THE
GOSPEL OF THE EESUKEECTION.
THE
GOSPEL OF THE RESURRECTION:
THOUGHTS ON ITS RELATION TO
REASON AND HISTORY.
BROOKE FOSS WESTCOTT, D.D., D.C.L.,
LOKD BISHOP OF DURHAM.
SEVENTH EDITION.
antr (ZDambrfoge :
MACMILLAN AND CO.
AND NEW YOBK.
1891
{The Right of Translation is reserved.]
EyAo'rooc 6 AiA<\cAAoc HMOJN
riNEIOE TPAnEZITAI AOKIMOI.
First Edition printed 1866 (Ext. Fcap. Svo.), Second 1867,
Third 1874 (Cr. 8vo.), Fourth 1879, Fifth 1884,
Sixth 1887, Seventh 1891.
NOTICE TO THE FOURTH EDITION.
TN revising the following pages I have had the
great advantage of considering two important
criticisms upon its main argument, one by Mr B.
W. Macau in his Essay on The Resurrection of
Christ, 1877, and the other by the Author of
Supernatural Religion, in the third volume of his
work, and in two papers in the Fortnightly Review
for February and March, 1878. It would be
affectation to say that either writer has brought
forward arguments which I had not considered
previously to the best of my ability ; but I gladly
acknowledge the help which both have given me
in understanding modes of thought which are
foreign to my own. I hope that the few verbal
changes and additions which I have made in the
w. K. b
2017209
vi Notice to the Fourth Edition.
statement of my views may help to render my
meaning clearer, where I find that it has been
misapprehended. One or two errors have been
corrected, and one or two difficulties have been
touched upon more fully than before, where the
reasoning of my critics or my own experience
shewed such changes to be necessary. But I have
made the changes silently, for I cannot think that
the pursuit of the highest Truth is a matter for
personal controversy. No one, I feel, has a mono-
poly of Truth. It is enough that in defending
the Truth which we know, we never consciously
underrate or neglect the objections of opponents.
The teacher who either presumes to claim the
knowledge which he has not, or dissembles his
own difficulties, carries in his own heart the ele-
ments of a stem and inevitable chastisement.
TRINITY COLLEGE,
CAMBRIDGE,
May 13, 1879.
NOTICE TO THE THIRD EDITION.
"OEFORE issuing a new edition of the present
Essay I have carefully reconsidered the whole
argument, and by the help of several kind critics
have been enabled to correct (as I hope) some
faults and to remove some ambiguities, which
had been overlooked before. I have not, how-
ever, made any attempt to alter the general
character of the book. No one can feel more
keenly than I do how often I must tiy the
patience of my readers, but I believe that any
one who has felt the difficulties which are touched
upon, will be willing to follow out in detail the
lines of thought which are suggested ; and in
subjects where all language necessarily falls short
of the truth which we perceive ' in many parts
62
viii Notice to the Third Edition.
'and in many fashions,' it seems better to stir
inquiry, if it may be, than to appear to antici-
pate and satisfy it.
Some recent speculations on the scope and
foundation of Christianity shew with singular
clearness that even the most candid interpreters
of the Gospel can still miss its scope. For it
cannot, as far as I can see, be finally questioned
by any student of the apostolic records that the
earliest known description of a Christian is ' one
'who believes on Christ' and not 'one who believes
' Christ.' Or in other words, a Christian is essen-
tially one who throws himself with absolute trust
upon a living Lord, and not simply one who
endeavours to obey the commands and follow
the example of a dead Teacher. The question
at issue is not the observance of a certain number
of definite precepts but a view of the whole
Universe, of all being and of all life, of man and
of the world, and of GOD.
In this aspect the Resurrection is not an iso-
lated fact, but emphatically a revelation (ch. ii.
16 ff.). If the fragmentary accounts of the
Resurrection were such as to yield a simple and
Notice to the Third Edition. ix
consistent narrative of the restoration of the Lord
to the circumstances of the earthly life which He
lived before, it is not too much to say that the
hope which they convey would be destroyed.
The marvel of the records is that details which
mark the identity of the Lord's person are com-
bined naturally (so to speak) and in the same
Gospel with details which mark the change in
the conditions of His personal existence, as if
those who put the facts together were conscious
of no difficulty in the apparent contradiction from
their actual realisation of the new Truth. And
when we come to combine their narratives we
find it impossible to form any theory of the
nature of the Resurrection as a fact like in kind
to any other facts of our experience which is not
at variance with some at least of the recorded
details. Thus if we take one series of events, the
Resurrection might appear to have been a mere
coming back to life : if we take another, it might
appear to be a deduction from a series of appa-
ritions. Either supposition would be more or less
consistent with the ordinary course of things ; but
an examination of the records will not justify a
x Notice to the Third Edition.
simple choice between the two alternatives. In
some cases again the manifestations carried with
them instant conviction to those to whom they
were made : in others they raised questionings and
even left doubt. But so far from these variations
creating a difficulty they lead us to the fullest
perception which as yet we are able ( to gain of
the new life as a fact. If they are held firmly as
a whole they offer an adequate explanation of the
faith of St Paul. If on the other hand any one
series of phenomena be disregarded, we lose some-
thing either of the reality or of the breadth of the
revelation : there are features in the unquestion-
ably contemporaneous faith of the Apostles which
are left without an adequate explanation 1 .
Thus as we reflect upon the substance of the
apostolic records and the experience of the Church
with more simplicity of heart and more complete
self-devotion, the more nearly are we brought
back to the words of St Paul, If thou shalt make
the confession with thy mouth JESUS is LORD, and
shalt believe in thy heart that God raised Him
1 I have endeavoured to give a general view of the lessons of
the different narratives in The Revelation of the Risen Lord.
Notice to the Third Edition. xi
from the dead, thou shalt be saved. The acknow-
ledgment of the present sovereignty of the Son
of Man in this earliest Creed (TO prj^a) rests upon
faith in the actual Resurrection of the Son of
Man; and together these two facts, Christ's
Sovereignty and Christ's Resurrection offer to
men the power and the motive which are required
for a life of sacrifice and hope.
This elementary conception of Christianity as
involving a living relation with One 'who died
'and is alive again' may be of service in the
prospect of immediate dangers. For it seems
to be commonly admitted that once again we
are approaching a great crisis in the history of
human society and human thought; and many
look with doubt, or even with more than doubt,
on the adequacy of Christian Theology to meet
and reconcile the conflicting elements which are
rising around us. It is, indeed, confessed that
our distinctive Faith the Gospel of the Resur-
rection contained within it the vital and con-
structive forces which were able to preserve the
treasures of the old world from the shipwreck
of the Roman Empire, to organise and guide the
Xll
Notice to the Third Edition.
fresh energies of the northern nations, to receive
and consecrate the recovered heritage of Greek
art and Greek speculation; but there is still
a vague fear that the dangers by which we are
now menaced are greater than any which have
gone before, greater than political dissolution,
greater than triumphant barbarism, greater than
paganised culture. It is perhaps necessary that
it should be so. For while it is comparatively
easy to estimate the relative value of forces from
a distant and quiet vantage-ground, all that
is seen through the dimness and mist of the
struggle appears gigantic and alarming. Yet
even at first sight we must acknowledge that
the past victories of faith cannot but inspire us
with confidence in entering on that struggle to
which we are called, and at the same time furnish
us with those lessons of experience which may
free us from some natural fears. No one now
questions that Christianity has been made richer
and stronger by the loss of the imperial patronage
with which it was once dignified, by the action
of the restless freedom of the Teutonic spirit
upon the personal apprehension of its teaching,
Notice to. the Third Edition. xiii
by the calm light of ancient literature which
reveals and harmonizes a manifold variety in the
providential dealings of GOD with man. And thus
taught we can rejoice to believe that the coming
renaissance of science will minister, no less than
the past renaissance of culture has already done,
to the abiding efficacy of the Truth which has
been handed down to us.
But though we believe that it will be so, or
rather because we believe that it will be so, it
is well for us to prepare for the coming access of
light, to take account of the whole scope of the
Truth, to consider what belongs to its essence
and what to the form in which it is embodied,
to test the various modes by which men strive
towards a fuller knowledge of it, to ascertain
the relation which the particular fragment with
which we happen for the time to be busied bears
to the great sum to which it contributes. There
is a constant and perilous tendency in partial
study, and all study must be more or less partial,
to exaggerate details or shapes of Truth, to pursue
exclusively a method legitimate in one region,
and so to apply it to inappropriate subjects, to
xiv Notice to the Third Edition.
neglect the ennobling inspiration which comes
from a sense of the magnificence of the whole
work in which we are allowed to take some
small part. And this, which is true elsewhere,
is most true of that study, which is of all the
widest and grandest, the pursuit and setting forth
of the science of Theology, to which all other
sciences contribute, and in which they find their
crown and consummation, a unity of idea ac-
cording to our present forms of thought, and the
assurance of eternal worth.
In proportion therefore as the exposition of
Christian Doctrine becomes more complicated, it
becomes more necessary to strive to keep ever
present to our minds the thought of Christ Himself,
Incarnate, Crucified, Raised, Ascended, in whose
Person and Work all doctrine is implicitly con-
tained. And the study of the Bible and the study
of the Church history are the chief means through
which the Holy Spirit opens out the understanding
of our personal faith. Through this double study
pursued fearlessly and thoroughly, because it is
pursued in the sight of GOD and in dependence on
His Spirit, doctrine and ritual first become really
Notice to the Third Edition. xv
intelligible : and though it is a dangerous thing
to use the word 'proof of subjects to which no
method of deduction or induction is applicable,
this double study brings that conviction of the
truth of Christianity on which the intellect as
well as the soul of man can rest with absolute
assurance. As we read the Holy Scriptures with
more open minds, dissembling none of the diffi-
culties by which they are beset, claiming for
them no immunity from the ordinary processes of
criticism, realising with the most strenuous en-
deavour every detail of their human character-
istics, we shall learn what is meant by 'living
' words,' what is meant by ' the inspiration of a
' book.' As we follow the progress of the Christian
society through conflicts and triumphs and dis-
asters, through periods of threatening gloom and
rekindled light, often checked and diverted but
never stopped, often entangled and impeded by
strange accretions but yet always able to cast
them off, we shall feel that there is in it a power
greater than that of man. Such inquiries, so far
as they are undertaken in fellowship with Christ,
will enable us to stand in a living relationship
xvi Notice to the Third Edition.
with prophets and apostles and confessors, so that
their words will come to us not as a tradition or
a formula, but as fresh utterances called out by
the actual needs of men like ourselves, from the
hearts of those who sympathised with them. We
shall find that we are the inheritors of a life and
not of a system, of a life which is a pledge of the
unity of all that is seen and temporal with that
which is unseen and eternal.
While therefore I do not desire to dissemble
or to exaggerate the gravity and even the strange-
ness of the new trial of Faith, the occasion is,
as I believe, more full of hope than of fear.
I cannot doubt what the Church of England may
do, within whose reach are placed the three great
springs of power which have been given separately
to other Churches, the simplicity of a pure creed,
the strength of a continuous organisation, the
freedom of personal faith. I cannot doubt what
our own University may do, in which a grave and
sober intellectual discipline prepares men for
patient criticism and large-minded research. But
still the time of labour is short, and if we waste
it there appears to be no further prospect that
- Notice to the Third Edition. xvii
the work to which we are called will be hereafter
accomplished.
But it cannot be needful to dwell on the
possibility of this most disastrous failure. The
symptoms of dissension and confusion and doubt
among us are rather indications of the restless
unsatisfied energy of newly awakened life than
warnings of decay and dissolution. We are, in-
deed, forced to confess that we have not yet
shewn practically what Theology is, what the
Church is, what doctrine is. We have allowed
questions of social and national right to be dis-
cussed without reference to that infinite Truth
which though above our grasp is yet a light by
which we can guide our course. We have stood
as Christians so far aloof from secular speculation
that we have almost forgotten that it must be
through these lower studies that our apprehen-
sion of our own unchanging message is advanced.
We have so persistently dissembled the power
of the Gospel the historical reconciliation of
GOD with the world and man that it is pardon-
able if those who judge of it by us should doubt
whether it is anything more efficacious and in-
xviii Notice to the Third Edition.
spiring than the pathetic guesses which adorn the
writings of philosophy. But while we deplore
our faithlessness we can rise out of it. And this
we must do, if once again we see Christ as the
ascended Lord, and let the light of His glorious
Person fall upon our life and upon all life.
B. F. W.
TBINITY COLLEGE,
Feb. 23, 1874.
PREFACE.
OMOAon-ICHC TO f>HMA N TCi CTOMATI COY OTI
Kypioc MHCOYC KAI nicTeycHC CN TH KApAiA coy OTI
6 060C AyTON HfeipeN K NGKpWN, C000HCH.
present Essay is an endeavour to consider
some of the elementary truths of Christianity
as a miraculous Revelation from the side of His-
tory and Reason. There seems to be a growing
impression, for it is too vague to be called a belief,
that such a fact as the Resurrection cannot be
brought into harmony with what we see of the
life of the world or what we feel of the laws of
individual thought. The opponents of Christi-
anity tacitly assume that a miracle must be ex-
plained away ; and its defenders neglect to notice
the manifold lines of culture and thought which
converge towards the central lessons of the Gos-
pel and again start from them with the promise
of richer fruitfuliiess. If the arguments which
xx Preface.
are here adduced are valid they -will go far to
prove that the Resurrection, with all that it in-
cludes, is the key to the history of man, and the
complement of reason. At least they will shew
that the supposed incompatibility of a devout be-
lief in the Life of Christ with a broad view of the
course of human progress and a frank trust in the
laws of our own minds, is wholly imaginary. In-
deed it is riot too much to assert that the fact of
the Resurrection (as the typical miracle of the
Gospel) becomes more natural as we take a more
comprehensive view of history, and more harmo-
nious with reason as we interrogate our instincts
more closely. A conviction of the certainty of the
facts of the Gospel seems to be best gained either
by the most general or by the most personal view
of their import. They fill up the most critical
place in the great record of the progress of man-
kind; and they satisfy wants which each man feels
for himself. Christianity has many sides; and
those are by no means the least noble which are
thus opened to the student of life and thought.
The object which I proposed to myself neces-
sarily involved a mode of treatment wholly un-
Preface. xxi
theological. Many topics consequently are dealt
with otherwise than they would be dealt with in a
doctrinal exposition ; and many are wholly omitted
which would have found a place in such a work.
But while I have endeavoured to avoid technical
language, I trust that no word in the Essay will
be found at variance with the fulness of Catholic
truth.
He who has long pondered over a train of rea-
soning becomes unable to detect its weak points.
It is so, I am conscious, with what I now offer to
the criticism of others. But the only desire which
he can have who writes on such a subject must
be to learn the truth fully that in turn he may
speak it. The questions which are raised are
momentous and personal. If we believe that the
answers which I have given are true or like the
truth, our modes of thought and our lives must
bear witness to our Faith.
And it seems impossible not to acknowledge
that the recognition of the Resurrection as a fact
which has moulded the thoughts of Christians and
yet retains the fulness of its vital power, is less
spontaneous and instinctive among us than it
w. R. c
xxii Preface.
ought to be in a Christian age. Nay, more, its
teachings are not so much neglected as absolutely
unperceived in popular estimates of what Christi-
anity claims to be and is. Two passages from
recent works, which have perhaps nothing else in
common, will illustrate my meaning. ' There is
' no hope,' we are told, ' of a good understanding
' with Orientals [i.e. Muslims] until Western Chris-
'tians can bring themselves to recognise what
'there is of common faith contained in the two
' religions ; the real difference consists in all the
' class of notions and feelings (very important ones
'no doubt) which we derive not from the Gospels
' but from Greece and Rome, and which are alto-
' gether wanting here [in the East].' And again :
' Christian morality (so called) has all the charac-
' ters of a re-action ; it is, in great part, a protest
'against Paganism. Its ideal is negative rather
' than positive : passive rather than active : Inno-
' cence rather than Nobleness: Abstinence from
' Evil rather than energetic Pursuit of Good; in its
' precepts (as has been well said) " thou shalt not"
'predominates unduly over "thou shalt"
' It holds out the hope of heaven and the threat of
Preface. xxiii
' hell as the appointed and appropriate motives to
'a virtuous life Even in the morality of pri-
' vate life, whatever exists of magnanimity, high-
' mindedness, personal dignity, even the sense of
' honour, is derived from the purely human, not the
' religious part of our education, and never could
' have grown out of a standard of ethics in which
' the only worth, professedly recognised, is that of
'obedience.' Now, apart from all other criticism,
to which these statements lie open, it is not too
much to say that they absolutely could not have
been written if their authors had realised that
Christianity is emphatically the Gospel of the
Resurrection, in which fact lies a spring of human
dignity and social fellowship infinitely deeper and
fuller than anything which was anticipated in
classical teaching.
During the passage of the Essay through the
press I have been indebted to many friends, and
especially to one, for important suggestions and
criticisms. Of some I have been able to make
use : others, if an opportunity be given me, I shall
hope to use hereafter ; for all I render them my
sincere thanks. And the deepest obligation which
c2
xxiv Preface.
any reader can confer upon me will be to point out
whatever seems obscure or faulty or erroneous in
what is here advanced. For writer and for reader
Truth is the common aim. The subject is not a
vain thing for us : it is our life.
B. F. W.
CAMBRIDGE,
Dec. Wth, 1865.
NOTICE TO THE SECOND EDITION.
TT)Y the kindness of many old and some new
friends I have been enabled to correct and
modify and supplement many of the details in
my original Essay ; but a careful and (as I trust)
impartial review suggests to me no change in the
main argument. Indeed every symptom of the
theological controversies of our own day points
most distinctly to the paramount necessity of a
historical appreciation of the origin and develop-
ment of the Church as the key to the wider ques-
tions which are opening before us. The Epistle
to the Ephesians and the writings of St John
contain in a divine commentary on the Resurrec-
tion, of which Christian history is the gradual and
partial fulfilment, the complete solution of the
greatest problems to which the thoughts of men
are now being turned, the Solidarity of Humanity
and the relation of our World to the whole Kosmos.
xxvi Notice to the Second Edition.
If my leisure and health had allowed me,
I should have added a final chapter on the Re-
surrection and the World, which has for some time
been drawn up in outline. In this it would have
been necessary to take account of the ' Positive
'Religion' of M. Comte, which in many of its
characteristic dogmas appears to cast unexpected
light upon neglected Christian Truths. The
system offers in fact a very noble, though a very
partial, view of Christianity in its political and
social aspects, but without the one essential found-
ation of a historic CHRIST 1 .
It may perhaps be worth while to state that
the sketch of the Essay was made many years ago
and that it was written in 1864 and printed in
the early part of 1865, though it was not pub-
lished till 1866. I cannot therefore take to my-
self the credit which a friendly critic gave me of
' popularising ' arguments on miracles which were
in time subsequent to my own and wholly in-
dependent of them. The coincidence of reason-
ing, if it exists, as I take for granted, is most
1 [I have now added as an Appendix an Essay which marks
what appear to me to be the chief points for consideration
under this head. 1874.]
Notice to the Second Edition. xxvii
satisfactory, though practically I believe that there
can be little difference of opinion on this subject
between those who will take the trouble to think
it out in all its cardinal bearings.
But all speculation leaves the profound con-
viction that life is stronger than thought; and the
present season itself proclaims more eloquently
than many words the Gospel of the Resurrection,
and, if we are faithful, more convincingly. If
each Christian would openly 'confess with his
' mouth ' the truth which he ' believes in his
heart,' the world would gladly yield to the glori-
ous greeting of our Easter morning, ' Christ is
risen.'
B. F. W.
ST LEONABD'S,
Easter Eve, 1867.
CONTENTS 1 .
STATEMENT OF THE QUESTION, pp. 1-14.
THE Besurrection as the central truth of Christianity ( 1-3)
either true or false : no mean (4).
Morally a Eevelation (5).
Historically a Fact (6).
Uniting the objective and subjective elements of
religion (7*).
A religion of the world necessarily historical (8).
The history essentially moral (9).
Preliminary questions (10).
INTRODUCTION.
IDEAS OF GOD, NATURE, MIRACLES.
pp. 15-54.
The difficulties of Christianity essentially included in common
life ( 1).
The Eesurrection a new fact (2*), and not an explanation
of mysteries essentially insoluble by us (3), which are
reducible to the final antithesis of finite and infinite (4).
I. Christianity assumes the existence of
An Infinite Personal GOD,
A finite human will (5).
Explanation of the terms (6).
1 The numbering of the sections is made continuous, but the new sec-
tions are marked by an asterisk. [Ed. 2.]
xxx Contents.
Hence we gain some conceptions of
(a) Nature in relation to GOD (7).
The idea of Succession belongs to our apprehension
of GOD'S action and not to His action in itself (8).
()3) Laics of Nature : simply laws of human observation
(9), which include the operation of an unknown force
(10), and cannot therefore be absolute (11).
The generality of Laws decreases as the complexity of
their subjects increases (12*) ; knowledge complete as
the subject of it is limited (13*).
Indeterminate powers in Nature (14, 15).
II. Christianity claims to be miraculous (16).
The idea of a miracle (17).
A miracle not impossible (18),
nor unnatural (19).
What natural explanations must be avoided (20*).
(a) In relation to GOD
A miracle not an afterthought (21),
nor due to a material cause (22).
(ft) In relation to man
A miracle generally involves an indeterminate element
(23),
and is predominantly subject to moral conditions (24).
Why a scientific age is incredulous of miracles (25),
though Science and Theology can never meet (26*).
Theology the highest member in the Hierarchy of
Sciences (27*).
Instinct is not conquered by science (28).
Miraculous records not antecedently incredible (30).
The alternative (31).
Contents. xxxi
CHAPTER I.
THE RESURRECTION AND HISTORY.
pp. 55-137.
Christianity claims to restore harmony to all creation ( 1).
A historical Progress observable in the physical (2, 3) and moral
worlds (4, 5),
with which Christianity is intimately connected (6), accord-
ing to the teaching of the Apostles (7), whether the ad-
vance was realised among the Jews or Gentiles (8).
And Christianity itself is a history (9), and has been deve-
loped historically (10).
In this lies its distinguishing characteristic (11), which
centres in faith in the Person of Christ (12).
If therefore the circumstances of its origin were unique, so
also may have been the phenomena which it includes
(13-15).
I. Christianity in connexion with Universal History.
(a) The relation of Christianity to pre-Christian his-
tory (16).
(a) Jewish History. Characteristics of the history
of the Jews (17- 20).
(1) The discipline of Egypt (21).
Sinai (22).
The Conquest (23).
The Kingdom (24, 25).
The Captivity (26).
The Dispersion (27, 28).
(2) The development of the idea of a Deliverer (29).
The doctrine of Messiah (30).
The Word (31).
Contrast of the two doctrines (32).
(b) Gentile History (33).
(1) Greek literature and thought (34).
(2) Roman statesmanship and law (35).
The crisis (36).
xxxii Contents.
(/3) The relation of Christianity to post- Christian history (37).
General outline of its progress (38, 39).
(a) The Church of the first centuries. Orthodox (40).
(b) The Mediaeval Church. Catholic (41).
(c) The Church of Modern Europe. Evangelical (42).
The divisions mark a real but not final advance (43, 44).
n. The special evidence for the Resurrection (45).
(a) The testimony of St Paul (46).
Conclusive as to the universal and definitely ex-
pressed belief of Christians, within ten years
afterwards, that the event was historically true
(47-49).
(/3) The character of the event
(a) Excludes the possibility of delusion (50).
(b) Not anticipated by any popular belief among
Greeks (51*) or Jews (52).
(c) Contrary to the Messianic expectations of the
Jews (53),
to the ideas of the Apostles (54).
(7) The effects of the event
(a) On the character of the Apostles (55),
(b) On the Apostolic view of the Person of Christ (56),
(c) Especially on St Paul's teaching on the Death of
Christ (57, 58) and our relation to Him (59).
(5) The relation of the belief in the event to other parts
of Christian doctrine.
The Return of Christ (60).
The Holy Sacraments (61).
The Life of the Church (62*).
Summary (63).
Contents. xxxiii
CHAPTER II.
THE RESURRECTION AND MAN.
pp. 138-190.
The final elements of every moral question : GOD, the World,
Self ( 2).
The result of the suppression of any one of these ele-
ments (3*).
The individual ' self (' I ') felt at present to be twofold (4),
and the antithesis which it includes is essential to our
personality (5).
Hence arise the questions (6)
I. Will our Personality he preserved after
death ?
II. What is the future relation of Self to
GOD?
III. What is the relation of Self to the
World?
I. Personality, as far as we can see, depends upon the special
. limitation (body) through which the soul acts (7).
(a) Eeason can shew that we survive death by shewing
either that
(a) The soul will itself have a personal existence ;
or that
(b) It will act through an organism corresponding
to its present one.
But (a) On principles of Eeason there is no reason
to think that the individual soul is personal (9).
(1) The judgment of Aristotle (10, 11).
(2) The arguments adduced in support of
the belief apply to the past as well as to
the future (12).
(3) Plato's teaching based on instinct not
reason (13).
xxxiv Contents.
(b) We have no ground for supposing that the soul
can take to itself any organisation soever (14).
Thus there remains a final conflict between Instinct
and Beason as to our future Personality (15).
(|8) The doctrine of the Kesurrection preserves the idea
of our Personality completely (16).
This significance brought out gradually (17*).
The Lord's Body the same (18, 19),
yet changed (20, 21).
After death the whole complex nature of man is en-
nobled (22).
II. The final relation of man to GOD depends upon the reality
and issues of sin (23).
(a) What reason teaches of sin.
(a) The possibility of sin included in the idea of
a finite, free being (24).
(b) Its realisation not required for moral deve-
lopment, though in some forms it may be sub-
servient to it (25-29).
(c) It is indeed essentially foreign to our nature,
and yet when once realised permanent in its
effects (30-32).
Thus there remains an Instinct which looks for
forgiveness of sin, and Beason which points
to the inexorable sequence of the results of
action (33).
(/3) The light which the Resurrection throws on the
forgiveness of sin (34).
In what way the Lord's Suffering and Triumph
belong to us (35-41).
Contents. xxxv
III. The relation of Self to the World.
This is indicated by the dignity assigned to the body
(42), which is the seed of that which shall be (43).
Effects of the doctrine :
I. Morally as to the individual and society (44-46).
II. Physically in relation to the outer world (47, 48).
Summary (49-51).
CHAPTER III.
THE RESURRECTION AND THE CHURCH.
pp. 191-247.
The Resurrection in relation to the history of the Church
( 1*, 2*).
Various images under which the Christian society is described.
(a) A Kingdom (3, 4).
(/3) A Temple (5, 6).
(y) A Body (7).
How these images are seen in the light of the Resurrection.
(a) A spiritual kingdom : a new heaven and a new
earth (9, 10).
(/3) A structure reared through many ages and hal-
lowed by One Spirit (11).
(7) The visible Body of the Risen Christ (12).
Contrast between the fundamental idea of Christianity as the
basis of a society and those of
Paganism (15).
Judaism (16).
The principle of unity (18, 19)
illustrated by the Resurrection (20).
The principle of life (21).
xxxvi Contents.
I. The essential unity of the Church does not require exter-
nal unity (22, 23),
nor one visible centre of authority such as was for a time
established at Jerusalem (24), till ' the end of the world'
(25*), and afterwards at Eome (26).
The extent of variation consistent with sub-
stantial unity not to be determined ante-
cedently (27) ;
yet illustrated by the history of the Jewish
Church (28).
The admission of the necessity of variations
in the Church does not sanction secta-
rianism (29, 30).
We have to deal with a world in which sin is
realised (31*).
Progress itself implies antagonism (32) and
individuality (33).
II. The essential unity of the Church seen in its historic
development (34, 35).
This development one of organisation (36),
not of doctrine absolutely (37),
corresponding to the general progress of
civilisation (38), and the complexity of the
Christian Body (39).
Hence it includes many partial and transitional
developments, which are set aside when their
work is done (40).
How far this development is due to human imperfec-
tion (41).
Scripture the unchanging test of development (42).
Our age presents an epitome of all past ages (43).
The function of national Churches (44*).
Churches like nations ' redeem each other' (45).
Grounds of hope in the midst of the contradictions
of modern life (46, 47).
Conclusion (48).
STATEMENT OF THE QUESTION.
KoXoP TO aOXov Kal r) e\7ris fJ-eydX-rj.
PL A TO.
1. TEAN PAUL, in one of his magnificent STATE-
I MENT^
^ Dreams, has endeavoured to present QUESTION.
to the mind an image of the infinite extent and
fulness of the Universe. He represents his own
disembodied Spirit as carried by thought from
system to system through the starry skies under
the conduct of some Angel of light. Wearied at
length and bowed down with the overwhelming
sense of his littleness as he traverses the desolate
intervals between world and world, he prays that
he may go no further: 'I am lonely in creation;
' lonelier in these wastes. The full world is great ;
' but Vacancy is greater.' And the answer came :
' In the sight of GOD there is no Vacancy. Even
' now, O child of man, let thy quickened eye be-
' hold, and thy dreaming heart embrace the depths
' of Being which are around thee.' Then his eye
was opened and a sea of light filled all the spaces
which had seemed desolate before, and his heart
w. R. 1
2 The Resurrection is the
STATE- felt the presence of an unspeakable power, swell-
MENT .
QUESTK?N. m g m varied forms of existence around him.
Suns and planets were seen to float as mere
specks in the vast ocean of life which was re-
vealed to him. For a time he was conscious of
no pain. Immeasurable joy and thanksgiving
filled his soul. But in this glorious splendour his
guide had vanished. He was alone in the midst
of life, and he yearned for some companionship.
'Then there came sailing onwards,' he continues,
' from the depth, through the galaxies of stars, a
' dark globe along the sea of light ; and a human
' form, as a child, stood upon it, which neither
' changed nor yet grew greater as it drew near.
' At last I recognised our Earth before me, and on
' it the Child JESUS, and He looked upon me with
'a look so bright and gentle and loving, that I
' awoke for love and joy.'
2. The thought which inspires this grand
vision is that which I now wish to develope and
confirm. It is my object to shew that a belief in
the Resurrection of our Lord is not indeed the
solution (for that we cannot gain), but the illu-
mination of the mysteries of life : that in this
fact the apparent contradictions of the immensity
and insignificance of the individual are harmo-
nized: that in this lies an end to which pro-
central Truth of Christianity. 3
Christian history converged, a spring from which STATE-
. MKNT
post-Christian history flows: that in this man QUESTION.
finds the only perfect consecration of his entire
nature : that in this there is contained a promise
for the future which removes, as far as may be,
the sense of isolation which belongs to our finite
nature, and unites our world again to the absolute
and eternal : that in this, to sum up all briefly,
we may contemplate Christianity in relation to
history, to man, and to the future, not as a vague
idea, or as a set of dogmas, or even as a system,
but as the witness to actual events, in the sub-
stantial reality of which lies all its power and all
its hope.
3. At the outset it is important to define the
field within which the foundation of our inquiry
lies, and to close it within the narrowest limits.
It includes only the Cross and the Sepulchre.
It is open to the full light of day. The Death,
the Burial, and the Resurrection of Christ, claim
to be facts exactly in the same sense, to be sup-
ported by evidence essentially identical in kind,
and to be bound together indissolubly as the
groundwork of the Christian Faith. If they are
true, then they will be seen to form the centre
round which other truths group themselves, not
less real, nor less significant, though they are not
12
4 The Resurrection
STATE- equally capable of being directly subjected to
QUESTION, historical tests. If they are not true, then ' is our
' faith vain/ Christianity is a name and nothing
more, a sentiment, an aspiration, the expression
and not the satisfaction of human need.
4. The natural indistinctness of common lan-
guage leaves room for a vague impression that
in this case there is some mean between truth
and falsehood : that though the Resurrection
was not a fact (as the Crucifixion was a fact),
yet it was something more than a fiction : that
it expressed (it may be) an intuition or a divine
belief. Yet it is obvious that the power of the
Resurrection, as the ground of religious hope, lies
in the very circumstance that the event which
changed the whole character of the disciples was
external to them, independent of them, unex-
pected by them. We are speaking here, of course,
of things as they present themselves to the senses,
and in this light the Resurrection claims to have
been so far a fact of the same order as the Burial
of the Lord. Its objectivity is essential to its sig-
nificance. A conviction that a particular person
had risen again, when he had not, is simply false,
however it may have been produced. And if the
conviction embodies itself in a circumstantial
narrative of facts intended to establish the imagi-
true or false : no mean. 5
nary event, the narrative is simply a falsehood and STATE-
J r J MENT
nothing more. There are cases, as, for example,
in the description of the tumult of a battle, where
fictitious or unreal details convey a relatively true
idea of the whole. It is obviously impossible
either to record or to apprehend the multitudi-
nous phases of action which go to fill up a com-
plicated and changing scene ; and the genius of
an artist may be able to convey to others the
reality which he has himself grasped through re-
presentative incidents moulded to his purpose. It
might be so, within certain limits, with the details
of the Resurrection. But ' if Christ be not risen,'
it is the whole and not the details which, on
such a supposition, is imaginary. The Resur-
rection then is either a fact in itself wholly in-
dependent of those who were witnesses to it, or
it is a fiction it matters not whether designed
or undesigned on which no belief can be found-
ed. It is a real link between the seen and the
unseen worlds, or it is at best the expression of
a human instinct. Christ has escaped from the
corruption of death ; or men, as far as the future
is concerned, are exactly where they were before
He came. Whatever may be the civilizing power
of Christian morality, it can throw no light upon
the grave. If the Resurrection be not true in
the same sense in which the Passion is true, then
6 The Resurrection
STATE- Death still remains the great conqueror. As far
MENT
UESTION, as all experience goes, no pledge has been given
to us of his defeat. A splendid guess, an inex-
tinguishable desire alone have sought to pierce
the darkness beyond the tomb, if JESUS has not
(as we believe) borne our human nature into the
presence of GOD.
5. When once we grasp clearly the momen-
tous interests which are involved in the belief in
the Resurrection, we shall be prepared to under-
stand how it formed the central point of the
Apostolic teaching ; and yet more than this, how
the event itself is the central point of history,
primarily of religious history, and then of civil
history of which that is the soul. It often seems
indeed as if we do not realise the vastness of the
consequences which it brings. An influential
Christian teacher has said that the Resurrection
belongs to the teaching on Scripture rather than
to the teaching on the Person of Christ, forgetting
that faith in Christ as the Saviour, so far as this
was a Gospel for the world, did not precede
but follow it. Even those who hold most firmly
to a faith in the Resurrection are tempted to
regard it as a doctrine rather than as a fact, as an
article of belief rather than as a sensible ground
of hope. Gradually we have been led to dissociate
morally a Revelation. 7
faith in the resurrection of the body from the STATE-
MENT
actual Resurrection of Christ, which is the earnest QUESTKMI
of it. And not unfrequently we substitute for
the fulness of the Christian creed the purely
philosophic conception of an immortality of the
soul, which surrenders, as we shall see hereafter,
the idea of the continuance of our complete per-
sonal existence. But according to the divine
instinct of the first age, the message of the
Resurrection sums up in one fact the teaching of
the Gospel. It is the one central link between
the seen and the unseen. We cannot allow our
thoughts to be vague or undecided upon it with
impunity. We must place it in the very front of
our confession, with all that it includes, or we
must be prepared to lay aside the Christian name.
Even in its ethical aspect Christianity does not
offer a system of morality, but a universal principle
of morality which springs out of the Resurrection.
The elements of dogma and morality are indeed
inseparably united in the Resurrection of Christ ;
for the same fact which reveals the glory of the
Lord, reveals at the same time the destiny of man
and the permanence of all that goes to make up
the fulness of human life. If the Resurrection be
not true, the basis of Christian morality, no less
than the basis of Christian theology, is gone. The
issue cannot be stated too broadly. We are not
8 The Resurrection as a fact
STATE- Christians unless we are clear in our confession on
MKNT^
QUESTION, this point. To preach the fact of Resurrection
was the first function of the Evangelists ; to
embody the doctrine of the Resurrection is the
great office of the Church ; to learn the meaning
of the Resurrection is the task not of one age
only, but of all. Yet there seem to be times
when the truth has a special significance : times,
like our own, when the spirit of material progress
tends to confine the thoughts of men within the
limits of its own domain ; when we are in constant
danger of forgetting the larger relationships of
human existence, because we find within us and
around us enough to distract and occupy our
thoughts ; when the sense of the infinite vastness
(so to speak) of our present finite being turns the
soul away from its natural aspirations towards the
absolute and the unseen.
6. This is one aspect of our subject. The
Resurrection is a revelation, so far as such a
revelation is possible, of the spiritual world and
of our own connexion with it. But it has also
another aspect as a fact in the common history
of the world. Its essentially objective character
is not less important than its divine message.
For we may notice that a religion which is to
move the world must be based on a history.
the basis of Christianity. 9
A religion drawn solely from the individual con- STATE-
MKNT
sciousness of man can only reflect a particular
form of intellectual development. Its influence
is limited by the mould in which it is cast. Its
applicability is confined to those who have at-
tained to a special culture. Even to the last it
is essentially of the mind and not of the heart
or of the life. This is obvious equally from the
record of the speculations on Natural Theology,
and from the history of all those religions which
have had any power in the world. A subjective
religion brings with it no element of progress
and cannot lift man out of himself. A historical
revelation alone can present GOD as an object of
personal love. The external world answering to
human instinct suggests the conception of His
eternal power, but offers nothing which justifies
in us the confidence of 'sons.' Man is but one
of the many elements of creation and cannot
arrogate to himself any special relationship with
his Maker. Pure Theism is unable to form a
living religion. Mahommedanism lost all reli-
gious power in a few generations. Judaism sur-
vived for fifteen centuries every form of assault
in virtue of the records of a past deliverance on
which it was based, and the hope of a future
Deliverer which it included.
10 The fact and the idea of the Resurrection
STATE- 7. Briefly the Gospel of the Resurrection
MKNT J L
IHRSTHW harmonizes in itself the objective and subjective
JUCjOl 1UJN. J J
elements of religion. On the one hand it reposes
on a fact which however unique yet claims to be-
long to the circle of human experience. On the
other hand the fact is such that its personal
appropriation offers the widest scope for the ener-
gies of spiritual life. The Resurrection is suffi-
ciently definite to take religion out of the domain
of caprice and rest its hopes upon a foundation
external to the believer ; and it is so far-reaching
in its ultimate significance as to present itself to
every age and every soul with a fresh power. It
gives faith a firm standing ground in history, and
at the same time opens a boundless vision of the
future development of our present powers. It
brings down dogma to earth and then vindicates
the infinitude of the issues of temporal existence.
By the definiteness of its actual occurrence it gives
dignity to all human action : by the universality
of its import it lifts the thoughts of the believer
from the man to the race and to the world. It
stands, so to speak, midway between the seen and
the unseen: it belongs equally to the spiritual
and to the material order, and it reconciles both :
it gives immediate reality to the one by the mani-
festation of the Son of man who ' came forth from
the Father and went to the Father ;' it ennobles
equally necessary to Christianity. 11
the other by the revelation of a divine presence STATE-
J MENT
in the world according to His word, Who said, ' Lo, QUESTION.
I am with you all the days.' In both respects its
teaching is essential to Christianity. Exactly in
proportion as it is lost sight of in the popular
Creed, doctrine is divorced from life, and the
broad promises of divine hope are lost in an
individual struggle after good.
8. It is possible that individual exceptions
may be found to the truth of these statements.
Faith is indeed without question the spring of
all progressive or universal religion ; and the
essence of faith lies in the transference of trust
to something outside the believer. Yet on the
other hand some great souls appear to have an
immediate perception of isolated truths, so that
in their case a thought becomes a distinct reality,
contemplated, as it were, apart from the thinker.
For such men faith in a thought is possible, and
is the source of all that approaches most nearly
to a new creation in human history. These soli-
tary heroes can in some measure at least live as
seeing the unseen by the force of their innate
power; but for the mass faith needs some out-
ward pledge to rest upon, and some outward fact
to call it into action. Exactly in proportion as
the popular idea of religion is separated from the
12 The Resurrection supported
STATE- personal relation of the worshipper to the Deity,
QUESTTON ^tested (or supposed to be attested) by historical
manifestations, the worship itself degenerates into
a discipline or a form. Even Christianity is
capable of such a degradation ; but we need only
to go back to the Evangelists to regain a pure
conception of its majesty. As it is seen in their
narratives it satisfies equally the wants of the
few and of the many ; and that most signally in
the message of the Resurrection, which was the
assurance of the establishment of the kingdom
of GOD. The facts of the visible Life of Christ
are for all time a living Gospel ; and the doctrine
which they include meets and carries forward the
boldest speculations of philosophy.
9. For it is evident that the events recorded
by the Evangelists while they are most truly his-
torical are not merely history. Their significance
is not in the past only or even chiefly. And so
also the evidence by which they are supported is
not simply that of direct testimony. The au-
thority of testimony is supplemented by that of
the instinct 1 within us which recognises that the
1 The word is open to many objections, but I can find no
other to express the spiritual impulse through which man's
constitution expresses itself, as it is slowly trained by the
circumstances of life. Experience shews that it is as much a
by internal evidence. 13
idea of a Divine Revelation corresponds with the STATE-
r ME NT
essential wants of man. Man feels that he was
born for GOD, and looks for some sign to assure
him of the reality of a fellowship with the unseen.
The feeling will shew itself in the course of the
whole education of humanity in many ways, but
it is not without its appropriate discipline. A
Divine Revelation must from the very nature of
the case tend to satisfy the loftiest conception
which can be formed of man's destiny. If it does
not do so, it is condemned by the instinct which
looks for it. Thus in discussing the truth of the
Resurrection as a fact it is impossible not to take
into consideration its moral significance. Evidence
which would be felt to be insufficient to prove the
occurrence of a prodigy, may be amply sufficient
to establish the objective reality of a fact which is
found to answer to the circumstances or condi-
tions of our nature. Nay more, it may be af-
firmed that no external evidence alone could
ever establish more than an ' otiose ' belief in
the occurrence of an isolated or seemingly ar-
bitrary miracle in a distant age, while the
combination of external and internal evidence
is capable of producing a measure of conviction
part of his nature to turn to GOD as it is to turn to the light.
Reason and experience in each case help him to determine
how he shall best do that which he was made to do.
14 Outline of the plan.
STATE- which is only less certain than an immediate
MENT J
OF THE
QUESTION,
10. But in order to estimate the spiritual
significance of the Resurrection we must first
take into account the relation in which it stands
to many elementary thoughts which lie at the
very foundation of our ordinary life. Above all
it is necessary that we should set down clearly
what must be taken for granted and not proved :
what is the conception which we form of Nature,
and of miracles : what are the limits within which
human speculation is confined. Till these points
are determined, as far as they seem to admit of
determination, all further discussion must be
fruitless. If, for example, a miracle is inherently
incredible, it is idle to reason about a fact which
in the end must be explained away. If on the
other hand we hold that miracles are, in certain
cases, as credible as ordinary events generally, it
is necessary that we should shew how this belief
is reconcileable with the ideas which we entertain
of an Infinite GOD and of the constancy of natural
laws. These fundamental questions will form the
subject of the Introduction ; and afterwards we
shall be in a position to consider the Resurrection
in itself and in its application to History, to the
Individual, and to Society.
INTRODUCTION.
Tpf<f>oi>Tai TrdvTfS ol dvOpwirivot VO/JLOI virb ecos rov Otiov.
reei yap TOGOVTOV buttaov tOeKei KO.I e^apKfti jrafftv Kal irepi-
fTai.
aERACLITUS.
1. rilHE simplicity of the Gospel is not due INTRODUC-
-*- to the absence of difficulties, but to the
coincidence of the difficulties which it involves
with the inherent difficulties of human existence,
when existence is taken as a subject of specu-
lation. Christianity does indeed involve many
difficulties, but it does not create them. The dif-
ficulties themselves beset us in our daily life (3);
but as long as they take a practical form, they
receive a practical answer. However arduous it
may be to form a clear conception of responsible
freedom, we treat others and ourselves as respon-
sible. Christianity, however, which reveals the
significance of life makes us also feel its mysteries.
It brings out what was ill-defined before, like the
light which does not make the shadows, though
they are seen by contrast with it. The truth
16 The Resurrection a new Fact.
INTRODUC- involved in this distinction is of vital importance
TION.
towards the understanding of its claims. We are
so constituted that we must look beyond and
beneath the phenomena of physical life. We
cannot acquiesce in ignorance ; and that religion
necessarily claims our allegiance which answers
most completely to all the conditions of our na-
ture. If it could be shewn that Christianity in-
troduces some idea into life wholly alien from its
common tenor, or assumes principles which we do
not act upon, or asserts consequences at variance
with the natural reason of men, we might pause
before receiving its teaching. But if on the con-
trary its mysteries rest on fundamental mysteries
of our finite being ; if it takes its stand on human
nature as it is and interprets its aspirations ; if it
carries on thoughts of which we feel the begin-
nings within ourselves, and opens gleams of hope
where we acknowledge that our prospect is clouded ;
then it cannot but be monstrous to reject it for
reasons on which we might with equal justice
declare life itself to be impossible.
2. For it is necessary to bear in mind that
the Resurrection is not primarily an explanation
of existing phenomena, growing out of them or
introduced to explain them, but a new fact added
to the sum of human experience. The fact may
The Resurrection a new Fact. 17
prove to be an explanation of mysteries which INTRODUC-
are already felt, so far as it opens a way towards
their solution by bringing them into connexion
with another order of being, but in itself it claims
to take its place among the events of human his-
tory. Like all historical facts it differs from the
facts of physics as being incapable of direct and
present verification. And it differs from all other
facts of history because it is necessarily unique.
Yet it is not therefore incapable of that kind of
verification which is appropriate to its peculiar
nature. Physical science deals with law as uniform
and consequently its results can be tested at any
moment. History generally records the average
results of human action, and its heroic passages
are judged by the tendencies which are observed
towards similar displays of exceptional power in
less moving crises ( 11). And so the Resurrec-
tion, the fact that Christ rose from the grave and
did not again die the one fact absolutely un-
paralleled in itself and in its circumstances is to
be taken in connexion with the whole course of
human life, and with that instinct of immortality
which from time to time makes itself felt with an
overwhelming power. Its verification lies in its
abiding harmony with all the progressive develop-
ments of man and with each discovery which
casts light upon his destiny.
w. R. 2
18 The final Mysteries of Life remain.
INTRODUC- 3. It is on this new fact that Christianity first
TION. J
rests its claims. It asserts that the Resurrection is
itself a Gospel. For the rest it makes no attempt
to lessen or remove the problems by which all life
is perplexed. For instance, the existence of mat-
ter, the relation of soul and body, the existence of
evil, existence absolutely and in time and space,
individual freedom and general laws of sequence,
are all fundamental and final mysteries from
which we can never escape. They are taken ac-
count of and dealt with in the doctrines of Chris-
tianity, but Christianity does not make them. It
will be seen hereafter how they are dealt with,
but for the present it is enough to notice that the
rejection of the mysteries of Christianity will not
eliminate the element of mystery from life. We
are absolutely unable to form a conception of a
beginning or of an end of things. The very idea
of life involves the antithesis of finite and infinite,
and the special difficulties which have been enu-
merated simply represent the various forms which
this one fundamental difficulty assumes when con-
templated in connexion with the physical world
or with human action.
4. This antithesis of the finite and infinite
which meets us as soon as we lift our thoughts
above single phenomena is the final basis of all
Fundamental Assumptions. 19
religion. It is apprehended more or less sharply INTRODUC-
in different ages or races, but the essence of wor-
ship even in its lowest form necessarily includes
the tendency towards a true perception of it. In
this respect Christianity differs from all other
religions, not in principle, but in virtue of the
absolute clearness with which the idea of the
antithesis is laid down. The two terms are re-
garded in their most complete separation and in
'the fulness of time' they are combined in one
Person. But in saying this we are anticipating
what will appear more naturally afterwards. It
is not necessary yet to consider how Christianity
resolves or harmonizes the antithesis on which it,
equally with all religions, is founded. That which
is essential to our argument is that the antithesis
itself is not brought into being by Christianity,
but is the clear expression of that element in
man's nature, which has sought at all times to
embody itself in religious thought and worship
in thought as well as in worship : for the mind
which strives to establish its own relation to the
unseen by the worship of a GOD, is always led at
the same time to ponder on the relation of the
World to the same Power.
5. Christianity therefore as the absolute re-
ligion of man assumes as its foundation the exist-
22
20 Fundamental Assumptions.
INTROUUC- ence of an Infinite Personal GOD or rather of a
TION.
Heavenly Father of absolute power, justice and
goodness, and a finite human will (ii. 2). This
antithesis is assumed and not proved. No ar-
guments can establish it. It is a primary in-
tuition and not a deduction. It is capable of
illustration from what we observe around us ;
but if either term is denied no reasoning can
establish its truth. Each man for himself is
supposed to be conscious of the existence of
GOD and of his own existence. We can go no
further. If he has not, or says he has not
this consciousness, he must be regarded as one
whose powers are imperfect. It would be as vain
to reason with him on religion as to reason on
the phenomena of light with a blind man. No
proof can establish the existence of that within
a man of which he alone has the final cognisance.
Practically every one is found to act as if he
believed that he had a will, and also as if he were
justly accountable for his actions : he is conscious
of satisfaction within himself, and awards praise
or blame to others ; but whether this be univer-
sally true or not is of no real moment to us. It
is taken for granted that religion is possible ; and
if so the conceptions which are involved in the
fundamental antithesis on which it reposes are
also assumed to be true, though they do not
Nature in relation to OOD. 21
admit of a formal proof. If they are riot axioms INTRODUC-
we claim them as postulates 1 .
6. But though we appeal to the individual
consciousness for the recognition of the truth of
the assumptions which have been made, the lan-
guage in which one term of the antithesis is ex-
pressed requires explanation. We speak of GOD
as Infinite and Personal. The epithets involve
a contradiction, and yet they are both necessary.
In fact the only approximately adequate concep-
tion which we can form of a Divine Being is
under the form of a contradiction. For us per-
sonality is only the name for special limitation
exerting itself through will ; and will itself im-
plies the idea of resistance. But as applied to
GOD the notions of limitation and resistance are
excluded by the antithetic term infinite 2 . For us
1 It might appear at first sight that the Religion of M. Comte,
which is a powerful reality for those who hold it, is an exception
to the truth of these statements. In fact it is the strongest
testimony to their necessary validity. The ' Great Being '
the sum of humanity which is the object of worship, satisfies
the condition of ' Infinity ' by embracing in itself all the past,
the present, and the future in the conception of the wor-
shipper : it satisfies the condition of ' Personality ' by the con-
cession whereby each worshipper is encouraged to realise the
whole by looking at it as partially represented by an indivi-
dual. On the other hand M. Comte distinctly recognises
human freedom within certain (undetermined) limits.
2 From this it is evident how utterly false it is to represent
22 Nature in
INTRODUC- again infinity excludes the conception of special
action : it belongs to the nature and not to the
manifestation of being. But as applied to GOD
it is necessarily connected with action and with
phenomena, because it is only through these that
personality, so far as we observe it, can shew
itself. Thus it follows that by speaking of GOD as
Infinite we simply mean that none of the deduc-
tions which can be drawn from corresponding
attributes or powers, or the uses of power in man,
can be transferred to Him. It would be false
for instance to argue from the usual sense of the
terms employed that what He ' does' or ' pur-
poses' is in itself bound by time and space. And
on the other hand by speaking of Him as Per-
sonal we wish to express that He rules and creates
as if it were by will, with a purpose towards
which all things are guided. So only can we
guard against the representation of GOD as the
Absolute simply, whether the Absolute be re-
garded as the Unchangeable which lies beneath
the changing phenomena of the world, or as the
sum of all that 'is'.
the Christian (theological) philosophy of the world as based on
the conception of ' a world governed and created by wills of
which the model is in the human will.' For the use of the
word 'will' in such a philosophy is simply analogical, and
checked at every application by the supplementary idea of
Infinite Power.
relation to GOD. 23
7. This conception of the Divine Being, INTRODUC-
which, it must be remembered, is not peculiar to
Christianity, except in the distinctness of its enun-
ciation, clears the way to our apprehension of the
course and phenomena of nature. For we can-
not contemplate nature apart from GOD. But it
may be said that such a conception of GOD be-
longs only to a late age : that the primitive
notions of GOD are simpler and ruder : that it
is unfair to claim as natural to man thoughts
which have a limited currency after the lapse of
incalculable time. To such an objection it is suffi-
cient to reply that we are in no way concerned
with the manner in which the conception has been
fashioned. The question is whether man has
gained it, whether he was made to gain it,
whether it covers the facts of his spiritual ex-
perience ? The child includes the man poten-
tially ; and the principle which holds true of the
development of the individual holds true with
necessary modifications of the development of the
race. Meanwhile this conception of GOD is as-
sumed, and we must use it. Hence it is against
reason to press the results of our observation
of phenomena to consequences inconsistent with
our conception of His infinite and personal
Being. Two errors are specially to be guarded
against which are most fruitful of fallacious
24 Succession not true for GOD.
INTRODUC- issues. The one is the transference of the phe-
nomena of succession and gradual growth and
slow sequence, which -are necessarily part of our
observation of nature, to nature as the expression
of the Divine will. The other is the supposition
that 'laws' have in themselves (so to speak) a
motive force : that the law, which declares the
mode in which phenomena present themselves to
us, has some virtue by which the phenomena are
absolutely ; or, in other words, that the Law not
only declares how we see things, but makes them
such as we see them. Each of these misconcep-
tions will require to be noticed a little more in
detail.
8. The only idea which we can form of
nature, that is of the sum of all phenomena, in
relation to an Infinite Mind is as one thought.
For GOD all is one and at once 1 . He is cognisant
1 The reader will be glad to dwell on the thought as it is
worked out in Tennyson's noble words :
To your question now,
Which touches on the workman and his work.
Let there be light and there was light : 'tis so ;
For was, and is, and will be, are but is ;
And all creation is one act at once,
The birth of light : but we that are not all,
As parts, can see but parts, now this, now that,
And live, perforce, from thought to thought, and make
One act a phantom of succession : thus
Our weakness somehow shapes the shadow, Time.
Laws of Observation. 25
(if we may so say) of things themselves, and not, INTRODUC-
' J ' . TION.
as we naturally think and reason, of our percep-
tions of them. He sees them as they are and not
as we observe them. Indeed, if we reflect, there
is something strangely absurd in applying to the
Divine Power conclusions which are based on
human apprehensions of things. We must, be-
cause we are finite, conceive of things as hap-
pening in time ; and in the same way we must
conceive of GOD as acting, whenever He acts,
in time ; but it is equally clear that we must not
argue as if time belonged really to the Divine
relation to the world, or as if GOD acted at this
time and that, or at every moment, one after
another. Any conclusion which rests on this
supposition as a premiss is radically false. The
statement that 'Goo acts' is true at all times
in regard to our human conception of Him.
We can say justly that He acts now, that He
acted then, and that He will act at some future
moment ; but when we reason on the human
element in these statements, that is on the tem-
poral limitations, it is obvious that this process
of reasoning can give us no conclusion with re-
gard to the action of GOD.
9. Again, a 'law of nature' can mean no-
thing else than the law of the human apprehen-
26 Laws presuppose Force.
INTRODUC- sion of phenomena. We are forced to regard
things under conditions of time and space and
the like, and the consequence is that phenomena
are grouped together according to certain rules.
We find that for us (such is the constitution of
our powers) the sequence of phenomena is this
and not that. Partial sequences are compared
and combined and thus more general sequences
are discovered. But however far we may go we
never go beyond ourselves. The law at last is
a law for men : its form depends on limitations
which are characteristic of men. We have not
the least reason for supposing that it has any
absolute existence. For to say that things when
observed by men will be observed by them under
such and such limitations and therefore ac-
cording to such and such laws, is obviously a
very different thing from saying that such arid
such are the laws of things in themselves and
for all intelligent beings. And if we know no-
thing of the laws of things in themselves, how can
we know anything of things in relation to GOD ?
10. From what has been said it is evident
that a law, which expresses nothing more than
the result of our observation of phenomena, cannot
make phenomena what they are. It is no expla-
nation of how the phenomena came to be or con-
Laws of Observation in Nature. 27
tinue to be. It would have appeared to be insist- INXRODUC-
ing on a truism to dwell on this, were it not for
the general idea which seems to find currency,
that when a law (as of gravitation) is laid down
nothing more remains to be explained. The law
may afterwards (it is admitted) be found to be
part of one much wider and more comprehensive,
but, as far as it goes, this satisfies all our inqui-
ries. In reality it tells us that something pro-
duces results (as far as we are concerned) in such
and such a way. But obviously if the knowledge
were within our reach our chief desire would be
to know what produces the results ? What brings
about the phenomena according to the law ? We
can shew that if a body be projected in a certain
direction and acted upon by a central force vary-
ing in a particular way it will describe an orbit
like that of the earth round the sun. But to go
no further, What projected the earth ? It would
be easy to follow up this question by others ; but
this alone is sufficient to shew that in the sim-
plest phenomena we are face to face with a power
of which observation can tell us nothing but the
fact of its existence.
11. There is then nothing absolute in laws
of nature. They are relative to man, and do
not explain either the origin or the preservation
28 Laws of Observation in Nature.
iNTRonuc- of things. It is quite possible for us to conceive
that the unknown power through which pheno-
mena are produced according to an observed way
might have caused them to be produced in an-
other way wholly different. The belief in the
immutability of the observed law springs wholly
from ourselves, and is simply a special expression
of the axiom that the same power will produce
the same results under the same circumstances.
But we have no right to assume that the circum-
stances will always be the same. The range of
our observation is bounded within very narrow
limits. And yet further if, as we have supposed,
the Divine thought of the world leaves room for
the exercise of free human will, it is antecedently
likely that we should be enabled in some way to
be made sensible of what we call by a figure the
Divine will. We may expect from time to time
in the evolution of the whole scheme of creation
to be made aware of the presence of a Personal
Power, not by the suspension of the laws of
sequence which we commonly observe, but by
the action of some new force. Or to put the sub-
ject in another light; as changed circumstances
would lead to different results under the action of
the same power, so we must allow that there are
many cases in which the exertion of the free
human will must modify not indeed the Divine
Laws of Observation in Nature. 29
action in itself, but the phenomena in which the IN-HJODUC-
results of it are presented to us. The building of
a city, for example, which depends on the free
action of individuals, may modify to an almost
indefinite extent the physical character of its im-
mediate neighbourhood, and so more or less of all
other districts, in a manner which we can gene-
rally follow out; and thus also we can conceive
that the natural (though unseen) action of GOD
may make itself felt with varying distinctness in
the course of ages, though in this case the law of
sequence is undiscoverable by us. At least gene-
rally it is undeniable that if we believe in the
existence of a Personal GOD by whose influence
we are affected, there is no more difficulty in
admitting the reality of His action in various
ways and degrees on the physical world, than in
recognising it (as we do) in our own souls. In-
deed the difficulty in the latter case is greater ;
for it is perhaps impossible for us to conceive how
the Infinite Divine will can act on the human will
(as it is felt to do) without destroying the freedom
of man.
12. What we can observe of the actual ' laws'
of phenomena tends in some degree to illustrate
the general manner and limits of this modification
of effects by the introduction of new forces. It
30 Laws modifiable.
INTRODUC- holds true universally that the generality of a law
decreases as the complexity of the subject with
which it deals increases. In other words, when a
result depends upon the combined working of
many elements the probability of variation is in-
creased. The action of each element may suffer
alteration as to intensity or duration, from causes
which are not calculable by our powers of obser-
vation. The results of physical laws, for instance,
are only infinitesimally modifiable when compared
with the results of biological laws. In the former
case we can approximately take account of all the
interfering forces, but in the latter case forces are
brought into play which, as far as can yet be
known, escape all individual estimation, either as
to their actual or as to their potential energy.
In Sociology this uncertainty is confessedly yet
greater. In Theology, which completes the philo-
sophy of life by uniting it with a higher Order,
the same progression continues, and it is as un-
reasonable to expect results absolutely universal
in their observed form relative to us in Theology,
the crowning science of being, as it would be to
expect the results of Sociological laws to admit
of a mechanical or chemical or biological ex-
pression. Each higher science in the 'hierarchy'
includes the action of those below it according
to their special laws, but at the same time it
Indeterminate Powers in Nature. 31
introduces new forces by which these simpler INTRODUC-
results are variously modified ( 26).
13. The same truth may be set forth yet in
another way. Even if it is admitted uncondition-
ally that our present knowledge is of phenomena
only, it is obvious that the phenomena are of dif-
ferent orders, extending from those which mark
the conditions of our observation (e.g. time, space)
to isolated facts representing the resultants of the
action of a multiplicity of forces, which facts, from
the nature of things, are severally unique. Some
of these may be general : others may be excep-
tional. In some we can analyse the result and
reduce it to simple results of known ' laws ' : in
some the problem is indeterminate. And exactly
as the subject rises to a nobler elevation our
knowledge becomes more incomplete. Complete-
ness indeed is but another name for ascertained
limitation. The grandest and highest faculties
of man are exactly those in which he most feels
his weakness and imperfection. They are at
present only half-fulfilled prophecies of powers
which, as we believe, shall yet find an ample field
for unrestricted development 1 .
1 The student of Browning will recall countless passages in
which he illuminates this truth.
For thence a paradox
Which comforts while it mocks
32 Indeterminate Powers
INTUODUC- 14. In a word, it is evident from the extent
of creation, of which we see but the least fraction,
and from the connexion of its parts one with an-
other, and from the presence about us of forces
which we are wholly incompetent to estimate,
that we are absolutely unable to judge, whether
we may not from time to time be capable of call-
ing into action ourselves or otherwise coming
under the influence of powers which are usually
dormant. Every one must have felt at critical
moments that he has a fund of physical strength
and also a capacity for moving others by vigour
of will of which under ordinary circumstances he
is wholly unconscious. The crisis brings out the
gift, and when the crisis is over we fall back again
into our usual state. Nor is this the case with
individuals only. History shews that there are
epochs of extraordinary, and as we should say,
who live in calmer times, of unnatural activity
and power in societies and nations. A city or a
race under the pressure of some great passion
works wonders. Above all religious enthusiasm,
whether in men or in bodies of men, is capable of
producing results which under ordinary circum-
Shall life succeed in that it seems to fail :
What I aspired to be,
And was not, comforts me :
A brute I might have been, but would not sink i' the scale.
in Nature. 33
stances would be regarded as impossible. It seems INTRODUC-
. . TION.
as if the idea of an immediate intercourse with a
spiritual world, quite apart from the special form
which it takes, were able to quicken man's powers
with a marvellous energy and in some degree to
work out its own accomplishment.
15. Thus in contemplating nature from its
moral side we find ourselves in the presence of
two indeterminate forces. Not only are we forced
to admit that there is room in the whole scheme
of the world (of which we are poor and imperfect
judges) for changed conditions which necessarily
include changed results ; but also we find that
men and mankind generally are possessed of facul-
ties capable of vast and indefinite energy. We
cannot measure, as we cannot explain, the influ-
ence which one mind can exercise on another, or
which the mind can exercise on the body. The
influence is obvious, but what are the springs and
what the limits of it we cannot tell. In such a
case even past experience is no final judge. And
this reflection brings us to another fundamental
assumption of Christianity.
16. Christianity assumes, as we have seen,
the existence of an Infinite Personal GOD and of a
finite human will : it claims also to be miraculous.
w. R. 3
34 Christianity essentially Miraculous.
INTRODUC- It takes for granted that 'miracles' (S 17) are
TION.
recognised modes of Divine action. From the con-
ception which we are necessarily led to form of
the relation of Nature to the Creator it has been
shewn that exceptional action in its course is not
only not excluded by the laws which we base on
observation, but even antecedently likely. Chris-
tianity affirms that this exceptional action does
actually take place. And in doing this it only
affirms what every other historical religion must
affirm ; for all alike appeal to an immediate reve-
lation as their original basis. It follows then
that all religion which can influence the mass of
men (p. 8, 6) is declared to be impossible if
such an exceptional manifestation of GOD is in-
conceivable or unaccomplished. Nothing remains
but a faith which begins and ends within the in-
dividual. But not to dwell on this, it is evi-
dent that if the claim to be a miraculous religion
is essentially incredible apostolic Christianity is
simply false. If Christ did not rise again the
words cannot be too often repeated then is our
faith vain. Something may be left a system of
morals or the like but that is not Christianity.
The essence of Christianity lies in a miracle ; and
if it can be shewn that a miracle is either im-
possible or incredible, all further inquiry int6 the
details of its history is superfluous in a religious
The idea of a Miracle. 35
point of view. The rise of Christianity will still INTRODUC-
TION.
furnish a historical or philosophical problem of
surpassing interest, but the data which it presents
will contain nothing on which to found the faith
of a world. Thus we are forced to consider whe-
ther the difficulties which are supposed to lie in
the conception of a miracle are a fatal hindrance
to the literal acceptance of the Gospel.
17. By a miracle (using the word in its
strictest sense) we mean a phenomenon which
either in itself or from the circumstances under
which it is presented, suggests the immediate
working of a personal power producing results
not explicable by what we observe in the ordi-
nary course of nature. Thus some facts are in
their essential character miraculous, as the Re-
surrection; others, again, are perfectly natural in
themselves, but miraculous from the circum-
stances under which they occur, as the miraculous
draught of fishes or, to take a different example,
the true prediction of a special event. But they
have this in common, that they lead us to recog-
nise the action of some personal power: they
involve, as a general rule, an appeal to or a de-
claration of divine strength. Some facts again, as
many of the cases of healing, may be regarded as
natural or miraculous, according as we look at
3-2
36 Miracles not impossible.
INTRODUC- them as resulting from powers already existing in
TION.
man and evoked by special circumstances, or as
immediate acts of divine blessing. This indeed is
a mere question of interpretation. The principle
is attested in a single case. He who believes in
the Resurrection will feel no anxiety as to the
exact limits within which the divine working is
to be confined. Probably he will see it every-
where and that even in the same sense, for the
difference or identity of mode will seem to him
to depend on causes which he cannot investigate.
18. From what has been already said it will
be seen that a miracle cannot be declared impos-
sible by any one who believes in a Personal GOD.
Nature is the expression of His will, and ante-
cedently to experience we could not have deter-
mined that it would be manifested in one way
rather than in another. Nor again can all con-
ceivable experience give us a complete knowledge
of the conditions which may affect its manifes-
tation to us so as to exclude variety. On the con-
trary under particular circumstances which may
happen if GOD reveals Himself to men, miracles
are as probable as ordinary phenomena under
common circumstances. If the result is different,
the power being the same, we suppose that the
conditions are different ; and conversely if the
Miracles not unnatural. 37
conditions are different, we suppose that the INTRODUC-
TION.
result will be changed. Nor, again, in speaking
of a fact as a miracle do we offer any explanation
of its being or becoming. The mystery as to how
GOD acts is left untouched. Whether He acts as
He ordinarily does (naturally), or in an extraor-
dinary way (miraculously), this fundamental diffi-
culty remains absolutely the same. It is neither
greater nor less in the one case than in the
other. The power which produces the pheno-
mena is indeterminate and indeterminable. Thus
while it would be impossible that two and two
should ever make five, because the law on which
the result depends lies wholly within us ; yet it is
not impossible that an (unknown) power which
as far as our observation reaches has always pro-
duced (say) four phenomena of a particular kind,
should on a particular occasion produce five such
phenomena.
19. Yet further it will appear that a miracle
is not unnatural, that is contrary to and not
only different from the observed course of phe-
nomena. It would be unnatural only if it were
supposed that the miraculous and the ordinary
result were both produced by the same force
acting under the same conditions. Or, if for a
moment we may use popular language, if it
38 Miracles not unnatural.
INTRODUC- were supposed that the same law could produce
TION.
different effects. But on the other hand it is
distinctly laid down that in the case of a miracle
a new force is introduced, or rather, as the source
of all force is one, that the force which usually
acts freely in a particular way now acts freely in
another. That is, to continue to use popular lan-
guage, the law is not suspended, but its natural
results are controlled. The law produces its full
effect, but a new power supervenes, and the final
result represents the combined effect of the two
forces. Let it once be seen that the law neces-
sarily involves the idea of a power acting accord-
ing to the law, and acting freely, for the law is
evidently subsequent to and not essentially regu-
lative of the action, and there will be no more
difficulty in feeling that the miraculous action of
GOD is as truly natural, that is in accordance with
what we may expect from a consideration of the
whole scheme of nature, as His ordinary action.
To affirm that miracles are unnatural is to consti-
tute general laws of observation into a fate supe-
rior to GOD, or to deny His personal action. And
it must be observed that the denial of His per-
sonal action in the physical world involves the
denial of His action on the hearts of men; for
there is not the least reason to suppose that what
is seen is less immediately dependent upon Him
Miracles not an afterthought. 39
than what is unseen, or that it can be affirmed INTRODUC-
TION.
beforehand that He is more likely to act on
one part of that which He has created than on
another. In other words, if miracles are un-
natural, then we are hopelessly enclosed within
the barriers of material laws and absolutely
shut off from all intercourse with the Infinite.
But this is against the fundamental axiom of
religion.
20. While, however, it is maintained that in
this larger sense of the word miracles are ' natural,'
it is necessary to guard carefully against two ex-
planations which have been given to account for
their occurrence naturally; and the more so
because they have obtained a popular currency.
Some have said that a miracle is but the com-
pression, so to speak, of results which are obtained
slowly and successively in the general course of
things. The water, it is argued, which was made
wine by a word at Cana once, is made wine by the
vintage every year. The slightest reflection will
shew that these two processes, as far as we can
follow them, have absolutely nothing in common,
so that the one cannot even illustrate the other.
But even if the parallel were perfect it would be
equally nugatory, for in that case it would tend,
in proportion to its completeness, to exclude the
40 Miracles not an afterthought.
INTRODUC- idea of personal action which is of the essence of
TION.
a miracle. The same remark holds true of the
second false explanation, which is in every way
more profound and, even, in some aspects, un-
answerable. It is alleged that natural laws, like
some mathematical series, may be intermittent,
so that by the action of the same law one result
may be given for a thousand (or a million) times
in succession and a different result next time.
Miracles then, it is argued, may be the exceptional
terms of such an order. They certainly may be,
but if so their permanent significance is destroyed.
Their moral and spiritual value vanishes at once
when they are derived from the constant action
of the same forces as commonly work around us.
A miracle, if it has any real existence, lifts man
truly and not in appearance only above the laws
of the present general order.
21. It may however be objected that this
view of miracles as occasional manifestations of
the power of GOD is a conception unworthy of His
Majesty : that it represents Him (so to speak) as
dependent on time and circumstance. The objec-
tion, as far as it has any force, would lie equally
against all action of GOD among men. It is,
indeed, a mystery wholly beyond our comprehen-
sion how an Infinite Being can reveal or in any
Miracles not an afterthought. 41
way manifest Himself to finite creatures. But in INTRODUC-
obedience to the bidding of our spiritual na-
ture we have taken it for granted that He does
so. And yet further the invidiousness of the
objection lies in the transference to GOD of those
ideas of time and succession which as we have
seen ( 8) are proper only to men. There is no
'occasion' to GOD. The world and all its history
is for Him necessarily one. His action which we
contemplate now in one (general) mode and now
in another (exceptional) mode, is not in itself
divided, though we are forced so to regard it.
The principle (if we may so speak) which accord-
ing to His wisdom directs the form of the general
action and the principle which directs the form of
the exceptional action, are not separated, so that
the one is subsequent to and corrective of the
other, but simultaneous or coincident. What is
unfolded to us in a gradual process of ' becoming'
in relation to an infinite mind simply ' is.' We
are obliged to speak of 'the purpose of GOD'S
'will,' and so we are obliged to speak of His
'Special Providence' or miraculous working;
but the original phrase and the adaptation
of the phrase to facts are both accommoda-
tions ; and we must carefully guard against any
deductions based upon the human element in
them ( 6).
42 Not necessarily due to a material cause.
INTRODUC- 22. Nor yet again can it be said that mate-
rial results involve a material cause. We know
absolutely nothing of cause. We know nothing
of the power manifested in material results ( 10).
And unless we believe in the eternity of matter,
(which is an absolute contradiction,) some material
results must have had an immaterial cause. More-
over we experience daily the influence of will in
ourselves, and this is not material. And it has
been assumed that our finite will is a real power
and potentially free, for otherwise religion is as
completely destroyed as by denying the person-
ality of GOD.
23. There is yet another aspect in which we
may regard Miracles. Viewed from the human
side, when man himself is looked upon as the
centre of the power by which they are wrought,
they fall into distinct groups, corresponding to the
subject-matter (so to speak) on which they are
wrought. Thus man may be conceived as acting
upon the external world absolutely, where the
general law is modified by his interference, as if
he were to walk on water or control the move-
ments of the heavenly bodies : or he may act upon
the external world in immediate relation to him-
self or to those about him, as if he were to modify
the perception of external phenomena in particular
Miracles in relation to nian. 43
cases : or he may act upon man directly, either INTRODUC-
himself or others, as in the removal of disease.
Now in the two latter cases an indeterminate
element is introduced, the influence of man upon
man, or the working of spirit upon spirit and
matter in limited relation to itself; and prior to
observation it is impossible to determine what
varying effects may be produced by its opera-
tion. Experience alone can determine in each
instance what phenomena may be produced by
human will ; and the vast range of the power of
will and the unknown depth of its relations, sug-
gest the possibility of an almost infinite variety
of results produced by its action under new con-
ditions. From time to time we are startled by
occurrences which reveal a power of one mind
over another, or of the mind over the body which
seems to be practically indeterminate. In these
cases then there is (it may be said) a natural open-
ing for miracles : they have a point of contact with
what we observe in the course of life. So far then
we must be careful not to lay upon some ' miracu-
lous' phenomena a weight which they will not
bear. But in the first case, on the contrary, this
'natural' conception of a miracle is inadmissible.
We can understand how the individual will can
affect other individuals upon whom it can work
immediately, but we cannot see how it can act
44 Moral limitation
INTRODUC- upon the external world with which it has. as far
TION.
as we know, nothing homogeneous, or, which
would come to the same thing, upon the universal
perception of men. Thus in miracles of this kind
we are face to face with a final difficulty, which
(from this point of view) culminates in the Resur-
rection. Yet even here the miracle has a cor-
" responding phenomenon in life. Special prayer
is based upon a fundamental instinct of our
nature. And in the fellowship which is esta-
blished in prayer between man and GOD we are
brought into personal union with Him in Whom
all things have their being. In this lies the pos-
sibility of boundless power; for when the con-
nexion is once formed, who can lay down the
limits of what man can do in virtue of the com-
munion of his spirit with the Infinite Spirit ?
The distinctions thus indicated ought never to be
overlooked in arguments on miracles, but in one
respect all three cases are alike. Whether man
works upon nature or upon his fellow-men, it is in
virtue of a trust in the unseen. Personal faith is
the condition of effectual action ; and where GOD is
supposed to act immediately the same condition
is satisfied in the recognition of His working.
24. It follows that the moral element in mi-
racles is both essential and predominant. There
of Miracles. 45
is always a natural relation between the acts and INTRODUC-
TION.
those for whom or by whom they are wrought.
The external phenomenon which would in one age
and to one people suggest the idea of the personal
working of GOD would not do so in another age
and to another people. The effect of the fact, and
miracles are always supposed to be directed to
an end, depends upon its inherent characteristics
and the capacity of the witnesses to apprehend
and interpret them. To use a mathematical phrase
miracles must therefore be (generally speaking)
a function of the age in which they are wrought.
That which on one occasion would be felt to be
a personal revelation of GOD might convey an
impression wholly different at another. The mi-
racles of one period or state of society might be
morally impossible in another. It seems certain
that knowledge limits faith, not indeed as dimin-
ishing its power but as guiding its direction. For
instance, when any particular physical phenomena
are apprehended as subject to a clear law, which
is felt to be a definite expression of the Divine
Will, it is inconceivable that faith could contem-
plate an interference with them, not because it
would be impossible, but because the prayer for
such an interference would itself be disloyal. For
example, it would be positively immoral for us
now to pray that the tides or the sun should not
46 Aspect of Miracles
INTRODUC- rise on a particular day. The corresponding act
is represented in the Gospels as suggested by the
Tempter. There is even a divine 'cannot' recog-
nised in the Gospels as well as a divine 'must.'
But as long as the idea of the physical law which
rules them was unformed or indistinct, the prayer
would have been reasonable, and (may we not
suppose) the fulfilment also. We cannot act when
we feel that our influence is excluded ; and may
not the converse also be true ? May not all things
be possible for us which we firmly hold to be
possible, if at least the result would be such as to
convey as its whole and general effect the idea of
the personal action of GOD ? An age records only
what it believes ; but, in a certain sense also, it
does what it believes.
25. These reflections serve to explain the
real force which lies in two remarks on miracles
which have at present gained a very wide cur-
rency. It is said that 'a belief in miracles de-
' creases with the increase of civilisation ;' and,
further, that ' our age in virtue of its advanced
' civilisation is essentially and inevitably incredu-
' lous of miracles.' Within certain limits both ob-
servations are undoubtedly true, but the limits
within which their truth is circumscribed exclude
the deductions which are drawn from them. The
in a Scientific age. 47
sense of the antecedent likelihood of a miracle INTRODUC-
proceeds from a comprehensive view of all nature,
moral and physical, according to the full develop-
ment of the mutual relations of its parts, as con-
stituting a scheme for us practically infinite. But
the necessary condition of all scientific inquiry,
and the progress of science is here assumed to be
the test of the progress of civilisation, is to put out
of sight the indeterminate element in nature, and
thus to unfamiliarise the mind with those aspects
of the world in which the miracle finds its proper
place. And not only so, but the requirements of
exact science bind the attention of each student
to some one small field, and this little fragment
almost necessarily becomes for him the measure
of the whole, if indeed he has ever leisure to lift
his eyes up to the whole at all. The more inti-
mately we are acquainted with any one subject,
and the more sensible we become of the fulness of
thought which it contains, the less we are fitted to
take a due measure of its proper relations to other
subjects, or to acknowledge practically and with-
out effort that the conditions under which we
contemplate it are not in themselves absolute.
Thus in an inductive age laws of observation are
treated, and with a view to the immediate results
which are sought, treated rightly, as laws of nature.
If the moral element of life the idea of person-
48 Theology the last member
INTUODUC- ality be neglected, we cannot of necessity take
TION.
account of any results which are not entirely phy-
sical. For physical students as such, and for those
who take their impressions of the universe solely
from them, miracles can have no real existence.
Nor is this all : not miracles only, and this is com-
monly forgotten, but every manifestation of will is
at the same time removed from the world : all life
falls under the power of absolute materialism, a
conclusion which is at variance with the funda-
mental idea of religion, and so with one of the
original assumptions on which our argument is
based.
26. At the same time such considerations
shew that there can be no antagonism between
Theology and Science as they are commonly con-
trasted. So far as these keep within their proper
limits they move in distinct regions. Their re-
spective paths lie in parallel and therefore in
unintersecting planes. Theology deals with the
origin and destiny of things : Science with things
as they are according to human observation of
them. Theology claims to connect this world with
the world to come : Science is of this world only.
Theology is confessedly partial, provisional, ana-
logical in its expression of truth : Science, that is
human science, can be complete, final, and abso-
in the Hierarchy of Sciences. 49
lute in its enunciation of the laws of phenomena. INTRODUC-
TION.
Theology accepts without the least reserve the
conclusions of Science as such : it only rejects
the claim of Science to contain within itself
every spring of knowledge and every domain of
thought.
27. This holds true of the lower and more
exact forms of Science which deal with inorganic
bodies ; but as soon as account is taken of the
Science of organic bodies of Biology and Sociology
then Science itself becomes a prophet of Theo-
logy. In this broader and truer view of Science
Theology closes a series, ' a hierarchy of Sciences,'
as it has been well called, in which each successive
member gains in dignity what it loses in definite-
ness, and by taking account of a more complex
and far-reaching play of powers opens out nobler
views of being. The Sciences of form and num-
ber are absolute for man and have no tendency
to lift the individual out of himself. They are
purely human and individual. The Sciences of
inorganic bodies add the idea of external imper-
fectly-known forces to the universal conditions of
human observation and thereby enlarge and ele-
vate the scope of Science while they take away
its claims to absoluteness. The Sciences of or-
ganic bodies by claiming to deal with the pheno-
w. R. 4
50 Records of Miracles
rneria of life and will in all their separate and col-
TION.
lective forms bear a wider margin of indetermi-
nate problems and carry our thoughts beyond the
region of certain knowledge. The Science of
Theology, which is last in its complete evolution
as it is first in instinctive apprehension, completes
the progression, and by unfolding that which is
permanent in life prepares a solid passage from
the temporal to the eternal. The individual mind,
the material world, humanity, GOD, form the cen-
tral subjects of the successive groups of Sciences.
Each Science, it will be seen, takes up into itself
those Sciences which have gone before, but adds
to them elements peculiar to itself ( 12). To the
last the laws of each are of full force within their
proper sphere though the results which are pro-
perly due to them are liable to be modified by the
interference of forces acting according to other
laws. And thus in due order knowledge which
begins with the knowledge of the conditions of
human observation culminates in the knowledge
of GOD, a knowledge infinitely less perfect than
the former but at the same time infinitely more
ennobling.
28. While then we admit that the tendency
of a scientific age is adverse to a living belief in
miracles, we see that this tendency is due riot to
not antecedently incredible. 51
the antagonism of science and miracle, but to the INTRODUC-
TION.
neglect and consequent obscuration by science of
that region of thought in which the idea of the
miraculous finds scope. And even here the power
of general feeling makes itself most distinctly felt
against the power of abstract reason. Exactly
when material views of the universe seem to be
gaining an absolute ascendancy, popular instinct
finds expression now in this form of extravagant
credulity, and now in that. Arrogant physicism
is met by superstitious spiritualism ; and there is
right on both sides. The harmony of a true faith
finds a witness to its fulness in this independent
assertion of the antithetic elements which it tem-
pers and reconciles.
29. It is however foreign to our purpose to
consider what may be the causes which impress
a very distinct character on different cycles of
miracles, and on the form which the belief in the
miraculous assumes at different periods. The
investigation itself is full of interest, and contri-
butes in a remarkable degree to illustrate the pro-
gressive forms of revelation. But for the present
we are concerned simply with the possibility of a
miracle, which is seen to be included in the idea
of a Personal GOD. Whether the possibility
has been realised in the Resurrection still remains
A. O
i?
52 Records of Miracles
INTRODUO for consideration ; but the consideration is now
TION.
open.
30. For if miracles are neither impossible,
nor unnatural, it follows that the records of them
cannot be inherently incredible. But on the other
hand in proportion as an event is rare, we are
scrupulous in examining the evidence by which
the truth of its occurrence is established ; and the
more so, if the event itself is such as to be easily
misapprehended or referred to wrong causes, or
connected with false antecedents or consequents.
Cases of healing, for example, except under very
peculiar circumstances, cannot be alleged as cer-
tainly miraculous ( 17). Other events are un-
equivocal in this respect. The Resurrection is
either a miracle or it is an illusion. Here there
is no alternative : no ambiguity. And it is not an
accessory of the Apostolic message, but the sum
of the message itself (pp. 5, ff.). Its unique
character is the very point on which the first
teachers of Christianity support all their arguments.
It claims to be the opening of a new life to the
world. It cannot then be rightly contemplated
by comparing it with the events of common his-
tory. It is, according to the original interpreta-
tion of it, as singular in the history of the whole
race of men as birth is in the existence of the
not antecedently incredible. 53
individual. In dealing with the evidence adduced INTRODUC-
. . TION.
in confirmation of such a fact, it is therefore
necessary to take into account its relation to
preceding and subsequent history; for it may
well happen that the presumption in its favour
gathered from the preparation which found its
fulfilment in it, and from the results which
flowed out of it, will more than counterbalance
the natural distrust which is raised at first sight
by its exceptional character. On a comprehensive
survey of all nature, as far as we can judge from
the results Avhich are obtained by a faint approxi-
mation to such a view, the Resurrection of" our
Lord, including, as it does, the resurrection of
man, may be as natural as events like birth and
death, which are accepted as natural, not because
we can explain them in any way, but because
the range of our experience includes the obser-
vation of their constant recurrence.
31. So far then we have cleared the ground
for our inquiry. If we grant the two assumptions
which Christianity makes as being a religion for
man ( 5), there is nothing antecedently impro-
bable in the Apostolic Gospel of the Resurrection
considered as miraculous. The same principles
which would exclude as impossible a belief in such
a miracle as the Resurrection, would equally ex-
54 A belief in Miracles and the alternative.
INTRODUC- elude a belief in anything beyond ourselves and
the range of present physical observation. Thus
the question practically is not simply Is Chris-
tianity true ? but Is all hope, impulse, knowledge,
life, absolutely bounded by sense and the world
of sense ? Is the present and the finite the defi-
nite limit (not only of the mode but) of the object
of human thought ? Is each individual person-
ality bounded on both sides, past and future ? Is
life as well as science of phenomena only ? Is
there no faculty by which man can contemplate
the temporal as (for him) a true image of the
eternal ? Is there no fact which unites the seen
and the unseen ? Is the spirit, as well as the
understanding confined by present laws of obser-
vation not only in the embodiment of ideas but in
intuition ? Or can the soul reach forward to fuller
forms of being, not so much future as absolute ?
Can it, with a consciousness of its divine destiny,
look beyond the limits of time ? Can it rejoice
in feeling what is the glorious part which it has
to play in the whole economy of the universe,
and regard as its proper heritage a future appear-
ance in the fulness of a glorified humanity before
the presence of GOD ?
CHAPTER I.
THE RESURRECTION AND HISTORY.
<&i\offO(j>ia. T] 'EXXTjwidj olov irpOKa.6a.ipfi KOL TrpoeOifci TTJV
's wapaSoxfiv Tr/crrews, etj>' 77 rr)i> yvuffiv f7coiKo5ofj.ei i] aXr/Ofta.
CLEJfKA'S ALEX.
1. TT is the common object of all religion to CHAP. i.
-*- establish or realise a definite relation be-
tween the worshipper and the Divine Being whom
he approaches. Christianity goes much further
and proposes to reveal the relation between man-
kind, or more fully between the world and GOD,
and to restore the original harmony of all crea-
tion. It addresses not the individual only, but John i. 29.
the race ; its effects are declared to extend not to
man only, but to ' all things which are in heaven Eph. i. 10.
'and which are on earth.' It is universal at the '
same time as it is particular. Just as Aristotle 5?' vm-
'_ 1 . *_ '_ .
taught that the State is prior to the Man, so Re v - v. 13.
Christianity claims to address the World while it
addresses the Individual or even more exactly to
56 Life of the World.
CHAP. i. address the Individual in the World. To use
two common phrases, it contains a Philosophy of
History, as well as a Philosophy of Salvation.
It disregards nothing in the rich development of
human life. It takes account alike of the evil
and of the good. It refers to final principles
final, that is, for our present powers the progress
which we can observe in societies and nations,
and the moral and spiritual education of men.
2. For all creation is progressive. It is a
law as well in the moral as in the physical world
that nothing is lost. All that has been modifies
all that is and all that will be. The present
includes all the past and will itself be contained
in the future. Each physical change, each indi-
vidual will contributes something to the world
to come. The earth on which we live and the
civilisation which fashions our conduct are the
result of immeasurable forces acting through vast
periods of time. There are crises in the his-
tory of nature and in the history of man, periods
of intense and violent action and again periods
of comparative repose and equilibrium, but still
the continuity of life is unbroken. Even when
the old order is violently overthrown the new
order is built in part out of its ruins and not only
upon them.
Life of the World. 57
3. The conception of a life of the universe, CHAP. i.
of a general law which unites and directs the
successive forms of all organized beings, is ne-
cessarily of modern growth. It could not be
formed till History had called Geology to her
aid, and men were familiarised to some extent
with the vast space of time covered by the records
of the ancient world. Even now the researches of
science are far too limited to do more than sug-
gest the idea and mark some salient points in its
realisation. Yet it is impossible not to feel that
it falls in with our general notions of the working
of GOD from whatever source they may be derived;
whether they lie in the original conception of a
Divine Being, or are suggested by what we observe
in the noblest forms of human action. There is
something soothing and elevating in the thought
of a scheme of Divine government reaching through
all time and space thus opened to our contempla-
tion. So far from obscuring the presence of the
Creator it enlarges and strengthens our faith in
His operation. It enables us to distinguish be-
tween His will as it is and our apprehension of its
becoming. It teaches trust and hope when we are
inclined to be dismayed at what we reckon as
immobility or waste in the moral world. The
sea-worn cliffs which are once again fashioned
before our eyes into records of a new order by
58 Life of Mankind.
CHAP. i. the same power through which they were first
built up, teach patience with a silent eloquence
which would be irresistible if we could enter into
its force. Surely we can afford to wait when GOD
works thus slowly.
4. The belief in a common life of mankind is
of far older date. This is the result of intuition
and not of science. It was the teaching of the
prophet first and not of the philosopher. If it
was permitted to a later generation to see the
Matt. xxii. pledge of a personal immortality in a covenanted
01 00
relation which GOD granted to the patriarchs, it
must have been equally clear at an earlier time
that all men who are ' the offspring of GOD ' were
in some degree under His government and work-
ing out His will. At first sight it might appear
that the spirit of the Mosaic Law was opposed to
this divine unity of peoples. But the opposition
was accidental, and the Law itself was potentially
universal in its promises. The exclusiveness of
the Jews was something wholly different from the
exclusiveness of the Greeks or Romans. It was
based essentially on moral and not on political or
social differences. It was religious and not na-
tional. The privileges of Judaism were offered to
him who accepted the responsibilities and claims
Life of Mankind. 59
of Judaism. The Jew was taught to look for- CHAP. i.
ward to the time when all the nations of the
earth should worship his GOD. The triumph to-
wards which he was to strive, was to win fellow-
worshippers and not to raise himself as a lord
over enslaved peoples. Hence the later prophets
were led to regard 'the kingdoms of the world'
in their relation to 'the kingdom of GOD,' of
which the Jewish Church was the figure and the
seed.
5. Something of the same notion lies in the
Eastern representation of the successive ages of
the world, which was borrowed by the earliest
Greek poets, and again adopted by the writers of
the so-called Sibylline books shortly before the
Christian era. But the vastness of the scale on
which this thought was moulded deprived it of
all practical importance. When it was applied to
human life it expressed at most the contrast
which we find in the New Testament between
' this age ' and ' the age to come.' Its units, so to
speak, were periods, dispensations, as we call
them, and not nations. It expressed a far-reach-
ing faith in the general advance of ' the ages '
through distress and disorder towards a glorious
end, but it had no connexion with the progress
or development of the ' age ' itself in which we live.
60 Connexion of Christianity
CHAP. i. 6. Still however dim and uncertain the pros-
pect of the life of the world and the life of hu-
manity may have been in old times, it is impos-
sible now to doubt the noble continuity of progress
by which both are revealed and characterised ;
and the view which is thus opened to us of the
course of history throws a fresh light on the posi-
tion of Christianity. It is not an isolated system,
but the result of a long preparation. According
to the teaching of the Apostles, Christ came when
all things were ready, and the measure of the
appointed seasons was accomplished. Christianity
cannot then be regarded alone and isolated from
its antecedents. It is part of a whole which
reaches back historically from its starting-point on
the day of Pentecost for nearly two thousand
Acts vii. years. It was new but it was not unprepared.
It professed to be itself the fulfilment and not the
abolition of that which went before : to reveal
outwardly the principle of a Divine Fatherhood
by which all the contradictions and disorders of
life are made capable of a final resolution ; and to
possess within it that universal truth which can
transfigure without destroying the various charac-
teristics of men and nations. It is then possible
that what we feel to be difficulties in its historic
form are removed or lessened if we place it in its
due relation to the whole life of mankind; and, on
with the past. 61
the other hand, the obvious fitness with which it CHAP. i.
carries on and completes a long series of former
teachings will confirm with singular power its
divine claims.
7. Again: though the birth of Christianity
was comparatively late in time, yet in fact it
claims to have existed from the beginning as part
of the Divine Counsel. We have seen (Intr. 8)
that we are obliged to regard the purposes and
acts of GOD as following one another, though in
themselves all the results of creation simply are,
without distinction of succession. But though
the Apostles necessarily think and speak as men,
they expressly caution us against supposing that
the Incarnation of the Word was in any way
an afterthought consequent upon the Fall, and
not already included in the Creation. Without
touching upon the abstract truth of the absence
of temporal limitations in the Divine Mind, they
teach, what is in this case the practical equivalent,
that 'before the foundation of the world' GOD had Col.i.l5ff.
Eph. i. 4.
foreordained the coming of Christ. The Fall iPet.i.20.
necessarily modified the circumstances of the In-
carnation, but the true conception of the World
and of Humanity becomes first possible when they
are thus regarded in their essential relation to
the Word, the Son. We do not at present de-
62 Connexion of Christianity
CHAP. i. mand more for this statement than a recognition
of its significance. At least it places before us
what the first exponents of Christianity believed
Christianity to be. It was according to their
interpretation eternal in its essence, as well as
universal in its application. It was in itself be-
yond time though it was wrought out in time.
8. It follows necessarily from this view of
Christianity that it must be placed in intimate
connexion with the divine discipline of the world
in former ages if we are to understand it. As we
cannot conceive of the world as abandoned by
GOD, and as the coming of Christ is declared to
be the complete expression of His love, Christi-
anity must have gathered up and ratified either
implicitly or by a direct sanction whatever men
had truly hoped or learned of Him in earlier
times. And this is exactly what our Lord and
His Apostles professed to do. They came not
to destroy but to fulfil : to lay open and enforce
the spiritual meaning of the Law and the Pro-
phets, in which the Jews ' thought that they had
' eternal life ; ' and to declare to the Gentiles
the GOD whom they ' ignorantly worshipped.'
They appealed to all history and to the experience
of all men in support of the Gospel. Christ came,
so St Paul teaches, in the fulness of time, when
with previous History. 63
the due measure of the appointed seasons was ac- CHAP. i.
complished, each of which was charged with the
realisation of some part of the Divine Will. GOD
spoke at last to us in the Person of a Son (so it Heb.i.l,2.
is written) when He had spoken of old time to
our fathers in the prophets, revealing His Counsel
gradually (in many parts), as men were able to
bear it, and variously (in many ways), as they
could best enter into its purport. There have
been attempts in all ages to separate Christianity
from Judaism and Hellenism ; but to carry out
such an attempt is not to interpret Christianity,
but to construct a new religion. Christianity has
not only affinities with Judaism and Hellenism,
but it includes in itself all the permanent truths
to which both witness. It was bound up (so the
Apostles said) with promises and blessings by
which the Jewish people had been moulded
through many centuries. It answered to wants
of which the Gentiles had become conscious
through long periods of noble effort and bitter
desolation. It came not at an arbitrary moment,
but at a crisis when ' all things were now ready.'
If it was divine in its essence, it was no less
human in the form of its embodiment, and in the
circumstances of its reception.
9. Christianity was connected at its origin
64 Christianity a
CHAP. i. with a vast history with the history of the whole
ancient world and it is also a history itself. It
is a history in its fundamental form so far as it is
a revelation; anil it is a history also in its ap-
propriation so far as it is the informing power
of modern society. The doctrines of Christianity
flow from alleged facts. The belief in the historic
event precedes the belief in the dogma. The life
of Christ (if we may use this illustration) comes
first, and then the teaching of the Spirit. The
substance of our Creed lies in what Christ was
and what He did, and not primarily in what He
taught. Or, to put the same idea in another
way, His teaching was in His Person and in His
Life, and not in His words only or chiefly. It is
impossible to resolve Christianity into sentiment
or morality. The sentiment which it involves
springs out of a historical union of man and GOD :
the morality which it enforces is based on the
reality and significance of Christ's Death and Re-
surrection.
10. And yet more than this. From the time
of the first preaching of the Apostles, Christianity
has been a power in the world acting upon society
and acted upon by it. It conquered the Roman
Empire, and remained unshaken by its fall. It
sustained the shock of the northern nations, and
History itself. 65
in turn civilised them. It suffered persecution CHAP. i.
and it wielded sovereignty. It preserved the trea-
sures of ancient thought and turned them to new
uses. It inspired science, while it cherished
mysteries with which science could not deal. It
assumed the most varied forms and it moulded
the most discordant characters. And all this was
done and borne in virtue of its historic founda-
tion. For its strength lay not in the zeal of a
hierarchy who were the depositaries of hidden
doctrines, but in the open proclamation of a
Divine Saviour. The Cross has remained in
every age the symbol and the monument of its
power.
11. These characteristics of Christianity by
which it is distinguished from every other religion,
that it is historical in its Creed and historical
in its development, even if they are considered
only in their most obvious and indisputable form,
sufficiently prove that its origin was an event
wholly unique and unparalleled in the history of
the world. There have been conquerors who in
the course of a lifetime have overrun half the
world and left lasting memorials of their progress
in cities and kingdoms founded and overthrown.
There have been monarchs who have by their
individual genius consolidated vast empires and
W. R. 5
66 Christianity centres in the
CHAP. i. inspired them with a new life. There have been
teachers who through a small circle of devoted
hearers have rapidly changed the modes of thought
of a whole generation. There have been religious
reformers who by force or eloquence have modi-
fied or reconstructed the belief of nations. There
have been devotees whose lives of superhuman
endurance have won for them from posterity a
share of divine honour. There have been heroes
cut off by a sudden and mysterious fate, for whose
return their loyal and oppressed countrymen have
looked with untiring patience as the glorious and
certain sign of dawning freedom. There have
been founders of new creeds who have furnished
the ideal of supreme good to later generations
in the glorified image of their work. But in all
the noble line of the mighty and the wise and the
good, in the great army of kings and prophets
and saints and martyrs, there is not one who has
ever claimed for himself or received from his
followers the title of having in any way wrought
out salvation for men by the virtue of his life and
death, as being in themselves, and not only by
the moral effect of their example, a spring of
divine blessings. It is of comparatively little
moment how and by whom the Christian religion
was first propagated, wonderful and exceptional
as that may seem. The one absolute mark by
doctrine of the Person of Christ. 67
which its establishment is distinguished from that CHAP. i.
of all other systems lies in its very essence. The
Gospel differs from every message delivered as
from GOD to men, in that its substance was con-
tained in what befel a Teacher to Whom the
Apostles had listened, in what He did and suffered.
Christ was Himself the Word and the Truth
which He announced.
12. For us Christianity is so naturally iden-
tified with abstract statements of doctrine and
ecclesiastical institutions, that we are in danger
of losing sight of the essentially personal basis on
which it rests. It requires an effort to realise
with any distinctness the sublime originality of a
faith not in the might and goodness and love of
a Prophet, but in the inherent power and virtue
of the Person and Death of a Saviour. The con-
ception of such a faith was equally novel and
definite in the apostolic age. The relation of
the Lord to men, viewed simply historically, was
set forth as something wholly singular and mar-
vellous. Within thirty years after the death of
Christ, if we adopt the most extreme views of
chronologers, He was habitually mentioned to-
gether with the Father as the source of spiritual
grace. We need only place any other name for
a moment in the same position, if our soul does
52
68 The origin of Christianity unique,
CHAP. i. not revolt from the thought, to feel what must
have been the intuitive consciousness of a divine
presence which enabled the Apostles to adopt
such a formula and to consecrate it for uni-
versal use. And the effort is comparatively easy
for us, which for them (till it was hallowed by
some unquestionable sanction of GOD) must have
been blasphemous. We are familiarised in theory
with the idea of GOD dwelling as man with
men, but a Jew had no such belief to soften
the awful grandeur of the truth which he ac-
knowledged.
13. Exactly in proportion as we apprehend
the exceptional (but not unnatural) character of
Christianity, we shall be better able to judge of
all the phenomena by which (as we believe) it
was attended. If it was and this cannot be
denied wholly original in its fundamental idea,
if it effected a revolution in the popular concep-
tion of the relation of man to GOD, if it came to a
world prepared to receive but not to create it, if
it was bound up with a long anterior history, and
has been in turn the life of modern nations, then
we may expect to find that the circumstances
which attended its origin were themselves also
exceptional but not unnatural. The reality of the
Resurrection is an adequate explanation of the
and so the circumstances of its origin. 69
significance which was attached to the Death of CHAP. i.
Christ. It seems impossible to discover anything
else which can be.
14. Nothing, indeed, can be more unjust than
the common mode of discussing the miracles of
the first age. Instead of taking them in connexion
with a crisis in the religious history of the world,
disputants refer them to the standard of a period
of settled progress such as that in which we live.
The epoch at which they are said to have been
wrought was confessedly creative in thought, and
that in a sense in which no other age ever has
been ; and there seems to be a positive fitness in
the special manifestation of GOD at such a crisis
in the material as in the spiritual world. The
central idea of the time which, dimly apprehended
at Rome and Alexandria, found its complete ex-
pression in the teaching of the Apostles, was the
union of earth and heaven, the transfiguration
of our whole earthly nature ; and the history of
ancient speculation seems to shew that nothing
less than some outward pledge and sign of its
truth could have led to the bold enunciation of
this dogma as an article of popular belief. If,
as we have seen, miracles are not in themselves
either unnatural or incredible, in this case there
70 Historic tests of Miracles.
CHAP. i. is even an antecedent presumption for their
occurrence.
15. It has been said, and said rightly, though
the statement has been strangely misunderstood,
that science can take no cognisance of miracles.
Science deals simply with the ordinary working
of GOD, with phenomena which experience shews
to be capable of being combined in what are
for us laws of nature. It represents the power
according to its general action and then assumes
it to be immutable. It cannot from its very
nature deal with exceptions which are so rare
as not to be capable of being grouped according
to our present knowledge. But while miracles
do not belong to Science, they belong to History ;
and if they are not to be rejected without exami-
nation, the simple question in each case when
they are alleged is What is the evidence in their
favour both general and special ? Is there any-
thing in the character or work of the time which
leads us to expect that GOD should reveal Him-
self outwardly as He does inwardly ? Is there,
that is, anything which thus makes miracles in
some degree natural events according to the
larger sense of the word ? And then Is the
special evidence for the miraculous fact as clear
as we should be content to act on in ordinary
The Apostolic Age. 71
cases ? This is all which we can require ; for CHAP. i.
the necessary presumption against a miracle, as
an exceptionable occurrence, is removed by an
affirmative answer to the former question; and
religion is essentially a practical matter, or, to
express the same truth somewhat differently, it
belongs to that order of subjects in which we are
forced to trust to conclusions which fall short of
complete certainty.
16. The position which the apostolic age oc-
cupies with regard to the development of ancient
life has often been investigated. Yet even thus
there are many points in the historic bearing of
Christianity which are commonly neglected. It
is true that we can see how the lines of Jewish
and Gentile progress converge towards it. It is
true that we can see how it satisfies instincts which
found expression more or less vague in earlier
times. It is true that the Gospel was preached
first at an epoch when the organisation of society
was more favourable to its spread than at any
other. But this is not all ; nor indeed are these
essentially the most important features of the
preparation by which the Advent was preceded.
If this were a complete statement of the case it
might be said that Christianity was a natural pro-
duct of the concurrence of Rome and Greece and
72 The Apostolic Age.
CHAP. i. Palestine ; that the anticipations of men after
periods of eager expectation fashioned for them-
selves an imaginary fulfilment : that the circum-
stances of the age offer an explanation of the suc-
cess of a mere creation of enthusiasm. A full
view of the character of the preparation for the
Gospel excludes such interpretations of its signifi-
cance. There was a tendency towards the central
truth of Christianity, but there was no tendency
to produce it. Keligious speculations had branched
out in so many ways that nothing short of the
coming of Christ could have harmonised the vari-
ous results to which they led; but till He came
the results were simply conflicting and irrecon-
cileable, and even after He came the solution
which He brought to the riddles of earlier life
was long misunderstood. Philosophers and moral-
ists had variously discussed the destiny of man
and the grounds of right and duty and knowledge,
but the debates had ended practically in exhaus-
tion and despair. The records of their specula-
tions shew at once their power and their weak-
ness : they reveal what man aspires to know and
confess his inability to gain the knowledge for
himself. The combinations of various nationalities
in the Roman Empire necessarily made broader
views of the union of men possible ; but at the
same time the triumph of imperialism tended to
Characteristics of Jewish History. 73
suppress every independent power. The material CHAP. i.
advantages which it offered for free intercourse
were more than counterbalanced by the depressing
influence of its overwhelming might. The time
was marked by the simultaneous existence of
countless adverse powers then first forced into
contact, but Christianity bears no trace of any
temporal or local character. It came as some-
thing wholly new to a world whose course was
already run. It belonged to no time and to no
place. It was a beginning even more than it was
an end. And as there are periods in the indivi-
dual life when the exceptional becomes natural,
it may be so with that vast and complex progress
of humanity, which we are forced equally by
thought and experience to regard under the form
of a common life.
17. The very conception of the history of
humanity as a life, which is now an axiom with
conflicting schools, was due (as we have already
seen) in the first instance to the Jews. In
spite of the exclusiveness of their national reli-
gion they faithfully maintained the belief in a
real unity of the human race, out of which the
idea of a common life of humanity springs. The
Romans had partially witnessed to the truth when
74 Jewish Character
CHAP. i. they acknowledged the inherent supremacy of
Greece in art : the Stoics had taught it as part of
their stern theory of the world ; but the Jews held
it, however imperfectly, as lying at the very foun-
dation of their religion. The promise to which
they looked for the pledge of their divine election
extended at the same time a heavenly blessing to
all nations. The history of Israel was a continual
advance towards the realisation of this fellowship
of nations. Each crisis left the chosen people
nearer to that kingdom of heaven of which they
were the sign and the prophets. And the typical
prophet of the Captivity looking upon the great
powers of the world portrays them at once in
Dan.ii.vii. their organic unity, and in the separate complete-
ness of their distinctive energies. In this respect
it is of no consequence how we interpret the
visions of Daniel, or to what date we assign the
book which bears his name. The idea of a life of
mankind, of a law binding together different mon-
archies and states, is there; and from the time
when the book became current this idea has been
part of the heritage of men. The book of Daniel
is (on its human side) the first philosophy of
history, even as the book of Genesis is the pledge
that such philosophy is possible. The one pre-
sents the kingdoms of mankind as mutually de-
pendent and subject to the laws of a common
and History. 75
development : the other presents them federally CHAP. i.
united in ' the first Adam.'
18. The long continuance and varied for-
tunes of the Jewish nation enabled it to be be-
yond any other nation the messenger of unity and
progress. And more than this, the purely intel-
lectual defects with which the Semitic character
is charged fitted the people to perform this their
appointed work. The forms of literature which
our western training leads us to regard as the
highest, the Epic and the Drama, found no place
among the Jews. The free culture of art among
them was forbidden. Or, in other words, they
were led to dwell upon the indeterminate and
infinite and not upon the fixed and limited in the
world. For them all separate histories and lives
and embodiments of beauty were incomplete.
They were unwilling and unable to see every-
where one formula reproducing itself. The whole
history of mankind was for them an Epic, a
Tragedy the one Epic, the one Tragedy, of
which the fortunes of generations or families or
men were but scattered fragments. They looked
upon history as a life directed by will, and not as
catastrophes ruled by destiny or phenomena pro-
duced by law 1 .
1 The intellectual contrast of the East and West has never
76 The Discipline
CHAP. i. 19. Thus it is that the work of the Jews is
written on their character. But it is yet more
legibly written in their history. It is difficult to
say whether their national integrity or their
power of assimilation is more surprising. One
catastrophe after another overwhelmed them, and
they rise the same yet nobler from the fire in
which they were purified. The old spirit remain-
ed, but it clothed itself in a new form. The
conqueror lived in the conquered. The people
fell beneath each of the great forms of ancient
civilisation and received from each the choicest
treasures which it could bestow.
20. Egypt, Persia, Greece and Rome the
great powers of the East and West contributed
to discipline the mind and further the work of
the Jews. The hopes of the people were kindled
by times of triumph and chastened by times of
captivity. A theocracy, a monarchy, a hierarchy,
brought out in succession various sides of their
complex character and gave to it solidity and
completeness. Meanwhile the spiritual teaching
of the nation was carried on from stage to stage,
been given better in a short compass than by Browning in a
speech at the close of 'Luria,' beginning 'My own East! How
nearer GOD we were ! ' to which whoever has not read it will be
glad to be referred.
of Egypt. 77
so that while nothing was lost which could serve CHAP. i.
for the training of the simplest, something was
ever added which might elevate the faith of those
who saw deepest into the divine truth. When
the Law, fixed and eternal, failed to satisfy all
the wants which were called out by the manifold
growth of a high social civilisation, the prophets
laid open its inner meaning and drew the outlines
of a spiritual kingdom. This new creative period
itself came to a close, and the learned diligence
of priests and scribes then framed out of the
materials which it provided a system which gave
definiteness and consistency to the noblest belief
of the past throughout a scattered and tributary
people.
21. We are often reminded that the fore-
father of the Jews was an Arab Sheikh. Abra-
ham, it is true, was a Sheikh, but he was much
more. His true representative was not the Be-
douin Esau, but Jacob, in whom lay the promise
of a nation. The fulfilment of this promise was
first prepared in Egypt. Without entering in
detail into the various influences of Egypt upon
the Jews, we may notice this the greatest of
all : the descendants of Jacob were there bound
together into one body by prosperity alike and
by suffering. Every power which goes to con-
78 The Discipline of Egypt.
CHAP. i. solidate and unite a people was brought to bear
upon them. The recollection of a noble descent,
the consciousness of a high destiny, the presence
of a hostile nation, common occupations, practical
isolation in life and worship, combined to create
and keep alive a feeling of fellowship and mutual
dependence among the growing host. The sense
of unity and nationality may have been degraded,
though it could not be destroyed, by the con-
ditions of ancient slavery. And thus in due time
a people was prepared for a sterner discipline and
a sterner work. It is impossible as yet to deter-
mine exactly how far the form of the religion of
Israel was modified by Egyptian influences. But
the silence of the Pentateuch as to the future life
shews that a power immeasurably stronger than
custom limited the character of such a depend-
ence. That which is most conspicuous in the faith
of Egypt is wholly wanting in the teaching of
Moses. The earth and the " present had to be
felt in their full meaning. For it is only by
looking both backward and forward that the
circumstances of the Exodus can be seen in
their true light. When the multitude had rea-
lised their common helplessness at last the voice
of the GOD of their fathers quickened again the
true life of the children of Abraham ; and the
faith which was called out by the sight of terrible
The Discipline of Sinai. 79
judgments on their enemies, was deepened with CHAP. i.
awful intensity by a lonely sojourn in the wil-
derness in the very presence of the LORD their
Saviour.
22. The Jews left Egypt a host of fugitives :
they entered the promised land a conquering
army. But an entire lifetime lay between the
two events. A new generation grew up in the
wilderness to whom the LORD revealed Himself
as King. Henceforth the people never wholly
forgot their divine allegiance. They were the
people of the LORD even when they most fatally
misinterpreted the meaning of their title. The
majesty of Sinai rests on the whole of their later
history. The sense of a personal relation of each
Jew to his GOD gave strength to the nation
and dignity to the citizen. Moses made use,
we must believe, of 'the wisdom of the Egyp-
' tians,' of their skill in science, in art, in organi-
sation, even in sacred symbolism ; but the con-
stitution which he framed was infinitely nobler
than that of Egypt. It was based on the word
of GOD addressed to all: it was free from the
degradation of caste: it included the possibility
of progress. Egypt made the body of the nation,
so to speak ; Sinai infused into it its spirit.
Egypt united the race : Sinai inspired each man
80 Discipline of the period of the Judges.
CHAP. i. with the consciousness of his own direct covenant
with the LORD who had redeemed His people.
Each individual life, in all its parts, no less than
the life of the nation, was consecrated to GOD.
To realise the kingdom of heaven the perfect
Sovereignty of the LORD among men was from
this time the acknowledged mission of the Jew.
23. After the conquests of Joshua and the
first settlement of the tribes followed times of
disruption and disaster. The nation was not yet
disciplined sufficiently by common trials to trust
in an unseen Power. Hitherto heroic leaders
had represented to them the personality of the
Theocracy, and momentous crises had called out
their utmost energy. But all was changed when
they once entered on their inheritance. In times
of distress they still remembered that GOD was
their king; but they forgot Him in times of peace.
The lessons of the wilderness were not at once
applicable to the course of common life. The
people acknowledged a spiritual deliverer, but
they were not ripe for a spiritual sovereignty.
This was indeed the end of their hopes, but the
time was not yet. To lead them to look on-
ward, to reveal the inherent weakness of dominion
based on external might, even though the might
was from GOD, to prepare the way for another and
The Discipline of the Kingdom. 81
more gradual training, based upon the character- CHAP. i.
istic feelings of the nation in respect of this
progressive development the type of all nations
was, as it appears, the use of the troubled period of
the Judges. The free uncentralised government,
and the moveable Tabernacle, shewed by no un-
certain symbols the nature of the kingdom which
GOD designed for His people : arbitrary authority
and unhallowed sanctuaries shewed that they
were not yet prepared to submit to its sway. The
idea of the Theocracy, if the phrase may be al-
lowed, was presented at the outset of the national
life ; and experience proved that it could only be
realised by a long season of discipline.
24. Thus the establishment of the kingdom
was in the truest sense a defection from GOD, and
yet, humanly speaking, it was a necessary de-
fection. An earthly king fell infinitely short of
the type of divine government represented by
Moses, or Joshua, or Samuel ; but he was at once
a definite centre and a clear sign of something
greater than himself. If he presented the spiritual
idea in a fixed and limited form, he also gave
distinctness to the conception of the present
moral sovereignty of GOD, and furnished imagery
under which the prophets could construct a more
glorious picture of the future.
W. R. 6
82 TJie Discipline of the Kingdom.
CHAP. i. 25. The establishment of the kingdom was
necessarily connected with the building of the
Temple. And the Temple occupied the same
place with regard to the Tabernacle as the mon-
archy with regard to the Theocracy. Both were
earthly and partial, though at the time necessary,
representatives of something greater and more
spiritual. In both we see the attempt to give a
limited and permanent shape to that which was,
in its original revelation, divine in essence and
transitory in its embodiment. But even as GOD
was pleased to use the monarchy for the exhibition
of higher truth, so also He used the Temple ; and
we cannot see now how the lessons conveyed
through it to the Jews and to ourselves could
otherwise have been realised.
26. The kingdom and the Temple were de-
stroyed when they had fixed indelibly upon the
heart of the nation the idea of the unity of the
sovereignty and worship of GOD which they
symbolised. The Captivity then spiritualised by
the teaching of facts, as the prophets by word
of mouth, the lessons which had been taught in
a material form. The people came up from Egypt
a united nation : they returned from Babylon a
small colony to form the centre of a religious
commonwealth. A great revolution had been
The Discipline of the Captivity. 83
wrought in their national hopes, in their social CHAP. i.
organisation, in their spiritual creed. They were
no longer outwardly bound together by civil ties.
Subject to different monarchs, they even served
in adverse armies. Their hereditary sovereignty
was lost. But political separation did not destroy
true fellowship. The unity of a church succeeded
to the unity of a nation ; and the scattered
members of the religious society looked forward
in common to the eternal kingdom of a future
Son of David. At the same time the service of
the synagogues was added to that of the Temple.
A hierarchy whose power was derived from edu-
cation and not from descent, grew up, and more
than rivalled the power of the priests. The
labour of these scribes witnessed to the cessation
of prophecy, and jealously guarded the heritage
which it had left. As a necessary consequence
religion assumed a more distinctly personal cha-
racter. The house of prayer and the skilled
teacher brought it close to the home of each Jew.
Exile had taught men, when they were removed
from their holy place, the full blessing of spiritual
communion with GOD. In the strength of this
faith they were allowed to gaze upon the con-
flicts of good and evil in a higher world ; and the
enemy of GOD was seen at length in his personal Zech.iii.l.
power.
62
84 The Discipline of the Dispersion.
CHAP. i. 27. Thus Persia wrought out its work upon
the Jews, and when the discipline was ended the
people were prepared to meet the new influences
of Greece. The most abiding monument of the
triumphs of Alexander was the city which he
chose to bear his name in the border land of
the East and West ; and the spirit of Alexandria
nowhere found a truer expression than in the
Jewish colony which from the first formed an
important element in its population. The Alex-
andrine Jews penetrated deeply into the specula-
tions of Greek philosophy, and their national faith
gained breadth without losing its individuality.
Nor was the influence of Greece upon Judaism,
which was strong at Alexandria, confined to that
centre. It was spread from the first more or less
throughout Asia Minor and Syria. The policy
of conquerors and the instinct of commerce scat-
tered the Jews over the whole civilised world.
The dispersion, which was begun on the return
from Babylon, was extended. Judaism adopted
a new language for its ancient doctrines. A people
who had once been bound by the strictest ritual-
ism within the narrow limits of one land were
found throughout all nations witnessing to the
spiritual truths which they had inherited and
preparing the way for a universal faith. The
Hellenists were thus at once missionaries and
The Growth of the Doctrine of Messiah. 85
prophets. They proclaimed a purer creed to CHAP. i.
the heathen, who gathered round the synagogue
without formally taking upon themselves the
covenant of Israel; and they lifted the thoughts
of their countrymen to the prospect of a spiritual
law circumscribed by no requirements of season
or place.
28. One special feature of the growth of
Hellenism among the Jews demands a passing
notice. The spirit of independent thought led to
the foundation of sects. The conflicting tendencies
which coexist everywhere in religious societies
found separate embodiments. Freedom, ritualism
and asceticism found a characteristic expression
in Sadducees, Pharisees and Essenes. The whole
breadth and depth of the national faith, so to
speak, was tested. Nor was a fiery trial wanting
when the elements of truth and error were in
danger of being fatally confounded. The Macca-
baean conflict restored the Law to its true supre-
macy while it left untouched all that was nobler
in the lessons of Greek art and culture. A final
struggle fixed the limits of the teaching of the
ancient prophets, and founded the stability of
the nation on the victorious profession of its
completed faith.
86 The Doctrine of Messiah,
CHAP. i. 29. Meanwhile through these vicissitudes of
disaster and triumph one faith grew in many
fashions and in many parts. The Jews never
lost the sense of the blessing which was to
come through them to all the nations. Up to
the giving of the Law no personal trait of the
promised Redeemer is found. Hope was centred
in a narrower circle at each great crisis in the
spiritual history of mankind, in a race, in a nation,
in a tribe, in a family. For the first time the work
of Moses furnished occasion to a special portraiture
of Messiah's office. He was to be the mediator of
a new Law. To establish an abiding covenant
between GOD and man was declared to be the
substance of His work. The Law alone was un-
able to train the Jews to their appointed work.
A kingdom was established, and with it a new con-
ception of Messiah was added. The king who gave
unity and security to the nation was but a type of
the Son of David whose kingdom should extend
in eternal blessings over all the world. The
earthly sovereignty of the line of David fell. The
chosen people passed into captivity, and under
the pressure of national disaster learnt from the
teaching of prophets to see in their promised
Messiah 'a Son of Man,' who should sympathise
with the sufferings of those whom He came to save
as well as to govern. Thus the central belief, in
The Doctrine of Messiah. 87
virtue of which Judaism lived, was providentially CHAP. i.
shaped in the progress of the history of the chosen
people. Nothing was lost as the conception of
the Redeemer was gradually completed. Each
period added something which belongs essentially
to the fulness of the conception. And so at last
the Lawgiver, the King, the Prophet, the Priest,
the Man, are all included in the Christ whom the
Gospels present to us.
30. Two characteristic doctrines which be-
longed in their completest forms respectively to
Palestine and Alexandria summed up this na-
tional belief at the time of the Lord's Coming.
The expectation of a Messiah ' who should redeem
' Israel,' and the belief in a Divine Word by whom
GOD could reveal Himself to mankind at large.
The first hope found expression in a series of
so-called apocryphal writings which generally
agree in describing a period of intense suffering,
followed by the advent of a triumphant Con-
queror, who should bring beneath his sceptre
and the Law all the nations of the earth. The
process of the consummation is variously pictured
according to the position in which the several
writers stood. At one time an era of blessing, at
another an era of vengeance fills the imagination
of the seer. But the earth is the scene of both.
88 The Doctrine of Messiah.
CHAP. i. The purification of the soul through suffering, the
end of the great tragedy of human life, finds no
fitting place in the schemes of outward aggrand-
isement. 'The master of Israel' was startled
at the seeming paradox of a second birth. In
proportion as the teaching of the prophets was
made more definite, its traits were exaggerated
and externalised. But in spite of error and
prejudice the hope of the Palestinian Jew was in
a Person, a Saviour. The deliverance for which
he confidently looked was to be wrought out
among men. It was to be historical in its
foundation and not moral only or intellectual.
He through whom it should be accomplished
was recognised as 'the Son of GOD,' but none
the less its end was to be the restoration of the
kingdom.
31. At the same time while this external
conception of Messiah was gaining defmiteness
and strength, wider views of the general action
of GOD were gradually opened. Religious think-
ers, especially in Egypt, pondered on the way in
which we may conceive an Infinite Being in con-
nexion with the finite. The result was a wide-
spread doctrine of a Divine Word through whom
GOD was supposed to be revealed in action and in
utterance. In Palestine this Word was regarded
The Doctrine of the Word. 89
chiefly as the medium of outward communication, CHAP. i.
like the angel of the Pentateuch : at Alexandria
as the power in virtue of which a fellowship
between GOD and man is rendered possible. The
one doctrine tended towards the recognition of a
divine Person subordinate to GOD : the other to
the recognition of a twofold personality in the
divine nature. In Greek writers, like Philo, the
conception of the Word was further enlarged by
the ambiguity of the term Logos, which was used
to express it. As this might be taken for ' Word '
or ' Reason,' so the corresponding idea fluctuated
between the objective manifestation of the Divine
will and the subjective correlative, whether in the
mind of GOD in which the primal thought lay,
or in the mind of man by which he apprehends
the revelation. Each varying notion has obvious
points of connexion with Christian dogma, and
just as the Jewish belief in Messiah preserved
the belief in a historic Saviour, so the Jewish
belief in the Word prepared the way for a larger
view of a revelation of GOD in man and through
man.
32. The two complementary conceptions of
a Saviour manifested on earth and of an eternal
omnipresent Word thus existed side by side, but
they were absolutely unconnected. Philo may
90 The Preparation of the Gentile world.
CHAP. i. have conceived of the Word as acting through
Messiah, but not as one with Him. The lines of
thought which pointed to the action of a second
Person in the Godhead, and to the victories of
some future conqueror, were not even parallel but
divergent. It was reserved for St John to unite
the antithetic truths in one divine phrase, which
could not have entered into the mind of Philo.
Johni. 'The Word was GOD,... and the Word was made
1 14.
' flesh, and dwelt among us.'
33. But the preparation of Judaism was not
the only preparation for Christianity. In another
sense the Gentile world were making all things
ready for the advent. The vast monarchies of
the East, the intellectual culture of Greece, the
civil organisation of Rome, each fitted men in
some peculiar way for the reception of the message
of the Gospel. The spirit of the East made itself
felt directly through the Jewish nation while
prophets yet spoke to interpret its lessons. The
teaching of Greece was reflected more or less
clearly in the common version of the Sacred
Books and in the speculations of an influential
school of Jewish teachers, both in Palestine and
in the Dispersion. The material unity and order
of the Roman Empire prepared the way for the
spread of a new Faith and furnished the type of
The Development of Greek life. 91
a universal kingdom. But it is not our purpose CHAP. i.
now to consider the relative effects of Greece or
Rome on Judaism or Christianity, but rather to
estimate generally what ancient life in its noblest
forms was in itself as a step in the progress of
humanity.
34. Something, indeed, has been said already
of the direct influence of Greece upon Jewish
development. But the independent progress of
classical thought and life had in itself, though
indirectly, a more important bearing on the con-
summation of the crisis of human life at the time
when Christ came. In a word, it may be said
that the history of the ancient world is generally
the history of the gradual separation of man from
GOD, so far as the original relation was the ground-
work of faith and personal devotion. At the same
time the civil power was more and more central-
ised and offered as the object towards which the
highest hopes of the citizen might be directed.
The standards which bore the image of the
Emperor became the idols of the Roman army;
and in its essence the idea of Imperialism is the
human antithesis to the Homeric sovereignty of
Zeus. It would be easy to trace out the necessary
progress of this elimination of the heavenly,
externally religious, element from Gentile life in
92 The Development of Greek life.
CHAP. i. society, literature, and thought. The instinct from
which this element derived its origin and strength
could not bear a rigid analysis, nor meet the mani-
fold difficulties of a complex polity. Step by step
the patriarchal communities, in which the ruler and
the priest were one, passed into the great republics,
where a solemn ceremonial witnessed to a feeling
of religion, powerful only as an instrument to rule
the masses. A single century, but that a century
which ranks in the richness and variety of its
mental results only after the first and sixteenth,
saw the passage from the pious theocratic history
of Herodotus to the self-reliant, human analysis of
national fortunes in Thucydides; from the awful
questionings on fate and foreknowledge and future
punishment in ^Eschylus, which sound like echoes
of a Hebrew prophet, to the intellectual natural-
ism of Euripides ; from the rude choric song, in
which still lingered some sense of the personal
bounty of a GOD of gladness, to the conventional
portraiture of an artificial life in the comedies
of Menander. The advance of philosophy was
scarcely less rapid. The discussions on being
which occupied the earliest thinkers, passed into
discussions on knowing. Aristotle sums up the
results of all who had gone before him with stern
impartiality, and a school of scepticism followed.
Thenceforth philosophy was content to treat of
The Development of Roman life. 93
duty and to abdicate the higher prerogatives CHAP. i.
which it had once claimed.
35. The growth of the Roman Empire is the
noblest spectacle of the natural triumph of human
power, as it was based upon the surest of human
affections. But like Greek philosophy the Roman
constitution contained essentially in itself the
seeds of its own ruin. The conception of the
family bound together by a common worship on
which the state was built was unequal to meet
the difficulties of enlarged dominion. First arose
the divisions in the capital itself when the pater-
nal authority of those who had been once fathers
in act as well as in name was unable to satisfy the
wants of the multitude who had placed themselves
under their protection. Next the policy of iso-
lation and civil independence, by which the early
republic had sought to keep in contented loyalty
her subject states, was inapplicable to the wider
dominion of later times. The idea of the family
and with it that of religion was lost ; and when
Rome had conquered the world, it was felt on
every side that one irresponsible will could alone
wield the resources of the state. The soul was
gone when the body had reached its full develop-
ment. Yet even thus the influence of Rome upon
Christianity was not less than that of Greece. If
94 The Development of Roman life.
CHAP. i. the speculations of Greek thinkers had raised
problems and fashioned a language which could
aid Christian teachers in unfolding the doctrine of
the Divine Nature, the determinations of Roman
jurists were equally powerful in preparing for the
exhibition of the relation of man to GOD, which
was the office of the Latin Church. But this work
was still future and unperceived. For the pre-
sent even the splendours of the reign of Augustus
were a sign of failure. Greek speculation had
ended in scepticism. The constitutional liberty
of Rome had issued in Imperialism. The pro-
mise which the Jew had inherited from his fathers
alone waited for an accomplishment, which each
change seemed to bring nearer.
36. Thus the fulness and the exhaustion of
hope met at the epoch of Christ's coming. The
hope of an external deliverance which had been
gradually moulded through a long history was
waiting its fulfilment. The hope which man had
formed of working out his own way to truth and
freedom was wellnigh quenched. Old forms of
belief, old modes of government, were passing
away. It was felt that ' the world's great age' was
even then to begin anew. Carried away by this
belief, Romans saw in the rise of Imperialism the
promise of a Golden Age. But the imagery of
Revealed Religion progressive, 95
the Augustan poet, who described the advent of CHAP. i.
this glorious time, was borrowed from the East,
and it was to the East that many still looked for
the great Conqueror. So firm and so widespread
was this expectation that nearly seventy years
afterwards Vespasian was thought to have ful-
filled the prophecy by passing from Syria to the
throne of the Caesars. It is needless however to
dwell upon this instinctive homage of the age to
the LORD whom it knew not. It may have been
a mere echo of Jewish hopes, or one of those
intuitive interpretations of a great crisis which
seem to rise simultaneously in the hearts of na-
tions. So much at least is clear to us now, that
the Coming of Christ coincided with the beginning
of a new life in mankind, with a new development
of history which is not yet completed ; and, yet
more than this, that the principles of this life are
found in their simplest form in the Gospels.
37. Judaism had existed in the face of every
form of antagonistic religion, but it had not sub-
dued them. It had the power of life, but not the
power of conquest. The life of Christianity lay
in progress. It was essentially aggressive and es-
sentially human. Christ was the Son of Man as
well as the Son of David. And thus through the
Apostles first all the treasures of the East were
96 Religion progressive.
CHAP. i. brought to the Western nations in a form which
they could appreciate and accept. The strength
of modern civilisation lies in the combination of
faith and reason to use the shortest phrase
which was the issue of their message. The power
of their Gospel was felt far beyond the range of
its acknowledged influence. The old philosophies
were quickened with a new life. Christianity had
revealed the seat of their weakness, and enthusi-
astic teachers endeavoured to supply what was
wanting in them. Classical paganism itself was
made to assume a new dress, and the bitterest
enemy of the faith acknowledged its inherent
power by a vain endeavour to transfer its spirit
to the polytheistic creed.
38. These considerations suggest a conclusive
answer to a fallacy which has come to be regarded
as a truism. It is said that while science is pro-
gressive religion is stationary. The modes of ad-
vance in the two are certainly not the same, but
the advance in science is not more real than the
advance in religion. Each proceeds according to
its proper law. The advance in religion is not
measured by an addition to a former state, which
can be regarded in its fulness separately, but by
a change : it is represented not by a common dif-
ference but by a common ratio. Viewed in this
Religion progressive. 97
light, we can trace on a great scale the triple CHAP. i.
division of post-Christian history as marked by
the successive victories of the Faith. The fact
of the Resurrection is its starting-point, the real-
isation of the Resurrection is its goal. The ful-
ness of the Truth is once shewn to men, as in
old times the awful splendours of the Theocracy,
and then they are charged to work out in the
slow struggles of life the ideal which they have
been permitted to contemplate. Thus it is that
we can look without doubt or misgiving upon
the imperfections of the sub-apostolic Church or
the corruptions of the middle ages or the excesses
of the Reformation. Even through these the
divine work went forward. The power of the
Resurrection was ever carried over a wider field.
At first Christianity moved in the family, hallow-
ing every simplest relation of life. This was the
work of the primitive Church. Next it extended
its sway to the nation and the community, claim-
ing to be heard in the assemblies of princes and
in the halls of counsellors. This was the work of
the mediaeval Church. Now it has a still wider
mission, to assert the common rights and fellow-
ship of men, to rise from the family and the nation
to humanity itself. To accomplish this is the
charge which is entrusted to the Church of the
Present ; and no vision of the purity or grandeur
w. R. 7
98 The Greek Period: Orthodox.
CHAP. i. of earlier times should blind us to the supreme
majesty of the part which is assigned to us in
the economy of faith.
39. It is at once obvious that these great
divisions of Christian history, or even more truly
speaking of the post-Christian world, answer in a
remarkable degree to the periods of Jewish his-
tory which have been already marked out. The
law of progress is the same in both. But if his-
tory repeats itself, it is, at least in this case, on
an ampler field and with more momentous issues.
The discipline of a nation is replaced by the dis-
cipline of a world ; and (as we believe) an Advent
of Triumph answers to an Advent of Redemp-
tion. Without following out this parallel further,
though it seems to include many unexpected har-
monies in things old and new, we must yet notice
a progress in Christianity itself corresponding
with this progress in its work. The three words
which by common consent characterise the great
representative Churches of the different periods
describe the successive stages into which it
may be divided, Orthodoxy, Catholicity, Evangeli-
calism.
40. At first the Christian Faith was simply
historic. As long as its work was confined in the
The Greek Period: Orthodox. 99
narrow limits of the family or of the small commu- CHAP. i.
nities scattered throughout the Empire, consider-
able latitude in interpreting the fundamental
facts on which it rested was natural or even ne-
cessary. The principles of Truth were held firm,
but no deductions from them were authorised.
The rapid spread of Christianity through every
rank made this state of things impossible for
any great length of time. Philosophers became
Apologists and reasoned in turn upon the truths
which they defended. Yet even thus heresy was
long active in every direction laying down false
conclusions before the Church assumed the peril-
ous function of defining the Truth. But the
work was done by those who by natural gifts
and intellectual training were best fitted for its
accomplishment. It was the glory of the Greek
Church to win the title of Orthodox. But the
work of the Orthodox Church though necessary
was full of danger. There is a strange fascination
in reasoning on mysteries. As the argument pro-
ceeds men are unwilling to limit their conclu-
sions, and they end too often by measuring Being
by our conceptions of it. But yet more than
this : doctrine itself is external to us. There is
no right doctrine which ought not to affect con-
duct, but as doctrine it has no necessary effect
on life : no conquering or transforming power.
72
100 The Roman Period: Catholic.
CHAP. i. The effects of a predominantly speculative study
of Christianity were seen before long in the cha-
racter and fortunes of the Eastern Communion.
The Orthodox Church is the least inclined of all
churches to missionary work. Its part hitherto,
since its first great triumphs, has been that of a
witness rather than that of a herald. It could
hardly have been otherwise. Orthodoxy as such
is the translation of facts into a dialectic form ;
but the life, the power of assimilation and expan-
sion, remains in the facts. Unhappily the Greek
Church from the time when its original mission
was fulfilled was united with Imperialism. Its
potential dangers were thus realised, and Mo-
hammedanism conquered the East. It has been
said that the Byzantine Empire died of Chris-
tianity : it would be more just to say that the
Byzantine Empire sought to imperialise Chris-
tianity and perished in the attempt, for Greek
Christianity was strong enough only to rescue
itself and not the State from the ruins of the
judgment which followed.
41. But meanwhile a greater Church had
risen. When Constantine transferred the dignity
of Empire to his new capital he was unable to
bear away to Byzantium the ancient glory and
name of Rome. The majesty which had grown
The Roman Period: Catholic. 101
round the city during a thousand years remained CHAP. i.
undisturbed as the prize of the power which
should prove worthy to claim it. And the Roman
Church was alone able to bear the weight of
sovereignty, for she alone had life amidst the
shadows which lingered round the ancient seats
of honour. From the first, if we can interpret
rightly its fragmentary records, the Roman Church
had adopted something of the policy of the
Roman State. It had regarded ecclesiastical
problems from the point of view of society. Its
characteristic was breadth rather than precision.
In proportion as it embodied more and more
openly the style and power of the Csesars, Ca-
tholicity became more conspicuously its ruling
principle. Its aim was to incorporate rather than
to assimilate the people who were brought under
its control. The Republic received the gods of
conquered nations within its Pantheon, and the
Church accepted under new titles such popular
beliefs and superstitions as could be fitly clothed
in a Christian dress. The policy of the Roman
Church was to deal with society as it was, and
not to rebuild it again from its simplest elements.
Thus equally from its position and from its in-
herent character it became a sovereign power.
At Constantinople the attempt was made to im-
perialise the Church: at Rome the Church became
102 The Evangelical Period.
CHAP. i. an Empire. The transformation was subservient
if not essential to the fulfilment of its work. By
the glory of its name and the strength of its
organisation it conquered the northern tribes and
preserved the treasures of ancient civilisation
for a higher use. At the same time it presented
the noble spectacle of a universal spiritual power
side by side with the temporal power, and inde-
pendent of it. In these respects its function with
regard to discipline was as needful as that of the
Greek Church with regard to Truth. But the
traditional policy which was its strength prepared
the way for its corruption. When the Church
became nobler outwardly, it engrossed more com-
pletely the devotion of its members, and con-
versely it became more dependent on popular
opinion. At last the Christian was in danger of
losing his sense of a personal connexion with
Christ; and the simplicity of Truth was hidden
beneath the accretions of centuries. The spirit
of Northern Europe, which had never been com-
pletely Romanised, had in the meantime gained
maturity, and claimed in the full consciousness of
life to hold communion with GOD face to face.
42. Thus a third development of the Church
began corresponding to a new period of life ; but
it differed from those which preceded by the fact
The successive periods mark an advance. 103
that it was manifold and not one. It was essen- CHAP. i.
tially the expression of individual faith and not
of common belief. Its ecclesiastical forms fol-
lowed from the concurrence of private convictions,
and did not underlie and mould the societies
which arose. Its strength lay in the confident
affirmation of two great principles, that the Chris-
tian is continuously in direct spiritual intercourse
with GOD through Christ, and that he is throughout
continuously responsible to Him for his judgment
in divine matters. Personal vitality was infused
into religion. Faith claimed the homage of free
reason. Individuality was added to Catholicism.
43. It would be easy to point out the weak-
ness of the Reformation in itself as a power of
organisation. Its function was to quicken rather
than to create, to vivify old forms rather than to
establish new. But however we may grieve over
its failure where it arrogated the office not of re-
storation but of reconstruction, it was a distinct
advance in Christian life. Where it failed, it failed
from the neglect of the infirmities of man and
of the provisions which have been divinely made,
to meet them. On the other hand, the lessons
which it taught are still fruitful throughout
Christendom, and destined, as we hope, to bring
forth a still more glorious harvest. What that
104 The successive periods
CHAP. i. may be we cannot as yet know, but all past
history teaches us that the power of the Gospel
is able to meet each crisis of human progress,
and we can look forward with trust to the fulfil-
ment of its message to our age. The advance
towards that perfection of Christian fellowship
which we can all imagine, and to look forward to
which is our noblest hope, may be slow, but it is
slow only in the same sense in which the life of
nations is slow. Generations are the days by
which it is measured, but in the end it will not
Matt. xiii. fail. The parables of nature are fulfilled in the
qi oq -*
Mark iv. history of the Church.
2629.
44. The student of history will readily see
that the great forms of Christian progress which
have been marked out correspond in a remarkable
manner with other great periods in art and litera-
ture and science. The divisions are neither arbi-
trary nor applicable only to some parts of human
life. The final result of each was a permanent
advance, and the power by which each was ani-
mated was drawn from the Gospel. If the fact
of the Resurrection be in itself, as it confessedly
is, absolutely unique in all human experience, the
point which it occupies in history is absolutely
unique also. To this point all former history
converges as to a certain goal : from this point all
mark an advance. 105
subsequent history flows as from its life-giving CHAP. i.
spring 1 . If the Resurrection were alleged to
have occurred abruptly in the middle of a series of
events which passed on slowly to their consumma-
tion unaffected by its interruption ; if it stood in
no definite relation to the past, as in some sense a
solution of the riddle which had baffled exhausted
nations : if its significance had not been witnessed
to at once by the rise of a new and invincible
power which fashioned the development of all
aftertime : then we might have paused in doubt
before so stupendous a miracle, and pleaded the
uniformity of nature against the claims of such an
event upon our belief. But now the testimony of
nature itself is in favour of the fact. We form
our notions of a result from what we know of the
1 Tert. de Virg. Vel. \. Nihil sine fetate est : omnia tempus
expectant.... Aspice ipsam creaturam paulatim ad fructumpro-
moveri. Granum est primo, et de grano frutex oritur, et de
frutice arbuscula enititur. Deinde rami et frondes invalescunt,
et toturu arboris nomen expanditur : inde germinis tumor, et
flos de germine solvitur, et de flore fructus aperitur. Is quoque
rudis aliquarndiu et informis paulatim aetatem suam dirigens
eruditur in mansuetudinem saporis. Sic et justitia (nam idem
Deus justitise et creaturas) primo fuit in rudimentis, natura
Deum metuens. Deninc per legem et prophetas promovit in
infantiam. Dehinc per evangelium efferbuit in juventutem.
Nunc (the words admit a Catholic interpretation) per Paracletum
coniponitur in maturitatem. . . I should despair of rendering the
words adequately into English. As a master of rhetorical lan-
guage the ' barbarian ' Tertullian has few rivals.
106 The Special Evidence
CHAP. i. conditions under which the forces act, no less
than from what we know of the forces themselves.
If the force is' the same we are sure that it must
act differently under varied circumstances. If
the circumstances are absolutely singular in all
experience we conclude that an event will occur
without a parallel. If a long train of occurrences
before and after lead us to expect that the event
would be of some specific kind, then its singu-
larity is an argument in favour of its credibility
and not against it. On a large view of the life of
humanity the Resurrection is antecedently likely.
So far from being beset by greater difficulties
than any other historical fact, it is the one fact
towards which the greatest number of lines of
evidence converge. In one form or other pre-
Christian history is a prophecy of it and post-
Christian history an embodiment of it.
45. If we next turn to consider the direct
evidence for the Resurrection, we shall find in it
several elements of singular force. These are the
more deserving of attention, because the narrative
of the event itself in the Gospels, is in no wise
distinguished from the narrative of any other or-
dinary fact which they record. The Evangelists
treat the Resurrection as simply, unaffectedly,
inartificially, as everything else which they touch.
for the Resurrection. 107
The miracle to them seems to form a natural part CHAP. i.
of the Lord's history. They shew no conscious-
ness that it needs greater or fuller authentication
than the other events of His life. Their position
and office indeed excluded such a thought. They
wrote not to create belief but to inform those who
already believed. A knowledge of the chief events
in the Lord's ministry, including the Resurrec-
tion, and a general conviction of their reality
and significance, is everywhere assumed in the
Apostolic writings. The existence of a Christian
society is the first and (if rightly viewed) the
final proof of the historic truth of the miracle on
which it was founded ( 49, 50). It may indeed
be said that the Church was founded upon the
belief in the Resurrection, and not upon the
Resurrection itself: and that the testimony must
therefore be limited to the attestation of the be-
lief, and cannot reach to the attestation of the
fact. But belief expressed in action is for the
most part the strongest evidence which we can
have of any historic event. Unless therefore it
can be shewn that the origin of the Apostolic
belief in the Resurrection, with due regard to
the fulness of its characteristic form, and the
breadth and rapidity of its propagation, can be
satisfactorily explained on other grounds, the be-
lief itself is a sufficient proof of the fact. We
108 The witness
CHAP. i. shall be in a position to consider whether such an
explanation is possible when we have examined
the form in which the outward record of the
belief has come down to us.
46. The letters of St Paul are amongst the
earliest, if not actually the earliest writings in the
New Testament. Of these one important group
has been recognised as certainly genuine even
by the most sceptical critics. No one doubts that
the Epistles to the Corinthians, Galatians, and
Romans were composed by St Paul, and addressed
to the Churches whose name they bear. Nor is
there much uncertainty as to the date at which
they were written. The most extreme opinions
fix them between A.D. 52 59, that is under no
circumstances more than thirty years after the
Lord's death (A.D. 30 33). There can then be
no doubt as to the authority of their evidence as
expressing the received opinion of Christians at
this date, and there can be no doubt as to the
opinion itself. In each of the Epistles the literal
fact of the Resurrection is the implied or ac-
knowledged groundwork of the Apostle's teaching.
Bom. iv. The very designation of GOD is ' He who raised
&c V1 ' ' U P ^ ne Lord from the dead.' In this miracle lay
the sum of the new revelation, the sign of Christ's
Sonship. To believe this fact and confess it was
of St Paul. 109
the pledge of salvation. On many points there CHAP. i.
was a diversity of judgment among the Apostles,
and a wider discrepancy of belief among their
professed followers, but on this there is no trace
of disagreement. Some, indeed, questioned the
reality of our own resurrection, but they were
met by arguments based on the Resurrection of
Christ which they acknowledged. Whatever else
was doubted this one event was beyond dispute.
47. Moreover the fact itself was treated histo-
rically and not ideally. It was not regarded as the
embodiment of a great hope, or as a consequence
of some pre-conceived notion of the Person of
Christ. On the contrary, the hope was expressly
rested on the fact ; and the Apostolic view of the
nature of Christ is deduced from His rising again.
( 57 fT.) In one place St Paul has given an
outline of ' the Gospel ' by which men ' were saved.'
' I delivered unto you first of all that which also 1 1 Cor. xv.
Q IT
' received, how that Christ died for our sins accord-
' ing to the Scriptures ; and that He was buried ;
' and that He hath been raised on the third day,
' according to the Scriptures ; and that He ap-
' peared to Cephas ; then to the twelve ; then He
' appeared to above five hundred brethren at once,
' of whom the greater part remain until now, but
'some are fallen asleep; then He appeared to
110 The witness
CHAP. i. ' James ; then to all the Apostles. And last of all,
' as unto one born out of due time, He appeared
'to me also... Whether then it be I or they, so
' we preach, and so ye believed.' Nothing can
be more simply historic. What we call the mira-
culous facts are placed beside the others without
any difference. The Resurrection of the Lord,
and His appearances after the Resurrection, are
taught as events of the same kind essentially, and
to be received in the same way as His Death and
Burial. Together they formed ' the Gospel ; ' and
in this respect, whether it was ' the Three,' or St
Paul who preached, the substance of their preach-
ing was the same.
48. Of ' the five hundred ' to whom Christ
appeared many were still alive when St Paul
wrote. So too were most of the Apostles, who
were their fellow-witnesses, as well as St Paul
himself. Thus we stand, as it were, in the direct
presence of the immediate witnesses of the fact.
But it has been said that the very circumstance
that St Paul reckons the appearance revealed to
himself in the same list with the other appear-
ances, shews that he did not insist on their
objective reality : they may have been merely
subjective visions as this is assumed to be. The
exact converse is, however, the true explanation
of St Paul. Ill
of the fact. St Paul believed, and always acted CHAP. i.
as if he believed, that the Lord did appear in
His human nature as really to him as to the
other witnesses of the Resurrection. He asserts
that all the appearances were equally actual, that
is, external manifestations of the Lord, but not
that they were all like in circumstances. There
was an objective reality in the revelation of Christ
made to him no less than in the revelations to
others; but this objective reality was not limited
to one outward shape. It was apprehended (as it
appears) variously by various minds. Thus we
find that the forms of the Lord's manifestation
were, according to the Evangelists, most varied
(n. 18). A marvellous change had passed over
Him. He was the same and yet different. He
was known only when He revealed Himself.
He conformed to the laws of our present life, and
yet He was not subject to them. These seeming
contradictions were necessarily involved in the
moral scope of the Resurrection. Christ sought
(if we may so speak) to impress on His disciples
two great lessons, that He had raised man's body
from the grave, and that He had glorified it.
Nor can we conceive any way in which these
truths could have been conveyed but by appear-
ances at one time predominantly spiritual, at an-
other predominantly material, though both were
112 The witness
CHAP. i. alike real. For the same reason we may suppose
that the Lord took up into His Glorified Body
the material elements of that human body which
was laid in the grave, though, as we shall see
(il. 7), true personality lies in the preservation
of the individual formula or law which rules the
organisation in each case, and not in the actual
but ever changing organisation, which may exist
at any moment 1 . The resumption of the Cruci-
fied Body conveyed to ordinary minds a concep-
tion which could not otherwise easily have been
gained, while at the same time it brought the
fact of the Resurrection within the reach (as far
as could be) of continuous observation. For us
the appearance to St Paul would certainly in
itself fail to satisfy in some respects the condi-
tions of historic reality it might have been an
internal revelation but for him it was essentially
objective and outward 2 ; and when taken in con-
1 This consideration will help to explain a difficulty which
has been felt as to the appearances of the Lord after the Resur-
rection. His dress (it has been said) must have been purely sub-
jective. But a little reflection will shew that the special outward
forms in which the Lord was pleased to make Himself sensibly
recognisable by His disciples were no more necessarily connected
with His glorified Person than the robes which He wore.
2 It is important to observe that on another occasion St
Paul notices the doubt which he felt as to the character of the
revelation which he received : 2 Cor. xii. 1 ff. His vision of
the Lord was realised under the full conditions of human life :
of the Apostles. 113
nexion with his life and the other appearances CHAP. i.
which he records, it lays open something more
of the Divine fulness of the exalted Manhood of
the Risen Saviour.
49. It is unnecessary to dwell longer on St
Paul's direct testimony to the Resurrection, which
is thus carried up to the time of his Conversion,
that is to a date not more, at most, than ten
years after the Lord's death. No one probably
will deny that the Resurrection was announced
as a fact immediately after the Passion. No-
thing else will explain the origin of the Chris-
tian Church. We may go even further, and take
for granted that the Apostles who announced it,
believed in its reality. The life of St Paul may
be considered conclusive on this point ; and even
if his life were explicable on any other theory
than that of a faith which he claimed to share
with the other Apostles, it is long since a critic
has been found to maintain that the miraculous
narrative was an intentional fiction of those by
whom it was promulgated. It remains then, if
the Resurrection be uiihistoric, that they were
deceived, and if so, that they were predisposed to
his ' ecstasy ' left him uncertain as to the circumstances under
which he was allowed to hear ' unspeakable words,' whether
' in the body ' or ' out of the body.'
W. R. 8
114 The witness
CHAP. i. a credulous and ill-grounded belief, either by
their own character, or by the popular expecta-
tions of the time.
50. Before examining whether this was so
we may observe how incredible it is from the
nature of the testimony alleged that the Apostles
could have been deceived. The sepulchre in which
the Lord had been laid was found empty. This
fact seems to be beyond all doubt, and is one
where misconception was impossible. On the
other hand, the manifestations of the Risen Sa-
viour were widely extended both as to persons
and as to time. St Paul, and in this his record is
in exact accordance with that of the Evangelists,
mentions His appearances not only to single wit-
nesses, but to many together, to ' the twelve '
and to 'five hundred brethren at once.' One
person might be so led away by enthusiasm as to
give an imaginary shape to his hopes, but it is
impossible to understand how a number of men
could be simultaneously affected in the same
manner 1 . The difficulty of course is further in-
1 It must be observed that the question here is not as to
the propagation of a belief in a statement through a large num-
ber of men, but as to the simultaneous perception by many of
an alleged phenomenon. The former is intelligible even if the
belief be in fact unfounded : the latter is not intelligible un-
less the phenomenon be really objective. In this connexion too
of the Apostles. 115
creased if we take account of the variety as well CHAP. i.
as of the number of the persons who were ap-
pealed to as witnesses of the fact during their
lifetime ; and of the length of time during which
the appearances of the Lord were continued.
It is stated in the Acts that the necessary quali-
fication of an Apostle was that he should be a
personal witness of the Resurrection; and St
Paul admits the qualification, and shews that it
was fulfilled in his case. Every avenue of delu-
sion seems to be closed up. For forty days Christ
was with the disciples talking with them of the
things pertaining to the kingdom of GOD (n. 18).
If we cannot believe that the Apostles deceived
others, it seems (if possible) still more unlikely
that they were the victims of deception.
51. For there was no popular belief at the
time which could have inspired them with a faith
it is most instructive to notice that the report of the Lord's
Besurrection was in each case disbelieved. Nothing less than
sight convinced those who had the deepest desire to believe the
tidings ; and even sight was not in every case immediately con-
vincing (Matt, xxviii. 17). See [Mark] xvi. 911, 13, 14.
Luke xxiv. 11, 13, 2224. John xx. 25. In St Matthew the
promised sight of the Lord is the message of joy which the
women are to carry to the disciples : xxviii. 7, 10. In St Luke
the contrast between the effects of the report of the appearance
of the Lord and the sight of Him is vividly given : xxiv. 34, 35,
compared with 36 ff.
82
116 No predisposition to
CHAP. i. in an imaginary Resurrection. There was none
among the Greeks whose mythology might ap-
pear at first sight to offer scope for its sponta-
neous growth. But without pressing any parti-
cular interpretation of the remarkable words of
St Luke, it is evident from the narrative in the
Acts xvii. Acts that the doctiine of the Resurrection was
I Q Ort
the chief point in the address of St Paul which
arrested the attention and excited the ridicule
of his Athenian hearers. And naturally so ; for
while the legends of Greece recorded the eleva-
tion of men even to the honours of Olympus,
this elevation was effected by the deposition of
their humanity. They became gods by ceasing
Acts xiv. to be men. If the rude inhabitants of Lystra,
according to the faith of a simpler age, supposed
that ' the gods were come down in the likeness of
'men,' in the persons of Paul and Barnabas, yet
in this case the outward shape was but a disguise
in which it was believed that their divine majesty
was veiled and had 110 essential connexion with
their nature. There is not the least trace in the
popular traditions of Greece, much less in Greek
speculation, of any belief in the possibility of the
restoration of the dead to the transfigured fulness
of a human life. The chief myths which ex-
pressed the idea of the restorative power of na-
ture were drawn from the stated recurrence of
the idea of a, Resurrection in Greece. 117
day and night, or from the annual vicissitudes of CHAP. i.
the seasons. Their teaching was simply of the
inexorable and yet kindly alternations of dark-
ness and light, of death and life, without the
element of progress or the transforming change 2 Cor. iii.
' from glory to glory.' Even when the fiction
became personal it stopped short of the essence
of Christian hope. If Hercules was fabled to
have met Death and rescued Alcestis from his
grasp by force, or to have descended into Hades
and delivered Theseus from confinement there,
he is said to have conferred on them no greater
blessing than a fresh span of earthly existence.
If after the accomplishment of his labours he
was himself wedded to immortal Youth in the
mansions of the gods, it was not till he had
ceased to be the champion of men, and had con-
sumed in the fires of (Eta whatever shewed his
fellowship with them. Nowhere else in ancient
mythology is there a clearer embodiment of the
instinct which craves for a personal immortality
and communion with GOD than in this noble
legend, and yet even here the entrance to the
new life is symbolised by the destruction and
not by the restoration of human powers. To the
Greeks the Resurrection, whether as the type or
as the spring of a new life, was a strange idea.
118 The Resurrection not anticipated
CHAP. i. It included and interpreted their old beliefs, but
it also transcended them (n. 14).
52. Nor was it otherwise with the Jews.
Even among them there was no belief which
could have furnished the basis for the apostolic
Gospel. There was, it is true, a popular expec-
tation that Elijah, or some other of the old pro-
phets, should be sent from heaven, whither they
had been specially withdrawn, to prepare the
advent of Messiah ; but this expectation had no
real connexion either in its ground or in its
scope with the Resurrection of Christ, as preached
by the Apostles. It centred in a direct mission
from GOD and not in a rising from the grave to
a new life : it culminated in the accomplishment
of a work among men, and not in the elevation
of humanity to heaven. After the death of John
the Baptist, again, some said 'that he was risen
' from the dead ' when they heard of the works
of Christ ; but this was simply the interpretation
of a report in connexion with the opinion that
John was indeed 'Elias.' Nothing was based
upon the conjecture. Others, again, in the course
of the Lord's ministry were, according to the
Evangelists, restored to life ; but this restoration
was to a mortal and not to an immortal life.
by popular Jewish belief. 119
Such a resurrection, so far from being a parallel CHAP. i.
to the Resurrection of Christ, is the very opposite
to it. The belief in the resuscitation of the dead
to the vicissitudes of ordinary life would indispose
for Uie belief in a rising to a life wholly new in
kind and issue. And such is the life of the Risen
Lord which is portrayed in the Gospels. Thus
while we admit all the records of resuscitation
contained in the Scriptures, there is absolutely
not the slightest anticipation in earlier history
of such a Resurrection as that of Christ. The
conception as expressed by the Evangelists and
Apostles has itself the characteristics of a Reve-
lation (comp. II. 16).
53. But it may be said that the idea was in-
cluded in that of Messiah. There were it is true
very vivid anticipations of a coming Messiah, of
some triumphant King who should restore the old
glories of the house of David, but the path which
was marked out for Him by common consent was
that of victory and not of defeat and death.
There is no evidence that the Jews in our Lord's
time had formed any conception of a suffering
Messiah. If Christ spoke of His Passion as the
Son of Man, they could only ask with wonder,
Who this Son of Man was ? If the prophet de- j hn xii.
scribed a deliverer, despised and afflicted, the
120 The effects of the Resurrection
CHAP. i. question rose to their lips whether ' he spoke
Actsvm. < Q f hi mse }f or some other.' And if the idea of
Messiah's death was unknown, so also was that
of the Resurrection, which is the complement
of it.
54. Nor were the disciples in this respect
more far-seeing or better instructed than their
countrymen. On this point the Gospels are an
unexceptionable authority; and nothing is more
striking than the apparent inability of the Apo-
stles, who were nearest to the Lord, to lay aside
the hopes in which they had been reared. When
the Lord was raised from the dead they under-
stood at last what He had said to them, but not
Matt. xvi. before. The thought of His death was one which
01 03
they felt ought to be cast aside as a temptation to
Luke xxiv. distrust. And when at last He died, their hope
21
was gone. There is not a word to indicate that
this catastrophe led them to any truer view of
His work. Those who loved Him most devotedly
came to embalm His corpse. The first tidings of
His Resurrection seemed as 'idle talk;' and the
Evangelists paint in vivid colours, the strangeness
of which proves them to be faithful, 'the slow-
' ness ' and ' hardness of heart,' which hindered the
disciples from believing a fact which brought
with it a revolution of their ancient faith.
on the character of the Apostles. 121
55. But the revolution was accomplished. If CHAP. i.
we compare the portraiture of the Apostles as
given in St Luke's Gospel with that in his book
of the Acts, we cannot but feel that we are look-
ing on the same men, but transfigured in the
latter case by the working of some mighty in-
fluence. There are the old traits of individuality,
but they are ennobled. The relation in which
the disciples stand to their Lord is not less per-
sonal, but it is less material. He is regarded
as their Saviour as well as their Teacher. What
was before vague and undecided is defined and
organised. Those who when Christ was yet with
them wavered in spite of their love for Him,
mistook His words, misunderstood His purpose,
forsook Him at His Passion, after a brief interval
court danger in the service of a Master no longer
present, proclaim with unfaltering zeal a message
hitherto unheard, build up a society in faith on
His Name, extend to Samaritans and Gentiles
the blessings which were promised to the people
of GOD. However we explain it the change is
complete and certain. Their whole moral nature
was transformed. As far as we can see there was
no spring of hope within them which could have
had such an issue. The anticipations which they
shared with their countrymen and those which
the immediate presence of Christ had awakened,
122 The ejjects of the Resurrection
CHAP. i. were dissipated by His death. Whatever new
impulse moved and animated them must have
been from without, clear, and powerful. It must
have been clear, to make itself felt to men who
were in no way predisposed to yield to it : power-
ful, to remould once and for ever their notions
of the work of Messiah. The Resurrection satis-
fies both conditions. As a fact with which the
disciples were familiarised by repeated proofs it
was capable of removing each lingering doubt : as
a Revelation of which the meaning was finally
made known by the withdrawal of Christ from
the earth, it opened a new region and form of
life, the apprehension of which would necessarily
influence all their interpretations of the Divine
promises. If the crucified Lord did rise again, we
can point to effects which answer completely to
what we may suppose to have been the working
of the stupendous miracle on those who were
the first witnesses of it : if He did not, to what
must we look for an explanation of phenomena
for which the Resurrection is no more than an
adequate cause ?
56. In nothing is the spiritual transformation
of the Apostles more striking than in their view
of the Person of Christ. The words in which He
spoke of the atonement which He should make
on the belief of the Apostles. 123
necessarily fell unheeded by those who could not CHAP. i.
realise the fitness of His Death. There is nothing
in the Gospels (and for this we may fairly quote
them) to shew that personal deliverance from sin
and corruption the transfiguration of all man's
natural powers was ever connected with His
work during His lifetime by those who heard
Him 1 . ' These things,' it is emphatically said, John xii.
' understood not His disciples at the first.' He Luke xviii.
received sinners, it is true, but it was not felt
that their restoration was a type of the restora-
tion of all men. Still less, if possible, is there
any indication that the Apostles understood be-
fore the Resurrection that the Blood of Christ
should ratify a new covenant to be embodied
in a Universal Church. The meaning of the Last
Supper was hidden from them, as subsequent
events shewed, till after the Lord's Death. But
then, from some source or other, a flood of light
is seen to have been poured on all which they
had regarded before with silent and hesitating
wonder. The first invitation which they addressed
to those who had joined in the Crucifixion was
' to be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for Acts ii. 38.
'the remission of sins.' The day of Pentecost
1 The inspired confession of St Peter, John vi. 68, is the
nearest approach to a direct recognition of this Truth which
the Lord taught (Matt. xx. 28), but in this respect it may be
compared with the use of the corresponding passage in Acts v. 20.
124 The fact of the Resurrection
CHAP. i. sealed the testimony of Easter. And from that
time forth union with Christ by baptism was the
first condition of Apostolic fellowship. His Name
Acts iv. 12. was declared to be the only ' name under heaven
'given among men whereby we must be saved.'
His Passion was acknowledged as part of the di-
vine counsel. His Return was set forth as the
certain object of the believer's hope. Nor are we
left in doubt as to the power which had wrought
the change. The ground on which the Apostles
rested their appeal was the Resurrection : the
function which they claimed for themselves was
to bear witness to it. Their belief was not an
idle assent, but the spring of a new life. And
the belief itself was new in kind. It was not
like that affectionate credulity with which an
oppressed state or party believes in the reappear-
ance of a lost leader. It was a confession of error
before it was an assertion of faith. It involved
a renunciation of popular dogmas in which those
who held it had been reared. It proclaimed a
truth altogether new and unlike any which men
had held before ( 51 f.). If ever the idea of de-
lusion can be excluded, it must be in a case when
it is alleged to explain a conviction which trans-
formed at once the cherished opinions of a large
body of men of various characters and powers,
and forced them to a painful and perilous work
as the basis of Christian teaching. 125
for which outwardly they had no inclination or CHAP. i.
advantages.
57. If we look a little deeper at the Apostolic
faith we shall feel still more strongly the effect of
the belief in the Resurrection. To do this we
must turn to the Epistles of St Paul, as the
earliest memorials of Christian teaching addressed
to Christians ; for hitherto we have noticed only
the simple message addressed to mixed and un-
believing hearers. In many respects, as we might
naturally expect, there is a wide difference be-
tween the contents of these two forms of the Gos-
pel ; but their groundwork is identical. The fuller
and more developed doctrine of St Paul is as essen-
tially historical as the first address of an Evangel-
ist to Jews or Gentiles. This has been pointed
out already ( 45 ff.) ; but one most important ele-
ment of faith which St Paul brings out from the
history remains yet to be considered. In the first
addresses of the Apostles reported in the Acts the
Death of Christ is treated rather as a difficulty to
be explained, than as a spring of blessing. If we
realise the circumstances under which they spoke,
it could not be otherwise, and this peculiarity
alone justifies us in assuming that the narrative
is in the main authentic. But St Paul in writing
to Christians (and no less in speaking to Chris- xx.
126 The fact of the Resurrection
CHAP. i. tians) treats this fact very differently. The Death
of Christ the mode and the issue of that Death
is the centre round which all his doctrine turns ;
for to the Christian the Death of Christ involves
1 Cor. ii. 2. the Resurrection. ' I determined not to know
' anything among you/ he says to the Corinthians,
Gal. vi. 14. ' save Jesus Christ, and Him crucified.' ' GOD for-
'bid,' he writes in another place, 'that I should
' glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ.'
And the reason is obvious ; since the Death of
Christ for the Christian includes the whole mys-
tery of the Redemption. The Resurrection is
necessarily involved in it, when we acknowledge
that He who died was the Son of GOD. Thus the
great Epistles to which we confine ourselves
abound with such passages as the following :
Gal. i. 4. ' Christ gave Himself for our sins.' ' We are not
1 Cor. vi. , , . , , T p
20. our own: we were bought with a price.
15 C 18 V ' onc ^d f r all tnen all died... Behold all things
' have become new. But all things are of GOD,
' who reconciled us to Himself through Jesus
Rom. v. 8, ' Christ.' ' GOD commendeth His love towards us,
' in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for
' us. Much more then, being now justified by
' His blood, we shall be saved from wrath through
' Him.'
58. With these passages are connected others
as the basis of Christian teaching. 127
which present the same truth of the restoration CHAP. i.
of unity to humanity in the Risen Christ in
different points of view. Thus : ' To us there is l Cor - viii -
' one GOD, the Father, of Whom are all things,
' and we unto Him ; and one Lord Jesus Christ,
' through Whom are all things, and we through
' Him.' And again : ' We being many, are one Kom - xii -
O.
' body in Christ, and every one members one of
'another.' We 'are all the children of GOD by Gal.iii.26,
28
'faith in Christ Jesus... There can be neither Jew
'nor Greek, there can be neither bond nor free,
' there can be no male and female : for ye all are
' one man in Christ Jesus.' Or, in other words,
Christ, as He is revealed to us, in His Life, His
Death, His Resurrection, is the One Mediator by
Whom every blessing comes ; the one all-containing
Presence by Whom men are bound together. In
His Person every difference of race, of station, of
nature, is done away. 'In Christ,' to use the
favourite phrase of the Apostle, our whole life
and being and work are centred.
59. Long familiarity with such words has
made it very difficult for us to realise the magni-
tude of the revelation which they convey. The
fitness of the doctrine to satisfy the wants of men
makes us inclined to believe that it is natural.
But if we place on the one side the outward cir-
128 Doctrine based on the Resurrection.
CHAP. i. cumstances of Christ's Death, and on the other
these interpretations of its significance : if we
measure what seemed to be the hopeless ignominy
of the catastrophe by which His work was ended,
and the Divine prerogatives which are claimed for
Him, not in spite of, but in consequence of that
suffering of shame ; we shall feel the utter hope-
lessness of reconciling the fact and the triumphant
deduction from it without some intervening fact
as certain as Christ's Passion and glorious enough
to transfigure its sorrow. For we must ever bear
in mind that the Apostles do not deal with ab-
stract doctrine, but with doctrine centred in facts.
They .do not teach a redemption to be wrought
out by each man for himself, after the example of
Christ, but of redemption wrought for each by
Christ, and placed within their reach. They do
not teach merely an original union of men, but
l Cor. xv. a spiritual union accomplished in the Person of
Christ. They do not teach a liberty which sets
aside the distinctions and duties of society, but a
liberty which springs from the transformation of
every claim of life into a spontaneous act of filial
love through the revelation of the Father in His
Son. They do not teach an immortality of the
soul as a consequence flowing from any concep-
tions of man's essential nature, but a resurrection
of the body not only historically established in
The belief in the Return, 129
the rising again of Christ, but "given to us through CHAP. i.
Him who is ' the Resurrection and the Life. 1 If
Christ rose, to repeat the alternative which we
have proposed before, all this is intelligible. The
miracle was as a new-birth of humanity. If Christ
did not rise, we have not only to explain how the
belief in His Resurrection came to be received
without any previous hopes which could lead to
its reception ; but also how it came to be received
with that intensity of personal conviction which
could invest the Life and Person of Christ with
attributes never before assigned to any one, and
that by Jews, who had been reared in the strictest
monotheism.
60. There is yet one other aspect in which
we may see the power of the early faith in the
Resurrection. Next to the fact that Christ rose
from the dead, the topic most frequently insisted
on in the Apostolic writings is that He will come
again from heaven. It would be out of place to
discuss the form which this belief took, or the
interpretation of the passages of the Epistles in
which it is enforced. One point only may be
noticed. The material imagery in which the
belief was popularly embodied shews in what sense
the Resurrection itself was understood. In pro-
portion as the Return of Christ was apprehended
w. R. 9
130 The belief in the Return.
CHAP. i. in a definite outWard shape, so also must His
Departure have been held to have taken place
in the same manner. The two events are com-
pletely correlative. And upon reflection it will
be felt that the expectation of the Return was in
itself exceptional and in need of explanation. It
has frequently happened that nations have looked
for the restoration of the hero-king in whom
they had seen the pledge of unaccomplished tri-
umphs. But in each case the hope was based on
the denial of death. The hero was sleeping like
Arthur in the deep shades of Avalori, or like
Barbarossa in some subterranean cavern; or he
was withdrawn for a time like Harold in the re-
cesses of a cloister, or like Don Sebastian in obscure
captivity; but the devotion of his people would
not believe that he was dead. That alone was
impossible : against that supreme issue popular
faith knew no availing power. But it was quite
otherwise with the belief of Christians. The
Death of their Lord was as much a part of their
Phil. ii. Gospel as His Resurrection. Nay more, His
Exaltation was in one aspect a consequence of His
Death. Thus if the early looking for Christ has
any point of contact with the instinctive ex-
pression of national love, it is essentially dis-
tinguished from it in the circumstances of its
origin. Such a fact as the Resurrection inter-
The witness of the Sacraments. 131
veiling between the Passion and the Return CHAP. i.
explains adequately, as it appears nothing else
could do, the confident expectation of Christ's
Second Coming in the mode in which the early
Christians looked for it.
Gl. The same also may be said of the Apo-
stolic interpretation of the Sacraments. It has
been frequently argued that the Christian doc-
trine of the Sacraments corresponds with the
Christian doctrine of the Incarnation. It could
be shewn that it is equally closely connected,
though the correspondence is necessarily less
complete, with the fact of the Resurrection. But
it does not fall within our scope to examine the
essential conception of a Sacrament. It is enough
to observe that the external forms in which the
conception was realised witness to the transform-
ing power of the belief in the fact of Christ's
rising again. The belief in the Resurrection
which was the groundwork of the Church pene-
trated every part of its faith and worship. The
earliest Christians kept ' the eighth day for joy, Barn. Ep.
'as that on which Jesus rose from the dead;'...
and the two rites which were of universal ob-
servance commemorated not obscurely the same
central fact. The celebration of the Holy Eu-
charist is absolutely unintelligible without faith
92
132 The witness of the Sacraments.
CHAP. i. in a risen Saviour. ' As often as ye eat this bread
l Cor. xi. ' and drink this cup, ye do shew the Lord's death
26
'till He come.' The rite was not a memorial
of death simply, but of death conquered by life.
Eom. iv. The seal of the efficacy of the death of Christ
25.
was given in the Resurrection ; and the limit of
the commemoration of His Passion was looked
for in His Return. Baptism, again, was regarded
as embodying the teaching of the same facts : ' We
Bom.vi. 4. 'were buried with Him by baptism unto death:
' that like as Christ was raised up from the dead
' by the glory of the Father, even so we also should
'walk in newness of life.' So thoroughly was
the faith in the Resurrection of Christ inwrought
into the mind of the first Christians that the
very entrance into their society was apprehended
under the form of a Resurrection. The fact was
not an article of their creed, but the life of it.
It was confessed in action as well as in word.
And no evidence of the power or reality of a
belief can be less open to suspicion than that
which is derived from public services, which, as
far as all evidence reaches, were contemporaneous
with its origin and uninterruptedly perpetuated
throughout the body which holds it.
62. Thus the continuity of the life of the
Christian Church is itself, when viewed in this
The Resurrection the basis of the Church. 133
light, a substantial proof of the reality of the fact CHAP. i.
on which it was established. Other religions
have been powerful and lasting in virtue of the
partial truths which they enshrined and offered to
the devotion of believers. But in Christianity, if
we regard the claims on which it was first ac-
cepted and through which it has at all times ex-
ercised its characteristic power, no such partiality
is possible. It professes to bring a new life to
light. It is a subordinate though yet a necessary
part of its working that it illuminates the past.
Christ is presented to us not simply as the
Guide of men, but as the Way. The Apostles
preach not only that men may be united to GOD,
but how they may be united to Him. Every pre-
cept of Christianity is quickened by the power of
the Death and Resurrection of Christ. It is by
the presence of this power that they are Christian ;
and it is as Christian that they conquer the world.
Nothing could shew a more profound misappre-
hension of the Gospel than to substitute the name
Catholicity for Christianity in the estimate of its
social and political work. Its essence lies in the
exhibition of a personal Saviour. ' If thou shalt Bom. x. 9.
' confess with thy mouth ' Jesus is Lord,' and shalt
' believe in thine heart that GOD raised Him from
' the dead, thou shalt be saved.' From this con-
fession and this faith spring directly the various
134 Summary of the
CHAP. i. organisations of the Church which have found ac-
ceptance at different times and under different
circumstances. The one fact of the Resurrection
underlies them all, and when divorced from it
they lose their vitality (Intr. 16). This being
so it is impossible to exaggerate the importance
of a living apprehension of the Resurrection as
the Apostles announced it. It is not, as we have
seen, taken out of the range of possible facts by
any antecedent considerations; and, as it seems,
no other evidence in its favour consistent with its
character as the basis of a religion at once his-
torical and spiritual, could have been more com-
plete than that which still lies within our reach.
63. To sum up briefly what has been said.
It has been shewn that the Resurrection is not an
isolated event in history, but at once the end and
the beginning of vast developments of life and
thought ; that it is the climax of a long series of
Divine dispensations which find in it their com-
plement and explanation : that it has formed the
starting-point of all progressive modern societies,
ever presenting itself in new lights according to
the immediate wants of the age. It has been
shewn that in the character of the fact there is
nothing which can appear incredible or, in such
evidence for the Resurrection. 135
a connexion, even improbable to any one who CHAP. i.
believes in a Personal GOD. It has been shewn
that the direct evidence for the event is exactly
of the same kind which we have for the other
events in the Life of Christ ; that St Paul appeals
to his own experience and to the experience of the
Apostles for the certainty of its literal accomplish-
ment ; that it is incontestable that the Apostles
acted from the first as if they believed it, and
that their sincerity cannot be doubted ; that the
nature of the outward proof alleged seems to
render it impossible that they could have been
victims of a delusion ; that the substance of their
belief was something wholly novel, removed
equally from the belief in a phantastic vision, and
from the belief in a restoration to a corruptible
life ; that the effects of it upon themselves were
such that the conviction must (so to speak) have
been forced upon them by overwhelming power,
capable of changing their personal character, of
transforming their hereditary faith, of inspiring
them with new thoughts and hopes; that the
Christian Church was founded upon the belief,
and embodied it in rites coeval with its founda-
tion. Nothing has been said of the testimony of
St John, and St Peter, and the first three Evan-
gelists, lest exception might be taken to their au-
thority. Every conclusion has been rested upon
136 Summary of the
CHAP. i. documents which criticism has never assailed.
But at this point we may take account of the
evidence from other sources. The common con-
tents of the Synoptic Gospels can be shewn (I
believe) to be anterior to the Epistles of St Paul,
and to contain the sum of the earliest Apostolic
preaching in Judsea; if this be so we have in
them the testimony not of one witness only, but
the common testimony of most of those who saw
the Lord after He rose again. The authenticity
of the first Epistle of St Peter cannot be ques-
tioned without the most arbitrary neglect of ex-
ternal evidence, and in that the Apostle to whom
Christ first shewed Himself speaks of Him as
l Peter i. ' foreordained before the foundation of the world,
20 21
' but (made) manifest in these last times for
'(those) who by Him do believe in GOD, that
'raised Him up from the dead, and gave Him
'glory; that (their) faith and hope might be in
' GOD.' The Gospel of St John, again, seems to me
to be an indubitable work of the disciple whom
Jesus loved ; and after recounting some of the
appearances of the Lord after His Resurrection,
the Evangelist completes his Gospel, as it stood
John xx. originally, with the words : ' Many other signs
30 31
' truly did Jesus in the presence of His disciples,
' which are not written in this book ; but these
' are written, that ye might believe that Jesus is
evidence for the Resuivection. 137
' the Christ, the Son of GOD, and that believing CHAP. i.
' ye might have life in His name.'
Indeed taking all the evidence together, it is
not too much to say that there is no single his-
toric incident better or more variously supported
than the Resurrection of Christ. Nothing but
the antecedent assumption that it must be false
could have suggested the idea of deficiency in the
proof of it. And it has been shewn that when it
is considered in its relation to the whole revela-
tion of which it is a part, and to the conditions of
the Divine action, which we have assumed, this
miraculous event requires a proof in no way dif-
fering in essence from that on which the other
facts with which it is associated are received as
true. In a word, the circumstances under which
GOD is said to have given a revelation to men in
the Resurrection of the Lord Jesus were such as
to make the special manifestation of power likely
or even natural ; and the evidence by which the
special Revelation is supported is such as would
in any ordinary matter of life be amply sufficient
to determine our action and belief.
If we next turn from history to the Individual
man, it will appear that the Resurrection throws
as much light on the mysteries of personal life as
it does on the whole progress of mankind.
CHAPTER II.
THE RESURRECTION AND MAN.
C'est un des grands principes du Christian isme, que tout ce
qui est arrivS d JESUS-CHIIIST doit se passer dans rdmc et dans le
corps de chaque Chretien.
PASCAL.
CHAP. ii. 1. TTITHERTO we have considered the Resur-
*-*- rection simply as a fact, the central point
of universal history, the outward cause of revolu-
tions in thought and in society. It still remains
to analyse the essential meaning of the fact in re-
ference to the individual, to discover, if it may be,
what are the special lessons as to our nature and
destiny of the Revelation which it contains. Some
of these we have indeed already touched on in
considering the views of our Lord's Person and
Work which were presented by the Apostles after
He rose from the dead (i. 55 ff.). But we may go
yet further, and consider the relation of the Resur-
rection, accepted as a fact, to some of the great
problems of life, apart from the earliest historical
interpretation of its teaching.
Final elements of Life. 139
2. That we may do this in any way satisfac- CHAP. n.
torily, it is necessary that we should go back for
a moment to take account of the simplest elements
to which the questions which are involved in the
discussion can be reduced. It appears then that
we are conscious of three distinct existences, Self,
the World (that is a limited ' Not-I'\ and GOD.
We cannot prove the reality of these existences
as we have already seen (Introd. 4) ; but on the
other hand in some form or other all our life
testifies to our conviction that they are. It is
impossible to hold that Self is the only true being
or self-existent: it is equally impossible to hold
that Self is the only manifestation of the Being on
which it depends. Thus we are forced to accept
that mystery as final, which represents as essen-
tially distinct, yet for us in inseparable juxta-
position, on one side the Creator, on the other
Creation, of which the individual '/' is a part.
3. The suppression of any one of these ele-
ments necessarily involves an essentially imper-
fect and therefore a false view of the Universe
and every age offers types of the errors which
thus arise. Some speculators neglect the free
power of the human will. Man is, according to
this view, only a piece of mechanism which
responds completely to the forces which act upon
140 The constitution of the Individual.
CHAP. n. it ; but in himself he has no originative power of
thought or action. The result is Fatalism, which
is logically unassailable and yet known instinct-
ively to be untrue. Others again with a nobler
aspiration reduce life to a personal relation be-
tween man and his Creator. For them the world
vanishes before this awful fellowship, and finds no
place in their scheme of existence. So mysticism
arises, which with all its holy power yet does vio-
lence to the conditions of life, and neglects some
of its richest resources and most certain safe-
guards against fatal error. Then comes a reac-
tion, and a third school possessed by the fulness of
earthly existence refuse to look beyond it. For
them GOD lies wholly beyond the region of know-
ledge. But the conscience of man triumphs over
material Positivism and claims a religion, which
by a strange irony is offered in a shape most akin
to Fetishism. Thus humanity rejects each im-
perfect system, which severally, as systems, are
irrefragable ; and waits patiently for that com-
pleter wisdom which shall harmonise the present
contradictions of the full view of life.
4. If then we look outside ourselves there is
an antithesis which cannot be reduced. If again
we look at that which we each call /, it will
be seen to be essentially twofold. There is an
The constitution of the Individual. 141
organism, and something which acts through the CHAP. n.
organism. There is a unity of will with a mul-
tiplicity of functions. There is an element of per-
manence in the midst of constant change. There
are laws and a power which makes itself felt in
accordance with these laws. The organism, with
all its variety of sense, its capacity for service, its
laws of decay and assimilation, we call the body :
the self-moving power, which originates and con-
trols action, we call the soul. And this twofold
being is naturally influenced by a twofold affinity.
On the one side, through the 'body,' it is con-
nected with the world : on the other, through the
' soul' (the ' spirit'), with GOD. Or, in other words,
the body is inherently finite, the soul aspires at
least towards the infinite. Thus recurring to what
has been already said ( 2) we see that conscious-
ness reveals to us in ourselves individually a
fundamental antithesis corresponding to the anti-
thesis which we are forced to recognise without us.
5. Yet more : the / consists in this antithesis.
Nothing is more common than to hear it assumed
that the 'soul' is the real self. Yet nothing can
be more clear upon reflection than that the only
' self ' of which we are conscious is made up of
'soul' and 'body.' The workings of these two
are absolutely inseparable. We cannot contem-
142 The problems of human Life.
CHAP. n. plate the independent action of either for an
instant. If we try to do so, we find at the outset
the presence of some condition or power which is
due to the complementary part in our whole
nature. One remarkable proof of this duality (so
to speak) in our life of all that we are, as far as
we can observe ourselves may be found in the
fact that some speculators have seen in life nothing
but the manifestation of the one element, and
others nothing but the manifestation of the other,
since the demonstrable presence on every occa-
sion of either taken alone seemed to exclude the
presence of the other. Nor is there, indeed, any
possible refutation of the 'materialist' or 'spi-
' ritualist' systems except in the appeal to the
individual consciousness.
6. Thus we find ourselves face to face with
two great personal problems : What is the perma-
nent relation of soul and body ? and next, What is
the relation of the complex self to GOD ? in which
latter question is included the mystery of sin. To
these may be added one other question, not per-
sonal but yet inevitable to man : What is the
relation of the individual self to the world ? In
other words, Shall we be hereafter ? and, if so,
What shall we be ? and, What is the destiny of
creation generally ? Round these three ques-
Elements of Personality. 143
tions the noblest thoughts of the ancient world CHAP. n.
turned: to these the most daring speculations
of later times have been addressed. What light
is thrown upon them by faith in the Resurrec-
tion ?
7. Our present personality, as we have seen
( 4), involves the antithesis of soul and body.
One element is not more needful to it than the
other. Indeed, the clearest conception which we
can form of a person is the special limitation of
a self-moving power. The power must be self-
moving because a person is necessarily endowed
with a will which is a spring of motion. It must be
limited, because, as far as our experience reaches,
a will can only make itself felt in and through an
organism with which it is connected. And yet,
further, the mode of the limitation, including the
fundamental laws by which the generic limitation
is governed, the original specialities of the par-
ticular organism and the accumulated acts by
which the effects of these laws and properties are
modified, expresses the individual differences of
personality among beings similar in kind. This
conception of personality presents to the mind an
easy method of conceiving of the change of cha-
racter in the same person, and likewise of the
continuous effect of soul and body upon one
144 Elements of Personality.
CHAP. n. another while the body is in constant flux. For
man the body is the outward expression of the
limitation in each particular case. Yet the word
must be used with caution. We cannot under-
stand by body simply a particular aggregation of
matter, but an aggregation of matter as repre-
senting in one form the action of a particular law,
or rather the realisation of a special formula. The
specific law or formula of assimilation and com-
bination is that which is really essential and per-
manent. The same material elements may enter
into a thousand bodies, but the law of each body,
as explained above, gives to it that which is
peculiar to and characteristic of it. To take an
illustration from Chemistry, the same element,
pure carbon for instance, can exist in forms
wholly different. This difference we represent to
ourselves under the idea of some peculiar law of
arrangement of the similar particles in each case.
And conversely we can conceive how if the con-
stituent element were changed the action of the
different laws of arrangement (supposed to con-
tinue) would produce substances truly answering
to those which resulted from their action before.
Thus with regard to man, there is nothing unna-
tural in supposing that the power which preserves
his personality by acting according to the indi-
vidual law of his being in moulding the conti-
Elements of Personality. 145
nuous changes of his present material body and CHAP. n.
all that depends upon 'it, will preserve his per-
sonality hereafter by still acting according to the
same law in moulding the new element (so to
speak) out of which a future body may be fash-
ioned. In other words we can understand how
the law which now rules the formation of our
body may find its realisation hereafter in some
other element, while the new body will be es-
sentially the same as the old one, as expressing
the corresponding action of the same law in re-
lation to the new sphere in which it may be
supposed to be placed. No person is what he is
solely in himself, but is in part dependent on all
around him. If an individual remained unchang-
ed while everything else changed he might be
physically the same, but he would not be the
same morally. There is a necessary relativity in
our nature, and according to the view just indi-
cated, since all the forms of being are changed
in the new sphere of existence, each body is
changed harmoniously with the remainder and in
due proportion to the whole.
8. This consideration will help us in exa-
mining on grounds of simple reason the question
of the permanence of our personality after death.
This, as far as we can see, can happen only in
w. R. 10
146 There is no reason to suppose that the
CHAP. ii. two ways. It may be argued that the soul after
death will itself have a personal existence ; or
that it will continue to act through an organisa-
tion (where the word is used in its widest sense)
which is itself the expression of the same law as
moulds all that we now call our body. These
alternatives must be considered separately.
9. First then on principles of reason there
seems to be no ground whatever for supposing that
the soul as separate from the body is personal 1 .
There is indeed an imperious instinct 2 which
affirms that we shall survive death, but this in-
stinct does not attempt to analyse our being, or
deal with its constituent elements. It teaches
simply that the dissolution of which our present
senses are cognisant is not the destruction of our-
selves; but it does not define, or even tend to
define, in what the / consists, further than this.
Personality implies special limitation, and this
limitation (as far as we can see) is conveyed per-
fectly by our bodies, which though continually
changing yet change according to one law. It is
conceivable that the soul may have some indi-
r
1 Nothing is here said of the intermediate state of the soul
after death and before the Eesurrection ; and probably there is
something wholly deceptive in our use of words of time ('before'
and 'after') in such a connexion. Comp. Introd. 8.
2 Compare p. 12, n.
Soul separate from the Body is personal. 147
vidual inner limitation (so to speak), but of this CHAP. n.
we have and can have naturally no knowledge.
Doubtless the soul is limited by general laws,
which circumscribe its powers and capacities, for
otherwise it would not only have an affinity with
the infinite, but be infinite ; but these general
laws do not constitute individual personality.
Again : if souls are originally the same at their
connexion with the body we cannot shew how
they can be so affected by it as that they should
bear away, when wholly dissociated from it, the
various results of the connexion. Nor if they
are originally different can we see how the origi-
nal differences would be modified ; while the
assumption of the original difference introduces a
fresh difficulty into the question, unless we sup-
plement the assumption, as Plato did, by the
assertion of the previous existence of souls.
10. Popular language and belief are so strong
in the assertion of the personal immortality of
the soul in our post-Christian times, that it is
very difficult for us to realise the true state of the
problem. The firmness of Christian faith, even
where its presence is least suspected, influences
the conclusions if not the processes of indepen-
dent reasoning. Happily, the noble speculations
of the Greek philosophers are a monument of
102
148 The Judgment
CHAP. ii. what thought alone could do on this and kindred
topics. Yet even here instinct will make itself
felt; and again and again the sequence of an
argument is broken by the independent assertion
of the truth which instinct and not reason fore-
sees or feels. One writer however follows the
guidance of his logic to its last conclusions. In
his formal treatise On the Soul Aristotle has
examined with the most elaborate care the vari-
ous elements included in it, and their mutual
relations. He seems to watch the process which
he guides as one wholly unconcerned in its issue.
Sternly and pitilessly he states the last conclusion
on man's natural hope of immortality as tested
by reason ; and the very coldness of his words
gives them an undescribable pathos.
De Animd 11. 'In every natural object there are,' he
says, 'two elements, the one the characteristic
' matter (so to speak), which includes potentially all
' the manifestations of the object, and the other the
' causative and active principle. These differences
' therefore must exist essentially in the soul ; and
'the rational part of man is necessarily twofold.
' On the one side is the " reason" which is to be
'so called in virtue of its becoming everything;
' on the other that which takes its name from
'making everything, in the manner in which (to
of Aristotle. 149
' take an example) light does ; for in a certain CHAP. n.
'sense light makes colours existing potentially,
'to be colours actually. And this latter reason'
that is, the active reason which has an absolute
existence ' is separable and impassive and un-
' mixed in essence.' It is not dependent in any
sense on the present organism of man; it is not
affected by the changes which it reveals ; it is not
modified in any manner by the connexion in
which it is placed. It is independent of a union
which is begun and ended in time, 'and when
' separated it is that alone which it is essentially.'
It carries with it no trace of its temporary
combination with the passive "reason"; 'and
'this alone' this impersonal and unchangeable
reason 'is immortal and eternal.' It has been
and we are unconscious of the past. It will
be and we shall be unconscious of the present.
'We have no recollection' of any former exist-
ence, and we shall have none hereafter of our
life on earth, ' because this' eternal reason which
alone survives ' is impassive, while the passive
' and susceptible reason' the reason which is the
seat of all personal feeling and emotion and im-
pression ' is corruptible, and without the eternal
' reason is incapable of thought or consciousness.'
12. One very important reflexion #ill illus-
150 The Arguments reach
CHAP. u. trate the force and bearing of Aristotle's judg-
ment. We commonly interrogate the soul only as
to the future : it can speak equally well of the past.
Every argument for the soul's permanence hereafter
based upon its essential character, tells equally in
favour of its preexistence. Reason cannot take
into account the idea of its creation ; and all the
presumptions drawn from what we can observe of
its nature and action to shew that it will be, shew
equally that it has been. The idea of ' continu-
ance' is equally applicable to the beginning and to
the end of the life which falls under our observa-
tion. In other words, the purely logical arguments
which are supposed to prove that the soul is
immortal, prove that it is eternal 1 ; and the legiti-
1 In this aspect the opening chapter of the Analogy is a
most instructive lesson in the weakness of pure reason to
establish that hope of a future life, which has existed more
or less in every period. Here only, perhaps, Bp Butler
has been unable to cast off the influences of the time in which
he lived, and adopted the narrow methods of popular argu-
ment which were current in a mechanical age. Throughout
he assumes that the 'living being' or 'agent,' of which he
gives no definition, is separable from our present organisation
and in itself personal. And again he never notices the appli-
cation of his arguments to a prior as well as to a future exist-
ence. This is the more remarkable as he considers with
remarkable candour and wisdom the objection urged from the
extension of his reasoning to the life of brutes. From what-
ever cause the defects arose, and it seems most likely that the
thoughts which he failed to meet were wholly foreign to the
speculations of the time, the fact remains that he assumes the
lackivard as well as forward. 151
mate deduction is, that as we are now unconscious CHAP. n.
of any previous existence, and cannot in any way
connect our present circumstances and characters
in this world with our conduct in another former
world, so, if we survive in any future state, we
shall be equally unconscious of this through which
we are now passing, and not recognise any retri-
butive justice in the conditions under which we
shall exist. At least any presumption that we
shall be conscious hereafter of our present life
while we are not conscious of that which we have
passed through before, could only be drawn from
the observation of a corresponding difference be-
tween the conditions and circumstances of our
present and past lives which obviously lies wholly
without the range of our faculties. For us, as far
as the teaching of nature goes, this life stands
absolutely alone. The application of the general
experience which it gives is confined within the
limits of its duration.
two great principles which above all others he ought to prove,
the possibility of conceiving our personality apart from our
present bodies, which, though changeable, are yet changeable
according to observed laws ; and next that what is true if we
look back to the first origin of our present life is not true if we
look forward to its close. How momentous the latter assump-
tion is may be seen at once if any one will substitute ' birth '
for ' death ' and ' origin ' for ' destruction ' in the earlier argu-
ments of the chapter. The former assumption is even more
obviously the assumption of the chief point in the conclusion.
152 The teaching of Plato.
CHAP. n. 13. The judgment of Aristotle sums up the
final result of Greek Philosophy on the soul, as a
subject of pure speculation. From his time phi-
losophy became essentially practical. The great
questions of being and knowledge were merged in
those of morals, in which intuition has a legitimate
exercise. Later writers therefore furnish nothing
of importance to the exact discussion of the hope
of immortality; but it is impossible not to com-
pare the conclusions of Aristotle with those of
Plato. The master is as confident and sanguine
as the scholar is sceptical and passionless. But
the method of Plato is as full of instruction as the
results of Aristotle. Plato is sure of his belief
beforehand. His arguments are merely to justify
it. And when he feels that these though
strengthened by the bold proposition that we do
bring with us to earth traces of our former exist-
ence are unequal to support the weight of his
conclusion, he makes, as he expresses it, a bold
venture, and presents the substance of his faith
in one of those magnificent myths, by which he
endeavours to bridge over the chasm between the
seen and unseen worlds 1 . His " Republic" closes
with the noble legend of Er the son of Armenius,
who saw in a trance the judgment of the dead,
1 I venture to refer for a fuller discussion of these myths
to the Contemporary Review, 1866.
The soul has no power to make an organisation. 153
and the hidden glories of the world. For once, CHAP. u.
he tells us, a soul was allowed to return to the
body without drinking the waters of Forgetfulness. P\&t.Resp.
x fi21
And so ' this story was saved and not lost, and it
' will save us,' he adds, ' should we listen to its
'teaching; and then we shall happily cross the
'river of Lethe and not defile our souls; but
'deeming that the soul is immortal and capable
' of bearing every evil and winning every good,
' we shall keep close to the upward path, and
' practise in every way justice and wisdom, that
'we may be friends to ourselves and friends to
' the gods.' ' To confidently affirm that [the fate Plat.
' of souls] is such as I have described,' Socrates 114.
says at the end of the " Phaedo," ' becomes no
' reasonable man. But I do think that it becomes
' him to believe that it is either this or like this,
' if at least the soul is shewn to be immortal ;
' and that it is worthy of him to face peril boldly
'in such a belief, for the peril is glorious; and
' such thoughts he ought to use as a charm to
' allay his own misgivings, in which spirit I have
' myself dwelt thus long upon the story.' For in Plat,
such questions the really brave man ' will either 35.
' learn or discover the truth, or if this be impos-
' sible he will take at any rate the best of human
'words and that which is most irrefragable, and
'carried on this as on a raft sail through life in
154 The soul has no power
CHAP. ii. 'perpetual jeopardy, unless one might make the
'journey on a securer vessel, some divine word if
' it might be, more surely and with less peril.'
14. If then pure reason cannot suggest any
arguments to establish the personality of the soul
when finally separated from the body, and for us
personality is only another name for existence,
still less can it shew any grounds for supposing
that it possesses in itself the power of assuming at
death another organisation corresponding to our
present body whereby its personality may be pre-
served. Our present body is not in any way, as
far as we can see, due primarily to the action of
the soul, which acts through and upon it ; and
when the body is dissolved, the only action of the
soul of which we can have naturally any know-
ledge ceases. It may have some inherent energy
in virtue of which it manifests itself throughout
the ages, now in this form, now in that. It may,
but that seems harder to conceive, have gained on
earth the means of realising a personal existence
hereafter. It may, as many thought even among
GOD'S ancient people, go back to Him who gave
it and continue to exist only as part of His Infi-
nite Being. Our utter incapacity of forming a
clear conception of any mode of existence differing
in essence from our own, and not simply in extent
to make an organisation for itself. 155
of similar powers, forces us to contemplate these CHAP. n.
and other alternatives, and to withhold our judg-
ment till we gain some new light. If we look
within or without we have absolutely no analogy
to carry our thoughts one step onward into a
realm wholly unknown: none to shew that the
soul will exert a power there which has been un-
developed or dormant here. Every change which
we can follow is simply of the earth. Faith, or
love, or instinct, may cross the dark river, but
they go alone : reason cannot follow them. Nay
more : reason shews that the visions which they
see are mere shadowy projections of what we see
and feel now.
15. Thus we are placed before a final con-
tradiction. On the one side we are so constituted
as to cling to the belief in the continuance of our
personality after death : on the other reason points
to death as a phenomenon absolutely singular
which closes life, as far as we know it, and takes
away the conditions of our life. But if a single
experience can shew that these conditions are not
destroyed, but suspended as far as we observe
them, or modified by the action of some new law :
that what seems to be a dissolution is really a
transformation : that the soul does not remain
alone in a future state, but is still united with
156 The conflict of Instinct and Reason
CHAP. ii. our body, that is with an organism which in a new
sphere expresses the law which our present body
now expresses in this (supr. 7) ; then reason will
welcome the belief in our future personality no less
than instinct. For the truth is not against reason
but beyond it. Reason shews simply that what
we commonly see, and what we can learn from the
analysis of our own nature lends no support to
the conclusion which we cannot abandon. But
let some new fact come in, and all will be changed,
if that reveals to us something of the character of
life after death.
16. Such a fact is the Resurrection. In one
sense no event can be more natural than this, so
far as it answers to a craving for knowledge of the
unseen world, which by its intensity indicates that
it was intended to be satisfied, as much as any
other original instinct of man. In another sense
nothing can be more beyond nature, for it intro-
duces us to a novel phase of being, of which we feel
even in the presence of this revelation that we can
know only a part darkly and ' in a riddle.' T"or the
Resurrection is not like any one of the recorded
miracles of raising from the dead. It is not a
restoration to the old life, to its wants, to its special
limitations, to its inevitable close, but the revela-
tion of a new life foreshadowing new powers of
solved by the Resurrection. 157
action and a new mode of being. It issues not CHAP. n.
in death but in the Ascension for which it is the John xx.
17
preparation and the condition. It is not an ex-
tension of an existence with which we are ac-
quainted, but the manifestation of an existence
for which we hope. It is not like any of the
fabled apotheoses of the friends of gods, whose
spirits purified by the funeral fire from the stains
of earth, were carried to the immediate presence
of those whom they had loved, but it is the con-
secration of a restored and perfected manhood.
It is not a withdrawal from men or a laying aside
of humanity, complete, final, and immediate, but
the pledge of an abiding communion of a Saviour
with the fulness of our nature on earth and in
heaven. It is not the putting off of the body, but
the transfiguration of it. And so in its record it
is not like any of the dreams in which earlier
poets had endeavoured to convey to others the
hope which they cherished. Its teaching is con-
veyed in a series of facts. Now one incident and
now another brings out some aspect of the whole
truth, as far as we can apprehend it. But all in-
cidents alike are simple and in a certain sense
natural. No vision is opened of glory or suffering.
No display is made of fresh powers. No over-
powering exhibition of majesty strikes unwilling
conviction into the hearts of those who were before
158 The character of
CHAP n. unbelieving 1 . The Lord rose from the grave ; and
those who had known Him before, knew that He
was the same and yet changed. This is the sum
of the Apostle's testimony, the new Gospel of the
world.
1 It has been objected that our Lord revealed Himself only
to believers or to those inclined to believe. If we regard the
resurrection as a revelation of a new life it is obvious that it
could not have been otherwise. In order to establish the belief
in the reality of this new existence it was necessary that some
power should exist in the witnesses to apprehend it. There was
a spiritual side to the manifestation of the Risen Christ which
could only be discerned spiritually. If it had been necessary
merely to shew the restoration of the Lord to the condition of
an ordinary human life, as in the case of Lazarus, the testi-
mony of indifferent spectators would have been adequate. But
if the appearances were designed to be a revelation of a glori-
fied human life, then the manifestation to unbelievers would
not only have been contrary to the usual method of the Provi-
dence of GOD, but also, as far as we can see, unavailing. For if
the Lord had appeared to them as a man simply, their evi-
dence would have gone to establish a false view of His Eisen
Person : if He had appeared to them under new conditions of
being, they would have been unable to acknowledge the reality
of His manifestation. The believer who had familiarly known
Christ and felt His power could alone grasp and harmonise
the two modes of the Eevelation of His Person. Afterwards,
when the idea of the Eisen Christ was fully established, we
find an appearance granted to St Paul, which carried with it
immediate conviction to an unbeliever ; but till this idea was
established, as far as we can judge, such an appearance would
have been without effect. The appearance to St Paul was as
real as the others (i2^>Qtf) but made under different circum-
stances. It was a revelation of Christ glorified and as such
left its impression on all the teaching of St Paul.
the appearances of the LORD. 159
17. In this connexion there is one most CHAP. n.
important consideration which is commonly over- .
looked. The Apostles announce the fact of the
Resurrection and its immediate bearing upon the
individual hopes of men, but they do not deve-
lope its significance. The fact is added to the
sum of human experience. The interpretation
of it is left for life. And so it is that with the
comments of eighteen centuries its meaning is
yet unexhausted. Deeper insight, wider sympa-
thies, grander aspirations, have been granted to
men in the progress of ages, but the idea of the
Resurrection penetrates beneath and beyond all
the thoughts which history or science has hitherto
made known. The Gospel is still the same, but
known more fully with ever-growing clearness as
the successive crises of thought and life have
shewn its fitness for meeting them. And it is
obvious why this is so. The Resurrection is a
new creation. Its issues cannot be contemplated
by man at first, though its utmost consequences
are included in its actual realisation. And just
as in the creative works of human genius har-
monies and lessons are found in virtue of their
relation to absolute truth, of which their authors
were never conscious, so in this which is the
Truth, all later speculation will find fresh light
upon the problems of human existence.
100 The full significance of the Resurrection.
CHAP. n. 18. There are indeed passages, especially in
the Epistle to the Ephesians and in the writings
of St John, in which the Apostles announce mys-
teries springing out of the Resurrection which
are only now dawning upon the students of his-
tory and life ; but as a general rule they declare
the fact that 'Christ rose again' without dwelling
on those aspects of its meaning for which men
were not at that time prepared by knowledge or
experience. In this respect the narratives of the
Resurrection are unparalleled. The Evangelists 1
record the miracle so calmly, looking solely, as
we must think, at its historic aspect, that in read-
ing of it we lose sight of its stupendous signifi-
cance from the natural simplicity of the details
in which its lessons are conveyed. The mani-
festations of the risen Saviour are mixed with
scenes of fear, of misgiving, of unbelief. He ap-
peared in Galilee and at Jerusalem : now at night
and again in the early morning : in the upper
room and under the open sky : in an assembly
gathered, as it would seem, for religious exercise,
and to men busy with their ordinary work.
N othing is (if we may so speak) farther from the
1 At this point I shall use the writings of the New Testa-
ment without reserve. If the Eesurrection is admitted on
other grounds to be a fact, no one will (I believe) question the
general veracity of the Evangelists.
The LORD the same yet changed. 161
thought of the Evangelists than to give a doc- CHAP. n.
trinal view of the mystery which they declare.
Christ was the same and yet changed. That was
in substance what they had to tell ; and in that
lies the full answer to the first great question
before us. The body is not destroyed by death.
Its union with the soul is for a time (as we are
forced to conceive of it, though perhaps quite
wrongly) interrupted but not closed. Our specu-
lative doubts are met, as they could only be met,
by a fact.
19. It is unnecessary to dwell on the various
details by which the identity of the Lord's human
body is brought out in the Gospels. It is obvious
from a mere enumeration that they meet each
misgiving. The body which the disciples had laid John xx.
in the sepulchre was no longer to be found when
they looked for it. The marks of the Passion were
made sensibly present in the Risen Saviour to him
who would not otherwise believe. Nay more,
Christ Himself offered this very proof to those
who ' supposed that they had seen a spirit.' ' Be- Luke xxiv -
'hold my hands and my feet, that it is I myself:
' handle me, and see, for a spirit hath not flesh Comp.
'and bones, as ye see me have'... 'And He took 20.
' [meat] and did eat before them.' And it can
hardly be without reference to this incident that
w. R. 11
162 The LORD the same yet changed.
CHAP. u. St John in his Epistle reckons this 'handling'
Uohni.l. last among the various revelations which GOD
had given of His Son. The length of time too
during which the appearances were extended fa-
miliarised the disciples (so to speak) with the
mystery which had at first filled them with terror.
Acts i. 3. For forty days He ' shewed Himself alive to them
' by many infallible proofs, being seen of them and
' speaking of the things pertaining to the kingdom
' of GOD.'
20. But this Body which was recognised as
essentially the same Body, had yet undergone
some marvellous change, of which we can gain a
faint idea by what is directly recorded of its mani-
festations 1 . Thus we find that the Person of
Christ was not recognised directly by those who
saw Him. However firm their conviction was
afterwards that they had ' seen the Lord,' they
knew Him first when He was pleased to make
Himself known. Human sense alone was not
1 It is not, I believe, a mere fancy to see a typical indi-
cation of this change in the words used by our Lord Himself
of His glorified Body: Luke xxiv. 39 ('flesh and bones')..
The significant variation from the common formula ' flesh and
blood' must have been at once intelligible to Jews, accustomed
to the provisions of the Mosaic ritual, and nothing would have
impressed upon them more forcibly the transfiguration of
Christ's Body than the verbal omission of the element of blood
which was for them the symbol and seat of corruptible life.
The Resurrection. 163
capable of discerning Who He was. It could not CHAP. n.
be otherwise if His Body was glorified, for our
senses can only apprehend that which is of kin-
dred nature with themselves. At one time it was Matt,
by a word of general or personal tenderness, that j h n xx '
Christ awakened the faith by which sense was 16> 19>
quickened: at another time by the celebration Luke xxiv.
30 31
of that holy rite which He had instituted before
His death : at another by a mighty act which John xxi.
symbolised the blessing of the apostolic work.
21. And as Christ's Body was no longer
necessarily to be recognised, so also it was not
bound by the material laws to which its action
was generally conformed. He is found present,
no one knows from whence. He passes away,
no one knows whither. He stands in the midst
of the little group of the Apostles ' when the John xx.
' doors were shut for fear of the Jews.' ' He Lu ' ke xx i v .
' vanished out of the sight' of those whose eyes 31<
were opened that they knew Him. And at last
' while they beheld, He was taken up, and a cloud Acts i. 9.
' received Him out of their sight.' It is impossible
not to feel in reading the narratives that we are
regarding a form of existence human, indeed, yet
indefinitely ennobled by the removal of needs and
limitations to which we are at present subject.
It is vain for us to speculate on the nature of
112
164 The transfiguration of our whole being.
CHAP. ii. that transformed human Body. We can form no
clear positive conception which is not shaped by
the present laws of thought. Negatively we can
only say that it was not bound by those laws of
space (for example) which necessarily enter into
all that we think or do. The life which is re-
vealed to us is not the continuation of the pre-
sent life, but a life which .takes up into itself
all the elements of our present life, and trans-
figures them by a glorious change, which we can
regard at present only under signs and figures.
22. Thus the Resurrection answers as com-
pletely as it can be answered the first great question
by which we are met. In the Person of Christ
we see the whole of man, his body and soul,
raised together from the grave. No part is left
behind. The whole complex nature is raised and
glorified. It is not that the soul only lives ; nor
yet that the body, such as it was before, is restored
to its former vigour. The Saviour, as far as we
2 Cor. v. 4. regard His Manhood, is not unclothed, to use St
Paul's image, but clothed upon. Nothing is taken
away, but something is added by which all that
l Cor. xv. was before present is transfigured. ' The corrupt-
' ible puts on incorruption : the mortal puts on
' immortality.'
The idea of Sin. 165
23. This thought brings us to the second CHAP. n.
question, the final relation of man to GOD, of man,
that is, as subject to the consequences of sin.
And here it will be necessary to consider somewhat
carefully the idea which lies at the root of sin,
lest it may seem that we are dealing with a mere
phantom. But still we may leave out of our
investigation some questions which have been
connected with it. Our inquiry does not extend
to the obstacles which material nature places in
the way of man, of whatever form they may be,
nor yet to the mutual relations of animals to one
another or to man. We are obviously wholly
incapable of knowing anything of the position in
which any beings except ourselves stand towards
GOD, or of their latent powers, or of their future
destiny. It is quite conceivable that what ap-
pears to us in the light of suffering and decay in
beings wholly unlike ourselves may to a higher
intelligence assume a different aspect ; or (and
this seems even from a view of nature far more
probable) the fate of the physical and animal
creation may be bound up by some mysterious
influence with that of man. At least, we can see
the difference between what we call evil in inor-
ganic or brute nature, and evil (moral evil) in man
which involves the operation of a free will, and
an acknowledged relation between the person of
166 Sin not necessary for man's development
CHAP. n. the sinner and GOD. Whether these conditions
of action can exist in the case of other creatures
or not we are wholly unable to determine ; but it
is at least remarkable that as soon as the pheno-
mena of free will are observable in animals (as in
the case of those which have been long associated
with man) we attribute to them a measure of
responsibility by according praise and blame to
their actions.
24. If then we look at the problem in its
simplest form it is evident that the possibility of
sin is necessarily included in the creation of a
finite, free being ; for the simplest idea which we
can form of sin, is the finite setting itself up
against the infinite. Selfishness, which exists
potentially as soon as 'self exists, is the ground of
all sin. Hence we can see how a perfect finite
being may yet be exposed to temptation, for the
sense of limitation brings with it the thought, or
the possibility of the thought, of passing the limit.
25. And not only is a perfect finite being in
this way necessarily under a moral probation, but
the actual existence of sin is not required for his
moral development. It is necessary to dwell on
this point, for if it could be shewn that sin belongs
essentially to the idea of individual human
Evil may be the occasion of good. 167
progress as one of the conditions of its realisation, CHAP. n.
we might at once dismiss as vain the obstinate
questionings with which we ponder over its future
issues. It is only if sin is an intrusive corruption
of our nature that we need feel anxious about the
permanence of its results. But it follows from
the final analysis of sin which has been given that
man, though he had not sinned, might yet have
practised some (at least) essentially human
virtues: all indeed which are comprised in
self-control and the recognition of dependence.
Nothing therefore can be more false than to say
that ' moral good and moral evil as distinguished
' from the possibility of good and evil came into
' being together.' A command implies the possi-
bility of obedience and disobedience, but obedience
is no less real though disobedience in fact never
takes place. Love, again, the centre of all social
virtues, and truth the centre of all intellectual
virtues, are both wholly independent of the pre-
sence of evil among men.
26. But it may be said that if moral evil
were removed from the world ' life would be
' impoverished.' So indeed it appears at first
sight to us who are habituated to the startling
contrasts of life : for us shadow is a necessity of
distinct vision. Yet it would be difficult to shew
168 Evil not the condition of good.
CHAP. ii. that the more splendid qualities which are brought
out (for instance) by war are better, in any sense,
than their correlatives which need no such field
for their display : that the heroic forgetfulness or
contempt of danger or suffering, which springs
from a great passion or a generous impulse in
the midst of a fierce conflict or under the sense of
a deep wrong, is better than that rational self-
control which we have seen can exist in the high-
est degree without the presence of evil. We are
too apt to think that virtue which is seen on a
larger scale is itself magnified. On the other hand
it may be allowed that evil itself serves as part
of our discipline : that it gives occasion for the
exercise of special virtues, and by antagonism calls
them into play; yet this is only to say that it
has been so ordered that evil shall in some de-
gree minister to its own defeat.
27. And while we grant that in society evil
may be the occasion of good, it is by no means
clear that this is true in the individual. As far as
we can see, the presence of evil, that is the wilful
transgression of limit as distinguished from the
original limitation, is neither the occasion, nor
the condition of good, nor on the narrow stage of
human life the preliminary to it. The highest
conception of active virtue duty is absolutely
Sin foreign to our nature. 169
untouched by it both in its origin and in its CHAP - "
fulfilment, even when evil is regarded under the
extreme form of pain.
28. Moreover it must be observed that evil,
while it may be the occasion of good, is never
transmuted into good. Evil remains evil to the
last in whatever form it may shew itself. Sin
remains sin : pain remains pain : ignorance (so
far as it is culpable) remains ignorance : though
sin and pain and ignorance may call forth efforts
of love and fortitude and patience.
29. Nor can it be said that sin realised, and
not merely the possibility of sin by the action of
a free will, is the necessary condition of human
virtue, and consequently of human happiness.
For if this were true, then it would follow either
that evil itself will be eternal, or that human life
in its true sense will cease to be. Whatever may
be the function of evil in the social discipline of
men whose powers are already impaired by sin,
we have no reason to think that evil could find any
place for giving occasion to new or higher good in
a society of men animated by those active and
personal virtues which have been seen to be
wholly independent of it ( 25, 27) ; not to speak
of the possibility of other forms of virtuous
170 Sin foreign to our nature.
CHAP. ii. character inconceivable in our present mixed state ;
for the permanence of the antitypes or perfections
of our present virtues in another state by no
means excludes the possibility of the existence of
other virtues as yet unknown, which may come
into play from the manifestations of new relations
between ourselves or of ourselves to other intelli-
gent beings.
30. It follows then that sin moral evil as
involving the action of will is in fact something
wholly foreign to human nature : that in its essen-
tial character it remains always evil even when
it is the occasion of good : that it is not a lower
form of goodness or a necessary condition for its
exercise, but the conscious transgression of limit :
that in the individual it leads to no good : that
even in society at large its disciplinary power only
effects by sacrifice and imperfectly what the ob-
servance of the true bounds of nature would effect
perfectly. It is then a foreign element in our
nature, and absolutely abhorrent from our proper
destiny. But it is also, as far as reason can trace,
permanent in its issues. If therefore a belief in
personal immortality be held on any grounds
except those furnished by the Gospel, it must be
accompanied by an awful sense of the consequences
of past offences.
Suffering no expiation. 171
31. It is this fact which gives to the idea CHAP. n.
of sin its most terrible significance. As far as
we can conceive by the help of reason the effects
of every action must be infinite, and in regard to
the agent (whatever they may be to others) cor-
responding to and like the action. But all sin (as
such) necessarily involves the idea of suffering to
the person who commits it ; for selfishness, the
final element of sin, is the contrary of love, and
therefore when set against Infinite Love must
bring the misery of unavailing desire and isolation.
Hence punishment (for all consequences must at
last be referred to the Will of the Personal
Creator), or (in another light) suffering as the
natural consequence of selfishness, must exist as
long as sin exists ; and so in any particular case
the past sin must still work its full effect in sepa-
rating the sinner from GOD without end, unless
some new power be interposed.
32. For it must be noticed that suffering has
in itself no power or tendency to remove or
expiate sin, the consequences of which are best
conceived as evolved (so to speak) naturally and
centring in the changed character of the guilty,
and not imposed externally according to any fixed
standard. Nor again has it in itself any power
to produce repentance, by which in the intercourse
172 Conflict of Instinct
CHAP. ii. of man and man the effects of wrong-doing,
as far as their mutual relations are concerned,
may be removed. But even in this latter case no
repentance can cancel the consequences of the
wrong action, either without the doer or within
him. These throughout life and (as far as we can
see) beyond it are inwrought into the world and
into his nature. Future punishment is a conclu-
sion of reason, if we grant the future continuance
of our personality. The mystery which reason
cannot of itself apprehend is that this punish-
ment can be stayed. Thus if we approach the
subject from this side it is the forgiveness, or
rather the 'washing away' of sins and not their
punishment, which is the real subject of Revela-
tion. If on the other hand we confine our view
to this life, the idea of a Supreme Being tempering
suffering with a view to repentance answers to an
instinct of man and not to any logical process ;
and Scripture first teaches us to believe that the
instinct is true.
33. For just as there is an instinct within us
which claims the inheritance of a future life, so
we feel that after sin repentance is still possible
and efficacious, and that our Heavenly Father can
do away our sins. But Reason which deserted us
before equally deserts us now. It tells us from
and Reason. 173
the observation of what we see around and from CHAP. n.
the conception which we are forced to make of
the dependence of the future on the past, that
we must be for ever, in relation to GOD, what
we are, and bear about with us the scars and
wounds which sin has inflicted upon us.
34. Here again the fact of the Resurrection
meets our doubts with a new Revelation. If
we look at our Lord simply as He was seen out-
wardly, He bore in Himself all the consequences
of sin. ' He was tempted in all points like as we Hebr. iv.
'are' except by personal sin. He took our flesh 15>
with its liabilities to hunger, and fatigue, and pain
upon Him : He shared the emotions of anger, and
sorrow, and affection: He bore death with its
most terrible accompaniments, the last issue of
sin, and that sense of utter isolation from GOD Matt
which is its complete punishment. Whatever xxvii. 46.
sin could work He took upon Himself; and when
all was ended GOD raised Him up ' for our justifi-
' cation,' and the Lord JESUS bore our human
nature, over which sin had no longer power, to
the immediate presence of the Father.
35. But it will be said that the Lord's suffer-
ings were not the result (as ours are) of personal
sin, and consequently that we can draw no
174 The Resurrection in connexion
CHAP. ii. comfort from His triumph over death. To this
objection it is in part an answer to reply that the
sufferings of Christ were as though they were due
to Himself, and that not by a fiction, but by His
real assumption of human nature. How this
could be in regard to the more general conse-
quences of sin, as want or grief, is sufficiently
intelligible from the fact that He was truly man.
But how He could take sin upon Him is a mys-
tery which we cannot solve, though in fact it is
only a mystery of the same kind as His ' becoming
John i. 14. 'flesh' (comp. 38). Yet even here so much at
least we can see, that in the Agony and on the
Cross He suffered, yet with an intensity which we
cannot appreciate, even as those do who bear the
Heb. v. 7. consequences of personal sin. ' He offered up
' prayers and supplications with strong crying and
' tears unto Him that was able to save Him from
' death, and was heard in that He feared.'
36. The complete answer lies somewhat
deeper, as has been already indicated, in the
recognition of our Lord's Divine Person. It
is impossible to understand the Resurrection
completely apart from the Incarnation. It may
indeed be said that the Resurrection is the
historic seal of the Incarnation, which remains for
ever a mystery removed from all witness. And
with the forgiveness of Sin. 175
it was in this sense that the first teachers of CHAP. n.
Christianity understood and interpreted it. After
the Resurrection, as we have seen (l. 56 ff.),
they saw in Christ a Saviour of boundless power.
His Life and Death were contemplated in their
atoning virtue : His Name was given as that
whereby men might be saved : in Him was Life.
The contrast between that which was appre-
hended, if with the deepest reverence we may so
speak, as personal discipline and redeeming power,
was placed in its broadest light. ' It became' GOD Heb. ii.
' to make Him perfect through suffering,' and ' '
even thus ' He tasted death for every man.' He
was ' declared to be the Son of GOD with power, Bom. i. 4.
' according to the Spirit of holiness, by the resur-
' rection from the dead.' And ' though He were Heb. v. 8,
'a Son, yet learned He obedience by the things
' which He suffered ; and being made perfect, He
' became the author of eternal salvation unto all
' them that obey Him.'
37. Apart from this faith in the Divinity of
Christ, His Resurrection loses its highest signifi-
cance. It has in itself and absolutely no direct
and immediate connexion with ourselves. It is
an isolated incident in the history of mankind,
glorious and full of hope but not the new birth of
humanity. It answers to that view of the Lord
176 How the Resurrection of Christ
CHAP. ii. which represents Him as a Teacher simply, and
does not, according to the apostolic pattern, bring
out into chief prominence what He did and what
He was. If Christ was only man, such as we are
in nature, then His triumph over death is no
Gospel for those who are bowed down with the
John xiv. weight of guilt. In Him we can feel that ' the
on
' Prince of this world when he came had nothing : '
Death could not hold Him. For ourselves, we
Lukexxiii. 'receive' in corruption 'the due reward of our
' deeds : but this man hath done nothing amiss.'
38. On such a theory no hope like that of
St Paul could repose. But once introduce the
belief in Christ's divine nature, and His Death
and Resurrection are no longer of the individual
but of the race. Nor in doing this are we taking
refuge in an arbitrary assumption to help our
argument. On the contrary, we simply repeat
the interpretation which the Apostles placed on
the whole work of the Saviour. It was on this
belief that the Church was founded and built up.
The belief was not indeed always drawn out with
exact precision, yet it was always implied in the
relation which the believer was supposed to hold
to GOD in Christ. The formula of Baptism, which
has never changed, is unintelligible without it.
The Eucharist is emptied of the blessing which
includes ours. 177
every age has sought in that Holy Sacrament, if CHAP. n.
it be taken away.
39. If Christ took our nature upon Him (as
we believe) by an act of love, it was not that of
one but of all. He was not one man only among
men, but in Him all humanity was gathered up.
And thus now as at all time mankind are (so
to speak) organically united with Him. His acts
are in a true sense our acts, so far as we realise the
union : His death is our death : His Resurrection,
our Resurrection. Nothing can be plainer than
the assertion of this doctrine. Our ' bodies are l Cor. vi.
15
'members of Christ;' and conversely a Christian
society is ' a body of Christ.' ' I have been,' St l Cor. xii.
27
Paul says, ' crucified with Christ.' If we died Gal. ii. 20.
'with Christ,' he writes to the Romans, 'we be-
'lieve that we shall also live with Him... Reckon
' ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but
' living unto GOD in Christ Jesus.' And yet more
plainly, ' When we were dead in sins [GoD] quick- Eph. ii. 5,
n
'ened us together with Christ, and raised us '
'up together, and made us sit together in the
' heavenly realm in Christ Jesus.' ' In whom also Col. ii. 11,
12
' ye were circumcised with the circumcision made
'without hands, in putting off the body of the
' sins of the flesh, in the circumcision of Christ ;
'buried with Him in baptism, wherein also ye
W. R. 12
178 The personal significance
CHAP. n. ' were raised with Him through faith in the opera-
' tion of GOD, who raised Him from the dead.' So
1 Pet. i. 3. again St Peter speaks of GOD ' who begat us
'again to a living hope through the resurrection
' of Jesus Christ from the dead ;' and his final
l Pet. v. salutation is ' Peace be with you all who are in
14
'Christ Jesus.'
40. The ground of these and similar state-
ments is found in the words of our Lord, which
first receive through them their full significance.
John xv. 'Abide in me and I in you... I am the Vine; ye
' are the branches. He that abideth in me and I
' in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit ; for
'apart from me ye can do nothing.' And again,
in His last great prayer for His disciples, He says :
John xvii. ' For their sakes I sanctify myself, that they also
'may be sanctified in truth. Neither pray I for
< these alone, but for them also which believe on
'me through their word, that they all may be
' one ; as Thou, Father, art in Me, and I in Thee,
'that they also may be in Us... I in them, and
' Thou in Me, that they may be made perfect into
' one/
41. The full doctrine of the Resurrection can-
not be understood without constant reference to
these deeper revelations of Christ's Person; nor
of the Resurrection of the Body. 179
again is the Apostolic doctrine of the Person of CHAP. n.
Christ intelligible without the light of the glorious
manifestations of Himself which He made to His
disciples after He was risen from the dead. But
it is not our object now to follow out the mutual
relations of these two elements of our Creed, or to
trace them both back to the Incarnation. It is
enough to have indicated in what way we can
conceive that the efficacy of the Resurrection is
extended to those for whom Christ died; and
having done this we may next notice how the
teaching of the Resurrection on the dignity of
the body tends to explain the relation of the
individual self to the world.
42. The noblest of the ancient moralists
looked upon man's body as a hopeless burden and
fatal hindrance to the soul ; and in this they
have been followed by the noblest non-Christian
moralists in every age. The famous thanksgiving
of Plotinus that ' he was not tied to an immortal
'body' expresses the common feeling of all who
have not felt the power of the Resurrection. But
Christianity transfigures what philosophy would
destroy. It shews that the corruption by which
we are weighed down does not belong to our
proper nature, and' is not necessarily bound up
with it for ever. It lays open with a deeper and
122
180 The moral significance
CHAP. ii. more searching criticism than a system of morality
could direct, the internal struggles to which the
' flesh' must give occasion, and the inevitable de-
feats which we must suffer in our efforts towards
the divine life. Plato does not describe more
sadly than St Paul the afflictions by which we are
Phil.iii.2i. beset while yet oppressed by' the body of humi-
' liation.' Or to take an example from a different
sect and age, M. Aurelius does not express more
keenly than St John a sense of the evils of the
present life. But there is an immeasurable chasm
between the Apostles and Platonists or Stoics.
' We that are in this tabernacle do groan, being
2 Cor. v. 4. ' burdened,' St Paul writes : ' not for that we would
'be unclothed, but clothed upon, that mortality
' may be swallowed up by life.' The better change
for which he longed was not the destruction but
Phil. iii.2l. the ennobling of his body, so that it might 'be
' fashioned like unto [Christ's] body of glory, ac-
' cording to the working whereby He is able even to
' subdue all things unto Himself.' And the power
by which this transformation should be effected
was the simple contemplation of Christ in His
essential majesty. Nay, in some sense the change
is already begun on earth, so far as that we can
look forward with full hope to its accomplish-
2 Cor. iii. ment ; for ' we all, with open face beholding as in
'a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into
of the Resurrection of the Body. 181
' the same image from glory to glory.' ' Beloved, CHAP. n.
' now are we the sons of GOD,' such are St John's 1 John iii.
words, ' and it doth not yet appear what we shall
'be: but we know that, when He shall appear,
' we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as
'He is.'
43. In a word our present body is as the
seed of our future body. The one rises as naturally
from the other as the flower from the germ. ' It 1 Cor.
' is sown in corruption, it is raised in incorrup-
' tion : it is sown in dishonour, it is raised in glory :
' it is sown in weakness, it is raised in power : it
'is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual
' body.' We cannot, indeed, form any conception
of the change which shall take place, except so
far as it is shewn to us in the Person of the Lord.
Its fulfilment is in another state, and our thoughts
are bound by this state. But there is nothing
against reason in the analogy. Every change of
life which we can observe now must be from one
material form to another equally falling under our
senses ; but such a change may help us to under-
stand how a form at present sensible may pass
through a great crisis into another, which is an
expression of the same law of life, though our
present senses cannot naturally take cognisance
of it (supr. 7). If the analogy were to explain
182 The moral significance
CHAP. ii. the passage of man from an existence of one kind
(limited by a body) to an existence of another
kind (unlimited by a body), it would then be
false ; but as it is, it illustrates by a vivid figure
the perpetuity of our bodily life, as proved in the
Resurrection of Christ.
44. The moral significance of such a doctrine
as the Resurrection of the body cannot be over-
rated. Both personally and socially it places the
sanctions if not the foundations of morality on
a new ground. Each sin against the body is no
longer a stain on that which is itself doomed to
perish, but a defilement of that which is con-
secrated to an eternal life. To injure another, is
to injure one with whom we are bound by the
closest ties through a common fellowship in
1 Cor. vi. Christ. ' The body is not for fornication, but for
i o IK
' the Lord ; and the Lord for the body. And GOD
' both raised up the Lord, and will also raise up us
' by His power. Know you not that your bodies
Eph.iv.25. ' are the members of Christ ?' ' Speak every man
' truth with his neighbour : for we are members one
' of another/ Each Christian society is ' a body of
' Christ,' of which the members are charged with
various functions ; and these ' bodies ' again are
' members' of other ' bodies' wider and greater, and
these at last 'members' of that universal Church
of the Resurrection of the Body. 183
which is the ' fulness of Christ/ its heavenly CHAP. n.
Head.
45. In this way the doctrine of the Resur-
rection turned into a reality the exquisite myth
of Plato, in which he represented tyrants and
great men waiting for their final sentence from
the judges of Hades, with their bodies scarred and
wounded by lust and passion and cruelty. And at
the same time the notion of civic union in which
lay so much of the strength and virtue of classical
life, is freed from the dangers of party and class
and extended to the utmost limits of a human
brotherhood. The earliest religious instinct of
men taught them to regard each class, each guild,
each city, each state, as standing in a corporate
connexion with some particular deity, and en-
joying his protection : Christianity satisfies the
instinct, and harmonises the idea of a special
relationship to a Divine Lord with that of catholic
union in Him. It gives the largest range to the
sympathies and obligations of men at the very
time when it lays the greatest weight on the
distinct importance and eternal issues of every
isolated human action.
46. The perfect reconciliation of the claims
and duties of the individual and of the society
184 The doctrine of the Resurrection
CHAP. ii. is no less characteristic of the teaching of Chris-
tianity than the hallowing (so to speak) of the
mutual relationship of soul and body ; and both
doctrines alike find their historical basis and the
pledge of their realisation in the Resurrection.
In prse- Christian times the individual was either
sacrificed to the state, or contemplated wholly
apart from it. The Platonist, in theory, regarded
the man in a perfect society as simply living for
it, and having independently no personal worth.
The Stoic stood apart in proud loneliness, and
looked on the turmoil of statesmanship and war
with the stern indifference of despair or resig-
nation. In practice both were more or less un-
faithful to their creed. Socrates found problems
of life which were so absorbing that till he had
solved these, he affirmed that he could not inter-
fere with politics. M. Aurelius, while he steeled
himself against the future by steadfastly affirming
the existence of a fatal cycle of human destinies,
yet laboured with a faithful will to discharge the
offices of the empire. But neither had any prin-
ciple to justify the combination of the conflicting
elements of action and thought. Nature only
was stronger than logic. But the Apostles could
declare that the sanctity of the man rests on the
same fact as the sanctity of the society : that the
dignity of personal action is not in conflict, but
in relation to our view of Nature. 185
in absolute harmony, with that of social action : CHAP. n.
that duties to self and to others are simply dif-
ferent expressions of the same belief in one abso-
lute unity. No power which has ever effectually
stirred men to heroism or self-devotion is lost,
but all are seen in one source.
47. The glorious view which is thus opened
of the one life ' fulfilled in many ways' which
animates mankind, potentially at least, does not
exhaust the prospect which Christianity offers to
the eye of faith. Glimpses are given of a yet
wider harmony and a vaster change. Reference
has been made already to the passages in which
the apostolic writings notice the fellowship of
nature in the blessings of Redemption (i. 1). It
is evident from our ignorance of the forces at
work in the outer world, of which we can ob-
serve only some effects according to our limited
powers of perception, that we are quite unable
to form any notion of ' a new heaven and a new
' earth.' Yet the fact of the Resurrection of the
body suggests more forcibly the literal truth of
that 'restitution of all things' which was an- Actsiii.2i.
nounced from the first by St Peter. The enno-
bling of our material organisation contains, as
it were, the promise of a more complete transfi-
guration of Nature. It is possible that the change
186 Summary.
CHAP. n. lies nearer to us than we are apt to imagine. It
may perhaps be the case that what appear to us
to be imperfections and evils in the physical or
animal world may derive the character which
we attribute to them from the incompleteness of
our own faculties ; and that this transfiguration
(relative to us) may lie within us and not with-
out (comp. 23) 1 .
48. Whether this view is true or not it con-
tains an important element of truth which is
commonly neglected. What we call 'laws of
'nature' are, as has been seen (Intr. 8), no-
thing more than laws of our present observation
of nature. They are a resultant, so to speak, of
some unknown force without and our own powers
of sensation and thought. The permanence of
the law depends on the permanence of these two
elements : if either is changed the resultant is
also changed. If then our bodily powers are
transfigured, as we see in the Resurrection of the
Lord, our powers of observation and the limitations
(as of space or time and the like) according to
which we class phenomena, will undergo a pro-
portionate change. Thus for us the 'law' will
1 This thought, I now find, has been admirably worked out
by Mr Hinton, whose Life and Letters is full of illustrations of
the argument which I have suggested.
Summary. 187
be changed while the power whose working we CHAP. n.
notice and describe by it is itself unchanged.
But still there is no abruptness, no arbitrary
revolution, in this new aspect of Nature. The
new law must be conceived as springing out of our
new powers, just as the present law springs from
our present powers, when they are turned to the
objects which fall under them. If our present
body is the germ of that which will be, so is the
present law of that which will hereafter regulate
our perceptions. Thus to the Christian the lawp
of Nature are not laws only, but prophecies. In
the light of the Resurrection they are symbols
of something broader and more glorious beyond
them. They do not confine hope but guide it.
49. The line of thought which has been just
opened leads to the Christian solution as far as
a solution is possible of the last question which
arises out of the simplest views of life, our rela-
tion to the world ; but the fuller discussion of
this must be reserved for a separate section.
Meanwhile we have gained some insight into the
doctrinal significance of the Resurrection in rela-
tion to the fulness of our future personal exist-
ence and to our hope of restoration before GOD.
It has been seen that our present self is essen-
tially twofold ; and that we cannot in any way
188 Summary.
CHAP. ii. conceive that we can remain the same if either
of the elements of which it is made up wants
its proper representative. The doctrine of the
' immortality of the soul' is therefore wholly insuffi-
cient to satisfy that desire for a life hereafter for
which man naturally craves. In confirmation of
this conclusion it has been shewn that Aristotle
and Plato, while regarding the subject from very
different points of view, equally indicate that no
arguments of pure reason can establish the future
personal existence of the soul, as a conscious con-
tinuance of our present existence. Aristotle de-
nies the conclusion on the strength of a direct
analysis : Plato clothes his instinctive hope in the
form of a story, confessing, as it were, that his
logical process fails him. Yet further, the argu-
ments which point forward, point backward also,
and thus fail to establish the conscious depend-
ence of the future on the present. Introduce the
belief in the Resurrection and each difficulty
disappears. In the Person of the Lord we see
how we can hereafter be the same and yet indefi-
nitely ennobled : how our souls and bodies may
be for ever united, so that the individual self
remains, while the body is transformed by a glo-
rious change.
50. In the next place it has been shewn that
Swnmary. 189
while the possibility of sin is necessarily included CHAP. 11.
in the existence of a free finite will, actual sin
is wholly alien from the perfection of man's
nature : that in itself and in the individual sin is
inherently and immutably bad, though it may
give occasion to good by antagonism: and that
while it is such it must bring with it suffering
which has no virtue to remove sin or the conse-
quences of sin, of which it is itself one. In the
way of nature then we cannot see how the evil of
which we are conscious can ever cease to work out
torment, though at the same time we instinctively
turn to GOD as a Father ready to forgive and
also (but how we know not) wash away sin. Again
in this aspect the Resurrection presents to us
the fulfilment of man's triumph in Christ over
the issues of sin, which culminate in death. But
here the full significance of the Resurrection and
our personal share in it is seen to be bound up
with the Apostolic teaching on the Person of
Christ as unfolded in His Life and Ascension, on
which the Church was founded, and in which we
find all our hopes fulfilled, in virtue of a fellow-
ship potential for the race and actual by faith for
the individual. ' In Christ ' we can stand without
fear in the very presence of GOD.
51. Further we have been led to notice some
190 Summary.
CHAP. ii. of the moral consequences of a belief in the Resur-
rection: how it reveals a majesty in the body
which philosophers have denied, and the conse-
quent importance of every human action : how it
hallows with a new sanction the idea of society
at the same time and in the same way as it raises
the dignity of the individual : how it harmonizes,
by the faith in the gathering together of all
humanity in Christ, claims which before were
thought to be contradictory in their origin and in
their fulfilment : how finally it casts a light over
the destiny of the world and helps us to under-
stand how our perception of nature will be indefi-
nitely raised, even if nature itself is unchanged,
by the ennobling of our own faculties and the re-
moval or proportionate transformation of those
limitations by which they are at present con-
fined.
It remains to consider more in detail some of
these thoughts as illustrating what may be called
the social aspects of the Resurrection, so far as it
contains a revelation of our relation to the world
around us, and of the character of that Church
which is the divine witness and embodiment of
its truth.
CHAPTER III.
THE RESURRECTION AND THE CHURCH.
Willst du ins Unendliche schreiten,
Geh nur im Endlichen nach alien Seiten.
GOETBE.
1. TN the preceding chapters the Resurrection CHAP. m.
-*- has been viewed in two main aspects. At
first it was contemplated as a fact, standing in the
centre of the development of human life, and add-
ing a new element to the sum of the records of
human experience. It was then contemplated as
an idea, harmonizing conflicting instincts of man's
nature and lifting him into a real communion
with a nobler order of beings by an abiding fel-
lowship with the unseen. So far the Gospel of
the Resurrection vindicates its claim to a true
historic basis and a moral fitness for meeting the
essential needs of men. But it has a yet wider
application. It offers a new foundation for social
union. It is not only a message of salvation to
192 The Resurrection in relation to the Church.
CHAP. in. the individual : it is also the pledge of a divine
life to the Church. The promise of Redemption,
symbolised by the deliverance from Egypt, pre-
figured by the types of the law, illustrated by the
teaching of the Prophets, was the vital bond of
the people of Israel ; and no less the accomplish-
ment of Redemption, shewn in the Resurrection,
the Ascension, and the consequent Mission of the
Comforter, is the spring of life in the Christian
Body. In the Church the fact of the Resurrec-
tion, so to speak, is perpetuated ; and the idea of
the Resurrection is realised. On the one hand,
the development of the Church witnesses to the
consecration of every power of man to a divine
use and marks the potential transfiguration of
every variety of individual or national character,
as parts of a sublimer whole ; and on the other
hand it claims the possession of this transforming
energy in virtue of the working of a Risen Saviour
through its outward institutions. Briefly it is
inherently historical and sacramental ; and the
clue to the apprehension of its history and its
sacraments lies in the Resurrection.
2. The detailed examination of the insti-
tutions of the Church in the light of the Resurrec-
tion is at present impossible (comp. I. 61). It
will be sufficient to consider how the fact and the
The Resurrection in relation to the Church. 193
idea of the Kesurrection affect the general con- CHAP. in.
ception and working of the Christian Society.
Nor can the consideration be regarded as super-
fluous at the present time. Some strange for-
getfulness of truth must prevail when it can be
possible for philosophical writers to stigmatize
Christianity as 'selfish.' The very same Gospel
which sets before the single believer the glorious
issue of life at the same time and by the same
message binds up his hope with that of every
other believer, and more than that with the
destiny of the whole world. It is only by neg-
lecting the Resurrection that the Christian can be
isolated (comp. i. 1).
3. The first announcement of the Gospel
connects it with the establishment of a society.
It is emphatically ' the Gospel of the Kingdom.' Matt. iv.
' The Kingdom of heaven is at hand' was equally Matt. xi.
the message of the Baptist and of Christ Himself
at the beginning of His teaching. At one time
this Kingdom is contemplated as still future, at
another as already present. We are taught to pray
for its 'coming,' and encouraged to press as it
were by force and claim by violent effort a share
in its immediate blessings. Its origin, its growth, Matt. xiii.
the manner of its reception, the perils to which it
would be exposed, the variety of elements which
w. E. 13
194 The Church a Kingdom.
CHAP. in. it would include, are portrayed under a rich
Lukexxii. variety of parables. 'I appoint unto you that
' ye may eat and drink at my table in my King-
'dom' were among the last words which the Lord
addressed to His disciples ; and after His Resur-
rection, during the forty days, He spoke 'of the
' things pertaining to the Kingdom of GOD.' The
idea which was thus prominent during the minis-
try of Christ was included in the groundwork of
the Apostolic preaching. The first address of St
Peter on the day of Pentecost declared ' Jesus to
' be the Lord and Christ' Whom GOD had promised
' to raise up to sit on the throne of David.' The
first record of a mission beyond the limits of Ju-
da3a describes Philip 'preaching the things con-
' cerning the Kingdom of GOD.' The definite charge
which was brought against St Paul when he first
Acts xvii. preached in Europe was that he did ' contrary to
xvi. 21. ' the decrees of Cassar, saying that there is another
' King, one Jesus.'
4. It is unnecessary to consider the various
misconceptions to which this proclamation of
Christ's 'Kingdom' was exposed. Even to the
time of the last manifestation of the Lord on
earth before the Ascension, the Apostles seem to
Acts i. 3,6. have confounded ' the Kingdom of GOD' with that
which was its figure, ' the Kingdom of Israel.' But
The Church a Kingdom. 195
there is not the least trace that the Christian idea CHAP. IIL
of a heavenly kingdom was ever mixed up with
direct political aims. The very bitterness with
which the Jewish zealots at the time of their
rising persecuted the Christians, is a sufficient
proof that these 'children of the Kingdom' were
as far as possible removed from schemes of tem-
poral ambition. The Christian belief did away
with the bitterness of civil bondage, and substi-
tuted a higher hope for the dreams of national
enthusiasm. But none the less the Kingdom
whose coming believers were charged to hasten,
was regarded as a society truly answering to the
name, though its establishment was referred to
the action of Divine Providence, and not to human
design. The kingdoms of the earth were types of
this kingdom which should be on earth though
not of the earth. In other words the glorious
society in which the Gospel was to find its out-
ward embodiment would have a Sovereign, of
whose Personal Rule His subjects would be con-
scious and by Whose Will they would be guided,
an organisation, by which the relative functions
and duties and stations of those included within
it would be defined and sustained, a common
principle of action, and common rights of citizen-
ship. This was the earliest form under which the
establishment of a Christendom, at first militant
132
196 The Church a Temple.
CHAP. in. and then triumphant (though this distinction was
but faintly perceived), was realised. The old
Kingdom of GOD whose history could be traced in
the Old Testament furnished the language in
which it was described, and the wide-felt presence
of the Roman Empire gave distinctness to the
broader traits of universal dominion and unity.
5. But the idea of a Kingdom was not the
. only one under which the Church the whole
Matt. xvi. society of Christians was regarded. ' Thou art
1 o
' Peter (Petros)' our Lord said, in answer to the
confession which the great Apostle had made,
' and on this Rock (Petra, the living rock, from
' which the Petros is hewn or taken) I will build
' my Church.' This then is a second figure : the
church is a building, or more specially a house
or temple. And it is worthy of notice that
St Peter, in his first Epistle, brings out this con-
1 Pet. ii. 4, ception into the clearest light. ' Ye,' he writes,
'coming to the Lord, a living stone,... as living
' stones are built up a spiritual house/ of which
' the stone which the builders disallowed is made
' the head of the corner.' And St Paul yet more
in detail follows out the structure of this Chris-
tian sanctuary. Reckoning up the blessings of
the Gentile converts, he tells them that they are
22.' now ' fellow-citizens of the saints. . .since they have
The Church a Temple. 197
' been built upon the foundation of the apostles CHAP. in.
' and prophets, Jesus Christ Himself being the chief
'corner-stone, in whom every part of the build-
' ing, fitly framed together, groweth unto an holy
' temple in the Lord ; in which ye also are builded
' together for an habitation of GOD in the Spirit.'
It is however to be observed that the same image
which is used of the society is used also of the
individuals. We are ' Christ's house,' ' GOD'S build- Heb. iii. 6;
' ing,' ' the temple of the living GOD,' where the 9 ;
words are used of the many to whom or in whose 16 or ' V1 '
person the Apostle is speaking ; and on the other
hand he asks, ' Know ye not that your body is ' (in
each separate case ; or better perhaps, according
to another reading, 'your bodies are') 'a temple
' of the Holy Spirit which is in you ?'
6. This figure of a Temple has several points
in common with that of a Kingdom, from which
it is distinguished in its essential scope. In both
there is the design of the whole to which the
parts are subordinated, a variety of office and po-
sition in the constituent elements, a central power
on which the stability of all depends. But there
is no necessary connexion between the Temple
and Him Who dwells within it, such as is implied
in the reciprocal duties of governor and governed.
The house may be defiled or desolated, while the
198 The Church a Body.
CHAP. in. occupant seeks some other abode ; but the King
is such in virtue of his special sovereignty. Briefly
the Temple prefigures the Church in its outward
fabric, in its splendour, in the vastness of its plan,
in the variety of materials of which it is con-
l Cor. iii. structed, in the consecration of all which men
~l f\ ft
have to GOD by men and so through GOD by His
Presence. It is the material as contrasted with
the moral type of the Christian society.
7. But there is yet another image under
which St Paul presents the relation of the Church
to GOD. It is not only His Kingdom, and the
Temple of the Holy Spirit : it is also the Body of
Christ. Our Lord indicated this vital connexion
between Himself and His disciples in the parable
of the Vine and the branches; and after His
Death and Resurrection the truth thus signified
grew plainer and more prominent. It was seen
that Christians had not only severally works to
do, but different works : they were felt to be not
branches merely, but members of Him from whom
they drew their life. So it is that this idea of the
Church as the body of Christ includes in itself
both the idea of the Kingdom and that of the
Temple. Sovereignty and organisation are im-
plied in the Headship of Christ, and in the
mutual action and dependence of the members :
The images of the Church. 199
external structure and multiformity and consecra- CHAP. in.
tion, in the framework of the body, and in the
variety of its parts, and in the relation of the
whole to the vital Spirit by which it is informed.
But it also adds much to the ideas which it thus
harmonises. The connexion of life is substituted
for that of government or occupancy. We live in
Christ, and He in us. We grow in Him ; and He
is seen more and more perfectly in the society of
Christians. The government of a society shews
something of the character of the ruler : the fabric
of a building something of our conception of him
for whom we rear it ; but the body reveals in part
the very person of him whose it is, and is the
organism by which alone his acts can be mani-
fested or fulfilled.
8. We are not perhaps justified in pressing
the details of these three images in an examina-
tion of the general characteristics of the Christian
Church. The images indeed are by no means
always kept distinct. Language borrowed from
one is used in the development of another. ' Ye l Pet. ii. 5,
' ...are built up a spiritual house... ye are a chosen
' generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a
' peculiar people.' The gifts which Christ has
variously distributed among men are 'for the Eph.iv.12.
' building up of His body.' ' Know ye not that is ( 19.
200 The images of the Church.
CHAP. HI. 'your bodies are members of Christ ?... Know ye
' not that your body is (or bodies are) a temple of
'the Holy Spirit which is in you ?' One relation
runs into the other, just as in all other cases
we stand in threefold connexion with Him who
created, redeemed and sanctified us. But without
insisting on the minute interpretation of the
figures so much at least is evident, that they mark
the Church as ruled by a personal Governor, pos-
sessed of an outward organisation, inspired by an
immediate divine life. What light then, it may
be asked, does the Resurrection throw upon the
nature of this Kingdom of GOD, this Temple of
the Holy Spirit, this Body of Christ, for it is with
this subject only that we are immediately con-
cerned.
John xviii. 9. ' My Kingdom,' our Lord said, in answer to
Pilate, ' is not of this world.' And yet He added
presently, ' Thou sayest [rightly] that I am King.
' For this purpose have I been born, and for this
' cause have I come into the world that I may
'bear witness to the Truth. Every one who is
' of the Truth heareth my voice.' The Resurrec-
tion was the passage to the proper realm of truth
of that which really is ; and in the contempla-
tion of the Resurrection the Christian learns some-
thing of things as they are in the sight of GOD.
A spiritual realm opened to us. 201
The Resurrection is a new birth : to realise it as CHAP. m.
an actual fact with the consequences which it in-
volves, is to share in it ; and thus we gain the full
meaning of Christ's words to the Teacher who
seemed to boast of the insight into spiritual things
which his training had given him : ' Verily, verily, John iii. 3.
' I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he
' cannot see the kingdom of GOD' he will have
no faculties to apprehend that which it contains.
Plato, in one of his grandest myths, has repre- Plat,
sented the progress of unembodied spirits in the p '247'.
train of the gods in the face of all that is. When
they fall to earth, as their powers fail them in
their course, their destiny is determined by the
clearness and extent of the impressions which they
retain. These recollections form the basis of all
that men know of truth. The Christian reverses
the idea. He is going to a kingdom of absolute
Truth, and is not fallen from one. The Resurrec-
tion is the bridge by which the passage to the
unseen is effected. Resting on that he looks out
to the heavenly state of which he is a citizen : he
feels the constraining force of his allegiance to a
spiritual King: he apprehends something of the
divine hierarchy, to a fellowship with which he is
admitted, and according to whose laws he works :
he sees the enemies against whom he has to con-
tend, ' principalities, and powers, and rulers of the Eph.vi. 12.
202 The Church as a Kingdom.
CHAP. m. ' darkness of the world, and spiritual wickedness
'in the heavenly realm.' The order, the scene,
the persons, the objects of this spiritual kingdom,
answer to what we see now on earth, but no more.
A new heaven and a new earth await the mani-
festation of Christ, even as men themselves will
be transfigured by His presence (n. 47, 48).
10. It is obvious that there is great danger
in dwelling exclusively on this royal aspect of the
Church. It is likely that in such a case either the
relations and duties of men on earth will be neg-
lected and disparaged, or conflicts and differences
here will be absolutely confounded with those which
are essentially spiritual. History furnishes many
examples of both errors. 'The kingdom of GOD'
has been the watchword equally of those who have
cast aside the restraints and claims of life, and of
those who have sought to mould its form by the
most merciless fanaticism. And it was perhaps
in part due to their vivid anticipation of Christ's
Return with kingly majesty that the early Chris-
tians took so little interest in civil affairs. Yet this
cannot justly be turned to their reproach ; for it
must be remembered that in the Roman Empire
politics, as we understand the word, had no place ;
and Christianity, as such, has no special relation
to any one form of government. In the long run
The manifold building of the Church. 203
it tends to certain social results, but in virtue of CHAP. HI.
its universality it is capable of the highest per-
sonal development under any outward circum-
stances.
11. But the Church is not a Kingdom only.
It is a structure complex and multiform. The
society as a whole is a dwelling-place of the
Holy Spirit. It is reared from age to age by the
accumulated efforts of all who serve GOD. Each l Cor. ill.
12.
brings that which he has of special worth and it is
built into the fabric. All work is not the same
work, yet all which can bear the presence of GOD
is equally employed in some part or other of the
spiritual ' building.' If the notion of a Kingdom
suggests the essential majesty of the Church, this
of a Temple brings out the human interest of its
progress. So it was with the structure which
suggested the image of St Paul. 'Forty and six John ii. 20.
' years was this Temple in building,' and it carried
with its foundations the memories of ten cen-
turies. So it is with our Christian Temples
which combine and hallow the thoughts and gifts
of successive ages. And the spiritual reality
answers to the material figure. The Church is
itself the record of its history : it is a monument
and a shrine. Each race, each nation, each
century, nay each faithful workman, has left
204 The manifold building of the Church.
CHAP. in. some mark upon it. Time gradually harmonises
parts which once seemed incongruous. Additions
which were at first thought to mar the symmetry
of the plan are felt at a later period to increase
its richness. One Spirit hallows all, and that
Spirit is a gift consequent on the Resurrection.
The local withdrawal of Christ from among men
in the one limited form in which they had known
Him, and the transfiguration of that form ' by the
'glory of the Father,' were the conditions through
which they could realise His unseen presence
John xvi. through the Spirit. ' It is expedient for you that
7
' I go away/ the Lord said to His disciples on the
eve of His Departure ; ' for if I go not away, the
' Comforter will not come unto you ; but if I depart,
' I will send Him unto you.' He first wakened
their souls to the perception of His new Life, and
then removed all which might still seem to con-
John xx. fine its manifestation. ' Cling not to me,' was the
17
Bom. vi. 4. loving reproof to her whose eyes He had opened
by a familiar word, ' for I am not yet ascended
' to my Father.' No love, however true, which
sought to keep Him as He was seen on earth,
could know the fulness of Christ's majesty. The
Ascension was the necessary completion of His
work. So only could men trust in His abiding
power ever testing, and receiving and consecrat-
ing the many offerings of every generation, and
The Church the visible Body of Christ. 205
using all in due measure for the service of that CHAP. m.
society in which He was pleased to dwell.
12. So far we have touched upon those
aspects of the Church which represent its eternal
constitution and its temporal growth. The Re-
surrection gives force and distinctness to both.
But it is more especially in the last figure of the
Church, as the Body of Christ, that it finds its
peculiar application. The idea which this figure
expresses springs indeed properly out of the belief
in a Risen Saviour. Anticipations of the idea are
found in the later discourses of Christ which have
been already noticed ; and elsewhere He spoke of
His continual presence among men in the per-
sons of the poor and of His ministers. But these
and other intimations of like kind fall far short of
the full grandeur of the conception which St Paul
lays open. Nor can it be without significance
that the revelation is made to us through him
who was resolved not to know 'a Christ according 2 Cor. v. 16.
' to the flesh,' and to whom the Lord was first ma-
nifested in the majesty of His divine glory. The
Church is (if we may so speak) the visible Body
of the Risen Christ : it is through this that He
still works, in this that He still lives.
13. Three principal relations are included in
206 Christianity in relation to Paganism.
CHAP. in. this conception of the Church as the Body of
Christ. Christians as such are essentially united
together in virtue of their relation to Christ, and
that irrespective of any feeling or will of their own.
Next they are bound to one another by the obli-
gation of mutual offices, the fulfilment of which is
necessary for the well-being of the whole. And
lastly, all alike derive their life from their Head
Who is in heaven. The Body is one : it is multi-
form ; and it is quickened by a power which is not
of itself but from above. Now this element in its
constitution, now that, is brought into prominence,
but none can be neglected if we wish to form an
adequate notion of its power and functions. For
the present it will be enough to consider a little
more exactly the principle of unity, and that in
which the unity consists, the principle of life.
The multiformity of Christendom will be noticed
sufficiently while we endeavour to establish its
unity.
14. Before doing this however it may be well
to notice how the fundamental idea of Christianity
as the basis of a society is related to the corre-
sponding ideas of Judaism and Paganism. It has
been frequently argued that modern civilisation
has lost some essential element of good which
ancient civilisation possessed. It has been said
Christianity in relation to Paganism. 207
that we are less self-reliant than the nations of CHAP. in.
classical antiquity : less conscious of a Divine Pre-
sence than the Jews. Without pausing to inquire
whether this is so in fact or not we may be
contented to ask whether there is anything in
Christianity itself which tends to produce such a
result : whether the evil or loss if it be actual is
also necessary.
15. The noblest lesson of Paganism is with-
out doubt the revelation which it makes to us of
the inherent dignity of human nature : of the
powers of endurance and self-denial and faith : of
the perceptions of beauty and truth : by which
the soul is at all times capable of asserting its
divine relationship. The work of Paganism was,
we are led to believe, the complete exhibition of
these natural faculties, in their strength and in
their weakness. The nobility of man as man and
as standing apart from GOD is that portion of its
teaching by which it still appeals most forcibly to
the sympathies of our own time. There is a dark
side to the picture which we are apt to forget, but
still there is an abiding grace and manliness in
classical life as it is seen in history and literature
and art. Unaffected interest in every human
feeling, manysided culture, stern and indomitable
will, claim our respect and awaken in us respon-
208 Christianity in relation to Paganism.
CHAP. in. sive efforts. But so far as we admire Paganism
there is nothing in Christianity antagonistic to it.
Paganism closed its eyes to suffering and death.
Christianity takes account of the whole nature of
man, of its good and its evil, and justifies in the
face of the contradictions of life the instinct which
affirms its dignity. It looks death face to face
not as an inevitable necessity but as a final conse-
quence of sin, and yet realises even now more than
a victory. It lays bare, what each one must feel
for himself, our natural infirmity, and yet ratifies
the bold words of the heathen poet that ' men are
Acts xvii. ' GOD'S offspring' and sets before believers as the
28
2 Pet. i. 4 a i m f their faith a more complete ' fellowship in
' the divine nature.' It represents life as a struggle,
and yet as a struggle only to realise the blessings
which are already won for man and within his
reach. It claims his entire homage, but at the
same time it consecrates to its own service the
natural exercise of every power which he pos-
sesses, and the fulfilment of every situation in
which he is placed. It looks upon the world as
suffering with him, but it regards it no less as
destined to share his glorious future. It differs
from Paganism as a whole differs from a part.
It takes up into itself and harmonises with the
rest of our experience the isolated truths to which
Paganism bears witness.
The principle of unity. 209
16. This is equally true of the relation in CHAP. in.
which Christianity stands to Judaism. If Pa-
ganism is a testimony to the self-assertion and
independence of man, Judaism is the confession of
his dependence. In the first we contemplate man
in himself: in the other man as the creature of
GOD. In Paganism, at least when it reached its
full development, an appeal is made to a com-
mon conscience, or to necessary laws of thought,
or to history : in Judaism the binding message is
' the Word of the Lord.' In the one men obey,
because they recognise the essential justice of the
command or submit to a stronger force : in the
other the statutes of right are not primarily based
on intuitions or suggested by experience, but em-
bodied in a Law which is absolute, not in virtue
of its inherent character but as coming from JE-
HOVAH. The one, if we look to the principle by
Avhich it lived, is a witness to human freedom : the
other to Divine sovereignty. And as the principles
which they respectively embody are eternal, so are
the spirit of Paganism and the spirit of Judaism.
The history of Christianity is little more than the
history of the approximate harmonization of the
two. Now the solution turns in this direction
and now in that, according as the spirit of Greece
or of Rome prevails the theology of Athanasius
or of Augustine but apostolic Christianity recog-
W. R. 14
*
210 The principle of unity
CHAP. in. nises and hallows both elements. The coming of
the Lord invests humanity, even as it is, with a
more awful majesty than man could have claimed
for himself; and at the same time connects the
realisation of that majesty with the direct revela-
tion of the Divine Will. Paganism proclaims the
grandeur of man : Judaism the supremacy of GOD.
Christianity accepts the antithesis and vindicates
by the message of the Resurrection the grandeur
of man in and through GOD.
17. This then is the work of Christianity,
first to establish the common dignity of men as
men, and to place on a sure basis all purely human
virtues ; and next to connect the life of men
with its source and consummation and bring it
into fellowship with GOD. Both these results are
grounded on the historic facts, of the Gospel.
The unity of the Christian Society, to which
potentially all men belong, depends not on any
personal feeling but on a common relation in
which men as belonging to the society stand to
GOD. And the reality of this divine fellowship is
at once the seal of the nobility of man and the
pledge of the possibility of its final perfection.
l Cor. xii. 18. 'As the body is one,' St Paul writes,
I O 1 Q
'and hath many members, and all the members
in Christianity. 211
' of the ' body being many are one body : so also is CHAP. in.
' Christ. For in one Spirit we all were baptized
' into (i. e. by baptism incorporated in) one body,
'whether we be Jews or Greeks, whether we be
' bond or free ; and were all made to drink 2 one
' Spirit.' Here the unity is seen to spring out of
a definite outward act, and the participation in a
spiritual blessing consequent upon it. No other
conditions are added. Yet it must be observed that
according to the formula which Christ Himself en-
joined, baptism includes a profession of faith, such
as has been connected with it in all ages, in which
the historic facts of the Lord's Life are plainly
set forth. Hence in another place St Paul says
more fully : ' There is one body, and one Spirit, Eph. iv. 4.
' even as ye were called in one hope of your calling :
' one Lord, one faith, one baptism.' The act once
done brings with it, in virtue of Christ's work, fel-
lowship with Him, in which lies unity. ' Know ye Bom. vi. 3,
' not that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus
' Christ, were baptized into His death ? Therefore
' we were buried with Him by baptism into death ;
' that like as Christ was raised up from the dead
' by the glory of the Father, even so we also should
' walk in newness of life.' Here the issue is viewed
from the human side. It is ours to realise in
action the fulness of the heavenly life of which
1 Omit one. 2 Omit into.
142
212 The principle of unity
CHAP. in. we are made partakers. Elsewhere it is viewed
in relation to GOD, and in this aspect all is accom-
Eph. ii. 5, plished once for all. ' When we were dead in
'sins [Goo] quickened us together with Christ,
' and raised us up together [with Him] and made
' us sit together in the heavenly realm in Christ
' Jesus.'
19. The participation in Christ's Death and
Resurrection through Baptism is then the final
condition of unity : to work out the Resurrection
in life the means and measure of its preservation.
For unity is not uniformity. Differences of race,
class, social order obviously have no influence
upon it. They are of earth only. But more than
this, it is consistent with serious differences in
the apprehension of the common faith on which
it reposes. St Paul naturally insists on the re-
moval of the partition between Jew and Gentile
Eph. ii. 15. by the Death of Christ, whereby He ' made of
' twain one new man.' Primarily without doubt he
regarded the contrast as it was before the Gospel ;
but it seems equally certain that he included
within the scope of Christ's reconciliation those
diversities of opinion by which the Jewish and
Gal. ii. 7 ff. Gentile Churches were separated. The Apostles
of the circumcision recognised in him the aposto-
late of the uncircumcision ; and he gladly received
in Christianity. 213
from them ' the right hand of fellowship.' The CHAP. in.
divergences of practice between the teachers, and
of belief to a certain extent between the disciples
of the two schools, were not sufficient to destroy
their true unity. Love still found its expression
among them in acts of charity. It was only Gal. ii. 10.
when the attempt was made to enforce one partial
system as universal that the unity of the whole
was endangered. The first serious effort to esta-
blish uniformity threatened to end (as it did after
the time of the Apostles) in a schism.
20. It may not indeed be a mere fancy to
regard the manifold appearances of the Lord after
His Resurrection as prefiguring in some way the
varieties which should exist in after time in His
Church. The unity of His Person was not in any
way impaired, and yet He shewed Himself to His
disciples in different ' forms.' And it may be still Mark xvi.
that the faithful eye can see a Body of Christ ' '
where His Presence is hidden from others. For
even in the one body, there are many bodies;
and as the whole Church is sometimes contem-
plated in its completeness as distinct from Christ,
though most closely bound to Him, as His bride ; Eph. v. 27.
so also is the same true of separate Churches. ' Ye 2, 9.
' are a body (not the body) of Christ, and members L C r ' *"'
'in particular' St Paul says to the Church of
214 The principle of life
CHAP. in. Corinth. The definite article destroys the force
of his argument. And so again in his second
2 Cor. xi. Epistle : ' I espoused you ' the congregation to
which he is writing ' to one husband, that I may
' present you as a chaste virgin to Christ.' Thus
the whole is not only relatively complete but it is
made up of parts (so to speak) similar to itself.
And this is true if we regard even the ultimate
members of which it is composed. The individual
Christian a temple of the Holy Spirit as well as
a living stone of a more glorious Temple is like
the special Church of which he is a member, even
as this is like that Universal Church in which it
discharges some special function.
21. But while the Christian, the separate
Churches, and the Universal Church have seve-
rally, in some sense, a completeness in themselves,
yet their real life is solely in their connexion with
iCor.xi.3. Christ 'the Head of the man,' and 'the Head of
Eph.iv.16. ' the Church.' From Him flows that energy by
j " 9 - which every member is enabled to discharge its
function effectually and in due proportion to the
harmonious working of the whole : from Him,
that power of love by which the several parts are
fitted and knit together: from Him, that vital
force by which the multiform body ' increaseth
'with the increase of GOD.' Each phase of this
in Christianity. 215
divine Life is distinctly marked. 'The bread' CHAP. m.
the heavenly manna ' which I will give,' the Jolmv i- 51 -
Lord said. ' is my flesh, for the life of the world.' John xiv.
19.
' Because I live, ye [my disciples] shall live j h n xi.
'also' 'I am the Resurrection and the Life.'
' Ye died/ St Paul writes to the Colossians, ' and Col. iii. 3,
' your life hath been hidden with Christ in GOD ;
'but when Christ is manifested, our Life, then
' shall ye also be manifested with Him in glory.'
' It is no longer I who live,' he says in another Gal. ii. 20.
place, ' but Christ liveth in me.' ' He that hath l John v.
12
' the Son hath life ; but he that hath not the Son
' of GOD hath not life.'
22. It is then necessary to bear two things
in mind in treating of the Unity of the Church.
The Unity of the whole is consistent with a wide
variety of parts, each having to a certain degree
a corresponding unity in itself. And next, the
essential bond of union is not external but spi-
ritual : it consists not in one organisation but in
a common principle of life. Its expression lies in
a personal relation to Christ and not in any out-
ward system. Of the life of the Church part is
open, part is hidden. We can see divisions, dif-
ferences, limitations; but all that is eternal and
infinite in it, all that controls actions which per-
plex us and harmonizes discords which are un-
216 Essential unity does not
CHAP. in. resolved to our senses, is not to be perceived on
earth but is with Christ in heaven.
23. It follows necessarily from what has been
said that external, visible, unity is not required
for the essential unity of the Church. To recur
to the example which has been already used, the
congregations of Jewish and Gentile Christians
were no less One in Christ, though the outward
fellowship between them was imperfect or wanting :
their common life lay deeper than the controversies
which tended to keep them apart. Their isola-
tion was a proof of imperfection, but not of death.
What errors are deadly, it does not fall to our
part to attempt to determine. It is enough to
observe that differences of opinion which were
once thought by many to be fatal to unity were
really consistent with it. The promise of Christ
does not reach to the unity of the outward fold
John x. 16. at any time. 'Other sheep,' He said, 'I have,
' which are not of this fold : them also I must
' lead, and they shall hear my voice ; and there
'shall become one flock, one shepherd' one
flock in however many folds it be gathered,
because it listens to the voice of the One Shep-
herd.
24. If the true unity of the whole Church,
require external unity. 217
which is derived from the participation in the CHAP. in.
Spirit of Christ, is compatible with the existence
of outward divisions on earth, it is no less
compatible also with the existence of independent
centres of local and partial authority in its mani-
fold organisation. Christ Himself is the One
Head; and He left no single successor to repre-
sent in outward form the relation in which He
stands to the Body. For a time indeed an idea
seems to have prevailed in one province of Christ-
endom that the office of Christ (if we may so
speak) and not of the Apostles only was to be
perpetuated. The Jewish Bishops of Jerusalem,
who were taken as long as might be from the
family of the Lord, were held by many to be (even
though they did not claim the title themselves)
His successors. They were, according to the title
claimed for them, ' bishops of bishops.' Their
authority as far as can be learnt now was sup-
posed to extend over the whole world and not
to be confined to a single diocese or district. They
symbolised the idea of an earthly kingdom, which
was characteristic of the party who professed to
maintain their opinions. It would be idle to
speculate on the form which this belief might
have taken if Jerusalem had not been destroyed.
As it is, it is impossible not to feel that the effect
of the desolation of 'the Holy City' must have
218 The end of the world.
CHAP. in. been to chasten and purify (as soon as they could
bear the discipline) those who had hoped to mould
the Christian Church after the pattern of Judaism.
The conception of unity based on a historic and
divine succession in the religious centre of the
world was proved to be no part of the true idea
of the Church. The thoughts of men were turned
with a deeper faith to that 'Jerusalem which is
' above,' to which from the first St Paul had di-
rected them.
25. These considerations tend to remove a
difficulty which has been often felt in dealing
with the interpretation of the New Testament.
The Apostles, it is urged, looked for an immediate
' end of the world,' and the event shews that they
were in error. Yet to any one who really pene-
trates below the surface of the first age it will be
equally evident that 'the end of the world' was
expected and that it really came. It is possible
that the Apostles themselves, like the prophets in
earlier times, did not realise the mode in which
their expectations would be fulfilled : it is certain
that many who heard them affixed false and chi-
merical interpretations to their teaching; but in
the light of Christian history their written words
were fully accomplished. The destruction of Je-
rusalem is ' the meeting of the ages/ the death of
How external unity was aimed at. 219
the ' old world' and the birth of the ' new world.' CHAP. in.
The Lord ' came' when the acknowledged centre
of ' the people of GOD' was desolated. A spiritual
and universal Presence was substituted for a
material and local Presence. The lesson of the
Resurrection replaced the lesson of the Law. A
fresh 'age' (ceori) began its course destined itself
to culminate in another 'coming' of which the
first was a living figure. In a religious aspect all
things were essentially become new. Christianity
had first vindicated its inheritance in the past,
and then in due time it asserted its independence.
26. The outward unity which was aimed at
in the early Jewish Church was based upon a
religious idea. The outward unity which after-
wards grew up round the Roman Church sprang
from political influences. The two systems are
essentially distinct in their origin, though finally
they can be traced in theory to the same prin-
ciples. The Roman system became in the end
what the Jewish system was from the first, but
with one remarkable difference. The priesthood
which was in both cases the visible representative
and instrument of the theocracy was limited in
Judaism to a distinct family succession: in Ro-
manism the succession was spiritual and effect-
ually disconnected from hereditary ties. In the
220 The extent of permissible variation
CHAP. in. Christian Church of Jerusalem the fleshly descent
from a sacred stock was observed for several gene-
rations, but there is no trace of a similar custom
at Rome. The idea of spiritual supremacy seems
indeed absolutely to exclude it. But it must be
enough to have indicated the external contrast
between systems essentially similar. This is not
the place to follow out the steps of their parallel
but converse development. Nor can we dwell on
the marvellous process by which the Roman
Church was prepared for the preservation of
Christianity on the dissolution of the Empire. It
would be foreign to our purpose to trace the steps
by which the bishop of the imperial city received
one by one the prerogatives of sovereignty, and in
due time seated himself on the vacant throne of
the Caesars. It would be equally out of place to
attempt any estimate of the strength which the
mediaeval Church thus received for the execution
of the work with which it was charged. The facts
are of vast significance, and occupy so large a
space in the history of Christendom that they may
not lightly be passed over. They formed, as we
may well believe, part of the providential scheme
of the historical growth of the Church. But the
unity to which they led was no necessary part of
the constitution of the Church. It answered to
the one Empire of the first age, and not to the
not to be determined antecedently. 221
many kingdoms of the maturer life of Europe. CHAP. m.
It supplied a bond between the disorganised na-
tions till the states-system into which they were
formed was firmly consolidated. Under its pro-
tection the Romanic and German elements were
allowed to gather strength till they were ready
to fulfil their independent office. But without
dwelling upon this temporal function of the ex-
ternal unity of the Christian society we can at
least see from the fall of its prototype after the
Jewish Return (l. 27 f.) that the spiritual
unity of the Church is independent of it. The
outward unity arose from historic causes : it was
broken by historic causes. No external organisa-
tion can supersede the original relation in which
the Society stands to its Founder. The gift of
the Holy Spirit was the outward sign of the ele-
vation of humanity to glory at the right hand of
GOD : the sharing in that gift is the life of the
Church : the absolute oneness of the source from
which the gift flows is the ground of essential
unity in the congregations of which the Church is
composed.
27. But though the principle of the unity of
the Christian Church is spiritual and not neces-
sarily connected with uniformity of constitution or
even with intercommunion, it by no means follows
222 Possible divisions illustrated
CHAP. in. that the outward organisation of the whole of the
constituent Churches is a matter of indifference.
On the contrary the direct teaching of the Resur-
rection points to the inherent connexion between
the outward and the spiritual, the organisation
and the life. The range of variation in the con-
stitution of the Christian societies must be limited
by their fitness to embody the fundamental ideas
of Christianity. Of this fitness history on a large
scale gives the final judgment. Whatever may
be the immediate result of controversy, however
false may be the issues on which it is decided,
however blinding the influences by which its pro-
gress has been modified, in the end it is seen in
its true light, and the final judgment which is
ratified by general practice or belief is commonly
the true one. In this sense history is the arbiter
not of truth but of the right embodiment of truth.
The early records of the Church are little more
than the records of conflicts which once seemed
doubtful ; but in each case that which had in it
the element of permanence lived on, and Catho-
licity stood in full strength against the broken
forms of partial and erroneous teachings.
28. It is possible perhaps to extend this view
of a historic development of Christianity to later
ages. It seems difficult to believe that the Greek
by the Idstory of the Jewish Church. 223
and Latin Churches include the only two great CHAP. m.
aspects of Christian truth, so that it remains for
us at present only to recur to the principles on
which they were built, and to strive vainly to re-
produce in another period a transcript of the past.
The vast advances of civilisation, the further
growth of national life, the wider range of know-
ledge, which brings with it the recognition of the
importance of special views, seem to force upon
us the conviction that the various Churches of
modern times fulfil under the changed conditions
of society the same functions as could be discharged
in earlier times by a single Church. Even in
the history of Judaism something of the same
kind may be noticed. In no way, as we should
judge, could the possibility of variation, and still
more of division be excluded with greater certainty
than by the institutions of the Jewish Church, and
yet in that Churoh outward union was soon broken,
and the rupture if not expressly sanctioned was
in the end implicitly accepted by the divine pro-
phets of Israel. Israel was 'made to sin,' and
yet even so while their primal sin remained they
were not abandoned by GOD. The Temple the
permanent (i. 25) symbol of unity was hardly
completed, before a large part of the nation was
shut out from the use of it. The political and
religious schism of which Israel was a monument
224 History of the Jewish Church.
CHAP. in. was not passed over without rebuke, but in spite
of that a distinct spiritual work was carried on in
Israel, not less blessed by outward signs than that
which was simultaneously accomplished in Judah.
At a later time the office which was discharged by
the Jews of the Dispersion, and specially by the
Alexandrine Jews, in modifying and extending
their traditional faith, was still more manifestly
recognised by GOD in the providential office which
He allowed it to fulfil for the spread of Chris-
tianity. Here as elsewhere it appears as if the
sins and wilfulness of men gave occasion to the
accomplishment of the Divine plans. These in-
deed were not dependent on such evils for their
fulfilment; but yet it seems as if GOD were pleased
to use our imperfections for the complete exhi-
bition of His will. The rebellion of Israel, the
schism of Alexandria, the permanent settlement
of Jews throughout the East and West which in-
volved a violation of large parts of the Mosaic
law, were in themselves evils, and had their spring
in selfishness and disobedience, but none the less
they served to work out a vast counsel, which, as
far as we can see, could not otherwise have been
perfected. Thus in the history of that earlier king-
dom of GOD, which was essentially outward, we are
taught by special examples not to judge every-
thing by our own standard of unity. And at least
Variation no sanction of Sectarianism. 225
no argument can be drawn from the circumstances CHAP. in.
which attend the rise of any great movement
against the importance of the part which it may
have to discharge in the furtherance of the pur-
poses of GOD.
29. But it may be said that such a view
sanctions sectarianism. If we are to suppose that
the form of the Christian Church in each nation
will (within certain limits) embody the common
peculiarities of national character, just as on a
larger scale the Greek Church is Orthodox and
the Latin Church Catholic, differences will still
exist in the body thus formed. Each nation will
include men most widely at variance in their
religious tendencies. Are they then to be held
blameless if they seek to attach themselves to a
communion which expresses most clearly their
own views ? The national character is not reflected
in them ; and the same general principle which
justifies the formation of a separate national
Church may be appealed to in support of an in-
definite number of subordinate associations.
30. Disregarding for the present all con-
siderations of ecclesiastical organisation, it may be
sufficient for us to answer to such a line of reason-
w. R. 15
226 The admission of variation
CHAP. in. ing that it applies equally well to all social com-
binations. No one will deny that there is a
tendency in every nation towards the establish-
ment of the government best suited to it. This
tendency which may be latent in the mass, though
really there, will be developed most strongly in
those who are the true leaders of popular thought.
And though various obstacles may hinder or
modify the embodiment of the idea which they
represent, in the end it finds an adequate expres-
sion. But even then individuals in the state
will find themselves at variance with the consti-
tution. This divergence however will not release
them from the duties of loyal obedience, nor yet
deprive the government of its right to be regarded
as the representative of the national feelings. The
state though made up of individuals has an exist-
ence of its own. The individual will exercise his
full influence in preparing for further changes,
but meanwhile the whole claims a sacrifice of the
part. It is so also in the case of a national Church.
No general principles can be laid down to justify
a schism or a revolution. The future alone can
decide on the sufficiency of the alleged causes
from which they arose. And in many cases the
issue which is sanctioned by experience may have
been occasioned though not caused by selfish
motives.
no sanction of Sectarianism. 227
31. In the history of the Church no less than CHAP. in.
in the history of nations we have to deal with
humanity in which sin is active already. It would
be easy to shew that among perfect men every
blessing would arise naturally and completely
without conflict or division, which in our present
state is realised through these exceptional means
in pain and at best partially. But as it is, conflict
and sorrow are the means by which the powers of
men, material and moral, are braced and purified.
The existence of distinct nations with rival in-
terests is practically necessary for the full de-
velopment of those special powers in each which
holds out the surest promise of a final union
of men. And so the antagonism of separate
societies of Christians serves not as the best,
but as the most appropriate, discipline for bring-
ing out the manifold applications and capacities
of the one Gospel.
32. History has in fact sanctioned divisions
in the Christian Church whatever we may think
of the events which first led to them, or of the
actors by whom they were made. However deeply
we may deplore the loss of that outward fellow-
ship which would, if it could have been preserved,
have increased a thousandfold the power of the
Church upon the world ; yet it is impossible not
152
228 Progress implies antagonism
CHAP. in. to feel that GOD has revealed His purposes and
furthered His work not only in spite of, but
even through the separate societies which have
severally appropriated this or that part of the whole
truth as the characteristic object of their devout
study. And even without regarding the lessons
of the past it is hard to see how the fulness of
Christianity could have been manifested among
men otherwise than by antagonism and conflict.
Antagonism is in our present imperfect condition
the preliminary to our apprehension of anything
which is not itself absolutely bounded by our
finite powers. Every spiritual truth can be fol-
lowed out to a final antithesis ; and this antithesis
finds its most complete expression in societies
rather than in individuals.
33. The same law which holds in all other
fields of human activity, holds also in the noblest.
The condition of advance in the comprehension
of the whole Gospel is the special mastery through
the circumstances of life of its constituent parts.
Progress implies a separate development of powers.
The tendency to division grows as knowledge
widens. There was a time when all nature
seemed to lie within the range of one mind.
Deeper inquiry has shewn that each fragment
includes phenomena which may occupy a life-
and individuality. 229
time. And so it is in religion. The complexity CHAP. in.
of modern society, which is in part a creation of
Christianity, lays before us endless problems of
right and duty, and opens countless avenues for
the entrance of truth into the manifold life of
men which could not have been presented if all
the conditions of existence had been similar. As
a necessary consequence of this, each nation, each
association, each man has, in proportion to the
distinctness of character, a tendency to do one
thing; and the tendency to do it springs (as a
general rule and upon a large scale) from the
fitness for doing it. There is thus, in virtue of
the universality of Christianity, a constant ap-
proximation towards the complete manifestation
of its power. And when each age and race and
individual has fulfilled its proper function and
so far as it fulfils it a glorious harmony must
result, which is true Catholicity.
34. The recognition of some such historic
development of Christianity, varying according to
the wants of particular ages or races, as belonging
to its present form, restores to the divided Churches
a true unity. One of the earliest images under
which the unity of Christendom was described
was that of many streams flowing from one source.
The longer the streams flow, the greater will be
230 The Unity of the Church
CHAP. in. their divergence ; but the divergence is due to
progress and does not in any way destroy the
original unity of the waters which pass along the
various courses. But the streams will not always
be divided. They start from one source and they
end in one ocean. They have been united out-
wardly, and they will again be united. Mean-
while the fashion of their currents is moulded by
the country through which they pass, and this in
turn furnishes the peculiar elements which they
bear down to their common resting-place to form
the foundations of a world to come.
35. There is indeed much of human selfish-
ness in the present administration and conduct of
Christian societies, even as there was in their
establishment and organisation. It is not argued
that the divisions as we see them are not de-
formed by much that is unchristian. They are a
witness to human imperfection ; but at the same
time they shew how the failings of man are over-
ruled to the furtherance of his highest destinies.
They belong to an order of things in which sin is
realised and not only possible (n. 23 ff.); but
they are made an occasion during this brief time
of trial for the salutary discipline and fruitful de-
velopment of powers which cannot yet be harmoni-
ously concentrated on one end. On the whole a
seen in its historical, Development. 231
fictitious unity is more destructive of vital energy CHAP. in.
than partial dismemberment, for it tends to weaken
the striving after essential unity. The disruption
of the visible Church was a calamity which still
impedes its action, though even thus, as by the
fate of Jerusalem, we are taught to look above
for the source of the one life by which its parts
are seen to be inspired. The petty rivalries of
the day are an evil, though they are an evil which
may be borne. But the line of thought which
has been opened leads to a trustful and reasonable
view of Christendom. It enables us to regard the
progress of the Church as we regard the progress
of civil society ( 38). It encourages us to extend
our sympathies beyond the limits of our own com-
munion : to look forth without despair upon a
world, in part hardly reached by the very sound
of Christ's message, in part divided as to the
exact meaning of it. It teaches us to watch with
patience the slow and painful and wavering ad-
vance of truth through long ages, as falling in
with what we observe in nature of the enormous
scale and gradual progress of the accomplishment
of the operations of GOD (i. 2, 3). The example
of the Jewish Church, the legible chronicle of past
centuries, shews that under circumstances similar
to those which exist now, though simpler and
narrower, He wrought out His work and used
232 The Development
CHAP. in. the fruits of man's wilfulness and one-sidedness
for the accomplishment of His designs. So we
trust it will be now, and in confidence we can
fulfil the task which we find ready to our hands,
without distrusting the means placed within our
reach for furthering the coming of the Kingdom
of Christ.
36. Some law of development Christianity
must have. The Christianity of the first age,
regarded as a whole, is not the Christianity of
any later age; and no view of the Church can
be complete or satisfactory which does not include
and explain the principle of the change. It is
impossible for a Christian of to-day to date the
descent of his faith from any critical epoch in
modern times, and neglect ten or fifteen centuries
as a mere parenthesis in the history of the Ca-
tholic Church. All the past is included in the
present. The Reformation was the fruit of ages
gone by no less than the germ which should
spring to maturity in ages to come. There can
be no suspension in the fulfilment of the divine
promise, however varied may be the forms under
which it is accomplished. The leaven still works
in the manifold mass : the seed advances stage by
stage towards its ripe perfection : the tree grows
under every change of season and climate, and
one of organisation. 233
offers shelter to all who repose beneath its CHAP. in.
branches. Each image under which we are taught
to contemplate the function of the Church pre-
sents at once an element of permanence and an
element of change. There is the essential life
by which the whole body is quickened, absolutely
one and immutable, and the organisation which
the vital force moulds and by which it reveals
itself, which is mutable and fashioned out of ele-
ments earthly and transitory. But even so the
continuity of the organisation is necessary for the
preservation of the complex life.
37. The principle of life is one and immutable.
In this there is no development. The faith which
is written in the facts of the Gospel, and the im-
mediate apostolic interpretation of them, admit
of no necessary and authoritative additions. A
dogmatic development of Christianity, in the sense
of an increase of the fundamental doctrines of the
faith, is foreign to the whole spirit of the apostolic
writings, and is itself inconceivable without a new
revelation. Such a development would only take
place by the addition of new dogmas in virtue of
the direct action of an adequate power, or by
deductions from existing dogmas. But both me-
thods are excluded by the nature of the case.
Christianity rests essentially on facts. Its ele-
234 The Development not of
CHAP. in. mentary doctrines are presented to us in the
shape of facts ; and thus, even if any central
power existed with absolute dogmatic power, new
facts would be required for the basis of new doc-
trines, for the Apostles declare with unmistakeable
distinctness the full significance of the Incarnation
and the Mission of the Holy Spirit. And again,
the truths which answer to the facts of the Gospel
belong in themselves to a higher form of exist-
ence, and cannot be brought within the domain
of our powers of reasoning. Every process which
we pursue involves necessarily at each step limita-
tions (as, for example, of time and space) to which
the Divine Being is not subject. Every conclu-
sion, therefore, which we form, so far as it is
presented as an absolute truth, must have in it
an element of error. Indeed, on reflection, it
cannot but seem infinitely presumptuous that we
should venture to speculate on that of which, even
in its simplest form, we can give no positive con-
ception. Nor is there any characteristic by which
the apostolic writings are more clearly distin-
guished from the greatest writings of masters of
theology than the absence in them of secondary
deductions from the principles which they enforce.
In this respect they differ equally from the meta-
physical and speculative theology of the East, and
from the moral and legal theology of the West.
Doctrine absolutely. 235
They contain a record of facts, and an immediate CHAP. in.
application of the facts, but no more : life and
not thought is the object to which they primarily
minister, and so they minister (as no other
writings ever could do) to thought through life.
They set forth with simple distinctness that a fact
or truth is, but not how it is or why it is. What
there is more than this in later speculations, how-
ever beautiful and however precious it may be, is
wholly different in kind. From the first the
difference has been instinctively felt. The records
of the most critical struggle for the truth in the
history of the Church shew how widespread was
the unwillingness to introduce into the historic
creed of Catholic Christendom a single word which
was not found in the Scriptures though it was the
necessary exponent of their teaching in opposition
to error: the language of the noblest champion
of orthodoxy shews how far he was willing to
dispense with the acceptance of a word when the
fact which it imperfectly expressed was admitted.
38. But while the principle of life, the record
of the facts of the Gospel, remains the same, the
form in which it is embodied may change. Thus
we naturally turn to history as shewing the con-
ditions and ruling the mode of the development
of Christianity. Here we can see on a large
236
CHAP. in. scale how the same truths are apprehended by
different races, how they are embodied under
different circumstances and according to different
modes of thought, how they conquer, and array
themselves in the spoils of the conquered. No
one would deny that in successive ages special
aspects or parts of Truth are brought out. The
general outline of the history, including both the
history of dogma and the history of practice, has
a necessary connexion with that of civil and intel-
lectual history. The one is, so to speak, a func-
tion of the other. And it follows that as we can
trace in the general condition of man a constant
advance towards a true fulfilment of the capabili-
ties of his nature, so we may hope for a corre-
sponding progress in the Church, towards that
ideal which is held before us in Scripture as its
proper consummation. Advance in the first case
is not only consistent with wars, revolutions, iso-
lated action, but (as far as we can judge) is even
dependent on these which we are tempted to call
hindrances in its way. And it may be so with
Christianity. The divisions and rivalries and
heresies and schisms by which the Church is torn
may be means towards the fulfilment of its office.
As we look back we can scarcely doubt that it
is so. The storm no less than the sunshine is
needed that the rainbow, the visible token of
to the progress of Society. 237
GOD'S covenant with man, may be seen upon the CHAP. in.
cloud.
39. It is indeed impossible to regard the
Church as a body without recognising the neces-
sity of a constant change in its organisation.
Growth itself is change ; and in proportion as the
life of the body is complex we may expect the
forms in which it is clothed to be varied. There
are times when the individual is forgotten in the
society, and conversely when the society is for-
gotten in the individual. In the apostolic view
of the future of Christianity there is a distinct
recognition of a progressive work in both. The
life of the Church is continuous even as the life
of the man ; but with this difference (as we have
seen, 20), that this life is manifested not in one
outward embodiment, but in many, which are
severally similar to the whole which they combine
to form.
40. It is no part of our task to attempt to
follow out in detail the various phases of the life
of the Christian Churches. But it would not be
difficult to shew that institutions or dogmas have
wrought a most important work for the cause of
Christ in one age, which in another have been
converted into obstacles to the full apprehension
238 Developments
CHAP. in. of the Truth. There is always a great danger
that that which has been found of critical use at
one time will be pronounced necessary for all time.
Mistaken gratitude changes the outward means of
deliverance into an idol. The organisation through
which the spirit once worked is reckoned holy,
even when the spirit has left it. And thus that
which once was a development of life becomes a
corruption, not because it has (in every case)
changed in itself, but because it stands in a different
relation to the whole. The work of the mediaeval
Church (for example) required modes of operation
which could not be retained now without a faith-
less neglect of the lesson which GOD has taught
us in the last four centuries. The same pheno-
menon meets us at every step in the economy of
individual life. The seed from which rises the
fruit-bearing tree, to which the visible society of
Christendom is likened, gives birth to a thousand
successive organisations, from the seed-leaf to the
flower, which fall away when their peculiar office
is fulfilled. They perish, but their work remains,
and remains because they perish.
41. This consideration brings with it the
answer to a general objection which may be urged
against the belief in a divine historical develop-
ment of Christianity. It may be said that the
often transitional. . 239
development is due to the imperfection of man : CHAP. in.
that so far from carrying forward the perception
of the Truth, he lowers the truth to his own level
and confines it in a form borrowed from his own
weakness. The objection is true if it be directed
to any particular point of the development. The
Truth itself is infinite, and it is simply because
the powers of man are imperfect and finite that
any development is necessary. He can only
realise step by step, and by successive efforts,
what is indeed from the beginning 1 . According to
the position in which he finds himself, he takes
now this, now that fragment of the whole, because
it meets his wants. Every embodiment of the
Truth must be wrought out in this way. And the
nearest approximation which we can form to the
complete truth is by the combination of the par-
tial realisations of it which history records. The
imperfection of each stage of the development is
then only perilous when an attempt is made to
transfer the forms of thought or practice of a parti-
cular period to another, without any regard to their
bearing upon the whole life of the time. The
interpretation of Ecclesiastical history, like the
interpretation of Scripture, is based upon a pro-
portion. Neither admits a rigid literalism. The
1 Augustine's enforcement of this truth in one of his most
pregnant passages is full of interest : Enarr. in Psalm, xliv. 5.
240 Scripture the test of Development.
CHAP. in. training of the child and of the man will be dif-
ferent, if both are according to the same law ; but
the man may learn still (if he reads them rightly)
from the lessons of the child.
42. It is not denied that there will be a
tendency in man not only to seize that element
in the Truth which he himself needs, but also to
exaggerate its importance, to array it in fancies
of his own, to transmit his embodiment of it as
an inviolable heritage to all who shall come after.
If it were not so, superstition would have no
vitality. But while we look to history for the
record of the continuous growth of the Church,
we carry the Holy Scriptures with us, as the test
whereby to try the essential value of each de-
velopment. The history of the Old Covenant is
enacted afresh in the history of the New. The
fulness of the apostolic writings has not yet been
exhausted in the life of eighteen centuries. The
providence of GOD is at every stage interpreted by
His Word. The spirit of the Resurrection tries
and transfigures each transitory embodiment of
Truth.
43. The same test which is applied to the
past history of the Church, can be applied to the
present. The vast complexity of modern life, the
The complexity of the present age. 241
various degrees of national culture, the broad CHAP. in.
differences between class and class in the same
nation, set before us simultaneously, so to speak,
distinct periods of the simpler life of the ancient
world. We live (and the statement is not a mere
figure) in the presence of many ages. We cannot be
surprised then if we see around us many Christian
societies distinct, and subserving in virtue of their
distinctness to distinct types of thought and feel-
ing. Differences which once were found in the
same external body are now seen embodied in
separate societies. We lose something by the
change, but the gain must not be neglected. We
are led to look for the spiritual basis of unity in-
stead of reposing in the fact of formal unity. And
more than this. The full development of each
part is best secured by independent action. Divi-
sion (if we regard the imperfection of our nature)
appears to be the preliminary of that noblest
catholicity, which will issue from the separate Eph.iv.16.
fulfilment by each part in due measure of its
proper function towards the whole. Thus the
material unity of Judaism is transformed into the
moral unity of the Apocalypse. The unity which
was at first spontaneous becomes at last conscious,
tested in all its elements and made perfect by
conflict.
w. R. 16
242 The /auction of National Churches.
CHAP. in. 44. It has been urged against this view
which leads directly to the recognition of national
Churches as a providential mean towards the com-
plete exhibition of Christianity, that national
Churches are 'contradictory to the nature of a
religious body' and ' opposed to the genius of
Christianity.' If Christianity were of this world
only, a simple organisation for social and political
discipline, the objections would be true. But they
fail because the Church is a religious body, par-
tially manifested on earth but drawing its life from
an unseen source, and one because that source of
its life is One. In this respect the idea of the
Church may be compared with the idea of hu-
manity with which it is potentially commensurate.
The existence of separate and conflicting nations
is not destructive of the moral unity of the whole
body of mankind, but rather on a large view is
seen to minister to its external realisation in the
long succession of ages. And so with the Church,
though in this case the unseen principle of unity
is far more easily apprehended, the distinct embo-
diments of partial sections of it tend to bring about
in the end that complete development which
will answer to the fulness of its divine life. The
separate Churches thus become as individual
members in the larger body, and, like single men
themselves, contribute by the most distinct pro-
Churches 'redeem each other! 243
servation of their individuality to the perfection CHAP. m.
of the whole. In the light of the Resurrection
all the powers of man in their most free combi-
nations are capable of transfiguration.
45. But it will be obvious that this division
of Churches, like the division of nations, is only a
transitional phase in the whole history of human-
ity (comp. 26). It belongs not to the early but
to the later stage of its development. Nay rather
if the history of the ancient people of GOD may be
taken as a type of the progress of the new ' world'
it appears to be the latest stage in the evolution
of ' the present age' and to precede a more imme-
diate revelation of the Divine Presence. However
this may be, the faint recognition of national
Churches is not a mere 'resource in the face of
' overwhelming difficulties,' but a testimony to the
power of Christianity to find for itself new organ-
isations to meet new phases of society. Mean-
while we can be content to find in this diversity of
operations scope for the most devoted energy and
the firmest faith. It has been nobly said that
' nations redeem each other.' One supplies that
which another lacks in moral character and pur-
pose ; and the existence of a deficiency in one
place is not unfrequently the stimulus and the
occasion for the display of the corresponding virtue
162
244 Grounds of hope in the
CHAP. in. in another. At least it is evident that we cannot
understand how with our present powers the full
grandeur of humanity could be exhibited or deve-
loped except by the coexistence of many peoples
distinct and even antagonistic. And that which
is true of humanity in a political or social aspect
is true of it also in a religious aspect. Separate
organisations appear to be as necessary for the
complete manifestation of the many sides of Chris-
tian truth in relation to man, as they are con-
fessedly for the manifestation of national life.
But we do not rest in the contemplation of a
divided humanity or of a divided Church. Under
the varieties of race and character there exist
tokens of an essential union which may yet be
realised and towards which the current of events
is ever turned. There are indications, faint it may
be and often baffling, of a common life grander
than the life of men and the life of nations, which
is struggling to assert its sovereignty. And in the
Church there is yet more than this, the certainty
of the presence of a Holy Spirit who ' is able to
' subdue all things unto Himself But whether
we look to nations or Churches, it is needful that
we should pause before we claim to exercise the
prerogatives of a knowledge which belongs to a
higher sphere. As citizens arid Christians we
stand in varied relations to a universe of which we
midst of antagonism. 245
can see but the least part. This world is not all ; CHAP. m.
and if we look confidently for a unity of the whole,
we dare not attempt to construct it in imagina-
tion upon the little field which is open to us.
46. The forms which present divisions as-
sume are, it is admitted, and must remain causes
for the deepest sorrow. Nothing can be more
grievous than the partial wilfulness with which
Christian men and Christian societies exalt from
time to time with an idolatrous devotion special
fragments of truth, which tend to lose their essen-
tial character by being isolated, But such reflec-
tions as have been suggested, while they leave
the special evils of a divided Christendom just as
they are, yet enable the devout mind to regard
them without despair : nay more to regard them,
as it would regard the disorders of the physical
world, with quiet confidence and faith. We can-
not yet see how the whirlwind or the earthquake
falls in with an infinitely benevolent system of
nature ; but we do not doubt that it does do so.
In looking on human life we have even better
grounds for faith. There we can see faint begin-
nings of a final harmony, converging tendencies
towards a divine order, which will embrace all the
varieties of thought and life in their richest
fulness. When we see what the belief in Christ
246 Conclusion.
CHAP. in. and the power of His Resurrection has done, how
it has interpreted and made its own this and that
instinctive feeling, how it has found an embodi-
ment, natural if not complete, under every variety
of external circumstances, how it includes in it-
self a principle of unity capable of combining
whatever there is in these of permanent value,
we can look out upon the conflict of sects without
distrust, and look forward to that golden age to
which and not from which the history of the
Church advances.
47. Nothing is more paralysing than a sense
of isolation : nothing is more cheering than a con-
sciousness of fellowship in the combined action of
a great nation or of a great society. Christendom
is weak not only because it is divided but chiefly
because each section is enfeebled by a sense of
the littleness of its power as it measures the tri-
umphs of Christianity by its own peculiar stand-
ard. Our strength will be indefinitely increased
if we believe that GOD works not only through us
or in our way and according to our notions, but
uses us according to the measure of our capacities,
and others with us in the accomplishment of the
design of His Love. Every energy will be turned
to its proper work as our thoughts rest on the
glory of the Risen Saviour.
Conclusion. 247
48. Wherever we look the first question CHAP. in.
which arises is ever: To what purpose is this
waste ? On all sides we see a prodigal wealth of
powers which to us appear to pass away without
effect, of germs of life which never fulfil what we
think to be their proper destiny, of beauty which
gladdens no human eye. In the moral world the
same mystery recurs. One man out of many, one
family of many, one nation of many, one world of
many (if our thoughts dare wander so far), are
centres of blessings of which all are equally capable
of sharing, and we cannot trace the law by which
their influence gradually reaches to the furthest
limits of being, while we see multitudes perish
unconscious of their common heritage. All na-
ture teaches the same lesson. ' We know in part.'
It is enough. If Christ be risen, in that fact lies
the pledge of ' the restitution of all things' towards Actsiii.2l.
which men are encouraged to work.
APPENDIX I.
ASPECTS OF POSITIVISM IN RELATION
TO CHRISTIANITY 1 .
6 ovv dyvoovvTfs evffepeire rovro yu Kar
Acts xvii. 23.
Catecliisme Positiviste, on Sommaire Exposition de la Religion
Universelle. Par AUGCSTE COJITE. Paris. 1852.
Sys&me de Politique Positive, ou Trait de Sociologie Instituant
la Religion de 1'Humanite. Par AUGDSTE COMTE. Paris.
18511854.
I.
"1VTO religion can fail to be a fruitful subject of APPENDIX
-L i study : even the rudest reveals something of the I-
natural feelings and wants of man which are awakened
by the experience of life. And exactly as we believe
Christianity to be the Truth, we shall confidently
expect to find in it all that is true in the manifold
expressions of human thought. Thus it has happened
not unfrequently that independent speculations or
instinctive aspirations have brought out elements in
the Gospel which had been before overlooked or set
1 This Essay originally appeared in the Contemporary
Review.
250 Aspects of Positivism in
APPENDIX aside. They were there, and even actively at work,
but they were not consciously apprehended. And
so it seems to be now. The religion of Positivism
is offered as the final result of a profound analysis of
society and man, and its unquestionable attractive-
ness to pure and vigorous minds indicates that it
does meet with some peculiar force present phases of
thought. Are there not then lessons which we may
learn from it 1
While I endeavour to answer this question, I
shall be content to take Comte's own conclusions,
without discussing the processes by which he obtains
them. The strength of the Positivist philosophy lies in
its method ; the strength of the Positivist religion lies
in its conception : and the Positivist alone is concerned
with reconciling the two. That which is at best only
a hypothesis for the Positivist may prove to be a
reality for the Christian ; and while I set aside the
physiological basis of the Positive religion, it need
scarcely be said that I do not propose to deal with
the principles of Positivism as furnishing a method
of philosophy. I desire simply to explain what Comte
lays down as the essential bases of religion, from an
exclusively human point of view, and to consider
whether his exposition throws any light upon neg-
lected aspects of Christianity.
But though this is not the place to discuss the
philosophic aspect of Positivism, one remark is un-
avoidable. It seems to be generally assumed that
there is some fundamental antagonism between the
Positive method and Christianity. Nothing, I be-
lieve, can be more false. I should even venture to
Relation to Christianity. 251
maintain that the spirit of Positivism is more in APPENDIX
harmony with a historic religion than that of any
other system of philosophy. It knows nothing of
causes, and consequently decides nothing prior to
observation. It refuses to recognise absolute laws,
and consequently is always ready to take account of
new facts. As against a metaphysical theism the
arguments of Positivists may perhaps avail; but they
are inherently powerless against a faith which is
based, not on subjective theories, but on outward
events, of which all personal experience and all social
development furnish the adequate and only conceiv-
able verification.
This being so, it is evident that a Positivist in
philosophy may be a Christian in religion ; and the
religion constructed on Positivism may, as far as it
goes, illustrate or confirm the doctrine and consti-
tution in which the Church has embodied the facts of
the Gospel. How far this is so is the subject with
which we have now to deal. And with this problem
before us, it would be superfluous to criticise the errors
and misrepresentations to use no harsher terms
with which Comte's religious writings are disfigured.
He puts them forward so boldly and so frequently,
that no one moderately conversant with Christianity
can be misled by them 1 . It is equally unnecessary to
exhibit his weaknesses. Others, who have dwelt on
these with more than necessary detail, have paid the
penalty of becoming blind to what there is really
1 Something has been said in a former paper on Comte's
fundamental misconception of the idea of Christianity, Gon-
temporary Review, vi. pp. 417 ff.
252 Aspects of Positivism in
APPENDIX noble and just in his teaching. And it is with this
I- that we are concerned. A system is formidable, not
by what there is false in it, but by what there is true
in it. If then it can be shewn that Christianity assures
what Positivism promises if it can be shewn that it
includes in a fact what Positivism symbolises in a
conception if it can be shewn that it carries on to
the unseen and eternal the ideas which Positivism
limits to the seen and temporal we may be sure that
Positivism will have no lasting religious power, except
as a transitional preparation for a fuller faith. Comte
will be one more in the long line of witnesses who
shew that the soul is naturally Christian 1 .
II.
To some however it must seem strange to speak of
any system as a religion which does not recognise the
action of a Personal God. For us indeed the idea of
religion is so naturally connected with that of theology,
1 In this unconscious prophecy of faith, Comte offers a sin-
gular parallel to the great poet of the Roman Republic. Both
were bitterly hostile to the established faith of their countries.
Both sought to lay in the study of nature the firm basis of
human life and hope. Both were profoundly impressed with
the sense of the unity of the world. But, in spite of the simi-
larity of the moral position of the two teachers, we feel that
they are separated by more than eighteen Christian centuries.
Lucretius sought in the explanation of the origin of things that
confidence which Comte looks for in the observation of their
being. The one feels his way towards the intellectual concep-
tion of a harmony of nature ; the other, towards the moral
law of the discipline of life. Both, as it seems, were heralds
of a crisis of thought. To both the Resurrection is the com-
plete fulfilment of aspiration and teaching.
Relation to Christianity. 253
that it requires a serious effort to separate the two. APPENDIX
A perfect religion must indeed take account of three I-
elements the individual, the world, and GOD ; but
an imperfect religion can exist, if the individual
recognises without him an infinite power, contem-
plated as personal, and such as to claim the complete
devotion of the worshipper. The Great Being of
Comte the sum of all humanity, past present and
future practically satisfies the condition of infinity ;
and it satisfies the condition of personality by the
concession which is made to each worshipper to re-
present it to himself under some definite historical
or imaginary type. In fact, we may be driven to ask
ourselves whether the Being which some Christians
worship is less truly an abstraction than the idealised
humanity of the Positivists.
But while we must never leave out of sight, in
dealing with the Religion of Positivism, the funda-
mental defect which mars its completeness, it is
necessary to remember that this is not the only form
in which a religion can be founded upon a dualism,
though it is that most repugnant to our instincts.
Dr Newman, in a striking passage of his ' Apologia 1 ,'
has sketched the permanent influence of evangelical
teaching upon him, which consisted in ' confirming
' me,' he says, ' in my mistrust of the reality of
' material phenomena and making me rest in the
' thought of two, and two only, supreme and luminously
' self-evident beings myself and my Creator.' Thus,
1 P. 59. It is however difficult to judge whether Dr Newman
himself holds this to be the final analysis of the elements of
religion.
254 Aspects of Positivism in
APPENDIX as Comte leaves out the Deity from his elementary
L conceptions, another school leaves out the world. A
little reflection will shew that a system based upon
either dualism is irreparably though not equally im-
perfect. The one passes into Secularism, the other
into Mysticism ; while the fulness of Truth springs
from the co-ordination of both.
There can be no doubt that the quotation from
Dr Newman expresses the popular view of the con-
stituent elements of religion, though this personal
antithesis is more truly characteristic of Protestantism
than of Roman Catholicism. It is therefore easy to
see in which direction the study of the Positive
religion is likely to be fruitful to us. By dwelling
on the relations of man to humanity and to the
world, Comte has again vindicated for religion its
social destination. Since the Reformation, the general
tendency of religious influences has been to indivi-
dualism ; and thus a bold and exclusive enunciation
of the complementary aspect cannot but contribute to
the restoration of the true harmony between personal
and social religion which Christianity, as we believe,
alone contains.
III.
Having thus indicated the one vast lacuna in
Comte's theory of religion, and the manner in which
his system is likely to supplement other popular
theories, we may proceed to trace the outlines of it
as he has drawn them. ' Religion is,' he says, ' the
' complete harmony proper to human existence, indi-
Relation to Christianity. 255
' vidual and collective, when all its parts are brought APPENDIX
'into due relation to one another 1 .' It is for the L
soul, in other words, what health is for the body 2 ;
and as health is essentially one, though in all cases
variously and imperfectly realised, so too religion is
essentially one, though it is attained in various forms
and in different degrees. Even to the last, it is an
ideal to which each specific type is an approximation 3 .
The object of religion, corresponding to this
definition, is set forth as twofold. It is destined at
once to discipline (regler) the individual, and to unite
(rallier) the separate individuals in a harmonious
whole. It aims at personal unity and social unity 4 .
And the same influences which tend to correct the
selfish instincts of each man, tend at the same time
to bring all men into a true and lasting concord 5 .
And as the aim of religion is twofold, so also is
its base. It reposes on an objective and on a sub-
jective foundation 6 . Without, there is the external
order, in itself independent of us, which necessarily
limits our thoughts and actions and feelings. Within,
there is a principle of benevolent sympathy, which
1 Politique Positive, n. 8. Compare Catechisme, p. 2.
' [Religion] indique 1'etat de complete unite qui distingue notre
4 existence, a la fois personnelle et sociale, quand toutes ses
' parties, tant morales que physiques, convergent habituelle-
' ment vers tine destination commune.'
Thus Comte adopts the derivation from religare, and not
from relegere, which Augustine also defends : De Vera Religione,
55 ; Retract. 13 (the whole of this revision is full of interest).
2 Pol. Pos. I. c. 3 Pol. Pos. I. c. Cat. 3.
4 Pol. Pos. ii. 66. Cat. I. c.
5 Pol. Pos. ii. 10. 6 Pol. Pos. ii. 12, 17, 25. Cat. 28.
256 Aspects of Positivism in
APPENDIX prompts us to look beyond our own wants and wishes,
* and to seek in a wider harmony the satisfaction of
the deepest instincts of our nature.
The same dualism is extended also to the com-
position of religion. It has an intellectual part and
a moral part. The former includes the adequate con-
ception of the general laws of physics, of life, of so-
ciety, to which our feelings and our actions are subor-
dinated. The latter, under the shape of discipline,
regulates our conduct at once public and private, and,
under the shape of worship, guides and intensifies our
feelings. Briefly, the sphere of doctrine is thought,
and its end is the True ; the sphere of discipline is
action, and its end is the Good ; the sphere of worship
is feeling, and its end is the Beautiful. And, as a
whole, religion teaches us to know, to serve, and to
love the great Being, in whom all that falls within
the range of our power is summed up '.
IV.
In this view of the character and scope of religion,
which no one can deny to be grand and comprehen-
sive, even while it lacks the Christian elements of
infinity and personality which we necessarily crave,
one point is of commanding importance. Religion,
Cornte tells us, is the bringing into harmony the
order without us and the spirit within us ; the last
and perfect combination of faith and love 2 . This
conception is the true key to his whole system. Our
chief work, therefore, is to learn the character of the
1 Pol. Pos. ii. 19 ff. 2 Pol. Pos. ii. 16.
Relation to Christianity. 257
bases on which these final principles respectively APPENDIX
repose.
On the one side then we have a vast external
order, of which a fuller knowledge is gradually un-
folded in the long course of ages, whereby we appre-
hend it as within certain limits at once fixed and
variable. Step by step we are forced to contemplate
the phenomena which it presents as falling into
groups, and connected with one another by certain
relations of sequence. The laws of observation which
we thus form are extended gradually from physics
to life, and from life to history, till we feel that not
only are the ages permeated by ' an increasing pur-
' pose,' but that all being also is united by one prin-
ciple. The efforts of Reason and the juxtaposition
is important naturally culminate in the nobler efforts
of Faith 1 .
This order is apprehended, as has been said, as
being both fixed and variable; and in both respects it
affects us beneficently. The fixity furnishes a solid
basis for our thoughts and actions, and, by making
foresight generally possible, saves us from idle specu-
lation and from misdirected energy. At the same
time it sets an impassable limit to personal caprice,
and, by basing all life upon submission, prepares
men for sympathetic effort as united in obedience to a
1 Pol. Pos. n. 25 ff. p. 17. ' L'6tat religieux repose done
' sur la combinaison permanente de deux conditions egalement
' fundamentals, aimer et croire, qui, quoique profondement
' distinctes, doivent naturellement concourir. Chacune d'elles,
' outre sa necessity propre, ajoute a 1'autre un complement
' indispensable a sa pleine efficacite.'
W. R. 17
258 Aspects of Positivism in
APPENDIX common supremacy'. Its variability, on the other
L hand, is the pledge of progress. It stimulates specu-
lation by suggesting a series of problems of surpassing
interest. It guides activity by opening fields for
labour, and substituting fruitful obedience for passive
resignation. It represses at once asceticism and
mysticism by offering its greatest blessings not to
personal, but to social labour 2 .
Such according to Comte is the objective base of
religion. On the other side, it is observed that there
is an internal tendency in man, springing from be-
nevolent affections, which carries him beyond himself
in the search after his proper happiness and dignity 3 .
Just as the laws of the external world are only
slowly arid partially made known, so this inner life is
brought out by the gradual evolution of society. The
love of the Family passes into the love of the State ;
and the love of the State rises into the all-embracing
love of Humanity.
This tendency also, like the external order, is at
once fixed and variable. In some shape or other, it
will make itself felt in every man. It may be dwarfed
and neutralised by atrophy, or strengthened and
ennobled by exercise. But in its normal development
Love spontaneously apprehends by moral intuition
what Faith systematically constructs by intellectual
processes ; and at the last both coincide in their com-
plete fulfilment. Faith sees the harmony of all things,
which Love feels.
1 Pol. Pos. n. 28 ff. 2 Pol. Pos. ii. 37 ff. Cat. 16, 41.
3 Pol. Pos. n. 14.
Relation to Christianity. 259
Nor may we forget that while the ultimate ob- APPENDIX
jective and subjective bases of religion are thus
broadly distinguished, there is yet always a human
element in our conception of the Cosmos, and a
cosmical element in our feelings as men. The unity
of the world is subjective 1 . The laws of phenomena
are gained by the abstraction of the constant part
from the variable. And conversely, the development
of love is objective. It gains strength only as it is
manifested according to the conditions of our exist-
ence. Man indeed is himself, according to the wise
instinct of old philosophers, a microcosm, including
in his own person the action of all the laws which
we observe without us, and supplementing them by
that higher law of love whereby he alone is capable of
religion 2 .
According to this exposition, it is evident that
religion is built upon knowledge, and the Positivist
system of doctrine is simply the outline of the
hierarchy of the sciences, which are severally subordi-
nated one to another, and each regulated by its
peculiar laws. In due succession the believer or the
student for the words become synonymous learns
to appreciate the universal laws of number, time, and
space, by which all our definite conceptions are ruled ;
next he passes to those of physics, which are more
complicated and less general ; then to those of che-
mistry, which brings him to the verge of life. The
investigation of the laws of life leads to that of the
1 Pol. Pos. n. 32 f. Cat. 36, 77.
2 Cat. 95, 122.
172
260 Aspects of Positivism in
APPENDIX laws of society ; and the last and crowning science
L in this scheme is that of morals 1 .
Such an encyclopaedic review of the great depart-
ments of knowledge reveals two important principles.
Each science is based upon those which precede it in
the scale, so that in every case the nobler phenomena
are subordinated to the lower. And, secondly, each
science, as it increases in complexity, admits also of
greater variations 2 . To these principles two corollaries
may be added. First, that each series of laws pro-
duces its full effect in every instance, though the
result may be modified by the action of new forces
acting according to new laws. And, again, that the
power of foresight, which measures the definiteness of
the law, varies from absolute certainty in the case of
combinations of number, and the like, to indefinite
doubt when we speculate on the isolated action of
individuals.
V.
One important conclusion follows from this mode
of viewing the relations of religion and science, which
has been commonly lost sight of by physicists no less
than by theologians. If it be true, and it seems to
be incontestable as far as it goes, a conflict between
religion and science is impossible. Not only are the
two subjects heterogeneous, but the results of science
1 The connexion of the sciences is clearly given, Pol. Pos.
n. 58 ff. The most complete examination of their distribution
and relations is in Pol. Pos. iv. 187 ff.
2 Cat. 50, 70, 73. Thus many phenomena will never be
brought under definite laws. Cat. 52.
Relation to Christianity. 261
whether physical or human are part of the data APPENDIX
which it is the function of religion to co-ordinate. L
Moreover, if we complete the great hierarchy of
the sciences by the addition of theology above morals,
it is obvious that the same principles will hold good.
The new science, so far as it deals with facts, will
never be independent of the action of the forces
revealed by the lower sciences ; but it is not itself
shaped by them. In dealing with it, we shall have
to take account of new forces manifested under new
laws, which may modify in a manner wholly in-
conceivable before experience the laws and forces of
the lower sciences ; but theology is no more there-
fore inconsistent with them than the science of
chemistry, for instance, is with the science of life.
It is impossible to anticipate from, the observation
of an inferior science what will be the phenomena
of another above it ; and, conversely, the phenomena
of every superior science will be subject to the laws
of those below it, though they are not explicable by
those alone. A problem in biology cannot be solved
by the application of chemical laws, though these
must be considered in dealing with it ; and so also
a question in morals cannot be dealt with solely by
laws of life, or a question of theology by laws of
ethics; though, in both cases, the subordinate laws
underlie the final result.
Thus the Positive view of the dependence of
religion on science errs by defect, and not in prin-
ciple. It requires to be supplemented, and not over-
thrown. And when the whole cycle of human thought
and experience, of consciousness as well as of obser-
262 Aspects of Positivism in
APPENDIX vation, is brought within the range of scientific study,
* we are first capable of perceiving the full grandeur of
the idea of religion. Its destiny is not only to dis-
cipline (regler) and to unite (rattier), but still more to
reunite (relier). It is the final harmony of man, the
microcosm, not with the world alone, but with GOD.
It is of no moment in this respect what view we
may take of nature (natura, werden). Every fact in
science furnishes new material for religion, and at once
enlarges its scope and tends to define its character.
But, that it may do so, no fact must be looked at by
itself. At present, science suffers at least as much
as religion from partial and contracted views. The
student of physics perpetrates as many solecisms as
the student of theology. Every one would feel the
absurdity of a geometrician denying a fact in morals
because it is not deducible from his premisses ; and
yet it is not a rare thing to hear some explorer of
inorganic nature gravely argue that nothing can be
known of GOD, because his inquiries give no direct
results as to His being or His attributes. Thus eacli
partial observer of ethics, or history, or nature, is
tempted to forget that there are other phenomena
than those with which he deals, and so to use his
fragmentary laws as measures of the universe. The
degradation of science is the inevitable consequence.
But when all observed facts are placed in their proper
categories, whether they be facts in physics, or biology,
or social science, or ethics, or theology, they will, as
we believe, teach us something more of the will of
GOD, which is made manifest to us, according to the
nature of the subject-matter, in the several orders of
Relation to Christianity. 263
being with which each of these departments of know- APPENDIX
ledge is respectively conversant. *
We claim then, by our Christian faith, that the
sphere of religion be recognised as co-extensive with
the utmost bounds of human thought and knowledge,
while at the same time it is dominated by a moral
purpose which springs from sympathy or love. The
personal object of religion the reconciliation of man
to GOD is not likely ever to be absent from our
minds ; but there is at all times a tendency to omit,
at least in popular exposition, this complementary
view of the harmonization of man with humanity and
nature. Scepticism at once occupies the ground which
is abandoned. And in this lies one of the great les-
sons of Positivism, that by asserting religion to be the
complete harmony of man and the Cosmos, it has
forced again upon our notice aspects of Christian
truth which have been more or less hidden since the
teaching of the greatest Greek fathers was superseded
in the West by the necessarily narrower system of
Latin theology. Some conception of the great order
at present we must have 1 ; and if our religion is, as
we believe, the highest expression which can be given
to faith and love, it will embrace this also. We shall
rise beyond the individual standing-point to some one
higher and more commanding ; and while we retain
firmly our original sense of the inestimable worth of
the individual soul, we shall feel also that each is
part of a sublimer whole, extending through all time
and space, and bound by sensible and indissoluble
links to the sum of all being.
1 Cat. 26.
264 Aspects of Positivism in
APPENDIX VI.
i.
It is not difficult to characterise the ideas which
are brought into prominence by this extension of the
religious field of life. The Positivist suggests the
ideas of continuity, solidarity, and totality ; the Chris-
tian, going yet further, adds the idea of infinity ; and
without the distinct recognition of these four ideas, it
seems to be impossible to represent adequately the
message of Christianity, as a historical and sacra-
mental religion, to our own age.
A very little reflection will shew the profound in-
fluence which continuity exercises upon life. When
it is once apprehended, no religion which claims to be
universal can neglect it. Materially, intellectually,
and morally, we are the children of the past, destined
in turn to give birth to a new race which will inherit
all that we possess. Whatever view we may take of
the originative power of the individual, and we claim
necessarily that the personal will shall be admitted to
be an independent force, it is evident that the accu-
mulations of wealth of every form which furnish the
instruments of our action, the treasures of language
which control the general tenour of our thoughts, the
forms and habits of social and national intercourse
which stimulate and guide our feelings, are incom-
parably stronger than any individual power which can
be brought to bear upon them. If it were not so, in
place of society we should have chaos. And all these
are in their source and growth independent of us.
We can watch how, in old times, the various results
of labour and reflection and conflict were gathered up
Relation to Christianity. 265
and perpetuated in abiding shapes ; but we have no APPENDIX
choice but to receive them. It is our privilege to
modify, but not to begin. More and more as the
ages go on, in Comte's striking phrase, we who live
are ruled by the dead, though it is our prerogative to
serve them with a free and willing service, and in our
turn, when our work is done, to be joined with them
in the sovereignty of the future 1 .
Two important conclusions flow from this law of
our earthly existence. The first is, to borrow again
Comte's own phrase, that progress is the development
of order 2 ; and the second, that the thoughts or insti-
tutions of the past can be applied to the present only
by a method of proportion.
As to the first, it is of no moment whether, like
the Positivist, we regard the phenomena of society
simply in themselves, without referring them to any
higher cause, or whether we see in them (as we do)
the manifestation of the will of GOD. No one looking
back over the past can fail to detect a general advance
of humanity, as a whole, in certain definite directions
corresponding to what we observe in the fuller de-
velopment of the man. The progress, on a large scale,
exhibits the harmonious elevation of our whole complex
being, even though periods of devastation and fiery trial
are needed for the preparation of the future growth.
The second consequence, though it is really more
obvious, is more commonly overlooked. Any expres-
sion of popular judgment, whether it be made by
1 Pol. Pos. ii. 61. Cat. 32. The question of hereditary
character deserves more attention from* moralists than it has
received. Cf. Cat. 102. 2 Cat. 108.
266 Aspects of Positivism in
APPENDIX word or by act, is necessarily relative to the time and
L circumstances under which it is made. As circum-
stances change, it does not by any means follow that
the changes in the acceptation of words or in the sig-
nificance of acts will be made in the same direction,
so that the relation between them will remain fixed.
And therefore, if we would gain for ourselves the
blessings which we can refer in past ages to certain
institutions or formulas, it can only be by realising
the relation in which they stood to the whole consti-
tution of society then, and finding their proportional
representatives now. To transfer a form of one age
unaltered into another is in most cases to be faithless
to that very principle of continuity by which we claim
to be children of the first century, or the fourth, or the
ninth, or the thirteenth. We are the children of the
men who lived then ; we cannot be the men themselves.
The doctrine of solidarity is not less fruitful of
thought than that of continuity. It presents to us (if
such an illustration is allowable) in a horizontal sec-
tion a similar succession of varieties of society to that
which we have considered before in a vertical section.
Or, to take another mode of expression, it presents in
the extension of space what continuity regards in the
extension of time. In a family, or a city, or a nation,
we can readily apprehend how the co-existing mem-
bers are bound together so as to form a whole, of
which each part is really, though remotely, united to
the others by material and moral actions and reactions.
Our observation of the subtle influences by which con-
tinuity is preserved helps us to extend this idea yet
further. Nation is thus seen to be moved by nation,
Relation to Christianity. 267
stock by stock, till the whole race, which is connected APPENDIX
spiritually by a community of nature, is felt also to be
connected actually by mutual, though often indirect,
operations of each fragment upon the rest.
Whenever we seize, however tremblingly, as at
best it must be, this vast conception of the Great
Being in which all mankind is for the time united,
it is evident that our views of the destiny, of the
relations, and of the action of men will be greatly
influenced. The thought which inspires hope, and
assures patience, at the same time ennobles labour,
and stimulates action. Hope and patience spring
necessarily out of the application of the lessons of the
past to the present. We can see how rivalries and
conflicts, the rise and fall of principles and states,
the very exhaustion of powers once beneficent and
life giving, have contributed to the whole progress of
human life. We can believe then that phenomena of
the same kind, when co-existent, are no less instru-
mental of good. And it is no objection to this faith
that it is not in our experience converted into sight.
Life would be indefinitely impoverished if the fruits of
effort or suffering were not reserved in, the richest
measure for the future.
The present effect of the idea of solidarity upon
labour and action is perhaps less frequently realised
than the remoter effect which has been just noticed,
but it is at least capable of being far more energetic.
Briefly, it may be summed up in two principles. It
consecrates the permanent variety of functions in life 1 ,
and substitutes duties for rights 2 .
1 Cat. 109, 113.
2 Cat. 289. The conception of salary as simply designed
268 Aspects of Positivism in
APPENDIX As long as we regard individuals as so many
separate units, it is clear that we must regard com-
plete equality as the ultimate ideal of their state.
The object of reform must be to assimilate man to
man. But this chimerical fancy loses all rational
basis when the individual is seen to be the member
of a body which itself is part of a greater whole, of
which the final dimensions surpass all human imagi-
nation. Then it follows at once that complexity of
office is the condition of health. The completeness of
health depends on the completeness of the organism.
Society, in every true sense, would cease to exist
without an abiding distinction of classes. Humanity
would be poorer if it were deprived of any national
or specific types. There is no confusion in the multi-
plicity of service. There is no levelling, no disparage-
ment, in the just subordination of distinct works.
The essential variety, the actual combination, both
belong to the characteristics of life.
And if we apply the principle to the separate
work of each, it becomes, as it were, a revelation of
the moral dignity of labour. No one in any society
works for himself. Each worker is a servant of the
body. He does really co-operate with all for the
good of all. It is only required that he should feel
the destination and the source of what he does and
' a remplacer chez chaque organe social les materiaux qu'il
' consomme toujours, comme provisions pour 'sa subsistance
' ou instruments pour sa function ' (Cat. 116), is worthy of
attention, as well as the principle on which it is based, that
' chaque service personnel ne comporte jamais d'autre recom-
' pense que la satisfaction do 1'accomplir et la reconnaissance
' qu'il procure ' (Cat. 117).
Relation to Christianity. 269
of what he receives. Then at last he would, as APPENDIX
Comte admirably expresses the truth, know that ' to
' live for others ' is but another aspect of ' living by
'others 1 .'
At the same time the transference of our point of
sight from the individual to the body brings out into
clear light the second principle. If the individual be
the centre, then he may have rights ; but if the body
be the centre, he can have only duties. It is possible
that these complementary aspects may be reconciled,
but there can be no doubt which we most frequently
forget. And if we once add the Christian idea of
what the body potentially is, all notion of personal
claims vanishes in comparison with the infinite debt
whereby we are bound, each in our measure, to fill
up that which is lacking to the completeness of the
whole.
The doctrine of what I have ventured to call the
totality of life carries yet one step further the doc-
trines of its continuity and solidarity. It is not only
that the successive generations of men are linked
together by laws which they can only modify, and
not abrogate, nor yet that each generation is inter-
penetrated and united by a common life ; but the life
of humanity is itself ruled, in a great measure, by the
medium in which it is passed. The influence of phy-
sical powers upon man may have been exaggerated,
but we cannot deny that it is real. Comte himself
1 ' Vivre pour autrui devient chez chacun de nous le devoir
' continu qui r6sulte rigoureusement de ce fait irrecusable
' vivre par autrui ' (Cat. 266). To a Christian the words have
a tenfold force.
270 Aspects of Positivism in
APPENDIX does not overstate it. 'The world,' he writes, 'fur-
L ' nishes the materials, and man determines the form.'
' Man is not a result of the world, and yet he depends
'upon it 1 .' The observed variations in the constancy
of the relations of nature and man are not sufficient
to disturb our confidence in the fixity of what we
call natural laws. And, conversely, while the laws
remain fixed, man is so far capable of modifying the
elements through which their action is displayed, as
to seriously alter their total effect. If again we regard
only living forms, here the power of man is supreme.
Some die away at his approach ; others follow him ;
others are capable of receiving what we are forced to
call the moral impress of his character.
To pursue in any detail the consequences which
flow from this connexion of man with the physical
world would be impossible here. It must be enough
to notice the general lessons which it teaches as to
the action of man and the destiny of creation. As
to the first, it shews that the sovereignty of man is
manifested, not in the direct exertion, but in the
guidance of force 2 . The effect in each case depends
not so much on power as on wisdom. In other
words, our true strength lies in taking each discovered
law as the rule according to which we may employ
our* energies, always remembering that the higher
phenomena rest upon and include the lower, and are
modifiable in direct proportion to their complexity.
On the other hand, as man is at present con-
tinually modifying all nature, both spontaneously and
of purpose, it is necessary to regard the connexion
1 Cat. 42, 37. 2 Cat. 105 ff.
Relation to Christianity. 271
thus established as in some sense permanent. We APPENDIX
cannot wholly sever the fate of the lower and humbler L
companions of man, for example, from the fate of
man himself. And perhaps there is nothing more
characteristic of Comte than the almpst importunate
eagerness with which he claims for the animals, which
habitually labour with man to secure his worthy
objects, incorporation, according to their individual
dignity and services, in the great being into which
man himself passes'.
VII.
Now these grand and far-reaching ideas of the
continuity, the solidarity, the totality of life, which
answer equally to the laws of our being and the
deepest aspirations of our souls, are not only recon-
cilable with Christianity, but they are essentially
Christian. The Positivist theory, so far from ad-
vancing anything novel in such teaching, simply
places us once again in the original Christian point of
view of the Cosmos. Once again the divinity of the
Gospel is vindicated by its power, when honestly
interpreted, to stand abreast or in advance of the
noblest generalisations of experience. And this is in
virtue of its essential constitution, intellectually no
less than spiritually. For, because it is contained
primarily in facts, and not in words, it rises beyond
the possible associations of a single age to a full
harmony with universal life. And so, as our view of
life becomes fuller and richer, our view of the Gospel,
1 Cat. 31.
272 Aspects of Positivism in
APPENDIX which is the transfiguration of life, becomes fuller and
* richer in the same degree. Doctrine which is based
upon the Incarnation or the Resurrection must be
progressive, organic, and total. These facts, however
imperfectly interpreted, yet mark human existence
by an advance in a definite direction, by relation to
one centre, by approximation towards a perfect ideal.
They contain a principle of continuous life, a principle
of social unity, a prospect of ' the restoration of all
' things.' And this, too, was the case before history
or science had laid open the general laws of human
progress or the necessary connexion of man with the
world.
Nor, while the facts in themselves are found to
be thus pregnant, does the apostolic interpretation of
the facts in any degi'ee fall short of the meaning
which has been assigned to them. ' It was the pur-
'pose of GOD,' we read, 'that, in the dispensation of
' the fulness of times, He might sum up all things in
' Christ, the things in the heavens and the things upon
'the earth'.'
Because of Christ's Incarnation and Passion, ' GOD
' also highly exalted Him, and gave unto Him the name
'which is above every name, that in the name of
'Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven,
'and things on earth, and things under the earth 2 .'
From Christ, ' which is the head,' ' all the body
( fitly framed and knit together through that which
' every joint supplieth, according to the working in due
' measure of each several part, maketh the increase of
'the body unto the building up of itself in love 3 .'
1 Eph. i. 10. 2 Phil. ii. 9, 10. 3 Eph. iv. 16.
Relation to Christianity. 273
' The earnest expectation of the creation waiteth APPENDIX
'for the revealing of the sons of GOD... groaning and
' travailing in pain together until now '.'
Such language, in its assured confidence, passes
our hope; and as we ponder on it, we may well
doubt whether even to St Paul himself the infinite
depths of wisdom which it contains were open as
they are to us now. Here also it seems as if the
lapse of ages and the slow widening of thought could
alone adequately reveal the significance of prophecy 2 .
But Christianity does not pause where Positivism
pauses, in the visible order. It carries the unity of
being yet further, and links all that is seen with that
unseen which can only be figured to us in parables.
An imperious instinct asserts that our individual
existence is not closed by what falls here under our
senses ; and every indication of the intimate relation-
ship of man with man, and of age with age, confirms
the belief in the further extension of this law of
dependence to an order of being beyond the present.
If we further take account of the many tokens of a
scheme begun and not completed here, which requires
for the present the sacrifice of races, it may be, or
of generations, the same conviction is deepened.
Even in the constitution and advance of society, the
effects of selfishness and sin are so open and great,
that we are forced to look onward to some future
resolution of the discords by which they interrupt the
harmony of life.
From the nature of the case, it is impossible that
we should have any distinct apprehension of this
1 Horn. viii. 19, 22. a Comp. 1 Pet. i. 1012.
W. E. 18
274 Aspects of Positivism in
APPENDIX unseen order. Our utmost resources of language only
J * enable us to combine variously the phenomena with
which we are already acquainted ; and this to which
we are looking is a new order, and not the transfer-
ence of the old to a new sphere. But though our
notions of the future must be vague, Christianity so
treats it as to assure us of our personal hope, and at
the same time to indicate the direction in which we
may look for the solution of the mysteries of society.
In the first place, it accepts unequivocally the
indivisibility of man'. The body is not a burden by
which the soul is temporarily weighed down, but an
essential condition of our personality, to be won 2 and
disciplined, and in the end to be transfigured, but not
destroyed. The central fact in which these truths
are conveyed is absolutely unique, as is the combina-
tion of the truths themselves. Between the Resur-
rection and any of the other raisings from the dead
there is no more resemblance than there is between
the Incarnation and any of the fabled visits of the
Greek gods to earth in human shapes. The same
event which declares the essential permanence of our
whole being shews that the conditions of its action and
existence will be changed. In what way this change
will be accomplished we cannot tell. We know only
that we can draw no conclusions from the limitations
of this world as to the character of the next, and, on
the other hand, that nothing in us will be lost.
Corresponding reflections help us to see how that
which appears to be lost or prematurely carried away
here may have truly fulfilled its work. It is clear
1 Comp. Cat. 24. 2 Comp. 1 Thess. iv. 4 ( K Taff0ai).
Relation to Christianity. 275
that performance is not a final test of character, nor APPENDIX
external action of effect. We are conscious of subtle L
powers about us, which cannot be analysed or re-
sisted. In another order, as we can believe, we may
be allowed to see how these had their origin in silent,
unnoticed, or forgotten souls, which will then be
revealed in the plenitude of their true energy.
The mystery of evil, we allow, still remains ; but
even on this light is cast. It ceases, at least, to be
triumphant or active.
' Then cometh the end when [Christ] shall deliver
' up the kingdom to GOD, even the Father ; when He
' shall have abolished all rule, and all authority and
'power. For He must reign till He hath put all
' His enemies under His feet. The last enemy that
'shall be abolished is death... Then shall the Son also
' Himself be subjected to Him that did subject all
'things unto Him, that GOD may be all in all 1 .'
This sublime prospect lies before us, in which all
the varied developments of life are crowned with
their divine fulfilment. And though the contem-
plation of it may lie without the range of the personal
teaching of Christianity which commonly limits our
religious thought, yet it is a duty to strive, as occasion
may arise, to grasp the full proportions of the hope
which it brings to man and to the world. It is not
always enough that each should feel in his own heart
the power of the Gospel to meet individual wants.
We must claim for it also to be recognised as a
wisdom revealed and realised only in the advance of
time, and embracing in one infinite fact all that men
1 1 Cor. xv. 24 ff.
182
276 Aspects of Positivism, &c.
APPENDIX have aspired to for themselves and for the transitory
** order in which they are placed.
It is our lot to live in an age when this need is
imperative. On all sides there is a restless striving
after some solid construction of truth which may rise
out of and above the results of negative criticism.
Never before were the evils of dispersive study more
apparent or more pressing. Never before were iso-
lated views of truth more capable of being exhibited
in their one-sidedness. Never before was anarchy of
thought and life felt to be more at variance with the
highest destiny of man. Never before was there a
more passionate longing for spiritual unity among
those whom the conditions of life have separated. Of
all these facts the teaching of Positivism is an un-
looked-for and unsuspected witness. At the same
time it seems to point out how we may apply the
apostolic message to combine, and supplement, and
guide, and animate the scattered elements out of
which the future may be worthily built. And while
we thankfully receive the lessons which it gives, we
owe to it also a new confirmation of our historic creed.
For if anything external can re-assure faith, it must
be that the widest interpretation of human progress,
the subtlest analysis of human nature, is only a partial
commentary on the Resurrection.
APPENDIX II.
THE RESURRECTION OF CHRIST A NEW
REVELATION 1 .
I.
IT is greatly to be regretted that those who enter APPENDIX
on the examination of religious questions do not in IL
every case state distinctly the postulates which under-
lie their reasoning. As it is, serious misunderstanding
arises from the use of words which carry with them
wholly different associations, according as they are
used on one side or the other ; and discussions which
profess to be impartial are conducted, it may be even
unconsciously, in the interest of foregone conclusions.
It is obvious, for example, that the idea of a ' sign '
or ' miracle ' is, under particular circumstances,
natural or unnatural according as a man believes, or
does not believe, in a Creator who is still in a living
connexion with His creation. If, again, it is assumed
that a revelation is impossible, the belief in a revela-
tion must be a delusion, and the records which give an
account of its delivery must be incredible. This being
1 This Essay originally appeared in the Contemporary Re-
view, Nov. 1877.
278 The Resurrection of Christ
APPENDIX go, it is clear that the charge which is habitually
n> urged against so-called 'apologists,' of being com-
mitted to the conclusion which they have to establish,
applies more completely to the ' alogists,' who deny
the possibility of revelation altogether. The 'apolo-
'gist' is perfectly free to modify his view of the
methods of revelation, to strive to gain a fuller con-
ception of the unity of the Divine plan, to seek for a
more comprehensive survey of ' nature,' as embracing
the utmost potency of being which falls within the
grasp of his powers ; but the ' alogist ' has barred his
own progress by an absolute negation. ' This and
'this,' he ventures to say, 'cannot be: if it is ever
' said to have been, the statement is inherently false.
'All that remains for the critic is to explain as plausibly
' as he can how the statement gained currency.'
I propose, therefore, in the present paper to state
as clearly as I can under what conditions the Chris-
tian enters on an examination of the evidence for the
Resurrection, what is the Evangelic conception of the
fact itself, how the fact thus interpreted illustrates the
character of the Christian faith generally as a historical
faith, how it bears upon our views of the world and
upon studies of present interest. It is obviously im-
possible to do more than indicate lines of thought in
these different directions. The examination of the
details of evidence belongs to another place. But a
general view of the Christian position, apart from
other advantages, will shew that some of the attacks
directed against it are based on misconceptions.
Three final assumptions are made everywhere
throughout the Bible. It is assumed (1) that GOD is,
a New Revelation. 279
and that He is righteous and loving ; (2) that man APPENDIX
was made in the image of God ; and (3) that man has IL
fallen. It is taken for granted that these statements
correspond with man's constitution, and that he is
directly conscious of their truth. They lie beyond
the region of debate. It is indeed possible to shew
not only that they fall in with what we can observe,
but that the sum of experience illustrates and con-
firms them ; still, if they be denied, argument is
useless. No ' proof ' can establish the existence of a
Heavenly Father, the GOD of conscience, and not 'the
' Absolute Being ' of ontology. No ' proof ' can shew
beyond contradiction that we can hold intercourse
with Him, the finite with the Infinite. No ' proof '
can demonstrate that that which is to lift us up must
be outside us and above us. But we claim that these
ultimate facts are given in germ, in consciousness.
We claim that those who have attained to the maturity
of self-knowledge under normal conditions recognise
them as true. They form for us the presuppositions
of all religious controversy 1 .
Assumptions of the same kind underlie all reason-
ing ; they are not peculiar to theology. The belief in
the external world, and the belief in our own personal
responsibility, rest on grounds exactly similar to those
which support the belief in a Heavenly Father. Each
of these three ultimate beliefs is open to specious
1 This is not the place to explain more at length or to de-
fend these presuppositions. I wish simply to mark clearly the
position which Christian critics occupy. It is evident that all
examination of evidence involves some presuppositions.
280 The Resurrection of Christ
APPENDIX objections ; each belief is maintained by the require-
II- ments and the experience of living.
Several important conclusions follow immediately
from these assumptions. If GOD is the Father of men,
it becomes probable that He will under certain cir-
cumstances make His presence felt by peculiar 'signs/
and that these ' signs ' will bear a definite relation
both to the Divine lessons with which they are con-
nected and to the persons to whom the lessons are
addressed. It becomes probable, further, that, when
the discipline of humanity is regarded on a large
scale, these special manifestations of the Divine will
appear to be analogous to crises in the development of
the individual life, in which exceptional powers are
active for a time and then subside, all being harmonious
parts of one life. And again, to look at the subject
from another point of sight, if we derive our being, it
matters not through what descent, from a good Creator,
each natural desire or instinct of man carries with it
the promise of fulfilment. It is not conceivable that
he should have been endowed with aspirations which
must always remain unsatisfied. He may be unable
beforehand to anticipate how they will be satisfied ;
he may even form false and confident anticipations
but after the event it must be discernible that the
satisfaction is real. If we feel that the scheme of
things in which we are placed is true, if we feel, that
is, that the apparent signs of progress which it exhibits
reveal its essential nature, we cannot doubt that the
characteristic tendencies of human action and feeling
and thought are also true, and turned towards that
which we are made to attain to. It cannot, then, be
a New Revelation, 281
in vain that we instinctively look forward to a nobler APPENDIX
future, and a closer fellowship with GOD hereafter; n -
and turn heavenward, as knowledge widens, for some
fuller teaching as to these loftiest hopes. No doubt
our instincts, both physical and moral, require to be
disciplined and trained ; but they are in a real sense
prophetic. While they are not, in our present condi-
tion, authoritative, they are suggestive.
Thus revelation, which is only one form of the
continuous intercourse of GOD and man, so far from
being improbable, is seen from the actual circumstances
of life to be a natural consequence of the Divine
Fatherhood. It is in regard to the life of the society
as natural as prayer in the life of the individual.
Prayer in fact presupposes revelation, for it is man's
answer to the voice of GOD. And the thoughts of
revelation and prayer illustrate one another in other
ways. The mode of revelation, for instance, may be
expected to vary from age to age, just as the scope of
prayer. As man advances in the knowledge of GOD,
he will at each point in his progress fashion his
thoughts of Him in harmony with the sum of all he
knows.
Nor can it be fairly said that such a view of the
living relation between GOD and man and the world as
is assumed by the Christian introduces any confusion
into his view of the order in which he is placed. It
simply substitutes the conception of a rational order
for the conception of a mechanical order. All action
is based upon the supposition that man can himself,
within certain limits, modify the medium in which he
moves, and the personal influence of each man is
282 The Resurrection of Christ
APPENDIX absolutely incalculable, yet this indeterminate factor
II- introduces no practical disharmony into the universe;
and it is obviously impossible that this special action,
which (it is assumed) answers to perfect wisdom,
should do so. Alogists habitually discuss miracles
as if they were supposed to be arbitrary manifestations
of power, and not essentially connected with a moral
purpose and adapted to the wants of those to whom
they were granted. If they were arbitrary they would
have no theological value. The 'signs' of GOD would
cease to be ' signs ' unless they illustrated what we
can recognise as a divine law of progress 1 .
For nothing external, no 'sign,' has an absolute
or irresistible force. Every alleged ' sign ' must be
carefully interpreted and brought to a spiritual test.
As a ' sign ' of GOD it must be consistent with all
that we already know of Him and the same power
which enables us in the first instance to recognise
GOD, enables us also to recognise further manifesta-
tions of His nature and will 2 .
The order of the universe which the Christian
1 Such a statement as that of Mr Macan (for example,) ' If
'miracles are possible, history is impossible' (p. 116, note), is
only intelligible on an assumption which a Christian utterly
denies. I should venture to say that Christianity alone gives a
stable foundation to history, as shewing the law and end of
life. Viewed in relation to the whole history of the Church
or of the world, ' miracles ' take an intelligible place in the
development and interpretation of life.
2 The full significance of these statements will appear, on a
careful examination of the following typical passages : Dent.
xiii. 1 ft. ; Ezek. xiv. 4 ff. ; Matt. xxiv. 23 f. ; 2 Thess. ii. 8 ff. ;
Apoc. xiii. 13 f.
a New Revelation. 283
maintains is therefore as real as that of the alogist, APPENDIX
and as truly verifiable, while it is vaster. Both II-
orders correspond with abstractions which are based
upon observation ; but the Christian order regards the
seen as standing in a vital connexion with the unseen,
and under the necessary limitations of our present
human faculties presents potentially the completest
synthesis of being which we can conceive. The occur-
rence of ' signs' causes no break in the continuity of
history : on the contrary, they indicate something
more as to the nature of the whole life which history
expresses. Nor again, is any function of historical
criticism dependent on the assumption that facts of a
particular kind are impossible. The object of criticism
is to test the records of a belief, and then comes the
interpretation of the belief. The recorded instances
of revelation are for the believer so many elements of
which he takes due account in his view of the whole
system of phenomena which is offered for his devout
study. Little by little he is enabled to apprehend the
course of things according to its true law, till the
distinction of 'natural' and 'supernatural' is lost in
the perception of the one will of GOD wrought out in
many ways and parts throughout the whole range of
creation which falls under our notice.
II.
These general remarks enable us to approach the
consideration of the Resurrection from the true point
of sight. For the believer the Resurrection is the
crowning revelation of GOD, the sign of the continuity
284 The Resurrection of Christ
APPENDIX of the fulness of human being through the seen into
IL the unseen. Under this aspect it is not open to
objection on the ground that it is ' contrary to expe-
' rience,' for its significance is affirmed to consist in the
fact that it is absolutely without parallel. It cannot
be said to be even improbable, if it can be shewn to
convey that teaching as to the future of creation which
we are constituted to expect. The alogist utterly
misunderstands the state of the case when he persist-
ently represents the Resurrection of Christ as one of
many raisings from the dead 1 . If it were no more
than this, it could not form the foundation of a Gospel.
The fact was, as we maintain, essentially unique ; the
teaching which it conveyed was essentially new.
A twofold difficulty stands in the way of a just
estimate of the novelty of the teaching of the Resur-
rection. It is difficult to realise the absence of a
great and familiar idea; it is difficult also to leave
room, so to speak, for larger aspects of a fact which
we seem to have felt already in all its grandeur.
And thus it comes to pass that the revelation given
us by Christ's rising is in one direction spoken of as
' commonplace,' and in another it is unconsciously
neglected. Part of the truth signified by it has
passed so completely into modern thought that we
can hardly imagine that men were ever without the
sure trust that death is the personal admission to the
nearer Presence of GOD. Part of it again is only
now at last dawning upon us ; and we are in danger
of refusing to recognise the new light, though in this
1 E.g. Supernatural Religion, iii. 428 n.
a New Revelation. 285
respect it is not hard to see how the original apostolic APPENDIX
message meets the latest results of time.
Something at least has been gained by recent dis-
cussions. It is admitted on all sides that the first
disciples believed that the Lord had been raised from
the dead ; it is admitted also that the eleven apostles
and St Paul believed that they had seen Him after the
Resurrection. Historical evidence, alone, can go no
further than this. It cannot do more than establish
the reality of the belief in a particular fact. The
belief is itself the interpretation of phenomena which
cannot be recalled, and, in every case, only one of
several conceivable interpretations. It is obviously
impossible to preserve completely the grounds on
which the belief was embraced. These may, indeed,
be indicated more or less completely, but it is easy to
see that details, which find no record, may have been
rightly decisive at the moment. Thus our judgment
on the truth of a belief is to be decided mainly by the
character of the belief and by the circumstances of
those who first held it. In the case of the Resurrec-
tion the question at issue is simply, in one form or
other, Is it more reasonable to suppose that the
apostles were mistaken or that the Lord did rise ? Or,
to break the question into its parts, What was the
character of the belief? And, Can the belief, with
its results, be explained from the actual position of
those who held it without the acceptance of the cor-
responding objective fact?
The general character of the apostolic belief in
Christ's Resurrection may be best seen by regarding
the Resurrection in connexion with other raisings
286 The Resurrection of Christ
APPENDIX from the dead. Briefly it may be said that all the
l ' other raisings from the dead recorded in the Bible are
instances of restoration to the conditions of earthly
life : the Resurrection of Christ was the revelation of
a new life 1 . The distinction is equally unquestionable
and significant. There cannot be the least doubt that
those whom the Lord is recorded to have called back
to life were afterwards subject to the ordinary circum-
stances of our present existence. It is no less certain
that all the notices of the Risen Lord represent Him
as changed while still personally the same. The
daughter of Jairus, the young man at Nain, and
Lazarus, as far as we can see, resumed their former
positions ; but the connexion of the Lord with the
disciples after the Resurrection was wholly altered.
He was known only when He pleased to reveal Him-
self. He was surrounded with a mysterious awfulness.
At the very time when He offered a material test of
the reality of His presence He shewed that He was
not bound by the laws of matter. There is evidently
a 'law' by which the conditions of His appearances
are determined. And these contrasted traits are pre-
served in the different narratives with perfect con-
sistency, so that it is impossible to doubt that the
disciples believed that the Lord lived again after the
Passion, and yet under new and glorious conditions of
life hitherto unrealised. For such a conception they
had absolutely no precedent. To speak of it as a
'ruling idea' of their age, is to misrepresent facts.
On the contrary it was to them a most difficult and
1 I do not enter on the discussion of Matt, xxvii. 52 f. The
incident recorded there is wholly isolated.
a New Revelation. 287
strange idea. They thought at first that ' they saw a APPENDIX
' spirit,' and this impression had to be overcome. So IL
far as they had any acquaintance with a rising again,
their notions were directly at variance with the cir-
cumstances of the Lord's Resurrection. The language
of Herod and of the people who identified the Lord
with John the Baptist raised from the dead, or with
one of the prophets, so far as it had any serious
meaning, indicates no capacity for a belief in a Resur-
rection such as that by which the Church lived. And
as a matter of experience the popular conceptions of
a carnal Resurrection very speedily overpowered the
teaching of the New Testament in the early Church 1 .'
From this point of sight the importance of the two
chief 'moments' in the history of the Resurrection
becomes obvious. The tomb in which the body of the
Lord was laid was found empty. The Lord appeared
and disappeared at pleasure. All that belonged to
His humanity was preserved, and at the same time all
was transfigured. This twofold conception presented
with perfect simplicity and perfect distinctness by the
Evangelists was entirely unparalleled ; and it includes
teaching which has not yet been popularly appro-
priated.
This being so, it will be seen that no misunder-
standing of the Christian idea of the Resurrection can
be more complete than that which is involved in the
following dilemma :
1 Any one who will take the trouble to verify in detail the
facts indicated summarily in this paragraph, will learn a
valuable lesson on the historical characteristics of the Gos-
pels.
288 The Resurrection of Christ
APPENDIX ' One or other alternative must be adopted : If Jesus
H- possessed his own body after his resurrection and could eat
and be handled, he could not vanish ; if he vanished, he could
not have been thus corporeal 1 .'
The very point of the revelation lies in the reconcilia-
tion of these two aspects of the Lord's humanity. The
one assures us in the only way in which, as far as we
can see, the assurance could be given, that nothing is
lost in the passage through death ; the other that the
limitations which belong to earthly existence are not
to be extended to the future order.
The full power of this complex conception is
gathered up in the fact of the Ascension, which is the
natural or necessary sequel of the Resurrection accord-
ing to the Christian view. The manifestations of the
Risen Christ, as recorded in the Gospels, lead up to it.
The history of the forty days shews a gradual prepara-
tion of the disciples for the realisation of a spiritual
presence of Christ with His Church. So long He
allowed them to feel that He was moving locally
among them. Then He made it clear by a sensible
sign that He had entered on a new state. Thus, the
Resurrection rightly interpreted includes the Ascen-
sion ; and conversely, the Ascension finally interprets
the Resurrection for men and under the forms of
common thought. That visible lifting from the earth
marked the close of one epoch of revelation and the
beginning of another. Henceforward the Lord was
recognised as throned in glory 011 the right hand of
GOD, near alike to all His people.
But it will be said that the view which has been
1 S. R. iii. 462.
a New Revelation. 289
given of the Resurrection is an 'inference' from the APPENDIX
records. The statement is true ; and true necessarily. n '
It is only by inference, by interpretation, that we can
obtain an adequate conception of a fact which belongs
to two orders. The Risen Christ belongs to earth and
to heaven. If His Resurrection and His raised man-
hood were of earth only, it might be possible, perhaps,
to imagine how any single observer might have ascer-
tained the fact by outward observation, though it is
clear that he could not have transmitted his assurance
to others. But as it is, no external tests could have
established what is of the essence of the fact, the per-
manence of the old under new conditions not expressed
by the 'laws' of this world. On the contrary, if
external tests alone were satisfied, the very ground
of our hope would be destroyed. That which is the
strength of the Christian now would be taken away.
In this respect the Christian view of the Resur-
rection, as an interpretation of all the phenomena
recorded, corresponds with the interpretation of every
other divine sign. No external phenomenon in itself
can prove the existence of an Almighty GOD. But if
we believe that GOD is, then we can learn, through
the world without, lessons as to His character and
will. There will, however, always remain a way of
evasion for the unbeliever. Even if he admits the
. accuracy of the original observation, and the complete-
ness of the testimony to the observed facts, it will
still be possible to refer whatever is exceptional in
them to some unknown force simply sufficient to pro-
duce the given effect. In other words, the presuppo-
sitions of belief underlie the interpretations of belief.
W. R. 19
290 The Resurrection of Christ
APPENDIX It is therefore quite true in one sense that the
n> Resurrection 'proves' nothing. It has no constrain-
ing power to compel assent to any proposition ; but it
is the crowning 'sign' of the counsel of GOD for men.
It comes to satisfy aspirations, to illuminate doubts,
to confirm and define faith. That which St John
observes of the effect of 'the beginning of signs' is
S. John fulfilled in this latest sign : Jesus 'manifested His
11- ' glory, and His disciples believed on Him.
This consideration places the narratives of the
Gospels in their proper light. They are addressed to
those who believe the fact, and are not directly
designed to create the belief. They are in this respect,
as in all others, a record of a revelation. When this
is once recognised, it will be seen how completely
most of the criticism of the parallel narratives of the
Resurrection falls to the ground. There is not the
least reason to suppose that the Evangelists told us all
that they knew, nor yet the least necessity that they
should have done so. They recorded what was suffi-
cient for their purpose. And there can be no doubt
that the Gospels both severally and collectively bring
before us the Risen Lord as the same and yet changed ;
as having entered with His perfect Manhood on a new
form of existence ; as having established in His glori-
fied humanity a new connexion with mankind ; as
having led His disciples by His personal intercourse
to grasp these novel conceptions as their abiding
heritage.
Now whether this revelation be accepted or not,
it cannot be doubted that it was original and pregnant
with consequences. But it has been frequently said
a New Revelation. 291
that the apostles lived in ' an atmosphere of miracles ;' APPENDIX
that they could not but have framed some explanation IL
to remove the disappointment caused by their Master's
death ; and that ' it was inevitable that they should
'believe Him to have risen again in the body 1 .' It
might be sufficient to reply that there is, as we have
already seen, no parallel to the Resurrection either in
its character or in its effects, and that just so far as
the idea could be shewn to be familiar it would be
deprived of its efficacy. If the belief was 'inevitable'
it would also have been powerless to change opinion
and life. But, as far as evidence exists, the claim to
work miracles was not common in the first age, unless
the practice of exorcism be brought under this head.
On the contrary, it is most remarkable that the mira-
cles of Jewish history belong to critical periods of
comparatively short duration, and to typical men.
The age of the Maccabees is not marked by miracles.
' John vvrought no miracle.' It is of course quite S. John
true that the Jews were acquainted with records of x-
miracles in their Scriptures ; quite true also that they
could not feel all that is involved in a miracle as we
do; but it appears from the Gospels that the works of
Christ, though they were often veiled, created a pro-
found impression as being wholly unprecedented. It
is at any rate unquestionable that they overcame
inveterate prejudices. All this tends to shew that we
are unconsciously tempted to transfer to the whole
period of Jewish history phenomena which belong
to limited manifestations within it, and to use what
1 Contemporary Review, November, 1876, p. 905.
192
292 The Resurrection of Christ
APPENDIX sprang from Christianity to explain the origin of
IL Christianity.
A similar remark applies to the alleged prevalence
and power of Messianic expectations in the first cen-
tury. There were indeed some Jews who were looking
for the promised King when Christ came, or, perhaps
S. Luke ii. more strictly speaking, for the Kingdom of GOD, or for
nK QQ
the consolation of Israel. John the Baptist gave
distinctness to expectation. But the teaching of John
and the earlier teaching of the Lord excited question-
ings rather than satisfied them. It was only when
the Lord's work was drawing to a close that He
accepted the title of the Christ from Jews, and then
under circumstances which shewed how far the confes-
sion was not only from popular feeling, but even from
the feeling of the disciples. After the appearance of
the Lord had called out the religious aspirations of
the nation, false Christs arose ; but the hopes which
they embodied were rather due to Christ's action than
originally contributory to His acceptance. He created
the idea which He fulfilled in spite of current opinions,
and in doing this He gave occasion to the character-
istic embodiment of the ideas which He set aside. So
far from ' answering the ideal ' of His followers, He
gave them a new one, which they were painfully slow
S. John to grasp. Men could not 'see' the Kingdom of GOD
111. 3. which He proclaimed unless they were born again.
There was practically nothing in the current thoughts
which Christ encountered which was fitted to call out
a spontaneous belief in the message of His Resurrec-
tion. The silence of the Old Testament, the 'bold
'guesses' and sad negations of Gentile philosophy, are
a Neiv Revelation. 293
equally instructive. The one shews how Divine APPENDIX
wisdom was constrained to delay the revelation till it IL
could be presented vitally : the other that reason,
while baffled by the problem of the future, finds no
rest in scepticism. When Christ came this only re-
mained to men as the issue of ages of resolute and
patient thought, that the instinct by which they clung
to a continuous personality beyond the grave was at
hopeless variance with such an analysis of their own
being as they could make.
To reconcile this antagonism there was need of a
new fact. And this fact was given, as we have seen,
in a manner suited to the end. For that end it was
enough to shew in a single example the fulness of life
undiminished by death ; to shew that what seems to be
dissolution is transformation ; that heaven lies about
us, and that life eternal is not future but present;
that whatever be the unknown glories and endow-
ments of the after-life, nothing is cast off which rightly
claims our affection and reverence in this.
But it may yet be said that the Evangelists at any
rate write as if they were dealing with ordinary phe-
nomena, that they shew no perception of the marvel-
lous or contradictory character of the incidents which
they relate. The Evangelists certainly write as mem-
bers of a society in which the divine action was felt to
be a present reality manifested in many ways. If they
had recorded miracles calmly, and lived ordinary lives,
there might be some force in the objection ; but it is
undeniable that their action corresponded with their
words. If they wrote as men to whom the 'super-
' natural' was familiar, they lived so too. Everything
294 The Resurrection of Christ
APPENDIX which the first Christians did, as well as everything
IL which they said, so far as we know, shewed a supreme
conviction that they were living in an unexampled
crisis. Heaven (so they said, and their work answered
to their words) was open about them, and the effects
of their teaching corresponded with the conviction.
For the belief in the Resurrection was from the
first not a belief only, but a spring of energy. The
disciples were not only assured that their Lord was
living : they felt that He was with them, and their
conduct answered to the reality of the feeling. It
is not then sufficient to shew how a belief in the
rising of Christ might have been created among men
familiar with the idea of the Resurrection as we are.
The problem to be solved is how a belief was created
which, from the first even till now, has made believers
act as knowing that it is literally true that when two
or three are gathered together in Christ's name, there
He is in the midst of them. This we may safely assert
was a ' new idea introduced into human conscious-
' ness,' and fruitful beyond all example '. Later visions,
so far from explaining its origin, serve only as faint
reflections to witness to its power.
The Resurrection, to set the matter in another
light, was not an isolated event. It was and is an
abiding fact. It was the beginning of a new and living
relation between the Lord and His people. He came
to them while He went. The idea may be expressed
by saying that the apostolic conception of the Resur-
rection is rather 'the Lord lives,' than 'the Lord
1 Mr Macan fails to apprehend the idea of the Resurrection
when he denies this, p. 108.
a New Revelation. 295
' was raised.' This important truth is entirely over- APPENDIX
looked by critics who lay stress on the point that
'there was no eye-witness of the Resurrection 1 .' It
is impossible to see what we should have gained by
the testimony of such a witness, or what he could
have established which was not established by the
intercourse of the living Lord with His disciples.
That which had to be made clear as to Christ, was the
reality of His new life. This was first established for
the apostles by their complete experience of the con-
tinuity of His manifestation to them, and for the
Church in all ages through the signs of His power.
And it is here that the 'proof of the Resurrection is
to be found. Christ lives, for He works still.
I have spoken of the Resurrection as a revelation ;
it was a revelation in two main respects as to the
relation of Christ to men, and as to the relation of
the present life to the future. In both these respects
it is undeniable that the belief in the Resurrection
completely changed the views of the disciples. Before
the Passion they had been unable to endure the
thought of any external separation from Christ ; after-
wards they lived in effectual fellowship with Him
though He was invisible. His influence was felt to
be confined within no local limits. An entirely new
connexion was shewn in life to be established between
One and all, between the Son of Man and men. The
disciples looked for His return, but the mode in which
they conceived of His being preserved them, though in
many cases not their followers, from sensuous imagin-
ings of its nature.
1 S. R. pp. 449, 549 ; Macan, p. 28.
296 The Resurrection of Christ
APPENDIX For the apostles' view of the life of the Risen
IL Christ was in close dependence on their view of the
relation of believers to Him. His being was conti-
nuous with that which they had known ; but it was
become infinitely glorious, without being deprived of
anything belonging to the perfection of humanity.
These two thoughts together opened a prospect of
the future of individuals which is far larger than the
popular conceptions of later times. Believers were to
be transfigured, and at the same time their life was to
continue in Christ. In other words, a glimpse was
given of a 'personality' of a raised humanity, in
which each member was included but not absorbed.
At the same time light was thrown upon the dark
mysteries of sin and suffering. The uttermost sorrow
was the preparation for the most complete triumph.
Once for all, that dualism to which the phenomena of
this world taken by themselves seem to point was
shewn to be false.
Nor can we stop at man. The apostles felt that
the Resurrection had a message in regard to all
creation. Man was bound up with the whole visible
order, and this, too, was, as they announced, to partake
of his restoration, and to be included in the divine
consummation of all things.
Such a final unity, to touch upon the last mystery
of all, is referred to an archetypal unity. The Resur-
rection appears, in the New Testament, as the fulfil-
ment through victory of a purpose involved in creation,
but checked in its normal progress by the self-assertion
of the finite 1 .
1 This truth is plainly expressed in Col. i. 15 ff., and does
not remain to be 'excogitated,' Macan, p. 141.
a New Revelation. 297
Now such thoughts as these evidently reach to the APPENDIX
last problems of life, and illuminate them. Such IL
thoughts flow directly from the Resurrection if the
fact be accepted simply as it is presented to us in the
Gospels ; and, as it is admitted, they were set forth
by the apostles in virtue of their belief in it. Our
contention is that nothing but the fact can explain
their origin, and the power with which they were
propagated. The reality of the Resurrection and the
action of the Spirit of the Risen Christ is a sufficient
cause for the announcement and for the spread of the
Gospel, and no other has been brought forward.
But when stress is laid upon the correspondence
of the Gospel of the Resurrection with man's nature,
it is said that that very correspondence furnishes a
presumption that man devised that which answered
to his wishes. There is, however, a wide difference
between recognising and creating. All pre-Christian
experience is unfavourable to the theory that man had
any tendency to find such a solution of his difficulties
as the Resurrection offers. The whole discipline of
the world prepared men to welcome the Gospel, but
had no power to produce it. And this second corre-
spondence of the Resurrection with the course of
human progress, no less than with the constitution of
man, forms another strong sign of its divine reality to
every one who believes in a Providence. To such a
one, it is not too much to say that the Resurrection,
taken in connexion with the history of the race before
and after, is antecedently more probable than any
particular event in the life of any individual man. So
far is it from being contrary to 'universal experience,'
298 The Resurrection of Christ
APPENDIX that it is in a most true sense according to universal
IL experience, for it is seen universally that aspirations,
tendencies, instincts, are not left for ever unattained
and unsatisfied '.
If now we consider the direct evidence for the fact
of the Resurrection from this position, it will be found
to be overwhelming. It is, of course, idle to affect to
discuss evidence for an event if it is laid down that
the event 'is at once disposed of on abstract grounds 2 ,'
or to insist on the testimony of documents which
record miracles if ' a supernatural phenomenon is to
'be at once rejected;' for on this assumption they are
already declared to be untrustworthy. But if the
Resurrection and the testimony by which it is main-
tained are examined in the light of a belief in the
Providential government of the world, of a belief, that
is, that there is a purpose and a goal for man, and
men, and nature, then it is difficult to see how the
evidence could have been, according to the analogy of
history, more complete. We have, in the Synoptic
Gospels and the appendix to St Mark (to summarise
results which appear to me to be unquestionable), a
general view of .the oral teaching of the Twelve, which
was the original foundation of the Church : we have
in the writings of St Paul, who must have been well
1 But for a strange misunderstanding of this sentence I
should have thought it unnecessary to say that the Besurrec-
tion of Christ does seem to me to give the satisfaction which we
need now in our present life, which is, as I have endeavoured
to shew, completely transfigured by it in every region of thought
and observation and work.
2 S. R. in. 522.
a New Revelation. 299
acquainted with the earliest belief of Christians, an APPENDIX
explicit statement of what he ' received ' and taught
with intense personal conviction won through expe-
rience : we have in the Gospel of St John the per-
sonal testimony of one who had actually seen and
heard the Risen Lord ; and these three distinct lines
of evidence are in complete accordance as to the
reality, the nature, and the effects of the Resurrection
of Christ. It is utterly unhistorical to say that
' the whole of the evidence for the Resurrection reduces itself
to an undefined belief on the part of a few persons, in a noto-
riously superstitious age, that after Jesus had died and been
buried they had seen him alive V
The belief of the original witnesses was so clear that
it completely revolutionised their national expecta-
tions ; so energetic that it changed their whole charac-
ter; so vivid that it was from the very first expressed
in rites which symbolise with most remarkable power
the fundamental thought of life through death. It
answers questions which men cannot but ask, and that
in a way wholly unanticipated and coextensive with
the utmost range of knowledge ; it is supported, not
only by specific testimony, which, from the nature of
things, must be partial and fragmentary and capable
of misinterpretation, but by that underlying trust in
the reality of the divine government and the divine
destiny of creation which is ' practically infinite.'
For the direct voice of testimony is a very small part
of the evidence by which the Resurrection is esta-
blished. The Resurrection explains, as nothing else
can explain, the acts and words of Christ before it,
1 S. E. p. 519.
300 The Resurrection of Christ
APPENDIX and of His apostles after it ; it gives a sufficient reason
IL for the spiritual power and insight of the first Chris-
tians, which is different in kind from all that went
before ; it explains the life of Christendom, for it is
not a past event only, but a fact attested by its present
efficacy, by the signs of an actual union of believers
with the Son of Man operative in life. If, now, we
give fair weight to all these considerations, upon the
assumptions which have been laid down, to the
personal attestation of the fact by the apostles, to the
circumstances under which St Paul was led to pro-
claim it, to its relation to Christ's whole work, to the
transformation which it effected in the opinions and
conduct of the first disciples, to its continuous efficiency
in life, to its consilience with instinct, to its harmony
with what we can see of the divine discipline of the
world, I find no reason to modify what I have said
elsewhere, that, 'taking all the evidence together,
' there is no single historical incident better or more
'variously supported than the Resurrection of Christ.'
Let any one who thinks otherwise endeavour to
frame for himself evidence for the whole fact for the
fact, that is, as belonging to two orders, the seen and
the unseen, and uniting them which he thinks would
have been more satisfactory than that which we
possess, and then candidly determine how far the
modifications which he has introduced would have
removed his difficulties, and how far they would have
detracted from the significance of the fact as a ' sign,'
a Divine Revelation.
a New Revelation. 301
APPENDIX
ii.
III.
The view which has been given of the Resurrec-
tion as a Revelation will serve to shew in what sense
Christianity is said to be 'a historical religion.' The
phrase is ambiguous, and, as applied to Christianity,
it is persistently misinterpreted by critics who speak
of Buddhism or Mohammedanism as ' historical ' in
the same sense. It is true, no doubt, that these three
religions are so far alike that they owe their origin to
historical personages. It is possible to fix their begin-
ning and progress with more or less completeness in
connexion with definite circumstances. But it is not
in this relation that Christianity is described as his-
torical. Christianity is described as a historical reli-
gion because its teaching in regard to its doctrines,
its motives, its promises is conveyed in facts.
In this respect the Gospel is absolutely unique.
The Lord claimed to come, not as a prophet, but as
One greater than prophet or temple, as 'the Truth
' and the Life.' And as such He was preached
and accepted. What the apostles proclaimed was a
Person who had died and risen again, by whose Death
and Resurrection light, as they affirmed, was thrown
upon the final mysteries of being. They very rarely
quote His words, but everywhere speak of what He
was and is, of His work, of His power, of His
presence.
It is impossible to exaggerate the importance of
this unquestionable character of the apostolic message.
Nothing can be more certain than that the apostles
302 The Resurrection of Christ
APPENDIX did not regard their Lord as one simply who had
declared new truths or who had made old truths
plainer. Every interpretation of the rise of Chris-
tianity must be fatally misleading which does not take
Christ's Person, what He did, what befell Him, what
He was therefore held to be, as the novel power by
which men were moved.
This historical foundation of Christianity is seen
most strikingly in the writings of St Paul. Perhaps
we might have expected from his intellectual constitu-
tion, and from the circumstances of his conversion,
that he would have rested on abstract dogmas, on
' the Christ within ; ' but, in fact, Christ ' of the
' seed of David,' ' born of a woman, born under the
' Law,' is the centre of his faith. It has been said that
it is 'a most striking and extraordinary fact that the
'life and teaching of Jesus have scarcely a place in the
'system of Paul V If St Paul had regarded Christ as
a prophet only, the remark would have been just : as
it is, so far as it is true, it places in more conspicuous
prominence the meaning which St Paul found in ' the
' blood of Christ,' in the historic person and human
work of Him ' who died and rose again.' The facts
of Christ's life, the facts which are recited in the
earliest creeds, are the revelation of sin. and righteous-
ness which he unfolds ; they are never absent from
his mind : without them his teaching is unintelligible.
This truth may be exhibited in another way. In
the Epistles of St Paul, no less than in the preaching
recorded in the Acts, the facts of the Faith precede
the dogmas. And the relation holds good always.
1 S. R. in. 567.
a New Revelation. 303
The dogmas are the progressive and approximate APPENDIX
interpretation of the facts. As the facts are more n -
completely understood the dogmas become more and
more fully defined. For this reason the apprehension
of Christian truth can never be final, and it can never
be exhausted. Each fresh acquisition of knowledge
as to the relation of man to man and of man to the
world throws light upon Christian work. Teaching
necessarily reflects in some measure the modes of
thought of the age to which it belongs, but the broad
facts of a human life grow more luminous as life itself
is more deeply studied. The Death and the Resur-
rection of the Son of Man are felt by us to mean far
more than could have been grasped by an earlier gene-
ration.
It is undoubtedly true that at present we receive
the facts and the dogmatic interpretation of the facts
simultaneously ; too often perhaps we are tempted to
lose the facts in the dogmas. But this circumstance
cannot alter the essential relation in which they stand
to one another. At every crisis of thought it is our
duty to turn again to the records of Christ's work, not
in a spirit of superficial realism, but with a strenuous
endeavour to follow out, as far as our powers will
allow us 1 , the consequences which are involved in that
union of the divine and human, of the seen and the
unseen, which we believe to have been fulfilled in the
1 The unhappy boldness of later speculation on the state of
the disembodied spirit, when compared with the silence of
Scripture upon the subject, offers an instructive illustration
of the neglect of this limitation. It is strange that this con-
trast should be misunderstood (Macan, pp. 154 ff.).
304 The Resurrection of Christ
APPENDIX present order of life and to remain as the foundation
n ' and the goal of hope and faith and love.
This principle, which has an obvious application to
our main subject, requires to be insisted upon, because
it is frequently overlooked or misunderstood. The
Christian Faith, as a system, is the interpretation of
the facts of Christ's life in the light of the assumptions
which, as we have seen, are everywhere made in the
Bible. The interpretation may come in different ways.
At one time it is through the inward voice of GOD, at
another time through a better understanding of apo-
stolic words, at another through the experience of life,
at another through the investigation of the ' laws ' of
nature; but in every case the Person of Christ and
the facts of His life are the final sum of the eternal
Gospel, the abiding test by which every approxima-
tion to the fulness of truth is tried.
IV.
It follows from what has been said that the belief
in Christ's Resurrection is not merely the belief in a
past event, but in a present, or rather in an eternal,
fact. It is sometimes said that Romanists are more
consistent or more logical than ' Anglicans and Pro-
4 testants,' in that they affirm the reality of a present
revelation to which the latter make no pretence. The
statement is, I venture to believe, a complete miscon-
ception. All Christians alike, as I suppose, believe
equally in the unbroken intercourse between GOD and
man, which is the essence of revelation ; but the
a New Revelation. 305
Romanist holds to the permanence of old forms in the APPENDIX
mode of revelation, while others consider that the n "
mode of revelation, as being a function of life, will
vary with the progress of humanity. In one age, or
at one period of popular growth, isolated ' signs ' can
be seen to be the most appropriate vehicle for convey-
ing a divine message. In another age or at another
period, corresponding lessons may come through the
investigation of history or of nature which was impos-
sible before. In each case GOD speaks to men as they
can hear Him, and according to the knowledge which
they have gained of Him.
It is most untrue, therefore, to affirm that the
frank acceptance of ' critical ' methods in the investi-
gation of the records of past revelation involves any
abandonment of the ' supernatural.' The study of
the Bible in such a spirit enables us undoubtedly to
realise a completer harmony between the ordinary
processes of thought and action and those which GOD
has been pleased to use for the conveyance of His
lessons, but none the less the facts, and the record and
interpretation of the facts, retain their divine charac-
ter wholly unimpaired. The question as to the record
(for example) is whether we suppose that the guidance
was given directly, or through character, experience,
circumstances. In the latter case there is as much
room for divine action as in the former ; and if it
appears that we can most rightly apprehend ' inspira-
' tion ' in the past in this way, we are at once encour-
aged to look for some manifestations of the Divine
will now, which will come also to us through the
ordinary channels of life and thought. So far from
w. R. 20
306 The Resurrection of Christ
APPENDIX ' criticism ' obscuring the work of GOD, it opens our
n * eyes to see it going on about us.
This is not the occasion to pursue such reflections
in detail ; but certainly nothing is more remarkable
than the way in which the apostolic writers bring out
the eternal aspects of the facts which they proclaim,
without admixture of anything which was local and
temporal. They exhibit in different directions that
universality of character which every historian must
recognise in Christ. And it is important to notice
that this characteristic is dei'ived naturally from the
message of the Resurrection which they announced.
They felt and they expressed, what we have not yet
come to understand, that the belief in the resurrection
'in Christ' carries with it a belief in the continuity,
the solidarity, the totality (if I may so speak) of crea-
tion. The unity of being, of which science is slowly
shaping a conception, was for them a unity of life
tending to an issue of unimaginable glory.
The Resurrection, indeed, gives a permanent value
to all human effort and achievement. As long as the
earth was held to be the everlasting scene of man's
dominion, each worker could look forward to an
endless life in posterity ; but we know now that the
earth itself can exist only for a time, and a hope of
immortality requires the assurance of life continued
under new conditions. This, as we have seen, is
exactly what the apostolic records are fitted to convey.
They meet, unexpectedly as it might appear, a diffi-
culty of the latest time; they receive illustration from
researches supposed to be alien in scope and spirit.
In this respect, as in all points, the Gospel of the
a New Revelation. 307
Resurrection answers to the whole sum of life. The APPENDIX
fact of the Resurrection is as divinely original as the IL
character of Christ. It adds the element of con-
tinuance, the possibility of consecration, to every
earthly interest. It offers the fulness of truth, as
against the one-sided materialism which will acknow-
ledge nothing as real but the objects of sense, and the
one-sided spiritualism which disparages the outward.
It represents, like life itself, a combination of anti-
theses. But this superficial conflict of elements is
inevitable as long as man is regarded in action. For
the present we must speak, even as we must think,
according to the limitations which are imposed upon
us. But these limitations are shewn, in Christ, not
to be inherent in our personality. Our individual
personality is shewn to be contributory to some vaster
' personality.' The unity of which we are conscious
becomes the figure of a unity of humanity, of a unity
of creation.
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