m
LIBRARY
OF THE
UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA.
Received DEC 10 1*°? , l8g
Jlccessigns. No. Zf«032_ . Class No.
CHRISTIAN DOCTRINES
AND
MODERN THOUGHT
THE BOYLE LECTURES FOR 189 1
BY
T. G. BONNE Y, D. Sc.
'I
LL.D., F.R.S., F.S.A., F.G.S.
FELLOW OF ST. JOHN'S COLLEGE, CAMBRIDGE, HONORARY CANON OF MANCHESTER
AND EXAMINING CHAPLAIN TQ THE- LORD. BISHOP OF MANCHESTER
[BII7SRSITT,
LONGMANS, GREEN, & CO.
AND NEW YORK: 15 EAST 16th STREET
1892
All rights reserved
BT7S
s4
<+^j
iiSi.
I DEDICATE THESE LECTURES
TO THE SISTER
WHO
BY HER CARE AND COMPANIONSHIP
DURING THE LAST TEN YEARS
HAS LIGHTENED MANY A BURDEN.
WIVERSITy]
PREFACE.
Knowledge has grown from more to more during
the present century. It is sometimes tacitly
assumed that this advance has been adverse to
all definite or systematic theology. In a certain
sense this is true. A scientific education develops
a habit of mind which is sceptical, in the better
sense of the word. By it men are rendered less
prone to accept, unless good reason can be shown,
either the ipse dixit of a teacher or the decree
of an assembly; they are led to assign a lower
value to ceremonial ordinances and the machinery
of an ecclesiastical system ; they are more fully
convinced of the inadequacy of the human mind to
comprehend, and of human words to express, the
b
VI PREFACE.
things which belong, not to the phenomenal and
the temporal, but to the unseen and the eternal.
Men thus trained are slow to admit a finality
in any expression of truth. To them a creed or
a decree of a council represents no more than the
nearest approximation to the expression of a
thought which could be made by the best qualified
judges at that epoch. But since changes take place
in the meaning of words, these formulae may become
inadequate or even misleading. Moreover, since
the minds of men are modified by education, in
the wide sense of the term, their habits of thought
are changed ; thus, in the process of time, some
difficulties are smoothed away, but others may be
created. An argument which in one age was
convincing, in another may fail to satisfy; while,
as a compensation, it is possible to appeal to new
facts and to new considerations. In theology, as
in war, certain methods of defence and certain
weapons of attack become antiquated. At the
PREFACE. Vll
present day the bravest troops which ever went
to battle would be massacred by men of inferior
physique and tactical skill, did they take the field
with the muskets and artillery which did such
good service at Waterloo. In this age, though
we may not be superior to our forefathers in
dialectics or metaphysics, we have obtained a far
more comprehensive view of the natural world, and
a closer insight into its processes of operation.
By these our position has been materially altered.
They have, in a sense, brought men nearer to God
by indicating a latent unity in the varied pheno-
mena of the universe, and suggesting that these
proceed from and are the outcome of One Almighty
Power. But, at the same time, this advance renders
our conceptions of that Power less definite. As
our conviction of the omnipresence and omni-
potence of God grows stronger, our ideas of Him
become less anthropomorphic, less capable of Jex-
pression in words — in short, less definite. Still
Vlll PREFACE.
they are not on this account necessarily less
assured. A child's conception of something which
is external to himself and partially beyond his
experience is frequently clear and definite, but it
is also, as a necessary consequence, inadequate or
even incorrect. When he has grown to manhood,
it may become much more vague, but at the same
time may be a much nearer approximation to the
truth.
A change of this kind is taking place in
the sphere of religious thought. Phrases which
formerly satisfied are now felt to be inadequate ;
arguments once deemed conclusive now fail to
convince — nay, in some cases, if resorted to, would
produce the opposite effect. The progress of
knowledge, even during the past half-century, the
discoveries in geology, biology, archaeology, and
philology, have compelled theologians to modify
their views as to the nature and function of inspira-
tion, and the date, the origin, and the authority,
PREFACE. IX
historic or scientific, of some portions of the Bible.
Views are commonly held and expressed by men
of approved orthodoxy for which, five and twenty
years ago, they would have been denounced as
heretics and infidels. Science is now free to
investigate the early history of our race, and to
interpret the picture-writing of the Book of
Nature as best she can, without being under any
obligation to force the results into conformity with
the narrative in the Book of Genesis, or with
references to the same in later parts of the Scrip-
tures. Only those who can remember something
of the old days, who have themselves heard the
thumping of the drum ecclesiastic, and felt a little
of the storm of theological vituperation, can appre-
ciate the blessings of the present freedom. But a
price has to be paid — as it always must be — for
this rapid advance. Liberty, quickly won after
long thraldom, is liable to be misused, and some
persons now imagine that in the process of clearing
PREFACE.
away parasitic growths and accumulated encum-
brances the tower of our strength has been shaken,
and that Christianity in future must be counted
among the " creeds outworn."
With some of the difficulties, of which we now
hear much, I endeavoured to deal in an earlier
course of lectures ;* but, as it seemed to me, another
aspect of them still called for consideration. It is
this. Supposing we are convinced, not only that
a revelation is possible, but also that one has been
made in the Person of Christ — supposing, in a
word, we believe the Scriptures of the New Testa-
ment, can we also accept the theological dogmas
on which the various branches of the Catholic
Church are generally agreed ? In the doctrinal
statements of the New Testament there is usually
no attempt at elaborate definition or minute
precision, but during the controversies which dis-
1 The Boyle Lectures for 1890, published in "Old Truths in
Modern Lights."
PREFACE. XI
turbed the earlier centuries of Christianity these
statements were subjected to deductive treatment,
and the results were sanctioned by authority.
How far, then, has this dogmatic theology, a
system which has been the outcome of some
centuries of speculation and conflict, been affected
by the increase in our knowledge and the changes
in our methods of thought ?
I determined, therefore — though conscious of
many deficiencies — to attempt an answer to this
question; to examine some of the leading state-
ments in Christian doctrine or dogma, 1 in order
to see whether, as students of modern science, we
could still accept and remain satisfied with these
as the best approximations to the expression of
mysteries which in themselves transcend human
understanding and language.
In this attempt I am not concerned, since I am
1 Between the one and the other no hard-and-fast line can be
drawn, since the dogmas of councils depend for their validity upon
the doctrines of inspired teachers.
Xll PREFACE.
a member of the Church of England, to discuss
dogmas which she does not accept, or to hold a
brief for any other branch of the Church. It is
enough for me if it can be shown that the ex-
pressions in her authorized formulae are not out
of harmony with the conclusions to which we are
led by modern science.
Neither do I feel myself bound by the dominant
. and popular views at this or at any other age of
the Church. I am fully aware that some of the
opinions expressed in the last two lectures will be
at present unacceptable to many — perhaps to a
majority — of the members (at any rate, clerical)
of the Church of England. But I have lived long
enough (as I have already intimated) to see
opinions once loudly denounced become generally
accepted, and the men, who were esteemed by one
generation as champions of orthodoxy, regarded by
the next as little better than theological knights
of La Mancha. Hence I care little so long as I do
PREFACE. Xlll
not transgress the limits of opinion which are laid
down by the Church of which I am a member;
and if that which appears to my mind a truth be
qJ~ unpopular, I remember the lesson taught in the
old saying, " It moves for all that ! "
The method of treatment which has been adopted
is necessarily one-sided. Some readers may be
surprised at finding that, practically, no reference is
made to the writings of eminent theologians, whether
of the earlier or the later age of Church history.
This is done, not because I am ignorant of what
has been written — though I have never made a
special study of dogmatic theology — but because
the point of view adopted in these lectures has
excluded any particular reference for purposes of
argument to authorities anterior to the present age.
It has been my endeavour to look at the questions,
if possible, from the standpoint not of an ecclesiastic
but of a layman who was generally acquainted with
the results of modern science, who had become
XIV PREFACE.
familiar with its methods by the careful study of
one of its branches, and who was beginning to feel
uneasy whether he might not be compelled to quit
the communion of the Church of England for one
of simpler creed and vaguer definitions, could such
be found.
How imperfectly this design has been executed,
no one can feel more deeply than myself. Each
subject is so vast that the compass of a single
lecture is utterly inadequate for its treatment. The
time which, in a life burdened, as is mine, with many
inevitable duties and engagements, could be devoted
to thought and study for this special purpose, was
wholly insufficient. But, inasmuch as at the
present day very few of the clergy of the Church
of England can also be numbered among the active
students of Natural Science, there may be some-
thing novel — if there is nothing else — in the point
of view which has been taken in these lectures. I
can only hope that my incomplete and, as I fear,
PREFACE. XV
occasionally rather disjointed thoughts may allay
mental disquiet in some, and suggest ideas to others
which may ultimately bear good fruit. If only
they convince a few earnest seekers after truth
that Christianity is not to be reckoned among the
illusions of humanity ; that faith may grow stronger
in the process of putting away childish things
and of breaking the leading-strings which have
been twined and fitted by the hands of man : that
the same light shines from Nature and from
Revelation, they will have served their purpose.
Speaking for myself, I have been led by science to
abandon some of the notions which I was taught
when a child ; to alienate myself from, and oppose,
a party in our Church towards which, as a young
man, I had a strong leaning ; but this mental change
has added a fresh consecration to the earth, to the
study of Nature, and to the whole work of life, by
showing that all comes from God, and all can lead
to God.
T. G. BONNEY.
SUMMARY OF THE LECTURES. 1
LECTURE I. THE LOGOS (WORD).
Introductory — Difficulties in Christian doctrines — Those
which are novel are scientific rather than metaphysical
— The Trinitarian doctrine distinctive of Christianity —
Words only symbols — Sketch of the doctrine of the Logos —
Modern views on the subject of Matter — Connection of
Matter and Spirit — Matter a manifestation of God — The
Logos the Thought of God in its expression to Man —
The Logos as Creator 1
LECTURE II. THE HOLY SPIRIT.
History of the doctrine — Significance of the word Pneuma —
Connection of Life and Motion — Energy — The sensible
universe is energy in action — Energy and Consciousness —
1 The Boyle Lectures were formerly delivered in the Chapel
Royal, Whitehall ; but as that ceased to be used for Divine service
in the summer of 1890, the present course was given, by the kind
permission of the Rev. Harry Jones, at a special afternoon service
in the church of St. Philip and St. James, Regent Street.
xviii SUMMARY OF THE LECTURES.
Views of Schopenhauer and Von Hartmann — The Con-
servation and the Dissipation of energy in relation to
Pantheism — Without a Giver of life the universe would
come to ultimate death — The work of the Spirit ... 23
LECTURE III. THE HOLY TRINITY.
History of the doctrine — Discussion of the terminology —
Analogies in the phenomena of life — The separability of
individuals — Diversity in unity — Embryonic distinctions
— Effects of specialization — Illustrations from the inorganic
world — Pleomorphism — A noetic conception of it leads to
an assertion similar to that iuvolved in the Trinitarian
doctrine — Conclusion 41
LECTURE IV. THE INCARNATION.
The Christological side of the doctrine — Parallels in non-
Christian religions — The Catholic doctrine of the Incarna-
tion — An analogy found in life — Difficulty presented by
the doctrine — The beginning of an individual — The law
of synthesis not universal — The law of heredity inevitable
in case of ordinary birth — The Incarnation an answer to
the pessimistic suggestions of Nature and the anthropo-
morphic tendencies of humanity 61
LECTURE V. THE ATONEMENT.
The discord in Human Nature a fact — The sense of Sin grows
with ethical advances — The gulf between the Ideal and
the Actual, apart from Eevelation, impassable — Sacrificial
SUMMARY OF THE LECTURES. XIX
rites man's effort to bridge the chasm — The Doctrine of
the Atonement — Consideration of various statements of
it — The impossibility of framing one which is perfectly
unobjectionable — The Life as well as the Death of Christ,
and the whole work of the Atonement, a lesson to man,
an exemplification of the union of Love and Justice . .81
LECTURE VI. THE RESURRECTION.
The Resurrection a permanent difficulty, but a cardinal
doctrine in Christianity — St. Paul's teaching as to the
Resurrection of the Body — The analogy of the Seed and
Plant considered — Scriptural statements as to the Resur-
rection Body — What is requisite for continuity between .
the present and the future Body — Continuity of conscious-
ness, what it involves — What the word "Body" necessarily
implies — Possible permanence of a Body — The future
Body — Consequences of disbelief in the Doctrine of the
Resurrection 102
LECTURE VII. THE SACRAMENTS.
History of the word " Sacrament " — The place of Scientific
Thought in Sacramental Doctrine — The significance of
Sacraments — The Sacrament of Baptism: statements of
the Church of England — Its position in the Saviour's
Teaching — Baptismal Regeneration — The Eucharist —
Transubstantiation — Discussion of the doctrine — Remarks
on a fallacy and a contradiction in terms — The state-
ments in Scripture discussed and compared with prevalent
ideas concerning sacrifices — Conclusion 125
XX SUMMARY OF THE LECTURES.
LECTURE VIII. THE CHURCH.
Meaning of the word M Church " — The definition in the nine-
teenth Article considered — Authority claimed for the
Church — What authority is given in the Scriptures — This
certainly not unconditional — Meaning of the terms to
*' bind " and to u loose " — Meaning of the power to remit
and to retain sins given to the Apostles — Power has been
usurped by the clergy — The usurpation condemned by its
effects — Mistakes of the Church ; these often excusable in
the past — Its powers are limited, but they are real — The
duties of individuals — Comparison of the past and the
present at once a ground of hope and a solemn warning —
The needs and dangers of the present Age .... 149
OP THE
purBRsiiV
LECTURE I.
THE WORD.
11 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God,
and the Word was God. . . . All things were made by Him ;
and without Him was not anything made that was made." —
St. John i. 1, 3.
Another century is approaching its end. It has
been characterized by mental activity, exceptional
in its amount and very diverse in its manifesta-
tions. During this epoch, which indeed began
rather more than a hundred years ago, the me-
chanical arts have attained to a wonderful per-
fection, -and thus, directly and indirectly the
instruments of scientific research, the methods of
investigation have become more refined and more
precise. Hence vast stores of exact knowledge
have been accumulated; results of more or less
exact induction are abundant.
LECTURE I.
How do these affect our position as Christians ?
Has this been rendered more reasonable or less
reasonable by the advance in science, the progress
of knowledge ? Is it still possible — nay, easy — to
be not only a sincere believer in Christian^, but
also an honest man of science ? Are we now more
exposed than formerly to charges of mental in-
consistency ? Are we now involved in graver
difficulties than have always attended the accept-
ance of any form of theism, which applies to God
the attributes of personality ?
We must not expect, I warn you, a direct reply
to these questions. There are difficulties which
are inherent; which always have existed, and, so
far as we can see, always will exist. We must be
satisfied if we find that the number of these has
been reduced rather than augmented, and*the issue
narrowed and simplified in aspect.
Christian doctrines — I refer to those admitted,
practically by every branch of the Church, to be
of cardinal importance, and to the simpler sense of
these — present us with difficulties which may be
THE WORD.
distinguished as physical and metaphysical, as
belonging to the region of sensible existences and
to that of mental "concepts. Of these, the latter,
for a long time, have not undergone, so far as I
can see, any very important change. Alterations
are in form rather than in nature. The old
questions, the old perplexities, the old arguments
reappear in modern phrase. Not a few of these
are more ancient than Christianity, and belong to
monotheism, if not to theism itself; others, if
slightly later in date than the rise of Christianity,
are independent in origin. In the works of Philo,
and Plutarch, and Epictetus, not to mention others,
we not seldom find speculations, arguments, and
conclusions as to the Divine nature and its rela-
tions with the universe, which might be accepted
gladly by Christians.
In the region of abstract thought the mind of
man appears to have reached, at a comparatively
early period, the limits to which it could attain.
It has even been asserted that no real advance has
been made since the asre of Plato. Be that as it
LECTURE I.
may, there are some grounds for maintaining that
in this region practically everything has been
done which is within the range of the calculus
(to use a mathematical phrase) at our disposal.
If, then, any further advance is possible, it must
be in the modification of the symbols employed
or in our knowledge of nature and of the relations
of the concrete, upon which these symbols depend.
It will be some gain to have recognized clearly the
essential difference between concept and actuality,
between word and thing; for the confusion of
their provinces, the obliteration of the boundary
between the physical and the metaphysical, has
been a fruitful source of difficulties in the past;
especially when it is forgotten that the connotation
of a word, commonly employed in the one sphere,
cannot remain wholly unchanged when it is trans-
ferred to the other.
We must not expect that all difficulties will
vanish. How can this be when they have their
origin in the nature of things, and must be created
whenever the finite attempts to comprehend and
THE WORD. 5
define the Infinite ? But they may prove to have
been diminished rather than increased by recent
progress in inductive knowledge. We may find that
we have now to encounter, not a crowd, collectively
numerous, even if not always individually formid-
able, but one or two difficulties which are clearly
defined, and prove to be the inevitable results of
the conditions of the present life. We must admit
that we have to make some assumptions, but these
are few instead of many ; they are at the outset,
not at every stage ; while the methods of reasoning
which result from scientific investigation can be
employed in obtaining indirect confirmation of the
validity of our initial hypotheses.
I do not propose to consider the effect of scientific
progress on the belief in a God. The latter, even
in its most perfected aspect, is not characteristic of
Christianity alone. The thoughtful Jew, to name
none other, had attained, it matters not how for
our present purpose, to monotheism. But the
theology of the Christian is separated by distinctive
characteristics from the theologies of most Oriental
LECTURE /.
nations, while in some respects it occupies an
intermediate position. They have diverged in one
of two opposite directions. Either they have
pushed the monistic idea so far as to affirm not
only that God is source and author of everything,
but also the converse proposition, that everything
which exists is God — that is, they have strayed
into pantheism— or, by maintaining an eternal
distinction of opposites in the Divine principle
they have been led into Manichsean dualism, or
some form of polytheism.
Christianity differs from Judaism and other
forms of monotheism in its assertion of the Trini-
tarian doctrine ; thereby indicating an approach to
the principle of distinction which has just been
named. Thus, during the earlier stages of its
history, it obviously oscillated between an absolute
monotheism and some limited form of polytheism.
Gnostic philosophy is the record of a constant
struggle to reconcile the monistic and dualistic
ideas. It led back, almost invariably, however
ingeniously the fact might be concealed, to the
THE WORD.
polytheism which it professed to have abandoned,
and on this account mainly was so strenuously
resisted by the Church. Though at one time only
a single letter seemed to divide the two great
parties, the Arians and the Orthodox, they were
in reality sundered by a hemisphere of theological
thought. ■
In the*corftroversies which agitated the Church
from the second to the fifth century, the subject
which I am about to consider, the nature and
relationship of the Logos, was exceptionally pro-
minent. For our present purpose it is necessary to
indicate very briefly the origin and history of the
doctrine, so that we may be in a position to see
whether it is less congruous with modern than
with ancient thought. But I must make two
preliminary remarks, lest perchance we should
forget their importance. First, that words are
only symbols, to express ideas and to facilitate
processes of reasoning, and that these abstractions
cannot be invested with concrete properties. When
we find this done and difficulties conjured up by
8 LECTURE I.
the metaphysician's art, we must remember that
they are only cloud phantoms, no more really alive
than a decimal fraction or an elliptic integral.
Secondly, that for these symbols, we have no other
basis than the experience of our senses. Abstract
ideas may exist, innate ideas may be; this, as it
seems to me, we can neither prove ^nor disprove :
but we can prove that all those which are employed
in our processes of thought are the results, direct or
indirect, of experience. The only thing, as Descartes
has said, of which I can be absolutely certain is my
own consciousness. The only knowledge which I
can really obtain must be through the evidence of
my senses. Experience, then, is the basis of all our
knowledge, in the strict sense of the word, — it
provides the substratum of all thought. Without
it, so far as we are concerned, thought is no more
possible than is life without matter. This being
so, we must also remember that words, while they
continue in use, may part with some attributes
connoted by them, and acquire others ; may change
by intussusception and excretion, like a living
THE WORD.
thing, so that their meaning in the course of
centuries is greatly altered.
Here let me ask you to remember that this
lecture is part of a series, and not to take offence,
if occasionally I may make use of a phrase which
would be consistent with Sabellianism or pantheism.
To return, then, to the history of the idea con-
veyed by the term Logos. We have no precise
single equivalent for it in English. It was used in
Greek in a variety of senses, at the one extremity
being that connoted by word (not in the sense of
a name or title), at the other that connoted by
reason. The theological idea which the term Logos
is intended to symbolize was not unknown to the
Jews. In the Targums, which, though later as
documents than the Christian era, embody teaching
which is at any rate somewhat earlier than it,
" God — not as in His permanent manifestation or
manifest presence — but as revealing -Himself, is
designated Memra" x which is the Aramaic equiva-
1 Edersheim, "Life and Times of Jesus the Messiah," bk. i.
ch. iv. (vol. i. p. 47).
IO LECTURE 1.
lent of Word or Logos. The last term at a still
earlier period had obtained a place in Greek Philo-
sophy. It was employed by each of the two great
schools of thought, the Stoics and the Platonists.
The former regarded reason and force as inherent in
matter, the latter as external to matter. But the
Stoics admitted a certain antithesis in the monistic
conception — the existence of an active and a passive
in the unity of substance. By an extension of this
differentiation these two were conceived as standing
in a relation to each other, somewhat like that
of life and its physical basis, — the passive being
designated v\r\ (material, stuff) the active \6yog.
By some the latter was invested with personality,
and thus an antithesis admitted between matter
and God. But still the two terms of the antithesis
were regarded as "expressing modes of a single
substance, separable in thought and name, but not
in reality." 1 In the dualism of the Platonists
reason and force were held to be external to
1 Hatch, " The Influence of Greek Ideas and Usages upon the
Christian Church" (Hibbert Lectures, vii. p. 176).
THE WORD. II
matter. On this God, as it were, operated, follow-
ing out thoughts which existed in His mind. This
pre-existent Form, Pattern, or Idea, was further
differentiated, and ultimately designated the Logos.
Thus, in the anterior history of this term, as has been
pointed out by Dr. WestcOtt, 1 there were two con-
ceptions of different origin and different nationality
— the Palestinian (Memra), the Revealer ; and the
Greek conception, (sides, rather than differences of
which are represented by Stoics and Platonists) the
Reason. These conceptions respectively dominate
in the minds of the two great writers on the subject
in the first century, St. John and Philo ; dominate,
I "say; for in neither writer is the other concept
excluded. To quote a summary of the doctrine of
Philo, he is monistic in teaching " that the world was
made, not by inferior or opposing beings, but by God.
It is the expression of His thought." But in this
thought (here Philo adopts the Platonic doctrine
of Forms) an ideal world had existence before that
the thought went outside God to create the present
1 " The Gospel according to St. John," Introd. p. xvii.
12 LECTURE I.
world. Thus the Logos represents the reason, will,
or word of God in a special form of its activity.
It is His creative energy. It is the instrument by
which He made all things. 1
We see, then, that in the teaching of Philo we
come very near to the doctrine of St. John. But
there is this difference, that, in the former, the Logos
appears as a part of an elaborate philosophical
system; in the latter, as a bare statement, like
the assertion of an historical fact. St. John speaks
as one who reveals, not as one who argues. Like
his Master he teaches as one who has authority,
not as the scribes. This, then, leads us to one of
the fundamental assumptions of which I spoke.
Christianity, however congruous with reason,
cannot rest on reason alone, because it deals with
a subject which by the nature of the case ultimately
transcends reason. The latter may indeed lead us
to deem it highly probable that behind phenomena
there is a something yet more real, may enable us
1 • Hatch, " The Influence of Greek Ideas and Usages upon the
Christian Church " (Hibbert Lectures, vii. pp. 182-187).
THE WORD. 13
by deductive processes to give a philosophic con-
sistency to our hypotheses, but it cannot disclose
to us what this is. The " Word " of the Stoics and
the Platonists, after all, has only a metaphysical
existence; if we claim to have any knowledge
which can be called certain, relative though this
must always be, we must admit that a revelation
from the Divine to the Human is possible. But, as
I considered our position in respect to this assump-
tion in a former series of lectures, 1 I will not now
dwell further upon it. Admitting, then, that a
revelation in the person of Christ and His apostles
rests on an assumption, for that is needed to put
us in a position to weigh the evidence in its
favour, I pass on to see whether it involves us in
any new difficulties at the present time.
On the strictly metaphysical side the question
remains as it did ; but there is another side to the
discussion, which, of late years, has been much
modified. Those who are familiar with theological
1 These lectures, with some other sermons, are published in a
volume entitled " Old Truths in Modern Lights."
1 4 LECTURE I.
speculation, be it Christian or non- Christian, will
remember that not a few difficulties have centred
on the nature and origin of matter, as to whether
it was inseparable from the idea of God or was
to be regarded as apart from Him, by whatever
process we conceive it called into existence.
In olden time all notions of matter were markedly
concrete. Its objectivity was deemed unquestion-
able ; it was regarded as diverse in form, attributes,
and qualities. For long, all advances towards an
atomic theory (and this found most favour) by
introducing the notion of ultimate indivisibility,
gave to matter a very real existence as a popular
conception, whatever difficulties there might be in
framing a definition. Hence arose ideas of gross-
ness and the like with some, of indestructibility
with others — ideas very various and diverse, but
not seldom antagonistic to those associated with
Divinity. But of late years there has been a remark-
able change in opinion, which, however indecisive
the results, has certainly dispelled many of the
older and grosser conceptions. At the present time,
THE WORD. 15
if we are asked what matter is, we must frankly
answer that we do not know — that is, in a scientific
sense. Matter is commonly supposed to be some-
thing which exerts force, but the latter term, as
has often been pointed out, "is a how and not a
why" "a description of how bodies change their
motion." " So long then v (I am quoting) " as we
consider the universe made up of things moving and
altering each other's motion, we are on safe ground,
... we may call the moving things matter, but we
must ever bear in mind that the moving things
may be the last things in the world which accord
with the popular conception of matter, they may
even be its negation. What if the ultimate atom
upon which we build up the apparently substantial
realities of the external world be an absolute
vacuum I or what if matter be only non-matter in
motion ? . . . Descartes held extension, not impene-
trability, the essence of matter. ' Give me extension
and motion, and I will construct the world,' he
cried." 1
1 Karl Pearson, " Matter and Soul," pp. 5-9. Published by the
Sunday Lecture Society.
1 6 LECTURE I.
But some hypotheses have denied even extension
to matter. Boscovitch assumed that its ultimate
elements were mathematical points — that is, points
without extension — endowed with attractive and
repulsive forces. Thus matter would only be dis-
tinguished from non-matter by the fact of its
motion. 1 Others suggest that the supposed atom
of matter may be a void, the boundaries of which
are endowed with a certain amount of energy ;
others, that it is a change in the shape of space,
— an idea which it would take too long to explain,
but one which implies the existence of space of more
dimensions than three ; while others — and this
notion commends itself to many very thoughtful
minds — regard matter as a particular phase of
motion, a vortex ring in that impalpable some-
thing which appears to fill all space and which we
call the ether. 1
I do not profess to comprehend all these theories,
and the last obviously still leaves open the question,
What is the ether ? but I have recounted them to
1 Karl Pearson, " Matter and Soul," p. 9. 2 Ibid., pp. 9-11. .
THE WORD. 17
show that physicists of the highest ability regard
matter from a point of view very different from
that of the older metaphysicians, and that there
are those who would be prepared to consider it
as something very like a mode of manifestation
of energy. This, however, removes matter in its
origin into the sphere of spirit, to use the ordinary
distinction ; we have hunted it down through the
region of the knowable, believing its capture to
be inevitable, and lo, it has slipped away from us
into the region of the unknowable ! The man of
science and the Christian alike have to confess
their ignorance of what the ground-stuff of the
known universe really is, but the latter adds, "I
believe it to be a mode of the manifestation of
God."
We begin now dimly to understand why the
work of creation is ascribed to the Word. "All
things were made by Him." * Employing human
terminology — and here we cannot be too careful in
remembering its inadequacy — the word manifesta-
1 St. John i. 3.
D
1 8 LECTURE I.
Hon implies at least an antithesis; there must be
one to perceive and one to be perceived. God, not
revealing Himself, in relation to such a race as ours,
is not God at all. I do not say that He may not
be ; but I mean this : L Suppose you are thinking
and do not express your thought — then, so far as
the rest of the world goes, you might as well never
have thought at all. True, the thought exists for
yourself, and is not dependent upon our conscious-
ness ; but, as we can only be made conscious of it
by its expression, the thought, for us, is non-
existent. Thus, from our point of view, the abso-
lute existence of God is one thing ; the existence in
relation to man is another. It is with the latter
only that we have to deal ; and in this sense it is a
mere truism to assert that, for man, God only exists
through man's consciousness of His existence, which
consciousness I suppose, of course, to be set in
action by Him.
Thus, as among ourselves speech or its equivalent
is, or at least should be, the expression of thought,
and so is the only mode by which we can impart
THE WORD. 19
of our own consciousness to our fellows, so the
Logos, in its double sense of word and reason, is
the thought of God in its expression to us. As,
with ourselves, the uttered word cannot be recalled,
as it may acquire, in a certain sense, a life apart
from the speaker, and yet has a unity of nature
with him, for it was a mode of self-manifestation, —
so we can dimly understand why a personality is
claimed for the Word ; we can see the significance
of the analogies, more or less imperfect, which have
been so often stated by writers on the subject that
it is needless for me to repeat them. But in apply-
ing to the region which is beyond our experiences
and transcends our thoughts terms founded ex-
clusively on these, we must ever remember that
they are symbols only, and these most inadequate.
I have deemed it unnecessary to dwell upon an
aspect of the subject which has been often discussed,
the world as a manifestation of Order and Mind,
because, although the teleological arguments which
were once deemed satisfactory have had to be
abandoned, all, or almost all, thinkers would admit
20 LECTURE I.
— however widely they differ in their terminology
and their theological opinions — that, in our sur-
roundings, we perceive the traces of a mighty plan,
as well as the working of an infinite energy. But
on this I do not enlarge, partly because it has so
often engaged attention, partly because it is a
question belonging rather to theism than to Chris-
tianity.
Are we then losers by the progress of science ?
Its result during late years has been to extend the
reign of law, to indicate underlying unity in
apparent diversity, to replace imperfect anthropo-
morphic conceptions by ideas of a Creator which,
if more vaguely outlined, are grander far.
If, then, Christian theology asserts that in the one
God a distinction, to which we apply the term
Personal, existed before all time; this difficulty
began in theism, and is metaphysical, not scientific.
But the existence of an eternal distinction becomes
less startling when science aids in demonstrating
the inseparability of our methods of thought from
the order in which we live. Time and extension
THE WORD.
21
involve the idea of change, development, progress.
Yet these may be relative ; local, not universal :
may be — to take a very imperfect illustration — as
it is with us when Nature seems to be at rest and
the stillness absolute, yet within the closed petals
of a flower a colony of tiny insects is in full activity,
and their little world resounds with a hum of life,
inaudible to the most attentive ear. Moreover,
when science in the region of the phenomenal
begins to pass beyond the concrete, and mass is
replaced by potency, which from the first seems an
expression of purpose, it sounds less startling to say
that the universe itself is a manifestation of the
thought of God.
The old difficulty of course remains, which in my
opinion stands where it did: Does God reveal
Himself to man ? This we cannot 'prove, yet, we
can believe, because the indirect evidence is strong. 1
If this be so, then we can accept the statements
as to the Divine Nature made by the Founder of
1 This subject was discussed in the Boyle Lectures for 1890.
See " Old Truths in Modern Lights."
&MtiI$
22 LECTURE L
Christianity. We do not profess to understand
them, as we do inductions from our own observa-
tions, but we can perceive their meaning and be
content to admit that in this way only ideas tran-
scending our experience could be represented to us.
So doing, we are assured by watching the marvels
with which we are environed, that all is of God and
from God, that He " fulfils Himself in many ways,"
and that if now and again He has spoken in tones
which were strange, and through expressions which
were unfamiliar, He is revealed to us, alike in the
stillness of our secret thoughts and in the round of
daily life, by means of the fair world which He has
made, and in which He has placed us for a season,
till it please Him to show us what the eye hath
not seen nor the ear heard, for such things belong
to the order, not of Time, but of Eternity.
LECTURE II.
THE HOLY SPIRIT.
" When the Comforter is come, Whom I will send unto you from
the Father, even the Spirit of Truth, Which procerdeth from the
Father ... He shall guide you into all the truth." — St. John
xv. 26 ; xvi. 13 (R. V.).
Spirit and Matter, whatever the terms may mean,
generally connote ideas which are antithetical, if not
antagonistic. On the second of these I have already
made some remarks : the present occasion x invites
me to touch, however diffidently, upon the first.
That God is a Spirit is a principle of theism, not
of Christianity only. Hence, in accordance with
the limitation which I have imposed upon myself,
I shall not discuss this preliminary question, though
I may have to refer to it indirectly in dealing with
the doctrine of the Christian Church in regard to
the Holy Spirit.
1 The lecture was given on Whitsunday.
24 LECTURE II
This doctrine did not assume a special pro-
minence at so early an epoch as that of which I
spoke last Sunday. As the founder of Christianity
had claimed to be, in the fullest sense of the
phrase, Son of God, the nature of the Logos and the
significance of this claim speedily became, as was to
be expected, a field for speculation and a subject
of controversy. At that time the intellectual
position of the Palestine upland, the birthplace
of Christianity, corresponded with its geographical.
It parted two areas of thought as it parted the
waters of two seas. Christianity could not move
outwards without coming into relations, whether
hostile or friendly, with Oriental mysticism on the
one side, and with Greek philosophy on the other.
Each of these, apart from historical necessities,
tended to force to the front the controversies which
have for their centre such a declaration as this :
" The Word became flesh and dwelt among us."
But in regard to the Holy Spirit, the phrases of
Scripture were accepted, as a rule, without any
attempt at further precision of statement. This
THE HOLY SPIRIT. 2$
is indicated, assuredly, though indirectly, by the
fact that in the Creed of Nicsea the elaborate
statements as to the Word Incarnate were followed
by the single simple clause, " I believe in the
Holy Ghost." But in a little more than half a
century the necessity of precision on this point
also became obvious, and the clauses were added
which conclude the Creed as it stands in the
Prayer-book, with the exception of one phrase.
Subsequently, in the Western Church, the words
ran thus : " I believe in the Holy Ghost, the Lord
and Giver of life, Who proceedeth from the Father
and the Son, Who with the Father and the Son
together is worshipped and glorified. Who spake
by the prophets." The Eastern Church objected
to the addition of the words " and the Son " as
unauthorized, and liable to be misunderstood, and
the controversy at last became so sharp between
them that, just after the middle of the eleventh
century, they parted asunder.
On this, and other refined theological distinctions,
I do not intend to dwell. They are the results of
26 LECTURE II.
deductive reasoning from the words of revelation
on the part of acute dialecticians, and thus are
not likely to be materially affected by progress in
thought which has been mainly due to inductive
processes. I shall content myself with a few words
on the broader aspect of the doctrine enunciated
in the Creed of Constantinople.
It must not be forgotten that, while in the
English version and in theological literature, two
terms are employed to designate the Third Person
in the Triune Godhead, viz. the Holy Spirit and
the Holy Ghost, — the substantives are renderings of
one and the same word in the original Greek.
This word is wvev/xa. In its everyday sense it
means breath, or a wind, — in short, air in motion :
it may admit the idea of intermittence, but hardly
that of violence. Then, it is occasionally used
figuratively to signify life, and so is applied in a
theological sense to express spirit — itself a similar
extension of the Latin word spiritus. Pneuma
does not, as a rule, signify ghost, in the popular
sense of that word. In the New Testament it is
THE HOLY SPIRIT. 27
used, not only for the spirit of God (whether in
the minor sense as an influence, or the major one as
God Himself), but also for antagonistic influences.
It is used also for that element in the nature of
man which distinguishes him from the mere
animals, to which only body and life are ascribed. 1
In the discourse with Nicodemus the word is one
which is rendered here by wind, there by spirit
We may, then, say that the word pneuma connotes
movement, viewed apart from the thing moved,
for the popular mind did not attribute materiality
to the air. It connotes life apart from its physical
basis, and influence, to use a wide term, apart from
its subject. In the theological sense life and in-
fluence are the dominant ideas. In the Nicene
Creed we speak of the Holy Ghost as Giver of
Life.
But what is life ? We have made long strides in
biology during the present century, but we do not
seem to be much more able to answer this question.
1 See "The Threefold Nature of Man," in "Old Truths in
Modern Lights," p. 114.
28 LECTURE II.
Scientific men of one school affirm their belief
that, whatever life be, it differs essentially from the
forces called physical. To their minds the begin-
ning of life, no less than the beginning of matter,
requires an exercise of creative power. Others
place life in the same category as the physical
forces, like electricity, light, heat ; to them it is a
form of the manifestation of energy. They discern
in matter itself " the promise and potency of all
terrestrial life." 1 They refuse to draw any hard
and fast line between man himself and the dust
from which he is said to have been fashioned,
though they confess that they know of no
synthetic process by which life can be produced,
no method whereby the known forms of energy
can be transformed into it. Still it is obviously
admitted by either school that life is a mystery —
the one affirming it to be inscrutable, the other
frankly allowing that its solution, if within the
sphere of hope, seems very far from attainment.
1 Tyndall, Belfast Address to British Association, "Fragments
of Science," p. 524. <
THE HOLY SPIRIT. 29
But whatever life may be, it is inseparable from
and underlain by the idea of motion. To this we
seem ultimately brought in all modern philosophical
speculation. As an example, I will quote some
sentences from an author whose bias certainly is
anything but favourable to Christianity or even to
theism. 1 He writes thus : " It is no dogma, but
downright common sense to assert that if every-
thing in the universe were brought to rest, the
universe would cease to be perceptible, or for all
human purposes it would cease to be. The
sensible existence of matter is entirely dependent
on the existence of motion." Indeed, this matter
itself, as I indicated in my last lecture, is considered
by not a few as localized energy. But if it be
asked what is energy, we can only reply " the
power of doing work." This obviously is an ex-
planatory periphrasis, but it is not an answer. It
asserts a certain reality of existence to the universe,
as against an extreme idealism, but at the same
time it is forced to take refuge in what can hardly
1 Karl Pearson, " Matter and Soul," p. 6.
30 LECTURE II.
be distinguished from a metaphysical concept. But
on this aspect of the question I will not dwell ; I
desire only to insist upon this, that in the field of
science, the whole sensible universe, including life
and its phenomena, is at last found to be included
in this definition, " energy in action."
It may, however, be asked whether, in making
this statement, we have not overlooked conscious-
ness, than which nothing is more certain. But in
the field of pure science what line can be drawn
between consciousness and life, or, for the matter of
hat, between that which lives and that which does
not live? We can of course distinguish them as
objects of thought, as, for instance, we can mentally
separate electricity and light, or a cannon-ball and
the heat generated by its impact, but we come at
last to different modes of an underlying something.
I do not, for my present purpose, dispute the pos-
sibility that life may be either a special and unique
mode of the manifestation of energy or a special
synthesis of certain modes of energy — indeed, this
is my own opinion; — all I wish to emphasize is that,
THE HOL Y SPIRIT. 3 1
in so far as science can deal with it, life cannot be
removed from the category of the physical. Its
differences, if such there be, cannot be demon-
strated by science. This must be agnostic in such
questions as the origin of matter, the beginning of
life, the existence of soul.
Do not, however, misunderstand me. It does not
follow that because we cannot "prove a thing to
exist, we are precluded from believing in it. In-
direct evidence may be strong, though the direct
evidence may be weak. As we do not become pure
idealists because we cannot accurately define or
comprehend either matter or life, so we do not
declare that the immortality of the soul is im-
possible because we do not know of anything
which does not die.
That a spiritual world is a reality, is a fact in
the order of the universe no less than the material j
this, if you like so to call it, is a theological
dogma (or, as I should prefer to put it, a deduc-
tion from certain statements which we think to be
true, i.e. from a revelation). As I have already said,
LECTURE IL
we are driven back to our original assumption —
the possibility and probability of a revelation ;
but we have found in the process of discussion that
all this material universe, that every phenomenon
of which we can take cognizance, that the physical
basis of this conscious "ego," proves to be only
some mode or form of energy in action. Without
this energy (be it what it may) there is no volition,
no consciousness, no life, no matter — nothingness.
Does this seem a mere outbreak of theological
mysticism ? Well, it is only stating in another
form the conclusions of philosophies, which at the
present day are in high favour with many.
Schopenhauer maintains that beyond matter,
behind force, constituting all existence, is will — not,
indeed, the will of a Personality, but a mere blind
impulse to live. Von Hartmann adopts the same
view, but adds as a metaphysical principle of equal
value, that of unconscious thought in the All. So
potent is this will-force, that the redemption
suggested by each, the panacea for the miseries of
life, is " ceasing to will ; " then, in Von Hartmann's
THE HOLY SPIRIT. 33
scheme, which is the more comprehensive of the
two, "Consciousness will suffice to hurl back the
total actual volition into nothingness, by which the
process and the world ceases . , . without leaving
any residuum whatever, whereby the process
might be continued." " This," as it has been truly
remarked, "is salvation with a vengeance. The
universe is saved from misery by being reduced to
nothing." *
From the creative let me turn to another aspect
of this omnipotent energy. We learn that the
conservation of energy is an established and
fundamental principle in physies. It " asserts that
no portion of energy can be put out of existence,
and no amount of energy can be brought into
existence by any process at our command." 2 Is
not this tantamount to admitting that energy
belongs to the category of the things unknowable
in themselves, though cognizable in their effects ; or
that, in theological language, it is a manifestation
1 Bishop Moorhouse, " Dangers of the Apostolic Age," p. 67.
1 P, G. Tait, " Recent Advances in Physical Science," p. 17.
34 LECTURE II.
of the Divinity ? In matter we see, in one aspect,
thought in expression; in another, energy in
action; the one and the other centring in and
proceeding forth from the unknown God.
This, an objector may say, sounds very much
like pantheism. Undoubtedly it does. There is
a true side to pantheism which has often been
forgotten by overhasty Christians. The distinc-
tion between the statements, God is everything,
and Everything is a manifestation of God, exists
rather in the classification of thought than in
actuality. But I have not enunciated the con-
verse statement that, in the usual sense of the
word, everything is God. On this, the great
difficulty of human thought, the enigma older
than Christianity, we find, I think, that some
light is indirectly thrown by another statement of
physicists concerning energy.
They tell us that the quantity of energy can-
not be changed, for it remains the same, however
great the number of transformations. " But it has
another and even more curious property : . . .
THE HOLY SPIRIT. 35
change is essential to the existence of phenomena
such as we observe ; and that this change may-
take place, it is necessary that there should be
constant transformation of energy. But some
forms of energy are more capable of being trans-
formed than others ; and every time that a trans-
formation takes place there is always a tendency to
pass, at least in part, from a higher or more easily
transformable, to a lower or less easily transform-
able form." 1
Thus the universe, as it waxes old, is dying,
slowly dying. " In the far distant future . . . the
quantities of matter and energy will remain abso-
lutely as they now are — the matter unchanged
alike in quantity and quality, but collected
together under the influence of its mutual gravita-
tion, so that there remains no potential energy of
detached portions of matter : the energy also
unchanged in quantity, but entirely transformed
in quality to the low form of heat so diffused as to
produce uniformity of temperature." 2
1 P. G. Tait, " Recent Advances in Physical Science," p. 20.
8 Ibid. p. 21.
36 LECTURE II.
This second great physical principle — of the
Dissipation of Energy — limits the apparently pan-
theistic conclusions to which we might otherwise
be led. Suppose we regard matter as a localization
of Divine power, as " man's limitation of God's
Infinity," to use a bold similitude. We are at any
rate forced to admit that, in whatever sense we
apply the term, it is a manifestation of God. But
in the act of manifestation it incurs a liability to
the law of death ; each transformation lowers it, if
the phrase be permitted, in the scale of things
created; the effective power, the capacity for
adaptation is gradually lost, till at last it may
have deviated so far from its original likeness, that
to our limited vision it may seem to be arrayed
against the source from which it proceeded.
In the fantastic dreams of aeons and emanations
common to many Gnostic sects, there was a germ of
true philosophy, for these tended to bridge that
seemingly impassable gulf between the conditioned
and the unconditioned. In the descent of the ladder
of existence no upward step is possible without the
THE HOLY SPIRIT. 37
help of an external power, for in every retrans-
formation from the lower to the higher forms some
energy appears to be lost. This, no doubt, is not
really the case. The energy is still in existence, but
is no longer available for our purposes. Thus, for
all progress, for all evolution, a price has to be
paid. Speaking figuratively, the universe is like
a man who is living upon his capital, and this
process must end in destitution. This, then, is the
alternative which confronts us : God must be our
deliverer, or the end inevitably is nothingness.
Which of these are we to accept ? We do not
hesitate what answer to return. We believe in a
revelation. From it we learn that through the
Divine thought the universe became. "Through
the Word He made the aeons," says the author of
the Epistle to the Hebrews ; that — the making
manifest, the objective side of revelation, if we may
so call it — is the function of the Son, of the Second
Person in the Trinity. But the work of quicken-
ing, of vivifying, of infusing a new energy or
counteracting the natural tendency to dissipation —
38 LECTURE II.
pardon the inadequacy of the term — that is the
work of the Holy Spirit, called emphatically " the
Giver of Life."
This is in full accord with the words of Scripture.
It is the Holy Spirit Who is said to work in
prophets and teachers, to guide, to influence, to
quicken the soul of every child of God. At each
new departure in the early history of Christendom
his Name appears. In the mystery of the Incarna-
tion ; in the consecration, if the phrase be permis-
sible, of the Word made Flesh to the work of
Redemption at the waters of Jordan; in the first
ordination of the faithful disciples, when that work
had been virtually completed by the Resurrection ;
in that greater ordination of the complete twelve,
when it had actually been ended by the Ascension ;
in the command to Peter to open the door of the
fold ; in the mission of Paul and Barnabas to the
world ; — in each and all of these the agency of the
Holy Ghost is asserted. He spake — so saith the
Scripture — by the mouths of prophets, psalmists,
and teachers in the days of old, in the brightening
THE HOLY SPIRIT. 39
twilight of the dawn, before the sun of righteous-
ness arose. He spake again by the mouths of
apostles and preachers, of martyrs and saints —
men and women " full of the Holy Ghost." Shall
we say that His work is ended ? Nay, His voice
is yet heard in the thoughts that glow and in the
words that burn, in every call to men to rise " on
stepping-stones of their dead selves to higher
things." All that strengthens us to suffer, all that
nerves us to resist evil, all that encourages us to
hope — all is the work of Him Who can quicken this
frail human body with the life which is eternal !
May we apply to the Holy Spirit the term
" Person " ? Certainly, if we exclude those ideas
of limitation which arise from its common uses
among ourselves, — if we regard it as a symbol to
express a fact of thought. But on this I hope to
say something more in my next lecture. Here it
will be enough to repeat that we accept the dis-
tinction in the Unity of the Trinity, not as a
discovery of reason, but as a revelation. It has
been my endeavour to indicate that even in the
40 LECTURE II.
order of which our senses can take cognizance, we
can discern analogies, which render these mysteries
less startling, I dare not say more comprehensible.
In the Logos, we see the Divine Thought in ex-
pression, the Wisdom manifested, the realization —
to use a Platonic phrase — of the Archetypal ideas.
In the Holy Spirit we contemplate the Divine
Energy in action, the Lord and Giver of life, by
Whom, by Whose quickening influence man can
live not only physically, can know that there are
spiritual realities behind and beyond the things of
sense, and can venture to declare that his own
personality may be delivered from the common
law of death, and is not doomed to attain at last,
as its only possible goal, to the Nirwana of dis-
sipated energy, to the loss of individual conscious-
ness by absorption in the Soul of the Universe, to
an eternal silence and an eternal inactivity.
LECTURE III.
THE HOLY TRINITY.
"Make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them into the
Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost."—
St. Matt, xxviii. 19 (R.V.).
" Christianity inherited from Judaism, together
with the Scriptures of the Old Testament, their
fundamental principle of the unity of God ; " x but
is distinguished from all other creeds by the
doctrine of the Trinity. In saying this, I do not
forget that there are triads in other theologies,
as in Neoplatonism and Ophite-gnosticism, in
Buddhism and Hinduism ; but the resemblance of
these to the Trinity of the Church Catholic is
little more than superficial, however important it
may be as a stage in the education of our race and
1 II. M. Gwatkin, " Studies of Arianism," p. 6.
G
42 LECTURE III.
a preparation for the fuller light. The doctrine
passes human understanding, it transcends human
powers of thought; it is by revelation, not by
discovery. It has, indeed, afforded scope for the
most profound reflection, the utmost precision of
philosophic statement ; it may be called a triumph
of theology, to have steered between a mono-
theism which would have deprived the Incarnation
of its full significance, and a tritheism which
would have been only a limitation of the ancient
polytheism, and would have led back to the same
results : but for the ground of that theology, of all
that system of deductive argument, we must fall
back upon, " It is written." ????;?
A Trinity in Unity at first sight seems, to a
mind which is scientific rather than metaphysical
in its bias, to be a contradiction in terms, the
assertion of an impossibility. Here, if anywhere,
we might exclaim, " Credo quia incredibile." This,
in a sense, is so; but it will be my endeavour,
I trust with all reverence, to inquire whether we
cannot find, in the order of which our senses can
THE HOLY TRINITY. 43
take cognizance, some analogies which may render
the doctrinal statements of the Church Catholic
less startling to the scientific thinker.
It may be well to commence by a brief state-
ment of the doctrine, because its difficulty
naturally has a deterrent effect upon our minds,
and renders us readily contented with a very
vague conception as to what it really means.
The doctrine is nowhere more clearly or precisely
enunciated than in the creed which bears, though
erroneously, the name of Athanasius. In this
respect we must admit that ancient confession of
the Western Church to have a high value, what-
ever may be our views as to the propriety of
using it in public worship, or as to the validity of
one or two adventitious expressions of opinion
therein. 1
These, then, are its statements as to the
"Catholic Faith:" "We worship one God in
Trinity, and Trinity in Unity ; neither confound-
ing the Persons, nor dividing the Substance. For
1 I refer, of course, to the so-called "damnatory clauses."
44 LECTURE III.
there is one Person of the Father, another of the
Son, and another of the Holy Ghost. But the
Godhead of the Father, of the Son, and of the Holy-
Ghost is all one." A number of explanatory-
clauses follow, in the course of which it is said,
" As we are compelled by the Christian verity to
acknowledge every Person by Himself to be God
and Lord: so are we forbidden by the Catholic
Religion to say, There be three Gods, or three
Lords." The whole'' concludes thus : " In this
Trinity none is afore or after other; none is
greater or less than another; but the whole three
Persons are co-eternal together and co-equal. So
that in all things, as is aforesaid, the Unity in
Trinity and the Trinity in Unity is to be
worshipped."
It is obvious that the meaning of this elaborate
doctrinal summary is inseparably dependent on that
of two terms which are employed therein. These
are "Person" and "Substance." 1 "Neither con-
1 See Hatch, " Influence of Greek Ideas," ch. ix. ; Smith and
Wace, "Dictionary of Christian Biography, etc.," s.v. "Trinity;"
and Gwatkin, " Studies of Arianism," chs. i.-iii.
THE HOLY TRINITY. 45
founding the Persons nor dividing the Substance."
" Person " is the rendering of the Latin word
Persona. This meant primarily a "mask" or "false
head " worn by actors, whence it might be employed
in a figurative sense. Thence it was extended to
designate the character sustained, whether on the
stage of the theatre or of the world ; and from
this to the actor himself, when it was sometimes
restricted like the English word "personage."
Also, especially in a legal sense, it signified
"persons" as opposed to "things" and "actions."
The other word translates the Latin Substantia,
which indicates that of which a thing consists, as a
subject of thought, rather than as an object of sense,
though the distinction cannot always be strictly
maintained. But, as speculative theology in the
Christian Church was more of Eastern than of
Western origin, we must go back to the terms in
the Greek language which the Latin words were
intended to represent. In that long period of
subtle speculation and stormy discussion which
began even before the second century and was
46 LECTURE III.
hardly closed at the end of the fifth, more than two
terms were employed in controversial theology, and
a greater precision of statement was attainable
owing to the distinction already drawn by Greek
philosophy between the fymvofxtva, the objective or
physical aspect of things, and the voov/ueva, or
mental concepts of the same, which are not ac-
cessible to the senses. Terms expressive of the
latter are, to the scientific man, symbols ; to
the metaphysician, realities. The terminology of
Christian controversy was borrowed from Greek
philosophy, so that the above-named distinction
must be carefully borne in mind. In the disputes
on the subject of the Trinity, at any rate during
the period with which we are more particularly
concerned, three terms appeared in the fore-front
of the battle. These were Ousia (OiWa), Hypostasis
(XiroaTaGig), and Prosopon (Upoawnov). The last
had nearly the same sense as the Latin Persona,
but did not connote so emphatically an individual
separate existence. Hence it was even employed
by the anti-Trinitarian Sabellius to express the
THE HOLY TRINITY. 47
three temporal aspects, the existence of which he
was willing to admit in the One God. Of the
other terms, Ousia (Ovaia) had been used in
philosophic diction in three distinct senses : namely,
as the material — the ground-stuff of things, equiva-
lent to hyle (v\y]) ; as a sensible material thing
which in a predication must always be a subject ;
and as the common element in the classes into
which sensible material things may be grouped —
the " form or ideal essence." * In process of time
the meaning of the term, owing to diversity of use,
became yet more uncertain, but in the Platonic ter-
minology, which represented one of the two great
schools of thought, Ousia designated the " idea " or
" form," the inherence of which makes any object
that which it actually is — its essence or being. 2 In
Stoic terminology a noetic conception practically
identical was expressed by Hypostasis. But in
the course of later controversy a distinction between
the two terms was drawn, and generally accepted ;
1 Hatch, "Influence of Greek Ideas," p. 278.
8 " Dictionary of Christian Biography," s.v. " Trinity."
48 LECTURE III.
and Ousia was defined as a " universal," denoting
that which was the common element in a group, as
in the various species of a genus, the different
individuals of a species, and the like ; while Hypo-
stasis expressed that which made the individual
what he is, " which in fact constitutes individual
existence." Thus Catholic theologians, in rejecting
both "the Arian Trinity of one increate and
two created beings, and the Sabellian Trinity of
temporal aspects (Upocr^ira) of the One," acknow-
ledged, "not three individuals, but three eternal
aspects (Y7ro(TTa(Teii) of the Divine, facing inward
on each other as well as outward on the world." *
Thus the word Person in the so-called Athanasian
Creed must not be fettered overmuch by its popular
use, but expresses the Hypostasis of Greek theo-
logians, and the clauses therein must be regarded
as an expansion of the statement of Athanasius
himself, that in the Godhead there were three
Hypostases in one Ousia. The distinction ob-
viously is noetic; it does not belong to the
1 H. M. Gwatkin, * Studies of Arianism," p. 9.
THE HOLY TRINITY. 49
Phenomena (tyaivofieva) of which science, strictly
speaking, can take cognizance, for it cannot be
tested by the evidence of the senses or by in-
ductions directly founded thereon. But is it so
absolutely contradictory to the analogies of the
order of the sensible universe that we may dismiss
it as a chimaera of a metaphysical cloud-land ?
Consider the world of living creatures. Here, at
first sight, distinct individuality seems a necessary
idea. But not seldom in plants this individuality
is, so to say, separable. Not a few of them can
be divided into parts, which will then become
separate individuals, incapable of subsequent fusion
into one. The value of this analogy may, however,
be disputed by refusing to admit that consciousness
can be attributed to plant-life. Turn, then, to the
animal world, wherein the existence of some form
of consciousness can hardly be denied. In certain of
the lowest organisms, as we call them, there is the
same separability. In what does the individuality
of some of the Protozoa consist ? Nay, here, I
believe, coalition after separation may occasionally
H
50 LECTURE III
take place. But also in those of somewhat higher
grade we find a diversity co-existent with a unity.
Such is the case with some of the compound forms,
as they are called, among the Coelenterates. A
Hydrozoan, for instance, such as the sea-fir (Sertu-
laria) y consists of a number of polypites connected
by a common tissue, the one being related to the
other, to use a rough simile, as buds just bursting
from the bark of a twig are to the woody axis. The
life of the whole colony is a common one, yet it is
individualized in each polypite, though we may
express doubts whether even these can be always
regarded as complete individuals ; for the reproduc-
tive process does not invariably take place in them,
but may result from an independent action, the
formation of a new and separate group of structures
at some part of the common but less highly dif-
ferentiated stem.
Again, to take another group in the same sub-
kingdom — the corals. Here, also, a similar common
unspecialized tissue uniting the specialized parts is
often found. How, in such case, are we to form
THE HOLY TRINITY. 5 I
a perfect mental concept of the individual ? We
cannot wholly separate the more specialized from
the less specialized tissues, nor any two of the
latter one from another. With these creatures
also, among the possible modes of multiplication,
is the following: — A single polypite gradually
separates into two or more, which ultimately
become perfectly complete in themselves. Follow
in thought the gradual change from one individual
life to two individual lives, and see whether the
continuity of existence does not bring you to some-
thing very like two aspects of a common essence
" facing inward upon themselves as well as out-
ward upon the world." I might carry on the same
line of illustration to the embryonic stages of
creatures much higher in organization, but, as there
are obvious difficulties in entering upon the dis-
cussion of some of the details, a suggestion of it
may suffice.
It may be urged as an objection that I have found
my analogies among the lowest organisms or lowest
stages of an organism. That is true, but we must
52 LECTURE 111.
not forget that the distinctive characteristics of
all living creatures are determined, how we know
not, at a very early stage in their existence. At
a time when it would be impossible for us, owing
to the absence of characteristics, to predict the
position to which the embryo will attain in the
animal kingdom, this already is irrevocably decided ;
the future organization is potentially present, is
hypostatically distinguished. We must also re-
member that in the present order the ultimate
result of high organization is death. Not only is
the highly organized animal more easily killed, but
also the race is more speedily destroyed by changes
in its environment. The very specialization of
function which is the cause of its temporary
prosperity, is also, inasmuch as the world's order
is not eternal, the cause of its ultimate destruction,
since, in the process of differentiation, it has
become less capable of further change. Pessimistic
as the statement may seem, it is true, in a certain
sense of the words, that self-improvement is only
another name for self-destruction.
THE HOLY TR1N17Y. 53
But development and specialization belong to
the temporal order; they have no place in that
which is eternal. The thing with its potentialities,
the thing with these accomplished, may be one in
the sight of Him, in Whose order time and space
may have an existence which is equally objective
and equally subjective. If, to express our meaning,
we fall back for a moment on a Platonic phrase, we
may say that the pretemporal Form in the Divine
Mind admits of no comparative terms, and that in
the progress from the monad to man, just as in the
progress from the embryo to the adult, we may
only be witnessing its evolution in the order of
the temporal and the phenomenal. Organization,
specialization, may be only the focusing, as it
were, of the archetypal idea on the screen of the
material ; the image grows distinct before our eyes,
yet it might be said to exist in reality, though it
was not perceptible by our senses, at every stage of
the process.
But I admit, as I said, that the analogy is
imperfect. I bring it forward only to indicate
54 LECTURE III.
that, in the order cognizable by scientific methods,
a personal existence is not so simple a question as
at first sight it might appear. However, seeing
that we are involved in difficulties whenever we
try to follow up the great mystery of life, let us
turn for a moment to the inorganic world, from
which this disturbing factor is eliminated. One
might reasonably expect that substances chemi-
cally identical would correspond in their attri-
butes, but this is by no means always the case :
they may differ so widely that their identity
would be unsuspected by any person who was
debarred from using those particular tests which
establish that identity. These differences, also, in
many cases are conspicuous, and are persistent.
They are, in short, among inorganic bodies the
equivalent of a personality among living creatures.
The physical properties — such as hardness, action
upon light, heat, electricity — the geometrical rela-
tions of the outward forms, and the internal
structures may be all different : they may be as
strongly contrasted as in the well-known case of
THE HOLY TRINITY. 55
graphite and the diamond, 1 and yet they are
chemically identical, the atoms are the same ;
the bricks, so to say, of which the structure is
built, are the same; but some difference in the
method of putting them together, some difference
in the environment, as we say, cloaking our
ignorance by a phrase, or some difference in the
architect's plan, as we might affirm, not less
reasonably, has resulted in this marked and
persistent diversity. Of this allotropy, as it is
called by chemists, there are some cases where
there is no distinction of outward form or of ordi-
nary physical properties, yet the relations to other
materials are altered, as in the case of ozone and
ox}^gen.
I mention these cases as illustrations only. I do
not presume to measure the unconditioned by the
conditioned; but if I were to adopt the termi-
nology of the metaphysician, and say that rutile,
1 Graphite (the material of " black-lead " pencils) is among the
softest of minerals, diamond is the bardest; the one is opaque, the
other transparent ; they differ also in their crystalline forms, and
in other respects : yet each is crystallized carbon.
$6 LECTURE 111.
brookite, and anatase x (three forms of titanic
oxide), or graphite, cliftonite, 2 and diamond (three
forms of carbon), were three hypostases in one
ousia, it would be difficult to charge me with a
misuse of language.
But, in addition to this, the whole tendency of
modern thought has been to emphasize the under-
lying unity of Nature, and to refer its differences to
a difference of position rather than to a difference
of essence. The older views concerning matter,
namely, that the universe could be reduced to
groups of ultimate atoms, each essentially different
from the other, influenced the mind in the oppo-
site direction ; it favoured the idea of initial
diversity, independence, and multiplicity : but the
modern hypotheses concerning matter, which I*
mentioned in a former lecture, 8 have had the
1 Not to mention other differences, these are crystallized in
accordance with different laws.
2 Cliftonite is a very rare form of carbon, in some respects
resembling graphite, but it is much harder, and takes the
crystalline form of the diamond. It has been found in meteorites
(Fletcher, Mineralogical Magazine, vol. vii. p. 121).
8 See pp. 14-17.
THE HOLY TRINITY. 57
opposite tendency. Suppose, for instance, that
Thomson is right, and that all matter consists of
vortex rings in an imponderable, impalpable
" something ; " then all its diversities, all its various
properties, must consist, in their later stages, in
differences of synthesis, but at an earlier one in
differences of relative position. In this case, also,
the unity of owsia, or substance, the diversity of
hypostases might be affirmed.
In short, the distinctions with which our senses
can deal must be ultimately explained by differ-
ences of position — that is, of mutual relationship.
As we trace back, step by step, the history of
matter, whether by experiment or in thought, the
complex is simplified, the compounds are dissolved,
the distinctive attributes disappear, pleomorphism x
proves to be only a disguised unity. Still, as the
pleomorphic representatives of this unity are so
constant, so persistent, in the phenomenal world,
1 The term employed in mineralogy to indicate the occurrence
of any one substance in diverse " forms," as in the cases mentioned
on pp. 55, 56.
I
58 LECTURE III.
the metaphysicians could fairly assert for each the
existence of a noetic substratum ; otherwise they
might be reduced to the admission that there was
only a single noetic concept in the universe.
These concepts, then, in position, must be not
only relative to us, but also mutually relative to
themselves. That is, the varied hypostases in the
one ousia not only face outward on the world, but
also inward on themselves.
I do not presume to say that this is an adequate
explanation of the doctrine of the Holy Trinity.
We may do well to remember the vision of
Augustine of Hippo. As he wandered along the
shore of the Tuscan Maremma, 1 wrapped in medita-
tion, and vainly seeking to solve this mystery, he
thought that he saw a child who was engaged in
filling a small vessel from the sea, and emptying
the water into a hole in the sand. He asked the
child what he was about. The little one answered
1 At Torre de Bertaldo, by the mouth of the Minio. See Hare,
"Days near Home," vol. ii. p. 317; Jameson, "Sacred and
Legendary Art," vol. i. p. 297.
THE HOLY TRINITY. 59
that he was emptying the sea. " That is im-
possible ! " exclaimed Augustine. " Not more im-
possible," replied the child, " than it is for thee to
explain the mystery on which thou art now medi-
tating." So it must be with us : the mystery of
the Divine relationships, of the Godhead itself,
cannot be grasped by our finite powers. Granted
the possibility of a revelation, if only we are satis-
fied that we have this in the person of Christ,
the doctrine of the Trinity can be established
deductively from the words of Scripture as it was
by the theologians of the primitive Church. It
receives an immense, though an indirect, support
from the fact that all other hypotheses can be
shown by logical necessity to lead us back to a
fruitless monotheism, to an immoral pantheism, or
to a degrading polytheism. It satisfies the deeper
cravings of humanity. To quote the words of one
too early lost to the Church of our own day: 1
" While philosophy with increasing hopelessness
1 Aubrey Moore, author of the, singularly able essay on " The
Christian Doctrine of God," contributed to " Lux Mundi ."
CO LECTURE III.
was asking, ' How can we have a real unity
which shall be not a barren and dead unity, but
shall include differences ? * Christianity, with its
doctrine of God, was arguing that that which
was an unsolved contradiction for non-Christian
thought, was a necessary corollary of the Christian
Faith." We may add, I trust, that the progress
of inductive investigation and deductive reasoning,
instead of making the doctrine of the Trinity in
Unity more startling and paradoxical, has light-
ened its difficulty by showing that in the order
of nature there is a unity in its differences, and
there may be relative differences in its unity.
LECTURE IV.
THE INCARNATION.
" The Word became flesh, and dwelt among as."— St. John i. 14
(R.V.).
The Incarnation of the Word — God manifest in
man and as man, is the central mystery of Chris-
tianity. It can be contemplated from more than
one point of view. Assuming, for a moment, that
such an event is not antecedently incredible, it
may be considered in regard either to its signi-
ficance and place in the order of the world, or to
its purpose, if the term be permitted ; that is,
to use the technical phrases, in its Christological
or its Soteriological aspect. At present I restrict
myself, as far as possible, to the former.
A belief in an incarnation, in some sense of the
word, is not peculiar to Christianity. Polytheism
62 LECTURE IV.
was thoroughly anthropomorphic in its conceptions,
and invested its gods with the form, the appetites,
and even the passions of men. This, however, may
perhaps be termed a personification, rather than
an incarnation ; for it was not supposed that the
bodies of the gods were identical with those of
men. And even when the former were asserted to
have assumed a true human body, this incarnation
would be termed, in the language of theology,
docetic rather than real.
A nearer parallel is found in Hinduism, with its
avatars. It has often been pointed out, especially
by opponents of Christianity, that in Krishna, the
eighth' avatar of Vishnu, there are many points of
correspondence with the history recorded in the
Gospels. This, to those who believe that a unity
of plan and purpose pervades all the diversity of
this world's order, presents no special difficulty;
for it may be said that the history of man's de-
velopment is like unto a tree, which has not only
its branches in the future, but also its roots in the
past. But, in this particular case, there is good
THE INCARNATION. 63
reason for doubting whether the instances of closer
resemblance are not comparatively late accretions
to the legend, which, instead of having an inde-
pendent origin, have been really derived from
Christianity. The latter certainly cannot have
borrowed from Hinduism, for it is organically con-
nected with Judaism. Two thousand years since
the Hebrew world was expecting — at the present
day it still expects — a Messias. He was to be, he
is to be, more than man, — one, who, if not quite all
that Christian theology affirms, should be, to quote
the words of a weighty authority, 1 " far above the
conditions of the most exalted of God's servants,
even His angels : in short, so closely bordering on
the Divine, that it was almost impossible to dis-
tinguish him therefrom."
The doctrine of the Catholic Church on the
subject of the Incarnation cannot be more clearly
stated than in the words of the so-called Athanasian
Creed : " We believe and confess that our Lord
1 Edersheim, " Life and Times of Jesus," bk. ii. ch. v. (vol. i.
p. 179).
64 LECTURE IV.
Jesus Christ, the Son of God, is God and Man ; . . .
Perfect God, and perfect Man of a reasonable soul
and human flesh subsisting; Equal to the Father as
touching His Godhead, and inferior to the Father
as touching His Manhood. Who although He be
God and Man, yet He is not two, but one Christ ;
One ; not by conversion of the Godhead into flesh,
but by taking of the Manhood into God: One
altogether; not by confusion of Substance, but by
unity of Person." Almost every phrase in this
summary is a symbol of past controversy, a monu-
ment of a theological victory. It gives in syste-
matic form the result of a deductive study of the
words of Scripture : needless to say, it expresses a
mystery deeper than the human mind can hope to
fathom.
It is not my intention to trace the history or
insist upon the importance of the above clauses.
Either would lie outside my present purpose.
Accepting them as an explanation of what is
meant by the Incarnation, let us ask whether
the great central mystery is so completely dis-
THE INCARNATION. 65
cordant with our environment that, in accepting
it, we are compelled to silence the protests of reason
by the assurances of faith ? It does not so seem to
me, on the supposition that the ordinary views as
to the genesis of life and soul are in the main
correct. It is generally held that, whatever life
may be, it is not a simple attribute of matter, is
not to be classed with heat, electricity, magnetism ;
that between ordinary matter and living matter
there is a great gulf fixed. It is also held that
between animals and men, or at least some men,
there is another such gulf: 1 that the death of the
body puts an end to the one, but not to the other ;
the latter possessing, in addition to a perfect animal
organization, a spirit which is of God. If, then, we
believe that man has become a " living soul " — and
in this belief, remember, Christians do not stand
alone — then, unless we claim immortality for all
animals, we must admit that in one person the
nature of an immortal being and that of a mortal
1 See "The Threefold Nature of Man" in "Old Truths in
Modern Lights," p. 114.
K
66 LECTURE IV.
being are inseparably united. Here, then, the
higher has not been converted into the lower, but
the lower has been taken up into the higher. To
myself, at any rate, it appears that we cannot so
much as use the term volition without being con-
fronted with this dilemma, that we must either
regard it as the result of a synthesis of organic
elements, and so cease to claim for it freedom, or
in asserting the latter, admit the existence of some-
thing which cannot be brought under any known
laws — that is, we must trespass on the domain of
the miraculous, though we shrink from using the
term.
Some perhaps might say : " We do not take offence
at the assertion of an Incarnation, for, whether you
would call us Pantheists or not, we certainly are
not advocates of a dualism which places the Divine
and the material in antagonism. We admit that it
is possible, inexplicable as it may be, that such a
union might take place, but we are unable to
believe in the birth from a virgin mother, because
it would be contrary to the order of nature."
THE INCARNATION. 6/
Let me, then, touch briefly on this subject, difficult
though it be to discuss. I may remark, at the out-
set, that if the birth of Jesus had been the result of
the ordinary synthesis, then, in accordance with the
order of nature, He would have been only a man.
If, then, you are not prepared to admit this, if you
are not content to reverence Christ merely as the
most perfect man, you must fall back upon a miracle
at some stage of His existence, for the union of the
Godhead with the manhood is no part of the order
of nature, so far as that is known.
Attempts have been made to elude the difficulty
which is presented by the doctrine of the In-
carnation by supposing that the Divine Nature
united itself at some particular stage to that
of a man, born in ordinary course ; but to
what does this modification amount? that we are
willing to believe the assertion of a thing which
lies wholly outside our experience, but not one
which in any way seems to be contrary to our
experience. I will not, indeed, go so far as to say
that this distinction is entirely without value, but
68 LECTURE IV.
at any rate I am justified in pointing out that it
does not enable us to get rid of miracje, but only to
transfer its plane of operation.
Birth, we know, requires at a very early stage,
in most living creatures, a synthesis of two
elements, both extremely minute and apparently
almost structureless. 1 The function of the one is
mainly initiatory, though it also produces a per-
manent impression which results in the transmis-
sion of hereditary tendencies ; the other develops
into the future being. In this great marvel, much
as we know of the "how," we are very ignorant
of the " why." The union of two tiny rudimentary
cells has for its result a being which presents,
physically and mentally, strong resemblances to
both parents ! If I may venture to speak in the
language of man concerning the Incarnation, the
miracle consisted in this : — that the process of
development began in one cell without the inter-
1 The ovum of the most highly organized member of the animal
kingdom is rather less than one hundredth of an inch in diameter
(Huxley, " Man's Place in Nature," p. 65).
THE INCARNATION. 69
vention of the other : that, really, is all which we
are asked to believe. A miracle undoubtedly, for
that which otherwise would have remained incom-
plete was quickened to a perfect life. It was an
exercise of Creative Force, an overshadowing of
the Power of the Highest. This I am told, in
words which, if not true, are mere rhapsody which
borders on profanity. But at such an epoch in the
history of mankind as the Advent of Christ on
earth, might not a departure from the ordinary
course be anticipated ? If we are forced to admit
miracle in the order of physical life, what wonder
if it be required also in the order of the spiritual ?
But, although it is quite true that, as a rule, the
origin of an individual life is a synthetic process
— not, however, of lifeless, but of living matter — we
must nevertheless remember that the law is not
universal. Cut off a slip from a plant, and it
becomes a new individual, capable of bearing seed
and propagating its kind in the usual way. Per-
haps, however, you will demur to the value of this
illustration, as being taken from the world of plants,
yo LECTURE IV.
not of animals. But in the latter, also, multiplica-
tion can take place in much the same way. Some
animals divide themselves again and again ; one
individual becomes a host, by subdivision, not by
generation in the ordinary sense. 1 We must also
remember that in not a few living creatures no
sexual distinctions are perceptible, in others the
individual is bisexual. I do not forget the remark-
able instances of what is called Parthenogenesis ;
for this at first sight might seem an exact parallel
to the marvel which we are considering : but I do
not press it, because I know that in some cases
(though I am doubtful whether in all) the resem-
blance might be explained away. But I refer to the
others to indicate — and thus far, at any rate, I have
a right to use them — that the law of birth as a
result of synthesis is not so universal and invariable
as is commonly supposed.
It may be said that these apparent exceptions
occur only among the lowest types of living creatures.
1 W. H. Dallinger, " The Creator, and what we may know of the
Method of Creation," p. 30.
THE INCARNATION. 7 1
It is true that they disappear, before the vertebrates
are reached ; but it must be remembered that even
the most highly organized form of the latter, at one
stage of its existence, although its future develop-
ment in some mysterious way is already determined
and may be regarded as potentially present, is itself
actually indistinguishable from a protozoon. But it
was at this very stage that the miracle which most
startles our mind must have occurred. Are we not,
in believing that a miracle was needed to produce
from inert dead matter living protoplasm, with all
its potentialities, and in hesitating to admit a
similar miracle in one particular case, straining at
a scientific gnat and swallowing a scientific camel ?
As it has been well said, " The mystery of life is
as great and as deep in a monad as in a man." *
But, if we look further, and consider what the
Incarnation means, we begin to understand why
it behoved that Christ should not be born after the
flesh. I will not now raise the soteriological
question further than to say that One was needed
1 W. H. Dallinger, " The Creator," p. 36.
72 LECTURE IV.
who should be without sin. But the theological
doctrine of original sin, regarded apart from some
adventitious colouring, only states in another form
the scientific doctrine of heredity. No child of
human parents can be sinless ; the animal nature
is present from the first, and resists the impulses
to conformity with external requirements ; the
development of the body outruns that of the mind,
and for a considerable time the moral nature fights
at a disadvantage with the physical. The fall of
man, the innate infection of his nature, is a fact, an
unquestionable awful fact in the world's order, even
if every word in the third chapter of Genesis be
allegorical. So that no one born after the flesh can
be sinless. Perhaps, also, we should not leave out
of sight the fact that to the human race everything
connected with this synthesis is a fruitful source of
evil. One, however, born as Christ is asserted to
have been born, would be perfect man ; for after
the first beginning He would have passed through
every stage of development and nutrition which
belongs to a member of the human race. If the
THE INCARNATION. 73
Saviour of the world were to be man, He must be
born, in a sense, in due course ; but, to be sinless,
He must be born out of due course. The course,
of which we are told in revelation, is the most
simple, the only conceivable one — to speak as a
man — in which the perfection of the human nature,
in union with the Divine nature, could have been
secured.
Call us credulous believers in a miracle, if you
will — that is, in an event which is inexplicable
by any result of our experience; nay, which is
contrary to, or, I should rather say, different from
our experience. Be it so, but your scientific
biologist, when he formulates his researches in the
maxim, All that lives has a living parent, — when
he asserts that, if life can proceed from the
synthesis of the non-living, it is a thing of which
he has no experience — is compelled to postulate a
miracle ; because no force of which he knows can
span that tremendous gap between lifeless matter
and living matter. Even in regard to matter
itself, when asked to explain its origin, he must
L
74 LECTURE IV.
either admit the occurrence of a miracle or cloak
his difficulty under a euphemistic phraseology.
No man of science, when confronted with some
startling phenomenon, in favour of which there
was strong evidence, would be ashamed to say,
u This is a thing which I should have never
expected, to me it is inexplicable ; but perhaps we
shall one day know." In what respect, then, does
such an admission as this differ from what a
cautious theologian requires us to concede ?
But it is not enough to regard the Incarnation
by itself, and as an isolated event; it must be
considered in connection with the history — the
evolution, if the phrase be preferred — of humanity.
In the fullest sense of the words — now, if possible,
more fully than ever — it is the answer, God's
answer, to the earnest expectation of the creature,
to the " bitter cry " of humanity.
" life as futile, then, as frail ! " Do not these
despairing words express the feelings of many a
heart. Pessimism, of which we hear much, is no
new thing: it is not the mere outcome of an
THE INCARNATION. 75
unhealthy body or an unhealthy mind ; it expresses
a deliberate intellectual conclusion, in favour of
which there is very much to be said, if we regard
the present life apart from any hope of a future
and a better one, — for which, I believe, the case
actually grows stronger as man advances up the
scale of civilization and is raised, it matters not
how, above the animal world. Life's possibilities
are so great ; there is so much to do, so much to
enjoy in the nobler, not in the baser sense of the
word ; in this earth, both in its parts and as a
whole, there is such an inexpressible beauty, such
a boundless field of knowledge, were time and
opportunity only given ; in man himself there
are such potentialities of moral grandeur, yet such
endless disappointments, such constant failures.
Alike to love as to hate, to labour as to sloth, to
learning as to ignorance, to righteousness as to
unrighteousness, there comes one end. The old
pictures of the Dance of Death express an awful
truth. There, if in this life only you have hope, is
the picture-book of pessimism. Not to age only,
76 LECTURE IV.
but to youth also : not to sorrow only, but to joy
also : not to failure only, but to success also : not
to vice only, but to virtue also, the grim spectre
comes, and leads away his helpless captive to
the prison-house of the grave, to the eternal
silence of the tomb. Vanity of vanities; all is
vanity !
If any one argued in this fashion in favour of
pessimism, what could be said against him ? Much,
I think, on the side of the animal world; not a little
also on that of the less civilized races of mankind ;
but I should feel that the difficulties of my case
increased in proportion as my estimate of my
client rose. There are jarring notes, there is a
discord in the harmony of nature; and these are
attuned, and can only be attuned by the Incarna-
tion, which shows where promise has its per-
formance, where potentialities have their realization,
where failure is replaced by success. Man is ever
tormented by ideals which either mock him by
their evanescence or disappoint him by their failure.
In Christ the ideal is realized, and there is a living
THE INCARNATION.
77
union between the world of sense and the world of
spirit.
Yet another deep-seated want of human-nature
has been satisfied by the Incarnation. Man is a
born idolater. The child and the savage can scarce
conceive existence apart from form and material :
they endow with some sort of vitality even the
lifeless objects around them. The tendency of later
years and of more advanced thought is to deify the
human ideal and to people the celestial region
with a crowd of divinities in human form. So
strong is this innate instinct, that each spiritual
type of religion has to wage a perpetual struggle
for existence against reversionary tendencies. If,
at any time, a great upward stride has been made
by a leader of thought, his followers, instead of
advancing onward, commonly step part- way back.
This is true of Christianity itself, even in this
nineteenth century; and in this land the faith of
the majority is less spiritual than that " which was
first delivered to the Saints." A God without
boundary, without shape, without material, fails to
78 LECTURE IV.
satisfy a nature trained by the experiences of the
finite. Man wants, man longs for the form which
the eye can see, for the human heart which can
beat in sympathy with his own. Unconsciously
he reasons thus with himself: "What can a spirit
know of my wants, my sorrows, my trials, and my
temptations ? My body is wrung by pain : that it
has not felt. My passions struggle for mastery :
this awful conflict it cannot understand. My life
is dark with sorrow : that cannot come in the
unchanging eternity. Talk not to me," thus the
sufferer cries, " of these formless, changeless, abstract
Powers. Give me that which can feel with me and
for me in this weary and bitter conflict of life ! "
Jesus answers, " Lo, I come ! I have borne the
burden of humanity. I have felt its pains and sor-
rows ! I have passed through its every stage from
infancy to manhood. I have known its tempta-
tions, though not its sins. Art thou hated without
a cause ? They hated Me. Art thou persecuted
for righteousness' sake ? They persecuted Me.
Art thou weary in well doing ? I was weary too
THE INCARNATION. 79
Art thou bowed with sorrow ? I wept by the
grave of Lazarus. Art thou suffering bitter pains ?
I was wounded with the scourge and died upon the
cross ? Art thou in the horror of great darkness ?
Remember My agony in Gethsemane, and My cry
on Calvary. Trust Me wholly, faint-hearted one,
for I know what thou dost feel. Trust Me wholly,
for I gave My life for thee."
On former occasions I have striven to show that
the irreconcilable antagonism between God and
the universe, on which some have insisted, does not
exist — that creation is the revelation of His wisdom,
the manifestation of His power; that in every
phenomenon — in the forces which regulate, in the
light which illuminates, in the life which peoples
the globe, we are beholding the action of a Divine
energy, the revelation of the Unconditioned through
the conditioned. In the Incarnation I recognize
the crown and completion of the glorious work :
the accomplished theophany : the perfect synthesis
of the finite and the Infinite, in which the long
series of types and analogues was realized, wherein
80 LECTURE IV.
the " earnest expectation of the creature " received
that answer by which alone it could be satisfied !
"Art thou weary, art thou languid,
Art thou sore distrest ?
' Come to Me,' saith One, ■ and coming,
Be at rest ! ' "
LECTURE V.
THE ATONEMENT.
" But God commendeth His own love toward us, in that, while
we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Much more then, being
now justified by His blood, shall we be saved from the wrath of
God through Him. For if, while we were enemies, we were
reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, being
reconciled, shall we be saved by His life." — Rom. v. 8-10 (R.V.).
" What is man, that he should be clean ? and he
which is born of a woman, that he should be
righteous ? " That human nature is full of jarring
notes, that in it noble aspirations and depraved
tendencies are in constant conflict, is an awful fact,
independent of any changes of opinion as to the
meaning of the story of the Fall. Though the
language of this appears to myself allegorical
rather than historical, yet I consider original sin
to be not only a theological dogma, but also an
M
82 LECTURE V.
induction from observed facts. That a discord
exists in human nature is a certainty. That it is
due to some past departure from a state of harmony
with the environment — which is only another
mode of expressing what is implied by the word
" Fall "—is highly probable. 1
" All we like sheep have gone astray." From this
unwelcome conclusion there is no escape. As man
has advanced in ethical conceptions, he has only
realized more keenly his own imperfections and
failures ; as he has pressed after an ideal, this, as it
became more clear in the brightening light, has
seemed to be yet further away, and to increase its
distance as he pursued.
The sense of sin becomes stronger as knowledge
grows. It is weak in savage man. He knows, like a
child, that he has to observe certain rules, the breach
of which entails penalties ; but why this should be
he seldom asks. Commonly, like many a schoolboy,
he takes a merely mercantile view of an offence
and its penalty ; the latter is the price to be paid
1 "Old Truths in Modern Lights," pp. 269-286.
THE ATONEMENT. 83
for the former, and so the affair is ended. His
God is simply an invisible and very powerful chief ;
who, like a man, can be kept in good temper and
appeased, but who generally is a rather good-
natured personage. Demons, indeed, there are,
whose intentions are malevolent; but the God on
the whole is clever enough and kindly enough to
keep these in check. So he goes through life in
a schoolboy fashion — not, indeed, without April
showers of tears, but with its sunshine too, and
on the whole well contented with himself.
The same childlike brightness may be observed
in the early history of Judaism. In peaceful times,
when the spoiler came not, then every man sat
under his own vine and his own fig tree, eating
and drinking and making merry. As years went
on the light grew stronger, but the shadows
deepened. The soul began to long after God, the
heart to realize its own bitterness — to know that no
hyssop could purge its uncleanness, no blood of
bulls and goats could wash away sin. Then came
the Redeemer. Angel-voices proclaimed a message
84 LECTURE V.
of peace ; but yet, though nineteen centuries have
almost passed away, and it has not been without
its influence in the world, we do but realize more
acutely than ever our own feebleness, our own
sinfulness.
But is there any other message which gives us
larger hopes ? As it seems to me, we are com-
pelled, if we cannot accept the message of revela-
tion, to this conclusion : There is in the ideal
world an absolute perfection; there is in the real
world an incurable imperfection. Between the one
and the other there is a great gulf fixed. This we
fain would cross, but it yawns too wide and too
deep.
The history of sacrificial rites, especially in their
later stages, is the history of man's effort to bridge
this chasm. In these, at the outset, the idea of
propitiation — the desire to obtain the favour of
the God — predominates ; but it is gradually over-
shadowed by the idea of expiation, the endeavour
to avert the consequences of sin. Sacrifice, it must
be remembered, is not an institution of Jewish
THE ATONEMENT. 85
origin. It is world-wide : the outcome of natural
religion, not the result of direct revelation.
Yet another idea is prominent in all sacrifices
involving the death of the victim, to which I shall
have to refer in a later lecture — that there is an
absorption of life through the blood, so that by
means of it a communion in some sort is estab-
lished between the God and the worshipper. 1 Such
sacrifices, then, whenever and wherever performed,
constitute acts of atonement ; are admissions, how-
ever gross the conception, however unspiritual the
idea, that the bond between the two parties has
been weakened and requires to be strengthened,
and so are indirect confessions of the frailty and
sinfulness of man.
All Christians agree that the Lord Jesus, by His
life on earth, made an atonement for the sins of
mankind; that He became, by His death and
resurrection, the living way across the great gulf
which parts the realm of eternal death from that
of eternal life. But we differ in the significance
1 Robertson Smith, " The Religion of the Semites," lects. vi., viii.
86 LECTURE V.
which we attach to the atonement. In any en-
deavour to come to a conclusion on this question,
we can hardly expect either direct help or opposition
from the results of scientific inquiry, for we are
dealing with matters which lie outside its province ;
nevertheless we may be aided by its methods, so
as to test deductive reasonings from the words of
revelation by the results of an inductive treatment
of facts.
In meditating upon the significance of the
atonement, we must be alive to the danger of an
anthropomorphic phraseology. The employment of
it is inevitable, because the relations of God to man
can only be explained to us through the relations
of man to man; nevertheless it may mislead us
at every turn. For instance, such terms as " the
wrath of God " or " the anger of God " may produce
misconceptions. His wrath with sin is not
emotional. It expresses the working of an eternal
law — if the phrase be permissible — a severance and
an alienation which are inevitable, which stand
in the relation of consequence to cause. To give
THE ATONEMENT. 87
a rough illustration : if I put my hand in the fire
and am burnt, I do not attribute this result to the
anger of the fire, or of nature, or of God. The
injury is the result of my action. That certain
antecedents should lead to certain consequences is
true in the moral as in the physical order. Sin is
the non-fulfilment of the Divine purpose ; man
had, man has, the power of choice, whether he will
obey the animal or the spiritual instinct. 1 As a
matter of fact, he hearkens sometimes to the one,
sometimes to the other ; that is, he is never
without sin. But the sequence of consequence
and cause is a necessity of the Divine perfection.
" The seat of law is the bosom of God ; her voice
the harmony of the world." 2
How, then, can man of himself escape from the
consequences of his wrong-doing? A disposition
to evil is a part of his nature. The doctrine of
" original sin," as expressed in the ninth Article of
our Church, in one aspect is only a special state-
1 " Old Truths in Modern Lights," pp. 269-286.
» R. Hooker, " Ecclesiastical Polity," I. xviii. 8.
88 LECTURE V.
ment of the general law of heredity. The " infection
of nature " represents in a phrase the results of
observation; it is an induction rather than a
dogma. Where the Scripture says, " All we like
sheep have gone astray," " There is none righteous,
no, not one," it is merely expressing an unques-
tionable fact. The man who asserted that he had
never committed a sin would be regarded by
common consent, even among the careless, as the
greatest of self-deceivers; and if this be so, how,
after having taken a poison, can we be delivered
from its effects ?
It is not, then, so much anger which has to be
appeased as the natural consequences of actions
which have to be averted. A gulf has to be
spanned. A gulf, we believe, has been spanned.
In a higher sphere the independence of, the con-
flict between, personal will and natural law has
been exhibited, with which we are familiar, in
our humbler sphere, when we forgive the erring
and accept the imperfect. God and humanity
have been at one in the Person of Christ ; in Him
THE ATONEMENT, 89
the law of righteousness is in harmony with the
law of love.
But how are we to explain the effects of this act
of self-sacrifice ? Christians are agreed as to the
fact of the atonement, but they differ much as to
its significance. The Church of England wisely has
not committed her members to any precise inter-
pretation ; affirming the fact, she leaves the appre-
ciation thereof to the individual conscience.
Many solutions of the difficulty have been pro-
posed, one or two of which I proceed to notice.
Some have represented the atonement as a kind of
bargain. 1 Man by sin sold himself into slavery.
Satan had, so to say, a legal claim on him. So the
Saviour offers Himself as a Substitute, and is
accepted. But justice is satisfied in the letter
rather than in the spirit ; for it is known all along
that the Victim will prove too strong for the op-
pressor. So it happens; the Captive bursts His
bonds and tramples His captor underfoot. Another
1 For an historical sketch of Patristic opinions, see Archbishop
Thomson, " Aids to Faith," essay viii.
90 LECTURE V.
hypothesis may be briefly expressed as follows :
Man has sinned; God is wroth; some one must
suffer. As I have heard it stated, " God must have
blood." The All-loving Son comes forward as a
Victim, and exclaims, " Take Mine ! " He is slain —
" the Just for the unjust." The Father's anger is
satisfied ; He pardons, for the sake of One, the
many Who have sinned.
Both these views we may unhesitatingly reject.
Supposing for a moment the principals in either
of the transactions were only men, we could not
affirm that they had acted up to a high ethical
standard. But, in reply to such an objection, it
might be asked whether the verdict of our con-
science can be trusted. May not our ethical con-
ceptions be vitiated by our imperfect knowledge ?
My answer would be that they would err rather
on points of detail than on those of principle. For
instance, we can seldom form an opinion as to the
justice or injustice of isolated occurrences; to our
limited view, God may often seem to deal hardly
with individuals. For the explanation of this we
THE ATONEMENT. 9 1
may be content to wait. We may also admit the
possibility — the probability — that the moral sense
of our race may become more acute, so that ethical
standards are outgrown and a later age becomes
dissatisfied with conceptions with which an earlier
one was content; but if we cannot trust the
general accuracy of those ideas, which must be the
basis of all our conduct, then right and wrong are
reduced to arbitrary terms of only temporary value.
So we may reject without hesitation both the
above-named hypotheses as contrary to our
elemental ideas of justice, righteousness, goodness,
and refuse to attribute to God any course of action
which we should, for ourselves, indignantly dis-
claim.
A third hypothesis, which has found very general
favour, takes what is called a " forensic " view.
The death of Christ procures the remission of our
sins in this wise : The self-sacrifice and the perfect
righteousness of Christ obtained what might be
called a general pardon. Man admits his own
guilt, but pleads the pardon. He is acquitted ; he
92 LECTURE V.
is regarded as righteous because of Christ's
righteousness. This is like a fund upon which
man is empowered to draw in order to obtain his
freedom from a state of slavery. This, like the
festal robe bestowed by Eastern potentates, masks
and hides man's native squalor. For certain aspects
of this view there is much to be said. Its weak
point is indicated by the epithet "forensic" — that
is, by the effort to represent the manifestation of
God by the procedure of human law-courts; to
impose upon the Divine the limitations of humanity.
Thus, to myself, many of the disputes which
agitated the minds of the schoolmen and the
doctors of the Churches, reformed or unreformed —
disputes concerning " faith unformed " and " faith
formed," merit de congruo and de condigno — appear
to be mainly academic, originated by the attempt
to express through an imperfect terminology ideas
which refuse to be thus limited and trimmed.
If we were content to work in theology as we
do in science, and to admit that a definition may
be accurate or a principle sound for all practical
THE ATONEMENT. 93
purposes, and yet be incompetent to withstand the
rigid application of a " destructive sorites," or some
other logical device, we should soon see that many
difficulties were, like the Brocken spectres, only
projections of human personalities on the mists of
the unknowable.
But it is easier to perceive the defects in expla-
nations than to amend them. We may refuse to
admit the possibility of a divergence of Mind
between the Father and the Son, or to attribute to
the former a blind wrath which demands a victim,
it matters not how innocent. We may be justly dis-
satisfied with those modifications of the last hypo-
thesis which substitute a law for God, and discuss
its requirements and its penalties, and yet we may
feel that the matter is too great for our strength.
So, if I were asked to state in precise language a
theory of the atonement, which should at once be
consistent with the words of Scripture, with our
own sense of right and justice, and with the
requirements of logic, I should not be ashamed to
confess my inability. As well might we endeavour
94 LECTURE V.
to wing our way through space to distant planetary
systems, as to measure the immeasurable and to
comprehend the incomprehensible. We can hope
at the utmost to discover analogies, to approximate
to the unattainable ; and here, though we cannot
enter perfectly into the seeming reconciliation of
law and of love, we can learn the lessons of the life
and death of Him Who was Son of man and Son of
God.
Let me touch, in conclusion, upon one or two of
these, for by them alone we can hope to gain some
partial knowledge of that which must ever remain
a mystery. Jesus bore the full burden of human
nature. In His life and death He shared its pain
and sorrow. Think of Him, weary and outworn,
scorned and rejected, tortured and degraded by the
long agony of the trial and the cross ; cut off in the
flower of His age and the fulness of His work ;
crushed by the sense that God would not, or even
— if one may dare to say it — could not, help Him,
and that wrong was stronger than right. No
mourner, no sufferer, no martyr, hereafter could
THE ATONEMENT. 95
murmur, could despair. Needs must be that He
should die, because until death writes the closing
word on the page of each man's history, life's
opportunities, whether for good or for evil, are not
exhausted, and it is possible, in the weakness of age
or in the pains of death, to fall from the way of
righteousness. Needs must be that He should die ;
for if not, there would have been one trial through
which He would not have passed, so that it could
not have been said, " One of ourselves has borne all,
suffered all, and triumphed over all."
What encouragement would it have been to us if
the victory had been won in a nature other than
our own ? What boots it to tell me of the triumph
of one who cannot feel my weakness ? If I were
in pain and you were insensible to pain, what lesson
would it read me that you were cheerful and
contented with your lot in life ? But Christ took
upon Himself a human nature, and we, erring,
feeble, sinful beings, are at once nerved and shamed
by the example of the one unfallen, perfect, sinless
Man.
g6 LECTURE V.
Yet more, let us take a somewhat wider view,
and regard the sacrifice of Christ in the light of
certain modern philosophies. 1 These tell us that
the order of nature is the manifestation of the
" will to live." If so, the physical universe is the
expression of an energy acting, as it must always
do, in accordance with unalterable laws. It follows,
then, that we ourselves are but an aspect of this
will ; our brief portions of life, only its temporary
individualization. But would that be a complete
history of humanity ? Are you prepared to accept
the consequences of this theory, and live, as you
should do, as expressions of this will alone ? Gleams
there are of something else, broken and shadowed
though they be, which, though they interrupt the
harmonious consistency of your philosophy, give to
life all its tenderness and its brightness. Not only
the "will to live," but also the "will to love," is
manifested in this world, and it is written in largest,
plainest characters in the life and death of Jesus.
If we can believe, as the majority do, that the
1 Those of Schopenhauer and Von Hartmann.
THE ATONEMENT. 97
person of every man indicates the action of volition
as well as of mere vitality, so we may believe that
in the Divine personality of Christ the two wills,
that of "to live" and that of "to love," were
exhibited in their temporal conflict and their
eternal harmony.
It must never be forgotten that the atonement
was not merely a single episode. It did not last,
as we are apt to think, only from Gethsemane to
Calvary. The hours of the Passion were but its
completion. It began at the manger of Bethlehem ;
it was wrought in the daily life at Nazareth and
in the homeless wanderings, by the shores of
Gennesaret or in the deserts of Judsea, on the hills
of Galilee and in the streets of Jerusalem. It was,
in short, not only the " dying of a death," but also
the "living of a life." Of this Christ bore the
daily strain. Bore, not only its pains and sorrows,
but also its petty cares, its little trials — those
thousand trifles which in ourselves, like some
destructive acid, too often corrode the more noble
and indurate the more tender side of our nature.
o
98 LECTURE V.
He also bore that which is, for the more exalted
spirits among us, the heaviest and most dangerous
trial — misunderstanding and misrepresentation,
injustice and ingratitude. In a word, He bore the
whole burden of human life, without a murmur,
without a falter, without a fall.
This, then, it is which constitutes the magnetism
of the cross : " I, if I be lifted up, shall draw all
men unto Me." Crushed by the sense of our own
sinfulness, realizing that our own life is a failure,
then we can feel the truth of these well-known
words —
" Nothing in my hand I bring,
Simply to Thy cross I cling ;
Could my tears for ever flow,
Could my zeal no languor know,
All for sin could not atone,
Thou must save and Thou alone 1 "
Do we require to formulate a theory of the
atonement in terms of logical precision? As it
appears to me, this is not only needless, but also,
since the Divine relationships are beyond our
comprehension, certain to bring us, by deductive
THE ATONEMENT. 99
processes, into positions which can be made
untenable by inductive reasoning. That man's
nature is a battle-field for opposing principles, is a
fact ; that even where the better prevails, the worse
has won its partial successes, and the victor is
more or less crippled, is a matter of daily expe-
rience ; that the desire of making amends, the
principle of sacrifice, is an instinct of human life ;
that man cannot atone for himself, is rendered
almost self-evident by the fact that all ethical
advance only enables him to realize more com-
pletely his own imperfections ; that there is no
motive moral force equal to that of perfect un-
selfishness; that there is, even in human forgive-
ness, inexplicable as it may seem, an actual
alleviation of the burden of wrong-doing, and a
power of exceptional strength in impelling the
penitent towards a nobler goal, and in lifting him
up to a higher plane of life ; — these we may hold as
axioms. In the words of Scripture we may see the
expression, now of the one, now of the other, and
yet may decline to attempt to co-ordinate them
IOO LECTURE V.
into a systematic whole, which shall appear logic-
ally complete in all its parts, because experience
has shown that the narrowness of the field which
can be commanded by our powers of observation
must result in a disproportion of statement, and
our efforts at precision must end in the accurate
expression of mistaken notions. This, however, is
not a peculiarity of theology ; it is just as common
in science whenever elaborate generalizations are
founded on insufficient data, or precise definitions
are attempted of that which is imperfectly under-
stood.
This much, however, I think we may say. By
the sacrifice made in the person of man — why and
wherefore I do not venture to inquire — man's
endeavours are accepted as if they had been
perfected. We are dealt with as we are wont to
deal with others. Do we require or expect in
earth's dearest relations an absolute perfection ?
No ; we bear and forbear. We accept the imperfect
efforts, the incomplete results j we take, as we say,
the will for the deed, provided that will has been
THE ATONEMENT. 10 1
honestly manifested in action. "She hath done
what she could "—these were Christ's words to
one who sought to do Him honour ; these are now
God's words of welcome to repentant humanity.
Love and justice unite in heaven as they are
united on earth ; as they were brought into perfect
harmony in the Person of Jesus Christ, Who could
abhor the sin and yet love the sinner, Who could
condemn the guilty and yet forgive the penitent.
If the Incarnation brought down heaven to earth,
there is a sense in which the Atonement took back
earth to heaven. In the one, as in the other,
righteousness, love, and effort now form an
eternal trinity in unity. Henceforth we are
" persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor
angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things
present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth,
nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us
from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our
Lord."
LECTURE VI.
THE RESURRECTION.
"Some said, What would this babbler say? other some, He
seemeth to be a setter forth of strange gods : because He preached
Jesus and the resurrection."— Acts xvii. 18 (R.V.).
More than eighteen centuries since the cross of
Christ was an offence to the Jewish patriot, His
resurrection to the Gentile philosopher. History
repeats itself, and modern thought still recoils
from accepting a doctrine which was derided at
Athens and explained away at Corinth. To a
Jew, the possibility of a resurrection, the hope of
a resurrection, was in no way startling. To him
the idea had long been familiar when Paul began
to preach ; for it was one of the chief subjects of
debate between the two great schools of theo-
logical thought into which his nation was
THE RESURRECTION. 103
divided; but it was strange to Greek and to
Roman, for though not a few of them believed in
the immortality of the soul, they never hoped for
a restoration of the body. It seemed to them, as
it often does to us, a thing incredible " that God
should raise the dead." The evidence of our
senses, the evidence of experience, is totally
opposed to it. " Dust to dust, ashes to ashes," that
is their verdict on the body; as for its "guest
and comrade," the soul, we can neither affirm nor
deny that it may continue to exist.
At the present day, as I have said, the doctrine
of the resurrection is a stumbling-block to many.
By some it is denied, by others it is explained
away, by still more any definite expression of
opinion on the subject is nervously shunned. It
may, then, be well that I should state at the outset
two matters, of which, whether we like them or
not, we are bound, as lovers of truth, to take account.
This is one : The resurrection of Christ was
regarded by St. Paul as the cardinal fact of
Christianity. This, we may fairly say, he made
104 LECTURE VI.
prominent in his preaching before the middle of
the first century, when the event itself was as
near to him as the Franco-German War is to our-
selves at this moment. This is the other matter :
The resurrection was not a dream of St. Paul's
imagination. He refers to it as to a thing commonly
believed among Christians. No trace of any rival
story can be found. The alleged conflict between
the Pauline and Jacobean versions of the Christian
history is an hypothesis unsupported by a particle
of real evidence, and may be dismissed as one of
the cloudland creations of a class of critics who
are more conspicuous for patient and laborious
research than for their inductive treatment of its
results. Nineteen centuries since St. Paul would
have said — and the words, however we may mislike
them, are just as true now — that Christianity with-
out a risen Christ is no Christianity at all. It is
only a system of ethics, inculcated by a life,
dubiously historical, which obviously led to results
so disastrous to the individual as to be most dis-
couraging to future imitators.
THE RESURRECTION. 10$
But in regard to the historical fact of the resur-
rection of Christ — which, as St. Paul justly states,
is the only valid assurance of the future resurrec-
tion of individual Christians — I do not purpose
to say more to-day than to emphasize its impor-
tance. It has been a frequent subject of discussion
during the last few years, and there is no hope of
obtaining additional information. The alleged
facts, the difficulties on both sides, are before us,
and we must make up our minds. So I will not
attempt to add to what I have already written, 1
but will only reiterate (for this, I think, is some-
times not clearly seen) that the Gospel story is
either substantially true or a poetic legend, and
that no opportunity is given us for halting between
two opinions.
My remarks, then, on the present occasion, will
be restricted to the doctrine of the future resurrec-
tion of the body, to which the Church Catholic is
committed, not only by the so-called Nicene Creed,
1 See "The Gospel of St. Paul," in "Old Truths in Modern
Lights," p. 187.
P
06 LECTURE VI.
but also by that older and simpler symbol which
bears the name of the Apostles' Creed. But in regard
to this we must not forget that there is much more
room for diversity of opinion. About an event which
is future we can know but little. Hence we must
expect that the sense in which the words affirming
a belief in the resurrection of the body are under-
stood will vary greatly in different ages, for it will
depend upon the state of current thought. Thus
no interpretation of them, however popular it may
have been at particular epochs, can be regarded as
final and authoritative.
Obviously, in regard to the future resurrection
we cannot know more than we have been told. In
this case also we are obliged, as I have already
pointed out, 1 to take as axiomatic the possibility of
a revelation, and to assume that one has been made.
But even when this has been done, the instances of
a resurrection from the dead, which are on record
in the books regarded as authentic, do not really
tell us much, because they occurred under circum-
1 Page 13.
THE RESURRECTION. \Oj
stances very different from those which will attend
the future resurrection. We find St. Paul's own
belief stated with great fulness in the well-known
section of his First Epistle to the Corinthians. 1 In
this he combats doubts — probably the earliest
doubts — which had been expressed upon the subject
among Christians. His words are not less remark-
able for their logical force than for their poetic
beauty. The difficulties felt more than eighteen
centuries since in Corinth were the same that are
felt in London now. They may be gathered under
two heads ; the one, to which I have already re-
ferred, " Did Christ really rise from the dead ? "
and the other, which I purpose to consider at
greater length, " How can this body be restored,
after it has been resolved into its constituent
elements, after it has been mingled with the dust,
dispersed by the winds and waves, incorporated
into we know not how many other bodies ? " This
question St. Paul answers by his famous analogy of
the seed and the plant. Let us examine it a little
1 1 Cor. xv. 12-58.
108 LECTURE VI.
more closely, remembering that the author makes
use of it as an analogy only, so that we are not en-
titled to insist upon a rigid interpretation of every
detail. It is needless for me to quote the words —
a poem in prose — in which St. Paul answers the
question, " How are the dead raised, and with what
manner of body do they come ? " I may assume
them to be known to all ; to most of us they have
spoken comfort and hope in our hours of deepest
sorrow. St. Paul, then, by his use of the analogy
of the seed and the plant which springs from it, to
represent the present body and the resurrection-
body, indicates something very different from the
ideas which have often been entertained by in-
dividual Christians, and to which the Church is
supposed to be so completely committed, that if
the latter be held up to scorn and ridicule, this is
deemed sufficient hopelessly to discredit the former.
What, then, are the facts, so far as known at the
present day, in regard to the development of a seed
— such as a grain of wheat — into the plant ? Stated
concisely, they are these. The actual germ of the
THE RESURRECTION. IO9
future plant, very shortly after the fertilization of
the rudimentary seed, consists of an extremely
minute cell. This develops and increases by sub-
division during the process of ripening, but the
aggregate to the last is small in size compared
with the whole body of the seed, and is very rudi-
mentary in structure compared with the future
plant. In the next stage of its development — say,
when it is buried in the ground — the larger part of
the seed, that which envelops the embryo and is
the more conspicuous, disappears. As a matter of
fact, it is partly utilized in the sustenance of the
embryo, but to the ordinary observer it appears to
decompose, and be lost to sight like any other
residual organic structure. Then the new plant
protrudes from the ground, and in due course comes
to maturity. So, if we interpret St. Paul's analogy
strictly, we arrive at this result — that a consider-
able part of the original body (the seed) dis-
appears ; that almost the whole of the new body
(the plant), which has grown therefrom, consists of
totally new material, obtained and incorporated
y' OF THE
JNIYEESIT
110 LECTURE VI.
from the earth, the water, and the air; that an
actual continuity between the two is maintained by
means of an organism which is very small in com-
parison with the seed, and is extremely minute in
comparison with the plant which has sprung from
it. This, then, the existence of a small link or con-
tinuous element, is the very utmost which we are
entitled to affirm in regard to the present body and
the "resurrection-body" of any individual, so that
gibes as to the difficulty of recovering the con-
stituents of the former merely exhibit the ignor-
ance of the mocker. 1 St. Paul does not assert, and
those who accept his guidance do not assert, that
any such recovery is needful to constitute a
personal identity of the individual in the present
state of existence and in that which is to come.
In this life the constituents of our bodies are
constantly changing; new material is being in-
corporated into them, old material is being
1 The author referred to a lecture on " The Corruptions of the
Church," delivered not long before by the Kev. Dr. Momerie, in
which, according to the newspaper reports, this line of argument
was adopted.
THE RESURRECTION. Ill
excreted from them. Between infancy and old
age possibly an entire, certainly a very large,
change takes place in the molecules of which an
individual body is composed, yet does this affect
the consciousness of personal identity ? That is
the one fact of which each of us is more certain
than of anything else. It is, then, not necessary
that we should assert, and the Scriptures do not
assert, that the resurrection-body will be formed
of identically the same constituent molecules as
the present body; nay, St. Paul's words, when
fairly interpreted, are really opposed to any such
idea. He illustrates the relation of the two
bodies by that of the seed and the future plant,
which, as we have seen, have only a very slight
material connection, and differ altogether in
appearance and capacity, the latter being able to
discharge many functions which are impossible to
the former. Moreover, after calling attention
to the diversity in nature, both animate and
inanimate, St. Paul continues, " So also is the
resurrection of the dead. It is sown in corruption ;
112 LECTURE VI.
it is raised in incorruption : it is sown in dis-
honour ; it is raised in glory : it is sown in weak-
ness; it is raised in power: it is sown a natural
body ; it is raised a spiritual body." In the verses
which follow he still further elaborates this con-
trast, and concludes by the emphatic assertion that
"flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of
God;" so that a vast change must take place.
"This corruptible must put on incorruption, and
this mortal must put on immortality." Can any-
thing be plainer than this ? The utmost that St.
Paul's words, interpreted in their strictest sense,
can be made to imply, is the existence of some
very slight material connection between the one
body and the other — though, perhaps, even this
might be considered to be indirectly dispensed
with by the emphatic assertion of the necessity of
so great a change. The thing upon which St. Paul
insists as essential is a continuity of personal
consciousness.
But how is this continuity to be secured ? Shall
we adopt the notion which was favoured by many
THE RESURRECTION. 113
Jewish teachers about the time when St. Paul
wrote, that there was a very small portion of the
body — part of one of the vertebrae — which no force
or agency could destroy, which remained intact
and imperishable, the seed, so to say, which would
one day germinate into the resurrection -body ? x I
fear this quaint fancy could be readily proved to
be a fallacy, but we may find that it expresses a
truth, though it be in an allegorical form.
As we have already said, the essential link
between the two, or any number of, states of
embodied existence is a continuity of conscious-
ness. It is the knowledge that " I am I " which
constitutes personal identity. How, then, is the
continuity to be maintained after the death of the
body ? Is personal consciousness, as it were, for a
time blotted out by death ? Will the soul wake
up on the resurrection morn, as one wakes some-
timesfrom sleep, or revives from a swoon, without
any sense of the length of time during which, so
1 The Luz. See the Author, "Sermons on some Questions of
the Day," pp. 107, 154; Edersheim, "Life and Times of Jesus,"
bk. v. ch. iv.
114 LECTURE VI.
far as we know, consciousness has been suspended ?
Or does consciousness continue without any
break ? This is a point on which very little has
been revealed and nothing can be discovered ; but
such inferences as can be drawn from the Scrip-
tures seem to justify us in giving an answer in
the affirmative to the latter question. If this be
so, consciousness obviously cannot be separated
from life. But can we conceive of life, or at any
rate of an individual life, as existent apart from a
physical basis ? I do not deny that such a thing
may be, any more than I should deny that the
waves of light are thrilling through the " black
concave" from myriad suns even on the darkest
night; but it can only exist in my consciousness,
like the light, when it sets in vibration the atoms
of the material. Nay, I admit that there is a Life,
the great source and fountain of all personal life,
an Energy which is the origin of all forces and
a Power which is manifested in all matter ; but the
existence of this is to me an act of faith or a
conclusion of transcendental reasoning. If I confine
THE RESURRECTION. 115
myself to the sphere with which my reason can
deal, I can conceive of individual personal life
only in connection with a physical basis, with
matter of some kind.
Now, what is the first essential of a personal
consciousness ? It is the recognition that a difference
exists between that which is of me and that which
is not of me — between the " I" and the "not I."
But by this a consciousness of boundary and limit
is implied. What more do we require to constitute
a corporeality ? We indeed attach ideas of cohesion
and solidity, more or less, to the word "body," but I
fail to see that these are necessary. A conscious-
ness of possession, a consciousness of boundary,
seem to me all that is really requisite. We admit
that in the present body the cohesion of its con-
stituents is only a temporary one; if so, the
magnitude of the time unit is surely a question of
secondary importance. The life of an ephemeral
insect may be as complete in its sensations as that
of a creature which endures for a century. The
question also, as it seems to me, is not affected by
Il6 LECTURE VI.
the physical condition of the body. Sensation
with us is associated with certain stages of imper-
fect solidity in the material of the organism. But
since the vibrations of light can pass alike through
a f-he3t of glass and through the atmosphere, they
might be regarded as affecting the one or the other
in a very similar way, supposing for a moment we
conceived a portion of each isolated from the rest
and endowed like ourselves with sensation and
reason — if we imagined a bit of the glass or a
portion of the atmosphere capable of seeing; in
such a case no serious difference would arise from the
solid condition of the one or the gaseous condition
of the other. Thus I find no insuperable difficulty
in conceiving sensation to exist in an aggregate of
matter whatever be its physical state. If, then, on
any grounds, I believe in what is commonly called
the immortality of the soul, and if, on scientific
grounds, I am unable to conceive of the existence of
life apart from a physical basis, I must suppose that
after the destruction of the present body a body of
some kind survives, invisible though it may be to
the resurrection: ny
mortal eye, which, like the germ in the seed, consti-
tutes a link between that which hath been and that
which shall be.
Is it not a suggestive fact that, in all matter of
which we know, the physical condition is a question
not so much of its nature as of its environment ?
Gold is gold, whether it be solid, molten, or vola-
tilized; carbonic acid is carbonic acid, whether it
be gas, liquid, or frozen. Granted, then, that some
part of this bodily frame be perishable, there is no
a priori reason why another part may not depend,
for its physical condition, upon its environment,
and a great alteration in the one be the result of a
great alteration in the other.
Thus neither are the Scriptures nor is the
Church committed to the belief that the identical
constituent matter of the present body will be
resumed at the last great change. Of the details
of that wondrous process we know nothing. The
references made to it are obviously to be under-
stood figuratively, not literally. We are not bound
either by the dreams and ideals of poets, painters,
1 1 8 LECTURE VI.
and sculptors, or by the visions and fancies of holy
men and women. The whole question, apart from
a few simple statements, is an open one ; concern-
ing it we can only speculate, and the outcome of
this must change in the process of time.
It might, however, be said that by the line of
argument which we have been following we have
not got further than a belief which has been very
generally entertained, namely, that after the dis-
integration of the body a personality survives with
which a material element may be associated; for
in olden times it was commonly believed that the
shades of the dead could be seen, though they could
not be handled. The Christian doctrine affirms
that a further change awaits this personality — the
acquisition of a new organization — which may be
termed a resurrection; though, as I have shown,
an identity of its molecular constituents is not
necessary, provided only there be an identity of
personal consciousness.
But, as I have already pointed out, the physical
condition of all substances is a question of environ-
THE RESURRECTION. 119
ment ; hence change in the latter may produce
change in'the former, or that which in one set of cir-
cumstances we should call disembodied, in another —
speaking from the same standpoint— might become
embodied. We are justified in being sceptical
whenever we are asked to believe what is contrary
to experience, but it is not safe to assume that our
experience in this brief space of earthly life has
exhausted the possibilities of the universe. Indeed,
if experience alone were my guide, I should not
believe in a future life at all ; but if I am willing
to admit that this is more than possible, I cannot,
after going thus far beyond the limit which my
experience prescribes, draw an arbitrary line, and
refuse to make either room or allowance for the
effects of a changed environment.
It is, however, possible that in this argument we
may appear to be playing with the word " resurrec-
tion." You may say that a physical change in
existing material would not suffice to satisfy the
words of revelation, which demand the incorporation
of new material. But why not? What would
120 LECTURE VI.
there be so startling in the assertion ? In what is
the body of every living creature at this moment
occupied ? In converting that which is not alive
into that which is alive. My body, your body,
takes in a quickening grasp the protoplasm which
has lived, even the mineral salts which have not
lived ; it incorporates them into its structure. The
process, indeed, is slow ; it is balanced by one of
disintegration and decay. But it is a fact, upon
which depends our existence in this world as living
sentient beings. By this process our present bodies
have been built up ; it was begun by a tiny germ.
All the thought, all the ingenuity of man — the
eloquence of a Demosthenes, the poetry of a
Browning, the reason of a Newton — were once
potentially present in a few cells of the simplest
structure. This you admit; this, because it is of
common occurrence, seems no miracle. Why, then,
call us credulous when we believe that from the
germinal self, after the destruction of the present
body, an organism may arise far more perfect than
this, and are not startled by the assertion that a
THE RESURRECTION. 121
process, similar to one which now occupies years,
may be accomplished "in a moment, in the twink-
ling of an eye," when the old order passeth away
and God makes all things new. In olden time,
when the butterfly spread its new-born wings to
the summer sun, men beheld in it, as in a figure,
the completed history of the individual life. True,
the analogy is an imperfect one ; but it may well
bid us pause before we insist that in the present
we have attained to the utmost limits of our being,
and deny the possibility of future change and
development.
The body which shall be must differ greatly
from the present one. In the eternal order there
will be neither waste to repair nor destruction to
arrest. The great enemy will not need to be com-
bated by nutrition nor eluded by reproduction: thus
most — in a sense, all — the present organization would
be useless and superfluous, and so is not likely to
reappear. But on this point it is idle to speculate.
What we shall be, we know not. It is enough to
be assured that in the better land there will be no
122 LECTURE VI.
more weariness, but the delight of work which is
not labour ; no more pain, but the joy of perfect
life; no more sorrow, but the bliss of unbroken
peace and eternal love.
The resurrection of the body is no part of the
order of nature, as we know it. Obviously it
cannot be, but I have endeavoured to show that,
so far from being wholly discordant from this
order, we can recognize in it certain analogies
even when St. Paul's words are interpreted with
some strictness. Certainly it is a belief which we
should not abandon with a light heart. Men some-
times talk as if the nature of our expectation was
unimportant — whether it were of a disembodied
existence (to use the ordinary phrase), or of a
change which would develop the embryo, if I may
so call it, into an organization far more perfect
than this present one. It is not unimportant, and
the general verdict of the human instinct supports
my assertion. A belief in a continued personal
existence is far older than Christianity. Bat when
it signified merely the continuance of a shadowy
THE RESURRECTION. 1 23
" something " — which was the general expectation
— did it satisfy ? The wisest of philosophers could
only say, "I go to die and you to live, but
whether is better God alone knoweth ; " * while the
pages of Homer and Virgil 2 tell you what a poor
substitute even the joys of the Elysian fields
seemed for the solid realities of a life on earth.
But even these joys are only dreams. Put them
aside. Put aside also the Christian hope of a
future resurrection, and what yet remains ? A
choice between two opinions. Either the spirit
may return to the God Who gave it, in the sense
that the tiny portion of Divine energy, localized for
a time in an aggregate of material particles, once
more returns to the Great Source — the drop falls
back into the fountain, the river is emptied into the
ocean — and though the soul cannot be said to die,
all personal consciousness, all individuality, is lost ;
or else there is nothingness ; the latter, speaking
from the standpoint of science, is the more pro-
bable, is the only reasonable alternative if we
1 Socrates. 2 ".Odjttey," bk. xi.; "JEnei<i, N bk. vi. ,
124 LECTURE VI.
reject the voice of revelation. This, then, is the end :
" To lie in cold obstruction, and to rot ; " to vanish
like the baseless fabric of a vision, and "leave not
a rack behind." If this life be all, we of all God's
creatures are dealt with most hardly. We have
wearied ourselves in vain, we have worn ourselves
out in the pursuit of unattainable ideals. " Let us
alone ! " we may well exclaim with the Lotos-
eaters —
" Let us alone. What pleasure can we have
To war with evil ? Is there any peace
In ever climbing up the climbing wave ?
All things have rest, and ripen toward the grave
In silence ; ripen, fall, and cease :
Give us long rest or death, dark death, or dreamful ease."
This is one alternative. Hear now the other :
" Jesus said, . . . Thy brother shall rise again. . . .
I am the Resurrection, and the Life : he that
believeth on Me, though he die, yet shall he live :
and whosoever liveth and believeth on Me shall
never die." In which creed shall we trust, in
which hope shall we labour, in which expectation
shall we die ?
LECTURE VII.
THE SACRAMENTS.
" Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot
enter into the kingdom of God." — St. John iii. 5.
" Whoso eateth My flesh and drinketh My blood hath eternal
life ; and I will raise him up at the last day." — St. John vi. 54.
Few indeed are the societies what are not dis-
tinguished by a ceremony of initiation and a
symbol of membership ; the one is essential as a
preliminary to the other. In each there must be
some outward form, in each there is some hidden
meaning. The form may be of the simplest, such as
the signature of a name, or the participation in a
common meal ; but the one indicates submission to
rule, however slight it may be; the other is a
privilege enjoyed only by members.
Sacraments occupy this position in the Church
126 LECTURE VII.
of Christ. The name is older than Christianity.
The Latin word sacramentum denoted primarily
a deposit — a sum paid into court, as we should
now say, at an early stage, by the disputants in a
lawsuit. This deposit, in the case of the loser,
was forfeited and applied to certain sacred uses.
The word also signified the military oath which
was taken by a recruit after enlistment. As the
earliest Christian' terminology had a Greek origin,
sacramentum was not used in an ecclesiastical
sense till after Apostolic times, when it was
taken as the equivalent of /uvarripiov (mystery) in
the other language. Employed at first, like this
word, in a wide sense, it was gradually restricted,
till at last, in most of the Reformed Churches, it has
been applied to two rites only — that of initiation,
and that which is the privilege of full membership.
The restriction is a question of definition. All,
however, will agree that Baptism and the Supper
of the Lord claim the highest place among sacra-
ments, and most would admit that they alone
fulfil the definition of a sacrament which is
THE SACRAMENTS. \2J
adopted by our own Church, namely, that it is "an
outward and visible sign of an inward and spiritual
grace given unto us, ordained by Christ Himself,
as a means whereby we receive the same, and a
pledge to assure us thereof." To these two, there-
fore, I shall limit myself on the present occasion.
Unhappily the prediction, " I came not to bring
peace upon earth, but a sword," has proved no less
true in regard to the sacraments than in other
respects. The significance of these rites, apparently
so simple, has been a battle-ground of opposing
parties. The water of Baptism has kindled rather
than quenched the fire of discord; the most ex-
pressive symbol of Christian union has become the
most conspicuous sign of Christian dissociation.
Why this has happened, it is not difficult to
understand. Every religious system, every attempt
to bridge the gulf between the finite and the
infinite, exhibits, more or less, a conflict between
two antagonistic ideas. These are the magical,
which in practice, if not in theory, makes the
shaman, or wizard-priest, the master of the Divinity ;
128 LECTURE VII.
the spiritual, which makes him the servant or
interpreter. In the process of revelation, whether
indirect or direct, the one idea is replaced by the
other; the centre of force is, as it were, shifted
from the thing created to its Creator.
The history of Christianity, like that of Judaism,
is the history of a struggle between these irrecon-
cilable tendencies. The spiritual, on the whole, has
prevailed over the magical, but the tight is waged
with varying fortunes. Positions are taken and
retaken ; the advance is slow, and it may be that
the victory will not be won before the day of
earth's feons be ended.
In discussions relating to sacramental doctrines,
scientific methods or scientific habits of thought
might seem at first sight to be out of place. They
might be deemed excluded by the phrase "a
spiritual grace," which forms an integral part of
our definition. But, as I venture to think, both in
these questions and in those which we have yet
to consider, they can play a more important part
than many would be willing to acknowledge. This
THE SACRAMENTS. 1 2Q
I affirm for the following reasons : First, that in
all scientific investigations clearness of thought
and accuracy of expression, as far as possible, are
deemed to be of the highest importance. But in
many theological controversies, and especially
those relating to the sacraments, which at the
present time are distracting our own Church, an
onlooker cannot fail to be struck with the difficulty
of ascertaining what the persons who claim to be the
supporters of high sacramental views really mean
by what they say or what they do. The doctrine
of Rome we know, whether we like it or not;
the doctrine of the Church of England, though
conveyed by expressions which sometimes admit
of more than one interpretation, is, at any rate,
very different from that of Rome; but in the
present disputes it seems hopeless to ascertain
whether the real question at issue is one of
aesthetics and archaeology, or of doctrines which
are much nearer to those of the Roman than to
those of the English Communion.
This is another reason. Experiment, which is
130 LECTURE VII.
a process strictly scientific, has its place in ethical
theology. " By their fruits ye shall know them "
is not less true of theories than of men. Time
puts them to a test, and history records the results,
of which man is bound to make an inductive use.
If a certain dogma has been always the parent of
superstition, if particular kinds of authority have
been always abused, it is in the highest degree
improbable that the one can be true or the other
legitimate.
Questions like these must be investigated in a
spirit strictly scientific, without passion, fear, or
favour, with no other aim than to arrive at truth,
whether it accord or not with preconceived
opinions. This, however, if we may judge from
experience, is not usually the spirit in which
theological investigations are undertaken.
There is yet another reason. In all questions
our last appeal is to the words of Scripture. But
it is often necessary, in order to understand these,
to enter fully into the thoughts of the age when
the revelation was made ; otherwise we may be
THE SACRAMENTS. 131
startled by phrases which, nineteen or more
centuries since, would have seemed quite natural ;
we may construe literally words which then, as
a matter of course, would have been understood
figuratively. Thus Christian theology cannot be
dissociated from the history of heathen thought
and even of heathen superstitions, and the light
of truth becomes more clear by the very contrast
with the shades of error.
In this spirit, then, I shall venture to make a
few remarks on the views which have been held
as to the two great sacraments. The question
which lies really at the root of all controversies
may be stated bluntly — perhaps, to the minds of
some, even offensively — in these words : Are they
in any way magic rites ? This is what is really
meant by theologians when they ask, Are the
sacraments means of grace ex opere operato, from
the mere fact of their administration ? In seeking
to answer this question we must look not only at
the history of their institution, but also at various
general considerations, such as the state of thought
132 LECTURE VI L
at that time. It cannot be settled by the quota-
tion either of isolated texts from Scripture, or of
extracts from ecclesiastical authors. It is neces-
sary to be sure that we understand the former
right, and can trust the latter. The opinion of
a good man who lived — say a thousand years ago
— is not on that account of any more value than
that of a similar man who is now living, unless we
can show that he had better means of arriving at
the truth. Authority has its place both in theology
and in science, but it must not be allowed to pre-
clude investigation in the former any more than
in the latter.
Time does not permit of my attempting to trace
out the effects of the Greek Mysteries in develop-
ing the outward ceremonial and the inner meaning
of the Christian sacraments, but, as I stated in an
earlier discourse, 1 the influence, for good as well
as for evil, of Greek philosophy upon Christian
theology — a subject which has been investigated
with so much learning bv the late Dr. Hatch in
Lecture I.
THE SACRAMENTS. 13 3
his " Hibbert Lectures " * — must never be for-
gotten.
First, then, in regard to the sacrament of
Baptism. Is it anything more than an initiatory
ceremony ? The view of the Church of England is
expressed in a conspicuously cautious and guarded
statement in the twenty-seventh Article, from
which I imagine few would be found to differ.
But the Jews were not singular in augmenting the
law by tradition. Many Churchmen also desire a
Mishnah as a hedge about the Torah, so that
baptismal regeneration has been a frequent subject
of heated controversy. On the last occasion, which
some of us can remember, the Church of England
was in danger of being rent asunder, though, as
was subsequently remarked, neither of the dispu-
tants had defined what he meant by the term. 2
" Baptism," it has been well said, 3 " is the oldest
1 I do not mean to express agreement with every conclusion at
which the author arrives.
2 Remark by Bishop Thirl wall, quoted by Dean Stanley in
" Christian Institutions," p. 10.
3 Idem, p. 6.
134 LECTURE VII.
ceremonial ordinance that Christianity possesses ;
it is the only one which is inherited from Judaism."
Immersion of the body in water — and in olden
times this, not aspersion, was the mode of baptism
— is naturally symbolical and suggestive of
purification. This rite, so simple yet so significant,
was appointed by the Saviour as the mode of
initiation into the ranks of His followers. The
plunge beneath the water was the symbol of a
passage from a state of sin to a state of holiness,
of a new birth by the action of the Holy Spirit.
But though Jesus said, " Except a man be born of
water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the
kingdom of God," the words do not necessarily
affirm that the rite, of itself, has any efficacy. He
had just told Nicodemus that a new birth is
needful for entrance into the kingdom of God.
The phrase, apparently, was understood by the
hearer in a literal sense; it was intended, so the
Lord explains, to indicate a spiritual change. Now
that baptism in infancy has become the general
practice, we are apt to forget that in early times
THE SACRAMENTS. 135
the sacrament was usually received by those who
were fully conscious of its significance and of their
own responsibilities. It completed and rewarded
a period, often long, of probation and preparation.
In such case, to say that the rite was a means of
special grace was not to attribute to it any magical
power ; it was to say no more than that for special
ends special means are ordained. Christ has
founded a Church ; He has appointed a particular
mode of joining it, has promised a special grace to
its members. It were, then, the height of pre-
sumption in man, when his Master's charge is clear
and definite, to say, " No, I will demand a grace on
my own terms." Every society has its rules, and
the advantages which it affords are conditional on
compliance with these. But can the ceremony of
itself work a change in the nature ? We need not
hesitate to answer in the negative. On the one
side, to speak figuratively, is the faith of man ; on
the other, the Spirit of God. The rite does but
complete their union, and set, as it were, the seal
to an agreement which has been for some time in
I36 LECTURE VII
preparation. But. it may be asked, if this be so,
is not the baptism of infants indefensible ? We
may reply that the sacrament is administered to
them because it appears to have been the practice
from the first to regard the household as repre-
sented by its adult members, and to receive the
children together with the parents. Thus it seems
natural to admit the children of Christian fathers
and mothers into the Church of their parents at
as early an age as possible. We may go even
further, and say that the admission of the infant, in
consequence of the desire and faith of others, bears
witness to the solidarity of the Christian body;
for in it, though the wants and responsibilities
of the individual are never overlooked, it is always
specially impressed upon him that he is one of a
vast brotherhood, of the Church militant and the
Church triumphant, the mystical body of Christ.
I could not, however, affirm that the word
" regeneration " is to be understood in the same
sense in the case of an adult and in that of an
infant. What in the latter is in the germ, in the
THE SACRAMENTS. 1 37
former is in the flower. The baptized infant has
been made a member of the Church of Christ.
Man has so far done what is his part. How the
germ of life may develop, how the Holy Spirit
may work, we will not curiously inquire. What
might happen, did the infant die unbaptized, is
not for us to determine. This only I will con-
fidently affirm, that no fancied logical necessity, no
possible interpretation of any obscure passage in
Scripture, shall ever shake my trust in the justice
and in the love of God.
In regard to the Eucharist opinions are yet
more varied. It is impossible in a few minutes
to discuss a controversy which for centuries has
exercised the thoughts of earnest seekers after God.
I shall, therefore, content myself with trying to put
before you one or two ideas which have been
brought, as it appears to me, into stronger relief
by the investigations of our own time.
First, then, as regards the view maintained by
the Church of Rome, commonly called Transub-
stantiation. I pass over the grosser forms of the
T
138 LECTURE VII.
doctrine, which would be repudiated by the more
thoughtful members of that Church — though the
fact that they exist, and have been dealt with
tenderly rather than sternly by its authorities,
indicates that the dogma has a dangerous side —
and content myself with noticing what I believe to
be a fair statement of Roman Catholic opinion. It
is that in the Eucharist the accidents of the bread
and wine remain unchanged, but the substance of
them is changed into the substance of the risen
body of Christ. This definition, however, postu-
lates that in an inanimate object — for brevity, let
us say bread — there is, apart from its accidents,
namely, taste, smell, consistency, form, chemical
composition, and- the like, a something — the sub-
stance or hypostasis — namely, that which makes it
what it is. But is this more than a metaphysical
figment ? Is there any such thing as a pre-
existent concept of bread ? We apply the term
to a certain aggregate of accidents ; we extend or
contract it, according to circumstances. Let us
take an illustration. The pillars in a building
THE SACRAMENTS. 1 39
within a furlong of this place are granite. 1 But
what is granite ? Simply a term which connotes a
certain group of minerals, with certain mutual
relations. The one and the other admit of modi-
fication within limits, but these limits are settled
by the necessities of thought at each particular
epoch, and we all know that cases exist where
it is doubtful whether the rock ought to bear this
name. The hypostasis of granite has a relative, not
a real existence. It is only the epitomized expres-
sion of a group of accidents. Suppose a distinction
made among these, and a name affixed to the part
separated, a new hypostasis has not been called
into existence, but only a new connotation invented.
Thus the doctrine of transubstantiation appears
to me to be founded upon a fallacy — that of giving
personality to a thought, concreteness to an abstract
symbol.
Next I may observe — and this applies not to
the Church of Rome only — that to assert the actual
presence of the risen body of the Saviour in the
1 Referring to the Carlton Club in Pall Mall.
140 LECTURE VII.
eucharistic elements (using words in their ordinary
sense) seems like a contradiction in terms. The
word " body " in our connotation appears to imply
this limitation — that it cannot be in two places
at once. Yet either this is asserted by certain
doctrines of the Eucharist, or a something is meant
to which the word body cannot be applied. The
difficulty is not eluded by asserting that we are
speaking of a spiritual body. An adjective cannot
deprive a substantive of its inherent qualities. To
be accurate, we should say that the Spirit of Christ
is present in the eucharistic elements, not His
spiritual body.
But, obviously, the doctrine of the Eucharist
must be sought in the words of Scripture. Here,
then, we have to ask first what the words actually
were, and secondly, what light is thrown upon
their meaning by contemporary thought, so far as
we can ascertain it. The opinions of later writers
have an historical value and a psychological interest,
but they have no binding force. The opinion on
such a matter of the men, say, of the ninth century
THE SACRAMENTS. I4 1
is of no more value than that of the men of the
eighteenth century. For questions of fact (and in
these direct statements are included) we must go
back to contemporary evidence ; for questions of
interpretation it is the business of each age to
co-ordinate those of all its predecessors.
The words of institution, used by our Lord
Himself, are reported in the Synoptic Gospels and
by St. Paul. Briefly and in effect they are
these : Of the bread the Lord said, * Take, eat ;
this is My body." Of the wine, according to St.
Matthew and St. Mark, " This is My blood of the
covenant, which is shed ; " or, according to St. Luke
and St. Paul, "This is the new covenant in My
blood." On indirect references to the subject in
other parts of the Apostolic writings we need not
dwell, because obviously their meaning will depend
on that of the above statements.
Here one may remark that the difference in the
rendering of the second clause is adverse to a very
literal interpretation of either. Suppose a number
of expressions are used of the same thing, of which
142 LECTURE VII.
most may be either literal or figurative, but one
must be figurative ; then the latter, of necessity,
carries with it all the rest. Again, we may observe
that when these words were used the Saviour had
not risen from the dead, had not even died upon
the cross, so that His body was then as the body
of other men. This fact also seems adverse to a
literal interpretation of the phrases.
But there is one passage which greatly helps
towards an understanding of these mysterious
words. In the sixth chapter of St. John's Gospel
a discourse is recorded in which the Lord reveals
Himself as the " Bread of heaven," and concludes
by stating, " Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of
man, and drink His blood, ye have not life in
yourselves. He that eateth My flesh, and drinketh
My blood, hath eternal life." There is more to
the same effect, which it is needless for me to
quote; but you will remember that the phrases
were at once misunderstood, and that in regard to
them the Lord said to His disciples, <( It is the
spirit that quickeneth ; the flesh profiteth nothing :
THE SACRAMENTS. I43
the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit,
and they are life."
It has been debated, I know, whether these
words have any reference to the Eucharist.
Obviously they have a wider import, but I cannot
doubt that they include it.
To understand their meaning we must enter as
fully as possible into the thoughts of the past, and
in this we have been greatly aided by the compara-
tive researches into ancient religions which have
been pursued with so much success during the last
quarter of a century. These are dreaded by some ;
to me they seem very helpful towards the right
understanding of revelation ; for, so far as we can
discover, it is God's pleasure to lead mankind from
darkness to light by using the materials which
are ready to hand, to employ in the process of
education current ideas and familiar thoughts,
purging them from error, correcting their imper-
fections, making prominent the good — working, in
a word, from the lowland towards the height, from
the natural towards the spiritual.
144 LECTURE VII.
What, then, appears to have been in olden time
the essential idea in all sacrificial rites which
involved the death of a victim ? Not so much
propitiation, though that was a very ancient
notion ; not so much expiation, though that some-
times was very prominent ; but a communion of
the worshipper and the God through the blood.
(t The blood is the life " is an idea older than
Judaism. That to drink the blood and to eat the
flesh was to share in the life, is a world-wide idea.
It was the inner meaning of every sacrificial feast.
By it the bond of union between the God and the
worshipper was strengthened, for they became
united, as we say, by a tie of blood. 1 Time does
not permit me to enter into any detail on this
interesting question — the history of the sacrificial
idea; I must content myself with stating the
general result. This, then, enables us to perceive
the underlying principle both in Judaic ritual and
in natural religions, of which the Lord, we may
1 See especially Robertson Smith, " Religion of the Semites,"
lects. vi., viii., ix., xi.
THE SACRAMENTS. 145
venture to say, sought to avail Himself. It was
as though He said, * You must indeed be partakers
of a higher life, that which I bring unto you. The
ritual of the past has been to some extent mis-
leading, because it is liable to be understood too
literally. My sacrifice fulfils all that sacrifices
hitherto have really typified. Take yet simpler
emblems — things without life instead of living
creatures; let them become the embodiments of
spiritual truths, the channel of spiritual realities."
Once more, as in all progressive revelations, there
was a consecration of the simplest means to the
highest ends.
Are these symbols only ? In one sense they are
nothing more ; yet in another they are the means
whereby an energy, which is behind and beneath
the forces and the forms of the earth, is communi-
cated to one of its creatures ; quickening that with
celestial fire, as the dull carbon glows at the
passage of the electric current; but they become
what they are by the faith of the recipient and
the operation of the Spirit of God. So it is in
u
146 LECTURE V2I.
prayer; it is not the place or the form of words
which avails, but the cry of the soul. So it is in
all that quickens the spiritual life. Rites and
ordinances have their value — man, being as he is,
cannot dispense with them ; but he must remember
that they are only steps in the ladder by which
his soul ascends from earth to heaven, so that the
top will not be reached more quickly by lingering
to gaze at them.
Thus, in every sacramental ordinance, the ritual
is unimportant, except so far as it is favourable to a
reverential expression of prayer and thanksgiving.
It may — to some extent it must — vary with the
thoughts and the habits of the age, so that a
ceremony is not good simply because it is ancient,
and any one that favours the idea of incantation
is rightly disapproved as misleading and dangerous.
Nothing of this kind is sanctioned by the Church of
England in its authorized formulae. In the twenty-
eighth Article a number of scriptural phrases are
summed up by the statement that "the body
of Christ is taken and eaten in the Supper only
THE SACRAMENTS. 147
after a heavenly and spiritual manner, and that
the means whereby it is received is faith." The
words " heavenly and spiritual " remove the com-
munion altogether from the order of things
sensible. A presence of Christ, a communication
of Christ, there is, in and by the eucharistic
elements ; but where is there not a presence, where
is there not a communion, where the heart is
expectant of Him, where the soul longs after Him ?
Not alone in the pillared aisle and beneath the
vaulted roof of buildings made with hands; not
alone amid the melody of music and the voices of
ministering choristers ; not alone when the smoke
of incense rises and the priests bend low before
the altar; but there also, in the stillness of the
forest shades ; there also, where the breeze blows
soft over the meadow-flowers ; there also, where
the clouds drift lightly among the silent peaks.
Nay, but not only there ; even in the busy haunts
of men ; even in the hurry of the daily work ;
even amid the roar of the crowded street. Christ
is there, whenever and wherever the soul longs
148 LECTURE VII
after Him. Communion with Him we need, if we
would escape from the doom of all earthly things.
If the soul is to live, it must be by the life which
Jesus gives ; if the body is to rise again, it must be
by the power of His resurrection. This is a great
mystery — that Pantheism which is really Chris-
tian ; but grander far than all the circumstance of
magic rites is the tremulous expectancy of the
soul, as it awaits in silent awe the incoming of
the Spirit of God, the wondrous operation of
mighty spiritual forces. These thrill through
nature and through man, till at last that which is
corruptible doth put on incorruption, and that
which is mortal doth put on immortality.
LECTURE VIII.
THE CHURCH.
" If he refuse to hear the Church also, let him be unto thee as
the Gentile and the publican. Verily I say unto you, What
things soever ye shall bind on earth shall be bound in heaven :
and what things soever ye shall loose on earth shall be loosed in
heaven."— St. Matt, xviii. 17, 18 (R.V.).
In the present day we hear very much about the
Church and Church authority — much more, indeed,
than did our grandfathers. Perhaps they heard too
little ; perhaps we hear too much. Whether this
be so we will not at present seek to determine,
but we will try to ascertain as far as possible the
meaning of the terms. A process this which is
always important, for to many minds a sonorous
word or an impressive phrase presents great
attraction, and becomes a convenient cloak for
haziness of thought. A liability to this hypnotic
150 LECTURE VIII.
influence is so marked a weakness in the present
age, that it would not surprise me if phrase-
worship were reckoned by future historians as one
of our national idolatries at the close of the nine-
teenth century. Science does not wholly escape
it; politics are saturated with it; Christian societies
are all more or less infected by it. Among certain
of the last we hear, in sermons, speeches, news-
papers, books, so much of the Church and Church
authority, that we are bound to endeavour to
ascertain the meaning. An effort to arrive at it
inductively from the above-named sources soon
lands us in perplexity. Sometimes it means a
decision of a small local council in bygone ages,
not seldom that of a little coterie at the present
day ; sometimes it means the opinion of an ancient
author, more conspicuous for zeal than for learning ;
not seldom that of the editor of a partisan journal,
who has no more right to represent even the Church
of England than have I to speak for her Majesty's
ministers.
It will, then, be my endeavour, in this concluding
THE CHURCH. 151
lecture, to answer — though it must be in the barest
outline — from the authorized formulae of the Church
of England, these two questions : (1) What the
Church is. (2) What authority the Church claims.
The word " Church," perhaps I should explain,
signifies the Lord's house, and it is used when it
designates a body of Christians, and not an actual
building, as the equivalent of the Greek word
Ecclesia. This signifies an assembly selected or
summoned for a special, generally a legislative,
purpose. In this sense the word is much older
than Christianity, and was in common use at
Athens. My remarks also, it may be well to add,
refer to the Church on earth, or to the Church
militant, as it is frequently called, and must often,
for obvious reasons, be restricted to that branch
of it to which we belong.
In the nineteenth Article we shall find an answer
to the question, " What is the Church ? " This may
be regarded as the deliberate opinion of the Church
of England, for which alone she is responsible as
a body corporate. It runs thus: "The visible
152 LECTURE VIII.
Church of Christ is a congregation of faithful men,
in the which the pure Word of God is preached,
and the sacraments be duly ministered according
to Christ's ordinance in all those things that of
necessity are requisite to the same." Obviously
there are at least three phrases in this definition
on which almost endless disputes might be founded ;
namely, what is a faithful man ? what is the pure
Word of God? what is due ministration of the
sacraments ? These, however, we may avoid in all
fairness, so far as our present purpose is concerned,
by stating that it has never been the practice of
the Church of England to favour the more rigid
and exclusive interpretation of an epithet or a
phrase, and that, as elsewhere shown, she does not
deny to congregations, from which she is even
compelled to separate, the right of membership in
the Church of Christ.
Next, what authority, in the same formulary, is
claimed for the Church ? It is affirmed, clearly
though indirectly, that no Church is infallible, for
it is said that even General Councils may err, and
THE CHURCH. I 53
have erred. 1 This admits that the authority is
constitutional, not despotic. But the Church
claims power "to decree rites or ceremonies, and
authority in controversies of faith." 2 This, how-
ever, is immediately safeguarded by a passage
which limits the authority by the Scriptures. The
Church must ordain nothing contrary to them ;
must explain no one part of them so as to make
it contradictory to another, and must not enforce
anything which is not found in them as an article
of faith necessary to salvation. The Church also
claims power to appoint, or ordain, persons to
preach in public and to minister the sacraments
in the congregation, 3 the power being exercised
"by men who have public authority given unto
them in the congregation to call and send ministers
into the Lord's vineyard." On this I will only
remark that while it is obvious how the latter
words are interpreted in practice by the Church
of England, she does not condemn explicitly other
1 See Article XXI. 2 Article XX.
3 Article XXIII.
154 LECTURE VIII.
congregations of which the customs differ from her
own. 1
From the above statements it is clear that our
Church does not claim, and the Church ought not to
claim, more authority than is conferred upon it by
the Scriptures. To what, then, does this amount ?
The controversy turns mainly on the meaning of the
words which I have quoted in my text. We find
them, or words similar to them, used on three
occasions. These are : the personal promise to
St. Peter, from which this authority to bind and
to loose is sometimes called "the power of the
keys ;" the promise to the ten Apostles after the
Resurrection, related in St. John's Gospel; and
the promise to the Church or congregation — that
is, to the whole body of Christians — which I have
already read. 2 In order to save time we will speak
mainly of the last, as being the most inclusive
promise. What, then, is the meaning of the phrases
" to bind " and " to loose," applied in this case
1 Cf. Article XXXIV.
2 Matt. xvi. 19; John xx. 22, 23; Matt, xviii. 17, 18.
THE CHURCH. 1 55
and in that of St. Peter to things or precepts, in
the case of the ten Apostles to remitting and
retaining of personal sins ?
One thing we may be sure they cannot mean —
they give no power of establishing an arbitrary
standard of right and wrong. Right will be still
right, and wrong will be still wrong, even though
a Church or the whole Church were to declare to
the contrary. Either a tacit limitation must be
supposed, or a promise of infallibility be assumed,
for which we cannot find any warrant elsewhere.
But in reality any difficulty as to the meaning of
the words is of subsequent origin. When first
used they would be readily understood. Let me
quote the words of a very competent authority : *
" No terms were in more constant use in Rabbinic
canon law than those of ' binding ' and 'loosing.'
The words are the literal translation of the Hebrew
equivalents — asar, which means to bind in the
sense of prohibiting ; and hittir, which means to
1 Edersbeim, "Life and Times of Jesus," bk. iii. cb. xxvii.
(vol. ii. pp. 84, 85).
156 LECTURE VIIL
loose in the sense of permitting." They refer
" simply to things or acts, prohibiting or else per-
mitting them ; " that is to say, they confer — as I
have heard it well expressed — " the power of
making bye-laws." 1 This power, inherent in all
societies, bub always limited by the charter or
foundation-deed, here receives a solemn sanction.
Penalties may be enforced, again within limits, for
the breach of these bye-laws, and wilful contumacy
may be punished by expulsion. If the Church
has forbidden that which ought to be forbidden,
then exclusion from the Church militant on earth
means exclusion from the Church triumphant in
heaven. If, on the contrary, she has bound that
which ought not to be bound, the sin of setting
up a false standard of right and wrong lies at
her door. The individual conscience must be the
ultimate judge ; but it must be remembered that
opposition to the body corporate involves the
gravest responsibilities, and can only be justified
1 In conversation, by a friend, now a professor in the University
of Cambridge.
THE CHURCH. I 57
when a man, after calm deliberation, is convinced
that bye-laws have been enacted which are in
violation of the charter. In short, these words
confer exactly the same kind of power which is
possessed by all societies; they involve similar
responsibilities, both as to the individual and as to
the society, and they do not exclude the action
of the protestant or. the reformer.
But it may be thought that the power conferred
by the words spoken to the ten Apostles, after the
Resurrection, goes much further : " Whose soever
sins ye remit, they are remitted unto them; and
whose soever sins ye retain, they are retained."
On this point I will not express any opinion of my
own, but quote that of Bishop Westcott. 1 "As [the
former] promise gave the power of laying down
the terms of fellowship, so this gives a living and
abiding power to declare the fact and the conditions
of forgiveness. The conditions, as interpreted by
the Apostolic practice, no less than by the circum-
stances of the case, refer to character. The gift
1 Gospel according to St. John, xx. 23, note.
158 LECTURE VIII.
and the refusal of the gift are regarded in relation
to classes, and not in relation to individuals. ... It
is impossible to contemplate an absolute individual
exercise of the power of '■ retaining ; ' so far it is
contrary to the scope of the passage to seek in it a
direct authority for the absolute individual exercise
of the ' remitting.' "
No despotic power, then, is vested in either
individuals or community ; the gift of the keys of
the kingdom of heaven does not permit bishop or
priest, individually or collectively, arbitrarily to
exclude from the kingdom of heaven in its wider
sense. To claim this power is an arrogant and
audacious usurpation; to concede it a base and
immoral superstition. See ye to it, for such a
power is claimed in parts of the Church of Christ ;
it is claimed nowadays by some in our own Com-
munion. See ye to it. Our forefathers suffered
and died for liberty of conscience ; are we to be led
back into bondage because we are too weak and
sentimental to think for ourselves ?
Further, it must not be forgotten that the power
THE CHURCH. 1 59
to bind and to loose belongs, according to the text,
to the whole ChUrch. But it is usurped by one
class, the clergy. How this came about, that it
was almost inevitable, is a matter of history.
Circumstances developed a dominant class — I had
almost said a dominant caste — in the Church. It
became an assumption that in matters spiritual it
was the duty of the ecclesiastics to rule, of the
laity to obey. Yet in these also, the latter, if
otherwise qualified, have a right to a voice. Even
in the Church of England some traces of this
ancient mistake still linger, and the laity are far
from possessing the power which properly belongs
to them, or rather the relations of the two classes
and of the Church and the State are a jumble so
confused as to be marvellous even for England.
These claims on the part of the clergy are no new
things ; for centuries they were not only made, but
in general conceded. In many lands and for long
periods the sword of the State has been either
grasped or guided by the hand of the ecclesiastic.
Deal, then, with the claims in a scientific spirit ;
160 LECTURE VIII.
apply the test of experiment. What has been the
practical result ?
If the authority of the Church extend to temporal
power, then those countries where this has been
possessed for centuries without dispute should be
to the world patterns of righteousness, justice,
purity, courage — in short, of every manly and
Christian virtue. Will this be asserted of them
by any impartial historian ?
The Church has also claimed to be supreme in
matters of learning and science — to hold the keys
of the library and the laboratory. With what
result ? That clerical opinion — which in practice if
not in theory has represented Church opinion — has
almost invariably proved, in the long run, to have
been wrong. For centuries the severest ecclesiastical
censure would have fallen on any one who main-
tained that this earth was a globe, and the nonsense
of Cosmas Indicopleustes was greedily swallowed.
For centuries it was an unpardonable heresy to
assert that the earth moved in an orbit about
the sun. For centuries the door of the laboratory
THE CHURCH. l6l
was closed, the path of experiment was barred ; the
writings of the Fathers, not the works of nature,
were deemed the court of appeal in questions of
science. 1 Not one branch alone of the Church has
fallen into this error, nor is the tale only of other
days. The Church of England, happily, has never
placed herself in open antagonism to scientific
progress, but the influence of her members has
been commonly adverse, their actions have brought
her much discredit.
How long is it since the geologist was denounced
because he could not accept the Mosaic cosmogony
as literal histoLy ? What happened when it was
proved that the human race had occupied the
earth for more than six thousand years ? What
happened when the hypothesis of evolution was
first advanced ? 2 From a hundred pulpits and a
hundred platforms we were assured, not seldom by
1 If any one feels disposed to deny this statement, I recommend
him to read " The Warfare of Science," by A. D. Wiiite.
2 It is needless to accumulate references. Two of these epochs
are well within my owu reuollectioD, and I can remember some-
thing of the other.
Y
1 62 LECTURE VIII.
those who had not investigated, and were incom-
petent to investigate, the questions, that if this or
that were generally accepted it would be the down-
fall of faith and the triumph of infidelity. Yet now
both are regarded as questions merely scientific ;
both are accepted by many sincere Christians.
But why do I dwell on these things ? Why
neglect the maxim, " Be mortuis nil nisi bonum " 1
Because eveu now very many persons, especially
among the ministers of religion, will not honestly
recognize the mistakes of the past, and the possi-
bility of like mistakes in the present ; because
even the Church of England itself, while it has
been wisely cautious in attempting precision of
definition or in adding to dogmatic theology, has
been, and still is, timorous in lopping off parasitic
growths and parting with outworn garments ; still
does not recognize the mischief which can be
wrought by zeal when divorced from discretion,
and the absolute duty, however painful it may be,
of withstanding even an Apostle to the face when
he attempts to bind that which Christ has loosed.
THE CHURCH. 1 63
We need in the Church the spirit which prevails
among scientific societies. There also, as every-
where, nonsense is talked. But with this difference.
Let it walk as delicately as King Agag, sooner or
later there comes a Samuel who hews it in pieces
before the Lord. Nonsense is nonsense by whom-
soever it is uttered ; the more mischievous in pro-
portion to the speaker s goodness. Would that the
rulers of the Church of England were a little less
prone to decorous euphemisms and a little less
afraid of the naked truth ; that, in their tender
compassion for the weaker brethren, they would
occasionally remember that the strong also have
their rights, and may become weary of a diet of
milk — especially if it be sometimes sour !
The Church, like all other bodies of men, has
made mistakes, grievous mistakes, in the past.
Better acknowledge them frankly, for in so doing
we shall be convinced of our own fallibility, and be
made cautious of attempting to resume an authority
which has been demonstrated by experience to be
both unwarrantable and mischievous. The mis-
1 64 LECTURE VIII.
takes, the errors, were venial, were almost inevitable
in the past ; in the present day they are without
excuse. Those who walk with their eyes shut
must not expect when they stumble the pity which
is extended to the blind. The Church of the first
centuries was confronted with a problem of
appalling magnitude and difficulty. It found itself
standing, like Aaron, between the dead and the
living ; but what a death, what a life ! Only those
who know intimately the history of Rome and of
Byzantium can realize the awful, the hopeless
corruption of the dying Empire, which had ruled
and ruined the civilized world. It was as though
the vision of Patmos was being fulfilled, and the
angel had cried to all the fowls that fly in the
midst of heaven, " Come and be gathered together
unto the great supper of God." 1 They had come
to eat the flesh of kings, of captains, and of
mighty men — barbarian hordes from the North and
from the East ; Goth and Vandal and Hun, Teuton
and Northman and Slav, ignorant as children,
1 Rev. xix. 17 (R. V.).
THE CHURCH. 1 65
reckless as boys, but vigorous as men. On the
one hand was the paganism of the " old regime,"
effete, trodden underfoot, but not extinct ; on the
other, the paganism of the invader in all its pride
of strength and success. These the Church had to
win, to mould, to humanize, to regenerate. What
wonder if mistakes were made ; what wonder if
strength was matched by craft; if the rude bar-
barian was awed by mystic rites and pompous
ceremonial, and the messenger of Christ was too
prone to claim the powers of the magician ? We
may regret, we may take warning for ourselves, but
we can scarce venture to blame, for even in this day
few temptations are more subtle and more seduc-
tive than that of doing a little evil to bring about
a great good. So do not think that I delight in
decrying the men who fought this long fight. We
of this age, in very truth, have entered into their
labours. They gave up all for Christ. Who am I,
living here at my ease, that I should censure an
Ambrose or a Jerome, a Winfried or a Columba, an
Augustine of Hippo or an Augustine of Canter-
1 66 LECTURE VI2I.
bury, or any of that great multitude, whom no man
can number, who suffered, laboured, and even died
for Christ ? I may admit the mistakes of a Bene-
dict or a Francis, of a Xavier or a Loyola, of a Bruno
or a Cuthbert, of a Fisher or a More, as I might do
those of a Gordon or a Damien, and yet confess
myself unworthy to be numbered with them. They
loved much. Let us try to imitate them in that.
But to devise euphemistic names for error is not
the way to advance the cause of truth ; to admit
facts, even if they be unwelcome, is the duty of the
Christian no less than of the man of science.
One thing the Church cannot do — that is, to
recall the past or galvanize dead institutions into
life. A flock submissive as sheep, docile as children,
has been and still is the dream of a hierarchy. It
is a dream as fond as it is foolish. Progress, not
reversion, is the law of healthy life. When man
attempts a renaissance, he is generally more success-
ful in mimicking the follies than in imitating the
virtues of his ancestors. To reform is not only to
return to ancient ways. The clock of time cannot
THE CHURCH. 1 67
be put back ; and it is no less true of a nation than
of a man, that if an adult tries to play the child he
generally succeeds only in playing the fool.
What power, then, has the Church ? Is it a mere
shadow of a shade ? Far from it. In the first place
it possesses, within the limits of its commission, the
power of self-government. To disobey the ordi-
nances of a Church is always to undertake a very
grave responsibility ; it is often to do very wrong.
Only in extreme cases does the right of private
judgment justify us in violating a definite law.
Let me give an example, to make my meaning
clearer. The Church of England forbids marriage
in certain cases of affinity. Personally, I hold that
in one of these the prohibition is a mistake ; but as
things are I should regard myself as bound by it.
Again, there are two or three phrases in the Book
of Common Prayer which I would gladly see
modified or omitted ; but I do not on that account
feel justified in leaving them out at my own
pleasure. In short — and this remark does not apply
to matters ecclesiastical only — I do not regard it as
1 68 LECTURE VIII.
a sacred duty to set myself above the law, nor do I
feel the slightest sympathy for those apostles of the
modern gospel of anarchy, whom the sound sense
of our forefathers would have considered as common
offenders, and the hysteric sentimentality of the
present age regards as interesting martyrs.
Lest, however, I should be misunderstood, let me
add that I do not admit the obligation of practices
or regulations which have fallen into general dis-
use, unless good cause can be shown why they
should be revived ; for the becoming obsolete must
be recognized as a virtual repeal, whenever the
formal process, as is the case in the Church of
England, notoriously involves great difficulties.
For instance, whatever be the validity of the
canons ecclesiastical, I feel no more bound to
order my daily apparel by the seventy-fourth of
these, than by the whims of clerical tailors or
other leaders of fashions ecclesiastical in the pre-
sent day.
Again, the Church possesses the power of a
healthy public opinion. For good and for evil
THE CHURCH. 1 69
association is a mighty force. Divide and rule,
unite and conquer, are commonplaces. The Church
is a corporation pledged to war with evil and to
advance good. It is the one human society where
righteousness in thought, word, and deed is assumed
to be the normal condition, and every departure
from it abnormal. Whatever difficulties may beset
the Christian in his path through life, however
isolated he may appear to be, in distant lands, in
uncongenial society, in thankless toil, he is nerved
by knowing that, even in this outpost duty, he is
no solitary Ishmaelite, but one of a mighty army,
united in a common hope and a common strength,
directed and led, though he beholds Him not, by
the captain of the Lord's host, against whom no
evil shall prevail.
There is yet a third power, connected closely
with the last — the moral force of censure and of
forgiveness. The former is felt, often keenly, even
when it is known to be undeserved — nay, even
when to incur it is a positive duty. It is dreaded,
when merited, even by those who bluster most
I/O LECTURE VIIL
noisily and affect a contemptuous indifference. To
desire the praise of men rather than their blame is
natural to every one — so natural that it is always
a great temptation to prophesy smooth things
when it is the time to speak out, to cry " Peace ! "
when there is no peace. Great also is the power
of forgiveness. At a certain stage in repentance,
especially to a sensitive nature, it is very helpful
to learn that the offence is forgiven by those who
have been injured, because it is then felt that the
rift is not past repair ; that the injury, though it
cannot be recalled, may be at least effaced. A
message of forgiveness is a message of hope. So
the Church in her public capacity assures the truly
penitent of that Divine pardon, of which all
human forgiveness is but the reflection. So also
she empowers her ministers, as ambassadors of
Christ, to proclaim in special cases to the troubled
conscience that the Lord is merciful, and will not
turn a deaf ear to the cry of the contrite heart.
They cannot tamper with the eternal laws of
right and wrong; they cannot by magic rites
THE CHURCH. 171
compel the gates of heaven to open to the unfit
and close against the fit ; but they can bid even
the worst of sinners not wholly to despair, for they
speak in the name of Him Who listened to the
prayer of one justly crucified for his offences
against man and against God.
Looking back upon the past, are we not right in
saying that what the Church has bound and what
the Church has loosed, not as a hierarchy but as a
whole, has been confirmed by the verdict of God,
made manifest in history ? Learn what the world
was in the days of the Caesars, even of the Constan-
tines, and compare this with its present state.
Enlarge, if you will, upon every mistake and every
shortcoming ; insist that, owing to them, the results
fall far below a legitimate expectation ; still the fact
remains that a great change has passed over society.
Granted that the pastimes of Western Europe —
even of our own land — are sometimes brutal : they
were horribly cruel in the days of the amphi-
theatre ; granted that the poor are still many
and miserable : poverty was far more hopeless
172 LECTURE VIII.
nineteen centuries since; granted that they are
still sometimes down-trodden : they were in utter
bondage then; granted that the rich are some-
times over-luxurious : wealth was far more wanton
then; granted that society is sometimes profligate :
what are nameless vices now were venial indis-
cretions in pagan Rome. Whose influence put a
stop to gladiatorial contests ; mitigated and in
many cases abolished slavery ; founded hospitals
for the sick and penitentiaries for the fallen;
insisted that the thrall, no less than his lord, had
a soul to be saved or to be lost ? It was the Church.
Here and there ecclesiastics may have opposed and
thrown their influence into the wrong scale, but in
yet more cases they have been the leaders in
works of mercy and love. These results are the
results of Christianity and so of the Church ; for
that means the whole body of Christians.
There is work enough to do in this nineteenth
century; there is a crisis coming which will tax
the energies and test the strength of every Chris-
tian man and woman. I will speak of our own
THE CHURCH. 1 73
land and our own Church only, though the coming
struggle is one not thus limited. This is no time
for questions of vestments and ritual. These are
at best as the tithing of mint, anise, and cummin ;
at worst, too often the remnants of old-world
superstitions, which are dying hard, as such things
always die. The message which we must carry
is, once more, of the very simplest kind. Let the
leaders of tbe Church, let the ministers of the Church,
boldly declare that it is a Church of growth and
progress, not of stereotyped immobility. Let
them proclaim the message of Christian righteous-
ness to all — to the patrician and to the plebeian —
fearless alike of courtier or of mob. Let thern bid
the rich man remember that wealth has not been
entrusted to him merely that he should be clothed
in purple and fine linen, and fare sumptuously
every day. Let them bid the poor man remember
that in giving bad work for good pay, in defraud-
ing his employer or tyrannizing over his fellows,
he is showing himself no better than the stock
subjects of his denunciation. This is an age of
174 LECTURE VIII.
shams — of shams commercial and shams moral —
worthless materials tricked up to look like useful
wares, and ugly vices cleverly clothed in the modest
garbs of virtues. To strip the mask from all alike,
from rich and poor, from aristocrat and democrat,
from the fraudulent and the impostor in every
rank, is the duty of the Christian Church. In all
ages of windy words and frothy declamation, men
lose sight of principles of ethics and principles
of religion. Never was it more true than of
England in this age of irresponsible chatter and
foolish gossip, when the mass of men buy their
opinions ready made for a halfpenny, and dis-
tinguish virtue from vice at the bidding of an
unknown political partisan. To all this there can
be but one end. The path has already been trodden,
though under slightly different circumstances, by
not a few states. It is that of senile decay and
ultimate death.
Let Christians lay this to heart, for it is not yet
too late, so much is the good mingled with the evil
in the present age. Let them recognize the danger ;
THE CHURCH, 1 75
let them cast aside political jealousies and partisan
hatreds; let them sink as far as possible even
differences of creeds, and stand shoulder to shoulder
in the army of Christ against the World, the
Flesh, and the Devil. If this be done, the victory
is sure, for on God's earth truth must at last prevail ;
nay, the hosts of the enemy may melt away, before
a blow is struck, at the very sight of the Crucified.
Still, as of old,
" The Church's one Foundation
Is Jesus Christ her Lord."
Still, as of old, she must labour, in all humility
but in all confidence; she must bear the burdens
of the weak, and bid the oppressor cease ; she
must work and pray, alike for all sorts and
conditions of men, j^&&^*~^-%.
/fa?' OF THB^x-
" Till with the vision glorious WTT liT TT7 W £ T Fit T
Her longing eyes are blest, [[ U *f 1 V Ju JTv 1 1 J
And the great Church victorious^ @ m OS* ^ V ♦
Shall be the Church at rest." ^s*j£ ZPOVCS^^
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{continued.
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{continued.
14 A CATALOGUE OF WORKS
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Thoughts on the Study of the
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The Holy Week.
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A Harmony of the Four Gospels.
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16 WORKS IN THEOLOGICAL LITERATURE.
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THE STORY OF OUR LORD, told in Simple Language for Children.
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