The direct and fundamental proofs of the Christian religion; an essay in comparative apologetics, based upon the Nathaniel William Taylor lectures for 1903 given before the Divinity School of Yale University

NYPL RESEARCH LIBRARIES

3 3433 06822777 0

\r-

n >

*^'^-
"p*"^'.

'h: ■

5-J

^,

r.^V^-i^ *-'V

i/<C<t ^-^ ^<^i^vw

i

V.

THE DIRECT AND

FUNDAMENTAL PROOFS OF THE

CHRISTIAN RELIGION

THE DIRECT AND

FUNDAMENTAL PROOFS OF THE

CHRISTIAN RELIGION

an €ssap t'n Compatattbe apologetits

BASED UPON THE

NATHANIEL WILLIAM TAYLOR LECTURES FOR 1903

GIVEN BEFORE THE DIVINITY SCHOOL OF YALE UNIVERSITY

BY

GEORGE WILLIAM KNOX

PROFESSOR OF THE PHILOSOPHY AND HISTORY OF RELIGION IN
THE UNION THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY, NEW YORK.

CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS
NEW YORK 1908

^

w

THE NEW YOUK •
PUBLIC LIBRARY

iri47oB

A3T0K, LENOX AND

TILDEN FOUND ATI aNS

B 1939 L

Copyright, 1903,
By Charles Scribner's Sons

Published September, 1903

TO

THE MEMORY OP MY FATHER

WILLIAM EATON KNOX, D.D.

39X71 3

PREFACE

An invitation to give the first course of lectures
on the Nathaniel William Taylor foundation before
the Divinity School of Yale University, with the
subsequent request for their publication, furnished
the occasion for the preparation of this volume. In
addition to the lectures as delivered, it contains
sections which were omitted because of the limita-
tions of time.

Apologetics may strengthen the faith of believers
who occupy still substantially the old ground, but
who desire that objections should be answered,
difiBculties removed, and the traditional arguments
restated. This is its ordinary task. Or it may
enter completely into the modern view of the world
and show that Christian truth remains. The view-
points are so divergent that the two cannot well be
united; the first minimizes intellectual changes
and takes for granted much which scientific men
deny, while the second ignores or surrenders much
which traditional theology holds as essential. This
essay takes the second course and adopts the mod-
ern view of the world. It does not attempt to

viii PREFACE

defend theology, but seeks the principle which is
independent of it and yet underlies it. It does not
meet the difficulties which are most apparent to
the majority of Christians, nor does it adequately
represent their faith. No attempt is made to set
forth my own faith in its fulness, for all of it,
excepting its fundamental principle, is, for the pur-
pose of this argument, what Professor James calls
''over-beliefs." My question here is simply, Is the
Christian religion true to men who accept unhesi-
tatingly the modern view of the world?

The essay would have become a treatise had I
added footnotes and references. The very few
introduced do not indicate the extent of my in-
debtedness, but on the whole it seemed best to let
the argument be uninterrupted and speak for itself.
It is more ungracious not to name my friends and
colleagues, who have aided me greatly by sugges-
tions and advice.

G. W. K.

The Union Theological Seminabt,

New Yobk, August 11, 1903.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

page:

I. The Classic Argument 1

II. The Modern View of the World ... 14

III. Reality and Proof 30

IV. Religion : Its Definition, Development,

Varieties, Conflicts, and Proofs . 52

V. The Conflict of Religions, an Instance 77

VI. The Christian Religion 100

VII. Christianity as Ethics : Its Conflict and

Proof 119

VIII. Christianity as Religion: Its Conflict

and Proof 141

IX. Christianity, the Absolute Religion . . 169

THE DIRECT AND

FUNDAMENTAL PROOFS OF THE

CHRISTIAN RELIGION

THE CLASSIC ARGUMENT

The "direct and fundamental proofs" of the Chris-
tian religion change with changing views of the
world. For religion has to do with man's attitude
to the world as a whole, and nothing which affects
this attitude can be without consequence for faith.
Sometimes for generations one world-view con-
tinues, and controversy centres in details of au-
thenticity and historicity, of special miracles and
prophecies, of cosmology and logic, all the dispu-
tants accepting the same presuppositions and con-
stituting, intellectually, a single school. A classic
line of argument is formed which is repeated in
substance for decades, or even for centuries, the
modifications being only in emphasis and details.

But as an individual in the course of his educa-
tion sometimes comes half unconsciously to occupy
a new point of view, and is astonished to discover

2 PROOFS OF THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION

that his faith has vanished or been transformed, so
is it with communities. Multitudes pass through
this process and a new intellectual age is formed.
The classic argument no longer convinces even
men who still hold the ancient faith. It is not that
it is refuted, but that it is ignored, all the dispu-
tants alike seeming to be on ground which is no
longer occupied by living men. In our day the
change is greater than ever before, greater in the
thoroughness of the transformation which has come
over the face of nature, and greater in the number
of persons who occupy the new point of view.
Therefore apologetics cannot repeat the old argu-
ments, for they are not merely weakened, so that
they may still win victories if reinforced here and
there and accommodated in this point or that, but
they are concerned with questions no longer dis-
cussed, and so appear wholly to miss the point.
Hence apologetics considers the faith anew and
does not discuss further these questions, how-
ever important they may seem, but attempts to set
forth its fundamental proofs from the modern
point of view.

As preliminary to such a discussion, and as illus-
tration of the greatness of the change which has
passed over the minds of men, let us begin with a

THE CLASSIC ARGUMENT 3

review of the classic argument for the truth of
Christianity, and follow it with a brief statement
of the modern view of the world.

The greatest of apologists, Bishop Butler, has
given me the title for this essay. To him miracles
are " the direct and fundamental proofs." ^ He
recognizes indeed collateral proofs, " a long series
of things reaching, as it seems, from the beginning
of the world to the present time, of great variety
and compass ; " but however considerable these
may be, they " ought never," he says, "to be urged
apart from the direct proofs, but to be always
joined with them."

The argument accords with the great divisions
of the standard systems of theology, Roman and
Protestant, as they follow the lines laid down
authoritatively by Thomas Aquinas. For man's
knowledge is of two kinds, of reason and of faith :
the first by demonstration, and the second by au-
thority. On the basis of the first is reared the
broad plateau of natural theology, and above it, let
down out of Heaven, is the superimposed peak of
supernatural revelation, its summit lost in the
mystery of the Divine will. It is not discoverable

1 "Analogy," ii., vii. Butler joins the completion of prophecy
with miracles — but the same presuppositions are implied.

4 PROOFS OF THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION

in nature (the kosmos) nor by nature (man's
reason) but, strictly supernatural, it is accepted on
authority by faith.

Reason proves the existence of God : by the cos-
mological argument he is shown to be the first
great cause ; by the teleological argument his wis-
dom and purpose are made known ; and by the
moral argument we establish his righteousness.
By other processes we come to the same result.
Analyzing our concept of a perfect being we set
forth God's attributes, or ascending from the
world without and conscience within we find
him omnipotent, omniscient, eternal, and holy.
These terms denote limitlessness ; not abstract
infinity or the absolute, but that wdiich is great
beyond our powers of thought. Thus from con-
science we learn his righteousness and from ex-
ternal nature his wisdom, but, as always, when
men go up from nature to nature's God, his first
and differentiating characteristic is his power.

He is ruler of the universe, outside of it, above
it, before it ; his power governs every part and his
will establishes its laws. We are " under his gov-
ernment in the same sense as we are under the
government of civil magistrates," ^ and though
1 Butler, "Analogy," i., ii.

THE CLASSIC ARGUMENT 5

God desires man's happiness, yet his justice must
prevail. So our feelings in his presence are awe,
reverence, and a certain "fearful looking-for of
judgment." For reason establishes the immortal-
ity of the soul and a future state of rewards and
punishments, and as God has written his law upon
the heart, prudence, temperance, fortitude, justice,
giving understanding, knowledge, and wisdom,
"conscience doth make cowards of us all." The
very inequalities of men's conditions, as the wicked
often prosper and the good suffer, point to a future
state where an impartial justice shall be rendered
to every one.

Sin distorts the natural knowledge of God and
renders it insufficient. Conscious of guilt man
does not like to retain this just God in his
thoughts, but substitutes the creature for the Crea-
tor and invents false religions and an evil worship.
The rare exceptions, like the Greek philosophers
and specifically Aristotle and Plato, prove the rule.
Their knowledge is correct so far as it goes, but it
is insufficient, for it reveals no way of escape from
offended justice. At its very best natural theology
must be supplemented if man is to be saved, and
hence we find the need for a supernatural revela-
tion of redemption.

6 PROOFS OF THE CHRISTIAX RELIGION

Revelation republishes the truths of natural
theology and the moral law, and this constitutes
its larger part; for "presupposed and embodied"
in it are the "doctrines and precepts of natural
religion, facts of history which are not peculiar to
it," and a long " series of events " connecting it
with a sound philosophy, cosmogony, and anthro-
pology. Thus revelation fits the truths discovered
independently and subsequently by reason, as the
ball fits the socket. But revelation "does more
than remove a veil from things essentially exist-
ing in the world ; it acquaints us, by direct com-
munication from God, with things not existing in
the world, — even the deep, infinite things of God,
of which independently of this revelation, no one
would have had an idea, though all the secrets of
nature had been disclosed to him." " The Trinity
of Persons in the Unity of the Divine Essence ;
the Divine-human character of Jesus of Naza-
reth; the salvation of mankind by the blood and
intercession of the Lord Jesus, . . . these are the
peculiarities of revealed rehgion, . . . things al-
together extra-mundane, having no place in man or
nature, the world within us or without." ^ " With

1 Thomas H. Skinner, "Am. Presb. & Theol. Review," April,
1863, p. 178.

THE CLASSIC ARGUMENT 7

this supernatural doctrine is a supernatural moral-
ity, not ' morality in the abstract,' or in so far as
it is common between Christianity and natural
religion, but that peculiar and ineffably glorious
type of morality which consists in the concretion
of the ethical element in the miraculous facts of
the great mystery of Godliness."^ Love, faith,
and hope belong to this sphere.

Man, therefore, cannot discover the mystery of
salvation, nor can he comprehend it. Its source is
in the hidden recesses of the Divine will. God
must be just, — so we learn from conscience and
nature, — but we do not learn that he is merciful,
for redemption is of his free choice and man can
only accept, " beHeving where he cannot prove."

Such a salvation is accepted through the super-
natural work of God in our hearts, the testimony
of the Spirit to our spirits being the final and con-
vincing proof ; but this takes us altogether beyond
the field of apologetics, for it has to do with the
natural man, and it must present to him proofs
sufficient to leave him without excuse.

These proofs are two, collateral and direct.
The collateral have to do with " a long series of
things reaching, as it seems, from the beginning of

1 Thomas H. Skinner, he. cit., p. 187.

8 PROOFS OF THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION

the world," but they can be summed up briefly, as
the correspondence of revelation with the results
of right reason in philosophy, cosmogony, and his-
tory. For revelation, republishing the truths of
natural theology and ethics and embodied in a
miraculously preserved and protected history, is
in marked contrast to the follies and fancies of
heathen teaching, and corresponds point by point
with the results of sound research. For God, who
made the world and guides its histor}^, keeps his
messengers from errors, and if discrepancies ap-
pear it is because the revelation has been misin-
terpreted, or more likely because reason is mistaken
in its facts. The established harmony is sufficient
to make us content to wait for the perfect and final
reconcilement.

As thus the Bible fits and supplements the
truths discovered by man's reason in the natural
sphere, its supernatural doctrines complement our
natural theology. They do not contradict reason,
but surpass it. Could we find contradiction, were
the doctrines of Christianity irrational or immoral,
they would be disproved, for the God of redemp-
tion is the Creator of reason and of conscience.
But these negative conditions furnish difficult
criteria, for how shall I, ignorant and sinful, judge

THE CLASSIC ARGUMENT 9

abstract wisdom and justice? My course is im-
plicit obedience to a message from God.

The object of the proof is not the contents of
the message, then, but its medium, the prophet who
speaks with a Divine authority because he mani-
fests a Divine power, the God who is above nature,
whose Being is omnipotence, reversing or suspend-
ing the natural order. At the word of the prophet
the rod becomes a serpent, the shadow turns back-
ward on the dial, fire falls from heaven, and the
dead are raised from the tomb. Confronted by
such proofs men reject the message at their peril,
for in it are the issues of eternal life. The Roman
Church still claims the present witness of miracles
to its authority, but Protestants accept Holy Scrip-
ture on historic evidence. In both the main con-
cern is with the medium of revelation, and in
Protestantism the battle has raged around the
proposition that the Bible is the Word of God.

The rationalism of the British clergy in the end
of the seventeenth century minimizing the doc-
trines of grace, their attacks upon the Roman
miracles as offspring of priestcraft, with the new
astronomy and the rediscovery of China, brought
on the Deistic controversy, the first of the great
modern discussions as to the truth of Christianity.

10 PROOFS OF THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION

How can we identify the God of tlie heavens and
the earth with the Jehovah of a Semitic tribe ?
If the Chinamen have lived so long without the
gospel, how can it be necessary for any one? And
if the miracles of the Roman Church are the result
of trickery, why should we ascribe another cause
to Biblical wonders ? In these questions we find
already the beginnings of the inquiries which still
occupy men. All the evidences are attacked in
turn, the collateral evidence and the direct proofs.

Apologetics made a valiant defence of the faith.
It showed that revelation demanded nothing which
the Deist did not himself claim for natural theol-
ogy, and it triumphantly vindicated the scriptural
writers from the charge of fraud. The argument
as to miracles may be briefly summed up in this :
the witnesses were competent and disinterested;
they had nothing to gain but all to lose by false-
hood ; they taught the highest morality, and they
sealed their testimony with their lives. No other
historic fact is better attested, not the death of
Julius Csesar, and false miracles like other coun-
terfeits prove the existence of the genuine. When
it was urged that a God of wisdom and power
needs not to interfere with the workings of his
great machine, it was replied that miracles are not

THE CLASSIC ARGUMENT 11

afterthoughts, but were included in God's plan
that he who is supreme cannot be bound by the
nature he has made ; that a God of redeeming love
is more worthy to be called God than one who
retires from his work and idly sees it go ; that our
finite minds cannot judge what is worthy ; that all
presuppositions are valueless in the presence of the
smallest fact, and that miracles are facts. When
Hume set forth the uniformity of testimony against
miracles as an argument against accepting any in
their favor, Paley replied with his presuppositions :
a God intent on man's happiness, this world a
world of probation, the fall of the race, and the
necessity of a revelation. ^

A common world-view was held by the dispu-
tants. Notwithstanding the Copernican astronomy,
men's imaginations were still geocentric. China
was seen, after all, dimly, and the nations of the
distant East, like the nations of the distant past,
were described as if they belonged to the Europe
of the eighteenth century. Time was short, from
its beginning, and the whole history of man was
intelligible, for as he is he has ever been. In par-
ticular, reason is everywhere the same, with the
same logic, the same starting-points for argument,

1 Works (Ed. Phil. 1836), pp. 271-2.

12 PROOFS OF THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION

the same universally valid truths, the same certain
conclusions to be reached by the same processes, —
Chinamen, Red Indians, antediluvians made on the
model of the modern Englishman, and he on the
model of God; so that the Creator is an extra-
mundane, manlike Being of surpassing power.
Miracles, naturally, can be proved like other inci-
dents, if there be disinterested witnesses. In short,
the traditional cosmogony, history, and theology
were not yet dislodged, and the modern views of
nature did not influence the minds of men, nor
was their meaning understood even by those who
accepted the discoveries which led on to the new
heavens and the new earth.

With such presuppositions the battle was fought
and won. The Deists granted so much that they
might, well enough, grant all. Their position was
not tenable, but the conflict was only a preliminary
campaign in a contest which continues yet.

It is not that the apologists have been refuted
formally, — against the Deists the argument still
holds, — but gradually a change has taken place
which destroys the presuppositions of all the an-
tagonists alike, so that in our day Butler and
Paley are not combated, but ignored. Therefore
we shall not stop to attempt an estimate of the

THE CLASSIC ARGUMENT 13

value of the argument, but, recognizing its historic
importance and the masterly ability of the great
men who gave it classic form, proceed to consider
the new view of the world which has destroyed its
force.

II

THE MODERN VIEW OF THE WORLD

Already Spinoza and Hume indicated lines of
thought which destroyed the positions of Deist
and Churchman ahke, but their books made almost
no impression in this conflict.^ Here and there
some one like the elder Mill showed how Butler's
argument could be turned to the most radical
account, but only after generations and in the
crisis produced by the publication of Darwin's
theory was it understood that the basis of natural
theology was threatened.

The doctrine of evolution is supposed, popularly,
to have effected the change, revolutionizing the
view of the world and making the ancient argu-
ments obsolete, but the supposition is not wholly
nor precisely correct. Physical science in general
has carried on the process begun in the seven-

1 The impression made on some men was great and of the
highest historical importance, but not within the range of mind in-
terested in the Deistic controversy; and far into the nineteenth
century Hume was ignored, or mentioned only as a man of straw,
easily refuted.

THE MODERN VIEW OF THE WORLD 15

teenth century, and has enlarged the boundaries
of the known universe until it no longer seems a
place governed after the analogy of a province.
Limitless systems surpass measurement, and im-
press men with the sense of a power past find-
ing out. All formulae prove insufficient for its
expression, and all analogies inadequate for its
comparison. Notwithstanding the magnificent
triumphs won by the intellect, men are sceptical
as never before as to all ultimate and authorita-
tive explanations. All things seem possible and
nothing is fully explicable, so that the difficulty
is to find starting-points on which we can agree
as themselves unquestioned. In the old cosmog-
ony the heavens seemed above the earth, and the
flight of the soul to its true home was upward.
But in the new universe there is no longer a
heaven above, nor any east nor west, nor north
nor south, nor up nor down, and the mind knows
only its little daily path and beyond it neither
any way nor destination ; and in like fashion the
argument seems to have lost at once its starting-
place, route, and destination.

The universe not only extends marvellously in
space, it stretches back endlessly in time ; even the
extravagant chronology of the East, so contemptu-

16 PROOFS OF THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION

ously rejected in the past, is inadequate to modern
demands, for in place of tlie manageable Biblical
chronology an eternity of time, to be paradoxical,
seems unrolled. But still more, science fills up
the portion of the world with which we have to
do and enters ordinary life, so tliat it is not the
affair merely of the laboratory and student, but
affects every-day matters of home and business.
Thus, in a general and indefinite way, men who
are not specialists come to look upon it as the
supreme force in the modern world and to accept
its results unhesitatingly. So that it is not so
much the substitution of the greater universe for
older conceptions as this all-pervasive scientific
atmosphere which affects the masses of men, who
sum up their impressions in belief in evolution
and the inviolability of natural law.

Evolution and the inviolabihty of natural law
are supposed to be proved, but the scientific man
knows that so far from being proved they are
merely the popular expression of the presupposi-
tion of scientific proof, the law of continuity, with
its consequences. For with the principle of con-
tinuity assumed, development in some form is the
necessary outcome. Hence attacks on any par-
ticular form of the doctrine of evolution are beside

THE MODERN VIEW OF THE WORLD 17

the point. Apologetics cannot profit by them, for
if any special doctrine be overturned it is only
that it be replaced by some more thorough-going
theory, since the law of continuity is fundamental
to the modern view of the world. Thus the uni-
verse takes on the aspect, not of a manufactured
article, but of a growing organism. With biologi-
cal analogies predominant it no longer appears
evident that the world needs a maker.

This result is only expressed in a different way
by the newer conception of causation. Not so very
long ago a cause was defined as outside of and
before the effect, and the illustration suggested
inevitably was a chain. Now, a series must have
an end, a chain a starting-point, and for the world
the long series of causes and effects came to an
end, the long chain was fastened, in God, who was
external to and before all else. Finding him, the
First Mover, the First Cause, the mind was con-
tent. But, in our day, causation is not looked
upon as a chain, but as a network. The cause is
not before the effect and external to it, but simul-
taneous with it, and jointly concerned in it, at once
cause and effect, acting and acted upon. It is
only our imperfect knowledge which singles out
any element as cause or effect, by ignoring the

18 PROOFS OF THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION

rest, — a procedure which has its practical and im-
mediate advantages and even necessity, but which
has no logical force as a theory of the universe.
Thus, instead of a First Mover, or Great First
Cause, we get an ever present power in everything,
and without a time relationship.

Philosophy, influenced profoundly by German
speculation, contributes to the same result. It
will not rest content with Paley's notion of an
infinite which can be defined merely as great be-
yond our measurements, but, combining forces
with the limitless extension of the physical uni-
verse in space and time, and with the conception
of an all-present, timeless power, it discusses the
metaphysical Absolute and tries to determine the
meaning of Infinite and Eternal as antithetical to
finite and temporal. So that when God is ac-
cepted by the reason it is no longer the theo-
cratic God, before and beyond the world and only
a little larger than the angels, but the thean-
thropic God, around and within ; so that theology
must discuss the relation of phenomena to nou-
mena, of the finite to the infinite, of the relative
to the absolute, and of particular causes to the
causa causarum. The question is no longer pri-
marily of a God coming down from heaven, of

THE MODERN VIEW OF THE WORLD 19

Deism and Theism, but of Pantheism and Pan-
en-theism, of the fine distinction between the as-
sertions that all is God and that God is all.
Spinoza more nearly represents the modern point
of view than does any eighteenth-century theo-
logian, orthodox or Deis tic.

When thinkers, on the other hand, refuse to
follow speculation to its delicately discriminated
end, they confine their attention to the more im-
mediate and seemingly more practical problems
of physical science, or under the supposed influ-
ence of Kant's great Critique protest that the
mind can find no atmosphere for its support at
such dizzy heights and must confine itself to the
plain levels of experience. Thus they become theo-
retically or practically agnostic and positivistic.

The science of knowledge adds its contribution.
The older discussions assumed a crude realism and
took things for the most part at their face values :
men, gods, and the world. But we have learned
to be critical and to scrutinize knowledge itself,
so that all is interpreted in terms of consciousness,
and nothing is taken as it appears, nor can any-
thing be thought under the old canons of reality.

The particular sciences contribute their quota
to the same general result ; ethnology, for example.

20 PROOFS OF THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION

It is no longer the empire of China only, dimly
and imperfectly known after all, but the races and
generations of men everywhere and from the be-
ginning which must be considered. This vastly
increases the difficulty of finding a standing-place
for argument in "common consent." It is not
only that such common consent is more difficult
to discover so far as definite propositions are con-
cerned, but that when so discovered it offers no
certainty ; for what men have always and all and
everywhere believed is shown to have been mis-
taken in striking instances. As matter of fact,
the Deist can no longer point to the agreement
of even the liighest minds in regard to religious
truth since the discovery of great religions like
Buddhism, which finds the ultimate facts in some
relentless law of cause and effect ; or like Confu-
cianism, in a principle of order ; or like Hinduism,
in the all absorbing *' It ; " or like the vast variety
of nature-worships, in a multitude of spirits higher
and lower than man. Reason does not appear to
go by a straight line up from nature to nature's
God, but by various lines up and down to various
gods, or even to no god at all. Common consent
is reduced to a feeling of dependence, or to a
common intuition of supereensible realities, with-

THE MODERN VIEW OF THE WORLD 21

out explicit agreement as to their nature, powers,
or estates.

An this affects the doctrine of authority so
important to the older apologetics. In science the
disproof of theory does not lead to the acceptance
of anything by faith, but to a re-examination of
the facts. Thus, for example, the overthrow of
the Darwinian theory would not lead scientific
men to accept the doctrine of special creation on
faith, but to some new theory more nearly in ac-
cord with all we know. It too would be tentative
and partial, for the scientific habit of mind is in-
disposed to accept any theory as established once
for all. This does not lead to scepticism, but to
the recognition that man progresses in knowledge,
and that he makes many false starts and has often
to retrace his steps ; but this return upon his foot-
steps is evidence, not of doubt as to the final goal,
but only as to the direction we have followed for
a while. So that authority, if we may use the
word, is established by submitting itself to the
sharpest scrutiny, and by readiness to surrender
if a better claimant appear. The highest authori-
ties have been men who have seen most clearly the
difficulties of their own positions, and who have
stated the adverse argument in all its fulness.

22 PROOFS OF THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION

Men find it impossible to lay aside this habit of
mind when they turn to the department of knowl-
edge which is supposed to be most important,
having to do with our eternal welfare, and to
accept on faith that which they cannot test. This
is not because of pride or self-confidence, but it is
the outcome of a life-long training, which teaches
that knowledge is to be trusted which submits to
tests and offers itself to the severest examination.
But this is only to say that in science authority
in the strict sense has no place.

It follows that the special proofs offered for the
Christian religion as God's revelation lose theii
force. When the Deistic controversy was at an
end Hume appeared, and his attack still remains ;
for he gave up the common ground occupied by
the former disputants, challenging the positions
of all alike, and he only of his century appeals in
any degree to the scientific specialists of our day.

It is not that his argument is technically cor.
rect, — even Huxley and Mill point out its obvious
fallacies, — but his presupposition, and not Paley's,
now occupies men's minds. It is not that a priori
it is certain that miracles cannot be proved, but
that the reign of natural causation is so extended
and insisted on that its converse seems unthink-

THE MODERN VIEW OF THE WORLD 23

able. Any explanation appears more rational than
that the laws of nature have been suspended. On
the other hand, the presumption urged by Butler
and Paley has lost its force. With the extension
of the universe in time and space it is no longer
to be assumed that God will interfere with uni-
versal laws for the sake of guaranteeing his
revelation to man, or that man's happiness is so
exclusively an object of the Infinite's concern.
On the contrary, the world process seems to show
that happiness is only an incident, or an element,
and that, if there be

" One far off divine event ^
To which the whole creation moves,'*

it cannot be, from our evidence, the happiness of
the individual nor even of the race. Besides,
modern psychology cuts the ground from the
whole utilitarian school by showing that happiness
and its desire play a far less important part than
they had supposed even in our present conscious
life.

The burden of proof is shifted.^ The apologist
can no longer demand that his opponent explain
his phenomena on some other ground or accept the

1 Butler put it on his opponents: "Analogy," ii., vii., "It lies
upon unbelievers to show why this evidence is not to be credited."

24 PROOFS OF THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION

theory of miracles. The old alternative was reality
or fraud, and the case was won through a " trial of
the witnesses." But many another alternative
presents itself to-day, and even the ethnic faiths
are allowed their marvels without assaults on the
good faith of their founders. And if all hypoth-
eses fail science puts the item to its long list of
facts which are as yet inexplicable, and is not in-
clined to allow the one explanation which seems
the most incredible. It is not that the miracles
are disproved, but that they cease to be considered.
So strongly is tliis felt that many Christian writers
attempt to bring the miracles into line with scien-
tific conceptions and to explain them by various
devices, thus saving the historicity of the narrative
at the expense of its apologetic value. And when
thus the apologetic value is surrendered many
scientific men are willing to attend to the evidence
for the wonders. For their repugnance is not to
the marvel, but to the alleged suspension of nat-
ural laws. They know that the mysteries of nature
have not been all explored or discovered, and that
no limits can be put to the possible. Should one
be born without a father, or should one raise the
dead, it would be only a new extension of our
knowledge of facts, something more to be ex-

THE MODERN VIEW OF THE WORLD 25

plained with a further comprehension of the scope
and meaning of natural laws.

Granting the marvel it is asked, Why should God
he its author? — there is something incommensu-
rate between the wonder and the Absolute. Or,
more simply, How does the marvel establish truth ?
Were some teacher to do in fact what a magician
on the stage appears to do, take off his head and
replace it upside down, how should this carry con-
viction to the mind of anything beyond a new
extraordinary fact added to our store of physio-
logical and anatomical and universal knowledge?

The further evidence urged fares no better. The
science and philosophy of revealed theology as set
forth in the past no longer fit the science and phi-
losophy of the present. The miraculous adapta-
tion of revealed to natural knowledge, like the ball
to the socket, is not apparent. Scripture and the
older knowledge were both alike uncritical, naive,
and in accord with common-sense. Science re-
gards both as from a common source, the uncritical
observations of unscientific men, and both to be cor-
rected by a science which no longer sees the sun
move across the heavens or measures time from
the beginning as some six thousand years. The
correspondence shows merely that the scriptural

26 PROOFS OF THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION

writers partook of the common views of men of
their times. The special doctrines of the Church,
the Trinity for example, are treated in the same
way. Historical criticism, pointing out the effect
of Greek philosophy upon early Christianity, and
the rediscovery of the same philosoph}^ in the
middle ages, ceases to wonder that the completed
product agrees with and supplements one element
which was concerned in its own formation.

Thus the men who teach scientific subjects in
our universities, edit our scientific periodicals,
and in general influence the thinking of our times,
so far from accepting the miracles as the " direct
and fundamental proofs " of the Christian religion
will not so much as consider the evidence offered
in their support, but treat them as Protestants deal
with the Roman miracles, or as orthodox Chris-
tians the wonders of spiritualism and Christian
Science.

Apologetics ceases to urge miracles as wonders
in themselves, and shows that they are not mere
marvels, but works of love and mercy, thus shifting
the ground of the contention. For now the ap-
peal is not to the sense of the wonderful, but to
our higher nature, to our appreciation of a Divine
goodness, — no longer to the supernatural, but, as

THE MODERN VIEW OF THE WORLD 27

in natural religion, to the rational judgment of
our minds. Christianity is still usually identified
with the supernatural; and the unique historical
importance of Christianity, with its long line of
saints and heroes, its good works and central posi-
tion, is put as proof, as leading to the dilemma that
if it be false the highest good comes from false-
hood ; and " what kind of reflection is it upon the
Maker and Master of the universe if we conceive
him as consenting to this thing? Nay, in what
sort of light does it set reason if we imagine it
capable of being so deluded and deceived, seduced
to martyrdom or compelled to enthusiasm by a
mistake ? " ^ Evidently the miracles, even the in-
carnation, are no longer the fundamental proof, but
the history of Christianity and its inherent excel-
lence take that place. The miracles are believed
for its sake. It appearing as supremely good, the
source must be like itself, else is it " the most inso-
lent and fateful anomaly in history." Thus mir-
acles are no longer aids to faith, but its object ; and
men show the robustness of their belief by testify-
ing to their unshaken confidence in the strict
historicity of the narrative. The situation is trans-
formed, miracles taking their place among the doc-

1 " The Philosophy of the Christian Religion," Fairbairn, p. 15.

28 PROOFS OF THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION

trines to be believed and passing into the discipline
of systematic theology.

Half unconsciously the Church occupies the new
position, but it hesitates, fails to discriminate, and
confuses the old and the new. Of the " Evidences
for Christianity " it says with Coleridge, '' I am
weary of the name." It almost ceases to attempt
to win the consent of the enhghtened leaders of
thought. It prefers practical work, or appeals to
the emotions through ritual and sermons. But
the attitude is not possible permanently, for Prot-
estant Christianity cannot consent to become the
religion of the ignorant and the thought-weary.
It must face its situation and again set forth its
"direct and fundamental proofs."

Three possible courses offer themselves, each
with advocates. We may defy the new. Identi-
fying Christianity with particular views of history
and cosmogony, we may make their truth funda-
mental. But this is to confess that Christianity
has no essential message to men who hold the
modern view of the world. Or we may modify
the older argument and compromise, retracting,
restating, adding, omitting, mediating, — a method
often necessary, and with its advantages as it sub-
stitutes gradual change for revolution. But it has

THE MODERN VIEW OF THE WORLD 29

only a relative value, and chiefly for believers who
occupy still substantially the earlier positions. It
does not meet the situation nor really attempt to
discuss the fundamental issues. Or, finally, we
may accept the modern view of the world, and
study anew the problem. The classic apologetics
was consistent and effective since it met its antag-
onists upon their own ground. Modern apolo-
getics must do the same or confess that in the full
light of modern thought it has no reason to offer
for its faith.

Therefore we ask, What are the modern methods
of proof ? "What is religion and how may it be
proved ? What is Christianity in its essential char-
acteristic, and what can be the nature of its proof ?
Let us begin at the beginning, with reality and
proof.

Ill

REALITY AND PROOF

When we say the Christian religion is true we
mean that it is not merely subjective, that it is
not a fancy, nor a state of feeling, nor an hypothe-
sis, but that it accords with an established order of
facts, for this is what men mean by reality. In
formal treatises methods of proof appear intricate,
and in statement recondite, but in ordinary life
the matter is simple. The necessity for proof
arises when the correspondence of any proposition
with the facts is questioned. When thus a doubt
arises one goes closer to the object, inspects it,
touches it, smells it, hears it ; then, if doubt still
remain, he repeats his observations and brings com-
petent judges to aid in the decision. Or, if the
object of the doubt be intangible and not to be
tested through the senses, an attempt is made to
repeat the experience again and again, and to get
others to make the tests, until the question is
settled and the doubt is resolved. Or, if the fact

REALITY AND PROOF 31

cannot be verified, even though one testify to the
certainty of his belief, the doubt remains and we
may not speak of proof. But though one may still
beheve what he cannot prove, for the most part that
is regarded as a reality which can be demonstrated
to one's self and to others as corresponding to an
established order of facts. One can distinguish
usually well enough between that which is merely
real to himself and that which has reality for all.
For example, a certain landscape is often visited
in dreams. As dream it is real, but as landscape
it is unreal, for it represents no established order of
facts of land and sea. The experience cannot be
verified by repetition, nor can another be directed
how to reach it. It is subjective, and is dismissed
as imaginary. Now the plain man understands
reality to be this conformity to an established order ;
and while the psychologist has his own way of ex-
plaining this reference, for our purpose it is all
summed up in this : that which is real can be veri-
fied by the repeated experience of myself and
others. Could I, as in Du Manner's romance,
repeat my dream experiences night by night and
introduce my friends to them at will, I should at
last lose wholly the distinction between the dream
and the waking world and both would be alike

32 PROOFS OF THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION

real, for I could verify my dreams and prove them
true by experiment.

Science has the same conception of reality and
the same methods of proof. It also starts with a
question, but it differs in the formation of its
questions in that it collects many specimens and
then, on their basis, asks its questions. It regards
premature theories as hurtful, and hesitates longer
before it makes its tentative assertion or clearly
frames its question; for, while the plain man is
easily satisfied by a simple examination, science
must interrogate its facts by various and repeated
and dehcate processes. Then finally it comes to
its conclusion and states it.

Reality and its proof are the same in principle
for the plain man and the scientist, but with the
latter theory plays the larger part. The plain
man's knowledge terminates with concrete facts or
with a few rude generahzations, but the scientist
aims at establishing "laws." From his collection
of facts he draws an inference, makes a guess, and
then verifies his guess by experiment. Finding it
verified he publishes it, inviting the scrutiny of
other scientific men, and when it obtains common
consent it becomes "a law" of nature by which
the universe is controlled. Thus his procedure

REALITY AND PROOF 33

begins with a thought and concludes with an ob-
jective " law," which separates itself from his mind
and appears as guiding the nebulous mass before
the worlds came into being. He insists upon his
own originality, and quarrels for it; it was his
guess, his hypothesis, his concept, and now, es-
tablished and accepted by universal scientific con-
sent, it is no longer his, though called still by his
name, but is become a natural law which existing
from eternity God himself cannot change. Ulti-
mately it may be held a truth so certain that the
mind camiot think its contrary. Gravitation is an
illustration of such a law, which existed first as a
mere surmise.

Sometimes an hypothesis is used as mere theory
for the laboratory, without further thought of its
establishment. It is a working hypothesis, to be
cast aside when it has served its purpose. It is
distinguished from a natural law as purely subjec-
tive and temporary. But neither the employment
of such devices nor the more important fact that
hypotheses which are supposed to be laws are often
finally rejected shakes the confidence that the
powers which really rule may be made known.
Indeed scientific men come to pride themselves on
their repeated rejection of theories which failed

34 PROOFS OF THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION

because of their relentless vigor of investigation,
and to point to these very failures as a kind of
negative guarantee of final success; for scientific
faith survives all errors, all inadequate theories,
and triumphs in the face of contradictions which
seem overwhelming and final.

In science thus theory is the chief thing. Once
established it is more certain than concrete facts.
That is, the experimenter does not question the
truth of gravitation but of his observations, when
facts seem to contradict the law. But though in
science a question is the beginning and a theory
the end, still, none the less, concrete facts remain
the final test. If a theory refuse this test, if it
cannot be submitted to the experimentation of
competent observers, or if, though established for
centuries undoubted, concrete facts are discovered
which contradict it, it is rejected like the land-
scape of my dreams, as having no touch witli our
w^aking lives, however fascinating and complete
and alluring it may seem. A theory which cannot
be tested, or which is contradictory of the only
facts which can be tested, is pseudo-science, with-
out relationship to reality.

But while science appeals to experience, it limits
its appeal to the few who are competent. So does

REALITY AND PROOF 35

the plain man. He does not care for the judg-
ment of one who is color blind as to a mooted
question in shades of green, nor for the judgment
of a deaf man as to the sounding of the dinner-
bell. It is only those who are competent who may
speak, and the testimony of a man of keen sight
or hearing will outweigh that of a dozen who are
weak in eye or ear. So in the scientific world it
is the few who decide. The masses count for
nothing. All Asia and Africa count for nothing.
The intelligent and highly educated in other fields
count for nothing. The law is held as established
and orthodox when the verdict of the few who are
competent to judge is in.

Let me repeat briefly. The plain man regards
something as real when it conforms to his thought,
when his thought and it agree. It is such a shade
of green, he says, and proves it by careful inspec-
tion and the judgment of others. Such is the law
of nature, the scientist declares, and proves it by
careful inspection and the judgment of competent
men. When the concrete fact and the scientific
law are approved by all who have the right to an
opinion, they are established as real.

Idealist and realist agree in recognizing a dis-
tinction in our mental processes. Sometimes we

36 PROOFS OF THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION

deal with thoughts which we can manipulate as we
will ; we build castles in Spain without reference
to geography or physics ; or we construct a tran-
scendental geometry on the assumption of a space
of more than three dimensions. The two illustra-
tions are of the same kind of process, though the
latter is elaborate, with established rules and start>-
ing-points, so that it is a game which many can
play and which can be extended indefinitely. But
men, scientific, philosophical, and uneducated, usu-
ally mean by reality that which is not thus con-
structed by our minds and in our minds. Facts
are what they are ; we are to find them and study
them and form our science according to them.
Or, if we cannot yet find them, if we admit they
are still thoughts, yet we suppose that under dif-
ferent conditions we shall be able to find and verify
them.

Indeed, so far is this pressed that a notion of
reality arises which finds it in something quite
separate from our consciousness, and makes knowl-
edge to consist in finding out how it exists wholly
independent of our perception. So we distin-
guish between what is and what appears, between
things-in-themselves and things as they act upon
us, and suppose that real knowledge is of the es-

REALITY AND PROOF 37

sence, the noumenon, the unchangeable something
which is, whatever we may think or feel or know.
This, however, gives us ontological metaphysics as
true knowledge, and it is as far as possible from that
which men in general mean by reality. For this
is found precisely in things as they appear to us,
and act upon us, and enter into relations with us.

Our purpose is not to discuss these questions,
but to point out our common agreements. The
realistic explanation differs widely from the ideal-
istic, but both agree in the notion of reality we
have set forth. The classic challenge of the realist
to the idealist to hit his head against a stone, with
its answer that the proposed test proves only the
impenetrability of the realist's own head, at least
shows that both agree in accepting as real an es-
tablished order of facts and in interpreting it by
its effects upon ourselves. We should no doubt
add the word "normal," — by its normal effects
upon ourselves. The abnormal appearance is real
of course, in a sense, but we mean by reality that
which is usual, and we find it by putting ourselves
in a normal condition and observing the phenom-
enon repeatedly. Our assurance is increased when
others agree with us and we feel that neither we
ourselves nor the phenomena are abnormal. So

38 PROOFS OF THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION

that the two factors are a consciousness, and an
appearance to it ; the consciousness the same in all
rational men, and the appearance describable in
common terms by all.

The older logic relied wholly upon the appeal
to common consent. It started with axioms of
thought supposed to be accepted by all reasoning
men ; it shut its eyes and its ears and proceeded by
the processes of logic, testing its conclusions solely
by their clearness and self-consistency. But when
these conclusions were proclaimed as true they
were supposed to agree with the established ordei
of concrete facts as truly as does the plain man's
judgment or the scientist's law. That is, the a
priori philosopher did not suppose that he was
framing a system which, like my dream landscape,
lias only subjective existence. But he assumed,
that the order of being and the order of thought
are one and the same, and therefore that if a con-
sistent system could be thought out it would truly
represent the real world of facts. Thus he as-
sumed the veiy thing modern science attempts to
prove, the agreement with facts. The scientist
too brings his theory to the facts, reads it into
them, but none the less submits it to them. He
does not assume in advance that they conform to

REALITY AND PROOF 39

it, however clear, self-evident, and convincing it
may seem, but by laborious experiment verifies it.

A theological example illustrates the older pro-
cedure. We have the idea of a perfect being;
perfection implies necessary existence; necessary
existence implies actual existence; therefore the
perfect being exists. The aim is not a syllogism,
but the demonstration of God's real and to me
objective existence. But the scientific test is want-
ing; no such perfect being can be tested, verified
by experiment, or shown to have any but a purely
notional existence. Existence doubtless is part of
my definition of a perfect being, but beyond the
consistency of my definition the proof has no value.
The argument appeals for its demonstration in the
scientific sense to some future time, when it is sup-
posed that we shall enter God's presence and see
him as he is.

It is not that metaphysics is an impossible branch
of knowledge, nor that it is unimportant, nor that
its materials and subjects transcend knowledge,
but that its canons of proof have led to no con-
clusive result. Its theories have been formed a
priori, its logic has been deductive, and its sole
tests have been clearness and self-consistency of
thought. It therefore cannot be proved scientifi-

40 PROOFS OF THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION

cally. If the thought be so clear that reasoning
men cannot think the contrary when once it has
been explained to them, then it has the same evi-
dence of truth which belongs to pure mathematics.
Such an a 'priori philosophy would rank with
geometry, as Spinoza expected his system would do,
but even so it would not follow that our perfect
being should have existence save in our thought,
as the demonstration that the three angles of tri-
angles equal two right angles does not show that
any real triangle with perfect angles exists. But
a priori metaphysics has a twofold difficulty : it
cannot, like pure mathematics, so put its concep-
tions that all competent men agree in them, nor
can it, like physics, show that its laws conform to
and express the relations of the world of concrete
facts. Hence metaphysics seems unprofitable and
stale to many scientific men. But there is a newer
metaphysics, which does not differ in method from
physical science. It studies its facts and builds
up its proximate theories in psychology and the
science of knowledge. On these as basis it at-
tacks the more fundamental propositions and tries
to form a theory which shall be all-embracing. It
starts with concrete facts, and concludes by sub-
mitting its theories to facts as final tests. It does

REALITY AND PROOF 41

not differ from physics in method, but includes it,
for it is the science of sciences dealing with the
conceptions which all sciences use. Its concep-
tions, theories, are fewer but more fundamental
than the conceptions of the particular sciences, and
seem more remote than they from concrete facts.
But in truth this is not so, for, as fundamental, the
conceptions of metaphysics belong to ail facts and
may be tested by the results of the special sciences.
With the acceptance of the scientific method we
may look for a growing agreement, and the coming
of a time when competent men shall agree at least
as fully as in physics, when metaphysical theory
shall be accepted by students, and shall be seen to
explain the fundamental facts and faiths of all
knowledge. One need not add that such a meta-
physical understanding will go far towards heal-
ing the divisions in the theories of the other
sciences.

But a complete agreement is far in the future,
and science, including metaphysics, is content with
fragmentary hypotheses as instalments of truth.
Men know that the most all-embracing theory is
formed only by abstraction, by selecting parts of
the fulness of reality, and that no theory can ex-
hibit the completeness of any single concrete fact.

42 PROOFS OF THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION

Thus, all theories are only temporary and partial
expedients, instalments of truth. The theories of
the past were guesses, incomplete and unsatisfac-
tory, sometimes misleading. But by them were
advances made on the path which has led to the
fuller knowledge of our day. Therefore these dim
gropings after truth, if haply it might be found,
are not scorned nor derided, but are studied, that
the growth and method of knowledge may be
understood. In their light, for example, we learn
that our own best theories and most certain knowl-
edge may be superseded, and that the science of
to-morrow may look upon to-day as we upon yester-
day. i\Ien are aware that they do not know all
the facts, and that every generalization based upon
partial information is subject to revision when all
the facts are discovered. None the less, science
holds its theories as true, as instalments of truth,
and conceives of a higher truth as doing better
what we do now, and of absolute truth as accom-
plishing perfectly in view of all the facts what we
accomplish imperfectly with our fragmentary view
of things. We may be sure that such absolute
and final truth will be established only as we are
true to the facts as given, and to the truth as we
see it, and are, at the same time, ready to give up

REALITY AND PROOF 43

the science which explains in part for the science
which shall better explain a larger part.

Thus far we have followed the plain man in the
tests to which he submits his question, and we
have attempted to show that scientific and meta-
physical tests of reality do not differ in principle
from the simplest proofs of the simplest fact. But
other elements enter life and constitute its larger
part. These elements also submit substantially to
the same tests and are governed by the same
method, for knowledge in all its varieties and
parts is one. We have asked what is — but this
is followed by the question, what should be ?

My real landscape may be tested in many ways,
among them as to its beauty. My dream landscape,
too, has this quality, but it can be known only by
myself, and by others only indirectly through my
words. But when I submit the real landscape to
the judgment of others, there is room for difference
of opinion; most beautiful to me it may be less
beautiful, or even not beautiful at all, to them
Many elements enter into this judgment: the in-
definable personal equation, differences of view-
point, of education, of sensibility to mass and form
and color. But though differences are more ir-
reconcilable here than in mere matters of fact, it

44 PROOFS OF THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION

is these judgments, ''worth estimates," that bring
together the elements which give content to life :
pleasure, pain, and our feelings in general. All
judgments to a degree partake of this nature, for
the mind acts as one, and never as pure intellect
or as pure feeling ; but in worth estimates distinc-
tively, our feelings, the fundamental part of our
nature, are more immediately concerned. What
here is the standard and the method of proof?

In general the proof and its standard do not
differ from other proofs and standards. Certain
feelings satisfy me, and these feelings I seek to
have confirmed by the judgment of others. They,
too, agree that this is sweet, or beautiful, or grand,
or harmonious. When this agreement is reached,
I take my judgment to be true, and when all men
agree, I have the highest possible proof. But " all
men" is here, as in the other cases, qualified to
mean all men competent to judge, so that, as the
scientist is not disturbed by the adverse judgment
of the ignoramus, the musician is not disturbed
because the man on the street prefers rag time to
Bach or Wagner. The standard in all cases is the
opinion of a relatively small society, the plain man
being content with the traditions of the commu-
nity in which he lives, the scientist with the con-

REALITY AND PROOF 46

currence of his circle of experts, and the musician
or artist with the commendation of the few he
counts his peers.

In any case, if one finds himself alone he is,
likely enough, shaken in his judgment, or if not so
shaken, if still confident, one against the world, he
appeals to the future, to the world sober against
the world drunk, or to the world instructed and
competent against the world incompetent and ig-
norant. Thus, in some fashion, future or present,
the appeal is to the judgment of the world. But
such appeal to the future is of the nature of faith.
Sure of my own judgment, though now, owing to
the prejudice or incompetence of others, I cannot
prove it, I look to the future for my vindication.

I Strictly speaking, I can speak only of a future
proof and of a present faith.

But faith may actively labor to realize itself.
It may instruct the ignorant and persuade the

\ prejudiced. It opens schools and art galleries, it
gives concerts of good music and distributes good
literature, certain that this which satisfies and
gratifies its own taste ultimately must gratify all.
It thus creates the very standard to which it finally
appeals for its confirmation. Thus in worth es-
timates there is an objective reference of a peculiar

46 PROOFS OF THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION

kind: they seek to externalize themselves. My

plan of a landscape differs from my dream. My

dream ends with itself and the gratified memory

which remains, but my plan tries to modify the

actual unsesthetic landscape which stretches before

my door, and to make it conform to my ideal.

The highest activities of life are of this nature.

Science itself is first a selection of material from

the formless mass in accordance with a thought;

then, when it passes out of the domain of pure

science into applied, it is the careful selection and

disposition of material, so that that which has been

only idea may take fomi and shape and enter

the domain of actual fact. The domain of nature

! is shaped by art, and thought, externalized, takes

] its place henceforth in the domain of natural law,

I and of the universe of facts. In such activity

■ man's whole nature is involved. The intellect

suggests the concept, the feelings approve, the will

carries it into execution.

( This is the process in politics, social theories,

I and ethics ; an ideal, first, which must be approved

: by practice, embodied in institutions, and accepted

by all mankind. The thought of the philosopher

I becomes the dominant force of communities and

I

' nations and the race. First it takes possession of

REALITY AND PROOF 47

the soul of the individual, commending itself as
good and just and true. But while his only it is
incomplete ; so he teaches others, who carry on the
missionary labor, until widening circles feel its
influence, and it becomes at last the standard for a
denomination, a tribe, a people, a race, is embodied
in institutions and rules conduct, and is real in the
highest and fullest sense. It is a worth estimate
become externalized, the justice, the law, the right,
of men. It may be the guide to further truth.

Fundamentally, I repeat, the tests of truth are
the same in the whole range of our experience.
Does it on repeated experiment satisfy me ? Do com-
petent observers concur in the judgment ? Does it
agree with the facts ? We may add, does it af-
ford a starting-point for further investigations and
discoveries? Some judgments declare that the
concept concurs with already existing facts, but
others that facts can be made to concur with them.
The first appeal to concrete facts collected, the
second to facts to be formed and framed. Until so
formed and framed the appeal is still to faith, for
the test is that the theory work. As soon as it
thus works, it takes its place among established
facts and submits to the ordinary tests.

These worth estimates, to be realized through

48 PROOFS OF THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION

conduct, demand therefore an act of will. It is
not '' the will to beheve " but the will to do. It is
not that the evidence is insufficient, and that there-
fore I force myself to a decision, but that, satisfied
myself, my ideal must externalize itself and take its
place among the objects known by all. Such ac-
tivity brings me into contact with reality, and sepa-
rates my true thought from my dreams and mere
ideals. If it will not work, if it cannot arouse my
will, or if, my will aroused, I find the vision fades
and that it cannot be realized for myself or others,
it is a mere fancy of my mind, to be put with the
landscape of my dreams. Only when one carries
his belief into practice or verifies his theory by
experiment, does he know. That which refuses
this test is not fruitful knowledge, nor susceptible
of proof.

As already indicated the distinction made by the
term " worth estimate " is artificial, since all judg-
ments partake of this nature. Our feelings are
fundamental in consciousness, and to gratify them
we move and think. But we find obstacles in the
way, for an order not ourselves seems to thwart us.
So we set ourselves to learn and to master it.
Even if we seek knowledge " for its own sake "
still is this a worth estimate by men whose

REALITY AND PROOF 49

strongest feeling is the desire to know, and whose
deepest gratification is the solving of a puzzle.
But for the most part other motives predominate.
Men study the world that they may use it, that is,
that their desires may be gratified. Could it be
shown that knowledge is useless, that its results are
not gratifying but the reverse, so that the more men
have of it the worse is their condition, — that is
to say, if the final judgment were that the world is
fundamentally evil, so that illusion is better than
truth, — science would come to an end, for men
would no longer investigate. So that in all
science, even in pure science, a worth estimate is
expressed or implied.

Worth estimates move the will and are the chief
agents in the progress of the race. From them
come the differences of barbarism and civilization,
as ideals advance, as men come to desire higher
ends, and attempt to realize these ideals in con-
duct. These estimates do not classify, merely, the
facts of nature, but use these facts as material for
their own embodiment. Nature is the field for
their employment, as descriptive science furnishes
material for applied science. Through them man
seeks in nature for the realization of his will. He
learns the laws of nature that he may triumph

60 PROOFS OF THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION

over it, for by learning first its facts he achieves
realities which are more wonderful than the
highest flights of his uninformed imagination, than
the strangest marvels of his dreams. As thus he
labors to fulfil his purposes and to gratify his de-
sires he reveals not only the possibilities of ex-
ternal nature, but himself. As he wills, he is, and
we know him as we learn what has supreme value
in his estimates of life.

The world is thus twofold, — a natural order
which man learns, and a supernatural order which
he imposes. The first can never yield the second,
and the second cannot be realized without the first.
Nature is known as man brings his thoughts to
it, and nature is transformed as man brings his
will to act upon it. The highest proof which can
be offered of any theory is that it thus trans-
forms the world, that is, that it works.

Where now shall we find reality in religion, and
where shall Ave look for proof? Is its reality in
conformity to an established order, and if so, to
the order which is or to that which shall be ? Is
our worth estimate in religion derived from
nature, or is it a protest against nature and pro-
phetic of a new heavens and a new earth ? Is its
proof to be found in visions and marvels extra-

REALITY AND PROOF 51

natural, a breaking through or a reversing of
nature, or is it to be found in the transformation
of the world ? To answer these questions we
must investigate it, and this, in the next chapter
we shall attempt to do by the aid of the results
attained in the science of comparative religion.

IV

RELIGION: ITS DEFINITION, DEVELOP-
MENT, VARIETIES, CONFLICTS,
AND PROOFS

The science of comparative religion has shown
that man is religious by nature and that the ex-
ceptions prove the rule. Naturally attempts are
made to explain the fact, for its importance is un-
doubted, since religion affects man in his whole
being and through him powerfully works upon his
environment. The change of attitude is remark-
able among scientific men, the subject now pri-
marily exciting, not conflict, but investigation.

But, as with most studies, it has not proved
easy to set forth its precise limitations, nor ex-
actly to define its materials, and no definition com-
mands general consent. Religion is man reacting
upon his environment in a definite way, but when
we ask for the characteristic of this definite way
we get various answers. In view of the wide
diversity one hesitates to set forth his own view,
but I must venture, since we cannot discuss
religion without defining it.

RELIGION: ITS DEFINITION 53

"Religion is the recognition of super-sensible
realities as superior and worshipful.

" (a) Religion has to do with the invisible and
the intangible. The merest peasant who worships
the rock out of which a tree grows does not wor-
ship it as rock. Nor when he restrains the sacri-
legious globe-trotter from throwing a can down
the crater of a volcano with the exclamation, ' It
is God I ' has he any notion that the mountain qud
mountain is divine. It is not the stone nor the
tree, nor the image, nor the cave, nor the moun-
tain, nor the sun, nor the river ; but all these are
sacred because they are not merely rock, river, or
tree. Let the peasant be convinced to the con-
trary, that is, let him believe them to be so much
brute matter, and ipso facto he ceases to worship
them. In the visible, which he does not worship,
he is conscious of something more^ which he does
worship.

*' And this same consciousness continues in all
stages of religious development. The peasant
conceives it under semi-materialistic forms, for so
only can he think, while the idealistic philosopher
calls it the transcendental and attempts to free
it from all phenomenal elements; but in both
alike is the feeling of a somewhat other than this

54 PROOFS OF THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION

visible and tangible world with which our senses
have normally to do. In this, religious feeling
differs from the sesthetic, for could the universe
be shown to be, all in all, only a great machine^
religion would vanish, but aesthetics, I take it,
would continue, in part at least, as before.
y " (5) This supersensible somewhat is recognized
/ as real; indeed, while in religious mood, as the
\ highest reality. To the peasant its presence is
mediated by things of sense, but it is more real
than they and gives them their value. The con-
ception varies, of course, with education until a
Matthew Arnold thinks of ' a stream of tendency,'
and different as his thought is from the semi-
materialistic fancy of the fetish worshipper, yet he
too conceives this ' stream ' not as mere ideal but
as real.

^' (c) It is worshipful. The peasant bows before
it, mutters his prayer, and feels in its presence
awe, wonder, maj^be fear, and worships. The
philosopher may use no outward form, utter no
word, and yet, putting this as highest, worship in
spirit and in truth.
, " ((^) It is good, that is, it meets the desires of
I the worshipper. The pacification of bad gods is
a perversion of the religious sentiment, though

RELIGION: ITS DEFINITION 55

the misconception from which it arises is natural
enough. Even a religion avowedly pessimistic,
like Buddhism, holds goodness fundamental. For
the evils of existence may be escaped and the
teaching of Buddha is a joyful message of sal-
vation. But the belief that man may be saved
is faith in ultimate goodness, else the last word
would be, 'Which way I fly is hell: myself am
hell ; * and from despair comes no religion^

I "(e) And finally, this supersensible presence is
believed to * respond ' to the worshipper. Religion
is not conceived as one-sided, beginning and end-

; ing in ourselves, but is communion with the tran-
scendent and the divine. The 'response' also is
of course conceived variously, including the vague
feeling stirred in the heart of the peasant, dreams
and visions, the multiform phenomena of posses-
sion, the ecstasy of extreme emotionalism vari-
ously stimulated, deliverance through miraculous
interference, communion with a personal God in
Theistic religions, and the beatific vision of the
philosopher who feels his individual self swallowed
up in the Infinite and finds the peace which pass-
eth all understanding as he perceives God to be
all and in all.

"These five elements, then, are constituent of

66 PROOFS OF THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION

religion: the unseen, the transcendent, recognized
as real, as worshipful, as good, and as 'respond-
ing ' to us. In all religions from lowest to high-
est they are found, and together form an inclusive
definition.

*'It follows that religion does not spring from
fear (observe how dear to his heart is the religion
of the devotee), though fear doubtless often stim-
ulates and quickens the religious sense. Nor does
it arise from the sense of dependence, though this
is often closely related to it. But man worships,
sometimes, that on which he does not recognize
himself as dependent. It is not merely with pray-
ers for help that the worshipper goes to his god,
but fully as much with adoration and praise. The
religious man, so to speak, instinctively worships,
without needing further reason. Nor is religion
the offspring of ignorance, though it is true the
ignorant man ignorantly worships many things
afterwards recognized as unworthy symbols of the
Divine Being. But this successive purification
and correction no more prove that religion is es-
sentially the offspring of ignorance than does the
progressive rejection of hypotheses and insufficient
generalizations prove that science is the offspring
of ignorance, j Religion is not negative, but posi-

RELIGION: ITS DEFINITION 57

/tive, and to the religious man increase of knowl-
'-^ edge means increase of worship, so that he shall
worship most who knows most. Neither is reli-
gion the offspring of animism, nor of fetichism,
nor of ancestor worship, nor of totemism. As well
might one suppose it the offspring of Methodism,
or of Presbyterianism. These are various ex-
pressions of the religious consciousness, which is
deeper than them all and source of them all.
Nor is religion one with theologies, in any form.
It does not come from our instinct of causality,
or of personality. Theologies are philosophies or
cosmologies, crude or profound, explanations of
phenomena, varying with each grade of man's
evolution. Theology none the less, as matter of
course, influences religion and this at every stage.
For our separation of the religious feeling from
the theological concept is more or less artifi-
cial, since consciousness always contains feeling,
thought, and will.

" Could philosophy demonstrate the unreality of
the being worshipped, not by this worshipper or that,
but in general, so that material elements would
represent the all, religion, as we have seen, would
cease. Could theology establish an absentee God
who had at some time revealed his will but had now

58 PROOFS OF THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION

withdrawn himself, again religion would disappear.
There might be the obligation to believe certain
statements touching such a God, but none to wor-
ship, and by hypothesis no communion with him.
At best there would be a belief in such communion
in some future world. But, apart from such ex-
treme views, theology must modify the content of
the religious consciousness at every point. Our
theology varies with every variation in our general
view of the world, and therefore it is vain to look
for agreement in the developed contents, but only
in the vague and primary feelings as above inter-
preted. For example, if we begin with our open-
mouthed peasant in Japan going on a pilgrimage,
we shall get from him no answer which is articu-
late. The wonderful to him is God, mediated to
him by the unusual in nature and in man and in
art. When educated in certain schools of Chinese
philosophy he will speak of rei^ meaning some mys-
terious personage, and of Tci, a mysterious power.
Trained by a priest he will speak of tlie liotohe
(Buddhas), and of gods many and diverse. With
these differing conceptions, theologies, he will nar-
rate a differing experience. That is, he interprets
his religious experience in terms of his theology
and by means of his theology brings new experi-

RELIGION: ITS DEFINITION 59

ences under the head of religion, rejecting old ex-
pressions and experiences as no longer adequate.
At the lowest he will worship the wonderful, at
the highest, trained now in Chinese philosophy, he
will give up native gods and shrines, will reject
Buddhist images and temples, and will say, * Fear
the ^vill of Heaven. When man leaves all else and
is humane and true he accords with Heaven ; it
surely cherishes and embraces liim.' At the start-
ing-point is a feeling vague and almost indescrib-
able, and a theology equally vague and inarticulate,
with a worship unorganized and of simplest form.
But as the conceptions grow in clearness, so does
the experience. In well-defined polytheism are
direct communications from the gods, direct an-
swers to prayers, a priesthood, sacrifices, temples,
and an experience mediated by all these, itself
elaborate and complex. So through all forms, hen-
otheistic, monotheistic, pantheistic, the religious
element remains, but varies, is impoverished or
enriched, ennobled or debased according to man's
stage of culture and his general view of the world.
Even in the highest abstraction, in the pantheistic
view which seeks oneness and not communion,
there is still language which can be interpreted
only in the tones of all reUgious experience, and

60 PROOFS OF THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION

man may be Gocl-intoxicated while denying God.
Like the peasant, though from the other extreme,
he too can find no words to express that which he
feels and knows.

" We separate, then, the two elements, the relig-
ious instinct present in all forms, and the devel-
oped religious consciousness dependent upon our
general view of the world and modified directly by
our theology. From this the inference is obvious,
viz. : that we can make few statements as to
religion in general, but must discuss religions in
particular, if we would go beyond these vague and
general points all have in common. For exam-
ple, we ask, Is religion beneficial? But we can
only answer, What religion? From its emotional
nature religion lends itself readily to immorality
and to superstition. To immorality because the
religious feelings are akin to other feelings, and
unless carefully discriminated are associated with
sensuahty, fear, anger, cruelty, and the like. Re-
ligion then gives its sanction to these passions and
forms a combination of terrible strength and evil.
The religious feeling, like all others, longs for
gratification, is of great strength, and may readily
be misled into supposing itself gratified through the
stimulation of other passions. It lends itself with

RELIGION: ITS DEFINITION 61

equal readiness to superstition, for it precedes a
reasoned view of the world, lays hold uncritically
of objects and teachings which seem to offer it a
basis, renders its objects sacred, objects to their
criticism, and thus remains in the past while the
science of the present moves on to other view-
points. Thus results the never-ending conflict, not
only of science and theology, but of science and
religion in so far as the religious experience clings
to and finds expression through the conceptions of
the past held sacred in theology. No religious
feeling is 'pure,' but each is in part offspring of
concepts which are joined with these feelings from
the beginning, and therefore at no stage has this
conflict been escaped excepting when for uncertain
periods man's view of the world has remained
unchanged and in harmony with the cosmological
teachings of the prevalent rehgious faith. " ^

Doubt arises when ritual or theory appears to
fail. In the simplest instance when the peasant
who has reverenced a tree as possessing divine and
deadly powers finds himself unharmed within its
sphere of influence he concludes that the tree has

1 Extract from a paper prepared for the New York Philosophi-
cal Club, and printed in the " International Journal of Ethics,"
April, 1902.

62 PROOFS OF THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION

lost its divinity. Possibly, when more intelligent,
he questions the theory and asks himself whether
the tree ever contained supernatural presences and
occult powers. By and by he accepts the denial
and rejects all trees, then all inanimate objects,
and finally all finite things as the abodes of gods.
When thus belief at the command of reason sur-
renders its immediate objects religion itself seems
destroyed, but it only retreats to some more inac-
cessible stronghold, whence it resumes its sway, for
it cannot be banished from the world since it be-
longs to the nature of man. . Thus the rejection of
particular beliefs may come from two causes, — the
values suggested not being obtained, or the theory
set forth as explanation being doubted. Men
come to test their beliefs critically, to submit them
to the judgment of others, and to hold them more
tenaciously than before or to give them up.

The fundamental fact is the experience itself.
When one has it he relates it to his neighbor, who
probably accepts it, since belief is easy, for " all
men yearn after the gods." But a single experi-
ence does not suffice, and belief on testimony ex-
cites desires for a first-hand acquaintance with the
facts. So the experience is repeated and " the prac-
tice of the Presence of God " grows up, by which

RELIGION: ITS DEFINITION 63

truth is verified and the religious sense is gratified.
Ritual, temple, grove, mysterious light revive the
feelings of awe and reverence, and of some invisi-
ble but dimly tangible presence. Prolonged devo-
tions and concentration of mind, with ascetic
deprivations, make apparitions real, and reliance
upon a Divine power stimulates the marking of
coincidences. This art of religion is fitted to its
theory, and revives and verifies its experience. But
the three, theory, art, and experience do not exactly
correspond. The theory is often an afterthought,
the attempted explanation of the experience, and
neither represents nor explains it exactly. So
too it often comes to include far more than the
experience contains, because of the system-build^
ing tendencies of man. Gathering to itself much
which in origin is quite foreign to religion in
any phase, it works on its formulae until at last
the intellectual acceptance of the system becomes
the important matter, and the experience is dis-
trusted as enthusiasm or mysticism, and a cold
intellectual belief is substituted for religion. Such
systems cannot be true, for they neither express the
experience itself, nor are they the outcome of a
really careful study of the facts, but they are com-
posed of loosely attached facts, theories, and fan-

64 PROOFS OF THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION

cies of heterogeneous origin. The end is paradox,
which cannot be explained nor understood, and
faith becomes its acceptance in spite of the protest
of the reason. An apologetics then is formed
which perhaps emphasizes the incomprehensibility
of the doctrine, or labors by various expedients to
explain away the most obvious difficulties, or turns
back to authority and asserts that the critic should
accept the teaching of the greater men who for-
mulated the doctrine.

Or the ritual may be so elaborated and made
sacred that its performance is the chief thing,
giving us an empty ceremonialism, as the other
gives an empty faith. Sometimes too, in highly
developed and self-conscious forms of religion, the
attempt is made to force an experience in accord-
ance with the developed doctrine, with results
which are artificial to a liigh degree. But in all
these instances there is wide departure from the
normal rehgious type, in which the living experi-
ence is its own evidence.

As this evidence is found in all religions which
are alive, it cannot be the exclusive proof of any.
In apocalyptic the things of sense mediate the
things of the spirit, the visions of saints conform
to the earthly environment, and the angels and

RELIGION: ITS DEFINITION 65

heavens of Chinaman and European differ as do
their worldly habitations and experiences. Thus,
while the visions of things normally invisible
seem conclusive to the believer, they have no fur-
ther authority, — else would Buddhist, Christian,
and Hindu all have claims to the reality of the
worlds disclosed, but one hardly can suppose the
heavenly world divided according to the manners
and customs and political divisions of present liv-
ing humanity. So apocalyptic cannot be appealed
to as proof, since it is common to many forms of
religion and varies with each, though an argument
has been suggested from the phenomena as a whole
as showing a realm variously interpreted accord-
ing to the individual's surroundings and culture.
Such an experience could be proved only were it
verified by experiment and open to tests by all.

But when subjective experience is of a higher
nature, when the experience does not express
itself in tales of visions and marvels, but in words
which testify of ecstasy or of profound emotional
satisfaction and happiness, it is intelligible even
only to those who participate in a like experience,
and it finds its parallel in widely differing faiths, so
that it too cannot be urged as definite and particular
proof of any. It is like the music of Asiatic and

66 PROOFS OF THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION

of European, each satisfied with his own appeals to
it, without convincing the other. Were there such
an experience open to all, and acknowledged by all,
then it would have as high a degree of proof as
belongs to any subjective state, and its reference
to an outer order or reality as source w^ould be the
task of philosophical theology, but not of apolo-
getics. ReUgious experience, in this sense, may
well, then, give rise to a theology, but it cannot be
urged as primary religious proof.

For the most part religions do not seek univer-
sal proof. They are content with the testimony of
their own circle of adherents. Indeed, even if the
claims be universal, men are content with the tes-
timony of some little community, and substitute
the testimony of family, village, nation, or church
for that of all mankind. In the varied relations
of life this question of universal validity seldom
arises. But a few religions, Islam, Buddliism, and
Christianity force attention to their claim to be
absolutely and exclusively true. How shall such
claims be tested, or how shall one religion prove
its truth to the believers in the others ? Buddhist
and Christian both claim a profound and present
salvation, a peace which passe th understanding,
which satisfies the deepest longings of the soul.

RELIGION: ITS DEFINITION 67

But the Christian leads us to God the Father of
spirits and to Jesus Christ his Son, while the
Buddhist denies God and proclaims an abstract
" law " as the ultimate truth and reality. Each
claims certainty in his immediate experience, and
the experience of each is inaccessible to the other.
Were either experience to become universal, so
that all who submit themselves to religious condi-
tions should know it, proof could be claimed;
but it would be needless, as no rival would
combat its pretensions. So it is in isolated
communities, but in the modern world all com-
munities mingle and the question seeks its an-
swer. An absolute worth estimate is found, in
music, art, or religion, when none disputes it, —
securus judicat orhis terrarum^ a universal experi-
ence yielding universal consent. Meanwhile to
the individual his own experience may be decisive.
If vivid and original he does not wait for common
consent, but sets himself to create it. He becomes
the preacher and prophet, and by and by men who
cannot verify his experience will yet die for his
doctrine. But when men are content to accept
doctrine at second-hand, without a personal experi-
ence, their religion is considered debased and unreal ;
and this is as true in Confucianism and Buddhism

68 PROOFS OF THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION

as in Christianity. It is in vain that one believes
that God spake unto Moses and the prophets if
himself insensible to the Divine presence and gifts.
The teachings of the inspired men of the past may
be regarded, indeed, as the necessary means of access
to him, but the fact of present access is funda-
mental. When, therefore, the evidence for a
religion is put chiefly in the past, it is the sign
that the faith is dying. So certain forms of
Buddhism confess that in the evil present there is
no attainment, but only the word of the Law with-
out power. The apologetics which puts historic
evidence as to miracles in the chief place belongs
to this class,! for the appeal is to a display of
power which long since ceased, and to a super-
naturalism which no longer submits to tests. To
the unbeliever who asks for proofs, the claim of
supernatural enlightenment for Gautama, or of
superhuman discernment for Confucius, or of a
heavenly origin for the Koran, adds nothing to the
strength of the case for these religions. Since the
supernatural wonder in all the instances alike has
ceased, the fundamental proofs can be found only

1 Paley and his school reduce the special contents of the Chris-
tian religion to the lowest possible terms. Compare him with a
Wesley, who finds the chief proofs in a living experience.

RELIGION: ITS DEFINITION 69

in the contents of the teaching, and not in argu-
ments as to its source. And if there be transcen-
dental doctrines in the books these cannot be
proved in any true sense, but depend upon the
plain matters of fact, the truths which can be
verified by experiment and can be tested by all.
Thus, if the essential truth of any religion is found
in some teaching which takes one wholly outside
of experience, such a teaching cannot be the object
of apologetic reasoning, for this confines itself to
teachings which can be verified.

Hence in the doctrines of any religion it is not
the mysteries but the plain truths which submit
themselves to proof and are determinative. The
religion is determined by its doctrine of God no
doubt, but not of God as incomprehensible or
mysterious, but of him as presented to the reason.
For in advanced stages of culture religion is the
worship of that which is best and highest. If,
therefore, God be described unworthily it is impos-
sible to worship him, and men refuse to call him
God who is unrighteous or unwise or untrue.
The teachings of most religions we reject at once
without serious examination. They affront our
intelligence, or our taste, or our moral sense.
If they offer, none the less, prodigies of power as

70 PROOFS OF THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION

proof we turn a^yay indifferent or contemptuous.
In this the religious test does not differ from the
scientific. The specialist will not concern himself
with proofs for theories which are absurd upon
their face, however earnest and sincere their advo-
cates may be, and however large the array of so-
called evidence in their favor.

In religion so strongly is this felt that men of
the highest religious attainment have often been
described as atheists, because they begin mth
emphatic denial of the popular symbols and teach-
ings. Sometimes, by men of high reflective power,
this process continues to the end. Thus in the
" Greater Vehicle " Buddha is the symbol of a
reality higher than the gods, and of a salvation
compared with which residence in heaven for a
great kalpa'^ is not to be desired. The supreme
deity of the Hindu is so exalted that it can be
described only by denying all which we should
account best, — not wise, not good, not loving,
for these, the highest attributes man can think,
are unworthy to describe that which passes all
limitations of word and thought.

The highest men can think varies. For the

1 A kalpa is a period of prodigious length — just short of
limitless.

RELIGION: ITS DEFINITION 71

most part man is a realist, and he ascends by visi-
ble steps from nature to nature's God, taking man
and nature and God in a simple sense and a child-
like way, so that the highest is still commensurate
with himself and may be described in like terms.
But to philosophers such descriptions seem unreal
and unworthy. What the plain man worships as
noblest seems too imperfect and limited and petty,
while to the plain man the Absolute of the phi-
losopher seems vague and unreal in its turn, un-
satisfying to mind and heart. Man varies thus in
his worth estimates in all departments of life, in
his art and music and politics and civilization and
ethics, as in religion. So many religions meet,
seemingly, so fully the needs of such multitudes
of men, how amid them all shall we speak of the
direct and fundamental proofs of any one?

But we need not stop with so dismal an out-
look. It is not every one's judgment of values
which has claims upon our attention. Music in
its rudest forms has its place in savage life, but
we do not therefore surrender our judgment that
the symphony is better and higher. Religion
normally renders man free from fear, and makes
it possible for him to do his work in the world.
Even the religion of the savage accomplishes this

72 PROOFS OF THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION

in its imperfect way. He thinks himself sur-
rounded by demons, which are the imaginary causes
of real dangers from which he cannot flee, but in
spite of which life becomes possible in the belief
that the demons may be propitiated. Though his
religion fosters the very fears it would dispel, yet
is it essentially a way of salvation. Man in his
lowest condition finds religions faith essential, but
so is it at the highest stage of his development.
He must have some faith which rids him of fear
and makes life worth living and work worth doing;
and even he who insists that science only shall
be his creed believes that truth can be discovered,
and that being discovered it shall prove to be
better than all which we now know. As the
scientific seeker after truth disdains none of man's
honest efforts after truth, no matter how mistaken
they have proved to be, and though he acknowl-
edges that his own attempts are subject to future
revision and even contradiction, yet does not con-
clude that therefore all science is vain and that
there is no standard by which his truth may be
shown to be superior to the fancies of the past
which were held with an equal tenacity, so the
religious man may feel deepest sympathy with
the beliefs of the past, with man's blind gropings

RELIGION: ITS DEFIXITIOX 73

after God, and yet hold fast the faith of the
present as manifestly higher and truer, while ad-
mitting that still he knows in part and prophesies
in part, and that by and by, when that which is
perfect is come, that which is in part shall be done
away. His highest and best is represented by his
religion, and his underlying faith is that the full
truth shall be better than his best. What he now
knows he holds as true, but as only an instalment
of the truth. He has too the same conviction
which moves the scientist, that this which ap-
peals to himself as true shall be accepted as true
by all men if only they can be got to see it.

But the scientist appeals not only to the per-
suasive nature of his truth, its self-evidencing
character, but to the order of established facts.
In like fashion does religion in its higher forms
turn to outward facts for proofs. It does not
remain a bare emotion or an unutterable rapture,
but it embodies itself in deeds. It reveals itself
and finds expression in architecture and ritual
and worship, and in morals and the whole conduct
of life. What should be our conduct towards the
gods is a question which arises long after religion
has expressed man's instinctive behavior towards
them. To worship, to pray, to praise, to offer

74 PROOFS OF THE CHRISTIAN IIP:LIGI0N

gifts are instinctive expressions of the religious
emotions. And the expression corresponds to the
nature of the god: if he be mysterious we shall
wonder and adore; if he be cruel we shall send
our children through the fire or offer up our
daughter in return for his aid ; if he be licentious
his cult shall minister to our passions ; if he love
beauty we shall adorn his sanctuary ; if he be
holy we shall enter his presence with clean hands
and a pure heart. Thus religion necessitates a
code of morals, it may be only towards the deity,
or it may be also towards man.

If its code has to do chiefly with worship its
test can be only in its efficiency in producing the
emotions it is designed to stimulate. But if it
include, and especially if it make foremost, duty
towards our fellows, then it offers itself to a test
which may appeal even to those who have not
the experience and do not believe in the theology.
Like other worth estimates which have to do with
society, the question is, does it work ? This is a
proof not far away in heaven nor deep in the heart
of the individual man, but nigh at hand and, like
all other theories which have to do with practical
life, subject to simple and decisive tests.

Thus religion offers itself to be proved. As

RELIGION: ITS DEFINITION 75

religion it says, " Test me and find in me the satis-
faction of your needs." As ethics it says, " Judge
me by my fruits." The first test is only for those
who feel the need of religion; the second offers
itself to all.

If the religion in question claim universality a
comparative proof must be offered that it best
satisfies man's needs and works most perfectly
in all the varied relationships of all the varied
societies of men. It is not possible to speak
strictly of proof. The universal judgment is of
faith, and the reason must be content, as in all
science, with judgments which admittedly are rela-
tive and partial.

To sum up: Religion belongs to man. It is
his instinctive recognition of a reality invisible
and intangible, though mediated by the things of
sense. Its substance is communion with God,
hence an art of religion is formed, the "practice
of the Presence of God." But the art is imper-
fect and the result is seldom pure, for the feeling
of worship unites with other feelings, attaches
itself to wrong concepts, and the religion becomes
debased, immoral, and an obstacle to man's de-
velopment. Men come to doubt it and to re-
nounce it in the name of righteousness. Religion

76 PROOFS OF THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION

is variously explained and the theory of religion,
theology, is developed. It is in part a traditional
explanation of the facts, in part a syncretic ab-
sorption of current philosophy and science, in part
the direct attempt to explain and justify the phe-
nomena. When the world-view changes it too is
doubted, perhaps because of its adventitious ele-
ments, perhaps because of its real substance ; for
men outgrow religions as they outgrow philoso-
phies. Higher ideals assert themselves, higher
standards are set up, and men put away childish
things. Were such development uniform conflict
would not arise, for the process would be natural
and harmonious ; but neither in the community
nor in the individual is progress uniform, so that
conflict arises not only between parties but in our-
selves as the new struggles with the old. The
decision is found in the twofold judgment as to
the highest in ourselves and the highest in the
community of men. Which religion most truly
satisfies the religious needs, and which justifies
itself in conduct ? An historic illustration chosen
from the Far East and free from our own preju-
dices, presuppositions, and faith will make the
process clear.

THE CONFLICT OF RELIGIONS AN
INSTANCE

I Religions of an advanced type claim religious
' attainment, control over the lives of men, and
, absolute truth. Necessarily conflict ensues when
such faiths come in contact. With many elements
in common each has its distinguishing character-
istic, and this characteristic is tested in a struggle
for supremacy.

Religions may be divided into tribal and per-
sonal religions, or into natural and ethical reli-
gions, which gives us the same line of cleavage.
The division is not scientific, but it answers our
purpose.

Personal or ethical religions go back historically
to individuals as their founders, and they magnify
the ethical element as essential. Buddhism, Con-
fucianism, Judaism, and Islam present themselves
at once as illustrations. Each begins with a great
personage, each makes morality characteristic of

78 PROOFS OF THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION

the way of salvation, and each claims particular
and exclusive authority for its sacred books.

Of course there are differences: Judaism and
Islam, for example, proclaim their teachings as
from God, with the prophet as his messenger.
Buddhism learns its way from the Enlightened
One, who by long struggles has arrived at a
knowledge of the truth, and Confucianism em-
bodies the fundamental laws of the universe which
were perceived intuitively and without conscious
effort by the sages. None the less, the Sacred
Books of China have acquired an authority in no
degree less absolute than the authority of the
Koran in Islam.

Nature worships grow up, seemingly, uncon-
sciously, and are the naive expression of a common
tradition and experience. But personal religions
first exist as ideals in the minds of individuals, and
are expressed in sermons, in teachings, in definite
and intelligible doctrines, and seek consciously
and directly to control and shape the life. So
they are pre-eminently ethical religions, since ethi-
cal conduct is action in accordance with ideals.

These religions agree in setting forth a conscious
experience as their immediate end. In nature
religions man is religious as matter of course, and

THE CONFLICT OF RELIGIONS 79

accepts the common faith as he accepts the com-
mon traditions and customs unthinkingly. But
the ethical religions begin as a protest and a chal-
lenge, setting forth new ideals as better than the
common tradition. The natural man clings to the
old and rejects the new, but the awakened man is
born again, accepts the new ideal, sees all things
from his new point of view, and lives a new life.
His experience testifies that the new is the highest
reality.

Even when the religion becomes itself tradi-
tional it cannot forget its origin. It still sets
forth its ideal, giving large place to preaching; it
still seeks to win adherents, and it still distin-
guishes between the natural man and the twice
born, between the outward worshipper and the
true believer; for it has its attainment to be won,
a peace which passeth understanding, and a vic-
tory over the world and fear and death. This
attainment is mediated by the fundamental teach-
ings of each system and by its historical and
physical environment.

Each religion forms its own systems of meta-
physics, the theoretical explanation of its phenom-
ena, and each becomes mingled with a cosmogony
representing the views of the world current when

80 PROOFS OF THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION

it was founded, or acquired during its history.
Each develops an apologetics as it comes in con-
tact with rival faiths, and our immediate interest
is in the arguments which offer the direct and
fundamental proofs.

An interesting illustration is found in the con-
flict hetween Confucianism and Buddhism in
China and Japan, a typical instance decided upon
its merits after long contact and discussion.

Confucius (b. 550 B. c, circct) claimed to be not
an originator but a transmitter, yet the system
known by his name is rightly traced to him. He
edited and passed on the literary remains of anti-
quity, but his own sayings and not the "classics"
have attained decisive authority.

For six centuries before his birth a single dy-
nasty had ruled China, and there are indications
that even before the twelfth century B.C. the same
general forms of civilization and of culture had
prevailed. In any case Confucius supposed these
social forms identical with those established in the
earliest times by the mythical Sage Kings and with
the unchanging laws of the universe itself. Nor
was he forced to any other conclusion by contact
with alien civilization, for beyond China he knew
only an outer fringe of barbarians.

THE COXFLICT OF RELTCxIONS 81

But in his day the order of the past was dis-
turbed with feudal strife and widespread immo-
rality. Thus arose his activity, from veneration
for the order of ancient days and distress over
the confusion of the present.

Confucius left nothing of moment in writing,
but his sayings were collected in a haphazard
fashion by his disciples and were intersjoersed with
anecdotes of his deeds and manners. From this
volume, the Analects, we learn the substance of
his message.

It was very simple: "Return to the right line."
The principle of heaven and earth, of empire,
family, society, and of the individual is order.
Let prince be prince, and servant be servant : let
father be father, and son be son : let the wise rule
and teach, and let the stupid obey and listen.
This is fundamental.

Society is organized in five orders, with five
relationships and five corresponding duties. And
the individual has five relationships, with five cor-
responding virtues. The individual may begin
with himself, and ruling his own life go on to
govern others — the family, the province, and
finally the empire. Or we may consider the State
as a whole, and setting forth its order find every

82 PROOFS OF THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION

man his rightful place and assign to him his
duties. The entire conception is social; there can
be no solitary virtue, for virtue is essentially to
stand in one's place and perform its duties. There
can be nothing higher or nobler, for the place is
greater and more permanent and more necessary
than the individual who fills it. Indeed he exists
for it and out of place he is nothing, fit neither for
society in any of its relations nor even for the
waste pile. He is strictly outcast, without further
duty or relationship. Sometimes man through no
fault of his own cannot fulfil these duties, and
suicide is the only resource, since existence apart
from one's position is undesirable and non-ethical.
So, too, individual immortality has no place in
this teaching, and the question is leit wholly
undetermined.

The principle is illustrated and enforced by the
great importance attached to ceremonies. Ritual
is as important as ethics, as always happens when
order is given chief place, — for example, in the
army, where form is almost equal to substance,
disorder ranking with the major sins. So that the
extreme punctiliousness of Confucianism is the
natural expression of its organizing principle.

The nature of supernatural beings is left unde-

THE CONFLICT OF RELIGIONS 83

cided. The conservatism of Confucius forced a
recognition of the nature gods of an earlier time,
but they were kept at a distance. Not even the
Supreme Ruler has any active share in the govern-
ment of the universe. For as man is made a part
of the great machine, and his only normal activity
is in accordance with its laws, all other free activ-
ity is of evil, and naturally the kosmos does not
need the personal interference of the gods, but runs
its own course from everlasting to everlasting.

Nevertheless, Confucianism is a religion, for it
identifies its teachings with the eternal and in-
visible verities, and its morality is touched with
religious emotion. Heaven becomes the visible
representative of the invisible system of the uni-
verse, and takes the place of Providence. It
rewards, it punishes, it protects, and it destroys.
As the Chinese State is identified with humanity,
in all China's affliction Heaven is afflicted, and
with all its misfortunes it grieves. The universe
is by no means dead, for it is filled with a common
life, and part responds to part, and whole to part.
Its symbol is not matter, in the common sense, but
the acting, feeling, thinking life of man. The
analogue is not agnosticism nor materialism nor
positivism, but Stoicism.

84 PROOFS OF THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION

But Confucianism was not to become dominant
at once nor without additions. Already in its
infancy Laotsu taught his mystical paradoxes, and
many another system sought pre-eminence. In the
days of the grandson of Confucius one detects a
difference, for the influence of Taoism especially
was felt, and the ethical "Way" of the Master
was in the process of reification, becoming a mys-
terious and transcendental Power. In Mencius
the tendency was still more marked as he strug-
gled to maintain the standard against an opposing
host. A process was begun which could terminate
only when a complete philosophy and religion
should satisfy all the intellectual needs of men
not contented with the practical directions of
him they called "Master." And it is in accord-
ance with all we know of the growth of doc-
trine that later thinkers identified their own
speculations with the books they acknowledged
as supreme.

But before the process was complete Buddhism
entered China. It was the Buddhism of the
Great Vehicle, far removed from the simplicity of
Gautama's institute. It had elaborate temples
and rituals and orders of priests and nuns ; prayers
and chants and magic formulae; ascetic practices

THE CONFLICT OF RELIGIONS 85

for the few and compromises for the many;
heaven for the virtuous, hell for the wicked;
gods, angels, saints, and martyrs; activities, mys-
ticism, fables, systems of doctrines ; realism for the
vulgar, idealism for the learned ; it was all things
to all men, and by all means won many. Later, in
Japan, it had militant priests, sectarian persecu-
tions, and fierce participations in feudal warfare.
Yet with its many transformations it remained in
some essentials true to type, insisting upon the
impermanence of all things and their woe. This
series of systems took possession of China, and
later of Japan. An artistic and literary develop-
ment followed, great religious establishments were
set up, monarchs abdicated and became priests, and
civilization was luxurious and corrupt. Buddhism
and Confucianism for a thousand years existed side
by side, or even were commingled in an uncritical
and unequal fashion.

In the eleventh and twelfth centuries a.d. came
the break in China, postponed for some centuries
in Japan by the dark ages caused by feudal strife.
Great Chinese scholars trained in Buddhism, Tao-
ism, and Confucianism brought on the conflict in
which the issue was settled once for all. Buddh-
ism became the religion of the dependent and of

86 PROOFS OF THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION

the ignorant, and Confucianism the completed
philosophical system which has satisfied educated
men in China, Korea, and Japan. Only in our
own day is the orthodox Confucian system seri-
ously challenged by our western science, philoso-
phy, and religion. Buddhism was rejected on
various grounds by Confucian writers : —

1st. It denied men their own nature, setting up
a standard which is unnatural. For example, it
denied marriage, and as a result there were gross
and unnatural vices. In accordance with it the
Buddhist literature is foul, and compares with
the Confucian as charcoal to snow. Confucian-
ism accords with nature, exalts marriage and the
family, thus promoting virtue.

2d. Nor is this superficial criticism. Buddhism
denying the order of society would destroy it. It
praises its founder, who, born a king, become hus-
band and father, forsook his aged parents, his
wife, his child, and his throne, that in the wilder-
ness he might seek salvation. This is the height
of immorality, the denial of nature. Its purpose
was good no doubt, but it implies a complete mis-
understanding. For what contamination is there
in kingly robes, or what virtue in the ascetic's
garb? Virtue there may be in both, or vice, for

THE CONFLICT OF RELIGIONS 87

virtue consists in standing in one's place and per-
forming its duties.

3d. Buddha was only mistaken, though well
intentioned, but his disciples mistook his purpose
and in search of salvation betook themselves to
monasteries and retreats and laid down the respon-
sibilities of life. A more terrible illustration of
thorough selfishness cannot be found. Neglect-
ing the natural relationships they expect to win
heaven, and come to believe, at last, that even a
parricide can be saved through religious duties
and formulae. Thus Buddhism is a false light,
alluring men to death. It puts good for evil
and evil for good, and comes not to save, but to
destroy.

4th. The theory on which Buddhism builds is a
perverted half-truth, that nothing abides, but that
all things pass away. Its natural result is to make
men think that nothing matters much, but that
they may do as they please. The neglected truth
is that while phenomena pass away the principles,
the laws of the universe abide. They are from
everlasting to everlasting, from chaos to kosmos,
and in the whole great process back to chaos again.
They are in heaven, earth, and man, and constitute
the reality of all things. To know them is the

88 PROOFS OF THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION

way to peace, and to fulfil them is the chief end
of man. To neglect them is to make virtue as
impermanent as the clouds and to destroy at once
the basis of morality and its practice.

5th. To the end Buddhism is true to its essen-
tially immoral nature. It speaks of an attainment
and finds this through asceticism or through
mental contemplation, but this contemplation ter-
minates in itself. It is a mere understanding of
principles which have no existence save in our
own minds. As in the rest of its teaching Buddh-
ism has a part of the truth. The highest bliss is
found through contemplation, and attainment is
the perception of one's identity with the underl}-
ing principle of the universe, but this principle is
not an empty thought or a passive idea, but it is
really understood as we fulfil the duties of our
station. For the principle which is to be per-
ceived is an all-embracing order, and neither a
mystic feeling nor a mere idea. So when I recog-
nize myself as something quite other than this
fleeting consciousness, my willing, feeling, know-
ing self, and identify my true self with mj posi-
tion in the kosmos, and my true life with a
fulfilment of its duties, then I have attained true
knowledge. But manifestly, if I do not thus

THE CONFLICT OF RELIGIONS 89

know through the exercise of these duties in the
actual relationships of life, I know nothing as I
ought to know. Thus the Confucianist could
agree with the Buddhist in declaring the imper-
manence of all things, including what men mean
by their selves, but he differed in proclaiming the
eternity of principles, which in the actual human
society find expression in the virtues which are
exercised in the five relationships. We might
sum up the difference by saying that the Buddhist
ideal is the contemplative ascetic, who has severed
every human tie and has entered into a bliss which
cannot be disturbed, because it is passionless, and
that the Confucian ideal is the philosophic states-
man, who has an understanding of the theory of
the universe, and uses it as furnishing the com-
plete reason why he should esteem duty to the
State in its strictest and severest terms as his own
chief end. The contemplative Buddhist counsels
men to flee the world, but the Confucianist teaches
that we are to purify and reform it.

Buddhism made, neither in China nor in Japan,
an}' effective resistance, and philosophic Confu-
cianism became in time the authorized and estab-
lished doctrine, the only doctrine recognized by
the government, and in Japan taught in the great

90 PROOFS OF THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION

schools. But even in its hour of triumph, while
the great Chu Hi^ still lived, opponents arose
within Confucianism itself.

Two of these schools are of especial importance :
the first denied the orthodox ontological realism
in the interest of a thorough-going idealism, and
the second denied it in the interest of a merely
practical following of the Confucian ethics. The
first was more metaphysical than orthodoxy, and
declared that each is to follow the dictates of his
own intuitive knowledge, making thus his own
nature supreme; the second thought that the
orthodox overlaid the plain, practical precepts of
the sage with a far-away, misty philosophy, so that
its understanding became the chief thing, and the
ordinary virtues of ordinary folks secondary. Its
watchword was, "Back to Confucius himself, so
that reading him not through the eyes of commen-
tators and system-makers, we may see him in his
own true light."

It does not belong to our plan to do more than
point out these varying schools without entering
upon their merits. The three, orthodox, idealist,
and positivist, are all true to fundamental Confu-

1 Chu Hi, b. 1130, d. 1200 a.d. His exposition of Confucian-
ism and his philosophy constitute still the test of " orthodoxy "
in China.

THE CONFLICT OF RELIGIONS 91

cian teaching, though they differ in the way in
which it is developed and in fidelity to its purity.
But from the point of view of comparative philos-
ophy it is apparent that the three schools wherein
they differ are not characteristic of Confucianism,
but are representative of permanent differences in
men. In all lands and among all races where
speculation has reached a certain height, we find
the three groups. Some thinkers can find a rea-
soned basis for life only in an ontology, and iden-
tify the truth with this foundation and regard the
men who deny the foundation as denying the
truth. So the orthodox school insists that it is
only by considering these principles or laws as real
beings, as the most real of all beings, as being itself,
as the fundamental cause why things exist, that we
can be true to the principles of obedience, loyalty,
righteousness, and affection which are found in
actual society.

So, too, there are men who are not satisfied
with dualistic realism, and are determined to
make all things pure phenomena, with the mind as
the fundamental reality, and who yet are as ready
as the orthodox to accept the practical morality of
the world in which they live. And finally, there
are men who, weary of these discussions and impa-

92 PROOFS OF THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION

tient of these foundations of morality, which after
all can afford no certain ground, push them aside
and insist that conduct is the chief thing, and that
if we are to have a morality which shall really
reform and purify society, we are to put it in the
fore-front and hand over metaphysics and ontology
to the priests, recluses, and ascetics from whom
they come.

It follows, therefore, that Confucianism does
not stand or fall with the peculiar tenets of any
one of these schools. Buddhism, too, has like
differences, though the insistence u^Don a plain,
practical morality is not so prominent. But it
has its solipsists, and its cosmological idealists,
and its worshippers of one Buddha, and its wor-
shippers of many Buddhas, and its worshippers of
no Buddha. In both systems alike, through long
periods of time, with all the vast variety of culture,
education, and surroundings, with the differences
in men which are temperamental, it is inevitable
that such schools should arise and such wide di-
versities manifest themselves. But, also, it is ap-
parent that the conflict between the two is not to
be settled by an appeal to these peculiarities, which
belong to our common nature and not to either
system exclusively, but to the real differences

THE CONFLICT OF RELIGIONS 93

which everywhere make Confucianist to differ
from Buddhist.

In the conflicts between the differing Confu-
cianist schools the charge of syncretism is freely
urged against the orthodox. Their antagonists
are never weary of charging them with incorporat-
ing Buddhist and Taoist elements. The charge is
doubtless true. The long contact of a thousand
years with Buddhism left its deep impressions on
the Chinese mind. But from the apologetic point
of view the charge is beside the mark. It belongs
to the systematic doctrinal strife of the schools.
There is no canon of truth which demands that
any teaching remain uninfluenced by its surround-
ings. It is apparent that Confucianism won its
decisive triumph when the scholastics of the
eleventh century provided it with a thorough-
going philosophy, and whether that philosophy is
implied by Confucius or is read into his teachings
is unimportant. The question of the historicity
of the writings attributed to Confucius, and even
of his own historicity, if fully answered, settles
nothing. For the student who comes to the topic
with an open mind the system offers itself as it is,
and must stand or fall by itself, without aid or loss
from the criticism which attacks the history and
the original documents.

94 PROOFS OF THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION

The final system is as we find it, a great attempt
by men of vast learning and of keen minds to sys-
tematize the universe and to explain it all on their
principles. Cosmology, ontology, history, natural
science, even the arts of medicine, etiquette, and
war are embraced in it. It comes to surround the
minds of men as an intellectual atmosphere. It is
identified with the teachings of the sages and with
the eternal principles of Heaven and Earth. It
appropriates the treasures of alien systems, and it
employs a terminology admittedly foreign to the
Sacred Books. It has its differing schools, and its
endless disputes over the finer points of doctrine
and exegesis.

It claims identity with the teachings of the
Master, but it admits that he did not use its
terms. But what he taught implicitly it pro-
claims explicitly. Were he to return to the earth
he would recognize his successors and adopt their
forms of exposition as his own. Thus, ultimately,
the great commentaries explain Confucius' words
in the sense maintained by Chu Hi, and the latter
becomes the real authority. It is his ontology
which is identified with the eternal truth.

But Confucianism, as matter of fact, cannot be
overturned by attacks upon the teachings of the

THE CONFLICT OF RELIGIONS 95

scholastics of the twelfth century A. D. Whether
they are correct in claiming a legitimate develop-
ment of his teaching, and that he implied their
ontology, or whether Buddhism and Taoism are
read into his words as the Ancient Learning School
charge, the fact remains that Confucianism existed
for fifteen centuries before Chu Hi, and that men
who reject his explanations and his theories are as
loyal to Confucius as are his followers. We can
at least clearly separate the two, the teachings of
Confucius and the teachings of Chu Hi, and we
can test each by itself. In the actual conflict with
Buddhism, as matter of fact, this was done, and
therefore the conflict was on the right ground.

Is the world good or evil ? Good, says Confu-
cius; evil, says Buddha. What is our supreme
duty? To stand in our lot and fulfil its duties,
says the Confucianist; to flee the world and to
sever its ties, says the Buddhist. Follow me, says
the one, and the well-ordered empire existing in
peace shall minister to the happiness of man. Fol-
low me, says the other, and breaking all ties and
destroying all passions, and making all things as
if they were not, you shall find a perfect peace
which can never be destroyed.

This was the question between the two, and the

96 PROOFS OF THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION

answer could not be doubtful. For China to ac-
cept Buddhism seriously was to renounce its future
as its past; but to hold fast to the teachings of the
sages was to maintain the ideals which only could
insure the prosperity and perpetuity of the Confu-
cian State.

The Buddhist could appeal to the disillusioned
few, to whom contemplation and empty idleness
seemed worthy ideals, but Confucianism appealed
to son, father, friend, neighbor, servant, master,
statesman, emperor, to all who valued the rela-
tionships of life, to all who had work to do, and
to all who felt the stoic passion for a virtue which
is more precious than life.

Thus Confucianism won its victory through the
sense of right in man, — that is, in the Chinaman,
and in the other Far-Easterns. The Confucian
empire, society, and family existing long before
Buddhism entered the empire, and even for cen-
turies before Confucius lived. Chinamen found
complete satisfaction in this ancient model, as they
still find it, since it embodies the fundamental and
controlling ideas of the race, ideas which are to-
day as they ever have been, ideas which are not
the offspring of the doctrine, but its source.
Chinese history is didactic and facts are of minor

THE CONFLICT OF RELIGIONS 97

importance, yet it truly asserts that the peace and
prosperity of the State have been bound up in this
religion, and that a long line of historic facts can
be adduced in its favor. So that to the educated
Chinaman to-day the decadence of Confucian
teachings and morality means the dissolution of
society.

Thus does Confucianism embody the immemorial
customs of a race which loves antiquity. It sets
forth an ideal which satisfies the desires of the
people, and embodies the ideal in a great historic
character and in a long list of statesmen, philos-
ophers, and scholars who were formed upon his
model. It is taught to all, and is taken as indis-
putable truth in all literature. It is final law in
courts of justice, and forms the fundamental con-
stitution of the State. All knowledge has come to
be embraced within its sweep, and it satisfies the
eager minds of men with its philosophy, and cos-
mology, and literature. To the graduate it em-
bodies the fundamental truths of nature, and to
the multitude no other teaching is desirable or
even possible. Itself, thus satisfying the minds
of men and embodying itself in their conduct, is
its own direct and fundamental proof.

The truth of Confucianism is, therefore, its con-

98 PROOFS OF THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION

formity to the facts, its conformity to society, as
it has developed during the long isolation of the
Chinese people. It can be successfully attacked
only as the ideal it embodies is replaced by some
nobler ideal, which shall lead the race to a higher
civilization and a more worthy life. Buddhism
made its attempt and failed, because its ideal did
not appeal to the people, and because it was not
true to the facts. All the rest is secondary. As
we have pointed out, the system does not depend
upon its metaphysics, for the latter is only its
ontological explanation. It does not depend upon
its cosmology, for this is only the current ideas of
science brought together and interpreted in ac-
cordance with the demands of Chinese system-
makers. It is not one with its interpretations of
history, nor even with the identification of its
teachings with the words of the Master, for its
precepts have validity only as they are true to the
social condition which they attempt to embody,
and that remaining the same the question as to the
authenticity of the words ascribed to Confucius is
of secondary consequence. Were Confucianism to
be destroyed simply by attacks upon the histo-
ricity and authenticity of its documentary sources,
or upon its cosmogony and ontology the result

THE CONFLICT OF RELIGIONS 99

would be only anarchy. For men, religious by
nature, lacking some new system would relapse
into a tangle of superstitions and vain imaginings.
Only by some ideal more elevating and some truth
which embraces a larger range of facts, can the
conflict of religions terminate in a victory which
shall be beneficial and worthy of the efforts of self-
denying and reasoning men. For, favorable as
may be our judgment of Confucianism, we cannot
regard it as final. It leaves us uninterested and
cold ; for the civilization which it represents, and
with which it stands or falls, on the whole is re-
pulsive to the Western mind, and its adaptation to
China explains why that empire remains unattrac-
tive and unconvincing. The ideals of the twelfth
century B. c. in China cannot be the ideal for
humanity in the twentieth century A. D. Indeed,
in our day, the salvation of Japan is in the fact
that it has turned away from this system which
for centuries appeared to contain the final truth,
and the difference between the present position of
the two empires is expressed in the statement that
China learns no new truth and aspires to no higher
standard, while Japan has adopted in part the
ideals and standards of modern times.

16476B

VI

THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION

Over against the East is the Christian West, and
these two are no longer in separation, but in the
most vital relationship. Let us attempt to study
the problems of Christianity as we discussed Con-
fucianism, for only in the light of impartial studies
can we hope to find truth.

Multitudes of sects profess the Christian faith,
and its definitions are as varied as those who pro-
fess it. No general agreement can be found as to
its nature, its essential teaching, or its histor}'-.
The enumeration of its differing definitions and
their discussion would require volumes, for the
divergences, many and great, are to be paralleled
only by the innumerable sects of Buddhism.

But as in Confucianism, so here, we are not con-
cerned with the truth of Christianity as set forth
by any particular sect or school, or as embodied in
any systematic set of doctrines, for this belongs to
the disciplines of historical and of systematic

THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION 101

theology. Nor are we to maintain the identity of
pure Christianity with any of its forms, either prim-
itive or derived. But we are to ask for a distin-
guishing feature which shall be recognized by all,
and which belongs indisputably to it. Thus, if
any one differs from us, and thinks we have not
adequately defined Christianity, nor set forth all
which is essential to it, we shall have no quarrel
with him, for we differ only with those who dispute
this feature as essential.

It is the commonplace of our day to emphasize
"love " as this characteristic, and the commonness
of the assertion calls attention to the fact that
while Christianity includes much more, and though
other elements have been often predominant, still
in some degree at least the love of God to man,
the love of man to God, and the love of man to
man belong to our religion as all forms of Buddh-
ism proclaim the transitoriness of the world, and
as every school of Confucianism teaches the prin-
ciple of order as embodied in a social code.

Christ's teaching is sometimes summed up in
the phrases "the Fatherhood of God and the
brotherhood of man," and though his teaching
includes much more, it certainly puts emphasis
on this as characteristic and essential. Not only is

102 PROOFS OF THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION

" Father " his habitual term for God, not only does
he use the family names in indicating those who
are one with him, but he bases our salvation from
sin and care, the forgiveness of our sins, and our
right attitude towards our fellow-men upon this
aspect of God's nature. The synoptic Gospels, in
their reports of the words of Jesus, show him find-
ing the solution of all problems in the Fatherhood
of God as the Analects show us Confucius finding
the solution of his problems in the maintenance
of a conservative social order ; for with Jesus the
family indicates the true social conception of the
kingdom of God. The Johannine writings, in
accordance with their more self-conscious and di-
dactic character set forth the same truth, teaching
that Christ is the manifestation of God who is
love, and that we know him through the Spirit, who
interprets Christ to us. Only as we are born of the
same Spirit and love our fellows, can we know
truth, that is, God. Nor is it otherwise with Paul,
who, notwithstanding his emphasis upon faith as
our attitude towards God, yet makes love, our
attitude towards men, the greatest thing in the
world. The source of redemption is God's love to
man, the Divine righteousness being grace, God's
love to sinners. The apostle embodied his teach-

THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION 103

ing in his own life, in his activity as the great
missionary to the nations.

Even in its earliest documents Christianity has
differing forms, yet in them all this truth, as we
have indicated briefly, stands forth as characteristic.
But when we ask, as men certainly must ask, for
the metaphysical presuppositions and historical
determinations of the manifestations of this love
of God, we find wide divergences and differing
explanations. It is not our purpose to discuss
these divergent forms, but, as in Confucianism,
merely to call attention to them, and to note that
with the wide diversities of men in culture, tem-
perament, and environment, such differences are
inevitable.

We must define Christian love more closely. It
is not the love of reciprocity, the affection we have
naturally for those who are agreeable and kindly,
for do not the publicans so ? It is not a feeling of the
presence of an ineffable Being, the love of mj^stical
religion. It is not the intellectual apprehension of
the Infinite, the pure intellectual love of a Spinoza.
It is not dealing with our neighbors according to
righteousness, for that is the law which Christian-
ity at once fulfils and surpasses. But beyond all
these, it leads us to render to our fellows that on

104 PROOFS OF THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION

i which they have no claim, and to give, looking for
I nothing in return. Its supreme manifestation is in
i returning good for evil, in loving our enemies.
So God deals with the sinner. It is not that
we first loved him, but he commendeth his love
towards us in that while we were yet sinners
Christ died for the ungodly. It is when we are no
more worthy to be called sons that our Father
welcomes us with music and feasting and puts on
us the best robe and ring. God's salvation, as
Romanist and Protestant alike teach, is of grace,
a free gift. Hence the condition of acceptance is
the feeling of need, not necessarily of the need of
forgiveness, but of God's gift. It is the sick and
not the well who feel their need ; the harlots and
the publicans accept Christ's gift, for he came to
call not the pious, but the outcasts. Self-com-
I placency, self-sufficiency, and self-confidence hinder
^ acceptance of his gifts. Thus humility and gra1>
itude are the characteristic Christian virtues
towards God. He gives, we receive ; he loves, we
are loved ; he forgives, we have sinned. So com-
plete is this relationship that all offerings to God
cease, for he makes the only offering and the only
sacrifice. All merit ceases, for at best we are un-
profitable servants. He does not seek our worship,

THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION 105

nor our praise, nor our gifts, but only that we love
our fellow-men as he has loved us, and serve them
as he serves us.

Thus love to God is source of our love to our
fellow-men, and yet, with the paradox of truth,
love to our fellow-men is the interpretation of God's
love to us, as we pray. Forgive as we have for-
given. God's love is primary source, and man-
ifested in Jesus Christ wins our love to God. But
such love is not perfect, it does not enter into the
fulness of God's love, until we love our neighbors,
even those who sin against us. Then first we
truly know, as the child reaUy knows its parents'
love only when he becomes a parent. We cannot
exercise pure. Christian, unrequited love towards
God, but towards our fellows only. So that the
Christian love finds its meaning, not in mystic ec-
stasy, nor in intellectual clearness of vision, but
in our self-denying service of others. For accord-
ling to the gospel, none can know forgiveness
totil he has forgiven, nor mercy until he has been
merciful, nor grace until he has been gracious. So
that the requisite to a true knowledge of God is a
like mind in ourselves, for ethics and religion are
the two aspects of a single experience.

Christian knowledge is not synonymous with

106 PROOFS OF THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION

cosmological or critical or metaphysical or histori-
cal knoAvledge, though these be baptized into the
Christian name. Notwithstanding the widest di-
versities in theoretical beliefs men have been
equally Christian, for this experience accords with
the varied speculations and activities of the various
races and ages. In a sense it cannot be taught,
for like all reality it must be experienced to be
known, and this experience, we repeat, is realized
in an ethical activity. Hence the art of the Chris-
itian religion is not the study of philosophy nor
the performance of ritual, but service of our fel-
lows, which only introduces us to the Christian
God; for he who loves not his brother whom he
hath seen, how can he love God whom he hath not
seen ? As temple and ritual stimulate the feelings
of awe and mystery in the presence of the God of
an Infinite Majesty, so do mercy, forgiveness, self-
denial, and service stimulate the feelings of grat-
itude and love towards him who is the God of
self-sacrificing devotion, for such is the true " prac-
tice of the Presence of God."

The theoretical presuppositions of this love of
God are not found in a metaphysical construction
of his nature, though to many minds such a con-
struction is necessary, nor in cosmological doc-

THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION 107

trines as to creation out of nothing, though such
doctrines naturally suggest themselves, but in the
thought that God's service to us is uncompelled,
of choice, free will, and not even of the moral law.
He had power to give and he had power to with-
hold is the conditio sine qua non. None compelled
God to save. Of Christ it is written, no man took
his life from him, he had power to keep it and
power to lay it down.

So of the great apostle, he counted himself the
servant of all, but was compelled by none. The
supreme Christian sacrifice which is the symbol
and complete expression of the principle is con-
ceived as freely offered ; it is not the death of the
martyr who cannot escape, but the offering of the
Christ who might escape. Thus the idea of power
connects itself with the Christian religion, power
to accomplish the purpose, and power to give or
to withhold. This principle is embodied in the
narratives of Gethsemane and the resurrection.
Angels awaited Christ's word to dehver him, and
the grave could not hold him. A weak, over-
powered Christ could not be held as Saviour of
men.

This Christian principle finds expression in all
varieties of helpful conduct, no sphere being too

108 PROOFS OF THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION

great or too small for its exercise. Its ideal is the
fellowship of the sons of God, each giving as God
gives, of his best. God gives that men may be-
come his sons and that his mind may be in them,
and that they may be perfect as he is perfect. So
Christian love cannot find satisfaction in minis-
tering merely to the bodies and to the intellectual
needs of men, though, imitating its Lord, it will
not undervalue these. St. Paul desired that Christ
be formed in all, and that each possess the high
gift which was his own. For the Christian de-
sire for others is that they should have that which
is highest to ourselves. To do unto others what
we would that they should do to us involves no
less than this.

Therefore Christianity cannot be a law. Not in
form, for law protects in rights, but the Christian
spirit does not claim protection, giving freely more
than the neighbor seeks to take. It cannot be a
law in substance, for no law can meet the endless
needs of men, nor determine that which each pos-
sesses which is most worthy to be given to others,
but Christian love in its manifestation is as varied
as humanity. With the individual, in childhood,
youth, manhood, and old age, it has differing stand-
ards, attainments, and ideals from year to year.

THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION 109

almost from day to day, and yet in all alike is
Christian. So no method can be always obliga-
tory, none excluded, and all may be used in turn,
for as is the gift so shall the giving be. Hence love
surpasses law, as it gives what no law can demand
and for which no return can be demanded, as it dif-
fers with differing individuals and differing times,
and as the form and method of its bestowal differ
with the gift. Thus as it is free from particular
cosmogonies and philosophies it is free from partic-
ular forms of philanthropy and methods of admin-
istration. These all it may freely use and fulfil,
but itself is free from all and sovereign over all.

The Church in all its wide diversity has not for-
gotten the plain teachings of its Lord, though it
has too often made them subordinate. In this
common feeling at once of humble confidence in
his love undeserved by us, and of desire for the
service of fellow-man, we find the unity which we
seek in vain in creed or organization or ritual.
However mistaken in its expression of this truth,
the Christian Church has esteemed God's favor
undeserved, and it has held his gifts as a sacred
trust for men. Not salvation for self only, but for
others also, and this in the things which are essen-
tial and eternal, has been the thought which has

110 PROOFS OF THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION

moved it to missionary activity .^ Nor has it lim-
ited its labors to the souls of men, but has minis-
tered to mind and body also. In many manners
and with many means, differing with differing
times and differing ideals, it has shown its oneness
in such labors ; and even in our day it is source of
the greatest philanthropic movements, for it is only
within the communities which have accepted the
Christian ideal that strong, practical, and wide
efforts for the upbuilding of men are found.

The Christian recognizes the Divine source of
all true effort, but he holds, and this makes him
historically a Christian, that its supreme revelation
and source is in Jesus Christ. It is an historic
fact that not Hinduism, nor Buddhism, nor Con-
fucianism, nor Islam, but Christianity is source of
the efforts for freedom, for a higher social life, and
for the elevation of humanity which are transfig-
uring the world. Without undervaluing other
religions or exalting his own at their expense,
and recognizing that the supreme principle of
Christianity is implicitly accepted by multitudes
who do not acknowledge our Lord, none the less he

1 It is true, however, that missionary activity has been caused
sometimes by religious self-interest, the desire to acquire merit, and
so far as this principle has influenced missions they have been, in
spirit, un-Christian.

THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION 111

holds that the great movements which now seek
definitely and purposefully to elevate mankind are
Christian in source and environment.

This is not disproved by the further fact that
the Church sometimes has been false to its trust
and anti-Christian in practice. For, in the world
and of it, the Church has yielded too often to other
powers. Sometimes it has substituted, for ex-
ample, an ascetic ideal for the Christian. The
world truly may be best served in some times and
places by asceticism, and when the motive is this
service the result is Christian, since wisdom is jus-
tified of all her children, of John the Baptist as
of the Son of man. But when asceticism in its
proper form causes the religious man to withdraw
from the world in search of some mystical feeling
of devotion, or some apprehension of the Infinite,
or some self -mortification which shall atone for his
sin and shall render sure his entrance into Heaven,
self-seeking, however subtle, is put in the place
of service of our fellows, the distinctive mark is
lost, and a Hindu, or Buddhist ideal is substituted
for that of Christ.

So also when philosophical theology has usurped
the chief place in the Church and the defining of
truth has taken precedence of its practice, the

112 PROOFS OF THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION

Church has been recreant to its Lord. It is true
that the most punctilious regard for the minutiae
of doctrine, and the finest hair-splitting in the
realm of theory may be consistent with the most
earnest endeavor for the salvation of men. When
one thus regards theory as supreme, when the truth
in its exactness and completeness appears the pre-
supposition for salvation, it becomes the chief duty
of the theologian to follow error in all its intricate
windings, and to defend against all attacks the ful-
ness of the truth. The truest Christian spirit may
be then consistent with a life-long devotion to the
intricacies of critical scholarship and theological
speculation. But when theology is set forth as the
main thing, and intellectual agreement as the great
object to be attained, when the consent of the mind
to doctrine is exalted above the consent of the will
to a service for life, then Christianity is surren-
dered, and instead of the life of the Divine Spirit
is substituted the methods and the results of the
schools.

Thus, too, once more, the extremest ritualism is
consistent with the Christian life. j\Iany a man
gains his motive to a self-sacrificing life by a con-
sistent and well-grounded acceptance of systematic
truth, and others gain their impulse through ses-

THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION 113

thetic feelings cultivated by an ornate ritual and
worship. None can doubt the directness of service
rendered by many whose impulses have been
stirred thus ; but when worship terminates in itself,
when form and ritual and architecture and organi-
zation are made supreme, and when the resulting
emotion aroused by prayer, and psalm, and sacra-
ment is thought to be religion, though the prayers
be in Christ's name, and though all be offered to
him before whom the worshipper bows, still is he
denied, for he holds such worship as not entit-
ling any one to fellowship with him. Thus the
distinctively Christian character of such service is
maintained by way of inclusion and of exclusion.
Asceticism and ritualism and intellectualism are
Christian if their end be the more perfect service
of man and a truer self-surrender, but doctrine and
ritual and ascetic self-sacrifice are as sounding
brass or the tinkling cymbal if love be absent.
, Nor, remembering our Lord's words, can we refuse
the Christian recognition to those who live the
life of service, though they be not of the professed
company of his disciples and are unaware that in
serving men they are serving him.

As thus the Christian finds this principle at
work in history through the instrumentality of the

114 PROOFS OF THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION

Church, so does he fmd its supreme and perfect
manifestation in Jesus of Nazareth. This mani-

I festation is its own direct and fundamental proof,
and it does not involve the miraculous conception
and the resurrection of the body as its presupposi-
tions. It was only to believers that the risen Lord
j appeared, and unless men see him full of grace and

I jtruth all acceptance of the testimony to the empty
tomb is vain. To a Christian theology the mirac-
ulous conception and the resurrection are not the

y' presuppositions and the proofs of Christ's divinity,

j but are deductions from it. Hence their consider-
ation does not belong to apologetics, but to sys-
tematic theology. Christ has made the Divine love
the essential attribute of God, so that the Chris-
tian God is the Father of all men, even of the un-
thankful and the guilty, and his perfect revelation
can be only in forgiveness of enemies and in a ser-
vice for humanity which endured all persecution
and ignominy, even the death of the cross.

As Christ made the Fatherhood of God supreme
in his teachings instead of his power and kingship,
he transformed the conception of earthly greatness,
so that the Messiah is no longer Lord, but servant.
Tliis is represented most clearly when he put away
the temptation of the de\il to lordship, when he

THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION 115

was recognized as the Christ by his disciples, and
during his ascent to Jerusalem when he declared
the nature of high position in his kingdom. In all
his teaching and life the Christian sees the com-
plete embodiment of the ideal, the incarnation of
God in a true representative of humanity.

This recognition of the supremacy of Christ in
his unreserved self-sacrifice for men, gives us the
Christian rule of life. It is not a mechanical imi-
tation of Christ's acts. Paul attempted nothing of
the sort, nor, in differing circumstances, could it
involve anything save a mechanical formalism.
But neither can it be found by a literal obedience
to Christ's words. These prove neither complete
enough nor clear enough for a statute-book of life.
And besides, it is not the Christian conception that
a new law be established, but, in accordance with
Christ's greatest interpreter, that a new spirit be
begotten. When possessed with the Spirit of
Jesus, when animated by his aims, moved by his
motives, and in sympathy with his mind, the
Christian, in many manners and in many ways,
shall render the same service.

Thus the perfectness of Christ's teaching is to
be found, not in its completeness as a code, but in
its emphasis upon freedom from formal law. The

116 PROOFS OF THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION

two stand over against each other, as Pharisaism
against the gospel. It has been objected that
Christ's teaching is deficient and incomplete on
the political side, but so is it deficient and incom-
plete on its social and its individual side. It is in
parables, and in paradoxes, and in examples which
cannot be followed. And its perfectness consists
in this, that it cannot be followed literally, but,
accepted in spirit only, may be adapted freely to
every activity of the individual and every need of
society and every requirement of the State.

Thus, too, Christ's teaching is often, and even
by the Church, said to be deficient in theology,
that is, in the philosophy of religion. But, again,
from the point of view of apologetics this also con-
stitutes its perfectness. Had he taught a complete
and systematic theology, of necessity it would have
met the need only of the few ; it would have been
stated in the terms of his day and could have been
of no lasting value. It is his emphasis upon love
which makes his religion abide in a world of chang-
ing opinions, organizations, knowledge, and culture.

Doubtless certain teachings especially stimulate
and foster Christian feeling and promote Christian
activity. Nor should we deny that certain forms
of ritual, of organization, and of administration are

THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION 117

peculiarly fitted to its expression, direction, and
control. These doctrines and forms may be essen-
tial to individuals and to groups of men who,
without them could not maintain the Christian
principle ; but admitting and insisting upon this,
none the less we cannot identify them with it, how-
ever necessary they may be to us, as we refused to
identify Confucianism with an ontological philoso-
phy, notwithstanding the fact that its explanation
in accordance with such a philosophy made its
triumph certain in the scholastic period of Chinese
history. In the variety of mental capacities and
acquisitions who shall say what doctrine or ex-
planation may be necessary to any person? But, in
the kingdom of God, membership does not depend
upon appreciation of ontological, or historical, or
scientific inferences, nor upon our ability to weigh
testimony and to appreciate argument, nor upon
the acceptance of tradition, nor upon the distin-
guishing of tradition from history, but only upon
the acceptance of God's love and the manifestation
of the Christ's spirit in our life with our fellows.
For theology is not religion, but its attempted
explanation and theory.

Christianity thus offers itself directly as ethics
and religion. Its direct and fundamental proofs

118 PROOFS OF THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION

are that it satisfies our religious needs, and that it
may be embodied in all the varied activities of men.
With its characteristic feature isolated, stripped of
all accessories that it may be clearly perceived,
the question of its proof can be determined. The
discussion will be at least on the right ground.

Is it necessary to point out the fundamental
difference between this apologetic task and that of
Butler and Paley? To them the vehicle of the
message was the object of proof, that the scripture
was given by revelation of God. But here it is
the substance of the message, that this conforms
to facts. Busied with the proof of the inspiration
of the Scriptures or the infallibility of the Church,
it was quite possible for men to forget the sub-
stance of the teaching in their zeal for the exalta-
tion of the messenger. But with the message itself
in the forefront, men who reject it will do so not
because of their inability to define accurately the
conditions of its original promulgation, but because
they separate themselves from the course of life it
points out, and the conduct it requires, or from
the spiritual view of man's relation to the universe
which it sets forth. Thus men will differ on
grounds distinctively moral and religious.

VII

CHRISTIANITY AS ETHICS: ITS CONFLICT
AND PROOF

Ethical judgments are worth estimates, and their
proof is : first, that they commend themselves to
the minds of men; and second, that they can be
embodied in conduct. They appeal for their proof
not to every one, but to competent judges, to those
who take conduct seriously and earnestly desire the
betterment of the race. Such ideals need not
assert themselves as final. He who adopts them
may be aware that absolute truth is as yet unat-
tainable, and that, specifically, ethical standards are
modified with a changing civilization and culture.
And finally, as proof, the embodiment in conduct
is not conceived as already fully attained. It must
be shown to be practical and not visionary, but the
fact that most men do not adopt it will prove
nothing to its disadvantage, for if civilization be
progressive, its advancement depends upon its
acceptance of ideals which differ from those of the
past and which are not yet distinctly adopted by
the masses nor embodied perfectly in conduct and

120 PROOFS OF THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION

institutions. It follows that, while ethics must
maintain its ideal as at least relatively higher than
other systems and at least practicable within some
definite range of time and place, it can be disproved
only by showing a higher standard of conduct, or
that it is unadapted to the requirements of life.

The ethical principle of the Christian religion, to
love our neighbors as ourselves and to treat even
our enemies with forgiveness, forbearance, and
kindness, submits itself to these proofs. Surely,
if Christian teachings are impracticable or unde-
sirable in this present life we have no rational
reason for accepting them for some other Hfe be-
yond the grave. If the principle of our Lord can-
not be taken as guide now it is irrational to trust
him for salvation hereafter. And if the message
be impracticable, in vain do we worsliip the mes-
senger. The fundamental proof of the Christian
religion is therefore in the realm of ethics, where
its theory can be understood and tested as other
theories in ethics can be understood and tested. If
it fail us here we may well surrender it altogether.

Submitting the Christian religion to this judg-
ment two cautions are necessary: we may not
identify it with modern civilization, nor with the
communities which constitute the Church.

CHRISTIANITY AS ETHICS 121

No doubt modern civilization owes much to
our religion, but it is not a Christian civihzation.
Many of its elements are of other origins and some
of them are directly antagonistic to its fundamental
principles. The proof which takes our particular
fonn of modern life as the fruit of the teaching of
Christ at once claims too much and too little, too
much for our social condition, and too httle for
the Christian ideal. It were indeed the greatest
evidence against Christianity, could our civiliza-
tion be claimed as its fruits, precisely as China
is the gravest indictment against the Confucian
system.

The highest claim of our faith is that it is a pro-
test still, indignant and uncompromising, against
not only the excrescences, but against much of the
essential character of the modern world. To be
representative of the life which now prevails
would be condemnation. One needs only to look
at Europe and America from an Asiatic point of
view, to see ho^v^ httle they are fitted to be the
exponents of Christian love. And finally, we may
remember that Christ did not appeal to a civihza-
tion expressed in the terms of arms, wealth, cul-
ture, and power when he said, "By their fruits
shall ye know them.''

122 PROOFS OF THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION

Nor can we appeal to the present condition of
the Church and to its history. Whatever may be
our judgment as to the justice of the conflicting
claims set up by different communions to be the
true body of Christ we shall agree that they have
not set up Christian love as their test and proof.
Indeed, as the identification of modern civiliza-
tion with Christianity is the greatest obstacle to
the progress of the faith in foreign lands so is
the identification of the Christian religion with the
Church the cliief obstacle to its proof. Intellect-
ual agreement, ritualistic conformity, or ecclesias-
tical submission have been the requirements, with
the very moderate ethical standard of the Ten
Commandments, a standard which in no respect
goes beyond the requirements of Confucianism as
ethics. Christian love has been neither a condition
of admission, nor has its possession in a high de-
gree been any protection against discipline and
excommunication. It has remained a counsel for
saints otherwise unobjectionable, and an attainment
to be reached when sanctification is complete in
some life beyond the world, but for the most it has
remained a thing apart, and many who hold St.
Paul verbally inspired have uttered indignant
remonstrance when in accordance with his words

CHRISTIANITY AS ETHICS 123

love has been set forth as the greatest thing in the
world.

Historically the Church may be justified, doubt-
less; for the principle of Jesus and of St. Paul,
being not a law but a principle of life adapted to
all degrees of knowledge and all conditions of men,
is ill fitted to be the external standard of an organ-
ization. Were it made such, the inevitable result
would be a new and unbending law on the one side,
and a new and peculiarly disgusting hypocrisy on
the other. But so it is that the Church cannot be
set forth as the proof of this principle. Like
modern civilization, it at once excludes and in-
cludes too much. It includes much which is even
directly antagonistic to Christ's words, and it ex-
cludes, therefore, many who live the Christian life.
To be of the Church is not equivalent to being of
Christ, and the practicability of the principle can
be maintained only by the conduct of those who
follow it, whether of the Church or without it.

The principle of love, then, which includes self-
sacrifice when necessary, and the treatment of
others, even our enemies, as we would desire to be
done by, is proposed as the ethical ideal which at
once satisfies the moral judgment and is the practi-
cal rule for life.

124 PROOFS OF THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION

Sometimes this principle is openly and formally
rejected as not only impracticable but undesirable ;
more often it is ignored as a counsel of perfection
without significance for our present life.

Nietzsche represented the first class and ex-
pressed from the house-top what many believe in
secret. Over against the " slave morality " of
Christianity he sets the ideal of the " hero," a
Napoleon or an Alexander, as more admirable than
Jesus Christ. Christianity is sometimes rejected
because it is misunderstood, but in this case be-
cause it is understood. The cross is an offence
and a stumbling-block, for it is incredible that the
embodiment of the Divine Being should yield his
own will and be slain as a criminal without re-
sistance. As it was said of old, sarcastically,
" He saved others, let him save himself if he be
Christ, the chosen of God." The cross is thus the
sign set for the division of men.

For when Christianity is identified with meta-
physics or with ritual or with ecclesiastical author-
ity or with the affairs of the future life supremely,
it is possible that the cross be adored as a relic or
worn as an ornament ; but when its ethical signifi-
cance is understood a division takes place between
those who follow the Christ and those who oppose

CHRISTIANITY AS ETHICS 125

him. For it is not only men like Nietzsche, open
opponents of Christianity, who accept as their
creed the teaching that strength is supreme and the
strong man a law unto himself, while self-restraint,
self-sacrifice, and the forgiveness of enemies are re-
jected as weak and ignominious. Nations embody
this anti-Christian principle in their policies,
though each appeals to the Christian God for aid
in violating the revelation of his will, and each
h3rpocritically professes abhorrence of the law that
might makes right when some neighboring state
practises it. When successful on the exchange or
in the market, men are ready to greet him who has
won by disregarding Christ's teachings ; and his
words are scornfully rejected in the field of poli-
tics as impracticable by men who worship in
churches dedicated to him as the Son of God.
Theoretically anti-Christ is justified by an appeal
to the natural law of the survival of the fittest.

We thus set the two principles over against
each other in an extreme form, and ask if the
theory of the hero who shall do as he will with
that which he has made his own can be accepted
as ideal, or as practical guide for life. The
question carries its own answer, for neither as
ideal nor as practical guide can this principle be

126 PROOFS OF THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION

accepted. Indeed it is only tacitly and without
being brought to the light of day that it can pre-
vail at all. When set forth in its nakedness it
strikes the public as having a vein of madness, and
when carried out in its fulness it is condemned
even by him who profits by it. For it is by no
means free from contradictions and conflicts with
that which is highest in the strong man himself.
Or if there be no such inner contradiction, if with-
out inner remonstrance he can be regardful only of
himself, he belongs to a class outlawed by common
consent. For the civilization of the world decrees
that he who thus tramples upon the rights of
others shall have no rights.

But neither is it practical. It is only incident-
ally the bringer of civilization, as in the case of an
Alexander, or the promoter of law, as in the case of
a Napoleon. In its own nature, when it cries,

" Let him get who has the power
And let him keep who can,"

it is the destruction of civilization and the return to
the state of perpetual savagery and war. Even in a
modified form, when kept in check by the machin-
ery of civilization, it is the cause of misery enough
to show its inherent wastefulness and impracti-

CHRISTIANITY AS ETHICS 127

cability. Of all the evils of society, it causes the
greater part.

But if it shall be maintained none the less that
this principle of self-gratification through the
use of strength is final and satisfactory, then at
least the conflict with Christianity is on its right
grounds. The end cannot be compromise, but
victory for the one side or the other, for the dis-
tinction goes to the foundations of the moral
life.

Society has already decided in part. It has
come on so far that it insists that the game shall
be played fair, with a certain regard for the wel-
fare of others. The law " Thou shalt not injure
thy neighbor " is to be maintained in the interests of
all. Each, obedient to the law and protected by
the law, within its limits may seek his own. Es-
sentially the law is negative, thou shalt not, and it
governs best as it governs least. Its classic em-
bodiment is the second table of the Decalogue.
Beyond this, in accordance with the general senti-
ment of mankind, the successful man should give
of his abundance to those in want.

Founded in immemorial tradition, embodied in
law, approved by conscience, this theory is set up
as highest ideal and indispensable to the best in-

128 PROOFS OF THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION

terests of society. The motive of self-aggrandize-
ment in some form is necessary, we are told,
to the excitation of industry ; and the certainty
of the secure enjoyment of the fruits of toil is
the very basis of our commercial and industrial
civilization.

Yet, notwithstanding all which may justly be
said in favor of this theory, it can be by no means
accepted as a full and satisfactory and final ideal
for life, nor as affording a complete theoretical
basis for conduct. It is already surpassed in much
of the legislation of the Old Testament — legis-
lation which marks a stage far in advance of the
prohibitions of the Ten Commandments. And it
is again surpassed in the teachings of Plato and
Confucius, to choose widely separated examples.
In all of these another principle is invoked where
the so-called natural rights of the individual yield
to the demands of the community. And here is
put the limit at once of individualistic prohibitions
and rights in tlie interests of a higher morality,
which by common consent is supreme. In the
simplest form of social organization, the family, it
is the condition of its existence. Its ideal is the
self-sacrificing love of the parents who for the wel-
fare of the children labor, endure, and if need be

CHRISTIANITY AS ETHICS 129

give up life. Their love fulfils the law, and does far
more than any law can demand. In the larger family,
the tribe and nation, the same principle obtains.
Not insistence upon one's rights, nor the careful
protection of self-interest, but the surrender of
one's rights and interests, even of the simplest,
of movement, free speech, gain, companionship,
family, and life itself, in the interests, real or
supposed, of the community, is regarded as duty.
Love of country, love of humanity, love of right-
eousness are better and more praiseworthy than all
the pleasures and gains of a lawfully protected
self-seeking. The common consent of mankind
extols love as the final ideal, and makes the true
hero him who renounces his own for others, and
not him who uses others for himself.

Not only in the family and in emergencies which
demand heroic response, but in wide ranges of
activities this rule of life is recognized. The man
who enters the Christian ministry is provided with
a meagre livelihood in order that he may devote
himself to the service of his fellows. The physi-
cian gives freely his skill and time to those who
can make no return, and is forbidden private pro-
fit through his discoveries; and the most skilful
men deplore the invasion of commercialism into a

130 PROOFS OF THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION

profession which from time immemorial has held a
nobler creed. So too the lover of pure science
gives strength and time and skill, and sometimes
property, that he may advance human knowledge
and contribute his part to the progress of the race.
And, finally, the soldier surrenders the common
rights and the common motives, and for a mere
livelihood gives himself body and soul to the ser-
vice of his country.

Thus the law of simple righteousness expressed in
prohibitions, " Thou shalt not injure thy neighbor,'*
neither covers all the relations of life nor is ade-
quate to the emergencies. It must be supplemented
by another and a higher ideal, which is recognized
instinctively. All we mean by martyrdom and
heroism, the deeds the poets sing and nations love,
which are set before youth as incentive, and retold
in age with just pride, belong to this ideal of self-
sacrifice, the giving over of rights freely and with
gladness. The conscience of men responds when
the higher ideal is set forth. So strong is the re-
sponse that it becomes often an instrument of evil.
Men use it in others for base purposes of their
own. Thus, in the East, parents have appealed
to a daughter's love, and have made gain from
her prostitution, and in all lands rulers have grati-

CHRISTIANITY AS ETHICS 131

fied the lust of conquest and revenge, because
men have been ready to give up life at tlieir bid-
ding. So little is it true that men are moved only
by self-interest that they often give up their own
willingly for no apparent end.

Plainly, this ideal of free surrender is not sen-
timental and weak. On the contrary, though it
may be confused with a sickly emotionalism, it is
one with all which is strong and best. It is the
free surrender, for a worthy end, of that which the
law holds securely as my own. Thus it contains
an element of strength, and is the expression of
freedom. " No one taketh it away from me, but I
lay it down of myself." Not weakness, but strength,
is characteristic, and in its Christian form it is
freed from abuses by the worthiness of the ideal
\ which is set up.

It is objected that though self-sacrifice be the
ideal in emergencies, it cannot be made the rule of
ordinary life without defeating itself. He who
gives may be twice blessed, but he who receives
is injured. Christian charity has filled the en-
trances of cathedrals and churches with beggars,
and has increased and perpetuated the very
evils it has sought to alleviate. The principle of
love carried into effect in the ordinary affairs of

132 PROOFS OF THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION

life would injure men, by making them dependent
and destroying that fine self-reliance which is
created by the presence of danger and the neces-
sity for self-maintenance. Love as a principle
would preserve possibly the physical well-being of
man, but at the expense of his moral strength, and
self-respect, and manhood. Such criticism is based
upon a misunderstanding common enough, and a
confusing of the principle of Christian love with
indiscriminate charity. The Christian law is,
" Thy neighbor as thyself," and its interpretation
can only be, Give as thou wouldst be given to.
With this in mind, it can be no indiscriminating
and respect-destroying charity which shall fulfil it.
But as the father who best loves his son may be
rigorous with him in order that he may grow into
the most effective and best disciplined manhood, so
will the Christian who loves his neighbor as him-
self hold almsgiving as least and last of the man-
ifestations of the spirit which would do unto others
as one would be done by. For that injunction
can only mean that we give of our highest and
> best, and that the manhood we hold highest, the
V' conduct we esteem best, and the character we
would achieve for ourselves be the gifts we would
bestow. From the very statement of the case,

^

CHRISTIANITY AS ETHICS 133

such giving cannot injure, or it would not accom-
plish but would defeat its end.

In a commercial age certain lines of business, at
least, are thought exempt from this principle.
The men who carry on great enterprises and suc-
ceed in building up great fortunes must attend
strictly to their own interests, and are held as fully
justified, if they keep within the letter of the law.
Only thus, it is urged, can they hope for success.
And if success be won, the means will not be too
closely scrutinized. One might simply set the
Christian ideal over against this of a worldly suc-
cess. It was not Christ who said, "All these
things will I give thee, if thou wilt fall down and
worship me." The way for the rich man into the
kingdom of the Christ he did not regard as easy, nor
is there any indication that he would accept some
fraction of ill-gotten gains as price for entrance into
eternal life. In terms so strong as to seem para-
doxical, he taught that he who would save his life
should lose it, and that the rich man can enter the
kingdom only as the camel goes through the eye of
a needle. This is only the commonplace of his
teaching, and the necessary implication of his prin-
ciple. He who loves his native land cannot be a
hero and live luxuriously at his club while the in-

134 PROOFS OF THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION

vader threatens to destroy the nation. The mother
cannot love her babe better than herself and at the
same time enjoy the liberty of a childless woman.
Christ demands the definite choice between the
supreme quest for riches, honor, power, and self,
and the spirit which comes not to be ministered
unto but to minister and to give one's self for the
benefit of our fellows. Nor is there any principle
which can set up one standard for the soldier,
clergyman, and physician, and permit another to
the merchant and the man of affairs. Christianity's
greatest difficulty has been compromise and its
disregard of the plain injunction of its Lord, " Ye
cannot serve God and mammon." But is it true
that self-seeking is the controlling motive, and
should be the motive, in business, and in the great
commercial enterprises of our age ? Surely there
are illustrations enough of another spirit to show
its possibility, and there are all too many illus-
trations which show that self-seeking is the cause
of evils innumerable, and of most of the dan-
gers which threaten society. In view of the
strife between labor and capital, the operations
which disgrace our financial centres, and which
threaten more than anything else the prosperity
of the people, the present reign of greed can-

CHRISTIANITY AS ETHICS 135

not be maintained as the triumph of practical
common-sense.

Even in the affairs of nations, the last refuge of
selfishness, where self-interest may be readily mis-
taken for patriotism, Christ's law makes no dis-
tinction. It is to be supreme, and we are to treat
others as ourselves. This principle as the prac-
tical guiding principle of statesmen is not Utopian.
It is its converse which is impracticable and de-
structive. Of nations it is true as of individuals,
that " fightings come because men lust and have
not, kill and covet and cannot obtain." Crushing
taxation, the waste of resources in armament and
in service unproductive and harmful, the jealousy,
and international hatred, and isolation which shut
ourselves out from much which would be of ben-
efit, are from the rejection of the teaching which
knows no distinction between nations, because it
holds all men as constituting the great family of
God. Even in international politics, even as the
practical outcome of an enlightened self-interest,
the doing away of the outgrown principle wliicli
held men as enemies because separated by a river,
or mountains, or the sea is the condition of a future
which shall fulfil the reasonable expectations of the
present. It is not the teachings of Clirist which

136 PROOFS OF THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION

are impracticable, but their rejection, making
nations armed camps, and leading each to legislate
with sole regard to its own supposed interests.

Governed by the end Christ puts before us as
his golden rule, that we treat others as we would
have them treat us, his paradoxes as to the deal-
ings with our enemies lose their seeming imprac-
ticability. When once it is accepted that all are
brethren, and that the welfare of one is the welfare
of all, when once it is understood that the injury
of one is the injury of all, the returning of evil for
evil, blow for blow, anger for anger will assume
its correct aspect as irrational. Evil is doubled
that it may be avenged, and we cause ourselves to
suffer that we may inflict suffering on another.
Revenge, hatred, and all their companions are
recognized indeed, as evil, and the same growth in
moral sentiment which has made the duel, and the
sensitive regard for the point of honor, absurd
among civilized people, will eventually make wrath
and revenge seem the atavistic revivals of a savage
state.

Christian ethics is the opposite of the kingdom
of nature described as a desperate struggle for ex-
istence, wherein he survives who is strongest. As
in aU the range of moral activities, nature in this

CHRISTIANITY AS ETHICS 137

sense does not give us our rule of right, but fur-
nishes the material which is to be reformed by
man's labors and sufferings in accordance with his
ideals. As already pointed out, the progress of
humanity consists in surmounting natural law after
natural law, and man's end is not to be found by
returning to the state of nature from which he has
emerged, but in his successive victory over it, and
the embodiment of his ideas, so that they take
place in the established order. He would not be
ethical were his life not a protest against that
which is and has been, and a progress toward that
which is not but shall be.

But even empirically, how much which is high-
est and best in the life of man has been given by
those who were not fit for survival in any struggle,
but whose life has been the result of the tenderest
care on the part of others. Certainly science is
not to be charged with the vagaries of men who
appeal to this law as excuse for we know not
what barbarities towards the weak and backward
individuals and races which are held not worthy
to survive.

The Christian's eye must be single, and he must
unreservedly accept the fundamental principle of
his Lord, but the outcome of this principle cannot

138 PROOFS OF THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION

be expressed in any formula, nor in any stage of
civilization, nor can it be made identical with any
social or ecclesiastical scheme or Utopia. It is the
redemption of body, mind, and soul from all evil
which is sought. It can be fully realized only
in the kingdom of God, the commonwealth of
humanity, where in complete freedom each indi-
vidual shall develop his own nature in the fullest
and highest sense. Each individual sliall have his
place, for each shall have his own gift to offer to
all. This distinctively Christian conception sets
at once the highest aim and frees it from all senti-
mentahty, impracticability, and narrowness. Un-
reflecting and indiscriminate self-sacrifice is not
the standard, but a Christian love which has come
to a complete understanding of itself.

In the kingdom of God all which is beneficial to
mankind has a place. The question of what is
beneficial is for science to determine. Whether
individualism or socialism ; whether a government
which shall care for those who cannot care for
themselves, or a society existing by mutual con-
sent; whether personal property or communistic
collectivism ; whether this form or that shall pre-
vail must be settled by the highest wisdom and
the best judgment. The Christian principle is

CHRISTIANITY AS ETHICS 139

compatible with widely differing forms, societies,
and grades of development. It is incompatible
only with lust, self-seeking, and trespass upon
others. Committed to no programme and to no
type of civilization, it can be the controlling prin-
ciple of all varieties of human life.

The historic Christ embodied this principle com-
pletely, so that Christianity as ethics sums itself
up in the expression " Christlike." It is to be
under the control of his influence and to possess
his spirit. He came not to be ministered unto, but
to minister, and Saint Paul understood that Christ
thought even an equality with God something not
to be grasped after, but that to be found as a
servant was with him the chief thing. So the
apostle, in view of this tremendous example says
simply, " Let the same mind be in you." With
such a conception Christian ethics offers itself to
the world as supreme. It is proved as we accept
it as ideal, and embody it in Hfe.

If it be maintained that though this principle is
thus supreme, and though we recognize it as prac-
tical when it is adopted by all, yet in this present
evil age men must fight fire with fire, resist force
with force, and in general postpone the adoption of
Christ's teaching until some convenient season, we

140 PROOFS OF THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION

are reminded that Christ promises his disciples
persecutions and sufferings, and though he gives
them blessings he yet demands that they take up
the cross and follow him. It is not to some indefi-
nite progress of the race, nor to a future kingdom
of Heaven that our Lord refers men. In this, as in
all else, the best is not obtained without struggle
and suffering, and we may finally remind ourselves
that if no self-sacrifice were needed we should not
be taught that he who was crucified is the supreme
guide to life. It is through the labors and the
sufferings of men who live in advance of their age
that the world advances to higher planes.

VIII

CHRISTIANITY AS RELIGION: ITS CON-
FLICT AND PROOF

Christianity offers the ethics of Christ as its
fundamental proof, but his teachings are religious
in the highest sense and from his religion his ethics
gain power, for the problem of ethics is not only
what is right, but also how shall right conduct be
inspired.

Rehgion is the intuition of unseen realities, and
its experiences show the nature of the supreme
reality which is worshipped as God. The earliest
distinct thought of God is of a mysterious Power,
manifested in rock, or mountain, or stream, or
heaven, or storm, or in men of heroic strength
and daring. Its proof is some strange deed: a
tree slays a stranger resting beneath its shade, or
a thunderbolt from some storm-covered mountain-
top strikes dead an intruder, or a resistless flow
of great waters brings aid or disaster. Man filled
with awe and fear gives expression to his feelings
in acts of propitiation and worship. When the hero

142 PROOFS OF THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION

is deified the attributes of the gods are transferred
to him, as are his to them. Nor is there thought
as yet of righteousness, power being its own law
and justification. The king can do no wrong, let
him do what he will with his own. He wills it,
and man may not question the way of the god.
So Power constitutes the god, and power reveals
him. If he remain hidden his messenger does
marvellously, and we, in our weakness, receiving
the message proved by a wonder, must worship
and obey.

Man worships many and changing gods, but
when he becomes reflective he ascends from the
multiphcity of powers to the unity of the all-
embracing One. Pantheism is a mystical and re-
ligious anticipation of the doctrine which, through
the conservation and correlation of forces, attempts,
in physics, to sum up all powers in a formula, as
an unknowable force which at once is none and
all. So God is not wisdom, nor righteousness, nor
goodness, but IT, the final substance or force, of
which all else is illusory manifestation. It only
is, and the category of substance is worshipped as
Divine.

Or by a different path, man finds in himself
something more imperative than power, and higher

CHRISTIANITY AS RELIGION 143

than all-embracing substance. Righteousness is
supreme. He refuses to worship the immoral gods
of tradition or any mere power, natural or divine.
The contemplation of the Absolute does not seem
to him most worthy, for a voice within compels,
not to mystic contemplation, but to activity among
his fellows. Conscience becomes the voice of the
final reality, and an ethical religion whose end is
righteousness is taught by sages and prophets.
To the immortal founders of such religions, right-
eousness expresses truth, besides which all else is
worthless.

The highest expression of ethical religion is in
the prophets of Israel. Jehovah demands not wor-
ship or sacrifice, but that righteousness fiow forth
as rivers. The idea of God is transformed. His
followers count righteousness better than life, and
it only can win his favor or manifest his presence.
Hence, no wonderful power can testify of God
unless it also justify itself to the conscience.
Nor can an ontological philosophy express his
character, for he is true and righteous altogether.
Miracle and prophecy may command attention and
win allegiance, but only as secondary to righteous-
ness, for this is at once its own credential and our
highest duty.

144 PROOFS OF THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION

The revelation of God in Jesus Christ is the
culmination of this development. His Father is
the God of truth and righteousness, but he goes
beyond all requirements of justice and supremely
manifests himself for the redemption of men. He
saves them when they are sinful and guilty, with
such a redemption that they become like himself,
righteous, forgiving, loving.

The manifestation of such a God can be only in
a supreme act of self-sacrifice. It cannot be found
in nature, nor in speculation, but is strictly a rev-
elation, and is shown only in man. So that the
direct and fundamental j)i'oof of Christianity as
religion can be only in the life and death of Jesus
Christ as the revelation of the Christian God. For
consider :

If the fundamental teaching of God be of his
all-pervading substance, his self-existence, his
eternity, the ontological method of his existence,
then its direct proof will be found in the processes
of metaphysical inquiry, and the highest teaching
as to Christ as Divine will be that he is of the
same substance with the Father. And the great
interest as to God himself will be in his im-
manence or his transcendence, and as to man, the
relation of the finite to the Infinite, of our free

CHRISTIANITY AS RELIGION 145

will to predestination. But historically, men hold-
ing antagonistic views on these subjects have been
equally sincere followers of the Christ, and he pre-
eminently taught not as the philosophers.

Or if the fundamental teaching of the Christian
God be of power, then the direct proof must be
through miracle, and the first duty of man a blind
obedience. Pushed to its natural outcome God
cannot be differentiated from force, nor man's lot
in the world from mere fate. If an overwhelming
display of power is to compel my obedience and
submission, then are my manhood and my con-
science crushed, and I shall be most ignoble when
most religious.

But when the teaching is that God is righteous-
ness, then his manifestation must be in that which
commands the conscience and leads me to a higher
righteousness. The law and the prophets com-
mand my assent, surpass in their contents m}^
powers of discovery and of compliance, and yet
draw me to themselves as the truest and best
which I can know. Thus only can they prove
themselves to be Divine. They can be displaced
only by some new revelation which shall be a
higher law. Then the old passes away; it is no

longer supreme, but is at best introductory to the

10

146 PROOFS OF THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION

higher truth, and remains God's word only in a
secondary sense.

This is what happens in our religion. To the
Christian, Jesus completes and fulfils the words
of prophets and sages and embodies his own
teaching, his words being one with his life and
death. It is not primarily that he is of one sub-
stance with the Father, nor that he was possessed
of miraculous powers, but that he was incarnate
grace and truth. Hence it is that we confess,
" We have seen thee ; we have seen the Father."
1 Thus the Christian religion is completely ethical,
I and as such it not only is our guide to conduct,
but fulfils all the deepest needs of the soul.

It delivers from discontent, from fear, from sin,
and from death. The recognition of the Divine
love, in its peculiar Christian sense, involves our
apprehension of our own un worthiness. The
Christian cries, "I am no longer worthy to be
called thy son ! " He knows that he has not
shown to others the mercy, forgiveness, and love
on which he himself depends. He feels himself
the debtor to whom his Lord has forgiven all his
debt. With this understanding he accepts God's
gifts with humble gratitude and rejoices in all
which his Father sends to him.

CHRISTIANITY AS RELIGION 147

With this supreme trust in the forgiving love

of God he is free from fear. If while he was yet

a sinner Christ died for him, if while he was still

unworthy his Father welcomed him, how shall it

be that with this great gift he shall not also freely

receive all else? The realization of Divine love

as supreme makes him more than conqueror, and

convinces him that nothing, neither things present

nor things to come, neither height nor depth, shall

separate him from this love of God which is in

Jesus Christ his Lord.

I He is free from death, for it takes its place in

the dominion of his Father. This world becomes

only one of his Father's mansions, and the Divine

love which has made him son will do for him in

the future, as in the present, that which is best.

* It delivers from sin, for he who has appreciated

I the love of God in forgiving his sins cannot go

forth from the Divine presence, and, taking his

brother by the throat, demand that he pay his

insignificant account; still less can he take that

! which belongs to his brother, but he forgives as

he is forgiven and serves as he is served.

The proof of such a religion can be only that
it appeals to us as highest, and that it is realized
in our own experience as something actual. To

148 PROOFS OF THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION

the believer, as in all religion, this is the only
proof, and to the unbeliever his testimony can be
the only witness. If any one shall take another
conception as higher and insist that the God of
philosophy or the God of external nature be su-
preme, then the argument is at an end, and no
words can make certain what we have no eyes
to see.

But though one may take this Christian doctrine
of love as supreme, and though he may have this
full subjective proof when he holds it to be also
objectively valid, he finds objections and difficulties.

As in the ethical domain, so also in the religious,
the Christian principle is sometimes directly de-
nied. The universe, we are told, shows no signs
of moral purpose, much less of love. Some law
of force or ether, some all-embracing statement
in terms of matter or force is final, and in a more
narrow sphere the survival of the fittest in a des-
perate struggle for existence controls and governs.
He, therefore, who trusts that love is " creation's
final law " has all " nature, red in tooth and claw,"
shrieking against his creed. Besides, it is urged,
even the evidences of wisdom and righteousness
which man has long found in nature are read into
it, — the transference of man's own thought as he

CHRISTIANITY AS RELIGION 149

selects from the great masses of material which
nature offers just that which fits in with his im-
mediate purpose. 1

Certainly apologetics has misunderstood the
situation and its own fundamental position when
it has set itself in opposition to science and Has
declared even angrily that science in its strictly
scientific statements is wrong. For such an apolo-
getics has failed to understand the fundamental
truths of epistemology and of a truly Christian
theology. For, to take the last first, the procedure
is not up from nature's God to the Christian's. It
is true beyond all question that the Christian finds
his God in nature because he finds him first in
Christ and in his own heart, and then interprets
nature in accordance with him who is thus
known. Nor shall we admit any other procedure.
Least of all shall we admit that the truth of reli-
gion depends upon rescuing some fraction of exist-
ence from scientific law. The truth is clear
enough: the Christian finds his heart responding
to the revelation of love in Christ, and through
that he comes to God. But when this procedure
is therefore condemned, and he is asked to inter-
pret nature not by that which he brings to

1 James, " Varieties of Religious Experience," p. 438.

150 PROOFS OF THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION

nature but solely by itself, then he questions in
turn: Is the scientific procedure other than the
Christian? Surely it is what the scientist brings;
to nature — his thought, his selection, his unity, his
logic — which forms the principle on which after-
wards he builds. Now the Christian can freely
agree that physics shall select such phenomena as
may serve its purpose, and may interpret it as it
will ; and that chemistry shall follow its own pur-
pose and select and arrange according to its laws ;
and that biology shall have like liberty ; and that
even the all-embracing cosmic philosopher shall
make his careful arrangements of material, select-
ing and rejecting and assorting according to the
principle he brings to the task ; but, thus agreeing,
it claims the same right for itself. Religion natu-
rally is not the direct teaching of physics. If we
start with atoms we shall have to end with an
atomic universe, or if with ether, then we shall
state our results in its terms. If, disregarding all
differences, we state our results in quantitative
form, nothing can hinder us ; only, let us not in
thus choosing and arranging in terms of our own
selection suppose that we have exhausted the
truth, and that our mathematical or atomic or
ontological universe is the whole and only world

CHRISTIANITY AS RELIGION 151

to be forever set forth thus., We may not fmd
religion by selecting elements which exclude it,
and combining and sorting them. If from a me-
chanical universe we deduce religion it is because
we smuggle in what we take out. But no doubt
the reliance of theology upon philosophy and
science, and its confusion with cosmological specu-
lation, accounts for the strange notion that the
proof of atoms is the disproof of love. Surely
the proof that love is supreme is not to be looked
for in microbes and animalculse and worms and
beasts and birds, nor in the cunning arrangements
of man's body, nor in the origin of species, but in
the society and in the souls of men, where religion
hp^, its being, its explanation, and its proof.
yf Need we repeat the difference between the
' sphere of descriptive science and of religion, the
former having as its task the classification of that
which is and has been, the latter the embodiment
of the highest, of that which is not yet in the
natural order, but shall be ? One understands and
sympathizes with the well-meant efforts to prove
the existence of God by using the latest results
of science, and by showing that evolution and the
struggle for existence are evidences of the Divine
wisdom and love, but none the less such efforts

152 PROOFS OF THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION

are doomed to failure. They satisfy neither sci-
ence nor religion: not science, because ideas are
read into the results which differ from the concep-
tions of science, and necessarily differ because be-
longing to another order of thought, as if one
should find political constitutions or the justifica-
tion for artistic theories in the law of gravitation ;
so that one does not know of scientific men led to
religion through these efforts. They do not aid
religion, because they are of the nature of com-
promise, and offer the religious sense a partial and
inadequate satisfaction in ideas of order, and of
relentless continuity, and of a slow development
we know not to what end or if to any end at all.
The God of nature — that is, the Being we should
deduce from a careful study of nature as it is
shown to us by science — would be one whom we
should not adore ; for nature thus described is not
more than man, but less than man, for it is his own
creation according to methods and ideas of his
own devising. When science rigidly excludes the
higher nature of man from the scope of its inquiries,
and confines itself to physics, chemistry, or biology,
why, then, should its results give us that which is
higher than the highest in man, comprehending
in himself all which man hopes sometime and

CHRISTIANITY AS RELIGION 153

somewhere to realize ? For God is not an all-em-
bracing principle, to be found by any and all inves-
tigations, nor does religion consist in the finding of
some formula which shall reconcile all the diver-
gent viewpoints from which man may organize
scientifically the universe. Such a religion would
be Hinduism, and such a God the neuter Brahma.
The difficulty with theology has been that it has
made the proof of the Christian God depend upon
its conception of the universe. It has attempted
to reconcile all our knowledge with itself, and to
find in God the fundamental principle of all exist-
ence. Hence it has thought it necessary to recon-
cile the existence of evil with a Divine goodness,
and of the many seeming irrationalities of the
world with an all-directing Divine wisdom, and a
revelation of Divine love througli men with an
historical record, and our appreciation of God's
mercy with a theory of the origin and extent
of sin. This was all natural in an age when
almost any one could master the whole realm of
knowledge, and when a systematic statement in-
cluding everything seemed easily formed. But no
such all-embracing system is possible. Whoever
a,ttempts it — Spencer, Haeckel, Comte, or Hegel
— fails to gain recognition, and shows simply how

154 PROOFS OF THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION

futile is the effort. Indeed, even particular ob-
jective sciences, — physics and chemistry, geology
and astronomy, — cannot be brought into thorough-
going theoretical harmony. The philosophy of
religion, theology, is no exception to this condition
of our knowledge. It does not succeed in har-
monizing knowledge, for knowledge, as we have
pointed out, at present is incapable of such har-
mony, but it has its own definite place and this
it may confidently fill.

Questions of final harmony, of man and the uni-
verse, of God and the finite, of an all-embracing
principle which shall embrace and reconcile all dif-
ferences, is the natural end of intellectual inquiry,
not peculiarly of theology, but of all thorough-
going and serious reflection. It is at once the
presupposition and the end of such inquiry : its pre-
supposition because intellectual faith rests securely
on the principle that knowledge is one; the end
because its demonstration can be only the last step
in the process, when, all being known, man shall
know that all is one. Meanwhile each science
pursues its own investigations in touch with the
others, but still unshaken in its own results, even
if they cannot be harmonized at once with aU
theories and facts.

CHRISTIANITY AS RELIGION 155

We do not argue that religion separate itself
from science, claiming some special faculty of
knowledge, or that theology may ignore the results
of scientific inquiry. Such separation of reason
and faith is not possible permanently ; and before
long, when the attempt is made, reason destroys the
faith or faith conquers reason. But we insist that
physical science remember that it is a partial view
of the world, and that when its conditions are for-
gotten and it is set forth as final and sufficient ex-
planation it errs. For example, we are coming to
know that the struggle for existence is only one
element in organic evolution, and that the de-
scription of nature as " red in tooth and claw " is
only a partial representation of carefully selected
facts. When, therefore, Mr. Huxley finds no trace
of moral purpose in nature, and thinks the world
the devil's kingdom, it is because he first excludes
man, and ethics as man's production. Excluding
man with all his interests, feehngs, and relation-
ships, give the problem how to describe nature, and
the result will be a non-moral universe, but as
unreal and as unnatural as non-moral. Such a pro-
cedure has a relative value, but it is pure fancy
when its result is supposed to embody the final
description of the universe as it is. The religious

156 PROOFS OF THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION

problem is: given man, dependent and ignorant,
with feelings, fears, hopes, hatreds, loves, in the
midst of he knows not what dangers and difficul-
ties, how shall he be triumphant over fear and sin
and death ? How shall he live in peace and make
existence not only endurable but worthy ?

Precisely as the scientist sets forth his theory of
forces, laws, or substance as best explaining the
world of forces, atoms, or substances, does the
Christian set forth the manifestation of the Divine
love in Jesus Christ as best meeting the needs of
the religious nature of men, and best satisfying the
soul. Thus theology neither attacks nor appropri-
ates the results of investigation in other spheres,
for it too appeals to its own peculiar and sufficient
proofs.

This is seen more clearly by a further considera-
tion. The ills of life, and of the world, are used as
an argument against the truth of the Christian reli-
gion, and it is true, indeed even a truth of Chris-
tianity, that these ills are real and that if they are
made chief by the mind they shall triumph and
man shall perish. But how does this contradict the
truth of the Christian religion ? It neither mini-
mizes the evils of life nor does it promise immunity
from them. It does not deny illness, poverty, mis-

CHRISTIANITY AS RELIGION 157

fortune, and death, but it affirms a power which as
matter of fact delivers from sin, and fear, and un-
happiness, and renders blessed. This power it
proves not by extraordinary deliverances, by mir-
acles of healing and of restoration from death, which
at best win only a temporary triumph and show in
the end that after all illness and death prevail, but
by the peace which passeth understanding in the
hearts of its believers, a victory the world can
never give and never take away. The Christian
knows that his God delivers, and that even in
Gethsemane and on Calvary he strengthens and
blesses his child.

Many objections to Christianity have been
created by the historic claims set forth as to the
manner of its introduction into the world. God's
omniscience and power have been made the essen-
tial characteristics, and a revelation from him has
been proved by showing its conformity to historic
and natural facts. But from our point of view
questions of inspiration and of revelation in the
ordinary sense are apart from the direct and fun-
damental proofs of this religion. It is not the
method of its revelation which is primary, nor the
mode of its discovery. If Mahomet claims a direct
revelation, and Buddha an acquired insight, and

158 PROOFS OF THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION

the sages of China an intuitive apprehension of all
truth, the fundamental test for all alike is still
whether the principle they set forth is true,
whether it conforms to facts. When it is stated
that Buddha anticipated the theory of evolution,^
nothing is added to the proof of his peculiar doc-
trines. In the same way the fundamental proof
of Christianity is wholly apart from questions of
the mistakes of Moses, of his knowledge of natural
science, and of the foreknowledge of the future
possessed by the prophets. Indeed it is independ-
ent of the whole discussion as to the Bible as the
Word of God, for important as the questions of
historical criticism are, the direct proof of the
Christian religion does not depend upon them.
EstabHsh the resurrection from the dead, the im-
maculate conception of our Lord, the unerring
historical and scientific knowledge of Moses, the
inerrancy of all the Biblical history, and that the
contents of the book were made known in some
mysterious and supernatural way, still, if the fun-
damental principle disclosed be not proved to our
hearts by satisfying our religious need, all the rest

1 Quite incorrectly, it is true, for wherein the doctrine of evolu-
tion has scientific value, Buddha did not know it, and what he
taught is without scientific significance.

CHRISTIANITY AS RELIGION 159

I] profits nothing. The larger part of the attacks
' upon Christianity rest on this misapprehension, on
the supposition that it is disproved as errors in sci-
ence or histor}^ are pointed out. But if it be light

I and life it shows itself and proves itself by its

i effects.

Therefore we do not discuss the usual difficul-
ties. They belong in any case only to secondary
apologetics, for the fundamental proof sets forth
the essential principle. If one will not believe the
prophets neither will he believe though one rose
from the dead, and in accordance with this Divine
word it is plain that the case cannot be reversed.
One may not say the book is inerrant, and there-
fore trust Divine love, nor that Christ rose from
the dead, and therefore accept his words, but seeing

1 his grace and truth we readily interpret the rest in

ji their light. Knowing Christ's love one may inter-

I pret the Scriptures which record it as Divine, and
having implicit faith in Jesus may credit the

j accounts of the wonders which he wrought. Start-
ing with love and faith men have variously inter-
preted his person, as the Logos, as the Man from
Heaven, as the Second Person of the Trinity, as
the Sinless One, — uniting in this, that in him they

; find God. The determination of his person be-

160 PROOFS OF THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION

longs to theology, and apologetics cannot rest its
case on theories of his person or of the Book, but
in the love Christ revealed, which makes men tri-
umphant over sin and fear and death.

The agnostic controversy does not involve the
fundamental proofs. Only, as we have pointed
out, if Christianity be essentially philosophical can
discussions about noumenon, the absolute, and the
abstract infinite determine the issue ; but some
theologians as agnostic as Huxley himself, and
others as gnostic as Hegel, have equally trusted
the Divine love revealed in Christ in life and death,
and have taken it as their rule of conduct toward
their fellow-men.

f Should scientific method fail wholly in its efforts
to solve its immediate problems, men would give
scant recognition to guesses based on it as to
questions remote and ultimate. But as it wins
successive triumphs, confidence grows and men
come to trust that in the future it will master
much which is beyond its present powers. Its
proofs are in the present, in its partial victories ; its
faith is, as to the future, that though the fight with
ignorance be long, complete triumph will come at
last. Failures do not cause despair nor doubt
that man's welfare can be attained only as he reso-

CHRISTIANITY AS RELIGION 161

iutely follows the method which thus far on the
whole best answers his needs and is most efficient
in mastering the facts.

So with Christianity: it meets man's present
needs, and he comes to trust it for the future too.
That it accords with the facts which he knows,
and meets the situation in which he is, is its proof,
and the foundation for faith. The facts demand be-
lief in the Divine love, and such belief proves itself
by gaining the victory. All literature and philoso-
phy and science emphasize man's dependence. The
acknowledgment of his ill desert is almost as uni-
versal. There is a discord external and internal,
and only trust in Divine goodness heals it. Pride,
self-confidence, self-righteousness are surely not
judgments warranted by the facts. Man may
ignore his true situation and find a temporary con-
tentment and happiness, but, none the less, the
world shows him surrounded by dangers, difficul-
ties, and sin which may at any moment destroy
him. To deny the facts is impossible, and to
ignore them is to prefer falsehood to truth. But
in their presence men can be brave and accomplish
their life tasks only through belief in funda-
mental goodness. This is the truth of reli-
gion, and the implied creed of scientific inquiry.

11

162 PROOFS OF THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION

Christianity makes this implicit faith explicit, and
thereby increases its power so that man may look
the facts in the face, understand his position and
even his sinfulness, and still gain the victory.
" Though he slay me yet will I put my trust in
him" is an expression of the faith which makes
men brave in the last extremity, and victorious
when the world has done its worst. It overcomes
also the inner contradiction, the sin which man
cannot forgive to himself and whose consequences
he can never repair. Not forgetting it, not ignor-
ing it, not excusing it, still the sinner does not
despair, but finds in the Divine love the salvation
which can restore to peace.

This faith in the Divine goodness as the su-
preme principle of the world is strengthened when
it is embodied in life, and as ethics approves
itself. Ethics is the manifestation of religion, and
religion is the principle of ethics. Ethics, as we
have seen, brings conduct into harmony with prin-
ciples, and the righteous man conforms not to that
which is, but to that which should be. Religion
trusts that which is, and believes in God, w^ho is
a present help in time of need. And in this re-
ligion and ethics have the same relation which
science bears to its underlying faith ; for science,

CHRISTIANITY AS RELIGION 163

notwithstanding all failures, holds that truth
exists and can be found. So religion holds that
Christian love shall be manifested because, not-
withstanding all suffering and sin, it is. This
ultimate faith in God is our trust that that which
should be is, and that the kingdom of love and
peace which is to be achieved by men is an expres-
sion of the Divine love, which we trust now as the
highest reality, that is, as God^^

The Christian religion, like the Christian ethics,
points to Jesus as its embodiment. His religious
consciousness is at once its type and its realization.
Acceptance of doctrine, repentance of sin, faith in
Christ himself, with whatever rites and sacraments
and ecclesiastical orders are esteemed by any as
essential, are means to the attainment, but the

j religion itself is in the consciousness, which is like

i his own.

I'' The central fact in his consciousness was the
love of his Father, and this one fact made him
triumphant. The antitheses set forth abstractly
are made real by the concrete facts of his experi-
ence. His faith was not the result of a philosophi-
cal line of reasoning, which found a reconcilement
of the contradictions of the world in some ontolog-
ical or monistic principle. But it was a trust

164 PROOFS OF THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION

termed childlike, and thus recommended to all.
Nowhere does it appear that he makes this living
consciousness of his Father's love dependent upon
the ability to answer the hard questions which
have perplexed man's reason, nor is there any
indication that he would have rejected any one
because of intellectual disagreement. But neither
was his trust in God's love based upon freedom
from the ills of life or exceptional favors, for he
drank the cup of bitterness to its dregs, and
neither sought nor found relief in any miraculous
interference. When an hungered no miracle fed
him, and when betrayed no legions of angels
rescued him, and when on the cross no super-
natural power made it possible for him to descend
and confute his enemies; surrounded by dangers
and attacked by evil he suffered. Man lives not
by bread alone, but by God's word ; to be delivered
from foes is not to be desired, but to do God's
will, and if on the cross there comes a moment of
depression when God seems to have forsaken his
son, it passes as he commits his spirit into his
Father's hands. He was spared no humiliation,
no loneliness of suffering, no contradiction, no re-
viling, no pain, no loss, but in it all the conscious-
ness of his Father's love sustained and made him

CHRISTIANITY AS RELIGION 165

blessed. Sin itself could not shake his trust. He
confessed no sin, and did not pray for forgiveness,
but in the presence of the evil toward which man
is most unrelenting, and of guilt which man
deems most unworthy, with the adulteress, the
outcast, the technical sinner, and the renegade he
never hesitated as to God's all-forgiving love.
Even when, at the last, sin did its worst against
himself, he held fast his faith, and asked forgive-
ness for those who slew him. _/

This consciousness of God's love bore with it an
undoubted faith in final victory. Whether in the
apocalyptic visions of the synoptic Gospels, or in
the transcendental conceptions of the Johannine
writings, the confidence is clear and undisturbed.
Not his own loneliness of faith, nor his rejection
by his nation, nor the fewness and misunderstand-
ings of his disciples, nor his own death could make
him hesitate. He saw the evil in the world and
felt its full force, but he still knew that without
his Father not a sparrow falls. It is not a philos-
ophy of nature, nor a philosophy of history which
he teaches, but a trust in a love which pervades
nature and history, and makes all, even in the
darkest times, blessed.

Such a religion meets precisely the needs of

166 PROOFS OF THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION

y such a world as this : a religion primarily not for
] the explanation of evil, but for victory over it.
Beyond all denial the world, in its sin and suffer-
ing and death, is a world where reasons may be
found for a pessimistic assertion of evil as su-
preme, and for a fatalistic refusal of further exer-
tion even for the sake of escape. Were this not
true the Christian religion in its peculiar and
essential characteristic would be unreal. But it is
equally true that such a consciousness of the love
of God as Christ's will make one victorious, and
give to him a peace and blessedness which the
highest success and the greatest wealth cannot
bestow.

The religious consciousness of Christ is the
source of ethics, not because there is a balancing of
happiness in this world against happiness in some
future existence, but because this experience re-
veals something better than happiness and more
efficient as motive than self love. To love God
with all one's heart is already to love one's
neighbor as one's self. Hence the love of the
neighbor, the actual carrying out into activities
of this consciousness that love is supreme, can-
not wait until it can be combined with one's
own peace, prosperity, and success. In an evil

CHRISTIANITY AS RELIGION 167

world Christ would not call down fire from
heaven to destroy his enemies, nor permit the
Prince of Peace to be defended by the sword.
Love only begets love, and the kingdom of peace
is not ushered in by a triumphant slaughter of
its foes.

For the consummation of the Christian religion
is the presence of this same consciousness of God
in men. As St. Paul sums up ethics by setting
forth the supreme sacrifice of Christ and the in-
junction, " Have this mind in you," so does the
Johannine Christ sum up religion in the prayer,
*' That they may all be one ; even as thou Father,
art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one
in us." Such a presence in consciousness, such
a realization of God's love, is the only proof pos-
sible for a religious truth. Other proof may estab-
lish historical, or scientific, or metaphysical truth,
but this only the truth of a Divine love, asserted
in the face of all the miseries and sins of the
world, triumphantly asserted as giving us the vic-
tory. It is not by dialectics that such a proof
can be established, but by the fact. The fact is
apparent in the life and death of Jesus, and in
some measure in all those who are one with
him. To this, then, is the final appeal: "That

168 PROOFS OF THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION

they may be one even as we are one ; I in them,
and thou in me, that they may be perfected in
one ; that the world may know that thou didst
send me, and lovedst them, even as thou lovedst

IX

CHRISTIANITY THE ABSOLUTE
RELIGION

The Christian is not content, surely, with the
supremacy of the principle of his religion in his own
life, with his own peace and blessedness, but seeks
by necessity its impartation to others. His religion
is not merely the best for him, but the true and
absolute religion corresponding to fundamental
facts which are accessible to all, and whose knowl-
edge is necessaiy to all. This claim, that Chris-
tianity is the absolute religion, remains to be
examined and the nature of its possible proof
to be set forth.

Reviewing what we have said of proof in general,
we find it in a repeated and a common experience.
In a realistic way, in the common affairs of life, we
examine the object in question, and if our judg-
ment be confirmed, appeal to others for their
agreement. But if on our examination we find
conflicting facts, or if others fail to agree with our

ITO PROOFS OF THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION

decision, the question remains in doubt. In physi-
cal science the procedure is the same, repeated ex-
amination, the appeal to competent witnesses, and
a final judgment by common consent. In the most
abstract matters the logical procedure is essentially
similar. Though we have no sensible phenomenon
to be examined, but deal only with a concept, we
view it in all possible relations, submit it to aU
possible questionings, offer it to the judgment of
competent specialists, and on their agreement it
takes its place among the established truths of
philosophy.

As we have seen, another class of truths involve
a somewhat different procedure. They are not
found primarily as facts, that is, as already a part
of the objective and established order, but, seen by
the mind, they are to be made real by the activities
of men. The intellect discerns the ideal, the feel-
ings approve, and the will realizes it. Truths of
law, of politics, of economics, of music, of art, of
ethics, and of most of man's many varied activities,
are of this nature, and are higher than the truths
which are conceived as purely objective, and already
matter of fact. They are higher because they in-
volve most completely the whole and unique nature
of man. Yet, evidently, the distinction is some-

CHRISTIANITY THE ABSOLUTE RELIGION 171

what artificial, since our so-called established order
of facts, and our objective sciences which are sup-
posed to describe it, is itself the result of a discrim-
inating mental activity, which selects and arranges
material out of the great mass presented to our
senses according to a principle which first approves
itseK to the mind as best, and then is used to
organize our knowledge. Still there is a difference,
for the scientist asks chiefly what is ; but it is no
answer to the lover of liberty to tell him that no
order of objective facts exists agreeing with his
conception of government, say, of the people, by
the people, and for the people. It is his high pur-
pose to organize the facts. Indeed, mere facts, in
the crude, realistic sense, exist only that they may
furnish material for the embodiment of ideals
scientific, social, aesthetic, and ethical. The ideal
is not found in the brute fact, but is brought to it,
and the brute fact is made its servant, and is
thereby transformed and glorified. This injection
of our consciousness into nature, this teleological use
of the raw material, distinguishes civilization from
barbarism, as in truth it separates man from the
brute. Indeed, the one valid form of the teleolog-
ical argument for the existence of God is in the fact
that nature thus serves the ends of man.

172 PROOFS OF THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION

Since these truths characterize the varied rich-
ness of man's life, and offer the motives to his
exertions, the full meaning of the world itself must
be discerned here if anywhere. As the color is not
in the flower, but is my perception, as the universe
can be described only as my phenomenon, so its
true meaning can be found only in the aspirations
and activities of man. Let us be as objectively
scientific as we will, we shall not escape this fact.

The universe we describe in terms of man, and
we cannot describe him in terms of something other
than himself. For such an effort describes the
higher in terms of the lower, even of the lowest,
and the fulness of life in terms of some single
factor ; for example, in terms of matter, which is in
the last analysis only man's feeling of resistance,
important, surely, but in no wise entitled to be
the sole or the chief interpreter of our conscious-
ness. The truest explanation of the world will
account for all of man's experience, taking full
account of his origin and formation, and also of
his aims, his feelings, and of the transformation he
can work in outer nature, in the order of objective
facts, which is unchanging save as he works his
will in it.

Religion belongs to this higher part of life. It

CHRISTIANITY THE ABSOLUTE RELIGION 173

is not analogous to the crude experience which is
satisfied with experiments of touch and sight. At
least in the present day few attempt to offer direct
and fundamental proofs of religion in terms of the
senses. Only the superstitious and the fanatical
claim visions and apparitions and voices as evi-
dences of the existence of God. And if more ap-
peal to historical evidence of such manifestations
in the past, the intelligence of our times increas-
ingly refuses to accept the testimony as competent.
Thus, though some may regret it, the direct and
fundamental proofs of our religion can be found
only in its satisfaction of the religious cravings
of the soul, and by its adaptation to the highest
wants of society through its ethical activities.

For the most part, we are satisfied in such mat-
ters, as has already been pointed out, with the
concurrent testimony of the little groups of persons
who, for one reason or another, seem to us com-
petent witnesses. Few persons survey a wide hor-
izon, but most are content with their own sect,
coterie, or denomination. But when we attempt to
view the wide world, and to ask for truth, not yet,
indeed, all prevailing, but which is fitted to prevail,
doubts arise. Especially is this so when we wit-
ness the contentment of great communities with

174 PROOFS OF THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION

ideals and conditions which not only do not satisfy,
but repel us, and when we further observe how
little our best ideals and our most favorable con-
ditions appeal to them. An impenetrable barrier
seems to separate people from people, and to make
any all-embracing judgment of value impossible.
In politics, economics and art, after a brief exam-
ination, we turn back, saying that these tilings are
too great for us, and content ourselves with affirm-
ing our absolute judgments of truth, while ignor-
ing the opinions of nine- tenths of the race.-^

But the Christian religion cannot be thus con-
tent. Its thorough-going monotheism holds no
truth for any one which is not also adapted to, and
to be accepted by, all. That which is for the select
few only is not true for them, for the Christian
religion knows no differences of race and condition
and culture. Besides, since the Christian principle
is self-devotion to the service of others, and this in
the highest things, it cannot be content with its
own salvation, for such contentment is a self-con-
tradiction. Belief in the Christian God holds that
nothing can resist his love, and toward man the

1 " It reallj makes no difference whether we speak of an abso-
lute truth or of an absolute necessity of belief. What we cannot
help believing we cannot help regarding as true." — C. C. Everett,
"Essays Theol. and Lit.," p. 107.

CHRISTIANITY THE ABSOLUTE RELIGION 175

same faith holds the infinite value of every soul.
The scientist may ignore the wisdom of Asia, but
the Christian cannot ignore its faiths. He must
consider their claims, and compare them with his
own.

We need not dwell upon the religions of the
so-called " primitive peoples." The eighteenth
century exalted the noble savage and the state of
nature, but we know that man's salvation is not
in a return to nature, but in victory over it. At
best, primitive man shows only the dim strivings,
not yet understood, out of which have come grad-
ually the civilizations, which in their turn are only
steps in the long progress toward a perfected life.
The beginnings of civilization throw light, indeed,
upon it, but they are not its interpretation, for
it is only in the light of an advanced and highly
specialized science that we understand primitive
society at all. Specifically, religion is not to be
explained by its first manifestations, which, give us
only the vague sense of a reality greater than man,
and a dim groping after something, he knows not
what.

Turning from these beginnings of religion to its
great representatives, we compare them with the
faith we hold ourselves. Manifestly we would

176 PROOFS OF THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION

seek their best, their highest achievement, and
their noblest ideal. This we ask for Christianity,
that it be not judged with unfriendly eyes and a
captious criticism ; that it be not held responsible
for the evils done in its name by men who are not
of its spirit and by communities which, calling
themselves Christian, are only in part, or even not
at all under the control of its pure teachings ; we
would not have it judged even by the average
Christian who does attempt in some half-hearted
way to conform his life to its words ; but we assert
that it is to be judged by its noblest and its best,
by its teaching in its purity, and by the ideal it
sets before us. The claim is reasonable, as the
composer may ask to be judged not by the per-
formance of the amateur, but by the well-ap-
pointed orchestra, trained by the master and led
by his baton.

So, judging others as we would be judged, four
great forms of religion, besides our own, claim
possession of " the truth," viz. : the Hindu, the
Buddhist, the Confucian, and the Mohammedan.
Let us briefly review their teachings in funda-
mental principles.

Hinduism is the religion of contemplation, and
its attainment is absorption in the Infinite. Thus

CHRISTIANITY THE ABSOLUTE RELIGION 177

its goal is the intuition of the unreality of all
individuality, of all differences, and the reality of
the all-embracing unity. This intuition may be
attained in various ways, by asceticism, by solitary
contemplation, or by philosophic study. It repre-
sents a real desire in man, gratifying a deep emo-
tion. It is true to certain facts. Wherever man
has thought profoundly it has been found, — in
ancient Greece, in modern Europe, in all Asiatic
lands. Its classic home is India.

Its attainment demands intense and long-con-
tinued concentration, for it abstracts from all sen-
sible phenomena. Its various methods come to
the same result, but the method of philosophic
study is most familiar to our Western minds. The
student is required to comprehend intricate and
involved and contradictory statements in a com-
plicated system. It is the better if its difficulties
be enhanced by the medium of expression, by the
use of some ancient and forbidding language, or
the unnatural use of a living tongue. For the
purpose is not the grasping of ideas, or the com-
prehension as speedily as possible of a philosophi-
cal system, but the realization of the unreality of
the phenomenal, and of the sole reality of the
Absolute. For years and decades the powers of

12

178 PROOFS OF THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION

body and mind must be concentrated until the
end is attained. Such a method is inconsistent
with immorality and vice; indeed, the passions
atrophy as it is followed, and the seeker after
God is pure in body and mind. Hence, in all
lands such seekers are thought holy, but the holi-
ness is incidental and negative, as they have ceased
to be moved by the emotions of ordinary men.

In compensation there are profound gratifica-
tions. The system builds upon the undoubted
truth that the world and the fashion of it pass
away. New glimpses of that truth meet the
seeker at every step of his progress, and the world
which passes comes to include not only the globe,
but the inner and the outer life of man, all his sur-
roundings and all his aspirations, fears, memories,
and consciousness. So that if one were to project
himself into the future and conceive a paradise of
unnumbered Jcalpas where he should dwell as a
god, still this, too, at last must change and pass
away. The sense of unreality is now the only
reality ; the ground on which one walks, the things
one sees and feels, the self within are all like the
clouds which form and disappear; so that the
strenuous activities of life with its hopes and
fears have a deeply humorous appearance, the

CHRISTIANITY THE ABSOLUTE RELIGION 179

activities of puppets which absurdly think them-
selves alive and real. With this insight every
passion, every hope and fear disappears, and there
ensues a peace which nothing can disturb.

There is a profound enjoyment in this attain-
ment. The insight gratifies, for one sees the long
road he has travelled and from his summit knows
that the obstacles he met, the enemies he feared,
the friends he cherished, the hopes he entertained
were alike unreal, and that the multitudes who
now struggle as once he struggled are on the
same enchanted ground and are suffering from
the same delusions. A word would set them free,
but they know it not, none can teach it them, and
I, behind the scenes, know the secret and am at
rest. These strugghng men and women are illu-
sions like their own illusions, and I, too, so far
as I participate in any separate consciousness, am
a dream among dreams. But I know, and with
this knowledge I have an intuition of the all-
embracing Absolute, and with this immediate feel-
ing which no word can utter, I am filled with a
peace which is limitless.

In testing this conception we shall not deny its
sincerity nor its achievement. Nor shall we deny
to men the right to this prolonged contemplation

180 PROOFS OF THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION

with its natural results. In the varied world of
men it is doubtless well that there be some who,
turning from the ordinary affairs of life, test philo-
sophic contemplation to its utmost. These serve a
purpose as a protest against absorption in triviali-
ties, and as calling attention to the deeper aspects
of the world and the deeper needs of the soul.

But when such religion is set up as authoritative
for men, or as giving us an insight into the true
nature of ultimate reality, we note that it is
attained by a one-sided concentration upon a
single aspect of the universe, and that its result,
so far from being all-embracing, and, therefore, a
vision of the Infinite, is intensely narrow, the
vision of the man who concentrates upon a single
point and makes it distinct and real, at the ex-
pense of shutting out all the wide-spreading land-
scape besides. This single point can represent the
truth only as each other point may illustrate it,
and ceases to represent clearly and fully even
itself, because viewed out of its relationships. A
man as rightly, as many a man does, may claim
possession of the whole truth, who excludes specu-
lation from his mind and concentrates his attention
upon the practical affairs of every day, or, renounc-
ing all ultimate problems, confines himseK to

CHRISTIANITY THE ABSOLUTE RELIGION 181

chemistry or physics. As theory, Pantheistic ab-
sorption, with the unreality of the world as its
postulate, thus breaks down.

This reUgion cannot embody its proofs and sub-
mit them to the common judgment. Only he who
has already journeyed the long path can judge.
He who would prove it must give his life to the
process, in faith. Hence, the Hindu faith in its
highest forms seeks no converts. It holds its
truth as esoteric, and has only parables and sym-
bols for the multitude. Remembering his own
long struggles, he who has attained knows the
impossibility of the way to men in general, and
leaves them in their errors. He cannot deliver
them, and in the last analysis he would not, for
they, too, are illusions like the obstacles they
meet, and we, too, likewise, and futile were it
for illusions to labor to save illusions from illu-
sions. So the end is quietism, and aristocratic
aloofness of mind. The multitude may wallow as
they will, and their condition in India, left to
religions many and debasing, to ignorance and
suffering, is witness that the Hindu faith makes
the few, separated from the practical interests of
life, content with their own attainment, and the
multitude, forsaken, without guides, the prey of

182 PROOFS OF THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION

demons and priests, enslaved by caste, and worship-
pers too often at tlie shi-ines of cruel or licentious
gods. The religion of the philosophic Absolute
can never be the absolute religion, the faith of all
mankind. It must remain the privilege of the
few. If India is to be saved it will be by some
other power.

Buddhism is more thorough-going still, for it
teaches that the Absolute, like all the rest, is
illusion and that asceticism and philosophic con-
templation are only a weariness to the flesh. Not
by concentrating upon any thing or thought, but
by casting all away, is there salvation. It shares
with Hinduism the belief that life is a delusion
and a snare, and it, too, seeks release. This it
gains by renunciation. The evils of separation and
the loss of friends it would cure by cutting all ties
and entering the Order. The fear of the loss of
property it would cure by casting away all posses-
sions and embracing poverty. The fear of death it
would cure by making life as passionless as deatli.
It sets forth its Noble Path and it preaches the
free giving to others of all one has ; but all lead to
this : the perception of evil in all things and the
casting away of all things, so that there shall be
thenceforth no haunting fear of any loss.

CHRISTIANITY THE ABSOLUTE RELIGION 183

Buddhism appeals chiefly to the disillusioned,
and to those who have lost hope. It promises
peace, and its thorough-going character appeals
to certain moods. When the mother mourns her
child it attempts no half-expedient ; it teaches her
that no house is without its dead, it promises
her no reunion after death, insisting that even such
reunion is only introductory to separation in the
universe of change ; it goes to the root and tells her
to love no mor^ and so be content. Thus it seems
to look facts resolutely in the face and to win by
telling the whole truth. ' For this reason Buddhism
in our day appeals to some with winning power.^

But certainly Buddhism can claim no universal
sway on such a plea. It cannot conquer the world
by fleeing it. Only when the world is dead can
the dead thus bury their dead. The victories of
Buddhism for so long a time and over such mul-
titudes have been won by other means, by com-
promises which have altered the essential elements
of the faith, by leaving men in possession of the

1 Of course I do not refer here to certain groups in Europe and
America, taking up a fad which suits the fashion of the hour and
enthusiastic for Buddhism because misunderstanding it, but to the
few whose mood really is congenial to its philosophy. Amiel in
his predominant state is almost the best representative of its less
thorough-going forms. He appeals strongly to Orientals.

184 PROOFS OF THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION

present world, and substituting for present victory
a dim, far-off Nirvana, and even a mythical Western
paradise of sensuous delights. It has reintroduced
the Absolute, which its founder rejected, and gods,
whom he denied, and ministers to the flesh which
it had condemned, by sesthetic service, and art,
and temples with soft-robed priests and sweet-
toned bells. It casts over nature a subdued
half-light, cultivating a quiet, artistic sense. It
becomes all things to all men, finally accepting
heaven and hell, the marriage of priests, salvation
by faith, persecutes, and arms its monks, as in
Japan, or as in Siam forms a priesthood which
serves for a brief term, and then returns to the or-
dinary activities of life, assured by the merit accu-
mulated against further ills.

This religion only by syncretism holds its own,
for in its purity it cannot serve mankind. It de-
mands no high exertion, and sets before its votaries
no high ideal. Its end is an indescribable Nirvana,
and he is best who casts away his powers. It fos-
ters a meaningless charity, the end of which is
not the benefit of the recipient, but the merit
of the giver. It has no discrimination, and praises
him who gave his body to feed a tiger. When it
has brought gifts to men, as in Japan, where it was

CHRISTIANITY THE ABSOLUTE RELIGION 185

the means of introducing the Chinese civihzation,
it accomplishes this because it has departed from
the teaching of its founder. Were humanity to
accept pure Buddhism as its creed, it would be the
sign that it had lost all faith and hope, for Bud-
dhism has no practical ideals, but teaches salvation
through renouncing them.

Of Confucianism enough has been said already.
Here it may be added merely that it comes most
nearly in its abstract principles to the modern view
of the world, as in its application of them it
diverges most widely from modern thought and
life. It makes laws, principles, supreme, and de-
mands that they be embodied in State, society, and
family. But its principles are empirically deduced
from the social condition of China three thousand
years ago, and these are set forth as the eternal
and ultimate realities. Hence it contains no prin-
ciple of progress, but fashions itself forever on the
models of the past. In this conformity to the
past in a rigid conservatism, with ideals only of
peace and the perpetuity of existing institutions,
the institution becomes more important than man,
and he of value only because of the station he fills.
Its appeal is to the highly educated, and the high
in place. The superior in every class are few, and

186 PKOOFS OF THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION

the inferior many, and while the latter are neces-
sary, they are left in their inferiority. Obedience,
submission, contentment are their lot. The value
of man in himself is not known, so that the official
feels little responsibility for the uplifting of the
people, and the scholar is unconcerned though
superstitions rule the masses. Confucianism is a
religion, unquestionably, but it is a religion of
a philosophy, and for philosophers. Like Hindu-
ism, it is content with the attainment of the chosen
few, and understanding that philosophy is not for
the multitude, it leaves them to Buddhism, Taoism,
and devil worship. Thus, notwithstanding the
high character of the '' superior man," and the ex-
aggerated influence ascribed to personal example,
the individual is belittled, and society takes on the
aspect of a mighty machine, whose chief end is its
own continuance, and whose parts exist only that
they may aid in the perpetuity of the whole.
Neither in the great heaven and earth, the Kos-
mos, nor in the little heaven and earth, man, is
there any exalted aim, but only that going on
forever through never-ending cycles all may re-
main as to-day.

One hesitates to treat Islam as a distinct and
separate faith, so dependent is it on the teachings

CHRISTIANITY THE ABSOLUTE RELIGION 187

of the Bible. It contains elements from primitive
Semitic heathenism, but so do the teachings of
Christian sects contain heathen elements. It only
in part understands the Bible, but this too is not
distinctively its characteristic. It does not have
the central message of our Lord and of St. Paul,
but alas, many who call themselves Christians
have not understood the gospel of the Christ. He
who enters the mosque immediately from the con-
fused and tawdry and picture and statue filled
churches of the Orient, feels that it and not they
most nearly represents the pure theism of the
prophets.

" The unity of God, the certainty of judgment,
the fact of revelation, God's will to save men, the
appropriation of salvation by faith, good works as
the fruits of faith — these doctrines make up no
small part of our religion. And these he [Mo-
hammed] adopted and proclaimed." ^ Hence it is
not wonderful that a type of piety is found which
many Protestants think peculiar to themselves,
definitions of God which would make no change in
the statement of the Shorter Catechism, prayers
which Christians might utter, hymns which they
could sing, and religious experiences fervent and
1 H. P. Smith, " The Bible and Islam," p. 316.

188 PROOFS OF THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION

profound. Nor is it surprising that missionary
zeal continues, and that Islam is still one of the
living forces of the religious world.

But to Islam God is supremely the King of
power who judges men, and the motives to obedi-
ence are the fear of hell and the hope of heaven.
Thus religion becomes obedience to rules and
revelation, a system of laws and doctrines neces-
sary for man if he is to attain salvation. How
wide a need such a conception of religion meets is
shown not only by the success of Islam, but by
the prevalence of like ideas in the Christian
Church, notwithstanding the teachings of our
Lord and of St. Paul. Doubtless a religion based
on fear, with salvation as entrance upon future
bliss, and religious duty as the observance of rules
and statutes, appeals to many men. But it neither
meets the needs of the highest minds, nor is it cap-
able of universal prevalence. Its limitations are
shown in clear fashion by Islam. Tied to a list of
rules which represent the ethics and religion of
Arabia a thousand years ago, progress is impossible.
Worshipping a supreme King and not loving a
Father, it naturally rests upon the power of the
sword and cannot rise to the thought of free men
— led in many ways to God. Emphasizing faith

CHRISTIANITY THE ABSOLUTE RELIGION 189

as means of escape, salvation in this world and the
next is for the believer only, while for the others
hell hereafter, and now slavery or death.

Fairly representative of theism a thousand years
ago, Islam again illustrates by contrast the progress
in religious and ethical ideals made in Christendom.
Judged by the standards of its own day and place,
it was a great advance ; judged by ours, it is repel-
lent and impossible. Nor could clearer proof be
given than by Islam and Confucianism that no
faith which is represented by a code of laws can be
the religion for all men in all times, or set forth
the goal to which humanity may hope to move.

Judaism, in its prophetic ideals and in its ethical
monotheism, seemed destined to be the rehgion of
humanity. But in the crisis its representatives
were unable to burst the bonds of nationaUsm.
Some of its representatives even to-day regard the
distinctive feature of Christianity as sentimen-
talism, and reject Jesus precisely in that wherein
he transcended the older ideals. But in the truest
sense Christianity is not the opponent of Judaism,
but its fulfilment and completion.

Turning to our own religion we need not dwell
further on the point that its claim to be the abso-
lute religion is not in asserting itself to be the

190 PROOFS OF THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION

religion of the Absolute. Worshippers of the Ab-
solute have been good Christians, indeed, and since
Schleiermacher it has been common to claim that
the religion of Jesus is the absolute religion be-
cause it includes all other beliefs and has no dis-
tinguishing characteristic of its own, a description
which would apply more correctly to philosophic
Hinduism.^ Jesus did not teach the form nor the
substance of philosophy, nor was comprehensive-
ness the central feature of his words, though in the
vast variety of schools and sects claiming his name
each may find somewhere what he seeks. But
thus to define Christianity as absolute because it
includes all is to make it universal by making it
equivalent to nothing, with no task of its own and
no gift for men but only the cry to each, Be faith-
ful to your own.

Such identification is untrue to facts. Christian-
ity is not identical with Hinduism, nor with Buddh-
ism nor with Confucianism. The resemblances
are superficial and the differences fundamental.
Its absoluteness must be sought elsewhere.

It is not by chance that Christianity centres in

1 Schleiermacher had his own distinctive marks of Christianity
clearly in mind, but those parts of the " Reden " where he deals
with religion in general have had wide influence and have led many
to suppose that he held the opinion written above.

CHRISTIANITY THE ABSOLUTE RELIGION 191

Jesus Christ, and that he is accounted God and
man. For thus the highest expression of truth is
found in a person. If God be P'ather and man be
his son, if self -giving love for the highest benefit
of others be the supreme principle of their com-
mon nature, then the religious and the ethical
aspects of our faith are summed up in him. His
life and his death reveal this love as supreme, and
that it is the final end of man. To that Christ ap-
peals, to that he likens his Father, and that he asks
from men as the condition of discipleship. Man
becomes through perfect service the complete ex-
pression of God. So that the Christian finds the
true symbol of his faith, not in any abstract teach-
ing as to the substance or the formation of the uni-
verse, nor in any abstract principle of the nature of
the Infinite, but in him who went about doing good
and gave his life that his brethren also might be-
come sons of God.

Thus the goal of the Christian is perfection, as
God is perfect — a goal which sets no limit to prog-
ress but carries with it the intimations of immor-
tality and is to be attained in a perfect society
where all serve all, and all are served by all. This
meets the usual objection to altruism as a univer-
sal principle. Let all adopt it, we are sometimes

192 PROOFS OF THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION

told, and there will remain no field for its exercise.
One need not insist here upon this introduction of
the " fallacy of the infinite," though one may ex-
press mild surprise at finding it in the quarters
where it is given expression, but it is sufficient to
point out that such would be the result only if
individuality were obliterated in an all-absorbing
sameness. It has no place in the perfected king-
dom of God, where each has his own peculiarity,
and each his own gift to bestow. The principle is
not dependent upon the continuance of suffering
and distress, since the manifestation of self-giving
love will continue while men and women differ in
powers, acquirements, and gifts. As in the family
love does not wait for illness or misfortune for its
opportunities, so may we think of it among the
world-wide people of God.

This guards also against mere indiscriminate
giving, and an altruism which destroys one's own
nature. Its rule " As thyself " involves a true
estimate of self and may demand the develop-
ment of the self as the highest contribution one
can make to the welfare of the whole.

Christianity contains all progress, for so long as
man individually and collectively has not ex-
hausted his possibilities the ideal is not realized.

CHRISTIANITY THE ABSOLUTE RELIGION 193

With every advance in wisdom, power, control
over nature, in character and happiness, the ideal
advances. Sufficient for all ages and for all condi-
tions it contains an absolute truth which is pro-
gressively embodied. He who has given himself
wholly to it in his own circumstances is already
perfect, without destroying the possibility of fur-
ther advance for himself and others.

This principle is ethical through and through,
and therefore involves the whole man with all his
powers. It is not merely intellectual assent which
is sought, nor a development of the emotions, nor
a surrender of the will, but the devotion of the
entire man, and this in his highest development.
The intellect seeks the means for the realization,
the emotions respond to the immediate as to the
remote ideal, and the will moves in joyful com-
pliance. It contains its own enforcement and is
dependent upon no extraneous power, for it is a
personal life given for the salvation of the world.
It is only in the fulness of personal life perfected
through its relations with an all-embracing society
of persons that an absolute principle can be found,
for all other principles are abstractions, partial
statements of certain aspects of this fulness. In
such a principle is contained the best and highest

13

194 PROOFS OF THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION

attainments of all other religions, each given oppor-
tunity for its completest development, and each
freed from the limitations which disfigure it be-
cause dedicated not to lower ends but to the
noblest service of humanity.

Christianity was born in an Asiatic province
nineteen hundred years ago, but it finds its highest
expression, apart from the Christ, in our own day,
which adopts its ideal more completely than any
former age. In the future no limit can be placed
to it, for no worthier principle can be suggested,
nor any which contains more opportunities for
boundless development. As a natural power, man-
ifested fitfully and partially and half uncon-
sciously, it has influenced men and served them
in all ages and times, but as the Christian religion
it is adopted consciously with a realization of the
meaning of its demands and a comprehension
already in part of the means necessary for its com-
plete embodiment.

Christianity will be worthy of its profession as
the absolute religion when its chief quest is not
the solution of problems as to the ontological
nature of God, nor his relation to the finite as
Infinite, nor his position in a cosmological scheme
of the universe, but the establishment of his king

CHRISTIANITY THE ABSOLUTE RELIGION 195

dom and its righteousness. Then it can wait in
faith for all these things to be added unto it. Its
intellectual task is to set forth the ideal of service
and to show how that ideal may be attained. It
will be truly Christian when its prayer is " Thy
kingdom come, thy will be done on earth;" and it
will be truly universal when the kingdoms of the
world become the embodiment of the Spirit of
the Christ.

As absolute religion for the individual, Chris-
tianity ministers to all his needs and furnishes
the sufficient principle for all the activities of
his life. As absolute rehgion for humanity it
shall be established when it ministers to all needs
and is adopted as the guiding principle in all
lives.

"The direct and fundamental proofs" of the
Christian religion are found already in those who
resting upon the Divine love revealed in Christ find
blessedness and peace; and embodying the same
love in their lives, serve their brethren. The true
Church is the brotherhood of those who are united
in this fellowship of service and love. The final
proof will be given when all men in all places and
all times acknowledge holy love as supreme, and
manifest it in the completed kingdom of God.

196 PROOFS OF THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION

Then shall the absolute religion be fully known,
for God will be all and in all. Until then we
work in faith, for the proof of the Christian religion
is not a deduction of logic, but an achievement of
redeeming love.

^ rA\:

V-' i"^-