  in  mind  that  the  causes  which 


14  INTRODUCTION 

put  a  man  out  of  particular  employment  are  usually 
sufficiently  wide  in  their  operation  to  prevent  him 
from  getting  work  elsewhere.  Moreover,  he  who  seeks 
work  under  such  conditions  is  exposed  to  cruel  in- 
dignities, must  often  fight  like  a  wild  beast  to  get  his 
place  from  other  competitors,  and  is  exposed  to  gnaw- 
ing anxiety,  until  such  demoralization  sets  in  as  deadens 
his  sensibility  by  destroying  his  manhood.  Hence  the 
swift  transition  from  being  unemployed  to  becoming 
unemployable.  Meanwhile  the  hard  necessity  is  too 
often  laid  upon  the  breadwinner  that  whoever  may 
come  short  of  food^ — whether  wife  or  little  ones — he 
must  be  fed  lest  the  last  ray  of  hope  should  vanish 
through  his  breakdown.  And  short  of  such  calamities, 
the  pressure  of  competition  and  the  various  risks  of 
employing  any  save  the  most  efficient  labour  destroy 
the  chance  of  employment  after  the  prime  of  muscular 
vigour  has  been  passed,  and  cause  workmen  to  be 
haunted  with  the  fear  of  failing  sick  or  of  displaying 
any  physical  infirmity,  however  slight.  To  all  this 
must  be  added  the  manifold  evils  that  attend  upon 
casual  or  seasonal  labour,  with  long  periods  of  enforced 
idleness  and  with  the  almost  hopeless  demoralization 
which  comes  from  uncertainty  and  irregularity  of  life. 
The  ignorance,  immobility,  and  lack  of  elasticity  that 
characterize  such  labour  should  also  be  borne  in  mind. 
Economists  speak  somewhat  loftily  of  the  absorption 
of  displaced  labour  by  new  industries.  But  the  pro- 
cess is  at  best  slow  and  takes  full  effect  only  in  the 
next  generation  of  workers.  Meanwhile  the  tragedy 
of  broken  lives  is  unspeakable.  Further,  let  it  be 
remembered  that  children  are  born  into  this  hereditary 
condition.  Their  early  years  are,  too  often,  pinched 
and  saddened  by  it,  their  outlook  is  limited  by  its 
narrowing  conditions,  and  at  too  early  an  age  they  are 


THE   MODERN   SOCIAL   PROBLEM         15 

thrust  out  to  repeat  the  experiences  of  those  who  have 
gone  before  them,  or  even,  it  may  be,  to  inflict  still 
further  damage  upon  the  industrial  chances  of  the  pre- 
vious generation.  It  need  hardly  be  said  that  such 
influences  work  havoc  with  the  home.  Overcrowding, 
frequent  *'  flittings,"  occasional  acquaintance  with 
the  workhouse,  the  breaking  down  of  order,  all  tend 
to  destroy  not  only  the  beauty,  but  too  often  the  exist- 
ence, of  home  life.  Young  people,  not  out  of  their 
teens  and  brought  up  under  such  conditions,  found 
homes  and  rear  families  in  their  turn.  Is  it  a  wonder 
that  unfitness  to  discharge  parental  duties  is  one  of 
the  saddest  features  of  slum  life,  that  mothers,  who 
have  themselves  spent  the  most  momentous  years 
of  their  life  in  casual  labour  and  are  forced  to  continue 
in  it  after  marriage,  are  so  helpless  and  unwise  that  it 
has  been  found  necessary  to  establish  schools  for  them 
in  order  that  they  be  instructed  in  the  most  rudiment- 
ary truths  concerning  the  care  of  infants  ? 

Around  such  hapless  and  hopeless  people  the  en- 
vironment of  the  slum  closes  with  deadly  effect.  Its 
fetid  atmosphere,  its  insanitary  conditions,  and  its 
deadly  monotony  are  enough  to  drag  its  inhabitants 
down  to  the  lowest  level  of  physical  and  mental  inefli- 
ciency.  Yet  this  is  the  least  part  of  it.  The  slum  is 
also  the  "  congested  area  *'  where  drink  shops  vie  with 
one  another  to  complete  the  ruin  of  the  unfortunate 
and  unfit.  The  exclusion  of  young  children  from 
licensed  premises  in  such  circumstances  is  but  an  in- 
adequate and  makeshift  remedy  even  so  far  as  they  are 
concerned.  The  atmosphere  of  drink  is  all  around. 
The  drink  habit  is  one  of  the  earliest  formed.  Intoxi- 
cating drink  is  the  supplement  of  insufiicient  food, 
the  condiment  or  substitute  for  food,  unattractive 
both  in  its  nature  and  in  the  way  it  is  prepared.     Above 


i6  INTRODUCTION 

all  it  is  the  anodyne  of  misery,  the  artificial  means  of 
rising  above  squalid  cares  and  surroundings.  Worst 
of  all,  perhaps,  is  the  fact  that  all  those  who  are  neigh- 
bours suffer  from  the  same  evils  and  are  reduced  to  a 
common  unfitness.  There  are  few  to  set  a  higher 
standard  and  thereby  to  kindle  the  spirit  of  a  healthy 
emulation.  No  doubt  education  has  done  something. 
The  heart  of  a  little  little  slum  child  is  as  receptive  to 
higher  influences  as  is  that  of  one  in  higher  station. 
But  the  influence  of  school  is  too  weak  to  overcome 
the  steady  pressure  of  the  whole  of  the  ordinary  en- 
vironment. Meet  the  youth  or  girl  of  seventeen  or 
eighteen,  after  a  few  years '  occupation  in  casual  labour, 
and  how  coarsened  they  have  become  since  the  old 
school  days.  The  influences  at  the  most  critical  period 
of  their  life  are  downward  and  not  upward.  Of  course, 
the  excellent  work  of  evening  schools,  institutes,  clubs 
and  brigades  must  not  be  overlooked.  But  the  pro- 
vision of  such  help  comes  pitiably  short  of  the  need. 
Indeed,  speaking  generally,  the  Churches  are  not  or- 
ganized, equipped,  and  inspired,  as  yet,  for  a  decisive 
victory  where  the  fight  for  a  Christian  civilization  is 
hardest.  Here  and  there,  at  much  cost  of  men,  women 
and  money  a  successful  work  is  carried  on.  But  wise, 
sympathetic  and  magnetic  friendship  is  largely  wanting 
where  it  is  needed  most.  An  overworked  minister  of 
religion,  deserted  by  the  workers  who  have  gone  to  the 
suburbs,  and  harassed  to  keep  his  dwindling  congrega- 
tion together,  cannot  carry  on  a  vigorous  or  successful 
campaign  against  the  sin  and  suffering  he  sees  around 
him.  And,  were  his  resources  a  hundredfold  greater, 
let  it  be  remembered  that  no  agency  or  institution  can 
take  the  place  of  a  healthful  and  happy  home  !  The 
very  multiplicity  of  our  agencies  is  often  the  surest 
evidence  of  the  well-nigh  incurable  evils  with  which 


THE  MODERN   SOCIAL  PROBLEM         17 

their  promoters  are  bravely  struggling  to  deal.  Hence 
the  presence  at  the  heart  of  all  our  great  cities,  and 
especially  of  London,  of  multitudes  of  people,  phy- 
sically degenerate,  mentally  unstable,  demoralized  and 
materialized,  who  are  the  victims  and  not  the  heirs 
of  our  so-called  Christian  civilization.  Their  case  has 
been  only  imperfectly  presented.  They  are  the  em- 
bodiment and  expression  of  the  Modern  Social  Pro- 
blem. 

In  the  consideration  of  this  state  of  things,  two 
important  facts  must  be  borne  in  mind.  In  the  first 
place,  that  this  state  of  things  has  hitherto,  for  the 
most  part,  been  pronounced  to  be  inevitable.  No 
doubt  those  who  speak  thus  have  little  or  no  personal 
acquaintance  with  the  human  meaning  of  the  facts  of 
which  they  glibly  speak.  They  deal  with  economic 
factors,  without  enough  sensibility  or  imagination  to 
remember  that  their  own  brothers  and  sisters  are 
concerned.  The  industry  and  commerce  of  the  world, 
and  especially  of  the  country,  must  be  carried  on. 
Reservoirs  and  reserves  of  cheap  labour  are  required. 
So  long  as  this  need  is  supplied  and  the  merchant  gets 
his  goods,  what  does  it  matter  to  the  business  man  at 
a  distance,  or  to  the  abstract  theorist,  that  men  and 
women  are  being  thrown  upon  the  scrapheap  by  the 
process,  more  surely  than  is  the  case  with  obsolete 
or  worn-out  machinery  ?  This  is  not  an  imputation 
of  heartlessness  in  the  ordinary  sense  of  the  term. 
Sympathy  is  the  offspring  of  seeing.  And  owing  to 
the  distance  that  separates  rich  and  poor  in  large  cities, 
the  personal  contact,  which  enables  and  even  compels 
seeing,  is  absent.  Hence  many  are  shocked  when  the 
plain  facts  are  stated,  and  are  ready  to  assume  that 
their  informant  is  hysterical  or  embittered.  In  ad- 
dition to  the  necessities  of  the  army  of  industry,  it  is 
c.c.  c 


i8  INTRODUCTION 

held  that  the  greatest  efficiency  of  the  fit  can  only  be 
maintained  by  the  sacrifice  of  the  unfit.  The  pressure 
of  competition,  and  even  of  unregulated  competition, 
is  held  to  be  so  needful,  if  each  is  to  do  his  best,  that 
things  must  be  allowed  to  take  their  course.  The  in- 
dependence of  the  economic  unit  slowly  won  from  serf- 
dom and  from  the  public  regulation  of  labour,  must 
be  jealously  upheld.  Moreover  economic  laws  are 
constantly  spoken  of  as  if  they  acted  as  irresistibly 
and  with  as  complete  independence  of  the  human  will 
as  gravitation  itself.  Hence  no  effective  pressure  in 
the  direction  of  reform  can  be  expected  from  those 
whose  immediate  interests  are  served  or  whose  philo- 
sophy is  satisfied  by  the  present  state  of  affairs. 

In  the  second  place,  the  problem  of  the  city  slum 
is  in  complete  solidarity  with  the  social  problem  else- 
where. Not  only  are  its  essential  features  reproduced 
on  a  small  scale  in  countless  towns  and  villages,  but 
the  existence  of  kindred  evils  in  the  country  leads 
directly  to  their  increase  in  the  great  centres  of  popu- 
lation. The  unsatisfactory  position  and  prospects 
of  the  agricultural  labourer  have  denuded  the  rural 
districts  only  to  add  to  the  congestion  and  extreme 
competition  of  the  cities.  Size,  the  element  of  chance, 
colour,  excitement  all  arouse  hopes  and  desires  which 
attract  from  the  countryside.  The  failures  drift  to 
the  great  centres.  The  energetic  set  their  face  thither 
and  displace  less  vigorous  labour  where  they  come. 
Thus,  though  the  centre  of  the  problem  is  in  the  city 
it  can  only  be  dealt  with  there  by  means  sufficiently 
powerful  and  all-embracing  to  cure  the  evil  every- 
where. 

At  the  other  end  of  the  social  scale  is  to  be  found 
the  luxury  of  the  rich.  It  is  neither  necessary,  nor 
would  it  be  altogether  just,   to  bring  the  charge  of 


THE  MODERN  SOCIAL  PROBLEM         19 

wasteful  luxury  and  extravagance  against  any  class 
as  a  whole.  There  are  many  of  the  rich  to  whom  it 
does  not  apply.  Still  more,  the  loss  of  simplicity  of 
life  and  restraint  in  expenditure  are  characteristic 
evils  at  present  in  every  class,  where  income  exceeds 
the  primary  needs  of  life,  measured  by  the  special 
standard  of  each  class.  The  pursuit  of  pleasure,  with 
the  indiscipline  and  extravagance  that  spring  out  of 
it,  are  the  forms  which  the  social  problem  takes  among 
the  successful  and  secure.  That  which  interferes 
with  an  indulgence  is  regarded  as  an  injustice.  At  the 
time  when  this  is  written,  those  who  dislike  the  land 
taxes  of  the  present  Budget  paint  gloomy  pictures 
of  the  unemployment  which  will  result  from  them. 
It  seems  never  to  occur  to  those  who  use  such  argu- 
ments how  small  is  the  body  of  labour  which  is  af- 
fected, even  assuming  that  the  whole  of  it  is  useful. 
Many  a  change  of  fashion  in  dress  has  involved  more 
loss  of  employment  than  Mr.  Lloyd  George's  Budget 
can  possibly  bring  about.  Still  more,  it  is  necessary 
to  balance  against  diminished  demand  for  labour  by 
the  wealthy,  the  increased  demand  for  it  which  would 
immediately  take  place  were  the  burdens  of  the  poor 
lightened  by  effective  social  reform. 

This  imperfect  review  of  the  present  social  situa- 
tion shows  that,  regarded  from  the  purely  economic 
standpoint,  there  is  no  hope  of  a  solution.  It  tends, 
on  the  contrary,  to  perpetuate  itself.  Commercial 
interests  are  nervous  of  change  which  may  affect  for 
ill  the  gigantic  and  sensitive  interests  of  finance,  or 
may  give  temporary  advantages  to  foreign  rivals. 
Those  who  have  accustomed  themselves  to  a  certain 
standard  of  comfort  and  luxury  are  easily  alarmed  at 
the  possibihty  of  any  unfavourable  alteration,  whether 
positive  or  relative.     The  worst  victims  of  social  evil 


20  INTRODUCTION 

have  neither  the  energy,  the  hope,  nor  the  organizing 
power  to  work  out  their  own  salvation  by  themselves. 
It  may  be  suggested  that  the  hope  of  the  future  lies 
in  combination.  But  waiving  the  objection  that  the 
remedy  of  combination  assumes  a  state  of  permanent, 
if  latent,  warfare  between  capital  and  labour,  this 
method  is  impracticable.  So  long  as  an  excess  of 
unskilled  labour  exists,  constantly  recruited  from  the 
unsuccessful,  the  untrained  and  the  juvenile,  there  is 
no  possibility  of  collective  bargaining  with  employers. 
The  ultimate  resource  of  combination,  a  strike,  is 
impossible — unless  indeed  the  conditions  are  such  as  to 
bring  outside  moral  forces  into  the  field,  as  was  the 
case  in  the  London  Dock  Strike  of  1889 — for  the  labour 
withdrawn  can,  in  most  cases,  be  at  least  temporarily 
replaced.  Moreover,  the  risk  of  such  combination 
is  one  of  the  most  powerful  influences  in  securing  the 
introduction  of  labour-saving  appliances.  Hence  the 
economic  problem  cannot  be  solved  by  ordinary 
economic  forces,  if  left  to  themselves. 

But,  it  may  be  asked,  what  about  the  palliatives 
which  exist  ?  Apart  from  such  help  as  is  afforded 
by  the  co-operation  of  the  very  poor  themselves — 
for  example  by  the  more  imperfect  types  of  sick  benefit 
societies,  which  are  for  the  most  part  organized  by 
philanthropic  agencies — these  consist  of  the  Poor  Law 
and  of  charitable  relief. 

The  Poor  Law  is  intended  to  prevent  the  possibility 
of  death  by  starvation  or  from  inability  to  obtain 
medical  attention  in  sickness.  The  common  work- 
house, with  its  infirm  wards,  is  the  primary  institu- 
tion, which  reveals  its   original  design.^    The  estab- 

^  It  is  impossible  within  our  limits  to  touch  upon  the  origin  and 
history  of  the  Poor  Law  or  to  explain  the  reasons  that  led  to  the 
momentous  reform  of  1834,  which  is  the  basis  of  present  Poor  Law 
administration. 


THE   MODERN   SOCIAL   PROBLEM         21 

lishment  of  great  Poor  Law  infirmaries  for  the  sick,  of 
various  systems  of  dealing  with  children,  of  separate 
institutions  for  the  treatment  of  the  aged  and  infirm, 
the  able-bodied  and  other  classes,  are  developments 
brought  about  in  part  by  administrative  necessities, 
and  still  more  by  the  growing  sympathy  and  wisdom 
of  Guardians  of  the  poor  and  of  the  ratepayers  to  whom 
they  appeal.  The  fundamental  condition  of  rehef, 
however,  is  destitution.  The  chief  end  proposed  is  to 
maintain  the  economic  independence  of  the  poor  by 
exacting  from  them  the  spirit  of  independence  and 
self-help.  Hence  the  first  principle  of  Poor  Law  relief 
has  been  that  it  must  be  less  attractive  than  the  most 
meagre  subsistence  without  it,  and  that  the  offer  of 
it  must  be  associated  with  such  deterrents,  and  even 
indignities,  that  no  one  will  be  tempted  to  have  re- 
course to  it  who  can  possibly  do  without  it.  Any 
softening  of  such  conditions  in  recent  times  marks  a 
departure  from  the  original  principle,  and,  as  recent 
experience  has  shown,  may  produce,  so  long  as  it  is 
carried  on  under  the  legal  conditions  at  present  exist- 
ing, the  embarrassment  of  costly  institutions  and  of 
the  rapid  spread  of  pauperism.  Hence  the  following 
dilemma  is  created.  Either  the  Poor  Law  must  be 
administered  in  all  its  severity,  in  which  case  its  very 
relief  is  an  aggravation  of  the  sufferings  of  the  poor  by 
reason  of  the  mental  anguish  it  inflicts,  or  its  severity 
must  be  relaxed,  with  the  result  that  sound  economic 
progress  is  checked,  and  that  new  kinds  of  demoraliza- 
tion abound.  It  is  impossible  that  the  action  of  the 
present  Poor  Law  should  be,  in  any  true  sense,  reme- 
died, save  in  the  case  of  children  educated  and  started 
in  life  by  the  more  competent  Boards  of  Guardians.^ 

^  Even  in  such  cases  the  powers  of  the  Guardians  are  too  limited 
to  secure  the  largest  amount  of  success. 


22  INTRODUCTION 

The  very  fact  that  it  can  only  step  in  when  men  and 
women  have  hopelessly  broken  down  means  that  any 
remedial  action,  if  attempted,  comes  too  late  to  secure 
the  co-operation  of  hope,  energy,  and  character  in  its 
object.  Yet  this  is  quite  indispensable  if  a  satisfac- 
tory result  is  to  be  reached.  Help  to  prevent  failure 
is  what  is  needed,  instead  of  attempts  to  palliate 
failure  after  it  has  taken  place.  Humane  progress  is 
swiftly  giving  the  ascendency  to  sympathy  over  coer- 
cion. This  involves  the  total  reform  of  the  system, 
in  order  that  sympathy  may  be  armed  with  adequate 
powers — educational,  disciplinary  and  co-operative — 
to  make  its  action  truly  remedial  so  long  as  the  causes 
which  necessitate  special  treatment  of  the  unfortunate 
continue  to  operate.^ 

To  a  large  extent,  the  same  objections  must  be 
taken  to  charitable  relief.  Of  course,  it  is  impossible 
to  foresee  a  time  when  special  needs  and  emergencies 
will  not  call  for  private  help.  When  such  help  is 
brought  with  the  comprehension  and  sympathy  of 
true  friendship  it  can  do  nothing  but  good,  for  it  calls 
forth  the  best  and  most  powerful  of  motives,  in  both 
giver  and  receiver,  and  cements  the  fellowship  out  of 
which  it  springs.  Short  of  this  charity  does  more 
harm  than  good.  It  delays  the  application  of  real 
remedies,  it  attracts  the  least  worthy  to  receive  it ; 
it  is  spasmodic  in  its  action  and  frequently  unwise  in 
its  methods.  Furthermore  it  involves  the  manifold 
evils  of  patronage,  can  be  exploited  for  unworthy  ends, 
and  becomes  a  profession  instead  of  a  ministry.  By 
its  nature  it  can  only  temper  effects,  without  dealing 
with  causes.  It  is  exposed  to  the  subtle  temptation 
of  seeking  to  perpetuate,  rather  than  to  end,  the  social 
conditions  to  which  it  owes  its  rise.  Only  as  the  ideal 
^  See  the  Minority  Report  of  the  Poor  Law  Commission,  1909. 


THE   MODERN   SOCIAL  PROBLEM         23 

of  righteousness  supersedes  that  of  charity,  as  the 
goal  of  independence,  instead  of  dependence,  is  sought 
for  its  objects,  and  as  its  exercise  means  the  co-opera- 
tion of  friendship,  can  philanthropy  be  treated  as  a 
real  factor  in  the  emancipation  of  the  poor,  and  the 
transformation  of  society.  Its  truest  aim,  so  far 
as  private  effort  is  concerned,  should  be  to  provide  the 
upholding  influence,  the  stand-by,  of  personal  contact. 
Suflicient  has  now  been  said  to  show  that  the 
Modern  Social  Problem  is  above  all  spiritual.  No 
doubt  it  is  conditioned  by  economic  facts  and  laws. 
It  can  be  greatly  affected  by  political  action.  The 
grant  of  Old  Age  Pensions,  the  establishment  of  labour 
exchanges,  the  carrying  out  of  great  schemes  of  State- 
aided  and  supervised  insurance  against  invalidity  and 
unemployment,  the  prevention  of  sweating,  the  stay- 
ing of  the  torrent  of  unskilled  labour  by  diverting 
from  it,  through  sounder  education,  the  more  capable 
boys  and  girls  who  at  present  swell  it,  the  opening 
up  of  the  land  to  small  holders,  the  institution  of 
public  works — afforestation,  drainage,  coast  protection, 
etc. — against  times  of  trade  contraction — all  these  may 
be  expected  to  make  a  marked  impression  upon  existing 
evils.  The  remodelling  of  the  aims  and  powers  of  the  Poor 
Law — in  a  sense  its  abolition — will  effectively  supple- 
ment these  wider  processes,  whatever  arrangements 
may  be  made  for  superseding  the  present  Boards  of 
Guardians.  A  truly  progressive  municipal  policy 
will  steadily  improve  all  the  conditions  of  town  life, 
But  if  such  a  social  policy  in  all  its  entirety  is  to  be 
set  on  foot,  effectively  carried  through,  and  success- 
fully administered — in  spite  of  hostile  combinations 
and  human  inertia — great  spiritual  influences  must 
be  at  work  throughout  the  community.  The  social 
problem  must  be  grasped  as  an  organic  whole.     Its 


24  INTRODUCTION 

solution  must  be  undertaken  as  a  national  task  in 
which  all  classes  are  called  to  co-operate.  /  It  must 
be  pursued  with  steadfast  and  strenuous  resolution./ 
It  must  be  compassed  by  far-reaching  and  continuous 
efforts,  legislative,  administrative  and  philanthropic. 
All  this  is  impossible  till  one  supreme  ideal  gains  com- 
mand of  the  nation  as  the  prime  object  of  this  collective 
endeavour./  That  object  can  be  nothing  less  than  the 
complete  abolition  of  demoralizing  and  degrading 
poverty,  and  thereby  the  bringing  of  the  poorest  into 
the  full  inheritance  of  civilization./  Many  elements 
go  to  make  up  the  fullness  of  this  ideal,  but  the  indis- 
pensable basis  of  them  all  is  the  determination  to  secure 
for  all  at  least  the  minimum  of  economic  well-being 
which  is  essential  to  the  enjoyment  of  all  the  highest 
goods  of  life.  The  attainment  of  this  great  end  cannot 
be  reached  without  manifold  readjustments  of  social, 
economic,  and  political  relations.  It  calls  for  renewed 
hope  and  effort  on  the  part  of  the  less  fortunate,  for 
no  man  can  be  saved,  for  any  true  end  of  life,  in  spite 
of  himself.  Equally/  it  calls  for  the  triumph  of  bro- 
therly co-operation  and  brotherly  sacrifice  on  the  part 
of  the  more  fortunate.  In  short,  the  social  conscious- 
ness must  become  sovereign  in  its  authority  over  the 
national  life,  subordinating,  until  it  utterly  expels, 
selfish  individualism,  class  jealousies,  and  timid  dis- 
like of  necessary  change.  ^  Only  slowly,  and  with  much 
difficulty,  will  political  forces  and  economic  relations 
respond  to  and  become  transformed  by  this  supreme 
ideal.  /  True  the  so-called  ''  economic  man  '*  is  so 
stiff  an  abstraction  as  to  be  a  caricature  of  humanity. 
The  pursuit  of  wealth  for  its  own  sake  is  not,  commonly, 
the  master  motive  even  in  the  case  of  those  who  seek 
to  get  rich.  But  selfishness,  stupidity,  and  timidity 
are  mighty  forces  of  obstruction,  not  to  speak  of  the 


THE   MODERN   SOCIAL  PROBLEM         25 

material  difficulties  that  must  be  encountered.  No- 
thing but  heroic  determination,  collective  wisdom,  and 
a  great  inspiration  of  brotherhood  will  suffice.  It 
would  be  a  fatal  mistake  to  confuse  these  qualities 
with  a  particular  economic  doctrine — say,  for  example, 
with  State  Socialism.  The  question  is  therefore  that 
of  the  national  character — its  seriousness,  sympathy, 
sense  of  brotherhood.  Can  the  social  consciousness 
overcome  the  forces  that  are  arrayed  against  it  ?  In 
other  words,  the  Modern  Social  Problem  is,  above  all, 
spiritual.  Produced  in  its^most  aggravated  symptoms 
by  the  unrestrained  freedom  of  industrial  develop- 
ment and  competition,  its  terrible  and  menacing 
import  is  forcing  the  mind  and  conscience  of  the  nation 
to  face  anew  the  ultimate  principles  of  social  righteous- 
ness. They  cannot  be  ignored  or  postponed.  Pallia- 
tives have  proved  ineffectual.  The  agencies  of  phil- 
anthropy, alike  in  their  promise  and  their  shortcomings, 
show  the  presence  of  good-will,  but  of  good-will  defec- 
tive in  power,  range  and  equipment.  The  whole  army 
of  humanity  must  take  the  field.  /  Because  the  social 
problem  is  spiritual  and  national,  the  only  hope  of  its 
solution  lies  in  a  great  religious  inspiration./ 

This  conclusion  establishes  immediately  the  pecu- 
liar responsibility  at  this  juncture  of  the  Christian 
Church.  There  is  no  need  to  dwell  on  the  minor  rea- 
sons which  strengthen  this  contention.  Some  of  them 
must,  however,  be  named.  The  social  problem  has  be- 
come a  grave  danger  to  the  State.  The  Church  must 
always  be  a  school  of  true  patriotism,  encouraging  its 
members  to  serve  the  State  ;  both  warning  the  State 
of  its  spiritual  dangers  and  assisting  it  to  overcome 
them.  The  social  problem  inflicts  untold  and  un- 
merited sufferings  on  multitudes.  The  Church  is  a 
school  of  humanity,  and,  on  peril  of  brutalizing  men 


26  INTRODUCTION 

both  within  and  without  its  pale,  must  bring  home 
to  all  the  meaning  of  the  evil  and  seek  by  all  legitimate 
means  to  alleviate  it.  The  social  problem  exposes  its 
victims  to  cruel  temptations,  threatens  where  it  does 
not  destroy  their  power  to  resist  them,  materializes 
their  outlook  and,  incidentally,  defeats  the  efforts  of 
the  Church  to  awaken  their  faith  and  hope  of  better 
things.  Hence  if  the  Church  is  to  become  a  ''  covert 
from  the  storm,*'  as  ''  the  shadow  of  a  great  rock  in 
a  weary  land,"  resolute  action  must  be  taken  to 
destroy  such  evils  at  the  root.  Furthermore,  so  far 
as  the  social  problem  exists  through  the  collective 
will  of  the  commimity,  expressed  in  laws  and  customs, 
the  members  of  the  Church  are  implicated  in  the  wrong 
that  is  done,  strengthening  or  at  least  acquiescing  in 
it,  if  they  do  not  contribute  to  reform  it.  It  is  a  fatal 
mistake,  in  a  democratic  age,  to  depersonalize  the 
action  of  the  State,  and  thus  to  belittle  the  responsi- 
bility of  the  citizens,  and  not  least  of  Christian  citizens, 
for  it.  Once  more,  it  is  Christianity  more  than  any 
other  influence  which  has  elevated  the  social  condition 
into  a  problem.  To  be  a  problem  it  must  be  conceived 
as,  at  once,  an  evil  and  a  remediable  evil.  It  is  Chris- 
tianity that  has  made  it  both.  Kindred  evils  existed 
in,  and  hastened  the  downfall  of  ancient  civilizations. 
Yet  the  heart  of  the  community  was  not  moved,  nor 
was  the  conscience  stirred  by  them.  The  political 
philosophy  even  of  Plato  and  Aristotle — always  con- 
cerned with  the  ideal  State — justified  these  evils,  as 
not  only  inevitable,  but  as  reasonable  and  even  bene- 
ficial. It  is  Christianity  which  has  changed  the  social 
outlook,  not  only  by  its  doctrine  of  the  personal  worth 
of  the  lowliest  and  worst,  and  by  evoking  in  them 
unsuspected  spiritual  powers,  but  by  the  cumulative 
effect  of  its  message  on  mankind.     The  Fatherhood 


THE   MODERN  SOCIAL  PROBLEM         27 

of  God,  the  divinely-humane  ministry  of  the  in- 
carnate Son  of  God  now  exalted  as  the  Sovereign 
and  spiritual  Redeemer  of  mankind,  "  the  new  Jerusalem 
coming  down  from  God  out  of  heaven,''  the  redemption 
of  the  universe  from  its  evil,  the  supremacy  of  the 
law  and  life  of  Love,  what  are  these  but  a  challenge 
to  all  existing  evils  ?  Wherein  lies  their  final  verifica- 
tion if  the  realm  of  reality  to  which  they  belong  is  a 
world  apart,  out  of  all  organic  relationship  to  the  earthly 
history  of  mankind  ?  Such  a  view  contradicts  the 
witness  of  the  Incarnation,  reduces  Isaiah  to  imbecil- 
ity, and  gives  the  lie  to  the  deepest  teachings  of  our 
Lord.^  The  Fatherhood  of  God  can  only  be  set  forth, 
verified  and  vindicated  by  the  brotherly  love  of  His 
Church.  God's  universe,  and  still  more  mankind, 
must  constantly  be  summoned,  by  the  faith  that  re- 
moves mountains,  to  give  consenting  witness  to  the 
truth  that  God  is  Love.  In  Christianity  no  .Dual- 
lism  is  possible.  And  with  the  denial  of  Dualism 
vanishes  contempt  for  the  meaning  and  despair  of  the 
possibilities  of  earthly  life  as  the  gift  of  the  Divine 
Father  and  the  preparation  for  eternal  life.  Not  only 
will  the  reason  of  man  be  bafiied  and  his  humanity 
receive  a  deadly  blow  unless  this  be  the  case,  but  faith 
itself  will  lose  its  buoyancy  and  the  active  reason  by 
which  it  goes  forward  to  reconcile  and  unify  heaven 
and  earth — by  thought,  ideal  and  deed — will  be  foiled. 
Therefore,  the  spiritual  must  be  fulfilled  in  the  moral, 
the  moral  must  mould  the  social,  and  the  social  must 
assume  command  over  and  transform  the  material 
environment,  if  regenerated  mankind  is  to  work  to- 
gether with  God  to  make  all  things  new.  Hence  it 
has  come  to  pass  that  every  great  revival  of  Christianity 

^  E.g.  the  Sermon  on  the  Mount,  the  Parables  of  the  Grain  of 
Mustard  Seed,  the  Leaven,  etc. 


28  INTRODUCTION 

has  inaugurated  a  new  period  of  social  endeavour  and 
reform. 

It  may  be  asked  whether  the  Christian  revelation 
does  not  assume  the  permanent  existence  of  suffering, 
treat  it  as  an  indispensable  discipline,  and  thereby 
transmute  it  into  a  means  of  higher  good.  Un- 
doubtedly it  does.  Nor  is  it  possible  that  social  re- 
form, carried  to  its  utmost  limits,  can  ever  eliminate 
the  element  of  suffering  from  the  human  lot.  A  life 
bounded  by  death,  and  exposed  to  the  buffets  and 
mortal  strokes  dealt  by  material  nature,  will  never 
be  immune  from  suffering.  If  he  became  so,  man 
would  sink  into  a  denizen  of  earth  instead  of  rising  to 
become  a  citizen  of  heaven.  But  the  following  all- 
important  considerations  must  be  borne  in  mind. 
Firstly,  the  Christian  religion  has  no  mercy  upon  those 
who  callously  allow  their  brethren  to  remain  under 
remediable  suffering.  Let  the  epistle  of  St.  James  be 
read  as  a  summary  of  Christian  teaching  on  this  point. 
Or  let  St.  John,  the  greatest  mystic  of  the  Christian 
religion,  speak  :  *'  But  whoso  hath  the  world's  goods, 
and  beholdeth  his  brother  in  need,  and  shutteth  up 
his  compassion  from  him,  how  doth  the  love  of  God 
abide  in  him  ?  "  Above  all,  let  our  Lord's  test  be 
borne  in  mind,  "  Inasmuch  as  ye  did  it  not  unto  one 
of  these  least,  ye  did  it  not  unto  Me.'*  In  applying 
such  declarations,  let  it  be  remembered  that  if  in 
some  ways  individual  liberty  is  increased  in  modern 
times,  yet  in  other  respects  the  more  complex  organiza- 
tion of  modern  commerce  and  industry  forces  both 
justice  and  compassion  to  assume  collective  expres- 
sion, if  they  are  to  be  applied  at  all.  Secondly,  the 
New  Testament  insists  much  more  constantly  upon 
the  inevitable  passion  and  suffering  of  those  who  would 
be  the  agents  of  God  in  redeeming  their  fellows,  than 


THE   MODERN   SOCIAL  PROBLEM         29 

upon  the  necessary  sufferings  of  those  they  seek  to 
redeem.  Modern  Christianity  has  lightly  transferred 
this  burden,  assuming  for  the  most  part  that  the  repre- 
sentatives of  Christ  are  to  be  protected  from  the  suffer- 
ing of  a  Christlike  passion,  while  ''  the  masses ''  are 
to  feel  its  full  force.  Thirdly,  the  irreducible  mini- 
mum of  suffering  works  beneficent  ends  only  so  long 
as  men  face  the  causes  of  suffering  as  a  whole,  hope- 
fully and  unitedly,  in  the  serious  and  joyful  determina- 
tion to  overcome  them.  Dull  submission  to  evil  not 
only  deadens  the  spirit,  but  destroys  the  power  of 
suffering  itself  to  refine  and  build  up  character. 

All  this  will  probably  be  allowed.  The  difiiculty, 
for  many  minds,  arises  when  the  question  of  the  rela- 
tion of  organized  Christianity — the  Church — to  the 
Social  Problem  is  reached.  So  long  as  sentiments  of 
humanity,  or  the  individual  conduct  that  springs  from 
them,  are  concerned  little  or  no  objection  is  raised. 
But  directly  the  attempt  is  made  to  universalize  senti- 
ments as  principles  of  collective  action  and  to  give 
expression  to  them  in  the  complex  relations  of  eco- 
nomic and  political  life,  then — although  this  may  be 
the  only  means  of  making  them  prevail — the  objection 
is  strongly  taken  that  this  lies  outside  the  province  of 
the  Church,  and  is  even  contrary  to  its  peculiar  mis- 
sion. 

To  begin  with,  it  is  frequently  held  that  the  laws 
of  Christ  are  laws  for  His  Church,  intended,  therefore, 
to  govern  the  select  relations  of  the  members,  and  not 
as  law  universal.  This  raises,  of  course,^  the  whole 
question  of  the  relations  of  the  Church  to  the  ordinary 
world,  not  so  much  in  the  externality  of  its  organiza- 
tion and  action,  as  in  the  scope  of  its  spiritual  princi- 
ples. It  is  impossible  to  deal  exhaustively  with  this 
subject  now.     But   the  following  considerations  are 


30  INTRODUCTION 

all-important.  The  universalism  of  Apostolic  Chris- 
tianity must  be  our  clue  to  the  meaning  of  specialized 
Church  relations.  Christ,  says  St.  Paul,  "  ascended 
far  above  all  the  heavens  that  He  might  fill  all  things  " 
(Eph.  iv.  lo).  Out  of  that  universal  immanence 
spring  the  ministries  of  the  Church.  All  men  are, 
therefore,  potential  subjects  of  the  kingdom  and  mem- 
bers of  the  Church  ;  they  are  to  be  treated  as  such. 
Moreover,  love — the  life-spring  of  the  Church — will 
not  be  limited  either  in  its  range  or  in  its  objects.  Its 
realized  expression  in  the  Church  necessitates  its  going 
forth  to  all  mankind.  'VAs  ye  have  opportunity  do 
good  unto  all  men,  and  especially  unto  them  that  are 
of  the  household  of  faith  ''  is  as  broad  in  its  extent  as 
it  is  natural  and  human  in  its  recognition  of  primary 
and  special  obligations.  Still  less  can  love,  as  the 
supreme  principle  of  life,  tolerate  two  incompatible 
standards  of  conduct,  one  towards  those  that  are 
within  the  Church  and  another  towards  those  that  are 
without,  or,  perhaps,  one  towards  members  of  the 
Church  in  their  spiritual  and  another  towards  them 
in  their  economic  interests  and  relations.  Love  finds 
such  dichotomies  both  suicidal  and  hypocritical. 
Moreover,  if  love  would  sincerely  prevail  for  all  the 
ends  of  life  within  the  Church,  its  victory  must  also 
be  won  in  all  the  realms  that  lie  outside.  For  the 
Church,  however  separate  it  may  seek  to  be  from  the 
concerns  of  ordinary  life,  is  so  inextricably  bound  up 
with  them,  that  either  the  Church  must  seek  spiritually 
to  prevail  over  them  or  they  will  prevail  over  and 
within  the  Church.  Hence  the  isolation  of  the  Church 
from  the  social  problem  conceived  as  spiritual  cannot 
be  maintained  for  the  two  reasons  that  such  isolation 
would  negative  the  universal  mission  of  the  Gospel 
and  also  that  it  would  make  any  effort  to  live  out 


THE   MODERN   SOCIAL  PROBLEM         31 

the  life  of  Christ  within  the  borders  of  the  Church 
itself  absolutely  hopeless.  When  any  body  of  ear- 
nest Christians  have  actually  withdrawn  from  the 
world,  they  have  always  organized  for  themselves  an 
ideal  state.  Such  withdrawal  being  possible  only 
temporarily  and  on  the  narrowest  scale,  it  becomes 
vital  that  the  whole  Church,  cultivating  the  common 
life  and  in  alliance  with  all  men  of  good-will,  should 
seek  to  transform  the  whole  State. 

But  more  deepseated  difficulties  must  be  con- 
sidered. Some  that  were  urged  in  bygone  days  are 
rapidly  losing  their  significance  at  the  present  time. 
For  example,  it  used  to  be  contended  that  the  mission 
of  Christ,  and  therefore  of  His  Church,  was  to  save 
individual  souls,  and  that,  therefore,  social  and  ma- 
terial concerns  were  beyond  the  sphere  of  the  directly 
Christian  commission.  For  most  thoughtful  persons 
this  objection  has  broken  down  at  both  points.  To 
begin  with  the  importance  of  the  personal  experience 
of  salvation  being  granted,  it  is  impossible  to  deal 
with  an  abstract  individual,  cut  off  from  all  social  rela- 
tionships. Such  an  individual  does  not  and  cannot 
exist.  Hence  the  Gospel  is  addressed  to  persons  who 
can  only  realize  their  personality  in  and  through  social 
relationships.  Salvation  must,  therefore,  include  the 
transformation  of  those  personal  relationships  and  all 
that  springs  from  them.  In  the  next  place  neither  the 
religious  nor  the  psychological  interpretation  of  indi- 
viduality will  permit  complete  separation  qf  soul  and 
body,  of  powers  directed  to  the  spiritual  and  those 
directed  to  the  physical  ends  of  life.  Not  only  does 
the  personality  unite  both,  but  it  unites  them  not  by 
an  external,  but  by  a  vital  and  organic  bond.  Hence 
as  the  man  is  one  the  work  of  salvation  cannot  ignore 
any  part  or  need  of  his  complex  nature.     All  this  is 


32  INTRODUCTION 

securing  growing  recognition  by  the  Christian  Church 
at  the  present  day. 

The  truth  of  these  reasons  for  Christian  action  to 
solve  the  social  problem,  however,  has  not  yet  pro- 
duced universal  conviction.  It  is  urged  that  the  Chris- 
tian religion  belongs  to  a  transcendent  order  of  things. 
It  consists  in  the  conveyance  of  eternal  life  to  be- 
lievers in  Christ.  Its  source,  goal  and  "  conversa- 
tion "  are  in  heaven.  Hence  Christ  did  not  concern 
Himself  with  political,  economic  and  social  concerns, 
and,  if  He  ministered  physical  healing,  it  was  by 
spiritual  influences  and  for  spiritual  ends.  His  ex- 
ample must,  of  needs,  limit  our  conduct,  not  only  be- 
cause of  His  authority,  but  because  any  departure 
from  His  methods  involves  spiritual  disaster.  It  leads 
those  who  suffer  from  earthly  disadvantages  unduly  to 
magnify  them,  instead  of  seeking  to  live  the  transcen- 
dent life,  in  which  evil  is  itself  transmuted  into  a  means 
of  good.  Further,  it  materializes  the  aims  and  spirit 
of  the  Church  and  thereby  disables  it  from  receiving 
the  highest  spiritual  influences  and  attaining  the  high- 
est spiritual  ends.  It  is,  furthermore,  an  entire  mistake 
to  suppose  that  material  security  and  prosperity  have 
anything  to  do  with  the  Kingdom  of  God.  It  is  con- 
ceivable that  all  our  social  problems  might  be  success- 
fully solved,  without  the  Kingdom  of  God  being  appre- 
ciably advanced.  At  the  best,  its  work  of  evangelizing 
men  would  have  to  be  done  anew  for  every  successive 
generation,  no  matter  what  might  be  their  social  con- 
dition. Moreover,  legislation  means,  in  the  last  re- 
sort, the  prevalence  of  strength.  In  our  more  civilized 
days,  legislation  by  majorities  has  taken  the  place  of 
civil  war.  But  it  partakes,  notwithstanding,  of  the 
nature  of  warfare.  Hence  the  Church  is  debarred  from 
interfering  with  the  course  of  legislation,   since  our 


THE   MODERN  SOCIAL  PROBLEM         33 

Lord  has  said,  "  My  kingdom  is  not  of  this  world/' 
To  all  this  must  be  added  the  many  practical  dangers 
of  internal  strife  and  loss  of  influence  with  those  who 
are  opposed  to  particular  reforms,  which  must  ensue 
whenever  the  Church  departs  from  an  attitude  of  strict  • 
neutrality  in  all  social  concerns  that  ultimately  in- 
volve political  relations.  Hence,  as  the  result  of  all 
these  considerations,  it  is  argued  that  the  social  influ- 
ence of  the  Christian  Church  can  only  be  incidental 
and  indirect,  or,  at  the  utmost,  limited  to  the  inculca- 
tion of  spiritual  principles,  upon  which  social  reform 
may  and  ultimately  will  be  based. 

It  is  necessary  to  consider  the  case  thus  presented, 
although  limits  of  space  prevent  any  exhaustive  treat- 
ment of  it.  Let  it  be  granted,  at  once,  that  the  Chris- 
tian religion  is  spiritual  and  transcendent.  Yet  what 
is  spiritual  transcendence,  whether  that  of  God  over 
the  universe,  that  of  Christ  over  humanity,  or  that  of 
the  Spirit  over  the  individual  heart  ?  It  implies 
sovereign  immanence.  A  transcendent  God  who  was 
not  also  immanent  would  cease  to  be  transcendent 
in  any  relevant  sense  of  the  term,  and  vice  versa. 
And  the  same  is  true  of  the  other  relations  just  instanced. 
To  say  that  Christianity  is  a  spiritual  life,  realized  in 
and  through  Divine  relationships,  does  indeed  imply 
that  it  cannot  be  defined  in  any  terms  of  secular  life, 
be  they  political,  economic,  or  social.  It  is  more  than 
and  other  than  all  these  whether  separately  or  in  com- 
bination. In  the  same  way,  it  cannot  be  defined  in 
terms  of  intellect,  feeling  or  will.  Yet  this  is  not  to 
say  that  it  either  can  or  seeks  to  exist  apart  from  all 
these  interests  and  powers.  The  very  fact  that  it 
transcends  all  these  gives  to  it,  not  only  the  power 
but  the  function  to  subordinate,  direct  and  inspire 
them  all.     In  the  living  complex  of  human  life  re- 

c.c.  D 


34  INTRODUCTION 

ligion  must  fulfil  its  transforming  and  uplifting  office 
in  the  most  vital  and  thorough-going  way,   or  the 
elements  it  has  failed  to  control  will  rise  up  to  corrupt 
and  degrade  it.     By  this  light  we  must  understand 
both  the  example  and  the  teaching  of  our  Lord.     With- 
out dwelling  upon  the  primary  objects  or  the  limiting 
conditions  of  His  historic  ministry,  it  will  suffice  to 
call  attention  to  His  declaration  that  He  came  "  to 
fulfil  '*  the  law  and  the  prophets.     Fulfilment  always 
transcends  preparation  in  every  realm  of  life.     Thus 
our  Lord's  fulfilment  is   not  only  disentangled  from 
the  limitations  of  time  and  place  which  affected  both 
the  law  and  the  prophets,  but  thereby  manifests  a 
new  order  of  truth  and  life.     Yet  the  fulfilment  must 
be  in  vital,  and  not  merely  external  relations  to  the 
preparation.     It  must  fulfil  a  promise  and  expectation 
latent   and   growing   in   the   preparation.     Both   the 
Law  and  the  prophets,  in  different  ways  and  in  differ- 
ing   degrees   of   perfection,    seek   expression    for   the 
spiritual  in  the  social.     In  particular,   the  prophets 
cannot  conceive  of  any  true  religion  which  does  not 
issue  in   a  state    ideally  moral    and  humane.     The 
fact  that  such  a  state  is  the  creation  and  gift  of  God, 
does  not  remove  it  from  the  aspiration  and  effort  of 
men.     Nay,  it  imposes  upon  men  the  duty  of  seeking 
to  create  it.     Our  Lord's  fulfilment,  as  all  His  teach- 
ing shows,  lay  in  its  supreme  revelation  of  the  meaning, 
power   and   obligation   of   Love — to   God   and   man. 
Love  is  a  spiritual  principle.     It  can  never  be  identi- 
fied with  any  particular  practical  endeavour,  or  with 
any  external  arrangements.     Yet  it  must  needs  strive 
to  express  itself  in  such  endeavours,  and  to  create  for 
itself  the  state  of  things  in  which  it  can  display  all  its 
potency.     Hence,  though  the  universality  and  spirit- 
uaUty  of  our  Lord's  example  were  in  themselves  suffi- 


THE   MODERN  SOCIAL  PROBLEM         35 

cient  to  prevent  His  limiting  His  everlasting  Gospel 
by  temporal  efforts,  He  gave  final  manifestation 
and  inspiration  to  principles,  which  can  only  survive 
by  expressing  themselves  throughout  the  whole  range 
of  human  life  and  by  the  use  of  all  the  instruments 
at  their  disposal.  Of  course,  all  attempts  thus  to 
assert  the  meaning  and  to  gain  the  results  of  the  supreme 
principle  of  Love  must  be  governed  by  the  Spirit  of 
Christ.  The  material  is  a  Christian  concern,  not  in 
its  abstract  secularity,  but  in  so  far  as  it  enters  into 
and  affects  for  evil  or  for  good,  as  it  assuredly  does, 
the  spiritual  life  of  love.  Its  place  must  neither  be 
exaggerated  nor  ignored.  Above  all,  it  must  be  seen 
that  man  cannot  touch,  appropriate  and  shape  the 
material  for  his  own  ends  without  his  very  use  of  it 
reacting  upon  him,  to  his  spiritual  advantage  or  injury. 
When  a  spiritual  being  handles  ''  things,''  they  in- 
evitably become  more  than  things  :  they  become 
forces  or  objects  of  a  spiritual  activity,  which  will  be 
exalted  or  debased  according  to  its  use  or  abuse  of 
them.  No  doubt  the  legal,  customary,  or  material 
result  of  social  reform,  viewed  in  itself,  is  secular  and 
cannot  for  a  moment  be  confounded  with  the  Kingdom 
of  God.  But  the  attempt  to  secure  such  results  may 
and  should  be  spiritual,  in  both  motive  and  method. 
Indeed  it  may  impose  the  greatest  strain  upon  spiritual 
virtues,  often  severer  than  what  is  regarded  as  more 
spiritual  work.  For  example,  we  have  known  many 
whose  advancement  in  Christian  love  is  sufficient  to 
make  them  ardently  desire  the  ''  salvation  of  souls,*' 
who  are  extremely  stingy  in  the  matter  of  subscriptions 
towards  beneficent  ends,  or  keenly  resent  any  call 
to  contribute  through  taxes  and  rates  to  social  reforms 
which  they  admit  to  be  beneficial  or  even  necessary. 
Yet  though  the  outward  result  of  social  reform  be 


36       '  INTRODUCTION 

not  spiritual,  that  result,  when  unified  with  the  spiritual 
forces  which  have  brought  it  about  and  continue  to 
use  it  for  their  own  vital  ends,  is  inextricably  bound 
up  with  the  coming  of  the  Kingdom  of  God.  Other- 
wise the  Apocalyptic  visions,  both  of  the  Old  Testa- 
ment and  the  New,  must  be  dismissed  as  the  childish 
fancies  of  an  unspiritual  imagination. 

So  far  as  the  legislative  application  of  spiritual 
principles  is  concerned  it  may  be  admitted  that  some- 
thing in  the  nature  of  warfare  may  enter  into  the  case. 
Yet  an  objection,  which  would  make  it  impossible 
for  the  Christian  Church,  as  such,  to  bring  pressure 
to  bear  for  the  closing  of  the  sweater's  den  and  the 
gambling  hell,  to  demand  the  suppression  of  the  Indian 
opium  traffic,  or  the  rescue  of  the  enslaved  Congo 
races,  and  which  would  withdraw  the  missionary 
societies  from  all  concern  in  the  humane  progress  of 
India  were  the  Government  to  nationalize  their  schools 
and  hospitals,  surely  needs  some  careful  scrutiny. 
It  might  as  truly  be  said  that  the  exercise  of  authority 
by  a  Christian  father  over  a  rebelhous  child,  or  of 
discipline  by  a  Christian  schoolmaster  over  a  refractory 
scholar,  are  of  the  nature  of  warfare.  It  will  be  replied 
that  such  cases  imply  recognized  authority  on  the 
one  side,  and  tutelage  on  the  other.  Evil  has  un- 
doubtedly resulted  whenever  the  Christian  Church 
has  claimed  that  exactly  these  relations  exist  between 
itself  and  mankind.  Yet  such  examples  show  that 
the  exercise  of  pressure,  as  well  as  of  influence,  may 
often  be  justified  on  the  highest  grounds.  And  it  is 
preposterous  to  contend  that  the  one  influence,  which 
on  occasion  can  counteract  the  selfishness  of  men, 
and  appeal  to  their  better  nature  against  their  worse, 
should  refrain  from  exercising  this  influence  at  any 
crisis  when  the  interests  of  humanity  are  at  stake. 


THE   MODERN   SOCIAL  PROBLEM         37 

That  would  be  to  allow  the  Devil's  forces  to  occupy 
the  field.  The  objects  and  duty  of  the  Church  as  a 
whole  can  never  be  narrower  and  poorer  than  those  of 
its  individual  members,  else  it  would  cease  to  guide  and 
inspire  their  life.  Nor  can  fidelity  to  a  principle  be 
reconciled  with  the  neglect  of  practical  measures  for 
carrying  it  out.  But  if  the  Church  enter  the  field  of 
social  warfare,  it  must  be  on  conditions  which  are 
laid  down  by  its  spiritual  mission.  To  begin  with,  it 
must  be  when  the  general  sense  of  its  members  recog- 
nizes a  divinely-imposed  obligation  to  do  so.  In  the 
next  place,  it  must  be  for  truly  cathoUc  ends  ;  for  ends, 
that  is  to  say,  that  are  recognized  as  necessary  to 
fulfilling  the  second  Commandment,  "  Thou  shalt 
love  thy  neighbour  as  thyself."  If  these  conditions 
are  fulfilled,  not  only  will  the  Church  pursue  no  sec- 
tional object,  but,  even  in  case  of  controversy  or 
struggle,  its  members  will  be  satisfied  that  the  attain- 
ment of  a  truly  catholic  end  can  in  no  wise  really 
injure  even  those  who  for  the  time  being  oppose  it. 
In  this  respect  the  action  of  the  Church  will  arise 
from  altogether  different  motives  from  those  of  or- 
dinary sectional  or  political  warfare.  Thus  typically 
Christian  action  will,  for  the  most  part,  be  reconciling 
rather  than  controversial.  Its  appeal  will  be  to  the 
highest  and  most  universal  interests.  In  prosecuting 
these  it  will  mediate  rather  than  aggravate  strife.  It 
will  enable  spiritual  and  moral  interests  to  make  them- 
selves heard  and  felt  above  the  clamour  of  interested 
factions.  This  view,  if  taken,  is  sufficient  to  turn 
aside  the  danger  either  of  identifying  the  Christian 
Church  with  any  particular  political  party,  or  of  the 
creation  of  a  so-called  Christian  party  by  the  Church. 
Sound  progress  demands,  just  as  human  Umitations 
insure,  the  interaction  of  progressive  and   of  critical 


38  INTRODUCTION 

minds.  Each  type  has  its  own  distinctive  service 
to  render,  the  office  of  the  Church  being  to  assist  to 
get  all  problems,  however  regarded,  treated  in  the 
light  of  the  Kingdom  of  God.  In  all  these  situations, 
a  truly  spiritual  Church  wiU  find  the  guidance  of  faith, 
and  will  act  for  ends  that  are  never  lower  and  less 
than  those  of  humanity.  That  mistakes  should  be 
made,  in  social  concerns  as  in  others,  is  inevitable. 
Yet  the  Church  need  fear  no  warfare,  so  long  as  her 
sword  is  ''  the  Sword  of  the  Spirit,''  and  she  takes  the 
''  armour  of  righteousness  on  the  right  hand  and  on 
the  left." 

Yet,  although  the  Christian  Church  must  from 
time  to  time  pursue  essential  principles  on  to  the  field 
of  controversial  life,  her  main  service  is  that  of  influen- 
tial witness  to  the  ideals  by  which  men  and  states 
must  live.  The  supreme  marks  of  a  truly  Christian 
and  catholic  spirit  are  sixfold.  In  the  first  place, 
there  is  the  inwardness  which  responds  to  the  pres- 
ence and  power  of  God  in  Christ,  thus  enabling  the 
fullness  of  spiritual  life  to  be  realized  through  faith. 
Such  inwardness  must,  however,  be  saved  from  the 
snare  of  pietism  by  the  universality  of  its  aim,  in  corre- 
spondence with  the  world-purpose  of  Christ.  Such 
spiritual  universalism  must,  above  all,  be  true  to  the 
redemptive  meaning  and  purpose  of  the  Gospel.  It 
must  not  be  ashamed  of  the  Cross  of  Christ,  or  of  any- 
thing that  the  Cross  reveals  or  implies.  Only  through 
the  forgiveness  of  sins  and  divinely-wrought  regenera- 
tion can  men  enter  the  Kingdom  of  God.  Yet  the 
presentation  of  redemption  must  not  be  so  rigid  as  to 
destroy  the  comprehensiveness  of  Christ.  The  res- 
toration, fulfilment  and  satisfaction  of  human  nature 
is  the  end  of  redemption.  If  we  must  "  die  to  live," 
the  life  that  is  reached  through  this  death  enriches  all 


THE   MODERN  SOCIAL  PROBLEM         39 

human  powers  and  touches  them  to  finer  issues.  Com- 
prehensive sympathy  is  therefore  one  of  the  marks  of  the 
Christian  spirit.  With  it  goes  the  progressive  temper, 
which  is  ceaselessly  original  and  creative.  True  Chris- 
tianity is  ever  making  and  remaking  the  world  in 
accordance  with  the  growing  vision  of  the  Divine  ideal. 
Hence,  finally,  it  becomes  impossible  to  rely  simply 
on  past  precedents  or  on  external  regulations.  The 
continuity  of  Christian  life  is  shown  in  its  power  to 
exhibit  identity  in  and  through  difference ;  so  to 
adjust  itself  to  new  conditions  that  the  immanent 
sovereignty  of  its  life  is  displayed.  Its  inmost  un- 
changeableness  is  revealed  by  its  free  response  to 
the  changing  conditions  of  secular  progress.  It  is  hard 
to  combine  in  living  unity  and  due  proportion,  in- 
wardness, universality,  redemptive  power,  broad 
comprehension,  progressive  sympathy,  and  consistent 
self-adjustment.  The  secret  can  only  be  conveyed 
by  fellowship  with  Christ  Himself,  and  by  the  baptism 
of  that  holy  love  which  manifests  itself  naturally 
by  unifying  all  these  elements  in  a  consistent  temper 
that  answers  both  to  the  truth  of  God  and  to  the 
realities  of  life. 

In  proportion  as  this  temper  prevails  its  manifest- 
ation will  have  decisive  results  upon  the  Modern  Social 
Problem.  Spiritual  inwardness  will  destroy  the  self- 
ishness and  greed  of  practical  materialism.  A  truly 
universal  aim  will  set  free  from  subservience  to  any 
class  or  to  sectional  interests  of  any  kind.  Fidelity 
to  the  redemptive  message  of  the  Gospel  will  arouse 
the  powers  in  human  nature,  without  which  no  social 
reform  can  gain  its  full  effect.  Comprehensiveness 
of  spirit,  progressive  sympathy,  and  self-adjusting 
power  will  enable  the  Church  to  rise  above  narrowness 
and  adherence  to  the  external  precedents  of  the  past, 


40  INTRODUCTION 

so  as  to  take  a  proper  share  in  the  reconstruction  of 
society  on  more  spiritual  and  social  lines.  The  first 
consequence  of  all  this  will  be  that  in  teaching  and  in 
life  the  Christian  Church  will,  if  faithful,  express 
and  enforce  the  principles  of  universal  brotherhood. 
While  practical  endeavours  to  give  effect  to  these 
principles  are  being  made  by  the  State,  the  Church 
will  bring  to  bear  the  inspiration  of  faith  in  the  world- 
embracing  and  world-transforming  purpose  of  Divine 
iQve,  will  call  men  to  brotlierly  co-operation  for  the 
rescue  of,  the  weak  and  helpless,  andwill  demand  the 
self-discipline  which^jadly  accepts  the  sacrifices  that 
are  necessary  tojhis  ead.  The  primaf y  call  which  the 
modern  social  problem  makes  upon  the  Christian 
Church  as  a  whole,  is  for  just  this  prophetic  witness,  in 
word  and  deed,  by  authoritative  guidance  and  indi- 
vidual conduct,  to  the  claims  of  human  brotherhood  as 
paramount,  and  as  fixing  the  standard  and  goal  for 
all  effort  in  every  sphere  of  life. 

It  is  not  necessary  to  speak  in  detail  of  the  practical 
service  which  the  Churches  should  render  outside  the 
field  of  public  life. /If  the  social  problem  cannot  be 
solved  on  its  economic  and  civic  side  without  great 
spiritual  inspiration  and  leadership,  it  is  equally  true 
that  its  solution  will  need  unstinted  personal  and 
voluntary  service  rendered  by  the  Churches  them- 
selves./ Their  most  competent  members  should  accept 
the  burdens  of  public  office./ Their  philanthropic 
societies  should  furnish  greater  assistance  to  civic  ad- 
ministration, and  should  watch  with  ceaseless  vigilance 
the  course  of  public  administration./  The  charitable 
endeavour  of  the  churches  should  be  keenly  scrutin- 
ized to  make  sure  that  they  are  not  retarding  instead 
of  advancing  social  reform./  Churches  must  free 
themselves  from  being  in  their  charitable  endeavours 


THE  MODERN   SOCIAL  PROBLEM        41 

either  the  tools  of  interested  parties  or  the  instru- 
ments of  a  thoughtless  and  impulsive  sympathy./ 
Above  all,  the  Churches  must  cultivate  a  genius  of 
personal  friendship,  which  will  bring  them  into  such 
relations  with  the  poor,  and  especially  with  the  young, 
as  will  make  the  good  that  is  within  reach  seem  desir- 
able and  attainable.  Such  friendship  in  club  and 
institute,  in  guild  and  reading  circle,  may  easily  prove 
the  turning-point  in  many  lives,  and  may  effectively 
raise  the  standard  of  life,  without  which  all  work  done 
for  others  will  be  in  vain.  If  such  a  ministry  is  to  be 
exercised  the  Churches  must  establish  the  centre  of 
their  influence  among  the  poor.  The  spiritual  well- 
being  of  the  rich  will  be  served  not  less,  but  more, 
successfully  if  the  governing  ideal  be  to  follow  Christ 
in  close  contact  with  and  far-reaching  toil  for  and  with 
the  poor.  The  state  of  many  Churches  in  the  poorest 
populations  is  a  disgrace  to  the  common  Christianity, 
showing  a  lack  of  energy,  sympathy,  and  self-sacrifice 
on  the  part  of  the  weU-to-do,  which  reveals  that,  for 
many,  the  Christian  religion  is  but  a  source  of  senti- 
mental consolation  or  a  conventional  formality  and 
not  the  enthusiasm  of  devotion  to  God  and  man./ 
All  these  practical  consequences,  and  more,  will 
result  in  ever-extending  range  and  fullness  from  the 
deepening  and  spread  of  social  sympathy.  /  It  is  for 
the  Churches  so  to  extend  their  conceptions  of  Chris- 
tian duty  that  Isaiah,  if  he  could  return  to  earth,  would 
feel  at  home  in  them./  What  is  needed  is  the  constrain- 
ing conviction  that  the  social  problem,  as  it  exists 
to-day  is,  from  every  point  of  view,  intolerable  and 
disgraceful,  that  it  is  remediable,  and  that  it  is  for 
Christianity  to  manifest  the  glory  of  its  redemptive 
mission  by  freely  giving  the  inspiration  and 
sacrifice  by  which  the  remedy  can   be  applied. /The 


42  INTRODUCTION 

unspiritual  and  the  anti-social  are  one.  /The  cure  for 
both  is  in  the  proclamation  and  application  of  the 
two  great  Commandments,  "  Thou  shalt  love  the  Lord 
thy  God  with  all  thy  heart  and  with  all  thy  soul  and 
with  all  thy  mind  and  with  all  thy  strength'*  and 
"  Thou  shalt  love  thy  neighbour  as  thyself.'*^ 


I 

Social  Ideals  in  the  Old  Testament 

By  Rev.  W.  H.  BENNETT,  M.A.,  Litt.D.,  D.D.,  Profes- 
sor OF  Old  Testament  Language  and  Literature, 
New  College  and  Hackney  College,  London. 


ARGUMENT. 

Little  Distinction  in  Israel  between  Church  and  State.  Social  and  Religious 
Ideals  Inseparable.  Chief  Bond  between  Israelites  Loyalty  to  Yahweh . 
Growth  of  Social  Ideal  may  be  traced  through  Five  Stages. 

I.  Nomad  Period.  Before  the  Conquest  of  Canaan  Social  Conditions  simple 

and  austere.     Mutual  Loyalty  within  the  Tribe. 

II.  Period  before  the  'Canonical  Prophets,  from  the  Conquest  to  the  beginning 

of  the  eighth  century  b.c.  Change  from  Nomad  to  Settled  Agricultural 
Life.  New  Feature  of  Social  Life,  the  Bond  between  the  Family  and  the 
Land.  Large  Class  of  Farmers  owning  the  Land  they  tilled.  Develop- 
ment of  Pohtical  Organization.     Rise  in  Standard  of  Living. 

III.  Law  and  Prophecy  in  the  Eighth  Century  B.C.     Growth  of  Luxury.    Forma- 

tion of  Numerous  Large  States.  Farmers  driven  from  the  Soil,  become 
Landless  Paupers.  Protests  of  the  Prophets.  Attempts  to  secure 
Healthy  Conditions  by  affirming  Primitive  Customs  in  Legal  Codes. 

IV.  Law  and  Prophecy  in  the  last  period  of  the  Monarchy  and  during  the  Exile. 

Previous  Evils  Continue.  Protests  from  Jeremiah  and  Ezekiel.  Re- 
newed Attempts  at  Reform  through  Social  Ordinances  in  Legal  Codes. 
Deuteronomy,  etc.  Social  Development  checked  by  Invasion  and 
Captivity. 

V.  Period  after  the  Exile.  Recrudescence  of  Former  Evils.  Attempts  at  Reform 

byNehemiah  and  the  Prophets.  Social  Ideal  in  Priestly  Code,  Liberty 
for  all  Israelites,  and  for  each  Family  an  Independent  Means  of  Liveli- 
hood through  the  Ownership  of  Land. 

VI.  Review.  Difference  of  Social  Conditions   necessitates  Care  in  applying 

O.  T.  Principles  to  our  Times.  Prophets  would  have  condemned  Chris- 
tendom for  its  failure  to  develop  a  Righteous  Social  System.  O.T.  seeks 
Energy  for  Reform  in  Love  to  God  and  one's  Neighbour.  Social  Reform 
to-day  hindered  by  Mutual  Antagonism  of  the  Churches.  For  Social 
Reform  we  need  Alliance  of  Social  and  Religious  Enthusiasm  and  Co- 
operation of  the  Churches.  Failure  to  secure  Social  Righteousness 
means  the  Ruin  of  Christian  CiviHzation.  Our  hope  is  in  the  Spirit 
of  Christ. 


I 

Social  Ideals  in  the  Old  Testament 

In  Israel,  as  in  the  ancient  world  generally,  society 
was  essentially  religious  ;  the  ritual  of  public  worship 
and  private  devotion  were  included  amongst  social 
duties  ;  and  what  we  should  call  secular  law  and 
custom  were  enforced  by  religious  sanctions  as  being 
part  of  Revelation.  The  good  citizen  would  sacrifice 
and  pay  tithes  and  observe  the  Sabbath  ;  and  on  the 
other  hand  the  regulations  as  to  the  punishment  of 
criminals  or  the  conduct  of  war  had  been  made  known 
by  God  to  priests,  prophets  and  lawgivers.  But  in 
writing  to-day  of  a  Social  Ideal  we  shall  be  chiefly 
occupied  with  secular  and  ethical  subjects  ;  we  shall 
not  attempt  to  determine  the  belief  or  the  forms  of 
worship  of  the  ideal  society  ;  nor  shall  we  attempt — 
at  any  rate  in  this  particular  essay — to  lay  down 
an  exact  dogma  as  to  the  relation  of  social  principles 
to  religious  sanctions.  Nevertheless,  it  is  impossible, 
especially  in  dealing  with  the  Old  Testament,  to 
ignore  altogether  the  place  and  influence  of  religion 
in  society  ;  and  the  plan  of  this  volume  includes  the 
consideration  of  the  attitude  of  the  Church  to  social 
questions.  In  Israel,  however,  the  modern  distinc- 
tion between  Church  and  State  had  not  arisen  ;  Israel* 

45 


46  SOCIAL  IDEALS  IN  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT 

as  a  whole  and  in  all  its  individuals,  was  a  religious, 
just  as  much  as  a  political,  unity.  In  practice  there 
were  many  beginnings  of  what  we  should  call  a  diverg- 
ence of  Church  and  State,  but  these  were  regarded 
as  failures  to  maintain  the  National  Ideal,  a  view 
upheld  by  the  law  and  the  prophets.  It  was  taken  for 
granted  that  the  religious  organs  of  the  community — 
king,  priests  and  prophets — would  determine  the  con- 
ditions of  social  life. 

The  inspired  leaders  of  Israel  always  looked  for- 
ward to  the  coming  of  the  Kingdom  of  God ;  they 
expected  that  the  frail  and  sinful  Israel  of  their  experi- 
ence would  be  transformed  by  the  grace  of  God  into 
an  ideal  society.  They  had  glowing  visions  of  the 
future  glory  of  the  righteous  nation  ;  and  they  did 
their  best  by  teaching,  law-giving  and  administration 
to  train  the  Israelites  to  be  worthy  citizens  of  the 
Kingdom.  Hence  the  Old  Testament  is  largely  occu- 
pied with  the  setting  forth  of  a  Social  Ideal,  of  which 
we  must  attempt  some  slight  sketch  in  the  following 
pages. 

It  will  be  convenient  for  our  purpose  to  divide 
the  history  of  Israel  into  five  periods  :  (i)  The  No- 
madic Period,  from  the  rise  of  the  Israelite  people  till 
the  Settlement  in  Canaan  ;  (ii)  The  period  before 
the  Canonical  Prophets,  from  the  Settlement  to  about 
the  beginning  of  the  eighth  century  B.C.  ;  (iii)  The 
Later  Monarchy,  with  special  reference  to  the  prophets 
of  the  eighth  century  and  the  earlier  laws  ;  (iv)  The 
close  of  the  Monarchy  and  the  Exile,  with  special 
reference  to  Jeremiah,  Ezekiel,  and  Deuteronomy ; 
(v)  The  Post-exilic  Period,  with  special  reference  to 
the  Priestly  Legislation  and  the  Wisdom  Literature. 


SOCIAL  IDEALS  IN  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT  47 

i.     The  Nomad  Period. 

Before  the  Conquest  of  Canaan,  Israel  was  a 
confederation  of  nomad  tribes,  and  until  the  Fall  of 
Jerusalem,  at  any  rate,  part  of  the  population  in  the 
border  lands  to  the  south  and  east  continued  to  lead 
a  nomad  life.  The  Israelites  always  had  much  to 
do  in  the  way  of  trade  and  war  with  the  roving  Bedouin 
of  the  surrounding  deserts.  It  was  natural  therefore 
that  their  religious  and  social  life  should  be  profoundly 
influenced  throughout  by  conditions  under  which 
it  first  arose,  and  with  which  it  was  always  in 
close  contact.  Israel  brought  lofty  ideals  from  the 
desert,  and  when  the  nation  had  fallen  upon  evil 
times,  many  looked  back  to  these  early  days  as  to  a 
Golden  Age  when  life  was  simple,  pure  and  noble, 
and  men  were  loyal  to  their  kinsfolk  and  their  God.^ 
In  some  matters  the  Israelites  always  thought  and 
spoke  in  terms  of  the  nomad  life  ;  an  army  dispersed 
to  its  homes  to  the  cry  of  '*  To  your  tents,  O  Israel !  " 
and  the  priestly  writers  after  the  Fall  of  the  Monarchy 
drew  up  their  code  of  laws  in  terms  of  the  wilderness, 
the  camp  and  the  Tabernacle,  doubtless  following 
established  precedent. 

The  social  conditions  of  nomad  life  are  simple 
and  severe.  A  Bedouin  tribe  wandering  with  its 
flocks  and  herds  from  pasture  to  pasture  cannot 
obtain  many  luxuries  ;  it  is  inured  to  hardship,  and 
trained  in  the  primitive  virtues  of  courage  and  patriot- 
ism. Such  a  society  is  virtually  a  large  family,  and 
can  only  exist  by  the  mutual  loyalty  and  devotion 
of  the  clansmen.     Their  dependence  on  one  another 

^  E.g.,  Jeremiah  ii.  1-3.  A  less  favourable  view  of  this  period 
is  also  taken  in  the  Old  Testament;  and  is  the  view  with  which 
most  of  us  are  more  familiar. 


48  SOCIAL  IDEALS  IN  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT 

in  the  face  of  danger  and   difficulty  checked  alike 
insubordination  and  tyranny. 

The  virtues  of  the  nomad  are  chiefly  to  be  looked 
for  in  his  dealings  with  his  fellow-tribesmen;  as  far 
as  others  are  concerned,  it  may  be  said  of  him,  as  of 
his  prototype  Ishmael,  that  "  his  hand  is  against 
every  man,  and  every  man*s  hand  is  against  him.'* 
Yet  this  is  not  wholly  true  of  his  attitude  to  strangers  ; 
Arab  hospitality  is  proverbial,  and  has  its  roots  in  a 
humane  sense  of  brotherhood.  For  in  the  life  of  the 
desert  changes  of  fortune  are  sudden,  violent  and 
frequent ;  witness  the  example  of  Job.  Thus  the 
wanderer,  helpless,  unprotected  and  destitute,  is  wel- 
comed, partly  because  his  host  may  soon  be  in  like 
extremity  himself.  Similarly  the  ordinary  traveller 
receives  entertainment,  which  the  sheikhs  look  for 
themselves  when  their  affairs  take  them  from  the 
encampments  of  their  own  tribes.  But  it  is  signifi- 
cant that  the  name  of  the  guest  may  not  be  asked, 
lest  there  should  prove  to  be  a  blood-feud  between 
his  tribe  and  his  entertainers. 

Again,  when  tribes  are  allied  because  they  count 
kinship,  or  on  any  other  ground,  there  is  not  only 
the  sense  of  duty  to  fellow-tribesmen,  but  that  of 
obligation  to  allies,  and  the  community  has  its  res- 
ponsibilities as  well  as  the  individual. 

As  the  Israelites  of  our  first  period  formed  a  loosely 
confederated  group  of  Bedouin  clans  or  tribes,  they 
handed  down  to  later  generations  traditions  of  a 
simple  life  and  of  mutual  loyalty  and  helpfulness 
amongst  fellow-citizens.  Moreover  the  chief  bond 
which  held  the  tribes  together  was  their  common 
devotion  to  Yahweh,  the  God  of  Israel. 


SOCIAL  IDEALS  IN  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT  49 

ii.     The  Period  before  the  Canonical  Prophets. 

The  Conquest  of  Canaan  brought  about  a  com- 
plete change  in  the  social  conditions  of  most  of  the 
Israelite  clans.  From  a  group  of  nomad  tribes  they 
became  in  time  a  nation  of  what  we  should  call  yeoman 
farmers  and  peasant  proprietors  ;  or  in  other  words 
they  lived  by  agriculture,  and  the  land  was  owned 
by  those  who  cultivated  it ;  the  words  ''  landlord," 
''  tenant/'  and  ''  rent ''  are  unknown  to  the  Old 
Testament.  The  conquest  involved  a  change  from  a 
wandering  life  in  tents  to  a  settled  life  in  houses  ; 
and  also  what  we  should  call  a  rise  in  the  standard  of 
living  ;  the  possibilities  in  the  way  of  comfort  and 
luxury  were  increased,  and  in  such  matters  men  come 
to  feel  that  they  want  all  they  can  get. 

We  shall  only  deal  briefly  with  the  social  conditions 
of  this  period  because  we  shall  have  to  refer  to  them 
again  when  we  consider  the  ideals  of  the  early  prophets 
and  lawgivers  ;  but  we  must  spend  a  few  words  on 
the  leading  points  just  referred  to. 

First  as  to  social  organization  :  Israel,  as  we  have 
seen,  entered  Palestine  as  a  loosely  connected  group 
of  clans  or  large  families  ;  and  this  system  was  the 
starting  point  for  the  new  order.  For  the  most  part 
each  clan  ^  settled  together,  in  the  same  district,  and 
maintained  for  a  while  the  old  family  feeling.  But 
family  or  clan  feeling  gradually  degenerated  to  mere 
local  feeling,  and  the  interests  of  neighbouring  farmers 
are  by  no  means  so  identical  as  those  of  members  of 

^  We  use  "  clan  "  as  an  elastic  word ;  it  may  be  loosely  under- 
stood to  mean  a  subdivision  of  the  "  tribe,"  as  we  use  that  word 
in  the  phrase  "  The  Twelve  Tribes."  The  "  clan,"  the  Hebrew 
mishpdhd,  often  translated  "  family,"  might  vary  from  a  score  tO; 
a  thousand  or  more  "  families,"  as  we  understand  the  word. 
e.g.  ^, 


50  SOCIAL  IDEALS  IN  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT 

the  same  nomad  tribe.  Moreover  in  most  districts 
the  IsraeUtes  mingled  with  the  native  population, 
and  gradually  the  two  amalgamated  into  a  more  or 
less  hybrid  race.  The  conquering  nomads  found 
the  land  thickly  strewn  with  fortified  places ;  and  as 
they  were  involved  for  centuries  in  a  struggle  for 
existence  with  their  neighbours,  they  very  largely 
settled  in  these  walled  towns  and  villages,  and  also 
added  new  ones  to  their  number.  Thus  the  district, 
the  village,  or  the  town  took  the  place  of  the  clan, 
and  there  was  a  beginning  of  city-life. 

Instead  of  the  clan,  as  in  the  desert,  the  family 
became  the  social  unit ;  but  it  was  the  family  in  a 
larger  sense  than  we  commonly  give  to  the  word ; 
it  was  not  merely  a  married  couple  and  their  children  ; 
but  would  often  include  a  man,  his  mother,  his  wives, 
his  children,  sometimes  also  his  sons*  wives  and  their 
children,  his  slaves  and  others  living  under  his  pro- 
tection.i  While  a  man's  mother  lived  she  would  be 
the  head  of  the  harem   or   women's   apartments. 

These  changes  distributed,  so  to  speak,  the  old 
family  feeling  on  a  large  scale,  the  clan  feeling.  The 
larger  share  went  to  the  smaller  family  just  described  ; 
and,  as  elsewhere  in  antiquity,  family  ties,  the  sense 
of  mutual  affection,  confidence,  duty  and  respon- 
sibility remained  one  of  the  strongest  social  forces. 
The  recognition  of  clan  kinship  persisted  in  some 
measure,  at  any  rate,  for  a  time,  but  was  largely 
replaced  by  neighbourliness  towards  fellow-towns- 
men and  those  living  in  the  same  district,  citizenship 
on  the  smaller  scale.  There  was  also  a  gradual  growth 
of  patriotism,  the  sense  of  membership  of  the  nation, 

^  The  ger  or  resident  alien,  perhaps  originally  also  in  some  cases 
a  member  of  another  Israelite  clan,  is  constantly  referred  to  as  a 
m^niber  of  the  household. 


SOCIAL  IDEALS  IN  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT  51 

Israel ;  but  as  political  union  was  not  fully  accomplished 
in  this  period,  the  chief  bond  between  Israelites  as 
Israelites  remained  that  of  religion,  loyalty  to  Yahweh, 
the  God  of  Israel. 

By  the  settlement  in  Canaan  a  new  element  was 
added  to  the  family,  namely  its  land,  the  homestead 
and  the  farm.  For  the  most  part  a  free  Israelite  family 
is  thought  of  as  holding  land  ;  for  the  farm  or  estate 
was  not  the  absolute  property  of  the  occupant  for 
the  time  being  ;  he  could  not  dispose  of  all  rights  in 
it.  The  land  came  to  be  considered  a  sacred  and 
inalienable  gift  of  God.  Thus  when  Ahab  wished  to 
buy  Naboth's  vineyard,  Naboth  refused  with  the 
words,  '*  Yahweh  forbid  that  I  should  give  thee  the 
inheritance  of  my  fathers  "  ;  and  Jezebel  could  only 
get  the  vineyard  for  her  husband  by  having  Naboth 
put  to  death  on  a  criminal  charge. 

A  similar  bond  existed  between  the  tribe  or  clan 
and  the  district  which  it  occupied,  and  men  soon 
came  to  feel  that  there  was  an  organic  union  between 
the  Holy  Land,  the  Chosen  People,  and  their  God. 

Our  information  is  too  scanty  to  enable  us  to 
construct  a  complete  picture  of  Israelite  society  in 
this  period.  But  amongst  the  handful  of  men  and 
women  who  make  brief  appearances  on  the  stage  of 
history,  we  discern  a  few  wealthy  nobles  like  Barzillai, 
Nabal  and  Shimei.  We  also  observe  well-to-do 
families,  whose  members  take  their  share  in  the  work 
of  the  farm  ;  Saul  goes  to  look  for  his  father's  asses, 
David  feeds  his  father's  flock.  Probably  such  fami- 
lies were  the  largest  class  in  the  Israel  of  our  period, 
comfortable,  middle-class  folk,  as  we  should  say. 
Extreme  poverty  would  be  almost  unknown;  even 
slavery  was  comparatively  mild. 

There  was  in  the  earher  part  of  this  period  a  mini- 


52  SOCIAL  IDEALS  IN  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT 

mum  of  government,  law,  and  police.  Later  writers 
mark  the  contrast  between  their  own  times  and  the 
period  of  the  Judges,  '*  In  those  days  there  was  no 
king  in  Israel ;  every  man  did  that  which  was  right 
in  his  own  eyes.*'  ^  The  chief  secular  authorities 
were  the  local  sheikhs  and  the  leaders  specially  ap- 
pointed for  war.  But  these  were  reinforced  and 
supplemented  by  religious  custom  and  priestly  oracles. 
For  many  years  after  the  Conquest  the  Israelites 
were  exposed  to  constant  attacks  from  the  yet  unsub- 
dued Canaanites,  from  the  nomads  of  the  surrounding 
deserts,  and  from  the  Philistines  and  other  enemies  ; 
there  were  no  properly  organized  national  military 
forces,  so  that  there  was  little  assurance  for  life,  liberty 
or  property.  The  establishment  of  the  monarchy 
gave  greater  security  against  external  enemies,  but 
involved  a  certain  amount  of  taxation,  partly  in  the 
form  of  the  corvee  or  forced  labour  on  public  works. 
Thus  Solomon's  exactions  of  labour  for  the  Temple, 
and  his  other  buildings,  the  '*  grievous  yoke  ''  which 
he  laid  upon  his  people,^  were  one  cause  of  the 
Secession  of  the  Ten  Tribes.  Internally  the  increase 
in  the  power  and  activity  of  the  government  no  doubt 
did  something  to  protect  the  weak  against  the  strong, 
though  we  do  not  read  of  any  such  beneficence  ;  but 
probably  the  machinery  of  the  State  was  more  widely 
used  to  enable  nobles  and  officials  to  aggrandise 
themselves  at  the  expense  of  the  small  farmers.  Naboth, 
no  doubt,  had  fellow  victims  ;  and  lesser  men,  accord- 
ing to  their  power  and  opportunity,  imitated'Ahab  and 
Jezebel. 

iii.  Law  and  Prophecy  in  the  Eighth  Century  B.C. 
After   a   while   things   mended   a   little,    and   the 
1  Judges  xxi.  25.  .  »  i  Kings  xii.  4. 


SOCIAL  IDEALS  IN  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT  53 

Israelites  were  less  harried  by  raids  and  invasions. 
For  long  periods  there  was  peace  between  Israel  and 
Judah,  and  probably  the  severe  struggle  in  which 
several  successive  kings  of  Israel  were  engaged  with 
the  Syrians  of  Damascus  was  not  without  advantages 
for  Judah.  But  in  the  course  of  the  ninth  century 
B.C.  the  renewed  activity  of  Assyria  in  the  lands  be- 
tween the  Euphrates  and  the  Mediterranean  crippled 
Damascus,  and  Israel  and  Judah  alike  were  left  with- 
out any  formidable  enemies  in  their  immediate  neigh- 
bourhood, and  flourished  accordingly.  More  especially 
Israel  under  Jeroboam  II,  B.C.  783-743,  attained 
to  something  like  the  splendour  and  power  of  the 
reign  of  Solomon. 

At  the  best  the  modern  capitalist  would  have 
regarded  Israel  as  a  doubtful  sphere  for  the  exercise 
of  his  energies  ;  any  ventures  there  would  have  been 
felt  to  be  of  a  highly  speculative  nature,  from  which 
a  correspondingly  liberal  profit  would  be  expected 
in  case  of  success.  Nevertheless  there  was  a  con- 
siderable measure  of  material  progress  ;  it  is  won- 
derful how  great  an  advance  in  civilization  may  result 
from  even  a  modicum  of  continuous  settled  order. 
This  material  progress  involved  many  social  changes, 
of  which  the  most  important  was  the  break-up  of  the 
old  land  system.  A  strong  government  meant  heavy 
taxation,  and  the  requisitioning  of  the  labour  of  the 
poorer  farmers  and  their  cattle  for  public  works  in 
time  of  peace,  and  for  military  service  in  time  of  war. 
These  burdens,  combined  with  bad  seasons,  and  losses 
suffered  from  foreign  enemies,  plunged  the  farmers 
into  debt,  which  finally  resulted  in  the  transfer  of 
their  land  to  wealthy  creditors  and  sometimes  in  the 
enslavement  of  the  debtor  and  his  family.^     In  other 

^  2  Kings  iv.  i.    The  statements  in  the  previous  sentences  are 


54  SOCIAL  IDEALS  IN  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT 

ways  also,  legitimate  and  illegitimate,  the  land  came 
to  be  largely  held  in  great  estates  ;  the  sacred  bond 
between  the  family  and  the  land  was  broken  ;  and 
there  arose  a  landless  class,  which  tended  to  sink  into 
slavery,  pauperism,  or  crime.  At  the  same  time, 
however,  many  of  the  dispossessed  farmers  would  betake 
themselves  to  the  towns,  and  some  might  become 
artisans.  On  the  other  hand  the  wealthy  families 
were  often  given  up  to  callous,  self-indulgent  luxury. 
Of  course  a  large  measure  of  family  feeling  and  patriot- 
ism survived,  but  their  influence  was  weakened  by 
mutual  distrust  and  dislike  of  one  class  towards 
another. 

In  the  latter  half  of  the  eighth  century  B.C.  a  deter- 
mined attempt  to  check  the  growth  of  social  corruption 
was  made  by  Amos,  Hosea,  Isaiah,  Micah  and  those 
associated  with  them.  About  the  same  time,  per- 
haps somewhat  earlier,  another  attempt  to  promote 
social  well-being  was  made  by  publishing  the  brief 
codes  of  laws  included  in  the  earlier  documents  of  the 
Pentateuch,  notably  the  Book  of  the  Covenant?-  The 
legislation  and  the  prophetic  teaching  both  sought  the 
same  ends,  nor  was  either  of  them  revolutionary. 
Rather  both  of  them  sought  to  maintain  or  to  restore 
the  ancient  social  ideals  of  Israel — doubtless  with 
modifications  and  improvements  suited  to  altered 
circumstances.  We  will  consider,  therefore,  what 
contributions  towards  a  social  ideal  are  made  by  the 
early  laws  and  by  the  prophets  of  the  eighth  century. 

Let  us  turn  first  to  the  Laws.  These  assume  the 
ordinary  social  conditions  of  ancient  times,  rich  and 

partly  theoretical  deductions  from  the  known  facts  ;  but  cf.  Neh.  v., 
which  will  be  dealt  with  later  on. 

^  Exodus  XX.  22-xxiii.  33.  Some  parts,  however,  of  these 
chapters  may  be  later  than  the  time  with  which  we  are  now  deaUng. 


SOCIAL  IDEALS  IN  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT  55 

poor,  freemen  and  slaves  ;  and  they  do  not  attempt 
to  change  the  social  system.  In  some  matters  the 
harsh  customs  of  primitive  times  are  endorsed  ;  e.g. 
punishment  by  mutilation,  "  eye  for  eye,  tooth  for 
tooth.**  ^  If  a  man  beats  his  male  or  female  slave  to 
death,  he  is  not  to  be  punished,  unless  the  victim 
actually  dies  under  his  hand,  ''  for  he  is  his  money.**  * 
But  efforts  are  made  to  secure  an  impartial  adminis- 
tration of  justice,^  to  alleviate  the  lot  of  slaves,  and  to 
render  some  help  to  the  poor. 

Thus  a  Hebrew  was  not  to  be  compelled  to  remain 
in  slavery  for  more  than  six  years  * ;  if  a  slave  died 
under  the  rod,  his  master  was  to  be  punished  ;  2  and 
if  an  owner  deprived  his  slave  of  an  eye  or  a  tooth, 
the  sufferer  was  to  be  emancipated.  Money  is  to  be 
lent  to  the  poor  gratis,  the  taking  of  interest  being 
forbidden  ;  and  a  garment  received  as  a  pledge  is 
not  to  be  kept  overnight.^ 

The  code  contained  in  the  Book  of  the  Covenant. 
short  and  incomplete  as  it  is,  worthily  upholds  the 
great  Semitic  principles  of  social  justice  formulated 
by  the  Babylonian  king  Hammurabi  hundreds  of 
years  before,  and  maintains  the  kindred  tribal  ideal 
of  mutual  helpfulness,  service  and  loyalty.  The 
latter  finds  striking  expression  in  the  exhortation, 
**  If  thou  meet  thine  enemy*  s  ox  or  his  ass  going 
astray,  thou  shalt  surely  bring  it  back  to  him.  If 
thou  see  the  ass  of  him  that  hateth  thee  lying  under 
his  burden,  and  wouldest  forbear  to  help  him,  thou 
shalt  surely  help  with  him.** « 

^  Exodus  xxi.  24. 

*  Exodus  xxi,  20,  21.        '  Exodus  xxii.  21-24,  xxiii.  6-9. 

*  Exodus  xxi.  2.  5  Exodus  xxii.  25-27. 

*  Exodus  xxiii.  4,  5.  By  the  **  enemy  "  and  "  him  that  hateth 
thee  "  we  must  understand  fellow-Israelites. 


56  SOCIAL  IDEALS  IN  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT 

In  the  same  spirit  the  prophets  utter  their  inspired 
protests  against  the  growing  tendency  by  which  the 
resources  of  the  community  were  made  to  serve  chiefly 
the  pride  and  luxury  of  wealthy  nobles.  Isaiah  and 
his  contemporaries  denounce  in  no  measured  terms 
the  way  in  which  the  machinery  of  government, 
official  status,  the  administration  of  so-called  justice, 
were  used  to  enable  the  authorities  to  rob  and  ill- 
treat  their  fellow-countrymen.  Thus — ''  Seek  justice, 
relieve  the  oppressed,  vindicate  the  rights  of  the 
fatherless,  plead  for  the  widow.''  i  And  again,**  Yah- 
weh  will  enter  into  judgment  with  the  elders  and 
princes  of  his  people  :  It  is  ye  that  have  eaten  up  the 
vineyard ;  the  spoil  of  the  poor  is  in  your  houses  : 
what  mean  ye  that  ye  crush  my  people,  and  grind 
the  face  of  the  poor  ?  This  is  the  Oracle  ^  of  the 
Lord,  Yahweh  Sebaoth,*'  ^  and  again 

Woe  unto  those  who  set  up  unjust  decrees, 

And  the  scribes  who  busily  write  oppression 

To  turn  aside  the  helpless  from  judgment, 

And  to  despoil  the  wretched  of  my  people  of  their  rights 

That  widows  may  be  their  prey, 

And  that  orphans  may  be  their  plunder.* 

Amos  sets  in  the  forefront  of  the  unpardonable 
sins  of  Israel  the  guilt  incurred,  **  because  they  have 
sold  the  innocent  for  silver,  and  the  needy  for  a  pair 
of  shoes."  ^  In  Samaria  **  they  store  up  violence 
and  robbery  in  their  palaces.*' «     So  too  Micah,  **  Hear, 

1  Isaiah  i.  17. 

*  The  Hebrew  word  ne'um,  EV  "  saith,"  is  an  emphatic  epithet, 
asserting  that  the  preceding  is  an  inspired  message  from  God. 

'  Isaiah  iii.  14,  15. 

*  Isaiah  x.  i,  2,  the  translation  is  Cheyne's  in  the  Polychrome 
Bible. 

^  Amos  ii.  6.        ®  Amos  iii.  10,  cf.  iv.  i,  v.  11  f.,  viii.  5  f. 


SOCIAL  IDEALS  IN  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT  57  . 

I  pray  you,  ye  heads  of  Jacob,  and  rulers  of  the  house 
of  Israel :  is  it  not  for  you  to  know  judgment  ?  You, 
who  hate  the  good  and  love  the  evil ;  who  pluck  off 
their  skin  from  them,  and  their  flesh  from  off  their 
bones  ;  who  also  eat  the  flesh  of  my  people,  and  flay 
their  skin  from  off  them,  and  break  their  bones  ;  yea, 
they  chop  them  in  pieces  as  for  the  pot,  and  as  flesh 
within  the  caldron.  .  .  .  The  heads  thereof  judge 
for  reward,  and  the  priests  thereof  teach  for  hire,  and 
the  prophets  thereof  divine  for  money  .  .  .  therefore 
shall  Zion  be  plowed  as  a  field,  and  Jerusalem  shall 
become  heaps,  and  the  Temple  Hill  as  the  high  places 
of  a  forest/'  ^ 

A  similar  protest  is  made  against  the  ostentation, 
self-indulgence  and  debauchery  of  the  nobles.  They 
were  rolling  in  wealth,  and  they  are  condemned  because 
they  were  proud  and  haughty,  ^  drunken,^  flaunting 
their  vices  before  man  and  God,  ''they  declare  their 
sin  as  Sodom,  they  hide  it  not.''*  The  great  ladies, 
the  leaders  of  fashion  in  Jerusalem,  were  tarred  with 
the  same  brush  as  their  husbands  ;  they  were  haughty 
and  wanton. 5  The  widespread  social  corruption  pre- 
sented another  feature  which  the  prophets  unhesitat- 
ingly condemned,  the  change  in  the  land  system,  a 
change  by  which  the  free  Israelite  farmers  were  being 
driven  off  the  land,  in  order  that  it  might  be  held 
in  large  estates  by  a  limited  class.  Thus  Isaiah, 
*'  Woe  unto  those  who  join  house  to  house,  who  add 
field  to  field,  till  there  is  no  more  room,  ajid  ye  are 
settled  alone  in  the  midst  of  the  land."  «  The  lan- 
guage suggests  something  corresponding  to  our  great 

^  Micah  iii.  cf.  Hosea  xii.  6-8. 

2  Isaiah  ii.  7-17.  ®  Isaiah  v.  11,  22. 

*  Isaiah  iii.  9.  *»  Isaiah  iii.  16. 

•  Isaiah  v.  8,  Cheyne's  translation,  Polychrome  Bible. 


58    SOCIAL  IDEALS  IN  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT 

mansions  standing  isolated  in  their  square  miles  of 
park.  Micah  too  denounces  those  who  when  they 
find  themselves  in  power  **  covet  fields  and  seize 
them ;  and  houses  and  appropriate  them  ;  they 
oppress  a  man  and  his  house,  even  a  man  and  his 
heritage  *'.  .  .  '*  the  women  of  my  people  ye  cast 
from  their  pleasant  houses/'  ^ 

Moreover  just  as  the  prophetic  literature  asserts 
the  rights  of  the  actual  cultivator  as  against  the  land- 
lord, so  also  it  emphasizes  the  dignity  of  the  farmer's 
calling.  His  skill  and  traditional  lore  have  been 
given  by  divine  inspiration ;  they  come  from  "  the 
Lord  of  Hosts,  who  is  wonderful  in  counsel,  and 
excellent  in  wisdom."* 

The  prophetic  protests  against  the  social  deca- 
dence of  their  age  might  be  summed  up  in  the  pictures 
of  an  ideal  State  and  an  ideal  Ruler  ;  the  just  King, 
divinely  inspired  to  protect  the  poor  and  the  oppressed.' 

It  might  of  course  be  said  that  such  ideals  were 
commonplace,  merely  expressing  an  universal  aspira- 
tion, and  further  that  the  movement  against  which 
the  prophets  protested  was  an  inevitable  social  and 
economic  development,  a  natural  stage  in  the  ad- 
vance of  civilization  ;  and  that  the  misery  by  which 
it  was  accompanied  was  only  the  suffering  necessarily 
incidental  to  national  progress.  But  the  cardinal 
wickedness  which  the  prophets  condemn  is  really  the 
iniquitous  distribution  of  the  gain  and  loss  arising 
out  of  the  social  changes  ;  the  profit  mainly  falls  to  a 
hmited  class  of  nobles  and  officials,  callous,  self- 
seeking  and  self-indulgent;  and  deepens  their  moral 
deterioration  ;  while  the  loss  is  borne  by  the  poor 
and   helpless.     At   the   same   time   a   conmiunity   of 

*  Micah  ii.  2,  9. 

*  Isaiah  xxviii.  29.  *  Isaiah  xi.  1-9. 


SOCIAL  IDEALS  IN  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT  59 

independent  freemen  was  passing  into  one  of  plutocrats 
and  their  dependents. 

Perhaps  the  prophets  hoped  for  some  good  effect 
from  the  codes  of  law  which  attempted  to  protect 
the  ancient  order  ;  but,  at  any  rate,  they  were  clear 
that  a  nation  which  sacrificed  the  people  to  the  pride 
and  vice  of  its  nobles  could  not  endure ;  it  must 
perish  by  the  judgment  of  God. 

iv.  Law  and  Prophecy  in  the  last  period  of  the  Monarchy 
and  during  the  Exile. 
We  cannot  say  how  the  social  movement  would 
have  developed  if  Israel  had  remained  prosperous 
and  matters  had  been  allowed  to  take  their  natural 
course  without  interference  from  outside.  As  it  was, 
the  material  advance  of  both  nations  was  cut  short 
by  foreign  conquest,  and  the  doom  pronounced  by 
the  prophets  was  speedily  fulfilled.  During  the  life- 
time of  Isaiah  the  Northern  Kingdom  was  carried 
captive  by  the  Assyrians ;  and  Judah  underwent 
a  similar  fate  at  the  hands  of  the  Babylonian  king 
Nebuchadnezzar  about  140  years  later.  In  the  inter- 
val Judah  suffered  much,  first  from  the  Assyrians 
and  then  from  the  Babylonians.  There  were,  indeed, 
brief  periods  of  peace  and  comparative  prosperity 
tempered  by  the  necessity  of  paying  a  heavy  tribute 
to  the  suzerain  power.  But  the  land  was  again  and 
again  harried  by  ruinous  invasion,  the  country  was 
laid  waste,  towns  were  sacked,  Jerusalem  itself  was 
frequently  besieged  and  more  than  once  taken,  and 
numbers  of  the  jwpulation  were  carried  away  as 
slaves.  Sennacherib,  for  instance,  claims  that  in  one 
campaign,  tliat  of  B.C.  701,  he  captured  forty-six  of 
the  towns  of  Judah  and  carried  off  200,150  persons, 
*'  small  and  great,  male  and  female,'*  besides  innumer- 


i 


6o  SOCIAL  IDEALS  IN  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT 

able  horses,  mules,  asses,  camels  and  cattle.  These 
misfortunes  may  have  served,  in  some  measure,  as  a 
moral  and  spiritual  discipline,  and  the  reforms  of 
Josiah  in  B.C.  621  aimed  amongst  other  things  at  an 
improvement  of  social  conditions.  But  little  was 
really  effected,  and  we  gather  that  the  nobles  who 
exploited  national  prosperity  also  contrived  that 
the  burden  of  disaster  should  chiefly  fall  on  the  weak 
and  helpless. 

But  if  there  was  little  or  no  amelioration  in  the 
actual  condition  of  society,  but  rather  the  reverse, 
yet  the  inspired  prophets  and  lawgivers  still  main- 
tained and  developed  their  ideals  of  social  right- 
eousness, and  did  their  best  to  realize  them  as  far  as 
circumstances  permitted. 

The  most  important  laws  of  this  period  are  found 
in  the  legal  portion  of  Deuteronomy y  chapters  xii- 
xxvi,  in  the  Law  of  Holiness,  Leviticus  xvii-xxvi,^ 
and  in  Ezekiel  xl-xlviii.  Speaking  generally,  these 
documents  are  a  development  from  the  laws  of  the 
previous  period,  as  set  out  in  the  Book  of  the  Covenant ;  * 
and  Deuteronomy  and  the  Law  of  Holiness  may  be 
said  roughly  to  be  enlarged  and  emended  editions 
of  the  earlier  code.  There  is  nothing  revolutionary — 
'*  the  poor  shall  never  cease  out  of  the  land  "  ^ — but  a 
renewed  attempt  to  secure  the  well-being  of  the  people 
under  the  existing  social  system  by  maintaining  all 
that  was  beneficent  in  ancient  custom,  by  purging 
the  system  of  its  corruptions  and  by  introducing 
desirable  reforms. 

The  provisions,  both  of  Deuteronomy  and  of  the 
Law  of  Holiness,  attempt  to  deal  with  the  pauperism, 
the  driving  of  the  farmers  from  the  land,  and  the 

1  And  some  other  passages. 
•       2  cf.  p.  54.  3  Deut.  XV.  II. 


SOCIAL  IDEALS  IN  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT  6i 

other  social  evils,  which  arose  towards  the  close  of 
the  Monarchy.  The  permission  given  ^  to  persons 
passing  through  a  vineyard  or  a  cornfield  to  eat  their 
fill  of  fruit  or  grain,  was  probably  in  accordance  with 
established  custom  ;  and  this  may  also  have  been 
the  case  with  the  injunctions  that  portions  of  the 
harvest,  of  the  vintage  and  of  the  produce  of  the 
olive  plantations  should  be  left  for  the  poor,^  and 
that  the  resident  alien,  the  orphan  and  the  widow 
should  enjoy  the  hospitality  of  the  well-to-do  at  the 
feasts. 3  Here  and  elsewhere,  however,  it  is  difiicult 
to  say  how  much  is  ancient  usage  and  how  much  is 
new. 

It  is  an  indication  of  the  changes  in  social  condi- 
tions and  of  their  vicious  character  that  we  meet  with 
references  to  free  labourers,  "  hirelings,'*  which  show 
that  it  was  necessary  to  protect  them  not  merely 
from  sweating  but  from  delay  in  the  payment  of 
their  wages.*  Another  indication  of  the  sympathy 
of  this  legislation  with  the  poor  is  the  provision  that 
a  runaway  slave  shall  not  be  returned  to  his  owner, 
but  shall  be  allowed  to  settle  wherever  he  chooses, 
and  shall  be  well  treated.^  The  necessity  for  such 
regulations  throws  a  lurid  light  on  the  character  of 
the  Israelite  plutocracy,  and  helps  to  explain  the 
dislike  shown  by  the  inspired  writers  to  the  accumu- 
lation of  great  wealth — a  feeling  illustrated  by  the 
fact  that  even  the  king  is  forbidden  to  possess  many 
horses  or  wives,  or  much  gold  and  silver.®  A  fortiori 
the  nobles  might  be  expected  to  content  themselves 

^  Deut.  xxiii.  24  f. 

2  Deut.  xxiv.  19  f.,  Lev.  xix.  9  f.,  xxiii.  22. 

^  Deut.  xvi.  11-14. 

*  Deut.  xxiv.    14  f.,  Lev.  xix.   13.  ^  Deut.  xxiii.  15. 

•  Deut.  xvii  16  L 


62    SOCIAL  IDEALS  IN  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT 

with  moderate  means.  On  the  other  hand,  the  pros- 
perous man  is  exhorted  to  help  those  who  have  fallen 
into  poverty ;  and  if  the  ruined  farmer  is  compelled 
to  part  with  his  liberty,  he  is  not  to  be  treated  as  a 
slave  but  as  a  free  labourer.^ 

But  the  most  remarkable  of  these  attempts  to 
avoid  alike  destitution  and  congested  wealth,  is  the 
institution  of  a  ''  release  **  at  the  end  of  every  seven 
years.2  The  cancelling  of  debts,  when  social  con- 
ditions had  become  intolerable,  was  a  familiar  resource 
of  revolutionary  leaders  in  the  Greek  and  Roman 
republics.  Its  great  drawback  was  that  it  was  an 
uncovenanted  breach  of  legal  contracts.  The  Deu- 
teronomic  "  release  "  was  an  attempt  to  obtain  the 
relief  afforded  by  such  measures  without  their  dis- 
advantages. The  Book  of  the  Covenant  ^  had  already 
directed  that  Israelite  slaves  should  be  released  at 
the  end  of  six  years  ;  Deuteronomy  *  r  epeats  this 
ordinance,  but  further  ordains  that  all  debts  shall 
be  cancelled  at  the  end  of  every  seven  years.  But 
nevertheless  the  rich  are  not  to  hesitate  to  lend,  but  are 
to  open  their  hands  to  their  needy  brethren.  Thus 
relief  would  be  given  to  the  unfortunate  on  a  clear 
legal  understanding,  without,  the  breach  of  faith  in- 
volved in  the  revolutionary  cancelling  of  debt  amongst 
the  Greeks  and  Romans.  As  we  shall  see  in  the  next 
section,  this  *'  release "  as  a  permanent  institution 
was  impracticable  ;  but  the  proposal  shows  that  the 
legislator  cherished  social  ideals,  according  to  which 
the  prosperous  man  was  bound,  even  at  the  cost  of 
serious  sacrifice,  to  see  that  his  less  fortunate  neigh- 
bour was  not  left  in  a  state  of  hopeless  poverty. 

^  Lev.  XXV.  35-39.  ^  Deut.  xv.  i.  ^  Page  54. 

*  Deut.  XV.    The  law  of  the  Jubilee,  Lev.  xxv.  8  ff.,  is  not  part 
of  the  original  Law  of  Holiness  ;  see  next  section. 


SOCIAL  IDEALS  IN  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT  63 

For  the  prophetical  teaching  of  this  period  on 
social  matters  we  have  chiefly  to  rely  on  Jeremiah 
and  Ezekiel.  The  Fall  of  Jerusalem  and  the  Cap- 
tivity diverted  men's  minds  from  social  questions 
to  international  poHtics,  so  that  the  great  Prophet 
of  the  Exile,  the  author  of  Isaiah  xl-lv,  and  others  ^ 
have  little  that  concerns  our  subject. 

As  in  the  earlier  prophets,  we  still  find  emphatic 
testimony  to  the  principles  of  social  righteousness, 
and  indignant  protests  against  their  violation.  Ezekiel, 
for  instance,  in  describing  the  righteous  man  whom 
God  approves,  speaks  of  him  as  one  who  '*  hath  not 
wronged  any,  but  hath  restored  to  the  debtor  his 
pledge,  hath  given  his  bread  to  the  hungry,  and  hath 
covered  the  naked  with  a  garment,  hath  not  lent 
upon  interest,  neither  hath  taken  any  increase,  hath 
executed  true  justice  between  man  and  man.**  ^  This 
prophet  also  sets  forth  in  striking  figures  the  iniquity 
of  social  evils  that  are  only  too  persistent.  "  The 
shepherds  fed  themselves,  and  fed  not  my  sheep,'* » 
in  other  words,  the  governing  classes,  legislators, 
administrators,  judges,  did  not  use  their  authority 
to  promote  the  welfare  of  the  people,  but  rather  made 
and  administered  laws  and  carried  on  the  government 
with  a  view  to  aggrandizing  themselves  at  the  expense 
of  the  people.  Another  figure  shows  in  a  very  clear 
light  how  able,  wealthy,  or  powerful  men  not  only 
clutched  for  themselves  all  that  was  most  desirable 
in  the  way  of  comfort  or  luxury,  but  also  by  their 
wanton  waste  and  callous  greed  spoiled  what  little 
they  left  for  their  less  fortunate  countrymen.  ''  Seem- 
eth  it  a  small  thing  unto  you  to  have  fed  upon  the 
good  pasture,  but  ye  must  tread  down  with  your  feet 

^  Nahum,  Habakkuk,  Zephaniah,  Obadiah. 
*  Ezek.  xviii.  8.  ^  Ezek,  xxxiv.  8. 


64  SOCIAL  IDEALS  IN  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT 

the  residue  of  your  pasture  ?  Seemeth  it  a  small 
thing  unto  you  to  have  drunk  of  the  clear  waters, 
but  ye  must  foul  the  residue  with  your  feet  ?  And 
as  for  my  sheep,  they  eat  that  which  ye  have  trodden 
with  your  feet,  and  they  drink  that  which  ye  have 
fouled  with  your  feet/'  ^  The  social  conditions 
were  such  that  the  rich  purchased  their  luxury  by 
depriving  the  poor  of  the  opportunity  of  a  decent  and 
wholesome  life.  Ezekiel  unsparingly  condemns  the 
system,  and  the  well-to-do  people  who  were  content 
to  profit  by  it.^  The  prophets  also  condemn  a  par- 
ticular form  of  this  evil,  the  corvee  or  forced  labour, 
a  specially  iniquitous  kind  of  taxation  imposing  heavy 
sacrifices  on  the  poorest  classes.  Jeremiah  denounces 
a  certain  king  of  Judah  because  he  used  ''  his  neigh- 
bour's service  without  wages,  and  gave  him  no  hire/*^ 

Another  burning  social  question,  that  of  land 
tenure,  has  also  left  traces  on  the  prophetical  litera- 
ture of  the  period.  The  sanctity  of  the  bond  between 
an  Israelite  family  and  its  land  is  illustrated  by 
the  fact  that  in  the  death-agony  of  Jerusalem,  just 
before  the  final  catastrophe,  Jeremiah  exercised  his 
right  of  preemption  in  order  to  prevent  a  field  going 
out  of  the  family.*  And  on  the  other  hand  the  reck- 
less disregard  of  these  sacred  ties  by  the  kings  and 
their  courtiers  is  shown  by  EzekieFs  ordinance  ^ 
that  the  prince  shall  not  expel  the  people  from  their 
land. 

An  episode  in  the  life  of  Jeremiah  shows  not  only 
how  the  primitive  social  ideals  were  cherished  by 
the  prophets,  but  also  how  they  were  set  at  nought 

^  Ezek.  xxxiv.  17  ff. 

2  Cf.  Jer  vii.  6,  xxii.  3  ;  Ezek.  xxii.  7,  8,  29. 
^        ^  Jer.  xxii.  13.  *  Jer.  xxxii  6-15. 

5  Eziek.  xlvi.  18.. 


SOCIAL  IDEALS  IN  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT  65 

by  the  nobles.  The  Book  of  the  Covenant,  as  we 
have  seen/  ordained  that  no  Hebrew  should  be  kept 
in  slavery  for  more  than  six  years  ;  but  in  Jeremiah's 
time  this  law  had  become  a  dead  letter.  When, 
however,  the  Chaldeans  were  pressing  the  siege  of 
Jerusalem,  and  the  city  was  at  the  last  extremity, 
the  King  Zedekiah,  the  princes  and  the  people  entered 
into  a  covenant  to  emancipate  their  Hebrew  slaves, 
and  accordingly  they  were  set  free.  By  thus  ful- 
filling the  ancient  law,  they  hoped  to  propitiate  Yah- 
weh  and  avert  the  threatened  calamity.  Apparently, 
they  were  not  disappointed  ;  for  a  time,  at  any  rate, 
the  siege  was  raised.  When  the  danger  seemed  to 
be  over,  the  King,  princes  and  other  slave-owners 
forthwith  resumed  possession  of  the  slaves  whom 
they  had  solemnly  emancipated.  According  to  Jere- 
miah this  was  the  final,  unforgiveable  offence  which 
rendered  the  Captivity  inevitable.^ 

V.  The    Period   after   the    Exile. 

The  Return  of  the  Jews  from  Babylon  to  Jerusa- 
lem was  a  new  departure  rather  than  a  restoration 
of  the  old  order.  Henceforth,  until  the  Old  Testa- 
ment was  practically  complete,^  the  Jewish  community 
in  and  about  Jerusalem  was  a  subject  portion  of 
some  heathen  empire,  Persian  or  Greek  ;  it  had  a 
measure  of  home-rule,  sometimes  more,  sometimes 
less.  Within  a  strictly  limited  sphere  the  Jews  had 
social  privileges,  duties  and  opportunities  ;  but  they 
were  burdened  by  heavy  taxation  imposed  by  a 
foreign  government,   and  more  or  less  harassed  by 

^  Page  55.  *  Jer.  xxxiv.  8-22. 

^  As  far  as  our  subject  is  concerned.  A  few  portions  of  the  Old 
Testament  were  written  after  Jewish  independence  was  restored 
by  the  Maccabees,  but  they  have  no  importance  for  the  social  ideals 
of  the  Old  Testament. 

C.C.  F 


66  SOCIAL  IDEALS  IN  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT 

the  oppressions  and  exactions  of  foreign  officials. 
Thus  the  free  social  development  of  Israel  was  no 
longer  possible,  so  that  the  imagination  was  at  liberty 
to  construct  the  picture  of  the  ideal  state  without 
being  hampered  by  the  prosaic  necessities  of  practical 
government.  The  New  Israel  was  no  longer  to  be 
looked  for  through  the  adaptation  or  transformation 
of  an  independent  state  in  actual  existence  ;  but  the 
New  Jerusalem  was  to  come  down  from  God  out  of 
heaven. 

The  legislators  of  this  period  endorsed  the  older 
ideals  by  including  the  earlier  codes  in  the  complete 
Pentateuch  ^  or  Tor  ah,  which  became  the  Bible  ^  of 
the  Jews.  The  newer  laws  ^  were  conceived  in  the 
ancient  spirit,  except  so  far  as  their  advocacy  of 
social  righteousness  was  weakened  by  insistence  on 
the  paramount  importance  of  the  exact  observance 
of  a  minute  and  elaborate  ritual. 

But,  at  any  rate,  these  later  lawgivers  clung  tena- 
ciously to  the  ancient  idea  of  the  sacred  bond  between 
the  Israelite  yeoman  and  his  farm.  Chapter  after 
chapter^  is  taken  up  with  an  account  of  how  the 
land  of  Palestine  was  divided  by  Divine  Revelation 
amongst  the  tribes,  clans  and  families  of  Israel. 
Thus  the  land  of  a  family  or  clan  was  a  sacred  gift 
from  God,^  and  the  lawgiver  did  his   best  to  secure 

^  First  the  authors  of  the  Priestly  Code,  c.  B.C.  400,  included  in 
their  work  the  Law  of  Holiness,  see  p.  60.  Then  the  Book  of  the 
Covenant,  see  p.  54,  Deuteronomy,  the  Priestly  Code,  etc.,  etc.,  were 
all  combined  to  form  the  Torath  or  authoritative  Revelation,  our 
Pentateuch. 

2  The  Pentateuch  was  recognized  as  canonical  before  the  other 
portions  of  the  Old  Testament,  and  has  ever  since  been  held  in 
higher  esteem  by  the  Jews. 

^  Priestly  Code  and  later  portions  of  the  Pentateuch. 

*  Joshua  xiii.-xxi.  ^  Cf.  p.  51, 


SOCIAL  IDEALS  IN  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT  67 

that  it  should  be  permanently  held  by  those  to  whom 
God  had  given  it.     By  the  celebrated  Law  of  Jubilee  1 
it  was  enacted  that  the  freehold,  as  we  should  say, 
could  not  be  sold.     Every  fiftieth  year  all  land  which 
had  been  sold  since  the  last  Jubilee  was  to  revert  to 
its  original  owners.     Such  a  law  would  have  effectually 
prevented  the  formation  of  great  estates,  and  would 
have  secured  the  permanent  existence  of  a  class  of 
yeomen  farmers.     In  the  same  spirit  it  was  enacted 
that  heiresses  should  marry  among  their  own  kinsfolk. ^ 
!      The  Law  of  Jubilee  was  obviously  impracticable 
and  for  the  most  part  remained  a  dead  letter  ;    but 
an  incident  in  the  administration  of  Nehemiah  shows 
that  the  Jewish  leaders  were  sincerely  anxious  to  apply 
the   principles   of  the   priestly  legislation   as   to   the 
tenure  of  land.     We  must  bear  in  mind  that  Ezra 
and  Nehemiah,  wielding  the  authority  of  the  Persian 
king,  established  the  Priestly  Code  as  the  law  of  the 
Jews ;     Nehemiah   was   twice   the    Persian   governor 
of  Judah.     After  the  Return  an  attempt  had  been 
made  to  restore  the  old  order,    by  settling — for   the 
most  part  at  any  rate — each  family  on  its  own  land. 
But    there    was   heavy    taxation,    and   seasons    were 
bad ;  many  of  the  farmers  borrowed  money  on  mort- 
gage ;     and    soon    the    mortgages    were    foreclosed ; 
and,  as  under  the  Monarchy,  most  of  the  land  was 
appropriated    by    a    few    wealthy    men,    while    the 
farmers    and    their  families  became  landless  paupers 
and  some  of  them  were  sold  into  slavery.     In  their 
despair  they  appealed  to  Nehemiah  ;  he  remonstrated 
with  the  nobles,  and  when  he  found  that  remonstrance 
was  not  sufficiently  effective  '*  he  held  a  great  assembly 
against  them  ''  ;   or  in  other  words,  he  called  a  general 
meeting  of  the  Jewish  community  to  put  pressure 
^  Lev.  XXV.  8-55,  cf.  p.  62.  ^  Num.  xxxvi. 


68  SOCIAL  IDEALS  IN  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT 

on  the  offenders.  He  told  them  that  he  and  his 
friends  and  followers  had  been  doing  their  best  to 
relieve  the  distress  by  buying  and  emancipating  Jews 
who  had  been  sold  into  slavery  ;  and  all  the  while 
his  efforts  were  being  thwarted  by  the  greed  of  his 
fellow-countrymen  who  were  making  a  profit  by 
reducing  their  brethren  to  slavery.  Nehemiah  acknow- 
ledged that  he  and  his  friends  had  lent  money  at 
interest.  We  may  well  believe  that  the  interest 
was  moderate,  and  that  the  loans  were  made  with  a 
view  to  helping  the  borrowers.  Nevertheless,  Nehe- 
miah proposed  that  he  and  all  parties  concerned  should 
henceforth  refrain  from  taking  interest,  and  that  the 
nobles  should  restore  fields,  vineyards,  oliveyards 
and  houses  to  their  original  owners.^  Nehemiah 
was  supported  both  by  the  authority  of  the  Persian 
court  and  by  the  enthusiastic  approval  of  the  great 
majority  of  the  Jewish  assembly.  The  nobles  had 
no  choice  but  to  consent.  They  promised  to  restore 
land  and  houses,  and  to  do  all  that  Nehemiah  wished. 
He,  however,  feared  that  they  might  imitate  their 
predecessors  under  Zedekiah,^  and  recall  their  promise 
as  soon  as  the  pressure  of  existing  circumstances  was 
removed.  Accordingly  he  sent  for  the  priests,  and 
bound  the  nobles  by  a  solemn  oath  ;  and  he  himself 
pronounced  a  curse  upon  them  in  case  they  should 
be  faithless.  In  his  own  words,  ''  I  shook  out  my  lap 
and  said,  '  So  may  God  shake  out  every  man  from  his 
house  and  from  the  fruits  of  his  labour  that  performeth 
not  this  promise  ;  even  thus  may  he  be  shaken  out 
and  emptied.' 

*  The  conditions  of  this  restitution  are  not  fully  or  clearly 
stated ;  but  there  is  no  doubt  that  the  nobles  made  very  heavy 
sacrifices,  as  far  as  their  legal  claims  were  concerned. 

2  Cf.  p.  63. 


SOCIAL  IDEALS  IN  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT  69 

"And  all  the  assembly  said  *  Amen/ and  praised 
Yahweh. 

''  And  the  people  did  according  to  this  promise/'  ^ 

We  may  notice  that  this  incident  illustrates  the 
feeling  of  the  Jews  not  only  as  to  the  family  holding 
of  land,  but  also  as  to  slavery  ;  the  public  conscience 
revolted  more  and  more  against  the  idea  of  a  Jew 
being  a  slave.  Nehemiah's  suppliants  pleaded,  "  Our 
flesh  is  as  the  flesh  of  our  brethren,  our  children  are 
as  their  children." — Why  then  should  their  sons  and 
daughters  be  sold  into  slavery  ?  And  Nehemiah 
accepted  their  plea.  The  influence  of  such  feelings 
is  also  manifest  in  the  Law  of  Jubilee.  It  is  plain 
that  the  idea  of  Jews  in  bondage  was  repugnant  to 
the  authors  of  that  law,  though  they  felt  it  impossible 
to  abolish  such  slavery  altogether.  They  had  to 
content  themselves  with  doing  their  best  to  limit  it 
as  far  as  possible,  and  to  mitigate  its  severity.^  If  a 
Jew  is  driven  by  poverty  to  sell  himself  as  a  slave, 
he  is  not  to  be  treated  as  a  slave,  but  as  a  hired  servant 
or  a  resident  alien. ^ 

A  similar  spirit  shows  itself  in  the  writings  of 
the  post-exilic  prophets.*  It  is  true  that  they,  like 
the  lawgivers,  are  very  much  preoccupied  with  the 
Temple,  its  priesthood  and  its  ritual ;  but  none  the 
less  they  bear  their  testimony  to  social  righteousness. 
The  fast  is  worthless  when  the  worshipper  oppresses 
his  labourers,  and  the  true  fast  is  not  to  bow  down 
the  head  like  a  rush  and  to  sit  in  sackcloth  and  ashes  ; 
but  to  loose  the  bonds  of  wickedness ;   and  to  let  the 

^  Nehemiah  v. 

*  Leviticus  xxv.  39  f.,  47  ff. 
3  Get. 

*  Isaiah  xxiv.-xxvii.,  Ivi.-lxvi.,  etc.  ;  Haggai,  Zechariah, 
Malachi,  Joel,  etc. 


70  SOCIAL  IDEALS  IN  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT 

oppressed  go  free  ;  to  feed  the  hungry  ;  to  house  the 
outcast ;  and  to  clothe  the  naked.^ 

In  this  last  period  the  Wisdom  Literature  ^  of 
Israel  becomes  important,  and  its  witness  is  quite  in 
harmony  with  that  of  the  Law  and  Prophets.  Job's 
noble  picture  of  the  Righteous  Man  ^  is  one  of  the 
passages  in  which  the  teaching  of  the  Bible  reaches 
a  climax  ;  it  presents  an  ideal  which  has  never  been 
surpassed.  The  righteous  man  uses  his  advantages 
of  rank,  power  and  wealth  in  the  service  of  his  less 
fortunate  brethren.  He  is  the  helper  of  the  poor, 
the  fatherless  and  the  widow;  he  is  *' eyes  to  the 
blind,  feet  to  the  lame,  and  a  father  to  the  needy.'*  * 
Again  Job  enumerates  among  the  sins  which  draw 
down  the  wrath  of  God  upon  the  wicked,  contempt 
and  neglect  of  the  claims  of  slaves  ;  and  that  a  man 
should  eat  his  morsel  alone,  while  the  fatherless  go 
hungry.5 

It  is  a  little  depressing  to  pass  from  the  passion  and 
pathos  of  ]Joh  to  the  "  canny  "  shrewdness  of  Proverbs 
and  the  cynical  pessimism  of  Ecclesiastes.  Yet  both 
imply  that  the  true  social  order  is  based  on  mutual 
helpfulness,  and  suggest  that  if  the  ultimate  and  per- 
manent condition  of  society  is  one  in  which  the  interests 
of  the  people  are  sacrificed  to  the  pride,  ostentation 
and  self-indulgence  of  privileged  classes,  then,  indeed, 
life  is  *'  vanity  of  vanities." 

^  Isaiahyviii.  3-8. 

^  Job,  Proverbs,  and  Ecclesiastes  in  the  Hebrew  and  Protestant 
Canon  of  the  Old  Testament. 
^  Job  xxix.,  cf.  xxxi. 
*  Job  xxix.  11-16.  ^  Job  xxxi.  17,  21. 


SOCIAL  IDEALS  IN  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT  71 

vi.     Review. 

A  recent  writer  1  says,  with  much  truth,  that  many 
take  for  granted  that  the  social  teaching  of  the  Bible 
may  be  ignored  because  the  social  conditions  2  of  our 
time  are  different  from  those  of  the  beginning  of  the 
Christian  Era,  and  are  still  more  remote  from  those 
of  Old  Testament  times.  We  plume  ourselves  on 
the  advance  of  civilization,  and  scout  the  idea  that 
we  can  learn  from  ancient  prophets  and  lawgivers. 
It  seems  like  expecting  a  sixth-form  prefect  to  learn 
from  a  youngster  in  the  second  or  third.  We  may 
illustrate  the  difficulty  by  two  important  matters 
which  involve  those  moral  considerations  with  which 
we  are  specially  concerned — Does  not  the  Old  Testa- 
ment accept  slavery  and  polygamy?  In  a  qualified 
sense  it  does.  But  for  that  matter,  slavery  flourished 
in  Christian  states  far  into  the  last  century ;  and 
when  one  calls  to  mind  the  casual  ward  and  the  work- 
house, the  sweated  industries  and  the  unemployed, 
and  Piccadilly  at  midnight,  it  is  a  perfectly  defensible 
position  that,  for  all  practical  purposes,  the  condition 
of  labour  and  the  status  of  women  were  better  in  the 
Judah  of  Isaiah  than  they  are  in  England  to-day  ; 
and  that  Jerusalem,  even  under  Manasseh,  was  no 
worse  than  many  of  the  great  cities  of  Christian  peoples. 

Moreover  whatever  the  defects  of  ancient  Israel, 
we  must  remember  that  even  inspired  teachers  have 
to  start  from  things  as  they  find  them  and  to  speak 
in  terms  of  existing  institutions.  Nor  do  they  sanc- 
tion everything  which  they  do  not  propose  to  alter  ; 
no  sane  reformer  tries  to  set  everything  right  at  once ; 

^  Koberle,  Soziale  Probleme  im  alien  Israel  und  in  der  Gegenwart, 
pp.  I  f. 

2  Kulturentwicklung. 


72  SOCIAL  IDEALS  IN  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT 

that  is  anarchism.  Ideals  have  to  be  sought  in  men's 
positive  teaching,  not  in  what  they  seem  to  take  for 
granted ;  and  the  positive  teaching  of  the  Old  Tes- 
tament, the  changes  it  introduces  into  the  existing 
order,  are  upward.  We  have  seen  ^  that  there  is 
a  constant  anxiety  to  improve  the  position  of  slaves 
and  to  limit  slavery  as  much  as  possible.  It  is  true 
that  the  lawgivers  are  chiefly  concerned  for  Israelite 
slaves,  but  then  a  man's  social  ideals  are  naturally 
applied  first  to  his  own  people.  So  too  the  whole 
tendency  of  Old  Testament  teaching  is  in  favour  of 
monogamy.  At  the  Creation  only  one  woman  was 
provided  for  the  first  riian ;  the  patriarchal  stories  seem 
intended  to  illustrate  the  disadvantages  of  polygamy  ; 
and  Proverbs  might  have  been  written  for  a  purely 
monogamous  people.  It  is  difficult  to  imagine  the 
Excellent  Woman  2  sharing  her  authority  with  a  rival. 
If,  however,  these  considerations  show  that  the 
inferiority  of  the  civilization  of  Israel  is  no  reason  for 
ignoring  the  teaching  of  the  Hebrew  Scriptures,  they 
are  equally  conclusive  against  a  wholesale  application 
of  texts  in  a  literal  sense.  The  practical  remedies 
advocated  by  prophets  and  lawgivers  were  designed 
to  meet  the  circumstances  of  their  own  people  and 
their  own  age,  and  are  not  absolute  laws  binding  on 
every  one,  everywhere,  at  all  times.  It  is  not  too 
much  to  say  that  *'  It  is  wrong  in  principle  to  deduce 
without  qualification  from  the  Bible,  Old  or  New 
Testament,  any  political,  economic,  hygienic  or  any 
other  demand  as  to  the  external  course  of  social  life.'*  ^ 
We  must  not,  for  instance,  maintain  that  the  Old 
Testament  binds  us  to  secure  to  the  farmer  the  owner- 
ship of  the  land  he  cultivates.     Such  an  arrangement 

^  Page  69. 

*  Prov.  xxxi.  10-31  ;  ^  Koberle,  p.  22. 


SOCIAL  IDEALS  IN  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT  73 

may  or  may  not  be  desirable  ;  in  deciding  such  ques- 
tions we  should  welcome  any  light  the  Hebrew  Scrip- 
tures can  afford ;  but  we  must  remember  that  there 
may  be  moral  considerations  which  did  not  occur  to 
the  ancient  prophets  and  lawgivers  ;  and  also  that 
economic  laws  and  material  circumstances  cannot 
be  ignored.  It  is  still  more  evident  that  we  cannot 
use  isolated  texts  to  show  that  some  given  social 
change  must  be  made  at  once  in  some  particular 
fashion. 

This  frank  avowal  clears  the  way  for  the  legiti- 
mate application  of  inspired  principles  and  ideals 
to  modern  needs  ;  for  these  principles  and  ideals  are 
like  the  sun  ;  however  circumstances  may  change, 
they  still  reveal  their  character  and  help  us  to  deal 
with  them. 

The  prophetic  standard  of  social  righteousness 
would  emphatically  condemn  Christendom ;  Isaiah 
and  Jeremiah  would  have  scouted  the  idea  that  we 
are  merely  the  victims  of  circumstances,  or  that  the 
social  ills  under  which  we  labour  are  the  inevitable 
results  of  inexorable  economic  laws.  They  would 
have  found  the  root  of  the  evil  in  moral  corruption, 
in  the  callous  selfishness  which  is  rampant  to-day  as 
it  was  thousands  of  years  ago.  Now  as  then,  they 
might  have  told  us,  eagerness  to  acquire,  to  increase, 
or  to  defend  luxuries  and  privileges  makes  men  in- 
different to  the  misery  and  degradation  of  their  fellows. 
Modern  methods  are  not  so  crude  as  in  ancient  times. 
In  England,  at  any  rate,  Naboth  is  not  condemned  by 
intimidated  judges  on  notoriously  trumped-up  evi- 
dence, but  the  poor  man  loses  his  vineyard  all 
the  same.  In  spite  of  many  changes  in  outward 
forms,  if  Ezekiel  were  here  to-day,  he  might  still 
declare  that  those  who  feed  upon  the  good  pasture 


74  SOCIAL  IDEALS  IN  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT 

trample  the  residue,  and  that  those  who  drink  the 
clear  waters  foul  the  residue  with  their  feet,  so  that 
the  sheep  have  nothing  to  eat  or  drink  except  that 
which  has  been  trodden  down  and  befouled.^  Nor 
would  the  Psalmist  admit  that  his  ideal  of  the  Righteous 
King  who  is  to  do  justice  to  the  poor  and  save  the 
needy  *  is  realized  by  the  rulers  of  modern  Christendom. 

But  if  our  social  system  is  found  wanting  when 
tried  by  these  ancient  standards,  another  question 
arises.  How  can  Law,  Prophets  and  Psalmists  guide 
us  in  our  search  after  a  better  way  ?  How  can  they 
help  us  in  our  struggles  for  reform  ?  Our  thoughts 
at  once  turn  to  our  Lord's  answer  to  the  inquiry, 
"  Master,  which  is  the  great  commandment  in  the 
law  ?  *'  ''  Thou  shalt  love  the  Lord  thy  God  with 
all  thy  heart  and  with  all  thy  soul,  and  with  all  thy 
mind.  This  is  the  first  and  great  commandment. 
And  a  second  like  unto  it  is  this,  Thou  shalt  love  thy 
neighbour  as  thyself.  On  these  two  commandments 
hangeth  the  whole  law,  and  the  prophets.*'  *  No 
word  of  Christ  compels  a  more  prompt  and  unquali- 
fied acceptance.  And  with  regard  to  social  evils  we 
feel,  as  it  has  been  well  said,  ''  The  only  safeguard  is 
the  diffusion  of  the  spirit  which  loves  one's  neighbour 
as  oneself,  which  is  willing  to  consider  the  '  stranger  ' 
as  well  as  the  home-born,  and  which,  in  fact,  regards 
the  members  of  one's  community  with  precisely  the 
same  trust,  kindliness,  forbearance  and  open-handed- 
ness  as  the  members  of  one's  own  family."  * 

But   one   of  the   most   serious   difficulties   of  the 


^  Ezek.  xxxiv.  i8  f.  2  Psalm  Ixxii.  4. 

^  Matthew  xxii.  36-40,  R.V.,  quoted  from  Deut.  vi.  5,  Lev. 
xix.  18. 

4  Prof.  W.  F.  Lofthouse,  "  The  Social  Teaching  of  the  Law." 
Expositor,  May,  1908,  p.  468. 


SOCIAL  IDEALS  IN  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT  75 

present  situation  is  that  those  who  are  anxious  to 
live  according  to  this  spirit  find  themselves  baffled 
by  a  system  which  tends  to  reduce  society  to 
millionaires  and  their  dependents,  slaves  in  all  but 
name,  and  without  the  compensations  of  slavery. 
Can  the  study  of  Hebrew  ideals  help  us  discover  social 
reforms  by  which  the  spirit  of  Christ  may  be  set  free 
from  its  shackles  and  may  have  free  course  and  be 
glorified  ? 

We  are  at  once  met  with  the  difficulty  that  for 
devout  Israelites  the  ideal  society  was  alike  Church 
and  State,  a  society  in  which  religion  was  the  supreme 
bond.  Whereas  in  Christendom  religion  is  a  divisive 
influence,  and  the  mutual  jealousy  of  the  Churches 
paralyses  the  nation  in  its  struggle  against  ignorance, 
misery  and  vice.  This  is  not  the  place  to  discuss  the 
question  of  organic  reunion  ;  but  is  there  no  way  by 
which  sectarian  quarrels  may  be  limited  to  matters 
ecclesiastical,  and  the  moral  and  religious  forces  of 
the  country  united  in  the  crusade  against  social  wrong  ? 

There  is,  however,  another  aspect  of  this  difficulty. 
The  ideal  Israel,  as  we  have  said,  was  to  be  a  religious 
society,  such  as  the  British  Empire  is  little  likely 
to  become  in  the  near  future.  Would  the  prophets 
have  allowed  us  to  hope  for  social  progress  under  our 
present  conditions  ?  The  reader  will  find  such  subjects 
more  fully  dealt  with  in  succeeding  papers,  but  we 
may  say  a  word  or  two.  We  may  remind  ourselves 
that  for  the  prophets  religious  unity  did  not  depend 
on  the  universal  acceptance  of  the  same  set  of  abstract 
dogmatic  propositions,  and  that  they  did  not  measure 
a  man's  loyalty  to  Yahweh  by  the  frequency  and 
regularity  with  which  he  observed  religious  rites^ 
public  or  private.  We  are  not  even  told  that  Isaiah, 
Jeremiah,    and    Ezekiel    expected    true   believers    to 


76  SOCIAL  IDEALS  IN  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT 

attend  their  prophesyings  three  times  a  week.  May 
we  not  contend  that  the  rehgious  sentiment  in  some 
form  and  to  some  extent  is  universal  ?  Possibly 
mutual  sympathy  and  recognition  between  the  Churches 
and  those  who  are  more  vaguely  and  informally 
religious  would  be  for  the  general  advantage,  would 
promote  the  growth  of  religion,  and  increase  its  influence. 

On  the  other  hand  there  is  no  lesson  that  is  more 
clearly  taught  by  the  Old  Testament  than  the  impor- 
tance of  the  spiritual  life  to  social  progress.  In 
some  form  or  other  man's  faith  and  love  towards 
God  and  God's  grace  given  to  man  are  essential  con- 
ditions of  a  nation's  welfare.  But,  again,  the  pro- 
phets are  equally  emphatic  in  condemning  devout 
men  who  are  indifferent  to  social  righteousness  and 
neglect  their  duties  as  citizens. 

In  such  matters  the  Hebrew  Scriptures  furnish 
us  with  many  plain  examples  ;  thus  the  prophets 
and  lawgivers  are  the  champions  of  freedom  ;  they 
constantly  attempt  to  limit  the  extent  of  slavery 
and  to  mitigate  its  severity.  Moreover  their  demand 
that  the  Israelite  family  shall  be  secured  in  the  posses- 
sion of  land  is  an  effort  to  make  the  people  free  in 
fact  as  well  as  in  name.  No  one  enjoys  real  liberty 
who  can  be  deprived  of  the  means  of  livelihood  at 
the  arbitrary  will  of  an  employer.  In  ancient  Israel 
ownership  of  a  farm  was  the  natural  way  to  provide 
a  man  with  an  independent  and  assured  opportunity 
of  earning  a  living  for  himself  and  his  family.  In 
our  own  times  the  application  of  the  principles  of 
prophetic  teaching  must  take  account  of  altered  cir- 
cumstances. It  would  be  folly  now  to  give  every  one 
land  and  expect  him  to  take  to  farming.  The  evil 
against  which  Isaiah  and  Amos  protested  is  appearing 
in  a  new  form.     The  class  who  were  their  own  masters — • 


SOCIAL  IDEALS  IN  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT  77 

yeomen,  tradesmen,  master  workers,  small  manufac- 
turers— is  rapidly  disappearing,  and  its  members  are 
being  replaced  by  managers  and  foremen.  There  is 
a  continual  increase  of  the  proportion  of  the  popula- 
tion who  are  liable  to  be  cast  into  the  ranks  of  the  unem- 
ployed through  the  avarice,  the  caprice  or  the  malice 
of  the  heads  of  great  commercial  enterprises.  Men 
who  are  thus  helplessly  dependent  are  not  free,  and 
were  the  prophets  amongst  us  to-day  they  would 
renew   their   protests   against   industrial   slavery. 

Nevertheless,  it  does  not  follow  that  we  ought  to 
transfer  the  prophetic  denunciation  of  Israelite  oppres- 
sors to  the  ruling  classes  to-day.  Nor  need  we  conclude 
that  the  sentence  of  doom  passed  on  Israel  and  Judah 
is  also  pronounced  against  Christendom.  It  is  true 
that  the  ancient  plague  symptoms  reappear  now  with 
equal  virulence  ;  we  are  threatened  with  a  plutocratic 
oligarchy,  hitherto  the  harbinger  of  moral  and  material 
ruin.  But  our  spiritual  resources  to-day  are  greater 
than  those  of  ancient  Israel.  The  leaven  of  the  King- 
dom of  God  is  working  in  our  midst.  The  experience  of 
two  thousand  years  has  shown  us  that  the  Spirit  of 
Christ,  the  influence  of  His  teaching.  His  example 
and  His  personality,  make  for  righteousness  even  more 
powerfully  than  the  ministry  of  the  Hebrew  prophets. 

But  we  must  let  this  Spirit  have  free  course.  We  are 
often  told  that  we  cannot  curtail  the  luxury  of  the  few 
in  order  to  provide  the  many  with  the  necessaries 
and  decencies  of  life,  because  such  a  policy  would  bring 
about  industrial  ruin.  But  the  unhesitating  testimony 
of  the  Old  Testament  is  that  an  awful  and  speedy 
Divine  judgment  awaits  the  people  that  acquiesces  in 
national  wickedness. 


II 

The  Christian  Ideal  Revealed  in  Jesus. 

By  Rev.  ALFRED  E.  GARVIE,  M.A.,  D.D.,  Principal  of 
New  College,  London. 


ARGUMENT. 

(i)     The  Religious  Good  of  the  Christian  Gospel — Divine  Fatherhood  and 
Human  Sonship. 

(2)     The  Correspondent   Human  Duty — Love  to  God,   and   Love  to  Man 
as  Likeness  to  God. 

{3)     Impartiality    and    Universality    of   this    Love— The  Good  Samaritan. 

(4)  This  Love  Practical — ^The  Last  Judgment,  The  Unrighteous  Steward, 

The  Rich  Man  and  Lazarus. 

(5)  The  Guilt  of  Injury  of  Man  measured  by  the  worth  of  each  Soul  to  God. 

(6)  Did  Jesus  institute  the  Church  and  the  Sacraments  ? 

(7)  Jesus'  Conception  of  the  Kingdom  of  God. 

(8)  His  Attitude  towards  and  Action    in  regard  to  the  Existing  Social 

Order  in  Church  and  State  no  Illustration  of  Permanent  or  Universal 
Principles. 

(9)  No  Ready-Made  Solutions  of  Social   Problems,  but  Suggestive  Refer- 

ences to  Social  Relations  and  Institutions — ^The  Family — Divorce. 

(10)  The  Duty  of  Children  to  Parents  taught  by  Jesus — His  Treatment 
of  Women  and  Children. 

(ii)  The  Economic  Basis  of  the  Family — Property — ^An  Inference  from 
Jesus'  Teaching  on  the  Family — His  Refusal  to  Interfere  in  Dispute — 
Discouragement  of  Covetousness. 

(12)  The  Influence  of  Riches  and  Poverty  on  the  Soul — Poverty  Advan- 

tageous and    Wealth  Dangerous — ^The    Beatitudes — ^The    Rich  Fool, 
The  Rich  Man  and  Lazarus. 

(13)  Does  Jesus  discourage  Industry  ? — His  References  to  the  Relations  of 

Master  and  Servant. 

(14)  Jesus'  Teaching  on  Simplicity  of  Life  not  Ascetic — Total  Abstinence 

— ^Not  Indifferent  to  Aesthetic  Aspect  of  Life. 

{15)  Does  Jesus  Condemn  Government? — Reasons  against  this  View — 
Present  Application  of  this  Teaching. 

(16)  The  Absence  of  Detailed  Instructions  a  Proof  of  the  Universality  and 

Permanence   of  the   Christian   Religion — Contrast  with   Mohammed 
and  Buddha. 

(17)  Did  Jesus  Foresee  the  Gradual  Progress  of  the  Kingdom  ? — Christian 

Means  and  Ends  of  Progress. 

{18)  The  Dependence  of  the  Realization  of  the  Christian  Ideal  on  Personal 
Relation  to  Christ — Devotion  and  Duty. 


II 

The    Christian    Ideal   Revealed    in  Jesus 

(i)  The  heart  of  the  Christian  Gospel  may  be  found 
in  the  confession  and  the  invitation  of  Jesus  in  Matt, 
xi.  25-30.  His  unique  nature  as  the  Son  of  God, 
known  by  the  Father  alone,  and  alone  knowing  the 
Father,  and  His  unique  vocation  to  reveal  the  Father 
to  whomsoever  He  willeth  qualify  Him  to  offer  to 
labouring  and  heavy-laden  mankind  rest  of  soul  in 
learning  of  Him  and  taking  His  yoke,  which  is  easy, 
because  He  Himself  is  meek  and  lowly  in  heart.  His 
intimate  communion  with  God  is  accompanied  by  an 
absolute  dependence  and  a  complete  submission.  As 
all  things  are  delivered  to  Him  by  the  Father,  so  He 
thanks  the  Father  for  whatsoever  is  well-pleasing  in  His 
sight.  It  is  not  necessary  here  to  discuss  the  meta- 
physics of  the  Incarnation.  The  religious  conscious- 
ness and  the  moral  character  of  Jesus  alike  bear  wit- 
ness to  a  relation  to  God  in  which  He  is  alone  among 
and  above  all  mankind.  This  relation,  which  is  His 
by  nature,  it  is  His  vocation  to  mediate  for  mankind 
by  His  grace.  *'  The  only  begotten  Son  who  is  in  the 
bosom  of  the  Father  hath  so  declared  Him,"  as  to  give 
to  as  many  as  believe  "  on  His  name  the  right  to 
CO.  "  G 


82  THE  CHRISTIAN   IDEAL 

become  the  children  of  God"  (John  i.  i8,  12).  The 
relation,  which  is  original  for  Him,  is  mediated  by  Him 
for  them,  so  that  He  who  is  the  subject  of  the  religion  of 
Jesus  becomes  the  object  of  faith  in  the  Christian  religion. 
He  not  only  shows  God  as  Father  to  men,  but  also  brings 
men  as  children  to  God.  He  Himself  reveals  the  divine 
Fatherhood  by  realizing  the  perfect  sonship  under  the 
conditions  and  limitations  of  human  life.  The  Divine 
Son  who  knows,  loves,  trusts,  obeys  God  as  Father  is 
the  Human  Brother,  so  that  through  Him  all  the  human 
brothers  may  become  divine  sons.  He  calls  men  to 
Himself  that  He  may  bring  them  to  God.  ''  Come  to 
Me."  "  Learn  of  Me."  "  Take  My  yoke."  ''  Follow 
Me."  This  is  His  invitation,  for  only  in  such  close 
fellowship  with  Himself  can  men  be  brought  into 
intimate  communion  with  God. 

There  is,  however,  a  hindrance  which  must  be 
removed  if  His  invitation  is  to  be  fully  accepted  ;  and 
He  recognizes  it ;  and,  therefore,  in  His  attitude  and 
His  assurance  to  sinners  He  removes  it .  He  is  the  Friend 
of  sinners  (Matt.  xi.  19).  He  calls  not  the  right- 
eous, but  the  sinners  (ix.  10-13).  He  has  the  right  on 
earth  to  forgive  sins  Tverse  6)  ;  He  welcomes  the  peni- 
tent with  the  words  of  pardon,  '*  Thy  sins  are  forgiven  " 
(Luke  vii.  48).  The  salvation  which  He  offers  to  men 
involves  His  own  sacrifice.  He  must  give  His  life  as 
a  ransom  for  many  (Matt.  xx.  28),  and  the  new  covenant 
of  grace  is  in  His  blood  (xxvi.  28).  Yet  He,  the  Son  of 
God,  and,  as  the  Saviour  of  men,  the  firstborn  among 
many  brethren,  cannot  be  holden  of  death,  but  is  raised 
from  the  dead,  and  becomes,  as  Mediator  between  God 
and  men,  the  supreme  authority  and  the  universal 
presence.  The  divine  Fatherhood  revealed  and  the 
human  sonship  realized  in  and  through  Him  are  to  be 
preached  throughout  the  whole  world  in  order  that 


REVEALED   IN  JESUS  83 

the  whole  family  of  God  may  be  brought  home  (xxviii. 
18-20). 

(2)  This  religious  good,  which  is  the  priceless  gift 
of  Jesus  to  mankind,  involves  a  correspondent  moral 
duty.     It  claims  not  only  the  human  faith  which  wel- 
comes, uses  and  enjoys  the  divine  grace  ;  but  also  the 
energy  of  that  faith,  its  expression  and  exercise  in  love, 
grateful  to  God,  and  generous  towards  man.     Jesus, 
coming  as  the  Jewish  Messiah,  claimed  to  fulfil  the  law 
and  the  prophets,  and  in  that  fulfilment  required  that 
His  disciples  should  exceed  the  righteousness  of  the 
Scribes  and  Pharisees,   the   commonly  acknowledged 
and  approved  exponents,  in  theory  and  practice,  of  the 
law  (Matt.  V.  17-20).     He  unified,  simplified,  elevated 
and  vitalized  that  law  by  summing  it  up  in  one  princi- 
ple— an  absolute  love  to  God  and  an  equal  love  for  self 
and  others  (xxii.  37-39).     Although  this  principle  was 
laid  down  in  what  might  at  first  sight  appear  only  as 
a  casual  answer  to  a  hostile  question,  yet  it  necessarily 
results  from,  and  is,  therefore,  in  complete  harmony 
with    the    essence    of    the    Christian    religion.      The 
morality  of  a  religion  of  divine  Fatherhood  and  human 
sonship  must  be,  and  cannot  but  be,  love.     As  God, 
manifest  in  the  grace  of  Jesus,  is  altogether  lovable, 
love  to  Him  need  not  be  enforced  as  a  duty  ;  for  it  will 
be  the  spontaneous  response  to  the  grace  that  is  re- 
ceived in  faith.     Jesus  assumes  that  human  gratitude 
will  be  the  inevitable  consequence  of  divine  generosity. 
He  who  is  forgiven  much  will  love  much  (Luke  vii.  47). 
He  does  not  enforce  the  duty  of  absolute  love  to  God 
in  His  teaching,  not  only  because  He  is  always  exhibit- 
ing it  in  His  life,  but  still  more  because  He  is  always 
caUing  men  to  faith  in  God,  and  is  confident  that  as 
men  through  faith  freely  receive  the  grace  of  God,  so 
will  they  freely  give  in  love  to  God. 


84  THE   CHRISTIAN   IDEAL 

It  is  otherwise,  however,  with  the  love  to  man  which 
is  enjoined.  This  is  not  a  love  of  gratitude,  but  of 
generosity.  Men  are  not  to  be  loved  because  they  are 
lovable.  Jesus  expressly  contrasts  the  love  which 
He  requires  of  His  disciples  with  natural  affection, 
and  with  the  love  which  is  called  forth,  and  is  an  answer 
to  love  (Matt.  v.  46,  47).  The  fullest  expression  and 
the  highest  exercise  of  Christian  love  are  required  in 
regard  to  those  who  make  it  most  difficult.  Enemies 
and  persecutors  are  to  be  loved  (verse  44).  Two  reasons 
are  given  for  this  demand.  The  first  is  this,  that  fellow- 
ship with  God  is  realized  in  likeness  to  God.  He  who 
enjoys  a  filial  communion  with  God  must  show  a  filial 
resemblance  to  God.  In  order  that  the  disciples  may 
be  the  sons  of  the  Father  in  heaven,  they  must  display 
the  same  impartial  affection  as  He  does  in  sending 
sunshine  and  shower  to  all  men  alike  (verse  45)  ;  only 
as  they  are  peacemakers  can  they  enjoy  the  blessedness 
of  being  called  sons  of  God  (verse  9) ;  the  perfection  of 
the  heavenly  Father  in  loving  is  to  be  their  ideal  (verse 
48) ;  the  second  reason  is  that  only  the  loving  can  ap- 
prehend, appreciate  and  appropriate  the  love  of  God. 
He  who  hardens  himself  against  man  closes  himself 
against  God.  The  merciful  obtain  mercy  (verse  7)  ; 
the  forgiving  are  forgiven  (vi.  14).  So  dependent  is 
filial  communion  with  God  on  filial  resemblance  to 
God,  that  they  cannot  enjoy  God's  grace  who  are 
without  grace  to  others.  So  closely  united  are  love 
to  God  and  love  to  man. 

(3)  Besides  this  characteristic,  which  so  closely 
connects  religion  and  morality  that  love  to  God  is 
shown  and  proved  in  love  to  man,  Jesus  assigns  to  this 
principle  these  other  features.  It  is  to  be  not  only 
impartial  as  regards  moral  character,  but  it  is  also  to  be 
universal,  unlimited  by  the  common  divisions  among 


REVEALED   IN   JESUS  85 

men.  This  is  brought  out  most  clearly  in  the  parable 
of  the  Good  Samaritan  (Luke  x.  30-37).  Just  because 
there  was  kinship  in  blood  and  likeness  in  religion 
between  Jew  and  Samaritan,  was  Jewish  exclusive- 
ness  most  uncompromising  towards  the  Samaritan. 
It  is  to  rebuke  this  racial  hate  that  Jesus  holds  up  a 
Samaritan  as  an  example  to  be  followed.  Had  He 
represented  the  Samaritan  as  the  sufferer,  and  the  Jew 
as  the  helper,  Jewish  pride  would  have  been  gratified  ; 
and  the  lesson  of  neighbourliness  would  not  have  been 
so  effectively  given.  Jesus'  limitation  of  His  own  minis- 
try to  *'  the  lost  sheep  of  the  house  of  Israel  '*  does  not 
disprove  the  universality  of  His  love.  It  was  necessary 
that  the  offer  of  God's  grace  should  be  first  made  to  the 
people  who  had  received  a  promise  of  it  and  a  prepar- 
ation for  it.  That  Jesus  might  secure  attention  to  His 
claims  as  Jewish  Messiah,  it  was  necessary  that  Jewish 
prejudice  should  not  be  provoked  by  any  attempt  to 
reach  the  Gentiles.  Even  when  rejected  by  the  Jewish 
people,  Jesus  was  possessed  by  the  conviction  of  the 
necessity  of  His  death  in  Jerusalem  at  the  hands  of  the 
Jewish  nation  ;  and  He,  therefore,  did  not  turn  to  the 
Gentiles.  His  welcome  and  approval  of  Gentile  fai^h 
show  the  wideness  of  His  love. 

(4)  This  impartial  and  universal  love  is  to  be  practi- 
cal. It  is  to  be  displayed  in  feeding  the  hungry,  cloth- 
ing the  naked,  and  visiting  the  sick  and  the  imprisoned. 
The  parable  of  The  Last  Judgment,  in  Matt.  xxv. 
31-46,  represents  as  the  standard  of  judgment  such 
acts  of  philanthropy.  Those  who  have  done  these 
things  are  blessed,  and  they  who  have  left  them  undone 
are  accursed.  That  Jesus  is  here  laying  down  a  univer- 
sal test  is  not  disproved,  as  is  sometimes  argued,  by  two 
phrases  in  the  parable.  Even  if  the  judgment  des- 
cribed is  that  of  ''  all  the  nations  "  (verse  32)  in  dis- 


86  THE   CHRISTIAN   IDEAL 

tinction  from  the  Christian  Church,  a  less  measure  of 
love  will  not  be  required  of  disciples.  Their  righteous- 
ness must  exceed  not  only  the  righteousness  of  the 
Scribes  and  Pharisees,  but  surely  of  the  Gentiles  also. 
The  disciples  are  expressly  required  to  forgive  insult 
and  injury  ;  and  much  more  severely  is  love  tested  by 
such  a  demand  than  by  this  call  to  doing  good.  Even 
if  the  epithet  ''my  brethren'',  applied  to  those  benefited, 
meant  believers  on  His  name,  and  the  parable  was  thus 
intended  to  encourage  the  disciples  by  the  assurance 
that  Jesus  would  regard  their  interests  as  His  very  own, 
this  limitation,  which  is  by  no  means  certainly  proved, 
does  not  justify  the  inference  that  it  is  only  philan- 
thropy to  Christians  which  Christ  will  reward,  or 
inhumanity  to  them  which  He  will  punish.  Could 
He  who  commended  the  divine  impartiality  for  imita- 
tion to  His  disciples  have  represented  Himself  as  thus 
restricting  His  interest  and  sympathy  ? 

The  same  duty  of  philanthropy  is  enforced  by  the 
companion  parables  in  Luke  xvi.,  although  it  must  be 
admitted  that  the  interpretation  of  both  is  involved 
in  some  obscurity.  The  parable  of  the  Unrighteous 
Steward  Cverses  1-9)  appears  to  be  intended  to  teach 
that  the  use  of  wealth  in  showing  kindness  and  giving 
help  to  others  will  be  rewarded  in  the  future  life  (verse 
9).  More  doubtful  is  the  interpretation  of  the  phrase 
mammon  of  unrighteousness  as  ''  ill-gotten  wealth." 
It  is  hard  to  believe  that  Jesus  meant  to  teach,  as  Dr. 
Bruce  maintains  (The  Expositor's  Greek  Testament,  i, 
p.  586),  that  ''  the  more  ill-gotten  the  more  need  to  be 
redeemed  by  beneficent  use.*' 

The  parable  of  the  Rich  Man  and  Lazarus  (verses 
ig_3i)  appears  to  convey  the  lesson  that  wealth  used 
selfishly  in  indulgence  and  luxury  to  the  neglect  of  the 
claims  of  the  poor  and  the  suffering  will  bring  on  the 


REVEALED   IN  JESUS  87 

possessor  the  severest  condemnation.  The  only  man 
whom  Jesus  in  all  His  teaching  pillories  in  the  place  of 
torment  is  the  Rich  Man,  who  left  Lazarus  unrelieved 
at  his  gate.  It  is  necessary  to  point  out  that  these 
promises  and  these  rewards  alike,  presented  in  these 
parables,  seem  to  appeal  to  a  lower  motive  than  love 
of  others.  As  Jesus  condemns  the  alms  given  in  osten- 
tation to  gain  ''  glory  of  men  "  (Matt.  vi.  2),  so  doubt- 
less He  would  have  condemned  any  form  of  charity 
from  self-interest  only.  We  must  recognize  the  in- 
adequacy of  the  parable  form  to  convey  the  truth  com- 
pletely. Jesus,  when  He  thus  speaks  of  rewards  or 
punishments,  presupposes  the  love  of  others  which  alone 
gives  any  moral  value  to  acts  of  beneficence. 

(5)  Love  will  not  only  give  all  the  help  it  can  to 
others  ;  it  will  be  very  careful  not  to  do  injury  to 
others,  especially  by  leading  them  into  sin,  or  by  hinder- 
ing their  faith.  How  very  solemn  is  the  warning  against 
causing  one  of  the  little  ones  to  stumble  (Matt,  xviii.  6). 
Whether  the  sayings  which  immediately  follow  in  the 
First  Gospel  regarding  the  sacrifice  to  be  made  in  order 
to  avoid  any  offence  refer  to  injury  done  to  others  may 
be  questioned ;  but,  even  if  the  immediate  reference 
be  to  the  peril  which  sin  brings  on  the  sinner  himself, 
yet  it  is  a  legitimate  extension  of  the  truth  to  apply  it 
to  injury  to  the  souls  of  others.  If  a  man  is  to  love 
his  neighbour  as  himself,  he  must  be  prepared  at  as  high 
a  cost  to  avoid  his  hurt  even  as  his  own. 

The  explanation  of  the  severity  of  the  demand  here 
is  to  be  found  in  Jesus*  estimate  of  man.  He  taught 
the  infinite  worth  of  every  soul.  Not  only  is  each  man 
worth  so  much  to  himself  that  the  gain  of  the  whole 
world  cannot  compensate  for  the  forfeit  of  himself, 
and  that  he  has  no  possession  he  can  offer  as  a  ransom 
for  himself  (xvi.  26)  ;  but  every  man  is  worth  so  much 


88  THE   CHRISTIAN   IDEAL 

to  God  that  his  loss  through  sin  grieves  God,  and  his 
recovery  brings  God  joy.  This  is  the  lesson  taught  in 
the  parables  in  Luke  xv.  Such  is  the  worth  of  each 
soul  to  God  that  Jesus  came  ''  to  seek  and  save  the 
lost  "  (Luke  xix.  lo).  Whatever  a  man's  character 
or  condition,  as  a  man,  capable  of  becoming  a  son 
of  God,  and  even  in  his  sin  loved  by  God,  he  has 
an  infinite  worth,  and  so  an  absolute  claim  to  be 
so  loved  that  his  salvation  shall  be  sought  at  any 
cost. 

(6)  The  relation  of  God  and  man  as  the  heavenly 
Father  and  the  earthly  child,  and  the  relation  of  men 
to  one  another  as  brethren  is  the  religious  good  Jesus 
offers,  and  love  is  the  moral  duty  He  enjoins.  This  is 
the  broad  and  sure  foundation  for  a  Christian  society  ; 
but  on  this  foundation  Jesus  does  not  Himself  rear 
the  complete  superstructure.  The  name  by  which 
the  Christian  society  was  afterwards  known  is  only 
mentioned  twice.  In  the  commendation  of  Peter  for 
his  confession  (Matthew  xvi.  18-19),  that  confession  is 
accepted  as  the  foundation  of  the  Church,  to  which  is 
promised  the  power  to  resist  all  assaults,  and  to  which 
is  entrusted  the  stewardship  of  the  Kingdom  in  its 
moral  j udgment  of  human  actions.  But  no  organization 
is  prescribed.  In  the  command  regarding  the  treat- 
ment of  an  offending  brother,  a  local  organization  of  the 
Church,  similar  to  that  of  the  synagogue,  seems  to  be 
assumed  (xviii.  15-20).  It  must  be  added,  however, 
that  the  authenticity  of  both  passages  has  been  chal- 
lenged ;  the  other  Synoptics  have  no  parallel,  and 
there  is  no  other  indication  in  the  teaching  of  Jesus 
that  He  ever  spoke  to  His  disciples  about  founding 
such  a  society.  But  even  if  we  set  aside  these  doubts, 
and  accept  these  passages,  they  do  not  aid  us  at  all 
in  defining  more  distinctly  the  Christian  social  ideal. 


REVEALED   IN   JESUS  89 

Whether  Jesus  Himself  instituted  the  ordinance  of 
baptism  into  the  threefold  name  (Matt,  xxviii.  19)  is 
regarded  as  doubtful  by  many  scholars,  who  find  in  this 
passage  a  reflexion  of  contemporary  belief  and  practice 
rather  than  a  remembrance  of  past  history.  Even  the 
intention  of  Jesus  to  establish  a  memorial  feast  in  the 
ordinance  of  the  Supper  has  been  called  in  question. 
The  narrative  in  Mark  (xiv.  22-25)  gives  no  indication 
that  Jesus  desired  the  acts  to  be  repeated  ;  and  in  this 
respect  Matthew  (xxvi.  26-29)  follows  Mark.  Luke's 
narrative  (xxii.  14-20)  is  clearly  influenced  by  the 
custom  of  the  Apostolic  Church.  He  adds  the  words, 
''  This  do  in  remembrance  of  Me.*'  Paul's  account 
(i  Cor.  xi.  23-26)  is  quite  evidently  determined  by  the 
general  practice  of  the  Church.  Absolute  certainty 
seems  in  this  matter  quite  unattainable  ;  but  it  is 
probable  that  the  Christian  community  had  some 
warrant  in  Jesus'  teaching  for  these  ordinances,  which 
were  recognized  from  its  very  beginnings.  Jesus  de- 
sired in  these  symbolic  acts,  these  acted  parables,  to 
keep  before  His  disciples  the  moral  cleansing  and  the 
religious  fellowship  which  He  was  ever  offering  to 
mankind.  We  can  have  little  doubt,  however,  that 
He  never  intended  them  to  become  the  formal,  mys- 
terious, supernatural  sacraments  into  which  ecclesiasti- 
cism  afterwards  changed  them. 

Were  it  proved,  however,  that  Jesus  said  and  did 
nothing  to  indicate  His  desire  that  His  disciples  should 
form  themselves  into  a  society,  yet  it  could  be  confi- 
dently maintained  that  these  disciples  in  effecting  their 
union  in  the  Church  were  moved  and  guided  by  His 
Spirit,  were  giving  an  inevitable  application  in  the 
historical  conditions  to  the  essential  principle  of  His 
Gospel.  It  was  fitting  and  needful  that  those  who  felt 
themselves  to  be  brethren,   because  they  knew  God 


90  THE- CHRISTIAN   IDEAL 

as  Father,  should  come  together  for  common  witness, 
worship  and  work. 

(7)  But  it  must  be  asked,  Can  the  Christian  ideal 
of  society  be  regarded  as  fully  reaUzed  in  the  Church, 
the  community  of  those  who  as  disciples  of  Jesus  and 
believers  in  Him  have  received  His  salvation  ?  Jesus 
only  twice  (if  at  all)  spoke  of  the  Church ;  but  there 
was  a  phrase  constantly  on  His  Ups,  the  Kingdom  of 
God.  Those  who  are  eager  for  social  reform  often  seize 
upon  this  phrase  as  giving  the  sanction  of  Jesus  to  their 
social  interpretation  of  the  Gospel.  It  cannot  be  ignored, 
however,  that  not  only  the  meaning  of  the  term,  but 
even  the  content  of  the  conception  is  doubtful.  Does 
kingdom  mean  realm  or  rule  ?  In  the  former  case  the 
social  aspect  would  be  implied,  in  the  latter  not.  Is 
the  Kingdom  present  or  future  ?  Did  Christ  believe 
Himself  to  have  established  it  at  His  first  coming,  or 
did  He  anticipate  its  establishment  at  His  return  in 
power  and  glory  ?  Is  it  to  come  into  the  world  by  a 
gradual  progress  or  by  a  catastrophic  act  ?  Is  the  means 
of  its  estabUshment  moral  and  spiritual  influence,  or 
supernatural  power  ?  Texts  can  be  quoted  for  each  of 
these  views.  The  obscurities,  ambiguities  and  per- 
plexities of  the  subject  are  all  due  to  the  fact  that  Jesus 
had  to  present  the  heavenly  treasure  of  His  own  moral 
and  religious  ideal  in  the  earthen  vessels  of  prophetic 
predictions  and  popular  expectations. 

It  is  often  assumed  by  scholars  that  Jesus  was  so 
completely  a  man  of  His  own  age  and  people  that  what- 
ever in  His  teaching  goes  beyond  or  rises  above  the 
current  conceptions  must  be  regarded  as  an  addition 
to  His  genuine  utterances,  a  reflexion  of  the  beliefs, 
hopes,  and  aims  of  the  Christian  Church  at  the  time 
when  the  Gospels  were  composed.  We  may,  in  opposi- 
tion to  this  view,  press  several  questions.     Is  it  prob- 


REVEALED   IN  JESUS  91 

able  that  Jesus  did  not  conceive  the  Kingdom  of  God  in 
as  spiritual  and  ethical  a  form  as  would  correspond 
with  His  perfect  revelation  of  God  and  man  ?  Is  it 
probable  that  One  whose  religious  consciousness  and 
moral  character  so  transcended  the  thought  and  life 
around  Him  was  so  closely  bound  by  the  common 
beliefs  on  a  question  of  such  moment  for  faith  and  life  ? 
Is  it  probable  that  the  community  of  His  disciples,  so 
dependent  on  Him  for  what  was  truest  in  its  beliefs 
and  best  in  its  deeds,  so  soon,  even  within  a  generation, 
outstripped  Him  in  its  conception  of  the  Kingdom  of 
God  ?  The  contrary  assumption  is  very  much  more 
probable,  that  the  conception  of  a  present,  ethical 
and  spiritual  relation  of  God  to  man,  to  be  progressively 
completed  and  extended,  was  the  kernel  of  Jesus'  own 
teaching,  and  that  the  apocalyptic  language  in  which  it 
was  expressed  was  but  the  husk,  necessary  to  protect 
and  preserve  that  kernel.  When  Jesus  likens  the 
Kingdom  to  the  treasure  in  the  field  and  the  pearl  of 
great  price  it  is  represented  as  an  individual  possession 
(Matt.  xiii.  44-46).  When  He  compares  it  to  the 
mustard  seed  and  the  leaven,  He  so  presents  its  expansive 
power  and  its  pervasive  influence  as  to  suggest,  but  not 
more  than  suggest,  that  it  is  a  social  benefit  (31-33)-  I^ 
must  be  admitted  that  Jesus' teaching  about  the  King- 
dom of  God  does  not  show  that  He  intended  any  re- 
organization of  human  society,  or  what  a  reorganiza- 
tion in  accordance  with  His  principles  would  be. 

(8)  The  results  of  our  inquiry  do  not  appear  any 
more  positive  when  we  consider  Jesus'  attitude  to- 
wards, and  action  in  regard  to  the  existing  social  order 
in  Church  or  State.  He  was  not  the  leader  of  a  revolt ; 
He  was  careful  not  to  say  or  to  do  anything  that  would 
provoke  a  revolution.  This  caution  was  required  of 
Him  by  the  historical  conditions.     The  popular  expect- 


92  THE  CHRISTIAN   IDEAL 

ations  were  fixed  on  a  political  Messiah,  one  who  would 
cast  off  the  Roman  yoke,  and  establish  a  prosperous 
and  powerful  as  well  as  a  righteous  rule  in  Jerusalem. 
The  temper  of  the  people  was  very  dangerous.  A  word 
or  a  deed  of  Jesus  might  have  precipitated  an  explosion 
of  the  pent-up  hate  against  the  Roman  oppressor. 
However  repugnant  to  Jewish  patriotism  the  Roman 
Empire  was,  and  however  oppressive  its  dominion 
might  often  prove  to  be,  yet  a  Jewish  rebellion  could 
have  ended  only  in  the  destruction  of  the  nation. 
There  was  no  promise  or  prospect  of  a  new  society  to 
be  founded  on  the  ruins  of  the  Roman  Empire.  It  was 
not,  however,  merely  prudent  calculation  that  res- 
trained Jesus'  action.  His  words  to  Pilate,  *'  My  King- 
dom  is  not  of  this  world  ''  Qohn  xviii.  36)  give  the 
deeper  reason.  It  was  contrary  to  the  essential  char- 
acter of  His  purpose  that  He  should  seek  its  fulfilment 
by  any  outward  changes,  ecclesiastical  and  political. 
Further,  that  it  might  be  advanced  as  the  expanding 
mustard  seed,  or  the  pervasive  leaven,  it  must  not 
needlessly  be  brought  into  conflict  with  any  of  the 
kingdoms  of  the  world.  His  warning  to  Peter  :  '*  All 
they  that  take  the  sword  shall  perish  with  the  sword  " 
(Matt.  xxvi.  52)  discloses  the  reason  for  His  submission 
to  both  ecclesiastical  and  political  authorities. 

These  instances  of  conformity  do  not  illustrate  any 
permanent  or  universal  principles  of  Christian  action 
in  Church  or  State.  Under  altered  conditions  oppo- 
sition, or  even  defiance,  may  be  as  consistent  with  the 
Christian  ideal  as  was  Jesus'  own  submission.  When 
conscience  compelled  Jesus  to  enter  into  conflict  with 
the  ecclesiastical  authorities.  He  did  not  shrink  from  it, 
even  though  His  own  death  was  the  inevitable  issue. 
What  His  example  does  teach  is  that  there  may  be  con- 
formity to  the  existing  order  in  Church  and  State 


REVEALED   IN   JESUS  93 

wherever  that  is  consistent  with  conscience,  the  claims 
of  duty,  or  the  call  of  faith.  This  conception  of  His 
Kingdom  as  not  of  this  world  has,  however,  permanent 
and  universal  significance.  Confidence  in  the  power  of 
truth,  righteousness,  grace  to  fulfil  the  ends  of  God  is 
Christian.  Reliance  on  the  outward  means  of  changes 
in  organization,  ecclesiastical  or  political,  is  not.  This 
emphasis  on  the  inward  and  indifference  to  the  out- 
ward is  probably  the  explanation  of  Jesus'  having  left 
the  organization  of  the  community  of  His  disciples  to 
be  carried  out  after  His  Resurrection.  While  there  is 
nothing  in  Jesus'  teaching  to  forbid  the  use  of  the 
machinery  of  the  Church  or  of  the  State  to  restrain 
vice,  to  relieve  misery,  to  promote  health  and  happi- 
ness, even  to  protect  and  preserve  character  ;  yet 
we  must  not  hide  from  ourselves  that  Jesus  Himself 
was  indifferent  to  the  mechanics  of  outward  organiza- 
tion, and  was  concerned  about  the  dynamics  of  inward 
inspiration.  Make  the  tree  good,  and  its  fruit  will  be 
good  (Matt.  vii.  20).  Christ's  method  is  to  change 
character,  and  not  to  alter  institutions. 

(9)  If  this  is  His  method,  we  shall  go  to  Him  in  vain 
for  any  ready-made  solutions  of  social  problems.  He 
reveals  principles ;  He  does  not  prepare  programmes  ; 
but  it  was  inevitable  that  in  a  ministry  so  varied 
and  in  teaching  so  comprehensive  as  His  He  should 
touch  on  social  relations  and  institutions  ;  and  although 
it  was  never  His  intention  to  be  a  legislator,  yet  we 
shall  find  that  He  does,  if  not  expHcitly,  yet  implicitly, 
lay  down  principles  of  His  Kingdom,  which  may  be 
practically  applied  to  our  present  perplexities  and 
difficulties. 

It  is  noteworthy  that  the  family  was  the  only  social 
institution  regarding  which  He  gave  very  definite  in- 
struction.    That    He   chose  to   describe  the  relation 


94  THE  CHRISTIAN   IDEAL 

between  God  and  Man,  revealed  and  realized  in  Him, 
by  the  family  relationship  of  Father  and  Son  is  itself  a 
most  pregnant  consideration. 

In  condemning  the  interpretation  of  the  Jewish 
law  by  the  Scribes,  He  took  two  of  His  instances  from 
the  family.  The  law  of  divorce  was  explained  by  many 
of  the  Scribes  in  such  a  way  as  to  make  it  very  easy  for 
a  man  to  get  rid  of  his  wife  ;  and  the  common  practice 
was  an  encouragement  to  moral  laxity.  In  the  Sermon 
on  the  Mount,  in  close  connexion  with  His  condemna- 
tion of  the  lustful  look  as  a  commission  of  adultery  in 
the  heart,  He  condemns  divorce  as  adultery.  The 
husband  who  divorces  his  wife  makes  her  an  adulteress, 
and  the  man  who  marries  the  divorced  wife  becomes  an 
adulterer.  One  ground  for  divorce  is  given  in  the 
clause  "  saving  for  the  cause  of  fornication ''  (Matt. 
V.  31,  32).  In  another  setting  this  same  prohibition 
of  adultery  is  repeated,  although  the  language  slightly 
varies;  and  the  justification  of  this  teaching  is  given  by 
an  appeal  to  Scripture,  to  the  intention  of  the  Creator 
in  making  mankind  male  and  female  that  there  should 
be  an  indissoluble  union  of  husband  and  wife,  ''  What 
therefore  God  hath  joined  together  let  not  man  put 
asunder."  In  reply  to  the  challenge  that  He  was  thus 
annulling  a  commandment  of  Moses,  He  laid  down  a 
general  principle  applicable  to  many  other  provisions 
of  the  Jewish  law.  '*  Moses  for  your  hardness  of  heart 
suffered  you  to  put  away  your  wives  "  (xix.  3-9). 
In  this  passage,  too,  one  cause  for  divorce  is  recog- 
nized. 

In  the  parallel  passages  in  Mark  (x.  1-12)  and  Luke 
(xvi.  18)  no  mention  of  this  exception  is  made.  It  is 
argued  that  the  clause  in  the  First  Gospel  is  a  gloss, 
intended  to  bring  Jesus'  teaching  into  harmony  with 
the  practice  of  the  Church  in  this  matter.     It  must  be 


REVEALED   IN   JESUS  95 

admitted  that  the  author  of  this  Gospel,  for  whom  the 
teaching  of  Jesus  is  the  legislation  of  the  new  kingdom, 
does  sometimes  insert  such  explanatory  clauses,  without 
any  intention  to  add  to  or  take  from  the  teaching,  but 
only  to  make  its  meaning  plain.  It  seems  certain 
that  Jesus  did  not  intend  to  legislate  ;  and  we  put  His 
words  to  another  use  than  He  intended  if  we  look  to 
them  for  the  details  of  laws  of  divorce.  The  version  in 
Mark  seems  to  be  the  original,  and  here  what  is  con- 
demned is  divorce,  either  by  husband  or  wife,  in  order 
to  effect  a  marriage  with  another.  This  apparently 
common  motive  of  divorce  is  unhesitatingly  condemned ; 
but  there  is  nothing  said  as  to  whether  there  is  or  is  not 
any  legitimate  ground  for  divorce.  Luke's  version 
combines  part  of  Mark's  and  part  of  Matthew's,  and 
is  evidently  secondary.  The  words  as  given  in  Matthew 
V.  32  are  not  at  all  as  intelligible  as  Mark's  version  of 
the  saying.  Should  not  the  man  who  divorces  his  wife 
be  pronounced  as  himself  guilty  of  adultery,  instead  of 
being  charged  with  the  offence  of  making  his  wife  an 
adulteress,  an  offence  which  she  could  be  guilty  of  only 
by  her  marriage  to  another  man  ?  The  version  in 
Matthew  xix.  9  is  nearer  Mark's,  and  expressly  con- 
demns not  divorce  merely,  but  divorce  with  a  view  to 
marrying  another  woman.  As  Jesus  does  not  seem  to 
be  prohibiting  divorce  altogether,  the  exceptive  clause 
in  Matthew  must  be  regarded  as  an  explanation,  added 
when  the  words  of  Jesus,  which  referred  only  to  divorce 
for  the  sake  of  marrying  another,  were  generalized  into 
a  law  regarding  divorce. 

It  seems  altogether  a  vain  dispute,  although  it  has 
been  long  and  hotly  waged,  whether  Jesus  does,  or  does 
not  make  an  exception  to  His  prohibition  of  divorce, 
as  His  interest  lay  elsewhere,  even  in  condemning  one 
instance  of  scribal  casuistry,  which  made  it  easy  for 


96  THE  CHRISTIAN   IDEAL 

men  and  women  to  foUow  their  own  whims  in  tempor- 
ary marriage  relationships.  The  principle  that  Jesus 
does  lay  down  is  that  the  relation  between  husband 
and  wife  is  intended  by  God  to  be  so  close  that  it  is 
to  be  lifelong.  Whether  there  are  offences  which  so 
destroy  the  relationship  as  to  justify  the  legal  recog- 
nition that  it  has  ceased  to  be  Jesus  nowhere  expressly 
teaches.  It  may  be  added  that  His  ideal  of  marriage 
does  condemn  as  a  heinous  sin  any  moral  laxity,  any 
infidelity  in  fancy  or  feeling,  and  that  it  does  require  of 
every  society  which  claims  the  Christian  name  that 
the  sanctity  of  marriage  shall  be  recognized  in  its  laws 
as  in  its  morals. 

(lo)  The  second  instance  of  scribal  casuistry  which 
Jesus  condemned  was  the  ingenious  device  by  means 
of  which  a  son  was  relieved  of  the  obligation  to  support 
his  parents.  All  he  had  to  do  when  his  parents  asked 
him  for  anything  was  to  declare  that  that  thing  was 
dedicated  to  God,  and  he  was  exempted  from  his  duty 
(Mark  vii.  10-12).  It  would  appear  even  that  this 
dedication  was  not  regarded  as  withdrawing  the  pro- 
perty from  his  own  use.  The  duty  of  children  to  care 
for  their  parents  Jesus  affirmed  as  the  law  of  God,  and 
such  attempts  at  evasion  as  traditions  of  men  which 
made  void  God's  word.  These  two  instances  prove 
how  highly  Jesus  valued  family  life.  There  is  no 
ground  whatever  in  the  teaching  of  Jesus  for  the  assump- 
tion, on  which  the  artificial  piety  of  monasticism  is 
based,  that  He  regarded  celibacy  as  superior  to  marriage, 
or  the  casting  off  of  family  relationships  as  better  than 
the  discharge  of  the  duties  that  these  relationships  im- 
pose. It  is  true  that  He  Himself  did  not  marry  ;  but 
that  is  surely  fully  explained  by  the  unique  vocation 
He  fulfilled  and  the  unique  relation  He  consequently 
sustained  to  all  mankind.     It  is  true  also  that  He 


REVEALED   IN   JESUS  97 

left  His  home  at  Nazareth,  withstood  the  interference 
of  His  family  with  His  ministry,  and,  even  when  the 
claims  of  His  mother  and  brethren  were  insisted  on, 
affirmed  the  higher  worth  for  Him  of  spiritual  affinity 
than  of  natural  relationship  (Mark  iii.  34,  35).  What 
His  example  teaches  is  that  the  claims  of  the  family  are 
not  absolute,  but  subordinate  to  the  claims  of  the  King- 
dom of  God.  The  selfishness  of  the  family  is  rebuked ; 
but  its  necessary  function  in  human  society  is  recog- 
nized. 

The  treatment  of  women  and  children  by  Jesus  has 
also  a  direct  bearing  on  the  problem  of  the  family. 
Jesus  was  not  at  all  effeminate,  but  thoroughly  manly ; 
and  yet  we  can  speak  of  His  womanliness  and  His 
childlikeness.  He  understood  the  heart  of  the  woman 
and  the  mind  of  the  child.  To  give  only  a  few  in- 
stances! He  surprised  the  disciples  by  talking  with 
the  woman  of  Samaria,  as  a  Jewish  Rabbi  would  have 
scorned  to  do  (John  iv.  27).  He  offended  his  host 
Simon  by  accepting  the  offering  of  the  penitent  sinner's 
gratitude  for  the  grace  of  forgiveness  (Luke  vii.  39). 
He  defended  with  the  insight  of  love  the  overflowing 
of  the  heart  of  Mary  of  Bethany  (Matt.  xxvi.  10-13). 
He  watched  the  children  at  their  play  (xi.  16,  17).  He 
set  a  child  in  the  midst  of  His  disciples  as  an  example 
to  them  (xviii.  2,  3).  He  welcomed  the  mothers  and 
the  babes,  whom  His  disciples  wanted  to  send  away 
from  Him  (xix.  13-15).  Reverence  for  womanhood 
and  childhood  is  the  sure  foundation  for  the  sanctity  of 
the  home. 

An  asceticism,  which  has  no  warrant  either  in  the 
teaching  or  the  example  of  Jesus,  has  sometimes 
betrayed  the  Christian  Church  into  a  depreciation  of 
the  family,  with  the  consequent  disrespect  to  woman- 
hood and  childhood.  But  wherever  the  teaching  of 
c.c.  H 


98  THE   CHRISTIAN   IDEAL 

Jesus  regarding  the  family,  reinforced  as  it  is  by  His 
treatment  of  women  and  children,  has  been  fully 
accepted,  there  there  has  been  a  purification  and 
elevation  of  the  home.  It  can  be  said  with  absolute 
confidence  that  a  society  is  Christian  only  as  it  main- 
tains marriage  and  the  family  inviolate. 

(ii)  The  family  has  not  only  a  physical  foundation 
in  the  relation  of  the  sexes  and  the  generations  to  one 
another  ;  but  demands  also  an  economic  basis.  The 
home  presupposes  the  house.  We  must  inevitably 
pass  from  the  institution  of  the  family  to  the  institu- 
tion of  property.  Jesus  in  His  teaching  assumed  pri- 
vate ownership,  the  current  custom  of  His  age  and  His 
people  ;  but  just  as  little  as  we  are  entitled  to  infer 
from  His  references  to  the  offering  upon  the  altar 
(Matt.  V.  23,  24),  or  to  the  interpretation  of  the  law  by 
the  Scribes  (xxiii.  2,  3),  that  He  meant  to  perpetuate 
by  His  authority  the  Jewish  ritual  and  the  Jewish  code, 
just  so  little  right  have  we  to  assume  from  His  allu- 
sions that  private  ownership  is  the  only  Christian  method 
of  holding  property.  As  even  sacrifice  to  God  was  to 
be  subordinated  to  reconciliation  with  a  brother  (v. 
24),  so  we  may  be  confident  that  Jesus  would  approve 
whatever  method  of  holding  property  might  be  most 
favourable  to  the  fulfilment  of  the  law  of  equal  love  to 
self  and  neighbour. 

There  is  one  inference  regarding  property  that  it 
seems  legitimate  to  draw  from  Jesus'  teaching  about 
the  family.  In  any  collective  ownership  of  the  means 
of  production  in  a  socialist  State,  it  would  be  neces- 
sary to  make  provision  for  the  economic  unity  and 
independence  of  the  family.  Husband  and  wife, 
parents  and  children,  must  not  be  treated  as  individual 
units  with  their  separate  economic  relation  to  the  com- 
munity, but  such  a  measure  of  private  ownership  would 


REVEALED   IN   JESUS  99 

seem  to  be  necessary  from  the  Christian  standpoint  as 
to  maintain  the  interdependence  of  the  members  of  each 
family. 

With  the  distribution  of  wealth  Jesus  would  have 
nothing  to  do.  When  appealed  to  about  a  dispute 
regarding  property,  He  not  only  refused  to  interfere, 
but  even  rebuked  the  covetousness  which  His  moral 
insight  enabled  Him  to  detect  as  the  motive  of  the 
request.  ''  Man,  who  made  Me  a  judge  or  a  divider 
over  you  ?  .  .  .  Take  heed,  and  keep  yourselves  from 
all  covetousness  :  for  a  man's  life  consisteth  not  in  the 
abundance  of  the  things  which  he  possesseth ''  (Luke 
xii.  14,  15).  If  in  the  distribution  of  wealth  covetous- 
ness is  to  be  shunned,  surely  from  the  Christian  stand- 
point love  is  to  be  sought.  The  modern  economic 
system  involves  an  inequality  in  the  distribution  of 
wealth  that  encourages  covetousness,  and  disowns 
love,  and  in  view  of  the  Christian  ideal  of  brotherhood 
stands  condemned. 

The  possession  of  property  Jesus  discourages  as  an 
aim  in  life.  The  Kingdom  of  God,  with  its  religious 
good  of  Divine  Fatherhood  and  its  moral  duty  of  human 
brotherhood,  is  worth  immeasurably  more  than  all  the 
riches  of  the  world.  Even  as  regards  the  means  of 
meeting  the  simplest  bodily  wants  for  food,  clothing 
and  shelter,  Jesus  forbids  any  concern,  and  calls  for 
trust  in  God.  ''  Work  not  for  the  meat  which  perish- 
eth,  but  for  the  meat  which  abideth  unto  eternal  life, 
which  the  Son  of  Man  shall  give  unto  you  "  (John  vi. 
27).  "  Be  not  therefore  anxious,  saying.  What  shall  we 
eat  ?  or.  What  shall  we  drink  ?  or,  Wherewithal  shall 
we  be  clothed  ?  For  after  all  these  things  do  the 
Gentiles  seek  ;  for  your  heavenly  Father  knoweth  that 
ye  have  need  of  all  these  things.  But  seek  ye  first  His 
Kingdom  and  His  righteousness ;  and  all  these  things 


100  THE  CHRISTIAN   IDEAL 

shall  be  added  unto  you  "  (Matt.  vi.  31-33).  Character 
is  what  Jesus  cares  for,  not  property. 

(12)  It  must  be  recognized,  however,  that  character 
and  property  are  not  altogether  unrelated.  The  prob- 
lem of  riches  and  poverty  is  moral  as  well  as  economic. 
If  Jesus  was  indifferent  to  the  modern  pressing  problem 
of  the  mode  of  ownership  of  property.  He  was  keenly 
interested  in  the  influence  of  riches  or  poverty  on  the 
soul.  His  judgment  reverses  current  opinions.  He 
regards  poverty  as  spiritually  advantageous,  and  wealth 
as  spiritually  dangerous. 

It  is  probable  that  Luke  has  preserved  the  beati- 
tudes in  their  original  form,  as  it  is  less  likely  that  he 
would  omit  the  qualifications  found  in  Matthew  in  order 
to  give  expression  to  his  Ebionitism,  than  that  Matthew 
would  add  these  qualifications  in  order  to  adapt  the 
direct  personal  address  of  Jesus  to  His  disciples  as 
general  legislation  for  the  Christian  Church.  Jesus 
pronounces  blessed  the  poor,  the  hungry,  the  weeping 
and  the  persecuted,  and  utters  His  woe  upon  the  rich, 
the  full,  the  laughing,  and  those  that  are  well  spoken 
of  (Luke  vi.  20-26).  He  expressly  states  the  reason  for 
His  judgment  regarding  the  peril  of  the  rich.  ''  How 
hardly  shall  they  that  have  riches  enter  into  the  King- 
dom of  God  !  "  (xviii.  24).  The  explanation  which  is 
given  in  Mark,  ''  How  hard  is  it  for  them  that  trust  in 
riches  to  enter  into  the  Kingdom  of  God  !  "  (x.  24) 
may  have  been  given  by  Jesus ;  but  we  cannot  avoid 
the  suspicion  that  it  was  the  form  of  the  saying  which 
afterwards  became  current  in  order  to  modify  the  ap- 
parent harshness  of  the  original  words.  Nevertheless 
it  does  bring  out  Jesus'  meaning.  For  Him  the  danger 
of  wealth  was  the  self-sufficiency  that  it  was  likely  to 
breed,  indifference  to  the  claims  of  God  on  the  one  hand, 
and  to  the  needs  of  men  on  the  other  hand. 


REVEALED   IN   JESUS/^"^  ^^^^  ^ '.^iii- 

The  first  peril  is  presented  to  us  in  the  parable  of  the 
Rich  Fool  (Luke  xii.  16-21)  ;  and  the  second  in  the 
parable  of  the  Rich  Man  and  Lazarus  (xvi.  19-31). 
How  great  Jesus'  estimate  of  this  peril  was  is  surely 
shown  by  the  sacrifice  He  required  in  order  that  it 
might  be  escaped.  To  the  rich  young  ruler,  whose 
wealth  imperilled  his  eternal  life,  Jesus  said,  "  One 
thing  thou  lackest  yet ;  sell  all  that  thou  hast,  and 
distribute  unto  the  poor,  and  thou  shalt  have  treasure 
in  heaven  ;  and  come,  follow  Me  "  (xviii.  22).  This  is 
not  a  universal  demand  ;  but  it  is  applicable  wherever 
and  whenever  property  endangers  character.  ''  The 
things  which  are  impossible  with  men  are  possible  with 
God  "  (verse  27).  There  are  rich  men  who  so  humbly 
depend  on  and  so  sincerely  serve  God  that  their  wealth 
is  not  a  danger  to  their  own  souls,  but  a  trust  from  God 
that  they  hold  as  a  means  of  doing  good  to  others. 
Wealth  can  be  robbed  of  its  poisonous  sting  only  as  it  is 
used  in  relieving  the  needs  of  others.  That,  as  has 
already  been  indicated,  is  taught  positively  as  precept 
in  the  parable  of  the  Unrighteous  Steward  (xvi.  1-9), 
and  negatively  as  warning  in  the  parable  of  the  Rich 
Man  and  Lazarus  (19-31). 

It  is  noteworthy  that  in  the  second  parable  we  have 
the  only  instance  of  the  use  of  a  proper  name.  Surely 
some  part  of  the  lesson  taught  is  hid  in  the  proper 
name  Lazarus  ;  if  not,  why  did  Jesus  here  only  depart 
from  His  usual  method  ?  Lazarus  is  the  Greek  ab- 
breviation of  the  Hebrew  Eleazar,  which  means,  "  God 
hath  helped."  The  poor  man  is  represented  in  the 
story,  in  contrast  with  the  rich  man,  as  one  whom  God 
cared  for  because  he  trusted  in  God.  The  advantage 
of  poverty  is  that  it  exercises  man's  trust  in  God  as 
wealth  does  not,  and  that  it  has  an  experience  of  the 
care  of  God  as  wealth  has  not.     His  wealth  keeps  the 


xd2       :-      'THE   CHRISTIAN   IDEAL 

rich  man  from  God  ;  his  need  drives  the  poor  man 
to  God. 

It  must  be  added,  however,  that  when  Jesus  speaks 
of  poverty,  He  is  not  thinking  of  such  a  ruthless  struggle 
for  daily  bread,  such  unrelieved  misery,  such  moral 
degradation  and  religious  despair  as  the  conditions  of 
our  modern  society  impose  on  its  outcasts.  There  is  a 
squalor  and  shame,  a  sorrow  and  suffering  in  the  poverty 
of  our  complex  civilization  which  a  simpler  society 
did  not  know. 

Jesus  assumes  that  the  needs  of  the  poor  will 
be  met.  He  condemns  ostentatious,  but  commends 
secret  almsgiving  (Matt.  vi.  1-4).  This  is  what  He 
requires  of  the  young  ruler  (xix.  21).  The  neglect  of 
this  duty  is  what  damns  the  Rich  Man  (Luke  xvi.  25). 
Jesus  Himself  during  His  ministry  had  compassion,  and 
not  only  healed  the  sick,  but  even  fed  the  hungry.  The 
society  Jesus  approves  is  not  a  society  which  in  its 
distribution  of  wealth  intercepts  the  Father's  bounty 
to  the  most  needy  of  His  children,  but  one  that  through 
the  help  of  human  love  responds  to  the  trust  in  divine 
love.  If  under  present  conditions  private  charity 
should  prove  inadequate  to  relieve  all  necessities,  then 
Jesus*  teaching  and  example  in  regard  to  the  poor 
impose  the  obligation  of  a  collective  provision  for  such 
human  wants. 

(13)  Wealth  is  spiritually  perilous,  and  poverty 
spiritually  advantageous  ;  yet  the  way  in  which  the 
rich  class  can  escape  its  disadvantage  is  by  giving 
freely  to  relieve  the  necessity  of  the  needy  class.  Is 
Jesus  then,  we  seem  to  be  forced  to  ask,  indifferent  or 
even  hostile  to  industry  ?  He  Himself  left  His  car- 
penter's bench  in  Nazareth  ;  He  called  His  disciples 
from  their  fishing  in  the  Sea  of  Galilee  ;  when  He  sent 
them  out  on  their  mission  to  ''  the  lost  sheep  of  the 


REVEALED   IN   JESUS  103 

house  of  Israel ''  He  forbade  their  making  provision 
for  their  bodily  needs,  and  made  them  depend  on  the 
bounty  of  those  to  whom  they  were  sent.  Accordingly 
voluntary  poverty  and  mendicancy  have  been  advo- 
cated as  the  distinctively  evangelical  virtues.  We  are 
not  left  to  the  reductio  ad  absurdum  argument  that 
if  there  were  no  workers,  but  all  became  beggars,  society 
would  come  to  an  end.  The  vocation  of  Jesus  and  His 
disciples  was  unique ;  the  preacher  of  the  Gospel  ren- 
dered a  service  to  the  hearer  which  gave  him  a  claim 
for  support,  "  The  labourer  is  worthy  of  his  food  ** 
(Matt.  X.  10)  ;  the  disciples  as  the  destined  leaders  of 
the  Christian  community  needed  the  elementary  disci- 
pline for  their  high  and  holy  calling  of  an  absolute  sub- 
mission to  and  dependence  on  God  even  in  regard  to 
their  bodily  needs. 

Jesus  in  His  teaching  shows  an  interest  in  the  mani- 
fold callings  of  men,  the  husbandman,  the  shepherd, 
the  fisherman,  the  merchantman  ;  even  the  duties  and 
cares  of  the  housewife  receive  His  notice.  There  is  no 
evidence  whatever  that  He  disapproved  of  industry, 
and  commended  mendicancy. 

If  not  in  Palestine  generally,  yet  throughout  the 
Roman  Empire,  slavery  was  common,  and  most  labour 
was  servile.  Jesus  does  not  appear  to  have  had  any 
occasion  to  pronounce  any  judgment  on  the  question  ; 
but  from  His  general  principles  we  may  infer  that  He 
would  have  acted  in  regard  to  it  as  did  the  Christian 
Church  afterwards.  Instead  of  advocating  the  aboli- 
tion of  the  institution.  He  would  have  so  applied  to 
the  relation  of  master  and  slave  the  law  of  love  as  to 
transform  its  character.  In  several  parables  Jesus 
refers  to  the  relation  of  master  and  servant.  The 
exacting  demands  of  the  Kingdom  are  illustrated  by 
the  master,  who  enjoins  the  servant  on  his  return  from 


104  THE   CHRISTIAN   IDEAL 

the  field  to  wait  on  him  while  he  sups  without  thanking 
him  for  the  service  (Luke  xvii.  7-10).  But  Jesus  here 
pronounces  no  moral  judgment  on  the  master's  con- 
duct ;  and  it  would  be  an  unwarranted  inference  that 
Jesus  approved  harsh  treatment  of  servants.  Such 
an  impression  finds  its  correction  in  the  three  parables 
of  the  Hours,  the  Talents,  and  the  Pounds,  of  which, 
according  to  Dr.  Bruce,  the  ''  common  theme  is  the 
political  economy  of  the  Kingdom  "  {The  Parabolic 
Teaching  of  Christ,  p.  178).  "  The  Parable  of  the 
Pounds,"  he  says,  '*  illustrates  the  proposition  that 
when  ability  is  equal  quantity  determines  relative 
merit''  (p.  179).  ''The  Parable  of  the  Talents  illus- 
trates the  proposition  that  when  ability  varies,  then 
not  the  absolute  quantity  of  work  done,  but  the  ratio 
of  the  quantity  to  the  abiUty,  ought  to  determine 
value."  ''  The  Parable  of  the  Labourers  in  the  vine- 
yard or  of  the  Hours  teaches  that  a  small  quantity  of 
work  done  in  a  right  spirit  is  of  greater  value  than  a 
great  quantity  done  in  a  wrong  spirit "  (p.  180). 
These  are  the  principles  by  which  the  relation  of  work 
and  wages  is  to  be  determined  in  the  Kingdom  of  God ; 
and,  although  Jesus  is  thinking  of  anything  but  the 
organization  of  industry,  yet  surely  in  a  just  economic 
system  ability  must  be  recognized,  industry  rewarded, 
and  fidelity  commended. 

Jesus  refers  not  only  to  reward,  but  also  to  punish- 
ment in  the  relation  of  master  and  servant.  Unfaith- 
ful servants  will  be  beaten  with  few  or  many  stripes 
according  to  their  demerit  (Luke  xii.  48).  Wrong- 
doing cannot  go  unpunished  in  a  Christian  society. 
Yet  forgiveness  must  always  be  ready  for  penitence, 
but  that  penitence  alone  is  recognized  as  genuine  which 
includes  the  willingness  to  forgive.  The  Parable  of 
the  Unforgiving  Servant  (Matt,  xviii.  23-35)  teaches 


REVEALED   IN   JESUS  105 

this  truth.  In  the  relation  of  master  and  servant,  as 
Jesus  presents  it  in  the  parables,  faithfulness  in  the 
servant  is  insisted  on,  but  righteous  and  even  gracious 
principles  of  action  are  assumed  on  the  part  of  the 
master.  We  should  be  putting  these  parables  to  a 
use  Jesus  never  intended,  if  we  attempted  to  derive 
from  them  directly  regulations  for  the  relations  of 
Capital  and  Labour  to-day.  It  is  with  moral  dis- 
positions and  not  with  economic  conditions  that  Jesus 
is  solely  concerned.  Nevertheless,  we  may  confi- 
dently affirm  that  no  relations  of  Capital  and  Labour 
are  Christian  in  which  these  moral  considerations  are 
ignored,  in  which  the  supreme  law  of  equal  love  to 
self  and  neighbour  is  disobeyed. 

(14)  The  industry,  which  Jesus  takes  for  granted 
without  censure,  and  even  with  commendation  of  such 
virtues  as  it  brings  into  exercise,  is  industry  directed 
towards  meeting  the  needs  of  a  comparatively  simple 
life.  Modern  industry  is  producing  not  only  the  neces- 
sities, but  even  the  comforts,  refinements  and  luxuries 
of  life.  We  may  well  ask  ourselves  whether  Jesus, 
living  the  simplest  life,  absorbed  in  the  Kingdom  of 
God,  indifferent  to  earthly  goods,  could  approve  our 
complex  civilization.  It  may  be  said  unhesitatingly 
that  the  luxury  which  ministers  to  the  vanity  or  the 
indulgence  of  the  rich  stands  absolutely  condemned. 
This  is  not  the  place  in  which  to  show  that  this  luxury 
is  as  economically  wasteful  as  it  is  morally  hurtful 
and  socially  wrongful.  There  are  material  advances 
in  modern  society  that  are  a  hindrance  to  the  progress 
of  the  Kingdom  of  God.  When  the  earth  is  searched 
far  and  near,  and  bird  and  beast  are  mercilessly  slaugh- 
tered, to  tickle  the  palate  and  to  adorn  the  person  of 
those  whom  a  superfluity  of  wealth  has  robbed  of  the 
taste  for  simple  pleasures,  there  is  decadence  and  not 


io6  THE   CHRISTIAN   IDEAL 

improvement.  When  it  is  recognized  that  this  super- 
abundance of  riches  in  the  few  is  accompanied  by,  nay, 
in  some  measure  is  the  cause  of  the  insufficiency  for 
the  needs  of  hfe  of  the  many,  then  it  must  be  admitted 
that  the  Christian  social  ideal  is  absolutely  contra- 
dicted. That  life  might  be  made  much  more  simple 
without  any  loss  of  any  good,  aesthetic  or  intellectual, 
worth  preserving,  must  surely  be  freely  admitted  ; 
such  simpler  life  would  certainly  be  more  Christian. 

On  the  other  hand,  the  teaching  and  example  of 
Jesus  do  not  seem  to  demand  that  that  simplicity 
should  be  carried  as  far  as  asceticism.  Jesus  did 
require  self-denial,  the  sacrifice  of  the  offending  eye, 
hand,  foot  (Matt.  v.  29,  30  ;  xviii.  8,  9),  the  taking  up  of 
the  Cross,  (xvi.  24),  the  abandonment  of  home  and 
kindred  (viii.  18-22),  the  loss  of  life  itself  (xvi.  25)  ; 
yet  the  demand  is  always  made  in  the  interests  of  the 
Kingdom  of  God.  Pain  or  loss  or  death  is  not  an 
end  in  itself  ;  self-torture  is  no  duty.  The  Kingdom 
offer  a  fuller  and  a  larger  good  than  any  which  for  its 
sake  must  be  surrendered.  Jesus  Himself  lived  in 
utmost  simplicity  and  even  utter  poverty  ;  yet  He  was 
no  ascetic.  In  this  respect  in  the  popular  opinion  He 
compared  unfavourably  with  John  the  Baptist.  *'  The 
Son  of  Man  came  eating  and  drinking,  and  they  say. 
Behold  a  gluttonous  man,  and  a  wine-bibber,  a  friend 
of  publicans  and  sinners''  (xi.  19). 

It  is  hardly  necessary  to  add  that  the  advocacy  of 
total  abstinence  as  the  most  effective  method  of  deal- 
ing with  the  evil  of  strong  drink  to-day  is  not  based  on 
asceticism,  but  on  the  Christian  principle  of  avoiding 
at  any  cost  every  moral  offence,  every  cause  of  stumb- 
ling to  self  or  another.  If  Jesus'  example  cannot  in 
this  respect  be  appealed  to,  it  is  because  the  conditions 
of  His  age  did  not  require  this  form  of  self-denial. 


REVEALED   IN   JESUS  107 

The  motive  from  which  total  abstinence  is  practised 
by  many  to-day  is  in  complete  harmony  with  His 
spirit  and  purpose.  Can  it  be  doubted  that  if  self- 
denial  for  the  sake  of  the  Kingdom  were  in  mani- 
fold forms  more  common,  our  society  would  be 
very  much  more  Christian  in  character  than  it  is 
to-day  ? 

That  Jesus  was  not  altogether  indifferent  to  what 
may  be  called  the  aesthetic  aspect  of  life  may  be  in- 
ferred from  His  interest  in  nature  around  Him,  the  birds 
of  the  air,  and  the  flowers  of  the  field  (Matt.  vi.  26,  28). 
To  promote  art,  science,  literature,  or  philosophy 
did  not  fall  within  the  scope  of  His  unique  vocation— 
the  revelation  of  God  as  Father,  and  the  redemption  of 
man  from  sin — on  the  fulfilment  of  which  during  His 
brief  earthly  ministry  He  had  to  concentrate  all  His 
desire  and  effort:  ''working  while  it  was  yet  day." 
His  perfection  was  not  extensive,  quantitative,  but  in- 
tensive, qualitative.  His  speciality  was  not  everything, 
but  "the  one  thing  needful,''  the  union  of  God  and 
man,  without  which  nothing  has  enduring  meaning, 
unchanging  worth.  In  the  Divine  Fatherhood  and  the 
human  brotherhood  there  is  nothing  adverse  to  any  of 
these  interests  and  pursuits,  even  although  Jesus  in 
His  absorption  in,  and  devotion  to,  this  one  aim  had  no 
thought  to  spare,  and  no  help  to  give  to  any  of  them. 
Genuinely  Christian  character  has  been  developed  in 
seeking  the  True,  loving  the  Beautiful,  as  well  as  striv- 
ing for  the  Good  ;  and  accordingly  none  of  these  aims 
or  endeavours  needs  to  be  shut  out  from  a  fully  Chris- 
tian society.  All  these  interests  and  pursuits,  how- 
ever, to  be  fully  Christian  in  spirit  and  purpose,  must 
ever  be  controlled  by  the  law  of  love.  The  defence 
Jesus  offered  of  the  gift  of  the  sinful  woman  (Luke 
vii.  44-47)  and  of  Mary  of  Bethany  (Matt.  xxvi.  10-13) 


io8  THE   CHRISTIAN   IDEAL 

suggests  that  the  society  Jesus  would  approve  need  not 
rest  on  any  narrow  utilitarian  basis. 

(15)  The  teaching  of  Jesus  has  recently  been  so 
interpreted  as  to  deprive  of  His  moral  sanction  the 
very  existence  of  an  organized  society  with  laws  which 
may  be  enforced.  His  prohibition  of  personal  revenge, 
and  His  instructions  to  His  disciples  when  persecuted 
to  submit  readily  and  fully  to  any  wrongs  inflicted  on 
them,  have  been  generalized  into  a  final  theory  of 
government.  The  three  concrete  instances  Jesus  gives 
of  such  submission,  the  turning  of  the  other  cheek  to 
him  who  has  smitten  the  one,  the  surrender  of  the  cloak 
to  him  who  by  law  has  taken  away  the  coat,  the  going 
of  two  miles  when  forced  to  go  one  (Matt.  v.  39-41) 
have  been  treated  as  rules  of  permanent  and  universal 
application.  Under  no  conditions,  it  is  argued,  is 
force  to  be  met  with  force  ;  wrong  must  never  be  with- 
stood ;  obedience  to  law  cannot  be  compelled. 

In  disproof  of  this  conclusion  it  may  be  pointed  out 
first  of  all  that  Jesus  is  here  not  laying  down  rules  of 
conduct,  but  is  giving  illustrations  of  a  principle,  and 
illustrations  of  what  one  may  call  the  maximum  re- 
quirement of  the  principle.  If  your  love  for  your 
enemies,  if  your  forgiveness  of  the  insults  and  injuries 
they  inflict  upon  you,  demand  such  submission  to 
wrong,  you  must  submit — this  is  His  meaning.  Jesus 
does  not  seek  by  hard  and  fast  rule  to  supersede  con- 
science ;  conscience  must  judge  in  each  case  whether 
the  principle  demands  this  or  another  application. 
Secondly,  it  is  to  be  noted  that  one  of  the  illustrations 
is  drawn  from  temporary  and  local  conditions — the 
service  enforced  by  the  Roman  soldiery — as  in  the  case  of 
Simon  of  Cyrene  who  was  compelled  to  carry  the  cross 
of  Jesus  (Mark  xv.  21) — and  cannot  be  a  rule  for  all 
ages.     Thirdly,  the  command  is  addressed  to  His  dis- 


REVEALED   IN   JESUS  109 

ciples  for  their  guidance  under  persecution.  Jesus  has 
not  at  all  in  view  the  problem  of  the  government  of 
society.  He  is  not  here  pronouncing  any  opinion  as  to 
the  functions  of  the  State,  or  the  means  by  which  its 
authority  may  be  enforced. 

One  may  say  confidently  that  government  with  the 
assent  of  the  governed  is  nearer  the  Christian  social 
ideal  than  the  rule  of  force.  That  does  not,  however, 
involve  that  wrong-doers  shall  not  be  restrained,  if  need 
be,  by  force.  So  far  as  the  moral  interests  of  a  society 
demand  the  suppression  of  vice  and  crime,  there  is 
nothing  in  the  teaching  of  Jesus,  reasonably  and  con- 
scientiously interpreted,  to  forbid  such  repression.  If 
the  punishments  inflicted  are  vindictive,  then  the 
Christian  principle  is  most  certainly  violated.  If 
the  punishments  even  are  only  preventive,  they  fall 
short  of  the  requirements  of  the  supreme  law  of  love. 
Only  if  they  are  reformatory  in  intention,  even  though 
they  may  not  always  be  in  result,  are  they  consistent 
with  the  Christian  social  ideal.  Undoubtedly  there 
is  a  stupidity  and  even  a  cruelty  in  many  of  the  prison 
regulations,  which  sets  them  in  absolute  antagonism 
to  the  spirit  of  Jesus. 

If  Jesus'  principle  of  non-retaliation  is  to  receive  its 
proper  modern  applications,  it  is  not  only  in  individual 
conduct,  but  also  in  social  regulations.  When  Christian 
men  are  not  only  subjects,  but  citizens,  then  not  sub- 
mission to  government  only,  but  participation  in  govern- 
ment in  order  that  as  far  as  is  possible  the  Christian 
ideal  may  be  advanced  and  not  retarded  in  its  realiza- 
tion, is  their  duty.  His  ideal  is  a  society  in  which  love 
is  so  supreme,  that  law  with  its  penalties  is  no  longer 
necessary.  Till  love  gains  such  supremacy  law  may 
be  enforced,  so  long  as  it  keeps  not  back,  but  hastens 
on  the  reign  of  love.     So  also  in  international  relations 


no  THE   CHRISTIAN   IDEAL 

the  Christian  principle  appears  to  demand  that  war, 
and  the  suspicions,  rivalries,  ambitions  which  lead  to 
war,  shall  be  avoided  at  any  cost  of  wealth,  or  power,  or 
fame.  To  the  writer  it  seems  that  the  possibility  must 
be  allowed  of  a  national  resistance  to  aggression  or 
tyranny  which  would  not  come  under  the  condemna- 
tion of  Jesus.  Just  as  within  a  nation  crime  may  be 
restrained,  so  as  between  nation  and  nation  an  attack 
on  a  people's  liberty  may  be  resisted.  Yet  from  the 
Christian  standpoint  the  ideal  is  a  humanity  that  has 
forgotten  the  arts  of  war.  Whatever  in  international 
relations  removes  the  provocation  to  war  is  an  applica- 
tion of  the  principle  which  Jesus  enunciated.  A  literal 
obedience  in  all  cases  to  the  instances  given  as  rigid 
rules  would  involve  the  supremacy  of  wrong  in  the 
world,  the  suppression  of  right,  not  only  a  temporary 
delay  in  the  realization,  but  even  the  final  extinction  of 
the  Christian  ideal  of  just  and  kind  and  helpful  govern- 
ment. 

(i6)  Having  thus  briefly  surveyed  the  teaching  of 
Jesus  on  those  questions  which  are  of  urgent  interest 
to  us  to-day,  we  are  led  to  two  considerations  which 
seem  to  be  of  utmost  importance  if  that  teaching  is  to 
afford  us  the  guidance  which  we  need  now.  Social 
reformers  in  their  ardour  have  sometimes  felt  that  the 
teaching  of  Jesus  did  not  yield  them  at  once  the  solu- 
tions of  the  problems  which  they  sought.  This  feeling 
is  due  to  mistaken  expectations,  to  putting  the  wrong 
questions  to  Jesus.  The  proof  of  the  universality  and 
permanence  of  the  Christian  religion  lies  just  in  this, 
that  it  does  not  deal  directly  with  the  needs  of  one  age 
or  of  one  people,  that  it  does  not  perpetuate  and  diffuse 
temporary  and  local  customs  and  standards.  If  Jesus 
had  personally  concerned  Himself  with  the  social 
problems  of  His  own  time  and  surroundings,  He  could 


REVEALED   IN   JESUS  iii 

not  have  become  the  world's  Saviour  and  Lord.  If 
our  social  problems  had  been  anticipated  by  Him,  and 
He  had  dealt  with  them,  His  teaching  would  have 
been  out  of  all  relation  to  the  life  around  Him.  The 
temporal  and  particular  could  have  a  place  in  His 
teaching  only  by  way  of  illustration  of  the  permanent 
and  the  universal.  To  grasp  the  illustration  and  cling 
to  it  would  in  most  cases  be  to  let  slip  and  lose  the 
principle.  Just  because  Jesus  so  simplified  and 
unified  religion  and  morality  as  filial  love  to  God  and 
fraternal  love  to  man,  is  the  Christian  faith  so  adaptable 
to  different  races  and  changing  periods.  Just  because 
He  applied  that  supreme  principle  only  to  a  few  funda- 
mental relations  of  human  society,  can  there  be  pro- 
gress in  Christian  society. 

The  wisdom  and  the  worth  of  the  method  of  Jesus 
are  made  more  evident,  if  we  compare  it  with  that  of 
Mohammed  or  Buddha.  Buddha,  that  he  might  share 
his  way  of  salvation  with  others,  founded  an  order  of 
monks,  and  only  unwillingly  associated  with  it  in  an 
inferior  position  an  order  of  nuns.  Alike  his  problem 
and  its  solution  were  temporary  and  local.  Without 
altogether  losing  its  distinctive  features  Buddhism  can- 
not be  the  religion  or  morality  of  a  progressive,  civil- 
ized, modern  society.  Mohammed  was  not  content 
with  giving  a  creed  ;  he  must  needs  attach  to  it  a  code 
which  minutely  regulated  the  morals,  manners,  duties 
and  relations  of  his  followers.  Although  he  was  a 
reformer,  he  was  not  so  detached  from  his  environment 
as  to  be  uninfluenced  by  its  beliefs,  customs,  institu- 
tions. While  purposing  to  make  Islam  the  universal 
religion,  he  nevertheless  forced  it  into  the  moulds  of 
Arab  society,  and  so  made  it  incapable  without  funda- 
mental change  of  adaptation  to  new  conditions.  That 
Jesus  did  not  legislate  for  His  community  as  Buddha 


112  THE   CHRISTIAN   IDEAL 

and  Mohammed  both  did  is  a  proof  that  His  Kingdom 
was  not  of  this  world,  the  natural  product  of  one  age  or 
one  people,  but  came  in  Him  from  an  eternal  and 
infinite  source,  above  the  divisions  of  race  and  the  mu- 
tations of  time,  and  so  adapted,  when  it  entered  into 
human  history,  for  universality  and  permanence.  Be- 
cause we  cannot  find  ready-made  answers  to  all  the 
questions  of  our  time  in  the  teaching  of  Jesus,  it  is 
fittest  to  yield  to  those  who  know  how  to  cast  the 
plummet  of  their  conscience,  quickened  by  His  Spirit, 
into  the  depths  of  His  principles  the  guidance  that  any 
age  or  any  people  may  need. 

(17)  It  may  be  objected,  however,  that  Jesus, 
although  He  laid  down  such  permanent  and  universal 
principles,  did  not  foresee  any  so  gradual  progress  of  the 
Kingdom  of  God  in  the  world.  There  is  a  tendency 
among  some  scholars  to  force  the  teachings  of  Jesus  into 
the  Procrustean  bed  of  contemporary  Jewish  thought : 
and  to  deny  to  them  any  originality  of  truth.  It  is 
impossible  here  to  enter  on  a  discussion  of  the  difiicult 
subject  of  Jesus*  eschatological  teaching,  in  which  He 
foretells  in  the  near  future  God's  judgment  on  Jerusalem, 
and  in  close  connexion  with  it  anticipates  His  own 
Second  Advent,  and  the  consummation  of  the  age. 
There  is  no  indication  of  any  long  interval  of  time 
between  the  events.  It  must  be  observed,  however, 
that  He  expects  the  fall  of  Jerusalem  in  the  same 
generation  (Matt.  xxiv.  34),  but  of  His  Return  even  He 
the  Son  knows  not  the  hour  (verse  36.  It  seems 
reasonable  so  to  understand  these  conflicting  indications 
of  time,  as  there  appears  to  be  considerable  confusion 
in  the  evangelists'  reports  of  these  utterances  of  Jesus). 
The  parables  collected  in  Matthew  xiii.  bearing  on  the 
mystery  of  the  Kingdom  suggest  at  least  that  Jesus  had 
in  view  a  longer  and  slower  development  of  the  King- 


REVEALED   IN  JESUS  113 

dom  by  moral  and  religious  means,  and  not  by  super- 
natural power.     It  is  very  difficult  to  believe  that  Jesus 
as  the  founder  of  the  Kingdom  of  God  on  earth  had  not 
at  least  as  clear  a  foresight  of  its  historical  progress  as 
He  had  a  keen  insight  into  its  moral  and  religious 
principles.     A  closer  consideration  should  surely  con- 
vince us  that  the  Kingdom  which  is  not  of  the  world, 
which  spreads  as  a  mustard  seed,  and  works  changes 
like  the  leaven,  which  is  so  valued  as  a  treasure  or  a 
pearl  of  great  price  as  to  be  secured  at  the  greatest 
sacrifice,  into  which  the  tares  may  be  introduced  as  well 
as  the  wheat,  and  the  success  of  which  depends  on  the 
receptivity  of  human  souls  for  divine  truth  and  grace, 
that  such  a  Kingdom  comes  not  with  outward  obser- 
vation,   or    in    sudden    manifestation.     That    Jesus' 
foresight  included  any  detailed  knowledge  of  the  history 
of  His  cause  in  the  world  need  not,  and  cannot  be  main- 
tained ;  but  it  is  surely  giving  Him  less  than  is  due  to 
His  wisdom  and  grace  to  suppose  that  He  did  not  anti- 
cipate, as  the  joy  set  before  Him,  for  which  He  endured 
the  Cross,  the  world-wide  spread,  and  age-long  growth 
of  His  Kingdom  unto  an  end  as  great  as,  and  worthy  of. 
His  sacrifice.     As  other  essays  in  this  volume  will  show, 
the  Kingdom  of  God  has  been  coming  in  a  gradual  pro- 
gress in  human  history  ;  and  if  the  results  are  any  indi- 
cation of  the  intention  of  Jesus,  we  are  warranted  in 
concluding  that,  however  revolutionary  His  moral  and 
religious  principles  might  be,  the  method  of  Jesus  in 
applying  these  principles  in  human  society  is  evolution- 
ary, not  in  opposition,  to,  but  in  agreement  with,  the 
method  of  God  in  Creation  and  Providence.     If  pro- 
gress is  to  be  Christian  in  character,  it  must  not  be 
secured  by  physical  violence,  or  even  political  expedi- 
ency, but  by  the  enlightening  of  the  mind,  the  quicken- 
ing of  the  conscience,  and  the  renewal  of  the  life, 
c.c,  I 


114  THE   CHRISTIAN   IDEAL 

From  this  conclusion  there  follows  an  important 
inference  in  regard  to  the  function  of  the  Christian 
Church  in  Social  Reform.  It  is  not  enough  that  its 
end  should  be  Christian,  the  means  too  must  be.  It  is 
not  the  task  of  the  Church  to  hasten  or  delay  changes  in 
the  economic  conditions  by  stimulating  the  suspicion 
and  hostility  of  the  masses  against  the  classes,  or  the 
reverse,  by  taking  sides  either  for  Capital  or  Labour, 
by  defending  private  property  or  advocating  collective 
ownership,  by  identifying  itself  with  or  opposing  itself 
to  any  political  party.  It  is  its  task,  however,  to  insist 
that  not  bare  legal  justice,  or  even  mere  economic 
equality,  but  genuine  Christian  love  shall  inspire  all 
social  relationships ;  that  the  aim  of  all  social  progress 
shall  be  a  wider  and  yet  closer  brotherhood  of  mutual 
sympathy  and  service ;  that  the  pity  of  Christ  Himself 
shall  be  felt  by  all  who  are  the  members  of  His  body  for 
the  miseries  and  sins  of  even  the  lowest  of  His  brethren  ; 
that  the  fellowship  of  His  sufferings  and  conformity  to 
His  death  means  to-day  very  specially  individual 
sacrifice  for  the  common  good  ;  that  the  power  of  His 
Resurrection  will  be  realized  above  all  in  this  age  not  so 
much  in  personal  experience  only,  as  in  former  ages,  but 
in  national  and  international  history  ;  that  the  wrongs 
and  cruelties  that  men  inflict  on  one  another  must  be 
brought  to  the  judgment-bar  of  the  Holy  Love  that 
gave  itself  in  desolation  and  darkness  to  save  sinful 
mankind.  This  may  appear  a  less  attractive  method, 
but  if  the  experience  of  the  past  offers  guidance  for  the 
present,  it  will  prove  the  more  effective. 

(i8)  In  conclusion  it  seems  necessary  to  add  that 
the  work  of  the  Church  is  limited  by  its  strength,  that 
its  abounding  fruit  depends  on  the  fullness  of  life  that 
it  can  draw  from  its  roots  in  the  truth  and  grace  of 
God  in  Jesus  Christ,     Not  only  the  teaching  and  exam- 


REVEALED   IN   JESUS  115 

pie  of  Jesus  must  be  taken  into  account  in  dealing  with 
the  Social  Problem  of  to-day.  The  Christian  Ideal  is 
not  only  revealed,  but  also  realized  in  Christ.  It  is  not 
there  merely  for  our  contemplation  and  imitation.  It 
is  there  for  our  appropriation  by  faith  in  His  grace. 
Loftier  and  larger  principles  were  never  uttered  ;  a 
greater  service  was  never  rendered  to  mankind ;  and 
never  was  a  greater  sacrifice  endured  for  the  good  of 
men.  Yet  these  principles  can  never  be  fully  applied, 
nor  can  that  service  or  that  sacrifice  be  closely  imitated, 
until  Christ  Himself  in  His  present  and  potent  Spirit 
becomes  the  inmost  life  of  the  soul,  until  His  truth 
illumines  the  conscience,  His  grace  energizes  the  will, 
and  His  love  captivates  the  affections.  Nothing  could 
be  more  foolish  than  the  tendency  which  is  only  too 
common  to-day  to  oppose  the  devout  life  and  the  prac- 
tical duty.  The  lower  springs  of  admiration  for  and 
acceptance  of  the  teaching  and  example  of  Jesus  will 
not  keep  full  the  river  of  Christ-like  ministry  to  the 
needs  of  men  ;  it  must  draw  its  streams  from  the  higher 
springs  of  a  life  lived  with  Christ  in  God,  a  life  crucified 
and  risen  with  Christ.  Meditation  on,  and  communion 
with  the  Living  Lord  is  the  source  of  the  wise  and  holy 
love  for  men  that  is  needed  in  all  social  relations. 

Should  the  much  serving  of  even  philanthropy 
divert  the  desire  and  interest  of  the  Christian  Church 
from  the  one  thing  needful,  the  love  of  the  Father 
through  the  grace  of  the  Son  in  the  fellowship  of  the 
Spirit,  ere  long  the  work  for  man  itself  would  lose  its 
inspiration,  would  sink  into  a  soulless  routine,  would 
fail  in  bringing  to  men  their  highest  good.  It  was  for 
the  world's  lasting  gain  that  Jesus  made  it  ''  His  meat 
and  His  drink,"  to  do  the  Father's  will  in  caring  for 
the  souls  of  men  even  unto  the  sacrifice  of  His  Cross, 
even  though  His  eyes  had  to  be  withdrawn  from,  and 


Ii6  THE   CHRISTIAN   IDEAL 

His  heart  had  to  be  closed  to  many  of  the  other  interests 
of  Ufe.  His  concentration  on  the  revelation  of  God's 
Fatherhood,  and  the  realization  through  redemption  of 
man's  sonship,  was  the  necessary  condition  of  the  ever- 
widening  expansion  of  man's  brotherhood.  The  reli- 
gious good  of  the  Kingdom  of  God  must  be  secured  for 
man  before  its  moral  duty  could  be  imposed  on  man. 
Accordingly,  the  Christian  ideal  of  social  relations  has 
its  core  in  the  Christian  faith  in  God  as  the  Father  who 
in  grace  forgives  the  son  who  in  faith  comes  to  Him. 
The  grateful  love  to  God  which  is  the  fruit  of  the  divine 
grace  is  the  root  of  the  human  sympathy,  service  and 
sacrifice  on  behalf  of  others  which  brings  the  Kingdom 
of  God  on  earth  in  a  holy  brotherhood  of  mankind  which 
reflects  the  Holy  Fatherhood  of  God. 


Ill 

The  Preparation  for  the  Christian  Ideal  in 
the  Gentile  Environment  of  the  Primitive 
Church 

By  C.  franklin  ANGUS,  M.A.,  Fellow  and  Classical 
Lecturer  of  Trinity  Hall,  Cambridge 


ARGUMENT. 

I.  The  Seed  of  the  Gospel  and  the  Soil  of  the  Graeco-Roman  World — The 

Traditional  Account  of  its  Condition  One-Sided  and  Based  on  In- 
sufficient Evidence. 

II.  The  General  Law  of  Development — The  two  Stages  :    (i)  The  Basis  of 

Society  among  the  Greeks  and  its  Demolition — The  Guidance  of 
Philosophy — Epicureanism  and  Stoicism — (2)  Rome  as  a  MiUtary 
State — The  Patria  Potestas — Hardness  and  Strength. 

III.  The  Actual  Picture — A  Society  in  Process  of  Decomposition  but  giving 

Promise  aheady  of  a  New  Order  of  Things. 

(i)  Parallels  to  Modern  Society  in  the  Early  Roman  Empire — 
A  High  Level  of  Prosperity  in  Material  Civihzation,  a  Sense  of  Econ- 
omic Responsibihty  in  the  Government,  Corruption  in  the  Upper 
Classes,  Abounding  Generosity. 

(2)  Pecuhar  Points  in  the  Imperial  Age — ^The  Position  of  Women, 
The  Public  Games,  The  Institution  of  Slavery,  and  the  Influence  of 
Philosophy — The  Defect  of  the  Philosophy — The  Absence  of  a  Vivify- 
ing Spirit. 


Ill 


The  Preparation  for  the  Christian  Ideal  in 
the  Gentile  Environment  of  the  Primitive 
Church. 


Uw?  ovv  olov  re  rjp  rrjv  elpTjviKtjv  ravirju  hiha(TKa\iav 
KpaTTJaaif  il  /jlt)  to  T/7?  oiKov/xivi]^  rrj  'Irjaov  iirLSrjfila 
fjb€T€^e^\rfTo  Travra'x^ov  iirl  to  ri/jbepdjTepov  ;  Origen. 

' EiraL^aycoyeL  yap  koX  t)  ^CKo<To^ia  to  ^EWtjviKov  o)9 
o  vofjLo^  Tovf  ^E8paiov<i  el^  XptaTOP.  TrpoTrapaa/cevd^ec 
TOLVVV  avTTj  TTpo  oBoTToiovaa  TOP  VTTO  XpLGTov TeXevov- 
fievov. 

Clement  of  Alexandria. 

Freed  from  the  narrow  bonds  of  Judaism,  the  Christian 
Gospel  invaded  the  Graeco-Roman  world.  What  was 
the  kind  of  civilization  which  it  found  there  estab- 
lished ?  What  ideas  and  institutions  had  it  to  com- 
bat ?  On  the  other  hand,  to  what  extent  and  through 
what  processes  had  the  hearts  and  minds  of  men  been 
prepared  for  its  reception  ?  What,  in  a  word,  was 
the  nature  of  the  soil  into  which  the  good  seed  must 
fall,  and  what  was  already  sown  or  growing  there  ? 
These  are  the  questions  which  we  have  now  to  con- 
sider. 

It  has  been  usual  until  quite  recent  times  to  regard 
the  Roman  Empire,  during  the  first  century  of  our 
era,  as  a  world  of  profoundest  moral  darkness,  relieved 

U9 


X 


120   PREPARATION   FOR  CHRISTIAN   IDEAL 

only  where  a  few  faint  beams  of  light,  reflected  from 
the  East,  gave  promise  of  the  coming  dawn.  A  true 
picture  of  society  was  found  in  the  familiar  lines  of 
Matthew  Arnold : — 

"  On  that  hard  pagan  world  disgust 

And  secret  loathing  fell ; 

Deep  weariness  and  sated  lust 

Made  human  life  a  hell." 

Contemporary  writers  were  quoted  to  the  same  effect. 
Had  not  Tacitus  written  of  his  own  age  as  "  a  reign 
of  terror,  in  which  no  virtue  could  live,''  and  called 
the  Imperial  City  ''  a  common  sink  where  all  the 
abominations  of  the  world  met  and  multiplied  7  **  ^. 
Seneca  was  the  tutor  of  Nero,  and  knew  the  secrets 
of  the  court :  could  anything  exceed  the  bitterness 
of  his  description  ? — 

"  All  things  are  full  of  iniquity  and  vice.  More  crimes  are  com- 
mitted than  can  be  remedied  by  force.  A  monstrous  contest  of 
wickedness  is  carried  on.  Daily  the  lust  of  sin  increases :  daily 
the  sense  of  shame  grows  less.  Casting  away  aU  regard  for  what  is 
good  and  honourable,  pleasure  runs  riot  without  restraint.  Vice 
no  longer  hides  itself,  it  walks  abroad  before  all  eyes.  .  .  .  Inno- 
cence has  ceased  to  exist  .  .  ."  ^ 

From  these  and  similar  passages  we  have  learnt 
to  picture  a  world  of  absolute  power  unregulated  by 
conscience,  of  enormous  wealth  free  from  any  sense 
of  responsibility  ;  where  wickedness  sat  enthroned, 
while  more  than  half  the  population  lived  in  slavery, 
chattels  of  masters  trained  to  seek  amusement  in 
scenes  of  blood  and  human  agony ;  where  the  widow 
and  orphan  were  unregarded,  and  the  very  name  of 

^  Tacitus,  Agricola  i.  Annals,  xv.    44  ;    see   also    the   whole 
chapter  in  the  Histories,  i,  2. 
'  Seneca,  De  Ira,  ii.  8. 


IN   THE   GENTILE   ENVIRONMENT      121 

charity  was  unknown ;  a  world  where  sense  and 
intellect  were  abundantly  gratified,  while  the  soul 
starved,  because  love  had  no  place  in  it.  How  a 
society  so  essentially  corrupt  could  have  held  together 
for  so  long  was  not  explained  :  in  this  barren  and 
exhausted  soil,  it  was  believed,  Christianity,  like  a  root 
out  of  dry  ground,  miraculously  grew. 

To  deny  that  the  traditional  account  contained  much 
truth  would  be  absurd,  but  it  was  one-sided  and  based 
on  insufficient  evidence.  The  best  known  classical 
writers  are  either  historians,  who  amid  the  excite- 
ments of  the  court  and  capital  give  only  occasional 
attention  to  the  provinces,  or  satirists  whose  very  art 
presupposes  a  certain  amount  of  exaggeration  and 
caricature.  Peace  and  the  prosperity  of  humble  folk 
have  always  found  few  annalists.  Moreover  it  is 
difficult  to  trace  the  infl.uences  at  work  upon  those 
who  did  not  read.  This  is  unfortunate,  because,  as 
we  must  never  forget,  Christianity  first  found  welcome 
among  the  ''  lower  '*  classes,  and  worked  its  way  up- 
wards. Yet  probably  these  classes  are  less  susceptible 
to  change  than  the  rest  of  the  community.  The  picture 
of  the  masses  in  Petronius  and  the  Golden  Ass 
reveal  very  much  the  same  characteristics  that  still 
mark  the  peoples  of  the  South — a  gay,  sensual  crowd, 
materialistic  in  its  hopes  and  fears  and  at  the  same 
time  very  superstitious.  The  researches  of  recent 
years  among  inscriptions,  papyri  and  humbler  pot- 
sherds are  bringing  to  light  an  immense  amount 
of  evidence  which  may  some  day  be  combined  into  a 
vivid  presentation  of  their  every-day  lives,^  but 
already  we  have  enough  to  justify  the  statement  of 

^  See  Deissmann,  Ltcht  vom  Osten,  Osten  ^,  1909,  p.  212  :  also 
his  remarks  in  the  Expositor,  for  Feb.  1909,  p.  100 ;  Renan,  Les 
Apdtres  p.  312. 


122    PREPARATION   FOR   CHRISTIAN   IDEAL 

Renan  that  the  world  in  general  had  never  been  so 
happy  as  during  the  first  two  centuries  of  the  Roman 
Empire.  Parts  of  it  indeed,  as  for  instance  Asia 
Minor,  ''  the  province  of  five  hundred  towns,''  have 
never  reached  so  high  a  level  since.  Of  the  many 
modern  authorities  which  might  be  quoted,  let  us 
cite  one  paragraph  from  the  most  recent  English  work 
on  the  subject :  it  will  serve  at  once  to  correct  the 
traditional  view  of  our  period  and  to  mark  out  the 
lines  which  our  investigation  must  follow.  In  the 
introductory  chapter  of  his  Roman  Society  from  Nero 
to  Aurelius,  Dr.  Dill  writes  : — 

"  The  inscriptions,  the  letters  of  the  younger  Pliny,  even  the 
pages  of  Tacitus  himself,  reveal  to  us  another  world  from  that  of 
the  Satirist.  On  countless  tombs  we  have  the  record  or  the  ideal 
of  a  family  life  of  sober,  honest  industry,  and  pure  affection.  .  .  . 
The  provinces,  even  under  a  Tiberius,  a  Nero,  a  Domitian,  enjoyed 
a  freedom  from  oppression  which  they  seldom  enjoyed  under  the 
Republic.  Just  and  upright  Governors  were  the  rule  and  not  the 
exception,  and  even  an  Otho  or  a  Vitellius,  tainted  with  every  pri- 
vate vice,  returned  from  their  provincial  governments  with  a  repu- 
tation for  integrity.  Municipal  freedom  and  self-government  were 
probably  at  their  height  at  the  very  time  when  life  and  liberty  in 
the  capital  were  in  hourly  peril.  The  great  Stoic  doctrine  of  the 
brotherhood  and  equality  of  men,  as  members  of  a  world-wide 
commonwealth,  which  was  destined  to  inspire  legislation  in  the 
Antonine  age,  was  openly  preached  in  the  reigns  of  Caligula  and 
Nero.  A  softer  tone — a  modern  note  of  pity  for  the  miserable, 
and  succour  for  the  helpless — ^makes  itself  heard  in  the  literature  of 
the  first  century.  The  moral  and  mental  equality  of  the  sexes  was 
being  more  and  more  recognized  in  theory,  as  the  capacity  of  women 
for  heroic  action  and  self-sacrifice  was  displayed  so  often  in  the  age 
of  the  tyranny  and  of  the  Stoic  martyrs.  The  old  cruelty  and  con- 
tempt for  the  slave  will  not  give  way  for  many  a  generation  ;  but 
the  slave  is  now  treated  by  all  the  great  leaders  of  moral  reform  as 
a  being  of  the  same  mould  as  his  master,  his^equal,  if  not  his  superior, 
in  capacity  for  virtue."  ^ 


*  Dill,  op,   cit.t  pp.  2  f.      See  also  Mommsen,  Provinces  of  the 


IN   THE   GENTILE   ENVIRONMENT      123 

These  facts,  evidence  of  a  new  influence  at  work, 
require  fuller  treatment  and  illustration.  But  a 
preliminary  question  arises.  What  was  the  source 
of  this  new  influence  ?  Not  Christianity,  for  it  shows 
itself  in  authors  to  whom  the  infant  sect  was  unknown. 
Indeed,  as  has  been  said,  ''  had  the  new  life  flowing 
forth  from  Christ  encountered  the  still  unbroken 
ancient  life,  it  would  have  recoiled  from  the  encounter 
ineffectually."  ^  We  cannot  imagine  St.  Paul  obtain- 
ing a  hearing  at  Athens  in  the  time  of  Pericles,  or  at 
Rome  during  the  second  Punic  War.  His  message 
would  have  fallen  upon  preoccupied  ears  and  never 
reached  the  hearts  of  men  who  felt  no  need  of  his 
gospel.  ''  But  when  the  fullness  of  the  time  was 
come  " — the  phrase  is  historically  accurate  !  Ancient 
civilization  had  reached  a  crisis  in  this  first  century 
of  the  Roman  Empire.  Society  was  in  a  state  of 
transition  : — 

"  Wandering  between  two  worlds,  one  dead. 
The  other  powerless  to  be  born." 

If  then  we  are  to  understand  what  a  French  writer 
has  called  "  this  preparation  of  souls,"  2  it  will  be 
necessary  to  inquire  into  the  manner  and  process  of 
the  change,  even  at  the  cost  of  an  apparent  digression. 

Let  us  begin  with  what  may  be  called  the  general 
law  of  development  in  the  histories  of  all  dominant 
nations.  In  modern  Europe  it  appears  as  clearly  as 
in  ancient  Rome.     There  are  two  stages  to  be  dis- 

Roman  Empire,  p.  4 ;  Bussell,  The  School  of  Plato,  introduction, 
and  infra,  p.  [37]. 

*  Uhlhorn,  Die  christliche  Liebesthdtigkeit  in  der  alien  Kirche 
(E.  T.,  1883,  p.  40). 

'  Martha,  Les  Moralisies  sous  I'Empire  romain,  p.  4. 


\/ 


124    PREPARATION   FOR  CHRISTIAN   IDEAL 

tinguished.  The  first  is  the  age  when  the  tribal  or 
civic  spirit  is  supreme,  when  the  individual  is  sacrificed 
to  the  State,  and  intellectual  interests  are  subordinated 
to  the  political.  During  this  period  the  power  is 
probably  in  the  hands  of  the  few,  and  the  condition 
of  the  masses  is  one  of  poverty  and  neglect ;  but  the 
nation  itself  is  strong  in  war  and  rapidly  expands  its 
dominion.  Then  as  conquest  brings  wealth,  and  wealth 
luxury,  a  second  period  begins.  The  body  of  the  nation, 
as  it  were,  is  at  rest  and  the  mind  is  allowed  to  awake. 
The  softer,  feminine  side  of  human  nature  begins  to 
find  expression;  the  claims  of  pleasure,  art  and  all 
forms  of  indi^idual  culture  press  forward  to  be  recog- 
nized. In  the  reaction  against  the  supremacy  of  the 
State,  public  duties  are  found  to  be  irksome,  and  insti- 
tutions such  as  marriage  or  an  established  religion 
become  unfashionable.  Men  object  to  any  responsi- 
bilities that  threaten  to  limit  their  personal  indepen- 
dence, and  demand  freedom  to  make  their  own  fortime 
or  to  save  their  own  souls.  Economically,  the  centre 
of  gravity  is  changing,  money  becomes  a  force  as  well 
as  birth  and  the  sword.  A  middle  class  arises  and 
slowly  acquires  political  power.  As  a  military  force 
the  nation  has  begun  to  decline.  Morally  and  intel- 
lectually it  is  hanging  in  the  balance,  and  contem- 
porary observers  will  express  most  diverse  opinions 
as  to  its  condition.  In  the  fierce  conflict  between  old 
traditions  and  new  ideals,  symptoms  emerge  which 
one  party  will  hail  as  signs  of  progress,"  the  other  as 
marks  of  ''  corruption." 

The  Graeco-Roman  world  then  was  in  the  midst 
of  its  second  period  when  Christianity  entered  it.  To 
recognize  this  fact  will  help  us  to  understand  the  con- 
fusions and  contradictions  which  we  shall  find  as  we 
proceed  to  study  its  details.     But  we  have  first  to 


IN   THE   GENTILE   ENVIRONMENT      125 

examine  rather  more  particularly  the  causes  which 
brought  the  first  period  of  its  history  to  an  end. 

The  basis  of  ancient  society,  among  both  Greeks 
and  Romans,  had  been  the  City-State .  The ''City'' was 
an  end  in  itself,  the  supreme  object  of  devotion  to  its 
members,  whose  obedience  it  claimed  in  every  relation 
of  life  under  the  triple  manifestation  of  Law,  Citizen- 
ship and  Religion.  The  citizens  were  bound  to  one 
another  by  mutual  ties  and  obligations ;  all  non- 
citizens,  whether  slaves  or  foreigners,  were,  originally 
at  least,  without  any  rights  whatsoever ;  the  claims 
of  common  humanity  were  neither  recognized  nor 
understood. 

It  was  this  narrow  conception  of  the  State  which 
wrecked  the  efforts  of  the  Athenians  to  found  a  lasting 
empire  in  the  fifth  and  fourth  centuries  B.C.,  and 
limited  the  speculations  of  even  the  greatest  philoso- 
phers. 

The  first  blow  at  the  ancient  fabric  was  struck, 
perhaps,  by  Socrates,  who  declared  himself  a  citizen, 
not  of  Athens,  but  of  the  World  ^ :  the  demolition  was 
completed  by  the  conquests  of  Alexander,  whose 
greatness  appears  more  in  his  political  enlightenment 
than  in  his  military  successes.  To  Aristotle  the  dis- 
tinction between  Greek  and  barbarian  appeared  natural 
and  ultimate,  and  when  Alexander  was  master  of  the 
East,  his  old  tutor  is  said  to  have  advised  him  to 
treat  the  first  as  a  leader  treats  his  friends,  but  to  use 
the  foreigners  as  instruments  of  his  despotic  pleasure. 
*'  But  he,*'  continues  Plutarch,  ''  as  one  come  down 
from  heaven  to  reconcile  the  feuds  of  mankind,  bade 
all  consider  the  world  their  country  and  the  virtuous 
their  friends.''  2 

^  Cicero,  Tusculan  Disputations,  v.  108. 
*  Plutarch,  De  Alexandri  Fortuna,  v. 


126    PREPARATION   FOR  CHRISTIAN   IDEAL 

The  political  and  social  effects  of  Alexander's  con- 
quests were  immense— nothing  less  than  the  end  of 
the  classical  age  of  Hellas.  Politically,  innumerable 
petty  republics  were  merged  into  one  vast  unity. 
Sovereign  states  sank  to  provincial  towns  :  councils 
accustomed  to  debate  on  themes  imperial,  found  them- 
selves limited  to  questions  of  municipal  organization. 
Moreover,  the  old  philosophy  disappeared  with 
the  conditions  which  had  given  it  birth.  It  is  one 
of  the  most  ironical  proofs  of  man's  short-sightedness 
that  Aristotle's  Ethics  was  out  of  date  almost  as  soon 
as  it  was  published.  Theories  of  citizenship  lost  their 
interest  when  the  ''City"  was  no  more.  Still  it  is  true 
of  nations  as  of  individuals  that  by  dying  we  live,  and 
with  the  end  of  Hellas  Hellenism  began.  Though 
Athens  had  lost  her  Empire,  and  even  her  independence, 
she  now  for  the  first  time  reahzed  the  proud  title  which 
Pericles  had  given  her,  and  became  the  university  of 
the  world,  and  by  the  conquests  of  Alexander,  absorbed 
and  extended  in  the  Empire  of  Rome,  Greek  ideals 
and  Greek  civilization  spread  from  the  five  rivers 
of  Indus  to  the  Atlantic  Ocean.  Again,  when  their 
collective  majesty  was  taken  from  them,  men  found  their 
individuality.  Though  systems  perished  and  Empires 
changed  hands,  private  lives  still  went  on,  and  personal 
sorrows  had  to  be  borne  ;  indeed  now  that  public 
duties  had  been  so  diminished,  they  filled  the  larger 
part  of  the  horizon.  The  change  is  clearly  shown  in 
the  comic  stage,  where  the  varying  fortunes  of  indivi- 
duals now  engrossed  the  attention  formerly  given 
to  affairs  of  state,  and  here  was  the  origin  of  Terence's 
famous  line  : — 

"  Homo  sum,  humani  nihil  a  me  alienum  puto." 
Thus  two  important  results  emerge  :   first,  a  cosmo- 


IN   THE   GENTILE   ENVIRONMENT      127 

politanism,  in  which  the  old  distinction  between  Greek 
and  barbarian  disappears,  and  second,  the  new  spirit 
of  individuaHsm. 

For  serious  guidance  in  their  perplexities  men  turned 
to  philosophy,  which  adapted  itself  to  the  new  order. 
The  difference  may  be  shown  by  two  definitions.  To 
Plato  and  Aristotle  the  origin  of  philosophy  was  a 
sense  of  intellectual  doubt  and  bewilderment.  To 
Epictetus  it  is  : — ''  A  consciousness  of  one^s  own 
weakness  and  insufficiency  for  what  is  required.''  ^ 
Metaphysics,  that  is  to  say,  sinks  to  the  background ; 
ethics  becomes  of  supreme  importance.  Philosophy 
is  no  longer  the  pillar  of  fire  going  before  a  few  intrepid 
seekers  after  truth  :  it  is  rather  an  ambulance  follow- 
ing in  the  wake  of  the  struggle  for  existence  and  picking 
up  the  weak  and  wounded.  Plato's  contemptuous 
exclamation  : — ''  For  the  people  philosophy  is  impossi- 
ble !"  2  is  not  repeated  ;  on  the  contrary,  philosophy, 
as  Cicero  puts  it,  ''  is  the  art  of  life  "  ;  and  the  post- 
Aristotelian  schools,  like  modern  churches,  made  no 
distinction  of  sex,  or  status,  or  nationality.  They 
offered  to  all,  by  divers  ways,  a  road  to  peace  and 
happiness  and  a  stronghold  against  the  attacks  of 
external  fortune. 

Two  systems  of  thought,  separated  by  a  funda- 
mental difference  of  standpoint,  and  appealing  to 
opposite  sides  of  human  nature,  were  pre-eminently 
successful  in  their  attempts  to  supply  this  need.  It 
did  not  occur  to  either  Epicurus  or  Zeno  to  ''  call  in  a 
new  world  to  redress  the  balance  of  the  old."  They 
brought  no  hopes  of  heaven,  no  fuller  revelation  of 
God,  but  sought  rather  to  make  each  man  a  god  unto 
himself,  and  this  present  life  independent  of  circum- 

^  Epictetus,  Dissertations,  II.  xi. 
^  Plato,  Republic,  494a. 


128   PREPARATION   FOR  CHRISTIAN  IDEAL 

stances.  Into  the  details  of  their  teaching  we  need 
not  now  enter ;  they  concern  us  only  in  so  far  as  they 
helped  to  modify  or  reform  the  social  ideas  of  our 
period,  and  we  may  be  content  with  the  most  general 
summary. 

Epicurus  was  a  man  to  whom  tradition  has  done 
scant  justice.  We  have  been  taught  to  call  him  a 
godless  scientist  and  pleasure-seeker,  and  neither  title 
is  strictly  applicable.  A  kindly  soul,  with  a  genius 
for  friendship,  he  was  the  author  of  a  real  evangel  to 
many  who  were  in  bondage  to  the  fear  of  death  or 
to  the  mental  disquietude  which  is  the  result  of  poly- 
theism. His  ideal  was  a  quiet  life,  and  his  Articles  show 
that  he  was  prepared  to  sacrifice  any  ''  system  *'  to 
secure  it.  By  what  he  believed  to  be  a  true,  or  at 
least  a  plausible,  account  of  man's  nature  and  environ- 
ment, he  hoped  to  banish  panic  from  their  minds,  and 
pain  from  their  members.  Happiness,  he  taught, 
consisted  not  in  the  multitude  of  possessions  but  in 
the  fewness  of  desires :  in  the  service  of  philosophy  was 
true  freedom.  He  was,  perhaps,  the  first  to  discover 
that  society  is  made  for  man,  and  not  man  for  society. 
In  the  garden  where  his  followers  met,  women  and 
even  slaves  were  made  welcome,  and  little  children 
were  among  the  recipients  of  his  letters.  ''  In  his 
lifetime,"  writes  a  biographer,  *'  his  friends  were 
numbered  by  whole  cities,"  ^  and  generations  after  his 
death  disciples  were  found  eager,  like  Lucretius,  to 
praise  the  saviour  who  had  brought  life  and — mortality 
to  light !  The  school  hardly  appears  above  the  surface 
of  history.  Averse  by  tradition  from  activity  in  either 
politics  or  research,  and  inspired  rather  by  the  example 
of  its  master  than  by  his  promulgation  of  "  the  truth," 
it  survived  its  great  rival  as  well  as  all  early  forms 
^  See  Diogenes  Laertius,  x.  9. 


IN   THE   GENTILE  ENVIRONMENT      129 

of  Greek  philosophy,  and  lasted  into  the  fourth  century 
of  the  Christian  era.  The  grosser  minds  of  Rome 
seized  upon  those  parts  of  Epicurus'  teaching  which 
were  most  liable  to  perversion,  and  won  for  it  the 
infamy  now  associated  with  the  name  of  epicure.^  But 
while  it  must  be  admitted  that  Epicureanism  was 
always  fatally  open  to  abuse,  it  did  much  in  a  hard 
and  unsettled  age  to  develop  the  more  amiable  virtues 
of  domestic  life. 

Very  different  was  the  object  and  influence  of 
Stoicism.  Its  founder,  Zeno,  was  like  many  of  its 
early  leaders,  a  Phoenician,  and  in  him  appear  some 
of  those  characteristics — an  intolerance  of  imperfection 
almost  amounting  to  a  sense  of  sin,  a  demand  for 
resignation  before  the  All-Supreme,  and  an  uncompro- 
mising idealism — which  we  associate  with  the  Semitic 
spirit,  but  which  were  new  in  the  thought  of  Hellas. 
To  him  seems  to  have  been  due  the  introduction  of  the 
ideas  and  words  of  duty  and  conscience,  as  well  as  the 
distinction  of  moral  values,  which  are  absolute,  from 
practical  values,  which  are  relative  and  strictly  indif- 
ferent. He  first  clearly  stated  that  the  will  or  intention 
is  everything,  and  that  circumstances  are  nothing, 
except  as  forming  material  for  exercising  the  will  or 
building  character.  The  Empire  of  Alexander  seems 
to  have  produced  upon  his  mind  an  effect  very  like 
that  which  centuries  later  the  Roman  Empire  produced 
upon  the  mind  of  St.  Augustine.  He,  too,  had  his 
vision  of  a  City  of  God,  in  which  were  neither  Greek 
nor  barbarian,  male  nor  female,  slave  nor  free,  but  all, 
as  recognizing  one  law  of  Reason,  members  of  one 

^  Its  most  typical  representative  under  the  Empire  is  perhaps 
Horace,  and  it  would  be  interesting  to  consider  what  has  been 
the  moral  effect  of  his  Odes  upon  successive  generations  of 
Enghsh  gentlemen. 

c.c  K 


130    PREPARATION  FOR   CHRISTIAN   IDEAL 

State  and  therefore  one  of  another.  For  the  Reason, 
which  is  in  and  rules  the  world,  is  one  with  the  reason 
in  our  breasts  which  does  or  should  govern  our  lives. 
Therefore  the  Law  of  the  universe  is  also  the  law  of 
our  own  nature,  and  we  can  only  realize  ourselves  and 
obtain  our  freedom  in  conforming  to  the  purposes 
of  God. 

To  some  members  of  the  school  this  thought  came 
with  all  the  force  of  a  religion ;  and  so  Cleanthes,  like 
Newman,  has  his  hymn  : — 

"  Lead  me,  O  Zeus,  and  thou,  O  Destiny, 
Lead  Thou  me  on : 
To  whatsoever  task  thou  sendest  me 

Lead  Thou  me  on : 
I  follow  fearless,  or  if  in  mistrust 
I  lag  and  will  not,  follow  still  I  must."  ^ 

Thus  the  Stoics  literally  made  a  virtue  of  necessity. 
Still,  it  was  this  mystic  assurance  that  formed  the 
strength  of  the  school. 

"  The  enormous  influence  which  it  exerted  over  the  minds  of 
the  ancient  world,  its  power  to  strengthen  the  souls  of  the  noblest 
men  for  action  and  endurance,  lay  in  its  firm  grasp  of  this  central 
idea — that  there  is  a  rational  principle  in  the  world  which  is  one  in 
nature  and  with  the  self-conscious  intelligence  within  us,  and  that 
through  apparent  disorder  this  principle  is  inevitably  reaUzing 
itself."2 

Praise  such  as  this  is  to  be  found  in  all  accounts 
of  Stoicism ;  and  yet  we  must  haste  to  add  qualifications. 
If  it  had  peculiar  strength,  it  had  also  peculiar 
weaknesses.  No  other  school  failed  so  completely 
to  connect  its  ideals  with  practical  life.  A  curious 
unreality,  a  fatal  lack  of  grip,  runs  through  the  whole 

1  Quoted  by  Epictetus,  Manual,  52. 

*  Caird,  The  Evolution  of  Theology  in  the  Greek  Philosophers ^ 
vol.  ii.  p.  84. 


IN  THE  GENTILE   ENVIRONMENT      131 

system.  Enunciating  the  loftiest  ideas  as  to  the 
sovereignty  of  "  God ''  and  the  universal  brotherhood 
of  man,  it  fails,  nevertheless,  to  release  them  from  the 
region  of  intellectual  concepts.  Again,  the  slight 
importance  which  Stoicism  attached  to  external  circum- 
stances, while  forming  much  of  its  power  as  a  creed 
for  the  individual,  greatly  weakened  its  force  to  stimu- 
late practical  reform,  or  inspire  active  benevolence. 
The  characteristic  attitude  of  the  Stoic  to  life  is  fairly 
portrayed  in  Henley's  Invictus,  but  his  "unconquerable 
sour*  could  be  gained  only  at  the  cost  of  much  sacrifice. 
All  emotions  that  might  disturb  the  central  calm,  all 
adjuncts  which  were  within  the  reach  of  envious  for- 
tune— ^life,  honour,  the  fate  of  others — these  must  be 
regarded  as  indifferent  by  the  true  sage.  "He  is 
incapable  of  passion,'*  we  read,  ''neither  does  he  forgive 
any  man."  ^  To  render  himself  invulnerable,  the  Stoic 
turned  his  heart  into  a  stone  : — "  He  made  a  solitude 
and  called  it  peace."  This  profound  egotism,  so  incon- 
sistent with  the  better  instincts  of  humanity,' will  meet 
us  again  when  we  consider  the  great  Stoics  of  Rome. 
It  remains  first  to  inquire  how  Roman  society 
underwent  the  change  which  had  revolutionized  the 
Hellenistic  world. 

From  its  earliest  history  Rome  was  essentially  a 
military  state.  The  effect  upon  the  characters  of  its 
citizens  is  well  shown  in  Lecky's  History  of  European 
Morals  : — 

"  The  Roman,"  he  says,  "  had  learnt  to  value  force  very  highly. 
Being  continually  engaged  in  inflicting  pain,  his  natural  or  instinct- 
ive humanity  was  very  low.  .  .  .  Indomitable  pride  was  the 
most  prominent  element  of  his  character.  A  victorious  army  which 
is  humble  or  diffident,  or  tolerant  of  insult,  or  anxious  to  take  the 
second  place,  is,  indeed,  almost  a  contradiction  of  terms.  ...     On 

^  Diogenes  Laertius,  vii,  123. 


132    PREPARATION   FOR  CHRISTIAN   IDEAL 

the  other  hand,  the  habits  of  men  were  unaffected,  frugal,  honour- 
able and  laborious.  A  stern  discipline  pervading  all  ages  and  classes 
of  society,  the  will  was  trained,  to  an  almost  unexampled  degree,  to 
repress  the  passions,  to  endure  suffering  and  opposition,  to  tend 
steadily  and  fearlessly  towards  an  unpopular  end.  A  sense  of  duty 
was  very  widely  diffused,  and  a  deep  attachment  to  the  interests  of 
the  city  became  the  parent  of  many  virtues."  ^ 

The  rigour  and  severity  of  ancient  Rome  is  illus- 
trated by  the  patria  potestas.  The  Roman  father  was 
absolute  head  of  his  house  and  exercised  the  power  of 
life  and  death  over  all  its  members  :  even  when  his 
sons  attained  manhood  and  possessed  families  of  their 
own  they  were  not  exempt  from  his  authority.  Many 
instances  of  its  relentless  exercise,  regarded  by  the 
Greeks  as  intolerable  tyranny,  are  recorded  with 
respect  by  the  national  historians. 

But  if  the  most  distinctive  mark  of  the  Roman 
nature  was  hardness,  there  went  with  it  a  strength 
which  no  other  country  could  resist.  By  the  middle 
of  the  second  century  before  Christ  the  supremacy  of 
Rome  was  manifest.  A  series  of  wars  left  her  without 
a  rival  in  the  political  world,,  heir  of  Alexander,  pro- 
tector of  Greece  and  mistress  of  the  Orient.  From 
this  point  a  twofold  current  of  conflicting  tendencies 
flowed  westward.  While  the  Roman  conquerors 
returned  with  enormous  stores  of  treasure  and  all  the 
instruments  of  Eastern  luxury,  there  followed  also  in 
their  train  the  Greek  philosopher  preaching  the  creed 
of  Epicurus  or  the  Porch.  The  immediate  effect  was 
disastrous,  for  the  old  traditions  of  Roman  society 
gave  way  before  the  new  ideas  had  had  time  to  con- 
struct an  alternative  rule  of  life.  In  the  atmosphere 
of  irresponsible  power  the  primitive  integrity  of  the 
Roman   fathers   died.     The   Government   proved   in- 

*  Op,  cit,  p.  224. 


IN  THE  GENTILE   ENVIRONMENT      133 

adequate  to  the  enormous  extension  of  its  authority. 
The  town  had  become  a  world-capital,  containing  nearly 
a  million  souls  ;  the  State  an  Empire  stretching  from 
the  deserts  of  Africa  to  the  German  Ocean,  bounded 
on  one  side  by  the  Straits  of  Gibraltar  and  on  the  other 
by  the  Euphrates.  Commercial  interests  acquired 
more  and  more  weight  in  the  foreign  policy  of  the 
Senate.  As  the  value  of  the  provinces  increased,  the 
struggle  of  parties  at  home  became  more  bitter  and 
unscrupulous.  A  century  of  civil  war,  which  devas- 
tated Italy  and  reduced  most  of  the  inhabitants  to  the 
verge  of  penury,  while  the  wealth  and  resources  of  civili- 
zation were  shared  between  a  few  capitalists,  left  one 
man  undisputed  master  through  all  this  vast  territory, 
lord  of  life  and  death  over  fifty  millions  of  men.  What 
Julius  Caesar  might  have  achieved,  had  he  lived  to 
carry  out  his  reforms  it  is  impossible  to  determine; 
but  in  reducing  Italy  and  the  provinces  to  one  level 
he  certainly  took  a  great  step  towards  the  unification 
of  the  Empire,  though  the  admission  of  all  free  men 
to  the  full  rights  of  Roman  citizenship  was  not  actually 
realized  till  a.d.  216.  But  even  while  political  dis- 
tinctions of  status  remained,  the  magnificent  facilities 
for  travel  and  permeation  of  Greek  language  and  ideas, 
together  with  the  absence  of  racial  or  colour  prejudices 
and  the  absorption  of  all  nationalities  and  religions, 
had  produced  a  practical  homogeneity  throughout 
the  ancient  world  by  the  time  that  Christianity  entered 
it. 


Hitherto  we  have  been  occupied  with  causes  or 
antecedents.  We  have  tried  to  account  for  the  con- 
dition of  affairs  in  the  first  century  in  our  era.  It 
is  now  time  to  turn  to  the  actual  period  and  examine 


134   PREPARATION   FOR  CHRISTIAN   IDEAL 

the  picture  which  we  have  been  allowed  to  expect — a 
society  in  process  of  decomposition  but  giving  promise 
already  of  a  new  order  of  things.  The  picture,  it  is 
only  fair  to  remind  ourselves,  must  be  far  from  com- 
plete. The  evidence  for  a  full  description  of  provincial 
life  is  still  being  collected ;  but  even  the  partial  testi- 
mony of  ancient  literature  may  serve  to  show  a  move- 
ment within  the  Pagan  world  fertilizing  the  old  soil 
and  preparing  it  to  receive  new  seed. 

In  many  of  these  essential  features  the  early  Roman 
Empire  presents  astonishing  parallels  to  modern 
society. 

"  It  has  never  been  difficult  for  me  to  realize,"  writes  its  most 
recent  historian,  "  that  contemporary  Europe  and  America,  the 
Europe  and  America  of  railroads,  industries,  and  monstrous  swift- 
growing  cities,  might  find  present  in  ancient  Rome  a  part  of  their 
own  very  souls — restless,  turbulent,  greedy."  ^ 

In  material  civilization,  at  least,  a  high  level  of  pros- 
perity was  maintained.  The  "  majesty  of  the  Roman 
peace  ''and  the  large  extent  of  municipal  independence 
permitted  by  the  central  authority  covered  the  pro- 
vinces with  flourishing  cities.  Every  year  our  excava- 
tions are  bringing  to  light  traces  of  highly  organized 
communities  in  regions  where  desert  and  solitude  now 
prevail. 

"  The  world  is  filled,"  said  a  panegyrist  of  the  age, "  with  gym- 
nasia, fountains,  porticoes,  temples,  factories  and  schools :  the 
whole  earth  flourishes  Hke  a  garden."  2 

The  great  roads  which  spanned  the  empire  from  end 
to  end,  the  security  of  the  inland  sea,  and  the  absence 

1  Ferrero,  Characters  and  Events  of  Roman  History  (Lowell 
Lectures  for  1909),  p.  248.  The  whole  book  is  an  enlargement  and 
illustration  of  the  text. 

2  Aristides,  Or.  xiv.  3.91  (quoted  by  Dill,  p.  197). 


IN  THE  GENTILE   ENVIRONMENT      135 

of  protective  tariffs,  gave  an  enormous  impulse  to 
industrial  production.  The  new  countries  of  Gaul, 
Spain  and  Britain  vied  with,  and  in  some  respects 
surpassed,  the  old  manufactures  of  Asia  and  the  East. 
The  new  middle  class  offered  a  market  for  cheap  imita- 
tions and  popularized  luxuries.  The  increase  of  trade 
between  the  different  parts  of  the  world  led  to  a  great 
development  in  letter-writing,  while  at  home  civic 
intercourse  was  fostered  by  innumerable  clubs  and 
private  societies. 

"  Among  the  many  parallels  which  can  be  drawn  between  the 
first  centuries  of  the  Christian  era  and  our  own  times  there  is  prob- 
ably none  more  striking  than  that  of  their  common  tendency  to- 
wards the  formation  of  associations.  There  were,  as  now,  associa- 
tions for  almost  innumerable  purposes.  In  almost  all  parts  of  the 
Empire  there  were  trade  guilds  and  dramatic  guilds  :  there  were 
athletic  clubs  and  burial  clubs  and  dining  clubs :  there  were 
friendly  societies  and  literary  societies  and  financial  societies.  If 
we  omit  those  special  products  of  our  own  time,  natural  science 
and  social  science,  there  was  scarcely  any  object  for  which  men 
combine  now  that  they  did  not  combine  then."  ^ 

No  institution  of  ancient  life  so  favoured  the  growth 
of  Christianity  as  these  societies ;  and  indeed  the  local 
churches  owed  chiefly  to  them  whatever  status  or 
organization  they  originally  possessed. 

Nor  was  the  Government  entirely  without  a  sense 
of  economic  responsibility.  Sumptuary  laws  to  check 
individual  extravagance  were  continually  being  passed. 
Evidence  has  been  found  for  the  existence  of  a  Poor 
Rate  in  Egypt.^  In  Rome  the  lower  classes  had 
been  encouraged  to  look  to  the  State  for  free  food  and 
amusement.     In  46  B.C.,  320,000  citizens  were  receiv- 

^  Hatch,  Bampton  Lectures,  1880,  p.  26.  See  also  Renan,  Les 
Apotres,  p.  350. 

2  Expository  Times,  Nov.  1908,  p.  90. 


136   PREPARATION   FOR  CHRISTIAN   IDEAL 

ing  daily  grants  of  corn,  at  a  cost  to  the  Empire  of 
£650,000  a  year.  Caesar  reduced  the  number,  which 
seems  to  have  become  fixed  at  200,000.  Originally 
a  political  bribe  to  the  masses,  its  continuance  by  the 
Emperors  has  caused  some  perplexity  to  historians ; 
but  as  recent  research  has  discovered  traces  of  similar 
institutions  in  Greek  municipalities,  perhaps  those  are 
right  who  see  in  it  a  deliberate  attempt  to  solve  a 
difficulty  not  confined  to  ancient  cities,  and  a  recog- 
nition that  *'  the  main  duty  of  an  enlightened  Govern- 
ment is  to  pauperize  its  people.''  ^ 

Corruption  is  most  evident  in  the  upper  classes.  The 
political  revolution  greatly  interfered  with  their  tradi- 
tional occupations  of  waging  war  and  administering 
affairs,  and  even  what  opportunities  were  left  them, 
most  showed  little  inclination  to  employ.  Instead, 
all  sorts  of  personal  interests  occupied  their  time — 
intellectual  culture,the  pleasures  of  art,  sensual  extrava- 
gances, and  every  form  of  sport.  What  little  educa- 
tion there  was  tended  solely  to  develop  the  instinct 
of  rhetoric,  or,  as  we  should  say,  journalism.  It  was 
essentially  a  superficial  age  ;  its  notes  are  nervous 
hustle  and  purposeless  activity.  The  lines  of  Horace 
are  well  known  : — 

"  Caelum,  non  animum,  mutant  qui  trans  mare  currunt. 
Strenua  nos  exercet  inertia," 

and  Seneca  two  generations  later  writes  in  a  similar 
strain  2.  But  the  censure  of  court  poets  and  court 
philosophers  only  records  the  failure  of  the  Govern- 
ment's efforts  to  restore  a  bygone  simplicity.  Society, 
then,  as  now,  invented  countless  claims  upon  the  leisure 
of  its  members. 

^  Bussell,  The  School  of  Plato,  p.  11. 

2  Horace,  Epistles,  I.  xi.  27.     Cf.  Seneca,  De  Tranquillitate,  12. 


IN   THE   GENTILE  ENVIRONMENT      137 

"  It  is  astonishing,"  writes  Pliny,  "  how  time  is  spent  in  Rome. 
Take  any  day  by  itself  and  it  either  is,  or  seems  to  be,  well  spent ; 
then  review  many  days  together,  and  you  will  be  surprised  to  dis- 
cover how  unprofitable  they  have  been.  Ask  any  one — '  What 
have  you  done  to-day  ?  '  He  will  tell  you,  '  I  was  at  a  friend's 
giving  his  son  the  toga  virilis,  another  requested  me  to  be  witness  to 
his  will,  a  third  asked  me  to  a  consultation.  All  of  these  things 
appear  at  the  time  to  be  extremely  necessary,  but  when  we  reflect 
that  day  after  day  has  been  thus  spent,  such  employment  seems 
trifling."! 

Still  there  were  those  who,  like  Pliny  himself, 
found  other  means  of  filling  their  time  and  spending 
their  money.  Any  public  calamity  or  wide-spread 
disaster  excited  the  most  general  interest  and  found 
practical  sympathy.  In  17  a.d.  an  earthquake  de- 
stroyed twelve  of  the  most  populous  cities  of  Asia 
Minor.  Tiberius  at  once  promised  a  sum  of  ^^83,000 
and  remitted  all  taxation  for  five  years,  while  the  Senate 
despatched  a  commission  of  inquiry  and  relief.  Ten 
years  later  the  collapse  of  an  amphitheatre  at  Fidena 
killed  or  maimed  fifty  thousand  persons.  The  houses 
of  the  gentry  were  thrown  open,  and  every  form  of 
medical  aid  was  placed  at  the  disposal  of  the  sufferers.^ 

"  There  has  probably  seldom  been  a  time,"  writes  Dr.  Dill, 
"  when  wealth  was  more  generally  regarded  as  a  trust.  .  .  .  There 
was  never  an  age  in  which  the  wealthy  more  frankly  and  even  reck- 
lessly recognized  this  imperious  claim."  ^ 

Pliny,  according  to  the  estimate  of  the  same  writer, 
spent  £80,000  in  benevolence.  The  endowment  of 
institutions  for  the  support  of  poor  children, «  begun  by 
the  Emperor  Nerva,  was  continued  by  private  indivi- 
duals.     Charitable  bequests  are    frequent  in  the  in- 

!  Pliny,  Epistles,  I.  ix. 

^  Tacitus,  Annals,  ii.  47,  iv.  63 

^  Dill,  Roman  Society,  p.  231. 

'^  Pliny,  Panegyric,  28  ;  Epistles,  VII.  xviii. 


138   PREPARATION   FOR  CHRISTIAN   IDEAL 

scriptions.  A  stone,  erected  by  the  grateful  community, 
commemorates  the  gift  by  an  ItaUan  Apothecary  of 
£60  and  300  jars  of  "  aromatic  herbs ''  for  the  free 
distribution  of  drugs  to  the  sick  and  needy  of  his 
township.^ 

So  much  then  for  the  aspects  in  which  the  Imperial 
Age  most  strikingly  resembles  our  own.  There  remain 
four  points  in  which  it  was  peculiar — the  position  of 
women,  the  public  games,  the  institution  of  slavery 
and  the  influence  of  philosophy.  In  each  of  the  first 
three  we  shall  find  traces  of  the  growth  of  a  humaner 
spirit,  while  in  the  fourth  will  be  seen  the  main  source 
and  limitation  of  its  power. 

Nowhere  were  the  signs  of  change  more  manifest 
than  in  family  life.  Parental  despotism  was  too  heroic 
or  too  harsh  for  these  later  days,  and  a  Roman  knight, 
in  the  time  of  Augustus,  who  exercised  the  traditional 
privilege  of  flogging  his  son  to  death,  was  almost  torn 
in  pieces  by  the  mob.^  The  position  of  women  was 
one  of  complete  social  and  moral  emancipation,  and 
while  possessing  few  legal  rights,  they  enjoyed  a  greater 
amount  of  personal  freedom  than  has  ever  been  per- 
mitted them  since.  They  seem  to  have  paid  for  it  by 
losing  the  respect  of  those  whose  privileges  they  invaded. 
To  Tacitus,  Agrippina  showed  herself  an  unnatural 
mother  in  seeking  to  share  with  Nero  his  imperial 
burden.3  But  they  were  still  regarded  in  general  as 
the  instrument  of  men's  pleasure,  and  even  the  philo- 
sophers seem  to  have  thought  it  hardly  worth  while 
to  protest.  Epictetus  credits  no  woman  with  thoughts 
above  sensual  gratification.*  Indeed,  nothing  in 
Pagan  literature  so  scandalizes  the  modern  reader  as  the 
light-heartedness  with  which  every  violation  of  sexual 

^  Inscr.  Orelli,  114.  ^  Seneca,  De  dementia,  i.  15. 

^  Tacitus,  Annals,  xiii.  5.        *  Epictetus,  Manual,  40. 


IN   THE   GENTILE  ENVIROISTMENt      139 

morality  was  regarded  and  even  practised.  The  tre- 
mendous emphasis  laid  by  the  early  Church  upon  per- 
sonal purity  was  the  necessary  reaction.  For  even 
when  men  had  begun  to  imderstand  the  value  of  human 
life,  they  had  still  to  learn  the  sanctity  of  their  own 
bodies.  Yet  one  inscription  has  been  found  com- 
memorating a  Society  for  the  Preservation  of  Chastity/ 
and  many  others  preserve  the  record  of  lives  passed 
in  innocence  and  fidelity,  while  history  contains  some 
notable  instances  in  which  husband  and  wife  taught 
one  another  how  to  die. 

It  is  probably  true  of  all  nations  that  their  public 
entertainments  exhibit  their  worst  side,  but  the 
Roman  games  are  deservedly  notorious.  No  descrip- 
tion can  surpass  the  horrors  of  the  reality  :  they  ap- 
pealed to  the  lowest  and  most  brutal  passions  of  which 
human  nature  is  capable.  The  gladiatorial  shows  were 
evolved  out  of  the  Etruscan  practice  of  offering  human 
sacrifices  to  the  shades  of  the  dead,  and  were  intro- 
duced into  Rome  at  the  beginning  of  the  foreign  wars. 
From  the  first  the  blood  and  treasure  of  the  conquered 
nations  was  dedicated  to  their  embellishment ;  but 
as  the  Games  increased  in  popularity,  there  gradually 
arose  a  professional  class,  each  member  of  which  was 
under  contract  "  to  let  himself  be  chained,  scourged, 
burnt  or  killed  without  opposition,  if  the  laws  of  the 
institution  should  so  require.''  Criticism  or  protest 
in  the  days  of  the  Republic  is  hardly  audible.  **  To 
some,  I  know,''  writes  Cicero  2,  ''  the  exhibition  of  the 
gladiators  seems  cruel  and  inhuman,  and  perhaps,  as 
things  are  done  nowadays,  they  are  right.  But  what 
an  example  of  courage,"  he  continues,  ''  what  con- 
tempt of  death  !     No  better  instance  of  discipline  can 

1  Inser.  Orelli,  2401. 

2  Cicero,  Tusculan  Disputations,  ii,  41. 


140   PREPARATION   FOR   CHRISTIAN   IDEAL 

be  presented  to  the  eye/'  A  hundred  thousand  are 
said  to  have  fought  during  the  reign  of  Augustus. 
Passion  for  these  spectacles  ran  Uke  a  disease  through 
all  sections  of  the  community,  irrespective  of  age,  sex, 
or  rank. 

"  What  room  is  left  for  liberal  arts,"  asks  a  contemporary,^ 
"  when  the  mind  is  preoccupied  and  obsessed  with  such  enthusiasms  ? 
In  how  many  homes  will  you  find  any  other  subject  of  conversation  ? 
What  else  do  we  hear  discussed  by  our  young  men,  if  we  enter  their 
lecture  rooms  ?  Nor  indeed  does  any  theme  more  frequently 
engross  their  instructors." 

And  Juvenal  complains  that  the  disaster  of  Cannae 
could  not  have  caused  more  consternation  among  the 
Romans  of  that  day  than  is  shown  by  their  descendants 
at  the  defeat  of  a  popular  side  in  the  arena.^  We  are 
perhaps  hardly  in  a  position  to  condemn  this  mis- 
direction of  the  public  interest,  but  at  least  its 
object  in  our  day  is  more  innocent. 

From  Rome  the  Games  spread  to  the  provinces. 
Only  in  Greece,  with  the  exception  of  the  half-foreign 
port  of  Corinth,  did  they  fail  to  secure  a  foothold. 
When  an  attempt  was  made  to  introduce  them  into 
Athens,  a  philosopher  bade  the  people  first  overthrow 
the  Altar  of  Pity.  Greek  ideas,  indeed,  inspired  the 
initial  opposition.  It  is  in  philosophers  like  Seneca 
that  we  first  find  a  sense  of  revolt  openly  expressed. 

"  The  Games,"  he  writes,  "  are  mere  massacres,"  and  again» 
"  man,  a  sacred  thing,  is  butchered  to  make  a  holiday  for  his  fel- 
lows." 3 

Such  utterances  were  not  altogether  fruitless ;  and 
later  Emperors,  such  as  Vespasian  and  Marcus  Aurelius, 
discouraged  the  shows,   though  many  years  had  to 

^  Dialogus  de  claris  oratorihus,  29.  ^  Juvenal,  xi.  185. 

^  Seneca,  Epistles,  vii.  3,  xcv.  ^Z- 


IN  THE   GENTILE   ENVIRONMENT      141 

pass  and  stronger  influences  arise  before  they  ceased 
altogether. 

Another  institution  of  the  period,  whose  history 
illustrates  the  same  conflict  between  a  traditional 
disregard  for  human  life  and  a  growth  of  more  humane 
sentiments,  is  slavery.  Every  community  has  at  one 
or  another  stage  in  its  development  contained  a  class 
of  men  doomed,  by  birth  or  the  fortunes  of  war,  to  live 
dependent  on  the  whims  of  others,  unprotected  by 
any  legal  status  and  regarded  by  society  as  mere 
machinery  to  minister  to  its  convenience.  To  the 
Law,  the  slave  was  not  a  person,  but  a  thing,  at  the 
absolute  disposal  of  his  owner.  But  the  actual  lot 
of  the  slave  has  varied  immensely  according  to  the 
character  of  his  masters.  In  Greece  his  position  was 
worse  in  theory  than  in  fact. 

"In  no  country  of  the  ancient  world  were  slaves  treated  with 
such  humanity  as  in  Hellas  ;  it  was  not  the  law,  but  custom  that 
forbade  the  Greek  to  sell  his  slaves  to  a  non-Greek  master,  and 
so  J)anished  from  this  region  the  slave-trade  proper."  ^ 

But  at  Rome  all  the  vices  of  the  national  temperament 
combined  to  make  his  life  intolerable  :  against  its  lust 
and  cruelty  he  had  for  centuries  no  redress.  The 
callousness  with  which  the  elder  Cato  sold  in  their 
declining  years  the  slaves  who  had  worn  out  their 
energies  in  his  service  shocked  his  biographer,  Plu- 
tarch.2  A  Roman  might  have  considered  it  enough 
that  they  had  been  spared  so  long  !  Brutal  punish- 
ments and  death  itself  were  inflicted  upon  them  for 
the  slightest  faults,  or  even  with  no  excuse  at  all.  The 
lines  of  Juvenal  are  well  known  : — 


^  Mommsen,  Provinces  of  the  Roman  Empire,  p.  272. 
2  Plutarch,  Cato  Major,  v. 


142    PREPARATION   FOR   CHRISTIAN   IDEAL 

"  'Go,  crucify  that  slave.*     '  For  what  offence  ? 
Who  the  accuser  ?     Where  the  evidence  ? 
For  when  the  life  of  man  is  in  debate, 
No  time  can  be  too  long,  no  care  too  great ; 

Hear  all,  weigh  all  with  caution,  I  advise * 

'  Thou  sniveller  !  is  a  slave  a  man  ?  "  she  cries. 
'  He's  innocent !  be't  so  :    'tis  my  command. 
My  will ;  let  that,  sir,  for  a  reason  stand.'  "  * 

In  one  of  his  epistles,  Seneca  describes  the  fashionable 
aristocrat  at  dinner,  surrounded  by  a  multitude  of 
slaves,  each  a  specialist  in  some  minute  item  of  the 
ceremony. 

"  He  eats  more  than  he  can  hold,  but  his  unfortunate  slaves 
must  not  so  much  as  move  their  lips.  Every  sound  is  threatened 
with  the  whip  ;  not  even  an  accidental  cough  or  sigh  is  forgiven. 
The  slightest  violation  of  the  silence  is  dearly  paid  for.  All  night 
they  stand  dumb  and  fasting.  Hence  the  proverb  *  in  every  slave 
an  enemy  '  :  we  make  them  so.  I  pass  over  the  inhumanities  which 
we  perpetrate  upon  them  as  though  they  were  brute  beasts.  .  .  . 
One  carves  the  costly  birds,  guiding  a  trained  hand  through  breast 
and  back  along  prescribed  curves.  Unhappy  being,  whose  sole 
mission  in  life  it  is  to  carve  fowls  properly:" 

Then  he  contrasts  this  behaviour  with  the  attitude 
dictated  by  philosophy  : — 

"  So  live  with  an  inferior  as  you  would  have  a  superior  live 
with  you.  Admit  a  slave  to  your  conversation,  even  to  your  table. 
Let  some  dine  with  you  because  they  are  worthy  :  others  that  they 
may  become  so.  'He  is  a  slave  ' — but  perhaps  his  spirit  is  free. 
A  slave  !  what  harm  is  there  in  that  ?  Show  me  one  who  is  not ! 
Some  are  slaves  to  lust,  others  to  avarice  or  ambition  ;  all  to  fear. 
I  can  name  you  a  magistrate  the  slave  of  a  hag  ;  a  Croesus  enslaved 
by  a  waiting-woman,  young  noblemen  at  the  beck  of  actresses : 
no  servitude  is  so  disgraceful  as  that  which  we  impose  upon  our- 
selves." ^ 

Elsewhere  his  writings  exhibit  the  same  influence. 

^  Juvenal,  vi.  219. — W.  Gifford's  translation. 
2  Seneca,  Epistles,  xlvii. 


IN   THE   GENTILE  ENVIRONMENT      143 

"  Philosophy  knows  no  respect  of  persons,  and  recognizes  no 
patent  of  nobility  but  its  own.  We  must  consider  not  the  origin  but 
the  goal."  ^ 

and  again  : — 

"  A  man  should  keep  within  reasonable  bounds  in  his  treatment 
of  slaves.  Even  when  they  are  our  absolute  property  we  ought  to 
consider  not  how  much  we  may  torture  them  with  impunity,  but 
how  far  such  conduct  is  permitted  by  natural  humanity  and  justice. 
While  all  things  are  lawful  towards  a  slave,  some  things  are  not  law- 
ful towards  a  man :  the  very  Law  of  Nature  forbids.  Because 
Vedius  PolHo  fed  his  lampreys  with  human  blood,  he  was  execrated 
by  society  even  more  than  he  was  hated  by  his  slaves.  Cruel  masters 
are  pointed  at  with  loathing  in  all  parts  of  the  city."  ^ 

History  records  several  instances  where  a  new  tone 
in  public  opinion  made  itself  felt.  When  slaves 
suffered  from  disease  which  seemed  incurable,  it  had 
been  the  custom  to  expose  or  kill  them.  The  Emperor 
Claudius  made  the  latter  course  a  criminal  act,  and 
gave  those  who  were  exposed  their  freedom.^  If  a 
master  was  murdered  by  a  slave,  the  law  decreed  that 
all  the  slaves  beneath  the  same  roof  should  be  put  to 
death.  A  case  occurred  in  the  year  61,  and  400  were 
led  out  to  execution.  ''  The  people  rose,  ''  says 
Tacitus,  *'  to  defend  the  innocent,  and  protests  against 
such  excessive  severity  were  heard  even  in  the  Senate.'* 
The  speech  of  the  conservative  spokesman,  Cassius, 
is  very  significant : — 

"  A  slave  was  always  suspect  to  our  ancestors,  even  when  he  was 
born  upon  their  estates  or  in  their  houses,  and  felt  from  the  first 
affection  for  his  master.  But  now  that  our  households  contain 
nations,  separated  by  diverse  customs  and  worshipping  foreign  gods 
or  none  at  all,  the  only  possible  restraint  is  that  of  fear." 

The  majority  decided  that  the  law  must  take  its  course, 

^  Seneca,  Epistles,  xliv.  2  Seneca,  de  dementia,  i.  18. 

^  Suetonius,  Claudius,  25. 


144   PREPARATION   FOR   CHRISTIAN   IDEAL 

and  the  sentence  was  carried  out  by  the  soldiers  in  the 
face  of  a  dense  and  threatening  mob.^  Gradually, 
however,  limitations  were  imposed  upon  the  absolutism 
of  the  masters.  A  law  was  passed  forbidding  slaves 
to  be  matched  against  wild  beasts  in  the  arena,  and 
under  Antoninus  they  were  not  allowed  to  be  put  to 
death  without  a  cause  assigned.  Subsequent  legis- 
lation *'  appointed  officers  through  all  the  provinces 
to  hear  the  complaints  of  slaves  ;  enjoined  that  no 
master  should  treat  his  slaves  with  excessive  severity, 
and  commanded  that  when  such  severity  was  proved, 
the  master  should  be  compelled  to  sell  the  slave  he  had 
ill-treated.''  2  Finally  the  jurists  accepted  the  maxim 
of  philosophy  that  all  men  are  by  nature  free. 

Thus  for  social  amelioration,  as  for  guidance  in  moral 
and  spiritual  problems,  men  looked  more  and  more  to 
the  philosophers.  We  have  seen  what  philosophy 
was  to  Epictetus.  Juvenal,  Plutarch  and  Marcus 
Aurelius  say  much  the  same.  The  evidence  of  the 
first  is  perhaps  the  most  striking,  as  coming  from  one 
who  is,  as  we  may  say,  not  only  a  layman  but  even  an 
anticlerical.     Possibly  his  recantation  is  too  generous  : 

"  Divine  philosophy !  by  whose  pure  light. 
We  first  distinguish,  then  pursue  the  right. 
Thy  power  the  breast  from  every  error  frees. 
And  weeds  out  all  its  vices  by  degrees."  ® 

Plutarch  speaks  more  soberly  : — 

"  The  crown  of  all  our  education  should  be  philosophy ;  it  is 
the  only  remedy  for  the  weaknesses  and  diseases  of  the  soul.  It  is  by 
its  advice  and  assistance  that  we  distinguish  right    from  wrong, 


^  Tacitus,  Annals,  xiv.  42. 

2  Lecky,  op.  cit,  p.  308.     See  Seneca,  De  Beneficiis,  iii.  22. 

^  Juvenal,  xii.  187,  Gifford. 


IN   THE   GENTILE   ENVIRONMENT      145 

what  is  just  from  what  is  unjust,  what  is  good  from  what  is  evil.  It 
teaches  us  how  to  conduct  ourselves  in  all  relations  ;  to  worship  the 
gods,  honour  our  parents,  reverence  our  elders,  obey  our  laws,  be 
subject  to  our  rulers,  love  our  friends,  behave  to  our  wives  with 
restraint,  our  children  with  affection,  to  our  servants  without 
arrogance.  Chief  est  lesson  of  aU,  it  teaches  us  not  to  be  overjoyed 
in  prosperity,  or  overwhelmed  in  misfortune,  not  to  be  dissolute  in 
our  pleasures,  nor  furious  and  brutal  in  our  passions."  ^ 

''  What  is  man's  life  ?  "  asks  Marcus  at  the  end  of 
his  second  book. 

"  Life,"  he  answers,  "  is  a  warfare  and  a  sojourning,  and  after-fame 
oblivion.  What  then  can  be  our  guide  ?  One  thing,  and  one  alone 
— Philosophy — which  keeps  the  spirit  within  unspotted  and  with- 
out offence,  superior  to  pleasures  or  sorrows,  doing  nothing  foolishly 
or  with  deceitfulness  .  .  .  and  finally  awaiting  death,  the  dissolu- 
tion, with  serenity."  ^ 

But  the  philosophers,  we  must  remember,  were  not 
so  much  men  of  speculative  originality  or  profound 
learning  as  professionaLexperts  in  the  problems  of  daily 
life.  In  varying  ranks  and  stations,  inmates  of  palaces, 
like  Seneca,  or  wandering  for  conscience'  sake  in  exile, 
like  Dio  Chrysostom,  they  formed  the  clergy  of  the 
Pagan  world,  and  exalted  by  their  neighbours  upon 
a  moral  pedestal,  made  an  easy  target  for  the  satirists 
who  preferred  to  emphasize  the  defects  of  their  practice 
rather  than  the  excellences  of  their  preaching.  But 
no  class  of  men,  now  or  then,  may  fairly  be  judged  by 
such  a  test,  and  though  some  philosophers,  no  doubt, 
conformed  too  much  to  the  fashion  of  this  world,  they 
played  a  necessary  and  important  part  in  the  general 
preparation.  To  them  it  belonged  to  offer  consolation 
to  the  bereaved,  to  rebuke  the  ostentation  of  the  rich, 
and  make  a  stand  against  the  tyranny  of  rulers.  They 
preached  the  natural  equality  of  man  beneath  the 

^  Plutarch,  De  Liheris  Educandis,  x. 
2  Marcus  Aurelius,  To  himself,  ii.  17. 
C.C.  L 


146   PREPARATION   FOR  CHRISTIAN   IDEAL 

sovereignty  of  heaven,  and  inculcated  upon  all  the 
duty  of  benevolence  to  their  fellows.  They  painted 
the  pleasures  of  a  simple  life,  and  commended  a  kindly 
tolerance  towards  the  faults  of  others,  and  a  resolute 
and  cheerful  bearing  of  whatever  fortune  or  providence 
might  send.  These  are  the  themes  which  fill  the  essays 
of  Seneca  and  Plutarch,  and  inspire  the  sermons  of 
Dio  and  Epictetus.  It  was  from  such  sources  eventu- 
ally that  the  Emperor  Marcus  Aurelius  derived  his 
''  conception  of  an  equal  commonwealth  based  on 
equality  of  right  and  equality  of  speech,  and  of  im- 
perial rule  respecting  first  and  foremost  the  liberty 
of  the  subject.*'  ^  These  lessons,  which  the  upper 
classes  received  through  literature  and  lectures,  were 
preached  to  others  in  their  market-places.  If  Dio 
complains  of  his  order  that 

"  They  do  not  go  to  the  people,  despairing  perhaps  of  their 
abiUty  to  ameliorate  the  masses,"  ^ 

we  may  infer  that  he  at  least  recognized  the  obligation 
and  strove  to  discharge  it.  The  Stoics,  admits  an 
early  Father,^  did  not  leave  even  slaves  or  women 
unevangelized.  Wearing  the  ragged  cloak  of  a  beggar, 
and  with  a  book  in  his  left  hand,  the  bearded  ''  sophist  " 
was  a  familiar  sight  in  every  town,  and  everywhere 
found  eager  audiences,  imploring  guidance  in  moral 
questions.  In  one  of  his  discourses  Epictetus  has 
drawn  a  picture  of  the  ideal  missionary.  "  Let  no 
man  rashly  assume  that  office  without  a  conscious- 
ness of  his  vocation.  He  is  an  ambassador  from  God 
sent  to  proclaim  to  men  the  error  of  their  ways  and 
show  them  a  more  excellent  road  to  happiness.     Let 

^  Marcus  Aurelius,  "  To  himself,"  i.  14. 

^  Dio,  or.  xxxii. 

'  Lactantius,  Divine  Institutes,  iii.  23. 


IN  THE   GENTILE   ENVIRONMENT      147 

him  prepare  himself  by  emptying  his  heart  of  all 
desires  ;  his  life  must  have  nothing  to  conceal.  Because 
of  the  stress  of  this  present  evil  time,  let  him  go 
without  encumbrances,  calling  no  home  his  own,  at- 
tended by  no  servant,  and  professing  himself  a  citizen 
of  no  earthly  country  ;  patient  of  ill-treatment,  and 
commending  in  his  own  person  the  doctrines  which  he 
preaches/'^ 

It  is  a  high  ideal,  and  yet  there  is  surely  something 
wanting.  It  has  nothing  to  say  with  regard  to  the 
preacher's  audience  :  they  are  taken  for  granted,  as 
so  many  cases  of  the  disease  which  must  ensue  where 
philosophy  is  not  known.  There  is  no  realization  of 
''  my  neighbour  **  as  a  concrete  individual.  Relations 
are  regarded  as  ''  encumbrances.'*  In  the  same  spirit 
he  speaks  elsewhere  of  wives  and  children  as  "  bits  of 
shell  or  weed,'*  which  the  voyager  on  the  sea  of  life 
may  pick  up  at  a  port  of  call :  ''  but  when  the  captain 
calls,  drop  everything  and  hurry  back  to  the  ship.'*  2 
Passion  and  pity,  we  remember,  were  both  vices  and 
alien  to  the  sage.  This  limitation  appears  in  a  curious 
passage  of  Seneca  in  his  treatise  "  On  Clemency.'*  He 
is  discussing  the  relation  of  that  virtue  to  pity,  which 
he  says  is  parallel  to  the  relation  of  faith  to  supersti- 
tion. } 

"  Stoicism  is  often  accused  of  being  too  hard,  although  no  sect 
is  more  benign  or  gentle,  more  kindly  affectioned  towards  men,  or 
more  attentive  to  the  common  welfare.  But  pity  is  a  vice.  A  man 
cannot  maintain  the  same  level  of  greatness,  if  fear  and  sorrow 
darken  and  contract  his  mind,  and  therefore  he  will  not  pity,  since 
he  cannot  do  so  without  a  piteousness  within,  though  he  will  gladly 
do  all  that  pity  usually  suggests."  ^ 

^  Epictetus,  Dissertations,  iii.  22.  ^JUanual,  vii. 

^  Seneca,  De  dementia,  ii.  5. 


148   PREPARATION   FOR  CHRISTIAN   IDEAL 

But,  unless  the  distinction  is  without  meaning,  that  is 
just  what  he  cannot  do.  The  mind  that  values  its 
own  serenity  too  high  to  risk  it  in  the  service  of  another 
can  never  enter  into  the  sympathy  which  prompts 
true  assistance.     Those  who 

"counsel  and  speak  comfort  to  that  grief 
Which  they  themselves  not  feel/* 

awake  no  response  in  the  hearts  of  their  fellows.  They 
are  more  akin  to  the  priest  and  levite  than  to  the 
good  Samaritan. 

The  same  arrested  benevolence  is  seen  in  Marcus 
Aurelius.  At  one  time  his  thoughts  turn  to  the  great 
Community  of  Nature  which  will  not  allow  anyone  of 
us  to  isolate  himself. 

'*  Have  you  ever  seen  a  dismembered  hand,  or  foot,  or  decapi- 
tated head,  lying  severed  from  the  body  to  which  it  belonged  ? 
Such  does  a  man,  so  far  as  he  is  able,  make  himself  when  he  refuses 
to  accept  what  befalls,  and  isolates  himself,  or  when  he  pursues  self- 
seeking  action.  You  are  cast  out  from  the  unity  of  Nature  of  which 
you  are  an  organic  part ;  you  dismember  your  own  self.'*  ^ 

At  another,  the  egotistic  motive,  and  the  limits  of  its 
energy,  are  more  apparent. 

"  In  one  respect  men  are  our  nearest  duty,  in  so  far  as  we  are 
bound  to  suffer  them  and  do  them  good.  But  in  so  far  as  particular 
individuals  interfere  with  my  proper  functions,  man  becomes  to  me 
a  thing  indifferent,  no  less  than  sun  or  wind  or  beast  of  the  field."  ^ 

"  We  are  bound  to  suffer  them  and  do  them  good  !  ** 
That  is  the  high-water  mark  of  Stoic  altruism.  At 
best  our  fellows  are  the  exercising  ground  for  our 
virtues,  or  a  trial  sent  to  discipline  us  by  an  inscrutable 
Providence.  There  is  always  a  note  of  condescension 
in  the  message  ;    the  preacher  is  preoccupied  with 

^  To  Himself,  viii.  34  ;    cf.   Epictetus,  Dissertations,  ii.  5. 
2  Ibidem,  v.  20. 


IN  THE   GENTILE   ENVIRONMENT      149 

himself.  Like  the  White  Knight,  "he  is  thinking  of 
a  way'*  to  improve  himself,  *'and  so  has  no  reply  to 
give ''  to  them  that  labour  and  are  heavy  laden.  To  the 
appeal  of  mere  philosophy  the  world  answers  that  it 
''  patches  grief  with  proverbs  '*  and  is  more  ready  to 
preach  the  necessity  for  reform  than  to  provide  the 
motive  power  for  its  realization.  It  may  induce  men 
to  change  the  topic  of  conversation  in  deference  to 
the  presence  of  the  philosopher,^  but  it  has  seldom 
produced  any  alteration  in  their  habits.  And  so  we 
do  not  wonder  at  the  final  pessimism  with  which 
Seneca  exclaims  : — 

"  Vice  ebbs  and  flows  like  a  tide.     Evil  we  are,  evil  we  have  been 
and,  though  reluctantly  I  say  it,  evil  we  shall  ever  be."  ^ 


To  conclude,  we  see  that  human  nature  without 
Christ  was  then  just  what  it  is  now.  Men  were  not 
altogether  without  hearts  or  sympathies  and  did  not 
lack  consciousness  of  failure  and  impulses  to  better 
things.  But  there  is  an  absence  of  any  vivifying  spirit, 
there  is  no  power  to  replace  weakness  by  strength,  to 
conquer  lust  or  selfishness ;  above  all  there  is  no  enthus- 
iasm. The  ideal  of  the  Brotherhood  of  Man  broke 
down  for  lack  of  an  adequate  conception  of  the  Father- 
hood of  God.  Men  had  no  hope  because  they  found 
no  faith. 3  Even  now,  in  a  society  still  only  tinged  by 
the  Spirit  of  Christ,  we  may  note  the  same  contrast 
between  the  senseless  extravagances  of  a  few  and  the 

^  See  Petronius,  85. 

*  Seneca,  De  Beneficns,  i.  10. 

^  This  is  well  brought  out  in  connection  with  Marcus  Aurelius 
by  T.  R.  Glover,  The  Conflict  of  Religions  in  the  Early  Roman 
Empire,  pp.  197  ft. 


150   PREPARATION   FOR  CHRISTIAN  IDEAL 

monotonous  pauperism  of  many  (a  contrast  only 
heightened  by  our  increased  command  of  material 
resources),  the  same  reign  of  sensual  desire  and  moral 
perversion,  the  same  symptoms  in  short  as  those  in 
which  St.  Paul  saw  a  revelation  of  the  Wrath  of  God. 
But  already  the  true  Light  was  coming  into  the 
world.  We  have  now  to  watch  its  reception  and 
follow  its  victorious  growth.  New  seed  will  be  sown 
throughout  the  Mediterranean  world,  but  how  many 
tares,  sprung  from  previous  sowings,  will  appear 
among  the  wheat  ?  How  far  will  old  conventions 
and  presuppositions  survive,  and  the  conquered  once 
more  impose  conditions  on  the  Conqueror  ? 


IV 

The  Christian  Ideal  as  Realized  in  the 
Primitive  Church 

By  Rev.  J.VERNON  BARTLET,  M.A.,  D.D.,  Professor  of 
Church  History  in  Mansfield  College,  Oxford. 


ARGUMENT. 

The  Kingdom  and  the  Church — ^The  Blending  of  Jewish  and  Gentile  Ideas 
in  Practical  Piety. 

I.  The  Christian  Life  of  the  Early  Jewish  Christianity — ^The  Idyllic  Sim- 

plicity of  the  Primitive  Community — More  Reflective  and  Organized 
Forms  Gradually  Assumed — ^The  Influence  of  the  Gospel  on  the  Com- 
munities of  the  Dispersion — ^The  Didactic  and  other  Writings — The 
Testimony  of  Pliny. 

II.  The  Christian  Life  of  the   Early  Gentile  Churches — The    Hindrances 

to  Christian  Brotherhood — The  Full  Fellowship  of  all  Behevers — 
The  Recognition  of  the  Supreme  Value  of  Moral  Personality — ^The 
Application  of  Sacrificial  Language  to  Christian  Service — The  Spirit- 
ualization  of  the  Whole  of  Life — ^Application  of  the  Christian  Principle 
to  the  Home  and  the  Household,  Husband  and  Wife,  Parent  and 
Child,  Social  Intercourse  Generally — The  Correspondence  of  the 
Actual  Practice  with  these  Characteristics — Discipline  Corporate  in 
Spirit  and  in  Form — ^The  Eucharist  as  a  Bond  of  Unity — Ignatius' 
Insistence  on  Fellowship — ^The  Communion  Service  a  Fountain-head 
of  Christian  Altruism — The  Subsequent  Transformations  of  the 
Primitive  Social  Feast — ^The  Discipline  of  the  Church's  Public  Opinion 
— ^The  Relation  of  the  Church  to  Society  in  General — Love  as  the 
Keystone  of  the  whole  Fabric  of  Christian  Conduct. 

The  Principle  of  Selection  in  the  Picture  given — The  Worldly 
Spirit  in  the  Church  as  Reflected  in  the  Shepherd  of  Hennas  and  the 
Second  Epistle  of  Clement — Importance  of  Discovering  the  Moral 
Forces  in  Early  Christianity,  their  Religious  Springs  and  Social  Issue 
— ^The  Demand  of  Economic  Justice  as  well  as  Redemptive  Pity. 


IV 

The  Christian   Ideal   as   ReaHzed  in   the 
Primitive  Church 

In  previous  essays  the  growth  of  the  Christian  ideal 
has  been  traced.  We  have  seen  first  its  emergence 
in  a  Chosen  People,  and  then  its  fulfilment  in  the 
person  and  teaching  of  Jesus,  God's  Anointed,  the 
destined  Head  of  a  people  filled  with  a  like  spirit  of 
filial  holiness  and  love.  We  have  now  to  consider 
how  far  the  early  Church  actually  realized  its  vocation 
to  embody  the  spirit  of  Christ  in  human  life,  personal, 
social,  and  civic.  Our  chief  concern  is  with  the  social 
manifestations  of  the  Christian  impulse  and  principle. 
But  since  these  work  from  within,  from  the  regenerated 
consciousness  of  the  individual,  outwards  to  their 
social  issues,  the  '*  Kingdom  of  God ''  within  the 
human  soul  as  character  must  be  kept  constantly  in 
view.  The  ''  Kingdom "  as  realized  in  a  renewed 
society,  comes  through  the  spread  of  the  Kingdom 
as  filial  loyalty  in  its  personal  units,  after  the  type 
exemplified  in  Jesus  as  Son  of  Man.  In  fact  a  new 
sense  of  personality,  of  the  moral  value  of  each  soul 
as  directly  related  to  God,  was  perhaps  the  chief 
ethical  contribution  of  the  Gospel,  the  spring  of  its 
dynamic  for  illimitable  progress,  individual  and  social. 
It  is  with  the  operation  of  this  new  master-idea,  while 

163 


154  THE  CHRISTIAN   IDEAL 

as  yet  it  shone  with  fresh  splendour  for  the  eye  of 
humanity,  that  ths  essay  will  have  largely  to  deal. 
When  the  Church  began  to  conceive  of  salvation  less 
in  terms  of  personaHty  than  of  ''  grace ''  abstracted  from 
moral  experience,  at  that  moment  it  began  also  to 
depart  from  its  original  spirit. 

While  it  is  needful  at  times  to  study  Jewish  and 
Gentile  Christianity  apart,  in  relation  to  the  native 
atmosphere  and  antecedents  of  each,  it  is  not  so  in 
the  present  instance  save  in  quite  a  minor  degree. 
It  was  in  the  practical  piety  of  daily  life  that  all  types 
of  Christians  most  agreed,  standing  out  as  such  from 
their  several  social  environments  in  virtue  of  marked 
common  features.  These  features  we  are  now  to 
examine  in  a  summary  and  connected  fashion,  with  a 
view  to  realize  their  dependence  on  a  common  faith 
or  attitude  to  life,  due  to  the  action  of  the  Gospel  of 
Christ.  Yet  one  fact  tending  to  explain  the  similarity 
even  of  the  forms  in  which  the  evangelic  impulse 
took  effect  among  Jewish  and  Gentile  believers,  must 
be  kept  steadily  in  mind ;  namely,  the  blending  of 
Jewish  and  Gentile  ideals  which  had  already  come 
about  in  certain  circles.  The  Jews  had  spread  widely 
beyond  Palestine,  especially  around  the  eastern  Medi- 
terranean ;  Graeco-Roman  civilization  had  invaded 
Palestine,  the  Holy  Land  of  the  Jews  ;  and  each  type 
had  in  a  measure  leavened  the  other.  The  results 
were  the  Graecized  Jew,  or  Hellenist,  and  the  cor- 
responding semi- Jewish  or  ''  God-fearing  ''  Gentile. 
Here  the  Jewish  faith  contributed  the  essential  reli- 
gious and  moral  elements;  but  the  liberal  and  cos- 
mopoHtan  temper,  as  well  as  the  forms  of  culture 
characterizing  both  classes,  was  due  mainly  to  Greek 
influences  dating  from  the  conquests  of  Alexander, 


AS   REALIZED   IN   PRIMITIVE  CHURCH  155 

and  in  a  lesser  degree  to  Roman.  Northern  Syria, 
Asia  Minor,  Alexandria,  and  Rome  itself,  all  contained 
large  and  influential  Hellenistic  or  semi- Jewish  popula- 
tions :  and  as  the  Gospel  naturally  made  its  first 
and  strongest  appeal  to  these,  we  are  prepared  to 
find  fundamental  resemblances  in  the  Christian  life 
as  it  took  shape  in  such  regions.  Generally  speaking, 
then,  it  was  only  in  certain  Palestinian  communities 
that  the  exclusive  Jewish  spirit,  with  its  national 
caste  customs,  persisted  among  Christians.  Apart  from 
these  the  universal  spirit  of  the  Gospel  gradually  estab- 
lished itself  in  the  eyes  of  most  Christians  of  Jewish 
birth  and  training,  as  traced  in  the  book  of  Acts.  The 
detail,  indeed,  in  which  it  describes  the  process  whereby 
Jewish  limitations  gave  way  under  the  lead  of  the 
Spirit,  shows  how  great  were  the  barriers  overcome 
and  how  potent  the  ideas  operative  in  this  moral 
and  social  revolution.  We  do  not  think  enough 
of  the  heroism  of  faith  and  sacrifice  to  which  the 
Evangelic  spirit  braced  those  Jews  who  made  the 
great  renunciation  involved  in  admitting  the  Gentiles 
as  ''  brethren ''  in  Israel, — in  simple  loyalty  to  the 
Spirit  of  God  manifest  in  such  souls  as  "  purified  by 
faith,'*  apart  even  from  certain  requirements  of  that 
Law  upon  which  God  had  so  long  placed  honour 
among  His  people.  Whither  '*  the  Spirit  of  Jesus  " 
led  they  followed,  '*  not  knowing  whither  they 
went,"  but  leaving  an  example  to  Christians  in  all 
ages  of  the  duty  of  following  the  gleam  visible  in 
the  fresh  openings  of  Providence,  yet  always  in  con- 
tinuity with  the  spirit  underlying  the  progress  of  the 
past.  Such  is  ever  the  prophetic  spirit.  But  never 
did  it  win  a  more  striking  victory.  The  warning  as 
to  the  penalty  of  disobedience  to  such  a  call  is  no  less 
impressive.     As    the   progressive   section    of    Judean 


156  THE  CHRISTIAN   IDEAL 

Christianity  was  rewarded  with  undreamt-of  fruit- 
fulness,  so  the  conservative  was  blasted  with  sterility. 
"  Crushed  by  the  letter  of  Jesus  ** — the  letter  of  the 
example  of  a  Master  who  had  Himself  conformed  on 
the  whole  to  the  usages  of  the  Law,  though  in  sovereign 
freedom  of  spirit — they  ''  died  a  lingering  death/'  i 
Aloof  alike  from  national  Judaism  and  from  the 
Christian  Church  as  a  whole,  Ebionism  became  *'  heresy  " 
in  the  eyes  of  both.  There  is  food  for  reflexion  and 
heart-searching  here.  It  affords  a  signal  instance  of 
the  law  of  spiritual  life  through  death  to  the  letter 
of  even  a  sacred  past,  exemplified  already  in  the  Head 
of  the  Church  Himself,  but  to  be  fulfilled  in  His  Church 
again  and  again,  notably  at  the  great  Reformation 
wherein  the  modern  Christian  world  was  born  out  of 
the  medieval. 

The  Christian  ideal,  life  as  lived  under  the  sway  of 
love  for  God  as  holy  Father  and  for  men  as  related  to 
Him,  was  too  rich  in  moral  possibilities  to  be  fully  realized 
at  once  in  any  one  circle  of  Christians,  if  indeed  in  all 
taken  together.  It  asserted  itself  piecemeal,  here  on 
one  side,  there  on  another,  according  to  prior  training, 
yet  in  all  cases  raising  to  a  higher  power  the  purer 
and  more  humane  elements  in  existing  moral  life, 
and  paralysing  or  controlling  the  selfish  and  morbid 
ones.  But  as  these  differed  largely  according  as  Jewish 
training  did  or  did  not  determine  the  life  of  the  com- 
munity, we  find  at  first  two  rather  distinct  types  of 
Christian  piety ;  though  these  tend  more  and  more  to 
blend  into  a  common  type  in  the  second  Christian 
generation. 

1  Harnack,  Expansion  of  Christianity,  i.  yz  f-  »   compare  Hort, 
Judaistic  Christianity,  y.  37. 


AS   REALIZED   IN   PRIMITIVE  CHURCH  157 

I 

Christian  life  in  the  primitive  community  at  Jeru- 
salem was  at  first  characterized  by  an  idyllic  simplicity. 
The  brethren  were  absorbed  in  immediately  religious 
duties  to  God  and  man,  with  little  or  no  reflexion 
as  to  the  future  and  the  conditions  imposed  by  ordinary 
social  wants  in  such  a  world  as  this.  They  were 
expecting  the  present  order  soon  to  give  place  to 
another  :  hence  religion  was  '  all  in  all  *  in  a  very  obvious 
sense.  To  feel  and  express  grateful  love  to  God  for 
His  redemptive  acts  in  Christ,  whether  past  or  future 
(both  being  to  their  feelings  wondrously  nigh),  and 
to  extend  the  expression  of  devotion  into  their  rela- 
tions with  others,  as  embraced  within  the  scope  of 
God*s  fatherliness — that  was  the  sum  of  the  matter. 
In  such  an  atmosphere  all  was  worship  and  all  was 
unity,  whether  they  hung  on  the  Apostles*  lips  for 
further  knowledge  of  their  Master's  ways,  or  expressed 
their  fellowship  in  the  intimate  communion  of  simple 
meals  that  recalled  the  recent  and  sacred  union  of 
Jesus  and  His  personal  disciples.  How  far  the  spirit 
of  ''all  things  in  common  *'  carried  them  in  practice 
is  not  quite  clear.  But  certainly  there  was  no  com- 
pulsion and  no  formal  system  about  their  doings  in 
those  early  days,  even  when  certain  went  the  length 
of  selling  their  goods  to  supply  the  needs  of  others. 
What  was  distinctively  Christian,  directly  expressive 
of  the  new  bond  between  them  as  Messiah's  followers, 
was  domestic  in  form  (''at  home "),  though  they 
also  assembled  about  their  leaders  for  instruction 
within  the  Temple  precincts.  Thus  in  exultant  glad- 
ness and  openheartedness  they  lived  the  life  of  abso- 
lute human  '*  communion ''  (koinonia),  and  all  alike  was 
''holiness  to  the  Lord"  (Acts  ii.  42-47). 


158  THE  CHRISTIAN   IDEAL 

Of  course,  this  state  of  simple  "  enthusiasm/' 
without  thought  for  the  morrow  in  any  sense,  could 
not  continue  unchanged.  It  gradually  assumed  more 
reflective  and  organized  forms,  one  of  which  was  the 
daily  distribution  of  the  necessaries  of  life  to  those 
utterly  dependent,  especially  the  widows  and  orphans 
of  the  community,  an  institution  which  we  see  deve- 
loping in  the  pages  of  Acts  (iv.  34  f. ;  vi.  i  ff.).  But 
that  the  primitive  community  long  remained  *'  of 
one  heart  and  soul,''  so  that  the  spirit  of  egoism  in 
the  use  of  possessions  was  largely  swallowed  up 
by  love,  we  have  reason  to  believe.  In  this  sense 
they  continued  to  ''  have  all  things  common,*'  and 
to  regard  lack  of  brotherly  sympathy  the  most  grievous 
breach  of  the  law  of  Christ, — ''  the  regal  law  of  liberty  " 
in  love.  This  appears  not  only  from  the  tone  of  the 
Epistle  of  James,^  but  also  from  the  emphatic  teaching 
of  a  Gospel  current  among  certain  old-fashioned 
believers  in  the  latter  part  of  the  century,  which  had 
large  affinity  with  the  element  common  to  our  Gospels 
of  Matthew  and  Luke.  In  this  "  Gospel  according 
to  Hebrews  "  it  was  said  that  he  was  guilty  of  the  worst 
kind  of  sin  ''who  grieved  the  spirit  of  his  brother"  : 
and  the  Lord  was  reported  as  having  said  to  His 
disciples,  "  And  never  be  ye  glad  save  when  ye  have 
looked  on  your  brother  in  love."  If  further  confirm- 
ation were  needed,  it  exists  in  the  teaching  of  the 
*'  Two  Ways,"  a  Jewish-Christian  catechism  widely 
current  in  primitive  times,  and  probably  going  back 
in  substance  to  the  earliest  days.     Among  its  injunc- 

^  This  writing  presents  Christian  piety  as  the  fulfilment  of  the 
ideal  spirit  of  the  Jewish  Law  as  expounded  by  the  Prophets  and 
the  Sermon  on  the  Mount,  and  illustrates  how  needful  was  the  new 
Christian  dynamic  to  the  realization  of  the  ideal  of  Divine  brother- 
hood. 


AS   REALIZED   IN   PRIMITIVE  CHURCH  159 

tions  was  this  :  ^  "  Thou  shalt  not  turn  away  from 
him  that  is  in  want,  but  shalt  make  thy  brother  par- 
taker in  all  things,  and  shalt  not  say  that  they  are 
thy  very  own.  For  if  we  are  fellow-partakers  in 
that  which  is  imperishable,  how  much  more  in  the 
things  perishable  ?  "  How  essential  to  true  faith 
such  conduct  was  held  to  be,  appears  also  from  the 
fact  that  "remembrance  of  the  poor'*  was  put  for- 
ward by  the  leaders  of  the  Judaean  Church  as  the  sole 
condition  2  of  their  recognition  of  the  Christianity 
otherwise  proved  to  exist  among  Paul's  Gentile  con- 
verts— a  '*  fruit  "  of  living  faith  which  Paul  was  no 
less  eager  to  foster. 

So  far  we  have  dealt  mainly  with  Christian  life  in 
Palestine,  the  Holy  Land  of  Judaism,  where  a  high 
ethical  ideal  was  traditional  and  needed  chiefly  to  be 
raised  to  a  higher  power  and  range  by  a  new  spiritual 
impulse.  But  in  the  communities  of  the  Dispersion 
the  morality  of  Old  Testament  religion  existed  amid 
more  mixed  and  complicated  conditions,  which,  if  they 
tended  to  emancipate  both  Jew  and  proselyte  from 
the  narrowness  of  much  Palestinian  piety,  tended 
also  to  make  simplicity  and  unworldliness  of  character 
harder  of  attainment.  How  the  Gospel  worked  as  a 
renewing  and  refining  leaven  in  such  circles  also, 
may  be  seen  in  the  Didache  or  "  Teaching  of  the 
Apostles,''  which  embodies  the  "  Two  Ways  "  in  a 
form  showing  how  the  more  negative  traits  of  Judaism 

*  Didache,  iv.  8. 

^  Gal.  ii.  10,  cf.  James*  Epistle,  ii.  15  ff.,  where  care  for  a  brother's 
bodily  needs  is  made  the  typical  test  of  living  faith.  Paul's  concern 
for  the  same  quality  goes  far  beyond  collections  for  "  the  poor  of  the 
saints  in  Jerusalem  "  (Rom.  xvi.  26  f.,  cf.  Acts  xi.  30 ;  xii.  25)  ; 
it  is  part  of  the  "  kindness  and  goodness  "  which  he  regards  as  "  fruit 
of  the  Spirit  "  (Gal.  v,  22  f.,  vi.  10,  Rom.  xii.  8,  13). 


i6o  THE   CHRISTIAN   IDEAL 

gradually  felt  the  touch  of  a  larger  and  more  loving 
spirit.  The  essence  of  the  Way  of  Life  is  indeed  left 
as  it  was  originally  adopted  from  Jewish  oral 
"  teaching  ''  for  proselytes  in  the  Dispersion.  ''  First, 
thou  shalt  love  God  who  made  thee  ;  secondly,  thy 
neighbour  as  thyself ;  and  all  things  whatsoever 
thou  wouldest  not  have  done  to  thee,  do  thou  also  not 
do  to  another."  ^  But  the  sub-Christian  features 
were  gradually  supplemented,  first  by  additions  breath- 
ing the  spirit  of  the  Golden  Rule  of  positive  love  and 
then  by  incorporation  of  those  precepts  of  Christ 
which  embody  it  most  strikingly  (ch.  i.  3  ff.).  ''For 
what  grace  is  it  if  ye  love  them  that  love  you  ?  Do 
not  even  the  Gentiles  the  same  ?  But  love  ye  them 
that  hate  you,  and  ye  shall  not  have  an  enemy."  Then 
follows  the  law  of  meek  forbearance  under  injury, 
with  a  view  to  overcoming  evil  not  with  its  own 
weapons  but  with  good,  which  is  characteristic  of  early 
Christianity  in  all  circles,  and  the  spirit  of  which  is 
nowhere  more  nobly  expounded  and  illustrated  than 
in  Paul's  Epistles.  ''  Render  to  no  man  evil  for  evil. 
.  .  .  Avenge  not  yourselves,  beloved,  but  give  place  unto 
wrath.  ...  Be  not  overcome  of  evil,  but  overcome 
evil  with  good.  Owe  no  man  anything,  save  to  love 
one  another ;  for  he  that  loveth  his  neighbour,  hath 
fulfilled  the  law.  .  .  .  Love  is  long-suffering,  is  kind, 
.  .  .  seeketh  not  its  own,  is  not  provoked,  taketh  no  note 
of  evil, .  .  .  hopeth  all  things,  endureth  all  things  "  (Rom. 
xii.  17  ff. ;  I  Cor.  xiii.  4  ff.).  Here  we  have  not  only 
practical  rules,  but  also  the  motive  which  alone  makes 
them  practicable.  The  insight  of  the  compiler  of  the 
DidachS  does  not  carry  him  so  far,  and  he  sets  forth 

^  This  appears  in  the  early  addition  to  Acts  xv.  20,  29,  as  "  All 
things  which  ye  would  not  have  happen  to  yourselves,  do  not  to 
another." 


AS   REALIZED   IN   PRIMITIVE  CHURCH  i6i 

this  particular  part  of  the  Christian  ideal  as  a  counsel 
of  perfection  ("  thou  shalt  be  perfect ")  ;  yet  he 
takes  it  very  seriously,  as  did  all  Christians  at  first. ^ 
He  is  filled  also  with  the  passion  of  sympathy  for 
the  appeal  of  want,  wherever  met.  "  Give  to  every 
one  that  asketh  thee,  and  ask  not  again  ;  for  the 
Father  willeth  that  to  all  should  be  given  from  His 
own  unmerited  gifts."  Here  again  emerges  an  authen- 
tic note  of  the  Christian  spirit,  the  consciousness  that 
all  man  has,  is  held  on  trust  for  its  one  and  sole  Giver, 
the  heavenly  Father,  for  whose  ends  therefore  it 
ought  in  all  loyalty  to  be  utilized.  ''What  have  we 
that  we  have  not  received  ?  "  Thus  Paul  utters  the 
same  thought  in  a  way  which  excludes  not  only  all  selfish 
use,  but  also  '*  glorying  "  in  any  possession,  spiritual 
or  material,  as  if  one  had  created  it  and  it  were  one's 
very  own  (i  Cor.  iv.  7,  xii.  7,  25).  Indeed  this  idea  of 
utter  dependence,  and  consequent  stewardship  as 
regards  one's  life  and  all  its  powers  and  resources, 
conjoined  with  that  other  master  principle  of  Christ, 
love  to  God  and  man,  may  be  said  to  have  constituted 
the  secret  and  power  of  early  Christian  conduct. 

In  other  circles  than  that  of  the  DidacM  the 
Jewish  limitations  in  the  ethical  ideal  of  the  *'  Two 
Ways "  were  set  aside  somewhat  differently, 2  and 
fresh  applications  of  the  principles  of  Christian 
living  were  made,  still  on  lines  unaffected  by  special 
Pauline   influence.     This   was   the   case   for   instance 

^  Indeed,  this  has  been  a  mark  of  most  revivals  of  the  Gospel 
manner  of  life ;  witness  the  early  Franciscans,  the  Anabaptists 
and  others  in  the  sixteenth  centm-y,  the  Friends,  certain  minor 
Russian  communities,  and  the  Salvation  Army. 

^  Thus  the  Epistle  of  Barnabas,  representing  Christianity  in 
Alexandria  about  70-80  A.D.,  in  citing  it  omits  a  number  of  its 
more  rudimentary  precepts,  e.g.  those  prohibiting  certain  things 
because  they  lead  to  others  yet  worse  {Did.  iii.  1-6). 

C.c.  M 


i62  THE  CHRISTIAN   IDEAL 

in  a  far  later  attempt  ^  to  set  forth  the  Apostolic 
type  of  moral  teaching,  yet  one  expressing  what  had 
long  been  the  local  Christian  ideal  in  North  Syria.  Here 
the  self-seeking  and  overreaching  temper  {pleonexia) 
and  the  spirit  of  retaliation  are  singled  out  as  the 
great  solvents  of  goodness.  Very  emphatic  warning  is 
also  given  against  seeking  the  admiration  of  the  other 
sex  by  adornment  of  the  person,  as  placing  temptation 
in  the  way  of  others,  if  not  in  one's  own.  This  shows  a 
fine  sense  of  responsibility  for  the  indirect  effects  of 
conduct,  and  brings  home  vividly  to  us  the  new 
love  infused  into  humanity,  that  love  which  is  "  the 
identification  of  oursdves  with  God's  interests  in 
others."  Truly  did  another  writing  ^  of  much  the 
same  region  and  date,  but  belonging  to  a  more  Jewish 
circle,  sum  up  Christian  ethics  in  saying:  '*  Every 
fair  deed  shall  the  love  of  man  teach  you  to  do, 
even  as  hatred  of  men  suggests  ill-doing."  In  this 
spirit  Christian  elders  are  to  act  as  parents  to  orphans 
and  as  husbands  to  widows,  with  all  cheerfulness 
supplying  to  them  their  livelihood,  yet  always  subject 
to  the  sound  maxim  ^  *'  To  the  craftsman  work,  to  the 
feeble  alms."  Love  is  still  the  secret ;  and  love  gains 
entrance  in  no  way  more  effectively  than  through 
*'  the  common  partaking  in  salt."  Hence  mutual 
hospitality  is  to  abound ;  for  it  leads  to  beneficence, 
and  beneficence  to  salvation.  Let  all  put  their  living 
at  the  disposal  of  the  brethren  in  God,  for  such  tem- 

^  The  so-called  Apostolic  Didascalia  (Bk.  i.),  put  together  in 
the  course  of  the  third  century. 

2  Epistle  of  Clement  to  James,  cc.  viii.  ff. 

^  Compare  Didache,  xii.  3  f.  If  a  brother  from  a  distance  "  will- 
eth  to  settle  among  you,  and  is  a  craftsman,  let  him  work  and  (so) 
eat.  But  if  he  have  no  craft,  according  to  your  prudence  provide 
that  a  Christian  shall  not  live  with  you  in  idleness." 


AS   REALIZED   IN   PRIMITIVE   CHURCH  163 

poral  giving  meets  with  eternal  receiving.  Give  to 
the  hungry,  thirsty  and  naked  ;  visit  the  sick  ;  reheve 
those  in  prison  ;  welcome  to  your  homes  the  stranger. 
But  Christian  ''  philanthropy  "  extends  further  into 
the  sphere  of  social  relations.  Let  brethren  at  variance 
not  go  before  the  secular  authorities,  but  be  reconciled 
by  the  Church's  elders,  yielding  them  ready  compliance. 
Nay,  let  the  overreaching  instinct  (pleonexia)  be  shunned 
as  a  thing  which  for  temporal  gain  sacrifices  eternal 
good ;  let  weights  and  measures  be  just,  and  trust- 
money  be  held  sacred.  Even  chastity  is  intimately 
bound  up  with  this  fundamental  ''  philanthropy,*' 
which  affords  the  moral  basis  for  God's  mercy  at  the 
last. 

Such  a  picture  of  Christian  ethics — allowing  for 
its  semi- Jewish  traits — not  only  recalls  the  Didache 
(ch.  xii.)  with  its  catholic  love  for  the  stranger  brother, 
balanced  by  wholesome  provision  against  the  vagrant 
idler  who  would  '*  make  merchandise  of  Christ,"  but 
also  agrees  with  the  impressions  of  an  outsider  that 
reach  us  in  his  own  words.  Pliny,  the  governor  of 
Bithynia,  writing  about  112  A.D.,  reports  that  the 
Christians  "used  to  assemble  on  a  fixed  day  (the  Lord's 
day)  before  dawn,  recite  responsively  a  hymn  to 
Christ  as  to  a  god,i  and  pledge  themselves  with  a 
religious  vow  {sacr amentum)  not  to  any  crime,  but 
against  theft,  robbery,  adultery,  breach  of  trust  or 
denial  of  a  deposit  when  claimed."  Pliny  may  or  may 
not  be  right  in  believing  that  these  Christians  at 
their  weekly  morning  worship  actually  pledged  them- 
selves afresh  to  the  moral  ideal  implied  in  allegiance 
to  Christ.     But  his  words  at  least  cast  vivid  ligh; 

^  So  Pliny  would  conceive  the  matter.  Of  such  primitive 
hymns  we  may  get  an  idea  from  Eph.  v.  14,  i  Tim.  iii.  16,  cf, 
2  Tim.  ii.  11  f. 


i64  THE   CHRISTIAN   IDEAL 

upon  the  idea  of  the  Christian  Hfe,  as  distinct  from  that 
of  the  world  around.  They  show  the  sort  of  vocation 
to  which  men  felt  themselves  consecrated  by  baptism, 
which  was  then,  as  it  is  to-day  on  the  mission  field, 
regarded  as  finally  setting  the  believer  apart  from 
the  old  manner  of  life  to  atotally  new  one.  Thus  bap- 
tism was  associated  with  an  explicit  renunciation  of 
the  Way  of  Death,  and  an  embracing  of  the  Way  of 
Life  (as  set  forth  in  the  Didache,  cf .  ch.  vii.) .  Its  phrasing 
might  differ  locally,  but  its  substance  was  one  and 
the  same,  and  intensely  practical.  The  idea  of  a 
definite  moral  covenant  as  part  of  the  new  allegiance 
underlies  all  early  references  to  baptism.  Thus  Justin 
Martyr,  after  stating  the  moral  teaching  of  Christ 
[Apol.  i.  15  f.),  says  that  those  who  come  forward  for 
baptism  "  promise  that  they  are  able  thus  to  conduct 
their  life  "  (i.  61)  ;  and  he  describes  the  newly  bap- 
tized as  '*  covenanted ''  to  Christ's  service,^  just  as 
soldiers  are  to  Caesar's  (i.  65).  That  the  military 
analogy  was  present  to  his  mind,  as  to  the  mind  of 
Christians  generally  from  the  time  when  Paul  com- 
pared the  self-denying  conditions  of  the  two  services 
(2  Tim.  iv.  3  ff.),  is  clear  from  his  remark  that,  if  sol- 
diers put  their  profession  and  allegiance  (homologia) 
above  home  and  life  itself,  it  were  absurd  for  Christians 
to  fail  in  loyalty  to  Him  whose  service  promises 
rewards  so  much  more  to  be  desired  (id.  39).  So 
Tertullian,  when  denying  that  the  Christian  should 
seek  the  military  decoration  of  a  garland  in  Caesar's 
service,  cries,^  ''  Can  we  believe  it  allowable  to  add 
the  oath  of  human  service  to  the  divine,  and  to  pledge 
oneself  to  another  lord  after  Christ  ?  " 

*  So  Tertullian  On  Modesty,  ch.  8. 

*  De  Corona  Militis,  c.  11. 


AS   REALIZED   IN   PRIMITIVE  CHURCH  165 

II 

Striking  as  is  the  brotherliness  of  early  Jewish 
Christianity  compared  even  with  Judaism  generally, 
especially  as  between  rich  and  poor,  yet  here  the 
advance  was  largely  on  pre-existing  lines.  Hence  it 
is  among  non-Jews  that  we  look  for  the  full  test  of 
the  Gospel's  power  to  beget  brotherly  love  in 
human  nature.  Did  it  succeed  in  diffusing  an  enthu- 
siasm for  humanity  as  such  ?  For  humanity  was 
broken  up  into  many  sections,  within  which  the  tie  of 
blood  bound  men  together  in  such  a  way  as  to  keep 
those  in  one  racial  division  aloof  from  all  the  rest. 
The  ultimate  sanction  too  of  such  division  lay  in 
religion,  as  is  the  case  in  India  to-day,  where  caste 
distinctions  divide  even  those  within  the  same  national 
system,  Hinduism.  Indeed  it  is  by  keeping  Indian 
caste  in  mind,  that  we  can  best  measure  the  strength 
of  the  new  moral  factor,  as  able  to  abolish  even  such  a 
wall  of  partition  as  that  reared  by  race  and  circum- 
cision between  Jew  and  Gentile.  But,  apart  from 
this,  the  barriers  everywhere  of  race,  religion,  civil- 
ization, and  culture,  were  such  that  a  thoughtful 
observer  like  Celsus,  writing  towards  the  end  of  the 
second  century  after  Christ,  regarded  it  as  chimerical 
to  imagine  that  all  the  inhabitants  of  the  earth  should 
ever  agree  in  obedience  to  one  law  of  life.^  Yet  this 
is  exactly  the  basis  upon  which  PauFs  missionary  work 
actually  achieved  its  large  success.  For  him  there 
was  ''  in  Christ  '*  neither  Jew  nor  Gentile,  Greek  nor 
barbarian,  bond  nor  free ;  but  only  one  divine-human 
type  of  humanity.  And  on  the  same  principle  did 
Christianity  win  over  the  Roman  Empire. 

^  Origen,  Against  Celsus,  viii.  72,  cf.  Harnack,  Expansion  of 
Christianity,  i.  318  note. 


i66  THE  CHRISTIAN   IDEAL 

The  foundation  of  the  new  sense  of  brotherhood  be- 
tween all  men  without  racial  distinction  was  laid  by  the 
Gospel  deep  in  the  common  spiritual  nature  of  humanity 
as  related  to  God.  His  fatherly  relation  to  all  excluded 
*'  respect  of  persons  "  on  God's  part,  and  therefore 
on  man's.^  The  "  offspring  of  God ''  must  recog- 
nize each  other  under  every  guise,  once  the  archetype 
of  humanity  had  appeared,  bringing  to  light  in  His 
own  person  the  fact  of  man's  capacity  for  sharing  the 
Divine  life  as  universally  as  the  moral  law  at  work  in 
the  conscience  of  all.  In  Jesus  the  Christ,  God's 
destined  Head  of  a  humanity  corresponding  to  the 
purpose  of  the  Divine  Grace,  all  barriers,  even  those 
raised  by  God  Himself  round  His  elect  people  for  a 
limited  and  temporary  purpose,  were  virtually  done 
away  for  ever.  With  free  and  intimate  access  to 
God  as  Father,  in  and  through  Christ  as  the  **  Head 
of  every  man,"  came  full  fellowship  between  all  who 
accepted  their  sonship  and  the  moral  conditions  that 
involved.  It  was  a  great  moment  when  this  was 
finally  and  openly  acknowledged  even  by  Palestinian 
Christianity  through  the  mouths  of  Peter  and  James. 
Thus  the  old  caste  custom  which  barred  Jews  from 
the  special  intimacy  of  table-fellowship  with  even  the 
best  and  holiest  of  Gentiles,  was  now  done  away  for 
the  great  bulk  of  Jewish  Christians,  on  conditions  that 
were  mainly  moral.  The  one  remaining  restriction  as 
to  food,  that  against  partaking  of  *'  blood,"  was  one 
about  which  many  Gentiles  felt  some  scruple.  In  any 
case,  it  is  clear  that  these  Jewish  Christians  gave  up 
in  sheer  obedience  to  God  and  charity  to  their  fellow- 
believers  what  nothing  but  a  supreme  moral  motive 
would  have  induced  them  to  surrender.  Hence  the  Jeru- 
salem Conference  of  Acts  xv.  marks  one  of  the  greatest 
^  Acts  xvii.  23  if.,  cf.  x.  34  f. 


AS   REALIZED   IN   PRIMITIVE   CHURCH  167 

triumphs  in  the  moral  history  of  humanity,  and  affords 
a  proof  of  the  mighty  dynamic  of  the  new  Christian 
ideas.i  And  thanks  to  Paul's  splendid  devotion  to 
the  idea  of  the  unity  of  Jew  and  Gentile  in  Christ, 
which  he  led  his  converts  to  embody  in  a  great  object- 
lesson,  the  tangible  token  of  their  grateful  love  to  "the 
poor  saints  "of  the  mother-Church  in  Jerusalem  (Rom. 
XV.  25  ff.),  the  Judaean  Church  as  a  whole  never  revoked 
its  decision. 

This  palmary  proof  of  the  Gospel  as  the  religion 
of  the  Spirit,  with  its  inner  law — a  true  attitude  of 
soul  towards  God — in  contrast  to  the  religion  of  legal 
ordinances  and  outward  rites,  is  typical  of  early  Christi- 
anity. It  recognized  the  supreme  value  of  moral 
personality,  as  what  gives  a  man  his  significance 
for  God,  and  viewed  the  religious  man's  relations  with 
God  and  his  fellows  as  essentially  ethical.  Even 
worship  itself  became  ethical,  determining  and  deter- 
mined by  the  worshipper's  whole  volitional  life,  and 
most  of  all  his  conduct  towards  men,  seen  in  the 
light  of  divine  destiny.  Thus  while  in  the  old  type  of 
sacrificial  service  a  man  brought  part  of  his  posses- 
sions as  homage  to  God,  the  Christian  sacrifice  was 
the  man  himself,  soul  and  body,  placed  at  the  service 
of  God  for  His  own  uses.  It  was  a  ''  living  sacrifice," 
and  no  longer  one  of  dead  things  ;  it  was  a  "  sacred 
service  "  {liturgy)  informed  and  inspired  by  conscious 
personal  ends. 2 

^  As  commentary,  take  the  following  modem  analogy.  Speak- 
ing of  the  immense  difficulty  of  transcending  caste  feeling  on  the  one 
side,  and  the  sense  of  racial  superiority  on  the  other,  between  Hindus 
and  English  in  India,  a  Brahmin  lately  said  :  "  But  where  you  meet 
a  real  Christian,  the  ideal  is  possible  ;  and  it  is  possible  nowhere  else 
in  the  world  "  (Paper  on  "  Racial  Unity,"  in  The  Student  Movement, 
vol.  X.  p.  149). 

^  Rom.  xii.  i,  "  your  reasonable/'  or  spiritual  **  service  '* 
{XojLfCT)  Xarpela). 


i68  THE  CHRISTIAN   IDEAL 

The  use  which  Paul  makes  of  sacrificial  language 
is  always  in  this  sense  metaphorical,  though  for  that 
very  reason  most  spiritually  real.  "  Sacrifice  and 
solemn  service,"  "  an  odour  of  a  sweet  smell  (cf.  Lev. 
i.  9),  a  sacrifice  acceptable,''  ''  ministrant,'*  ''  minis- 
tering in  sacrifice,''  *'  offering  " — all  these  are  used  by 
him  1  to  describe  the  devotion  of  human  life  in  one 
form  or  another  to  the  sanctifying  service  of  God, 
without  -any  reference  to  formal  acts  of  worship. 
The  same  is  the  case  with  the  Hellenistic  writer  of  the 
''  Epistle  to  Hebrews,"  with  his  *'  sacrifice  of  praise 
to  God  continually  "  and  his  statement  that  with  the 
''  sacrifices  "  of  doing  good  *'  God  is  well  pleased  " 
(xiii.  15  f.).  Such  language  "passed  gradually  and 
almost  imperceptibly  into  liturgical  use,  and  hence 
acquired  new  shades  of  meaning,"  as  the  sacrificial 
associations  of  Old  Testament  and  even  pagan  worship 
closed  round  it  afresh.  But  in  the  New  Testament 
itself  the  sphere  of  divine  service  (latreia)  is  not  prim- 
arily public  worship,  but  is  rather  the  whole  circle  of 
conscious  volition  and  action  in  which  the  transformed 
spirit  may  realize  its  new  allegiance,  not  to  the  ways 
of  the  world  or  age,  but  to  the  will  of  God.  This  is 
seen  in  the  illustrations  which  Paul  goes  on  to  give  of 
the  working  of  the  mind  of  Christ  in  the  collective 
life  of  His  followers.  It  transcends  the  natural  egoism 
whereby  man  appropriates  to  his  own  use  or  glory 
the  gifts  with  which  he  finds  himself  endowed,  whether 
by  nature  or  grace.  '*  In  Christ  "  all  gifts  are  felt  to 
be  held  in  trust  for  the  good  of  all,  in  that  fellowship 
which  is  the  very  life  of  the  Christian  Commonwealth, 
the  Church  of  God.  The  idea  of  an  organism  of 
spiritual  life,  with  Christ  as  head  and  Christians  as 

^  Phil.  ii.  17,  iv.  18,  Rom.  xv.  16. 


AS   REALIZED   IN   PRIMITIVE   CHURCH  169 

members  one  of  another,  should  control  all  conduct 
among  Christians  (Rom.  xii.  3  ff.,  i  Cor.  xii.  12  ff.). 
Nor  does  Paul  in  this  connexion  distinguish  be- 
tween official  and  purely  personal  services  or  graces  : 
preaching,  teaching,  ruling,  relieving,  showing  hos- 
pitality, sympathizing  in  joy  and  sorrow,  humility, 
forgiveness,  abstinence  from  retaliation — are  alike 
traced  to  the  initiative  of  the  selfsame  indwelling 
Holy  Spirit.  Nothing  is  more  characteristic  of  early 
Christianity  ^  than  its  spiritualization  of  the  whole 
of  life  in  the  light  of  this  idea,  coupled  with  that  of 
Love,  to  God  and  man,  as  the  chiefest  gift  of  all, 
in  and  through  which  all  others  attain  their  end  and 
perfection.  Thus  the  common  daily  walk  is  no  less 
''  holy  *'  than  the  more  special  acts  of  divine  service 
or  worship.  It  is  this  which  makes  it  the  absolute 
religion,  as  the  Christian  apologists  of  the  second 
century  feel  and  urge  in  various  forms,  notably  Aris- 
tides  and  the  author  of  the  Epistle  to  Diognetus,  who 
appeal  to  the  morale  of  the  Christians,  who  ''  in  their 
lives  surpass  the  laws,"  in  proof  of  the  divine  origin  of 
their  faith.  Such  was  the  conception  of  holiness 
embodied  once  for  all  in  the  life  of  its  Founder  Himself 
and  in  the  writings  of  its  early  prime,  notably  those 
of  Paul.  The  Lordship  of  Christ  for  faith,  as  devoted 
loyalty  to  His  person  and  will,  covers  everything  and 
settles  even  ritual  questions  (Rom.  xiv).  "  One  man 
esteemeth  one  day  above  another  :  another  esteemeth 
every  day  alike.     Let  each  man  be  fully  assured  in 

^  Striking  proof  of  the  persistence  of  the  idea  of  Christian  life 
as  an  inspired  life,  is  furnished  by  the  "  Canons  of  Hippolytus," 
probably  a  late  form  given  to  his  work  entitled  "  Apostolic  tradition 
touching  spiritual  gifts."  There  Hippolytus  (about  200-220  a.d.), 
in  spite  of  his  opposition  to  Montanist  exaggerations,  treats  the 
distinctive  Christian  graces  of  character  as  gifts  of  the  Spirit. 


170  THE  CHRISTIAN   IDEAL 

his  own  mind."  He  is  to  do  or  abstain  as  "  unto  the 
Lord  **  ;  yet  not  in  any  individuahstic  spirit,  but  as 
in  love  to  his  brother's  soul  also,  avoiding  as  far  as 
possible  what  might  cause  him  to  stumble  or  act 
with  a  bad  conscience.  '*  Whatsoever  is  not  of  faith 
(i.e.  conviction  as  to  the  Lord's  approval)  is  sin."  There 
we  have  the  sum  and  substance  of  Christian  ethics 
on  the  Godward  side ;  and  on  the  manward  side, 
the  principle  is  equally  simple  and  inclusive,  What- 
soever is  not  of  love  is  sin  (Rom.  xiii.  8-10,  xiv.  15, 
I  Cor.  xiii).  The  power,  range,  flexibility  yet  strin- 
gency, of  these  motives  are  infinite,  as  Paul  shows 
in  the  varied  applications  he  makes  of  them  in  his 
different  epistles.  "  Faith  energizing  by  love  "  consti- 
tutes a  perfect  religion  of  the  spirit,  as  distinct 
from  the  letter.  The  correlative  of  this  is  the  Spirit 
of  God,  as  a  spirit  of  holiness  and  love,  abidingly  at 
work  in  the  soul  of  him  who  has  sincerely  said  in  his 
heart,  *'  Jesus  is  Lord  "  (i  Cor.  xii.  3  ;  Gal.  v.  13-16, 
22-25). 

Hitherto  we  have  described  Gentile  Christian 
ethics  mainly  as  set  forth  by  Paul  in  the  Epistle  to 
the  Romans,  which  is  specially  adapted  for  our  purpose 
as  being  a  summary  of  his  experience  of  Christian 
life  without  that  more  special  reference  to  local  con- 
ditions in  one  or  another  of  his  young  communities 
which  marks  the  bulk  of  his  Epistles.^  But  there 
is  one  other  Pauline  epistle  which  is  similarly  general 
in   scope  and   serves   to   supplement   the   picture  in 

^  E.g. ,  those  to  Thessalonica,  where  he  has  occasion  to  emphasize 
the  duty  of  patient,  honest  work  for  one's  own  daily  bread,  and  to 
Corinth,  where  love  as  the  organic  principle  of  Christian  society  is 
variously  used  to  counteract  the  Greek  egoism  and  intellectualism. 
What  is  most  impressive  in  all  cases  is  Paul's  confidence  that  the 
inward  dynamic  of  the  Gospel  is  adequate  to  overcome  all  abuses,  in 
spite  even  of  misunderstanding. 


AS   REALIZED   IN   PRIMITIVE   CHURCH  171 

Romans  by  certain  other  applications,  particularly 
as  regards  the  Christian  home  and  household.  The 
Epistle  known  as  that  ''  to  the  Ephesians,"  but  really 
a  circular  letter  to  Churches  in  the  Roman  province 
of  Asia,  with  Ephesus  as  its  centre,  is  wonderfully 
rich  in  its  domestic  ethics,  the  sphere  where  we  enter 
the  very  holy  of  holies  of  the  Christian  lifei  and  the 
unit  of  its  social  reform.  The  sanctity  of  the  Christian 
home  rests  upon  its  nobler  idea  of  woman  and  her 
possibilities  as  man's  equal,  though  not  his  duplicate, 
in  all  that  constitutes  true  humanity.  Man  and 
woman  ''  in  Christ,"  as  joint-sharers  in  the  Divine 
life,  are  fellow-helpers  in  all  that  belongs  to  this 
supreme  vocation,  and  together  constitute  a  part- 
nership so  full  and  intimate  as  to  supply  the  type  of 
the  union  of  Christ  and  His  Church  (Eph.  v.  22-33). 
This  idea  placed  conjugal  love  on  a  new  basis  of  mutual 
reverence  which  contained  the  promise  and  potency  of  a 
new  type  of  conjugal  life  altogether.  Yet  here  too 
the  natural  truth  in  the  old  doctrine  and  practice 
is  conserved  while  transfigured.  The  headship  of  the 
man  and  the  subordination  of  the  woman,  as  the 
more  dependent  sex,  is  taken  for  granted  ;  but  all  is 
animated  by  the  new  reverence  and  love.  It  is  ''  in 
the  fear  of  Christ ''  that  each  gives  way  to  the  other, 
and  this  transforms  everything.  The  relation  of 
Christ  to  the  Church  becomes  the  model  of  the  hus- 
band's spirit  towards  his  wife  in  all  things  ;  and  the 
wife's  attitude  is  typified  by  that  of  the  Church  to 
Christ.  All  selfishness  is  thereby  eliminated  from 
their  relations.  The  husband's  headship  is  no  longer 
arbitrary,  over-bearing,  unsympathetic  or  patronizing  ; 

^  The  new  attitude  to  women  and  children  is  touched  on  with 
much  insight  in  T.  R.  Glover's  Dale  Lectures,  where  it  is  contrasted 
with  that  of  even  the  best  pagan  morahsts. 


172  THE   CHRISTIAN   IDEAL 

the  wife  gains  a  fresh  dignity  in  his  eyes  and  in  her 
own,  passes  out  of  mere  pupillage  under  his  will  and 
enters  on  an  intelligent  co-operation  in  the  vocation 
of  applying  a  higher  will  than  that  of  either,  as  embodied 
in  their  Lord's  life  and  teaching.  The  frivolity  of 
female  life  in  antiquity,  conditioned  by  the  triviality 
of  its  occupations  and  interests,  is  remedied  at  its 
source. 

Thus  the  foundation  is  laid  for  the  Christian  home. 
The  children  are  no  longer  in  theory  and  practice 
chattels  of  the  paterfamilias,  but  God's  divinest 
trusts  to  both  parents,  to  be  viewed  from  birth  as 
His,  and  to  be  trained  to  realize  their  vocation  as 
members  of  Christ.  ''  Holy,"  as  born  of  parents 
holy  unto  the  Lord  by  the  covenant  (i  Cor.  vii.  14), 
they  were  to  be  treated  as  themselves  of  **  the  house- 
hold of  the  faith  "  and  not  of  the  world.  Thus  they 
are  exhorted  to  obey  their  parents  *'  in  the  Lord," 
i.e.  as  being  Christians  and  from  Christian  motives  ; 
while  parents  are  to  nurture  them  with  instruction  and 
admonishing  of  a  like  order  (vi.  1,4).  Very  significant 
of  the  new  spirit  of  consideration  is  the  warning  to 
fathers  not  to  provoke  their  children,  by  harsh  or 
unreasonable  commands,  ''  lest  they  lose  heart  " 
(ib.  4,  Col.  iii.  21) — a  fine  touch  which  has  not  yet 
had  its  full  effect.  Similarly  the  lot  of  domestics, 
mostly  slaves,  felt  at  once  the  breath  of  the  Divine 
philanthropy  (Titus  iii.  4),  which  forthwith  brought 
inward  freedom  to  the  spirit  and  thereby  transfigured 
the  outward  lot,  even  where  full  emancipation  did  not 
follow,  as  it  did  doubtless  in  many  cases.  Though 
Paul  felt  it  inexpedient  to  declare  war  against  slavery 
in  general,  partly  because  this  would  have  brought 
his  message  to  a  violent  end  as  subversive  of  social 
order,  and  partly  because  he  regarded  the  existing 


AS   REALIZED   IN   PRIMITIVE  CHURCH  173 

order  as  having  a  very  short  lease  of  Hfe,  the  whole 
tendency  of  his  emphasis  upon  the  common  lordship 
of  Christ,  for  master  and  slave  alike,  must  have  made 
strongly  against  slavery  among  Christians  (Eph.  vi.  9, 
Col.  iv.  I  ;  and  esp.  Philemon  passim).  Later  on 
we  have  clear  evidence  that  this  took  effect  in  Christian 
practice  .1 

Beyond  these  special  applications,  however,  we  find 
also  in  Ephesians,  and  its  companion  Colossians, 
striking  use  made  of  the  essential  Christian  spirit 
as  the  purifier  and  sweetener  of  social  intercourse 
generally.  The  following  quotations  2  show  how  the 
silent  revolution  wrought  by  a  new  idea  of  God  and 
man  worked  itself  out,  just  as  it  does  on  the  mission- 
field  to-day. 

"  No  longer  walk  even  as  the  heathen  walk,  without  true  moral 
aim,  alienated  from  the  Divine  life  through  insensibility  of  con- 
science, and  so  running  into  all  sorts  of  excess.  But  ye  did  not  so 
learn  Christ,  if  ye  were  duly  taught  truth  as  it  is  in  Jesus,  namely, 
to  put  off  the  ways  of  your  old  moral  character,  and  assume  the  new 
character  made  after  God's  image.  So  be  truthful  with  each  other ; 
for  we  are  members  one  of  another.  Let  anger  not  grow  into  sin, 
as  abiding  resentment.  Let  him  that  stole  steal  no  more  ;  rather 
let  him  labour,  working  with  his  hands  the  thing  that  is  good,  that 
he  may  have  whereof  to  give  to  him  that  hath  need.^  Let  no  corrupt 
talk  escape  you,  but  such  as  builds  up  noble  manhood,  remembering 
the  Holy  Spirit  that  dwells  within.  Hence,  let  all  bitterness  and 
angry  railing  and  malice  be  put  away ;  and  put  on,  as  God's  elect,  holy 
and  beloved,  a  heart  of  compassion,  kindness,  humility,  long-suffer- 

1  For  some  account  of  the  effects  of  early  Christianity  upon  the 
condition  of  women,  children,  and  slaves,  see  C.  Schmidt,  The 
Social  Results  of  Early  Christianity  (recently  re-issued  by  Pitman  & 
Sons).  Perhaps  the  most  striking  evidence,  however,  is  the  habitual 
tone  of  the  epitaphs  found  in  the  Catacombs. 

2  Eph.  iv.  17-V.  21,  Col.  iii.  5-17,  both  passages  being  used  and 
slightly  paraphrased. 

^  This  motive  for  industry  is  characteristic  of  early  Christianity ; 
see  below. 


174  THE  CHRISTIAN   IDEAL 

ing  ;  forbearing  one  another  and  forgiving,  if  any  one  have  complaint 
against  any.  Even  as  God  in  Christ  graciously  forgave  you,  so  also 
do  ye.  Be  ye,  therefore,  imitators  of  God,  as  beloved  children  ;  and 
walk  in  love,  even  as  Christ  also  loved  us  and  gave  Himself  up  for  us, 
an  offering  and  a  sacrifice  of  sweet  savour  to  God.  To  one  living  in 
this  consecrated  spirit  sin  alike  of  the  flesh  and  of  the  spirit,  passion, 
evil  desire,  and  covetousness,  *  which  is  idolatry,'  are  utterly  alien. 
With  such  *  unfruitful  works  of  darkness  '  have  nothing  in  common, 
but  rather  even  reprove  them  by  contrast,  as  children  of  light.  Look 
then  carefully  how  ye  walk,  wisely  making  the  best  of  the  present 
season  ;  for  the  times  are  evil.  Avoid  such  exhilaration  of  the 
senses  as  men  seek  in  wine,  with  its  riot ;  seek  instead  exaltation 
from  the  Divine  Spirit,  such  as  overflows  in  holy  speech  for  the 
common  good  ;  teaching  and  admonishing  yourselves  in  psalms  and 
hymns  and  spiritual  songs,  singing  with  gratitude  of  heart  unto  the 
Lord.  Finally,  whatsoever  ye  do,  in  word  or  in  deed,  do  all  in  the 
name  of  the  Lord  Jesus,  giving  thanks  to  God  the  Father  through 
Him.'' 

Here  one  gains  two  complementary  impressions  ^ ; 
first,  that  the  Christian  life  is  simply  the  true  human 
life,  realizing  the  normal  relations  which  should  sub- 
sist among  mankind  ;  and  next,  that  all  these  relations 
of  life,  as  baptized  into  Christ,  become  parts  and 
modes  of  Church  fellowship,  animated  and  sustained 
by  the  sense  of  a  special  bond.  Divine  as  well  as  human, 
which  invests  even  "  the  daily  round  and  common 
task  '*  with  a  heavenly  dignity  and  sanctity. 

With  the  above  characterization  of  Christian  life 
we  have  reason  to  believe  that  the  actual  practice  of 
the  early  Christian  brotherhoods  corresponded  in  the 
main.2  No  doubt  there  were  exceptions,  due  partly 
to  inexperience  of  '*  truth  as  it  is  in  Jesus,'*  as  distinct 
from  current  moral  standards,  and  partly  to  erroneous 

^  Compare  Hort,  Christian  Ecclesia,  228  ff. 

2  This  is  the  general  result  of  the  full  and  dispassionate  consider- 
ation given  to  the  point  not  only  in  the  Apostolic  Age,  but  down  to 
the  close  of  the  next  century,  in  E.  von  Dobschiitz's  Christian  Life 
in  the  Primitive  Church,  1904  (Williams  &  Norgate). 


AS   REALIZED   IN   PRIMITIVE  CHURCH  175 

theories  which  arose  in  certain  circles  as  to  the  relation 
of  **the  flesh"  to  ''the  Spirit"  in  the  Christian 
walk,  tending  on  the  one  hand  to  antinomianism  and 
on  the  other  to  false  asceticism.  But  these  were 
probably  passing  aberrations  for  the  most  part,  cor- 
rected by  further  teaching  or  by  the  discipline  of 
temporary  exclusion  ^  from  the  full  local  "  fellowship 
of  the  Saints."  "  Reprove  one  another,"  says  the 
Didache  (xv.  3),  "  not  in  wrath  but  in  peace,  as  ye  have 
it  in  the  Gospel  (cf.  Matt,  xviii.  15-17);  and  with  any 
that  trangresseth  against  his  fellow  let  none  talk,  nor 
let  him  hear  speech  from  you  until  he  repent." 

Discipline  was  corporate  both  in  spirit  and  in  form, 
and  must  have  had  immense  moral  authority,  seeing 
that  half  the  joy  and  strength  of  the  new  life  lay  in 
its  loving  fellowship.  ''  The  fruit  of  the  Spirit  is  love, 
joy,  peace  "  (Gal.  v.  22) ;  and  it  was  on  the  occasions 
of  outward  ''  fellowship  of  the  Spirit "  afforded  by 
the  Agape,  or  Love-Feast,  that  the  Kingdom  of  God 
was  most  manifestly  felt  as  peace  and  inspired  joy 
(Rom.  xiv.  17).  Then  was  love  reaHzed  to  the  full 
as  "  the  bond  of  perfectness,"  and ''  the  peace  of  Christ " 
swayed  all  hearts  as  the  arbiter  of  divergent  individual 
interests  (Col.  iii.  14  ff.),  as  they  held  high  fellowship 
in  the  Spirit,  with  psalms  and  hymns  and  spiritual 
songs.  The  most  vivid  account  we  possess  of  a  Love- 
feast  comes  from  as  late  as  the  very  end  of  the  second 
century  2 :  yet  we  may  safely  carry  it  back  to  any  of 
the  intervening  decades. 

To  such  Christian  fellowship  how  fatal  all  that 
divided  in  spirit  those  who  sat  side  by  side  at  the 
sacred  social  board  !     To  gather  in  the  spirit  of  faction 

^  2  Thess.  iii.  14  f.,  cf.  i  Thess.  v.  14  1,  Gal.  vi.  1-5,  7  f.,  2  Cor. 
ii.  5-11. 

^  Tertullian,  Apology,  ch.  39. 


176  THE  CHRISTIAN   IDEAL 

or  with  enmity  lurking  among  the  members,  would  be 
to  ''  come  together  not  for  the  better  but  for  the  worse  " 
(i  Cor.  xi.  17)  :  it  would  be  *'  impossible  to  eat  a 
Lord*s  supper  *'  in  deed  and  truth.  Accordingly 
everything  was  done  to  safeguard  the  feast  of  Holy 
Communion  from  profanation  by  loveless  participa- 
tion. It  opened  with  a  symbol  of  mutual  affection, 
the  kiss  of  peace,  accompanied  doubtless  by  some 
fitting  words  of  reminder  as  to  its  significance  and 
sanctity ;  and  how  seriously  the  duty  of  making  the 
inward  state  answer  to  the  outward  symbolism  of 
the  breaking  of  one  loaf  and  the  drinking  together 
from  the  same  cup,  is  shown  by  Didache  chapter  xiv. 
'*  On  the  Lord's  Day  gathering  yourselves  together 
break  bread  and  give  thanks,  having  first  confessed 
your  transgressions,  that  your  sacrifice  may  be  pure.^ 
But  let  no  one  that  hath  a  dispute  with  his  fellow 
assemble  with  you  until  they  be  reconciled,  that  your 
sacrifice  may  not  be  profaned.  For  this  is  that 
which  was  spoken  by  the  Lord  (Mai.  i.  11) :  In  every 
place  and  time  offer  me  a  pure  sacrifice."  Here  we  have 
a  deeply  ethical  idea  of  the  Christian  sacrifice,  of 
which  the  Eucharistic  prayer  was  the  most  solemn 
form  ;  its  purity,  and  so  its  virtue,  was  forfeited  by 
unforgiven  sin  on  the  conscience,  and  particularly 
by  the  sin  of  unbrotherly  feeling,  in  violation  of  the 
fundamental  Christian  law  of  Love.  As  long  as  the 
Eucharist  was  so  regarded,  so  long  the  Christian  life 
had  at  the  very  heart  of  its  corporate  worship  the 
most  powerful  of  sanctions  for  the  safeguarding  of 
its  distinctive  ethical  and  social  ideal.  Thus  while 
Baptism,  as  we  have  seen,  made  impressive  the  con- 
ception of  the  Christian  life  as  loyalty  to  a  covenant 

^  Cf.  iv.  14,  "  Thou  shall  confess  thy  transgressions,  and  shalt 
not  come  to  prayer  with  a  bad  conscience,'* 


AS   REALIZED   IN   PRIMITIVE   CHURCH  177 

solemnly  sealed  and  attested — a  covenant  implicitly 
or  explicitly  renewed  from  week  to  week ;  recurring 
Eucharistic  communion  with  fellow-members,  as  also 
with  the  Head  of  the  Body,  served  to  refresh  the 
life  of  Love  as  the  very  life  of  God  within  the  soul, 
and  to  brace  it  for  every  call  to  self-sacrifice  and  ser- 
vice. In  proportion  as  these  twin  conceptions  ceased 
to  be  uppermost,  the  rites  themselves  lost  their  moral 
and  social  value. 

It  was  realization  of  this,  namely,  that  Love  was 
the  essence  of  Christian  life  and  worship,  and  that  it 
found  expression  and  nourishment  in  the  Agapi  or 
Eucharist  of  the  united  local  brotherhood,  which 
made  Ignatius  of  Antioch,  early  in  the  second  century, 
so  vehement  against  heresy  as  fatal  to  unity  and  love. 
Hence  his  insistence  on  fellowship  with  the  corporate 
life  of  the  local  Church  under  its  duly  recognized 
ministry,  the  congregational  bishop  and  the  body  of 
elders  and  deacons  amidst  whom  he  presided,  as  the 
outward  safeguard  of  unity.     Thus  he  cries  :  ^ 

"  He  that  is  within  the  place  of  sacrifice  (the  Church  as  a  praying^ 
people)  is  pure  ;  but  he  that  is  outside  the  place  of  sacrifice  is  not 
pure  ;  that  is,  he  that  doeth  aught  (in  a  Church  capacity)  apart  from 
bishop  and  eldership  and  deacons,  this  man  is  not  pure  in  his  con- 
science. ...  Do  ye,  therefore,  arm  yourselves  with  meekness  (in 
contrast  to  the  self-confidence  of  sectaries)  and  so  recover  full  health 
in  faith,  which  is  the  flesh  of  the  Lord,  and  in  love,  which  is  the  blood 
of  Jesus  Christ.  Let  none  of  you  bear  a  grudge  against  his  neighbour.  *' 

Here  in  Ignatius'  mystical  language,  as  Lightfoot 
says,  faith  is  the  flesh,  the  substance  of  the  Christian 
life  ;  love  is  the  blood,  the  energy  coursing  through 
its  veins. 

This   sacrificial   language  is   of   the   type   already 

^  To  the  Trallians,  vii.,  viii.  ;  compare  To  the  Ephesians,  v. 
2  So  Polycarp,  To  the  Philippians,  iv. ,  calls  widows,  as  specially 
devoted  to  the  life  of  prayer,  "  an  altar  of  God." 

C.C.  N 


178  THE  CHRISTIAN   IDEAL 

seen  in  Paul  and  in  the  Epistle  to  Hebrews.  The 
people  are  the  place  of  sacrifice  (altar),  as  their  prayers 
of  thanksgiving  (Eucharist)  are  also  the  sacrifice 
proper,  ''  the  sacrifice  of  praise  .  .  .,  that  is,  the  fruit  of 
lips  that  make  acknowledgment  to  His  name ''  (Heb. 
xiii.  15).  Their  sacrifices  are  simple  thankofferings 
and  not  expiatory  in  intention,  the  homage  of  those 
already  brought  nigh  by  Christ's  one  sacrifice,  and 
thereby  made  priests  unto  God  for  to  offer  sacrifices 
well-pleasing  to  Him.^  And  as  in  Hebrews  such 
sacrifices  were  deeds  ^  of  beneficence  and  charity 
(v.  16),  so  the  **  pure  sacrifice  "  of  the  heart  in  praise 
assumed  the  outward  form  of  thankofferings  for  God's 
service,  especially  in  the  cause  of  the  poor.  By 
Clement  of  Rome  (c.  96  a.d.)  they  are  referred  to  as 
'*  the  gifts  "  offered  to  God  (ch.  xliv,  and  Lightfoot's 
note).  The  uses  to  which  these  free-will  offerings 
were  put,  beyond  the  portion  of  them  used  for  the 
Eucharistic  bread  and  wine  proper,  are  indicated  by 
Justin  Martyr  (i  Apol.  67)  as  being  the  succour  of 
orphans  and  widows,  those  in  want  through  sickness 
or  other  cause,  those  in  prison,  strangers,  and  in  short 
all  that  are  in  need.^  A  century  or  so  later  the  Chris- 
tian who  is  tempted  to  spend  his  money  in  gambling,* 

*  Compare  the  Rabbinic  saying,  **  One  day  all  offerings  will 
cease,  only  the  Thankoffering  will  not  cease  ;  all  prayers  will  cease, 
only  the  Thanksgiving  prayer  will  not  cease  "  (quoted  by  Westcott 
on  Heb.  xiii.  15). 

2  As  God's  name  is  "  glorified  among  the  Gentiles/*  by  sacrifices 
of  charity,  according  to  Mai.  i.  11,  14,  as  cited  in  Did.  xiv.  3,  so  con- 
versely God*s  name  is  blasphemed  among  the  heathen  through  an 
unloving  walk  (Polycarp  ad  Phil.,  x.  2  1). 

^  In  course  of  time  the  support  of  the  ministry,  which  at  first 
was  a  matter  of  direct  gift  by  the  donor  to  the  recipient  (Didache, 
xiii.  2-7,  cf.  xv.J;2),  came  to  be  a  charge  on  the  collective  offerings. 

*  De  Aleatoribus,  xi,  which  deals  earnestly  with  this  social  evil. 


AS   REALIZED   IN   PRIMITIVE  CHURCH  179 

is  bidden  ''  Scatter  thy  money  upon  the  Lord's  table." 
Indeed  the  first  privilege  belonging  to  the  baptized 
Christian  is  that  he  is  now  '*  made  worthy  to  present 
an  ofering  "  in  the  Eucharistic  service/  and  it  is  for- 
bidden that  any  should  thus  contribute  to  the  Chris- 
tian sacrifice  until  fully  admitted  by  baptism  to 
God's  priestly  people.  To  grasp  this  early  idea  of  the 
Christian  sacrifice,  is  to  realize  that  no  act  of  public 
worship  is  more  sacred  or  characteristic  of  our  religion 
than  the  offertory,  especially  the  **  sacramental  offer- 
tory "  for  the  needy  members  of  the  Church,  if  only 
we  enter  into  its  original  spirit.  It  expresses  not  only 
the  brotherly  love  which  is  the  manward  aspect  of 
our  religion,  but  also  the  fact  that  the  Christian  holds 
no  property  his  own,  but  only  as  in  trust  for  God,  the 
giver  of  all,  at  His  disposal  for  His  own  uses.  Thus  the 
Communion  Service  was,  and  should  ever  be,  a  fountain- 
head  of  Christian  altruism,  and  of  devotion  to  the  service 
of  God  in  man. 

That  this  has  not  been  the  case  to  a  far  greater 
degree  in  the  history  of  Christianity  as  a  whole,  is 
partly  due  to  the  changes  both  in  idea  and  practice 
which  from  the  third  century  onwards  transformed 
the  primitive  social  feast  of  love  (agape)  and  thanks- 
giving (eucharistia)  into  the  Catholic  mystery  of  the 
Mass.  Apart  altogether  from  the  truth  or  falsity  of  the 
new  conceptions  of  a  bodily  presence  of  Christ  in  the 
elements,  the  mind  of  the  partaker  had  a  new  preoccupa- 
tion, as  he  brooded  upon  the  mystery  of  such  a  form  of 
communion  with  his  Lord  ;  and  the  whole  emphasis  of 
thought  and  feeling  shifted  from  the  personal  relations 
of  fidelity  to  God  and  man  which  constituted  the 
normal  Christian  life,  and  tended  to  rest  on  a  divine 

*  Didascalia  (c.  250-275).  So  in  iv.  5-6,  only  the  gifts  of  those 
walking  worthily  are  to  be  accepted. 


i8o  THE  CHRISTIAN   IDEAL 

opus  operatum  unrelated  to  Christian  experience.  Thus 
the  connexion  of  the  Service  with  conduct  and  motive 
became  more  indirect ;  and  at  the  same  time  the  idea 
of  grace  therein  conveyed  became  more  individualistic. 
Concurrently  with  this,  the  deeply  ethical  idea  of  the 
Christian's  sacrifice,  in  and  though  his  ''gifts"  brought 
to  the  altar  of  God's  service,  was  gradually  transferred 
to  the  eucharistic  symbols  of  Christ's  passion  as  conse- 
crated by  the  minister  (hence  growingly  styled  ''priest") 
in  sacred  formulae ;  so  that,  in  the  elements,  the  body 
and  blood  of  Christ  themselves  were  conceived  to  be 
offered  as  a  sacrifice  of  expiation,  the  counterpart  and 
continuation  of  Christ's  own  oblation  in  Heaven.  Nay 
more,  by  a  further  confusion,  which  we  can  trace  in  the 
West  at  least,  an  expiatory  value  came  to  be  trans- 
ferred back  to  the  Christian's  own  oblations,  and  the 
ideal  of  salvation  became  once  more  at  its  very  heart 
both  legal  and  precarious. 

While  the  primitive  Communion  Service  and  its 
prayers  were  a  positive  inspiration  to  loyal  love  and 
unselfish  living,  both  it  and  the  conduct  which  it 
fostered  were  safeguarded  in  more  negative  fashion  by 
a  discipline  which  brought  the  full  force  of  the  Church's 
public  opinion  to  bear  upon  serious  breaches  of  the 
Christian  ideal.  Indeed  so  closely  were  the  two 
related,  that  the  final  form  of  such  discipline  was  exclu- 
sion for  a  season  from  the  Church's  supreme  act  of 
fellowship.  But  what  here  most  needs  emphasis 
is  the  genuinely  collective  character  of  such  discipline  ^ 

*  Tertullian,  Apology,  chap.  39,  describes  how  the  Christians 
meet  to  enforce  discipline  according  to  the  Gospel's  precepts. 
Then  take  place  "  exhortations,  corrections  and  divine  censures. 
For  both  judgment  has  great  weight  as  being  delivered  among  those 
assured  that  God  is  looking  on,  and  the  strongest  presumption  is 
created  as  to  what  the  award  in  the  future  will  be,  whenever  any  has 


AS   REALIZED   IN  PRIMITIVE  CHURCH  i8i 

during  the  whole  period  that  has  any  claim  to  be 
called  primitive.  Each  case  came  before  the  assembled 
brotherhood,  and  the  censure  expressed  the  moral 
communis  sensus  of  "  the  saints,"  in  whom  the  mind 
of  Christ  was  believed  to  operate  through  the  Holy 
Spirit.  Could  any  moral  sanction  be  more  impressive 
and  potent  for  the  Christian  conscience  ?  And  could 
it  fail  to  lose  much  of  its  distinctive  force,  as  rooted 
in  the  whole  genius  of  Christ's  teaching  on  mutual 
responsibility  among  His  disciples,  as  well  as  in  the 
actual  usage  implied  in  Matthew  xviii.  15-20,  just 
in  proportion  as  the  duty  of  watching  over  each  other's 
souls  became  deputed  in  form  and  in  fact  to  the  officers 
of  the  community  ?  None  can  say,  indeed,  how  much 
transformation  of  the  very  principles  underlying 
Christian  practice,  both  personal  and  social,  and  how 
much  arrest  in  the  education  of  the  average  Christian 
consciousness  in  what  is  most  proper  to  it,  may  be  put 
down  to  such  withdrawal  of  collective  moral  responsi- 
bility from  the  rank  and  file  of  Christians.  But  none 
can  doubt  that  the  effect  has  been  great ;  while  few 
intelligent  Protestants  will  question  that  it  has  been  on 
the  whole  an  evil. 

So  far  we  have  considered  early  Christian  life 
chiefly  as  taking  effect  among  Christians  themselves, 
rather  than  society  in  general.  But  there  was  more 
than  this.  '*  As  we  have  opportunity,  let  us  work 
that  which  is  good  toward  all  men,  and  especially 
toward  them  that  are  of  the  household  of  faith " 
(Gal.  vi.  10).  The  latter  reference  naturally  prevails, 
particularly  at  first ;  yet,  as  occasion  offers.  Christian 

so  sinned  as  to  be  banished  communion  in  prayer  and  assembly  and 
all  sacred  intercourse.  Tried  seniors  preside,  having  obtained  that 
honour  not  by  money  but  by  general  testimony.'*  So  too  the 
Syrian  Didascalia,  ii.  47,  more  than  half  a  century  later. 


i82  THE   CHRISTIAN   IDEAL 

writings  breathe  a  large  dutifulness  to  ''  them  that  are 
outside/*  The  primary  duty  towards  such  was,  of 
course,  to  win  them  over  by  ''  holding  forth  the  message 
of  life,"  as  mirrored  in  a  Christlike  walk.  AU  needless 
offence  to  their  feelings  or  sense  of  right  and  wrong 
was  studiously  to  be  avoided  (Rom.  xii.  17  f.).  The 
only  form  of  revenge  allowable  towards  foes  and  per- 
secutors was  to  cause  in  them  a  burning  sense  of  shame 
by  patient  rendering  of  good  for  evil.  The  only  kind 
of  resistance  even  to  official  persecution  was  to  be 
passive  ;  for  in  idea  civil  authority  is  ordained  of  God 
for  the  good  of  men,  in  the  long  run,  and  the  terror 
of  evil-doers.  The  actual  authorities  might  be  mis- 
guided or  misinformed  as  to  matters  of  conscience, 
which  go  beyond  their  ken  and  therefore  their  strict 
competence  :  and  in  that  case  conscience  must  be 
obeyed,  God  rather  than  man,  by  passive  resistance 
to  the  usurping  action  of  the  State.  But  where  con- 
science is  not  directly  involved,  civic  dues  of  all  kinds 
are  to  be  rendered.  Every  human  duty  is  to  be  dis- 
charged by  the  Christian  as  by  others,  save  that  with 
him,  one,  the  supreme  debt  of  love,  cannot  be  paid  off, 
but  remains  ever  in  force.  "  Thou  shalt  love  thy  neigh- 
bour as  thyself ''  holds  in  relation  to  all  men,  according 
to  their  state  of  need  and  receptivity .^  '*  Let  us  not 
be  found  men-pleasers,'*  cries  an  early  preacher  (2 
Clement,  ix),  but  at  once  adds,  ''  Not  that  we  are  to 
please  one  another  only,  but  also  the  men  that  are 
without,  as  far  as  righteousness  goes ;  that  the  Name 
(of  Christ)  be  not  reviled  by  reason  of  us.'*  Similarly 
the  Epistle  to  Diognetus,  an  '*  open  letter  "  to  cultured 
pagans  which  must  have  missed  its  aim  had  it  not 
kept  pretty  close  to  obvious  facts,  claims  for  Christians 
that  "  they  love  all  men,  and  are  persecuted  by  all.  .  .  . 
^  The  above  summaries  Rom.  xii.  19-xiii.  10. 


AS   REALIZED   IN   PRIMITIVE  CHURCH  183 

They  are  reviled,  and  they  bless ;  they  are  insulted 
and  they  respect.  ...  In  a  word,  what  the  soul  is 
in  a  body,  this  the  Christians  are  in  the  world.  .  . 
So  great  is  the  office  for  which  God  hath  appointed 
them,  and  which  it  is  not  lawful  for  them  to  decline." 
Thus  once  more  we  are  brought  back  to  love  as 
the  keystone  of  the  whole  fabric  of  Christian  conduct, 
without  which  it  collapses  the  more  surely  that  the 
strain  of  its  ideal  on  obedience  is  so  enormous.  It  is 
no  wonder  that  the  very  idea  of  Love  in  the  Christian 
sense  is  other  than  what  it  was  prior  to  Christ.  Not 
that  maxims  of  love,  more  or  less  universal,  were  lacking 
both  in  Judaism  and  outside.  But  they  were  largely 
isolated  and  incidental ;  or  were  not  meant  in  the 
same  serious  sense  which  Christianity  attaches  to  them, 
because  they  were  not  backed  by  a  spirit  of  real  enthus- 
iasm for  humanity.  Thus  love  was  not  before  made 
the  root  of  all  other  virtues,  or  insisted  upon  as  the 
test  of  true  fellowship  with  God  ;  nor  could  it  be, 
until  the  idea  of  God  as  Himself  Love  was  fully  and 
effectively  revealed  in  Christ.  Then,  "  Ye  shall  be 
perfect  (in  love)  as  your  heavenly  Father  is  per- 
fect,'* supplied  the  needful  rehgious  dynamic  for  the 
supreme  moral  disposition,  that  ''ardent,  passionate, 
or  devoted  state  of  mind''  declared  by  Jesus  to  be 
*'  the  root  of  virtue."  ^  This  ''  expulsive  power  of  a 
new  affection  "  proved  itself  in  fact  the  root  prin- 
ciple of  Christian  ethics.  Of  this  fact  the  First  Epistle 
of  John  affords  impressive  evidence  ;  for  its  message 
is  that  sin  and  Christian  love  are  in  experience  mutually 
exclusive  ;  and  that  faith  in  the  love  of  God  made 
manifest  in  Christ  means  victory  over  the  world  and 
all  its  forces.     And  what  this  Epistle  witnesses  of  Chris- 

^  Ecce  Homo,  a  book  which  abounds  in  noble  passages  bearing 
upon  the  subject  of  this  essay. 


i84  THE  CHRISTIAN   IDEAL 

tian  experience  at  the  end  of  the  second  generation, 
that  the  Hterature  ^  of  the  second  and  third  centuries 
abundantly  confirms.  Christian  love,  too,  was  no 
mere  chance  emotion  of  individual  sympathy  :  it  was 
universal  in  its  scope,  because  rooted  in  profound 
reverence  for  the  human  soul  as  related  to  God.  The 
revolutionary  effect  of  this  conception  may  be  illus- 
trated by  contrasting  Aristotle's  ideal  man,  the  "lofty- 
minded  "  person  of  consciously  superior  gifts  and 
character,  with  Goethe's  description  of  the  truly  great 
soul,  in  which  dwells  a  threefold  reverence — for  that 
above  himself,  that  on  his  own  level,  and  that  as  yet 
below  his  own  condition. 


To  the  foregoing  picture  of  early  Christian  life  it 
may  be  objected,  that  it  is  unreal  because  one-sided, 
only  the  better  features  being  selected  for  notice. 
This  objection  would  be  justified  if  a  complete  picture 
were  in  question.  But  such  is  not  the  case.  Space 
and  the  special  scope  of  the  series  of  essays  of  which 
this  forms  part,  alike  imposed  the  necessity  of  selection 
in  order  to  place  in  relief  those  features  which  seem 
reaUy  to  explain  the  marvellous  effect  produced  by 
Christianity  in  the  Roman  Empire.  Ere  three  cen- 
turies were  over,  the  religion  which  had  at  first  seemed 
the  foe  of  social  order  was  recognized  by  Constantine, 
one  of  the  ablest  of  the  world's  statesmen,  as  the  one 
possible  basis  of  that  Empire  both  morally  and  socially. 
This  means  that  the  Church's  best  and  most  distinct- 
ive features  had  been  most  operative,  in  spite  of 
enormous  hindrances  and  opposition  from  the  hitherto 
dominant  forces  in  society,  in    spite  also  of  all  the 

^  Pagan  as  well  as  Christian  ;  compare  Lucian's  contemptuous, 
"  How  the  Christians  do  love  one  another." 


AS   REALIZED   IN   PRIMITIVE  CHURCH  185 

moral  shortcomings  of  those  who  owned  the  new 
inspiration  and  its  ideals.  So  viewed,  the  evidence  of 
moral  failure  among  early  Christians  generally,  amounts 
to  no  more  than  what  may  serve  to  remind  us  to-day 
of  the  terrible  power  of  evil  tradition  and  custom  in 
ancient  society,  and  of  the  grim  reality  of  the  struggle 
for  a  purer  life  as  carried  on  by  the  new  society  in  an 
atmosphere  charged  with  moral  malaria. 

Take,  for  instance,  the  Shepherd  of  Hermas  and 
the  earliest  extant  homily,  called  the  ''  Second  Epistle 
of  Clement,'*  two  writings  reflecting  the  ravages  wrought 
within  the  Christian  fold  by  the  worldly  spirit  rife  in 
two  great  cities  (Rome  and  another,  probably  Alexan- 
dria) about  120-150  A.D.  The  homily  shows  especially 
how  the  Greek  theory  as  to  the  moral  independence 
of  the  spiritual  and  physical  elements  in  man  afforded 
a  subtle  excuse  for  yielding  to  sins  of  the  flesh,  as 
though  the  spirit  suffered  nothing  thereby  either  here 
or  hereafter.  But  it  shows  also  how  strong  was  the 
reaction  against  such  conduct  on  the  part  of  the  local 
Church  as  a  whole  ;  so  much  so,  that  the  homily  itself 
was  treasured  among  its  archives  for  occasional  reading, 
and  ultimately  attained  semi-canonical  rank.  Hermas, 
on  his  part,  illustrates  the  subtle  temptations  of  wealth, 
and  how  surely  the  Master  himself  had  diagnosed 
its  tendency  to  sap  the  vitality  of  spiritual  simplicity 
and  earnestness,  on  which  the  realization  of  the  Chris- 
tian ideal  depends,  and  to  foster  the  spirit  of  com- 
promise even  with  the  ways  of  an  alien  society.  But 
he  shows  too,  how  the  Christian  consciousness  was 
reacting  afresh  against  such  dangers  and  resisting 
Mr.  Facing-both-ways,  with  his  objection,  ''  The 
Christian  ideal  may  be  glorious,  but  is  it  practicable  ?  " 
Hermas  points  to  the  innerness  of  the  Christian  ideal ; 
to  its  stress  on  the  master-motive ;  to  the  enthusiastic 


i86  THE  CHRISTIAN   IDEAL 

love  of  the  good  in  singleness  of  heart,  as  the  great 
antidote  to  "  evil  desire ''  in  every  form ;  to  faith 
as  the  mother  of  the  virtues  ;  and  to  the  Holy  Spirit 
of  God,  striving  in  the  soul  against  the  desires  of 
the  flesh,  as  the  ground  of  a  joyous  assurance  of 
victory.!  Here  we  have  true  evangelic  notes,  though 
side  by  side  with  them  there  are  traces  of  a  revived 
doctrine  of  supererogation, — token  of  a  legalist  mode 
of  thought, — in  the  notion  that  certain  parts  of  the 
Christian  ideal,  e.g.  self-denial  for  the  sake  of  the  widow 
and  orphan,  constitute  a  special  "  sacrifice  '*  to  God  not 
incumbent  on  followers  of  Christ  as  such.^  Here,  in- 
deed, was  a  menace  to  the  Christian  life,  the  doctrine 
of  two  standards  of  obedience  among  Christians,  one 
which  for  various  reasons,  more  or  less  plausible,  spread 
quickly  in  certain  circles  during  the  third  century, 
to  the  lowering  of  Christian  conduct,  personal  and 
social.  But  on  the  whole,  the  Shepherd — which  also 
hovered  for  a  century  or  two  on  the  borders  of  the 
Christian  Canon — tends,  like  the  kindred  homily,  not 
to  disprove  the  adequacy  of  the  new  moral  dynamic 
at  work  among  men,  but  rather  to  heighten  our  sense 
of  the  terrible  reality  and  potency  of  the  counter- 
current  against  which  Christians  were  making  sure, 
if  often  painful  headway. 

After  all,  what  is  of  most  significance  both  his- 
torically and  practically,  is  to  gain  some  fair  impres- 
sion of  the  moral  forces  prevalent  within  early  Chris- 
tianity, their  religious  springs  and  social  issues.  This 
is  what  it  is  hoped  may  have  been  rendered  possible 
by  the  above  sketch.  Nor  does  it  seem  that  our 
modern  world  affords  a  field  of  operation  less  suitable 

!  Mandates,  xii.  1-2,  Visions,  iii.  8,  3  ff..  Similitudes  ix.  13,  2 ; 
24,  2 ;  X.  3. 

^  Contrast  Christ's  teaching,  Ecce  Homo  (1867),  p.  299. 


AS   REALIZED   IN   PRIMITIVE   CHURCH  187 

for  the  development  of  the  latent  possibilities  of  the 
distinctive  Christian  motives  and  principles  here  set 
forth,  than  was  the  ancient  world.  On  the  contrary 
Christendom  at  any  rate  is  in  a  state  of  inherited 
semi-preparedness  ^  such  as  presents  an  opportunity 
of  infinite  possibilities,  if  only  the  essential  Gospel  of 
Love,  divine  and  human,  and  of  love's  sacrifice  for 
the  realization  of  human  good  as  it  was  to  the  eyes 
of  Christ,  be  proclaimed  afresh  in  all  its  spiritual 
simplicity  but  far-reaching  practical  application,  accord- 
ding  to  the  special  needs  of  the  age.  To  see  society 
as  through  the  eyes  of  Jesus  Christ, — that  the  social 
effects  of  Methodism  in  one  century,  and  of  the  Sal- 
vation Army  in  the  next,  show  to  be  the  secret  of 
adequate  moral  dynamic,  through  a  baptism  into  His 
spirit,  as  **  enthusiasm  of  humanity  "  for  every  human 
being  as  before  God. 

The  practical  corollary  of  such  reverence  for  all 
human  capacity  as  of  God  and  unto  God,  is  not  only 
redemptive  pity  but  economic  justice.  This  demands 
in  God's  name  both  steady  effort  and  sacrifice,  in  order 
to  secure  the  greatest  possible  equality  of  opportunity 
for  all.  To  rest  short  of  this,  or  to  plead ''  inherent  rights 
of  property,"  is  to  rob  God,  by  denying  His  ownership 
of  all  wealth  and  the  means  of  its  production,  including 
human  faculty,  and  by  refusing  Him  free  use  of  what 
is  necessary  to  His  own  development  of  His  real  treasure, 

1  Compare  the  general  effect  of  Mr.  Benjamin  Kidd's  writings 
as  to  the  sensitiveness  of  the  modern  social  conscience.  Further,  if, 
as  he  argues  in  his  "  Romanes  Lecture,"  the  condition  of  society's 
becoming  more  organic  be  subordination  of  the  individual  to  the 
common  good,  and  of  the  present  to  the  future ;  then  Christianity, 
especially  early  Christianity,  has  proved  itself  pre-eminently  able 
to  effect  this.  For  it  can  create  the  social  will  needful  to  a  fully 
social  State. 


i88  THE   CHRISTIAN   IDEAL 

latent  human  capacity,  for  want  of  fitting  conditions. 
**  No  rights  apart  from  correlative  duties/*  that  is 
more  and  more  plainly  dawning  on  men  as  the  funda- 
mental law  of  society,  historically  and  ethically 
regarded.  But  if  this  is  to  be  embodied  also  in  law, 
without  either  bloodshed  or  loss  to  personal  and  indi- 
vidual development,  the  spirit  of  willing  self-sacrifice, 
where  one's  superfluity  means  loss  to  others,  must  be 
diffused  and  maintained  as  never  before  throughout 
the  body  politic.  For  this  we  need  the  Christian  con- 
sciousness of  God,  as  the  Creator  of  all  things,  with- 
out and  within  a  man,  and  so  as  Sovereign  Disposer 
of  all  the  issues  of  man's  dependent  productivity. 
But  as  this  consciousness  came  to  Christendom  through 
the  experience  of  God's  grace  and  man's  dependence 
in  the  matter  of  the  soul's  salvation  in  Christ  from  sin 
and  all  its  disabling  effects,  so  must  it  be  spread  and 
sustained  by  the  same  experience.  Thus  doubly 
shall  men  learn  to  say,  "  What  have  we  that  we  have 
not  received  ?  "  and  with  double  reverence  to  use  all 
their  powers  and  goods  as  in  trust  from  God  for  His 
end  of  ends.  His  Kingdom  of  holy  Love  among 
men.  Such  at  least  is  the  moral  of  early  Christian 
life  and  institutions. 


The  Factors  in  the  Expansion  of  the 
Christian  Church 

By  Rev.  JAMES  ORR,  M.A.,  D.D.,  Professor  of 
Apologetics  and  Sytematic  Theology  in  the  United 
Free  Church  College,  Glasgow. 


ARGUMENT. 

The  Problem  of  the  Extension    of  Christianity — The  Growing    Complexity 
and  Difficulty. 

I.  Was  the  Early  Progress  of  Christianity  Surprising  and  Unprecedented  ? 

— ^The  Parallel  with  other  Religions  not  Real — Buddhism  not  a  "  Uni- 
versal Religion  " — ^The  World-Conquering  Principle  of  Christianity 
— ^The  [Remarkable  Reception  of  the  Gospel  everywhere — Gentile 
Christianity  not  exclusively  identical  with  Paulinism — ^The  Period 
of  Greatest  Expansion — ^The  Estimates  of  Modern  Scholars — The 
Pervasion  of  all  Ranks  and  Classes  of  Society — The  Evidence  of  a 
Learned  and  Eloquent  Christian  Apology — ^The  Secret  Influence  of 
Christianity. 

II.  The  Causes  or  Factors  of  the  Expansion  and  Influence. 

(i)  Can  Conditions  in  the  Pagan  World  itself  Explain  this  Success  ? 
— ^The  Peculiar  Preparation  for  the  Reception  of  a  Universal  Religion 
— ^The  External  Aspects  of  the  Preparation — The  Profounder  and  far 
more  Positive  Lines  of  Preparation — The  Strain  to  Universalism. 

(2)  These  conditions  do  not  explain  the  Progress  of  Christianity 
— Baur's  Error — The  Failure  of  the  Philosophies — The  Moral 
Corruption  Prevalent — The  Ethical  Revival  of  the  Age  of  the  Anton- 
ines  produced  no  great  Change — The  Main  Counts  in  the  Indictment 
stand. 

(3)  The  Bearing  of  the  Religious  Conditions  on  the  Acceptance 
of  the  Gospel,  the  Wide  Spread  of  Scepticism  and  the  Vast  Growth 
of  Superstition — The  Help  and  the  Hindrance  to  Christianity. 

III.  The  Explanation  to  be  sought  within  the  Religion  itself — ^The  Deeper 

Necessity  of  the  Age  Met — ^The  Real  core  of  the  Religion  not  Spirit- 
uality, nor  Monotheism,  nor  Doctrine  of  Immortality.  Conversions 
due  to  Christian  Life  and  Witness — The  Real  Spring  in  the  Doctrine 
of  the  Cross — ^The  Christian  Faith  in  the  Risen  and  Exalted  Lord — 
The  Absoluteness  of  Christ's  Person  and  Work — The  Gift  of  the  Holy 
Spirit — ^The  Moral  Changes  wrought  by  the  Spirit  of  Christianity  : 
a  New  Spirit  of  Active  Charity,  a  New  Ideal  of  Moral  Purity,  Puri- 
,  fication  of  the  Family  Life;  the  Elevation  of  Women,  the  Amelioration 
of  the  condition  of  the  Slave,  the  Consecration  of  Labour — The  Firm 
Organization  of  the  Christian  Church — Not  a  New  Gospel  needed 
but  a  Gospel  better  understood. 


V 

The     Factors    in   the   Expansion   of  the 
Christian   Church 

By  Rev.  JAMES, ORR,  M.A.,  D.D.,  Professor  of  Apolo- 
getics AND  Systematic  Theology  in  the  United  Free 
Church  College,  Glasgow. 

The  extension  of  Christianity  in  the  early  centuries 
presents  problems  which  grow  in  fascination  with 
increase  of  knowledge  and  closer  attention  to  the 
facts.  Till  the  school  of  Baur  opened  the  way  to  a 
broader  investigation,  the  subject  was  mainly  dis- 
cussed as  a  branch  of  apologetics.  The  early  apologists 
not  unnaturally  dwelt  on  the  surprising  rapidity  of 
the  spread  of  their  religion  as  a  proof  of  the  divine 
energy  inherent  in  it.^  Every  one  has  heard  of 
Gibbon's  '*  five  secondary  causes  "  of  the  rapid  growth 
of  Christianity,  and  of  the  refutations  of  the  sufficiency 
of  these  by  Bishop  Watson  and  others.^  Since  Baur*s 
time  the  standpoint  and  method  of  treatment  have 
largely  changed.     Learning  and  research  have  enor- 

^  The  passages  are  given  at  length  in  Harnack*s  Expansion 
of  Christianity,  vol.  ii.  (E.  T.),  pp.  147-82. 

2  Gibbon's  Decline  and  Fall,  chap.  xv. :  in  reply  Watson's 
Apology  for  Christianity,  etc.  Gibbon  veils  his  purpose  by  naming 
as  the  primary  causes,  "  The  convincing  evidence  of  the  doctrine 
itself,"  and  "  the  ruling  providence  of  its  great  Author."  But,  of 
course,  the  so-called  "  secondary  causes  "  are  to  him  the  real  ones. 

191 


192    THE   FACTORS   IN   THE  EXPANSION 

mously  increased  our  knowledge  of  that  ancient  world 
into  which  Christianity  entered.  The  political,  social, 
moral,  and  religious  conditions  of  the  Graeco-Roman 
world,  the  interacting  forces  at  work  in  it,  philosophic 
tendencies,  imperial  poUcy  and  its  effects,  have  been 
minutely  and  carefully  studied.  New  worlds  have 
been  opened  up  by  exploration  of  antiquity,  and 
immense  extensions  have  taken  place  in  our  acquaint- 
ance with  Oriental  religions.  The  Christian  Origins 
themselves  have  been  made  the  subject  of  exhaustive 
critical  inquiry. 

Under  these  various  influences,  the  problem  of 
the  causes  of  the  early  progress  of  Christianity  has 
become  vastly  more  complex  and  difficult.  The 
change  is  seen  in  such  works  as  Harnack's,  where  a 
good  part  of  the  success  of  Christianity  is  attributed 
to  the  power  of  Christ's  religion  to  "  absorb  the  ele- 
ments of  the  ancient  world  into  itself  "  ;  ^  or  as  Otto 
Pfleiderer's,  where,  in  the  fashion  of  Baur,  Christianity 
is  ''  studied  as  the  normal  outcome  of  the  manifold 
factors  in  the  religious  and  ethical  life  of  the  time.'*  2 
The  study  of  the  progress  of  Christianity,  in  other 
words,  from  being  apologetic,  has  become  scientific. 
If  the  inquiry  is  rightly  conducted,  we  are  satisfied 
that  apology  does  not  suffer  from  the  process.     More 

^  In  an  article  in  The  Contemporary  Review  for  August  1886, 
p.  234,  Haraack  speaks  of  "  The  Catholic  Church  as  that  form  of 
Christianity  in  which  every  element  of  the  ancient  world  has  been 
successively  assimilated  which  Christianity  could  in  any  way  take 
up  into  itself  without  utterly  losing  itself  in  the  world.  .  .  .  Chris- 
tianity has  throughout  sucked  the  marrow  of  the  ancient  world, 
and  assimilated  it."  This  is  not  put  so  strongly  in  his  latest  work, 
but  cf.  i.  pp.  291  if.,  395  ;  "»  PP-  327  ^',  34^  ^-^  349  ^■>  4^7  ^-^ 
437  ff.,  441  if. 

2  Introduction  to  his   Primitive  Christianity :   its    Writings  and 
Teachings  in  their  Historical  Connexions  ;  cf .  his  Christian  Origins. 


OF  THE   CHRISTIAN   CHURCH  193 

important  even  than  apologetic  gain  are  the  lessons 
to  be  gleaned  from  the  study  for  our  own  tasks  in 
advancing  the  Kingdom  of  God  in  the  world. 


A  preliminary  question  relates  to  the  fact  itself  to 
be  investigated.  How  far  are  we  entitled  to  speak 
of  the  early  progress  of  Christianity  as  something 
surprising  and  unprecedented,  needing  special  causes 
to  explain  it  ?  Does  not  the  history  of  religions, 
outside  Christianity,  afford  examples  of  like  vigour 
and  rapidity  of  diffusion  ?  There  is  Judaism,  which, 
notwithstanding  its  exclusive  spirit  and  repellent 
customs,  had,  through  the  zeal  of  its  propaganda, 
gained  an  astonishing  hold  upon  the  Gentile  world.^ 
Harnack  computes  the  numbers  of  the  Jews  in  the 
time  of  Augustus  at  about  a  seventh  or  eighth  part 
of  the  whole  population  of  the  Roman  Empire.* 
There  are  the  Egyptian,  Persian,  and  other  foreign 
cults,  with  their  mysteries,  which  flooded  the  Empire 
in  the  early  centuries  :  so  much  so  that  Harnack 
declares  that  in  the  third  century  the  worship  of 
Mithra  ''  became  the  most  powerful  rival  of  Chris- 
tianity." 3  There  is  the  extraordinarily  rapid  exten- 
sion of  the  Mohammedan  Empire,  which,  in  less  than 
a  century  after  the  Hegira,  had  spread  through  Arabia, 
Syria  and  Egypt,  far  into  the  interior  of  Africa,  and 
in  Europe  embraced  Spain  and  part  of  Gaul.  Above 
all,    there   is   Buddhism,    which,    driven   from   India, 

^  Of.  Matt,  xxiii.  15  ;  Acts  xv.  21. 

2  Expansion,  I.  pp.  10  ff.  He  takes  the  population  of  the 
Empire  to  be  54,000,000,  or  60,000,000.  This,  however,  is  probably 
an  underestimate.  V.  Schultze  computes  100,000,000  for  the  whole 
empire ;  Gibbon,  120,000,000. 

^  History  of  Dogma,  i.  p.  118  (E.  T.). 

c.c.  o 


194    THE   FACTORS   IN   THE   EXPANSION 

took  possession  of  China,  Japan,  and  neighbouring 
countries,  and  continues  to  reckon  its  adherents  by 
hundreds  of  millions.  With  Christianity,  Islam  and 
Buddhism  are  ranked  by  investigators  as  ''  universal 
religions  "  ;  ^  and  it  may  be  claimed  that  the  diffusion 
of  the  latter  faith  is  as  wonderful  as  anything  in  the 
history  of  the  religion  of  the  Cross. 

Yet,  more  closely  viewed,  the  parallel  between  the 
spread  of  the  religions  named  and  that  of  Christianity 
in  the  first  flush  of  its  conquering  vigour  is  seen  not 
to  be  a  real  one.  Judaism  cannot  fairly  be  put  in 
comparison  with  Christianity,  since,  apart  from  other 
reasons  (the  majority  of  the  Jews  in  the  Empire  were 
no  doubt  Jews  by  birth  and  descent),  Christianity 
was  itself  an  outgrowth  from  Judaism,  accepted  its 
revelation  and  Scriptures,  and  proclaimed,  so  far, 
the  same  truths,  appealing  to  the  Old  Testament 
prophecies,  and  declaring  itself  to  be  their  fulfilment. 
Besides,  the  religion  of  Moses  never  gained  possession 
of  the  Empire  as  Christianity  did,  or  came  within 
imaginable  distance  of  such  a  consummation.  Mithra- 
ism,  again,  was  a  transient  phenomenon,  appealing 
to  a  special  class  and  a  passing  spasm  of  feeling,  and 
could  not,  as  Harnack  shows  in  his  latest  interesting 
discussion,  possibly  '*  gain  the  day."  ^     in  its  austere 

^  Cf.  Kuenen's  Hibbert  Lectures  (1882)  on  National  Religions 
and  Universal  Religions,  pp.  5  ff.  Kuenen  gives  to  Mohammedanism 
"  according  to  one  of  the  latest  estimates,  175,000,000,  against 
Christendom's  400,000,000,   and  Buddhism's  450,000,000." 

2  Expansion,  ii.  pp.  447-51.  Harnack,  in  his  Appendix,  after 
studying  CumonVs  work  on  the  Mysteries  of  Mithra,  appears  to  have 
considerably  modified  his  earlier  verdict.  He  shows  that  the  entire 
domain  of  Hellenism  was  closed  to  Mithraism,  that  in  the  West  it 
was  chiefly  a  miUtary  cult,  and  that  it  was  not,  after  all,  a  real  rival 
to  Christianity  throughout  the  West.  The  resemblances  to  Chris- 
tian sacraments  are  "  superficial."  Cf.  Dill,  Roman  Society  from 
Nero  to  Marcus  Aurelius,  pp.  619  ff, 


OF  THE  CHRISTIAN   CHURCH  195 

monotheism,  Mohammedanism  had  a  truth  superior 
to  that  of  the  idolatries  around  it,  and  was  capable  of 
inspiring  a  fierce,  fanatical  zeal ;  but,  even  with  this 
truth,  despite  Carlyle's  dictum  in  his  Heroes,  the  religion 
of  Mohammed  made  little  headway  till  the  prophet 
took  to  the  sword  as  a  means  of  propagating  his 
faith.  ''  I  affirm,"  says  Dr.  Marcus  Dods  truly,  "  that 
the  man  must  shut  his  eyes  to  the  broadest,  most 
conspicuous  facts  of  the  history  of  Islam,  who  denies 
that  the  sword  has  been  the  great  means  of  propagating 
this  religion."  ^  In  no  sense  is  Mohammedanism 
fitted  to  be  a  universal  religion.  Palgrave  somewhere 
tells  of  a  boast  of  Mohammed  that  he  would  make 
his  religion  spread  wherever  the  palm-tree  grew. 
This,  in  fact,  is  nearly  the  limit  of  its  progress.  Where 
it  touches  higher  civilization,  it  acts  as  a  bhght  and 
curse.  2  Where  it  holds  possession  of  lower  races, 
it  presents  an  almost  insuperable  obstacle  to  the 
entrance  of  higher  conceptions. ^ 

Buddhism  stands  on  an  altogether  different  level. 
It  would  be  unjust  to  deny  the  elevation  of  much 
of  Buddha's  ethical  teaching,  and  still  more  the  mild 
and  benevolent  spirit  which  breathes  through  the 
teaching  from  the  personality  of  Buddha  himself. 
Yet  it  is  only  by  an  illusion  that  we  can  speak  of 
Buddhism  as  a  *'  universal  "  religion,  or  of  Buddha's 
original  doctrine  as  a  religion  at  all.     It  would  be 

^  Mohammed,  Buddha  and  Christ,  p.  99. 

2  One  of  the  best  books  on  this  aspect  of  Mohammedanism  is 
Freeman's  Ottoman  Power  in  Europe.  Of.  especially  chap,  iii.,  which 
discusses  the  general  character  of  the  rehgion. 

^  In  his  Mohammed  and  Mohammedanism,  Mr.  R.  Bosworth 
Smith  defended  the  view,  which  has  been  taken  by  others,  that 
Mohammedanism  has  special  adaptation  to  low  and  unprogressive 
races.  He  subsequently  considerably  modified  this  view  in  an 
article  in  The  Nineteenth  Century,  Dec.  1887. 


196   THE   FACTORS   IN   THE   EXPANSION 

more  proper  to  describe  it  as  a  pessimism,  on  a  basis 
of  Brahmanistic  metaphysics.  In  any  case,  its  way 
of  salvation — its  method  of  attaining  Nirvana — is 
possible  only  for  the  ilite — for  the  fewest  of  the  few. 
For  the  many  there  is  the  simple  code  of  the  five  pre- 
cepts, but  without  any  effective  moral  motive  behind 
to  secure  fulfilment.  In  practice,  therefore.  Buddhism 
has  not  proved  a  spring  of  progress.  It  does  not  dis- 
place rival  systems,  but  subsists  peacefully  alongside 
of  them,  or  amalgamates  with  them.  Thus  with 
Confucianism  and  Taoism  in  China  ;  thus  with  Shinto- 
ism  in  Japan.  Its  later  fantastic  developments  are 
an  abandonment  of  Buddha's  essential  ideas.^  By 
confession  of  its  own  votaries,  its  day  is  now  done  in 
lands  where  it  has  held  sway.^ 

A  glance  at  the  undoubted  facts  in  regard  to  the 
early  spread  of  Christianity  shows  how  different  a 
phenomenon  we  are  here  dealing  with.  From  the 
first  Christianity  aimed  at  being  a  world-conquering 
principle — a  world-conquering  principle  on  the  grandest 
scale  and  in  the  highest  sense.  The  task  it  set  before 
itself  was  stupendous.  Its  message,  on  the  face  of 
it,  was  not  one  likely  to  commend  it  to  either  Jew  or 
Greek.  "  Christ  crucified,  unto  Jews  a  stumbling- 
block,    and   unto    Gentiles   foolishness.'*  ^     It   sprang 

^  For  the  historical  Buddha  (Gautama)  was  substituted  a  long 
series  of  imaginary  Buddhas — past  Buddhas,  prospective  Buddhas, 
a  primordial  Buddha,  of  whom  the  rest  were  emanations,  an 
Amida  Buddha,  All-Saving  and  Compassionate,  who  takes  believers 
to  his  own  Paradise,  etc. 

2  In  1896  one  of  the  leading  Buddhist  Japanese  journals  wrote  : 
"  Buddhism  is  holding  its  own  to-day  by  the  mere  force  of  inertia 
.  .  .  within  ten  years  Buddhism  will  fail  in  all  its  endeavours."  In 
1897  another  Buddhist  journal  said  :  "  Buddhism  is  dead.  There  is 
no  advantage  in  concealing  the  fact  "  ;  and  still  another  asserted : 
"  All  that  remains  of  Buddhism  is  its  literature." 

3  I  Cor.  i.  23. 


OF  THE  CHRISTIAN   CHURCH  197 

from  a  despised  nation,  and  was  preached  at  first  by 
men  unlearned  in  the  schools.^  It  renounced  tem- 
poral weapons  ;  had  nothing  to  rely  on  for  success 
but  the  power  of  the  naked  truth.  Jesus  is  reported 
to  have  said,  "  My  Kingdom  is  not  of  this  world  ;  if 
My  Kingdom  were  of  this  world,  then  would  My  ser- 
vants fight."  2  Paul  declares,  *'  The  weapons  of  our 
warfare  are  not  of  the  flesh,  but  mighty  before  God 
to  the  casting  down  of  strongholds.''  ^  It  had  nothing 
to  offer  to  temporal  ambition,  or  for  the  gratification 
of  the  flesh  ;  on  the  contrary,  its  disciples  had  to  take 
on  them  the  yoke  of  a  strict  and  severe  self-denial 
in  regard  to  the  pagan  life  around  them,*  and  had  to 
lay  their  account  for  reproach,  persecution,  and  the 
possible  loss  of  all  things,  often  of  life  itself.^  To 
the  outward  view,  the  new  religion  stepped  into  the 
arena  for  conflict,  like  a  bared  athlete,  stripped  of 
every  earthly  advantage. 

Yet  no  one  who  reads  the  annals  of  the  early  progress 
of  Christianity  can  doubt  that,  wherever  this  Gospel 
of  the  Kingdom  was  preached,  it  met  with  a  remarkable 
reception.  Its  universal  principle  was  still  partially 
veiled  in  the  Jewish-Christian  communities,  which 
clung,  as  a  matter  of  observance,  to  the  customs  of 
their  fathers,  even  where  the  legitimacy  of  the  Gentile 
mission  was  acknowledged.®  With  Paul  it  freed 
itself  from  all  limitations,  and  entered  on  a  period  of 
rapid  and  wide  diffusion.  Whereas  Mithraism,  when 
it  appeared  later,  found  no  access  into  the  Hellenic 

1  Acts  iv.  13  ;   I  Cor.  i.  26-28. 
^  John  xviii.  36.  ^  2  Cor.  x.  4. , 

*  Rom.  xii.  12-14  ;  Col.  iii.  5-10  ;  Titus  ii.  12  ;  i  Peter  iv.  3,  etc. 
^  Matt.  V.  ID,  II ;   I  Thess.  ii.  14,  15  ;  iii.  3,  4 ;     i  Peter  iv. 

12-16,  etc. 

*  Acts  xxi.  20,  21 ;  cf.  Justin's  Dial,  with  Trypho,  chap.  47. 


igS    THE  FACTORS   IN  THE  EXPANSION 

world,  and  gained  its  chief  successes  in  the  semi-bar- 
barous provinces  on  the  boundaries  of  the  Empire/ 
it  is  the  pecuUarity  of  the  PauHne  mission  that  it 
followed  the  great  lines  of  Roman  communication, 
and  aimed  definitely  at  establishing  itself  in  the 
large  cities — the  centres  of  civilization. ^  Its  goal 
was  *'  Rome  also."  ^  The  Book  of  Acts  and  the 
Epistles  show  how  striking  were  the  results.  Already 
in  A.D.  58,  before  his  own  visit  to  the  city,  Paul  could 
speak  of  the  faith  of  the  Church  in  Rome  as  *'  pro- 
claimed throughout  the  whole  world  "  ;  *  and  six 
years  later,  a.d.  64,  according  to  Tacitus,  the  Chris- 
tians involved  in  Nero's  persecution  were  **  an  immense 
multitude.''  ^  Churches  were  planted  in  all  the  great 
cities  of  Asia  Minor  and  Macedonia.  Only  very 
remarkable  successes  could  justify  such  hyperboles 
of  the  Apostle  as  *'  preached  to  all  creation  under 
Heaven,"  '*  in  all  the  world  bearing  fruit  and  increas- 
ing." « 

It  was  a  mistake  of  the  older  scholars  to  identify 
Gentile  Christianity  exclusively  with  Paulinism.  Paul 
was  only  one  worker  in  that  vast  Gentile  field,  and 
even  his  own  ground  was  afterwards  wrought  over 
by  other  Apostles — e.g.,  by  John  in  Asia  Minor.' 
Our  materials  for  estimating  the  progress  of  Chris- 
tianity in  the  post-apostolic  age  are  scant,  but  they 
are  sufficient  to  allow  of  our  perceiving  the  Gospel 

1  Cf.  Harnack,  ii.  pp.  448-9. 

2  Cf.  Ramsay,  Church  in  the  Roman  Empire,  p.  147  (ist  edition),etc. 

3  Rom.  i.  15.  *  Rom.  i.  8. 

^  MuUitudo  ingens.  Annals,  xv.  44.  Clement  of  Rome  (a.d.  96), 
speaking  of  the  same  persecution,  uses  a  like  expression,  "  great 
multitude." 

*  Col.  i.  6,  23. 

'  Cf.  Ritschl,  AUkatholische  Kirche  (2nd  edition),  pp,  272-3 


OF  THE  CHRISTIAN   CHURCH  199 

pursuing  its  way,  and  casting  its  spell  alike  on  far 
East  and  far  West,  in  centres  of  civilization  and  dim 
regions  of  barbarism.  The  Epistles  of  Ignatius  and 
martyr-scenes  like  Poly  carp's  illuminate  the  darkness 
for  us  ;  a  letter  like  Pliny's  to  Trajan  (a.  a.d.  iio) 
throws  a  flood  of  light  on  the  condition  of  the  pro- 
vinces of  Bithynia  and  Pontus  ;  inscriptions  evidence 
the  power  of  the  Gospel  in  other  parts  of  Asia  Minor  ; 
Justin  speaks  of  the  religion  of  Christ  as  spread  among 
all  races  of  men.^  Then,  in  the  last  quarter  of  the 
century,  great  Churches,  as  those  of  Carthage  and 
Alexandria,  flash  into  visibility,  and  abundant  testi- 
monies meet  us  of  the  vigour  with  which  Christianity 
is  pressing  forward  to  its  conquest  of  the  Empire. 
Deadly  persecutions  could  not  stop  this  march  of  the 
Church  to  victory.  Writings  of  clever  satirists  like 
Lucian,  brilliant  literary  assaults  like  The  True  Word 
of  Celsus,  made,  apparently,  no  impression  upon  it. 
The  glowing  periods  of  Tertullian  may  be  rhetorically 
coloured,  but  it  can  hardly  be  doubted  that  they 
represent  at  least  the  essential  fact.^ 

From  the  middle  of  the  third  century,  at  any  rate, 
there  is  no  question  any  longer  that  the  Church  was 
progressing  by  leaps  and  bounds. ^  This  is  the  period 
in  which  Harnack  puts  its  great  expansion.*  On  the 
back  of  the  most  relentless  persecution  it  had  yet 
endured,  it  found  itself  suddenly  raised  by  the  success 
of  the  arms  of  Constantine  to  a  position  of  acknow- 
ledged supremacy.  When  in  this  period  we  find  the 
usurper  Maxentius  seeking  to  ingratiate  himself  with 

1  Dial,  with  Trypho,  chap.  117. 

2  Cf .  my  Neglected  Factors  in  the  Study  of  the  Early  Progress  of 
Christianity,    pp.    62-4. 

^  Cf.  Eusebius,  Ecc.  Hist,  viii,  i 
*  Expansion,  ii.  p.  455. 


200    THE  FACTORS   IN   THE   EXPANSION 

the  Romans  by  pretending  that  he  was  of  the  Christian 
faith  ;  ^  or  hear  Maximin,  most  obstinate  and  cruel 
of  the  persecutors,  giving  as  the  reason  why  the  perse- 
cution had  been  undertaken,  that  the  emperors 
*'  had  seen  that  almost  all  men  were  abandoning  the 
worship  of  the  gods,  and  attaching  themselves  to  the 
party  of  the  Christians,''  ^  we  feel  that  Constantine's 
act  was  but  the  recognition  of  a  victory  that  had 
already  been  achieved. 

These  facts  have  a  justice  done  to  them  by  modern 
scholars  which  we  do  not  find  in  the  cold  and  critical 
pages  of  Gibbon,  who  thinks  that  the  Christians  may 
have  constituted  at  most  one-twentieth  of  the  whole 
population  of  the  Empire  in  the  time  of  Constantine 
(on  his  computation  about  6,000,000).  ^  ''  The  facts 
of  the  case,"  says  Harnack,  ''  do  justify  the  impression 
of  the  Church-fathers  in  the  fourth  century,  of  men 
like  Arnobius  and  Eusebius  and  Augustine — the 
impression  that  their  faith  had  spread  from  generation 
to  generation  with  inconceivable  rapidity."  *  He 
discards  the  extreme  opinion  that  the  number  of 
Christians,  even  in  the  West,  ever  amounted  to  half 
the  population,^  but  shows  that  there  were  extensive 
regions  in  which  they  were  nearly,  or  entirely,  the 
half,  and  large  districts  which  at  the  opening  of  the 
fourth  century  '*  were  practically  Christian  all  over." 
Other  districts  were  more  backward,  but  in  many  of 
these  the  Christians  formed  ''  a  very  material  portion  " 

^  Eusebius,  Ecc.  Hist.  viii.  i. 

^  Ibid.  ix.  9  (in  the  edict  stopping  the  persecution), 

'  He  reckons  the  population  of  the  empire  at  120,000,000 
(chap.  ii.).  It  is  incredible,  however,  as  V.  Schulze  says,  that  the 
Christians  at  this  date  should  have  been  fewer  than  the  Jews. 

*  Expansion,  ii.  p.  466. 

6  Ibid.    p.  453. 


OF  THE  CHRISTIAN   CHURCH  201 

of  the  population.*  To  our  mind  Harnack  somewhat 
under-estimates  the  degree  of  the  progress  of  Chris- 
tianity prior  to  the  third  century,  when,  in  his  view, 
this  ''  astonishing  expansion  '*  notably  took  place, 
and,  specially,  seriously  understates  the  extent  of 
the  Christian  element  in  Rome  itself.^  But  the 
picture,  even  as  he  gives  it,  is  sufficiently  marvellous. 
There  are  many  other  facts  besides  those  already 
noticed  which  require  to  be  taken  into  account  in 
judging  of  this  remarkable  expansion  of  Christianity. 
It  is  not  merely  in  its  numerical  progress  that  the 
penetrative  power  of  the  Gospel  is  seen — not  merely, 
even,  in  the  fact  that  it  was  in  the  important  centres 
of  population,  chiefly,  that  its  influence  was  concen- 
trated— but  in  the  degree  in  which  it  succeeded  in 
pervading  all  ranks  and  classes  of  society,  in  finding 
its  way  into  circles  of  learning  and  culture,  and  in 
affecting  the  thought  and  practice  of  Paganism  itself. 
The  old  idea  that  Christianity  found  its  converts 
only  among  the  lowest  and  most  servile  classes  has 

1  Expansion,  ii.p.  457.  Allowance  must  be  made  also  for  the  ignor- 
ance arising  from  the  extremely  fragmentary  character  of  our  inform- 
ation. The  history  affords  many  illustrations  of  this.  The  Churches 
in  Alexandria,  Carthage,  Spain  break  on  us  quite  suddenly.  Inscrip- 
tions show  the  existence  of  a  numerous  Christian  Church  in  Cyrene, 
of  which  we  do  not  hear  otherwise. 

2  He  ignores  wholly,  e.g..  the  evidence  of  the  Catacombs,  which, 
on  the  lowest  computation  of  the  numbers  of  the  dead,  show  a  far 
larger  Christian  population  in  Rome  than  he  allows.  (Cf .  my  Neg- 
lected Factors,  pp.  35  ff.).  He  estimates  the  Christians  in  Rome  in 
A.D.  250  at  about  30,000  (out  of  800,000  or  900,000)  at  a  time  when 
the  Emperor  Decius  was  declaring  that  he  would  rather  have  a  rival 
emperor  in  Rome  than  a  bishop  (Expansion,  ii.  pp.  386-7).  Too 
much  is  made  of  Origen's  "  very  few  "  in  a  passage  relating  to 
agreement  in  prayer  {Expansion,  ii.  p.  454),  as  against  the  other 
strong  testimonies  of  Origen  himself.  Cf.  also  Harnack's  own 
statements  on  Maxentius,  etc.  (ii.  p.  459),  which  speak  to  a  very 
extensive  influence  of  Christianity  in  Rome. 


202    THE  FACTORS   IN   THE  EXPANSION 

to  be  given  up.  The  Gospels  and  Epistles,  furnishing 
as  they  do  numerous  examples  of  persons  of  higher 
social  position  attaching  themselves  to  Christ  and  to 
His  Church,  already  discredit  such  a  notion.  Men 
and  women  of  rank  and  '*  substance,''  ^  *'  of  honour- 
able estate,"  **  not  a  few,"  ^  wealthy  and  hospitable,^ 
of  official  status,*  possessors  of  land  and  houses,^ 
owning  slaves,*  etc.,  appear  freely  in  their  pages. 
Early  secular  and  ecclesiastical  history,  now  corrobor- 
ated in  marvellous  fashion  by  the  Catacombs,  shows 
that  the  influence  of  Christianity  on  the  higher  ranks 
of  society,  not  least  in  Rome  itself,  had  formerly  been 
far  under-estimated.  It  is  enough  to  mention  as  early 
examples  Pomponia  Graecina,  in  the  reign  of  Nero, 
Clemens  the  Consul  and  his  wife  Domitilla,  near 
relatives  of  the  Emperor  Domitian — the  crypt  of  the 
Flavians  showing,  as  Harnack  says,  that  **  an  entire 
branch  of  the  Flavian  family  embraced  the  Christian 
faith  "  ' — Acilius  Glabrio,  in  the  same  reign,  one  of 
the  wealthiest  and  most  illustrious  men  in  the  State 
(crypt  also  found),  Urania,  the  daughter  of  Herod 
Atticus,  reputed  ''  the  richest  man  in  Greece,  and 
probably  in  the  world,"  Caecilia,  the  noble  virgin- 
martyr,  etc.s  It  is  undoubted  that,  as  the  Church 
grew  in  numbers,  it  also  grew  in  wealth  and  social 

^  Luke  viii.  2. 

2  Mark  xv.  43  ;  Acts  xvii.  4,  12. 

^  Luke  xix.  2 ;    Acts  xvi.   14 ;    i   Cor.   xvi.   15  ;   3   John  i. ; 
2  Tim.  i.  16. 

*  Mark  v.  22  ;  Luke  i.  3  ;  vii.  5  ;  Acts  viii.  27  ;  xiii.  i,  12  ;  xvii. 
34 ;  xviii.  8 ;  Rom.  xvi.  23. 

^  Acts  iv.  37  ;  V.  I,  2  ;  xii.  12. 

®  Ep.  to  Philemon  ;   cf.  Eph.  vi.  9 ;  Col.  iv.  i. 

'  Princeton  Review,  July  1878,  pp.  266-69. 

*  See  the  evidence  in  detail  on  this  subject   in  my  Neglected 
Factors,  etc.,  Lect.  ii. ;    cf.  Harnack's  Expansion,  ii.   pp.  183-239, 


OF  THE  CHRISTIAN   CHURCH  203 

influence,  often,  as  the  examples  of  Carthage,  Alex- 
andria, and  Spain  show,  and  as  the  persecutions, 
when  they  came,  revealed,  to  the  great  detriment  of 
its  purity.^  Origen  declares  that  in  the  multitude 
of  believers  were  found  *'  not  only  rich  men,  but 
persons  of  rank  and  delicate  and  high-born  'ladies.'*  2 
The  Court,  in  the  third  century,  was  conspicuous  for 
the  numbers  of  its  Christians. ^ 

As  evidence  of  the  influence  of  Christianity  in 
literary  and  cultured  circles,  one  need  only  point  to 
the  rise  in  the  second  century  of  a  learned  and  eloquent 
Christian  Apology,  to  the  attempts  at  a  combination 
of  Christianity  with  Oriental  theosophy  in  Gnosticism, 
to  the  wide  range  of  knowledge  and  skill  in  writing 
displayed  by  the  Early  Church  Fathers,  to  the  famous 
Catechetical  school  in  Alexandria,  to  the  conflicts 
with  heresies  and  development  of  Christian  doctrine. 
Gnosticism  itself  is  an  instance  of  the  powerful  out- 
going of  force  from  Christianity  on  pagan  ideas  and 
beliefs  ;  a  similar  influence  may  be  traced  in  Neo- 
platonism  ;  not  improbably,  also,  in  certain  features 
of  the  pagan  ethical  revival  and  propaganda  of  the 
second  century  and  of  the  heathen  mysteries.* 

Christianity,  in  short,  had  entered  as  a  powerful 
leaven  or  ferment  into  ancient  pagan  society,  and 
its  secret  influences,  direct  and  indirect,  were  being 

1  Neglected  Factors,  pp.  130, 141-3  ;   Harnack,  ii.  pp.  441-4. 

2  Against  Celsus,  iii.  9. 

3  Eusebius,  Ecc.  Hist.  vii.  10 ;  viii.  6 ;  Of.  Harnack,  ii,  pp. 
202-3. 

*  Cf.  Neglected  Factors,  Lect.  iii.  We  must  not  be  misled  by  the 
studied  silence  of  pagan  writers  on  Christianity  {Ihid.  pp.  166-67, 
and  authorities  quoted  there).  Origen  could  affirm  even  in  his  day 
that  "  almost  the  entire  world  is  better  acquainted  with  what  Chris- 
tians preach  than  with  the  favourite  opinions  of  philosophers  '* 
(Against  Celsus,  i.  7). 


204    THE  FACTORS   IN   THE  EXPANSION 

felt  on  every  hand.  When  one  reflects  on  the  solid 
opposition  this  young  and  unprivileged  religion  had 
to  encounter  in  social  odium,  religious  fanaticism, 
imperial  proscription,  philosophic  scorn,  and  keen 
and  unsparing  literary  attack,  one  may  feel  justified 
in  aflirming  that  never  since  has  Christianity  had  such 
obstacles  to  overcome — has  not  even  in  the  thought 
and  culture,  the  science  and  philosophy,  of  our  own 
time  such  difficulties  to  face — as  it  had  in  those  first 
ages  in  which  it  achieved  so  notable  a  victory. 


II 

The  way  is  now  open  for  the  consideration  of  the 
main  problem  we  have  in  hand — the  causes  or  factors 
which  explain  this  remarkable  expansion  and  influence 
of  Christianity  in  the  early  centuries.  And,  as  a  first 
branch  of  the  question— Can  this  success  of  Chris- 
tianity be  explained  out  of  conditions  in  the  pagan 
world  itself  ?  Or,  How  far  do  these  conditions  con- 
tribute factors  for  the  explanation  ? 

No  impartial  student  of  history  will  deny  that 
the  outward  and  inward  conditions  of  the  Roman 
Empire  in  the  first  century  formed  a  peculiar  prepara- 
tion for  the  reception  of  a  universal  religion  like 
Christianity.  It  is  the  undying  merit  of  Baur  to 
have  elaborated  this  thesis  with  a  philosophic  breadth 
and  historical  insight  which  have  left  their  mark  on 
all  subsequent  study.  ^  Christ's  Gospel  and  Paul's 
teaching  are  pregnant  with  the  idea  of  a  ripeness  of 
times.     ''  The  time  is  fulfilled,  and  the  Kingdom  of 

^  Cf.  his  pages  on  the  Universalism  of  the  Roman  Empire  as  a 
preparation  for  Christianity  in  the  opening  of  his  Church  History  of 
the  First  Three  Centuries, 


OF  THE  CHRISTIAN   CHURCH  205 

God  is  at  hand/'  .  .  .1  ''When  the  fullness  of  the 
time  came,  God  sent  forth  His  Son/' ^  Apologists 
like  Origen  dwell  on  the  fact,  though  chiefly  with  an 
eye  on  the  external  preparation.^  It  is  obvious, 
however,  that  this  profound  correlation  between 
Christianity  and  the  condition  and  needs  of  the  age 
into  which  it  entered,  affording  so  manifest  an  evidence 
of  a  divine,  overruling  providence,  may  readily  be 
turned  to  another  purpose,  and  made  the  means  of 
explaining  the  rise  and  victorious  progress  of  Chris- 
tianity as  the  result  of  a  natural  conjunction  of  causes 
in  the  time  itself.  This,  in  fact,  is  Baur's  method. 
'*  It  is  the  object  of  the  historian,''  he  tells  us, ''  to  show 
how  the  miracle  of  an  absolute  beginning  may  itself 
be  regarded  as  a  link  of  the  chain  of  victory,  and  to 
resolve  it,  so  far  as  the  case  admits,  into  its  natural 
elements"  ;  and  he  concludes,  ''  The  universalism  of 
Christianity  is  essentially  nothing  but  that  universal 
form  of  consciousness  at  which  the  development  of 
mankind  had  arrived  at  the  time  when  Christianity 
appeared."  *  We  must  look,  therefore,  at  the  kind 
of  forces  at  work  in  the  pagan  world,  and  see  how  far 
this  is  an  adequate  explanation. 

The  external  aspects  of  the  preparation  for  Chris- 
tianity as  a  universal  religion — those  which  naturally 
impressed  the  Apologists — though  important  and 
striking,  are  too  familiar  to  need  much  illustration.^ 


1  Mark  i.  15  ;   Cf.  Reuss,  Christ.  Theol.  of  Apostolic  Age,  i.  139, 

2  Gal.  V.  4. 

^  Against  Celsus,  ii.  30.  Melito  of  Sardis  draws  attention  to  the 
fact  that  Christianity  (the  universal  religion)  was  born  at  the  same 
time  as  the  Roman  (universal)   Empire  (Euseb.  Ecc.  Hist.  iv.  26). 

*  Church  Hist.  i.  pp.  4,  5. 

^  A  good  sketch  is  given  in  Uhlhom's  Conflict  of  Christianity 
pp.  2-21. 


2o6    THE   FACTORS   IN   THE   EXPANSION 

One  thinks  here  of  the  union  of  all  peoples  and  nations 
in  one  vast  political  organization,  under  the  rule  of 
a  single  head ;  of  the  net-work  of  inter-communica- 
tion spread  throughout  the  empire ;  of  the  wide 
diffusion  of  Greek  as  a  common  language  ;  of  the 
peace  that  prevailed  at  the  time  of  the  introduction 
of  Christianity,  and  the  like.  These  outward  con- 
ditions formed  the  necessary  frame-work  without 
which  the  propagation  of  a  religion  like  Christianity 
would  hardly  have  been  possible.  By  breaking  down 
external  barriers,  and  promoting  intercourse  among 
the  peoples  ;  by  the  extension  of  Roman  law  and 
administration  to  the  provinces  ;  still  more  by  the 
imperial  idea  which  the  system  enshrined,  and  which 
early  threw  out  an  image  of  itself  in  that  strange 
simulacrum  of  a  universal  religion — the  worship  of 
the  Emperor, — the  new  order  fostered  the  spirit  of 
universalism  which,  from  other  causes,  was  already 
in  the  air,  and,  so  far,  prepared  an  atmosphere  for 
the  Gospel.  These  things  were  aids  for  such  a  religion 
as  Christianity  when  it  came :  furnished  channels 
along  which  its  influence  might  flow  ;  but  they  had 
no  efficacy  in  themselves  to  create  the  religion  that 
was  needed.  In  some  respects,  indeed,  they  raised 
new  obstacles,  and  created  fresh  perils.  This  is 
strikingly  illustrated  in  the  case  of  the  worship  of 
the  Emperor,  in  which,  for  the  first  time,  the  ancient 
world  gained  a  centre  of  religious  unity.  In  this 
cult,  which  had  amazing  popularity,  the  Roman 
Empire  expressed  its  inmost  spirit.  Caesarism  was 
the  apotheosis  of  brute  force.  It  rested  on  the  army. 
It  was  the  army  that  made  the  Emperor  ;  the  army 
that  could  unmake  him.  The  worship  of  the  Emperor 
was  thus  no  chance  phenomenon,  but  had  a  true 
logic  in  the  heart  of  it.     As  the  deification  of  brute 


OF  THE  CHRISTIAN   CHURCH  207 

power,  it  was  the  strongest  possible  antithesis  to  the 
worship  of  the  Christ.  It  was  the  worship  of  the 
Beast.  1 

There  were,  however,  it  is  not  to  be  denied,  far 
profounder,  and  far  more  positive,  Hnes  of  preparation 
for  Christianity  in  the  ancient  world  than  those  first 
indicated.     The   age   was   one,    as   Baur   well  shows, 
straining    out    to    universalism    in    every    direction. 2 
If  pagan  religions  had  decayed,  it  was  partly,  as  he 
says,    because    ''  the   spirit,    whose   religious   feelings 
the  former  once  served  to  express,  had  expanded  and 
risen  beyond  them.'*  ^    Nq  small  part  of  this  result 
was  due  to  the  development  of  Greek  philosophy  from 
the  time  of  Socrates.    Platonism,  with  its  lofty  idealism, 
was  a  powerful  force  in  this    direction — many,  like 
Justin   and  Augustine,   found  it  a  bridge  to  higher 
conceptions, — but  to  apprehend  the  full  measure  of 
the    preparation,    the    whole    development    must    be 
taken  into  account.     The  effects  are  chiefly  seen  along 
three  lines,     i.  In  a  more  inward  view  of  morality. 
With   the  overthrow  of  the  old  traditional  morality, 
there    began   with   Socrates   the  search   for  a  better 
ground  of  morality  in  man's  own  nature.     Socrates 
bade   men   turn   from   the   outward   to   the   inward, 
drove  man  in  upon  himself,  bade  him  seek  his  law  of 
action  in  something  within  himself.     Especially  does 
the  later  post-Aristotelian  philosophy  bear  this  pre- 
dominantly  ethical   character.     This   is   seen   in   the 
nature  of  the  questions   discussed — the  idea  of  the 

^  Cf.  Uhlhom's  Conflict  of  Christianity,  pp.  56-62 ;  Boissier's 
La  Religion  Romaine,  i.  pp.  122-208.  This  worship  of  the  Emperor, 
Uhlhorn  says,  was  the  point  where  Christianity  and  heathenism 
came  into  sharpest  conflict  (p.  60). 

2  Cf.  Uhlhorn,  pp.  21  £f. 

^  Church  History,  i.  p.  10. 


2o8    THE   FACTORS   IN   THE   EXPANSION 

good,  the  nature  of  the  moral  end,  the  relation  of 
virtue  to  happiness.  Stoic  and  Epicurean  were  at 
the  opposite  poles  of  ethical  theory,  but  they  were 
agreed  in  this,  that  man's  true  good  is  within,  is  to 
be  sought  for  in  the  sphere  of  the  soul.  2.  In  the 
recognition  of  a  nature  in  man  which  unites  him  with 
his  fellows,  and  lays  the  basis  of  a  universal  moral 
fellowship — this  specially  through  Stoicism.  With 
the  breaking  up  of  the  old  State-life  in  Greece,  this 
nobler  conception  survived ;  and  when  at  length 
Rome  had  founded  a  universal  empire.  Stoicism  was 
ready  to  furnish  the  intellectual  counterpart  in  its 
doctrine  of  an  equality  of  man,  and  of  a  universal 
commonwealth  or  fraternity  of  mankind,  based  on 
reason.  3.  In  the  tendency  to  monotheism  observable 
in  all  the  greater  thinkers.  Especially  in  the  writings 
of  the  Platonists  and  Stoics  of  the  Roman  age  ^ — not 
to  go  further  back — whatever  the  explanation,  we 
cannot  but  acknowledge  that  the  human  mind  was 
groping,  and  not  altogether  unsuccessfully,  towards 
that  conception  of  the  unity,  the  all-embracing  provi- 
dence, and  the  unerring  wisdom  and  goodness  of  God, 
found  already  in  Judaism,  and  soon  to  be  made  the 
common  possession  of  men  by  Christianity. 

Here,  then,  it  may  be  thought,  are  strains  of  teach- 
ing and  affinities  of  ideas  in  the  ancient  world,  which 
may  in  considerable  part  account,  if  not  by  their 
synthesis  for  the  origin  of  Christianity,  at  least  for 
the  hold  the  new  religion  was  enabled  to  take  of 
earnest  minds,  and  so  for  its  rapid  progress.  And  it 
is  certainly  to  be  conceded  that  the  progress  of  Chris- 
tianity could  never  have  been  what  it  was,  either  in 
range  or  in  quality,  had  this  intellectual  and  spiritual 

'  E.g.  Seneca,  Plutarch,  Epictetus,  Marcus  Aurelius. 


OF  THE  CHRISTIAN   CHURCH  209 

preparation  not  preceded.  If,  however,  any  one 
supposes  that  Christianity  was  in  any  appreciable 
degree  indebted  to  the  ideas  now  mentioned,  either 
for  the  substance  of  its  teaching,  or  for  the  forces 
which  gave  it  driving  power  in  the  Roman  world, 
such  an  opinion  must  be  pronounced  mistaken.  Here 
is  where  Baur  erred.  ''  When  an  old  system  decays,'' 
he  thinks,  ''it  is  because  the  new  truth  which  is  to 
succeed  it  is  already  there  :  the  old  would  not  decay, 
if  the  new  had  not  arrived,  be  it  but  in  germ,  and  had 
been  long  labouring  to  undermine  and  eat  away  the 
existing  structure."  ^  But  it  is  not  really  so.  The 
old  may  decay,  as  Baur  himself  abundantly  shows 
had  happened  in  this  case — "  Paganism  had  sunk 
into  the  mindless  religion  of  the  vulgar.  .  .  .  Decay 
and  dissolution  had  completely  seized  on  the  old 
religions."  2  But  it  in  no  wise  follows  that  an  age 
which,  in  its  better  minds,  is  conscious  of  the  hollow- 
ness  of  the  existing  forms,  and  has  even  thoughts  and 
aspirations  of  a  higher  order,  is  able  from  its  own 
resources  to  bring  forth  the  new  religion,  charged 
with  spiritual  forces,  which  is  needed  to  supply  the 
lack. 

It  would,  indeed,  be  strange  if  the  philosophies  of 
Greece,  which  failed  to  save  Greece  itself,  or  prevent 
it  from  sinking  in  intellectual  bankruptcy  and  moral 
dissolution,  had  been  able  to  save  the  Roman  Empire, 
when  transplanted  to  that  yet  more  corrupt  soil. 
Nor  did  they.  The  views  promulgated  were  too 
unclear,  were  too  abstract  and  speculative,  lacked 
too  much  the  fundamental  element  of  certainty,  to 
enable  them  to  reach  the  popular  mind,  or  lay  hold 

^  Church  History,  i.  p.  10. 

^  Ibid.  i.  pp.  6,  9.     In  qualification  see  Uhlhorn,  Conflict  of 
Christianity,  pp.  40  ft. 
c.c.  p 


210    THE   FACTORS   IN   THE   EXPANSION 

on  the  popular  conviction.^  The  nobler  minds  did 
not  dream  of  disturbing  the  State  religion,  but  lent 
themselves  to  maintain  it  by  rigorous  enforcement 
of  the  laws.  The  theism  of  a  Seneca  and  an  Epictetus 
still  rests  on  the  Stoical  nature-basis,  and  Plutarch's 
Platonism  does  not  hinder  him  from  attempting  a 
reconciliation  between  his  philosophical  conceptions 
and  the  popular  theology  by  the  help  of  a  doctrine  of 
demons  or  undergods,  and  through  reading  into  the 
myths  a  deeper  allegorical  meaning.  The  haughty 
self-sufficient  temper  of  Stoicism  was  profoundly  alien 
from  the  dispositions  inculcated  by  Christianity. 
Stoics  talked  of  a  universal  city — a  brotherhood  of 
reason ;  but  no  attempt  was  ever  made  by  any  one 
to  start  a  society  in  which  such  an  ideal  might  find 
realization. 2  The  hopelessness  of  any  regeneration 
from  forces  within  paganism  will  best  be  seen  by 
glancing  at  the  actual  condition  of  the  Graeco-Roman 
world  into  which  Christianity  came. 

The  picture  of  the  frightful  moral  corruption  of 
the  ancient  heathen  world  has  been  so  often  drawn 
that  it  is  only  needful  to  touch  on  leading  points.^ 
Nor  is  it  necessary  to  indulge  in  any  rhetorical  exaggera- 
tion. Able  writers  have  done  their  best  to  bring  out 
relieving  features,  and  tone  down  the  blackness  of 
the  customary  descriptions,*  and  we  thankfully  accept 
what  they  have  to  tell  us  of  the  many  better  elements 
still  surviving  in  that    ancient  pagan  society.^     Yet 

^  Cf.  Uhlhorn,  pp.  28,  37,  51-2,  etc. 

2  Cf.  Lightfoot,  Philippians,  pp.  306-8,  319,  322. 

^  Cf.  the  descriptions  in  Uhlhorn,  Schaff,  Pressens^,  Lecky, 
Farrar,  Fisher,  etc.,  and  see  next  note. 

*  Among  the  writers  who  take  this  more  favourable  view  may  be 
mentioned  Friedlander,  Renan,  Merivale,  Boissier,  Hatch,  Dill,  etc. 

^  Cf.  specially  'Dill's  Roman  Society  from  Nero  to  M.  Aurelius, 
pp.  1-3  ;    142-4.     Dill's  charming  picture  of  "  The  Circle  of  the 


OF  THE  CHRISTIAN   CHURCH  211 

when  all  deductions  have  been  made,  the  general 
impression  of  the  character  of  the  age,  as  pictured 
by  those  who  knew  it  best,  is  but  little  affected.  There 
were  honourable  exceptions,  and  perhaps  more  of 
them  than  we  have  been  accustomed  to  think  ;  but 
it  remains  the  fact  that  it  was  not  the  vulgar  satirist, 
but  the  nobler  spirits  themselves,  who  took  the  gloomiest 
view  of  the  corruption  of  their  times,  and  saw  least 
hope  of  a  remedy.  Whether  Seneca  should  be  ranked 
among  these  ''  nobler  spirits  "  may  be  doubted,  for 
his  personal  character  was  far  from  harmonizing  with 
his  lofty  teaching  ;  but  his  view,  at  least,  of  the  vice 
of  his  time  was  of  the  darkest.  ''  All  things,'*  he 
writes,  *'  are  full  of  iniquity  and  vice.  More  crimes 
are  committed  than  can  be  remedied  by  force.  A 
monstrous  contest  of  wickedness  is  carried  on.  Daily 
the  lust  of  sin  increases  ;  daily  the  sense  of  shame 
diminishes.  Casting  away  all  regard  for  what  is 
good  and  honourable,  pleasure  runs  riot  without 
restraint.  Vice  no  longer  hides  itself,  it  stalks  forth 
before  all  eyes.  So  public  has  iniquity  become,  so 
mightily  does  it  flame  up  in  all  hearts,  that  innocence 
is  no  longer  rare  :  it  has  ceased  to  exist."  ^  This 
savours  of  rhetoric  ;  but  writers  like  Livy,  Tacitus, 
Lucian,  and  historians  and  moralists  generally,  speak 
hardly  less  strongly.     ''  Lucian  and  Marcus  Aurelius," 

Younger  Pliny  "  may  serve  as  an  example  of  the  whole.  On  the 
other  hand,  it  is  impossible,  in  face  of  overwhelming  evidence,  to 
acquiesce  in  so  sweeping  a  statement  as  that  of  Dr.  Hatch  :  "It 
is  probable  that  there  was  in  ancient  Rome,  as  there  is  in  modern 
London,  a  preponderating  mass  of  those  who  loved  their  children 
and  their  homes,  who  were  good  neighbours  and  faithful  friends, 
who  conscientiously  discharged  their  civil  duties,  and  were  in  all  the 
current  senses  ol  the  word  '  moral '  men  "  (Hihhert  Lectures,  pp. 
139-40). 

*  De  Ird»  ii.  9. 


212    THE  FACTORS   IN  THE  EXPANSION 

says  Dill,  "  seem  to  be  as  hopeless  about  the  moral 
condition  of  humanity  as  Seneca  and  Petronius  were 
in  the  darkest  days  of  Nero's  tyranny."  ^  ''  Rome 
has  become  great  by  her  virtues  till  now/'  writes 
Livy,  *'  when  we  can  neither  bear  our  vices  nor  their 
remedies."  ^  '<  Tacitus,"  we  are  told,  ''  is  a  moralist 
with  a  sad  clinging  pessimism.  He  is  doomed  to  be 
the  chronicler  of  an  evil  time,  although  he  will  save 
from  oblivion  the  traces  and  relics  of  ancient  virtues. 
He  has  Seneca's  pessimistic  theory  of  evolution."  ^ 
Juvenal,  again,  while  possessing  *'  a  higher  moral 
intuition,  a  vision  of  a  higher  life,"  *'  is  an  utter  pessi- 
mist about  his  time,  more  extreme  even  than  Tacitus. 
His  age,  if  we  believe  him,  has  attained  the  climax 
of  corruption,  and  posterity  will  never  improve  upon 
its  finished  depravity."  ^ 

If  it  be  thought  that  these  depressing  descriptions 
are  born  of  what  Dill  calls  ''  The  Terror  "  in  the  period 
from  Nero  to  Domitian,  and  that  a  new  era  of  hope 
opened  for  the  empire  with  the  disappearance  of  that 
tyranny,  and  the  ethical  revival  of  the  age  of  the 
Antonines,  it  must  be  owned  that  the  evidence  does 
not  warrant  us  in  assuming  that,  beneath  the  surface, 
the  change  was  really  great.  The  utmost  that  can 
be  said  is,  that  '*  it  was  easier  to  be  virtuous  in  the 
reign  of  M.  Aurelius  than  in  the  reign  of  Nero,  and  it 
was  specially  easier  for  a  man  of  the  highest  social 
grade."  *  The  ethical  revival  was  a  reality,  of  which 
many  noble  things  might  be  said.  There  was  teaching, 
preaching,  declaiming,  on  a  scale  that  had  never  before 
been  heard  of.^  It  may  be  doubted,  indeed,  whether 
this   excessive   insistence   on   ethics — often   a   matter 

1  Roman  Society,  p.  6.  ^  In  Prcef. 

3  Dill,  p.  26.  *  Dill,  p.  7. 

.J  Cf.  my  Neglected.  Factors,  etc.,  pp.  185,  190-206.     See  also 


OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH  213 

of  rhetorical  display — ^was  itself  a  healthy  sign.  An 
age,  as  Uhlhorn  says,  which  is  always  feeling  its  pulse 
in  an  ethical  respect  already  confesses  itself  to  be  in 
a  sickly  and  declining  state. ^  In  any  case,  we  have 
the  testimony  of  the  philosophic  Emperor  himself 
that,  despite  it  all,  the  times  were  hopelessly  evil.2 
The  ethical  propaganda,  in  fact,  had  but  the  most 
transient  results.  The  tide  of  corruption  was  there, 
checked,  dammed  up  for  the  moment,  but  ready  to 
burst  forth  the  instant  the  barriers  were  removed. ^ 
This  was  seen  when  Marcus  died,  and  Commodus 
succeeded.  It  was  as  if  the  powers  of  the  pit  were 
let  loose  again.  So  far  from  the  much-praised  age 
of  the  Antonines  being  the  beginning  of  a  new  day, 
it  was  really  the  last  glow  of  the  sunset  before  the 
light  finally  disappeared.  Renan,  as  a  sympathetic 
interpreter  of  the  age,  may  be  cited.  ''  At  bottom,'' 
he  says,  "  the  progress  wrought  by  the  reigns  of 
Antoninus  and  Marcus  Aurelius  had  only  been  super- 
ficial. Everything  was  bordered  by  a  varnish  of 
hypocrisy,  by  exterior  appearances  which  were  taken 
as  caused  by  the  unison  of  the  two  wise  Emperors.  .  .  . 
What  reigned  throughout  all  was  a  deep  gloom."  * 

With  due  allowance,  therefore,  for  whatever  may 
be  said  in  alleviation  of  the  picture  of  the  gross  moral 
corruption  of  the  Roman  world  in  the  first  centuries, 
it  must  be  contended  that  the  main  counts  in  the 
indictment  of  that  age  stand  unshaken,  i.  AU  writers 
note  the  unsound  social  conditions  of  the  age — ^the 

Merivale 's  i^owaws  Under  the  Empire,  chaps.  Ix.,  Lxvi. ;  Dill's  Roman 
Society,  Bk.  ii. ;   Renan,  Marc.  Aurele.,  chap,  iii.,  Hatch,  etc. 

1  p.  92.  2  cf.  Dill,  pp.  6,  303,  335. 

^  See  the  vivid  picture  in  the  commencem^it  of  Froude's 
*'  Origen  and  Celsus,"  in  Short  Studies,  vol.  iv. 

*  Marc.  Aurele,  chap,  xxvi. 


214    THE  FACTORS   IN  THE   EXPANSION 

boundless  luxury  and  extravagance  at  one  end  of  the 
social  scale,  ^  and  deep  poverty  and  degradation  at  the 
other.  The  slavery  on  which  the  social  structure 
was  built  meant  the  destruction  of  free  labour  and  the 
cutting  out  of  a  middle  class  sustained  by  honest 
industry,  with  unspeakable  degradation  and  vice  to 
the  immense  masses  of  human  beings  in  the  servile 
condition.2  As  a  natural  result,  labour  itself  was 
held  in  contempt,  and  the  idle,  frivolous  crowds  had 
to  be  supported  in  other  ways— by  doles  from  the 
State,  as  hangers-on  upon  the  rich,  etc.  2.  Equally  un- 
mistakable is  the  testimony  to  the  ruin  of  domestic  life, 
and  the  shameless  licentiousness  and  profligacy  among 
both  men  and  women,  though  doubtless  noble  excep- 
tions can  be  cited. ^  Marriage  had  fallen  largely  into 
desuetude  ;  *  divorces  were  common  ;  women  of  the 
highest  rank  condescended  to  acts  of  the  most  shameful 
lewdness.  Juvenal's  Sixth  Satire  could  not  have  been 
written  unless  it  had  rested  on  a  basis  of  fact  in  the 
general  condition  of  society.  3.  Another  point  is 
the  spirit  of  cruelty  and  delight  in  brutal  and  sanguinary 
amusements  :  on  this  we  need  not  dwell.^  Idleness, 
frivolity,  sycophancy,  licentiousness,  luxury,  cruelty, 
such  practices  as  exposure  of  children,  infanticide, 
driving  out  sick  or  aged  slaves  to  die,  etc.,® — these  are 
not  casual  blots,  but  deep-seated  plagues,  affecting 
the  entire  social  body. 

1  The  incredible  extravagance  of  the  age  maybe  seen  illustrated 
in  Dill,  pp.  20,  32,  etc.,  or  in  Uhlhorn,  pp.  104  ff. 

2  On  slavery,  cf.  Uhlhorn,  pp.  131  ff. ;  for  a  slightly  milder 
view,  Lecky,  European  Morals,  i.  pp.  318-26. 

3  Cf.  Lecky,  ii.  pp.  320-29. 

*  "A great  and  general  indisposition  towards  marriage,  which 
Augustus  attempted  in  vain  to  arrest  by  his  laws  against  cehbacy,'* 
etc.  (Lecky,  ii,  p.  322).        ^  Cf.  specially  Lecky,  i.  pp.  287-305. 

*  Cf.  Lecky,  ii.  pp.  26-30.  Seneca  defended  the  kiUing  of 
weak  and  deformed  infants  {De  Ird,  1. 15). 


OF  THE   CHRISTIAN   CHURCH  215 

It  is  very  evident  that  from  a  society  so  radically 
corrupt  forces  were  not  likely  to  proceed  that  would 
help  Christianity  much  in  its  endeavours  to  establish 
a  Kingdom  of  God  among  men.  It  was  a  society 
that  needed  salvation  ;  not  one  that  could  bring  it. 
There  is,  however,  yet  another  aspect  under  which 
this  society  must  be  regarded,  which  does  bear  directly 
on  the  readiness  shown  by  many  to  accept  the  Gospel, 
viz.,  the  condition  in  which  the  Roman  world  found 
itself  religiously,  as  the  result  of  the  action  of  the 
causes — intellectual  and  moral — already  described. 

The  two  facts  which  stand  out  most  clearly  in 
this  connexion  are — i.  The  wide  spread  of  scepticism, 
or  total  unbelief,  among  the  cultured  or  educated 
classes ;  and  2.  The  vast  growth  of  superstition, 
and  a  great  influx  of  foreign  cults,  in  the  empire 
generally.  The  scepticism  was  but  a  continuation 
of  the  scepticism  of  Greece,  and  strengthened  itself 
by  the  aid  of  Greek  philosophy.  It  took  the  form, 
first,  of  an  absolute  disbelief  in  the  popular  religion, 
even  while  insisting  that  the  State-religion  was  to 
be  maintained  as  a  measure  of  political  expediency  ; 
then  passed  over,  with  many,  to  doubt  or  open  denial 
of  the  existence  of  any  gods,  and,  very  generally,  to 
doubt  or  denial  of  a  future  life.^  Even  where  there 
was  not  positive  unbelief,  a  dread  uncertainty  hung 
over  everything.  The  extraordinary  development  of 
superstition,  not  simply  among  the  common  people, 
but  in  all  classes,  2  and  the  great  influx  of  foreign 

1  On  the  prevalence  of  Scepticism,  cf.  Lecky,  i.  pp.  170-74  ; 
Uhlhorn,  pp.  46,  ff .  Pliny  declares  it  to  be  a  sure  result  of  science 
that  there  are  no  gods  :  '*  Nature  alone  is  god  "  (Nat.  Hist.  ii.  7). 
On  doubt  or  denial  of  immortality,  cf .  Dill,  pp.  485  ff. 

*  See  especially  Dill,  pp.  168,  443  ff.  PMny,  Suetonius,  Tacitus, 
Marcus  Aurelius,  etc.,  were  all  deeply  superstitious. 


2i6    THE   FACTORS   IN   THE  EXPANSION 

religions  are  not  a  contradiction  of  the  former  fact, 
but  a  confirmation  of  it.  It  was  because  the  heart 
was  so  empty  of  real  faith  that  it  betook  itself  so 
readily  to  monstrous  superstitions  ;  because  the  old 
gods  failed  to  satisfy  that  there  was  such  a  craving 
for  new  ones.  The  foreign  cults  most  in  favour  were 
Oriental  ones — e.g.,  the  worship  of  Isis  and  Serapis, 
later  of  Mithra.  This  is  a  significant  fact,  as  showing 
that  the  religious  consciousness  had  entered  on  a 
deeper  phase  ;  was  now  more  earnest  in  its  desire  for 
spiritual  rest  and  peace.  For,  whatever  the  demerits 
of  the  Oriental  religions,  there  was  at  least  expressed 
in  them  a  deeper  feeling  of  the  discord,  the  pain,  the 
mystery  of  existence,  and  in  the  mysteries  connected 
with  some  of  them  were  ideas  and  rites  which  had 
reference  to  redemption.^ 

It  is  quite  true  that  the  characteristics  of  the  age 
just  described,  in  certain  respects,  made  the  task  of 
Christianity  not  easier,  but  harder.  The  fondness 
for  new  gods  and  goddesses,  new  rituals  and  worships 
—especially  for  such  as  gratified  the  craving  for 
excitement,  and  had  great  elaboration,  pomp,  and 
splendour — was  one  to  which  Christianity,  as  a  simple, 
spiritual,  unadorned  religion,  without  images,  temples, 
ceremonies,  or  outward  attractions  of  any  kind,  could 
offer  no  satisfaction.  The  fanatical  superstition  of 
the  age,  again,  so  far  from  helping  the  progress  of 
Christianity,  was  everywhere  its  greatest  hindrance. « 
In  the  medley  of  religions  which  filled  the  empire, 
there  was  no  one  which  set  up  for  itself  any  exclusive 

1  On  the  ideas,  rites,  influence  of  the  cults  of  Isis  and  Mithra, 
see  especially  Dill,  pp.  560  ff.,  585  ff.  On  the  relation  with  Chris- 
tianity cf.  my  Neglected  Factors,  pp.  209-15.  The  moral  influence 
of  the  Mysteries  must  not  be  exaggerated.  Many  facts  show  that  it 
was  really  not  great. 

*  Cf.  the  scene  at  Ephesus,  Acts  xix.  24  ff. 


OF  THE   CHRISTIAN  CHURCH  217 

claim.  Devotion  to  one  cult  did  not  mean  rejection 
of  the  rest.  But  Christianity  had  none  of  this  toler- 
ance. It  was  with  it  war  to  the  death  against  all 
forms  of  pagan  idolatry.  If  the  God  whom  the 
Christians  worshipped  was  the  true  God,  there  was 
no  room  for  any  other.  Hence  the  popular  rage  which 
the  new  religion  everywhere  aroused  against  itself. 
It  was  to  the  populace  a  gloomy,  unsocial  superstition, 
which  they  must  stamp  out  in  self-defence.  With 
its  pure,  holy  spirit,  it  must  have  been  an  abomination 
to  the  crowds  which  flocked  to  the  amphitheatres, 
or  to  the  shrines  of  Bacchus  or  Venus. 

What  can  be  said  on  the  other  side  is,  that,  while 
opposed  to  the  great  mass  of  the  surface  sentiment 
of  the  age,  Christianity  met  the  deeper  wants  men 
were  feeling,  and  so  related  itself  to  all  the  better 
tendencies  already  traced.  In  the  very  depths  of 
that  grovelling  superstition,  of  that  prostration  of 
the  soul  at  foreign  shrines,  evidence  is  seen,  as  just 
remarked,  of  that  weariness  and  disgust  of  life,  that 
longing  for  salvation,  that  desire  for  knowledge, 
certainty,  communion  with  the  Unseen,  which  formed 
so  important  a  part  of  the  preparation  for  the  Gospel. 
One  may  doubt  whether  this  was  not  often  the  most 
influential  factor  of  all  in  securing  for  Christianity 
the  favourable  hearing  it  obtained.  The  profoundest 
preparation  of  the  pagan  world  for  the  new  religion, 
surely,  was  its  sense  of  utter  need. 


Ill 

A  suitability  in  the  general  condition  of  the  Roman 
world  for  the  reception  of  a  universal  moral  and 
spiritual  religion  like  Christianity  must  thus  be  recog- 


2i8    THE   FACTORS   IN  THE   EXPANSION 

nized ;  but  it  must  now  likewise  be  apparent  that 
the  real  key  to  the  explanation  of  the  remarkable 
expansion  of  Christianity  in  the  early  centuries  is  to 
be  sought  for  within  the  religion  itself,  and  not  in 
any  external  or  adventitious  circumstances.  Judaism, 
by  its  wide  dispersion,  its  synagogues,  its  circulation 
of  the  Jewish  Scriptures  in  the  Greek  tongue,  its 
fringe  of  proselytes  and  following  of  more  loosely- 
attracted  converts — the  *'  devout  persons  "  of  the 
New  Testament  ^ — afforded,  especially  at  the  begin- 
ning, a  helpful  bridge  for  the  passage  of  the  Gospel 
to  the  Gentiles.  But  the  power  by  which  the  rehgion 
of  the  crucified  gained  its  victories  was  still  wholly  its 
own,  though  it  claimed  that  all  the  hopes  and  promises 
of  the  older  Covenant  were  fulfilled  in  it. 

We  are  brought  here  to  the  kernel  of  the  matter. 
Christianity  won  the  day  because,  as  already  hinted, 
it  met  the  deepest  necessity  of  the  age  into  which  it 
had  come.  It  met  the  monotheistic  tendency  of  the 
age  ;  it  met  the  universalistic  tendency  of  the  age ; 
it  met  the  deeper  and  stronger  ethical  tendency  repre- 
sented by  Stoicism.  Above  all,  it  met  the  deep  craving 
of  the  age  for  spiritual  peace  and  rest,  its  need  of 
certainty,  its  longing  for  redemption,  and  for  direct 
communion  with  God.  To  these  wants  it  brought  a 
satisfaction  which  no  religion  of  the  time  could  pretend 
to  offer.  It  did  not  meet  them  by  teaching  merely 
— as  if  Christ  were  only  a  new  Socrates — but  it  met 
them  by  the  positive  exhibition  of  the  redeeming  love 
of  God  in  Christ,  by  the  setting  forth  of  the  personal 
Jesus  in  His  life,  death  and  resurrection,  by  the  pro- 
clamation of  forgiveness  of  sins  through  Him,  by  the 
bestowal  of  the  power  of  the  Holy  Spirit.  It  was 
not  a  doctrinal  religion  merely,  but  a  rehgion  of 
^  Acts  X.  2,  22  ;   xiii.  i6,  26,  etc. 


OF  THE   CHRISTIAN   CHURCH  219 

dynamic — of  power.  It  did  not  only  tell  men  what 
to  do,  but  gave  them  power  to  do  it.  Its  ideals  were 
the  highest,  and  in  many  ways  new — a  *'  trans  valua- 
tion of  all  values,"  to  borrow  a  phrase  of  Nietzsche's  1 
— but  it  brought  them  within  men's  reach  as  realizable. 
Hence  it  prevailed.  In  a  striking  passage  in  his 
Representative  Government,  John  Stuart  Mill  says : 
''  On  the  day  when  the  proto-martyr  was  stoned  to 
death  at  Jerusalem,  while  he  who  was  to  be  the  Apostle 
of  the  Gentiles  stood  by  '  consenting  unto  his  death,' 
would  any  one  have  supposed  that  the  party  of  the 
stoned  man  were  there  and  then  the  strongest  power 
in  society  ?  And  has  not  the  event  proved  that  they 
were  so  ?  Because  theirs  was  the  most  powerful  of 
existing  beliefs."  ^  That  is  in  brief  the  explanation 
of  the  success  of  Christianity.  It  was  the  strongest 
thing  in  the  world  at  that  time,  and  it  was  sure  to 
conquer.     The  sword  could  not  stop  it. 

In  investigating  this  connexion  of  the  success  of 
the  Gospel  in  the  heathen  world  with  its  essential 
nature,  the  important  thing  is  to  be  certain  that  we 
get  to  the  real  core  of  the  religion,  and  do  not  stop 
short,  in  our  search  for  causes,  at  any  inferior  point. 
Baur,  e.g.,  finds  the  essence  of  Christianity,  and  the 
secret  of  its  success,  in  the  general  idea  of  its  *'  spirit- 
uality," 3  and,  no  doubt,  so  far  rightly.  But  while 
the  pure  spirituality  of  the  Gospel — its  freedom  '*  from 
everything  merely  external,   sensuous,   or  material " 

^  Umwertung  alter  Werte. 

2  "  But  what  is  Christianity  itself  ?  .  .  .  We  answer  in  a  word, 
its  spirituaHty.  .  .  .  When  we  inquire  what  constitutes  the  abso- 
lute character  of  Christianity,  we  must  point  to  its  spirituality  " 
(Church  Hist.,  i.  p.  9). 

3  Cf.  Justin's  account  of  his  fascination  by  Platonism  in  Dial, 
with  Trypho,  chap.  ii. 


220    THE   FACTORS   IN   THE   EXPANSION 

— may  have  commended  it  to  minds  trained  to  spiritual 
contemplation/  it  is  obvious  that  to  great  multitudes 
in  paganism,  both  educated  and  uneducated,  this 
very  spirituality  must  have  presented  itself  as  a  draw- 
back and  difficulty.  It  was,  indeed,  the  ground  of 
the  charge  of  "  atheism ''  against  the  Christians  that 
their  religion  was  without  temples,  and  images,  and 
the  other  paraphernalia  of  worship.^  It  is  tempting, 
again,  to  think  of  Christianity  as  commending  itself 
by  its  monotheism ;  and  here,  unquestionably,  as 
already  seen,  is  a  side  of  relation  with  the  highest 
strain  of  thought  in  later  paganism.  There  is  little 
doubt,  e.g.,  that  it  was  chiefly  as  a  system  of  mono- 
theism that  Christianity  appealed  to  a  secular  mind 
like  Constantine's.  It  is  nevertheless  true,  as  the 
pagan  speculations  themselves  show,  that  abstract 
monotheism,  divorced  from  other  elements,  has  little 
power  to  found  or  propagate  a  religion.  Christianity 
was  a  great  deal  more  than  an  abstract  monotheism  ; 
had  it  been  only  this,  it  would  not  have  achieved  the 
success  it  did.  It  is  to  be  remembered  also  how 
Christianity  differed  from  pagan  monotheism  in  its 
inability  to  tolerate  or  reconcile  itself  with  existing 
idolatries.  Between  it  and  existing  cults  there  could 
be,  as  remarked  above,  no  compromise.  ^  It  is  inade- 
quate, again,  to  assign  as  a  cause  of  the  success  of 
Christianity  its  preaching  of  immortality.*  Paganism, 
indeed,  sorely  needed  the  comfort  of  an  assured  hope 
of  a  future  life  ;  but  an  abstract  doctrine  of  immortality 

^  On  Represent.  Govt,  9.  6. 

2  Cf.  Origen,  Against  Celsus,  vii.  62  ff. 

^  Gibbon  gives  as  one  of  his  Causes  the  "  intolerant  zeal  "  of  the 
eariy  Christians  (chap.  xv.).  But  intolerant  zeal  does  not  seem  a 
likely  way  of  gaining  favour, 

*  This  is  another  of  Gibbon's  secondary  causes. 


OF  THE   CHRISTIAN   CHURCH  221 

would  have  been  as  ineffective  for  the  ends  of  propa- 
gation as  an  abstract  monotheism ;  and  the  kind  of 
immortality  Christianity  preached  had  little  in  common 
with  the  speculations  of  the  schools.  It  was  an 
immortality  bound  up  with  Christ,  and  involved  a 
resurrection — a  doctrine  at  which  the  speculative 
mind  stumbled. ^ 

We  seem  on  surer  ground  when  the  accent  is  laid 
on  the  changed  characters  and  holy  lives  of  the  Chris- 
tians, on  martyr  devotion,  and  on  the  new  spirit  of 
love,  manifesting  itself  in  deeds  of  active  philanthropy, 
which  Christianity  brought  into  the  world.  For 
here  undeniably  we  are  in  contact  with  the  purest 
spirit  of  the  new  reHgion — that  by  which  it  was  most 
directly  and  impressively  brought  under  the  notice 
of  the  heathen.  Justin  tells  us  that  his  conversion 
was  partly  due  to  witnessing  the  constancy  of  the 
martyrs,  2  and  there  were  numerous  cases  of  the  same 
kind.3  On  the  transforming  effects  of  Christianity, 
which  stamped  it  from  the  first  as  a  social  regenerative 
force  of  the  mightiest  order,  we  shall  have  more  to 
say  immediately.  Meanwhile  it  is  to  be  observed 
that  even  here  we  are  in  contact  with  the  stream 

1  Cf.  Acts  xvii.  32  ;  i  Cor.  xv.  12  ;  2  Tim.  ii.  18.  It  is  to  be 
admitted  that  in  certain,  perhaps  most,  of  the  Mysteries,  there  were 
points  of  contact  with  the  doctrine  of  the  Resurrection,  only,  how- 
ever, as  nature-myths. 

2  2  Apol.  12. 

^  The  Martyr  spirit  of  the  age  is  well  exemphfied  in  Ignatius 
(Ep.  to  Eph.  I  ;  Romans,  v.,  vi.  :  "  Let  fire  and  the  cross,  let  the 
crowds  of  wild  beasts  .  .  .  come  upon  me  :  only  let  me  attain  to 
Jesus  Christ "  ;  and  in  Polycarp  (Eus.  Ecc.  Hist.,  iv.  15).  Cf.  Euse- 
bius,  viii.,  ix.,  on  the  Martyrs  under  Diocletian  :  "At  these  scenes 
we  have  been  present  ourselves,  when  we  also  observed  the  divine 
power  of  our  Lord  and  Saviour  Jesus  Christ  Himself  present,  and 
effectually  displayed  in  them,"  etc. 


222    THE   FACTORS    IN   THE   EXPANSION 

rather  than  with  the  fountain  from  which  it  flows  ; 
with  the  outcome  of  the  divine  Hfe  rather  than  with 
its  source.  Still  less  can  we  lay  the  stress  on  miracles, 
or  on  ''  miraculous  claims,"  in  explanation  of  the 
success  of  Christianity.^  It  is  now  agreed  on  all  hands 
that  these  had  little  to  do  with  the  general  propagation 
of  the  Gospel.  So  far  as  miracles  entered  into  the 
Christian  argument,  it  was  usually  not  the  act  of 
power,  so  much  as  the  character  of  the  work,  to  which 
appeal  was  made.^  On  the  pagan  side  miracles  were 
less  seldom  doubted  than  ascribed  to  sorcery .^ 

Shall  we  then,  mounting  higher,  seek  the  ultimate 
secret  of  the  power  of  the  Gospel  in  its  doctrine  of 
redemption — in  the  Cross  ?  Here  we  might  seem 
to  have  with  us  the  Master  Himself,  when  He  declares  : 
"  I,  if  I  be  Hfted  up  from  the  earth,  will  draw  all  men 
unto  Myself "  ;  *  and  His  great  Apostle,  when  he 
extols  the  Gospel  of  the  Cross  as  *'  the  power  of  God.*'^ 
But  attention  to  these  very  words  shows  us  that 
something  lies  yet  behind.  The  emphasis  in  Christ's 
saying  is  on  the  personal  pronoun — ''  /,  if  I  be  lifted 
up.''  In  Paul's  statement,  while  ''  Christ  Crucified  " 
is  declared  to  be  ''  unto  Jews  a  stumbling-block,  and 
unto  Gentiles  foolishness,"  it  is,  after  all,  not  specifically 
of  ''  Christ  Crucified,"  but  of  ''  Christ  "  Himself,  that 
the  assertion  is  made  :  ''  Unto  them  that  are  called, 
both  Jews  and  Greeks,  Christ  the  power  of  God,  and 
the  wisdom  of  God."  Here  we  come  to  the  ultimate 
fact — Christ's  own  Personality  ;  a  Personality  to  be 
interpreted,   indeed,   through   all   that   He   was    and 

1  Yet  another  of  Gibbon's  Causes. 

^  Cf.  Origen,  Against  Celsus,  i.  67,  68,  etc. 

3  Ibid.  i.  6,  68 ;   Justin,  i  Apol.  30. 

*  John  xii.  32. 

'  Rom.  i.  16 ;   i  Cor.  i.  23,  24. 


OF  THE  CHRISTIAN   CHURCH  223 

did ;  yet  that  which  stands  behind,  and  gives 
significance  and  potency  to  everything  else  in  His 
religion — stands  behind  Cross,  Gospel,  Church,  Scrip- 
tures, doctrines,  changed  characters,  social  trans- 
formations, and  makes  them  what  they  are — from 
which,  supremely,  stream  out  the  forces  that  have 
made  the  world  new  !  The  Apostle  John  gave  the 
secret  when  he  wrote  :  '*  This  is  the  victory  that  hath 
overcome  the  world,  even  our  faith.  Who  is  he  that 
overcometh  the  world,  but  he  that  believeth  that 
Jesus  is  the  Son  of  God.'*  ^ 

That  here  we  reach  the  real  spring  of  the  marvellous 
energy  displayed  by  the  Gospel  in  its  early  course 
can  readily  be  verified.  One  might  proceed  deduct- 
ively in  showing  how  this  faith  in  Jesus  as  the  Son 
of  God  is  necessarily  a  principle  of  moral  victory  in 
the  hearts  that  possess  it,  and  in  society.  We  prefer, 
in  closing,  to  ask  historically  how  this  faith  in  Jesus 
did  work  in  the  ancient  world  in  gaining  its  moral 
victories. 

The  early  Christians  were  well  acquainted  with 
the  historical  facts  of  Christ's  life  from  careful  oral 
instruction, 2  and,  later,  from  the  written  Gospels. ^ 
The  image  of  the  historical  Jesus  must,  therefore, 
ever  have  been  with  them  as  an  example  and  inspira- 
tion to  goodness.  But  Jesus  was  never  to  these  early 
believers  simply  a  wise  and  gracious  Teacher  and 
Example.  His  Person  and  character  had  for  them 
from  the  beginning  an  absolute  worth.  He  was 
their  risen  and  exalted  Lord.     They  conceived  of  Him, 

1  I  John  V.  4,  5.  2  Q  L^j^g  j  ^ 

^  The  Gospels  were  regularly  read  in  the  Christian  Assemblies  in 
Justin's  time  (i  Apol,  66,  67).  In  the  New  Testament  an  acquaint- 
ance with  the  facts  of  Christ's  life  is  presupposed  in  the  exhortations 
to  imitations  of  Christ's  patience,  forbearance,  gentleness,  etc. 


224    THE   FACTORS   IN   THE   EXPANSION 

with  Paul  and  John,  as  pre-existing  in  *'  the  form  of 
God,"  1  and  as  humbling  Himself  to  become  man, 
and  suffer  death,  for  man's  salvation.  Without 
theologizing  on  the  subject,  they  raised  Him  in  their 
thoughts  and  worship  to  equality  with  the  Father. 
The  effects  of  this  transcendent  conception  of  Christ's 
Person  on  the  mission  to  the  heathen  world  can 
readily  be  seen.  Its  first  result  was  to  invest  Christ's 
Person  itself  with  an  absoluteness  which  could  belong 
to  no  other.  This  sense  of  absoluteness  the  primitive 
Christian  consciousness  expressed  by  the  simple  word 
''  Lord."  Later  thought  found  an  expression  for  it 
in  the  term  "  Logos."  Ritschl  shows  how  the  con- 
ception of  the  Logos  in  the  Apologists  and  their  suc- 
cessors, designating  as  the  word  did  '*  the  universal 
and  absolute  character  of  Christianity,"  secured  the 
recognition  of  Christianity  as  a  universal  religion. 2 
A  second  and  consequent  effect  was  to  clothe  Christ 
with  an  absolute  authority,  and  to  give  to  everything 
in  His  revelation  a  character  of  immovable  certainty. 
One  is  constantly  struck,  in  the  early  Christian  writers, 
with  this  note  of  confident  assurance  of  the  truth  of 
their  message,  as  compared  with  the  tentative,  uncer- 
tain, vacillating  opinions  of  the  pagan  teachers. 
Pagan  philosophy  was  groping  in  confessed  darkness 
on  the  highest  subjects  :  here  was  truth,  drawn  not 
from  their  own  wisdom,  but  from  the  ''  Word  "  Him- 
self, who  had  been  manifested,  and  had  given  them 
an  understanding,  that  they  might  know  Him  that 
was  true. 3 

This   absoluteness   conceived   of   as   belonging   to 
Christ's  Person,  however,  bore  not  only  on  the  know- 

1  Phil.  ii.  6  ff. 

2  AUkath.  Kirche,  pp.  307,  317. 
'  I  John  ii.  27 ;   v.  9-13,  20. 


OF  THE   CHRISTIAN   CHURCH  225 

edge  He  came  to  impart  on  God  and  divine  things, 
but  equally  on  His  work  as  Saviour.  Christianity 
was  above  all  things  else  a  message  of  salvation — 
of  reconciliation,  of  peace  with  God,  of  a  new  life  in 
the  Spirit.  This,  supremely,  was  the  aspect  of  it 
which  met  the  need  of  a  world  ill  at  ease  with  itself, 
and  longing  for  a  way  of  escape  from  its  woes.  The 
weary  seeker  for  a  cleansing  from  his  sins,  and  hope 
of  immortality,  found  in  Christ's  Gospel  a  satisfaction 
such  as  all  the  mystical  rites  of  paganism  could  not 
yield  him.  Great  power  lay  also  in  the  historical 
character  of  this  redemption.  Dill,  speaking  of 
Mithraism,  says  of  the  sacrifice  of  the  bull,  ''  which 
seemed  to  occupy  the  same  space  in  Mithraic  devotion 
as  the  Sacrifice  on  Calvary:''  '*  But  one  great  weak- 
ness of  Mithraism  lay  precisely  here — that,  in  place 
of  the  narrative  of  a  Divine  life,  instinct  with  human 
sympathy,  it  had  only  to  offer  the  cold  symbolism 
of  a  cosmic  legend."  ^  Here,  again,  was  a  lever  of 
incalculable  power  with  which  to  act  on  the  heathen 
world. 

Lastly,  with  this  absoluteness  of  Christ's  Person 
was  connected,  in  the  belief  of  the  Early  Church,  the 
gift  of  the  Holy  Spirit — Illuminator,  Renewer,  Sancti- 
fier.  In  Montanism  the  Spirit  was  connected  with 
gifts  and  prophesyings.  But  already  in  Paul's  and 
in  the  other  New  Testament  Epistles,  the  idea  of  the 
Spirit  as  the  author  of  miraculous  '*  gifts  "  recedes 
behind  that  of  His  operation  in  regeneration  and  the 
quiet  renewal  and  development  of  Christian  char- 
acter ;  and  the  production  of  the  fruits  of  discipleship 
in  holy  living.^  Above  all  is  His  working  seen  in  the 
developing  and  perfecting  of  the  supreme  grace  of 
love.^ 

1  Roman  Society,  etc.,  pp.  622-3.      ^  Gal.  v.  16-26.      ^  i  Cor.  xiii. 
C.C.  Q 


226    THE   FACTORS   IN  THE   EXPANSION 

These  great  dynamic  forces  in  the  heart  of  Chris- 
tianity once  recognized,  the  fullest  place  can  be  given 
to  the  wealth  of  new  and  revolutionary  ideas 
associated  with  them,  to  which  they  gave  vitalizing 
power,  and  to  the  forces  of  social  transformation 
and  amelioration  which  it  brought  into  the  pagan 
world  in  such  fullness.  We  do  not  think  here  of  a 
bare  monotheism,  or  abstract  doctrine  of  immortality, 
but  of  great  pregnant  truths  like  the  Fatherhood  of 
God  and  brotherhood  of  man,  God's  loving  providence, 
the  infinite  value  and  redeemableness  of  every  human 
soul,  accountability  and  judgment,  the  spiritual 
equality  of  master  and  slave,  rich  and  poor,  in  God's 
Kingdom,  the  place  of  woman  by  man's  side  as  his 
spiritual  helpmeet  and  equal.  Who  shall  estimate 
the  force  of  the  lofty  ethical  ideals  of  Christ  when 
seen  actually  realized  in  human  lives,  or  the  continuous 
elevating  influence  of  that  image  of  perfect  holiness 
flashed  on  the  world  in  Christ  Himself  ?  ^ 

We  are  not  left  to  conjecture  as  to  the  effects  of 
these  ideas  and  forces  ;  they  are  *'  writ  large  "  in 
the  whole  history  of  the  moral  changes  wrought  by 
the  spirit  of  Christianity  in  that  decaying  and  hope- 
lessly corrupt  civilization  already  described,  into 
the  midst  of  which  it  came.  The  Apologists  for  the 
Gospel  have  no  stronger  arguments  to  present  on  its 
behalf  than  the  moral  miracles  wrought,  and  visible 
to  all ;  in  the  changed  character  of  its  converts,  their 
pure  and  upright  lives,  their  well-ordered  homes,  the 
abounding  charity  and  beneficence  with  which  the 
new  religion  inspired  them.^  The  active  and  organized 
charity  of  the  Church — ^to  which  paganism  could  show 

^  Cf.  Lecky,  European  Morals,  i.  p.  412. 

2  Cf.  Justin,  I  Apol  12,  15,  16,  30,  etc.  ;  Tert.  Apol  2,  To  the 
Nations,  4 ;   Origen,  Against  Celsus,  iii,  68,  etc. 


OF  THE   CHRISTIAN   CHURCH  227 

no  parallel — and  the  wealth  of  beneficent  institutions 
which  that  charity  created,  were  a  constant  object- 
lesson  to  the  heathen  of  the  new  spirit  of  holiness  and 
love  which  had  entered  the  world  through  Christ  .^ 

In  an  age  like  our  own,  when  Christianity  as  a 
power  of  social  regeneration  is  again  upon  its  trial, 
it  is  fitting  that  these  inestimable  services  of  Christ's 
religion  to  the  ancient  world  should  be  gratefully 
recalled.     The  chief  may  be  briefly  summed  up  thus  : — 

1.  A  new  spirit  of  active  charity. 

2.  A  new  ideal  of  moral  purity. 

3.  Purification  of  the  family. 

4.  The  elevation  of  woman. 

5.  The  amelioration  of  the  condition  of  the  slave. 

6.  The  consecration  of  labour. 

Only  a  few  points  in  this  large  field,  which  has 
been  ably  dealt  with  in  many  special  works,^  can  be 
singled  out  for  illustration. 

Jesus  well  speaks  of  the  commandment  of  love 
He  gave  to  His  disciples  as  **  a  new  commandment." 
It  was  new  to  paganism,  into  the  dark,  unloving 
depths  of  which  Christianity,  at  the  beginning  of  our 
era,  shot  the  ray  of  a  new  hope  ^.     As  the  Christian 

^  Lecky,  European  Morals,  ii.  pp.  83,  84  if.  ;  90,  107,  etc. 
This  author  says  :  **  Christianity  for  the  first  time  made  charity  a 
rudimentary  virtue.  ...  It  has  covered  the  globe  with  institu- 
tions of  mercy,  absolutely  unknown  in  the  whole  pagan  world  " 
(pp.  84,  91). 

^  The  following  may  be  named  in  English.  C.  Loring  Brace, 
Gesta  Christi  ;  Uhlhorn,  Christian  Charity  in  the  Christian  Church 
(E.  T.) ;  C.  Schmidt,  The  Social  Results  of  Early  Christianity  (E.  T.) ; 
Lecky,  Hist,  of  European  Morals. 

^  The  exceptions  and  partial  qualifications  above  alluded  to 
(p.  210),  on  the  condition  of  paganism,  are  not  forgotten.  In 
view  of  them  all,  Uhlhorn  does  not  hesitate  to  entitle  the 
opening  chapter  in  his  work  on  Christian  Charity!  "A  World 
without  Love." 


228    THE   FACTORS   IN   THE   EXPANSION 

Church  spread,  a  kindUng  breath  of  love  began  to 
make  itself  felt  through  all  the  relations  of  society. 
The  Churches  themselves  were  full  of  this  love,  and, 
on  the  whole,  nobly  maintained  their  function  of 
setting  to  the  world  an  example  of  active  kindness. 
Plentiful  oblations  were  brought  to  the  love-feast. 
The  alms-chest  was  liberally  replenished.  The  poor, 
the  widows,  the  orphans,  were  generously  provided 
for.  Hospitality  was  ungrudgingly  exercised.  The 
sick,  the  prisoners,  those  in  exile,  such  as  were  con- 
demned to  die,  were  objects  of  constant  care.  Some 
Christians  in  Numidia  having  fallen  into  the  hands 
of  their  enemies  as  prisoners  of  war,  Cyprian's  con- 
gregation in  Carthage  raised  a  sum  equal  to  about 
£850  towards  their  ransom .^  No  wonder  the  heathen 
exclaimed  :  "  See  how  these  Christians  love  one 
another!" 

This  charity  of  the  Church,  however,  was  far 
from  confined  to  its  own  members.  Towards  the 
heathen  population  it  took  the  form  of  an  omnipresent 
and  active  philanthropy.^  The  poor  were  assisted, 
foundlings  rescued,  lepers  tended,  the  sick  ministered 
to.  When  plagues  broke  out  in  Carthage  and  Alex- 
andria, the  heathen  fled,  but  the  Christians  remained, 
organized  corps  of  help,  and  rendered  unselfish  ser- 
vice .^  Paganism  was  destitute  of  any  trace  of  organized 
charity.  But  the  spirit  of  Christian  love  soon  began 
to  crystallize  itself  into  institutions.  On  all  sides, 
after  the  Empire  had  become  Christian,  were  to 
be  seen  rising  houses  for  strangers,  houses  for  the 
sick,  houses  for  widows,  orphanages,  houses  for  the 

1  Cyprian,  Ep.  lix. 

2  "  Our  compassion  spends  more  in  the  streets,"  says  Tertullian, 
"  than  yours  does  in  the  temples  "  (Apol.  42). 

3  Cf.  Uhlhom,  pp.  187-9. 


OF  THE  CHRISTIAN   CHURCH  229 

rearing  of  children,  whether  bereaved  of  friends  or 
foundlings,  houses  for  the  aged,  asylums  for  the  blind, 
dumb,  insane,^  etc.  A  striking  testimony  was  borne 
by  the  Emperor  Julian  when,  urging  the  pagans  to 
like  works  of  love,  he  said  :  ''It  is  disgraceful,  when 
the  godless  Galileans  support  our  poor  as  well  as 
their  own,  that  our  people  should  be  without  our 
help/*  2  The  same  humane  spirit  which  dictated 
these  offices  of  charity  fought  unceasingly  against 
all  that  savoured  of  cruelty  in  the  life  of  the  time, 
and  especially  against  the  gladiatorial  and  other 
sanguinary  sports  of  the  arena.  It  was  through  the 
action  of  a  brave  monk  Telemachus,  who,  in  a.d.  404, 
leaped  into  the  ring  and  sacrificed  himself,  that  these 
abhorrent  spectacles  were  finally  abolished. 

Little  need  be  said  of  the  services  to  moral  purity. 
The  standard  set  up  by  Christianity  was  higher  than 
sages  had  ever  dreamt  of ;  yet  in  Christ  men  found 
a  power  enabling  them  to  attain  to  it.  The  obliga- 
tions to  holy  Hving  were  of  the  strictest ;  yet  the  worst 
slaves  of  lust  and  passion  were  seen  asuming  them. 
To  the  astonishment  of  their  heathen  neighbours,  they 
laid  aside  their  old  vices,  and  became  humble,  patient, 
truthful,  sober,  just.  In  the  changed  position  of 
woman  as  wife,  mother,  daughter,  in  the  Christian 
household,  we  see  an  evidence  of  the  new  ideas  about 
woman  introduced  and  diffused  through  ancient  society 
by  the  Gospel.  This,  with  its  result  in  the  creation 
of  the  Christian  home,  was  unquestionably  one  of  the 
most  beneficent,  and  at  the  same  time  most  deep- 
reaching,  of  the  reforms  wrought  by  Christianity.  It 
placed  marriage  on  its  original  divine  foundation.  It 
forbade  divorce  save  for  the  gravest  cause.     It  united 

*  Cf .  Uhlhom,  p.  330  ;  Brace,  p.  62  (2nd  Edit,). 

*  Cf.  Uhlhom,  p.  326 ;  Schmidt,  p.  328. 


230    THE  FACTORS   IN   THE   EXPANSION 

the  members  of  the  household  in  bonds  of  love,  and 
bade  them  labour,  not  only  for  each  other's  temporal, 
but  for  each  other's  spiritual  welfare.  Christian 
homes  were  as  bright  lights  in  a  dense  surrounding 
darkness  ;  oases  in  a  moral  desert ;  centres  of  pure 
influence  amidst  the  corruptions  of  a  paganism  which, 
with  its  neglect  of  woman,  its  contempt  for  infant 
life,  and  its  universal  dissoluteness,  left  small  place  for 
domesticity.  Some  of  the  most  beautiful  characters 
in  the  early  history  of  the  Church  are  Christian  women 
(Nonna,  Monica,  Anthusa) ;  from  the  bosom  of 
Christian  homes  came  some  of  the  most  distinguished 
teachers  of  the  Church — Origen,  Gregory,  Chrysostom, 
Augustine,  Theodoret,  etc.  Moreover,  in  purifying 
the  home,  Christianity  took  the  first  step  to  a  regenera- 
tion of  general  society  ;  for,  without  pure  morals  in 
the  home,  how  shall  we  look  for  pure  morals  in  the 
State  ? 

There  is  no  institution  with  which  the  teachings 
of  Christianity  are  more  fundamentally  at  variance 
than  that  of  slavery.  The  Christian  Church,  therefore, 
from  the  first  took  up  the  cause  of  the  slave.  It  did 
not  begin  by  preaching  a  general  crusade  against 
slavery,  which,  in  the  then  existing  condition  of 
society,  would  only  have  provoked  a  revolution,  and 
probably  have  done  more  harm  than  good.  But  it 
internally  transformed  the  condition  of  the  slave,  and, 
by  urging  its  own  truths  and  principles,  slowly  but 
surely  undermined  the  system.  The  impulse  to 
emancipation  was  soon  felt.  Hermes,  a  Prefect  of 
Rome,  under  Trajan,  gave  his  1,250  slaves  their 
liberty,  and  means  to  gain  a  livelihood,  on  the  day 
of  their  baptism  ;  ^  Chromatins,  another  Prefect  of 
Rome,  in  the  reign  of  Diocletian,  freed  1,400  slaves, 
^  Cf.  Schmidt,  p.  226. 


OF  THE  CHRISTIAN   CHURCH  231 

who  had  become  Christians,  saying :  ''  Those  who 
have  become  the  children  of  God  ought  to  be  no 
longer  the  slaves  of  men."  There  are  many  similar 
examples.! 

A  word  only  can  be  spared  for  the  remaining  point 
to  which  attention  was  directed — the  restoration  by 
Christianity  of  the  idea  of  the  dignity  of  labour.  This 
was  another  idea  by  the  introduction  of  which  Chris- 
tianity counterworked  slavery.  Early  Christianity 
did  not  preach  the  rights  of  labour  ;  it  preached  the 
duty  of  labour.  Its  boundless  charity  was  saved 
from  harm  by  the  companion  principle,  that  if  a  man 
would  not  work,  neither  should  he  eat.  Efforts  were 
made  to  render  the  poor  capable  of  work,  and  to  put 
them  in  a  position  to  earn  their  own  livelihood.  Thus, 
observes  Mr.  Brace,  "  throughout  the  Roman  Empire 
a  grand  rehabilitation  of  labour  began  under  Chris- 
tianity, which  has  never  ceased.  Work  became 
honoured  under  the  new  religion.  The  Christian 
ecclesiae  became  little  fraternities  of  free  labour  and 
competitors  of  the  great  slave-estates."  2  With  full 
justice  may  the  Gospel  claim  to  have  inaugurated  the 
modern  industrial  era. 

These  hints  may  perhaps  suffice  to  show  the 
nature  of  the  forces  through  which  Christianity  won 
its  triumphs  in  the  early  centuries.  Much  might 
be  said  of  subordinate  causes,  as,  e.g.,  the  firm  organiza- 
tion of  the  Christian  Church — a  true  imperium  in 
imperio.  But  this  was  of  gradual  growth,  and  the 
extent,  compactness,  and  vigour  of  the  organization 

1  Ibid.  Brace  properly  calls  attention  to  the  fact  that  "  the 
Christians  dried  up  another  source  of  slavery  by  steadily  and  con- 
sistently opposing  the  abandonment  and  exposure  of  children  " 
(Gesta  Christi,  p.  68). 

2  Page  69. 


232    THE   FACTORS   IN   THE   EXPANSION 

are  rather  indications  of  the  hold  the  Church  had 
already  gained,  than  causes  of  its  progress.  It  is  to 
be  said  of  the  Early  Church  that  it  owed  much  to  the 
great  and  truly  good  men  who  were  its  leaders — its 
bishops  like  Ignatius,  and  Polycarp,  and  Irenaeus, 
and  even  Cyprian — but  these  men  themselves  were 
trophies  of  the  grace  of  God.  It  must  be  acknow- 
ledged, too,  that  less  spiritual  methods  of  propaga- 
tion were  sometimes  employed,  as  in  Gregory's  mis- 
taken policy  in  Pontus  of  converting  heathen  festivals 
into  Christian  celebrations ;  ^  and  that,  when  the 
Church  grew  more  prosperous,  worldly  and  impure 
elements  were  found  in  it.  We  see  this  in  the  pictures 
given  us  of  the  Churches  in  Carthage  and  Alexandria  ;  ^ 
in  the  defections  at  the  persecutions  ;  in  the  evils 
unveiled  in  the  Spanish  Church  by  the  canons  of  the 
Council  of  Elvira.3  It  is  evident,  however,  that  the 
wealthy  and  worldly  do  not  flock  into  a  Church  till 
it  has  already  become  popular  :  the  very  degeneration 
implies  a  previous  state  of  higher  purity.  These 
things  are  not  the  causes  of  the  Church's  success,  but 
an  effect  of  it.  The  bare  fact  that  the  Church  came 
through  the  storm  of  Diocletian  persecution  as  it  did, 
and,  by  the  sheer  heroism  of  suffering,  forced  the 
recognition  of  its  claims  upon  the  Empire,  shows 
how  sound  the  kernel  must  have  been. 

The  lesson  we  would  draw  from  this  survey  for  our 

^  Cf.  Hamack,  Expansion,  ii.  pp.  350-3.  Hamack  admits : 
"  Gregory  is  the  sole  missionary  we  know  of  during  these  first  three 
centuries,  who  employed  such  methods."  The  statement  of  his 
biographer  that  Gregory  found  only  seventeen  Christians  in  his  native 
town  and  neighbourhood  must  be  taken  cum  grano.  Hamack  him- 
self notices  the  testimony  of  Lucian  that  Pontus  was  "  full  of  atheists 
and  Christians  "  more  than  half  a  century  before. 

^  By  TertuUian  and  Clement  of  Alexandria. 

*  Cf.  Hamack  ii.  pp.  441-3. 


OF  THE  CHRISTIAN   CHURCH  233 

own  arduous  task  in  extending  the  Gospel  in  the  world, 
and  seeking  for  it  victory  in  society,  may  be  stated 
in  a  sentence.  It  is  not  in  getting  a  new  Gospel,  but 
in  learning  to  understand  better  the  Gospel  that  we 
have — in  learning  really  to  understand,  use,  preach, 
and  apply  it — that  the  hope  of  the  world  lies.  *'  Unto 
Him  that  loved  us,  and  loosed  us  from  our  sins  by 
His  blood  ...  to  Him  be  the  glory  and  the  dominion 
for  ever  and  ever.     Amen.''  ^     ''  By  this  sign  conquer." 

1  Rev.  i.  5,  6. 


VI 

The    Influence   of   the   Christian  Church 
upon    the    Roman    Empire 

By  the  Rev.  H.  H.  SCULLARD,  M.A.,  D.D.,  Professor  of 
Church    History   in    New   College,  London. 


ARGUMENT. 

Introductory  Considerations. 

I.  The  Influence  of  the  Church  and  ol  Christianity  not  Identical. 

II.  The  Church  had  only  very  Restricted  Authority  in  the  Empire. 
{a)  The  heritage  into  which  it  came. 

(6)  Shortness  of  the  time. 

(c)  The  Church  never  established. 

{d)  Too  late  to  avert  the  ruin  of  the  Empire. 

III.  Disadvantage  of  Confining  our  Thoughts  to  a  Limited  Period. 

IV.  Can  a  State  ever  be  Christianized  ? 

The  Ways  in  which  the  Church  affected  the  Social  Life  of  the  Empire. 

I.     In  the  Realm  of  Ideas. 

Sociality  of  Christianity  as  Contrasted  with  (a)  the  Religions  and  (6)  the 

Philosophies  of  the  Empire. 
The  Teaching  of  the  Church  regarding  (a)  EquaUty ;    (6)  Liberty ;    (c)  Fra  - 

ternity. 

II.     In  the  sphere  of  Conduct. 

(i)  In  the  Church- 
Communism — Philanthropy — ^Democracy. 

(2)  In  the  Monasteries — 

Withdrawal  from  the  world  not  absolute — Within  the  monasteries  there 
was  comradeship. 

(3)  In  the  World— 

(a)  How  did  Christians  regard  the  Empire  ? 

(6)  How  far  did  Christians  abstain  from  public  and  civic  duties  ? 

(c)  Did  Christianity  affect  the  laws  of  the  Empire  ? 


VI 

The    Influence    of   the     Christian     Church 
upon  the   Roman   Empire 

In  considering  the  social  influence  of  the  Christian 
Church  upon  the  Roman  Empire,  it  is  specially  desir- 
able to  keep  in  mind  the  wider  and  more  correct  use 
of  the  word  "  social."  It  is  possible  so  to  limit  its 
meaning  as  to  neglect  important  aspects  of  the  Church's 
influence,  and  come  away  from  our  study  with  a  sense 
of  disappointment.  We  are  so  accustomed  to  regard 
"  the  social  question  "  as  an  economic  and  legislative 
one,  that  we  are  in  danger  of  neglecting  some  of  the 
most  important  influences  which  affect  social  senti- 
ment, social  custom,  and  social  life.  I  hope  before  ' 
the  close  of  this  Essay  to  show  that  the  influence  of  ; 
the  Church  even  upon  legislation  was  by  no  means 
slight ;  but  I  wish  also  to  suggest,  if  not  fully  to  prove 
(for  only  a  small  fraction  of  the  evidence  can  be  dealt 
with),  that  even  if  the  Church  did  comparatively 
little  to  Christianize  the  instrument  of  Government 
and  prevent  the  ruin  of  the  old  regime,  it  nevertheless 
rendered  an  incalculable  benefit  to  the  social  life  of  the 
world  which  then  was  and  to  the  world  which  was  to 
be.  But  there  are  some  preliminary  remarks  which 
ought  to  be  made. 

I.  The  Influence  of  Christianity  and  thelnfluenceof 

m 


238  INFLUENCE  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH 

the  Church  are  not  the  same.  The  Church  as  an  organized 
society  or  group  of  societies  may  only  have  embodied 
very  imperfectly  at  any  one  period  the  Christianity  of 
Christ  and  His  apostles.     Both  by  defect  and  excess 
its  influence  may  be  somewhat  different    from    the 
influence  of  Christianity.     Some  part  of  the  original 
message  and  some  element  of  its  original  power  may 
be  wanting  ;    or  on  the  other  hand  foreign  elements 
may  have  been  introduced  which  tend  to  counter- 
act and  neutralize  its  influence.     The  question, ''  What 
is  the  religion  of  Christ  ?  "   is  by  no  means  so  easy  as 
the  celebrated  character  in  one  of  Fielding's  novels 
found   it — "  When    I    mention   religion    I    mean    the 
Christian  religion,  and  not  only  the  Christian  religion 
but  the  Protestant  religion,  and  not  only  the  Protestant 
religion  but  the  religion  of  the  Church  of  England '' — 
but  I  should  think  that  hardly  any  one  would  wish 
to  identify  in  all  points  the  religion  of  Churchmen  in 
the  second,  third,  fourth  and  fifth  centuries  with  the 
religion   of  the  New  Testament.      Before,    then,   we 
criticize  Christianity  for  its  failure  or  small  success 
in  any  direction,  we  must  know  whether  Christianity 
has  ever  been  brought  to  bear  upon  the  social  life  of 
the    time    at    the   necessary    point.     Something   like 
Christianity  has  been  before  the  world  and  operating 
upon  society  in  every  generation  since  the  first ;    but 
before  we  confess  the  powerlessness  of  Christianity 
to  solve  all  social  problems  and  extinguish  social  evils 
we  must  be  sure  that  it  has  been  before  the  world  in 
all  its  fullness  and  purity,  and  allow  it  time.     Some 
Churchmen  may  not  even  have  been  Christians  at  all, 
and  certainly  the  best  of  Churchmen  were  not  perfect 
Christians.     The  representation    of   Christianity,  e.g., 
which  confronted  the  empire  in  the   last   generation 


UPON  THE  ROMAN  EMPIRE     239 

before  the  capture  of  Rome  by  the  Goths  contained 
elements  which  must  seem  to  many  quite  ahen 
from  the  pure  Christianity  of  Christ — magic,  divin- 
ation, sacerdotaUsm,  the  medicinal  lie,  intolerance, 
asceticism,  monasticism  and  so  forth. 

II.  Almost  equally  important,  though  from  another 
point  of  view,  is  the  fact  that  during  our  period  the 
Church  never  rose  to  the  place  of  absolute  authority 
in  the  counsels  of  the  Empire.  During  the  larger 
part  of  the  time  it  was  a  proscribed  society,  despised 
and  persecuted.  It  could  hardly  be  expected  to 
influence  very  powerfully,  along  the  line  of  its  own 
desires,  the  social  policy  of  persecuting  emperors. 
And  when  with  the  conversion  of  Constantine  it  seemed 
to  get  its  opportunity,  it  was  very  far  from  obtaining 
the  determining  voice  in  the  affairs  of  the  State. 
For  consider  for  a  moment  these  things,  each  of  which 
must  be  dismissed  in  a  few  lines. 

(a)  The  heritage  into  which  it  came.  The  reforming 
party,  if  such  we  may  regard  either  the  Church,  or 
Constantine  and  his  Christian  friends,  was  in  a  hope- 
less minority.  Beugnot  estimated  that  the  heathen 
population  of  the  empire  at  the  accession  of  Constan- 
tine was  still  nineteen-twentieths  of  the  whole.  But 
if  we  put  the  Christian  element  at  one-tenth  instead 
of  one-twentieth,  the  difficulty  of  transforming  the 
Roman  empire  by  means  of  legislation  will  still 
appear  almost  insuperable.  What  could  the  one- 
tenth  have  done  against  the  nine-tenths,  even  if  they 
had  been  social  enthusiasts  ?  We  know  _  something 
about  the  difficulties  of  legislation  in  advance  of 
public  sentiment  in  our  own  country.  If  total  pro- 
hibitionists constituted  only  one-tenth  of  the  popula- 
tion, could  they  succeed  in  making  effective  a  total 
prohibition  law,   even  if  it  found  its  way  into  the 


240  INFLUENCE  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH 

statute  book  ?  But  the  drinking  habits  of  our  country 
are  not  more  difficult  to  change  than  the  gladiatorial 
games  of  ancient  Rome.  The  latter  were  quite  as  much 
a  factor  in  national  life,  as  inveterate  and  apparently 
as  indispensable  as  alcoholic  drinking  is  with  us. 
When  we  remember  the  determined  stand  the  early 
Church  took  against  that  crying  evil  of  the  Roman 
empire,  we  may  be  led  to  ask  whether  the  modern 
Church  is  as  free  from  blame  in  reference  to  the  debasing 
customs  of  English  society. 

Conservatism  in  Rome  was  a  far  more  powerful 
and  mischievous  thing  than  it  is  in  England.  There 
was  no  power  of  initiation,  no  hope,  no  idea  of  pro- 
gress, in  ancient  paganism.  The  people  had  sur- 
rendered one  after  another  their  democratic  sentiments 
as  well  as  privileges.  They  wanted  only  to  be  fed 
and  amused  by  the  State  and  lij^  in  idleness.  The 
extension  of  the  franchise  did  not  mean^ny  increased 
interest  on  the  part  of  the  people  in  the  government 
of  the  Empire.  The  decayjif4iiibiiiC  spirit  is  noticeable 
as  early  as  the  reign  of  Tiberius.  The  noblest  Romans, 
such  as  Symmachus,  towards  the  close  of  the  Empire, 
when  the  barbarians  were  threatening  its  existence, 
would  not  sacrifice  themselves  to  the  extent  of  allow- 
ing their  serfs  to  enlist  in  the  army.  Their  worship  of 
the  past  made  them  oblivious  to  the  needs  of  the 
present.  The  changelessness  of  the  present  order, 
the  eternity  of  Rome,  was  the  one  influential  article 
in  their  creed. 

(b)  Then  how  short  was  the  time  in  which  the 
Church  was  able  to  exert  its  influence.  In  less  than  a 
hundred  years  after  Christianity  became  a  tolerated 
religion,  Alaric  and  his  Goths  had  entered  Rome. 
Rome  had  fallen.  And  during  all  those  hundred  years 
the  northern  nations  were  pressing  upon  the  frontiers, 


UPON   THE   ROMAN   EMPIRE  241 

and  settling  within  the  empire.  The  population 
of  the  empire  was  changing  rapidly;  the  limits  of  the 
empire  were  contracting.  It  was  a  time  of  public 
danger,  and  such  times  are  never  favourable  for  social 
legislation. 

It  may  of  course  be  said  in  reply  to  this  argument 
that  the  Christian  emperors  and  the  Christian  bishops 
found  time  for  theological  controversies  and  for  legis- 
lation in  favour  of  the  clergy  and  the  Church  :  and 
some  may  wish  that  all  the  heat  spent  in  violent 
controversy  had  been  directed  to  the  passing  and 
enforcement  of  better  laws  for  the  people.  But  the 
two  things  were  not  at  all  on  the  same  level  as  regards 
practical  politics,  whatever  may  have  been  their  rela- 
tive importance.  Constantine  and  his  sons  chose 
the  line  of  least  resistance  in  concentrating  so  much 
of  their  attention  upon  theological  matters,  and  the 
later  emperors  found  it  much  easier  to  issue  perse- 
cuting edicts  against  the  pagans  than  to  put  a  stop 
to  the  games,  or  to  reform  the  barbarous  finances 
of  the  empire.  As  a  matter  of  fact  the  pagans  in 
many  instances  do  not  seem  to  have  cared  very 
much  about  the  closing  of  their  temples,  but  the  cur- 
tailment of  their  pleasures  was  a  much  more  serious 
thing.  Constantius,  Gratian  and  Arcadius  all  found  it 
perilous  to  interfere  with  the  amusements  of  the 
people. 

(c)  Then  we  have  to  remember  that  the  Church 
was  never  in  the  proper  sense  established.  The 
advisers  of  Christian  emperors  were  for  the  most 
part  heathen,  and,  what  was  equally  important,  the 
administration  was  in  the  hands  very  largely  of  heathen 
men  who  could  prevent  or  render  difficult  the  perfect 
administration  of  the  laws.  The  Empire  was  never 
Christianized  in  the  sense  of  being  ofiicered  by  Chris- 
ex.  R, 


242  INFLUENCE  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH 

tian  men.  De  Broglie^  goes  so  far  as  to  say  that  with 
the  exception  of  Ambrose  all  the  favourites  of  the 
emperors  in  the  fourth  century  were  "  enemies  of 
the  truth/*  i.e.  heathen  or  Arian.  And  we  cannot 
help  regarding  it  as  a  most  noteworthy  if  not  deplor- 
able fact  that  the  one  man  who  better  than  any  one 
else  might  have  guided  the  social  policy  of  the  time, 
the  great  Athanasius,  ''  the  jurisconsult  Athanasius/* 
as  Sulpicius  Severus  calls  him,  was  three  times  exiled 
by  Christian  emperors.  Probably  Athanasius  by 
the  firm  stand  which  he  took  for  the  freedom  of  the 
Church,  as  well  as  by  his  vindication  of  Christian 
truth,  did  more  for  his  own  and  other  ages  than  he 
would  have  done  as  a  jurisconsult  or  social  reformer 
in  happier  times;  but  it  is  not  to  be  wondered  at, 
after  his  own  experience  of  the  tyranny  of  kings  and 
the  time-serving  of  bishops,  that  when  he  turned  his 
thoughts  to  social  problems  he  should  have  leaned 
towards  the  monastic  life. 

{d)  And,  finally,  it  should  be  remarked  in  this 
connexion  that  when  the  Church  arrived  at  a  position 
of  power  in  the  State,  so  far  as  she  did  do  so,  it  was 
too  late  to  avert  the  ruin  of  the  Empire.  *'  It  is  one 
of  the  most  tragical  facts  of  all  history,'*  said  J.  S. 
Mill  ''  that  Constantine  rather  than  Marcus  Aurelius 
was  the  first  Christian  emperor.  It  is  a  bitter  thought 
how  different  the  Christianity  of  the  world  might 
have  been  had  it  been  adopted  as  the  religion  of  the 
Empire  under  the  auspices  of  Marcus  Aurelius  instead 
of  those  of  Constantine.**  2  Modern  historians  do 
not  all  take  such  a  favourable  view  of  the  political 
sagacity  of  Marcus  Aurelius  as  Gibbon  did;  but  as 
regards  the  time,  it  is  interesting  to  try  and  imagine 

1  UEglise  et  VEmpire  romain  au  IV"'  Steele,  vol.  iv.  Resum^. 
^  Essay  on  Liberty,  p.  58. 


■.  ) 

UPON  THE   ROMAN   EMPIRE  243 

what  a  Christian  Emperor  like  Constantine  might 
have  done,  if  he  had  had  the  chance  which  the  Stoic 
Marcus  Aurehus  had  a  century  and  a  half  before. 
The  empire  as  reformed  by  Diocletian  was  already 
past  redemption.  The  Church  might  hasten  or  retard 
its  end,  but  it  could  not  avert  it. 

III.  The  influence  of  Christianity  can  never  be 
fully  estimated  by  confining  our  thoughts  to  a  single 
limited  period.  The  work  of  the  Church,  like  the 
work  of  Jeremiah,  is  ''  to  pluck  up  and  to  break  down, 
and  to  destroy  and  to  overthrow,*'  as  well  as  to  build 
and  to  plant.  The  destruction  of  the  Roman  Empire 
was  necessary  for  the  progress  of  the  race  ;  and  though 
the  chief  actors  in  the  scene  little  realized  how  this 
was  to  come  about,  and  would  have  resisted  it  with 
all  their  might  if  they  had  done  so,  yet  the  purpose 
of  God  was  accomplished  through  them.  Wishing 
only  to  build  and  to  plant,  i.e.  to  maintain  the  stability 
of  the  empire,  the  Church  found  that  it  had  also  to 
pluck  up  and  to  break  down  and  to  destroy  and  to 
overthrow.  The  question  is,  did  the  Church  while 
so  doing  prepare  the  way  for  a  better  time  ?  Did 
it  mediate  between  Roman  and  the  Barbarian  ?  Did 
it  preserve  what  was  best  in  the  old  Roman  civilization  ? 
Receiving  a  new  spirit  and  principles  calculated  to 
produce  better  social  conditions,  did  it  hand  them 
down  faithfully  to  succeeding  generations  ?  The 
prophets  of  Judah  did  not  succeed  in  creating  an 
ideal  city  by  cleansing  Jerusalem  of  its  abominations  : 
but  they  did  a  work  whose  influence  is  felt  to-day. 
Can  we  say  the  same  of  the  teachers  and  workers  in 
the  early  Church  ?  Even  if  they  did  not  succeed  in 
applying  the  Gospel  in  the  wisest  ways  to  every  phase 
of  life  in  their  day,  did  they  deliver  and  transmit  a 
Gospel  capable  of  transforming  the  world  ? 


244  INFLUENCE  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH 

IV.  There  is  one  other  preliminary  question — 
Can  a  State  ever  be  Christianized,  not  nominally, 
but  in  the  sense  of  becoming  permeated  by  the  spirit 
and  principles  of  Jesus  Christ  ?  Is  there  not  something 
in  the  very  constitution  of  a  State  which  prevents 
the  perfect  application  of  Christian  morality  ?  How 
can  a  society  governed  by  force  illustrate  the  principles 
of  the  Sermon  on  the  Mount  ?  It  is  an  old  question, 
but  one  also  that  is  ever  with  us,  and  never  more  per- 
sistently than  now.  There  are  many  in  our  day  who 
incline  towards  a  very  high  doctrine  of  the  State, 
conceding  to  it  an  authority,  prerogative  and  function, 
which  they  would  deny  to  any  organized  Church. 
There  are  others  on  the  contrary  who  make  much 
more  modest  claims  for  the  State,  and  believe,  among 
other  things,  that  it  can  never  be  a  perfect  embodi- 
ment, nor  even  a  proper  instrument,  of  the  Kingdom 
of  Heaven. 

There  is  no  occasion  here,  however,  to  discuss 
rival  theories  of  the  State,  its  functions  or  its  possi- 
bilities, inasmuch  as  what  we  have  now  to  deal  with 
is  simply  the  Roman  Empire  :  and  whatever  may 
be  true  of  other  forms  of  government  we  may  believe 
that  the  Roman  Empire  could  not  be  Christianized. 
A  despotism  of  the  Oriental  type  can  never  afford 
ideal  conditions,  social,  material,  or  industrial.  Ambrose 
was  nearer  the  truth  when  he  said  that  the  Church 
was  the  outward  form  of  justice.^  Liberty  and  justice 
were  impossible  in  the  empire  of  his  day.  And  of 
course  the  larger  question  of  the  possibility  of  Christian- 
izing any  State  lies  in  the  background  of  our  thoughts. 

But  we  must  now  confine  our  attention  to  positive 
results.    In    what    apparent    and    conspicuous    ways 
^J)e  Officiis,  i.  29,  139. 


UPON  THE   ROMAN   EMPIRE  245 

did  the  Church  affect  the  social  hfe   of  the  empire  ? 

I.  And  first  in  the  realm  of  ideas,  where  all  great 
victories  have  first  to  be  won,  what  did  the  Church 
achieve  ?  Most  important  of  all — it  maintained  against 
all  rival  theories  and  beliefs  the  social  conception  of 
God  received  from  Christ  and  His  apostles.  It  attacked 
the  anti-social,  unsocial,  and  imperfectly  social  ideas 
of  God  which  it  found  prevalent  in  the  empire,  and 
substituted  something  better  in  their  place.  It  saw 
one  after  another  of  those  imperfectly  social,  or 
even  mischievous  ideas  retire  into  the  background, 
and  make  way  for  the  Christian  idea  of  which  it  was 
the  guardian  and  interpreter.  That  was  the  first 
and  the  greatest  victory  of  the  Church.  Men  are  not 
likely  to  be  better  than  their  gods.  Their  social 
ideals  stand  in  close  connexion  with  their  religious 
beliefs.  No  nation  can  change  its  gods  without 
changing  very  much  besides. 

Now  what  was  there  of  social  efficiency  in  the 
religious  ideas  which  Christianity  resisted  and  to  so 
large  an  extent  displaced  ? 

The  old  gods  of  Latium  were  intimately  connected 
in  the  minds  of  their  worshippers  with  the  fortunes 
of  the  State.  They  were  the  gods  of  the  nation,  and 
to  neglect  their  worship  was  to  involve  the  nation  in 
disaster.  But  the  old  Roman  idea  of  religion  was 
essentially  magical,  commercial  and  selfish.  The  gods 
were  to  be  appeased  by  sacrifices  and  made  to  do 
what  the  worshipper  desired.  It  was  a  question  of 
contract  and  the  fulfilment  of  contract,  not  of  fellow- 
ship between  the  worshipper  and  his  god.  Religion 
Kad  nothing  to  do  with  morality.  The  action  of  the 
deity  did  not  extend  to  the  thoughts  and  desires  of 
the  heart.  Man  might  be  dependent  upon  the  gods 
fpr  his  daily  bread,.,but  he  was  dependent  upon  him- 


246  INFLUENCE  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH 

self  alone  for  his  morals.  Such  intercourse  as  there 
might  be  Detween  the  gods  and  man  was  concerned 
with  the  outward  fortunes  of  the  individual  or  the 
State.  The  inadequacy  of  these  ideas  was  felt  as 
time  went  on,  and  the  Eastern  cults  came  in  to  minister 
to  the  deeper  needs  of  men.  The  ideas  of  brotherhood 
with  men  and  fellowship  with  God,  which  found  no 
place  in  the  old  religion,  did  find  some  expression  in 
these  Oriental  religions.  It  was  the  fact  of  their 
greater  sociality  which  accounted  for  their  rapid 
success.  Mithraism,  e.g.,  could  never  have  been 
the  dangerous  rival  to  Christianity  which  it  must 
have  seemed  had  it  not  provided  a  real  brotherhood, 
and  promised  union  with  God.  The  victory  of  Christi- 
anity over  Mithraism  was  the  victory  of  a  superior 
form  of  Socialism  over  an  inferior  form.  Mithraism 
was  defeated  on  its  own  ground.  The  religion  which 
promised  most  and  could  accomplish  most  for  society 
was  the  one  which  survived.  In  the  third  century 
Mithraism  probably  numbered  its  adherents  by  mil- 
lions. It  had  established  itself  in  nearly  every  part 
of  the  Roman  empire.  It  was  the  religion  of  the 
men  who  ruled  the  empire,  i.e.  to  say  of  the  soldiers. 
But  where  is  it  to-day  ?  What  monuments  has  it 
left  behind  it  ?  Nothing  practically  but  monuments  of 
stone.  In  the  expressive  words  of  Dr.  Rendel  Harris, 
*'  It  is  not  merely  that  Mithraism  is  dead,  but  there 
are  no  gesta  Mithrae;  there  never  were  any."  ^ 

And  why  was  Mithraism,  which  seemed  to  promise 
so  much,  so  socially  ineffective  ?  It  would  be  easy 
for  the  sociologist  to  point  to  glaring  defects,  such 
as  the  exclusion  of  women  from  its  privileges  and  its 
severe  and  imperfect  view  of  human  nature,  but 
behind  all  these  surface  defects  there  is  a  radically 
^  Aaron's  Breastplate,  p.  139. 


UPON   THE   ROMAN   EMPIRE  247 

unsocial  view  of  God.  The  Divine  is  the  ethereal 
and  non-human.  Man  must  first  divest  himself  of 
those  things  which  are  most  properly  his,  before  he 
can  enter  into  the  blessedness  of  heaven. 

The  old  gods  of  Latium  having  been  found  wanting, 
military  and  other  Eastern  cults  having  lost  their 
hold  upon  the  more  earnest  minds  in  the  Empire, 
nothing  remained  but  the  apotheosis  of  the  Emperor 
and  the  worship  of  the  Dea  Roma.  But  a  State 
which  worships  itself  is  morally  dead.  The  vision 
has  gone  and  the  people  have  perished. 

Still,  there  was  philosophy,  if  not  religion  :    did 
not    that,    we    may    ask,  keep    alive    a    social  ideal 
worthy    of    a    great    empire  ?      Aristotle    begins    his 
Politics  by  telling  us  that  man  is  a  political  animal, 
and  that  he  who  by  nature  and  not  by  accident  is 
without  a  State  is  either  above  humanity  or  below  it. 
That  means  that  the  State  exhausts  the  possibilities 
of  human  development :    man  is  only  man  because 
he  finds  a  place  in  the  State.     Concerning  man  as  a 
member  of  an  eternal  order,   and  the  State  as  the 
sphere  in  which  God  is  training  men  for  a  higher  life,    , 
Aristotle  has  nothing  to  say.     God  is  non-moral  and    / 
unsocial.     He  does  not  interfere  with  mankind.     The  / 
highest  virtues  consequently  are  intellectual,  not  moral.  / 
Aristocratic,  abstract,  unsocial,  the  ideal  of  Aristotle/ 
was    powerless    to  effect  any  social  reform.     It  was/ 
so  with  Epicurus.     The  gods  did  not  trouble  themselves/ 
with  the  affairs  of  men  :   it  was  foolish  therefore  for 
man  to  live  for  any  one  but  himself,  or  take  any  pari 
in  civic  concerns.     Platonism  and  Neoplatonism  wen 
likewise  unfit  to  introduce  a  higher  social  order,  because 
the  highest  ideal  in   the  one  case  was   aristocratic] 
intellectual,  and  unhuman:   in   the   other   absolutely 
non-human.     In   the  case  of  Stoicism   alone  can  it 


248  INFLUENCE  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH 

be  said  that  the  ideal  has  even  the  appearance  of 
being  a  social  one,  and  the  fact  that  the  legislation  of 
the  Stoic  jurisconsults  compares  in  some  points  favour- 
ably with  that  of  Christian  emperors  makes  the 
resemblances  and  differences  of  the  greatest  interest. 

Stoicism  did  possess  a  social  ideal;  it  conceived 
of  its  god  as  being  in  closest  relations  with  men.  It 
was  the  old  tribal  idea  of  God,  with  humanity  sub- 
stituted for  the  tribe.  Gods  and  men  formed  one 
commonwealth  ;  men  were  partakers  of  the  divine 
nature.  This  community  of  gods  and  men  was  not 
to  be  identified  with  the  State.  Foiled  in  his  attempts 
to  serve  the  earthly  state,  the  wise  man,  says  Seneca, 
may  remember  that  he  belongs  to  a  greater  common- 
wealth whose  bounds  are  only  to  be  measured  by  the 
circuit  of  the  sun,  where  he  will  not  work  in  vain,  or 
rather  meditate  in  vain.i  This  social  ideal  is  incom- 
parably higher  than  that  of  Aristotle.  Not  only  is 
the  State  cosmopolitan  and  not  Greek ;  not  only 
are  all  men,  even  slaves,  admitted  into  citizenship  in 
the  earthly  kingdom,  but  over  and  beyond  this  there 
is  the  greater  commonwealth  of  gods  and  men.  There 
is  an  ideal  as  well  as  a  cosmopolitan  element  in  the 
Stoicism  of  Seneca  which  seems  to  promise  much. 
And  yet  Stoicism  failed  to  influence  permanently 
the  fortunes  of  the  empire.  Stoicism  was  much 
more  closely  allied  with  the  empire  than  Christi- 
anity. It  was  an  essentially  Roman  philosophy.  It 
had  a  far  more  favourable,  because  earlier,  chance 
I  of  remedying  by  legislation  the  evils  of  the  empire 
j  than  Christianity  had.  Yet  Marcus  Aurelius  does 
1  not  inaugurate  a  brighter  period  for  his  people  ;  he 
1  closes  the  golden  age  of  Roman  history,  the  age  which 

\  1  De  OHo,  iv. 


UPON   THE   ROMAN   EMPIRE  249 

before  all  other  ages  in  the  history  of  the  world  Gibbon 
thought  was  the  happiest  to  have  lived  in. 

We  shall  misinterpret  Stoicism  if  we  put  it  on 
the  same  level  as  Christianity  for  social  outlook  and 
effectiveness.  The  differences  are  much  greater  than 
the  resemblances.  The  Stoic  community  of  gods  and 
men,  by  merging  the  human  and  the  divine,  by  con- 
fining the  divine  within  the  limits  of  a  commonwealth 
homogeneous  in  all  its  parts,  shuts  out  God  from  all 
effective  action  upon  the  world  as  fatally  as  the  cold 
isolation  of  Aristotle's  deity.  God  is  imprisoned 
in  His  own  universe.  He  is  man's  equal,  morally 
perhaps  his  inferior,  but  constitutionally  his  equal. 
He  is  not  the  giver  of  grace  to  men,  for  man  shares 
already  what  God  possesses,  save  immortality,  and 
this  God  never  imparts.  He  is  not  the  giver  of  vir- 
tue, for  man  is  the  author  of  his  own  salvation.  And 
as  there  is  no  transference  of  moral  power  from  God 
to  man,  so  man  cannot  possibly  influence  his  neigh- 
bour on  the  higher  side  of  his  nature.  Each  man  is 
sufficient  in  himself.  A  man  should  indeed  love  his 
neighbour,  and  a  very  able  writer  in  a  recent  work  on 
Stoicism,  has  used  the  peculiarly  Christian  phrase, 
*'  enthusiasm  of  humanity,''  to  describe  Stoic  phil- 
anthropy, but  we  must  remember  that  the  love  of  the 
Stoic  was  the  love  of  one  who  denied  the  rights  of  the 
affections  and  emotions.  It  was  without  passion 
and  without  hope.  It  was  without  hope  either  for 
the  individual  or  for  the  earthly  commonwealth.  Stoic 
eschatology  will  not  bear  comparison  with  Christian. 
The  aimlessness  of  the  one  is  in  strong  contrast  to 
the  progressive  and  final  character  of  the  other.  The 
Golden  Age  for  the  Stoic  was  in  the  past  rather  than 
in  the  future.  But  a  social  reformation  is  impossible 
without    hope.     The    Christian    had    been    begotten 


250  INFLUENCE  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH 

again  unto  a  living  hope  by  the  resurrection  of  Jesus 
Christ  from  the  dead,  and  in  Jesus  Christ  had  found 
a  Hfe  of  fellowship  with  God  and  man  which  was  im- 
possible before.  But  the  Stoic's  faith  was  self-centred. 
It  was  in  himself.  And  the  outlook  was  dark  and 
uncertain. 

Before  passing  away  from  the  realm  of  ideas  to 
more  concrete  illustrations  something  may  be  said 
regarding  the  three  democratic,  republican  and  social- 
istic ideas  of  Equality,  Liberty  and  Fraternity  as 
held  in  the  early  Church.  The  revolution  which 
Christianity  wrought  in  the  Roman  Empire  cannot 
y  be  understood  if  we  ignore  this  part  of  our  subject, 
(a)  Equality.  Christianity  asserted  the  absolute 
equality  of  all  human  beings  in  the  sight  of  God. 
The  early  Church,  confronted  by  very  different  ideas 
on  the  subject  in  the  Roman  Empire,  in  Gnosticism 
as  well  as  in  heathenism,  set  itself  resolutely  to  bring 
(       public  sentiment  on  to  its  side. 

And,  first,  with  regard  to  the  child.     From  the 

first   and   consistently   the   Church    championed   the 

cause  of  the  child.     From  its  very  birth  and  even 

before  birth  the  infant  was  a  being  with  sacred  rights 

11       which  it  was  both  crime  and  sin  to  violate.     Infanticide, 

11       a  practice  concerning  which  the  ancient  world  was  so 

11      callous  that  the  author  of  the  fine  saying  '*  I  am  a 

II      man,  I  count  nothing  human  to  be  foreign  to  me,'* 

1\     did  not  see  the  inconsistency  of  being  enraged  with 

l\    his  wife  for  refusing  to  destroy  their  infant  daughter 

I  \   with  her  own  hand.     To  the  Church  and  to  the  Church 

1  \  almost  exclusively  belongs  the  honour  of  securing  the 

\  \  natural  rights  of  the  child.     Before  the  middle  of  the 

\  Vthird  century  a  similar  spirit  had  made  itself  felt  in 

\  §toic  circles,  and  the  jurisconsult  Paulus  characterized 


UPON   THE   ROMAN   EMPIRE  251 

infanticide  as  murder.  But  the  general  Stoic  attitude 
is  best  seen  in  Epictetus,  who  regards  children  as 
"  snivelling  brats  '*  beneath  the  notice  of  the  wise 
man.i 

Then  with  regard  to  Woman.  In  theory,  according 
to  Boissier,2  the  Church  treated  women  badly  enough, 
accusing  them  of  weakness  and  vanity.  ''What  do 
these  miserable  women  want,  laden  with  sins,  turned 
about  in  all  directions  by  opinions,  always  learning 
and  never  able  to  come  to  the  knowledge  of  the  truth  ?*' 
said  Jerome.  Yet  even  Jerome  must  not  be  taken 
too  seriously.  The  ladies  were  his  favourite  pupils. 
They  were  to  be  educated  as  carefully  as  men.  They 
might  read  Cyprian,  Athanasius,  Hilary,  and — climax 
of  all  generous  concessions — they  might  learn  Hebrew. 
And  this  view  of  the  sinfulness  of  the  feminine  nature 
is  only  one  side  of  the  picture.  Her  social  inferiority 
was  sometimes  regarded  as  due  to  the  fact  that  the 
woman  was  the  first  to  sin.  But  Ambrose,  e.g.,  will 
not  allow  that  she  was  the  sole  cause  of  the  Fall,  and 
says  that  if  man  were  the  stronger  he  ought  to  have 
resisted  the  temptation  more  easily.^  Moreover  sal- 
vation had  come  into  the  world  through  her.  *'  The 
Saviour  gives  abundant  proof  of  the  dignity  of  woman 
in  being  born  of  a  woman,"  said  Augustine.*  And  in 
the  school  of  Christ  all  were  alike  disciples.  Justin 
Martyr  held  that  God  had  given  to  women  equally 
with  men  the  ability  to  keep  the  whole  law^.  Tatian 
said  that  Christians  admitted  women  to  the  pursuit  of 
philosophy,  all  in  fact  who  desired  to  hear,  even  old 

^  Bigg,  Church's  Task  under  the  Roman  Empire,  p.  70. 

2  La  Fin  du  Paganisms,  iv.  2,  4. 

3  De  Instit.  Virgin.,  4.  25. 
*  Sermo,  190. 

^  Trypho,  25. 


252  INFLUENCE  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH 

women  and  striplings,  persons  of  every  age  and  sex.* 
"  The  virtue  of  man  and  woman,"  said  Clement  of 
Alexandria  "  is  the  same.  For  if  the  God  of  both  is 
one,  the  Master  of  both  is  also  one  ;  one  Church,  one 
temperance,  one  modesty ;  their  food  is  common, 
marriage  an  equal  yoke  ;  respiration,  sight,  hearing, 
knowledge,  hope,  obedience,  love,  all  alike.  And 
those  whose  life  is  common  have  common  grace 
and  a  common  salvation  :  common  to  them  are  love 
and  training.'*  2  Chrysostom  said,  ''  They  surpass 
us  in  love  to  the  Saviour,  in  chastity,  in  compassion 
for  the  miserable."  ^ 

Sentiments  such  as  these  could  not  be  held  in 
every  part  of  the  empire  from  Carthage  to  the  furthest 
East  without  profoundly  modifying  the  social  life 
of  the  empire.  A  vassal,  often  honoured  and  res- 
pected, but  always  dependent  upon  the  will  of  father, 
husband  or  son,  in  the  days  of  the  Republic  ;  a  freed- 
woman,  often  cruel  and  degraded,  but  always  the  victim 
of  her  own  caprice  or  passion,  emancipated  yet  not 
free,  in  the  days  of  the  empire  ;  it  was  only  in  the 
school  of  Christ  that  woman  received  her  freedom  and 
entered  into  a  life  of  perfect  liberty. 

With  regard  to  slavery,  Harnack  is  no  doubt  right 
in  saying  "  It  is  a  mistake  to  suppose  that  any  slave 
question  occupied  the  early  Church."  *  Slavery  was 
an  institution  of  such  long  standing  and  so  widespread 
that  any  direct  attack  upon  it  would  have  been  dis- 
astrous to  all  concerned,  to  the  slaves  themselves 
and  to  society  at  large,  as  well  as  to  the  slaveowners. 
The  very  existence  of  society  depended  upon  slave 
labour.  If  abolished,  it  could  only  be  aboUshed  very 
gradually.     Both  Stoicism  and  Christianity  however 

1  Cohort,  32  and  33.  ^  Paedag,  i.  4.  '  Horn.  42. 

*  Expansion  of  Christianity,  i.  3,  7. 


UPON  THE   ROMAN   EMPIRE  253 

had  much  to  say  upon  the  subject.-/^hey  both  re- 
garded it  as  unnatural,  and  contrary  to  primitive 
custom.  At  the  beginning  it  was  not  so,  but  Uke 
divorce  under  the  Mosaic  law,  it  was  allowed  because 
of  the  hardness  of  men's  hearts.  It  was  an  accom- 
modation to  a  corrupt  state  of  society.  According  to 
Seneca  it  was  unnecessary  in  the  age  of  innocence- 
According  to  the  Church  writers  it  was  a  result  of 
the  Fall.  But  the  Church  writers  were  able  to  look 
upon  it  with  greater  calmness  and  hopefulness  than 
the  Stoics.  As  it  was  due  to  sin,  that  is  to  the  will 
of  man,  it  was  not  necessary  ;  and  as  it  was  allowed 
by  God,  it  must  be  for  some  holy  and  gracious  pur- 
poses. It  was  a  punishment  for  sin,  and  a  discipline  for 
the  sake  of  righteousness.  To  Seneca  it  naturally 
seemed  a  thing  utterly  hateful,^  though  even  according 
to  Stoic  doctrine  the  wise  man  might  rise  superior 
to  its  bitterness  and  be  free  though  in  bonds.  To 
the  Christian  it  seemed  a  temporary  ordinance  of 
God,  to  be  dissolved  only  by  mutual  consent,  and 
while  it  lasted  an  opportunity,  not  to  be  missed, 
for  glorifying  God.  It  may  require  an  effort  of  the 
imagination  to  conceive  the  heightened  sense  of 
dignity  which  the  consciousness  of  union  with  Jesus 
Christ  in  the  new  life  gave  to  men  in  those  early  days, 
which  led  them  to  work  cheerfully  and  suffer  uncom- 
plainingly in  bonds,  and  even  for  the  sake  of  the 
Gospel  to  sell  themselves  into  slavery  as  Clement  of 
Rome  tells  us  some  did  ^  ;  but  it  was  by  that  new 
sense  of  dignity  and  that  new  spirit,  and  not  by  any 
violent  agitation,  that   slavery  was  undermined.     It 

^  The  best  treatment  (in  English)  of  slavery  in  the  early  Church 
perhaps  is  in  vol.  I.  of  A.  J.  Carlyle's  Mediaeval  Political  Theory  in 
the  West,  iii.  8,  9  and  10. 

2  I  Ep.  chap.  55.  .  . 


254  INFLUENCE  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH 

was  to  the  new-found  liberty  of  men  in  Christ  Jesus, 
with  the  consequent  respect  it  inspired,  rather  than 
to  the  Stoic  doctrine  of  the  natural  equality  of  men, 
that  the  world  owed  the  mitigation  and  partial  abolition 
of  slavery. 

Other  social  inequalities  were  also  transcended 
in  the  thought  of  the  early  Church.  Poverty  ceased 
to  be  regarded  as  necessarily  a  crime,  disgrace,  or 
disadvantage.  The  Church  became  the  recognized 
champion  of  the  poor.  This  was  as  true  of  the  Gentile 
Churches  as  of  the  Jewish.  A  recent  writer  has, 
indeed,  spoken  of  the  Jewish-Christian  Churches  as 
constituting  the  "  radical  social  wing  of  the  primitive 
Church,"  and  of  the  social  spirit  which  glowed  in 
that  part  of  the  Church  as  ''  inadequately  represented 
in  the  main  current  of  Christian  life  which  finally 
resulted  in  Catholic  Christianity."  ^  If  by '' radical" 
is  meant  lawless  and  revolutionary  there  may  be 
truth  in  th^  observation.  The  Sibylline  books,  some 
of  which  emanated  from  Jewish-Christian  sources, 
breathe  a  spirit  of  hostility  to  the  existing  order  of  a 
very  violent  kind.  But  radicalism  is  not  necessarily 
of  a  violent  or  anarchical  character.  The  type  of 
socialism  represented  by  such  Jewish  Christians  as 
James  was  very  different  from  that  which  found 
favour  among  some  of  the  wilder  spirits  of  Alexandria, 
and  there  seems  to  be  no  reason  why  it  should  be  con- 
sidered more  *'  radical "  than  that  of  Paul.  A 
sympathy  with  the  poor  as  intense  and  as  practical 
as  that  shown  by  James  glowed  in  the  heart  of  Paul ; 
and  that  kind  of  sympathy,  the  Christian  rather  than 
the  Sibylline,  fortunately  did  prevail  '*  in  the  main 
current  of  Christian  life  which  finally  resulted  in 
CathoUc  Christianity."     Some  of  the  Catholic  writers 

^  Rauschenbusch,  Christianity  and  the  Social  Crisis,  p.  loi. 


UPON   THE   ROMAN   EMPIRE  255 

are  as  outspoken  as  James  himself  against  oppression 
by  the  rich,  and  these  denunciations  were  accom- 
panied by  appropriate  works.  Again  it  appears  that  a 
higher  form  of  sociaUsm  survived  a  lower  ;  and  one 
reason  for  the  disappearance  of  Jewish  Christianity, 
which  some  writers  deplore,  may  have  been  its  failure 
to  remain  where  James  had  left  it,  and  its  alliance 
with  a  more  violent  (though  not  more  radical)  type 
of  social  theory. 

(b)  With  regard  to  the  second  of  the  democratic 
ideas,  that  of  Liberty,  it  is  hardly  possible  to  exaggerate 
the  service  the  early  Church  rendered  to  mankind 
before  the  fall  of  the  empire.  It  was  the  constancy 
of  the  confessors  and  martyrs  that  forced  the  idea  of 
toleration  on  to  the  attention  of  men.  Individual 
conviction,  first  an  object  of  wonder,  then  of  scorn, 
finally  became  the  strongest  force  with  which  the 
Roman  emperors  had  to  reckon.  Even  Stoicism, 
though  professing  to  hold  in  honour  the  manhood  of 
every  man,  threw  itself  blindly  against  the  Christian 
sentiment  and  called  the  Christian's  conduct  *' obsti- 
nacy.'* Rationalism  joined  the  alliance  of  Super- 
stition with  Despotism  and  attempted  to  crush  the 
only  Faith  which  had  within  it  the  promise  of  civil  and 
religious  liberty.  But  it  failed.  Christianity  triumphed 
over  the  combined  assault,  and  its  victory  marked  the 
beginning  of  a  new  era  and  of  a  new  world. 

The  victory  was  not  of  course  at  once  complete. 
The  conflict  was  again  and  again  renewed.  The 
leaders  of  the  Church  were  not  always  true  to  the 
principles  for  which  Apologists  like  Tertullian  and 
Lactantius  had  contended  and  in  obedience  to  which 
the  martyrs  had  died.  That  those  principles  made 
any  headway  at  all  against  the  powerful  currents  that 
resisted  them  is  a  splendid  tribute  to  their  own  inherent 


256  INFLUENCE  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH 

strength  and  to  the  heroism  of  the  men  who  held 
them.  The  essential  thing  to  notice  is  that  ideas  of 
liberty  utterly  foreign  to  the  philosophy  of  Plato  or 
of  Cicero  had  laid  hold  of  the  minds  of  men  and  were 
getting  themselves  applied  in  various  directions. 

(c)  It  was  so  with  the  idea  of  Fraternity.  Brother- 
hoods were  not  unknown  in  the  ancient  world.  There 
were  many  in  the  Roman  Empire.  But  Christianity 
gave  a  new  meaning  and  a  new  sanction  to  the  idea  of 
brotherhood.  ''  Thus  we  love  one  another,  because 
we  do  not  know  how  to  hate/*  said  Minucius  Felix, 
"  Thus  we  call  one  another  brethren  as  being  born  of 
one  God  and  Father,  comrades  in  faith  and  fellow-heirs 
in  hope.''  ^  "  Thou  shalt  not  call  things  thine  own  : 
for  if  ye  are  partakers  in  common  of  things  which 
are  incorruptible  how  much  more  of  things  which  are 
corruptible."  2  It  is  *'  divine  religion,  which  alone 
effects  that  man  should  hold  man  dear,  and  should 
know  that  he  is  bound  to  him  by  the  tie  of  brother- 
hood, since  God  is  alike  a  Father  to  all."  ^  Passages 
like  these  abound  in  rich  profusion  throughout  the 
writings  of  the  period,  and  reveal  the  twofold  way  in 
which  the  brotherhood  of  men  was  regarded.  At  the 
foundation  of  all  lies  the  universal  Fatherhood  of  God  : 
men  are  brethren  all  the  world  over,  because  created 
by  the  One  God.  But  it  was  the  fellowship  of  faith 
and  hope  and  love  in  the  Gospel  of  Jesus  Christ  that 
gave  its  peculiar  charm  and  its  peculiar  power  to  the 
Christian  brotherhood.  The  Fatherhood  of  God  meant 
much  more  to  the  Christian  than  to  the  philosophers, 
but  it  was  the  consciousness  of  the  new  life  in  Christ 
which  converted  theory  into  practice  and  produced 


^  Oct.  31.  ^  Barnabas,  chap.  19. 

3  Lactantius  Div.  Inst.,  v.  7. 


UPON   THE   ROMAN   EMPIRE  257 

'*  the  insatiable   desire    for   doing  good "    of  which 
Clement  of  Rome  speaks.  ^ 

II 

It  is  now  time  to  look  at  some  of  the  attempts 
which  the  early  Church  made  to  apply  these  ideas. 

The  first  efforts  of  the  Church,  then,  were  directed 
to  forming  a  society  independent  of  the  State  in 
which  the  social  ideas  of  Christianity  could  be  more 
perfectly  applied.  The  origins  of  that  society  are 
clearly  seen  in  the  New  Testament,  and  the  pictures  of 
primitive  Church  life  there  given  reveal  the  astonishing 
power  which  the  new  faith  had  to  create  a  higher 
social  life  than  the  world  had  ever  known.  Surely 
all  things  in  the  way  of  social  reform  were  possible  to 
that  faith.  The  enthusiastic  type  of  Communism 
may  be  compared  with  the  other  social  phenomenon  des- 
cribed in  the  same  chapter  of  the  Acts  of  the  Apostles, 
the  Gift  of  Tongues  ;  for  just  as  the  latter  sign  indi- 
cated the  unifying  socializing  power  of  the  Gospel  in 
one  direction  so  the  former  did  in  another.  Language 
and  property  represent  two  great  hindrances  in  the 
way  of  a  perfect  mutual  understanding  and  intercourse. 
These  hindrances  are  done  away  in  Christ.  The  one 
can  be  Christianized  as  perfectly  as  the  other. 

We  are  in  the  habit  of  regarding  this  Pentecostal 
experience  and  its  outcome  as  something  exceptional 
in  the  life  of  the  early  Church,  confined  to  Jerusalem 
and  attended  with  very  dubious  results.  The  sub- 
sequent poverty  of  the  Church  at  Jerusalem  has  even 

1  I  Ep.  chap.  ii.  For  further  illustrations  the  English  reader 
should  consult  the  valuable  works  of^  Lecky  and  Schmidt.  Brace's 
Gesta  ChrisH  is  not  so  good.  Croslegh's  Christianity  Judged  by  its 
Fruits,  and  Storr's  Divine  Origin  of  Christianity  may  also  be 
mentioned. 

c.c.  S 


258  INFLUENCE  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH 

been  ascribed  to  it.  We  may  leave  that  alone.  But 
what  is  specially  important  to  note  is  that  in  theory 
and  principle  the  Communism  was  not  exceptional. 
The  new  Christian  theory  of  property — ''  not  one  of 
them  said  that  aught  of  the  things  which  he  possessed 
was  his  own '' — is  one  which  we  fi|id  constantly 
adopted  and  applied  in  the  new  society.  The  conse- 
cration of  property  to  the  common  weal  is  one  of  the 
fundamental  principles  of  the  new  Church  life,  and 
one  which  the  teachers  of  the  Church  are  never  tired 
of  insisting  upon.  A  long  catena  of  passages,  from 
the  Didache  which  says  "  Thou  shalt  share  all  things 
with  thy  brother ''  to  Augustine  and  Pelagius  who 
both  regarded  poverty  as  better  than  riches,  could 
very  easily  be  given,  and  would  abundantly  prove 
the  contention  that  all  Churchmen  believed  that 
naught  which  the  Christian  possessed  was  his  own, 
but  that  he  was  bound  to  surrender  it  or  to  use  it  for 
the  common  good.  Against  any  theory  of  State  Com- 
munism or  compulsory  Communism  the  Church  writers 
would  have  unanimously  protested.  The  immorality 
of  Plato's  RepubUc,  e.g.,  was  pitilessly  exposed  by 
Lactantius,  who  said  that  the  ownership  of  property 
contains  the  material  both  of  vices  and  of  virtues,  but 
a  community  of  goods  contains  nothing  else  than 
the  licentiousness  of  vices  :  Covetousness,  not  private 
property,  was  the  cause  of  the  evils  of  society.^ 

Private  ownership  was  not  abolished  in  the  Church, 
but  every  encouragement  was  offered  to  voluntary 
giving  to  the  point  of  self-sacrifice  and  even  consequent 
poverty.  Clement 'of  Alexandria,  who  believed  in  the 
use  and  not  in  the  total  surrender  of  property,  never- 
theless held  that  to  reduce  one's  wants  to  a  minimum 

^  Div.  Instit.  iii.  22.     The  references  here  and  elsewhere  will  be 
found  in  the  "  Ante-Nicene  Christian  Library." 


UPON   THE   R©MAN   EMPIRE  259 

was  a  social  duty,  and  Augustine,  though  he  recognized 
in  opposition  to  Pelagius  the  right  of  earthly  property, 
looked  upon  it  in  very  much  the  same  way  as  he  did 
upon  the  institution  of  slavery.  It  was  good  to  con- 
quer the  love  of  money,  but  it  was  better  to  add  works 
to  the  inward  victory. 

The  liberality  of  the  Church  is  too  evident  on  every 
hand  to  need  illustration,  and  it  showed  itself  in  a 
great  variety  of  ways.  In  the  middle  of  the  third 
century  the  Roman  Church  supported  1,500  poor 
persons.  In  cases  of  emergency  Ambrose,  Augustine 
and  others  parted  with  the  vases  and  ornaments  of 
the  Church  to  help  the  unfortunate.  The  legend  says 
that  Paulinus  of  Nola  sold  himself  into  slavery  to 
redeem  a  young  man  the  only  son  of  a  widowed  mother. 
Basil  turned  a  part  of  the  town  of  Neo-Caesarea  into 
a  colony  of  mercy  with  an  asylum  for  the  aged,  a  hos- 
pital for  the  sick,  a  home  for  children,  and  an  inn  for 
travellers.  In  times  of  plague  Christians  ministered 
to  the  dying  who  had  been  basely  deserted  by  their 
pagan  friends.  All  this  charitable  work  was  well- 
known  to  the  heathen  and  cannot  have  been  without 
its  influence  in  changing  public  sentiment  in  the 
empire.  Even  the  Stoics  who  despised  the  Christians 
for  their  obstinacy  and  want  of  reason  may  have  learnt 
something  from  these  object  lessons.  Men  sometimes 
do  learn  from  the  people  they  profess  to  despise  ;  only 
generally  they  do  not  acknowledge  their  obligations. 
Some  of  the  laws  which  heathen  emperors  put  upon 
the  statute-book  may  have  been  suggested  by  Chris- 
tian examples.  When  we  come  to  Julian  we  know 
that  something  of  this  kind  did  take  place.  "  It  has 
happened,"  he  said,  *'  that  the  indifference  of  our 
priests  for  the  poor  has  suggested  to  the  impious 
Galileans  the  thought  of  practical  beneficence.  .  .  . 


26o  INFLUENCE  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH 

It  would  be  shameful  when  the  Jews  have  not  a  beggar, 
when  the  impious  Galileans  nourish  both  ours  and 
theirs  that  those  of  our  cult  should  be  deprived  of  the 
succour  which  we  ought  to  give  them.'*  So  he  told 
his  priests  to  bestir  themselves. 

But  these  forms  of  practical  charity  did  not  exhaust 
the  sociality  of  the  ancient  Church.  Work  was  pro- 
vided as  well  as  alms.  Teaching  was  given.  Oppor- 
tunities of  social  intercourse  were  afforded.  Even 
after  the  Church  had  modelled  itself  only  too  closely 
on  the  imperial  lines,  the  democratic  spirit  of  the  earliest 
age  could  not  be  quenched.  The  people  could  elect 
their  own  bishops,  though  they  may  not  have  been 
supposed  to  nominate  them.  And  those  bishops  were 
their  friends.  They  championed  the  cause  of  the 
poor.  They  intervened  in  case  of  disputes.  They 
resisted  their  oppressors.  And  so  great  was  the  popu- 
larity and  moral  authority  of  their  voluntary  tribunals 
that  at  the  end  of  the  fourth  century  the  Emperor 
Arcadius  passed  two  laws  which  made  the  sentences 
of  the  bishops  legal.  When  attacked  by  the  bar- 
barians, bishops  like  Sidonius  and  Synesius  defended 
their  flocks  and  proved  themselves  better  patriots 
than  the  heathen  nobles.  And  over  and  above  all 
these  advantages  of  a  temporal  kind  there  was  com- 
munity in  the  deepest  things.  It  is  no  wonder  that 
the  Church  was  more  popular  than  the  State.  It  was 
accomplishing  many  of  the  things  which  the  empire 
had  failed  to  do.  It  was  doing  much  which  the  empire 
had  never  attempted.  And  the  fact  that  the  Church 
in  later  times  fell  lamentably  short  of  the  ideal  formed 
by  men  like  Ambrose,  and  Martin  of  Tours,  and  other 
bishops,  and  showed  that  tyranny  was  not  confined  to 
civil  governments,  is  no  reason  why  we  should  refuse 
to  acknowledge  the  splendid  social  service  which   it 


UPON   THE   ROMAN   EMPIRE  261 

rendered  during  this  period  in  protecting  the  weak 
and  in  affording  a  sphere  in  which  the  individual^ 
could  come  into  possession  of  his  own.    ^'^ 

But  what  about  Monasticism  ?  Was  this  a  gain 
to  the  Roman  Empire  ?  It  is  one  thing  to  say  that  a 
contented,  happy,  fellowship  of  Christians  such  as  we 
see  depicted  for  example  in  the  Apology  of  Aristides, 
"  a  document  so  altogether  altruistic  in  its  ethics  and 
disclosing  a  people  so  utterly  happy  in  the  faith  into 
which  they  had  been  brought  that  one  might  have 
blushed  to  find  the  difference  between  their  spiritual 
temper  and  our  own  " — it  is  one  thing  to  say  that 
such  a  fellowship,  in  the  world  and  yet  not  of  it,  must 
have  been  a  good  thing  in  itself  and  also  for  the  world  ; 
but  we  may  hesitate  before  saying  that  the  monastic 
life  which  was  so  popular  at  the  end  of  our  period 
was  good  either  for  the  men  who  fled  from  the  world, 
or  for  the  world  from  which  they  fled. 

But  some  things  ought  to  be  remembered. 

Monasticism  is  not  Christian,  though  it  may  have 
been  adopted  by  the  Church  from  motives  partly 
Christian.  The  fact  that  it  did  not  make  its  appear- 
ance for  three  hundred  years  shows  that  it  is  no  essen- 
tial part  of  Christianity.  But  in  the  fourth  century 
it  was  the  spirit  of  the  age.  It  arose  from  causes 
over  which  the  Church  had  no  control.  And  the 
Church  had  to  reckon  with  it.  Some  of  the  leaders 
resisted  the  movement,  but  the  greater  number  yielded 
to  it  and  tried  to  utilize  it,  just  as  our  Churches  to- 
day try  to  be  *'  up  to  the  times ''  and  take  advantage 
of  any  strong  current  of  public  opinion. 

Another  thing — the  whole  Church  did  not  become 
monasticized.  Monasticism  became  a  sort  of  Church 
within  the  Church,  and  even  this  monastic  section  did 


262  INFLUENCE  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH 

not  break  wholly  with  the  world.  Many  of  the  monks 
for  good  and  ill  continued  to  take  a  living  interest 
in  the  world  they  had  renounced.  They  even  graced 
marriage  ceremonies  by  their  presence.  They  insti- 
tuted something  similar  to  our  Pleasant  Saturday 
Evenings.  The  monasteries  too  were  often  homes  of 
learning  :  they  were  centres  of  charity  :  they  were 
sources  from  which  evangelistic  missions  proceeded  : 
they  were  labour  colonies  and,  to  mention  social 
influence  of  another  kind,  we  cannot  forget  that  it 
was  from  this  class,  whichwe,  from  our  modern  stand- 
point, are  inclined  to  regard  as  altogether  mischievous, 
that  a  social  wrong  which  had  defied  all  the  efforts  of 
pagan  and  Christian  emperors  received  its  deathblow. 
It  was  not  by  legislation,  but  by  the  noble  act  of  a 
monk  that  the  gladiatorial  shows  were  stopped. 

For  those  within  the  monasteries  the  social  life  was 
far  from  being  an  ideal  one  ;  still  it  was  at  least  a  social 
life.  The  rights  of  the  individual  were  respected. 
Men  met  one  another,  men  rich  and  poor,  noble  and 
serf.  Equality,  liberty  and  fraternity  did  find  recog- 
nition within  the  walls  of  the  monastery.  ^  To  us  the 
monastery  with  its  rigorous  rules,  and  its  isolation  of 
husband  and  wife,  seems  a  very  imperfect  substitute 
for  the  home  and  the  relations  of  family  life.  Yet 
even  this  was  easier  to  husband  and  father  than  to  see 
wife  and  children  daily  dying  of  starvation,  or  sold  into 
slavery  before  his  eyes.  The  life  to  which  they  came 
was  better  than  that  they  left  behind. 

But  what  about  those  left  still  in  the  world  ?  Was 
not  their  lot  made  the  harder  by  the  withdrawal  of 
so  many  to  the  monasteries  ?  The  taxes  had  still 
to  be  paid,  public  burdens  had  still  to  be  borne.     This 

^  See,  e.g.,  Genesis  of  the  Social  Conscience,  an  interesting  work 
by  Prof.  Nash,  chaps,  v.  and  vi. 


UPON   THE   ROMAN   EMPIRE  263 

was  of  course  a  serious  evil,  and  the  mention  of  it 
brings  us  to  the  last  part  of  our  subject,  the  actual 
participation  of  Christian  men  in  the  public  Hfe  of  the 
empire.  Had  the  Christians  of  those  days  any  civic 
conscience  at  all  ? 

To  answer  that  question  we  ought  to  consider : 

{a)  What  view  did  they  take  of  the  social  order  to 
which  they  belonged,  i.e.  the  Roman  empire  ? 

{b)  How  far  did  they  abstain  from  public  and 
civic  duties  ? 

(c)  Did  Christianity  as  a  matter  of  fact  succeed  in 
changing  to  any  extent  the  laws  of  the  empire  ?    ^^/ 

(a)  Considering  that  the  empire  was  so  long  in 
opposition  to  the  Church,  the  almost  invariable  respect 
shown  to  it  by  Christian  writers  is  one  of  the  miracles 
of  history.  Persecuted  and  despised  by  the  State; 
the  Church  nevertheless  honoured  the  State,  and  wh^n 
we  remember  the  different  spirit  shown  by  the  Jews^|i^e 
shall  see  in  the  peaceable  spirit  of  the  Christians;  a 
striking  tribute  to  the  presence  of  a  new  power  in 
their  midst.  It  was  no  more  natural  for  the  Christians 
than  it  would  have  been  for  the  Jews  to  pray  for  their 
enemies,  willingly  to  pay  taxes  to  the  Emperors  who 
denied  them  liberty,  and  remain  law-abiding  citizens 
in  a  State  which  regarded  them  as  outlaws.  But  this 
the  power  of  Christ  effected.  The  conservative  atti- 
tude of  Paul  and  ist  Peter  and  the  Acts  of  the  Apostles 
to  the  Roman  Empire  is  the  prevailing  one  :  though 
echoes  of  another  kind  are  not  altogether  wanting. 
Clement  of  Rome  says  that  it  was  God  who  *'  gave 
the  power  of  the  Kingdom  to  our  rulers  and  governors  on 
the  earth  .  .  .  that  we  might  be  subject  to  them,  nought 
resisting  Thy  will.''  ^     MeUto  of  Sardis  speaks  of  the 

1  Ep.  Ixi, 


264  INFLUENCE  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH 

happy  beginning  of  the  empire,  and  regards  it  as  an 
auspicious  circumstance  that  Christianity  arose  about 
the  same  time.^ 

Irenaeus  says  that  civil  governments  are  ordained 
of  God  though  they  are  due  to  human  sin.^  Minucius 
Fehx  says  "  our  infant  empire  was  begotten  in  crime 
and  maintained  by  terrorism,'*  yet*'  we  are  not  disloyal, 
though  some  of  us  refuse  the  honours  of  public  office/'^ 
And  time  would  fail  to  tell  of  Prudentius  and  Orosius 
and  Ambrose  and  Augustine  and  the  rest.  Two  more 
illustrations  may  suffice.  Paulinus  says — *'  As  far  as 
the  heaven  is  above  the  earth,  so  great  is  the  distance 
between  the  things  of  Caesar  and  of  Christ,*'  and  yet 
he  tells  us  that  St.  Felix,  with  the  help  of  the  Apostles 
Peter  and  Paul,  obtained  a  prolongation  of  the  Roman 
Empire,  thus  making  not  only  the  Saint,  but  the 
Apostles,  responsible  for  the  continued  existence  of 
the  empire.  Again,  St.  Jerome  speaks  of  Rome  as 
"  Babylon,''  and  yet  exclaims,  when  Alaric  and  his 
Goths  have  sacked  it,  ''  the  light  of  the  world  is 
quenched." 

Justin  Martyr  occupies  an  interesting  position  in 
relation  to  this  question.  His  broad  outlook  upon  the 
world  leads  us  to  expect  that  he  will  find  in  human 
institutions  as  well  as  in  human  philosophies  illustra- 
tions of  his  favourite  doctrine  of  the  Logos.  Why 
should  not  the  ''  seed  of  reason  "  spring  up  in  the 
works  as  well  as  in  the  thoughts  of  men  ?  But  Justin 
does  not  develop  this  idea.  Even  the  world  which 
God  has  made,  not  aimlessly  but  for  the  sake  of  the 
human  race,  is  no  proper  object  of  the  Christian's 
desire.     To  seek  a  human  kingdom  is  to  deny  the 

^  Eusebius,  Ecc.  Hist.  iv.  26.  2  y   24,  2. 

*  Octavius,  chaps.  25  and  31. 


UPON   THE   ROMAN   EMPIRE  265 

Saviour.  To  flee  from  those  things  which  seem  to  be 
good  is  the  road  to  blessedness.  But  after  the  Resur- 
rection there  will  be  a  thousand  years  of  earthly  bliss 
for  the  Christian. 

The  influence  of  the  millenarian  hopes  upon  the 
attitude  of  the  early  Church  to  the  world  opens  up  a 
large  subject,  but  the  tendency  of  many  writers  seems 
to  be  to  regard  it  too  much  as  an  evil  thing.  It  is 
true  that  the  expectation  of  the  approaching  end  of 
the  world  produced  an  unrest  and  indisposition  to 
work  at  Thessalonica  and  elsewhere  ;  but  that  it  was 
on  the  whole  an  anti-social  and  mischievous  belief  it 
would  be  very  difficult  to  prove.  The  enormous 
power  of  such  a  hope  must  not  be  judged  simply  by 
the  extravagances  which  accompanied  it  in  special 
instances,  whether  few  or  many.  If  sometimes  it  led 
to  'ecstasy  and  idleness,  at  others  it  led  to  patient 
continuance  in  well-doing,  made  men  forget  their 
weariness,  their  animosities,  their  differences.  A  living 
hope  of  any  kind  was  of  priceless  value  for  that  ''  hard 
Roman  world  "  on  which  *'  disgust 

And  secret  loathing  fell ; 
Deep  weariness,  and  sated  lust 
Made  human  life  a  hell. 

And  if  the  hope  of  Justin  and  others  was  judged 
too  earthly  by  Augustine  and  later  teachers  of  the 
Church,  it  had  brought  courage  to  do  and  bear,  and 
added  a  new  motive  for  brotherly  love  and  mutual 
service.  The  consciousness  of  belonging  to  an  eternal 
kingdom,  whatever  the  particular  form  the  Christian 
hope  might  assume,  brought  an  increase  both  of  sym- 
pathy and  of  power.  Whether  it  led  to  a  neglect  of 
practical  duties  and  civic  responsibilities  is  a  question 
of  fact  rather  than  of  theory. 


266  INFLUENCE  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH 

(b)  With  regard  then  to  participation  in  pubhc 
and  civic  Ufe  there  is  much  again  that  should  be  said. 
If  Christians  held  aloof  during  times  of  persecution 
ought  we  to  be  surprised  ?  The  wonder  is  all  the 
other  way.  It  was  one  of  the  moral  victories  of 
Christianity  that  its  adherents  did  not  betake  them- 
selves to  the  deserts  three  hundred  years  before  they 
did  actually  go  in  their  hundreds  and  thousands.  In 
the  second  and  third  centuries  they  were  still  in  the 
world,  though  not  of  it.  Everything  points  that  way  ; 
not  simply  the  testimony  of  a  writer  like  the  author 
of  the  Epistle  to  Diognetus,  who  compares  the  presence 
of  Christians  in  the  world  to  that  of  the  spirit  within 
the  body,  but  also  the  testimony  of  extreme  men 
like  Tertullian,  who  shows  that,  whatever  his  own 
particular  tastes  and  convictions  in  the  question  might 
be,  Christians  were  as  a  matter  of  fact  to  be  found 
everywhere — in  the  army,  the  market  place,  the  booth, 
the  workshop,  the  inn  and  other  places.  And  indeed 
the  enemies  of  the  Christians  imply  as  much,  as  might 
be  easily  shown. 

And  all  this  time  the  Christian  Church  had  not 
only  to  fulfil  its  social  and  civil  duties  in  the  face  of  the 
strongest  prejudices  against  it,  but  also  in  direct 
resistance  to  a  current  in  heathen  society  which  had 
set  strongly  in  an  anti-social  and  anti-civic  direction 
No  one  can  deny  that  the  Church  strengthened  and 
purified  family  life  ;  and  if  on  the  other  hand  it  may 
seem  to  have  done  something  to  discourage  marriage, 
it  was  in  the  attempt  to  substitute  a  moral  for  an 
immoral  celibacy,  that  is  to  say,  at  most  an  imperfect 
social  ideal  for  one  mischievously  and  outrageously 
antisocial.  Or  take  military  service.  The  Christians 
disliked  it,  because  they  fought  under  an  idolatrous 
military  regime,   as  well  as  because  it  was  ideally 


UPON   THE   ROMAN   EMPIRE  267 

opposed  to  the  Gospel.  They  did  sometimes  avoid 
military  service.  But  so  did  the  heathen,  and  possibly 
in  much  larger  numbers,  and  from  a  very  different 
motive.  Long  before  the  fall  of  the  Roman  Empire 
the  demoralization  of  public  sentiment  (i.e.  from  the 
patriotic  point  of  view)  had  reached  such  a  stage 
that  barbarians  were  admitted  into  the  empire  not 
only  to  finance  it  but  to  fight  for  it.  Or  take  muni- 
cipal duties.  Christians  no  doubt  often  tried  to  evade 
the  unenviable  position  of  the  curialis  ;  but  so  did 
the  heathen,  for  the  honour  had  become  an  intolerable 
burden,  a  remorseless  instrument  for  crushing  out  of 
existence  the  middle  classes.  Christians  did  not  wish 
to  be  either  the  victims  or  the  instruments  of  a  form 
of  tyranny  which  was  simply  ruining  the  State.  In 
this  respect  they  yielded  to  the  prevailing  dislike  to 
accept  municipal  obHgations.  But  the  saying  of 
TertuUian,  ''  Nothing  is  more  foreign  (to  the  Christian) 
than  public  affairs  **  represents  an  extreme  opinion 
and  not  the  general  practice  of  the  early  Church.  Even 
after  monasticism  had  become  a  popular  movement, 
Augustine  could  say  "  Let  those  who  profess  that  the 
Christian  religion  is  hostile  to  the  Republic  give  us 
military  men,  provincials,  husbands,  parents,  sons, 
masters,  servants,  kings,  judges,  and  administrators 
equal  to  those  that  Christianity  has  formed."  ^ 

(c)  But  finally  did  the  Church  succeed  in  influenc- 
ing legislation  to  any  considerable  extent  ? 

If  we  recall  the  observations  made  at  the  opening 
of  this  essay  we  shall  look  for  indications  of  the  mind 
of  the  Church   or  of  the  Christian   emperors  rather 

^  See  Schmidt,  Social  Results  of  Early  Christianity,  p.  287. 
Harnack  in  Historian's  History  of  the  World,  vol.  vi.,  Appendix  B. 
Ramsay,  Church  in  the  Roman  Empire,  p.  432  if.  Nash,  op.  cit., 
p.  147.     Hodgkin,  Italy  and  Her  Invaders,  ii.,  p.  561,  etc. 


268  INFLUENCE  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH 

in  what  they  proposed  than  in  what  they  succeeded 
in  carrying  out.     Many  of  the  laws  passed  must  have 
been  inoperative,   and  many  more  would  no  doubt 
have  been  forthcoming  had  there  been  any  prospect 
of  their  being  obeyed.     There  were  however  a  con- 
siderable number  which  clearly  show  the  new  spirit 
which  was  striving  to  find  expression  in  the  legislature. 
De  Broglie  tells  us  that  in  seven  years  Constantine 
issued  140  edicts,  in  nearly  all  of  which  the  new  spirit 
;   of  Christianity  is  to  be  seen  1 :    while  Dean  Stanley 
\  said :  **  In  313  a.d.  was  issued  the  Edict  of  Toleration. 
\  Then  followed  in  rapid  succession  the  decree  for  the 
1  observance  of  Sunday  in  the  towns  of  the  Empire, 
the  use  of  prayers  for  the  army,  the  abolition  of  the 
punishment  of  crucifixion,  the  encouragement  of  the 
emancipation  of  slaves,  the  discouragement  of  infanti- 
cide, the  prohibition  of  private  divinations,  the  prohi- 
bition of  licentious  and  cruel  rites,  the  prohibition  of 
gladiatorial  games.     Every  one  of  these  steps  was  a 
gain  to  the  Roman  Empire  and  to  mankind  such  as 
not   even   the   Antonines   had   ventured  to   attempt, 
and  of  these  benefits  none  has  been  altogether  lost.''  2 
These  opinions  may  be  a  little  too  enthusiastic.     The 
latter  hardly  does  justice  to  the  noble  though  com- 
paratively futile  efforts  of  some  of  the  Roman  emperors ; 
while  the  former  must  not  blind  us  to  the  unchristian 
character  of  some  of  the  edicts  of  Constantine  and 
his  successors.     But  it  is  hardly  appropriate  in  this 
brief  essay  to  do  more  than  indicate  generally  a  few 
lines   upon   which   advance   was   made.     Among   the 
laws  which  followed  there  were  many  others  designed 
to  alleviate  the  miseries  of  men.     Abuses  such  as  John 

^  Op.  cit.  I,  chap.  ii.  and  iii. 
^  Eastern  Church,  vi.,  p.  230. 


UPON   THE   ROMAN   EMPIRE  269 

Howard  in  later  times  brought  to  light  in  the  treatment 
of  prisoners  were  forbidden  by  various  edicts.  Judg- 
ment was  not  to  be  delayed  beyond  a  definite  period. 
Actresses  were  encouraged  to  escape  from  their  demoral- 
izing profession.  There  were  laws  giving  to  mothers 
the  right  of  guardianship  over  their  own  children  : 
laws  directed  against  immorality  and  with  the  object 
of  limiting  divorce  :  and  many  laws  which  reveal  a 
growing  sympathy  with  the  weak,  the  poor,  and  the 
unfortunate. 

Special  laws  were  directed  against  the  injustice 
and  oppression  of  the  taxgatherers  and  of  the  rich. 
We  can  in  short  see  most  clearly  that  the  Christian 
idea  of  government  existing  for  the  protection  of  the 
weak  and  of  the  poor  had  laid  hold  of  the  minds  of 
Christian  emperors.  The  Church  through  its  own 
organizations,  and  in  connexion  with  the  anti-demo- 
cratic and  anti-Christian  type  of  government  prevailing 
in  the  empire,  which  frustrated  its  efforts  at  every 
turn,  did  a  splendid  work  in  alleviating  poverty  and 
distress.!  While  the  State  was  kilHng  the  middle 
classes  and  so  putting  the  dagger  to  its  own  bosom,  the 
Church  was  at  least  championing  the  cause  of  the 
poor  and  mitigating  the  misery  of  the  unfortunate. 
Many  things  may  be  laid  to  the  charge  of  the  Church 
in  the  first  four  centuries  with  more  or  less  of  plausi- 
bility and  of  justice,  but  the  very  last  thing  with 
which  she  can  be  charged  with  any  degree  of  truth- 
fulness is  a  want  of  sympathy  with  the  poor,  the  help- 
less, and  the  unfortunate.  Before  the  empire  fell, 
the  merciful  spirit  of  the  Church  was  reflected,  not  only 

^  Even  Karl  Kautsky  says — "  Though  it  did  not  aboKsh  poverty, 
it  was  the  most  effective  organization  for  alleviating  the  misery 
growing  out  of  the  general  poverty  within  its  reach."  Quoted  by 
Rauschenbusch,  p.  133. 


270  INFLUENCE  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH 

in  the  works  of  Christian  authors,  and  in  Church  insti- 
tutions and  in  Canon  law,  but  even  in  the  legislation 
of  a  despotic  and  still  largely  pagan  State.  That  State 
had  not  been  transformed  by  the  Church  from  a  des- 
potism into  a  representative  government,  or  taught 
political  economy,  or  saved  from  the  inevitable 
consequences  of  centuries  of  folly.  But  *'  amid  all 
the  perverse  errors  of  legislation  and  the  hopeless 
corruption  of  the  financial  service,*'  as  Dr.  Dill  remarks, 
"  the  central  authority  was  keenly  alive  to  its  duties 
and  almost  overwhelmed  by  its  responsibilities."  ^ 
Speaking  of  the  last  emperors  he  says:  '*  Almost  every 
page  of  the  code  bears  witness  to  the  indignant  energy 
with  which  the  Emperor  and  his  council  strove  to 
check  the  anarchy  of  the  provincial  administration. 
But  with  a  high  sense  of  duty  and  the  appearance  of 
omnipotence  the  central  authority  had  lost  control  of 
the  vast  system.'*  ^  And  again — *'  Yet  it  is  impossible 
to  ignore  the  high  sense  of  duty,  and  the  almost  effu- 
sive sympathy  for  the  suffering  masses  which  mark 
the  last  utterances  of  the  imperial  jurisprudence.**  ^ 

That  surely  was  no  small  victory  for  Christianity 
to  have  won.  It  is  for  Christian  men  to-day,  having 
the  inestimable  advantage  of  living  in  a  land  of  popular 
government  and  free  institutions,  which  the  teaching 
of  Christianity  has  done  much  if  not  everything  to 
secure  for  them,  to  act  with  greater  devotion  and  with 
greater  knowledge  in  the  interests  of  the  common- 
wealth; but  it  would  be  foolish  and  unjust  to  ignore 
the  debt  which  we  owe  to  the  early  Church. 

^  Roman  Society  in  the  Last  Century  of  the  Eastern  Empire,  p. 
229. 

2  P.  278.  3  p,  277. 


VII 

The  Influence  of  the  Christian  Church  on 
the  Social  and  Ethical  Development 
of  the  Middle  Ages 

By  Rev.  H.   B.  WORKMAN,  D.LiT.,  Principal  of 
Westminster  Training  College,  London. 


ARGUMENT. 

§  I.  The  Fall  of  the  Empire— The  Task  of  the  Church— A  Survey  of 
the  Ruin — West  Goths — Salian  Franks — Vandals — Slavs — Huns 
— ^The  Muslim  Conquests — ^the  Wikings — Attila  and  Leo — the  Church 
and  the  Salvation  of  Civilization. 

§  II.  The  Conquests  of  the  Cross — ^The  only  Hope  of  Civilization — Saracen 
Culture  inadequate — Roman  Culture,  the  Extent  of  its  Survival — 
Roman  Schools — Classical  Literature — Inadequacy  for  the  Crisis  of  these 
Survivals — The  New  Civilization  not  the  Effect  of  Survivals — Illustra- 
tion and  Proof  from  Gregory  the  Great — The  New  Nations  and  the 
Church — ^The  Soil  of  the  New  Civilization — Nominal  Conversions — 
Their  Value— Testimony  of  Sir  J.  Stephen,  of  Ritter— Effect  on 
the  Growth  of  Papal  Supremacy. 

§  III.  The  Church  and  Civilization — Its  Life  and  Spirit — ^The  Impotence 
of  Arianism — The  Individualism  of  Barbarism — Illustrations — The 
SoHdarity  of  the  Church — Its  effect  on  the  Middle  Ages — Social 
and  Spiritual  Significance  of  this  Solidarity — Objection  raised  from 
the  Individualism  of  the  Reformation — The  Objection  answered. 

§  IV.  Examination  of  the  Social  Work  of  the  Church  in  Detail — Greater 
Value  of  Human  Life — Deduction  for  the  Penal  Code — ^The 
Inquisition — The  Abolition  of  Slavery — The  Redemption  of 
Captives — ^The  Church  and  Poverty — Breaking  down  Class  Distinc- 
tions— St.  Louis  and  Brother  Giles — The  Modern  Fear  of  Poverty 
— The  Doctrine  of  Works  and  its  Effect  on  Charity — The  Church 
and  War — The  Increase  of  Fanaticism — Diminution  of  Atrocity — 
The  Ideal  of  Chivalry— The  Status  of  Woman — The  Ideal  of  Virginity 
— Place  of  Women  in  the  Middle  Ages — Illustrations — The  Church 
and  the  Growth  of  Liberty — The  Difference  in  this  matter  between 
the  Early  and  Later  Middle  Ages — Aquinas  and  Marsiglio — The  Rise 
of  Democracy — The  Social  Guilds — ^Their  Work  and  Extent — The 
Great  Pillage — Practical  Christian  Socialism. 

§  V.  In  Social  Evolution  Factors  now  harmful  have  played  their  Part — 
Illustration  from  the  Papacy — From  the  Penitential  System — Its 
Origin  and  Evils — Disciplinary  Powers — The  Conception  of  Solidarity 
in  the  Doctrine  of  Merit. 

§  VI.  The  Work  of  Monasticism — Monasticism  and  the  Papacy — ^The 
Origin  of  Monasticism — The  Debt  of  Civilization — New  Dignity  of  Toil 
— The  Value  of  Obedience — Monasticism  and  the  Layman — The 
Deductions    that    must  be  Made. 

§  VII.  The  Reform  Movements  of  the  Later  Middle  Ages — Their  Classifi- 
cation— The  new  Spirit  of  Nationalism — Evangelical  Poverty — 
The  Union  of  Democracy  and  Reform — Arnold  of  Brescia — The  Peas- 
ants' Revolt — Wyclif's  Doctrine  of  Dominion — His  Sympathy  with 
the  Poor — His  Kinship  with  St.  Francis — His  Appreciation  of  the 
Real  Humanity  of  Jesus — The  Emphasis  of  Humanity  among  the 
Lollards. 


VII 

The  Influence  of  the  Christian  Church  on 

the  Social  and   Ethical  Development 

of  the   Middle  Ages 

With  the  fall  of  the  Roman  Empire  in  its  western 
section  we  enter  upon  a  new  chapter  in  the  history  of 
humanity.  The  former  things  had  for  ever  passed 
away  ;  but  it  was  rather  the  coming  of  a  new  hell 
than  a  new  earth  or  a  new  heaven  that  seemed,  at 
first,  to  be  the  result.  In  reality  it  was  necessary  to 
remove  the  things  that  were  shaken,  even  though  the 
removal  should  be  by  consuming  fires,  that  there 
might  be  laid  the  abiding  foundations  of  the  City 
of  God. 

The  student  would  do  well  to  obtain  some  idea  of 
the  task  which  awaited  the  Church  in  the  centuries 
between  the  sack  of  Rome  and  the  conclusion  of  the 
wanderings  of  the  nations.  He  should  turn  to  the 
map  of  the  empire  and  realize  its  meaning ;  the 
majesty  of  its  unity,  the  diversity  of  nations  and 
tongues  which  had  lost  their  differences  in  the  prouder 
consciousness  of  a  common  citizenship,  the  reality  of 
c.c,  2'^  T 


274  INFLUENCE  OF  THE   CHRISTIAN   CHURCH 

the  law  and  order  which  bound  the  ends  of  the  earth 
to  one  common  centre,  the  extent  and  depth  of  its 
civilization,  the  wide  diffusion  of  the  arts,  culture, 
and  science  of  the  old  world.  The  darker  sides  of 
the  picture  he  would  do  well,  for  the  moment,  to  neg- 
lect ;  the  religious  rottenness,  the  financial  ruin,  the 
limited  few  for  whom  the  culture  and  civilization 
existed,  the  vast  hordes  of  slaves,  the  social  and 
political  cancers  which  had  eaten  out  the  heart  of 
the  empire.  These  things  should  be  abstracted ; 
the  majesty  of  Rome  and  her  civilization  is  so  incon- 
testably  great  that  a  world  in  which  that  force  was 
lost,  or  apparently  lost,  seemed  to  Christian  prophet 
and  heathen  thinker  alike  a  ruined  world.  From 
his  realization  of  the  greatness  of  the  empire,  and 
the  debt  under  which  she  had  laid  humanity,  let  the 
reader  now  turn  to  the  results  of  the  wanderings  of 
the  nations.  In  place  of  the  old  unity  of  speech,  re- 
ligion, law,  and  civilization,  we  find  a  babel  of  lan- 
guages, a  chaos  of  conflicting  barbarisms ;  anarchy 
written  large  on  all  life,  and  darkness  covering  the 
face  of  the  deep. 

A  brief  survey  of  the  extent  of  the  ruin  may  not 
be  out  of  place.  The  invasion  of  Greece  by  the  West 
Goths  under  Alaric  (396)  began  the  series  of  move- 
ments which  resulted  in  the  breaking  up  of  the  West- 
ern Empire  into  barbarian  kingdoms.  Driven  from 
their  original  home  round  the  Aral,  by  the  presence 
of  the  Huns,  the  West  Goths  swept  through  Thrace, 
Greece,  and  Illyricum  and  under  Alaric  captured 
Rome  itself  (408).  The  death  of  Alaric  at  Cosenza 
terminated  for  a  while  their  onward  march  ;  but  this 
deadly  blow  at  the  heart  of  the  empire  had  already 
been  accompanied  by  the  loss  of  outlying  provinces. 
In  407  the  Romans  retired  from  Britain ;    fifty  years 


ON   THE   MIDDLE  AGES  275 

later  such  civilization  as  they  had  established  was 
swept  away  before  the  inroads  of  Saxons,  Angles  and 
Jutes.  In  409  a  mixed  band  of  Vandals,  Suevians 
and  Alans — the  last  a  race,  probably,  of  non-Aryan 
origin^ — crossed  the  Rhine,  ravaged  Gaul,  and  occupied 
Spain,  though  many  of  the  towns  still  remained  in 
Roman  hands.  In  413  the  West  Goths,  retiring  from 
Italy,  advanced  to  the  Pyrenees,  and  established 
in  North-East  Spain  a  kingdom  with  Barcelona  as 
the  capital,  in  Southern  Gaul  a  second  kingdom 
round  Toulouse.  From  these  centres  they  slowly 
extended  their  dominion  over  almost  the  whole  of  the 
peninsula.  In  consequence  of  their  pressure,  the 
Vandals  in  429  abandoned  Spain  and  invaded  Africa. 
Under  the  leadership  of  Gaiseric  their  conquest  was 
rapid  ;  the  loss  of  Carthage  in  439  marked  the  begin- 
ning of  the  end  of  Roman  dominion.  Thirty  years 
later  Sardinia,  Corsica  and  the  Balearic  Islands  sur- 
rendered to  their  fleets. 

Northern  Gaul  had  already  fallen  before  the  Salian 
Franks.  This  German  tribe  from  the  regions  between 
the  Scheldt  and  Rhine  throughout  the  fifth  century 
slowly  consolidated  their  conquests,  until  in  507  Chlo- 
dovech  (Clovis)  drove  back  the  West  Goths  beyond 
the  Garonne.  Meanwhile  in  South-East  Gaul  the 
Burgundians  established  themselves  in  Savoy  (439) ; 
while  in  Italy  Theodoric  founded  an  Ostrogothic 
kingdom  which  stretched  from  Pannonia  (Hungary) 
to  Sicily  (489-493). 

Even  more  dreaded  than  Vandals,  Ostrogoths,  or 
Franks  were  the  Huns,  Asiatic  nomads  akin  to  the 
Turks,  who  in  the  fifth  century  established  under 
Attila  an  empire  which  reached  from  the  Volga  to 
the  Rhine,  from  the  Danube  to  the  Baltic.  Their 
defeat   at   Mery-sur-Seine   in   451   alone   saved   Gaul 


276  INFLUENCE  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH 

from  their  devastations ;  while  their  invasion  of 
Italy  in  452  and  their  sack  of  the  great  city  of  Aquileia 
are  said  to  have  led  to  the  foundation  of  Venice  by 
Christian  fugitives. 

In  the  sixth  century,  a  temporary  revival  of  the 
empire  under  Justinian  (f  576)  led  to  the  disappear- 
ance of  the  kingdoms  of  the  Vandals  and  Ostrogoths  ; 
but  other  races  were  ready  to  take  their  place.  In 
565  the  Lombards  descended  into  Italy  from  Pan- 
nonia,  and  within  four  years  won  for  themselves  the 
country  which  they  still  possess. 

Meanwhile  in  the  East  Slavonic  tribes,  Chrobats, 
Serbs,  Sorbs  and  others  were  slowly  occupying  what 
once  had  been  imperial  soil,  bringing  with  them  polit- 
ical problems,  the  end  of  which  is  not  yet ;  while  in 
Northern  Europe,  Slovenes,  Wends,  and  Czechs  were 
establishing  themselves  in  their  permanent  homes, 
attempting  to  hem  in  Teutonic  expansion  on  the 
East. 

As  if  the  medley  of  races  were  not  sufficient,  we 
find  in  the  seventh  century  the  Turanians  swarming 
over  parts  of  Europe.  In  679  the  Bulgarians  crossed 
the  Danube  and  occupied  their  present  kingdom. 
Another  oriental  tribe,  the  Ugrian  Magyars,  a  race 
very  different  in  origin  from  the  Huns,  were  for  many 
years  the  terror  of  Europe.  But  in  955,  after  their 
great  defeat  by  Otto  the  Great,  they  settled  down  in 
Pannonia,  a  district  afterwards  known,  by  a  mistake 
in  identification,  as  Ungaria  or  Hungary. 

A  blow  to  the  Church,  even  more  serious,  was  to 
come  from  the  East.  When  Gregory  the  Great  died 
(604),  Muhammad  had  not  yet  begun  to  believe  in  his 
own  mission.  Before  the  century  was  completed, 
Syria,  North  Africa,  Egypt,  the  most  fertile  districts 
of  Spain — Leon  alone  was  saved  for  the  Cross — had 


ON   THE   MIDDLE   AGES  277 

exchanged  their  Christianity  for  the  creed  of  their 
Muslim  masters.  The  great  victory  of  Charles  Martel 
at  Tours  (732)  alone  saved  France  from  the  same 
fate.  At  one  time  (849)  it  seemed  as  if  Rome  herself 
would  become  a  Muhammadan  city ;  the  coasts  and 
islands  of  Italy  had  already  fallen  before  the  Saracen 
fleets. 

The  West  had  scarcely  begun  to  recover  from  its 
struggle  with  the  CaHphate  when  the  thirst  for  plun- 
der woke  again  in  North  and  East.  Swarms  of  Wik- 
ings,  secure  in  their  command  of  the  sea,  descended 
on  every  coast,  swept  up  the  rivers  to  burn  the  inland 
towns,  and  destroyed  with  indifferent  ferocity  church, 
castle,  and  village.  ''  Deliver  us,  O  Lord,'*  ran  the 
litany  of  the  times,  ''  from  the  frenzy  of  the  North- 
men.'' Heathenism  hurled  itself  in  a  last  desperate 
rally  on  the  Christian  world.  Thor  and  Woden  and 
misshapen  Asiatic  monsters  struggled  to  overthrow 
the  Cross. 

When  in  482  the  terrible  Attila,  after  his  defeat 
by  the  Visigoths  at  the  battle  of  the  Catelaunian 
fields  (Chalons),  flung  himself  on  Italy,  the  Romans, 
in  their  despair,  sent  the  foremost  of  their  citizens 
to  implore  the  Hun  to  make  peace  and  withdraw. 
With  their  senators  they  associated  the  venerable 
Leo,  their  bishop.  The  mission  was  successful ;  Attila 
and  his  Mongolian  hordes  retired  to  Pannonia.  Later 
legends  have  claimed  all  the  credit  of  this  deliverance 
for  the  Bishop  of  Rome.  Leo  is  represented,  for 
instance,  in  the  paintings  of  Raffaele  as  standing  with 
the  great  figures  of  St.  Peter  and  St.  Paul  at  his  back, 
menacing  with  drawn  sword  and  unutterable  woes 
the  trembling  Hun.  Which  things  are  an  allegory. 
In  Leo,  for  whose  person  Attila  probably  felt  no  more 
reverence  than  for  that  of  his  fellows  in  the  deputy- 


278  INFLUENCE  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH 

tion,  we  salute  the  representative  of  the  force  which 
alone  could  subdue  the  barbarian.  For  we  may 
boldly  claim  that  the  Church  saved  civilization  ;  but 
for  her  missions  and  her  influence  this  would  have 
perished. 


II 

The  story  of  Christian  aggression  forms  no  part  of 
our  purpose.  The  great  missions  of  the  early  Middle 
Ages  will  ever  remain  one  of  the  proudest  records  of 
the  Church.  The  heroes  of  the  Cross,  with  their  lives 
in  their  hands,  succeeded  in  recovering  for  their  Master 
the  lost  provinces  of  His  kingdom.  From  the  Steppes 
of  Russia  to  the  shores  of  the  Atlantic,  the  barbarians, 
nominally  at  least,  before  the  end  of  the  eleventh 
century  accepted  the  authority  and  submitted  to 
the  discipline  of  the  Church.  The  savage  Wends 
between  the  Elbe  and  Oder  were  almost  the  last 
to  forsake  their  idols  ;  not  until  1333  did  Albert  the 
Bear  of  Brandenburg  beat  down  into  a  reluctant  Chris- 
tianity the  dwellers  round  the  modern  Berlin.  But 
passing  by  the  records  of  victory,  we  must  confine 
ourselves  to  the  question  :  what  was  the  effect  upon 
civilization  of  this  aggression  of  the  Church  ? 

We  have  claimed  that  civilization  was  saved  by  the 
Church  ;  at  the  same  time  it  was  transformed.  As  is 
usual  in  all  great  movements,  the  movement  itself 
was  almost  unconscious  of  what  it  effected.  The 
Church  was  not  thinking  of  civilization — for  civiliza- 
tion in  some  of  its  aspects  the  mediaeval  .Church 
had  a  profound  contempt — she  was  thinking  of  her- 
self, or  rather  of  her  Master.     The  great  missionary 


ON   THE   MIDDLE  AGES  279 

enterprises  inaugurated  in  the  seventh  century  by 
Pope  Gregory  the  Great  were  only  just  in  time.  On 
every  side  the  dominion  of  the  Church  was  threatened, 
her  borders  straitened.  Only  by  persistent  aggres- 
sion could  Christianity  be  saved,  more  especially 
when  we  remember  that  the  Cross  was  destined  shortly 
to  lose  the  Greek  Empire  in  Europe  and  Asia  Minor  to 
the  Othman  Turks. 

The  changes  produced  by  the  inrush  of  the  bar- 
barians were  more  than  territorial.  They  swept 
away  not  only  Roman  rule,  but  Roman  civilization  ; 
this  last,  in  some  lands,  partially  only,  in  others,  for 
instance  England,  absolutely  and  for  ever.  Roman 
law  gave  place  to  the  customs  of  the  tribes  ;  Roman 
schools  survived  only  in  a  few  sheltered  towns  ;  classic 
culture  became  lost  for  centuries  ;  above  all  the  ''  Pax 
Romana,''  the  greatest  gift  which  Rome  conferred 
on  humanity,  was  exchanged  for  the  confused  struggle 
of  tribe  with  tribe.  Life  everywhere,  in  all  its  forms, 
whether  social  or  political,  tended  to  slip  back  into 
barbarism.  But  for  the  Church  the  ruin  would  have 
been  complete. 

For,  save  in  the  Church,  where  else  shall  we  find, 
in  the  general  welter  of  the  times,  a  force  sufficient  to 
save  civilization  ?  Shall  we  turn  to  the  new  nations 
— Franks,  Huns,  Northmen  and  the  like  ?  Or,  since 
this  is  unthinkable,  shall  we  fall  back  upon  the  culture 
introduced  into  Europe  by  the  Arabs  ;  the  arts  and 
sciences  which  we  owe  to  their  inspiration  ?  But 
unless  we  misread  the  whole  history  of  the  West, 
Eastern  culture  must  always  have  formed  an  alien 
element,  the  mark,  at  best,  of  Saracen  conquerors. 
Its  philosophy,  potent  though  it  became  as  an  heretical 
force  in  the  schools  of  Toledo  and  Paris,  was  too  essen- 
tially Eastern  in  its  Pantheism  to  influence  the  West. 


28o  INFLUENCE  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH 

As  one  of  the  elements  absorbed  by  the  awakening 
intelligence  of  Europe,  Saracen  culture  had  its  value  ; 
as  a  foundation  for  Western  civilization  and  moral  life 
it  was  impossible.  Nor  shall  we  rest  on  firmer  ground 
if  we  seek  for  our  sources  of  civilization  in  the  survival 
of  the  old  Greek  and  Roman  culture. 

The  extent  of  the  survival  of  the  Roman  culture 
— for  our  present  purpose  Greek  letters  may  be  neg- 
lected— has  often,  it  is  true,  been  underestimated. 
In  the  darkest  days  of  barbarian  triumph  there  were 
still  here  and  there,  in  Italy  at  least,  Roman  Schools, 
and  the  traditions  of  Roman  culture  and  law.  These, 
like  Roman  roads,  Roman  aqueducts  and  bridges, 
were  built  too  solidly  to  be  easily  swept  away.  But 
though  surviving,  their  effect  upon  the  life  of  the  sur- 
rounding barbarians  was  but  slight.  We  may  take, 
for  instance,  Roman  Law,  the  codification  of  which 
was  the  great  legacy  of  the  later  Empire.  The  key 
to  the  existence  of  Lombard  cities  and  Lombard 
schools  lies  in  the  continued  recognition  through  the 
darkest  ages  of  the  old  Roman  system  of  jurisprudence. 
But  the  effect  of  Roman  Law  upon  the  barbarians 
was  almost  nil  until  they  had  been  Christianized. 
Only  when  the  age  of  iron  gave  place  to  the  first  rude 
attempts  at  order  could  Roman  Law  re-assert  herself. 
Then  indeed  her  influence  was  tremendous,  both 
upon  the  common  law  of  the  new  nations,  and  especi- 
ally upon  the  Canon  Law  of  the  Church.  This  last, 
in  fact,  was  moulded  upon  the  Roman  model.  But 
this  influence,  we  maintain,  was  secondary,  not  causal, 
the  result  of  a  suitable  environment  prepared  by  the 
Church.  Without  the  civihzation  fostered  by  the 
Church  the  nations  would  never  have  turned  from 
their  rude  codes  to  the  more  scientific  jurisprudence 
of  Justinian.     For  the  question  of  the  influence  of 


©N   THE   MIDDLE   AGES  281 

Roman  Law  resolves  itself  into  the  struggle  between 
the  surviving  Romanized  and  Christianized  civic 
communities  and  the  surrounding  barbarian  and 
heathen  populations  with  their  own  codes.  But  for 
Christianity  the  struggle  would  have  been  unto  death  ; 
it  was  really  the  Christianity  of  the  towns  that  won 
over  the  country  pagans. 

In  estimating  the  effect  of  Roman  Law  upon  civil- 
ization we  must  not  forget  that  its  influence  was  not 
without  its  drawbacks.  If  we  compare  the  legal 
story  of  England  and  Germany  we  see  the  greater 
benefit  that  might  have  accrued  from  the  growth  of 
a  native  system  of  law,  Teutonic  in  origin,  moulded 
under  Christian  influences,  than  from  the  institution 
of  a  jurisprudence  that  in  some  aspects  at  least  was 
essentially  alien.  Many  of  the  worst  features  of  law, 
in  Germany  especially,  are  the  result  of  this  old  wine 
in  new  bottles. 

This  reasoning  is  still  more  correct  when  applied 
to  Roman  schools,  and  all  the  culture  that  Roman 
schools  might  be  supposed  to  have  fostered.  That 
here  and  there  the  traditions  of  the  old  schools  lingered 
on,  perhaps  even  the  actual  schools  themselves,  need 
not  be  disputed.  But  the  influence  of  this  old  culture 
as  a  civilizing  element  was  almost  nothing,  until  the 
Church  had  done  the  spade-work  which  alone  made 
it  fruitful.  The  new  schools  of  Europe,  from  Charles 
the  Great  and  Alcuin  to  Abailard,  were,  with  few  excep- 
tions, strictly  Christian  schools  ;  if  not  the  work  of 
missionaries,  at  any  rate  the  result  of  the  labours  of 
great  Christian  teachers.  From  the  sixth  to  the 
twelfth  centuries  the  great  educational  centres  were 
almost  invariably  monasteries  ;  they  alone  kept  burn- 
ing a  dim  but  living  light.  In  the  twelfth  century 
no  doubt  we  see  a  change.     Education  passed  away 


282  INFLUENCE  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH 

from  the  monastery  to  the  cathedral  school ;  this 
last,  in  turn,  gave  place  to  the  grammar  school  and 
the  university.  We  may  call  this  great  twelfth  cen- 
tury movement — the  leading  figure  of  which  was 
Abailard — '*  the  protest  of  the  secular  spirit  "  ;  but, 
if  so,  we  must  be  careful  to  define  our  terms.  The 
opposition  of  ''  secular ''  is  to  the  ''  regular ''  or  mon- 
astic, not  to  the  Church,  much  less  to  Christianity — 
this  last  an  idea  almost  inconceivable  to  the  mediaeval 
mind.  But  whether  by  ''  secular  ''  or  *'  regular '', 
the  mediaeval  education  of  Europe,  such  as  it  was, 
owed  all  to  the  protecting  care  of  the  Church — Italy 
alone  possibly  excepted — until  the  rise  of  the  Uni- 
versities, and  the  first  dawn  of  the  Renaissance. 

But  if  the  great  civilizing  forces  of  the  Middle  Ages 
cannot  be  found  in  either  Roman  Law  or  Roman 
Schools,  much  less  shall  we  find  them  in  the  survival  of 
that  Roman  and  Greek  culture  which  formed  so  great 
a  factor  in  the  Renaissance.  As  a  matter  of  fact, 
during  the  Middle  Ages  Latin  literature  was  almost 
unknown.  Virgil  survived  ;  but  chiefly  as  the  memory 
of  a  mighty  wizard.  The  gold  of  past  culture  had 
sunk ;  for  the  most  part  it  was  only  the  light  and 
worthless  rubbish  that  had  floated  down  the  stream 
of  time,  saved  for  us  by  Boethius,  Cassiodorus,  Mar- 
tianus  Capella  and  other  compilers.  So  Httle  was 
the  old  culture  a  factor  in  the  new  civiUzation  that  it 
might  be  maintained,  with  a  fair  show  of  justice, 
that  the  Church  sinned  against  civilization  by  the 
contempt  she  poured  upon  this  culture,  and  the 
trivial  place  in  life  to  which  through  her  influence 
culture  was  condemned  during  mediaeval  times,  with 
the  single  exception,  from  the  twelfth  century  onwards, 
of  the  logic  of  Aristotle— the  ''  new  logic ''  as  it  was 
called— and  Plato's  doctrine  of  ideas.     The  rise    of 


ON  THE   MIDDLE  AGES  283 

the  Western  Church  was  no  doubt  accompanied  by 
a  steady  decHne  in  the  study  of  classical  letters  ;  Greek 
became  an  unknown  language  ;  the  grammarian  was 
expelled  by  the  schoolman  ;  in  some  quarters  learn- 
ing was  looked  upon  as  a  hindrance  to  the  Gospel. 
The  reproduction  of  material  became,  in  time,  all 
that  was  asked  of  scholars.  But  the  more  we  em- 
phasize this  result,  the  more  potent  the  argument 
that  the  new  civilization  was  not  the  effect  of  the 
survival  of  Greek  or  Roman  culture.  No  better 
illustration  of  this  can  be  found  than  the  fact  that 
the  hostility  of  the  Church  to  pagan  culture  finds  its 
most  famous  expression  in  one  to  whom  civilization 
will  ever  owe  an  incalculable  debt.i 

The  hostility  to  classic  culture  of  Gregory  the  Great 
and  other  early  mediaeval  ecclesiastics  should  not  be 
misinterpreted.  *'  It  was  to  a  great  extent  merely 
the  reflection  within  the  sphere  of  Theology  of  the 
political  and  social  conditions  of  the  times.''  2  Jn 
reality  it  was  only  among  Churchmen  that  an  educa- 
tional ideal  was  maintained  at  all.  We  cannot  there- 
fore subscribe  to  the  opinion  of  some  writers  of  repute 
who  have  contended  that  the  hostility  of  the  Church 
to  secular  learning  flung  back  civilization,  to  some 
extent  even  Christianity  itself,  into  a  superstition 
very  little  superior  to  paganism.  We  may  own  that 
the  age  between  Charles  the  Great  and  Hildebrand 
was  one  of  almost  universal  darkness,  in  which  re- 
ligion, divorced  not  merely  from  learning  but  also 
from  morality,  assimilated  to  herself  a  variety  of  pagan 


^  Gregory  the  Great :  Ep.  ix.  54.  "  A  report  has  reached  us 
which  we  cannot  explain  without  a  blush  that  thou  expoundest 
grammar  to  certain  friends,"  etc. 

2  Rashdall,  Universities  *«  the  Middle  Ages,  i.  26. 


284  INFLUENCE  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH 

and  materialistic  elements.  But  this  divorce,  with 
all  its  disastrous  consequences  to  civilization,  was 
due  to  the  hopeless  welter  of  the  age  rather  than  to 
the  spirit  of  the  Church.  We  have  proof  of  this  last 
in  the  fact  that  every  mediaeval  revival  of  religious 
life,  for  instance  the  great  reform  of  the  eleventh 
century,  the  moving  spirit  of  which  was  Hildebrand, 
led  at  once  to  a  new  interest  in  letters,  in  art,  and 
in  all  the  higher  things  of  life.  Even  the  religious 
movements  which  at  first  sight  seem  antagonistic 
to  civilization,  for  instance  monasticism,  will  be 
found,  upon  examination,  to  furnish  their  contribu- 
tion. 

We  have  claimed  that  the  idea  of  finding  the  great 
new  civilizing  factor  in  the  life  of  the  barbarian 
nations  is  unthinkable.  The  statement  needs  a  certain 
qualification.  In  the  successive  swarms  of  barbarians 
the  keenest  eye  can  detect  little  but  savagery,  miti- 
gated by  frankness  and  bravery,  and  by  a  certain 
absence  of  the  corruptions  of  the  dying  Roman  world. 
Nevertheless  the  new  nations  formed  a  fine  soil  for 
the  growth  of  a  new  culture  ;  but  the  new  culture 
was  in  every  case  planted  there  by  the  Church,  in  no 
case  the  product  of  internal  latent  powers.  We  may 
take  as  an  illustration  the  case  of  the  Northmen  of 
Normandy.  At  the  commencement  of  the  tenth  cen- 
tury they  were  still  the  terror  and  scourge  of  Christen- 
dom. Their  drinking  cups  were  oftentimes  human 
skulls  ;  their  amusement  to  throw  children  into  the 
air  and  catch  them  on  the  points  of  their  spears.  By 
the  end  of  the  century  the  Norman  pirates  had  for- 
gotten their  native  land,  its  language  and  rough  cus- 
toms, and  abandoned  the  worship  of  Woden  for  that 
of  '*  the  white  Christ.'*  The  result  was  marvellous, 
both  in  the  facts  themselves  and  in  the  rapidity  of  their 


ON  THE   MIDDLE  AGES  285 

accomplishment.  The  new  faith  chastened  and  trans- 
formed into  the  beginnings  of  a  new  poetry  the  wild 
fancy  which  had  thought  of  the  thunder  as  the  hammer 
of  Thor,  and  heard  in  the  wind  the  war-cry  of  Woden. 
Hence  it  is  in  Normandy  that  we  first  see  the  break- 
ing of  light  in  the  dark  ages.  There  the  new  and 
nobler  spirit  became  a  national  enthusiasm.  Monas- 
teries arose  in  every  glade,  while  the  schools  of  Bee 
and  Avranches  might  well  be  called,  for  awhile,  the 
universities  of  the  West.  Thus  the  energy  of  the 
Wiking  pirates,  at  the  call  of  the  Church,  aroused 
Europe  from  its  night  of  sleep,  and  gave  a  new 
dawn  to  civilization.  But  the  force  that  made  for 
civilization  was  the  transforming  touch  of  the 
Church. 

Before  we  pass  away  from  the  conversion  of  the 
nations  it  may  be  well  to  meet  an  objection.  These 
wholesale  conversions,  it  may  be  urged,  were  but 
nominal  and  external.  Christianity  gave  to  barbar- 
ism hardly  more  than  its  superstition,  turning  its 
cruelty  into  the  new  channels  of  hatred  for  unbe- 
lievers and  heretics.  It  scarcely  cleansed  the  outside 
of  the  cup  and  platter ;  within  it  was  as  of  old  full  of 
extortion  and  excess.  All  this  is  true  and  more. 
Nevertheless  it  is  one  of  those  half  truths  which  are 
more  false  than  any  lie.  ''Where  is  that  country 
and  what  is  that  time  in  which  Christianity  has  been 
more  than  this  amongst  the  great  multitude  of  those 
who  have  called  and  professed  themselves  Christians  ? 
The  travellers  in  the  narrow  way  who  are  guided  by 
her  vital  spirit  have  ever  been  the  ''  chosen  few."  The 
travellers  along  the  broad  way,  wearing  her  exterior 
and  visible  badges,  have  ever  been  the  ''  many  called.'* 
And  yet  he  who  should  induce  any  heathen  people  to 
adopt  the  mere  ceremonial  of  the  Church,   to  cele- 


286  INFLUENCE  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH 

brate  her  ritual,  and  to  recognize,  though  but  in  words, 
the  authority  of  her  Divine  Head,  would  confer  on 
them  a  blessing  exceeding  all  which  mere  human 
philanthropy  has  ever  accomplished  or  designed. 
For  such  is  the  vivifying  influence  of  the  spirit  of  the 
Gospel  that  it  can  never  be  long  otherwise  than  prolific 
of  the  highest  temporal  benefits  to  all,  and  of  the 
highest  spiritual  blessing  to  some  in  every  land  which 
acknowledges  it  as  a  rule  of  life,  and  receives  it  as  a 
system  of  worship."  ^ 

To  the  same  effect  also  is  the  verdict  of  another 
thinker.  "  Christianity,"  says  Ritter,  in  his  History 
of  Christian  Philosophy,  ''  offered  itself  and  was  ac- 
cepted by  the  German  tribes  as  a  law  and  as  a  dis- 
cipline, as  an  ineffable  incomprehensible  mystery. 
Its  fruits  were  righteousness  and  works  and  belief  in 
the  dead  word.  But  in  a  barbarous  people  this  is  an 
immense  advance,  an  inestimable  benefit.  Ritual 
observance  is  a  taming,  humihating  process  ;  it  is  sub- 
mission to  law  ;  it  is  the  acknowledgment  of  spiritual 
inferiority ;  it  implies  self-subjection,  self-conquest, 
self-sacrifice.  It  is  not  religion  in  its  highest  sense, 
but  it  is  a  preparation  for  it." 

One  result  of  this  nominal  and  rudimentary  con- 
version must  not  be  overlooked.  Its  very  super- 
ficiality rendered  easy  the  supremacy  of  Rome.  Super- 
stition is  ever  the  characteristic  of  the  heathen  ;  con- 
version and  civilization  but  slowly  destroy  its  hold. 
Upon  its  follies  and  terrors,  as  well  as  upon  reverence 
and  awe,  Rome  securely  founded  her  vast  system 
of  privilege  and  pretension.  Moreover,  if  the  Church 
influenced  the  barbarian,  the  barbarian  was  not  with- 
out his  reaction  on  the  Church.     We  see  this  in  the 

^  Sir  J.  Stephen,  Collected  Essays,  p.  130. 


ON  THE   MIDDLE  AGES  287 

growth  in  the  Church  of  materiaUzed  superstitions.^ 
If  these  to  the  modern  mind  seem  oftentimes  to  differ 
but  shghtly  from  the  grossest  idolatries  we  must 
remember,  as  some  excuse,  the  wilder  practices  from 
which  the  heathen  were  weaned.  The  history  of 
Latin  Christianity  is  the  demonstration  that  childish- 
ness, as  well  as  wisdom,  is  oftentimes  justified  by 
her  children.  The  whole  policy  of  Rome,  in  its  deal- 
ings with  the  heathen,  will  be  found  in  the  letter  of 
Gregory  the  Great  to  MelHtus :  ''It  is  evidently 
impossible,  in  the  case  of  hard  hearts,  to  cut  off  every- 
thing at  once.  A  man  who  is  endeavouring  to  scale 
a  summit  rises  by  steps,  not  by  bounds.''  2  Rome 
grew  because  she  was  in  creed,  organization  and  ritual 
perfectly  adapted,  as  a  biologist  would  phrase  it,  to 
an  imperfect  environment.  She  ruled  the  age  be- 
cause!! she  represented  in  herself  its  weakness  as  well 
as  its  strength.  Unlike  the  early  Church  she  took 
refuge  in  a  policy  of  syncretism*. 


Ill 

We  should  do  well  to  inquire  what  it  was  in  the 
life  of  the  mediaeval  Church  that  especially  made  for 
civilization  in  its  relations  with  the  rough  material 
left  by  the  barbarian  conquests.     One  word  of  caution 

^  See  Diet.  Christian  Antiq.,  ii.  1542. 

2  The  whole  letter  should  be  read.  See  Bede  H.  B.  i.  xxx. 
With  this  should  be  compared  Gregory's  letter  to  Augustine,  ib. 
i.  xxvii.  (undoubtedly  genuine),  and  the  letter  of  Boniface  in 
Haddan  and  Stubbs'  Councils,  iii.  304-6. 

2  On  the  refusal  of  the  Church  in  the  first  three  centuries  to 
adopt  a  policy  bf  syncretism  see  my  Persecution  in  the  Early 
Church,  pp.  86,  351. 


288  INFLUENCE  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH 

is  advisable  at  the  outset.  In  our  discussion  we  shall 
deal  with  the  matter  in  an  abstract  fashion,  examining 
the  great  forces  and  processes  of  society  much  as  the 
anatomist  examines  an  organism  or  bodily  frame- 
work. From  such  examination  much  may  be  learned. 
But  after  all  more  important  far  than  organic  frame- 
work is  the  Hfe  of  which  this  frame  is  but  the  outer 
covering  or  shell.  And  it  was  neither  the  beauty  of 
its  sacred  writings,  the  strength  of  its  organizations, 
nor  the  fascination  of  its  religious  services,  but  the 
life  of  Christ  manifesting  itself  abundantly  in  the 
mediaeval  Church — poor,  incomplete,  inconsistent,  as 
may  at  times  have  been  its  expression — that  saved 
the  world  from  the  deluge,  and  in  place  of  barbarism 
restored  civilization. 

The  student  would  do  well  to  note  that  the  Chris- 
tianity which  civilized  has  always  been  Catholic. 
Many  of  the  barbarians  were  converted  at  a  time 
when  they  were  in  contact  with  Arians,  and  Arians,  in 
consequence,  they  became.  But  Arianism,  however 
vigorous  it  might  appear  for  the  moment,  has  always 
proved  in  the  long  run  to  be  effete  and  unfruitful.  The 
peoples  which  adopted  it  have  either  died  out,  for  in- 
stance the  Vandals,  or  have  repented  and  received  the 
Catholic  faith,  as  the  Visigoths.  But  in  all  ages  the 
Christianity  which  has  remained  loyal  to  Christ  and 
His  claims  has  wielded  an  influence  the  extent  and 
duration  of  which  cannot  be  explained  by  logic,  and 
which  forms  in  itself  no  small  part  of  the  argument 
for  the  truth  of  the  Catholic  faith. 

Moreover,  in  spite  of  all  shortcomings,  there  has 
never  been  a  time  when  the  Church  has  forgotten  its 
divine  mission  as  the  representative  of  Him  Who 
came  not  to  be  ministered  unto  but  to  minister. 
Even  in  the  dreariest  days  God  has  not  left  Himself 


ON   THE   MIDDLE   AGES  289 

without  His  witnesses,  men  and  women  not  a  few, 
whose  lives,  made  radiant  by  the  Cross,  have  filled 
with  light  the  darkest  places.  In  every  age,  even  in 
those  in  which  the  life  of  the  Church  has  seemed  at 
its  lowest,  the  greatest  force  that  has  made  for  civiliza- 
tion and  uplifting  has  been  the  continued  vitality  of  the 
great  principles  of  the  Gospel ;  its  abounding  altru- 
ism ;  the  value  given  to  the  poorest  and  meanest  as 
the  brother  for  whom  Christ  died  ;  the  stress  laid  upon 
sin  as  the  blot  on  human  life,  the  hindrance  to  further 
progress,  the  cause  of  inevitable  retribution  ;  the 
revolution  effected  by  the  teaching  of  a  future  life, 
the  bringing  in  of  a  new  world  to  redress  the  balance 
of  the  old,  with  its  doctrine  of  judgement  and  conse- 
quent rewards  and  punishments. 

Nor  must  we  overlook  in  our  enumeration  of  the 
factors  in  Christianity  that  have  made  for  the  regenera- 
tion of  mankind  its  optimism.  The  crude  doctrine 
of  total  depravity  enunciated  by  St.  Augustine  has 
never  succeeded  in  banishing,  in  practice,  the  belief 
of  the  Church  that  the  latent  powers  which  make  for 
righteousness  exceed  those  which  are  evil,  that  even 
in  the  far  country  man  is  near  the  kingdom  of  God, 
and  that  human  nature,  on  the  whole,  is  on  the  side 
of  the  angels.  With  these  necessary  cautions  we  are 
now  in  a  position  to  approach  the  somewhat  abstract 
question  ;  what  was  it  in  the  mediaeval  Church  that 
especially  fitted  it  to  be  the  formative  factor  in  medi- 
aeval civilization  ? 

Before  an  answer  can  be  given  we  need  to  ask  the 
further  question  :  what  were  the  essential  features 
of  the  barbarians  the  taming  of  whom  fell  to  the  lot 
of  the  Church.  By  an  answer  we  do  not  intend  a 
catalogue  of  vices — cruelty,  lust,  bloodshed,  and  the 
like — these,  it  might  fairly  be  contended,  were  as 
c.c.  u 


290  INFLUENCE  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH 

marked  characteristics  of  the  Romans  whom  they  had 
conquered  as  of  the  barbarian  victors.  We  would 
look  deeper  ;  can  we  find  in  barbarism  a  general  for- 
mula of  which  its  various  aspects  are  in  the  main  the 
expression  ?  Can  we  find  a  similar  general  formula 
in  the  life  of  the  mediaeval  Church  ?  We  think  we 
can. 

The  great  central  principle  of  barbarism,  as  we  see 
it  at  work  in  the  Western  world  on  the  break  up  of 
the  empire,  is  its  essential  individualism.  The  limit 
of  outlook  is  the  local  tribe  ;  neighbour  and  enemy 
are  almost  interchangeable  terms.  The  one  bond  of 
solidarity  is  the  great  chief,  and  the  usages  and  cus- 
toms that  centuries  of  superstition  had  turned  into 
bonds  more  unbreakable  than  steel.  The  state  as 
state — a  collective  fact,  not  the  mere  expression  of 
loyalty  to  the  individual  chief — is  unknown  ;  and 
in  consequence  all  political  matters  are  in  constant 
flux.  As  in  the  lower  organisms,  kingdoms  divide 
and  sub-divide,  or  reunite  their  fragments,  with  amaz- 
ing facility.  Generalizations  are  often  dangerous, 
but  we  shall  not  err  widely  in  summing  up  the  inner 
spirit  of  European  barbarism  as  unregulated  individ- 
ualism. 

One  illustration  of  this  position  must  suffice.  The 
Wiking,  sailing  from  his  Northern  home,  thinks  noth- 
ing of  the  spread  of  his  empire,  casts  few  looks  behind, 
is  bound  by  no  links  of  loyalty.  He  sails  hither  and 
thither,  indifferent  to  all  save  the  impulses  of  the 
moment.  If  he  settles,  it  is  not  as  a  colonist  pushing 
forward  the  frontiers  of  his  native  state.  Whether 
Varangian  in  Russia,  or  Norman  in  France  and  Sicily, 
he  forgets  the  old  and  founds  round  himself  a  new 
kingdom.  The  very  intensity  of  his  individualism, 
unfettered  by  national  outlook    or  lasting  tradition, 


ON   THE   MIDDLE  AGES  291 

enables  him  rapidly  to  adapt  the  new  state,  whether 
in  Russia,  France,  or  Sicily,  to  the  special  environ- 
ment. Even  language,  the  one  feature,  besides  his 
religion,  which  links  him  on  to  his  former  associates, 
is  to  him  so  essentially  an  individual  matter,  that  he 
is  wilHng  to  cast  it  aside  for  the  tongue  of  the  people 
he  has  conquered,  as  he  had  already  cast  aside  his 
religion.  The  Frank  in  Gaul,  Norman  in  France, 
Varangian  in  Russia,  Lombard  in  Italy,  are  but  a 
few  of  the  illustrations  of  this  principle  that  we  could 
furnish. 

Nor  was  it  only  among  the  barbarians  that  we 
find  the  action  of  particularist  tendencies.  We  see 
the  same  fatal  process  at  work  in  the  Carolingian 
Empire.  The  kingdom  the  unity  of  which  has  been 
painfully  accomplished  by  the  labours  of  some  hero, 
ever  tends  to  fall  back  into  an  aggregation  of  counties 
loosely  bound  together  by  shadowy  ties,  which  are  yet 
too  weak  to  prevent  the  constant  internecine  strife. 
The  period  of  the  heptarchy  was  not  peculiar  to  Eng- 
land ;  what  was  peculiar  was  the  speedy  deliverance 
of  our  country  from  the  centrifugal  forces  which  on 
the  Continent  wrecked  all  attempts  at  political  unity. 
The  student  of  to-day  is  apt  to  be  misled  by  such 
modern  facts  as  France,  Italy  and  Germany  into  for- 
getting that  in  the  Middle  Ages  the  Continent  was 
split  up  into  an  indescribable  number  of  semi-inde- 
pendent duchies,  counties,  bishoprics,  and  the  like. 
But  for  the  unity  given  by  the  Church  the  forces  of 
disintegration  might  have  become  supreme. 

In  contrast  to  this  unregulated  individualism  of 
the  barbarian,  we  find  in  the  mediaeval  economy  the 
working  out  of  the  great  principle  of  solidarity.  The 
effort  of  human  society  in  the  Middle  Ages  is  to  fit 
itself  in  with  great  institutions,  or  rather  with  the 


292  INFLUENCE  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH 

governing  ideas  of  such  institutions.  The  one  means 
that  is  held  out  to  men  as  the  key  to  accompHshment 
is  the  sinking  of  the  individual  in  some  form  of  cor- 
porate life.  Instead  of  the  struggle  of  clan  with  clan 
we  find  the  great  dominant  conception  of  a  world- 
empire  and  a  world-Church.  Of  these  two  the  second 
is  the  more  important ;  the  unity  of  all  in  one  Catholic 
Church  lies  at  the  root  of  the  notion  of  one  Holy  Roman 
Empire. 

The  absorption  of  the  individual  into  a  corpora- 
tion, primarily  spiritual  but  with  a  secondary  out- 
look upon  the  political,  is  thus  the  key  to  mediaeval 
life  and  thought.  The  religious  life  of  the  individual 
was  but  in  a  slight  sense  a  matter  of  his  own  experience. 
From  first  to  last  in  the  spiritual  world  he  is  con- 
ditioned and  determined  by  his  corporate  environ- 
ment ;  his  baptism  into  the  corporation,  his  participa- 
tion in  its  sacraments,  his  relation  to  a  priestly  caste, 
and  the  like.  Just  as  in  the  secular  mediaeval  state 
the  life  of  the  individual  was  conditioned  by  his  guild, 
rank,  or  city  in  a  way  and  to  a  degree  of  which  we 
have  to-day  illustrations  only  in  the  dreams  of  Social- 
ists, so,  even  more  strictly,  in  the  spiritual  life.  In 
fact,  it  was  the  training  in  the  consciousness  of  solidar- 
ity, given  from  cradle  to  grave  by  the  Church,  that 
alone  made  possible  the  emphasis  placed  upon  cor- 
porate life  in  the  civil  estate. 

We  are  at  length  in  a  position  to  answer  our  ques- 
tion :  What  was  the  great  force  in  the  Catholic  Church 
that  made  for  civilization,  leaving  aside  for  the  mo- 
ment its  definite  spiritual  activities?  We  find  it  in 
this  consciousness  of  solidarity.  But  in  reality  this 
principle  is  none  other  than  the  translation  into  new 
and  more  spiritual  terms  of  the  root  principles  of  the 
old  Roman  Empire  into  whose  dominion  the  Church 


ON   THE   MIDDLE   AGES  293 

had  stepped,  whose  genius  of  administration  she  had 
inherited,  whose  work  she  was  destined  to  carry  on 
to  still  higher  issues.  This  it  was,  enforced  by  all 
the  sanctions  and  fears  of  another  world,  that  subdued 
the  individualism  of  the  barbarian,  with  its  vagaries 
and  divisions,  and  forced  him  slowly  to  adapt  himself 
to  the  needs,  limitations  and  service  of  society  ;  that 
gave  him  a  wider  outlook  than  the  clan  and  its  struggles; 
that  made  him  conscious  both  of  what  he  owed  to 
posterity,  and  of  his  indebtedness  to  the  past. 

Furthermore  in  this  emphasis  of  solidarity  we  see 
the  force  which  prepared  the  new  races  to  receive  the 
inheritance  of  law  and  order  which  had  come  down 
to  them  from  Rome.  The  Church  by  its  great  essen- 
tial ideas  made  ready  the  soil,  dug  about  the  roots, 
rendered  possible  in  different  ways  the  renewed  vital- 
ity of  the  withered  but  undying  principles  of  Roman 
and  Hellenic  civilization.  The  secret  of  civilization 
is  growth  combined  with  continuity  ;  progress  is  never 
the  result  of  cataclysm.  The  Church  not  only  sup- 
plied the  element  of  continuity  with  older  cultures, 
but,  from  its  very  nature,  the  possibihties  of  and 
stimulus  to  development  and  growth. 

The  student  should  not  forget  that  the  emphasis 
laid  by  the  Church  upon  solidarity  was  not  material 
only  ;  it  demanded  from  all  the  apperception  of  cer- 
tain ideas.  The  gross  materialism  of  much  of  the 
corporate  life  of  the  mediaeval  Church  cannot  be 
denied ;  but  even  the  most  superstitious  devotee 
could  not  fail  to  be  conscious  at  sundry  times  and  in 
divers  ways  of  the  existence  of  a  great  spiritual  society 
the  bounds  of  which,  both  past  and  future,  were  in 
the  infinite  distances.  By  many  differing  ways  (super- 
stitious or  otherwise  need  not  now  detain  us),  he  was 
ever  forced   to   realize   that  his  salvation   depended 


294  INFLUENCE  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH 

completely  upon  his  union  with  a  Church  visible  and 
invisible,  upon  forces  spiritual,  far-reaching,  infinite, 
that  transcended  the  little  circle  of  his  immediate 
sensations.  Whatever  the  superstition,  or  ignorance 
of  the  Middle  Ages — and  we  are  not  careful  to  mini- 
mize these  matters — underlying  all  we  may  find  the 
presence  of  potent  ideas  that  drove  men  to  look  before 
and  after.  But  it  is  precisely  the  absence  of  such 
ideas  that  constitutes  barbarism,  with  its  concentra- 
tion upon  the  needs  of  the  moment ;  it  is  the  pres- 
ence above  all  else  of  such  ideas  that  makes  for  civiliza- 
tion. 

This  consciousness  of  solidarity,  characteristic  of  the 
mediaeval  Church,  was  of  immense  social  significance  ; 
it  took  the  disintegrated  units  of  life  and  society  that 
survived  the  barbarian  invasions  and  built  them  up 
into  a  new  order,  drawing  strength  even  from  the 
prevalent  decay.  By  its  more  spiritual  conceptions, 
above  all  by  the  homage  which  in  the  worship  of  Christ 
it  ever  paid  to  renunciation,  the  Church  slowly  broke 
up  the  military  ideas  of  feudalism,  and  for  brute  force 
and  passion  substituted  law  and  order.  Its  doctrine 
of  the  unity  of  the  human  race,  both  in  Adam  and  in 
Christ,  was  destined  to  prove  fatal  to  all  slavery. 
Even  the  mediaeval  doctrine  of  sin,  by  its  essentially 
social  rather  than  individualistic  outlook,  became, 
as  we  shall  see  later,  a  powerful  instrument  in  the 
suppression  of  barbarian  tempers  and  customs. 

One  objection  to  this  generalization  is  so  obvious 
that  it  needs  to  be  met.  We  have  emphasized  the 
solidarity  of  the  Catholic  Church  as  the  root  idea — 
neglecting  for  the  moment  the  spiritual  forces — 
which  gave  her  power  to  tame  the  individualism  of 
the  barbarian.  But  historians  have  pointed  out  that 
the   Reformation  was  the  protest  of  the  individual 


ON  THE   MIDDLE  AGES  295 

against  an  organization  which  gave  the  individual 
as  such  Uttle  or  no  place.  How  then,  it  may  be  asked, 
can  the  Reformation  be  looked  upon  as  a  factor  in 
advancing  civihzation,  when  it  appears  to  be  a  set-back 
to  ideas  from  which  humanity  had  been  emancipated 
by  the  mediaeval  Church  ? 

The  answer  is  plain.  The  individualism  of  the 
Reformation  was  not  the  individuahsm  of  the  bar- 
barian ;  it  was  an  individuahsm  of  thought,  not  of 
action.  Unregulated  individuahsm  in  action,  whether 
in  the  fifth-century  Vandal  or  the  twentieth-century 
manufacturer,  leads  to  anarchy ;  individualism  in 
thought,  however  ill  regulated,  makes  for  hberty, 
and,  in  the  long  run,  for  righteousness.  Individual- 
ism may  rightly  be  claimed  to  be  the  highest  and 
rarest  product  of  human  development,  but  such 
individualism  does  not  come  first  in  the  order  of  time, 
except  in  so  far  as  we  may  dimly  discern  its  roots  in 
the  anarchic  selfishness  of  the  barbarian.  In  the 
historical  order  solidarity  comes  first,  alone  making 
possible  the  civilization  in  which  this  higher  individ- 
ualism— genius,  personal  magnetism,  leadership,  lofty 
thought,  the  artist's  touch,  the  poet's  vision — call  it 
what  we  will — shall  have  its  truest  chance. 

Moreover,  the  protest  of  individualism  was  not 
the  only  feature  of  the  Reformation.  Side  by  side 
with  it  we  see  the  revolt  of  nationalism,  the  deter- 
mination of  the  Western  nations  to  work  out  their  own 
life  on  their  own  lines.  But  nationalism  and  individ- 
ualism necessarily  contain  contradictory  elements. 
In  the  play  of  these  two  principles — the  greater  oppor- 
tunity of  the  individual  as  such,  the  expression  of 
solidarity  in  nationalism  rather  than  in  the  unity  of 
creed,  ritual  and  organization — united  only  in  their 
protest  against  the  common  tyranny  of  Rome,  we  see 


:296  INFLUENCE  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH 

the  cause  and  trace  the  varying  phases  of  the  Reform- 
ation. But  the  consideration  of  this  matter  belongs 
elsewhere. 


IV 

From  this  somewhat  abstract  generalization  we 
shall  do  well  to  pass  on  to  details.  In  any  survey  of 
the  civilizing  factors  of  the  mediaeval  Church  we  may 
claim  the  value  assigned  to  human  life  as  the  result  of 
the  doctrines  of  the  sanctity  of  each  immortal  soul ; 
the  mitigation  of  the  horrors  of  war  ;  the  impulse 
given  to  the  manumission  of  slaves.  The  mediaeval 
Church  provided  the  one  power  that  could  successfully 
oppose  the  reign  of  force,  that  could  uphold  and  main- 
tain a  certain  discipline  over  the  passions  of  the 
greatest.  To  the  Church  also  we  owe  the  formation 
of  a  loftier  ideal  of  womanhood,  the  beginnings  of 
education,  the  rise  of  art,  the  noblest  achievements 
of  architecture.  In  the  coming  of  the  friars,  to  a  lesser 
extent  also  in  the  earlier  monastic  movement,  we  note 
the  most  successful  effort  ever  made  towards  con- 
structive socialism.  Many  of  these  matters  are  so 
self-evident,  so  acknowledged  by  all,  that  they  need 
not  detain  us  ;  some  have  been  dealt  with  already 
in  a  previous  section,  in  so  far  as  we  see  them  at 
work  in  the  early  Church  in  its  relation  to  the  Roman 
Empire. 

The  emphasis  of  the  greater  value  of  human  life 
is  observed  in  the  formation  of  a  strong  public  opinion 
against  the  common  sins  of  the  empire,  abortion  and 
infanticide ;  and  in  the  growth  during  the  Middle 
Ages  of  foundling  hospitals.  That  this  last  move- 
ment became  in  time  a  source  of  danger  to  chastity 
must  not  blind  us  to  its  value  at  its  first  origin  in 


ON  THE   MIDDLE  AGES  297 

teaching  charity  and  humanity.  Nor  should  we  over- 
look, as  another  instance  of  the  great  law  of  compen- 
sation that  runs  through  all  history,  that  the  com- 
passion of  the  Church  for  infants  was  largely  the  result 
of  its  extreme  doctrine  of  Baptism.  The  hell  which, 
according  to  common  belief,  awaited  the  unbaptized, 
led  the  Church  to  insist  on  the  saving  of  life.  But 
from  the  serfdom  or  slavery  into  which  the  children  thus 
saved  were  too  often  sold  the  mediaeval  Church  only 
slowly  effected  deliverance. 

From  the  credit  due  to  the  Church  on  this  matter 
of  the  greater  value  attached  to  life,  the  crown  of  which 
was  the  abolition  of  the  gladiatorial  shows,  one  deduc- 
tion must  be  made.  The  Church  in  the  Middle  Ages 
did  nothing  to  mitigate  the  barbarity  of  the  penal 
code.  This  is  the  more  remarkable  when  we  remem- 
ber that  the  early  Church  excluded  its  members  from 
holding  office  in  the  State,  because  their  duties  could 
not  be  carried  out  **  without  chaining  and  torturing."  ' 
Unfortunately  the  persecuting  zeal  of  the  intolerant 
led  not  only  to  the  abandonment  of  this  early  spirit, 
but  in  the  later  Middle  Ages  to  a  decided  retrogression. 
In  1252  Innocent  IV  made  torture  legal  for  the  hunt- 
ing of  heretics,  and  forced  its  use  on  the  secular  courts. 
Not  the  least  of  the  many  crimes  of  the  mediaeval 
Inquisition  was  the  way  in  which  she  thus  poisoned 
the  administration  of  justice  and  the  methods  of  evi- 
dence. To  this  sin  she  added  the  studied  hypocrisy 
with  which,  on  handing  over  the  *'  relaxed  "  to  secular 
judgment,  she  solemnly  admonished  the  authorities 
that  the  punishment  to  be  enforced  "  should  not 
imperil  life  or  limb,  or  cause  effusion  of  blood." 

As  regards  slavery  the  progress  made  in  the  Middle 
Ages  was  somewhat  slow.     We  must  remember  that 
^  See  my  Persecution  in  the  Early  Church,  p.  179. 


298  INFLUENCE  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH 

the  Church  did  not  at  first  recognize  the  greatness  of 
St.  Paul's  Epistle  to  Philemon,  that  no  slave  question 
existed  in  the  early  Church,  and  that  the  legitimacy 
of   slavery   was   generally   acknowledged   in    theory. 
But  in  practice,  the  doctrine  of  the  value  of  ''  the 
brother   for   whom   Christ   died ''    slowly   triumphed. 
The  freedom  of  serf  or  slave  in  testamentary  bequest 
was  inculcated  as  the  most  acceptable  gift  that  could 
be  made  *'  for  the  benefit  of  the  soul.*'     By  the  end 
of  the  fourteenth  century  slavery  in  Europe  of  Chris- 
tian people  was  almost  unknown.     Serfdom  lingered 
long,   and  its   abolition   was  hindered  by   the  great 
number  of  serfs  attached  to  the  estates  of  the  Church. 
Many  of  these  no  doubt  were  originally  free  peasants 
who  had  bartered  their  liberty  for  the  greater  security 
and   protection    which    the    spiritual    overlord    could 
afford.     Like   many   other  movements   commendable 
in  their  origin  this,  in  time,  became  a  disaster  both  for 
civilization  and  the  Church.     The  serfs  of  the  Church 
were  among  the  last  to  secure  their  liberty.     But  in 
its  practical  working  mediaeval  serfdom  was  not  quite 
so  evil  as  it  seems  to  us  to-day.     We  may  well  doubt 
whether  the  landless  peasantry  of  modern  England, 
though  nominally  free,  is  in  reality  much  better  off 
than  the  mediaeval  villain  whose  land  was  secured  to 
him  by  custom. 

Closely  connected  with  the  abolition  of  slavery 
was  the  constant  effort  of  the  Church,  throughout  the 
Middle  Ages,  to  redeem  Christian  captives  from  their 
servitude.  This  movement  had  been  begun  in  the 
days  of  persecution  ;  one  of  the  objects  of  the  monthly 
collection  allowed  by  Roman  Law  in  the  churches 
was  the  redemption  of  brethren  banished  to  the  mines 
of  Sardinia.  With  the  barbarian  invasions  such  a 
fund  became  still  more  necessary  ;    and  the  leaders 


ON   THE   MIDDLE   AGES  299 

of  the  Church,  St.  Ambrose,  St.  Augustine,  Caesarius, 
Eligius  and  others  distinguished  themselves  by  their 
efforts  in  this  matter.  Caesarius  of  Aries  (t542)  was 
not  the  only  bishop  of  his  times  who,  to  purchase 
back  the  captives  of  his  flock,  sold  the  gold  and  silver 
vessels  and  ornaments  of  his  church.  When  money 
failed  Eligius  of  Noyon  {h.  588)  in  his  constant  work 
of  manumission,  he  sold  even  his  clothing.  The  Mus- 
lim conquests  and  the  terror  of  the  Algerine  pirates, 
led  the  Middle  Ages  to  found  societies  specially 
devoted  to  this  object,  the  chief  of  which  was  the 
Trinitarians  or  Maturines.  But  in  all  such  movements 
the  Church  took  the  foremost  part ;  to  the  mediaeval 
mind  a  philanthropy  not  ecclesiastical  in  origin  and 
control  was  almost  inconceivable. 

With  the  abolition  of  slavery  there  came  into 
greater  prominence  the  evil  of  poverty.  From  the 
first  the  Church  sought  to  meet  this  by  constant 
charity.  Collections  for  the  poor  always  formed 
part  of  the  Eucharistic  services,  and  at  an  early  date 
charity  was  elevated  into  one  of  the  leading  graces 
and  merits  of  life.  The  effects  of  this  zeal  for  the 
poor  made  themselves  manifest  in  the  closing  days 
of  the  Empire  ;  they  were  even  more  apparent  in  the 
Middle  Ages.  We  see,  perhaps,  the  highest  expres- 
sion of  this  spirit  in  the  great  revival  ushered  in  by 
St.  Francis  of  Assisi.  No  religious  life  seemed  then 
to  be  complete  which  did  not  devote  itself  to  the  care 
of  the  outcast  or  leper,  or  give  of  its  substance  to  the 
relief  of  the  sick  and  the  aged.  All  over  Europe  the 
rude  barbarity  of  the  times  was  counteracted  by  a 
deep  stream  of  pity  which  founded  hospitals,  lazar- 
houses,  and  almshouses  in  almost  every  city  and  vil- 
lage. Nor  were  the  claims  of  the  poor  in  the  matter 
of     education    forgotten.     The     Franciscan     revival 


300  INFLUENCE  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH 

ushered  in  the  golden  age  of  our  universities ;  for  a 
few  years  Oxford  and  Paris  were  accessible  to  the 
poorest.  The  greater  part  of  the  endowments  for  the 
mitigation  of  poverty  and  suffering  were  unfortunately 
swept  away  at  the  Reformation,  or  handed  over  to 
individual  ownership.  This  unparalleled  pillage  of 
the  common  wealth  by  the  greed  of  unprincipled  ex- 
ploiters of  the  Reformation  forms  a  great  stain  upon 
a  movement  that  in  other  respects  ministered  to  the 
social  well-being. 

One  effect  of  the  mediaeval  habit  of  charity  was  to 
break  down  the  barriers  which  separated  the  classes. 
Of  Aletta,  the  noble  mother  of  St.  Bernard,  we  are 
told  that  '*  she  was  accustomed  to  go  personally  from 
house  to  house,  searching  out  the  poor  and  weak  .  .  . 
preparing  food  for  them,  ministering  to  the  sick,  cleans- 
ing their  cups  and  vessels  with  her  own  hands,  and 
performing  for  them  the  humblest  offices  usually  dis- 
charged by  servants."  Such  records  might  be  multi- 
plied indefinitely ;  they  witness  to  a  kindliness  of 
sympathy  between  rich  and  poor  that  did  much  to 
counteract  the  evils  of  feudalism,  and  to  redress 
economic  inequalities. 

The  call  to  fraternity,  as  we  have  seen,  reached 
its  climax  in  the  coming  of  the  friars.  In  France 
the  number  of  leper  hospitals  rapidly  sprang  from  a 
few  to  over  two  thousand.  But  by  nothing  is  the 
success  of  St.  Francis'  attempt  to  bring  the  classes 
together  more  clearly  brought  out  than  in  the  famous 
tale  of  the  Little  Flower. 

How  St.  Louis,  King  of  France,  went  in  person  in  the  guise  of  a 
pilgrim  to  Perugia  for  to  visit  the  holy  Brother  Giles.  ...  So  the 
porter  went  to  Brother  Giles  and  told  him  that  at  the  door  was  a 
pilgrim  that  asked  for  him.  .  .  .  And  being  inspired  of  God  it  was 
revealed  to  him  that  it  was  the  King  of  France  :  so  straightway  with 


ON  THE  MIDDLE  AGES  301 

great  fervour  he  left  his  cell,  and  ran  to  the  door,  and  without  further 
questioning,  albeit  they  ne'er  had  seen  each  other  before,  kneeling 
down  with  great  devotion  they  embraced  and  kissed  each  other,  with 
such  signs  of  tender  love  as  though  for  a  long  time  they  had  been 
close  f amihar  friends  ;  but  for  all  that  they  spoke  not,  the  one  nor 
the  other,  but  continued  in  this  embrace  in  silence. 

Let  US  hear  the  comment  of  one  of  our  own  pro- 
phets. '*  Of  all  which  story  not  a  word  of  course  is 
credible  by  any  rational  person.  Certainly  not :  the 
spirit  nevertheless  which  created  the  story  is  an  en- 
tirely indisputable  fact  in  the  history  of  mankind. 
Whether  St.  Louis  and  Brother  Giles  ever  knelt  to- 
gether in  Perugia  matters  not  a  whit.  That  a  king 
and  a  poor  monk  could  be  conceived  to  have  thoughts 
of  each  other  which  no  words  could  speak  .  .  .  this 
is  what  you  have  to  meditate  on  here.'*  ^ 

We  must  not  pass  away  from  this  question  of  the 
relation  of  the  Church  to  poverty  and  suffering  with- 
out pointing  out  the  great  factors  in  mediaeval  life 
which  made  for  charity.  The  Middle  Ages — unlike 
the  twentieth  century — was  not  afraid  of  poverty  ; 
poverty  was  not  the  one  evil  of  life  which  more  than 
any  other  must  be  shunned.  So  far  from  looking 
upon  poverty  as  a  crime  or  stigma,  the  mediaeval 
Church  erred  rather  in  the  opposite  direction  in  elevat- 
ing poverty,  provided  it  was  voluntary,  into  the  mark 
of  saintliness.  Mediaeval  practice,  we  must  confess, 
was  not  always  in  accord  in  this  matter  with  mediaeval 
theory  ;  but  the  Church  of  the  Middle  Ages  was  at 
any  rate  true  to  its  Founder  in  refusing  to  recognize 
the  ideal  of  life  in  the  successful  millionaire.  Its 
saints  and  true  leaders  never  forgot  the  great  lesson 
taught  us  in  the  Old  Testament  that  God  is  always 
on  the  side  of  the  poor  and  suffering,  against  the  rich 

^  Ruskin,  Mornings  in  Florence,  p.  89. 


302  INFLUENCE  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH 

and  strong.  Great  wealth  and  great  piety  were  incom- 
patible ideas  ;  renunciation  of  riches  lay  at  the  root 
of  all  holiness,  and  in  such  renunciation  the  poor  were 
not  forgotten.  Again  and  again  we  find  that  the  pre- 
cept of  Christ,  **  Go,  sell  all  that  thou  hast  and  give 
to  the  poor,  and  come  follow  Me,'*  is  elevated  into  the 
universal  rule  for  all  who  would  seek  the  higher  life. 
In  the  lives  of  the  saints  no  text  is  so  fruitful  in  produc- 
ing the  great  crises  of  the  soul,  or  in  leading  to  emanci- 
pation and  light.  At  one  time,  even,  as  we  shall 
see  later,  no  small  party  in  the  Church — though  for  the 
most  part  classed  as  hopeless  enthusiasts,  Fraticelli, 
Lollards  and  the  like — sought  to  make  absolute 
poverty  the  sine  qua  non  of  all  true  spiritual  life.^ 

Moreover,  in  its  doctrine  of  merit  by  works  the 
Church  possessed  a  potent  weapon  for  reducing  charity 
into  more  than  a  pious  sentiment.  We  must  own  that 
too  often  charity  was  forced  into  foolish  channels,  too 
often,  moreover,  it  sprang  from  purely  selfish  motives. 
Nevertheless  instances  abound  of  attempts  to  win 
salvation  by  deeds  of  love  of  the  highest  benefit  to 
wider  circles  than  the  clergy.  On  all  hands,  in  the 
Middle  Ages,  we  see  the  rise  of  institutions  of  mercy 
absolutely  unknown  to  the  pagan  world.  Even  the 
mediaeval  almsgiving,  though  doubtless  indiscriminate 
and  wasteful,  oftentimes  even  productive  of  the  very 
miseries  it  was  intended  to  cure,  must  not  be  wholly 
judged  by  the  rules  of  Political  Economy.  The  culti- 
vation of  a  habit,  if  not  a  sense,  of  pity,  especially  in 
a  society  otherwise  brutal,  is  worth  more  than  the 
accumulation  of  capital. 

As  regards  the  effect  of  the  Church  upon  war  our 
conclusion  is  not  altogether  satisfactory.  History 
shows  us  that  in  the  Middle  Ages  the  Church  stirred 

*  See  infra,  p.  325. 


ON   THE   MIDDLE  AGES  303 

up  many  wars,  some  of  them  of  especial  ferocity. 
Nothing  could  be  more  appalling  in  its  bloodshed 
and  horror  than  the  struggles  over  Investitures,  which 
began  with  Hildebrand,  and  which  were  not  settled 
until  fifty  years  later,  at  the  Concordat  of  Worms 
(1122).  More  ferocious  still  were  the  Crusades, 
whether  by  Europe  against  the  Muslims,  by  Teutonic 
Knights  against  the  heathen  Wends  of  Prussia,  or 
by  catholic  orthodoxy  against  the  Albigensian  heretics 
of  France.  The  ideal  of  peace  so  characteristic  of 
the  early  Church,  the  disinclination  to  have  anything 
to  do  with  war,  or  the  soldier's  calHng  even  in  times 
of  peace,  which  led  to  many  martyrdoms  in  the  days 
before  Constantine,^  gave  place  in  the  Middle  Ages 
to  a  delight  in  war,  one  cause  of  which  was  too  often  a 
fanatical  spirit  or  ecclesiastical  interests.  Against 
this  it  is  but  a  slight  offset  that  the  Church  instituted 
in  the  tenth  century  the  ''  Truce  of  God,"  at  one  time 
of  some  value  in  repressing  private    wars. 

But  while  it  is  impossible  to  plead  that  the  Church 
diminished  the  number  of  wars,  we  may  yet  contend 
with  justice  that  the  Church  secured  a  real  diminution 
in  their  atrocity.  Throughout  the  Middle  Ages  the 
rights  of  the  enemy  over  his  conquered  foe  were  savage 
enough  at  best,  nevertheless  we  see  the  slow  growth  of 
better  things.  '*  The  evangelical  precepts  of  peace 
and  love,"  writes  Freeman,  "  did  not  put  an  end  to 
war,  they  did  not  put  an  end  to  aggressive  conquests, 
but  they  distinctly  humanized  the  way  in  which  war 
was  carried  on.  From  this  time  forth  the  never-end- 
ing wars  with  the  Welsh  ceased  to  be  wars  of  exter- 
mination. The  heathen  English  had  been  satisfied 
with  nothing  short  of  destruction  and  expulsion  of 

1  See  my  Persecution  in  the  Early  Church,  2nd  edition,  pp.  181-90. 


304  INFLUENCE  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH 

their  enemies ;  the  Christian  EngHsh  thought  it 
enough  to  reduce  them  to  poUtical  subjection."  ^ 
We  have  an  illustration  of  this  greater  humanity  of 
war  in  the  way  in  which  the  Church  secured  the  recog- 
nition of  a  principle,  utterly  unknown  in  the  Roman 
world,  that  Christian  prisoners — Muslim  and  others 
were  regarded  as  outside  the  pale  of  this  charity — 
should  not  be  reduced  to  slavery. 

Moreover  the  ideal  of  chivalry,  which  the  Church 
fostered  and  consecrated  by  special  rites,  contained 
within  itself  many  softening  elements  which  could  not 
fail  to  mitigate  the  effects  of  war.  To  give  one  in- 
stance out  of  many  :  of  Tescelin,  the  father  of  St. 
Bernard,  it  is  related  that  while  *'  noble  in  descent 
and  rich  in  possessions,  he  was  yet  a  great  lover  of 
the  poor,  with  an  extraordinary  love  of  justice,  so 
that  he  was  accustomed  to  wonder  that  it  should  seem 
hard  for  any  to  observe  justice  toward  others,  especi- 
ally that  they  should  desert  the  justice  of  God  by 
either  fear  or  love  of  gain.  He  was  the  bravest  of 
soldiers,  yet  shrank  from  the  praises  which  others 
sought.  He  never  took  up  arms  except  in  defence  of 
his  own  territory,  or  at  the  call  of  his  feudal  lord." 
Such  men  as  Tescelin  were  not  so  rare  as  we  are  accus- 
tomed to  think.  But,  as  the  chronicler  adds,  this 
temper  was  all  due  to  his  ''  magna  pietas." 

That  the  Church  uplifted  the  ideal  and  status  of 
woman  cannot  well  be  denied.  Whatever  else  may 
be  said  about  the  mediaeval  cult  of  the  Virgin  this 
much  must  be  acknowledged,  the  immense  influence 
it  exerted  upon  the  whole  conception  of  womanhood. 
More  than  spoken  eloquence  or  dogmatic  teaching, 
the  cult  of  the  Virgin,   under  its   different   aspects, 

^  Norman  Conquest,  i.  33-4. 


ON   THE   MIDDLE   AGES  305 

more  especially  as  Mater  Dolorosa,  or  as  Virgin  and 
Child,  taught  men  the  sacredness  of  the  mother,  and 
the  majesty  of  suffering  gentleness. 

Writers  have  sometimes  urged  that  the  mediaeval 
Church,  by  its  exaggeration  of  the  value  of  a  celibate 
life,  by  the  reverence  it  paid  to  those  who  abandoned 
the  cares  and  duties  of  motherhood  and  fatherhood 
for  the  contemplative  life  of  the  cloisters,  lowered  the 
ideal  of  home.  There  is  in  this  considerable  truth. 
Ultimately,  no  doubt,  as  the  Reformation  felt,  the 
monastery  is  opposed  to  the  home,  and  an  exaggerated 
emphasis  upon  consecrated  virginity  is  inimical  to 
the  best  interests  of  the  State.  Nunneries,  two  cen- 
turies before  the  Reformation,  had  outlived  their 
usefulness  ;  a  sufficient  proof  of  this  may  be  found 
in  their  general  neglect  and  reduced  numbers.  But 
in  the  earlier  dark  ages  the  nunnery  had  a  part  to  play 
in  civilization  of  the  utmost  importance.  Only  in 
the  monastic  life  was  a  woman  safe  from  the  unbridled 
lust  of  the  powerful.  Into  this  retreat,  guarded  by 
sacrosanct  terrors,  none  dare  break.  Barbarians  who 
ventured  to  insult  ''  the  brides  of  God "  soon  ex- 
perienced, or  thought  they  experienced,  His  avenging 
wrath.  Hence  the  ideal  of  virginity,  though  false 
and  exaggerated,  was  not  without  value  in  counter- 
acting the  lustful  reaHties  of  the  world  around. 

The  reader  should  not  forget  the  important  place 
which  women  often  attained  in  the  mediaeval  Church, 
and,  in  consequence,  in  the  mediaeval  State.  Few 
nobler  types  of  womanhood  have  ever  appeared  than 
Joan  of  Arc  or  Catherine  of  Siena ;  few  prophets 
to  whom  more  attention  was  given  than  Hildegard 
of  Bingen,  or  Bridget  of  Sweden.  But  these  char- 
acters, so  beautiful  and  rare,  were  largely  dependent 
on  the  mediaeval  environment.  An  age  which  could 
CO.  X 


3o6  INFLUENCE  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH 

produce  a  Joan  of  Arc  or  a  St.  Catherine  may  be  for- 
given many  exaggerations  and  sins  for  their  sakes. 

The  noblest  place  of  woman  is  in  the  home,  and 
mediaeval  home  life  was  oftentimes  more  beautiful 
than  we  are  wont  to  allow.  Again  and  again  in  the 
annals  of  the  age  we  find  records  of  devoted  mothers 
who  trained  up  their  children  for  service  in  Church 
and  State  with  an  intensity  of  consecration  which  in- 
fluenced their  whole  subsequent  life.  Of  such  were  the 
mother  of  St.  Anselm,  and  the  mother  of  St.  Bernard, 
and  many  other  illustrious  examples  in  cottage  and 
castle.  In  the  Middle  Ages,  as  in  any  age,  the  germ- 
cell  of  all  that  was  best  in  the  social  system  of  the  times 
lay  in  the  purity  and  consecrated  zeal  of  Christian 
motherhood. 

The  greatest  service  rendered  by  the  Church  in  the 
later  Middle  Ages  was  the  assistance  given  to  the  sacred 
cause  of  civil  liberty.  In  the  early  Middle  Ages  the 
Church  threw  its  mighty  influence  into  the  scale  of 
authority,  and  abandoned  the  appeal  to  the  masses  on 
the  principles  of  liberty — one  great  source  of  its  power 
in  the  Roman  Empire — for  reliance  upon  the  rulers 
of  the  new  nations.  To  this  change,  no  doubt,  the 
Church  was  driven  through  its  contact  with  the  bar- 
barians. To  restore  order  where  all  around  was  chaos 
and  ruin  needed  not  so  much  liberty  as  force,  the 
authority  of  such  men  as  Charles  the  Great,  or  WilHam 
the  Conqueror. 

But  in  the  later  Middle  Ages,  when  the  peril  of  the 
new  nations  had  passed  away,  the  Church  returned, 
to  some  extent,  to  its  former  attitude,  and  became 
once  more  the  friend  of  liberty.  We  may  own  that 
the  assistance  was  rather  accidental  than  deliberate  ; 
that  the  ultimate  object  of  the  Church  was  to  obtain 
authority  for  herself  by  the  subjection  of  the  State. 


ON  THE   MIDDLE  AGES  307 

Nevertheless,  but  for  the  Church,  the  nations  of  the 
West  would  have  been  ground  between  the  upper  and 
nether  millstones,   the  competing  tyrannies  of  local 
magnates  and  absolute  monarchs.     The  influence  of 
the  papacy  from  the  days  of  Hildebrand  onwards  was 
always  cast  against  the  claim  of  kings  to  exercise 
authority    by    an    indefeasible    title.     Ecclesiastical 
lawyers  and  theologians  were  firm  in  their  assertion 
of  the  divine  right  of  the  people  to  raise  up  and  pull 
down    princes.     ''  A    king,*'    said    Thomas    Aquinas, 
"  who  is  unfaithful  to  his  duty  forfeits  his  claim  to 
obedience.     It  is  not  rebellion  to  depose  him,  for  he 
is  himself  a  rebel  whom  the  nation  has  a  right  to  pull 
down.''     But    we    see    how    the    doctrine,    originally 
formulated  by  the  Church  for  its  own  purposes,  and 
with  limitations  that  would  have   guarded  its  own 
interests,  could  minister  in  other  hands  to  the  growth 
of  hberty,   when  Thomas  Aquinas  goes  on  to  add  : 
''  But  it  is  better  to  abridge  the  king's  power  that  he 
may  be  unable  to  abuse  it.     For  this  purpose  the 
whole   nation   ought   to   have   a   share   in   governing 
itself.     The  Constitution  ought  to  combine  a  limited 
and  elected  monarchy  with  an  aristocracy  of   merit, 
and  such  an  admixture  of  democracy  as  shall  admit 
all  claims  to  office  by  popular  election.     No  govern- 
ment has   a   right   to   levy  taxes  beyond  the    limit 
determined    by    the    people.     All   political   authority 
is   derived  from  popular  suffrage,  and  all  laws  must 
be  made  by  the  people  or  their  representatives." 

The  assertion  of  the  great  principles  of  liberty  is 
even  more  clearly  found  in  the  Defensor  Pads  (1324) 
the  magnum  opus  of  the  great  mediaeval  political 
thinker,  MarsigHo  of  Padua.  Than  MarsigHo  no  seer 
ever  had  a  clearer  vision  of  the  new  order  towards 
which  the  world  was  slowly  moving  ;   no  prophet  ever 


3o8  INFLUENCE  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH 

glanced  deeper  into  the  future.  In  his  principles 
the  modern  Constitutional  statesman,  the  modern 
Protestant  finds  little  to  alter  ;  he  has  only  to  develop 
and  fill  in  the  outline.  Sovereignty,  so  Marsiglio  held, 
rests  with  the  people,  "  from  whom,  or  the  majority 
of  them,  determining  by  their  choice  or  will,  expressed 
by  speech  in  the  general  assembly  of  citizens,  proceeds 
all  right  and  power.'*  For  the  purposes  of  action 
''  the  rule  of  the  king  is  perhaps  the  more  perfect," 
but  the  king,  as  the  officer  of  the  people,  must  be 
directly  elected.  Marsiglio  will  have  nothing  to  do 
with  either  divine  right  or  the  hereditary  principle. 
Such  elected  monarch  is  responsible  to  the  people, 
whose  instrument  he  is,  and  by  whom  he  may  be 
deposed  if  he  override  the  national  will.  Equally 
remarkable  is  Marsiglio' s  anticipation  of  certain  modern 
social  movements.  He  would  give  to  the  civil  power 
the  right  of  determining  the  number  of  men  to  be 
employed  in  every  trade  or  profession. 

Now  the  astonishing  thing  is  that  these  two  quota- 
tions are  from  writers  of  utterly  hostile  schools. 
Thomas  Aquinas  was,  and  is  still,  the  chosen  advocate 
of  Rome  ;  Marsiglio  sweeps  away  the  pretensions  of 
a  sacerdotal  order,  and  would  treat  the  clergy,  in  all 
but  their  strictly  spiritual  functions,  exactly  the  same 
as  all  other  members  of  the  civil  society.  With  Mar- 
siglio the  State  is  supreme,  or  rather.  State  and  Church 
— this  last  he  defines  as  the  corporation  of  the  faith- 
ful^— become  one.  Ecclesiastics,  even  the  pope  him- 
self, must  be  subject  to  the  State's  tribunals,  their 
number  be  limited  by  its  pleasure.  To  the  State 
also  belongs  all  patronage,  which  should  as  a  rule  be 
exercised  by  the  free  election  of  the  parish  itself,  with 
which  also  should  rest  the  power  of  dismissal.  The 
ecclesiastical  property  must  be  vested  in  the  State, 


ON   THE   MIDDLE  AGES  309 

which  can  at  any  time  secularize  superfluities  to  other 
uses. 

Nevertheless  these  two  writers  are  yet  united,  for 
purposes  completely  contradictory,  in  laying  down 
principles  that  were  fatal  to  the  absolutism  of  feudal 
society.  The  Churchman  and  the  doctrinaire  philo- 
sopher were  one  in  asserting  both  the  rights  of  demo- 
cracy and  the  criminal  nature  of  absolute  power. 
The  lawfulness  of  insurrection  was  not  only  admitted 
but  defined  as  a  duty  sanctioned  by  religion.  The 
representative  character  of  all  offices  and  institutions 
both  in  Church  and  State  was  clearly  laid  down.  The 
result  was  seen  in  the  powerful  struggle  in  the  four- 
teenth century  between  democracy  and  privilege. 
But  Rienzi,  Marcel,  Artevelde,  John  Ball  and  other 
champions  of  freedom  were  before  their  age.  The 
story  of  the  unfortunate  circumstances  through  which 
the  sixteenth  century  saw  the  set-back  of  the  principles 
of  liberty,  and  the  triumph  of  absolutism  over  the 
nascent  institutions  of  democracy,  does  not  belong  to 
our  present  purpose.  But  we  must  not  forget  the 
debt  which  democracy  will  always  owe  to  the  Church- 
men and  heretics,  who  for  opposite  reasons  so  clearly 
enunciated  its  main  principles  in  the  Middle  Ages.^ 

As  regards  liberty  of  thought  there  is  less  to  be 
said.  The  whole  conception  was  somewhat  alien  to 
the  times.  But  we  should  do  well  to  avoid  exaggera- 
tion. Scholasticism,  at  least  in  its  earlier  develop- 
ments, was  by  no  means  the  crude  hair-splitting  appeal 
to  mere  logic  and  authority  which  in  its  later  days  it 

1  Marsiglio's  Defensor  Pads  will  be  found  in  Goldast's  Monarchia 
Romani  Imperii,  vol.  2  (Hanover,  1612).  A  good  account  of  Marsig- 
lio  will  be  found  in  Poole's  Illustrations  of  the  Hist,  of  Med.  Thought 
(1885),  G.  9.  For  the  growth  of  the  idea  of  popular  sovereignty  see 
Gierke's  Pol.  Theories  of  Middle  Ages  (Ed.^Maitland,  1900),  §§  6  and  7. 


310  INFLUENCE  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH 

tended  to  become.  The  thoughts  of  Anselm  and 
Abailard  move  in  spheres  far  above  the  narrow  con- 
troversies of  the  pedants.  Though  modern  science 
cannot  sufficiently  express  its  contempt  for  the  vast 
superstructure  which  the  schoolmen  raised  on  their 
narrow  and  flimsy  foundations,  nevertheless  that 
strange  system  was  in  a  true  sense  preparing  the  way 
for  the  advent  of  better  things.  And,  within  the  limits 
provided,  there  never  was  a  time,  until  the  Reforma- 
tion, when  considerable  liberty  of  thought  and  expres- 
sion was  not  allowed,  especially  in  the  Universities. 
In  our  present  connexion  we  should  note  that  the 
whole  intellectual  movement  of  the  times  centred 
round  the  problems  of  theology.  The  evils  of  this 
narrowed  vision  none  will  deny  ;  nevertheless  it  bears 
witness,  after  its  fashion,  to  the  desire  for  intellectual 
unity  which  lies  at  the  root  of  all  knowledge. 

In  the  rapid  development  in  England  in  the  later 
Middle  Ages  of  the  social  guilds  or  fraternities  we  see 
more  than  the  growth  of  democracy.  Though  origin- 
ally founded  in  imitation  of  the  successful  craft  or 
trade  guilds  of  London,  Bristol,  and  other  great  cities, 
the  new  guilds  had  httle  connexion  with  trade.  Their 
object  was  the  furtherance  of  neighbourhness  and 
mutual  help.  They  combined  the  advantages  of  a 
social  club  with  the  benefits  of  insurance  and  assur- 
ance against  fire,  water,  thefts,  poverty,  disease  and 
death.  They  undertook  for  their  members  the  duties 
now  discharged  by  burial  clubs,  by  hospitals,  by  alms- 
houses, and  by  the  guardians  of  the  poor.  By  steady- 
ing the  price  of  labour,  or  by  obtaining  work  for  their 
members  they  discharged  the  function  of  modern 
trades  unions.  They  discouraged  judicial  strife  by 
insisting  upon  their  members  submitting  to  arbitration. 
In  some  towns,  for  instance  Coventry  and  York,  the 


ON   THE   MIDDLE   AGES  311 

guilds  found  lodgings  and  food  for  poor  strangers.  In 
times  of  special  need,  when  the  bridge  was  broken 
down,  or  the  steeple  in  need  of  repair,  the  guilds  of  a 
town  united  to  carry  out  the  object.  They  provided 
dowers  for  portionless  girls  ;  they  furnished  school 
fees  for  promising  lads  ;  in  some  places  they  maintained 
schools  of  their  own  ;  on  the  coast  they  insured  against 
loss  at  sea  ;  above  all,  they  made  the  ''  Merry  Eng- 
land "  of  our  fathers  by  reason  of  their  incessant  Church 
ales  and  other  festive  entertainments,  "  mummings," 
miracle-plays,  mysteries,  and  the  like.  To  the  joyous- 
ness  of  life  they  largely  contributed  by  the  attention 
they  paid  to  singing,  in  many  places  maintaining  a 
special  song-master. 

From  the  first  the  guilds  were  strictly  associated 
with  the  Church.  Each  guild  linked  itself  on  to  some 
special  saint  or  chapel,  whose  feast-day  it  kept  with 
processions  and  banquets,  and  for  whose  services  it 
provided  candles  and  funds.  The  wealthier  guilds 
even  maintained  chaplains  of  their  own,  at  the  cost 
of  ten  marks  a  year,  to  offer  masses  for  the  quick  and 
the  dead.  On  Corpus  Christi  day  the  guilds  of  a  town, 
especially  in  a  cathedral  city,  united  in  a  gigantic  pro- 
cession. On  the  death  of  any  member  the  whole  guild 
attended  his  funeral. 

The  popularity  of  these  guilds,  if  we  may  judge 
from  their  number  and  rapid  growth,  was  extra- 
ordinary. In  London  there  were  at  least  ninety  of 
them  connected  with  parish  churches.  There  were 
fifty-five  at  Lynn.  Nor  were  they  confined  to  the 
larger  towns.  There  were  eight  guilds  in  the  little 
parish  of  Oxburgh  in  Norfolk,  twelve  at  Ashburton, 
and  forty-two  at  Bodmin  in  Cornwall.  By  the  begin- 
ning of  the  fifteenth  century  there  was  scarcely  a  town 
or  village  of  any  importance  without  them.     Some  of 


312  INFLUENCE  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH 

these   possessed  large   endowments.     Many   included 
women  as  well  as  men.     By  one  of  the  greatest  crimes 
in  history  nearly  all  these  guilds  were  swept  away  at 
the  Reformation,  in  a  few  places  a  pitiful  fragment 
of  the  spoils  being  handed  over  to  the  people  to  estab- 
lish  a  school.     Even   the  endowments  for  the  poor 
were  greedily  seized  by  men  who  built  up  princely 
fortunes  by  the  robbery  of  the  parish.     But  for  this 
great  pillage  of  social  funds  England  to-day  would 
have  needed  no  poor-law,  and  no  school  rate.^     Only 
slowly  are  we  waking  up  to  the  great  loss  to  the  life 
and  well-being  of  the  people  which  has  followed  the 
divorce  of  religion  from  the  corporate  life,  the  reduction 
of  insurances  to  commercial  transactions,  of  all  care 
for  the  poor  to  a  matter  for  the  guardians.     To  the 
ideals   and   practice   of   the   mediaeval  guilds,  whose 
centre  in  all  their  attempts  to  realize  brotherhood  was 
the  Church,  the  twentieth  century  would  do  well  to 
return. 


Our  debt  to  the  Church  must  not  be  measured 
only  by  the  ethical  results,  or  by  the  means  of  their 
attainment  which  commend  themselves  clearly  to 
the  twentieth  century.  The  reader  too  often  forgets 
the  evolution,  slow  and  painful,  of  society  and  morals, 
and  in  consequence  neglects,  in  reading  history,  to 
look  at  progress  from  the  standpoint  of  that  which 

1  The  reader  interested  in  the  social  side  of  the  mediaeval  guild 
should  study  the  case  of  Boston  in  the  Victoria  County  History  of 
Lincoln,  vol.  ii.  From  one  guild  and  its  pillage  he  can  learn  all. 
The  mockery  involved  in  calling  schools,  "  King  Edward  VI  founda- 
tions "  has  been  abundantly  shown  by  Mr.  Leach  in  his  various 
educational  works. 


ON  THE  MIDDLE  AGES  313 

was  attainable  in  the  age  in  question.  When  thus 
considered  relatively,  forces  and  tendencies  which  to- 
day we  should  rightly  condemn  as  mischievous,  are 
seen  to  have  been,  at  their  time  and  for  their  purpose, 
potent  for  good  ;  though  the  good  was  not  unmixed 
with  evil,  and  was  often  pregnant  with  coming  catas- 
trophe. Of  this  truth  the  greatest  illustration  is  the 
rise  in  the  Middle  Ages  of  the  papal  supremacy,  in 
many  respects  the  most  wonderful  event  in  his- 
tory. 

The  student  who  would  investigate  the  part  that 
the  Papacy  has  played  in  the  evolution  of  society  should 
realize  at  the  outset  that  the  mediaeval  Church  was 
not  so  much  a  Church,  in  the  modern  or  scriptural 
sense  of  the  word,  as  a  State.  '*  Convenience,"  writes 
Professor  Maitland,  ''  may  forbid  us  to  call  it  a  State 
very  often,  but  we  ought  to  do  so  from  time  to  time, 
for  we  could  frame  no  acceptable  definition  of  a  State 
which  would  not  comprehend  the  Church.  What 
has  it  not  that  the  State  should  have  ?  It  has  laws, 
lawgivers,  law  courts,  lawyers.  It  uses  physical  force 
to  compel  men  to  obey  its  laws.  It  keeps  prisons. 
In  the  thirteenth  century,  though  with  squeamish 
phrases,  it  pronounces  sentence  of  death.  It  is  no 
voluntary  society.  If  people  attempt  to  leave  it 
they  are  guilty  of  the  crimen  laesce  majestatis,  and  are 
likely  to  be  burnt.  It  is  supported  by  involuntary 
contributions,  by  tithe  and  tax. '  That  men  believe 
it  to  have  a  supernatural  origin  does  not  alter  the  case. 
Kings  have  reigned  by  divine  right,  and  republics 
have  been  founded  in  the  name  of  God-given  liberty.'*  ^ 
But  the  constitution  of  this  State  was  unique  in  one 
all-important   respect.     This   was   a   State   within   a 

1  Maitland,  Canon  Law  in  Church  of  England,  p.  100. 


314  INFLUENCE  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH 

State,  a  State  which  had  neither  boundaries  nor  Hmits  ; 
which  existed  in,  was  part  of,  and  yet  distinct  from 
every  other  State,  over  the  which  in  fact  it  claimed 
priority  and  pre-eminence. 

Herein  will  be  found  the  secret  both  of  the  growth 
and  downfall  of  the  papal  supremacy.  For  the  papacy 
was  no  gigantic  upas  tree  of  fraud  and  superstition 
planted  and  reared  by  the  enemy  of  mankind,  but  a 
necessary  factor,  so  far  as  we  can  see,  in  the  evolution 
of  society.  The  patriarchate  of  Rome  became  the 
supreme  power  in  the  mediaeval  world  because  Western 
Europe  had  been  cradled  in  the  belief  of  the  necessity 
of  one  world-power,  to  which  all  other  powers  should 
give  adherence  and  form  a  part.  To  this  legacy  of 
the  Caesars  the  popes  became  the  heirs.  Amid  the 
chaos  and  welter  of  the  great  upheaval  they  alone 
offered  unity  of  administration  and  law.  They  won 
the  gratitude  of  Europe  by  never  flinching  from  their 
task  of  beating  down  anarchy  into  order,  and  asserting 
the  supremacy  of  moral  ideas  over  brute  force.  Thus 
they  stood  for  the  solidarity  of  Europe  in  one  world- 
state.  The  virtual  downfall  of  the  papacy  at  the 
beginning  of  the  fourteenth  century  was  due  to  the 
same  cause.  Men  did  not  throw  over  the  yoke  of 
Boniface  VIII  because  they  had  ceased  to  believe  in 
the  pope's  spiritual  pretensions.  The  Reformation 
in  its  first  origin  was  political,  not  religious  ;  social, 
not  moral ;  a  protest  against  an  all-centralized  yet 
omnipresent  world-power,  in  theory  spiritual,  in  prac- 
tice secular,  which  had  outlived  the  conditions  of  its 
birth.  The  imperial  idea,  which  originated  with 
Alexander,  but  was  completed  by  the  Caesars,  was  at 
last  exhausted.  World-wide  administrative  central- 
lization,  whether  secular  or  spiritual,  had  ceased  to  be 
the  ideal.     The  building  up  of  the  nation  had  begun 


ON  THE   MIDDLE  AGES  315 

to  be  revealed  as  the  goal  of  history,  at  any  rate  so 
far  as  the  immediate  future  was  concerned. 

Other  aspects  also  of  the  mediaeval  Church  that 
to-day  excite  contempt  or  pity,  possessed  considerable 
influence  as  civilizing  factors  in  an  earlier  age.  We 
may  illustrate  by  the  doctrine  of  penitence.  With 
the  corollaries  of  this  mediaeval  doctrine,  the  system  of 
indulgences  on  the  one  hand,  and  the  penitentials  on 
the  other,  we  are  all  famihar.  As  regards  indulgences 
— the  great  abuse  of  the  system, — the  chief  errors 
sprung  up  in  the  fourteenth  and  fifteenth  centuries, 
largely  as  an  outcome  of  the  Crusades,  nor  was  the 
matter  at  any  time  a  factor  of  the  greatest  importance. 
It  was  different  with  the  penitentials.  This  great 
instrument  for  Christianizing  barbarian  tempers  was 
probably  the  creation  of  the  Irish  Church  and  in 
special  of  Columban.  Thence  through  Theodore  of 
Tarsus  and  the  English  prelates  the  penitentials 
passed  into  the  general  Church  of  the  West. 

In  condemnation  of  the  principles  and  methods 
of  the  whole  system  historians  are  nowadays  substan- 
tially agreed.  Nevertheless,  the  student  should  re- 
member the  great  law  illustrated  on  every  page  of 
ecclesiastical  history,  ''  that  those  beliefs  or  institutions 
which  seem  irrational,  or  absurd,  or  unworthy  of  the 
Christian  spirit,  have  come  into  vogue  in  order  to  kill 
some  deeper  evil,  not  otherwise  to  have  been  des- 
troyed." ^  The  penitentials  were  a  necessity  if  the  Church 
was  to  bring  the  masses  that  had  nominally  passed  into 
the  kingdom  of  Christ,  yet  remained  in  many  respects 
heathen  at  heart,  into  any  real  experience  of  religion. 
In  the  mediaeval  Church,  unlike  the  Church  of  the 
first  four  centuries,  baptism  came  first,  oftentimes  the 

^  Allen,  Christian  Institutions,  p.  408. 


3i6  INFLUENCE  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH 

baptism  of  whole  races  received  as  they  were  into 
the  Church  of  the  Empire  which  they  had  conquered  ; 
training  and  discipline  must  needs  follow. 

Penance,  to  adopt  for  this  system  of  discipline  the 
familiar  title  nowadays  somewhat  restricted  in  its 
application,  was  thus  no  mere  creation  of  sacerdotalism, 
but  a  response  to  popular  needs,  the  outcome  of  the 
revolution  produced  by  the  barbarian  invasions.  In 
the  decaying  Roman  world  no  state  save  the  Church 
was  either  strong  enough  or  civilized  enough  to  enforce 
obedience  to  moral  law,  or  hold  down  the  usages  and 
reminiscences  of  heathenism.  Her  punishments  were 
at  first  hmited  to  those  sanctioned  by  the  pains  and 
fears  of  the  wounded  conscience.  Unfortunately  the 
Church  soon  yielded  to  the  Teutonic  custom  of  com- 
muting misdeeds  by  a  money  payment,  or  by  means 
of  substitutes.  Hence  the  opening  of  the  door  to  the 
abuse  of  indulgences.  In  the  earlier  age  the  chief 
defect  of  the  system  lay  in  the  fact  that  punishment 
bore  more  hardly  on  the  poor  than  on  the  rich,  while 
above  all  it  made  sin  something  arbitrary  and  extemcJ 
to  the  soul.  The  priest  also  who  could  release  from 
its  punishments  on  earth,  or  whose  prayers  had  power 
with  God  in  the  mysterious  other  world  of  retribution, 
took  the  place  of  the  Christ  who  could  purify  the 
heart.  Thus  the  pope  and  not  the  Holy  Spirit  became 
the  administrator  of  mercy  and  pardon.  The  human 
race  became  afraid  of  dealing  directly  with  God,  and 
sacerdotalism  won  its  long  triumph. 

The  other  evils  of  the  system  of  penance  have 
been  often  exposed,  and  are  sufficiently  familiar.  The 
student  of  ethics  will  point  out  the  tendency — always 
natural  to  the  Roman  spirit — to  stiffen  all  morality 
into  legal  restrictions,  and  to  confound  the  inner  law 
with  the  regulations  of  the  Church.     Or  he  may  dwell 


ON   THE   MIDDLE   AGES  317 

on  the  bands  of  Flagellants  who  in  times  of  popular 
excitement  covered  the  land,  stripped  to  the  waist 
and  plying  a  scourge  knotted  with  iron,  the  use  of 
which  for  thirty-three  days  cleansed  the  soul  from  all 
stains  of  sin.  He  may  instance  the  madness  of  that 
typical  hermit  Dominicus  Loricatus,  who  with  a  broom 
in  each  hand  and  singing  psalms,  could  wipe  off,  as 
his  friend  Damiani  relates  with  pride,  a  century  of 
guilt  within  a  week.  The  theologian,  finally,  will 
point  to  the  constant  haggling  and  bargaining  over 
the  degree  of  sin  and  the  value  of  merit,  or  he  may 
relate  the  numberless  instances  of  desperate  abuse,  a 
chicken  or  a  pint  of  wine  purchasing  absolution  for 
the  foulest  deeds. 

These  evils  should  not  be  minimized  ;  nor  should 
their  exaggeration  obscure  the  real  inwardness  to  the 
mediaeval  mind  of  the  doctrine  and  its  corollaries.  As 
Harnack  allows,  its  first  effect  was  the  deepening  of 
the  sense  of  sin,  though  the  deepening  was  counter- 
balanced in  time  by  the  stupefying  readiness  with 
which  men  confessed  that  they  were  sinners.  Another 
effect  was  the  formation  side  by  side  with  the  sacra- 
mental Christ  of  the  image  of  the  historical  Jesus,  in 
the  contemplation  of  whose  sufferings  Bernard  and 
others  found  their  most  passionate  exaltation.  In 
the  doctrine,  first  suggested  by  the  English  doctor 
Alexander  of  Hales,  and  developed  by  Thomas  Aquinas, 
of  the  common  treasury  of  merit  out  of  whose  inex- 
haustible store  the  pope  could  dispense  to  the  spirit- 
ually destitute,  we  see  another  instance  of  the  great 
mediaeval  conception  of  solidarity  so  unintelHgible 
to  latter-day  individualism.  In  everything  the  social 
aim  predominates  ;  the  duties  of  life  spring  out  of 
our  unity  as  a  race  ;  humanity  on  earth  is  one  in  its 
sufferings  with  humanity  in  the  invisible  world.     All 


3i8  INFLUENCE  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH 

this  formed  part  of  the  education  of  the  race  for  better 
things  to  come. 


VI 

In  the  rehgious  Ufe  of  the  Middle  Ages  the  two 
distinguishing  features  are  the  power  of  the  papacy 
and  the  strength  of  Monasticism.  The  two  were 
mutually  dependent.  It  was  by  no  accident  of  history 
that  the  fall  of  the  one  coincided  in  time  with  the  dis- 
solution of  the  other.  But  for  the  help  of  Rome  the 
monasteries  could  not  have  resisted  the  attacks  of 
covetous  kings  ;  but  for  the  monks  the  pope  would 
never  have  succeeded  in  building  up  his  universal 
dominion.  This  was  the  political  side  of  their  work, 
in  reality  the  least  part  of  their  mission  ;  and  with 
this  we  are  not  now  concerned.  On  the  social  side 
it  was  given  to  monasticism  to  represent  in  the  midst 
of  barbarism  an  ordered  if  one-sided  life,  and  moral 
ideals  above  the  age  ;  and  to  lay,  in  the  midst  of  rude 
and  opposing  forces,  the  foundations  of  a  noble  civiliza- 
tion. 

The  origin  of  Monasticism,  the  phases  through 
which  it  passed,  its  ideals  and  history,  are  familiar  to 
our  readers,  or  easily  accessible.  In  the  spread  of 
Monasticism  we  see  two  strangely  contrasted  influences 
working  together  to  change  the  aspect  of  Europe. 
The  one  was  the  passion  for  solitude,  the  other  the 
desire  for  fellowship.  The  passion  for  solitude  drove 
the  saint  into  the  wastes  and  forests  ;  the  desire  to 
imitate  his  life,  and  the  protection  which  his  foundation 
could  afford  turned  the  lowliest  hermitage  into  a 
crowded  monastery  surrounded  by  a  thriving  depend- 
ency of  serfs  and  tenants.  The  illustrations  of  this 
would   be    almost   as   numerous   as  the  monasteries 


ON  THE  MIDDLE  AGES  319 

themselves.  Everywhere  it  was  the  same  ;  whether 
by  the  slopes  of  the  Jura,  in  the  forests  of  Bavaria, 
or  amidst  the  wastes  of  Northumberland.  Europe 
does  not  always  remember  the  debt  which  she  owes 
to  those  who  in  their  longing  to  escape  from  the  haunts 
of  men,  cleared  the  densest  jungle,  drained  pestilent 
swamps,  and  by  the  alchemy  of  industry  turned  the 
deserts  into  waving  gold.  The  sanctity  of  the  hermit, 
drawing  after  him  against  his  will  a  brotherhood  of 
disciples,  laid  the  foundation  of  our  busiest  towns, 
broke  the  silence  of  waste  and  fen  with  a  chain  of 
religious  houses,  set  agricultural  colonies  in  the  midst 
of  the  profoundest  forests,  or  planted  on  some  dreary 
coast  the  forerunner  of  a  busy  haven. 

Not  the  least  result  of  Monasticism,  as  developed 
by  St.  Benedict  in  the  West,  was  the  change  which 
the  movement  brought  into  men's  conceptions  of  the 
dignity  of  toil.  In  the  degenerate  Roman  world,  as 
among  the  rude  barbarian  conquerors,  manual  labour 
had  been  exclusively  reserved  for  slaves.  But  in  the 
Rule  of  Benedict  manual  labour  formed  an  indispens- 
sable  part  in  the  life  of  every  monk,  however  noble 
his  birth.  "  This  is  a  fine  occupation  for  a  count,'' 
sarcastically  exclaimed  Duke  Godfrey  of  Lorraine 
when  he  found  his  brother  Frederick  washing  dishes 
in  the  kitchen  of  the  monastery.  ''  You  are  right, 
duke,"  was  the  answer  ;  "  I  ought  indeed  to  think 
myself  honoured  by  the  smallest  service  for  the  Master." 
Such  tales  might  be  multipled  indefinitely  ;  we  may 
smile  at  them,  but  their  value  is  not  the  less  great. 
They  witness  to  the  elevation  of  labour  into  new  esteem, 
the  commencement  of  that  organized  social  industry 
which  in  later  years  was  to  destroy  feudalism  itself 
and  shift  the  centre  of  power  to  the  producer  and 
toiler. 


320  INFLUENCE  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH 

Of  almost  equal  value  with  the  exaltation  of  labour 
was  the  emphasis  laid  by  Monasticism  upon  the  virtues 
of  humility  and  obedience ;  from  the  monastic  stand- 
point the  two  tend  to  become  one,  related  as  cause 
and  effect.  Hitherto  obedience  had  been  learned  in 
one  school  alone — for  we  may  neglect  the  obedience 
of  the  slave, — the  school  of  the  army.  Now  men 
were  taught  by  a  discipline  other  than  military  that 
the  highest  type  of  life  is  that  which  learns  to  obey. 
It  is  difficult  to  exaggerate  the  value  of  this  lesson  in 
the  peculiar  circumstances  of  the  times.  Amid  the 
dissolution  of  old  society  and  the  ascendency  of  the 
barbarians,  the  lesson  was  once  more  enforced  of  the 
old  obedience  which  had  made;  Rome  great,  but  in  a 
purer  and  more  spiritual  form.  With  all  deductions 
that  may  be  made  for  an  exaggeration  of  obedience 
into  a  servile  degradation  of  will — a  tendency  that  we 
see  issuing  finally  in  Jesuitism — or  even  into  a  nega- 
tion of  self-respect,  we  should  not  ignore  the  value  to 
civilization  in  its  turbulent  youth  of  the  Church  pro- 
posing for  the  reverence  of  mankind  a  life  of  obedience 
as  the  highest  ideal  of  virtue. 

We  must  not  forget  that  Monasticism  attracted 
the  lay  world  as  well  as  the  clerics  of  the  Church  to 
its  own  ideal,  though  in  an  entirely  different  way. 
From  the  twelfth  century  onwards  we  find  a  number 
of  half-monastic  orders,  Teutonic  Knights,  Hospitallers, 
Tertiaries  of  St.  Francis,  Beguines,  brotherhoods  and 
the  rest.  The  life  of  every  town  was  leavened  with 
these  half-ascetic  clubs,  which  besides  enabling  the 
layman  to  do  something  for  the  salvation  of  his  own 
soul,  undoubtedly  developed  obedience  and  civil 
order,  and  fostered  a  spirit  of  charity  and  altruism. 

From  any  estimate  of  the  benefits  of  Monasticism 
certain  deductions  must  be  made.     The  over  insist- 


ON   THE   MIDDLE   AGES  321 

ence  upon  asceticism  was  not  for  the  good  of  humanity, 
and  led  to  some  extent  to  a  weakening  of  home  ties. 
From  the  standpoint  of  race  continuation  and  develop- 
ment the  result  was  in  part  disastrous.  Celibacy 
doomed  the  holiest  and  most  intellectual  to  sterility  ; 
the  future  was  left  ^to  those  of  coarser  clay.  Monas- 
ticism  was  also  responsible  for  a  certain  lowering  of 
civic  virtues.  By  their  very  constitution  as  an  order 
the  monks  were  cosmopolitans.  As  a  result  they  were 
also  largely  anti-national.  They  formed  a  State  within 
a  State,  an  ecclesiastical  internationalism  whose  head 
centre  was  Rome.  The  sole  care  of  the  monk  was 
too  often  the  welfare  of  his  monastery,  and  the  spread 
of  his  order.  The  organized  socialism  of  which  at 
one  time  the  monasteries  were  the  truest  exponents 
became,  too  often,  a  struggle  for  individual  wealth 
on  the  part  of  prior  or  abbot.  But  when  all  deduc- 
tions have  been  made  the  balance  of  our  debt  to 
Monasticism  is  incalculable  ;  nor  is  it  the  less  that  the 
system,  like  other  institutions,  outlived  its  usefulness, 
and  became  a  curse  where  at  one  time  it  had  been  a 
blessing. 

VII 

As  yet  in  our  investigation  we  have  said  nothing 
as  to  the  influence  of  the  Reform  Movements  of  the 
Middle  Ages  ;  we  have  confined  ourselves  to  the  action 
of  the  Church.  To  us  of  a  later  age  the  mediaeval 
Reformations,  or  attempts  at  Reformation,  loom  large  ; 
to  the  men  of  the  times  they  were  not  of  the  highest 
moment.  As  students  of  history  we  see  them  in 
their  right  perspective,  and  hail  their  scattered  rays 
as  the  dawn  of  a  new  day ;  we  salute  their  preachers 
as  the  heralds  of  a  better  age.  But  the  men  of  the 
c.c,  y 


322  INFLUENCE  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH 

time  saw  in  them  little  but  unreasoning  revolt,  and, 
on  the  whole,  their  influence,  social  and  otherwise, 
was  not  so  great  as  sometimes  we  imagine.  But  such 
as  it  was  it  demands  attention. 

Mediaeval  reform  movements  may  be  roughly 
classified  as  follows,  (i.)  Those  which  aimed  at  a 
reformation  of  the  Church  from  within,  by  a  stricter 
observance  of  its  primitive  law  and  spirit,  and  a  purging 
of  the  whole  in  head  and  members,  (ii.)  Those  which 
protested  against  the  suppression  by  Rome  of  all 
independence.  These  aimed  at  lessening  the  excessive 
internationalism  of  the  Church,  and  at  the  develop- 
ment of  a  strong  local  feeling  by  the  emphasis  of 
nationalism  in  ritual,  government  and  language. 
These  two  objects  or  causes  of  religious  revolt  often 
tended  to  become  one,  as  in  the  case  of  the  Hussite 
movement  in  Bohemia.  But,  in  the  case  of  the  reform 
movement  which  culminated  at  Constance,  the  strong 
desire  for  amendment  in  head  and  members  was  really 
vitiated  and  made  of  no  account  by  the  new  spirit  of 
nationalism  which  we  find  so  rampant  in  the  Council 
itself.  1  (iii.)  The  movements  of  reform  or  revolt 
which  originated  in  a  deep  belief  in  evangelical  poverty 
as  the  sine  qua  non  of  all  spiritual  life,  (iv.)  Protests 
against  the  excessive  sacerdotalism  of  the  times, 
especially  against  its  causa  causans,  the  doctrine  of 
transubstantiation.  But  the  objections  to  transub- 
stantiation  of  Wyclif  and  others  scarcely  fall  within 
the  plan  of  this  chapter  ;  they  are  theological  rather 
than  social. 

The  best  work  of  the  mediaeval  Church  lay,  no 
doubt,  in  the  reformations  which  may  be  classed  as 
from  within  ;    the  coming  in  the  early  years  of  the 

1  See  my  Dawn  of  the  Reformation,  vol.  ii.  chap.  v.  for  the  fuller 
proof  of  this. 


ON  THE   MIDDLE  AGES  323 

thirteenth  century  of  the  Friars  under  St.  Francis  and 
St.  Dominic,  the  ConciHar  movement  of  the  fourteenth 
century  which  led  to  Constance  (1415),  or,  to  go  back 
to  an  earHer  age,  the  great  reform  of  the  Church  associ- 
ated with  the  name  of  Hildebrand.  But  the  bearing 
of  these  movements  upon  social  development  has  been 
sufficiently  considered  already  in  connexion  with 
the  work  of  the  Church,  of  which  in  fact  they  were  the 
strongest  advocates  and  supports.  As  regards  the 
protest  against  the  suppression  of  the  national  feeling, 
or  revolts  which  sprang  from  the  new  consciousness 
of  nationalism,  it  is  needless  to  write  at  length.  In 
these,  as  for  instance  in  the  Hussite  revolt,  which 
began  in  the  constant  struggle  between  Czech  and 
Teuton,  we  find  the  birth  of  that  new  spirit  which  was 
to  prove  dominant,  for  weal  or  woe,  at  the  Reformation 
itself.  But  such  movements  were  of  greater  influence 
upon  the  politics  than  the  morals  of  the  times.  In 
Bohemia,  to  cite  one  illustration,  the  influence  of  Hus 
upon  the  development  of  its  national  spirit  is  undying ; 
his  contribution  to  the  permanent  moral  and  religious 
uplifting  of  his  nation  has  been  but  slight. 

The  revolts  which  may  be  classified  under  (iii.)  or 
(iv.)  often  tended  to  run  the  one  into  the  other.  For 
our  present  purpose  they  are  of  far  greater  importance 
than  the  orthodox  reformations  which  fall  under  (i.) 
and  (ii.).  These  latter  reformations,  because  they 
were  orthodox,  added  little  save  revived  zeal  or  wider 
horizons  to  the  moral  and  social  ideals  of  the  Church. 
The  unorthodox  reformations,  on  the  contrary,  cor- 
rected many  errors  or  exaggerations  of  mediaeval 
method  and  aim,  oftentimes  it  must  be  confessed  by 
over  emphasis  of  the  contrary. 

The  revolts  which  originated  in  the  protest  of 
enthusiasts  against  the  wealth  of  the  Church,  and  which 


324  INFLUENCE  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH 

proclaimed  the  need  of  evangelical  poverty,  were  almost 
continuous  from  the  twelfth  century  to  the  Reforma- 
tion. They  assumed  many  forms  and  different  names, 
but  underlying  all  is  the  same  spirit.  Whether  called 
Henricians,  Patarines,  Waldensians,  Poor  Men  of 
Lyons,  or  Lollards ;  whether  deriving  their  origin 
from  Joachimists,  Spirituals,  Fraticelli  and  the  like  ; 
whether  they  looked  to  the  writings  of  Wyclif,  or  to 
the  Introduction  to  the  Eternal  Gospel  of  Gherardo 
da  Borgo  San  Donnino  ; — their  doctrines  are  funda- 
mentally allied ;  the  tendency  to  identify  poverty 
and  perfection,  to  take  from  the  Church  its  endow- 
ments and  to  bestow  them  on  the  poor,  or  devote 
them  to  the  resources  of  the  State.  On  their  political 
side  these  revolts  mark  the  rise  of  a  new  democracy ; 
the  leaders  of  the  one  were  often  the  leaders  in  the 
other.  The  Spiritual  Franciscans,  especially,  joined 
their  devotion  to  the  poverty  of  their  founder  with  an 
enthusiasm  for  new  philosophies,  new  heresies,  and 
new  social  movements  that  was  always  driving  them 
into  conflict  with  either  Church  or  State.  A  wave  of 
democratic  agitation  was  sweeping  over  Europe  ;  a 
fierce  struggle  between  reason  and  authority  was 
working  its  way  to  the  surface  in  the  sphere  of  politics 
as  well  as  of  belief.  For  in  that  age  all  revolutions  were 
naturally  religious  in  origin  and  character,  while  all 
reformation  led  of  necessity  to  social  revolution. 

The  illustrations  of  this  union  of  democracy  and 
reformation  are  many,  in  every  century  from  the 
twelfth  onward.  We  may  mention  in  the  first  half 
of  the  twelfth  century  Henry  of  Lausanne,  a  monk  of 
Clugny,  barefooted,  carrying  a  cross  in  his  hand, 
attacking  the  corruptions  of  the  Church  with  such 
earnestness  that  a  dozen  towns  have  boycotted  their 
clergy ;  this  at  a  time  when  St.  Bernard  rules  Europe 


ON   THE   MIDDLE  AGES  325 

for  orthodoxy  from  his  cell  at  Clairvaux.  In  the  towns 
of  Italy  at  the  same  time  this  revolt  against  authority, 
allied  with  the  reaction  of  the  Christian  conscious- 
ness against  a  worldly  Church,  took  the  special  form  of  a 
struggle  to  shake  off  the  yoke  of  feudalism,  both  civic 
and  spiritual.  The  twelfth  century  witnessed  the 
rise  of  the  free  republics  of  Lombardy  and  Tuscany. 
In  Rome  that  remarkable  reformer,  Arnold  of  Brescia, 
used  the  local  disaffection  to  advance  his  dreams  of 
a  nobler  Utopia. 

If  Abailard  was  the  incarnation  of  the  new  spirit 
which  in  the  twelfth  century  claimed  for  itself  freedom 
of  thought,  in  Arnold  of  Brescia,  the  pupil  and  com- 
panion of  Abailard,  we  find  the  leader  in  the  new  claim 
for  freedom  of  will.  His  life  will  serve  as  an  excellent 
example  of  the  union  in  the  Middle  Ages  of  democracy 
with  the  preaching  of  evangelical  poverty.  Born  at 
Brescia,  Arnold  on  his  return  from  his  studies  in  Paris 
plunged  into  the  struggles  of  the  citizens  against  their 
bishops.  Brescia  was  a  seat  of  the  Patarines,  and 
Arnold,  though  in  theology  most  orthodox,  added  fuel 
to  the  flames  of  heresy  and  patriotism  by  his  invectives 
against  the  worldliness  of  the  priests.  The  possession 
of  property,  he  maintained,  was  contrary  to  Christi- 
anity ;  he  urged  the  secularization  of  the  estates  of  the 
Church.  Clerical  wealth  should  be  escheated  to  the 
commune  ;  henceforth  the  ministers  of  religion  should 
depend  on  the  voluntary  tithes  of  the  people.  His 
teaching  suited  both  the  politics  and  pockets  of  the 
market-place.  All  Lombardy  was  stirred  with  wild 
expectation  in  which  it  would  be  difficult  to  say  whether 
the  hope  of  plunder  or  reform  was  the  dominant  motive. 
After  various  adventures  in  1147,  we  meet  him  at 
Rome  preaching  his  favourite  doctrines  to  a  democracy 
which  needed  no  persuasion.     The  purity  of  his  life. 


326  INFLUENCE  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH 

the  high  morality  of  his  teaching  appealed  to  the  few  ; 
the  many  were  reached  by  the  fiery  eloquence  with 
which  a  man  clothed  in  a  monk's  robe  and  worn  with 
fasting  preached  in  the  peasant's  tongue  apostolic 
poverty  in  priest  and  pope.  Arnold's  ideal  was  of  a 
great  Christian  repubhc,  in  which  the  existing  feudalism 
should  give  place  to  the  sovereignty  of  the  people,  to 
whom  should  belong  the  vast  estates  of  the  Church  ; 
much  the  same  idea  as  was  afterwards  more  clearly 
enunciated  by  MarsigUo.  Triumphant  democracy 
would  possess  all  the  virtues  and  none  of  the  wrongs 
of  the  systems  it  would  replace  ;  it  would  usher  in  an 
era  of  true  religion,  for  which  the  world  sought  in  vain 
in  existing  ecclesiastical  organizations. 

In  many  respects  Arnold  was  an  unpractical  dreamer. 
As  we  look  back  upon  his  ideals  and  remember  that  he 
attempted  to  reahze  these  among  the  ignorant  and 
oppressed  lower  classes  of  the  twelfth  century,  our 
admiration  of  his  daring  is  only  equalled  by  our  astonish- 
ment that  he  should  mistake  the  transitory  intoxica- 
tion of  the  Romans  for  reUgious  and  moral  conviction. 
Nevertheless  his  memory  should  be  reverenced.  The 
world  has  too  few  prophets  for  us  to  despise  one 

Who  rowing  hard  against  the  stream. 
Saw  distant  gates  of  Eden  gleam 
And  did  not  dream  it  was  a  dream. 

In  1155  Arnold,  a  true  martyr  for  freedom,  was 
hanged  and  burned,  and  his  ashes  thrown  into  the 
Tiber  by  Pope  Adrian  IV,  the  one  Englishman  who 
ever  occupied  the  papal  chair. 

The  life  of  Arnold  is  typical.  We  find  its  details 
repeated,  mutatis  mutandis,  in  every  country  and 
century.  In  the  thirteenth  century  for  a  few  years 
we    see  the  cessation  of    revolt,  but    this  was  only 


ON   THE   MIDDLE   AGES  327 

because  for  a  few  years  we  see  the  triumph,  or  fancied 
triumph,  of  democracy  and  piety  in  the  person  of  St. 
Francis.  With  the  loss  of  his  ideal  the  old  struggle 
once  more  breaks  out ;  but  in  every  case  the  leaders 
of  the  people  in  their  battle  for  freedom  are  the  preachers 
of  the  need  of  apostoHc  poverty.  In  England  we  have 
an  illustration  of  this  in  the  case  of  the  Peasants* 
Revolt.  At  the  back  of  this  great  revolt  we  find  the 
friars,  who  had  for  years  been  preaching  to  the  people 
**  that  all  things  should  be  in  common,''  as  we  learn 
from  Langland.  Though  Wyclif's  direct  influence 
upon  this  revolt  was  slight,  nevertheless  his  communis- 
tic ideas,  reported  secondhand  by  his  Biblemen,  or 
distorted  by  men  indifferent  to  their  subtle  and  unwork- 
able distinctions,  1  had  not  been  without  their  effect. 
The  Peasants'  Revolt,  though  far  from  being  a  com- 
munistic movement,  was  but  the  rude  translation  into  a 
world  of  practice  of  a  theory  of  ''  dominion  "  that  des- 
troyed the  *'  lordship  "  of  the  wicked  and  exalted 
possession  into  the  inalienable  right  of  the  saint. 2 

Wyclif's  arguments  are  obscured  by  being  expressed 
in  the  definitions  and  distinctions  of  a  decaying  feudal- 
ism. Like  most  schoolmen  Wyclif  starts  with  an 
ideal  state  of  society  :  *'  all  authority  is  founded  in 
grace."  *'  Lordship  "  rests  with  God  alone,  who  as 
Suzerain  of  the  world  hath  allotted  ''  dominion  "  to 
popes  and  kings  in  fief  and  tenure  of  their  obedience 
to  Himself.  Of  this  feudal  tenure  ''  from  the  Lord  in 
chief  "  mortal  sin  is  a  breach,  and  in  itself  ''  incurs 
forfeiture  " — a  doctrine  bound  to  lead  to  anarchical 
consequences  if  Wyclif  had  applied  his  conclusions  to 
existing  society.     But  he  saved  himself  by  a  curious 

^  For  illustrations  see  Chronicon  AnglicB  (Rolls.  Series)  282,  340. 
*  Wyclif's  political  theories  are   best  seen  in  his  De  Dominio. 
For  an  analysis  see  Poole,  Med.  Thought,  290-306. 


328  INFLUENCE  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH 

metaphysical  juggle.  He  carefully  distinguishes  be- 
tween ''  dominion,"  which  belongs  alone  to  the 
righteous  man,  and  ''  power,"  which  the  wicked  may 
have  by  God's  permission  in  consequence  of  the  Fall. 
In  thus  building  up  society  upon  the  Fall,  Wyclif 
foUowed  the  usual  mediaeval  theories.  Thomas 
Aquinas  alone  had  discerned  that  social  instincts  are 
an  essential  part  of  man's  moral  constitution. 

The  natural  corollary  of  this  doctrine  of ''  dominion '' 
is  the  defence  of  Christian  socialism.  Communism 
is  with  him  the  translation  into  reality  of  his  main 
thesis  that  "  every  righteous  man  is  lord  over  the  whole 
sensible  world  "  ;  '*  the  faithful  man  " — Wyclif  is 
quoting  Proverbs  xvii.  6 — '*  hath  the  whole  world  of 
riches,  but  the  unfaithful  man  hath  not  even  a  farthing !  '* 
In  his  scheme  ''  lordship  "  is  thus  always  linked  with 
service  ;  the  two  are  corresponding  terms,  as  the  most 
exalted  of  all  potentates  acknowledges  by  his  title  of 
Servus  Servorum.  Thus  '*  rights  "  and  ''  duties  "  be- 
come equivalent  and  interchangeable.  But  Wyclif 
was  not  ignorant  that  his  ideal  society  is  not  yet 
capable  of  realization.  He  is  careful  to  insist  that  the 
righteous  must  not  attempt  to  acquire  their  inalienable 
rights  by  force. 

With  Wyclif  s  revolt  on  its  political,  scholastic, 
and  theological  sides  we  are  not  here  concerned.  But 
whatever  judgement  may  be  passed  upon  his  political 
theory  of  ''  dominion,"  or  his  Erastian  ideal  ot 
reformation,  not  even  his  bitterest  opponent  can  deny 
Wyclif's  intense  love  of,  and  sympathy  with,  the  poor. 
To  WycHf  the  Epistle  of  St,  James  would  be  rather 
the  marrow  of  the  Gospel  than  *'  an  epistle  of  straw," 
but  then  Wyclif's  sympathy  with  and  understanding 
of  the  poor  was  deeper  than  that  of  Luther.  Their 
needs  are  at  all  times  uppermost  in  his  thoughts.     His 


ON   THE   MIDDLE   AGES  329 

sorrow  for  their  woes  runs  through  his  works  like  a 
wail  of  love,  and  redeems  his  fiercest  denunciations, 
his  most  impossible  schemes.  Half  his  writings  might 
be  compressed  into  his  bitter  cry  :  '*  Poor  men  have 
naked  sides,  and  dead  walls  have  great  plenty  of 
waste  gold.^  Wychf,  in  fact,  had  he  not  been  ham- 
pered by  his  scholastic  training,  might  have  figured 
in  the  Roman  calendar  as  a  second  St.  Francis.  In 
more  than  one  of  his  doctrines  the  critic  may  discern 
resemblance  to  the  teaching  of  the  saint  of  Assisi.  His 
*'  poor  priests  ''  were  a  revival  of  the  '*  Little  Brothers/' 
He  constantly  speaks  as  if  poverty  were  the  duty  of 
the  whole  Church.  But  we  miss  the  sweetness  and 
light,  the  radiant  joyousness,  the  absence  of  all  aggres- 
siveness save  love,  which  make  the  Italian  immortal. 
The  very  fierceness  of  Wyclif 's  attacks  upon  the  degen- 
erate friars  of  his  age  witnesses  to  his  kinship  with 
them.  He  hated  them  with  all  the  hatred  which  an 
earnest  man  feels  for  those  who  have  degraded  his 
ideal  or  disappointed  his  hopes.  But  these  attacks 
should  not  blind  us  to  Wyclif's  spiritual  lineage.  The 
Reformer  was,  in  fact,  '*  the  genuine  descendant  of  the 
friars,  turning  their  wisdom  against  themselves,  and 
carrying  out  the  principles  he  had  learned  from  them 
to  their  legitimate  political  conclusions.''  2  Perhaps 
it  would  be  more  accurate  to  classify  him  with  the 
Spiritual  Friars,  whose  ideas  and  phraseology  he  in 
part  assimilated  ^ ;  though,  with  English  common 
sense,  he  abandoned  their  apocalyptic  ravings. 

Before  we  pass  away  from  Wyclif  it  is  of  interest 

^  Matthews,  Eng.  Works  of  Wyclif,  91.  Select  Eng.  Works,  iii. 
170. 

2  Brewer,  Monumenta  Franciscana,  i.  p.  Kx. 

^  Cf .  Wyclif,  Dominic  Divino,  5  n.  15  ;  also  Select  English  Works, 
iii.  212,  and  especially  iii.  304  (very  doubtful  if  by  Wyclif),  360,  i.  314. 


330  INFLUENCE  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH 

to  note  one  matter  of  doctrine  in  which  Wyclif's 
intense  social  sympathies  lead  him  to  a  conclusion 
unusual  in  a  mediaeval.  We  refer  to  the  strong  appre- 
ciation which  Wyclif  shows  of  the  real  humanity  of 
Jesus,  especially  in  his  treatise  de  Benedict  a  Incarna- 
tione.  Here  he  claims  that  Christ  is  the  universal 
man  identical  with  all  His  brethren.  The  *'  literal 
reaUty  of  Christ's  human  nature  is  a  most  precious 
jewel ''  which  he  will  not  surrender  ;  Christ  and  His 
humanity  must  never  be  divided.  This  identification 
of  Christ  and  the  communis  homo  is  not  merely  due  to 
Wyclif's  scholastic  Realism ;  it  marks  rather  that 
intense  sympathy  for  suffering  humanity,  so  charac- 
teristic of  the  Reformer,  which  led  him  to  the  same 
conclusion  as  in  the  first  century  it  had  led  the  writer 
of  the  Epistle  to  the  Hebrews. 

We  note  the  same  emphasis  of  humanity  in  Wyclif's 
Lollard  disciples.  We  see  this  in  the  protest  of  Purvey, 
Wyclif's  assistant  in  the  translation  of  the  Bible, 
against  all  crusades  :  ''  Certes,  as  long  as  heathen 
men  will  live  peaceably  with  us  Christians,  and  not 
war  on  us  to  destroy  our  Christendom,  we  have  no 
authority  of  God  to  war  against  them  "  ;  and  in  his 
plea,  rather,  for  foreign  missions  :  "A  true  successor 
of  St.  Peter  should  rather  grant  indulgences  to  suffer 
pains  meekly,  to  convert  heathen  men."  Pilgrimages, 
if  made  at  aU,  should  be  ''  made  only  unto  the  poor  "  ; 
"  it  were  better  to  deal  money  unto  poor  folk  than  to 
offer  to  the  image  of  Christ."  ^  ''  If  ye  desire,"  said 
Margery  Baxter  (1428)  ''  to  see  the  true  Cross  of 
Christ,  I  will  show  it  you  at  home  in  your  own  house. 
Then  the  said  Margery,  stretching  out  her  arms  abroad 
said  :    This  is  the  true  Cross  of  Christ,  and  this  cross 

^  Foxe  (ed.  Pratt),  iii.  597  ;  iv.  133.  Purvey,  Remonstrance,  23, 
25»  5S,  64,  66. 


ON   THE   MIDDLE   AGES  331 

thou  oughtest  and  mayest  every  day  behold  and 
worship  in  thine  own  house  ;  and  therefore  it  is  but 
vain  to  run  to  the  church  to  worship  dead  crosses/' 
Similar  answers  were  given  by  Sir  John  Oldcastle 
and  other  Lollards.  Said  the  heroic  William  Thorpe 
in  his  examination  before  Archbishop  Arundel  in  1407, 
when  giving  his  reasons  why  images  ought  not  to  be 
worshipped  in  any  wise  :  ''  Man  that  was  made  after 
the  image  and  likeness  of  God  is  full  worshipful  in  his 
kind  ;  yea,  and  this  holy  image,  that  is  man,  God 
worshippeth  [respectethy*  To  the  same  effect  was 
the  testimony  of  John  Edmunds  (1521) :  ''  This 
John  Edmunds  talking  with  the  said  Baker  of  pil- 
grimage bade  him  offer  his  money  to  the  image  of  God. 
When  the  other  asked  what  that  was,  he  said  that 
the  image  of  God  was  the  poor  people,  blind  and  lame.'' 
Many  other  like  illustrations  could  be  given  how  the 
Lollards  cared  more  for  ''  preventing  the  sufferings  of 
Christ's  people  "  than  for  '*  picturing  to  themselves 
the  bodily  pain,  long  since  passed,  of  one  Person."  * 
But  the  greatest  service  of  the  Lollard  and  other 
mediaeval  heretics  and  reformers  lay  in  the  emphasis 
they  placed  upon  the  right  of  individual  judgment. 
They  demanded  ''  the  liberty  of  prophesying  "  which 
in  the  next  age  was  to  give  power  to  the  Reformation. 
Above  all  they  taught  men  how  to  die  for  their  faith 
and  conscience.  Though  in  their  days  they  lived 
without  influence,  and  died  without  respect,  they  have 
since  seen  of  the  travail  of  their  souls  and  are  satisfied. 

:ic  H:  4:  4:  4( 

We  have  finished  our  survey  of  the  influence  of 
the  Church  on  the  social  and  ethical  development  of 
the  Middle  Ages — from  Gregory  the  Great  to  the  later 

^  'RMskin,  Lectures  on  Art,yi-6;  with  which  compare  Foxe(ed. 
Pratt),  iii.  594,  265  ;  iv.  238.     Wyclif,  Select  English  Works,  iii.  463. 


332  INFLUENCE  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH 

Lollards.  The  vast  extent  of  the  period  covered  has 
precluded  all  but  the  most  cursory  examination,  and 
many  matters  of  interest  have,  perforce,  been  omitted. 
With  all  its  defects — and  the  reverse  side  of  the  page 
may  well  fill  us  with  indignation — the  mediaeval  Church 
presents  a  noble  spectacle  of  moral  grandeur,  and  of 
true  work  done  for  humanity.  That  many  of  the 
forces  and  institutions  which  in  their  day  ministered 
to  righteousness  in  a  later  age  became  positive  hin- 
drances, the  clearing  away  of  which  was  necessary  for 
further  development,  is  only  in  harmony  with  the 
known  laws  of  progress.  That  they  without  us  should 
not  be  made  perfect  is  not  the  condemnation  of  the 
hope  of  those  who  have  gone  before,  but  the  providential 
law  of  evolution. 


VIII 

The  Social  Principles  and  Effects  of  the 
Reformation 

By  Rev.  H.  T.  ANDREWS,  B.A.,  Professor  of  New  Testa- 
ment Exegesis  and  Criticism,  New  College,  London. 


ARGUMENT. 

Preliminary — Difficulties  involved  in  the  Treatment  of  the  Subject — (i)  The 
Danger  of  Subjectivism — (2)  The  Social  (Question  not  a  Prominent 
Issue  with  the  Reformers — (3)  The  Different  Meanings  attached 
to  the  term  Reformation  and  the  Need  of  Definition — (4)  The  Difficulty 
of  Separating  the  Religious  from  other  Influences  at  Work  during 
the  Period. 

I.  The  Social  Teaching  of  the  First  Reformers  and  its  Effects. 

(A)  Luther,  His  Fundamental  Position — The  Peasant  Revolt — 
Its  Causes — The  Programme  of  the  Peasants — The  Attitude  of  Luther 
— His  Vindictive  Pamphlet — Effect  of  Luther's  Action  on  the  Refor- 
mation and  on  Germany — Luther's  Attitude  to  the  New  Commercial 
Spirit. 

(B)  Calvin — Differences  between  Luther  and  Calvin — The  Con- 
dition of  Geneva — The  Fundamental  Principles  Underlying  Calvin's 
Work — The  Attempt  to  Establish  a  Theocracy — The  Relation  between 
Church  and  State — The  Relation  between  the  Individual  and  the 
Community — Knox's  Attempt  to  Establish  Calvin's  Regime  in  Scot- 
land— His  Social  Programme — ^The  Influence  of  the  Reformation 
on  the  Struggle  for  Independence  in  the  Netherlands. 

II.  The  Indirect  Effects  of  the  Reformation  on  Social  Progress. 

The  Indirect  and  Ultimate  Effects  more  Important  than  the  Imme- 
diate Results — The  Influence  of  the  Reformation  Seen — (a)  in  the 
introduction  of  a  New  Conception  of  Life  and  the  Overthrow  of  the 
Monastic  Ideal ;  (6)  the  Consecration  of  Family  Life ;  (c)  a  New 
Sanctity  attached  to  Labour,  Commerce  and  Civic  Life  ;  (d)  the  Con- 
ception of  a  Social  Ideal ;  (e)  The  Reformation  Enhances  the  sense 
and  value  of  Personality ;  (/)  It  fosters  the  Spirit  of  Intellectual 
Freedom  ;  (g)  Its  Influence  on  Political  and  Social  Liberty  and  (h) 
on  the  Growth  of  Democracy  ;  (i)  It  Revolutionizes  the  Conception 
of  Charity  and  (/)  Gives  a  new  Stimulus  to  Education ;  (k)  the  Reform- 
ation and  the  Middle  Classes  ;  (l)  Socialistic  Theories  in  the  Reform- 
ation Period ;  (m)  Certain  losses  entailed  by  the  abandonment 
of  the  Mediaeval  Dream  of  Unity  and  the  Introduction  of  the  Com- 
mercial Spirit. 


VIII 

The    Social   Principles    and   Effects    of  the 
Reformation 

It  is  by  no  means  an  easy  task  to  gauge  with  anything 
like  scientific  precision  the  exact  contribution  which 
the  Reformation  made  to  the  social  progress  of  the 
race.  There  are  many  difficulties  which  such  an 
investigation  is  bound  to  surmount  before  it  can  hope 
to  reach  a  satisfactory  result. 

In  the  first  place  we  must  strive  to  guard  against 
the  danger  which  is  incidental  to  all  such  inquiries 
of  unconsciously  imposing  our  own  ideas  and  judg- 
ments upon  the  data  of  history.  *'  History/'  as 
Froude  once  said,  '*  is  like  a  child's  box  of  letters. 
You  can  make  it  spell  whatever  you  please."  There 
is  no  region  in  which  the  dictum — **  the  mind  sees 
what  it  brings  with  it  the  power  of  seeing  " — is  better 
illustrated  than  in  the  philosophy  of  history.  It  will 
therefore  be  absolutely  necessary  for  us  to  guard 
our  selves  against  hasty  generalizations,  especially 
when  the  generalization  is  in  accord  with  our  own 
wishes. 

Then  again  a  difficulty  arises  from  the  fact  that 
the  social  question  was  not  one  of  the  most  prominent 
issues  at  the  time  of  the  Reformation.     Democracy 

336 


336         THE  SOCIAL   PRINCIPLES  AND 

had  not  yet  realized  itself.  There  was,  of  course, 
grave  discontent  among  the  peasantry  of  Europe,  and 
serious  outbreaks  occurred  in  Germany,  England  and 
Bohemia  ;  but  it  cannot  be  said  that  the  social  pro- 
blem filled  the  thought  and  imagination  of  the  age  as 
it  does  to-day.  The  Reformation  was  pre-eminently 
a  spiritual  movement.  Its  main  purpose  was  to 
emancipate  religion  from  the  tyranny  of  the  Roman 
Church.  It  was  only  incidentally,  here  and  there,  that 
it  was  brought  face  to  face  with  definite  social  issues. 
Whatever  contribution  therefore  the  Reformation 
made  to  social  reform  was  in  the  nature  of  a  by-pro- 
duct, and  cannot  be  regarded  as  part  of  the  original 
purpose  of  the  movement. 

Furthermore,  before  we  can  hope  to  reach  con- 
vincing results,  it  will  be  necessary  to  define  the  mean- 
ing which  we  attach  to  the  term  ''  Reformation.*' 
The  word  is  used  in  many  different  senses.  To  some 
minds  it  simply  denotes  the  results  achieved  by  Luther 
in  Germany  during  his  lifetime.  Others  regard  it  as 
signifying  primarily  the  changes  introduced  by  Henry 
VIII  in  the  relations  between  the  EngHsh  Church  and 
the  Papacy.  To  others  the  work  of  Calvin  at  Geneva 
constitutes  the  real  Reformation.  Our  conclusions 
are  bound  to  vary  with  our  definition.  As  a  matter 
of  fact  the  most  diverse  results  have  been  obtained 
by  scholars  in  the  past.  Lord  Acton,  for  instance, 
in  his  History  of  Freedom  asserts  that  ''  The  direct 
political  influence  of  the  Reformation  effected  less 
than  has  been  supposed.  .  .  .  When  the  last  of  the 
Reformers  died,  religion  instead  of  emancipating  the 
nations  had  become  an  excuse  for  the  criminal  art  of 
despots.  Calvin  preached  and  Bellarmine  lectured, 
but  Machiavelli  reigned.'*  In  striking  contrast  to 
this  statement  of  Lord  Acton,  we  have  the  aflirma- 


EFFECTS   OF  THE   REFORMATION       337 

tion  of  M.  Borgeaud  in  his  Rise  of  Democracy,  "  Modem 
democracy  is  the  child  of  the  Reformation."     Now 
Lord  Acton  and  M.  Borgeaud  are  both  of  them  right. 
The  difference  in  their  conclusions  is  due  to  the  fact 
that  the  former  rigidly  limits  the  Reformation  to  the 
lifetime  of  the  Reformers,  while  the  latter  includes 
the  Puritan  movement  of  the  seventeenth  century  in 
the  scope  of  the  Reformation.     In  the  present  essay 
the  Reformation  will  be  taken  in  the  broadest  sense 
of  the  term.     To  limit  it  to  the  work  of  the  first  Re- 
formers is  to  take  an  unduly  narrow  and  circumscribed 
view  of  history.     Luther  and  Calvin  only  laid  the 
foundations,  and  it  was  two  hundred  years  before  the 
full  effects  of  the  movement  began  to  be  realized.     We 
must  regard  the  Reformation,  therefore,  as  including 
all  the  new  spiritual  forces  which  were  generated  in 
Europe   during   the   sixteenth   and  seventeenth   cen- 
turies in  the  effort  to  break  down  the  superstition  and 
tyranny  of  the  Papal  authority. 

Finally,   we  have   to  remember  that  there  were 
other  forces  at  work  during  this  period  besides  the 
religious.     There  was,  for  instance,  the  Renaissance, 
which  re-introduced  the  social  and  political  ideals  of 
ancient  Greece  and  Rome.     Great  changes,  too,  were 
taking  place  in  the  world  of  commerce.     The  develop- 
ment of  navigation  and  the  discovery  of  America  had 
broadened  the  basis  of  trade.     A  new  order  of  mer- 
chant  princes   was   beginning   to   arise.     Wealth   no 
longer  necessarily  meant  the  possession  of  land.     The 
economic    condition    of    Europe    was    steadily   being 
revolutionized.     The  Feudal  System  was   ceasing    to 
be  the  pivot  of  society.     The  profitable  employment 
of  money  in  trade  enhanced  the  value  of  capital.     With 
all  these  influences  at  work,  it  is  extremely  difficult 
to  disentangle  any  single  strand  from  the  complicated 
c.c.  z 


338         THE  SOCIAL   PRINCIPLES  AND 

thread  of  causation  and  estimate  its  particular  effect 
upon  the  social  development  which  ensued.  To  take 
an  illustration.  We  know  that  between  the  time  of 
Wyclif  and  the  death  of  Queen  Elizabeth  the  wages 
of  agricultural  labourers  doubled  in  England,  and  as 
Prof.  J.  R.  Green  says,  "  villeinage  died  out  so  rapidly 
that  it  became  a  rare  and  antiquated  thing.''  Our 
first  impulse  would  naturally  be  to  attribute  this  result 
to  the  new  religious  ideas  introduced  by  the  Reforma- 
tion. We  are  bound,  however,  to  take  into  considera- 
tion the  other  influences  which  were  at  work,  and 
we  must  never  forget  the  economic  fact  that  the  Black 
Death  had  swept  off  half  the  population  of  the  rural 
districts,  and  so  made  labour  scarce.  Even  in  feudal 
times,  in  spite  of  the  safeguards  provided  by  Parlia- 
ment in  the  interests  of  the  feudal  lords,  a  depletion 
of  the  labour  market  was  inevitably  followed  by  an 
advance  in  the  status  and  wages  of  the  labourer.  It 
would  be  as  unscientific  to  ascribe  the  amelioration 
in  the  condition  of  the  labouring  classes  entirely  to 
the  propaganda  of  Wyclif  and  the  Lollards,  as  it  would 
be  to  deny  altogether  the  part  which  the  new  religious 
ideas  played  in  creating  what  Thorold  Rogers  called 
"  the  golden  age  ''  of  the  English  peasant  in  the  fif- 
teenth century. 

Keeping  these  difficulties  in  mind,  we  can  now 
proceed  to  the  examination  of  the  facts.  It  will  be 
necessary  first  of  all  to  investigate  the  principles 
laid  down  by  the  great  Reformers  on  the  subject  of 
Social  Reform,  and  the  direct  effects  produced  by  the 
movement  in  different  countries ;  and  then,  when 
this  has  been  done,  we  shall  be  in  a  position  to  esti- 
mate the  larger  and  more  general  influences  which  the 
Reformation  generated  in  the  sphere  of  social  and 
civic  life. 


EFFECTS   OF  THE   REFORMATION       339 

I 

It  will  be  impossible,  of  course,  to  survey  all  the 
different  religious  movements  in  connexion  with  the 
Reformation.  We  shall  have  to  confine  ourselves  in 
the  main  to  an  examination  of  the  teaching  of  Luther 
and  Calvin,  though  some  allusion  must  also  be  made 
to  the  work  of  John  Knox  in  Scotland,  and  the  great 
struggle  for  religious  liberty  in  the  Netherlands.  We 
find  that  though  the  various  movements  which  make 
up  the  Reformation  have  much  in  common,  yet  they 
have  many  points  of  difference  as  well.  The  doctrines 
of  the  new  faith  were  in  their  essence  the  same  all 
over  Europe  ;  but  in  spite  of  the  common  basis,  no 
two  movements  assumed  the  same  form  or  issued  in 
the  same  results.  The  different  shapes  which  the 
Reformation  assumed  in  different  places  were  due 
partly  to  the  temperament  of  the  leaders  and  partly 
to  the  social  and  political  environment  in  which  the 
battle  had  to  be  fought  out. 

A.     The  Social  Teaching   of  Luther. 

Luther  was  from  the  first  pre-eminently  concerned 
with  the  religious  question.  The  problem  for  him 
had  always  been,  ''  How  can  a  man  be  just  with  God  ?  *' 
After  a  desperate  struggle  he  had  found  the  answer 
which  satisfied  his  own  soul,  and  he  was  anxious  to 
give  that  answer  to  the  world.  The  main  point  for 
Luther  was  the  estabhshment  of  a  right  relationship 
between  man  and  God.  The  question  of  the  right 
relationship  between  man  and  man  never  concerned 
him  very  deeply.  He  felt  that  if  men  could  be  in- 
duced to  accept  the  doctrine  of  justification  by  faith 
and  enter  into  a  hfe  of  fellowship  with  God,  the  re- 
generation of  society  would  naturally  follow.     "  Save 


340         THE  SOCIAL  PRINCIPLES  AND 

the  individual,  and  by  saving  the  individual  you  will 

save   the  State '' — that   was   the   watchword   of   the 

/Lutheran   Reformation.     Luther   was  therefore  anxi- 

/ous  to  keep  the  movement  from  being  entangled  in 

/  any  social  or  political  complications.     In  this  policy 

/  however  he  was  doomed  to  fail. 

/  At  a  very  early  stage  in  its  development  the  German 

/  Reformation  was  brought  face  to  face  with  a  grave 
social  crisis.  The  Peasants'  Revolt  in  1524  made  it 
necessary  for  Luther  to  decide  once  for  all  whether 
the  movement  should  ally  itself  with  the  forces  of 
democracy  in  their  struggle  for  freedom,  or  whether 
it  should  support  the  ruling  classes  in  their  effort  to 
maintain  the  old  feudal  order. 

It  is  impossible  within  the  limits  of  the  present 
Essay  to  attempt  to  describe  all  the  issues  which 
were  involved  in  the  Peasants*  Revolt.  For  fifty 
years  and  more  the  German  peasantry  had  been 
seething  with  unrest.  Economic  changes  had  been 
taking  place  all  over  Europe  which  amounted  to 
little  less  than  an  agrarian  revolution.  The  discovery 
had  been  made  that  land  possessed  a  commercial 
value.  In  former  days  the  feudal  lord  was  perfectly 
contented  if  the  land  provided  him  with  men  to  serve 
him  in  husbandry  or  war.  Now  he  became  anxious 
to  make  money  out  of  the  soil.  The  common  lands 
were  gradually  enclosed.  The  produce  of  the  woods 
and  the  rivers,  which  in  the  past  had  been  regarded 
as  common  property,  was  appropriated  by  the  lord 
of  the  manor.  The  introduction  of  Roman  Law, 
too,  altered  for  the  worse  the  agricultural  customs 
and  usages  which  had  prevailed  in  Germany  for  ages, 
and  lowered  the  status  of  the  labourer.  The  growing 
love  of  luxury  led  the  rich  to  seek  increased  sources 
of  revenue  by  grinding  the  faces  of  the  poor.     The 


EFFECTS   OF  THE   REFORMATION      341 

exactions  of  the  Church  grew  more  burdensome  every 
year.  The  tithes  were  extended  to  cover  every  pos- 
sible source  of  income.  A  steady  rise  in  prices  and 
a  consequent  diminution  in  the  value  of  money  served 
to  intensify  the  sense  of  poverty.  A  series  of  bad 
harvests  added  to  the  sufferings  of  the  peasants. 
Time  after  time  insurrections  had  been  organized 
by  the  Bundshuh,  as  the  Peasants'  league  was  called. 
None  of  them  however  had  proved  successful,  and 
they  had  always  been  suppressed  without  difficulty. 
The  Reformation  with  its  attack  upon  the  Church 
and  its  proclamation  of  religious  liberty  gave  the 
peasants  a  new  hope  and  added  fuel  to  the  flames. 
Some  of  the  more  radical  reformers  like  Miinzer 
openly  espoused  the  cause  of  the  peasants  and  carried 
the  fiery  cross  of  rebellion  throughout  the  southern 
part  of  Germany.  At  length  in  1524  the  great  insur- 
rection broke  out.  The  demands  of  the  peasants, 
which  were  incorporated  in  twelve  Articles,  seem  to 
us  to-day  extremely  moderate.  They  were  couched 
in  religious  phraseology  and  supported  by  arguments 
drawn  from  the  Scriptures.  The  peasants  commenced 
by  claiming  in  the  first  article  the  right  to  elect  their 
own  pastors  and  religious  teachers.  They  made  no 
objection  to  the  payment  of  the  greater  tithes,  but 
they  argued  that  the  lesser  tithes  were  unscriptural 
and  rested  merely  on  human  authority.  They  de- 
manded the  restitution  of  the  privilege  enjoyed  by 
their  forefathers  of  hunting  in  the  common  woods 
and  fishing  in  the  rivers.  They  protested  against  every 
form  of  slavery  as  being  contrary  to  the  teaching 
of  the  New  Testament  and  demanded  exemption 
from  all  servile  services.  They  asked  also  for  a  reduc- 
tion of  rent  and  the  abolition  of  the  death  duties  exacted 
by  the  landlord. 


342         THE  SOCIAL  PRINCIPLES   AND 

The  programme  of  the  peasants  offered  Luther  a 
great  opportunity.  Their  fate  was  very  largely  in 
his  hands.  He  was  one  of  the  determining  factors 
in  the  situation.  The  issue  of  the  revolt  was  in  no 
small  degree  settled  by  his  decision.  There  can  be 
little  doubt  that  at  heart  Luther  was  largely  in  sym- 
pathy with  the  peasants.  He  came  himself  of  peasant 
stock  and  knew  from  bitter  experience  the  wrongs  by 
which  they  were  oppressed.  In  his  earlier  writings 
he  had  lashed  out  bravely  against  the  misgovernment 
of  the  princes  and  the  luxury  of  the  rich.  At  the 
first  appearance  of  the  peasants*  programme,  he 
adopted  a  neutral  attitude  towards  the  two  contending 
parties,  distributing  praise  and  blame  with  impartial 
hand.  He  expressed  approval  of  most  of  the  pea- 
sants' demands  and  urged  the  nobles  to  remove  the 
grievances.  At  the  same  time  he  warned  the  peasants 
that  a  resort  to  violence  would  be  fatal  to  their  claims. 
It  seems  quite  clear  that  he  was  anxious  to  secure 
a  compromise,  which  might  ameliorate  the  lot  of 
the  peasants  without  injuring  the  nobles. 

When  the  peasants,  unable  to  secure  a  bloodless 
revolution,  resorted  to  the  sword,  Luther  abandoned 
the  position  of  neutrality,  flung  himself  wildly  into 
the  fray  and  put  himself  forward  as  the  champion 
of  the  nobles.  His  pamphlet  Against  the  murderous 
thieving  hordes  of  peasants  is  a  disgrace  (there  is  no 
other  word  for  it)  to  literature,  to  say  nothing  of 
religion.  Luther  dipped  his  pen  in  venom  and  openly 
incited  the  nobles  to  butchery.  *'  A  prince  can  now,'* 
he  wrote,  ''  better  merit  heaven  with  bloodshed  than 
with  prayer."  A  perfect  orgy  of  slaughter  followed. 
No  less  than  a  hundred  thousand  peasants,  on  the 
lowest  computation,  were  slain  with  the  sword.     The 


EFFECTS   OF  THE   REFORMATION       343 

agricultural   districts   of   Southern   Germany   became 
little  better  than  a  wilderness. 

Many  attempts  have  been  made  to  extenuate 
the  action  of  Luther.  The  moderate  programme 
of  the  twelve  articles,  it  is  urged,  was  only  a  blind. 
The  real  aims  of  the  Bundshuh  stopped  very  little 
short  of  Socialism.  Moreover  the  success  of  the 
peasants  would  have  meant  revolution,  and  for  that 
Luther  was  not  prepared.  Luther  knew  too  that 
the  success  of  the  Reformation  would  be  imperilled 
if  it  were  associated  with  the  movement.  He  would 
have  inevitably  lost  the  support  of  the  German  princes 
and  nobles  upon  whose  help  he  relied  in  his  struggle 
with  the  Pope.  The  risk  was  too  great.  Luther 
had  really  no  alternative  but  to  sacrifice  the  peasants 
in  the  interests  of  the  Reformation. 

Arguments  such  as  these  would  have  justified 
Luther  in  adopting  a  policy  of  neutrality,  but  they 
do  not  justify  his  vindictive  onslaught  upon  the 
peasants  ;  least  of  all  do  they  afford  ground  for  his 
enunciation  of  the  barbarous  doctrine  ''  Killing  No 
Murder.''  Luther's  pamphlet,  as  Dr.  Lindsay  says, 
*'  all  extenuating  circumstances  being  taken  into 
account,  must  ever  remain  an  ineffaceable  stain  on 
his  noble  life  and  career." 

Luther's  action  left  an  indelible  mark  upon  his 
own  character,  upon  the  constitution  of  the  Lutheran 
Church,  and  upon  the  German  nation.  There  can 
be  little  doubt  that  Luther's  own  social  sympathies 
were  dulled  and  blunted  by  his  partisan  conduct. 
He  had  violated  the  principle  of  political  neutarlity 
which  lay  at  the  very  base  of  his  religious  conceptions. 
He  had  taken  sides  with  the  nobles  against  the  people. 
There  was  no  escaping  from  the  position.  As  time 
went  on,  his  sentiments  became  less  and  less  demo- 


344         THE  SOCIAL  PRINCIPLES  AND 

cratic.  No  one,  who  had  not  lost  his  finer  instincts, 
could  ever  have  written  the  notorious  letter  which 
Luther  composed  later  on,  in  conjunction  with  Melanch- 
thon  and  Spalatin,  to  remove  the  scruples  of  a  Saxon 
noble  in  regard  to  the  burdens  his  tenants  bore,  in 
which  he  gives  utterance  to  the  astounding  state- 
ment, **  The  ass  will  have  blows  and  the  people  will 
be  ruled  by  force/'  The  effect  upon  the  constitution 
of  the  Lutheran  Church  was  equally  detrimental. 
It  was  thrown  more  and  more  into  the  hands  of  the 
princes.  As  Professor  Pollard  says,  "  The  movement 
from  1521  to  1525  had  been  national,  and  Luther 
had  been  its  hero :  from  the  position  of  national  hero, 
he  now  sank  to  be  the  prophet  of  a  sect  and  a  sect 
which  depended  for  its  existence  upon  the  support 
of  poUtical  powers.  Melanchthon  admitted  that  the 
decrees  of  the  Lutheran  Church  were  mere  platonic 
conclusions  without  the  support  of  the  princes,  and 
Luther  suddenly  abandoned  his  views  on  the  free- 
dom of  conscience  and  the  independence  of  the  Church.'' 
But  most  disastrous  of  all  was  the  effect  produced 
upon  the  German  nation.  The  peasants  were  alien- 
ated from  Protestantism  and  relapsed,  some  back 
into  Roman  Catholicism  but  the  majority  into  unbelief. 
The  cause  of  Social  Reform  was  handicapped,  and 
it  took  centuries  before  it  recovered  from  the  blow 
which  Luther  dealt  it.  "  To  the  end  of  the  eighteenth 
century  the  German  peasantry  remained  the  most 
miserable  in  Europe.  Serfdom  lingered  there  longer 
than  in  any  other  civilized  country  save  Russia,  and 
the  mass  of  the  people  were  effectively  shut  out  from 
the  sphere  of  political  action."  The  anti-Christian 
character  of  modern  Socialism  in  Germany  is  one  of 
the  fruits  of  Luther's  policy. 

Little  need  be  said  with  regard  to  Luther's  atti- 


EFFECTS  OF  THE   REFORMATION       345 

tude  upon  other  social  questions.  Reference,  however, 
should  be  made  to  his  hostility  towards  the  methods 
of  the  new  Commerce.  In  one  of  his  works  he  pro- 
tests against  the  doctrine  that  a  merchant  ''  must 
buy  in  the  cheapest  market  and  sell  in  the  dearest,'' 
and  insists  that  the  only  justifiable  rule  is  ''  I  may 
sell  my  wares  as  dearly  as  I  ought,  or  as  is  right  and 
just.*'  ''  Selling  shall  not  be  a  work  which  stands 
freely  in  your  power,  without  all  law  and  measure, 
as  though  you  were  a  god,  who  is  bound  to  no  one  : 
but  because  your  selling  is  a  work  which  you  do  to 
your  neighbour,  it  shall  be  conducted  with  such  law 
and  conscience  that  you  may  do  it  without  harm  and 
injury  to  your  neighbour.'*  Luther  suggested  that 
the  magistrates  should  appoint  a  commission  to  estab- 
lish just  and  fair  prices,  though  he  adds  that  he  thought 
there  was  very  little  prospect  of  such  a  plan  being 
carried  out. 

Luther's  most  vehement  denunciations,  however, 
are  reserved  for  the  great  trading  societies  and  bankers, 
such  as  the  Fuggers,  who  in  the  fifteenth  and  six- 
teenth centuries  amassed  huge  fortunes  by  financial 
and  commercial  operations.  The  lending  and  bor- 
rowing of  money  at  interest  were  anathema  to  Luther. 
His  indignation  against  the  Monopolists  is  almost  as 
violent  as  his  attack  upon  the  peasants.  "  These 
people  are  not  worthy  of  being  called  men  or  dwelling 
among  people.  It  would  be  right  for  the  magistracy 
to  take  from  such  all  that  they  have  and  drive  them 
from  the  land."  In  one  of  his  extant  letters  written 
at  a  time  of  famine  when  an  attempt  was  being  made 
by  the  nobles  to  make  a  corner  in  wheat,  Luther 
makes  an  urgent  appeal  to  the  Elector  John  Frederic 
to  pass  a  law  ''to  prevent  the  nobles  from  trading  in 
corn  and  thereby  practising  usury  in  such  a  shameless 


346         THE  SOCIAL   PRINCIPLES  AND 

manner."  But  it  was  not  merely  the  abuses  con- 
nected with  commerce  that  Luther  hated  :  he  dis- 
liked the  thing  itself.  "  It  were  more  godly/'  he  says 
in  his  Address  to  the  Nobility,  ''  to  encourage  agri- 
culture and  lessen  commerce/'  ''  Germany  would 
be  better  off/'  he  writes  elsewhere,  "  if  she  spent  less 
of  her  gold  in  buying  cloth  from  England  and  spice 
from  Spain." 

It  would  not  be  far  from  the  truth  to  say  that 
Luther's  social  ideal  was  an  improved  Feudal  System. 
He  was  anxious  that  Germany  should  return  to  the 
old  simple  agricultural  life.  The  commercial  spirit 
was  an  unmitigated  disaster  in  his  eyes.  The  fact 
is  of  course  that  Luther  was  essentially  conservative 
in  all  his  instincts,  and  his  innate  Conservatism  is 
never  more  apparent  than  in  his  attitude  to  social 
questions.  He  began  his  public  career  by  opening 
the  floodgates  of  reform,  and  then,  frightened  at  the 
results,  spent  the  rest  of  his  life  in  the  vain  attempt 
to  build  a  dam  to  stem  the  torrent. 


B.    The  Social  Teaching  of  Calvin. 

When  we  pass  from  Germany  to  Switzerland, 
we  find  ourselves  in  a  completely  different  atmo- 
sphere. Switzerland  was  a  federation  of  a  number  of 
free  and  independent  republics.  Each  of  the  great 
city-states  was  autonomous  and  responsible  for  the 
conduct  of  its  own  government.  The  social  problem 
was  much  less  acute  than  in  Germany.  The  peasants 
had  already  won  their  freedom,  and  many  of  the 
evils  which  were  so  rampant  in  other  countries  had 
been  mitigated  if  not  entirely  removed.  Calvin,  there- 
fore, when  he  came  to  Geneva,  stood  at  a  great  advan- 
tage   in    comparison    with    Luther.     Luther's    stage 


EFFECTS  OF  THE   REFORMATION      347 

was  a  large  empire  with  many  complex  political  forces 
confronting  him  at  every  turn.  He  could  only  hope 
to  succeed  by  winning  over  the  most  potent  elements 
to  his  side.  Calvin's  stage,  on  the  other  hand,  was  a 
moderate  sized  city,  the  population  of  which  is  estimated 
at  12,000.  As  long  as  he  was  able  to  dominate  the  city, 
there  was  little  fear  of  outside  interference.  Luther's 
only  way  of  safety  was  to  keep  the  Reformation  clear 
of  politics,  and  to  avoid  the  social  problem  as  far  as 
possible.  Calvin  could  only  hope  to  make  his  influ- 
ence felt  by  incarnating  his  ideal  of  reform  in  the 
institutions  of  his  city.  And  even  if  he  had  wished 
to  follow  Luther's  example  and  avoid  interference  in 
political  and  social  questions,  it  would  have  been 
quite  impossible  for  him  to  do  it  at  Geneva.  Geneva 
had  always  been  in  theory  at  any  rate  a  theocracy. 
Its  bishop  was  nominally  its  king,  though  his  power 
was  limited  by  the  Vicedom  or  civil  overlord  (who 
was  always  a  member  of  the  House  of  Savoy),  and 
the  assembly  of  the  citizens.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  the 
bishop  was  the  creature  and  nominee  of  the  Duke  of 
Savoy,  who  by  using  him  as  his  instrument  strove 
with  more  or  less  success  to  impose  his  will  upon  the 
people  of  Geneva.  "  Duke  and  bishop,"  as  a  chronicler 
says,  ''  like  Herod  and  Pilate  stood  united  against 
the  city."  In  1530  Geneva  emancipated  itself  from 
the  *'  two-headed  tyranny  "  which  sought  to  destroy 
its  liberties.  In  regaining  its  political  freedom  it  won 
religious  freedom  as  well,  and  six  years  later,  in  1536, 
the  city  publicly  proclaimed  its  acceptance  of  the 
Reformation.  Within  two  months  of  this  event  Cal- 
vin obeyed  the  summons  of  Farel,  and  essayed  the 
high  task  of  making  Geneva  a  City  of  God,  a  real  theo- 
cracy which  should  be  a  model  to  the  world. 

We  are  not  so  much  concerned  with  the  details 


348         THE  SOCIAL   PRINCIPLES  AND 

of  Calvin's  work  in  Geneva  as  with  the  underlying 
principles  upon  which  it  was  based,  and  with  those 
mainly  only  in  so  far  as  they  bear  upon  the  social 
question.  The  leading  principles  of  Calvin's  regime 
may  be  stated  thus  :  (i)  Religion,  though  essentially 
personal,  must  work  itself  out  in  the  social  and  polit- 
ical life  of  the  people.  Germany  under  the  guidance 
of  Luther  might  adopt  a  new  faith,  and  leave  its  old 
system  of  government  and  its  social  order  intact  and 
unaltered.  But  Geneva  under  the  leadership  of  Cal- 
vin could  not  be  content  with  that.  The  reform  of 
religion  must  be  followed  by  a  reform  of  morals  and 
a  reform  of  civic  life.  Christianity  must  dominate 
the  body  politic  as  well  as  the  individuals  of  which 
the  state  is  composed.  It  must  be  woven  into  the 
very  warp  of  the  fabric  of  society.  (2)  The  Chris- 
tianization  of  the  state  can  only  be  produced  by  the 
establishment  of  a  theocracy.  The  establishment  of 
a  theocracy  means  the  recognition  of  the  law  of  God 
as  the  supreme  standard  and  basis  of  the  civic  life. 
The  function  of  the  government  is  to  devise  means 
by  which  this  ideal  can  be  attained.  The  particular 
form  of  government,  according  to  the  teaching  of 
Calvin,  is  immaterial.  A  theocratic  state  may  be 
ruled  by  a  monarchy — an  aristocracy — or  a  demo- 
cracy. Each  has  its  advantages  and  its  disadvan- 
tages. "  Monarchy  easily  degenerates  into  despotism, 
aristocracy  into  oligarchy  or  the  faction  of  the  few, 
democracy  into  mobocracy  and  sedition."  Calvin's 
own  preference  is  for  a  democracy  tempered  by  a 
mixture  of  aristocracy.  The  main  thing,  however,  is 
not  the  form  of  government,  but  the  energy  with 
which  the  government  devotes  itself  to  the  ideal. 
(3)  The  law  of  God  which  constitutes  the  ideal,  is 
found  revealed  in  the  Scriptures.     The  Bible,  which 


'  EFFECTS   OF  THE   REFORMATION      349 

to  Luther  was  mainly  the  textbook  of  doctrine,  and 
the  source  of  theology,  contained  for  Calvin  a  revela- 
tion not  only  of  the  polity  of  the  Church,  but  of  the 
main  principles  of  social  well-being  as  well.  A  theo- 
cracy therefore  meant  a  state  founded  and  built  up 
upon  the  teaching  of  Scripture,  or  in  other  words,  the 
application  of  the  truths  of  the  Bible  to  civic  and 
political  life.  Herein  perhaps  lies  the  greatest  con- 
tribution which  Calvin  made  to  Social  Reform.  In 
claiming  that  the  Bible  was  a  textbook  of  sociology 
as  well  as  religion,  he  took  up  a  position  which  was 
destined  to  produce  revolutionary  results  in  the  future, 
(4)  How,  then,  is  a  theocracy  to  be  established  ?  It 
can  only  really  be  achieved  when  Church  and  State 
unite  together  for  its  accomplishment.  Church  and 
state,  according  to  Calvin,  are  related  to  one  another, 
as  body  to  soul.  As  Dr.  Fairbairn  puts  it,  "  Without 
the  State  there  would  be  no  medium  for  the  Church 
to  work  in,  no  body  for  the  soul  to  animate  ;  without 
the  Church  there  could  be  no  law  higher  than  expedi- 
ency to  govern  the  State,  no  ideal  of  thought  and 
conduct,  no  soul  to  animate  the  body.  Both  Church 
and  State,  therefore,  were  necessary  to  the  good  order- 
ing of  society,  and  each  was  explained  by  the  same 
idea.**  (5)  The  State  so  constituted  and  established 
possessed  supreme  power  over  the  individual,  and 
the  individual  had  no  rights  against  the  state.  This 
naturally  followed  from  the  obvious  fact  that  there 
could  be  no  appeal  against  the  law  of  God.  Under 
the  inspiration  of  Calvin  the  city  of  Geneva  drew  up 
an  elaborate  code,  which  regulated  life  in  all  its  aspects 
down  to  the  most  minute  details.  No  variation  was 
tolerated,  and  all  infractions  of  the  law  were  severely 
punished.  The  regime  of  Calvin  insisted  upon  the 
principle  that  the  individual  is  bound  to  sacrifice  his 


350         THE  SOCIAL   PRINCIPLES  AND 

own  particular  whims  and  fancies,  when  these  clash 
with  the  general  interests,  for  the  sake  of  the  com- 
munity as  a  whole.  But  if  the  individual  lost  in  some 
respects,  he  gained  in  others.  If  he  was  bound  to 
sacrifice  his  private  liberty  to  the  well-being  of  the 
State,  on  the  other  hand,  it  must  be  remembered  that 
the  State  made  itself  responsible  for  his  well-being  too. 
Calvin  laid  it  down,  as  one  of  the  rules  of  government, 
that  it  was  the  duty  of  the  State  to  provide  useful 
employment  for  every  man  that  could  work  ;  and 
what  is  more,  he  introduced  new  industries  (e.g.  cloth 
and  weaving)  into  the  city  in  order  to  enable  it  to 
perform  its  obligations. 

Such  are  the  leading  ideas  which  underlie  Calvin's 
attempt  to  create  a  perfect  city.  The  success  of  an 
enterprise  conducted  upon  such  principles  as  these 
depends  upon  two  conditions.  The  leaders  of  the 
movement  must  possess  sufficient  enlightenment  and 
insight  to  enable  them  to  interpret  aright  the  will  of 
God  in  the  matter  of  social  welfare,  and  their  inter- 
pretation must  be  so  clear  and  self-evident  that  it 
wins  for  itself  universal  approval.  And  then  the 
Church  and  the  State  must  be  practically  co-extensive 
as  they  were  in  Geneva,  in  order  to  make  it  possible 
for  the  Church  to  impose  its  laws  upon  the  people. 
In  other  words,  Calvin^s  scheme  is  only  capable  of 
practical  realization  in  a  society  saturated  with  the 
Christian  spirit  and  wholly  devoted  to  the  Christian 
ideal. 

In  the  case  of  Geneva  these  two  conditions  were 
largely  fulfilled,  and  consequently  Calvin's  work  be- 
came one  of  the  most  splendid  social  experiments 
known  to  history  In  an  age  when  most  of  the  great 
European  nations  were  hurrying  in  the  wake  of  Machia- 
velli  to  the  worst  form  of  despotism  they  had  ever 


EFFECTS   OF  THE   REFORMATION      351 

known,  the  little  city  of  Geneva  stood  out  before  the 
world  as  the  home  of  freedom,  and  afforded  a  welcome 
asylum  to  hosts  of  refugees  who  had  been  exiled  from 
other  countries  on  account  of  their  love  of  civil  and 
religious  liberty.  And  out  of  Geneva  there  issued  a 
stream  of  influence  which  enabled  most  of  these  nations 
eventually  to  destroy  the  despotism  they  seemed  at 
the  time  so  bent  upon  establishing.  As  Mark  Pattison 
says :  "  it  was  the  Calvinistic  discipline  that  reformed 
Scotland,  emancipated  Holland,  attained  a  brief  but 
brilliant  reign  in  England,  and  maintained  a  struggle 
of  sixty  years  against  the  royal  authority  in  France.*' 

A  word  must  be  said  with  regard  to  the  social 
effects  produced  by  Calvinism  in  Scotland  and  Holland. 

We  are  not  concerned  with  the  dramatic  episodes 
which  make  the  career  of  John  Knox  one  of  the  most 
thrilling  narratives  in  modern  history.  We  have  only 
to  deal  with  the  social  principles  which  he  enunciated 
or  exemplified  in  his  conduct  of  affairs.  The  aim  of 
Knox  was  to  establish  in  Scotland  a  replica  of  the 
regime  of  Calvin  at  Geneva.  It  would  have  been  a 
gigantic  undertaking  under  any  circumstances.  Cal- 
vin's scheme  had  only  been  tried  on  a  small  stage. 
Whether  it  could  be  applied  to  a  large  country  with 
a  scattered  population  like  Scotland,  remained  to  be 
proved.  Calvin's  success  had  been  largely  due  to  the 
influence  of  his  personality.  The  whole  of  Geneva 
was  constantly  under  his  eye.  His  touch  can  be  seen 
in  almost  every  action  of  the  magistrates.  Knox 
could  not  hope  to  dominate  Scotland  in  the  same  way. 
He  could  not  be  everywhere  at  the  same  time.  His 
influence  would  necessarily  have  to  be  exerted  at  a 
distance.  But  in  addition  to  the  difficulties  created 
by  geography,  Knox  had  constantly  to  contend  against 
the  permanent  opposition  of  the  Queen  and  the  Court, 


352         THE  SOCIAL   PRINCIPLES  AND 

who  tried  to  thwart  his  work  in  every  possible  way. 
But  if  the  different  conditions,  under  which  Knox  had 
to  work,  prevented  him  from  attaining  Calvin's  success, 
they  helped  at  any  rate  to  broaden  and  deepen  the 
social  and  political  influence  of  the  movement.  In 
the  first  place  the  ecclesiastical  machinery  had  to  be 
enlarged  and  elaborated  to  suit  the  conditions  of 
Scotland.  This  in  itself  was  a  liberal  education,  for  it 
taught  the  Scotch  the  principles  of  representative 
government ;  and  the  principles  first  learned  in  the 
government  of  the  Church  were  afterwards  applied  to 
the  government  of  the  country.  In  the  second  place, 
the  opposition  of  Queen  Mary  gave  a  more  independent 
and  democratic  tone  to  the  Church,  and  this  new  spirit 
gradually  infused  itself  into  the  blood  of  the  people. 
The  answer  which  Knox  gave  to  the  Queen  when  she 
asked  him  whether  subjects,  having  power,  might 
resist  their  princes — "  If  their  princes  exceed  their 
bounds.  Madam,  and  do  against  that  wherefore  they 
should  be  obeyed,  it  is  no  doubt  but  they  may  be 
resisted  even  by  power  *' — struck  a  new  note  in  the 
history  of  the  Reformation,  and  cancelled  all  the  regu- 
lations of  the  confessions  (Knox's  own  included),  which 
insisted  on  the  divine  right  of  kings  and  the  duty  of 
passive  obedience. 

In  his  Book  of  Discipline,  drawn  up  in  1560,  Knox 
propounded  a  splendid  programme  of  social  reform. 
The  scheme  proposed  that  the  Church,  in  addition  to 
the  maintenance  of  public  worship,  should  in  every 
parish  provide  {a)  that  all  unable  to  earn  a  living 
should  be  supported  out  of  the  public  funds  ;  (b)  that 
all  able  to  work  should  be  compelled  to  do  so  ;  (c)  that 
every  child  should  be  afforded  an  opportunity  of  edu- 
cation ;  (d)  that  every  youth  of  promise  should  have 
an  open  way  to  the  universities  through  a  system  of 


EFFECTS   OF  THE   REFORMATION      353 

high  schools.  The  scheme  was  not  completely  carried 
owing  to  lack  of  funds.  The  endowments  upon  which 
Knox  had  relied  were  in  the  confusion  that  followed 
the  establishment  of  the  Reformation  sequestrated 
for  the  most  part  from  the  Church,  either  by  the  Crown 
or  the  nobles,  and  nothing  was  left  for  social  experi- 
ments. Still,  though  the  scheme  was  quite  unattain- 
able at  the  time,  Knox  bequeathed  it  to  the  nation  as 
a  great  social  ideal ;  and  it  is  very  largely  to  that 
ideal  that  Scotland  owes  the  great  educational  advan- 
tages which  it  possesses  to-day. 

The  limitations  of  space  preclude  anything  more 
than  the  briefest  reference  to  the  magnificent  struggle 
for  liberty  which  the  Reformation  inspired  in  the 
Netherlands.  The  most  noteworthy  characteristic 
about  the  movement  in  the  Netherlands  is  that  through- 
out it  was  a  people^s  battle.  There  was  no  strong 
inspiring  religious  personality  like  Luther  or  Calvin 
to  stir  the  blood  of  the  nation  and  rouse  the  people  to 
enthusiasm.  The  only  great  name  is  that  of  William 
of  Orange,  and  it  was  in  the  political  sphere  and  on 
the  battlefield  that  his  strength  was  most  manifest. 
The  significant  point  for  us  is  that  the  spirit  of  the 
Reformation  enabled  a  subject  race  to  maintain  a 
stubborn  resistance  for  twenty-five  years  against  the 
flower  of  the  Spanish  army,  and  finally  to  win  inde- 
pendence and  liberty.  Every  weapon  which  the  In- 
quisition possessed  was  tried  in  vain.  Nothing  could 
quench  the  indomitable  courage  of  the  Dutch.  With 
intrepid  faith  they  faced  the  most  ghastly  forms  of 
torture  and  martyrdom  that  the  diabolical  ingenuity 
of  their  persecutors  could  devise.  The  Spanish  General 
Alva  confessed  just  before  his  recall  that  nothing  but 
the  complete  extermination  of  the  Protestants  would 
restore  the  Netherlands  to  the  Catholic  faith.     The 

C.C.  A  A 


354         THE  SOCIAL   PRINCIPLES  AND 

only  hope  of  success  was  to  raze  to  the  ground  every 
city  that  could  not  be  garrisoned  with  Spanish  soldiers. 
That,  however,  was  impossible,  for  the  Dutch  had 
become  masters  of  the  sea  ;  and  when  at  last  in  sheer 
desperation  they  cut  the  dykes  and  flooded  their  ter- 
ritories rather  than  submit,  the  Spaniards  were  forced 
to  evacuate  the  country  and  a  Dutch  Republic  was 
established.  Thus  the  Netherlands,  thanks  to  the 
Reformation,  were  the  first  country  in  Europe  to  win 
civil  and  religious  liberty. 

Our  examination  of  the  facts  has  shown  us  how 
the  social  influence  of  the  Reformation  increased  as 
the  new  stream  of  religious  truth  gathered  strength 
and  volume.  Luther  commenced  by  being  neutral 
on  social  questions,  but  was  driven  by  circumstances 
to  link  the  movement  with  the  forces  of  reaction. 
Calvin,  however,  turned  the  Reformation  into  a  new 
channel,  and  definitely  made  social  reform  part  of  the 
Christian  programme.  As  Troeltsch  says,  *'  It  is  not 
till  Calvin  that  we  can  speak  of  Christian  social  reform 
and  social  construction,  in  so  far  as  we  mean  the  con- 
scious work  of  Christian  society.*'  From  Switzerland 
Calvin's  new  ideal  passed  into  Scotland  and  Holland, 
and  finally  found  embodiment  in  English  Puritanism. 


II 

The  Indirect  Effects  of  the  Reformation 

Now  that  we  have  examined  the  direct  effects  of 
the  Reformation  in  certain  typical  countries,  we  are 
in  a  better  position  for  estimating  the  more  general 
and  indirect  results  of  the  movement  on  social  progress. 
The  most  potent  influences  exerted  by  an  event  in 
history  very  often  do  not  reveal  themselves  to  its  con- 


EFFECTS   OF  THE   REFORMATION      355 

temporaries.  The  men  who  live  near  the  times  often 
fail  to  appreciate  the  full  scope  and  significance  of  the 
truths  which  have  been  proclaimed,  or  the  forces  which 
have  been  set  in  motion.  The  harvest  produced  from 
the  seed  sown  by  Luther  and  Calvin  must  have  far 
exceeded  the  expectations  of  the  sowers  themselves. 
The  Reformation  is  the  greatest  event  in  modern  times, 
not  because  of  its  achievements  in  the  sixteenth  cen- 
tury, but  because  the  new  truths  which  it  inculcated 
have  been  working  themselves  out  in  history  ever 
since,  sometimes  in  a  way  little  anticipated  by  the 
Reformers.  '*  The  value  of  the  Reformation,'*  to 
quote  the  words  of  Professor  Gwatkin,  "  is  not  so 
much  in  what  it  did  as  in  what  it  made  possible.*' 

(a)  The  Reformation  introduced  a  new  ideal  of  life. 
According  to  the  teaching  of  the  pre-Reformation 
Church,  the  highest  life  could  only  be  attained  in  the 
monastery,  by  men  and  women  who  had  cut  themselves 
off  from  ordinary  society,  and  abjured  the  common 
pleasures  and  duties  of  the  family  and  civic  life.  The 
mediaeval  idea  of  piety  consists  in  flight  from  the 
present  evil  world.  '*  The  model  saint  of  the  Roman 
Church,"  to  quote  the  words  of  Schaff,  **  is  the  monk 
separated  from  the  enjoyments  and  duties  of  society, 
and  anticipating  the  angelic  life  in  heaven,  where 
they  neither  marry  nor  are  given  in  marriage."  This 
monastic  conception  is  based  upon  a  dualistic  view  of 
the  universe.  The  two  worlds — the  natural  and 
spiritual — stand  over  against  each  other  in  radical 
antagonism.  The  soul  of  man  is  poised  between  them, 
and  they  are  so  related  to  him  that,  as  Thomas  Aquinas 
says,  **  The  nearer  he  inclines  to  the  one,  the  further 
he  departs  from  the  other."  It  was  only  by  renouncing 
the  pleasures  of  earth  that  men  could  attain  the  beati- 
tude of  heaven.     The  only  safe  rule   of   life   was  a 


356         THE   SOCIAL   PRINCIPLES   AND 

rigid  asceticism  which  meant  the  repression  of  all 
the  natural  instincts  and  the  cultivation  of  the  anti- 
social spirit.  Nothing  in  the  history  of  the  human 
race  has  ever  been  so  fatal  to  social  progress  as  the 
monastic  ideal.  When  that  ideal  was  at  its  highest 
point  of  success,  it  meant  the  withdrawal  of  the  world^s 
choicest  and  purest  souls  from  all  active  interest  in 
the  common  life.  The  management  of  secular  affairs 
was  left  to  those  who  had  not  sufficient  character  or 
enthusiasm  to  adopt  the  loftiest  mode  of  life.  If 
monasticism  could  have  secured  for  itself  universal 
adoption,  it  would  have  necessarily  involved  the  suicide 
of  the  human  race.  And  when  monasticism  fell  from 
this  high  place  and  degenerated,  as  it  often  did,  into 
corruption,  it  became  more  anti-social  still,  since  it 
encouraged  evil  practices  and  vices  which  inevitably 
entail  the  disintegration  of  society. 

It  was,  perhaps,  the  greatest  achievement  of 
Luther  and  the  Reformers  that  they  were  able  to  lay 
the  axe  at  the  root  of  the  monastic  theory  of  life  and 
destroy  its  very  foundations.  They  attacked  the 
fundamental  dualism  on  which  monasticism  was  based. 
They  denied  that  the  true  life  was  only  attainable  in 
the  seclusion  of  the  cloister.  They  asserted  that  the 
man  who  cut  himself  off  from  social  relationships  lived 
a  maimed  and  artificial  life.  The  highest  graces  and 
virtues  of  the  Christian  life  could  only  be  acquired 
through  social  intercourse  in  the  home  and  the  state. 
Far  from  being  prejudicial  to  the  spiritual  interests, 
marriage  and  business  and  politics  afforded  men  a 
sacred  opportunity  of  consecrating  their  talents  to  the 
noblest  ends.  No  better  expression  of  the  sentiments 
of  the  Reformers  could  probably  be  found  than  the 
well-known  and  of  t-quoted  words  in  Browning's  ''Rabbi 
ben  Ezra"— 


EFFECTS  OF  THE  REFORMATION      357 

"  Let  us  not  always  say 

Spite  of  this  flesh  to-day 
I  strove,  gained  ground,  made  way  upon  the  whole  ; 

As  the  bird  wings  and  sings 

Let  us  say  '  All  good  things 
Are  ours;  nor  soul  helps  flesh  more  now 

Than  flesh  helps  soul.'  " 

"  Ein  Christenmensch/'  said  Luther,  *'  ein  froh- 
licher  Mensch  sein  muss.''  ''  You  may  enjoy  every 
pleasure  in  the  world  which  is  not  sinful  in  itself.*' 
*'  Nature  has  made  gold  and  silver,  and  everything 
that  is  fair  and  beautiful,  attractive.*'  ''  The  Lord 
God  made  the  good  Rhine  wine  for  us  to  drink.**  In 
all  probability  the  words  which  Heine  ascribes  to 
Luther, 

"  Who  does  not  love  wine,  wife,  and  song 
Remains  a  fool  his  whole  hfe  long," 

are  not  authentic,  but  they  represent  his  views.  The 
teaching  of  Luther  completely  revolutionized  the  con- 
ception of  the  Christian  life.  It  was  through  Luther, 
as  Goethe  so  finely  put  it,  *'  that  we  have  the  courage 
to  stand  with  firm  feet  upon  God*s  earth,  and  have 
become  conscious  again  of  our  divinely-endowed  human 
nature.'* 

(b)  As  a  result  of  the  introduction  of  the  new 
ethical  ideal,  the  Reformation  gave  a  new  sanctity  to 
home  life  and  the  family  relationship.  The  mediaeval 
Church,  by  insisting  upon  the  necessity  of  cehbacy  for 
the  attainment  of  the  saintly  character,  had  cast  a 
slur  upon  marriage  and  all  that  marriage  involved. 
At  the  best  it  was  regarded  as  a  necessary  evil,  to  be 
permitted  to  those  who  were  not  endowed  with  the 
purest  virtues  and  could  not  therefore  aspire  to  the 
life  of  saintliness.     Here  again  the  mediaeval  theory 


358         THE  SOCIAL   PRINCIPLES  AND 

displayed  its  anti-social  tendency.  Family  life  is  the 
foundation  upon  which  society  is  constructed,  and 
must  be  so,  unless  we  adopt  the  plan  propounded  by 
Plato  in  the  Republic.  To  attack  the  family,  as  the 
mediaeval  Church  did,  by  its  doctrine  of  celibacy, 
and  to  treat  as  secular  and  pagan  the  most  tender 
and  precious  human  relationship,  is  to  deny  the  possi- 
bility of  creating  a  Christian  state  altogether,  since  the 
ideal  state  cannot  be  built  up  on  a  rotten  foundation. 
The  Reformers,  by  consecrating  and  ennobling  the  home 
and  the  family  (and  modern  Christian  home  life  is 
altogether  the  creation  of  the  Reformation)  regener- 
ated the  social  system  at  its  springs  and  sources.  As 
Dr.  Marshall  says  in  his  book  on  Economics^  ''  Indi- 
vidualism governed  by  the  temper  of  the  Reformed 
religion  intensified  family  life,  making  it  deeper  and 
purer  and  holier  than  it  had  ever  been  before.  .  .  . 
The  family  affections  of  those  races  which  have  adopted 
the  Reformed  religion  are  the  richest  and  fullest  of 
earthly  feelings  ;  there  never  has  been  before  any 
material  of  texture  at  once  so  strong  and  fine  with 
which  to  build  up  a  noble  fabric  of  social  life."  No 
nation  can  ever  rise  above  the  level  of  its  family  life. 
By  raising  the  standard  of  the  home  life  of  the  people, 
the  Reformation  made  one  of  its  most  notable  contri- 
butions to  the  social  progress  of  the  race. 

(c)  A  further  result  of  the  abandonment  of  the 
monastic  ideal  is  found  in  the  sanctification  of  the 
commercial  and  civic  activities  of  man.  The  mediaeval 
Church  frowned  upon  trade  and  commerce,  and  at- 
tached small  value  to  the  duties  and  responsibilities 
of  citizenship.  Everything  of  this  kind  belonged  to 
the  secular  life,  and  was  a  hindrance  to  the  develop- 
ment of  the  soul.  The  Reformers  removed  the  ban, 
and  taught  mankind  that  commerce  and  citizenship 


EFFECTS  OF  THE   REFORMATION      359 

alike  afforded  opportunities  for  the  exercise  of  Chris- 
tian virtue.  As  Sohm  puts  it,  *'  Now  for  the  first 
time  is  seen  the  full  value  of  the  State,  of  a  civic  calling 
and  of  civic  freedom.  .  .  .  The  State  appears  no 
longer  as  a  work  of  the  devil,  a  work  of  sin  or  injustice. 
The  State  like  the  family  is  a  divine  institution.  .  .  . 
Look  at  the  whole  round  of  political  life,  at  labour  in 
agriculture  and  commerce,  in  handicraft  and  trade, 
in  science  and  art,  in  obedience  and  command  :  the 
labour  of  manservant  and  maid,  the  judge,  the  soldier, 
the  official  and  the  prince  ;  look  where  you  will,  all 
this  labour,  performed  as  a  calling  ordered  by  God, 
is  the  service  of  God  which  is  well  pleasing  to  Him. 
The  whole  world  has  become  holy,  and  all  that  was 
profane  in  it  is  done  away.  The  world  with  all  its 
duties  is  changed  into  the  vineyard  of  the  Lord,  into 
a  temple  of  God  in  which  we  are  to  worship  Him  in 
spirit  and  in  truth.'* 

(d)  From  this  conception  of  the  sacredness  of  life 
on  all  its  sides  and  in  all  its  relationships,  there  fol- 
lowed as  a  natural  consequence  the  conviction  that 
there  was  a  social  ideal  ordained  by  God  to  be  worked 
out  in  human  society.  The  Kingdom  of  Heaven,  in 
other  words,  was  not  merely  a  great  ecclesiastical 
system,  or  some  catastrophic  event  which  was  to  come 
to  pass  at  the  end  of  time  ;  it  was  a  spiritual  force 
which  is  present  here  and  now,  working  in  the  world, 
leavening  society,  purifying  commerce,  ennobling  art, 
ameliorating  the  conditions  of  life,  striving  towards  the 
creation  of  an  ideal  society  where  the  will  of  God  would 
be  perfectly  carried  out.  Monasticism  abandoned  the 
world  as  hopeless,  and  left  it  to  its  doom ;  the 
Reformers — Calvin  in  particular — set  themselves  to 
transform  the  world  according  to  the  pattern  which 
they  had  seen  on  the  Mount  of  Vision. 


36o         THE  SOCIAL  PRINCIPLES  AND 

(e)  The  Reformation  also  enhanced  the  value  and 
meaning  of  personality,  MediaevaHsm  regarded  the 
individual  man  as  part  of  a  great  machine.  The  State, 
the  Empire,  and  the  Church  were  everything.  The 
units  did  not  count.  The  individual  did  not  matter. 
Tennyson's  description  of  Nature  is  also  a  description 
of  the  mediaeval  spirit. 

"  So  careful  of  the  type  she  seems. 
So  careless  of  the  single  life." 

The  new  religious  teaching  of  Luther  and  Calvin  in 
different  ways  impressed  upon  the  world  the  import- 
ance of  the  individual,  (i)  Both  Reformers  laid  down, 
as  one  of  the  primary  axioms  of  faith,  the  principle 
that  all  men  stand  on  the  same  footing  in  the  sight 
of  God.  A  sacerdotal  system  always  encourages  class 
distinctions.  The  priest  alone  can  enter  into  the 
Holy  of  Holies.  The  common  man  must  stand  in  the 
outer  courts  of  the  Temple  and  has  no  right  of  access 
to  the  presence  of  God.  The  Reformers  demolished 
the  sacerdotal  position,  and  taught  the  poorest  peasant 
that  he  was  as  dear  to  God  as  priest  or  prince.  There 
was  only  one  way  that  led  to  life,  and  along  that  road 
all  alike  must  travel  if  they  would  enter  into  the  King- 
dom. (2)  In  addition  to  this  common  axiom,  the 
doctrine  of;  predestination,  as  it  was  enunciated  by 
Calvin,  introduced  a  new  element  which  emphasized 
personality  in  a  still  more  striking  way.  As  Troeltsch 
says  in  a  recent  article  in  the  Hibbert  Journal,  ''  The 
idea  of  personality  in  Calvinism  stands  out  in  quite  a 
different  manner  than  does  that  idea  in  Lutheranism. 
No  humble  devotion  of  self  to  God  and  charitable 
devotion  of  self  to  one's  neighbour,  but  the  strongest 
personal  value,  the  high  sense  of  having  a  divine  mis- 
sion in  the  world,  a  grace-given  preference  over  thous- 


EFFECTS   OF  THE   REFORMATION      361 

ands  and  an  immeasurable  responsibility,  are  what 
engross  the  soul  of  man  who,  in  the  complete  solitude 
of  his  inner  self,  experiences  and  succeeds  in  working 
out  the  grace  which  is  his  title  to  election.  .  .  .  Cal- 
vinism possesses  a  valuation  of  the  personality  of  the 
elect  which  reminds  us  throughout  of  Kant,  while 
Luther  remained  much  more  within  the  circle  of  the 
mystics/* 

The  influence  of  this  new  discovery  of  the  value 
of  personality  upon  social  progress  can  scarcely  be 
exaggerated.  Man  stood  once  more  with  head  erect 
upon  the  earth.  He  realized  again  the  dignity  of  his 
manhood  and  the  worth  of  his  soul,  the  inherent  rights 
which  he  possessed,  and  the  grave  responsibilities 
which  rested  upon  him.  It  was  this  new  conception 
of  personality  that  supplied  the  motive  power  for  the 
regeneration  of  the  world. 

We  must  guard  ourselves,  however,  against  one 
very  common  mistake.  The  Reformation  was,  in 
Westcott's  phrase,  **  the  affirmation  of  individuality.*' 
But  individuality  must  not  be  confounded  with  Indi- 
vidualism in  its  modern  connotation.  The  theory 
implied  in  the  term  Individuahsm  was  almost  entirely 
unknown  at  the  time  of  the  Reformation. 

(/)  The  Reformation  also  undoubtedly  helped  to 
foster  the  sense  of  intellectual  liberty.  Guizot  has  said 
"  that  the  Reformation  was  a  vast  effort  made  by  the 
human  race  to  secure  its  freedom  :  it  was  a  newborn 
desire  to  think  and  judge  freely  and  independently  of 
ideas  and  opinions,  which  till  then  Europe  received  or 
considered  itself  bound  to  receive  from  the  hands  of 
antiquity.  It  was  a  great  endeavour  to  emancipate 
the  human  reason  and  to  call  things  by  their  right 
names.  It  was  an  Insurrection  of  the  human  mind 
against  the  absolute  power  of  the  spiritual  order.** 


362         THE  SOCIAL   PRINCIPLES  AND 

If  this  statement  of  Guizot  had  been  intended  to  refer 
to  the  actual  results  produced  in  the  lifetime  of  the 
Reformers,  it  would  not  be  wholly  true.  The  Re- 
formers, of  course,  broke  away  from  the  authority  of 
tradition,  but  they  always  substituted  a  new  form  of 
authority  in  its  place,  and  they  claimed  for  their  new 
authority  the  most  absolute  obedience  and  allegiance. 
Toleration  beyond  a  certain  point  was  an  idea  quite 
foreign  to  their  creed.  The  Anabaptists  were  most 
cruelly  persecuted,  and  Servetus  was  put  to  death, 
because  they  differed  from  the  traditional  authority 
in  a  different  way  from  Luther  and  Calvin,  and  re- 
fused to  accept  the  new  standard  which  had  been  set 
up  in  its  place.  There  is  a  sense  in  which  it  is  true 
to  say  that  at  first  there  was  no  more  freedom  of 
thought  in  Protestantism  than  in  Roman  Catholicism. 
Neither  system  willingly  permitted  any  considerable 
variation  from  the  accepted  faith.  Luther  was  as 
anxious  as  the  Pope  ''to  wring  the  neck  of  reason  and 
strangle  the  beast."  But  when  we  pass  from  the 
immediate  to  the  ultimate  effects  of  the  Reformation, 
the  truth  of  Guizot's  words  becomes  unquestionable. 
Freedom  of  thought  may  not  be  the  child  of  the  Re- 
formers, but  it  is  one  of  their  lineal  descendants.  The 
action  of  the  Reformers  was  a  revolt  against  the  con- 
stituted ecclesiastical  authority,  which  had  exercised 
an  unchallenged  sway  over  the  minds  of  men  for  more 
than  a  thousand  years.  The  success  of  their  revolt 
made  other  revolts  possible,  and  even  encouraged 
them.  Hosts  of  men  who  followed  Luther  in  his 
attack  on  Rome  ceased  to  be  his  disciples  when  it  came 
to  constructive  work.  They  helped  him  to  pull  down 
the  old  house,  but  they  did  not  care  to  live  with  him 
in  the  new  house  which  he  built  to  take  its  place  : 
they  preferred  to  build  one  of  their  own.     The  Re- 


EFFECTS   OF  THE   REFORMATION      363 

formation,  therefore,  inevitably  and  much  to  the 
regret  of  the  first  Reformers,  produced  variety  and 
diversity  of  thought,  which  in  the  long  run  naturally 
resulted  in  the  introduction  of  toleration. 

(g)  The  Reformation  also  kindled  afresh  the  fire 
of  political  and  social  liberty.  Here  again  the  effects 
of  the  movement  were  at  first  disappointing.  There 
can  be  no  doubt  that  in  weakening  the  power  of  the 
Pope  it  strengthened  for  the  moment  the  hands  of 
the  monarchs  of  Europe,  and  increased  their  despot- 
ism. Henry  VIH,  for  instance,  became  a  much  worse 
tyrant  after  he  had  supplanted  the  Pope  as  head 
of  the  English  Church.  Luther  gave  to  the  doctrine 
of  passive  obedience  an  unction  which  it  had  not  pos- 
sessed for  ages.  But  we  should  be  taking  very  short 
views  of  history  if  we  refused  to  recognize  that  after 
the  first  few  years  of  its  existence,  the  course  of  the 
movement  turned  into  quite  a  different  channel  and 
completely  reversed  its  first  effects.  If  in  its  child- 
hood the  Reformation  raised  Henry  VIII  to  a  higher 
pinnacle  of  power  than  any  English  king  had  possessed 
for  generations,  in  its  full  manhood  it  sent  King  Charles 
to  the  scaffold  for  infringing  the  liberties  of  his  sub- 
jects. The  lever  by  which  it  finally  lifted  Europe  out 
of  despotism  was  its  doctrine  of  the  ''  priesthood  of 
all  believers.''  ''  All  Christians,"  said  Luther,  *'  are 
truly  of  the  spiritual  estate,  and  there  is  no  difference 
among  them  save  of  office  alone.*'  If  this  principle 
is  logically  and  consistently  carried  out,  it  abolishes 
all  distinctions  within  the  pale  of  the  Church.  Laymen 
and  clergy  stand  on  a  similar  footing,  and  have  equal 
rights.  Every  Christian  has  the  privilege  and  duty 
of  sharing  in  the  government  and  administration  of 
the  Church.  The  sons  of  the  Reformation  learned 
the  meaning  of  citizenship  first  of  all  in  the  Church, 


364         THE    SOCIAL   PRINCIPLES   AND 

and  having  learned  the  value  of  freedom  there,  could 
be  content  with  nothing  less  in  civic  and  national 
affairs.  The  Church  was  the  school  in  which  the 
modern  world  was  taught  the  privilege  of  liberty  and 
the  art  of  government.  '*  Religious  liberty/'  as  Schaff 
puts  it,  *'  is  the  mother  of  civil  liberty.  The  universal 
priesthood  of  Christians  leads  legitimately  to  the  uni- 
versal kingship  of  free,  self-governing  citizens,  whether 
under  a  monarchy  or  under  a  republic." 

(A)  From  what  has  been  said,  it  is  easy  to  perceive 
how  the  Reformation  fostered  the  spirit  of  democracy. 
As  M.  Borgeaud  says  in  words  which  have  already 
been  quoted,  ''  Modern  democracy  is  the  child  of  the 
Reformation,  not  of  the  Reformers.''  The  full  signi- 
ficance of  the  doctrine  of  the  universal  priesthood  of 
believers  was  not  realized  at  once.  Luther,  as  Troel- 
tsch  remarks,  *'  shrank  from  putting  this  principle 
into  effect."  Even  in  the  Church  constitution  of  Cal- 
vinism, it  was  not  allowed  full  play.  The  English 
Independents  were  the  first  to  grasp  the  real  meaning 
and  logical  consequences  of  the  new  idea,  and  to  trans- 
late it  into  a  Church  polity.  They  were  the  first  to 
see  that  if  the  doctrine  of  the  universal  priesthood  was 
to  be  fully  carried  out,  all  authority  in  Church  matters 
must  be  vested  in  the  whole  body  of  Church  members. 

Robert  Browne,  the  founder  of  Independency,  as 
Dexter  says,  '*  had  no  idea  of  being  a  democrat  or 
that  he  was  teaching  democracy.  His  conception  of 
Church  government,  it  is  clear,  was  of  the  absolute 
monarchy  of  Christ  over  His  Church.  But  then  he 
conceived  of  Christ  the  king  as  reigning  through  as 
many  regents  as  there  are  individual  subjects  of  His 
kingdom."  And  when  he  reached  this  point  he  had, 
though  probably  perfectly  unconsciously,  laid  the 
foundations    of    a    spiritual    democracy.     From    the 


EFFECTS   OF  THE   REFORMATION      365 

Church  the  democratic  idea  passed  slowly  and  almost 
imperceptibly  into  the  state.  Even  Robert  Browne 
himself  seems  to  have  felt  that  the  rules  which  he 
formulated  for  the  government  of  the  Church  ought 
mutatis  mutandis  to  be  applied  to  civil  affairs.  In  his 
treatise  A  Booke  concerning  True  Christians,  after 
describing  the  regulations  of  Church  government,  he 
adds  the  significant  words,  "  We  give  these  definitions 
so  generall  that  they  may  be  applied  also  to  the  civill 
state.'*  Sixty-six  years  after  this  book  of  Browne's 
was  published,  in  the  year  1648,  the  English  Indepen- 
dents presented  to  Parliament  a  manifesto  entitled 
'*  An  Agreement  of  the  People  of  England''  which 
demanded  the  establishment  of  a  complete  democracy. 
Among  the  principles  which  are  laid  down  in  this  re- 
markable document  are  the  following  :  The  recognition 
of  the  sovereignty  of  the  people  ;  the  supreme  power 
to  be  vested  in  a  single  legislative  assembly  ;  biennial 
parliaments  ;  the  equitable  and  proportionate  distri- 
bution of  seats  ;  the  extension  of  the  franchise  to  all 
citizens  of  full  age  except  hired  servants  and  those  in 
receipt  of  relief  ;  the  toleration  of  all  forms  of  Chris- 
tianity ;  the  Churches  to  be  freed  from  state  inter- 
ference and  control ;  the  limitation  of  the  powers  of 
Parliament  by  fundamental  laws  embodied  in  the 
constitution,  especially  with  regard  to  the  civil  liberties 
guaranteed  to  citizens.  Such  was  the  political  ideal 
of  the  Independents  at  the  commencement  of  the 
Commonwealth.  It  is  the  logical  consequence  of 
Luther's  doctrine  of  Universal  Priesthood  transferred 
to  the  sphere  of  civic  life. 

And  it  was  not  only  in  England  that  the  Puritans 
laid  the  foundations  of  modern  democracy.  The 
Pilgrim  Fathers  carried  the  same  great  ideal  across  the 
Atlantic  to  America.     At  the  end  of  their  memorable 


366         THE   SOCIAL   PRINCIPLES  AND 

voyage,  before  they  disembarked  from  the  Mayflower, 
they  drew  up  an  Agreement  or  Covenant,  which  con- 
stitutes the  charter  of  rehgious  and  civil  Uberty  in 
America.  Well  has  it  been  said  that  **  In  the  cabin  of 
the  Mayflower  humanity  recovered  its  rights  and  in- 
stituted government  on  the  basis  of  *  equal  laws  '  for 
'  the  general  good.'  " 

Thus  did  the  Christian  Church  nobly  avenge  the 
wrong  which  had  been  done  to  it  by  the  State  in  the 
early  ages.  In  ancient  times  the  Roman  Empire  gave 
to  the  Church  an  organization  and  a  constitution  which 
crippled  its  freedom  and  destroyed  its  spirituality. 
In  modern  times  the  Church,  rejuvenated  and  purified 
by  the  Reformation,  gave  to  the  nations  of  Europe 
principles  of  government  which  enabled  them  to  regain 
their  liberty  and  organize  democracy. 

{i)  The  Reformation  revolutionized  the  conception 
of  Christian  charity.  Charity  in  mediaeval  times  was 
cultivated  not  so  much  for  the  welfare  of  the  recipient 
as  for  the  benefit  of  the  donor.  When  a  man  gave 
money  to  a  beggar,  it  was  not  so  much  with  a  view  of 
helping  him  in  his  necessity  as  of  performing  a  meritori- 
ous act  which  would  secure  his  own  salvation.  As 
Innocent  III  put  it,  ''  Alms  purify,  alms  deliver,  alms 
redeem,  alms  protect,  alms  make  perfect,  alms  save.'' 
The  result  was  that  charity  became  indiscriminate,  and 
tended  to  encourage  rather  than  to  diminish  poverty. 
A  host  of  professional  mendicants  haunted  every  city 
and  fattened  on  the  rich  man's  dread  of  purgatory. 
Of  course,  theoretically,  according  to  the  teaching  of 
the  Church,  the  giver  of  alms  was  required  to  investi- 
gate the  deserts  of  the  recipient,  and  one  of  the  most 
distinguished  Paris  theologians  went  so  far  as  to  lay 
it  down  "  that  to  give  to  one  who  has  no  need  is  not 
only  not  a  merit,  but  even  a  demerit."     But  in  spite  of 


EFFECTS   OF  THE   REFORMATION      367 

this,  there  is  no  vestige  of  doubt  that  the  mediaeval 
doctrine  of  almsgiving  demoralized  a  large  section  of 
the  community.  The  monasteries  by  their  bountiful 
largesses  seem  to  have  aggravated  the  evil.  '*  The 
monks/'  so  we  are  told  in  a  eulogy  of  the  system 
written  by  an  anonymous  writer  in  the  year  1591, 
**  made  hospitals  and  lodgings  within  their  own  houses, 
wherein  they  kept  a  number  of  impotent  persons  with 
all  necessaries  for  them,  besides  the  great  alms  which 
they  gave  daily  at  their  gates  to  every  one  that  came 
for  it.  Yea,  no  wayfaring  person  could  depart  without 
a  night's  lodging,  meat,  drink  and  money,  it  not  being 
demanded  from  whence  he  or  she  came  and  whither 
he  would  go.''  The  policy  of  the  Reformers  may  be 
illustrated  by  two  quotations  from  Luther  :  (i)  Luther 
insists  that  mendicancy  must  be  put  down.  *'  Begging 
is  to  be  rigidly  prohibited  :  all  who  are  not  old  or 
weak  shall  work.  No  beggars  shall  be  permitted  to 
stay  who  do  not  belong  to  the  parish."  (2)  The  needs 
of  the  deserving  poor  ought  to  be  met  out  of  the  com- 
mon chest  of  the  people.  "  Each  town  should  provide 
for  its  own  poor  people.  .  .  .  Poor  householders  who 
have  honourably  laboured  at  their  craft  or  in  agriculture 
ought  to  be  given  loans  from  the  public  chest ;  and 
this  aid  shall  be  given  to  them  without  return  if  they 
are  unable  to  restore  it."  The  first  great  English  Poor 
Law,  which  was  passed  in  1536,  practically  embodied 
these  two  principles  of  Luther.  The  giving  of  doles 
was  prohibited.  "  No  person  shall  make  any  common 
dole  or  shall  give  any  ready  money  in  alms  to  beggars." 
Local  authorities  are  required  to  *'  succour,  find  and 
keep  "  all  the  impotent  poor  belonging  to  their  district. 
The  necessary  means  were  to  be  obtained  by  the  col- 
lection of  alms  in  church  and  at  public  festivals.  It 
was  soon  discovered  that  the  Church  collections  did 


368         THE   SOCIAL   PRINCIPLES   AND 

not  suffice  for  the  purpose.  Various  Acts  were  there- 
fore passed  authorizing  the  local  officials  to  bring 
pressure  to  bear  upon  those  who  were  reluctant  to 
give,  and  finally  in  1572,  since  the  voluntary  method 
does  not  appear  to  have  worked  well,  the  justices  were 
empowered  to  make  a  direct  assessment,  and  overseers 
of  the  poor  were  appointed  to  take  charge  of  the  whole 
business.  The  Reformation  thus  introduced  three 
important  changes  into  the  mediaeval  system  of  Poor 
Relief :  (i)  It  insisted  upon  the  classification  of  pau- 
pers ;  (2)  it  transferred  the  responsibility  from  the 
Church  to  the  State  ;  (3)  it  laid  down  the  principle 
that  the  community,  as  a  community,  was  in  duty 
bound  to  relieve  the  necessities  of  the  deserving  poor. 
(/)  The  Reformation  gave  a  great  stimulus  to  edu- 
cation.  Calvin  has  been  called  "  the  father  of  popular 
education  and  the  inventor  of  free  schools  '*  ;  but  this 
is  an  honour  which  he  must  share  with  Luther  and 
Zwingli,  and  indeed  with  all  the  Reformers.  In  1524 
Luther  wrote  an  address  to  the  mayors  and  aldermen  of 
German  cities  on  the  condition  of  education,  in  which  he 
attacked  the  inefficiency  of  the  existing  system,  asserting 
that  the  German  schools  were  ''  a  hell  and  a  purgatory 
in  which  with  much  flogging  children  learned  nothing,'* 
and  urged  the  necessity  of  reform.  **  So  much  money 
is  spent  year  after  year  for  arms,  roads,  dams,  and 
innumerable  similar  objects,  why  should  not  as  much 
be  spent  for  the  education  of  poor  youth  ?''  He  even 
went  so  far  as  to  advocate  compulsory  education.  ''  I 
maintain  that  the  civil  authorities  are  under  obligation 
to  compel  people  to  send  their  children  to  school.'* 
We  have  already  seen  how  John  Knox  advocated  a 
complete  system  of  education  for  Scotland  which 
aimed  at  securing  [a)  that  every  child  should  be  pro- 
vided   with    the    opportunity    of    attending    school ; 


EFFECTS   OF  THE   REFORMATION      369 

(b)  that  every  youth  of  promise  should  be  afforded  the 
chance  by  a  graduated  system  of  higher  schools  of 
going  up  to  the  university.  In  England,  too,  great  ad- 
vances were  made.  Cranmer  drew  up  a  scheme  for 
founding  schools  in  every  diocese  from  the  funds  of 
the  monasteries.  Unfortunately  the  spoils  of  the 
monasteries  were  appropriated  by  other  hands,  and 
it  was  left  to  private  charity  to  provide  the  funds. 
Henry  VIII  founded  ten  grammar  schools,  Edward 
VI  twenty-seven,  Mary  and  Elizabeth  thirty  between 
them.  In  addition  to  these  benefactions,  much  was 
done  by  private  charity.  ''  In  all,  two  hundred  and 
fifty  higher  or  grammar  schools  were  founded  under 
the  immediate  impulse  of  the  Reformation."  In  the 
reign  of  Henry  VIII,  too,  the  apprenticeship  system 
was  established  in  England.  The  apprentice  laws 
enacted  that  all  children  between  the  age  of  five  and 
thirteen  who  were  found  begging  or  idle  were  to  be 
bound  as  apprentices  to  some  handicraft.  These  laws 
were  binding  upon  master  and  servant  alike.  No 
master  could  refuse  to  receive  an  apprentice,  and  no 
youth  could  refuse  to  accept  the  position  found  for 
him. 

(k)  The  Reformation  played  an  important  part  in 
the  development  of  the  middle  classes,  which  is  one  of 
the  most  noteworthy  features  of  this  period  of  history. 
In  the  Middle  Ages  there  was  no  intermediate  rank  of 
any  importance  between  the  nobles  and  the  tillers  of 
the  soil,  though  the  latter  were  divided  into  several 
grades.  The  general  social  theory  that  prevailed  (and 
it  was  supported  by  the  teaching  of  the  Church)  held 
that  a  man  was  born  into  his  predestined  rank  and 
ought  not  to  aspire  to  a  higher  status.  The  growth 
of  commerce  completely  overthrew  this  view  of  life 
by  placing  a  new  lever  in  the  hands  of  the  trading 
c.c.  B  B 


370         THE  SOCIAL   PRINCIPLES  AND 

classes,  which  enabled  them  by  the  acquisition  of  wealth 
to  raise  themselves  into  a  position  which  challenged 
the  social  supremacy  of  the  feudal  lords.  The  Reform- 
ation, by  its  emphasis  on  the  value  of  personality 
and  by  its  insistence  that  it  was  the  duty  of  every 
man  to  make  the  fullest  use  of  his  capacities,  fostered 
the  new  spirit ;  and  by  the  system  of  education  which 
it  advocated  and  to  a  certain  extent  succeeded  in 
establishing,  it  gave  men  the  power  of  breaking  their 
"  birth's  invidious  bar,"  and  rising  to  the  position 
which  their  ability  fitted  them  to  fill.  There  can  be 
little  doubt  that  it  was  the  middle  classes  who  reaped 
the  immediate  benefit  from  the  Reformation.  From 
their  ranks  the  most  stalwart  supporters  of  the  move- 
ment were  drawn.  This  fact  naturally  reacted  upon 
the  constitution  of  the  Churches  themselves.  Bishop 
Creighton  has  admitted  in  the  case  of  the  Church  of 
England  that  ''  the  changes  made  at  the  time  of  the 
Reformation  were  too  exclusively  made  in  the  interest 
of  the  prosperous  middle  class,''  and  his  words  are 
more  or  less  true  of  most  of  the  Reformed  Churches. 
(/)  A  brief  reference  must  be  made  to  some  of  the 
socialistic  theories  to  which  the  age  of  the  Reformation 
gave  birth.  These,  of  course,  did  not  emanate  from 
the  ranks  of  the  orthodox  Reformers,  but  arose  either 
in  connexion  with  some  of  the  sporadic  radical  sects, 
or  amongst  the  litterati  of  the  schools.  Little  is  known 
of  the  schemes  of  Jan  Mathys  and  Jan  of  Leyden, 
except  that  they  rested  on  a  communistic  basis.  The 
social  teaching  of  Miinzer  and  the  Anabaptists  has 
come  down  to  us  in  a  vague  and  indefinite  shape,  but 
we  know  that  it  advocated  a  very  extreme  method  of 
reform.  The  proposals  put  forward  by  Eberlin  in 
1521  have,  however,  been  transmitted  in  clearer  form. 
To  quote  the  description  of  the  scheme  given  by  Pro- 


EFFECTS   OF  THE   REFORMATION      371 

fessor  Pollard  in  the  Cambridge  Modern  History,  '*  Its 
pervading  principle  was  that  of  popular  election  :  each 
village  was  to  choose  a  gentleman  as  its  magistrate  : 
two  hundred  chief  places  were  to  elect  a  knight  for 
their  bailiff :  each  ten  bailiwicks  were  to  be  organized 
under  a  city  and  each  ten  cities  under  a  duke  or  a 
prince.  One  of  the  princes  was  to  be  elected  king,  and 
he,  like  every  subordinate  officer,  was  to  be  guided  by 
an  elected  council.  In  this  scheme  town  was  through- 
out subordinated  to  country.  .  .  .  Agriculture  was 
pronounced  the  noblest  means  of  existence.  Capitalist 
organizations  were  abolished.  .  .  .  Only  articles  of 
real  utility  were  to  be  manufactured,  and  every  form 
of  luxury  was  to  be  suppressed." 

The  noblest  social  dream  of  the  period  is  to  be 
found  in  Sir  Thomas  More's  Utopia.  More  touches 
on  most  of  the  great  social  problems  which  were  be- 
ginning to  demand  the  attention  of  the  world,  e.g. 
the  punishment  of  crime,  labour,  education,  the  free- 
dom of  conscience.  His  attack  upon  the  existing 
system  is  most  stringent.  He  regards  it  as  nothing 
more  or  less  than  '*  a  conspiracy  of  the  rich  against  the 
poor.*'  *'  The  rich  devise  every  means  by  which  they 
may  in  the  first  place  secure  to  themselves  what  they 
have  amassed  by  wrong,  and  then  take  to  their  own 
use  and  profit  at  the  lowest  possible  price  the  work 
and  labour  of  the  poor  '*  ;  and  as  a  consequence  the 
peasant  is  doomed  to  **  a  life  so  wretched  that  even  a 
beast's  hfe  seems  preferable.'*  In  contrast  to  the 
prevailing  system,  Utopia  was  organized  in  the  in- 
terest of  the  poor.  The  object  of  its  labour  legislation 
was  the  welfare  of  the  labourer.  Goods  were  possessed 
in  common,  and  labour  was  compulsory  upon  all. 
The  hours  of  work  were  made  light,  that  opportunity 
might  be  provided  for  the  culture  of  the  mind.     The 


372         THE   SOCIAL   PRINCIPLES  AND 

aim  of  the  criminal  code  was  **  nothing  else  but  the 
destruction  of  vice  and  the  saving  of  men.'*  Freedom 
of  conscience  was  allowed  to  all,  since  the  people  of 
Utopia  were  ''  persuaded  that  it  is  not  in  a  man's 
power  to  believe  what  he  list." 

Leaving  out  of  account  its  fantastic  details,  there 
can  be  no  doubt  that  Utopia  gave  to  the  modern  world 
a  new  social  vision  which  has  been  the  inspiration  of 
social  reformers  in  every  generation. 

(m)  It  is  impossible  to  close  this  essay  without 
making  some  allusion  to  the  losses  which  were  entailed 
in  the  Reformation  period.  Great  as  were  the  gains 
to  social  progress,  there  are  at  any  rate  two  losses  to 
be  put  to  the  other  side  of  the  account.  Neither  of 
these  is  due  to  the  Reformers,  though  each  was  more 
or  less  affected  by  their  teaching.  In  the  first  place, 
the  world  lost  the  dream,  which  had  filled  the  imagina- 
tion of  the  Middle  Ages,  of  a  united  humanity,  living 
under  one  Church  and  one  form  of  government.  In 
place  of  the  dream  of  unity,  we  find  the  principle  of 
nationalism.  The  watchword  of  the  Reformation  age 
was  decentralization.  The  centrifugal  forces  were 
encouraged  at  the  expense  of  the  centripetal.  As  a 
result  there  grew  up  the  spirit  of  national  rivalry  which 
has  been  responsible  for  most  of  the  devastating  wars 
in  modern  times,  and  which  to-day  seems  to  be  more 
potent  than  ever.  Secondly,  the  Reformation  period 
is  responsible  for  the  discovery  of  commercial  methods 
and  financial  operations,  which  have  led  to  the  des- 
potism of  capital.  Luther,  as  we  have  seen,  protested 
against  these  methods  with  his  usual  vehemence, 
but  he  was  *'  a  voice  crying  in  the  wilderness,"  to 
which  the  world  paid  no  heed.  And  where  Luther 
bound,  Calvin  loosed,  though  it  is  only  fair  to  add  that 
Calvin  restricted  the  liberty  of  receiving  interest  to 


EFFECTS   OF  THE   REFORMATION      373 

genuine  transactions  where  lender  and  borrower  both 
gained  some  advantage.  The  fact  however  remains 
that  the  introduction  of  commerce  and  the  increased 
importance  that  thereby  became  attached  to  capital, 
complicated  the  social  problem  and  introduced  new 
difficulties  in  the  realization  of  the  social  ideal. 


IX 

The   Evangelical   Revival  and   Philanthropy 

By  Rev.  THOMAS  CUMING  HALL,  D.D.,  Professor  of 
Christian  Ethics  in  Union   Theological   Seminary, 
New  York. 
Author   of   "  The   Social   Meaning  of  Modern   Religious 

Movements  in  England.     1900." 


ARGUMENT 

Introduction — Organized  Religion  as  a  Social  Force — The  Evangelical  Revival 
as  a  Dramatic  Climax — The  Movement  not  a  Theological  One — 
Interest  and  Importance  of  this  Non-Theological  Character. 

I.  The  Causes  of  the  Spiritual  Deadness  :    Exhaustion  of  the  Nation  by- 

Religious  Differences,  the  Attitude  of  the  Political  Leaders,  e.g. 
Horace  Walpole. 

II.  The  Character  of  the  New  Impulse  to  the  Spiritual  Forces  of  England  : 

Intense  Activity — Individualism  corrected  by  the  Doctrine  of  Free 
Grace,  its  Motive  of  Charity,  its  Contribution  to  Intelligent  Philan- 
thropy. 

III.  The   Philanthropy  of  the   Evangelical  Leaders — Education — Popular 

Preaching — Discontent  of  the  Working  Classes — A  Democratic 
Basis — The  Pronounced  Attitude  towards  Slavery — The  Condemna- 
tion of  Slavery  as  Immoral — Slavery  at  Home. 

IV.  The  Influence  of  the   Evangelicals  within  the  Establishment  on  Legis- 

lation— ^The  Records  of  Remedial  Legislation  from  1800  onward — 
The  Obstacles  to  Reform. 

V.  The     Internationalism    of    Foreign     Missions — Missionary     Societies — 

The  Influence  of  the  Moravian  Missions — The  Real  Interest  of  the 
Movement  Evangelical  and  not  Theologically  Dogmatic. 

VI.  The  Criticism  of  the  Later  Phases  of  Evangelical  Philanthropy — Charles 

Dickens — Its  Weakness  not  Shallow  Hypocrisy,  but  its  Unscientific, 
Sentimental    Character. 

VII.  The  Aftermath  of  the   Evangelical   Revival   in    Radicalism — Robert 

Owen — James  and  John  Stuart  Mill — The  Contribution  of  the  Evan- 
gelical Movement  to  Peaceful  Political  Organization   and  Agitation. 

VIII.  The  Evangelical  Inspirations  in  the  Broad  Church  Party — ^Maurice, 

Kingsley  and  Carlyle  as  Children  of  the  Evangelical  Revival — 
"  Christian  Socialists  " — The  New  Philanthropy,  Educational,  Socially 
Reforming. 

IX.  The  Evangelical  Movement  as  a  Second  Reformation — The  Defects 

of  the  Early  Reformation  on  the  Social  and  Philanthropic  Side — 
The  Social  Demand  and  the  Social  Awakening — The  Catholic  Reaction 
also  Social  and  Philanthropic. 

X.  The  Gift  of  the  Evangelical  Revival  to  the  English-speaking  World — 

The  New  Kingdom- Purpose — Education — Prison-Reform — Training 
for  Philanthropy — The  Resemblance  of  the  Salvation  Army  to  the 
Evangelical  Movement — Christian  Life  as  a  Life  of  Redemptive  Ser- 


IX 

The    Evangelical    Revival     and 
Philanthropy 

It  is  no  longer  necessary  in  really  informed  circles 
to  argue  concerning  the  tremendous  social  force 
organized  religion  has  been  in  all  ages.  Every  great 
advance  in  human  life  has  been  marked  by  great 
religious  changes.  However  gradual  and  steady  may 
seem  the  advance  of  the  race  that  advance  becomes, 
generally,  dramatic  in  some  crucial  strain,  and  the 
old  and  new  forces  face  each  other  in  strongly  marked 
contrast.  This  is  as  true  in  the  history  of  religious 
as  in  that  of  political  phenomena. 

Such  a  dramatic  climax  seemed  reached  when 
Wesley  at  last  began  outside  the  Church  to  proclaim 
the  new  religious  life  which  those  within  the  Church 
refused  even  to  consider.  At  the  same  time,  no  doubt, 
many  forces  were  making  ready  for  the  great  spiritual- 
social  movement  which  we  now  call  the  Evangelical 
Revival. 

The  movement  was  quite  patently  not  a  theological 

one.     Even  those  of  us  who  think  of  ourselves  as  the 

children  of  the  Evangelical  awakening,   and  rejoice 

in  its  history  and  its  splendid  record,  can  hardly  with 

377 


378  THE   EVANGELICAL   REVIVAL 

truthfulness  claim  that  it  has  largely  advanced  theo- 
logical science,  or  made  any  notable  contribution 
to  theological-philosophical  thought.  Only  indirectly 
did  it  even  quicken  men's  interest  in  fundamental 
religious  speculation.  In  point  of  fact,  with  all  their 
marked  limitations,  the  English  Deists  are  far  more 
intellectually  important  than  any  of  the  theologians 
of  the  Evangelical  movement  until  we  come  to  Frederick 
Denison  Maurice — whom  early  Evangelical  theology 
would  have  disowned. 

This  non-theological  character  is  both  interesting 
and  important.  The  result  of  the  main  line  of  interest 
being  elsewhere  was  that  many  theological  traditions 
were  taken  over  uncritically,  and  that  many  move- 
ments directly  connected  with  the  revival  of  religious 
life  have  not  been  properly  recognized  as  outcomes 
of  the  awakening.  Thus  no  account  of  the  philan- 
thropy of  the  Evangelical  movement  can  pass  over 
the  labours  of  religious  pastors  whose  theologies  are 
widely  separated  from  each  other.  Wesley  and  White- 
field  were  bitter  theological  opponents,  but  the  warmest 
friends  in  the  rehgious  awakening.  Some  one  is  said 
to  have  asked  Whitefield  if  he  expected  to  see  Wesley 
in  Heaven.  *'  I  fear  not/'  he  is  reported  to  have 
replied,  '*  John  Wesley  will  be  so  near  the  throne  we 
will  hardly  get  a  peep  at  him.'*  The  philanthropy 
which  so  marks  the  awakening  is  linked  alike  to  Evan- 
gelical Broad  Churchism  and  to  the  new  Evangelical 
Unitariarism,  and  unites  movements  which  are  theo- 
logically widely  apart. 

The  spiritual  deadness  that  was  so  marked  a 
characteristic  of  the  period  of  Whig  ascendency  can, 
without  difficulty,   be  accounted  for  in  many  ways. 

Among  the  most  striking  causes  was  the  exhaus- 
tion of  the  nation  by  the  fierce  religious  differences 


And  philanthropy  379 

with  their  attendant  wars  and  revolutions  which 
had  at  last  culminated  in  the  great  Whig  victory. 
Nothing  seemed  so  necessary  for  the  national  life  as 
quiet  and  rest.  The  more  ardent  souls  on  both  sides 
had  suffered  fearfully,  and  the  struggles  represented 
almost  the  elimination  of  zeal  and  fervour  by  death 
and  exile,  and  this  was  the  case  on  both  the  Protest- 
ant and  Roman  Catholic  sides.  Men  were  now 
utterly  weary  of  the  long  demoralizing  and  expensive 
struggle.  The  one  virtue  that  seemed  needed  was 
that  of  ''  moderation ''  and  the  one  really  patriotic 
attitude  was  ''  tolerance.''  Then  again  a  new  indus- 
trial class  was  emerging  which  distinctly  and  with 
some  reason  distrusted  both  the  Tory  parson  and 
the  non-conforming  theologian.  At  the  same  time 
this  class  had  had  no  time  itself  to  find  spiritual  leader- 
ship. The  attitude  of  Robert  Owen  is  not  infrequent 
in  that  class.  But  in  thus  rebelling  against  the  existing 
religious  conventions  a  very  large  class  in  the  com- 
munity was  left  without  any  religious  inspiration  or 
guidance,  and  its  thoughts  and  feelings  were  little 
known  to  the  religious  leaders,  whether  of  the  Estab- 
lishment or  of  Nonconformity. 

Nor  was  the  least  cause  of  the  spiritual  deadness 
the  attitude  of  the  political  leaders  on  the  Whig  side. 
They  deliberately  sought  to  suppress  all  religious 
excitement  and  enthusiasm.  The  very  term  enthusi- 
asm was  abhorrent  to  all  the  Whig  writers  and  preachers. 

Among  the  most  effective  of  the  political  leaders 
of  that  day  was  Horace  Walpole.  He  was  excep- 
tionably  able  and  calm,  and  was  the  cynical  dispenser 
of  all  Church  patronage,  not,  indeed,  in  the  interests 
of  any  religious  definition,  but  in  the  avowed  interest 
of  religious  lukewarmness.  For  him  a  chief  claim  to 
preferment  was  efficiency  in  management,  and  ability 


38o  THE   EVANGELICAL   REVIVAL 

to  suppress  every  sign  of  real  interest  in  any  subject 
more  exciting  than  the  rotation  of  crops.  Nor  was 
he  wholly  to  blame  for  this  from  his  point  of  view. 
For  him  the  Church  was  a  useful  and  indispensable 
tool  of  Government,  and  the  Government  needed 
peace.  At  the  same  time  it  can  be  easily  seen  that 
this  attitude  was  not  well  calculated  to  encourage 
active  religious  life.  Not  that  all  religious  life  had 
by  any  means  gone.  There  were  not  a  few  devout 
and  earnest  Tory  Churchmen,  but  they  had  been 
so  greatly  discredited  by  their  attitude  toward  the 
throne  that  they  had  no  real  influence  with  the  urban 
Whig  population.  Walpole  played  fast  and  loose 
equally  with  Nonconformity  and  with  Toryism.  He 
did  it,  no  doubt,  in  good  faith  because  he  saw  the 
dangers  of  renewed  religious  strife.  Thus  the  great 
urban  trading  class  that  grew  up  and  produced  the 
revolution  of  1688  and  made  Whig  ascendency  seem 
the  normal  condition  of  affairs  for  three  generations 
was  in  great  danger  of  entirely  neglecting  the  things 
of  the  spirit,  and  of  sinking  into  luxuriant  profligacy 
on  the  one  hand,  or  of  miserable  economic  dependency 
on  the  other. 

It  was  at  this  time  that  the  spiritual  forces  of 
England  gained  a  new  impulse,  and  that  a  new  char- 
acter was  stamped  upon  the  face  of  Enghsh  reHgious 
life.  The  economic  conditions  did  not  make  for 
profound  theological  reflection.  The  quietism  of  the 
Moravian  teachers,  who  did  so  much  for  Methodism, 
never  gained  a  real  foothold  in  the  official  thinking  of 
Evangelicalism.  The  mysticism  of  Law  was  instinct- 
ively a  rock  of  offence  to  Wesley.  The  day  belonged 
to  men  of  action  rather  than  to  men  of  thought,  and 
the  main  characteristic  of  the  Evangelical  movement 
in  its  early  days  was  its  intense  activity.     Only  in 


AND   PHILANTHROPY  381 

the   later  stages   do   we   find   any  great   intellectual 
interest. 

The  monastic  distortion  of  the  message  of  Jesus 
into  a  message  of  almost  selfish  consideration  for  one's 
own  personal  salvation  has  ever  been  a  danger  in  times 
of  renewed  spiritual  interest.  Thus  even  at  first 
the  Wesleys  started  out  to  '*  save  their  souls.'*  It 
is  so  easy  for  us  all  to  forget  that  Jesus  said  that  he 
who  sought  to  save  his  life  would  lose  it.  And  all 
the  experience  of  religious  history  abundantly  justi- 
fies the  paradox.  The  ''  philanthropy  '*  of  this  scho- 
lastic type  of  religious  thinking,  whose  chief  interest 
is  thus  fundamentally  selfish,  has  nearly  always  been, 
in  the  main,  corrupting  and  evil.  Nor  is  this  hard  to 
understand.  Even  granting  that  all  motives  are 
mixed,  yet  the  works  of  this  so-called  *'  charity " 
have  been  done  so  largely  with  a  view  to  the  interest 
of  the  *'  philanthropist's "  soul,  that  the  interests 
of  the  receiver  have  been  overlooked,  and  injudicious 
loveless  help  is  well-nigh  worse  than  none.  From  this 
corruption  the  Evangelical  movement  was  happily 
saved  by  the  doctrine  of  free  grace.  The  Moravians 
taught  the  Wesleys,  and  they  again  taught  England 
that  God's  love  was  free  and  could  not  be  bought  by 
either  works  or  repentance,  but  that  all  could  have 
that  forgiving  love  who  really  sought  it.  For  the 
Evangelical  religious  movement  as  a  social  force  it 
was  of  the  gravest  moment  that  at  the  very  start 
works  of  mercy  and  redemption  should  be  thought 
of  as  the  outflow  of  intelligent  divine  love  implanted 
in  men's  hearts,  and  not  as  a  means  by  which  a  man 
may  save  his  own  soul.  Hence  these  works  must 
be  really  redemptive  of  the  life  of  those  helped,  and 
to  be  redemptive  must  be  both  intelligent  and  far- 
sighted. 


382  THE   EVANGELICAL   REVIVAL 

The  '*  charity ''  of  the  middle  ages,  even  in  the 
hands  of  devoted  friars  and  godly  women,  was  per- 
vaded by  the  subtle  selfishness  that  it  was  a  "  virtue  '* 
per  se  to  give,  and  that  indiscriminate  alms-giving 
made  for  eternal  salvation  even  if  the  effects  here 
on  earth  were  doubtful  enough.  The  English  Refor- 
mation had  never  really  been  thorough  and  radical 
upon  this  conception  of  God's  free  grace,  and  hence 
it  stands  out  as  one  of  the  weightiest  contributions 
to  our  modern  efforts  at  redeeming  human  life  that 
the  Evangelical  movement  taught  men  whole-heartedly 
and  unselfishly  to  seek  others'  welfare,  simply  because 
God  had  unselfishly  sought  our  welfare  and  we  were 
His  children. 

We  may  then  date  modern  and  intelligent  philan- 
thropy from  the  time  when  giving  ceased  to  be  a  virtue 
unless  it  really  uplifted  human  life,  and  when  the  really 
religious  life  was  thought  of  as  primarily  redemptive 
service.  Thus  the  whole  religious  energy  squandered 
or  nearly  so  in  saving  one's  own  soul,  was  set  free  to 
really  save  the  world  Jesus  died  for.  It  is  true  that 
the  conception  was  often  clouded,  and  that  to  this 
day  charity  is  still  thought  of  as  a  passport  to  Heaven, 
but  this  is  the  fault  of  inherited  errors  from  the 
paganized  past. 

The  first  work  the  Evangelical  leaders  took  upon 
them  was  that  of  education.  Wesley  was  not  a  great 
success  as  the  head  of  a  school,  but  he  flung  himself 
into  the  cause  of  education  with  the  zeal  and  intensity 
of  purpose  that  stamped  the  movement,  even  though 
otherwise  so  generally  unintellectual.  The  Methodist 
classroom  was  the  mental  training  ground  for  the 
new  and  exceedingly  ignorant  converts.  It  was  expec- 
ted that  all  who  came  should  learn  to  read,  and  pathe- 
tic pictures  are  drawn  of  aged  miners  and  weary  old 


AND   PHILANTHROPY  383 

women  painfully  spelling  out  the  texts  of  scripture 
that  had  come  to  mean  so  much  for  them.  The 
church  became  a  school,  and  the  school  the  portal 
to  the  church.  The  aristocratic  Tory  establishment, 
for  even  under  Whig  leadership  it  remained  Tory  at 
heart,  was  content  to  leave  the  agricultural  community 
densely  ignorant ;  and  the  grave  disadvantages  of  this 
ignorance  were  not  very  patent  so  long  as  Tory  leader- 
ship of  a  relatively  competent  character  was  at  hand 
to  lead  and  govern.  It  is  often  forgotten  that  when 
England  had — say — three  millions  of  people,  as  in 
the  time  of  Queen  Elizabeth  ;  and  while  these  millions 
were  in  direct  and  almost  intimate  daily  contact 
with  the  land-owning  lords,  the  patriarchal  system 
worked  fairly  well.  So  long  as  the  Tory  party  in 
Church  and  State  led  men  in  substantial  sympathy 
with  their  ideals  and  views  of  life  they  were  strong 
and  relatively  competent.  The  strain  came  with  the 
rise  of  the  urban  and  trading  classes,  with  other 
ideals  and  greatly  changed  views  of  life.  Noncon- 
formity was  strongly  intrenched  in  these  classes,  but 
as  cities  grew  neither  the  Tory  Church  nor  Noncon- 
formity was  equal  to  the  task  of  effective  leadership. 
There  grew  up  in  England  the  industrial  army,  unor- 
ganized, leaderless,  ignorant  and  often  almost  indes- 
cribably vicious,  wholly  irresponsible,  without  rights 
and  without  property.  This  ignorance  it  was  the 
task  of  the  Evangelical  revival  to  face,  and  the  efforts 
of  the  leaders  to  dispel  this  darkness  gave,  at  last, 
to  England  that  school  system  which  with  all  its 
faults  has  done  such  noble  service  to  the  new  manhood. 
It  is  noteworthy  that  just  as  it  was  Luther,  Ger- 
many's most  distinguished  doctor,  who  gave  himself 
eagerly  to  the  work  of  the  most  primary  and  element- 
ary education  among    the    lowly  in  Saxony ;    so  it 


384  THE   EVANGELICAL   REVIVAL 

was  Wesley,  England's  most  learned  Oxford  fellow, 
who  set  for  himself  the  work  of  organizing  primary 
education,  giving  better  schoolbooks  to  the  teachers, 
and  plans  for  teaching  the  most  ignorant  of  England's 
children. 

This  eagerness  to  teach  awoke  an  eagerness  to 
learn,  and  new  publishing  houses  sprang  up  to  meet 
the  growing  demand  for  books,  tracts  and  newspapers. 
Men  like  Ingham  gave  up  hours  upon  hours  to  teach 
English  spelling  to  thousands  of  little  children  all  over 
England.  They  adapted  their  preaching  to  the  simple 
and  the  ignorant,  but  without  sacrifice  of  dignity 
or  fitness.  Dr.  Samuel  Johnson,  whose  Tory  and 
Churchly  tastes  made  him  impartial  as  a  critic,  says 
of  Methodist  success  in  preaching  ''  Sir,  it  is  owing 
to  their  expressing  themselves  in  a  plain  and  familiar 
manner,  which  is  the  only  way  to  do  good  to  the 
common  people,  and  which  clergymen  of  genius  and 
learning  ought  to  do  from  a  principle  of  duty,  when 
it  is  suited  to  their  congregations.*'  1 

Thorold  Rogers  thinks  that  the  increasing  pros- 
perity of  the  labouring  class  gave  the  Wesleys  their 
opportunity  for  religious  advance,  as  a  part  of  his 
general  theory  that  only  in  times  of  general  economic 
advance  can  any  social  progress  be  made.^  However 
this  may  be  it  seems  surely  easy  to  show  that  the 
relative  condition  of  the  labouring  classes  as  compared 
with  the  comfort  of  the  middle  classes  was  lower 
than  in  the  seventeenth  century,  and  while  the 
Evangelical  movement  touched  the  working  classes, 
it  was  very  largely  a  movement  of  all  classes,  although 
the  expression  of  that  movement  differed  according 

1  Boswell's  Life  of  Dr.  Johnson.     Malone's  ed.,  pp.  126-127. 
*  Thorold    Rogers,    The    Economic   Interpretation    of    History. 
London,  1889,  p.  SS. 


AND   PHILANTHROPY  385 

to  the  economic  and  intellectual  level.  It  would 
surely  be  safer  to  say  that  increasing  material  welfare 
and  higher  standards  of  living  among  some  classes 
made  the  discontent  among  the  submerged  very  acute 
and  real.  Education  enabled  this  discontent  to  express 
itself,  and  the  political  reforms  that  reached  a  climax 
in  the  Reform  Bill  would  have  been  unthinkable  but 
for  the  fundamental  educational  work  of  the  early 
Evangelical  movement. 

The  philanthropy  of  the  movement  was  also, 
happily,  upon  a  very  real  democratic  basis,  as  demo- 
cracy was  then  understood.  Of  course  there  was 
no  thought  of  complete  removal  of  class  lines,  such 
as  found  its  theoretical  expression  in  France  in  1792. 
But  before  God  all  men  were  thought  of  as  equals. 
Wesley  was  autocratic,  but  he  was  never  aristocratic. 
One  may  read  Wesley  wellnigh  from  beginning  to 
end  and  scarcely  discover  the  economic  level  of  those 
among  whom  he  worked.  They  were  all  for  him 
*'  souls."  In  the  Evangelical  movement  within  the 
Establishment  the  same  relative  democracy  is  apparent. 
It  was  therefore  socially  ''  taboo."  To  be  even  tainted 
with  Evangelicalism  was,  in  the  early  years  certainly, 
to  be  socially  suspicious.  It  meant  knowing  *'  queer 
people  "  and  going  ''  out  of  one's  sphere  in  life,"  as 
the  romance  literature  of  the  period  abundantly  shows 
us. 

What  this  meant  for  real  philanthropy  is  not 
easily  overestimated.  It  is  of  far  more  importance 
to  teach  men  how  they  may  make  economic  oppor- 
tunity by  juster  laws  than  to  be  "  generous  "  and 
sentimentally  '*  kind  "  to  them  as  permanent  economic 
inferiors.  The  democracy  early  flung  itself  upon 
the  task  of  self-help,  and  it  was  not  only  enabled  to 
do  this,  but  inspired  to  do  so  by  the  religious  move- 
c.c.  c  c 


386  THE   EVANGELICAL   REVIVAL 

ment.  The  power  to  organize  and  agitate,  to  hold 
meetings  in  the  open  air,  to  gain  political  power  by 
demonstrations  was  largely  gained  in  the  conventicle, 
the  class-meeting,  the  dissenting  circle,  the  chapel, 
the  street-preaching  and  the  religious  demonstrations 
that  have  been  part  of  the  movement  into  our  own 
day  (The  Salvation  Army).  It  is  hardly  too  much  to 
say  that  the  Evangelical  revival  taught  the  world's 
democracy  how  most  effectively  to  become  audible. 
This  side  of  the  movement  has  a  long  and  interesting 
history  going  back  to  Wickliffe  and  his  Lollard  monks, 
and  from  them  to  their  teachers  the  Waldensian  lay 
preachers.  But  the  full  flower  of  the  movement 
only  bloomed  in  the  fullness  of  time  when  the  English 
democracy  was  moved  and  moulded  by  Wesley  and 
Whitefield,  by  Ingham  and  John  Nelson.  It  is,  as 
we  have  said,  quite  unhistorical  to  limit  the  reUgious 
awakening  to  any  one  class  in  the  nation.  Sooner 
or  later  all  classes  felt  the  effects,  for  the  High  Church 
movement  is  one  phase  of  the  larger  religious  revalua- 
tion of  life.  At  the  same  time  the  classes  that  were 
most  profited  by  the  religious  up-lift  were  the  lower 
middle  and  working  classes.  As  these  entered  upon 
their  political  heritage  they  were  trained  for  its  posses- 
sion by  their  religious  leaders.  To-day  the  working 
man  is  being  trained,  not  only  by  actual  participation 
in  politics,  but  also  by  Trades  Unions,  by  the  Socialist 
group  or  the  political  coterie.  At  that  time  such  oppor- 
tunities were  wellnigh  wholly  lacking.  The  confis- 
cation of  the  yeomen's  land,  and  the  rotten  borough- 
representation  system  left  some  of  England's  most 
stalwart  elements  politically  helpless,  and  in  their 
ignorance  dumb  and  despised.  It  is  useless  to  dis- 
pute as  to  whether  with  the  economic  changes  this 
class  would  have  found  a  substitute  for  the  religious 


AND   PHILANTHROPY  387 

organization  had  it  been  lacking.  The  fact  is  that 
the  rehgious  organization  did  not  prove  lacking  and 
that  the  high  level  of  the  English  working  man  to-day 
is  largely  the  result  of  the  training  so  many  got  within 
the  various  religious  groups  to  which  this  movement 
gave  rise. 

One  of  the  most  striking  effects  of  the  new  phil- 
anthropy was  the  pronounced  attitude  toward  slavery. 
The  abolition  of  this  horror  is  one  of  the  great  achieve- 
ments of  the  EvangeHcal  revival.  Against  slavery 
the  Quakers  and  the  Freewill  Baptists  almost  alone 
have  a  fairly  clear  record  of  consistent  protest.  There 
have  never  been  lacking  individuals  who  protested 
in  the  name  of  Jesus  against  all  forms  of  slavery. 
But  organized  Christianity  has  in  all  ages  done  but 
little  directly  for  its  abolition.  Slavery  died  out  in 
Europe  because  serfdom  was  cheaper,  and  the  supply 
of  slave-labour  both  limited  and  highly  unsatisfactory. 
The  monasteries  were  almost  the  last  ones  in  Europe 
to  give  up  slavery  and  serfdom.  It  was  so  easy  to 
ask,  *'  Who  will  do  the  menial  tasks  if  all  are  free  ?  '* 

The  rising  humanitarianism  of  the  Evangelical 
revival  revolted  against  slavery,  and  Wesley  pro- 
tested against  it  as  fundamentally  wrong.  Whitefield 
did  the  same,  but  with  less  consistency,  for  he  accepted 
money  to  buy  slaves,  in  the  hope  however  that  they 
might  be  won  to  Christ  and  their  souls  thus  saved  ! 
After  Wesley  there  arose  a  noble  band  of  men  led  by 
Wilberforce  and  Clarkson,  who  amid  hate,  scorn  and 
ridicule  fought  for  the  new-found  conscience,  and 
awakened  all  England  to  hear  the  clanking  of  chains 
and  to  heed  the  dying  groans  of  a  quarter  of  a  million 
negroes  flung  overboard  on  the  middle  passage.  The 
long  struggle  was  begun  and  carried  through  by 
Christian  enthusiasm.     It  is  vain  to  say  it  was  merely 


388  THE  EVANGELICAL   REVIVAL 

an  economic  transition.  The  slavery  was  in  the 
colonies,  and  was  confessedly  exceedingly  profit- 
able. It  was  far  away,  and  yet  England  paid  an 
enormous  sum  to  the  planters  for  the  freed  negro, 
and  ran  great  risks  in  her  firm  and  constantly  increasing 
hostility  to  the  whole  slave  trade.  The  long  struggle, 
whose  last  echoes  are .  now  dying  out  in  the  Congo, 
forms  one  of  the  most  hopeful  and  inspiring  chapters 
in  the  struggle  for  freedom.  The  very  attitude  of 
England  in  her  policing  the  sea  in  the  unselfish  demand 
for  freedom  for  the  black  man  as  for  the  white  is  a 
noble  fruit  of  an  awakened  sense  of  human  brotherhood. 
The  things  we  are  used  to  never  seem  to  us  strik- 
ingly immoral.  That  some  of  our  brethren  should  be 
permanently  condemned  to  hew  wood  and  draw 
water,  while  others  live  on  the  labours  of  the  econo- 
mically less  fortunate  in  relative  idleness,  seemed 
to  the  Tory  Churchman  and  the  average  Noncon- 
forming Whig,  whether  Presbyterian  or  Independent, 
to  belong  to  the  course  of  nature.  Was  not  Ham 
cursed  by  God  for  all  the  ages,  and  are  not  some 
men  born  to  work  and  others  to  be  fed  by  the  sweat 
of  their  brother's  brow  ?  It  needed  the  tremendous 
shaking  of  the  whole  conventional  fabric  of  the  reli- 
gious life  before  it  could  even  dawn  on  such  minds 
that  they  were  living  in  a  really  immoral  social  order, 
in  which  slavery  was  breeding  parasitism.  It  startled 
such  men  to  be  told  that  the  very  holding  of  slaves 
was  fundamentally  immoral,  that  it  was  bad  alike 
for  slaveholder  and  the  slave,  and  that  if  a  man  would 
not  work,  neither  should  he  eat.  Of  course  unbelief 
within  and  without  the  Church  said  the  abolition  of 
slavery  was  impossible,  an  impracticable  dream,  a 
Utopian  ideal ;  or  that  it  was  an  ordained  thing  that 
some  should  build  houses  and  not  inhabit  them,  and 


AND   PHILANTHROPY  389 

that  others  should  eat  without  working.  Rehgious 
enthusiasm  forced  aboHtion  upon  the  ruHng  class, 
and  England  then  forced  it  upon  the  world.  In  all 
the  history  of  philanthropy  this  struggle  is  perhaps 
the  most  dramatic  and  the  most  instructive,  as  the 
evil  against  which  it  was  directed  was  the  most  openly 
shameful  and  brutal. 

But  slavery  at  home  was  almost  as  real  a  fact 
as  it  was  abroad.  Little  children  were  sold  from  the 
poorhouses  to  the  factories  of  the  North,  and  women 
and  children  were  being  forced  into  a  cruel  wage- 
slavery,  whose  horrors  have  been  told  again  and  again. 
Here  one  of  the  first  and  noblest  voices  raised  in 
protest  was  not,  alas,  that  of  a  Christian,  in  the  accepted 
sense  of  the  word,  but  that  of  Robert  Owen.  He 
was  the  product  of  the  great  moral  awakening,  and 
his  Utopian  dreaming  was  of  a  brotherhood  of  man- 
kind thoroughly  religious  in  character,  while  he  dis- 
owned the  adjective.  The  really  effective  attempts, 
however,  to  mitigate  the  worst  horrors  of  this  wage- 
slavery,  were  made  by  Shaftesbury,  and  the  sup- 
port he  received  was  from  the  sons  and  daughters  of 
the  Evangelical  revival. 

The  Methodists  were  as  a  class  unrepresented  in 
Parliament.  But  happily  the  class-meeting,  the 
social  habit,  the  coteries  had  entered  the  Establish- 
ment. Within  the  Establishment  had  sprung  up 
an  ecclesia  in  ecclesid  and  under  the  leadership  of 
Wilberforce  nothing  is  heard  of  for  a  generation  but 
reform  after  reform.  The  Thorntons,  Howard  and 
many  others  were  the  leaders  along  political  lines. 
How  directly  this  party  owed  its  origin  to  the  des- 
pised Methodists  is  seen,  for  instance,  in  Sidney  Smith's 
cheap  sneer  when  he  classes  the  Methodists,  Arminian 
and  Calvinistic,  and  the  Evangelicals  within  the  Estab- 


390  THE   EVANGELICAL   REVIVAL 

lishment,  and  writes,  '*  We  shall  use  the  general  term 
Methodists,  and  distinguish  these  three  classes  of 
fanatics,  not  troubling  ourselves  to  point  out  the 
fine  shades  and  nicer  discriminations  of  lunacy."  ^ 
And  again  when  he  says,  ''  the  Methodists  have  formed 
a  powerful  party  in  the  House  of  Commons."  As, 
in  point  of  fact,  those  we  think  of  as  forming  Metho- 
dism were  almost  without  the  franchise  at  this  time, 
the  actual  political  work  fell  upon  the  leaders  of  the 
Evangelical  party  within  the  EstabHshment.  While 
this  was  the  case,  it  is  also  true  that  such  men  as 
Wilberforce,  Grant,  Parry  and  the  Thorntons  would 
have  been  quite  powerless  without  the  tremendous 
and  increasing  pressure  of  the  public  opinion  formed 
in  the  chapel  and  meeting-house.  The  poorer  sort 
of  ''  Methodists  "  could  be  sneered  out  of  court,  but 
Wilberforce  and  Hannah  More  could  not  be  thus 
dealt  with,  and  they  had  the  enthusiastic  support 
of  the  chapel  and  conventicle.  In  the  heats  of 
these  contests  for  reform  was  born  an  actual  working 
*'  brotherhood "  whose  end  is  not  yet.  The  full 
economic  significance  of  the  term  not  even  the  most 
dogmatic  dreamer  should  venture  to  describe  in  detail. 
There  was  thus  formed  the  ''  Nonconformist  conscience  " 
whose  troublesome  activities  have  had  to  be  taken 
into  account  by  many  an  English  Ministry  since. 

Indeed  it  is  most  interesting  to  take  the  accounts 
of  Parliament  from  1800  onward,  and  to  trace  the 
origin  of  the  mass  of  remedial  legislation  that  begins 
now  to  appear  upon  the  records,  and  which  prepared 
the  way  for  the  great  series  of  Reform  Bills  (1832  on- 
ward), which  have  given  England  its  modern  demo- 
cracy. In  rapid  succession  we  see  linked  with 
the  Evangelical  leaders  movements  for  reform  of 
^  Sydney  Smith,  Works,  vol.  i.,  p.  96. 


AND   PHILANTHROPY  391 

prisons  (Howard)  and  for  new  and  more  efficient  Poor 
Laws.  At  this  time  England  begins  to  build  really 
helpful  asylums,  to  found  hospitals  and  to  revise  the 
penal  code.  Jewish  disabilities  become  the  theme  for 
agitation,  and  the  conscience  of  great  land-owners  is 
appealed  to  by  the  wretched  condition,  of  the  cottages 
of  the  agricultural  labourer.  When,  in  fact,  one  con- 
trasts the  rapid  succession  of  almost  revolutionary 
legislation,  and  follows  the  unceasing  agitation  for 
social  amelioration  of  this  period  with — for  instance — 
the  period  between  Queen  Anne's  death  (1714)  and  the 
fall  of  Walpole  (1742)  it  is  hardly  too  much  to  say  that 
England  entered  at  this  time,  and  under  the  direct 
leadership  of  men  trained  by  the  Evangelical  religious 
movement,  upon  a  new  social  order.  True  it  is  that 
it  was  only  the  dawn  of  a  better  day.  True  it  is  also 
that  much  of  the  legislation  of  the  time  was  sentimental 
and  quite  superficial.  It  was  rather  impulsive  than 
the  outcome  of  fixed  social  theory.  The  old  selfish 
pseudo-individualism  was  not  nominally  abandoned, 
but  its  dogmatism  was  ignored,  and  English  common- 
sense  entered  upon  her  social  responsibilities.  This 
was  done  not  very  intelligently,  nor  with  any  very  clear 
grasp  of  underlying  principles,  indeed,  the  very  religi- 
ous, inspirational  character  of  the  movement  rather 
damped  fundamental  reflexion,  but  none  the  less  Eng- 
land took  her  stand  and  will  surely  never  go  back. 
There  is  no  space  at  the  writer's  command  to  do  more 
than  mention  a  few  of  the  direct  results  of  this  political 
activity  on  the  part  of  the  ''  Methodist  Party,"  as 
Sydney  Smith  called  it.  In  1787,  Minchin  led  the  first 
successful  attack  on  the  bloody  penal  laws.  In  1791 
Gray  took  the  part  of  imprisoned  debtors,  and  had 
behind  him  the  full  support  of  the  Evangelicals.  They 
about  the  same  time  defeated  a  movement  against  the 


392  THE  EVANGELICAL   REVIVAL 

Toleration  Act.  Wilber force  soon  compelled  the  ap- 
pointment of  a  Parliamentary  Commission  on  Children's 
Employment,  and  exposed  the  awful  abuses,  which  are 
now  only  paralleled,  to  the  shame  of  humanity,  in  Japan 
and  the  United  States,  where  no  proper  enforcement  of 
even  the  existing  laws  can  be  counted  upon.  In  1802 
and  1809  bills  were  passed  restricting  child  labour, 
although  very  inadequately.  In  1825,  Sir  John  C. 
Hobhouse  carried  his  bill  granting  a  partial  holiday  for 
children  on  the  Saturday.  In  1833  ^^  night  work  for 
boys  and  girls  under  eighteen  in  spinning  and  weaving 
mills  was  stopped,  and  from  this  to  the  present  day 
the  conscience  of  England  has  been  steadily  at  work 
trying  to  soften  the  rigours  of  the  competitive  industrial 
situation.  The  Factory  Acts  of  1844  ^^^  1845  in  their 
many  imperfections  are  still  landmarks  for  all  social 
reformers  ever  since,  and  are  the  direct  outcome  of 
Lord  Shaftesbury's  leadership  of  the  Evangelical  Party. 
The  co-operation  of  the  Trades  Unions  was  sought  and 
gained,  and  the  whole  legislation  was  still  farther 
advanced  and  unified  in  1874. 

All  this  had  to  be  accompHshed  in  the  face  of  Tory 
dogmatism  on  the  God-given  ''  rights "  of  invested 
wrongs,  and  political  economy  dogmatism  on  the 
advantages  of  '*  governing  as  little  as  possible  "  and 
the  rights  of  free  contract.  As  though  there  were  any 
freedom  or  any  possibility  of  freedom  of  contract  be- 
tween starving  men,  women  and  children  and  the  owners 
of  the  productive  machinery  of  society  !  It  was  not 
because  the  Evangelical  Party  really  saw  the  fallacy  of 
the  dogmatic  political  economy  of  that  day,  but  because 
it  was  the  party  of  conscience  and  sentiment  that  it  won 
the  battle. 

But  no  democracy  can  stand  on  a  purely  national 
basis.     The  type  of  Evangelical  democracy  was,  as  we 


AND   PHILANTHROPY  393 

have  seen,  not  a  worked  out  theory  of  social  recon- 
struction, but  a  burning  longing  for  the  salvation  of 
all  men  as  *'  brothers  in  Christ.'*  It  would  be  a  great 
shame  if  the  Christian  Church  yielded  to  International 
Socialism  the  leadership  which  historically  she  may 
claim  in  the  world-wide  assertion  of  a  great  human 
brotherhood.  And  the  claim  of  Christianity  in  the 
modern  world  to  this  international  character  is  due  to 
the  Evangelical  Revival. 

The  old  Missionary  Society,  *'  For  the  Propagation 
of  the  Gospel  in  Foreign  Parts,"  founded  in  1702,  had 
had  special  reference  to  the  American  colonies.  But 
only  when  the  *'  consecrated  cobbler,''  William  Carey,  in 
1792  founded  the  Baptist  Missionary  Society,  and 
himself  went  to  India  did  organized  Christianity  start 
upon  the  modern  conquest  of  the  world,  and  really  pro- 
claim the  international  character  of  Christianity.  This 
international  character  attached  itself  to  the  whole 
Evangelical  philanthropy.  The  London  Missionary 
Society  was  founded  in  1795,  the  Scottish  Church 
Society  in  1796,  the  Church  Missionary  Society  in  1799, 
the  London  Jews'  Society  in  1808,  the  General  Bap- 
tist Missionary  Society  in  1813,  and  in  the  same  year 
the  Wesleyan  Missionary  Society.  The  same  spirit 
prompted  the  founding  of  the  Bible  Society  in  1804. 
These  Societies  were,  of  course,  primarily  for  spreading 
the  Gospel,  as  that  was  variously  formulated  in  the 
different  parties  of  the  great  movement.  But  true  to 
the  traditions  of  the  various  branches  at  home  the 
missionary  activity  was  humanitarian  in  the  best  sense 
of  the  term.  The  splendid  common-sense  of  the  move- 
ment is  seen  in  the  records  of  Livingstone's  travels. 
And  in  the  early  missionary  movement,  schools  and 
works  of  relief,  the  wants  of  the  body  as  well  as  of  the 
soul,  came  within  the  range  of  Evangelical  sympathy. 


394         I'HE   EVANGELICAL   REVIVAL 

The  fierce  hostility  of  the  forces  that  were  simply  inter- 
ested in  the  commercial  exploitation  had,  of  course, 
to  be  encountered.  The  cheap  sneer  that  the  rum  and 
the  missionary  went  together  is  made  in  the  face  of  the 
fact  that  the  rum  was  going  whether  the  missionary 
went  or  not,  and  that  the  rum  without  the  missionary 
would  have  been  simply  unmitigated  hell. 

The  influence  of  the  Moravian  Missions  upon  the 
Evangelical  efforts  is  a  still  inadequately  written 
chapter.  It  was  in  many  ways  a  most  fortunate  cir- 
cumstance that  the  early  leaders  of  the  Evangelical 
movement  were  well  acquainted  with  Moravian  methods, 
by  which  men  were  trained  in  trades  and  useful  arts 
for  their  work  as  missionaries.  To  build  houses,  and 
make  wheels,  to  be  able  to  repair  simple  machinery  and 
to  understand  the  processes  of  husbandry ;  these 
things  were  as  important  in  the  early  stages  of  mission- 
ary work  as  the  literary  culture  which  too  often  is  the 
sole  equipment.  The  early  zeal  of  Evangelical  Mis- 
sions was  wisely  guided  by  Moravian  experience,  and 
the  practical  philanthropic  character  has,  happily, 
never  been  lost. 

In  a  certain  sense  the  movement  was  dogmatic,  and 
even  narrowly  dogmatic.  That  is  to  say,  a  somewhat 
rough-and-ready  dogmatic  ground-work  in  theology 
was  assumed  to  be  the  teaching  of  the  Bible  and  was, 
rather  unreflectingly,  accepted  by  nearly  all.  At  the 
same  time,  as  at  home  so  on  the  mission  field  a  certain 
quite  refreshing  freedom  marks  the  early  leaders.  The 
real  interest  of  the  movement  was  Evangelical  and  not 
theologically  dogmatic.  The  real  heart  of  the  great 
missionary  uprising  whose  climax  has  not  yet  been 
reached  was  its  loving  and  religious  humanitarianism. 
Its  aim  was  practical,  its  ambition  was  the  world-wide 
proclamation   of   loving    brotherhood   as   a   religious 


AND   PHILANTHROPY  395 

experience,  and  the  redemption  of  the  sons  of  God  from 
the  chains  of  sin,  disease,  ignorance  and  misery.  This 
rehgious  experience  had  given  reaHty  to  the  work  at 
home,  and  now  the  work  in  foreign  lands  had  a  soften- 
ing and  elevating  influence  in  turn  upon  the  Churches 
at  home.  The  missionaries  told  of  hospitals  and  schools 
they  founded  for  the  natives  of  far-off  lands,  and  pity 
and  compassion  were  the  springs  for  moving  to  ever- 
wider  generosity. 

The  later  phases  of  Evangelical  philanthropy  have 
been  held  up  to  a  good  deal  of  ridicule  and  scorn  by  the 
writers  of  the  last  generation.  Particularly  Charles 
Dickens  has  gained  the  public  ear  for  much  that  is 
unsympathetic  and  really  untrue  description.  Not 
that  there  were  not  just  such  men  as  he  describes,  or 
that  not  just  such  folly  as  he  portrays  was  not  perpe- 
trated. But  such  caricature  does  not  really  represent 
the  movement.  Dickens  was  in  many  ways  the  herald 
of  the  new  democracy  in  literature,  and  it  is  a  great 
pity  that  he  did  not  see  the  connexion  between  the 
new  feeling  for  the  lowly  at  home  and  abroad  in  the 
simple  and  often  unreflecting  dogmatic  piety  of  the 
Evangehcal  following.  When,  for  instance,  George 
Eliot  has  touched  the  movement  she  has  done  her  work 
with  far  more  accuracy  and  insight.  The  weakness 
was  not  so  much  the  shallow  hypocrisy  which  follows 
in  the  wake  of  all  really  successful  movements.  The 
real  weakness  of  the  philanthropy  was  its  sentimental, 
unscientific  character.  This  was  again  the  result  of 
several  circumstances.  The  historic  situation  had  a 
good  deal  to  do  with  it.  The  French  Revolution  had 
frightened  men  in  England.  They  dreaded  all  the 
social  doctrines  preached  in  its  name.  There  was  no 
ear  in  England  for  any  thorough-going  scheme  of 
social  reform.     To  the  Evangelical  worker  the  indi- 


396  THE   EVANGELICAL   REVIVAL 

vidual  heart  was  the  one  source  of  weakness,  the  influ- 
ence of  environment  and  social  system  upon  the  indi- 
vidual heart  was  generally  largely  forgotten.  The 
whole  tone  of  the  day  was  individualistic  in  its  theory. 
Salvation  was  a  scheme  for  the  individual  to  accept  or 
reject.  Along  this  line  the  scientific  political  economy 
was  on  all  fours  with  the  Evangelical  Party.  The 
perplexing  questions  of  poverty,  of  intemperance,  of 
immorality,  and  of  crime  were  far  too  much  simple 
questions  of  individual  decision.  This  gave  to  the 
philanthropy  a  certain  character  of  censoriousness,  and 
a  certain  narrowness  which  made  it  often  disagreeable 
to  loose  unthinking  good  nature.  Again  the  Methodists 
and  Evangelicals  of  all  shades  linked  their  philanthropy 
with  a  number  of  catchwords  of  religious  experience 
and  theology,  some  true,  some  one-sided  to  the  verge 
of  untruth,  some  wholly  untrue.  Against  all  this  there 
was  a  strong  reaction  as  really  religious  in  character, 
although  beyond  the  pale  of  the  Church,  as  the  move- 
ment within. 

The  Evangelical  Revival  was  so  largely  ethical, 
it  was  so  distinctively  and  characteristically  social 
that  no  picture  that  leaves  out  the  aftermath  in  Radical- 
ism and  its  new-found  temper  is  complete.  Robert 
Owen  was  painfully  ignorant  of  the  religious  move- 
ment of  his  day.  Nearly  all  he  protested  against  was 
equally  foreign  to  the  best  minds  of  liis  own  generation, 
and  he  lost  both  influence  and  the  steadying  effect  of 
companionship  by  cutting  himself  off  from  the  religious 
life  of  his  own  time.  At  the  same  time  he,  too,  is  a 
product  of  the  great  social-ethical  revival  that  has  not 
run  its  course  yet.  His  dreams  were  unscientific  and 
strangely  wooden  and  impracticable.  What  was  best 
and  most  lasting  in  him  was  his  faith  in  man  and  the 
moral  order  of  the  world.     This  faith  survived  all  dis- 


AND   PHILANTHROPY  397 

appointments,  and  gives  to  Robert  Owen's  life  a  really 
supreme  value.  When  he  comes  before  the  throne 
the  things  he  tried  to  do  for  the  least  of  God's  little  ones 
will  surely  be  reckoned  as  if  done  for  Christ  (Matt.  xxv. 
40). 

Exactly  the  same  rebound  from  a  false  and  shallow 
formulation  of  Christianity  marks  the  attitude  of  two 
profoundly  religious  men,  the  two  Mills.  They  also 
are  children  of  the  new  social-ethical  valuation  of  life. 
Of  the  two,  John  Stuart  Mill  is  the  finer  and  more 
fruitful  expression  of  this  negative  side  of  the  move- 
ment. To  him  religion  was  conscience  and  service, 
and  he  lived  out  his  religion.  It  was,  indeed,  painfully 
deficient  in  some  of  the  elements  that  give  strength 
and  power  to  intellectually  weaker  men  and  women. 
But  John  Stuart  Mill  represents  the  longing,  which  the 
unreflecting  Evangelicalism  never  met,  for  a  self-con- 
sistent religious  view  of  the  world.  And  in  rejecting 
the  only  view  of  the  world  that  the  Evangelicalism  of 
the  day  had  to  offer,  James  Mill  turned  from  all  Chris- 
tianity which  he  identified  and  taught  his  son  to  identify 
with  the  religion  of  Jesus. 

It  may  seem  a  strange  judgment  to  many,  but  the 
present  writer  cherishes  the  profound  conviction  that 
the  life  philosophy  of  John  Stuart  Mill  suffered  from 
exactly  the  same  limitations  and  narrowness  that  mark 
the  dogmatic  religious  thought  of  his  day.  When 
under  other  influences  (Comte,  Coleridge  and  Mrs. 
Taylor)  he  broke  away  from  his  early  faith  it  was  too 
late  for  him  to  wholly  reconstruct  his  system,  which 
therefore  remains  a  building  he  has  himself  reduced  to 
ruins.  But  his  interests  were  ethical  and  social.  He 
too  longed  for  a  really  solid  foundation  upon  which 
to  build  the  new  social  order.  His  late  essay,  however, 
on  *'  Socialism  "  represents  little  more  than  the  revolt 


398  THE   EVANGELICAL   REVIVAL 

against  his  own  past  dogmatic  individualism,  and  gives 
but  little  promise  of  any  really  helpful  reconstruction. 
Yet  in  him  is  as  plainly  seen  as  in  any  of  the  Evangel- 
icals the  almost  fierce  discontent  with  the  plane  on 
which  men  were  living,  and  there  burns  in  him  the 
fire  of  an  almost  revolutionary  spirit. 

This  essentially  practical  social  character  of  the 
Evangelical  movement  saved  England  in  a  time  of 
fearful  industrial  dislocation.  All  the  elements  for  a 
bloody  and  demoralizing  struggle  for  power  between 
the  proletariat  and  the  privileged  classes  were  seem- 
ingly just  as  present  in  England  as  in  France.  But 
when  the  time  came  education  and  sympathy  had 
stirred  men  to  place  their  hope,  not  so  much  in  revol- 
ution and  in  violence  as  in  writing,  speaking  and 
agitating. 

Thorold  Rogers  says,  no  doubt  with  justice,  of 
the  English  working-man  of  this  period,  "  The  remark- 
able fact  in  the  history  and  sentiments  of  the  English 
working-man  is  that  he  is  neither  socialist  nor  anarchist. 
He  believes,  and  rightly  believes,  that  in  the  distribu- 
tion of  the  reward  of  labour  his  share  is  less  than  it 
might  be,  than  it  ought  to  be,  and  that  some  means 
should  be  discovered  by  which  the  unequal  balance 
should  be  rectified.'*  ^  But  he  gives  no  such  place  as 
the  present  writer  is  inclined  to  give  to  the  hope 
inspired  by  the  success  of  organization  and  agitation 
as  learnt  in  the  religious  groups  that  sprang  up 
during  the  Evangelical  movement. 

The  scope  of  this  movement  as  it  moulded  modern 
philanthropy  extended  to  all  classes  in  England,  and 
to  the  Evangelical  inspirations  the  so-called  Broad 
Church  Party  owed  their  life  and  vigour.  It  is,  of 
course,  only  of  the  philanthropic  side  that  we  are  called 

^  Work  and  WageSy  New  York  Ed.  (undated),  p.  490- 


AND   PHILANTHROPY  399 

to  speak.  But  the  whole  modern  philanthropic  move- 
ment in  England  and  America  has  a  peculiar  character 
and  a  special  spirit  separating  it  from  similar  continental 
efforts.  This  character  is  due,  without  question,  to 
the  religious  inspiration  from  which  these  movements 
sprang.  It  may  be  freely  granted  that  some  of  the 
special  limitations  have  their  root  in  this  same  histori- 
cal development.  But  whether  one  is  in  agreement  or 
disagreement  with  the  organizing  conceptions  at  the 
basis  of  English  and  American  philanthropy,  the 
historical  facts  ought  not  to  be  ignored.  It  is  one  of 
the  great  weaknesses  of  Karl  Marx's  otherwise  invalu- 
able survey  of  this  industrial  revolution  in  English  life 
that  he  is  colour-blind  to  religion,  and  apparently 
very  ignorant  of  some  of  the  most  absorbing  passions 
of  that  day. 

To  attempt  to  understand  the  modern  movement  to 
promote  social  justice,  and  to  leave  out  the  work  of 
Frederick  Denison  Maurice  or  Charles  Kingsley  or 
even  Thomas  Carlyle  is  so  unscientific  as  to  be  absurd. 
And  these  men  were  directly  and  demonstrably  children 
of  the  Evangelical  Revival. 

The  philanthropy  of  the  early  Evangelical  leaders 
was  largely  under  the  influence  of  a  somewhat 
narrow  view  of  life.  It  is  quite  remarkable,  indeed, 
how  untouched  many  of  the  most  powerful  leaders 
were  by  great  currents  of  thought  sweeping  over  the 
continental  peoples.  This  was  in  part  the  result  of  the 
insular  character  of  all  English  civilization,  in  part 
because  England's  commercial  primacy  was  so  undis- 
puted that  she  was  little  inclined  to  consider  the  ques- 
tion as  to  whether  others  were  in  advance  in  thought. 
And  as  in  the  time  of  the  French  Revolution  of  1793,  so 
just  before  1848,  there  was  great  danger  of  a  wayward 
untrained  democracy  entering  upon  a  really  religion- 


400  THE   EVANGELICAL   REVIVAL 

less  movement  for  farther  emancipation.  Liberalism 
again  ran  the  danger  of  being  identified  not  only  with 
hostility  to  the  Church  but  with  antagonism  to  all 
religion.  In  literature  Byron  and  Shelley  voice  the 
feelings  of  many  of  that  day,  and  even  the  Evangelical 
Party  in  Parliament  came  under  suspicion  of  being 
really  reactionary.  What  has  so  often  happened  in 
history  now  took  place,  and  the  party  once  scorned  as 
Radical  and  dangerous  was  now  petted  as  the  conserver 
of  institutions  wickedly  attacked.  A  new  class  of 
working-man  was  rising  whose  Radicalism  was  a  sub- 
stitute for  religious  enthusiasm  of  the  dogmatic  type. 

Happily  the  Evangelical  movement  had  never  been 
sufficiently  theological  to  give  the  party  a  basis  apart 
from  the  religious  activities  in  which  its  life  expressed 
itself.  Hence  it  happened  that  its  impulses  and  deeper 
inspirations  were  not  confined  to  any  one  organized 
body. 

To-day  the  modern  philanthropy  of  the  English- 
speaking  world  is  most  markedly  under  the  influence 
of  the  work  done  by  a  small  body  of  men,  who  set  out 
to  link  again  Christianity  with  social  justice,  and  who 
resolved,  because  they  were  Christian  and  had  found  in 
Jesus  Christ  access  to  the  Father,  to  understand  the 
point  of  view  of  the  new  working  man  in  his  Radicalism, 
and  to  make  him,  if  possible,  understand  the  teachings 
of  Jesus  Christ.  Almost  to  invite  obloquy  Frederick 
Denison  Maurice  and  Charles  Kingsley  together 
with  a  group  of  earnest  men  called  themselves  *'  Chris- 
tian Socialists.'*  In  point  of  fact,  they  had  only  the 
very  vaguest  conceptions  of  the  things  in  which  a 
modern  Marxian  Socialist  is  interested.  It  was 
not  by  the  introduction  of  collective  ownership  of  the 
productive  machinery  that  these  men  expected  to 
save   society.     They   expected   simply   to   substitute 


AND   PHILANTHROPY  401 

loving  co-operation  for  hate-breeding  competition,  and 
they  were  full  of  dreams  and  plans  by  which  to  accom- 
plish their  end.  These  men  were  broad  enough  to  see 
that  there  was  a  religious  element  in  the  enthusiastic 
Radicalism  of  the  men  to  whom  John  Stuart  Mill  was  a 
new  gospel.  They  wished  to  link  that  enthusiasm  to 
really  religious  life  expressing  itself  in  social  activity. 
One  of  the  dreary  happenings  in  Germany  has  been  the 
almost  complete  divorce  between  the  State  Church  and 
the  leaders  of  Germany's  growing  democracy.  And  not 
only  the  State  Church  but  the  organized  religious 
intelligence  is  in  danger  of  becoming  unreal  and  un- 
fruitful because  out  of  touch  with  the  hungers  and 
thirsts  of  the  great  multitude,  coming  slowly  to  self- 
consciousness. 

In  both  these  directions  the  Evangelical  movement, 
had  it  been  a  dogmatic  scheme,  or  given  rise  to  a  new 
theological  organization,  might  have  failed  as  completely 
as  pietistic  Lutheranism  to  bridge  the  gap.  It  was  hap- 
pily so  largely  a  movement  of  social  philanthropy  that 
there  was  vitality  and  religious  energy  enough  to  raise 
up  a  new  set  of  religious  interpreters  to  carry  on  on  other 
lines  the  work  of  Wilberforce,  Shaftesbury,  Howard  and 
the  older  reformers. 

No  one  can  at  present  fairly  judge  of  the  work  done, 
for  instance,  in  the  Working-men's  College  in  Great 
Ormond  Street.  But  when  men  write  the  splendid 
history  of  a  generation  learning  at  the  feet  of  Tennyson, 
Carlyle,  Kingsley,  Robertson  of  Brighton  and  Thomas 
Hughes,  they  will  come  upon  the  secrets  of  so  many 
quiet,  bloodless  revolutions  in  English  life,  reaching 
ever  after  a  larger  social  justice,  and  finding  in  religious 
inspiration  guidance  and  comfort. 

It  is  worthy  of  note  that  this  new  philanthropy 
began,  as  Luther's  and  Wesley's  philanthropy  began,  by 

C.C.  D    D 


402  THE   EVANGELICAL   REVIVAL 

attempting  to  teach  the  simplest  elements  to  the  sim- 
plest people.  In  Little  Ormond  Yard  the  Rev.  M. 
Short  and  Maurice  began  a  work  with  men  and  half- 
grown  boys  in  which  the  teachers,  perhaps,  learnt  quite 
as  valuable  things  as  they  taught.  The  friendship  be- 
tween Walter  Cooper  and  Gerald  Massey,  and  the  organ- 
ization of  the  *'  Working-men's  Association "  gave 
Maurice  his  chance  to  "  Christianize  Sociahsm,"  and 
socialize  Christianity.  Working-men's  colleges  were 
established  at  Oxford,  Cambridge,  Manchester,  Salford, 
Ancoats,  Sheffield,  Halifax,  Wolverhampton,  Glasgow, 
Birkenhead  and  Ayr.^  The  leaders  of  the  movement 
attached  no  importance  to  political  changes  that  were 
not  the  expression  of  a  new  life  and  a  new  motive. 

Probably  no  two  prophets  have  done  more  in  their 
several  ways  for  social  religious  philanthropy  than 
Carlyle  and  Ruskin.  Our  scholastic  Protestantism  has 
so  vastly  over-emphasized  Greek  metaphysics  that  it  is 
in  danger  of  forgetting  that  Amos,  Hosea  and  Isaiah 
wrote  in  the  highest  poetical  art  forms  of  their  day,  and 
that  their  philanthropy  was  of  the  thorough-going 
type  that  seeks  to  deal  with  the  fundamental  underlying 
conditions. 

The  concrete  results  in  philanthropy  were  many 
and  important.  The  whole  co-operative  movement 
was  the  indirect  outcome  of  the  definite  attempts  of 
this  little  group.  The  whole  settlement  movement, 
based  on  Toynbee  Hall,  has  its  inspirations  from  the 
same  source.  The  summer  school,  and  University 
Extension,  and  the  distinct  attempt  of  Morris  to  add 
beauty  to  humble  life,  all  found  their  inspirations  in 
the  same  movement. 

It  was  also  among  these  men  that  the  fundamental 
questions    of    effective    philanthropy    were    definitely 
^  Life  of  Maurice,  vol.  ii  p.  379. 


AND   PHILANTHROPY  403 

raised.  They  taught  men  to  seek  the  causes  of  human 
misery  in  human  greed  and  injustice.  These  men  began 
the  war  that  has  not  ceased  yet  for  a  social  justice  that 
will  make  alms-giving  unnecessary.  The  question  of 
rent,  of  proper  housing  of  the  poor,  of  sanitation  in  town 
and  country  ;  and  the  deeper  questions  yet  of  the  rela- 
tions of  man  to  man  as  men  and  brethren  ;  these  were 
the  questions  most  fully  and  earnestly  pressed  home  by 
these  new  religious  agitators.  That  their  forms  were 
not  conventionally  theological  is  true  to  the  original 
character  and  spirit  of  the  Evangelical  Revival.  But 
one  has  only  to  glance  at  the  pages  of  Ruskin  and  Car- 
lyle,  to  say  nothing  about  Charles  Kingsley  and  Maurice, 
to  see  whence  they  drew  their  deeper  inspirations  and 
whose  spiritual  children  they  really  were.  The  very 
phrases  of  the  Evangelical  leaders  are  constantly  on 
their  lips,  and  the  deep  religious  spirit  pervading  their 
social  hope  and  philanthropic  dream  is  born  of  that  great 
second  Reformation  which  began  with  Wesley. 

For  it  is  not  too  much  to  say  that  the  Evangelical 
movement  was  a  second  Reformation.  The  early  Reform- 
ation was  very  early  so  buried  in  scholastic  and  dog- 
matic disputes  that  its  social  and  philanthropic  side 
became  a  mere  side  issue.  With  Luther,  with  Calvin, 
Butzer  and  others  the  movement  was  ethical,  political 
and  social.  All  the  elements  for  a  new  Christian  social 
order  might  almost  be  gathered  from  Luther  {Letter 
to  the  Protestant  Princes)  or  Butzer  [De  Regno  Christi). 
But  political  events  made  any  approach  to  a  really 
thoroughly  Christian  Reformation  impossible.  Nor 
would  the  social  order  outlined  in  the  works  of  the 
Reformers  have  really  met  the  new  economic  needs  of 
the  coming  society.  At  the  same  time  the  tragic  thing 
was  the  loss  of  social  interest  in  the  second-growth 
scholastic  Protestantism.     The  Evangelical  Revival  was 


404  THE  EVANGELICAL  REVIVAL 

a  distinct  return  to  the  practical  and  social-ethical 
spirit  of  the  earlier  men.  It  is  all  too  often  forgotten 
by  some  who,  like  the  writer,  are  conservative  Presby- 
terians, that  Calvin  started  out  to  found  a  really  new 
social  order.  That  he  started  on  wrong  lines  we  may 
freely  acknowledge.  That  his  state  was,  in  fact,  a  new 
papacy  with  a  loosely  formulated  theory  of  the  two 
swords  and  a  spiritual  primacy  for  the  Church  need  not 
be  called  in  question.  The  important  thing  is  that  the 
Christianizing  of  the  social  order  was  his  main  interest. 

In  the  scholastic  and  dogmatic  disputes  of  the  post- 
Reformation  period  either  the  social  interest  was  lost, 
or  it  identified  itself  with  some  political  issue,  and  so 
ceased  to  be  thoroughly  Christian  in  spirit.  Then  came 
the  Evangelical  Revival.  Its  social  interest  was  still 
undefined,  and  often  confused  and  sentimental,  but  it 
was  the  main  issue,  and  its  services  to  England  and 
America  have  been  of  the  most  permanent  importance 
because  it  has  given  us  back  again  the  dream  of  God's 
Kingdom  realized  on  earth  among  men. 

The  weakness  of  pre-Evangelical  Protestantism 
was  that  it  all  too  often  surrendered  to  Rome  the  ambi- 
tion to  control  the  world.  Rome  has  never  given  up 
her  ambition,  but  it  has,  alas,  become  corrupted  and 
scholastic.  And  yet  this  assertion  of  world-wide  ambi- 
tion and  central  social  interest  has  been  her  strength. 
Protestantism  was  too  content  with  a  narrow  and  event- 
ually uninspiring  individualism.  We  are  saved  by  our 
division  from  mere  Churchly  ambitions.  But  in  God's 
providence  we  are  once  more  challenged  by  the  Evangel- 
ical Revival  to  convert  the  social  order  to  rebaptize 
the  fundamental  motives  of  men's  lives,  and  to  regener- 
ate the  whole  fabric  of  men's  ambitions.  The  political 
schemes  under  which  this  dream  will  be  realized  must  be 
left  to  economic  empiricism.     The  Church  forces  must 


AND   PHILANTHROPY  405 

furnish,  however,  both  the  formulated  demand  for  a 
state  of  society  which  will  be  fit  to  be  called  God's  King- 
dom on  earth,  and  the  inspirations  that  will  compel 
men  to  realize  the  dream  at  all  and  any  sacrifices 
necessary. 

This  social  demand  and  this  social  awakening  are 
the  direct  outcome  of  the  blessedly  non-theological  but 
thoroughly  religious  awakening  of  the  eighteenth 
century. 

As  the  Reformation  in  Europe  called  out  a  Roman 
Catholic  reaction,  so  the  Evangelical  Reformation  awoke 
the  slumbering  Catholic  elements  in  English  society 
and  the  Established  Church.  There  has  always  been  a 
strong  Catholic  feeling  in  the  Establishment,  even  when 
it  was  most  anti-papal.  This  movement  also  partakes 
of  the  social  and  philanthropic  character  that  marks 
the  orginal  awakening.  Gladstone  and  Newman  both 
connect  the  Tractarian  Movement  with  the  Evangelical 
awakening,  and  both  in  England  and  in  the  United 
States  one  of  the  marked  characteristics  of  the  move- 
ment has  been  its  social  note  and  its  energetic  philan- 
thropy. 

For  thorough-going  Protestantism  this  social  inter- 
est may  seem  both  too  aristocratic  and  too  political  to 
be  of  the  highest  usefulness  in  an  age  that  rightly  turns 
more  and  more  to  democracy  and  more  and  more  dis- 
putes the  right  of  the  religious  teacher  to  dictate  the 
political  forms  under  which  the  new  social  order  shall 
emerge.  At  the  same  time,  the  interesting  thing  is 
that  the  High  Church  reaction  cannot  escape  the  *'  Zeit- 
geist,'' and  moves  forward  toward  the  New  Heaven  and 
the  New  Earth,  wherein  dwelleth  righteousness. 

The  Evangelical  Revival  has  given  the  new  Kingdom- 
Purpose  to  the  English-speaking  world.  And  the 
main  thing  is  this  Purpose.     He  that  willeth  to  do  the 


4o6  THE   EVANGELICAL   REVIVAL 

will  of  the  Father  shall  know  of  the  political  doctrine 
under  the  regular  forms  of  human  knowledge,  and  to 
this  work  of  the  transformation  of  the  main  purpose  of 
all  human  society  at  home  and  abroad  an  Evangelical 
Protestantism  is  now  setting  its  hand ;  and  having  put 
its  hand  to  the  plough  it  cannot  look  back. 

Experience  is  chastening  as  well  as  quickening 
and  directing  its  activities.  Education  must  become 
broader,  freer,  and  yet  more  Christian  than  it  ever  has 
been.  Under  what  forms  we  can  preserve  both  our 
Protestant  freedom  of  conscience,  and  yet  hand  down 
to  each  child  the  priceless  heritage  of  a  religious  past 
is  a  question  the  writer  does  not  feel  called  to  enter 
upon.  But  it  must  be  pointed  out  that  the  earliest 
philanthropy  flung  itself  energetically  upon  the  giving 
to  the  child  its  intellectual  inheritance  as  fully  as  was 
then  possible.  We  will  not  be  true  to  our  Evangelical 
traditions  if  we  do  not  seek  to  give,  in  the  light  of  far 
more  exacting  demands,  to  every  child  the  fullest  equip- 
ment for  meeting  life's  questions  that  the  age  can 
furnish. 

Again,  we  cannot  be  content  with  prison-reform. 
We  must  ask  deeper  questions  about  the  whole  life 
history  and  underlying  causes  of  criminality.  Our 
philanthropy  must  be  scientific  in  a  way  it  was  not 
possible  for  even  an  expert  like  Howard  to  be  scientific. 
But  our  penology  must  not  only  be  scientific,  in  the 
deepest  sense,  but  in  the  best  sense  of  the  word  really 
religious.  At  this  point  again  the  undogmatic  untheo- 
logical  tradition  should  come  to  our  aid.  Behind  Howard 
were  the  united  forces  of  the  various  bodies  of  Pro- 
testant dissent.  It  is  in  such  activities  rather  than  in 
any  form  of  sound  words  that  Protestantism  can  find 
her  highest  and  most  lasting  unity.  The  recognition 
of  this  fact  has  made,  for  instance,  the  Young  Men's 


AND   PHILANTHROPY  407 

Christian  Association  one  of  the  most  splendid  monu- 
ments to  the  real  spirit  of  the  Evangelical  Revival, 
its  broad  catholicity  and  its  non-theological  attitude 
being  especially  characteristic  of  the  Evangelical 
awakening. 

In  the  same  way  the  Sunday  school  is  a  child  of  the 
religious  humanitarianism  of  the  Evangelical  reforma- 
tion. To  be  true  to  the  spirit  of  the  Evangelical  move- 
ment the  Sunday  school  must  be  kept  effective,  and  to 
do  this  needs  very  constant  care  and  attention.  If  we 
recognize  the  relatively  unreflective  character  of  the 
religious  awakening  we  must  also  be  alive  to  the  danger 
that  it  cease  to  minister  to  quickened  intelligence. 
This  lack  of  an  intellectual  ministry  is  the  reproach  that 
was  brought  against  Evangelical  zeal,  and  even  count- 
ing in  the  Broad  Churchmen,  it  still  remains  true  that 
much  of  the  activity  was  emotional,  and  sometimes 
lacked  the  effectiveness  a  more  scientific  and  consistent 
philanthropy  would  have  possessed. 

So  that  to  be  really  true  to  the  best  traditions  of 
the  movement  we  must  bring  to  the  task  of  aiding  men 
in  the  consecration  of  the  redemptive  life  an  increas- 
ing scientific  spirit,  and  the  effectiveness  of  trained 
intelligence.  Not  the  least  service  the  Evangelical 
philanthropic  movement  has  rendered  the  community 
has  been  the  establishment  of  training  schools,  homes 
for  deaconesses,  scientific  hospitals,  schools  for  the 
blind,  and  other  forms  of  philanthropy  demanding  and 
supplying  high  technical  training. 

To-day  the  Salvation  Army  represents  much  of  the 
spirit  of  the  old  Evangelical  movement.  Indeed,  it 
incorporates  with  its  enthusiasm  and  devotion  some- 
thing also  of  the  weakness  of  that  movement.  It  is 
not,  indeed,  theological,  but  like  the  Evangelical  begin- 
nings the  theology  it  has  is  somewhat  crude  and  scholas- 


4o8  THE   EVANGELICAL   REVIVAL 

tic.  Its  main  interest  is  the  redemptive  life,  but  like 
the  early  Methodist  movement  it  has  great  faith  in  cen- 
tralized power,  and  has  the  high  organization  of  a 
Roman  Catholic  order.  Where  it  reveals  most  clearly 
its  parentage  is  in  its  tremendous  emphasis  upon  the 
social  expression  of  the  Christian  life.  At  this  point  it 
revives  the  finest  feature  of  the  older  movement. 
Moreover,  in  its  nominal  policy  of  non-interference  with 
the  Church  connexions  of  its  members  it  again  has 
marked  similarity  with  early  bodies  of  Evangelicals, 
who  never  left  in  many  instances  the  churches,  or  were 
only  forced  unwillingly  out  of  them.  Then,  again, 
the  distinctly  non-sacramentarian  character  of  the 
new  organization  reminds  us  of  how  unsacramentarian 
pure  Evangelicahsm  has  ever  been. 

This  hasty  review  of  the  movement  in  connexion 
with  philanthropy  will,  the  writer  hopes,  reveal  the  really 
great  source  of  Evangelical  life  and  vigour.  It  was 
primarily  a  social-philanthropic  movement  on  a  deeply 
religious  basis,  with  the  Christian  life  as  a  hfe  of  redemp- 
tive service  prominently  in  the  foreground.  It  was  a 
Protestant  reformation  of  Protestant  Scholasticism,  and 
a  very  effective  return  to  the  reUgious  activities  as  the 
real  test  of  true  discipleship.  Its  work  has  not  yet  been 
completed.  The  tremendous  ethical  revival  that  is  a 
distinguishing  mark  of  our  own  day  may  be  directly 
connected  historically  with  the  great  blessing  that  came, 
to  English-speaking  lands  particularly,  in  the  great 
Evangelical  Revival  with  its  manifold  philanthropy. 


Christianity  and  the   French   Revolution 

By   J.    HOLLAND    ROSE,    Litt.D., 

Author  of  "The  Revolutionary  and  Napoleonic  Era/' 


ARGUMENT. 

Introduction — ^Two  Tendencies  ia  Human  History,  The  Claim  for  Liberty  and 
the  Demand  for  Order  and  Justice — These  -Tendencies  in  Religion — 
Connexion  of  Christian  Belief  and  Movements  on  Behalf  of  Liberty. 

I.  The  Character  of  the  French  Revolution — An    Emancipating  Movement 

not  Essentially  Irreligious — Voltaire  not  Atheist,  but  Opposed  to 
Roman  Church — Rousseau's  Misconception  of  Christianity  in  the 
Social  Contract,  and  More  Favourable  Attitude  in  the  Savoyard 
Vicar — ^The  Sentiment  for  Social  Reform. 

II.  The   Collapse   of   Organized   Christianity   in    France — ^The    Power   and 

Wealth  of  the  Roman  Catholic  Church,  the  Curse  of  Favouritism, 
Poverty  of  the  Cures,  their  Influence  as  Ardent  Reformers — The 
Church  Morally  and  Intellectually  Bankrupt — The  Strength  of  the 
Reform  Movement  in  the  Church — The  Attitude  of  the  Populace 
not  Anti-Christian — The  Legislation  of  the  National  Assembly — 
The  Right  of  Religious  Liberty — The  Outbreak  of  Passion  and  Mob- 
Violence — The  Confiscation  of  the  Lands  of  the  Church — ^The  Re- 
nunciation of  the  Obligation  to  Support  the  Clergy — The  Dissolu- 
tion of  the  Monastic  Orders — The  Civil  Constitution  of  the  Clergy — 
The  Invasion  of  the  Domain  of  Faith  Fatal — Aggravation  of  the 
Crisis  by  the  Papacy  and  its  Supporters — Fanaticism  Kindled  by 
Fanaticism — Anti-Religious  Fury. 

III.  The  Reaction  and  the  Restoration  of  the  Roman  Catholic  Church — 

The  Failure  of  Protestantism  to  win  the  Adhesion  of  Frenchmen 
— The  *  Constitutional '  Church — ^The  Concordat  of  Napoleon  with 
the  Pope — The  Subsequent  Recovery  of  her  old  Position  by  the 
Church — ^The  Power  of  the  Church  used  in  Repressing  Democracy 
and   Promoting  Autocracy — ^The  Separation   of  Church  and   State. 

IV.  The  Contrast  between  France  and  England  in  the  Relation  of  Religion 

to  Democracy — ^The  secure  Place  of  the  National  Church  in  the  Hearts 
of  Englishmen,  the  Influence  of  the  Wesleyan  Revival,  the  Close  Con- 
nection between  Evangelical  Religion  and  Philanthropy — ^The  New 
Impulse  towards  Democracy  manifested  in  Ways  on  the  whole 
Friendly  to  Religion — Cartwright's  Plea  for  Popular  Government 
on  a  religious  basis,  the  People's  Charter  of  1838 — Tom  Paine's 
Influence  Short-lived — The  Failure  of  Physical  Force  Chartism — 
The  Service  of  Maurice  and  Kingsley — No  Divorce  in  our  Island 
between  Religion  and  Reforming  Movements — Affinity  of  the  Prin- 
ciples of  Liberty,  Equality  and  Fraternity  with  the  Christian  Social 
Ideal — The  Christian  Church  and  Democracy   Allies,  not  Foes. 


X 

Christianity  and  the  French  Revolution 

In  the  history  of  the  human  race  there  are  observable 
two  outstanding  tendencies,  that  which  makes  for  the 
freedom  of  the  unit  or  individual,  and  that  which 
produces  orderly  cohesion  of  the  mass.  These  ten- 
dencies are  in  constant  action.  Except  in  the  most 
lethargic  races,  the  individual  always  has  some  free 
play  for  his  energies  ;  and  in  the  times  of  wildest 
licence  the  principle  of  order  speedily  begins  to  re- 
assert itself,  if  only  in  the  form  of  the  blackmail  of  a 
powerful  baron  or  the  despotism  of  a  triumphant 
faction.  The  fundamental  problem  of  political  life  is 
the  harmonizing  of  the  claim  of  the  individual  for 
liberty  with  the  imperious  demand  of  the  community 
for  order  and  justice. 

What  is  true  of  social  life  may  also  be  affirmed  of 
the  life  of  the  race  on  its  reHgious  side.  So  soon  as 
religion  begins  the  difficult  task  of  organization,  it 
meets  the  same  insoluble  problem.  If  religion  were 
limited  to  the  communion  of  the  individual  with  his 
Maker,  the  difficulty  would  not  exist ;  but  the  devout 
soul  cannot,  and  must  not,  remain  alone  on  the  moun- 
tain top  ;  he  must  come  down  to  the  plain  and  seek 
to  influence  mankind  for  good.  Then  it  is  that  the 
temptation  besets  him  to  seek  to  control  men  from 
without,  instead  of  awakening  a  new  life  within  them 

411 


412  CHRISTIANITY  AND 

and  to  build  up  the  Kingdom  of  God  with  earthly 
materials.  Despite  the  solemn  warnings  of  Christ,  a 
new  Tower  of  Babel  is  begun,  in  the  fond  hope  that 
men  may  scale  the  heavens  with  labour  of  hands  and 
feet.  A  time  comes  when  the  toilers  realize  the  futility 
of  their  enterprise,  and  demolish  the  lordly  fabric  ; 
but  before  long  there  arises  a  generation  reckless  of 
the  lessons  of  the  past  which  strives  again  to  build 
the  spiritual  kingdom  with  clay.  The  processes  of 
construction  and  demolition  have  often  been  repeated  ; 
and  it  is  scarcely  too  much  to  say  that  the  history  of 
Christianity  on  its  political  side  has  been  that  of  the 
construction  of  elaborate  systems  and  their  removal 
or  overthrow  when  they  have  proved  to  be  a 
hindrance  both  to  the  spiritual  life  and  to  the  welfare 
of  mankind. 

We  have  no  space  in  which  to  point  out  the  close 
connexion  which  has  existed  between  vital  Christian 
belief  and  movements  on  behalf  of  liberty.  It  is  true 
there  have  been  long  periods  when  the  Church  has  relied 
on,  or  has  wielded,  the  secular  power  ;  and  the  results  of 
such  union  have  sooner  or  later  always  been  disastrous. 
From  the  time  when  the  Emperor  Constantine  allied 
the  Church  to  the  Roman  State  down  to  the  time  when 
Napoleon  estimated  the  value  of  the  papal  alliance  as 
equal  to  200,000  soldiers,  both  political  and  spiritual 
liberty  have  suffered  untold  harm  from  so  unnatural  a 
coalition.  At  these  retrograde  periods  the  organiza- 
tion of  the  Church  comes  to  be  everything,  and  the 
spirit  of  the  Gospels  is  apt  to  be  stifled  beneath  armour. 
But  any  one  who  ponders  on  their  message  to  man's 
inner  life  must  see  that  such  a  state  of  things  is  essen- 
tially unchristian.  Christianity,  indeed,  is  no  more  to 
be  blamed  for  their  misdeeds  than  is  the  English  Con- 
stitution for  the  cruelties  of  Henry  VIII  or  the  per- 


THE   FRENCH   REVOLUTION  413 

sonal  rule  of  Charles  I.  On  the  other  hand,  whenever 
the  truth  has  been  set  forth  by  fearless  souls  like 
Wycliffe,  Huss,  and  Luther,  it  has  helped  to  further 
political  as  well  as  spiritual  freedom.  Not  until  the 
merely  State  Reformation  of  Henry  VHI's  days  had 
deepened  into  the  doctrinal  and  moral  Reformation 
of  the  following  reigns  did  England  realize  the  meaning 
of  the  verse,  *'  Where  the  spirit  of  the  Lord  is,  there 
is  liberty/'  The  Puritans  set  up  an  ideal  of  national 
life  far  higher,  purer  and  juster  than  had  been  seen 
since  the  evil  days  when  the  Christian  Church  linked 
itself  to  the  decaying  body  of  the  Roman  Empire. 
The  saints  blundered,  it  is  true,  and  rendered  their 
sway  irksome  beyond  measure  to  the  average  man. 
That  was  to  be  expected.  Nevertheless  they  had  sown 
seed  which  bore  a  bounteous  harvest  in  New  England, 
and  which  served,  even  in  Old  England,  to  thwart  the 
Romanizing  efforts  of  James  II.  Who  shall  say  how 
far  the  Revolution  of  1688  and  the  Declaration  of 
American  Independence  in  1776  were  due  to  the 
dauntless  spirit  of  the  older  Puritans  ? 

It  is,  however  with  later  developments  than  these 
that  we  are  here  mainly  concerned.  Though  we  shall 
close  with  a  brief  consideration  of  English  political 
life,  we  may  now  turn  our  attention  to  the  land  where 
problems  of  the  State  have  been  worked  out  with  un- 
equalled intensity.  France  has  well  been  called  the 
political  laboratory  of  Europe.  The  ardour  of  the 
national  temperament  has  invested  her  annals  with 
peculiar  interest.  Above  all,  it  was  the  period  of  the 
great  French  Revolution  which  determined  the  rela- 
tions of  Christianity  to  the  secular  power  in  a  great 
part  of  the  Continent. 

The  French  Revolution  of  the  years  1789-1799  is 
not  to  be  looked  on  as  a  series  of  violent  outbreaks. 


414  CHRISTIANITY  AND 

but  rather  as  an  emancipating  movement  which  was 
marred  by  acts  of  exceptional  folly  and  needless 
cruelty.  It  had  its  origin  in  a  natural  impulse  of  man 
to  shake  off  serious  evils  and  outworn  usages,  but  it 
resulted  also  from  new  ideas  which  clashed  with  the 
existing  order  of  things  in  Church  and  State.  We  are 
concerned  here  solely  with  those  ideas  which  caused 
a  revolt  against  the  authority  of  the  Roman  Catho- 
lic Church,  and  with  the  influences  at  work  which 
fatally  weakened  the  defence. 

It  has  often  been  stated  that  the  Revolution  was 
due  mainly  to  the  infidel  writings  of  Voltaire,  Rous- 
seau, and  the  '*  Encyclopaedists."  It  should  be  re- 
membered, however,  that  Voltaire  and  Rousseau  were 
far  from  being  atheists,  and  that  they  made  no  or- 
ganized attack  on  Christian  doctrine.  They  were 
deists,  and  they  declaimed  bitterly  against  atheism  as 
monstrous  and  incredible.  Voltaire's  philosophy  was 
derived  almost  entirely  from  Locke  and  Bolingbroke. 
There  is  little  of  serious  argument  against  the  funda- 
mentals of  Christianity  in  Voltaire's  works  ;  but  there 
is  plenty  of  invective  and  satire  at  the  expense  of  the 
superstitions  then  prevalent.  He  contributed  nothing 
that  was  original  to  the  thought  of  his  time  ;  but 
mankind  owes  much  to  a  man  who  clearly  summarized 
the  criticism  of  his  age  and  directed  it  vigorously 
against  an  effete  and  arrogant  organism.  Protestants 
must  be  grateful  to  the  man  who  manfully  protested 
against  the  infamous  wrongs  wreaked  by  the  Roman 
Church  on  the  pastor  Calas  on  the  strength  of  an  incred- 
ible and  unproven  charge.  When  religion  becomes  an 
ally  of  despotism  it  earns  the  scorn  of  the  humane  ;  and 
the  widespread  revolt  against  its  dogmas  in  eighteenth 
century  France  was  due  to  a  perception  of  the  falsity 
of  its  position  and  the  hypocrisy  of  many  of  its  pro- 


THE   FRENCH   REVOLUTION  415 

fessors.  Voltaire  summed  up  his  aims  in  the  motto, 
'*  Ecrasez  I'lnfame  "  ;  the  phrase  appHed,  not  to  Chris- 
tianity, but  to  the  Roman  Church.  Finally,  it  is 
noteworthy  that  the  arguments  which  he  drew  from 
English  sources  were  quite  harmless  in  the  land  of 
their  birth — a  proof  that  religion  which  is  vital  and 
consistent  need  not  fear  the  assaults  of  critics  like  the 
sage  of  Ferney. 

The  same  remark  is  in  some  respects  applicable 
to  the  writings  of  Rousseau.  His  political  specula- 
tions would  have  had  little  vogue  in  a  land  where  civic 
freedom  was  a  reality.  In  the  France  of  Louis  XV, 
where  monarchy  was  at  once  absolute  and  contempt- 
ible, and  the  structure  of  society  lopsided  and  rotten, 
it  was  dangerous  as  well  as  fallacious  to  portray  the 
construction  of  a  perfect  polity  as  an  infallibly  easy 
task.  Without  dwelling  on  the  political  sophisms 
that  are  attractively  strewn  in  the  reader's  path  in 
the  Social  Contract  (1762),  we  may  notice  the  author's 
attitude  towards  Christianity. 

He  claims,  firstly,  that  as  Jesus  came  to  establish 
a  kingdom  which  is  not  of  this  world.  His  followers 
must  necessarily  own  a  divided  allegiance  and  thereby 
break  the  unity  of  the  State.  ''  Whatever  destroys 
social  unity  (Rousseau  declares)  is  good  for  nothing." 
Admitting  the  sublime  excellence  of  the  precepts  of 
Christ,  he  yet  insists  that  they  will  not  make  His  fol- 
lowers good  citizens  because  their  interests  will  not  be 
in  this  world.  Again,  he  says  :  ''  Christianity  preaches 
only  servitude  and  dependence.  Its  spirit  is  too 
favourable  to  tyranny  for  the  latter  not  to  profit  by  it 
always.  True  Christians  are  made  to  be  slaves."  He 
then  denies  that  Christians  can  be  brave,  good  soldiers.  ^ 

It  is  clear  that  Rousseau  took  only  the  narrowest 
^  Social  Contract,  Bk.  iv,  chap.  8. 


4i6  CHRISTIANITY  AND 

view  of  Christianity  and  of  its  history.  Ignoring  the 
many  precepts  which  prescribe  to  Christians  their 
duties  in  this  Hfe,  and  enjoin  on  them  the  formation 
of  a  loving  brotherhood  wherein  love  of  God  would 
inspire  them  with  a  passion  for  the  service  of  man,  the 
Genevese  thinker  pictures  the  Christian  as  a  weak, 
colourless  creature  whose  gaze  is  ever  on  the  skies, 
who  neglects  the  present  and  grovels  to  every  tyrant 
and  can  therefore  never  help  in  the  formation  of  a  free 
community.  In  a  word,  he  brands  Christians  with 
the  defect  of  ''  other-worldliness,*'  and  uses  terms  of 
opprobrium  towards  them  which  the  gifted  lady  novelist 
who  coined  that  term  would  warmly  have  reprobated. 
In  truth,  this  last  chapter  of  the  Social  Contract 
teems  with  mistakes  and  inconsistencies.  In  one 
sentence  he  admits  the  wide  difference  between  the 
Christianity  of  the  Gospels  and  Roman  Catholicism  ; 
but  elsewhere  his  charges  seem  to  apply  solely  to  that 
communion;  as  when  he  accuses  those  absent-minded 
recluses  of  capturing  the  organization  of  the  Roman 
Empire  and  setting  up  ''  the  most  violent  despotism  in 
the  world."  Apparently  he  felt  no  sense  of  incongruity 
in  bringing  this  charge  of  unworldliness  against  the 
system  which  at  any  rate  counted  the  greatest  number 
of  adherents  of  Christianity,  and  whose  defects  sprang 
mainly  from  the  effort  to  dominate  and  absorb  the 
civil  power.  His  few  casual  references  to  Protestants 
also  betray  astonishing  ignorance.  He  seems  not  to 
have  heard  of  the  Dutch  "  Beggars,"  of  Cromwell's 
Ironsides,  still  less  of  the  founding  of  New  England  by 
the  Pilgrim  Fathers  on  the  basis  of  that  Christian 
compact  signed  in  the  cabin  of  the  Mayflower  which 
provided  a  solid  basis  for  a  stable  and  beneficent  polity. 
He  names  Cromwell  only  to  class  him  with  Catiline 
as  an  ambitious  hypocrite  1 


THE   FRENCH   REVOLUTION  417 

It  would  scarcely  be  necessary  to  refer  to  this 
singular  tissue  of  falsehoods  and  blunders,  did  it  not 
figure  in  a  work  which  the  French  revolutionists 
accepted  as  the  new  evangel.  Deluded  by  the  falla- 
cious ease  of  his  descriptions,  and  inspired  by  the 
ardour  for  liberty  which  undoubtedly  fired  him,  their 
most  determined  leaders  made  it  their  chief  aim  after 
the  overthrow  of  the  French  monarchy  to  rear  the 
new  society  on  the  hues  of  the  Social  Contract.  This 
was  the  source  of  the  anti-religious  zeal  of  the  years 
1793-1794.  Rousseau*s  sketch  of  a  social  religion, 
which  every  one  must  profess,  explains  Robespierre's 
effort  during  his  brief  dictatorship  to  enforce  the 
worship  of  the  Supreme  Being,  if  need  be  by  the 
guillotine. 

Rousseau's  attitude  towards  Christianity  in  his 
'*  Savoyard  Vicar  "  is  far  more  favourable.  He  portrays 
that  gentle  idealist  as  adoring  the  Gospels  and  reverenc- 
ing Christ  as  more  than  human.  ''If  the  life  and 
death  of  Socrates  were  those  of  a  sage,  the  life  and 
death  of  Jesus  are  those  of  a  God.''  And  again — *'  I 
believe  all  religions  to  be  good  so  long  as  men  serve 
God  fittingly  in  them."  Before  the  Vicar  became  a 
reverent  theist,  he  had  celebrated  mass  with  levity  ; 
now  his  new  creed  of  love  to  God  and  love  to  man 
caused  him  to,  celebrate  it  with  reverence  as  became 
an  unfathomable  mystery.  Such  were  the  teachings 
of  this  charming  story  which  powerfully  affected  mul- 
titudes of  priests  and  laymen,  and  led  them  to  strive 
in  1789  for  the  christianizing  of  the  Chtirch.  It  is 
here  that  Rousseau's  influence  was  most  beneficent. 
The  fervour  of  ''The  Savoyard  Vicar"  was  an  effective 
answer  to  the  cold  dogmatism  of  the  philosophic 
atheists,  and  it  infused  zeal  and  energy  into  the  cures, 
who  thenceforth  strove,  not  only  for  the  righting  of 

c.c,  E  E 


4i8  CHRISTIANITY  AND 

their  own  grievous  wrongs,  but  also  for  the  uplifting 
of  the  poor  and  oppressed  around  them.  Sentiment 
played  a  perilously  large  part  in  the  course  of  the 
French  Revolution  ;  but  its  best  expression  was  in 
the  widely  felt  desire  to  redress  the  glaring  inequalities 
of  French  social  life.  It  was  this  desire  (largely,  but 
by  no  means  solely,  prompted  by  Christian  motives) 
which  welled  forth  in  the  ^a  Ira  song  of  1790 — a  song 
not  to  be  confused  with  the  ferocious  Ca  Ira  of  the 
Terror : — 

Le  peuple  en  ce  jour  sans  cesse  r^pete 

Ah  !     ^a  ira  !     Qa  ira  !     Qa  ira  ! 
Suivant  les  maximes  de  I'Evangile 

(Ah  !  Qa  ira  !     Qa  ira  !     Q^  ira) 
Du  l^gislateur  tout  s'accomplira, 
Celui  qui  s'eleve  on  I'abaissera, 
"  Et  qui  s'abaisse,  on  I'elevera." 

We  have  looked  ahead  in  order  to  catch  a  glimpse 
of  some  of  the  results  of  Rousseau's  teachings  so  far 
as  they  concern  us  here.  But  we  must  now  retrace 
our  steps  in  order  to  notice  the  causes  of  the  helpless 
collapse  of  organized  Christianity  in  France.  It  re- 
sulted not  merely  from  the  ardour  of  the  attacks  of 
Voltaire,  Rousseau,  and  the  ''  Encyclopaedists,"  but 
also  from  the  utter  weakness  of  the  defenders. 

The  triumph  of  Roman  Catholicism  in  France 
seemed  to  be  complete  in  the  year  1685,  when  Louis 
XIV  revoked  the  Edict  of  Nantes  and  sought  to  compel 
the  conversion  of  all  Protestants  within  his  kingdom. 
It  is  estimated  that  about  a  quarter  of  a  million  of  the 
best  citizens  of  France  then  fled  from  her  borders. 
Besides  ''  dragonnading ''  the  remainder,  Louis  ad- 
mitted the  control  of  the  Pope  over  the  discipline  and 
clergy  of  the  Church  of  France  to  an  extent  never 
known  before.     The  spirit  of  inquiry  was  checked  by 


THE  FRENCH   REVOLUTION  419 

the  Papal  Bull,  *' Unigenitus '*  (1713),  which  secured 
the  triumph  of  the  Jesuits  over  the  Jansenists,  the 
more  philosophic  party  in  the  Church  ;  and  there- 
after the  clergy  sank  into  a  state  of  mental  torpor.  The 
wealth  of  the  Church  increased,  until,  at  the  beginning 
of  the  Revolution,  it  amounted,  according  to  an  official 
estimate,  to  four  milHards  of  francs  (£160,000,000). 
Its  lands,  comprising  about  one-fifth  of  all  France, 
produced  a  yearly  income  of  about  ;f 4,000, 000.  The 
annual  value  of  its  tithes  has  been  computed  by  M. 
Debidour  at  80,000,000  or  90,000,000  francs  (^^3, 200,000 
or  £3,600,000).^  By  ancient  custom  these  revenues 
were  almost  entirely  exempt  from  taxation  by  the 
State. 

This  vast  wealth  would  not  have  been  the  object 
of  envy,  had  its  proceeds  been  fairly  distributed  ;  but 
the  curse  of  favnnritism  had  eaten  deep  into  the  life 
of  the  Church.  The  richest  gifts  were  apportioned  to 
the  scions  of  nobles  ;  and  some  were  kept,  whenever 
possible,  in  the  hands  of  one  family — the  case  of  the 
de  Rohans  at  Strasburg  being  notorious.  That  see 
had  long  descended  from  the  bishop  to  his  nephew  ; 
and  there  thus  grew  up  an  establishment  which  would 
have  moved  the  wonder  of  the  early  Christians.  The 
Bishop  of  Strasburg  resided  in  his  episcopal  palace  at 
Saveme  with  the  pomp  of  a  sovereign  prince.  He 
could  entertain  two  hundred  guests  as  well  as  their 
servants.  The  meals  were  long  and  luxurious,  dishes 
of  solid  silver  adding  splendour  to  the  repast.  ^  The 
Archbishop  of  Narbonne  had  an  income  of  ;f 40,000  a 
year.  The  recently  published  Memoirs  of  the  Com- 
tesse  de  Boigne  show  the  manner  of  his  life.  A  fort- 
night spent  at  Narbonne  in  alternate  years  sufficed 

^  Debidour,  L'j£glise  et  I'j^tat   en  France    (1789-1870),  p.  21. 
2  Taine,  Ancien  Regime,  i,  pp.  187-8. 


420  CHRISTIANITY  AND 

for  the  discharge  of  his  archiepiscopal  duties  ;  and  for 
six  weeks  every  year  he  presided  over  the  provincial 
Estates  at  MontpeUier.  He  passed  the  rest  of  his  time 
at  his  country  estate  amidst  society  remarkable,  even 
in  the  reign  of  Louis  XV,  for  its  high  living  and  loose  , 
thinking.  The  mother  of  the  countess  was  once  warned 
by  a  grand  vicaire  not  to  show  her  conjugal  affection  ; 
**  it  is  the  one  kind  of  love  which  is  not  tolerated  here/' 
At  the  hunt,  the  Archbishop  was  noted  for  the  vigour 
of  his  language.  When  the  exemplary  Bishop  of 
MontpeUier  was  expected  to  be  present,  his  host  would 
say  to  the  company,  ''  By  the  way,  gentlemen,  no 
swearing  to-day  "  ;  but  he  was  the  first  to  fling  all 
restraint  to  the  winds. 

Scandals  like  these  were  exceptional ;  but  they 
were  noised  abroad  through  France,  and  gave  point  to 
the  complaints  as  to  the  wealth  and  insolence  of  the 
higher  clergy.  It  was  well  known  that  the  ii6  bishops 
of  the  Church  of  France  received  stipends  which 
averaged  from  £7,000  to  ;£io,ooo  a  year  apiece  ;  and 
in  many  cases  this  sum  was  largely  increased  by  plural- 
ities and  sinecures.  Meanwhile,  at  the  other  end  of 
the  scale,  many  of  the  parish  priests  were  in  a  miserable 
condition.     Goldsmith's  vicar. 

"  passing  rich  on  forty  pounds  a  year," 

would  have  been  envied  by  very  many  French  parish 
priests  [cur is),  many  of  whom  received  barely  half 
and  some  few  only  a  quarter  of  that  sum — generally  in 
the  shape  of  tithes  which  they  had  to  extract  from 
peasants  as  poor  as  themselves.  Injustice  often 
sharpened  the  edge  of  poverty.  These  miserable 
stipends  were  sometimes  paid  by  vicars  and  ahhis 
commendataires,  who  never  visited  the  parishes  which 
they  farmed  out  at  this  beggarly  rate  to  the  real 


THE   FRENCH  REVOLUTION  421 

workers.  The  evils  of  absenteeism,  which  had  eaten 
the  heart  out  of  FeudaHsm,  bade  fair  to  strangle 
religion  in  many  parts  of  France. 

What  wonder,  then,  that  the  parish  priests  be- 
came ardent  reformers.  Themselves  the  victims  of 
injustice  in  the  Church,  they  were  in  close  contact 
with  those  who  were  borne  to  the  ground  by  the  burden 
of  unjust  taxes,  the  exactions  of  absentee  landlords, 
and  all  the  apparatus  of  a  moribund  Feudalism. 

It  was  the  pamphlet  of  a  priest,  the  Abbe  Sieyes, 
which  gave  point  to  the  demands  of  the  people  for 
full  representation  in  the  forthcoming  States  General 
of  France  (May  1789).  He  opened  his  brochure  with 
the  incisive  questions  and  answers  :  *'  What  is  the 
Third  Estate  [Commons]  ? — Everything.'*  "  What 
has  it  been  hitherto  ? — Nothing."  ''  What  does  it 
intend  to  be  ? — Something."  Among  other  pamphlets 
issued  by  priests  we  may  notice  that  by  the  bold  Abbe 
Gregoire,  *'  Letters  to  the  Cures,"  which  helped  to 
organize  their  opposition  to  the  privileged  hierarchy 
and  to  send  up  a  majority  of  reforming  deputies  to  the 
Estate  of  the  Clergy  ;  and  these,  joining  the  Commons 
of  France  in  the  first  month  of  the  Revolution,  gave 
to  that  movement  an  impact  which  was  resistless. 

That  suggestive  thinker,  de  Tocqueville,  has  pointed 
out  that  in  the  Revolution  all  parts  of  the  old  fabric 
of  government  were  subjected  to  simultaneous  assaults 
which  nowhere  could  be  withstood.  An  outworn 
Feudalism  was  attacked  by  agrarian  reformers  ;  the 
absurdities  and  iniquities  of  taxation  were  denounced 
by  the  unprivileged  classes ;  the  absolute  monarchy 
was  assailed  by  all  who  wished  to  see  reforms  carried 
by  the  nation  itself ;  while  the  Church,  the  chief  sup- 
port of  the  throne,  had  to  bear  the  blows  of  many  of 
her  own  sons  and  of  thinkers  outside  who  saw  in  her 


42*2  CHRISTIANITY  AND 

the  personification  of  superstition  and  intolerance. 
In  its  hour  of  need  the  Church  of  France  had  virtually 
no  defenders.  Obscurantism  had  done  its  deadening 
work.  Learning  had  left  her  cloisters,  and  was  now 
enrolled  in  the  service  of  her  critics.  A  retort  more 
effective  than  clerical  casuistry  was  the  gag  ;  but  the 
wit  of  Voltaire  and  the  persistent  ingenuity  of  Diderot 
and  d'Alembert  triumphed  over  repression,  with  the 
result  that  the  courtiers  and  many  of  the  higher  clergy 
were  fain  to  join  in  the  laugh  at  their  own  expense. 

Thus,  both  in  a  moral  and  intellectual  sense  the 
Church  of  France  was  a  bankrupt  institution.  It 
might  have  been  reformed  betimes  had  its  chiefs  shown 
enough  of  energy,  initiative,  and  self-sacrificing  zeal ; 
but  the  lack  of  these  qualities  (strangely  paralleled 
by  the  conduct  of  Louis  XVI  and  his  Ministers  in  May- 
June  1789)  precipitated  the  crisis  :  so  that  the  full 
fury  of  the  revolutionary  storm  burst  on  an  edifice 
quite  unprepared  to  withstand  it.  More  than  half  of 
the  deputies  of  the  Clergy  joined  the  Third  Estate  as 
soon  as  it  took  the  defiant  step  of  declaring  itself  to 
be  The  National  Assembly  of  France  (June  17,  1789). 
The  adhesion  of  the  clerical  reformers  was  one  of  the 
decisive  events  that  determined  the  triumph  of  demo- 
cracy over  the  wavering  but  in  the  main  reactionary 
tendencies  of  the  King  and  Court. 

The  cahiers,  or  instructions  for  the  guidance  of  the 
deputies  of  the  clergy,  show  the  strength  of  the  reform 
movement  that  was  sweeping  through  the  Church. 
Nearly  all  the  cahiers  insisted  on  drastic  [changes 
which  would  make  France  a  limited  monarchy,  with 
Ministers  responsible  to  the  States  General,  taxes 
voted  solely  by  that  body,  liberty  of  the  individual, 
together  with  admissibility  to  all  offices  in  the  State, 
and   the   abolition    of   feudal   and   other   abuses.     A 


THE   FRENCH   REVOLUTION  423 

majority  of  the  clerical  deputies  also  decided  to  abro- 
gate the  odious  privilege  by  which  the  funds  of  the 
Clergy  were  almost  entirely  exempt  from  taxation. 
In  vain  did  the  higher  ecclesiastics  struggle  against 
the  new  passion  for  freedom  and  equality.  They 
were  condemned  by  their  own  past,  and  sank  help- 
lessly into  the  stream  which  was  to  bear  reactionaries 
and  reformers  to  unimaginable  lengths. 

For  the  present  the  attitude  of  the  populace,  even 
at  Paris,  was  by  no  means  anti-Christian.  After  the 
capture  of  the  Bastille  (July  14,  1789)  the  Parisians 
confided  the  Revolution  to  the  guarding  care  of  the 
patron  saint  of  the  capital,  Ste.  Genevieve,  and  marched 
with  votive  and  thankofferings  to  her  shrine.  But 
the  Church  as  an  institution  was  soon  to  feel  the  force 
of  the  new  levelling  tide.  Almost  the  first  destructive 
work  of  the  National  Assembly  was  the  abolition  of 
tithes  in  an  ill-considered  decree  hastily  passed  during 
the  memorable  sitting  of  August  4,  1789.  On  that 
same  occasion  (well  called  ''  the  St.  Bartholomew  of 
privileges  ")  two  cures  proposed  the  strengthening  of 
the  law  against  plurality  of  benefices  in  the  Church. 
Gregoire,  whose  inflexible  firmness  and  love  of  justice 
made  him  the  leader  of  the  cures,  proposed  the  abolition 
of  annates,  a  revenue  received  by  the  Pope  from 
vacant  benefices.  Other  clerical  privileges,  local  and 
personal,  were  sacrificed  by  their  holders  amidst  scenes 
of  great  enthusiasm.  On  the  motion  of  the  Archbishop 
of  Paris  the  sitting  ended  with  the  chanting  of  the 
Te  Deum  in  the  royal  chapel  at  Versailles.  Despite 
many  faults  of  detail,  the  legislation  of  that  memorable 
night  deserves  a  tribute  of  praise  for  its  generosity  and 
thoroughness.  The  decrees  were  hastily  worded,  and 
that  relating  to  tithes  pressed  unfairly  on  the  cures  ; 
but  in  the  main  the  enactments  of  August  4  have 


424  CHRISTIANITY  AND 

pointed  the  way  in  which  the  Democratic  Church  of 
the  future  must  work.  Unfortunately  they  came  too 
late.  France,  then  in  the  throes  of  the  first  Jacquerie, 
looked  on  the  sacrifices  offered  by  nobles  and  clergy 
as  the  jettison  of  superfluous  cargo  in  order  to  save  the 
sinking  ship  of  class  privilege.  Therefore,  legislation 
which  would  perhaps  have  saved  the  Church  had  it 
proceeded  in  the  ordinary  way  from  her  own  Courts 
(as  Talleyrand  had  desired  it  should),  merely  whetted 
the  appetite  of  her  enemies. 

As  summer  waned  to  autumn,  the  Assembly  threw 
itself  with  GalHc  ardour  into  the  somewhat  profitless 
task  of  framing  a  declaration  of  ''  The  Rights  of  Man.'* 
That  which  related  to  rehgious  liberty  claims  a  passing 
notice.  It  was  with  the  utmost  reluctance  that  the 
clerics  of  the  Assembly  admitted  the  idea  of  freedom 
of  worship.  Since  the  year  1787  Protestants  had 
been  tolerated,  a  concession  due  to  the  growing  en- 
lightenment of  the  times  and  the  kindliness  of  Louis 
XVI.  But  freedom  from  persecution  was  one  thing, 
and  liberty  of  worship  was  another.  Eagerly  did  the 
clergy  now  seek  to  maintain  the  ascendency  of  their 
Church  on  the  plea  that  it  was  a  guarantee  of  order. 
Mirabeau — the  free-thinking,  free-living  noble  of  Pro- 
vence who  united  in  his  person  the  vices  of  the  old 
regime,  the  intelligence  of  the  Voltaireans  and  the 
magnetism  of  genius — thrilled  the  Assembly  by  pro- 
testing against  this  claim  of  dominance. 

"  They  speak  to  you  incessantly  of  a  dominant  religion  !  *  Domin- 
ant,' gentlemen  ?  I  do  not  understand  this  word,  and  I  need  it  to 
be  defined  to  me.  Is  it  an  oppressing  worship  that  is  meant  ?  Is 
it  the  worship  of  the  prince  ?  But  the  prince  has  not  the  right  to 
dominate  over  consciences.  Is  it  the  worship  of  the  greater  num- 
ber ?  But  worship  is  an  opinion.  Now  opinions  are  not  formed  by 
the  result  of  votes.      Your  thought  is  your  own — it  is  independent. 


THE   FRENCH   REVOLUTION  425 

Nothing  ought  to  dominate  over  justice ;  nothing  is  dominant 
except  individual  right." 

There  spoke  the  most  inspiring  thinker  and  the  greatest 
political  genius  of  the  early  part  of  the  Revolution. 
His  words  bear  the  stamp  of  the  Reformation.  Pro- 
testant he  was  not;  he  had  drunk  of  the  spirit  of 
liberty  at  the  fountain  of  Voltaire,  but  the  plea  just 
quoted  contains  the  essence  of  Protestantism. 

An  able  champion  of  the  long-persecuted  Huguenots 
stood  forth  in  the  Assembly  and  preluded  his  speech 
by  the  words,  "  I  am  the  representative  of  a  great 
people."  It  was  Rabaud-St.  Etienne,  eloquent  son 
of  the  long-persecuted  pastor  of  Nimes.  Coming  from 
that  centre  of  religious  freedom,  where  the  light  of 
the  Gospel  had  not  been  quenched  by  a  century  of 
oppression,  he  stood  forth  to  plead,  not  only  for  his  co- 
religionists, but  even  for  the  despised  Jews,  in  words 
whose  force  was  doubled  by  his  well-known  courage 
and  consistency. 

"  He  who  attacks  the  Uberty  of  others  deserves  to  live  in  slavery. 
A  worship  is  a  dogma ;  a  dogma  holds  to  opinion ;  opinion  to 
liberty.  Instructed  by  the  long  and  bloody  experience  of  the  past, 
it  is  time,  at  length,  to  break  down  the  barriers  which  separate  man 
from  man,  Frenchman  from  Frenchman." 

Nevertheless  the  force  of  tradition  and  the  instinct  of 
solidarity,  always  so  strong  among  the  Latin  peoples, 
carried  the  Assembly  only  half-way  along  the  road 
leading  to  religious  freedom.  This  clause  of  the 
Rights  of  Man  as  finally  passed,  ran  as  follows  :  *'  No 
one  ought  to  be  molested  for  his  opinions,  even  religious 
opinions,  provided  that  their  manifestation  does  not 
disturb  the  public  order  established  by  law.'* 

The  supremacy  of  the  Church  was,  alas,  to  be  over- 
thrown, not  in  the  sphere  of  reason,  but  on  the  lower 
levels  of  passion  and  mob  violence.     There  is  the  great 


426  CHRISTIANITY   AND 

misfortune  of  the  reforming  movement  of  1789.  Hun- 
ger, jealousy,  and  perhaps  the  intrigues  of  the  Duke 
of  Orleans,  stirred  up  the  Parisian  populace  to  the 
orgies  of  October  5,  6, which  led  to  the  overthrow  of  the 
Court  at  Versailles,  the  virtual  capture  of  the  King 
and  Queen  and  their  transference  to  Paris.  Five 
days  after  the  march  of  the  maenads,  which  Carlyle 
has  depicted  with  epic  grandeur,  there  began  the 
assault  on  the  prerogatives  of  the  Church,  which  ended 
the  time  of  fraternal  good-will,  and  heralded  the  dark 
days  of  hatred,  schism  and  civil  war.  It  was  while 
the  Assembly  still  sat  at  Versailles  in  expectation  of 
its  forthcoming  removal  to  Paris,  that  the  confiscation 
of  Church  property  was  proposed  by  that  enigmatical 
figure,  Talleyrand,  Bishop  of  Autun. 

The  eldest  son  of  the  noble  house  of  Talleyrand- 
Perigord,  he  had  been  disinherited  and  sent  into  the 
Church  owing  to  an  accident  in  early  life  which,  in  the 
eyes  of  his  parents,  unfitted  him  for  success  in  the 
army  or  at  Court.  His  subtle  mind  absorbed  so  much 
of  the  clerical  training  as  to  fit  him  for  a  life  of  diplo- 
macy and  intrigue  ;  the  rest  he  rejected  with  quiet 
scorn.  Yet  this  gay  young  Voltairean,  who  mounted 
so  lightly  up  the  ladder  of  preferment,  had  a  keen 
sense  of  what  was  due  to  the  spirit  of  the  age.  He 
had  vainly  sought  in  1782  to  press  forward  reforms  in 
the  Church  which  would  have  strengthened  the  Church 
and  abated  the  hostility  to  her.  Now,  when  the  storm 
had  burst,  and  bankruptcy  threatened  the  Common- 
wealth, he  improved  on  a  belated  offer  of  certain  clerics 
that  some  of  the  Church  lands  should  form  the  security 
for  an  urgently  needed  national  loan,  by  proposing 
(October  11)  that  the  landed  property  of  the  Church 
should  revert  to  the  State.  For  this  sweeping  pro- 
posal he  pleaded  with  great  skill,  urging  the  extreme 


THE   FRENCH   REVOLUTION  427 

needs  of  the  State,  the  wealth  of  the  Church,  its  all 
but  complete  exemption  from  taxation  for  a  long  term 
of  years,  above  all,  the  right  of  the  nation  to  control 
any  corporation  existing  within  it.  This  last  conten- 
tion could  be  supported  by  historical  proof.  The 
Kings  of  France  (as  of  England)  had  controlled  and 
suppressed  religious  bodies  and  orders  of  monks,  and 
Louis  XV  had  banished  the  Jesuits.  But  now,  for  the 
reasons  stated  above,  the  assault  was  more  determined. 
Hatred  of  the  Church,  jealousy  of  its  enormous  powers, 
zeal  for  Rousseau's  doctrine  of  the  absolute  supremacy 
of  the  will  of  the  nation,  all  told  against  the  clerical 
claims.  The  sacrifices  offered  by  the  more  generous 
clerics  were  not  regarded.  Democracy,  now  triumph- 
ant over  the  old  absolutism,  was  determined  to 
subject  to  its  will  the  chief  imperium  in  imperio,  the 
Church. 

The  defence,  though  not  strong  or  able,  was  pas- 
sionate. The  Abbe  Maury,  the  cleverest  of  the  clerical 
champions,  pleaded  against  the  policy  of  confiscation 
as  a  blow  to  the  Church  and  to  all  property  ;  he  re- 
butted the  Socialist  pleadings,  that  what  the  community 
had  once  conferred  it  could  at  will  recall,  and  he  pro- 
tested against  the  indignities  to  which  religion  would 
be  exposed.  A  new  turn  was  given  to  the  discussion 
two  days  later,  when  the  most  practical  statesman  of 
the  day,  Mirabeau,  moved,  first,  that  the  property  of 
the  Church  should  belong  to  the  nation  provided  that 
the  latter  supported  the  clergy  ;  second,  that  no  parish 
priest  should  receive  less  than  1,200  francs  (£48)  with 
lodging.  This  was  an  open  bid  for  the  support  of  the 
parish  priests  in  the  Assembly  ;  but,  to  do  them  justice, 
they  seem  to  have  been  little  influenced  by  it.  They 
had  for  the  most  part  taken  sides  on  this  question  ; 
and  some  of  them  continued  to  scout  the  proposal, 


428  CHRISTIANITY  AND 

even  though  it  promised  comfort  in  place  of  penury 
to  very  many  of  their  class.  On  the  other  hand,  most 
of  them  supported  the  motion,  chiefly,  it  would  seem, 
on  the  ground  of  the  harm  done  to  rehgion  by  the 
luxury  of  the  higher  clergy.  Thus  the  Abbe  Gouttes 
said  that  the  scandals  in  their  ranks  had  extended  to 
all  priests  the  contempt  due  to  some  individual  eccles- 
iastics. Others  again  boldly  supported  the  doctrine 
of  the  sovereignty  of  the  nation  over  all  corporate 
bodies — a  claim  pushed  to  its  logical  conclusion  by  the 
impetuous  young  Garat,  who  declared  that  the  State 
had  the  right,  if  need  be,  to  aboUsh  Christian  worship 
in  favour  of  a  more  *'  moral ''  religion. 

The  great  lawyer,  Thouret,  brought  the  debate 
back  to  practicality  by  insisting  that  the  property  of 
ancient  and  wealthy  corporations  must  rest  on  prin- 
ciples different  from  that  of  individuals,  for  corpora- 
tions existed  only  by  virtue  of  law  ;  and  what  law 
created  or  guaranteed,  could  be  reformed  or  trans- 
formed by  law.  Still  more  to  the  point  was  the  speech 
of  that  sage  counsellor,  Malouet,  who,  while  main- 
taining the  imprescriptible  rights  of  the  nation  over 
all  property,  claimed  that  the  National  Assembly  had 
no  mandate  to  deal  with  this  great  question,  and  that 
grievous  harm  would  befall  the  cause  of  liberty  if  it 
were  linked  with  a  spoliating  and  exasperating  edict. 
He  also  proposed  that  the  question  be  referred  to  a 
special  commission  to  report  on  the  steps  necessary  for 
reducing  the  property  of  the  Church  to  what  was 
needful  for  the  adequate  support  of  religious  worship 
and  the  relief  of  the  poor. 

Unfortunately  the  removal  of  the  Assembly  to 
Paris,  the  disorders  there,  and  the  passionate  opposi- 
tion of  the  higher  clergy  to  every  proposal  on  this 
question,  served  to  defeat  all  efforts  at  compromise. 


THE   FRENCH   REVOLUTION  429 

Finally,  after  long  wranglings  on  the  subject,  Mirabeau 
carried  his  proposals,  with  the  merely  verbal  change 
that  the  property  of  the  Church  was  "  at  the  disposal 
of  the  nation."  A  demonstration  of  the  mob  outside 
the  Hall  of  the  Assembly  (near  the  north  wing  of  the 
Tuilleries)  may  have  decided  some  waverers  to  vote 
with  the  popular  party  :  and  the  decree  was  carried 
by  568  votes  against  346.  More  than  200  members 
were  absent,  and  forty  did  not  vote  (November  2,  1789). 

It  is  impossible  in  this  essay  to  enter  into  the 
question  of  abstract  right  which  is  here  at  stake. ^ 
The  determining  factors  in  the  situation  were,  (i)  the 
great  wealth  and  undoubted  unpopularity  of  the 
Church  of  France  ;  (2)  the  urgent  needs  of  the  State  ; 
(3)  the  vogue  enjoyed  by  Rousseau's  doctrine  of  the 
sovereignty  of  the  general  will ;  (4)  the  utter  collapse 
of  the  old  regime,  amidst  the  ruins  of  which  the  re- 
formers turned  against  the  institution  which  was  most 
wealthy  and  powerless. 

The  results  of  their  action  were  incalculably  great. 
During  the  debates  the  clergy  once  more  offered  to 
guarantee  a  loan  that  would  meet  the  most  pressing 
needs  of  the  State  ;  and  the  scorn  with  which  this 
was  waved  aside  in  favour  of  confiscation  aroused  a 
widespread  feeUng  of  bitterness.  That  feeling  widened 
and  deepened  when  the  obligation  to  support  the 
clergy  was  renounced  by  the  later  revolutionary 
governments.     It  is  futile  to  seek  to  deny  that  that 

^  See  Fleury,  Institution  au  Droit  ecclesiastique ;  D.  Maillane, 
Histoire  apologHique  du  Comite  ecclesiastique  de  VAssemUee  nationale  ; 
Buchez  and  Roux,  Archives  Parlementaires ;  E.  de  Pressens^,  The 
Church  and  the  French  Revolution  (Eng.  trans.,  1869)  ;  W.  M.  Sloane, 
The  French  Revolution  and  Religious  Reform;  A.  Galton,  Church 
and  State  in  France  (London,  1907),  and  Religious  Reform  (New  York, 
1901). 


430  CHRISTIANITY  AND 

obligation  existed,  and  was  intended  to  be  binding  for 
all  time.  Mirabeau's  decree  bound  together  closely, 
and  not  merely  for  that  generation,  the  question  of 
confiscation  of  the  Church  lands  with  that  of  the 
support  of  the  clergy.  Indeed,  the  Jansenist,  Camus, 
protested  against  the  coupling  of  these  two  questions 
on  the  ground  that  the  award  of  State'pay  was  insulting 
to  the  Church.  One  can  therefore  picture  the  indig- 
nation which  prevailed  when,  in  the  year  1793,  even 
the  ''  constitutional  '*  priests  were  left  unsalaried. 

Finally  the  financiers  of  the  young  Commonwealth, 
acting  as  if  the  Church  lands  were  an  inexhaustible 
asset,  proceeded  (despite  the  warnings  of  Mirabeau) 
to  throw  on  the  market  issue  after  issue  of  paper  notes 
on  the  security  of  the  new  *'  Domaines  nationaux  ''  ; 
and  the  successive  falls  in  value  of  these  notes  brought 
about  an  unsettlement  of  prices  which  potently  con- 
tributed to  the  general  debacle  in  1 792-1 793. 

The  dissolution  of  the  monastic  orders  was  decided 
on  in  February  1790,  at  least  in  principle ;  but  the  exe- 
cution of  the  decree  was  deferred.  In  its  full  rigour 
it  was  not  carried  out  until  September  1792.  There 
is  little  question  that  these  Orders  had  outlived  their 
period  of  usefulness.  The  mendicant  friars  were 
notoriously  lazy  ;  many  monasteries  were  hotbeds  of 
vice,  and  the  zeal  of  the  monks  for  learning  and  edu- 
cation had  declined.  The  report  of  a  commission  of 
bishops  on  monasteries  in  1768  condemned  their  many 
abuses  ;  and  Louis  XV  consequently  abolished  very 
many  Houses.  The  nation  was  now  more  severe  than 
the  old  monarchy,  and  except  in  the  neighbourhood 
of  well  conducted  Houses  little  regret  was  felt  for  their 
abolition.  In  some  cases,  however,  especially  in  the 
south  and  west,  the  closing  of  the  monasteries  caused 
serious  rioting.       In   the  south  it   rekindled  the  old 


THE   FRENCH   REVOLUTION  431 

animosities  between  Catholics  and  Protestants  and  led 
to  civil  strifes. 

Far  more  significant  for  the  future  of  democracy 
was  the  decree  entitled  The  Civil  Constitution  of  the 
Clergy  (July  12,  1790).  In  one  sense  it  was  the  out- 
come of  Mirabeau's  decree  of  November  2,  1789, 
which  had  the  effect  of  making  the  clergy  the  salaried 
servants  of  the  State.  The  Church  being  subordinate 
to  the  civil  power,  a  logic-loving  people  might  be 
expected  to  regulate  Church  affairs.  This  was  what 
the  Assembly  attempted  to  do,  in  accordance  with 
the  proposals  of  its  Ecclesiastical  Committee.  In 
that  committee  of  thirty  there  were  ten  clerics,  and 
the  Gallican,  as  opposed  to  the  papal,  or  Roman, 
feeling  was  strong.  In  accordance  with  its  recom- 
mendations, the  Assembly  proceeded  to  draft  a  bill 
which'would  curb'^the  powers  of  the  Church.  Appealing 
from  the  decrees  of  the  Councils  of  the  Church  to  primi- 
tive customs,  they  sought  to  break  up  the  hierarchy, 
subject  the  Church  to  local  authorities  in  matters  of 
discipline,  and  sensibly  weaken  its  connexion  with 
the  Pope.  Their  aims  may  be  termed  ultra-Gallican, 
or  Jansenist ;  but  unquestionably  Rousseau's  theory 
of  the  absolute  sovereignty  of  the  nation  lay  at  the 
root  of  this  memorable  decree. 

Stated  briefly,  it  abolished  all  existing  boundaries 
of  bishoprics  and  reduced  them  to  conformity  with 
those  laid  down  in  the  new  Departmental  System. 
A  bishopric  was  merely  a  Department  considered 
ecclesiastically.  No  Frenchman,  cleric  or  layman, 
might  thenceforth  recognize  the  authority  of  bishops 
or  metropolitans  outside  France — a  clause  aimed 
against  papal  control.  Further,  bishops  and  priests 
were  thenceforth  to  be  elected  by  all  voters  in  their 
dioceses    or    parishes,    Protestants    and    Jews    being 


432  CHRISTIANITY   AND 

allowed  to  vote.  The  pay  of  the  clergy  was  also 
reduced ;  the  stipends  of  the  bishops  ranged  from 
£800  to  ;f48o.  Cures  were  to  receive  from  ;^25o  to  £48  ; 
they  were  obliged  to  reside  in  their  several  areas,  and 
were  under  the  surveillance  of  the  civil  authorities. 
Finally,  the  bishops,  when  elected,  were  forbidden  to 
apply  to  the  Pope  for  '*  canonical  investiture,"  but 
were  charged  merely  to  report  their  election  to  him 
as  the  visible  Head  of  the  Church.  This  clause,  it 
will  be  seen,  violated  the  principles  of  Apostolical 
Succession  and  of  Catholic  unity  which  had  been 
observed  since  the  time  of  the  Concordat  agreed  on  at 
Bologna  with  Leo  X.  At  once  two  parties  formed 
themselves  on  these  vital  issues.  On  the  one  side 
was  the  Jansenist  minority  in  the  Church,  backed 
up  by  all  the  non-Catholic  elements  of  the  nation  : 
on  the  other  were  the  Catholics  and  Ultramontanes 
who  pleaded  vehemently  against  the  schism  that  must 
result  in  the  Church  and  the  indignities  of  the  position 
into  which  her  bishops  and  priests  would  be  thrust. 
As  the  Bishop  of  Treguier  exclaimed,  with  Breton 
vigour,  ''  Religion  is  annihilated :  its  ministers  are 
reduced  to  the  sad  condition  of  clerks  appointed  by 
brigands.*' 

The  rigour  of  this  decree  is  to  be  deplored,  where 
it  trenched  on  the  domain  of  faith.  While  cutting  at 
the  root  of  the  abuses  of  the  old  clerical  system — its 
sinecures,  pluralities,  and  shameless  inequalities  of 
stipend — the  new  Act  crushed  a  venerable  organism 
into  a  new  mould,  degraded  its  priests  to  the  level  of 
nominees  of  discordant  majorities — a  thing  far  different 
from  that  of  election  by  the  faithful  in  the  primitive 
Church — and  severed  the  bishops,  and  through  them 
the  priests,  from  the  blessings  which  were  believed 
to  flow  from  the  successor  of   St,  Peter.     In  inter- 


THE   FRENCH   REVOLUTION  433 

fering  with  matters  of  dogma,  the  Revolution  entered 
into  an  ahen  sphere ;  and  when  early  in  1791  its 
devotees  sought  to  compel  all  the  members  of  the 
National  Assembly  to  take  the  civic  oath  (which 
implied  obedience  to  the  new  decree)  it  abandoned 
its  true  quest,  Liberty. 

The  mistake  was  fatal.  The  majority  of  the  clergy 
refused  the  oath,  declaring  that  conscience  forbade 
them  infringing  their  allegiance  to  the  See  of  St.  Peter. 
In  the  main  it  was  the  pliable,  who,  following  the  lead 
of  Talleyrand,  obeyed  the  behests  of  the  Assembly. 
The  recusants  or  "  orthodox,''  numbering  many  who 
had  hitherto  been  outwardly  careless,  carried  with 
them  the  majority  of  the  faithful,  except  in  the  case 
of  the  large  towns  ;  and  when,  later  on,  the  Assembly 
deposed  orthodox  bishops  and  priests,  armed  force 
was  often  needed  to  instal  their  ''  constitutional " 
successors.  These  generally  officiated  to  empty 
churches,  especially  in  the  country  districts,  while 
the  faithful  followed  the  orthodox  priests  into  woods 
and  wastes  in  order  to  receive  the  rites  of  the  Church 
free  from  all  taint  of  schism. 

And  yet,  while  we  condemn  the  meddlesomeness 
and  intolerance  of  the  reformers,  we  must  accuse  the 
Papacy  and  its  supporters  of  aggravating  the  crisis. 
A  Pope  wiser  than  Pius  VI  would  have  let  it  be  known 
exactly  where  the  Civil  Constitution  of  the  Clergy  was 
incompatible  with  the  discipline  of  his  Church.  Far 
from  that,  he  declaimed  against  the  Revolution  and 
all  its  dealings  with  the  Church.  As  early  as  March 
1790  he  had  declared  against  the  establishment  of 
religious  liberty,  the  abolition  of  clerical  privileges 
and  monastic  orders,  and  the  confiscation  of  Church 
property.  1     This  declaration  strengthened  the  efforts 

^  D^bidour,  op.  cit,  p.  86. 
C.c.  F  F 


434  CHRISTIANITY  AND 

of  the  reactionaries  in  France,  and  led  the  reformers 
to  take  steps  for  the  effective  muzzling  of  a  pronoimced 
enemy.  After  the  passing  of  the  above  named  Act 
the  Pope's  opposition  gradually  hardened  ;  his  re- 
proaches stiffened  the  attitude  of  Louis  XVI  towards 
the  Revolution  and  rendered  the  schism  between 
**  orthodox  "  and  ''  constitutional  '*  priests  irremedi- 
able. Thus  on  both  sides  there  were  faults.  If  the 
reformers  in  their  eagerness  went  beyond  the  limits 
within  which  the  civil  power  can  prudently  act  in 
the  spiritual  sphere,  yet  the  Roman  hierarchy  embit- 
tered the  strife.  Some  amount  of  friction  there  was 
certain  to  be  between  the  proud  and  wealthy  Church 
of  the  ancien  regime  and  the  levellers  who  accepted 
the  Social  Contract  of  Rousseau  as  their  gospel; 
but  the  events  recounted  above  precipitated  an  inter- 
necine conflict  which  with  brief  intervals  has  gone  on 
to  this  day,  and  has  involved  other  lands  besides 
France. 

The  situation  now  became  rapidly  worse.  Fan- 
aticism kindled  fanaticism.  The  old  feud  of  Catholics 
and  Protestants  flared  up  again  at  Nimes,  Montauban, 
and  in  the  dells  of  the  Cevennes  ;  la  Vendee,  the 
wooded  district  to  the  south  of  Brittany,  began 
to  mutter  against  the  godless  Assembly  at  Paris ; 
and  though  civil  war  did  not  burst  forth  there 
until  the  King  had  been  deposed  and  the  Republic 
haled  away  recruits,  its  seeds  were  sown  by  the  bale- 
ful decree  of  July  1790.  Further,  it  is  known  that 
the  King's  decision  to  flee  to  the  Austrians  was  formed 
early  in  1791  ;  his  conscience,  once  very  dull  in  matters 
of  religion,  was  awakened  by  the  attempts  to  coerce 
the  orthodox  priests  and  by  the  remonstrances  that 
came  from  Rome.  He  declared  that  he  had  rather 
rule  in  Metz  than  be  King  of  France  on  those  terms. 


THE   FRENCH   REVOLUTION  435 

Thus  on  all  sides  there  accumulated  proofs  of  the 
error  of  those  who  now  sought  to  requite  oppression 
by  oppression,  to  force  religion  into  their  new  political 
system,  and  in  the  name  of  the  sovereignty  of  the 
general  will,  to  fetter  conscience.  Other  causes,  of 
a  financial  and  political  nature,  concurred  to  foil 
the  hopes  of  the  men  of  1789.  But  the  importance 
of  the  topic  here  considered  has  been  recognized  by 
all  historians. 

It  is  needless  to  describe  the  sequel.  The  anti- 
religious  fury  of  Danton  and  Marat,  the  avowed 
atheism  of  Fouche  and  Hebert,  the  orgies  of  the 
Goddess  of  Reason,  the  overthrow  of  the  atheistical 
faction  by  the  deist  Robespierre  and  his  farcical  attempt 
to  instal  the  worship  of  the  Supreme  Being  by  a 
decree  of  the  Convention — all  this  bears  witness  to 
the  violence  of  the  reaction  against  the  old  creed  and 
discipline.  The  fervour  of  these  men  is  undoubted  ; 
but  it  soon  burnt  itself  out.  Then,  after  the  fall 
of  Robespierre  (July  1794),  there  came  a  time  of 
disillusionment  and  despair.  The  resolve  of  the  Jaco- 
bin minority  to  win  its  way  forcefully  to  the  social 
millennium  had  awakened  a  feeling  of  regret  for  the 
monarchy  and  the  Roman  Catholic  creed.  Reaction  set 
in.  It  was  checked  by  Bonaparte  and  those  acting  with 
him  in  1795  and  1797  ;  but  on  his  return  from  Egypt 
in  1799  everything  was  uncertain.  With  the  help  of  the 
army  and  malcontents  in  the  Government  he  gained 
control  of  affairs  (November  1799)  and  there  ensued 
the  period  of  the  Consulate  (1799-1804)  which  gave 
way  to  the  Napoleonic  Empire. 

It  soon  appeared  that  the  popular  General  would 
declare  against  the  Jacobins  (or  extreme  Republicans) 
iand  the  quasi-philosophic  sect  of  Theophilanthropists 
who  in  1797-1799  had  gained  a  following  in  the  chief 


436  CHRISTIANITY  AND 

towns.  Great,  however,  was  the  astonishment  when 
soon  after  the  Battle  of  Marengo,  he  opened  negotia- 
tions with  the  Pope  for  a  renewal  of  the  relations 
that  had  been  broken  off  since  the  year  1793.  Omit- 
ting all  notice  of  the  very  complex  negotiations  of 
the  years  1800-1802,  we  may  inquire  what  were  the 
motives  which  led  the  young  warrior  to  frame  his 
famous  Concordat,  or  treaty  with  the  Pope.  Firstly, 
he  was  the  son  of  a  pious  mother  and  was  reared 
among  the  superstitious  seafaring  folk  of  Corsica. 
Though  in  later  years  he  shared  the  free-thinking 
tendencies  of  his  father  and  of  the  French  Jacobins, 
yet  he  soon  shook  himself  free  from  his  passing  pas- 
sion for  Rousseau,  a  process  hastened  by  the  sight 
of  the  fortitude  with  which  French  orthodox  priests 
went  to  the  guillotine  or  suffered  the  long  pangs  of 
exile  for  their  faith.  Further,  it  was  clear  by  the  year 
1800  that  the  heart  of  France  yearned  after  the  old 
creed  and  cared  little  for  Theophilanthropy  or  even 
for  Protestantism.  In  fact  the  failure  of  Protestants 
at  that  time  to  gain  the  adhesion  of  Frenchmen  is 
one  of  the  puzzles  of  the  period.  The  main  question 
seemed  to  be  between  Atheism  and  Catholicism ;  and 
now  that  the  steel  of  the  Reign  of  Terror  had  shorn 
away  the  excrescences  from  the  Catholic  Church, 
she  stood  forth  more  attractive  as  a  victim  than  she 
had  been  in  the  days  of  wealth  and  pride. 

But  which  branch  of  the  Church  should  he  adopt  ? 
The  *'  constitutionals  "  were  installed  in  office  where- 
ever  religious  service  could  be  carried  on  ;  and,  though 
banned  by  the  Papacy,  they  had  by  this  time  gained 
the  allegiance  of  very  many  Frenchmen.  The  ''  Con- 
stitutional '*  Church  stood  for  French  nationality, 
the  institutions  of  the  Republic  and  independence  of 
thought.     Many  of  its  clergy  had  married,   thereby 


THE   FRENCH   REVOLUTION  437 

associating  themselves  with  the  Hfe  of  the  people. 
A  ruler  whose  aims  were  disinterested  and  purely 
patriotic  would  therefore  certainly  have  strengthened 
the  national  Church  and  rejected  all  thought  of  com- 
promise with  the  Papacy. 

Bonaparte's  aims  were  far  different.  He  saw 
that  the  constitutional  Church  would  never  be  recog- 
nized by  the  Papacy  and  by  other  Catholic  Powers. 
He  disliked  the  Liberalism  of  many  of  the  "  Consti- 
tutional ''  bishops,  led  by  that  champion  of  the  ideas 
of  1789,  Gregoire.  The  aims  of  the  First  Consul 
were  more  than  merely  French.  In  the  words  of  M. 
Aulard — ''  His  plan  was  to  dominate  men's  con- 
sciences through  the  Pope,  and  to  realize  through 
the  Papacy  his  imperial  dreams,  his  vision  of  univer- 
sal empire."  That  he  would  withdraw  the  Pope's 
support  from  the  Comtede  Provence  (''Louis XVIII  ") 
also  counted  for  something  ;  as  did  also  the  con- 
sideration that  orthodox  Brittany  and  la  Vendee 
would  never  be  pacified  until  Rome  and  the  orthodox 
clergy  discountenanced  revolt. 

Such  were  the  motives,  purely  political,  which 
led  to  the  so-called  restoration  of  religion  in  France. 
As  a  matter  of  fact  it  had  never  ceased  to  exist ;  for 
except  for  a  brief  period  in  the  Terror,  the  ''  Constitu- 
tional "  priests  and  Protestant  pastors  had  continued 
to  officiate,  though  often  under  grave  difficulties.  But 
the  religion  which  now  was  acknowledged  was  dis- 
tinctly Roman,  to  an  extent  never  known  in  the  days 
of  the  old  Galilean  Church. 

Briefly  stated,  the  Concordat  agreed  on  in  1802 
between  Bonaparte  and  the  new  Pope,  Pius  VII, 
was  as  follows  : — The  French  Government  now  recog- 
nized that  the  Roman  Catholic  faith  was  held  by  the 
great    majority    of    Frenchmen.     Liberty    of    public 


438  CHRISTIANITY  AND 

worship  was  accorded  to  the  Church.  The  number 
of  bishoprics  was  lessened.  All  existing  bishops  were 
required  to  resign  their  sees,  whereupon  the  First 
Consul  nominated  their  successors.  The  Church  gave 
up  all  claim  to  her  lands  confiscated  during  the  Revo- 
lution, as  also  to  the  collection  of  tithes.  But, 
while  surrendering  vast  wealth,  the  Church  ended 
the  schism  that  had  existed  since  1790,  secured  State 
recognition  (though  liberty  of  conscience  was  insisted 
on  by  Bonaparte)  and  bound  itself  more  closely  than 
ever  to  the  Roman  See. 

Disputes  soon  arose  as  to  the  appointment  of  the 
new  bishops,  especially  as  thirty-five  of  the  old  "ortho- 
dox "  bishops  refused  to  resign  and  formed  a  ''  wee 
kirk,*'  which  persisted  till  the  year  1893.  But  in 
the  main  Bonaparte  had  his  way.  During  the  critical 
years  of  his  career,  1 802-1 807,  he  gained  the  support 
of  the  clergy  in  France  and  of  the  Roman  Curia  in 
Europe.  As  Emperor  at  the  height  of  his  power, 
he  came  into  sharp  collision  with  the  Pope,  annexed 
Rome,  took  Pius  VII  prisoner,  had  him  brought  to 
Fontainebleau,  and  talked  of  making  Paris  the  centre 
of  Christendom.  Yet,  though  he  inveighed  against 
the  Papacy,  and  called  the  Concordat  a  blunder,  he 
knew  full  well  that  but  for  it  he  could  scarcely  have 
become  Emperor.  It  was  the  power  of  the  disciplined 
clergy  which  helped  to  bring  France  submissively 
to  his  feet. 

Thus,  in  its  struggle  with  the  Revolution,  the 
Church  of  Rome  seemed  to  have  conquered.  She 
came  to  terms  with  a  ruler,  who,  like  her,  sought  to 
curb  and  suppress  the  principles  of  1789  ;  and,  at 
the  cost  of  great  material  sacrifices,  she  regained  some- 
thing like  her  old  position  in  France.  The  overthrow 
of  Napoleon  and  the  advent  of  Louis  XVIII  improved 


THE  FRENCH   REVOLUTION  439 

her  position.  Tithes  were  restored  to  her ;  and  in 
the  reign  of  Charles  X  (i 824-1 830)  the  Jesuits  became 
once  more  a  power  in  the  State.  It  was  by  their 
advice  and  intrigues,  and  those  of  a  secret  religious 
body  called  the  Congregation,  that  that  obstinate  ruler 
was  led  to  the  reactionary  courses  which  ended  in 
the  July  Revolution  of  1830. 

Once  again,  during  the  Presidency  of  Prince  Louis 
Napoleon  in  1848-1852,  the  power  of  the  Church  in 
repressing  democracy  and  promoting  autocracy  was 
to  be  witnessed  ;  and  it  is  well-known  that  the  events 
of  1870  in  France  were  not  unconnected  with  the 
desperate  efforts  then  put  forth  at  Rome  by  the 
Ultramontanes  on  behalf  of  the  absolute  supremacy 
of  the  Papacy.  In  the  political  sphere  the  Jesuit 
intrigues  of  1870  suffered  an  ignominious  defeat ; 
but  the  dogma  of  papal  infalhbihty  bound  the  faith- 
ful more  than  ever  to  the  chair  of  St.  Peter.  The 
following  years  witnessed  a  renewal  of  the  struggle 
between  the  civil  and  religious  power  in  many  parts 
of  the  Continent ;  and  the  persistent  campaign  waged 
by  French  Liberals  against  clericalism  shows  how 
deeply  the  study  of  their  history  has  convinced  them 
of  the  danger  of  the  papal  claims.  The  results  of  the 
first  French  Revolution  were  fatally  compromised 
when  Bonaparte  signed  his  Concordat  with  the  Pope  ; 
and  it  is  not  surprising  that  the  champions  of  the 
Third  Republic  have  annulled  that  reactionary  compact 
and  have  urged  on  the  separation  of  Church  and  State 
in  France.  Their  union  has  produced  constant  fric- 
tion ;  and  it  is  the  belief  of  many  earnest  Catholics 
that  their  Church   will  not  lose  by  the   separation. 

The  relations  of  religion  to  democracy  at  the  time 
of   the   French   Revolution   offer  a   curious   contrast 


440  CHRISTIANITY  AND 

to  those  which  are  noticeable  in  the  life  of  England 
at  the  same  period.  The  following  reasons  for  that 
contrast  may  be  suggested.  In  the  first  place  the 
National  Church  in  England  had  held  a  secure  place 
in  the  hearts  of  Englishmen  ever  since  the  time  of  the 
glorious  Revolution  of  1688 ;  and  though  the  eighteenth 
century  witnessed  a  decline  in  her  activity  and  an  alarm- 
ing increase  in  the  stipends  and  sinecures  enjoyed  by 
the  higher  clergy,  still  these  abuses  were  slight  com- 
pared with  those  of  the  Church  of  France.  Further, 
the  Wesleyan  revival  then  began  powerfully  to  influence 
the  Established  Church  for  good  ;  and  the  work  of 
many  devoted  preachers  brought  home  to  the  people 
a  vital  knowledge  of  evangelical  truth.  Further, 
the  names  of  Clarkson,  Wilberforce,  and  John  Howard 
will  remind  the  reader  of  the  close  connexion  between 
evangelical  religion  and  philanthropy  in  our  land. 
Thus,  whereas  in  France  the  philanthropic  move- 
ment was  mainly  the  work  of  Voltaire  and  the  philo- 
sophers, in  England  it  was  an  offshoot  of  reviving 
religious  zeal. 

It  is  also  worthy  of  note  that  the  new  impulse 
towards  democracy  which  marked  the  years  1770- 
1780  manifested  itself  in  ways  that  were  on  the  whole 
friendly  to  religion.  Apart  from  the  evanescent 
Wilkes  episode,  we  may  say  that  the  reform  move- 
ment is  traceable  to  three  sources  in  the  year  1776. 
That  year  witnessed  the  American  Declaration  of 
Independence,  which  in  many  ways  was  a  manifest- 
ation of  the  old  Puritan  spirit.  Then  also  there 
appeared  Adam  Smith's  Wealth  of  Nations,  which 
traced  out  the  path  of  economic  reform  soon  to  be 
trodden  by  Pitt ;  and  then  also  was  published  Major 
Cartwright's  pamphlet.  Take  Your  Choice,  which 
pointed  the  way  to  a  drastic  reform  of  Parliament  — 


THE   FRENCH   REVOLUTION  441 

a  question  that  was  to  occupy  the  attention  of  English 
Radicals  for  more  than  a  century.  Cartwright  founded 
his  plea  for  popular  government  on  a  religious  basis. 
''  The  principles  of  politics  (he  wrote)  are  the  prin- 
ciples of  reason,  moraUty  and  religion."  ''  Scripture 
is  the  ultimate  criterion  both  in  public  and  private 
conduct."  All  that  a  statesman  needs  is  "  a  know- 
ledge of  a  few  of  the  plain  maxims  of  the  law  of  nature, 
and  the  clearest  doctrines  of  Christianity."  ''  The 
title  to  liberty  is  the  immediate  gift  of  God  and  is 
not  derived  from  mouldy  parchments."  He  demanded 
that  the  constitution  of  our  land  should  be  made  as 
simple  as  possible  so  that  it  might  be  taught  to  chil- 
dren along  with  the  Lord's  Prayer  and  the  Ten  Com- 
mandments. He  further  asserted  that  the  right  to 
a  vote  was  a  God-given  right. 

Such  were  Cartwright' s  main  principles.  He  never 
entered  Parliament,  as  he  scorned  to  use  the  means 
then  used  for  the  gaining  of  votes  :  but  his  long  and 
strenuous  advocacy  of  reform  (he  lived  on  to  the  year 
1824)  gave  consistency  and  dignity  to  the  popular 
movement.  It  is  curious  to  notice  that  the  People's 
Charter  of  1838  differed  only  in  one  item  (that  of 
the  abolition  of  the  property  qualification  of  mem- 
bers) from  the  programme  drawn  up  by  Cartwright 
in  1776.  We  can  hardly  over-estimate  the  gain  to 
the  cause  of  constitutional  freedom  resulting  from 
the  practicality,  religious  tone,  and  in  a  sense  the 
conservatism  of  Cartwright's  scheme.  Instead  of  calling 
Britons  to  the  task  of  framing  society  anew  on  the 
illusory  basis  of  a  compact  in  which  every  one  was 
free  and  equal ;  instead  of  setting  up  that  dangerous 
abstraction,  ''  the  general  will,"  as  the  universal 
arbiter  or  dictator,  Cartwright  summoned  his  country- 
men to  a  task  which  was  attainable  on  the  well  worn 


442  CHRISTIANITY   AND 

lines  of  the  national  life.  His  teachings  were  for- 
gotten in  1 792-1 795  amidst  the  passions  excited  by 
the  French  Jacobins  ;  but  ultimately  the  clubs  founded 
by  Cartwright  and  his  coadjutors  carried  on  the  torch 
of  freedom  through  the  war-wasted  space  of  the 
Napoleonic  supremacy  and  handed  it  on  to  the  younger 
men  who,  not  long  after  Waterloo,  initiated  the  second 
and  more  successful  struggle  for  reform. 

The  influence  of  Tom  Paine  during  the  height  of 
the  French  Revolution  was  considerable  ;  and  many 
of  the  political  clubs  then  founded  were  imbued  with 
the  anti-Christian  spirit  then  prevalent  in  France. 
But  owing  partly  to  the  coercive  measures  adopted 
by  Pitt  (who  sternly  opposed  reform  in  those  times 
of  excitement)  and  still  more  to  the  disappointing 
results  of  the  French  Revolution,  the  mania  for  imitat- 
ing the  Jacobins  of  Paris  died  down.  After  1815, 
as  has  been  noted,  the  reform  agitation,  in  the  main, 
went  on  the  lines  laid  down  by  Cartwright  and  the 
earlier  Radicals. 

Once  again,  in  the  spring  of  1848,  imitation  of 
French  revolutionary  methods  led  English  Radicals 
on  to  dangerous  ground  ;  but  the  collapse  of  the 
great  Chartist  demonstration  on  Kennington  Com- 
mon once  more  showed  that  Englishmen  were  shy  of 
departing  from  constitutional  ways  of  urging  their 
demands.  After  the  failure  of  Physical  Force  Chartism 
Maurice  and  Kingsley  did  good  service  by  pointing 
to  the  many  self-help  agencies — Trade  Unions,  Co- 
operative Societies  and  Friendly  Societies — whereby 
workmen  could  better  their  position  and  prepare 
themselves  for  wider  political  privileges  in  the  future. 

Thus,  in  our  island  there  has  never  been  that 
divorce  between  religion  and  reforming  movements 
which  was  so  pronounced  in  pre-revolutionary  France. 


THE   FRENCH   REVOLUTION  443 

Our  political  problems  have  been  easier  than  those 
which  beset  that  land  in  the  years  1789,  1815,  1830 
and  1848  ;  but  it  is  highly  probable  that  Great  Britain 
owes  much  to  the  absence  of  a  dominant  and  luxurious 
hierarchy,  and  still  more  to  the  simplicity  of  organiza- 
tion and  the  insistence  on  the  essentials  of  Chrisf  s 
teaching  which  have  characterized  the  communions 
professing  the  Evangehcal  faith.  A  survey  of  the 
past  seems  to  warrant  the  belief  that  the  Church  of 
Christ,  so  long  as  she  carries  out  faithfully  the  spirit 
of  her  Founder,  need  not  fear  the  attacks  of  unbe- 
lievers, still  less  the  shocks  now  and  again  given  by 
advancing  democracy.  Christianity  has  lost  ground 
only  when  Christians  have  put  their  trust  in  institu- 
tions, wealth,  or  prestige,  and  have  lost  touch  with 
suffering  humanity.  But  the  Church  Universal  has 
recovered  that  ground  when,  either  by  the  warnings 
of  her  sons  or  the  attacks  of  her  enemies,  she  has  been 
brought  back  to  the  first  principles  of  her  faith.  Thus 
even  the  mistakes  of  Christian  organizations  in  the 
past  and  the  blunders  committed  by  the  assailants, 
which  are  alike  so  marked  and  so  appalling  in  their 
results,  seem  to  afford  ground  for  hope  that  the  nations 
of  to-day,  in  their  search  after  a  higher  state  of  social 
welfare,  will  win  their  way  nearer  to  the  heart  of 
Christ's  teaching. 

Certain  it  is  that  that  teaching  makes  powerfully 
for  the  principles  of  Liberty,  Equality  and  Fraternity. 
So  long  as  the  Early  Church  kept  to  the  spirit  of  the 
Gospel,  it  formed  a  genuine  democracy.  Only  when 
that  fraternal  communion  borrowed  from  the  organiza- 
tion of  the  Roman  Empire  did  it  gradually  crystallize 
into  an  oppressive  hierarchy.  Subsequently,  in  the 
ninth  and  tenth  centuries,  the  Church  was  crushed  into 
the  mould  of  Feudalism,  and,  later  still,  into  that  of  the 


444  CHRISTIANITY  AND  FRENCH  REVOLUTION 

Absolute  Monarchy.  As  has  been  shown  above,  it  Wcis 
against  these  aUen  and  intrusive  elements — these 
governmental  cuirasses  donned  for  protection  but  soon 
found  to  be  painfully  constrictive — that  the  new 
democratic  impulse  made  war,  whether  at  the  time  of 
Wycliffe  and  Huss,  or  at  that  of  the  Anabaptists,  or 
in  the  more  secular  movement  headed  by  Rousseau. 
The  best  minds  in  the  Church  of  France  in  1780-1790 
urgently  desired  drastic  reforms  ;  and  the  cures,  who 
did  the  real  work  of  the  Church,  almost  to  a  man  wel- 
comed the  Revolution  as  the  harbinger  of  better  days. 
At  first  the  democratic  attack  was  solely  against  the 
temporalities  and  the  organization  of  the  Church  ; 
and,  had  it  stopped  there  and  not  invaded  the  realm  of 
dogma,  the  results  would  have  been  wholly  for  good. 
By  attacking  the  consciences  of  the  faithful,  the  Revo- 
lutionists opened  up  long  vistas  of  strife,  persecution 
and  reaction.  But  it  cannot  be  too  clearly  understood 
that  in  this,  the  fiercest  and  most  baleful  struggle 
between  Christianity  and  democracy,  the  assault  was 
limited  at  first  solely  to  the  outworks  and  adjuncts  of 
the  Church  of  France.  There  it  won  a  notable  tri- 
umph, which  tended  to  clarify  the  life  of  that  overfed 
organism.  The  attack  failed  against  the  inner  citadel 
of  belief.  The  lesson  of  that  success  and  of  that  failure 
is  of  infinite  value  alike  to  the  Church  Universal  and 
to  Democracy.  For  it  shows  by  what  means  the  former 
may  become  the  potent  ally  of  the  latter ;  while 
political  reformers  ought  for  all  time  to  realize  the  all- 
important  truth,  that  their  power  ends  where  the 
domain  of  conscience  begins. 


XI 

The    Social    Influence    of   Christianity  as 
Illustrated  by  Modern  Foreign  Missions 

By  THE  Rev.  JAMES  S.  DENNIS,  D.D., 

Author  of  "  Christian  Missions  and  Social  Progress*' 


ARGUMENT. 

Introduction — Recognition  of  the  influence  of  the  Foreign  Missionary  Enter- 
prise in  promoting  Social  Betterment — ^The  Changed  Attitude  of  the 
Individual  Convert  to  his  Social  Environment — The  Timely  Ministry 
of  Missions  to  the  Needs  of  a  Community  in  the  process  of  transition — 
Missions  as  accelerated  Social  Evolution — A  new  Environment  of 
Transforming  Influences. 

1.  Changes  in   Personal  Character  which  accompany  Conversion,  and  their 

Social  Significance  in  Mission  Fields. 

2.  Reformed  Habits  in  the  Individual  and  their  Helpful  Influence  in  non- 

Christian  Society. 

3.  The  Reconstruction  of  Family  Life  and  its  Attendant  Blessings  to  Society. 

4.  Transformations  which  pertain  to  the  Larger  Sphere  of  Commercial  Life, 

and  affect  Long-Established  Social  Institutions  and  Customs. 

5.  The  Moulding  Potver  of  Missions  upon  National  Development. 

6.  The  Economic  and  Commercial  Value  of  Missions. 

7.  The  Social  Significance  of  Reformed  Standards  of  Religious  Faith  and 

Practice. 

Conclusion — ^The  outstanding  Need  of  the  World — Religion  and  Christianity — 
The  Dependence  of  Social  Phenomena  on  Religious  Influences. 


XI 
The    Social    Influence    of   Christianity    as 
Illustrated    by    Modern    Foreign 
Missions ' 

The  influence  of  the  foreign  missionary  enterprise  in 
promoting  social  betterment  is  now  claiming  glad 
recognition  from  the  Church.  It  may  surely  be 
counted,  as  is  true  of  every  phase  of  mission  success, 
one  of  the  happy  signs  of  divine  favour  to  the  modern 
Church,  yielding  fresh  evidence  of  the  presence  of 
power,  and  of  the  unfailing  adaptation  of  the  Gospel 
to  minister  in  helpfulness  to  all  the  ages,  and  to  all 
the  races  of  mankind.  This  manifest  uplift  of  the 
Gospel  among  alien  races  has  now  become  capable  of 
demonstration  in  both  its  evangelical  and  ethical 
aspects  to  an  extent  which  supports  and  reinforces 
our  faith  in  the  constructive  social  mission  of  Christi- 
anity both  at  home  and  abroad. 

The  individual  convert  to  Christ's  religion  in  mission 
fields  is  awakened  not  only  to  a  new  conception  of 
his  personal  relations  to  the  Deity,  but  becomes  con- 
scious of  a  changed  attitude  toward  his  social  environ- 
ment.    Duties  which  hitherto  hardly  appealed  to  him, 

^  The  writer  has  drawn  upon  his  larger  work,  Christian  Missions 
and  Social  Progress,  for  some  of  the  material  which  has  been  in- 
corporated in  the  subject  matter  of  the  present  essay. 

447 


448   SOCIAL  INFLUENCE  OF  CHRISTIANITY 

now  arrest  his  attention  ;  his  awakened  conscience 
responds  to  the  call  of  obligations  which  he  has  formerly 
regarded — if  indeed  he  has  been  at  all  sensitive  to  their 
appeal — with  profound  indifference  ;  habits  which 
have  never  been  called  in  question  soon  fall  under 
suspicion ;  traditional  customs  which  affect  the  wel- 
fare and  happiness  of  others,  or  have  a  depressing 
effect  upon  social  standards,  are  viewed  in  a  new  light, 
and  are  challenged  with  new  insight  and  courage, 
wherever  they  are  morally  open  to  objection.  The 
whole  environment  of  life,  with  its  code  of  social  ethics, 
and  its  conventional  ideals,  becomes  subject  to  scru- 
tiny, and  is  tested  by  principles  which  have  hitherto 
been  only  partially,  if  at  all,  operative  as  binding  upon 
the  conscience. 

A  similar,  though  somewhat  differentiated,  mani- 
festation of  the  social  power  of  missions  may  be  dis- 
covered in  their  timely  ministry  to  the  needs  of  a 
community  in  the  process  of  transition  from  a  lower 
to  a  higher  status.  This  is  illustrated  by  the  fact  that 
the  missionary  enterprise  as  now  conducted  is  an 
educational  force  of  stimulating  energy.  The  mission 
school,  and  numerous  higher  institutions  of  learning, 
work  a  quickening  intellectual  transformation,  and 
generate  new  mental  activities  which  banish  for  ever 
the  old  inertia  of  brooding  ignorance.  It  has  become 
already  an  essential  feature  of  the  missionary  pro- 
paganda that  the  call  of  the  awakened  mind  should 
receive  due  attention,  and  the  literary  output  of 
modern  missions  now  ministers  with  fine  discernment 
to  the  instruction  and  culture  of  the  mind  and  the 
heart.  Along  industrial  lines,  also,  much  has  been  done, 
in  combination  with  lessons  of  spiritual  inspiration 
and  moral  guidance.  A  large  philanthropic  purpose 
has  developed  into  noble  efforts  at  rescue  and  ministry 


IN   MODERN   FOREIGN   MISSIONS       449 

to  those  who  need  the  outstretched  hand  of  love  and 
skill  and  charitable  devotion.  This  benevolent  service 
of  missions  proves  itself  a  further  incitement  to  humane 
efforts  on  the  part  of  enlightened  native  communities. 
It  becomes  also  an  important  part  of  the  missionary 
programme  to  provide  through  its  educational  agencies, 
and  as  the  result  of  its  moral  training,  the  class  of  men 
whose  discernment  and  capacity  are  especially  needed 
in  times  of  social  and  national  transition.  It  will  be 
seen  that  an  entirely  new  outlook  is  given  to  life  in  its 
mutual  relationships,  and  that  fruitful  ideals  are  fur- 
nished, which  give  direction  and  incentive  to  social 
progress  in  formative  periods. 

Christian  missions  represent,  therefore,  what  may 
be  designated  in  unscientific  language  as  accelerated 
social  evolution,  or  evolution  under  the  pressure  of  an 
urgent  force  which  has  been  introduced  by  a  process 
of  involution.  They  grapple  at  close  quarters  with 
a  social  status  which,  in  the  light  of  moral  standards, 
may  be  regarded  as  in  a  measure  chaotic,  *'  without 
form,  and  void.''  They  have  to  contend  alone  at  first, 
and  perhaps  for  several  generations,  with  primitive 
conditions,  the  confused  result  of  the  age-long  struggles 
of  humanity.  The  spirit  of  order  and  moral  regenera- 
tion has  never  brooded  over  that  vast  social  abysm. 
It  has  never  touched  with  its  reconstructive  power 
the  elements  heaped  together  in  such  strange  confusion. 
Christian  missions  enter  this  socially  disorganized 
environment,  with  its  varying  aspects  of  degeneracy, 
ranging  from  the  higher  civilization  of  the  Orient, 
which  is  by  no  means  free  from  objectionable  features, 
to  the  savagery  of  barbarous  races,  and,  in  most  cases 
without  the  aid  of  any  legal  enactments,  engage  in  a 
moral  struggle  with  certain  old  traditions  and  imme- 
morial customs,  which  have  long  had  their  sway  as 
c.c.  G  G 


430   SOCIAL  INFLUENCE  OF  CHRISTIANITY 

regnant  forces  in  society.  They  deal  with  a  religious 
consciousness  hardly  as  yet  touched  by  the  spiritual 
teachings  of  Christ,  so  that  the  splendid  task  of  a 
matured  Christian  experience  as  represented  in  mis- 
sions is  to  take  by  the  hand  this  childhood  of  the  heart 
and  mind,  and,  by  the  aid  of  the  rich  and  effective 
resources  of  our  modern  civilization,  put  it  to  school 
— leading  it  by  the  shortest  path  into  the  largeness 
of  vision  and  the  ripeness  of  culture,  which  have  come 
to  us  all  too  slowly  and  painfully.  What  we  have 
sown  in  tears  backward  races  are  now  beginning  to 
reap  in  joy.  In  many  foreign  fields  missions  must 
face  conditions  which  are  so  complex,  so  subtle,  so 
elaborately  intertwined  with  the  structure  of  society, 
so  solidified  by  age,  and  so  impregnably  buttressed  by 
the  public  sentiment  of  the  people,  that  all  attempts 
at  change  or  modification  seem  hopeless,  and  yet  slowly 
and  surely  the  transformation  comes.  It  is  effected 
through  the  secret  and  majestic  power  of  moral  guid- 
ance and  social  transformation  which  seems  to  inhere 
in  that  Gospel  which  Christian  missions  teach. 

As  Christianity  advances  from  heart  to  heart  in 
this  and  other  lands,  it  extends  from  home  to  home, 
and  involves  almost  unconsciously  a  large  and  generous 
new  environment  of  influences  which  works  for  the 
reformation  and  gradual  discrediting  of  the  old  stolid 
wrongs  of  society.  It  produces  in  foreign  communities 
a  slow,  almost  unrecognized,  yet  steadily  aggressive 
change  in  public  opinion.  It  awakens  new  and  mili- 
tant questions  about  stagnant  evils.  It  disturbs  and 
proceeds  to  sift  out  and  disintegrate  objectionable 
customs.  It  stimulates  moral  aspirations,  and  quickens 
a  wistful  longing  for  a  higher  and  better  state  of 
society.  Christianity  has  been  building  better  than 
it  knew  in  establishing  its  missions  in  the  heart  of 


I 


:        IN   MODERN   FOREIGN   MISSIONS       451 

these  ancient  social  systems.  The  sociological  awaken- 
ing in  Christendom  is  not  more  impressive  than  the 
hitherto  almost  ^unnoticed  achievements  of  missions 
abroad  in  the  same  general  direction,  in  securing  the 
enfranchisement  of  human  rights,  the  introduction 
of  new  social  ideals,  and  the  overthrow  of  traditional 
evils. 

In  illustration  of  the  above  general  statements, 
attention  may  be  directed  more  particularly  to  the 
following   aspects   of   the  subject : 

1.  The  personal  character  of  Christian  converts, 
by  virtue  of  its  influence  and  example,  becomes  a 
ministry  which  contributes  to  the  welfare  andjmoral 
cleansing  of  society. 

2.  The  transformation  of  individual  habits  in 
Christian  communities  works  a  gradual  change  for 
the  better  in  the  larger  collective  life. 

3.  The  family  relationship  soon  responds  to  the 
influence  of  this  salutary  change  in  its  individual 
members,  and  the  whole  economy  of  domestic  living 
is  thus  affected. 

4.  The  larger  realm  of  communal  or  tribal  life 
is  also  permeated  by  forceful  moral  influences  which 
work  a  profound  change  in  its  spirit  and  practice. 
Social  institutions  and  customs  wider  in  their  scope, 
and  more  invincible  in  their  sway,  respond  in  their 
turn,  and  revolutionary  changes  come  about,  as  the 
result  of  the  more  or  less  aggressive  infusion  of  Christian 
principles. 

5.  The  national  development  is  in  time  affected, 
and  changes  which  may  be  classed  as  political  and 
judicial  in  character,  with  sometimes  an  international 
significance,  are  introduced  into  the  evolution  of  back- 
ward races. 

6.  Commercial  relationships  are  found  to  be  not 


452   SOCIAL   INFLUENCE  OF  CHRISTIANITY 

altogether  outside  the  sphere  of  missionary  influence, 
and  new  opportunities,  as  well  as  new  facilities  having 
a  manifest  social  import,  frequently  follow  the  advent 
of  missions. 

7.  The  evangelical  uplift  of  the  religious  life  in 
a  non-Christian  environment  is  generally  found  to  be 
of  incisive  social  significance,  and  produces  many  and 
great  changes  for  the  better  in  the  practical,  everyday 
routine  of  life. 

The  whole  missionary  propaganda  in  its  larger 
aspects  becomes  thus  an  individual,  and  eventually 
a  racial  preparation  for  service,  not  only  in  the  inter- 
ests of  the  evangelistic  expansion  of  the  Kingdom  of 
Christ,  but  for  the  purification  and  higher  welfare  of 
the  immediate  social  environment. 

A  more  detailed  consideration  of  these  various 
specific  statements,  and  the  presentation  of  a  few 
typical  illustrations,  drawn  from  actual  experience, 
will  reveal  more  clearly  the  practical  outcome  of  the 
social  evangel  among  backward  races. 

Changes  in  Personal  Character  which  accompany  Con- 
version, and  their  Social  Significance  in  Mission 
Fields. 

I.  It  is  the  special  function  of  the  Gospel  to  trans- 
form individual  lives,  but  a  group  of  transformed 
individuals  forms  at  once  the  nucleus  of  a  changed 
society.  One  man,  for  example,  becomes  temperate, 
moral,  honest,  truthful,  industrious,  and  exemplary 
in  an  all-round  sense  ;  if  then  he  is  multiplied  by  ten, 
or  a  hundred,  or  possibly  by  a  thousand,  we  have  a 
social  transformation  which  is  revolutionary  in  its 
power.  A  mighty  force,  working  perhaps  silently 
and  unobtrusively,  is  put  into  action  throughout 
society.     It  works  like  some  great  law  of  nature,  which 


IN   MODERN   FOREIGN   MISSIONS        453 

accomplishes  its  mission  without  creating  any  violent 
disturbance  in  its  environment.  A  spirit  hitherto 
unknown  begins  to  assert  itself,  and  to  commend 
things  that  are  lovely  and  of  good  report,  sending  out 
an  impalpable  influence,  which  seems  to  be  able  in 
some  mysterious  way  gradually  to  transform  into  its 
own  likeness  the  whole  social  system  in  which  it  moves. 

It  is  not  to  be  inferred  that  the  individual  character 
which  is  developed  in  a  non-Christian  atmosphere  is 
in  every  instance  alike  defiled,  or  lacking  in  those 
commendable  traits  which  command  respect  and 
admiration.  As  a  rule,  however,  the  character  which 
comes  to  its  maturity  out  of  touch  with  the  Christ 
life,  unconscious  of  the  sacrificial  love  revealed  in  the 
Cross,  and  separated  from  the  restraints  and  incite- 
ments of  Christian  morality,  is  always  in  some,  and 
often  in  many,  respects  tainted  and  marred.  In  its 
primitive  savagery  it  is  usually  dominated  by  degrading 
superstitions,  and  has  not  as  yet  been  touched  by  even 
the  initial  forces  of  those  moral  monitions  which  are 
from  above.  Something  new,  incisive,  and  radical, 
like  the  spiritual  energy  of  the  Gospel,  must  enter 
the  social  system,  and  work  with  a  transforming 
power — a  power  which  is  sufficient  to  arouse  ambition, 
to  quicken  discernment,  and  to  formulate  ideals — 
or  heathen  society  will  remain  for  ever  helpless,  and 
fixed  in  its  primitive  moral  trend,  with  possibly  a 
certain  veneering  of  spurious  civilization,  which  will 
only  serve  to  conceal  some  of  its  latent  tendencies. 

The  reconstruction  of  the  character  through  the 
illuminating  instructions  and  the  sacred  persuasions 
of  the  Gospel  is  indeed  the  first  task  of  missions,  and 
the  wealth  of  evidence  which  the  foreign  fields  yield 
to  illustrate  and  confirm  missionary  success  in  this 
particular  is  in  a  high  degree  effective  and  convincing. 


454   SOCIAL  INFLUENCE  OF  CHRISTIANITY 

There  are  shining  examples  of  men  and  women  in  high 
stations,  whose  personal  character  as  Christian  con- 
verts has  developed  into  a  social,  and  even  a  national, 
asset  of  wide  influence  and  high  value.  Khama,  the 
South  African  Chief,  with  his  temperance  principles 
and  moral  stability,  exercising  a  forceful  influence 
throughout  all  his  realm,  is  a  conspicuous  illustration. 
The  same  may  be  said  of  Daudi  Kasagama,  the  King 
of  Toro,  the  royal  evangelist,  who  has  sent  his  thanks 
to  the  Church  Missionary  Society  for  the  Gospel  which 
their  missionaries  have  brought  to  his  people,  and 
who  interests  himself  in  evangelistic  tours  throughout 
his  realm,  distributing  the  bread  of  life,  and  building 
churches.  In  the  same  section  of  Africa  is  Apolo 
Kagwa,  the  Christian  statesman  of  Uganda.  In  India 
we  find  such  representative  examples  as  Sir  Harnam 
Singh  and  his  excellent  wife,  devoted  to  the  spiritual 
and  social  welfare  of  the  large  environment  throughout 
which  their  influence  extends.  The  Pundita  Ramabai 
is  proving  herself  the  social  benefactor  of  distressed 
and  needy  multitudes  of  her  own  sex.  The  late  Kali 
Charan  Banurji  was  a  social  force,  as  well  as  an  exem- 
plar of  sane  and  wise  statesmanship,  and  the  late  Ken- 
kichi  Kataoka  of  Japan  may  be  described  in  the  same 
words.  These  are  but  types  of  many  *'  saints  in  Caesar's 
household,"  whose  social  sympathies  and  personal 
influence  claim  our  respect  and  admiration. 

There  are  multitudes,  we  may  safely  say  many 
thousands,  in  mission  fields,  who  are  serving  in  evangel- 
istic and  educational  circles  with  devotion  and  great 
usefulness,  whose  social  helpfulness  has  in  it  the  religious 
stimulus  and  the  moral  beauty  of  the  Gospel  itself. 
Every  mission  field  could  furnish  an  honour  roll  of 
such  names.  They  abound  in  India,  China,  and 
Japan ;    they  have  multiplied  also  in  other  fields. 


IN   MODERN   FOREIGN   MISSIONS       455 

Numbers  of  them  have  won  the  martyr's  crown  as  the 
reward  of  their  constancy  and  loyalty,  and  have  thus 
left  an  inspiring  memory  in  the  communities  which 
knew  them.  In  some  of  the  most  unUkely  regions  of 
the  earth  the  record  of  these  devoted  native  workers 
along  the  lines  of  Gospel  reformation  is  especially  noble 
and  inspiriting.  The  Ufe  work  of  Pao,  whose  service 
in  the  Loyalty  Islands  has  been  commemorated  by  a 
monument  erected  by  the  foreign  and  native  communi- 
ties of  Lifu,  where  he  laboured,  is  already  one  of  the 
classic  stories  of  mission  history.  The  South  Sea 
natives  who  have  co-operated  in  the  evangelism  of 
New  Guinea,  to  them  a  field  of  foreign  service,  of  peril, 
and  much  sacrifice,  have  exhibited  a  spirit  of  consecra- 
tion, and  accomplished  a  work  for  the  social  redemp- 
tion of  its  savage  people,  the  results  of  which  have 
brought  a  permanent  change  in  the  outlook  of  the 
entire  island.  Had  we  time  to  visit  the  scattered  isles 
of  the  Pacific,  we  should  find  whole  communities 
presided  over  spiritually  by  devoted  converts,  whose 
personal  influence  has  worked  mightily  for  the  rehgious 
and  social  uplift  of  those  who  a  generation  or  more 
ago  were  in  the  depths  of  savagery. 

We  cannot  dwell  longer  upon  this  special  aspect 
of  our  theme,  but  what  we  desire  particularly  to  note 
here  is  that  personal  character  of  the  quality  which 
missions  produce,  through  the  transforming  power  of 
Christianity,  is  a  social  asset,  the  value  of  which  cannot 
be  gainsaid.  Through  a  God-possessed  individuality 
larger  and  more  general  influences  may  be  expected. 
The  Gospel,  like  a  seed  planted  within,  grows  outward. 
It  does  not  touch  social  life  with  any  permanent  and 
saving  power,  except  by  way  of  secret  fructification 
in  the  soil  of  the  individual  heart.  A  regenerate  man 
becomes  a  new  and  living  force  in  unregenerate  society. 


456   SOCIAL  INFLUENCE  OF  CHRISTIANITY 

A  Christian  community,  even  though  small  and  obscure, 
is  a  renewed  section  or  moiety  of  society.  Both  are 
as  leaven  in  the  mass,  with  a  mysterious  capacity  for 
permeating  the  whole.  This  has  been  declared  by 
an  accomplished  writer  to  be  the  distinctive  mark  and 
method  of  Christ's  religion. 

Individual  character,  moreover,  is  the  point  where 
responsibility  secures  its  hold,  where  public  spirit 
may  be  effectively  cultivated,  where  what  may  be 
called  the  social  conscience  may  be  awakened.  The 
inspiration  of  the  individual  for  the  benefit  of  the  mass 
is  the  first  secret  of  social  progress,  just  as,  on  the 
other  hand,  the  demoralization  and  paralysis  of  the 
individual  work  in  the  end  the  ruin  of  society  as  a 
whole.  The  enlargement  of  the  intellectual  resources 
of  any  single  member  of  society,  and  the  cultivation 
of  his  mental  powers,  such  as  the  development  of  the 
faculties  of  discrimination,  judgment,  intellectual  per- 
ception, forethought,  discretion,  prudence,  facility  in 
adjusting  means  to  an  end,  all  add  to  his  value  as  a 
factor  in  social  life,  and  are  equivalent  to  a  substantial 
contribution  to  the  well-being  of  society.  The  economic 
regeneration  of  an  idle,  shiftless,  demoralized,  unpro- 
ductive, and  especially  of  a  destructive,  individuality, 
into  an  industrious,  productive,  and  peaceable  char- 
acter, is  equivalent  to  the  addition  of  so  much  live 
capital  to  the  working  force  of  the  community.  Thus 
the  awakening  in  a  man  of  a  new  capacity  for  the 
appreciation  of  moral  principles,  the  establishment 
within  him  of  a  new  basis  for  fidelity,  loyalty,  firmness, 
stability,  and  singleness  of  purpose,  in  harmony  with 
higher  spiritual  standards,  become  an  increment  accru- 
ing to  the  moral  forces  of  society,  which  has  in  it  the 
promise  and  potency  of  a  nobler  domestic,  social,  and 
civic  life.     Herein  is   the   making   of  better   homes, 


IN   MODERN   FOREIGN   MISSIONS        457 

purer  domestic  relations,  a  higher  and  finer  social 
temper,  a  sounder  and  truer  type  of  citizenship.  The 
refinement  wrought  in  rude  or  gross  natures  by  Christi- 
anity, the  moral  stamina  and  the  serious  purpose 
imparted  to  timid,  listless,  stolid,  or  self-centred  char- 
acters, add  an  important  contribution  to  social 
resources. 

"  Tis  in  the  advance  of  individual  minds 
That  the  slow  crowd  should  ground  their  expectations 
Eventually  to  follow." 

The  character  of  a  people  is,  after  all,  the  only  sure 
foundation  upon  which  any  substantial  hope  of  improve- 
ment can  be  based.  ReHgious  character  in  the  indivi- 
dual is  the  good  soil  out  of  which  alone  the  higher  social 
virtues  can  spring. 

Reformed  Habits  in  the  Individual,  and  their  Helpful 
Influence  in  non-Christian  Society. 

2.  We  are  familiar  in  our  own  environment  of 
Christendom  with  the  battle  waged  by  the  moral 
forces  of  Christianity  with  the  great  evils  of  society. 
The  same  struggle  is  well  known  in  mission  fields, 
where  Christian  efforts  at  reform  have  to  contend  with 
deeply  entrenched  habits,  in  an  atmosphere  of  indivi- 
dual degeneracy,  which  while  it  increases  the  difficulty 
of  success,  at  the  same  time  gives  additional  lustre  to 
the  victory.  Christian  converts  in  mission  fields  are 
thoroughly  instructed  as  to  the  duty  of  temperance, 
and  they  are  almost  without  exception  of  one  mind  on 
the  subject,  and,  with  possibly  rare  exceptions,  they 
are  everywhere  total  abstainers.  The  perilous  snare 
of  the  opium  pipe  appeals  to  them  in  vain,  as  also  the 
insidious  lure  of  gambling.  The  struggle  with  tempta- 
tions to  immorality  may  be  severe,  and  in  certain 
environments   sometimes   disappointing,    but    vice    is 


458   SOCIAL   INFLUENCE  OF  CHRISTIANITY 

never  condoned,  and  the  moral  standards  of  Christi- 
anity are  honoured,  and  usually  admirably  exemplified. 
In  many  mission  stations  temperance  societies,  anti- 
opium  leagues,  and  White  Ribbon  Associations  have 
been  formed,  while  reformed  gamblers  are  found  here 
and  there  on  the  Church  rolls.  The  drift  of  heathen 
despair  toward  suicide  is  checked ;  the  shiftless  and 
wasteful  idleness  which  is  characteristic  of  so  many 
savage  communities,  or  the  passion  for  war  and  plunder 
which  possesses  untamed  natures,  gives  way  under 
mission  discipline  and  culture  to  aspirations  after  the 
security  and  good  order  of  peaceful  relations,  and  the 
rewards  of  honest  toil.  The  native  African  has  learned 
the  very  alphabet  of  industry  and  frugality  from 
Christian  missions.  Such  institutions  as  that  of  the 
United  Free  Church  of  Scotland  at  Lovedale,  South 
Africa,  not  only  guide  young  men  and  young  women 
into  paths  of  spiritual  light,  but  transform  the  life 
that  now  is  into  a  happy  and  useful  career  by  teaching 
some  industrial  art  which  makes  them  of  value  to  the 
world,  and  gives  them  the  privileges  and  joys  of  self- 
supporting  service.  No  one  in  the  home  Churches 
can  realize,  and  the  missionaries  themselves  hardly 
appreciate,  the  immense  social  changes  in  the  direction 
of  orderly  and  useful  living  which  have  been  inaugurated 
in  hundreds  of  African  communities.  '*  The  kraal- 
going  missionary  has  made  the  kirk-going  people,*' 
is  the  quaint  epigram  which  describes  the  result  of 
the  early  efforts  of  the  United  Presbyterians  in  Kaff- 
raria.  This  is  not,  however,  the  whole  truth,  since 
that  same  missionary  has  transformed  the  warrior 
into  the  modern  ploughman,  and  put  useful  tools  into 
idle  hands.  Industrial  missions,  and  also  industrial 
features  in  the  curriculum  of  missionary  training,  are 
no  longer  an  experiment  in  many  African  fields .  Ploughs, 


IN   MODERN   FOREIGN   MISSIONS       459 

which,  in  the  dramatic  language  of  a  native  admirer, 
are  said  to  ''do  the  work  of  ten  wives,"  have  broken 
furrows  of  civilization  in  African  society.  Self-sup- 
porting industry  has  brought  a  new  consciousness  of 
self-respect. 

The  social  value  of  the  personal  virtues  needs  no 
elaborate  vindication.  Habits  of  duplicity,  untruth- 
fulness, and  dishonesty  form  a  social  incubus  which 
missions  have  happily  lifted  to  an  extent  which  may 
well  command  our  attention.  It  does  not  invalidate 
the  force  of  this  statement  to  find,  so  far  as  our  ability 
to  demonstrate  it  is  concerned,  that  it  is  less  convincing 
than  we  could  wish.  Christian  living  is  largely  influ- 
enced by  environment,  and  high-toned  character,  even 
under  the  culture  of  Christian  influences,  is  in  a  true 
sense  a  growth  rather  than  a  ready-made  product.  It 
is  surely  beyond  question  that  Christianity  once  hon- 
estly received  and  appropriated  by  the  spiritual  nature 
works  for  the  quickening  and  nourishing  of  those 
personal  virtues  which  the  Word  of  God  both  com- 
mends and  commands.  It  must  not  be  forgotten, 
however,  that  in  so  doing,  especially  in  mission  fields, 
the  Gospel  code  must  contend  with  a  combination  of 
dominant  heredity,  adverse  environment,  and  over- 
mastering temptation,  which  adds  immensely  to  the 
difficulty  of  moral  renovation.  It  requires  more  Christi- 
anity to  the  square  inch  of  personal  character — if  the 
expression  is  allowable — to  produce  a  given  amount 
of  moral  stamina  where  a  thoroughly  demoralized 
heathen  personality  is  to  be  made  over,  than  where  a 
naturally  high-toned  and  responsive  character  is  to 
be  brought  into  deeper  accord  with  a  moral  code 
already  perhaps  instinctively  revered,  and  in  large 
measure  observed. 

If  we  search  through  mission  fields  we  shall  find  new 


460   SOCIAL   INFLUENCE   OF  CHRISTIANITY 

standards  of  truthfulness  identified  with  Christian 
character,  and  this  is  true  also  as  regards  honest  dealing. 
The  following  statement  in  one  of  the  annual  reports 
of  a  prominent  mission  in  China  indicates  a  representa- 
tive aspect  of  Christian  influence  in  the  direction  of 
moral  reform  :  ''A  heathen  man  was  asked  whether 
he  saw  any  good  points  about  the  Christians.  '  Yes/ 
he  replied,  *  there  are  three  things  I  am  bound  to 
admire  :  (i)  there  is  no  need  to  watch  our  crops  around 
their  village  ;  (2)  they  neither  sow,  sell,  nor  swallow 
opium  ;  (3)  they  cause  little  trouble  in  paying  their 
taxes.*  *'  Here  is  rare  and  downright  honesty  toward 
their  neighbours  accredited  to  Chinese  Christians,  and, 
what  is  more  remarkable,  toward  their  government. 
There  is  much  unanimity  in  the  testimony  of  mission- 
aries as  to  the  sincerity  of  native  Christians,  and  their 
moral  steadfastness.  The  message  of  Christianity 
everywhere  in  mission  fields  includes  a  programme  of 
social  righteousness,  and  that  many  sinful  natures 
and  disorderly  lives  are  transformed  is  a  result  which 
those  best  acquainted  with  the  facts  will  unhesitatingly 
corroborate.  One  of  the  most  brilliant  moral  qualities 
that  can' pertain  to  a  man  in  Asiatic  countries,  giving 
him  a  distinction  as  rare  as  it  is  wonderful,  is  to  be 
known  as  absolutely  truthful  and  honest.  The  badge 
of  simple  truthfulness  is  by  general  consent  the  ''  Vic- 
toria Cross  ''  of  morals  in  the  Orient.  It  becomes  a 
social  boon  everywhere  to  be  able  to  trust  others,  to 
feel  confident  that  treachery,  duplicity,  and  deception 
need  not  be  feared,  but  rather  that  a  sense  of  honour, 
a  respect  for  obligation,  and  a  devotion  to  every  loyal 
claim,  are  assured. 

In  other  respects,  as  for  example  the  cultivation  of 
the  physical  virtues  of  cleanHness  and  neatness,  Christi- 
anity has  inaugurated  socially  valuable  changes  wher- 


IN   MODERN   FOREIGN   MISSIONS        461 

ever  it  has  entered.  It  is  almost  invariably  the  case 
that  converts  mend  their  ways  by  banishing  unclean- 
ness  both  from  their  persons  and  their  surroundings. 
There  is  hardly  a  mission  field  where  the  Christians 
cannot  at  once  be  distinguished  from  the  heathen  by 
the  attractiveness  and  wholesomeness  of  their  personal 
appearance.  There  seems  to  be  a  happy  magic  in 
Christianity  to  cleanse  both  within  and  without. 

The  Reconstruction  of  Family  Life  and  its  Attendant 
Blessings  to  Society. 

3.  The  story  of  transformed  homes,  of  elevated 
and  purified  family  life,  and  of  the  hallowing  of  all 
domestic  relationships,  is  one  of  the  most  precious 
chapters  in  missionary  history,  and,  we  may  add,  repre- 
sents also  one  of  the  most  helpful  influences  which  can 
be  consecrated  to  the  promotion  of  social  betterment. 
In  the  effort  to  hallow  and  purify  family  life  we  stir 
the  secret  yearnings  of  fatherhood  and  motherhood ; 
we  enter  the  precincts  of  the  home,  and  take  childhood 
by  the  hand  ;  we  restore  to  its  place  of  power  and  win- 
someness  in  the  domestic  circle  the  ministry  of  woman- 
hood ;  and  at  the  same  time  we  strike  at  some  of  the 
most  despicable  evils  and  desolating  wrongs  of  our 
fallen  world.  If  parental  training  can  be  made  loving, 
faithful,  conscientious,  and  helpful,  if  womanhood  can 
be  redeemed  and  crowned,  if  childhood  can  be  guided 
in  tenderness  and  wisdom,  if  the  home  can  be  made  a 
place  where  virtue  dwells,  and  moral  goodness  is  nour- 
ished, we  can  conceive  of  no  more  effective  combina- 
tion of  invigorating  influences  for  the  rehabilitation 
of  fallen  society. 

If  we  inquire  what  missions  have  done  to  regenerate 
the  family,  to  purify  its  moral  and  disciplinary  forces, 
and  to  make  it  a  nursery  of  refined  social  idealism,  we 


462    SOCIAL   INFLUENCE   OF  CHRISTIANITY 

discover  a  record  of  ennobling  influence  which  is  indis- 
putable. Woman,  as  the  central  figure  of  the  home, 
has  been  crowned  with  a  dignity  which  is  distinctively 
Christian,  and  in  the  home  life  of  Christian  communities 
has  been  delivered  from  the  humiliation  and  suffering 
incidental  to  those  great  historic  curses  of  Oriental 
society,  polygamy,  concubinage,  and  easy  divorce. 
Child  marriage  has  been  either  wholly  abolished,  or 
brought  within  more  reasonable  limitations,  while  the 
social  miseries  of  Oriental  widowhood  have  been 
greatly  mitigated.  Much  has  been  accomplished  to- 
ward the  release  of  woman  from  those  conditions  of 
enforced  seclusion  and  minimum  privilege  which 
traditional  custom  in  the  Orient  has  imposed  upon  her, 
and  all  this  has  been  effected  not,  let  it  be  noted,  with 
indiscreet  precipitancy,  but  with  wise  caution  and 
sobriety.  Family  training  and  discipline  have  been 
improved  and  chastened,  and  domestic  life  in  its 
practical,  everyday  aspects  has  been  made  more 
refined.  It  is  noticeable  that  a  spirit  of  tenderness 
has  been  cultivated  in  many  communities  toward  help- 
less children,  securing  their  protection,  and  guarantee- 
ing to  them  an  affectionate  guardianship,  saving  them, 
in  some  instances,  from  cruel  neglect,  or  heartless 
destruction,  in  places  where  no  organized  societies 
have  been  instituted  specially  to  watch  over  their 
welfare. 

The  education  of  woman  is  a  notable  aspect  of  mission 
influence.  The  missionary  school  for  girls  has  been  an 
innovation  which  was  at  first  received  with  amazement, 
as  well  as  with  a  certain  measure  of  amused  incredulity, 
throughout  the  Oriental  and  heathen  world.  The 
response  has  been  a  surprise,  and  has  become  a  gratify- 
ing social  benediction  to  Oriental  society,  being  now 
recognized  as  such  by  those  who  at  first  regarded  it 


IN   MODERN   FOREIGN   MISSIONS         463 

with  disfavour.  The  touch  of  educated  womanhood 
has  given  an  added  charm  and  value  to  the  home  life 
of  the  Orient,  and  has  stimulated  a  spirit  of  reform 
toward  all  that  concerns  the  status  of  woman  in 
Oriental  society.  The  attitude  of  the  Oriental  world 
outside  of  Christian  circles  has  been  wonderfully 
changed  in  its  temper  and  aspirations  concerning  the 
lot  of  woman  and  her  social  position  and  privileges. 
A  cultured  womanhood  in  India,  in  China,  in  Japan, 
and  elsewhere,  is  claiming  its  place  under  Christian 
auspices,  and  is  enriching  the  home  life  of  those  coun- 
tries, and  extending  its  influence  throughout  society, 
as  the  result  of  missionary  insistence  upon  the  rights 
and  privileges  which  properly  belong  to  womankind. 
The  traditional  evils  which  have  afflicted  the 
domestic  life  of  heathenism  have  winced  under  the 
quiet  rebuke  of  the  Christian  rule  of  morals.  A 
vigorous  reform  has  won  its  way  amid  the  domestic 
laxity  which  prevailed  even  in  some  of  the  most 
advanced  nations  of  the  Orient.  Christianity  has 
been  resolutely  unwilling  to  compromise  with  the 
darling  sins  of  the  Oriental  household,  and,  while 
governing  its  protest  by  tactful  and  wise  self-restraint, 
it  has  nevertheless  insisted  on  the  sacredness  of  family 
relationships,  and  on  the  inflexible  code  of  the  Word 
of  God  in  its  application  to  domestic  life.  There  are 
to-day  multitudes  of  homes  in  Asia  and  Africa,  and 
in  the  Islands  of  the  Sea,  where  sanctified  affection, 
conscientious  fidelity,  loving  discipline,  and  refined 
companionship,  trace  their  entrance  to  missionary 
influence. 

Transformations   which  pertain  to  the  Larger   Sphere 
of  Communal    Life,  and    affect    Long-Established 
Social  Institutions  and  Customs. 
4.  The  uplifting  influence  of  missions  is  not  only 


464   SOCIAL  INFLUENCE   OF  CHRISTIANITY 

domestic ;  it  is  tribal,  and  extends  to  the  communal 
]ife  of  the  people,  and  in  time  works  revolutionary 
changes  in  the  tone  and  trend  of  social  development. 
Radical  transformations  in  this  larger  realm  of  public 
life  and  traditional  custom  cannot  be  accomplished 
with  strident  haste  and  violent  aggressiveness,  but 
must  be  brought  about  slowly,  yet  no  less  surely,  after 
the  usual  manner  of  great  social  changes.  A  new 
spirit,  almost  imperceptibly  at  first,  manifests  itself 
in  society ;  public  opinion  changes ;  old  customs, 
time-honoured,  but  none  the  less  objectionable,  are 
modified  or  abandoned.  A  better  and  finer  code  of 
propriety  is  instituted ;  sweeter  ideals  gradually  win 
their  way ;  a  process  of  refinement  goes  on  in  sen- 
sitive souls  ;  more  gracious  desires,  higher  ambitions, 
and  nobler  aims,  gladden  and  dominate  the  spiritual 
natures  of  men  and  women.  The  higher  life  begins 
to  claim  the  attention  of  the  thoughtful ;  the  tribal 
heart  begins  to  be  agitated  with  aspirations  after 
improvement,  and  to  fix  its  desires  upon  the  goals  of 
culture.  Opinions  and  customs  which  are  in  them- 
selves worthy  are  conserved  and  accentuated ;  con- 
ditions and  indulgences  that  are  evil,  and  ought  to 
be  abandoned,  begin  to  wane,  and  to  feel  the  blight 
of  contempt  and  shame.  Evils  that  have  been  domi- 
nant for  centuries,  and  have  darkened  the  lives  of 
unknown  millions,  are,  by  common  consent,  put  under 
a  ban,  and  are  slowly  eradicated,  although  in  many 
instances  they  make  a  desperate  fight  for  life.  Less 
than  a  generation  ago  cruelty  reigned  in  Uganda, 
with  the  sanction  both  of  its  prevailing  religion  and 
of  immemorial  customs.  Human  victims  to  the  evil 
spirits  were  numbered  by  the  thousand  and  punish- 
ment by  mutilation  and  torture  seemed  to  be  the 
pastime  of  those  in  authority.     Bishop  Tucker  relates 


IN   MODERN   FOREIGN   MISSIONS       465 

that  at  the  death  of  Suna,  the  father  of  Mtesa,  more 
than  two  thousand  human  beings  were  slaughtered, 
in  accordance  with  a  ghastly  custom  of  unknown 
antiquity.  Christian  missions  entered  Uganda,  and 
when  the  death  summons  came  to  Mtesa  himself, 
not  a  single  human  life  was  sacrificed. 

The  pitiful  condition  of  the  low  caste  population 
of  India  claims  the  attention  and  enlists  the  ministry 
of  the  missionary,  and  a  new  phase  of  philanthropy 
and  humane  civilization  enters  into  Indian  history. 
It  is  attracting  the  notice  of  intelligent  and  thoughtful 
men  in  the  higher  castes,  who  frankly  acknowledge 
that  the  sympathetic  friend,  and  almost  the  only 
efficient  helper  of  the  depressed  classes  in  India  is  the 
missionary.  A  few  words  may  be  quoted  from  a 
recent  report  of  the  Travancore  Census,  issued  by 
order  of  the  Maharaja,  and  penned  by  the  Census 
Commissioner,  a  distinguished  Hindu  of  the  Brahman 
caste.  He  writes  :  "  But  for  these  missionaries  these 
humble  orders  of  Hindu  society  will  forever  remain 
unraised.  Their  material  condition,  I  dare  say,  will 
have  improved  with  the  increased  wages,  improved 
labour  market,  better  laws,  and  more  generous  treat- 
ment from  an  enlightened  Government  like  ours ; 
but  to  the  Christian  missionaries  belongs  the  credit 
of  having  gone  to  their  humble  homes,  and  awakened 
them  to  a  sense  of  a  better  earthly  existence.  TMs 
action  of  the  missionaries  was  not  a  mere  improve- 
ment upon  ancient  history,  a  kind  of  polishing  and 
refining  of  an  existing  model,  but  an  entirely  original 
idea,  conceived  and  carried  out  with  commendable 
zeal,  and  oftentimes  in  the  teeth  of  opposition  and 
persecution.  I  do  not  refer  to  the  emancipation  of 
the  slave,  or  the  amelioration  of  the  labourer's  con- 
dition ;    for  these  always  existed  more  or  less  in  our 

C.C,  H  H 


466   SOCIAL  INFLUENCE  OF  CHRISTIANITY 

past  humane  governments.  But  the  heroism  of  raising 
the  low  from  the  slough  of  degradation  and  debase- 
ment was  an  element  of  civilization  unknown  to  ancient 
India."  The  same  remarkable  change  is  found  as 
the  result  of  the  Dutch  Missions  in  Celebes,  where 
Bishop  Brent  discovered  a  splendid  object  lesson  in 
the  reformation  and  civilization  of  a  degraded  horde 
of  savages,  through  missionary  influence.  ''  In  Mina- 
hassa,*'  he  writes,  '*  a  hundred  years  ago  the  natives 
were  headhunting  savages  ;  to-day  it  would  be  difficult 
to  find  anywhere  a  more  orderly  and  self-respecting 
people.'' 

So,  we  might  run  through  the  list  of  barbaric  and 
bestial  customs,  and  illustrate  the  magical  power  of 
mission  influence  in  transforming  primitive  tribal 
life.  A  Christian  cannibal,  we  will  venture  to  say, 
cannot  be  found  in  Asia  or  Africa,  or  amid  the  old- 
time  savagery  of  the  island  world.  Christianity  every- 
where has  insisted  upon  the  sacredness  of  human  life, 
and  has  implanted  in  the  hearts  of  its  followers  refined 
instincts,  which  are  sure  to  turn  with  disgust  from 
the  orgies  of  a  cannibal  feast.  Similar  statements 
might  be  made  concerning  the  taste  for  inhuman 
sports,  or  the  cruel  folly  of  human  sacrifices.  Even 
within  a  generation,  ghastly  orgies  once  so  well-known 
in  that  bloody  inferno — the  hinterland  of  the  African 
West  Coast — have  disappeared,  and  its  official  shambles 
are  now  in  ruins.  The  shocking  ordeals  of  superstitious 
heathenism  have  been,  with  rare  exceptions,  banished. 
The  brutal  and  cruel  punishments  of  prisoners  have 
been  mitigated  by  a  more  humane  code  of  penal 
administration.  With  the  entrance  of  the  missionary 
has  been  awakened  also  a  new  recognition  of  duty 
toward  the  sick,  the  decrepit,  and  those  enfeebled  by 
age,    with    other   helpless    and    dependent    members 


IN   MODERN   FOREIGN   MISSIONS        467 

of  society,  whom  it  was  customary,  according  to  the 
heathen  code,  either  to  neglect,  or  put  to  death,  as 
worthless  and  burdensome  to  society.  We  may  visit 
under  mission  administration  homes  for  the  orphans, 
and  asylums  for  the  lepers,  and  here  and  there  refuges 
where  tender  ministrations  are  given  to  the  insane, 
the  blind,  and  the  deaf  and  dumb. 

Social  changes  still  more  revolutionary  in  character, 
and  of  wider  scope,  can  also  be  clearly  traced  to  mission 
influence.  No  one  can  reasonably  doubt  that  to 
missions  belongs  the  credit  of  initiating  the  crusade 
against  footbinding  in  China,  the  culmination  of 
which  has  been  the  formation  of  an  influential  anti- 
footbinding  society,  conducted  under  the  direction 
of  philanthropic  foreign  residents,  supported  by  intel- 
ligent and  progressive  Chinese,  and  eventually  issuing 
in  an  imperial  edict,  forbidding  and  banishing  the 
custom.  As  long  ago  as  1870,  the  mission  schools  for 
girls  began  to  contend  for  unbound  feet,  and  various 
educational  organizations  and  societies,  largely  under 
missionary  auspices,  have  steadily  and  successfully 
maintained  a  determined  attitude  of  antagonism  toward 
this  foolish  and  cruel  fashion. 

Again,  in  the  anti-opium  crusade  missions  have 
led  the  van,  and  have  interested  themselves,  on  moral 
and  philanthropic  grounds,  in  working  for  the  banish- 
ment of  this  social  curse.  Now  all  China  is  aroused, 
and  the  crusade  has  been  fortified  by  imperial  orders, 
aimed  at  the  effective  prohibition  of  the  opium  habit 
throughout  the  empire.  In  May,  1906,  twelve  hun- 
dred missionaries  affixed  their  signatures  to  a  memorial 
on  the  subject  of  opium,  which,  in  the  August  following, 
was  presented  to  the  Imperial  Government  by  the 
venerable  Viceroy  of  Nanking.  In  September  of 
that  year  the  Emperor  issued  the  edict  which  directs 


468   SOCIAL  INFLUENCE  OF  CHRISTIANITY 

that  the  opium  traffic  shall  cease  within  ten  years, 
and  the  wording  of  the  document  is  strikingly  similar 
to  the  phraseology  of  the  memorial. 

The  services  of  missions  in  the  overthrow  of  the 
slave  trade,  and  the  abolition  of  slavery,  in  large 
sections  of  the  world,  have  hardly  received  the  atten- 
tion they  deserve.  It  is  within  a  decade  that  slavery 
was  officially  ostracized  among  the  Barotsi,  and  also 
in  Uganda,  and  in  both  instances  the  revolutionary 
reform  has  been  traceable  to  mission  influences.  The 
attitude  of  missions  toward  caste,  to  which  reference 
has  just  been  made,  affords  another  illustration. 
One  of  the  most  inflexible  and  overmastering  social 
tyrannies  which  the  world  has  ever  known,  it  is  not 
to  be  expected  that  changes  will  be  wrought,  except 
by  a  long  and  slow  process  of  disintegration.  The 
overthrow  of  caste  by  any  violent  or  arbitrary  methods 
seems  impossible ;  yet  everywhere  the  missionary 
has  proved  himself  to  be  the  friend  and  liberator  of 
the  Pariah,  and  especially  in  Southern  India  have 
low  caste  people  had  opened  to  them  a  career  of 
advancement,  and  a  hope  of  social  betterment,  which 
represent  a  practical  reversal  of  the  immemorial  tra- 
ditions cherished  by  the  higher  classes,  many  of  whom 
would  regard  even  a  sneer  as  too  flattering  an  atten- 
tion to  a  despised  Pariah.  This  process  has  as  yet 
touched  Indian  society  only  in  spots,  but  it  may  prove 
to  be  the  beginning  of  a  social  change  which  will 
eventually  develop  into  revolutionary  proportions. 

The  educational  campaign  of  missions  has  been 
a  direct  ministry  to  the  higher  nature  of  backward 
races,  having  aroused  dormant  powers  of  develop- 
ment, quickened  the  aptitude  for  progress,  given  a 
finer  tone  to  life,  and  created  a  new  atmosphere,  in 
which  society  as  a  whole  develops  with  an  upward, 


IN   MODERN   FOREIGN   MISSIONS        469 

aspiring  trend.  Educational  cravings  have  already 
become  a  passion  in  the  awakened  nations  of  the  East. 
The  whole  higher  life  of  society  has  been  touched  by 
the  stimulus  given  to  industrial  training  by  organiza- 
tions for  social  improvement.  The  ministry  of  whole- 
some and  instructive  literature,  including  Bible  trans- 
lation, has  been  of  inestimable  value  to  races  who 
were  hardly  acquainted  with  modern  knowledge  before 
the  coming  of  the  missionary.  The  service  of  medical 
missions  is  one  of  the  most  romantic  chapters  in  the 
history  of  human  philanthropy.  The  mitigation  of 
the  ancient  brutalities  of  war,  and  the  turning  of  the 
hearts  of  Christian  communities  toward  the  recogni- 
tion of  the  higher  blessings  of  a  peaceable  and  law- 
abiding  social  order,  may  all  be  traced,  in  large  measure, 
to  the  power  of  the  missionary  evangel. 

The  Moulding  Power  of  Missions  upon  National 
Development. 

5.  Have  missions  a  quickening  and  formative 
influence  upon  national  life  and  character?  The 
question  opens  a  large  and  fruitful  subject  for  dis- 
cussion and  research.  It  may  be  treated  both  from 
an  academic  or  historical  point  of  view,  and  from  the 
standpoint  of  practical  apologetics.  We  can  readily 
believe  that  God  maintains  a  sovereign  control  over 
the  historic  development  of  nations  in  modern  as 
well  as  in  ancient  times.  The  Hebrew  historians 
described  with  realistic  diction  the  controlling  sove- 
reignty of  God  among  the  nations,  and  in  forms  of 
speech  which  made  clear  their  vivid  recognition  of 
the  direct  agency  of  an  overruling  Providence.  The 
modern  historian,  however  devout  his  mood,  may 
not,  perhaps,  use  Biblical  formulae,  being  influenced 
by  the  dominant  idea  of  theistic  evolution    now  so 


470  SOCIAL  INFLUENCE  OF  CHRISTIANITY 

regnant  in  the  philosophy  and  science  of  our  times  ; 
but  this  does  not  necessarily  indicate  any  deliberate 
intention  on  his  part  to  ignore  or  to  banish  the  idea  of 
God's  sovereignty,  and  His  supreme  guidance  of  the 
contemporary  life  of  nations.  He  simply  brings  his 
trend  of  thought,  together  with  his  literary  style  and 
terminology,  into  conformity  with  prevalent  philoso- 
phical theories  of  the  mode  and  order  of  divine  activi- 
ties as  related  to  historical  progress.  A  new  view 
of  the  divine  methods  of  working  requires  new  forms 
of  expression,  which,  while  giving  prominence  to  second- 
ary causes  and  evolutionary  processes,  do  not  rule 
out  the  First  Cause,  or  make  the  existence  of  a  supreme 
intelligence  any  less  essential  in  a  true  philosophy  of 
history. 

Christian  missions,  in  their  broad  and  multiform 
results,  doubtless  have  a  part  to  play  in  the  history 
of  our  times,  corresponding  closely  to  that  training 
of  Old  Testament  ritual  and  discipline  which  can  be 
so  plainly  traced  in  the  calling  and  governance  of 
the  Jewish  nation.  History  is,  in  fact,  repeating 
itself.  The  Old  Testament  dispensation  as  a  school 
of  national  life  finds,  in  a  measure,  its  counterpart 
in  the  activities  of  modern  missions  among  existing 
nations.  Our  own  Christendom  is  in  a  large  sense 
mission  fruitage,  and  now  Christianity,  true  to  its 
Founder's  purpose,  is  becoming  the  teacher  of  all 
nations,  in  very  much  the  same  sense  that  the  ancient 
dispensation  was  the  schoolmaster  for  the  preparation 
of  a  single  elect  nation  for  its  place  in  history.  The 
Bible  is  full  of  the  national  life,  not  only  of  the  Hebrews, 
but  of  contemporary  peoples  ;  and  if  a  modern  Bible 
of  mission  history  could  be  written  by  inspired  dis- 
cernment we  should  surely  discover  the  same  almighty 
sovereign  purpose  working    for  the  accomplishment 


IN   MODERN   FOREIGN   MISSIONS        471 

of  its  high  designs  in  the  training  and  destiny  of 
modern  nations.  The  ulterior  object  of  missions, 
although  not  the  original  or  chief  incentive  to  their 
prosecution,  is  to  prepare  men  and  women  to  be 
better  members  of  human  society,  and  more  helpful 
participants  in  the  social  and  national  development 
of  the  generation  to  which  they  belong — it  being 
understood  that  the  most  effective  method  of  accom- 
plishing this  is  to  bring  them  as  individuals  into  right 
relations  to  God  and  His  law.  The  attainment  of 
this  object  implies  a  steady  advance  toward  a  higher 
national  life,  and  a  fuller  preparedness  of  the  people 
to  be  clothed  upon  with  the  fresh,  new  garments  of  a 
cultured  civilization. 

The  future  of  nations  is  therefore  in  a  very  real 
sense  marked  out  and  determined  by  the  reception 
they  give  to  missionary  agencies,  and  the  ascendency 
which  Christian  ideals  attain  in  their  individual  and 
social  development.  The  '*  principle  of  projected 
efficiency,*'  so  emphasized  by  Mr.  Benjamin  Kidd, 
is  an  excellent  formula  for  the  larger  utility  and  help- 
ful tendency  of  missions  in  social  and  national  evolu- 
tion. That  projected  potency  which  works  for  the 
future  building  up  of  nations  is  embodied  in  missionary 
activities.  To  any  one  pessimistically  inclined,  who 
has  some  knowledge  of  Oriental  nations,  it  may  seem 
to  be  a  practically  hopeless  undertaking  to  lead  them 
to  appreciate  and  strive  after  the  finer  ideals  of  Chris- 
tian cultivation.  It  is  just  in  this  connexion  that  the 
lessons  of  history  are  pertinent  and  incontrovertible. 
Teutonic  culture  and  Anglo-Saxon  civilization — let 
us  not  forget  it — have  developed  from  the  fierce  tem- 
per and  barbaric  social  code  of  the  earlier  races  of 
Northern  Europe.  Thus,  along  this  road  of  slow 
and  painful  advance,  nations  now  exemplifying  the 


472    SOCIAL   INFLUENCE   OF  CHRISTIANITY 

highest  social  refinement  of  the  age  have  already 
walked,  and  others  will  in  due  time  follow  in  their 
footsteps.  The  Japan,  the  Korea,  the  China,  and 
the  India  of  to-day,  as  compared  with  the  status  of 
those  same  nations  a  generation  or  two  ago,  are  exam- 
ples of  an  Oriental  Christendom  in  the  making.  Faith 
based  not  only  on  the  promises  of  God,  but  upon  visible 
historical  precedent,  may  rest  assured  of  this,  but 
there  must  be  patience  while  the  "  increasing  purpose  " 
of  the  centuries  is  being  realized. 

Questions  which  are  identified  with  the  national 
life  of  a  people  pertain  to  such  matters  as  the  form 
of  government,  the  establishment  and  enjoyment  of 
civil  rights  and  privileges,  the  conduct  of  politics, 
the  enactments  of  legislation,  and  their  administra- 
tion as  law,  the  personnel  of  public  service,  the  adjust- 
ment of  international  relationships,  and  the  defence 
of  the  State.  In  connexion  with  such  questions  the 
influence  of  Christianity  need  not  be  revolutionary 
in  order  to  be  helpful.  It  may  exercise  a  transforming 
and  guiding  power  which  will  lead  a  nation  by  easy 
stages  of  progress  out  of  comparative  barbarism  into 
the  heritage  of  modern  culture.  In  many  respects 
Eastern  nations  left  to  themselves  in  isolation,  depend- 
ent upon  their  own  resources,  had  reached,  probably, 
their  natural  limit  in  the  progress  toward  a  higher 
civilization.  If  there  was  to  be  further  advance, 
some  outside  help  was  seemingly  essential.  This 
might  come  as  a  gift  from  without,  or,  as  in  the  case 
of  Japan,  it  might  be  largely  self-sought,  and  assimi- 
lated with  an  intelligent  recognition  of  its  value.  It 
need  not  necessarily  denationalize  them,  but  should 
rather  shape  their  further  development  in  harmony 
with  national  characteristics. 

In  this  connexion  the  influence   of  Christian  mis- 


IN   MODERN   FOREIGN   MISSIONS       473 

sions  has  been  both  timely,  and,  to  a  remarkable 
degree,  adapted  to  this  higher  ministry.  The  unique 
part  which  each  nation  has  to  play  in  human  history, 
and  the  special  contribution  of  service  which  it  is  to 
render  in  the  interests  of  world  civilization,  will  lose 
none  of  their  distinctive  features  through  the  entrance 
of  the  leaven  of  a  common  Christianity.  In  this  age 
of  the  world,  nations  can  no  longer  remain  isolated, 
or  live  a  separate,  exclusive  life,  out  of  touch  with  the 
rest  of  mankind.  International  relationships  are  al- 
ready world-embracing.  Missions,  therefore,  in  so 
far  as  they  contribute  to  the  moulding  of  the  national 
life  of  peoples  whose  historic  development  seems  to 
have  been  hitherto  arrested,  are  a  factor  in  shaping 
and  furthering  the  world's  international  amenities. 
It  is  by  no  means  a  matter  of  indifference  to  Christen- 
dom what  kind  of  a  nation  Japan  is  to  be  ;  it  is,  in 
fact,  a  question  of  absorbing  interest  and  deep  moment. 
China  is  already  an  important  factor  in  the  sphere 
of  international  politics.  The  whole  East  is  stirred 
with  a  new  life,  and  points  of  contact  with  the  out- 
side world  are  fast  multiplying.  The  service  which 
missions  have  thus  far  rendered  among  these  different 
peoples  in  preparing  them  for  creditable  entrance 
into  these  wider  relationships  is  of  higher  value  than 
is  generally  recognized. 

The  missionary  programme  not  alone  in  its  evan- 
gelistic and  ethical  impact,  but  in  its  broader  educa- 
tional discipline,  in  its  literary  culture,  its  uplifting 
character,  and  its  more  intelligent  outlook  upon  his- 
tory and  practical  politics,  gives  a  certain  tone  and 
direction  to  national  life  and  progress.  It  trains 
better  men  for  government  service,  and  thus  has  an 
influence  in  the  improvement  of  administrative  methods. 
Out   of  six   Moslem   incumbents   recently   appointed 


474   SOCIAL   INFLUENCE   OF  CHRISTIANITY 

to  high  positions  in  the  Punjab  Government,  it  is 
significant  that  five  of  them  were  educated  at  the 
Forman  Christian  College  of  the  American  Presby- 
terian Mission  at  Lahore.  It  aids  in  the  adoption  of 
wiser  and  better  laws,  and  in  the  reformation,  and, 
where  needed,  the  humanizing  of  the  judicial  pro- 
ceedings. As  nations  or  tribes  become  enlightened 
they  begin  to  appreciate  the  true  meaning  and  value 
of  liberty,  to  cherish  more  intelligent  ideals  of  patriot- 
ism, to  form  new  conceptions  of  the  dignity  and 
responsibility  of  national  life,  and  to  play  their  part 
with  honour,  when  occasion  requires,  in  international 
affairs.  Loftier  standards  of  public  service,  and  more 
intelligent  recognition  of  the  import  and  value  of 
international  and  interracial  relationships  take  their 
place  in  a  growing  civic  consciousness.  This  influence 
of  missions  upon  national  life  may  not  be  so  apparent 
to  an  outside  observer  as  other  results  more  easily 
discerned,  but  it  is  real,  and  to  one  who  can  obtain 
a  comparative  historical  view  of  the  growth  of  the 
body  politic  it  will  soon  discover  itself.  It  requires 
a  discerning  historic  insight  for  us  to  trace  the  lines 
of  Christian  influence  in  the  development  of  the  nations 
of  Christendom,  but  no  one  doubts  that  Christendom 
as  a  whole,  in  its  national  as  well  as  social  outcome, 
has  been  in  certain  important  respects  the  product 
of  Christianity. 

The  awakening  of  China,  the  progress  of  Japan, 
the  development  of  Korea,  the  evolution  of  a  new 
India,  the  establishment  of  constitutional  government 
in  Turkey,  can  never  be  historically  treated  without 
giving  a  large  meed  of  credit  to  missions.  ''  The  awak- 
ening of  China,'*  remarked  Tuan  Fang  while  on  his 
recent  visit  to  America,  ''  may  be  traced  in  no  small 
measure  to  the  hands  of  the  missionaries.     They  have 


IN   MODERN   FOREIGN   MISSIONS    <     475 

borne  the  light  of  Western  civiUzation  to  every  nook 
and  corner  of  the  Empire."  A  single  glance  at  the 
literature  of  the  new  era  in  China,  issued  under  mis- 
sionary auspices,  reveals  the  instructive  and  forceful 
bearing  of  the  literary  campaign  of  missions  upon 
the  rapidly  changing  tendencies  of  national  life. 
China  has  been  put  to  school  to  study  the  encyclo- 
paedia of  modern  knowledge,  and  learn  the  secrets 
of  the  historic  growth  and  development  of  Christen- 
dom from  the  literature  which  missionaries  have 
provided.  After  the  Renaissance  came  the  Refor- 
mation ;    will  history  repeat  itself  in  the  Far  East  ? 

The  Economic  and  Commercial  Value  of  Missions. 

6.  It  is  a  fair  question  to  ask  whether  commerce 
is  in  any  sense  historically  indebted  to  missions  ? 
The  debt  of  missions  to  commerce,  however,  need  not 
be  minimized.  The  earliest  Christian  missions  fol- 
lowed the  great  trade  routes  of  the  world,  and  since 
the  age  of  steam  and  electricity  missionaries  have 
looked  to  commerce  as  their  means  of  transport,  and 
as  affording  them  many  alleviations  in  their  exile 
from  home.  Whatever  evils  and  sins  may  be  justly 
charged  to  commerce,  they  are  not  essentially  identi- 
fied with  it,  and  its  nobler  spirit,  as  well  as  its  more 
honourable  methods,  may  be  regarded  as  both  favour- 
able and  serviceable  to  the  work  of  the  missionary. 
On  the  other  hand,  it  can  be  easily  demonstrated 
that  missions  have  proved  helpful  to  commerce  by 
broadening  the  world's  markets,  swelling  the  ranks 
of  both  the  consumer  and  the  producer,  and  enlarging 
the  range  of  both  supply  and  demand.  It  is  not  too 
much  to  say  that  the  increasing  opportunities  of  inter- 
national commerce  are  due  in  part  to  the  cooperation 
of  missions  by  reason  of  their  influence  in  removing 


476   SOCIAL   INFLUENCE  OF  CHRISTIANITY 

hindrances  to  an  entrance  among  native  races,  and  in 
promoting  to  some  extent  an  interchange  of  outgoing 
and  incoming  commodities. 

Progressive  native  races  invite  commerce,  and 
offer  ever  enlarging  scope  to  its  activities.  Educa- 
tion gives  an  inquiring  outward  vision  to  provincial 
minds,  and  calls  for  the  best  the  world  can  bring  to 
it  of  the  material  facilities  and  industrial  achieve- 
ments of  the  higher  civilizations.  The  services  of  the 
missionary  as  a  pioneer  explorer,  and  a  promoter  of 
industrial  advance,  have  been  useful  to  commerce. 
The  merchant  often  reaps  a  harvest  in  trade  where 
the  missionary  has  previously  sown  the  seeds  of  ethical 
and  social  transformation.  In  this  general  sense  the 
making  of  a  broader  and  finer  national  life  is  the  guar- 
antee of  enlarged  commercial  intercourse ;  while, 
on  the  other  hand,  commercial  wealth  and  prosperity 
without  moral  stamina  and  political  integrity  will 
inevitably  work  for  the  downfall  of  a  nation.  A  study 
of  the  growth  of  trade  in  the  countries  of  the  Far 
East  will  show  that  it  has  generally  been  contempora- 
neous with  missionary  progress,  which  has  manifestly 
had  a  part  to  play — not  often  conspicuous,  indeed, 
but  no  less  real — ^in  its  promotion  and  development. 
The  ethical  influence  of  missions  has  been  helpful  to 
commerce  by  its  insistence  upon  high  moral  standards, 
by  its  training  in  matters  of  good  faith  and  moral 
rectitude,  by  its  suggestions,  at  least  among  mission 
constituencies,  of  improved  financial  methods,  and 
by  a  measure  of  indirect  stimulus  to  trade  with  the 
outer  world,  while  at  the  same  time  creating  a  demand 
for  the  conveniences  and  facilities  of  modern  civilization. 

The  missionary  convert  is  recognized  as  the  advo- 
cate and  exemplar  of  new  standards  of  business  honesty. 
Integrity  is  acknowledged  as  a  Christian  obligation. 


IN   MODERN   FOREIGN   MISSIONS       477 

A  new  code  of  market-day  morals  has  been  introduced, 
and  incitements  to  frugality  and  provident  habits 
have  been  one  of  the  practical  lessons  of  the  missionary 
to  his  native  friends  and  followers.  In  many  fields 
he  has  been  instrumental  in  establishing  Savings 
Banks,  and  in  initiating  Provident  Funds,  with  a 
view  to  rescuing  converts  from  the  temptations  and 
dangers  of  debt.  Livingstone's  "  open  path  for  com- 
merce **  in  Africa  has  produced  phenomenal  changes 
in  the  economic  development  of  a  large  section  of 
that  vast  continent,  and  almost  everywhere  among 
savage  races  missionary  pioneering  has  resulted  in 
an  open  door  for  trade  with  the  outer  world.  Mission 
outposts  among  dangerous  and  savage  tribes  have 
marked  the  line  which  separates  safety  from  peril  to 
the  trader,  and  have  differentiated  the  sphere  of  trade 
from  the  regions  of  rapine  and  barbarity.  The  im- 
mense possibilities  of  commerce  in  the  Far  East  give 
a  special  significance  to  the  acknowledged  influence 
of  missions  in  stimulating  trade  intercourse  with 
hitherto  closed  regions  in  that  part  of  the  world. 
Missionaries  have,  moreover,  been  instrumental  in 
many  fields  in  the  development  of  neglected  resources 
of  the  soil,  and  in  introducing  improved  facilities, 
both  agricultural  and  industrial.  Mackay  in  his 
busy  workshop  in  Uganda  was  the  pioneer  of  the 
present  **  Uganda  Company,  Limited,"  and  a  similar 
statement  may  be  made  of  missionary  initiative  in 
the  '*  Papuan  Industries,  Limited,"  and  other  indus- 
trial ventures  in  mission  fields.  A  close  study  of  the 
political  and  commercial  value  of  missions  will  award 
them  a  far  more  prominent  place  in  the  activities  of  the 
modern  world  than  we  have  been  accustomed  to 
assign  to  them.  It  behoves  Christendom  to  give 
attention    to    this    fact.     Expansion    as   an    imperial 


478    SOCIAL   INFLUENCE   OF  CHRISTIANITY 

policy  should  not  be  along  military  lines  alone,  nor 
should  it  be  inspired  exclusively  by  political  and 
economic  designs  ;  much  less  should  it  be  with  a  view 
merely  to  commercial  exploitation.  Christian  mer- 
chants and  men  of  affairs  may  justly  regard  missions 
as  an  ally  of  commerce,  and  an  agency  of  high  value 
in  the  promotion  of  mutually  advantageous  trade 
relations. 

The  Social  Significance  of  Reformed  Standards  of 
Religious  Faith  and  Practice. 

7.  Is  the  social  life  of  non-Christian  races  uplifted 
and  made  more  salutary  by  an  evangelical  reform- 
ation of  religious  faith  and  practice  ?  In  answering 
this  question  we  should  not  ignore  or  minimize  all 
that  is  socially  valuable  and  morally  commendable 
in  the  ethical  incitements  and  restraints  of  non-Christian 
faiths.  In  several  respects  we  may  find  their  influence 
to  be  worthy  of  respect  and  conservation.  It  is  safe 
to  say,  however,  that  every  admirable  and  morally 
wholesome  tendency  of  the  social  code  of  ethnic  faiths 
is  likewise  endorsed  and  nourished  by  the  influence 
of  Christianity  ;  while  in  this  connexion  it  may  be 
well  also  to  recognize  the  fact  that  there  are  certain 
social  features  more  or  less  condoned  and  upheld  in 
Western  nations  which  are  not  traceable  to  Christian 
instincts  and  tastes,  and  which  missionary  teachers 
have  no  desire  to  introduce  and  perpetuate  elsewhere. 

Interesting  subjects  for  discussion  are  suggested 
in  this  connexion  by  such  questions  as  the  following  : 
What  social  effects  of  value  may  be  expected  from  a 
more  spiritual  conception  of  religion  than  is  usual 
amid  the  formalities  of  ethnic  faiths  ?  What  results 
of  an  elevating  character  may  a  community  hope  for 
which    has    succeeded    in    breaking    with    idolatry  ? 


IN   MODERN   FOREIGN   MISSIONS        479 

What  general  progress  may  come  from  the  overthrow 
of  superstition  ?  What  pubUc  benefits  may  result 
from  a  more  intimate  association  of  a  pure  morality 
with  devout  heart  religion  ?  What  measure  of  social 
uplift  may  be  secured  by  a  high  order  of  religious  leader- 
ship ?  What  beneficial  effects  may  be  expected  to 
accompany  the  establishment  of  religious  liberty, 
and  the  suppression  of  the  persecuting  spirit  ?  And, 
finally,  what  happy  results  may  accrue  in  the  social 
life  of  the  home  and  the  community  from  a  faithful 
and  cheerful  observance  of  one  day  in  seven  as  a 
Sabbath  of  rest  and  religious  culture  ? 

The  perils  of  formalism  are  recognized  by  all  stu- 
dents of  the  religious  progress  of  the  race,  and  no  one 
can  doubt  that  it  detracts  seriously  from  the  social 
value  of  religion.  It  deadens  the  moral  perceptions 
of  the  individual  member  of  society,  so  that  his  example 
to  others,  who  quickly  detect  externalism,  becomes 
profitless,  if  not  wholly  inoperative,  and  the  incentive 
which  attaches  to  sincerity  and  heart  fervour  is  either 
wanting,  or  leads  in  the  wrong  direction.  '*  If,  there- 
fore, the  light  that  is  in  thee  be  darkness,  how  great 
is  that  darkness  !  *'  is  the  scriptural  monition  in  all 
such  cases.  The  Gospel  quickens  the  spiritual  per- 
ceptions, and  guides  men  into  a  more  adequate  com- 
prehension of  what  religion  should  mean  to  humanity. 
It  gives  a  joyous  and  hopeful  outlook  to  Hfe,  guides 
the  conscience  aright,  resists  the  tendencies  of  pessi- 
mism, opens  the  door  of  usefulness,  and  restores,  as 
it  were,  a  character  to  manhood  which  is  of  public 
value.  Is  it  not  plain  that  the  character  of  a  spiritual 
Christian  is  a  valuable  asset  of  society,  his  example 
a  power  for  good,  his  kindness  of  heart  a  benediction, 
his  missionary  zeal  a  leaven  in  the  social  lump,  and 
his  life  itself  an  evangel  ?        . 


48o  SOCIAL   INFLUENCE  OF  CHRISTIANITY 

The  decline  of  idolatry  assuredly  opens  another 
vista  of  social  advance.  The  waning  of  the  worship 
of  idols  lifts  a  national  and  racial  peril,  which  tends 
irresistibly  in  the  direction  of  degeneracy,  and,  if 
persiste'd  in,  must  result  in  moral  captivity,  sorrow, 
and  demoralization.  The  idolatrous  world  of  to-day 
is  no  exception  to  this  law  of  social  deterioration, 
which  has  worked  inexorably  through  all  ages,  and 
will  continue  so  to  do  as  long  as  man  clings  to  the 
worship  of  what  is  beneath  him  in  the  scale  of  creation, 
thus  humihating  his  manhood,  and  forfeiting  his 
standing  in  the  ranks  of  God's  nobler  creatures.  The 
dominance  of  idolatry  works  in  many  ways  to  the 
detriment  of  society.  It  is  costly,  and  involves  an 
enormous  economic  waste,  without  adequate  or  help- 
ful return.  It  imposes  needless  suffering  upon  multi- 
tudes through  their  vain  dependence  upon  the  assumed 
healing  power  of  a  graven  image.  In  seasons  of  pes- 
tilence and  calamity  the  thoughts  of  whole  communi- 
ties are  turned  toward  the  dumb,  unresponsive  idols, 
believing  them  to  have  the  power  of  intervention  and 
relief.  It  becomes,  therefore,  a  beneficent  ministry, 
as  well  as  an  imperative  duty,  for  Christian  missions 
to  endeavour,  with  all  kindness  and  tact,  yet  with 
loving  firmness,  to  discredit  idolatry  and  to  lead 
men  to  the  more  rational  worship  of  the  true  God. 
Testimony  from  every  section  of  the  mission  world 
indicates  that  the  reign  of  the  idol  is  waning,  and 
that  men  are  becoming  manlier,  and  women  nobler, 
because  of  the  passing  of  its  deadly  sway. 

Superstition,  like  idolatry,  is  a  social  incubus,  and 
for  similar  reasons.  It  involves  the  same  tendency 
to  useless  expense,  amounting  to  scores  of  millions 
annually.  It  implies  the  same  vain  struggles,  the 
same   blind  gropings,   the  same   debasing   fears,   the 


IN   MODERN   FOREIGN   MISSIONS       481 

same  cruel  devices,  and  the  same  misguided  efforts 
to  meet  the  problems,  anxieties,  and  emergencies  of 
life,  with  only  wasteful  and  worthless  remedial  expe- 
dients. There  is  no  more  pitiful  and  depressing 
spectacle  than  to  witness  the  impotent  appeals  and 
the  futile  sacrifices — many  of  them  costly  and  horri- 
fying— to  which  the  deluded  victims  of  superstition 
resort,  in  order  to  escape  impending  perils,  and  to 
secure  deliverance  from  present  calamities.  The  spec- 
tral throng  of  demons  seems  to  haunt  the  imagination 
of  the  victim  of  superstitious  delusions.  The  wiles 
of  sorcery,  and  the  often  cruel  decrees  of  masters  of 
the  Black  Arts,  not  only  are  regarded  as  law  to  be 
implicitly  obeyed,  but  they  represent,  as  a  rule,  the 
last  hope  of  despairing  souls.  To  the  fraudulent, 
haphazard  diagnosis  and  quack  treatment  of  these 
wizards  of  sin  many  of  the  most  important  and  vital 
interests  of  life  are  submitted.  Can  any  one  doubt 
that  these  besetments  of  superstition  involve  an 
incalculable  social  injury  wherever  they  hold  sway, 
and  that  their  debasing  power  where  the  best  interests 
of  society  are  concerned  is  literally  beyond  estimate  ? 
The  witch-doctor  may  assume  almost  any  role  of 
criminal  attack  upon  society  which  his  puerile  ignorance 
or  knavish  design  may  suggest.  The  attempt  to  pre- 
vent or  cure  disease  by  superstitious  means  deprives 
a  community  of  the  advantage  of  sane  and  scientific 
ministrations.  In  the  same  misguided  fashion  false 
and  ruinous  judgments  are  pronounced  concerning 
the  secrets  of  success  and  prosperity,  when  the  real 
credit  should  be  accorded  to  commendable  diligence, 
faithfulness,  and  capacity.  It  follows,  therefore,  that 
the  man  who  by  the  proper  use  of  means  has  achieved 
success  becomes  at  once  an  object  of  unjust  suspicion, 
and  malicious  evil  is  quickly  plotted  against  him,  on 
CO.  I  I 


482    SOCIAL   INFLUENCE   OF  CHRISTIANITY 

the  ground  that  it  is  only  by  the  aid  of  the  spirits  that 
he  has  been  able  to  surpass  others.  He  is  thus  sum- 
marily condemned  as  an  enemy  of  society,  in  league 
with  demons,  so  that  disaster,  and  perhaps  death, 
are  considered  but  his  rightful  deserts. 

In  every  mission  field — we  may  say  it  without 
hesitation — the  break  with  superstition  is  constantly 
growing  more  pronounced  and  uncompromising.     In 
many  places — even  amid  the  darkest  African  environ- 
ment— we  may  read  of  souls  set  free,  and  enabled  to 
effect  a  final  breach  with  the  dismal  and  enslaving 
past,  culminating  often  in  the  burning  of  charms,  the 
destruction  of  fetiches,  and  the  stout-hearted,  resolute 
casting  out  of  the  whole  brood  of  unseemly  errors. 
Men  and  women  breathe  more  freely,  and  life  is  bright- 
ened with  new  hopes,  while  in  thousands  of  communi- 
ties  the   dread   visit   of   the   witch-doctor   has   been 
exchanged  for  the  gentle  evangel  of  the  messenger 
of    Christ.     The    distressing    terrors    of    superstitious 
fears  give  place  to  the  calm  trustfulness,  the  cheering 
assurance,  and  the  orderly  peacefulness  of  a  Christian 
community.     The    whole    spirit    and    atmosphere    of 
society  can  thus  be  transformed  by  the  freedom  and 
joy    of    an    abiding    hope    in    Christ.     Communities 
hitherto  demon-ridden  may  sit  clothed  and  in  their 
right  mind,  under  the  protecting  care  of  the  all-loving 
and    all-powerful    God,    who    becomes  their    *'  refuge 
and  strength,  a  very  present  help  in  trouble." 

It  is  also  an  essential  feature  of  the  missionary 
programme  to  bring  about  in  every  community  those 
wholesome  social  results  which  follow  the  association 
of  morality  with  religion.  Missionary  instruction, 
whether  religious  or  educational,  may  be  regarded 
in  all  its  bearings  upon  moral  standards  as  unreservedly 
committed  to  the  advocacy  and  defence  of  the  moral 


IN   MODERN   FOREIGN   MISSIONS       483 

code.  That  this  struggle  toward  the  goal  of  morality 
as  inseparably  identified  with  religion  is  producing 
hopeful  results  in  mission  lands  cannot  be  doubted. 
Testimony  to  this  effect  is  to  be  found  in  the  Report 
of  the  recent  "  South  African  Commission  on  Native 
Affairs.'*  The  Commission  was  appointed  in  1903, 
and  its  Report  was  published  in  1905,  under  the  title 
of  '*  The  Natives  of  South  Africa,"  followed  in  1909 
by  a  supplemental  volume,  entitled  "  The  South 
African  Natives.'*  In  the  Report  of  1905  the  influence 
and  necessity  of  religion  as  an  incentive  to  good  morals 
is  strongly  advocated,  and  it  is  stated  that  *'  the 
weight  of  evidence  is  in  favour  of  the  improved  morality 
of  the  Christian  section  of  the  population,''  while  it  is 
further  asserted  that  "  there  appears  to  be  in  the  native 
mind  no  inherent  incapacity  to  apprehend  the  truths 
of  Christian  teaching,  or  to  adopt  Christian  morals 
as  a  standard."  Christianity  is  declared  to  be  one 
great  element  for  the  civilization  of  the  natives,  and 
the  Commission  is  of  the  opinion  that  regular  moral 
and  religious  instruction  should  be  given  in  all  native 
schools.  It  can  be  clearly  demonstrated  from  the 
criminal  records  of  native  society  in  South  Africa 
that  only  an  infinitesimal  percentage  of  those  who 
are  connected  with  Christian  Churches  is  convicted 
of  crime.  It  was  stated  in  a  recent  Church  Council 
that  the  proportion  in  Natal  was  only  four  per  cent., 
and,  according  to  the  testimony  of  Mr.  H.  H.  Pritchard, 
Public  Prosecutor  of  Boksburg,  out  of  13,000  natives 
convicted  there  of  offences  against  the  law,  ranging 
from  being  without  passes  to  the  crime  of  murder, 
only  four  were  in  the  membership  of  one  or  other 
of  the  native  Churches. 

The  supplemental  volume  of  1909  contains  (page 
229)  this  important  testimony  :    **  One  thing  is  clear. 


484   SOCIAL   INFLUENCE   OF  CHRISTIANITY 

The  results  achieved  by  the  missionaries  of  the  various 
Churches  show  that  by  reUgious  and  moral  training 
and  education  adapted  to  his  needs  and  capacities, 
the  native  can  be  fitted  to  fill  a  place  of  great  useful- 
ness in  the  community.  He  can  be  raised  to  higher 
levels  of  living.  He  can  be  disciplined  in  habits 
of  independence  and  self-control.  But  the  work  of 
the  missionaries  needs  general  recognition  and  sup- 
port." 

So  also  moraUty  in  India,  China,  and  Japan  is 
being  recognized  as  a  necessity  in  a  true  and  wholesome 
life.  There  is  much  ethical  discontent  at  present  in 
Japan.  The  standards  of  Christian  morality  are 
attracting  thoughtful  attention,  and  exacting  in  some 
instances  the  most  respectful  and  even  reverent 
admiration  from  the  leaders  of  national  thought.  It 
is  being  frankly  acknowledged  among  Japanese  patriots 
that  the  morals  of  Christianity  are  needed  in  Japan 
as  well  as  elsewhere.  Exemplary  religious  leader- 
ship is  also  a  public  benefit  which  missionary  success 
brings  to  society.  Pastor  Hsi's  name  is  fragrant  in 
the  Churches  of  Christendom  wherever  his  biography, 
by  Mrs.  Howard  Taylor,  has  been  read.  He  repre- 
sents hundreds  among  Chinese  Christians  of  like 
character  and  devotion.  Dr.  Neesima  has  been  hon- 
oured and  loved  in  the  West  almost  as  much  as  in 
his  own  country,  and  a  throng  of  noble  Japanese 
pastors,  philanthropists,  and  educators  have  followed 
in  his  steps.  Dr.  Imad-ud-Din — preacher,  scholar,  and 
author — of  India,  and  a  long  list  of  men  of  devout 
character  and  sterling  worth,  as  well  as  of  sincerely 
pious  women,  whose  lives  have  been  a  power  in  all 
sections  of  the  country,  give  added  lustre  to  the 
Christian  leadership  of  the  Indian  Churches.  The 
Rev.  Boon  Boon-Itt,  whose  recent  decease  is  so  deeply 


IN  MODERN   FOREIGN   MISSIONS       485 

lamented,  was  a  ''  crown  of  rejoicing*'  in  Siam.  Pao, 
the  "  Apostle  of  Lifu,"  one  of  the  Loyalty  Islands, 
may  be  justly  regarded  as  an  evangelist  of  heroic 
type.  The  native  preachers  and  teachers  in  New 
Guinea,  gathered  largely  from  among  the  converts 
of  the  South  Sea  Islands,  have  been  men  and  women 
of  courageous  spirit  and  lofty  faith.  Bishop  Crowther 
may  be  counted  as  a  typical  man  of  God  amid  the 
African  darkness.  Numerous  pastors,  teachers,  and 
evangelists,  of  fine  record  in  other  African  mission 
fields,  including  Madagascar,  might  be  named  in  this 
list  of  worthy  religious  leaders.  There  have  been 
many  native  women,  also,  who  have  served  in  various 
missions  as  teachers,  visitors,  and  Bible-women,  with 
signal  credit  to  the  Christian  name. 

The  promotion  of  religious  liberty  is  another 
ennobUng  social  result  of  the  missionary  propaganda. 
The  persecuting  spirit  has  long  been  a  relentless  foe 
to  the  social  peace  and  happiness  of  mankind.  Untold 
misery  has  been  inflicted  upon  human  society  through 
the  workings  of  religious  tyranny,  which  has  proved 
itself  one  of  the  most  subtle  and  resistless  instruments 
of  injustice  and  cruelty  that,  in  various  ways,  and 
under  different  auspices,  has  tortured  the  race.  It 
is  only  by  slow  and  painful  struggles  that  religious 
freedom  has  been  attained  in  certain  favoured  por- 
tions of  the  earth.  Even  the  lessons  of  a  generous 
tolerance  in  religious  opinion  and  practice  have  been 
learned  by  many  with  more  or  less  reluctance,  and  in 
some  instances  only  after  bitter  conflicts,  bringing 
in  their  train  much  distress  and  suffering. 

In  connexion  with  the  entrance  and  work  of  the 
missionary,  and  no  doubt,  in  a  measure,  in  response 
to  his  influence  and  the  beneficent  trend  of  his  enter- 
prise, a  great  and  marvellous  change  has  come  about 


486   SOCIAL   INFLUENCE   OF  CHRISTIANITY 

in  the  attitude  of  many  foreign  states  toward  religious 
liberty.  Credit  should  be  given,  however,  in  this 
connexion,  and  that  generously,  to  the  political 
influence  of  Western  power,  as  embodied  either  in 
their  colonial  administration,  or  in  their  treaty  pro- 
visions, which  has  secured  immunity  from  reUgious 
persecution  on  the  part  of  Asiatic  or  African  states. 
This  is  well,  and  a  cause  for  thanksgiving,  but  its 
effectiveness  after  all  depends  largely  upon  the  courage 
and  energy  with  which  these  public  guarantees  are 
guarded  by  the  foreign  powers.  It  may  be  noted 
with  gratitude,  however,  that  in  India,  Burma,  Uganda, 
and  elsewhere  under  British  rule,  as  well  as  in  almost 
all  the  Native  Feudatory  States  of  India,  and  in  Siam, 
under  her  enlightened  ruler,  there  is  recognized  free- 
dom of  conscience.  This  is  also  notably  true  in  Japan, 
since  the  voluntary  withdrawal,  in  1873,  of  the  Edicts 
against  Christianity,  and  the  promulgation  of  the 
Constitution  in  1889,  with  its  famous  Twenty-eighth 
Article  granting  full  religious  liberty.  It  should 
never  be  forgotten  that  to  Verbeck,  an  American 
missionary  of  the  Reformed  Church,  as  much  as  to 
any  other  one  man,  the  establishment  of  religious 
liberty  in  Japan  is  due.  Not  that  this  fact  is  for- 
mally and  officially  on  record  in  Japanese  history, 
but  rather  that  it  may  be  credited  to  him  as  the  result 
of  his  unofficial  influence  and  steady  advocacy  of  the 
principle  of  religious  liberty,  during  the  entire  period 
of  his  contact  with  the  Japanese  authorities  in  the 
formative  era  which  shaped  to  such  a  momentous 
extent  the  future  of  the  empire.  The  Japanese  them- 
selves are  now  discovering  that  at  the  time  of  their 
great  national  transformation  Verbeck  was  an  inspira- 
tion, a  guide,  and  a  prophet,  in  one  of  the  most  stren- 
uous periods  of  their  history.     On  the  day  of  his  funeral 


IN   MODERN   FOREIGN   MISSIONS        487 

a  remark  of  a  Christian  Japanese  layman  was  over- 
heard, to  the  effect  that :  ''To  this  man  alone  we 
Japanese  are  indebted  for  the  religious  liberty  we 
enjoy  to-day/* 

The  benign  provision  of  the  Sabbath  as  a  day  of 
rest  and  religious  privilege  has  been  carefully  guarded 
and  conserved  by  missions.  The  "  Japan  Sabbath 
Alliance/'  constituted  in  1902,  is  creating  a  public 
interest  in  behalf  of  a  becoming  respect  for  Sunday. 
In  India,  also,  there  are  organizations  whose  object 
is  to  safeguard  the  Sabbath  as  a  sacred  rather  than  a 
secular  day.  The  "  Lord's  Day  Union  "  of  Calcutta, 
and  the  "  Lord's  Day  Observance  Committee "  of 
Madras,  are  examples.  Thus,  in  various  mission 
fields,  in  spite  of  difficulties  and  hindrances,  the  Lord's 
Day  is  honoured  in  native  Christian  communities, 
and  the  social  as  well  as  the  religious  life  of  converts 
has  become  in  this  respect  exemplary  and  creditable. 
Only  one  who  has  lived  amid  the  turmoil,  confusion, 
and  noisy  business  activity  of  the  non-Christian 
Sabbath,  can  fully  appreciate  the  quiet  dignity,  the 
peaceful  calm,  and  the  charming  social  uplift  which 
the  introduction  of  the  Christian  Sabbath,  with  its 
privileges  and  the  hallowing  power  of  its  sanctity, 
brings  into  a  community  where  it  is  gladly  and  cheer- 
fully observed. 

We  may  say  in  conclusion  that  the  outstanding 
need  of  the  world  just  now  is  the  exaltation  of  religion 
to  its  proper  place,  as  the  controlling  and  guiding 
force  in  the  entire  life  of  man — individual,  social, 
national,  and  international.  We  would  not  hesitate 
to  add  also,  as  a  suitable  and  even  necessary  corollary 
of  this  attitude  toward  religion,  the  recognition  of 
Christianity  as  a  divinely  appointed  and  supremely 
efficacious  ministry  to  the  higher  nature  of  man,  em- 


488   SOCIAL   INFLUENCE  OF  CHRISTIANITY 

bodying  the  noblest  rule  of  righteousness  for  the 
practical  guidance  of  his  life,  with  Christ  Himself  as 
its  central  figure,  combining  in  His  exalted  personality 
the  supreme  fact  of  an  Incarnation,  and  the  com- 
passionate mission  of  a  Saviour. 

The  study  of  social  phenomena,  especially  in  their 
ethical  relationships,  without  due  attention  to  a 
supernatural  revelation,  or  rather  without  taking 
into  consideration  religious  influences  from  a  higher 
source  than  man's  immediate  environment,  is  like 
the  study  of  plant  life  without  reference  to  the  sun, 
or  the  investigation  of  astronomical  and  meteorological 
phenomena  while  ignoring  the  solar  system.  Some 
light,  no  doubt,  may  be  obtained,  but  it  will  be  only 
dim,  partial,  and  inadequate,  as  compared  with  the 
clearer  vision  which  a  more  inclusive  survey  will 
give.  The  basic  moralities,  and  the  uplifting  spiritual 
tendencies,  of  a  truly  helpful  social  code  will  be  found 
in  the  last  analysis  to  be  given  from  above,  rather 
than  evolved  from  beneath. 


XII 

Modern  Scientific  and  Philosophical  Thought 
Regarding  Human  Society 

By  henry  JONES,  M.A.,  LL.D.,  Professor  of  Moral 
Philosophy  in  the  University  of  Glasgow. 


ARGUMENT. 

I.  Much  Confusion  of  Thought  exists  regarding  the  Value  of  Scientific  or 

Philosophic  Theories  of  Human  Society,  but  some  things  stand  out  clear 
amidst  the  Confusion  :  (i)  It  is  too  soon  to  speak  of  a  science  or  philoso- 
phy of  Human  Sciences  ;  (2)  Practice  must  precede  Theory  ;  yet 
(3)  Moral  and  Social  Sciences  are  not  helpless  ;  (4)  Society  progresses 
by  Reflexion  ;  (5)  such  Reflexion  is  not  exclusively  philosophical ;  (6) 
Difference  between  "  ordinary  "  "  scientific  "  and  "  philosophic  " 
consciousness  is  over-accentuated ;  (7)  Philosophy  and  Ordinary 
Reflexion  are  rooted  on  the  same  general  Experience  ;  (8)  The  Contri- 
bution of  Philosophical  Thought  needs  to  be  valued  more  accurately. 

II.  The   Contrast   between    Scientific   and  Philosophical  Thought  regarding 

Human  Society  and  Christian  Thought  is  Injurious  to  Both,  for  (i) 
Authoritative  Rehgious  Truth  cannot  suffer  from  examination  ; 
(2)  Intellect  and  Emotion  must  not  be  divorced  in  the  field  of  Social 
Science  :  and  (3)  Christianity  is  wronged  in  being  distinguished  from  the 
purpose  of  science  and  philosophy  or  denied  the  use  of  their  methods, 
results  and  spirit. 

III.  Christianity  is  not  identical  with  any  Special  Theory  of  Social  and 

Political  Life,  and  our  conceptions  of  Citizenship  are  due  to  Greece  and 
Rome,  and  not  to  the  Hebrews. 

IV.  While  too  much  value  cannot  be  attributed  to  the  Ideals  of  Christianity 

they  are  practical  hypotheses  that  gain  as  well  as  give  meaning  in 
being  applied,  (i)  The  splendour  of  the  Christian  ideals  lies  in  the  great- 
ness of  their  promise  ;  but  (2)  the  hfe  that  reveals  it  must  be  experi- 
enced and  (3)  the  significance  of  the  conception  native  to  Christianity 
has  been  only  slowly  discerned  by  poets  and  philosophers.  {4)  The 
same  service  is  being  done  by  science  and  philosophy  in  regard  to 
human  society.  (5)  Hence  the  Christian  Ideals  must  be  placed  in 
the  context  of  the  ordinary  world. 

V.  Philosophy  appears  when  some  form  of  civilization  has  grown  old.     (i)  Its 

primary  function  is  to  be  a  witness  to  the  unity  of  the  world,  and  the 
wholeness  of  life,  (2)  To-day  the  task  of  scientific  and  philosophic 
thought  is  to  teach  the  implication  of  man  in  mankind,  of  mankind  in 
man,  and  of  nature  in  both.  (3)  In  endeavouring  to  substitute  one 
metaphor  for  another,  that  of  society  as  an  organism  for  society  as  a 
machine,  it  is  not  only  recognizing  a  principle,  but  seeking  to  follow 
out  its  consequences.  (4)  It  insists  that  rights  can  be  claimed  only 
on  the  ground  of  the  performance  of  duties,  for  bankruptcy  lies  in 
the  way  of  claiming  the  one  and  neglecting  the  other.  {5)  The  attempt 
might  be  made  to  gain  rights  without  accepting  duties,  but  this  is  not 
likely,  for  the  acquisition  of  power  generally  teaches  the  use  of  it, 
and  the  Christian  ideals  will  right  themselves  after  every  trial,  provided 
they  are  trusted. 


XII 

Modern  Scientific  and  Philosophical  Thought 
Regarding  Human  Society 

There  is  much  confusion  of  opinion  regarding  the 
value  of  scientific  or  philosophic  theories  of  Human 
Society.  We  do  not  know  with  any  precision  what  to 
expect  from  them  in  the  way  of  practical  guidance. 
We  are  divided  between  mistrust  of  abstract  theorizing 
and  our  clear  consciousness  of  the  efficacy  of  systematic 
thought  in  other  provinces.  We  can  hardly  maintain 
that  ignorance  of  social  laws  brings  no  risks,  or  deny 
that  mere  empiricism  in  politics,  which  finds  the  right 
way  by  exhausting  the  possibilities  of  error,  is  a  very 
expensive  method.  On  the  other  hand  we  are  not 
prepared  to  take  the  advice  of  Plato  and  make  our 
philosophers  kings — if  we  could  find  them — or  our  kings 
philosophers.  We  do  not  know  how  either  to  accept 
or  to  reject  the  pretensions  of  the  political  theorist, 
nor  what  value  to  set  upon  his  contributions.  And  I 
am  not  sure  that  we  do  not  sometimes  accept  what 
we  should  reject,  and  reject  what  we  should  lay  to 
heart. 

But  there  are  one  or  two  things  which  stand  out 
clear  amidst  the  confusion. 

In  the  first  place,  it  is  too  soon  to  speak  of  a  science 

<91 


492  SCIENTIFIC  &  PHILOSOPHICAL  THOUGHT 

or  philosophy  of  human  society.  It  has  not  come  as 
yet.  There  is  no  theory  which  commands  or  has  a 
claim  to  general  acceptance.  "  Principles  taken  upon 
trust,  conclusions  tamely  deduced  from  them,  want 
of  coherence  in  the  parts  and  of  evidence  in  the 
whole  " — the  well-known  plaint  of  David  Hume,  applies 
in  this  province.  Not  that  human  society  is  devoid  of 
its  own  essential  structure  and  functions.  There  are 
conditions  without  which  it  could  not  arise,  or  main- 
tain itself.  Human  Society  is  the  expression,  and,  by 
far  the  fullest  expression,  of  human  nature,  and  is  as 
much  subject  to  laws.  But  our  accounts  of  them  differ. 
There  are  many  theories  of  the  origin  and  nature  of 
human  society  and,  at  best,  only  one  of  them  is  correct. 
Political  philosophy  at  present  is  very  much  in  the 
condition  of  the  science  of  biology  before  Darwin.  Its 
votaries  are  accumulating  data  ;  there  is  much  observ- 
ation of  social  phenomena  and  we  are  rich  in  "  Re- 
ports." But  the  architectonic  principles  that  shall 
give  systematic  coherence  to  these  data,  and  set  free 
their  significance,  have  not  emerged.  Our  reflexions 
upon  social  phenomena  are  tentative,  hypothetical 
and  sporadic.  The  sciolists  have  all  the  confidence. 
Men  who  have  some  sense  of  the  severity  of  the  scientific 
or  of  the  negative  dynamism  of  the  philosophic  method 
have  only  hope.  They  find  the  path  of  systematic 
thought  much^obstructed  in  this  region.  It  is  not  easy 
to  be  dispassionate,  or  to  strike  the  personal  equation 
in  social  matters.  Human  society  is  very  complex; 
it  comprises  the  premisses  and  all  the  conclusions  of 
man's  interaction  with  his  fellows  and  with  his  natural 
environment.  It  is  the  expression  of  endlessly  numer- 
ous and  diverse  passions  and  warring  purposes  ;  and 
all  of  these  are  in  constant  process  of  change.  It  is 
never  the  same  at  different  epochs ;  history  repeats 


REGARDING  HUMAN   SOCIETY  493 

itself,  but  never  accurately.  The  changes  in  the 
structure  of  society  are  all  organic,  for  it  is  a  living 
thing  :  and  all  organic  changes  travel  through  and 
modify  the  whole  structure. 

In  the  second  place,  there  is  a  very  real  sense  in 
which  practice  must  precede  theory.  The  meaning 
of  an  action  is  never  clear  nor  full  till  after  it  is  done  : 
we  must  see  how  it  interacts  with  its  context  and  await 
the  issue.  Hegel,  who  did  not  want  speculative  bold- 
ness and  who  has  done  more  towards  social  philosophy 
than  any  other  writer  except  Plato  and  Aristotle,  warns 
the  philosopher  away  from  the  didactic  method. 
Philosophy  comes  too  late  to  say  how  the  world* 'ought 
to  go."  The  fact  must  come  before  the  theory  :  stars 
and  planets  before  astronomy  :  the  moral  and  social 
world  before  moral  and  social  philosophy.  *'  Philo- 
sophy gathers  up  the  meaning  of  a  civilization  which 
is  growing  old  :  it  comes  out,  like  the  owl  of  Minerva, 
in  the  evening  twilight.'' 

But  if  the  moral  and  social  sciences  can  never  be 
predictive  in  the  way  in  which  natural  science  can  fore- 
tell the  tides,  it  does  not  follow  that  they  are  helpless. 
Society  changes  because  it  is  permanent.  It  is  **  immor- 
tal through  generation,'*  to  use  the  phrase  of  Plato. 
''There  is  an  immortal  principle  in  the  mortal  crea- 
ture." There  are  conditions  without  which  no  society 
can  come  to  be  or  prosper  ;  and  we  are  not  ignorant  of 
all  of  them.  The  vast  experimentation  of  human 
history  has  not  been  void  of  results. 

Tradition  is  continuous  and  cumulative,  and  society 
progresses,  were  it  only  in  the  poor  sense  that  it  is  be- 
coming more  complex  and  that  both  its  evils  and  good 
are  on  a  larger  scale.  This  takes  place  through  re- 
flexion, by  which  the  lessons  of  the  past  are  extracted, 
and  it  is  the  special  business  of  philosophy  to  reflect 


494  SCIENTIFIC  &  PHILOSOPHICAL  THOUGHT 

— to  turn  the  mind  inwards  or  backwards  upon  its 
own  operations  and  results. 

But  it  is  an  error  to  attribute  such  reflexion  ex- 
clusively to  philosophy  :  just  as  it  is  to  think  that  babes 
and  sucklings  are  wise  because  they  are  babes  and  suck- 
hngs.  Philosophy  suffers  detriment  from  being  dis- 
tinguished too  abruptly  from  ordinary  experience. 
When  the  philosopher  is  about  to  speak,  men  are  apt 
to  strike  an  attitude,  not  always  reverential.  He  is 
supposed  to  lack  the  experience  of  ordinary  men,  as 
if  he  did  not  feel  when  pinched,  or  ginger  were  not  hot 
in  his  mouth  ;  and  he  is  supposed  also  to  be  more  in- 
different to  the  teachings  of  experience.  Does  he  not 
employ  a  peculiar  method  of  his  own,  moving  to  his 
results  along  an  d  priori  road  ;  and  does  he  not  delight 
in  abstractions  ?  He  is  very  well-meaning  and  estim- 
able, in  his  own  transcendental  way,  but  is  he  not  a 
somewhat  poor  judge  of  the  shadows  of  the  cave  and 
an  unpractical  guide  in  the  business  of  living  ?  The 
man  of  the  world  turns  a  deaf  ear  to  the  theorist, 
quite  unconscious  that  in  rejecting  the  theories  of  his 
contemporaries  he  is  the  victim  of  the  theories  of  their 
predecessors.  But  Naaman,  the  practical  politician, 
never  does  listen  to  Elisha  the  prophet.  "  Are  not 
Abana  and  Pharphar  better  than  all  the  waters  of 
Israel  ?     May  I  not  wash  in  them,   and   be  clean  ?  *' 

How  far  the  theorist  is  himself  responsible  for  the 
impression  he  has  made  I  do  not  know.  The  philo- 
sopher is  certainly  a  charlatan  if  he  puts  on  airs  ;  for 
no  one  should  know  better  how  vast  is  the  ocean  and 
how  small  is  his  boat.  But  the  difference  between  **  the 
ordinary,''  "  the  scientific ''  and  "  the  philosophic 
consciousness  "  has  been  over-accentuated.  After  all 
there  is  only  one  way  of  knowing.  All  minds 
have  the  same  essential  structure  and  perform,  more 


REGARDING  HUMAN   SOCIETY  495 

or  less  successfully,  the  same  functions.  There  is  no 
difference  between  thinking  and  thinking,  except  in 
persistence  and  thoroughness.  No  one  neglects  facts 
— not  even  the  philosopher  :  and  no  one  takes  them  as 
they  stand — not  even  the  most  sturdy  member  of  the 
common-sense  school.  There  is  no  d  priori  method, 
for  there  is  no  thinking  without  premisses  ;  and  even 
abstractions  are  extracted  from  '*  facts  *'  and  from 
nowhere  else.  The  philosopher  is  the  brother  of  the 
ordinary  man  ;  and  even  the  latter  cannot  get  at  ''  facts  " 
without  considerable  thinking ;  for,  unfortunately,  facts 
are  not  **  given  "  unless  they  are  **  taken  '' ;  and  if  their 
meaning  is  in  them,  it  has  to  be  apprehended. 

Furthermore,  both  philosophy  and  ordinary  re- 
flexion at  any  period  have  their  roots  in  the  same  general 
experience.  We  are  all  alike  the  vehicles  of  traditional 
conceptions  and  social  customs.  Society  forms  us, 
and  its  beliefs  and  habits  enter  into  the  very  constitu- 
tion of  our  minds,  long  before  we  can  react  upon  them 
in  the  way  of  criticism.  So  that,  in  truth,  it  is  society 
which  criticizes  itself  in  us,  producing  us  for  that  end 
that  its  wisdom  may  ripen  through  the  spirits  which  it 
educates.  The  philosopher  differs  from  his  neighbours 
only  in  that  his  reaction  is  more  deliberate  and  purposive. 
So  far  from  deriving  pre-eminence  from  his  singularity, 
it  can  come  only  by  his  entering  more  fully  into  the 
common  traditions.  To  become  the  teacher  of  his 
times  he  must  learn  from  his  times,  and  be  their  fore- 
most pupil.  He  will  be  the  more  effective  critic  and 
reformer,  the  more  ardent  his  discipleship.  I  should  be 
inclined  to  estimate  the  value  of  a  philosophic  theory 
by  its  affinity  to  the  general  thought  of  its  time, 
although  sometimes  it  has  to  wait  a  little  for  recog- 
nition, especially  if,  like  Carlyle's  Sartor,  it  appears  in 
a  strange  garb.     It  is  a  strong  presupposition  in  favour 


496  SCIENTIFIC  &  PHILOSOPHICAL  THOUGHT 

of  a  philosophic  theory  that  it  is  in  essential  accord 
with  the  spirit  of  the  period  in  which  it  flourishes. 

There  is  no  better  indication  of  the  value  of 
Modern  Idealism,  for  instance,  than  that  it  cannot 
pride  itself  upon  its  uniqueness.  The  main  conceptions 
it  would  demonstrate  and  apply  find  expression  in  the 
music  of  our  great  poets  ;  they  inspire  much  of  our 
religious  teaching,  and  they  are  even  working  blindly 
in  the  practical  efforts  of  our  social  reformers  and 
statesmen.  The  theory  of  Hegel  differs  from  that  of 
Locke  and  Hume  not  more  than  the  poetry  of  Goethe 
or  Wordsworth  from  that  of  Pope  and  Swift,  or  the 
social  and  political  life  of  our  day  from  that  of  the  age 
of  Fielding.  And  it  differs  in  the  same  way.  The 
world  is  too  intensely  practical  a  place  not  to  make  use 
of  great  thoughts  :  and  is  not  much  interested  in  the 
garb  of  him  who  utters  them. 

If  this  affinity  between  philosophical  and  all  other 
thinking  were  more  clearly  recognized  its  contribu- 
tions would  be  valued  more  accurately.  We  should 
listen  first  to  the  reflexions  which  carry  our  own  best 
thoughts  just  a  stage  further.  We  should  be  less  con- 
fident of  the  value'of  reforms  which  involve  violent  de- 
partures from  our  present  ways  of  life.  We  should 
discover,  once  more,  that  the  true  prophet  comes  not 
to  destroy  but  to  fulfil.  The  stars  in  their  courses  fight 
for  him,  because  he  has  made  out  the  paths  they  were 
travelling  upon  ;  and  he  hitches  his  projects  to  the  best 
tendencies  of  his  time. 

Amongst  the  contrasts  which  most  call  for  examin- 
ation in  these  days  is  that  between  scientific  or 
philosophic  thought  regarding  human  society,  and 
what  is  called  Christian  thought.  The  contrast  is 
generally  drawn  in  favour  of  the  latter  ;  but  I  think 
it  misleading  and  mischievous.     It  injures  both,  and 


REGARDING  HUMAN   SOCIETY  497 

the  latter  most  of  all.  The  authority  of  Christianity 
is  pledged  to  unripe  and  unsound  causes,  and  it  is 
implicated  in  social  projects  for  which  it  cannot  be 
held  responsible. 

The  contrast  runs  somewhat  as  follows. 

1.  The  premisses  of  scientific  and  philosophic 
thought  when  it  deals  with  human  society  are  regarded, 
quite  justly,  as  at  once  the  results  of,  and  open  to,  in- 
quiry :  those  of  Christian  thought  are,  unwisely  in  my 
opinion,  attributed  to  a  different  origin  and  endowed 
with  a  different  authority.  They  are  supposed  to  be 
ultimate  starting  points  rather  than  results,  and  to 
await  application  rather  than  verification. 

2.  Scientific  or  philosophic  thought  is  supposed  to 
be  guided  by  a  cold  and  abstract  logic.  It  moves  in 
the  domain  of  the  mere  intellect.  But  Christian 
thought  draws  its  material  and  its  inspiration  from 
the  emotional  and  volitional  depths  of  human  nature. 
The  experience  it  strives  to  interpret  is  more  rich.  It 
accepts  the  nuances  of  human  life  amongst  its  pre- 
misses. It  is  sensitive  to  the  chromatic  colours  on  the 
limiting  edges  of  human  destiny,  and  catches  the  subtle 
suggestions  which,  like  the  rays  of  the  sun  when  not 
yet  above  the  horizon,  shoot  upwards  from  the  region 
where  the  finite  dips  down  into  the  infinite.  But 
Philosophy  rejects  what  it  cannot  define.  It  forgets 
that  there  are  ways  to  truth  besides  ratiocination  ; 
that  the  heart  has  its  language  as  well  as  the  head ; 
and  that  its  language  is  as  much  richer  as  is  that  of  an 
ancient  literature  saturated  with  associations  than  a 
crabbed,  commercial  Volapuk. 

3.  It  is  only  the  language  which  comes  from  the 
heart  that  can  reach  the  heart.  It  alone  can  change 
men  and  reform  the  world  :  for  every  true  change 
is  a  change  of  heart.     But  science   and  philosophy 

c.c.  KK 


498  SCIENTIFIC  &  PHILOSOPHICAL  THOUGHT 

convict  without  convincing,  and  enlighten  without 
illuminating.  They  throw  a  cold  and  unimpassioned 
light  over  the  affairs  of  men.  They  help  to  reveal 
things  as  they  are  ;  but  they  kindle  no  revolt  against 
the  wrongs  of  the  world,  and  awaken  no  resolve  to 
combat  them.  Reason  may  be  the  source  of  truth,  but 
it  is  not  the  fount  of  desire.  It  may  bring  forth  ideas, 
but  it  fashions  no  ideals.  It  is  only  a  spectator  in  the 
market-place,  and  takes  no  part  in  the  buying  and 
selling. 

Now,  I  am  not  prepared  to  say  that  these  contrasts 
are  altogether  false  :  I  do  not  think  that  any  pure 
falsehoods  go  about  amongst  mankind.  It  is  certain 
that  the  most  mischievous  falsehoods  are  half-truths. 

I.  I  do  not  deny,  for  instance,  that  the  Christian 
religion  furnishes  truths  which  are  authoritative  ;  that 
they  are  adopted  without  examination  and  supposed 
to  need  no  verification.  But  they  are  authoritative 
only  because  they  are  believed  to  be  true.  Hence  they 
cannot  suffer  from  examination  :  and  if  they  could  be 
proved  they  would  not  be  less  secure.  The  mathe- 
matician has  his  intuitions,  he  anticipates  results ; 
but  he  never  dreams  that  his  intuitions  are  injured  by 
demonstration,  which  is  the  discovery  of  the  implicit 
premisses  on  which  they  rested.  ''  Christian  thought  '* 
cannot  gain  by  repudiating  the  methods  of  science 
and  the  searching  criticisms  of  philosophy  on  social 
matters  :  least  of  all  in  an  age  which  has  become  as 
impatient  of  dogmatism  in  religion  as  it  is  of  despotism 
in  politics.  Wherever  convictions  are  being  formed 
the  individual  judgment  claims  a  vote  ;  and  the  period 
of  dictation  is  closed.  '*  Who  knows  not  that  Truth 
is  strong,  next  to  the  Almighty  :  she  needs  no  policies 
nor  stratagems,  nor  licensings  to  make  her  victorious. 
These  are  the  shifts  and  the  defences  that  error  uses 


REGARDING  HUMAN   SOCIETY  499 

against  her  power.  Give  her  but  room,  and  do  not 
bind  her  when  she  sleeps.*'  I  wonder  when  the  Chris- 
tian Church  will  listen  to  Milton,  and  trust  her  cause 
enough  to  put  it  quite  frankly  in  the  context  of 
human  history.  For  my  part  I  think  it  can  hold 
its  own.  I  should  as  soon  buttress  mathematics  or 
chemistry  by  calling  it  Christian  Mathematics  or  Chris- 
tian Chemistry,  as  cite  Christianity  in  favour  of  my  own 
social  or  political  convictions,  and  speak  of  **  Christian 
Socialism,'*  or  "  Christian  Social  Science.'*  I  do  not 
need  the  adjective  if  I  am  sufficiently  convinced  that 
my  principles  are  true  ;  and  if  I  am  to  convince  my 
opponent  I  must  first  of  all  try  to  meet  him  on  ground 
that  is  open  and  common,  and  after  granting  him  the 
choice  of  weapons. 

2.  It  is  also  just  possible  to  study  human  society 
without  regard  to  the  passions  and  volitions  from  which 
it  emanates  ;  and  with  as  little  purpose  of  reforming  it  as 
the  astronomer  has  of  changing  the  course  of  the  planets. 
We  can  always  have  abstract  thoughts  and  narrow 
ends.  A  statistician  may  find  nothing  in  human 
society  but  things  to  add,  subtract,  and  strike  averages, 
and  a  political  economist  nothing  but  the  production, 
distribution  and  consumption  of  wealth.  Both  men 
are  most  useful,  so  long  as  they  do  not  take  the  parti- 
cular aspect  of  social  life  which  interests  them  for  the 
complex  whole  of  multitudinous  facets,  with  which  it 
sparkles  in  ever  changing  colours. 

But  even  the  statistician  and  the  economist  do 
not  indulge  in  pure  intellectualism,  nor  fail  to  convert 
their  thoughts  into  volitions.  The  avenue  between 
thought  and  practice  is  always  open,  and  no  one  can 
close  it.  Men  act  from  their  beliefs,  however  much 
they  may  betray  their  creeds.  Ideas  are  at  once  the 
products  and  the  grounds  of  volition.     They 'come 


500  SCIENTIFIC  &  PHILOSOPHICAL  THOUGHT 

from  purpose,  and  pass  into  purposes,  as  naturally  as 
buds  burst  into  flowers.  The  intellect  is  never 
"  mere,'*  or  "  pure  '*  ;  and  the  charge  of  ''  Intellectual- 
lism "  is  only  an  indication  of  shallow  psychology, 
and  men  make  it  only  against  opponents  whose  argu- 
ments they  cannot  meet.  Man's  spirit  is  no  loose  com- 
pound of  intellectual  and  volitional  and  passionate  ele- 
ments, acting  separately.  One  might  as  well  suspect  the 
brain  of  working  when  the  heart  is  dead  as  maintain  that 
the  intellect  speculates  while  the  will  and  passions  sleep. 
Not  even  the  most  abstract  truth  is  sought  without  being 
desired  or  attained  without  the  due  degree  of  emotion. 
The  desire  for  truth,  for  mere  truth,  is  a  desire  for  the 
good,  and  not  seldom  for  that  precise  kind  of  good 
which  men  most  need.  It  is  the  pressure  of  the  felt 
need  which  directs  the  will  to  its  intellectual  research 
and  gives  it  purpose.  They  also  serve  who  only  stand 
and  think.  And  when,  by  much  thinking  upon  human 
society  a  philosophy  or  science  of  its  structure  and 
laws  emerges,  our  practical  statesmanship  will  surely 
be  a  little  less  blind,  its  paths  a  little  less  tortuous,  and 
its  results  a  little  less  costly.  Invention  will  follow 
discovery,  and  the  regulation  of  human  affairs  will  fol- 
low the  comprehension  of  them,  as  surely — and  with  no 
less  vast  an  advantage — as  in  the  domain  of  natural 
science. 

It  is  peculiarly  inept  and  mal-d-propos  to  decry 
intellectualism,  or  to  appeal  to  the  emotions  against 
the  intelligence,  in  the  field  of  social  science.  Passion 
is  apt  to  be  too  unbridled  in  this  sphere,  and  to  exercise 
all  too  successfully  its  own  destructive  methods  of 
shutting  out  the  wide  world  and  shutting  in  the  mind 
amongst  narrow  issues  and  one-sided  views.  Passion  is 
never  wise  except  when  it  is  based  upon  reflexion  ;  it  is 
always  foolish  when  it  is  opposed  to  the  intelligence. 


REGARDING  HUMAN   SOCIETY  501 

It  "  can  do  nothing  against  the  truth,  but  for  the  truth." 
No  political  philosopher  known  to  me  has  lacked  passion 
for  improving  the  world.  He  is  doing  the  duty  next 
to  hand,  only  it  happens  that  his  duty  is  to  try  to  think 
with  all  the  power  he  can  command ;  for  he  believes 
that  if  men  are  to  walk  more  securely  it  must  be  in  a 
better  light.  It  was  deep  love  for  the  State  and  a 
strong  desire  to  see  it  based  upon  foundations  that 
endure  which  led  Plato  to  conceive  his  ideal  republic, 
"  on  the  pattern  of  the  state  which  is  in  heaven."  It 
never  dawned  upon  Aristotle,  any  more  than  upon 
Kant,  that  there  can  be  truths  which  are  not  practical. 
It  was  his  heart-weariness  of  the  anarchy  of  the  Civil 
War  which  led  Hobbes  to  write  his  Leviathan,  and 
it  was  his  eminently  practical  interests  which  both 
inspired  and  limited  the  speculations  of  Locke  regarding 
Civil  Government.  Spinoza  strove  to  contemplate  all 
things  sub  specie  ceternitatis,  but  he  desired  a  better  life 
for  mankind  as  ardently  as  Rousseau,  even  although 
he  did  not  tip  his  thoughts  with  the  fire  which  kindles 
revolutions.  And  can  any  one  discover  cold  Intel- 
lectualism  in  Burke,  or  Bentham,  or  Carlyle,  or  Mill, 
or  Green,  the  latest  of  the  great  exponents  of  the  nature 
of  human  society  ? 

It  is  a  wrong  to  scientific  men  and  philosophers 
to  charge  them  with  lack  of  passion  in  their  dealings 
with  human  society;  although  they  have  striven  to 
prevent  their  own  private  passions  from  mingling 
amongst  their  premisses,  setting  an  example  we  should 
try  to  follow.  That  they  have  neglected  the  play  of 
human  passion  in  human  history  is  a  charge  which 
cannot  be  substantiated.  Least  of  all  can  the  social 
philosopher  who  deals  with  Western  Civilization  refuse 
to  admit  amongst  its  premisses  the  vast  emotional 
power  of  the  eternal  verities  of  the  Christian  religion. 


502  SCIENTIFIC  &  PHILOSOPHICAL  THOUGHT 

Any  science  or  philosophy  which  did  that  would  stand 
convicted  of  flagrant  abstractness. 

The  wrong  to  Christianity  that  comes  from  dis- 
tinguishing it  from  the  dehberate  reflexion  and  high 
trust  in  truth  which  animates  science  and  philosophy,  or 
from  denying  to  it  the  use  of  their  methods,  results, 
and  spirit,  is  still  deeper.  To  withdraw  its  doctrines 
from  their  scrutiny  is  not  to  establish  their  authority 
but  to  render  them  suspect,  and  at  the  same  time  it 
throws  the  door  open  for  any  false  prophet  to  prophesy 
in  its  name. 

The  contrast  between  Christian  and  scientific  or 
philosophic  thought  is  entirely  unjustifiable.  If  Chris- 
tianity is  true  it  is  scientifically  and  philosophically 
true.  There  is  no  such  thing  as  ''  Christian  thought,** 
any  more  than  there  is  Mohammedan,  or  Buddhist, 
or  Parsee  thought ;  though  fortunately  there  is  much 
rational  thought  from  Christian  premisses.  Nor  is 
there  "  Christian  Science,**  except  that  which  is  neither 
Christianity  nor  Science.  Least  of  all  is  there  a 
Christian  theory  of  human  society,  which  more  deserves 
the  name  of  "  Christian  Socialism  **  than  ''  Christian 
Individualism.**  Its  characteristic  doctrines,  such  as 
the  doctrine  of  the  Fatherhood  of  God,  and  the  brother- 
hood of  man,  and  of  Love  as  the  fulfilment  of  the  law 
express  the  ultimate  conditions  of  both  social  and 
individual  welfare. 

But  it  is  a  grave  wrong  to  identify  Christianity 
with  any  special  theory  of  social  and  political  life.  The 
Christian  religion  is  interested  primarily  in  individual 
character,  that  is,  in  the  direct  relation  of  man*s  most 
sacred  inner  life  to  his  God.  No  doubt  the  light  of 
religion  once  kindled  within  will  cast  its  rays  upon  the 
whole  region  of  man*s  activities.  Its  supreme  prin- 
ciples are  destined,  I  believe,  to  inform  and  to  inspire 


REGARDING  HUMAN   SOCIETY  503 

and  to  sanctify  the  secular  states  of  the  world,  so  that 
they  shall  be  merely  secular  no  more.     "  In  that  day 
shall  there  be  upon  the  bells  of  the  horses,  Holiness 
unto  the  Lord  ;  and  the  pots  in  the  Lord's  house  shall 
be  like  the  bowls  upon  the  altar.     Yea  every  pot  in 
Jerusalem  and  in  Judah  shall   be  holiness  unto  the 
Lord   of   hosts.'*     But  it  by  no  means   follows  that 
these    principles    can    express    themselves,  or    make 
themselves  good,  in  only  one  form  of  social  or  industrial 
organization  ;    or  that  when  they  rule  the  world  there 
shall  be  property  no  more,  or  '  masters '  no  more,  and 
'  men  *  no  more.     A  living  principle  can  take  many 
forms  in  the  course  of  its  evolution.     The  Christianity 
which     can     reform    the    world     must     retain    its 
universality  ;  and  we  had  better  not  bind  it  down  to 
our  own  political   creed,  or   make  it  responsible  for 
our  social  specifics   and  nostrums.      Its  business  lies 
amongst  motives.     It  concentrates  its  forces  upon  the 
citadel.     Secure  of  the  heart  it  is  secure  of  the  whole 
domain  of  man's  nature  and  actions.     Looking  to  its 
founder,    and   to   his   immediate   disciples,   I  find  in 
their  teachings  the  minimum  of  social  theory,  and  in 
their  example  the  minimum  of  direct  interest  in  social 
and  political  questions.     Jesus  of  Nazareth  refused  to 
be  entangled  in  questions  of  rights  of  property.     '*  Man, 
who  made  me  a  judge,  or  a  divider,  over  you? "     Nor 
would  he  assist  the  patriot,  if  patriot  he  was,  to  decide 
whether  tribute  should  or  should  not  be  given  to  Csesar. 
There  is  as  little  political  theory  in  His  teachings  as 
there  is  biology  or  astronomy  ;  and  Christian  teachers 
should  be  wary,  after  the  sharp  lessons  of  the  past,  of 
extracting  specific  doctrines,  socialistic  or  other,  from 
a  teacher  who  was  content  to  let  loose  upon  the  world 
great  principles  and  to  let  them  work  amongst  the  mass 
of  motives  and  institutions,  even  as  the  leaven  works. 


504  SCIENTIFIC  &  PHILOSOPHICAL  THOUGHT 

Stung  with  the  evils  of  our  industrial  civilization  and 
its  all  too  evidently  tragical  wrongs  many  good  men 
would  overturn  its  institutions  and  advocate  methods 
of  revolution.     I  should  say  to  them  that  this  cannot 
be  done,  in  the  name  of  Christianity ;    any  more  than 
can    the    defence    of   them    come    from    Christianity. 
Christianity  is  silent  as  to  the  forms  of  social  and  politi- 
cal life.     Its  hope,  and  its  task,  lies  neither  in  over- 
turning nor  in  maintaining  the  relations  which  connect 
men  in  society,  but  in  moralizing  them.     The  method 
of  overturn   (or  of  defence,  for  that  matter)  is  much 
more  simple  :  it  is  always  easier  to  deal  with  the  outer 
husk  than  with  the  inner  life.     But  such  a  method  is 
not  radical  enough  for  Christianity.     Its  business  is  to 
change  the  heart.     The  main  relations  which    now 
divide  man  from  man,  and  link  man  to  man  in  dividing 
them,  giving  to  each  his  own  station  and  duties,  are 
probably  essential  to  society.     In  any  case  they  can  be 
adequately  changed  only  from  within.     The  ordinary 
daily  connexions  by  which  man  is  bound  to  man  in 
his  business,  in  public  works,  in  offices,  in  all  avocations 
are  capable  of  being  touched  to  higher  issues  by  the 
Christian  ideal.     The  workshops  can  become  schools  of 
virtue,  makers  and  not  destroyers  of  men.     Masters 
may  come  to  care  for  their  men,  even  as  they  care  for 
their  machines  ;    and  men  for  their  masters  even  as 
they  care  for  wage  and  short  hours.     Social  relations  are 
meant  to  be  moral  relations,  and  to  be  interpreted  first 
as  duties,  and  as  rights  only  as  a  secondary  consequence. 
And  Christianity,  it  seems  to  me,  is  a  witness  to  this 
cardinal  fact.     Silent  about  social  machinery,  leaving 
that  to  be  invented  little  by  Uttle  from  age  to  age,  it 
inspires  men  with  principles  too  great  to  be  bound  to 
any  fixed  and  final  social  or  political  form.     It  would 
not  be  difficult  to  show,  I  believe,  that  for  many  cen- 


REGARDING  HUMAN   SOCIETY        505 

turies  together  its  primary  task  and  best  influence 
consisted  in  liberating  man  from  the  world,  and  teaching 
him  the  worth  of  individuality ;  buying  his  spiritual 
freedom  at  a  great  price.  But  it  was  not  disqualified 
thereby,  when  civilization  was  ripe  to  receive  the 
lessons,  from  teaching  mankind  the  opposite  aspect 
of  the  same  truth,  namely  that  spiritual  life  consists 
not  in  freedom  from  the  world,  but  in  freedom  in  a 
world  saturated  with  a  spiritual  meaning.  Christi- 
anity has  helped  to  destroy  empires ;  for  it  was  no 
doubt  responsible  in  great  part  for  the  decline  and 
fall  of  Rome,  detaching  from  its  service  men  capable 
of  generous  aims  and  contemning  all  secular  interests. 
It  is  destined  yet  to  help  to  build  empires  on  a  surer 
foundation,  and  to  come  to  a  truer  sense  of  its  own 
significance  in  doing  so.  But  it  was  never  a  political 
or  social  theory.  Indeed,  at  no  period  in  their  history 
have  the  Hebrew  people  differed  from  other  Eastern 
nations  in  the  crudeness  of  their  social  and  political 
conceptions.  We  owe  our  conceptions  of  citizenship 
to  Greece  and  Rome,  not  less  conspicuously  than  we 
owe  the  inspiration  of  personal  religion  to  the  Hebrews. 
And  if  I  confess  readily  that  the  personal  religion  which 
is  adequate  to  the  Christian  idea  must  ultimately  ex- 
press itself  in  the  free  institutions  of  moralized  states, 
I  must  insist  on  the  other  hand  that  without  the  testi- 
mony to  the  value  of  such  institutions  which  came 
from  other  peoples  than  the  Hebrews,  personal  religion 
was  impossible.  If  perfect  citizens  imply  a  perfect 
state  :  a  perfect  state  no  less  implies  perfect  citizens  ; 
and  state  and  citizen  move  towards  perfection  pari 
passu, 

I  cannot  give  priority  to  either,  for  neither  can  attain 
its  best  except  through  the  other.  And  having  been 
freed  from  the  narrow  conception  of  history  which 


5o6  SCIENTIFIC  &  PHILOSOPHICAL  THOUGHT 

made  only  selected  bits  of  it  sacred,  and  from  the  dis- 
tressing view  of  a  God  who  was  a  Father  to  one  Child 
amongst  the  nations,  and  a  Step-father  to  all  the  others 
on  His  hearth,  I  am  not  able  to  fall  back  upon  a  less 
generous  creed.  Christianity  cannot  gain  by  isolation, 
nor  does  the  preeminence  of  its  religious  and  moral 
revelation  rest  upon  the  impotence  or  worthlessness 
of  a  social  environment  which  was  not  of  its  crea- 
tion. 

''  The  Christian  ideal,''  it  is  said,  ''  and  the  influences 
of  Christian  thought  and  faith  have  elevated  and  pene- 
trated scientific  and  philosophic  thought  respecting  hu- 
man society,  and  scientific  and  philosophic  thought  can 
concur  with,  encourage  and  strengthen  the  aspira- 
tions and  activities  of  the  Christian  Church/'  This 
is  quite  true.  That  the  dynamic  power  which  moves 
the  world  lies  concentrated  in  ideals  is  a  truth  which 
neither  individuals  nor  nations  can  lay  too  much  to 
heart.  And  the  religious  ideal  is  the  most  potent  of 
them  all ;  for  in  it  is  concentrated  all  the  others.  The 
object  of  religion,  whom  we  call  God,  stands  at  all  times 
for  the  best  conception  we  can  form  of  a  perfection 
that  is  in  no  wise  limited.  The  exercise  of  religion  is 
life  in  direct  relation  to  this  perfection  :  life  in  God, 
through  God,  for  God.  In  this  light  and  context,  regarded 
suh  specie  ceternitatis,  ideas  and  desires  are  placed  in  their 
true  perspective.  We  come  to  see  what  is  great  and 
what  is  little,  what  is  well  worth  doing  and  better  let 
alone.  So  that  the  religious  ideal  is  the  dominant  lord 
of  a  good  life.  It  is  impossible  to  attribute  too  much 
value  to  the  ideals  of  Christianity. 

But  ideals  do  not  come  out  upon  the  world  in  full 
potency,  as  Minerva  sprang  from  the  head  of  Jove. 
They  are  practical  hypotheses  that  gain  as  well  as  give 
meaning  in  being  applied.     To  know  what  the  Christian 


REGARDING  HUMAN   SOCIETY         507 

principle  of  love  means  we  must  live  the  life  of  love. 
It  is  in  doing  the  will  of  God  that  man  learns  the  doc- 
trine. If  at  every  step  in  its  advance  human  society 
must  be  guided  by  the  ideals  of  the  Founder  of  Christi- 
anity, these  ideals  themselves  in  order  to  acquire  their 
meaning  need  the  expanding  forms  of  secular  civiliza- 
tion. We  confess  only  a  part  of  the  truth  if  we  speak 
of  these  ideals  as  "  penetrating  and  elevating  scientific 
and  philosophic  thought  respecting  human  society." 
Such  a  statement  implies  that  the  ideals  have  stood 
fixed  in  their  perfection  from  the  first,  and  that  science 
and  philosophy  can  only  concur  and  substantiate 
them.  No  ideals  have  such  fixity,  and  philosophy  can 
have  no  dogmatic  kernel.  If  Christian  truth  is  to  rank 
first  for  philosophy,  philosophy  must  discover  its  prim- 
acy from  its  truth.  Philosophy  may  find  that  in 
*'  Him  '*  all  things  consist,  but  it  cannot  presume  it. 
The  world  has  already  rejected  the  formula  of  Credo 
ut  intelligam,  in  favour  of  the  formula  of  intellec- 
tual freedom,  Intelligo  ut  credam.  Philosophy  must 
treat  Christianity,  even  in  its  ideals,  as  part  of  the  warp 
and  woof  of  human  history,  and  subject  it  in  all  ways 
to  the  laws  of  its  development.  And  those  whose  faith 
in  Christianity  is  full  and  without  flaw  will  welcome 
the  inquiry.  There  is  no  testimony  better  worth 
obtaining  than  that  of  the  impartial  witness,  except 
that  of  the  unwilling  witness. 

The  splendour  of  the  Christian  ideals  lies  in  the 
greatness  of  their  promise.  The  conception  of  the 
Fatherhood  of  God  is  meant,  I  believe,  to  emancipate 
nature  from  the  bonds  of  mere  naturaHsm.  There 
are  explosive  utterances  in  the  New  Testament 
which  are  prophetic  of  the  complete  dominion  of 
spirit  over  nature.  "  Seek  ye  first  the  Kingdom  of 
God   and    his   righteousness,    and    all    these   things 


5o8  SCIENTIFIC  &  PHILOSOPHICAL  THOUGHT 

shall  be  added  unto  you "  :  for  there  is  no  rift, 
or  inconsequence  between  the  moral  order  and  the 
natural.  "  If  thou  canst  believe,  all  things  are  possible 
to  him  that  believeth."  ''  All  things  are  yours  for  ye 
are  Christ's.'*  "  Be  ye  of  good  cheer  for  I  have  over- 
come the  world.*'  "  We  know  that  all  things  work 
together  for  good  to  them  that  love  God."  '*  For  the 
earnest  expectation  of  the  creature  waiteth  for  the  mani- 
festation of  the  sons  of  God."  "  If  God  be  for  us,  who 
can  be  against  us?"  asks  St.  Paul,  and  the  question 
leads  to  the  magnificent  challenge  of  all  the  powers, 
and  the  confidence  that  in  all  these  things  we  are 
*'  more  than  conquerors."  The  spirit  of  Christianity 
at  its  highest  is  inconsistent  with  the  view  that  the 
victory  of  spirit  is  to  be  partial,  and  that  "  Nature  " 
can  remain  an  exception  to  the  benevolent  purposes 
of  a  benevolent  will  which  can  neither  fail  nor  falter. 
But  the  deeper  meanings  of  such  utterances  are  lost 
to  the  world  till  it  has  experienced  the  life  that  reveals 
it.  A  little  child  may  understand  in  his  way  that 
the  Lord  is  his  shepherd,  and  that  he  shall  not  want ; 
but  his  understanding  of  it  is  not  what  it  can  be,  if  he 
can  say  it  after  a  long  life  during  which  he  has  often 
strayed  in  the  wilderness,  known  the  pathos  of  sins 
forgiven,  become  saturated  with  the  sense  of  his  weak- 
ness and  ill-desert,  and  lonely  after  many  bereave- 
ments. In  a  similar  way  the  free  enterprise  of  science 
and  philosophy  has  been  necessary  to  lift  the  veil  of 
naturalism  from  the  face  of  nature.  For  the  deists  of 
the  eighteenth  century  it  was  "a  brass  eight-day  clock 
set  going  long  ago,"  with  its  author  looking  at  it  and  not 
interfering,  except  at  times  miraculously  to  move  the 
hands  :  for  Arnold,  and  how  many  more,  in  our  own 
day,  it  is  a  monstrous  mechanism  indifferent  to  the 
moral  fate  of  man,  never  curbing  its  pride  *'  to  give  his 


REGARDING   HUMAN  SOCIETY  509 

virtues  room  *' :  to  Professor  Huxley  it  was  a  Macrocosm 
pitted  against  the  Mikrocosm,  not  even  indifferent,  but 
biased  against  the  good,  encouraging  with  its  rewards 
of  food  and  drink  and  Hfe  and  pleasure,  the  greedy  maw 
and  the  brute  powers  which  win  the  battle  in  '*  the 
struggle  for  existence,"  and  by  no  means  the  qualities 
of  meekness  and  lowliness,  and  patience  and  loving- 
kindness.  To  meet  such  views,  to  make  good  the 
Christian  conception  of  a  dominion  of  love  which  is 
universal  and  knows  no  shallows  or  shores,  we  require 
the  poet  and  philosopher;  so  that  to  Goethe  nature 
might  be  the  transparent  vesture  of  divinity  ;  to  Carlyle 
the  region  of  the  Natural  super-natural;  to  Words- 
worth a  world  interfused  with  a  Presence 

Whose  dwelling  is  the  light  of  setting  suns  .  .  . 

A  motion  and  a  spirit  that  impels 

All  thinking  things,  all  objects  of  all  thought. 

If  the  conception  is  native  to  Christianity  from  the 
first,  the  labour  of  many  ages  has  been  needed  to  bring 
forth  the  poets  and  philosophers  who  could  discern  its 
significance.  Nor  is  the  truth  made  out  yet.  It  is 
still  a  vision  to  the  poet  and  a  hypothesis — the  sanest 
he  knows — for  the  philosopher.  The  principle  of  the 
spirituality  of  nature  is  meant  to  be  like  the  ocean 
*'  whose  waters  cover  the  sea  "  ;  but  the  tide  is  not  yet 
full,  and  the  waters  have  not  as  yet  crept  up  the 
creeks.     Spirit,  says  Wordsworth, 

Knows  no  insulated  spot,.  ^    . 

No  chasm,  no  solitude,  but 

From  link  to  link 
It  circulates,  the  soul  of  all  the  world. 

There  are  Christians  who  cannot  say  this,  for  fear  of 
Pantheism.  They  know  no  better  way  of  leaving  room 
for  man  than  by  excluding  God.     And  science  has  to 


510  SCIENTIFIC  &  PHILOSOPHICAL  THOUGHT 

come  in  to  support  the  visions  of  the  poet,  the  hope  of 
rehgious  faith  and  the  anticipations  of  the  philosopher. 
It  is  coming  in  :  it  is  experiencing,  not  the  untruth,  but 
the  insufficiency  of  its  mechanical  categories  ;  and  in 
its  own  slow,  patient  spirit,  indurated  by  its  habit  of 
meeting  hard  facts  face  to  face,  it  is  pointing  to  the 
need  of  the  conception  of  final  ends,  aware  of  the  rela- 
tion of  nature  to  mind,  and  materialistic  no  more. 

It  is  the  same  service  that  is  being  slowly  done  by 
science  and  philosophy  in  regard  to  human  society. 
I  have  no  doubt  that  the  single  principle  of  Christian 
Love  is  adequate  to  the  needs  of  man,  whether  as  indi- 
vidual, or  as  forming  with  his  fellows  the  multiform 
social  institutions  which  are  the  fullest  exposition  of  his 
nature.  But  it  needs  experience,  and  reflexion  upon 
experience  to  lead  out  its  contents.  Nothing  is  truly 
learnt  except  by  experiencing  it.  The  thought  must 
become  a  will,  and  the  will  a  deed.  To  seek  to  learn 
morality  by  rote,  a  religion  by  means  of  doctrine  and 
nothing  more,  is  as  futile  as  to  try  to  learn  carpentry 
without  handling  tools.  Our  real  knowledge  coincides 
with  our  real  life.  Indeed,  moral  and  religious  princi- 
ples may  become  trite  and  stale  if  they  are  much  talked 
about  before  experience  comes  to  give  their  meaning 
reality.  There  are  people  from  whose  tongues  moral 
saws  and  religious  maxims  come  all  too  trippingly, 
souls  made  dull  of  hearing  with  talk  that  makes  the 
things  of  the  Spirit  cheap,  who  will  hardly  feel  the 
power  of  truths  made  trite.  This  is  what  makes  the 
times  of  religious  revival,  and  the  use  of  the  methods 
of  revival  so  doubtful,  or  at  least,  so  mixed,  in  their 
influence.  They  aim  at  the  emotions,  and  sometimes 
exhaust  them  on  emptiness.  There  are  spirits  which 
will  hardly  bear  bud  and  leaf  any  more  ;  for  the  flame  of 
emotion  has  passed  over  them  and  they  stand  seared,  like 


REGARDING  HUMAN   SOCIETY  511 

trees  after  a  forest  fire.  This  is  also  what  makes  the  oral 
teaching  of  morality  and  religion  in  schools  so  difficult 
and  even  so  dangerous  an  enterprise.  Spiritual  ideals 
must  be  the  immediate  prelude  to,  nay  must  straight- 
way pass  into  action.  It  is  not  enough  that  fine  senti- 
ments should  be  engendered,  for  we  are  not  mere 
spectators  at  a  play.  The  doctrine  cannot  be  divorced 
from  the  doing,  nor  the  life  of  the  Church  from  that  of 
the  world. 

Once  more,  we  thus  arrive  at  the  need  of  placing 
the  Christian  ideals  frankly  in  the  context  of  the  ordin- 
ary world,  claiming  for  them  no  privilege,  or  aloofness, 
using  no  stratagems,  but  trusting  to  the  power  of  their 
truth.  Science  and  philosophy  must  be  left  absolutely 
free  to  inquire,  and  the  world  must  be  given  ample 
scope  to  test  by  actual  experience  the  value  of  its 
practical  ideals.  It  must  exhaust  their  abstract 
aspects  one  by  one,  be  stung  by  the  falsehood  of  half- 
truths,  and  driven  from  one  imperfect  rendering  after 
another  of  the  Good  it  seeks,  defining  its  visions  as  it 
gains  a  less  distant  view  of  its  goal.  One  form  of  civiliz- 
ation after  another  has  to  be  tried  ;  social  institutions 
must  be  set  up  and  pulled  down  again  in  endless  series  ; 
the  tribal  community  must  become  the  civic  state,  and 
the  civic  state  a  nation  and  an  empire,  and  nations  and 
empires  must  be  bound  together  more  and  more  intim- 
ately in  mutual  dependence  and  usefulness.  Status 
must  pass  into  contract,  and  contract  into  a  unity  of 
spirit  deeper  than  any  contract.  The  rule  of  one  must 
become  the  rule  of  the  few,  and  the  rule  of  the  few  the 
rule  of  the  many  and  of  all ;  until  there  is  attained 
the  service  which  is  perfect  freedom  and  the  freedom 
which  is  loyal  obedience.  And  the  spirit  which  ani- 
mates the  successive  social  forms  must  change  step  by 
step  with  the  forms  themselves,  for  it  cannot  live  except 


512  SCIENTIFIC  &  PHILOSOPHICAL  THOUGHT 

in  the  body  which  it  has  itself  built  up  little  by  little 
from  its  environment.  Indeed,  the  military  state 
implies  the  military  spirit  in  its  members  ;  and  the 
industrial  state  is  the  index,  nay,  the  natural  and  inevit- 
able expression,  of  minds  set  first  upon  material  good. 
A  socialist  state,  even  were  it  to  be  brought  forth  with 
all  the  ideal  perfection  of  machinery  that  enthusiasts 
could  desire,  would  be  for  citizens  prone  to  assert  their 
''  rights  "  rather  than  to  recognize  their  ''  duties," 
only  a  more  powerful  and  destructive  weapon  for  indi- 
vidualism. Ideals  can  live  only  in  the  medium  of  their 
own  atmosphere. 

I  have  already  said  that  philosophy  appears  when 
some  form  of  civilization  has  grown  old.  Ages  of 
reflexion  are  not,  as  a  rule,  times  of  great  enterprise. 
We  are  spurred  into  thinking,  the  psychologists  tell 
us,  when  we  discover  that  appearances  are  false,  that 
we  have  been  harbouring  illusions  and  contradictions. 
We  reflect  when  we  find  ourselves  in  trouble.  Old 
traditions  have  turned  out  false,  old  formulae  in  politi- 
cal and  religious  life  have  become  inadequate.  We 
are  not  at  peace,  our  life  is  divided  against  itself,  and 
we  know  not  why.  It  is  at  such  times  that  philosophy 
finds  its  supreme  function — and  with  it,  always,  poetry 
if  they  are  both  at  their  best.  By  its  reflexion  it 
accentuates  the  contradictions  which  irk  and  pain  the 
ordinary  consciousness,  it  knows  not  why.  It  discovers 
the  seat  of  the  disease. 

He  took  the  suffering  human  race. 
He  read  each  wound,  each  weakness  clear. 
And  struck  his  finger  on  the  place, 
And  said :  Thou  ailest  here,  and  here ! 

Sometimes,  though  by  no  means  always,  it  discovers 
the  truth  which  underlies,  or  rather  which  is  implicitly 


REGARDING  HUMAN   SOCIETY  513 

present  in  the  contradicting  elements  and  points  out 
the  remedy  as  well  as  the  disease. 

The  primary  function  of  philosophy  is  to  be  a 
witness  to  the  unity  of  the  world  and  the  wholeness  of 
life.  But  the  task  it  first  performs  in  exercising  its 
function  is  that  of  criticism.  It  exposes  the  inade- 
quacy of  the  principles  which  the  working  world  has 
adopted,  it  knows  not  whence,  nor  why.  It  traces 
back  its  unrest,  its  doubts  and  its  bewilderment  to 
these  ideal  causes  ;  for  in  the  world  of  human  action 
there  are  no  causes  except  ideals.  It  shows,  in  the  last 
resort,  that  human  ills,  social  and  individual,  come 
from  man's  ignorance  of  himself.  For  ages  together 
abstract  and  misleading  conceptions  of  the  nature  of 
the  individual  and  of  society  have  been  entertained, 
and  have  ruled  men  all  the  more  despotically  because 
they  had  not  thought  about  them.  Individuality 
seemed  to  mean  independence  ;  personality  to  rest  on 
exclusion  and  to  have  uniqueness  and  particularity  as 
its  essence  ;  freedom  to  be  isolation  and  detachment ; 
society  to  be  an  artificial  convention  that  limited  indi- 
viduality and  hindered  freedom  ;  and  social  functions 
to  be  merely  negative  and  regulative  and  therefore  to 
be  reduced  to  a  minimum.  Led  by  such  conceptions, 
for  the  world  always  follows  them,  we  find  a  nation 
striving  to  cast  away  its  customs  and  traditions.  It 
would  be  without  social  conventions,  a  ''  Nation  of 
Sanscullotes  ''  '*  free  ",  beginning  the  world  over  again 
at  the  **  Year  One."  But  the  attainment  of  such 
freedom  is  found  to  be  somehow  the  attainment  of 
what  was  not  wanted  after  all.  A  great  price  has  been 
paid  for  a  false  good.  Then  reflexion,  aided  by  cir- 
cumstance, philosophy  taught  by  the  world  (and  by  no 
means  always  wearing  the  philosopher's  garb)  comes 
in  to  explain.      We  have  Lessing  and  Goethe,  Kant 

CO.  L  L 


514  SCIENTIFIC  &  PHILOSOPHICAL  THOUGHT 

and  Hegel  at  war  with  the  ancient  duahsms,  which 
set  man  against  the  world,  nature  against  Spirit,  the 
citizen  against  the  State  and  the  State  against  Society. 
An  exclusive  personality  is  found  to  be  empty  ;  nega- 
tive freedom  to  be  mere  impotence,  for  one  can  do 
nothing  against  the  world,  but  with  it.  Society  is 
bound  not  to  be  artificial,  or  alien  ;  not  a  limit  nor  a 
hindrance  to  the  individual,  but  the  very  stuff  of  the 
individuality  of  its  citizens.  Bentham  yields  to  Mill 
and  Mill  to  Carlyle  (whom  we  have  not  done  with), 
and  Green.  Little  by  little  philosophy,  aided  by  the 
poets,  is  teaching  the  implication  of  man  in  mankind, 
of  mankind  in  man,  and  of  nature  in  both. 

This,  I  conceive,  is  the  task  on  which  at  the  present 
day  the  scientific  and  philosophic  thought  regarding 
human  society  is  engaged.  It  is  making  good  gradually, 
painfully  and  against  much  resistance,  the  practical 
validity  of  this  conception  of  the  mutual  implication 
of  man  with  mankind.  It  is  helping  men,  not  so  much 
by  constructing  plans  of  an  ideal  society  as  by  indicat- 
ing the  causes  of  the  unrest  of  our  present  practical 
social  life.  It  takes  up  social  life  as  it  finds  it,  and  is 
endeavouring  to  bring  into  explicit  view  its  implicit 
better  thoughts — "helping  Nature,'*  as  wise  physicians 
do,  to  medicate  its  own  evils. 

It  finds  men  aware,  as  they  never  were  before,  of 
their  need  of  one  another.  They  know  that  Society 
is  like  a  machine,  whose  parts  are  necessary,  and  must 
fit  into  one  another.  Labour  knows  that  it  needs 
Capital,  and  Capital  that  it  needs  Labour.  But,  as  a 
machine  works  under  the  law  of  stress  and  strain,  every 
wheel  turning  round  by  friction  against  its  neighbours 
which  turn  in  the  opposite  direction,  so  do  Labour  and 
Capital,  each  fortifying  itself  within  itself  by  means  of 
unions  and  combinations,  strive  with  much  friction  and 


REGARDING  HUMAN   SOCIETY  515 

mutual  loss  against  the  other.  Philosophy  points  to  a 
better  conception,  and  indicates  that  the  stress  and 
strain  of  a  machine  might  conceivably  pass  into  organic 
co-operation.  We  have  states  in  need  of  each  other, 
not  one  of  them  wilhng  to  be  shut  out  of  the  world's 
mart,  but  fully  aware  that  to  prosper  it  must  trade  in 
the  open  market.  Yet  they  would  fain  sell  and  not 
buy,  seeking  their  own  good  by  hindering  others, 
and  restoring  the  methods  of  mechanism !  Philosophy 
tries  to  point  out  that  such  projects  have  to  reckon  with 
the  nature  of  things,  and  that  the  nature  of  things 
prescribes  the  better  method  of  organic  unity,  a  com- 
munity of  enterprise  and  participation  in  a  good  which 
is  greater  for  each  because  it  is  common  to  all. 

There  is  a  sense  in  which  the  service  of  scientific 
and  philosophic  thought  is  humble  enough.  It  is  in  a 
manner  of  speaking  only  endeavouring  to  substitute 
one  metaphor  for  another — that  of  society  as  an 
organism  for  society  as  a  machine.  It  is  bearing 
witness  only  to  a  hoary  truth  ;  for  who  does  not  con- 
fess that  every  real  good  is  a  common  good,  and 
selfishness  but  stupidity,  not  meant  to  prosper. 

But  it  is  one  thing  to  recognize  a  principle  and  an- 
other to  follow  out  its  consequences.  There  is  nothing 
in  all  mathematics  except  the  addition  of  one  to  one, 
or  the  subtraction  of  one  from  one.  The  crudest 
mathematician  can  do  no  less  nor  the  greatest  more ; 
and  yet  they  differ.  So  is  it  with  regard  to  the  ideal 
aims  of  human  society.  It  is  one  thing  to  admit 
their  abstract  truth,  and  another  to  trace  their  way  of 
operation  and  to  increase  their  power  within  the  actual 
structure  of  human  society  as  it  stands  at  this  hour ; 
and  to  make  men  see  that  the  individualism  which 
is  the  assertion  of  a  self  that  is  exclusive,  and  industrial- 
ism which  is  the  pursuit  of  a  good  that  we  are  unwilling 


5i6  SCIENTIFIC  &  PHILOSOPHICAL  THOUGHT 

to  be  a  common  good,  is  neither  good  theory  nor 
successful  practice. 

We  are  slow  to  realize  that  the  individuars  own 
substance  is  social,  and  that  if  in  any  way  he  thrusts 
society  from  him,  he  is  '^  tearing  his  own  vitals/' 
Our  recognition  of  this  truth  is  blind,  as  of  a  man  who 
holds  a  treasure  in  his  hands  and  is  not  aware  of  its 
worth.  It  is  plain  enough  to  the  seller  of  goods  that 
if  he  is  to  prosper  he  must  persuade  his  fellows  of  his 
use  to  them.  Does  he  not  advertise  to  the  whole  world 
that  he  is  seeking  their  good,  selling  them  the  best 
goods  at  the  lowest  prices  ?  The  rewards  of  society 
are  evidently  intended  to  pay  for  services.  Let  the 
individual  but  supply  its  needs,  perform  in  the  niche  of 
his  station  the  services  it  wants,  and  he  will  find,  on 
the  whole,  that  society  will  ask  and  pay  him  for  a  larger 
service.  Even  as  things  are,  the  world  insists  somewhat 
punctiliously  that  the  man  who  performs  his  duties 
well  will  get  his  rights. 

But  plain  as  this  truth  is — plain  as  that  one  plus  one 
makes  two — it  is  difficult  to  follow  it  in  its  application. 
And  in  consequence  we  see  men  on  all  hands  claiming 
their  rights  on  quite  other  grounds  than  the  perform- 
ance of  their  duties.  I  do  not  find  myself  compelled 
to  admit  that  the  change  from  the  military  to  the 
industrial  organization  is  merely  the  substitution  of  an 
''  Age  of  Greed  "  for  an  ''  Age  of  Violence."  But  there 
is  much  truth  in  the  view  that  for  whole  classes  of 
men  ''  the  defence  of  personal  rights  in  an  indifferent 
or  hostile  world  is  the  first  canon  of  duty.  Till  this 
canon  is  satisfied,  all  else  must  be  deferred.  The  moral 
type  which  emerges,  approved  and  enticing,  is  one  in 
which  integrity  is  at  least  nominally  honoured,  and 
justice  is  not  nominally  ignored,  but  in  which  alertness 
and  prudence,  energy  and  practical  judgment,  point  the 


REGARDING  HUMAN   SOCIETY  517 

way  to  victory,  while  mercy,  humility,  indifference  to 
personal  gain,  exercised  otherwise  than  as  an  indul- 
gence supplementary  to  the  serious  business  of  life, 
spell  social  failure  and  breed  contempt.''  ^ 

Our  very  remedies  too  often  imply  that  we  are  still 
in  the  toils  of  the  fallacy  that  our  own  good  can  come 
only  by  the  assertion  of  it  against  the  good  of  others. 
To  do  good  to  others  it  is  held  we  must  renounce  our 
own  ;  our  own  and  that  of  others  being  incompatible  ! 
"  What  if  the  times  were  ripe  for  the  sacrifice  of  in- 
dividual rights  to  a  wider  good?"  asks  the  Socialist. 
"  Now  that  democracy  is  for  the  first  time  coming  to 
its  own,  does  it  not  whisper  in  our  ear  a  new  possibility 
— a  social  organization  in  which  equality  of  opportunity 
shall  be  created  by  the  deliberate  surrender  of  private 
privilege."  2 

**  Not  so  !  "  protest  Science  and  philosophy,  if  I 
comprehend  their  meaning.  The  social  and  the  indi- 
vidual good,  not  being  incompatible,  the  individual  is 
asked  to  give  up  nothing  worth  holding.  It  is  not 
negation  but  dedication  which  the  times  demand ; 
not  the  overturn  of  institutions  by  ''  a  democracy  come 
to  its  own,"  but  the  better  interpretation  of  their  ideal 
meaning  and  the  transformation  of  them  from  within. 

Let  me  try  to  explain.  A  man's  rights  are  things 
he  can  justly  demand  from  some  one  ;  that  is,  his  rights 
against  his  fellows  are  their  duties  to  him,  and  similarly 
his  duties  to  them  are  their  rights  against  him.  The 
master's  rights  against  his  men  are  their  duties  to 
him  ;  their  rights  against  him  are  his  duties  to  them. 
Abolish    duties   and   no   rights   remain.     Duties   and 

1  Hihhert    Journal,    January   1909,    pp.    317,    318.      A    most 
excellent  article. 
*  Ibid,  p.  324. 


5i8  SCIENTIFIC  &  PHILOSOPHICAL  THOUGHT 

rights  are  two  names  for  the  same  things.  But  it  makes 
the  greatest  difference  which  of  the  two  conceptions 
we  habitually  employ :  whether  we  seek  our  rights  by 
doing  our  duty,  or  claim  our  rights  apart  from  service. 
The  spirit  which  does  the  latter  is  egoistic  and  unsocial, 
whatever  may  be  the  forms  of  government  or  industrial 
production  which  it  employs  ;  on  the  other  hand, 
there  is  hardly  any  social  structure  that  the  former  spirit 
could  not  inspire  to  new  usefulness  and  lift  to  a  higher 
power.  I  am  not  contending  that  the  external  body 
does  not  matter,  or  that  the  spirit  within  is  indifferent 
to  the  social  environment  without :  but  I  am  maintain- 
ing that  a  community  whose  spirit  remains  egoistic, 
while  *'  democracy  "  exerts  its  power  and  changes  the 
machinery  of  the  state,  will  have  gained  nothing  by 
the  change  except  more  efficient  weapons  for  a  more 
universal  greed. 

I  do  not  think  that  is  the  '*  Socialism ''  which 
Socialists  desire.  But  it  is  very  much  what  the  demos 
is  taught.  Compared  with  the  emphasis  laid  upon 
rights  and  privileges  in  these  times,  whether  we  are 
protecting  those  we  possess  or  seeking  those  which 
we  do  not,  little  is  said  of  the  duties.  ''  The  sure 
growth  of  the  working  people  in  class-consciousness, 
and  their  entrance  on  political  power,  the  consider- 
ation of  industry,  the  spread  of  social  compunction — 
all  point  the  same  way.  Apparently  the  great  changes 
that  are  coming  will  divide  the  future  order  from  the 
present  as  widely  as  we  are  divided  from  the  feudal 
system.*'  ^  Hence,  concludes  the  writer,  "  It  would 
certainly  do  no  harm  to  prepare  ourselves,  and  yet 
more  our  children,  for  these  probably  imminent  and 
drastic  changes.     We  might  well  resume  a  somewhat 

1  Hibbert  /owm«/,January,  1909,  p.  319. 


REGARDING  HUMAN   SOCIETY  519 

discredited  pursuit — the  culture  and  training  of  the 
interior  Ufe  from  a  new  point  of  view." 

There  never  was  a  time  in  the  history  of  the  world 
when  the  inner  life  of  a  people  was  not  to  some  extent 
at  war  with  its  outward  order,  except  in  stagnant 
communities.  But  the  contradiction  between  them 
was  never  so  tragical  or  so  monstrous  as  would  exist  in 
a  state  whose  political  and  industrial  order  demanded 
of  its  members  a  clear  consciousness  of  their  own  duties 
and  of  the  rights  of  others,  and  found  in  them  only 
the  consciousness  of  their  own  rights  and  of  the  duties 
of  others.  Nor  do  I  think  such  a  ''drastic  change*'  is 
''  imminent  "  ;  though  I  confess  that  many  men  seem 
to  be  more  eager  nowadays  to  live  on  the  State  than 
to  live  for  the  State.  Bankruptcy  lies  that  way,  as  we 
all  see  clearly  ;  hence  the  poorer  classes  object  to  the 
wealth  of  the  rich,  and  the  rich  to  the  few  shillings  a 
week  of  pension  to  men  and  women  over  seventy. 
The  view  seems  to  be  gaining  ground  that  the  State  is 
really  a  charitable  institution,  on  whose  resources  each 
class,  and  each  townlet,  must  draw  as  much  as  it  can, 
putting  as  many  of  its  causes  on  the  local  rates  as  can- 
not be  put  on  the  imperial  taxes  and  asking  the  Govern- 
ment to  protect  its  industry ;  while  the  Chancellor  of 
the  Exchequer  stands  alone  for  economy  amongst  the 
warring  claims,  like  Athanasius  contra  mtindum. 

Of  course  such  a  condition  of  things  cannot  last ; 
neither  a  state  nor  aught  else  can  exist  in  virtue  merely 
of  the  forces  of  repulsion.  But  this  does  not  secure  the 
world  against  attempting  it.  States,  like  individuals, 
get  into  the  rapids  without  intending  to  shoot  the  falls. 
And  indubitably  a  Socialism  which  has  no  cry  upon  its 
lips  except  the  Rights  of  the  democracy  is  only  assisting 
Individualism  to  bring  about  the  catastrophe.  And  it 
is  just  possible  that  there  is  no  way  of  learning  the 


520  SCIENTIFIC  &  PHILOSOPHICAL  THOUGHT 

evils  of  egoism  except  by  exhausting  the  possibiUties  of 
it  and  giving  universal  greed  universal  power. 

But  it  is  not  likely.  The  acquisition  of  power 
generally  teaches  the  use  of  it.  What  every  one  fears 
does  not  come.  The  vision  of  the  evils  of  the  greed  of 
others  helps  us  to  understand  our  own.  **  History  is 
didactic.''  The  world  is  a  peripatetic  school,  learning 
wisdom  as  it  goes.  And  I  can  imagine  a  time  coming, 
and  coming  all  the  sooner  for  the  triumphs  of  democracy, 
when  men  will  learn  to  consider  more  gravely  the  social 
incidence  of  their  actions.  The  science  and  philosophy 
of  these  modern  times  is  certainly  engaged  precisely 
on  making  this  more  clear.  It  is  socializing  morals  ; 
and  it  would  moralize  politics.  For  what  other  car- 
dinal doctrine  has  it  to  teach  except  this  immanence 
of  the  whole  in  every  part,  and  the  essential  implica- 
tion of  every  life  in  every  other  ?  And  it  is  helped 
in  its  task  by  the  very  consolidation  of  industry.  The 
growth  of  industrial  organizations,  the  violence  of  the 
shocks  which  threaten  the  stability  of  the  whole  state 
when  these  organizations  clash,  the  consciousness  of 
the  need  of  the  sense  of  responsibility  within  a  demo- 
cracy, when  all  outward  checks  are  abolished  and  there 
can  be  no  restraint  at  all  if  the  democracy  does  not 
restrain  itself, — all  these  things  will  help  the  social 
philosopher  as  he  insists  that  the  State  is,  was,  and 
always  must  be,  based  on  the  consciousness  of  duty 
rather  than  of  rights.  And  I  look  forward  to  a  time 
when  the  Church,  having  learnt  to  trust  in  the  virtue 
of  the  ideals  of  Christianity,  shall  seek  their  authority 
in  themselves,  and  their  meaning  in  the  expanding 
civilization  of  mankind.  The  geometrician  does  not 
care  much  who  Euclid  was,  nor  the  devout  soul  who 
wrote  the  Psalm  cxix.  Truths  for  all  time  are  inde- 
pendent of  every  time — spiritual  truths  most  of  all.     If 


REGARDING  HUMAN   SOCIETY  521 

"  Christian  Socialism  ''  is  to  save  the  world,  it  will 
save  it  because  the  structure  of  society  implies  it.  And 
I  would  have  Christian  teachers  find  the  power  of  their 
ideals  in  the  nature  of  things,  guide  the  world  not 
in  the  costume  of  authority  but  in  hodden  grey,  and 
not  implicate  their  Master  in  their  temporary  schemes. 
The  Christian  ideals  will  right  themselves  after  every 
trial,  provided  they  are  trusted.  The  time  is  coming, 
I  believe,  when  the  Church  will  be  found  ''standing 
without  at  the  sepulchre  weeping  "  :  ''  They  have 
taken  away  my  Lord,  and  I  know  not  where  they  have 
laid  Him."  For  doubt  is  to  be  deep,  and  the  things 
of  the  Spirit  alone  will  be  hearkened  unto,  as  they  bear 
witness  to  themselves.  But  if  the  Church  will  only 
cease  to  seek  the  living  among  the  dead,  it  will  recog- 
nize its  Founder  by  His  voice,  and,  turning  itself,  will 
say  unto  him,  "  Rabboni.** 


INDEX 


Aaron's  Breastplate,  246 

Abailard,  282,  310 

Abortion,  influence  of  Mediaeval 
Church  against,  296 

Absolution  of  Sins,  315 

Acilius  Glabrio,  202 

Acton,  Lord,  History  of  Freedom, 
336 

Actresses,  Roman  edicts  concerning, 
269 

Acts  of  the  Apostles,  on  altruism, 
160  ;  on  immortality,  221  note  ; 
influence  of  Christian  Church,  202 
note  ;  philanthropy,  158 

Address  to  the  Nobility,  Luther's,  346 

Adrian  IV,  326 

Adultery,  Christ's  teaching,  94 

iEsthetics,  107 

Africa,  Vandals  invade,  275  ;  foreign 
missions,  458,  483,  485 

Against  Celsus:  see  Oiigen 

Agape  :  see  Love  Feast 

Agricultural  class.  In  Israel,  49  ; 
period  before  Canonical  Prophets, 
51  ;  creation  of  landless  class,  53  ; 
in  eighth  century,  56 ;  Prophets 
assert  rights  of,  57  et  seq.  ;  laws 
in  time  of  Monarchy,  60 ;  post- 
exilic  period,  66  et  seq.  ;  Law  of 
Jubilee,  67,  In  Middle  Ages, 
wages,  338 ;  conditions  in  Ger- 
many, 340,  344,  Modern,  influ- 
ence of  Evangelical  revival  upon 
conditions  of,  383,  386,  391  ;  evils 
of  migration  to  cities,  18 ;  Old 
Testament  teaching  and,  76-7 

Alans,  the,  275 

Alaric,  240,  274 

Albert  the  Bear  of  Brandenburg,  278 

Albigenses,  the,  303 

Alcuin,  281 

Aletta,  300 

Alexander  of  Hales,  317 

the  Great,  125 

Alexandria,  Church  of.  Catechetical 
School,  203  ;  degeneration  of,[232  ; 
foundation,  199  ;  wealth  and  social 
influence,  203 


54-  56;    phil- 
wealthy 


of 


Allen,  Christian  Institutions,  quoted, 

315 

Almsgiving  :  see  Charity 

Altkatholische  Kirche  :    see  Ritschl 

Altruism,  Christ's  teaching,  83  et 
seq.  ;  in  the  Didach^,  160,  162  note ; 
Old  Testament  teaching,  74 ; 
Pauline  teaching,  160 ;  Roman 
philosophers,  145-149 

Ambrose,  St.,  242  ;  De  Institutione 
Virgin,  on  women,  251  ;  De  Offi- 
ciis,  quoted  on  definition  of  Church, 
244  ;    philanthropy  of,  259,  299 

American  Declaration  of  Indepen- 
dence, 413,  440 

Amos,  social  ideals  of, 
anthropy,  402 

Amos,     denunciation 
classes,  56  note 

Anabaptists,  the,  370 

Ancien  Regime,  Taine's,  419 

Annates,  423 

Anselm,  310 

Antonine  Empero-„,  _:-» 

Antoninus,  Emperor,  144 

Apologetics,  203 

Apology,  Justin's  :  see  Justin 

TertuUian's  :     see  TertuUian 

Apolo  Kagwa,  454 

Apostolic  Succession,  432 

Apprenticeship  system,  mediaeval,  369 

Aquileia,  276 

Aquinas,  Thomas,  317  ;  quoted,  on 
kingship,  307 

Arcadius,  Emperor,  241,  260 

Arianism,  288 

Aristides,  134,  169  ;  Apology  of,  261 

Aristocracy,  Jewish,  growth,  52,  54, 
56-58  ;  absorption  of  small  estates, 
53-57 ;  during  last  period  of 
Monarchy,  60  ;  Isaiah's  denuncia- 
tions, 56-58 ;  Nehemiah's  reforms, 
67-68 

Aristotle,  theory  of  State  compared 
with  Christian,  26 ;  social  ideals 
contrasted  with  Christian,  247- 
249 ;  how  regarded  by  Mediaeval 
Church,  282  ;  practical  aim  of,  501 


S23 


524 


INDEX 


Arnold  of  Brescia,  325 

Matthew,  120 

Asceticism,  Christ's  teaching,  97, 106 ; 
in  Mediaeval  Church,  320  ;  in  philo- 
sophy, 146  ;  influence  of  Reforma- 
tion, 356 

Asia  Minor,  spread  of  Christianity  in 
first  century,  198,  199 

Associations,  a  result  of  Evangelical 
revival,  401,  402  ;  mediaeval,  299, 
300,  302 ;  later  mediaeval,  310 ; 
Primitive  Church,  228  ;  growth  in 
Roman  Empire,  135 

Athanasius,  242 

Attila,  275,  277 

Augustine,  St.,  quoted  on  civil  life 
of  Christians,  267 ;  his  philan- 
thropy, 257 ;  pessimism,  287 ; 
efforts  to  redeem  prisoners  of 
war,  299 ;  opinion  of  property, 
258,  259  ;  quoted,  on  women,  251 

Augustus,  Emperor,  laws  concerning 
celibacy,  214  note  ;  family  life  in 
time  of,  138  ;  the  Games,  140 

Aulard,  M.,  quoted,  on  Napoleon,  437 

Baptism,  Sacrament  of,  institution 
of,  89  ;  in  Mediaeval  Church,  297, 
315  ;    in  Primitive  Church,   164 

Baptist  Missionary  Society,  393 

Barbarians,  and  Arianism,  288  ;  in- 
vasion of  Roman  Empire,  273-278  ; 
effects  of  their  invasion,  279 ; 
effect  of  Roman  law  upon,  280  ; 
influence  of  the  Church  upon,  278, 
284,  289,  291 

Barnabas,   Epistle  of,  161   note,  256 

Barotsi,  468 

Basil,  St.,  259 

Baur,  F.  C,  method  of  his  investiga- 
tions, 191  ;  Church  History  of  the 
First  Three  Centuries,  quoted,  on 
Universalism  of  Roman  Empire, 
204,  205,  207  ;  on  decay  of  pagan- 
ism in  Roman  Empire,  209 ;  on 
essence  of  Christianity,  219 

Baxter,  Margery,  330 

Beatitudes,  the,  100 

Bede's  History  of  England,  'zS'j  note 

Beguines,  320 

Belief,  compared  with  Creed,  499 

Benedict,  St.,  Rule  of,  319 

Benevolence,  Christ's  teaching,  87  : 
see  also  Charity  and  Philan- 
thropy 

Benifices,  and  French  Revolution,  423 

Beugnot,  239 

Bible  Society,  393 


Bigg's  Church* s  Task  under  the  Roman 

Empire,  251 
Bishops,     the,    in    Early    Christian 

Church,   260  ;    at  time  of  French 

Revolution,  ^ig  et  seq. 
Blind,  Schools  for  the,  407 
Boissier's  La  Fin  du  Paganisme,  251 
Bonaparte,  Napoleon  :   see  Napoleon 
Boniface  VIII,  Pope,  314 
Book  of  Discipline,  by  John  Knox, 

352 
Booke  concerning  True  Christians,  A, 

by  R.  Browne,  365 
Boon  Boon-Itt,  Rev.,  484 
Borgeaud's  Rise  of  Democracy, 237,364 
Boswell's  Life  of  Dr.  Johnson,  quoted, 

on  Methodist  preaching,  384 
Bosworth-Smith,  R.,  195  note 
Brace,  C.  Loring,  Gesta  Christi,  227  ; 

quoted,  on  Church  institutions  in 

Roman    Empire,    229    note ;     on 

slavery,  231  note 
Brent,  Bishop,  466 
Bridget  of  Sweden,  305 
Britain,  history  in  fifth  century,  275 
Broad  Church  Party,  and  Evangelical 

revival,  398 
Brotherhood  :  see  Fraternity 
Browne,  Robert,  364,  365 
Browning,  Robert,  356 
Bruce,  Dr.  A.  B.,  interpretation  of 

mammon    of   unrighteousness,    86  ; 

on  parabolic  teaching  of  Christ,  104 
Buddhism,    compared   with   Christi- 
anity, III,  193.  195 
Bulgarians,  the,  277 
Bundshuh,  mediaeval,  341,  343 
Burgundians,  the,  275 
Burma,  Missions  in,  486 
Bussell,  Dr.,  123  note,  136 
Butzer,  403 

Caecilia,  St.,  202 

Caesarism,  206,  247 

Caesarius  of  Aries,  299 

(^a  Ira,  song  of  1790,  quoted,  418 

Caird,  Edward,  Evolution  of  Theology, 
quoted,  130  note 

Calas,  Jean,  414 

Caliphate,  Western,  277 

Calvin ,  and  education,  368  ;  social 
programme  contrasted  with  Knox's, 
351  ;  contrasted  with  Luther,  347, 
348 ;  fundamental  principles  of 
his  work,  347  ;  nature  of  his  work 
in  the  Reformation,  403,  404 ; 
influence  in  Scotland,  351 ;  his  ideas 
of  a  theocracy,  348 


INDEX 


525 


Calvinism  in  Scotland,  351  ;  con- 
stitution of  Church,  364 

Cambridge  Modern  History,  371 

Camus,  attitude  towards  State  pay- 
ment of  Clergy,  430 

Canaan,  Conquest  of,  49 

Cannibalism,  466 

Canon  Law,  280 

Carey,  Wm.,  393 

Carlyle,  A.  J.,  MedicBval  Political 
Theory  in  the  West,  253  note 

Thomas,  and  Evangelical  Re- 
vival, 399,  402 

Carolingian  Empire,  291 

Carthage,  conquered  by  Vandals,  275 

Church  of,   199  ;    benevolence, 

228  ;    degeneration,  232  ;    growth, 
203 

Cartwright,  Major,  Take  your  Choice, 
quoted,  440  ;  principles  of  Govern- 
ment, 441 
Caste,    Foreign    Missions    and,    465, 
468 ;    Primitive  Church  and,    r66 
Casuistry,  Scribal,  94 
Catacombs,  the,  201  note,  202 
Catechetical    School    in    Alexandria, 

203 
Catelaunian  fields,  battle  of,  277 
Catherine  of  Siena,  305 
Cato  the  Elder,  and  slavery,  141 
Celebes,  Dutch  Missions  in,  466 
Cehbacy,  Augustus'  laws,  214  note  ; 
Christ's  teaching,  96  ;  in  Mediaeval 
Church,  305,  320,  357  ;   and  Primi- 
tive Church,  261,  262,  266  ;  women, 
305 
Celsus,  165  ;    The  True  Word,  199 
Characters  and  Events  of  Roman  His- 
tory, by  Ferrero,  134 
Charity,    Christ's    Teaching   on,    col- 
lective, 102;   private,  [87,   loi.  In 
Israel,  legislation  during  Monarchy, 
61,  62  ;    In  Middle  Ages,  299-302  ; 
abuses,  366  ;    conception  of,  366  ; 
as  penance,  316  ;    influence  of  the 
Reformation  on,   367,   388 ;    soci- 
eties,  302,  Modern,  in  relation  to 
Reform,  40,  41  ;    Organization  in 
United   Kingdom,   22    et  \seq.y    In 
Primitive  Church,  259,  260  ;  effects 
in  Roman  Empire,  227   note,  228, 
In   Roman  Empire,   instances  of, 
137.  138 
Charles  X  of  France,  439 

the  Great,  281 

Martel,  277 

Chartists,  the,  442 
Child-marriage,  462 


Children,  Christ's  teaching,  96,  97 ; 
exposure  of,  214  ;  Foreign  Mission 
work,  462  ;  endowed  Institutions 
in  Roman  Empire,  137 ;  labour 
legislation  and  EvangeUcal  Re- 
vival, 392 ;  Mediaeval  Church  work, 
297  ;  Modern  problems,  need  for 
scientific  treatment,  406  ;  Robert 
Owen's  reforms,  389  ;  in  Pauline 
ethics,  172 ;  United  Kingdom 
Poor  Law  system,  21  ;  influence 
of  Church  in  Roman  Empire,  250, 
269 
Chinese  Missions,  influence  on  educa- 
tion of  girls,  463 ;  foot-binding, 
467  ;  morality,  460,  484  ;  opium 
vice,  467;  national  progress,  474,484 
Chivalry,     mediaeval,    influence     of 

Christianity  upon,  304 
Chlodovech  (Clovis),  275 
Christian    Charity    in    the    Christian 

Church  :  see  Uhlhorn 
Christian  Institutions,  Allen's,  315 
Christian  Philosophy.  History  of,  286 
Christian  Science,  502 
Christian  Socialism,   113,   499;    and 
Evangelical    Revival,    399 ;     and 
WycHf,  328 
Christian  Theology  of  Apostolic  Age, 

by  Reuss,  205  note 
Christianity,  (for  Christ's  teaching, 
see  "  Jesus  Christ " ;  for  the  Church 
as  an  organism  see  "  Church  "  ;  for 
Christian  doctrine  concerning 
marriage,  slavery,  etc.,  see  those 
titles),  relation  to  Old  Testament 
religious  standpoint,  5 ;  modern 
apphcation,  6  seq.  ;  continuity 
in  relation  to  changing  conditions, 
its  progressive  character,  8  seq., 
39  ;  relation  to  social  and  political 
reform,  how  far  it  may  intervene, 
33.  502  ;  its  fundamental  principle 
in  Christ's  teaching,  83,  183  ;  its 
universality  and  impartiality,  84, 
no  ;  relation  to  modern  thought 
and  science  (erroneous  views),  496 
seq.,  511 

(Periods  and  landmarks),  early 

Gentile  environment,  119-149; 
and  Roman  philosophers,  144-150  ; 
Jewish  influences  and  surroundings, 
157-164  ;  Pliny's  description,  164  ; 
St.  Paul's  doctrine,  171  ;  Apos- 
tolic Age,  174  et  seq.,  196  et  seq., 
201-204  ;  relation  to  Roman  Em- 
pire, 205  seq.,  227  seq.,  {see  also 
"  Church  "  (2))  ;  relation  to  Greek 


526 


INDEX 


philosophy,  207-209  ;  the  Church 
in  the  Empire  contrasted  with 
Christ's  ideal,  238  ;  Marcus  Aure- 
Hus  and  Seneca,  247  ;  monasticism 
not  a  principle  of,  261  ;  in  Middle 
Ages,  287  seq.  ;  Evangelical  Re- 
vival, 393 ;  French  Revolution, 
443  ;  Rousseau's  view,  416  ;  mis- 
sionary enterprise — effect  on 
heathen,  452, 469 

Christianity  Judged  by  its  Fruits, 
Croslegh's,  257 

Christianity  and  the  Social  Crisis, 
Rauschenbusch's,  254  note 

Chromatins,  230 

Chrysostom,  Homilies  quoted  on 
women,  252 

Church,  the  (i)  The  Primitive  (first 
three  centuries),  the  Agape,  175- 
179  ;  Apostolic  Age,  expansion  in, 
193.  194.  196 ;  Asia  Minor  com- 
munities, 171  ;  "  atheism  "  of ,  220 ; 
baptism,  8g,  164 ;  bibliography, 
227  note  ;  centres  of  influence,  197- 
200 ;  charity  and  benevolence, 
227-229,  299  ;  Constantine  adopts, 
184,  199,  (numerical  strength) 
200  ;  Corinthian  community,  170- 
note  ;  criticism  of,  184  et  seq.  ; 
discipline,  175,  180 ;  attitude  to 
the  Dispersion  communities,  154  ; 
guilds,  135 ;  hymns,  163 ;  Jeru- 
salem community,  157 ;  leaders 
232,  260 ;  influence  in  literary 
circles,  203  ;  the  Martyrs,  219,  221  ; 
Mass,  origin  of,  1 79 ;  miracles, 
222  ;  Palestinian  community,  157  ; 
persecution  198,  199  ;  post- Apos- 
tolic Age,  expansion  in,  198,  200, 
204  seq.  ;  proselytes  (Jewish),  157- 
164,  197 ;  proselytes  in  Roman 
Empire,  165-170  ;  sacraments  in- 
stituted, 89  ;  sacrifice  and  divine 
service,  167 ;  the  State,  182  ; 
attitude  to  State  Offices,  182 ; 
Thessalonica,  170  note  ;  unity  of 
Church  life,  177;  universalism  of 
Roman  Empire,  204-209  ;  attitude 
to  war,  303  :  wealth  and  social 
influence,  201-203  ;  see  also  under 
separate  communities;  and  for 
doctrine,  see  Christianity 

(2)  Influence  on  Roman  Empire 

(to  end  of  fifth  century),  237- 
270  {see  argument,  236)  ;  bibli- 
ography, 267  note ;  children, 
rights  of,  250  ;  civic  ideals,  263, 
266 ;     communism,    257 ;     demo- 


cratic character,  260 ;  equality, 
250-255 ;  fraternity,  256 ;  effect 
on  legislation,  267  ;  on  liberty,  255  ; 
effect  on  monasticism,  261-262  ; 
moral  purity,  229  ;  philanthropy, 
228,  259 ;  slavery,  230,  252  {see 
also  s.v.  Slavery)  ;  socialism,  type 
of,  254  ;  rights  of  women,  251-252  : 
see  also  references  (i)  "  Primitive  " 
(above) 

(3)     Mediaeval,     273-332     {see 

Argument,  272)  ;  effect  of  bar- 
barian invasions,  279  ;  barbarian 
converts,  285  ;  catholicity  of,  291  ; 
child-life  under,  296 ;  chivalry, 
304  ;  classical  learning,  282-283  ; 
commerce,  358  ;  education,  281  ; 
the  guilds,  311  ;  liberty,  principle 
of,  306 ;  Lollards,  327-332  ;  mar- 
riage, 354,  357  ;  missions,  278  ; 
monasticism,  318 ;  papacy,  rise 
of,  313  ;  penal  code,  297 ;  peni- 
tence, doctrine  of,  315 ;  philan- 
thropy, 299  ;  poverty,  298-302  ; 
the  Reformation,  321,  (pre-Refor- 
mation  movements),  335-372 ; 
debt  to  Roman  Empire  292 ; 
Scholasticism,  309  ;  slavery,  298  ; 
society  (theory  as  to  social  rank, 
etc.),  369  ;  war,  302  ;  its  wealth 
attacked  by  Reformers,  324  ;  posi- 
tion of  women,  304 

(4)  Modern,  chaps,  viii.  (Refor- 
mation) ;  ix.  (Evangelical  Revi- 
val) ;  X.  (French  Revolution)  ; 
xi.  (Foreign  Missions)  ;  xii,  (Rela- 
tion to  modem  science  and  philo- 
sophy) :  summary  of  relation  to 
Social  Problems,  29,  114  {see  also 
specially  headings,  "  children," 
"  slavery,"  etc.)  ;  function  in 
legislative  sphere  36  foil. ;  duties 
towards  society,  25,  29  et.  seq.  ; 
inadequacy  of  machinery,  16 

Church  and  State,  relation  examined 
historically,  412 ;  identified  in 
Israel,  45,  52,  75  ;  Christ's  teach- 
ing, 91  ;  Calvin's  ideal,  348 ; 
mediaeval  papacy,  313 ;  Mar- 
siglio's  view,  308 ;  Puritan  ideal, 
365  :  see  further  "  State  " 

Church  History  of  the  First  Three 
Centuries  :  see  Baur 

Church  Missionary  Society,  393 

Church  in  the  Roman  Empire :  see 
Ramsay 

Church's  Task  under  the  Roman 
Empire  :  Bigg's,  251 


INDEX 


527 


Cicero,  quoted  on  gladiators,  125, 
139  ;  on  philosophy,  127 

Citizenship,  ideals  of,  Christ's,  108- 
109 ;  Christian  Church  2nd- 5  th 
centuries,  263 ;  Christian  (in  relation 
to  modern  state),  26  ;  Greek,  125  ; 
growth  in  Israel,  50 ;  Prophets, 
76 ;  effects  of  Reformation,  358, 
363  ;  Roman,  125  ;  how  far  due 
to  Greece,  Rome,  and  Israel,  505 

City  Life,  absorption  of  rural  popula- 
tion (its  evils),  13,  18 

City-State,  125 

Civil  Constitution  of  the  Clergy,  431 

Clan  system,  in  Israel,  48,  49 

Clarkson,  T.,  387 

Class  distinction,  in  Israel,  54 ;  in 
Middle  Ages,  300 

Claudius,  Emperor,  143 

Cleanthes,  hymn  of,  130 

Clemens,  the  Consul,  202 

Clement  of  Alexandria,  his  teaching 
regarding  property,  258 ;  Pae- 
dagogue  quoted,  on  rights  of 
women,  252 

of  Rome,  185  ;  quoted,  on  civil 

government,  263  ;  on  fraternity, 
257 ;  on  Christian  persecution, 
198  note ;  on  slavery,  85 ;  on 
thankofferings,  178 

Clement  to  James,  Epistle  of,  162 

Clovis,  275 

Clubs,  Roman,  135 

Cohort,  Tatian's,  on  equality  of  the 
sexes,  252 

Collected  Essays   of  Sir   J.    Stephen 

Collectivism,  Christ's  teaching,  98, 
102 

Colleges,  for  working  men,  402 

"  Colossians,  Epistle  to  the,"  173  ;  on 
success  of  Primitive  Church,  197,198 

Columban,  315 

Combinations,  labour,  20 

Commerce,  Church  and  State  in  rela- 
tion to,  seventeenth  and  eighteenth 
centuries,  383  ;  its  debt  to  Foreign 
Missions,  473  ;  control  over  legisla- 
tion in  modem  State,  19  ;  Luther's 
views,  345  ;  philosophic  basis,  514, 
515  ;   and  the  Reformation,  358 

Commodus,  Emperor,  213 

Common  Law,  280 

Communion,  Holy  (Eucharist,  Last 
Supper),  institution  of,  89 ;  in 
Primitive  Church,  176-178 ;  con- 
ception of  after  third  century,  179 

Communism,  Christ's  teaching,  257  ; 
of  Primitive  Church,  157-159 


Competition,  dangers  of,  in  modem 
economics,  18 

Compulsory  education,  Luther  and 
Knox,  368 

Concordat  of  1802,  436,  438 

Concubinage,  462 

Conflict  of  Christianity  :  see  Uhlhom 

Congregation,  and  Revolution  of  1830, 
439 

Conscience,  in  Christian  ethics,  108  ; 
in  Stoicism,  129 

Constance,  Council  of,  322,  323 

Constantine,  recognizes  Christianity, 
184,   199,  412  ;    legislation,  268 

Constantius,  241 

Contemporary  Review,  August,  1886, 
quoted,  192 

Co-operative  movement,  and  Evan- 
gelical Revival,  402 

Corinthians,  Epistles  to  the  (Pau- 
line), on  degree  of  influence  of 
Church,  202  note  ;  on  weapons  of 
Church,  197  ;  on  Holy  Spirit,  225 ; 
on  immortality,  221  note  ;  on  love 
of  neighbour,  160  ;  on  Redemption, 
222  ;  account  of  the  Last  Supper 
compared  with  the  Gospels,  89 ; 
on  the  sum  of  Christian  ethics,  1 70  ; 
teaching  of,  170  note 

Epistles  to  (Clement  of  Rome's), 

on  fraternity,  257  ;  on  slavery,  85  ; 
summary,  185 

Corsica,  275 

Corvee,  in  Israel,  52,  64 

Cosmopolitanism,  its  financial  aspect, 

7 

Councils,  by  Haddan  and  Stubbs,  287 
note 

Covenant,  Book  of  the,  54,  66  note 

Covetousness,   Christ's  teaching,   99 

Cranmer,   educational  schemes,    369 

Creighton,  Bishop,  370 

Croslegh's  Christianity  Judged  by  its 
Fruits,  257  note 

Crowther,  Bishop 

Crucifixion,  Abolition  of,  268 

Crusades,  the,  303 

Cures  and  the  French  Revolution, 
attitude  to  Civil  Constitution  of 
the  Clergy,  431  ;  abolition  of  cler- 
ical privileges,  423  ;  "  cahiers  " 
in  National  Assembly,  422  ;  and 
rehgious  liberty,  244 ;  causes  of 
their  revolt,  420-422  ;  and  State- 
payment  of,  427,  430  ;  stipends 
before  1790,  420 

Cyprian,  Bishop  of  Carthage,  228, 
232 


528 


INDEX 


D'Alembert,  and  French  Revolution, 
422 

Damiani,  317 

Danton,  435 

Daudi  Kasagama.  King  of  Toro,  454 

Deaconesses,  Homes  for,  407 

De  Aleatoribus,  178 

De  Benedicta  Incarnatione,  330 

D6bidour's  L'&glise  et  I'&tat  en  France, 
iy8g-i8yo,  quoted,  on  wealth  of 
Church,  419 ;  on  attitude  of 
Papacy  to  Revolution,  433 

*'Dc  Boigne,  Comtesse  de,  Memoires 
of,  419 

De  Broglie's  L'Eglise  et  I'Empire  ro- 
main  au  IV ^  Sidcle  on  favourites 
of  Emperors,  242 ;  on  Christian 
influence  on  legislation,  268 

Debtors,  legislation  in  Israel,  62 ; 
influence  of  Methodists  on  legisla- 
tion, 1 791,  391 

Decius,  Emperor,  201  note 

Defensor  Pads,  by  Marsiglio,  307, 
309  note 

De  Institutione  Virgin,  251 

De  Ird,  (Sgweca's),  quoted,  on  corrup- 
tion of  Roman  Empire,  211  ;  on 
exposure  of  children,  215 

Deissmann,  121  note 

Deists,  378,  508 

Democracy,  relation  to  Christian 
ideal,  7  ;  influence  of  Evangelical 
Revival,  384  et  seq.  ;  and  the 
Church,  2nd-5th  centuries,  260 ; 
and  the  Mediaeval  [Church,  307  ; 
pre- Reformation  tendencies,  324  ; 
influence  of  Reformation  upon 
modem,  364  ;  relation  to  religion 
in  England,  1 770-1 780,  439  ;  les- 
son taught  by  French  Revolution, 

443 
De  Offlciis,  Ambrose's,  244 
De  Otio,  Seneca's,  248 
De  Regno  Christi,  Butzer's,  403 
De  Rohan,  Bishop  of  Strasburg,  419 
De  Tocqueville,  and  French  Revolu- 
tion, 421 
Deuteronomy,  social  legislation  in,  60, 

61  ;  quoted  on  duty,  74 
Dexter,  364 
Dialogues  de  darts  omton'ftMS,  quoted, 

on  passion  for  gladiatorial  shows, 

140 
Dickens,  Charles,  395 
Dictionary  of  Christian   Antiquities, 

287 
DidacM,     the,    and    Baptism,    164 ; 

quoted     on      brotherhood,     159 ; 


quoted  on  discipline  of  Church 
communities,  175;!  on  commun- 
ism, 258 ;  on  Holy  Communion, 
176;  on  duty  to  neighbour,  162 
note  ;  and  offertory,  1 78  ;  ethics 
of  philanthropy,  161 
Didascalia,  ethics  of,  162  ;  on  dis- 
cipline in  Primitive  Church,  181  ; 
on  Holy  Communion  thankoffer- 
ings,  179  note 
Diderot,  422 

Dill,  Dr.,  Roman  Society  from  Nero 
to   Aurelius,    quoted,  on    extrava- 
gance   in,    214   note ;     on   foreign 
cults  in,  216  note  ;  on  Mithraism, 
194  note,  225  ;    on  moral  corrup- 
tion, 210  note,  212  ;   on  scepticism 
in,   215  note  ;    on  social  develop- 
ment,    122 ;      on     wealth,     137 ; 
Roman  Society  in  the  Last  Century 
of  the  Eastern  Empire,  quoted,  270 
Dio  Chrysostom,  145,  146 
Diogenes  Laertius,  128,  131 
Diognetus,  Epistle  to,  conception  of 

Christians,  169,  182,  266 
Discipline,  in  Mediaeval  Church,  316  ; 

in  Primitive  Church,  175,  180 
Divine  Institutes,  256 
Divine  Origin  of  Christianity,  257  note 
Divine    Service,    meaning    in    New 

Testament,  168 
Divorce,  Christ's  teaching,  94  ;  influ- 
ence   of    Foreign    Missions,    462  ; 
among  Primitive  Christians,  229  ; 
in  Roman  Empire,  214 
Dods,  Dr.  M.,  quoted,  on  Islam,  195 
Dogma,  History  of,  Hamack's,  193 
Domestic   Ethics,   Christ's  teaching, 
93-98 ;    of  early  Christians,    229, 
230,    266 ;     of   Mediaeval   Church, 
305,  320  ;    Pauhne  teaching,  171  ; 
influence  of  Reformation,  357  ;  in 
Roman    Empire,    214 :     see    also 
"Family" 
Dominicus  Loricatus,  317 
Dominion,  Wyclif's  doctrine  of,  327 

note 
Domitian,  Emperor,  122,  212 
Domitilla,  202 

Drunkenness,  causes  and  effects  of, 
among  poorer  classes,  15  ;  influ- 
ence of  Foreign  Missions  upon,  457 
Dualism,  Christian  refutation,  27 
Duty,  as  correlative  to  "  Right,"  517  ; 
Christ's  teaching,  83,  84,  96,  98  ; 
in  Stoicism,  129  :  see  also  Altru- 
ism," "  Brotherhood,"  "  Children,  " 
"  Enemy,"  etc. 


INDEX 


529 


Eastern  Empire,  276 

Eberlin,  370 

Ebionism,  154 

Ecce  Homo,  quoted,  183  note 

Ecclesiastcs,  social  ideals  in,  70 

Ecclesiastical  History  :    see  Eusebius 

Economic   Interpretation   of   History, 

384 

Economic  Problems,  modem,  Christ  s 
teaching  in  relation  to,  105  et  seq.  ; 
competition,  dangers  of,  18  ;  in- 
fluence of  the  Evangelical  Revival 
on,  384  et  seq.  ;  Old  Testament 
teaching,  76-77  ;  teaching  of  the 
Reformers,  350,  352  ;  in  Roman 
Empire,  135 ;  unemployment,  13 
et  seq. 

Edmunds,  John,  331 

Education,  compulsory,  368 ;  ele- 
mentary (inadequacy  of  modern 
system,)  16  ;  and  the  Evangelical 
Revival,  382-384 ;  and  Foreign 
Missions,  462,  468 ;  Knox's 
schemes,  352,  368 ;  mediaeval 
(influence  of  Roman  culture  and 
the  Church  contrasted),  the  Refor- 
mation, influence  of,  368 ;  tech- 
nical (influence  of  Evangelical  Re- 
vival upon),  406 ;  Universities 
(mediaeval),  299  ;  of  women  (Early 
Church  Fathers  and),  251  ;  work- 
ing-men, 386,  401 

Edward  VI,  369 

£glise  et  V Empire  romain  au  /F»»« 
Steele,  V  :  see  De  Broglie 

£glise  et  I'&tat  en  France,  I'  :  see 
D^bidour 

Egoism  :  see  Individualism 

Egypt,  cults,    193,   216 ;    poor  rate, 

135 

Eligius  of  Noyon,  299 
Eliot,  George,  395 
Elizabeth,  Queen,  369,  383 
Emotions,  the  true  function  in  life, 
500  ;  dangerous  to  religious  growth, 

510 

Encyclopaedists,  the,  414 

Endowments,  beneficent,  growth  in 
Middle  Ages,  299-300,  302  ;  Primi- 
tive Church,  228 ;  in  Roman 
Empire,  ia.d.,  137 ;  result  of 
Reformation  and,  312 

Enemies,  love  for,  Christ's  teaching, 
84,  108 

England,  agricultural  class  (in  Eliza- 
beth's reign),  383  ;  Church  of 
(influence  of  Evangelical  Revival), 
391 ;  French  Revolution  (influence 

cc 


of),  442  ;  Guilds  (mediaeval),  310  ; 
legislation  in  nineteenth  century, 
390  ;  philanthropic  movement  (in- 
fluence of  Evangelical  Revival), 
399 ;  Reformation  (influence  of), 
369  ;  Roman  law  (influence  of),  281 : 
see  also  "Evangelical  Revival," 
"  Education,"  "  Reformation,"  etc, 
England,  History  of,  Bede's,  287  note 
Environment,  progressive  degenera- 
tion among  poorer  classes,  15 ; 
influence  on  Christian  living,  459  ; 
influence    on    Christian    thought, 

511-512 

Ephesians,  Epistle  to  the,  teaching 
of,  1 71-173 ;  on  immanence  of 
Christ,  30 ;  on  influence  of  the 
Church,  202  ;  on  martyr-spirit,  221 

Epictetus,  Dissertations,  127  note, 
146  note ;  his  picture  of  ideal 
missionary,  145 ;  definition  of 
philosophy,  127 ;  opinion  of 
women,  138  ;  how  far  his  writings 
may  be  considered  as  a  preparation 
for  Christianity,  208,  210 

Epicurus,  philosophy  of,  127,  128 ; 
contrasted  with  Christianity,  247  ; 
how  far  a  factor  in  the  preparation 
for  Christianity,  208 

Equality,  in  Christian  ethics,  250 ; 
in  Stoicism,  249 

Eschatology,  112;  Stoic  contrasted 
with  Christian,  249 

Ethics,  Aristotle's,  126 

Eucharist  :    see  Communion,  Holy 

European  Morals  :   see  Lecky 

Eusebius'  Ecclesiastical  History,  pro- 
gress of  Church,  199  note,  200 ; 
social  influence  of  Church,  203 ; 
civil  government,  264  ;  on  Martyrs, 
221 

Evangelical  Revival,  conditions  prior 
to,  379 ;   characteristics  (earliest), 

380,  394  ;  and  Christian  Socialism, 
399  ;  Church  of  England,  its  influ- 
ence on,  440 ;  modem  churches, 
effect  on,  405  ;  a  non-class  move- 
ment, 384,  386  ;  democratic  prin- 
ciples, 385 ;  description  of  (by 
Dickens  and  George  Eliot),  395  ; 
and  education,  382  ;  ethical  and 
social  character,  396  ;  international 
and  humanitarian  character,  393  ; 
influence  of  Moravian  Missions  on, 
394 ;    nature  of  its  philanthropy, 

381,  895  ;  political  influence,  389  ; 
and  Radicalism,  396 ;  compared 
with  the  Reformation,  403 ;    con- 

MM 


530 


INDEX 


Crete  results  ©t,  402,  407  ;  influ- 
ence on  modern  social  work,  400  ; 
and  slavery,  387 ;  influence  on 
technical  and  scientific  training, 
406 ;  non-theological  nature,  377  ; 
and  the  working  man,  401,  402 

Exodus,  on  social  justice,  55  \ 

Expansion  of  Christianity  :  see  Har- 
nack 

Experience,  its  necessary  relation  to 
thought,  495 ;  basis  of  all  true 
understanding,  510 

Expositor's  Greek  Testament,  Dr. 
Bruce's,  86 

Expository  Times,  November,  1908, 

135 

Exposure  of  slaves,  143 

Ezekiel,  ordinance  concerning  land 
tenure,  64 ;  teaching  on  social 
ideals,  63 

Ezekiel,  land  tenure,  64 ;  on 
egoism  of  the  rich,  63,  64  ;  descrip- 
tion of  a  righteous  man,  63 

Ezra,  administration  of,  6y 


Factory  Reforms,  Lord  Shaftesbury, 
389;  influence  of  "Methodist 
Party,"  upon  legislation,  392 

Fairbairn,  Dr.,  quoted,  on  Church 
and  State,  349 

Fall,  the.  Church  Fathers  on,  253 

Family  life,  Christ's  teaching,  93- 
98  ;  influence  of  Foreign  Missions, 
461  ;  in  Israel,  50,  51,  54,  66;  in- 
fluence of  Monasticism  upon 
(Mediaeval  Church),  305,  320 ; 
Pauline  teaching,  171  ;  among 
Primitive  Christians,  229 ;  influ- 
ence of  Reformation  on,  357 ; 
Roman,  132 ;    in   Roman  Empire, 

138 

Father,  the  Roman,  132 

Felix,  St.,  264 

Fellowship,  in  Primitive  Church,  175 

Ferrero's  Characters  and  Events  of 
Roman  History,  quoted,  134 

Feudal  System,  influence  of  Church 
upon,  294,  298 ;  during  Reforma- 
tion period,  337 

Fin  du  Paganisme,  La,  Boissier's,  251 

Finance,  in  modem  State,  19 

Flagellants,  the,  317 

Flavians,  the,  and  Christianity,  202 

Footbinding,  467 

Force,  use  of,  Christ's  prohibition, 
108;  and  Mediaeval  Church,  207, 
297,303 


Foreign  Missions,  educational  value, 
468 ;  economic  and  commercial 
value,  475  ;  evangehcal,  393-395  ; 
and  industrial  training,  458,  477  ; 
medical,  469  ;  native  workers  and 
leaders,  455,  484 ;  Purvey's  plea 
for,  330 ;  promotes  religious 
liberty,  485  ;  women's  education, 
462,  467 ;  social  influence  of,  on 
heathen,  character,  452 ;  family 
life,  461  ;  habits,  457 ;  national 
developnient,  469;  tribal  and 
communal  life,  464 

Forgiveness,  Christ's  teaching,  82 

Formalism,  in  religion,  its  perils,  479 

Fornication,  Christ's  teaching,  94 

Fouche,  435 

Foundhng   hospitals,  mediaeval,  296 

Foxe,  quoted,  on  mediaeval  humani- 
tarianism,  330  note 

France,  leper  hospitals,  social  condi- 
tions prior  to  Revolution,  415,  422  : 
see  also  "  Gaul,"  "  French  Revolu- 
tion," "  Huguenots,"  "  Napoleon," 
and  under  various  kings 

Franchise,  Cartwright's  idea  of,  441 ; 
and  English  Independents,  365 ; 
in  Roman  Empire,  240 

Francis  of  Assisi,  St.,  philanthropy, 
299 

Franciscans,  the,  299,  323 

Fraternity,  bibliography,  257  note  ; 
Christ's  teaching,  83,  88,  116;  the 
friars,  299,  300 ;  in  Mediaeval 
Church,  300,  320 ;  in  Mithraism, 
246 ;  in  Primitive  Church,  158, 
166,  256 

Freedom,  History  of.  Lord  Acton's, 
336 

Free  food,  in  Rome;  135,  in  Empire, 
214 

Free  grace,  doctrine  of,  and  Mediaeval 
Church,  381  ;  and  Evangelical 
Revival,  381 

Freehold,  in  Law  of  Jubilee,  67 

Freeman's  Norman  Conquest,  quoted, 
on  influence  of  Church  on  war,  303 

Freewill  Baptists,  influence  on  sla- 
very, 387 

French  Revolution,  general  causes 
of,  421 ;  causes  of  revolt  against 
the  Church,  414 ;  Church  pro- 
perty, and  National  Assembly, 
426 ;  Church  privileges,  and  the 
National  Assembly,  423 ;  Civil 
Constitution  of  the  Clergy,  431  ; 
"  Concordat "  of  1802,  436  ; 
revolt   of   the   cures   against    the 


INDEX 


531 


Church,  reasons  for,  418-421  ; 
dogma,  State  interference  with, 
432;  history,  1790-1799,  434; 
influence  on  England,  395,  442  ; 
monastic  orders,  dissolution  of, 
430 ;  and  Napoleon,  435 ;  Na- 
tional Assembly,  general  reform 
proposals,  422  ;  "  Rights  of  Man," 
clauses  affecting  religious  hberty, 
424 ;  Social  Contract,  415 ; 
Voltaire's  teaching,  414 ;  lessons 
deduced  from,  for  both  the  Church 
and  the  State,  443 
Froude,  on  corruption  in  reign  of 
Commodus,  213  note 

Gaiseric,  275 

Galatians,  Epistle  to  the  225  note 

Gambling,  De  Aleatoribus,  quoted 
on,  178 

Games,  the  Roman,  139,  144 

Garat,  428 

Gaul,  history  of ,  275-277 

General  Baptist  Missionary  Society, 
393. 

Genesis  of  the  Social  Conscience  :  see 
Nash,  Professor 

Geneva,  mediaeval,  history  of  its  con- 
stitution, 347,';  Calvin  and  its  Code, 
349 

Gentiles,  Christian  proselytes,  154, 
165 

George  I,  378 

Ger,  50  note,  69 

Germany,  its  democracy,  divorce 
between  the  Church  and,  401  ; 
education,  influence  of  Reforma- 
tion upon,  368  ;  Law,  influence  of 
Roman  law  upon,  281,  340;  Peas- 
ants' Revolt,  340-344  :  see  also 
Luther 

Gesta  Christi  :    see  Brace,  C.  L.  . 

Gibbon,  "  five  secondary  causes  "  of 
growth  of  Christianity,  191,  220 
note ;  view  of  Marcus  Aurelius, 
242  ;  on  Jewish  population  in  time 
of  Augustus,  193  ;  on  population 
in  time  of  Constantine,  200 

Gift  of  Tongues,  257 

Glabrio  :  see  Acilius 

Gladiatorial  Shows,  139,  145  ;  aboli- 
tion of,  229,  262,  268 

Glover,  T.  R.,  171 

Gnosticism,  203 

God,  Christian  conception  of,  506-508 ; 
Christian  conception  in  relation  to 
society,  27  ;  Man's  relation  to,  82, 
83,  88  ;  Sonship  of  Christ,  81 


Good  Samaritan,  parable  of,  85       * 

Gospels,  the,  compared  on  divorce, 
94-95  ;  on  the  Sacraments,  89  ; 
on  dangers   of   wealth,    100 

Gouttes^  Abbe,  and  State  payment 
of  clergy,  428 

Government,  principles  of,  Aquinas, 
conception  of,  307  ;  Calvin's,  348  ; 
Cartwright's,  441  ;  in  Christ's 
teaching,  108 ;  English  Inde- 
pendents', 365  ;  Marsiglio's,  308 ; 
relation   to   human   development, 

511 
Grant,  Robert,  390 
Gratian,  Emperor,  241 
Gray,  and  debtors,  391 
Greece,  140,  141  :   see  also  Hellenism 
Green,  Professor  J,  R.,  338 
Gregoire,      Abbe,       Letters     to     the 

Cur 6s   421  ;    abolition  of  annates, 

423.    437 
Gregory  the  Great,  hostility  to  classi- 
cal     culture,      283 ;        Letter     to 
Mellitus,    quoted,     on    policy    of 
Church,  287  ;  missions,  279 

VII :  see  Hildebrand 

Bishop  of  Neocaesarea,  232 

Guardians,    Poor   Law    (U.K.)  :    see 

Poor  Law 
Guilds,  mediaeval,  310,  312  note;   in 

Roman  Empire,  135 
Guizot,  F.  P.  G.,  361 
Gwatkin,   Professor,   quoted  on  the 

Reformation,  355 

Haggai,  social  ideals  of,  69 

Hammurabi,  King,  55 

Happiness,   in   Epicureanism,    128 

Hamack's  Expansion  of  Christianity y 
on  apologists,  191  note ;  evidence 
of  Catacombs,  202  note ;  signs 
of  degeneration  in  Church,  232 
note  ;  period  of  greatest  expansion, 
199  note  ;  progress  in  Church,  156, 
200-203 ;  Jewish  population  in 
Roman  Empire  at  time  of  Augus- 
tus, 193  ;  on  Mithraism,  194,  198  ; 
on  slavery  and  the  Church,  252  ; 
Contemporary  Review,  August, 
1886,  quoted,  on  Apologetics,  192 
note  ;  Historian' s  History  of  the 
World,  vi.  on  citizenship  in  Chris- 
tian Church,  two-five  centuries,  267 
note ;  Princeton  Review,  July, 
1878,  on  evidence  of  catacombs, 
202 ;  History  of  Dogma,  on 
Mithraism,  193 

Hamam  Singh,  Sir,  454 


532 


INDEX 


Hatch,  Dr.,  quoted  on  parallels  be- 
tween modem  life  and  i  a.d.,  135  ; 
on  moral  condition  of  Rome  in 
time  of  Seneca,  211  note 

Heathen,  Missions  to,   447-488 

Hebert,  J.  R.,  435 

Hebrew  of  Pre-Christian  era :  see 
Israel 

of  Christian  era  :   see  Jew 

religion  :  see  Judaism 

Hebrews,    Epistle    to     the,    teaching 

on    brotherhood,    158 ;    sacrificial 

language,  168 
Hegel,  Georg,  W,  F.,  on  defects  of 

theoretic  method,  493 
Heine,  357 
Hellenism,  126,  154  ;    and  Mediaeval 

thought,  282 
Henricians,  the,  324 
Henry  VIII,  369 
Henry  of  Lausanne,  324 
Heredity,    cumulative    degeneration 

among  unemployed,  14 
Heretics,  and  the  Mediaeval  Church, 

297  :   see  also  "  Huguenots  " 
Hermas,  Shepherd  oi,  185 
Hermes,  Prefect,  230 
**  Hidden  Treasure,"  parable,  91 
Hildebrand  (Gregory  VII),  284;  War 

of  Investitures,  303 
Hildegard  of  Bingen,  305 
Hippolytus,  Canons  of,  169  note 
"  Hirelings  "  in  Israel,  61 
Hobbes,    Thomas,    of    Malmesbury, 

practical     attitude     {The     Levia- 
than), 501 
Hobhouse,     Sir     J.     C,     and     child 

legislation,  392 
Hodgkin's   Italy  and  Her  Invaders, 

267  note 
Holy  Spirit,  225 
Homilies,  Chrysostom's,  on  women, 

252 
Horace,  129,  136 

Hort's  Christian  Ecclesia,  174  note 
Hosea,  philanthropy  of,  54,  402 
Hospitality,  in  early  Christian  Church, 

162,  228 
Hospitallers,  the,  320 
Hospitals,  and  Evangelical  Revival, 

407 
Hours    (or    Labourers),     Parable    of 

the,  104 
Housing  and  Town  Planning  Act,  11 
Howard,  John,  reforms  of,  389,  391 
Hsi,  Pastor,  484 
Huguenots,  the,  and  Louis  XIV,  418  ; 

and  Louis  XVI,  424 


Human      sacrifices,      influence      of 

Foreign  Missions  against,  464,  466, 

481 
Humanism,    and    Humanitarianism, 

the  Christian  ideal,  26 
Huns,  the,  274,  275,  277 
Hus,  John,  322 
Husband  :  see  Marriage 
Huxley,  Thomas,  theory  of  natural 

law,  509 

Idealism,  modern,  its  practical  char- 
acter, 496 ;    and  Stoicism,   129 

Idolatry,  among  modern  heathen, 
its  decline,  480 

Ignatius  of  Antioch,  199,  232 ; 
Epistles,  quoted  on  Martyr-spirit, 
221  note ;  on  unity  of  Chris- 
tians, 177 

Imad-ud-Din,  Dr.,  484 

Image- worshipping,    mediaeval,    331 

Immanence  of  Christ,  Pauline  doc- 
trine, 30 

Immortality,  doctrine  of,  a  factor  in 
the  expansion  of  Christianity  in 
Roman  Empire,   215  note,   220 

Incarnation,  the,. 81 

Independents,  Enghsh,  Church  polity, 
364  ;   "  Manifesto  "  to  Parliament, 

365 

Indian,  Missions,  education  of  girls, 
463  ;  and  Lord's  Day  observance, 
487  ;  among  low-caste  population, 
465,  468 ;  native  workers,  454, 
484 ;  work  towards  religious 
liberty,  486 

Individualism,  of  the  Barbarians, 
290 ;  Calvin's  conception,  350, 
360 ;  not  recognized  by  Christi- 
anity, 31  ;  erroneous  conceptions 
of,  361,  514,  515  ;  of  the  Refor- 
mation, 294  ;  in  Roman  Empire, 
i'a.d.,  126;    Stoicism,  131,  148 

Indulgences,  papal,  315 

Industry,  and  Industrial  Class, 
Christ's  teaching,  102  ;  Church  and 
State  in  relation  to  (seventeenth 
and  eighteenth  century  England), 
383,  384 ;  Evangelical  Revival, 
educational  influence  upon,  386 ; 
attitude  towards  religious  conven- 
tion (George  I's  time),  379  ;  and 
Primitive  Church,  231  ;  see  also 
"  Labour  " 

Infanticide,  Constantino's  edict,  26^  ; 
and  Mediaeval  Church,  296  ;  and 
Primitive  Church,  250,  251 

Ingham,  B.,  384 


INDEX 


533 


Innocent  III,  366 

IV,  297 

Inquisition,  the,  297,  353 
Inscription  Orelli,   138,   139 
Institutional  Church,  basis  of,  41 
Institutions  of  Mercy,  in  Middle  Ages, 

299,  300,  302  ;  and  Early  Christian 

Church,  228 
IntellectuaUsm,  true  and  false,  499 


et  seq. 
International  relations, 


influence  of 
philosophic 


Foreign  Missions,  475 
conception,  515 

Introduction  to  the  Eternal  Gospel,  by 
San  Donnino,  324 

Investitures,  Hildebrand's  struggles, 
303  ;    and  French  Revolution,  432 

Irenaeus,  Bishop,  232,  264 

Irish  Church,  3 1 5 

Isaiah,  social  ideals  and  teaching,  54, 
56,  70 ;  nature  of  his  philan- 
thropy, 402 

Isaiah  quoted  on  dignity  of 
farmer's  calUng,  58  ;  on  social  in- 
equalities, 56  ;  on  social  condition 
of  nobles,  57  ;  social  ideals,  70  ; 
on  land  grabbing,  57  ;  protest 
against  social  decadence,  58  ;  on 
slavery,  69 

Isis,  worship  of,  216 

Islam,  compared  with  Christianity, 
III,  195;    bibliography,  195  note 

Israel,  Canaan,  settlement  in,  49  ; 
Captivity,  65  ;  Church  and  State 
in,  45,  46  ;  Eighth  Century,  53-57  ; 
post-Exilic  period,  66  ;  the  Judges, 
52  ;  pre-Canonical  Prophets,  49-5 1 ; 
Monarchy,  52,  60.  63-65  ;  nomad 
life,  47,  48  ;  Prophets,  56,  60,  69, 
75  ;  social  organization,  corv6e,  64  ; 
family,  50;  land  tenure,  51,  56; 
legislation,  54,  60,  66,  67  ;  rich  and 
poor,  48,  56;  60-65  ;  slavery,  51, 
55,  61,  62,  65,  68,  69  ;  compared 
and  contrasted  with  Christendom, 
71-77 

Italy,  democratic  movements  of 
twelfth  century,  324 ;  barbarian 
invasions,  274-277  ;  Ostrogothic 
Kingdom,  275  ;  Moslem  invasions, 
277 

Italy  and  Her  Invaders,  Hodgkin's, 
267  note 

Jacobins,  and  the  French  Revolution, 
435  ;   influence  of,  in  England,  442 
James,  254 
James,  Epistle  of,  158 


Jan  of  Leyden,  370 

Jansenists,  Papal  Bull  "  Unigenitus," 

419  ;    and  the  French  Revolution, 

430,  432 
Japan,    mission  -  schools    for     girls, 

463  ;    influence  of  Missions,   484, 

486 
Japan  Sabbath  Alliance,  487 
Jeremiah,    and    the    "  corvee,"    64  ; 

and  land  tenure,  64  ;   and  slavery, 

65 
Jeremiah   quoted  on  "  corvee,"  64  ; 

land   tenure,    64 ;     nomad  period 

compared    with  post- Exile    days, 

47  ;    King   Zedekiah  and  slavery, 

65 

Jeroboam  II,  53 

Jerome,  St.,  attitude  towards  Roman 
Empire,  264 ;  and  education  of 
women,  264 

Jerusalem,  Conference  of,  166  ;  Fall 
of,  112;  Primitive  Christian  com- 
munity, 157 

Jesuits,  and  the  Jansenists,  419 ; 
and  Louis  XV,  427  ;  power  1824'- 
1830,  439;  and  1870,439 

Jesus  Christ.  His  teachings,  pp.  81- 
116  {see  "Argument,"  80);  on 
aesthetic  side  of  life,  107  ;  alms- 
giving, 87,  loi  ;  asceticism,  106, 
97 ;  ordinance  of  Baptism,  89 ; 
Buddha  compared,  1 1 1  ;  children, 
97  ;  the  Church  (foundation  of), 
88  ;  Church  and  State,  90  ;  col- 
lectivism and  charity,  10 1,  102  ; 
economic  problems,  103-105  ; 
family,  93-97  ;  Holy  Spirit,  225  ; 
immanence,  doctrine  concerning, 
30 ;  Incarnation  doctrine,  8 1  ; 
industry,  attitude  to,  102 ;  the 
Kingdom  of  God,  90  ;  "  Logos  " 
doctrine,  224  ;  Lord's  Supper,  89  ; 
love,  83  seq.  ;  luxury,  105  ;  as 
Jewish  Messiah,  83,  85,  92  ;  mar- 
riage, 94 ;  mendicancy,  102  ; 
Mohammed  compared,  1 1 1  ;  mon- 
asticism,  96  ;  His  personality,  its 
absoluteness  the  secret  of  success 
of  Christianity,  222-225  .'  political 
problems,  attitude  towards,  503  ; 
property  as  an  institution,  98  ;  as 
Saviour  of  the  world,  225  ;  slavery, 
103  ;  social  progress  not  catastro- 
phic, no,  114;  social  institutions, 
attitude  towards,  93;  war,  no; 
wealth  and  poverty,  100,  86 ; 
women,  97,  94 :  See  further 
"  Church,"  "  Christianity,"  etc. 


534 


INDEX 


Jews,  of  Christian  era,  distribution, 
154;  proselytes,  154,  157-164; 
population  in  Roman  Empire  at 
time  of  Augustus,  193  ;  modern 
legislation,  391  ;  of  pre-Christian 
era  :  see  Israel 

Joan  of  Arc,  505 

Job,  social  ideals  of,  70 

Job,  picture  of  righteous  man,  70 

Joel,  social  ideals  of,  69 

John,  St.,  mission  in  Asia  Minor,  199 

John,  St.,  Gospel  of,  quoted  on  duty 
of  compassion,  28  ;  on  Kingdom 
of  God,  92,  197 ;  on  Redemp- 
tion, 222  ;  on  Sonship  of  Christ, 
82  ;  on  trust  in  God,  99  ;  on 
Christ's  attitude  to  women,  97 

John,  St.,  Epistles  of,  teaching  of, 
183  ;  quoted  on  main  principle  of 
Christianity,  223,  224 ;  on  social 
status  of  Church,  202  note 

Johnson,  Dr.,  his  testimony  to 
Methodist  preaching,  384 

Josiah,  social  reforms,  60 

Joshua,  on  land  tenure  and  the 
family,  66 

Jubilee,  Law  of,  67 

Judaism,  contributions  to  Christi- 
anity, 154;  relation  to  Christi- 
anity, 5,  83,  218  ;  influence  of 
Christianity  upon,  157-164  ;  influ- 
ence on  modern  thought,  505  ; 
progress  compared  with  Chris- 
tianity, 193-194 

Judges,  52 

Juhan,  Emperor,  testimony  to  Chris- 
tian  philanthropy,   229,   259 

Justin  Martyr,  his  attitude  to  the 
State,  264  ;  Apology  quoted,  on 
baptism,  164 ;  on  his  conver- 
sion, 221  ;  on  miracles,  222  ;  on 
moral  influence  of  Christianity,  226 
note  ;  on  oral  instruction  of 
Christianity,  223  note  ;  on  thank- 
offerings,  178  ;  Dialogue  with 
Trypho  on  spread  of  Christianity, 
199  ;  on  Platonism,  219  ;  on  rights 
of  women,  251 

Justinian,  Emperor,  276,  281 

Juvenal,  views  on  moral  corruption 
of  Rome,  Dr.  Dill's  criticism,  212  ; 
on  popularity  of  the  Games,  140  ; 
definition  of  philosophy,  144  ;  on 
slavery,  142 


Kali  Char  an  Banurji,  social  influence 
of,  454 


Kant,  Immanuel,  attitude  to  truth, 

501 
Kautsky,  Karl,  269 
Kenkichi  Kataoka,  454 
Khama,  454 
King,    and    Kingship,    Aquinas    on, 

307  ;     bibliography   of   growth  in 

Middle  Ages,  309  note  ;    in  Israel, 

61  ;    John   Knox's  conception  of, 

352  ;  Marsiglio's  conception,  308 
Kingdom    of    God,    Old    Testament 

anticipations,  5  ;  Christ's  teaching, 

90, 112 
Kings,  Books  of,  on  corvee,  52  ;  on 

land  tenure,  5  3 
Kingsley,   Charles,   and   Evangelical 

Revival,  399,  442 
Knox,  John,  Book  of  Discipline,  352  ; 

contrasted     with     Calvin,      351  ; 

quoted  on    kingship,   352  ;    social 

programme,  351  ;    social  and  poh- 

tical  influence,  352 
Koberle,  71,  72 
Kuenen,  194  note 

Labour,  and  Labour  Problem,  Cal- 
vin's ideals  of  the  relation  of  State 
to,  350 ;  Christ's  teaching,  103, 
105  ;  in  Israel  (corvee),  52,  61  ; 
Knox's  programme,  352  ;  of 
modern  society,  12  et  seq.  ;  and 
Medieeval  Church,  319;  Sir  Thomas 
More's  conception,  371  ;  Old 
Testament  teaching  applied  to 
Christendom,  71,  76  ;  in  Primitive 
Church,  231  ;  teaching  of  the 
Reformation,  358  ;  Thorold  Rogers 
and,  384 ;  in  Roman  Empire  i 
A.D.  214 

Lactantius,  255  ;  Divine  Institutes, 
quoted  on  brotherhood,  256  ;  on 
ownership  of  property,  258  ;  on 
Stoicism,  146 

Land,  and  land  tenure,  the  Church 
as  owner,  Arnold  of  Brescia's  re- 
forms 325,  {see  also  "  Property  "), 
In  Israel,  period  before  Canonical 
Prophets,  49,  5 1  ;  Ezekiel,  64  ; 
Isaiah's  condemnation,  57  ;  Jere- 
miah, 64 ;  creation  of  landless 
class,  eighth  century,  53,  57  ;  Law 
of  Jubilee,  67  ;  Micah,  58  ;  post- 
ExiUc  period,  67  ;  Old  Testament 
standards  apphed  to  Christendom, 
76 

Last  Judgement,  parable  of  the,  85 

Last  Supper,  the  institution  of,  89 ; 
see  also  Communion,  Holy 


INDEX 


535 


Latin  Literature,  decline,  in  Middle 
Ages,  282 

La  Vendee,  and  the  Revolution,  434 

Law,  Mr,,  teaching  of,  380 

Law  of  Holiness,  60,  66  note 

Laws  :  see  Legislation 

Lazar  houses,  mediaeval,  299 

Leaven^  the,  parable  of,  91 

Lecky's  History  of,  European  Morals 
quoted  on  Roman  Empire,  cruelty 
in,  214  note;  domestic  ethics  in, 
214  note;  immorahty,  214  note; 
scepticism,  215  ;  slavery,  144,  214 
note ;  on  effects  of  Christian 
philanthropy  on,  227  note ;  on 
Roman  character,  131 

Legislation,  Christ's  attitude  towards 
principle  of,  108,  109 ;  relation 
of  Christianity  to,  32,  443  ;  influ- 
ence of  Evangehcal  Revival  upon, 
393 ;  in  Israel,  54,  60 ;  Roman, 
influence  of  Primitive  Church  upon, 
259,  260,  268  ;  Roman,  its  influ- 
ence on  mediaeval  law,  280 

Leo,  Bishop  of  Rome,  277 

Leper- hospitals,  mediaeval,  299,  300  ; 
and  Foreign  Missions,  467 

Leviticus,  on  duty  of  love,  74 ; 
"Law  of  Holiness,"  60  ;     slavery, 

69 

Liberty,  teaching  of  early  Christian 
Church,  255  ;  French  Revolution 
and  religious,  423  etseq.;  influence  of 
Foreign  Missions  on,  485  ;  influence 
of  Mediaeval  Church  on,  306  ;  and 
Napoleon's  '*  Concordat,"  438  ;  and 
the  Reformation,  361,  363 

Lightfoot's  Philippians,  210 

Lindsay,   Dr.,   quoted,    343 

Little  Flower  of  St.  Francis,  quoted, 
300 

Livy,  quoted  on  moral  corruption  of 
Rome,  2 1 1 

Locke,  John,  501 

Lofthouse,  Professor  W.  F.,  quoted, 

74 
"Logos,"  224 
Lollards,  the,  influence,  324  ;    social 

work,  330 
Lomt»ards,  the,  276 
Lombardy,  rise  of  the  republic,  325  ; 

influence  of  Roman  Law,   280 
London  Dock  Strike  (1889),  20 

Jews'  Society,  393 

Missionary  Society,   393 

Lord's  Day  Observance  Committee, 

487 
Union,  487 


Louis  Napoleon,   Prince,  439 

XIV,  and  the  Church,  418 

XV;  420,  430 

XVI,  and  the  Revolution,  422, 

434 

XVIII,  437,  438 

Love,  in  Christian  doctrine,  507 
et  seq.  ;  towards  God,  83  ;  imparti- 
ality of,  84,  108  ;  expression  of  in 
Holy  Communion,  175-179  ;  Juda- 
ism compared  183  ;  its  relation  to 
society,  27  ;  Stoicism  compared, 
249  ;  philanthropic,  86  ;  univer- 
sality, 84,  85  ;  universahty,  its 
function  in  modern  society,  30,  34 

Love-Feast  (Agape),  175 

Loyalty  Islands,  Missions  in,  455 

Lucian,  199 

Luke,  Gospel  of  St.,  on  aesthetic 
aspect  of  Christianity,  107  ;  and 
Christ's  attitude  to  women,  97 ; 
the  Church,  influence  of,  202  note  ; 
on  divorce,  94,  95  ;  on  forgiveness 
of  sins,  82  ;  on  master  and  servant, 
104 ;  on  Christ's  life  taught  by 
oral  instruction,  223  note  ;  on  the 
Last  Supper  (compared  with  other 
Gospels),  89  ;  on  peril  of  riches, 
86,  100,  loi 

Luther,  Martin,  403  ;  Address  to  the 
Nobility  quoted,  346  ;  quoted  on 
beggars  and  poor  rehef,  367  ;  con- 
trasted with  Calvin,  347-348 ; 
attitude  to  commerce,  345  ;  educa- 
tional reforms,  368-383  ;  funda- 
mental principles,  339,  342,  343, 
346 ;  attacks  monasticism,  356- 
357 ;  attitude  towards  the  Pea- 
sants' Revolt,  and  effects  on  Ger- 
many and  the  Reformation,  342, 
343  ;  and  universal  priesthood  of 
behevers,  364 ;  compared  with 
WycHf,  328 

Lutheran  Church,  343 

Luxury,  Christ's  teaching,  86,  105  ; 
in  Israel,  47,  49,  57  ;  in  Mediaeval 
Church,  324 ;  in  Roman  Empire 
I  A.D,,  136,  214  ;  in  Roman  Cathohc 
Church  prior  to  French  Revolution, 
419 

Lynn,  town,  mediaeval  guilds,  311 

Mackay,  477 

Madagascar,  missions  in,  485 
Malachi,   social  ideals,   69 
Malouet,  and  French  Revolution,  428 
"Mammon  of  Unrighteousness,"  Dr. 
Bruce's  interpretation,  86 


536 


INDEX 


Manumission,  296 

Marat,  435 

Marc  Aurdle,  by  Renan,  213 

Marcus  Aurelius,  215  note;  quoted 
on  altruism,  148  ;  social  conditions 
under,  212,  213  ;  and  the  Games, 
140  ;  quoted,  on  philosophy,  145  ; 
how  far  his  writings  a  preparation 
for  Christianity,  208 

Mark,  Gospel  of  St.,  on  duty  of 
sons  to  parents,  96  ;  on  influence 
of  the  Church,  202  note ;  on 
divorce,  94,  95  ;  on  ripeness  of 
time  for  reception  of  Christianity, 
204 ;  "  Last  Supper,"  account 
compared  with  other  Gospels,  89  ; 
on  peril  of  wealth,  100 

Marriage,  Christ's  teaching,  94  ;  and 
early  Christian  Church,  229,  262, 
266  ;  and  Mediaeval  Church,  357  ; 
Pauline  teaching,  171  ;  in  Roman 
Empire,  first  and  second  centuries, 
214 

Marshall,  Dr.,  quoted,  358 

MarsigHo  of  Padua,  principles  of 
hberty,  307,  309  note 

Martha's  Les  Moralistes  sous  l' Empire 
remain,  123  note 

Martin  of  Tours,  260 

Martyrs,  the  (early  Christian),  219, 
221,  255 

Mary  Queen  of  Scots,  and  education, 
369  ;  and  Knox,  352 

Marx,  Karl,  bhndness  to  EvangeUcal 
Revival,  399 

Mass,  Catholic  Mystery  of  the,  com- 
pared with  the  Agape,  179 

Master  and  Servant,  Christ's  teach- 
ing,   103  ;     in   Rome    (laws),    141, 

f;  143  ;  relation  philosophically  ex- 
pressed, 517 

Mathys,  Jan,  370 

Matthew,  Gospel  of  St.,  on  aesthetic 
aspect  of  Christianity,  107  ;  on 
almsgiving,  87,  102  ;  on  bad  influ- 
ence, Sy  ;  on  Baptism,  89  ;  Christ's 
attitude  to  children,  97  ;  on 
divorce  (compared  with  other 
Gospels),  94,  95  ;  on  use  of  force, 
92 ;  on  forgiveness  of  sins,  82  ; 
on  Fall  of  Jerusalem,  112;  para- 
bles of  the  Kingdom,  91,  112; 
"Last  Judgment,"  85  ;  the  Last 
Supper  (compared  with  other  Gos- 
pels), 89  ;  love  of  neighbour,  84  ; 
master  and  servant,  104 ;  pro- 
perty, 98  ;  on  sacrifice,  82,  83  ;  on 
Scribes  and  Pharistes,  83 ;    self- 


denial,  106  ;  trust  in  God,  100  ; 
Christ's  attitude  to  women,  97  ; 
on  work,  103 

Matthews'  English  Works  of  Wyclif, 
329  note 

Maturines  :  see  Trinitarians 

Maurice,  F.D.,  and  Evangehcal 
Revival,  399  ;  influence  of,  442  ; 
Working-men  College,  402 

Maury,  Abbe,  427 

Maxentius,  199 

MedicBval  Political  Theory  in  'he 
West,  by  A.  J.  Carlyle,  252  note 

Medical  missions,  469 

Melanchthon,  P.,  344 

Melito  of  Sardis,  263 

Mendicancy,  Christ's  teacMng 
(origin),  103  ;  attitude  of  Medieval 
Church  towards,  366  ;  attitude  of 
the  Reformers  towards,  367 

Mery-sur-Seine,   battle  of,   275 

Messiah,  the,  early  Christian  view, 
83,  85,  92 

Methodism,  and  education,  382 

"  Methodist  Party,"  political  influ- 
ence, 389 ;  remedial  legislation, 
390  ;   criticised  as  reactionary,  400 

Micah,  and  social  conditions,  54,  56, 
58 

Micah,  quoted,  on  greed  for  pro- 
perty, 58  ;  denunciation  of  social 
inequalities,  56,  57 

Middle  Classes,  influence  of  Evange- 
hcal Revival  upon,  386  ;  influence 
of  Reformation  upon,    369 

Military  service,  in  Roman  Empire, 
Christians'   attitude  towards,   266 

Mill,  James,  397 

John      Stuart,      attitude     to 

Evangelical  Revival,  397  ;  On 
Liberty  quoted,  on  establish- 
ment of  Church  by  Constantiae, 
242  ;  Representative  Government 
quoted,  on  strength  of  Chris- 
tianity, 219,  220 

Milton,  John,  quoted  on  Truth,  498 

Minchin,  and  penal  laws,  391 

Minority  Report  (1909)  :  see  Poor 
Law  (U.  K.) 

Minucius,  Felix,  Octavius  quoted, 
on  Christian  brotherhood,  256  ;  on 
attitude  of  Christians  to  State,  264 

Mirabeau,  speech  in  National  As- 
sembly on  religious  hberty  (quoted) 
424  ;  motion  in  N.  A.  concerning 
Church  property,  427 

Miracles,  as  a  factor  in  the  expansion 
of  Christianity,  222 


INDEX 


537 


Missions,  influence  of  Evangelical 
Revival  upon,  393  ;  Foreign  :  see 
Foreign  Missions  ;  Moravian  :  see 
Moravian  Missions 

Mithraism,  progress  and  scope  com- 
pared with  Christianity,  193,  197  ; 
mystery  of  redemption  contrasted 
with  Christianity,  216,  225  ;  soci- 
aUty  of  Christianity  contrasted 
with,  246 

Mohammed,  Buddha  and  Christ,  195 

Mohammed  and  Mohammedanism, 
195  note 

Mohammedan  Empire  after  Hegira, 
193  ;  conquests,  seventh  to  ninth 
centuries,  276  ;  rehgion  :  see  Islam 

Mommsen's  Provinces  of  the  Roman 
Empire,  on  society,  122  note;  on 
slavery,  141 

Monasticism,  and  Christ's  teaching, 
96  ;  in  Mediaeval  Church,  318-321  ; 
influence  and  value  in  mediaeval 
Europe,  318 ;  influence  of  its 
philanthropy  upon  the  Wesleys, 
380,  381  ;  effect  of  the  Reforma- 
tion, 355,  358  ;  in  Roman  Church, 
fourth  century  261-262  ;  semi- 
monastic  orders,  320  ;  and  slavery, 
387  ;  women,  305 

Monastic  Orders,  dissolution  of, 
during  French  Revolution,  430  : 
see  also  "^Benedict,  St."  **  Francis, 
St."  etc. 

Money-lending  :    see  Usury. 

Monogamy,  and  Old  Testament 
teaching,  72 

Monopoly,  Luther  on,  quoted,  345 

Monotheism,  in  Roman  Empire,  208, 

Montanism,  225  [220 

Monumenta  Franciscana,  quoted 
on  Wychf,  329 

Moravians,  influence  in  time  of  George 
I,  380  ;    Missions,  394 

More,  Hannah,  390 

Sir  Thomas,   Utopia,  371 

Mornings  in  Florence,  Ruskin's, 
quoted,  301  note 

Morris,  Wm.,  inspirations  of,  relation 
to  Evangelical  Revival,  402 

Moslems,  conquests  of,  seventh  to 
ninth  centuries,  276 

Mother,  status  in  Israel,  50  ;  Roman 
laws  giving  right  of  guardianship 
over  her  children,  269 

Municipal  Government,  relation  to 
social  problems,  23 

Miinzer,  Peasants'  Revolt,  341  ; 
social  teacliing,  370 


Mustard  Seed  parable,  91 
Mutilation,  influence  of  Foreign  Mis- 
sions against,  464 


Naboth,  51 

Nahum,  63  note 

Napoleon  Bonaparte,  relations  with 
the  Papacy,  438  ;  "  Concordat," 
436  ;    and  the  Revolution,   1759- 

1799,434 

Narbonne,  Archbishop  of,  wealth,  419 

Nash,  Professor,  Genesis  of  the  Social 
Conscience,  on  Monasticism  in 
fourth  century,  262  note ;  on 
citizenship  in  Christian  Church,  267 
note 

Natal,  criminal  statistics  1903-09, in- 
fluence of  Foreign  Missions  on,  483 

National  Assembly  of  France,  1789  ; 
"  Civil  Constitution  of  the  Clergy," 
432  ;  abolition  of  clerical  privi- 
leges, 423  ;  cures,  cahiers  of,  422  ; 
Church  property,  confiscation  of, 
and  the  results,  426-428  ;  attack 
religious  Uberty,  424  ;  "  The  Rights 
of  Man,"  declaration  of,  424 

Nationalism,  consciousness  of,  a 
cause  of  mediaeval  reform  move- 
ments, 322,  323  ;  and  a  cause  of 
the  Reformation,  295,  314;  evils 
of,  as  developed  by  the  Reforma- 
tion, 372 

Natural  History,  Pliny's  quoted  on 
scepticism,  215  note 

Natural  science,  its  methods  com- 
pared with  those  of  rehgion,  492 
et  seq.  ;  true  relation  to  religion  and 
hfe,  510,  511 

Naturahsm,  how  modified  by  Christi- 
anity, 507  ,.  4    .  :'' 

Neesima,  Dr.,  484 '••  ■  "4""- .    • 

Neglected  Factors  in  the  Study  of  the 
Early  Progress  of  Christianity : 
see  Orr,  the  Rev.  James 

Nehemiah,    administration   of,   67 

Nehemiah,  social  reforms,  69 

Nelson,  John,  386 

Neo-platonism,  influence  of  Christi- 
anity upon,  203  ;   ideals,  247 

Nero,  Emperor,  persecution  of  Chris- 
tians, 198  ;  social  conditions  under, 
120,  122,  212 

Nerva,  Emperor,  charitable  endow- 
ments, 137 

Netherlands,  the,  the  Reformation, 

353 
New  Guinea,  evangelism  of,  455,  485 


538 


INDEX 


New  Testament,  on  value  of  suffer- 
ing, 28  :    see  also  "  Jesus  Christ  " 

Nietzsche's  Umwertung  alter  Werte, 
quoted  on  Christian  ideals,  219 

Nonconformists,  in  Walpole's  day, 
380  :    see  also  Evangelical  Revival 

Norman  Conquest,  Freeman's  quoted, 
304 

Obadiah,  63   note 

Obedience,  emphasis  laid  by  Mon- 
asticism  upon,  320 

Octavius :     see   Minucius   Felix 

Offertory,  in  primitive  Church,  178, 
179 

Old  Age  Pensions  Scheme  (U.K.) 
significance,  11 

Oldcastle,  Sir  John,  331 

Old  Testament  as  basis  for  Christi- 
anity, 5  ;  social  conditions  and 
teaching  compared  with,  and  ap- 
pUed  to  modern  Christendom,  71- 

77 

On  Liberty,  J.  S.  Mill's,  quoted  on 
early  Christian  Church,  242 

Opium  -  habit,  the  work  of  Foreign 
Missions  against,   457,   467 

Origen,  Against  Celsus,  165  note  ;  on 
charge  of  "  atheism "  brought 
against  Christians,  220  note  ;  on 
miracles,  as  a  factor  in  success  of 
Christianity,  222  note  ;  on  moral 
effects  of  Christianity,  226  note  ; 
on  ripeness  of  time  in  Roman 
Empire  for  reception  of  Christi- 
anity, 205  ;  on  growth  in  wealth 
and  social  influence  of  Church,  203 
note 

Orr,  Rev.  James,  Neglected  Factors 
in  the  Study  of  the  Early  Progress 
of  Christianity,  on  ethical  revival 
of  Antonines,  212  ;  on  evidence 
of  the  Catacombs,  201,  202  ;  on 
influence  of  Christianity  on  literary 
and  cultured  circles,  203  note 

Ostrogoths,  kingdom  of,  27$ 

Otto  the  Great,  277 

Ottoman  Power  in  Europe,  Freeman's, 
195  note 

Owen,  Robert,  379 ;  work  against 
slavery,  389  ;  social-ethical  valua- 
tion of  life,  396 

Oxburgh,  mediaeval  guilds,  311 

Oxford,  University  of,  in  Middle 
Ages,  300 

Padagogue,  the,  Clement  of  Alexan- 
dria's, 252 


Paine,  Tom,  442 

Pantheism,  relation  to  Christianity 
and  naturahsm,  509 

Pao,  455,  485 

Papacy,  the,  and  "  Civil  Constitution 
of  the  Clergy,"  432 ;  influence 
and  attitude  towards  civil  hberty 
after  Hildebrand,  307  ;  constitu- 
tion, 313  ;  attitude  during  French 
Revolution,  433  ;  reasons  for 
growth  and  downfall,  314,  439; 
Hildebrand,  284  ;  and  monasticism 
318;  Napoleon's  Concordat  of 
1802,  435  ;  and  the  Reformation, 
335-372  ;   struggles  of  1870,  439 

Papal  Bull  **  Unigenitus,"  419 

Papuan    Industries    Limited,    477 

Parabolic  Teaching  of  Christ,  Dr. 
Bruce's,  104 

Parents,  Christ's  teaching,  96  ;  Paul- 
ine teaching,  1 72 

Paris,  University  of,  mediaeval,  300 

Parry,  390 

Party  poUtics,  the  Church's  relation 

to,  37 

Passion  (psychological)  function  in 
mental  growth,  499  et  seq. 

Patarines,  influence  of,  324 

Patria  potestas,  132 

Patriotism,  Christian  ideal,  25  ;  and 
early  Christians,  267 

Pattison,  Mark,  351 

Paul,  St.,  teaching  to  the  Corin- 
thians,170;  domestic  ethics,  1 71-173; 
contrasted  with  James,  254  ;  Mis- 
sionary work  (basis  of),  165  ; 
Missionary  work  (scope  and  pro- 
gress), 197  ;  teaching  to  Roman 
Gentiles,  165-170;  teaching  in 
Roman  Asia,  171  ;  sacrificial  lan- 
guage, 168  ;  his  doctrine  of  "  ser- 
vice," 168,  169 ;  teaching  to 
Thessalonians,  170  note 

Paulinus  of  Nola,  philanthropy  of, 
259 ;  attitude  towards  the  State, 
264 

Paulus,  Jurisconsult,  250 

Paupers  and  Pauperism  :  see  Poor, 
the 

Pearl  of  Great  Price  parable,  91 

Peasants'  Revolt,  causes,  327,  340  ; 
their  demands,  341  ;  Luther's 
attitude,  342 

Pelagius,  258,  259 

Penal  code,  and  Mediaeval  Church, 

297  ;  Minchin,  391 
Penance,  system  of,  origin  in  Mediae- 
val Church,  316 


INDEX 


539 


Penitence,  Doctrine  of,  in  Mediaeval 
Church,  315 

Penitentials,  origin  of,  313 

Pentateuch,    the    (Torah),   66 

"  People's  Charter  "  of  1838,  441 

Persecution,  Christ's  teaching,  84, 
108 

Persecution  in  the  Early  Church  :  see 
Workman,  Rev.  H.  B. 

Personahty,  Christian  doctrine  of, 
31,  87;  teaching  in  Primitive 
Church,  167  ;  teaching  of  Calvin 
and  Luther  contrasted,  360 

Peter,  Epistle  of,  197 

Petronius,  on  philosophy,  149  ;  on 
civilization  of  Roman  masses,  i 
A.D.,  121 

Pfieiderer,  Otto,  Primitive  Christi- 
anity quoted,  192 

Pharisees,  the,  Christ's  teaching,  83 

Philanthropy,  Christ's  teaching, 
85,86,  loi  ;  the  DidachS,  161  ;  and 
Evangehcal  movement,  377  et  seq.  ; 
movement  in  France  and  England 
compared,  440  ;  guilds  (mediaeval), 
310 ;  in  Israel,  61,  62 ;  and 
Mediaeval  Church,  298  ;  mediaeval 
(influence  on  Wesleys),  381  ; 
modern,  382  ;  modern  (influence  of 
Evangehcal  Revival  on),  398  ; 
modem  (need  for  more  scientific 
methods),  405  ;  in  Primitive 
Church,  158,  162-3,  228-9,  259- 
260  ;  and  Reformation,  312,  367  ; 
in  Roman  Empire,  137 

Philemon,  Epistle  to,  202  note 

Philippians,  by  Lightfoot,  on  Stoi- 
cism, 210 

Philippians,  Epistle  to  the,  on  god- 
head of  Christ,  224  note 

Philosophy,  post  Aristotelian,  127  ; 
Eastern,  279  ;  Greek,  207-209  ; 
Juvenal's  definition  of,  144 ;  Plu- 
tarch's definition  of,  144  :  see  also 
"  Seneca,"    "  Epicurus,"    etc.,    In 

'■  relation  to  Christianity,  a  prepara- 
tion for  (post  Aristotehan),  207, 
(Greek),  207,  210;  limitations, 
146-149  ;  sociality  compared,  247- 
250  ;  necessity  for  practical  atti- 
tude, 494  ;  its  general  relation  to 
human  life,  chapter  XII  passim 
p.    491    following ;     true    function 

of,  513 
Pilgrim     Fathers,     the,     413,     416; 
influence   on   modern    democracy, 

365 
pity,  in  Stoic  philosophy,  147 


Pius  VI,  433 

VII,  438 

Plato  and  Platonism,  127  ;  doctrine 
of  ideas  (how  regarded  by  Mediaeval 
Church,  282  ;  theory  of  ownership 
of  property,  258  ;  aim  of  the 
**  Republic,"  501  ;  social  ideals, 
criticised,  247  ;  on  permanence  of 
society,  493  ;  theory  of  state  com- 
pared with  Christian,  26  ;  how  far 
the  philosophy  a  preparation  for 
Christianity,  207,  208  :  see  also 
Neo- Platonism 

Pliny,  benevolence  of,  137,  199; 
quoted,  on  habits  of  Christians, 
163  ;  Epistles  quoted,  on  life 
in  Rome,  137;  Natural  History 
quoted,  on  his  scepticism,  215 
note 

Plutarch,  quoted,  on  Alexander  the 
Great,  125  ;  Cato  Major  on 
slavery,  141  ;  De  Liheris  Edu- 
candis  quoted,  definition  of  philo- 
sophy, 144  ;  how  far  his  writings 
a  preparation  for  Christianity,  208, 
210 

PoUtical  economy,  philosophic  basis, 

514 

philosophy,  relation  to  Christi- 
anity, Chapter  XII,  p.  491  follow- 
ing ;  its  present  development,  492  ; 
true  function  of  religion,  502 

science,  392 

Pollard,  Professor,  quoted  on  effects 
of  Luther's  action  regarding  Pea- 
sants' Revolt,  344 ;  quoted  on 
Eberiin's   social  principles,    371 

Polycarp,  quoted  on  widows,  177 
note  ;  martyrdom,  199 

Polychrome  Bible,  Cheyne's,  quoted, 
56,  57 

Polygamy,  Israelite  standards  com- 
pared with  Christian,  71,  72  ;  in- 
fluence of  Foreign  Missions  on,  462 

Pomponia  Graecina,  202 

Poor,  Poverty,  Christ's  teaching,  100, 
102  ;  in  Israel,  51,  56,  60,  67,  68  ; 
and  Mediaeval  Church,  299-301, 
324;  and  Primitive  Church,  158, 
254,  258,  269  ;  and  the  Reforma- 
tion, 367-8 ;  Modern,  Christian 
duty,  41  ;  poor  law  system  (U.K.) 
criticised,  21  ;  widespread  evil,  13  ; 
contrasted  with  ancient,  102 

Poor  Law,  influence  of  Evangelical 
Revival  upon,  391  ;  effect  of  Old 
AgefPension  scheme,  11  ;  United 
Kingdom  (its  value  and  its  inade- 


540 


INDEX 


quacy),   20  et  seq.  ;   first  English 

(1536),  367 

Poor  Law  Commission  (1909),  Minor- 
ity Report,  considered,  21,  22 

Poor  Men  of  Lyons,  324 

Poor,  Overseers  of  the,  first  appoint- 
ment, 368 

Poor  Rate,  in  Egypt,  135 

Pounds,  the,  parable,   104 

Predestination,  doctrine  of,  Calvin's, 
360 

"  Priestly  Code  "  of  Israel,  66  note 

Prison  system,  influence  of  Evange- 
lical Revival,  391  ;  Christian  ideals 
109 ;  modern  (need  for  new 
scientific  philanthropy) ,  406 

Prisoners,  Roman  edicts  to  alleviate, 
269  ;  and  Foreign  missions,  466  ; 
of  war,  and  Mediaeval  Church,  298, 

*  304  ;  of  war,  and  Primitive  Church, 
228 

Privileges,  of  Clergy,  and  French 
Revolution,  423 

Property,  Christ's  teaching,  98 ; 
communism  (Early  Church  teach- 
ing), 257  ;  in  Israel,  49,  51,  53,  57, 
67  ;  Mediaeval  Church,  325  ;  and 
Primitive  Church  teaching,  161, 
179 ;  private  ownership  (Early 
Church  teaching),  258;  Roman 
CathoUc  Church  and  French  Revo- 
lution, 427-429 

Prophets,  in  Israel,  social  ideals  of, 
56,  60,  69,  75 

Proselyte,  to  Christianity,   154,   165 

Protestantism,  335-373  ;  in  England, 
pre-Evangehcal,  404  ;  in  time  of 
George  I,  379 ;  influence  on 
hberty  (intellectual  and  political), 
362-364;  influence  (1688),  440; 
in  France,  failure  during  Revolu- 
tion, 436 :  see  also  **  Luther," 
"  Calvin,"  etc. 

Provence,  Comte  de :  see  Louis 
XVIII 

Proverbs,  social  ideals  of,  70 

Psalms,  74 

Psychology,  true  relation  of  intellect, 
passion,  idea,  500 

Punishment :  see  Reward 

Puritans,  the,  413 

Purvey,  John,humanitarianism  of,  330 

Quakers,  influence  on  slavery,  387 

Race-hatred,  Aristotle  and,  124; 
Christ's  teaching,  85  ;  teaching  of 
Primitive  Church,  165 


Ramabai,  the  Pundita,  454 
Ramsay's     Church    in    the     Roman 
Empire,    on    citizenship    in,    267, 
note  ;  on  Pauline  Mission,  1 98  note 
Rashdall's     Universities    in    Middle 
Ages,     quoted     on     hostihty     to 
classical  learning,  283 
RationaUsm,  Christian  formula,  507 
Rauschenbusch's     Christianity     and 
the   Social  Crisis,  quoted  on  radi- 
calism   in  the  Church,    254  note  ; 
quoted,  Karl  Kautsky's  opinion  of 
Church's   benevolence    in    Roman 
Empire,  269 
Real  Presence,  doctrine  of,   179 
Reason,  its  limited  function,  497-8  ; 

in  Stoic  philosophy,  129 
Redemption,  doctrine  of  the,  222,  225 
Reform  Bills,  England,  390 
Reformation,  the,  definition  of,  as 
treated  in  Chapter  VIII,  336 ; 
Calvin,  346  ;  individualism  of,  294, 
360;  Knox,  351;  Luther,  339- 
344 ;  nationahsm  of,  295,  372  ; 
the  Netherlands,  353  ;  first  origin 
of,  314;  social  ideals,  359,  403; 
conditions  in  Christendom  during, 
337>  340;  Influence  and  effects  on 
Charity,  367 ;  commercial  and 
civic  hfe,  358,  372  ;  growth  of 
democracy,  364  ;  education,  368  ; 
conception  of  ideal  life,  355  ; 
family  hfe,  357;  guilds,  312; 
hberty  (political  and  social),  360, 
363  ;  on  development  of  middle 
classes  369 
Rehef,  Poor  Law  (U.K.)  :    see  Poor 

Law. 
Remonstrance,  Purvey's,  quoted,  330 
Renan,    on    civiUzation    in     Roman 
Empire,  i   a.d  ,    122  ;  les  Apdtres, 
135  ;    Marc    Aurdle,    on    reign   of 
Commodus,  213 
Rendel  Harris,  Dr.,  Aaron's  Breast- 
plate, quoted,  on  Mithraism,  246 
Representation,     Thomas     Aquinas, 
quoted,    307  ;     English   Independ- 
ents, 365  ;    Marsigho's  conception, 
308 
Representative     Government,     J.     S. 

Mill's,  219 
Responsibility,  of  individuals  to- 
wards community,  26 ;  Christ's 
teaching,  87,  106  ;  ethics  of  in 
Primitive  Church,  162,  181 
Resurrection,  Doctrine  of,  points  of 
contact  with  pagan  mysteries,  221 
note 


INDEX 


541 


Retaliation,  Christ's  teaching,  108  ; 
in  Laws  of  Israel,  55  ;  Pauline 
teaching,  160 

Reuss'  Christian  Theology  of  Apos- 
tolic Age,  205  note 

Revenge,  Christ's  prohibition,  108 

Revivalism,  its  dangers,  510 

Revocation  of  the  Edict  of  Nantes, 
418 

Revolution  of  1830,  439 

Reward  and  Punishment,  Christ's 
teaching,  104,  109  ;  in  regard  to 
doctrine  of  Penitence  of  Mediaeval 
Church,  316 

Rich  fool,  the,  parable,   loi 

Rich  Man  and  Lazarus,  parable,  86, 

lOI 

Rich  and  poor,  problem  of,  Christ's 
teaching,  86,  100-102  ;  in  Israel, 
56,  60-64,  67,  and  Mediaeval 
Church,  300  ;  modern,  1 7 

Rights,  relation  to  duties,  516 

**  Rights  of  Man,"  declaration  of, 
424 

Rise  of  Democracy^  M.  Borgeaud's, 
quoted,  on  effects  of  the  Reforma- 
tion, 337 

Rise  and  Fall  of  the  Roman  Empire  : 
see  Gibbon 

Ritschl's  Altkatholische  Kirche,  198, 
note,  224 

Ritter's  History  of  Christian  Philo- 
sophy, quoted,  286 

Ritual,  in  Israel,  66,  75 

Robespierre,  417,  435 

Rogers,  Thorold,  Work  and  Wages, 
quoted,  398 

Roman  Cathohc  Church  in  France 
(i),  French  Revolution,  414-438  ; 
Voltaire's  attack,  414  ;  Rousseau, 
416  ;  power  prior  to  Revolution, 
418  ;  revolt  of  cur6s,  421  ;  reforms 
of  National  Assembly,  422-3  ; 
attitude  of  populace  (July,  1789), 
423  ;  right  to  own  property  (debate 
in  Assembly),  426  ;  State  payment 
of  clergy,  427,  429  ;  dissolution 
of  monastic  orders,  430 ;  Civil 
Constitution  of  the  Clergy,  431  ; 
Napoleon's  Concordat  (1802),  435, 
437  ;  effects  of  Revolution,  438  ; 
bibhography,  429  :  see  also  Church, 
(3),  Mediaeval 

(2)  power  of,  1848-1852,  439 

(3)  influence  in  1870,  439 

Roman  Empire,  Barbarian  invasions, 
273-278  ;  benefactions  and  Chari- 
ties, 13s  ;  condition  before  Christi- 


anity, 1 19-123,  210,  211  ;  causes 
and  antecedents  for  conditions  in 
I  A.D.,  123-133  ;  Christian  Church, 
establishment  of,  184 ;  Christian 
Church,  factors  for  and  against  its 
expansion,  238-242 ;  205,  208, 
165,  171  ;  Christians,  persecution 
of,  1 98 ;  commercial  and  social 
development,  134;  culture  (influ- 
ence on  civiHzation),  279,  280  ; 
extent  and  homogeneity,  133  ;  the 
Games,  139;  its  greatness  con- 
sidered, and  civiUzation's  debt  to, 
273  ;  Law,  280 ;  material  pros- 
perity, 1 34  ;  modern  society  (par- 
allels with),  134  ;  moral  corruption, 
210-214;  population  (Christian), 
200,  (Jewish),  193,  (heathen), 
239  ;  philosophers,  144,  208  ;  reh- 
gions,  215-217;  slavery,  141; 
schools,  280  ;  solidarity,  292,  314  ; 
sumptuary  laws,  135  ;  external 
universaUsm,  205  ;  Western,  273, 
^  274;  position  of  women,  138; 
Influence  and  Effects  of  Christianity 
could   it   be   Christianized  ?    242- 

244  ;  on  Games,  229  ;  on  legisla- 
tion, 259-260,  267,  268 ;  on 
philanthropy,   259 ;    on  reUgions, 

245  :  on  slavery,  253 

Roman  Society  from  Nero  to  Marcus 
Aurelius  :  see  DiU,  Dr. 

Romans,  Epistle  to  the,  182  ;  quoted 
on  Agape,  175  ;  on  Church  in 
Rome,  1 98,  202  note ;  Gentile 
Christian  ethics  of,  165-170;  on 
martyr-spirit,  221  ;  on  love  of 
neighbour,  160  ;  on  Redemption, 
222 

Rome,  Alaric  invades,  274  ;   ancient, 

131  ;  city-state,  125  ;  her  con- 
quests, changes  brought  about  by, 

132  ;  conditions  prior  to  Christi- 
anity, 120 ;  Christians,  first  to 
third  centuries,  198,  201,  202 ; 
conservatism,  240  ;  free  food,  135  ; 
Huns  invade,  277 ;  its  rehgious 
development,  245 

Rousseau,  Jean  Jacques,  practical 
philosophy,  501  ;  attitude  to 
Christianity,  415  ;  Savoyard  Vicar 
described,  417  ;  Social  Contract, 
414 

Ruskin's  Lectures  on  Art,  quoted, 
on  Lollards,  331  ;  Mornings  in 
Florence,  quoted,  on  rapprochement 
of  the  Classes  in  Little  Flower  of 
St.  Francis,  301 


542 


INDEX 


Sacerdotalism,  in  Mediaeval  Church, 
315;  influence  of  Reformation  on, 
360 

Sacraments,  the,  institution  of,  Gos- 
pels compared,  89 ;  in  Primitive 
Church,  164,  175  :  see  also  *'  Bap- 
tism," "  Communion,  Holy,"  etc. 

Sacrifice,  Christ's  teaching,  82  ;  signi- 
ficance in  Primitive  Church,  167, 
178  ;  conception  of  in  relation  to 
Holy  Communion  after  third  cen- 
tury, 180 

Saint  -  Etienne,  Rabaud,  speech  in 
National  Assembly  on  religious 
liberty,  quoted,  425 

Salian  Franks,  history  of,  275 

Salvation,  Cluistian  doctrine  of,  its 
character  and  scope,  31,  82,  87 

Army,  influence  of  Evangehcal 

Revival  upon,  386,  407 

Samaritan,  the  Good,  85 

San  Donnino,  Gherarda  da  Borgo,  324 

Saracens,  the,  influence  of  their 
culture,  279 

Savoyard  Vicar ^  the,  Rousseau's,  417 

Scepticism,  in  Roman  Empire,  a 
factor  in  the  reception  of  Christi- 
anity, 215-217 

Schaff,  quoted  on  hberty,  364 ;  on 
Mediaeval  Church's  idea  of  piety,  35  5 

Scholasticism,  Aquinas,  307  ;  An- 
selm,  309  ;  and  Mediaeval  Univer- 
sities, 299  ;  Wyclif,  327 

Schmidt,  C,  Social  Results  of  Early 
Christianity,  173  note;  227  note; 
on  charity  towards  heathen,  229 
note  ;  on  slavery,  230  note 

Schultze,  v.,  193 

Science  :  see  Natural  Science 

Scotland,  the  Reformation,  351  ; 
educational  advantages  owing  to 
Knox,  351,  368 

Scottish  Church  Society,  393 

Scribes,  inferiority  to  Christian  ideal, 
83  ;  interpretation  of  law  of  di- 
vorce, 94  ;  interpretation  of  law 
concerning  support  of  parents,  96 

Second  Advent,  112 

Secularism,  charge  made  against 
Christianity,  its  refutation,  32-36 

Self-denial,  Christ's  teaching,   106 

Seneca,  136,  253  ;  quoted,  on  civiliza- 
tion of  his  day,  120  ;  on  relation 
of  pity  to  clemency,  147  ;  de 
Clementia  quoted,  on  slavery,  143  ; 
Epistles  quoted  (on  Games),  140,  (on 
slavery),  142;  de  Beneficiisqnoted, 
on  his  pessimism,   149 ;  De  Ira  on 


moral  corruption  ox  Rome,  211; 
on  exposure  of  children,  214  note  ; 
on  future  state,  248 

Serapis,  worship  of,  216 

Serfdom,  mediaeval,  and  the  Church, 
298,  387  ;  in  Germany,  344 

Sermo,  Augustine's,  on  dignity  of 
women,  251 

**  Sermon  on  the  Mount,"  relation 
to  modern  social  problems,  7 

Service,  in  primitive  Church,  signifi- 
cance of,  167,  168 

Settlement  Movement,  modern,  and 
Evangehcal  Revival,  402 

Sexes,  relation  of  the,  Christ's  teach- 
ing, 94-99  ;  and  primitive  Church, 
229,  230 ;  heathen  (influence  of 
Foreign  Missions),  461-463  ;  in 
Roman  Empire,  138,  139,  214 

Shaftesbury,  seventh  Earl  of,  factory 
reforms,  389  ;  leader  of  Methodist 
party  in  Parliament,  392 

Shepherd  of  Hermas,   185 

Siam,  foreign  missions,  485,  486 

Sibylline  Books,  254 

Sick,  the,  and  early  Church,  259 

Sidonius,  Bishop,  260 

Si^yes,  Abbe,  421 

Simple  Life,  the  Christian  ideal,  105 

Sin,  Christian  doctrine  of,  82  ;  in 
primitive  Church  (confession  of), 
176  ;  in  Mediaeval  Church  (absolu- 
tion), 315-316 

Slavery,  Christ's  view  of,  103  ;  influ- 
ence of  Evangelical  Revival  upon, 
387  ;  in  ancient  Greece,  141,  in 
Israel,  period  before  canonical 
Prophets,  51,  legislation,  eighth 
century,  55,  legislation  during 
end  of  Monarchy,  61-62,  Zede- 
kiah,  65,  Jeremiah,  65,  Nehe- 
miah,  68,  Isaiah,  60 ;  in  Mediaeval 
Church,  297 ;  modern,  work  of 
Foreign  Missions,  468,  Old  Testa- 
ment conditions  and  teaching  com- 
pared and  appUed,  71,  72,  y6,  yy  ; 
and  Primitive  Church,  172,  298  ; 
In  Roman  Empire,  influence  of 
Christianity  upon,  230,  252,  Con- 
stantine's  legislation,  268,  eco- 
nomic results,  214,  Juvenal  on, 
142,  status  and  laws,  141-144, 
Seneca  on,  142,  143,  Stoic  and 
Christian  view  contrasted,  253 

Slavs,  the,  fifth  century  invasions, 
276 

Slum-life,  moral  and  physical  de- 
generation, 15 


INDEX 


543 


Smith,  Adam,  Wealth  of  Nations,  440 
Sidney,  quoted,  on  Methodists, 

389 
Sorcery,   social  significance,    481 
Social  Contract,   Rousseau's  view  of 

Christianity,  415  ;  Robespierre  and, 

417 

SociaUsm,  James  and  Paul's  teaching 
concerning  poverty  contrasted, 
254  ;  contrasted  with  the  Christian 
social  ideal,  25  ;  true  philosophic 
basis,  erroneous  conceptions,  516, 
517  sei.  :  see  also  Christian  Social- 
ism 

Social  Organization,  problem  of  the 
waste  produced  by  modern  system, 
17  ;  nature  of  principles  govern- 
ing, 492  foil.  ;  true  function  of 
Christianity,  503  foil.  ;  debt  to 
science  and  philosophy,  514; 
organic  conception  of,  515^;  modern, 
compared  with  Roman  Empire 
first  century,  134,  135  ;  Old  Testa- 
ment ideals  applied  to  modern 
conditions,  71  :    see  also  "  State  " 

Social  Problem  (modem),  Christi- 
anity in  relation  to.  Introduction 
Chap,  passim  7  seq.,2S',  its  spiritual 
relation,  10,  39  ;  its  spiritual  char- 
acter contrasted  with  its  economic 
relations,  23  ;  function  of  the 
Church,  inference  from  Christ's 
teaching,  114;  not  pre-eminent 
at  Reformation,  T)2,6  ;  Calvin 
makes  part  of  Christian  pro- 
gramme, 348-354 ;  influence  of 
Evangelical  Revival,  Chap.  IX 
passim,  377  ;  its  philosophic  as- 
pect, 496 

Social  Results  of  Early  Christianity  : 
see  Schmidt,  C. 

Socrates,  views  on  citizenship,  125  ; 
his  philosophy  a  preparation  for 
the  reception  of  Christianity,  207 

Sohm,  quoted,  on  indirect  effects  of 
Reformation,  359 

Solomon,  and  forced  labour,  52 

Son,  Christ's  teaching  regarding,  96  ; 
status  in  Rome,  132 

Sonship,  of  Jesus,  Christian  ideal 
revealed  in,  81,  115 

Soul,  the,  Christ's  teaching,  8y 

South  African  missions,  483 

South  African  Commission  on  Native 
Affairs,  quoted,  on  value  of  foreign 
missions,  483 

South  Sea  Islands,  missions  in,  485 

Spain,  history  of  in  fifth  century,  275  ; 


conquest  by  Moslems  seventh  cen- 
tury, 277  ;  early  Christian  Chuich, 
203,  232  ;  Inquisition  and  the 
Netherlands,  353 

Spinoza,  practical  attitude,  501 

Spiritual  Franciscans,  influence  of, 
324  ;    influence  on  Wyclif,   329 

"Standard  of  Comfort,"  increase  in 
modern  society,  19 

Stanley,  Dean,  quoted  on  Constan- 
tine's  Christian  legislation,   268 

State  the,  Aquinas'  theory,  307  ;  Cal- 
vin, 349  ;  relations  to  Christianity 
examined,  244  ;  Clement  of  Rome 
on  divine  origin,  263  ;  Eberlin's 
theory,  370  ;  function  considered, 
244,  5 1 9  (false  views  of)  ;  function 
considered,  by  French  National 
Assembly  1789,  423  foil.  ;  Mar- 
siglio's  theory,  307  ;  effects  of 
Reformation  on  political  theory, 
358  ;  Rousseau,  415  ;  see  also 
"Church  and  State" 

States  General  of  France,  1789,  421 

Stoicism,  its  founder  and  principles, 
122,  1 29-1 3 1  ;  altruism  and  egot- 
ism, 131,  148;  attitude  to  chil- 
dren, 250 ;  fervour  of,  146 ; 
sociality  of  contrasted  with  Christi- 
anity, 247-250  ;  attitude  to  slav- 
ery, 252  ;  how  far  a  factor  for  the 
reception  of  Christianity,  208,  210 

Storr's  Divine  Origin  of  Christianity, 

Strikes,  their  inadequacy,  20 
Submission,    Christ's    teaching,    92, 

108  ;  practice  of,  in  early  Christian 

Church,  266 
Suetonius,   215   note,   Claudius,    143 
Suevians,  the,  275 
Suffering,  Christian  doctrine,  28 
Suicide,  influence  of  Foreign  Missions 

on,  458 
Summer  Schools,  modern,  influence 

of  Evangelical  Revival,  402 
Sumptuary  laws,  135  :    see  Luxury 
Sunday,    Observance    of,    Constan- 

tine's  edict,  268  ;    Foreign  Mission 

work,  487 
Schools,     need     for     scientific 

philanthropy  in  treatment,  407 
Superstition,  in  Roman  Empire,  215, 

217  ;   growth  in  Mediaeval  Church, 

286  ;    and  modem  heathen,  480 
Supper,  sacrament  of  the  Last ;    see 

Communion,  Holy 
"  Survival  of  the  Fittest,"  doctrine  of 

in  modern  economics,  18 


544 


INDEX 


Switzerland,    condition    at    time    of 

Calvin,  346 
Symmachus,  240 

Syncretism,  in  Mediaeval  Church,  287 
Synesius,  260 

Tacitus,  215  note  ;  quoted  on  corrup- 
tion in  Rome,  120 ;  (Dr.  Dill's 
criticism),  212  ;  Annals  quoted, 
on  Nero's  persecution  of  Christians, 
198  ;  on  Roman  philanthropy, 
137;  on  slavery,  143  ;  on  women, 
138 

Taine's  Ancien  Regime  on  wealth  of 
Church  in  France,  419  note 

Talents f  parable  of  the,  104 

Talleyrand,  Bishop  of  Autun,  pro- 
poses State  confiscation  of  Church 
property,  426;  and  the  "Civil 
Constitution  of  the  Clergy,"  433 

Tatian's  Cohort  on  Christian 
Church  and  education  of  women, 

251 

Taxation,  in  Israel,  52  ;  and  early 
Christians,  263 

Technical  Education,  407 

Temperance  Question,  106,  457 

Tertiaries  of  St.  Francis,  320 

Tertulhan,  199,  255  ;  on  civil  life 
of  Christians,  266,  267,  164, 
Apologies  on  Agape,  175,  on 
charity  of  Church,  228  note,  on 
influence  of  Christianity,  226  note, 
on  collective  character  of  Church 
discipline,  1 80  note 

Tescehn,  304 

Teutonic  Knights,  Order  of,  320 ; 
crusade  against  Wends,   278,   303 

Theophilanthropists,  the,  437 

Thankoffering,  in  Primitive  Church, 
178 

Theocracy,  Calvin's  conception,  348 

Theodore  of  Tarsus,  315 

Theodoric,  275 

Thessalonians,  Epistle  to  the,  i7onotej 

175,  197 

Third  Republic  of  France,  439 

Thorntons,  the,  389,  390 

Thorpe,  Wm.,  331 

Thouret,  lawyer,  428 

Tiberius,  Emperor,  philanthropy,. 
131  ;   society  under,  122,  240 

Timothy,  Epistles  to,  202  note,  221 
note 

Tithes,  abolition  of  by  French 
National  Assembly,  420,  423  ;  and 
Napoleon's  "Concordat,"  438  ;  re- 
stored to  Church,  439 


Titus,  Epistle  to,  197 

Toleration,  Religious,  Edict.  313  a.d., 
268  ;  and  English  Independents, 
365  ;  influence  of  Evangelical 
Revival  upon,  392 

"Torah"  :  see  Pentateuch 

Total  Abstinence,  true  significance, 
106 

Tours,  Battle  of,  277 

Tractarian  Movement,  405 

Trades  Unions,  and  mediaeval  Guilds, 
310 

Training  Schools,  and  Evangelical 
Revival,  407 

TrallianSy  Letter  to  the,  quoted,  177 

Transcendentahsm,  theory  of  Christi- 
anity examined,  32-33  ;  its  in- 
applicability to  facts  of  life,  494 

Treasure  in  the  Field,  parable,  91 

"  Treuga  dei  "  :  see  Truce  of  God 

Tribal  system,  in  Israel,  47,  49 

Trinitarians  (Maturines),  Order  of, 
299 

Troeltsch,  quoted  on  Calvin  and 
social  reform,  354;  quoted  on 
Luther  and  Calvin's  conception  of 
personality,  360  ;  quoted  on  doc- 
trine of  universal  priesthood  of 
beUevers,  364 

"Truce  of  God"  (Treuga  dei),  303 

True  Word,  the,  of  Celsus,  199 

Truth,  its  practical  relation  to  the 
Good,  500 

Trypho,  Dialogue  with  :  see  Justin 
Martyr 

Tuscany,  Republic  of,  325 

Two  Ways  J  quoted,  158 

Uganda  Missions,  464,  468,  486 

Company,  Ltd.,  origin  of,  477 

Ulhorn's  Christan  Charity  in  the 
Christian  Church,  123  note  ;  227 
note  ;  on  Churches  of  Alexandria 
and  Carthage,  228  note ;  on 
charitable  institutions  in  Roman 
Empire,  229  note ;  Conflict  of 
Christianity,  on  external  aspects 
of  the  preparation  for  Christianity, 
205  note,  207  note,  209;  on  ex- 
travagance and  slavery  in  Roman 
Empire,  214  note  ;  on  philosophies 
of  Greece,  210  ;  on  Scepticism  in 
Roman  Empire,  215 
Umwertung  aller  Werte,  Nietzsche's, 

2 1 9  note 
Unemployment,     Calvin's     solution, 
349 ;      cause    and    conditions    of 
modern,  13 


INDEX 


545 


Unforgiving  Servant,  parable,  104 
United    Free    Church    of    Scotland, 

foreign  missions,  458 
Universities,  mediaeval,  283,  300,  310 
Universities  in  Middle  ^Ages,  Rash- 

dall's,  quoted,  283 
University  Extension,  402 
Unrighteous  Steward,  parable,  86 
Unskilled    labour,    in   DidacM,    162 

note;    modern  problems,  13,  20 
Usury    (money   -    lending),    laws   in 

eighth  century    B.C.,    55  ;     Nehe- 

miah's     reforms,     68 ;       Luther's 

attitude,  345 
Utopia,  Sir  Thomas  More's,  quoted, 

371 

Vandals,  the,  Arianism  of,  288  ;  inva- 
sions of,  275 

Venice,  reputed  foundation  of,  276 

Verbeck,  486 

Vespasian  Emperor,  140 

Vikings  :  see  Wikings 

Villain,  mediaeval  and  land  tenure, 
298 

Virgil,  mediaeval  neglect,  282 

Virgin,  cult  of,  304 

Visigoths,  the,  and  Arianism,  288  ; 
defeat  Attila,  277  ;  invasions,  274, 
275  ;  establishment  of  Kingdom, 
275 

VoUtion,  relation  to  ideas,  499 

Voltaire,  attitude  to  Christianity,  414 

Von  Dobschiitz.  E.,  Christian  Life  in 
the  Primitive  Church,  17^ 

Wages,   lowness   for  unskilled  work 

in  modern  society,  1 3 
Waldensians   [Poor  Men  of  Lyons], 

324 

Walpole,  Horace,  estimate  of,  379 

War,  Christian  principle  regarding, 
no;  and  early  Cluistians,  266; 
influence  of  Mediaeval  Church  upon, 
302 

Watson,  Bishop,  Apology  for  Christi- 
anity, 191 

Wealth,  Christ's  teaching,  99-102  ; 
how  regarded  by  early  Church 
Fathers,  258  ;  teaching  of  Mediae- 
val Church,  302  ;  subsequent 
reform  movements  against  wealth 
of  Mediaeval  Church,  324 ;  re- 
garded as  a  trust  in  Roman  Empire 
first  century,  137  :  see  also  "  Rich 
and  Poor,  Poverty,  Property  " 

Wealth  of  Nations,  Adam  Smith's,  440 


Wends,  the,  Christianizing  of,  278  ; 
crusade   against    1333,    303 

Wesley,  John,  educational  reforms, 
382  ;  democratic  character,  385  ; 
influence  on  Established  Church, 
440  ;  and  the  Moravians,  380,  381  ; 
preaching  against  slavery,  387 ; 
and  Whitefield,  378 

Wesleyan  Missionary  Society,  393 

Whitefield,  and  slavery,  387  ;  and 
Wesley,  378 

Wife  :  see  Marriage 

Wikings  (Vikings),  influence  of 
Church  upon,  284,  285  ;  invasions 
in  ninth  century,  277  ;  individual- 
ism of,  290 

Wilberforce,  supported  by  Evan- 
geUcal  revivalists,  390  ;  and  child- 
labour,  392,  and  slavery,  387 

Will,  in  Stoicism,  129 

Wisdom  Literature  of  Israel,  70 

Witch-doctors,  481 

Women,  Ambrose's  opinion  of,  251  ; 
in  post-Aristotelian  philosophy, 
127  ;  Augustine's  opinion  of,  251  ; 
Christ's  teaching,  97  ;  Clement  of 
Alexandria's  opinion,  252;  Chrysos- 
tom's  opinion,  252 ;  educational 
missions  (modem),  462,  467  ;  influ- 
ence of  Foreign  Missions  on  her 
position,  462  ;  included  in 
Guilds  (mediaeval),  312;  heiresses 
(Israelite  laws),  67  ;  Jerome's 
opinion,  251;  Justin  Martyr  on,  251; 
labour  of  (influence  of  Evangelical 
Revival),  389;  and  marriage:  see 
Marriage ;  and  Mithraism  (excluded 
from  its  privileges),  246  ;  in  Middle 
Ages  (placein  Church  and  State), 
304;  modern  Christendom  (status 
compared  with  that  in  Israel),  7 1 ;  in 
Pauline  ethics,  171  ;  teaching  of 
Primitive  Church  concerning,  251  ; 
status  in  Primitive  Church,  229  ;  in 
Roman  Empire,  138,  214  (made 
legal  guardians  of  their  children), 
269  ;  Tatianon,  251 

Wordsworth,  Wm.,  509 

Work  and  Wages,  by  Thorold  Rogers, 
398 

Working  man  (modem),  education 
contrasted  with  eighteenth  cen- 
tury, 386 ;  Massey's  efforts  for, 
402  ;  colleges,  401 

Workman,  Rev.  H.  B,,  Persecution 
in  the  Early  Church,  287,  303  ; 
quoted,  on  early  Christians  and 
state  offices,  297 

NN 


546 


INDEX 


Worms,  Concordat  of,  303 

Wyclif  John,  compared  with  St. 
Francis  of  Assisi,  329  ;  his  doc- 
trine of  the  humanity  of  Jesus, 
330  ;  influence  on  Peasants'  Re- 
volt, 327  ;  outline  of  his  political 
system,  527  ;  sympathy  with  the 
poor,  328,  329  note 


Young  Men's  Christian  Association, 
407 


Zechariah,  social  ideals,  69 
Zeno,  his  philosophy,  129 
Zephaniah,  63  note 
Zwingli,  educational   reforms,  368 


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