PRINCETON, N. J.
%
BR 53 .S65 1884 v.l
Spence, H. D. M. 1836-1917
Thirty thousand thoughts
SAel/..
CONTENTS.
PAGB
SECTION I. Christian Evidences ...... i
SECTION II. Titles of The Holy Spirit ..... 289
SECTION III. The Beatitudes . . . . . . .341
SECTION IV. The Lord's Prayer ...... 369
SECTION V. Man, and His Traits of Character . , . .489
SECTIONAL INDICES:—
I. Christian Evidences ........ 531
II. Titles of the Holy Spirit ....... 533
V. Man :— His Virtues and Excellences ..... 534
His Vices, Faults, and Errors . . . . . -536
THIRTY THOUSAND THOUGHTS.
SECTIONS L—V.
WITH SECTIONAL INDICES.
THIRTY
THOUSAND THOUGHTS,
BEING
EXTRACTS COVERING A COMPREHENSIVE CIRCLE OF
RELIGIOUS AND ALLIED TOPICS,
GATHERED FROM THE REST AVAILABLE SOURCES, OF ALL AGES AND ALL SCHOOLS OF THOUGHT;
WITH SUGGESTIVE AND SEMINAL HEADINGS AND HOMILETICAL
AND ILLUMINATIVE FRAMEWORK:
THE WHOLE ARRANGED UPON A SCIENTIFIC BASIS.
WITH
CLASSIFIED AND THOUGHT-MULTIPLYING LISTS, COMPARATIVE TABLES, AND ELABORATE
INDICES, ALPHABETICAL, TOPICAL, TEXTUAL, AND SCRIPTURAL.
EDITED BY THE
REV. CANON H. D. M.SPENCE, M.A.,
REV. JOSEPH S. EXELL, M.A.,
REV. CHARLES NEIL, M.A.
I. CHRISTIAN EVIDENCES. | III. THE BEATITUDES.
II. THE HOLY SPIRIT. | IV. THE LORD'S PRAYER.
V. MAN, AND HIS TRAITS OF CHARACTER.
WITH
INTRODUCTION
liY THE
VERY REV. J. S. HOWSON, D.D.,
DEAN OF CHESTER,
NEW YORK :
FUNK & WAGNALLS, Publishers,
ID AND 12 Dev Street.
1884.
BURR PRINTINO HOUSK, NEW YORK.
PREFACE.
A. — Need of a Comprehensive Illustration-Book like the Present.
The large number of commonplace books, under various titles, which has issued from
the press during the last quarter of a century, proves two or three facts incontrovertibly.
First., the value of such collections, both as aids to reflection and as casual and fireside
reading, is unmistakeably acknowledged. Secondly, the unwieldy and unmanageable size
to which literature, chiefly theological, has now grown, coupled together with the
increased and imperious demands of a practical, busy age, upon the real workers in life,
require, as a positive necessity, readier modes to arrive at knowledge in departments
necessary for occasional and immediate use, or for popular embellishment. Thirdly, the
inadequacy of any existing homiletical encyclopaedia or dictionary of illustrations exactly
to supply the want now keenly felt, may be clearly read in the many rival but fruitless
endeavours to secure full or permanent public favour. Fom-thly, the casual, single-handed
attempts, worthy, in many instances, of high praise, are now out of the question.
B. — Need of Co-operation for such a Work.
An individual, however many-sided and variously gifted, might as well try to furnish the
plans, dig the foundations, and erect a large museum,, as well as to collect and arrange its
contents, as by himself to construct a work like the present. The necessity of co-operation,
the aid of the specialist, and the possession of technical skill, have received a tardy but
growing recognition in this and many other fields of religious literature. Though the prin-
ciple of division of labour has been adopted with satisfactory results in preparing homiletical
commentaries, yet, as far as we are aware, there has not been any such united effort to
produce a homiletical encyclopsedia on a truly comprehensive basis.
C— Plan of Present Work.
I. Its Unique Character : — made in accordance with a Pre-arranged Idea.
" Thirty Thousand Thoughts " is the first attempt in this direction — " a new
departure" in the history of Illustration-Dictionaries. It is an experiment, too, upon a very
large scale, and worked upon a well-considered and carefully laid ground-plan.
The first step in the present work seems to have been the last taken in all previous
attempts. A full Index of Subjects to the book was made before a single extract was
collected, or a single line written. This method possibly did not occur to previous
labourers, because the aptitude to collect is rarely allied to the skill to methodize. Accord-
ingly in those cases, the more minute indices and so-called classification and analysis came
afterwards, not as a work of love, but as a bare necessity, in order to afford some facility of
reference, and to render the book saleable. In the prefaces to this class of literature the
apology for a proper classificatory apparatus, or the phraseology used in the claim to have
given one, more than justifies the above remarks. One author, for instance, with much
charming simplicity, confesses how he attempted to build his literary house without a plan,
and consequently what after-thoughts and hopeless defects mar his labours. " After a work,"
says he, " is finished, imperfections often show themselves where they were hid in the plan
and in the process of workmanship." But he tries to console himself with the thought that
others beside himself act first and think afterwards. " There are," continues he, in a slightly
cynical and desponding undertone, "however, many who, while they can point out a fault in
a work complete, would have made greater faults had they been the workmen in carrying out
the design."
2. Its Departments.
To avoid, then, this radical defect in the construction, an index of subjects was at the
outset made, and four leading and more or less clearly defined departments were fixed.
These were — ist. Theology ; 2ndly, Scripture, including the Mosaic Economy, and Bible
History generally, Biography, Natural History, and Geography ; 3rdly, the Church ; and,
4thly, Man and the Laws of his Being, including Man's Nature and Constitution, Ethics,
Logic, Mental Philosophy, and Sociology, and lastly, the Practical Themes of Ufe. Under
these leading departments sections were formed.
3. Its Main Sections, its Relief Sections, and its Topics.
Under Theology will be found the principal section of Christian Dogmatics. This, in
one sense, might have included the whole subject. But "Relief" sections are made to
take up certain themes which are best treated as distinct, partly on account of their size
and importance, and partly on account of their special nature. Such relief sections
are formed as Christian Evidences, Controverted Points, Prophecies, Dreams and Visions,
Miracles and Parables, the Divine Attributes, Names and Titles of the Three Persons of
the Trinity, figurative appellations of the Church, Ministers, and Saints, also of Satan and
the Wicked, as well as Sins and Superstitions.
Under Scripture " History" are sections for Leading Events, Sieges, and Conspiracies;
for the Tabernacle, Jewish Holy Times and Seasons, Sacrifices, Rites and Ceremonies,
and Laws of Purity ; and, as connected with Jewish worship, another section is allotted
to Musical Instruments. Under Scripture " Biography " are sections for Scripture Characters,
both Men, Women, and Children, and also for Sects. Under Scripture "Natural History"
are sections for Animals, Birds, Fishes, Insects, and Reptiles, Trees, Plants, and Flowers.
Under Scripture "Geography" are sections for Natural Phenomena, Mountains, Valleys, Lakes
and Seas, Rivers, Towns and Villages, Earthy Substances and Metals. The Natural History
and Geographical sections have been chiefly prepared with a view to the pastoral instruction
of younger hearers, but are valuable aids for lectures and incidental pulpit remarks.
Under The Church are sections for Church Seasons, Church or Parochial Associa-
tions, Liturgical Subjects, Canticles, Hymns, and Ascriptions, as well as Courses of Sermons
commonly chosen, such as the Lord's Prayer, the Ten Commandments, the Beatitudes,
the Seven Churches, and the like.
Under the title Man are sections relating to his Nature and Constitution, Traits of
Character, Responsibility, Actions, Influences, and Motives. There are also furnished
other sections daaling, on an extensive scale, with Logical, Metaphysical, and Philosophical
terms. And, lastly, some sections are occupied with Sociological subjects, such as Educa-
tion, Dress, and Social Usages ; Periods of Time, Classes and Stages of Life ; and a very
iiiieresting and practical one illustrating life in its darker, quieter, and brighter sides.
All these above-named sections have been divided and subdivided, and topics arranged
under them, and these topics themselves are again minutely analyzed.
PREFACE. yII
D.— Method of Executing Present Work.
I. Obtaining Extracts.
When the ground-plan was thus settled, the next point was to obtain the extracts with
which to construct the book. These came from various sources. Persons who had existing
collections of extracts, some simply for private purposes, others with a view to their separate
publication, or as a basis of future independent works, supplied a fair quota. Special
readers were engaged to go through difterent classes of writers ; some took the Fathers,
others the Puritans, and so on. Special readers, too, were at the same time found to
undertake books upon particular Departments, and Sections. Endeavours were made as
much as possible to secure the co-operation of the readers according to their predilections
as to classes of writers, or to particular groups of subjects.
2. Arrangifig Extracts.
Simultaneously, and connected with the process of collecting materials, there was the
work of examining, sifting, and provisionally passing the excerpts, and also the allotting of
them, by means of numbers, to their various sections, or rather words in their sections.
After this, the services of special persons, experts in the sphere of knowledge represented
by the various sections, were secured to go over, test, add to, and otherwise put them into
shape, in accordance, of course, with the original ground-plan. The final homiletical
arrangement, as well as the classified or thought-multiplying tables, was the work specially
undertaken by the Editor standing third on the Title-Page. And, in order to secure complete-
ness and supply deficiencies, one gentleman of considerable judgment and experience was
wholly employed at the British Museum to hunt up, often through endless piles of books,
for some provokingly missing link.
3. Character of Extracts.
The principles upon which the extracts were made, selected, and passed, may here
fitly be stated. Those were rejected which were wanting in refinement, real point, truth, or
beauty. Those were accepted which, after due consideration, were found to contain thought
definitely stated, to illustrate a particular aspect of a truth, or otherwise to provoke and
stimulate further thought. Frequently a pleasing illustration would, on careful examination,
prove to be merely fanciful, not a rare or even a real pebble, but a worthless stone which,
on account of accidental and adventitious circumstances, sparkled. Or a fascinating state-
ment, when tested, would turn out to be but a half-truth, or a mere sophistry, or if not this,
a commonplace, decked-up, and dressed far above its rank. On the other hand, some
rugged and not very attractive saying would be found to be instinct with an inward fire,
to grow upon one despite prejudices, and, by reason of its native royalty, to claim the right
of precedence.
In some few cases the difficulty was which to reject, but far oftener where to find a gem
worthy to be set. The number of first-class illustrations, and of really superior extracts, is far
more limited than the majority of people imagine. You may sometimes go through a whole
volume, and not find a single passage really worthy of a place in such a work as the present.
4. Suggestive H cadi tigs to Extracts.
From the principle of selection we naturally pass to the mode of naming the extracts.
This is a very special and hitherto much neglected process. The exact shade of thought
must be discovered, and often more than this. Some writers, frequently the most compre-
hensive and deepest thinkers, fail themselves to see the truth clearly — they instinctively feel
it, rather than positively grasp it; or if they grasp it they have not the power, or if the power,
not the patience, or, it may be, not the technical skill, necessary to make their meaning plain
and perspicuous. Thus, commonly, to characterize an extract, means the diving far beneath the
surface, and discovering and expressing clearly the underlying thought of the author.
When a difficult idea is rightly perceived, and exactly and accurately designated, the ordinary
reader is able to grasp what would otherwise be an unsolved riddle, or an unmeaning
collocation of words.
5. Final Process with the Extracts : — their Adaptation and Adjustment.
When the extracts were named, then, and not until then, were they classified. In this
process, the first naming has frequently to undergo some modifications, in order to make a
little Cosmos from what appears, when spread out on the table, to be a complete Chaos.
The relation between the extracts, and the distance which they stand in the order of things
from each other, have to be distinctly traced. Unity of thought, harmony, symmetry,
suggestiveness, and freshness have all to be kept constantly and unitedly in view.
E.— Sectional Arrangements of Present Work.
I. — The Sections singly complete, yet related.
While the whole forms a connected and logical system, according to the nature of such
works, it will be found an additional advantage that each section is complete in itself upon
its own particular subject. In the last volume a scheme will be furnished showing the
relation of the parts to the whole. There will be provided, too, in addition to the Sectional
.Index, a general and complete Alphabetical one, to all the subjects illustrated.
The value of the Analytical Lists is, that when one looks up a topic, say Atheism
(p. 160, vol. I, No. 74), one has the whole of its synonyms, or, more strictly speaking, of its
affiliated and related topics, at once to hand, and before the eye at a single glance. The
reader therefore knows the subject, not only as isolated, but as to its place in the system
of knowledge. He is thus able to institute comparisons, trace analogies, discern nice
differences, and also to combine ideas to an endless extent, almost as patterns are formed
in the kaleidoscope.
F.— Workers upon Sections in Present Volume.
It may seem invidious, out of many who have helped, to select any for special
mention; but it was thought only right to give the names of those who have specially
worked at the sections in each volume. Thus it is our pleasing task to acknowledge the
ready and hearty co-operation of the Rev. Brewin Grant, B.A., Incumbent of St. Paul's,
Bethnal Green, in regard to the First Section, viz., "Christian Evidences;" of the Rev. F.
W. Procter, M.A., Assistant Master of King's College, London, in regard to the Second
Section, viz., "The Titles of the Holy Ghost;" of the Rev. J. W. Burn, of Norwich, in
regard to the Third Section, viz., "The Beatitudes;" of the Rev. E. Bray, M.A., Rector
of Shadweli, in regard to the Fourth Section, viz., " The Lord's Prayer." The initials of
these writers are attached to their respective original contributions.
G.— This Work combines Advanced Knowledge with Catholic Truth.
In compiling this work, it has been felt that the advanced knowledge and general
intelligence of the age demand increased freshness and comprehensiveness in homiletical
functions; yet such treatment, so far from endangering catholic and orthodox views, is
perfectly compatible with strict adherence to the cardinal truths of Christianity, and to
the supernatural in religion, both as to outward revelation and inward illumination.
INTRODUCTION.
The request with which I have been honoured — that I would write a short preface to this
volume — can mean only one thing. It can simply be a suggestion, for which my thanks are
due, that I should place on record a few independent and very general thoughts on the
present condition of the great question of Christian Evidence. It is obvious that I am
not pledged to agreement with all the contents of the book, though I cannot doubt that the
gathering together of a large number of various utterances on this serious subject will be
helpful to many doubting minds.
It is quite evident that, as the ages pass on, Christianity must enter into new modes of
conflict with the world, and must adopt new modes of persuasion. This does not mean that
" the old " is necessarily obsolete, but that " the old " which may have been proved to be
good should be combinecT with "the new" which may be found to be needful. In the
historic progress of Mankind there must be perpetual change and, more or less, continuous
growth. Fresh discoveries through scientific research and observation, fresh conditions of
political, social, and industrial life, fresh phases of thought in the course of debate and of
experience within the Church itself, are inevitable. For all this Christianity must be
prepared. She ever stands, as it were, on the verge of a new country, which is to be bravely,
yet wisely and warily, occupied. It is with her as with the army of the Israelites when
encamped in the plain on the eastern side of Jordan, and when their leader said to them,
" This day ye shall eat new food : bring forth the old because of the new."
That which presses most heavily for the moment upon Revelation, and with the most
threatening aspect, is Natural Science, especially in the department of Physiology. This has
been the case, indeed, to a great extent, during the last fifty years. The alarm which was
caused by geological discovery seems now to be passed away ; and Christian Faith can hold
its own, and Christian Life can actively pursue its even and beneficent tenor, without being
disturbed by the contemplation of the vast periods of time which for a while overawed our
INTRODUCTION.
customary chronology. Such, it may be confidently expected, will in the end be the
practical result of the full Christian consideration of those subjects which may be grouped
together under the one word " Evolution." Upon this question a iew remarks may here be
made.
As to those phenomena which we group together under this general term in
connection with Darwin's name, it must be obsei-ved that we have always believed in
evolution of a kind quite as wonderful as any that is proposed for our attention now. St.
Paul uses a familiar instance of this general principle in an animated part of his most solemn
teaching. Our Lord Himself does the same in that parable which is given to us by St. Mark
only. " Thou sowest not the harvest that shall be, but naked grain, wheat or other grain, as
tiie case may be ; " and the growth is on this wise, " First the blade, then the ear, then the
full corn in the ear." And next, as to the modification and variation of physiological facts
under the action of certain laws, I may perhaps be allowed to give an illustration of my
thought in a manner which is natural at this moment. I have lately been in one of the
habitats of that charming flower, the Auricula, in its simple native form, on the lofty hills which
overhang the Lake of Lugano. This plant has had a very distinguished history. No plant
lias yielded itself more freely to beautiful variety under the influence of human cultivation
and skill. And shall we be surprised if the Almighty does, on a vaster scale, and with more
diversified methods, and through longer ranges of time, what man can do by the application
of laws within his own little power? But, to turn to another side of this intricate subject,
no bridge has yet been built between the intellectual and moral life of man and that which
we call life in its lowest forms ; while yet it is true that the phenomena of habit and instinct
are a help to us in contemplating the facts of animal existence on the globe as one great
whole. But once more. Physiological Science, though it has alleviations for pain— and this^
too, is perhaps in some degree due to the action of the Christian spirit upon the spirit of
discovery— has no true solace for sorrow, and no real, or even approximate, cure for sin ;
whereas the consolations of Christianity in our saddest moments, its power of giving peace
under a sense of guilt, and strength under the pressure of temptation, are parts of the
experience of the present as truly as ever was the case in the ages that are long gone by.
This topic, as most of us are aware, has its special difficulties in connection with the letter
of the Bible. If Modern Science tends to disturb our belief in the Divine origin of the
Christian Revelation, so does Modern Criticism. Here we enter upon new ground. It
<annot be denied that the criticism of the day has made some inroads upon popular beliefs.
But here two questions arise. First, it may not be quite certain that these beliefs are any
essential part of real Christianity. Secondly, under the action of this new criticism we may
have gained quite as much as we have lost. For my own part, I believe we have gained
more than we have lost, while certainly what we do hold after this criticism we hold more
firmly, and with a clearer perception of consequences, than we should "have done without the
INTRODUCTION. XI
criticism. As regards the Gospel History, Strauss is no longer a name of terror. As regards
the Epistles and the Acts, Renan concedes the four great letters to the Romans, the Corinthians,
and the Galatians as unquestionably written by St. Paul ; and, starting from this concession,
we can argue logically to the acceptance of very much more. And, speaking generally of the
progress of recent thought, is it not a clear advantage to us, that we can now study the
Sacred Scriptures without trammels forged by an arbitrary defining of Inspiration?
To pass now from the negative to the positive side of this great subject, the two names
just mentioned may remind us of the vast influence which the Life of Jesus Christ exercises
upon mankind, even where it is not the object of belief in any true Christian sense. That
Holy Presence in the midst of History commands an attention which cannot be withdrawn
from it. All earlier events tend to this point ; all later events diverge from it. The Biography,
too, is quite unique. From this conviction we cannot escape. The multitude of books
recently written, more or less directly, on this subject is surprising. During the last forty
years there has been more literature of this kind than during two hundred years previously.
Here is proof that the Presence still rests upon humanity as a problem unexplained, unless
where it is accepted in faith, with hope and charity and diligent usefulness as the results of
that faith.
This brings us to another positive and direct evidence of the Divine character of
Christianity, which in a signal degree marks our times. I refer to the activity and zeal (in
our own country at least) exhibited in the cause of Christ, alike in work among the poor, the
ignorant, and the suffering at home, and in vigorous efforts for the progress of the Gospel
abroad. And in connection with what has just been stated is another evidential circumstance
in the indirect benefits of Christianity. Just as there is z.penutnbra of evil surrounding every
case of flagrant wickedness, so is there a light v/hich spreads beyond the luminous centre of
that which is thoroughly good. Our religion, where it has had free scope, has always been
productive of beneficial influence in the world. No one was ever made worse by becoming
more like Christ ; and no limit can be set to the diffusion of good which may come from this
likeness.
Another test, under our present circumstances, is of great value and does not admit of
question as a fact. This is the large amount of Hymn-writing which has marked our day.
Without raising any questions between good hymns and bad hymns, and without any necessity
of referring to divergence among religious parties, it is certain that we have here an expression
of the reality of Religion. This feature of our times is a proof that faith is still strong and
that devotion to Christ is operative for good results.
Christ and Christianity are, after all, the two great difificulties which unbelief has never
been able to overcome. It is in our time, as it always has been in the times that are past.
INTRODUCTION.
In the fashion of the day, indeed, there is a tendency to depreciate the older books of
evidence. But there is abundant proof that the magnificent method of Butler is still
potential among us for producing conviction, while the shrewd good sense of Paley is an
admirable corrective of the mischievous influence of vague theories. It is a remarkable fact,
too, that the " Natural Theology" came from the same author as the " Horae Pauhnae."
This remark brings before us Criticism and Science in contact again : and to return, in
conclusion, to a topic named above, is it not still perfectly clear that the evidence of Design
in Nature is as strong as the evidence of Evolution? May we not expect that the half-truths
of the past and the present will be combined by the religious philosophy of the future, under
Divine guidance, into comprehensive and correct views of the verities of Nature ? At all
events, while it is essential that we should endeavour to understand correctly the
characteristics of our existing position, we shall not serve our generation the better, in
the defence of our Religion, if we do not duly honour those who have fought some of our
battles before us.
J. S. HOWSON.
September, 1883.
SECTION I.
CHRISTIAN EVIDENCES.
SECTION I.
CHRISTIAN EVIDENCES.
DIVISIONS OF TOPICS ILLUSTRATED.
PAGE
A.— THE DISTINCTIVE DOCTRINES OF CHRISTIANITY ... 7
B.— CHRISTIANITY AS A SYSTEM 21
C— THE EVIDENCES OF RELIGION GENERALLY 50
[i] Its First Principles and Maxims.
[2] Proofs of the Divine Existence.
D.— THE EVIDENCES OF THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION ... 95
[i] External Evidences.
(i) Prophecy.
(2) Miracles.
(3) History.
[2] Internal Evidences.
[3] Personal Evidences.
[4] Fajluee of Infidelitv.
E.— THE FORCES OPPOSED TO CHRISTIANITY 147
[i] Infidelity.
(i) Its Phases.
/. Latent.
ii. Actual. "
a. Denial of the Existeiv:e of God.
b. Denial of the Divine Personality.
c. Denial of the Christian and Catholic Idea of God.
Hi. Practical.
(2) Its Allied Social Systems.
[2] Non-Christian Systems.
[3, Heresies.
F.— REASON AND FAITH 254
G.— THE HOLY SCRIPTURES 265
CLASSIFIED CONTENTS, SECTION I.,
BEING
The Topes illustrated. Alphabetically arranged under their Respective Divisions and Subdivisions ^
with Consecutive Numbers at left hand for facility of reference.
(See Sectional Index, p. 531, and General Index at the end of last volume.)
A.— THE DISTINCTIVE DOCTRINES
OF CHRISTIANITY.
1 Divinity of Christ 7
2 Future Life, The 9
3 Holy Spirit, Personal Agency of 10
4 Immortality (Individual) of Man ... il
5 Incarnation, The ... ... ... 14
6 Man as a Spiritual Being ... ... 15
7 Man, Free and Responsible ... 16
8 Personality of God ... ... ... 17
9 Redemption, Moral Necessity of 18
10 Sin, The Reality of 18
11 Trinity, The Holy 19
B.— CHRISTIANITY AS A SYSTEM.
12 Adaptation to Man's Nature and
Needs ... ... ... ... 21
13 Christian and Heathen and Jewish
Systems ... ... ... 23
14 Church of the Future and its Conflicts 27
15 Connection of Science and Philosophy
with Religion ... ... ... 28
16 Divine Origin of Christianity ... 33
17 Modern Civilization in Relation to
Christianity ... ... ... 36
18 Moral Philosophy in Relation to
Christianity ... ... ... 38
19 Philosophy of Chpstianity 40
20 Progress of Christianity ... ... 42
21 Reasonableness of Christianity ... 43
22 Temporal Benefits of Christianity 44
23 Theistic Elements of Christianity ... 47
—THE EVIDENCES OF RELIGION
GENERALLY.
[i] Its First Principles and Maxims.
24 Analogy as a guide to Truth
and
as an Aid to Faith
50
25 Basis of Faith
53
26 Constitution and Course of the W
or'ld
53
27 The Divine Government
54
28 Final Causes of Natural Things
5S
29 First Cause
5^
30 Nature
60
31 Natural Philo'^ophy
6i
32 Number, a Link between the Di
vine
Intelligence and Human
62
33 Primary Belief
64
34 Religious Instincts
67
35 Soul, The, and the Future State
68
36 Uniformity of Nature
70
[2] Proofs of the Divine Existence.
yj Anthropological Argument : from
Human Consciousness and History 74
38 A posteriori and a priori Argument... 74
39 Cosmological Argument : from
Causation ... ... ... 75
40 Ethical Argument : from Moral Law
and Justice ... ... ... 78
41 Historical Argument : from Universal
Tradition ... ... ... 80
42 Ontological and Metaphysical
Argument: from Abstract Reasoning 81
43 Psychological Argument : from
Mental and Spiritual Phenomena 84
44 Physico-Theological or Teleological
Argument : from Evidences of
Design in the Universe ... ... 85
45 Providential Argument : from
Evidences of Divine Government 92
(.—THE EVIDENCES OF THE
CHRISTIAN RELIGION.
[i] E.xternal Evidences.
(i) Prophecy.
46 Prophecy (generally) ... ... ... 95
47 Messianic Prophecy ... ... 96
(2) Miracles.
48 Miracles (generally) 97
49 Miracles and Science ... ... 106
50 Miracles of Pagans and Papists ... 107
5 1 Possil)ility and Necessity of Revelation 108
52 Supernatural, The ... ... 109
(3) History.
53 History (generally) ... .- ... in
54 Archa;ology 112
55 Conversion of St. Paul ... ... 114
56 E.xistence of the Christian Church 1 15
57 Resurrection of Christ, The ... 1 16
58 Tradition I19
[2] Internal Evidences.
59 Christian Morals (generally) 121
60 ,, Characteristics ... ... 125
61 „ Philo.sophy 126
62 Teaching and Character of Christ 127
[3] PIersonal Evidences.
63 Inward Witness ... ... ... 134
[4] Failure of Infidelity.
64 Difficulties of Infidelity 138
65 History of Unbelief 140
66 Modern Thought ... ... ... 141
67 Philosophy of'Unbelief 144
CLASSIFIED CONTENTS, SECTION I.,
Continued,
;.— THE FORCES OPPOSED TO
CHRISTIANITY.
[i] Infidelity.
(i) Its Phases.
i. Latent.
68 Infidelity (viewed generally)
69 Agnosticism ...
70 Altruistic Secularism
71 Doubt
72 Scepticism
73 Secularism
ii. Actual.
a. Denial of the Existence of God,
74 Atheism
75 Materialism
76 Materialistic Atheism
77 Philosophical Materialism ...
78 Nihilism
79 Pessimism
b. Denial of the Divine Personalitv.
So Pantheism...
81 Intuitionalism... ... ^Philosophies
82 Speculative Philosophy j allied to
83 Transcendentalism ... ( Pantheism
c. Denial of the Christian and
Catholic Idea of God.
84 Deism ...
85 Theism
86 Monotheism
87 Naturalism
88 Spiritualism
89 Rationalism
90 Neology ...
91 Freethought
92 Unitarianism
93 Evolutionism ... ... { Conflict
94 Philosophical Cosmologism \ with
95 Scientism ( Science
Hi. Pi-actical.
96 Indifferentism
97 Formalism
98 Superstition
(2) Its Allied Social Systems.
99 Communism ...
100 Secularism ...
loi Socialism
160
164
166
167
167
168
1S4
185
185
186
187
188
189
190
191
191
195
196
199
200
204
206
207
208
[2] Non-Christian Systems.
102 Brahminism
103 Buddhism
104 Confucianism
105 Fetishism
106 Judaism (Modern)
107 Mohammedanism
108 Mythology
217
218
219
221
226
[3] Heresies.
109 Heresy (generally)
... 228
no Antinomianism
230
III Apollinarianism
... 232
1X2 Arianism ...
232
113 Dualism
... 2J6
114 Fatalism
237
115 Gnosticism
... 237
116 Mysticism ...
241
117 Pelagianism ...
... 242
118 Sabellianism
24s
119 Semi-Pelagianism
... 247
120 Socinianism
248
121 Universalism
... 248
F.— REASON AND FAITH.
122 Critical and Verifying Faculty of
Man 254
123 Dogmatic Faith 255
124 Efficacy of Prayer ... ... ... 256
125 Faith and Philosophy ... ... 260
126 Faith and Freethought 260
127 Things above Reason ... ... 261
128 Province of Reason 262
G.— THE HOLY SCRIPTURES.
129 Authority of the Canon 265
130 Authority of the Scriptures ... ... 266
131 Bible Difficulties 268
132 Chronology of the Bilile ... ... 270
133 Continuity of the Scriptures ... 271
134 Credibility of the Gospel History ... 272
135 Divine Legation of Moses ... 276
136 Inspiration ... ... ... ... 278
137 Mosaic Cosmogony ... ... 282
138 Undesigned Coincidences of the Old
and New Testament ... ... 286
DIVISION A.
THE DISTINCTIVE DOCTRINES OF
CHRISTIANITY.
Pages J to i().
ALPHABETICAL TABLE OF TOPICS.
DIVINITY OF CHRIST.
. 2
FUTURE LIFE, THE.
3
HOLY GHOST, PERSONAL AGENCY OF THE.
4
IMMORTALITY (INDIVIDUAL) OF MAN,
5
INCARNATION, THE.
6
MAN AS A SPIRITUAL BEING.
7
MAN, FREE AND RESPONSIBLE.
PERSONALITY OF GOD.
REDEMPTION, MORAL NECESSITY OF.
lo
SIN, THE REALITY OF.
II
TRINITY, THE HOLY.
SECTION r.
CHRISTIAN EVIDENCES.
DIVISION A.
THE DISTINCTIVE DOCTRINES OF CHRISTIANITY.
■ DIVINITY OF CHRIST.
I. Its Evidences.
1 Not antecedently impossible.
[i] In Christ's consciousness there is a human
and a Divine factor, originally distinct, then
blended into a higher unity, in which the reahty
of the one sacrifices nothing to the reality of the
other. Criticism has yet to prove its right to
declare the existence of such a consciousness a
priori impossible. That nothing less than this
is expressed in the fourth gospel, is (as a result
of exegetical investigation) for the Biblical
theologian a certainty. — Va7i Oosterzec, Theo-
logy of the New Jestainent.
2 The continuous beliefs of the Church.
[2] This is so, as may be seen : —
(ij By the formal statements of creeds from
sub-apostolic times to the present.
(2) By the unfailing round of adoration which
has gone up to Christ as God in heaven in all
ages and from every country.
(3) By the corporate action of the Church
against contrary opinions.
[3] From the time of St. Athanasius and the
Nicene Council, the doctrine appears commonly
in all Christian writings of a dogmatic character,
being brought into greater prominence by the
heresy of Arius, the expanded definition of the
creed, and the world-agitating contests between
Catholics and Arians.^ — Dictionary of Doctrinal
and Historical Theology (condensed).
[4] Christianity is not related to our Lord as a
philosophy might be to a philosopher— that is,
as a moral or intellectual system thrown off from
his mind, resting thenceforward on its own
merits, and implying no necessary relation
towards its author on the part of those who
receive it, beyond a certain sympathy with what
was at one time a portion of his thought. A
philosophy may be thus abstracted altogether
from the person of its originator with entire
immunity. But detach Christianity from Christ,
and it vanishes before our eyes into intellectual
vapour. Christianity is non-existent apart from
Christ ; it centres in Christ ; it radiates now as
at the first from Christ. It perishes outright
when men attempt to abstract it from the living
Person of its Founder. — Canon Liddon.
3 Affirmed by Chrirjt Himself.
[5] Jesus calls Himself the Son of God in an
absolute sense, and not in ,the sense of which
men, for instance, may be called sons of God —
by virtue of creation, or moral likeness to Him.
In the case of Jesus, this title denotes a relation
of essence and nature. — Litthardt, The Funda-
mental Truths 0/ Christianity.
[6] Christ bids us say, 07er Father; He never
calls God so Himself; His relation to God is
unique. His fellowship with God is absolute
(John x. 2,3, 38) ; His presence, the vision of
Him, is actually that of the Father (chap. xiv. 9,
and xvi ) ; He has Divine life in Himself (v. 26),
and will therefore be honoured even as the
Father (v. 23) ; in short, he includes Himself
in the Godhead, and thus appears before
the whole world and the whole human race as
One forming a component part of divinity. —
Ibid.
[7] Our Saviour in suffering Himself to be
sentenced to death for His declaration that He
was the Son of God, obliges us to adhere to this
important truth unto death. To this great truth
a noble army of martyrs have witnessed with
their blood. It therefore behoves us to be
thoroughly convinced of, and strenuously to
dwend, this important article of our faith. — Dr.
Ranibach, Meditations (condensed).
11. Its Essential Prominence in the
Christian System.
I Protects truths of natural religion.
[8] Placed at the centre of the faith of Chris-
tendom, it looks backward as well as forward ;
it guards in Christian thought the due apprehen-
sion of those fundamental verities without which
no religion whatever is possible, since these are
THE DISTINCTIVE DOCTRINES OF CHRISTIANITY.
19]
[divinity of CHRIST.
the postulates of all religious thought and
activity.
[g] Belief in our Saviour's Godhead : —
i\.) Protects Christian thought against the
intellectual dangers which await an arid
Deism.
(2) It affords an equally effective safeguard
against Pantheism.
(3) It guards in our thoughts the honour, the
majesty, the life of God, it also protects the true
dignity and the rights of man. — Canon Liddon,
Barnpton Lectures (condensed).
2 Supports other truths of faith.
[10] The earnest recognition of Christ's true
humanity as the seat of His sufferings is a most
essential feature of the apostle's doctrine ; but
what is it that gives to Christ's human acts and
sufferings such preterhuman value? Is it not
that the truth of Christ's Divine Personality un-
derlies this entire description of His redemptive
work, rescuing it from the exaggeration and
turgidity with which it would be fairly charge-
able, if Christ -were merely human or less than
GoA.—Ilnd.
3 Gives reality to the gospel system.
[11] The doctrine of Christ's divinity involves
and insures the infallibility of His teaching ; it
communicates infinite value to His atoning
death ; and imparts supernatural power to the
ministry of the gospel.
[12] Faith in a Divine Christ is the Church's
strength in all dangers.
[13J If Christ be'not Divine, every impulse of
the Christian world falls to a lower octave, and
light and love and hope alike decline. — David
Swing.
[14] You might just as well take away the
luminous tether from the atmospherg and call the
residuum air, and expect to have its original life-
sustaining power, as really to remove the doc-
rine of Christ's divinity from theology without
theactual and complete overthrowof Christianity
itself as a consistent and energizing system. —
C.N.
II L Its Mysteriousness.
1 Beyond the power of illustration.
[15] The nature of the union between the
Father and the Son we have no mental capacity
to explain. Augustine draws illustrations from
the sun and its rays, and from fire and the light
of fire, which, though two distinct things, are
yet inseparably united, so that where the one
is the other is. But all illustrations on such
subjects halt and fail. Here, at any rate, it is
better to believe than to attempt to explain. —
Bp. Ryle.
2 Beyond the reach of imagination.
[16] The utterance which St. John puts in the
very forefront of his gospel, as containing its in-
most essence, and as solving all the pioblems of
the world, that the Logos became flesh,was a truth
far beyond anything of which man had dreamed,
that the Word— who was in the beginning, who
was with God, who was God, by whom all things
were made, in whom was life, which life was the
light of man— that this Word was in the world,
came to His own people, and His own home,
and was by most of them rejected — that this
Word became flesh, and tabernacled among us,
and we beheld His glory, a glory as of the only
begotten from the Father, full of grace and
truth. — Canon Farrar, Early Days of Christi-
aiiiiy.
IV. Its Practical and Experimental
Effects.
[17] As the shining of the stars is a better proof
of their existence than the figures of an astrono-
mer ; as the testimony of the almanack that sum-
mer comes with June is not so convincing as is
the coming of summer itself in the sky, in the air,
in the fields, on hill and mountain : so the power
of Christ upon the human soul is to the soul
evidence of His divinity, based upon a living
experience, and transcending in conclusiveness
any convictions of the intellect alone, founded
upon a contemplation of mere ideas, however
just and sound.
If Christ is the wisdom of God and the power
of God in the experience of those who trust and
love Him, there needs no further argument of
His divinity.— Ward Beecher.
[18] Across a chasm of eighteen hundred years
Jesus Christ makes a demand which is beyond
all others difficult to satisfy. He asks for the
human heart : He will have it entirely to Him-
self : He demands it unconditionally ; and
forthwith His demand is granted. Wonderfid !
In defiance of time and space, the soul of man,
with all its powers and faculties, becomes an
annexation to the empire of Christ. All who
sincerely believe in Him experience that re-
markable supernatural love towards Him. This
phenomenon is unaccountable ; it is altogether
beyond the scope of man's creative power. Time,
the great destroyer, is powerless to extinguish
this sacred flame : time can neither exhaust its
strength nor put a limit to its range. This is that
which strikes me most. I have often thought
of it. This it is which proves to me quite con-
vincingly the divinity of Jesus Christ. — Napo-
leon /., Bersicr, Scrni.
[19] What man that still retains, I will not say
the faith of a Christian, but the modesty of a man
of sense, must not feel that there is a literally
infinite interval between himself and that Ma-
jestic One, who, in the words of Jean Paul
Richter, "being the Holiest among the mighty,
and the Mightiest among the holy, has lifted
with His pierced Hand empires off their hinges,
and has turned the stream of centuries out of its
channel, and still governs the ages"? — Canon
Liddon, Bampton Lectures.
See "Character and Teaching of Christ."
THE DISTINCTIVE DOCTRINES OF CHRISTIANITY.
-28]
[the future life.
2
THE FUTURE LIFE.
I. Ideas predisposing to the Reception
OF THIS Truth.
[20] The belief in immortality (apart from
revelation) rests upon a priori datum of the soul,
or an a posteriori conclusion of the reason from
the data of experience. These two bases of
belief virtually glide imperceptibly into each
other.— C N.
[21] Is there no such thing as happiness here?
The inference from hence is, that I ought to
look out for it elseivhere. Is there no carrying
virtue to any great height of excellence in the
present state? is it very imperfect in the best
of men ? Then this life is only a passage or
introduction to another. — H. Grove, 1683- 1738.
[22] A very wicked man, who had always lived
in prosperity, without having his health or fortune
at any time impaired, dying at last when he was
ninety-three years of age, the emperor Frederic
III. made this wise remark upon \t, See here a
proof of another life / For if there be a right-
eous God who governs the world, as reason and
revelation teach us, it must needs be that souls,
at their departure out of the body, pass into
other places, in order to receive their proper
recompenses, seeing they do not receive them
in this world. — Ibid.
[23] For many years previous to 1845, it had
been known that the planet Uranus was subject
to certain perturbations in its orbit, which could
not be accounted for by the attraction of the sun
and of the other planetary bodies. From the
nature and amount of these perturbations, Le
Verrier, a French mathematician, demonstrated
the existence of an undiscovered planet : and so
completely did he determine its place in the
distant heavens, that when Dr. Galle, of the
Berlin Observatory, pointed his telescope to the
place designated by Le Verrier, he not only
found the new planet, but found it within one
degree of its computed location. Here, then,
we have not only an unknown planet casting
the spell of its attraction upon those that are
known and seen, and producing thereby its
visible effects, but, to the eye of reason, these
mysterious eilects became the infallible proofs
of the existence and direction of another world
hitherto undiscovered and unknown. So it
may be with the human soul, and its continued
love for the dead. — Dr. Mattison.
II. Non-Christian Views.
X Of Greek philosophers.
[24] I dare say you feel as I do, how very hard
or almost impossible, is the attainment of any
certainty about questions such as these in the
present life. And yet I should deem him a
coward who did not prove what is said about |
them to the uttermost, or whose heart failed him
before he had examined them on every side.
For he should persevere until he has achieved
one of two things : either he should discover or
be taught the truth about them ; or, if this is
impossible, I would have him take the best and
most irrefragable of human theories, and let this
be the raft upon which he sails through life — not
without risk, as I admit, if he cannot find some
word of God which will more surely and safely
carry \\vca..— Plato {Phcsdo, 85).
[25] Plato, having shown that even here the
good and the bad receive a proper recompense —
all things in life working for the good man — says,
" Yet all this is as nothing compared with what
awaits the just and the unjust after death."
2 Of Eastern nations.
[26] Mr. Bosworth Smith maintains that Mo-
hammed's view was no more sensual than that
taken by other nations, viz., that Paradise is but
the happiness of the present life intensified, and
that in defining it any people must necessarily
express themselves in terms drawn from their
experience of pleasure here. Thus Mohammed
promises to the good Muslim, after death, what
to the wanderer in the thirsty desert must seem
the acme of enjoyment — cool, shady gardens
with bubbling fountains and running streams ;
with the companionship of black-eyed houris
(their name and attributes borrowed, by the by,
from the Persian^ and certain luxurious neces-
saries, such as perfumes, cushions, carpets, &c.
Similarly the Red Indian dreams of a happy
hunting-ground beyond the clouds, and the
Norseman thought that after death he should
drink ale for ever from the skulls of his enemies
slain in battle. — Quarterly Review {Jan. 1877).
3 Of Northern nations.
[27] The immortality of the soul, among north-
ern nations, was a deep rooted belief; and they
also looked for a state of retribution beyond the
grave. They regarded the future state as, to a
large extent, a continuation of the present ; and
so the dead were supplied with some of their
property, and coins were put under their tongues
to defray the first expenses of their journey to
the other world. — Dr. Burns in Faiths 0/ the
World.
4 Of rationalist thought.
[28] The surest means to convince one's self of
a life after death is so to act in the present that
one must wish it. Whoever feels that, if there
is a God, He must look graciously on him, seeks
for no reasons against His existence, and re-
quires none. Whoever has offered up so much
for virtue, that he ought to expect indemnifica-
tions in a future life, such an one requires no
proof of, nor does he merely believe in, the ex-
istence of such a life ; he feels it within himself.
—Fichte'.
See " Immortality."
lo
29-
THE DISTINCTIVE DOCTRINES OF CHRISTIANITY.
-35]
[the holy ghost.
III. Arguments for its Existence.
1 From the personality of God.
[29] In fact, the belief in a personal, living God,
and the belief in a distinct personal existence for
man throughout eternity, hang closely together.
God is not the God of the dead but of the living.
We cannot imagine to ourselves a personal
eternal love which had brought forth existences
after His own image only to annihilate them ;
which had planted wants in their bosoms that
should never obtain satisfaction. As certain as
is our faith in a personal, living God, so certain
is our faith in eternal life. — Ncander.
2 Rests upon faith rather than presentiments.
[30] If there be an argument which stirs me to
indignation at its futility, and to wonder that any
mortal ever regarded it as of the slightest force :
it is that which is set out in the famous soliloquy
in Cato, as to the immortality of the soul. Will
any sane man say, that if in this world you wish for
a thing very much, and anticipate it very clearly
and confidently, you are therefore sure to get it.^
If that were so, many a little schoolboy would
end by driving his carriage and four who ends
by driving no carriage at all. No : we cling to
the doctrine of a future life: we could not
live without it : but we believe it, not because of
undefined longings within ourselves, not because
of reviving plants and flowers, not because of
the chrysalis and the butterfly : but because our
Saviour Jesus Christ hath abolished death, and
brought light and immortality to light through
the gospel.—^. K. H. Boyd.
3 Their sufficient proof.
[31] It is altogether unnecessary that a mes-
senger should be sent express from the dead, to
give men notice of another life, and therefore un-
reasonable in any to resolve they will not believe
without it. There are proofs enough of a future
state besides this, drawn from reason and Scrip-
ture : and if it be said that these do not satisfy,
the answer is plain, that the fault does not lie in
the arguments, but in the temper of their minds.
For these arguments have convinced others,
and why then should they not prevail upon
them? Is it that they are persons of greater
penetration than the rest of mankind, and have
sought after the truth with more application and
impartiaHty? or does their moral character as
men of sobriety and integrity exceed that of the
believers of a future state ^ (^uite the reverse of
this is true. To one unbeliever of any eminence
for learning and solid sense, and of a tolerable
life and conversation, Jiundrcds may be produced
from among the believers of a future state, of
equal talents, whose lives have done honour to
their profession.—//. Grove, 1683-173S.
4 Their accumulated force.
[32] And yet we confidently affirm, "Yes,
man will live again."
(i) I appeal to man's !nte//ii:;cnce. to the crea-
tive power with which he is endowed, to tlie vast
development of which he is capable, to the per-
fection of the human race, and the prodigies
with which it has covered the globe.
(2) I appeal to man's consLiefice, to that pure
and disinterested voice which nothing earthly
ever caused him to hear, and which speaks loudly
of duty, of judgment, and of responsibility.
(3) I appeal to the respect, to the inexplicable
love which man inspires, as an infinitely precious
being, so precious that the whole world would
not be sufficient to purchase him.
(4) I appeal to the moral and religious power
which, from the beginning of time, has been at
enmity with baseness and sensuality, and which
has always triumphed.
(5) I appeal to God, who would not exist if He
were not a moral and holy being, and who
would not be such, were death to annihilate man.
(6) I appeal to Christianity, to that emana-
tion of the moral world which has appeared in
the visible earth to enlighten man and change
him.
(7) I appeal to heaven and earth, to all out-
ward and inward things, to revelation and
mystery, to the soul and the world. — S. Vincent,
1787-1837.
See " Immortality (Individual) of Man," and
" Soul and the Future State."
THE HOLY GHOST, PERSONAL
AGENCY OF.
I. Arguments showing His Person-
ality.
[33] Personality includes intelligence, will, and
individual subsistence. If, therefore, it can be
proved that all these are attributed to the Spirit,
it is thereby proved that He is a person. The
use of the personal pronouns, His being set forth
as an object of faith, the baptismal formula, the
offices which he performs, acts of intelligence
and power, personal manifestations, «S:c., are
proofs of personality. — Dr. C. Bodge, Syst.
TheoL (condensed).
[To those who accept the authority of the
Scriptures the above argument will be conclu-
sive.—C A'.]
[34] Must it not rather be admitted, unless
you will convict the Scriptures either of absurdity
or of blasphemy in describing an attribute as
though it were a person, or of a blasphemy in
ascribing to a finite being the incommunicable
properties of the infinite — that unless you would
do this, there is no alternative but that of giving
in your adherence to the orthodox doctrines,
that the Spirit is a person, and that person
Divine. — H. Melvill, Golden Lectures.
II. Instances of His Personal Agency.
[35] As to the essenti(il principles of the nature
of man, it is not for nothing that God express-
eth communication of a spirit of life by His
breathing into him (Gen. ii. 7). The Spirit of
THE DISTINCTIVE DOCTRINES OF CHRISTIANITY.
35—41]
[immortality of man.
God and the breath of God are the same, only
the one expression is proper, the other meta-
phorical : wherefore this breathing is the especial
acting of the Spirit of God. The creation of
the human soul, a vital, immortal princi])le and
being, is the immediate work of the Spirit of
God (Job xxxiii. 4). Here, indeed, the creation
and production of both the essential parts of
human nature, body and soul, are ascribed unto
the same author ; for the Spirit of God and the
breath of God are the same, but several effects
being mentioned causeth a repetition of the
same cause under several names. This Spirit
of God first made man, or formed his body of
the dust, and then gave him that breath of life
whereby he became a "living soul." So then
the creation of man is assigned unto the Holy
Spirit, for man was the perfection of the
inferior creation ; and in order unto the glory of
God, by Him were all other things created.
Here, therefore, are His operations distinctly
declared, to whom the perfecting and complet-
ing of all divine works is peculiarly committed.
— /. Oweti, 161 6-1683.
This subject will be found more fully treated
in section terincd " Christian Dogmatics.'''
[36] We say that destruction is the order of
nature, and some say that man must not hope
to escape the universal law. Now we deceive
ourselves in this use of words ; there is in reality
no destruction in the material world. True, the
tree is resolved into its elements, but its ele-
ments survive ; and still more, they survive to
fulfil the same end which they before accom-
plished. Not a power of nature is lost. The
particles of the decayed tree are only left at
liberty to form new, perhaps more beautiful and
useful, combinations ; they may shoot up into
more luxuriant foliage, or enter into the struc-
tures of the highest animals. But were mind
to perish, there would be absolute irretrievable
destruction ; for mind, from its nature, is some-
thing individual — an uncompounded essence,
which cannot be broken into parts and enter
into union with other minds. I am myself, and
can become no other being. My experience,
my history, cannot become my neighbour's. My
consciousness, my memory, my interest in my
past life, my aftections, cannot be transferred.
If in any instance I have withstood temptation,
and through such resistance have acquired
power over myself and a claim to the approba-
tion of my fellow-beings, this resistance, this
power, this claim, are my own ; I cannot make
them another's. I can give away my property,
my limbs ; but that which makes myself— in
other words, my consciousness, my recollections,
my feelings, my hopes — these can never become
parts of another mind. In the extinction of a
thinking moral being who has gained truth and
virtue, there would be an absolute destruction.
This event would not be as the setting of the
sun, which is a transfer of light to new regions ;
but a cjuenching of the light. It would be a
ruin such as nature nowhere exhibits, a ruin of
what is infinitely more precious than the out-
ward universe, and is not therefore to be inferred
from any of the changes of the material world. —
W.Ellery Channing, 1 780-1 842.
IMMORTALITY {INDIVIDUAL)
OF MAN.
I. Arguments.
I Not antecedently impossible.
\y]~\ The dissolution of the brain no more
implies the dissolution of the soul than the
destruction of a musical instrument does that of
an invisible musician who plays upon it, or that
of a boat does that of the rower. — Rev. J. Cook,
Boston Lectures (1878).
[38] The self-evident axiom that every change
must have an adequate cause requires us to
hold that there exists behind the nerves a non-
atomic ethereal enswathement for the soul,
which death dissolves out from qll complex
contact with nerve flesh, and which death, thus
dissolving, leaves free before God for all the
development with which God can inspire it. —
Ibid.
[39] Huxley says that life is the cause of
organization, not organization the cause of life.
Well, if so, it is probably safe to say that the
cause must exist before tlie effect. But if life
may exist before organization, why not after it.'
1 affirm that the microscope begins to have
visions of man's immortality. — Ibid.
2 From universal instinct.
[40] Let a man never so much smother and
suppress the truth ; let him, with all the art he
can, divert his conceits, and entangle his thought
in secular cases ; let him shut his eyelids as
close as his nail is to his flesh, yet the flashes of
immortality are of so penetrative and searching
a nature, that they will undoubtedly get through
all the obstacles which a mind not wholly over-
daubed with worldliness and ignorance can put
between. — Bp. Reynolds, 1 599-1676.
[41] We are told that the doctrine of the
soul's immortality could only have arisen from
the speculations of men of genius, and that it
was introduced by legislators to console man-
kind under oppression, or deter them from crime
by motives drawn from future retribution. If
this be so, how happens it that it has found its
way into the deserts, and has been diffused alike
over the South Sea Islands and those of the
Pacific ; over Lapland and Asia, and the nations
of benighted Africa? The nations of the Society
Islands entertain it ; and those, too, of the
Friendly Islands ; the New Zealanders also,
and the inhabitants of the Pelew Islands, with
the wild tribes of Kalmuc Tartary, and all the
THE DISTINCTIVE DOCTRINES OF CHRISTIANITY
-50]
[immortality of man.
wandering tribes which have peopled, and do
still people, the continent of America. — Rev.
R. IV. Juindis.
[42] It is very remarkable to see how some
who have shaken themselves pretty nearly free
of all other dogmatic belief, have clung to the
belief in the immortality of the soul. It was
Mr. Buckle, of the " History of Civilisation," who
wrote that "the belief in a future state ap-
proaches certainty nearer than any other belief;
and it is one which, if eradicated, would drive
most of us to despair." And the eloc[uent but
sceptical writer founds his belief just on this,
that IT MUST BE TRUE.— ^. K, H. Boyd.
[43] The fact that our existence in a future
world has been an article of faith among
pagan philosophers indicates that this doctrine
is an appropriate part of natural theology. But
even if it had not been thus believed by
heathens, it ought to have been ; and the argu-
ments which convince the unaided judgment
of its truth are also reasons for classifying the
doctrine among the teachings of nature.
[44] The arguments from reason Jay which
the immortality of the soul is maintained are
well known. But there is another argument,
the scope of which has been so immensely en-
larged in modern times that the disregard of it
by the ancients does not count against its in-
herent validity. This is the general consent of
the race. The future existence of the soul has
been held as a matter of popular belief by the
people of every age and country. It is found
among the Chinese, the Egyptians, the Hindus,
the Persians, the Greeks and Romans, the
Druids, the Celts, the Germans, the Slavs, and
a great variety of uncivilized tribes in North
America and South, in the centre of Afrirn, and
in the islands of the sea. There are exceptions,
but these are just enough to confirm the rule.
The great body of the human family in every
age have held, as they hold now, that the soul
survives the body ; and there is no way of ac-
counting for this unanimity but by admitting
the truth of the doctrine. Either it was derived
by tradition from our original ancestors, who
obtained it from their Creator, or its evidences
lie so deeply impressed upon the constitution ot
man that they compel assent. A judgment held
so long, so widely, and by such different races,
must be deemed to be correct.— 6". /'". Wrii^ht.
[45] Even the superficial student of history
cannot fail to be impressed with the general
prevalence of a belief in immortality. For, not-
withstanding the perpetual recurrence of death
and the subsequent dissolution of the body, men
of all degrees of culture have found it natural
to believe that the essential qualities of the mind
survive tlie shock of that universal, mysterious,
and appalling catastrophe. The belief is found
among races and individuals of all grades of in-
telligence and in all stages of civilization. — Ibid.
[46] It is very wonderful how the absolute
need there is in average humanity for a longer
look-out than is afforded by this life, and for a
reserve allotment or provision of life beyond the
one which is present, has constrained humanity
to cling to the vague hope of immortality througli
ages when there was absolutely no reason what-
soever for cherishing that hope. For it is not
a reason for holding any belief, merely that we
should be destitute beyond all words did we not
hold it. And, apart from the express assertion
of Divine revelation, I never saw any argument
for the immortality of the soul which could not
be most easily answered and refuted. ... If a
future life be needed to redress the evils of this,
and another world to set this right, I should
say that the sufferings of cab- horses and of
vivisected dogs demand compensation as vehe-
mently as those of any man. — Recreatio)is of a
Country Parson.
[47] Fools or philosophers— we are content
to leave the choice of terms to the great heart
and sound sense of humanity ; we cling to the
strong, reasonable hope of everlasting life. It is
human to cling, it is divine to cling ; it is in-
stinct, it is reason ; it is the blind brute motion
of nature, it is the last fine finish of knowledge.
— Miss E. S. Phelps in the Atlantic Monthly.
[48] It is not mere eternity which the thought-
ful man desires, not even the perpetuity of things
as they are ; but eternal life worthy of the noble
name, and in harmony with his highest nature,
in wJiich the good he aspires after shall be at-
tained, and the evil he deplores be removed,
and the unseen God be beheld with joy and
served with undecaying energies. — T. M. Her-
bert.
3 From reason and experience.
[49] Suffering implies future retribution, for
what a God who would give, as a reward to His
servants, sufferinghere and nothingness hereafter!
The doctrine of annihilation which fails in pre-
sence of the success of the wicked, fails still more
completely in presence of the misfortunes of the
righteous. The tribulation they endure for God,
their physical or moral anguish, the fetters by
which they are bound, the burning piles on
which their bones are consumed, their graves
dug by impious hands, are as many voices cry-
ing to the sorrow-laden soul : " Fail not, take
courage, there is justice in heaven ; and thy
trials will be turned into glory when Christ shall
appear." — CJiappuis.
[50] If there is no life beyond the grave, if
there is no immortality, if all spiritual calcula-
tion is to end here, why, then the mighty work
of God is all to end in nothingness ; but if this
is only a state of infancy, only the education for
eternity, in which the soul is to gain its wisdom
and experience for htgher work, then to ask
why such a mind is taken from us, is just as
absurd as to question why the tree of the forest
THE DISTINCTIVE DOCTRINES OF CHRISTIANITY.
-55]
[immortality of man.
has its first training in the nursery garden.
This is but the nursery ground, from which we
are to be transplanted into the great forest of
God's eternal universe. — F. W. Roberisott.
[51] Useful heads :
(1) The universality of the belief.
(2) The nature of its aspirations and desires.
(3) The powers and capacities of the soul.
(4) The existence of conscience.
(5) The unequal distribution of good and evil
in this life. — Rev. R. W. Landis, Immortalily of
the Soul.
[52] We have arrived, then, at these two
conclusions — that personal identity is not to be
explained by the present structure ot our bodies,
and that it is as little to be accounted for by the
present structure of our minds. There remains
a third supposition : does it lie in the present
union of our bodies and our minds. If the
grounds on which we have reached the previous
conclusions be just, this third supposition is
already disposed of For if the structure of the
body be constantly changing, and if the struc-
ture of the mind be never the same, it follows
that there must have been a series of unions
between the body and the soul. Which of them
then made the identity ? That identity has sur-
vived the dissolution of several environments ;
which of them is the essential one ? The natural
answer clearly is, none of them. That which
has survived these forms of union must itself be
independent of them. We see death overtaking
the organism long before its earthly life is
finished. We see the original union of body
and soul dissolved before our eyes. We see
every feature of the one and every element of
the other subjected to a complete change. At
last we behold the appearance of another body
and another soul, of a new physical and a new
mental structure. Yet, strange to say, in the
new environment the old identity appears. The
former self of the man asserts its sameness
amid its changed surroundings, and claims these
changed surroundings as its natural home. Is
it any more difficult to conceive that after the
great dissolution of death shall separate again
the bodily and the spiritual functions, the iden-
tity of the individual may reproduce itself un-
impaired in the' functions of a new body and a
new mind ? — Dr. G. iMatheson, D.D.
[53] As Bishop Butler points out, we find by
experience that many actions whose immediate
consequences in this world are pleasureable,
have remote consequences of such a painful
character that (even as regards the present life)
we must regard them as prohibited rather than
commanded ; while others whose immediate
consequences are painful, have remote effects of
so pleasurable a character, that even as regards
this life they must be regarded not as prohibited
but as commanded. Now, if there be a future
life, it is natural to suppose that something of
the same kind may take place with regard to it
— that actions whose eftects in this world are
on the whole pleasurable, may have painful
effects in the future state, and vice versa. A
revelation which asserts this, asserts nothing
improbable, and as we can know nothing of the
future state except by revelation, we must ac-
cept its statements with regard to that state if
the revelation is fairly attested. We must act
upon our lights for the time being, but we often
do so well knowing that if we had more light
we might act differently. An action whose con-
sequences seem to A. likely to be on the whole
pleasurable, may seem to B. likely to be on the
whole painful, for the simple reason that B. has
more experience or better information ; and if
A. was aware of B.'s superior knowledge, he
would piobably take B.'s word for it, and act
contrary to what he would have done if thrown
on his own resources. Nay, A. himself would
often form different judgments with regard to
the consequences of an action (and act dif-
ferently for that reason) at different periods of
his life, owing to the subsequent acquisitions of
experience and knowledge. Rules of conduct
deduced merely from observation of the na-
tural consequences of actions in this world can
never be relied on as objections against a
fairly attested revelation which proceeds on
the assumption of a future life. — Rev. W. H. S.
MoHck, M.A.
4 From human and Christian ideals.
[54] The Church, too, exists — according to
its ideal, at least — with its vital fellowships in
sacrament and service, to cherish whatever is
chiefest in character, because of its fundamental
premise of a life waiting beyond the present ;
and no society for grand and illustrious ethical
culture can permanently continue on a slighter
foundation. — Dr. R. S. 'Starrs^ Recognition of
the Stipernatttral.
[55] Here is the inexhaustible impulse to an
intrinsic and beautiful nobleness. It is not from
laws, teachings, examples, the maxims of pru-
dence, or the dictates of conscience — it is from
this immense conception of the timeless rela-
tions of the spirit in man, and of its possible
coming association with persons and spheres sur-
passing thought, that the subtlest and strongest
incentive comes to what is august and surpass-
ing in virtue. If one had the chance to write a
poem for spirits to read in higher realms — to
mould the marble into lovely forms of ecstasy
and passion for them to contemplate — to paint
the picture whose beauty should show no pallid
tint or tremulous line beneath the searching
heavenly lustres — with what infinite pains would
he strive at his work ! That he can make his
character worthy the free acceptance of those
whose feet, sandalled with light, liave trodden
only ethereal paths, it is the grandest benefit of
grace which God, if there be a God, has be-
stowed. It is assuredly the consummate ex-
pression of the power of protoplasm, if that it
be which has built the creation ! And when
the thought of such a result rises within one.
14
THE DISTINCTIVE DOCTRINES OF CHRISTIANITY.
55-63]
[the incarnation.
the supreme law of character which dominates
the world from Galilee and from Calvary needs
no word to interpret, and no argument to defend
\t.—Ibid.
5 From Old Testament teaching.
[56] That the ancient Jews, and also the
patriarchs, had a knowledge of the doctrine of
immortality is evident :
1. From the distinction which is made be-
tween Vise?', the abode of disembodied spirits,
and "i'"l3, or "l^p., the place for the body (Gen.
xxviii. 5 ; xlix. 33 ; 1. 2-10, &c.)
2. From the belief in the art of necromancy
by which the spirits of the dead were thought to
be summoned back (Lev. xix. .31 ; xx. 6, 7 ;
2 Kings xxiii. 24 ; Isa. xix. 3 ; Zech. xiii. 2-6,
3. From the oft-recurring phrases, " gathered
to his fathers," or "to his people."
4. F^rom the use of the word " spirit " in a
sense necessarily implying its separate existence
(<.'.§■., Psa. xxxi. 5 ; comp. Luke xxiii. 46).
5. From the use of the phrase, " giving up the
ghost" (Gen. xlix. 33 ; Job xiv. 10, &c.)
6. From innumerable devotional passages
{e.n;., Psa. Ixxiii. 24-26 ; xvi. 5 ; Job xix. 25-27,
&c.)
7. From the argument of Heb. xi. 13-16.
8. From Christ's reasoning with the Sadducees
(Matt. xxii. 23-33 ; Luke xx. 27-38 ; comp. Exod.
iii. 6).
9. From innumerable passages which imply
this doctrine {e.g.. Gen. ii. 7; Eccles. iii. 21, and
xii. 7 ; Hag. ii.' 23, ^c)—Rev. R. W. Landis,
Iiinnortality of the Soul.
6 From New Testament teaching.
[57] I. All passages which speak of the pre-
sent existence of hell for wicked men infer the
doctrine of the soul's uninterrupted immortality.
2. All passages which speak of the present
existence of heaven as the region of the blessed
infer the same.
3. All passages which assure the believer that
he shall never perish.
4. The fact of regeneration, and the commu-
nication of a new spiritual life, over which the
law has no condemning power.
5. The fact and effects of justification.
6. The fact and effects of adoption.
7. The believer's union to Christ.
8. Many particular passages expressly affirm
or imply the doctrine of immortality : {e.i^.,
Matt. X. 28 ; Matt. xvii. 3 ; Luke viii. 54, 55 ;
and xvi. 22, 23 ; &.c.)—Ibid.
See Article on " The Future Life."
7 Assumed by Christ.
[58] This doctrine has not in the teachings
of Jesus the appearance of a fresh philosophical
theory, or of a new truth, kindling in him a
constant surprise of intensity. It seems rather
like unconscious knowledge. He speaks of the
great invisible world as if it had always lain
before Him, and as familiarly as to us stretches
out the landscape which we have seen since
our birth. The assertion of a future state is
scarcely to be met with in His teachings: the
assumption of it pervades them. — Beecher, Life
of Christ.
THE INCARNATION.
L An Essential Part of the Gospel.
[59] The fourth Gospel contains no record of
the nativity. Matthew and Luke tell us of the
birth of the Son of Man : John tells of the
incarnation of the Son of God. The former
look from the side of earth, the latter looks
from the side of heaven. The former state the
fact, the latter gives the underlying principle of
the fact. But unless you take John's point of
view you cannot understand Luke's story. — Rev.
A. Maclaren.
[60] Nothing can be more foolish than for
advocates of Christianity to attempt to pare
down the miracles in order to make them more
acceptable to the other side ; for the very heart
of Christ is " God manifest in the flesh ;" and if
you take that, then the whole procession of
miracles which He wrought is natural. — Ibid.
[61] Without entering upon any dogmatic
controversy, we will content ourselves with
establishing that the miraculous conception of
of Jesus (everywhere implied in the New Testa-
tament, even where it is not formally stated) is
an essential part of Christian doctrine. He who
is to be the Head of a new race, which is to be
at once Divine and human — the realization, that
is to say, of its primitive type — cannot be simply
one of the links of the long chain of natural
generations, all tainted with the evil which has,
as it were, become incorporated in a fallen race.
— E. De Pressense, Jesus Christ ; His Time,
Life., and Work.
[62] When we say that Jesus Christ is God,
we mean that in the Man Christ Jesus, the
Second of the Persons in the Godhead, One in
Essence with the First and with the Third,
vouchsafed to become Incarnate.
II. Different Views.
I Pantheistical.
[63] It is not at all necessary in order to
salvation that we should know Christ after the
flesh ; but we must regard Him in a very
difterent manner, as the eternal Son of God,
that is, the eternal \\«isdom of God, which has
manifested itself in all things, specially in the
human mind, and most of all in Jesus Christ. —
I Spinoza, Ep. xxi. {Tr. J. 5.)
63-68]
THE DISTINCTIVE DOCTRINES OF CHRISTIANITY. 15
[man as a spiritual being.
This view is subversive of all true faith in
Christ ; but unfortunately is popularized in an
attractive form in certain classes of light litera-
ture.—C N.
2 Philosophical.
[64] The human nature of Christ may, therefore,
so far forth as it is human, be considered the
outcome of the law of the ascent of life, and of
the individualization of life in higher and higher
forms.
The incarnation is the culmination of the crea-
tion. That thought is not altogether familiar to
American theology, but I think it entirely har-
monious with the Holy Scriptures. It is cer-
tainly very familiar to German theology, and I
believe the time has come for emphasizing the
great truth which throws into rapture men like
Dorner and his associates in Berlin, men like
Kahnis and his associates at Leipsic, the central,
the scientific, and Biblical idea that the incar-
nation, under the law of the ascent of life, and
the individualization of higher and higher forms
of spiritual existence, is the culmination of the
creation. — J. Cook, Bosto^i Monday Lectures.
3 Doctrinal.
[65] St. John's doctrine of the Divinity of the
Word cannot be objected to on the score of its
mysteriousness by those who allow themselves
to face their real ignorance of the mysteries of
our human nature. Nor does that doctrine
involve a necessary internal self-contradiction
on such a ground as that the " Word by whom
all things were made, and who sustains all
things, cannot become His own creature." The
Word Incarnate does not cease to be the
Word ; but He can and does assume a nature
which He has created.— Ca/Z6'«Z/^^f«, Bampion
Lectures.
4 Experimental.
[66] The living soul is not content to be
spoken to by a book alone, but by a person.
The word is mighty when it is " made flesh."
The necessities underlying the incarnation are
imperative as ever. We can have no sympathy
with the " stream of tendency " that would dis-
tribute Christ as a pale presence pervading all
things, or bury His personality in the tomb of
the universe. We cannot afford to ignore the
teaching of sacred history. We remember that
the strength of Judaism was bent on incarna-
tion. The bush, the pillar of fire, the temple,
were, as far as the nature of the things would
allow, a vesture of personality for God.
III. Its Purposes.
[67] (i) To show us what God is.
" He dwelt among us." Dwelt means dwelt
in a tabernacle, or tent, and so reminds us of
the Divine presence abiding with Israel in the
Tabernacle.
(2) To show us what man ought to be.
How perfect was the example that that
human life set before us ! The admission of
enemies tells us that : our own hearts and con-
sciences tell us. But did you ever think how
strange it is that these four little tracts— the
Gospels— telling us such fragmentary stories
and of so brief a period of a life, should have
been accepted by all the centuries, and by all
sorts and conditions of men, women, and chil-
dren, wise and foolish, learned and ignorant, as
an all-sufficient guide apd model for them, and
that these little stories should be felt by us all
to contain an adequate guide and will for our
conduct? It is not enough to say, "Ah, yes;
men's circumstances change, but the essentials
of their duty are very few, and you can put
them into very few words ; " we have got the
Divine example in human form.
(31 That he might die.
I'here are numbers of good, well-meaning
people who havedonefheirbesttoshift the scene
of Christianity from the Cross to the Cradle,
to put it all on the Incarnation instead of the
Crucifixion. But you cannot understand Christ-
mas unless you go to Good Friday. We do not
know the meaning of that Cradle unless we see
falling on it the Shadow of the Cross.
{4) That He might pity and sympathize with
us.
He has trodden all the road before us, and in
our hours of weakness or of conflict, when our
hearts bleed, and when the way is dark, it is
blessedness, and company, and strength, and
good cheer to remember that He has gone
before.
(5) That manhood might be glorified.
1 here is the crown of the mystery — that we
through His poverty may be made rich. As
Psalm viii. expounded in the Epistle to the
Hebrews has it, men are destined to dominion
and glory and honour. But we and all our
brethren have come woefully short of our
Divine destinies. Is the Divine purpose then
broken short.'' Is there never to be anything
better.-* Yes: we see not yet all things put
under Him, but we see Jesus. Where He is
He will lead me if I like. What He is He will
make xns..—Rev. A. Maclaren.
MAN AS A SPIRITUAL BEING.
I. Argument from Human Conscious-
ness.
[68] (i) The fundamental fact with which I
begin is, that I AM. I find myself existing as
a simple, self-same, substantial being.
(2) I find myself, moreover, existing with
certain QUALITIES ; in some of which I am like
lower animals, but in others altogether unlike
them.
(3) I am like lower animals in being Sensi-
tive, Causative, Intellective.
i6
68—76]
THE DISTINCTIVE DOCTRINES OF CHRISTIANITY.
[man, free and responsible.
(4) I am altogether unlike them in being
Moral, Religious, Progressive. — Prebendary
GriJJlth, Fimdamentals.
[69] I am more than a life. I am the some-
what who has life. — Thorndale.
[70] Because the soul feels itself not moved
by extraneous force, b.ut fiom itself alone, it
can say of all the assaults which are made
against these sorry mud walls which enclose it,
you are nothing to ME ! I can live anywhere,
without this feeble carcase ; for I was not that,
but had only a command over it while I dwelt
in it. — John Smith, Discourses.
[71] A man is one thing, his mind another,
his body a third. Although they belong to him
they are no more the man himself than his horse
or dog. It is a mere blunder in natural history
to confound these things. — Professor Rolleston
{Lecture at the Royal Institiition).
[72] What the thing is which we call ourselves
we know not. It may be true, and 1 for one care
not if it be, that the descent of our mortal bodies
may be traced through an ascending series to
some glutinous jelly formed on the rocks of the
primeval ocean. It is nothing to me how the
Maker of me has been pleased to construct the
organized substance which I call my body. It
is mine, but it is not me. The intellectual spirit,
being an essence, I believe to be an imperish-
able something engendered in us from a higher
" The soul that rises in us, our life's star,
Hath elsewhere had its setting.
And Cometh from afar."
—J. A. Froude.
[73] Araspes says to Cyrus : " I have plainly
two souls ; for a single soul cannot be a good
one and a bad one at the same time ; nor can
it at the same time affect both noble actions
and vile ones. It cannot incline and be averse
to the same things at the same time ; but it is
plain there are two souls ; and when the good
one prevails, it does noble things ; when the
bad one prevails, it attempts vile things." —
Xenophon.
II. Corroborative Scripture Testimony.
[74] The scriptures represent the body as but
the Scabbard m which the soul is inclosed (Dan.
vii. 15) ; earthly domicile (Job iv. 19) ; its taber-
nacle or te?it (2 Cor. v. i); and its clothing,
which it shall exchange for a better garment
(Job X. 11). And this soul, thus distinct from
the body, and occupying it only as a temporary
residence, is one and the same with our very
self. — Prebendary Griffith, Fundamentals.
MAN, FREE AND RESPONSIBLE.
I. Metaphysical Difficulties consi-
dered.
[75] The Free, Responsible, Moral Nature of
Man constituting him a Spiritual Being, in dis-
tinction from all mere animal existences and
material mechanisms, is another of those pri-
mary truths which belong to the very substance
of all religions, and therefore of Christianity as
a religion which appeals by persuasion to the
human heart and seeks to influence the life.
Apart from all theories of the origin of the
human race, the question may be put, what is
man as he is addressed by the word of God, or
that which claims to be the word of God, in the
scriptures .'' He certainly is regarded there as
rational, as moral, as spiritual ; in short, as
capable of making a free choice of the aim and
method of his life, as possessing some such
mastery over himself and over the world around
him, that it is not a mere mockery to make an
appeal to his will. It is of no practical import-
ance to prove that man's volition is absolutely
free.
The metaphysical difficulties which may be
involved in the conception of human freedom
are only of the same kind as beset all our sim-
plest ideas, all attempts to penetrate below the
surface of those facts with which we have to do
in daily life. The theory of vision, e.g., has
never been satisfactorily set forth by philoso-
phers. Yet vision itself is a fact, and the appeal
to the seeing man to use his eyes, is quite inde-
pendent of an explanation of the laws of percep-
tion.— R. A. Redford, The Christianas Plea
against Unbelief.
II. Limitations ARISING from Personal
Conditions and Environments con-
sidered.
[76] In short, whether we regard our natural
dispositions, or the circumstances in which we
are placed, or our lot in life, we everywhere find
ourselves restrained within certain limits, which
we can neither pass nor extend ; we everywhere
see ourselves subjected to a law of necessity
which we are unable to shake off. But this is
not the whole man. Whether our natural en-
dowments are great or small ; whether we are
favourably or unfavourably circumstanced, does
not after all decide upon what we really are, is
not, in truth, our very self
All this constitutes, it may be, the possessions
we ha7ie, this new material we are to fashion,
the matter out of which we build up the edifice
of our life — but it is we that use this material in
our life-building. How we use it, whether ill or
well, is our own affair, and depends not on the
material alone, but upon ourselves, upon the
tendency of our o\^ will, upon the moral con-
stitution of our own nature. In the sphere of
the will, in the province of moral resolves and
76-82]
THE DISTINCTIVE DOCTTINES OF CHRISTIANITY.
[personality of god.
self-determinations, we feel ourselves free. —
Lut/iardt, Moral Truths of Christianity.
See section termed "Man's Responsibility.''
PERSONALITY OF GOD.
I. As A Distinctive Doctrine of Chris-
tianity.
[77] Religion, however we define it, presup-
poses an object of worsJiip. Christianity rejects
all other conceptions of religion than that which
regards a personal God as its object. It is
distinguished, on the one side, from all forms
of polytheism., which is in fact the worship of
the creature instead of the Creator, of a finite
object instead of an infinite Being ; and, on the
other side, from all pantheistic forms of so-called
religion, which reduce the positive worship of a
living person to a vague sentiment, dependent
upon an intellectual conception, and therefore
altogether unsuited to be made the universal
worship of the human race.
II. The Necessity of its Belief.
[78] The denial of the Personality of Cod
"eliminates everything essential from worship,
and takes even the possibility of reasonableness
from piety." — The Superjiatiiral in Nature.
III. The Christian View consistent
WITH Reason.
[79] To call Personality, Goodness, Intelli-
gence, anthropomorphic in their nature is,
indeed, to give them their title ; but, to forsake
these and adopt energy or motion, mechanical
in place of intellectual terms, is not less anthro-
pomorphic, and forsakes the higher for the lower:
Personality as much transcending material con-
ceptions as humanity transcends the crystal or
the sea-weed.
[80] Personality is not used in any sense of
limitation, but as the mysterious aspect of the
omnipresent Energy, to whose eternal decrees
we submit, and on whose constancy we ex-
plicitly rely. We decline to call Him Power, or
Matter, or Motion. The Name of the great " I
am" has been in essence unpronounceable, but
we say, " God is Spirit," and we are kept from
attributing human or material attributes to Him
by the unsolvable mystery being formulated as
a Trinity in unity ; and there is a likeness in
this mystery of Three in One, or that other
mystery of three— past, present, future, which
are but one "Now" to the supreme. — The
Supernatural in Nature.
[81] An infinite, eternal One cannot indeed
be conceived of as material., nor yet strictly as
mental, but it may be conceived of as spiritual
and personal.
VOL. I.
IV. Summary of Proofs.
[82] To sum up the proofs of (}od's personality.
These proofs, as in the evidence for man's per-
sonality, are of two classes.
A personality is shown in and through the
material universe.
First. The perfect unity exhibited through all
things, of which we have any knowledge, argues
that the power by which they exist possesses
likewise a perfect and indivisible unity. This
cannot be said of mere abstract law, for the
laws of the universe are many and diverse.
There must be behind these laws an existence
which is' one and indivisible characterized by
this fundamental principle of personality.
Secondly. The universe exhibits a progression
and development in its formation. AH progres-
sive advancement in utility, in beauty, in better
adaptation to special ends and purposes, of
whose origin and cause we really know any-
thing, and which are not the subjects of mere
conjecture, has resulted from the exercise of the
personal guidance and control of men. In the
absence of proof to the contrary, the logic of
science, which bids us look for similar causes
where there are similar results, would not only
justify but require us to attribute to a personal
agency the progressive development so visible
in the formation of the world, and in the crea-
tion of its living inhabitants.
Thirdly. The stability of the universe depends
very largely upon the fact that all its varied and
multiplied movements are mutually incommen-
surable in time and space. Such movements
cannot be automatic, the result of mere law.
Law, however complex, must eventually run its
full course, and all those bodies which it con-
trols will necessarily return to the same relative
positions. The incommensurable nature of
times and distances of the various heavenly
bodies is incompatible with the idea of the uni-
verse being a mere machine. There must have
been a personal intelligent agency concerned in
its formation.
A Divine personality is shown by and through
the inward manifestation of the Divine Spirit to
the human spirit.
First. Every man is conscious of an inward
conviction that all the wonders and beauty and
adaptation of nature arise from the will and pur-
pose of a superior Being. This inward conviction
arises from no process of reasoning, but, being
common to all, can be nothing less than a
Divine inspiration, the voice of God communi-
cating directly with the spirits of men.
Secondly. Moral intuitions, the clear per-
ception of a distinction between right and wrong,
can find no other solution to the problem of
their existence than the direct personal in-
fluence of the Divine Spirit. The laboured
attempts to account for the power of the laws
of morality by a theory of development have
a defect similar to that which lies at the basis
of material development. The distinction be-
tween right and wrong must be assumed. It
cannot be accounted for. Nothing more can be
THE DISTINCTIVE DOCTRINES OF CHRISTIANITY.
82-89]
[sin, the reality of.
said of it than that it exists and that the
human mind is conscious of that distinction.
Just as in material development, the existence
of matter and life are not accounted for but
assumed.
Thirdly. The sense of religion has not its
origin in the human intelligence or experience.
It is imparted from without. From the very
nature of such impressions the source whence
they come must be a personal existence equally
with the human spirit whom He guides and
controls. — Rev. IV. IV. Olsscn, Fersonaliiy,
Human and Divine.
0
REDEMPTION, MORAL NECES-
SITY OF.
I. Morally.
[83] Christianity does not create the sense of
sin and guilt. It has been powerful in all re-
ligions. We look with awe on the human race,
bound and writhing through all history in the
sense of guilt, like the Laocoon in the embrace
of the serpents, the marble anguish unchanging
through all the ages.
[84] Human laws, which are the only expe-
dient lately attempted, cannot come to the head
and source of this corrupt fountain. It lies too
deep. Their power cannot reach it, and much
less purify it. An act of parliament can only
regulate the outward behaviour. It can take
no cognizance of a crime until it break out into
some overt act, and therefore it can have no
influence over the heart. If murder, adultery,
robbery, &c., be in the heart, there all statute
laws leave them ; and the inclination only waits
for a fair opportunity, which it will always em-
brace, whenever there is a prospect of escaping
the lash of the law. Thus no sin is hereby pre-
vented. Only the commission of it is rendered
more private, and the heart is put upon invent-
ing schemes, how it may gratify itself in its
pleasures, without incurring the pains and
penalties which the law threatens to inflict.
By this means the corruption, that seems to be
diminished in the channels, gathers and in-
creases at the fountain-head, wliere the more it
•is stopped, the more it ferments and pollutes
itself. Since this is the case, what reformation
can we expect from the interposition of human
authority .'' Supposing the legislature should
follow his majesty's gracious instructions from
the throne, and try to find out some new laws
for putting a stop to robberies and murders, yet
experience would soon prove them to be inef-
fectual. All the human laws which ever were
made, or ever will be made, cannot reform one
single person, because they cannot reach the
heart. Gospel and not law should be here
employed. The gospel can take sin out of the
heart, but the law can only make the commis-
sion of it more private. The clergy therefore
should be called upon, and not the magistrate.
— W. Ro7naine, 17 14-1795.
II. Theologically.
[85] Any one who believes that the Divine
acts are not arbitary must admit that when the
guilty are forgiven it must be for a sufficient
reason. If repentance and reformation are the
ground of it, then the one stage of life is set
over against the other and is the sufficient
reason for the Divine procedure regarding the
sins of the past. And again, if this repentance
and reformation are aftected through the suffer-
ings and death of Christ, then these become
after all, in a real sense, the ground of pardon.
So that whatever objections may lie against the
strictly vicarious doctrine hold against this also.
— Prof. Chapman in Homiletic Magazine (1882).
[86] Ou. Why was it iieedfitl that Christ
should be man ?
A. First, because he could not suffer in his
Divine nature, and therefore, unless he had
taken upon him the weak nature of man, he
could not have suffered for us, 1 Tim. i. 17.
Secondly, because man had sinned ; and
therefore it was needful that man should suffer
for sin, Heb. ii. 16.
Thirdly, that he might feel in himself the many
weaknesses and infirmities, that our nature is
subject to, Hcb.\\. 17. — J. Smith, Christ must be
Human (1618-1652).
10
SIN, THE REALITY OF.
I. Shown by its Universality.
[87] Our declining from the perfect rule of
righteousness in the course of our lives is not
the tnere effect of education, or imitation ; since
Jesus Christ was born into the same world that
we are, and bred up as we are, among corrupt
and vicious examples. — H. Grove, 1683-1738.
II. Shown by its Tendency.
[88] A state of sin and holiness are not like
two ways that are just parted by a line, so as a
man may step out of the one full into the other;
but they are like two ways that lead to very
distant places, and consequently are at a good
distance from one another ; and the further a
man hath travelled in the one, the further he is
from the other. — Bp. Tillotson.
III. Shown by its Effects.
[89] For sin is the greatest and highest in-
felicity of the creature ; depraves the soul
within itself, vitiates its powers, deforms its
beauty, extinguisheth its light, corrupts its
purity, darkens it^ glory, disturbs its tranquillity
and peace, violates its harmonious, joyful state
and order, and destroj-s its very life. — J. Howe,
1630-1705.
THE DISTINCTIVE DOCTRINES OF CHRISTIANITY.
90-99]
[trinity, the holy.
19
[90] Here, I fear, is a dangerous tendency of
the age we live in — to regard sin rather as a
misfortune or a mistake than a fault and cor-
ruption. No one can object to the generous
impulse which leads us to make due allowance
for those who grow up, through no fault of their
own, under unfavourable influences ; and a
merciful God, no doubt, considers and makes
due allowance for the inevitable disadvantages
under which so many human souls are reared.
But still, sin is sin, and right is right, and the
true Church of God never falters in its con-
demnation of the one and its upholding of the
other. It is its special business to form and
maintain an elevated public opinion, based on
the standard of the Word of God.— yi/;;>. Tait,
Church of the Future.
This subject is more fully treated in sections
termed " Do'imaiics " and '' Si /is."
11
TRINITY, THE HOLY.
I. A Mysterious Doctrine.
(i) Above, not contrary to, reason.
[91] But so much we manifestly find in our-
selves, that we have three natures in us very
sufficiently distinguishable and that are inti-
mately united — the vegetative, sensitive, and
the intellective ; so that, notwithstanding their
iTianifest distinction, no one scruples, when they
are united, to call the whole "the human
nature."- — J. Howe, 1630- 1705.
[92] How little do those who quarrel with
mysteries know of the commonest actions of
nature ! The growth of an animal, of a plant,
or of the smallest seed, is a mystery to the
wisest among men. If an ignorant person were
told that a loadstone would draw iron at a dis-
tance, he migiit say it was a thing contrary to
his reason, and could not believe before he saw
it with his eyes. The manner whereby the soul
and body are united, and how they are distin-
guished, is wholly unaccountable to us. We
see but one part, and yet we know we consist
of two ; and this is a mystery we cannot com-
prehend, any more than that of the Trinity.
[93] It is highly probable, that if God should
please to reveal unto us' this great mystery of
the Trinity, or some other mysteries in our holy
religion, we should not be able to understand
them, unless He would at the same time tnink
fit to bestow on us some new powers or faculties
of the mind, which we want at present, and are
reserved till the day of resurrection to life
eternal. " For now," as the apostle says, " we
see through a glass darkly, but then face to
face." — Dean Swi/t.
[94] And whereas necessity of existence, most
unquestionably of an intellectual being, is a
most certain and fundamental attribute of
Deity ; the Father, Son, and Spirit being sup-
posed necessarily existent, in this united state,
they cannot but be God : and the Godhead by
reason of this necessary union cannot but be
one ; yet so, as that when you predicate God-
head, or the name of God, of any one of them,
you herein express a true but an inadequate
conception of God : that is, the Fat) er is God,
not excluding the Son and Holy Ghost ; the
Son is God, not excluding the Father and the
Holy Ghost ; the Holy Ghost is God, not ex-
cluding the Father and the Son : as our body
is the man, not excluding the soul ; our soul is
the man, not excluding the body. — J. Howe,
1 630-1 705.
[95] It is a mystery ; the greatest of all mys-
teries, and the key of all mysteries, but itself
has no key. — Vinet.
[96] Just because the doctrine of the Trinity
is the most obscure and enigmatic revelation of
God, therefore to him who penetrates into it
with earnest search ings the profoimdest depths
of knowledge will be opened, and what is appa-
rently self-contradiction will appear more and
more in grand harmony and intrinsic necessity.
— Christlieb, Modern Doubt and Christian Belief.
II. Its MYSTERIOUSNES3 GUARDS AGAINST
Irreverence of Idea in regard to
THE Deity.
[97] In the shaping of our thoughts, formu-
lated in the doctrine of the Holy Trinity, which
are for ever striving after higher, purer ideality,
we are guarded against imputing the feebleness
of man to God. — Ihe Supernatural in Nature.
[98] The doctr ne of the Holy Trinity rescues
us from what Spinoza says — "To define is to
deny Him," Deter/ninatio negatio est ; rescues
us from the error that thought and volition, as
known to us, are the very nature and essence of
the Infinite ; and enables us to see that the
personality is not a limitation, but an ineffable
reality, raising us from the error of regarding
the Eternal as mere infinitude, and giving
knowledge of Him as the all-pervading and
all-sustaining Power."— Ibid.
[99J It is not easy to rightly respect a
superior whose antecedents and history are too
familiar to us, nor to accept one as our leader
whose minds and plans we can fully fathom.
Analogy as well as religious experience teaches
that the sense of infinite superiority and the
elements of incomprehensibility are absolutely
necessary for the spiritual act of adoration.
The Christian idea of the Trinity reveals
mysteries beyond those of mere monotheism or
pure theism, and raises Deity in our thoughts to
the highest conceivable pinnacle. At the same
time the practical outcome is that by acknow-
ledging the glory of the eternal Trinity we ar'i
not only best able to worship the unity, but ate
brought into the closest conceivable relation-
ships with the Divine Majesty. — C. A'.
DIVISION B.
CHRISTIANITY AS A SYSTEM.
Pages 21 to 48.
ALPHABETICAL TABLE OF TOPICS,
12
ADAPTATION TO MAN'S NATURE AND NEEDS.
CHRISTIAN AND OTHER SYSTEMS.
14
CHURCH OF THE FUTURE.
15
CONNECTION OF SCIENCE AND PHILOSOPHY WITH
RELIGION.
16
DIVINE ORIGIN OF CHRISTIANITY.
17
MODERN CIVILIZATION AND CHRISTIANITY.
18
MORAL PHILOSOPPIY AND CHRISTIANITY.
19
PHILOSOPHY OF CHRISTIANITY.
20
PROGRESS OF CPIRISTIANITY.
21
REASONABLENESS OF CHRISTIANITY.
22
TEMPORAL BENEFITS OF CHRISTLVNITY.
23
THEISTIC ELEMENTS OF CHRISTIANITY.
DIVISION B.
CHRISTIANITY AS A SYSTEM.
12
ADAPTATION TO MAN'S NATURE
AND NEEDS.
I. Nature of the Adaptation.
I Christianity points out both the disease
and remedy of human nature.
[lOo] Christianity gives us a view of human
nature, as fallen from its original dignity, yet by
the grace of God capable of recovering its purity,
and with that its peace, and attaining to perfec-
tion of blessedness. ) Here we have the best
and noblest end, the glory of God in the final
happiness of man, and the surest and most ex-
cellent means for the accomplishing this end,
by humility, self-denial, purity, mortification to
the world, by the love of God and our neigh-
bour, by the practice of virtue, and the exercise
of a sober and rational, yet exalted devotion.
Here are the most perfect rules, the most use-
ful institutions, the divinest examples, the most
powerful assistances, the most glorious pros-
pects, and the most abundant consolations.
Here is sigJit for the blind, health for the diseased,
liberty for the captive, and pardon and life for
the wretcli under cojtdeinnation. Here is enough
to entertain the devout and thoughtful mind, to
calm the troubled conscience, to relieve the
anxious, to satisfy the doubtmg, and to raise
and comfort the timorous and dejected soul.
Are not all these so many characters of divinity
in the frame of our religion ? — H. Grove, 1683-
1738-
[loi] Infidelity proclaims its own inconsistency
by denying the defects of man's nature, and at
the same time blames that nature for the de-
velopment of its religious instincts. — C. N.
2 Christianity exactly meets man's highest
aspirations.
[102] The engineers who directed the work of
the Hoosac tunnel started two gangs of men
from opposite sides of the mount. So accurate
was their survey, that when they met midway
in the mount, the walls of the excavations ap-
proaching from the different starting-points,
joined within less than an inch. The practical
working of the bore proved the scientific accu-
racy of the survey. Man starting from the side
of his human need, reaching upwards toward
God, is met by the revelation in Christ coming
down from God, a revelation which exactly fits
his need. This perfect match between the
human need and the heavenly supply, is the
perfect proof of the Divine origin of the Bible.
— Rev. F. G. Pentieost, Volume of the Book.
3 Christianity accommodates itself to all di-
versity of minds.
[103] So it is with the truths of the gospel.
God does not make those truths the same to
any two minds. If men had the subtle power
of analysis, so as to seize just what they feel, and
put their feelings exactly into words, I believe it
would be found that no two persons on the face
of the earth ever stated, or could state, their
views of facts alike. God, that never made
two faces alike ; God, that never made two
leaves alike ; God, that makes unity with in-
finite diversity — He does not mean that men
shall feel just alike. The amplitude of being, is
expressed by variations of being, that go back
to essential unity and take hold of a common
root. And the attempt to bring the glowing and
fervid Orientals, the staid and practical Occi-
dentals, the mediteval minds, the artist minds,
the sombre and unirradiating natures, and the
light and gay natures, all to one statement of
speculative truth, is as wild and preposterous as
the boy's race after the rainbow. It cannot be
done. — Ward Beeeher.
[104] As streams are impregnated by the soils
over which they flow, so subjects are atTected by
the individualism of the mind through which
they pass. Thus Christianity may be said to
be different things to different minds. To the
speculative man it is a great attempt to solve
deep problems in theology ; to the controver-
sialist it is a challenge to debate profound sub-
jects on new ground ; to the poet it is a dream,
a wondrous vision many-coloured as the rain-
bow, a revelation many-voiced as the tunes of
the wind or the harmonies of the sea. — J\ev. R.
A. Bertram.
[105] As to merely " speculative" matters, the
remarks in the two preceding extracts may be
admitted ; namely, in relation to superficial dif-
ferences and theological terms and inferences ;
but the main effect of the gospel, on all varieties
of taste and culture, is to produce the same
faith and hope and joyful expectation.
The fact that Bible narratives and truths.
los — 109]
CHRISTIANITY AS A SYSTEM.
[adaptation to man's nature and needs.
especially the life of Christ, and what is taught
respecting Him, interest and move persons of
all races, classes, and ages, proves, first, psycho-
logically, the unity of mankind ; and, secondly,
that Christianity has touched the keynote of
humanity as the common salvation, adapted to
our common nature. — B. G.
II. Lines of Proof.
I Christianity adapted to man's nature on
ethical grounds.
[106] The argument presented is one of adapt-
ation and correspnndeiice. Man's moral nature
being an admitted reality, and the Christian
religion an acknowledged fact, it has been
attempted to show that the one is fitted for the
other. Man's esteem and honour for what is
right, his contrition for sin, and his aspirations
towards immortality ; all testify to Him from
whom not only do they proceed, but the revela-
tion also that responds to and satisfies them ;
all testify to the Cross, that brings peace to the
conscience and inspiration to the new and better
life; all testify to the ascended King Himself,
who lives for ever to love and bless, and yet
eternally to reign.
The argument is admittedly one of proba-
bility, and (it is urged) of probability so high as
to afford conclusive reason for action. It is an
argument acinidative in form. Each one of the
particulars mentioned has a certain strength ;
conjoined together, they constitute a powerful
and conclusive argument in favour of our reli-
gion, and justify a cordial and practical acknow-
ledgment of its claims.— AV7A J. R. Thompson,
M.A.
^ Christianity adapted to man's needs his-
torically, i.e., by its practical effects.
[107] One of the most interesting features in
the Apologies of Justin Martyr— presented to
Roman emperors in defence of the new religion
— is the light cast on the moral state of the
Christian Church. In the First Apology, ad-
dressed to Antoninus Pius and his sons, about
the year 139, Justin, whose own conversion as a
Palestinian Greek, from philosophy to faith in
Christ, is one of the brightest passage in early
Christian history, dwells much upon the spread
of the gospel, which had just ended its first
century ; YtvX he also gives prominence to its
moral and spiritual effects. " After we were
persuaded by the Word, we forsook tlie powers
of evil, and now follow the one everlasting God
by His own Son. We who delighted before in
fornication, now embrace only chastity. We
who practised magic rites, have now devoted
ourselves to the good and everlasting God. We
who loved above everything else the income we
drew from stocks, and houses, and lands, now
cast what we have into the common treasury,
and give to every one that ncedeth. We who
hated and slew each other in mutual feuds, and
through diversity of customs would not even
warm ourselves at the same fire with strangers,
now, after the advent of Christ, sit at the same
table ; and we pray for our enemies, and strive
to convert those who unjustly hate us, that they
too, living according to the glorious precepts of
Christ, may have the same good hope of reward
from the Lord of all. Let those who do not live
as Lhrist enjoined be known not to be Chris-
tians, whatever they may pro. ess ; and such
who merely take the name of Christ, but live
inconsistently with it, we give up to you to
punish them as you please." — Pi-esent Day
7 racts.
III. Phases of this Adaptation.
I Christianity permanently recommends it-
self by its moral rather than its miraculous
elements'.
[108] We come to this conclusion, that to put
the miracles before unbelievers in the fore-front
of our pleading for Christianity, and to say that
they are bound to believe in the Divine mission
of Christ because it was supernaturally attested
by these acts of superhuman power, is neither
the way of the New Testament nor the method
of recommending the gospel which is likely to
be successful. The primary, the chief appeal
must be to the gospel itself; to its adaptation
to man's higher nature ; to its self-evidencing
quality when it comes in contact with the soul
that seeks after God ; to its spiritual power, and
beauty, and glory ; to its manifest eft'ects on the
course of the world, and on the order and
g'-owth of human society. Here are ample
materials for an answer to the question, " Wiiat
chink ye of Christ ?" — P. Brooks. \
3 Christianity even in its mysterious elements
is practically adapted to the deeper needs
of humanity.
[109] Now it is precisely in the most mysteri-
ous doctrines of our creed, in those which make
the strongest demands on faith, and are the
most remote from any possibility of scientific
verification, that Christian souls find their sup-
port and refuge under these burdens of the flesh
and these torments of the spirit. The message
that " God so loved the world, that He gave His
only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in
Him should not perish, but have everlasting
life " — this is a message, simple as are its terms,
which transcends all philosophy, all reason, all
experience — nay, all capacity of comprehension ;
and yet it is in reliance on this message, and on
other assurances of the same kind, that Chris-
tians are delivered from all despair, and are
enabled, under whatever distresses, to cling to
their belief in the love of their Father in heaven.
When the Christian minister can assure a
suffering soul on the bed of death, in misery or
in pain, that whatever its agonies, the Son of
God in human form endured far worse for its
sake, as a pledge of the love of the Father, and
in fulfilment of that love, he applies a remedy
which is equal to any need. The message of
the Cross, interpreted by the doctrine of the
incarnation, is thus in moments of real trial the
support of the most elementary principle of
CHRISTIANITY AS A SYSTEM.
109— 114]
23
faith. In fact, the minimizing theology, now in
question, depends for its plausibility upon a
simple evasion of the real problems of philo-
sophy, and of the practical difficulties of life.
The full and explicit faith of the creed recog-
nizes those difficulties, and looks them in the
face. It owns that they are insuperable upon
any grounds of mere natural reason, and it offers
supernatural realities and supernatural assur-
ances to overcome them. — Prof. Wace, Bampton
Leciicres.
13
CHRISTIAN AND OTHER
SYSTEMS.
I. POINIS OF SUPERIORITV IN CHRISTI-
ANITY TO Judaism.
[no] The author of the Epistle to the He-
brews, in the opening verses of that epistle,
points out four distinct grounds of superiority
of Christianity over Judaism, (i) He says that
the Jewish revelation was not uniform in its
appearance, but given in "various modes;"
whereas the revelation of Christ was given in
the continuous image of a single human form.
(2) He declares that the Jewish revelation did
not exhibit a united view of the universe, but
was made in "divers parts;" whereas the mani-
festation of Christ was the revelation of one
connected life. (3) He maintains that Judaism
was only a temporary manifestation of God :
" He spoke unto our fathers in times past ; "
whereas Christianity was the centre of all
epochs, past, present, and future : "whom he
hath appointed heir of all things, for whom
also He made the ages." (4) He affirms that
Judaism did not give the Divine Voice from the
fountain-head : God spoke to our fathers only
by " the prophets ; " whereas in Christianity
we have the Voice direct from heaven, because
we have the revelation made from the briglit-
ness of His own glory : " hath in these last days
spoken unto us by His Son." — Dr. Mathesoii,
Expositor {Oct. 1879).
[11 t] Judaism was the adumbration and
historical introduction of Christianity — " the
shadow of good things to come." " Christ,
ottr Passover, is (now) sacrificed for us.'' If
there liad been a law which would give life,
salvation would have been by that law ; but
because of its inadequacy, the gospel was given.
— B. G.
[112] The gospel is no afterthought, but the
forethought or God. God sees the end from the be-
ginning. All things in nature and grace are work-
ing out one grand scheme, which God before
the creation of heaven and earth designed. The
gospel was but a further and fuller development
of God's plans in Old Testament times. The
stem is no afterthought ; the leaves and buds
are no afterthought ; the flower is no after-
fCHRlSTIAN AND OTHER SYSTEMS.
thought ; the fruit is no afterthought ; for they
were all wrapped up from the first in the seed,
or cutting, or bulb. Or, to take another illus-
tration, it is of no unfrequent occurrence that
the architect designs a Gothic church which is
not to be built all at once, but as sufficient funds
are forthcoming, oras the congregation increases.
At first the nave is constructed, then one aisle
after another is added ; and afterwards the
chancel is built, and last of all is erected the
spire — whose " silent finger points to heaven."
I'he pulling down of the temporary walls and
hoardings, and the additions from time to tune
made, are no afterthought, but only the carrying
out of the original design. Thus the doing away
with- the ceremonial law and Jewish ritual, and
the bringing life and immortality to light through
Jesus, ate no afterthought, but the fore\\\o\.\^\.
of God — the revealing of His glorious scheme of
grace designed befi^re the foundation of the
world, and previously promised by His prophets
in the Holy Scriptures. "The New Testament
is concealed in the Old ; the Old Testament
lies revealed in the New " {Ajtgiistinc). St.
Hilary's thought is similar, when he speaks of
"the New Testament as enfolded in the Old,
and the Old as unfolded in the New." Bishop
Chr. Wordsworth expresses the same idea in his
note on Ezek. xvi. 60 : " The Old is the germ
of the New; the New is the development and
consummation of the Old." — Rev. C. Neil, The
Expositors' Conunetitary : Romans.
II. Points in which Christianity is
Superior to Paganism.
I Viewed negatively.
(i) T/ic best of other systejus have strange
incongruities.
[113] In the sacred books of the East, by the
sicle of so much that is fresh, natural, simple,
beautiful, and true, it contains so much that is
not only unmeaning and artificial and silly, but
even hideous and repellant. — Max Miiller,
Sacred Books of the East.
[114] A comparison of the cosmogony of
Moses with that of any heathen writings proves
its superiority, and is a strong argument for its
Divine origin, eclipsing so completely all human
imaginations. As a proof of this, we will cite
the instance selected by Iconoclast himself, who
says in "The Bible, what is it V "Ask yourselves
in what particular feature is Genesis superior to
the Shastra or Bhagavat. The following is from
the Manava Shastra, the words of Menu Son of
Braha, and was quoted in vol. i. of the "Asiatic
Researches," p. 244. " This world [says he]
was all darkness, undiscernible, undistinguish-
able, all together as in profound sleep ; till
the self-existent, invisible God, making it mani-
fest with five elements and other glorious forms
perfectly dispelled the gloom. He, desiring to
raise up various creatures by an emanation
from His own glory, first created the waters,
and impressed them with a power of motion ;
24
CliRISTIANITV AS A SYSTEM.
t2o]
[CIIRISTrAN AND OTIIKR SYSTF.MS.
by that power was produced a golden egg,
blazing like a thousand suns, in which was
born Brahma, self-existing, the great parent of
all rational beings. The waters are called Narh,
since they are the offspring of Nara or Iswara ;
and thence was Naiayana named, because his
first ayana, or moving, was on them. That which
is the invisible cause, eternal, self-existing but
unperceived, becoming masculine from neuter,
is celebrated among all creatures by the name
of Brahma. That god, having dwelled in the
egg through revolving years, himself meditating
on himself, divided it into two equal parts, and
from these halves formed the hea\-cns and the
earth, placing in the midst the subtle ether, the
eight points of the world, and the permanent
receptacle of waters." Nobody can understand
that, which is its chief recommendation to our
minute jihilosophers, who object to all Bible
mysteries. A self-e.xisting god, making an egg
to be born in, to provide an object for atheistic
adoration 1 The infidels of England are now
sitting on that egg to hatch it over again. 1 am
afraid it is addled. If this is the best rival of
the Bible, we may retain the Old Book yet, and
have no fear of being stigmatized as supersti-
tious. "Ask yourselves in what particular fea-
ture Genesis is superior to this absurd tale which
is the cousin of that other from the same source
— the earth stands on the back of a great tor-
toise ! How weak men become when, abandon-
ing God, they lean on.their own understanding."
— Brinuin Grant, Discussion icitii Iconoclast,
1858.
(2) Pas^anistn failed to produce humane and
benevolent institutions.
[115] Amid all the boasted civilization of
antiquity, there e.xistedno hospitals, no peniten-
tiaries, no asylums. — Canon Farrar, Life of
Christ.
[116] Hospitals, although peculiarly Christian
institutions, one of the fruits of Christian fore-
sight and benevolence, yet they are sometimes
boldly claimed as of pagan origin by modern
intidcls, to rob Christianity of the glory But
were it really so that paganism originated hos-
pitals, that would be no credit to intidclity, be-
cause it would be the relii^ious element, even of
paganism, that pruduced these institutions.
But it is not true, and no clear instance of a
pagan or pre-Christian hospital has been pro-
duced.
Some men, wise in their own conceit, have
pretended, and do still pretend, that because
Christianity enjoins ]irayer for the sick, it pro-
hibits medicine ; but the Cheat Physician said,
" the whole need not a physician, but they that
are sick "—which means, the sick do need a phy-
sician ; and therefore Christianity embraces
physicians and medicine for the body : so
our prayer is— "as well for the body as the
soul."
Atheists say, if God sends sickness, it is con-
iravening His will to try and remove it by medi-
cine ; but God sends the medicine and the
doctor as well as sickness, and gives us common
sense to profit by both. — B. C.
(3) Other systems, though containing good
sentiments, yet lack force to influence the general
masses of mankind,
[117] Taking their ethical treatises as our
basis, we are justified in assuming that the phi-
losophers had determined that true hapjjiness
consisted in the best possible exercise of man's
highest functions ; and on this principle they
had evolved a general code of ethical duties
more or less perfect. This code, however, pre-
sents us with several striking defects, and, on
the confession of its authors, it was devoid of
sanctions sulhciently powerful to act on the mass
of mankind. The desire of happiness, though
universal, is only one out of many forces by
which man is impelled ; and in the contest for
the mastery those other forces generally exert a
preponderating strength. Such a principle of
duty, therefore, being wholly devoid of a reli-
gious basis, was necessarily weak. The very
conception of duties which a man owed to him-
self, implies an absence of all binding power.
Such a conception of duty can never elevate it-
self to that of disinterested virtue. Self becomes
both debtor and creditor ; self has to enforce
oljligation against the overwhelming impulses
of passions, all of which terminate in self-quali-
fication. It was on this basis of man's position
as a member of political society that the practice
of disinterested virtue could alone be made to
rest. But how was the reality of the duty to be
demonstrated.'' How was the obligation of self-
sacrifice to be proved.? If demonstrated, how
was a moral force to be imparted to it of suffi-
cient sirength to enable it to struggle success-
fully against the power of the feelings and
afTcctions, which terminated in self? — Contem-
poraiy Reiieii', 1869.
(4) Other systems have slight influence even
over the selected few.
[i iS] The philosopher endeavoured to streng-
then his position from considerations derived
from the moral beauty of virtue. But on men
of imperfect morality these were comparatively
weak ; they freely confessed that such a con-
sideration was only fit to act on select minds.
On the masses it was powerless. — Ih'd.
[119] The philosophers and the multitude in
Greece and Rome included the whole people ;
and there was one fatal characteristic common
to them. In both there was an entire separation
of morality and religion. The virtue of the
few, even when purest, was not religious, and
did not profess to be so. The religion of the
masses, even when enthusiastic, was so little
moral that it seemed to have no root at all in
coascieuce. — Dr. Irons, Bampton Lectures.
[120] Julian strove to graft the morality and
the organization of Christianity on the stem of
heathendom. The priests of paganism were
CHRISTIANITY AS A SYSTEM.
-124]
[christian and other systems.
25
merely the performers of certain rites, the depo-
sitories of certain mysteries. They had no
moral, or educational, or philanthropic con-
science. The Christian clergy, on the other
hand, over and above their duties in the public
services of the Church, were expected to be also
the pastors and teachers, the guides and ex-
amples, the ministers of comfort, and the dis-
pensers of alms to their flocks. Julian attempted
to infuse this pastoral element into the pagan
priesthood, to which it was wholly foreign. In
the letters which are extant, the priests are en-
joined by him to abstain from the theatre or the
tavern ; they are forbidden to engage in any
degrading occupation ; they are required to see
that their wives, and children, and servants at-
tend regularly on the service of the gods ; they
are told to imitate the grave demeanour and the
benevolent hospitality of Christian bishops. " It
is shameful," writes the emperor, " that the im-
pious Galileans should support our people as
well as their own." Such a conception of the
priest's oftice must have surprised Julian's cor-
respondents. They had not bargained for any-
thing of the kind. — Canon Liddon, Lectures on
Christianity and Paganism.
[121] These considerations make it evident
why it was that philosophy was so completely
at fault in dealing with the mass of human cor-
ruption by which it was surrounded, Being
devoid of profound spiritual convictions, it had
no means of penetrating to the depths of the
human spirit. In exerting the power of habit,
it found the ground completely preoccupied, and
an enemy in possession of the very centre of its
strength. All that a philosopher could say to
one in whom the principles of evil had taken
root was, " Begin the work of reformation by
performing virtuous actions. After sufficient
exercise and practice, this will form in you
virtuous habits ; and after a sufficient interval
these will deepen into virtuous principles." If
to this the reasonable objection was made, How
is it possible for one with strong tendencies to
evil, or in whom the violence of passion over-
powers the dictates of conscience, to perform
these virtuous actions ? Philosophy had no
answer whatever to give. It was impossible for
her, therefore, to issue forth from the schools
and proclaim a gospel of good news to the out-
cast, to the profligate, or even men in whom
habits of vice were formed. Her failure in this
point of view is most striking, and of it she was
fully conscious, for she never made one effort to
grapple with the moral degeneracy of the masses.
She felt that her mission was the very reverse of
that which our Lord described His to be. He
asserted that the primary object of His mission
was not to call the righteous, but sinners to re-
pentance. She proclaimed aloud her utter in-
ability to deal with the sinner, and confined her
efforts to the comparatively good. Even within
this narrow sphere the results which she could
accomplish were feeble. — C. A. Row, Moral
Teachitigs of New Testament.
2 Viewed positively.
(i) Christianity supplies the failures and de-
fects of other systems.
[122] (i) It puts legislation for speculation,
since it proclaims as laivs what philosophers
could only adduce as probable opinions. All
speculations as to man's duty, were merely
"academical questions" for philosophical specu-
lation, and not moral obligations enforced by
adequate authority. As, to do good to all men,
is a proper and respectable sentiment ; but this
view of ''utility," though a taking and popular
sentiment, is of no binding force, for why should
I do good to others, except on the ground that
God's beneficence is an indication that His will
and requirement enforces benevolence as a
Divine law .'' To ignore this Divine law and
rule, and advocate general utility as our rule of
action, is to destroy the motive power and re-
move the boiler from the engine.
(2) Christianity fulfilled .the anticipations and
prophecies of Judaism and met the delects and
wants of paganism by a system which included
"the common people."
(3) All other eflbrts had failed to interest and
influence the generality of mankind.
(4) This cosmopolitan and universal aim of
Christianity was the object of scorn, and is its
fairest ornament.
(5) Christianity showed its superiority in
securing the true euthanasia, or glorious death,
where pagan philosophy, like some modern
philosophers, proposed only suicide, as the es-
cape for frail humanity.
(6) Christianity was the opportune rescue of
mankind from effete superstitions and philo-
sophies.
(7) Christianity, as a physician called in when
danger is extreme, was the rescue and restora-
tion of humanity. — Brewin Grant, Cowper
Street Discnssiofi.
(2) Christianity incorporates all the best re-
sults of reason embedded in every form of
philosophy ami superstition.
[123] We can discover, in the crude ore
which was made to supply the earliest coins or
counters of the human mind, the presence of
religious ingredients. Before the Aryan lan-
guages separated— and who is to tell how many
thousand years before the first hymn of the
Veda or the first line of Homer that ethnic
schism may have happened .''—there existed in
them the expressions which afterwards became
the name of God. If religion is thus involved
in the earlier traces of man's thought, it is only
a fair conclusion that that fact of religion rests
on an idea of an object of worship. — Professor
Flint.
[124] Christianity gives new Divine force to
all previously enunciated good maxims. They
who say that some of the precepts of Jesus, as
the Golden Rule, are not original, forget that the
incorporation and inculcation of alleged pre-
viously existing sentiments give to such senti-
26
CHRISTIANITY AS A SYSTEM.
[24-
[CHRTSTIAN AND OTHER SYSTEMS.
iTients the new force of Divine legislation and
enforcement. In this sense, as laws, they are
original, even if vaguely recognized before-
hand.— B. G.
(3) Christianity alone furnishes a sjijjleient
power-ntotii'e for holiness.
[125] Glowing panegyrics on sobriety and
purity may be quoted from the Greek and
Roman philosophers, or Oriental mystics. It
may be possible even to find a parallel else-
where to what is more distinctive of Christianity,
its earnest and repeated warnings on the neces-
sity of being pure in thought as well as in deed.
Wiiere, then, is the difference? It is in the
motive, which is the life and the essence of the
precept. " Ye are Christ's" — here is the motive.
Christianity regards the body as a shrine for
the presence of Christ by His indwelling Spirit.
Others may tell us of the injurious eflects of
intemperance, of the -misery, the degradation.
But Ciirist would have us to be temperate, not
so much from a calculation of consequences to
ourselves, as because intemperance is a detrac-
tion from that willing service which we owe to
Hiin, a breach of our allegiance, a faithlessness
in our love. — Rev. J. G. Smith, Baniplon
Lectures.
(4) Christianity conquered paganism by moral
and spiritual weapons.
[126] I propose to trace the streain a little fur-
ther from its source,whcn Christianity has forced
itself into recognition and become the pre-
dominant religion of the empire. The struggle
between Christianity and paganism has entirely
changed its outward character. The only
weapons which the Church could wield at a
former epoch were moral and spiritual. She is
now furnished with all the appliances of political
and social prestige ; yet these, however impos-
ing, and to some e.xtent serviceable, are not her
really effective arms. She can afford to be
deprived of them for a time, and her career of
victory is unchecked. Her substantial triumphs
must still be won by the old weapons. The
source of her superiority over paganism is still
the same as before— a more enlightened faith
in the will of the Unseen, a heartier devotion to
the cause of himianity, a more reverential awe
for the majesty of purity, a greater readiness to
do and to suffer. The change has been as
startling and as sudden as it was moinentous.
All at once the Church had passed from hope-
less, helpless oppression to supremacy and
power. For several years after the opening of
the fourth century the last and fiercest persecu-
tion still raged. Christians were hunted down,
tortured, put to death with impunity and with-
out mercy. The only limit to their sufferings
was the weariness or the caprice of their per-
secutors. Yet before the first quarter of this
century has drawn to a close the greatest sove-
reign, who had worn the imperial diadem for
three hundred years, is found presiding at a
rouncil of Christian bishops, discussing the
most important questions of Christian doctrine,
as though the fate of the empire depended upon
the resuh. In the short period of fifteen years
which elapsed between the death of Galerius
and the Council of Nictea, the most stupendous
revolution which the pages of history record
had been brought about. We cannot wonder
that the contemporary heathen failed altogether
to recognize its completeness and its perma-
ence. Obviously they look at Christianity as a
phenomenon which it may be curious to con-
template, but which has no great practical
moinent for them ; they do not 'realize it as
destined to mingle permanently with the main
stream of human life. — Canon Lzddon, Lectures
on Christianity and Paganism.
(5) Other systems under most fai'ourable cir-
cicmstances had to give way to Christ'ajiity as a
regenerative and restorative poiuer Jinder most
unfavourable.
[127] We study the sacred books of all the
great religions of the world ; we see the effects
exercised by these religions on the minds of
their votaries ; and in spite of all the truths
which even the worst of them enshrined, we
watch the failure of them all to produce the
inestimable blessings which we ourselves enjoy.
We read the systems and treatises of ancient
philosophy, and in spite of all the great and
noble elements in which ihey abound, we see
their total incapacity to console, or support, or
deliver, or regenerate the world. Then we see
the light of Christianity dawning like a tender
dayspring amid the universal and intolerable
darkness. From the first it allies itself with the
world's utter feeblenesses, and those feeble-
nesses it shares ; yet without wealth, learning,
or genius, without arms or anything to dazzle
or attract, it puts to flight kings and their
armies, it breathes a new life and a new hope
and a new and unknown holiness into a guilty
and decrepit \sox\di. — Canon Farrar, Life of
Christ.
[128] When the gospel was first proclaimed
it had little to fear from the " outworn creeds"
of men. The old pagan religions had lost their
vitality and power. They had become incred-
ible. They were regarded as myths or poems,
which set forth natural processes or relations, as
lending a useful sanction to the police regula-
tions of the empire, as affording a serviceable
stimulus to the national unity or enthusiasin,
but not as faiths which were to rule the thoughts
and lives of men, and for which 'twere well
even to die. The real obstacles with which the
primitive disciples had to contend were the
scepticism and the inveterate immoralities
which idolatry had bred. — fZev. S. Cox, Ex-
positor's Note Book.
CHRISTIANITY AS A SYSTEM.
128-137.]
[the church of the future.
14
CHURCH OF THE FUTURE.
T. The Nature of the Church's De-
velopment.
1 Christianity admits of unity in variety.
[129] That all religious life should manifest
itself in the same way (Mark ix. 14-17) was a
false idea.
(i) It receives no countenance from the
variety of life and beauty in nature.
(2) Nor from the varied manifestations of
intellectual life.
(3) Nor from the diversity of character dis-
played in the Bible.
Yet there is a strong- family likeness between
all true believers, and a spiritual freemasonry.
The difference between various types of Chris-
tianity regards outward development only ; the
deeper down you go, the more the essence will
be found to be identically the same. Each type
of Christianity discloses for the general benefit
of the Church some trait of character in a more
special respect.— C. A^.
2 Christianity admits of change of termin-
ology.
[130] We hear very much at the present day
about new ideas and strange doctrines, but we
need not tremble for the ark of God's truth when
history teaches us that Christianity has come
safely through many a social and intellectual
revolution, and is still fresh with a life that
seems ever young. It behoves us to have calm
confidence in the living power of truth ; we
know by experience that it is a sublime reality;
we may then be assured it cannot die. What-
ever our ideas may be, the world will move on
in the path of progress, for God is still at the
helm of affairs ; He controls the circumstances
and guides the destinies of His people.
Even now when good men do things not quite
in harmony with common notions, and speak
truths which have a sound of strangeness, many
are ready to cry out that the Church is in danger,
and that we are going to be cursed by new
doctrines.
Let us be calm. There is nothing to be
gained by going into a state of wild excitement.
New deeds may be prompted by the everlasting
Spirit, and striking truths may be but the old
gospel translated into the language of to-day. —
Rev. IV. G. y or dan, Spirt heal Life.
[131] Let us be careful that the eld truth is
not obscured or weakened in the process of re-
setting. It is not every revision which is able
to take permanently the place of the older ver-
sion. After all, the current religious ideas and
conventional language of the day fail to bring
out all the various sides of truth, or even one
side, in all its completeness. The religious
thought of one age acts as a corrective supple-
ment to that of the rest. The religious literature
of each period, Patristic, Mediaeval, Puritan,
serve not their own age only, but maybe studied
at times with profit by each succeeding genera-
tion of Christians. — C. N.
[132] We can never exhaust or work out any
one stratum of Divine truth. — C. N.
Aid us to search Thy Scriptures, Lord,
As miners search for gold ;
There lie vast treasures unexplored.
And wonders yet untold.
Though churches deem their creeds of worth,
And think their systems broad.
Thou, Lord, hast yet more light and truth
To break forth from Thy Word.
3 Christianity admits of progress in the
understanding of it, not in abandonment
of it.
[133] As future science may afford new views
of light and leave the sun and planetary system
just the same, so new views in theology will
leave Christianity just the same. — B. G.
[134] There may be, and has been, a three-
fold development in doctrine— -(i) philological,
from a better understanding of terms employed ;
(2) philosophical, from progress — general know-
ledge ; (3) ethical and historical, from the influ-
ence of Christianity in awakening men's faculties,
and the reflex influence of times and countries
upon it. — De (liiinccy, Essay on Protestantism.
[135] No doubt it is beyond the human power
to add to the subject-matter of revelation, though
clearer light may in the course of ages be
thrown upon its obscure regions. But the appli-
cation of Revealed Truth to the circumstances
of human history, its practical development in
living actual results, its inherent and unsuspected
activity, its conformity with unknown powers,
and, it may be, principles of human nature ;
these and other considerations supply a field for
the enlargement of an acquaintance with the
meaning and potential character of Christianity
as a scheme of revelation, which admits of end-
less advance and indefinite augmentation. —
Canon Eaton, Bainpton Lectures.
[136] By all means let narrow and partial
views of truth be discarded, let wrong interpre-
tations of Scripture be resolutely put aside.
But let us take care that we do not throw away
the gold in our zeal to remove the ore. The
German proverb quaintly expresses the warning
for precipitate reftn-mers of all sorts. "Certainly
emplv the dirty water out of the bath, but do
not throw the baby into the gutter." — C. N.
4 Christianity admits of fresh applications m
accordance with modern advancements.
[137] The truths of Christianity and the re-
deemuig grace of God are always the same.
But thev must work in and through humanity,
and the' results by which they declare themselves
must be realized in and through humanity.
28
137-
1-16]
CHRISTIANITY AS A SYSTEM.
TCONNECTION OF SCIENCE WITH REI
Christianity, being the religion for all time,
and the power that is to act through all ages in
renovating and perfecting society through re-
demption, necessarily has meanings and appli-
cations which can be disclosed only by the
progress of Christ's kingdom through the ages.
An objection is urged against the Biljle that
the advance of science and civilization necessi-
tates new interpretations and evokes new mean-
ings. But this must be so, if it is the revelation
of God. Christ compares His words to seeds ;
they are germinating words. We must see
more in them when grown than we saw in them
as seeds.
[138] Some persons see more in Shakspeare
than ever Shakspeare saw. Let Christianity
speak its special lesson to each age, but do not
inoculate Christianity first of all with our notions
of what it ought to teach. If it really be Christi-
anity which is speaking and working, moulding
thought, leavening society, then such a develop-
ment of its meaning and influence should be
welcomed, but not otherwise. — C. N.
II. Possible Dangers to the Church.
I Christianity, like science, may be for a time
perverted by overlooking its essential
truths.
[139] I have great fear lest, in the long run,
the faith of our Church and country may suffer
far more by abstraction from than by addition
to its approved system of Christian doctrine.
It is curious to observe how, within the last few
years, there have been signs that some of those
who would reduce Christian doctrine to very
meagre limits, do not hesitate to avail them-
selves of the popular taste for outward cere-
monial, and make in appearance a strange
alliance with the system to which in truth they
are most distinctly opposed.
There is, I hold, real ground to fear lest the
tendencies of this age result in the prevalence of
a lax view of Christian doctrine and teaching, in
many respects unlike anything with which our
country has in former times been familiar.
1 have endeavoured to set forth, in my former
addresses, my grounds for' the expectation that
our countrymen will not, in the coming age, give
tnemselves up either to an atheistical or to a
bimply deistical philosophy. Are we equally
bccurcd against a meagre sublimated Christi-
anity, such as St. Paul certainly would not have
recognized as the gospel which saved his soul,
and to which he devoted kis XxiQl— Archbishop
Tait, Cluirch of iJie Fitlta-e.
III. The Church's Place in the Future.
r The Church, or organized Christianity, the
destined guide of the coming age.
[140] Undoubtedly, then, the guide of the
coming age will be a Church— the Church of
Christ in our land— and not simply a philosophy
—a Church with a philosophy of its own, a
Divine philosophy, the mistress and queen, as it
was of old held to be, of all the sciences ; a
science which treats of God in His relations to
man, and of man in his relations to God and to
his fellow-men, which embraces the whole circle
of man's moral being in this life, and which
avails itself unreservedly of all the helps which
God has given it for raising human hopes and
fears to the contemplation of a life beyond. —
Ibid.
[141] Though the outlook in many directions
is dark, yet we are not without hopeful signs on
the religious horizon. The common sense of
the country, the religious instincts in man-
kind, the failure of inhdelity, the splendid past
triumphs of Christianity, and above all the
promise that the gates of hell shall not prevail
against the Church of Christ, forbid too gloomy
forecasts for the future. — C. N.
[142] They who have lost faith in the Church
being the guide of the coining age, are fit
guides themselves neither for the Church nor
the age. — C. N.
[143] Some "pessimist" Christians seem to
have outgrown both their faiih and manliness.
— C. N.
IV. Its Assured Safety.
I Christianity, like its Author, is invincible
against decay and death.
[144] Its enemies have more than once pro-
claimed its death. Again and again has the
seal been affixed, and the watch set over its
supposed grave ; yet again and again has it
come forth in the power of its resurrection life.
No merely natural force can hurt its super-
natural vitality. No heresy, however cancer-
ous, can eat away all its creed. No assaults of
infidelity, however violent, can ever overthrow
its evidences. Its death, if ever it could die,
would be by the departure from it of the in-
dwelling Spirit of Christ, grieved by the sins
and the faithlessness of Christian men. — Bp.
Magee.
[145] The Church of the Future is founded on
the same Rock as the Church of the Past :
"Jesus Christ, the same yesterday, to-day, and
for ever." — B. G.
15
CONNECTION OF SCIENCE AND
PHIIOSOPHY WITH RELIGION.
I. The Supposed Antagonism between
Science and Religion.
I No need for such antagonism to exist.
[146] There is nothing in the nature of the
study of science to make those who pursue it
CHRISTIANITY AS A
146 — 156]
SYSTEM. 29
[connection of science with religion.
more generally averse from religion than others
of the same mental power. — Theology and
Science^ by Sir James Paget, F.R.S.
[147] It is only when men set up science as
the idol in their hearts that God is neglected,
ignored, or denied, and religion unfavourably
regarded. — C. N.
2 Such antagonism is not so general as is
supposed.
[148] The proportion of scientific men who
profess the Christian faith is, I believe, about
the same as that of literary men, or of lawyers
or merchants, or any other group of men in the
same social position, or of equal general culture.
You will find among scientific men very few
who attack either theology or religion. The
attacks imputed to them are made for the most
part by those who, with a very scanty know-
ledge of science, use, not its facts, but its most
distant inferences, as they do whatever else
they can get from any source, for the overthrow
of religious beliefs. — Theology and Sde?ice, by
Sir James Paget, F.R.S.
3 Such antagonism may arise through the
ignorance of some intermediate truth.
[149] When two beliefs seem incompatible
it does not follow that one is true and the other
false ; they may both be true. In the disputes
of theologian's and men of science it is gene-
rally believed that one side must be in the
wrong ; yet in many of them both may be
right, and their opposition may be due to their
both being ignorant of some intermediate truth,
which, when gained by increasing knowledge,
will combine the truths they now hold apart. —
Ibid.
[150] A third gas will sometimes make two
others unite which would otherwise explode.
4 Such antagonism will arise through par-
tial views on either side.
[151] That there are some forms of religious
belief which can never be squared with some
forms of scientific belief must be freely ad-
mitted. But this only militates against that
special form of so-called religion on the one
hand, and that special form of so-called science
on the other. 13ut this does not imply that
science and religion are finally and necessarily
antagonistic, that there cannot be, even in the
fulness of knowledge and in the perfectness of
faith any point where science and religion run
together, and are found indeed but one. — Dr.
LI. D. Bevan, Sermons to Students.
5 This supposed antagonism through science
forsaking its proper department.
[152] A real antagonism between religion
and science emerges only when the latter re-
cognizes only the validity of phenomena, and
excludes all operation of man's spiritual part. —
Canon Eaton, Bampton Lectures (1872).
[153] The pretended differences between
science and religion are from ignorance of one
or of the other ; from not having true science,
or not having a true view of the Scripture.
Thus the assertions respecting the age of the
earth, that the Bible makes it only some six
thousand years old, as if coa^val with Adam ;
whereas it was created " in the beginning,"
which admits of any possible degree of anti-
quity.— B. G.
11. Christianity and Science viewed
comparatively.
1 Christianity, unlike science, affords com-
fort to the troubled mind.
[154] In determining the relative position of
theology and science, it must not be forgotten
that the causes for which religion exists are not
such as to depend upon any advance in mere
knowledge. The difficulties for which it ac-
counts are such as no perfection of science can
hope to remove. In what way shall science
look to satisfy the strivings of man's spirit, or
suppress his sense of sin.^ When it shall have
substituted for conscience and remorse neces-
sity and law, will it indeed have found the
"balm in Gilead" which may "minister to the
mind diseased"? — Canon Eaton, Bampton Lec-
tures.
2 Christianity, unlike science, tends to a
spirit of moderation.
[155] Christianity is paralleled with science
in its requirement of certain moral qualities in
its votaries. But the difference is that the qua-
lities it demands it also promises to impart;
and it is for want of power to impart them that
science suffers so much at the hands of its
advocates, and that the dogmatism they de-
nounce in others reappears so conspicuously
in themselves. The only fault that Christianity
finds with the modern quest of truth is precisely
that presumptuousness which our author [of
"Natural Religion"] describes as fatal to the
hope of its attainment ; and it may be noted
that the most confident boasters are precisely
those that forswear all connection with Chris-
tianity, while those in whom a spirit of modera-
tion appears — some of them chief lights in the
world of science — are those who have disci-
plined their spirits under the yoke of the Great
Master, and laid their intellectual trophies as an
offering at His feet. — London (2iiarterly Review.
3 Christianity, unlike science, strengthens
the soul itself.
[156] Other sciences may strengthen certain
faculties of the soul ; some the intellect, some
the imagination, some the memory ; but Chris-
tianity sirengt'riens the soul itself. The light
which other sciences shed upon the mind is
3°
156—160]
CHRISTIANITY AS A SYSTEM.
[connection of science with religion.
only as the lunar ray. However bright, it is
chilly ; it plays only upon the surface, and does
not penetrate to the roots of life. Christianity
is a solar beam ; it goes down into the hidden
springs of being, cjuickens the latent germs,
and makes the mental world bud with life and
bloom with beauty.
III. CHRISTfANITY AND PHILOSOPHY VIEWED
COxMPARATIVELY.
1 As to nature and effects.
[l 57] They interpenetrate. Their fundamental
truths are the same ; tlie highest ideas and rela-
tions of the one are also the highest ideas and
relations of the other. What in religion is felt
and believed, is in philosophy reasoned and
known. Religion is intuitional and anticipatory
philosophy ; philosophy is reasoned and rational-
ized religion. There are, indeed, elements in re-
ligion that do not exist in philosophy — elements
of emotion, awe, joy, trust, love, reverence ; but
while philosophy may be unable to create these,
it is needed to justify and explain them. Reli-
gion in its highest moments tends to become
philosophical ; philosophy in its loftiest flights
to become religious. — AV?/. Principal Fairbaini,
D.D., i)i Contemporary Revieiv.
[158] Philosophy makes us wiser, but Chris-
tianity makes us better men. Philosophy ele-
vates and steels the mind, Christianity softens
and sweetens it. The former makes us objects
of human admiration, the latter of Divine love.
That ensures us a temporal, but this an eternal
happiness. — Fieh iini^.
2 As to adequacy of motive power.
[159] It is impossible to exert an influence
for good on a mass of moral corru-ption without
generating a new principle in the mind, or
awakening one which was previously dormant.
To effect a change for good in our moral and
spiritual nature, a power must be called into
existence of sul^cient strength to overbear all
opposing influences, or to impart a new vigour
to those which already exist, but which had pre-
viously succumbed in the struggle. Unless this
can be accomplished, the old forces will go on
in obedience to the same laws and produce the
same results. How can it be otherwise? The
only force in human nature to struggle against
the principles of corruption is that of reason
and conscience. To those who are corrupt, that
power has already proved inadequate to resist
the force of evil. But, in addition to this, as
corrupticm advances its energy diminishes.
How, then, is the force of the principle of evil
to be counteracted, or that of good to be gene-
rated, or to be called into lively energy when it
is dormant ? Moral affections will not grow up
spontaneously. They must be generated by
some cause. Man's reason is that cause. This
is the only road through which new moral con-
ceptions can obtain access to the mind. They
must be presented by some power to the intel-
lect until they hav-e produced a definite convic-
tion. We use this word in the widest sense,
as including the whole rational powers of man.
A powerful influence can be exerted on our
spiritual and moral being by introducing a new
conception, or evolving a new conviction in the
intellect ; and the influence which it will exert
will be powerful in proportion to the intensity
of the belief with which it is accompanied. The
same power is equally effectual to call dormant
aftections into lively exercise. Such was the
influence by which the Author of Christianity
proposed to act on the mind of man, and He
has concei\ed of one all-effectual for His pur-
pose. A holy thought enters the intellect, and
lives there in the form of an intense conviction.
From the intellect, by this act of faith, it pene-
trates the heart and creates or calls forth holy
feelings, holy affections, a new mind, and a new
spirit. As a question of moral philosophy we
are only called on to recognize the fact and the
viodiis operandi, not the lemote cause. P'aith
is the instrument through which the Divine
Spirit acts on the human soul. It is not every
conception of the intellect which will act on our
moral nature. Mere scientific thought can't do
so. It must be a deep conviction on some sub-
ject intimately connected with our moral and
spiritual being. — Contemporary Review, 1869.
[160] What, then, did the Author of Chris-
tianity propose to accomplish } Was it merely
to publish a new and more perfect edition of
the moral law ? Certainly not. He had higher
aims, such as no teacher had ever aspired to
before Him. He grasped at nothing less than
to regenerate the world. The philosopher left
the masses of mankind alone as utterly hope-
less. The utmost that their aspirations ascended
to was the establishment of a small republic on
the model of existing Grecian States, in which
a few thousands of mankind might be trained
to virtue, but of which philosophers were to be
the magistrates. In this humble attempt they
never succeeded in getting beyond the theory.
He determined to attempt the regeneration of
the masses of mankind, to reform those very
classes which the philosophers pronounced hope-
less, and to make them the subjects of his
spiritual empire. He therefore sought to create
a spiritual influence which should outweigh
every other and make it centre in Himself.
This power was one which was to strengthen
the holy in their holiness, and which was at the
same time capable of renovating the morally
sunken and depraved. . . . But to set this prin-
ciple into operation it was necessary to create
a state. The mode of eftecting this was very
far from obvious. The elect were very few ;
and the masses were dull of hearing, and sunk
in sensuality and vice. The philosopher felt
he had no spiritual force he could bring to bear
on them. To use a metaphor taken from me-
chanics : while he hc^cl a fulcrum in the prin-
ciple of habituation he could set no lever, and
thus left his fulcrum, however strong in itself,
. utterly useless. His principle of habituation
160—167]
CHRISTIANITY AS A SYSTEM. 31
[connection of scif:nce with religion.
came to a standstill simply from lack of means
to work it with. Conscious of this lack of
power, the thouglit of turning missionary never
occurred to him. But our Lord created a power
by which the bad could be made good ; and
then He proceeded to institute His own ideal
state, the Christian Church, in which this power
should be exhibited as an actuality. In insti-
tuting this society He recognized the import-
ance of the philosophic principle of habituation.
But He advanced beyond this ; He provided it,
through the influence of another principle, with
the requisite working machinery. That principle
was faith. — Ibid.
3 As to realization of high ideals.
[161] But the idea of what is reasonable be-
tween man and man, though a great advance
upon the ancient "notions of heathen morality,
does not come up to the full idea of duty. To
attain its full conception we must take into full
consideration the relation in which man stands
to the great Moral Governor of the universe.
The want of a conception of a personal deity
rendered the ancient philosopher utterly unable
to erect a moral law on such a foundation, or to
enforce its motives by a corresponding idea of
duty. The sense of duty can only be fully felt
when it is conceived as owed, not to an abstrac-
tion, but to a living personality, in whom all
obligations centre. Such was the view con-
ceived of it by our Lord. He first concentred
the whole force of religion on morality by re-
vealing God in His character of a Creator, a
Moral Governor, a Sovereign, and a Father,
who embraces in His person the entire force of
moral obligation ; and then educed a law out
of the perfections of the Divine character. The
idea of duty in its highest form is evolved by
Him out of the conception of the self-sacrifice
on the part of man, which the conception of
God in His aspect of Creator, Lord, and Father
involve.— Ibid.
[162] But there is a higher conception of
morality than duty or law, which exclusively
belongs to the teaching of Christianity, viz., the
foundation of the moral law on the principle of
love ; and the measuring of its obligations by it.
Morality, viewed as duty, requires obedience,
because we ought to obey it ; or because it is
imposed on us by an external authority. Viewed
as love, the external and the internal mutually
coincide and embrace one another. It then
becomes the presentation of self as a willing
offering. As duty, morality is restricted within
the definite limits of obligation. As love, it
transcends all limits, and earnestly desires to
surrender the entire faculties of the mind to the
work of goodness and holiness more and more.
Such an aspect of morality could be presented
to us in its fulness by no teacher who did not
possess the attributes of a Christ. A perfect
being, like Himself, is the only power by which
such a spirit of voluntary self-sacrifice could be
generated. — Ibid.
IV. The Rationale of the Harmony
BETWEEN Science, Philosophy, and
Religion.
1 Science and Christianity are founded in the
reality of things.
[163] It is the truer, as it is the heartier, faith
to hold that, in the golden age which science
now ranks as to come, and not as gone, know-
ledge and religion must ultimately coalesce and
coincide. The one is the science of the visible ;
the other of that which, though invisible, is no
less real, no less truly a phase of truth and
being. But if both are founded in the reality
of things, there must lie between them a funda-
mental harmony. — Canon Eaton, Bainpion
Lectures.
2 Christianity and science are supplementary
revelations.
[164] Far be it from a theologian to imagine
that true science and true philosophy, pursued to
the utmost limits of human powers, can be otiier
than a real help to religious knowledge. Ysly be
it from a Christian philosopher to doubt that,
however far he may be enabled to extend the
boundaries of real knowledge in any department,
there still needs the sacred cultivation of the
immortal spirit in the revealed truths of God. —
Bp. Mobe?-ly, Banipton Lectures.
[165] We have here brought before us what I
take to be the real schism between science and
religion. Some. writers have contrasted these
two great elements of our nature in this way.
Religion, said they, brings out a personal, but
science a pantheistic view of God. But if I am
right science is not here rightly described. She
does point out traces of purpose in the world,
and it is such purpose which suggests the idea
of a personal God, independent of the universe,
its maker, or at least ruler, as opposed to the
pantheistic view, which confounds the Divine
energy with the power of nature, and does not
make it independent and controlling — Stanley
T. Gibson, B.D., Reli^i^ion and Science.
3 The provinces of science and religion
ought to be distinguished.
[166] Let science keep to her own province,
she will be honoured and thanked as heretofore ;
but let her not intrude into the inner shrine of
our temple to desecrate it. Or let her worship
there, as we all do, with lowly eyes and bended
knee. Science in her own province is a glorious
and welcome revealer of God's truths, nor can
we dispense with her wonderful revelations. Let
her only be rightly, cautiously, and reverently
interpreted. —A'^^/c// Noel, British (Jiiarieriy
Rcvieto {Jan. 1881).
[167] When scientific men leave their pro-
vince they often become inconsistent and really
unscientific. There needs- to be a reverent
pause before leaving the laboratory and enter-
ing the temple. A new world, a new set of
principles, a new mode of reasoning belong to
32
CHRISTIANITY AS A
74]
SYSTEM.
[connection of science with religion.
each kini^dom of thought. The carpenter's rule
is well enough for the artizan, but ill adapted
for the artist who has to consider the higher law
of perspective. — C. N.
[i68] Huxley's remark is typical of the error
made by scientific men in importing purely
technical terms into the realm of the spiritual :
"The man of science has learned to believe in
justification not by faith but by verification." —
Lay Ser)nons,p. 23.
[169] To justify a scientific theory and to
justify a soul are two different things : one
requires verifi;ation by facts, the other requires
forgiveness through mercy. To confound these
cases is to be unscientific. — B. G.
4 Scientific results often either misunder-
stood or misapplied.
[170] Though it does seem certain that the
alleged discoveries of lecent science, and, still
more, the rash and unlicensed deductions that
have been made from them, have caused the
greatest possible amount of doubt and disquie-
tude in thousands of hearts — yet that these two
things also are certain. First, that of these
alleged discoveries some are, in a very high
degree, scientifically doubtful. Secondly, that
of these same discoveries, those which appa-
rently seem to be trustworthy are distinctly
evidences, not, as it is alleged, against, but for \
the blessed truth of the existence and personality
of God, and that, too, in a very marked and even
providential manner. — Bp. Ellicott, Modern
Unbelief.
5 Science and religion each useful in its
proper place.
[171] I think men of science as well as other
men need to learn from Christ, and 1 think Ciiris-
tians whose minds are scientific are bound to
study science that their view of the glory of God
may be as extensive as their being is capable
oL— Clerk Maxwell, M.A.
6 Christianity answers some unsolved ques-
tions of science.
[172] The cosmic questions are connected not
only with this world but with the whole uni-
verse. What are the questions of this kind
which science says she is unable to answer, and
which religion has answered? Questions of
origin. How did the first atom of matter come
into existence? What was the origin of force?
What was the origin of life ? These great
Cjuestions are answered in the Bible.
Is God a person ?
Can God control the laws of nature ?
W'ili God answer prayer ?
What is God's character?
What is God's relation to mankind?
These questions are not only unsolved by
science, but there is not the least indication that
they will ever be solved in this way. They
belong to an earlier stage and a higher sphere
than it is given to man to penetrate. The first
page of the chapter which treats of " origins "
is a sealed book unless to those who read it in
the first chapter of Genesis. — Rev. IV. Ander-
son, Scrip lure Miracles and Modern Scepticism.
7 Christianity embraces all true principles of
philosophy and science.
[173] If there be true principle in any philo-
sophy, science, wisdom of art, or manners, it
lies within the range of the Christian inheri-
tance. It is simply something which has not
yet emerged in Christian experience or thought.
But it belongs to it, lies somewhere in the scope
of it, and will reveal itself some day as rooted
in it.
Principles, precepts, forms of truth — if they
be true principles, true precepts, good forms of
truth — whether they belong fo the past, the pre-
sent, or the future, whether they have arisen in
heathen or Christian, in spiritual or secular
thought— Christian life includes them all within
the wide circles of its possessions, aspires to
whatever is true, and pure, and good in each of
them, bids them all welcome into its experiences,
and claims them all as portions of the heritage
of the kingdom of the truth, over which its Lord
is King.— /?^z/. Alex. Macleod, Days of Heaven.
8 Divine revelation the central point of the
converging lines of science.
[174] If you were to place a person blind-
folded before a black board, with a piece of
chalk in his hand, and direct him to draw any
number of lines he pleased at random, it is very
probable that many pairs of lines would cross each
other ; but it is exceedingly improbable that any
three should intersect each other at the same
point ; and beyond the limits of all probability
that more than three should meet exactly. If,
then, we saw on the board many lines converg-
ing to one point with great precision we should
conclude that he who drew them was not blind,
and that he drew them intentionally. If, how-
ever, before we saw the board the ends of some
of the lines had been rubbed out, and we did
not find them meeting in one centre, yet by
measuring the angles of their direction we
should be able to tell with certainty that they
would meet if produced ; and should lieiieve
with equal warrant that once they had united.
This, we think, not unfairly represents the
case of revelation and the sciences. We may
say that the central point represents revelation ;
and the lines the sciences which we affirm meet,
or tend to meet, in the assertions which the
Bible makes, but wliich unbelievers think flatly
contradict it. Now if it can be shown that any
three or four sciences harmonize, or tend to
harmonize, with the statements of Holy Scrip-
ture, then revelation acquires a weight which no
other system possesses ; and the evidences of
design will be too clear for reasonable men to
neglect.
Natural coincidences seem limited to two
courses of action meeting opportunely ; when
CHRISTIANITY AS A SYSTEM.
174—180]
[divine origin of CHRISTIANITY.
Zl
three meet they assume an air of Providence ;
and when more, they have the verisimilitude of
Divine Agency. We do not say that this is
absolutely demonstrable. We shall be quite
content if the thought help to weigh down the
balance of a hesitating soul, or prompt a pro-
fessor of unbelief to reconsider his position.
16
DIVINE ORIGIN OF CHRIS-
TIANITY.
I. Lines of Proof.
I From the unique excellence of its teaching.
(i) As seen in the snperiori/y of ihe Scriptures
over the inytJiological superstitions of antiquity.
[175] We notice one general characteristic of
the Biblical revelation, which has not had justice
done it by many who reject, at first sight, the
Mosaic account of the creation. The fact is
that the Bible had in the beginning, and pre-
served throughout its whole development, one
great scientific virtue. The Biblical view of
nature is singularly free from the mythological
and superstitious conceptions of nature preva-
lent in antiquity. It is kept, in this respect,
from one fatal defect of other early religious
literature. It possesses, from the start, a virtue
which made it capable of growth. The multi-
tudinous personiiications of other primitive
religious traditions and sacred hymns are not to
be found in the Book of Genesis. Here is a
variation from the prevailing type of religious
tradition ; here is a spccificvLX-AxV upon our Bible,
at its earliest appearance, which we are at a loss
to explain when we consider the historical en-
vironment amid which it sprang up. — Newman
Smyth, Old Faiths in New Light.
(2) As seeit in the practical moral elements of
Script7ire when contrasted with the merely specii-
lative character of heathen philosophy.
[176] The incomparable superiority of Hebrew
"Wisdom" to that of all other ancient nations
is, however, beyond dispute. Nor is it difficult
to understand the cause. While, among other
races, philosophy speculated on questions alto-
gether beyond our faculties, in Israel it con-
tented itself with accepting the great first truths
of religion, and only strove to discover their
practical bearings. India might elaborate meta-
physics, the Jew contented himself with faith ;
the Aryan intellect might seek to think every-
thing out for itself, the Hebrew received revealed
doctrines with a calm and resolute faith. The
" Wisdom " of the one pursued cold and airy
abstractions, which the keenest thought is
unable to follow beyond a certain length ; that
of the other derived its power and depth from a
living relation to the Holy God ; a sense of His
VOL. I.
nearness, His perfections, and His inflexible
laws. Other " Wisdom " is distinct from
morality ; that of Israel demands it in its
highest and purest sense. According to it, all
right action rests on the fear of the Lord, who
searches the heart and knows all things. The
wisdom thus learned creates true humility ; is
the root of all earnest efforts after perfection ;
insists that no man is free from sin ;. urges him
to a frank confession of sinfulness ; teacheshim
to watch his thoughts and life, and impels him to
a fruitful self-examination, whicli is the ultimate
condition of spiritual health. The creation of
this religious philosophy, as it may be called, in
Israel, is one of the great distinctions of Solomon.
— Rev. Dr. Geikie, Hours zuith the Bible.
[177] Human philosophy is for the intellect,
Bible philosophy is for the conduct, for the heart
and life.— .5. G.
(3) As seen in the character of -Christ, as not
a human invention, but felt to be real and super-
natural the more it is considered.
[17S] A history which has led the vast majority
of readers in all ages to feel that it was more
than human, is confessedly beyond human con-
struction. Christian theology itself is baflledwhen
it tries to state in propositions the two natures
of Christ, and the relation between them. The
decrees of councils and the terms of creeds
rather exclude error than grasp truth. Yet here
admittedly, in the narratives of the Evangelists,
the impossible is achieved. The living Christ
walks forth, and men bow before Him. Heaven
and earth unite all through : power with gentle-
ness, solitary greatness with familiar intimacy,
ineffable purity with forgiving pity, unshaken
will with unfathomable sorrow. There is no
eflbrt in these writers, but the character rises
till it is complete. It is thus not only truer than
fiction or abstraction, but truer than all other
history, carrying through utterly unimaginable
scenes the stamp of simplicity and sincerity,
creating what was to live for ever, but only as it
had lived already, and reflecting a glory that
had come so near and been beheld so intently,
that the record of it was not only full of " grace,"
but of "truth." — Principal Cairns, D.D., Lec-
tures.
[179] The greatest miracle in the New Testa-
ment is the central Personage, as being no out-
growth of that age, and as the model for all
future ages. — B. G.
a From the unique weakness of its human
instrumentalities.
(i) As seen in the spread of Christianity by
moral, in contradistinctioji to physical force.
[180] There are several things which may be
represented in scientific phraseology as the
efficient causes of the spread and influence of a
religion. Mohammedanism has demonstrated
with a vengeance the possibility of spreading a
religion by the power of the sword. Mohammed
could scarcely number a score of disciples be-
34
CHRISTIANITY AS A SYSTEM.
180-182]
[divine origin of CHRISTIANITY.
fore persecution necessitated his escape to
Medina. Here he changed his character, be-
came a soldier, organized an army, infused his
own martial spirit into it, and led it forth to
victory and renown. His religion progressed
simultaneously with his sword, or flourished in
proportion as his plans of conquest became suc-
cessful. His creed was made predominant in
Arabia in his lifetime, and elsewhere after his
death, precisely in the manner in which the
famous Political Propaganda of France subse-
quently endeavoured to make their democratic
principles preponderant in Europe. A grand
army was organized and sent forward regularly
to force republicanism on the acceptance of
reluctant peoples living peacefully under their
own political institutions on the continent of
Europe. Mohammed and his followers spread
their religion mainly, if not solely, by the
power of the sword. Again, Buddhism has
shown the possibility of spreading a religion by
what may be called a flexible, compromising,
and assimilative spirit. The spread of Bud-
dhism was secured by the facility with which
it intermingled and identified itself with the pre-
valent religions of the world. It became in
essentials what the Apostle Paul subsequently
became in non-essentials, "all things to all men."
In China it developed into a system of religious
sociology ; in Thibet it became a sort of thau-
maturgy, and in some of the barbarian islands it
conquered it was lost amid the impurities and
horrors of the lowest t> pes of fetishism. By
abandoning its own principles; giving up its dis-
tinctive features, and assuming varieties of forms
inconsistent with its spirit. Buddhism madeitself
predominant.
Again, a religion may be spread by the power
and influence of a dominant aristocracy in con-
junction with a powerful hierarchy, or, in simpler
words, by statecraft in combination with priest-
craft. Almost all the hoary and consolidated
heathenisms of the world were evidently spread
in this manner. 'Ihe spread of a religion is a
phenomenon to the production of which several
causes contribute ; but it is not difficult to as-
certain in a particular case that which may be
called //le efficient cause. Ihe spread or in-
fluence of Christianity is a phenomenon which
we have to explain on correct principles of
logic.
A religion may be spread by the power of the
sword ; but the first propagators of Christianity
were entirely destitute of this power. Nay, they
had this power — the power of the sword — ar-
rayed against them. A religion may be spread
by an aristocratic and hierarchical influence ; but
the first preachers of Christianity had this in-
fluence arrayed against them, certainly not in
their favour. A religion may be spread by a
supple, yielding, and assimilative spirit ; but
Christianity manifested from the very beginning
a firm and uncompromising principle, and de-
clared a war of extermination against all the
religions of the world.
These causes, therefore, could have nothing
to do with the spread and influence of Chris-
tianity during at least the first and most glorious
period of its promulgation ; it therefore was
spread by the only other cause to which such a
phenomenon may be traced— the power of God
exhibited in signs and wonders and mighty
works ! — /\a/n Chandra Bose, Trttth of Chris-
tian Religion.
[181] Had the doctrine and the preaching
consisted in the persuasive utterance and
arrangement of words, then faith also, like that
of the philosophers of the world in their
opinions, would have been thi-ough the wisdom
of men, and not through the power of God. —
Origen.
(2) As seen in the natural incapacity of the
first agents of Chrsti anity, either to invent it
or to convert the world to it.
[182] Let us be amazed at the power of God,
admire, adore it. Let us ask Jews, let us ask
Greeks, who persuaded the whole world to desert
from their fathers' usages, and to go over to the
ranks of another way of life ? The fishermen
or the tentmaker? the publican or the un-
learned and ignorant .'' And how can these
things stand with reason, except it were the
Divine power which achieveth all by their
means ? And what, too, did they say to per-
suade them 1 " Be baptized in the name of the
Crucified." Of what kind of man .? One they
had not seen nor looked upon. But never-
theless, saying and preaching these things,
they persuaded them that they who gave them
oracles, and whom they had received by tra-
dition from their forefathers, were no gods ;
whilst this Christ, He Who was nailed to the
wood, drew these ail unto Himself. And yet
that He was indeed crucified and buried was
manifest in a manner to all ; but that He was
risen again, none save a few, saw. But still of
this, too, they persuaded those who had not
beheld ; and not that He rose again only, but
He ascended also into heaven, and cometh to
judge the quick and dead. Whence, then, the
persuasiveness of these sayings, tell me ? From
none other thing but from the power of God.
For, in the first place, innovation itself was
offensive to all ; but when, too, one innovates
in such things the matter becomes more
grievous ; when one tears up the foundations
of ancient customs, when one plucks laws from
their seat. And besides all this neither did
the heralds seem worthy of credit, but they
both were of a nation hated amongst all men,
and were timorous and ignorant. Whence, then,
overcame they the world ? Whence cast they
out you, and those your forefathers who were
reputed to be philosophers, along with their
very gods.-* Is it not quite evident that it %vas
from having God with them .'' For these are
not successes of human but of unspeakable and
Divine power. — St. Chrysostojn.
(3) As seen in the victory obtained by illiterate
advocates over the world, wliich is in itself mi-
raculous, if they were not sustained by miracles.
CHRISTIANITY AS A SYSTEM.
183-189]
35
niVINE ORIGIN OF CHRISTIANITY.
[183] For this certainly they will not con-
trovert, nor impugn what we see with our eyes :
when they say that no miracles took place they
inflict a worse stab upon themselves. For this
would be the greatest of miracles, that without
any miracles the whole world should have
eagerly come to be taken in the nets of twelve
poor and illiterate men. For not by wealth or
money, not by wisdom of words, not by any-
thing of this kind did the fishermen prevail ; so
that objectors must even against their will
acknowledge that there was in these men a
Divine power, for no human strength could ever
possibly effect such results. For this He then
remained forty days on earth, furnishing in
this length of lime the sure evidence of their
seeing Him in His own proper Person, that
they might not suppose that what they saw was
a phantom. And not content with this, He
added also the evidence of eating with them at
their board : as to signify this, the writer adds,
"And being at table with them, He com-
manded." And this circumstance the apostles
themselves always put forth as an infallible
token of the Resurrection ; as where they say,
" Who did eat and drink with Him." — Ibid.
3 From the unique extent of its triumph.
( i) As seen in its conquests over all varieties
0/ htcDtan sjtperstitions and cnltttre.
[184] It has gained accessions from all those
varieties of the human mind which have been
placed in contact with revealed truth, with the
idiosyncrasies of persons, of nations, of ages,
from fathers and councils, from controversies
and heresies, from Hellenist, Alexandrian, and
Roman forms of thought, from the mind of the
East and from the mind of the West, from
corruptions and reformations of religion. The
developments of doctrine thus originated were
the joint product of the revealed truth and the
condition of the mind which received it. — Canon
Bernard., Bampton Lectures.
(2) As seen in its success both intellectically
and morally.
[185] Divine intervention in the history of
Christianity is inferred from the extent, com-
pleteness, nature, and means of its success in
the old Roman world ; from the wonderful
moral and spiritual change which it wrought in
the characters and lives of the early converts ;
from its missionary and mental activity even
during the "dark ages;" from the power it
displayed of renewing its youth at the time of
the Reformation, and subsequently of entering
into and becoming the creator of the modern
world ; from the manner in which it has been
able to resist and overcome persecution, and
draw inspiration from its martyr history ; from
the success with which it has repelled the
assaults of unbelief and the powers of darkness,
and subdued the native resistance of the human
heart ; from its organization, ordinances, and
literature, which fit it in a unique manner for
the. work it has to do ; and from the motives
with which it is furnished for the fulfilment of
its mission ; and, lastly, from the manner in
which its own predictions, both of its successes
and corruptions, have been fulfilled. — Rev.
Principal Cairns, D.D.
[186] This early Christian apologist (Origen)
repeatedly dwells upon the fact that the preach-
ing of the gospel had power at once to " convert
multitudes from a life of licentiousness to one
of extreme regularity, and from a life of wicked-
ness to a better, and from a state of cowardice
or unmanliness to one of such high-toned
courage as to lead men to despise even death
through the piety which shows itself within
them."
4 From its inherent principles of vitality.
(i) As seen in its retention, unlike other reli-
gious systems, of its original power.
[187J Seeing this force at work in the purest
faith of the world, we cannot help fee ing that
any theory of the human origin of religion wants
a stable foundation. How are we to account
for pure fountains when the human tributaries
of the stream are so turbid and foul? How
else, indeed, than upon the assumption of Divine
revelation ? That assumption is consistent
with the facts. We see men falling from these
revelations everywhere ; we nowhere see them
rising into them. There are clear, bright
fountains far up on the mountain sides, but so
soon as human hands touch the stream it
begins to be polluted. Our Professor says : " In
one sense the history of most religions might
be called a slow corruption of their primitive
purity." " We see Abraham, a mere nomad,
fully impressed with the necessity of the unity
of the Godhead ; while Solomon, famous among
the kings of the earth, built high places for
Chemosh and Moloch. . . . The Hindoos who,
thousands of years ago, had reached in the
Uparinshads the loftiest heights of philosophy,
are now in many places sunk into a grovelling
worship of cows and monkeys." This degra-
dation of religion, so constant a tendency in
all history, seems to furnish a strong proof that
" God has spoken unto us." — Max Aliiller.
[188] Man has often lost or perverted re-
ligious truth, but has never discovered it.—
B. G.
(2) As seen in its survival in spite of the
assaults of crushittg persecution and corrupting
prosperity.
[189] At the outset fierce and bitter persecu-
tion assailed Christianity ; but every drop of
martyr-blood shed for its sake blossomed in
some new flower of Heaven's own planting. Its
purest triumphs, its most hopeful growths, were
under the very agencies employed to crush it
out of being. From beneath the heel of the
Caesars it mounted their throne and swayed
their sceptre. Then commenced the severer
trial of corrupting prosperity ; and still could
not its ordinances be distorted wholly out of
shape, or its cardinal doctrines wholly obscured,
36
189-197]
CHRISTIANITY AS A SYSTEM.
[modern CIVIMZAXrON AND CHRISTIANITY.
or its benign influence wholly obliterated.
When encrusted with superstitions and falsities,
it still parted not with its Divine unction ; in its
tarnished purity it was still the purest thing on
earth ; in its diluted ethics it still had power to
restrain and guide ; and at no moment did the
world fail to be immeasurably the better for
it.
(3) As seen in the survival of Christianity,
after beincr buried under the mediceval supersti-
tions of tlie Papacy.
[190] The Refomiation was its resurrection
and restoration. — B. G.
17
MODERN CIVILIZATION AND
CHRISTIANITY.
I. The Relation between Civilization
AND Christianity.
1 The religious element necessary in civi-
lization.
[191] Look out for a people entirely devoid
of religion ; and if you find them at all, be
assured that they are but a few degrees re-
moved from the brutes. — Hunie.
[192] Religion as regards its general influence
over the mind of a nation, apart from and inde-
pendent of religious education, forms a sepa-
rate and very important element in the pro-
motion of civilization. The Christian religion
is in its nature highly favourable to the civiliza-
tion alike of individuals and of states, and both
intellectually and morally. The knowledge that
it teaches is the highest and most elevating ;
and the principles that it enforces are the purest
and most comprehensive. — George Harris, Civi-
lization considered as a Scietice.
[193] In Greece and Rome, the absence of
the element of a correct religious influence was
the cardinal defect in their civilization, as it
must also be in the present day in that of
Turkey.— /Z'/rt'.
[194] Certain communities have reached a
high degree of perfection in art and literature ;
but from the other elements of civilization
being neglected, they have continued in a
state of comparative barbarism as regards their
general condition.— /iJ/V/.
2 Civilization under Christian influence
reaches a higher phase of existence.
[195] (i) Civilization is not a product of
Christianity, but has an independent existence.
Christianity is not necessary to create civili-
zation. If preached to a barbarous people, it
finds the capacity of civilization, and develops
it ; but other agencies, without Christianity,
might have developed it. Usually some form
of civilization has existed before Christianity is
brought to a people. Christianity at the out-
set found itself confronted with the Hebrew, the
Greek, and the Roman civilizatif)n. It is re-
markable that the apostles instituted no mis-
sions to barbarians. The first and prominent
fields of their missions were the cities, whence
Christianity spread more slowly into the coun-
try. The word " pagan," or " villager," gradu-
ally came to denote an idolater. So, usually,
Christianity comes to nations already civilized.
It finds society already constituted, with opinions,
usages, government, civilization, religion.
(2) Christianity imparts to civilization and
makes effective in it the spiritual forces
necessary to its purity, completeness, and
Perpetuity.
(3) Christianity, by the spiritual forces which
it introduces and makes effective, gradually
creates a Christian civilization.
It has been said that genius does not estab-
lish a school, but kindles an influence. The
method of Christianity in Christianizing civili-
zation is the same. It kindles an influence
which creates the new beneath the old, and so
pushes the old off. Its method is not the
mechanical change of organization, but the in-
ward process of life.
[196] In three distinct and independent
modes, moreover, Religious Influence contri-
butes to the civilization of a nation, both as
regards men individually and men in the aggre-
gate. The first of these is by raising the minds
of the people to a sense of their own natural
dignity and importance as immortal beings,
and as allied to the great Creator of all things.
The effect of this influence is very different,
and, indeed, directly opposite to pride and
vanity, which spring from the supposed indi-
vidual superiority of one man to another, and
not from any opinion as to the dignity of the
whole race. The second of the modes by which
Religious Influence contributes to the civili-
zation of a people, is by instilling into their
minds the consciousness of a constant observer
of all their actions, to whom they are account-
able for every deed. And the third of these
modes is by the establishment of a strict and
unerring rule of the highest authority for the
direction of their conduct on all occasions, both
as to principle and practice. — George Harris,
Ctvilizatio}i considered as a Science.
[197] Whether we consider civilization as it
affects the individual or the state, or direct our
thoughts to its essence, elements, and ends, it
will become at once apparent that Christian
influence is necessary for its highest attain-
ments. Civilization, indeed, is nothing less
than the rendering the higher endowments pre-
dominant over those which are lower, and the
bringing to complete maturity the most valuable
resources and powers of the nation. Chris-
tianity alone rightly effects these glorious ends,
197—2071
CHRISTIANITY AS A SYSTEM. 37
[modern civilization and CHRISTIANITY.
or really promotes the virtue, the happiness, or
security of a nation. — C. N.
[198] Grand ideals, enlarged conceptions, the
principle of belief, a true sense of independence,
a right appreciation of others, a longing for
peace with honour, a true recognition of the
brotherhood of man, a desire for knowledge and
its general diffusion, a sense of refinement, are
all necessary elements for civilization, and are
best developed and blended together under
Christian influence. The secret of civilization
is contained in St. Paul's elevating and en-
nobling words, "Whatsoever things are true,
whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things
are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever
things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good
report ; if there be any virtue, and if there be
any praise, think on these things" (Phil. iv. 8).
—C. N.
3 Christendom almost co.extensive with true
civilization.
[199] God is not exclusively present in Chris-
tianity, but He is more present in it than in any
other religious and moral development. Chris-
tianity is, in fact, the religion of civilized
peoples ; each nation admits it in its moral
sense, according to its degree of intellectual
culture. The. freethinker, who dispenses with
it altogether, is within his prerogative ; but the
freethinker constitutes an individual case, how-
ever highly respectable ; his intellectual and
moral situation is by no means yet that of any
nation or of humanity. Let us then preserve
Christianity, with admiration for its high moral
value, for its majestic history, for the beauty of
its sacred books. — M. Renan, quoted in London
(2uarterly.
[200] Hundreds of thousands have suFered
death for their religion. Is it conceivable that
the belief for which they died can have had no
influence on their lives .'' Is it conceivable that
the influence can have been confined to the
martyrs.'' Is not Christendom almost co-exten-
sive with moral civilization ? And does not the
whole face of Christendom — do not its literature,
its art, its architecture — show that religion has
been its soul ? — Prof. CoUhvin Smith in Con-
temporary Review.
[201] It cannot, indeed, be doubted that the
greatest conquests over human nature which
have ever been effected, and the completeness
of which is most fully evinced, as in the case of
other conquests, by the entire change in heart,
and habits, and customs, and conduct which is
produced, are those which have been accom-
plished by the influence of Christianity. Nations
and individuals alike attest the truth of this
proposition. In fact, the world at large may be
appealed to for this purpose, in which the most
extensive moral revolutions that have ever been
wrought have been effected through this medium
alone. And the direct and powerful tendency
of religious influence to promote civilization
is conclusively proved by the circumstance that
wherever, throughout the world, Christianity
has taken root, there civilization has been at
once established. Christianity is, indeed, as it
were, the moral sun by which alone the darkness
of ignorance and superstition has been effectually
dispelled, and from which the bright and genial
beams of civilization have been generally dif-
used. — George Harris, Civilization considered
as a Scieitce.
II. The Civilizing Effects of Chris-
tianity.
1 It embraces and ennobles art.
[202] The highest art is always the most
religious ; and the f reatest artist is always a
devout man. A scoffing Raphael or Michael
Angelo is not conceivable. — Blackie.
The §ame is true of musical art, thie highest
elements of which, as "The Creation" and
"the Messiah," are developments of Christian
civilization. — B. C.
[203] Religion both elevates and inspires the
soul. The most magnificent works of art have
been instigated by the influence of religious
fervour, and the noblest and sublimest ideas
have been afforded by religious subjects. Re-
ligion has, moreover, ever been the soul of
poetry,, and of productions in each of the sister
arts.— George Harris, Civilisation considered as
a Science.
2 It fosters the intellectual elements of
civilization.
[204] Is it then the true inference that potent
religious life repudiates thought and culture,
and allies itself with ignorance and fanaticism ?
that " ignorance is the mother of devotion " 'i
The illustrious record of Christian philosophers,
theologians, scholars, and thinkers, from Paul
to Augustine, from Aquinas to Bacon, from
Pascal to Butler, and to the host of eminent
men who believe in our own day, make this
theory untenable. — Rev. Dr. Alton, The Church
of the Fnture.
[205] A beautiful literature springs from the
depth and fulness of intellectual and moral life,
from an energy of thought and feeling, to which
nothing, as we believe, ministers so largely as
enlightened religion. — Channing.
[206] We must not narrow theology until it
becomes a sectarian science ; we must insist
that within its expansiveness are to be found
all things and all hopes which minister to the
strength and exalt the destiny of human life.
3 It softens the horrors of war, by the justice
and chivalry of a true civilization.
[207] Christianity, it is said, still permits war
to disgrace our civilization and our religion ;
nay, that the carnage is multiplied tenfold. What
shall we say in reply .'' It is not the number of
lives that they cost, but the temper in which
38
207-213]
CHRISTIANITY AS A SYSTEM.
[moral philosophy and CHRLSTrANITY.
they are conducted that marks the difference
between one war and another in morality. It
cannot be denied that under the influence of
Christianity war is becoming a last resource
after other ways of setthng a dispute have
failed. The moral sense of CJiristetidoni^ as
a rule, pronounces unequivocally against the
aggressor. We have seen, too, how the horrors
of war may be alleviated by a growing respect
for the lives and property of non-combatants,
and by the devoted labours of Christian men
and women, ready to relieve the sufferings on
either side. — Ibid.
4 It promotes amicable unity and social
communion.
[208] Christianity has also a direct tendency
to promote civilization, from the manner in which
it enjoins amicable unity, and social communion,
and good fellowship among diff'erent people.
It strives to join together, in one vast community,
or rather fraternity, the whole family of the
human race, and impels us to endeavour to
disseminate through the remotest regions of the
world the blessings of true religion.. This
principle, from which, indeed, springs the very
foundation of civilized society, Christianity
carries out further than does any moral or
constitutional code that has been established
in any nation. While science and intellect in-
duce us to extend the pale of our sympathies to
all those of our race who are capable of par-
taking of, or of appreciating our efforts in the
cause of learning or art, Christianity leads us
to extend it to all who belong to the common
race of mankind. And while the former urge
us from a feeling of connection, Christianity
constrains us from a principle of duty. In the
promotion of general benevolence among man-
kind, Christianity has done much for civiliza-
tion ; as also, in conjunction with it, by the
numerous charitable, educational, and religious
institutions which it has been the means of
founding. In this respect, the indirect influence
of our religion, independent of its direct effects,
in promoting mutual goodwill among the several
members of society, both in our own country
and in foreign nations, by the exertions which
it calls forth to alleviate their wants, and to
minister to their necessities and comforts of each
kind, of itself causes Christianity to have a
powerful civilizing influence over the whole
world. No other religion has produced this
great effect ; it alone has accomplished it
perfectly. — George Harris, Civilization con-
sidered as a Science.
5 It has elevated the tone of moral judgment
in the civilized world.
[209] And if the enlightened European judg-
ment to which appeal is made does present a
higher and purer moral tribunal than elsewhere
h is been known, it is because that judgment
has been moulded and s\va\ ed and taught for
centuries in the school of Divine revelation.—
Tliowas Poivnall Boultbee, LL.D.
[210] The direct and extensive tendency of
the Christian religion, and of its various institu-
tions, is to promote civilization. Among the
customs that it enjoins, the observance of a
Sabbath, by which one day in seven is set apart,
and ordinary unnecessary manual occupation is
excluded from it, is highly conducive to civiliza-
tion, independent altogether of the religious
advantages that it possesses. Mental and moral
improvement among all classes is eminently
furthered by this institution. The poorest
person has once a week secured to him a day
of leisure to devote to the cultivation of his
mind and his morals, as well as to his religious
duties, which directly tends to the improvement
ot the former. Such an institution is also greatly
refining in its results. Each poor man with
his family for that day moves in the rank of
gentility, appears in his best clothes, and enjoys
a period of leisure. Not only should the Sab-
bath be a day of freedom from toil, but of free-
dom also from worldly care and anxiety. And
it should supply a foretaste of heaven, not
merely as regards the religious exercises which
are followed upon it, but as regards the high
mental pursuits for which it aff"ords the oppor-
tunity, the benevolent social feelings which it
calls forth, and the good deeds which are done
on that day. To each person, vvhether rich or
poor, the Sabbath should be, moreover, not only
the holiest but the happiest day throughout the
week. — George Harris, Civilizaiion considered
as a Science.
18
MORAL PHILOSOPHY AND
CHRISTIANITY.
I. Failure of Moral Philosophy when
CONTRASTED WITH CHRISTIANITY.
1 Moral philosophy moved in the sphere of
the political.
[211] Ancient philosophers viewed moral
philosophy as a branch of politics. To a certain
extent they were right in this view. They had
no other objective standard of obligation. A
well-constituted state formed the only educator
through whose agency the philosopher saw even
a chance of training mankind in virtue. — I'/te
Conteniporaiy Rcvieiu, 1 869.
[212] You cannot make people moral or
virtuous by Act of Parliament or State control,
at least when the nation has outgrown
patriarchal government. The family is the true
unit of political as well as moral life, from which
real and permanent improvement must be
sought. Improve the State and you do not
necessarily improve the individual. Improve
the individual and you necessarily improve the
State.— C N.
2 Moral philosophy failed to bind private
conscience by a higher sense of duty.
[213] Ancient morality was ignorant of the
CHRISTIANITY AS A
213 — 218]
SYSTEM.
[morai
39
PHILOSOPHY AND CHRISTIANITY.
idea of duty in the sense in which Christianity
has brought it to bear on the mind of man. Its
idea of duty was twofold : — First, a subjective
one, which was measured by the obhgations
which a man owed to himself. Secondly, an
objective one, measured by the obligations
which he owed as a member of political society.
Beyond these he possessed no standard. The
ancient religions were incapable of bringing any
sense of moral obligation to bear on the human
mind. All of them were political, and the
aspect of their duties was such that no improve-
ment in morality could come from making them
the subject of imitation. To enable religion to
strengthen the moral power by the creation of a
real sense of duty, God must be clearly appre-
hended as the head Moral Governor of the
Universe ; and man's relationship to Him must
be clearly felt, the lack of moral power which
was inherent in the ancient religions was not
supplied by any discoveries of the philosophers ;
their duty was either an impersonal one, or one
purely intellectual. The moralist was, therefore,
forced to look on political institutions, and a
course of training under their influence, as the
only power on which he could rely to enforce
the sanctions of morality. From them alone
could he deduce the nature of moral obligation.
Uncertain about the nature of God, how was it
possible that he could enforce morality by
appealing to His character, His will, or the rela-
tion in which man stood to Him. — Contemporary
J\e7'ie%u, 1869.
3 Ancient philosophy confessed the inade-
quacy of its motives to impel men to
virtue.
[214] Philosophy confesses the inadequacy of
its motives to impel men to virtue : —
1. Its despair with respect to the masses of
mankind.
2. Its teaching addressed to the upper ten
thousand.
3. Its failure to create a missionary spirit.
4. Its failure to deal with men as individuals.
—Kev. C. A. Rota, M.A., Moral Teaching of
the N. T.
II. The Excellence of Christlan Philo-
sophy WHEN CONTRASTED WTIH MORAL
Philosophy.
I Christianity introduces personal respon-
sibility and higher obligations than
merely political.
[215] Whilst philosophers, legislators, and
intidels fostered popular superstitions, some
from a belief in the usefulness to morals, some
from reasons of State, some from inditterence to
truth, Christianity came without State neces-
sity, without compliance to popular delusions,
to utter a truth that should elevate both freeman
and serf, and establish justice as the rule of
government, love as the flow of life. And since
in the effort to bolster up superstition, pretended
prodigies were performed, it wrought real
miracles, without which it would not have
gained the notice of mankind, and uttered prin-
ciples equally miraculous, but without which it
would have gained no permanent hold on the
aftections of men ; and thus it alone breathed
new life into decaying humanity ; corrected and
repressed the universal growth of the most
debasing immorality, and" gave an impulse to
that tide of improvement which, in spite of all
opposing agencies, the cunning of priests and
the power of tyrants, has worked hitherto, and
still remains the germ of every improvement,
the inextinguishable hope of mankind for all
personal character, social and political amelio-
ration. The sick nations had received many
nostrums from many secular advisers, but were
not yet improved ; priests, philosophers, legis-
lators— all had received their fees ; the patient
was impoverished in purse and constitution, and
had been turned out as incurable, like " a
certain woman who had suffered many things of
many physicians, and had spent all that she
had, and was nothing bettered but rather grew
worse, when she had heard of Jesus, came in
the press behind and touched the hem of his
garment, and felt in her body that she was
healed of that plague" (Mark v. 25-29). This
rapid sketch teaches how little was done before
Christianity, and how much it was needed as
the great and sole light of the world, the
regenerating element of society. Everything
else had failed ; and human reason, which,
according to atheistic ideas, had been at
work from all eternity, ended in looseness of
thought andmorals.scepticism, superstition, and
debasement. — Brewin Grant.
[216] Medical boards, apothecaries halls,
skilled physicians, trained nurses, cannot re-
store to the patient vital power and health, when
there is no constitution left to work upon. So
the arm of the State cannot raise poor fallen
humanity. We are so far gone from original
righteousness that nothing less than Divine
interposition can remedy the evil. — C. N.
[217] The State without Christianity lacks
moral power, and so cannot morally and per-
manently improve man. The State owes all its
moral weight to Christianity, which declares
that " the powers that be are ordained of God,"
and, moreover, Jesus, our Master in heaven, re-
quires us, as His loyal servants, to honour all
earthly masters. — C. N.
2 Christianity introduces human dignity as
the basis of man's claims and duties.
[218] The element of human dignity is the
true foundation of '■ the rights of man." The
gospel is the first system that recognizes the
people, cares for them, and appeals to them.
It has introduced into all modern literatures the
ideas of our common human dignity, the im-
portance and sacredness of every man ; from
which freethinkers have selected the doctrine of
4°
2l8-
CHRISTIANITY AS A SYSTEM.
-226]
[philosophy of christiani
human brotherhood, which never existed till
Christ came as the brother of all men. — B. G.
[219] Christianity levels not down but up.
The lowliest is raised by Christianity to a higher
position than the highest without its privileges.
Christ has exalted our common humanity, and
not only Himself becomes the centre around
which all may circle, but round which none can
gather except as brothers. — C. N.
3 Christianity appeals to an authority su-
perior to merely human commands.
[220] This was exemplified in St. Peter's
appeal against the prohibition to follow con-
science and God in preaching Christ : — " But
that it spread no further among the people, let
us straitly threaten them that they speak hence-
forth to no man in this name. And they called
them and commanded them not to speak at all
nor teach in the name of Jesus. But Peter and
John answered, Whether it be right ifi the sight
of God to hearken unto you 7nore than unto
G'^iY, judge ye" (Acts iv. 17-19). This was the
introduction and recognition of the new principle
and final appeal on moral duty. — B. G.
4 Christianity exalts the humble virtues
above the heroic.
[221] Our Lord based virtue on the moral
nature of man in relation to the obligations
which unite man to man, and man to God ;
whereas the political aspect of ancient morality
compelled the philosophers unduly to estimate
the heroic ones. The fact is beyond dispute
that our Lord's teaching reverses the order of
the virtues, and assigns to the milder and the
more unobtrusive ones the highest place in his
spiritual temple ; whereas the philosophers
unanimously pursued a contrary course. ^Ctf«-
ieniporaty Rc^'icw, 1S69.
5 The Christian Beatitudes surpass in
heroism the so-called heroic virtues.
[222] What are called the heroic virtues are
not so heroic as those which are termed the
humble ones. It requires more courage and
fortitude to endure and forgive insult and injury
than to revenge a wrong. "Blessed are the
poor in spirit," "the meek," "the merciful,"
"the peace-makers," "the persecuted," the "re-
viled" (St. Matt. v. 3-11), is a moral teaching
far m advance of natural reason and philosophy.
To forgive our enemies is a difficult but heroic
duty : the practice of these precepts would bless
the world. — B. G.
[223] The "heroic" Airtues in early stages of
society have so marketable a value that the
ancients naturally unduly exalted them. They
are conspicuous virtues, and springing, as they
do, from the lower or animal side of our nature,
are easier cultivated and brought to perfection.
On the other hand the " humble " virtues, though
really those that conduce mostly to human
happiness, are not naturally prized. Indeed,
before Christ showed what true humility meant'
what a heavenly and noble flower this grace
was, the world had few, if any, specimens worth
exhibiting. And thus while man might discover
the law of gravitation without revolution, it was
beyond the reach of human originality to assign
to humility its lawful place.
19
PHILOSOPHY OF CHRISTIANITY.
I. Importance of the Study.
[224] There is, however, a divine philosophy
in the Christian scheme, which the thoughtful
believer will trace out with admiration and
thankfulness. To the Church and in the Church
there is made known the many-varied wisdom
of God, into which even angels desire to look.
Little attention has been paid to what has been
termed by an American writer the philosophy
of salvation ; but in proportion as we recognize
the Divine adaptation of Christianity to man's
mental constitution, we shall see that between
heathen philosophy in its best estate and revela-
tion a great gulf is fixed. — Rev. Williavi Web-
ster, M.A.
II. Its Nature.
I The Christian scheme is especially adapted
to our mental constitution.
{i) It presents a Divine Person as the sole
object of our ]iomage.
[225] It is not an abstraction, an idea, a rule,
a discipline, a code of laws, a system of doctrine,
or an assemblage of beautiful theories ; but is
the presentntion of a Divine Person as the sole
and satisfying object of reliance and trust, of
admiration and love ; it is the manifestation of
Him in whom dwellcth all the fulness of the
Godhead in bodily form. This Divine Person
assumed that state and condition of life which
has the iiiost direct influence to eradicate from
the human breast the noxious fibres of selfish-
ness and pride ; and to cherish the growth of
contentment, benevolence, humility. In the
exercise of these qualities, philosophy truly saw
that the soul of man could find rest ; and that
under the dominion of their opposites, the soul
was as a troubled sea, casting up mire and dirt ;
but it lacked the influence of one who could
enforce His teaching by pointing to His example,
" I am among you as one that serveth." — Ibid.
(2) // adopted the principle of faith, not p cr-
eep t ion, as the medium of know/edge.
[226] Truth can enter the soul only in one of
two ways — by perception or by faith, i.e., by the
medium of the senses or by the belief of testi-
mony. But from the nature of our mental con-
stitution, the recurrdhce of facts which fall under
personal observation produces an effect which
grows weaker and weaker in proportion as they
226 — 236]
CHRISTIANITY AS A SYSTEM.
[philosophy of CHRISTIANITY.
41
are repeatedly witnessed. But facts which are
received by faith, the more they are realized, the
more the mind revolves them, produce a greater,
a more powerful, in fact, an overwhelming, an
abiding impression. By the exercise of sight
the effect of what is seen grows less ; by the
exercise of faith the effect of what is believed
grows greater; the belief of falsehood perverts
and debases the soul ; the belief of truth puri-
fies, ennobles, and saves. — Idid.
(3) // assigns obedience to the master principle
of love.
[227] All happy obedience must spring from
affection ; that outward compliance which is ex-
torted by fear and dread can never be habitually
maintained, as opportunities for relapsing will be
embraced whenever they occur. This obedience
will be cheerfully rendered in proportion as we
are conscious of the intrinsic worth of the party
to whom it is rendered, and of his rightful claim
as our gracious benefactor. The man to whom
little is forgiven loveth little. As the stream can
never rise higher than its source, obedience will
never exceed the sense of blessing received. —
Ibid.
III. Its Excellence.
I Arguments e contrario.
(i) Every advantage is on the side 0/ belief in
Christianity.
[228] If the best that can happen to the un-
believer be that he be right, and the worst that
can happen to the believer be that he be wrong,
who in his madness would dare to run the ven-
ture .'' — Locke.
[229] Should a man err in supposing the
Christian religion to be true, he can be no great
loser by the mistake. But how dreadful to err,
in supposing it to be false. — Pascal, Thoughts on
Religion ( 1 62 3- 1 662) .
[230] If Christianity — which leaves no alter-
native religion possible — is false, the dying
Christian is as safe as the dying Atheist or
Agnostic. — B. G.
[231] Provision for old age is safe if there be
no old age for us, and the providing for a future
contingency is not without present counter-
vailing advantages. The slight inconvenience
of insuring our property against the risk of fire
is a small sacrifice if easiness of mind alone be
considered. — C. N.
[232] To toil up the mountains and pursue
our journey in an arduous manner amid a bracing
atmosphere is preferable to being allured into the
smoking valley which will prove sultry and its
miasma may end fatally. Thus the discipline
and sacrifice which Christianity require, even if
there were no future awards and punishments,
would be more than compensated by present
actual acquisition, such as peace of mind, a sense
of security, and development of character, and
other reflex influence of a religious life. — C. N.
[233] The results at issue in the rejection or
acceptance of Christianity should " give us
pause" and secure the deepest consideration.
It has such pretences, at least, as may make it
worthy of a particular consideration : it pretends
to come from heaven ; to have been delivered
by the Son of (jod ; to have been confirmed by
undeniable miracles and prophecies ; to have
been ratified by the blood of Christ and His
apostles, who died in asserting its truth. It
can show likewise an innumerable company of
martyrs and confessors : its doctrines are pure
and holy, its precepts just and righteous ; its
worship is a reasonable service, refined from
the errors of idolatry and superstition, and
spiritual like the God who is the object of it : it
offers the aid and assistance of heaven to the
weakness of nature ; which makes the religion
of the gospel to be as practicable as it is reason-
able : it promises infinite rewards to obedience,
and threatens eternal punishment to obstinate
offenders ; which makes it of the utmost con-
sequence to u£ soberly to consider it, since every
one who rejects it stakes his own soul against
the truth of it. — Bishop Sherlock, 1678-1761.
(2) Instances of the folly of atheistic teaching.
[234] Paine says — " It is the fool only, and
not the philospher," who lives as if there were
no God and no future life of retribution.
[235] It is presumption, and not philosophy,
to say, "We must die to find it out." Chris-
tianity teaches us to attain a rational certainty
before it is too late to retrieve a false step. — -
B. G.
IV. Positive Arguments.
(i) Its exquisite adaptation to the mental and
moral constitiction of hinnati nature.
[236] Socrates and Aristotle proposed to
correct the errors of man by improving the
intellect. " But leviathan is not so tamed."
Men do not determine moral questions in which
they are personally interested by the mere ver-
dict of the understanding. They set up the
will in the judgment seat. In the hour of
temptation they act not as they see to be right,
but as they wish to act. Christianity proceeds
in a method the reverse of this. "It makes its
first appeal to the aftections which are the
springs ot the will, and through them clears and
rectifies the understanding '' {Goulburn). The
method propounded by the wisdom of man is
false in principle and inefficacious in practice ;
while the mode prescribed by the wisdom of
God is philosophically true, mighty to pull
down the strongholds of selfishness and ignor-
ance, of passion, prejudice, and pride, and to
bring every thought into captivity in subjection
to Christ.— AVz/. ^William Webster, M.A.
42
CHRISTIAXirV AS A SYSTEM,
237—240]
[progress of CHRISTIANITY.
(2) Personal testimony to its blessedness.
[237] I envy no quality of mind or intellect in
others — not genius, power, wit, or fancy ; but
if I could choose what would be most delightful,
and, I believe, most useful to me, I should prefer
a firm religious belief to every other blessing ;
for it makes life a discipline of goodness, creates
new hopes when all earthly hopes vanish, and
throws over the decay, the destruction of exist-
ence the most gorgeous of all lights ; awakens
life even in death, and from the corruption and
decay calls up beauty and divinity ; makes an
instrument of torture and shame the ladder of
ascent to paradise ; and far above all combina-
tion of earthly hopes, calls up the most delight-
ful visions, palms and amaranlhs, the gardens
of the blessed, the security of everlasting joys,
where the sensualist and the sceptic view only
gloom, decay, and annihilation. — Sir Humphrey
Davy.
20
PROGRESS OF CHRISTIANITY.
I. Causes of the past Success of Chris-
tianity.
I General Analysis.
[238] Can we conceive the triumphant pro-
gress of Christianity to have been made unless
the following had been the distinctive features
of the Christian religion ? i. The person of
Christ. 2. The cross of Christ. 3. The Church
of Christ. 4. The doctrine of Christ. 5. The
worship of Christ.
"Our curiosity," says Gibbon, in his cele-
brated fifteenth chapter of his " History of the
Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire," "is
naturally prompted to inquire by what means
the Christian faith obtained so remarkable a
victory over the established religions of the
earth.'' To this inquiry an obvious but satis-
factory answer may be returned ; that it was
owing to the convincing evidence of the doc-
trine itself, and to the ruling providence of its
great Author." Although there is an intentional
sarcastic sneer in these words, as is shown by
the rest of the chapter, still, as the sceptic
admits, such causes must be acknowledged to
be the pii/nary causes of the success of a
religion, however we describe the secondary.
The doctrine itself, and the providential favour
of God, must be put first. We may divide the
latter under two heads — (i.) The aid which
Christianity received from the supernatjiral
agency which mingled with its propagation ;
(ii.) The providential appointment of circum-
stances favourable to it — some of which have
been well described, as we shall see, by such
writers as Gibbon and Renan, although witii a
mistaken estimate of their operation. — A'. A.
Red/ord, the Christian's Plea.
2 Viewed negatively.
(i) Its rise and pro_s^ress,7iot from the 7nechan-
ism of merely Jiiiman institutions.
[239] How did Christianity rise and spread
among men ? was it by institutions, and
establishments, and well-arranged systems of
mechanism ? Not so ; on the contrary, in all
past and existing institutions for those ends its
Divine spirit has invariably been found to
languish and decay. It arose in the mystic
deeps of man's soul, and was spread abroad by
the preaching of the word, by simple altogether
natural and individual efforts, and flew like
hallowed fire from heart to heart till all were
purified and illuminated by it, and its heavenly
I light shone, as it still shines, and as sun or star
I will ever shine, through the whole dark destinies
of man. There again was no mechanism, man's
highest attainment was accomplished dynami-
cally, not mechanicall)-. — Thomas Carlyle.
3 Viewed positively.
(i) Due to its Divine origin aJid character.
[240] Presently it came to pass that the
religion of the despised Jesus did infinitely
prevail ; a religion that taught men 'to be meek
and humble, apt to receive injuries, but unapt
to do any ; a religion that gave countenance to
the poor and pitiful, in a time when riches were
adored and ambition and pleasure had possessed
the heart of all mankind ; a refigion that would
change the face of things, and the hearts of
men, and break vile habits into gentleness and
counsel ; that such a religion, in such a time,
by the sermons and conduct of fishermen, men
of mean breeding and illiberal arts, should so
speedily triumph over the philosophy of the
world, and the arguments of the subtle, and the
sermons of the eloquent ; the power of princes
and the interests of states ; the inclinations of
nature and the blindness of zeal ; the force of
custom and the solicitation of passions ; the
pleasures of sin and the busy arts of the devil ;
that is, against wit and power, superstition and
wilfulness, fame and money, nature and empire,
which are all the causes in this world that can
make a thing impossible ; this, this is to be
ascribed to the power of God, and is the great
demonstration of the resurrection of Jesus.
Every thing was an argument for it, and im-
proved it ; no objection could hinder it, no
enemies destroy it ; whatsoever was for them,
it made the religion to increase ; whatsoever
was against them, made it to increase ; sunshine
and storms, fair weather or foul, it was all one
as to the event of things ; for they were instru-
ments in the hands of God, who could make
what himself should choose to be the product of
any cause ; so that if the Christians had peace,
they went abroad and brought in converts : if
they had no peace, but persecution, the converts
came in to them. In prosperity, they allured
and enticed the world by the beauty of holiness ;
in affliction and trouble, they amazed all men
with the splendour of their innocence and the
glories of their patience ; and quickly it was
CHRISTIANITY AS A
240 — 246]
SYSTEM.
43
ASONABLENESS OF CHRISTIANITY.
that the world became disciple to the glorious
Nazarene, and men could no longer doubt of
the resurrection of Jesus, when it became so
demonstrated by the certainty of them that saw
it, and the courage of them that died for it, and
the multitude of them that believed it ; who, by
their sermons and their actions, by their public
offices and discourses, by festivals and eucharists,
by arguments of experience and sense, by reason
and religion, by persuading rational men, and
establishing believing Christians, by their living
in the obedience of Jesus, and dying for the
testimony of Jesus, have greatly advanced His
kingdom, and His power, and His glory, into
which He entered after His resurrection from
the dead. — Bp. Jeremy Taylor^ 1613-1667.
II. Objections met.
1 The sceptic's vain attempt to explain this
progress.
[241] Renan said that it was the millennial
view — the anticipation of earthly greatness,
taken into connection with the moral side,
which he allowed — that gave Christianity the
victory. But that idea was not consistent with
the life of Christ as recorded in the Scriptures ;
and even if it had been so, he did not see that
there was in it anything that would have at-
tracted men who knew Christ only as the son of
a Galilean carpenter, who had been crucified
and had then been cast away by the Jewish
nation. — Principal Cairns, D.D., History of the
Christian Church.
III. Prospective View of Subject.
I Progress of Christianity assured, as falling
in with and aiding the continuous progress
of Humanity.
[242] We find good reason to conclude that
man will continue to make progress in the know-
ledge of whatever is true, and just, and honest,
and of good report. We become well assured
that the simple law of Christian love will in
due time be expanded by Christian science into
thousands and tens of thousands of those special
precepts of Christian ethics, which future gene-
rations shall joyfully accept, and tliat these will
be light as air in their facile applications to
the varying conditions of human existence, and
strong as links of iron to hold men to every
form of duty. We triumph in the faith that the
time will come when this unwritten law shall
sound within every obedient soul as winningly
and as lovingly as the evening breeze that rests
on the wind harp, and shall thunder as terribly
in the ear of the disobedient as the voice of
God from Sinai.— /?^7'. Noah Porter, D.D.,
Future Developmetit or Progress.
21
REASONABLENESS OF
CHRISTIANITY.
I. Arguments e contrario.
[243] The reasonableness of Christianity is
seen in the fact that it does not appeal to or en-
courage the lower passions, as in the promise of
a Mohammedan paradise of sensuality, but re-
presses and subordinates passion, and appeals
to reason and conscience as the proper ruling
principles, the crown and glory of regenerated
humanity. — B. C.
II. Positive Arguments.
1 It incorporates into itself all the best
elements of natural reason.
[244] Christianity, if we well weigh and con-
sider it, in the several parts and members of it,
throughout the whole system, may be justly
called the last and the most correct edition of
the law of nature, there being nothing excellent
amongst the heathens but is adopted into the
body of Christian precepts. Neither is there any
precept in Christianity so severe and mortifying,
and at the first face and appearance of things
grating upon our natural conveniences, but will
be resolved into a natural reason, as advancing
and improving nature in the higher degrees and
grander concerns of \^.—R. South, D.D., 1633-
1716.
2 It answers the anticipations and instincts
of man's conscience.
[245] If it be rumoured among the people of a
vast city that a new and magnificent hall ot justice
is to be built, and if there be seen a multitude
of workmen collecting materials at the stated
place of the proposed building, those materials
are a strong proof of the truth of the common
rumour. And just so, when the conscience of
all mankind tells of a judgment to come, and we
see how the materials for that judgment are
accumulating, and the demand and necessity
for it increasing, and how the busy memory is
occupied with collecting and arranging those
materials, the proof becomes very strong : the
common rumour of the world and of the indi-
vidual conscience is so corroborated, that one
who looks fairly at the light of nature, even
apart from that of revelation, cannot doubt.
And every instance of the power of memory,
every elucidation of the laws under which the
mind acts in its operations of remembrance,
and every instance of the manner in which con-
science accompanies this work, affords addi-
t'onal conviction. — Dr. Geo. B. Cheever, Biblical
Repository {July, 1850).
3 It contains all the elements essential to a
world-wide religion.
[246] What are the conditions necessary to
constitute a religion ? There must be a creed, a
conviction, claiming authority over the whole of
human life ; a belief or set of beliefs deliberately
44
246-253]
CJIRISTIANITY AS A
'VST EM.
[temporal BENKFTTS of CHRISTIANITY.
adopted respecting human destiny and duty to
which the believer inwardly acknowledges that
all his actions ought to be subordinate. More-
over, there must be a sentiment connected with
this creed, or capable of being evoked by it,
sufficiently powerful to give it in fact the autho-
rity over human conduct to which it lays claim
in theoiy. — y. S. Mill^ Coinie and Positivism.
4 Its principles advance the welfare of the
state.
[247] Let those who affirm that the religion
of Christ is adverse to the welfare of the state
produce soldiers like those produced by that
religion ; let them produce such citizens, hus-
bands, wives, parents, children, slaves, kings,
judges, tax-gatherers, &c., as the Christian re-
ligion enjoins all its adherents to be, and then
let them dare to say that it is adverse to the
welfare of the state ; nay, rather let them at
once confess that that religion, where duly ob-
served, is the strongest safeguard of the state.
— Atigtcstine, Epp. ad MarcelL, cxxwiii. n. 15.
III. Objections met.
I Its highest value is seen in those restrain-
ing laws which, to undisciplined minds,
seem most irksome.
[248] As for most of those restraints which
Christianity lays upon us, they are of that
nature so much both for our private and public
advantage, that, setting aside all considerations
of religion and of the rewards and punishments
of another life, they are really good for us ; and
if God had not laid them upon us, we ought in
reason, in order to our temporal benefit and
advantage, to have laid them upon ourselves.
If there were no religion, I know men would not
have such strong and forcible obligations to
these duties ; but yet I say, though there were
no religion, it were good for men, in order to
temporal ends, to their health, and quiet, and
reputation, and safety, and, in a word, to the
private and public prosperity of mankind, that
men should be temperate, and chaste, and just,
and peaceable, and charitable, and kind, and
obliging to one another, rather than tlie con-
trary. So that religion does not create those
restraints arbitrarily, but requires those things
of us which our reason, and a regard to our own
advantage, which the necessity and conveniency
of the things themselves, without any considera-
tion of religion, would in most cases urge us to.
— Archbisliop Tillotson, 1630- 1694.
22
TEMPORAL BENEFITS OF
CHRISTIANITY.
I. As RAISING THE General and National
Standard of Morality.
[249] One thing there is abundance of evi-
dence to prove : that however lamentably reli-
gion may have failed to raise human conduct to
its ideal standard of morality, the absence of
religion, where it has been general in any society,
has been accompanied by a fearful increase of
immorality. Witness the morals of the latter
Roman Empire ; of Italy, under the first pagan
influence of the Renaissance ; of P>ance, during
the last half of the iSth century. Witness also
the doctrines of the Nihilists and of all the ex-
treme Socialist, or, as they should rather be
called, anti-socialist, sects of whatever nation-
ality, who would abolish the family, property,
and social organization, together with God, and
with unconscious logic call for absolute lawless-
ness as the only complete expression of atheistic
liberty. Religion, in fact is, in its essence, faith
in a supreme and adorable Law over human life.
— Mrs. Wni. Grey in Modern Review.
[250] The absence of religious restraints and
guidance is the occasion of innumerable evils in
society.
[251] Benjamin Franklin once said, "Men are
bad enough with religion — what would they be
without it ? "— i?. G.
II. As INDUCING Self-sacrifice and
Care for Others.
[252] Institutions the outcome of Christian
benevolence are the embodiment of self-sacri-
ficing charity, and, in effect, the continuance of
the Saviour's miracles of healing. — B. G.
[253] The world to-day is full of the signs of
Christ's presence. Hospitals, orphanages, homes
for the poor and aged, for friendless servants
and fallen women, for sailors and foreigners,
ragged and reformatory schools — all witness
that Jesus is passing still through the crowded
highways of modern life. These institutions
spring from seeds which the hand of Christ
sowed. They are multiplied and supported by
the leaven of His teaching still working in the
hearts of men. The heathen world knew
nothing of them. Yet there are those who do
not recognize the Son of God, as He lays His
consecrating hand upon the stones that form the
shrine of His mercy. They feel, indeed, the
tender glow of His compassion, the pure joy of
self-denial for the sake of others, of which He
gave the truest example ; they are in communion
with His spirit ; but the form they see, and the
voice they hear, they mistake for that of the
genius of civilization. Still more is Christ a
living presence when He inspires individual men
and women with graces and virtues, so saintly
and yet so gentle that the most evil and the
coarsest are awed and subdued before them ;
when He sends them forth on missions upon
which they must enter bearing the stigmata of
a crucifixion of all ordinary pleasures and am-
bitions—sacred missions of mercy at which the
world is filled with 'reverent wonder, and stands
back as if fearing to tread profanely upon the
blood of martyrs.
CHRISTIANITY AS A
254—262]
SYSTEM. 45
[temporal benefits of CHRISTIANITY.
[254] So far, then, from admitting that spiri-
tual Christianity, rightly understood, is the
opponent, or even the lukewarm friend of secular
progress, we hold that it is the very reverse. It
smiles on the efforts of science, civilization, and
social reformation ; and it supplies the great
moving spring of philanthropy, the unwearied
heavenly love that goes forth, lils:e its Master, to
seek and to save that which is lost. The hope
of the world, and especially of its down-trodden
and suffering masses, lies in spiritual Chris-
tianity. Where, if you discard it, will you find a
power to take its place } — Rev. IV. C. Blaikie,
D.D., Chnslia?nty and Civilization.
[255] Christianity at first softened and finally
abolished slavery, threw the shield of power and
chivalry over woman's physical weakness, re-
fined love from a passion, and made it a social
virtue.- — B. G.
[256] Christianity is the power which first
gradually softened slavery, and is now finally
abolishing it. Christianity has insisted upon
the claims of the poor : the hospital is an inven-
tion of Christian philanthropy. The degrada-
tion of woman in the pagan world has been
exchanged for a position of special privilege and
honour. The sensualism which pagans mis-
called love has been placed under the ban of all
true Christian feeling ; and in Christendom love
is now the purest of all moral impulses. — Liddon,
Bampton Lectures.
[257] Infidelity builds no churches, founds
no asylums, endows no universities. It provides
no refuge for the poor, and furnishes no help or
comfort to those who weep. — Bp. Simpson.
III. As INDUCING Better Performance
OF Ordinary Duties.
I On account of the very nature of Christi-
anity.
[25S] Christianity adds the highest sanction
to the duties ot every relation. Piety is exceed-
ing useful for all sorts of men, in all capacities,
all states, all relations ; fitting and disposing
them to manage all their respective concern-
ments, to discharge all their peculiar duties, in
a proper, just, and decent manner. Itrendereth
all superiors equal and moderate in their admin-
istrations ; mild, courteous, and affable in their
converse ; benign and condescensive in all their
demeanour toward their inferiors. Correspond-
ently it disposeth inferiors to be sincere and
faithful, modest, loving, respectful, diligent, apt
willingly to yield due subjection and service. It
inclineth princes to be just, gentle, benign,
careful for their subjects' good, apt to administer
justice uprightly, to protect right, to encourage
virtue, to check wickedness. Answerably it
rendereth subjects loyal, submissive, obedient,
quiet and peaceable, ready to yield due honour,
to pay the tributes and bear the burdens
imposed, to discharge all duties, and observe all
laws prescribed by their governors conscion-
ably, patiently, cheerfully, without reluctancy,
grudging, or murmuring. It maketh parents
loving, gentle, provident for their children's good
education and comfortable subsistence; children,
again, dutiful, respectful, grateful, apt to requite
their parents. Husbands from it become affec-
tionate and compliant to their wives ; wives sub-
missive and obedient to their husbands. It
disposeth friends to be friends indeed, full of
cordial affection and good-will, entirely faithful,
firmly constant, industriously careful and active
in performing all good offices mutually. It
engageth men to be diligent in their calling,
faithful to their trusts, contented and peaceable
in their station, and thereby serviceable to public
good. It rendereth all men just and punctual
in their dealing, orderly and quiet in their be-
haviour, courteous and complaisant in their
conversation, friendly and charitable upon all
occasions, apt to assist, to relieve, to comfort one
another. — 7'. Barrow, D.D.
2 On account of the consciousness of the
unseen God.
[259] There are two miners, say, by themselves,
and far from human eye, in the fields of the far
West : one has found a rich nugget, the other
has toiled and found nothing. What hinders
the man who has found nothing, if he is the
stronger or the better armed, from slaying his
mate as he would a buffalo, and taking the gold .''
Surely, in part at least, the feeling, drawn from
the Christian society in which his youth was
passed, that what is not seen by man is seen by
God, and that, though the victim himself may
be weak and defenceless, irresistible power is
on his side. — Prof. Goldwin Smith in Contem-
porary Review.
[260] The consciousness of God secures a
regard for private rights, and safety where
police defences may not reach. — B. G.
3 On account of a practical and present aim.
[261] Present and immediate motives influ-
ence where prospective and speculative dnes
fail.— ^. G.
[262] The prospect of a social goal inde-
finitely distant, and to be attained not by the
individual man but by humanity, influences
only highly educated imaginations and refined
natures, if it greatly influences even these.
What does Bdl Sykes, what does a director of
the Glasgow Bank, what does William Tweed,
what does Fiske, or St. Arnaud, or St. Arnaud's
employer, care about the fortunes of humanity a
million of years after he as an individual being
has ceased to exist ? What impelling force will
such visions have with the multitudes of com-
mon people, unread in the " Philosophic Posi-
tive," on whose conscientious performance of
duty society depends, and whose goodness is the
salt of the earth }~Prof. Goldwin Smith in
Contemporary Review.
46
CHRISTIANITY AS A
263—272]
SVSTEAf.
[temporal BKNEFITS of CHRISTIANITY.
4 On account of the imparted moral influence
to nerve for all duties.
( 1 ) Viewtd posilively.
[263] Is it not true of .ilmost all of us — all but
the men whose personal duty has lain in the
direction of advancing science — that tiiey are
infinitely more chnlised^ infinitely more im-
pressed by their obligations to others, through
the moral or spiritual influences, whatever they
be, which nerve them into struggle against
wrong, whether political or social — into active
compassion for misery— into steadfast endur-
ance of pain — into patience under calamity —
than by all the magnificent pictures presented
to their imagination, even in the noble and
picturesque story of Sir John Lubbock i No,—
let us keep the word "civilization "for a higher
meaning than any which the acquisition of mere
knowledge, or even the effectual alleviation of
physical suffering can imply. Socrates was a
more civilized man than most of those who are
now attending the British Association at York,
and St. Paul a far more civilized man, though
neither the one nor the other ever heard of
spectrum analysis or the telephone. That which
makes the citizen is the intiuence which spurs
him on to do his duty to his neighbour, so
soon as he knows it, — not even that, which
helps him to know it better ; though, of course,
it is part of his duty to avail himself of every
means in his power to increase his knowledge
of the ways in which he can benefit the society
to which he belongs, as well as of the ways
in which he might inadvertently injure it. —
Spectator, Sept. 3, 1881.
[264] Christianity is more practically effective
for moral ends in strengthening for duty and
heroic endurance than imaginative and senti-
mental views of poetic grandeur.— /?. G.
(2) Viewed nes^atively. '
[265] The locomotive will run on the lines for
a cou|)le ol miles after the steam has been shut
off; but the steam which has escaped, and not
the machinery, must be credited with the
momentum. And if we all became atheists
to-morrow, and the inspiration of faith were
universally to die, we should still go on for a few
years on the smooth rails of Christian law
and example by the sheer force of the life which
has hitherto propelled us. But what becomes
of society when that force expires l—E. E.
yenkins.
[266] The outward morality or occasional
good deeds of unbelievers is not from unbelief,
but from the indirect influence of religion.
[267] I honestly think that the process of
making atheists, trained as sitch^ into philan-
thropists, will be but rarely achieved. And I
venture to propound the question to those who
point to admirable living examples of atheistic
or Comtist philanthropy — How many of these
have passed through the earlier stage of
morality as believers in God, and with all the
aid which prayer and faith and hope could give
them ? Tiiat they remain actively benevolent,
having advanced so far, is readily to be anti-
cipated. But will their children stand where
they stand now ? We are yet obeying the great
impetus of religion, and running along the rails
lain down by our forefathers. Shall we continue
in the same course, when that impetus has
stopped, and we have left the rails altogether .''
I fear me not. — Frances Power Cobbe.
[268] Atheistic virtue, or profession of it, is
not from atheism, but in spite of it and because
Christianity has made vice disreputable.
[269] Atheism or irreligion supplies no motive
for virtue and benevolence, but only removes
those which religion supplies. Accordingly
Bacon, in his Essays [xvi. " Atheism "], says :
" Therefore, as atheism is in all respects hate-
ful, so in this — that it depriveth human nature
of the means to exalt itself above human
frailty." — B. G.
[270] After giving up Christianity men often
retain the virtues of Christianity. A cut flower
still retains its perfume.
IV. Objections met.
1 The benefits and value of religion are seen
in the very difficulty of attaining to its lofty
ideal.
[271] The only really influential objections to
the Christian morality are those connected with
its difficulty, and its failure to realize itself
among professed Christians. This has caused
the gospel to suffer more than all other hin-
drances put together, for the inconsistencies of
Christian nations and churches have been seen
and read of all men, while the excuses for those
failures, and even the attempts to clear Christi-
anity from this reproach, have not been equally
successful in impressing the general mind. Still
it is a great and singular thing for any system
of morality to be complained of chiefly because
it is too high and ideal ; while at the same time
all candid minds allow that Christianity has
here been immensely effectual in elevating the
moral standard of the world, and in bringing
round a state of things when its own strictness
and elevation shall seem less hopeless as a pre-
vailing aspiration and attainment. — l\ev. Prin-
cipal Cairns on Christianity and Miracles.
2 In the proportion in which Christianity is
practically exhibited, it diffuses temporal
blessings.
[272] We fear no challenge when we atTirm
that in its purest form Christianity has fostered
the ideas and encouraged the habits out of
which all true civilization springs. Wherever
Christianity exists in its true character, it always
acts beneficially on human society. It gives its
tone to the laws ancfinstitutions of the country,
it educates the people, it liberates the slave, it
cares for the poor, it heals the sick, it fosters
272-C76I
CHRISTIANITY AS A SYSTEM. 47
ITHKISTIC ELEMENTS OF CIIRISriANITY.
the arts of peace, it mitigates the horrors of
war; and, not content with improving the con-
dition of those at home, it takes to its heart the
remotest nations of the earth, and plans and
labours and prays that all its blessings and
privileges may flow out to the whole family of
man.
And thus, as spiritual Christianity, with its
habit of living in the future, does not hinder but
help a man in his own sphere of earthly duty, so
neither does it hinder but help undertakings
which have for their object to relieve temporal
suffering and promote temporal good. In spite
of the confident remarks of secularists, we would
appeal here to facts. In the preface to the late
Mr. de Liefde's admirable work on "The
Charities of Europe," it is said, " I have been
always of opinion that nowhere could a better
proof of the Divine origin of Christianity and of
the truth of the gospel be found than in the
story, simply told, of some charitable institu- |
lions. — Rev. IV. G. Blaikie, D.D., Te/itj)0)al I
Benefits.
23
Til EI STIC EIEiMENTS OF
CHRISTIANITY.
I. Their Place in Christianity.
[273] Christianity takes for its basis, "One
Cod and Father of all ;" and it is this Divine
element and authority which gives validity to
its provision of mercy, and the highest sanction
and obligation to its requirements of duty.
II. The Idea of God the Sole Basis
FOR Morals.
[274] Without this doctrine there would be
no basis for morals. Its theistic element, or the
idea of God as Ruler and Judge, is the sole
secure basis for morals ; and the ground of
general utility, as a moral guide, receives all its
force from Divine authority, as requiring this
benevolence. — B. G.
[275] This theistic element, which thus
supports the duty of seeking the general good,
not only affords a ground for morals, but is
itself, in turn, confirmed by its beneficial ten-
dency.—^. G.
[276] There are three leading theories ex-
pounded by systematic writers on ethics, each of
which must be questioned to see if a reasonable \
answer can be given apart from the Christian
religion as to a pure basis for morals.
According to the first, which has received the
uncouth name of Hedonism, or the science of
pleasure, the rule of conduct is the maxim of !
doing always what will yield one's self the
greaiest total amount of gratification. If what
is called virtue seems on the whole to yield
more pleasure than vice, then the follower of
this rule will aim at practising virtue. But as
I he would do it for his own advantage, and
I simply for what he could get by it, he could
scarcely expect the common sense of mankind
to credit him with morality at all. At any rate,
to look to the principle of securing at all costs
the greatest possible amount of one's own grati-
fication for moral heroisms and noble sacrifices,
would be at least as absurd as to expect grapes
from brambles and figs from thistles.
According to the second theory of ethics,
commonly called Utilitarianism, and sometimes
Altruism, the rule of conduct is the maxim of
doing always that which will produce the great-
est happiness to the greatest number of persons.
A system, truly, of the purest benevolence, to
which no taint of selfishness can be attributed ;
but our question is whether it contains within
itself the force to make it work. Suppose a
person to say, "I perceive that my denying
myself this or that gratification, or my volun-
tary subjection of myself to tiiis or that suffering,
would produce more happiness for others than
would arise from indulging or sparing myself.
But what I do not see is why I should on that
account deny or sacrifice myself. My own
happiness is surely a much nearer and more
important concern to me than the happi-
ness of any one else can possibly be, and
consequently has a far stronger claim on my
attention ; and it seems to me that to throw it
away for the sake of others would be an act
contrary to the common sense on which I pride
myself, and worthy only of irrational enthu-
siasts." Suppose a person to argue in that way,
what reply could the Utilitarian theory fur-
nish ? Absolutely none ! It is an excellent rule
of practice, but of moving force it has not a
shadow.
According to the third theory of ethics,
distinguished as the Intuitional, the rule of
conduct is the maxim of always obeying the
intuitive sense of right which dwells in every
human breast. An admirable principle indeed,
though perhaps involving some serious difficul-
ties in the use of it as a guide amidst the
complex circumstances of human life. But
what concerns us now is not the adequacy of
the rule, but the provision of a motive strong
enough to make it work. Let us suppose that
a choice must be made between the alternatives
of sinning and suffering. In one shape or other
a choice of this kind is continually being forced
on human beings ; their lives are beset with
temptations from one end to the other, and the
force of every temptation lies in the apparent
gain attainable by wrong-doing. Let us suppose
the temptation presented in the most emphatic
shape: "Sin, and live to enjoy; refuse to sin,
and perish ; " and as before, let us ask what
reply the theory will enable the sorely tried soul
to give. " I know it is nobler to die rather
than sin," the wavering man may answer ;
" the intrinsic superiority of obeying the voice
of conscience at all hazards is attested un-
mistakeably by my consciousness. But life is a
practical matter, not a theory or idea. Is it
really better for me to keep my conscience
48
CHRISTIANITY AS A
276—277]
SYSTEM.
[THEISTIC elements of CHRISTIANITY,
unstained, and thereby perish in my integrity ;
or by doing an act which conscience condemns, |
to preserve my life with all its opportunities of |
action and enjoyment ? The beneficial conse- [
quences of the wrong-doing are plain and I
undeniable ; but of any gain to be secured by
dying in my integrity my intuition tells me
nothing. On that side all is blank. Suffering
virtue is doubtless admirable in imagination ;
but till I am assured of some compensating
future which awaits it, common sense forbids
me to sacrifice the substance for the shadow."
That the reply would be an ignoble one may be
admitted ; but the logic of it would be unques-
tionable. Not even by the intuitive theory of
ethics is a sufficient working force of morality
supplied.
Yet morality has ever worked, and continues
to work ; its triumphs are the glory of human
nature. Whence then does it fetch that motive
force, of which none of the theories can give an
explanation ?
Not from earth, but from heaven. The soul
springs up from its own moral consciousness to
the conception of an infinitely righteous Will,
supreme over all things, and sure to bring about
a final coincidence of well-being with well-
doing. Instinctive belief in a holy God solves
the difficulty and supplies the force. Assume
His existence and rule, and the inference is
inevitable that it must go well with the
righteous. Sufferers for conscience' sake have
the Lord of the universe on their side. Igno-
miny, privation, torture, death itself, may be
their lot here, but they can afford to smile at
their losses, as they " commit the keeping of
their souls to Him in well-doing, as unto a
faithful Creator" (i Pet. iv. 19).
It is time now to sum up the reply of the
moral faculty to our interrogation of it respect-
ing its witness to the existence of God.
We have observed the uniqueness and gran-
deur of the faculty, existing in man as an essen-
tial part of his constitution, and manifesting
itself in a recognition, of the eternal distinction
between right and wrong, in the voice of
conscience, the sense of responsibility, the
passion of remorse, and the fear of retribution.
We have further noticed that in all ages and
among all nations, in proportion to men's
growth and culture in the higher attributes of
humanity, this faculty has led them to the con-
ception of an objective moral law under which
they were placed, and of a supreme moral
Governor to whom they were accountable.
Once more, we have seen that while this
conception affords an adequate explanation of
the origin of the faculty, of the sense of respon-
sibility to which it gives birth, and of the force
by which it wins its practical triumphs, of these
great facts of human nature reason discovers
no other solution which can be pronounced
adequate.
Here then we find ourselves in face of a belief
in a supreme righteous Lawgiver, characterized
by these three features : it has its roots in
one of the noblest elements of human nature ;
it has sprung up, with scarce an exception,
wherever any tolerable degree of civilization has
prevailed ; and it is shown by reflection to be in
entire harmony with the demands of reason.
But such a Lawgiver is what we mean by the
awful name God.
The conclusion seems inevitable that belief
in God, as the supreme Lawgiver to whom we
are responsible, is really one of those primary,
intuitive beliefs which justify themselves by
their existence.
[277] The removal, neglect, or abolition of
this theistic element, or doctrine of God as
Father, Ruler, and Judge, would weaken or de-
stroy morality. No theory of morals from which
God is absent provides a working force suffi'
cient to sustain morality against the onset of
temptation and the violence of human passion ;
and that reason is unable to discover any
adequate source of the power of morality except
faith in a living and righteous God, who will
insure the ultimate and everlasting coincidence
of well-being with well-doing. If this be true,
it settles the question. A perfect human
morality without God must then be a dream
which cannot be realized. Morality might
indeed for a season outlive theism. Inherited
tendencies, the force of custom, the survival of
modes of thinking, the memory of the satisfac-
tions of virtue and the shame of guilt, might
continue to it a lingering existence, just as the
impulse of the fly-wheel keeps up the motion of
a machine for a time after the motive power has
been withdrawn. But so far as the result can
be foreseen by reason, an inevitable change for
the worse would soon manifest itself Self-
restraint would become weaker, selfishness gain
the upper hand, the passions revolt more
successfully ; and at last, before the din and
anarchy of unbridled lawlessness the virtues
would take their flight, finding room no more
for their exercise in a world which had out-
grown its belief in God. — Broivnlow Mailland,
Morality.
DIVISION C.
THE EVIDENCES OF RELIGION
GENERALLY.
[i] ITS FIRST PRINCIPLES AND MAXIMS.
Pages 50 to 93.
ALPHABETICAL TABLE OF TOPICS.
ANALOGY AS A GUIDE TO TRUTH AND AS AN AID
TO FAITH.
25
BASIS OF FAITH.
26
CONSTITUTION AND COURSE OF THE WORLD, THE.
27
DIVINE GOVERNMENT.
28
FINAL CAUSES OF NATURAL THINGS.
29
FIRST CAUSE.
30
NATURE.
31
NATURAL PHH.OSOPHY.
32
NUMBER, A LINK BETWEEN DIVINE INTELLIGENCE
AND HUMAN.
33
PRIMARY BELIEF.
34
RELIGIOUS INSTINCT.
35
SOUL, THE, AND THE FUTURE STATE.
36
UNIFORMITY OF NATURE.
49
so
DIVISION C.
THE EVIDENCES OF RELIGION GENERALLY.
[i] ITS FIRST PRINCIPLES AND MAXIMS.
24
ANALOGY ASAG UIDE TO TR UTH
AND AS AN AID TO FAITH.
I. Present Position of Question.
1 The points respecting analogy, which were
waived by Bishop Butler, need to be care-
fully examined.
[278] It may be useful, however, to note the
points which he expressly waives, as these will
serve to indicate some of the chief lines of
inquiry which remain to be pursued. He de-
clines to discuss three points : — The first is,
"the nature, foundation, and measure of proba-
bility:" its nature, or what it is, and how it
should be defined ; its foundation, or in what
circumstances it arises, and on what ground it
rests ; and its measure, or the rule by which we
should estimate its amount in particular cases,
since it may exist in different degrees, as "a
presumption," or as an " opinion," or as " full
conviction." The second is, the connection
between a sense of probability and the per-
ception of analogy ; or the explanation of the
psychological fact — " whence it is that likeness
should beget those beliefs which it does neces-
sarily produce in every one." The third is, the
need of a criterion, or of certain canons and
safeguards by which we may be protected
against "the errors to which reasoning from
analogy is liable." All these points belong to
the general doctrine of analogy, considered as
a ground of more or less probable reasoning ;
and the mere fact that the discussion of them
is avowedly waived in Butler's treatise, may
be accepted as one reason for instituting a
fresh examination of the subject.— y^j/z/^j
Buchanan^ D.D.
2 The two classes of opinion respecting
analogy afford proper occasion for a
summary and re-statement of its true
principles.
[279] The existence of two rival schools, ex-
hibiting such opposite tendencies of thought in
regard to the interpretation of that analogical
language which is equally employed by natural
and revealed religion, is sufficient to show
that the time has arrived for a thorough revision
of the whole question of analogy ; and for such
an examination both of its fundamental prin-
ciples and of its legitimate applications, as may
serve to define its nature and establish its
authority — to distinguish it from mere metaphor
and figure — to remove the distrust with which
it is often regarded, and to show its indis-
pensable necessity, and manifold important
uses, in connection with the whole scheme of
our religious knowledge. Any inquiry of this
kind should be brought down to the state of
speculation on the subject at the present time,
and should embrace not only the points formerly
specified as having been waived by Butler, but
those also which have emerged since his day,
or which have acquired greater prominence in
recent discussions. Several points of this kind
are suggested by the theories of King, Copleston,
and Wiiately, which call for a special considera-
tion. They are merely indicated here, as
finger-posts pointing to several distinct lines of
future inquiry. TheyZrj-/ is their definition of
analogy, as consisting in a resemblance of re-
lations or effects merely, such as implies no
similarity in the nature of the related terms, or
in the causes from which the effects proceed.
The second is the difference between analogies
and such metaphors as are founded on other
relations than that of resemblance. The thi7-d
is the nature of our analogical knowledge — or
whether it involves true and proper conceptions
of God and His attributes and of the truths
which He may have been pleased to reveal. —
Ibid.
II. Nature.
[280] Analogy, considered in its various as-
pects and relations, is an intermediate link
between natural and revealed religion. It
clears the way, educates.
[281] Analogy is something more fundamental
than mere casual likeness. We cannot accept
that definition of analogy which represents it
as consisting in a mere " resemblance of re-
lations or effects." We admit that a i-esem-
blance of relations— such as the relation of a
civic magistrate to his fellow-citizens, as com-
pared with that of a commander of a ship to
his crew — may amount to a true and proper
analogy ; and that a resemblance of effects
may indicate a similarity, in some respects,
between the causes by which they are respec-
tively produced. But, this being admitted, we
cannot affirm tli^it there is no other analogy
between different objects, excepting such as
consists in a resemblance of relations and
effects : there may be, as we think, a relation
THE EVIDENCES OF RELIGION GENERALLY. c]
[analogy as a guide to truth.
of a more radical and intimate kind — a resem-
blance between the essential nature arid the
common properties of the objects compared,
such as may be clearly discerned in itself, and
also easily discriminated from any mere super-
ficial or accidental likeness.— ya/z/^j- Buchanan,
D.D.
[282] Analo.ccy imparts an aspect of veri-
siniilitiide to truths which might otherwise seem
strange, and even incredible. And more, it
yields a presumption or a probability in favour
of certain conclusions, such as admits of every
variety of degree, and is often practically
sufficient for the daily purposes of life.
[283] Besides being a suggestive principle
and a guide to discovery, the perception of
analogy involves a judgment by which the re-
semblance of two or more objects is affirn ed ;
and this judgment gives rise to inferences which
are founded upon it, as to become a principle
of reasoning and a method of proof.
III. Analysis.
[284] The analysis of the real elements and
force of analogy, in the full sense of the term,
is valuable as a guide to its proper use and
application. — C N.
[285] The perception of strict logical analogy
necessarily imp]ies,_/^>j.Y, a knowledge, derived
from experience or testimony, of certain objects
or facts ; secondly, a knowledge, derived also
from experience, of some of the relations of
those objects, their essential properties, or
fundamental laws ; thirdly, a comparison of
two or more objects in respect of these relations,
properties, and laws, when they have thus been
ascertained ; a.nd fourthly, a perception of their
resemblance, when they are thus compared :
and it is this resemblance, and this only, which,
when it is clearly discerned, becomes a guide
to truth, a ground of inference, and a reason for
belief, in any department of knowledge. And
if it be duly considered, that the analogy holds
only so far forth as the precise point of resem-
blance extends — that it is not impaired by any
diflerence /;/ other respects — and that the differ-
ences which do, or do not, affect it, mav be
easily determined by considering what is the
precise point that is i-enlly essential or impor-
tant, and whether the difference affects that or
leaves it unimpaired, we shall see cause to con-
clude that analogy may be a safe, as it is an
indispensable guide, in the path of indlictive
inquiry. — 'James Buchanan, D.D.
IV. Uses for Argument.
I It neutralizes objections and removes
adverse presumptions.
[286] Analogy is not the original foundation
of religious doctrines, v^hich rest on reve-
lation ; but analogy from known facts of nature
meets objections, gives contirmation and rational
explanation. — B. G.
[287] We are under no necessity of proving
the peculiar doctrines of Scripture by rational
arguments or natural analogies ; it is sufficient
if we can show that the Bible is the Word of
God, and that these doctrines represent its
true meaning. Analogy may be highly useful
in neutralizing objections and in affording a
strong probability that the Author of Nature
is also the Author of Scripture : it may even in
some cases supply a confirmatory evidence in
favour of particular doctrines, by showing that
they are not at variance, but in entire harmony
with the laws of human thought, or the facts of
our actual experience. The resemblance, how-
ever, on which it founds must not be superficial
or fanciful, but real and radical, implying a
common property, or a comn.on principle, in
each of the objects compared. It may be true
that " when reason is aided by revelation to
perceive a truth, the accordance of that truth
with her own most profound deductions is, to
her, a clear testimony to its validity ; " but we
are jealous of any proposal "to establish the
doctrine of the Trinity on a rational and scrip-
tural basis, chiefly by means of certain natural
analogies supplied by the consciousness of the
human mind." — James Buchanan, D.D.
2 It is a source of evidence as well as a
vehicle of religious instruction.
(i) Our Lord's use of analogies in His
parables included not only ilbtstration but
persuasive power and moral f roof.
[288] In His parables, as well as in the types
of the Old Testament, analogy is applied to the
proof, not less than to the illustration, of Divine
truth. In both there was the same principle
involved in each of the related terms of a com-
parison, and this constituted the fundamentum
relationis — the ground of an analogical infer-
ence. The illustrative power of analogous
instances is universally admitted ; but, looking
at our Lord's parables, who will venture to say
that they serve only to illustrate, and can afford
no element of proof.'' Is their logical' value duly
estimated, when their force is supposed to be
exhausted in answering objections, and neutral-
izing adverse presumptions? Does not every
one feel that there is a persuasive power in the
principle which is common to the two cases —
of an earthly and a Christian steward — of the
prodigal son and a penitent sinner — of the
Pharisee and every other self-righteous formalist
— of the good Samaritan and a truly benevolent
man ? There may be much room for the exer-
cise of a wise discretion in selecting the strong
points of the case, and applying them in argu-
ment ; but this is equally necessary in expound-
ing parables when they are regarded simply as
illustrations, and can afford no reason for dis-
owning their higher power as analogical proofs.
Our Lord made use of natural analogies in
confirmation of the truth which He taught with
infallible authority ; but who would ever dream
of imputing to Him the spirit or the principles
of modern rationalism ? — Ibid.
52
289-291]
THE EVIDENCES OF RELIGION GENERALLY.
[analogy as a guide to truth.
(2) Analogy is useful ht explaining and
justifying the progressive character of Bible
revelation.
[289] The constitution and course of nature,
when compared with the scheme of religion,
natural and revealed, suggests a multitude
of analogies of which Bishop Butler has
made admirable use ; but there are other
analogies besides these, and such as stand very
closely connected with our religious beliefs.
There are many interesting and instructive
analogies which belong to the scheme of reve-
lation itself, and which come into view on
a simple comparison of one part of it with
another — a comparison which may be made
without assuming, in the first instance, its
Divine origin, although it may gradually lead us
up to the conviction of that — but which may
proceed simply on the fact that the Scriptures,
as they have been put into our hands, are so
related to each other as to exhibit many internal
analogies. We may compare, for instance, the
successive dispensations of revealed religion —
the Primeval, the Patriarchal, the Mosaic, the
Prophetical, and the Christian ; or we may
compare its theological doctrines with its ethical
lessons, and both with its ritual observances ;
above all, we may compare the types of the Old
Testament with their antitypes in the New. It
were surely a strange omission did we find no
place for this marvellous scheme of prefiguration
in treating of such analogies as may be a guide
to truth and an aid to faith : for the use and
importance of analogy, as at once a source of
evidence and a vehicle of religious instruction,
could scarcely have been more emphatically
taught than it was by the fact that, when no
natural symbols could be found adequate to
represent supernatural truths, a new class of
analogies was created on put-pose as the best
preparation for Christianity, and visibly ex-
hibited beforehand in the history and ritual of
the Jewish Church. These analogies, belonging
to the scheme of revelation itself, demand our
careful study as well as those which may be
derived from the constitution and course of
nature; and with reference to both, it will be
found practically useful, as conducing to greater
clearness of conception, to reduce them to dis-
tinct heads, and to specify the dift'erent sources
from which they aie derived, and the precise
relations on which they respectively depend. —
Ibid.
V. Objections met.
I Analogy is of great value in conveying and
illustrating truths, and is not to be treated
as merely a metaphorical way of speaking.
[290J The illustrative power of analogy — the
charm and beauty of its poetical applications — •
and its peculiar effectiveness as an instrument
of rhetorical discourse adapted to the purposes
of popular instruction, will be readily admitted
by many who are conscious, notwithstanding, of
a vague but deep-seated feeling of suspicion or
distrust when it is employed as a guide to truth.
or a ground of inference. It may be admired
as an ornament of style, while, as a process of
thought, it is supposed to belong rather to the
domain of the imagination than to that of judg-
ment or reason. If a sound argument is ex-
pressed in analogical terms, it is olten thought
sufficient to say in reply that the language is
figurative or metaphorical, as if such terms were
incapable of representing anything that could
serve the purposes of proof. But if it be true,
as we have attempted to show, that analogy is
largely concerned in all our processes of thought
— that it presides over and determines many of
the most familiar convictions of the popular
mind— that it is involved in scientific induction
itself, and also in that similitude of ratios and
proportions on which the conclusions of geometry
and arithmetic depend — there is surely enough
in these considerations to show that our distrust
in its guidance may spring from a groundless
prejudice, and that it becomes us to reconsider
the whole question with a view to ascertain in
what cases and under what conditions analogy
may be a sure ground of inference and a safe
guide to truth. — Ibid.
2 This use of analogy, to remove objections
and confirm doctrmes of religion, is not
rationalistic, but the proper use of reason
in connection with revelation.
[291] There is nothing rationalistic, therefore,
in this method of proof — unless, indeed, it be
rationalistic, as some seem to suppose, to admit
any exercise of reason, or any use of evidence, in
matters of faith. No comparison is instituted
between the doctrines of Scripture and the mere
opinions of men ; two vast systems are brought
together and viewed in the light of their mutual
relations — both external and objective — both
anterior to individual reason and independent
of it — both consisting mainly of facts or founded
upon them : the one the standard of natural, the
other of revealed truth. These two are placed
side by side and compared ; they are found to
differ in some respects and to agree in others ;
the points of resemblance between tiiem are
such as may be proved to involve principles
which are common to both, although they are
exemplified in different ways — and they afford
solid ground for reasoning from the one to the
other, on the principle of analogy. By this
analogy we may be conducted to the conclusion
that the Word, not less than the world, is the
product of Divine wisdom. We compare what
God is supposed to have said, not v ith what we
///////•„ but with what He has actually done; and
any legitimate argument founded on the analogy
betwixt these two is at the farthest possible re-
move from the presumptuous abuse of reason.
Indeed, the serious study of nature and experi-
ence, and the impartial application of natural
analogies, may prove one of the most effective
antidotes to all that is false and dangerous in
rationalism. — Ibid.^
292-298]
THE EVIDENCES OF RELIGION GENERALLY. 53
[CONSTITUTrON AND COUKSE OF THE WORLD.
25
BASIS OF FAITH.
I. The Consciousness of Human Per-
sonality A NECESSARY ASSUMPTKW
FOR ALL Reasoning upon Religious
Subjects.
[292] At the basis, then, of our inquiry lies the
assumption that man is /uananj that is, a person,
endowed with reason, will, moral and spiritual
affections, whose consciousness of mysterious
superiority to the physical world and its organ-
isms represents a real and ultimate fact of being.
With any one who refuses to admit this assump-
tion, and denies the witness borne by his con-
sciousness to his possession of human personality
and reason, we do not pretend to argue. —
Brownlow Matt land, Theism or Agnosticism.
[293] To know ourselves is in one sense the
last and highest attainment. To know ourselves
so as to form a correct personal estimate is in-
deed a matter which we learn, if at all, usually
when it is too late to be of much practical value.
But we are unable to reason about higher truths
without consciously or unconsciously knowing
the laws and punciples of our own being. We
reason, in fine, from our own consciousness in
the realm of mental and spiritual realities. —
C.N.
II. The Fact of our own Existence is
A Useful Stepping-stone lo Belief
in Christian Truth.
[294] The facts of our own existence and the
nature of our own minds, as known to conscious-
ness and reflection, are the stepping-stone to
Christian truth. — B. G.
[295] More serious mischief is done by the
state of vague doubt, and the uncertain attitude
of mind induced in many by recent physical
theories or researches, than by the direct nega-
tions of those who profess to deny the existence
of a Divine Mind or Order, and whose conclu-
sions seem to call into question the foundations
or fundamentals on which alone any faith can
rest. Prebendary Griffith has, therefore, in his
work upon "• Fundamenials, or Bases of Faith,"
wisely confined himself at the outset rigidly to
facts, and has started with the one fact which to
each individual man must be more certain than
any other — the fad of his own existeiice. This
existence of man is shown to be the existence
of a person simple, self-same, substantial — like
■the lower animals in being sensitive, causative,
and intellective, but altogether unlike them in
being moral, religious, progressive. In other
words, man finds that he is a being of mind and
will.
But this author further insists that we are not
less bound to accept the inferences logically in-
volved in facts than the facts themselves ; and
therefore he proceeds to trace, in the phenomena
of the universe, the presence of a similar Mind
and Will — a presence more surely inferred by
this process than by any reasoning from effects
to causes ; for the manifestations of design
bring us at once to the acknowledgment of a
designing Mind, to the correlation of this Mind
with the mind of man, and to all the momentous
inferences which flow from it. For instance,
from our own moral perceptions we may hold
that the Divine goodness exceeds only in the
infinity of its degree, and not at all in kind,
that which is excellent in ourselves ; and that
justice, love, truth, and charity in man are only
faint reflections, and in no way contradictions,
of the same qualities in God. And thus, from
facts which he believes will not be disputed, this
author endeavours to lead the reader, by the
strictest processes of reasoning, onwards to the
highest Christian belief and hope ; proving the
reality of this belief, and justifying this hope, by
exhibiting the contradictory and untenable con-
clusions involved in any materialistic philo-
sophy ; tracing that process of development for
the human race which, commenced by the
Divine teaching of gifted individuals, and pro-
ceeding through the stages of a sacred family
and a sacred nation, culminates in the sacred
brotherhood of Christendom.
III. Truth should carefully be dis-
tinguished FROM Opinion as a
Belief.
[296] Concerning the bonds of unity, extremes
are to be avoided ; which will be done, if the
league of Christians, framed by our Saviour
Himself, were, in the two cross clauses thereof,
soundly expounded : '' He that is not with us is
against us ; "and again : " He that is not against
us is with us ; " i.e., if the points fundamental
and of substance in religion were truly discerned,
and distinguished from points not of faith, but
of opinion only. — Bacon, Essays.
[297] All opinions stand on the same level ;
whether they affect religion, philosophy, or poli-
tical principle, they may be expected to wax
and wane, to ebb and flow, like everything else
in this world. Truth, or rather our view of
truth, like time, is in a state of perpetual flux.
26
THE CONSTITUTION AND COURSE
OF THE WORLD.
I. The Use of the Term in Analogical
Reasoning as applied to Religion.
[298] The " Analogy of Religion to the Con-
stitution and Course of Nature" is an expres-
sion so general and abstract, that it needs to be
illustrated by particular examples before we can
have any very definite conception of its mean-
54
298-303]
THE EVIDENCES OF RELIGION GENERALLY.
[TriR DIVINE GOVF,R\Mr.NT.
'm% ; and even then it restricts the arguments
to certain kinds of analogy only — those, namely,
which arise from a comparison of religion with
the facts and laws of the natural world— a large
class, certainly, since it includes the whole con-
tents of our common secular experience ; but
there are other analogies besides those arising
from that source — such as an analogy between the
constituent parts of revelation itself, or between
the type and the antitype, or between the suc-
cessive dispensations of Divine truth, or between
the system of doctrines and the corresponding
system of practical duty, which contribute
largely to enhance the strength of the evidence,
and which are eminently fitted to attract the
interest, and determine the convictions, of
reflecting men. — James Buchanan, D.D.
II. The Make and Constitution of the
World an Aid to the Knowledge
OF the Character of God.
[299] Our eyes frequently cannot look upon
the nature of the light itself; that is, upon the
substance of the sun ; but when we behold his
splendour or his rays pouring in, perhaps
through windows or some small openings to
admit the light, we can reflect how great is the
supply and source of the light of the body. So
in like manner the works of Divine Providence
and the plan of this whole world are a sort of
rays, as it were, of the nature of God, in com-
parison with His real substance and being. As,
therefore, our understanding is unable of itself
to behold God Himself as he is, it knows the
Father of the world from the beauty of His
works and the comeliness of His creatures. —
Origen.
[300] We know more of God than we know
of man, as we see more of Divine than of
human productions, and in each case we judge
of the worker by his works. — B. G.
[301] If there were no constitution or system
in the world there would be no science, which
is only a record of systematic, constitutional
Divine procedure. — B. G.
III. Scientific Discovery harmonizes
WITH the Predicted Course of
Nature in the Bible.
[302] In May, 1866, one of the stars in the
Northern Crown was seen to undergo a rapid
change. It was originally one of the tenth
magnitude, but in a short time it increased in size
and brilliancy until it nearly equalled Sirius,
Capella, or Vega. It remained bright for some
time, and then rapidly faded until it resumed its
former size. No sooner was the spectroscope
pointed at the star than there appeared in tiie
spectrum the three well-known lines— red, green,
and violet — which denote burning hydrogen.
.... Supposing our sun (which is one of the
stars, and round it are vast volumes of hydrogen)
were to blaze out in a similar manner, the v/hole
of the planets would be consumed in a few
seconds, and converted into gases. As Mr.
Roscoe says : " Our solid globe would be dis-
sipated into vapour almost as soon as drops of
water in a furnace." {See Gen. i. i ; ii. 2-4 ;
2 Peter iii. 10 ; Rev. xxi. \).—J. G. iVood,
Nature s Teachino.
27
THE DIVINE GOVERNMENT.
I. The Rationale of the Mystery ob-
servable in the Divine Govern-
ment.
[303] Let us consider what reason requires.
It has pleased God to make us reasonable
creatures ; that is, to endow us with a power ot
judging and a liberty of acting. Why were
these powers given ? Was it that we might use
and exercise them, and give proof of our virtue
or vice in so doing ? Or was it that God might
overrule them, and I'ender them in every parti-
cular instance useless and insignificant.'' If this
is the case, had He not much better have made
us machines at first, than have created us free
agents, and then make us machines by an arbi-
trary interposition of power ? Who can account
for the wisdom of God in making so great a
thing to no use or purpose : in filling this lower
world with free agents, and then excluding all
freedom by immediate acts of his power.' Now
this would in great measure be the case were
rewards and punishments to be punctually ad-
ministered in this world ; and that for this plain
reason : the temporal prosperity of men depends
on their own actions, and the natural conse-
quences of the actions of others with whom they
live in society. Now to secure the happiness of
a man, not only his own actions, but the actions
of all others with whom he is any way con-
cerned, must be determined, so as to conspire in
making him prosperous ; that is, he and all
about him must lose the freedom of acting in
order to secure his welfare here. If a righteous
man must never suffer in this world, all the
wicked about him must be restrained from doing
him violence. If a wicked man must be pun-
ished according to his merit, all who would do
him more harm than he deserves to suffer must
be withheld ; and if none designed him harm
enough, somebody must be employed to do the
work. Carry this reflection abroad into the
world, where the fortunes and interests of men
are mixed and complicated so variously together,
that one man's temporal prosperity depends on
actions of many besides himself, and it will be
very clear that there must be an end of all free-
dom, on suppositioii that rewards and punish-
ments are to be equally dispensed in this world.
—Bp. Sherlock, 1678-1 761.
THE EVIDENCES OF RELIGION GENERALLY.
.•^04-3Til
[FINAL CAUSES OF NATURAL THINGS.
55
II. The Divine Government appears
Mysterious through the Limita-
tion OF our Faculties.
[304] A child might say to a geographer,
" You tallc about the earth being round ! Look
on this great crag ; look on that deep dell; look
on yonder great mountain, and the valley at its
feet, and yet you talk about the earth being
round." The geographer would have an instant
answer for the child. His view is comprehen-
sive ; he does not look at the surface of the
world in mere detail ; he does not deal with
inches, and feet, and yards ; he sees a larger
world than the child has hnd time to grasp,
lie explains what he means by the expression,
"The earth is a globe," and justifies his strange
statement. And so it is v/ith God's wonderful
dealings towards us : there are great rocks and
barren deserts, deep, dank, dark pits, and defiles,
and glens, and dells, rugged places that we can-
not smooth over at all, and yet when He comes
to say to us at the end of the journey, "Now
look back ; there is the way that I have brought
you," we shall be enabled to say, " Thou hast
gone before us and made our way straight." —
Dr. Joseph Parker.
III. The Divine Government does not
necessitate Contravention of the
Laws of Nature.
[305] How wide the region in which indirectly
our prayers even for temporal blessings may be
answered ! Thus, for instance, we pray that
cholera or the murrain may be stayed. God
does not with His own hand take away the
plague; but He puts it into the heart of some
physician to find the remedy which will remove
it. He does not hush the storm in a moment ;
but He gives the mariner courage and skill to
steer before it till he reach the haven. He does
not shower bread from heaven in a famine ; but
He teaches the statesman how, with wise fore-
thought and patient endeavours, at least to
mitigate the calamity. . . . And thus the answer
comes, not by direct interference with the laws
of Nature, but in accordance with the laws of
the spiritual world, by the Divine action on the
heart of man. — J. J. S. Peroiviie.
[306] The regularity of Nature's laws, so
called, is one great element of Divine pro-
cedure, as a guide of our actions and expecta-
tions.— B. G.
28
FINAL CAUSES OF NATURAL
THINGS.
I. The Original Signification of the
Word.
[307] The term final cause {cmisafi)ialis\ was
introduced into the language of philosophy by
scholasticism. It signifies the end {Jinis) for
which one acts, or towards which one tends
and which may consequently be considered as
a cause of action or of motion. Aristotle ex-
plains it thus : " Another sort of cause is the
end, that is to say, tJiat on account of wiiich (rd
oil evEKa) the action is done ; for example, in this
sense, heal this the cause, of walking exercise
Why does such a one take exercise .'' We say
it is in order to have good health ; and, in
speaking thus, we mean to name the cause."
[308] There is a saying quoted in Feltham's
"Resolves," "What is first in intention is last in
execution ; " that is also the final cause, or
object and purpose, the end in" view, in making
any instrument, performing any act, or adjusting
any means. — B. G.
[309] The higher the type to which a man
belongs, the farther back lies his final cause, or,
less technically speaking, his animating motive
or ruling principle. A man, for instance, jumps
into a train to be in time for dinner with his
family ; this evening meal is not the final cause
of his action. He lives, if he be anything but a
glutton, not to eat, but eats to live. He is
anxious to be in time for dinner for a variety of
reasons beyond the mere desire to satisfy his
appetite. He wishes to taste the pure joys of
home life and to strengthen family ties. He
'seeks, too, the rest and refreshment of home,
that he may the better discharge the duties of
life. And if he be a Christian, we shall not
reach the secret spring of his movements until
we recall St. Paul's injunction, "Whether ye eat
or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the
glory of God." — C. N.
II. Definition.
1 Final cause implies purpose or intention.
[310] The final cause, as given us in experi-
ence, is an etfect if not foreseen at least
predetermined, and which, by reason of this pre-
determination, conditions and dominates the
series of phenomena of which it is in appearance
the result. Thus it is yet once more an act
which may be considered as the cause of its own
cause. Thus, in one sense, the eye is the cause
of sight ; in another sense, sight is the cause of
the eye. We shall have to conceive, then, as Kant
has said, the series of final causes as a reversal
of the series of efficient causes. The latter
proceeds by descent, the former by ascent. The
two series are identical (at least it is permitted
to suppose so a priori), but the one is the in-
version of the other. The meclianical point of
view consists in descending the first of these
two series (from the cause to the effect) ; the
teleological point of view, or that of final causes,
consists in ascending it again (from the end to
the means). — Panl Janet, Final Canscs.
2 Final cause means the effect arrived at.
[311] Let us examine closely the proper and
singular character of this kind of cause. What
56
3"-3i5]
THE EVIDENCES OF RELIGION GENERALLY.
[final causes of natural things.
characterizes it is that, accordi\ig- to the point
of view which one occupies, the same fact can
be taken either as cause or as effect. Health is
without doubt tlie cause of walking, but it is
also the effect of it. On the one hand, health
only comes after walking, and by it. It is be-
cause my will, and, by its orders, my members,
have executed a certain moven en: that health
has followed. But, on the other hand, in another
sense, it is in order to obtain this good health
that I have walked ; because, without the hope,
the desire, the preconceived idea of the benefit
of health, perhaps I would not have gone out,
and my members would have remained in re-
pose. A man kills another : in a sense the
death of the latter had as a cause the action of
killing, that is to say, the action of plunging a
poniard into a living body, a mechanical cause
without which there would have been no death ;
but reciprocally this action of killing had as a
determining cause the will to kill, and the death
of the victim, foreseen and willed beforehand by
the criminal, was the determining cause of the
crime.
Thus a final cause is a fact which may be in
some sort considered as tJie cause of its own
cause; but as it is impossible for it to be a cause
before it exists, the true cause is not the fact
itself, but its idea. ' In other words, it is afore-
seen effect, which could not have taken place
without this foresight.^/Z'/^;/.
III. Analysis.
1 Final causes correspond to a preceding
ideal, or inventive origin.
[312] This analysis of the final cause contains,
in fact, nothing that really contradicts it. No
one maintains that the house itself as house is
the cause of the structure. No one denies that
the final cause may be reduced to the efficient
cause, if in the efficient cause itself the final
be introduced, namely, the desire and idea — in
other words, the anticipation of the effect ; and
it matters little whether the cause, thus analyzed
into its elements, is called final or efficient.
The only question is, whether a house is pro-
duced without there having previously been an
anticipatory representation of it ; whether it has
not had an ideal before having a concrete exist-
ence ; and whether it is not the ideal that has
determined and' rendered possible the concrete
existence .'' Hence the question, whether an
analogous cause ought not to be supposed
wherever we shall meet with similar effects, that
is, co-ordinations of phenomena, themselves
linked to a final determinate phenomena. Such
is the problem ; the psychological analysis of
Spinoza contains nothing that contradicts the
solution we have given of it. — Ibid.
2 Final causes contain four elements.
[313] 1st. The conception of tlic end. 2nd.
The conception of the means. 3rd. The realiza-
tion of the means. 4th. The realization of the
end. Whence it follows that the order of execu-
tion reproduces inversely the order of concep-
tion ; whence it follows, again, that what is last
in execution (the end) is the first in conception
(the idea of the end). This is expressed by the
scholastic axiom. Quod priiis est in inteiitione
tiltimuin est iji exea/tione.—Hartinaiin, Philo-
sopliie des Unbeiirissten.
IV. Fundamental Propositions.
[314] 1st. The first is that there is no a priori
principle of final causes, The final cause is an
indication, a hypothesis, whose probability de-
pends on the number and characters of observed
phenomena.
2nd. The second is that the final cause is
proved by the existence in fact of certain com-
binations, such that the accord of these combi-
nations with a final phenomenon independent
of them would be a mere chance, and that
nature altogether must be explained by an
accident.
3rd. The third, in fine, is that the relation of
finality being once admitted as a law of the
universe, the only hypothesis appropriate to our
understanding that can account for this law, is
that it is derived from an intelligent cause. —
Paul Janet, Final Causes.
V. Misconceptions of the Doctrine.
I Final causes are not miracles.
[315] Final causes are not miracles ; they are
not effects without cause. It is, therefore, not
astonishing that, in ascending from organs to
their elements, one finds the elementary pro-
perties whose combination or distribution will
produce those complex effects which are called
animal functions. The most subtle and learned
art, even were it the divine art, will never pro-
duce a whole, except by employing elements
endued with properties rendei ing possible that
whole. But the problem for the thinker is to
explain how these elements can ha\e been co-
i ordinated and distributed so as to produce that
final phenomenon which we call a plant, an
animal, a man.
Since we maintain as legitimate the old com-
parison of human art and the industry of nature,
let us show by an example how the physiological
theory of the vital elements in no way excludes
the hypothesis of finality. Suppose an instru-
ment of music, the use of which we do not know,
and which nothing tells us to be the work of
human art, — could not one say to those who
supposed that it is a machine adapted to serve
the musician's art, that that is a superficial and
quite popular explanation ; that the form and
use of the instrument mean little ; that analysis,
on reducing it to its anatomical elements, sees
nothing in it but a collection of strings, wood,
ivory, &c. ; that each of these elements has
essential and immanent properties ; the strings,
for instance, have "those of vibration, and that
in their smallest parts (their cells) ; the. wood
has the property of resonance ; the keys in
THE EVIDENCES OF RELIGION
315-319]
GENERALLY. 57
[final causes of natural things.
motion have the property of striking, and of
determining the sound by percussion ! What
is there wonderful in this, it would be said —
that this machine should produce such an effect,
for example, as the production of a succession
of harmonious sounds, since it is certain that
the elements composing it have the properties
necessary to produce that effect ? As to the
combination of these elements, it must be attri-
buted to fortunate circumstances which have
brought about this result, so analogous to a pre-
conceived work. Who does not see, on the con-
trary, that in thus reducing the complex whole
to its elements and their essential properties,
nothing has been proved against the finality
that resides in the instrument, because it really
resides in it, and because this finality just re-
quires, in order that the whole may be fit to
produce the desired effect, that the elements
should have the properties they are seen to have.
— Paid Janet, Final Causes.
VI. Aruses of the Doctrine.
[316] They may be briefly summed up as
follows :
1st. To make use of this principle as an argu-
ment against a fact, or against a law of nature,
even when that fact or law was demonstrated
by experiment and calculation.
2nd. To oppose not only speculative truths,
but inventions practical and useful to men.
3rd. To employ the principle as the explana-
tion of a phenomenon which does not exist.
4th. To trace fanciful ends in the economy
of nature.
The error does not consist in admitting final
causes, but in assuming false ones. That there
are erroneous and arbitrary final causes there is
no doubt ; that there are none at all is another
question. Men are as often mistaken regarding
efficient as regarding final causes : they have as
often attributed to nature false properties as
false intentions. But as the errors committed
regarding the efficient cause have not prevented
scientists from believing that there are true
causes, so the illusions and prejudices of the
vulgar with respect to final causes ought not to
determine philosophy to abandon them alto-
gether.
As regards the first point, we have already
seen that the final cause ought in no way to
restrict the liberty of science. No precon-
ceived idea can prevail against a fact : but the
fact once discovered, nothing forbids us to seek
its finality. "We must," as M. Florens has
justly said, " proceed not from final causes to
facts, but from facts to final causes."
As to the second point, the final cause, far
from forbidding any useful invention, justifies
them all beforehand, and a priori. For with-
out even going so far as to say that all has been
made for man's use, it suffices that man. having
been created industrious, has been made to
make use of all things, in order that every new
invention may thereby be warranted as im-
plicitly willed by Divine Providence. It is only.
then, an unenlightened superstition, and not the
doctrine of final causes, which is here in question.
—Ibid.
[317] One must advance "from facts to final
causes, and not from final causes to facts.'' Thus
understood, this theory can in no way favour
any scientific error. Also, one must distinguish
accidental from essential final causes. The first
are the more or less arbitrary uses which men
obtain from external things, and which have not
always been attached to them ; the second are
the uses inherent in the very essence of the
things— for instance, the uses of the organs.
Abuses of this kind almost always arise from
confounding external and internal finality ; and
this very confusion is the source of the most
part of the objections directed against this
theory.—//;.'^/.
[31S] Another abuse of final causes consists
in employing them as the explanation of a phe-
nonienon which does not exist. Fe'nelon, in his
" Treatise on the Existence of God," maintains
that the moon was given to the earth to give it
light during the absence of the sun. " She
appears at the right time, with all the stars,''
says he, " when the sun has to go away to bring
the day to other hemispheres." This opinion
furnished to Laplace the occasion of a victo-
rious refutation : " Some partizans of final
causes," says he, "have supposed that the moon
was given to the earth to give it light by night.
In that case, nature would not have attained
the end it had proposed to itself since we are
often deprived at once of the light of the sun
and of that of the moon. To attain it, it would
have sufficed at the beginning to place the moon
opposite the sun in the same plane of the ecliptic,
at a distance from the earth equal to the
hundredth part of the distance of the earth from
the sun, and to give to the moon and the earth
parallel rates of movement proportional to their
distances from that luminary. Then tlie moon,
constantly opposite the sun, would have de-
scribed around it an ellipse similar to that of
the earth ; these two luminaries would have
succeeded each other above the horizon ; and
as at that distance the moon would not have
been eclipsed, its light would constantly have
replaced that of the sun." Here, it must be con-
fessed, the scientist is right as against the theo-
logian. Thus it is that by an indiscreet use of
final causes, Providence is exposed to receive a
lesson in mathematics from a simple mortal. —
Ibid.
VII. Objections and Difficulties.
I The ignorance of ends.
[319] Descartes, like Bacon, and even more
than he, has shown himself opposed to final
causes, for Bacon only removed them from
physics to relegate them to metaphysics. Des-
cartes, on the other hand, seems to exclude
them at once from metaphysics and from
physics, or at least he refuses to make use of
58
THE EVIDENCES OF RELIGION GENERALLY.
319-325]
[first cause.
them in either of these two sciences. It is not
that he denies the existence of ends in nature,
but he thinks that we cannot Icnow them, be-
cause of the infirmity of our mind. Hence this
objection, so often reproduced by able men,
namely, that it belongs not to us to sound the
intentions of the Creator.— //>/;/.
[320] Suppose that a peasant, entering in
broad daylight the garden of a famous mathe-
matician, finds there one of those curious
gnomonic instruments which indicate the posi-
tion of the sun in the zodiac, its declination
from the equator, the day of the month, the
length of the day, &c. ; it would, no doubt,
be a great presumption on his part, ignorant
alike of mathematical science and of the inten-
tions of the artist, to believe himself capable of
discovering all the ends in view of which this
machine, so curiously wrought, has been con-
structed ; but when he remarks that it is fur-
nished with an index, with lines and horary
numbers, in short, with all that constitutes a
sun-dial, and sees successively the shadow of
the index mark in succession the hour of the
day, there would be on his part as little pre-
sumption as error in concluding that this in-
strument, whatever may be its other uses, is
certainly a dial made to show the hours.—
Robe7-t Boyle.
[321] When scientists, after having eliminated
final causes from their methods (which they
have a right to do), proceed to banish them from
reality itself, they do not see that they are then
no longer speaking as scientists, but as philo-
sophers ; and they do not distinguish these two
parts. They attribute to themselves the same
infallibility as philosophers which they have as
scientists '; they believe that it is science that
pronounces by their mouth, while it is only free
speculation. This distinction is very important,
for it removes many equivocations and mistakes.
A scientist, however bound he may be by the
severities of the scientific method, yet cannot
escape the temptation to think, to reflect on the
phenomena whose laws he has discovered. Like
other philosophers, he gives himself up to
reasonings, inductions, analyses— to concep-
tions no" longer belonging to the domain of
experience, but which are the work of thought
operating on the data of experience. It is
clearly his right, and no one will complain that
scientists should be at the same time philoso-
phers ; it may even be thought that they are
not so enough. But forthwith to attribute to
these personal interpretations the authority
which attaches to science itself, is to commit
the same error, the same abuse of power, as
that of the priests of the Middle Ages, who
availed themselves of the respect due to religion
to cover all the acts of the temporal power. —
Paul Janet, Final Causes.
2 How far man is the final cause.
[322] If man, according to his organization,
is made to use things, these things reciprocally
are made to be utilized by him. And in pro-
portion as he uses and can use these things, he
has the right to consider himself as being one
of their ends. It is in this sense and measure
that we must restrict the general proposition
which has been abused, nam.'ly, that man is the
end, if not of the creation, at least of the littb
world he inhabits. — Ibid.
29
FIRST CAUSE.
I. Line of Argument.
1 Negatively.
(i) Mali's invention is limited to mechanical
constniction.
[323] Many sorts of rare engines we acknow-
ledge contrived by the wit of man, but who hath
ever made one that could grow.'' or that had in
it a self-improving power.'' A tree, a herb, a
pile of grass may upon this account challenge
all the world to make such a thing ; that is, to
implant the power of growing into anything to
which it doth not natively belong, or to make a
thing to which it doth.
By what art would they make a seed ? and
which way would they inspire it with a seminal
form ? And they that think this whole globe
of the earth was compacted by the c'asual, or
f.ital, coalition of particles of matter, by what
magic would they conjure so many to come
together as should make one clod ? — J. Howe,
1630-1705.
(2) Vital force, or the potuer of life to assimi-
late and modify " non-living matter," is itself
itniqtce.
[324] The simple truth is that the essential
phenomena of all living beings cannot be ex-
plained without recourse to some hypothesis of
power totally different from any of the known
forms or modes of energy. Any one who
allows his reason to be influenced by the facts of
nature as at present discovered will feel obliged
to admit the existence of vital power as distinct
from, and capable of controlling, the ordinary
forces of non-living matter. It has been con-
clusively shown that the laws of vital force or
power are essentially different from those by
which ordinary matter and its 'I'orces are
governed.— /^r^ Lionel Beale, M.D., F.R.S.,
at the Victoria Institute.
2 Positively.
(i) This, vital force, the mystery and nature
of life, allies material with immaterial and
transcends physical laws, and implies super-
natural agejicy.
[325] He studies nature with a careless eye
and a benighted mind who does not perceive
that the supernatural lies in it and above it.
For when all is said that science can teach, and
THE EVIDENCES OF RELIGION GENERALLY.
325—330]
59
[first cause.
all is done that skill can achieve to cultivate the
earth and bring forth its fruits, one gift remains
without which every thing else were vain — that
gift which the Supreme Creator has reserved
absolutely to Himself — that gift which man and
every living creature can take away and none
can restore— that gift without which this earth
would be no more than the cinder of a planet —
the mystery and miracle of Life. — Edinburgh
Review.
(2) The only rational solution of the origin^
diffusion, aiui perpetuity of life is in the recogni-
tion of an ever-livi)ig Creator.
[326] With diffusion of life, creation begins ;
and of that act all but a supernatural power is
incapable. The seed of cummin you commit to
the earth includes it ; the single grain of wheat
shoots up, not only to reproduce itself but to
multiply its ears a hundredfold and in successive
generations, millions upon millions of times,
and to nourish a world ; the acorn carries in its
I'ttle cup a thousand years of vitality; the
midge and the butterfly that sport for a day
upon the rushes and the blossoms enjoy it ; the
laborious earthworm that builds up the fertile
soil of our fields and gardens has it ; it ascends
through all the scale of existence until it arri\es
at man, a being capable of conceiving infinite
power and hopes of an everlasting future. Yet
who shall say what life is ? What is the value
of a system of philosophy which denies or dis-
cards the only rational solution of the very first
problem and condition of our own existence
[viz., the existence of a "Supreme Creator"]? —
Edinbunrh Review.
(3) Some Being must have existed and con-
tained the capacity for originating and control-
ling all dependent existence.
[327] We cannot but admit there is some
eternal necessary Being, somewhat that is of
itself active ; somewhat that is powerful, wise,
and good. And these notions have in them no
repugnancy to one another, wherefore it is not
impossible that they may meet and agree to-
gether in full perfection to one and the same
existent Being ; and hence it is manifestly no
unapprehensible thing that such a Being doth
exist. Now, supposing that it doth exist, and
hath been to us the Cause and Author of our
being ; hath given us the reasonable, intelligent
nature whicli^we find ourselves possessors of,
and that very power whereby we apprehend
the existence of such a Being as he is to be
possible— all which we for the present do still
suppose — while also his actual existence is not
unapprehensible : were it not tlie greatest mad-
ness imaginable to say that if he do exist he
cannot also make our apprehensive nature un-
derstand this apprehensible thing that he doth
Q\\-iO.—J. Hoive, 1630-1705.
(4) The idea of a Maker or Creator shaping
tjon-existejit material into adaptatio7i is instinc-
tive or intuitio7ial, and is based on experieiice of
man's productions.
[328] Sir fsaac Newton, a very wise and
godly man, was once examining a new and fine
globe, when a gentleman came into his study
who did not believe in a God, but declared that
the world we' live in came by chance. He was
much pleased with the handsome globe, and
asked, " Who made it ?" " Nobody," answered
Sir Isaac; "it happened here." The gentle-
man looked up in amazement at the answer,
but he soon understood what it meant.
(5) The same instinctive view of causation by
ivilling^ as;ency is the basis of moral judgment.
[329] The imperative character of this law of
our thought may be illustrated in this way. A
murder is committed by means of fire-arms.
What killed the victim .? The bullet. Then
let us punish the bullet, and have done with the
matter. Nonsense ! The stroke of the bullet
was but a physical antecedent, not a true cause ;
we must go further back for the criminal. Well,
then, shall we accuse the gunpowder which
impelled the bullet.^ Nonsense again! How
far back, then, must we go ? Shall we fix the
guilt on the percussion cap which ignited the
powder; or on the hammer which exploded
the cap ; or on the spring which forced the
hammer to strike ; or on tne trigger which re-
leased the spring ; or on the finger which
pressed the trigger .'' Still we are in the series
of merely metaphysical antecedents, and we
find it impossible to stop at any of them with-
out conscious absurdity, and say, " Here is the
guilty cause." But what moved the finger?
'I'he volition of the human agent. Ah, that is
different ! Here is the real origin, tne true
cause. The man is the murderer, because his
will set in motion the train of physical causes,
at the end of which is murder. He is the
author of the act, and on his head the unani-
mous verdict of mankind fixes the guilt. —
Brownloiu M ait land, Theism or Ag/iostic ism.
II. Difficulties of other Hypotheses.
I Scientific efTorts to produce life are an
acknowledged failure.
[330] By experiments, reiterated in many
cases, the induction has been established that
the power of developing bacterial life by atmo-
spheric air and its power of scattering light go
hand in hand. Every experiment was converted
into an indefinite number of experiments on
infusions of different strengths. Never, in my
opinion, was the requirement as to concentra-
tion more completely fulfilled, and never was
the reply of Nature to experiment more definite
and satisfactory. There is no shade of uncer- '
tainty in any of the results. In every instance
we have, within the chamber, perfect limpidity
and sweetness — without the chamber, putridity
and its characteristic smells. In no instance is
the least countenance lent to the notion that an
infusion deprived by heat of its inherent life,
6o
330—338]
THE EVIDENCES OF RELIGION GENERALLY.
[naturk.
and placed in contact with air cleansed of its
visibly suspended matter, has any power what-
ever to generate life anew. — I'yndall^ Floating
Matter of tiie Air.
2 Natural selection is an effort of reason to
prove that nature is conducted without
reason, and is another failure as well as
self contradictory.
[331] No blunder can be more unscientific
than to ascribe to a given process the power of
producing its own indispensable antecedents.
But this is precisely what is done when natural
selection is opposed to creative design as the
cause of " the adaptation of the organism to its
environment." — Dr. Eustace Coiider in Contem-
porary Rciiicw.
3 Only two other possible systems, and these
are both alike unsatisfactory.
[332] We have ultimately only three systems,
marked by the following broad distinctions : —
First, belief in a personal God, the Creator and
Moral Governor of the universe ; secondly, ac-
knowledgment of the existence of an impersonal
First Cause, Power, or Intelligence, conscious
or unconscious, either, on the one hand, immi-
nent in, and inseparable from, the totality of
things, with which totality it is itself to be iden-
tified— or, on the other hand, so far separable
that the phenomenal universe is to be regarded
as its outward manifestation and investiture ;
thirdly, denial, direct or inferential, both of a
personal God, and of a First Cause, whether
identifiable with or separate from nature. — Bp.
Ellicott, Modern Unbelief.
30
NA TURE.
T. The Power and Immutability of the
^i^tzvs OF Nature.
[333] God's laws ■Jje wondrous things — they still
revolve
On their own axes, promulgate themselves,
And in one language speak t5 every tribe.
They work their own results ail noiselessly,
As they who built the Temple.
^Vr \Y. Partridge.
[334] The laws of Nature are not the laws
which Nature imposes and carries out, b'lt those
imposed on Nature, and by which Nature is
constituted, controlled, and regulated. — B. G-
[335] The law of Nature is founded in tiie
essential perfections of God, and in the reason
and relation of things, and is therefore neces^
sary and immutable. Nothing which makes a
part of the law of Nature can ever be set aside.
— //. Grove, 1683-1738.
[336] It is of the first consequence to under-
stand what is meant by "Nature." Is it the
material universe, and all the phenomena taking
place therein.'' The term "Nature" is often
used in a merely mythological sense, as some
power or personality to which the events are to
be attributed : whereas " Nature" is the aggre-
gation of results, or means, regulated by super-
natural Wisdom to which the unity of Nature
or the universe is to be referred. — B. G.
II. The Laws of Nature viewed Com-
prehensively.
I The merely scientific view is not sufficiently
comprehensive.
[337] An inhabitant of a distant part of our
world or of another world, let us suppose, visits
Europe, and inspects some of our finer cathe-
drals, such as that of York or Cologne. Admir-
ing the buildings, he is led to inquire narrowly
into their architecture, and he observes how
stone is fitted to stone, and buttress to that
which it supports, and how all the parts are in
beautiful adaptation one to another. Does he
know all about these cathedrals, when he has
completed this class of observations.^ In one
sense, he knows everything ; he knows that the
building material of the one is a species of
limestone, and of the other, basalt ; every stone
and pillar and window has been examined by
him, and he has admired the beautiful pro-
portions of the whole fabric. But if he has
gone no further in his inquiries, he has but a
meagre idea, after all, of these temples. There
are higher questions : What is the use of this
chapter-house } of this crypt? ofthislovely chapel
or chancel? The stranger has no proper idea
of the cathedrals till, rising beyond the minute
inspection of stones, and columns, and aisles,
he contemplates the grand results and uses,
and observes how this part was for the burial
of the distinguished dead — this other part for
the kneeling of the worshippers — this third part
for the convocation of the priests — this fourth
part for the dispensation of the holiest rite of
the Christian Church — and the whole for the
worship of God.
Now we hold that the investigator of the
mere facts and laws of Nature is engaged in a
work resembling that of this supposed visitant
when he is examining the stones and arches of
the building. We are not inclined to depreciate
this work of the scientific inquirer, and we are
not doing so when we maintain that, if he would
rise to a correct view of the character of God,
he must enlarge the sphere of his vision ; his
eye and his mind must take in other phenomena,
and he must look at the object served by this
temple (for such it is), whose architecture he
has been observing and admiring. — President
MeCosh, Method of the Divine Governniott.
[338] As a cathedral is not explained by
enumerating its parts, or the materials of which
it is composed, but by the genius of the archi-
THE EVIDENCES OF RELIGION GENERALLY.
338-344]
61
[natural philosophy.
tect which it embodies ; so Nature is explained
as the embodiment of the Divine Artistry, and
not as a mere conglomeration of atoms ananLjed
by some mythical laws, which laws never made
or did anything, but are only records of effects
and orderly regulated procedures. — B. G.
2 The Christian system leads to progressive
views of nature and its laws.
[339] Iri Christian times the physical universe
itself has worn a different aspect : it has passed
from the all. into the part ; from reality to
symbol ; from opacjue to transparent ; from
the brilliant palace of the senses, to the mystic
temple of the soul. — James Martineaii.
3 Nature as one consistent or harmonious
whole is indicative of one sole will or rule
of God.
[340] While scientific men have seemed tQ
be working more and more widely apart, they
have found more and more near relations among
all the objects of their study. As the rays of
knowledge have extended and diverged, so has
their relation to one common centre become
more evident, and the unity of Nature has
become more significant of the unity of God. —
Sir James Paget, F.R.S., Theology and Scietice.
[341] The laws of Nature, so called, are ac-
counts of, and do not account for, the events of
which they are only classifications or records.
—B, G.
31
NATURAL PHILOSOPHY.
I. Its Various Theories.
1 Chance.
[342] All phenomena and all being is, and
ever has been, the result of chance or a blind
fortuitous concourse of atoms. Perhaps no
sane person ever did absolutely believe this
theory, if we can call it such ; but some have
attempted to take refuge in it from the idea of
Divine government and retribution, or as an
escape from the perplexities and mysteries en-
shrouding the problem of the universe. — Clark
Braden, The Probleiii of Problems.
2 Fate.
[343] All things have been brought into being
by resistless, undeviating fate and necessity, and
are now governed by it. There are various
phases of this theory, ist. The present order
of things is eternal, and holds on its course
under the control of relentless, unchanging
necessity. 2nd. At first there was a fortuitous
concourse of atoms and phenomena, until the
present order of things, by fate or chance,
obtained and became an established and fatal
necessity. This is the theory of ancient fatalists.
3rd. Theories of development. Some think that
development began in a fortuitous concourse
and action of matter, and force that resulted in
evolution, or in starting a course of evolution.
Others hold that this course of evolution is
eternal, and has eternally been under the control
of law. All atheistic theories of development
are theories of fate or necessity. They have
only added the term law to ancient theories.
This law is a law of fatal necessity, not con-
trolled by intelligence. The denial of spon-
taneity in nature, even in man and in mind, and
of freedom of the will, providence, pra)er, for-
giveness of sin, and the talk of undeviating,
unchanging law that abounds in the speculations
of physical science and evolutionists, show that
they are but modernized statements of ancient
theories of fate. The ancient systems of Lucre-
tius and Epicurus were anticipations of modern
speculations. Matter and force are eternal.
xMotion is an eternal and inherent property or
state of force. Force in motion acts on matter,
and matter in turn reacts and modifies force,
and by their action, reaction, and interaction is
evolved inorganic, organic, and vital existences.
So the ancient hylozoic theory was an anticipa-
tion of certain modern speculations. It assumed
that the present order of things is eternal. The
two entities or existences whence all sprang
were matter and phenomena. Matter was per-
vaded by plastic life (life susceptible being
moulded into all forms) and by intelligence.
Tyndall's Belfast speech was but a modernized
statement of this speculation of ancient thought.
—Ibid.
3 Nescience or ignorance.
[344] There is a distinction between the me
and the not-me, but we can know nothing of
either absolutely or in their essence. We can
only know that they exist, and learn and recog-
nize their differentia. There is a distinction
between mind and matter, but we can learn and
believe nothing of either in regard to their ab-
solute nature or essence. We can only know
that they exist, and recognize their differences.
We can learn and know nothing of the ultimate
or absolute, and can know nothing of the infinite
and unconditioned. We can learn nothing of
ultimate causes, or of the Ultimate Cause, or of
the Absolute or Infinite Cause. We can have
no knowledge, not even an apprehension or idea
of the infinite. It is folly to undertake to learn
anything concerning the infinite, or to speculate
concerning it. Let us confine ourselves to the
what we know exists, and to what we can learn
concerning them ; their differentia and their
phenomena, although we cannot learn anything
concerning their nature. We need not know
anything of the ultimate and infinite. It is not
practical knowledge, nor is it scientific to attempt
such inciuiries. Modern evolution has resorted
to the same subterfuge to evade the same
difficulty. It has each cycle begin in a turbu-
lent chaos, and has it close with a catastrophe
that reduces all existence to chaos, in which it
62
THE EVIDENCES OF RELIGION GENERALLY.
344-349]
[numbi:r.
commences a new cycle. In this dreamy system,
which has a fascination for certain poetical,
mystically inclined minds, we are told that in
the finite alone do we know or apprehend the
infinite. The finite is the infinite in existence
or realized. God is the universe, and the
universe is God. There is no conscious power
or intelligence in the universe except as developed
in the finite. God attains His highest conscious-
ness in man. Intelligence is ever rising from
the boundless ocean of existence like vapour
from the sea, and returning back to the infinite
and eternal oce;m of being like the raindrop to
the sea. Since this theory makes all phenomena
and being a part of the ever-realizing infinite,
the infinite realized, it destroys all distinction
between conduct and acts. Sin and virtue are
alike modes of the infinite, and alike in essence
and nature. And since all being and phenomena
are bound up in the Infinite, all freedom and
responsibility are impossible, and mere chimeras.
—Ibid.
II. Science and Philosophy in relation
TO Nature, or the Phenomena of
THE Universe.
[345] Science is an account of observed
phenomena of events in Nature ; it is, or should
be, confined to ascertained facts and their
classification ; but the explanation of, or ac-
counting for, all these regularities — called laws
— is in the higher province of philosophy, in
which the mind of man recognizes the mind of
God, whose Will dictates "laws" to Nature,
which laws man discovers and takes advantage
of. All this is, with the highest philosophy,
recognized in the following passages : — Prov.
viii. 22-30; Psa. cxlvii. 3-6: cxix. 89-91. No
science and no philosophy, ever surpassed or
will surpass this saying respecting Nature and
its elements ; " for all are Thy servants."— i5. G.
32
NUMBER, A LTNK BETWEEN
THE ni VINE INTELLIGENCE AND
HUMAN.
I. Line of Argument.
1 Number or numerical proportion enters
into the elements and processes of nature
and into human inventions.
[346] The case stands thus : Here is a law
involving certain properties of number, control-
ling all the matter with which man finds himself
surrounded ; in conformity to which law planets
are retained in their orbits, birds poise them-
selves in the air, ships float upon the water, and
man himself, together with all the structures of
his contrivance, is enabled to retain his footing
in repose, whilst the globe on which he stands
firm and upright is incessantly undergoing at
the least two revolutions of exceeding swiftness.
Now what conclusion can commend itself more
forcibly to man's reason than that the universal
action of this one law, itself in every case the
expression of a definite numerical proportion,
proves it to be the edict of one intelligent Law-
gi\er, acting on principles intelligible to man
himself? — Charles Girdiestone, MA.
2 The capacity to calculate number and use
is special to man of all creatures in this
world.
[347] Leaving, then, man's moral nature out of
sight, and having in view only his intellectual
faculties, it is maintained that in this one of
them the capacity to calculate Number, and to
apprehend its intimate connection witli a law
impressed on all things, there is manifested an
impassable gulf between man and all other
creatures in man's cognizance; and that there
is manifested also a closely connecting link
between man's mind and the supposed intelli-
gence by which all things have been ordered.
Whether we contemplate a Newton generalizing
the phenomena of gravitation, or a Somerville
deeply interested in a treatise on quaternions at
the close of her protracted Ufe, or a child study-
ing the elementary problems of Euclid, algebra,
and arithmetic, we can hardly fail to discern
traces of a lineage quite alien to that of the
brute creation, and akin rather to that super-
human thinking Power to which the universe
owes its orderly and harmonious working,
always and everywhere alike. — Ibid.
3 Though humanity, like a worn coin, may
have lost some of the perfections of the
image traced on it, yet the superscription
remains in this capacity.
[348] Let them hear the voice of Number, if
they will listen to no other, telling them : Ye
are scions of a heaven-born race ; and though
every atom of your bodies be of the earth,
earthy, yet is there that within you which is
after the likeness of the Father of your spirits,
an inborn gift derived from Him, given to your
family, and to yours only, of all His creatures
here below, a trait of family resemblance
ineftaceable, however far you may have fallen
from your first high estate, and still answering,
however faintly in most of you, and imperfectly
in all, to the same faculty in Himself, even as
an impression corresponds, in a material ever
so inferior, with the seal impressing it. — Ibid.
4 As Number reaches through Nature, so it
extends through all human sciences, in-
cluding sociology.
[349] It has already been observed that man
stands alone in the known creation in appre-
hending Number. In that conscious intelligent
self, which each man feels that he truly is, he
readily apprehends, and hasactually ascertained,
by discovery and proof, the modes in which
Number has been made use of in the ordering
THE EVIDENCES OF RELIGION GENERALLY.
349-353]
[number.
63
of the universe. And moreover, he is able to
make use of Number largely himself, in those
countless mechanical devices and constructions,
in which he takes a sort of creative interest ;
faint copyings of that creation by mere voli-
tion, to which all things, including man himself,
owe their being, as generally believed. Such
works of man are his pyramids, temples, and
palaces, his bridges and acjueducts, his ships,
steam-engines, and chronometers ; some of them
inert, some endowed by human skill with life-
like motion ; but all limited by the materials
and forces at his disposal, and, like his own
continuance in the present life, incapable of be-
coming perpetual. In all these productions of
man's art, Number ministers to man's uses, and
to his enjoyment ; as it does also in statues, in
pictures, and in poems ; the most remarkable
of the creations, as we call them, of man's
genius.
It is indeed a notable instance of the use of
Number in creation, that man is gifted with the
power of using it for his own purposes ; and
this not only in his constructive works, but also
in the various doings and details of his life, civil,
social, and domestic. It is by Number that he
marks his hours, days, and years ; that he keeps
accounts, buys and sells, and carries on com-
merce in all quarters of the globe. National
finance, bankmg, insurances, joint-stock enter-
prize, all depend on man's calculations of Num-
ber. So does also the census of population,
and so do all statistics, as those of health and
sickness, of longevity and mortality. We are
measured for the clothes we wear, we regulate
by Number our food and our medicine, and the
intervals of time at which we take them. By
Number we tabulate the depth of the ocean,
the height of mountains, the length of rivers,
the miles of each journey, the leagues of each
voyage. By help of this same ever-serviceable
instrument we are able to date in order the
facts of our histories, and to refer to the multitu-
dinous volumes in our libraries, as well as to
the contents and pages of each. By the same
means we indicate the chapters and verses in
our Bible. — Ibid.
5 The capacity of Number indicates man's
relationship to God.
[350] Whether we scan the pages of that
sacred book, or glance over the columns of our
daily journal, that mirror of man's life, replete
with Number as it is throughout, we might do
well to ask ourselves such questions as the
following : How came I by this unique faculty
of numeration ; so observable in all the realms
of nature, so conformable to my own will in all
my works and doings.? Is it of spontaneous
growth in my own brani 1 Or can I have got it
by descent from creatures who had none of it,
under circumstances favourable to its develop-
ment ? Is it not infinitely more probable that
it came to me by heritage from a Being so
familiar with its use, alike in things great and
small, that He telleth the Number of the stars,
and by Him even the very hairs of my head are
all numbered .'' Or if on looking at the things
seen, and pondering on their significance, we
knew no better than, like the Greeks of old, to
build our altar to " the unknown God," yet our
discernment of Number, invisible though it be,
pervading all His workmanship, and regulating
our doings also, would constrain us to adopt the
statement made by certain of the same favoured
race, that " we are His oftspring." — Ibid.
II. Objections met.
1 The instinctive use of Number in inferior
creatures, is from no knowledge on their
part.
[351] Animals have no science of arithmetic,
algebra, geometry, or astronomy. — B. G.
[352] But further it may be objected that
traces of a sense of Number are to be met with
in the works of creatures far inferior to man, as
in the spider's web, and in the geometrical cell
of the bee. The latter singular phenomenon is
possibly to be accounted for by the existence of
an hexagonal lens in the bee's eyes. And these
as well as all cases of the nature of instinct are
facts similar to the distinctive angles of crystals,
and the distinctive iiumber of stamens and
pistils in plants ; instances of the use of Num-
ber in the framing of nature, from which no
one would infer any relationship of a fatherly
character between the Maker of these things
and His works. No one of these creatures, it
may be safely averred, can either discern the pre-
sence of Number in things all around it, or use
the powers of Number in doing its own work.
The 'sagacious elephant is no astronomer; the
clever monkey is no chemist. No bird can ac-
count by Number for its own sweet notes, nor
help itself with an inch measure in building its
nest, nor with an almanack in achieving its
periodical migrations. — Charles Girdlestone,
M.A.
2 Though we cannot discern the reason for
every fixed numerical proportion in Nature,
we can discern in our capacity for Number,
our own relation to the Author of Nature.
[353] The distance of each planetary orbit from
the sun, as approximately stated in Bode's law,
the degrees of temperature at which water freezes
and boils under ordinary circumstances, and the
nature and proportion of the elements in the
blood of animals, are constants of a kmd which
in this sense may be well termed arbitrary, as
as having been ordered by a Supreme Will, for
reasons bevond the scrutiny of man. Moreover,
the height and bulk assigned to difterent organic
beings, and as well as other elements of their
form and structure, appear to be constants of this
nature, within certain limits. And when we are
asked to conceive it possible that quadrupeds,
by dint of exertion and self-adaptation to circum-
stances, might in the course of long ages become
bipeds, a sound philosophy would agree with ex-
64
353-362]
THE EVIDENCES OF RELIGION GENERALLY.
[primary bklief.
pericnccand religion in replying, that, on the con-
trary, even man, however superior in intelligence
he may be, cannot by any means so much as add
one cubit to his stature. If therefore without
prejudice we consult our own minds, and com-
pare what we think within us with what we see
around us, our reason leads us to adopt, as the
true solution of the problem proposed, the open-
ing statement of the earliest written record in
existence, " In the beginning God created the
heavens and the earth." And if we had no other
evidence besides the idea of Number, showing
the harmony between that Supreme Intelligence
and our own limited faculties, a sound philosophy
might bring us no less readily to the conclusion,
expressed by the words which occur soon after-
wards in the same ancient record : " God
created man in His own image." — Ibid.
III. The Wide Application of the
Argument.
1 The speciality and wide applicability of
this argument from man's power of dealing
with Number.
[354] This ar;j,ument from " Number," as
appreciated by the special capacity of man, and
related to the Divine intelligence, is, at fust
sight, not only original and striking, but may
even be descrilaed as startling. The more it is
considered, the profounder it will appear ; and
the variety of application and illustration of
which it is capable cannot but afford interest to
the thoughtful mind.
2 Its close relation to mind or human
intelligence.
[355] As speech, Logos, Word, is related to
reason or logic, so calculation is equally
related to the same : — I '' reckon," deem, or
judge this or that, I " calculate," anticipate, or
infer such and such things, arc forms of speech
which ally reckoning and numbers with mind or
reason.
3 Its relation to man's power, or capacity
of arranging and marshalling material
resources.
[356] Every building, enterprise, or impor-
tant undertaking is dependent upon calculation
of time, numbers, proportions ; the size, weight,
strength, and general nature of the materials
to be combined and enii)loyed.
4 Its relation to man's foresight.
[357] 'I"o sit down and "count the cost"—
whether with so many thousand he is able to
cope with a lorceofsuch and such a number.
(St. Luke \iv. 28.)
5 Its relation to human expectations.
[358] " For I reckon that the sufferings of this
)ircsent time are not worthy to be compared
with the glory which shall be revealed in us "
(Kom. \iii. iN).
6 Its relation to human responsibility.
[359] The Lord of those servants comcth and
rcckoneih with them— counts up the talents,
means, and resources with which they were
entrusted and endowed. Refer to Matt, xviii.
24; XXV. 19. This "reckoning," "taking ac-
count,"" rendering an account" of stewardship
connects the question of Number with the
responsibility of man to his Creator.— Z)'. G,
33
PRIMARY BELIEF.
I. Its Nature and Tenets.
1 Belief in the supernatural.
(i) Primary belief transcends 7iatiire or mate-
rial plioiomciia ajid agencies.
[360] At the very foundation of their [the
Romans] religion there lay two profound ideas
rooted deep in every sound-hearted nature —
that the spirit of man is in close and conscious
relationship with the spirit of God. and that
underneath all phenomena there lies a super-
natural element. — Vr. AlacGregor in FaitJis of
the World.
2 Consciousness of God.
(i) Primary beliefs may be regarded as
intuitional or axiomatic.
[361] A consciousness of God is one of the
primary and fundamental intuitions of human
nature. Whence the conclusion follows, that
the belief in God to which it has given rise
among mankind is one of those primary beliefs
of the reason which underlie all logical proof,
and justify themselves by their existence. —
lirow)ilow Alaitlafid, Theism or Agnosticism.
(2) Primary beliefs seen to have their roots
in human nature.
[362] We have before us ample evidence that
belief in God actually has that relation to the
human mind which we call instinctive or
intuitive, in that it springs up or roots itself
universally in the consciousness, and takes ever
firmer hold in proportion to the growth of man
in the higher characteristics of humanity.
Moreover, we find that, in seeking for a rational
ground for the belief, it is not along one line
only, but along four distinct and independent
lines that our minds advance to the assured
possession of it. From our own consciousness
of will we infer a supreme, originating Will ; of
intelligence, a supreme, constructing Mind; of
morality, a supreme righteous Lawgiver; of
spirituality, a supreme Father. Thus the
instinctive inference of a personal God is woven
of four separate Strands ; the evidence is the
coincident testimony of four independent
\sitnesses; the proof is the combination and
THE EVIDENCES OF RELIGION GENERALLY.
362-368]
[primary belii
65
consilience of four distinct lines of induction.
And our conclusion is, that belief in God rests
on as trustworthy and practically sure a founda-
tion as any of those primary instinctive beliefs
of the reason on which all mankind habitually
rely and act. — Ibid.
3 Monotheism.
(i) As shown in the strus;gle as^ainst poly-
theism even when it was vtost rampant.
[363] At a later date, when the polytheism
has become rampant, the monotheism is con-
scious, and asserts itself with an emphasis un-
known before. Take, for example, the famous
passage ascribed to Sophocles :
"There is in truth but One, One only God,
Who made both heaven and long-e.\tended
earth,
And bright-faced swell of sea, and force of
winds."
Canon Raivlinson, Pi-esent-Day Tfacts.
[364] The religious beliefs of the Semitic,
Aryan, and Turanian nations, the Cushite races,
the Egyptians, and the Chinese are surveyed,
and it is shown that, with one exception only,
monotheism, either avowed or latent, absolute
or qualified, is found everywhere underlying or
struggling with a prevailing polytheism, and is
found most distinctly and clearly present in the
earlier stages of religion. — Ibid.
(2) As shown in the names by xvhich heatJicn
deities were designated.
[365] The one God thus confidently asserted
was identified by still later writers with the old
national God, Zeus (or Zen), "the Living One,"
as they understood the word ; and long descrip-
tions were given of His nature and His rela-
tions toward man and the world. Aratus, the
poet whom St. Paul quoted at Athens (Acts
xvii. 28), said :
" With Zeus begin we — let no mortal voice
Leave Zeus unpraised. Zeus fills the haunts
of men,
The streets, the marts— Zeus fills the sea, the
shores,
The harbours, — everywhere we live in Zeus.
We are His offspring too ; friendly to man.
He gives prognostics ; sets men to their toil
By need of daily bread : tells when the land
Must be upturned by ploughshare or by spade ;
What time to plant the olive or the vine—
What time to fling on earth the golden grain.
For He it was who scattered o'er the sky
The shining stars, and fixed them where they
are —
Provided constellations through the year,
To mark the seasons in their changeless
course.
Wherefore men worship Him, the First, the
Last,
Their Father, Wonderful, their help and
shield."— /^/V/.
VOL. I. t
[366] The primary belief had its monuments
and remembrances in the very names given to
the recognized Divinity. Moreover, all the
names by which they designate the Divine
Nature, such as El, Eloh orEloah, Adon, Baal
or Bel, Shaddai, Jehovah, Allah, Elohim, even
in the case where they are plural in form, imply
the idea of supreme and incommunicable
power, of absolute and perfect unity (" Histoire
des Langues Semitiques "). El means "strong,"
or " the strong one ; " Baal or Bel, " the Lord ; "
Baal Samin, " the Lord of heaven ; " Adonis (in
Phffinicia), "Lord;" Marnas (at Gaza), "our
Lord ; " Shet or Set, "Master ; " Moloch, Mil-
com, Malika, "King;" Eliun, "the Most
High;" Shaddai, "the Almighty;" Ram or
Rimmon, "the Exalted" (Max Miiller, " Chips
from a German Workshop "). The fact that
these names are the oldest names expressive of
divinity in the Semitic languages, and the fur-
tlier fact that, whatever corruption of religion
took place among the Semitic nations, these
names remained in use, were never parted with,
but passed on from generation to generation as
invaluable heirlooms, is strongly indicative of a
monotheistic conviction lying deep in the heart
of the race. — Ibid.
[367] The general tendency to religious belief
pointed to one supreme god. Tiie highest god
received the same name in the ancient mytho-
logy of India, Greece, Italy, and Germany, and
retained that name whether worshipped on the
Himalayan mountains or among the oaks of
Dodona, on the Capitol or in the forests of Ger-
many. His name was Dyaus in Sanskrit, Zens
in Greek, y^z^/^ in Latin, Tin in German. These
names are not mere names ; they are historical
facts— ay, facts more immediate, more trust-
w^orthy, than many facts of mediaeval history.
These words are not mere words, but they brmg
before us, with all the vividness of an event
which we witnessed ourselves but yesterday, the
ancestors of the whole Aryan race, thousands of
years, it may be, before Homer and the Veda,
worshipping an unseen Being, under the self-
same name, the best, the most exalted name
they could find in their vocabulary— under the
name of Light and Sky.
4 Belief in God as man's Teacher and Guide.
[368] Compare these Greek gods and their
worshippers with the deities in pristine America
and their worshippers. Study the noble prayers
of the Mexicans ; the simple yet spier. did wor-
ship of the Peruvians ; the noble ideas of the
Great Spirit which pervaded even the humbler
tribes in North America ; and, above all, note
the high conception of the functions of a deity
which had been formed by the greatest people
in America — the Araucans. They maintained
that prayer was needless, because their gods
were so beneficent that they were sure to con-
fer upon man all things that it was good for him
to have. At the same time the Araucans showed
their gratitude for this goodness by humble
oherings, never touching life.
66
THE EVIDENCES OF RELIGION GENERALLY.
368-374]
[primary belief.
Then, again, look at India. As far as one
can understand Buddhism, it may be a religion
of little hope, but there is no meanness in it.—
A. Helps.
[369] Our thesis, that man naturally considers
God as his teacher and guide, is capable of
almost endless illustration. We see it most
simply, perhaps, in the revelations which men
have drawn from the external nature, from
signs and omens and sacrifices, from oracles and
divinations ; we find it taking another shape in
the belief in incarnations of the deity, and the
help afforded by gods and sons of gods come
down in the likeness of men ; and, lastly, we
perceive it in its most powerful and permanent
form, in the inspiration attributed to particular
books and writings. — Prebendary Words-worth,
Bavipton Lectures.
5 Belief in immortality.
(i) Priina-^y beliefs transcended meiital life
and stretched toiuard eternity.
[370] By the exercise of the power of reason,
the wisest among the heathens discovered that
there was ground for men to have expectations
beyond this life. They saw plainly that them-
selves, and all things that fell under their
observation, were dependent beings on the will
and power of Him who formed them ; and
when they sought to find Him, they were led by
a necessary chain of reasoning to the acknow-
ledgment of a supreme, independent, intelligent
Being. They saw in every part of the creation
evident marks of His power, wisdom, and good-
ness : they discerned that all the inanimate
parts of the world acted perpetually in submis-
sion to the law of their creation ; the sun and
all the host of heaven were constant to their
courses ; and in every other part, the powers of
nature were duly and regularly exerted for the
preservation of the present system : among
men only they found disorder and confusion.
That they had reason was plain ; that they
were intended to live according to reason could
not be doubted ; and yet they saw virtue often
distressed and abandoned to all the evils of
life, vice triumphant, and the world everywhere
subject to the violence of pride and ambition.
How to account for this they knew not : this
only they could observe, that man was endowed
with a freedom in acting, which the other beings
of the lower world wanted ; and to this they
rightly ascribed the disorders to be found in
this part of the creation. But though this
accounted for the growth of evil, yet it rendered
no account of the justice or goodness of God in
permitting vice oftentimes to reign here in glory,
whilst virtue suffered in distress. On these
considerations they concluded that there must
be another state after this, in which all the
present inequalities in the administration of
providence should be set right, anl every man
receive according to his works. — J!p. Sherlock,
1678-1761.
II. Its Influence.
I Primary belief the foundation of the best
elements of progress and civilization.
[371] Those three great primary beliefs, com-
mon to all men, to which reference has so often
been made, the beliefs in our own self, the selves
of our fellow-men, and the physical universe, of
which no logical basis can be predicated, when
tried by the test of their practical working come
triumphantly out of the ordeal. On them are
built the entire culture of humanity, the mag-
nificent structure of science, the domestic, poli-
tical, and social relations of mankind. Without
them human life would be impossible. On
metaphysicalscepticism, however logical, nothing
can be built : in it neither knowledge, nor duty,
nor love can find a resting-place ; it begins and
ends in the mists and phantoms of unreality. 1
am : my fellow- men are : the universe is : these
are the three fundamental articles of the charta
of humanity and civilization.
Let belief in God the Father Almighty stand
the same test of practical working, and beside
this great Triad it may without challenge take its
place on equal terms. — Brouuttlow Mailland,
Theism or Agnosticism.
III. Relation to Christl\n Truth.
I Primary beliefs anticipated some of the
leading truths of revelation.
[372] But with all its defects and idolatries the
■" religion of Egypt gave forth more scintillations
of what we have been taught by revelation to
regard as truth than any other of the ancient
faiths. Its teachings as to the formation of
man ; its affirmations concerning death and
judgment ; its anticipation of what Christianity
has made clear regarding the unity of man's
complex nature and the sanctity of his body ;
its glimmering light thrown on immortality and
resurrection — raise it above other ancient his-
toric religions, and go far to warrant a belief
that it originated in a primeval revelation. — Dr.
Dodds in Faiths of t lie World.
[373] The best features of the Egyptian faith
reappear in the Books of JMoses. There are
goldengrains cf Divine truth to be gathered still
from the mummies and monuments of Egypt.
The more we study this ancient faith, the more
clearly we come to see that God never left Him-
self without a witness to man ; and that, in some
measure at least, the religion of the Egyptians,
like the law given by Moses, was a shadow of
things to come. — Ibid.
2 Primary beliefs, restored fully by Christi-
anity, were embedded in the Platonic
philosophy.
[374] There was a near and most friendly rela-
tion to Christian truth in the eminently .f//V/'//M/
character of Pii^jo's philosophy. No ancient
writer equals him in this. "The soul," he says,
" is come from heaven, but the body is earth-
born, and so the soul is the divinest part of man,
THE EP'IDENCES OF RELIGION GENERALLY',
374-380I
67
[religious instincts.
and to be bono red next to God ; nor does man
honour his soul when he sells her gloiy for gold ;
for not all the gold in the world is to be com-
pared with the soul. But a man can honour his
soul only by making her better." Such a spiri-
tual philosophy can alone establish a real basis
for a spiritual religion. Recognizing the primary
conceptions of revelation — God, virtue, immor-
tality—in the facts of consciousness, as the
intuitive faiths of the soul, it finds man able to
apprehend and receive the positive truths of
Christianity. Hence the strong attraction that
Platonism has had for so many and so good men
in the Church, from the days of Origen and
Augustine until now. Hence, too, in every great
epoch of conflict between Christian faith and
error, Plato has reappeared, and in alliance with
what is noblest and best in Christian thought
and action. And at the present day, when men
would resolve all vitality into material force, all
thought into cerebration, and all mind into
matter, a new infusion of Plato's ideal thought
seems needed to preserve the equilibrium be-
tween physical and spiritual truth.
We find a still nearer relation to Christian
truth in the spirit and substance of Plato's
ethical teaching. The sole end of his specula-
tion, however high or far he pu hed his in-
quiries, was to see and possess those immutable
ideas of moral being which might bring man
into likeness to God, and his disordered life
into harmony with the Divine government.
But when we pass from the ethical to the reli-
gious thought of Plato, his philosophy is seen to
be, at best, only preparatory to Christianity.
3 Christianity the necessary complement of
natural religion.
[375] Christianityis a structure of mingled ///j-
torical facts and moral and rclii^ioiis trutiis. The
Christian religion stands upon a basis, like all
other religions, oi prunafy belief. But it is im-
possible to separate the distinctively Christian
elements from those which, while they may
appear elsewhere, have, in the Christian system,
their special significance. It is not correct to
say that the doctrines and facts which distin-
guish Christianity rest upon a foundation of
•' natural religion,^' i.e., in such a sense that
they are only supplementary to it. Rather they
are the necessary complement to that which can
be learnt from "the constitution and course of
the world." They are the true manifestation of
the mind and will of the Creator. The revela-
tion which claims acknowledgment in the Scrip-
tures of the Old and New Testament takes up
into itself all other revelations as subordinate
and preparatory, leading on to that which does
not, properly speaking, supersede them, but
explains, fulfils, and glorifies them. This may
be illustrated by the analogy of the development
ot the individual human being. Manhood is
neither a mere supplement to childhood, nor is
it a mere outcotne of that which was already
given in early life. We explain the child by the
man, and not the man by the child. We under-
stand God's revelation in the physical universe,
and in the human mind and conscience, only
when we look into the face of " God manifest
in the flesh:'— R. A. Redford, The Christian's
Plea.
IV. Unbelief Unnatural.
[376] Neither belief nor disbelief on these sub-
jects exists amongst animals, who, as having no
religions Jiaizire, are not guilty, nor even capable,
of atheism, which is a perverted condition of
man's religious capacity, and could not exist
without it, and ought not logically to exist with
it.
As immorality, of which animals are incap-
able, is at once a sign and perversion of man's
moral nature, so infidelity, atheism, disbelief, or
contradiction of religion, is at once a sign and
perversion of man's distinctive religious nature.
—B. G.
34
RELIGIOUS INSTINCTS.
I. Their Existence.
[377] The Primary Beliefs noted in the pre-
ceding section spring from religious instincts,
or rest on self-evident truths.
[378] Religion is of a character not unanalo-
gouswith music ; that is to say, it is an instinct,
or intuition— not the result of a theory or of a
logical process. As an instinct or intuition it
may be, like the taste for music, possessed in
a greater or less degree by all, but by some
much more strongly than by others. — C F.
Keary, Early Religions Development {Nineteenth
Century).
[379] Religion, like morals and physics, has
first truths, which are incapable of being derived
from anything more certain than themselves- -
which the human mind, at a particular point
of its development, invariably recognizes, and
the intuition of which is a direct result of its
highest activities.— 7rtW6'j Martitieau.
II. Their Origin.
I Religious life, like natural, is guided by
instinctive beliefs and intuitions.
[380] All this life, this reality, rest on know-
ledge which is prior to logical processes, and
is obtained through our consciousness. We do
not reason it out \ it comes to us, and we possess
it and live by it. .We trust our intuitions, our
perceptions, our experience ; that is the secret
of our practical, our human life. In the sphere
of this life the question, " Can you prove de-
monstratively the grounds on which you act ?"
turns out to be an idle one. Were we to wait
68
THE EVIDENCES OF RELIGION GENERALLY.
[the soul and future state.
till we could answer it in tlie afifirmative, death
would overtake us before we had begun to live.
The bearing of the foregoing discussion on
the momentous problem before us, the possi-
bility of our ever arriving at a sufficient and
practical knowledge of God, is too close to need
many words in explanation of it. We confessed
that we could not demonstrate God logically ;
and the rejoinder was, " Then give up the expect-
ation of knowing Him at all." Nay, we reply,
we are something higher and better than logical
machines, which can do nothing but grind out
demonstrations, or else rust in the ignorance of
scepticism. We are human beings who have
other inlets of knowledge than the logical under-
standing, and who certainly know more than
we can rigorously prove. — Broivnlow Maitland,
Theism or Agnosticism.
2 Our moral nature encourages our religious
instincts. I
[381] The primary witness to Him is in your- j
selves ; in your sense of personality and free j
will, m your conviction of the awful sacredness |
of right and duty, in the voice of your conscience, j
in the solemn haunting feeling of your responsi-
bility, in the yearning of your souls for the
perfect (ioodness, in the thrill of sacred emotion
which in your best moments is stirred within
you by the voice which claims to come from
heaven. — Brotunlow Maitland, Steps to Faith.
III. Their Expression.
I Prayer is one of man's religious instincts.
[382] Among the moral instincts of humanity,
none is more natural, more univensal, or more
insuperable than prayer. The infant readily
learns to pray : the old man has recourse to
prayer as his refuge amid the solitude of his
declining years. Prayer comes instinctively to
the young lips which can scarce pronounce the
name of God, and to the dying lips which have
no longer strength to pronounce it. Among all
nations, unknown and well known, barbarous
and civilized, one meets at every step the facts
and formulas of prayer. Wherever man is
found, in certain circumstances and at certain
hours, under the influence of certain spiritual
instincts, the eyes are raised, the hands are
clasped, the knees are bent, for the purpose of
I)rayer or thanksgiving, adoration or suppli-
cation.— Ciiizot, L'Egtise et la Societd Chre-
tienne. {Tr. J. S.)
[383] Tennyson has written some l:)cnutiful
things about prayer. In his "Harold" he
makes Edith say —
"God help me! I know nothing— can but
pray
For Harold- pray, pray, pray — no help but
prayer,
A breath that fleets beyond this iron world.
And touches Him that made it." *
2 Man has an instinctive longing for the
sympathy of an infinite Father.
[384] Why should it be thought a thing in-
credible that God should write in the book of
our being a record of our childhood and our
need of a Father.'' Shall the needle turn to the
north? shall the heliotrope follow the sun.? and
shall the heart of man have no centre where it
may rest in safety and peace .' Like the tidal
marks found in the lowest rocks, there are
records even in the stony heart of how high
religious emotions may at one time have risen.
—Rev. R. Mitchell, Fatherhood of God.
[385] In all lies a restless sighing for the know-
ledge and worship of God. For, like as children,
separated from their mother's arms, experience
an indescribable yearning after her, stretch out
their hands towards the absent one, dream of
her ; so men who feel themselves alien to God
are ever striving after fellowship with God.
— Chrysostom.
35
THE SOUL AND FUTURE STATE.
1. Ideas apart from Revelation.
I The natural desire for, and conception of
a future life as seen even in the rudest
nations.
(i) Ideas of rude nations generally.
[386] " If a man die, shall he live again ?'' is a
question which has naturally agitated the heart
and stimulated the intellectual curiosity of man,
wherever he has risen above a state of bar-
barism, and commenced to exercise his intellect
at all. Without such a belief. Max Miiller well
says, "religion surely is like an arch resting on
one pillar, like a bridge ending in an abyss."
It is very gratifying, therefore, to the believer,
and a fact worthy of notice, tl.at the alhrmative
on this question is assumed more or less by all
the nations of earth, so far as our information
reaches at the present day, although, it is true,
their views often assume very vague and even
materialistic forms.
We concede that the views of most rude
heathen nations, both ancient and modern,
respecting the state of man after death are
indeed dark and obscure, as well as their
notions respecting the. nature of the soul itself,
which some of them regard as a kind of aerial
substance, resembling the body, though of a
finer material. Still it is found that the greater
part of mankind, even of those who are entirely
uncultivated, though they may be incapable of
the higher philosophical idea of the personal
immortality of the soul, are yet inclined to
believe at least tha^ the soul survives the body,
and continues either for ever, or at least for a
very long time. This faith seems to rest in
uncultivated nations, or, better perhaps, races
-392]
THE EVIDENCES OF RELIGION GENERALLY. 69
[the soul and future state.
(i) upon the lotie of life, which is deeply planted
in the human breast, and leads to the wish and
hope that life will be continued even beyond the
grave ; (2) upon traditions transmitted irom their
ancestors ; (3) upon dreams, in which the dead
appear speaking or acting, and thus confirming
both wishes and traditions.
(2) Ideas of Greenlanders.
[387] 7"he Greenlander believes that when a
man dies he travels to Torngarsuk, the land
where reigns perpetual summer, all sunshine,
and no night ; where there is good water, and
birds, fish, seals, and reindeer without end, that
are to be caught without trouble, or are found
cooking alive in a huge kettle.
In fact ideas of the future life are taken from
the defects or advantages of climate.
2 The natural desire for, and conception of, a
future life as seen in more refined nations.
(i) Ideas of Chinese.
[388] While it is true that Confucius himself
did not expressly teach the immortality of the
soul, nay, that he rather purposely seems to
have avoided entering upon this subject at all,
taking it most probably like Moses, as we shall
see below, simply for granted, it is nevertheless
implied in the worship which the Chinese pay to
their ancestors. Another evidence, it seems to
us, is given by the absence of the word death
from the writings of Confucius. When a person
dies, the Chinese say, " he has returned to his
family."
(2) Ideas of Persians.
[389] In the religion of the Persians, also, at
least since, if not previous to the time of Zoro-
aster, a prominent part is assigned to the exist-
ence of a future world, with its governing spirits.
" Under Ormuz and Ahriman there are ranged
regular hierarchies of spirits engaged in a per-
petual conflict ; and the soul passes into the
kingdom of light or of darkness, over which
these spirits respectively preside, according as
it has lived on the earth well or ill. Whoever
has lived in purity, and has not suHered the divs
(evil spirits) to have any power over him, passes
after death into the realms of light."
(3) Ideas of Greeks.
[390] Wherever pagan thought and pagan
morality reach the highest perfection, we find
their ideas of the immortality of the soul gradu-
ally approaching the Christian views. The first,
trace of a belief in a future existence we find
in Homer's " Iliad," where he represents that
Achilles first became convinced that souls and
shadowy forms have a real existence in the
kingdom of the shades (Hades) by the appear-
ance to him of the dead Patroclus in a dream.
These visions were often regarded as Divine by
the Greeks. But while in the early Greek
paganism the idea of the future is everywhere
ii.elancholic -Hades, or the realms of tlVe dead,
being to their imagination the emblem of gloom,
as may be seen from the following : " Achilles,
the ideal hero, declares that he would rather till
the ground than live in pale Elysium "—we find
that, with the progress of Hellenic thought, a
higher idea of the future is found to characterize
both the poetry and philosophy of Greece, till,
in the Platonic Socrates, the conception of im-
mortality shines forth with a clearness and
precision truly imptessive. " For we must
remember, O men," said Socrates, in his last
speech, before he drained the poison cup, "that
it depends upon the immortality of the soul
whether we have to live to it and to care for it
or not. For the danger seems fearfully great of
not caring for it. Yea, were death to be the end
of all, it would be truly a fortunate thing for the
wicked to get rid of their body, and, at the same
time, of their wickedness. But now, since the
soul shows itself to us immortal, there can be
for it no refuge from evil, and no other salvation
than to become as good and intelligible as
possible." More clearly are his views set forth
in the "Apology" and the "PhiEdo,"in language
at once rich in faith and in beauty. "The soul,
the immaterial part, being of a nature so superior
to the body, can it," he asks in the " Phtedo,"
" as soon as it is separated from the body, be
dispersed into nothing and perish ? Oh, far
otherwise. Rather will this be the result. If it
take its departure in a state of purity, not carry-
ing with it any clinging impurities of the body,
impurities which during liie it never willingly
shared in, but always avoided, gathering itself
into itself, and making the separation from the
body its aim and study — that is, devoting itself
to true philosophy, and studying how to die
calmly ; for this is true philosophy, is it not? —
well, then, so prepared, the soul departs into
that invisible region which is of its own nature,
the region of the Divine, the immortal, the wise,
and then its lot, is to be happy in a state in
which it is freed from fears and wild desires,
and the other evils of humanity, and spends the
rest of its existence with the gods." This view,
or better, doctrine of the immortality of the soul,
held by Socrates and his disciple Plato, implied
a double immortality, the past eternity as well
as that to come. They certainly offer a very
striking contrast to the popular superstitions
and philosophy of their day, which in many
respects recall the views held by the Hindus.
II. Teaching of Holy Scripture.
[391] The future state of the soul, as inde-
pendent of present material conditions, is not
only instinctively held by ruder and refined
nations, but is involved and directly taught in
the Christian revelation. — B. G.
[392] Such materialistic theories are also met
by mstinctive feeling and by weighty evidence.
(i) There is a voice within every one that
speaks the universal language, '■'■ Aon ontnis
nioriar;" and that which tells of a future in-
corporeal existence of the Ego tells also that the
70
392-39
THE EVIDENCES OF RELIGION GENERALLY.
[UN'IFORMrtY OF NATURE.
Ego of the present must be something more
than that which chemical affinities will shortly
dissolve and dissipate.
(2) There is evidence, too, that the mental
faculty can retain its full power and capacity for
action when the body is so battered and muti-
lated that scarcely any other trace of life is
observable, and even after severe injuries and
consequent disorganization of the brain itself
(3) The few but weighty testimonies of Holy
Scripture to the separate existence of the soul
are beyond the reach of confutation, and can
only be met by airy contradictions ; especially
the most weighty of all, the testimony of our
Lord's own death and resurrection ; the separa-
tion, that is, and the reunion of His body and
His soul. (Death and Resurrection of Christ.)
(4) Nor, lastly, must it be overlooked that tlie
whole moral teaching of Holy Scripture, of the
Christian Church, and of all shades of theism, is
founded on the idea of a conscious and respon-
sible soul.— /\Vz'. 7. H. Blunt.
III. Views of the Early Church.
[393] In the early Christian Church the views
on the immortality of the soul were very varied.
There were none that actually denied, far from
it, nor even any that doubted its possibility.
But some of them, e.g..^ Justin, Tatian, and
Theophilus, on various grounds, supposed that
the soul, though mortal in itself, or at least in-
different in relation to mortality or immortality,
eitheracquires immortality asa promised reward,
by its union with the spirit and the right use of
its liberty, or, in the opposite case, perishes with
the body. They were led to this view partly
because they laid so much stress on freedom,
and because they thought that likeness to God
was to be obtained only by this freedom, and
partly, too, because they supposed (according to
the trichotomistic division of human nature)
that the soul {■'pvx'i) receives the seeds of im-
mortal life only by the union with the spirit
{iri'tvua), as the higher and free life of reason.
36
UNIFORMITY OF NATURE.
I. Nature is not Supreme.
I Nature itself a miracle and gives way to
other miracles.
[394] Some men worship Nature as if it were
God, and think there is nothing higher than the
bodies that we wear and the earth in which we
live, and they are quite satisfied with tracing
the existence of the world and all its inhabitants
back again to some little gerni of the ascidia,
and passing by slow degrees of progress until it
becomes a man. If miracles be true, the laws
of nature are not the highest powers in the world, j
but that power which brought the world into i
existence continues still, and has acted on the
theatre of the world itself in these various ways
which we call miracles. The important question
which men are discussing. Is Nature supreme.''
is answered by the miracles. Nature is not
supreme. God holds the Key of Nature, and
God can overrule the powers of nature just as
He pleases. — Rev. IV. Atidersoti, Scripture
Miracles and Alodern Scepticism.
II. It does not prevent Human Im-
provements IN Natural Conditions.
[395] The uniformity of nature, itself a miracle,
gives way to other miracles which break that
uniformity and give signs of the Divine monarchy
over nature. — B. G.
[396] The will of man has accomplished most
wonderful changes in the history of the world.
It has made rain fall where rain never fell before,
where man has planted trees ; it has made seas
dry land, and turned dry land into seas ; and
the whole of the condition of the world at the
present moment, compared with what it was two
thousand or four thousand years ago, and the
greater part of what we call civilization, have
been the result of changes produced on the face
of nature by the will of man.
But did the laws of nature, of whose immuta-
bility we hear so much, place any impediment
in the way of man's will.-' Far from it. It is
only by learning the laws of nature in the first
instance and following them that man has learnt
to subdue nature, and all those changes which
man has made on the face of the world have
arisen from the knowledge which has been
gained of nature's laws and through man's will to
put these to such uses as mans wants may sug-
gest. Has God, think you, less power over the
laws of nature than man? — Rev. W. Anderson,
Scripture Miracles and Modern Scepticism.
[397] The uniformity of nature does not pre-
vent human improvements in natural conditions
after the pattern of the Divine government. —
B. G.
III. Nature does not
Religious Instincts.
satisfy Man's
I Nature in its mere uniformity of physical
laws, no proper object of love, trust, or
adoration.
[398] Ancient phrases of piety tell me to
reverence the laws of nature ! I am not an
idolator to worship what is below me. These
things bring me suffering, and are not sorry ;
or relief, and feel no joy : they whirl and grind
away, weaving my fortune if 1 am circumspect
and sharp ; or, if my heedless cloak should
touch their shaft, picking me up and crushing
every bone. For their own sakes, the laws of
nature can be the objects of no solemn love, of
no moial reliance, ^ut only of fear, of calcula-
tion, of helpless submission ; and not till they
are regarded as the tinite usages of an infinite
THE EVIDENCES OF RELIGION GENERALLY.
-403I
[uniformity of naturf,.
71
Mind, deep in holiness and beauty which they
cannot express, will any true devotion mingle
with the thought. — Jai)ies Martinean.
[399] ^t is only when nature is regarded as
the work of God, and temporal calamities are
seen to be overruled by Divine Wisdom for our
eternal good, that man is reconciled to nature.
—B. G.
2 Nature, as merely ruled by material forces,
is pitiless, and its uniformity sometimes
seems to be cruel.
[400] Man shudders before nature's remorse-
less insensibility. He notices how little she
makes of the dead, and how little she cares for
the living — how she mocks at and trifles with
sensibility and with life. An earthquake swal-
lows up tens of thousands of living men. The
jaws of the gulf that opened to receive them
swing back to their place, and forthwith flowers
adorn the ghastly seam, as if in mockery of the
dead who are buried beneath. A great ship
founders in the ocean, freighted with a thousand
living souls. As they go down they raise one
shriek of anguish that it would seem should
rend the sky. But the cry is over, and the
waters roll over the place as smoothly as though
those thousand lives were not sleeping in death
below. Of another life there are no tidings and
few suggestions, a possibility, or perhaps a prob-
ability, but no hope. — Rev. Noah Porter, D.D.
[401] The deriders of God and adorers of
what they call Nature, are often abusers of
their chosen idol ; and speak in melancholy
bitterness, in a hopeless, despairing way, of
Nature's "red beak and claws" that peck and
tear the heart of humanity. — B. G.
IV. Laws of Nature allow of no false
Liberty with Impunity.
[402] Do the laws of nature allow of free
thought? Do these laws allow men to make
mistakes concerning any of the facts of nature .''
Try and see. Let any man think wrongly of
the forces of nature, and let him see what
nature will do. Let him freely think that fire
does not burn, or that water does not drown ;
let him think that fever is not infectious, or that
ventilation is unhealthy ; let him think wrong-
fully concerning any other law of nature, and,
whichever he transgresses and sets at naught,
he will find himself visited by a sharp and
merciless puni,hment. Those who talk about
appealing from Christianity to the beneficent
laws of nature, forget the fact that there are
no laws so merciless, so utterly unforgiving — -ay,
and so utterly regardless of the circumstances
whether a man has transgressed ignorantly or
purposely. As to the laws of nature, he who
transgresses ignorantly and he who transgresses
wilfully are alike beaten with many stripes.
The great machinery of the world will not arrest
its revolutions for the cry of a human creature
who, by a very innocent error, by the mitt iken
action of his free thought, is being ground to
pieces beneath them ; slowly, surely, relent-
lessly, eternally it moves on ; oppose it in your
free thought, and it will grind you to powder. —
Bp. Magee.
I Necessity for man obeying these laws.
[403] These ill-consequences, at times these
fatal consequences, which arise from ignorance
respecting the laws of nature, seem to be in-
tended to teach mankind the necessity ol search-
ing after scientific truth. And this necessity is
one which never ceases to exist. It is felt by
the savage when he constructs his cross-bow,
when he builds his rough canoe, or when he
manufactures his tomahawk. It is felt, too, as
civilization advances and population increases ;
when seas have to be traversed ; when tunnels
have to be bored ; in fine, without a knowledge
of scientific truth the world would come almost
to a standstill. The system of rewards and
punishments in the Book of Nature has led
mankind to go down into the depths and up
into the heights, to discover the laws of nature,
and has impressed upon every reasonable mind
the importance of a right scientific creed.
Never more than at the present time were the
due claims of science felt and recognized. We
have professors of science, halls of science, and
men of science in every department of human
industry and of human enterprise. And rightly
so. For is it not requisite for personal ease,
domestic comfort, commercial success, national
prosperity, yea, even for the very existence of
society, that we should adopt, as far as possible,
sound, just, and comprehensive views of nature
and of science ? — C. N.
DIVISION C
{^Continued).
THE EVIDENCES OF RELIGION
GENERALLY.
[2] PROOFS OF THE DIVINE EXISTENCE.
Pages 73 to 93.
ALPHABETICAL TABLE OF TOPICS.
37
ANTHROPOLOGICAL ARGUMENT.
38
A POSTERIORI AND A PRIORI ARGUMENTS.
39
COSMOLOGICAL ARGUMENT.
40
ETHICAL ARGUMENT.
41
HISTORICAL ARGUMENT.
42
ONTOLOGICAL AND METAPHYSICAL ARGUMENT.
43
PSYCHOLOGICAL ARGUMENT.
44
PHYSICO-THEOLOGICAL OR TELEOLOGICAL
ARGUMENT.
45
PROVIDENTIAL ARGUMENT.
72
CLASSIFICATION OF THE PROOFS OF THE DIVINE EXISTENCE.
DEPARTMENT
OF IDEAS
SURVEYED.
PHENOMENA
DEALT
WITH.
METHOD OF ARGUMENT.
las
§ ^ y
W O H
TECHNICAL NAME.
POPULAR DESCRIPTION.
Concrete \
\
MENTAL _
AND
MORAL
ANTHROPOLOGICAL
Psychological
Ethical
Historical
Providential
From the constitution of human nature
and facts of human history
From the phenomena of the soul viewed
apart from abstract reasoning
From nature and the moral world
From the consent of mankind as testi-
fied in the facts of human history ...
From the moral government among'
mankind
37
43
40
41
45
MATERIAL I
AND 4
PHYSICAL
COSMOLOGICAL
PHYSICO-THEOLOGICAL .'
OR J
TELEOI.OGICAL j
From the principle of causation. From
considerations about the First Cause.
From the evidences of intelligence and
wisdom in the universe. From con-
siderations about design and final
causes
39
44
f
Absvract -j
MENTAL 1
AND }
IDEAL. (
ONTOLOGICAL (
OK
METAPHYSICAL (
1
From the thoughts of the mind, sub-
jected to the principles of logic,
analysis, &c
42
i
74
DIVISION C
[Continued).
THE EVIDENCES OF RELIGION GENERALLY.
[2] PROOFS OF THE DIVINE EXISTENCE.
37
ANTHROPOLOGICAL ARGUMENT.
I. Definition of Term.
[404] Anthropology {Gr. avOpunrog, man,
and Asyeo', to say, to speak), the science of man,
considered in his entire nature, as composed of
iDody and soul, and as subject to various modi-
fications from sex, temperament, race, civiliza-
tion. It is distinguished from psychology, which
is the science of the phenomena of the soul.
[405] The argument called anthropological
is Irom its subject matter, namely, man ; the
reasonings and inferences being founded on the
facts of man's nature and experiences.
II Nature of the Argument.
[406] Ry this method we reason from the
constitution of human nature, and the facts of
human history, to the existence of God.
III. The Basis upon which the Argu-
ment RESTS.
I The facts of human nature, its beliefs,
consciousness, and common consent, his-
torically developed, point to the Divine
existence.
[407] We are content to rest upon the simple
result which we have already indicated, viz.,
that this widespread and almost universal con-
sent does raise a strong presumption in favour
of the blessed truth to which it bears its
strangely accordant testimony. It does at least
throw a vast responsibility on the maintenance
of the contrary opinion ; it does call upon every
earnest searclier after truth to go forward and
honestly to test the other considerations which
are alleged to bring the belief in a personal
God still more home to us, and to try, fully and
fairly, the reality of the strength of that pre-
sumption to which we have already arrived. —
Bp. Ellicott, The Being of God.
[408] Many are wandering ; many have
given up tlieir first faith ; many are sadly asking
whether they have really a Father in heaven,
or whether all is a delusion and a dream.
To all such let us delay not in giving help
and guidance. Let us endeavour to lead them,
e?ven by the poor broken lights of History,
Nature, and Humanity, back again into the
homeward path, and revive the blessed convic-
tion, never perhaps wholly given up, that they
verily have in the heavens above them a Father
and a God. — Ibid.
2 The Divine existence is no mere arbitrary
assumption.
[409] First, there are arguments, sober and
reasonable arguments, against this showy and
pretentious unbelief, w^hich appeal to no other
authority, and ask for no other ultimate arbiter
than properly instructed good sense. Secondly,
it is our especial duty to turn our attention to
them. — Bp. Ellicott., Modern Unbelief.
38
A POSTERIORI AND A PRIORI
ARGUMENT.
I. The Arguments defined.
[410] The arguments technically termed a
priori and a posteriori do not describe the
subject matter, but the principle or method of
reasoning ; the former being a method of pro-
ceeding from general truths to inferences, or from
causes to effects ; the latter being a method of
proceeding from effects to causes.
[411] The arguments which have been em-
ployed to pro\e the existence of a personal (iod
are of many kinds, and have been classified
under the division a priori and a posteriori,
according to the character of the reasoning, as
deductive fi-om necessary, axiomatic truth of the
reason, or inductive from the generalization
made by means of observation and experience.
— R. A. Bedford, The Christiaiis Plea.
[412] If there are any trtiths \v\-\\zh. the mind
possesses, whether consciously or uncon-
sciously, laeforc and independent of experience,
they may be called a priori truths, as belonging
to xl prior to alWhat it acquires from the world
around. On the other hand, truths which are
acquired by observation and experience are
THE EVIDENCES OF RELIGION GENERALLY.
412-419]
FcOSMOLOGtCAL ARGUMEN'I
75
called a posteriori truths, because they come to
the mind after it has become acquainted with
external facts. How far a /rw7 truths or ideas
are possible, is the great caiiipics pliilosopiiorum,
the great controverted question of mental phi-
losophy.— Abp. Thomson, Outline of Laws of
Thought.
II. Illustration of the a priori
Method.'
[413] That something of real being must have
existed from all eternity. In the succession of
nature we go back to a time when all that now
is was preceded by something. (2) This some-
thing must have been iincaicsed. (3) It must be
iitdepetident. (4) It must necessarily exist. (5)
It is self-active, that is, has power to act in and
of itself A necessary Being is acknowledged
in order to account for all other being ; hence
we must confess this Being to be self-active :
to deny it is absurd. (6) This Being is origin-
ally vital, and is the root of all vitality ; (7)
therefore it is of vast and mighty power. From
all this it follows as a plain and necessary
corollary, " That this world had a cause diverse
from the matter of which it is composed." The
Being whose existence is thus proved is wise
and intelligent as well as powerful. It would
be absurd to say that the cause of the world was
not an intelligent cause, as is shown by various
phenomena, which point to a wise and designing
cause. The idea of a fortuitous concourse of
atoms is shown to be unreasonable ; and the
idea of design shown in a multitude of par-
ticulars. As for the soul of man, it is argued,
that notwithstanding so high excellences, it
appears to be a caused being which sometime
had a beginning ; and that its very excellences
render it evident that the soul is due to a wise
and intelligent cause. — J. Howe, 1630-1705.
III. The Two- Lines or Methods illus-
trated AND combined.
[414] The following is an outline of Adam
Clarke's argument :
1. Admitting that something now is, it must
have a cause, a reason, a ground of its existence.
That ground of its existence must be in the
necessity of its own nature, or in the existence
of some other being ; in either case we must
assume existence as eternal. Something has
existed from eternity — Exnihilo nihil fit. This
is the argument from "sufficient causes."
2. It is absolutely impossible and inconceiv-
able that there should be an eternal succession
of dependent beings without any original inde-
pendent cause. Succession implies commence-
ment.
3. If existence is not an infinite series, then it
must be the effect of an infinite, immutable,
independent Being, self-existent and necessarily
existing.
4. That which necessarily exists, exists every-
where and always, and is one, because variety
or difference of existence is dependent on unity.
5. Reasoning a posteriori we may conclude
that the self-existent Being is intelligent and
free, infinitely wise, powerful and good. In this
argument the ontological and the cosmological
are mingled together, and the a posteriori is
brought in to complete the a priori. The first
proposition contains all the rest. It is the
application of the law of human thought to all
existence. Existence is an abstraction from
existing objects. What we know is the finite.
What we know of the Infinite Being is finite.
To reason from the idea of causation, as Clarke
does, to the existence of God, is metaphysically
impossible. An infinite cause is as inconceiv-
able as an infinite series of finite causes, for the
conception of cause itself is a relative and finite
conception, which loses its definite meaning
when it becomes infinite. It is a remarkable
fact that the axiom Ex nihilo nihil fit, which
Clarke employs, is now equally the resort of the
materialist in'seeking to establish the eternity
of matter.
[For fuller illustration o{ ih^ a piHori method,
see " Ontological argument," and for the a
posteriori method, see " Cosmological argu-
ment."]
39
COSMOLOGICAL ARGUMENT.
I. Definition of the Term.
[415] Analogy {Gr. Kofffiog, the world, and
Xoycc, discourse), the science of the world or
universe; or a treatise relating to the structure
and parts of the system of creation, the ele-
ments of bodies, the modifications of material
things, the laws of motion, and the order and
course of nature.
[416] The cosmological argument, like the
anthropological, is named from its subject
mother, namely, the Kosmos (Greek), i.e., well-
arranged universe, or combined system of
material existences.
II. Nature of the Argument.
[417] The argument is from the principle of
causation. Assuming the reality of the universe,
it is argued that, taken as a whole, it is an
efiect which must have proceeded from a First
Cause.
[418] This is the argument from cause and
effect. It is perhaps the most ancient of all
attempts to prove philosophically the existence
of a Supreme Being.
[419] The cosmological argument for the
existence of the Deity starts from experience
— from the observed contingency of the world,
in order to construct the supposed notion on
which it founds. Clarke's cosmological demon-
76
419—428]
THE EVIDENCES OF RELIGION GENERALLY.
[COSMOLOGICAL ARGUMENT.
stration, called a priori, is therefore, so far,
properly an argument a posteriori. — Sir IV.
Hainilloii, Rcicfs IVor/cs.
III. Facts and Principles upon which
THE Argument is based.
I The general order observable in nature.
[420] The Apostle Paul hath observed " the
invisible things of God from the creation of the
world are clearly seen, being understood by the
things that are made, even His eternal power
and Godhead." These things declare the
existence of an Almighty and most wise Being,
whom we call God, after the same manner,
though much more plainly, as a noble and well-
proportioned edifice, a curious and useful
engine, consisting of a variety of parts, a fine
stafue, or piece of painting convince us that
they were the productions of art and contri-
vance, though we were not present when the
several artists were at work about them. — //.
Grove, 1 683-1 738.
[42 1 J When we see a fair and a goodly
tower, though we saw not the workman when
he built it, yet we easily conceive that there was
some architect that framed it and set it up ; so,
when we see the glorious frame of heaven and
earth, we easily conceive that there is a God
who made it, though we see Him not. — J.
Smith, 1629.
[The force of the reasoning here lies in the
fact that it is not necessary to see the Worker,
it is enough to see the work which proves the
Worker.]
[422] We will not say infinite, lest we should
step too far at once ; not minding now to
discuss whether creation require infinite power,
when we consider and contemplate the vastness
of the work performed by it : unto which, if we
were to make our estimate by nothing else, we
must at least judge this power to be proportion-
able. For when our eyes behold an effect
exceeding the power of any cause which they
can behold, our mind must step in and supply
the defect of our feebler sense ; so as to make
a judgment there is a cause we see not, equal to
this effect. As when we behold a great and
magnificent fabric, and entering in we see not
the master, or any living thing (which was
Cicero's observation in reference to this present
purpose) besides mice or weasels, we will not
think tliat mice or weasels built it. Nor need
we, in a matter so obvious, insist further. But
only when our severer reason hath made us
confess, our further contemplation should make
us admire, a power which is at once both so
apparent and so stupendous.
[The force of the reasoning here lies in
the fact that the qualities and powers of the
Worker must be at least equal to the workman-
ship displayed.]
[423] Astronomy leads us to contemplate
phenomena, the very nature of which demon-
strates that they must have had a beginning,
and that they must have an end. — Huxley, Lay
Sermons.
[424] When it was proposed to Voltaire to
become an atheist, he said, " The universe em-
barrasses me ; I cannot see how a watch can
exist without a maker." — Prof. K. Naville,
Eternal Life.
[425] When one in reply to the saying, " Facts
are against you," replied, "So much the worse
for the facts," he inverted the only witty defence
of Atheism, or rather the only evasion of the
difficulty ; which, however, is thus confessed by
implication. — B. G.
[426] The footprint of the savage traced in
the sand is sufficient to attest the presence of
man to the atheist who will not recognize God,
whose hand is impressed upon the entire
universe. — Hugh Miller.
2 The beauty observable in nature.
[427] All beauty is a gleam from the fountain
of beauty. No work of beauty can be more
beautiful than the mind which designed it. I
do not think a sculptor can possibly chisel a
marble so as to make it more beautiful than his
own ideal conception. I do not think a painter
can produce a painting more beautiful than the
thought of his mind which led up to it ; 1 do
not think a musician can express in sound, or a
poet on paper, anything beyond the thought
within hiiTi. I know, indeed, that the concep-
tion of either may grow with the process by
which it is presented to others, and that the man
may, as he proceeds, have a fairer and nobler
view of what he is trying to express ; but, after
all, the mind of the sculptor is more beautiful
than the marble which he has sculptured ; and
the mind of the painter is a more beautiful thing
than the work of art which he has painted ; and
the mind of the musician is better and higher
and nobler than the most exquisite symphony
which he has composed and reduced to writing;
and the mind of the poet is better than his
most beautiful piece of poetry. And so we
must rise from all the fragments of beauty which
God has scattered so widely over His world to
say with Milton —
" Thine this universal frame
Thus wondrous fair ; Thyself how wondrous
then ! "
—E. H. Bickersteth.
3 The mechanism of the human frame.
[428] It would be far more unreasoning to
believe that that unrivalled mechanism, the
human frame, was self-developed, than to believe
that if a '' fortuitous concourse of atoms " of
brass and steel, swept up from a workman's
floor, were put into a bag and thoroughly well-
shaken, they would spontaneously evolve a first
rate chronometer. — Cliarles Brooke.
THE EVIDENCES OF RELIGION GENERALLY.
429—437]
[COSMOLOGICAL ARGUMENT.
77
4 The antecedent idea involved in the fact
of sight.
[429] Sight being a fact, not precedent, but
subsequent to the putting togetherof the organic
structure of the eye, can only be connected with
the production of that structure in the character
of a final, not an efficient, cause. That is, it is
not sight itself, but an antecedent idea of it, that
must be the efficient cause. But this at once
marks the origin as proceeding from an in-
telligent will. — Jolin Stita7t Mill, Three Essays
on Religion.
5 The very fact of man's existence.
[430] Man, the noblest creature upon earth,
hath a beginning. No man in the world but
was some years ago no man. If every man we
see had a beginning, then the first man had also
a beginning, then the world had a beginning ;
for the earth, which was made for the use of
man, had wanted that end for which it was
made. We must pitch upon some one man
that was unborn, that first man must either be
eternal, and that cannot be, for he that hath no
beginning hath no end ; or must spring out of
the earth, as plants and trees do, and that can-
not be ; for why should not the earth produce
men to this day, as it doth plants and trees ?
He was therefore made ; and whatsoever is
made hath some cause that made it, which is
God. — S. Charftock, 1628- 1680.
6 The existence of matter ,
[431] It is objected that nothing can produce
nothing ; which means that nothing can be pro-
duced without an adequate cause. But there
is an adequate cause for the existence of the
Universe m the Will of an Almighty Being.
Our appeal to nature leads us to considera-
tions which rest upon the principles of causation
as suggested to us by the material world. Step
by step we find ourselves led through the realm
of secondary causes until at length the existence
of our First Cause will be found to be a logical
and intellectual necessity. — Bp. Ellicott, Six
Addf'esscs.
[432] The positive mode of thought is not
necessarily a denial of the Supernatural, since
it merely throws back the questions of the origin
of all things. If the universe had a beginning,
its beginning, by the very conditions of the case,
was supernatural ; the Laws of Nature cannot
account for their own origin. — y. S. Mill, Comte
and Fositiz'isni.
IV. Considerations which give Weight
TO THE Argument.
I Certain facts have to be accounted for.
[433] W^hat are the things of which we have to
seek the true and efficient cause ? These are
three. We have to account for three begin-
nings— the beginning of the material v.'orld, the
beginning of life, and the beginning of mind. —
Bp. Ellieott.
2 The cause must be permanently presiding
over changing elements and processes.
[434] Every eftect must have an adequate
cause. The world is an effect, therefore, &c.
A cause is something having a real existence,
having also power and efficiency sufficient and
appropriate to the effect produced. This idea
of a cause is proved to be true by our own con-
sciousness, by appeal to the consciousness of
other men, and it is shown in the universal
belief that every effect must have a cause.
The world is not self-existent and eternal :
(i) Every part of it, ever)'thing that enters
into its composition is dependent and mutable.
(2) We have historical evidence that the race
of man, e.g., has not existed from eternity.
(3) The evidence of geology is to the sime
effect regarding other animals and plants. — Dr.
C. Hodge, Syste/nalic Theology.
3 There is nothing in material elements
to account for the orderly processes in
nature.
[435] Design or no design, purpose or no
purpose, a mass of matter cannot determine its
own quantity ; the amount of energy which
exists unchanged and unchangeable in a
material system cannot determine its own
amount ; the straight line in which the centre
of the system moves and the uniform velocity
with which it moves cannot determine them-
selves : yet all these things have been deter-
mined somehow. Therefore they must have
been determined by an agent which is outside
the material system, or, in other words, which
is not itself material. There may have been, so
far as my argument is concerned, no good pur-
pose, nor any purpose at all, in the determina-
tion ; but it is absolutely impossible, so far as
I can perceive, to avoid the conclusion that a
determining cause exists. I am disposed to call
this result a denionslralion from natural pre-
misses of the existe7ice of the Stiper natural. — Bp.
Harvey Goodwin.
V. Testimony in Favour of the Argu-
ment.
1 The conclusion of advanced religious and
scientific criticism.
[436] Consciousness of an unscrutable Power,
manifested to us through all phenomena, has
been growing ever clearer, and must eventually
be freed from its imperfections. The certainty
that on the one hand such a Power exists, while
on the other hand its nature transcends intuition
and is beyond imagination, is the certainty to-
ward which intelligence has from the first been
progressing. To this conclusion science inevi-
tably arrives as it reaches its confines ; while
to this conclusion religion is irresistibly driven
by criticism. — Herbert Spencer.
2 The plain teaching of revelation.
[437] The doctrine of creation, revealed in
the opening words of Scripture, agrees at once
78
THE EVIDENCES OF RELIGION GENERALLY.
437--440]
[ethical argumknt.
with the most certain conclusions of sound
reason, that time and the universe had a begin-
mx\'^; and with the widest results of induction
with regard to all the successive generations of
plants and animals during the ages of known
history. The progress forward, in every case,
is not from like to unlike, but from the few to
the many ; and the only progress backward,
which can claim really scientific evidence, is
not from like to unlike, from the defiaite to the
undefined, but from the many to the few.
To these fatal objections is added another,
more decisive still to reverent minds. Its direct
and plain tendency is to dethrone the Creator,
and thrust Him far away from the thoughts of
men. It sets before us nothing higher than the
vision described by Milton as once witnessed
from the open gates of hell :
"The secrets of the honry deep, a dark
Illimitable ocean, without bound.
Without dimension, where length, breadth,
and height,
And time and space, are lost ; where eldest
Night,
And Chaos, ancestors of nature, hold
Eternal anarchy, amidst the noise
Of endless wars, and by confusion stand."
The simple narrative of Scripture, which this
theory sets aside with scorn, embodies and
combines all the surest and grandest inductions
of science, the constancy of species, tneir gene-
rative and multiplying power, and the ascend-
ing order and scale of being, from lifeless
matter, through the plant, and lower animals,
up to man, created in the image of God. And
then it forms them all into the noble pedestal
for a glorious series of Divine revelations ; until
we rise to share in the rest of the Creator, and
in the worship of the spirits before the throne,
when the morning stars sang together, and all
the sons of God shouted for joy. As far as man
excels the monkey, so far the blind guesses of
irreligious science are excelled by the philoso-
phical depth and simple and sublime grandeur
of the very first page in the true and faithful
sayings of the Living Cod.— Browjtlow Mait-
land.
40
ETHICAL ARGUMENT.
I. Lines of the Argument.
I The existence of the innate idea of justice.
(l) As seen in editcaftng- childfen.
[438] The education of children cannot be
carried out on any other hypothesis than that
of moral order. No one will dare to teach his
child that he is to disregard the quality and
tendency of his actions. Plainly, therefore,
mankind bear witnessto theexistence of freedom
and moral government in the world. A com-
munity which should be entirely under the
control of virtuous principles, all whose members
are virtuous and whose life is an exercise of
power on the lines of virtue, would be acknow-
ledged to be the highest and most powerful
community in the world. '' It would plainly be
superior to all others, and the world must
gradually come under its empire." If the mani-
fest tendency of things, then, is to the superiority
of virtue, there must be an adaptation of the
constitution of the universe to that tendency,
and therefore there must be a moral order,
invisible and imperfectly established, but on the
way to being made manifest and complete here-
after.—7?. A. Redford, The CJu-istians Plea.
2 The existence of the idea of responsi-
bility.
(i) As seen m the expiatory natuj-e of punish-
ment.
[The idea of punishment for offences is not
merely founded on utility, but, in satisfaction to
justice, as a kind of imperfect expiation.]
[439] Nothing is more common than to hear
it said of a criminal that he has expiated his
crime on the scaffold, or that a youth of folly
and vice has been expiated by years of subse-
quent suffering. Let us consider what is meant
by such an expression. We obviously speak of
punishment here not as a means of repairing
mischief done, which in some cases, as in that
of murder, is impossible ; nor as a means of
deterring others from the commission of a like
crime ; nor of reforming the criminal, for in
capital punishments this too is impossible : a
far deeper idea than any of these lies at the
root of this ordinary language, that of the
necessity of the restoration of right infringed,
but not to be infringed with impunity. The
State, as a Divine institution intended to main-
tain right in the form of law, purges itself by
the punishment of the criminal, of participation
in his criine ; the criminal himself, by sutiering
the punishment, restores matters, as far as in
him lies, to their former position. Punishment
is the recoil of the eternal law of right against
the transgressor. The whole history of crime
proves that this notion is agreeable to the moral
sense. Instances are on record in which crimi-
nals whose sin would never in this world have
found them out, have been impelled by the
secret craving for atonement, in the sense of
expiation, to deliver themselves voluntarily into
the hands of justice ; and, this being done, have
expressed their satisfaction, as if a burden which
had long lain on their heart had been removed.
The feeling in such cases is. not merely that
injury has been done to individuals, but that a
righteous law has been violated and a debt to
justice has been mc\.wi:cd. — Baupton Lectitres,
1S56.
3 The acknowledged necessity of ethical
teaching.
[440] Consider the expression, We ought to
THE EVIDENCES OF RELIGION GENERALLY.
440—444]
[ethical argument.
79
do so. What does it mean ? The meaning of
" ought " is, that a man may leave a thing un-
done if he pleases, but that he ought not to do
so. There is something within him which will
reproach him if he does, and say, You ought not.
There is an obligation before which you ought
to bow, higher than you. To matter, force, or
invariable law the sense of duty or obligation is
utterly inapplicable. What owe I to them ?
There is something within us which points to
something outside us, which cannot be generated
by their united force. " I ought ''—the idea is
as universal as man. Even he who in theory
denies responsibility is compelled to use the
unwelcome word. To what, then, does it point ?
To matter, force, or law, or any of their modifi-
cations ? Meditate on the mysterious word, for
it reaches to the profoundest depths of our being.
What does it affirm? It is right, it is fitting,
it is proper, it is your dMX.y.--Rcv. C. A. Row.
[The connection of duty, which implies a
moral governor, is not dependent on utility in a
sense of selfish advantage.]
[441] There is yet another interval. A being
may be a person, and yet have no conception
of right or duty. I select this conception as
representative of the whole moral nature of
man, of which it forms the most remarkable
characteristic. It is immaterial to my argu-
ment whether the utilitarian philosophy is
correct in its analysis of the origin of the idea.
I firmly believe that it is not. But the fact
cannot be gainsaid that vast numbers of minds
of the highest order have a clear conception
of duty quite distinct from any reference to
utilitarianism. On the contrary, they feel the
strongest obligation to sacrifice themselves to
it in contradiction to the strongest dictates of
expediency. There is something within us
which says. Let right prevail even if the
heavens fall. There must therefore have been
a time when the first being who was capable
of feeling a sense of duty, who could bow before
a moral law and say, '' I ought," began to be.
The interval is one which separates the con-
ception of duty from non-duty ; of conscience
from non-conscience ; of a moral nature from
the want of it. The difference is not one of
degree, but of kind. Between laws of motion
and their modifications and conceptions of
duty there is no one thing in common. When
the idea of duty first originated, a new order
of being entered the universe.^ — Ibid.
II. Importance of the Argument.
I The ethical element in Christianity con-
stitutes its chief claim to Divine authority.
[442] There are two lines of proof by which
Christianity may be shown to be a Divine reve-
lation— the historical and the moral. The first
of these assigns the most prominent position
to a body of external evidence, which is ad-
duced for the purpose of proving the genuine-
ness and authenticity of the writings in which
it has been communicated, and of the miracles
by which it has been attested. By demon-
strating the truth of these it endeavours to
ascend to Him to whom writings and miracles
alike point. But the moral proof presents us
at once with the person and teaching of Jesus
Christ, as the evidence of His mission. Through
it, it addresses its appeals at the same time
both to the understanding and to the moral
and spiritual nature of man, his reason, his
conscience, and his affections. In this proof
the moral and spiritual occupy the foreground ;
the historical and the miraculous the secondary
place. It begins with Christ. Through His
person and teaching it advances to the Divine
character of the book which contains them,
and supplements the whole by the historical
proof.
This mode of reasoning has one advantage
over the historical method. It is as strong
now, probably stronger, than it was in the
second century. The historical proof has been
weakened by the loss of a great mass of Chris-
tian literature, and of the works of its earliest
opponents. It also requires a large acquaint-
ance with history and a considerable amount
of critical judgment for its full appreciation.
The moral requires only familiarity with the
New Testament and the exercise of sound
judgment to arrive at the conclusion that
Christianity is Divine. The historical proof
has been chiefly employed by the defenders of
Christianity in their controversies with modern
unbelievers. The moral one was that on which
the writers of the three first centuries chiefly
relied. It was that which greatly contributed
to the multiplication of the Church from the
five hundred primitive believers to the many
millions which rendered her the dominant re-
ligion of the Roman Empire. — Ibid.
2 The ethical element essential to the per-
fection of human society.
[443] No human being, and no society com-
posed of human beings, ever did or ever will
come to much, unless their conduct was
governed and guided by some ethical idea. —
Critiques and Addresses.
3 The moral element is the basis and sub-
stratum of the spiritual and Divine life in
man.
[444] At first one might imagine the spiritual
to be simply a development of the mental and
moral parts of the animal life. It may yet be
seen — it is indeed an expectation of science —
that animal life is simply a development of the
vegetable ; how much more might one expect
the spiritual to be merely the development of
the animal 1 The question is appallingly igno-
rant. There is in the world no such wide
chasm as that which separates the natural and
the spiritual. The natural man belongs to this
present world : the spiritual man has a new, a
8o
444—452]
THE EVIDENCES OF RELIGION GENERALLY.
[HISTORICAL ARGfMENT.
distinct, a supernatural endowment : he is not
of this world, he is of eternity. — Pj-oJ. Henry
Druininond, Clerical World, 18S1.
41
HISTORICAL ARGUMENT.
I. The Argt;ment Itself.
1 Its nature.
[445] This argument is from the consent of
mankind, as testified in the facts of human
history.
[446] Some view, however imperfect, of
divinity is associated with the whole career
of humanity, and tinges all human life and
history ; it underlies all religion and all super-
stition, and enters into every solemn form of
justice and government. All Church history is
full of it, and is based on it. All the con-
ceptions and rites of paganism rest on the
same fundamental idea. Atheism itself is a
contradictory acknowledgment of the idea of
theism, and could not exist without it. — B. G.
2 The line taken.
(i) The unii'ersally felt need of a sjcpreme
and personal Deity.
[447] " Every human heart is human.
And even in savage bosoms ,
There are longings, yearnings, strivings,
For the good they comprehend not ;
And the feeble hands and helpless.
Groping blindly in the darkness,
Touch God's right hand in that darkness.
And are lifted up and strengthened."
[448] The explanation which lies at the
foundation of revelation cannot at all events
be proved to be contradicted by the facts ;
whereas to assume the perfectibility of man,
and to deny the reality of moral evil, is to
leave a thousand things unexplained and to
run counter to the inmost consciousness of
man. The cry which has gone up from the
heart of humanity eveiywhere is a confession
of sin and a longing after peace with God. —
A'. A. Redford, The Christia?i's Plea.
[449] When you need a God, one that can
help you (for that is the principal point), you
must accept also His identity and oneness ; His
superhumanity,His all-goodness and all-wisdom.
I have indeed returned to God, like the prodigal
son, after long tending of swine. The yearning
for heaven came upon me and urged me forth
through forests and ambushed passes, over the
giddiest mountains of logical bewilderment.
On my course I discovered the God of the
pantheist, i^ut he could not help me. This poor
visionary being has interwoven and incorpo-
rated himself with the world, and become so
imprisoned in it that he can do nothing but
gape at you powerlessly and without purpose.
No ! To have a will on our side we must have
a personality. — Ibid.
(2) The teaching of comparative grammar
as applied to mythology.
[450] When we examine most of the heathen
religions in their oldest portions, we find an
agreement in certain simple fundamental
features, and this agreement is fully confirmed
among nations of kindred stock, an identity in
the terms running through their language. The
Greek word Z^rt-, the name of the highest deity,
and common to all the Greek dialects, is the
same as the Latin Jov, the root of the word
Jupiter, with the Anglo-Saxon Tin, and the old
high German Zio ; and all these are identical
with the Sanscrit Dyit ; and this word, the
radical meaning of which is to beam forth, is an
appellation in later use for heaven, but in the
oldest songs of the Vedas (the original docu-
ments of the Hindu religion) it is a popular
name for the highest god and the father of gods
and men. — PJleiderer.
(3 j The pcrsoruil and social 7-ecords of Chris-
tianity.
[451] Christianity claims to be an historical
religion ; the records are records of human
lives and experiences, and of great social facts.
The truth which it places beside them, and by
which alone, it maintains, they can be vindi-
cated as real, is the truth that the personal God
reveals His presence and His spiritual power,
as and where He pleases, for the lifting up of
the individual human consciousness, for the
production of new facts in experience, and for
the development of new forms of society. — R.
A Redford, The Christian's Plea.
II. The Facts upon which the Argu-
ment RESTS.
I The amount and character of the general
consent of mankind in reference to the
being and existence of God.
[452] We may now sum up our general con-
clusions as to the amount and the character of
the general consent of mankind in reference to
the Being and Existence of God. They would
seem to be briefly as follows : —
First, that religion, and consequently the
belief in the existence of a Being or Beings
with whom that religion is connected, is
virtually universal. The " symphony of all
religions," to use the striking words of Cud-
worth, attests the belief of man in a supra-
mundane and supreme God. Secondly, that
there are distinct traces in the past, and equally
clear evidences in the present, of a tendency
towards the conc^tion of ore Supreme Being
who is the origin of all things — but that there
are examples, such for instance as Buddhism,
which show that the tendency towards that
452—460]
THE EVIDENCES OF RELIGION GENERALLY. 81
[ONTOLOGICAL AND METAPHYSICAL ARGUMENT.
conception has, in certain cases, as yet been
imperfectly developed. Thirdly, that there are
no traces, either in the past or the present, of
the existence of atheism, except in the cases of
individuals and limited schools of speculative
thought. — Bp. Eliicott, The Behig of God.
[453] What it all seems to amount to is this,
that the current of human thought regarded as
a whole is to theism, but that this theism has
not, in many rases, attained to its full develop-
ment. The stream, however, is all setting one
way, the backwater movement is slight, dis-
continuous, and exceptional. — Ibid.
2 The conclusion to be drawn from the
general consent of mankind to the exis-
tence of God.
[454] The existence of this general consent,
according to Barrow, may be attributed either
(i) to a natural light, or instinct, or to what
Stillingfleet speaks of as the inward ''voice of
nature ; " in other words, to innate ideas. Or it
may be ascribed (2) to a common and prevail-
ing incliration to entertain the opinion when-
ever intelligently propounded : or, yet again, (3)
to some prevalent reason suggested by the
general appearances of nature : or, lastly, (4) to
some common fountain of original instruction,
some one primitive tradition which had become
the sort of heirloom of the race.
III. Objections Considered.
I The alleged existence of some non-
theistic savages.
[455] The objection from the exception, if
real, of non-theistic savages, is like an objection
to reason from the case of idiocy, which means
speciality, and is no measure of, but outside
ordinary sane humanity. — B. G.
[456] The first need not detain us more than
a moment. It is said that travellers have
occasionally discovered small tribes of men
among whom no traces of theistic belief could
be detected. Such tribes have invariably been
in the lowest stage of debasement and
ignorance ; without writing or art, or anything
that savours of civilization ; scarcely intelligible
in their speech, unsociable, inhospitable, and
retiring from strangers within the fence of a
sullen reserve. To arrive at any certainty
about the religious belief of such tribes could in
few cases be an easy matter, and subsequent
visitors have not seldom found reason to correct
the impressions reported by those who first
made acquaintance with them. But whatever
may have been the precise condition of these
it.w exceptional tribes, it can no more tell
against the universality of the instinct which
leads to belief in God, than the absence of
intelligence in infants and idiots can tell against
the universality of the endowment of mankind
with the faculty of reason. So far as any
inference can be drawn from them it would be
VOL. I. I
that atheism is associated with only the lowest
and most debased stage of human nature ; an
inference which can scarcely be of much value
to the opponents of theism. — Brownlow Mait-
land, Theism or Agtiosiicisin.
2 The alleged atheism of Buddhism.
[Another objection is founded on the case
of Buddhism, in which there is a ni) stical denial
of human personality equally with apparent
ignoring of Divine personality.]
[457] Buddha himself has become a deity to
his disciples, and the state of extinction or un-
consciousness to which his doctrine points has
assumed to the popular mind the aspect of a
delicious paradise of repose. Moieover, along-
side of the worship ot Buddha there has, at
least in some quarters, grown up a supple-
mentary worship of deities of a subordinate
kind, by which the system has become a sort of
incongruous polytheism. So that, on the whole.
Buddhism, in its historical aspect, bears witness
rather for than against the hypothesis of an
instinctive tendency in human nature to believe
in God.
Once more, whatever Buddhism is theoreti-
cally, in its actual working it is the religion of
stagnation. Among none but dreamy, listless,
unprogressive Orientals could it have survived
a sin:.^le generation. Not one iota has it ey-r
contributed to the development of mankind ;
not a single leader of our race has ever sprung
from its loosom. It is the religion of a starved,
stunted, torpid humanity, possible only when
man is little more than half human", and utterly
incompatible with the life, the energy, and the
intellectual culture of the Western world. — Ibid.
[458] There is no place found for permanent
or general atheism in any stage of history or
any condition of society, so abhorrent is this
idea to humanity.
42
ONTOLOGICAL AND METAPHY-
SICAL ARGUMENT
I. Definition of Terms.
[459] Ontology (from Gr. ovra, the things
which exist, pi. neut. of ujv 'ijvtoq^ being p. pr.
of Hvai, to be, and Aoyoc, discourse) ; that part
of the science of metaphysics which investigates
and explains the nature and essential properties
and relations of all beings, as such.
[460] Metaphysics (Gr. }ii.Ta rd (pvrriKa, after
these things, which relate to external nature, after
physics, from yuera, beyond, after, and (pvaiKov,
relating to external nature, natural, physical,
from ^i'aiQ, nature.) It is said that this name
was given to the science by Aristotle or his
82
460—469]
THE EVIDENCES OF RELIGION GENERALLY.
[ONTOLOGICAL AND METAPHYSICAL ARGUMENT.
followers, who considered the science of natural
bodies, physics, to be the first in the order of
studies, and the science of mind, or intelligence,
to be the second. The science of real as dis-
tinguished from phenomenal being ; ontology ;
also the science of being, as such, as distin-
guished from the science of determined or
concrete being,
[461] The words "meta physical'' are first
meant simply after the physic or material studies,
and was a direction or title on books or papers to
indicate that they came after in physics, as a
second course of study, and afterwards the words
came to mean superphysical or philosophical,
a transcending science, and dealing not with
merely material facts, but with the principles
underlying them.— j5. G.
II. Nature of the Argument.
[462] Oniologica! proof, the <^ /r/cr/ argument
for being in general, and for the being of God,
and its essential attributes and relations, derived
from the necessary elements involved in the
very idea of God. According to others, it is
the argument derived from the necessary ex-
istence of time and space, and hence the
necessary existence of some Being to fill and
occupy them.
III. Lines of the Argument.
1 Man has an innate idea of God.
d) TIic idea of God is peculiar to man.
[463] The idea of God has always existed in
the human mind in every stage of development,
and either man's reason, conscience, instinct,
and consciousness are unreliable, or there is
some reality corresponding to this idea. Either
it arises from the projection of man's nature
beyond itself to the supernatural, or it is the
reflection of the supernatural into the mirror of
humanity, as the sky and the foliage on the
banks of a lake are reflected in its still waters.
Not that every idea in man's mind corre-
sponds to som3 reality, but no such genera
conception as this of God can be without it
counterpart, unless reason and conscience be
themselves unreliable.
It is in this sense above described that
Anselm's saying is true and profound, viz. : " The
idea of God in the mind of man is the one un-
answerable evidence of the existence of God." —
B.G.
(2) The idea of God in man is definite attd
distinct from all other ideas.
[464] You may deny the ideas of the Ittfinite
and the Ete7-nal as not clear; and clear they are
not, if nothing but the mental picture of an out-
line can deserve that word. But if a tiiought is
clear when it sits apart without danger of being
confounded with another, when it can exactly
keep its own in speech and reasoning, without
forfeiture and without encroachment ; if, in
short, logical clearness consists not in the idea
of a limit, but in the limit of the idea, then no
sharpest image of any finite quantity, say of a
circle or an hour, is clearer than the thought
of the Infinite and the Eternal. — Dr. Martineau.
[465] It is as easy by reason to understand
that He is, as it is difficult to know what He is.
—S. Charnock, B.D., 1628- 1680.
[466] One thing alone is certain— the Fatherly
smile which every now and then gleams through
nature, bearing witness that an Eye looks down
upon us, that a Heart follows us. — Renan.
(3) The idea of God in man is a real and
operative spiritual principle.
[467] There may be a consciousness of God,
which is not a knowledge of Him of a kind with
our knowledge of matters of fact, and yet is the
most real, because the most operative, of all
spiritual principles. — Frof. T. H. Green in Con-
temporary Review.
[468] It is the consciousness of God which
has in manifold forms been the moralizing agent
in human society ; nay, the formative principle
of that society itself. The existence of specific
duties, and the recognition of them ; the spirit
of self-sacrifice ; the moral law, and the rever-
ence for it in its most abstract and absolute
form — all no doubt presuppose society ; but
society, of a kind to render them possible, is
not the creature of appetite or fear, or of the
most complicated and indirect results of these.
It implies the action in man of a piinciple in
virtue of which he projects himself into the
future, or into some other world, as some more
perfect being than he actually is, and thus seeks
not merely to satisfy momentary wants, but to
become another man — to become more nearly
as this more perfect being ; . . . always keeping
before man in various guise according to the
degree of his development, an unrealized ideal
of a Best, which is his God, and giving Divine
authority to the customs or laws by which some
likeness of this ideal is wrought into the actuality
of life.— /<^/V/.
[469] Conscience expresses the instinctive
sense of obligation to moral law. This law was
not enacted, and is not reversible by the human
will ; it is imposed by an authority outside of
ourselves. The instinct of obligation is active
when we are separated from all human govern-
ment and society ; we cannot imagine ourselves
to obliterate this obligation by the obliteration
of all finite beings ; we know that we must
answer to a Power outside of us. In the nature
of things this implies that the Power to which
we are answerable knows what we do and what
we ought to do ; approves the right and disap-
proves the wrong, and has the power and pur-
pose to rewani us according to our character
and conduct. — Rev. Joseph Cook, Boston
Lectures (187 8).
470—478]
THE EVIDENCES OF RELIGION GENERALLY. 83
[ONTOLOGICAL AND METAPHYSICAL ARGUMENT.
2 Conscience gives practical force to the
innate idea of God.
(i) All rational views of the Divine nature
involve our respofisibility to the Divine will.
[470] Man believes in God because God
reveals Himself to his consciousness. But to
know God is not to know God perfectly ; it is
not to comprehend His existence, but to appre-
hend it, •' There are three main elements,"
?ays Dr. Newman in his " Grammar of Assent,"
" which nature furnishes for acquiring the
knowledge of God ; viz., our own minds, the
voice of mankind, and the course of the world,
i.e., of human life and affairs. The informations
■which these three convey to us teach us the
Being and attributes of God, our responsibility
to Him, our prospect of reward and punishment,
to be somehow brought about according as we
obey or disobey Him. And the most authori-
tative of these three means of knowledge, as
being especially our own, is our own mind,
whose informations give us the rule by which we
test, interpret, and correct what is presented to
us for belief, whether by the universal testimony
of mankind or by the history of society and the
world.—/?. A. Redjord, The Christian's Flea.
(2) Man's conscience, as the elcinent reco^niz-
ing duty, involves the existence of God as the
Moral Ruler of the universe.
[471] It seems to be possible to build upon
the very fact of the existence of the conscience
an independent argument in favour of the being
of God. The existence of the law in the heart
seems to imply the existence of a lawgiver.^
McCosh, Method of the Divine Government.
(3) Conscience is the echo of the Divine voice
of command.
[472] What is the instinct of awe and sense
of obligation found in every breast, but the
testimony to some higher and superior power .^
As the echo implies some preceding sound,
surely the whispers of conscience imply the
'inner voice of the Great Spirit. — Bowes.
[473] How beautifully was its office set forth
in the ring which, according to an Eastern tale,
a great magician presented to his prince ! The
gift wasof inestimable value,notforthediamonds
and rubies and pearls that gemmed it, but for a
rare and mystic property in the metal. It sat
easily enough in ordinary circumstances ; but so
soon as its wearer formed a bad thought or wish,
designed or concocted a bad action, the ring be-
camea monitor. Suddenly contracting, it pressed
painfully on the finger, warning him of sin. The
ring of that fable is just that conscience which
is the voice of God within us, which is His law
written on the fleshy tablets of the heart. — Dr.
Guthrie.
3 Moral instincts aid to interpret and
strengthen the innate idea of God.
(l) Cottscietice, as God's vicegerent, is also the
inward witness of the Divine existence and
government.
[474J The considerations drawn from our
moral nature have been deemed by some of our
deepest thinkers to be the most momentous and
most convincing, that there must be one blessed
Being to whom every "ought" is owed, every
duty due, and in whom alone is to be found that
moral perfection which the soul recognizes as
its ideal, and knows to be the surest of all testi-
monies to the existence of an all-pure and all-
holy God.— .6^. Ellicott, Six Addresses (1880).
(2) Mans moral instincts as much indicate a
higher moral Ruler as the mechajiical instincts
of the inferior creatures indicate a guiding in-
telligence superior to those creatures.
[475] We investigate the instincts of the ant,
and the bee, and the beaver, and discover that
they are led by an inscrutable agency to work
toward a distant purpose. Let us be faithful to
our scientific method, and investigate also those
instincts of the human mind by which man is
led to work as if the approval of a Higher
Being were the aim of life. — Prof. W. S.
fevons, The Principles of Science.
(3) The power of conscience is the supreme
authority in all states and stages in the world,
and is the Divine witness within.
[476] The history, the conscience, and the
experience of the human race tell it that its
relations to its Creator have a firm experimental
basis on which to rest. No one, however refined
or however untutored, can escape the inward
control of conscience, or the external influence
"of that power which makes for righteousness,"
which prescribes conduct, and gives or with-
holds personal happiness and inward peace.
The sense of those relations is universal ; it has
been the very life of nations and individuals ;
it calls forth the whole power of the race, and
alone of all the notions that have possessed
mankind is capable of illuminating the future
or stimulating real progress. There is an innate
force and power in it that will compel men to
belief and reverence ; and unless tradition and
historic revelation are accepted, the inward
craving which remains is hard to satisfy. —
B lac.': wood's Magazine (1874).
(4) Conscience by its striving indicates a pur-
pose outside and superior to ourselves.
[477] When I attentively consider what is
going on in my conscience, the chief thing
forced on my notice is that I find myself face to
face with a purpose — not my own, for I am often
conscious of resisting it — but which dominates
me and makes itself felt as ever present, as the
very root and reason of my being. — Thomas
Er'skine, 2 he Spiritual Order and other
Papers.
[478] This consciousness of a purpose con-
cerning me that I should be a good man — right,
true, and unselfish — is the first firm footing I
have in the region of religious thought : for I
cannot dissociate the idea of a purpose from"
that of a Purposer, and I cannot but identify
this Purposer with the Author of my being and
84
478—425]
THE EVIDENCES OF RELIGION GENERALL)
[psychological argument.
and the Being of all beings ; and further, I
cannot but regard His purpose towards me
as the unmistakable indication of His own
character. — Jbid.
(5) The power of conscience is the shadow
and representation 0/ a Ruler without.
[479] There is an internal proof of a Deity
arising from conscience, and the reflexion of
the mind on the good or evil we do, which
amounts to the fullest declaration of the power
of God, and is the complelest promulgation of
His law to mankind that can be desired or
expected. In all civil cases a king is sufficiently
proclaimed, and a law is sufficiently pro-
mulged, when either is done according to
custom in some public and solemn manner ; for
it being impossible to give every man concerned
particular notice, the necessity of the case re-
quires that every man should at his peril take
notice of the public declaration. But with
respect to the authority of God and the common
laws of morality such care is taken that the
promulgation is made at every man's own door,
nay, in his very heart. The sense which men
have of good and evil, the hopes and fears
which naturally arise inconsequence of the good
or ill they do, are such demonstrations, and so
homely applied to every man's understandmg,
of the obedience owing to a superior Being,
that nothing can invalidate. — Bp. Sherlock,
1678-1761.
IV. Difficulties connected with this
Method of Argument.
[480] An idea of God is in my mind. That
idea of God must be a necessary idea or a
factitious idea. If a necessary idea, that is, one
which my reason, as reason, includes, although
I am not able to account for it and speculatively
prove it to have any other origin than the law
of my own thought, still is not existence a
necessary constituent of it, i.e., am I not com-
pelled to think of the infinite, the absolute, the
eternal, as a Being.-' Even if these positions be
sustained, the reply might be made. But what
is proved more than the existence of an idea .''
How do you pass from the subjective to the ob-
jective, from the necessity of thought to the
necessity of being? In the Middle Ages the
Realism of Plato, mingled with the Aristotelian
logic, produced a metaphysical and partly mys-
tical theology, which delighted in attempting
answers to such questions ; but they were little
better than reasonings in a vicious circle, the
existence of God being assumed to prove the
validity and truthfulness of human reason, and
then human reason being called in to prove the
existence of God. Realism and Nominalism
struggled long for supremacy, but Realism
triumphed in the theological schools of Europe.
—A'. A. Red/ord, The Christian's I'lea.
[48 1 J Metaphysical proofs of God are so very
intricate, and so far removed from the common
reasonings of men, that they strike with little
force : or, at best, the impression continues but
a short space ; and the very next hour men
fancy that they have been deceived : so that
what they have learned by curiosity they lose
again through pride.
Again, arguments of this kind are able to lead
us no farther than a speculative knowledge of
God ; and to know Him only thus is, in effect,
not to know Him at all. — Pascal, 'J hote^hts
on Religion, 1623-1662.
43
FS YCHOL O GICA L ARG UMENT.
I. Definition of Term.
[482] Psychological (Gr. ^i^vxh, the soul, mind,
and Xoyoi^, discourse). The science of the human
soul ; specifically, the systematic or scientific
knowledge of the powers and functions of the
human soul, so far as they are known by con-
sciousness.
II. Various Lines of the Argument.
I Man's nature includes ethical and religious
instincts.
[483] As a shadow proves the existence of
light, though obstructed by some intervening
object, so man's religious instincts prove the
existence of something corresponding thereto.
As the eye implies light, so man's religious
instincts imply the existence of the Divine
Being. Man's religious nature is as real as his
physical nature, and implies a spiritual as much
as the other implies a physical world.— i>. G. •
[484] That religious instincts are as truly a
part of our nature as are our appetites and our
nerves is a fact which all history establishes,
and which forms one of the strongest proof's of
the reality of that unseen world to which the
soul of man continually tends — Lecky, History
of European Morals.
a Man's spiritual and moral nature is such
as to connect him with moral government.
[485] As a psychological fact we are iritui-
tively conscious that our benevolent affections
are superior to our malevolent ones; truth to
falsehood, justice to injustice, gratitude to in-
gratitude, chastity to sensuality ; and that in
all ages and countries the path of virtue has
been towards the higher and not towards the
lower feelings. " La loi fondamentale de la
morale," says Voltaire, " agit sur toutes les
nations. II y a miUe differences dans les in-
terpr(^tations de cettc loi en mille circonstances,
mais le fond subsiste toujours Ic meme, et ce
fond c'est I'idee du juste et de I'injuste." — Pre-
betidary Griffith, Fundamentals.
486-492J
THE EVIDENCES OF RELIGION GENERALLY. 85
[PHYSICO-THEOLOGICAL OR TELEOLOGICAL ARGUMENT.
3 Man's nature apart from revelation finds
no hope of satisfaction or perfection.
(i) Man's indefinite craving and futile efforts
to find satisfaction in material nature proves the
need of something higher.
[486] The wearied wits and wasted estates
laid out upon the philosopher's stone afford
but a faint, defective representation of this case.
What chemistry can extract heaven out of a
clod of clay .'' What art can make blessedness
spring and grow out of this cold earth .' if ail
created nature be vexed and tortured never so
long, who can expect this elixir 1 Yet after so
many frustrated attempts, so much time and
strength and labour lost, men are still as eagerly
and vainly busy as ever ; are perpetually tossed
by unsatisfied desires, "labouring in \\\^ fire,"
wearying themselves for very vanity, distracted
by the uncertain and often contrary motions of
a ravenous appetite and a blind mind, that
would be happy and knows not how. — J Hozve,
1630-1705.
(2) Maiis own nature as unregenerate does
not contain clenients of satisfactioft.
[487] Let the law be considered which is
" written in men's hearts " — the j'o/ioe Siji-novp-
yiKue, the rdi'ic ivi'ofjog, or the " lex nata," in the
ethnic language, which the eternal lawgiving
IMind hath created in our souls — and how evi-
dently doth that law convince that we neither
are nor do what we should ! How gross and
numerous deformities do we daily behold by
that shattered and broken glass ! How many
things which we disapprove, or certainly would,
if we discussed the matter with ourselves !
How frequent buffetings are many, when they
reflect, constrained to suffer at their own hands ;
even wherein, not having another law, they
" are only a law to themselves," and have only
their own thoughts, either their excusers or ac-
cusers ! And what doth that signify but a lapse
and recess from their original state, the broken
imperfect memorials whereof are a standing
testimony against their present course ; their
notions of right and wrong, comely and un-
comely, remonstrating against their vicious in-
clinations and ways ? For would they ever
reprove themselves for what was not possible
to be otherwise ? — /did.
(3) Man's nature is evide7ttl_y constructed to
find perfection in a higher state of being.
[488] I. Every man has in his own conscious-
ness evidence of the existence of mind.
2. The soul has capacities which are never
fully developed in this world, and cannot be ;
it has desires, aspirations, and necessities for
which the world does not furnish the appro-
priate oiDJects. It is, therefore, as evidently
designed and adapted to a higher and spiritual
state of existence as the body is to the present
order of things. This is true {a) of the intel-
lectual powers, {b) of the desire for happiness,
(t) aspirations after spiritual fellowships, {d)
conscious dependence on a higher Being.
3. Every man has also the consciousness of
right and wrong.— Dr. C. Hodge, Systematic
I heology.
See " Conscience" and " Morals."
4 God, the sole satisfier of man's spiritual
instincts, known most truly through per-
sonal consciousness.
[489] No scientific discoveries will ever find
in nature more than (^od made, nor a better
explanation than that " He made it," nor a
more satisfyng provision for man"s incapacity
and indefinite longingfe than in the mercy of
the Cross, and the kingdom "which He hath
promised to them that love Him."— ^. G.
[490] So many wonderful truths — for truths
they are — of which our forefathers dreamed
nothing, are discovered every year, that none
can foretell where the movement will stop, what
we shall have to believe next. Only let us
take refuge in the text, " In the beginning God
created the heaven and the earth.^' All that we
see around us, however wonderful, all that has
been found out of late, however wonderful, all
that will ever be found out, however still more
wonderful it may be, is the work of God — of
that God who revealed Himself to Moses ; of
that God who led the children of Israel out of
their slavery in Egypt ; of that God who taught
Uavid in all his troubles and wanderings to
trust in Him as his Guide and Friend ; ot that
God who revealed to the old prophets the fate
of nations and the laws by which He governs
all the kingdoms and people of the earth ; of
that God, above all, who so loved the world
that He gave His only-begotten Son that the
world by Him might be saved. This material
world, which we do see, is as much God's world
as the spiritual world which we do not see ;
and therefore the one cannot contradict the
other, and the true understanding of the one
will never hurt the true understanding of the
other. — Canon Kingsley.
44
PHYSIC O- THEOLOGICAL
OR TELEOLOGICAL ARGUMENT.
I. Definition of the Term.
[491] Teleology (from rtXoe, TsXeog, the end or
issue, and Xoyoc, discourse). The science or
doctrine of the final causes of things; the philo-
sophical consideration of final causes in general.
II. Nature of the Argument.
[492] This argument is from the evidences of
intelligence and wisdom in the universe to an
intelligent Creator : sometimes called argument
from design.
86
493-
50i]
THE EVIDENCES OF RELIGION GENERALLY.
[PHYSICO-THEOLOGICAL OR TKLEOLOGICAL ARGUMENT.
[493] Design supposes a designer : the world
exhibits marks of design, therefore design in-
cludes (i) the selection of an end to be attained,
(2) the choice of suitable means for the attain-
ment of that end, (3) the application of these
means to that end. Design thus implies intel-
ligence, will, and power. — Dr. C. Hodge, Syste-
matic Theology.
III. Various Lines of Proof.
[Valuable as each of the following lines
of argument may be when taken separately, yet
it is in their combined form and accumulative
force that their real worth consists.]
I From nature generally.
(i) The universality of design.
[494] Design is exhibited : —
1. In single organs; e.g., the eye, the ear, &c.
2. In the relation of organs to each other ;
e.g., an animal.
3. Adaptations of organs to instincts ; e.g.,
beasts and birds carnivorous have organs requi-
site for seizing their prey, &c.
4. In provision, or the preparation for an
event in the future ; e.g., organs of sight, hear-
ing, &c. ; provision for the support of the young,
&c.
5. In vegetable physiology : the structure,
growth, reproduction.
6. In the adaptations of external nature to
the requirements of animal and vegetable life.
7. In the mutual relations and adaptations of
the animal and vegetable worlds.
8. In the preparation and adaptation of the
earth 'for the life of man.
9. In the arrangements of our own and other
solar systems, considered [a) separately and {p)
in their relations to each other. — Ibid.
(2) Unity of design.
[495] The simple fact that we call all material
existences nature, as one system, implies one
Maker and Ruler.
[496] Nature presents to us the appearance
of a vast organic whole, whose unity depends
not on physical necessity, but on delicate adjust-
ments and complicated adaptations, which are
essentially intellectual and arbitrary ; involving
relation of number, size, speed, distance, equi-
librium, proportion, the balance of forces which
determines strength of material, and the all but
infinite relations involved in chemical com-
pounds and vital structures. It is consequently
at the same time an intellectual whole,\K\ which
we may be absolutely certain that every fact
and law is intelligiljly consistent (supposing our
knowledge complete, and our intellect competent
to grasp it) with every other. And it is a nun-nl
whole ; a system of benevolent foresight and
mutual ministry. — Dr. Eustace Conder in Con-
temporary Revi»w-
[497] In an action for conspiracy as respect-
ing the dynamite outrage, it is enough to prove
the unity of action in different agents as in-
dicating one purpose or plan ; so to make all
nature of one coherent scheme requires either
that myriads of elements conspire together to
transcend, or that some presiding Mind directs
the whole. — B. G.
(3) Harmony of design.
[498] This world, the work of liberty, of intel-
ligence, and of love, is the living expression oj
tins priticiple. Everywhere in the immensity of
space and time reigns a law of suitability and
harmony, a Divine law, a sovereign law which
rules the history and affinities of all beings,
triumphs over all resistance, eff'aces all acci-
dental discord, and conducts each being beyond
the appointed chances and changes of life to
all the beauty, all the perfection, all the felicity
which appertains to his particular nature and
universal order. — Saisset, Phil. Re I.
[There is no logical escape from this argu-
ment from design.]
[499] The marks of intelligence and design
are all around us here, stamped ineffaceably on
the whole face of the world. Take us back to be
vapour, and we have not got rid of them ; they
go back with us, and again confront us in the
amazing properties and potencies of that
primary stage of being, and no more there than
here have we any means of accounting for them
except by the hypothesis of an originating Mind.
— Brownlow Maitland.
(4) The marvels of design.
[500] When one looks on a clock and sees
the motion of the wheels, the striking of the
hammer, the hanging of the plummets, he would
say there were some artificer did make it, and
put it into that order. So when we see the
excellent order and harmony in the universe,
the sun, that great luminary dispensing its light
and heat to the world, without which the world
were but a grave or prison ; the rivers sending
forth their silver streams to refresh the bodies
of men and prevent a drought, and every
creature acting within its sphere and keeping
its due bounds, we must needs acknowledge
there is a God who wisely orders and governs
all these things.— y. Watson, 1690.
[In fine, millions of circumstances or con-
ditions must be. combined in carrying pn the
operations of nature.]
[501] We will suppose, for instance, that one
who had never before seen a watch or anything
of that sort, hath now this little engine first
offered to his view ; can we doubt but he would
upon the mere sight of its figure, structure, and
the very curious workmanship which we will
suppose appearing in it, presently acknowledge
tiie artificer's hand 1 But if he were also made
to understand the use and purpose for which it
serves ; and i^were Astinctly shown him how
each thing contributes, and all things in this
little fabric concur, to this purpose, the exact
501—506]
THE EVIDENCES OF RELIGION GENERALLY. 87
[PHYSICO-THEOLOGICAL OR TELEOLOGICAL ARGUMENT.
measuring and dividing of time by mi-nutes,
hours, and months, he would certainly both con-
fess and praise the great ingenuity of the first
inventor. — J. Howe., 1630-1705.
[502] This is the argument a fortiori; i.e., if
such a production as a watch requires a pro-
ducer of intelligence, much more the production
of the watchmaker himself, and of all creatures,
requires a greater maker. — B. G,
(5) The gradual process in tJie working out
of design.
{a) As to the original of things.
[503] The admirable ness and comely variety
of God's works doth easily offer it to our
thoughts. In the frame of the work you may
easily find a wise workman (Psa. cxxxvi. 5 ;
Prov. iii. 19). The wisdom of God appeareth in
the order of making and in the order of placing
all His creatures. In making them, in simple
things, God began with those that were most
perfect. As His first creature was light, which
of all qualities is the most pure and defecate,
and is not stained by passing through places
most impure : then all the other elements. In
mixed bodies God took another method, from
imperfect to perfect : first things that have a
being, as the firmament, then life, as plants ;
then sense, as beasts, then reason, as men. First
God would provide the places of heaven and
earth, then the creatures to dwell in them ; first
the food, then the creatures to be sustained by
it. Provision was made for the inhabitants of
the earth, as grass for beasts, and light for all
living and moving creatures. Plants have a
growing life, beasts a feeling life. Then man
was made, last of all creatures as most excellent.
Thus God would teach us to go on from good to
better. Man's palace was Jurnished with all
things necessary, and they were placed and
disposed in their apt cells for the beauty and
service of the whole, and then, like a prince, he
was sent into the world to rule and reign. There
are not so many animals in the earth as in the
sea, to avoid the great waste of food which
would be consumed by the beasts of the land to
the prejudice of man. But there is no end of
these considerations. — T. Alanton, D.D., 1629-
1677.
[In the above extract the reader can mentally
correct the statement about the creation of
light. It was the first part of the six days' work
to reintroduce light into the world.]
(b) As to the continuance of things.
[504] The superstition of modern philosophy
restricts the attention to the efficient causes
which render adaptation possible and evident,
as to fail to regard them under the higher
relation.
An example will illustrate the similarity and
the difference between the application of this
relation in the case of the savage, who ascribes
a single instance of adaptation directly to a
rational deviser, and the philosopher in the
other, who sees it extend so widely and numer-
ously over an immense field of efficient agencies
that he questions whether to ascribe it to a
rational spirit at all. We take a plant, say the
weed that is trodden under our feet, or the bud
that is just starting in the nearest hedge. The
plant is itself so abundant in adaptations that,
regarding it by itself, we might say it was pro-
duced directly by a creating power ; but we
discover that it was not so created, but was
evolved from a tiny seed. But the seed, to
produce it, must depend upon the light and
moisture, upon the sun and the earth, as co-
agencies, in order that it may germinate and
glow into a perfected plant. The seed in its
turn was evolved from another plant, which was
also evolved in a similar way and ripened from
another plant by the aid of sun and air and
earth. What if this is so ? Are not the heat
and light and moisture as really adapted to the
several parts of the plant as the orgajis of the
plant in their functions are adapted to one
another ? Are not all an organism as truly,
though not by so close and exclusive a connec-
tion, as are the constituents of the plant itself?
Is not the whole series of the plants of a single
species, with all the agencies which condition
their coexistent and continuous life, as truly an
organism of mutually adapted elements, as if
a single individual of a non-existent species
had been created in the morning and had
perished at night ? The discovery of additional
conditions, though they stretch throughout the
universe in space, or of efficient forces, though
they extend in time through a long series and
are connected as parent and oftspring, simply
renders the structure more complex and its
adaptations more various and interesting. —
Rev. Noah Porter, D.D., The Human Intellect.
(6) Beauty linked 'ivith design.
(a) Beauty is itself an end or designed object,
and is indicative of past and future enjoyment
for man.
[505] The beauty which picturesque verse
loves to celebrate depends for its tender and
supreme recognition on spiritual insight. It is
a recent notion of physicists that beauty is never
an end in itself, in the outward and evident
scheme of things, but exists only to serve utilities.
The notion, I must think, has its root in another
— that the system has originated, not in intelli-
gence and beneficent purpose, but in the deve-
lopment of mechanical forces. The apprehension
of a prescient ordaining mind, behind all phe-
nomena, is indispensable to the clear recognition,
or the sympathetic rendering, of even tlie out-
ward beauty of nature. Then only does this
stand in essential correlation with spi'-itual states,
which find images in it ; while then alone does
it knit the present, on which it casts Us scattered
lights, with vanished paradises, and spheres of
beauty still unapproached. — JJr. A\ .!>'. Storrs,
Recognition of S^ipernatural.
[506] Utility in its vulgar aspect could be
88
506—514]
THE EVIDENCES OF RELIGION GENERALLY.
[PHYSICO-THEOLOGICAL OR TELEOLOGICAL ARGUMENT.
attained without beauty or pleasure, as man
might eat food, without taste or appetite, merely
to preserve life. The same applies to sights and
sounds, colour, in its infinite varieties, in flowers,
grass, sky, and paintings, and the human voice,
instrumental music, and the music of the spheres.
2 From man himself.
(1) Viewed perso7ially.
[507] The Argument from Design attains its
full force when we take man himself into account,
as the choicest product of nature, the cul-
minating point of the whole series of existences
in our world. For not only is the human body
the most complex and exquisite in its mechanism
of all living structures, and therefore most clearly
stamped with the impress of design ; besides
that, we cannot help feeling that our bodies are
instruments designed and fashioned for the use
of our real selves. For no one of us thinks that
he is his body, or that his body is himself; we
are all conscious of a personality which is alto-
gether different from the material organism,
residing somehow in it and making use of it,
yet entirely different from it in kind, and im-
measurably superior to it. . . . This, I say,
crowns the argument. We found design im-
pressed on all the orders and ranks of Nature,
but till we reached man it might have seemed
that there was no sufficient end towards which
all the skill and workmanship were directed.
Here, in man, is the end, worthy of the whole
elaborate purpose ; and in the recognition of
such an end our minds are satisfied, and the
argument receives its complement and finish. —
Brownlow Maitland, Design.
(2) Viewed historically.
[508] Again, the world, because its highest
unfolding is history, an intellectual and moral
development — i.e., something other and higher
than a mere cycle of beginning to be and ceasing
to be — a purposed coming into being of some-
thing which, when it has thus become, shall be
worthy to abide — the world cannot have its end
or object in its mere existence nor in its mere
temporal development, but only in a realized
ideal world — in an eternal kingdom of God,
which in the end of world-history shall stand
forth as the eternally-enduring result of this
history. Just as Paul further reminds us, "God
hath appointed a day in the which He will judge
the world in righteousness."
IV. Extent of the Argument.
[509] There are two things, however, always
to be remembered about it : first, that the argu-
ment is not strictly demonstrative, but of the
nature of an appeal to the intellectual instincts
of our race ; and, secondly, that it takes us up
to a great intelligent Cause, but not beyond that,
as the Source of Being. The conception of Ciod
as our God, our living, holy, gracious Father, is
n«t to be got from the physical universe ; the
presentation of God to our minds through the
medium of nature is limited to the idea of an
almighty Mind, the Fountain, the Centre, the
Force of all physical existence. For the higher
conception of God in His character, as righteous,
merciful, true, and fatherly, we must betake
ourselves to the presentation which He has given
us of Himself in and through man, whom He
was pleased to make in His own image. This
completes what the physical world leaves in-
complete, and leads us on to the true idea of the
heavenly Father, who loves us and cares for us.
— Brownlow iMaitla?id, Design.
V. Objection to Conclusions about
THE Divine Existence drawn from
THE Argument.
I There are so many different views of God.
[510] It is much the same thing as the disputes
about the nature and matter of the heavens,
the sun, and planets. Though there be great
diversity of judgments, yet all agree that they
exist. So all contentions among men about the
nature of God weaken not but rather confirm
that there is a God. — S. Charnock, B.D.,
1628-1680.
[511] The objection that after all proofs of the
existence of God, there are different ideas con-
cerning God, is answered bv the fact that there
are few natural objects respecting- which men
have not had different ideas, yet this does not
disprove the existence of those objects. There
have been many theories respecting the nature
of light and fire, but this does not prove there is
no light or fire ; on the contrary, those different
theories are founded on the fact of the existence
of elements. — B. G.
VI. Objections to the Line of Argu-
ment ITSELF.
1 The argument does not cohere, the con-
clusions do not follow from the premise.
[512] Things which grow of themselves differ
essentially from structures fashioned by human
hands, and therefore when you say that design
in these proves design also in those, you are
really not arguing, but only making an assump-
tion which there are no facts to support.
Reply, {a) The argument from design has
not strictly demonstrative force, {b) There is
no other reasonable explanation possible.
[513] The objection assumes that things"grow
of themselves," which is a pctitio principii, un-
less all things outside our knowledge contradict
all within our knowledge. When watches or
books " grow of themselves," without a watch-
maker or a printer respectively, we may believe
the same respecting "the productions of nature,"
a phrase which itself iniplies a producer. — B. G.
2 There are alleged irregularities, incon-
sistencies, blerfiishes in Nature.
[514] .Such peculiarities lurk in the nooks and
514—520!
THE EVIDENCES OF RELIGION- GENERALLY. gg
[PHYSICO-THEOLOGICAL OR TELEOLOGICAL ARGrTMENT.
byways of the physical world, in the fringes and
skirts of nature ; they are like the specks and
flaws which a magnifying glass discovers in a
polished surface.
Is the broad, fair face of the world so blurred
and disorganized by these minute irregularities,
that order, adjustment, and beauty can no longer
be discerned in it ? Surely it might as well be
argued that a noble palace, with its stately
chambers and costly decoration, was nothing
more than a freak of chance, or a shapeless
mass, because an apparently useless closet or
two might be found in it, a stone here or there
be loose, or a handful of dust lie in some of its
corners ! — Brownlow M ait land.
[515] "Irregularities" in nature imply "regu-
larities," from which they are the exception.
This proves the rule, or rather proves the
existence of the Ruler. — B. G.
3 There is no room for the argument, it does
not apply to the facts of nature as we now
know them.
[516] Those who urge this objection say in
eftect — "We have found out all about the origin
of the natural organisms which fill the world,
and their story excludes the idea of their exist-
ence being due to anything like design or pur-
pose. Time was, in the immeasurably remote
past, when nothing existed in space but a wild
whirling vapour of inconceivably minute atoms ;
this, by virtue of its own physical properties,
separated into masses, condensed into solid orbs,
cooled down into worlds, struck out rudimentary
germs of life ; these germs, under the influence
of their physical surroundings, went on to pro-
duce diverse and superior forms of life, the
better varieties of which naturally, in the long
run, supplanted the worse ; and this process
going on by the natural force of things through
millions of ages, the divergences and the im-
provements became imperceptibly wider and
greater, until at last the world became what
we see it to be now, full of the highly organized
and complex structures of both the animal and
vegetable kingdoms. Where, then, in all this
physical evolution, which has been the neces-
sary outgrowth of certain physical laws, is there
the smallest opening by which design or purpose
could have entered into the process, unless, in-
deed, you choose to ascribe intelligence to the
original vapour out of which everything has
proceeded ? "
[517] If all elements were once in wild con-
fusion, they would be so now, if no wise Agency
intervened. Chaos is not the father of Kosmos.
—B. G.
[518] Common experience informs us that our
workmen construct artificial machines, and they
do not come of themselves by accident, or any
sort of self-forming process. Whenever, there-
fore, we meet with a machine, however simple,
we are sure that it is a thing of human handi-
work ; some man's brain devised it, some man's
hands made it. It may be only two pieces of
stick tied together with a bit of string, and
picked up on a mountain's side ; yet our infer-
ence is immediate and unfailing ; we cannot for
a moment doubt that it was produced by human
intelligence and art. Well, we look now at
nature's organic mechanisms, her elaborate
living structures, part fitted to part with exqui-
site accuracy so as to bring about a definite
end ; and as we gaze on them, an impression of
a similar kind is made on our minds. These,
we exclaim, these also cannot be chance-work ;
here are the plain marks of intelligence, of pur-
pose, of skill ; this is mechanism, better even
than our best ; these are the products of still
higher skill. Such is the immediate, unavoid-
able impression made on our minds. We can-
not help feeling it, even though afterwards we
might attempt to reason it away. It comes on
us irresistibly as we examine these natural, living
mechanisms ; they strike us at once as bearing
the marks of design, of intention, of contriving
intelligence ; the inference is instantaneous, the
facts speak for themselves ; our minds by their
very constitution leap at once to the conception
of an intelligent maker as the only adequate ex-
planation. But who is the maker in this case ?
Not man, we are sure ; for no human being was
ever able to construct the meanest of living
things. Some far mightier and more skilful
mind and hand must have been at work ; some
mind able to design, some hand competent to
fashion, the amazing, unspeakable universe of
being. To this immeasurably skilful and power-
ful Maker of all things, to whom our minds thus
instinctively spring up from the contemplation
of nature, we give the awful name of God. —
Bt-owiilojsj Maitland, Design.
[519] The whole chorus of nature raises one
hymn to the praise of its Creator. You alone,
or almost alone, disturb this general harmony.
You start abstruse doubts, cavils, and objections.
You ask me, What is the cause of this cause t
I know not ; I care not ; that concerns not me.
I have found a Deity, and here 1 stop my inquiry.
— Dialogues on Natural Religion.
[520] Around him lies the physical universe,
and on every part of it he will discern the im-
press of God. In the glories of the sky and the
wonders of the earth ; in the countless varieties
of vegetable and animal life ; in every spectacle
of natural beauty, and every provision for human
use, he will recognize the power, the wisdom,
and the goodness of the Creator. Not a star
that gems the night, not a flower that adorns the
soil, not a fruit that affords nutriment for living
things, will fail to whisper to him of God. The
seasons as they run their beneficent round,
bringing forth storm and calm, rain and sun-
shine, winter frosts and summer heats, and
ripening the harvests for the sustenance of all
living creatures, will be eloquent to him of a
Divine order ; the solid earth with its mountains
and valleys and garniture of green, the great
oceans with their solemn swell and voice, the
90
520—524]
THE EVIDENCES OF RELIGION GENERALLY.
[PHYSICU-FHEOLOGICAL OK TELKOLOGICAL ARGUMENT.
Stately rivers and leaping streams, will testify to
him of the Almighty Architect, whose mind
conceived and whose hand built up the majestic
structure of our globe. Standing in the midst
of the glorious universe of visible being, and
ranging with devout eye over its manifold phe-
nomena, he will feel it to be a temple filled by
the omnipresent Deity, and from his lieart will
ascend worship and praise unto Him who was,
and is, and is to come, of whom and for whom
are all these things. — Browjilow Maiila/id,
Theism or Agnosticism.
[521] Thus is the living, personal, fatherly
(iod, "in whom," as Paul further on says, "'we
live, and move, and have our being " — whose
life-atmosphere and life-heat surrounds us at all
times and everywhere in our existence, in order
that we may seek Him and find Him, and by
His felt nearness be drawn into His communion
and formed into His likeness — thus, I say, is
the Heavenly Father the highest certainty of a
heart which sets out in its thought from its own
moral and religious nature, and in the light of
the gospel has come to the knowledge of itself
— an idea of God before which, when it is once
grasped by faith, all these deified world-forms
not of mythology only, but quite as much of
philosophy also, turn pale as phantoms. But
as He and nothing else is the solution of the
riddle of our hearts, so is He also, He alone, the
solution of the riddle of the world so far as such
a solution is granted to us here below— the
question, that is to say, of the origin and end or
object of the world.
Vll. The Value and Force of the
Argument.
I The principle involved in the argument
is not a generalization from e::perience,
but a truth.
[522] The argument from design isnot founded
merely or solely on analogy from human expe-
rience as to man's productions, but is a funda-
mental principle of reasoning from the nature
of the case, like mathematical reasoning,
and amounts rather to demonstration than
probability.
[523] The analogy would indeed be worthless
if the truth that design implies a designer were
a mere generalized truth of observation : that
is to say, if we had no reason for believing
it to be so, except that we have always found it
to be so. But this is not the case. We may
no doubt be mistaken in thinking that we see
design : this is a question to be decided by
careful examination of facts and accurate in-
ductive reasoning. Darwin's entire theory of
the origin of species, against which I have
argued at length in my work on " Habit and
Intelligence," is an attempt to prove that the
appearances of design in the organic creation
are illusory. But when the existence of design
is proved, the inference of the existence of a
Designer is inevitable. In other words, when
we perceive adaptation to a purpose, the in-
ference is inevitable that the adaptation is
intended. The certainty of this truth is alto»
gether independent of the number of instances.
We believe it, not as we believe that all matter
gravitates, because we have always found it to
be so : but as we believe that parallel lines will
continue parallel to infinity, because it cannot
be otherwise.
To reason from design in human works, such
as machinery and architecture, to design in the
Divine works, is not strictly speaking analo-
gical reasoning : that is to say, the analogy is
not the ground of the reasoning. If it were,
the form of the reasoning would be this : —
'' What is true of the works of man is true also
of the works of nature : in the works of man,
design implies an intelligent designer ; there-
fore the same is true of the works of nature."
But this is evidently no true statement of the
argument. We believe that design must every-
where imply an intelligent designei-, not because
we find it to be so in the works of man, but
because we perceive that it must be so : and
those examples of human ingenuity and skill
on which so much emphasis is laid do not
in any degree constitute the data of the argu-
ment : they are only illustrations by means ot
which we learn to understand it. Had we not
become familiar with design as a proof ot
human intelligence, it is probable that we
should never have learned to regard design as
a proof of Divine Intelligence: yet the analogy
in this case no more constitutes the proof, than
the parables of the New Testament constitute
the proof of the spiritual truths which neverthe-
less they illustrate.
Thus the works of human art are not experi-
mental proofs, but only illustrations, of the
truth that design implies a Designer; and their
value as illustrations is in no way affected by
the fact that they are put together, or con-
structed, while the works of nature are evolved.
But further : there are works of human art
which, like those of nature, are rather evolved
than constructed : I mean such works as poetry
and music, which are not the work of the hands,
and are not put together out of pre-existing
materials, but are formed within the mind.
This case is really not exceptional but typical :
for that which is contributed by intelligence to
such a work of art as a piece of architecture
or machinery is neither the materials nor the
labour which puts the materials together, but
the design ; and the design manifests intelli-
gence equally, whether it is ever executed or
not : indeed, the action of pure intelligence
ends where the action of labour on the materials
begins.— 7. J. Murphy.
2 Modern discoveries have not weakened the
fundamental principle of the argument.
[524] Arguments that greatly influenced in-
telligent minds ^hundred years ago have now,
in several instances, lost much of their power,
though their real evidential value seems, in the
524-531]
THE EVIDENCES OF RELIGION GENERALLY. g
■[PHYSICO-THEOLOGICAL OR TELEOLOGICAL ARGUMENT.
abstract, to be quite as great as ever. The
argument from design may be noticed as an
instance, and, still more so, the argument from
the manner in which the gospel was first pro-
pagated. The first argument may, to a certain
extent, have been neutralized in some of its
more limited illustrations — such, for example,
as those derived from our bodily structure, in
which structure we are told that we have to
recognize traces of rudimentary or aborted
organs.— i?;>. Ellicott, Modern Unbelief.
3 The argument carries irresistible force to
the unsophisticated mind.
[525] One of the Red Republicans of 1793
was telling a good peasant of La Vendee : —
" We are going to pull down your churches and
your steeples — all that recalls the superstitions
of past ages and all that brings to your mind
the idea of God.'' " Citizen," replied the good
W-ndean, " pull down the stars then."
VIII. Difficulties of the Impugners
OF THE Conclusions drawn from
the Argument.
1 To overlook or deny Divine wisdom in
design is to manifest our own want of
wisdom or intelligence.
[526] I should think it much more easy and
rational (says my Lord Bacon) to believe all
the fables in the poets, the legends, the Talmud,
and the Alcoran, than that this universal frame
shall be without a Creator and Governor.
Cicero . . . mastered thoroughly the whole
Epicurean system, as his Epicurean friend
Atticus confessed, as also we see in his Dia-
logues ; but he avows that he would as soon
believe that the Iliad of Homer was written by
shaking letters together in a bag as that this
universe arose out of blind chance. — G. F.
Wrii^ht.
2 We may as well deny human agency or
design as Divine.
[527] The theist predicates design, and for
the best of reasons, since he has a just and
adequate analogy on which to base his con-
ception. Man himself is a designer. He
modifies the course of nature. He uses tools
and machinery, and accomplishes his designs
through indirect means. In man as a designer
we have a true cause, operating indeed on a
small scale and within definite limits, but these
limits are not such as would necessarily cir-
cumscribe a higher order oixmvidi.—lbid.
3 To account for orderly events by laws,
which mean orderly events, is to make
the effects their own cause.
[528] The world— because its whole basis is
nature, i.e., unconscious, unfree, material being,
and yet at the same time law, order, worked-
out reason — cannot itself be the ground or
cause of its own existence, but its laws demand
a thinker, its orderly arrangements a master,
its wonder-works a creator. As Paul preaches
— " God that made the world and all things
therein, seeing that He is Lord of heaven and
earth, dwelleth not in temples made with
hands ; neither is He worshipped with men's
hands, as though He needed anything, seeing
He giveth to all life, and breath, and all things."
4 The absence of design involves the pre-
sence of mystery or miracle.
[529] The assumption of design in the uni-
verse justifies the faith of science in a personal
and intelligent Creator. Justifies? I had almost
said it requires this in order that the intellect
may rest in a completed idea of a well-
rounded universe. A creator is a being who
originates all the active beings, and imparts all
the force or forces which exist, and who regu-
lates their mutual activities by the laws whicb
he has imposed upon them to accomplish the
designs which he proposes, in the existence,
the development, and activity of the material and
spiritual universe. You may try in vain to stop
short at any view of the origin of things with-
out designing force, if you hope to provide for
science. You may try the theory of force only,
as Spencer does, and refer this origin or exist-
ence of things as he does to a persistent un-
known and unknowable power, unlimited in
space and without beginning or end in time.
But in this conception you have all the mys-
tery that pertains to a self-existent personal
Creator, with no advantages. — President Porter
( Yale), Pi-incetoiun Revieiu {May t , 1 879).
5 An intelligent designer is the only solu-
tion of the mystery or miracle of nature.
[530] Man, as has so often been pointed out,
obtains certain results by working with a speci'^1
object, i.e., with design : he chooses and com-
bines with a view to the desired end. When
we study the similar selective work of nature,
surely it is gratuitously illogical to insist that
this must be the work of chance. One thing
cannot be too often borne in mind : the more
complicated our arrangement is, the more
numerous the elements that enter into it, the
more unlikely it becomes that it can be the
result of chance. — London Quarterly Review.
6 The variety of orderly productions, their
mutual arrangement and evident purpose
can be explained only by an agency and
intelligence capable of such combination.
[531] What, then, are these things without a
Providence 'i Tell me now, could so many good
things as we see around us come by accident .''
The daily light, the beautiful order that exists
in all things, the mazy dances of the stars, the
equable course of night and day, the regular
gradation of nature in vegetables, animals, and
men — who, teil me, is it that ordereth these.?
If there were no superintending Being, but all
things combined together by accident, who was
it that made this vault revolve, so- beautiful, so
vast— the sky, and set it upon the earth— nay
more, upon the waters 1 Who is it that gives
92
531
THE EVIDENCES OF RELIGION GENERALLY.
-5391
[PROVIDKNTIAL ARGUMENT.
the fruitful seasons ? Who implanted so great
power in seeds and vegetables? for that which
is accidental is necessarily disorderly, whereas
order implies art. For which, tell me, of the
things around us that are accidental is not full
of disorder and confusion? Nor will I speak
of things accidental only, but of those which
imply some agent, but an unskilful agent. For
example, let there be timber and stone, and let
not lime be wanting, and let a man unskilled in
building take them, and begin building ; even
with earnest endeavour will he not spoil it all ?
Again, take a vessel without a pilot, containing
everything which a vessel ought to contain,
without a shipwright — I do not say unappointed,
but well appointed— will it be able to sail ? and
could the vast extent of earth standing on the
waters ever stand so firmly and so long a time
without some power to hold it together? And
can these views have any reason in them ? Is
it not the extreme of absurdity to conceive them,
for in very truth all is the work of Providence.
— St. C/ijysostoin.
IX. Testimony in favour of the Line
OF Argument.
1 The incidental recognition of the doc-
trine of design or contrivance in the nomen.
clature of modern advanced scientists.
[532] If Mr. Darwin's researches have sug-
gested to many inferences adverse to theism,
at least no one of the present day has done
more to swell the host of examples which might
serve to illustrate the argument from design,
in particular by his study of the singularly
varied contrivances by which provision is made
for the fertilization of certain families of plants ;
for whether we acknowledge " a contriver " or
not, the word " contrivance " is not shunned by
Mr. Darwin himself as being the only one that
seems capable of expressing the wonderful
adaption of means to ends. — Prof. Salmon,
Non-AJiraailo!ts Christianity.
2 The admission of the late John Stuart
Mill.
[533] The late Mr. J. S. Mill, in his posthu-
mous essay on Theism, while rejecting all other
arguments for the existence of God, hesitatingly
allowed that this argument does raise a faint
presumption or probability in favour of a God
of limited power.
[534] The idea assumed in the preceding
quotation that the Divine power is exhausted in
what we know of nature, and is to be " limited "
by our discoveries thereof, first supposes that
we know the whole of nature, and that nature
is limited ; and secondly supposes that if nature
be limited. He who made it is absolutely to be
measured by it, and limited to it.
45
PR O VIDENTIA L ARG UMENT.
I. The Nature of the Argument.
[535] This is the argument from the moral
nature and the moral world, or, otherwise stated,
for the existence of a ■personal Ruler in the
universe.
[536] This is founded on the evidences of a
moral government among mankind. It rests
upon the facts of an omniscient, all-wise, just,
and benevolent foresight and control of the
world, which is beyond and above the physical
laws of nature, while at the same time by means
of those laws it maintains a moral system and
secures a constant moral advancement among
mankind. — R. A. Redford.
[537] Providence is universal and particular
in general laws and in single events ; it includes
conscience, and moral right, and hum?n dis-
cipline, and points to a moral completion for
man in another state of existence. The idea is
supported by, or involved in, all that precedes as
to the existence and character of the Divine
Being.
II. The Point of the Argument.
1 The pervading power and purpose of God
as shown in human history suggests the
existence of God.
[538] A consideration of the world as a whole,
and its reasonable arrangement, conducted So-
crates to the notion of the One Supreme. God
appeared to him as reason, ruling the world and
holding the same relation to it as the soul does
to th; body. As the soul without being visible
affects the body, so God affects the world. As
the soul exercises dominion over the body, so
God over the world. As the soul is present in
all parts of the body, so God in the world. And
as the soul, though limited, can perceive what is
distant, and have thoughts of the most various
kinds, so the knowledge and care of God must
be able to embrace the whole universe at once.
And thus the universal pro^ndence of God is
included in the argument for His existence drawn
from this relation in all things of means to ends.
— Zellef-s Socrates, by Reichel.
2 As there is a unity in physical nature, so
in the history of humanity.
[539] ^^^ 1'^^^' of progress is a Divine purpose,
and its goal is the greatest possible moral good.
Its development is not tiiat of an abstract idea,
or a world-spirit, or the blind working of imper-
sonal laws ; but man is taken up in the purpose
of a higher Being, and human history, with all
its lights and shadows, with all its eddies and
retrogressions, is the progress of a Divine pur-
pose, whose «nd is the greatest possible good.
This view recognizes a power in human affairs
that " makes for righteousness," and makes for it
THE EVIDENCES OF RELIGION GENERALLY.
539-543]
[providential argumkni
93
likewise with apparent foretliouglit, and intelli-
gently.— Dr. Newniati Smyth, Old Faillis in
Neiv Light.
3 All sciences and all events converge to.
wards one providential scheme.
[540] Though the truths which the several
sciences have discovered in the various fields of
incjuiry are with dit^ciilty brought together and
harmonized ; though the facts of nature, history,
and consciousness lie before our reason often
unconnected and broken, like those fragments
of Assyrian records which have been thrown
together in the British Museum, we should,
nevertheless, regard every one of them as of
value, and as having its own place and worth
in the record of God's creative purpose, which,
some day, we may hope not merely to decipher
by syllables and to know in part, but to compre-
hend in its length and its breadth, and to read
as one grand, connected story. — Ibid.
[541] The whole universe is an expression of
His will, and is governed by His will. God is
manifestly not a mere idea shining out upon the
world, but a force working in the world. — Pre-
bendary Griffith, Fundamentals.
in. The consequences of denying the
Principle upon which the Argu-
ment IS BASED.
[542] What would be the result of abandon-
ing the idea of God, as our Father, and leaving
man alone to contend with destiny.'' It would
sever man from man as no longer linked in
a brotherhood, by orphaning all men in the ex-
clusion of that Divine Father on whose relation-
ship human brotherhood rests. — B. G.
[543] It is hinted now that in our efforts to
help the weak and to save the lost, we are
interfering with the operation of a benign
natural law which dooms them to speedy ex-
tinction, and are trying in vain to mend the
hard, inexorable order of the world.
And who has not noted the vein of deep
sadness which runs through the literature of
the school, and finds fullest expression in the
masterpieces of art with which our most ac-
complished and powerful novelist from time to
time adorns and enriches our literature .'' Their
philosophical writings, too, aie very clever, very
thoughtful, very learned, very just, after a
fashion, but very cold, very hopeless, very life-
less. There is no glow about them, no fire.
There is nothing to kindle a spark of enthusiasm,
nothing that can stir itself to praise. Life must
be lived, and the best must be made of it for
ourselves and for others, is the loftiest thought
to which the teachers of this school seem to be
able to climb. And there is a dark tendency,
already very manifest, to make light of the
sanctions by which the sacredness of life is
guarded. The putting of the old and the sick
whose case seems hopeless quietly out of the
way is already, as I have pomted out, openly
advocated as a duty. I referred, too, to signi-
ficant indications that it will not be long before
we find suicide justified as a refuge from suffer-
ing, or magnified, as it was of old, as man's
ultimate and victorious argument against a
tyrannous Fate. " This is as a rule the course
of man's life," says Schopenhauer, " that,
befooled by hope, he dances into the arms of
death."
Schopenhauer is one of the leading prophets
of the school, perhaps the ablest, and his influ-
ence is very powerful and wide spread on the
cultivated youth of Europe ; and this is his
view of life. It is but a step from this to argue
that the sooner we dance into the arms of death
the better. Nor does the philosopher at all
shrink from the conclusion. What else does
this terrible passage mean.'' The history of
every life is but a life of suffering ; the course
of life is generally but a series of greater or of
less misfortunes. The true sense of the mono-
logue in Hamlet may be thus summed up. Our
condition is so wretched that utter annihila-
tion would be decidedly preferable. The oft
lamented shortness of life may perhaps be its
best attribute. Life may be represented as a
constant deceiver in things both great and
small. If it makes promises, it never keeps
them, except to show how undesirable is that
which was desired. First the hope, and then
the thing hoped for disappoints us. Life gives
only to take away. The charm of distance
shows us a paradise, which vanishes like an
optical delusion if we allow ourselves to
approach it. The general structure of life
would rather produce the conviction that nothing
is worth our efforts, our energies, and our
struggles ; that all possessions are vanity, the
world a bankrupt in all quarters, and life a
business which does not pay its expenses. The
existence of the world is a matter not of rejoic-
ing but of giief; its annihilation would be
preferable to its existence ; it is fundamentally
something which ought not to exist. Human
life, far from wearing the aspect of a gift, has
every appearance of an incurred debt, the pay-
ment of which is exacted in the form of the
urgent necessities, the tormenting desires,
the unceasing want which life involves. The
whole period of life is generally consumed in
the liquidation of this debt, and yet it is only
the interest which can be thus paid off. The
payment of the capital is effected by death. It
will be hard to uphold the sin of suicide against
such a "vision of life." — Baldwin Brown.
DIVISION D.
THE EVIDENCES OF THE CHRISTIAN
RELIGION.
[i] EXTERNAL EVIDENCES.
Fa^^es 95 to 119.
TABLE OF TOPICS.
(i) Prophecy.
46
PROPHECY (GENERALLY).
47
MESSL\NIC (PROPHECY).
(2) Miracles.
48
]\nRACLES GENERALLY.
49
MIRACLES AND SCIENCE.
50
MIRACLES OF PAGANS AND PAPISTS.
51
POSSIBILITY AND NECESSITY OF REVELATION.
52
SUPERNATURAL, THE.
(3) Hi.tory.
53
HISTORY (GENERALLY).
54
ARCH/KOLOGY.
55
CONVERSION OF ST. PAUL.
56
EXISTENCE OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH.
57
THE RESURRECTION OF CHRIST.
58
TRADITION.
95
DIVISION D.
THE EVIDENCES OF THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION.
[i] EXTERNAL EVIDENCES.
(Prophecy; Miracles; History.)
46
PR OP HE CY ( GENE PALL Y).
I. Its Definition.
[544] A prophecy, considered as a prediction,
m.iy be defined to be an announcement of a
future event whose occurrence could not pos-
sibly be foreseen by the power of natural human
sagacity, but which must have been disclosed
to the prophet by a Divine communication. —
Fatoji ya/iu's Cloag, D.D., Tlie Baird Leclicrefor
1879.
II. Its Nature.
I As distinguished from human foresight.
[545] In all instances of human foresight there
are data to proceed upon, elements of calculation
which lead to a certain result ; and although the
calculation may be complicated, yet a master
mind may be able to attain to a satisfactory so-
lution in many of the great problems of life. But
when there are no data to proceed upon ; when
the prophecies relate to events in the distant
future, and are connected with persons still
unborn, or with nations which have not yet
appeared on the theatre of this world's history,
it is evident that these announcements of the
future cannot be accounted for on the ground of
mere human sagacity. — /did.
[546] The prediction is placed out of the
sphere of human sagacity or foresight : it re-
lates to contingent matters, the knowledge of
whose futurity cannot be accounted for without
the aid of supernatural illumination (Isa. xlv.
20, 21 ; 2 Pet. i. 21). — Ifiid.
[547] The prophets all avowedly speak only
as the instruments of Deity. They introduce
what they have to utter with the formula, "Thus
saith the Lord;" or, "The Lord spake unto me,
saying;" or, " The word that came from the
Lord, saying ; " they call what they have to an-
nounce "the burden of the Lord," or "the
vision which the Lord caused them to see." —
IV. L. Alexander, D.D.
[548] The prophecy came not in old time by
the will of man, but holy men of God spake as
they were moved by the Holy Ghost (2 Peter i.
21). At that time Samuel knew not the Lord ;
that is, was not yet familiar with the Divine
voice or supernatural method of prophetic inti-
mation (i Sam. iii. 7). — B. G.
2 As distinguished from heathen oracles.
[549] The predictions of the heathen, when
they were fulfilled, can easily be accounted for
without the aid of supernatural intervention. A
great amount of artifice accompanied them ;
they were secretly divulged ; they were seldom
delivered, and then only after great preparations
were made ; they ministered to the passions and
wishes of men ; they were expressed in equi-
vocal language ; their fulfilment generally de-
pended on chance ; they were as often wrong as
right ; and when they failed, the fault was not
laid to the charge of the prophet, but was im-
puted to some error committed by the inquirer.
The predictions of Scripture are widely dif-
ferent. They were openly published ; they were
delivered without solicitation ; they were ex-
pressed in no artful language ; the events pre-
dicted were beyond the power of human saga-
city to foresee, or even when the general event
might have been foreseen, yet minute circum-
stances were added which were beyond the
wisdom of man to predict ; and there was a par-
ticularity in these prophecies which clearly dis-
tinguished them from the conjectures of wise
men (see Jer. xiv. 14). — Paton James Gloag,
D.D., The Baird Lecture for i^T^.
III. Marks of True Prophecy.
[550] Mr. Davison, in his " Discourses on
Prophecy," laid down three tests, viz. (i) Known
promulgation prior to the event ; (2) Sufficiency
of correspondence between the prediction and
the result ; (3) Chronological or moral remote-
ness in the date or nature of the event.
To these we may add : (4) That the prediction,
though capable of being considered separately,
shall not in itself be detached and isolated, but
part of a connected and systematic whole. (5)
That the prediction be not general and colour-
less, but enriched with a certain number of ad-
96
THE EVIDENCES OF THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION.
550-556!
[messianic prophecy.
juncts. (6) That the prediction be not of a
nature merely to gratify private feeling, or stimu-
late an otiose curiosity, but shall have some
reference to an end worthy of a Divine author.
— Bp. Alexander, BaDipton Lectures.
[551] But whosoever shall pretend it, I see
not what right they can claim to be believed
by others, till the event justify the prediction,
unless they can otherwise show the signs which
are wont to accompany and recommend a super-
natural revelation. Where any such is really
afforded, it is likely it may produce a concomitant
confidence that will exclude all present doubt in
their own minds, without external confirmation.
— y. Hoive, 1630- 1 705.
IV. Extent of their Fulfilment.
I Originally obscure predictions become by
their fulfilment as clear as historical narra-
tives.
[552] The prophecies of Scripture will bear
the closest investigation ; and the more care-
fully they are examined, and the more minutely
their correspondence with the event is scrutin-
ized, the more will it become apparent that only
as the prophets were taught of God, and spoke
and wrote as His organs, could they so accu-
rately and precisely have foretold things to come.
So exact and so complete is the correspondence,
that whatever obscurity or improbability may
have attached to the predictions at the time they
were uttered, when read in the light of subse-
quent events, they appear more like historical
narratives of what is already past, than announce-
ments of what is to happen in the far-distant
luture.— A-r. L. Alexander, D.D.
47
MESSIANIC PROPHECY.
I. The Psychological Principles of its
Interpretation.
[553] They may be divided thus : —
{a) Subjective : Lyrics primarily of our Lord's
humanity, secondarily of our own. The charac-
teristics of His life are mirrored with a perfect
reflection. Thus we account for those passages
which speak of sin in connection with Messiah.
They are ours, but the curse of them is on Him.
So also we account for the Imprecatory Psalms.
[See " Imprecatory Psalms."]
{b) Mystical : The whole atmosphere of Jewish
religious thought was charged with mystical ele-
ments.— Comiensedfroin Bp.Alexa7ider's Bamp-
ton Lectures.
II. Its Variety and Extent,
I It includes the Divine character and pro-
ceedings in general, and the Person and
work of the Messiah in particular.
[554] (0 In all that relates to the nature and
attributes of God the prophetic teaching is par-
ticularly copious and emphatic, specially the
perfections of Jehovah as contrasted {a) with
the limited powers of man, and {l>) the lying
pretensions of heathen gods.
(2) Another prominent topic is the superin-
tending and directing providence of God in the
affairs of the world
(3) The prophetic teaching expounds the full
meaning of the moral law, and assigns to moral
duties their proper place of superiority as com-
pared with the ceremonial precepts.
(4) Messianic teaching, which embraced
chiefly these three topics : [a] The person and
work of the Redeemer ; {b) eternal life and
the resurrection ; {c) the nature of Christ's
kingdom.
Perfect harmony existed between the lessons
which the Law taught by symbol, and those
which Prophecy more directly enunciated :
each illustrates the other, and both combine to
direct us to Him who was at once their Author
and their Object. — Condensed from Liddon's
Ba'npton Lectures.
III. Its Foreshadowings.
I \A^ide extent of the adumbrations of the
Cross.
[555] Wherever we look at God's dealings
with fallen man, we are conscious, as it has
been said with undeniable truth, "we are con-
scious of a cross unseen standing on its undis-
covered hill, far back in the ages, out of which
came sounding always just the same deep voice
of suffering love and patience that was heard
from the sacred hill of Calvary."
IV. Collateral Confirmations of its
Fulfilment.
[556] When we see the predicted mission of
the Messiah so faithfully fulfilled— when we see
the great world's history bending itself to the
birth of Jesus in the "Anno Domini" of its
dates and superscriptions — when we see that
the world has moved as in deepest sympathy
with the humble Nazarene, working ever in His
behalf— when we behold all events maiching
onwards through the centuries to the beat of
time, preserving, as Napoleon thought, "a
celestial order," to accomplish one given result,
the universal and final ascendency of the Son
of David— when we see that all opposing sys-
tems can no longer hold comparison with the
religion given to the world by Him than can the
pale, thin, extended crescent ring of the setting
moon hold comparison to the full blaze of the
unclouded noonday sun — when we discover that
this mighty One issued from the house of David
before its fall, and from Bethlehem in the days
of Herod, must we not acknowledge that He is
the Being whom the prophets declared to be
one with the Father Almighty.? As we see
Him standing alone among the millions of the
race, the only Pattern of absolute perfection,
whose entire life, without inclining a hairs
breadth to either side, pointed straight upward
THE EVIDENCES OF THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION.
556—563]
[miracles
97
to heaven — as all the separate and wandering
rays of prophecy that had sparkled thorough the
Divine Word are combined and concentrated,
and rest as with a sacred halo on His head —
how can we do otherwise than proclaim our
convictions in that prophetic, startling, and
sublime word, " Immanuel !" — God with us? —
Credo.
V. Special Characteristics.
1 The Messiah the only One whose whole
life and purpose were predicted.
[557] Christ is the only Person who ever lived
in this world whose life in some of its minutest
particulars was written beforehand ; as, for in-
stance, in the time, in the place, and in the
manner of His birth ; in the kind of life which
He was to lead, in the kind of teaching He \\'ms
to give, and the kind of death He was to die.
He is the only Person in all history of whom it
can be said that His life was written, and His
work assigned before He came into the world
at all.
2 Christ the undeviating centre of prophecy.
[558] It would have been possible to have
given forth real prophecy that was remote from
Christ. Some of it, in one sense, is so ; as, for
example, the predictions bearing on some of
the ancient nations. But the strength of pro-
phecy lies in Us chain of references to Christ,
from the first mention of the " Seed of the
woman " to the virgin-born Immanuel ; from
the Sufferer, whose heel is bruised in terms of
the earliest promise, to the '• Man of sorrows "
in the fifty-third of Isaiah ; and from the peace-
ful Lawgiver of a yet uncrowned tribe to the
heir of David, who enters the long-established
seat of rule as a king. Even the predictions
that bear on the Church of God and its universal
progress are but the sequel to those which fore-
tell the personal Christ, and they then reflect
the light of His exaltation ; nor can the judg-
ments on the Jewish nation be dissociated, as
the depth of their fall is but the measure of the
grace and truth that were in Christ, and for
rejecting which they were to be cast away. — •
P)incipal Cairns, D.D., Leclitres.
48
MIRACLES.
I. Their Definition.
[559] Ii'' the New Testament four words are
employed to designate these supernatural
occurrences, namely, miracles, wonders, signs,
and works. The first (^wa/ffic) signifies powers,
and refers to the agency by which they were
produced ; the second {jipaTo) denotes mar-els,
and alludes to their effect on the mind of the
beholder ; the third {mi'ula), signs, has special
reference to their significance in connection
VOL. I.
with the system by whose inauguration they
were wrought ; while the last {fnya), works, is
only used regarding them by Jesus himself, and
this mode of speech in His lips is most sugges-
tive, as implying that the things which to others
were so marvellous, were in His case perfectly
natural, being in fact only the outcome and
development of His true Divinity. — JV. M.
Taylor, The Miracles Helps to Faith.
[560] The Scripture account of a miracle is
an extraordinary act proceeding immediately
and directly from the will of God. We believe
that the will of the Omnipotent can produce
changes in nature without necessarily disturbing
the relation of its parts, or changing its laws, in
the same way, though to an infinitely higher
degree, as the will of man can act on the condi-
tion of the earth. — Rev. W. Anderso)i, Scripture
Miracles and Modern Scepticism.
[561] Miracles are sparks glistening on the
wheel of Divine Providence as it revolves in
ordinary work.
They are probable, reasonable, natural, com-
ing from Him by whom nature exists ; and
supernatural as controlling nature.
Nature is afflicted with a fatal malady, and
miracles are a part of the means, elixirs in tlie
healing prescriptions of the great Physician.
It is in the course of nature that medicines
heal ; yet they entirely change the otherwise
regular currents of events, and bring in a new
and endless range of consequent events ; that,
in place of death, life rules and man is saved. —
Tlie Mysteries of Nature.
[562] A miracle is unusual Divine action ;
natural law is habitual Divine action. In a
world containing creatures that are really free,
both kinds of action are essential ; otherwise,
freedom is not freedom. The natural is indeed
a continued miracle, but being prolonged,
hides its supernaturalism from the common
observer. It represents the truth. God is so
wise that He can make all things ; and, much
wiser than that He enables all things to make
themselves. — Ibid.
[563] Miracles, as we look back, were the
great steps by which nature ascended the
heights of being and existence.
As we look around, miracles are seen in all
new life and sustainment of old life ; in the
rhythm of all things, the current of electricity,
the pulsation of life, and the throb of our
breasts ; in the tidal wave, succession of day
and night, and in cycles of tlie universe.
Mysterious invisible Will is everywhere pro-
ducing effects without any known intermediate
agencies.
Miracles, as we look forward, are stars gleam-
ing on our life's waves, which cause the surface
of our mental ocean to sparkle with Divine
iridescence.
View the past, the present, the future, our
THE l.VIDENCES OF THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION.
563—573]
[miracles.
conscience, our reason, our science, detect,
accept, and approve miraculous working. — Ibid.
II. Their Evidential Value.
I The importance of this branch of evi-
dence.
[564] The Bible is full of miracles, invisible
and visible, and the prophecies of the Bible,
which occupy as large a space in the Old
Testament as the miracles of Christ in the New
Testament, are just as much miracles as the
evidences of power. — Rtv. \V. Anderson, M.A.
[565] Christianity, if it be worth anything as
a remedy, is so essentially supernatural in its
inmost essence and provisions, that it cannot
be detached from miracles without losing its
virtue ; and the nineteenth century, not less
than the fu'st, must accept of Christ's own
challenge, " If I do not the works of My Father,
believe Me not." — Rev. Principal Cairns on
Christianity and Aliracles.
[566] We are to judge of doctrines by the
accompanying miracles, and of miracles by the
accompanying doctrines. The doctrines are
the test of the miracles, the miracles of the
doctrines. This statement is strictly correct,
and involves no contradiction. — Pascal.
[567] It is often alleged that the defenders of
the faith are guilty of reasoning in a circle, in-
asmuch as they hold that the miracles are
proved by the inspiration and authority of
Scripture, while they employ the iniracles to
establish the divinity of the Bible ; but this is
not so. For when we are treating of the
credibility of the gospel history, we have to
answer the question, how far that is affected by
the records of supernatural occurrences which it
contains ; and then, the credibility established,
in dealing with the Dii'ine authority of the
gospel, we have to ask what the miracles say
concerning Him who wrought them, and the
system in connection with which they were
performed. There is thus no vicious circle, but
a strictly logical and exact method is pursued,
each subject of investigation following naturally
on that by which it is preceded. — IV. M.
Taylor, The Miracles Helps to Faith.
2 Miracles are not merely evidences.
[568] Miracles, according to the true Chris-
tian conception, had a deeper design than to
be evidences of Christianity. They had to be
vital and integral parts of Christianity. But
this did not hinder them from being evidences
too ; and as evidences they have a reason and a
credibility which would be wholly wanting if
they were extraneous and supplementary parts
engrafted upon an otherwise non-miraculous
system. — Rev. Principal (bairns on Chris-
tianity and Miracles.
3 Miracles are not the only or chiet evi-
dence.
[569] In place of an appeal to those might)
influences which Christ's words and doctrine
exercise on every heart that receives them,
to their transforming, transfiguring power, to
the miracles of grace which are the heritage
of every one who has believed to salvation, in
place of urging on the gainsayers in the very
language of the Lord, " If any man will do His
will, he shall know of the doctrine whether it be
of God" (John vii. 17, this all as vague and
mystical (instead of being seen to be, as it truly
was, the most sure and certain of all) was
thrown into the background. Men were afraid
to trust themselves and their cause to evidences
like these, and would know of no other state-
ment of the case than this — Christianity is a
Divine revelation, and this the miracles which
accompanied its promulgation prove. — Abp.
Trench.
[570] The spiritual power of the gospel
transcends its recorded physical miracles, which
were material types of spiritual effects ; as heal-
ing the leper, to indicate the perennial miracle
of removing the leprosy of sin — " I will, be
thou clean." — B. G.
4 Miracles are not logical proofs but pertinent
illustrations of truth.
[571] A miracle does not prove the truth of
a doctrine, or the Divine mission of Him that
brings it to pass . . . The doctrine must first
commend itself to the conscience as hCxxx'g good,
and only then can the miracle seal it as Divine.
But the first appeal is from the doctrine to the
conscience, to the moral nature in man . . .
" He that is of God heareth God's word," and
knows it for that which it proclaims itself to be
. . . Where the mind and conscience witness
against the doctrine, not all the miracles in the
world have a right to demand submissic n to the
word which they seal . . . It may be more truly
said that we believe the miracles for Christ's
sake, than Christ for the miracles' sake — Abp.
Trench.
[572] The recordedmiraculous is difficult of be-
lief, difficult of proof; a thousand perplexities sur-
round it, the critical intellect instinctively revolts
against it. To secure it acceptance, it needs to
be borne along on a mighty tide of moral evidence
and fitness, to follow in the wake of manifested
"grace and truth ;" not as logical proof, but as
pertinent illustration ; not as bare prodigy, but
as the physical embodiment and sign of the
spiritual power which redeems and saxes.
[573] Extreme views have been held : on the
one hand, that they are the only satisfactory
evidence of a Divine revelation, and on the other,
that they are no proper evidence. Scripture
teaches that their evidence is important and
decisive, but at the same time subordinate to
that of the truth itself. God confirms his own
revelations by them ; prophets and apostles
aj^pcal to them m support of their Divine com-
mission ; so also Christ Himself.— Z^r. C Hodge,
Systematic Theology.
THE EVIDENCES OF THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION.
574-580]
[miracles.
99
[574] And, first, it seems clear that there is
no warrant for putting the miracles in the fore-
front of our argument, as if they must be proved
by incontrovertible evidence to have been really
performed and strictly supernatural, before the
gospel itself, the substance of Christianity, can
reasonably approve itself to our hearts as being
from God. All that we have collected from the
New Testament on the subject points to a
different order : first, the various intrinsic and
moral evidences of the divineness of the gospel ;
and, after these, the attestation afforded by the
physical miracles of its origin. — Broivniow
AJ ait land, Steps to Faith.
[575] Each such miracle had its moral or
spiritual significance. Each taught its own
lesson to the heart, and so proved itself worthy
of God. The accusation against Christ that He
wrougiit the miracles by the aid of " Beelzebub,
the chief of the devils," stood self-refuted by the
very character of the miracles themselves, as
well as by the purity of the teachings which
they were sent to support. — E. Gray, A/.A.
III. Their Possibility.
I Not antecedently impossible.
[576] It is difficult to conceive in what sense
miracles are said to be repugnant to experience.
Several relations of the same fact may be in-
consistent ; but unconnected facts, how different
soever, are not repugnant to each other. You
have never, for example, felt an earthquake ;
yet the man who asserts that he felt one in a
distant country, or before you were born, does
not contradict your experience. You have never
known a dead man restored to life ; yet the
witnesses of such an event cannot be refuted by
your ignorance. — /r. ^\ Poxvell, D.D., 17 17-
1775-
[577] Miracles must not be compared to com-
mon natural events ; or to events which, though
uncommon, are similar to what we daily expe-
rience ; but to the extraordinary phenomena of
nature, and then the comparison will be between
the presumption against miracles and the pre-
sumption against such uncommon appearances,
suppose, as comets, and against there being any
such powers in nature as magnetism and elec-
tricity.—i)/). Butler, 1692-1752.
[578] If miracles cannot take place, an in-
quiry into the historical evidences of revealed
religion is vain ; for Revelation is itself miracu-
lous, and therefore by the hypothesis impossible.
But what are the grounds upon which so
stupendous an assertion is made, as that God
cannot, if He so please, suspend the working of
those laws by which he commonly acts upon
matters, and act on special occasion diffei-ently ?
Shall we say that He cannot because of His own
immutability ? But if we apply the notion of a
law to God' at all, it is plain that miraculous
interpositions on fitting occasions may be as
much a rearular, fixed, and established rule of
His government as the working ordinarily by
what are called natural laws. Or shall we say
all experience and analogy is against miracles }
But this is either to judge, from our own narrow
and limited experience, of the whole course of
nature, and so to generalize upon the most weak
and insufficient grounds, or else, if in the phrase
" all experience " we include the experience of
others, it is to draw a conclusion directly in the
teeth of our data; for many persons well worthy
of belief have declared that they have witnessed
and wrought miracles. — Rawlinsofi, Historical
Evidences.
[579] The course of nature furnishes in every
case an anterior probability that the event will
be such as it hath been before, and all human
calculations are grounded on this principle ;
but the moment an event actually happens, the
time for probable calculation is past, and we
may know it with the same certainty, whether
it never occurred before or occurred a thousand
times. If it be quite unusual, that is a reason
for scrutinizing every circumstance and deciding
slowly ; but it is no reason for rejecting the
evidence of our senses. The argument before
us confounds two very different things, namely,
the anterior probability of what may be to-
morrow, and the actual experience of it when it
comes ; and because the uniformity of nature's
laws suggest one result as most likel^', you are
not allowed to believe another when it actually
happens. You cannot believe it until it has
happened so frequently as to claim to rank
among natural events. But who can doubt that
Adam, the first day he saw the sun rise, wojld
be just as certain of the fact as after he had
seen it rise every day for a century ? The only
difference would be, that in the latter case he
would have learned to calculate with greater
certainty on its return to-r^orrow ; but the
evidence of its actual appearance on any day
would not be greater th^n the evidence of its
actual appearance the first day it rose. So of
a miracle or any wonderful event. You could
not calculate on it beforehand ; you would
expect the I'everse ; but when it actually did
occur, you might be as certain of it as of the
most common event. — Dr. Lindsay, Christ and
Christianity.
2 Miracles naturally expected in connection
with revelation.
[580] If you deny miracle, you deny that God
can, or else you deny that He will, convey any
knowledge, any teaching, any information of
that kind of which we speak to the intelligent
beings whom He has made.
That he cannot do so we have shown to be
an assertion altogether irrational. That He will
not, is beyond the right of any man to assert, as
it is certainly beyond his power to prove.
If God cannot do this without a miracle ; and
if He desires and purposes to do it ; it follows
as an inevitable consequence that He will do
it by miracle. — E. Gray, M.A.
lOO
58r
THE EVIDENCES OF THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION.
[miracles.
[581] We come, therefore to this reasonable
conclusion ; — that as we believe that there is a
God, a Maker of all things ; and as that Maker
is kind and beneficent in His purposes toward
His creatures; and as, because He is so, He
must desire that we should know Himself and
His will ; and as, finally, there is no conceivable
means by which He can do this without some
miraculous agency ; — there is every reason to
expect and believe that He has thus revealed
Himself; and if so, that such revelation must
have been by means of some miraculous mani-
festation of His power to mankind. — Ibid.
[582] The highest love demanded miracle for
its interpretation. Only so could it reveal itself
the sovereign of life. Only so could be lifted
for us a corner of the mysterious veil by which
our life temporal is shadowed round, and the
eternal shown to be its life and goal. There
are higher meanings than sense can guess, deeper
secrets than intellect can ever pierce to, in our
common suftering life. Divine love alone could
utter them by the words and works of the Divine
Son. Was not this His meaning when He said,
"My Father worketh hitherto and I work".? Was
not this His meaning when disease and death fled
away before the touch of His sovereign pity, and
evil drew back from
" The sweep of His white raiment " ?
It is that sin and pain are temporal, that mercy
is eternal. " If thou canst believe, all things are
possible to him that believeth." The base of
this low altar-stair of suffering slopes through
darkness up to the everlasting heavens, and far,
far within their piercing deeps love is enthroned
for e\'er. — Rev. Leigh Matin.
3 Moral conceptions show the probability of
miracles.
[583] So long as we abide in the region of
nature, miraculous and improbable, miraculous
and incredible, may be admitted as convertible
terms. But once lift up the whole discussion
into a higher region, once acknowledge some-
thing higher than nature, a kingdom of God,
and men the intended denizens of it, and the
whole argument loses its strength and the force
of its conclusions. Against the argument from
experience which tells against the miracle, is to
be set, not, as Hume asserts, the evidence of
the witnesses, which it is quite true can in no
case itself be complete and of itself sufficient,
Init this, plus the anterior probability that (iod,
(ailing men to live above nature and sense,
would in this manner reveal Himself as the
Lord paramount of nature, the breaker through
and slighter of the appa'itions of sense ; pins
also the testimony which the particular miracle
by its nature, its fitness, the glory of its circum-
stances, its intimate coherence as a redemptive
act with the personality of the doer, in Cole-
ridge's words, " its exact accordance with the
ideal of a true miracle is the reason " gi\en to
the canscience that it is a Divine work. The
vioral probabilities Hume has altogether over-
looked and left out of account, and when they
are admitted, — dynamic in the midst of his
merely mechanic forces, — they disturb and in-
deed utterly overbear and destroy them. — Abp.
Trench^ Notes on Miracles.
IV. Difficulties of those who reject.
Miracles.
I The evidence of those who witnessed the
miracles must be overthrown before the
miracles themselves can be overthrown.
[584] I belie\e that the word of one true man
is surer evidence than the experience of nature's
uniformity for a thousand years, and that the
spiritual philosophy which accords this supre-
macy to the deliberate accents of reason and
conscience, which owns the majesty of man as
transcending the authority of nature, is infinitely
more profound than the philosophy of Hume. —
Bayne, Testinio7iy of Christ, &^c.
[585] It is beyond all dispute that the first
Christians believed that miracles had been
wrought, and that the resurrection was the
corner-stone of their faith ; thus, as their testi-
mony was sincere, and as the record leaves us
in no doubt that they actually witnessed what
they believed to be miracles ; and as what they
witnessed was never proved not to have been
miraculous, but on the other hand has been
borne out by the subsequent history of Chris-
tianity, which can only be explained on the
view that its origin was miraculous ; we are
shut up to this alternative : — either miracles are
so incredible that nothing can prove them, or
the evidence of the Christian miracles is satis-
factory.—7?. A. Ke.i/oni, The Chnstiaii's Plea.
2 Miracles were not denied by those who
were concerned to destroy Christianity in
its early days.
[586] Can you say by what means these people
to whom the moral teaching associated with the
miracles was most repugnant were convinced
that the miracles were true which you say were
false. How was it that the enemies never found
them out to be delusions or illusions, though
they were performed in the light of day '^. How
came it that their moral purport is perfectly
harmonious with the teaching of the gospel ?
How came it that they were avowed and ap-
pealed to and accepted ? How could St. Paul,
twenty years afterwards, say that there were
hundreds of people living still who saw these
wonderful facts on which the Christian religion
was based } (iive something to supply the place
of that which you remove. — Rev. //-'. Ander-
son., J/. A., Script //re Miracles and Modern
Scepticism.
V. Their Apparent Design.
[587] In the New Testament r'cpa^ marks
their evidential purpose, and o-j/jutw their ethical.
[588] They have been well compared to the
tolling of the bell to summon people to church.
THE EVIDENCES OF THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION.
-594]
lOI
[miracles.
So miracles were designed to call attention to
the voice of God, speaking on some unusually
solemn occasion, as at the opening of a new
dispensation. — Boiucs.
[589] All truths do not need miracles ; some
are of easy belief, and are so clear by their
own light that they need neither miracle nor
demonstration to prove them. Such are those
self-evident principles which mankind do gene-
rally agree in : others which are not so evident
by their own light we are content to receive
upon clear demonstration of them, or very prob-
able arguments for them, without a miracle.
And there are some truths which, however
they may be sufficiently obscure and uncertain
to most men, yet are they so inconsiderable,
and of so small consequence, as not to deserve
the attestation of miracles ; so that there is no
reason to expect that God should interpose by a
miracle, to convince men of them. " Nee Deus
intersit, nisi dignus vindice nodus inciderit."
But for such truths as are necessary to be
known by us, but are not sufficiently evident of
themselves, nor capable of cogent evidence,
especially to prejudiced and interested persons,
God is pleased in this case many times to work
. miracles for our conviction ; and they are a
proper argument to convince us of a thing
that is either in itself obscure and hard to be
believed, or which we are prejudiced against,
and hardly brought to believe ; for they are
an argument a niajori ad minus, they prove a
thing which is obscure and hard to be believed
by something that is more incredible, which
yet they cannot deny because they see it done.
Thus our Saviour proves Himself to be an
extraordinary person, by doing such tilings as
nez't'r man did ; He convinceth them that they
ought to believe what He said, because they
saw Him do those things which were harder to
be believed (if one had not seen them) than
what He said. — Abp. Tilloison, i6jO.
[590] If a new religion were at any time
proclaimed among men, it would not thereupon
become their duty to accept it as true. It would
not even become their duty to examine it, and
try whether it were true or not. 'I hey would
have a right to expect and require that it should,
in the first place, make out a prima facie case ;
that it should come with such credentials as to
make it their reasonable duty to inquire into it
earnestly, and put its pretensions to the proof.
[591] The principle applies to Christianity as
to all other systems of religion. It also is
bound to make out 2^ prima facie case. It must
meet men who are not yet Christians upon their
own ground, and " shew- them signs," signs
which will necessarily change with the changing
ages, but which must alwajs be sufficient to
render indifference to its claims unreasonable,
and therefore wrong. And this it both has done
from the beginning, and does at the present
day.
In the beginning it did so by miracle. Those
to whom Jesus in the first place came were not
bound to receive Him for His word's sake.
They might say, and justly, " The scribes and
Pharisees sit in Moses' seat ; what they teach
us that we will observe and do. But who is He,
this peasant of Galilee, that we should do His
commandment and observe His rules?" The
force of this objection Jesus Himself admitted.
He allowed that, if it had not been met, they
would not have sinned in rejecting Him. But
it was met. He showed them the sign. He
did among them works which no other man did.
Unless they could deny His miracles, they could
not, on their own principles, dispute His claim
— not indeed to be forthwith accepted as the
Messiah, but at least to be listened to without
prejudice, and to have His doctrine tried. —
T. M. Home in The Expositor, 1 88 1 .
[592] A gardener, when he transplanteth a
tree out of one ground into another, before the
tree takes root he sets stays to it, and poureth
water at the root of it daily ; but when it once
taketh root, he ceaseth to water it any more,
and pulleth away the stays that he set to uphold
it, and suffereth it to grow with the ordinary in-
fluence of the heavens. So the Lord in plant-
ing religion — He put to the help of miracles, as
helps to stay it ; but when it was once confirmed
and fastened, and had taken deep root, He took
away such helps, so that, as St. Augustine hath
it, "He that looketh for a miracle is a miracle
himself; for if the death of Christ work not
faith, all the miracles in the world will not do
\i."— Spencer.
[593] Supposing, therefore, that you have
found a way by wliich some few thoughtful men
obtained true notions of religion, you are far
from having found a way of propagating true
religion in the world. Reasoning will not do
the business ; and therefore the gospel set out
in another manner, by proposing the great truths
of religion in the plainest and simplest manner
in an authoritative way, but by an authority
supported by the plainest and the strongest
proof, the proof of miracles ; an argument that
was adapted to men of all conditions, and made
its way to every understanding.
VI. Their Connection with Natural
Laws.
I Miracle is no violation of law, but falls in
with a higher law and purpose of the Law-
giver.
[594] Miracles may be effected by higher
law, for ought we know ; but who or what brings
that law down to bear upon the lower sphere ?
Miracle must imply God in immediate action ;
and to us miracle is simply miracle. We get
lost when we begin to philosophize and define.
The " law" there may be in the case, is so tar
from removing God from the sequence, that it
brings Him directly into it.
I02
595— 6ool
THE EVIDENCES OF THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION.
[mihacles.
2 The essence of miracle is that we cannot
explain the effect by ordinary machinery,
[595] We see no possible advantage in trj'ing
to understand the means by which a miracle was
wrought. In accepting the evidence for it, we
are avowedly accepting the evidence for some-
thing which transcends the ordinary laws by
which nature works. — Cajioii Farrar, Life of
Christ.
3 A miracle is the Divine power exercised in
a different way than ordinarily.
[596] All that is essential to the idea of a
miracle is the intervention of Divine power to
accomplish by supernatural means, whether
directly or indirectly, a result not attained in
the ordinary course of nature. But what is
above and beyond nature is not necessarily con-
trary to it. That iron should swim, may be
^-lY^a-natural, j//;>^;'-natural, yet not coiitra-
natural. Nay, there may possibly be, as
some suppose, even within the sphere of nature
itself, a power hitherto unknown, suflicient to
produce that unusual result ; requiring only to
be called into exercise by the Divine will, when
the special occasion demands ; and the result
would be none the less a miracle, since it is the
efiect of special Divine interposition, and is
something beyond the itsitai course of nature.
But whether the wt'i7;/.y employed are natural or
supernatural, in either case the efficie?it cause is
supernatural, and the event miraculous ; nor is
there, in either case, any necessary violation or
suspension of the already existing and estab-
lished laws. Those laws may remain in full force,
notwithstanding the coming in of this power. —
F?of. Hanen in Bibliotheca Sacra.
[597] Looking upon the universe as every-
where and alwaj-s the realm of law, it has been
suggested that miracles may be due to the
action of higher laws in the region of lower
laws. — Abp. Trench.
[598] We should term the miracle, not an in-
fraction of the law, but behold in it a lower law
neutralized, and for a time put out of working
by a higher ; and of this abundant analogous
examples are evermore going forward before our
eyes. Continually we behold in the world
around us lower laws held in restraint by higher,
mechanic by dynamic,chemicalby vital, physical
by moral. — A'» yl. Redford.
4 The extraordinary proceeding of the Divine
power, which is miracle, may be with or
without natural agencies.
[599] If tilt; wind which blew back the Red
Sea and gave the Israelites a safe passage
across, were a true consecjuent of natural ante-
cedents, it would be none the less a miracle in
the Bible sense of the word, that the action of
the wind should correspond exactly in time and
place with the jnirpose of Cod towards His
people. But there are many miracles recorded
in Scripture to which such an argument is
totally inapplicable. Take, e.g., the case of
raising the dead. The resurrection of Christ is
the crucial instance of the miraculous. Here
we cannot talk of antecedents and consequents.
There is no parallel in the uniform successions
of nature. — Ibid.
5 Miracles may be applications of unfamiliar
laws.
[600] We call those the la-ii.<s of God which are
familiar to us, and we call them rightly. But
how can we tell that there are not, in the in-
finity of creation, other laws at work which are
greater and more marvellous in operation than
those with which wfe are acquainted .- And if
these are the natural laws ol that other sphere,
is it allowable for us to speak of them as an
infraction of God's rule, merely because they
are not the selfsame laws which regulate this
world of ours 1 Supposing that for some special
purpose those laws of another sphere were made
to take effect in our world, would it be correct
to state that God's law was thereby broken.'
Let us endeavour to illustrate our position by
a short parable ; bearing in mind, however, that
a parable can only partially represent the idea
of which it is an illustration.
There was once a garden, filled with trees and
herbs. These trees and herbs were all of them
sensitive and sentientbeings, capable of noticing
surrounding objects, and of forming some esti-
mate of the various things and circumstances
which came within the range of theirexperience.
For instance, they were accustomed to the pre-
sence of the gardener, and recognized in him a
being of a superior order.
The tools which he daily employed were sub-
jects of some speculation in their minds ; but
being daily present to them, they d.d not excite
any great astonishment. No doubt they ac-
counted them wonderful ; but then they were
also familiar, and for that reason, as has been
said, they did not awaken surprise, or seem in
any way supernatural.
They sometimes speculated upon how the
various implements of husbandry had come into
existence, but at any rate xh^fact of their exist-
ence was beyond dispute, and that fact they
admitted, much in the same wa)- as we accept
many things which are evident to our senses,
but which we can account for only in a conjec-
tural manner.
It had come to be received h\ them as a law
of nature that in summer the lawn should be
mown weekly, that the fruit trees should be
pruned twice in the year, the ivy clipped every
spring, and the ground dug and manured in the
winter. Some of these operations might occa-
sionally be omitted, but such omission was, to
their thinking, only an inierruption of a natural
law, just as we may regurd an exceptional season
of rain or drought. Another familiar law was
this, that at intervals of uncertain recurrence,
the garden, or certain portions of it, should be
refreshed by tlie artificial irrigation of the
watering-pot.
But at length it occurred to the gardener to
THE EVIDENCES OF THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION.
600—605]
103
[miraclks.
lay down a flexible tube, and to connect it with
the water supply of the neighbouring town ; and
by means of this he watered his beds with a con-
tinuous stream until the whole plot of ground
was saturated.
"A miracle! a miracle!" exclaimed the as-
tonished plants ; for it was an occurrence con-
trary to all their past experience. It appeared
to them a supernatural event, simply because it
was without precedent, and because no cause
within their range of knowledge or experience
could account for so strange a portent.
To the gardener, indeed, the event was no
miracle, but simply the application of a law to
his garden, which he had never employed
before, or never employed in the same manner,
though familiar to him as being usually operative
elsewhere. — E. Cray, M.A.
6 There is room in nature for freedom of
actioa by the Divine as by the human will,
without infringing on the so-called laws of
nature.
[601] Miracles, then, are not atiomalies, or
events brought about in contravention of the
laws of nature. They certainly interfere with
and interrupt some of the laws of nature, but
they do not run counter to that system of laws
by which the material world is governed. A
comet in its movements does not obey the
laws of our solar system ; but it obeys some
law, and marches forward in its apparently
erratic orbit in accordance with that complete
and perfect system of laws by which the move-
ments of the starry spheres are regulated. And
so, though miracles apparently contravene this
or that particular law of nature, they are not
lawless.- -Rci/;i Cliandra Base, The TruiJi of
Christian Religio)i.
[602] We need pay little attention to those
who dogmatically affirm that miracles are im-
possible. Yox even if that were the fact, nothing
short of Omniscience could safely venture to
declare it. — C. F. Wright.
[603] Again, persons who talk in this strain
overlook the elasticity of nature, or the possi-
bility of its admitting the acts of free agents
without endangering the uniformity of its course.
You will remember the celebrated statement of
Fichte regarding a grain of sand. Suppose a
grain of sand appears a few inches off from the
spot whereon it is found, an almost endless
chain of new antecedents must be pre-suppo.-ied
to account for the fact. The wave by which it
was deposited must have proceeded a few
inches forward ; the wind by which the wave
was propelled must have blown a trifle harder ;
the atmospheric conditions preceding the motion
of that wind must have been ditierent from
what they were ; these altered conditions might
have destroyed the crops which fed the father
of the party who sees the grain of sand ; the
father might have died, and the son might never
have been born !
But all this chain of antecedents would be a
beautiful conceit of the head if the grain of
sand, instead of being driven forward by a
wave, were removed by my hand. I can re-
move the particle with the greatest ease with-
out disturbing the antecedents or the con-
sequents conjured up like so many phantoms
by the imagination of the philosopher. So that
there is room in nature for the independent
action of the mind or will ; and there certainly
is room for the independent action of the Will
which controls and regulates all the physical
and moral forces of which it is the grand store-
hoise. — Ram Chandra Base, Ihe I'ruth oj
Christian Religion.
[604] It is somewhat strange to talk of the
harmony of nature in the midst of disorder and
anomaly. Look at the condition of man, the
lord of creation, with the lower animals in a
state of rebellion against him ; his authority
despised, his glory trailed in the dust, and his
person insulted by the meanest insect ; — look
at the relative condition of man in this world,
and tell us if this is the primitive state of things.
Look at the regular system of destruction that
operates side by side with the system of life,
and then say if the harmony of nature has con-
liuued undisturbed. Look at disease and death
in their ten thousand frightful forms, at the
arrow that flieth by day, and the pestilence that
walketh in darkness ;— look at vice in all its
impurity and tilth, and crime in all its horrors,
and then say if there are no rents in the
harmony of nature. To talk of the impossibility
of rents in this woi'ld ot disorder is something
like talking of the stability of empires amid the
existing ruins of Rome or Athens !
If this sm-created order of things is allowed
to go on undisturbed, this harmony of disorder,
so to speak, left intact, the complete destruction
of nature is only a ciuestion of time. A remedial
system is needed to bring nature back. Miiacles
tnerefore- are not capricious acts, but connected
manifestations of a higher law ushered in to
restore sin-deformed nature to its original
harmony. iVliracles are not rents, but mag-
nificent appendages of a system introduced to
do away with rents. Miracles are not dis-
turbances, but the attractive accompaniments
of an arrangement calculated to heal all dis-
turbances. And therefore miracles tend to re-
store nature to the harmony it has lost, and
man to that state of punty and bliss from which
he has i^\\Q\\.—lbid.
7 Our ignorance or limited knowledge of the
vast range of the universe, of the relation
of mind and will to material instruments,
render it presumptuous to regard miracles
as contrary to those laws of nature which
may include them.
[605] I shall ask you this, to consider with
me the vastness of nature— a vastness both
with regard to variety and to extent— to our
finite conception a vastness illimitable, infinite.
And the reason why I invite you to the con-
sideration of this phase of nature lies in the
104
6o5-6o6l
THE EVIDENCES OF THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION.
[MIRACr.ES.
conviction that it will remove from some minds,
as it certainly has from my own, all a priori or
anterior objections to the miracles of the New
Testament, drawn from the suspicion that they
are contrary to the laws of nature. I think I
shall be able to convince you that, whatever
else these miracles may be, we have no valid
reason for regarding them in this light ; but, on
the contrary, they may after all be only
necessary instances of the orderly course of
nature itself. Turn your thoughts, then, to the
starry heavens as nightly disclosed to the
astronomer's gaze by those gigantic telescopes,
and their apoliances, which are among the
chief wonders of inventive skill. In certain
portions of the heavens, more stars pass across the
small visible field of the instrument each minute
than you or I have ever distinctly seen with
unaided vision shining over the whole concave
surface of the sky. I say nothing of the in-
calculable distances of each from each, or of
each from our earth. Our planetary systems
and our own sun are themselves units in this
vast associated group. Yet this incalculable
array of associated systems of worlds is not a
chaos, but a cosmos replete with order and
beauty and law. And now, not in contrast, still
less in derisive contrast, turn your thoughts to
that little sand-glass which limits the due ac-
complishment of my present task. The sand
therein is debris of ancient continents teeming
■with life and happiness and beauty upon this
our globe, long anterior to the advent of man.
The why and the wherefore of this amazing
prodigality of duration as much baffle and
evade us as do the stars. And ne.\t think of
the materials which constitute the glass which
contains the sand. Every particle of one of
those materials has passed through the tissues
of creatures living, no doubt, a pleasurable
existence in some primaeval waters, while the
other material aided the life and growth of the
beautiful flora which adorned its shores. Modern
science has revealed the existence within that
glass of myriads and myriads of entities, yet
moving among each other with velocities
nieasuraVjIe by no terrestrial standards, but ap-
proaching rather the velocities of the planets,
and, dashing against each other and against
the sides of the glass, produce by their orderly
conflicts all those varied effects which we classify
under the names of atmospheric pressure, heat
and light, and electricity. Add to those stu-
pendous hosts which adorn the skies, and to
those myriad atoms thus curiously endowed, all
the existences that lie between and around
them ; add to them that bright mysterious
thing called life, and especially human life; and
then, summing up the whole, at what you have
arrived at last in all this interminable array of
things and thought.' Simply this: You 'have
nature, which is only another name for the sum
of all created things. Now, in this c arkness or
this light of nature, tell nic, if it pleased the
Author of nature to send us a revelation of
things in which we are most deeply concerned,
but regarding which the visible parts of nature
could give us no information ; if, in this behalf,
there appeared upon this earth one who assumed
to be a messenger from heaven, and to know
the secrets of the Most High ; if he claimed
for himself a Divine origin and exhibited in his
conduct moral excellence and a moral intelli-
gence far beyond any that we conceive attain-
able by the children of men ; if he taught and
lived as none other being ever taught and lived
before or since, and if, in the course of his
ministiy, this unique being, appearing under tl is
unique environment, claimed, and was said and
seen to exhibit, power over the diseases of the
body and over the elements of nature — nay,
over life and death — could you, with any show
of reason, reject the narrative, simply under
the plea that it was contrary to the laws of
nature ? I omit all reference to our absolute
ignorance of those laws of the mysterious inter-
action between mind and matter. The miracles
of the unique, the Divine Teacher are in the
sacred records attributed to the energy of His
will. And who knows the relation of will to
the motions of material atoms .'' Consider in
what are constituted, and by what means are
developed, the arts, the conveniences, the em-
bellishments of social life. Regard for a mo-
ment railways and telegraphs in the mere light,
though that is an important light, of their
exciting the curiosity and developing the in-
telligence of the great masses of our population.
We know that the earth is the great storehouse
of the means provided for our material and
intellectual advancement ; and, now that you
have before your minds this wondrous correlation
of our complex globe to the still more wonder-
ful being in due time placed upon it, turn the
gaze of your thoughts towards the nebulous
masses in the far-otf sky, now in process of
evolution into new suns and new worlds, to be
constituted in their turn after the fashion of
our own in these mysterious fiery clouds. The
instructed gaze of science already discerns the
nitrogen of future atmospheres, the hydrogen
of future oceans, the carbon of a future vege-
tation, and, it may be, the sure traces of the iron
that is destined to quicken the inventive genius
of beings who are to be the denizens of worlds
yet unformed. Magnificent prolcpsis ! The skies
of the ages long past must have once proclaimed
in like manner the same beneficent arrange-
ments in preparation for ourselves ; for those
ancient skies contained the promise and the
prophecy, the far-olT prophecy, of the advent
of a being, who, in the slow but sure progress of
the rolling ages, would, as on this day, sing of
the glory and be warned and inv gorated by the
parental love of llic Lord of tue universe. —
Professor Priicluird.
8 The Divine character renders miracles
probable as well as possible.
[606] The doctrine of theism being assumed,
the conditions of ilie problem are clearly stated
by John S. IVlill. Hume's argument against
miracles is far from being conclusive "when the
EVIDENCES OF THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION,
606-613I
[miracles.
existence of a Being who created the present
order of nature, and therefore may well be
thought to have power to modify it, is accepted
as a fact, or even as a probability resting on
independent evidence. . . . The question then
changes its character, and the decision of it
must now rest upon what is known, or reason-
ably surmised, as to the manner of God's
government of the universe; whether this know-
ledge or surmise makes it the more probable
supposition that the event was brought about
by the agencies by which His government is
ordinarily carried on, or that it is the result of a
special and extraordinary interposition of His
will in supersession of those ordinary agencies."
~C. F. IVrighL
9 What we call miracles are the Divine
special actions, and rule over nature, like
man's actions.
[607] In miracle and providence the Creator
is only supposed to use a power over nature
analogous to that so freely exercised by man.
The use of nature for purposes of the Creator's
design is no more a paradox than its use by
man. — I did.
[608] The miracles of the Bible were sus-
pensions, or, more correctly, counteractions, of
some force of nature — 1 have not said some law
of nature — counteractions of some force of
nature, or the bestowing of some superhuman
power by the immediate will of God, coinciding
with the words of revelation which the miracu-
lous gifts of the persons who were inspired
authoritatively attested to mankind as the words
of God. — Rev. W. Anderson, Scripture Minicies
and Modern Scepticism.
[609] Miracles are not portents, nor were
they ever given under such circumstances as
these, and for such a purpose*. They are signs,
channels of communication between two worlds,
palpable evidences that the course of nature is
more than a chain of unbroken sequences, that
there is a personal God, whose will can, for the
purpose of authenticating His message to man-
kind, prove itself to be supreme over the laws
which govern the physical world. — Ibid.
Vn. The Distinctive Character of
Bible Miracles generally.
[5io] In reference to miracles we require an
interpreting mind to explain them. This is the
reason why so many thoughtful men believe
that the outburst of fire when Julian tried to
rebuild the Jewish temple, and the wonder of
the thorn in the history of Port Royal, were
nothing more than natural wonders. If the
final cause be considered to have been sufficient
in these cases to warrant Divine interposition,
at least there was no interpreter to explain
them, nor any revealed messaL;e to be taught. —
A. S. Farrar, Crit. Hist, of Free Thought.
[611] There is thus in the miracles of the
Bible— abating some obscure instances— a broad
stamp of distinction from extraordinary, though
still natural, phenomena ; while there is a plan,
a method, a reigning spirit which takes them
completelv out of the region of the mere random
wonders and portents of Livy, or the childisli
marvels of the later ecclesiastical historians. It
may be confidently affirmed that if the Bible
miracles are not recognizably Divine, none can
be so ; and thus the extreme sceptical position
would be reached, that a Being who wished to
make a revelation, and sought to attest it by a
seal, which the general sense of mankind has
connected with such a communication, could not
thus stamp it by any sign of distinctive power.
— Principal Cairns.
VIII. The Distinctive Character of
Christ's Miracles.
I The miracles of Christ were public, in the
eyes of men, and could have been contra-
dicted if not real.
[612J He did all His miracles publicly, not in
corners and among some select company of
people, but before multitudes, and in the greatest
places of concourse ; so that if there had been
anything of imposture in them He gave the
fairest opportunity that could be to His enemies
to have detected Him. Mahomet's miracles
were wrought by himself alone, without witness,
which was the 'best way in the world certainly
for one that could work no miracles, but yet
could persuade the people what he pleased. But
our Saviour did nothing in private. His trans-
figuration only was before three of His disciples,
and therefore He made no use of that as an
argument to the Jews, but charged His disciples
to tell it to none till after His resurrection, be-
cause that would give credit to it ; after they
were assured of that, they would easily believe
his transfiguration. But all His other miracles
were in the sight of the people. He healed
publicly, and admitted all to see what He did.
When He turned the water into wine, it was at
a public feast ; when He muhiplied the loaves
and the fishes, it was in the sight of four or five
thousand people ; when He raised Lazarus from
the dead, it was before a great multitude of the
people. The works that He did durst abide
the light, and the more they were manifested,
the more miraculous they did appear.— ^^/.
Tillotson, 1 630- 1 694.
2 The miracles of Christ, unlike those of
prophets and apostles, exalted Him as the
Worker.
[613] These miracles point to the catholic
belief, as distinct from any lower conceptions
concerning the person of Christ. They difter
from the miracles of prophets and apostles m
that, instead of being answers to prayer granted
by a higher Power, they manifestly flow forth
from the Life resident in the Wovl^tv.—Liddon,
Bampton Lectures.
io6
614-
-620]
THE EVIDENCES OF THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION.
[miracles and scienxe.
3 The miracles of Christ were indications
of the nature, as well as proofs, of His
mission.
[614] Such wonders of mercy and grace will
then appear to you the natural outcome of His
redeeminij mission, the appropriate signs and
tokens of His saving might ; and confirmations
of the truth and reality of those ancient marvels
will not be wanting in the every-day facts of the
spiritual life. Is it not as wonderful that souls
once sin-bound and corrupt should break oft"
their chains and walk in newness of life, should
face temptation with unconquerable firmness,
should live above the world in the peace and
hope, the purity and joy, of the children of God
— is not this as wonderful as tliat the sick should
be healed and the dead raised by the word of
the Son of God? And if "His name through
faith in His name" is still working these wonders
in your own souls and in those of all His true-
hearted servants, why should you find it diffi-
cult to believe that the same power gave " per-
fect soundness" to multitudes in the days of
old ? — Brownloiv Maitland.
[615] The miracles recorded in the New
Testament identify the God of nature with the
CJirist 0/ the gospel. They give impressive
illustration of the truth declared by the apostle
John, that the "Word" who became flesh and
dwelt among us was " in the beginning with
God," and that "all things were made by Him."
The works wrought by the Saviour, so varied in
kind and evincing so complete a command over
all physical forces, show that the kingdom of
nature and the kingdom of God are alike under
His control, and prove, therefore, that the bene-
ficence of the natural world and the mercy of
the gospel are the outcome of the same Infinite
goodness.
4 The miracles of Christ were His natural
procedures.
. [616] In the Synoptic Gospels the most com-
mon term for our Lord's miracles is cvrafini:,
powers. The teaching, therefore, of this word
iwdfidc, powers, or faculties, is that our Lord's
works were perfectly natural and ordinary to
Him. They were His capacities, just as sight
and speech are ours. Now in a brute animal
articulate speech would be a miracle, because
it does not lie within the range of its capa-
cities, and therefore would be a violation of its
nature ; it does lie within the compass of our
faculties, and so in us is no miracle. Similarly
the healing of the sick, the giving sight to the
blind, the raising of the dead, things entirely
beyond the range of our powers, yet lay entirely
within tiie compass of our Lord's capncities, and
were in accordance with the laws of His nature.
It was no more "a miracle" in Him to turn
water into wine than it is with God, who woiks
this change every year. — Professor J. W.
Worinan.
IX. Evil Consequences of their Re-
jection.
1 Hopeless perplexity of mind.
[617] To one who rejects them — to one who
believes that the loftiest morals and the divinest
piety which mankind has ever seen were evoked
by a religion which rested on errors or on lies
— the world's history must remain a hopeless
enigma or a revolting fraud. — Canon Farrar,
Life of Christ.
2 Abandonment of the religion of Christ.
[618] At least three stupendous miracles, the
Incarnation, Resurrection, and Ascension, are
essential parts of Christianity, regarded merely
as a moral system. Those who do not believe
in those lesser amiiia of Christ, which are com-
monly called "miracles," generally end by dis-
belief in the truth of these essentials. — Freb.
Wordsworth, Banipton Lectures.
[619] If ever the time should come when
Christian people have shown themselves unwill-
ing to defend the miracles, that time will very
soon be followed by the abandonment of the
religion of Christ entirely ; for certainly no
person would undertake to believe that what is
now good for mankind and which had a Divine
origin was founded on a falsehood or on a
delusion. We are bound, therefore, if we believe
the Christian religion at all, to defend the
miracles recorded therein. — Rev. W. Anderson.
49
MIRACLES AND SCIENCE.
I. The Proper Function of Science in
regard to the Miraculous.
[620] Science is the current stage of human
intelligence as to the orderly processes in the
usual course of nature. Miracles are events
outside that usual course ; and are, therefore,
outside the domain of science. The proper and
only sphere of science in this matter is, to bear
testimony to the fact that certain events— as
raising Lazarus from the grave — are not in the
ordinary course of nature. The work of the
priest in Judaism was to give a certificate of
cure to one recovered from leprosy, and the
work of the scientist is to give a certificate that
certain events or phenomena are outside the
known laws or rules according to which pheno-
mena occur. In this inquiry we are not to
assume that nature is an operant or worker,
but is composed of a set of works or phenomena.
Works, because /// nature, are not of nature.
Phenomena constitute nature, but nature does
not create her phoiiomena or her processes. It
is time to banish for ever that great goddess
Diana of the Ephesians, the mythological,
620—625!
THE EVIDENCES OF THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION. 1 07
[miracles of pagans and papists.
poetical, or fabulous Nature, as some person or
power that works ; and to recognize only works
or events which happen not by laws or rules,
but according to them. Every work or event
that cannot be classified under known rules, or
regular methods and lines of occurrence, shoul^
be scientifically regarded as a miracle — etymo-
logically, something to be womiert'd at — as indi-
cating a special interferetice or line of action
different to the regular course within which the
events of nature are generally confined and
directed. Hence, while science may certify as
to what is a miracle, it can never say that no
miracle occurs; for it is a record of general
orderly phenomena, and can only say that
certain phenomena are outside the usual course
of things, and therefore, not being within the
ordinary course, are miraculous. In the true
sense, all nature is one great miracle ; but as
ciistojii destroys wonder^ some special events
are permitted, in order to excite special atten-
tion, and give credentials to special truths. —
B. G.
[621] If the progress of science remove from
the category of miracles events previously clas-
sified as such, it merely fulfils its proper func-
tion in so doing. The distinction between the
marvellous and the miraculous only thereby
becomes more marked. — H. Calderwell.
50
MIRACLES OF PAGANS AND
PAPISTS.
I. The Difference between pretended
AND Real Miracles.
I Pretended miracles (as those of the Papists)
are frivolous in character and wrought on
unlikely occasions.
[622] And now I am sorry I have occasion to
say it, but it is too true that the miracles pre-
tended to by the Church of Rome, for the con-
f.-rmation of her erroneous doctrines, are taxed
by several of their best writers of imposture and
forgery, of fable and romance, so extravagant
and freakish and fantastical, wrought without
any necessity, and serving to no wise end, that
they are so far from giving credit to their doc-
trines, that they are a mighty scandal to them
and to our common Christianity ; whereas the
truly Divine miracles, reported to us in Scrip-
ture, how unlike they are to these.'' How
venerable in themselves, and in all the circum-
stances with which they are related ? never
wrought but upon great necessity and for excel-
lent ends ; full of benefit and advantage, of
mercy and compassion to mankind ; and, in a
word, such as are every way worthv of their
Author, having plain characters of the Divine
wisdom and goodness stamped upon them. —
Abp. Til lot son, 1630- 1694.
[623] We shall see by and by that there are
many accounts of persons being marked with
the wounds of Christ. There is one, indeed, of
our own day, that of the Belgian ecstatic, Louise
Lateau. One of our ablest physiological
writers. Dr. Carpenter, in his recent work,
" Mental Physiology," regards these phenomena
as quite capable of natural explanation. In the
accounts of St. Francis, we see that intense
absorption in the contemplation of Christ's
passion which is supposed to produce the
effects. The vision of the seraph, which can of
course be explained, and the resulting convic-
tion that the saint was to be transformed into
the likeness of Christ crucified, were exactly the
antecedents likely to be followed by such a
result. It had, indeed, been objected that in the
case of St. Francis we have not merely the five
wounds of Christ impressed upon the body, but
also the appearance of what seemed to be nails
in form and colour. We may rely that it is
difficult to set a limit to this power of a mental
impression over the bodily frame. — Stanley S.
Gibson, Religio7t and Science.
II. Pretended Miracles should not
BE allowed to discredit THE REAL.
[624] History, no doubt, is full of stories of
wonder which, in an age of ignorance and super-
stition, were believed to be the miraculous proofs
of Divine interposition. But such legends have
scarcely anything, except the name, common
with the miracles of the Bible. Spurious coin
sometimes imposes on the unwary by its re-
semblance to the true. This should make us
more careful to discriminate, and should put us
on our guard, but it is no reason why we should
disparage that which is genuine, or deny the
manifest use of that which men have so often
tried to counterfeit. — Rev. W. Anderson, Scrip-
ture Miracles and Alodern Scepticism.
[625] As counterfeit coin is a tribute to, and
acknowledgment of, the current coin which it
imitates, so counterfeit miracles are a compli-
ment to true ones. They also recognize the
importance and suital)ility of miracles as cre-
dentials of religion. But the difference in the
character and circumstances of the miracles, as
recorded in the Scriptures, and those subse-
quently invented or pretended, is the same as
between sterting gold in a good sovereign and
baser metal in a counterfeit one. The false sets
off the true. So of the apocryphal Infancy
of Jesus ; its absurdities show the difference
between man's inventions and God's revelation.
In like manner the miracles there recorded, as
the infant Jesus making a clay sparrow fly, and
so surpassing His playfellows, indicates the
difference between spurious miracles, whether
of patristic or Romish invention, and the
genuine miracles of the Scriptures. — B, C.
626—632]
THE EVIDENCES OF THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION.
[possibility and necessity of kevelation.
51
POSSIBILITY AND NECESSITY
OF REVELATION.
I. Probarility of a Revelation.
1 From general antecedent considerations.
[626] Is it more likely, from the standpoint
of theistic conceptions of the character of (iod,
that Pie should leave His creatures uncared for
and unguided, or that He should in "sundry
times and divers manners" reveal Himself to
them ? And if, of those divers manners, the
witness borne by Nature, by Reason, and by
Conscience, proved to be insufficient, if they
were, at the best, but as ^uua^MyoL leading to a
higher Teacher than themselves, was there not
an antecedent likelihood that He should reveal
Himself in other ways, suspending here and
there the laws which He had Himself ordained,
or modifying their action by a will acting under
higher laws, so as to arrest men's attention and
authenticate the teaching, as of the prophets, by
whom "He spake in times past to the fathers ;'"
so also of the Eternal Son, by whom '' He has
in these last days spoken unto us?" — Rev. Pro-
fessor Plumptre in Contemporary Review.
2 From the natural conception of God as
our Father.
[627] But if God is our Father, if He exer-
cises a loving providence over us, if He hears
our prayers, if He has ordained for us a life
beyond death, how shall we know it 1 Nature,
as we have seen, is voiceless. Revelation alone
can meet these desires of ours, can answer
these questions which every awakened con-
sciousness must ask. Nor is there in revelation
anything intrinsically incredible. Indeed, if it
be our only avenue to certain knowledge regard-
ing providence and immortality, can we believe
that this avenue would have been left for ever
closed.^ Is there anything unnatural indirect
communication from the Creator to creatures
capable of knowing Him — from the Father to
children capable of loving Him and of rejoicing
in His loNe.'
Is objection urged against revelation as op-
posed to the order of nature.^ How much do
we know of that order } Are we in a position
to pronounce such and such events to be incon-
sistent with \0. Probably many of us have
encountered in our own experience, or through
testimony which we could not question, occur-
rences which we knew not h(jw to include in the
order of nature.
II. Need ajsid Neces.sity of a Revela-
tion.
I On account of the mystery of our being.
[628] The king and his chief captains and
ministers arc sitting in council on a dark win-
ter's day, rain and snow without ; within, a
bright fire in their midst. Suddenly a little
bird flies in, a sparrow, in at one door and then
out at another. Where it came from none can
say, nor whither it has gone. So is the life of
man. Clear enough itself, but before it, and
after the end thereof, darkness ; it may be
storm. If the new doctrine will tell us anything
of these mysteries, the before and after, it is the
religion that is wanted. — Vetierable Bede.
2 On account of the enigma of sin.
[629] The cause of evil both moral and penal,
or of sin and miser)-, its first entrance into the
world, and continual progress and increase, has
very much puzzled those who have seriously
inquired into it, and have had only reason for
their guide.
3 On account of the necessity of a remedy
for sin.
[630] The knowledge which Creation im-
parts is imperfect and insufficient. Creation
has been marred by sin. We cannot learn from
the survey of nature how sin may be forgi\en.
Hence it was to be expected that, if ever man
was to be made the object of Divine mercy and
forgiveness, then in some plainer and fuller
method God would reveal Himself to His crea-
tures. The Bible discloses whatever is neces-
sary for man to know in relation to the forgive-
ness of sm, and the attainment of everlasting
salvation. — Bp. Bit kcrsictli.
4 On account of all human attempts to solve
the riddle of man's being.
[631] Man feels that he needs it. There
are questions concerning the origin, nature, and
destiny of man, concerning sin and its pardon,
which he cannot answer. And no man can
answer these questions for his fellow men.
Even if philosophers could answer them, the
great mass of men must still be ignorant. The
experience of ages proves that the world by wis-
dom knows not God. Where the light of reve-
lation is enjoyed, those who reject it are led to
the most contradictory conclusions, and to the
adoption of principles subversive of virtue and
happiness. — Dr. C. Hodi^e, Systeinaiic TJieoloi:;}'.
5 To enable us to escape evils otherwise
insuperable.
[632] Many thinking men among the heathen,
considering the deplorable state of ignorance,
superstition, and vice into which mankind are
so generally sunk, and having experienced the
insufficiency of natural reason to raise them out
of this state, have been inclined to believe that
a revelation would sometime or other be vouch-
safed to the world ; and the will of (jod, as the
rule of our duty and the ground of our expecta-
tions, be thus more uni\ersally and more cer-
tainly known : wlych hope they derived also
from their natural notions of the goodness of
God, which not a little countenanced it. — //.
Grove ^ 1683-1738.
THE EVIDENCES OF THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION.
633-640]
109
[supernatural, the.
III. The Evidence of the Bible being
• A Divine Revelation.
1 The Divine impress of truth is marked on
its pages.
[633] That book that goes up and down
under the name of His word, can you disprove
it to be His word? If such writings should
now first come into the world, so sincere, so
awful, so holy, so heavenly ; bearing so expressly
the Divine image, avowing themselves to be
from God — and the most wonderful works are
wrought to prove them His word, the deaf
made to hear, the blind to see, the dumb to
speak, the sick healed, the dead raised, by
a word only commanding it to be so ; would
you not confess this to be sufficient evidence
tliat this revelation came from heaven ? And
are you not sufficiently assured they are so
confirmed.'' — J. Howe.
2 Its moral tendency.
. [634] If a revelation really comes from the
moral Orderer of the world, it must flow with
His purpose. It must be a part of His order,
it must carryr out His method and work. The
supreme moral test of the Bible therefore is.
Does it flow with and increase this diviner
current of history } Did it, as it first welled up
and began to flow in Israel, does it now in the
fulness of its power, run into and sweep on with
the deepening righteousness, the enlarging
truth of history? — Smyth {America)^ 1882.
3 Its advancing human progress.
[635] First, the general formation truths of the
Old Testament were progressive forces in early
history. They were necessary to progress, and
they pressed man on. Revelation forbade man
to look back, by its threatenings, and led man
on, going before him as the angel of the Lord,
with its promise.
Secondly^, these scriptures, one after another,
seem to have been thrown into the course of
the moral education of the world when they
were needed. They came not too soon or too
late. When the age needed the lesson, the
schoolmaster stood before it, sent from God to
teach it. Revelation in this manner led step by
step, and age after age, the moral progress of
man. — Ibid.
4 The consistency of the revelation in the
Bible with the idea of the Divine govern-
ment and its adaptation to the wants of
man.
[636] From the theistic argument which em-
braces the evidence for the existence, character,
and government of God, passing to that of
revelation, we regard the conception of a
Divine Being revealing to men truth, gra-
dually, and by fitting modes of communica-
tion, both as an a priori possibility and moral
necessity, and as proved a pcst:>-iori by a
consideration of the history of what mankind
has acknowledged to be Divine communica-
tions, by the authority of the written Scriptures.
This argument concentrates itself in the Person
and work of the Lord Jesus Christ, and is con-
firmed by the facts of Christian life, by the
practical application of the truth in the course of
ages, by the testimony given to it over the wide
extent of the human family, showing that
Christianity is the only religion which is uni-
versally adapted to meet the wants of man. —
R. A. Redford, The Christians Plea.
IV. Objections met.
[637] Can a revelation be certified? Is it
possible that it can be known to be a Divine
revelation in a special sense ? Can it be given
to man in such a manner as to vindicate itself
against a priori and a posteriori objections ?
The answer to this question may be divided
into three parts, i. The method of the reve-
lation, by individual men, and by writings
handed down from age to age, is not unreason-
able. 2. The anterior probability of such a
revelation as is given in Scripture is un-
doubtedly strong. 3. The test of time being
applied to the revelation actually given suffi-
ciently approves the Divine authority which is
claimed for it. — Ibid.
52
SUPERNATURAL, THE.
I. Its Nature.
I Beyond the analysis of science and ordi-
nary experience.
[638] It must be held clear by scientists and
theologians alike, that while scientific methods
are reliable within their own spheres, science
can bear no testimony^, and can offer no criti-
cism, as to the supernatural, inasmuch as science
is only an explanation of ascertained facts by
recognition of natural law. — Prof. Calderzuood,
D.D., OH the Relations of Science and Religion.
[639] It results from the very natuie of the
case, that science, which is man's record of
natural processes, does not include what is
supernatural. Even what is natural cannot be
measured by^ private or individual experience,
but by a wide survey.— i>. G.
[640] I never durst make my own obsen-a-
tion or experience the rule and measure of
things spiritual, supernatural, or relating to
another world, because I should think it a very
bad one, even for the visible and natural things
of this; it would be judging like the Siamese,
who was positive it did not freeze in Holland,
because he had never known such a thing as
hard water or ice in his own country. — Berkeley.
I lO
641
THE EVIDEXCES OF THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION.
-649]
[supernatural, the.
2 All Divine revelation necessarily super-
natural.
[641] The moment you begin to explain away
the miraculous and supernatural you surrender
the Bible. Take the supernatural out of the
Bible, and you make it a collection of contra-
dictions and impossibilities. — R. A. Redford.
II. Ground for belief in the Super-
natural.
1 The supernatural recognized by the in-
stinctive consciousness of humanity.
[642] It is found that throughout the whole
history of man there has grown with his growth,
and persistently asserted itself against all oppos-
ing influences, a belief in his actual contact with
the supernatural. As this supernatural always
seemed to him to transcend all the limitations
of his own consciousness, it may be called a
contact with the infinite ; as it always seemed
to him to mingle with his life, it may be called
a consciousness of revelation. Amid all the
varieties of human religions, including even
those which like Buddhism recognize no personal
God, this consciousness of contact with the
infinite is a universal fact, and equally universal
are attempts at worship and service of the infinite
thus known. — Church Qicaricrly Review.
2 What is natural, as an orderly produc-
tion, can be accounted for only by what is
supernatural.
[643] We vainly hunt with a lingering mind
after miracles ; if we did not more vainly mean
by them nothing else but novelties, we are com-
passed about with such ; and the greatest
miracle is that we see them not. You, with
whom the daily productions of nature (as you
call it) are so cheap, see if you can do the like.
Try your skill upon a rose. — J. Howe.
3 The idea of the supernatural cannot per-
manently be eradicated.
[644] The thought of the supernatural abides
with man, do what he will. It visits the most
callous ; it interests the most sceptical. For a
time- even for a long time — it may be asleep in
the breast, cither amidst the sordid despairs, or
the proud, rich, and young, enjoyments of life ;
but it wakens up in curious inquiry, or dreadful
anxiety. In any case it is a thought of which no
man can be reasonably independent In so far
as he retains his reasonable being, and preserves
the consciousness of moral susceptibilities and
relations, in so far will his thought of a higher
world — of a life enclosing and influencing his
present life — be a powerful and practical thought
with him.-— y^r. Tiilloeh.
[645] The idea of the supernatural i- itself
supernatural, and the denial of it involves it,
for It can be no part or process of material
Mature to speculate on what is above itself ;
and all science is man's reasoning and inference
outside and above what is reasoned upon.
Science is a spiritual idea : man's mental
kosmos is a reflex of God's natural kosmos,
the material universe. — B. G.
4 Man's art or applied science is, like science
itself, supernatural, as ruling over nature.
[646] Man controls nature in one case by
obeying some other natural law, and bringing
into operation some secondary cause. Thus, in
the instances given above, the lifting of the
book, the building of the house, <S:c., are all
illustrations of man's intelligence availing itself
of its knowledge of one set of natural laws to
produce eftects which, apart from his interven-
tion, nature itself would never produce. — IV. Af.
Taylor, The Miracles Helps to Faith.
[647] " Nature never built a house, or modell-
ed a ship, or fitted a coat, or invented a steam-
engine, or wrote a book, or framed a constitu-
tion." Hence the human soul has power over
nature, and can, up to a certain extent, control,
suspend, or counteract its laws. Up to a certain
extent, for man is finite ; but where he ceases to
have power, God is as omnipotent as ever ; and
if you only carry up your thoughts from man's
power over nature to God's— if you only think
of God by His will counteracting or suspending,
in a given case beyond the reach of human
causality, the usual course of things which men
call nature — you will have the idea of a miracle.
There is, however, one great difterence between
the two. — Ibid.
5 Nature borders on the supernatural and
results from it.
[648] A truer and more exact use of the word
as expressing the higher region, is that of the
things and events which come within ordinary
experience and knowledge. But every increase
of knowledge reveals to us further illustrations
of the assertion that "order is heaven's first
law." If newly discovered facts and laws seem
for a time to form no part of the general system
of order, we know that they are only as moun-
tain peaks standing high up above a mist which
hides their connected roots, and that when the
mist is dissipated by advancing day they will
all appear as part of a continuous chain.
The veil of "supernatural" phenomena and
" supernatural" law is for a moment lifted by
a miracle, and forthwith it becomes evident that
" nature" is not to be limited by the boundaries
of our experience, but that it extends into a region
which is ordinarily unseen, and forms one great
system of order of which the "supernatural" is
but the higher atmosphere. — Rev. J. H. Blunt.
6 Our natural life projects toward the super-
natural and eternal.
[649] Our argument from life goes to this
extent, that life is a fact of extra-physical signi-
ficance, and that^t leads reason out agam to the
borders of a realm of spiritual forces, and to
possibilities of being, which transcend our per-
THE EVIDENCES OF THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION.
649—65
[history (generally).
sent experience. Not otherwise, or by supposing
less than this, can we render to ourselves any
rational interpretation of the origin, conservation,
and outcome of life. — Newman Sniyili, Uld
Faiths in New Liiilit.
03
HISTORY {GENERALLY).
I. Phases of Historical Testimony to
Revealed Truth.
1 In regard to the life of Christ.
[650] We possess two kinds of evidence that
Jesus Christ actually existed, and that He was
what Christians believe Him to have been : the
one is the purel)- /«>/<? r/cv?/ evidence, which traces
the facts and ideas of Christian history during
the last eighteen centuries back to their antece-
dents in the One Divine Man from whom they
came, and from whom they derived their special
character. The other kind of evidence may be
called the documentary. Here are certain
sacred writings, the genuineness and authenti-
city of which can be certified on independent
grounds, both external and internal, the Gospels
and Epistles. In them we find a presentment
which is perfectly distinct, harmonious, com-
plete ; which, in short, may be said to be the
soul of the writings, their essential meaning and
worth. We can have no reasonable doubt
whatever that the early Christians, to whom we
owe these New Testament writings, believed
Jesus Christ to be what He is represented to be
on their pages ; and we have just as little doubt
that the facts of His history, the features of His
character, the words which are ascribed to Him,
are substantially accurate transcripts of the
wonderful Personality and ministry which ap-
peared in Palestine eighteen hundred years
ago.— 7?. A. Redford, The Christian's Plea.
2 In regard to the scriptural account of the
Jewish nation.
[651] Much more might be said, if it were
needful, for the evincing the truth of this par-
ticular piece of history ; and it is little to be
doubted but any man, who with sober and im-
partial reason considers the circumstances re-
lating to it ; — the easily evidenceable antiquity
of the records whereof this is a part ; the certain
nearness of the time of writing them to the time
when this thing is said to have been done ;
the great reputation of the writer among the
Pagans ; the great multitude of the alleged
witnesses and spectators ; the no- contradiction
ever heard of ; the universal consent and
suffrage of that nation through all times to this
day, even when their practice hath been most
contrary to the laws then given ; the securely
confident and unsuspicious reference of later
pieces of sacred Scripture thereto — even some
parts of the Ne^v Testament — as a most known
and undoubted thing ; the long series and tract
of time through which that people are said to
have had extraordinary and sensible indications
of the Divine presence — which if it had been
false could not in so long a time but have been
convicted of falsehood — their miraculous and
wonderful eduction out of Egypt, not denied by
any, and more obscurely acknowledged by some
heathen writers ; their conduct through the
wilderness and settlement in Canaan ; their
constitution and form of polity, known for many
ages to have been a Theocracy ; their usual
ways of consulting God upon all more important
occasions : whosoever, I say, shall soberly con-
sider these things — and many more might easily
occur to such as would think fit to let their
thoughts dwell awhile on this subject — will not
only from some of them think it highly improb-
able, but from others of them plainly impos-
sible, that the history of this appearance
should have been a contrived piece of falsehood.
—J. Howe.
3 In regard to the continued preservation of
the Jews.
[652] Lord Rochester lived a long while in
infidelity, but there was one argument in iavour
of Christianity, he confessed, he could never set
aside, viz., the existing state and circumstances
of the Jewish nation.
[653] Every one of them is bound to every
other by a tie such as binds together no nation
on earth, not even some remote mountain tribe
which has never seen an invader. Elastic to
stretch to the ends of the earth, it binds every
one of them to this City, this Sanctuary, and to
each other.
[654] It is a common contempt of other races ;
a common enthusiasm for their own ; a common
history, contained in a book which they look on
as Divine ; a common hope, which they also
look on as Divine ; common festivals, which
commemorate national deliverances, drawing
them to the commo.i temple. Their lawgiver
must have been a great patriot and statesman,
this Moses in whom they trust. I always
thought them a wonderful and inexplicable
people. But now, first, at Jerusalem, I begm to
understand the Jews. — Schonberg Cotta Family
[655] The Jews have been spread over every
part of the habitable globe ; have lived under
the reign of every dynasty ; they have shared
the protection of just laws, the oppression of
cruel ones, and witnessed the rise and progress
of both ; they have used every tongue, and have
lived in every latitude. The snows of Lapland
have chilled, and the suns of Africa have
scorched them. They have drunk of the Tiber,
the Thames, the Jordan, the Mississippi. In
every country, and in every degree of latitude
and longitude, we find a Jew. It is not so with
any other race. Empires the most illustrious
have fallen, and buried the men that constructed
THE EVIDENCES OF THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION.
112
655-661]
them ; but the Jew has lived among the ruins, a
livin;^ monument of indestructibiHty. Persecu-
tion has unsheathed the sword and hghted the
faggot, papal superstition and Moslem barbarism
have smitten them with unsparing ferocity ;
penal rescripts and deep prejudice have visited
on them most unrighteous chastisement ; and
notwithstanding all, they surwivt. — Fi user's
Magazine.
[656] The fact that the Jews bring down
through the ages the Old Testament, containing
the prophecies and adumbrations fulfilled in
the New Testament, proves that Christians did
not invent the Bible and its prophecies, which
are preserved by the enemies of Christianity. —
/.'. G.
II. Force of Historical Testimony to
Revealed Truth.
[657] Our acts of faith rest on the recorded
experience of 4000 years. Age by age the evi-
dence has accumulated. For a soul in these
days to distrust the God whose leading of hu-
ma'nity is here recorded, is as though the e)'e
should distrust the sun. — J. Baldwin Brown.
54
ARCHAEOLOGY.
I. Phases OF Arch^ological Testimony
to Revealed Truth.
1 In regard to Oriental life.
[658] It seems as if Oriental life had been
petrified into immutability to prove for ever the
marvellous minute truthfulness of scriptural
narrative.
2 In regard to the recent discoveries in the
East generally.
[659] Besides the living photographs of the
past, there are dead witnesses— " sermons in
stones."' The buried marvels of Nineveh dis-
entombed after long ages, the silent catacombs
opened after many centuries, the awful chambers
of the pyramids penetrated in these later years,
have all voices testifying to the historic verity of
the Bible. The rock inscriptions of the Sinaitic
valleys, the discovered dwellings and temples
and stones of Moab and Bashan, are eloquent
with varied evidences. The cherished traditions
of the Nestorians, the names of passes and
mountains and fortresses in Afghanistan, and
the documents, habits, and history of the Jewish
colony, discovered in the interior of China, are
all witnessing to the reality and consistency of
liiblc narratives. In Palestine and Egypt and
Svria each stone has a voice, each mountain an
echo, each stream a melody, each city a history,
each village a memory ; and all proclaim that
the gospel records are true. — Rev. John Griiion.
rAECH.^sOLOGY,
3 In regard to researches and explorations in
the sites of Biblical lands.
[660] Speaking of the various modern cor-
roborative evidences of the truth of Holy Writ,
Dr. Hamilton says : " Lieutenant Lynch has
floated down the Jordan, and e.xplored the Dead
Sea ; and his sounding-line has fetched up from
the deep physical confirmation of the catastrophe
which destroyed the cities of the plain. Robin-
son, and Wilson, and Bartlett, and Bonar have
taken pleasure in the very dust and rubbish of
Zion ; and they come back declaring that the
Bible is written on the very face of the Holy
Land. Since Laborde opened up the lost
wonders of Petra, its stones have cried aloud,
and many a verse of Jehovah's word stands
graven there with a pen of iron in the rock for
ever. Scepticism was wont to sneer, and ask,
Where is Nineveh, that great city of three days'
journey ? But since Botta and Layard have
shown its sixty miles of enclosing wall, scepticism
sneers no longer. Hidden in the sands of Egypt,
many of God's witnesses eluded human search
till within the last few years ; but now, when
liibles increase, and are running to and fro
through the earth, and when fresh confirmations
are timely, God gives the word, and there is a
resurrection of these witnesses, and from their
sphinx-guarded sepulchres old Pharaohs totter
into court, and testify how true was the tale
which Moses wrote three thousand years ago.
' In my youth,' said Caviglia, when Lord Lindsay
found him in the East, ' 1 read Jean Jacques and
Diderot, and believed myself a philosopher. I
came to Egypt, and the Scriptures and the
Pyramids converted me.' And even so a visit
to Palestine, the reading of Keith's 'Fulfilment
of Prophecy '—nay, the mere sight of the
Assyrian antiquities has given faith to many a
doubter ; just as we could scarcely imagine any
one reading Dr. Stroud on the ' Physical Cause
of Christ's Death,' or Mr. Smith on the 'Ship-
wreck of St. Paul,' without carrying away the
firmest conviction of these historical facts, and,
consequently, of all those vital truths which the
facts by implication involve."
[661] Every one who visited Sinai, and care-
fully examined it with the Mosaic records as his
guide-book, would be convinced of two things —
first, not only of the e.xact and complete agree-
ment in all particulars of the mountain and its
surroundings with the sacred records, but of the
impossibility of finding another place in the
whole of that desert which would furnish points
of agreement at all like this, either in number or
minuteness ; and secondly, he would also be
convinced that the records of the solemn trans-
actions contained in the latter part of the Book
of Exodus could not have been written at a
distance of hundreds of years, but only at the
time and on the spot by an eye-witness. No
one who had been in the desert would be easily
convinced that two and a half millions of people
could have lived there forty years without bread
miraculously provided for them by God ; and
THE EVIDENCES OF THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION.
661-665 1
"3
[ARCIL^!0L0GY.
no one who went there would return without his
belief in the Mosaic history having been greatly
strengthened. Not a single member of the
Exploration Committee returned home but was
hrmly convinced of the truth of the sacred his-
tory which they found illustrated and confirmed
by the natural features of Sinai. Coming from
scientific men, who might not be supposed to
have had any theological preferences or theories
— from scientific men who looked at the desert
from an engineering point of view — this testi-
mony was of special value. — Rev. Dr. Black.
4 In regard to the Egyptian tablet of Joseph's
Pharaoh.
[662] There were two kings of the 19th
Dynasty before Rameses II. Rameses I.
reigned a year and a half. His son, Sethos I.,
whose mummy was found with the others at
Dayr-el-Bahari, reigned 55 years. Rameses II.,
the oppressor of the Israelites, therefore, began
to reign in or about 1408 B.C. The Greeks
called him Sesostris. He reigned 68 years at
least. There is a tablet in the British Museum
dated in his 66th year, 1342 B.C. The kings of
the 1 8th Dynasty had not annexed the Delta,
where the Israelites were located, on the eastern
l^anks of the Nile ; and hence they did not suffer
from the turmoil and unrest of their reigns.
Rameses II. did this, and the Israehtes became
subject to his will. In the 21st year of his reign
lie withdrew from them, by royal decree, the
privileges which they had enjoyed by decree of
Joseph's Pharaoh. From 1387 B.C. they were,
therefore, liable to the forced service which was
imposed upon all the subject or conquered races
of the Egyptian kingdoms. The captives taken
in his wars could not have supplied anything
like the number of workmen engaged in the
various enterprises of his beneficent reign. He
was one of the greatest and noblest of the kings
of Egypt, and one only of his predecessors can
be compared with him, as havmg devoted him-
self so completely to the material development
and progress of his country. His cities, fortifica-
tions extending 160 miles to protect the eastern
frontier, his works of irrigation, his restoration
of the land to peasant proprietors and cultivators
of the soil, and his monumental records, give
him a claim to the highest rank among the royal
benefactors of Egypt. The monuments of all
the other kings of the land of wonders during
2000 years are said to number upwards of 150,
while those of Sesostris-Rameses alone exceed
in number all the rest put together. All over
the country there are great works or ruins which
bear his name. His face does not indicate
anything like cruelty. It is rather refined and
gentle. His policy in using the forced labour
of foreigners was, unfortunately, as it still is, the
polic)- of the country. In our own time 20,000
lives have have been sacrificed under like bond-
age. The very favour which the Israelites had
enjoyed so long, and their growing prosperity,
made the bondage doubly oppressive. Their
wrongs, as all such invariably do, brought
VOL. I.
troubles irreparable upon the land which
Rameses loved so well and raised to such a
height of glory. On many of his monuments
the countenances of the labourers are unmis-
takeably Jewish ; and it is quite impossible for
any one to put the monumental records of this
marvellous man and the Bible narratives side
by side without having the conviction deepened
that the one completely verifies the other.
Egypt's testimony to the truth is unfaltering
and indubitable. It puts to silence the igno-
rance of foolish men.
5 In regard to the Moabite stone.
[663] Part of the inscription on the Moabite
stone discovered in 1870 reads as follows :^
" And I took the vessels of the Lord (of Jehovah),
and brought them before Chemosh." The holy
name Jehovah here is very interesting as the
earliest known example of its occurrence outside
the Scriptures. This would be about 896 B.C. —
Christian Evidetice Journa/, 1876.
II. Value of Archaeological Testimony
TO Revealed Truth.
[664] We are very far from sympathizing with
the mental or spiritual attitude which assumes
that the Scriptures are, from time to time, to be
tremblingly weighed in the uncertain balances
of modern investigation and thought. The
sublime elevation and soul-saving efficacy of
Scripture truth are, after all, what really "com-
mend it to eveiy man's conscience in the sight
of God ; " and these can never be affected by
any advances, reM or supposed, in human know-
ledge. Still it can never be otherwise than
interesting to the believer in inspiration to notice
how far the matured results of independent
research and reflection, on the part of studious
men, harmonize with the sacred records.
Now, the views of primitive land tenure indi-
cated by this construction of these Scripture
records are in complete harmony with the most
recent results of investigation and thought on
the general subject.
It will thus be seen that the independent con-
clusions regarding the primitive forms of land
tenure, arrived at by men who— with no apolo-
getic purpose in \iew, and with no reference to
Scripture at all— have devoted their special at-
tention to the subject, harmonize with and
support the view indicated by the fragmentary
and incidental records of Sacred Writ. — Richard
Rcid.
[665] In the preface to his elaborate work on
the chronology of the New Testament (" F"asti
Sacri "), Mr. Lewin says : " When the more closely
I sift the records of that period, the more at
every step I find the sacred penmen confirmed
in their most casual and passing allusions to
contemporary persons and ancient customs, I
necessarily feel my creed rests on no insecure
foundation, that it is not the cunningly devised
fable of an after age, but is part and parcel of
actual history. ... I believe that many who
14
665—670]
THE EVIDENCES OF THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION.
[conversion of ST. PAUL.
indulge in scepticism do it, not from conviction,
but from never having seriously addressed their
attention to any inquiry after truth." Will any
infidel undertake to show how such a history
can be at the same time a fable or a mythology?
[666] The material discoveries of the nine-
teenth century— startling as they are — are not
of a nature to interfere with the ordinary his-
torical and moral evidences of Christianity.
The ability of Christianity to endure the ordeal
to which time and advancing scholarship subject
it, establishes its supernatural claims upon an
ever-widening basis, and adds to the evidence
compelling us to regard the system as a unique
Divine production of permanent necessity for the
moral development of the human race. — G. F.
Wright.
55
CONVERSION OF ST. PAUL.
I. Points of the Argument in favour
OF Divine Truth drawn from the
Fact of St. Paul's Conversion.
1 St. Paul's conversion is a spiritual pheno-
menon demanding an explanation.
[667] The conversion of Saul of Tarsus must
be accounted for. The rigid Pharisee, the fierce
persecutor, the man of vast learning, of regal
intellect, suddenly becoming a Christian convert,
" counting all things that wcrg gain to him but
loss for Christ." growing to be the chicfest
Christian apostle, spending a long life as a mis-
sionary, and dying a martyr to his faith in Jesus
Christ.— AV7/. H. Allan, D.D.
[668] The character of St. Paul, next to that
of his Divine Master, is a stroke beyond the in-
vention of his age, bears the marks of reality
and genuineness, and is consistent throughout ;
displays the same eagerness, courage, and con-
scientiousness — though misguided — before as
after his conversion. " I verily thought I ought
to do many things contrary to the name of
Jesus, which things also I did." He was first
blindly honest, and afterwards intelligently
honest. — B. G.
2 St. Paul's conversion is morally and logic-
ally consistent.
[669] To Paul, for instance, Christ seems to
have come at a definite period of time, the exact
moment and second of which could have been
known, And Paul never destroyed the force of
this incarnation by minimizing what had hap-
pened. He was quite clear what had happened.
He neV'Cr wavered afterwards from the tran-
scendent position that Christ was in him. This
is certainly the normal origin of life according
to the principles of biology. Life cannot come
gradually — health can, structure can, but not
life. A new theology has laughed at the
doctrine of conversion. Sudden conversion
especially has been ridiculed as untrue to philo-
sophy and impossible to human nature. We
may not be concerned in buttressing any theo-
logy because it is old. But we find that this old
theology is scientific. The line between the
living and the dead is a sharp line. When the
dead atoms of carbon, hydrogen, oxygen,
nitrogen, are seized by the living force, the
organism first is very lowly. It performs few
functions. It has little beauty. Growth is the
work of time. But life is not. That comes
in a moment. At one moment it was dead ; the
next it lived. This is conversion — the "passing,"
as the Bible calls it, " from death unto life."
Those who have stood by another's side at the
solemn hour of this dread possession have been
conscious sometimes of an experience which
words are not allowed to utter — a something like
the sudden snapping of a chain, the waking from
a dream. Let us finally sum up : —
1. There is a great gulf fixed between the
living and the dead. 1 he distinction between
lost and saved is scientific.
2. Life in the spiritual world can only come
from contact with the living Christ. He that
hath the Son hath life.
3. It follows that this life is not a force, nor
a manifestation of force It is Christ Himself.
He that hath i/ie Son hath life.
4. This life comes suddenly — all life does.
Sudden conversion is scientific. — Prof. Henry
Dnimnwnd, Conversion of St. Pmtl.
3 St. Paul's subsequent life shown to be
the natural result of his conversion, upon
the supernatural hypothesis.
[670] It is obvious that the more complex a
man's character is, froin conflicting motives or
a chequered history, the more difficult it must
be to personate it. If therefore the account of
St. Paul's marvellous conversion be true we shall
expect to find an entire absorption of all his
faculties into the service of that Being at whose
call he lay prostrate, blind, and utterly submis-
sive ; yet, as in the case of Martin Luther, the
old nature would be there, moulded it is true
for new and better purpobcs, but still intensely
vehement, impatient of contradiction, and yet
continually checking itself from a sense of self-
humiliation — as Jewish as ever, and yet opposed
from the necessity of the case to all Pharisaic
exclusivencss. Here was a man the whole
current of whose life was suddenly turnc:l in
another direction, his dearest aims thwarted, the
ambition of his carnal hopes crushed into new
feelings of love, gentleness, and meekness,
qualities which were the utter scorn of tiie great
and noble of his day. Yet he was so fir fr<im
bemg broken-hearted at this that all his letters
breathe an unutterable joy at his new position.
The conflicting elements of the old and new
states are, however, in spite of himself, con-
tinually cropping out, and not only is his life an
antithesis, but every chapter in every epistle is
full both of a moral and verbal antithesis not
found elsewhere.
671—677]
THE EVIDENCES OF THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION. II5
[existence of the christian church.
56
EXISTENCE OF THE CHRISTIAN
CHURCH.
I, Points of the Argument in favour
OF Christianity, drawn from the
Existence of the Christian Church.
1 The growth and development of the
Christian Church by force of Divine prin-
ciples.
[671] The believers in Christ became a
society, a Church, which, it must be admitted,
was a totally different manifestation of religious
life from anything to be found in heathenism,
and which we can scarcely conceive of as hold-
ing together by mere force of ordinary associa-
tion : community of thought, feeling, and action.
Had the world been at once obedient to the
proclamation of the gospel, it might then be
argued that Christian churches arose naturally
and maintained themselves by ordinary means ;
the accepted faith requiring an expression in
life, and that life taking the form of community
as a matter of course. But history shows us the
fact of a world opposed fiercely to Christianity,
and for three centuries subjecting believers to
the most terrible ordeal of persecution. That
an individual should endure such a trial, and
believe all the more firmly the more he is
persecuted, might be attributed to the natural
self-assertion of the human spirit, which defies
the tyrant who would destroy its liberty, and
deepens its convictions by suflering for them.
I3ut it is inconceivable that the Christian
Church should have developed itself under such
adverse circumstances into a supreme strength,
unless there were principles of union within it
which were not of this world. — A'. A. Rciiford,
The Christian's Flea.
[672] Christ said not to his first conventicle,
Go forth and preach impostures to the world ;
But gave them Truth to build on ; and the
sound
Was mighty on their lips ; nor needed they,
Beside the gospel, other spear or shield.
To aid them in their warfare for the faith.
Dante.
[673] The offensive weapon of the Church
was I'ruth, its defensive armour was Patience.
-B. G.
2 The fact that the disciples had more
spiritual power and courage in their Lord's
bodily absence.
[674] " The weakness of God," says Paul, "is
stronger than men." For that Christianity is
Divine is plain also from this consideration. How
did it occur to twelve ignorant men to attempt
such a vast enterprise.'^ That they were timid
and cowardly is shown by him w^ho wrote of
them, and who did not decline to tell the whole
truth, nor attempt to throw their faults into the
shade ; which is itself the greatest proof of the
truth of his narrative. Whence was it, then,
that they who, whilst Christ was alive, did not
withstand the attack of the Jews, afterwards,
when Christ had died and been buried, and, as
ye say, had not arisen, nor spoken to them, nor
infused courage into them, set themselves in
array against the whole wide world .'' Would
they not have said to themselves, " What means
this? He had no power to save Himself, and
will He stand up in our defence.? When in life
He did not defend Himself, now that He is
dead will He stretch out a hand to us ? He
Himself when in life did not even subdue a
single nation, and shall we, by uttering His
name, convince the whole world .-* " Why, how
can it be reasonable, 1 do not merely say to do
this, but even to think of it 1 From all this it is
plain that unless they had seen Him risen, and
had received the fullest demonstration of His
power, they would never have ventured on so
great a hazard. Let us hold fast these two
heads of the argument. How did the weak
overcome the strong ? and how did it occur to
them, being the men they were, to form such a
plan, unless they were enjoying the help of God
as on their side ? — St. Chrysostoni.
3 That the gates of hell did not prevail
against Christ's Church when all external
and human power opposed.
[675] How was it that Christianity triumphed,
when it was the religion of the poor and
de'^pised and persecuted } How was it that the
Christian communities held together and main-
tained their very exceptional constitution, not-
withstanding that they were aided by no
surrounding bond of external circumstances,
such as wealthy institutions, protecting laws,
favourable public sentiment, &c., but, on the
contrary, depended entirely on the internal
force of their faith.'' No enumeration of mere
secondary causes will explain away this main
feature of the fact. The Church grew and
triumphed, not because it was assisted to do so
from without, but because it was in itself a vital
fact which was seeking development. — R. A.
Rt-dford, The Cliristia]i's Pica.
4 Its continued spread in spite of obstacles.
[676] Christianity from its very beginning to
this day has been maintained and disputed by
some of the keenest intellects of the most culti-
vated races ; yet it stands firm. And if, as is
often said, it was never so assailed as in the
last half century, it has assuredly in that same
time attained a marvellous growth among all
classes. The mere fact of its continued exist-
ence among intelligent people is a weighty
evidence of its truth. — Sir James Pao;et, FJZ.S.,
TJicolfli^y and Science.
[677] Persecution no more destroys it, than
crucifixion destroyed its Founder. It springs up
into new life from the ashes of persecution, and
is the true phcenix — ever renewing its youth — in
its incarnation in a growing church, which is
ii6
677-
-680]
THE EVIDENCES OF THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION.
[the resurrection of CHRIST.
larger now than ever it was, and promises to
absorb the whole world into its living organism.
—B. G.
57
THE RESURRECTION OF CHRIST.
[The Resurrection of Christ, being the key-
stone of the arch in historical Christian evidences,
requires slightly dilTcrcnt treatment to the rest
in proofs in the present subdivision or group.]
I. Its Characteristics, .\s seen in Apos-
tolic AND Contemporary Witnesses.
I Viewed as one connected whole.
[678] The following arc some of the leading
characteristics which lend more than ordinary
strength to the impression which it naturally
produces.
(i) The variety of the circninstances under
which the risen Saviour appeared.
It is impossible to conceive a greater variety
of moods than that in which the disciples were
to whom Christ showed Himself. The feelings,
the expectations, the anticipations of some were
precisely the reverse of those of others ; yet the
testimony of all of them was one.
(2) The circumstantiality of the testimony
given by the different witnesses.
Whatever is told us is told with the minuteness
and circumstantiality of persons who had actually
seen what they record, and upon whom what they
had seen had made an indelible impression.
(3) 'The simplicity and appare?tt t r it tlif illness
with which the witnesses describe their impres-
sions when the Saviour appeared to them.
So far from any effort to exaggerate the effect
upon their minds, or to exhibit their own feelings
as ha\ing been in harmon\- with the greatness of
the event, they rather convey to us the idea that
they were marked by unpardonable hesitation
and slowness of belief.
(4) The event borne witness to was completely-
unexpected by the witnesses. (Cf. Matt. xvi.
2F ; xvii. 9 ; xx. 18, 19 ; xxvi. 32 ; Mark ix. 10 ;
John XX. 21, 24 ; xxi. 3 ; Matt, xxvii. 62-64.)
With feelings such as these (see above pas-
sages), it can occasion us no surprise that the
apostles and first disciples should have been so
hard to persuade that Christ was really risen
from the dead. And surely this much at least
is obvious, that their conviction that he had risen
could have sprung from no expectation that he
would rise, that it could have been the result of
nothing but irresistible evidence of the fact.
(5) IVhat the frame of mind of the disciples
became after the event is said to have taken
place.
Hitherto we have considered them as con-
scious, at present they may he regarded as un-
conscious, witnesses of the truth. Like all men
living for a great cause, it is the cause which
fills them and makes them, without their knowing
it, what thcv are. The\- ha\ c no time to reilect
either upon what they were or upon what they
have become, or upon what has caused the
difference, if difference there be. We have time
and opportunity to do so, and we turn now to
them. Their weakness has been supplemented
by a Divine strength, their despondency by a
lofty confidence, their sorrow by a joy which no
trial can diminish, their idea that they might
return to worldly labour by the conviction that
there was but one work before them to the end
of life — to make known the name and the gospel
of the Lord. They were altogether dilfercnt
from what they were. They were refined, puri-
fied, exalted. They breathe a higher atmosphere ;
they live a nobler life ; they are ready to endure
without a murmur the martyr's suti'erings and
death. And the change is sudden. It is not
the result of deliberation, of arguments with
one another ; of a deep policy under the influence
of which they only gradually come. (See Acts
ii. 36.)
(6) Its publication to the world on the very
spot where, and at the very moment when, the
event was said to have happened. — Rev. Wm.
Milligan, D.D.
[679] The proof of the Redeemer's resiuTec-
tion the third day, it is granted, rests entirely
upon the accounts furnished us in the New
Testament. The genuineness and credibility,
therefore, of gospel narratives must of course be
assumed in the argument.
The apostles had the jnost powerful faith in
the fact. They were soon convinced by His
appearance to them, and having been once con-
vinced, they ;/^7vr after seemed to have had any
doubt on the question. The powerfulness of
their faith will be seen when the following things
are considered, (i) They were unanimous in
their declaration of it, a few days after, on the
veiy spot on which it occurred, and that to men
who were prepared to do anything to conceal the
fact. (2) In their unanimous declaration of it,
they acted in direct opposition to their previous
beliefs and to their worldly interests.
The apostles had every opportunity for tho-
roughly satisfying themselves on the point.
They, by their declaration of the fact, induced
thousands of the very enemies of Christ to be-
lieve in it, and that close to the time and near
to the very spot on which it occurred. Christ
appeared and lived amongst them for forty days
after his resurrection. No less than ten ditferent
times did He appear to them in diflcrent num-
bers and in different circumstances. Once there
were even live hundred present. He spoke to
them long discourses, He ate with them, He
allowed them to handle Him, and by "many
infallible proofs" He worked the fact of His
resurrection into their consciousness as the most
undebateable of all truths. — Homilist.
2 Viewed as to separate points.
(i) .Sincerity of the witnesses.
[680] As for the other condition of a compe-
tent witness, that he be a person of such un-
questional)!e sincerity as to report the naked
681-687]
THE EVIDENCES OF THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION. II7
[the resurrection of CHRIST.
truth of what he knows ; this, with respect to the
apostles in the present case, appears in a great
measure from the meanness of their parts, abili-
ties and education, naturally disposing men to
plainness and simplicity ; for simplicity has ever
yet been accounted the good step to sincerity.
They were poor, mean fishermen, called in Acts
iv. 13, iciCoTcu Kui aYpafiftaroi, in plain terms, per-
sons wholly illiterate and unacquainted with the
politic fetches of the world ; and could such men,
think we, newly coming from their fishermen's
cottages, and from mending their nets, entertain
so great a thought, as to put an imposture upon
the whole worlcl, and to overthrow the Jewish
laws and the Gentile philosophy with a new
religion of their own inventing? It is not so
much as credible, and much less probable. — •
A'. South, D.D., 1 633-1 7 1 6.
(2) The unliktiihood of the witnesses being
mistaken.
[68 1 ] That the reporters had sufficient oppor-
tunity to know the things reported by them . . .
is undeniable ; forasmuch as they personally
conversed with, and were eye and ear witnesses
of, all that was done by Him, or happened to
Him as it is in i John i. 3. And surely if know-
ledge might make a man a competent witness,
there is room for evidence, as well as certainty,
superior to that of sense ; and if the judgment
of any one sense rightly disposed, be hardly or
never deceived, surely the united judgment of
them all together must needs upon the same
terms pass for infallible, if anything amongst us
poor mortals may or ought to be accounted so.
—Ibid.
II. Its Evidential Value.
1 It proves the truth and reality of the whole
Christian revelation.
[682] It is open to discussion, I conceive,
whether it is not a truer and more rational
method to lay our chief stress on the actual
evidence, external and internal, which attests the
crowning miracle of the resurrection ; and if
that is held to be capable of proof, to infer from
it the reality of the supernatural power of Him
who thus died and rose again, and from that the
truth of the gospel records as a whole, and
from that again the veracity of the Old Testa-
ment records, also as a whole, as postulated and
guaranteed by the teaching of the New. — Rev.
Prof. Pltunptre in Contemporary Reviezu.
2 It endorses all the teachings and claims of
Jesus.
[683] The fact of the resurrection proves not
the Deity, but the Divine authority of our Lord,
as a, teacher sent with a supreme and a divinely
attested religious mission.
The Divine authority of our Lord proves the
doctrines he attested. Among these are His
Deity, the inspiration of the Scriptures, the
necessity of the new birth, the atonement,
immortality, and eternal judgment. — Rev.
Josepli Cook, Boston Lectures.
[684] And the death of Christ, did it not be-
come itself a source of life to perishing souls,
through the assurance given by the resurrec-
tion that the life laid down for man was sur-
rendered voluntarily by One who, in His own
nature, had power over death and hell ? And
is it not a conviction of these truths, all based
on Christ's rising from the dead, that through
the ages has made the gospel of Christ what it
is to us — the consoler of the sorrowful, the healer
of the conscience-stricken, the antidote against
the fear of death 1— Archbishop Tait, Church of
the Future.
3 It is the basis of gospel doctrines.
[685] The resurrection carries with it all the
miracles of the gospel history in proving the
supernatural. The following are the words of
Dr. Carpenter :— " I regard tlie historical evi-
dence of the resurrection as standing on a far
wider basis than the historical evidence of any
single miracle of the New Testament." " Look-
ing at the unquestionable fact (for such it appears
to me) that the resurrection of our Lord was the
foundation of the preaching of Paul, and, so far
as we know, of the other apostles, and was uni-
versally accepted by the early Church as the
cardinal doctrine of Christianity (' If Christ be
not risen, then is your faith vain '), the gospel
narratives derive from that tact a support that
is given to none other of the miracles either of
Christ or His followers."
4 It is the corner-stone of Christianity.
[686] It is impossible to over-estimate the
importance of the resurrection of our Lord,
either in itself or in its bearing on the Christian
life ; nor is it too much to say, that a firm con-
viction of the truth of this one event would dis-
pel almost every difficulty connected with the
supernatural origin of our faith ; afford conclu-
sive testimony to the claims of the New Testa-
ment revelation, and impart to all the followers
of Jesus a far larger amount of Christian
privilege, and a far loftier standard of Christian
living, than is commonly exhibited by them.
We cannot read either the Gospels or Epistles
without seeing how influential was the part
which a belief of the resurrection of its Lord
played in the views and feelings of the infant
Church. We cannot think of it seriously now
without being satisfied that whatever it was to
that Church it rany be to us ; and would one
wish to settle with himself what will do him most
good amidst the perplexities and doubts and
questionings of a time such as that in which we
live, he would probably, after reviewing all the
facts of Christianity, turn to this as the one, a
firm faith in which will be the most suitable to
his purpose, that Christ Jesus, having really died
and been buried, rose on the third day from the
grave. — Rev. William Milligan, D.D.
5 The evidence in favour of its truth irre-
sistible.
[687] The belief in the resurrection could
687-693]
THE EVIDENCES OF THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION.
[the resurrection of CHRIST.
not have grown up in the gradual manner in
which ordinary fictions do, i.e., at a consideraljje
distance of time and place from the occurrence
of the supposed events ; but, on the contrary, it
originated at Jerusalem within a few days after
the public execution of Jesus, and was imme-
diately proclaimed as a fact by His followers ;
and the Church was reconstructed on its basis.
6 It stands the test of historical criticism.
[688] Thousands and tens of thousands have
gone through it piece by piece, as carefully as ever
judge summed up on a most important cause. I
have myself done it many times over, not to per-
suade others, but to satisfy myself. I have been
used for many years to study the history of
other times, and to examine and weigh the evi-
dence of those who have written about them,
and I know of no one fact in the history of
mankind which is proved by better and fuller
evidence of every sort, to the understanding of
a fair inquirer.—/?;-. Arnold, Rt(gby Sermons.
III. Its Primary Importance as an
Evidence of the Truth of the
Christian System.
1 As seen in the fact that being a witness of
this fact was essential to the apostleship.
[689] To be a witness to this great event was
held — as the election of Matthias informs us — to
be the special function of the apostolic office. It
was to this event that Peter referred at large in
his discourse on the day of Pentecost. When
Paul addressed the men of Athens, this was the
one supernatural event to which he referred.
From the first it was to that crowning miracle of
Christianity that its teachers made appeal. —
Rev. IV. Hatina, DD., LL.D., Our LonCs Life
on Earth.
IV. Its Denial by the Sadducees.
[690] We are told by our Lord that the Sad-
ducees in denying the resurrection made two
errors— (i) They erred in their reading of the
.Scriptures, ?kr\d denied the /acY of the resurrec-
tion ; (2) and they denied the possibility of it
because they misconceived the promise of God
(Matt. xxii. 29). Its possibility rests upon the
Divine omnipotence, and the fact is proved by
Scripture. — Bp. Alexander, Bampton Lectures.
[691] Josephus states that "the Sadducees
bcilieve tliat the soul dies with the body ; " while
St Luke informs us that "they believe neither in
the resurrection nor in angel nor spirit, but the
Pharisees confess both." No wonder, then, that
tlieir hostility was aroused. If Christ be risen,
the resurrection is a doctrine, no less than an
historic fact ; and what then becomes of their
party, of their aristocracy, of their jirincely in-
comes .' It was a day of strife and of prophetic
ai)|)rehensions. Not content with Christ's cru-
cifixion, they had undertaken to hold Him in
His grave. His corpse was their property, and,
in the guard ofsoldiers watching at the sepulchre,
this Sanhedrim stood over the dead Christ and
held Him in their clinching hands. Where
were His apostles? Not one of them appears
in the scenes of His removal from the cross and
of His burial ; the very dust of their victim,
cold and blood-stained, lies in their grasp.
They and they alone are with Him in that
sealed tomb of hewn rocks. So it pleased God
to overrule this matter, lest the evidence of
Christ's resurrection should lack completeness of
demonstration. From the grasp of their power
the dead Christ had risen, and the first glory of
His resurrection had flashed from the spears
and helmets of their Roman soldiers. It was
well ; His enemies were His earliest witnesses ;
and the wrath of man was made to praise Him
before the resurrection anthem had touched the
lips of angels or m7vr\.—L)r. Lipseombe, Boldness
of Apostolic Preaching.
V. Modern Theories, or Attempts to
explain away the Fact.
[692] Various attempts have been made to
explain away the resurrection of Christ, and
thus to escape the logical necessity of receiving
what it had been resolved beforehand to reject.
First : There is the supposition of fraud.
(Matt, xxviii. 11, 12).
Secondly : There is the supposition that Jesus
had not really died upon the cross ; but His
death was only a swoon, from which He after-
wards recovered.
Thirdly : There is the supposition that there
had been no real resurrection, but that the
disciples had been deceived by visionary ap-
pearances.— Rev. IV. Milligan, D.D.
[693] It can hardly be expected that the
common sense of the public will permanently
accept any of the present "critical" explana-
tions of the alleged appearance of Christ after
death. It will not accept the view of Strauss,
according to which the "myth-making-faculty"
created a legend without an author, and without
a beginning ; so that when St. Paul says, " He
was seen of Cephas, then of the twelve," he is
repeating about acquaintances of his own an
extraordinary assertion, which was never origi-
nated by any definite person on any dciinite
grounds, yet which somehow proved so per-
suasive to the very men who were best able to
contradict it, that they became willing to suffer
death for its truth ! Nor will the world be con-
tented with the theory, according to which
Christ was never really killed at all, but dis-
appeared unaccountably from the historic scene,
after crowning a Divine life with a sham resur-
rection ! Nor will men continue to believe — if
anybody besides M. Kenan believes it now —
that the faithful were indeed again and again
convinced that their risen Master was standing
visibly aimjugst them, yet thought this merely
because there was an accidental noise, or a pufi'
in the air. Paley's *< Evidences" is not a subtle
book nor a spiritual book. But one wishes that
THE EVIDENCES OF THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION.
19
693—696]
[tradition.
the robust Paley were alive again to deal with an
hypothesis like this. The apostles were not so
much like a British jury as Paley imagined them.
But they were much more like a British jury
than like a panel of hysterical monomaniacs. —
F. Myers in Nineteenth Centnty.
VI. The Difficulties involved in De-
nial OF THE Fact.
1 The fact that the resurrection is the secret
of the gospel's power.
[694] But the greatest visible miracles of the
gospel were the resurrection from the dead and
the ascension into heaven. St. Paul connects
the doctrine of justification with one of these,
and the mediation of Christ with the other.
Every Christian feels that these are essential
parts of his faith, and the source of comfort and
strength in all the trials and temptations of life.
The articles of the creed and the doctrines of
the gospel are so united together as to form a
complete and uniform system, from which we
cannot remove any one part without endanger-
ing and ultimately destroying the whole. And
if all these be true and mutually dependent, they
point to one and only one conclusion the belief
of St. John : " These things are written that ye
may believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God,
and that believing you may have life through
His Name." If this be true, all other miracles
are credible. If it be not true, the light which
remains may be pure, but it is cold and lifeless,
like the light of the moon. It has lost the power
of drawing human hearts and kindling human
love. — Rev. IV. Anderson, M.A., Scripture
Miracles and Modern Scepticism.
2 The fact that St. Paul's epistles are written
on this basis.
[695] Within about thirty years of our Lord's
resurrection, we find from this undisputed epistle
of the apostle's evidence that the greater num-
ber cf five hundred witnesses of the resurrec-
tion of our Lord existed. To this the apostle
alludes as an undoubted fact ; he could not so
have alluded to it if this had not been a fact
well known. In the Acts the whole tenor of the
apostles' preaching and of the Church's creed
rests on the belief of the resurrection of a cruci-
fied Saviour. Is not this fact and this doctrine
fully corroborated by St. Paul's epistle, " but ye
know and believe him to be Jesus, otherwise ye
would not be what ye are " ? Is not this a proof
that not in " the second century,'' as Mr. Scott
alleges, but within thirty years after the event,
the Christians at Galatia, in Rome, and Corinth,
believed in the main fundamental fact of the
Gospels' narrative as well as of the Acts, namely,
the crucifixion and the resurrection of Christ ?
These epistles place before us as undoubted
facts certain miraculotcs gifts as the outcome
of the resurrection and ascension of Christ to
heaven, and of His presence on earth : now, if
the causes producing these results were not
facts, then a belief of particular events which
were not facts produced them. In other words,
we must conclude the faith of the early Church,
as shown in these epistles, was not only self
originated, but actually that all the phenomena
of Us existence were the product of that which
itself had no existence — a conclusion equally
opposed, we need scarcely say, to all reason and
all experience. — T. H. L. Leary, D.C.L.
58
TRADITION.
I. The Argument drawn from Tradi-
tion in favour of the Synoptic
Gospels.
[696] The evidence from tradition establishes
conclusively the following points : First. That
the tradition of the Church respecting the actions
and teachings of our Lord, whether they existed
in a written or an oral form, were, at the con-
clusion of the first century, substantially the
same as those which we read in the Synoptics,
the variations being so inconsiderable that for
historical purposes they may be safely disre-
garded. Secondly. If there was a different class
of traditions floating about in the Church, and
modelled on the conceptions involved in the
stories contained in the apocryphal gospels, that
the writers of this early Christian literature did
not attach any value to them ; and that they
must have accepted the one as an account of
the genuine actions and teaching of their Master,
and rejected the other as a fabulous addition.
From these two conclusions it follows —
First. That no legendary matter worthy of
the notice of the historian, which was invented
as late as the last ten years of the first century,
has been incorporated into the narratives of the
Synoptics.
Secondly. That the traditions of the same
period attributed to Jesus a number of miracu-
lous actions, nearly all of them identical with,
and all of them of the same character as, those
in our Gospels, and wholly diftering in type and
conception from those which are narrated in the
apocryphal ones.
Thirdly. That the religious and moral teach-
ing which these traditions attribute to Him,
whatever slight variations it may have contained,
is, for all practical purposes, the same as that
which we read in the Synoptics.
Fourthly. That if the narrative of the Syn-
optics consists of a mass of legendary matter,
these legends must have grown up lietween
A.D. 30 and A.D. 90, or during the sixty years
which followed the conclusion of our Lord's
ministry. This interval is covered by the Pauline
Epistles.— T^^z'. C. A. Row.
DIVISION D
{Continued).
THE EVIDENCES OF THE CHRISTIAN
RELIGION.
[2] INTERNAL EVIDENCES.
Pages 121 to 132.
ALPHABETICAL TABLE OF TOPICS.
59
CHRISTIAN MORALS (GENERALLY).
60
CHRISTIAN CHARACTERISTICS.
61
CHRISTIAN PHILOSOPHY.
62
TEACHING AND CHARACTER OF CHRIST.
DIVISION D
[Continued).
THE EVIDENCES OF THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION.
[2] INTERNAL EVIDENCES.
59
CHRISTIAN MORALS {Generally).
I. Preliminary or Allied Questions.
1 Relation of religion and morality.
(i) Morality distinguished from religion, of
which ill one sense it is a part.
[697] Morality is actual conformity to some
human standard of goodness ; Religion, at least
in the Christian meaning of the word, is an un-
ceasing effort after conformity to a Divine ideal.
If this distinction be borne in mind, it will meet
many objections and remove many difficulties.
Herein consists the great distinction between
morality and religion. A true religion must
impel all its subjects, however excellent they
may be, to follow after something yet beyond
them, to press toward the mark of a higher
calling than they have yet attained ; whereas a
man may be moral, in the ordinary meaning of
the word, with little effort and without aspiration.
He has simply to compare himself with the
standard of the age and country in which he
lives — to conform to the mores of the time ; and
if, as often happens, his natural constitution and
fortunate circumstances enable him easily to
endure this test, his work is done and he may
rest satisfied. — T. M. Ho?-ne, Expositor (Feb.
1881).
(2) Morality luifhont religion is defective, but
relii^ion tvithout morality is impossible.
[698] Morality is certainly a very excellent
thing, and it were scandalous indeed for any
professing Christian to pour contempt upon it.
Wherever this is wanting, pretences to faith and
Christian experience are not only vain, but
insolent and detestable.* He that committeth
sin is of the devil ; and only he that doth
righteousness is righteous : nor hath the grace
of God ever savingly appeared to that man,
through whatever uncommon scenes of thought
he may have passed, who is not effectually taught
by it to deny ungodliness and worldly lust.
2 The inferiority of secular morality and the
superiority of Christian m®rality.
(i) Secular morality pliable, and regiilaied
by temporary convenience.
[699] Moral philosophy is the science which
treats of the nature of human actions, of the
motives and laws which govern them, and of
the ends to which they ought to be directed.
And surely such a philosophy is found in the
Bible alone. For the heart to be right toward
man, it must be right with God. Motives for
the regulation of human conduct are suggested
in abundance by men whose moral theories were
never identified with the sacred volume ; but
they have been addressed, if not to the worst,
to some of the most unworthy passions of the
human heart. But the morality founded on such
a basis, and supported by such incentives, is
devoid of principle. It knows no law but the
opinions of men, and the ever-fluctuating state
of human society. It invests itself with different
forms, as the character of the age, the state of
the times, and the circumstances of the individual
require. It is one thing in Europe and another
in Asia ; one thing in the palace, and another
in the mansions of the poor ; one thing amid
the quietude and searching observation of a
rural village, and another amid the bustle and
concealment of a crowded city ; one thing on
the Exchange, and another amid the retirement
of private life ; one thing in the equable seasons
of untempting prosperity, another amid the em-
barrassments and agitations of calamity and
misfortune ; one thing in peace, and another in
war ; one thing at home, and another abroad.
It is one thing to-day, and another thing to-
morrow.— Dr. Gardiner Spring, Obligations of
the World to the Bible.
(2) The motive of present utility or secular
advantage incapable of producing lofty morality
or high Christian character.
[700] There is great difference, I apprehend,
in these two plans, that is, in adhering to virtue,
from its present utility,orin expectation of future
happiness, and living in such a manner as to
qualify us for the acceptance and enjoyment of
that happiness ; and the conduct and dispositions
of those who act on these difterent principles
must be no less different : on the first, the
constant practice of justice, temperance, and
sobriety, will be sufficient ; but on the latter,
we must add to these an habitual piety, faith,
resignation, and contempt of the world : the
first may make us very good citizens, but will
never produce a tolerable Christian. — Soame
fenyns.
:22
701
-709]
THE EVIDENCES OF THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION.
[christian morals (generally).
(3) Morality fioi springing' out of religious
p)inciple is cold.
[701] A code of morality only rules bad,
unloving souls, in order that they may first
become better and afterwards good. But the
loving contemplation of the soul's first friend,
who abundantly animates those laws, banishes
not merely the bad thoughts which conquer, but
those also which tempt. As the eagle flies high
above the highest mountains, so does true love
above struggling duty.
(4) TJic pure viornlity of tJie gospel receiiJes
its force and support from its supernatural
eleuients.
[702] There are some who, like the author of
"Supernatural Religion," openly maintain that
the morality of Christianity, stripped of its
supernatural enforcement, is all that the world
requires ; and that that superior morality, which
was taught and illustrated by Jesus Christ,
sufficiently accounts for the past victory and
present superiority of the Christian religion.
But when we examine the facts, we are driven
to the conclusion that, as a moral system alone,
it would have remained utterly inadequate for
the work which was given it to do. It con-
quered not only by exhibiting a purer law of
l;fe and example of humanity, but by manifest-
ing an invisible spiritual power, impelling, and
guiding, and sustaining all men, of all classes
and conditions, and under every variety of
circumstances. — A'. A.Redford, The Christian's
Plea.
II. Its Phases and Excellences.
1 It embraces everything which is good in
ancient philosophy.
[703] The philosophers confess that, in certain
particulars, their teaching was defective. These
very defects Christianity has supplied. Those
portions of it which latter times have pro-
nounced to be defective, the teaching of the New
Testament has supplemented. — C. A. Row,
Moral Teaching of New 'Testament.
2 It contains many points of special teaching
unknown to philosophy.
[704] Since these have been discovered by
Christianity, they have received the approbation
of enlightened reason. The very subjects which
])hilos()phy aljandoned in despair she has grap-
pled with successfully. — Ibid.
3 It presents us with the ideal of morality in
the person of Christ.
[705] An overwhelming majority of thinkers
have pronounced the delineation of Christ to be
perfection, it is an unquestionable fact, that it
constitutes the greatest nigral force which has
ever been brought to bear on mM\.—Jl>id.
[706] Is there any irregular practice, any
wrong alTection countenanced by the religion
of Christ ? Does it connive at any vice, or per-
mit us to gratify any base or sordid passions?
Does it not severely condemn all ? Let malice
itself ransack the writing's of the apostles of our
Lord, and produce anything of this kind if it
can. But the praise of the gospel morals is not
confined to negatives ; let any virtue be named
which is not enjoined by the gospel, or in which
the possessors of the gospel are not commanded
to excel. — h. Grove, 1683-1738.
[yojl Nothing that Christ has done or taught,
nothing in His example or His gospel, when
rightly understood, does in any manner or
degree favour the love and practice of iniquity.
—Ibid.
[708] No man can test Christ except by con-
forming to His ideal. No man can test Christ
without making the test in himself as to whether
he has that which made the ideal Christ what
He has been to the world— as to whether the
structure, operation, drift, tendency of his in-
terior nature, is working out in him what Christ
said it should work out, and what He promised
that it should work out, as the underlying drift
of creation.
Did Christ, then, bring all virtues into the
world.'' No, not morality. He did not invent
that. There was justice before He was just ;
there was love before He was loving ; there
was mercy before He was merciful ; there was
order in the household before He came upon
earth ; there was obedience to parental autho-
rity prior to His advent. Neither did He invent
religion ; but He brought into the world a con-
ception of that which was in Him, and of those
elements which lead to the infallible development
of men out of their animal conditions into the
highest spiritual or Divine conditions. That He
did ; and it was not done before nor since, as
He did it. Hence the true test as to whether
He was Christ, or in any sense Divine, must be
found in verifymg the declarations which He
made. — Ward Beecher.
4 It is characterized by its many-sidedness
and breadth.
[709] Its distinctive teaching is characterized
by its many-sidedness and breadth. It is free
from every mark of one-sidedness or narrow-
ness. It appeals to every principle in human
nature, that is capable of being enlisted in the
service of holiness, in its proper place and due
subordination. Its moral law is of such a wide
extent that all possible duties are embraced in
it. While its teaching originated in the bosom
of the most intolerant of races, its principles of
toleration are such that philoso|jhy may envy
them. l"he duty of self-sacritice, as taui;ht by
Christianity, covers the entire range of social
and political morality. There is no duty which
man can owe to man which it docs not embrace
and command, whether it be individual, social,
or political. It is adequate to the wants of man's
entire condition. Within its range. Christian
teaching is in strict agreement with the dis-
coveries of social and political science ; and, in
addition, it contains principles adequate to deal
709-713]
THE EVIDENCES OF THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION. 123
[christian morals (generally).
with difficulties with which science is unable to
grapple, and that lie beyond its limits.— C. A.
Jv02a, Moral Teaching of New Testament.
5 It embraces man as a whole.
[710] Such is the many-sidedness of the
moral teaching of Christianity. Enthusiasts
and fanatics appeal to one principle alone.
Christian men have not unfrequently imitated
them, and have denounced many of the primary
principles of man's mental constitution as sin-
ful. To systematic minds the charm of reduc-
ing all action to some one principle is great.
The writers of the New Testament have taken
a larger and a truer view of morality than mul-
titudes of philosophers. Their breadth of view
is inconsistent witii narrow-mindedness. It is
impossible, therefore, that Christianity can
have been gradually developed by a multitude
of credulous enthusiasts.—/^/^/.
[711] All previous poetry and philosophy were
incommensurate with the life of man as a whole.
So far as life is sunny, joyous, prosperous, they
express it well ; with a more thorough abandon-
ment to it for the moment than is possible for
one whose religion teaches him to grieve for
others, if not for himself. But life is not all
sunshine. None are exempt from pain ; to
many, painful experiences preponderate over
pleasurable ; while over our brightest moments
death, ever drawing near, casts its dark shadow
before. And here pagan philosophy fails us in
our need. The philosophies of Zeno, or of Epi-
curus, stand dumb before the Sphinx of man's
destiny with its insoluble enigma ; they would
fain escape, if they could, from the stony gaze of
those pitiless eyes. But Christianity faces every
aspect of our existence, sunlit or under the
cloud. It knows "how to be abased and how
to abound." It bids its disciples "rejoice with
those that do rejoice," as well as " weep with
those that weep." And if joy is impossilale for
souls beset, beaten down, all but crushed under
their woes, it whispers of a " peace which passes
understanding."
Like the gate of a medi?eval monastery,
Christianity opens itself to all comers ; welcomes
all to its shelter ; receives from each his peculiar
inheritance of truth ; imparts to each that which
was wanting to complete it, and fuses the scat-
tered fragments into a whole.
Or mark the elasticity of Christianity in
adapting itself to various forms of government.
The gospel precept of obedience to those who
are in authority, applies alike to the subjects of
a despotic empire, of a constitutional monarchy,
of a democracy where all are on a level. When
the French republican of the last century called
the Founder of Christianity " le bon sansculotte,"
and when the Jacobite adherent of the exiled
Stuarts appealed to his creed as teaching him
to " honour the king," they were unconsciously
combining their testimony to the breadth and
elasticity of Christian politics. When the words,
" Unity, Indivisibility, Brotherhood, or Death"
were inscribed over the doors of the houses in
Paris in 1740, it was a ghastly parody of the
universal fellowship which the gospel proclaims.
Christianity insists unhesitatingly on the price-
less value of each man's personality : " What
shall a man give in exchange for his soul ! " On
the. other hand, it lays an equal or even greater
stress on the reciprocal obligations of society.
" For we are members one of another." The
liberty which Christianity proclaims is not
anarchy, for though it is " perfect liberty," it is
itself a " law." As Bishop Taylor quaintly but
beautifully says, the teaching of Christ " enters
like rain into a fleece of wool." Even precepts
such as these, " to abstain from meat offered to
idols," and not to " muzzle the ox that treadeth
out the corn," which have been cited as a con-
tradiction of this universality of the gospel, are
no contradiction really. In both cases a great
principle underlies an apparently arbitrary enact-
ment. There is the principle of providing for
the temporal wants of those who hold a spiritual
office. In both cases the minuteness is in the
expression, not in the thought ; in the illustra-
tion, not in the thing illustrated. — The Honiilist.
6 It provides that moral force which turns
speculative morality into a practical prin-
ciple.
[712] Its special achievement is that it has
brought to bear on the mind of man a mighty
moral force, compared with which all those
known to philosophers and moralists were
weakness. Such a force the philosophers de- ^
sired to find, but they were unable to dis-
cover. Now that it has been brought to light
by Christianity philosophy admits that it is
one in accordance with our highest reason.
The moral force which Christianity professes
to have discovered is no idle theory, but
one which has acted with a tremendous
potency. It has impressed itself on every form
of civilization ; it has lifted the degraded from
their degradation, and has elevated the holy.
The influence which it has exerted has been
entirely beneficent. Reason sets the seal of its
approbation to the mode of its operation ; it is
one which is equally rational and powerful. —
C. A. Row, Moral Teaching of Ne%v Testament.
[713] Obligation, when centred in God, be-
comes all-embracing. The conception of the
fitting and the morally beautiful is vague ; that
of political obligation is weak ; that of expediency
is a mere question of calculation. But holiness,
obligatory on man, because it is the essential
character of God, is at once distinct, morally
beautiful, all-embracing, and, under the govern-
ment of the Creator, conducive to our highest
happiness. From the conception of duty seated
in God, Christianityevolves a body of great moral
principles applicable to every condition of man-
kind. Its special rules are intended as illustra-
tions of those principles as applicable to the
circumstances of the time to which they relate.
—Ibid.
24
714-
THE EVIDENCED OF THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION.
[christian morals (gencrallv).
[714] On every page of this sacred volume
we see a system as pure, as lofty, as invariable
as its Divine Author. We meet with perpetual
evidence of those threat principles of unbending
virtue, which, while they purify and regulate
the interior, also purify and regulate the ex-
terior man ; and which produce an equability
of character, a " calm constancy," a tenderness
of conscience, a kindness of spirit, as far re-
moved from the morality and philanthropy of
the world as are the cold abstractions of heathen
philosophy from the Sermon on the Mount. The
Bible settles the great question : What is duty?
It is everywhere familiar with that all-important
principle, that to do right, men must do what is
right in itself, from right motives, and with a
right spirit.— i9r. Gardiner Spiing, Obligations
of the World to the Bible.
III. The Value of the Argument in
favour of Christianity drawn
FROM ITS System of Morality.
[715] If the ethical teaching of Christianity
is superior to that of other systems, here is one
of the surest arguments for Christianity as a
whole : and the argument is strengthened in
proportion to the degree of the superiority. —
Rexi I. G. S/jiith, Banipton Lectures.
[716] No "essential element of morality " is
omitted in Christianity, but all " the essential
elements of the highest morality " are found
there in a fulness and with a harmony which are
absolutely unique. At the same time it has
been admitted, or rather it has been urged very
earnestly, that these " elements of morality " are
to be looked for in the gospel of Christ in an
"elemental" form. To say that "the gospel of
Christ is not a complete morality," and that " it
is corrective of a pre-existent morality,' is in
effect a repetition of our Lord's own words, " I
am not come to destroy, but to fulfil." To say
that Christian morality "must be eked out from
the Old Testament," that " it is incomplete
without secular standards," and that " St. Paul
ekes it out from the Greeks and Romans," is no
disparagement, but in strict accordance with
our Lord's retrospective allusions to the law of
Moses, and to St. Paul's appeal to nature and
conscience, as a proof that the Father of all
never left Himself without a witness. To say
tliat the morality of the gospel is couched in
" terms most general " and tiiat Christian mora-
lity, as we have it, is " not the work of Christ or
of His apostles," but the growth of centuries, is
in other words to admit, as we contend, that the
principles of the gospel are contained in the
gospel implicitly rather than explicitly ; that
tiiey are not fossilized petrifactions, but living,
fructifying principles ; tliat they are so framed
in order to elicit and stimulate in the heart a
living, fructifying principle of action ; and that
by their very nature, by this their capacity of
testing what is genuine in man and what is
false, they are themselves, and must be, capable
of perversion. — Ibid.
[717] They who profess to believe in the prin-
ciple of utility, should find, in the moral use and
fitness of the gospel, the supremacy of its claim
as " worthy of all acceptation." — B. G.
IV. Objections met.
I The question of rewards promised in
Christian teaching.
[718] There can be no question but promises
of reward occupy a very prominent place in the
exhortations of our Lord and in the preaching
of the apostles. These exhortations to Chris-
tian duty, and this aspect of Ciiristian life, have
occasioned difficulties of two distinct classes.
In proportion as Christian souls have realized
their own unworthiness, they have been inclined
to shrink from language which seems to imply
that they can receive anything from God in the
nature of a reward. Some divines have ex-
hibited a certain hesitation in dwelling on the
free and unfettered assurances of reward, as
though they might be misinterpreted too easily
into countenancing some doctrine of merit
and reliance upon good works. On the other
hand, it has been often urged as an objection to
the whole moral teaching of the gospel, that it
incites men to the pursuit of righteousness for
the mere sake of reward, for some selfish or
ulterior purpose.
The explanation will, perhaps, best be dis-
cerned if we observe that a similar difficulty, or,
we might say, delicacy of feeling, arises in the
ordinary relations of life. Consider tiie case of
love, or friendship, between two persons. Such
relations are felt to be degraded— they cease in
fact really to exist — when the motive of attach-
ment on either side is merely that of personal
and mutual advantage. Love which is not, in
this sense, disinterested is not love ; and men
despise a man who affects friendship for a
powerful neighbour for the mere sake of what
can be obtained from him. But, on the other
hand, it is part of the essence of such rela-
tions that there should be a return, and a gene-
rous return, on the part of friends for the love
or the friendship which is bestowed. No
doubt, one of the most beautiful feelings is
love which is bestowed without any possibility
of return ; but, none the less, where it is pos-
sible that the love, the friendship, or the kind-
ness should be returned, there it ought to be
returned ; and there is an incompleteness, a
maimed and unsatisfied character, about mutual
relations where such mutual benefits are not in-
terchanged. But what deserves more particular
observation is, that the nature of this relation-
ship is much more easily felt than expressed.
The beauty of any such relation between man
and man, or between man and woman, would be
at once marred, if the love, or the benefit, which
the one could bestow on the other were put
forward as constituting anything like a formal
claim, so as to transform the relation into one
of mere exchange ; but yet who would not be
ashamed if, in point of fact, he made no ade-
718—726]
THE EVIDENCES OF THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION. 125
[christian characteristics.
quate return for the love or the kindness be-
stowed on him? The return must come from a
free heart. — Rev. H. IV ace. Expositor.
60
CHRISTIAN CHARACTERISTICS.
I. Points of Christian Excellence.
I Universality.
[719] It is Christianity alone which, as the
religion of humanity, as the religion of no caste,
of no chosen people, has taught us to study the
history of mankind as our own, to discover the
traces of a Divine wisdom and love in the de-
velopment of all the races of the world, and to
recognize, if possible, even in the lowest and
crudest form of religious belief, not the work of
a devil, but something that indicates a Divine
guidance, something that makes us perceive,
with St. Peter, that God is no respecter of per-
sons, but that in every nation he that feareth
God and worketh righteousness is accepted with
Wm\.—Max Midler.
[720] The forces common to all systems of
religion in which Christianity shows itself supe-
rior to all, and in which the proof and promise
of its permanence lie, are such as these : (i)
The hold exercised by the theory of belief upon
the spirit and conscience of its professors ; (2)
The tendency of the system to extend itself by
conversion.
2 Impartiality.
[721] The moral teaching of the ancient
world was intended for the benefit of the upper
ten thousand, i.e., for the moral and intellectual
aristocracy of mankind. The philosophers em-
phatically declared that theiv hopes of doing
good were limited to those who were born with
virtuous tendencies. In one word, as moral
physicians, they undertook to prescribe only
for those who were in a tolerable state of
health. But in cases of moral and spiritual
degradation they did not hesitate to confess that
they had no medicine adequate to effect a cure.
— C. A. Row, Moral Teachino of New Tes-
tame7it.
[722] How could the philosopher do other-
wise ? He had no spiritual power which was
capable of reaching the case. To enable him
to bring those with which he was acquainted
into action, two things were necessary. First,
that those to whom they were to be applied
should be capable of appreciating them.
Secondly, that their force should be superior to
that of the appetites and passions. The only
power witli which he was acquainted, apart from
that of habit, was an appeal to the moral beauty
and fitness of virtue ; and that the practice of it
was generally conducive to happiness. But to
present these as a counterpoise to the violence
of the passions resembles the attempt to resist
the violence of the waves of the Atlantic by a
mop. The only powerful moral force with which
philosophy was acquainted was that of habit.
Still, mighty as is its power to sustain a man on
a course on which he has once entered, it is
utterly powerless to effect the regeneration of
one who has become tainted with moral and
spiritual corruption. The causes of this ineffi-
ciency it is worth while briefly to investigate, as
it will enable us to estimate the wisdom of the
mode in which Christianity has grappled with
the moral and spiritual diseases of mankind. —
Ibid.
3 Self-sacrificing benevolence.
[723] The great principle of vicarious suffer-
ing, which forms the centre of Christianity,
spreads itself through the subordinate parts of
the system, and is the pervading, if not the in-
variable law of Christian beneficence. — Isaac
Taylor, Natural History of Kntlutsiasin.
4 Unique position.
[724] Christianity, in the classification of re-
ligions, is much in the same position as man in
the classifications of physiology. We may, for
a kind of convenience, place our own race
among and at the head of the Ouadrumana, as
having certain physical characteristics which are
common to the whole order ; but when we re-
gard man on his spiritual side, and recognize in
him reason and speech, and — except in rare and
exceptional cases - acknowledgment of a moral
law, and belief in a God, we feel at once how
much more consistent it would be with all the
ficts of the case to classify man, as Scripture
classifies him, with reference to the image of
God, of which he is alone the adumbration.
Just so is it with Christianity. It may be
convenient for the sake of preserving broad and
intelligible distinctions to allow it to be classed
with theistic religions, but it really stands nearly
as far apart from every other system as man
does from every other genus of living and sen-
tient creatures. I say advisedly, nearly as far
apart ; for though it is only the New Testament
that reveals to us the true nature of the Triune
God, we may not and must not forget that the
God of the old dispensation is the God also of
the new, and that though His blessed gospel
alone tells us of Christ that is come, the law
and the prophets tell of Him that was to come,
and are as the dawn that ushers in the bright-
ness of the day. — Bp. Ellicott, Modern Unbelief.
5 Special recognition of God and eternity.
[725] Reverence and humility, a constant
sense of the true majesty of God, and the weak-
ness and sinfulness of man, and a perpetual re-
ference to another world, were the essential
characteristics of Christianity, the source of all
its power, the basis of its distinctive type.— ZtrXy,
History of European Morals.
6 The sole teacher of truth.
[726] We may show in other ways that the
gospel is its own witness from the character of
126
726— 732j
THE EVIDENCES OF THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION.
[christian philosophy.
its teachings. First of all, it is alone as a
teacher of absolute truth, in opposition to every
deceit, fraud, and lie. Plato taught that men
might lie, and I know of no philosopher of
ancient times who took the Christian ground ;
but Christianity reprobates every falsehood in
every form, acted or spoken, and teaches abso-
lute truthfulness in every man — the worship of
a Cod of absolute and perfect truth ; the belief
in a gospel of pure and absolute truth. You
cannot have a greater and more striking con-
trast between every system of religion and the
gospel tlian in this one particular, the i^ospel
alone has been the unflincliing, tmswej-vitig
advocate and teacher of truth; and every Chris-
tian man who receives the gospel of Jesus
Christ in sincerity and honesty, must admi* that
it demands truth, and that no lie can by any
means be patronized by it. — B. //. Cowpcr.
7 The fulcrum for the lever to raise humanity.
[727] The power of the principle of habit may
be illustrated by the action of the lever and the
fulcrum. A lever acts with mighty force when
it rests on a fulcrum adequate to its support.
Without a suitable support it is powerless. So
it is with the principle of habit ; it is a powerful
lever in the moral world, slow, but yet mighty
in its action. But to call forth its latent power
it is necessary that it should rest on an adequate
support. If it is deficient in this, it is powerless.
• — Re'ii. C. A. Rtnu, Moral Teachini; of the New
Jestaiiient.
8 Consistency with the principles of natural
religion and former revelations.
[728] Every true religion must have certain
marks by which we may judge of its truth; such
as miracles wrought in confirmation of it ; and
the internal frame, or the doctrines and com-
mands, of the religion itself, which must at least
be consistent with the principles of natural
religion and with former revelations. — H. Grove,
1683-1738.
II. Points of Contrast between Chris-
tian Teaching and Ancient Philo-
sophy.
[729] The specialities which distinguish the
teaching of Christianity from that of the ancient
philosophers : —
The completeness of its teaching.
Its all-embracing character.
Its practical character as distinguished from
the speculative character of philosophy.
Its principles all true to universal morality.
Their freedom from the one-sidedness of those
(if the ancient world.
Tiie elevation of the milder and unobtrusive
virtues.
Its ideal of morality not an abstraction, but
centred in the person of a living Man.
Christianity creates a new moral and spiritual
power in the person of its Founder.
It concentrates the whole power of religion on
niiirality. — J\ev. C. A. Row, Moral Teaching of
till .\cw Testament.
61
CHRISTIAN PHILOSOPHY.
I. Infidel Testimony to the Excellence
OF the Christian Religion.
1 Indirect testimony.
[730] The superiority of the Christian code
is practically acknowledged, and often con-
fessed, in a most significant way, by the mode
in which the enemies of Christianity taunt its
disciples. When they speak of the vices and
corruptions of the heathen, they blame, and
justly blame, the principles of their vicious
systems, and ask how it could be otherwise .''
When they blame the Christian, the first and
last thing they usually do is to point in triumph
to the contrast between his principles and
practice. "How much better," say they, "is
his code than his conduct ! " It is as a hypo-
crite that they censure him. It is sad for
him that it should be so ; but it is a glorious
compliment to the morality of the New Testa-
ment. Its enemies know not how to attack its
disciples, except by endeavouring to show that
they do not act as it bids them. Surely this
uniform excellence of the Christian ethics, as
compared with other systems, is a peculiarity
worth knowing, and utterly incomprehensible
upon the hypothesis that it was the unaided
work of man. That there are points on which
the mortal systems of men and nations osculate
is most true ; that there should have been
certain approximations on many most important
subjects was to be expected from the essential
identity of human nature, in all ages and
countries ; but their deviations in some point
or other — usually in several— from what we
acknowledge to be both right and expedient,
is equally undeniable. That when such men as
Plato and Aristotle tried their hands upon the
problem, they should err, while the writers of
the New Testament should have succeeded — •
that these last should do what all mankind
besides had in some points or other failed to
do, is sufficiently wonderful ; that Galilean Jews
should have solved the problem is, whether we
consider their age, their ignorance, or their
prepossessions, to me utterly incredible.
[731] The special excellence of the Christian
code is often unwittingly acknowledged by its
opponents, who, when professed Christians do
wrong, accuse them of being inconsistent. Such
accusation of Christians is a concession to the
Christian cause. — B. G.
2 Direct testimony.
[732] It is remarkable that infidels them-
selves have been obligated to give their testi-
mo ly in its favour. Ca;sar V'aninus, a sworn
enemy to the Christian religion, and one who
was industrious in searching out objections
against it, owned that he could find nothing in
it that savoured of a carnal and worldly design.
What says Bolingbroke .f" "No religion has
ever appeared in the world of which the natural
732—7351
THE EVIDENCES OF THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION. 1 27
[teaching and character of CHRIST.
tendenc)' is so much directed as the Christian,
to promote the peace and happiness of man-
kind ; and the gospel is one continued lesson
of the strictest morality, of justice, charity, and
universal benevolence." The testimony of
Gibbon is remarkable; "While the Roman
empire," says he, "was invaded by open vio-
lence, or undermined by slow decay, a pure
and humble religion gently insinuated itself
into the minds of men, grew up in silence and
sobriety, derived new vigour from opposition,
and finally erected the banner of the cross on
the ruins of the capitol." Again he says, "The
Christian religion is a religion which diffuses
among the people a pure, benevolent, and uni-
versal system of ethics, adapted to every con-
dition of life, and recommended as the will and
reason of the Supreme Deity, and enforced by
the sanction of eternal rewards and punish-
ments." Such are the testimonies of infidels,
and true it is, that this noble system allows of
no evil, but promotes the greatest good.
" For this— of all that ever influenced man.
Since Abel worshipped or the world began,
This only spares no lust ; admits no plea ;
But makes him, if at all, completely free.
Sounds forth the signal, as she mounts her car,
Of an eternal, universal war.
Rejects all treaty ; penetrates all wiles ;
Scorns, with the same indifference ; frowns
and smiles ;
Drives through the realms of sin, where riot
reels.
And grinds his crown beneath her burning
wheels." Buck.
II. Objections met.
I Christianity is no more an arbitrary system
than the theory of moral science is an
arbitrary system.
[733] Christianity is simply a carrying forth
of the primary purpose of God in the creation
of man, under a changed condition of things. It
is the science, therefore, which teaches men to
underscand both the nature of their relation-
ships with intelligent beings under that changed
condition of things, and the means which have
been provided for enabling us to realize them.
It thus affords an assurance of the most perfect
and permanent happiness of which their natures
are susceptible, to all who choose to make it
available. The notion that Christianity is an
arbitrary system, has arisen from an entire mis-
conception as to the nature of that happiness
which it promises. This misconception again
originates in the almost irresistible strength
which our desire for wordly gratifications has
acquired by that alienation from God which
characterises our changed condition. — The
Philosophy of Christianity.
See article
No. 19, p. 40.
Philosophy of Christianity,"
62
TEACHING AND CHARACTER OF
CHRIST.
I, Various Aspects of the Moral Teach-
ing OF the New Tesiament.
I Centred in Christ.
[734] The entire moral teaching of the New
Testameitt is made to centre in the person of
its great Teacher. This constitutes a peculiarity
which is to be found in no other systems what-
ever. The teachings of Socrates, of Plato, of
Aristotle, of Zeno, of Seneca, of Aurelius, of
Zoroaster, and of all the moralists or the phi-
losophers who ever lived, were quite inde-
pendent of their own persons. If the whole of
their history had perished, their systems would
be unaffected by it. But if the same fate had
overtaken the person and work of Jesus Christ,
the morality of Christianity would lose all co-
hesion. This is a circumstance worthy of our
profoundest attention. The idea of founding
a system of moral teaching on a living person
must be owned to be one profoundly original.
I think that it can be shown to be in accordance
with a sound philosophy. But not only is this
the case ; but the entire character of Christ,
and the parts of which it is composed, can be
shown to be constructed with the most exquisite
skill and the most faultless perfection. If this
can be established, it is evident that the theory
which asserts that the contents of the Gospels
have been invented by a multitude of credulous
enthusiasts will not stand the test of reason.
The morality of Christianity has a threefold
connection with the historical life of its Founder.
First, His person imparts its vitality to the
entire teaching of the New Testament, and
constitutes the chief of the moral and spiritual
powers possessed by Christianity.
Secondly, the historic life of Christ contains
the morality of Christianity in its ideal per-
fection. It constitutes that fountain of living
morality which assigns a definite meaning to all
the principles and precepts found in the New
Testament, and renders them suitable for every
age and condition of man.
Tiiirdly, it contains a great body of principles
and precepts laid down in The New Testament,
which bear a distinct reference to the historic
life of Christ as the source from whence they
flow. — Rev. C. A. Row, Moral Teaching of the
Aciu Testament.
[735] Jesus Christ then constitutes Christi-
anity ; He is its life and centre, the power
which imparts vitality to its teaching. Human
literature contains no idea like it. No other
teacher has ventured to assume the place which
the Christian Scriptures have assigned to Jesus
Christ. He has proved mightier than all the
dogmas of philosophers, and the teachings of
moralists. It is easy to propound theories for
the regeneration of mankind, and assert that
128
735- -742]
THE EVIDENCES OF THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION.
[teaching and character of CHRIST.
they will constitute the gospel of the future.
These we have in abundance, from the morality
of utilitarianism to that of communism and
atheism. Some of these have attempted the
regeneration of mankind, and failed. Others
resemble the speculative republics of the ancient
philosophers, which refuse to appear in the
form of facts. The one kindles no enthusiasm,
the other an enthusiasm which society speedily
crushes. Liberty, equality, and fraternity are
glorious names, but the little of them which
actually exist is due to Christian ^teaching.
Some of their modern advocates are striving to
erect them on a basis independent both of
Christianity and religion. But the foundation
refuses to support the weight. They can only
be erected on the basis of our relationship to
a common God, and not in virtue of our descent
from a common brute. — Ibid.
736] This character is a link between
humanity and divinity, and receives power over
man by its relation to God as His reflex.
" Who is the image of the invisible God." — B.C.
[737] You never get to the end of Christ's
words. There is something in them always be-
hind. They pass into proverbs, they pass into
laws, they pass into doctrines, they pass into con-
solations'; but they never pass away, and after
all the use that is made of them they are still
not exhausted.— Z^m« Slanley.
[738] Christianity is built upon the Person of
Jesus Christ, and holds forth His human cha-
racter as the one flawless realization of humanity,
the perfect exemplar, the absolute pattern, the
unapproachable goal toward which all human
aspiration and effort are to be unceasingly
directed. Now of that character, as depicted
in the Gospels, the moving force and energy
was His intense consciousness of God as His
Father. His Father's will was His sole rule of
action; His Father's work the entire business
of His life. In communion with His Father lay
the secret of His strength ; in conscious oneness
with His Father the sum of His sinless perfec-
tion. He did not speak His own, but His
Father's word ; He did not seek His own, but
His Father's glory ; He did not act in His own
name, or by His own authority, but by power
and commission from His Father. Thus His
life was consciously based on (}od, and led in
(;od ; in an uninterrupted sense of the Divine
presence ; in direct and constant intercourse
of His soul with God; and in the perpetual
reception of truth and wisdom and strength
irom C.od.—Broivttio^u Maitland, Theism or
.lt;iiosti:ism.
2 Ennobling and sanctifying, not revolu-
tionizing.
[739] Christ came to reveal that the eternal
was 'not the /«/«;i', but only the Unseen; that
eternity was no ocean whither men were being
swept by the river of time, but was around them
now, and that their lives were only real in so far
as thev felt its presence. He came to teach
that God was no dim abstraction, infinitely
separated from them in the far-oft" heaven, but
that He was the Father in whom they lived,
and moved, and had their being ; and that
the service which He loved was not ritual and
sacrifice, not pompous scrupulosity and censo-
rious orthodoxy, but mercy and justice, humility
and love. He came not to hush the natural
music of men's lives, nor to fill it with storm and
agitation, but to re-tune every silver chord in a
" harp of a thousand strings," and to make it
echo with the harmonies of heaven.
3 Inexhaustible and Divine.
[740] What has given the life of the Jewish
Jesus of Nazareth, as recorded by the Evan-
gelists, such a fascination over all thoughtful
minds, whether friendly or unfriendly to His
Divine claims ? There can be but one answer
to this question — this man spake as never man
spake before. "Without controversy, great is
the mystery;" but there is no accounting for
the facts connected with His life and death, and
ever living and growing influence, but by admit-
ting that in Him, "God was manifest in the
flesh." The strange and sublime stor^' never
loses its power over us by often repetition.
What human life could be subjected to such
constant perusals, be broken into chapters for
weekly lessons, and be taken apart, sentence
by sentence, as the foundation of myriad dis-
courses ? The Gospels are an inexhaustible
enigma to unbelievers, and an inexhaustible
fountain of inspiration to both the humblest and
loftiest of Christian disciples. Each different
mind sees a new phase of the Saviour's human
life, and pants to embody it for the admiration
and instruction of others. Why should we
wonder at the number of "Lives" of Christ
which have been written, when there is no end
in the present dispensation to be expected of
the sermons which will be preached about Him?
[741] As in the minutest of God's works the
microscope, in proportion to its power, reveals
increasing wonders ; so the words and life of
Christ ever present fresh wonders as man's
spiritual vision becomes clearer. — B. G.
4 Perfect and comprehensive.
[742] Such is the perfection and all-compre-
hensive character of Christian teaching. Its
parts fit into one another with an exquisite pro-
priety. Nothing so pi^re and elevated, so wide
and catholic, has ever been conceived of by
the mind of man. It has nothing partial or
narrow, but is as broad as human nature. It
rests responsibility on a foundation which is
able to support the weight by placing its centre
in (iod. It has elevated duty to the purest con-
ception of disinterested love. Yet on the theory
of unbelievers this must have been a natural
development out of the narrow spirit of Jewish
sectarianism — a spirit which, in the times of
Jesus Christ, instead of being in advance of that
contained in the Law and the Prophets, was a
THE EVIDENCES OF THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION. 1 29
[teaching and character of CHRIST.
movement purely retrograde. History tells us
that the course of its actual development was
precisely contrary to that contained in the New
Testament. It produced a system of moral
teaching which embodied the narrowest spirit
of legalism, technicality, and formalism. Can
the spirit of pure benevolence be the natural
stream which issues from such a fountain, or a
narrow exclusiveness the parent of the widest
comprehensiveness ? Yet according to the
theories of modern unbelievers, the one must
have emanated from the other— Christianity
was a natural growth out of the Judaism of A.D.
30. The bare statement of the fact is its refuta-
tion.— Rev. C. A. Row, Moral Teaching of the
New Testament.
5 Its dominant power and mysterious in-
fluence.
[743] Our Lord did not, like the Pharisees,
give strict precepts to others which they them-
selves did not follow. " They said, and did not ;
laid heavy burdens upon others, and grievous
to be borne, when they themselves would not
touch them with one of their fingers." Nor like
the philosophers, who spake fine and glorious
things of goodness and virtue, but did much like
other men ; gave strict rules to others, but lived
loosely themselves ; and therefore it is no wonder
that their discourses had so little effect upon the
lives and manners of men, and were so unavail-
able to the reformation of the world.
[744] It was reserved for Christianity to pre-
sent to the world an ideal character which,
through all the changes of eighteen centuries,
has inspired the hearts of men with an impas-
sioned love, has shown itself capable of acting
on all ages, nations, temperaments, and condi-
tions ; which has been not only the highest
pattern of virtue, but the strongest incentive
to its practice ; and has exercised so deep an
influence that it may be truly said that the
simple record of three short years of active life
has done more to regenerate and to soften man-
kind than all the disquisitions of philosophers
and all the exhortations of moralists. — Lecky,
Hisfo>'y of European Morals.
[745] Here is a Man born andTored in obscu- '
rity, with no advantages of education ; without
rank, wealth, or associates ; hated by the lead-
ing men of His time ; a Man who died by the
hands of the law, and was buried by charity ;
and yet kings and emperors are anointed in His
name ; the most gorgeous temples on the face
of the earth are consecrated to His worship;
millions upon millions believe there is eternal
salvation only through Him ; the history of the
last eighteen centuries has taken its form from
Him ; and there is no name in heaven or earth
that is spoken with the same reverence as the
name of Jesus.
[746] Through all Christendom is felt an in-
fluence strange, penetrating, subtle, and mighty
—the life of Jesus Christ. We cannot get clear-
VOL. I.
of it ; we see it where we least expect it ; even
men who have travelled farthest from it seem
only to have come round to it again ; and while
they have been undervaluing the true life and
power of Jesus Christ, they have actually been
living on the virtue which came out of the hem
of His garment.
[747] If an assembly of 500 or 1000 persons
could be gathered together in any c'ty of Europe,
or European America, it being provided that all
of them should be intelligent, well-educated,
high-principled, and well-living men and women ;
and if the question were put to each of them,
" To what influences do you attribute your high
character, your moral and social excellence?"
I feel no doubt that nineteen out of twenty of
them would, on reflection, reply, " To the in-
fluence of Christianity on my education, my
conscience, and my heart." I will suppose a
yet further question to be put to them, and it
shall be this : " If you were to be assured that
the object you hold dearest on earth would be
taken from' you to-morrow, and if at the same
time you could be assured with undoubting cer-
tainty that Jesus Christ was a myth or an im-
postor, and His gospel a fable and a falsehood,
whether of the two assurances would strike upon
your heart with the more chilling and more
hope-destroying misery?" And I believe that
nine-tenths of the company, being such as I have
stipulated they should be, would answer, " Take
from me my best earthly treasure, but leave me
my hope in the Saviour of the world." This is
the effect produced upon the most civilized
nations of the world by the teaching of four
years, the agony of a few hours, of One who
lived as a peasant, and died as a malefactor
and a slave. " Whence had this man this
wisdom and these mighty works?" — Modern
Scepticistn, Christ's Teaching and Infltunce on
the World.
[748] For the first time in the worid's history
Christianity has solved the great problem how
virtue may excite the enthusiasm of the heart,
as well as the approbation of the conscience.
Its secret is the personal Christ, and the love
that He inspires. Christ has won for Himself,
in the hearts of men, a religious reverence and
a fervent devotedness to which there is no
parallel. Nothing among men is so sacred as
the name of Christ, no reverence so great as
that which hallows it, no rapture so great as
the love which gathers round it, no blasphemy
so great as that which profanes it. Myriads of
the noblest minds and hearts do Him homage.
—-Rev. He?iry Alton, D.D.
II. Evidential Value of the Moral
Teachings of the New Testament.
I Christ not the outgrowth of the age in
which He appeared.
[749] He (Jesus Christ) is not to be accounted
for by any spiritual Darwinism, by any possible
process of development. Do what you will
T30
749—7551
THE EVIDENCES OF THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION.
[teaching and CHARACTF.R of CHRIST.
with His character, you cannot bring Him into
Hne with His predecessors, whether Jewish or
Gentile, or with the cuhure or standard of His
age. These eighteen centuries of progress have
not brought the advanced guard of humanity
up to Him. We can trace the rudiments of
other pre-eminent characters, and show whence
and how they grew. Tliere is no human or
earthly accounting for Him. The character of
Christ as portrayed in the Gospels is the highest
possible evidence of their authenticity. It is a
character which without an original could not
have been conceived by the evangelists ; one
for which they had neither the materials within
their reach, nor the genius or culture requisite
for its invention. As an actual character, it
could not by any possibility have been formed
by antecedent or surrounding influences. It
was not a natural development ; for human
\irtue has not yet developed up to its standard.
Its human side cannot possibly be authentic,
unless its Divine side be equally authentic. —
Dr. A. P. Peabodfs Lectures for 1874.
[750] Is a book at once so sublime and simple
the work of man ? Can it be that He whose
history it relates was Himself a mere man ? Is
this the tone of an enthusiast, or of a mere
sectary ? What sweetness, what purity of
manners ! what touching grace in His instruc-
tions ! what elevation in His maxims ! what pro-
found wisdom in His discourses ! what presence
ot mind, what acuteness, what justness in His
replies ! what empire over His passions !' Where
is the man, where is the sage, who knew in this
way how to act, suffer, and die .-* When Plato
describes his imaginary good man, covered
with the opprobium of crime, yet meriting the
rewards of virtue, he paints, trait by trait, Jesus
Christ. . . . What prejudice, blindness, or bad
faith, does it require to compare the son of
Sophroniscus with the Son of Mary ! What
distance between the two ! Socrates dies with-
out pain, without ignominy ; he sustains his
character easily to the end. If he had not
honoured such a life with a death,' we
should have thought him a sophist. They say
Socrates invented ethics ; but others practised
morality before he taught it. Aristides was
just before Socrates described justice ; Lconidas
died for his country before Socrates taught the
duty' of patriotism. Sparta was temperate
before .Socrates praised sobriety ; Greece
abounded in virtuous men before he defined
what virtue is. But Jesus — where did He find
the lofty morality of which He alone gave both
the lesson and the example .■" From the midst
of a furious fanaticism proceeds the purest
wisdom ; among the vilest of the people appears
the most heroic and virtuous simplicity. The
death of Socrates, tranquilly philosophizing
among his friends, is the sweetest one could
desire ; that of Jesus, expiring amid torments,
abused, ridiculed, cursed by a whole peojjle, is
the K^ost horrible which one could fear. . . .
Yes ; if Socrates lives and dies like a philo-
^ean
sopher, Jesus lives and dies like a God ! — Ji
Jacques Rousseau.
2 Christ's perfect life in this imperfect world
itself the most convincing miracle.
[751] One might have thought that the
miracle of miracles was to have created the
world such as it is ; yet it is a far greater
miracle to have lived a perfectly pure life
therein.
[752] The miracles of Christ, on the contrary,
all bear the impress of His own holiness, and
He ever uses them as the means of winning to
the cause of goodness and truth those who wit-
nessed them. Thus He presented His own
life as the perfect model not only to His im-
mediate disciples but to all men. He taught
His disciples to make known to those that heard
them the perfect will of God : and He revealed
to mankind, far more by His life and words
than by His miracles, the secret of that holiness
by which it is possible in all things to please
God. If such was the life of Jesus, how can He
be compared to mere charlatans, and why may
we not believe that He was indeed God mani-
fested in the flesh, for the salvation of our race.
— Orii^en.
3 The continued influence of Christ's cha-
racter and teaching over men inexplicable
save upon the Christian hypothesis.
[753] It was reserved for Christianity to
present to the world an ideal character which
throughout all the changes of eighteen centuries
has inspired the hearts of men with an im-
passioned love ; has shown itself capable of
acting on all ages, nations, temperaments, and
conditions ; has not only been the highest
pattern of virtue, but the strongest incentive to
its practice ; and has exercised so deep an in-
fluence that it may be truly said that the simple
record of three short years of acti\e life has
done more to regenerate and to soften mankind
than all the disquisitions of philosophers and
all the exhortations of moralists. This has,
indeed, been the well-spring of whatever is best
and purest in the Christian life. Amid all the
§ins and failings, amid all the priestcraft and
persecution and fanaticism that has defaced the
Church, it has preserved in the example and
character of its Founder an enduring principle
of regeneration. — Lecky, History of European
Morals.
[754] Here is a certainly authenticated fact.
No after deduction from it, whether right or
wrong, can make it cease to be a fact. From
the date in which Jesus of Nazareth lived and
died, an ideal of human goodness, most beautiful
and in many respects new, was undoubtedly
held up for the admiration and imitation of
mankind. — Canon Ifynne.
III. The Blessedness of its Mor.\l
Realization.*^
[755] Every truth of God, even in itself and
755-760]
THE EVIDENCES OF THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION. 13 1
[teaching and character of CHRIST.
abstractly considered, is precious ; but the
beauty, lustre, and sweetness of Divine truth is
never seen or felt until the truth be known
" as it is in Jesus." All the truths of Divine
revelation meet in Him, as the beams in the
sun, or as the spokes of a wheel in their centre.
—Eb. Erskiite, Sermons (1726).
[756] He is " the Truth," as the true model of
perfect humanity (Eph. iv. 21), as the true repre-
sentative of the Divine purity and mercy. This
is imphed in that saying so often misquoted,
" The truth as it is in Jesus," but which in' the
words of the Apostle is " But ye have not so
learned Christ ;"' that is, have not seen any
evil lesson or example in Him : "if so be that
ye have heard Him and been taught by Him as
the truth (all perfection without stain) is (exem-
plified) in Jesus " (Eph. iv. 20, 21). — B. G.
[757] When we bring our hearts into con-
tact with the story of Christ's life and character,
and the teachings of His commissioned mes-
;engers ; when we find the longings and aspira-
tions of our moral nature so grandly satisfied by
the gospel of the Lord Jesus ; when we find
so many of the deepest questions of the under-
standing answered by it, and so many of the
difficulties and trials of actual life made easier
by it, we are face to face with an evidence that
is of all others perhaps the most practically
potent. But it is only one of the many lines of
proof, by the convergence of which we are con-
vinced that Jesus Christ is God manifest in the
flesh, and that our Christian faith is based, not
on hopes or dreams, but on the firm foundation
of positive fact. — Rev. Canon lVyn?ie in Cleri^y-
nian's Magazine.
IV. The Superiority of the Influence
exercised by christ to that of
Heathen Philosophers.
[758] In comparing the moral teachings of
heathen philosophy with those of Christ, it is
necessary to suggest the caution that some
recent writers overstate the merits'of the former,
and depreciate, and sometimes even misrepre-
sent, the latter. In their obvious partiality to
heathenism they become its eulogists rather
than its critics. If they find a fine moral sen-
timent they expand and display it, as the
optician expands a ray of light in all the colours
of the rainbow. From their own knowledge of
Christianity they interpolate into an isolated sen-
tence of a heathen author a meaning which the
connection does not warrant, and which the
author did not design to express.
From the ancient Pythagoreans, who defined
virtue as " a habit of duty," to Reid, who defines
it as consisting " in a fixed purpose or reso-
lution to act according to our sense of duty,"
ethical philosophy has recognized no principle
of virtue higher or more effective than the sense
of duty. This is, indeed, a grand principle ; and
its presentation by some philosophers rises to
the sublime. Christianity does not reject it.
Christianity broadens and spiritualizes the law,
and emphasizes its authority, its immutability,
and its sanctions. It quickens the conscience,
and adds to the delicacy of its discernment and
the authority of its commands. It makes the
voice of duty to be nothing less than the voice
of God. But the voice of duty is the voice of
God proclaiming His law. — President Harris,
Bibliotheca Sacra (\Z-]\).
[759] Socrates was a man of great mental
endowment, of great common sense, and of
great moral courage. He wrote nothing ; but
his disciples recorded his teachings, and they
became a moral force in the world. Plato, his
disciple, was second to no human teacher ; he
wrote copiously and elaborately ; he never will
be surpassed in the art of thinking and writing ;
his works have never died. Though they were
once buried in mediaeval superstitions, they
have risen and come forth again ; and never
were they so dominant as to-day. The force of
that Greek mind that lived thousands of years
ago not only is not spent, but does not seem
to be weakened. After him came Aristotle,
who was as great as Plato, only his mind was
turned towards material and scientific truths,
while Plato's mind was turned towards social
and metaphysical truths.
All of these masters were morally and intel-
lectually great ; but, undeniable as their in-
fluence has been and is, no man will pretend
for one single moment that their power would
at any time, or will now, at all compare with the
power of that Jew who only lived three years as
a teacher, who wrote not a word, and who
spoke His wisdom, not to scholars that would
make accurate registry of it, but to ignorant
fishermen that remembered only a part of it.
If you take the combined moral influence of
Aristotle, of Plato, and of Socrates, and put it
beside the moral influence of Christ, it will be
found that the light of the Jew is greater than
all the illumination of the Greeks. — Ward
Beecher.
[760] The maxim of Confucius, " Do not to
others what you would not that they should do
to you," is often quoted as if to show that the
morality taught by heathen philosophy is the
same as that taught by Christ, that Christianity
is therefore merely one of the religions of the
world, and has no pre-eminent claim to a Divine
origin.
1 he first reply is that the New Testament
explicitly teaches that conscience gives all men
a knowledge of moral law. Without this, Chris-
tianity would have no basis, a universal religion
would be impossible.
A second reply is that Jesus was not dis-
tinctively a teacher of philosophy or of ethics ;
but he was the Redeemer of the world. He
assumes that God's law is already known and
already transgressed : he comes to redeem men
from sin and guilt of which they are already
conscious.
But, for the very reason that Christianity is
32
760-
r66J
THE EVIDENCES OF THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION.
[teaching and character of CHRIST.
distinctively redemption, Christian virtue must
have certain distinctive peculiarities ; the Chris-
tian conception of virtue must be distinct from
and superior to the conception of virtue in the
mind of one who is ignorant of redemption, and
knows only the moral law. This is our present
subject : the peculiarity and superiority of Chris-
tian virtue involved in the fact that it ori-
ginates in redemption from sin. — Pfesident
Harris, Bibliotlieca Sacra (1871).
V. Infidel Testimony to suitability of
Christ's Teaching as a Moral Stan-
dard AND Guide for Humanity.
[761] A presumption, even stronger, for the
reality of the Bible miracles, is the transcendent
character of the morality with which they are
associated. At no point has Christianity come
out of the struggle of centuries stronger than
here.— AV^y. VV. G. Blaikie, D.D.
[762] Mr. Rathbone Greg, whose " Creed of
Christendom " is owned to be one of the keenest
assaults yet made on the gospel, bears honour-
able testimony to the character of Christ and of
many of His teachings. Remarkable illustra-
tions of this occur at pp. 209 and 224 of the
second edition. Mr. Greg says : " It is difficult,
without exhausting superlatives, even to un-
expressive and wearisome satiety, to do justice
to our intense love, reverence, and admiration,
for the character and teaching of Jesus. We
regard Him not as the perfection of the intel-
lectual or philosophical mind, but as the per-
fection of the spiritual character, — as surpassing
all men of all times in the closeness and depth
of His communion with the Father. In reading
His sayings, we feel that we are holding converse
with the wisest, purest, noblest Being that ever
clothed thought in the poor language of humanity.
In studying His life we feel that we are following
the footsteps of the highest ideal yet presented
to us upon earth," &c.
[763] The greatest of moralists, like Kant, have
treated the New Testament as containing a full
moral system ; and attacks on the Christian
morality, as erring, either by excess or defect,
have to a large extent ceased. Mr. Mill, who,
in his essay on Liberty, had charged Christianity
on this head with at least incompleteness, has
in one of his posthumous Essays made the
remarkable statement, that no one could find a
better rule of life than to act in every case so as
that Christ would approve of his conduct. — Rev.
\V. G. Blaikie, D.D.
[764] About the life and sayings of Jesus there
is a stamp of personal originality, combined with
profundity of insight, which, if we abandon the
idle expectation of finding scientific precision
where something very different was aimed at,
must place the Prophet of Nazareth, even in the
estimation of those who have no belief in His
inspiration, in the very first rank of the men of
sublime genius of whom our species can boast.
When His pre-eminent genius is combined with
the qualities of probably the greatest moral
reformer and martyr to that mission who ever
existed upon earth, religion cannot be said to
have made a bad choice in pitching upon this
man as the ideal representative and guide of
humanity ; nor even now would it be easy even
for an unbeliever to find a better translation of
the rule of virtue from the abstract unto the
concrete than the endeavour so to live that
Christ would approve our life. When to this
we add that to the conception of the rational
sceptic it remains a possibility that Christ was
actually what He supposed Himself to be, — not
God, for He never made the smallest pretension
to that character, and would probably have
thought such a pretension as blasphemous as it
seemed to the men who condemned Him, — but
a man charged with a special, express, and
unique commission from God, to lead man to
virtue and truth. We may well conclude that
the influences of religion on the character, which
will remain after rational criticism has done its
utmost against the evidences of religion, are well
worth preserving, and that what we lack in
direct strength as compared with those of a
firmer belief is more than compensated by the
greater truth and recitude of the morality they
sanction. — J. Stuart Mill.
[765] This testimony, the result of Mill's ripest
thoughts, took the unbelievers by surprise, and
remains as a valuable acknowledgment. The
Divine side of Jesus, which Mill doubted, is also
confirmed by the moral side, which he confessed.
—B. G.
[766] The only really influential objections to
the Christian morality are those connected with
its difficulty, and its failure to realize itself among
professed Christians ; and this has caused the
gospel to suffer more than all other hindrances
put together, for the inconsistencies of Christian
nations and churches have been seen and read
of all men, while the excuses for those failures,
and even the attempts to clear Christianity from
this reproach, have not been equally successful
in impressing the general mind. — Rev. W, G.
Blailcie, D.D.
DIVISION D
( Coniifuied),
THE EVIDENCES OF THE CHRISTIAN
RELIGION.
[3] PERSONAL EVIDENCES.
Pages 134 to 136.
63
INWARD WITNESS.
133
134
DIVISION D
{Continued),
THE EVIDENCES OF THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION.
[3] PERSONAL EVIDENCES.
63
INWARD WITNESS.
I. Its Reality and Use.
[767] In the teaching of natural science no idea
has more gained ground of late than that of the
necessity of an experimental acquaintance with
a subject, where possible, if the student is really
to master it ; spiritual truth, in like manner,
little as the fact is accepted or understood by
the irreligious, must also be experienced to be
understood and mastered.— Gird/es/one, Chris-
tianity and Modern Scepticism.
[768] Why do we believe in the law of gravi-
tation ? Because it works. And for the same
reason we ought to believe in faith and hope and
love, «S:c., because they work.— £". A. Abbott.
[769] Religion does not shrink from the stern
test which modern science insists upon applying
to all things — the test of experience. We are
told to be content with no authority, no com-
mand to believe this or that ; for observation,
experience, experiment, must settle everything.
We answer : " By all means : for then you can-
not brush our beliefs aside with a sneer, a jest,
a scornful word, like iiiiscientijic," We also
claim to be experimented upon. We assert that
a vast and varied experience of men now living
prove Christ to be the Lord of the dead, of the
dying, of the death-chamber, and the dark hour.
We say that He is to-day breathing not only calm
but exultation into numberless breasts at the
approach of the king of terrors. Hundreds are
feeling to-day that when to live has been Christ,
then to die has been something better than even
the enjoyment of His favour here. What is that
"gain"i* Not the negative gladness of release
from anguish, for they have not been the queru-
lous and heavy-laden ; and this would be
counterbalanced besides by the wrench from
full anany a delight. It is to enter a brighter
company ; to drink of the river of life nearer to
its sunht fountain ; to stand in the vestibule of
a statelier temple, and in earshot already of
sweeter anthems than ours, ascending continu-
ally like incense unto God ; it is the vision of
Him wh( m wc have not seen after the flesh, the
touch of His hand, the serene profundity of His
gaze. That is the death of him that "dieth not."
— S. A. Chadwick.
[770] Two and two make four— that is mathe-
matics ; hydrogen and oxygen form water — that
is chemistry ; Christ crucified is the power of
God unto salvation — that is revelation. But
how do you know ? Put two and two together
and you have four : count and see. Put hydro-
gen and oxygen together and you have water :
test and you will prove it. Believe in the Lord
Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved : believe
and you will know. Each demonstration is un-
answerable in its own sphere. — Rev. F. G. Pen-
ticost, The Vohcme of the Book.
II. Its Evidential Value.
I As to its possessor.
(i) The inward witness is the strottgest and
best of ail proofs.
[771] The inward witness is the proof, the
strongest proof, of Christianity. — /iVj-Z^^.
[772] I have bought tropical morning-glory
seeds for the greenhouse with the assurance of
the seedsman that I could not raise them out of
doors. I did raise them out of doors ; that is
the answer I gave him. " But," he says, " it is
not possible, in our summer, to raise them;"
but I did'xt.. ''The summer is not long enough,
or warm enough, to raise them here.' I have
raised them, and I shall not give up my argu-
ment upon that question.
If a man says that there never was a Christ,
or that He was only a man, I answer that I have
found Him of whom Moses and the prophets
spake. I have asked Him, "What wilt Thou.?"
and He has told me. I have put my soul and
my heart, as He has commanded me, into His
hand. Will any man now undertake to reason
me out of the result ? I know in wiiom I have
trusted, and know what He has done for me. Is
the music of my life, the inspiration of every
faculty, the transformation of my views, the re-
generation of my hopes — are these nothing?
Am I to go back eighteen hundred years, with
the sceptical philosopher, to reason about Jeru-
salem, and about the J-ord Jesus Christ, and not
reason upon my own actual daily positive expe-
rience 1 — Ward Beecher.
THE EVIDENCES OF THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION.
773—783]
[inward witness.
\jTh\ When a soul hath a real experience of
the grace of God, pardon and peace by be-
lieving ; let men, or devils, or angels from
heaven oppose, if it cannot answer their soph-
isms, yet he can rise up and walk ; he can, with
all holy confidence and assurance, oppose his
now satisfying experience unto all their arguings
and suggestions. A man will not be disputed out
of what he sees and feels ; and a believer will
abide as firmly by his spiritual sense as any man
can by his natural. — J. Owen, D.D., 1616-1683.
[774] As there can be no argument of che-
mistry in proof of odours like a present perfume
itself; as the shining of the stars is a better
proof of their existence than the figures of an
astronomer ; as the restored health of his
patients is a better argument of skill in a phy-
sician than laboured examinations and certifi-
cates ; as the testimony of the almanac that
summer comes with June is not so convincing
as is the coming of summer itself in the sky, in
the air, in the fields, on hill and mountain ; so
the power of Christ upon the human soul is to
the soul evidence of His divinity, based upon a
living experience, and transcending in conclu-
siveness any convictions of the intellect alone,
founded upon a contemplation of mere ideas,
however just and sound. — Ward Beecher.
[775] The common saying, "The proof of
the pudding is in the eating," contains true and
profound philosophy. We know that bread
" strengthens man's heart " from experience,
not from analysis. We have the same know-
ledge of " the Bread of Life." — B. G.
[776] The best of all proofs of His divinity
come not from the testimony of eye-witnesses,
however numerous or competent, nor from the
miracles, the record of which is inseparable
from His Divine life, but from those who have
testified for themselves that he is indeed the
Christ, the Saviour of the world. — Rev. IV.
Anderson, M.A.
[777] If at any rate in the same way as by
serving men you get to know those who are
willing to return the service, and by doing-
kindness those who wish to return it, and by
taking advice you find out the wise — if thus by
serving the gods you make trial of them, too,
whether they will be at all ready to give you
counsel about things hidden to men, you will
get to know that such is the greatness, such are
the attributes of the Deity, that it hears all
things at once, sees all things, and is every-
where present, and has care for all things at
once. — Xenophon, Memorabilia .
[778] The truest knowledge of Christ is to
know Him for ourselves. ^'' Noiv we believe, not
because of thy saying, for we have heard Him
ourselves, and know,' &c. — St. John iv. 42.
(2) The inward witness luxhiable for continu-
ance in the faith.
[779] The doorkeeper of an alien household
said to Peter : " Thou art surely a Galilean ;
thy speech betrayeth thee." There is some-
thing in the face and in the tone of every man
which brings up and out the life's meaning and
purposes, and this inherent quality of character
is read and known by the multitudes.
Whatever a man's mind takes in and cherishes
becomes an element of his very being. If the
soul have tastes for the music of the world, the
tongue will soon take the same key, and become
the ready exponent of worldly things. If the
world be in a man's heart, it will break out at
! his lips. No matter what may be his profes-
j sion, or what the reputation of an individual,
he will exactly impress and express himself in
1 his common conversation day by day. He may
put himself into strictest bonds as to outward
I observances — he may live in the very letter of
I religious law and order ; but when his spon-
taneous words come forth, they will certainly
bear the brogue of his real nature. There is a
native tone to every man's soul surer in sig-
nificance than that of his mother-tongue. And
unless the inmost nature be new created in
Christ Jesus, and the will sanctified and con-
trolled by the Holy Spirit, there will be certain
betrayal of the real character long before the
; judgment-day, by the attesting witnesses of the
: face and voice.
I [780] As by personal knowledge of Christ we
! know the truth of His claims and promises, so
! by that personal knowledge we attain to the
1 blessedness and safety of the true Christian
j life.
(3) T]ie imvard witness is the answer to intel-
lectual difficulties.
[781] It has been truly said that you cannot
reason a man out of a thing that he has never
[ been reasoned into ; and the only cure for this
j unhappy state of mind is to come to the Bible
I as to the foundation of truth, saying, " Lord,
: what I know not teach Thou me." When the
I voice of prejudice exclaimed, " Can any good
, thing come out of Nazareth ?" the happy con-
vert who had just found the Saviour Himself,
and whose soul was glowing with desire for the
salvation of his friend, had too much wisdom
to sit down and enter into an argument about
the matter. Had he done so he would in all
probability have lost his temper, and have done
more harm than good ; but there was holy
power in the reply, " Come and see." — Rev. R.
Boyd, D.D., Way of Life.
[782] The way to drink is to go to the foun-
tain ; to learn and know is to search the Scrip-
tures.
[783] A theological student once went to
Dr. Hodge with difficulties about the divinity
of our Lord and Saviour. The doctor listened
patiently, and then said, " My dear young friend,
your difficulties are of the head. If I should
answer them, new ones would suggest them-
selves. The best way to remove them, and
136
783-
THE EVIDENCES OF THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION.
•792]
[inward witness.
guard yourself from future and similar troubles,
is to have Christ within you. Learn His life ;
learn to trust in Him more, to love Him more ;
become identified with Him; and your doubts
as to His divinity will disappear." The young
student followed his advice ; his doubts fled ;
and, on a subsequent deathbed, he bore his
testimony to the divinity of our blessed Lord.
[784] Experienced facts are stronger than
theories. Christ in you "the hope of glory" and
the establishment of faith.
[785] The pomp of man's religion only ex-
pands the soul in vague emotions, as if it were
tiie Infinite, and leaves it empty. God's reli-
gion brings down the Infinite into the soul, and
fills it. Let your heart be but as a flower
meekly opened to the sky with all its stars, and
the heavens shall drop dew into it, and the
dead earth shall distil living sap into it. Only
keep your soul lifted up, and God will take care
that it shall grovi.—Schdnberg Coda Series.
[786] " O taste and see that the Lord is
good." "The way of transgressors is hard"
— on the road, and at the end.
Wisdom's ways "are ways of pleasantness,
and all her paths are peace."
2 As to the outside world.
(i) The persotial testiniotiy and consistency
of believers carries immense weight.
[787] For who can help being astonished, when
one being a man, and partaking of our common
nature, and living among other men, is seen
like adamant to resist the assaults of passion.?
when being in the midst of fire and sword, and
of wild beasts, he is even harder than adamant,
and vanquishes all for the word of godliness'
sake ? when being injured He blesses ; when
being evil reported of. He praises ; when bemg
despitefully used. He prays for those who in-
jure Him ; when being plotted against. He does
good to those who lay snares for Him.-' For
these things, and such as these, will glorify God
far more than the heavens. For the Greeks,
when they behold the heavens, feel no awe ; but
when they see a holy man exhibiting a severe
course of life, they shrink away and condemn
themselves. Since, when He that partakes of
the same nature with themsehes is raised above
them more than the heaven is above the earth,
even against their inclinations they perceive
that it is a Divine Power which works these
things. — St. Chtysostom.
[788] The phenomena of religious conversion
are as in(iisi)utable as they are unaccountable,
save on the supernatural theory of Christianity.
The truths of Christianity read in the Bible, or
listened to from a preacher, work the most mar-
vellous transformations ; they put an arrest
upon sinful habit and feeling, and often in a
single day change the entire life of a man.
Conversions as sudden and as radical as that of
Saul of Tarsus are continually occurring. — Rev.
Henry Allan, D.D.
[789] It is not, if we understand it rightly, a
sign of decreasing, but of increasing spirituality,
that miracles have ceased. And so it is a truer
discrimination that recognizes the presence ot
God in men, the saints that are in the world,
not by the miracles they work, but by the mira-
cles they are, by the way in which they bring
the grace of God to bear on the simple duties
of the household and the street. The sainthoods
of the fireside and of the market place — they
wear no glory round their heads ; they do their
duties in the strength of God ; they have their
martyrdoms, and win their palms ; and though
they get into no calendars, they leave a benedic-
tion and a force behind them on the earth when
they go up to heaven. — Phillips Brooks.
[790] The argument from personal experience,
though it cannot be directly pleaded with un-
believers, is with Christians the most signal of
all acts of Divine power, and renews in every
Christian life the deepest side of the miracle of
Damascus. For there is here contact with the
personal Jesus in His risen life and greatness,
in His power to stamp His image and to convey
His will, so that this most subduing of all evi-
dences prolonged into the manifold experiences
of a Christian life, and carrying with it a sense
of liberty, peace, and nearness to God, other-
wise wholly unattainable, so visibly centres in
Christ, that it cannot even be conceived of
without Him, and is really the conscious recep-
tion and reproduction of His own life and
character. Nor is this argument so incom-
municable as has sometimes been alleged ; for
Christian experience has a power of irradiation
even into dark and unsightly places ; and
wherever it goes it bears with it not only some-
thing of rebuke in Christ's name, but of hope to
the most outcast and fallen, that the dead may
yet live again, and the lost be found.
[791] We ought not toallow ourselves to forget,
in the noise and din of controversy, that after
all the gospel of Christ is one which is to be
preached to the poor, and that it is only in the
effect of the gospel upon the history of mankind,
and its transforming energy in the human heart,
that we can see fully exhibited the greatness of
its power and the completeness of its evidence.
[792] As flowers, fruits, and grain indicate
the living forces in nature, so the products of
Christianity show its character.
DIVISION D
(Continued).
THE EVIDENCES OF THE CHRISTIAN
RELIGION.
[4] FAILURE OF INFIDELITY.
Pages 138 to 145.
ALPHABETICAL TABLE OF TOPICS.
64
DIFFICULTIES OF INFIDELITY.
65
HISTORY OF UNBELIEF.
66
MODEKN THOUGHT.
67
PHILOSOPHY OF UNBELIEF.
137
138
DIVISION D
{Continued).
THE EVIDENCES OF THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION.
[4] FAILURE OF INFIDELITY.
64
DIFFICULTIES OF INFIDELITY.
I. Certain Problems Solvable only
UPON THE THEISTIC HYPOTHESIS.
1 The mystery of consciousness.
[793] If a material element, or a combination
of a thousand material elements in a molecule
are alike unconscious, it is impossible for us to
believe that the mere addition of one, two, or a
thousnnd other material elements, to form a
more complex molecu'e, could in any way tend
to produce a self-conscious existence. Either
all matter is conscious, or consciousness is
something distinct from matter ; and in the
latter case its presence in material forms is a
proof of the existence of conscious beings cut-
side of, and independent of, what we term
matter.—^. R. Wallace, Contributions to the
Theory 0/ Natural Seleetion.
2 The mystery of life.
{\) A nti- theistic definitio7is of life are deficient.
[794] Various definitions of Life will be found
in Prof. Flint's " Anti-theistic Theories," note
XV ii. pp. 489 sq. The most brief form in which
it has iDeen expressed, and at the san)e time the
form that has been judged to be least open to
exception — viz., that " Life is the continuous
adjustment of internal relations to external re-
lations"— is, nevertheless, utterly deficient in
telling us what, after all. Life really is. — Bp.
Ellicott^ The Being of Cod.
(2 ) A titi -theistic theories leave all the 7'arieties
of life and order unexplained.
[795] Upon tlie subject of the origin of things,
natural history brings no liglit. She does not
pretend to say what was the beginning or what
will be the end. Supposing material particles
once in existence, she cannot tell wliy they have
moved in a marvellous progression rather than
in an endless circle of chaotic disorder. What is
there in matter, living or inert, to account for
its tending toward a world of beauty, toward
Newton and .Shakespeare, rather than toward
an endless round of slime or fiery mists } Nay,
if the higher stages of creation not only surpass.
but also in a sense contradict the lower, natural
history cannot tell us why. " Change from un-
changeable matter, death from the imperish-
able, motion from absolute rest, life from the
dead, sense from the senseless, purpose from
causes acting blindly, intelligence from the un-
intelligent, spirit from the unspiritual" — such
are the contradictions which, according to Hoff-
mann, the materialists must accept. The pro-
perties of matter, living or dead, are unequal to
account for such transformations. To endow
the atom with such informing power is to make
an idol of it ; to escape from the idea of a crea-
tion, we make our idol create. Materialism ex-
plains nothing ; it leaves harder questions than
it solves. Looking out upon the splendour of
the world, upon the summer in its beauty, and
the sea in its might, upon the deep perspective
of the stars — "' those stars whose steps are
worlds, above and under, glory on glory, wonder
upon wonder"- — the little atom and its little
doings will not content us. " Lift up your eyes
on high, and behold who hath created these
things, that bringeth out their host by number :
He calleth them all by names by the greatness
of His might, for that He is strong in power;
not one faileth." You will never eradicate this
view of creation ; for we, that think it, are a part
of the creation, and the consciousness of a
Father's power comes to us as birthright, and
beats in the pulses of our blood.
[796] Huxley in " Encyclopedia Britannica,"
Art. " Biology," an equally great authority,
states in the same unhesitating language, " No
one has ever yet built up one particle of living
matter out of lifeless elements ; every living
creature, from the simplest dweller on the con-
fines of organization up to the highest and most
complete organism, has its origin in pre-existent
living matter."— /^;Yy. Allnian, Address to the
British Associatiofi (1879).
(3") Anti-theistic theories have no category for
vitality.
[797] I regard " vitality " as a power of a
peculiar kind, exhibiting no analog)' whatever to
any known forces. It cannot be a property of
matter, because it is in all respects essentially
different in its actioiTs from all acknowledged
properties of matter. The vital property belongs
797— So2]
THE EVIDENCES OF THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION. 139
[difficulties of infidelity.
to a different category altogether. — Sir Lionel
Beale, Protoplasm.
[798] Biologists, whose special profession is
the science of life, confess that they cannot de-
fine it ; in other words, they do not know scien-
tifically what life is, or wherein it consists. It
is a mystery to them. This confession was made
before the Royal Commission on Vivisection, or
experiments on live animals. — B. G.
II. Necessary Infidel Achievements
BEFORE Christianity can be over-
thrown.
1 Christianity must be proved untrue, useless,
and mischievous.
[799] Infidelity will find it difficult indeed to
prove that Christianity is useless, so long as it
sets up and provides for such institutions and
contributes such vast sums of money for ame-
liorating the misery of humanity.? It will find
it difficult to show as much for itself. What
has infidelity done to relieve the woes and
misery of humanity? It will stamp and rage
about the tyranny of this or that government,
about the crimes of princes and the woes to
which the working men of England, Scotland,
and Ireland are subjected, and seek to lash
them to fury, and provoke them to sedition and
rebellion ; it will tell them, with all the appear-
ance of real earnestness, that nothing short of
blasphemy and sedition will ever bring paradise
to the world — and there it stops.
If time permitted, I would show that Chris-
tianity is worthy of your love and courageous
support from its benevolent design ; and 1 would
base the whole impeachment of infidelity upon
the coldness, the hardness, and uncharitableness
of its heart.
Again, when infidelity has shown that reli-
gion—Christianity in particular — is not only un-
true, but that it is useless, it will not have done
enough. It has a still greater difficulty to over-
come, and that is — to show that Christianity is
essentially injurious. — B. H. Coiupcr.
2 Infidelity must frame a satisfying creed.
[800] When infidelity has overcome the diffi-
culty of proving Christianity untrue and useless,
it has not done its work ; it has still to com-
mence, and I shall rapidly enumerate the
gigantic tasks it will have to perform. I will
suppose it has blotted out from man the instinct
of religion ; that it has rooted out the thought
of God from the heart of humanity. Its difficul-
ties have only begun. It has, at most, produced
the raw material out of which the world of infi-
delity has yet to be fashioned and moulded.
Humanity is a blank, then, we shall suppose :
what has infidelity to do? Humanity must
feel, and speak, and act ; you cannot keep it
quiet ; and if you want it to act, and speak, and
feel, and think, on infidel principles, you must
give it infidel principles — it cannot live upon
mere negation, it must sit at a full table ; it has
been in the habit of sitting at a full table where
Christ has sat. People will hunger and thirst
after something ; what will you give them ?
Where is the creed of negation ? Where are
the thirty-nine articles of despair ? Where is
the gospel of the " everlasting No?" Infidelity
has laboured, and tugged, and striven ; it has
used its best endeavours, made trial after trial,
projected scheme after scheme, experiment after
experiment, in order to model a creed for the
future ; but it has failed.
The founders of the system in debate— in
solemn debate — two and twenty years and more
after the system has been launched ! in debate
as to the fundamental principles of the system.
Twenty-two years before its leaders— its two
great supporting pillars, its Jachin and its Boaz
— can discover what its fundamental principles
are. The creed has to be framed, and it is a
great difficulty. — Ibid.
3 Infidelity must frame a sure rule of life.
[801] A great difficulty will be to discover and
to frame a mrc rule of life. We have the doc-
trines which we are to believe ; we have a rule of
life, and we learn without difficulty the duties
which we should perform. And, mark you, the
precepts, and the commandments, and the
teachings of our book come with authority, the
authority of a King — not an earthly king, but
the King of the Universe. But infidelity brings
us its puny propositions, and says, " Will you
accept of these?" It brings its precepts and
says, "Will you accept of these?" Where is
its authority ? Can it say, " We command you ;
these precepts are a law ; they are enacted by
power and authority, by a government, and they
command the acceptance and the obedience of
men"?— /^/^.
4 Infidelity must furnish sufficiently power-
ful motives for duty.
[802] When infidelity has overcome this
difficulty, let it bear in mind that it has to
supply men with motives to action. The Bible
says, " Do justly, love mercy, and walk humbly
with your God." I can imagine infidelity
borrowing good things, as it has done, from the
Bible ; and I ask it to find anything in morals
which is not to be obtained by implication, or
directly from the Bible. " Do justly, and love
mercy " — infidelity can say that ; but what
motives can it give for it ? It may say " Do
justly, and love mercy," because it is right,
because it is kind ; but that is not enough ; we
want some powerful consideration, external to
ourselves. Man requires moving in the path
of right and good, by the conviction that the
eye of God is upon him, that God approves of
his service, that He will recognize his service.
Man needs such motives, and if he has the love
of God in his heart— if grace from on high has
been poured into his soul, the power within him
will carry him on, and he will not count his life
dear unto him, so that he may finish his course
with joy. On the other hand, if a man says,
" There is something which I can steal," infi-
I40
802-
THE EVIDENCES OF THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION.
[history of unbelief.
delity says, " Don't steal ; " but the man may
say, " There are no eyes upon me ; the owner
is rich ; I shall never be called to account either
in time or eternity ; there is no judgment to
come ; we shall be all alike in the end ; and, in
the meantime, I shall be better off for stealing
this." I say, then, that the infidel in this case
has more motives to do evil than to do good ;
and I do not see how, if you blot out a God, a
judgment to come, a state of rewards and
punishments from the consideration of man — if
you blot out from his soul the feeling of grati-
tude, the spirit of sincere and conscientious
obedience and submission, that you leave the
world right motives sufficient for practical pur-
poses. Infidelity cannot find sufficient motives ;
it never did, and I believe it never will. There-
fore these three difficulties come together — to
find a creed, a rule of life, and sufficient
moti\ es for action. — Ibid.
65
HISTORY OF UNBELIEF.
I. In Early Centuries.
1 Mode of manifestation.
[803] (i) Absolute unbelief.
(2) Bigoted attachment to national (pagan)
creed.
(3) A philosophical theory of religion.
(4) Mystical theory. — Farrar, Critical History
of Free Thought.
2 Nature and effect of early opposition, as
seen in the case of Celsus.
[804] The early opposition to Christianity is
best represented by its culmination in the ap-
pearance of the philosopher Celsus, and his
deliberate and formal attempt to overthrow the
authority of the Christian records. He is the
original representative of a class of intellects
which, in the various attacks on Christianity, has
over and over again presented itself to notice ;
wit and acuteness without earnestness of purpose
or depth of research ; a worldly understanding
that looks at things merely on the surface, and
delights in hunting up difficulties and contradic-
tions. His objections against Christianity serve
one important end : they present, in the clearest
light, the true opposition between the Christian
position and that of the ancient world ; and, in
general, the relation which revealed religion will
ever be found to hold to the ground assumed by
natural reason. Thus it is that many of his ob-
jections and strictures become nothing less than
testimonies to the truth. — Neander.
3 Sources of information.
[805] (i) Notices occurring in heathen litera-
ture, which are slight.
(2) Works written expressly against Christi-
anity.
(3) Special replies to attacks made.
(4) General treatises on Christian Evidences
by early Fathers. — Farrar, Critical History of
Free Thoicglit.
II. In the Middle Ages.
[806] The general character of the Middle
Ages is rather that of the growth of theological
system and terminology than of evidential
literature strictly so called. There was still
opposition to Christianity in the Paganism of
the German and Slavonic tribes, but it was not
of an intellectual kind. It was met by the
practical work of missionaries, and gradually
subsided as the mass of European society be-
came pervaded with Christian ideas and insti-
tutions.— R. A. Redford, The Cliristiaii^s Plea.
III. In THE Fourteenth AND Fifteenth
Centuries.
[807J There were two influences which com-
bined in the fifteenth century to promote the
development of an inquiring spirit — the one
was the growth of mysticism in theology., re-
presented by such names as Ruysbroek, Eckart,
Tauler, Thomas k Kempis, Suso, Gerson, and
others ; the other was the extraordinary revival
of humanism, both in literature and in politics,
and study of the classical writings. — Idid.
[808] In the fourteenth and fifteenth cen-
turies there was a philosophical spirit alive in
the schools which frequently took the form of
sceptical inquiry. — Ibid.
IV. In the Seventeenth and Eigh-
teenth Centuries.
[8og] Germany, from the time of Kant, has
been the chief seat of religious unbelief. It is
true that Christianity was vigorously defended.
Such names as those of Euler, the great mathe-
matician, and of Haller, the great naturalist,
and of Schleiermacher, the great theologian,
show that while reason was appealed to by
many in the cause of doubt, it was also
summoned to the support of a devout and
earnest faith. The philosophy of Germany,
developed by such men as Fichte, Schelling,
Hegel, exalted the claims of human reason more
and more, until the only foundation required
was the laws of thought, which were substituted
for all realit}', whether it be the reality of God
or the reality of the external world. — Ibid.
[810] There are two names which demand a
notice in this sketch of the history of unbelief,
they are those of Auguste Comto, the positivist
philosopher, and Ernest Renan, the scholar and
critic. The principle of the Comtist philosophy
is antichristian only in so far as it discards the
supernatural as fact, and attempts to substitute
an ideal object of reverence in place of a
personal God. Place the Comtist theory of
religion in comparison with that of Christi-
anity, and it will be seen how purely unsub-
THE EVIDENCES OF THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION.
8ic-
141
[modern thought.
stantial and ideal it is, and how much it owes
to the philosophic fervour of the mind from
which it sprang, in connection with a vast
system of generalizations, for any measure of
acceptance which it has received from thinking
men. — Ibid.
[811] The appeal to fact and observation,
which became from that time the principle of
all inquiry, was made by Descartes, in the
seventeenth century, the foundation of a new
system of psychology and philosophy, in the
study of human consciousness. The same
revolution in the method of thought is exem-
plified in the system of Spinoza, though carried
to an extreme. The laws of thought are taken
to be the basis on which all existence rests, and
Spinoza made the attempt to form a complete
intellectual philosophy of the universe by the
reduction of its parts to ultimate principles and
absolute laws whose certainty rests entirely on
consciousness. — Ibid.
V. In the Nineteenth Century.
1 Its Protean phases.
[812^ Just as there was a great run two ages
ago toward rationalism, and an age ago to-
ward intuitionalism, so there is a corresponding
set of youths in our day who will become
Comtists, or Millites, or Spencerites, or even
Huxleyites : the demand will create the supply ;
and they will find able men to lead them on
over the dreary plain strewn with the skeletons
of those who have there wandered and perish%d.
— James McCosh. ChristiaJtity mid Positivism.
[813] Infidelity assumes all colours, as the
chameleon, and is ever starting new standards,
principles, watchwords, and text-books, while
our One Book Standard and Leader remains
unchanged— "Jesus Christ, the same yesterday,
to-day, and for ever." — B. G.
2 Its present special characteristics.
[814] While the influence of the rationalistic
writers of Germany and France is by no means
exhausted, it may be said that the main stress
of unbelief is now taking the philosophical and
scientific form rather than the critical and his-
torical.—7?. A. Redford.
3 Its probable causes.
[815] The nature of the causes of unbelief
was discussed at the recent Church Congress at
Plymouth, but scarcely in a manner commensu-
rate with the importance of the subject. The
most noticeable feature of the discussion was
the admission by some of the speakers that
misrepresentation of the Bible, on the part of
believers, was one of the causes. The tendency,
since the Reformation, of the popular religious
mind " to confound inspiration on certain sub-
jects, such as those mentioned by St. Paul,
with infallibility on all subjects, such as Scrip-
ture nowhere claims," was noted by one of the
speakers as having produced very injurious
effects. Still more striking was the statement
made by the same speaker, that the " Augustinian
theosophy," or, in other words, the view taken
by Augustine of the permanence of an eternal,
though impotent malevolence, has not only
exerted an enormous influence against religion,
but is the only cause which will probably be
permanent. The statement, to a certain extent,
is undoubtedly true, though clearly somewhat
exaggerated. — Bp. Ellicott, Modern Unbelief.
See next article.
63
MODERN THOUGHT.
I. Its Definition.
[816] Logically speaking, the term "Modem
thought " IS equivocal : it may be taken as
" distributed," or as " undistributed ;" that is, in
part or in the whole of its " extension." Taken
in its entire " extent," as a " universal " term, it
would mean the whole of modern thought, or
the opinions and views of everybody in these
modern times. This cannot truly or fairly be
its meaning, for it is used generally in reference
to the particular opinions of a restricted class,
sometimes described as "advanced thinkers.^
Therefore by "modern thought " must be meant
only the opinion of some moderns, not of all
moderns. The proper translation of the phrase
" modern thought " is, consequently, " novel
opinions." This reminds of the saying, " What
is new is not true, and what is true is not new."
Modern thought is one of those phrases that
cover the craze of a narrow but ambitious clique
which, like " freethinkers," falsely assumes to
itself a speciality ; for everybody is as much a
freethinker as those who usurp the title ; and
every one in modern times who thinks at all
exercises " modern thought." It is necessary
to mark this fact in order to dissipate the
" glamour," not to say insolence and presump-
tion, of the self-styled "modern thought" school.
Like certain Athenians, they " spend their time
in nothing else but either to tell or to hear
some new thing" (Acts xvii. 21). True thought,
or real principle, is of no age, but is eternal.
Matters of mere detail may vary from age to
age, but the groundwork of main facts and
principles is unchangeable. The sun, moon,
and stars are the same amid all the progress of
astronomy, and this is true cf all moral and
religious principles.— Z?. G.
II. Its Unconscious Obligations to
Christianity.
[817] Even those who disown or disbelieve
Christianity are often its unconscious debtors.
Men of the modern world, they are born into
its spirit, and that is greatly what Christianity
142
8I7-S241
THE EVIDENCES OF THE CHRIST] AN RELIGION.
MODF.RN THOUGHT.
has made it. Christian ideas are in the air.
We draw them in witli our daily breath, and
cannot choose but receive them into our intel-
lectual nature. Thus it is quite possible that
men may lie under unacknowledged obligations
to Christianity, and that they may be crediting
to independent inquiry what is indirectly trace-
able to a Christian source. — Rev. Principal
Caird in Good Words.
[8 1 8] The poet speaks of the eagle stretched
upon the plain, and feeling the bitltrness of the
death-pang increased at the sight of his own
feathers on the arrow that is drinking his life-
blood. Well, that is poetry, of course. But the
idea conveyed in the verses may illustrate the
feeling of some amongst us when we see the
intellect to which Christianity has given its
acuteness, brandished against her life ; when we
find the nobler, purer, kindlier sentiments which
she has herself inspired and fostered, turned
into arguments against her character, into in-
struments for her destruction and overthrow. —
J\nK Gordon Caltlirop.
III. Objections met.
I A belief is no worse for being traditional.
[819] Disbelief will become traditional if it
last long enough. — B. G.
[S20] The modern critics who claim for them-
selves the heights of their science, and profess to
pursue their investigatrons in a truly philosophi-
cal spirit, are fond of applying the term "tradi-
tional " to the opinions from which they have
more or less widely departed. We need not
dread greatly the insinuations made by the use
of that epithet. In Biblical criticism, as in every
other branch of theology, and, it may be added,
in every branch of natural science, there is a
wise and just tradition which no judicious man
will ever tliink of despising. The critic, in
ap])roaching the scientific study of the Scrip-
tures, is bound to master the works of the great
scholars who have preceded him, and specially
to be acquainted with the methods they adopted,
and the conclusions at which they arrived. He
will, in the great majority of instances, be com-
pelled to accept these results with little or no
modification. He must always, of course, exer-
cise his independent judgment ; but in handling
difficult and intricate questions he will, for the
most part, give the benefit of the doubt to the
accepted belief, the established opinion. There
is usually much more danger in breaking off
from Protestant tradition in matters of scrip-
tural interpretation than in adhering to it.
IV. The Consequent Duty of Chris-
tians.
I Increased attention to deeper learning and
patient criticism.
[821] (.)h niay that blessed Spirit be with us
all ! The days in which we live are dark and
anxious. Deeper learning is, I fear, declining ;
patient criticism is rare ; merely emotional
belief is not uncommon ; but real and instructed
belief, that belief that can give the reason for
the hope that is in it, and can exhibit clearly
the basis of its own convictions, is less and less
showing itself among generally professing Chris-
tians. Even we the clergy, we whose duty is
to guide and direct others amid the mazes of
modern speculation, we, I fear, are often found
unequal to the duty that is now forced upon us.
Everything now seems to be pressed into the
service of external work. We may thank God
that there is this amount of work, but work is
superseding thought ; a restless activity is now
taking the place of much of that calm and
sequestered study that once so honourably
marked the order to which we belong. Much
there is that is at present disquieting. — Bp.
Ellicott, Modern Unbelief.
2 Shedding abroad all possible light.
[822] As a little warmth of the rising sun may
call up the very mists which are to be dissipated
by its more powerful shining, so this va^ue and
chilling popular unbelief is to be dispefied, not
by withholding knowledge, but by shedding
abroad all possible light. — Sinytli {American).
3 Faithful preaching of the fundamental
truths of our holy religion.
[823] Let it never be forgotten that the most
convincing proof of the truth of the gospel, and
that on which the faith of the bulk of believers
must always rest, is the experience of its exact
ac^ptation to the wants of our moral and spiri-
tual nature ; its felt power as the remedy for the
soul's sense of guilt, the stiller of its fears, the
comforter of its sorrows, the strength of its
weakness, the renewer of its better energies, the
spring of new and higher hopes and duties, and
the realizer of its blind longings for immortality.
The most effectual antidote, therefore, to the
poison of infidelity will ever be the faithful
preaching of Christ crucified ; the patient in-
culcation under all its lights and bearings —
undeterred by the fear of wearying by repeti-
tion— of the great inessage with which we are
all charged : " the word of reconciliation ;" the
old and wondrous mystery of the incarnation
of the coequal and coeternal Son of God ; the
atonement made by Him on the cross, whereby
God in Christ reconciled the world to Himself ;
the offer of this reconciliation made to and
pressed upon all ; the privileges, duties, and
powers which belong to the reconciled ; the
reality of the gift of the Holy Ghost ; the means
in the use of which it is ordinarily to be sought
and obtained ; and the renewal of the outer and
inner life which is at once its fruit, its evidence,
and the earnest of hea\en. — J^p. yackson.
Charge, 1875.
V. The Futility of its Opposition to
the Spre.\d of Christianity.
[824] Christianity from its very beginning to
this day has been maintained and disputed by
THE EVIDENCES OF THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION.
-825]
[modern thought.
some of the keenest intellects of the most culti-
vated races ; yet it stands firm. And if, as is
often said, it was never so assailed as in the
last half century, it has assuredly in that same
time attained a marvellous growth among all
classes. The mere fact of its continued exist-
ence among intelligent people is a weighty evi-
dence of its truth. — .SVr James Paget.
VI. A Review of its Phases.
[825] While no mere intellectual act consti-
tutes religion, the exercise of reason is an
essential part of religion. The denial of this is
an error prevalent among the modern theologians
of Germany, owing to their accepting Kant's
argumentation against the possibility of appre-
hending God by the speculative or pure reason,
as conclusive. If religion have no rational
foundation, it has no real foundation. Reason
does not apprehend merely what is finite.
True place of reason in religion.
Religion has often been resolved into feeling
or sentiment, but erroneously, since whatever
feeling is fixed on requires some explanation of
its existence, and this can only be found in
some act or exercise of intellect.
Epicurus, Lucretius, and Hume have traced
religion to fear. Fear explains atheism better
than it explains religion ; and in order even to
be feared, God must be believed in. Men fear a
great many things. Mere fear founds nothing,
but only causes efforts to avoid the presence
or thought of its object. Fear enters into reli-
gion, and is filial in the higher, and servile in
the lower, forms of religion.
Feuerbach resolves religion into desire— into
an ignorant and illusive personification of man's
own nature as he would wish it to be. This
view presupposes the truth of atheism, does not
explain why man should refer to supramundane
ends or objects, and is contradicted by the
historical facts, which show that reason and
conscience have at least co-operated with desire
in the origination and development of religion.
Schleiermacher resolves religion into a feeling
of absolute dependence— of pure and complete
passiveness. Statement of his theory. Shown
to rest on a pantheistic conception of the Divine
Being. His reduction of the Divine attributes
into power. No such feeling can exist, the
mind being incapable of experiencing a feeling
of nothingness — a consciousness of unconscious-
ness. Could it be supposed to exist, it would
have no religious character, because wholly
blind and irrational. The theory of Schleier-
macher makes the moral and religious con-
sciousness subversive of each other : the former
affirming, and the latter denying, our freedom
and responsibility.
Mansel supposes the religious consciousness
to be traceable to the feeling of dependence and
the conviction of moral obligation ; but the
latter feeling implies the perception of moral
law, and is not religious unless there be also
belief in a moral lawgiver.
Schenkel represents conscience as " the reli-
gious organ of the soul," but this is not consis-
tent with the fact that conscience is the faculty
which distinguishes right from wrong. Schen-
kel's view of conscience shown to make its re-
ligious testimony contradict its ethical testimony.
Strauss combines the views of Epicurus,
Feuerbach, and Schleiermacher ; but three
errors do not make a truth.
Account of the criticism to which the Straus-
sian theory of religion has been subjected by
Vera, Ulrici, and Professor H. B. Smith.
Although there can be no true religion without
love ; and although to love the true God with
the whole heart is the ideal of religion, religion
cannot be resolved exclusively into love. Since
love presupposes knowledge, and is not the
predominant feeling, if present at all, m the
lower forms of religion.
Religion includes will, implying the free and
deliberate surrender of the soul to God, the
making self an instrument where it might,
although wrongfully, have been made an end ;
but it is not merely will, since all volition,
properly so called, presupposes reason and
feeling.
Kant made religion merely a sanction for
duty, and duty the expression of a will which is
its own law, and which is unaffected by feeling.
But this view rested on erroneous conceptions
as to (i) the relation of religion to morality, (2)
the nature of the will, and (3) the place of feeling
in the mental economy.
Religion and morality inseparable in their nor-
mal conditions, but not to be identified ; religion
bein'4 communion with God, while morality is
conformity to a law which is God's will, but
which may not be acknowledged to be His will,
so that they may and do exist in abnormal forms
apart from each other.
The will has not its law in itself. Kant's
errors on this subject. Feeling is the natural or
universal antecedent of action. Kant's errors
on this subject.
Dr. Brinton (" Religious Sentiment," &c.,
1876) analyzes religion into emotion and idea —
an effective and intellectual element — the latter
of which arises necessarily from the law of con-
tradiction and excluded middle. Merits and
defect of this theory.
The religious process is at once rational,
emotional, and volitional. Its unity, and the
co-operation of knowing, feeling, and willing.
Description of (i) its essential contents, (2) its
chief forms, (3) its principal moments or stages,
and (4) its manifestations in spiritual worship
and work.— /?r. Flint, The Psychologieal Nature
0/ Religion.
[44
826-
THE EVIDEXCES OF THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION.
[philosophy of unbelief.
67
PHILOSOPHY OF UNBELIEF.
I. Its Old Fundamental Error.
I Sincerity the condition of salvation.
[826] The old plea was that if a man is only
sincere he can have nothing to dread in another
world. If sincerity may be cruel, blind, igno-
rant, sinful, clearly it cannot save a man trom
the natural consequences of cruelty, blindness,
ignorance, sin, either in this world or in the
world to come. — Rev. A. J. Ha)-rison.
[827] If "sincerity" is sufficient, there is no
need of, and no excuse for, opposing Christi-
anity; since a man may at least be as sincere
inside as outside the Christian pale and faith.
"Blind unbelief" is no better than blind belief.
—B. G.
II. Weak Points in Anti-miraculous
Science.
I The hopeless variations of its leading ex-
ponents in regard to momentous and reli-
gious questions.
[828] I do not know whether I am precisely in
the wonted tracks of a chairman's address, but,
pursuing the questions of the so-called antagon-
isms of scientific and religious thought, I have
sometimes wondered at the assertion tliat the
solid unity of opinion lies with the investigators
of nature, whilst infinite division belongs to the
theologian. I have imagined that if a catechism
of scientific belief on the subjects common to
both were compiled, it would evince strange
disunion where there is boasted unanimity. Let
me give a specimen of such a catechism, with
the answers mostly in the ipsissiina I'crba, the
very words of our leading scientific men : —
1st Question. — Who created all things?
Bucfiiicr. — Matter and force are uncreated,
and have given rise to the present order of
things.
Huxley. — " When the materialists begin to
talk about there being nothing else in the uni-
verse but matter and force, I decline to follow
them."
Spencer. — The origin of things is unknowable.
2nd Question. — What is the nature of the
Author of all things, judging from His works?
Mill. — " It is impossible to believe that a
world so full of evil is the work of an author
combining infinite power with perfect goodness
and righteousness."
Lyell. — " The philosopher, without ignoring
these difficulties, does not allow them to disturb
his conviction that whatever is is right."
Huxley. — " W^e may liken life to a game of
chess. The player who stands behind nature is
liidden from sight, but his play is always just,
fair, and patient, like a calm strong angel, play-
ing for love."
3rd Question. — What is the origin of life?
J)arzuin. — " The Creator at first breathed life
into a few forms."
Sir W. Thompson. — " Perhaps the first germs
of life reached our globe falling through the sky
on a moss-grown fragment from the ruins of
another world."
Spencer. — " The origin of life is probably un-
discoverable."
Dr. C. Baslian. — " Living things are being
generated every instant all the world over."
Huxley. — " There is no experimental proof of
spontaneous generation. The doctrine that life
now only springs from already living creatures
is triumphant."
4th Question. — Have men and the higher
animals sprung from the lower ?
Dariijin. — The conviction rises firm and strong
" that man was descended from some lowly
organized form."
Professor Phillips. — " This hypothesis every-
where fails in the first and most important step"
— want of proof.
Agassis. — " We find no indication that any
animal has swerved from its type."
The varying answers given to this question
remind one of the story told by Dr. Paterson.
Three students — an Englishman, a Frenchman,
and a, German — were ordered to write an essay
on the camel. The Frenchman took his port-
folio and set off to see the animal at the Zoo-
logical Gardens. The Englishman set off to
Africa, to study the creature in its native haunts.
The German took tobacco and lager beer, and
shut himself up in his study, to evolve a camel
out of his consciousness. The divergence
among the very chiefs of science on these points
suggests that a considerable part of this theory
is due to the splendid confiscations of what is
called the scientific imagination, rather than to
a duly matured study of the facts of nature.
Take another highly momentous question, and
its scientific replies.
5th Question. — Is man a free agent, or is he
fast bound in fate ?
Spencer. — " Unless all that is contained in
these pages (and there are 400 of them) be sheer
nonsense, there can be no such thing as freedom
of the will."
Huxley. — "In the struggle of life 'a man's
volition counts for something.'"
Dr. Carpcjite?: — " I cannot regard myself,
either intellectually or morally, as a mere puppet
pulled by suggesting strings."
We do not tind the boasted unanimity on this
high subject.
As a closing question, we may ask, as the
human soul has from the dim and silent past
always askcd^
6th Question. — Is man immortal ?
Lyell. — "To man alone is given this belief in
immortality, so consonant with his reason, im-
planted by nature in his soul, a belief that tends
to raise him morally and intellectually in the
scale of being."
Buchner. — " When*- we die, we do not lose
ourselves., but only our personal consciousness ;
828—833]
THE EVIDENCES OF THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION. 1 45
[philosophy of unbelief.
we live on in nature, in our race, in our children,
in our deeds, in our thoughts."
This, then, is the immortahty which this Goth
among thinkers would give to man. The lonely
wanderer, who lays him down to die in the awful
solitude of the bush, is called to exult that he
will live in the grass among his whitened bones,
and the flies that boom round his corpse. Let
science be silent when she can only speak to
shock the soul with such harrowing humiliation.
To surrender Christ for such a doctrine as this !
It is to prefer midnight, with the crawling, slimy
worm, to the eternal splendours and the august
societies of all that is noblest in the universe.
1 have deviated into this catechetical argument
to show that, on those momentous questions
that science now claims to settle by demonstra-
tion, her students, like the men of Babel, are
smitten with confusion of tongues.- — Rev. J.
Legge.
2 The building anti- Christian theories upon
mere conjectures.
[829] The habit of attributing established cer-
tainty to novel hypotlieses upon which scientific
men are hopelessly divided, must also be consi-
dered as unjust as it is unscientific. But notwith-
standing the numerous evidences of what can only
be regarded as superficial and shallow on the part
of those who so summarily dismiss the theology
which they decline and disdain to take into con-
sideration, and who so confidently bring forward
bold conjectures in the name of established
truth, it is gratefully acknowledged that modern
scepticism has very little of mocking manner or
scoffing tone, and that its zeal, however chas-
tened, is, in the main, both earnest and honest.
3 The ignoring the force of Christian argu-
ments.
[830] He who holds on to a faith by dint of
shutting his ears to all that can be said against
it does not take very high ground ; but he who
lets a faith go by simply opening his ears to all
that can be said against it does not, of a
certainty, take a higher ground. — E. C. Tainsh,
a Study of Teniiyson.
4 The failing rightly to use modern revela-
tions of science respecting God's goodness.
[831] During the past hundred years, and
especially during the last portion of that time,
the All-good, the All-wise, and the All-merciful
has permitted the creatures of His hand to see
far, far more clearly than in any centuries of the
past the glory and the majesty of His works ;
and yet it is impossible to deny that during that
time, and especially recently, the light that
ought to have been welcomed almost as a new
revelation of the wisdom and omnipotence of
God, has, in many and many a soul, become a
cheerless and deepening darkness.— Bp. Ellicott.
III. Methods of Meeting the Attacks
OF Anti-miraculous Science.
[832] The uncertainty and untenableness of
all, even modern, philosophy should be proved
from the constant fluctuation and change of its
principles, the undemonstrated character of its
assumptions, and its inner contradictions. As
against destructive criticism it must be shown
that its philosophical principles are false ; that
it is arbitrary and partial to cottps de force in
details ; that modern archseological science is
in favour of the Scripture record ; that neither
Christ nor the Christian Church can be ex-
plained without accepting the gospel narrative
as a historical fact. To repel the attack of anti-
miraculous science, the respective aims and
objects of Scripture must be defined, the anti-
miraculous axioms of modern science rejected ;
the hope of future solutions pointed out in the
harmony already established between Bible
cosmogony and natural science ; the uncertainty
and rashness of many so-called scientific con-
clusions exposed, and the hypothesis of the
generation of man from natural forces repulsed
by arguments drawn from our moral and spiritual
self-consciousness.
[833] Although the devil has nothing new to
say, he has endlessly new ways of saying it, and
an endlessly-changing audience to say it to ; so
that the old warfare seems new to each genera-
tion, the combatants and the battle-field being
really new. Each generation has to find its
own answers to the old renewed problem, to
find its own weapons to meet the new weapons.
A long-bow was good in its day, and a Brown
Bess was good in its day ; but it is as useless to
encounter a needle-gun with a Brown Bess
as a Brown Bess with a long-bow. — Bertram
Fami/y.
DIVISION E.
THE FORCES OPPOSED TO
CHRISTIANITY.
[i] INFIDELITY.
Pages 147 to 158.
INFIDELITY (GENERALLY)
(i) Its Latent Phases.
ALPHABETICAL TABLE OF TOPICS.
69
AGNOSTICISM.
70
ALTRUISTIC SECULARISM.
71
DOUBT.
72
SCEPTICISM.
SECULARISM.
146
DIVISION E.
THE FORCES OPPOSED TO CHRISTIANITY.
[i] INFIDELITY,
(i) /. Its Latent Phases,
68
INFIDELITY {VIEWED GENE-
RALL Y\
I, Its Definition.
[834] Strictly speaking, an infidel is one who
has apostatized. This is according to the
etymology of the word. The first Christians
used it, 1 suspect, as those in later times cer-
tainly did, to designate one who, after attaching
himself to Christ, had become unfaithful, or
had forsaken Him. A distinction is thus made
between the infidel and such as have never
believed on Christ's name. He is a far baser
person than the pagan, who, having no know-
ledge of Christ, nor at any time confessing him
as Lord, cannot be charged with unfaithfulness
to Him. But we need not use the term in this
harsh sense. Though the infidel of to-day is
one who dwells where Christ is preached, and
who therefore may have fallen away from the
Christian faith into his present state of unbelief,
yet his heart does not plead guilty to the charge
of treachery. He may have a conviction of
honesty, and the approval of conscience, in
what he has done. All this we are ready to
grant him ; nor do we, in applying to him a
term which usage has made current, mean any-
thing beyond what he is ready to acknowledge ;
namely, that he has rejected Christ as the
supreme authority in matters of religious faith.
Such, I take it, is the most legitimate applica-
tion of the word at present. I do not propose
to employ it, save in this fair and honourable
method.— 7. M. Mannijtg, Half-Trttths and
The Truth.
II. The Origin of many of its Forms.
[835] I regard many forms of infidelity as
half-truths, at least in their origin. Believing
that the human intellect naturally craves truth,
I shall not easily be persuaded that any body
of doctrines, which has been put forth by
earnest thinkers, is unmixed error ; nor shall I
fail, so far as the nature of my undertaking will
permit, to point out the merits of writers whom,
as to their main tenets, I may feel bound to
condemn. Some of those writers manifest, at
times, a calm spirit of inquiry which their
critics would do well to emulate. It is not only
lawful, but often greatly for our advantage, to
learn from those with whom we disagree.
Truth has not as yet revealed itself wholly to
any finite mind ; and the remark of Him who
was the Truth, about the beam in the eye which
sees the mote in a brother's eye, is not alto-
gether inapplicable to those who are defending
scriptural doctrine against the assaults of infi-
delity.— Ibid.
III. Its Mental Tendencies.
[8.i6] If the mental tendency be transcen-
dental, it ultimates itself in pantheism ; if it be
empirical, it ultimates itself in positivism.
Between these extremes the irreligious mind of
the race has been ever swinging — wearily swing-
ing, with a pendulous motion, while the hand
on the dial has marked the steady advance of
the kingdom of Christ. Whenever the prevail-
ing philosophy of the world has been trans-
cendental, the prevailing infidelity has been
pantheistic ; and when that philosophy has
been empirical, the infidelity has had in it more
or less of positivism. Ancient Buddhism is
associated with the philosophy of the senses,
Brahmanism with that of consciousness. Des-
cartes gave the a priori method to Europe, and
out of that method sprang Spinozism ; Bacon
and ■ Locke gave the a posteriori, which was
pushed forward into sensationalism. Kant
taught a spiritual philosophy, and Hegel was,
in some real sense, his successor ; the prevail-
ing philosophy of the present time is mate-
rialistic, and Comtism is the infidelity which
claims its proteclion. In Germany, where
thinking has had more to do with ideas than
with iacts, pantheism has had a prodigious
growth ; in France, where the study of what is
outward prevails, positivism finds its home and
stronghold. Infidelity has existed all along
through the history of our race, ever since man
first departed from God ; and it will continue
to exist, in every nation and age, till men are
restored to God in Christ. In ages and coun-
tries where thought is chiefly concerned with
the material and outward, the forms of infidelity
will have their ground in positivism ; in those
times and places where truth is sought chiefly
in consciousness, pantheism will be the inform-
ing spirit of unbelief. One or the other of these
148
836—847]
THE FORCES OPPOSED TO CHRISTIANITY.
[agnosticism or positivism.
two yokes of bondage men will wear, until
delivered into the glorious liberty of the children
of God.-/^/V/.
IV. Its Egregious Folly.
1 It rejects the sovereign remedy without
providing any substitute.
[837] What would you think if there were to
be an insurrection in a hospital, and sick man
should conspire with sick man, and on a certain
day they should rise up and reject the doctors
and nurses? There they would be — sickness
and disease within, and all the help without !
\c\. what is a hospital compared to this fever-
ridden world, which goes swinging in pain and
anguish through the centuries, where men say,
" We have got rid of the atonement, and we
are rid of the Bible .? " Yes, and you have rid
yourselves of salvation. — Ward Beecher.
2 It gloomily distorts truth.
[838] Infidelity and faith look both through
the same perspective glass, but at contrary
ends. Infidelity looks through the wrong end
of the glass, and therefore sees those objects
which are near afar off, and makes great things
little ; diminishing the greatest spiritual bless-
ings, and removing far from us threatened evils,
f^aith looks at the right end, and brings the
blessings that are afar off close to our eyes, and
multiplies God's mercies, which in distance lost
their greatness. — Bp. Hall.
[839] The preaching and tendency of infidelity
is to magnify the ills of life while providing no
salve for them ; the work of religion is to make
these ills look small in comparison of a glorious
hope. — Blackiuood^s Magazme.
V. Duty of Christl\ns to Battle
AGAINST IT.
[840] Whatever claims pre-eminence over
Christ, or denies to Him the supremacy in -mat-
ters of religious faith, or lays down propositions
known to he s'abversive of His authority, is an
infidelity. In that view of it, although associated
with much that we admire, and even approve, it
deserves no quarter at our hands. As the dis-
ciples of Christ, believing that He spoke the
absolute truth, and concerned for the well-being
of men as truly as for His honour, we are bound
to unmask the intruder, and battle .ngainst it
under its proper designation. — y. M. Manning,
HalJ-l'fi(ths and Tlie Truth.
69
AGNOSTICISM OR POSITIVISM.
I. Its Dekinitions and Real Nature.
[841] The name given by Auguste Comte to
his system of philosophy, as professedly based
upon facts, and expressly denying the possibility
of any knowledge of causes. It is a philosophy
of uniform sequences. — H. Calderivood.
[842] It is important to distinguish the agnos-
ticism of the nineteenth century from the scep-
ticism of the eighteenth. Mr. Herbert Spencer
stands on a very different platform from that of
Hume. Agnosticism is as far from the hesita-
tion of scepticism as it is from the negations of
atheism, for while it does not deny the existence
of God it admits of no wavering doubts — it is
positive and emphatic in asserting the impossi-
bility of all knowledge on the subject. Scepticism
questions the validity of the present achievements
of theology ; agnosticism denies the possibility
of establishing any theology. Either because of
a lack of all attainable evidence, or on account
of the essential nature of an Infinite Being, or
owning to the limitations of our own faculties,
an impenetrable barrier, we are told, excludes
us necessarily and for ever from all knowledge
of God. — F. W. Adeney.
[843] It is a doctrine which is closely related
both in history and character to scepticism on
the one hand, and to materialism on the other.
It owes its existence to the partly concurrent
and partly counteractive operation of these two
theories. It is a link between them ; a cross or
hybrid in which their respective qualities are
combined, although incapable of being truly
harmonized. — Fro/. Flint, Antitheistic Theories.
[844] Agnosticism, therefore, is only a form
of atheism, though it would not acknowledge,
perhaps, that it knew enough to make a positive
denial of the existence of God. Practically,
however, it amounts to the same thing. All
that do not knoiv God, or at least know of His
existence, are without God.
[845] Agnosticism puts sense in the place of
intellect ; and deifies laws instead of the Law-
giver and Ruling Power.
[846] The senses are the only source of know-
ledge ; nothing exists but matter ; mind has no
existence ; there are no causes, no God, no im-
mortality. Science is confined to facts of per-
ception. The relations between observed facts
constitute the laws of nature. These laws apply
to human action as well as to the whole physical
world. — Condensed from Dr. C. /lodge, Syste-
matic Theology.
[847] Among the forms of modern cynicism
may be classed that of agnosticism, which does
not deny that a God may exist, but affirms that,
even on that supposition, man must remain
ignorant of His existence, adding that knowledge
on that subject, or the kindred subject of man's
immortality, is needless, such themes being
amongst those respecting which a healthy mind
will feel no distress. The diseased limb feels
no distress when the period of mortification has
set in, and that of dissolution is imminent ; and
THE FORCES OPPOSED TO CHRISTIANITY'.
847-856!
149
[agnosticism or positivism.
yet mortification is not thought a healthy condi-
tion.— Aubrey de Vere, Subjective Difficulties
in Religion, in the Ni7ietcenth Century Review.
II. Its Contemplated Aim.
[848] The positivism which he taught, taken
as a whole, is at once a philosophy, a polity,
and a religion. It professes to systematize all
scientific knowledge, to organize all industrial
and social activities, and to satisfy all spiritual
aspirations and affections. It undertakes to
explain the past, to exhibit the good and evil,
strength and weakness, of the present, and to
forecast the future ; to assign to every science,
every large scientific generalization, every prin-
ciple and function of human nature, and every
great social force, its appropriate place ; to con-
struct a system of thought inclusive of all well-
established truths, and to delineate a scheme of
political and religious life in which duty and
happiness, order and progress, opinion and
emotion, will be reconciled and caused to work
together for the good alike of the individual and
of society. It sets before itself, in a word, an
aim of the very largest and grandest kind con-
ceivable ; and as Comte believed that he had
been signally successful in performing his mighty
task, we need hardly wonder that he should
have boldly claimed to have rendered to his race
the services both of a St. Paul and an Aristotle.
III. Its Relations to other Creeds.
1 To atheism.
[849] Positivism rises in comparison with
atheism, which is itself less base than panthe-
ism ; for it is better to ignore than to deny, as
it is better to deny than to degrade God. — Dr.
Jeune.
[850] It may be doubted whether ignoring is
not meaner than denying ; and if not in itself
more offensive, it is at least " without the courage
of its convictions." — B. G.
2 To theism.
[851] The position of the agnostic may be
described as a position which, in relation to
theism, is threefold : (i; dogmatic denial ;
(2) sceptical indift'erence ; (3) philosophical
negation.
[852] To speak of the " unknowable," assumes
first, its existence ; secondly, that we know this
much about it, namely, that it is " unknowable "
— which is perhaps presumption, as measuring
all possible k)iowledge by our confessed igno-
rance. What we do not know, somebody else
may know yet ; and though we cannot " find
out the Almighty unto perfection," He may be
known sufficiently for our guidance. — B. G.
[853] The strongest believer in revelation
cannot deny the term " unknowable " to an
object which he connot search out to perfection.
To pronounce it unknowable is to be an agnos-
tic ; yet no agnostic can deny that he has some
kind of knowledge of that to which he knows
the term " unknowable " to belong. The
formula of the agnostic is therefore the same
as that of the believer, only with a greater
emphasis laid upon the mysterious and inscru-
table element in our knowledge. — Church
(2uarterly Review.
IV. Its Nurseries.
[854] A church which lays intense emphasis
on what it does not believe, and whose members
know not how to express an article of faith
without a negative particle, is a nursery of
scepticism and infidelity, and nothing better.
At the same time, there is no intolerance so bitter
and scornful as that of the so-called churches
whose faith consists in not believing. — Unitarian
Review.
V. Explanation of its Lower Types.
1 The dislike to the practices involved in
belief.
[855] The true cause of that atheism, that
scepticism and cavilling at religion, which we
see and have cause to lament in too many in
these days ... is not from anything weak or
wanting in our religion, to support and enable
it to look the strongest arguments, and the
severest and most controlling reason, in the
face : but many men are atheistical because
they are first vicious, and question the truth
of Christianity because they hate the practice ;
and, therefore, that they may seem to have
some pretence and colour to sin on freely, and
to surrender up themselves wholly to their
sensuality, without any imputation on their
judgment, they fly to several stale, trite, pitiful
objections and cavils, some against religion in
general, and some against Christianity in par-
ticular, and some against the very first principles
of morality, to give them some poor credit and
countenance in the pursuit of their brutish
courses. — A'. South, D.D.
2 Recklessness and folly.
[856] That profane, atheistical, epicurean
rabble, whom the nation so rings of, and wlio
have lived so much to the defiance of God,
the dishonour of mankind, and the disgrace of
the age which they are cast upon, are not
indeed (wliat they are pleased to think and vote
themselves) the wisest men in the world ; for
in matters of choice, no man can be wise in
any course or practice in which he is not safe
too. But can these high assumers and pre-
tenders to reason prove themselves so, amidst
all those liberties and latitudes of practice that
they take .? Can they make it out against the
common sense and opinion of all mankind that
there is no such thing as a future estate of
misery for such as have lived ill here .? Every
fool may believe, and pronounce confidently ;
but wise men will, in matters of discourse, con-
clude firmly, and in matters of practice act
15°
856—861]
THE FORCES OPPOSED TO CHRISTIANITY.
[agnosticism or positivism.
surely. And if these will do so too in the case
now before us, they must prove it not only
probable (which yet they can never do), but also
certain and past all doubt, that there is no hell,
nor place of torment for the wicked : or, at least,
that they themselves, notwithstanding all their
villainous and licentious practices, are not to be
reckoned of that number and character ; but
that with a noii obstante to all their revels, their
profaneness, and scandalous debaucheries of all
sorts, they continue virtuosos still : and are
that in truth, which the world in favour and
fashion, or rather by an antiphrasis, is pleased
to call them. — Ibid.
VI. Its Self-Contradictions,
[857] Some persons will assume responsibility
when they ought to decline it, and decline it
when they ought to accept it. To say " I know "
when our knowledge and experience do not
warrant the assertion, and to say " I don't know"
when we ought to know, are both oft-allied faults,
and perhaps equally culpable. The positivist
commits both these faults to an extent, at least,
which demands his indictment at the bar of
spiritual thought.
As to \\\fi fosiiivist he says : " I know. Science
will reveal the secrets necessary to construct a
creed comprehensive and powerful enough to
regenerate society and to supplant Christianity."
But how can he "know ? " Is not all experience
against the realization of such a hope ?
Again, as to the a^/iostic he says : " I know
not. I cannot find sufficient evidence for any
religious creed ''—when he carefully refuses, in a
world full of mysteries, to investigate with a
view to conviction, or with the serious earnest-
ness becoming a being endowed with religious
instincts and moral consciousness. — C. N.
VII. Arguments against the System.
I It assumes an indefensible attitude.
[858] But it is necessary to point out that
however one may act in regard to questions of
science or philosophy, which are to many men
matters of curious speculation rather than of
jiractice, and in regard to which most men are
compelled (from want of leisure or want of in-
clination) to take up a position of agnosticism,
such an attitude is here indefensible, for we are
dealing with the most practical of all questions,
which every man's life vvill decide for himself,
since no man can avoid having some opinion as
to the origin of the institutions and customs in
tlic midst of which he lives, and which, whether
he bea Christian or not, have certainly produced
the most wonderful moral and religious revolu-
tion which the world has ever seen.— T?*'?'. W.
Auderson, Scriptio-e Miracles and Modern
Scepticism.
a clean sweep
whatever.
of all human
2 It makes
knowledge
[859] Such is the question which the agnostic
confidently asks, and triumphantly answers in
the affirmative. " You form an idea of God," he
says to us, " but of any corresponding objective
reality you confess yourselves unable to formulate
a proof! Why not resign yourselves to the in-
evitable inference, that the God of your con-
ception is nothing but the offspring of your
idealizing faculty, without substance or inde-
pendent existence ; and that if there should
chance to be any real (lOd behind the universe,
at least He lies altogether beyond the reach of
your faculties, and outside the possibilities of
human knowledge ? "
No doubt there is an air of plausibility about
the view which thus rudely smites back the
yearning of our hearts for God, and condemns
us to perpetual imprisonment within the bounds
of our physical existence. If it were just, the
controversy would be ended, and to try other
methods of finding God, after the failure of the
logical and demonstrative methods, would be
waste of time and labour. To justify, therefore,
our perseverance in the search, we must show
that this view of the necessary limits of human
knowledge is unsound, and contradicts both
experience and reason.
We affirm it to be so on this distinct ground,
that the principle which it embodies would, if
accepted, make a clean and absolute sweep of all
human knowledge whatsoever. This statement
we proceed to justify.
The principle against which we protest may
be expressed as follows : — Knowledge must be
based on logical proof; the knowable and the
demonstrable are identical ; whatever cannot be
shown by strict inductive reasoning to exist
must be dismissed from the region of science,
and consigned to the dream-land of the specu-
lative imagination. Our contention is that as
soon as this principle, which is really the
stronghold of agnosticism, is tried at the bar of
practical reason, and brought face to face with
the realities of human life, it must be convicted
of monstrous absurdity. — Brown/ozij Maitland,
Theism or Agtiosticism.
[860] Except for the testimony of our con-
sciousness we have no assurance of our own
personal identity, or of the coherence of our
reason, or of the existence of the external uni-
verse and of our fellow-men. Except for the
intuitive perceptions of our higher nature,
morality would be a mere name for custom and
repute. — Ibid.
3 It destroys personal interest in humanity.
[861] The real objection to the scheme of the
Positivists — and it is an objection to most
schemes for remodelling mankind — is that there
is no appreciable connection between what we
know and what we are asked to believe in.
That men will gradually become more interested
in people of other and distant nations is not
only probable, but is the inevitable result of our
nn)ving freely about the whole globe, and being
brought into contact with, and wishing to make
money of, or to govern, or kill, or convert,
remote persons. But what shape this interest
THE FORCES OPPOSED TO CHRISTIANITY.
-867I
[altruistic secularism.
will ultimately take, or what its extent or value
will be, is quite beyond our knowledge. The
cause of humanity is a fine phrase, but the only
contribution to the success of this cause as to
which Englishmen can hope with much con-
fidence that they do unquestionable good is that
we keep the peace in India. We have not any
solid reason to expect that the world will ever
care to worship its dead men. The great dead
are such persons as Confucius or Epamiliondas,
who awaken no real emotion whatever, or they
are persons like Luther, or Voltaire, or Napoleon,
who awaken a crowd of conflicting emotions.
Men must be very much changed before they
can agree in liking the same dead persons more
heartily than they like the same living persons.
Dead men are chiefly symbols for living hatreds.
We cannot even begin to think what a hierarchy
of the wise men of the West would be like. So
far as experience can teach us, we should expect
that this hierarchy would be either a set of
pedantic beings reproducing the same stereo-
typed ideas, or they would quarrel among them-
selves, and every scientific bishop would have a
sect of his own. — TJie Saturday Rcvieiv.
4 It culminates in theoretical or practical
pessimism.
[862] This, then, is our conclusion: That so far
as man denies God, or denies that God can be
known, he abandons hope of every kind — that
intellectual hope which is the life of scientific
thought ; hope for his own moral progress ;
hope for the progress of society ; hope for guid-
ance and comfort in his personal life ; and hope
for that future life for which the present is a
preparation. As he lets those hopes go one by
one, his life loses its light and its dignity ;
morality loses its enthusiasm and its energy,
science has no promise of success, sin gains a
relentless hold, sorrow and darkness have no
comfort, and life becomes a worthless farce or a
sad tragedy, neither of which is worth the play-
ing, because both end in nothing. Sooner or
later this agnostic without hope will become
morose and surly, or sensual and self-indulgent,
or avaricious and churlish, or cold and selfish,
or cultured and hollow — in a word, a theoretical
or a practical pessimist, as any ;nan must who
believes the world as well as himself to be with-
out any worthy end for which one man or many
men should care to live. — Rev. Noali Porter.
70
ALTR U I STIC SE C ULARISM.
I. Its Definition.
[Altruistic (from Latin alter., other) means
regardful of others, devoted to others.]
[863I It only remains to describe one other
form of antagonism to Christianity, which to a
certain extent may be said to combine all the
others, as it is rather practical than theoretic.
The altruistic secularist denies positively the
truths of religion. He may do so on philoso-
phical, or scientific, or critical grounds; or he
may do so on all and every ground which he
can find to stand upon. Being a decided dis-
believer, he must substitute for religion some
other basis of morality, without which he admits
that the social needs of man cannot be met.
He assumes the adaptation of human nature to
the facts of the universe so far as the life of man
is concerned. He takes for granted that the
apparent disproportion between the world and
man is real and inevitable. He renounces all
hope of individual victory over nature and the
continuance of individual existence beyond this
life. His morality is a translation into what are
called moral principles of the law of pleasure
and pain, in short of utility without a definition
of the good beyond that of the greatest amount of
pleasure.—/?. A. Redford, The Christian's Plea.
II. Arguments against the System.
I Apart from Christianity it is a mere popular
pretence.
[864] Altruism is itself an offspring and a pro-
duct of Christianity. Whether, indeed, altruism
could ever have been, but for the fostering care
of eighteen centuries of Christianity, and whether
it can exist in any vigour apart from Christianity,
may fairly be doubted.— y?^7/. /. G. Smith,
Banipton Lectures.
[865] If the altruism of the positivist be
deemed an improvement on the morality of the
gospel in living for others, without the limitation
of loving our neighbour only as ourselves, it
seems not unreasonable to require that this
level should first be reached. — Canoii Eaton,
Ba/iiptofi Lectures.
2 It is two sides of a ladder without any
steps.
[866] There is only one step from the sublime
to the ridiculous, and this altruism has taken.
An impossible height of sentimental suppression
of selfishness is not only to be reached, but to
be maintained. And all this without any rounds
to the ladder of sufficiently strong motives or
landing-place of attained or attainable desires.
—C. N.
3 Its motive of action though professedly
higher yet really lower than the Christian's,
[867] But, waiving • this, let us look more
closely at what "altruism" means. What is
its motive and its mainspring? I think we shall
not be doing an injustice to the positivist, if we
say that his "altruism" means doing good to
another, because this will be the good of all.
But this is by no means tantamount to saying,
" Do well to others, because it is their due."
Prudence or amiability may make it easy for
any one to confer benefits which will redound
to the good of all, the benefactor included ; but
a reciprocity of favours like this, a co-operative
partnership for mutual advantages, is something
867— 8741
THE FORCES OPPOSED TO CHRISTIANITY.
[doubt.
dififcrent from the teaching of words like these,
"He that loveth his Hfc shall lose it ; he that
loseth his life for My sake shall find \\."—Rev.
I. G. Smithy B amp ton Lectures.
4 Its motive-power insufficient to regulate
conduct.
[868] Let it be noticed, besides, that in pro-
posing love for Himself as the motive to His
disciples, Christ is proposing a yet higher motive
than love for our fellow-creatures. And this
for two reasons. First, because the object pro-
posed is more truly worthy of love. Next,
because the sincerity and the reality of love are
then most tried and proved when it is for one
unseen, and apprehended only by an effort of
thought, even as the remembrance of an absent
friend is a better proof of love than constancy
to one whom daily associations make it almost
impossible to be unmindful of So far, I think,
it will be allowed that Altruism falls short of the
motive which Christ proposes to His disciples :
" P.ear all, do all, be all for My sake," and
" that men may glorify your Father which is in
hca\cn." — Ibid.
[869] His position as a member of the human
race and of society demands the recognition of
fellow-creatures and the suppression of selfish-
ness. His enthusiasm, if he has any, is for the
race. His highest motive is the development
of mankind. Doubtless this is a position which
has it^; relieving features of sentiment and its
possibilities of good, but that it should be intel-
lectually sustained is a contradiction, for it
builds morality on a basis which is insufficient
to sustain it ; and that it should resist the force
of human corruption, and should be powerful
enough to overcome the evil of the world, is
contrary to all experience and a transparent
absurdity. — R. A. Red ford. The Christian's Flea.
71
DOUBT.
I. Its Nature.
[870] From of old Doubt was but half a
magician ; she evokes the spectres which she
cannot ciuell. Thou shalt know that this
universe is what it professes to be, an iiifuiite
one.— 7'. Carlyle.
[871] When we ask concerning doubt, " Is it
honest?" we may, to some extent, bring this
question to a test Ijy asking further, Is it pain-
ful .'' Does it desire to be removed one way or
the other by evidence? Does it labour to this
end ? If it be insincere— and therefore immoral
— it will be cherished, or will be at least in-
different as to a conclusion. For indifference
about the truth of such statements as are con-
tained in the 15iblc must mark either levity, or
conceit, or dislike to the consequences which
would follow from acceptance of Christianity.
Doubt about such assertions, as has been well
said, must be either the agony of a noble nature,
or the veriest trifling of a fool. — Girdlestoiie,
Christianity and Modern Scepticism.
II. Its Outside Causes.
1 Arising from the accidental circumstances
of the case.
(i) The faults, real or itnaginary, of others,
and believers in partictilar.
[872] The causes of religious doubt at the
present day appear to be connected with—
(i) Inconsistency of the lives of believers
with their creed.
(2) The Scriptures as often taught and handled
by believers, and in consequence by unbelievers.
(3) Natural science as often viewed both by
believers and unbelievers.
(4) Philosophy as often ignored or misused
by believers and unbelievers.— /i^?^/. A. G.
Girdlestoiie.
[873] God, in a worldly sense, is so far off,
and man so near. " In how many cases," says
an excellent writer, "does the belief in God
depend, in its energy and reality, and to some
extent rightly, on the actions of men?" Ten
thousand sermons preached by eloquent divines
will not undo half the evil of the acted sermon
of your life !
I'hink of this. Think and know — for you
know that it is true — that the minds of sufferers
may be and are thrown into despair, and into
denial of all good, into doubt of God, and into
atheism, by neglect. " Such," says the writer
we quote, thanking him for his good teaching
in the best way, by making it more public —
" such states of mind are natural because every
sign of human love is a witness to Divine love,
and every want of human love a failure in that
witness." — Gentle Life Series.
2 Arising from the real circumstances of the
case.
[874] (i) One fruitful source of perplexity to
an inquiring mind in religious matters is to be
found in the z'«/t'//tr///'r?/ difficulties which beset
some of the cardinal doctrines of our religion ;
for instance, the Trinity, the Incarnation, the
Resurrection.
(2) Still greater distress arises from the moral
difficulties which pervade the consideration of
all human history, and are mingled with every
part of the great scheme of man's redemption
as presented to us in the Bible.
(3) There is a yet deeper and more personal
anguish from which faith in Christ our Saviour
can alone free us— that which arises from the
consciousness of evil within ourselves.
(4) Yet another source of perplexity is our
inability to trace the connection of (Sod's pro-
vidential dealings as they concern ourselves or
those dearest to us. — A'«'. IV. S. Sini.h, Chris-
tian Faith.
THE FORCES OPPOSED TO CHRIi>TIANITY.
875-
[scepticism.
III. Its Personal Sources.
1 It is bred of unsubmissive tempers and of
unruly lives.
[875] There is a great deal of doubting which
has really no honest, intellectual basis at all,
although it may at times even ostentatiously
assume the intellectual form. It is bred of un-
submissive tempers and of unruly lives. Some
men do not want to be Christians. They like
physical enjoyments. They like selfish ease.
They like the way of life that comes. They
dislike the trouble and possible disturbance
connected with seeking another way.
2 It is_ through intellectual pride.
[876] Nothing could be more despicable (were
it not so serious) than some of the popular infi-
delity of the day. ... I need not say that it is
of no such doubters that I speak now. There
are real honest doubters among us, whose doubts
we must recognize as being such, and who
demand from us, at the very least, that sym-
pathy which is not inconsistent with very real
respect. There are those even to whom their
doubts are an agony, but who yet feel that
peace were too dearly bought by mental servi-
tude. They have not learned that their mental
life needs the rule of God as much as their
physical or moral life. — Rev. G. Body.
3 It is due to a morbidness of mind.
[877] Some persons hug their doubts or their
pretensions to be doubters, as if some virtue or
heroism were inherent therein ; especially do
they parade the title of " honest doubt," and
hang on a great poet for the phrase and name.
To doubt the doubters, and to suspect their
honesty, in any case, is "heresy" in the judg-
ment of self-styled " modern thought." — B. G.
4 It is occasioned by dishonesty of mind.
[878] Is not "doubt" sometimes pretended
by those who wish to cover denial by that name,
and who would at the same time gain the credit
of being in a state of impartial inquiry .'' Some
" doubters " want to seem to belong to both
sides, and to have the credit of holding the
balance fairly, when they are either unbalanced,
or hold falsified weights and scales. This is
not " honest doubt," but politic trimming. —
Ibid.
IV. Its Methods of Cure.
[879] Doubt can only be exchanged for belief
either'when the evidence for the truth of a pro-
position is complete, in which case belief itself
vanishes in knowledge ; or by the interposition
of some determinant external to the mental
process of believing. — J. H. Blunt.
V. Arguments against Doubting.
I Inconsistency of believers no substantial
ground for doubt.
[880] (a) Inconsistency in the life of a believer
can only prove him to be bad, or his faith weak.
It cannot prove that the object of his faith is
unreal or bad. {b) Similar inconsistencies in
matters of secular faith do not make you a
doubter. You do not throw away good shillings
because there are bad ones. Professors of a
belief in honesty may cheat ; you do not there-
fore doubt honesty. Believers in prudence may
be led into extravagance, believers in sobriety
into dissipation ; yet you do not doubt fore-
thought or sobriety. Is it reasonable, then, to
doubt Christ and Christianity because Christians
often live lives contrary to their principles ? —
Girdlesto)ie, Christianity and Modern Scep-
ticism,
2 Doubt, at the utmost, should be temporary.
[881] Doubt is at best the porch and vestibule
of decision. — C. J. VaiigJian.
[882] Doubt is only tolerable as a brief, a
temporary, a provisional condition. It must
end ; it must be ended ; it must be regarded
and treated as that council of war which always
breaks up before the engagement ; it must be
endured as a suffering ; it must not be vaunted
as a virtue ; it must be brought to an issue
before you are fit to live ; it must be brought to
an issue before you can dare to die. — Ibid.
[883] Faith in God and duty will survive much
doubt and difficulty and distress, and perhaps
attain to some nobler mode of itself under
their influence. But if once we have come to
acquiesce in such a standard of living as must
make us wish God and duty to be illusions, it
must surely die. — Prof. T. H. Green in Con-
temporary Review.
3 Doubt is not eulogized in the Scriptures.
[884] It is worthy of notice that the Scriptures
pass no eulogium on doubt or unbelief They
everywhere assume that the evidence for all the
great truths of religion is ample and satisfactory,
and that there is no reason why any of them
should be questioned or denied. Their language
is : Be not faithless, but believing. O thou of
little faith, wherefore didst thou doubt ? There
is no laudation of any doubtful-minded people
in all the Bible. Yet there is a species of semi-
infidelity running through much of our current
literature of magazine, sermon, and book, which
seems to delight in setting all religious truth as
in a twilight and haze of ambiguity. It is the
glorification of the doubting mind of the age —
the apotheosis of negations and denials, and
universal nothingism.
72
SCEPTICISM.
I. Its Definition.
[885] Scepticism {(SKi.iTTo\iai, to look, to seek)
is used as synonymous with doubt. But doubt
154
35-8q2l
THE FORCES OPPOSED TO CHRISTIANITY.
[scepticism.
may be removed by evidence, and give way to
conviction or belief. The characteristic of
scepticisvi is to come to no conclusion, for or
against ; tTrox*/, holding off, and consequently
tranquility, a-apfiS.in. Sccpticisiii is opposed to
dogmatism (good or bad). Absolute objective
certainty being unattainable, scepticism holds
that in the contradictions of the reason truth is
as much on one side as on the other — o/'Jfi^
\ut\\ov. — IV. Flcmiiis;.
A sceptic is properly a thinker who is
determined, witli physical, intellectual, or
spiritual eyes, to see into physical, intellectual,
or spiritual facts before forming, and especially
before teaching, any doctrine concerning those
facts. And scepticism denotes the mental atti-
tude of the inquirer toward any doctrine whose
truth he is examining, but concerning which he
has not yet decided.—^. J. Harrison.
II. Theories of supposed Sceptics.
[887] Hartmann denied that there was any
God save the Uficonscioits Absolute ! — the same
as the " world eletlier ' — the life-element of
worlds ! Another Liberal, named Venctianer,
has written a work denying the bemg of God,
but holding a system called " Panpsychism,''
that is, making all nature a kind of soul !
.Still another, whose name is well known, the
celebrated Strauss — who tried to prove the Bible
a collection of fables— denies the being of God.
What kind of a creator does he give us in the
place of the eternal Jehovah of the Bible 1 He
calls on all Christians to renounce their faith in
the everlasting God, and adore the " UjuTerston
or IVorld-Ali," a mighty machine tliat has no
more mind than a locomotive engine !
Another prophet appears among Liberals with
a new god, and he asks all men to give up their
faith in an Almighty Creator, and believe in
protoplasm ! And what is this stranger " which
neither we nor our fathers " ever adored .? Pro-
fessor Huxley attempts to account for the phe-
nomena of all natural life and spirit as springing
from,i,wwi-. He holds that tiic brain, with all
the powers of reasoning, came from the chemical
grouping of particles of matter. He holds that
we are sure of nothing but impressions, and if
there is a God, " He is nnlc/io7un and unknow-
able ! "
Still another light has arisen, and, with true
genius, explored the realms of science. '' While
living," Dr. McCosh well says, " he went through
the universe as on the wing of an angel, and, re-
turning, reported he found no \ estige of (]od, and
yet he knew that there must be a cause for every
effect, and resolving to deny there was a God,
afiirmed that all things were originated and
carried on by la7i' ! " Beyond this, the splendid
intellect of Humboldt did not go. We might
ask : Was there ever a law without a laxu-s^ivcr ?
Was there ever a law-giver without a' willf
Was there ever a will without a person f-~\'an
Dorcn.
III. Its varied Phases.
1 The scepticism of sheer indolence.
[888] There are men who, like Gallic, care
for none of these things. If they are sceptical
about the being of God, the inspiration of
Scripture, the divinity of Christ, or of any such
subjects, it is simply because they have never
thought upon them, never studied their nature,
never examined their evidence. Thousands of
men say they doubt, who have never thought.
Their doubt is but a mental yawn. — Homilist
{1^77).
[889] Gallio has been very unfairly used ;
those things, " for none" of which he "cared,"'
were the actions of the populace— the Greeks,
who beat Sosthenes, the ruler of the synagogue,
the leader of the movement against Paul — (Acts
xviii. 12-17).— B. <^-
2 The scepticism that avoids honest inquiry.
[890] They dislike rehgious subjects so far as
they know them, and they wish them to be un-
true. They dislike them because they clash
with their tastes, prejudices, pleasures, &;c., and
their desire is that they should be disproved.
The man who is running in the line of insol-
vency does not wish to believe he is a bank-
rupt ; the child who loves a certain fruit does
not wish to be told it is injurious. There is a
large amount of this kind of scepticism. —
Homilist (1877).
3 The scepticism that precedes honest doubt.
[891] There are many minds who have a
strong love for truth, who are in earnest quest of
truth ; they are so afraid they should receive
error that they hesitate to believe till there
comes more light. This scepticism is whole-
some ; it is a condition of true progress. — /bid.
[892] The Greek original of the word scep-
ticism meant " to look about you " — hence, to
consider and speculate ; hence, to hesitate and
doubt. The term sceptics was formally applied
to a sect of philosophers who lived in Greece
three hundred or four hundred years before
Christ ; their principle was to doubt everything
and deny everything, and to regard the objects
of life as not worth a care. Others looked for
the origin of scepticism in the famous saying of
Socrates, who declared " that all he knew was,
that he knew nothing." But he and they would
go further back still, and find its origin in the
doubts which the devil insinuated into the mind
of our first mother Eve. But here he remarked
that all doubters are not sceptics, and he asked
them to regard that point a little in its bearing
on the Christian religion. A ntUn may probably
doubt a thing if he has not got proper evidence
of its truth ; but with regard to religion, we were
prepared to prove that, if men continued to
doubt, they had not looked at all the evidence,
or else they waifted evidence of an unreasonable
kind. Christians were bound, as far as in them
THE FORCES OPPOSED TO CHRISTIANITY.
[scepticism.
lay, to study the evidences of the religion they
professed — to "search the Scriptures," to search
history and to search nature, first for their own
sakes, and then, as St. Paul told them, in order
that they might be able to give to others " a
reason for the hope that is in them." In every
phase and condition and event in life, we all of
us doubt ; and doubt led us to inquire, and then
to decide. No man builds his house where he
suspects there may be a quicksand, but, search-
ing, he digs deep and lays his foundations, and
then he trusts that his house will stand. No
man lends his money to people of whom he
knows nothing; but he gets evidence of their
character and mercantile soundness, and, being
satisfied on these points, he trusts they will not
miscarry with his money. This also was the
Christian duty. As a great writer said, " We
doubt in order that we may believe ; we begin,
that we may not end in, doubt." He illustrated
this by the facts of the memorable epochs in
Martin Luther's life. The Christian poet said —
" There lives more faith in honest doubt.
Believe me, than in half the creeds."
Only, let us beware that it is honest doubt, for
the land of doubt is a dangerous country ; and if
it be necessary for us to travel there, let us pass
through it with our loins girt about, our lamps
burning, and our hearts uplifted in prayer to
God. But he would say a few more words on
this point by and by. Sceptics, then, are
doubters ; but all doubters are not sceptics. —
Cation Ptrscoif.
4 The scepticism of pride.
[893] The late writings of Timbs give proof
of the strength and earnestness of his religious
convictions, and also of the type of his former
scepticism. The following piece, which is
probably known to few, may be taken as a
specimen : —
A BIRTHDAY MEMOR.\NDUM.
Lines written before breakfast, yd January, 1834, the
Anniversary of my Birthday in 1780.
The proudest heart that ever beat
Hath been subdued in me ;
The wildest will that ever rose
To scorn Thy cause and'' aid Thy foes,
Is quell'd, my God, by Thee.
Thy will, and not my will be done,
"My heart be ever Thine,
Confessing Thee, the mighty Word,
I hail Thee, Christ, my God, my Lord,
And make Thy name my sign.
Timbs ^ Autobiography.
5 The scepticism of closed eyes.
[894] Christian life is at least as undeniable as
physical life. Christendom has a literature, has
institutions. Christianity has fervent believers
whose whole existence is moulded by it : you
may detest or revere the results, but you cannot
ignore them, or regard the religion as obsolete,
by any other process than by shutting your eyes,
which is, of course, not a negative and uncon-
scious, but a most conscious and positive pro-
cess.— Schonberg Cotta Series.
6 The scepticism of worldly convenience.
[895] Scepticism is not intellectual only, it is
moral also— a chronic atrophy and disease of
the whole soul. A man lives by believing some-
thing, not by debating and arguing about many
things. A sad case for him when all he can
manage to believe is something he can button
in his pocket — something he can eat and digest !
Lower than that he will not get. We call those
ages in which he gets so low the mournfullest,
sickliest, and meanest of all ages. The world's
heart is palsied, sick ; how can any limb of it
be whole ? Genuine acting ceases in all depart-
ments of the world's works ; dexterous simili-
tude of acting begins. The world's wages are
pocketed ; the world's work is not done. Heroes
have gone out ; quacks have come in. — Thomas
Carlyle.
IV. Mode of Treatment.
I All scepticism calls for pity, some for
special tenderness, and some for a certain
kind of respect.
[896] Most ofall, perhaps, we compassionate the
speculative doubter. It is some men's infirmity,
as Bishop Buder has remarked, to be led astray,
not by their passions so much as by their specu-
lations. Therfe are men who are for ever asking
questions that they cannot answer, who see all
the difficulties and objections i<\x better than
the reasons and proofs. Such men are always
tossing and find no rest. They are to be pitied.
— Ward Beecher.
[897] The ignorant infidel deserves tender-
ness. He knows not what he opposes. It is
his fault, and it is also his misfortune. Such
was mostly the class of men whom Dr. Nelson
encountered, many of whom his persevering
kindness recovered, — y/-'/^/.
[898] The learned sceptic often deserves
special consideration. He has explored, hke
Huxley, among natural laws till he loses sight
of the law-giver ; he has dealt with sensuous
things till he has lost sight of the supersensuous ;
and has been unfortunate, perhaps, in the class
of Christian teachers whom he has encountered.
Or, like Buckle, he has plodded among the forces
and uniformities of history till the chaos orcom-
cidence of facts has hidden from him the guidmg
hand Divine. Or he has spent his life \\\ elabo-
rating the difficulties of religion and the objec-
tions'to Christianity, till his sight is confused.
We respect his learning and acuteness ; we pity
his perplexity ; and the more because the whole
surrounding atmosphere of his life has been that
of doubt and cavil— //vV.
■56
899—9"]
THE FORCES OPPOSED TO CHRISTIANITY.
[scepticism.
[899] The sentiiiioital and moral sceptic of
modern times has a kind of claim to considera-
tion for the high culture and morality which he
teaches, so different from the ribaldry and de-
bauchery of early English deism. It would be
a manlier thing in him to acknowledge whence
he borrowed his ethics. — Ibid.
[900] One occasionally recognizes a sort of
surly frankness in some kinds of scoffui^ and
r^?/////^ scepticism. It strikes with all its might,
confessing the greatness of its foe. You have
that sort of feeling toward it that you have for a
vicious mastiff. — //-'/(/.
[901] There has been at times a fanatical
scepticism which even commands a quasi re-
spect. It has fought with the Bible and the
Church because they were too slow for its refor-
matory schemes and philanthropic zeal. The
chief mark of its real character has usually been
its terrific bitterness ; a. general bitterness, well
illustrated by Mr. Garrison when, on the fourth
of July, 1842 (we think it was), he stood up in
the Methodist church at Andover, Mass., and
expressed the hope " that the lightnings of
heaven would blast Bunker Hill monument."
We heard and remembered. — Ibid.
[902] Many individual cases in each type of
scepticism demands stern reproof, yet more flies
are caught by sugar than by vinegar. Ignorance
and human frailty is the one feature in human
sin which prevents it being diabolical and be-
yond the pale of forgiveness. The tender,
affectionate pastor in the long run wins his way
to wa\-ward hearts. — C. N.
2 Scepticism as a moral force must be fairly
met by competent Christian scholarship
and culture.
[903] In its scientific and metaphysical aspects
and tendencies, or as a form of scientific investi-
gation and metaphysical philosophy, it must be
treated by Christian scholars and thinkers of
consummate ability, who are perfectly familiar
with the progress of scientific investigation, and
with the developments of modern philosophy,
and with the canons and methods of historical
criticism. The old apologies will not suffice.
C)ne might as well take old armour and weapons
from the Tower of London, wherewith to equip
an army for modern warfare, as to go merely to
the Fathers, or merely to the Christian cham-
pions of the last century, for arguments where-
with to meet modern unbelief. Hence the
necessity of carefully selecting, and as thoroughly
preparing men, by the broadest kind of culture,
for the service of the Church.
V. Its Cure.
I May be removed by investigation.
[904] John Hone was an almost unvarying
sceptic, but an incident which made him believe
in the separate being of the soul gave rise to
inquiries which terminated in his becoming a
convert to the truth of the Christian religion.
2 May be conquered by Christian example.
[905] In the preface to the English edition
of his Commentary on the Psalms, Professor
Tholuck says : —
"My conversion to the faith of the gospel
was brought about by the instrumentality of a
noble Christian layman, who belonged to the
small number of those v.'ho had, in a period of
universal infidelity, kept alive the faith in the
Word of (iod's truth. His luminous example of
a Christian walk, more than what he told me,
led me to think, and assured me at least of this,
that Jesus is the Son of God. Then 1 believed
in Chrisi:, and was able to kneel before Him and
pray to Him."
VI. Arguments against Scepticism.
1 The unsatisfactoriness of its creed.
[906] But even in its proper sense, to glory in
scepticism, as such, is certainly no sign of sober
thought, seeing that the highest function of doubt
is to make way for a wise faith. — A.J. Harrison.
[907] Sincere infidelity (in rehgious matters)
is a sad thing, with little of the propagandist
spirit. Even believing Christian doctrines to
be delusions, its humane feeling would be not
willingly to shatter hopes it could never replace.
—A.K. H. Boyd.
2 It is not a working or a work-a-day system,
[908] We should think a capitalist unwise
! who declined all investments for his money
because none oftered absolute security. A like
argument will apply to the man who, with reli-
gious instincts and spiritual endowments, de-
clines all creeds and faiths on the ground that
truths above reason do not allow of such de-
monstration as to his mind would amount to
certainty. — C. N.
[909J '' I cannot believe in that which I can-
not comprehend." A vast amount of scepticism
is based upon this same idea, yet it is one of
the most delusive that can be entertained, and
one upon which we do not act in ordinary life
nor in science and philosophy. We all believe
daily in what we cannot comprehend, and to
look for an exception in th6 domain of religion
is a fatal error. — Christian Evidence Journal.
3 It is inconsistent with itself.
[910] There seems some inconsistency in com-
mencing religious inquiry by being sceptical as
to absolute truth, and yet demanding as a con-
dition of belief absolute evidence. — C. A.
4 The ephemeral character of its literature,
and the barrenness generally of its system.
[911] That powerful and eloquent lecturer,
the Rev. Joseph Cook, ^ in his lecture on the
Services of the Tabernacle, dealt Boston seep-
THE FORCES OPPOSED TO CHRISTIANITY.
911-917!
[SF.CULARISM.
ticism some of the heaviest blows it has ever
received. In teUing of his meeting in the street
with a flood of people pouring out from the
Moody meeting, he said : " I noticed their faces ;
for the best test of what has been done by a re-
ligious address, in any assembly, is to study the
countenances of the audience as it disperses. If
you see a softened, an ennobled, a ' solar look,'
to use one of the phrases of Bronson Alcott
(turning to Mr. Alcott, who sat on the speaker's
right), one may be sure that religious truth has
done good. I saw the solar look yesterday in
the street in hundreds and thousands of faces ;
1 saw it sometimes in the gaze of shop-girls,
perhaps." From this he proceeded to describe
as it deserves the " low-bred, loaferish liberalism"
which exists in Boston, and "sneers because
the poor have the gospel preached to them,"
and then, rising with his theme to deal with the
intellectual unbelief of that cultivated city, he
made the following statement, as gratifying as
it is surprising : " What is our impecunious
scepticism doing here? Has it ever printed a
book that has gone into a second edition }
Theodore Parker's works never went into a
second edition. I do not know of a single in-
fidel book, over a hundred years old, that has
not been put on the upper neglected shelf by
scholars. Boston must compare her achieve-
ments with those by cities outside of America,
and take her chances under the buffetings of
time. Where is there in Boston anything in
the shape of scepticism that will bear the micro-
scope .'' For one, I solemnly aver that I do not
know where, and I have nothing else to do but
to search. Theodore Parker is the best sceptic
you ever had ; but to me he is honeycombed
through and through with disloyalty to the
very nature of things — his supreme authority.
It was asserted rot long ago, in an obscure
sceptical newspaper here, that Parker's works
ought to be forced into a second edition by his
friends. It was admitted there was no demand
for a second edition, but it was thought that if
now there was an effort made strategically one
might be put upon the market. You have no
better books than these, and there has been no
market demand in Boston for these, and the
attentive portion of the world knows the facts.
Why am I proclaiming this .? Because, outside
of Boston, it is often carelessly supposed that the
facts are the reverse, and that this city is repre-
sented only by a few people, who, deficient in
religious activity, and forgetting tlie law of the
survival of the fittest, are distinguished far more
by audacity than by scholarship, and are mem-
bers of a long line in history, of which Gallio
stood at the head."
5 Men in testing-times unconsciously wit-
ness against scepticism and in favour of
Christianity.
[912] Not long ago a ship was wrecked upon
the reefs of an island in the Pacific. The sailors,
escaping to land, feared lest they might fall
into the hands of savages. One climbed a bluff
to reconnoitre. Turning to his companions, he
shouted, " Come on, here's a church !" A simple
story, but one involving a profound question :
Why was it safer for shipwrecked men to go
where a church upreared its cross than where
there was none ? That question probes the
scepticism of our time to the heart.
73
SECULARISM.
I. Meaning of the Term.
[913] Secularism, in its proper meaning, as
indicating the just principles, laws, and objects
of the present life, is an appropriate and even
noble word ; but as used by those who claim it
as their distinctive title, as a convenient intima-
tion of unbelief in God and in a future life, it is
one of the vaguest terms in our language. — A.
J. Harrison.
II. Its Development.
[914] Positivism in another shape, called secu-
larism, is actively propagated among the lower
orders. Replacing the sensuous philosophy and
political antipathies of Owen, it is taught, un-
connected with the political agitation which
marked his views, as a philosophy of life and a
substitute for religion. — A. S. Fai-rar, Critical
History of Free 1 hottght.
III. Its Principles.
[01 5I It asserts three great principles :
First, that nature is the only subject of know-
ledge ; the existence of a personal God being
regarded as uncertain.
Secondly, hat science is the only Providence.
Thirdly, that the great business of man is,
as the name secularism implies, to attend to the
aftairs of the present world, which is certain,
rather than of a future, which is uncertain. —
Ibid.
IV. Its Axioms.
[916] First, this life being the first in certainty,
ought to have the first place in importance.
Secondly, the nature which we know must be
the God which we seek.
Thirdly, science is the providence of men,
and that absolute spiritual dependence may
involve material destruction.
Fourthly, there exists independently of scrip-
tural authorities guarantees of morals in human
nature, intelligence, and utility.
V. The Principles of this System.
I Infidel secularism is partial.
[917] The secularist appeals to science, and
science condemns him. Any method which
cannot meet all the exigencies of a case
cannot be considered scientific. Though secu-
larism may serve fairly well in prosperity, yet
it IS powerless to sustain in adversity or to
comfort at the open grave. — C. N.
158
918—922]
THE FORCES OPPOSED TO CHRISTIANITY.
[secularism.
2 Infidel secularism proves no gain to man-
kind.
[918] By taking a storey off the house you
do not increase the size of the basement or
render the house a more commodious dwelling-
place. So by pulling down the spiritual you do
not improve the secular, as this lower life has
its chief value as the foundation for the higher.
—Ibid.
3 The present can only be wisely regulated
by considering the future.
[919] The best and only way for a child to
enjoy its childhood is to train it for the future
life of manhood, even though there be no man-
hood for it. The believer replies to the secularist
by demonstrating in innumerable cases over
nineteen centuries, that the present life is best
enjoyed and prized, by preparing for the future,
even if there be no hereafter. But as there is a
future, the Christian is a gainer every way, and
the secularist a loser everywhere. The secularist
lives only for this life, and does not, alas ! get
the most that is to be got out of it. — Ibid.
4 No one can authoritatively say what is for
the greatest good.
[920] "We ought so to act as to secure the
greatest happiness of the greatest number of
men." But this is to put calculation for duty.
What is happiness.'' What will procure it?
Does it matter, one way or the other, to the
general happiness, if one or two shall indulge
their private vices ? Can men not so regulate
their vices that they may even benefit the
general body 1 There are good answers to all
these questions ; but they cannot be drawn
from this philosophy. And they are questions
which are put, and in the hour of temptation,
just when an imperative rule and order are most
needed. We need not long-drawn calculations
to give us strength ; we need Tlwii s/ia/t, and
7'hou shalt 7iot, from some higher sphere.
Natural science cannot speak them. "The
Divine is heard," to quote the words of Pro-
fessor M idler, " in the / ought., which nature
does not know and cannot teach. Everything
in nature is, or is not, is necessary or contingent,
true or false. There is no room in nature for
the / ought., as little as there is in logic and
geometry. No natural inference can be higher
than nature herself."
VI. Secularism cannot consistently
Ignore the Science of Theology.
I On account of the close relationships be-
tween all sciences.
[921] One science is, it is true, distinct from
another, and yet to cultivate one is not to deny
another. So theology, as a mere department of
thought, is distinct from the physical and material
sciences, and he who studies the latter may not
direct his attention to the former. But although
the sciences are so far distinct that to cultivate
one is not to deny another, they are also so
related that he who cultivates one cannot afford
to ignore others. The student of astronomy
will not succeed if he ignores mathematics. If
you entertain false views of mechanical and
chemical laws you will never correctly explain
geographical phenomena. And in like manner,
if there be a theology which directly or indirectly
denies any law of nature, the science which es-
tablishes that there is such a law, must do more
than merely ignore the theology which disowns
it — it must oppose that theology. It cannot
otherwise maintain its own truth and self-con-
sistency.— Prof. Flint., Atiti-Theistic Theories.
2 On account of secularism being not mere
knowledge, but the theory of an art pro-
fessedly based on knowledge.
[922] Secularism cannot reasonably ignore
any kind of knowledge which may concern it as
an art. Architecture is an art — the art of build-
ing houses — and as such it cannot afford to
ignore any kind of knowledge that bears on the
building of houses. An architecture which took
no account of the law of gravitation and other
principles of mechanics, of the properties of
stone, lime, and wood, of wind and water, light
and air, would be only the art of trying to build
houses that would not stand, or \\ hich could not
be inhabited if they did. Apply this to the case
before us. Secularism professes to teach us a
more difficult and complex art than that of
building houses — the art of ordering our lives
aright in this world — the art of properly dis-
charging our duties in this present life ; and at
the same tiu.e secularism, as represented by
Mr. Holyoake, tells us that we may ignore the
questions, Is there a God.'' is there a future
world .'' I ask if such secularism be not pre-
cisely like an architecture which would advise
us to take no account, in building our houses, of
light and air, and therefore not to trouble our-
selves about windows and ventilators? Give
me reason to believe that there is no God and
no future existence, and then I shall have reason
to ignore them ; but to ask me to ignore them
before you have done so, is neither more nor
less than to ask me to act like a fool. If I can-
not find out that there is a God or a future life,
I must be convinced by reason that I cannot.
If I can find out anything about them, I ought
to do my best to find out as much about them
as I can. And whatever I find out, or think I
find out about them, I am bound as a reasonable
and moral being to take account of in my con-
duct in this life. — Ibid.
DIVISION E
{Continiicii).
THE FORCES OPPOSED TO
CHRISTIANITY.
[i] INFIDELITY.
(i) //. Its Actual Phases.
a. Denial of the Existence of God.
Pages i6o to 169.
T^ABLE OF TOPICS.
74
ATHEISM.
75
MATERIALISM.
76
MATERIALISTIC ATHEISM.
77
THILOSCPHICAL MATERIALISM.
78
NIHILISM.
79
PESSIMISM.
159
iGo
DIVISION E
{Conthiut'd).
THE FORCES OPPOSED TO CHRISTIANITY.
[i] INFIDELITY {Continued).
(i) a. Its Actual Phases.
a. Denial of the Existence of God.
74
ATHEISM.
I. Its Definition and Phases.
I Atheism as held by certain heathen philo-
sophers.
[923] To take a survey of the chief sects of
atlieists amongst the ancient Grecian philo-
sophers.
(1) They all agreed in asserting that there
was nothing but matter in the universe ; but
differ as to the question whether it was animate
or inanimate.
(2) Those who held matter to be animated
were in general called vkoZ,oiKQi ; who (as they
darkly expressed it) maintained that matter had
some natural perception, but no animal sensa-
tion or reflection, in itself considered ; but that
this imperfect life occasioned that organization
from whence sensation and reflection afterwards
arose.
(3) Of these, some held only one life, which
they called a plastic nature ; and these were
called the stoical atheists, because the Stoics
held such a nature, though they supposed it the
instrument of the Deity ; others thought that
every particle of matter was endued with life,
and these were called the St7-atoniii^ from Strato
Lampsacenus ; and Hobbes seems to have been
of this opinion.
(4) Those atheists who held matter to be
inanimate were called aroynKoi. Of these, some
attempted to solve the phenomena of nature by
having recourse to the unmeaning language of
qualities and forms, as the Anaximandrians, who
thought they were produced by infinite active
force upon immense matter acting without de-
sign ; others, by the figure and motion which
they supposed to be essential to those atoms ;
these were the Dctnocritici, whose philosophy
differed but very little from the Epicureans, who
evidently borrowed many of their notions from
Democritus.— /'. Doddridt^e, D.D., 1702-1751.
[924] Epicurus was of this opinion. He con-
fessed that there was a Lord ; but as for His
interposing or concerning Himself in our affairs
here below, this he utterly denied, and that for
a reason as absurd as his assertion was impious ;
namely, that it would disturb His ease, and con-
sequently interrupt His felicity, to superintend
our many trials and perplexities. — R. South,
D.D., 1633-1716.
2 Atheism as held in later centuries.
[925] I would fain see some of those cogent,
convincing arguments by which any one will
own himself persuaded that there is no God ; or
that He does not govern the affairs of the world
so as to take a particular cognizance of men's
actions in designing to them a future retribution,
according to the nature and quality of the sin.
It being all one to the world whether there be
no God, or none who governs it. But how piti-
ful and ridiculous are the grounds upon which
some men pretend to account for the very lowest
and commonest phenomena of nature, without
recurring to a God and Providence ! Such as,
Either the fortuitous concourse of infinite little
bodies of themselves, and by their own impulse
(since no other nature or spirit is allowed by
these men to put them into motion) falling into
this curious and admirable system of the uni-
verse. According to which notion the blindest
chance must be acknowledged to surpass and
outdo the contrivances of the exactest art ; a
thing which the common sense and notion of
mankind must, at the very first hearing, rise up
against and explode. But if this romance will
not satisfy, then in comes the eternity of the
world, the chief and most avowed opinion setup
by the atheists to confront and answer all the
objections from religion ; and yet, after all these
high pretences, so great and inextricable are the
plunges and absurdities which these principles
cast men into, that the belief of a being distinct
from the world and before it is not only toward
a good life more conducible, but even for the
resolution of these problems more philosophical.
And I do accordingly here leave that old, trite,
common argument (though nevertheless vener-
able for being so), drawn from a constant series
of chains or causes, leading us up to a Supreme
Mover (not moved Himself by anything but Him-
self), a being simple, immaterial, and incorporeal.
I leave this, I say, to our high and mighty
THE FORCES OPPOSED TO CHRISTIANITY.
[6i
925—935]
[atheism.
atheists to baffle and confute it, and substitute
something more rational in the room of it if
they can ; and in order thereunto to take an
eternity to do it in. — Ibid.
[926] An absolute removal of the Divine Being
and existence ; tliat there is no such spiritual,
infinite, omniscient, omnipotent nature as we
call God, but that the world is of itself, and that
there is nothing else distinct from it. This is
the highest degree of asserting that there is no
God. It may be understood of a removal of
God's providence by which He governs and
takes account of all the particular affliirs of the
world, and more especially of the lives and ac-
tions of men, so as to leward or punish them
according as they are good or evil. — Ibid.
[927] Atheism denieth God either (i) in
opinion, saying there is no God ; or (2) in affec-
tion, wishing there were no God ; or (3) in
conversation, living as if there were no God.—
T. Brooks, 1 608- 1 680.
3 Atheism as held in the present day.
[928] Atheism, historically considered, may be
distinguished —
(i) As a prevailing sentiment, which is the
result of moral, political, and other causes.
(2) As a philosophical theory, which is the
conclusion of a reasoned statement from certain
premises.- — Rev. J. H. Blttnt.
[929] Although atheism pervaded society, it
did not appear in books until the year 1750, when
the great French " Encyclopedic" was published.
There is scarcely an atheistic book or tract to be
found (see Buckle's ''Civilization," i. cap. 14). —
Ibid.
[930] Atheism is the denial, by words, in
theory or in practice, of the existence of a
spiritual cause of the universe, whether that
cause be conceived as one or many ; and as a
consequence of this the supposition that visible
nature is the ultimate fact with which the human
mind has to deal. — Ibid.
II. Its Causes.
I Intellectual.
(i) Self-sufficiency, presumption, and conceit.
[931] The atheist brings forward some Bible
difficulty, the explanation whereof is deep and
high. Perhaps he reads some defence, and he
decides on the spot that it does not satisfy his
reason, and he forthwith declaims against the
Bible statement. Now see the awful assumption
he makes. He assumes that his reason is a suf-
ficient type of the universal reason to make its
decision a safe criterion of the decision of that
universal reason. He assumes, that is, that he
stands on the level of the highest thought — that
reason has no methods, syllogisms, or arguments
of which he is an incompetent judge — that the
highest elevation.3, mental and moral, of men
VOL. I.
like Plato, or of Moses, Isaiah, St. Paul, St.
John, and even of One more than man, are
quite within his reach ; he talks as if he stood
head and shoulders above any of these ; and he
appears to think that he can fathom every depth
in the ocean of human thought. Of course, if he
had enough of real culture he would see the folly
of such an assumption, and would recoil from
the atheistic position. . . . A little consideration
and candour might show an atheist that he
really is not great enough even to understand
men, and still less can he hope to understand
" the deep things of God." — Record.
[932] Great ignorance of nature and natural
causes. It is a saying of the Lord Bacon, that
a taste and smattering of philosophy inclines
men to atheism, but a deep and thorough know-
ledge of it directly leads men to religion. And
if the assertor of the world's eternity, or of its
emerging out of the coalition of atoms, would
consider how impossible it is for a body to
put itself into motion without the impulse of
some superior immaterial agent, and what an
inactive, sluggish thing that is that the philo-
sophers call matter, and how utterly unable to
fashion itself into the several forms it bears, he
would quickly fly to a spiritual, intelligent mover,
such a one as we affirm to be God. — R. South,
D.D, 1633-1716.
(2) Igftorance.
[933] A little philosophy inclineth man's mind
to atheism ; but depth in philosophy bringeth
men's minds about to religion : for while the
mind of man looketh upon second causes scat-
tered it may sometimes rest in them and go no
further ; but when it beholdeth the chain of them,
confederate and linked together, it must needs
fly to Providence and Dexiy.— Bacon's Essays.
[934] It requires a loftier height of intelligence
to believe in miracles than to reject them, be-
cause it involves the realization of loftier than
mere material verities, and the recognition of
wider than purely physical laws. — F. IV. Farrar,
Witness of History,
I Moral.
( 1 ) The wish father to the thought.
[935] In this matter men's conviction begins
not at their understandings, but often at their
wills, or rather at their brutish appetites ; which,
being immersed in the pleasures and sensualities
of the world, would by no means, if they could
help it, have such a thing as a deity, or a future
estate of souls to trouble them here, or to account
with them hereafter. No ; such men, we may
be sure, dare not look such truths as these in
the face, and therefore they throw them off,
and had i-ather be befooled into a h'iendly,
favourable, and propitious lie ; a lie wiiich shall
chuck them under the chin and kiss them, and
at the same time strike them under the fifth rib.
To believe that there is no God to judge the
world is hugely suitable to that man's interest
who assuredly knows that upon such a judgment
l62
935- -942]
THE FORCES OPPOSED TO CHRISTIANITY.
[atheism.
he shall be condemned ; and to assert that there
is no hell must needs be a very benign opinion
to a person engaged in such actions as he knows
must certainly bring him thither. Many are
atheists not because they ha\e better wits than
other men, but because they have corrupter
wills ; not because they reason Ijellcr, but be-
cause they live worse. — R. South, D.D., 1633-
J716.
(2) Prcfcreitce of sensual pleasure.
[936] Atheists (are) such as have voluntarily,
violently extinguished to themselves the sunlight
of the Scriptures, moonlight of the creature, nay
the sparks and cinders of nature, that the more
securely, as unseen and unchidden of their own
hearts, tlicy might prodigally act the works of
darkness : not, Athenian-like, dedicating an
altar to an unknown God, but annihilating to
themselves, and vilipending to others, altar,
religion, God, and suffocating the breath of all
motions, arguments, manifest convictions that
heaven and earth produced ; for the reasons of
hell only shall one day evince it that there is a
God. — T. ^Idams,
III. Arguaient against this Theory.
I The burden of proof rests virith atheists,
who are unable to prove their infinite
negative.
[937] On which side may the burden of proof
fairly be considered to lie.'' Naturally, one
would at first reply, on the side of the theist.
He asserts the fact of God's existence, and
therefore is bound to furnish proof of his asser-
tion ; tlie practical atheist asserts nothing but
his own ignorance, and waits to be convinced
if possible. No doubt this would be a just and
complete assignment of the burden of proof, if
atheism had been in general possession of the
field of thought, and theism were some novel
theory started by individual minds to displace
the old and universal opinion. But the real
position of the antagonistic views toward each
other is exactly the reverse. Theism has been
in general possession of the world ; it is atheism
which is the exceptional opinion, propounded
here and there by individual minds to bring
about a revolution in the estaljlished belief of
mankind. This undoubtedly in some measure
shifts the burden of proof. A belief which
antedates historical records, by rooting itself in
the noljlest part of human nature, and allying
itself in man's best endeavours to advance
in civilization and moral culture, gives it a
})restige which must be allowed considerable
weight in the controversy respeciing its truth. —
Bro wnloio Mail laud.
[938] An atheist there may be, but an anti-
theist there cannot possibly be. That is to
say, a man may declare that he does not find
any evidence that satisfies him of the existence
of a (lod, but no man may dare to say abso-
lutely there is not a 'God. — Dr. tumiuiui^:
2 Atheistic assumptions are absurd.
[939] The attempt of atheists shows their
enmity, for they are content to admit the
grossest absurdities into their minds rather
than permit that notion to remain unmolested
there ; rather imagine such a curious frame of
things as this world is, to have come by
chance, than that it had a wise, just, holy, as
well as powerful Maker. They would count it
an absurdity, even unto madness, to think the
exquisite picture of a man or a tree to have
happened by chance ; and can allow them-
selves to be so absurd as to think a man himse.f
or a tree to be casual productions. — J. HciL'e.
3 It is the philosophy of the charnel-house.
[940] " I could with less pain," says Richter,
" deny immortality than deity. There 1 should
lose but a world covered with mists; here I
should lose the present world — namely, the Sun
thereof. The whole spiritual universe is dashed
asunder by the hand of atheism into numberless
quicksilver points of me's, which glitter, fly,
run together or asunder, without unity or con-
tinuance. No one in creation is so alone as
the denier of God. He mourns, with an
orphaned heart which has lost its great Father,
by the corpse of nature, which no world-spirit
moves and holds together, and which grows in
its grave ; and he mourns by that corpse till
he himself crumbles off from it. The whole
world lies before him like the Egyptian sphinx
of stone, half buried in the sand : and the All
is the cold iron mask of a formless eternity."
4 It destroys but does not construct.
[941] Atheism and infidelity wants a stable
foundation ; it centres nowhere but in the
denial of God and religion, and yet substitutes
no principle, no tenable and constituent scheme
of things in the place of them ; its whole business
is to unravel all things, to unsettle the mind of
man, and to shake all the conunon notions and
received prmciples of mankind ; it bends its
whole force to pull down and to destroy, but
lays no foundation to build anythin,;- upon, in
the stead of that which it pulls down. — Abp.
Ti Hot son, 1 630- 1 674.
[942] I honestly think that the process of
making atheists, trained as such, into philan-
thropists, will be but rarely achieved. And I
venture to propound the question to those who
point to admirable living examples of atheistic
or Comtist philanthropy — How many of these
have passed through the earlier stage of mo-
rality as believers in God, and with all the aid
which pra)-er and faith <>nd hope could give
them .'' That they remain actively benevolent,
having advanced so far, is readily to be antici-
pated. But will their children stand where they
stand now ? We are yet obeying the great
impetus of religion, and running along the rails
laid down by our forefathers. Shall we continue
in the same course when that impetus has
stopped, and we have left the rails altogether.''
THE FORCES OPPOSED TO CHRISTIANITY.
942—951]
I fear me xio^.—Miss F. F. Cobbe, Feak in
Darien.
3 It is the death-knell to happiness present
as well as future.
[943] Atheism is a very melancholy and
mischievous thin? ; it would take away the
fountain of happiness, and the only perfect
pattern of it ; endeavours at once to extinguish
the being of God, and all the life and comfort
of mankind, so that we could neither form any
idea of happiness, or be in any possibility»of
attaining it. For it is plain, we are not sufficient
for it of ourselves ; and if there be not a God,
there is nothing that can make us so. God is
the true light of the world, and a thousand
times more necessary to the comfort and happi-
ness of mankind than the sun itself, which is but
a dark shadow of that infinitely more bright and
glorious being, the blessed and only Potentate.
So that the greatest enemies, and most
injurious of all others to mankind, are those
who would banish the belief of a God out of the
world ; because this is to lay the axe to the root
of the tree, and at one blow to cut off all hopes
of happiness from mankind. So that he is a
fool indeed that says in his heart, There is no
God ; that is, that wisheth there were none ;
because it is not possible for a man to wish
worse to himself, and more effectually to destroy
his own happiness.
[944] God is through all, and our not seeing
Him, does not banish Him. It can only banish
His joy from our hearts. — SchonbergCottaSeries.
6 Its moral outlook, as a moral educator, is
as black as need be.
[945] Viewed with the utmost candour, and
admitting all the excellence of its living disciples,
I think atheism must deduct from morality the
priceless training to reverence afforded by re-
ligion ; the illuminating consciousness of an
unseen Searcher of hearts ; the invigorating
confidence in an Almighty Helper ; the vivi-
fying influence of Divine love ; and, finally, the
immeasurable, inestimable benefit from the
practice of prayer, which is God's own edu-
cation of the soul.
But whatever may be its results as a system
of moral training, atheism in its ultimate aspect
must be to every religious man and woman who
is driven to adopt it in later life the setting of
the sun which has warmed and brightened ex-
istence. We may live in the twilight, but that
which gave to prosperity its joy, to grief its
comfort, to duty its delight, to love its sweetness,
to solitude its charm, to all life its meaning and
purpose, and to death its perfect consolation
and support, is lost for ever. There are no
words to tell what that loss must be — worst of
all to those who are least conscious of it, and
who have, therefore, lost with their faith in God
those spiritual faculties in whose faculties man
has his higher being, and whose very pains are
better worth than all the pleasures of earth. —
F. F. Cobbe,
163
[atheism.
7 It involves the degradation of man,
[946] "They that deny God," says Lord Bacon,
"destroy man's nobility ; for certainly man is of
kin to the beasts by his body ; and if he be not
of kin to God by his spirit, he is an ignoble
creature."
8 The spread of atheism would be man's
social disintegration and ruin.
[947] The worst enemy a man can have is
the man who destroys his soul eternally, robs
him of his faith in Christ, and so deprives
him of his inheritance in heaven. Again,
who is the greatest enemy of his country ?
Surely he who spreads infidelity and atheism,
I renders men wicked and cruel, ready for every
I evil deed, rid of the restraints of the law of
I Christ, places no restraint on their evil lusts and
j passions. Imagine for one moment, if you can,
I what would be the condition of England if the
j atheists had their way in the teaching of the
I people— if the masses of our people had no love
j of God, no regard for His laws, no fear of hell,
j no hope of heaven.
I [948] Belief in God is the hoop that binds
I the staves of society together ; let that be
j broken and all its elements would be dispersed
! in opposite directions. — Sir Walter Scott.
g Atheists often in extremities belie their
I creed.
[949] As it is reported of the Persians in
^schylus, that were routed by the lake
Strymon : and thereupon, being either to pass
the ice then ready to thaw, or to be cut in
pieces by the enemy, though before they held,
or at least pretended to hold, that there was no
God ; yet then, they fell upon their knees and
prayed to God that the ice might bear them :
nor is this to be wondered at, since all men by
nature seem to have a secret acknowledgment
of a certain invisible power that is able either to
help or to hurt them, which is perhaps the first
rude draught and original seed of the persuasion
of a deity. And it is this secret acknow-
ledgment that naturally makes men, in a great
strait and extremity, willing to rely upon more
assistances than they see, and to extend their
hope further than their senses. — A'. South, D.D.,
1633-1716.
[950] The atheist usually deserts his opinion
in the hour of approaching death.
\N. The Attitude of Scripture in Re-
lation TO Atheism.
j [951] The Bible never attempts. to prove that
j God is. His existence is always taken for
I granted in the sacred Scriptures. From the
first page to the last God is their great assump-
I tion ; a real atheist, that is, a person who
I does not believe in any God at all, is a phe-
nomenon which they do not take into account,
' do not, we might almost say, conceive possible.
164
951—963]
THE FORCES OPPOSED TO CHRISTIANITY.
[materialism.
Even when the Psalmist scornfully exclaims,
" The fool hath said in his heart, There is no
God," he evidently means, not the theoretical
atheist who denies God's existence altogether,
but the practical atheist, who thinks that God
does not see or care, and therefore need not be
feared by the sinner. The atheists of the Bible
are those who say, " The Lord shall not see,
neither shall the God of Jacob regard it." They
are not bold enough, or insane enough, to de-
clare that there is no God ; but they think so
unworthily about God as to flatter themselves
that their sins will escape His notice, or be
passed over without punishment. — Bioivnlow
Mail land, Steps to Faith.
75
MATERIALISM.
I. Definitions.
[952] Materialism is that system which ig-
nores the distinction between matter and mind,
and refers all the phenomena of the world,
whether physical, vital, or mental, to the func-
tions of matter. — Dr. C. Hodge, Systematic
Theolo^.
[953] The Lucretian philosophy taught that
all organic forms are the result of physical
force and chemical affinity acting upon natural
atoms. — J. S.
[954] Materialism in its modern forms, in all
that is essential to the theory, is the same that
it was a thousand years ago ; its fundamental
affirmation is that all the phenomena of the
universe are to be referred to physical forces ;
and its fundamental negation is that there is no
such objective entity as mind or spirit. — Dr. C.
Hodge, Systematic Theology.
II. Its Locus Standi.
[955] Materialism, so called, is not so much
the affirmation of matter as the negation of
mind.
[956] Materialism is on strong ground, from
which it cannot be dislodged so long as it in-
sists that the senses, so far as they reach, are
trustworthy reporters of truth ; its mistake lies
in saymg that they are the only reporters of
truth, and that nothing is to be held for tiuth
which they cannot verify ; that the whole world
of mental and spiritual facts, with which the
senses have no relation whatever, is, therefore,
an imaginary and non-existent world : that, in
short, matter, in whatever state, is alone real. —
Cation Liddon.
[957] The truths which the senses report are
reported to the intellect, and the intellect uses
the senses and creates instruments — as tele-
scopes, microscopes to aid the eyes, auroscopes
for the ear, and a thousand appliances by which
physical occurrences are rendered perceptible
to the intellect through the senses. — B. G.
[958]. Materialism is the assumption of science
travelling out of its proper boundary.
III. Arguments against this System.
1 Materialism fails to explain patent facts
which demand an explanation.
( 1 ) Organization of inatter.
[959] Give me matter, and I will explain the
formation of a world ; but give me matter only,
and I cannot explain the formation of a cater-
pillar.— Kant.
(2) Fact of consciousness.
[960] Before science can be in a position to
pronounce the belief of the Christian unreason-
able, she must be able to explain the fact of
co7isciousness itself. It is obvious that it must
be out of her power to deny the possible exist-
ence of a mysterious factor of that which is it-
self one vast mystery to her. — Church (2narterly
Review.
(3) Existence of spirit.
[961] If he cannot conceive, as indeed no one
can, how such an Infinite and Almighty Person
ever came to exist, or how He could exist with-
out a beginning— can he better conceive how
life, and thought, and spirit, and order, and law,
and beauty, and conscience, and harmony, and
holiness, and races of personal spirits arose out
of brute matter and chaos by millions of happy
and unforeseen accidents ? And here I give
him matter to start with, though whence matter
came must be to him utterly inconceivable. —
G. O. Haughton.
[962] To the common apprehension it seems
evident that thought and the qualities of matter
have nothing in common. The mind " distin-
guishes its own actings, states, and products,
and even itself, from the material substance with
which it is most intimately connected."
The mental powers in their highest states of
activity certainly are not altogether dependent
on matter. Memory, imagination, reflection,
religious emotion, the sense of obligation, the
consciousness of personal identity, and innu-
merable other mental activities, can none of
them be conceived of as qualities of matter. —
G. F. Wright.
2 Materialism is contrary to a wide range
of human experience.
[963] (i) It contradicts the facts of conscious-
ness : {a\ of our own existence; {b) of free
agency ; [c] of our ilioral nature.
(2) It contradicts the truths of reason : {a) that
every effect must have an adecjuate cause ; ^b)
an infinite succession of elfects is unthinkable.
THE FORCES OPPOSED TO CHRISTIANITY.
963—968 !
t65
[matekialism.
(3) It contradicts the facts of experience : the
resources of science are unable to raise matter
from mineral to vegetable, vegetable to animal,
animal to man.
(4) It contradicts all the evidences of theism.
See " Theism."
3 Materialism is opposed to our senses and
the consciousness of the race,
[964] Jean Paul Richter, finding the current
of thought in his time drifting toward atheism,
built a barrier for himself by writing, in his
" Fruit, Flower, and Thorn Pieces," a dream of
a universe without a God. Christ meets him
and tells him that God is dead, and then ensues
a series of images of confusion, bewilderment,
and horror, such as no other conjurer of wild
visions ever imagined.
To us there seems nothing in literature more
remarkable than this piece of Jean Paul's. It
is more weird and fascinating than the " Ancient
Mariner " of Coleridge ; it is more startling than
any passage in Dante's "Hell;" it is more
powerful as against atheism than a library of
teleological arguments.
We, too, live in anageof atlieistic tendencies.
There are those who announce to us that God
is dead. A sort of a God we have left ; a God
of too much dignity to hear the cry of any dis-
tressed spirit ; an absolute, all-pervading es-
sence, that is a dumb soul to the universe ; an
abstraction, of which we cannot think, that can-
not itself think or feel.
[965] How much such ideas are the outcome
of a defective mental constitution is shown in
the fact that the men who have, as they believe,
dissected the quivering heart of nature, and
found there no trace of the immortal God, do
not seem to see what a nightmare such a theory
is. They do not come to us with the horror-
stricken countenance of Jean Paul, to tell us
that God is dead, and that the world is orphan.
Seeing only the outside of the world, looking
coldly through their perceptives, ignoring the
intuitions, the wants, the inner oracles of the
human heart, they announce that since God can-
not be found by their retorts, their telescopes,
their miscroscopes — since He is not a pheno-
menon to be observed and definitely explained
by an experimeiitiivi criicis — He cannot be, or,
what is the same thing, we can never know that
He is. It is the arrogance of physical science
that it assumes to be the All. We have had
usurpations of theology and usurpations of
metaphysics. Now we have the usurpation of
science, which begins by declaring that we
know nothing but what we see. But the man
who thinks to include everything in the category
of sense must first abolish not only theology,
but poetry. All that realm of knowledge which
Shakespeare's noble intuitions lay open to us
must be swept away. The things revealed by
poetry can be neither touched nor seen ; they
have no alkaline reaction ; they are beyond the
telescope, and out of the focus of the micro-
scope. Each age thinks the strongest eddy of
its own time the main current of human pro-
gress. Men would have us believe that all the
struggles of the human soul are to ultimate in
bald positivism. That the last result of all our
advancement will be to abolish immortality, to
deny poetry, to put out all the inner lights of
human aspiration and intuition, to believe that
this wonderful universe, growing ever into more
wonderful forms, is the result of a blind force ;
that men are left to be ground to powder by
fate, and that for all the injustice, and wrong,
and suftering of the world there is neither re-
tribution nor compensation. There are those
who think the highest possible result of human
enlightenment is a dead God.
But God has witnesses in the world without
and the world within. Man's heart bears testi-
mony that He is a living God. You cannot
argue against a man's senses, nor against the
consciousness of the race.
4 Materialism lacks moral power.
[966] As to the mass of mankind, who are
endowed neither with any superior gifts to em-
ploy, nor vivid imagination to realize the results
of their actions hereafter, an appeal to them to
act virtuously in consideration of their "post-
humous activities," would draw forth some such
reply as this : " Our conduct can at most leave
after our deaths only very small results on a
very few people whom we shall never know. We
find it hard enough to make sacrifices for those
whom we do know and love, and whose happi-
ness or misery we actually witness. It is ask-
ing too much of us that, for remote, contingent,
and evanescent benefits to our survivors, we
should undergo any pain or labour, or renounce
any of the pleasures which in our poor short
lives (so soon to end for ever in darkness) may
fall within our grasp." — Miss F. F. Cobbe, Peak
ill Darien.
[967] As little as a crop of corn can spring
from the bare rock, can a moral harvest grow
upon the soil of materialism.
5 Materialism eclipses the highest joys of
life.
[968] You have been moved, I cannot doubt,
almost to tears by the infinite sadness of the
confessions of Mr. John Stuart Mill's "Auto-
biography." You remember how one trained
after the straitest sect of the Pharisaism of
Utility, making the greater happiness of man-
kind his chief object in life, because in so doing
he would also attain that happiness for himself,
found after a while that a horror of great dark-
ness fell on him —
" A grief without a pang, dark, void, and drear ; "
how he came to look " upon the habit of endless
analysis as a perpetual worm at the root both of
the passions and the virtues" ("Autobiography,"
pp. 134-149), and asked, in the bitterness of
despair, "What good shall my life do me.'"
i66
968-972]
THE FORCES OPPOSED TO CHRISTIANITY.
[materialistic atheism.
The last lesson which his wisdom bequeathed
to mankind was this : " Religion is essential to
your happiness, and belongs to the imagination ;
therefore cultivate your imagination, and try to
Ije religious." It may be questioned whether
that will be accepted as an evangel by the
millions who toil and suffer, or by the few who
think and struggle.— yv<'7'. Professor Fliiiuptre,
D.D., Infidelity Refuted by its own Concessions.
76
MATERIALISTIC ATHEISM.
I. Its Real Character.
I A delusive half-truth.
[969] Materialistic atheism, like secularistic
atheism, gains its position by asserting strongly
what few if any deny, and under the cover of this
assertion ignoring what nearly everybody be-
lieves. The one stands upon matter, or material
existence, which few .deny, though none can ex-
plain what matter is, viz., the substance which is
supposed to underlie phenomena, and is itself
invisible, intangible, inaudible, inodorous, and
tasteless. The othei stands upon this life and
temporal things, whose claims no one denies.
But both mean, surreptitiously, the excliisioti of
all else : the one, that there is only matter ; the
other, that this life is our only life. They are
right in what they affirm, but wrong in what they
ignore or deny. Their names are delusive and
mere decoy-ducks ; their professors are distin-
guished not by what they affirm, as matter and
this life, but by what they deny or ignore,
namely, spirit and a future life. They are both
atheistic, and wear a cloak — which is stolen
from Christianity and common humanity — for
al! are materialists and secularists in the true
meaning of those terms ; but the majority, in-
cluding all Christians, are also spiritualists,
believers in the Divine and human spirit, and
in an eternal life. — B. G.
[970] It gives us a pretended lever, but with-
out a fulcrum — a building without a foundation
— an effect without a cause. The mind of man
will not and cannot be content thus to dangle in
mid-air ; but we find our resting-place and re-
fuge in our belief in the power and providence
of an intelligent (/od and Creator of all nature.
— Professor Seds^^uick.
II. Its Present Phase.
I The adoption of an equivocal, or non-
descript, form, viz., spirit-matter— a some-
thing between matter and spirit.
[971] The present fashion in many quarters
is to rule out all metaphysical ideas, and to
substitute everywhere in scientific thinking phy-
sical formulas for the spiritual entities of the
philosophers. Great pains have been taken in
the in\ention and perfecting of a suitable phy-
sical symbol for the mind. A formula which
neither affirms nor denies its immaterial essence.
but by which it may be represented as a physical
quantity in the scientific equation of things, has
lately been elaborated. Professor Bain, accord-
ingly, writes of "one substance with two sets
of properties, two sides, the physical and the
mental — a double-faced unity.'" Mr. Lewes re-
presents these two aspects of life as like the
convex and concave sides of one identical curve
— though he fails to inform us what is curved,
or what substance possesses these contrasted
properties. This new positive philosophy of
mind escapes the charge of grossly confounding
mental and physical processes, and conveniently
faces both ways ; but Lotze justly characterizes
it as a fruitless hypothesis, for it explains nothing
— not even, we may add, itself. When we think
it logically out, it leaves us no better off than we
were before. For either these opposite proper-
ties, the mental and the physical, must be pro-
perties the one of the other — the mind a function
of the brain, or the brain of the mind — which
would be the old materialism, or idealism, over
again ; or else these properties must inhere in
some third something, which would launch us
again into metaphysics ; or else we must try
and conceive of nothing with two sides to it, a feat
which might task the power even of a Hegelian.
In fact, this scientific formula for the soul, only
substitutes one metaphysical idea for another.
Our present purpose, however, is not to show
the insufficiency of this "guarded materialism,"
but rather to avail ourselves of whatever new
light mental physiology may be able to throw
across the old problem of the nature of the soul.
Possibly from these modern studies of mind and
brain a modified immaterialism may be pro-
duced, which we may set over against the quali-
fied materialism of Mr. Bain as "the growing
opinion." — Newman Smyth, Old Faiths in New
LioJit.
III. Its True Interpretation.
I It implies the orphanage of mankind.
[972] The loss of faith in Providence is in fact
one of the most deeply felt deprivations which
are connected with the giving up of the Chris-
tian beliefs of the Church. In the enormous
machine of the universe — amid the incessant
whirl and hiss of its toothed iron wheels, amid
the deafening crash of its ponderous stamps and
hammers — in the midst of this whole terrific
commotion, man, a helpless and defenceless
creature, finds himself placed, not secure for a
moment that on an imprudent motion on his
part, a wheel may not seize and rend him, or a
hammer crush him to powder. This sense of
abandonment is at first something awful. —
Strauss. " No (iod," adds the American trans-
lator of these words in Scribner's Monthly for
February, 1874, " No God ; man without a soul
and destined very soon to perish for ever ; the
race also to be eventually destroyed, together
with everything on the earth, and the earth
itself ; no goal, no grand final cause — an aimless
universe. Such is the attractive creed of the
new religion."
THE FORCES OPPOSED TO CHRISTIANITY.
973— 977J
167
[nihilism.
77
PHIL O so PHI C A L MA TERIALISM.
I. Arguments against this Creed.
1 It seeks to permanently retain the results
of religion without its vital principle.
[973] To retain the pieties of human character
without any conscious relations with ihe livi?ig-
God, as these men wish to do, is impossible.
The very life of religion centres precisely in that
which they discard. They feel the elevation
and the beauty of the best type of spiritual
growth, but would dispense with its secret
aliment and conditions. They look with wonder
at the stately stem as it springs aloft ; they
love the shade of the foliage ; they admire the
blossom ; but they cut tlie root. — Alartincau.
2 It makes sense the measure of faith.
[974] To judge after this manner, nothing is
real which cannot be seen ; therefore there is
no such Being as God, because we do not see
Him. This would be most foolish arguing, of
which any one, who pretends to reason, may be
ashamed : for if \\e consider it, invisibility is
neccssa7-ily implied in the notion of a God, and
He could not be God without it. For is not our
notion of a God that of a Being everywhere
present, and everywhere aciive? but if He be
everywhere. He cannot be like matter or body,
which is shut out of all those places where other
bodies are ; and if He be not a body. He cannot
be visible to bodily eyes. — H. Grove, 1683- 1738.
3 It contains no force to conquer the power
of evil habit.
[975] This principle is one of the mightiest in
human nature. Through its influences men
have slov.'ly become \vhat they are. In a great
degree our existing modes of thinking, of acting,
and our whole moral environment, have grown
up under the power of habit. But habituation,
from its very nature, is powerless to grapple
with a state of moral evil and corruption. Its
operation must be slow, for any gradual change
is one which is implied in the very conception
of a habit. To enable it to strug^^le against a
state of corruption it requires a vantage-ground
from which to commence its operations. If a
bad or an imperfect man is to be made good by
habituation, the means must be provided for
coercing the vehemence of passion, while his
moral character passes through a succession of
slow stages of improvement. In a word, it is
necessary that he should possess a certain
amount of goodness before the principle of
habituation can exert any salutary influence on
his reformation. It can act on an unformed
character with ease ; but how can it be brought
to bear oa one where the evil appetites are pre-
dominant, and the power of self-restraint has
been weakened or destroyed ? Ancient philo-
sophy, therefore, rightly viewed an advanced
stage of moral corruption as one lying beyond
its power to remedy. What had it to preach to
the morally corrupt ? The beauty of disinter-
ested virtue, which such characters were unable
to discern ; or the cold considerations of pru-
dence, which were easily overborne by passion.
How was a new power to be created capable of
appreciating them 1 — Cojitemporary Review,
1869.
78
NIHILISM.
I. Its Definition.
[976] Nihilism, from the Latin nihil — nothing,
means simply " nothingism," and is the proper
province of those who know nothing, but whose
modesty is not equal to their ignorance. — B. G.
II. Arguments against its Principles.
I Nihilism is the suicide of science and
philosophy.
[977] The Nihilist theory, which Mr. Spencer
shares with the disciples of positivism, while
disclaiming M. Comte's theories on many im-
portant questions of philosophy, as presented in
these chapters, has one fatal defect. By proving
too much it proves nothing, and betrays its own
inherent falsehood. It abolishes all possible
theology by abolishing equally all possible
science. The reasons from which it infers that
nothing at all can be known of God, have pre-
cisely the same efficacy to prove that nothing
can be known of any object of thought whatever.
The Ultimate Religious Ideas, and the Ulti-
mate Scientific Ideas, are pronounced alike to
be "unthinkable and inconceivable." The only
just conclusion from such premises must be,
either that knowledge is possible both in religion
and physical science, or in neither. But the legs
of the lame are not equal. The conclusion
actually drawn is that all theology, beyond the
admission that there is a mysterious something
of which nothing can be known, is a fiction ;
but that science may claim a wide, progressive,
and ever enlarging domain of ascertained and
ascertainable truth. How shall we account,
unless by some strange and fatal moral bias,
for premises exactly similar in the two cases
leading thus to wholly opposite conclusions .^
This Nihilist argument rests mainly on the
misuse of ambiguous terms, and a most decep-
tive antithesis between science and religion.
The three main subjects of human thought,
the objects of actual or possible science, are
Natur*e, Man, and God. The answering cate-
gories of thought are physics or natural philo-
sophy, humanity, and theology. In each there
is, ot- may be, something that is known ; and
there is also, and must be, unless we were
omniscient, much that is still unknown. The
first constitutes science, the second its attendant
mystery. Thus there is a natural science, and
there are physical mysteries ; there is human--
[68
977-
THE FORCES OPPOSED TO CHRISTIANITY.
[pessimism.
that is, biological, social, and moral science, and
there are human mysteries ; there is a theological
science, and there are Divine mysteries. The
higher we rise in the scale of being, from things
beneath us to the God aljove us, the larger the
proportion of the unknown to the known is
likely to be.
Science, however, is sometimes taken in a
limited sense for physical science alone. The
positive philosophy, and Mr. Spencer also,
though less its disciple than a collateral ally,
extend the title to include human or social
science also. Next, because the highest subject
is tlie most mysterious, religion is made an
equivalent for i)ure mystery. By tliis double,
silent process, theology is shut out entirely from
the domain of science. Religion sinks into a
synonym for nescience ; and science is con-
demned to grind in a prison-house of utter
irreMgion, without one ray of heavenly light
being allowed to disturb the settled midnight
gloom. — Rev. T. R. Birks, .Sc7-iptiire Doctri>ie
of Creation.
2 Nihilism agrees with atheism in most
respects.
[978] Nihilism is really another alias for
atheism, and what is true of one system is true
very much of the other ; they both agree in the
following respects : — ■
1. Atheism supplies no motives to do well
w^hich theism need reject if they are right.
2. It must reject some motives to good which
theism supplies.
3. It mutilates human nature, or suppresses
some of its most powerful instincts — e.g. prayer,
and gratitude to God.
4. It provides no substitute for religion.
5. It confines men to time and the world
when they aspire to immortality and pant for
the Divine.
3 Nihilism involves, if possible, still deeper
contradictions than atheism.
[979] '^ '^e doctrine of nihilism professes to
hold an impartial position, and to prove alike of
atheism, pantheism, and theism, that they are
unthinkable and inconceivable, and that of the
origin and authorship of the universe nothing
whatever can be known. But this neutrality is
a mere delusion. Its own negative atheism is
just as complete as that positive atheism which
it disclaims and professes to disprove. For
theism is no abstract, unpractical theory of the
universe. It is the belief in a First Cause, the
Creator and Moral Governor of the universe,
who has a claim on the reverence and love of all
His intelligent creatures, and whom it is»their
highest duly to serve, honour, and obey. To
afhrm that there may be a (}od, and still that
nothing can ever be known of Him, so that
there can be no obligation on any other being
to serve and obey Him, is to accept in words
the existence of a Being, whose distinctive and
defining character is absolutely and wholly
denied. So far as the whole sphere of know-
ledge, life, duty, and practice extends, the creed
is one of simple atheism. It differs in theory,
only by involving still deeper self contradictions.
However sad and dark, the view is morally
consistent : — " I believe that the universe is
self-created, and has no Divine Author, and
therefore I own no debt of service to a Being
who does not exist." But it is stranger still to
say — " I am not sure that there is a God, and
I am not sure that there is no God. Of this
only I am sure, that if He exists I can know
nothing about Him, and can owe Him no
service, gratitude, or love. I am sure of this,
that neither to love Him nor care for Him is
scientific wisdom, and to love Him or seek to
learn His will is a superstitious folly." Such a
doctrine seems more unreasonable and offensive
than even formal atheism. Its wide acceptance
in these days, under the plea of scientific insight,
is a moral portent of a most unusual and startling
kind. — Rev. T. R. Birks, Hcripttcre Doctrine oj
79
PESSIMISM.
I. The Meaning of the Term Itself.
[980] Pessimism is from pessirnits, the super-
lative of Latin vtaliis — bad or evil, and is
literally " worstism ; " it is the opposite of
optimism or " bestism," the language of which
is —
" I stretch lame hands of faith and hope
And gather dust and chaff, and call
To what I feel is Lord of all.
And faintly trust the larger hope."
"And spite of pride, in erring reason's spite,
One truth is clear, whatever is, is Right."
Pope, Essay on Man.
[981] A. Taubert, in her work " Der Pessi-
mismus und seine Gegner," remarks that the
term " pessimism " is not well chosen, as it
might express the idea that the present world
was the worst that could be conceived. The
term, however, she regards as correct so far as
it conveys the idea that the non-existence of the
universe is to be preferred to its existence. She
observes that the more suitable expression
would be that proposed by Knaucr, namely,
Ma/is!nus, or, as Haym has proposed, JMisera-
bilisnivs. For these terms permit one to hold
the opinion that, in spite of its badness, the
world as it exists is the best of all possible
worlds, while the word "pessimism " conveys a
much stronger idea.
II. Its Miserable Conclusion,
I Life is not worth living.
[982] A pessimist is what is commonly called
a universal complainer, but the one I intend to
THE FORCES OPPOSED TO CHRISTIANITY.
982—988]
69
[pessimism.
introduce to you is a scholarly, thoughtful,
studious man, who after much study has formed
his own opinions on the subject of life.
[983] A pessimist's view of life and cosmology
does not give a very glowing picture, as the
brighter shades are almost eclipsed by the more
sombre ones, and the lite of man is reduced to
a doleful existence.
[984] The pessimist in studying even nature
herself can hear no music in the harmony of the
spheres, "for ever singing as they shine, the hand
that made us is Divine." He only comprehends
them, in all their galaxy of beauty, as a conglo-
meration of " the fortuitous concourse of atoms,"
which the concretions of ceons have developed
into amazing masses of matter, rolling in their
distinct orbits, by the laws of dynamics ; also he,
considering this cosmos on which he dwells, in
all its amazing variety of hill, mountain, dale,
forests, flowers, fruit, rugged rock, fertile plain,
swelling seas, placid rivers — or when he digs
deep into its interior, and explores its geologi-
cal formation or its wondrous paleontological
museum of dead and extinct animals and
human remains — he finds it but a vast Gol-
gotha, a charnel-house, filled with the dust of
untold ages. The pessimist, therefore, thinks
that as men are ruled by such inexorable and
unrelenting laws that lile becomes a hard task-
master, and like Shylock will have its pound
of flesh ; neither mere or less. Viewing life
ethically, psychologically, physically, and theo-
logically, the pessimist concludes that " life is
not worth living." — H. Hastings, M.D.^ in the
Homilist (1881J.
III. The Nature of its Philosophical
Creed.
I Avowed atheism yet exhibits a pantheistic
tendency.
[985] This school of philosophy, as repre-
sented by Schopenhauer and others, is avowedly
atheistic in its creed, though in the shape it has
assumed in the writings of Von Hartmann it
exhibits somewhat of a pantheistic tendency.
It is in many respects one of the most extraordi-
nary phenomena of the present age. Men have
existed in all ages predisposed to melancholy
and inclined to look upon life as dark and
gloomy. This " unreasoned pessimism," as it
has been well termed by Mr. Sully, has as-
sumed many forms. Some of the finest out-
pourings of poetry have been the outbursts of
the feeling of melancholy which often seizes
upon the human heart. The optimism of Leib-
nitz, eagerly embraced both by the deist philo-
sophers and the Christian theologians of the
eighteenth century, produced a reaction in an
opposite direction among philanthropic thinkers,
a reaction strongly aided by the writings of
David Hume. Several of the leading poets of
the succeeding age, such as Byron and Shelley
in England, and Heine and others in Germany,
were deeply imbued with a dislike of the then
prevalent optimism, and their poems often com-
plain of the misery of human life. Some of
them went further, and even Herder in some of
his poems expressed sentiments not very dif-
ferent from those lately propounded. Pessimism,
however, may be considered to have been first
elevated to the position of a philosophic creed
by the writings of Schopenhauer and Von
Hartmann.— C. H. IV. \Vright,D.D.,Donnellan
Lectures {\%'ii).
2 It is the desperation element and shadow
of atheism.
[986] There is another system, called pessi-
mism, which has dropped down into pure
materialism. The doctrine of Schopenhauer
and of Hartmann, is that this is the worst of all
worlds ; or, if it is not the worst, then it is so bad
that it would have been better if it had never
been created, and that the supreme aspiration
of the human race must be for extinction. This,
literally, is the outcome of Malthusianism and
materialism, whose principles naturally run into
pessimism, and end at last in the name of cul-
ture and absolute despair. — Joseph Cook, The
Boston Monday Lectures.
3 It is the gospel of despair.
[987] It is the favourite and logical resort of
atheism in its more thoughtful and melancholy
moods ; that is, when atheism turns, from derid-
ing religion, to count its own treasures ; when it
vacates " the seat of the scorner," and sits down
on the throne of despair. The poetry of atheistic
freethought is wondrously doleful ; its highest
hope is to enter the " silent land " — to reach
" the last dark day of nothingness." — B. G.
IV. The Mental Source of its Error.
I Its miserable conclusion results from a
one-sided induction.
[988] Sully has pointed out that the empirical
proofs adduced by Von Hartmann in favour of
pessimism are unsatisfactory. Many of the
statements of Von Hartmann respecting the
illusory character of human progress are founded
on arbitrary assumptions. For instance, he
asserts that the amount of immorality is to be
regarded as a constant quantity ; that diseases
increase in a greater ratio than the remedies ;
that industrial progress has achieved nothing
positive for the happiness of mankind ; that the
sense of misery arising from the fierce uncon-
trolled passions of savage races "is equalled by
the sum of misery arising from the prudentially
restrained but still active immoral tendencies
of civilized society." Sully notes that a general
theory of pleasure and pain is still far from
complete, and that it is impossible to estimate
scientifically the relative value of different kinds
of pleasure. He maintains that happiness is a
balance of pleasure, and though happiness is
unattainable here, when thought of as an un-
broken state of delicious excitement, yet it is
to a very considerable extent attainable as an
I70
988-995]
THE FORCES OPPOSED TO CHRISTIAKITY.
[pessimism.
object of human pursuit. Sully admits that " the
view of the present life as an opportunity of lay-
w^ the foundations of our eternal well-being^, or
of helping to secure this immeasurable good for
the souls of our fcllow-mcn, has, no doubt, its
unique value as a stimulus to human effort." He
observes also that " if men are to abandon all
hope of a future life the loss in point of cheering
and sustaining influence will be a vast one, and
one not to be made good, so far as I can see, by
any new idea of services to collective humanity; "
and yet he remarks sadly in the next paragraph
that "it is one thing to see the limits of an
object, another to deny it its proper magnitude.
After all, this earthly life may be our sole por-
tion, and it is well not to dismiss it from view
too scornfully." — Pessimism : a History and a
Criticism:*
[989] If this life were all, and if enjoyment
were the object of being, it would be difficult to
deny that the pessimist had a formidable case,
or that the world, on the whole and for the
majority of mankind, was a failure. It is, at
least it may be, otherwise if the theistic hypo-
thesis is true, if the secret of the universe is not
mechanical but moral, if the paramount object
is the formation of cliaracter, and if the results
of effort are to endure, in any form whatever,
beyond the physical catastrophe of the planet.
Trying to be good is within the power of a
galley-slave ; and it is conceivable that by being
ever so little better than himself the most abject
of mankind may cast into the moral treasury a
mite more precious in the estimation of the
Author of our moral being than the effortless
virtue of a born seraph, — Projcssor Goldwin
Smith in Contemporary AVt'zVw.
[990] It is the compensation of the future life
that destroys pessimism in this. " If in this life
only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men
most miserable."
[991] Where is that to be found .^ Surely
only in the perception of a higher good than
happiness, in the recognition of an aim so
desirable that it may be sought through and in
spite of much misery, in the consciousness that,
given human free will, much misery is a needful
means to the attainment of that great end, the
righteous soul that lovcth righteousness. Armed
with this interpretation of life, one may stand in
the presence of much suffering, and experience
some share of it one's self, without losing faith in
the Divine greatness and goodness. — II. S/uien
So/iy in Modern Rei'tczu.
[992] The pessimist should listen to the con-
fession often made in wretched homes : " I
brought it on myself ;" " it's my own fault ;" " I
have no one to blame but myself;" still better
is it to witness the unconscious heroism by which
suffering is turned into a school for fortitude, of
resignation or renewed endeavour, of faith either
to do or to bear. — lOid.
V. Re.asons aiding its Present Adop-
tion.
I It flatters one's sense of superiority.
[993] " Unreserved pessimism " is, as Sully
has well observed, in many cases but the
natural outburst of a carping, fault-finding dis-
position. Many take pleasure in findinu' fault
with all around them, and in thui seeking to
exhibit their own real or fancied superiority.
" By how much, one wonders, would the amount
of human criticism be diminished, if one no
longer derived from the process any agreeable
feelings of intellectual elevation." "Pessimism
flatters a man by presenting him with a portrait
of himself in which he appears as another
' Prometheus vinctus,' suffering tortures from
the hand of the cruel Zeus-pater, the World-
all, which begot and holds us, yet bearing up
and resisting in proud defiance. . . . Pessimism
enables its adherent to pose as some wronged
and suff"ering divinity, to the admiration of him-
self at least, if not of spectators around him,"
an admiration not less real though it is generally
disavowed. Many persons have adopted the
creed of modern pessimism, not because they
have made for themselves any deep study of its
principles, and still less any careful study of
the arguments in favour of Christianity, but
simply because of the novelty and temporary
popularity which that system has attained in
some quarters ; and because, like other atheistic
theories, it is unquestionably upheld by some
writers of ability and renown. — C. H. [V.
Wright, D.D., Donneiian Lectures.
VI. Arguments against this Creed.
1 It is essentially selfish.
[994] In his " Phainomenologie des sittlichen
Bewusstseins," pp. 42-46, \'on Hartmann has
some striking criticisms on these notions of
Schopenhauer. He points out that pessimism
in the form advocated by Schopenhauer is
essentially selfish in its aims. It is selfish for a
man to seek to escape from life and leave others
to go on in the same "mad dance of fools which
common life is." One ought, according to \'on
Hartmann, to be perfectly indifferent to life or
death, to the idea of our existence being pro-
longed indefinitely or terminated. The latter
idea is in some aspects akin to the doctrine of
the Yoga taught in the second chapter of the
Bhagavad-Gita. — Ibid.
2 It leads to the indulging of a sensual
gratification.
[995] However the highly trained philosopher
may act, the adoption of an atheistic creed
must lead the multitude to seek after sensual
gratifications, and ultimately drive them into
the most terrible excesses. Even Renan has
clearly perceived this. Hence he writes ("' Etude
sur rEcclesiastc," p. 88) : "In his greatest
follies Kohcletli does not forget the iudgmcnt
of (iod. Let us do as he does. In the midst
of the absolutely fleeting character of things let
THE FORCES OPPOSED TO CHRISTIANITY
995-999]
[71
[pessimism.
us maintain the eternal ! Without that we shall
not be free nor easy in discussing" it. The
morrow of the day when men believe no more
in God, the largest number of victims will be
the atheists. One never philosophizes more at
ease than when he knows that his philosophy
will not be carried out to its consequences.
Ring, ye bells, entirely at your ease ; the more
vou ring, the more I will permit myself to say
that your voice does not mean anything definite.
If I believed that I could silence you, ah ! it is
then that I would be timid and ^x\xd&ni:'—Ibid.
3 It tends to suicide.
[996] However theoretically opposed Schopen-
hauer's philosophy may be to suicide, and how-
ever much his followers have tried to avoid the
accusation that the doctrines of pessimism tend
to that result, suicide cannot but be regarded as
a logical outcome of such doctrines. It must
be borne in mind that pessimists are not op-
posed to suicide on any principles of morality.
Every real basis of morality is destroyed by
their system. If life be hateful and its burden
unendurable, and if death lands us in the ever-
lasting rest of nothingness (for we need not
here discuss the possibility of some continuity
of existence when consciousness has ceased),
then the conclusion of the song is logical, " the
sooner 'tis over the sooner to sleep." Why
should an individual continue to live a life of
martyrdom and useless striving when the end
of all is that nothing, into which ascetics and
voluptuaries shall alike descend.'' Why not as
speedily as possible step behmd the veil into the
rest of unconsciousness } For even the miseries
of those who remain still on earth, whose suf-
ferings the individual might by living perhaps
help to alleviate, only tend to make them more
willing to seek the same blissful goal. — Idid.
VII. Its Historical Relations.
1 Its modern exponent supposed to have
been slightly deranged.
[997 J Gwinner,his ablest and latest biographer,
speaks of him as one who frum childhood was
always disposed to believe that some terrible
misfortune was about to happen to him. He
admits that his hero's intense anxiety often bor-
dered on madness. As a young man he was
tortured constantly with the idea that he had
all sorts of diseases. When a student he once
fancied he was dying of consumption. He fled
from Naples through a nervous dread of the
smallpox, and from Berlin on account of the
cholera. For many years he was miserable,
owing to his fear of a criminal process. He
was greatly deficient in personal courage, and
was in a constant state of alarm in 1 813, fearing
lest he should be forced into the army. If he
was awoke by any noise at night he would rush
out of his bed armed with a dagger and pistols,
which he always kept loaded. He was more
than inclined to be a regular misanthrope,
although sometimes desirous not to be regarded
as such but simply as one who despised man-
kind in general. In his old age he seemed to
look upon any contact with men as a contami-
nation and a defilement, and maintained that
the wisest man is he who in the whole course of
his life has the least intercou'se with his fellows.
He regarded the vast majority of mankind as
either knaves or fools. See Schopenhauer's
" Leben," von Wilhelm Gwinner, 2te umgearbei-
tete u. vielfach vermehrte Auflage der Schrift
" Arthur Schopenhauer aus personlichem Um-
gange dargestelt." — Ibid.
2 Its followers live not as pessimists but
optimists.
[998] Schopenhauer, though strongly inclined
to misanthropy, was keenly susceptible to all
adverse criticism of his writings, and to matters
atTecting his reputation. He endeavoured in
early life to obtain distinction as a University
professor, and failed. His denunciation in
after life of all university professors and of
" Katheder-philosophie" ("Pareiga und Parali-
pomena, ' Werke, vol. v. pp. 151 ff.) was not a
little infiuenced by his own failuie. His great
work, too, " Die Welt als Willeund Vorstelkmg,"
was, notwithstanding the vigour of its style and
the novelty of its opinions, for many years an
utter failure (see Sully's "Pessimism," pp. 78 ff.)
Misogynist, too, as he became in later life, he
was at least once guilty of writing a love-poem,
and, wlien he was a Docent in the University
of Berlin, thought seriously of marriage. His
dread of the necessary cares and trouble of
married life, however, led him to abandon his
intention. The troubles of married life he
describes characteristically as " endlose Ausga-
ben, Kindersorgen, Widerspenstigkeit, Eigen-
sinn, Alt-und-garstigwerden nach wenigen
Jahren, Betriigen, Horneranfsetzen, Grillen,
hysterische Anfiille, Liebhaber, und Holle und
Teufel " (Gwinner's "Leben,'' p. 335). It was
thus his melancholy forebodings rather than his
philosophical opinions which restrained him
from marrying. He was, however, not without
exhibiting at times a susceptibility to the power
of female charms, and was wont to confess, with
Lord Byron, that he found it hard to fall out
with women, and easy to fall out with men
(Gwinner's " Leben," p. 527). Luthardt (" Mo-
derne Weltanscnauungen," p. 188), alluding to
the phenomenon noticed above, very appro-
priately refers to the scoff of Voltaire, that,
however pessimistically men may often express
themselves, they usually try to live as optimisti-
cally as possible, and seldom prove insensible to
the pleasures of venison and champagne. — Ibid.
VIII. Christianity contrasted with
Pessimism.
I The pessimist surrenders in despair to
fate ; the Christian triumphs through faith
over fate.
[999J Pessimism is the teaching of hopeless-
ness and doubt, the disposition of those who
have managed to bring into a system what their
moral apathy wishes to justify as truly noble.
172
999-IOOO]
THE FORCES OPPOSED TO CHRISTIANITY.
[pantheism.
Christianity is the gospel of hope, which
exalts man above his weakness, to a new joy in
life.
In the one case, man surrenders the battle
before he enters the conflict, saying. All is
vanity ; in the other case, man enters the battle
of life with certainty of victory. " Our faith is
the victory that overcometh the world." Pes-
simism and Christianity are the two great para-
doxes. Not infrequently have they been
declared to be related. Christianity is pes-
simistic in so far as it declares the earth to Idc a
valley of sorrow. Yes ; truly they are related.
Both preach the sutitering of earth, and the
weakness of the individual purpose. But while
pessimism is satisfied with this, and makes
suffering the ground of vanity, Christianity
takes occasion from this suffering to direct its
vision aloft to the " hills from whence cometh
our help." There, the preaching of the misery
of our life is made the occasion of haughty
pride ; Itcre, it is a matter of humility which
speaks thus, There is nothing for me and my
life on this earth but to go hence ; what Christ
has given me that is worthy of love ; " for the
grace of Ciod that bringeth salvation hath
appeared to all men." Both speak of the weak-
ness of man, but Christianity knows and speaks
with the apostle : " luJwn 1 am weak, then I am
strong," for it is the power of God which is
mighty in the weak. And thus, when Luther
sings that with our might nothing is done, he so
sings only because he knew that, for him, " the
true man " strove, in whose name and strength
he lifted his age from disaster.— C£". Luthardt.
2 Christian pessimism is the road to true
optimism.
[looo] Christianity is pessimistic in so far as
it recognizes that '• the world is out of course '"'
on account of sin, and that "the world " as it
is "lies under the power of the evil one (i John
V. 19). This is also the doctrine of the Old
Testament. For Judaism, notwithstanding
Schopenhauer's assertions to the contrary, has
also a pessimistic side. Judaism and Chris-
tianity both recognize the fact that "the whole
creation groancth and travaileth in pain to-
gether until now" (Rom. viii. 22). The doctrine
that " all things work together for good to those
that love God" (Rom. viii. 28) was taught even
in the Old Testament, and the Book of Job was
written with the distinct object of pointing out
that afflictions and sorrows are not always to be
regarded as marks of the Divine displeasure,
but are often permitted in order to purify the
righteous, and to test their integrity. Inasmuch
as pain and misery exist in this world, Christians
are taught by their great Master not to endea-
vour to go out of the world, but, continuing in
the same, to seek to be preserved from the evil
that abounds in it (John xvii. 15), while working
for the good of others. They are not called
upon to become ascetics, though " bodily exer-
cise is profitable for a little," but to " exercise"
themselves rather "unto godliness" (i Tim.
iv. 7, 8), bearing in mind, whether they eat or
drink or whatever they do, to do all to the glory
of God (I Cor. X. 31).— C. H. IV. Wright,
D.D., Donnellan Lectures.
DIVISION E
{Continued).
THE FORCES OPPOSED TO
CHRISTIANITY.
[i] INFIDELITY.
( I ) a. Its Actual Phases.
b. Denial of the Divine Personality.
Fa^es 174 to 184.
TABLE OF TOPICS.
80
PANTHEISM.
81
INTUITIONALISM.
82
SPECULATIVE PHILOSOPHY.
^i
TRANSCENDENTALISM.
IIZ
174
DIVISION E
[Continued).
THE FORCES OPPOSED TO CHRISTIANITY.
[i] INFIDELITY {continued).
(i) //. Its Actual Phases.
b. Denial of the Divine Personality.
GO
PANTHEISM.
I. Its Tenets.
1 It confines Deity to nature, as identified
with it.
[looi] According to scientific theism, we are
equally sure of the Divine Immanency in all
nature, and of the Divine Transcendency above
it. Pantheism, however, asserts that natural
law and God are one ; and thus, at its best, it
teaches but half the truth, namely, the Divine
Immanency, but not the Divine Transcendency.
— Rev. Joseph Cook., Bostoti Lectures.
[1002] God is everything, and evervthing is
God.
2 It virtually denies man's personality and
responsibility.
[1003] The pantheistic doctrine is that man is
not an individual subsistence ; he is but a
moment in the life of God, a wave on the
surface of the sea, a leaf which falls and is
renewed year after year. When the body,
which makes the distinction of persons among
men, perishes, personality ceases with it. There
is no conscious existence for man after death. —
Dr. C. Hodge, Systematic Theology.
3 It makes man a temporary phenomenon.
[1004] Pantheism denies the personal immor-
tality of the soul. To pantheism death is the
sinking of a wave back into the sea..— Ibid.
II. Its Forms and Developments.
1 As infecting the ancient philosophy and
mythology.
[1005] The philosophic speculations of anti-
quity touching the Divine nature seldom rose
above pantheism ; they could arrive at the
conception of one primary fountain of Deity,
but they identified thrir deity with nature, and
so the Divine Being became a mere abstract
essence, at once everything and nothing, not a
living, personal, operative agent. Hence in its
ancient mythology, it is never the one invisible
God who interferes with the affairs of men : no
sooner does the Divine Essence come forth
from the void abyss, which is its proper resi-
dence, and manifest itself in action, than it be-
comes multiplied into polytheism, and appears
under the form of the manifold heathen deities,
to whom the real administration of the world
was held to be committed. — Canon Liddon,
Banipton Lectures.
2 As an enemy to the religion of the cross.
[1006] Pantheism has ever and anon, through
the eighteen centuries of Christianity, proved
itself a grave, a subtle, and a serious enemy to
the religion of the cross. Sometimes it has
appeared in the gross form of a materializing
religion, which has depicted the Creator as an
earthly and carnal being ; sometimes in a far
more spiritual phase, needing but a slight dis-
entanglement to become Christian ; sometimes
in a dualistic shape, proclaiming with Mani-
cheeism the existence of two rival principles, a
good and evil one, engaged, amidst internecine
warfare, in the production and governance of
created things ; sometimes trading, so to speak,
upon a reaction from prosaic systems of logic,
and upon incautious language employed by
devout Christians concerning tiie nature of the
union betwixt God and His creatures ; and,
lastly, presenting itself robed as an angel of
light in a system clear-cut, logical (provided its
premisses be granted), calm, comprehensive,
but withal utterly ruinous, if really accepted and
carried out into practice, alike to Christian
faith and Christian morals. — Church (2uarterly
Revieru.
III. CH.VRACIERISriCS.
1 It is evasive and unreal.
[1007] Pantheism is as though a dethroned
monarch were allowed all places and positions
but his own. The sum total of all dignities and
offices is not equal to kingship. — C. A.
2 It debases the idea of God.
[1008] It degrades what is high by exalting
what is low. Better to deny God, after all,
THR FORCES OPPOSED TO CHRISTIANITY.
ICX58-1015]
[pantheism.
than to debase Him. Pantheism is, if possible,
worse than atheism. — Dr. Jeujie.
3 It deifies nature and undeifies the Creator.
[1009] It runs together the distinct ideas of
the Creator and the creature ; it deifies the
universe, and amalgamates together the notions
of the finite and the infinite, unity and universal
substance. — Blutit.
IV. Arguments against this Creed.
I It is one of the varied phases of veiled
atheism.
[loio] Thereare various phases of pantheism.
In some of its phases, God is merely a term for
an universal force that exhibits intelligence only
when modified by matter in organization. Cer-
tain phases of the evolution theory accord with
this position. Or, God means merely a world
soul like vital force in the tree. Some carry the
conception higher, making the term God mean
a world soul like the soul of the animal. The
higher the organization in which it is manifested,
the higher the expression of this vital force or
world soul. Some make God merely latent or
nascent life or intelligence pervading all matter,
and susceptible of development by conditions,
as latent heat is developed by conditions. In
all these phases of pantheism, it is assumed
that God attains his highest consciousness in
man. These are really atheistic, and all these
phases of pantheism are atheism. There is
often an attempt to conceal this by taking
refuge behind the use of such phases as God,
the infinite, &.z. ; and often a denial of atheism
is made with much assumed indignation, when
the grossest atheism is hid under such subter-
fuges. There are theories professing to be
theistic that are pantheistic in reality. God is
recognized as Spirit and as eternally active and
conscious, but He is related to the universe as
the human spirit is to the body. Milton's
theory that God and matter were alike self-
existent and eternal is of this character. It
strips God of independence and self-sustenance,
and limits Him, and subjects Him to the neces-
sary properties and laws of matter. We can-
not conceive of the universe as consisting, at
first, of infinite mind and infinite matter, or of
infinite mind and infinite laws that are self-
existent, or of infinite mind and infinite re-
sources, that are eternal and self-existent,
without limiting and finiting God, by infinite
matter, or infinite laws, or infinite resources,
and entering on the descending inclined pkine
that will land us in the abyss of atheism. We
must place mind back of all matter, law, and
resources, creating, constituting, and co-or-
dinating them. Much of modern poetry senti-
mentalism and speculatism is pantheistic. It
has a fascination for dreamy, sentimental minds,
inclined to mysticism. Spiritism is a system
of pantheism, and often of the grossest kind.
— Clark Braden, the Problem of Problems.
2 It makes the universe a palace without a
king.
[loii] Pantheism shows us a beautiful man-
sion— but the sight is melancholy ; we have no
desire to enter the building, for it is without an
inhabitant ; there is no warm heart to beat, and
no just mind to rule, in these large but tenant-
less halls. It gives us illusions which serve to
alleviate nothing, to solve nothing, to illuminate
nothing ; they are vapours which may, indeed,
show bright and gaudy colours when seen at a
great distance, but in the bosom of which, if
one enters, there is nothing but chill and gloom.
— John Foster, North British Review.
3 It identifies the worshipper and the ob-
ject of worship.
[1012] Now it would render a temple alike
insignificant, to suppose no worshipper as to
suppose none who should be worshipped. And
what should be the worshipper, when our souls
are thought the same thing with what should be
the object of our worship ? — Jolui Hoive.
4 It mocks, instead of satisfying, man's spiri-
tual nature.
[1013] Every form which pantheism takes,
every disguise which it assumes, to hide from
itself and from the world its real character, is
a testimony borne by atheism to the necessity
which all men feel for assuming the existence of
Deity. What Robespierre is reported to have
said with reference to political government and
national well-being — that if there were not a
God, it would be necessary to invent one — is
felt by pantheistic philosophers to be true in
regard to nature. — Modern Scepticism.
[1014] It is a testimony to theism, as the
atheists' acknowledgment of the necessity
either of a God or of a simitlacriiin of one.
j It is a vain effort to fill up the hideous chasm
which atheism cieates and shudders at.
5 It affords no help to the sorrowing, no
check to the wicked.
[1015] Go with the gospel of pantheism to
the fatherless and the widow, and console them
by talking of sunsets and the universal order ;
tell the heartbroken about the permutation of
j energy ; ask the rich tyrant to remember the
sum of all things, and to listen to the teachings
of the Anima Mundi ; explain to the debauchee,
and the glutton, and the cheat, the Divine
essence permeating all things and causing all
things— including his paiticular vice, his pas-
sions, his tastes, his greed, and his lust. And
when social passions rage their blackest, and
the demon of anarchy is gnashing its fangs at
the demon of despotic cruelty, step forward with
the religion of sweetness and light and try if
self-culture, so exquisitely sung by Goethe and
his followers, will not heal the social delirium.
We know what a mockery this would be
176
10I5-IOI9]
THE FORCES OPPOSED TO CHRISTIANITY.
[intuitionalism.
It would be like offering roses to a famished
tiger, or playing a sonata to a man in a fever.
— Frede7-ick Harrison in Nineteenth Century,
1881.
V. Objections met.
I Why did Infinite Power only create a finite
universe in time ?
[1016J Pantheism stumbles at the idea of crea-
tion. It affirms that creation is inconceivable,
and infers that it is impossible. In treating of
materialism, I have indicated that the assertion
is equivocal, and the inference illegitimate. But
another argument has been employed. The idea
of the creation of a finite universe in time has
been pronounced dishonourable to God, as
implying that His omnipotence is to a large
extent inoperative. What, v/e are asked, was
Omnipotence doing before creation.'^ How and
why did Infinite Power produce only a finite
eftect .f" Is power unused, not power wasted?
Is there not something irrational and repellent
in the thought of an Omnipotence which origi-
nated only a limited sum of results, which has
no adequate operation or object .'' To break or
avoid tlie force of these questions, some theo-
logians have maintained that God does all that
He can, that His activity is the free expression
of His ability j and others have argued that
nature is an eternal and infinite creation. These
are views, however, which, far from warding off
pantheism, inevitably tend to it ; and they
grievously offend against reason, which de-
clares it an absurdity, that even an infinite
power should produce an infinite effect within
a finite sphere, within limits of time and space.
Is then omnipotence never fully exercised .'' Is
infinite power never fully productive .'* We have
no right to think so. Although omnipotence
cannot express itself fully in the finite world to
which we belong, the Divine nature may be in
itself an infinite universe, where this and all
other attributes can find complete expression.
Is either God's power or His activity to be
measured exclusively by the production or sup-
port of beings distinct from Himself.'' If so,
oliviously, unless His power be perpetually and
completely exercised about finite things. His
activity is not equal to His power, and He is
not infinitely active, but only infinitely capable
of acting. Even infinite activity, however, and
absolutely infinite production, cannot be reason-
ably denied to the Divine nature. As activity
is a perfection, infinite activity may be reasonably
held to be a supreme perfection, which must be
ascribed to Cod. If an absolutely infinite agent
acts according to ail the extent of its absolutely
infinite nature, it must necessarily produce an
absolutely infinite effect : the effect would not
otherwise be proportionate to the Cause. The
production of an absolutely infinite effect must
be a lar greater perfection than the creation of
any number of finite effects, and the mind may
feel constrained to refer such production to
God. vSo be it. But must tiie infinite effect
all within the realm of contingency, of lime, of
space? Must it not, on the contrary, belong
to the sphere of the essential, the eternal, the
absolute ? Must it not lie within instead of
%vitliout the Godhead ? Must it not be such
an effect as theologians mean when they speak
of the eternal generation of the Word, or the
eternal procession of the Holy Spirit? It cannot,
I think, be such an effect as external creation.
God can never find or produce without Himself
an object equal to Himself, and fully commen-
surate with His essential, necessary activity and
love. The Divine nature must have in itself a
plenitude of power and glory, to which the pro-
duction of numberless worlds can add nothing.
—Robert Flint, Anti-theistic Theories.
81
INTUITIONALISM.
I. Its Definition from a Christian
Standpoint.
[1017] Axiomatic truths not derived from sen-
sation, but arising from the structure of the
mind itself, and called out and illustrated, on
suitable occasions, in the course of our expe-
rience.
II. The Established Tests of Intuitive
Truths.
[1018] Since Aristotle, these three— self-evi-
dence, necessity, and universality — have been
the established tests of intuitive truths.
An intuition is to be distinguished from an
instinct. The latter is an impulse or propensity
existing independent of instruction and prior to
experience.
An intuition is to be distinguished from in-
sight, emotional, refiective, or poetic.
An intuition is to be distinguished from
inspiration or illumination, sacred or secular.
In scientific discussion, any use of the word
intuition to denote other than a proposition
marked by self-evidence, necessity, and univer-
sality, is a violation of established usage. —
Joseph Cook, Monday Boston Lectures.
III. Chief Point in Dispute about In-
tuitive Truths.
I Do they exist before or after experience.
[1019] The supreme question of philosophy is
whether the self-evident, necessary, and univer-
sal truths of the mind are derived from experi-
ence, or are a part of the constitution of man
brought into activity by experience, but not
derived from it nor explicable by it. Do these
self-evident truths arise a priori ax a posteriori—
that is, do tliey exist before or after experience?
Up to this point wq are all agreed, and we
have attained distinctness, I hope, as to our
fundamental term. From this point onward we
THE FORCES OPPOSED TO CHRISTIANITY.
I019-1022]
177
[intuitionalism.
may not all agree, but I must venture these
further propositions : —
This fundamental question has a new interest
on account of the recent advances in philosophy,
and especially in biology.
These advances, if the German as vi^ell as the
English field is kept in view, favour the a priori
or the intuitional school.
On one point there is no debate any longer,
namely, that there are certain truths which are
not only evident, but self-evident ; which are
absolutely necessary beliefs to the mind ; and
which are. therefore, universal, both in the sense
of being explicitly or implicitly held by all sane
men, and in that of being true in all time and in
all places. Immanuel Kant instituted a great
inquiry as to the origin of this particular class
of truths, especially of those which are not
identical propositions ; and now I beg leave to
ask whether it is not worth while for us, now
that Germany has gone back to Immanuel Kant,
and dares to-day build no metaphysical super-
structure except on his foundations or their
equivalents, to ask over again, in the light of all
the recent advances of biological science, the
supreme question : Are the self-evident, neces-
sary, and universal ideas of the mind derived
solely from experience, or are they a part of the
original furniture of the soul, not derived at all
from sensuous impressions ?
I am quite aware that Mr. Frothingham, of
New York City, who in philosophy seems to
have very little outlook beyond the North Sea,
says that the Transcendentalism of which he is
the historian has for the present had its day.
Here is his graceful book ; and although it is
only a sketch, there is large meaning between
its lines in its plaintive undertone of failure.
This coast of New England the Puritans made
mellow soil for all seeds of religious fruitfulness.
Transcendentalism rooted itself swiftly here for
that reason ; but the effort was made to bring
up that seed to the dignity of a tree without any
sunlight from Christianity. Mr. Frothingham
says the attempt has failed. I believe the seed,
if it had had that light, might have lived longer.
Let it never be forgotten that there are two
classes of those who revere axiomatic truth —
the Kantian, Hamiltonian, and Coleridgian, on
the one side, and the purely rationalistic on the
other. Mr. Frothingham says New England
Transcendentalism deliberately broke with
Christianity ; but in that remark he overlooks
many revered names.
His own school in Transcendentalism was
indeed proud to shut away from the growth of
the seeds of intuitive truth the sunlight of Chris-
tianity. No oak has appeared in the twilight ;
but does this fact prove that the tree may not
attain stately proportions if nourished by the
noon ? Already axiomatic truth is an oak that
dreads no storms, and forests of it to-day stand
in Germany, watered by the Rhine, the Elbe,
and the Oder ; and one day similar growths will
rustle stalwart in New England, watered by the
Mystic and the Charles; and the stately trees
will stand on the Thames at last, in spite of its
VOL. I.
grimy mists. There will be for Intuitionalism
in Philosophy a great day so soon as men see
that the very latest philosophy knows that there
is a soul external to the nervous mechanism,
and that materialism must be laid aside as the
result simply of lack of education.
The positions of Kant, Sir William Hamilton,
and Coleridge, and not those of the rationalistic
wing of Transcendentalism, are favoured by the
researches of the most recent German philo-
sophy.
As materialism and sensationalism assert,
there is in the spiritual part of man nothing
which was not first in the physical sensations of
the man.
Leibnitz long ago replied to this pretence by
his famous and yet unanswered remark : There
is nothing in the intellect that was not first in
the sensations, except the intellect itself — Ibid.
IV. Rationalistic Errors respecting
Intuitive Truths.
I Mere intuitionalism is not a substitute
for revelation.
[1020] In the power of man to find out God, I
will never believe. The religious sentiment, or
God-consciousness, so much talked of nowadays,
seems to me — as I believe it will to all practical
common-sense Englishmen — a faculty not to be
depended on ; as fallible and corrupt as any
other part of human nature ; apt— to judge from
history — to develop itself into ugly forms — not
only without a revelation from God, but too
often in spite of one — into polytheisms, idolatries,
witchcrafts, Buddhist asceticisms, American
spirit-rappings, and what not. The hearts and
minds of the sick, poor, and sorrowing, all
demand a living God, who has revealed Himself
in living acts — a God who has taught mankind
by facts, not left them to discover Him by
theories and sentiments — a Judge, a Father, a
Saviour, and an Inspirer. — Canon Kingslcy.
V. An Aid to Faith.
[102 1] These intuitional truths and processes
are to be claimed and used by the believer as
aids to faith, and not to be surrendered as the
property of the rationalist. — B. G.
[1022] But the infinite in which the mind is led
intuitively to believe is not an abstract infinite.
It is a belief in something infinite. When the
visible things of God declare that there is an
intelligent Being, the author of ail the order and
adaptation in the universe, we are impelled to
believe that this Being is and must be infinite ;
and we clothe Him with eternal power and
Godhead. The intuition is gratified to the full
in the contemplation of a God Eternal, Omni-
present, All Mighty, and All Perfect.— J^^-'^^-y
McCosh, Christianity and Positivism.
:78
1023-
THE FORCES OPPOSED TO CHRISTIANITY.
[029.]
[transcendentalism.
82
SPECULATIVE PHILOSOPHY.
I. The Contradictory Character of
ITS Chief Exponents.
[1023] Berkeley's Theo9^.—A soul without a
body.
Combe's Constittdion of Man.— K body without
a soul.
//d'i,'^^/.— Genius minus its chief element,
common sense. Clairvoyance of nothing.
Humboldt. — Could not see God for t!ie
universe.
Spinoza.— QovXd. not see the universe for
God.
Fichte. — Could see neither the universe nor
God for the Ego. — The Homilist.
II. Its Failure under Crucial Tests.
I It is like leaning on a broken reed.
[1024] If there were no other proof of the
truth of Christianity but the hope and comfort
it gives in the hour of death, that would be
sufticient to show that it is not a mere human
invention. Which of the elegant systems of
philosophy has proved a support when heart
and flesh fail — which of the mere philosophers
has died with any degree of hope or joy 1 Lud-
wig Feuerbach, among the most noted of
German savants, died at Nuremberg in 1872;
he expired in utter bewilderment and confusion,
saying: "Truth! O truth! where is it.?" and
with this confession of despair on his lips passed
into eternity. All his life he had professed to
seek the truth ; he wrote on such sulDJects as
"the Essence of Christianity,"' and why did he
die without the light, or die in pursuing an ignis
fatiiits which left him in dire extremity, and
mocked his last moments with the unattainable.''
He discarded the idea of a personal God ; he
believed in humanity, nothing higher. "God is
only a name given to the ideal nature of man
as it educates itself on towards perfection."
High-sounding words these — but how they failed
in the stern presence of death ! Humanity was
no god to the poor human soul just passing out
into the great unknown— it needed a surer staff
to lean upon in the dark valley. Humanity
deified is but a poor god to humanity dying.
Goethe's last words were : " Light ! Oh for more
light ! " Of what avail was it now that he had
been the idol of the literary world. Instead of
light there was the blackness of darkness.
Hobbes, the deist, said : " I am taking a fearful
leap in the dark." What would he not then
have given for the Christian's hope, the trust of
the gentle Herbert, who whispered with his
parting breath : "Now, Lord Jesus, receive my
spirit ; " or to be able to say, like Wesley, "The
best of it is, God is with me" ! Goldsmith on
being asked, while dying: "Is your mind at
ease.?'' replied sadly: "No, it is far from it."
Richard lirinslcy Sheridan, the brilliant parlia-
mentary orator, shrieked : "0,1 am absolutely
undone ! " In the stern presence of the King of
Terrors, the refuge of lies is swept away.
2 It affords no true rest to the soul.
[1025] The true cure for poisonous error is to
be found, not in speculations, but in that practi-
cal grasp of truth which unites the soul to God
and the spiritual world, through the daily grow-
ing purification and elevation of the life and
character. — Abp. Tail, Church oj the Future.
3 It ends in gloom.
[1026] Human reason left to itself, leaves us,
as to God, a threefold choice ; we may deny
God, we may degrade God, we may ignore God.
A noble result ! A godless philosophy ends in
suicide. So it will ever be.
" Philosophy which, in Heaven before.
Sinks to her second cause, and is no more."
Dr. Jeune.
[1027] Speculative philosophy, like a "specu-
lative " business, affords more blanks than prizes,
and abounds in risks, but not in satisfactory
results. — B. G.
83
TRANSCENDENTALISM.
I. Its Radical Principle.
[1028] The radical principle of the transcen-
dental philosophy, the corner-stone of the whole
edifice, is Cousin's doctrine, that spontaneous
reason acquaints us with the true and essential
nature of things. According to this doctrine
reason, when uncontrolled by will, or when left
free to expatiate, undirected and uninfluenced
by the voluntary faculty, always apprehends
things as they are, or has direct and absolute
knowledge of the objects of its contemplation.
— The Church Review.
II. Its Definition.
I Etymologically.
[1029] The word transcendental may be used
in both a definite and a vaguer sense ; in a
definite sense as opposed to the empirical way
of thinking dominant during the eighteenth
century, alike in France and in England. The
empirical thinker derives all our ideas from
experience, some members of the school assert-
ing that it is through the senses alone that we
obtain these ideas. The transcendental thinker
believes th.^t the mind contributes to its own
stores ideas or forms of thought not derived
from experience. As to a Divine Being, and
man's relations with Him, the empirical thinker
may be a theist, but he will ordinarily require
an apparatus, a mechanism to connect the
Divine Spirit with the spirit of man ; the tran-
scendental thinker can vwith difficulty endure
the notion of such a mechanism or apparatus ;
THE FORCES OPPOSED TO CHRISTIANITY.
1029- 1034. J
179
[transcendentalism.
the natural and the supernatural seem to him to
touch, embrace, or inter-penetrate one another ;
in the external world and in his own soul the
Divine f)resence for ever haunts, startles, and
waylays him. So far, the meaning of the word
transcendental is definite enough. But a word,
like a comet, has a tail as well as a head, or at
least a coma as well as a nucleus, and much
vague talk about the Infinite, the Immensities,
the Eternal Verities, the Eternal Silences, and
what not, is properly a part of transcendentalism ;
that is, of its coma, or its yet fainter and more
extended tail. We are bound to recognize this
vague transcendentalism, even if we cannot
accurately define it. Much has justly been said
of fallacies which arise from not defining our
words ; it has not, perhaps, been sufficiently
noted how fallacies arise from assuming that a
formal definition of a word is equipollent to the
word considered as a winged thing, and acting
with a vital power. — The Contemporary Review.
[1030] The word transcendentalism, as used
at the present day, has two applications, one of
which is popular ruid indefinite ; the other,
philosophical and precire. In the former sense
it describes men rather than opinions, since it
is freely extended to those who hold opinions,
not only diverse from each other, but directly
opposed not only in their statements, but in
their bearings upon the most important interests
of man. In its precise and strictly appropriate
application, it denotes a class of philosophical
opinions concerning the principles of human
knowledge, or the grounds of our faith in the
world of sense, and also in those higher truths
which make us capable of science and of re-
ligion, those truths which impart to our being,
as men, all its dignity, and to our hopes and
fears for the future, their interest. — Biblical
Repository.
2 Philosophically.
[1031] This clairvoyance of reason Cousin calls
an " instinctive perception of truth, an entirely
instinctive development of thought,""an original,
irresistible, and unreflective perception of truth,"
"pure apperception and spontaneous faith,"
" the absolute affirmation of truth, without re-
flection, inspiration, veritable revelation."— Z//^
Chnrch Review.
III. Its Leading Characteristic.
I Knowledge regarded as immediate and
infallible.
[1032] The characteristics of this kind of
knowledge as being immediate and infallible,
though not always perfectly distinct at first, and
as being Divine, or as coming from God, either
directly or indirectly, all transcendentalists main-
tain. But in what manner, or by what mode
of action, our reason acquires this knowledge,
they do not distinctly inform us. Whether our
Creator has endowed us with an intellectual
instinct, a power of rational intuition ; or whether
the rational soul, as itself partaking of the
Divine nature has this inherent sagacity in and
of itself ; or whether the Divine Being, God
Himself, is always present in the soul, and
acting in it by way of inspiration, these philo-
sophers seem not to have decided. They use
terms, however, which fairly imply each and all
of these hypotheses ; and especially the last.
But however undecided on this point, which is
of so much importance in a philosophic view,
on the general fact, that all rational beings do
possess this knowledge, they are very explicit ;
and some of them attempt to prove it, by rea-
soning from the necessity of such knowledge to
us, and from the current belief of mankind. —
Ibid.
IV. Its Effects as regards Theology.
1 Transcendentalism dispenses with the
necessity of external revelation.
[1033] The effects of this principle when car-
ried into theology are immense. It dispels all
mysteries and all obscurities from this most pro-
found of all sciences, and gives to human reason
absolute dominion over it. For it makes the
Divine Being, His government and laws, and
our relations to Him, and all our religious obli-
gations and interests — every part of theology
theoretical or practical — perfectly comprehen-
sible to our reason, in its spontaneous operation.
It makes all the doctrines of natural religion
the objects of our direct, intuitive knowledge ; we
need no explanations, and no confirmations
from any books or teachers ; we have only to
listen to the voice of spontaneous reason, or to
the teachings of our own souls, the light which
shines within us, and all will be perfectly intel-
ligible and absolutely certain. And hence we
need no external revelation, no inspired teacher,
to solve our doubts and difficulties, or to make
any part of natural religion, or any principle of
moral duty, either more plain, or more certain.
We are all of us prophets of God, all inspired
throu;^h our reason, and we need no one to
instruct and enlighten us. The great seers of
ancient times, Moses and the prophets, Christ
and the apostles, were no otherwise inspired
than we are ; they only cultivated and listened
to spontaneous reason more than ordinary men ;
we need not pore upon the so-called external
evidences, miracles, prophecies, &c., but merely
listen to the testimony of our own souls, the
teachings of spontaneous reason, or what it
called the internal evidence, and we shall at
once see the clear and infallible marks of
inspiration. — Ibid.
2 Transcendentalism dispenses with the help
of extraneous interpreters.
[1034] To understand the Bible, we need no
aid from learned interpreters. Only give us
the book in a language we can read, and the
suggestions of our own inspired minds will
enable us to comprehend, perfectly, the import
of every sentence, and to see clearly what is
Divine, and what is human, or what originated
from spontaneous reason, and what from human
i8o
1034-1037.]
THE FORCES OPPOSED TO CHRISTIANITY.
rTRANSCENDKNTAIJSM.
infirmity, in the Holy Scriptures. And, of
course, every man is competent to decide,
definitely and infallibly, all the controversies
among theologians, all the disputes between
different sects of Christians, respecting the
doctrines taught in the Bible. In short, not
only the profound researches of philologists,
antiquarians, and biblical commentators ; but
also the elaborate disi'ussions of didactic theo-
logians, polemic, apologetic, and metaphysical,
are all of little or no value in theology. Instead
of depending on them, the theological inquirer
should rather retire to solitude and silence, and
while musing on religious subjects, with the
Bible and the Book of Nature before him, he
should refrain from giving any determined
direction to his thoughts, and allowing them to
flow on spontaneously, he should listen to the
voice of reason, as she expatiates freely in the
open field of visions ; then he will be caught
up, as it were, to the third heaven, and will see
all that the inspired prophets saw ; his know-
ledge will be superhuman and 'DWvtx&.—Ibid.
[1035] It is these speculations, such as they
are,whichthe German philosophy has substituted
for the Bible. All authority of revelation being
discarded, the human mind, then, is like a man
wandering on a prairie ; there is on every side
a boundless prospect ; there is neither pathway
nor guide ; there is in every direction the same
profusion of plants and flowers, without any
diversities sufficient to mark his progress; and
the proud wanderer, disdaining to turn his eyes
towards the luminaries of heaven which might
direct him, pushes onward and onward with
laborious diligence, and applauds himself for
his rapid progress, v.'hen he is only returnmg
again and again upon his own track without
knowing it. Just so it will be here, if the
guidance of revelation be abandoned for the
brilliant mazes of transcendentalism, to which,
it must be confessed, there is now a strong
tendency. — Ibid.
V. Its Effects on Sociology.
I It destroys the finer and friendly feelings
between rival schools of speculative
thought.
[1036J We judge the tree by its fruits, when
we assert, that the study of such writings Ujnds
to. heat the imagination and blind the judg-
ment— that it gives a dictatorial tone to the
expression of opinion, and a harsh, imperious,
and sometimes flippant manner to argumenta-
tive discussion— that it injures the generous
and catholic spirit of speculative philosophy by
raising up a sect of such a marked and dis-
tinctive character, that it can hold no fellow-
ship either with former labourers in the cause,
or with those, who, at the present time, in a
different line of inquiry, are aiming at the same
general objects. The difference iii the mode of
philosophizing between the old and new schools
is radical. Either one party or the other is
V. rong. To come over to the new system we must
read our former lessons backwards, give up the
old tests of correctness and sincerity, and rely
no longer on meek and gentle features without,
as indications of truth and goodness clwelling
within. We are fully aware, that it is danger-
ous in speculation to appeal to the practical
tendency of any doctrine as evidence for or
against its soundness. Men are inconsistent
beings. Their actions are controlled by innu-
merable causes dis'inct from the direct influence
of their speculative notions. But the assailants
of Locke's philosophy have rested their objec-
tions to it mainly on this ground, and have
invited a comparison, in this respect, to the
dogmas and mode of reasoning adopted by the
two schools. And there are reasons at the
present day for paying especial regard to the
immediate influence of speculation upon con-
duct. The defence of metaphysical pursuits
consists chiefly in the advantages to be expected
from them in disciplining and developing the
mental and moral faculties. We may not rea-
sonably look for great discoveries in mental
science. Philosophers do much, if they -succeed
in dispersing the clouds, which their own efforts
have collected. Such, at least, is the common
opinion. And if metaphysicians are to come
from their studies with feelings worn, and their
general sympathies with humanity diminished,
better let them at once burn their books, and
renounce their vocation. There is an old re-
proach, that " no stone is harder than the heart
of a thoroughbred metaphysician," which must
be wiped off entirely before one can account
satisfactorily to his conscience for engaging in
the science of abstruse learning.
Whatever course, therefore, tends to rive the
philosophical world into parties, to inflame
discussion between them beyond all discreet
bounds, to remove the objects of thought still
farther from the common pursuits and interests
of mankind is, so far, positively pernicious and
wrong. Let the transcendentalists look to this
point. Their efforts hitherto have tended to
undermine the only foundation on which they
could safely rest. They have deepened the
gulf between speculative and practical men,
and by their innovations in language, they are
breaking down the only bridge that spans the
chasm. Let them succeed in this end, and
they perish by isolation. — Christian Exainiiier.
2 It alienates practical men by arrogantly
ignoring their intelligence.
[1037] The insufferable arrogance of the new
school, and their anxiety to place themselves
apart from the mass of mankind, are shown in
the very plea by which all objections to their
philosophy are commonly met, that men do
not understand the system which they presume
to criticize. True, men do not usually under-
stand what is intentionally made unintelligible.
It is of the perverseness shown by this wilful
and designed obscurity that we complain. .SV
iion vis intclliiri debes n^glioi. There is more
point than truth in the saying of Coleridge, that
we cannot understand Plato's ignorance, but
THE FORCES OPPOSED TO CHRISTIANITY.
1037-1042.]
[transcendentalism.
must be ignorant of his understanding. How
far is such a remark applicable.'' Is the intel-
lect of every author so much superior to that of
his reader, that every want of understanding
between the two must necessarily be ascribed
to the latter .'' Do not cloudy minds sometimes
belong to men who write books, as well as to
those who read them ? Do not authors, now
and then, indulge in wilful mystification ? The
plea is a very convenient one, but it proves
nothing, because it proves too much. Jacob
Bohme might have used it, as well as the
plainest thinker that ever lived. — Ibid.
VI. Its Ambitious and Hopeless At-
tempts.
1 To consider general truth without previous
examination of particulars.
[1038] The aim of the transcendentalists is
high. They profess to look not only beyond
facts, but without the aid of facts, to principles.
What is this but Plato's doctrine of innate,
eternal, and immutable ideas, on the considera-
tion of which all science is founded ? Truly,
the human mind advances, but too often in a
circle. The new school has abandoned Bacon,
only to go back and wander in the groves of
the Academy, and to bewilder themselves with
dreams which first arose in the fervid imagina-
tion of the Greeks. Without questioning the
desirableness of this end, of considering general
truths without any previous examination of par-
ticulars, we may well doubt the power of modern
philosophers to attain it. — Cliurch Examiner,
2 To inquire after the real and absolute as
distinguished from the apparent.
[1039] Again they are busy in the inquiry (to
adopt their own phraseology) after the real and
the absolute, as distinguished from the apparent.
Not to repeat the same doubt as to their success,
v;e may at least request them to beware lest
they strip truth of its relation to humanity, and
thus deprive it of its usefulness. Granted that
we are imprisoned in matter, why beat against
the bars in a fruitless attempt to escape, when
a little labour might convert the prison to a
palace, or at least render the confinement more
endurable. The frame of mind which longs
after the forbidden fruit of knowledge in sub-
jects placed beyond the reach of the human
faculties, as it is surely indicative of a noble
temperament, may also, under peculiar circum-
stances, conduce to the happiness of the indivi-
dual. But if too much indulged, there is danger
lest it waste its energies in mystic and unpro-
fitable dreams, and despondency result Irom
frequent failures, till at last disappointment
darkens into despair. — Ibid.
VII. Arguments against this System.
I Independence of mind impossible,
(i) The rejectors of revelation become man-
worshippers.
[1040] But some boast of the independence of
the human mind, and rejoice in these develop-
ments as proofs of its exercising that indepen-
dence. The human mind is not independent,
and independent it cannot be. It was created
limited, and of course dependent. It feels its
own dependence in its inmost heart. From the
very necessity of its nature, it must have some
God to worship, some authority to lean upon.
In Germany, where the authority of revelation
has been so generally rejected, the mind has no
more independence than it has here, where the
authority of revelation is still so generally re-
spected. As the ancient Egyptians in their
wisdom despised the God of the Hebrews, and
worshipped crocodiles and calves, so literary
Germany in her pride has despised Jesus
Christ, and worshipped her Hegels and her
Goethes, both, as the Apostle Paul expresses it,
receiving within themselves that recompense of
their errors that was meet. — Biblical Repository.
1 The system leads inevitably to atheism.
[1041] To consider self-dependence as the
highest stage of moral advancement, to look
upon all recourse to the teachings either of
natural or revealed religion as an evidence of
weakness, as a defect that may both practically
and theoretically be done away — and such is the
ground assumed by Fichte— is a mode of think-
ing which, fully carried out, can stop in nothing
short of atheism. If the religious law is nar-
rowed down to an entire identity with the
moral, if revelation requires nothing more of us
than what conscience alone would demand, then
disappears not merely all necessity for any
direct and special intervention of the Deity in
the course of human affairs, but also all sure
ground for believing in His existence. Such an
opinion may be held for a time, for it is flatter-
ing to the pride of human reason. But in many
minds a reaction will be liable to occur, that
will carry its subjects to the opposite extreme ;
and thus may be explained the sudden transi-
tions that are often witnessed, from a state of
unbelief to a complex, exaggerated, and gloomy
fai t h , — Christian Examiner.
VIII. Special Tendency of some Minds
TOWARDS this SYSTEM.
[1042] We shall not hesitate to admit, that
there is in the German mind a tendency to
mysticism, properly so called ; as perhaps there
is, unless carefully guarded against, in all minds
tempered like theirs. It is a fault ; but one
hardly separable from the excellences we ad-
mire most in them. A simple, tender, and
devout nature, seized by some touch of Divine
truth, and of this, perhaps, under some rude
enough symbol, is rapt with it into a whirlwind
of unutterable thoughts, wild gleams of splen-
dour dart to and fro in the eye of the seer, but
the vision will not abide with him, and yet he
feels that its light is light from heaven, and
precious to him beyond all price. A simple
nature, a George Fox, or a Jacob Bohme, igno-
rant of all the ways of men, of the dialect in
l82
1042-
THE FORCES OPPOSED TO CHRISTIANITY.
t045]
[transcendentalism.
which they speak, or the forms by which they
think, is labouring with a poetic, a religious
iden, which, like all such ideas, must express
itself by word and act, or consume the heart it
dwells in. Yet how shall he speak ; hovv shall
he pour forth into other souls that of which his
own soul is full even to bursting ? He cannot
speak to us ; he knows not our state, and can-
not make known to us his own. These are
mystics ; men who either know not clearly
their own meaning, or at least cannot put it
forth in formulas of thought, whereby others,
with whatever difficulty, may apprehend it.—
T. Carlyle.
IX. Locke's System viewed as its
Antithesis and Corrective.
[1043] Alluding to the Essay on the Human
Understanding, Mackintosh observes: "Few
books have contributed more to rectify preju-
dice, to undermine established errors, to diffuse
a just mode of thinking, to excite a fearless
spirit of inquiry, and yet to contain it within the
boundaries which nature has prescribed to the
human understanding. In the mental and
moral world, wliich scarcely admits of anything
which can be called a discovery, the correction
of the mental habit is probably the greater ser-
vice which can be rendered to science. In this
respect the merit of Locke is unrivalled. His
writings have diffused throughout the civilized
world the love of civil liberty, the spirit of tole-
ration and charity in religious differences, the
disposition to reject whatever is obscure, fan-
tastic, or hypothetical in speculation, to reduce
verbal disputes to their proper value, to aban-
don problems which admit of no solution, to
distrust whatever cannot be clearly expressed^
to render theory the simple expression of facts,
and to prefer those studies which most directly
contribute to human happiness." Hmc illce
lachrynup. The transcendentalists have good
reason to decry the tendency of Locke's
philosophical writings.
[1044] We are not left to infer vagueness and
incompleteness of thought merely from obscurity
of language. The transcendentalists openly
avow their preference of such indistinct modes
of reflection, and justify loose and rambling
speculations, mystical forms of expression, and
the utterance of truths that are but half per-
ceived, on the same principle, it would seem,
that influences the gambler, who expects by a
number of random casts to obtain at last the
desired combination. In this respect the
philosophy of the new school is well summed
up by a modern writer in the following asser-
tions : " that a guess is often more f u'.tful than
an indisputable affirmation, and tliat a dream
may let us deeper into the secret of nature than
a hundred concerted experiments." *' Poetry
comes nearer to vital trutli than history." Why
not follow the principle of the gambler entirely
by shaking a number of words in a hat that,
after a number of trials, they may so arrange
themselves as to express some novel and im-
portant truth ?
" Insanum vatem adspicies, quse, rupe sub ima,
Fanta canit, foliisque notas et nomina mandat."
If it be urged that vagueness is not inconsistent
with reality and truth, we reply that this asser-
tion does not meet the point, nor resolve the
difficulty. In the imperfect conceptions of man,
mystery may envelope truth, but it does not
constitute that truth, any more than the veil of
the temple is in itself the " holy of Holies." Still
less is there any necessary connection between
dimness and reality ; for truth, considered as
the object of Divine contemplation, is light
itself, and glimpses of the spiritual world are
blinding to man, only because they dazzle with
excessive brightness. We live in the twilight
of knowledge, and though ignorant of the points
of the compass, it argues nothing but blind
perverseness, to turn to the darkest part of the
horizon for the expected rising of the sun. —
Ibid.
X. Purposes which in a Modified and
Poetical Form it may serve.
I As a protest against the literalism of
mere scientists.
[1045] It seemed to me that some good
might be done, if I could succeed in bringing
before our hearers the truth that, while the
several physical sciences explain each some
portion of nature's mysteries — or nature con-
sidered under one special aspect — yet that, after
all the physical sciences have had their say, and
given their explanations, there remains more
behind— another aspect of nature — a further
truth regarding it, with which, real and interest-
ing though it is, science does not intermeddle.
The truth on which especially I wished to fix
attention, is the relation which exists between
nature and the sensitive and imaginative soul
of man, and the result on creation which arises
from the meeting of these two. This is a true and
genuine result, which it does not fall within the
province of science to investigate, but which it
is one peculiar Junction of poetry to seize, and,
as far as may be, to interpret. That the beauty
which looks from the whole face of nature, and
is interwoven with every fibre of it, is not the
less because it requires a living soul for its ex-
istence, is as real a truth as the gravitation of
the earth's particles or the composition of its
materials — tiuit careful noting and familiar
knowledge of this beauty reveals a new aspect
of the world, which will amply repay the ob-
server—and that the poets are in a special way
kindlers of sensibility, teachers who make us
observe more carefully and feel more keenly the
wonders that are around us : — these are sonie of
the truths which I wishe.I to bring before my
hearers, and which, if 4 xould in any measure
succeed in doing so, would, I felt sure, not be
without mental benefit. — J. C. Sharp.
DIVISION E
{Contumed').
THE FORCES OPPOSED TO
CHRISTIANITY.
[i] INFIDELITY.
(i) a. Its Actual Phases.
. Denial of the Christian and CathoHc Idea of God.
Pages 184 to 197.
TABLE OF TOPICS
84
DEISM.
85
THEISM.
86
MONOTHEISM.
87
NATURALISM.
88
SPIRITUALISM.
89
RATIONALISM.
90
NEOLOGY.
91
FREE THOUGHT.
UNITARIANISM.
93
EVOLUTIONISM.
94
PHILOSOPHICAL COSMOLOGISM.
95
SCIENTISM.
1S3
1 84
DIVISION E
{continued^
THE FORCES OPPOSED TO CHRISTIANITY.
[i] INFIDELITY {Continued).
(i) ii. Its Actual Phases.
c. Denial of the Christian and Catholic Idea of God.
84
DEISAf.
I. Its Historical Relations.
1 Its rise as a regular system.
[1046] Ueism may be divided into two classes :
those who, believing in one God, deny that He
takes cognizance of men and of their actions,
and reject the idea of any historical revelation
made to man, and those who allow the work of
Providence. Limiting to the former the name
of deist, Kant has applied to the latter the
designation of Theists. Deism synchronizes
with the Reformation. The coincidence of cor-
ruption with the high mission of the Church
was fatally mischievous ; and men learned not
only to question her authority, but to deny the
truth of all revealed religion. As Spinoza's
system was the result of reaction from Jewish
Talmudism, so deism sprang naturally, as it
were, from the condition into which religion
had subsided in the sixteenth century. — liev.
J. H. Blunt, Af.A.
2 Its development.
[1047] Two generations ago, deism was the
profession of infidels, or those who rejected
Christianity, and who covered the rejection of
the special truths of revelation by the profession
of this one general truth. What deists pro-
fessed was right, but it was in their rejection of
that religion, from which they learned their
deism, that they were in error. Deism was a
religious mask for infidel opinions.— i>'. G.
IL Its Phases.
[1048] The following are tlie prevalent de-
fective views of the Divine character : —
First, the mechanical view of God. This
view is the natural product of a mechanical age.
It is an age engrossed in studying the mere
mechanism of nature, and its idea of God has
come to be that of a great mechanician, or an
omnipotent engineer, constructing worlds like
steam-engines, to work according to the proper-
ties with which they are endowed.
Secondly, the sentimental view of God. This
is the product of the poetry as the other is of the
science of the times ; or, to go deeper, the one
is the creation of the imagination and emotions,
as the other is of the mere intellect empirically
exercised, and both under the guidance of an
unholy heart. The one view, like the other, is
not so much erroneous as it is defective. Let
us clothe the Divine Being with as bright a robe
of loveliness as we please ; but let us not pluck
from him, meanwhile, his sceptre and his crown,
or represent him as indifterent alike to evil and
to good.
Thirdly, the pantheistic view of God. This
is the combined result of the influences which,
when existing separately, produce one or other
of the views which we have just been con-
templating. — AfcCosh, Method of the Divine
Government.
III. Arguments against this Creed.
1 The existence of a latent theopathic ten-
dency in man.
[1049] There would thus appear to be some-
thing in the human mind always disposing it to
accept the revival of the primitive revelation,
whenever circumstances in any degree appeared
to suggest it — a kind of theopathic tendency,
always ready to be called out and, however
unconsciously, to revert to the earliest and truest
form of human belief— the belief in a Creator
and a God. " The heart," as has been well said
by Van Oosterzee, " is the palimpsest, on which
the older letters, however pale and effaced, will
come to light again when it has been properly
handled," and when the conditions for revival
have in any degree assumed a favourable aspect.
—Bp. Ellicoit.
2 Deism is a retrograde movement.
[1050] Deism is not a growth of religious
revivalism ; but a backward movement into
indifference and irreligion, while retaining nomi-
nally, as a profession, belief in God. — B. G.
3 Deism, as a moral guide, refuted by ex-
perience.
[105 1] The following reasons were assigned
THE FORCES OPPOSED TO CHRISTIANITY.
1051 — 1061]
[theism.
'8s
by a reclaimed infidel for renouncing deism and
embracing Christianity : — i. That I never saw,
heard, nor read of any man, woman, or child
that was reformed, either in whole or in part, by
embracing the principles of deism. 2. That I
have known hundreds, and heard of thousands,
who have been reformed by embracing Chris-
tianity. 3. That I have known industrious and
sober men, who, by imbibing the principles of
deism, almost instantly became desperately
wicked, and, in many instances, dangerous
members of civil society. 4. That I have known
some deists, and many scofters at religion,
speedily and effectually turned from the most
abandoned practices, " by the preaching of the
gospel," to a life of righteousness, which showed
itself by sobriety, industry, charity, brotherly
kindness, and universal philanthropy. 5. That
I do not recollect ever hearing but one deist
profess really to believe in a future state of
rewards and punishments. 6. That I never
met with a man who professed to be a real
Christian, but who built his principal hopes
upon the reality of a future state. 7. That I
cannot, in all the deistical writings, find any
law to prevent wickedness, or encourage virtue,
with rewards and punishments annexed thereto.
[Paine's Deism is an exception to the 7th
proposition] .
85
THEISM.
I. Its Definition.
[1052] There is some difficulty in the use of
the word theism, owing to the different shades of
meaning in which it is used by different writers.
Perhaps the most simple and intelligible mode
of using the word is to denote by it belief in a
personal God, the Creator and moral Governor
of the universe. As, however, this belief may
be contravened in at least two ways — either by
only admitting the existence of an impersonal
First Cause ; or, more generally, by denying the
existence of God in any form, we need two
corresponding expressions. One of these is
obviously atheism, which correctly applies to
the second and general form of denial. The
other form is frequently denoted by the term
anti-theism {see Flint, " Antitheistic Theories,''
pp. 443 et seq.), but as this has been used, con-
formably to its etymological aspect, by Chalmers
and others to denote atheism in its most pro-
nounced or dogmatic form, we need some term
like Paratheism (/.<?., a perverted theism) to
designate the first-mentioned form of misbelief.
[1053] Theism is a term of religious philosophy
rather than of theology. Theism, then, may be
defined as speculative theology. — J. H. Blunt.
[1054] Theism is the doctrine of an extra-
mundane, personal God, the Creator, Preserver,
and Governor of the world. — Dr. C. Hodge,
Systematic Theology.
[1055] Theism is distinguished from deism, as
not having acquired a meaning hostile to Chris-
tianity.— B. G.
II. Its General Recognition.
[1056] The belief in a God has been found in
all ages and in all nations, and the cases in
wliich this belief has not been found are so few
and so exceptional that they cannot justly be
regarded as modifying in any sensible degree
the general force of the universality of the testi-
mony.— Bp. Ellicott, Six Addresses on the Being
of God.
[1057] Dr. Ebrard, in his recent work on
" Christian Apologetics," after a very careful
survey of ancient and modern religions, says
that he cannot trace the faintest indication of a
progress from polytheism to a gradually dawn-
ing theism, but that the evidence of a depra-
vation from an earlier and relatively purer
knowledge of God is everywhere most distinct.
III. The True Inference from this
Doctrine.
[1058] Let us urge on the theist to realize
continually the full force of this doctrine which
he recognizes, its bearing on an all-pervading
Providence, its suggestion that if God is, it may
be possible for the soul to hold communion with
W\\\\.—Abp. Tail, Chttrch of the Future.
86
MONOTHEISM.
I. Contrast between Monotheism and
Polytheism.
[1059] Monotheism is, for intelligent belief,
simply a natural consequence of theism ; yet is
none the less of most indisputable value for
religion and morality. — Van Oosterzee.
[1060] Polytheism is a fruit of sin. The
darkened understanding could no longer raise
itself to the clear conception of one absolute
perfection, because the imagination was at the
same time captivated and deceived by the
varying brightness of the creation.— /^/V/.
II. Argument in Favour of this Be-
lief.
I Monotheism is a primitive form of re-
ligion.
[1061] It would almost appear as if the
earliest form of religion had been monotheistic.
From Tacitus we learn that " a Being, master
of the universe, to whom all things were sub-
missive and obedient, was the Supreme God of
the Germans ; " and from other sources we gather
that, in all Teutonic tongues, this Being was
called by the general name of God. The object
of the most ancient Norse-worship is described
aiJ the " author of everything that existeth, the
i86
1061— 1068]
THE FORCES O'' POSED TO CHRISTIANITY.
[naturalism.
eternal, the ancient, the living and awful Being,
the searcher into concealed things, the Being
that never changeth.'' — Dr. Burns in Faiths of
the World.
[1062] I doubt whether this question would
ever have arisen, unless it had been handed
down to us as a legacy of another theory, very
prevalent during the Middle Ages, that religion
began with a primeval revelation, which primeval
revelation could not be conceived at all, except
as a revelation of a true and perfect religion,
not therefore as monotheism. That primeval
monotheism was supposed to have been pre-
served by the Jews only, while all other nations
lett it and fell into polytheism and idolatry,
from which, at a later time, they worked their
way back again into the purer light of a religious
or philosophical monotheism. It is curious to
see how long it takes before any of these purely
gratuitous theories are entirely annihilated.
They may have been refuted again and again ;
the best theologians and scholars may long have
admitted that they rest on no solid foundation
whatsoever ; yet they crop up in places where
we should least expect them — in books of refer-
ence, and what is still worse, in popular school
books ; and thus the tares are sown broadcast,
and spring up everywhere, till they almost choke
the wheat. — Max Miiller, Orii^in and Growth of
Religion.
2 Monotheism the obvious inference from
the unity of the universe.
[1063] The unity of the universe as one system,
is our argument for one mind regulating it. All
is as one kingdom under the same sets of laws,
under one king and constitution. — B. G.
See article on " Fetishism.,'
87
NATURALISM.
I. Its Proi'kr Place.
1 Natural theology subordinate to, not the
substance of, religion.
[1064] For what is called "natural theology,"
which a man is supposed to get by studying all
sorts of things inferior to himself, I have but a
small esteem. Well as a supplement, it is
naught as the substance of religion. Faith
comes, I am persuaded, through the moral
elements of our nature, by the presence of
spiritual causes atov ■ us, not by tlie observation
of material effects beneath us. — James Mar-
tineau.
2 Natural religion needs to be supplemented
and completed by revelation.
[1065] Allow nature to have all the advantages
that ever the greatest patrons of natural religion
laid claim to on her behalf : allow reason to be as
clear, as uncorrupted, as unprejudiced, as even
our fondest wishes would make it ; yet still it
can never be supposed that nature and reason,
in all their glory, can be able to know the will
of God so well as He himself knows it : and
therefore, should God ever make a declaration
of His will, that declaration must, according to
the nature and the necessity of the thing, be a
more perfect rule for religion than reason and
nature can possibly furnish us with. Had we
the wisdom and reason of cherubim and sera-
phim to direct us in the worship and service of
our Maker, nevertheless it would be our highest
wisdom, as it is theirs, to submit to His laws—
that is, to the declarations of His will. — Bishop.
Sherlock, 1 67 8- 1 76 1 .
II. Natural compared with Revealed
Religion.
[1066] The definition of natural religion is
simple enough : the sum of knowledge of things
superhuman which is discoverable to the human
mind by its ordinary faculties, and the ordinary
methods of scientific investigation. The natural
way to inquire how much knowledge is thus
discoverable would be by an appeal to history-
how much has, without supernatural assistance,
been discovered by man.
Natural religion fails (i) because its existence
can be accounted for from causes not involving
its truth ; and (2) because it suggests diiificulties
which it cannot solve. Revealed religion docs
not fail similarly, (i) because its existence is a
fact not explained by natural causes ; and (2) be-
cause, though it suggests at least as many diffi-
culties as the other, it accounts, as the other
does not, for the existence of difficulties.
III. Its Twofold Phases.
[1067] This word is used in two senses, an objec-
tive and a subjective. In the former sense, it is the .
belief which identifies God with nature; in the
latter, it is the belief in the sufficiency of natural
as distinct from revealed religion. The former
is pantheism, the latter deism.— .(4. S. Farrar,
Critical History of Free Thought.
[1068] This name, which has now become
ncaily obsolete in a theological or philosophical
sense, has been used to designate two sections
of the antichristian school which rejects belief
in supernatural causes or operations.
1st. The name has been mostly used by Ger-
man writers for those who identify God with
nature, but who are now more generally known
as Pantheists.
2nd. By English writers it is generally taken as
signifying those who consider natural religion to
be sufficient for man's guidance and happmess
without any supernatural revelation.
But these latter may be subdivided also into
two classes ; the first of which has received the
name of "philosophical naturalists," rejecting
altogether belief in revelation; the second, that
of " theological naturalists " who accept revela-
THE FORCES OPPOSED TO CHRISTIANITY.
1068 — 1073]
187
[spiritualism.
tion as containing truth, but as being at the best
only a republication of natural religion, and so
unnecessary. The name is rarely found in
works written later than the seventeenth century,
when it was used by Kant in Germany, and by
Boyle in England ; and the school formerly
known as naturalists are now called pantheists
and rationalists. — Rev. J. H. Blimt.
IV. Arguments against this System.
1 Natural religion not a practical force.
[1069] It has been truly said that so-called
natural religion, the apotheosis of moral ab-
stractions, exists only in books. Religions
which have vital force and influence are positive
religions, i.e., they make for themselves a church
and rites and dogmas. — Canon Eaton, Banipion
Lecticres.
[1070] Sometimes the deniers of the mira-
culous become the worshippers of nature.
Nature worship was, perhaps, the earliest form
of natural religion. Men worshipped trees and
rivers, the ocean, the sky, the sun, and the
moon. Hence flowed the corruption and super-
stitions which defiled the religions of the world
before Christ. The present form of nature
worship is not like this in its superstition. But
it is equally powerless. It makes no provision
for the highest wants of man. — Rev. V/. Ander-
son.
2 Natural religion presents the character
of God in a forbidding aspect.
[107 1 ] To call upon men to praise such a Being,
as the God of nature and providence merely,
to behappyin thecontemplation of His character,
would be to call upon the oftender against law
to rejoice in the aspects and accents of the
judi^'e who is pi'onouncing upon him the sentence
of death.— W. Sparroiv, Sermons.
88
SPIRITUALISM.
I. Its False Claim to Novelty.
[1072] Nothing in the spiritualistic circles of
our day has been more strange, mysterious, and
wonderful than things which have been seen in
the past centuries of the world. In all the ages
there have been necromancers, those who consult
with the spirits of the departed ; charmers, those
who put their subjects in a mesmeric state ;
sorcerers, those who by taking poisonous drugs
see everything, and hear everything, and tell
everything; dreamers, people who in their sleep-
ing moments can see the future world and hold
consultation with spirits ; astrologers, who could
read a new dispensation in the stars ; experts in
palmistry, who can tell by the lines in the palm
of your hand your origin and your history.
From a cave on Mount Parnassus, we are told,
there was an exhalation that intoxicated the
sheep and the goats that came anywhere near
it, and a shepherd approaching it was thrown
by that exhalation into an excitement in which
he could foretell future events and hold consul-
tation with the spiritual world. Yea, before the
time of Christ the Brahmins went through all
the table-moving, all the furniture excitement,
which tlie spirits have exploited in our day ;
precisely the same thing, over and over again,
under the manipulations of the Brahmins. Now,
do you say that Spiritualism is different from
these? I answer, all these delusions I have
mentioned belong to the same family. They
are exhumations from the unseen world. — 1 al-
ii. Its Absurdity.
[1073] The spiritualist is perfectly content with
an ideal heaven wherein he will remain in just
as much doubt or error as he happens to have
entertained upon earth. Further, as regards
his personal and social affections, does he at
least imi^ge to himself that he will be nearer
and more able to protect and bless his dear
ones after death ? Or that he will pass fieely
hither and thither, doing service like a guardian
angel to mankind, strengthening the weak, com-
forting the mourner, and awakening the con-
science of the wicked ? There is (so far as we
have followed the literature of Spiritualism) no
warrant for such a picture of beneticent activity.
Good spirits, as well as bad— the souls of Plato
and Fenelon, as well as those of the silliest and
wickedest "twaddler" (as Dr. Wallace honestly
describes many spirits, habitues of seances) —
have seemingly spent all the centuries since
their demise humbly waiting to be called up by
some woman or child, precisely as if they were
lackeys ready to answer the downstairs' bell.
In many cases we are led to infer that the dead
have been striving for years and ages to make
themselves known, and now for the last quarter
of a century have veiy clumsily and imperfectly
succeeded in doing so. Let us conceive for a
moment a grand and loving soul — a Shake-
speare or Jeremy Taylor, or Shelley, who once
spoke to mankind in free and noble speech, a
man among men — fumbling about the legs of
tables, scratching like a dog at a door, and
eagerly flying to obtain the services of an in-
terpreter 'like Miss Fox, Mr. Hume, or Mrs.
Guppy — and we have surely invented a punish-
ment and humiliation exceeding those of any
purgatory hitherto invented. If virtue itself has
nothing better to hope for hereafter than such a
destiny, we may well wish that the grave should
prove indeed, after all, the last home of
" Earth's mighty nation.
Where Oblivion's pall sliall darkly fall
On the dreamless sleep of annihilation."
In conclusion, is it too much now to ask that
we may be exonerated, once for all, from the
charge of unreasonable prejudice, if we refuse
THE FORCES OPPOSED TO CHRISTIAN/TV.
1073-1080]
[rationalism.
to undertake the laborious inquiry into the
marvels of Spiritualism which its advocates
c h alio n go. — CornJiill Magazine.
III. Its Sinfulness.
[1074] What does God think of all these de-
lusions? He thinks so severely of them that
He never speaks of them tut with livid thunders
of indignation. He says, " I will be a swift
witness against the sorcerer." He says, "Thou
shalt not suffer a witch to live." And lest you
might make some important distinction between
spiritualism and witchcrnft, God says, in so
many words, "There shall not be among you
a consultcr of familiar spirits, or wi7ard, or
necromancer ; for they that do these things are
an abomination unto the Lord." And He says
again, "The soul of those who seek after such
as have familiar spirits, and who go whoring
after them, I will set myself against them, and
he shall be cut off from among his people."
Tiie Lord Almighty, in a score of passages,
which I have not now time to quote, utters
His indignation against all this great family of
delusions. After that, be a spiritualist if you
dare !— Talinas'e.
89
RATIONALISM.
I. Its Definition and Fallacies.
[1075] I^ationalism is the title given to the
views of those who pare down religion to the
size of their boasted reason, in which they have
no special prerogative.
[1076] There are two ways by which the
human mind can attain the knowledge of truth ;
first by receiving a Divine revelation of it ; and,
secondly, by means of observation and ratio-
cination. The name rationalism is given to
that school of thought which believes that the
latter of these two ways is of itself fully sufficient
for tlie attainment of all truth.
[1077] The following arc some of the fallacies
undcrlyuig rationalism : —
1st. It is founded upon the false principle
that, in order to the rational exercise of faith, we
must understand the truth believed. The im-
possible cannot be believed, but every one does
believe much that is incomprehensible.
2nd. It assumes that the human intelligence
is the measure of all truth.
3rd. It destroys the distinction between faith
and knowledge, evidence and experience. — Con-
densed froui Dr. C. IJodge, ^ysienuitic I'licology.
II. Its Evil Consequences.
I Rationalizing religion is robbing it of all
motive power.
[1078] What is it that is now leading thousands
and thousands of men and women to form their
resolutions of holiness, to live more for God and
less for themselves ? What is it that sends out
the learned and the eager-minded, and the great
men that go out to the ends of the world ; to
the wilds of North America and the centre of
Africa, trying to bring to the fold if they can
those dear sheep of Jesus which they know to
be there .'' What is it, to come nearer home,
that leads educated and learned men and
women, well bora nnd of gentle nurture, to go
into the foul dens of London where you and I
dare not show our respectable faces at all, to go
there and pick up Christ's children out of the
gutter, and tell them they are heirs of heaven ;
to rescue the harlots from the pavement, and to
bring the drunkard and thief to penitence.'' Is
it rationalism which is doing all this? I think
nol.— Rev. C. L. Acland.
2 Rationalism affords no ground-work for
moral obligation.
[1079] The idea of goodness is something
radically different from the idea of pleasure,
happiness, or prosperity, whether of the indi-
vidual, the tribe, or the whole human race.
The idea of a being who sacrifices all for the
good of others is the idea of a very good being,
but not necessarily of a happy one. The idea
of goodness is generally accompanied by a
feeling of complacency, but it need not be so.
Moral goodness is a sort of rational instinct,
and its existence is necessary to form a perfect
man, but moral truth may be both clearly per-
ceived and hated. Moreover the goodness of
acts is measured, as all men (save the few who
have an eccentric theory to maintain) agree to
declare, by the motives which prompt actions,
and not by the results of the acts performed.
It is abundantly evident that no collection of
sensuous experiences can generate the ideas of
goodness. This truth cuts the ground from
under — renders simply impossible — the view
that a judgment as to moral obligation can ever
have been evolved from mere likings and dis-
likings, or from feelings of preference for tribal
interests over individual ones. — P7-of. Mivart in
Br it is Ii (2uarterly Revie^u.
III. Confutations of this System.
I All nature is a mystery equally with re-
ligion.
[1080] Herbert Spencer ("First Principles of
a New Philosophy," p. 45) says that in nature
there is the omnipresence of something which
passes comprehension, and that this inscrutable
Power is believed in alike by science and re-
ligion. Professors Tyndall and Huxley speak
in similar language. This Power " declines all
intellectual manipulation," Tyndall says. There-
fore all science leads up to the fixed belief
of that which is admitlQ^Llly incomprehensible,
thereby overturning the fundamental postulate
of rationalism. — /. »S".
THE FORCES OPPOSED TO CHRISTIANITY.
189
[neology.
2 Scientific knowledge continually enlarges
the horizon of mystery.
[1081] Positive knowledge does not, and never
can, fill the vi^hole region of possible thought.
At the utmost reach of discovery there arises,
and must ever arise, the question, What lies
beyond ? Science is a gradually increasing
sphere, and every addition to its surface does
but bring it into wider contact with surrounding
ignorance. — H. Spencer, hirst Principles.
3 Rationalism is the uselessly leaving the
province of reason.
[1082] The only sphere of knowledge in re-
ligion, as in natural things, is the relation of
objects to ourselves — that fire burns, that clothing
warms, that food nourishes ; but why, how, these
effects are produced, and what is the essence
and nature of things, is a mystery which ration-
alism cannot solve ; though reason accepts the
facts and sees the benefits : and the same is
equally true of religion and its doctrines. — B. G.
4 That cannot be truly rational which is
morally injurious.
[1083] It has ever been a great evil in the j
Church that men have allowed the logical un
derstanding, or what they call their reason, to j
lead them to conclusions which arc not only
contrary to Scripture, but which do violence to
our moral nature. It is conceded that nothing
contrary to reason can be true ; but it is no less
important to remember that nothing contrary to
our moral nature can be true. — Dr. Hodge,
Systematic Tlieology.
5 Practical knowledge is the only wisdom
and true rationality.
[loS.^] The first and main question should be.
What is true to tiie renewed heart r and not
merely, What is true to the understanding? So
legitimate and powerful is this inward teaching
of the Spirit, that it is no uncommon thing to find
men having two theologies — one of the intellect,
another of the heart ; the one finding expression
in creeds and systems, the other in prayers and
hvmns. — Ibid.
90
NEOLOGY.
I. Its Definition and Mistaken At-
TEJ^IPT.
[1085] From Greek vkoq — new, and \oyoc, —
speech, discourse, reason, or science. Nihilism
is Nothingis/n, Neology is Newisni; it is mainly
another term for rationalism in religion. It is
of the "advance" party, who assume that what
is old is obsolete; though King Lear, addressing
the stars, asks them to pity him, an old man,
" since ye yottrselvcs are old." Religion was
complete in its fundamental documents some
two thousand years ago; and admits of no
" discovery '' of any new truth, but only with
regard to definition, practical application, ter-
minology, and practice.
If newness is the quality of truth or rationality,
there is no permanent truth, and present neo-
logy should be set aside for another "phase of
faith."— j5. G.
II. Its Origin.
I Attributed to Coleridge.
[10S6] Coleridge is the origin of all this
modern English lationalism : ''The compati-
bility of a document {i.e., of the statements in
it), with the conclusions of self-evident reason
and with the laws of conscience, is a condition
a priori of any evidence, adequate to the proof
of its being revealed of God." And, " There
are mysteries in Christianity ; but these are
reason, in its highest form of self-affirmation."
[These words are cited in " Essays and Reviews,"
by Dr. Pattison, "The Ground of Truth," p. 263.]
[1087] Coleridge would turn in his grave to
find such use of his metaphysics, which were
intended as a defence of orthodoxy. —^. G.
I III. Its Underlying Errors.
[1088] The two underlying errors of neology
are, first, the conscience above the scriptures ;
secondly, the supremacy of reason in matters of
religion. Both these statements are very simi-
lar. " Man's reason supreme in religious
matters" only differs from "conscience supreme
above the Bible " in that conscience is the
larger faculty of«the two ; for it receives religious
impressions of fact and ideas as well as forms
final decision respecting them, whereas reason
does not receive impressions. Reason has a
work indeed, distinct from conscience, of com-
bining and separating ideas and facts, and
then of generalizing and abstracting ; but even
in forming moral conclusions, conscience un-
questionably bears a part, and becomes then
twin or one with reason, and assists afterwards
in marshalling the facts and ideas. If then he
says that reason is supreme, he must include
conscience, and the two expressions are nearly
tantamount.
But while we limit rationalizing in theology,
we cannot afford to forget for a moment the
services of reason and conscience. It is theirs
even to determine where their own jurisdiction
ceases, on account of the inadequacy of their
powers : and it lies equally with them to deter-
mine the true meaning of the Scripture : but
not on the principle that, when their undoubted
interpretation of it goes contrary to what would
be their own independent decision, that decision
is right, and that interpretation wrong. Man's
reason is but a servant to our all-wise Maker ;
and to His undoubted word, reason must bow.
If reason does not bow, it can only be defended,
even for a moment, on the false ground that the
Bible is not, or is not all, God's word ; or is not
God's word to such an extent that reason is
190
I088-I092]
THE FORCES OPPOSED TO CHRISTIANITY.
[freethought.
called on to submit to it. And what kind of
Bible we have on this hypothesis, this very book
(" Essays and Reviews "j has shown us.
The most illustrative anecdote I know, I can
but imperfectly recite. " Nay," said a learned
man to a great king, " experience and logic are
both against your majesty." His majesty
coolly replied, " So much the worse for logic
and experience!" What was presumption, in
word at least, in the case of a mortal king, is
all logic and philosophy regarding the word of
the King of kings. If the 15ible is not equal to
the encounter, it is no Eible. It must be su-
preme, even when it scans to oppose reason and
conscience. fJut it only does so really when
they are both in error : and no doubt they often
are. This is the second error in this essay,
viz., making reason supreme. Dr. Pattison
might only carry it to the length of rationalism :
but its natural course, in fallen men, may be to
the length of deism and atheism. — Rev. Charles
Herbert, Neology 7iot Trice.
[1089] Reason and conscience cannot be
above revelation ; but, when properly enlight-
ened, may judge of its claims, and must then
submit to its direction.
IV. Its General Purport and Scope.
I The introduction of much sceptical un-
certainty into the chief departments of
theology.
[1090] It is most desirable to define our terms :
and Dr. Morell says that the word " neology,"
"as a distinctive and significant expression, has
become absolutely without any other meaning
than" "something which is new to us, or differs
from our system." I can accept this definition,
for it is really in this sense that I use the term.
I mean by it certain opinions which differ, as
I maintain, from the doctrines of the Church
of England and other accordant communities ;
and which are new, to a great extent, to us,
in that their rise amongst us was chronologi-
cally coincident with the decline of that de-
velopment of religious thought and practice on
which Dr. Benson fixed the convenient and in-
oftensive name of Tractarianism. The general
purport and scope of these new opinions has
been to introduce much sceptical uncertainty
into the chief departments both of religion and
theology. Whether this new mode of thought
be true or no, the readers of this and other
books will judge. But if any particular answer
is desired to the question what I designate by
that general term, it is surely a fair method of
adding specialty to my general description if I
say that in the doctrines, which I extract from
the latest works of three leading writers of that
school, is seen a part of what I mean by neology.
The writers of this class must be dealt with one
by one, for they have no general confession ;
and it would be outrageously unjust to lay to the
door of two at least of my authors the throwing
open of the floodgates of doubt in " the seven "
Essays and Reviews. — Rev. Charles Herbo-f,
Neology not 7 rue.
V. Its Tactics.
[1091] Antagonism and variance between
man's moral faculties and Scripture, and man's
scientific faculties and Scripture, have often
originated from confounding man's glosses upon
Scripture with the word itself; and man's ialse
inferences, when they have long lain and en-
crusted themselves upon it, have to be roughly
chiselled and heated with strong solvents, and
even ground away, if we would honestly arrive
at the true jewel of God's revealed wisdom
beneath. All, then, who are able to bring a
larger portion of the utterances of God into
real harmony with the general judgments of
men, and to justify the words of God to man's
understanding, are great benefactors to Chris-
tian nations. — Ibid.
91
FREE THO UGHT.
I. Its Nature and Fallacies.
[1092] (i) Freethought and freethinker are
names fondly used by those who teach the
impossibility of freethought, and who deny in
effect, if not in words, that any one can be a
freethinker.
(2) The doctrine of causation, or necessary
sequence, by which no event, or action, or
thought, or will, can possibly be otherwise than
it is, makes freethought an absurdity according
to the opinions of so-called freethinkers them-
selves.
{3) The denial of responsibility for belief, or
thought and opinion, on the ground that our
opinions, thoughts, or beliefs are necessitated
by organization and circumstances, as main-
tained by the same professed and self-styled
freethinkers, proves that, on their principles, the
freethought which they profess is impossible.
(4) This line of argument was once answered,
in a way of concession and evasion, by a noted
freethinker, in a public oral discussion. That
freethinker said in effect : We do not say that
thought is free, but we say that we are free-
thinkers as claiming to be under no priestly
compulsion, and deserving no legal punishment
for our opinions. This was the answer given to
the preceding arguments, proving freethought,
in the mouth of a professed freethinker, is a
contradiction of the same self-styled freethinker's
teachings.
(5) This admits that, on their own showing,
thought is not free ; and the claim to be free
from the dictation of priests and from human
penalties for opinions is, in its first part, only a
Protestant doctrine, and in its second part a
question of general utility and of civil freedom,
but is not a cjuestion of freedom of thinking.
At most it refers not to thinking at all — for
which we can be responsible only to C^id — but
a question of speaking gr writing, for which we
may be responsible to men.
THE FORCES OPPOSED TO CHRISTIANITY.
1092-1098]
191
[evolution.
(6) The name "bigots" is applied by pre-
tended freethinkers to all who do not think in
the so-called "freethinking" groove.
(7) No self-styled freethinker would permit
that title as suitable to a Christian man, who
may be, and who is, as free in his thinking as
any unbeliever in Christianity. This they are
too liberal to admit.
(8) To be freethinkers we must subscribe to
their articles, and be forced to think as they do.
It is the curious boast of the leader of certain
so-called freethinkers that he is regarded as
'■'■ doing the thinking FOR" them. So that his
freethinking followers are free from thinking ;
and it has been proved that every principle
which he himself holds or professes is second-
hand, and therefore his freethought is the echo
of other people's opinions, just as the opinions
of his followers are the echo of his, and are
fabricated or adopted by him for them.
(9) Therefore freethought, as used by its
adherents and professors, is a cant term, and
it is time this was understood more generally. —
B. G.
[1093] Freethought is a self-condemned term
on the lips of those wlio deny the freedom of
man, and regard him as the mere creature of
circumstances. Freedom from the influence of
all creeds is utterly impossible, as the language
and literature of the world is saturated and im-
pregnated with creeds and systeins and schools
of thought. If we could be free 10 think unin-
fluenced by the world of existing thought, we
should be crude indeed in our notions. Free-
thought then would be free from thought — at
least true thought. What we have to do is to
be free, not from creeds and systems (which will
be impossible, and, if possible, would be posi-
tively hurtful), but from prejudice, prepossessions,
and other idols of the mind. The so-called free-
thinker has no right to claim that, as regards
freedom in its true sense, he is superior to the
" free man in Christ." — C. N.
[1094] As those who desert the temple of faith
find themselves in the gloomy caverns of super-
stition, so the would-be freethinkers are possibly
more manacled than their neighbours. — C. N.
[1095] There is a current in human thought
like those in various parts of the ocean, and it
is precisely when the ship is set free, and the
anchors drawn, and the cables hauled in, that
the current is most felt. It is the free ship
which is its unresisting victim. What, we may
ask, is meant by the phrase so often heard at
present, that " a wave of sentiment," " a demo-
cratic wave," "an atheistic wave," is passing-
over European nations ; what, but that men
yield themselves captive to the prevailing s^^n-
timent of the society in which they move, and
whilst they imagine themselves free are driven
by a current that is in truth their master. —
Church Quarterly.
II. Its Inevitable Tendency to Posi-
tivism.
[1096] In my last lecture I gave a sketch of
the progress of free thought in this country, and
showed that it is tending to sink towards positi-
vism. But this negative philosophy cannot last
any great length of time. Persons cannot live
long, for they cannot breathe, in a vacuum. A
terrible wind will rush in to fill up the void when
it begins to be felt. If men's heads do not dis-
cover the fallacy, their hearts will turn away
from the emptiness. But, meanwhile, the move-
ment has its course to run : and, as it does so,
it will freeze by its coldness much blood at the
heart, which would otherwise be felt vitally in
every member of the frame, and go forth in
practical activity ; nay, as it is dragged along it
may crush much life under its Juggernaut wheels.
But before it closes its course it must assume
another form : it will become a prevailing mate-
rialism.— James McCosh, Christianity and Posi-
tivism.
92
UNIT ARIA NISM.
[1097] (i) Unitarianism, like many other
names for doctrines, and badges of sects, does
not really indicate the differences between its
adherents and other bodies of professors. It
in fact expresses the point in which all are
agreed, not the points wherein those called
Unitarians recede from the orthodox faith.
(2) Unitarianism, as to the word, is mono-
theism ; as to its application, it is simply opposed
to Trinitarianism, but it is not opposed to Trini-
tarianism in its etymological force. "The
Trinity in Unity and the Unity in Trinity" is
recognized, "not confounding the peisons nor
dividing the substance." Unitarianism, in its
application to the opinions of those professing it,
is a flexible term, and ranges from rationalism,
neology, deism, to the very edge of orthodox
evangelical religion. It includes Dr. Priestly
and James Martineau. In general, besides
rejecting the doctrine of the Trinity, it excludes
the atonement, which rests on the true divinity
of Christ. The name " Unitarian " refers
directly to the rejection of the doctrine of the
Trinity, which, however, as before said, is itself a
doctrine of unity — Tri-unity being the etymology
of Trinity. — B. G.
93
E vol UTIOiV.
I. Its Definition and Fallacies.
[1098] (i) Evolution is the abacadabra of
scientific conjuration, the mystic spell or charm
and magic word that is to carry on or account
[92
1098- I 104]
THE FORCES OPPOSED TO CHRISTIANITY.
[evolution.
for the processes in nature, without the too
close proximity of the Presiding Ruler.
(2) Somctimps the evolutionist admits Divine
agency both in starting and carrying on the
process, and assures us that he " does not
exclude God," but " methinks he doth protest
too much."
(3) Evolution is a name under which chance
is masked, and transformed into the source of
consecutive and orderly series of events or
productions.
(4) Our " Ephesians of the modern church "
sometimes have '" Law " as their " great goddess
Diana;" here it is "Evolution." Nothing is
produced by a Maker, but one thing is evolved
from another, and all is plain — and at least the
explanation is muddy, if not profound.
(5) We ask for a key to unlock the secrets
of nature ; and in place of a key that will turn
the lock we are favoured with a patent word —
Evolution.
(6) It is a theory or phraseology evolved out of
scientific consciousness. There is a gradation
in things, and so one comes from another.
(7) The supposed elder and simpler, are pro-
genitors, though sometimes the product and the
producer are for a long time contemporaneous.
(8) The mollusc, the monkey, and the man
live side by side; but why the "protoplasms "
from which they are all evolved, and which
started together, or have existed for ever, did
not keep pace with each other in development,
is not yet evolved or expounded.
(9) A spear is evolved into a cross-bow, Brown
Bess, needle-gun, and, finally, cannon. The
great gun called the " Woolwich infant" is evolved
from its parent stem, " Colt's revolver."
(10) An acorn is evolved into an oak, which
is evolved into ships called "hearts of oak."
Clay is evolved into bricks, and then into houses^
— all by a consecutive orderly course of nature,
which every one can trace, and explain the whole
by evolution— that is without human interposi-
tion ; and so nature's products are equally, and
no more, solved by evolution without Divine
interposition and presidency. — B. G.
II. Its Phases.
[1099] Theories of development or evolution.
— Of these there are three phases : Cosmical
development, physiological development, and
historical development, i. Cosmical develop-
ment. This undertakes to account for the
origin, forms, and motions of the planets and
systems that constitute the physical universe,
and for their physical constitution, and for the
universe itself. 2. Physioloi^ical development.
This undertakes to account for all life and
varieties of life, both animal and vegetable, by
what are called laws of nature, or natural law.
3. Historical development. This undertakes to
account for the progress of the human race in
arts, civilization, science, government, social and
domestic life, religion and morality ; and for all
rational, moral, and religious ideas and svstems,
by natural law or laws of nature.— C"Aj;7.- Draden,
The Problem 0/ Froilems^
III. Its Distinctive Schools.
[i -Q-)] There have been at least three schools
of cv )lutionists : those who deny the Divine
existence, t'.iose who ignoie it, and those who
affirm it ; or the atheistic, the agnostic, and the
theibtic— A'^T/. Joseph Cook, Boston Lectures.
IV. Pleas put forward in its Favour
BY its Christian Advocates.
1 It does honour to the Divine Wisdom.
[iioi] Creative evolution, therefore, is a per-
fectly intelligible and legitimate hypothesis. It
is perfectly in harmony with "the arguments of
such writers as Paley, Bell, and Chalmers " (and
1 may add, with the first chapter of Genesis),
as any hypothesis of " independent creation
of species." Natural theology can have no
possible quarrel with any hypothesis which
seeks rationally and reverently to trace the lines
along which Almighty Power has been guided
by Omniscient Wisdom. — Dr. Etcstace Conder
in Contemporary Review.
2 It does honour to the Divine Omniscience.
[1102] Matter and energy, such as we know
them, appear to be practically coming to an end,
and we seem almost forced to believe that their
original position and properties must have been
impressed upon them by some Power apart from
either. Supposing this to be the case, the
Power who gave the atoms their position and
properties must, from a knowledge of these,
almost necessarily have been able, not only to
declare the end from the beginning (Isaiah xlvi.
10), but to know what was going on in every
space and at every time, and must indeed be
not only omnipotent, but omniscient. '1 hus in
the doctrine of evolution, carried to its very
remotest limits, there is nothing atheistic, but
the very reverse. — Dr. Lander Brunton, Bible
and Science.
3 It does not interfere with faith in the
personal communion of God with the
soul.
[1103] Whatever of truth there may be in the
doctrines so ably advocated by the great scientist
whom we have lately lost [Darwin] amounts,
from the religious point of view, to no more
than an extension of our knowledge of the
sphere of secondary laws. The fundamental
doctrine of the theist is left precisely as it was.
The belief in the great Creator and Ruler of the
universe is confessed by the author of these
doctrines. The grounds remain untouched of
faith in the personal Deity who is in intimate
relation with individual souls, who is their guide
and helper in life, and who can be trusted in re-
gard io the great hereafter. — Church Quarterly.
4 It leaves room for creative and directive
Divine energy.
[i 104.] Spirit is essentially energy, and the God
who is a spirit can never be inactive, but must be
THE FORCES OPPOSED TO CHRISTIANITY.
1104-1111]
[evolution.
f93
everywhere and at every moment a living Force,
a producing and efi^cient Will. Continuous and
universal action is given in the very idea of
God ; it is impossible to conceive them without
receiving it. Then, as to His relation to Nature,
it is, and must be, natural. I utterly refuse to
conceive nature as the antithesis of God, inde-
pendent of Him, going its own way, doing its
own work, without, save at special moments,
any care or concern or touch of His. I utterly
refuse to regard His action in nature as super-
natural cr miraculous, as interposition or inter-
ference from without, possible only by a violation
of what men call Law. Nature has no being
without God ; its energies are His, its processes
are His, His are the works it is daily performing,
His the results it daily achieves. And this con-
ception of their relations is based on the nature
of Nature as well as of God. It came into
being tlirough its cause ; it is only as its cause
is ; continues to be and to act only as the cause
abides unchanged and unchangeable. And on
His side isolation is impossible ; were He to
withdraw from the world He would surrender
His infinitude, sacrifice His omnipotence to
inaction, and reduce His wisdom to silence. In
evolution, then, the creative action does not
exclude God ; its process is one that only the
more demands the exercise of His energy and
the direction of His will. — Dr. A. M. Fairbaini
in Contemporary Review.
[i 105] The evolutionary process, supposing it
to exist, must have had a beginning : who began
it.'' It must have had material to work with :
who furnished it.-" It is itself a law or system
of laws : who enacted them ? Even supposing
that the theory represents absolute truth, and is
not merely a provisional way of looking at things
incidental to the present stage of knowledge,
these great questions are just as little to be
decided by physical science now, as they were
when Moses wrote the Pentateuch ; but there
are apparently three important gaps in the
evolutionary sequence which it is well to bear
in mind. There is the greater gap between the
highest animal instinct and the reflective, self-
measuring, self- analyzing thought of man. There
is the greater gap between life and the most
highly organized matter. There is the greatest
gap of all between matter and nothing. At
these three points, as far as we can see, the
Creative Will must have intervened otherwise
than by way of evolution out of existing ma-
terials— to create mind, to create life, to create
matter. — Canon Liddon.
5 It does honour to God as the Designer
of the universe.
[i 106] The whole course of nature may be the
embodiment of a preconcerted arrangement ;
and if the succession of events be explained by
transmutation, the perpetual adaptation of the
organic world to new conditions leaves the
argument in favour of dcsii^n, and therefore of a
Designer, as valid as ever. —Lyell, Afitiqieity of
Man.
VOL. I. 13
6 It explains and illustrates the hereditary
depravity in man.
[l 107] The Darwinian doctrine of evolution-
ary development — which, be it observed, has no
necessary or even natural connection with the
figment of spontaneous generation, which specu-
lative savants have tried to hang upon it— at
once and clearly explains how, if there ever was
evil in human nature, it innst of necessity be
persistent throughout the whole progeny of our
first parents ; and if the fathers sinned, their
children cannot by any possibility escape the
penalty of their offences. Thus science has by
one discovery removed the difficulty which has
perplexed the mind of man through countless
generations.— Zrt;«f^/ {April 15, 1882).
7 It does not necessarily imply the truth of
the particular theory known as Natural
Selection.
[1108] The theory of evolution is still very far
from being scientifically established ; and also,
if true, very far from standing in any antithesis
whatever to creation. It has been justly observed
by Mr. Row that there are undoubtedly "indi-
cations that in the formation of the universe the
Creator has acted through the agency of means,
and not by direct action." He adds, however,
very properly, that it is quite another question
whether this be an entire account of the matter.
(See Row, " Principles of Modern Pantheistic
and Atheistic Philosophy;" compare also the
special work of St. Clair, " Creation by Evo-
lution.") It need scarcely be added that the
evolution here referred to does not by any means
involve or imply the truth of the particular
theory known by the name of Natural Selection.
The one is a broad principle for which there
certainly seems some evidence ; the other is a
special exemplification of it, against which, as
originally defined, there lie apparently insuper-
able objections. — Bishop Ellicott, Moderti Un-
belief.
[1109] The selection and preservation, and we
may say the education, of the actual forms and
adaptations, may be scientifically accounted for,
but not their origination. The origination is the
essential thing.— Z'r. Asa Cray in Contemporary
Review.
v. onjections urged against th""s
Theory.
1 From the study of comparative anatomy,
[i 1 10] In the highest apes the capacity of the
cranium is thirty-four inches, while the skeleton
is not fitted for an erect position, and the fore-
limbs are essential to locomotion ; but in the
lowest existing men the capacity of the cranium
is sixty-eight mches, every bone is made for the
erect position, and the fore-limbs are wholly
taken from the ground and have other and
higher uses. — Professor Dana, Geology.
2 From the evidence of geology and experi-
ence.
[nil] No remains bear evidence to less per-
194
THE FORCES OPPOSED TO CHRISTIANITY.
azo]
[evolutiox.
tect erectness of structure than in civilized man,
or to any nearer approach to the ape in essential
characteristics. — Ibid.
[i 112] The following are well -ascertained
facts : —
1st. The a?e of man is small, extending only
to a few thousand years.
2nd. Man appeared suddenly : the most
ancient man known to us is not essentially differ-
ent from the now living man.
3rd. Transitions from the ape to the man, or
the man to the ape, are nowhere found. — Rev.
Frederick Pfarff, Fresefii-Day Tracts.
3 From common-sense and rational grounds.
[11 13] A good sort of man is this Darwin, and
well-meaning, but with very little intellect. Ah,
'tis a sad, a terrible thing to see nigh a whole
generation of men and women, professing to be
cultivated, looking round in a purblind fashion,
and finding no God in this universe. I suppose
it is a reaction from the reign of cant and hollow
pretence, men professing to believe what in fact
they do not believe. And this is what we have
got to. All things from frogs' spawn ; the gospel
of dirt the order of the day. The older I grow
— and I now stand upon the brink of eternity —
the more comes back to me tlie sentence in the
catechism which I learned when a child, and
the fuller and deeper its meaning becomes,
" What is the chief end of man .'"' " To glorify
God, and enjoy Him for ever." No gospel of
dirt, teaching that men have descended from
frogs through monkeys can ever set that aside.
— Carlyle in The Times {Jan. 17, 1877).
4 From its three breaches of continuity.
[l 1 14] The doctrine oi evolution (the doctrine
that the various species of animals and plants
have been evolved through the action of natural
causes from antecedent animals and plants of
different kinds) hiis been exaggerated by enthu-
si;\sts into the assertion that the whole material
universe has been evolved by one continued
process, without any kind of breacJi in its nni-
form continuity., and this in the face of three
evident breaches of continuity occasioned by
(i) the difference between the living and the
non-living ; (2) the difference between sentiency
and the absence of sentiency ; and 13) the differ-
ence between intellect and the absence of intel-
lect.— Professor Mivnrt in British (2uarterly
Review.
5 From its failing to contribute anything to
the philosophy of causality.
[11 1 5] Evolution is one of the strongest pos-
sible attestations of the dominion of thought in
the universe, and not of the contrary. Involution
is oti'y a inethod of effectuation. It implies (i)
a designer of the method ; (2) an operator of
the method. Evolution possesses no efficiency.
He who contents himself with discovering this
method in nature contributes nothing to the
philosoph>y of causality. He leads us along the
rills of phenomena, but only tantalizes the innate
thirst to drink from the fountain of truth. — Dr.
Winchell, Science atid Rcliifion.
[11 16] And so a writer in "The British
Quarterly Review:'"' "Even those who main-
tain the development theory, and even if tlicy
hold the co-eternity of matter, must rest their
theory of the universe on a primal mij-acle, by
which the first substance was endowed with
energies and laws that would unfold into all the
varieties of animate and inanimate nature. ' —
British (2uarterly Review {fan., iSti).
6 From physiological considerations.
[11 17] For the dev-elopment of man, gifted
with high reason and will, and thus made a
power above nature, there was required a special
act of a Being above nature, whose supreme
will was not only the source of natural law, but
the working force of nature itself — American
Journal of Science and Art {Oct., 18761.
7 From the unexplained stoppage of its
progress.
[i 1 18] We have no fact before us which would
permit us to accept the conclusion that the
oldest inhabitants of the earth, of whom we have
as yet any information, were not on the same
level as the majority of the now living popula-
tion. In short, according to their physical con-
stitution, the oldest men of whom we have
information were not nearer to the brutes than
those now living. The longer the interval of
time placed between our times and the so-called
pahpoiithic men, the more ominous and destruc-
tive for the theory of the gradual development
of man from the animal kingdom is the result
stated, seeing that the older we reciard man in
general to be, according to the theory of a
ceaseless progressive development of all living
creatures, it is incomprehensible how no per-
ceptible advance has taken place in those long
periods. — Rev. Frederick Ffarff".
[11 19] Has evolution died out ? If not, why is
man stationary as man, and why is he not over-
taken by all the other organizations ? If there
is such a law as that of evolution in force, how
comes it that such series as have been referred
to exist now ? Why do protoi^ens as well as
men appear at this time ? Why are not all
species and genera developed into men, &c. ?
and why do not men themselves show any sign
of being developed into something higher? Are
not the species, which form the gradation relied
upon, really the ends of so many parallel lines
reaching back into the far past, and therefore a
proof that the doctrine of evolution is untrue?
certainly no proof of its truth. — Christian
E:'idence Journal.
[1120] Evolution only moves the difficulty
further back — if there be a difliculty. The
Divine hand may make tlie clock, but not wind
it up, nor regulate its going. — B. G.
THE FORCES OPPOSED TO CHRISTIANITY.
195
1-1126]
[PHILOSOPHl
CAI. COSMOLOGY.
8 The puerility of its usual hypothesis.
[1121] "Spontaneous Generation," not less
than "Transmutation of Species," is merely "a
puerile hypothesis." But on these two dogmas
the theory of agnostic evolution is absolutely
dependent. By means of the support derived
from them— if only they themselves could have
been made to stand— it might have stood ; but
with their fall, it also comes to the ground. Its
relation to them renders its fate mevitable.
The instability of the superstructure is msepar-
ably connected with the insecurity of the foun-
dation.
[1122] The latest form of evolution asserts
that God made the types, but that they print
themselves without external aid.— /?^z/. Joseph
Cook, Boston Lcctutcs.
9 From the facts of animal biology.
[i 123] If we take, as the most favourable case
for the evolutionist, the most sagacious of the
lower animals— the dog, for example— and com-
pare it with the least elevated condition of the
human mind, as observed in the child or the
savage, we shall find that even here there is
something more than that "immense difference
in degree" which Darwin himself admits.
Making everv allowance for similarities in ex-
ternal lense, 'in certain instinctive powers and
appetites, and even in the power of comparison,
and in certain passions and affections ; and
admitting, though we cannot be certain of this,
that, in these, man differs from animals only in
degree, there remain other and more important
differences, amounting to the possession, on the
part of man, of powers not existing at all in
animals. Of this kind are— first, the faculty of
reaching abstract and general truth, and con-
sequently of reasoning, in the proper sense of
the term ; secondly, in connection with this, the
power of indefinite increase in knowledge, and
in deductions therefrom leading to practical
results ; thirdly, the power of expressing thought
in speech ; fourthly, the power of arriving at
ideas of right and 'wrong, and thus becoming a
responsible and free agent. Lastly, we have the
conception of higher spiritual intelligence, of
supreme power and Divinity, and the conse-
quent feeling of religious obligation. These
powers are evidently different in kind, rather
than in degree, from those of the brute, and
cannot be conceived to have arisen from the
latter, more especially as one of the distinctive
characters of these is their purely cyclical, repe-
titive, and unprogressive \\a\.\xx&.— Principal
Dawson in The Leisure Hour.
[1124] If it could be shown that there is a
st ige of barbarism in which man knows, feels,
and does nothing that might not be known, felt,
and done by an ape, this would not be sufficient
to reduce him to the level of the brute. There
would still be this broad distinction between
them— the one possesses a capacity for develop-
ment which the other does not possess. Under
favourable circumstances the savage will become
a reasoning, progressive, and moral man ; under
no circumstances can a similar transformation
be effected in the a.\,e.—Lecky, European Morals.
10 On account of the want of clearness in its
definition.
[1125] It is some comfort to know that our
friends the materialists have finally settled— to
their own satisfaction, at least— the difficulty
about the origin of all things. Herbert Spencer,
who is generally accepted as the high priest of
the new faith, may, we suppose, be taken as
good authority on the subject. In his "First
Principles of the Nev/ System of Philosophy"
occurs this luminous paragraph—
"Evolution is an integration of matter and a
concomitant dissipation of motion, during which
the matter passes from an indefinite, incoherent
homogeneity to a definite homogeneity, and
during which the retained motion undergoes a
parallel transformation."
That is exactly what we have always thought,
albeit we have never been able to put our ideas
in such a clear shape as this. Now we think
of it. however, it occurs to us that this definition
can be slightly improved. If we wished to be
criticallv exact in our analysis, we should say
that " Evolution is, strictly speaking, a homo-
logous development of helerosophic molecules,
differentiated by natural selection, and segrega-
ted by the survival of the fittest, from which
it results, through the correlation of forces,
that matter passes from the definite coherent
homogeneity of a tadpole into the incoherent
homogeneity of some people's brains." Now
that is a definition of "evolution" that we call
" exhaustive." Still, Herbert is an acknowledged
master of the whole subject. It is hazardous
to attempt to "gild refined gold." How much
clearer this " new philosophy" does make it all,
than the very "old philosophy," which simply
declares that " In the beginning God created
the heavens and the earth ! "
94
FHIL OSOPHICAL COSMO LOG V.
I. Its Tenets.
[1126] The philosophical cosmologist starts
from a point of inquiry at which he supposes
himself surrounded with a universe of pheno-
mena in cosmical arrangement. He regards it
as an assumption on the part of the theist or
the Christian to ascribe these phenomena to a
creative intelligence as their First Cause. The
philosophy which denies the possibility to
human thought of transcending phenomena
and reaching the Absolute and the Infinite,
which since the time of Kant has been the pre-
vaiUng philosophy of Europe, forbids the formu-
196
II26-
THE FORCES OPPOSED TO CHRISTIANITY.
134]
[SCIENTISM.
lating of any theory of the origin of the universe
de nihilo. The theist is opposed by the cos-
mologist, as phicing beyond the facts of sense
and reason the idea of God, which it is main-
tained is not given in that which comes under
the cognisance of our faculties. But some of
the profoundest thinkers of this school, as Mr.
Herbert Spencer, and perhaps it might be added
Mr. G. H. Lewes and Mr. J. S. Mill, have ad-
mitted that there are evidences which are ap-
preciable by the rational faculties of man, of
what is called a power beyond phenomena,
though there is no possibility of defining or
describing that power, nor of substantiating the
reality of its existence apart from the universe
itself as an effect in time and space. — R. A.
Redford, The Christianas Plea.
[1127] The language of the philosophical cos-
mologist, when stripped of its verbiage, really
amounts to this : he starts with a universe
ready made, and assumes that nobody made it.
II. The Impossible Position assumed in
THIS System.
[1128] If the philosophical cosmologist refuses
to consider the Power behind nature which
brought the universe into being, he cannot in
his scientific investigations shut his eyes, except
by mere perversity, to the Power behind nature
which sustains everything. The act of creation
is involved in that of preservation, and there is
no rational way of evading the question of the
Absolute and the Infinite, or the formulating
some theory as to the origin of the universe. —
C.N.
[1129] We protest against the ascription of
causality to the " laws of nature " which science
investigates. The methods of science can teach
us nothing but the order of phenomenal suc-
cession to which our expectations are to adjust
themselves ; and this, in spite of all the special
pleading of "acute analysis," does «tf/ fulfil our
idea of causation. The mind demands a Power
beneath the surface over which sense and
observation range, to evolve the serial order,
to marshal the punctual ranks of beneficent ancl
beautiful events. We think that Power cannot
in reason be otherwise conceived than as the
Living Will of God. — James Mariineau.
95
SCIENTISM.
I. Its Definition and Fallacies.
[11 30] Scientism is the tendency to recognize
as facts, only material or sensuous processes ;
and yet to frame really metaphysical theories
outside the sphere of merely physical and
material elements, and to dogmatize over the
region of philosophical thought, as if science
itself, in all its inquiries and inferences, were not
purely spiritual, and outside mere sensation-
alism.— B. G.
II. Inherent Defectiveness of the
System.
1 The world of spirit outside material
science.
[1131] I will not admit that the whole world
belongs to the men v/ho follow scientific truth
only in its physical relations. They mine into
the earth, they sink wells down and down ; but
at the bottom of their wells, looking upwards,
they do not see the whole range of truth. — Rev.
Joseph Cook, Boston Lectures.
[i 132] The plummet of physical science is not
the fitting instrument for discovering the Infinite
Spirit ; a higher organon is needed for this in-
vestigation. The universe they have sounded,
" broad and deep " though it be, is after all but
one sphere, and that the lowest, of the true
universe as it may be known to man. Physical
and physiological research can go far ; it has
gone so far of recent years that some Christians
have felt half-afraid lest it should succeed at
last in reducing the whole world of being under
the empire of mechanical necessity, prove men
to be "magnetic mockeries — cunning casts in
clay," and leave no room for religion. But all
such fears are quite groundless. Science can
go far, and the farther she can go the better ;
but she has found and she has recognized her
limit. Beyond the molecular changes in the
substance of the brain, further than the furthest
point to which scientific processes, the scientific
reason, even the scientific imagination, can go,
is the hyperphysical fact of consciousness.
And, with regard to this, science admits that
she knows nothing. Her far-reaching, deep-
searching analysis fails here. Her most delicate
instruments are too coarse to dissect a motive,
or weigh a desire, or measure the force of a
moral effort. She can only stand powerless
before the inexplicable undeniable facts and
say : " This knowledge is too wonderful for me :
it is high, I cannot attain unto it." — T. M.
Home, Expositor.
[11 33] Science, searching for the origin of
things, cannot find it in things themselves, and
is compelled, after all its endeavours, to give
the creation over to reason and conscience for
its final interpretation. It knows nothing by
which it can gainsay their assertion that on the
other side of the atoms is God. Beyond the
last conceivable subdivision of matter, beneath
the last imaginable centre of force, is the One
substance— the continuous, indivisible, omnipo-
tent, spiritual ground of existence, the living
God. — Newman Smyth, Old Faiths in AVtc
IJi^r/tt.
2 Material science is neutral in respect to
moral questions.
[1134] To say that science has its own
THE FORCES OPPOSED TO CHRISTIANITY.
[97
1134-
140J
[SCIENTISM.
morality is just as true as to say it has its
immoralit)'', for its discoveries can be and are
daily employed for immoral as truly as for
moral ends. If science discovers life-saving
apparatus, it discovers the horrible slaughter
machines which cut down human beings as the
autumn winds sweep off the leaves. If science
teaches how to detect adulterations of our food
and drink, it teaches also the most skilful
methods of adulteration. And soon ad injini-
tnin. Looking at all sides of the question, and
adding experience and observation, we feel that
the public generally cannot be too deeply con-
vinced of tiie fact that tliere is no moral force
or life in mere science, though it may become
most powerful as an instrument in the hands of
men actuated by moral principles, whether good
or bad. — Earl of Carnarvon.
3 Material science has no measure of moral
truth.
[1135] The perceptions of the senses are
undoubtedly the only guides we possess to a
knowledge of the material world, and the
inferences drawn from them by the faculties of
the understanding are the legitimate conquests
of physical science. But they entirely fail to
explain the higher functions of the intellect,
which are the domain of metaphysics ; still less
do we derive from the senses the moral laws of
justice, of truth, of charity, of conscience ; and
least of all, that conception of the supernatural
and the infinite which it is the glory of man to
trace in nature and in the emotions of the soul.
— Edinburgh Review.
4 Science can provide nothing better than
religion.
[1136] We may turn our backs on religion,
and repudiate revelation, but we have nothing
better to turn to. No single fact in science is
inconsistent with, cu- opposed to, the hypothesis-
of inspired or derived vitality, or the work of a
Creator. Indeed, there is a need for this or
some other hypothesis in the explication of
physiology. The scientist is at liberty to reject
j-eligion as an aid to science, but if he does
this on the ground that what religion has to
offer is hypothesis, he must on the same ground
reject the hypothesis of life as a property of
protoplasm. All true men know this. — Lancet.
III. SCIENTISM CONTRASTED WITH TRUE
Science.
[1137] Scientism is pedantry. Science itself
is modest and intelligent, and amongst other
points of knowledge knows its own place, and
keeps it. — B. G.
[1138] A fact is one thing, while theories,
hypotheses, doctrines— like that of evolution
itself — framed by men of genius so as to include
or account for facts, are quite another. These
theories may or may not be true, even if they
are brilliant and imposing ; they may for a
generation or for a century carry everything
before them in the world of thought ; but science
knows no finality, and while theories pass and
are forgotten, facts, like God's revelation of
Himself in Christ, remain. — Cation Liddoti.
IV. The Unwisdom of Scientific Men
TRAVELLING BEYOND THEIR OWN PRO-
VINCE.
[11 39] It is admitted that it is the province of
scientific men to discuss scientific questions ;
and that much injury to the cause of truth has
followed the attempts of men not devoted to
such pursuits undertaking to adjudicate in such
cases. Physicists are wont to take high ground
on this subject. Metaphysicians and theolo-
gians are not allowed to be heard on questions
of science. The rule must work both ways :
scientific men, devoted to the study of the
sensuous, are not entitled to be dictatorial in
what regards the supersensuous. A man ma.y
be so devoted to the examination of what his
senses reveal, as to come to believe that the
sensible alone is true and real. — Dr. C. Hodge,
Systematic Theology.
[i 140] The first and greatest wrong committed
by men of science is to mix up metaphysical
doctrines with science, and cleverly invest the
one with the authority of the other. Another
fault of scientific men is, on the one hand, an
almost total ignorance of the faith they attack ;
on the other, the misconception of the elements
which constitute science. — Pere Didon.
DIVISION E
( Continued).
THE FORCES OPPOSED TO
CHRISTIANITY.
[i] INFIDELITY.
(l) iii. Practical Phases.
Pages 199 to 204.
TABLE OF TOPICS.
96
INDIFfERENTISAI.
97
FORMALISM.
98
SUPERSTITION.
198
[99
DIVISION E
{Continued).
THE FORCES OPPOSED TO CHRISTIANITY.
[i] INFIDELITY {continued).
(i) ///, Its Practical Phases.
93
INDIFFERENTISM.
I. Its Definition and Fallacies.
[1141] In this case, no hostile attitude to the
generally received body of truth may be taken.
The doctrines respecting the Divine existence,
personality, providential government, and the
Bible redemption, may theoretically be admitted,
but there is a want of stern fidelity to these
doctrines. The truth is not, like a fortress,
stoutly assailed and bravely defended. But it
happens, either that those who are without pass
by and turn toward it a look of indifference ; or
that some of its professed guardians would shake
hands aiil-:e with friends and foes, persuade them
that their variance is a mere tnfie, and receive
the one as well as the other within the citadel.
The man does not go forth before us fully
equipped and boldly defying the armies of the
living God, but he shouts for a truce, alleges
that mere matters of opinion are not worth con-
tending for, and that a man is no more respon-
sible for his belief than he is for the colour of
his skin or the height of his stature. This
diluted kind of scepticism is large in its tolera-
tion. Not attaching much importance to any
kind of religious belief, it is indulgent towards
all. It cares not to assail by argument, or
otherwise, this creed or that ; and it cares as
little about defending what it may have adopted
as its own. It says. Leave me alone to the in-
dulgence of my opinion, and I will leave you to
the indulgence of yours. Different forms of re-
ligious belief are much the same in its estima-
tion, as the different-shaped or different-coloured
coats which men wear. And it is disposed to
think that the one sits with as little responsi-
bility on the conscience as the other does on
the back. It will stand up resolutely for a poli-
tical creed, and unsparingly denounce its oppo-
site ; it will have its favorite theory in science,
and argue keenly for it against every other ; it
will be engrossed with its land or merchandize,
and suffer nothing to interfere with the most
intense devotion thereto. But it has no zeal to
spend on religious opinions, it has no article in
theologv so dear as to muster up an argument
in Its defence, and it will suffer itself to be en-
grossed with anything or everything rather than
with the system of truth which it professes to
believe. It is indifferent itself toward religion,
and it cares little what quiet shape it may as-
sume in others. Gibbon, speakingofthe paganism
of ancient Rome, says, " the various modes of
worship which prevailed in the Roman world
were all considered by the people as equally
true, by the philosopher as equally false, and
by the magistrate as equally useful." The com-
ment of some one is, " after eighteen centuries
of the gospel, we seem unhappily to be coming
back to the same point." — Thomas Pearson.
II. Its Philosophy.
[l 142] The indifferent in the circles of the well-
instructed believe that they are able to infer
from the religious controversy, by which they
are on all sides surrounded, that in the region
of supernatural things nothing certain is to be
learned. They therefore consider it wiser not
to enter upon their consideration, and passively
to await what is only to be revealed as truth
or as a lovely dream. — D7-. KrinnniacJier, The
Relii;;ioiis Condition 0/ Christendom.
III. Its Origin.
[1143] It indicates an enfeebled sense of re-
sponsibility, or the existence somewhere of the
notion that religious belief is not a matter of
personal obligation for which we are accountable
to God. — Thomas Pearson.
IV. The Folly of its Various Phases.
I As seen in mere theoretical religion.
[1144] There are those who are theoretical
theists, but who are utterly indifferent to the
presence and claims of God, caring for none of
those things which involve fundamental obliga-
tions and the chief interests in life, dead to
God's eye and God's presence.
[ r 145] And the more any one doth only notion-
ally know in the matters of religion, so as that
the temper of his spirit remains altogether un-
suitable and opposite to the design and ten-
dency of the things known, the more he hath
lying ready to come in judgment against him :
and if therefore he count the things excellent
200
II4S-
THE FORCES OPPOSED TO CHRISTIANITY.
53l
[formalism.
which he knows, and only please himself with
his own knowledge of them, it is but a like case
as if a man should be much delighted to behold
his own condemnation written in a fair and
beautiful hand ; or as if one should be pleased
with the glittering of that sword which is directed
against his own heart, and must be the present
instrument of death to him. — J. Hoive.
2 As seen in a false liberalism.
[1146] What passes for charity is really, in
many cases, nothing but indiftcrence. The man
who prides himself on his liberal-mindedness is
often oniy one who, caring but little for the
principles which he professes, is, of course, not
disposed to resent very warmly the action of
those who set them at open defiance. But he
by whom those principles are really prized is
roused by it as by a personal insult. — 2'hoinas.
[l 147] Charity has nothing to do with opinions.
If they are false and evil prmciples, it is charity
to men to expose them ; if they are good prin-
ciples, it is not charity but justice to praise and
espouse them. — B. G.
3 As seen in the superfluous compliments
to heretical and infidel writers by the re-
ligious press.
[1148] I may specify, by way of example, the
reception that was given to the work entitled
" Supernatural Religion " two or three years
ago. It was spoken of by more than one reli-
gious periodical in terms of studious respect,
which now, after the searching criticisms of
Dr. Lightfoot in the ContcDiporary Review, and
the extremely able answer of Mr. Sanday, we
may certainly complain of as misplaced. Our
opponents ought always to receive at our hands
fairness and courtesy; but it becomes positively
mischievous, especially at a time like the pre-
sent, when there is such a distinct tendency to
consider everything as opinionable, to make
complimentary and concessive statements as to
the general tenor of sceptical arguments, until
a close investigation shall have proved, beyond
all reasonable doubt, that it is rigiit and equit-
able to make them. The harm done by these
reviews is excessive. — Bp. Ellicott.
[1149] This unnecessary and untrue compli-
menting of irreligious productions, in religious
reviews, is from an affectation of liberality, which
is simply treachery against the truth. — B. G.
[i 150] To actually go out of our way to praise
subtle and astute opponents for their knowledge
and gifts when perverted (and shown by faithful
champions of the truth to be so) is to act an
unreal and insincere part, or else to prove that
we do not regard our Christian privileges as in-
alienable, or those upon which we set much
value. Our plain duty is always to "eschew
the evil," and all the more so when it is con-
cealed amid a profuse parade of scholarship
likely to bewilder and unsettle the less instructed
and simpler-minded of our brethren, whom it is
the special province of the leaders of Christian
thought to protect. — C. N.
V. Hopeful Signs in Regard to its
Decrease.
[1151] Moreover, it is no little thing that so
much of the thinking of the day concerns itself
with religious questions. If faith is shaken, in-
quiry is not neglected. And surely it must be
better to be dimly groping after God afar off,
than to have a clear cold knowledge of Divine
truth and to be blankly indifferent about it.
But the most encouraging feature of modern
thought is its earnestness. Men ask Pilate"s
famous question, "What is truth?" not with
the sneer of the Roman voluptuary, to whom
truth was a matter of contempt, but in deep,
sad earnest. We are no Ipnger living in the
heartless age of Voltaire. Men are not now
inclined to follow Gibbon in disposing of Chris-
tianity with a sarcasm. With more earnestness
in the inquiry and more genuine humanity in
the hearts of the men who pursue it, surely there
is something hopeful even in the darkest doubt
of the age. — W. Acie/icy.
FORMALISM.
I. Its Nature.
[11 52] The formalist would no more think of
denying that man is responsible for his disposi-
tions, opinions, and conduct than of denying
that he thinks, feels, and acts. Words implying
moral agency and accountability are ever tlow-
ing over his lips, and yet his habitual sentiments
and conduct are such as could only be formed
under an habitual forgetfulness of Him whose
eyes behold and whose eyelids try the children
of men. There is no infidelity in theory, but
there is abundance of it in practice. In so far
as the mere letter of a creed is concerned, all
may be evangelical and correct ; but the inner
and outer man are as little influenced by it as
by the abrogated notions of the Ptolemaic
system. There is religion, but it is merely
professional and verbal. " The sign is taken
for the thing, the counter for the money." The
structure is complete as regards shape, size, and
bones ; but the flesh and blood, the sparkling
eye, and the agile limbs, are wanting. This is
what the Scripture means when it speaks of
men having the form of godliness, but denying
the power thereof. — Thomas Pearso/i.
[11 53] Formalism is the tendency of the mind
to rest m the mere externals of religion, to the
neglect of the inner life of religion itself. It is
just as when a cliild runs his lesson rapidly over
without heeding the import of the story which
he reads. It is just as Jf our knowledge of a
man was confined to his stature, to the shape
and colour of his coat ; so that, when his name
THE FORCES OPPOSED TO CHRISTIANITY.
:i53— "S7j
20I
[formalism.
is mentioned in our presence, we immediately
think of his size and dress, but nothing more.
It is the folly of valuing the tree for its bark,
instead of its goodly timber ; the folly of choos-
ing a book for its binding, irrespective of the
nature of its contents ; the folly of delighting m
painted windows and adorned walls, regardless
of the character of the society and accommoda-
tion within. It is the very essence of formalism
to set the outward institutions above the inward
truths, to be punctilious in going the round of
ceremonial observances while neglectful of
those spiritual sacrifices with which God is well
pleased, to substitute means m the room of
ends, and to rest in the type and symbol with-
out rising to the glorious reality. It will stand
up for the skeleton creed, though the Ufe be as
little influenced by it as by a mummy ; it will,
in the strength of its zeal, put on armour,
brandish weapons, guard the courts of the sanc-
tuary from unhallowed intrusion, and shout
lustily, " The temple of the Lord, the temple of
the Lord are we ; " while it lacks heart for
fighting the good fight of faith, and wrestling
with spiritual wickednesses. The church and
the sacraments, the symbol and the lettered
creed, fill the sphere of its vision, and draw
forth its devotion, to the almost utter exclusion
of those grand spiritual objects that are unseen
and eternal. Such, in general, is the character
of formalism. — Ibid.
II. Its Origin and Philosophy.
[i 154] Formalism is the result of two opposing
forces. The one of which will not let man live
without a religion, and, if undisturbed by hostile
influences, would lead him, spiritually, to worship
God who is a spirit. The other is of the earth,
earthy, and by its greater potency prevents the
former in the natural man from rising above
rites and ceremonies, above the symbol and the
lettered creed. An adjustment or compromise
of the claims of two rival parties takes place.
The one pointing the thoughts and affections
upward to God, and the other seeking to draw
them away from Him. Both are persuaded to
meet and shake hands over a religious form,
and thus the former is hbodwinl-;ed while the
latter triumphs. — Thomas Pearson.
[1155] It is easy to be a slave to the letter,
and difficult to enter into the spirit ; easy to
obey a number of outward rules, difficult to
enter intelligently and self-sacrificingly into the
will of God ; easy to entangle the soul in a net-
work of petty observances, difficult to yield the
obedience of an enlightened heart ; very easy to
embrace a self-satisfying and sanctimonious
system of rabbinical observances, ver)- difficult
to love God with all the heart.- — Canon Farrar,
Life of Clu'ist.
III. Its Phases.
I As seen in the religions of the ancient
heathen world.
[11 56] What were the creeds and rites of
Greece and Rome but splendid and imposing
systems of formalism .'' Objects of religious
worship met the Greek or Roman, wherever he
turned his eyes. Every street down which he
passed, every house into which he entered, every
fountain at which he drank, and the summit of
every little hill on which he stood, reminded him
of the divinities that he was to adore. Religion
blended itself with almost every piece of daily
business that he performed, with almost every
journey that he took, and with nearly every
amusement that he witnessed. There were
numerous and magnificent temples into which
he could enter. There was a gorgeous and
attractive mythology with which he was familiar.
There were statues and paintings everywhere,
on which unrivalled art depicted to his view
things sacred and divine. And there were rites
and ceremonies of the most engrossing descrip-
tion which he was ever called upon to observe.
But, amid all this sensible pomp and grandeur,
thei'e was no provision for the wants of the inner
man. Heathenism had no line to reach the
depths of human depravity, and no power to
raise man up from his degradation, to iDreak the
spell by which he was bound to sensual objects,
and to set his spirit free. It had no object of
religious worship fitted to call forth love, vene-
ration, gratitude ; and no body of truth that
could be instrumental in purifying and ennobling
man's mental powers, in connecting him with
the higher world, and renewing him after the
image of God. It was a system every way fitted
to gratify and strengthen the tendency in human
nature to rest in mere external symbols, regard-
less of spiritual and invisible realities. The
heathen duly went his round of religious obser-
vances, but it was merely a round of formalism.
—Ibid.
2 As seen in the domain of revealed religion.
( i) U7ider the Levitical economy.
[i 1 57J The tendency, in the domain of revealed
religion, to halt in mere forms, was strongly
evinced by the Hebrews. The Levitical economy,
containing a large machinery of divinely ap-
pointed rites and ceremonies, which, though
cumbersome compared with the dispensation of
the gospel, was admirably adapted to the state
of the Israelites, in conveying to their minds,
and preserving in the midst of them, those ele-
ments of L^ivine truth which have been fully
developed in all their simplicity and majesty in
the gospel age. But their history, as faithfully
recorded in Scripture, shows that their besetting
sin was to idolize the symbol, instead of rising
from it to the thing signified ; to go the mere
round of external observances, neglectful of the
cultivation of the heart and that spiritual wor-
ship which God requires. And it deserves
notice that, in the same record where the typical
and ritual system is so fully and minutely de-
tailed, the most strict cautions are given against
resting in it ; and the most terrible denuncia-
tions are uttered against those who substitute
the symbol in the place of the invisible reality.
THE FORCES OPPOSED TO CHRISTIANITY.
157-1162]
[formalism.
The burden of prophecy, while leading the mind
forward to the glory of the latter days, and seek-
ing to concentrate the thoughts in Him who was
emblematically represented in every lamb that
bled on the Hebrew altars, contained often a
strong rebuke to the hollow formalism that pre-
vailed. The divinely appointed rites were re-
pudiated as worthless, when men converted
them into idols, and failed to be led by them to
the high spiritual realities. " Hath the Lord,"
said Samuel to Saul, "as great delight in burnt-
offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying the voice
of the Lord "i Behold, to obey is better than
sacrifice, and to hearken than the fat of rams."
" To what purpose is the multitude of your
sacrifices unto me.''" was the question which
Jehovah addressed to the punctilious foimalists
among the ancient Hebrews. This system of
religious ceremonialism appeared in all its
odiousness in the Pharisees of the Gospels.
And it was against the men who were scrupu-
lously exact in paying tithe of mint, and anise,
and cummin, while regardless of the weightier
matters of the law— judgment, mercy, and faith,
that the meek and lowly Saviour pronounced
the most tremendous woes. Rigid adherence
to bare rites went hand in hand with the most
gross corruptions. Men would stand up and
stoutly contend for the mere letter of the law,
while shamelessly violating its spirit. The
formalism of the system was complete, and the
Amen, the faithful and true witness, denounced
the hypocrisy of its worshippeis. — Ibid.
(2) Under the Christian dispensation.
[1158] Under the shadow of Christianity, for-
malism soon grew up, and extended its cold,
withering influence for ages over the Church.
Judaizing teachers — the masters of forms— in-
sinuated themselves into the first Christian
societies, and insisted on the observance of
abrogated ceremonies as indispensable to sal-
vation. Apostolic influence and zeal, in a great
measure, thwarted their pernicious efforts, and
preserved the truth of God pure and unclogged.
But soon after the apostles had fallen asleep,
and the spiritual energy which they had infused
into the Church had diminished, the tendency
to exalt the material above the spiritual, and
bind up the living element of truth in a system
of forms, appeared almost unchecked. ' The
symbols were aggrandized.— //'/Vi'.
IV. Arguments against this System.
I Its utter failure to satisfy the great wants
of human nature.
(i) Its pfliverlessness to remove t lie burden of
i^^uilt.
[i 1 59] Formalism, whether gorgeous or naked,
can no more remove the condemning sentence
from the head, and root out depraved principles
from the heart, than saying to a destitute brother
or sister, be ye warmed and filled, can profit, if
we give them not those things that are needful
to the body. To look amid a mere ceremonial
for some power to atone and purify, were as
foolish and vain as to seek the living among
the dead. — Thomas Pearson.
[1160] As man cannot feed upon flowers, nor
his natural life be sustained by the most enrap-
turing music ; so, amid the most strict obser-
vance of even divinely appointed rites, he will,
if halting in them, remain, in the scriptural
sense of the expression, dead in trespasses and
sins. — Ibid.
[i 161] The use of a ladder is to ascend by it to
some lofty eminence ; but if men were merely to
run up and down the steps, and imagine that they
had reached the height to which it pointed, and
that they had beheld the view which the summit
commanded, they would be regarded as under
a strange hallucination. The hallucination is
not less real, and infinitely more dangerous, in
the man who goes the round of religious obser-
vances, stops short at them, builds upon them,
and deems himself all the while to have attainecl
to the position and character of a child of God
and an heir of heaven. It betrays a littleness
ot conception in reference to the character and
law of the great I AM, to suppose that, by mere
outward rites and ceremonies, men are to be
pardoned, sanctified, and saved. It manifests
a great lack of spiritual discernment, to regard
a punctilious attention to a ritual, and a reliance
on forms, as occupying the place, and answering
the ends, of faith and repentance, holy love, and
spiritual obedience. It is acting as if the reverse
of the proposition — and not the proposition
itself—were true : man looks upon the outward
appearance, but God looks upon the heart. —
Jbid.
(2) Its inefficacy to assimilate men to the
likeness of God.
[1162] If it be a religion merely formal, men
will observe its rites and pass through its forms
without throwing oft" any more of their impurity
and receiving any more of the beauties of holi-
ness, than if they paced to and fro the floor of
the gallery, amid cold marble statues. The man
of taste has stood amid some glorious amphi-
theatre of nature, and felt his soul elated by the
majesty of the hills, the green loveliness of the
valleys, the splendour of the setting sun, and
the concert of the rejoicing creation. He has
witnessed the same magnificence, and felt its
power over and over again. But when the ex-
citement of the imagination has been subdued,
and the charm has passed away like a dream,
and the man has fallen back upon himself, or
mingled with the world, his heart has been
found without God, and his life reflecting not a
ray of the Divine image. Thus making it manl-
iest that the formalism of taste, gratified though
it be by the grand and graceful in sceneiy, has,
in itself and independent of influences from
above, no efficacy whatever to purify the heart
and clothe man in moral beauty. The formalist
has gone up, demurely and punctually, to the
temple at the hour of prayer, and, whether it
has been amid the architectural splendour of
THE FORCES OPPOSED TO CHRISTIANITY.
168]
203
[formalism.
the cathedral where the peahng organ carries
the soul aloft, and gorgeous ceremonies are
observed ; or whether it be in the humble meet-
ing-house where psalms are plainly sung, and
the gospel is plainly preached, he has felt him-
self attracted and regaled as with a lovely song.
But it has been a mere round of formal excite-
ment, which has never moved the depths of the
heart to harmony with the will of God, and
thrown no hallowed comeliness over the life.
Thus showing that the ritual of a sanctuary, be
it splendid or simple, can of itself no more re-
generate the soul of man than the ritual of
material x\dX\xx&.~Ibid.
2 The pleasure found in spiritual religion
is not experienced.
[i 163] The creation is not so joyous and full of
life when a mass of dark clouds intercepts the
rays of the sun, as when that sun beams brightly
forth on hill and valley, and covers heaven and
earth with light as with a garment. God is a
sun. He is the infinite good. Nothing but a
living sensible communion with Him can dis-
place heaviness from the heart, and shed a holy
happiness over the life. Formalism interposes
thick shadows between the fountain of light and
the human soul. It is as when a man halts on
the somewhat bleak and rugged borders of a
lovely region, without ever entering into the
beautiful territory itself. P^orms were designed
by Him who knoweth our frame to be the means
by which we might ascend to the enjoyment of
Himself. But when the mind halts in the sym-
bol, instead of rising from it to the thing signi-
fied ; when the man runs up and down the
ladder, instead of reaching the eminence which
commands the glorious prospect, he loses the
enjoyment inseparable from intercourse with
the blissful reality. — Ibid.
[1164] There is a pleasure felt under the
shadow of the cathedral pile, derived from the
imposing splendour of the place, the enrapturing
music, and the rich ceremonial ; but it is a
pleasure different in kind, and vastly inferior in
degree to what is experienced by the man, ob-
servant it may be of the same forms, who rises
through them to Divine fellowship with the
Father of spirits and the God of his salvation.
And there is a pleasure, also, in going up to the
humble chapel, amid the hallowed calm of the
sabbath morning, and bearing a part in the
routine of its smiple services ; but that pleasure,
likewise, may have little or none of the life and
joy of godliness, and be as unlike the holy in-
ward happiness of the man who worships God
in spirit and in truth, as earth is unlike heaven.
Men do not gather grapes of thorns, nor figs of
thistles ; neither do they experience that joy
which is a fruit of the Spirit, in a religion which
is merely formal and not spiritual. — Ibid.
3 Its tendency is to intolerance,
[i 165] Men, in proportion as they are imbued
with the spirit of the gospel, have enlarged
hearts. Love is represented, in almost every
page of the New Testament, as the character-
istic of the Christian. It is not an attachment to
men merely because they are members of this
or that particular society, but because they be-
long to the church of the living God. It is not
entwined around a man because he bears a
humanly devised name, but because he v.ears in
his bosom, and shows in his life, the Saviour's
image. This holy principle looks beyond the
outward appearance, and fastens its regard on
that image, though it be found in a Lazarus sit-
ting in rags and seeking to be fed with the crumbs
of the rich man's table. Nor does it confine its
regards to those who are united to the common
Saviour, and are made partakers of the common
salvation. It looks on the wide world with an
eye of compassion, and feels towards it those
stirrings of benevolence which seek to save that
which is lost. It is like the sun in the firma-
ment which confines not his radiance to any
little spot on the surface of the earth, but spreads
it over the wide fields of creation. " Its going
forth is from the end of the heaven, and its cir-
cuit unto the ends of it : and there is nothing
hid from the heat thereof." Formalism engen-
ders a spirit the reverse of all this. It is secta-
rian. It is pent up within the pale of its own
community ; and whatever religious zeal it pos-
sesses, is spent on its own creed and ceremonies.
We see this in the Pharisees of the Gospels.
They were proud, haughty separatists. Men
who stood aloof from others on the ground of
mere outward observances. — Ibid.
[1166] The transition from separatism to a
rancorous fanaticism is easy and natural. The
full-blown separatist not only stands aloof from
other men and disregards their claims, but he
assumes towards them an attitude of scowling
defiance. He carries his hateful spirit into the
very exercises of the sanctuary, and utters his
denunciations at the altar. — Ibid.
[i 167] This odious system stings like a serpent
and bites like an adder at every species of
spiritual piety that crosses its path. It vanes in
the manifestation of its intolerance, from the
man v.'ho, like a sentinel, goes the round of his
own church observances, and inwardly says,
"the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord
are we," to the man who would erect the gibbet
and kindle the faggot for schismatics and heretics
and persuade himself that in thus acting he was
doing God service. — Ibid.
4 It is diametrically opposed to the spirit
and precepts of the gospel.
[i 168] There are two ways of destroying Chris-
tianity ; one is to deny it, the other to displace
it. To put the church above Christianity, the
hierarchy above the word of God ; to ask a man,
not whetljer he has received the Holy Ghost,
but whether he has received baptism trom the
hands of those who are termed successors of the
apostles and their delegates : all this may doubt-
204
THE FORCES OPPOSED TO CHRISTIANITY.
^74]
[superstition.
less flatter the pi id : of the natural man, but is
fundamentally opposed to the Bible, and aims a
fatal blow at the religion of Jesus Christ. If
God had intended that Christianity should, like
the Mosaic system, be chiefly an ecclesiastical,
sacerdotal, and hierarchical system. He would
have ordered and established it in the New Tes-
tament, as He did in the Old. But there is
nothing like this in the New Testament. All the
declarations of our Lord and of His apostles
tend to prove that the new religion given to the
world is "life and spirit," and not a new system
of priesthood and ordinances. " The kingdom
of God," saith Jesus, "cometh not with observa-
tion, neither shall they say : Lo here ! or lo there !
for behold the kingdom of God is within you."
" The kingdom of God is not meat and drink ;
but righteousness, and peace, and joy in the
Holy Ghost." .... Let us not, then, esteem
the bark above the sap, the body above the soul,
the form above the life, the visible church above
the invisible, the priest alaove the Holy Spirit.
Let us hate all sectarian, ecclesiastical, national,
or dissenting spirit ; but let us love Jesus Christ
in all sects, whether ecclesiastical, national, or
dissenting. " And as many as walk according
to this rule, peace be on them, and mercy, and
upon the Israel of God."' — UAtibigne.
98
SUPERSTITION.
I. Its Definition and Real Character.
[i 169] Superstition is an outward ecclesiastical
goodness that seeks to put God under obliga-
tion by unrequired services, or those which are
required and invented by men, and of which
God says, " Who hath required this at your
hands.?" — B. G.
[i 170] As a rule superstition is to be regarded
as a parody of faith, the latter being a belief
founded on credible authority or other sufficient
evidence ; while superstition is a belief on in-
sufficient evidence, or on no evidence at all.
While faith may, therefore, be called an eviden-
tial belief in things unseen (the highest evidence
of all being Divine revelation of them), super-
stition may be called a speculative belief, and
its tendency is towards credulity. — AVv. y. H.
Blunt.
[1171] Wherever God is apprehended as a
mere power to be pleaseci rather than as a living
source of light and blessing to all who trust in
Him, superstition is more or less present. And
worship, when directed to the outward vesture
of religion rather than its inward spirit, is of the
nature of superstition.
[i 172] Superstition as to rites and ceremonies
is the embodiment of formalism to compensate
for spiritual religion — B. G.
II. Its Relation to Atheism.
I The pendulum of thought oscillates be-
tween superstition and atheism.
(i) As illustrated in the case of Fratice.
[1173] Superstition led to atheism, and the
excesses of atheism drove men back to supersti-
tion. Even now in 1883 the freethought des-
potism of the Republic in repressing religion and
forbidding services of Roman Catholic priests
in hospital chapels tends to excite hostility to
pretended freethought, and pity and sympathy
for Roman Catholic priests and their suftering
people, if not for their form of religion.- — B. G.
(2) As illustrated in the case of England.
[1174] In this age, as in every other age of
materialism and practical atheism, a revulsion
in favour of superstition is at hand ; I may say
is taking place round us now. Doctrines are
tolerated as possibly true — persons are regarded
with respect and admiration who would have
been looked on, even fifty years ago, if not with
horror, yet with contempt, as beneath the serious
notice of educated Knglish people. But it is
this very contempt which has brought about the
change of opinion concerning them. It has
been discovered that they were not altogether
so absurd as they seemed ; that the public mind,
in its ignorance, has been unjust to them ; and,
in hasty repentance for that injustice, too many
are ready to listen to those who will tell them
that these things are not absurd at all — that
there is no absurdity in believing that the leg-
bone of St. Simon Stock may possess miraculous
powers, or that the spirits of the departed com-
municate with their friends by rapping on the
table. The ugly after-crop of superstition which
is growing up among us now is the just and
natural punishment of our materialism — I may
say of our practical atheism. For those who
will not believe in the real spiritual world, in
which each man's soul stands face to face all
day long with Almighty God, the Father, the
Son, and the Holy Ghost, are sure at last to
crave after some false spiritual world, and seek,
like the evil and profligate generation of the Jews,
after visible signs and material wonders. And
those who will not believe that the one true and
living God is about their path and about their
bed, and spieth out all their ways, and that in
Him they live and move and have their being,
are but too likely at last to people with fancied
saints and demons that void in the imagina-
tion and in the heart which their own unbelier
has made. — Kingsley, The Hermits: Simeon
Stylites.
DIVISION E
[Continued).
THE FORCES OPPOSED TO
CHRISTIANITY.
[i] INFIDELITY.
(2) Its Allied Social Systems.
Pages 206 io 208.
ALPHABETICAL TABLE OF TOPICS.
99
COMMUNISM.
100
SECULARISM.
lOI
SOCIALISM.
205
206
DIVISION E
{Co)Uin2ted\.
THE FORCES OPPOSED TO CHRISTIANITY.
[i] INFIDELITY {continued).
(2) Its Allied Social Systems.
99
COMMUNISM.
I. Its Definition.
[1175] This name is used to express the
doctrine of coinnittnity of property ; it cl.iims
that all should share and share alike out of the
common fund of general society. — B. G.
II. Its Phases.
[1176] It was attempted to be put in practice
in England by Robert Owen, who induced
many to go into "Community," one of which,
called " New Harmony," was a sad example of
confusion, and broke up like the rest in quarrels,
dissatisfaction, calamity, and disgrace. Owen's
movement was infidel or atheistic ; but some
have advocated communism as a Christian
doctrine, and by " corrupt following of the
apostles" have vainly urged the case in the
Acts of the Apostles, where it is said they had
all things in common. But this referred to a
contributed common fund for cases of distress,
and did not destroy private property outside
that common accumulation. Communism would
destroy industry by removing the proper incen-
tive of personal advantage as the reward for
labour and enterprise. It has never succeeded.
~B. G.
III. Its Etfixt.
[i 177] Let us examine a little what would be
the'effect if all was equality. Were all equal
in beauty, there would be no beauty ; for beauty
is only by comparison. Were all equal in
strength, conflicts would be interminable. Were
all equal in rank, and power, and possessions,
the greatest charms of existence would be
destroyed— generosity, gratitude, and half the
finer virtues would be unknown. The first
principle of our religion, charity, could not be
practised, pity would never be called forth,
benevolence, that great organ, would be useless,
and self-denial a blank letter. Were all equal
in ability, there would be no inslruction, no
talent, no genius — nothing to admire, nothing
to copy, to respect — nothing to rouse- emulation
or stimulate to praiseworthy ambition. Why,
what an idle, unprofitable, weary world would
this be, if it were based on equality.
IV. The proved Impossibility of its
Success.
[1178] What roots out communism is ex-
perience of its impossibility — the plain demon-
stration that society cannot be carried by
assault, and will defend itself remorselessly.
It is this which has extinguished it in France,
but even there it has taken three bloody con-
flicts to do it, and two generations of civil strife ;
and nobody who observes what is going on in
Germany and Russia can doubt that the problem
will have to be solved there in the same way
■ — that is, communism will grow and its preten-
sions rise, until it thinks itself strong enough to
attempt a realization of its dreams by physical
force, and then it will find that the opposing
strength of society is tremendous, and that it
has no bowels of compassion. — Nation.
V. Methods to neutralize its In-
fluence.
[1179] The fostering of communistic views,
cither directly or indirectly, either by speech
or legislation, is therefore great cruelty to the
ignorant and unthinking, who form the bulk of
those of whom they take hold. The sooner it
can be made clear that they are seeking the
impossible, the better for them as well as for
society, and the way to make this clear is to
show thorough readiness for defence. Much
can be done, of course, to save the coming
generation from this poison — the worst, all
things considered, that has yet entered the
moral world — by improved means of education
and better social arrangements. — J/'id.
VI.
INO WITH COM-
DlFFICULlV OF D
IMUNMSM.
I On account of its thorough unpracticalness.
[ri8o] The difficulty of dealing with com-
munism is great. It creates a distaste for the
steady routine of life, and a shrinking from
realities not unlike thflt created by gambling.
In order to reason a man out of a vagary, too.
t8o-Ti£6]
THE FORCES OPPOSED TO CHRISTIANITY,
20';
[secularism.
you and he must have some common ground to
start from. With the communist there is no
common ground to start from. He offers no
fulcrum for your lever. He denies and scoffs
at your religion. He repudiates all your virtues
and all the motives by which your own life is
governed. He shares none of your hopes, and
is not troubled by any of your fears. He hates
what you most admire, and longs for all that
you most abhor ; denies the force of all your
tests and sanctions, and looks on you as a selrish
impostor. This is not a pleasant phenomenon,
and it is likely to prove to modern society a
curse and puzzle somewhat like those which
slavery proved to ancient society, and must be
faced. — Ibid.
100
SECULARISM.
I. Its Real Meaning.
[1181] Secularism is the system which pro-
poses to waive all questions of man's origin
and future destiny as either too speculative or
too insoluble, or both too speculative and too
insoluble, for the purposes of practical life. —
R. H. Mutton, Expositor {May, 1880).
[1182] Infidel secularism professes to attend
to this life, though it will never mend it. All
that belongs to the so-called secularism is not
a special regard for this life, but a disregard
for the next. — B. G.
II. Failure when put to the Test.
1 Historically.
(i) // has produced no heroes.
[1183] Who are the heroes of secularism?
Who are the benefactors of the world that have
adorned its ranks .'' Who are its philanthropists
and patriots ? Where is their Valhalla, crowded
with the portraits of their great and good .'' — -
Kc%'. \V. G. Blaikie, D.D.
(2) // has produced no benefactors like Chris-
tianity.
[1184] What has secularism got to match
our modern missions, with names like those of
Carey and .Schwartz, Vanderkemp and Judson,
Eliot and Zinzendorf, Williams and Moffat,
Gutzlaff and Burns, Livingstone and Patteson,
besides hosts of others that have become house-
hold words for devotion and self-sacrifice? If
the slave has had to be rescued from unlawful
bondage, who have toiled for him like Macaulay
and Ciarkson, William Wilberforce and Sir
Fowell Buxton ? If an atrocious jail-system has
had to be reformed, and abuses corrected in
Britain and the other countries of Europe the
record of which now fills us with horror, what
secularist ever flung himself into the work with
the ardour and self-sacrifice of John Howard?
If projects for the amelioration of humanity
have been started, what can be set over against
Pastor Fliedner's work at Kaiserswerth, or John
Host's enterprise at Laforce ? What secularist
ever did for humanity what was done for our
great cities by Dr. Chalmers? Was Florence
Nightingale a secularist, or Agnes Jones, or
Sister Dora ? The great temperance reformers,
the men whose appeals go to the hearts of the
multitude, and move them like the leaves of the
forest, such as John Gough and Francis Murphy,
are not secularists, but Christian men. The
man who passed the Ten Hours' Act, who has
identified himself so conspicuously with the
Ragged and Reformatory movement, and with
every scheme for the relief of toiling humanity,
is no secularist, but the eminently Christian
Plarl of Shaftesbury. — Ibid.
2 Ethically,
(i) // has only the selfish principle ift man to
work upon and to work with.
[1185] As a system, secularism repudiates
everything which lies beyond the sphere of the
tangible and the visible. Nothing is a more
common fallacy than to assume that because
there is some truth in a system, therefore it
contains the whole truth. 1 am far from deny-
ing that the attempt to improve the outward
condition of mankind will exert a beneficial
influence on his moral character. But to pro-
pound this as the one only efficient means of
grappling with human corruption, is to treat
with contempt the entire experience of history,
which proves that the highest forms of civiliza-
tion in the ancient world were compatible with
the lowest depths of moral corruption. Secu-
larism, if true to its principles, can appeal only
to the selfish principle in man. All past expe-
rience proves that self-love in any form is too
weak to grapple with the violence of the passions.
As secularism asserts that it is impossible to
prove the existence of the invisible, the only
power which it can bring to bear on man as a
moral being is the influence of the present life.
That influence has been tried, and has failed to
effect the regeneration of mankind. No moral
reformation can be effected by any power which
is unable to penetrate to the depths of human
nature. Bad political institutions help to de-
grade mankind, but good ones are unable to
regenerate him when degraded. To effect this
we must deal with him, not in his social, but
his individual character. — C. A. Row, Moral
Teaching of the New Testament.
[11 86] We should fancy that when the school-
master had taught the first moral lessorl of
secularism, that it is the duty of every man to
aim at what he regards as his own greatest
good, hio scholars would think they had got
enough, and would proceed to carry out the
lesson very faithfully. If he should go on to
teach next that it was their duty also to aim at
the highest good of their country and their race,
we can fancy them much more puzzled. In the
first " standard " there would be no failures ;
but how many would pass the second? — Rev.
ir. G. Blaikie, D.D.
208
II87-
THE FORCES OPPOSED TO CHRISTIANITY.
ti93l
[socialism.
3 As an original and independent system.
[1187] The truth is that to a very great
extent it is only Christianity which makes
modern secularism look plausible. By long
dwelling on the Christian type of character men
have learnt to imagine that that type of charac-
ter could stand alone, after all the beliefs which
nourished and support it are gone. " Get rid,"
says secularism, '" of this mystical religion of
yours, and we accept your morality for its own
sake with all our hearts. It is only your re-
ligion which prevents you from insisting as you
ought to do on your morality." On the contrary,
we reply, only get rid of what you call our mys-
tical religion, and we do not believe that enough
of the old morality would survive it to make
your moral position in the least like that which
you at present expect to hold. Sweep away
the belief in the guidance of men by a Divine
hand, and all the more mysterious and less
commonplace of our moral intuitions will vanish
into doubtful superstitions. Dispel the belief
in a future life, and that intensity of personal
affection which we now revere will become a
folly. Convince yourselves that there is no law
of God, and the law of human virtue will become
suddenly questionable and hazy. Once assure
yourselves that a holy character is not the end
of life, and you will waver more and more as to
what kind of life it is that should be the end of
character. Secularism is strong and respectable
only while it borrows its moral standard from
the Gospels, even thou;.;h it declines to acknow-
ledge the assumptions on which the Gospels
found it. So understood, secularism has a
plausible air, only because it borrows a host
of assumptions about every-day life painfully
established by centuries of spiritual discipline
and supersensual teaching. — R. H. Hutton,
Expositor {May, 18 Sol.
4 As to its locus standi.
[1188] It is certain that the Bible contains
directions for industry and honesty, for mutual
respect and kindness between employers and
employed, for happiness in home life, for com-
fort in troubles, as part and parcel of Christi-
anity ; and further, that it points to a power
beyond ourselves, which mere secularism can-
not ofier, to aid our feeble and fickle energies in
carrying out such purposes. Christianity is in
truth the best secularism — i.e., it works better
than any other system in our ordinary pursuiis
and occupations. — Girdlestone^ CkristicDiity and
Modern Sceplicism.
101
SOCIALISM.
I. Its History and Tenets.
[1189] Socialism was advocated by the late
Robert Owen, who had a number of travelling
missionaries, most of whom developed into so-
called secularism, which succeeded as the next
phase of infidelity. Owen's socialism added
to community of property, community not of
luiiies, but of women : its social side was the
abolition of marriage.
Owen's lectures on marriage set up animals
as our true models, and perhaps he sunk below
them in some of his teachings. His frequent
phrase was, '• The trinity of evils — religion,
marriage, and property." — B. G.
[1190] It designates those who aim to reform
society by a new social science, and comprehends
the most various classes, from the wildest com-
munist to the most careful and scientific philo-
sopher. It takes in Owen and Louis Blanc, St.
Simon and Fourier, and certainly does not
exclude thinkers like Mill and Lamartine. —
Christiajt Examiner.
j II. A MiSNOxMER.
j [1191] Nothing is more anti-social than such
I socialism which offered bribes to passion to
hoodwink reason and lead astray the unwary.
j Secularism is not really secular, and socialism
was not really social ; infidelity uses good and
plausible words to hide its ill principles. — B. G.
III. Objections to its Theory.
1 Socialism over-estimates the power of
external arrangements.
[11 92] How it is that life in the "phalanstery"
is to be free from the usual infirmities and
j passions of mankind — how strife and hatred are
1 to cease within those favoured precincts, and
industry, and order, and aft^uence are to abound
— we cannot conceive, unless the members of
the association are a very select class, already
educated under the best Christian infiuences.
How the evils of competition are to be avoided
between rival " phalansteries," and the fluctua-
tions of prices and the awards of labour kept at
a desirable limit, we cannot understand, without
presupposing a state of things that cannot exist
in a nation not wonderfully pervaded by the
blessing of education and its attendant industry
and frugality. — CliristiuJi Examiner.
2 Socialism is not favourable to the true
life of man.
[1193] The whole doctrine of the desirable-
ness of luxury which lies at the basis of the
" phalanstery," seems to us very questionable.
That a palace more magnificent than Rome or
Versailles ever saw can be favourable to the
true life of man, we cannot easily believe.
While in this world we cannot so entirely repu-
diate the self-denial of the cross, nor do we
think it well to tell men striving for their daily
bread, and cheered by hopes of reasonable
success, that they ought to feast better than
kings and revel in every indulgence, and with
less should not be content. — //>id.
DIVISION E
{Condnued),
THE FORCES OPPOSED TO
CHRISTIANITY.
[2] NON-CHRISTIAN SYSTEMS.
Pages 2IO to 252.
ALPHABETICAL TABLE OF TOPICS.
102
BRAHMINISM.
103
BUDDHISM.
104
CONFUCIANISM.
105
FETISHISM.
106
JUDAISM (MODERN).
107
MOHAMMEDANISM.
108
MYTHOLOGY.
209
DIVISION E
{Co7itinued).
THE FORCES OPPOSED TO CHRISTIANITY.
[2] NON-CHRISTIAN SYSTEMS.
102
BRAHMINJSM.
I. Description of the System.
1 The nature of Brahm.
[1194] Brahm is the name of the highest
purely spiritual divine essence in the religion of
India, of whom the other gods are but servants.
He is not an object of worship, but is revealed
in the triad — Brahma, the creator ; Vishnu
the preserver; and Siva, the destroyer. The
Indians glorify him by innumerable names. —
Faiths of the World.
2 Twofold idea of Brahm.
[1195] He is regarded in one view as wholly
inactive, existing in a state of unbroken sleep,
undisturbed repose. This profound slumber,
however, is not everlasting in its duration.
After unnumbered ages he suddenly awakes,
and, starting to a consciousness of his own
existence, he exclaims, " Brahm is," or " I am."
From that moment he begins to exhibit active
qualities and attributes. A desire for duality
arises in his mind. In obedience to this desire,
the archetype or ideal form of the universe
presents itself before him. This is succeeded
by an act of volition, which calls the universe
into actual existence. This done, Brahm re-
lapses into his former ciualities and attributes.
—Ibid.
3 The worship of Brahm.
[1196] The Hindu Brahm has no temple
dedicated to his worship, nor is a single act
of adoration ever offered to him. This may
appear strange, but the reason which is given
by the admirers of Hinduism for the denial of
all worship to Brahm is, that the representing
the Supreme Being by images, or tlie honouring
him by the institution of sacred rites and the
erection of temples, must be perfectly incom-
patible with every conceivable notion of an all-
• prevailing, immaterial, incorporeal Spirit. — Ibid.
4 The heaven of the Brahmans.
[1197] In Brahm there was originally existent
Swada, or the golden womb, the receptacle of
all the types of things, which produced Maya,
matter or illusion, the source of all phenomena,
and by means of which individual existences
made their appearance. From the bosom of
Brahm came forth the Trimurti or Triad of the
Hindus, consisting of Brahma, the creator ;
Vishnu the preserver of forms ; and Siva, the
destroyer of forms, who by this very destruction
causes the return of beings to unity and their
re-entrance into Brahm. The Hindus are
taught to look forward to absorption into the
divine essence, or Brahm, as the ultimate
reward, or final beatitude. — Ibid.
II. The Social Evils of the System.
I It intensifies instead of lessening class
hatreds and antipathies.
[1198] Christianity found the highest finite
manifestation of (lod in the person of One who
was neither sacred nor great by birth or caste,
who linked infinite greatness to the lowest
earthly humiliation — the Son of God and the
carpenter's son, the incarnation of Deity, and
the companion of the pariah and the outcast,
the friend of publicans and sinners. But
Brahmanism, by its institution of caste, was a
religious system in all respects the opposite of
that. In it, arbitrary distinctions entered into
the inmost sphere of the religious life, and
instead of being modified or annulled by
religion, constituted its very essence. Instead
of breaking down artificial barriers, waging war
with false separations, softening divisions and
undermining class hatreds and antipathies,
religion became itself the very consecration of
them. The Brahman was by birth nearer to
God than other men, standing in a special rela-
tion to Him, which is independent of character
and moral worth, and to which no other mortal
could aspire. No others could be his brethren.
There were those among them whose very
touch was contamination. To associate with
them, eat with them, help them in danger, visit
them in sickness, come even into accidental
contact with them, was to him a pollution to be
atoned for by the severest penalties. Nay,
there were those whom it was no sin, but a
duty, to treat with contempt and inhumanity,
who were doomed by birth to a lot of infamy
and isolation from their fellow-men, and, worse
THE FORCES OPPOSED TO CHRISTIANITY.
1198 — 1200]
2\.
[buddhism.
than all, on whom religion inflicted a wrong
more cruel than slavery by making them slaves
who regarded their fate as no wrong. Instead
of teaching them to look on their dark and
hopeless lot as a thing for which they could
seek higher consolation, an injustice against
which it was right to struggle, religion only
gathered over it a more terrible darkness by
making that lot itself an unchangeable
ordinance of God. In these and other ways,
we could perceive how the system of caste
involved the worst of all wrongs to humanity —
that of hallowing evil by the authority and
sanction of religion. — Religions of India., Prin-
cipal Laird.
103
BUDDHISM,
I. Its History.
I The renunciation of Buddha.
( I ) Its psychological explanation.
[1199] In the course of the sixth century B.C.,
Gautama — who afterwards came to be known
by the designation of Buddha, the "enlightened,"
— the son of a rajah or chief of the Sak\as, an
Aryan tribe of Central India, abandoned in early
life his position and prospects as heir to his
father's throne, and passed the rest of his life as
a wandering religious mendicant. Various inci-
dents, related with dramatic detail, were said to
have led to that act of renunciation. But if we
reflected on the influence which the conditions
of the tine — an age of gross and degrading
superstition, and of intense social corruption —
would exert on a mind of great intellectual
originality, and of deep moral and religious
susceptibilities, the step was one not difficult to
account for. Buddha's seemed to have been
one of those natures, reflective, introvertive,
restless, for which the problems of the spiritual
life had an importance transcending all outward
interests, and which were impelled to seek the
solution of these problems by an imperious
inward necessity. In whatever form the object
of spiritual inquiry presented itself — whether as
the search for truth, or for the meaning and end
of human hfe, or for the explanation of its
moral contradictions and anomalies, or for sal-
vation from sin, and sorrow, and death — for
such natures there was no rest till the inward
perplexity and anxiety were removed. Passive
acceptance of circumstances was for them im-
possible ; and if the outward conditions of life
seemed to conflict with the profounder needs of
the spirit, we could understand how such minds,
jealous of their influence, in some access of
spiritual anxiety and impatience, might at one
stroke shake off the bondage of outward posi-
tion, and set themselves free for what they
deemed the great task of life — the work of
spiritual thought and inquiry.
The subsequent career of Buddha was in
keeping with the view he had now suggested.
It was the h'story of a soul in search of spiritual
rest, of the various experiments by which he
vainly sought to find it, of the success which at
last crowned his efforts, and finally of his life-
long endeavour to communicate to others the
blessing he seemed to himself to have attained.
Of his abortive endeavours, two are specially
recorded — the search after spiritual satisfaction,
first by philosophic thoughts, and secondly by
ascetic austerities. — Principal Caird, D.D.
(2) Its supposed immediate occasion.
[1200] In this connection it is helpful to look
at a religion founded upon human misery which
is held by nearly one-third of the human family.
It is Buddhism— a religion without a Supreme
God and without a heaven — a religion which
offers nothing in the future state laetter than
extinction.
The origin of this rehgion, as given by the
great Oriental scholar, St. Hilaire, is this :' The
Prince of Kapilavastu, riding in his chariot, saw,
on separate occasions, three spectacles of human
misery which led him to renounce his prospec-
tive throne in order to find a way for the escape
of men from the wretchedness of life.
The first vision of misery caused him to be
utterly discontented with youth. It was the
sight of an old man. broken, bowed, decrepit,
bald, wrinkled, tottering on a staff, and almost
toothless and voiceless with the infirmities of
age.
The second spectacle of misery seen from his
chariot gave him a discontent w\i\\ bodily health.
It was a sick man by the roadside, his wasted
body parched with fever and covered with filth.
The third decisive spectacle of misery gave
him a disgust for life itself It was a dead body
lying on a bier in the street and covered with a
cloth. The friends stood about, crying and
sobbing, tearing tlieir hair, covering their heads
with dust, striking their breasts, and uttering
wild cries.
The prince, calling his coachman to witness
this painful scene, cried aloud : " Oh, woe to
youth, which must soon be destroyed by old
age ! Woe to health, which must be destroyed
by so many diseases ! Woe to this life, where
man remains so short a time? If there were no
old age, no disease, no death — if these could be
made captive for ever . Let us turn back.
I must think how to accomplish deliverance."
He gave up all his wealth. He relinquished
his ritht to the throne. He pondered many
years upon the ills of life, and at last, calling
himself " Buddha," or the enlightened one, he
proclaimed a plan of deliverance. It was a
series of exercises by which, sooner or later,
after death the soul might forget that it had
ever lived, and finally become utterly uncon-
sci' us of existence itself
That empty, wretched prospect is to-day the
brightest hope of perhaps 400,000,000 of our
fellow-men. — /did.
212
I20I — I208]
THE FORCES OPPOSED TO CHRISTIANITY.
[buduiiism.
II. Causes of its Success.
I Its social rather than its philosophical
and religious elements.
{\) It offered the Hindus release from an
absolute and oppressive hierarciiy.
[1201] It was a humanitarian reaction against
Brahmanism. No people were ever bound
more closely in the chains of a hierarchy than
were the Hindus under the Brahmans. The
meshes of the Brahmanic law entangled the
people everywhere. The caste of the Brahmans,
rendered proud and self-confident by their in-
creasing power, everywhere lorded it over the
masses. An inevitable and eternal distinction
was drawn between the castes. To those of the
lower castes there was no hope, no possibility
of rising ; to those of the highest castes— the
Brahmans — there was no possibility of a fall,
liowever wicked they might be. — Baptist Quar-
tjrly Revleu.
(2) // taught the possibility of salvation
h-respectlve of caste.
[1202] Buddha taught the possibility of salva-
tion to all -nay, that all might become Buddhas,
attain to the highest degree of merit and felicity.
A man"s happiness does not depend on the
caste in which he was born, but on his own
exertions, on his own life. Nay more, he taught
that those very cjualities that the proud Brah-
mans looked down on with contempt — humility,
meekness, and kindness — were those of most
avail to a man in working out his own salvation.
—Ibid.
(3J It adapted itself to the 7ieeds, social con-
dition, and prejudices of the people.
[1203] Buddhism, as a philosophy, is one thing;
as a religion for every-clay life, quite another.
The history of every religion in the world sadly
illustrates how widely the life and practice of
its followers can diverge from its standards of
faith and duty. Especially is this seen in reli-
gions whose Scriptures are unknown or unintel-
ligible to the common people ; or where they
claim no authority, are not regarded as a basis
of faith, a standard for appeal, and a rule for
daily life. Every earth-born religion has only
maintained itself on its native soil by becoming
conformed to the growing intelligence and ever-
changing habits of its adiierents ; and has only
been propagated abroad by becoming adapted
to the genius of the people upon whom it de-
pends for support. In China, as elsewhere,
Indian Buddliism never sinunounted its environ-
ments, but, like organisms low in the scale of
life, suffered these environments to modify its
form, to tone down its abnormities, to eliminate
elements too offensive to national prejudices,
and to incorporate other elements, foreign to its
constitution, yet essential to its survival.
[1204] We are told that when it first started
it spread rapidly, and won thousands and
millions of converts, it may have been so ; I
should not be surprised if the converts were
more numerous than the converts to Christi-
anity during the first hundred years, and I will
tell you why. Because it is calculated to the
latitude and longitude of our fallen humanity,
and it does not encounter the hostility and
repugnance of the natural heart which the
gospel encounters, and which can only be over-
come by an influence from on high. — ^. H.
Cowper.
2 Political events.
(1) Tlie conquest of Kandlagupta over
Magadha.
[1205] Political events in India aided in
brmging about the Buddhist reformation, just
as in Germany they exerted a great influence in
accomplishing the Lutheran reformation. Kan-
diagupta, a man of low origin, a mere adventurer,
had conquered the throne of Magadha, and
acquired his supremacy in India, in spite of the
Brahmanic law, and had broken through the
meshes of the intricate system of caste. — Baptist
(2iuirtcrly.
(2) Tlie self-renu7iclatlon and remarkable
character of Its founder.
[1206] Buddha had broken caste, by giving
up his royal station and becoming a mendicant.
Thus the parvemi of the throne found his
natural allies in Buddha and his followers, who
had won the highest esteem among the middle
and lower classes, by their lives of virtue and
their unostentatious behaviour. — Ibid.
[1207] Buddha proclaimed his doctrine first
in Varanaci, the modern Benares, then in other
cities and villages in the valley of the Ganges.
Gradually the fame of the new teacher and his
doctrine began to spread far and wide. His
zeal, his rigid relf-renunciation, combined with
serene gentleness and benignity, his wisdom
and eloquence, and even, it was said, his per-
sonal dignity and beauty, gave strange force to
the stern doctrines he taught, and won men's
hearts wherever he went. Crowds flocked to
his teaching, and thousands of all ranks en-
rolled themselves among his adherents. The.
schools of the Brahmans began to be deserted,
some of the most notable Brahmanical teachers
became themselves his converts. The terrible
bondage of caste became incapable of resisting ^
the power of the newly awakened spirit of
human brotherhood, and amoral reformation of
the most undoubted character witnessed to the
salutary influence of his teaching. — Principal
Calrd, D.D.
III. Its Moral System.
I Its ten virtues and vices.
[1208] The primitive Buddhist books have a
higher moral tone than the latter, which are
mere metaphysical abstractions. Ten virtues
and ten vices are spoken of. There are various
enumerations of these^ One is as follows :
The vices are, three of the body, viz., killing,
THE FORCES OPPOSED TO CHRISTIANITY.
r6]
213
[buddhism.
stealing^, adultery ; four of the lips, viz., slander-
ing, reviling, lying, and elegant words, /.c.,
doicble ejiti-iidrc's, with vicious intention'-. ; and
tliree of the mind, viz , jealousy, hatred, and
folly (including unbelief in Buddha and erro-
neous opinions). — Baptist Qicarteriy Review.
2 Its ten commandments.
[1209] The ten commandments which Buddha
imposed on his disciples are —
I. Not to kill ; 2, not to steal ; 3, not to com-
mit adultery ; 4, not to lie ; 5, not to get intoxi-
cated ; 6, to abstain from unseasonable meals ;
7, to abstain from public spectacles ; 8, to
abstain from expensive dresses ; 9, not to have
a large bed ; 10, not to receive silver or gold.
The lessening of human misery, and the pro-
motion of human happiness, form the sum of
human obligation.— //'/V/.
3 Its tenets in regard to suffering,
(i) As to the fact itself.
[12 10] The first of the cardinal tenets of
Buddha's doctrine is a wail over the imper-
manence of everything earthly. Birth, old age,
sickness, death, union with the unloved, separa-
tion from the loved, the clinging to earthly
things, these all are suttering. — Dr. IVilliam
Hoey.
[121 1] The Buddhist view of human life goes
out from the deepest melancholy and drapes it
in weeds of perpetual mourning. It looks only
at the dark side of existence. It runs over the
Avords disease, sorrow, decay, death, and returns
to them in perpetual repetition, till life is a
tomb in which hope has been buried. Its proper
symbol is found in the Buddhist ascetic wander-
ing among graves wrapped in rags and in the
cerements of the dead.— 77/^ New Englander.
(2) As to its origin.
[12 1 2] The second tenet is the origin of suffer-
ing, and here we touch the kernel of Buddhism,
and are face to face with the great difficulty of
the origin of being, for being is suffering. The
terms are ecfuivalent in Buddhist thought. " The
thirst for being leads from birth to birth, to-
gether with lust and desire, which finds grati-
fication here and there ; the thirst for pleasure,
the thirst for power;" this is the origin of
suffering. — Dr. Willi am Hoey.
(3) As to the method of its extinct io7i.
[1213] The third tenet is the "sacred truth of
the extinction of suffering," which is said to be
accomplished by the extinction of the thirst
for being, the annihilation of desire. Buddha
evidently felt that there was something needed
as an explanation and as a support of these two
tenets, and hence he propounded the "causal
nexus of being.'' It is not possible to quote the
formula here /;/ extenso \i'id. pp. 223-252 of Dr.
Hoey's translation], or to enter into the meta-
physical analysis of our being, but suffice it to
say that the ultimate origin of our being is
'• ignorance," the non-possession of that know-
ledge which is comprised in the four sacred
tenets or truths. " The ultimate root of all
suffering is the delusion which conceals from
man the true being, and the true value of the
system of the universe. Being is suffering ; but
ignorance totally deceives us as to this suffer-
ing ; it causes us to see instead of suffering a
phantom of happiness and pleasure." From
ignorance comes " conformations," a term used
to translate the technical Buddhist word Sank-
/uira, and '• from conformations comes con-
sciousness ; " and it is consciousness which,
entering the womb at conception, assumes
some material form. This brings us to the
Buddhist idea of Kamma {Kamma is the Pali
form of the Sansk. Karma] or moral retribu-
tion. Whatever a man is, is the result of former
action, and hence his present state of being
involves that some other unit of being occupied
his place at a former time, and acted through
ignorance so as to necessitate a re-birth. The
cutting off of re-birth can only be attained by
the attainment of knowledge, i.e., of the four
cardinal truths, and the extinction of ignorance
and desire — the extinction of all clinging to the
earthly. To express this clinging a figurative
word is used, and the underlying figure is that
of flame. A flame feeds on wood or other fuel,
and not only devours it, but also goes out on the
air seeking other fuel. This is the state of our
being ; it is a continuous process of burning.
The wise man does not supply the fuel to the
flame of desire. He extinguishes desire (for
being) and all thirst. His state is. that of
"Nirvana." The ignorant man, on the other
hand, supplies fuel to the flame, and the flame
of existence presses on in transmigration to
further stages of being. The cessation of cling-
ing to being may begin at any moment, and
from that moment Nirvana begins.— 7(^zV/.
(4) As to the path of its extiriction.
[1214] The fourth tenet of lUiddhism is the
path to the extinction of suffering, and is a rule
of life leading to pure habits of thought and
action. The scope of Buddhist ethics is very
different from that of the Christian. Buddhism
does not recognize the will of a supreme law-
giver, or the principle of the good of others as a
rule to regulate conduct. The Buddhist prac-
tises any course of good action solely because it
is the best policy, not because it is right. —
Ibid.
4 Its tenets in regard to sin.
(1) Men arc miserable rather thafi gicilty.
[121 5] A Buddha is a saviour, and not a
god. His mission is to deliver men from suffer-
mg. Vices, faults, and misfortunes are inci-
dental to birth into the world. Misfortune and
sin are identical. — Baptist Quarterly Review.
(2) All men have a moral nature, and won Id
be good but for contact %uith the world and the
delusions of the senses.
[1216] This is very similar to the Confucian
214
12l6-
THE FORCES OPPOSED '10 CHHISTIANITV.
[222]
[buddhism.
doctrine that all men are born good, but be-
come vicious by falling into evil habits. — Ibid.
5 Its teaching in regard to the tendencies of
nature.
[1217] Buddhism, notwithstanding its lofty
pretensions and its remarkable philosophy, has
proved a practical failure. However noble some
of its principles, it has l)cen a curse and not a
blessing in all lands wherever its system has
taken root. Its ascetics, like those of other
countries and other faiths, have not, as might
have been anticipated, been able to conquer the
tendencies of nature. Ic has sought not to
regulate but to overcome nature, and nature
has overcome it —
" Naturam expellas furca, tanien usque recurret."
— C H. W. WrioJit, D.D.
6 Its teaching in regard to motives for virtue.
( I ) Tlie doctrine of future reivards and punish-
ments is vaguely held by the common people, but
regarded as superstition by the contemplative
school.
[12 1 8] Motives to well-doing are drawn from
the Hindu popular notions of heaven and hell.
The rewards and punishments of the future
world are the results of our actions here. Just
as a tree bears its own fruit, an action is iol-
lowed by its legitimate consequence. Forgive-
ness is obtained by repentance and merit. A
man, though guilty of crime, may attain to
future happiness if he will recite his prayers for
the repose of his soul. After death the wicked
are conducted to King Im Lo (Yama), who
assigns them their punishment. Buddha is
neither a creator nor a judge, but simply an
instructor, a teacher who by his superior know-
ledge has passed from metempsychosis and
attained to Nirvana.
One school makes the western heaven the
abode of O ui to (Amida), the place of reward
for the good. This is the popular idea in China.
The contemplative school regard this as figu-
rative, and obliterate all distinction between
virtue and vice, regarding the other world as a
myth, and giving themselves up entirely to their
own abstractions. They say that idolatry is
necessary for the common people, who need
some sensible object to lead their minds to a
sense of the supernatural. — Baptist Quarterly
IV. lis P^^r,osoPF^IC.'^L System.
I Buddhism does not attempt to solve the
problem of the primary origin of all things.
[12 19] When Malunka asked the Buddha
whether the existence of the world is eternal,
he made him no reply ; but the reason of this
was that it was considered by the teacher as an
inquiry that tended to no '^\o(M.— Contemporary
Revic'w.
2 Buddhism denies that anything or any
being m the universe has a separate and
self-existent entity.
[1220] Buddhism takes as its ultimate fact
the existence of the material world and of
conscious beings living within it ; and it holds
that everything is subject to the law of cause
and effect, and everything is constantly, thougii
imperceptibly, changing. There is no place
where this law does not operate ; no heaven or
hell therefore in the ordinary sense. There
are worlds where gods or angels live, whose
existence is more or less material, according
to the lower or higher degree of holiness
reached by them in their previous lives ; but
the gods and angels die, and the worlds they
inhabit pass away. There are places of torment,
where the evil actions of men or angels produce
unhappy beings ; but when the active power of
the evil that produced them is exhausted they
will vanish, and the worlds they inhabit are not
eternal. The whole kosmos — earth and heavens
and hells — is always tending to renovation or
destruction, is always in a course of change, a
series of revolutions or of cycles, of which the
beginning and the end are alike unknowable.
To this universal law of composition and dis-
solution men and angels form no exception.
The unity of forces which constitutes a sentient
being must sooner or latter be dissolved ; and
it is only through ignorance and delusion that
such a being indulges in the dream that it is a
separate and self-existent entity. — Ibid.
3 It taught a gentler and truer morality than
Brahmanism under another form of Pan-
theism.
[1221] Buddhism, arising some six centuries
before the Christian era, was a protest against
the caste system of Hinduism. It proclaimed
a gentler and more kindly, perhaps we may say,
a purer morality. On the other hand, it can
scarcely be said to have had a cuUus or special
theology ; and its doctrine of Nirvana, as the
end and aim of all true wisdom — whether Nir-
vana be regarded only as absolute quietism in
the bosom of the soul of the universe, or actual
annihilation — must be recognized as a form of
pantheism. For a long time Buddhism was
looked upon by the Hindus as a school of
philosophy rather than a rival creed. But its
progress weakened the powers of the Brahmans,
as indeed was inevitable. A life-and-death
struggle ensued, and Buddhism was effectually
banished from its original home in India to
take refuge in Thibet and Mongolia, in China
and Ceylon. — Rev. l-\ f . Masters.
4 Its leading principles were, concerning
Nirvana, the Buddhist heaven of absorp-
tion.
[1222] The doctrine of Buddha is a develop-
ment of the following four principles : (i) Every
kind of existence is trai^^sitory and painful ; (2)
all existence is the result of passion in some
previous form of existence ; therefore (3), the
THE FORCES OPPOSED TO CHRISTIANITY.
-1229]
[buddhism.
extinction of passion is the one means to escape
from existence and from the misery which is
inseparable from it ; hence (4) all obstacles to
this extinction of existence must be eliminated.
—Rev. 7. H. Bhmt.
[1223] It degrades man to the lowest of the
brute creation. The swine is his brother, and the
worm is his sister or friend. It tangles human
destiny in a fatal web which drags it through
ages of untold horrors — for what.'' — that it
may be puritied ? — that it may come forth from
all this at last to reioice in the new effulgence
of a life of love which has left all pain behind ?
No, nothing of this ;— only that it may cease
to be ! There is no great glowing future to
which faith can lift its ej^e ; no eternal progress
to inspire human aspiration. No God, no soul,
no Saviour from sin, no love, no heaven ! — The
New Eiiglander.
[1224] Nirvana, the end of all desire, the end
of all pain, the end of all sorrow, the end of
hope and of fear, because it is the end of all
consciousness, the return to that nothing out of
which all things come. This is the final haven
of rest, where no care, nor grief, nor disease,
nor poverty, nor old age, nor death can come.
Behold the goal of all earthly hope ! Behold
the solution of the whole problem of life ! Over
that calm where all being has sunk away, no
wave of trouble shall sweep, for there shall be
no sea of sorrows througii which its billows may
roll. In those depths of emptiness the good
and the bad alike shall bury their griefs, in
burying themselves for ever. — Ibid.
5 It undoubtedly holds that the " ultimate
union " is the perfection of the nature of
Buddha.
[1225] It appears that the idea of annihilation
as the one equivalent of Nirvana must be con-
fined (if at all) to one period only in the history
of the system, and that period one during which
scholastic refinement sought to explain or define
that which is, in its very nature, incapable of
definition, viz., the condition of the Infinite ;
for, all along. Buddhism assumes that the same
condition awaits the " emancipated soul " as is
enjoyed by the Supreme Mind, and hence the
constant reference to the state of the soul that
has gone across (parameta) to that shore where
there is no "birth or death." This state, because
it admits of no positive definition, is described
via re7notiflnis, i.e , by stripping from it every
conceivable imperfection, and the process is
carried to such an extent by the subtle logic of
the schools that at length nothing is left for the
mind to lay hold of, and this is the annihila-
tion spoken of. But in the earliest and latest
schools there is a different complexion given to
the idea of NirvS.na. In the first period the
thought seems to have been simply confined to
a state of rest — rest or escape from all possible
sorrow ; and at this state, without attempting
to describe or define it, Buddha directed his
followers to aim. In the latest school, the idea
of Nirvana was "restoration to the true condition
of Being." It would be tedious to bring proofs
of this, for many of the latest works or Siitras
consist of the one idea, that there is but one
nature, to which all other natures must in the
end return ; and this " return " or " ultimate
union" is the perfection of the one nature of
"^K\d^^\\2i.—Bcal {Samuel), A Catena of Bicddhist
Scriptures from the Chinese.
6 Buddhism, as a philosophical system,
teaches Atheism and Nihilism.
[1226] It does not deny the existence of God
or of gods, but simply ignores them. It ad-
mitted but one subjective self and taught the
annihilation of all existence, of all thought, of
all individuality and personality, as the highest
object of all endeavours. But the mind of man
instinctively shrinks from such a system of
negation, and before long, as Max Miiller well
remarks. Buddhism " changed the very nothing
into a paradise, and deified the very Buddha
who had denied the existence of a Deity." As
a system of philosophy it has had but few
adherents. Its power as a religion over the
millions of our race is owing to its moral system.
—Baptist Quarterly Review.
[1227] It is an atheistic system. It ignores the
existence of an intelligent and personal Deity.
It acknowledges that there is a moral govern-
ment of the world, but it honours the statute-
book instead of the lawgiver, and adores the
sceptre instead of the king. — .Spence Hardy,
Manual of Buddhism.
V. Its Relation to Pessimism.
[1228] The doctrines of this modern school,
the reader cannot fail to have observed, bear a
close resemblance to the principles of Buddhism.
But, although Buddhism teaches that existence
is an evil which the wise man will seek to get
rid of, that system does not so directly lead to
immorality and suicide as the doctrines of
Schopenhauer and Von Hartmann if carried out
to their logical consequences. For Buddhism
maintains that there is a life after death, and a
transmigration of souls in the case of the wicked,
and of those who are deficient in virtue. There
is, according to Buddhism, something which
the wicked may well fear, and something which
the upright may desire to attain. The Budd-
hist dreads to be involved in an indefinite
rotation of births, followed in each case by
decay and death. The object of his desire is
not merely to escape from life in one form, but
from existence in any shape whatever, and to
reach, as speedily as possible, his haven of rest
and ''city of peace," the Nirvana where desire
is totally extinct.— C. H. W. Wright, D.D.,
Donnellan Lectures (1883).
VI. Its Resemblance to Practices of
THE Roman Church.
[1229] The form of religious worship contains
2l6
1229-
THE FORCES OPPOSED TO CHRISriANITY.
[BriDDHISM.
many points (veneration of relics, auricular con-
fession, beads, processions, (S:c.) which bear a
stritcing resemblance to the practices of the
Roman Church, acknowledged by all, but ex-
plained differently. — McCli?itock atid Strong's
Cyclopadia.
VII. Its System compared with Chris-
tianity.
1 As to civilizing elements.
[1230] It has to some of his followers been
the repose of annihilation ; to others the peace
of blessed absorption into Deity and loss of
personality ; to others the eternal rest of the
heavy-laden in the bosom of God. The vague-
ness of the hope, the lack of sublime simplicity
in the teachings, the want of an overpowering
faith in the " Heavenly Father," and a certain
absence of consciousness of perfect union with
the Infinite Spirit, will perhaps account for the
failure of Buddhism in promoting the progress
of Asia as compared with Christianity in
Europe. — Brace, Gesta Christi.
2 As to moral elements.
[1231] As much had been made of the appa-
rent coincidences between the Buddhist and the
Christian morality, it would appear, on closer
examination, that the similarity was in some
respects only a superficial one. The main
defect of the former—arising out of the funda-
mental principle of Buddhism — was that it was
a morality of negation or renunciation. It laid
almost exclusive emphasis on the passive
virtues of submission, resignation, indifference
to the allurements of sense and passion, dead-
ness to the world and the things of the world ;
and if it seemed to find any place for active
benevolence and kindred virtues, it did so only
in name, or by a kind of noble inconsistency.
[1232] It taught that self-surrender to God,
in which the essence of religion lay, involved, as
a necessary element of it, the abnegation of self,
the renunciation of any life that belonged to me
nierely as this particular individuality— of any
life apart from God. The error of Buddhism
was not that in it religion contained a negative
element, but that it stopped short there. —
Principal Caird, D.D.
3 As to social elements.
[1233] Another "fatal short-coming" of
Budclliism, i» that "the monk, with staff and
arms-bowl asking for bread, is not quite honour-
able or manly in the midst of working mankind.
He that is least in the kingdom of heaven is
greater than he." This is most true, and Chris-
tianity is as truly the religion of the busy,
working, practical member of society, as of the
lonely, persecuted sufferer for Christ's sake.
It goes with man into every relation of life, as
a member of the family, the social circle, the
state. No force has ever shown itself so potent
to draw out the highest, fullest devotion as the
"constraining love of Christ," or has nerved
weak human nature to so many sacrifices.
Christianity needs not to fear comparison with
Buddhism, or any other religious system, for
while others have inculcated love and compas-
sion among the duties to be fulfilled, they could
bring no strong, tender power, like the "con-
straining love of Christ," to touch the heart and
raise man above the innate evil of his nature.
It could hold out no bright hope of purity and
eternal blessedness in the " Father's House."—
Alills.
4 As to theological elements.
(i) Tlte Bible gives itt a clear manner what
BuddJiisvi aims after itt a mystic JasJiion.
[1234] In spite of our fuller knowledge of
the highest points reached in Indian religious
thought, and of its many excellences, in spite
of our wonder at its marvellous subtlety, our
admiration of the depth of its philosophic pene-
tration, it still is true that when we pass from
Indian ideas of God, and man's relation to Him, '
to the perusal of a page of the Psalms, the sen-
sation is like that of exchanging the unwhole-
some atmosphere of the jungle for the pure air
of the mountain height, of exchanging the
gloomy canopy of the one for the unclouded
heaven of the other. — Clncrch Quarterly.
[1235] In no religion are we so constantly re-
minded of our own as m Buddhism, and yet in
no religion has man been drawn away from the
truth as in the religion of Buddha. Buddhism
and Christianity are indeed the two opposite
poles with regard to the most essential points
of religion. Buddhism ignoring all feeling of
dependence on a higher power, and therefore
denying the very existence of a Supreme Deity ;
Christianity resting entirely on a belief in God
as the Father, in the Son of man as the Son of
God, and making us all children of God by faith
in His Son. — Max Aliiller.
(2) Buddhism has external points of contact
witli Christianity which a missionary might
turn to account.
[1236] The absence of any theological element
in Buddhism distinguishes it toto ccelo from
Christianity. But there are many external points
of similarity which a well-prepared missionary
might turn to account. It has a ceremonial, which
has become a hard taskiv.aster ; like Christianity,
too, it afforded a relief to the " weary and heavy
laden," by calling away the mind to the spiritual
world, and, on the other hand, by the doctrine
of the brotherhood of all classes and nations of
men. The philanthropy of the one is very like
that of the other ; and- the moral ideal, gentle-
ness, meekness, longsutiering, compassion, love,
is common to both. — Kei'. f. H. Blunt, M.A.
[1237] Buddhism offered morality without
religion, as Brahmanism had altered religion
without morality. Chjustianity embraces the
essential ideas of both, and more than fulfils the
THE FORCES OPPOSED TO CHRISTIANITY.
1237- 1243 1
217
[CONFUCIANISM.
highest spiritual aspiration of Buddha. He had
his mission to fulfil in preparing the way for a
greater than he, and we can be 'thankful for the
light shed in darkness by this "star in the
east," even while we feel that not from the
mountains of Nepaul, but from the hill country
of Judea, shone that " true light which lighteth
every man that cometh into the world."— 77/^
Canadian Moiit/ily.
5 As to progress.
(i) Poin/s of resemblance.
[1238] There may be no irreverence in com-
paring the progress of a false with that of a true
religion. The growth of Buddhism indicates
both an inherent weakness in the system which
it supplanted, and some adaptation to the con-
dition of human nature in general, as well as
some peculiar relation to the circumstances of
the people among whom it spread. Its analo-
gies with Christianity consist in its overthrow of
the distinction of caste ; its aiming at universal
dominion ; its rising out of a previous system
which it supplanted ; its spreading, and for cen-
turies retaining, its hold over countries where
its predecessor was unknown ; its proselytizing,
as well as its protesting spirit — whilst the analo-
gies become actual points of resemblance when
we view the virtues which it preached and incul-
cated ; the councils by which its schisms were
suppressed ; and its missionary efforts for the
propagation of its faith in distant regions. Even
the surrender of its territory which it once pos-
sessed when Brahmanism became again the
dominant religion of India, offers a remarkable
parallel to the retreat of Christianity in Asia
and Africa before the overwhelming tide of
Mohammedanism. — Christian Remembrancer.
(2), Points of difference.
[1239J There is a grand distinction, which
cannot be too carefully borne in mind when we
allow ourselves to dwell upon this comparison
— that, unlike Christianity, Buddhism does not
profess to be in any way a completion or de-
velopment of a previous form, but is wholly an-
tagonistic to it ; and what, if we were now com-
paring the respective claims of the two reli-
gions, would be ot paramount importance, that,
in the case of the retreat of Buddliism, it is its
predeces;Qr and old antagonist that has beaten
it out of the field. Whatever objection may be
urged against the Christian religion on the score
of its having retreated from ground which it
once occupied, the objection would take a much
more serious form if it could be shown that
Judaism had expelled Christianity from its
Strongholds, and had itself re-occupied them.
And we cannot but think that as regards the re-
ligions of India, it is a strong point to be able
to object to the undeniable fact that Buddhism
has supplanted, and in turn been supplanted by,
Brahmanism. — Ibid.
[1240] We are well aware that the analogies
and resemblances we have been noticing will
be pressed into a very different service from that
in which we have been employing them ; and
that many will seek to represent the one true
religion as nothing more than an inevitable
development in the Western world of the very
same ideas which in the East exhibited them-
selves in a somewhat different form of progress.
And with regard to any such arguments to be
founded on the facts which we have been
noticing, it is sufficient to observe that it will
not bear being confronted with the contrast
exhibited by the antagonism of Buddhism to
Brahmanism, as set against the educational
character of Judaism, its preparation for, and
its prophetic anticipation of, Christianity. — Ibid.
104
CONFUCIANISM.
I. The Chief Elements of its Success.
It was essentially a morality for this
world.
[T241] In the earlier part of the sixth century,
before the Christian era, Confucius stood forth
as the exponent of Chinese doctrine. Little was
known of the history of Confucius, but the in-
terest they had in him consisted in the fact that
he offered to his age an exposition of ;the
Chinese religion which has been accepted by
future ages. He professed to answer the ques-
tion by what means a man was qualified to be-
come a citizen of that heavenly kingdom which
had been established in the Chinese Empire.
When theyexamired the nature of the morality
which Confucius claimed as the substitute for
theology, there was one thing which struck them
pre-eminently : it was essentially a morality for
this world. It was built upon the notion that
the existing framework of Chinese society was
'destined to be a permanent thing. — Dr. Caird.
[1242] Confucianism, or Chinese secularism,
may serve as a link between Western and
Eastern systems.
2 It took an optimist view of life.
[i 243] The world in which Confucius lived was
not only a world of speculation, it v,as a scene
of pessimism — that was to say, of despair. As a
general rule, the men of his day believed that in
the present system of things everything was as
bad as it could be. The efi'ect of such a creed
was manifest ; it could only result in the neglect
of the present hour ; it led to the same disregard
of practice which they had seen produced by
the tendency to speculation. Into this world of
pessimism the creed of Confucius fell with
ciushing power. It proclaimed a doctrine com-
paratively new to Eastern minds. It told them
that the chief end of man was not merely or even
mainly to prepare for a future world— that the
immediate task allotted to him was the beauti-
fying and the glorifying of the life which now
THE FORCL'S OPPOSED TO CHRISTIANITY.
248
[fetishism.
is. It told them that the life which now is
admits of being Ijeaulified and gloritied — that
the present system of things, so far from
l)eing radically bad, contains in its root the
germs of all perfection and the sources of in-
finite development. And let it be remembered
tliat in proclaiming tliis doctrine Ciiina had
made a real contribution to the science of reli-
gious thought. Could it surprise tiiem that in
proclaiming this creed of hope for the present
world the doctrine of Confucius should have
been acceptable to the world — should have been
welcomed even by the faiths of pessimism ? Men
who took a gloomy view of life would at any
time rather be found wrong than right in their
calculations. Their wish invariably pointed in
an opposite direction to their thought, and they
were ready to accept any system that promised
to reveal what they despairingly desired to see.
They arrived then at this conclusion. The doc-
trine of Confucius owed its success to the fact
that it had made a real contribution to the
science of natural religion. It gave to the faiths
of the East an element which was distinctive
and new. There was, however, one thought
which must forcibly impress the modern mind
looking back upon the creed of Confucius
through the vista of two millenniums ; it was
the fact that the Chinese Empire herself had
not realized her own vision of optimism. That
empire which professed to be the very source of
human development had been left far behind by
the stream of human civilization.— Z^r. Caird.
105
FETISHISM.
I. Different Senses in which the
Word is used.
I A heathen superstition.
[1244] A fetish is a rude idol, a piece of wood
or stone, ignorantly regarded as a charm, or
endued with some magic power.
Many people, besides ignorant Africans, have
their fetishes or charms and rude idols. The
praying machine is a fetish, so are beads and
relics, so is the miser's gold, and so are some
terms of scientists', by which, as magic words —
law, evolution, and such like — often without
ideas, great questions are solved and much
comfort and reliance are vouchsafed. — D. G.
[1245] The idea conveyed by fetishism is the
very lowest form of barbarous superstition and
belief in the preternatural ; a notion of weird
influence attaching to natural objects as the
means of propitating witchcraft and demoniacal
malice. Thus fetishi«m at times seems to raise
itself to something like belief in the unity of the
Deity and the responsibility of man ; but in
every other respect its history is a dismal picture
of the deep degradation into which unaided
human nature is sure to fall. — Rev. J. H. Biunt
2 A modern theory built upon this heathen
superstition.
[1246] Fetishism is a term employed to re-
present a modern theory, that monotheism was
not man's original religious idea, nor yet poly-
theism. Buf instead of this, that the idea of
God was one which grew out of some material
object, a stone, relic, or the like, which for
some special reason or other became surrounded
with interest, sentimental regard, or superstitious
awe. According to this theory the idol (or
fetish) is the explanation of the idea of God,
and not the idea of God the explanation of
the idol. The order of things is reversed. The
material leads to the spiritual, and the religious
idea is the development of gross idolatry and the
lowest superstition. Forsooth, fetishism is the
basis of religion \^C. N.
II. Corrective Considerations.
1 It is impossible for any religion to be en-
tirely free from fetish worship.
[1247J The word "fetish'" has assumed with
us an ugly sound, but we have only to replace
the word by "symbol "or " emblem," which in
many cases, though not in all, differs very little
from what De Brosses and his followers call a
fetish, and there will be much less reluctance to
admit a fact which a careful study of religion
teaches, viz., that it is almost impossible for any
religion to be entirely free from fetish worship.
Every outward sign, every instrument connected
with Divine worship is apt to become a fetish
as soon as its original import is forgotten. If
an altar, as such, or a sacrificial vessel, if relics
of saints, if a stone or a plant, a picture, a ban-
ner, or a book is treated with more than usual
respect, it may be called by the outside world a
fetish. Again, if people cany a rare coin in their
purse as a hatch-penny {Hecke/ifeiinig), if young
ladies value a piece of four-leaved clover because
it is rare and brings luck, if we suspend a branch
of mistletoe in our rooms at Christmas, all this,
in the eyes of a negro, would be worship of
grui^rns or fetishes. — F. Max Miillcr.
2 Antiquarian researches for traces of fetish
worship often misleading through want of
discrimination.
[1248] What do we gain by mixing up objects
so heterogeneous in their origin, under the
common name of fetishes ? De Brosses speaks
already of fetishes, not only in Africa, but
among the Red Indians, the Polynesians, the
northern tribes of Asia ; and after his time
hardly a single corner of the world has been
visited without traces of fetish worship being
discovered. I ani the last man to deny this
spirit, which sees similarities everywhere. But
we must not forget that comparison in order to
be fruitful must be joined with distinction,
otherwise we fall into that dangerous habit of
seeing cromlechs wherever there are some up-
right stones and anotherlaid across, or a dolmen
I wherever we meet a stone with a hole in it. — Ibid.
THE FORCES OPPOSED TO CHRISTIANITY
1249 -1256]
[JUDAISM, MODEK
219
3 Antiquarian research, conducted upon
sound and scientific principles, shows
that the antecedents of fetish worship are
seldom the same, even though its forms
are similar.
[1249] We have heard a great deal lately in
Germany, and in England also, of tree-worship
and serpent-worship. Nothing can be more
useful than a wide collection of analogous facts,
but their true scientific interest begins only
when we can render to ourselves an account of
how, beneath their apparent similarity, there
exists the greatest diversity of origin. If there
is fetish-worship everywhere, the fact is curious:
but it gains a really scientific value only if we
can account for the fact. How a fetish became
a fetish, that is the problem which has to be
solved ; and as soon as we attack fetishism in
that spirit we shall find that, though being appa-
rently the same everywhere, its antecedents are
seldom the same anywhere. — Ibid.
[1250] Let us consider only a few of the more
common forms of what has been called fetish-
ism, and we shall soon see from what different
heights and depths its sources spring. If the
bones, or the ashes, or the hair of a departed
friend are cherished as relics, if they are kept in
sacred places, if they are now and then looked
at, or even spoken of, by true mourners in their
loneliness, all this may be called fetish-worship.
Again, if a sword once used by a valiant
warrior, if a banner which had led their fathers
to victory, is greated with respect or enthusiasm
bv soldiers, all this mav be called fetish-worship.
—Ibid.
[1251] If these banners and swords are blessed
by priests, or if the spirits of those who had
carried them in former years are invoked, as if
they were still present, all this may be put down
as fetishism. If we are satisfied with calling all
this and much more simply fetishism, we shall
soon be told that the stone on which all the
kings of England have been crowned is an old
fetish, and that in the coronation of Queen
Victoria we ought to recognize a survival of
Anglo-Saxon fetishism. — Ibid.
III. Its Refutation.
I The fetish theory lacks an historical no less
than a logical and psychological basis.
[1252] Though our knowledge of the religion
of the negro is still very imperfect, yet I believe
I may say that, wherever there has been an
opportunity of ascertaining the religious senti-
ments even of the lowest savage tribes, no tribe
has ever been found without something beyond
mere worship of so-called fetishes. I do not
mean to dispute away the fact that a worship of
material objects is widely spread among African
tribes, far more widely than anywhere else.
What I maintain is, that fetishism was a cor-
ruption of religion, that the negro is capable of
higher religious ideas than the worship of stocks
and stones, and that the same p.-ople who be-
lieved in fetishes cherished at the same time
very pure, very exalted, very true sentiments of
V)€\i^.—lbid.
[1253] Is there the slightest evidence to show
that there ever was a time when these negroes
were fetish-worshippers only, and nothing else?
Does not all our evidence point rather in the
opposite direction, viz., that fetishism was a
parasitical development, intelligible with certain
antecedents, but never as an original impulse of
the human heart ? Fetishism, far from being,
as we are told by almost every writer on the
history of religions, a primitive form of faith, is,
on the contrary, so far as facts enable us to
judge, a secondary or tertiary formation, nay, a
decided corruption of an earlier and simpler
religion. If we want to find the true springs of
religious ideas we must mount higher. Stocks
and stone were not the first to reveal the Infinite
before the wondering eyes of men. — Ibid.
[1254] After carefully going through the whole
of the evidence placed before us by the up-
holders of the fetish theory, we have arrived at
the follo\T'ing two conclusions : First, that there
are few, if any, well-authenticated cases of
savage tribes whose religion consists of fetish-
worship and of fetish-worship only. Secondly,
that there is hardly any religion, however
exalted in its original character, which has kept
• itself entirely free from the particular growth of
fetish worship. — Ibid.
IV. Its Counter Theory.
[1255] My position, then, is simply this : It
seems to me that those who believe in a primor-
dial fetishism take that for granted which has
to be proved, viz., that every human being was
mnaculously endowed with the concept of what
forms the predicate of every fetish, call it power,
spirit, or god. They have never proved, either
as a fact or as a theory, that casual objects,
such as stones, shells, the tail of a lion, a tangle
of hair, or any such rubbish, possess in them-
selves a theogonic or god-producing character.
They have never proved that there exists at
present, or that there existed at any time, a
religion entirely consisting of fetishism ; and
they have often depended on evidence which
no scholar, no historian would feel justified to
accept. We are therefore, I think, bound to
look elsewhere if we wish to discover what were
the sensuous impressions that first filled the
human mind with a suspicion of the super-
sensuous, the infinite, and the divine. — Ibid.
106
JUDAISM, MODERN.
I. Its Leading Feature.
Declension from its ancient faith through
Talmudic and Rabbinical influences.
[1256] It were an invidious task to show that
220
1256 — I26l]
THE FORCES OPPOSED '10 CHRISTIANITY.
[JUDAISM, MODERN.
the ancient pure faith of the Jews, which the
Saviour Himself pronounced to be a standard
of moral guilclessnoss, has, as a general thing,
sunk in these days into many superstitious and
gross errors, being brought slavishly under the
influence of the traditional law, or of the Talmud
and other Rabbinical scriptures, which exercise
a minute and rigid despotism over every act,
destructive of free will, and tend to make the
Jew still more of a bigoted Jew in his intoler-
ance and isolation.
The Talmud has, in the opinion of the most
eminent Hebraists, by its assumptions and in-
terpretations, gone far to destroy the spirituality
of the law of Moses, and to introduce the most
puerile and even vicious beliefs and customs —
such as prayers offered to saints and relics, the
doctrine of purgatory, the allowance of usury,
the forbidding of agriculture, the repressal of
a!l sympathy with other faiths and nations, and
the inculcation of a Jesuitical dealing with
others than Jews, that have greatly corrupted
the morality of the Jews. Not only has the
veil been upon the heart of congregations where
Moses is read, but it is to be feared th^t Moses
is not much read at all ; and if he is, it is in
the synagogues in the Hebrew tongue, which
language is a dead language now to multitudes
of the younger Jews in England and America,
who, if they are taught to read Hebrew, are
taught to read and pronounce merely the
character without understanding its meaning. —
Tlie New Englandcr.
II. Its Latest Phases.
1 Signs of life and activity among some
members of its modern school.
[1257] There seems to be among the orthodox
party (and this we conceive to be a hopeful
sign)' a strong desire for a more regular and
efficient religious life, and a more distinct union
of organization among themselves, which last
idea has already been extensively carried out
as far as their charitable institutions and efforts
are concerned, but the attempt at union has
hitherto failed. Of late there has been con-
siderable activity in the Jewish bodies to secure
for themselves religious immunities. A society
is also active in the publication of works con-
nected with Hebrew literature and religion, and
has, we believe, under its fostering care Mai-
monides College, which was opened in Phila-
delphia, 1867, and also the Hebrew Iree schools
in the larger cities. — Ibid.
2 Rationalistic tendencies of its so-called
" Reformed School."
[1258] The " Reformed School," which is one
of the latest phases of Judaism, is, in fact, a
modified form of rationalism, and is in strong
hostility to the orthodox party. It sets forth a
philosophical system of religion, recognizing,
indeed, the existence, unity, and government
of God, but having few religious riles, and ex-
plaining the old forms of Hebrew faith in a
rationalistic manner. — Ibid.
[1259] In 1840 an association was formed at
Franklort, whose object was the abjuration of
Talmudism. The three propositions that it
adojned were: (i) That unlimited religious
development is not inconsistent with the law of
Moses ; (2) That the compilation called the
Talmud has no authority over the associated,
either in a doctrinal or a social point of view ;
(3) A Messiah who is to lead back the Israelites
to Palestine is neither expected nor desired by
the associated, and they acknowledge that alone
to be their country to which they belong by
birth or civil relation. The movement was
short-lived, but the avowal of these principles
has had a permanent eftect, and they are held
by an increasing number of Jews at the present
day. Thus in the summer of 1869 a meeting of
Jews was held at Leipsic, at which eighty-four
members of different Jewish congregations, in-
cluding twenty-five rabbis, attended. The great
object proposed was to get rid of the peculiarities
of Judaism.— AW/. J. H. Blimt, M.A.
III. Its Evidential Aspects.
1 The permanence of type in the Jewish
character throws light on the Mosaic
record.
[1260I The race is ever the same ; what signs
and miracle did not our God show them in the
wilderness, but they continued still in unbelief.
And now neither the marvellous appearing of
Christ, nor His words of authority, nor His
miracles wrought before all the people, could
persuade them to believe in Him. Their pre-
sent unbelief is in strict accordance with all
that their own books tell of their want of faith
in the past. Which miracles, think you, are the
greater, those wrought in Egypt and in the
desert, or those of Christ 1 If you give the pre-
ference to the former, must it not be easy to
comprehend that the people who resisted the
greater miracles should also resist the less 1 If
you place both on the same level, is it astonish-
ing if the same people should show themselves
equally incredulous in view of the miracles
which are at the basis of both covenants.^ In
rejecting Jesus Christ you bear witness against
yourselves that you are the worthy sons of
those who in the wilderness withstood the
clearest manifestations of the Divine power. —
Origcn.
2 The preservation of the Jews is a striking
evidence to the truth of Christianity.
Tlie Jews are the standing nnivejsal miracle
of Providence .
[1261] I. They have been in every age and in
every country impartial and unwilling witnesses
to the truth of Christianity.
2. They are a race that retains, and in which,
as jnediiini.<!., originated the prophecies which
Christianity fulfils, and by which it is vindicated.
3. They are a race which, while preserving
the original documentary standards of its own
professed religion, prctves, by its glosses on,
departures from, or additions to, its Divine
THE FORCES OPPOSED TO CHRISTIANITY.
126 1 —1265]
221
[MOHAMMEDANISM.
written standards, that it did not invent those
standards.
4. And, finally, by its "traditions " and ineta-
physical cabalistic doctrines, shows the neces-
sity of adhering solely to the written standards
of which the Hebrew Bible — carried down by
the Jews — is the introductory, historical, and
prophetical portion, and of which the New
Testament is the corollary and completion. —
B, G.
107
MOHAMMEDANISM.
I. Explanation of Terms.
[1262] Islamism is an older name than
Mohammedanism. " Islam" signifies primarily
entire devotion to another's will, especially that
of God, and thereby the attainment of peace.
Its relation to the Hebrew word "salem" is
evident. It stands in a secondary sense for all
the tenets, dcjctrinal and practical, belonging
to the Mohammedan religion. From it are
derived the terms "Moslem" and "Mussulman."
— Bibliotlicca Sacra.
II. Its History.
I Its marvellous origin and spread.
[ 1 263] Glance for one moment at its marvellous
history. Think how one great truth working
in the brain of a shepherd of Mecca gradually
produced conviction in a select band of personal
adherents ; how, when the Prophet was exiled
to Medina, the faith gathered there fresh
strength, brought him back in triumph to his
native place, and secured to him for his lifetime
the submission of all Arabia ; how, when the
master mind was withdrawn, the whole structure
he had reared seemed, for the moment, to vanish
away like the baseless fabric of a vision, or like
the mirage of the desert whence it had taken
its rise ; how the faith of Abu Bakr and the
sword of Omar recalled it once more to life, and
crushed the false prophets that always follow in
the wake of the true one, as the jackals do the
trail of a lion ; how it crumpled up the Roman
empire on the one side, and the Persian on the
other, driving Christianity before it on the west
and north, and. fire worship on the east and
south ; how it spread over two continents, and
how it settled in a third, and how the tide of
invasion carrying it headlong onward through
Spain into France, it at one time almost over-
whelmed the whole, till Charles the Hammer
turned it back upon itself in his five days'
victory at Tours ; how throughout these vast
conquests, after a short time, to intolerance
succeeded toleration, to ignorance knowledge,
to barbarism civilization ; how the indivisible
empire, the representative on earth of the
theocracy in heaven, became many empires
with rival Khalifs at Damascus and Bagdad, at
Cairo, Cairoan, and Cordova ; how horde after
horde of barbarians of the great Turkish or
Tartar stock were precipitated on the dommions
of the faithful, only to be conquered by the faith
of those whose arms they overthrew, and were
compelled henceforward by its inherent force
to destroy whai they had worshipped, to worship
what they had destroyed ; how, when the news
came that the very birthplace of the Christian
faith had fallen into their hands, ''a nerve was
touched," as Gibbon says, " of exquisite feeling,
and the sensation vibrated to the heart of
Europe."
2 Explanation of the fact of Mohammed's
want of success at Mecca.
[1264] The monotheistic idea was not new to
the Meccans, but it was distasteful, and par-
ticularly so to the Kureish, whose position as
one of the first among Arab tribes, and whose
worldly prosperity arose from the fact that they
were the hereditary guardians of the national
collection of idols kept in the sanctuary at
Mecca. Mohammed's message, therefore,
sounded like a revolutionary watchword, a
radical party cry, which the conservative Mec-
cans could not afford to despise, and which
they combated very energetically. The Prophet,
therefore, in the first place, met with but little
success. Khadijah accepted her husband's
mission without hesitation, so did her cousin
Waraka ; and Zeid, " the Inquirer," a man who
had spent his life in seeking for the truth, and
in fighting against this same idolatry that was
so repugnant to Mohammed's ideas, at first gave
in his adherence to the new doctrine. For three
years, however, only fourteen converts were
added to the Moslem Church.
[1265]
3 Leading dates in regard to.
569."! Birth of Mohammed at Mecca, one
or ^ of the tribe of the Koreishites. Mar-
571. J ried a rich widow for whom he traded.
A traveller in Syra, &c.
611. The crisis of his life.
622. Began to preach at Mecca.
632. Expired.
636. Jerusalem taken.
638. Antioch taken.
641. Alexandria taken.
669.1 Constantinople twice besieged by the
716.) Saracens.
637-651. Persian Empire ceased to exist.
665-709. North Africa was subdued.
711. Arabs or Moors overthrew in a single
battle the kingdom of the Goths and,
surmounting the Pyrenees, planted
themselves in Aquitaine, and threat-
ened to make all P>ance, and with
France all Western Europe, their own.
732. Charles Martel at the Battle of Poitiers
(or Tours) encountered the armies of
Islam with the assembled chivalry of
the West, and inflicted so crushing a
222
126;
THE FORCES OPPOSED TO CHRISTIANITY.
:27o]
[MOHAMMEDANISM.
defeat that for long centuries all their
a;4grcssive pressure upon the western
kingdom was arrested ; and, indeed,
has never again received its full
strength.
See Abp. Trench^ Chapter on Islam, in Lec-
tures Oil Alediceval Church History.
4 The origin of the Koran and method of
compilation.
[1266] Dictated from time to time by Mo-
hammed to his disciples, it was by them partly
treasured in their memories, partly written
down on shoulder-bones of mutton, on bits of
wood or tablets of stone, which, being thrown
pell-mell into boxes, and jumbled up together
like the leaves of the Cuniiean Sibyl after a
gust of wind, were not put into any shape till
after the Prophet's death, by order of Abu Bakr.
The work of the editor consisted simply in
arranging the Suras in the order of their re-
spective length— the longest first, the shortest
last ; and though the book once afterwards
passed through the editor's hands, this is sub-
stantially the shape in which the Koran has
come down to us. Various readings which
would seem, however, to have been of very
slight importance, having crept into the different
copies, a revising committee was appointed by
order of the Khalif Othman, and an authorized
edition having been thus prepared, " to prevent
the texts differing, like those of the Jews and
Christians," all previous copies were collected
and burnt. — A'. 13. Smith.
III. The Character of its Founder.
I Does he deserve the opprobrious title of
impostor.'
[1267] Up to the age of forty, Mohammed's
career was an uneventful one ; but then oc-
curred the crisis of his life. He had always
been subjected to fits of an epileptic nature, and
in one of these he believed that he had a direct
call from heaven, througli the angel Gabriel in
person, to become a prophet of the Lord, and
to preach His unity and the sinfulness of
idolatry. The story has been so often told that
we need not repeat it here ; suffice it to sav
that he was, in all probability, at first convinced
of the reality of his vision, and that it was a
genuine enthusiasm which led him, as he shortly
after did, to denounce "those who gave com-
panions to God," and to declare that "there
was no God but the God, and that Mohammed
was the Prophet of God.'
[1268] If by " impostor" we understand, and
we can scarcely understand less, one who devised
a cunningly constructed system of fraud and
falsehood, which then, with the full conscious-
ness that it was such, he sought to impose upon
others, impostor Mohammed was not. Deceiver
I believe that he often was, but only where,
not of course without his own sin, he was him-
self first deceived. On any scheme of simple
and self-conscious imposture it is altogether
impossible to explain the results of his preaching,
which has changed the face of so large a part
of the world, given birth to a religion which for
many centuries contended as on equal terms
with the Christian ; and which, if waning now
like the moon that is its symbol, yet still subsists
a mighty power and passion, filling the hearts
and moulding the lives of millions of our
fellow-men. " Lies," as our proverb declares.
" have no legs ; " at all events, lies that are
nothing else but lies have not legs which will
carry them through some twelve hundred years
and more. Instead of dismissing without more
ado this religion as a lie, and its founder as an
impostor, it will profit us more to ask ourselves
what were the sources of its strength, to divide,
as far as this may be, the light from the dark-
ness in the man and in the faith, and to do
such justice to both as they have a right to
demand.
IV. Its Civil and Religious Character.
1 The civil morality of Islamism is of a
low character.
[1269] The civil morality of Islamism, drawn
from the religious, is of a low character. The law
of revenge, or \.\\eta!io, is directly enforced from
the Koran. Polygamy, connected with pliant
divorce and slave concubinage, opens the door
to sensuality, only limited by the wealth and
power of the individual. It is true that earth
and heaven, according to Islamism, are made
tor man, and woman has at best an uncertain,
and always a degraded place in either. The
names of the crimes themselves, under the
Mohammedan civil law, exhibit the mournlul
condition of the public morals, and in the ad-
ministration of justice the grossest bribery
universally prevails. — Bibliotheca Sacra.
2 Its worship is intensely formal and devoid
of spiritual power.
(i) The Mohammedan rises from his prayers
to return to his own life of mere sense.
[1270] The Mohammedan prayer is some-
thing more than picturesque : it is impressive
to behold the Mohammedan at his devotions,
his simple prostration before God, in the field
or in town, whenever the Muezzin calls from
his minaret, or whenever the sun comes forth,
touches the meridian, and sinks beneath the
horizon, without regard to place, occupation, or
company. But what are his prayers.-' Are they
a spiritual communion with God .'' are they
contessions of sin? are they the breathings of
penitence.'' are they the pleadings for pardon?
are they purifyings of the heart, or even ex-
pressions of holy, devotional desire? This can
hardly be claimed. The brief Mohammedan
creed, repeated and repeated, with a few vari-
ations in general ascriptions of praise, consti-
tute the prayer itself, while physical prostrations
and attitudes make up the rest. It is, in fact,
chiefly a bodily exercise, and allies itself, with
certainly a high degree*'of outward dignity and
propriety, to all physical methods of worship,
THE FORCES OPPOSED TO CHRISTIANITY.
1270 — 1276]
223
[MOHAMMEDANISM.
of which we see an instance among ourselves,
in the Shaker communities. — Bibliotheca Sacra.
(2) The Mohammedan rushes back from his
religious fast to his old vices.
[1271] The Mohammedan generally observes
his fast with rigour, even the solitary Bedouin
on the desert, according to the exact Burck-
hardt, confining himself to half a pound of
black bread in the twenty-four hours ; but the
manner in which all, from the sultan on the
throne to the poorest "fellah" at the water-
wheel, rush back again to their old vices, at
the moment the cannon booms to announce the
close of the fast, shows how little of a spiritual
or chastening character it has, and how purely
it is a matter of Stoic endurance.— /(!'/i;/.
3 The Mohammedan pilgrimage to Mecca
is simply a disreputable affair.
[1272] The pilgrimage to Mecca, if it ever
had a religious character, has long since become
a sad business of mingled money-making,
vagabondism, and immorality ; a " hadji," or
pilgrim, being almost synonymous with a worth-
less fellow. No longer does the magnificence
of mighty caravans issuing from the arched
gateways of Bagdad and Damascus, lend
solemnity and pomp to these pilgrimages, and
cover up their inutility, puerile superstition, and
vices. — Ibid.
V. Its Various Aspects.
1 Mohammedanism considered as a polity.
(\) It is more available for the protectio)i of
the individual than is generally supposed.
[1273] Considered as a polity, Mohammedan-
ism is more available for the protection of
the individual than is generally supposed.
Turkey has had many violent and arbitrary
princes, who would tolerate no claim 6f limi-
tation to their power ; but in theory, and at
present in practice, the sultan is by no means
absolute. Although, therefore, he is regarded
with great reverence and devotion, and his
firmans are usually obeyed without question as
to their binding authority, yet the loyalty of the
Turk is not of so personally degrading a cha-
racter as the abject, crawling submission with
which the Muscovite receives the ukase of the
Czar, nor does the Moslem, like the Russian,
elevate his sovereign to the rank of God's re-
presentative and vicegerent upon earth. In
many cases of a civil and political character,
the formal assent of the highest ecclesiastical
authority, which is at once the supreme judiciary
and the head of the church, is required, and
the arbitrary will of a sultan has more than once
found a firm resistance on the part of the
doctors of civil and religious \2i\\.— Christian
Examiner.
2 Mohammedanism viewed as a religious
movement.
(i) The bastard brother noiv of the fewish,
but chiefly of the Christian faith.
[1274J Although the Koran furnishes abun-
dant evidence that its author was at least par-
tially acquainted with the history and the
principles of the Christian religion, yet we can
by no means agree with those who think that
Islamism is founded on the New Testament,
and who in fact regard it as a species of Chris-
tianity ininus Christ. It is far more nearly
allied to Judaism, or perhaps we should rather
say to that earlier and more widely diffused form
of theism, which existed among the Semitic
tribes before the Hebrew period, and may be
considered as having been incorporated into the
Jewish dispensation. The primeval religion of
Arabia has left no record but the books of
Genesis and Job, and the other scriptural notices
of patriarchal life, and we know little of its
ethical character, except as its moral precepts
were recognized and embodied in the Mosaic
law. Between those precepts and those of the
Koran the accordance is so close, that Judaism
and Islamism may be considered ethically
identical, and the most important differences
between the two religions are purely ritual. —
Christian Examiner.
[1275] But Mohammedanism is not merely
this falling back from the blessed truths of the
gospel ; it is a still further retrocession in the
spiritual history of mankind. It falls short not
only of Christian, but even of Jewish truth. It
is a Judaism not provisional ; not looking on to
some better thing which it announces and pre-
pares for ; not pregnant with a nobler birth ; but
a Judaism stripped of its prophecy and its pro-
mise, reduced to a religion of nature, without a
priesthood, without a sacrifice even, as it is
without any deep consciousness of sin, without
a Messiah.
3 Viewed in regard to human progress.
(i) A mere episode.
[1276] I could occupy much time by pic-
tures of the temporary reformation, the ele-
vation of manners and morals of which Islam
was the parent. I will just rend one little tale
as a sample of multitudes, that you may see how
really and powerfully such merciful and ele-
vating precepts as there are in the Koran
wrought in its disciples of the nobler type. It
is related of Hasan, son of Ali, that a slave,
having once thrown a dish on him, as he sat at
table, boiling hot, and fearing his master's re-
sentment, fell immediately on his knees, and
repeated these words : " Paradise is for those
who bridle their resentment." Hasan answered,
" I am not angry." The slave proceeded, "And
for those who forgive men." " I forgive you,"
said Hasan. The slave, however, finished the
verse, "for God loveth the beneficent." " Since
it is so," said Hasan, " I give you your liberty,
and four hundred pieces of silver" (Sale's
" Koran," p. 5 1 , note). These hints will reveal a
spring of moral power of no mean virtue in
such a world as that into which Islam was born.
It reformed for a time, it renewed and restored
Oriental society. For a time, strictly for a time.
And I have not used the word regeneration.
224
1276 — T28o]
THE FORCES OPPOSED TO CHRISTIANITY.
[MOHAMMEDANISM.
There is nothing in Islam which can reach
humanity so deeply as to regenerate it. It has
no regenerating power. It can stir, kindle,
animate, but it cannot renew. There is nothing
in Islam which can permanently nourish the
higher life of men. It can inspire them with a
frenzy of enthusiasm, it can send them forth to
carry sword and tlame through the world ; but
it cannot nourish, enlarge, and edify social and
political life. Its activity is essentially fitful and
spasmodic, and the history of Islam, wide as
have been its triumphs, large as is its empire,
comprising, perhaps, one-fifth of the human
race, is, after all, but an episode of the history
of human progress, the largest and the longest,
but an episode — a movement out of the line of
the vital progress — ^ixW..— Baldwin Brown.
4 Mohammedanism viewed from a mis-
sionary point of view.
[1277] The power of the Mohammedan rule
is rapidly declining, but the pernicious influence
of the religion still remains in full force. The
faith which prevailed Irom the walls of China to
the Pillars of Hercules, and stretched southward
to the (unknown) sources of the Nile, is scarcely
impaired, though symptoms of decay are visible.
The martial devotion which hurried on its
warriors to the most astonishing exploits in
history, and influenced religion by the daring
spirit of conquest, has passed away. Of all
Mohammedan nations the hardy Turks have
most obstinately clung to the debasing prin-
ciples of their faith. They, too, have maintained
their political supremacy longer than the rest.
The Saracen has long since been forgotten.
The Great Mogul has become a fable. The
sons of Tamerlane in China have even for-
sworn the creed of their forefathers. But
Turkey has held fast her traditions in defiance
of Christendom. She has now drunk deep of
the waters of bitterness, and has become a prey
and a byword. The power of the Turks once
terrified Europe ; their weakness now alarms its
jealousy. The wide regions over which Moham-
med held his iron sway have long lain dark and
desolate. It remains for the efforts of men
filled with the spirit of missionary enterprise to
proclaim the dawn of a brighter empire, and
the opening of higher sources of civilization in
the introduction of a purer faith. — Christian
Observer.
VI. Causes of the Success of Moham-
medanism.
I On the side of the conquerors.
(i) Tlie Moslem hosts went forth in the coti-
fidence of a mission from heai'en.
[127S] The Moslem hosts went forth in the con-
fidence of a mission from heaven. Not Kaledonly,
but every Moslem warrior felt himself indeed to
be "the sword of (iod." Comparing what they
now were with what they had been in those
" times of their ignorance," when they wor-
shipped dead idols, they felt that they had been
brought into a new spiritual world, now at
length had learned what was the true glory
and dignity of man, namely, to be the servant
of the. one (}od, Maker and Ruler of all ; that
such servants they were ; whose office it was
to proclaim His power ; themselves submitting,
and compelling others to submit, to His will.
What a truth was here, to have taken possession
of a multitude of souls ! No wonder that, in the
strength of this, innumerable tri'bes, which had
hitherto done little but mutually bite and devour
one another, were presently knit together into a
nation, and the worshippers of a thousand dis-
cordant falsehoods into a society which bore
some sort of similitude to a Church. — Abp.
TrencJi.
2 On the side of the conquered.
(2) Mohammedanism was the scourge of God
Jipon a guilty Church.
[1279] And then, if you would look further for
an explanation, turn to the conquered. '" Where
the carcase is, there shall the eagles be gathered
together." This is the law of God's dealings
with men, with nations, and with Churches.
Where they are abandoned by the spirit of life,
and have thus become as a carcase, there the
eagles, the executors of the Divine vengeance,
are at hand, presently to remove out of the way
that which, suftered any longer, could only
taint the air and defile the earth. The Eastern
Church was not altogether such a carcase, and
therefore it did not wholly perish ; but yet we
must needs confess that it had grievously pro-
voked those terrible judgments which now fell
upon it. How rent was it and torn by inner
dissensions which men would not lay aside even
in the presence of a common foe, hating one
another so much that the triumph of that foe
seemed, infinitely preferable to the triumph of a
rival Christian sect ; what mere strifes about
words had taken the place of a zeal for holiness,
and how fiercely were these debated ; how much
of superstition was there everywhere ; how much
which, if it was not idolatry, yet played most
dangerously on the verge of this. We can
regard Mohammedanism in no other light than
as the scourge of God upon a guilty Church.
He will not give His glory to another. He will
not suffer the Creator and the creature to be
confounded ; and if those who should have been
witnesses for the truth, who had been appointed
thereunto, forget, forsake, or deny it. He will
raise up witnesses from quarters the most un-
looked for, and will strengthen their hands and
give victory to their arms, even against those
who bear His name, but have forgotten His
truth. — Jbid.
(3) // had a mission to per form, in God's
proTtdence, to the fetish-worshipping tribes of
Africa.
[1280] We shall best, I believe, understand
God's purposes here when we regard this reli-
gion in its relations, nat to the religions which
stand above it, but to those idolatrous worships
THE FORCES OPPOSED TO CHRISTIANITY.
225
[MOHAMMEDANISM.
which stand beneath it. Thus while Christi-
anity has failed to attract the negro races with
which it has been brought into immediate con-
tact, many of the fetish-worshipping tribes of
Africa, long sunken in abject and brutal super-
stitions, have been raised, as it is impossible to
deny, by the moral impulses which Islam has
supplied, by a religion which was not too far
above them, to the worship of one God, to a cer-
tain measure of order and morality, which, so
far as we can see, without it they might never
have attained. Such a process is even now
^oing forward, as all the reports which reach
us from the interior of that land of darkness
declare. There are indeed few more curious
spiritual facts than the present spread of Mo-
hammedanism in Africa ; a movement which has
failed hitherto at all to attract the attention
which it deserves. — Jbid.
VII. Christianity and Mohammedanism
CONTRASTED.
1 As to the causes which led to their
rapid spread.
(i) Islatnisni was propagated by the sword,
Christianity agaijtst the sword.
[1281] Writers constantly recur to the rapid
propagation of the religion of Mohammed as the
hrst step in the parallel between that and Chris-
tianity, and no more to be accounted for from
human causes than the diffusion of the latter in
the first ages. The propagation 6f Moham-
medanism was by the sword.
We deny the parallel. The propagation of a
religion Oy the sword can never be paralleled
with the propagation of a religion against the
sword. — Methodist Magazine.
[1282] I admit that the progress of Moham-
medanism was very rapid and very wide — whole
provinces bowed with submission to the false
prophet of the East soon after his death — but
consider the means by which that conquest was
effected. It was a military triumph, and not a
religious and moral one ; it was the triumph of
brute force and animal endurance, and not a
triumph of holiness and truth ; it was a triumph
of ambition, grasping and ferocious, and not
a triumph of meekness and gentleness, and
patience and long-suffering, and of every Chris-
tian grace ; and, therefore, it cannot be com-
pared with the triumph of the gospel. — B.
Harris Cowper.
(2) Islamisni fell in with, while Chris-
tianity resisted, the current of hiaiian comiption.
[1283] The great consideration which de-
stroys the parallel is, that Mohammedanism is
an instance of a religion making its way by fol-
lowing, or rather by giving a new impulse to,
the current of human corruption and fleshly ap-
petite ; Christianity by sternly reproving and
bearing up against both. Progress, indeed, is
made in each case ; but here the parallel ter-
minates ; for, to institute a parallel between the
same manner as we account for the progress of
VOL. I.
Christianity, it was not even so successful as
many of the elder forms of pagan error, which
might, therefore, as plausibly father themselves
upon the " special providence of God." —
Methodist Magazine.
(3) Islainisin received an unreasonable assent
on the part of its converts, Christianity a
reasonable.
[i 284] In consequence of the haughty violence
of the turbaned and scimitared apostles of the
Koran, no time was given to any to e.xamine
the evidences of the mission of the Arabian
impostor ; the evidences of Christianity were for
nearly three centuries left open to investigation,
and no man ran the least risk of life, fortune, or
fame by rejecting them ; whilst to believe or die,
or, at best, to be treated as a dog or a slave,
was the stern alternative by which Moham-
medanism was enforced — a mandate too urgent
to admit of deliberation. Its first converts were
in many instances hypocrites ; and although
they might afterwards catch the fanaticism, yet
it chiefly allied itself to a blind sincerity, after it
had occupied the prejudices of the infant mind
by the force of education. — Ibid.
2 As to the nature of their teaching.
[1285] In clearest distinctness from this, the
Saviour proclaims a parental king, unveils His
glory, and calls all men to the Great One who
waits to hear from His creatures' lips the trustful
loving words, " Our Father who art in heaven."
Nor does the reward of this kingdom consist,
like Mohammed's, in a sensual heaven and a
material hell. It is rather, " He that believeth
hath eternal life ;" Do this or the other, "for
this is right." Moreover, He reveals about that
kingdom how it is to triumph. Whereas Mo-
hammed made subjects — and Islamismcan pro-
duce only abject subjects — Christianity makes
converts. The highest aim of its noblest and
most inspired leaders is, " We persuade men ; "
while the watchword of its Founder is, not, Obey,
submit, yield, but, " Come unto Me.' The great
power in extending and consolidating this king-
dom is a cross, not a sword— a cross, for by
sacrifice the rebellious subjects are brought into
reconciliation with the king — a cross, for by self-
sacrifice the empire will be welded into unity,
and will win its conquering way in the world —
a cross that tells of a victory won, and whose
benefits we have to receive, and not a sword to
proclaim perpetual struggle and agony to obtain
— nevertheless, a cross that reveals love as the
mightiest force in the universe, and therefore
leaves no place for such persecutions, and
cruelties, and nameless horrors of bigotry as
Mohammedhimself sanctioned, and the Mussul-
man still believes to be the way to the victory
of the kingdom of God. — Urijah R. Thomas.
[1286] Mohammedanism recognizes only one
side of the character of God, namely, His
sovereignty.
226
1287 — 1292"!
THE FORCES OPPOSED TO CHRISTIANITY.
[MYTH01.0GY.
[1287] "One God" the Arabian piophet
preached to man ;
One God the Orient still
Adore, through many a realm of mighty span, —
A God of Power and Will.
A God that, shrouded in His lonely light,
Rests utterly apart
From -xW the vast creations of His might — •
YxQWx Nature, Man, and Art.
108
MYTHOLOGY,
I. Its Definition.
[1288] Mythology is the legendary, fabled,
and tiaditional account of the gods, and of
nature, and of man in relation to the gods. It
is the tradition or legendary lore of heathenism.
It includes the Hindoo, Chinese, Egyptian,
Graecc- Latin, and all other traditional religions.
II. Its Relation to Christian Myste-
ries.
1 Viewed generally.
[1289] These relations and coincidences be-
tween the two are inferred from the esoteric
explanations of the exoteric or popular and
fabulous forms which heathenism assumed or
retained foi the populace.
It is probable that the Eleusinian mysteries
or secrets revealed to the initiated, contained
the philosophical e.xplanaticns of the popular
mythology, refining it from the grossness in
which it was clothed, and affording the true
moral of the fables in which that mythology
consisted.
Even if these explanations are regarded as
only the philosophers' invention, apology, and
pretext tor adhering to the popular supersti-
tion, they still contain what Lord Bacon sug-
gestively describes as "several intimations
that have a surprising correspoitdetice with
the Christian mysteries" ("Wisdom of the
Ancients," end of " Prometheus ") — i.e. in a word,
adumbrations of Christian mysteries. — />'. G.
2 Viewed as to the accounts of the flood.
[1290J We are not dependent on the Bible
entirely for the story of the flood. All ages
and all literatures have traditions, broken tra-
ditions, indistinct traditions, but still traditions.
The old books of the Persians tell about the
flood at the time of Ahriman, who so polluted
the earth that it had to be washed by a great
storm. The traditions of the Chaldeans say
that in the time when Xisuthrus was king, there
was a great tlood, and he put his family and
his friends in a large vessel, and all outside
of them were destroyed, and after a while the
birds went forth and came back, and their
claws were tinged with mud. Lucian and Ovid,
celebrated writers, who had never seen the
Bible, described a flood in the time of Deuca-
lion. He took his friends into a boat, and the
animals came running to him in pairs. So, all
lands, and all ages, and all literatures, seem
to have a broken and indistinct tradition of
a calamity which Moses here, incorporating
Noah's account, so grandiy, so beautifully, so
accurately, so solemnly records. — Talimige.
III. Theories concerning its Sources.
[1291] Mythology is mixed up of various
streams, each of which has in turn had more
than its due proportion assigned to it. His-
torical fact exaggerated was the old story,
when Jupiter became a king of Crete, and
Odin a northern conqueror.
Abstract ideas personified next became the
prevalent theory, and power, wisdom, beauty,
war, &c., were shown working out their attri-
butes.
Then followed the Christian habit of tracing
the heathen tale to a scriptural tradition, such
as Hercules to Samson, Arion to Jonah ; and
at the present day the atmospherical theory is
swallowing up all the rest.
Now to our mind all these have had their
share in the work of creating the three great
mythologies of the world — the Indian, the
classical, and the northern. — F. A/ax Miiller.
[1292] The ancient mythology seems to us
like a vintage ill-pressed and trod ; for though
something has been drawn from it, yet all the
more excellent parts remain behind in the
grapes that are untouched. Though 1 have
thoroughly seen into the levity which the mind
indulges for allegories and allusions, yet I can-
not but retain a high value for the ancient
mythology. Many of these fables by no means
appear to have been invented by the persons
who relate and divulge them, whether Homer,
Hesiod, or others. Whoever attentively con-
siders the thing, will find that these fables are
delivered down and related by those writers,
not as matters then first invented and proposed,
but as things received and embraced in earlier
ages. And this principally raises my esteem of
these fables, which I receive, not as the pro-
duct of the age, or invention of the poets, but as
sacred relics, gentle whispers, and the breath of
better times, that from the traditions of more
an^:ient nations came, at length, into the flutes
and trumpets of the Greeks. — Lod Bacon^
\ Vis do m of the A ncients . «
DIVISION E
{Continued),
THE FORCES OPPOSED TO
CHRISTIANITY.
[3] HERESIES.
Pages 228 to 252.
TABLE OF TOPICS.
109
HERESY (GENERALLY)
no
ANTINOMIANISM.
Ill
APOLLINARIANISM.
112
ARIANISM.
"3
DUALISM.
114
FATALISM.
"5
GNOSTICISM.
116
MYSTICISM.
117
PELAGIANISM.
SABELLIANISM.
119
SEMI-PELAGIANISM.
120
SOCINIANISM.
121
UNIVERSALISM.
227
22S
DIVISION E
{Continued).
THE FORCES OPPOSED TO CHRISTIANITY.
[3] HERESIES.
109
HERESY {GENERALLY).
I. Its Radical Idea.
1 A choice to make revealed and authorita-
tive truth harmonize with preconceived
ideas.
[1293] Heresy starts in the will ; in unsancti-
fied reason ; in arbitrary human opinion, as
opposed to faith and all rightful authority. It
is a positive force engermed in the soul, and al-
most certain to develop in a certain way. It is
a previous condition of the mind and heart
which, by prevailing bent, sways away from some
part of Scripture. Orthodoxy is not its goal,
nor docs it commit itself to the natural flow of
the current towards it. It has another point to
reach, and means to push around whatever
stands in its way. It is the preference of some-
thing which is more agreeable to nature, or
which appears more consonant with reason to
that which is taught in the Scriptures. It is of
choice, to add something which they exclude, or
subtract something which they contain, or so
to interpret, change, or modify, as to make them
harmonize with a preconceived opinion or
theory.
A heretic, we say, is such from will and
desire ; not thai he wills to be a heretic, but
he wills to be that which makes him heretical.
Thus Milton : " Heresy is in the will, professedly
against Scripture." And in the " I will not be
a heretic," of Augustine and Hooker, they show
it to be a matter of volition, as opposed to error
which is unavoidable. " Heresy," says Hooker,
" is heretically maintained by such as obstinately
hold it, after wholesome admonition."
Self-will, then, obstinacy, dogmatism, enter
into the radical idea of a heretic, and help to
give him that character.
2 A disposition rather to guide the Scriptures
than to be guided by them.
[1294] They seem to be regarded as incom-
plete, and as needing some sort of revision or
emendation. The Bible, so far from being
thought infallible, has been rummaged like the
books of ancient archives, and subjected to
every species of torture to prove a point.
II. Its Accidental Circumstances.
I These may modify the offence, but do not
alter its real nature or radical idea.
[1295] Here we must not forget that heresy
may be the natural growth of the prevailing
religion or philosophy ; or, that it may arise
from pure speculation, as in the case of Sabel-
lianism; or, that it may be a reaction from harsh
or erroneous opinions of the Church, and im-
pelled in the defence of some dogmatic interest,
as in the case of Pelagianism ; and that while
many persons appear to have been possessed by
a pious and an honest zeal, as, for instance, Nes-
torius, Arius, and Pelagius, others have been
heretical, unconscious to themselves, and out
of compulsion ; as witness multitudes in the
Romish Church. All these circumstances, per-
haps, must enter in to modify the offence. But
when all is done, heresy proceeds from some
other point of departure than that of Scripture,
and, as a rule, is of choice to arrive at other
conclusions.
III. Its Course.
I It is devious and often destructive.
[1296] With respect to the heresies, there is
nothing regular and permanent. Their origin
we may discover at all points in the history of
the Church. Unlike the gospel, which moves in a
regular orbit, and displays a steady light in every
age, the course of heresies has been like that of
comets and meteors — some returning at distant
periods under different names and phases, and
others ending, after a short career, in total dark-
ness. On the one side we might instance the
Monarchians,orthe Monophysites astheyappear
among the Jacobites, or the Alonothelites among
the Maroniles of Syria. On the other we might
instance the Gnostic heresies ; those brilliant
and mighty coruscations — perhaps we should
say magnificent displays of thought and fancy
— which, for the time, swept all before them,
and in a century or two disappeared without
leaving a historian.
IV. Leading Form of its Modern Type.
I Modern heresy consists not in refusing to
believe what has been believed, but in
daring to believe more than has been
believed. ^
[1297] It has been said of late, the modern
THE FORCES OPPOSED TO CHRISTIANITY.
[297—1304]
229
[heresy generally.
heresy consists not in refusing to believe whnt
has been believed, but in daring to believe more
than has been believed. To this there is no ob-
jection, if one shall dare to believe nothing
which militates against the truth of Scripture,
and shall never strain that truth beyond itself.
One should have no ambition to imitate the
Romish Church, which has certainly never been
backward in point of daring, whose astonishing
feats are before the world, and which constitute
one of the marvels of history. Papal presump-
tion, in daring to believe and to enforce belief,
has won a notoriety to which none should aspire
and which none should envy.
2 Modern heresy substitutes illegitimate de.
velopments for progressive evolution of
Christian truth.
[129S] What we should guard against is that
notion of development which contemplates
Bible truth as rudimental and imperfect, and
as something to be evolved, or rather developed
and perfected by human wisdom. We must
beware of that view which conceive all truth
as in continual flux and transition, and which,
as in the transmigration of souls, is to purify
itself only by constant change. In the words
of an old monk, "We ought to hold to
a progressive evolution of Christian truth, for
everything in the world advances from one stage
to another as it grows older. But this progres-
sive evolution presupposes an abiding principle
in the peculiar nature of the thing itself. The
contrary of this would not be growth, but a
change to something else. The doctrines of
heavenly wisdom must, with the progress of
time, become more exactly defined, but they
should not be altered or curtailed. They must
be unfolded in greater clearness and distinct-
ness, but they should lose nothing of their pure
and complete individual nature." The Bible is a
text-book which needs no revision or supple-
ment, and which embraces equally the germs
and the perfection of Christian knowledge. —
The New Eiiglander.
[Most of the foregoing extracts were taken
from, or suggested by, an article in " New
Englander," vol. xxxiii.]*
V. Methods for refuting Heresy.
1 In regard to others.
[1299] There are two ways of dealing with
error : one is by establishing truth to defend
and prove the truth ; the other is —and is often
neglected — to directly attack and expose the
error itself. These two methods are no less
essential in intellectual than in physical warfare.
—B. G.
[1300] There is, however, much wisdom in
the advice given by a veteran Christian cham-
pion, " My principal method for defeating
heresy is by establishing truth."
2 In regard to ourselves.
[1301] "To trace an error to its fountain-head,"
says Lord Coke, " is to refute it ; and many
men there are who, till they have received this
satisfaction, be the error what it may, cannot
prevail upon themselves to part with it." —
Jeremy BentJiain.
VI. Early Heresies.
I Their analysis.
[1302] The following divisions are Robertson's
re-stated: (i) Those withoict the Christian
sphere. Gnosticism was an attempt to solve
the question of the origin of evil by theories
chiefly derived from some other source than the
Christian revelation. (2) Those within the
Christian sphere. {a) The practical, ascetic,
enthusiastic sect of Montanus. {b) Speculation
taking the form of an endeavour to investigate
and define the scriptural doctrine as to the
Saviour and the Godhead. — C. N.
VII. Contrast between Orthodoxy
AND Heresy.
I As to unity.
(i) Orthodoxy contradicts neither Scripture
nor catholic teachijig.
[1303] In order to determine what heresy is,
let us compare it with the standard of orthodoxy.
And here we prefer to indicate what that stan-
dard is rather by negation than affirmation, so
as not to fall into those statements and defini-
tions concerning orthodoxy which are peculiar
to an age, individual, or church. We wish
simply to conform to the words of Hagenbach,
that " the definitions of doctrines have been
undergoing constant change, while the great and
essential truths which they teach remain the
same in every age."
[1304] Orthodoxy, then, in the understanding
of the most pious and learned in all ages of the
Church, has not been that view which denies
the inspiration and Divine authenticity of the
scriptures, with many of the Gnostics, in re-
spect to the Old Testament and much of the
New ; or the fall, depravity, and ruin of the
human race, in consequence of sin, in an im-
portant sense with the Gnostics, Pelagians,
Socinians, Unitarians, &c.; or the Incarnation
of Jesus Christ, with the Marcionites, Mani-
chees, and others ; or which affirms His
humanity to the exclusion of His supreme
divinity, with the Ebionites, Eunomians, So-
cinians, Arians, &c. ; or His divinity to the
exclusion of His humanity, with some of the
Gnostics, Apollinarians, &:c. ; or which denies
the personal distinction in the Godhead, with
the Patripassians, Sabellians, Marcellians, So-
cinians, and Unitarians ; or the doctrine of
the two natures, with the Eutychians, Mono-
physites, &c. ; or the redemption and atone-
ment in consequence of Christ's sufferings and
death on the cross, with the Manichees, Mar-
cionites, Socinians, and Unitarians ; or regener-
ation through the personal agency of the Holy
Spirit, in an important sense with the Pelagians
230
1304-
THE FORCES OPPOSED TO CHRISTIANITY.
■1309]
[antinomianism.
and Unitarians ; or justification by faith, with
the Gnostics, and, in an essential sense, with
many of the Papists and Pela.^ians ; the annihi-
lation of the wicked, with the Destructionists ;
or an offer of salvation after death, with we
know not whom.
(2) Heresy projmilgates and accepts views at
variance both with Scripture and catholic
teachiui^.
[1305J The acceptance, then, of any of these
views as the genuine teachings of Scripture, is
heresy — heresy because they pervert and cor-
rupt their essential truth ; and this not on the
authority of any individual or church, but on
the authority of those who, in every age of the
church, have arrived at just contrary con-
clusions, and who, by their piety and learning,
their honest and unshackled spirit, and by their
free surrender to the Spirit's influence, were,
and are, best fitted to apprehend the truth of
Scriptui e. We pretend not to deny that some
who accept these heresies may be Christians,
nor that there are many degrees of heresy ; but
simply affirm that when tried by the highest
test, they, in an essential sense, depart from the
faith. In fact, it is easy to show that the
heretics are able to stand no such test as this,
nor to furnish any similar criterion among
themselves.
2 As to harmony.
(i) Heresy so niters the truth as to destroy its
identity with scriptural and catholic teachins,.
[1306] While, standing on common ground,
all true believers are marshalled under one
banner, inspired by one watchword, and en-
gaged in one conflict ; while in every age it
has been one Lord, one faith, one baptism,
whilst with heretics it has been endless diver-
sity and disagreement. They cross each other
in every direction. Hence a master of scoffing
mentioned by Lord Bacon, in a catalogue of books
of a feigned library, sets down this title of a
book : " The Morris-dance of Heretics." " For,"
says Bacon, " every sect of them hath a diverse
posture, or cringe by themselves, which cannot
but move derision in worldlings and depraved
politics, which are apt to condemn holy things."
Witness the difference between the Ebionites,
the Doceta:, and the Gnostics, in respect to the
character and mission of Jesus Christ ; and
also the endless diversity among the Gnostics
themselves — Gnosticism either exploding alto-
gether, or at lasthardening off into Alanicheeism.
Witness also the fiat contradiction between the
Sabellians and Arians, in respect to the Trinity
— some of the latter toning down into scmi-
Arians and Macedonians. Witness still furllicr
the shades of difference and contradiction in
respect to the natures and wills of Christ, as
appears in the Apoilinarians, the Nestorians,
the Monophysites, and Monothelites. We shall
call to mind also tlie diversity among the Pe-
lagians, semi-Pelagians, and Donatists. The
truth is, the heretics run to endless discord and
refute themselves.
(2) Orthodoxy abides by scriptural and
catholic teaching, though its otitward form and
expressiojt vary.
[1307] We are aware that the same charge
has always been made by the Papal Church
against the sects of Protestant Christendom.
But in 1 e ;pect to external discipline and worship,
we say the church is not bound by rigid rules
and forms, because such is not the design of
the gospel, nor can it be shown to be more
conducive to the healthy development of Chris-
tian life. Hence the churches have taken the
liberty to assume such ecclesiastical vestments
as suit their taste. But the heretics, on the
contrary, have sundered the body of Christ and
corrupted its very life, and not only misplaced
the several parts, but have introduced such
fancied improvements of their own that the
original likeness is beyond recognition. — See
New Englander^ vol. xx-xiii.
110
ANTlNOMIANIS^r.
\. Description of Antinomianism as
technically used in church his-
TORY.
[1308] Antinomians, in Church history, mean
certain heretics who were so called because
they rejected the law as of no use under the
gospel dispensation, and taught that good
works do not further, nor evil works hinder,
salvation ; that the child of God cannot sin ;
that murder, adultery, drunkenness, &c., are sins
in the wicked, but not in them ; that the child
of grace, being once assured of salvation, never
doubteth afterward ; that no man should be
troubled in conscience for sin ; that no Chris-
tian should be exhorted to perform the duties of
a Christian ; that a hypocrite may have all the
graces which were in Adam before his fall ;
that Christ is the object of all grace ; that no
Christian believeth or worketh any good, but
Christ only believeth and worketh ; that God
does not love any man for his holiness, nor
reject him for his sin ; that sanctification is no
evidence of justification ; that the chosen cannot
forfeit the Divine favour; that they cannot do
anything which is really displeasing to God ;
and, consequently, that they have no occasion
to confess their sins, nor to be penitent for them.
— Joseph Cottle., Strictures on Antinomianism.
IL Source of this Error.
[1309] This error is founded partly on meta-
physics and partly on mistake as to the in-
definite and ambiguous term " law." The
metaphysics of Calvinism, or, as some would
term it, hyper-Calvinism, recognize the doc-
trine of necessity, excluding not only "free-will,"
but really all free moral agency, which is very
different ; and shuttfhg up all in the Divine
" sovereignty," in a sense that renders impos-
THE FORCES OPPOSED TO CHRISTIANITY.
1309— 1316]
231
[antinomianism.
sible any freedom or responsibility in the
creature. This is not always acknowledged, is
often denied, but is logically and necessarily
implied. In addition to this metaphysical view,
there is the mistake as to the ambiguous term
"law," and because "the law" is set aside by
St. Paul, where the Levitical law of command-
ments contained m ordinances is only intended,
it is assumed that the moral law of personal
holiness is abrogated. They that are circumcised
are debtors to keep the whole law, namely, " the
law" of Judaical ceremonies, from which Christ
hath freed us. But this is not the moral law,
the "two commandments " on which "hang all
the law and the prophets." Antinomianism is
right as opposing merit or works as the ground
of justification : it is wrong as opposing works
as the fruits, signs, and proofs of sanctification —
the grateful results of free justification. — B. G.
III. Its Connection with Hyper-Cal-
vinism.
[13 10] During the period of the civil wars in
this country, antinomianism began to ally itself
with the more rigid forms of Calvinism, and to
assume the aspect of a logical theory. Since
those who are elected to eternal life must, in
consequence of an irreversible decree, be led to
the practice of holiness, while the reprobate
can by no possibility be moved to repentance,
it is needless for the ministers of Christ to press
moral duties. Some even propounded the
revolting doctrine that the sins of the elect are
not properly sins, since God sees no sin in those
who are in Christ, and that consequently watch-
fulness against temptation, and repentance after
falling, are to the Christian equally unnecessary.
— Canon Liddon, Baiiiptoji Lcclufes.
IV. Real Import of its Doctrines.
[1311] By the doctrines of antinomianism,
be it understood, we mean those doctrines which
tend to weaken our sense of the obligation to
perform the law of God, or which tend to make
the sinner easy and satisfied in the practice of
his sins.
V. Its True Origin.
[1312] Some historians place the rise of these
doctrines as far back as the fifteenth century
of the Christian Church, or even earlier. We
know but of one date to which to refer their
rise, and that is, the same date at which com-
menced the fall of man. The first great anti-
nomian teacher and preacher was he who, with
the garb of a serpent, the tongue perhaps of an
angel, but the heart of an evil spirit, approached
our first parents and said, " Ye shall not surely
die : for God doth know that in the day ye eat
of the forbidden tree your eyes shall be opened,
and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and
evii." Then first began the sect of antinomians.
The first sermon we know was but too effectual ;
and we rue its effects to this day. And from
that period it has been the object of the great
enemy of God and man to weaken in men's
minds their sense of obligation to keep the law
of God, and to make them easy in the practice
of their sins.
VI. Its Historical Phases.
1 As exhibited in the case of Cain and the
antediluvians.
[1313] The first and simplest of all expedients,
and one of the most general prevalency, was
that suggested, we may believe, to the murderer
Cain ; the substitution of ceremonious offerings
of external rites and professions for the homage
of the heart, the aflections, and the life. " Cain
brought of the fruit of the ground an offering."
However uneasily this first attempt at anti-
nomianism sat upon that primeval criminal, the
evil appears too clearly to have stolen in by
insensible degrees upon the antediluvian race,
till in process of time — and we speak it with fear
and trembling — of the whole antediluvian world,
there was but one man of whom it is recorded,
that "he was a just man and perfect in his
generation, and that he walked with God."
2 As exhibited in the case of the ancient
heathen world.
[13 14] After the flood it would be impossible
to trace the various methods by which the
tempter contrived to elude the force and obli-
gation of the Divine law in the hearts of his
children, and to set them at ease in the practice
of their sins. The awful description of the
whole heathen world is summed up by the
Apostle to the Romans when he declares, "they
held the truth in unrighteousness.
3 As exhibited by the Jewish Church.
[131 5] We pass over the history of the early
idolatries of the Jewish antinomians, and quote
their later prophets : " Will ye steal, murder,
and commit adultery, and swear falsely, and
burn incense unto Baal, and walk after other
gods whom ye know not ; and come and stand
before Me in this house, which is called by My
name, and say. We are delivered to do all these
abominations?" We quote from our Lord
Himself: "Ye pay tithe of mint and anise and
cummin ; but ye have omitted the weightier
matters of the Law — fiedg/nent, and mercy, and
faith. These ought ye to have done, and not
to leave the other undone." They substituted
according to the first and most approved device
of Satan, the ceremonies of the law for its
moralities.
4 As exhibited in the Christian Church in
early times.
[1316] With such a plain and undeniable
account from Scripture itself, of real antinomi-
anism on the one hand, and the resistance made
against it on the other, we ought surely to be
ever upon our guard against its approaches in
subsequent times ; aware that it is entirely
congenial to human nature and but too ready
232
1316-
THE FORCES OPPOSED TO CHRISTIANITY.
1324I
[arianism.
to lurk under the most specious forms, and in-
trude into the most sacred sanctuaries.
[1317] In addition to its history, already
partly related, it appeared in very early times
in the Christian Church, after the canon of
revelation was closed ; and it is remarkable
that the same ancient father, St. Austin, who
had to oppose the doctrinal errors of the Pela-
gians, had likewise to combat the practical
errors of the antinomians ; both errors, indeed,
tending to the same point, tlie former depressing
the standard of holiness, the latter weakening
its obligation.
5 As exhibited in the Christian Church of
later date, whether Roman or Reformed.
[13 1 8] Afterwards it appeared no longer lurk-
ing in disguise, but in its most open and palpable
forms, in the many licentious codes of doctrine
and absolutions of popery. It has appeared
since in the doctrine of a mitigated law. The
forgiving mercies of the new covenant have been
brought in to eke out a defective virtue, a worth-
less morality, which lias tended to make the
commandments of God and the holiness of His
gospel of none effect.
[Most of the foregoing extracts are taken
from, or suggested by, various articles in " The
Christian Observer."]
Ill
APOLLINARIANISM.
I. Basis of Apollinaris' Argument.
[13 19] While the Arians altogether denied
the existence of a human soul in Christ, and
employed the texts which relate to His humanity
as proofs of the imperfection of His higher
nature, Apollinaris followed the Platonic school
in dividing the nature of man into body, animal
(i/zi-X'/S and intellectual or rational soul (,vovc).
— James Craikid Robertson, History of the
Cliristiaii Cliiirik.
II. Line of Apollinaris' Reasoning.
[1320] From the variableness and sinfulness
of man's rational soul he argued that, if the
Saviour had had such a soul, He must together
with it have had its freedom of will, and
therefore tendency to sin ; consequently (he
proceeded to say) that part of man's nature was
not assumed by the Saviour, but the Divine
Logos supplied its place, controlling the evil
impulses of His animal soul, of which the
body is the jiassive instrument. Some of the
followers of Apollinaris, if nr)t he himself, main-
tained that the flesh of Christ existed be^'ore
His appearance in the world, and was not taken
by Him of the substance of the Blessed V^irgin,
a notion for which support was sought from
such texts as John i. 14 ; iii. 13 ; I Cor. xv. 47.
— Ibiii.
III. Its Eventual Consequences.
1 It makes our redemption incomplete by
making our Redeemer incompletely man.
[1321] If Christ only assumed man's body,
He only became the Redeemer of man's body ;
man's soul, his intellectual and immortal part,
remains unredeemed, because one thing could
not be redeemed by another different from it,
but the body must be given for the body, the
soul for the soul. ' But since our whole nature,
body and soul, fell, our whole nature, soul
and body, must be restored. Our Redeemer,
therefore, must be qualified to effect this resto-
ration of our entire nature, by Himself assuming
and offering the entire and complete nature of
man.—//. H. Wyati.
2 It really, like Eutychianism, confuses our
Lord's two natures.
[1322] The Apollinarian heresy contains the
germ of another, viz., the Eutychian ; it may be
considered incipient Eutychianism, inasmuch as
it detracts from the distinctness and complete-
ness of one of the two natures in Christ, that
is, from His distinct and complete humanity.
There is, in effect, a confusion of the human and
Divine natures, when the Godhead is conceived
to supply the place of one, and that the princi-
pal, constituent of the human nature — Jdid.
112
ARIANISAf.
I. Its Relation to other Heresies.
I To preceding heresies.
[1323] Lip to the time of Arius the divinity
of our Lord had not been denied. Up to the
same time, the doctrine of the Trinity had not
been denied, though both had been wrongly
explained. And in some cases those explana-
tions had been proved to be wrong, because,
logically, they would have led to the denial ot
the Trinity, or the denial of the divinity, a
result as much against the convictions of the
one side as the other. — Christian Kxatniner.
[1324] The distinctive tenet of Arianism— the
denial of the Saviour's Godhead- had already
appeared in the heresies of the Ebionites of .Arte-
mon, and of Thcodotus. Jkit now Christianity
had assumed a new position ; questions of doc-
trine produced an amount of agitation before
unknown ; the Arian controversy, and some
which followed it, were not only felt throughout
the whole Church, regarded as a spiritual body,
but had an important influence on political
affairs. — fames Craiki^^obertson, History of the
Christian CIturch.
THE FORCES OPPOSED TO CHRISTIANITY.
1325- -1331]
[arianism.
2 To succeeding heresies.
(i) The halfway Jwuse between TrinitariaJiism
and UnitarianisDi.
[1325] It is mainly concerned with the person
of Christ, and seeks to find a rank for Him as
near Deity as possible, yet so as still to be
amongst creatures, though of the highest order.
Many of the Puritans of the age of the Resto-
ration—Charles II., and subsequently their suc-
cessors— adopted this view, and finally slided
into the lower Unitarianism of Belsham and
Priestley.—^. G.
II, Its Characteristic Dogma.
1 That the Son was originally produced
out of nothing, and consequently there
was a time when He did not exist.
[1326] Arius maintained that He was a great
pre-existent spirit, the first in rank of all
derived beings ; that this spirit became after-
wards united with a human body and supplied
the place of a rational soul. Some of the
preceding Fathers attributed a human soul as
well as a human body to Jesus, which, how-
ever, was so absorbed in the Divine part of His
nature, that they were, in a strict sense, one
spirit, and not two, as modern Trinitarians
affirm or imply. Such was Origen's opinion.
According to the theology of Arius, however, the
human soul was wanting in Jesus Christ, and
He was a compound being only in the sense in
which all human beings are ; that is. He con-
sisted of a body and one simple, undivided,
finite spirit. — Christian Examiner.
[1327] "We beheve," says he, "and teach,
that the Son is not unbegotten, nor in any
manner part of the unbegotten ; that He was
not made of matter subsisting, but by will and
counsel," that is, of the Father, " existed before
the times and ages — who, before He was born,
or created, or constituted, or founded, was not.''
This language occurs in his letter to Eusebius.
Again, in his letter to Alexander, he says, " We
acknowledge one only God, alone unbegotten,
eternal, without beginning, who begat an only
begotten Son before the times of the ages ; by
whom He made the ages and all things, having
truly begotten Him, and constituted Him by His
will immutable, a perfect creature of God, but
not as one of the creatures ; a production, but
not as one of the (other) productions." " God,
as the cause of all, is alone without beginning ;
but the Son begotten without time of the Father,
and created and constituted before the ages, was
not before He was begotten, but was alone pro-
duced of the one only Father without time and
before all things ; for He is not eternal, nor
co-eternal, nor existed with the Father un-
begotten. God is before all things, wherefore
He is prior to Christ. — Ibid.
III. Its Tenets as propounded at the
Council of Nicea.
[1328] The Arians at the Council of Nicea
held that (i) the Son exists by the will of the
Father ; (2) that He was not eternal ; (3) that
He was created out of nothing and was there-
fore a creature ; (4) that He was not immutable ;
(5) that His pre-eminence consisted in the fact
that He alone was created immediately by God,
whereas all other creatures were created by the
Son ; (6) He was not God of Himself, but was
made God, i.e., on account of His superiority to
all other creatures, and as their Creator and
Governor He was entitled to Divin'e worship. —
Dr. C. Hodge.
IV. Real Aim of Arius.
I To deny the theory of Alexander as to
the origin of Christ, and to establish
another of his own.
[1329] Did Arius, then, deny our Lord's
divinity .'' Did he deny the doctrine of the
Trinity .-^ Was he the great champion of the
doctrine of the Divine unity against Trinita-
rians, as he has been sometimes represented.?
In the first book of the Ecclesiastical History
of Theodoret are contained two letters — one
from Alexander, explaining his view of Arius's
teachings, and one from Arius himself to his
friend the Court Bishop of Nicomedia.
Let us hear what Arius says : " We teach that
the Son is not unbegotten, nor in any manner
a part of the unbegotten. Neither was He
formed of anything lying below, but in will and
purpose He existed before all times and before
all worlds. Perfect God, the only-begotten, un-
changeable, and that before He was begotten,
or created, or purposed, or established, He was
not, for He was never unbegotten." — Church
Revieiv.
[1330] It is manifest from this that Arius did
not intend to deny the divinity of the Son. He
holds Him to be "perfect God." His purpose
is to deny the theory of Alexander as to His
origin, and establish another of his own. The
question between them is not whether Christ is
God — that both admit — but how He comes to
be God and a distinct Person from the Father.
Alexander had taught, and that was what first
aroused Arius's opposition, that the Son was
begotten of the substance of the Father by an
eternal generation. Arius considered this Sa-
bellianism, and taught against him that the
Son was made God out of nothing— k ohx
UVTIOV.
On the first theory, the Son would be equal
with the Father as to His nature, but subordi-
nate as to His origin. On the second. He
would be totally unlike both in nature and
origin, but as Arius claimed, "entire God" —
:rM]pi]g Oeu(j. — /bid.
V. The Real Seat of the Error.
I The heresy scientifically stated did not
deny the divinity of Christ.
[1331] Of course the first inference deduced
from the theory, and pressed against it, was that
234
I33I-
THE FORCES OPPOSED TO CHRISTIANITY.
-1336J
[akian'ism.
it denied the divinity of our Lord. On the ortho-
dox theory it did. A creature cannot be God.
If, therefore, the Son be made, not begotten of
the Father's very essence, He is a creature—
the highest and greatest creature it may be —
but still a c/eature and not God. And it appears
from the letters of Alexander, given by Socrates
and Theodoret, that the Arians were at once
pressed with these consequences, and boldly
accepted some of them, though still insisting on
the divinity. 'J'hey conceded that the Son was,
so far as He was a created being, liable to change
and deterioration, like other creatures, but ex-
plained that He was made superior to these by
grace, by the favour of God, that is, who had
endowed Him with Divine attributes beyond a
creature. In other words, the divinity of the
Son was admitted on both sides. The explana-
tion of Arius was that He was " made God; "
not of the Father's substance, nor of any other
lower, but unique, " out of nothing," and en-
dowed by the Father's gift with "all the fulness
of the Godhead," all powers and attributes of
divinity; and while, in His nature, as a being
made, inferior, changeable, and not omniscient,
yet by that endowment, equal, unchangeable,
and inlinite in wisdom. — I/nd.
[1332] It was pressed against the Arians that
this explanation of theirs destroyed the divinity.
It did to the mind of the orthodox. If the
Arians had been forced to confess it did, they
would have been obliged to drop it, for they
were as much set to hold the divinity as their
opponents. Their claim was that the explana-
tion involved no such necessity. They would
seem to have argued that as God is omnipotent,
and can do what He will, He can make "out of
nothing" a being who shall be " God in ful-
ness." In Book I. of Theodoret's "History"
we have a letter from the friend and parlizan
of Arius, Eusebius of Nicomedia, written to
Paulinus of 'lyre, persuading him to intercede
for the Alexandrian Arians, and bring Alexander
over to their opinions. In this letter he sets
forth the views of his party : " We affirm that
there is One who is unbegotten, and that there
also exists another, who did in truth proceed
from Him, yet who was not made from His
substance, and who does not at all share in
the nature or substance of the Unbegotten.
Him we believe to be entirely distinct in nature
and in power, and yet to be a perfect likeness
in character and power of Him from whom He
originated. We believe that the mode of His
origin cannot be expressed by words, that it is
incomprehensible, not to man only, but to orders
of beings superior to man." — Jl^icL
[1333] That it was clearly the doctrine of the
Arian party that Christ is God, and made by
the power and grace of God fully ec|ual to, and
in the perfect likeness of, the Father, can
scarcely admit a doubt. That their heresy,
scientilically stated, was not the denial of the
di\inity of the Son, can scarcely admit a doubt
either. — /d/d.
2 The heresy, however, did deny the unity
of the Godhead and of Christ being the •
one and the same (ij/ujocffioc) nature with
God.
[1334] The Nicean Creed adopted by the
council was a modification of that presented by
Eusebius Pamphilius, archbishop of Cesarea,
the local creed of the Palestinian Church. It
appears from the history of the council that
there would have been no objection— indeed,
there could have been none, on the express
principles of both parties — to the Palestinian
creed, nor to the creed as modified, except in
regard to one word, ofioovaioc- That was the
test-word of the creed, the one word over which
the battle was fought in the council, and there-
fore the word which is exactly opposite to the
heresy condemned.
Every other expression the Arians could have
accepted — in the after contests were willing to
accept. They could say the Son is God, '• true
God ; " Light, and " true Light ; " even " God
from God,*' and " Light from Light," and in
their own sense, "Begotten" and "begotten
before all worlds," because the phrase vv irore ore
ovx r/v, does not assert " there was a /ime, when
He was not," but simply, "there tvas when He
was not." Arius did not make the " creation,'"
or "founding," or "setting up" of the Son in
time. He held that it was before time, before
worlds and yEons, only it was something that
did occur, an act and fact mentally conceivable,
and is not, as the Eternal Generation teaches
us to believe, something inherent in the nature
of Deity. So that God is always a Father
generating, always a Son generated, and always
a Holy Spirit proceeding — the generation of the
Son being not an act done or begun, or expres-
sible by any tense of the verb, but a process
eternal in the nature of the Godhead. — Jd/d.
[1335] The real point of the heresy, therefore,
is touched by the test-word, and guifled by that,
we can understand its scientific precision. It
admitted the possibility of more than one
essence in the Godhead. It held that there is
a God uncreated, and another created ; one
without beginning and another with ; one of
one substance, and another of a substance ab-
solutely different — different as the created is
from the uncreated. It sets up a god to be
served and worshipped who is made. It was
heresy against the doctrine of Divine Unity.
It was so met, and so understood. The test-
word used in its condemnation was carefully
chosen to declare the sameness and oneness of
substance, and so preserve that Unity. — Jh'd.
VI. Summary, showing Real Point at
ISSt:E BETWEEN THE ARIAN.AND CA-
THOLIC Doctrine.
[1336] I. Arianism held that God the Father
is God uncreate, unbegotten, unoriginate.
2. That God the Son is God also by endow-
ment— equal, in all respects, with the Father.
THE FORCES OPPOSED TO CHRISTIANITY.
1336-1341!
[artanism.
3. That God the Son was made so (or "be-
gotten," in a sense, if that word be preferred)
by an act of creation, definitely begun and
ended.
4. That this act took place, but not in time-
before all times and worlds. It was a finished
act, and is conceivable as having a before and
after, intellectually.
5. Arius's discussions did not lead to any
examination of the relations of the Third Person,
but we may conclude from analogy and the
scientific examination of the question that he
would have taught virtually the same with re-
gard to the Holy Spirit. Admitting Him to be
a distinct Person, and God, he would have
denied the procession (for the emanation doc-
trine was just what he opposed), and would have
asserted His creaiio7i as God in the same way.
6. The Son was made, but He was not made
in time, so He was not made of things that
exist — neither of the substance of the Father,
nor of any other substance. He is "of things
that are not" — Ik ovx ovtidv. — ////d.
vn. The Attractiveness of its Doc-
trine.
[1337] Arius found many to sympathize with
him — partly from the attractiveness of a doc-
trine which brought down the mysteries of the
Godhead to the sphere of human analogies and
conceptions, partly because the multitude is
always impatient of authority, and ready to take
part with any one who may suffer from the
exercise of it. — Canon Robertson, History of tlic
Christian Cliurcli.
VHI. The Consequences of Arian Pro-
posnioNs.
1 They are simply polytheistic.
[1338] They deny the Divine Oneness. They
strike at the first article of faith, " I believe in one
God." For three hundred years the Church had
fought the battle of monotheism against the
"gods many" of heathenism. She went forth into
a world sunk in grovelling superstition before
gods of the brooks and the groves, gods of the
land and the sea, gods of Olympus and gods of
the depths below, deities celestial and deities
infernal, proclaiming the old cry from Sinai,
" The Lord thy God is Lord alone." And here,
at the end, comes a priest of this Church and
denies the first utterance of her lips, the awful
announcement of the One Awful God. He
proclaims that God is not One, that the un-
created has shared His glory with another,
that there are at least two Gods, necessarily
tliJ-ee. If he had gone a step farther, logically
the possibility of a thousand. The flood-gates
were opened, and gods of all ranks and orders
might walk the clouds and rule the storm, and
guide the rolling world again ! — Ibid.
2 The Incomprehensible had not revealed
Himself.
[1339] He had sent a God of another nature
to teach men. The mediatorship was destroyed.
The Unknown remained wrapped in the eternal
clouds, circled by the eternal fires, and man
only dealt with a God who was made. Christ
was no mediator. He could not lay His hands,
as the Days-man, upon them both — God and
man. — Ibid.
IX. Confutation of this System and
OF THE Cognate System of Docet-
ISM.
[134.0] All these are confuted by these words
of the apostle : " For against Marcion we say,
How could that flesh be a mere shadow and
phantom, which was taken by One who had the
form of a servant, and was found in the fashion
of a man, and who suffered death on the Cross?
And to the others above mentioned (Arians)
we put these questions. How can the Son be
merely a Power and not a Substance, since He
who is said to have taken the form of a servant,
is said also to have pre-existed in the form of
God? How can it be alleged that He derived
His existence from Mary, when He is declared
by the apostle to have subsisted in the form of
God ? How can He be thought to be a mere
Name, when He is said to have existed in a
state of equality with God ? Equality is be-
tween two things. No one can iae said to be
equal to himself Therefore we here see a
duality of Persons in one Godhead. How,
again, can He be thought to be a Creature,
when it is asserted by St. Paul that He existed
in the form of God, that is, the very nature and
essence of God, and that He did not count it
an unjust assumption on His part (as the Arians
do for Him) to be equal with God ? How,
lastly, could it have been said by the apostle,
that He took the form of a servant, and suffered
death (which is the separation of soul and bodyj,
if He had not also a human soul as well as a
human body?" — St. Clirysostoni.
X. The Counter Statement of the
Catholic Doctrine.
[1341] The Church collected herself to utter
one word which should end this for all time in
her history. No man thereafter should be ever
able to declare that Christ is God, and at the
same time deny the Unity. And that word was
onoovaioi. In opposition to Arianism, she taught
that the essence of the Godhead is one, that
each distinct Person in the Trinity is of that
one essence. Consequently by nature equal,
subordinate with reference to the method of
existence only. She taught that the generation
— that mysterious process by which the Word
is a Person — never began and never ends ; that
it is a thing eternal and innate, so to speak, in
the Divine nature, that God is, in His awful
nature a Father, and in the same nature a Son.
She taught the like of the procession of the
Holy Ghost, and thus conserved the Unity.
The Godhead undivided, perfect, entire, is the
Godhead of the Father, and of the Son, and of
236
THE FORCES OPPOSED TO CHRISTIANITY
:348]
[dualism.
the Holy Ghost. It is the same in all. — 77/^
Church Review.
XI. Providential Use of the Arian
Controversy.
[1342] Sad as it undoubtedly is to contem-
plate the distractions thus occasioned, we must
yet remember that by fighting out these differ-
ences, instead of attempting to stifle them by
compromise, the Church gained a fixed and
definite form of sound words, which was of the
greatest value, and even necessity, for the pre-
servation of her faith through the approaching
ages of ignorance. — Canon Robertson, History
of the Christian Church.
113
DUALISM.
I. Definition and Phases.
[1343] Dualism is literally Two-ism ; mean-
ing the system, or systems — for there are vari-
ous—of dividing and classifying all events or
existences with two classes of agencies, or two
sorts of substances.— j5. G.
[1344] As the Manichasan doctrine of two
agents, a good and an evil power, to which
benefits and virtues, calamities and sins, re-
spectively, are referred, to account for their
origin. Some have inferred that St. Augustine
held this view. — B. G.
II. Historical Causes.
[1345] The opinion of dualism, or the ulti-
mate contrariety of the spiritual and material,
has arisen historically from the following
causes : —
{a) A rough classification of the beneficent
and hurtful influences of climate and surround-
ing nature. (Apparent more or less in all
polytheism.)
id) The superposition of the Pantheon of one
on that of another hostile or subject nation.
(Persian, Slavonic, &c.)
(c) I'he reflection upon the Cosmos, of the
mental detachment of the critical and self-con-
scious individual from the moral and religious
world in which he lives. As a consequence of
the confusion of thought l)ing at the root of the
Platonic theory of ideas. (Flato and Epicurus.)
[d] The fusion of c with b and a. (Gnostic,
Manichasan, Priscillianist, Paulician, Catharist.)
{e) From the attempt to arrive at certainty
through a process of universal scepticism.
(Descartes and his school down to Kant.)
Of these {a) arising from a low degree of
culture, vanishes with advancing civilization ;
(/') led to a scries of reforms, and was at length
stigmatized as a heresy ; (r, d, e) disappear so
soon as their origin can be explained, and their
Consequences shown to be unthinkable.
III. Growth of Persian Dualism.
[1346] The ancient Persian religion was a
natural growth from the primitive religion of
our Aryan fathers who dwelt in Iran, the region
rudely bounded on the north by the Persian
Gulf, on the west by the Tigris, on the east by
the Indus, and which extended northward as far
as the Scythians allowed. They adored one
supreme god ; him they saw visibly revealed in
the sky, which, as the grandest known existence,
they endowed with the grandest known qualities
— life and personality ; and to him they gave
such names as Varana, Ouranos, the enclosing
one ; or Dyaus, Deus, Zeus, the shining one.
From Iran westwards streamed those peoples
which, as Celts, Romans, Greeks, Teutons,
Slavs, overspread Europe, carrying with them
the primitive faith. Lastly, eastwards into
India flowed the Hindus, who in the Rig-Veda
had given us the correctest picture of that faith.
The supreme was not the only god ; closely
allied to Varana, the sky, was he whom the
Hindus in India and the Persians remaining in
Persia, or rather, let us call them by the wider
and more correct name, the Iranians remaining
in Iran, called IMithra, the friend, the kingly
light of heaven. Six others stood around the
supreme, and under them all the powers of
nature — gods without number. But a settled
society under centralized government could not
leave the gods in nomadic disorder and inde-
pendence. Among the Iranians the idea of
heaven developed into monarchy ; Varana be-
came sole god with the name Ahura, lord ; the
other gods lost independence, became the works
of Ahura's hands and his instruments in pro-
ducing his other works — being named Amesha-
Spentas, bountiful immortals. But while gods
became more dependent archangels and angels,
demons refused to own the lordship of Ahura ;
therefore we called the Persian religion Dual-
ism.—/i/fz/. J. Milne, M.A.
[1347] Besides this twofold classification of
good and evil under two powers, there is the
dualistic classification of existences into matter
and mind. And some have taught that all evil
comes from matter, that it corrupts the spirit ;
and this is sometimes the philosophy of Asce-
ticism, if it was not also at the foundation of
Docetism, which made the body of Christ a
phantom, or appearance only, and not a real
material body. — B. G.
[1348] Dualism is also used in a modern
sense as opposed to what is called monism, or
the doctrine of one existence only, some " un-
cognizable," one substance or existence, as
nature or the universe, as exclusive of God and
natiu-e. This is the bastard Spinozism of cur-
rent atheistic infidelity. — B. G.
THE FORCES OPPOSED TO CHRISTIANITY.
1349—1359]
[gnosticism.
114
FATALISM.
I. Etymology of the Term.
[1349] Its etymology is from the Latin^/arz',
fa7is,fatum — to speak, speaking, .y/^Zv;/ — willed,
determined, said, or decreed. At the founda-
tion therefore of fatalism, according to its etymo-
logy, there is a speaker, determiner, or author,
of a fixed plan and purpose. Fate, in this view,
is something said by one who has a will to do,
or to secure the doing of that which is said,
spoken, or decreed.
II. Its Phases.
1 Heathen fate.
[1350] In this sense heathen fate is the will
of Jove, or Jupiter, the supreme amongst the
gods.
2 The predestination of Calvinism.
[135 1] The predestination of Calvinism is the
preordination, or fore-said purpose, mind, will,
or decree ; the fate, or spoken and destined
result, or final purpose of the original Divine
determination, promise, or saying.
3 Fatalism of modern atheism.
(i) Its cliaracier a7id professed designs.
[1352] Fatalism is held by modern atheists as
an unbroken and unbreakable series of necessary
effects, that includes no less human thought
and volition than physical material or natural
sequences.
[1353] This fatalism is used to destroy morality
and responsibility, and to impeach Divine and
even human justice as to any punishment for
sins or crimes, since these are the fated results
of organization and circumstances.
(2) Its inconsistency.
[1354] They who invent this excuse for sin
and crime are inconsistent in accusing any sup-
posed punishment — beyond mere policy — as
judicial crime ; for they allow only J7idges to be
possibly criminal, and forget that fate as much
necessitates punishment as sin and crime, and
so equally excuses that. For the Supreme
Judge did not make Himself, and is ruled by
His own nature ; and human judges neither
made themselves nor the circumstances into
which they were born, from which self and cir-
cumstances, according to modern atheistic fatal-
ism, all their thoughts and actions necessarily
flow.
[1355] The same materialistic fatalists, while
logically, in their fashion, abolishing sin, crime,
and judgment, themselves mount the judg-
ment-seat, and liberally condemn men and
God as sinners and criminals before the bar and
tribunal usurped by those who denounce all
judgment, and then monopolize the right to
judge and punish— as far as their potency
stretches.
(3) Its nnphilosophical position.
[1356] Amongst the ancient heathen— who
were, in this, more philosophical than modern
atheistical fatalists— fate was sometimes re-
garded as superior to the gods themselves; and
so the same would excuse their acts, as also
mans, according to that answer of one who
taught fate or necessity, and yet punished an
offending servant. For when the latter said,
" You know, or teach, that I cannot help doing
what I do, and yet you punish me for doing it," he
answered, " You cannot help doing, but are
obliged to do, what I complain of; and I cannot
help punishing, but am obliged to punish, you
for it."
(4) Its refutation.
[1357] Fatalism practically proves the worth-
lessness of its philosophy, as it tends to destroy
hope, and so to destroy effort ; and advances
the vulgar truism, " What is to be, will be,"
" What must be, must be," which nobody can
deny, the only question being, whether it is to
be, whether it must be, whether it shall be ; or
whether we will, on the one hand, prevent it ;
or, on the other hand, secure it. If I am to go
to China, I shall go to China ; but I shall never
get there without going, without getting into a
ship. Likewise, if I am to be saved, or am to be
lost, I shall be ; but I shall never be saved
without entering the ship, the ark of salvation ;
and shall never be lost without neglecting to
do so. In this respect God puts our fate
into our own hands, of which no one can fairly
complain. "Why will ye die, O house of
Israel ; " " Ye will not come unto Me, that ye
might have life." " Him that cometh I will in
no wise cast out." — Foregoing Extracts are by
B. G,
115
GNOSTICISM.
I. Thoughts suggested by its Etymo-
logy.
[1358J The Greek yvuian;, or knowledge, is
also " knowingness," and the professors of Gnos-
ticism, called Gnostics, answer to the English
phrase, " knowing people," which does not
always mean those who are really wise or intel-
ligent, but sometimes means those who pretend
or think themselves to be. The Agnostic, with
"the pride that apes humility," affects scientific
ignorance ; the Gnostic, without even the parade
of humility, affects special knowledge. — B. G.
II. Its Definition.
[1359] While under one aspect this tendency
was intended to oppose Christianity (by neo-
238
I3S9— 13661
THE FORCES OFEOSED TO CHRISTIANITY.
f GNOSTICISM.
Platonism), under another, the Church itself was
drawn into tlie vortex, and by an amalgamation
of Oriental thcosophy, of Grecian theosophy, and
of Christian ideas, a widely ramified system of
most extravagant religious philosophy came
forth from the crucible of this peculiar kind of
speculation. This system bore the general
name of Gnosticism. — Dr. John Kurtz, Church
History.
[136c] Gnosticism taught concerning Christ
that He became visible to mortal eyes not in
the reality of human flesh, but in an aerial form,
or shadowy resemblance of a body. — H. H.
IVyatt, Principal Heresies relating to onr
Lord's Incarnatioti.
III. The Origin of the Attempt to
UNITE Christian Elements with
Greek and Jewish Gnosticism.
[1361] Simon Magus, marked for an immor-
tality of infamy in Acts viii., appears in history
as the leader of the first school which attempted
to unite Christian elements with Greek and
Jewish Gnosticism. He is said to have taught
that the Father or Jehovah, the Son or Christ,
and the Paraclete or Comforter, were the same
person of God under different modes of exist-
ence. And he declared that he was himself the
Word, the first image of the Perfect. The
followers of Simon even claimed that he was the-
Paraclete, the Almighty, having all the attri-
butes of God. His Gnosticism was more Jewish
than Greek. — The Baptist (liiarterly.
IV. The Priority of this Heresy in
Order of Time and in Importance.
[1362] Let us consider the Gnostic heresy as
fiist in order of time, and, it may be added, in
importance ; for, if Christ did not in reality
unite to Himself the nature of man ; if His
alleged manifestation in the flesh is to be re-
solved into an illusion ; in a word, if His in-
carnation never took place and be not a fact,
what occasion is there for considering the
various solutions of the manner in which it was
accomplished?
All other heresies suppose and concede the
reality of Christ's coming in the flesh, though
perverting the right faith as to the mode of its
acccmplishment.
The ApoUinarian believed the WoiJ to have
been really made flesh, though he detracted
from the perfection of the human nature
assumed by our Lord, by disallowing Him a
reasonable soul. And so in like manner,
Nestorians, Eutychians, Monothelites, believed
Christ verily Incarnate at the same time that
their respective solutions of the mystery were
heresies.—//. H. Wyatt.
V. Leading Features of this System.
I Gnosticism was rationalistic eclecticism.
[1363] The Gnostics were the rationalists of
the early church, w-ho summoned Christianity
to the bar of philosophy, and desired to ap-
propriate the portion of its teaching which
approved itself to their eclectic tastes. The
type reappears, perpetuated by the fixity of
mmd, though the form varies under the force
of circumstances. — Farrar, Critical History of
Free Thoiight.
2 Gnosticism dealt in allegorical senses, as
the esoteric doctrine of the word, and left
the exoteric and "literal grammatical
sense " to the populace.
[1364] They strenuously inculcated the doc-
trine of a double sense and appealed to their
own fanciful interpretations, which they main-
tained to be hidden in the sacred word beneath
the vail of figure and allegory, as alone con-
veying the genuine mind of the Spirit ; for they
insisted that our Lord had even taught two
doctrines— the one public and exoteric, accom-
modated to the prejudices of the multitude, and
another, the truth itself, private and esoteric
to a chosen few, deemed worthy of admission
to this perfect Yvt^cac,, which from them had
been handed down by perpetual tradition to fit
successors. — Co7iybeare, Analytical Examina-
tion into the Writings of the Fathers.
VL Its Origin.
1 According to the theories of its exponents.
[1365] Gnostic doctrine said to emanate from
the Supreme Being. None of the Gnostics
professed to derive his doctrine from his own
reason ; indeed, with the idea that all truth
emanated from the Supreme, and enlightened
the mind of the teacher, it became impossible
to draw any pure doctrine from the fountain
of the individual mind.
The various denominations of Gnostics, to
use a modern term, held in common the right
to profess a science superior to that of the
Christian teachers. This science was the gnosis
which has given them their name. They
differed as to the origin of this mysterious
gnosis, some attributing it to ancient revelation,
handed down among " the children of light "
from the earliest times ; others professed to
obtain it by the ecstatic intuition of the superior
worlds (which is claimed by all mystics), and
a third party attempted to pin their faith to the
sleeve of some apostle, who had better oppor-
tunities than his fellows of ascertaining the
doctrines of Jesus. — Christian Examiner.
2 According to historical and philosophical
principles.
[1366] Gnosticism must ultimately be traced
to a peculiar and powerful tendency, inherent
in many minds during the first centuries. A
deep conviciion that the old world had run its
course, and was no longer able to resist the
dissolution which thi'catgned it, pervaded the
age. — Dr. John Henry Kurtz, Church History.
THE FORCES OPPOSED TO CHRISTIANITY.
[367— I37sl
239
[gnosticism.
VII. The Secret of its Fascinating
Power.
[1367] It also impelled many by a syncretism
the boldest and grandest that history has
recorded — we mean, by the amalgamation of
the various elements of culture, which hitherto
had been isolated and heterogeneous— to make
a last attempt at renovating what had become
antiquated. — Idid.
VIII. Range of its Speculation.
[136S] Gnostic speculation busied itself with
such questions as the origin of the world and
of evil, or the purpose, means, and goal of the
development of the world. To solve these
problems the Gnostics borrowed from heathen-
ism its theory about the origin of the world,
and from Christianity the idea of salvation. —
Jbid.
IX. The Tenets of this System.
1 As to creation.
[1369] AH Gnostic systems are based on a
kind of dualism of God and of mittcr (t'A/;).
Only that some, with the Platonists, regarded
matter as unreal (having no real existence) and
without form (—nn civ), hence as not directly
hostile and opposed to the Deity ; while othei's,
in accordance with the views of the Parsees,
supposed it to be animated and ruled by an
evil principle, and hence to be directly opposed
and hostile to the Good Deity. — Jbid.
[137c] The theogonic and cosmogonic process
was explained on the principle of an emanation
(7rpo0o\n), by which, from the hidden God, a
long series of Divine formations iaiwvec) had
emanated, whose indwelling Divine potency
diminished in measure as they removed from
the original Divine Source.
These yEons are represented as being the
media of the creation, development, and re-
demption of the world. The original matter
from which the world was created consisted of
a mixture of elements derived partly from the
kingdom of light (the TrXi^pMjia), and partly from
the Hyle {liaTtp /.la x^viojita). This mixture was
differently represented, as brought about natu-
rally, by the fall, or by a contest. The world
was created by one of the lowest and weakest
^ons, called the Siiniovpyoc- — /did.
2 As to redemption.
[1371] Creation is the preparation and the
commencement of redemption. But as the
Deniiurgos cannot and will not accomplish
the latter, one of the highest ^ons appears in
the fulness of time as Redeemer, in order to
accomplish the deliverance of the captive
elements of light, by the imparting of yj'wo-ii,-.
As matter is in itself evil, the (pneumatic)
Saviour had only an apparent body, or else at
baptism descended into the psychical Messiah,
whom the Demiurgos had sent. The death on
the cross was either only an optical delusion, or
the heavenly Christ had left the man Jesus and
returned to Pleroma, or else He had given His
form to another person (Simon of Cyrene), so
that the latter was crucified instead of Jesus
(Docetism). According as the pleromatic or
hylic element prevails, the souls of men are
naturally either pneumatic, and in that case
capable of yvwaiQ : psychic, when they cannot
attain Tr/crnc ; or hylic— the latter class com-
prising the great mass of men who, left in
hopeless subjection to the power of Satan, only
follow their own lusts. — Jdi'd.
3 As to the process of salvation and sancti-
fication.
[1372] Salvation consists in overcoming and
elimmating matter, and is accomplished through
knowledge (yvuxrig) and asceticism. As it was
believed that matter was the seat of evil,
sanctification was sought physically rather
than ethically, and thought to consist in re-
sisting matter and abstaining from material
enjoyments.
4 As to the scriptures.
[1373] Various sects of Gnostics viewed the
scriptures in a different manner. Some by
means of allegorical interpretations sought to
base their system on the Bible. Others pre-
ferred to decry the apostles as having falsified
the original Gnostic teaching of Christ, to at-
tempt recasting the apostolic writings to make
up a Bible after their own fashion. The teach-
ing of primitive sages, handed down by tradition
as a secret doctrine, they placed above Sacred
Writ.— /^/^.
X. Its Effects.
I On its advocates.
(1) // exerted a deleterious and disastrous
injiuence on ilieir morals.
[1374] Most disastrous was Gnosticism in its
influence on the morals of its advocates. It led
many to ascetic self-torture for the mortification
of the flesh and emancipation of the spirit ; but
it deluded more with the fancy that they could
retain purity of spirit while giving up their bodies
to indulgence in the wildest excesses. By the
attempt to realize a passionless lust, many were
encouraged in the most shameful orgies and a
most shocking debauchery. The sin which in
the church at Corinth awoke the indignation of
Paul, was repeated with all possible variations
of vileness, and there is all reason to fear that
those pretended saints who professed to expose
themselves to the strongest temptations without
sin, only drew a veil over abominable shame. —
The Baptist Quarterly.
(2) // led to intellectual pride and supercili-
ousness.
[1375] Possessed of this sublime science,
communicated by the highest authority of the
240
THE FORCES OPPOSED TO CHRISTIANITY.
375-1380]
[gnosticism.
universe, and rendered infallible by the inspira-
tion within him, how calmly could the '•elf-
collected enthusiast look down from his high
eminence upon the idle show of practical life,
upon the keen controversy and perplexing doubt
which agitated the schools of speculation !
Scarcely would they allow that even Plato was
a theosophist, maintaining that he had but seen
the faint glimmering of the ancient doctrines of
the East, whose pale and distant rays en-
lightened Greece, while themselves were born
and matured under its meridian beams! Pos-
sessed of a tradition, of an intuition, of a revela-
tion, and of particular writings, which they
alone preserved entire, why should not they be
better qualified to teach than the apostolic
Christians, who possessed only writings and
doctrines corrupted by the ignorance of their
masters ? And why should they not teach better
than the Grecian schools, which in Ionia could
not distinguish intelligence from matter, which
in Athens dared not profess the existence of one
Supreme Being, which in Italy could only ex-
press the relation between the two worlds by
musical notes, cyphers, and doubts ? Why
should they not eclipse all the dogmatism and
all the scepticism of their times, initiated as
they were in all the mysteries of cosmogony,
pneumatology, theology, aeonology, and christ-
ology ? — Christian Examiner.
2 On the Christian Church.
( I ) // in tneasiere perverted CJuistianity for
three hundred years.
[1376] A philosophical system so widely ac-
cepted, so arrogant, could not fail greatly to
affect the advance of a new philosophy and
religion. A score or more of Gnostic schools
had adopted certain Hebrew dogmas, or per-
versions of them, and the same spirit would
threaten Christianity, both with fierce assaults
and with the seductions of an unholy alliance.
A haughty intellectualism despised the Trioiic,
or faith, of the Christians, and assailed the new
doctrines with all the spite which rationalistic
pride adds to the natural venom of sinful hearts.
P>om the time of Simon Magus, who had
many disciples, the number of tJnostics, who
adopted something of Christianity, increased.
Saturnin, Tatian, Marcion, and many others,
some claiming to be true Christians, perverted
Christianity. For three hundred years there
flourished various sects, which taught mystical
theories of the person of Christ. By some He
was believed to be one of the higher seons ; by
others He was said to be a man to whom the
divine Logos became united at His baptism ; by
many it was affirmed that Christ had not a true
body, and only appeared to suffer. — J'he Baptist
Quarterly.
XI. The Explanation of the Failure
OF THIS System to realize its High
Moral Standard.
[1377] ^lie system implied an exceedingly
strict code of morals, but in point of fact fre-
quently became the opposite, and degenerated
into antinomianism and libertinism. This is
partly explained from the low views entertained
of the Demiurgos, and partly by the not un-
common occurrence of a sect passing from
one extreme to another. — Dr. John Henry
Kurtz, Church History.
XII. Refutation of this Heresy as far
AS IT CONCERNS OUR LORD'S INCAR-
NATION.
[1378] It is, indeed, a remarkable instance of
the extravagance into which the human mind
can be betrayed, that a heresy which reduces
the whole .Christian history to one continued
trope should ever have been conceived. There
are amongst revealed truths some which the
natural man feels more difficult of belief than
others. But it is doing gratuitous violence to a
history of facts to resolve it into fiction or
allegory. Not a circumstance, with but few
exceptions (and these capable of explanation),
is recorded of our Incarnate Lord, which can
reasonably create the idea of His being a
spectre.—//. H. IVyatt.
[1379] The right faith, as distinguished from
the error that our Lord became Man in appear-
ance only, is that He became really and truly
Man ; and if it can be shown that the Man
Christ Jesus passed through each stage ot
human generation ; exhibited each phase, each
property, each mfirmity of human life, and ful-
filled the conditions of humanity in death, the
truth of His Manhood is sufficiently established.
—Ibid.
XIII. The Fatal Consequences INVOLVED
IN THIS Heresy as concerning our
Lord's Incarnation.
I It subverts by consequence the entire
Christian faith, and is repugnant to the
whole Christian scheme from its opening
to its consummation.
[138c] Whereas the gospel history is a nar-
rative of the life, death, resurrection, and
ascension, as matters of flict, of a Man, " the
Man Christ Jesus," the Gnostic, by doiyini^ the
reality of His history as Alan, denies the doc-
trines -which issue from the facts. To deny the
reality of Christ's Manhood is to deny the reality
of those great events of the Christian history on
which the body of Christian theology rests. If
our Lord was only Man in appearance, He only
suffered death in appearance ; man's redemp-
tion, therefore, was not in reality achieved ;
human guilt remains unexpiated ; God and man
are still unreconciled. But as the atonement of
Christ is revealed as an objective fact ; and as
" without shedding of blood is no remission,"'
the death of Christ must have been an objective
reality. Again, Christ could only have died in
His human nature, a»> Man (for the Divine
Nature is impassible) ; and He must, therefore,
THE FORCES OPPOSED TO CHRISl lANITY.
1380-1385I
241
[mysticism.
have been really Man, to have really undergone
death. So, too. His passion throughout has
afforded proof of His being truly Man, His re-
corded sufferings being such as could not ha\ e
been inflicted on an incorporeal spirit. Nor did
His enemies, and the persons who imposed the
sufferings, ever say that the subject of them was
not a real Man ; nay, their sin was that they
only regarded Him as a Man, "the carpenter's
son." Whilst, however, Christ's sufferings at-
test His humanity, proof of the latter has been
derived from circumstances prior to His Passion,
as from His generation, progressive develop-
ment, actions, and infirmities. — Ibid.
XIV. Gnostic Terms alone find their
True Meaning in Christian Doc-
trine.
[1381J Themany words in common use among
the (juostics, such as " Beginning," " Word,"
"only-begotten Son,"" Life," " Light," " Spirit,"
"/4ion," " Angel,"" Wisdom," "Fulness," &c., are
caught up by the apostles, and with a kindling
enthusiasm, and an eloquence whi h belongs
only to inspiration, it is shown that the truth of
which these words are the shadow is seen
perfectly only in Jesus Christ.
Take, for example, that wonderful passage,
so difierent from the general style of the New
Testament, the introduction of John's Gospel.
There is here no mention of Gnosticism, no
Gnostic dogma, nothing but what is Christian,
pure, lofty, unworldly. Yet the words are
Gnostic, while the thoughts are Divine. The
apostle does not argue against folly. Why
shpuld he draw into the light the doctrines he
refutes ? He only gathers together those words
which to the philosophers were symbolical of the
profoundest mysteries, and in one word gives
the key to all. With the name of Christ he
put to shame a score of Gnostic theories. — The
Baptist Quarterly.
XV. Its Providential Uses.
I It led the Church to duly appreciate
studies, literature, and art.
[1382] Strange and odious as Gnosticism was,
we must yet not overlook the benefits which
Christianity eventually derived from it. In its
various forms all the chief ideas and influences
of earlier religions and philosophies were brought
into contact with the gospel, pressing, as it
were, for entrance into the Christian system.
Thus the Church was forced to consider what
in those older systems was true and what false ;
stedfastly to reject the falsehood, to appropriate
the truth, to hallow it by a combination with
the Christian principle, and so to rescue all that
was precious from the wreck of a world which
was passing away. " It was,' says a late writer
(Baumgarten-Crusius), " through the Gnos-
tics that studies, literature, and art were intro-
duced into the Church ;" and when Gnosticism
had accomplished its task of thus influencing
the Church, it ceased to exist. — Ja)iies Craikie
Robertson^ History of the Christiati Church.
vol. I.
16
2 It compelled the Church to more accurately
define its doctrines.
[1383] Absurd and irrational as the system
of Gnosticism may have been, it was not with-
out its use. In Greece and Rome polytheism
was upheld as the religion of the body politic,
but the Eastern mind recoiled with a hearty
abhorrence from polytheism. Philosophy
gained a religious element, so far as it was
connected with theosophy. As in these wild
strayings of the human intellect it is more
pleasing to trace the faintest glimmering of
reason than to treat them as one remaining
blank ; so there is some satisfaction in the
thought that the sudden eradication of these
weeds might have endangered the existence of
the true seed, over which they had been scat-
tered broadcast. They were sown by the
malice of the enemy, but when once sown there
was less danger in their toleration than in their
precipitate removal. We have to thank this
heresy for many valuable writings against them
by the earlier Fathers, in which the faith and
practice of primitive times have been described
witfi a clearness that, so far as it reaches, leaves
little to be desired. The evil has been ephe-
meral, its antidote is a blessing for all time. —
Rev. J. H. Blunt, M.A.
XVI. Accusation of Rationalists, re-
specting THE Apostles borrowing
FROM PHILO, met.
[1384] The inspired writings of the apostles
teem with proofs of the early prevalence of
Gnosticism, and with illustrations of the dangers
with which it threatened the new religion.
Rationalists do not hesitate to accuse the
apostles of borrowing from Philo ; but fami-
liarity with Gnosticism would show that Philo
was too recent to be much known to Paul,
though the general principles of all Gnostics
were ultimately known to the apostles. We do
not merely admit, but we claim that John and
Paul were familiar with the tenets of Gnosticism,
but the evidences are complete that they knew
them only to abhor and condemn them. An
understanding of their allusions to this philo-
sophy, and their contrast of its errors with the
truths of Christianity, will make many passages
of Scripture glow with new light. — The Baptist
Quarterly.
116
MYSTICISM.
I. Its Definition.
I According to its strict and literal derivation.
[1385] Mysticism is a term about which the
majority of ordinary people have very vague
notions. They have a dim idea that it indicates
some sort of heresy ; but beyond that their
knowledge does not go. Originally the name
242
1385-
THE FORCES OPPOSED TO CHRISTIANITY.
-1397J
[PELAGIANISM.
was given to certain individuals as a term of
reproach. The Hteral derivation of the word
implies " the closing of the avenues of the
senses that the mind may be susceptible of
supra-sensuous impressions." Much exaggera-
tion and many wild theories have at various
times passed under the name mysticism; but
for these, in all fairness, mysticism proper should
not be held responsible. — Rev. J . Ritson.
2 According to its popular usage,
[1386] The term is not applicable to the pro-
per emotions of joy and confidence arising out
of God's promises contained in Scripture, but to
vague, unauthorized, and wandering imagina-
tions of man's own unguided egotism and self-
sufficiency. — B. G.
[1387] It is an emotional, imaginary, and
ecstatic spirit, looking to inward states, moods,
and fancies, instead of the plain teaching of
" God's word written." — B. (J.
II. Its Relation to Speculation.
[1388] Speculation is a process of thought;
mysticism is matter of feeling. The former
tests all by the thinking faculty ; the latter
teaches that the feelings alone are to be relied
on.— i?. G.
III. Its Twq Main Divisions.
[1389] Mysticism is of two kinds: (i) Natu-
ral, which regards the natural religious con-
sciousness of all men as the source of religious
truth, more or less pure according to the degree
of its development, e.g., pagan, Mohammedan,
Christian. (2) Supernatural, which regards the
illumination of the Holy Spirit as necessary to
render consciousness trustworthy, as in Quaker-
ism, Quietism, and kindred systems.— ^7 G.
IV. Its Origin.
X A morbid development of the religious
aesthetic sense.
[1390] The mystic spirit arising from an emo-
tional nature and unfolding into a more or less
refined a,^st]ielic sense seeks union and com-
munion with God, direct, immediate, and vital,
through the religious feeling. It either strives
to break through the forms of religion to the
spiritual substance, or else by the imagination
sees allegories in the forms or modes of Divine
manifestation in sensuous outlines and colours
of beauty and grandeur, to be interpreted by
the religious aesthetic \.a.sic.~P!o/cssor C. A.
Briggs, D.D.
V. The Secret of its Error.
[ 1 391] The latest error of mysticism in religion
is the aiming at a comprehension of transcen-
dental truth, at the fruition of a mental certainty
which it is not given us to acquire or possess. —
Canon Eaioti, Bauipton Lectures.
117
PELAGIANISM.
I. Its Definition.
[1392] Named from Pelagius — seafarer, from
the Latin pelagtts, the sea, perhaps equal to
foreigner — the main element of the doctrine of
Pelagius appears to have been a slight view of
human depravity, and a consequent depreciatory
doctrine of the necessity of the Holy Spirit's
influence in conversion and regeneration. — B. G,
II. Its Origin.
[1393] ^t is probable that Pelagianism was a
reaction against the supposed tendency of other
doctrines to destroy man's responsibility in ac-
cepting the gospel. But in avoiding Scylla,
Pelagius fell into Charybdis ; and by one extreme
was driven into another. — B. G.
III. Pelagianism and Augustinism con-
trasted,
1 As to the way of holiness and the results
obtained.
[1394] Pelagianism, in its whole mode of
thinking, starts from man, and seeks to work
itself upwards gradually by means of an ima-
ginary good will, to holiness and communion
with God. Augustinism pursues the opposite
way, deriving from God's unconditioned, all-
working grace, a new life and all power of doing
good. The first is led from freedom, over into
a legal, self-righteous piety ; the other rises
from the slavery of sin to the glorious liberty of
the children of God. — Bibliotlicca Sacra.
2 As to the mode of its thinking about the
office of revelation.
[1395] For the first, revelation is of force,
only as an outward help or the power of a high
example ; for the last, it is the inmost life, the
very marrow and blood of the new man. — Jdu/.
3 As to the mode of thinking about the office
of Christ.
[1396] The first, consistently carried out, runs
towards an Ebionitic view of Christ, and can
see in Him only a distinguished man, a virtuous
sage, a prophet, but not properly a high priest
or king ; the last finds Him in whom the fulness
of the Godhead dwells bodily, and who is the
principle of an entirely new spiritual creation. —
4 As to their respective direction and range
of their thoughts.
['397] The first deals with the every-day un-
derstanding, reasons acutely and clearly, and is
thus more popular; the other descends from the
surface into the abyss of existence, brings forth
the hidden treasures of knowledge from their
mysterious depths, arftl is immeasurably more
satisfactory in this way to mature thought. The
THE FORCES OPPOSED TO CHRISTIANITY.
isoy— 1403I
243
[PELAGIANISM.
first pleases itself with the dignity and energy
of man ; the last is lost wholly in the contem-
plation of the majesty and almighty grace of
God.— /^/V/.
5 As to their respective moral attitude and
bearings.
[1398] Pelagianism begins with self-exaltation
and an undue estimate of its own powers, only
to end at last in overwhelming self-delusion.
Augustinism casts man first down into the dust
of humiliation and self-despair, to raise him
again on the wings of Divine trust to the highest
moral power ; draws from him tears of peniten-
■tial grief, in order that from his heart may stream
forth afterwards the joyful praise of God's al-
mighty grace.— /Z*/^/.
IV. The Pelagian Doctrine of Freedom
AND THE Primitive State.
I Its definition, and fundamental points.
[1399] Pelagius held the original state of man
to have been substantially the same with his
condition at the present time, so that what was
true of Adam before the Fall is to be regarded
as still of force in the case also of his posterity.
Here we have at once a grand fundamental
error of the system. Adam, he taught, was
created by God with reason and freedom.
f>eedom is the highest good of man, his honour
and glory. It consists in the ability of doing
good or evil, equally complete on both sides.
" It is always free to us," says Pelagius, "to do
either one or the other, since both are always in
our power ; we possess the power of free choice,
equally enabling us to sin or not to sin. In
virtue of this ability, man may produce either
the flowers of virtue or the thorns of vice. Such
was the freedom of the primitive state, and such
also is our freedom still." " We say that man
has power always either to sin or not to sin,
that we may allow to him always the possession
of a free will." So much with regard to the
spiritual constitution of the first man. In re-
ference to his physical condition, Pelagius taught
tliat death is a natural necessity, and that Adam
therefore would have died without sin. Where
the Scriptures seem to declare the contrary, he
understood them to speak of moral corruption
or eternal damnation.— V/vV/.
[1400] The other point, namely, the view
taken of death, which Pelagius sundered from
all connection with sin, shows also the super-
ficial character of his thinking. One that under-
stands not the bitter fountain cannot make right
account of the stream that flows from it. The
view leads, besides, to an unworthy conception
of God, since it makes Him to be the author
directly of death, with its gloomy train of pains,
and sicknesses, and evils of every kind. — Ibid.
2 Its defectiveness when viewed from a
philosophical standpoint.
[1401] We see from this that Pelagius con-
ceived of freedom only as the power of choice,
liberum arbitrhim., and never went beyond this
its lowest stage. But this indeterminate middle
point between good and evil is one that must
necessarily be transcended. By the act of
choice the man goes beyond it, and determines
himself in favour of one or the other ; and every
new act serves to confirm him in the direction
taken. l"he formal power of choice ceases to
be simply formal, acquires real force, and so
overthrows itself more and more in proportion
to the moral development of the subject. The
sinner becomes the slave of evil, the good man
a child of God, who in the end is no longer able
to choose and do evil, because he ciuiiiot have
any such ivill. True freedom, therefore, as recog-
nized in the holy scriptures, is self-determina-
tion to good, and to good only, and so of course
becomes in the end identical with moral neces-
sity. Such power of choice as leaves the man
just as much inclined to evil as to good is in
itself an imperfection that shows already a re-
moval from the original goodness of the creature.
Man may possess this, indeed, in his present
state, in things of inferior account ; but where
precisely it comes to a life question, the radical
change in his nature itself, he shows himself
bound by reason of sin. His present state is
one of slavery ; not Hercules at the forks of the
road, but Hercules on the highway of evil.
Pelagius knows only the two contraries — free
choice and constraint ; and his freedom of
choice is without past or future, externally and
internally dependent on nothing, a continual
tabula rasa, that may take meaning at its own
pleasure every moment, but only to fall back
again after each single act to the indeterminate
and undeterminable character it had before. —
Ibid.
3 Its defectiveness when viewed from a
moral standpoint.
[1402J Whilst Pelagius thinks to elevate man
in this way, he binds him fast, in fact, to the
starting-point of his proper life. Nay, more, he
makes the essence ot morality — a good disposi-
tion— to be impossible. Virtue and vice, ac-
cording to his abstract conception of freedom,
can consist only in single good or bad actions,
that have no inward connection, and affect not
the power of choice on which they depend. An
automatic morality, however, is no morality
whatever. — Ibid.
V. Its Doctrine of the Fall and its
Consequences.
I Definition and fundamental points.
(i) Adaiiis sin an isolated fact and a very
small ojfenee.
[1403] Pelagius admitted, indeed, that Adam
had sinned. It belonged of course to the very
nature of free choice that he might choose evil.
But this fall of the first man was, in his view, a
single isolated fact, just like the actual sins
committed by other men, and in truth a very
small offence. Julian compares it to the incon-
siderate fault of a child, that allows itself to be
244
I-403-
THE FORCES OFFOSED TO CHRISTIANITY.
[PELAGIANISM.
blinded by some tempting object of sense, but
is sorry afterwards for its disobedience. Hence,
also, it had no further consequences. The
power of free choice was not lost by it at all.
It might turn again, the next moment, towards
good. And just as Httle did it aft'ect the under-
standing or the condition of the body. — Ibid.
(2) Adam, by his traiiss^ression, set ns a bad
example, but otherwise his descendants are not
affected.
("1404] According to this, then, there is no
ori^nal sin, but every child is still born into
the world in the same state in which Adam
came from the hand of his Maker. Man is
born without virtue as also without sin, but with
the capacity for both. Only this much would
Pelagius allow, that Adam, by transgressing the
Divine command, had set a bad example, which
exerts a more or less pernicious influence upon
his posterity. With the denial of original sin
is rejected also, of course, the idea of imputed
guilt. Such imputation of a foreign sin ap-
peared, besides, to Pelagius irreconcilable also
with the justice of God. — Ibid.
(3) Adam is an individual simply, like other
men, and nothing- more.
[1405] On the nature of sin Pelagius expresses
himself no further than this, that he places it in
the influence exerted upon the will by the senses.
He has no conception properly of sinfulness,
but only of single sins. Here, again, we have
the same superficial, atomistic style of thinking
as before. In the first place, Pelagius has no
idea whatever of a general human life, an
orgattism. Adam's fall accordingly was that of
an individual only, not that of the human race,
as comprehended at the time in his person.
Men are connected with one another only in an
outward way, independent of one another, a
mere living sand-heap. What is done by one,
therefore, has no necessary influence upon
another ; every one commences the history of
the human race, as it were, again from the start.
This is perfectly atomistic, and utterly over-
throws the idea of all history, and of everything
like progressive development. — Ibid.
2 Its Christological aspect.
(l) It robs the work and acts of Christ of their
n7iiversal significaftce.
[1406] Those passages of Paul, in which he
contrasts Adam and Christ as the two great
representatives and progenitors of the human
race, have for Pelagius no meaning. Where,
however, no first Adam is admitted, in the sense
of Paul, as the bearer of the whole human race
in its natin-al constitution, and so, of course, no
original sin and imputed guilt, there, also, no
second Adam can find room, no Redeemer of
the human race, no imputation of the merit and
righteousness of Christ. Pelngius has no power
to conceive of the general as united with the
individual and single. Christ also, then, for the
system to be consistent, must have been a mere
individual, whose life, death, and resurrection
have no universal significance, reach not into
the depths of the organic general life, but pos-
sess at best theforce only of a moral pattern or
good example. Pelagius has no knowledge of a
productive principle of development, but of a
dull, unprogressive routine merely of every-day
events. — Ibid.
[1407] Pelagianismrobs Christianity of its spe-
cific dignity, the gospel of its all-renovating life,
Christ of His Divine nature ; and leads thus by
necessary consequence to the system of natural-
ism and rationalism by which the very founda-
tions of our most holy faith are undermined.
Since, however, it has no right conception of
sin, this is the only result that could be expected.
If human nature be not corrupt, and free will
prepared for every good work, we need no
Redeemer to begin all anew, but simply a re-
former to improve what is at hand, and salva-
tion becomes properly the work of man. — Ibid.
VI. The Pelagian Doctrine of Grace
AND Redemption.
1 Definition and leading points.
(i) Men may have grace apart from reve-
lation.
[1408] Pelagius distinguishes in the case of
the good, three elements — ability, will, and being.
The first belongs to nature, the second to free-
dom, the third to the act. Ability, or the power
of good — what may be styled moral capacity —
is grace, and comes from God in the way of
necessary natural endowment, forming thus the
foundation for will and being, without, however,
making them necessary in the same way. These,
will and being, depend wholly on man. For
example, "The power of seeing with our eyes
depends not on ourselves ; but, on the other
hand, it does depend on ourselves whether we
shall see well or otherwise." — ibid.
(2) The grace of the gospel is not that which
makes it possible to do good; it only renders
this more easy,
[1409] This grace, Pelagius teaches further,
must be merited, since God otherwise would be
unrighteous. " The heathen are subjected to
judgment and damnation, because, notwith-
standing their free will, by which they have it in
their power to attain to faith and to merit God"s
grace, they make an evil use of the freedom
they possess ; Christians, on the other hand,
are worthy of reward, because by the proper
use of their freedom they merit the grace of the
Lord and keep His commandments." This pas-
sage implies, besides, that the grace of revela-
tion is not absolutely necessary. Moral capacity
and freedom are of themselves sufficient for
fulfilling the Divine commandments. — Ibid.
2 Its incongruity.
(i) // does violence to the fundamental ideas
of grace and merit. *
[1410J When Pelagius teaches that grace
THE FORCES OPPOSED TO CHRISTIANITY.
1410-1415I
245
[SABELLIANISM.
must be merited, and that it is imparted to us,
accordingly, after the measure of our natural
virtue, he overthrows thus its proper nature
altogether. Grace and merit mutually exclude
each other. "To him that worketh," says Paul,
" is the reward not reckoned of grace, but of
debt ; but to him that worketh not, but believeth
on Him that justified the ungodly, his faith is
counted for righteousness " (Rom. v. 4, 5). " By
grace are ye saved through faith ; and that not of
yourselves : it is the gift of God : not of works,
lest any man should boast" (Eph. ii. 8, 9). — Ibid.
VII. Its Necessary Failure as a Rival
TO THE Catholic Doctrine.
I Though the rich and cultured have been
again and again attracted by its easy
clearness, yet it has never deceived the
suffering.
[141 ij The great words of redemption, of
renewal, of the new creature, the cry of the
Psalmist against the sin in which his mother
conceived him, the imploring cry to another, to
God, for the renewal of a clean heart and of a
right spirit, the unsounded depth of utterances
which spoke of a sonship that could never be
born of blood or of the will of man, of a
freedom made for us by the Son, of that draw-
ing of the Father without which none could
come to Christ, of that gift of God, by which
alone we can become sheep of the Son's own
told : all this sleeps in the Pelagian's ear ; he
has no logic wherewith to meet and understand
it; he stares at it, and wonders, and pas-es
by; to him it is exaggeration, it is misleading
jargon ; his narrow common sense is helples^sly
staggered by these tremendous paradoxes. And
yet the very poorest, the most ignorant, of men
understand and welcome every syllable of this
astounding language. These strange woids it
is that have run like a flame through the dark
and foul houses of woe and crime, and have
moved the passionate heart of the masses, and
have built up from the hopeless and the lost the
wonderful Church of Christ. — CJiiircli (2iia/-icrly
Rcvieiu {Oct. 1880).
3 Its logic finds itself in helpless collision
with all that most deeply and strongly
stirs the human spirit.
[1412] Here is the case for Pelagius, a case
starting from most obvious and plausible pre-
misses ; and nothing, it seems to us, exhibits
more decisively the mystical profundity that
belongs to the most ordinary and universal emo-
tions of daily human life, than the discovery,
under the pressure of the Pelagian controversy,
how flat and poor and inadequate is the attempt
of plain common sense to give any intelligible
significance to the religious experiences of man-
kind. Pelagian logic could make nothing of
all that mighty language with which St. Paul
read out the miserable mipotence of man, the
tyrannous bondage of iniquity. It could make
nothing of words that spoke of slavery, of im-
prisonment, of a horrible body of clinging cor-
ruption ; nor, again, could it enter into that
overpowering joy with which St. Paul knew
himself to be caught up by the compelling force
of a grace that violently forced him from him-
self, and dragged him a willing captive, enslaved
to righteousness, behind the chariot-wheels of
Christ.— /^z^.
3 The Catholic doctrine about grace and
sinfulness, when guardedly stated, has
nothing to fear from Pelagian objections
or counter theories.
[1413I It is possible to believe in the reality
of internal grace, as enabliug the soul which
responds to its touch, and which does so re-
spond by its assistance, to achieve what would
otherwise have been beyond its capacity, with-
out admitting that this touch detej-inines the
response which it solicits and makes possible.
Again, " we may believe that the sin of the first
man entailed on his posterity a condition of
sinfulness . . . which involved a disorder and
taint of the whole inner nature . . . while yet
we may avoid language which would suggest
a literal imputation of Adam's sin to each of
his descendants, admit that sin can bear only a
modified sense in regard to what is not per-
sonal, acknowledge a certain operation of grace
in the production of goodness among the un-
regenerated, and decline to adopt a rigorous
application of the doctrine of inherited con-
demnation to all who die unbaptized." — Di'. IV.
Bright, Anli-Pclagian Treatise of St. Augus-
tine.
118
SABELLIANISM.
I. Its Various Forms.
[1414] From Sabellius, the main propounder
of the doctrine so called. This was a speculation
concerning the Trinity, and, as Ananism was a
departure from the orthodox teaching respect-
ing the Son, this was mainly in reference to
the Holy Ghost ; and, in some respects, was
Dualism, in opposition to Trinitariamsm ; that
is, admitting the personality of the Father and
of the Son, and denying that of the Holy Ghost.
Others interpret Sabellianism as regarding the
three Persons in the light of accommodation to
the human understanding, and merely express-
ing the different relationships of the undivided
Deity to the work of man's salvation. — B. G.
[141 5] The Monarchians, Patripassians, Uni-
tarians, as they were indifferently called, ad-
mitted a modal Trinity ; they admitted the true
divinity of Christ, but denied any personal dis-
tinction in the Godhead. The same Person is
at once Father, Son, and Holy Spirit ; these
terms expressing the different relations in which
God reveals Himself in the world and in the
Church. The name Sabellianism was derived
from Sabelhus of Ptolemais (a.d. 250;, who was
246
I41S-I42I]
THE FORCES OPPOi-SD TO CHRISTIANITY.
SA BELLI AN ISM.
one of its principal advocates. — Dr. C. llodge,
Systematic TheoUygy.
[1416] Sabellius maintained that God is in
Himself the Monad ; that when revealed, He is
extended into the Trinity — the acknowledged
three persons, but used the word in a sense
which may be termed merely dramatic— as
meaning characters, assumed or represented.
He illustrated his idea by comparison with the
three elements of man — body, soul, and spirit ;
and with the threefold combination in the sun, of
shape or substance, light and heaX.—ya}nes
Craikie Robertson, History of the Christian
Church.
1 1. lis Tendencies, Logical Conclusions,
OR Natur.-vl Affinities.
I It leads to pantheism.
(1) If the personality of Christ, the Head of
redeemed humanity, is transient and unreal, so
must that of His members be.
[1417] The personality of Christ is not re-
garded as possessed of any eternal substance,
but is only a transitory appearance. The quasi-
humanity of Christ at length dissolves and be-
comes as though it had never been. Whatever
there was of the personal existence of Christ is
at length annihilated. But in the light of
Scripture it may be asked. If the body, and
whatever there was of the personality of Christ,
be annihilated, how then is He to become the
first-fruits of them that slept, by rising in His
own body, and by assuming for ever His own
special personality .'' If the personality of Christ
is transient, is only an appearance that vanishes
away, then must not tlie personality of those
who believe on Him, and are spoken of as be-
coming like Him — must not their personality
also vanish away .? Since the Christian faith in
a personal, eternal life, stands on the faith of the
eternal duration of the personality of Christ, we
might conclude that as Sabellius made Christ's
personality to be nothing more than a transitory
appearance, so he must have conceived it to be
in regard to all personal existence aside from
God. But if all personal existence is only
ephemeral and transitory in this manner, why
then everything at last comes to pantheism. It
is easy to see that the rejection of the" eternal
personality of Christ must end in pantheism in
order to be logically consistent. This was the
strong objection raised against Sabellius at the
time he advanced his doctrine.
2 It does away with the reality of the Resur-
rection of the Body.
[1418] If the body of Christ was not strictly
human, if it was only human in appearance,
and but a mere body, what became of it .? How
then could Christ become the f'irst fruits of the
resurrection.'' What hope oould there be for
the Christian that, according to the Scriptures,
• he should follow Christ with his body in the
resurrection, and so become like Christ in the
risen, the spiritual, glorified body 'i
3 It lies in close sympathy with positive
philosophy.
[141 9] From the idea of sin as a necessity,
and that it must have its course like an epidemic,
so as at length to run itself out, the inference is
drawn that future punishment will not be eternal,
since punishment in running its course must
have a purifying influence, and end in the
restoration of all from the effects of sin, so that,
finally, all would be brought back into the
unity of (iod. Thus the Sabellian idea of sin,
as theology, lies in close logical sympathy with
the positive philosophy. For to deny the real
personality of Christ both as related to the
Father and as related to man ; to assume His
return to, and re-absorption in, the Father, as a
ray of light re-absorbed in the sun ; to conceive
the loss of all human personality by the loss of
the body in the denial of the resurrection, and
then assume the final restoration of all into the
unity of God, is, to say with Comte, that " to
desire a personal immortality is to desire to
perpetuate an error to infinity, for individual
existence is the error from which it should be
the aim of life to extricate ourselves."
4 It robs Christ's example of any real or
practical value.
[1420] Yet, again, it behoved Christ to be our
example in every respect ; but this would be
impossible if His nature were not like ours, if,
indeed. He had no human soul.
III. Consequences of its False Views
concerning sin as existent in
Human Nature.
X Sin being regarded as an essential, not as
an incidental element, led to the disbelief in
Christ's assumption of our true humanity.
[1421] Adopting more or less the Manichcean
notion that sin was necessary in human nature,
that sin was the real nature of man, and that
freedom from sin must be a contradiction of
man's nature, assuming that evil was an eternal
principle, and that in consequence man, instead
of being create*.! in a state of innocence, was
really by nature a sinning soul from the tirst —
holding these opinions, the Sabellians thought
that the admission that Christ had a human
soul was equivalent to the assertion that He had
a sinful nature. Because this admission would
dishonour Christ, and lead to the denial of His
divinity, degrading Him lower even than the
first class of Monarchians had done, who held
that He was a man and nothing more, the
Sabellians thought best to maintain that Christ
had no human soul. But if they had accepted
the doctrine that man was created in a state ot
innocence, from which he afterwards fell ; if they
allowed that the soul of man was at first lioly,
and that man fell from that first estate by hio
own \oluntary transgression, then they would
have found no difficulty. To have declared
that He had such a S(Jli1, such as it was before
ihe fall of man, would have been to assume
THE FORCES OPPOSED TO CHRISTIANITY.
1421 — 1428]
247
[SEMI-PELAGIANISM.
Christ's complete human nature, so as at the
same time to maintain His sinlessness.
a Sin, being regarded as an essential, not
incidental, element, led to the belief in
the possibility of the Divine nature
suffering.
[1422] This false view of sin led the Sabel-
lians to false conceptions of God, by ascritaing
to Him acts of suffering and pain. This appears
when in reference to Christ they said, " God
was born," and that " God died." Because they
could not allow that Christ had a perfect
human nature, on account of their false notion
of sin, they were obliged to declare that the
Divine nature suffered — that God Himself
suffered ; hence in the West they were called
Patripassians.
[The foregoing articles were taken from, or
suggested by an article in, the Boston Review^
119
SEMI-PELA GIA NISM.
I. Its Contemplated Aim.
I To be a golden means between the ex-
tremes of Pelagianism and the Augus-
tinian theory.
[1423] This term marks the state of religious
opinion that replaced Pelagianism in about the
fourteenth year of its existence. It is a name,
however, which the party designated by it never
assumed, for they professed that they held no
distinctive point of Pelagian error ; neither was
it fixed upon them by the Augiistinian following
in the Church, who termed them roundly
Pelagians, notwithstanding their renunciation of
the more extreme views of their master. It
was an invention of the later schoolmen to mark
a middle line of opinion between the hardy
denial of grace on the Pelagian side, and the
predestination theory of Augustine on the other,
including the notion of irresistible grace, which
he himself claimed to have been his own inven-
tion. " Nondum diligentius quaesiveram, nee
adhuc inveneram qualis sit Electio Gratia;"
("De Proed. et Persev.") — AVz'. J. H. Blunt,
DiL tio7tary of Doctrinal and Historical 1 heology.
!I. Points of Augustine's Theory re-
jected BY THE Semi-Pelagian School.
(i) Unconditional election.
[1424] This point came up in connection with
the discussion about the fate of infants dying
after baptism, or without it. The Semi-Pela-
gians asserted that God granted to the former
the grace of justitication and salvation, because
He foresaw that if they had lived they would
have been faithful ; that He denied this favour
to the latter, because He foresaw that if they
had lived they would have been rebellious. St.
Augustine maintained that the difference of con-
duct on God's part toward these infants was
the consequence of an unconditional decree of
predestination in favour of the former, and he
did not shrink from the dreadful alternative
which was forced upon him by the inexorable
rigour of his logic in the case of the latter.
(2) The inability of man under any circum-
stances to do s^ood.
(3) The constraining influence of grace on free
rvill.
(4) The final perseverajice of the saints.
[1425] On the other hand the Semi-Pelagians
made an equally emphatic protest against the
accusation of pure Pelagianism which was at-
tempted to be brought against them. " Let no
one imagine," said Cassian, " t lat we give sup-
port to the profane notion of some, who assert
that the sum of salvation is in our own power,
and by ascribing everything to free will, make
the grace of God to be dispensed according to
each man's merit " (" Collat.' xiii. 16).
III. Points denied by Pelagius, but
admitted by Cassian.
[1426] Unlike Pelagius, he did not deny (i)
the existence of original sin in all men ; (2) its
results, such as concupiscence, death, the loss of
right of succession to eternal happiness. Nor
did he assert that (3) human nature is still as
healthful as it was in the time of Adam's inno-
cence. (4) Or that man is able without the
assistance of grace to perform every kind of
good work, to reach the highest degree of per-
fection, and to accomplish the work of his
salvation by his own natural power. — Rev. J.
H. Blunt.
IV. Summary of the Teaching of Cas-
sian (OF Marseilles) on its Positive
Side.
[1427] I. Ordinarily the working depends on
the determination of man's own will.
2. God furnishes men's nature with the seeds
of virtue, although grace be needful to develop
them.
3. Faith and good works are motives to the
bestowal and retention of Divine grace.
4. The benefits of Christ's death extended
beyond the baptized members of the Church
upon a broadly potential hypothesis.
[1428] General predestination includes all;
specially those whom God f)resawwouldusetheir
privileges aright. He insisted that original sin
has not so far weakened human nature that man
is unable naturally to desire to have faith to quit
sin, or to recover righteousness ; that when he
entertains these good dispositions, God recom-
penses them by the gift of grace, so that the
commencement of salvation may actually rest
with man and not with God, although this was
not necessarily and always the case. — Rei'.
J. H. Blunt, Dictionary of Sects, Heresies,
Ecclesiastical Parties, and Schools of Religious
Thoui^r/it.
248
1429- 14351
THE FORCES OPPOSED TO CURISTIANITl
[L'XIVERSAI.ISM.
120
SOCINIANISM.
I. Its Leading Feature.
[1429] Its leading feature is tlie denial of our
Lord's Divine nature, with the belief that He
was a typical and unique man, supcrnaturally
conceived by a Virgin, Divinely commissioned,
and displaying in so unprecedented a manner
those higher characteristics of human nature,
which make it a shadow of the Divine nature,
that He was called (though He was not in the
sense maintained bv the Church) the Son of
God.— AV;7. 7. H. lUiiiit.
[1430] It asserts that Jesus Christ is merely
man, whether (as Faustus Socinus himself
teaches) supernaturally born of a Virgin, or (as
modern rationalists generally maintain) in all
respects subject to ordinary natural laws, al-
though of such remarkable moral eminence,
that he may, in the enthusiastic language of
ethical admiration, be said to be Divine. —
Canon Liddon, Bampton Lectures.
II. Its Relation to other Systems.
1 To Deism.
[1431] So called from Socinus its chief
founder ; it consists mainly in denials of the
characteristic doctrines of Christianity, reducing
it to natural religion, or deism. — B. G.
2 To Arianism.
[1432] The keystone is the Divinity of Christ,
by which the grand, central, sacrificial truth of
the atonement is supported ; and with which
it falls. vSocinianism is the last round on the
ladder of Arianism, which begins by undeify-
ing the Saviour, but seeks to make amends by
placing Him, thou.eh iti creation, yet at the top,
"above all principalities and powers ; " whereas
Socinianism completes the dethronement by
placing the Saviour among men — " a little lower
than the angels"— and gives Him ofily that
character. Sometimes we have read Socinian
books provin'j that Christ was man — which is
true. He "was made man;" but He was
something more. Here, as usual, a truth is in-
sisted on, but only to cover an error. 'I'o insist
on Christ's humanity seems very innocent, but
is like atheistic secularism insisting on the
duties of this life ; or like materialism proving
that there is matter, when the question is
whether there is also spirit, also another life,
also not only humanity, but Divinity in Jesus.
And as Arians, to atone for denial of His
Divinity, placed Him high in nature, so
Socinianism, to compensate for making Him
only human, places Him at the top of humanity.
This overlooks the fact that the perfection of
His humanity is the reflection of His Divinity ;
as He Himself said, "Why call ye me good ;
none is good, save one, that is, God." If there-
fore we say He is good, in the highest sense, we
imply that He is God. Our Saviour did not
deny His own goodness ; He refused the term as
flattery if applied to Him only as man, and
showed to whom it belongs. In fine, He is
good, as Socinianism says — therefore He is God.
—B. G.
121
UNI VERSA LISM.
I. Its Phases.
[1433] L'niversalism is the name given to the
opinion that, eventually, all will be saved.
This may be a very comforting doctrine, and
also may be very dangerous to those who act
and rely upon it. Kindness to others may lead us
to wish it to be true, but kindness to ourselves
will lead us to act as if it were not. We know —
if there be any truth in Christianity — that he
that believcth in Christ shall be saved ; but we
do not know, on the same authority, that " he
that believeth not" shall be saved. This is
an esoteric doctrine, and contradicts the very
facts of the documents by which Christians pro-
fess to be guided. — B. G.
[1434] I cannot preach the certainty of what
is called universalism — that is, the view that all
will finally be saved. That last doctrine — the
belief that good shall fall at last, far off, yet at
last, to all -does indeed derive much support
from many passriges of Scripture ; and it, or a
view closely analogous to it, was held by Origen,
the greatest and noblest ; by Gregory of Nyssa,
the most fearless ; by Clement of Alexandria,
the most learned ; by Justin, one of the earliest
of the fathers. It was spoken of in some places
with half appro\al, and in others with \ery
modified reprobation, by theologians like St.
Ambrose, St. Irenasus — even, at his better
moments, by that man who has cast so dark a
shade over theology, St. Augustine himself; and
in modern times, among many others, that doc-
trine has been held by grand and most orthodox
theologians like Bunsen and Tolke among the
Germans, and by saints of God among our-
selves like Thomas Erskine of Lanathan, and
Bishop Austin of Argyle. And, further, what-
ever may have been the motives which in-
fluenced them, it is, at any rate, a fact that the
Reformers struck out of the Prayer-book that
article which originally decreed "All men shall
not finally be saved." I care but little for indi-
vidual authority in such matters ; but thus much
is proved, at least, by these different theories of
wise and holy men — that God has given us no
clear and decisi\"c revelation on the final con-
dition of those who ha\e died in sin. — F. II'.
Farrar.
[1435] Some preach what they call " The
Fatherhood of God," in a sense that denies
His sovereignty and Judgment ; and in for-
getfulness that it was tne returned and penitent
THE FORCES OPPOSED TO CHRISTIANITY
1435—1440]
249
[UNIVERSALISM.
prodigal son whom the Father embraced. Some
preach what they call " Life in Christ," by which
they mean annihilation of those not in Christ ;
all this is an implied denial of any Divine
justice. — B. G.
II. Its Inconsistency.
[Universalism justly lies open to precisely the
same charges which it unjustly brings
against Catholic truth.]
1 On antecedent grounds.
( 1 ) The prevalence of the doctrine of eternal
picnishinent {almost amounting to an instinct)^
if not true, is in itself irreconcilable with the
alleged goodness of God.
[1436] The doctrine of eternal condemnation
of the impenitent sinner has been more or less
distinctly believed in every age of the world.
Examine the tenets of the principal systems of
religion that have prevailed among men, and
you find a distinct avowal of belief in future
punishment ; in some, of endless punishment.
Examine the dictates of conscience and the
natural apprehensions of men. Do they declare
that no punishment awaits the sinner beyond
the grave .'' Their unwarped verdict accords
with the Bible. They teach men to expect
future woe. The most of universalists have
held originally the belief which they now re-
ject. Even their testimony once concurred
with the teachings of unprejudiced conscience.
We cannot suppose that God would suffer man-
kind to be deluded and afflicted as they have
been by the dominion of a cruel error down to
the present time.
[1437] Before the coming of Christ the doc-
trine of future and endless punishment prevailed
among Jews and pagans. This is admitted by
Dr. Hartley, a zealous defender of universal
salvation, who believed it to be a general tra-
dition, and who admits that it has been "the
doctrine of the Christian world ever since, some
very few persons excepted." Why is it the
deep-seated sentiment of the mind that sin
must be punished hereafter.'' This conviction,
as ancient as the world, whether we trace it to
tradition or to the natural suggestions of the
mind, comes from God. If it be a lalse sentiment,
how can its existence and prevalence be recon-
ciled with the alleged goodness of the Lord }
(2) The inspired utterances regarding the
doctrine of eternal punishment more than
justifying the belief of the Church ifi all ages,
if jwt true, are in themselves ii-reconcilable with
the alleged benevolence of God.
[1438] Will it be said that the prevalence of
our doctrine is to be traced to the dishonesty
in the first teachers of Christianity ? This is a
grave charge. Were Christ and His apostles
base deceivers ? Did they conceal the messages
they were sent to teach, and substitute doctrines
perfectly at variance with universalism 'i What
motive could have prompted them to withhold
the sentiment that sin will meet with no future
punishment, and teach in its stead the doctrine
of endless misery? It is impossible to assign
any reason for a measure lil<e this. Why did
they persevere in teaching error when they
gained nothing but persecution, and when they
had only to announce the welcome doctrine,
that sin will not be punished hereafter, to
become the favourites of the world ? Surely they
were not dishonest teachers. They did believe
what they taught. Did they then receive their
instructions from God? Did He impart the
doctrines that have prevailed in the world ?
The universalist says the doctrine is not true.
Has the Almighty then sanctioned error? If
so, where is His benevolence ?
[1439] The men v/ho have been authorized
by Divine inspiration to teach the way of
salvation, have conveyed the belief that this
doctrine is founded in truth. Have prophets
and apostles then taught what they were not
instructed to teach ? Were they commissioned
to make known the doctrine of universalism ;
and have they taught the opposite doctrines so
distinctly that the whole Christian world," some
very few persons excepted," have been grievously
misled ? Was it incompetency or dishonesty
that made Christ and the apostles teachers of
error? Teachers of error they were in fact, if
universalism be true, for their instructions have
established the belief that sin will be punished
for ever. Will it be said that they were incom-
petent teachers ? If the defenders of univer-
salism assume this position, and thus claim for
their leaders more talent than fell to the lot of
the Saviour and the apostles, how will they vin-
dicate the goodness of God? Why did not a
benevolent Deity raise up in former ages pro-
phets and apostles who could teach universalism
as distinctly and intelligibly as Balfour and
Ballou ? Why was the valuable discovery that
revelation teaches universalism postponed to our
own time ? Why was not the tirst promulgation
of Christianity entrusted to men who would per-
form their work in a less bungling manner
than incompetent apostles are supposed to have
done ? The same benignant Providence that
has blessed the world with the instructions of
modern preachers of universalism, could have
easily raised up men of equal talents in the first
age of Christianity.
(3) The recent origin of U7iive7'salism, accord-
ing to the logic of its advocates, disproves either
the benevolence or the power of the Almighty.
[1440] It is the favourite representation of the
universalist, "If God be endowed with bene-
volence. He desires the salvation of all men.
If omnipotent, He is able to save all. The
doctrine of endless misery denies, then, either
the power or the benevolence of the Almighty ? "
Not to dwell upon the sophistical nature of this
argument, we would contend that it may be
retorted upon the universalist. If universalism
be the grand remedy for the errors and miseries
of mankind, the benevolence of God must have
inclined Him to make it known in every past age
250
I440— 1443!
THE FORCES OrrOSED TO CIiRIS-IIANI7
fUNIVERSALISM.
and over the whole earth. If God be omnipo-
tent, He is able to execute His desires — then He
must have made men in all ages universalists.
2 In regard to its philosophy about punish-
ments.
(i) The assertion of U7iiversalists that men
suffer in this world according to their deserts,
and endure the penalty of the law, leai'es no room
for the idea of Divijie benevolence or tlie office
of Christ as a Saviour.
[1441] From what does the Son of God save
men? Is it future and endless punishment?
This universalism denies to have been our
desert. It must be only from evils in this world,
if we credit the assertions of the universalist.
From what earthly evils, then, does the Son
of God save men ? Let it be recollected that
it is the doctrine of universalism that men
suffer in this world according to their deserts,
and thus endure the penalty of the law. It is
not from punishment on earth, then, that we
are saved by Divine mercy ? Punishment we
are said to suffer literally and fully. Univer-
salism makes God as unrelenting as the severest
taskmaster. According to this system, He in-
flicts without mitigation and without mercy the
entire penalty of transgression. He is held up
to our view as an almighty Shylock, who stands
over the sinner with unyielding sternness, un-
willing to abate in the slightest degree the
demands of justice. We know that universalism
professes to regard Christ as a Saviour, but at
the same time, with glaring contradiction, it
avows that we are punished a.3 much as we
deserve in this life. Here, then, is no room
for the services of a Saviour. We cannot be
punished by justice and saved by mercy at the
same time.
According to the tenets of universalism there
is no remission of sin, no expiatory atonement,
no grace, no clemency. If men obey, they are
rewarded as an act of justice ; if they sin, they
expiate their own guilt by enduring the full
amount of punishment. And yet this system
claims the merit of showing forth to a surpass-
ing extent the glorv of Divine benevolence !
(2) The removal into eternity {if there be no
future punishments) of men in the very act of
atrocious wiclceduess which deserve punislimcnt,
would be a serious miscarria<^e of justice.
[1442] Sometimes men are removed into
eternity in the very act of atrocious wickedness.
According to the system of universalism this
is the most palpable form of partiality in the
government of the world.
The ligyptians, while pursuing the oppressed
Israelites, were engulfed in the Red Sea. The
pirate has perished in the act of inflicting death
upon a peaceful man. The highwayman has
been slain by the armed traveller. The adulterer
has fallen a victim to the vengeance of an injured
man. In such cases, when are perpetrators of
crime punished ? Not in the futiue world, if we
arc to believe universalibui ; not in this world,
for they die in the very commission of their
glaring crimes. And yet we are told that, in this
world, men receive according to their deserts.
Hew is justice administered in cases of this
description ? When are those who die in the
very commission of crime punished? or do they
pass with all their guilt to the courts of heaven ?
How comes it to pass that any such instances
occur under the government of the all-wise God ?
Are not such instances so many specifications
of glaring partiality ?
Until universalism can account for the devia-
tions from rectitude which her system brings to
light in the providence of God, we must affirm
that upon the principles of this system the Holy
One is guilty of glaring partiality — that He is
not '■• righteous in all His ways and holy in all
His works."
(3) The ififliction of death, if it be the worse
form of punishme7it, ttpon all, irrespective of
their grade of guilt, is tiot compatible with
Divine justice.
1 1443] According to this system the punish-
ment of death, which is the worse form of
punishment, is mflicted upon all, how various so-
ever may be their grades of guilt. Justice would
dictate that if death were the highest penalty
of the Divine law, it should not be inflicted upon
all with indiscnminate severity. No criminal
code of human origin awards capital punish-
ment to every offender — from the traitor that
Avould enslave his country down to the smuggler
who evades the payment of a tri\ial duty ; from
the blood-stained pirate down to the dissipated
youth who disturbs the peace by a midnight
revel. Such levelling severity would be deemed
the grossest injustice. With such severity, how-
ever, do the universalists brand the government
of the blessed God. The infant that has never
lisped a syllable sinks under the agonies of
death. The child, whose sins have not risen to
the size and enormity of the sins of manhood,
is punished also with death. Those who have
advanced to the meridian of life, disclosing to
the eye of God additional guilt at every step,
are punished with but the same severity. And
the aged offender, who has grown grey in sin,
whom neither mercies nor misfortunes can re-
claim, who devotes the venerable influence of
advanced life to the corruption of the young,
suffers nothing worse than death. Is there,
then, no difference between the faint dawn of
sinfulness and the vivid brightness of mature
iniquity ? between the tender blossom and the
mellow fruit of sin ? between the hesitating air,
the unafiected blush of childish guilt, and the
insolent port and vaunting air of experienced
wickedness ?
It is true that in some instances the agonies
of death are comparatively light. Sometimes,
indeed, they are but momentary. But this
mitigation of punishment, granted, as it often
is, with no regard to justice, is only a confirma-
tion of the charge of partiality. The meek and
patient Christian, whose life has been a public
blessing, often experi^ces a more direful and
THE FORCES OPPOSED TO CHRISTIANITY.
1443—1446]
[UNIVEKSALISM.
prolonged conflict with the king of terrors than
the most worthless votary of vice. Even the
child who has scarcely begun to walk in the
path of sin is convulsed on a deathbed with
throes which lacerate the parent's heart ; while
the. vilest miscreant, by public execution or by
suicide, is hurried into eternity almost without
a struggle. Would not this be partiality of the
most glaring description if universalism were
true 1 Is the heaviest penalty recognized by
this system thus enforced with no just regard to
age or character 1 What could be more glaring
injustice t
(4) The compunctions of remorse {an acknow-
led^ed and iinporlani part of retributioi) belno
inflicted, as they are, ivitJi no just reference to \
character, cannot, on the nniversalist theory, be
shown to be consistent with DiTine justice.
[1444] Behold the gay libertine, who scruples
not to destroy the peace of virtuous fimilies,
who glories in deeds that plunge the victims of
his ensnaring arts into the lowest depths of
degradation, who moves in society like a pesti-
lential sirocco, spreading around him a polluting
influence, leaving the imprint of vice and infamy
wherever he treads. Observe the gay indifference
with which he proceeds in his pathway of crime.
Remorse is a stranger to his bosom. Nay he
plumes himself upon the skill with which he
makes havoc of the morals and the happiness
of his deluded victims.
Turn to an humble Christian whose life is
stained by no immorality. For a season he is
overwhelmed with sorrow. What has led to
the distress you witness .' What cause has
covered his face with sadness ? The cause of
his grief is one which he would rather conceal
within the sanctuary of his bosom than drag out
to public observation. He has detected within
himself a diminished interest in the word of
God, the fervour of his prayers may have given
place to cold formality. And while to the
observer's view his life presents the charm of
Christian consistency, he weeps and mourns
before God over the secret offences of his in-
ward life. Nor does he wear the aspect of peace
and gladness till the assurance of pardon and
favour from God has relieved his heavy heart.
In an hour does he experience more distress
than the conscience of the hardened libertine
would inflict in an entire year. Here is a strange
disregard of jus'.ice which universalism does not
explain.
3 In regard to its philosophy about rewards
or escape from punishment.
(l) The happy removal of the xvicked from
earth to heaven, while righteous survivors are
still subjected to manv sorroius, clearly involves
the charge of partiality against the Ruler oj the
universalists^ world.
[1445] The more profligate a man becomes,
the more does he shorten his life. According
to an inspired proverb, the wicked do not live
out half their days. They die and are borne to
heaven, if universalism is to be credited. Having
finished their course with joy, having run a race
of glaring iniquity, having contended not against
the enemies of the soul, but against the cause
of holiness and the servants of God to the last
moment, having won the crown of public infamy,
having become meet for an inherit.mce with the
devil and his angels, they are ushered by the
ministering spirits to the abodes of the blessed.
The glories of heaven beam around them ; the
bliss of heaven fills their bosoms ; the Holy One
lavishes upon them the warmest commendations.
But where are the miserable survivors, the
devout men whose peace they loved to disturb,
whose piety they loved to deride, whose benefi-
cent plans they loved to embarrass ? They are
doomed to remain in this vale of tears, to breast
additional opposition from the replenished ranks
of the enemies of godliness. They must weep
and struggle for many a tedious year before the
time of their release shall come.
Let a man serve God with pious care, and
in ordinary circumstances he will outlive the
abandoned voluptuary. His piety will be re-
warded by a long exclusion from the joys of
heaven. He must stay on earth till he has seen
his fondest hopes crushed a hundred times ; he
must endure separations that will wring his
heart ; he must live till he becomes an incum-
brance to his friends, till he stands a solitary
trunk, stripped of its branches, bowing and
trembling under every blast. At last death
removes the superannuated burden from the
world.
Let the profligate young man rush into vicious
excesses. In a fit of inebriation, or in the hope
of concealing crime, he commits a murder : the
laws of the land doom him to die. Or in other
words, a kind Providence thus favours him with
a speedier discharge from the woes of earth.
Instead of dragging out a long life, he is borne
to heaven ere he has attained mature age. He
is blessed with an early release from the perils
and vicissitudes of earth.
(2) The bitter persecution of the most holy
men, ajid the prosperity of their persecutors, is
an impeachment of Divine justice as expounded
by Jcnivcrsalists.
[1446] Sometimes the most holy men have
been persecuted bitterly by the enemies of
religion. This may be specified as an additional
impeachment of the Divine justice as it is ex-
pounded by universalism.
Why were the primitive Christians loaded
with every indignity and subjected to every
outrage .? Why did the blood of martyrs flow .^
Why did the groans of persecuted Christians
ascend from the stake " with the smoke of their
torments ? " It was because they were rii^hteous
and their oppressors wicked. The persecutors
survive to enjoy the blessings of prosperity. If
there be no future retribution ; if the oppressor
may inflict the most cruel tortures upon the
servant of Christ and still enjoy the ordinary
share of earthly happiness ; if the martyr and
the relentless monster who chained him to the
stake must meet at length under the same
252
1446-
THE FORCES OPPOSED TO CHRISTIANITY,
■1448]
[UNIVERSALISM.
canopy of Divine favour ; if the oppressed and
the oppressor, with no future adjustment of their
doings before the bar of God, must stand on tlie
same level — where is the justice of the Holy
One? If retribution is dispensed with in this
world, His is partiality of the most glaring
description.
(3) The regarding this worfd as one 7'ast
prison-house or heli, involves the charge of in-
competency against its sovereign Ruler .
[1447] The Almighty has established laws by
which men are to be governed. He has fixed
penalties which may be supposed the most
suitable that infinite Wisdom can devise. Ac-
cording to the scheme of universalism, the
penalties are faithfully enforced ; every man, it
is said, " is punished to the full extent of his
guilt."
How does the administration of Jehovah
succeed ? What is the state of the world ?
Does the government of the Eternal inspire
sufficient awe or sufficient love to save men from
incurring the penalty of the law? Where is the
man that has been restrained effectually from
sin ? There is not an instance of undeviating
rectitude in our world. All have sinned, all do
sin, and all are punished. There is not one of
our race who escapes the penalty of the law as
it is explained by universalism. Universalism
makes all men suffer in this world, and only in
this world, according to their desert. It con-
tends that God enforces faithfully the penalties
of his laws. Under an administration so
effective what do we witness ? Every inhabi-
tant of our world becomes a malefactor, and is
punished. There is none that does not become,
at some time of his life, an inmate of the univer-
salist's hell. The great mass of the human
family must be imprisoned over and over again,
as long as they live. Some persons, if we may
judge by their misfortunes, seem never to re-
main out of prison. Why, if a civil government
could not sustain itself without covering the
land with prisons and immuring within their
walls all its subjects, from the chief magistrates
down to the humblest child, at intervals, would
it not be deemed miserable work ?
4 The lives of its advocates do not harmonize
with or aid its tenets.
(i) The nniversalists clinging to life, while
they regard this world as a universal prison
and the next as a 7iniversal paradise, is an
indication of their own misgivings as to their
doctrine.
[1448] According to our views, the penalty of
the Divine law is not enforced in this life ; its
full infliction is reserved for a future state
Universalists themselves show that all the hell
which they suffer in this world is but an incon-
siderable evil. For although confident that
they shall be happy after death, they evince no
ejigerness to leave a world where the sin? of
men are rigorously punished. They like their
prison. They are not anxious to depart and
be with Christ, as Paul was. Why should they
wish to linger in our world if it be a hell, as
they assert, unless they begin to find that their
doctrine is false, since it charges God with such
incompetency as can never disgrace the govern-
ment of the Eternal.
[Most of the foregoing extracts are taken, or
condensed from, articles in "Biblical Reposi-
tory," vol. xii.]
DIVISION F.
REASON AND FAITH.
Pages 252 to 263.
TABLE OF TOPICS.
122
CRITICAL AND VERIFYING FACULTY OF MAN.
123
DOGMATIC FAITH.
124
EFFICACY OF PRAYER.
125
FAITH AND PHILOSOPHY.
126
FAITH AND FREE THOUGHT.
127
THINGS ABOVE REASON.
128
PROVINCE OF REASON.
253
254
DIVISION F.
REASON AND FAITH.
122
CRITICAL AND VERIFYING
FACULTY OF MAN.
I. Its Definition.
[1449] This critical faculty of man is not to be
taken as a separate simple power or capacity, as
reason, hope, and the like, but is the general use
of man's understanding in sifting evidence and
discovering truth.
And as nothing is more injurious to man than
delusion or error, and nothing more beneficial
than truth, it is a criminal instead of critical use
of tlie faculty when purposely or carelessly em-
ployed in fostering error, or in destroying and
hiding truth. — B. G.
II. Its Right Uses
Limits.
AND Prescribed
[1450] The critical or verifying faculty is the
power which enables the mind to test truth,
especially of a moral and spiritual character.
This property is an endowment of our nature,
and some enjoy it apart from revelation and
spiritual enlightenment, in the Christian sense of
the word, to a considerable degree, amounting
in some cases, with the heathen philosophers,
almost to genius or inspiration of a lesser
degree. The verifying faculty is capable of
being cultivated to great nicety. But like all
other endowments it has its limits and defects,
and its truest office is only realized in the re-
newed nature. Without this faculty in embryo
form, what common ground would there be be-
tween the missionary and the heathen .? Where
would there be left room for man's responsibility,
and the guilt of refusing to allow the truth that,
by its very enunciation, has made its power felt,
to remain upon the vestibule of the heart for
further investigation. Or, again, without the
verifying faculty under its Christian form of
spiritual discernment, what personal safeguard
would there be against the errors, the supersti-
tions, and mis-statements of heretical, or ill-
instructed, careless, dishonest, or designing
teachers? The use of the critical or verifying
faculty has, in the case of truths on the border-
land between religion and mental and moral
science, done really good service. One only
regrets that many have ascribed uses to this
faculty which it is unable either to perform at
all, or, if at all, not until itself is verified, recti-
fied, quickened, and renewed. To sum up,
then, the verifying faculty is a guide always, in
a limited degree before regeneration and con-
version, and in an extended degree after; but
it is never an infallible or independent test, nor
does it supersede the necessity of the Holy Scrip-
tures, the Church, the Sacraments, the Creeds,
and supernatural aids generally. — C. N.
III. Considerations to be borne in
Mind when applying this Test to
Scripture.
1 Revelation must, in a sense, be accom-
modated to the necessities and limited by
the capacities, mental and moral, of each
successive age.
[145 1] Revelation is not a wild, destructive
power — a flood sweeping everything away, but
the river of life. We cannot suppose that the
Almighty can pour the Mississippi River into
the banks of a mountain brook. He can begin,
however, with the springs and the brooks, and
make in time the broad Mississippi River. We
cannot expect God to pour the full Christian era
into the limited moral experience of the patri-
archal age. He may begin, however, with the
first welling-up of truth in far-off times, to pre-
pare for the Christian era. He will not, by a
too early flood, wash away the very possibility
of an enlarging revelation. His stream keeps
within its banks ; His revelation never breaks
through the appointed limits of a great historical
influence. But this patience of the Divine
Teacher with man's slowly maturing capacity
for instruction, this self-restraint of revelation,
is itself the sign of a higher wisdom. — Sviyih
{America).
2 The right of the individual to life is an
undeniable principle of morality; but, at
times, the right of a race to its redemption
may be more sacred.
[1452] Many vigorous providences were neces-
sary and right in the Div ine order of history, as
were the blows of the pioneer's axe and the
smoke of his fires, when the forests were to be
cleared and the wilderness made habitable.
Moses and the judges, and the prophets, even,
were God's chosen pioneers ; and theirs was the
rough, hard work of history. How nmch suffer-
ing and hardship docs not nature relentlessly
compel in the pioneer age ! The necessities of
the times determine the rights and the truths
which must be made paramount and command-
in-.-///./.
REASON AND FAITH.
1453—1458]
[dogmatic faith.
3 The Bible is its own commentary and
corrective.
[1453] We have thus far taken no notice of
the significant fact that it is to the Bible itself
we owe our own power of judging the Bible.
The hard places in the Old Testament are re-
vealed by the increasing light of the liible itself.
4 The Christian religion has nothing- to fear,
but much to gain, by the application of
the severest tests.
[1454] False religions, and all corruptions of
the true, have such arguments lying against
them as evidently demonstrate their falsity ; and
therefore wisely shun all inquiry. But the true
religion loses nothing by examination, it shines
the brighter after it has dispelled the clouds and
mists which are raised about it. Its firmness is
never so well seen as when it is assaulted ; so
that we may challenge its opponents in the
language of the prophet : "Associate yourselves,
and ye shall be broken in pieces ; take counsel
together, and it shall come to nought." They
are only like the waves which with a great deal
of fury dash against the rock, but instead of
removing that from its place, only discover their
own weakness, and retire murmuring at their
defeat. — //. Grove, 1738.
123
DOGMATIC FAITH.
I. Its Definition.
1 Etymological.
[1455] From the Greek Sokem, to think, or it
seems ; iiol Soke!, it seems to me : whence Suyi^ta,
or what seems — which is thought or decided
upon. The '" decree of Augustus Caesar that all
the world should be taxed" is Wy/(« (Luke ii. i).
This is the objective expression of the subjective
opinion, doctrine, or conclusion. — B. G.
2 Ecclesiastical.
[1456] Ecclesiastically, dogma is the decision
or definition of doctrine by some Church
Council. The same word has come lately to
denote a usurping imposition of doctrine ; and
dogmatic, dogmatical, to mean opinionativeness
and overbearing assertion. But in this sectional
heading it is simply decisive or decided faith :
fixed, orthodox doctrine. — Ibid.
II. Its Relation to History and Logic.
[1457]. The term belongs strictly to a positive
statement of doctrine derived immediately or by
deduction from Divine revelation, and enunciated
by the Church through a General Council. In
a looser sense it is applied also to the special
tenets of particular churches, or even of sects, if
put forth by an authority recognized by them.
Dogma presupposes substantial proof, which is
generally, and in the ordin iry sense, of an
historical or logical kind ; but it must be re-
membered that we have reached the highest
possible kind of evidence as to truth, when it is
proved that any particular statement has come
from God. There can be no real opposition
between dogma and history, or dogma and logic,
so long as these principles are kept in view ;
but it must be again remembered that there are
some subjects in theology, especially such as
relate to God Himself, which are beyond the
province of history or logic, and the dogmata
respecting which, must depend wholly upon His
revelation of XxMXSx.—Rev. J. H. Blunt.
III. Its Uses.
1 Clear definitions of religious truth are ex-
ceedingly helpful to the religious life.
[1458] Everything is an advance in theology
which enables men to know God better, and to
think of Him more worthily — that is, more in
accordance with reahty.
2 Doctrinal systems, when within sciiptural
limits, are a means to promote the salva-
tion of men.
[1459] All doctrinal systems, as such, are the
prouucts of human wisdom and skill. God has
no more given us a system of theology than He
has of botany, astronomy, geology, or zoology.
He has sown the earth with flowers, scattered
the stars in space, created the earth under our
feet, and peopled it with life. This He has
done. He has given us the facts, and motives,
and means for reducing them to harmony ; but
He has given us no system. The same is true
in theology, where the facts — that is, the truths
with which it is concerned — are in a manner
sown broadcast over the sacred page ; and he
that would have a system of theology must work
it out for himself, or others for him. One con-
sequence is, that as systems of botany, &c., are
all provisional, all liable to change and correc-
tions, so are theological systems mutable, and
imperfect, and many. It follows, also, that the
patrons of no particular system of theology have
a right to exceed the limits of human modesty
by proclaiming all others false, and their own
infallibly true, and alone to be tolerated. The
difterent systems of any science agree on cer-
tain fundamental principles, and usually on
many details. And this is true of systems of
theology. All we have to demand is a fair and
honest acceptance of plain and positive facts.
God is our ultimate Judge : and if we accept
His truth, it will be well with us. He has not
given us a system of theology, nor has He
appointed anybody else to give us one ; and
therefore it is wrong for any to claim a Divine
sanction for that which they devise or accept.
Nevertheless, theological Systems have their
uses, like Church organizations and forms, but
only so far as they promote the end for which
Jesus Christ came into the world — the salvation
of men. Souls are so precious that everything
2s6
1459-1165J
REASON AND FAITH.
[efficacy of prayer.
that can be done to save them, should be done ;
but there is no reason for hindering them when
seeking for salvation. Yet they are hindered
when the terms of salvation laid down in Scrip-
ture are added to, diminished from, or in any-
way disguised. " What man is there of you
who, if his son ask bread, will give him a ser-
pent ? Or, if he ask a fish, will give him a
stone .'' " I3ut, in truth, some have acted very
much in this way. They have so mixed up the
pure grain of God's truth with the chaff of their
own inventions, that they have fed the hungry
with what hurt them as much as it fed them. —
The Christian Evidence JotDnal.
IV. Correctives of its Abuses.
1 The science of religion must be entered
upon in a holy and religious spirit.
[1460] Theology is the science of religion, a
science which, to be pursued properly and
profitably, must ever be entered upon in a truly
religious spirit, and so as to keep our hearts as
well as our minds not only in the knowledge but
in the love of our Lord Jesus Christ. While we
maintain the supreme and sole jurisdiction of
Scripture in matters of faith, let us never imagine
that we show a sincere regard for that Scripture
if we content ourselves with drily and uncon-
cernedly upholding its authority as a mere topic
of controversial argument ; but let us receive
it into the inmost recesses of an honest heart.
— Conybeare, Analytical Examination into the
Writings of the Eathers.
[1461] Dogmas of the intellect are dried
flowers, while the same truths in the heart are
flowers growing and blooming.—^. G.
2 Dogmatic wisdom has its roots and be-
ginnings in moral and spiritual sensibili-
ties, which Scripture calls " the fear of
the Lord."
[1462] What can be more piteous than the
clear, hard, accurate knowledge of a soul which
has cultivated its intelligence without any corre-
sponding cultivation of its heart and conscience.?
The absence of this fear of the Lord, which is
wisdom in the leading Bible sense of the term,
is fatal to any living appreciation, if not to any
appreciation whatever, of the doctrines of Re-
demption and Grace. What is the good of them
in the judgment of a soul which has never felt
the sting of sin, or which has never realized
its own utter impotence to return to God.?
When such a soul comes into contact with the
Creed of Christendom, when it finds itself face
to face with the great truths of the Incarnation
and the Passion of Christ, the Influence and
Personality of the Holy Spirit, the sacramental
channels of communication between God and
our human life, the doctrine of the Kver-l)Icssed
Trinity in which these several truths find their
justification and their point of unity, it can only
regard truths of this mngnitude, truths which we
know to be so unspeakably precious, as a hard
block of dead dogma, weighing like an incubus
upon all honest and earnest thought. It is con-
scious of no demand which they satisfy, it enter-
tains no anticipations which they meet, it feels
no deep-seated disease for which they provide
the remedy. If a man would teach the power
of religious truth he must personally have felt
the need of it. — Canon Liddon.
3 Religion, though related to dogma, does
not consist in mere dogma.
[1463] Our religion is neither a dogma nor a
theory, a thesis nor a hypothesis, a category nor
a dream. It is a spiritual power; it is a personal
presence ; it is a governing genius of life ; it is
a comforter of actual sorrows ; it is a quickener
to every noble work. It is the world's best
builder, planter, legislator, and reformer. It is
not a stranger to be scrutinized, but a friend to
be loved, because it has first loved us. It is not
a guest to be entertained, but a leader to be
followed ; not a secret to be found out, for its
very face is a revelation ; not a clever and pro-
mising applicant for a place, which thrift may turn
to account and vanity display, for it speaks in
the name of the Lord ; not an institution that
can expire by limitation, nor a form that grows
old, nor a ceremony that can give up the ghost
and still keep on its feet, but an everlasting,
living law, vital in every part ; not a policy that
can be shaped, but a principle that by its own
formation and irresistible spirit shapeth all
things. It is a reality. — E. D. Huntingdon, D.D.
124
EFFICA CY OF PR A ] FR.
I. Objections met.
I Replies to objections founded upon the
doctrine of predestination and the un-
changing character of God.
(\) God, who ordains the ends, ordains also
the means.
[1464] To the stale objection, "Why then
need I pray, since the answer is ordained?" the
answer is so stale that I am ashamed to be
obliged to repeat. It is an objection which may
be taken to every form of acti\ity. A man is in
a fever. He argues that, if it be predestined
whether he is to recover, it is of no use sending
for the physician. The answer is known to
every tyro in moral science. If God has des-
tined that the man recover. He may also have
destined that he should send for the doctor. If
he declines sending for the proper aid, he may
find it destined that he is not to recover. So it
is with the answer to prayer. If he prays, he
may find that both the prayer and the* answer
are fore-ordained. If he neglects to pray when
in duty bound, he may find himself punished by
being refused the blessing.
[1465] Since God is unchangeable, and has
arranged everything ^■beforehand, why need I
REASON AND FAITH.
T 465— 1470]
[efficacy of prayer.
pray at all ? The reply is — that the answer to
prayer proceeds on the foreseen circumstance
that the prayer will be offered ; that if the man
refuses to pray, he shall assuredly find it fixed
that no answer is given. Should petulance in-
sist on a farther reply, we think it enough to
show that this is a style of objection which would
apply to every species of human activity. Why
need I be industrious if it is arranged whether
or no I shall get the object which I expect to
gain by industry.? is the next form which the cavil
may assume. If the objector is an ambitious
man, we ask, why pursue so eagerly that ex-
pected honour when he knows that it has been
ordained, from all eternity, whether he shall
secure it or no t If he is a man of pleasure, we
ask, why such anxiety to procure never-ceasing
mirth and amusement, when he knows that it is
pre-determined what amount of enjoyment he is
to receive in this life.? Ah ! it turns out that the
objection, which presses with no peculiar force
upon the supposed Divme arrangements in re-
gard to prayer, is a mere pretext to excuse the
unwillingness of the person who urges it, lor he
discovers it only in those cases in which he is
unwilling to act. — President McCosh, Method of
Divine Government.
2 Replies to objections founded upon the
uniformity of the laws of nature.
(l) If finite man can control physical lazas in
his limited lower sphere, surely God, the infinite
God, can do the same itt His tmlimited and higher
sphere.
[1466] As man within his sphere can use these
fixed laws to accomplish the most diversified pur-
poses, so God in His unlimited sphere has them
always and everywhere under His absolute con-
trol, so that, without suspending or violating
them, they are ever subservient to His will. If
the fact that men can use the laws of nature to
their own ends and advantages is compatible
with the uniformity of those laws, the control of
(jod over them for the accomplishment of His
purposes cannot be inconsistent with their sta-
bility as laws. — Dr. C. Hodge, Systematic llico-
logy.
[T/1.67] There is the same room for the action
of Providence, without the relaxation of the dis-
ciphne of law, as there is in human life. If man
can alter the incidence of physical law by appeals
to the hearts and minds of others, so also can
God. He can inspire thought, if we can inspire
thought; He can guide our wills, if we can help
to g-mde each other's wills ; He can inspire the
mind of the physician, or the precaution of the
joldier, or the conscience of the statesman, and
guide it into a new track, if we can do so ; and
He can so alter, without any interference with
the precise succession of physical events, the
fates of individuals and the fortunes of nations. — •
Spectator (jfari. 9, 1875).
[146S] A great thinker can employ natural
laws to create conditions of life that did not exist
before — to change the public sentiment, to re-
VOL. I.
press indolence ; to stimulate activity. Every
man that is acting in the world is employing
natural laws with cunning, with wisdom, with
skill, by which he is enabled to change the whole
course and current of things. God stands be-
hind the whole system of natural lavvs, and can
produce special results in men whenever He
pleases. Such a doctrine of the special influence
of the Spirit of God makes prayer of benefit to
men. — //, W. Beecher, Spiritual Barbarism.
(2) If human niechanism can meet special
emergericies without interfering with the prin-
ciples of arra7igements and prescribed cluuuiels,
surely God's providence can effect similar results
in answers to prayer.
[1469J Some time ago, being at Binghamton,
in this State, I went to see the machinery where-
with that city is supplied with water. In a
small house on the bank of the Susquehanna,
there is an engine which goes night and day,
pumping water into the mains. The demand
for water acts as a governor on the engine, and
regulates its motion, so that the more water is
drawn off the faster the engine goes. Then
when a fire occurs an alarm-bell is rung, on
hearing which the engineer gears on some extra
machinery, which causes the engine to move
more rapidly, and charges the ordinary mains
to their fullest capacity, so that they send water
through the hose to the top of the highest
building in the place. Now if men can thus
construct an engine whereby, through ordinary
and already existing channels, an emergency of
prayer may be met, why cannot God do the
same with this machine which we call the
universe.? As we understand the matter, it is
thus He does proceed. He uses His natural
laws for the carrying forward of His purposes
in gtace, and for the help of His believing
children ; and, as Isaac Taylor has suggestively
said, " the greatest miracle of God's prov;idence
is that it is carried on without miracle," while
yet it makes provision for the answering of
prayer, and for the accomplishment of the great
purpose of the Divine Mind. — Rev. IV. M.
Taylor, D.D.
(3) The acting upon law and not upon caprice
encourages us to bring our lawful petitions
before ]iuma7t or Divine sovereignty.
[1470] That the Uniformitarians have failed,
utterly and completely failed, in dealing with
this larger world, only grows the more apparent
the longer we consider them and their works.
They have assumed, as I have said, that the
reign of law is fatal to prayer, and that we must
choose between law and caprice, no other
alternative being open to us. But if it be im-
possible for God to answer prayer, must it not
be equally impossible for man to answer it,
since man is at least more clearly the subject
of Law than He who made and rules the uni-
verse .? And yet is it impossible for man ?
Consider our human relations ; reflect on
what we know of human action and motive :
and then say whether these assumptions can be
258
I470— 1477]
REASON AND FAITH.
[efficacy of prayer.
sustained. Does uniformity of action drive us
from prayer ? Is it not, rather, an indispensable
condition of prayer and a direct encouragement
to it? In the administration of public justice,
for example, what is it that makes every man
bold to bring his suit into court, and to seek
redress for any wrong that has been done him ?
It is simply that he iDclieves the administration
of justice to be tolerably uniform, inflexible,
invariable. If the judges were notoriously open
to bribes, if they were at the beck of the
sovereign, if they courted the favour of the mob,
we should no longer be able to calculate on
them ; we should be afraid to carry to them
ourpra>crs for redress. It is the very unifor-
mity and steadfastness of the administration of
justice which impresses and invites us to appeal
to it. So far from hindering us, it is this very
superiority to change and caprice which begets
confidence and moves us to carry our suits be-
fore the public magistrate. If our judges were
Turks, instead of Englishmen, could we possibly
appeal to them with the same confidence 1 And
yet in the face of all this our uniformitarian
friends assume, without any attempt at proof,
that if we confess that God rules the world by
laws which are uniform in their action and
regular and invariable, we must also confess
that it is unreasonable to pray to Him, that we
can only take our suits to Him so long as we
conceive of Him as actuated by caprice. —
Expositor {Jidy^ iS??)-
[1471] That God is unchangeable is the reason
for prayer, not an objection against it. This
unchanging character, is that of the Hearer of
prayer, to Whom all flesh may come. — B. G.
3 Replies to the objection that it is inconsis.
tent with man being subjected to a regime
of law.
[1472] This is purely an arbitrary statement,
and ignores both Divine Power and the fatherly
yearnings of God toward us, as well as the
sense of our weakness and infirmity, and the
longings of the renewed soul, or even the unre-
newed soul in its better moments, after the
living Cod. — C. N.
[1473] Nothing seems to us more reasonable
than to assume that a Beingof infinite knowledge
and holiness, in providing for the discipline of a
very infirm creature, would, while subjecting him
to a rt!gime of law within which he would reap
inexorably what he had sown, also leave such
room for the free play of the mind of the creature
on the mind of the Creator as would create and
protect a real sphere for continued and living
intercourse between them. Nothing is more
arbitrary than the assumption that there can
be no intermediate region between what is good
for man and what is evil for him, no region
within which it may be good for him to have
w hat he prays for because he prays for it, though
it miglit be bad for him to have it unless he
prayed for M.—SJyectator (7aH. 9, iSvc).
II. Arguments in favour of Prayer
WHICH ANTICIP.ATE OBJECTIONS AGAINST
ITS Efficacy, or neutralize their
Force.
X A general and summary statement.
[1474] (i) That prayer is in itself necessarily
right.
(2) That it is necessary to promote a good
temper in us, and to train us up in righteousness.
(3) That it is incumbent upon us to pray as
we hope for the favour of Cod.
(4) That the Christian revelation enjoins
prayer.
(5) That prayer is not merely a Christian
duty, but an essential part of all religion : " All
nations of men acknowledge the obligations to
it, and the practice of it has been as universal
as the belief of a Deity."
(6) That the duty is recommended by the
pleasures which attend the performance of it.
(7) That not only the act, but the spirit of
prayer is conducive to the highest happiness in
ordinarv life, and in the investigation of nature.
—Dr. Price.
2 A special and detailed statement.
(i) P?-ayer is in the greatest degree sttbser-
vient to virtue, and productive of the highest
advantage.
[1475] Prayer is not only itself virtue, but the
best means of virtue ; not only itself a duty,
but of the greatest use to maintain and increase
a regard to all other duties.
[1476] He that makes conscience of frequent
and serious prayer, must live under an habitual
sense of the presence, authority, and providence
of God, and of dependence upon Him, and
obligations to Him. He must be continually
reminding himself of the most important truths,
and exciting himself to the utmost care of his
life. He must be always exercising repentance
for his transgressions and benevolence to his
fellow-creatures. It is scarcely possible for
such a man to be otheruise than truly virtuous.
The indulgence of known guilt and a regular
course of unaffected devotion are so incom-
patible, that it is not conceivable that they
can be united in one and the same man. —
Dr. Price.
[1477] Where the true spirit of devotion
prevails, it cannot fail to render a man more
amiable, and to promote the purification of his
mind. It will stifle in the birth all wrong
tendencies ; subdue the temper to kindness and
charity ; conquer every rebellious inclination,
and form the heart and life to universal good-
ness. Can a man set himself often to realize
to himself the inspection of the Deity, and to
adore His perfections, while he feels himself an
enemy to His laws and government ? Can he
with a contrite heart confess his sins, and not
resolve to forsake them .-' Can he so mock his
tremendous Creato?, as to seek favour from
RE. I soy AXD FAITH.
1477— 1482]
[efficacy of prayer.
Him while he goes on to affront Him, or
to beg that love and forgiveness to himself
which he is not willing to practise to others ?
Can he pray for those who despitefully use him
and persecute him, and at the same time indulge
rancour in his heart ? In short, can he employ
himself in turning his attention frequently to
eternal righteousness and goodness, without
participating in some degrees of those ex-
cellences ; or preserve a constant intercourse
between his mind and the first and best of all
Beings, without growing like to Him, and being
confirmed in pious gratitude and resignation?
—IduL
(2) ■ Efficacy of prayer a necessary pari of
theism.
[1478] With at least the great majority of
pre-Christian theists, this dogma (of the efficacy
of prayer) seems to have been regarded as a
necessary part of theism. Plato puts into the
mouth of Socrates a warning against rash or
ignorant prayer, but the danger Irom which he
would guard Alcibiades is that his prayer may
be granted, not that it may be refused. Cicero,
who has treated largely of the existence, nature,
and providence of the gods, gives no indication
of any scepticism among theists as to the
efficacy of prayer.— 7. H. Jellctt, B.D.
(3) The misery which disbelief in the efficacy
or lawfulness of prayer would entail in a world
of sin and sorrow.
[1479] In one of the meetings an old sailor
rose to make some remarks. He said : " One of
our boats was dashed to pieces at sea ; six of
the men clung to the fragments. Three days
were they without help, for we in the distant
ship could not find them. They told us after-
wards that the most awful and lonely thought
they had in those dreadful hours was that they
could do nothing to make us hear them ; and
that made me think of prayer. What if a man
were so cut off that he could not pray. What
if, while we are floating around on this mighty
ocean of peril, we had no voice that could be
sent over in any way to heaven." — Rev. C.
Robinson, D.D, Bethel and Penuel.
in. Considerations respecting the
True Manner in which Prayer
SHOULD be offered BY WAY OF
NEUTRALIZING THE FORCE OF AN-
TICIPATED Objections to its Effi-
cacy.
[1480] (i) That prayer should be offered with
a mind properly prepared for it, and with fixed
and composed thoughts.
(2) That we should pray with fervency of
affection and desire.
(3) That we ought to be constant in prayer.
(4) That successful prayer must, be accom-
panied with a holy life and the diligent use of
our own endeavours to acquire what we pray
for.
(5) That we ought to pray and give thanks
in the name of Christ. — Dr. Price.
IV. Arguments to strengthen Be-
lievers in the Duty of Prayer, and
in Belief of its Efficacy.
I True prayer is accepted by God, even
though we fail to have perceptible emotions
of Divine grace in our hearts.
[1481] We are sometimes inclined to believe
that our prayers are not accepted by God, if we
do not feel a certain degree of pleasure arising
from the performance of this duty — an enthu-
siasm of love toward the Divine Being arising
in our souls. I'liis is a wrong idea. Prayer is
not a charm of the imagination, or a sweet
delusion of the soul ; neither does it always
produce the perceptible emotions of the grace
of God in our hearts. It is our bounden
obedience to a Divine command ; it is our
self-humiliation before our Maker, the depre-
cation of His wrath, and the imploring His
assistance against the temptations of sin. Let
us, therefore, draw near with a pure heart, in
full assurance of faith, making our petitions in
the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, and relying
on His merits alone for God's acceptance of
them. — Fcnclon.
a There is no reason why the Spirit of God
may not inspire our hearts with good de-
sires, as in the days of admitted miracles.
[1482] I do not think it is any extravagance
of faith to believe that nature is pliant in the
hands of its Creator, and that He can employ
its ordinances in answering prayer. The Spirit
of God is just as able to say to a man now that
He shall build an orphan asylum, as He was to
command Philip to join himself to the chariot
of the Ethiopian eunuch. God is as able to heal
men now by a word, or by the laying on of
hands, as in the days of the apostles. The
question is. Does He authorize any one to ex-
pect that He will do these things ? And here
all that can be said is that every man must be
left to his own judgment, and that, in the view
of others, no warrant is possible except by a
miracle, or by the result. So it was of old. How
did Peter know that the lame man who lay at
the gate of the temple which was called Beau-
tiful would rise and walk at his bidding ? I do
not know precisely how, but he knew, and was
justified by the result. And so it is now. If
an impulse or a voice comes to a man, it comes
to /«'///, and he alone can judge of it. He may
test it as he chooses, even as Gideon did ; but
if he thinks that he has sufficient evidence that
it is from God, he is to go forward. If it com-
mands him to build an orphan asylum, he is to
do that ; if to say to a lame man, " Rise up and
walk," he is to do that ; and if there is really a
command from God, he will be justified by the
result. This, however, is a field in which there
will be tares ; but they cannot be rooted up
26o
1482-
REASON AND FAITH.
1489]
[faith and philosophy.
without danger to the wheat, and they must
" both grow together until the harvest."— AVz/.
W. Sca/e, Quarterly Review {April, 1882).
3 The success of one real prayer should ever
after stimulate our faith.
[1483] The success of one real prayer of ours
ou-lit to be the memory of a lifetime. We
mi;4ht keep saying : " I am the man, dust and
ashes myself, who once on such a day and such
an hour asked, and Jehovah answered mej
Nay more, He bade me come again." — Rev. C.
Robinson, D.D., Bethel and Fennel.
125
FAITH AND PHILOSOPHY.
I. The Meaning attaching to these
Words when contrasted with each
OTHER.
[1484] Faith and philosophy, in this colloca-
tion, are distinguished from each other .both by
their subject matter and by their practical
effects : faith, as here used, having reference
to Divine revelation, and philosophy to human
speculation. Faith also being — subjectively
considered — a practical moral or spiritual prin-
ciple, guiding the feelings, life, and actions ;
philosophy consisting of " academical ques-
tions," lor scholastic debates and notional airy
opinions, for intellectual amusement ; to form or
maintain debating propositions not related to
duty and practical life. Faith, in this connec-
tion, is the practical intellect or reason, com-
bined with hope and duty; while philosophy,
as here used, is the speculative intellect, in
relation to the imagination rather than to the
conscience. — B. G.
II. The Distinctiveness of theii
SPECTIVE Spheres.
Re-
[1485] Whilst the philosopher is finding out
Cod's laws, the Christian is observing them.
To the philosopher it is a life's labour to lay the
foundations ; the Christian has his laid, and his
life s labour is to build thereon. — Barimr Gonld.
[i486] To seek for theology in philosophy is
to seek for the living among the dead ; and to
seek for philosophy in theology is to seek for
the dead among the living. — Lord Bacon.
[1487] Yet there is nothing in Christianity
which contradicts the genuine elements in
human philosophy, but quite the reverse. The
Scriptures contain all that was true in every re-
ligious system. Christianity again has a Divine
philosophy, which satisfies both the head and
the conscience. — C. N.
III. Mistakes guarded against as to
the alleged Inner Relationship
beiween Christian Faith and
Heathen Philosophy.
I The principles of faith and Christian virtues
are nominally the same, but fundamentally
different from the virtues of heathen phi.
losophy.
[1488] The Christian doctrine we often hear
likened to the Greek philosophy, and found, on
all hands, some measurable way superior to it ;
but this seems a mistake. The Christian doc-
trine, that doctrine of humility, in all senses
godlike and the parent of all godlike virtues, is
not superior, or inferior, or equal, to any doc-
trine of Socrates or Thalcs : being of a totally
different nature ; differing from these, as a per-
fect ideal poem does from a correct computation
in arithmetic. He who compares it with such
standards may lament that, beyond the mere
lette the purport of this divine humility has
neve oeen disclosed to him ; that loftiest feeling
hitherto vouchsafed to mankind is as yet hidden
from his eyes. — 7'. Carlyle.
126
FAITH AND FREETHOUGHT.
I. Popular Fallacies respecting their
Antithetical Character.
I They are not two different qualities or
exercises of the mind.
[1489] (i) These are often assumed to be two
dilferent qualities or exercises of the mind, and
to be distinguished as follows :■ — (2) The profes-
sors of so-called treelhought assume that /'/ is a
province of knowledge or certainty, of open-
eyed vision, which accepts nothing that is not
proved. (3) On the other hand, it is assumed
that faith is blind, and accepts dicta without
proper evidence or proof. (4) Whereas even
those who imagine that they are guided only by
personal knowledge of science, are in general
for the most part led by faith in scicntijic men,
(5) whose discoveries or conclusions they
accept without verification. (6) Any one sci-
ence, or perhaps one department of a single
science, would occupy a lifetime. (7) There-
fore no man can, for himself, have original free-
thought and scientific knowledge even of the
ascertained truths, facts, or principles attained
to by the combined efforts of scientific inquiries
through all past generations. (^8) Every one
who accepts scientific conclusions without veri-
fying them ; historical facts or conclusions,
without personally examining documents and
going through the investigation ; geographical
conclusions, without travelling and exploring —
and so on, tid injinitian — ical/cs by faith and not
by sight, and relies on the investigations of other
persons. (9) All, th^rcfo're, that we call know
EEASON AND FAITH.
•6 1
1489— 1494]
[things above reason.
ledge is not " knowledge " of our own acquiring
and proving, out is the acceptance of the reve-
lation made to us by those who are better in-
formed than we are. (10) Yet it is by rational
evidence, on good grounds, that we entertain
such conclusions, not from any wild freethought,
but by true thought conformed to facts and
evidence adduced by others, and received by
inquiry and iniellij^eiit faith as to the infornia-
tion or revelation made to us by them. (11)
All education, so far as imparting knowledge, is
an exercise 0/ faith in the recipients of it ; who
can exercise no freethought in doubting or
blundering, as to history, geography, geolog)',
and kindred lines of knowledge ; but must re-
ceive in faii'a and master accurately the details
of information compiled for their guidance.
(12) Few persons — perhaps not one in a mil-
lion— have the time, if they have the capacity,
to understand the recondite and intricate pro-
cesses by which those propositions and state-
ments are proved, which they are called upon
to believe, and which those who call themselves
freethinkers do believe — only because they are
told.—B. G.
2 As much faith required in science as in
religion.
( I ) In regard to physical phenomena.
1. The rate at which light travels.
[1490] What mere assertion will make any
man believe that in one second of time, in one
beat of the pendulum of a clock, a ray of light
travels over 192,000 miles, and would therefore
perform the tour of the world in about the same
time that it requires to wink with our eyelids,
and in much less than a swift runner occupies
in taking a single stride .'' — Sir fohn Hcrschel.
2. The vast distance of the sun from the
earth, and yet its active attractive influence.
[1491] What mortal can be made to believe,
without demonstration, that the sun is almost
a million times larger than the earth ; that,
although so remote from us that a cannon-ball
shot directly toward it, and maintaining its full
speed, would be twenty years in reachmg it, it
yet aftects the earth by its attraction in an in-
appreciable instant of time 1 — a closeness of
union of which we can form but a feeble and
totally inadequate idea, by comparing it to any
material connection ; since the communication
of an impulse to such a distance, by any solid
intermedium we are acquainted with, would
require not moments, but whole years. And
when with pain and difficulty we have strained
our imagination to conceive a distance so vast,
a force so intense and penetrating, if we are
told that the one dwindles to an insensible point,
and the other is unfelt at the meanest of the
fixed stars from the mere effect of their remote-
ness, while among those very stars are some
whose actual splendour exceeds by many hun-
dred times that of the sun itself — although we
may not deny the truth of the assertion, we
cannot but feel the keenest curiosity to know
how such things were ever made out. — Ibid.
(2) In regard to physico-mental phenomena.
I. Use of the senses and the association of
ideas.
[1492] The human hand, in every age, has
excited the attention of the reflecting and the
wise, and has been often and forcibly referred
to as direct proof of consummate art and design
in the creation of our frame. Contemplate for
a moment the uses to which it is appHed, and
the extent of its power as a means of acquiring
knowledge, in order that its vast importance
may be properly estimated. In the first place,
then, it is the grand organ of touch or tact, the
instrument by means of which we gain an
acquaintance with more of the physical proper-
ties of matter than through any other organ of
sense. Without it the eye would never, perhaps,
duly learn to appreciate correctly many of the
external properties of matter — the forms, the
relative size, the distance or the position of
bodies ; and it is the touch which aids, regulates,
and corrects the conclusions deduced from the
ideas gained through the medium of sight. It
is a coadjutor to the eye, though the eye, in its
turn, aids the hand : for example, touch will not
inform us of the colour of any object— colour is
an impression upon the organ of vision alone ;
but touch gives- us its hardness or softness, its
lightness or weight, its waimth and texture, its
smoothness or roughness ; — thus, one organ
aiding the other, we gain a knowledge which
neither alone would communicate, and the one,
taught, as it were, by the other, will indepen-
dently communicate a degree of information
respecting qualities which the other can alone
appreciate. Such is the association of ideas,
that the sight of a feather brings to mind its
softness, its lightness, its warmth and elasticity,
though the sight only recognizes colour and
form ; but experience has taught, that with such
a form and colour these properties, cognizable
by touch alone, are always conjoined. — Martin.
[1493] The mind, presiding over the senses,
using one to correct another, and inferring
results from comparing the evidences and inti-
mations from all these witnesses, is an instance
j of faith transcending sensation ; and from " the
j visible things" and the tangible things of ma-
terial nature, inferring invisible and intangible
truths and relations, as seen in the deductions
from the senses of sight and touch. — B. C.
127
THINGS ABOVE REASON.
I. Its Various Meanings.
[1494] (l) "Reason" is a term that may be
used for human reason in the abstract {i.e., really
logic, or the processes of reason, viewed as an
art), the highest intellectual attainment possible
to humanity; and what is "above" this {i.e.,
"things above reason" in this sense of the
262
1494-
REASON AND FAITH.
1503]
[province of reason.
word) can be decided only by those who have
attained to tliat lofty eminence.
(2) "Reason"' may be used for the capacity
and insight of ordinary understandings, or of
men in the concrete, instead of some abstract
quality of high intelligence ; and then " things
above reason " include those things which are
beyond being coinplctely understood by men in
general.
II. Mistakes removed respecting the
WRONGLY Restricted Use of this
Term.
[1495] (i) The things which are not completely
understood, but which, in some respects, tran-
scend both the ordinary reason of mankind and
the special reason of scientists, experts, and
men of genius and intellectual ambition, are as
multitudinous and infinite as things or existences
themselves ; for nothing is fully understood so
as to present no points or questions " above
reason" in its actual development and acquired
capacity.
(2) But while there is nothing that is not, in
some respects, " above reason," there is also
nothing which is not, in some respects, within
the scope of reason to comprehend it. " We
know in part " — but we do know pari.
(3) Light, life, growth, are all existences and
facts within reason or knowledge and under-
standing ; but they are all " above reason " in
their ultimate essence, causes, processes, and
constituents.
(4) Natural facts and scientific truths are, in
this respect, as much "above reason " — as great
mysteries, and are so acknowledged by the
greatest students and masters — as religious truths
or spiritual facts ; and in this respect nature
and revelation, science and religion, are on the
same level. — B. G.
III. Answers to Antecedent Objections
TO Christianity from their Exist-
ence.
1 Our mental faculties capable of dwelling
upon things above reason.
[1496] If knowledge cannot monopolize con-
sciousness, if it must always continue possible
for the mind to dwell upon that which transcends
knowledge, then there can never cease to be a
place for that which is of the nature of religion.
— U. spencer, First Principles.
2 The very idea of religion implies mystery.
[1497] In religious matters the furthest con-
clusion of reason is that there is much beyond
reason. Our reason is very weak if we cannot
see that. Natural things are too deep for us,
and wliat shall we do wiien we come to what is
beyond nature ? — Pascal.
3 Revelation necessarily increases the
number of things beyond the reach of
reason.
[1498] Accordingly as revelation was extended
it increased the number of mysteries. It gave,
as one may say, two half-told truths for every
half-truth of which it told the other half.
[1499] AH knowledge necessarily and con-
fessedly enlarges the horizon of our ignorance.
The further a man can see, the wider is the
circular cloud-curtain that bounds his vision. —
B. C.
4 Things above human reason may be plain
to higher intelligences.
[1500] Other such rules we may not be able
to perceive from the meanness of our nature,
or our low i-ank among creatures ; for beneath
omniscience there being innumerable forms of
intelligence, in the lowest of these we sit, one
remove from beasts ; being endowed with
capacities suitable to that inferior station, and
to those meaner employments for whicii we were
designed and framed ; whence our mind hath a
pitch, beyond which it cannot soar ; and things
clearly intelligible to more noble creatures,
moving in a higher orb, may be dark and un-
explicable to us : "as an angel of God, so is my
lord the king, to discern good and bad," was
an expression importing this difference, how
those glorious creatures do o'ertop us in intel-
lectual capacities. — /, Barrow, D.D., 1630-
1677.
128
PROVINCE OF REASON.
I. Its Range.
1 Universal, including every field of know.
ledge, religious as well as secular.
[1501] This province is universal, as relating
to ail questions or subjects — .Science, Morals,
Religion. Reason deals with evidence, proba-
bility, proofs or inferences on every department
of human knowledge and interest. — B. G.
2 Extended by revelation and the principle
of faith.
[1502] Reason is good, if we use it reasonably,
i.e., with a modest sense of its weakness and
I narrowness, a humble dependence upon Uivine;
I aid, and due care that we do not, either through
overmuch haste, or the influence of corrupt
prejudices, mistake that for reason and evidence
which is only a false appearance of it. With
these conditions, the more we use our reason or
understanding in religion, the better ; we shall
bring more credit to it, and receive more benefit,
and pleasure, and establishment in it.
[1503] Right reason is entirely consistent and
harmonious with divine revelation, and super-
natural assistances ; and we may have a high
value for the one without renouncing the other :
nay more, cannot have a just notion, and make
the proper use of cither, but we must be thank-
ful to the common fountain and donor of both.
REASON AND FAITH.
■ 1503—1509]
263
[PKOVINCE OF REASON.
[1504] So long as you simply reason you are
looking westwards— where light only fades away
and dies before the gazing eye. When you put
all your mind and heart into the truth you
know, and resolve in the strength of the grace
you already believe in to be true to that truth
and all its requirements, and to seek the higher
and further truth until you find it, then you turn
eastwards, and ere long the morning you look
for will be on your face. — Alexander Raleigh,
Records of his Life.
3 Limited by certain necessary and obvious
conditions and principles.
[1505] It required the genius of Copernicus
and Newton to discover the true theory of the
heavens ; but when that theory is known, it
requires no such genius to observe that it is
confirmed by every phenomenon before our
eyes. It may require, in like manner, a super-
natural light to give the true explanation of the
mysteries of nature ; but now, with that ex-
planation before us, we see that nature has
many of its most difficult knots unravelled by
it. — President McCosh, Alethod of the Divine
Governinent.
[1506] There is a great difference between
knowing and understanding. A child may
know what the words " God is a Spirit " mean ;
no created being can understand the Almighty
unto perfection. In every department men
know and hear unspeakably more than they
understand. — Dr. C. Hodge, Systematic Theology.
II. Mode of Procedure.
I To use to the utmost the reasoning
faculties in seeking, testing, and rightly
honouring Divine revelation.
[1507] Nor do we teach that nature and
leason cannot lead to the speculative knowledge
of Divine truths ; for the evidence of all Divine
truth resolves itself ultimately into either sense
or reason ; which are the common gifts of God
to mankind, by the principles of which the
truth of all things, depending on the deductions
of sense and reason, may be proved and ex-
amined. From the exercise of reason we come
to know the essential difierence between good
and evil ; and by these principles are enabled
to judge of any doctrine, whether it be agree-
able to the pure and holy nature of God ; which
is the first presumptive argument for the truth
of any divine revelation ; that it is holy and
pure, and such a one as, were God to have
given a law to the world. He would have given :
from reason we learn the unlimited power ot
God ; and from sense and reason we know the
limited power of man, and are enabled to dis-
tinguish between the works which the power
or policy of man can perform, and the works
which can flow only from the unbounded power
of God : from hence we can judge of the
positive arguments of a divine revelation, the
works and miracles which are offered to the
world in confirmation of its truth.— Z.^. Sherlock,
1678-1761.
[1508] There are heights of divine knowledge
and virtue to which human nature, unassisted,
cannot reach ; revelation kindly offers to be
our guide, and to raise and fortify our feeble
powers by the succours of grace. Is not he
a fool now, and wretchedly opiniative, that,
trusting to the sufficiency of his own faculties,
scornfully rejects the illumination and assistance
he may have from heaven.— i/. Grove, 1738.
[1509] Reason will convince any man, unless
he be of a perverse mind, that the Scripture is
the word of God : and then no reason can be
greater than this— God says so, therefore it is
true.
DIVISION G,
THE HOLY SCRIPTURES.
Pages 265 to 287.
ALPHABETICAL TABLE OF TOPICS
129
AUTHORITY OF THE CANON.
130
AUTHORITY OF THE SCRIPTURES.
13'
BIBLE DIFFICULTIES.
CHRONOLOGY OF THE BIBLE.
133
CONTINUITY OF THE SCRIPTURE.S.
134
CREDIBILITY OF THE GOSPEL HISTORY.
135
DIYINE LEGATION OF iMOSES.
136
IWSPI RATION.
MOSAIC COSMOGONY.
13S
UNDESIGNED COIN'CIDENCES OF OLD AND
NEW TESTAMENT.
264
265
DIVISION G.
THE HOLY SCRIPTURES.
129
AUTHORITY OF THE CANON.
I. Definition of the Phrase, Canon of
THE Scriptures.
[1508] Canon is a rule: the Canon of the
Scriptures, is the rule, list, or table of the
books to be accepted as genuine parts of the
Bible; as distinguished, first, from "profane"
literature, or ordinary human productions ; and
as distinguished, secondly, from "apocryphal,"
surreptitious, and pretended divine or sacred
books. More care has been taken in preserving
the canon or list of genuine Scripture than in
preserving the genuine works of all profane
writers. — B.C.
II. Grounds upon which the Autho-
rity OF THE Canon of New Testament
Scriptures rest.
1 Internal evidence.
(0 The Gospels and Epistle? recipi'ocally
con/ir;n each other, and cotild only have been
written in the as^e assigned to them.
[1509] Had internal evidence to be drawn
from the New Testament writings themselves,
we would refer to the promise of the Lord
Jesus Himself, recorded by St. John xiv., xv.,
xvi.; that the Spirit of God should especially
dwell with the apostles, and " bring all things
to their remembrance, whatsoever He had said
unto them" (xiv. 26), "guiding them intoall truth,
and showing them things to come" (xvi. 13).
Such words could not have been an afterthought
of apostles, for they are introduced into the
Lord's discourses in a manner which forbids
such a supposition. Thus the Gospels and
Epistles reflect each other. They form one
harmonious whole. Nor is it possible to
imagine any of the writings of the New Testa-
ment to have been the production of any known
author of the second century.
2 External evidence.
(i) T/ie early Christian Fathers.
[1510] This evidence is of the utmost value,
as it goes back to a very eai'v period; and
although not absolutely trustworthy in some
cases, still, taken together, produces a general
conviction of the genuineness of the sacred
writings not to be resisted.
[15 11] It can create no surprise, if the testi-
niony of the apostolical Fathers is to the
substance, and not to the authenticity, of the
Gospels. It establishes an important fact : even
in the first generation after the apostles, the
contents of the gospel were fixed within their
present hmits. Some mysterious workings of
Providence suppressed the countless multitude
of things which Jesus did, of which the apostles
could have told. Two sayings of our Lord are
preserved, in the letters of Barnabas and Ig-
natius, which are not contained in the Gospels,
and may possibly be independent and original ;
but otherwise, the great outlines of His life and
teaching which can be drawn from the apos-
tolical Fathers, exactly coincide with those pre-
served in the first three Gospels. — Vr. IVestcolt.
(2) Exact textual criticism.
[1512] Taking the o'dest manuscripts as their
basis, and guiding their investigations by a few
sound principles, New Testament critics have
been able to eliminate the larger part of un-
certainty concerning what were the apostolic
originals. These conclusions are sustained
(though sometimes corrected), and their general
trustworthiness confirmed, by the concurrent
testimony of early translations, made before the
date of the oldest extant manuscripts, and of
the quotations occurring in early writings of
such apologists as Justin Martyr, Irenteus,
Tertullian, and Clement of Alexandria, and of
such commentators and homilists as Origen,
Chrysostom, Jerome, and Augustine.
Scholars have ceased to mourn the loss of
the original documents of the sacred writers ; for
though these might free us from the perplexity
still remaining concerning a few passages, they
would not materially increase the lawful assur-
ance with which the rest of the text is received ;
and these remaining perplexities are too in-
significant in kind and quantity to affect the
general questions at issue. — C. F. Wright.
(3) Chitrch autJiority.
[15 1 3] The Articles of the English Church
remind Christians that these sacred books are
in their hands ; that the Church has guarded
them carefully as its most sacred deposit through
the centuries ; and that they have not had their
high place assigned to them without a very care-
ful examination of their claim to be retained ;
while, on the other hand, many apocryphal books
have been excluded from the canon.
266
1514— i52o]
THE HOLY SCRIPTURES.
[authoritv ok the scriptures.
III. Objections met.
I The authority of the canon unaffected by
the various readings.
[15 14] One objection sometimes made is that
there are so many various readings in the Gos-
pels that we cannot tell what they originally were.
Here is an objection which no man would raise
who knew to what various readings amount, and
the actual effect they have on the suljstance of
a book. How many various readings are there
in Shakespeare.'' There are thousands, and
yet no intidel critic supposes the genuineness
of the dramatist's works affected by them.
[15 1 5] There are what are called various read-
ings. \Ve have a few such in our English Bibles ;
thus, in I Tim. ii. 9 some copies read, "not
with broided hair, or gold, or pearls;" while
others read, " not with broidered hair, or gold,
or pearls." This is a various reading which
affects the sense, but there are many which do
not alter the sense in the least, and only con-
cern the spelling of the words or the order in
which they stand. The original Scriptures
in Greek and Hebrew exhibit the same sorts of
various readings, but in greater numbers. Men
cannot copy books by hand so correctly as they
can by printing — though even printers some-
times make mistakes. Well, the various read-
ings, in the great majority of cases, do not alter
the meaning ; in most cases it can be ascer-
tained where the error lies, and the really un-
certain texts are very few indeed. It suits men
of a certain class to bluster about the wonderful
array of various readings; but we, who have
examined the various readings, know that the
Bible has nothing to fear from them. The
spelling of proper names, and the setting down
of numbers have caused a good many various
readings, which are made much of, but which
can generally be fairly cleared up. Copies are
rectified by comparing them with one another
and with ancient translations. All persons who
really wish for information on this topic may
obtain it ; and I personally deprecate as, neither
truthful nor honourable the behaviour of those
who attach the same weight to differences of
spelling as' they do to differences which affect
the meaning. — Basil H. Coiupcr, Lecture on 1 he
DifficuUies of Scripture.
IV. Facts which niiutralize the Force
OF Objections.
I The scrupulous care with which the Jews
preserved their scriptures.
[1516] Joscphus expressly said that the Jews
had not myriads of books, but two-and-twenty —
the latest of them of the days of Artaxerxes (or
Ahasuerus), all of them estimated to contain
Divine doctrine, and all of them such, that the
Jews would willingly die for them. The books
which we now know as the Old Testament
Apocrypha, and which, even when originally in
Hebrew or Chaldec, gained currency in a Greek
form, were of later date than the Hebrew canon ;
and the Jews of the dispersion gave a sacred
place to some of them ; while the Jews of Pales-
tine regarded Hebrew as the language of in-
spiration, and the old Hebrew books alone as
the sacred canon. — Professor C/uirieris, D.D.
[1517] For the authority of the books as a
whole, we may safely appeal to the labours of
the Jewish schools. They discussed the minute
differences with immense learning, yet they
never disagreed, after the time of the Maso-
retes, on the fundamental point, what books
should be regarded as canonical, and we may
fairly presume that the Old Testament text as
it stands, was accepted by the whole Jewish
nation as that which came down to them from
the time of Malachi. — 7?. A. Redford, The
Christian's Plea.
2 New Testament corroboration.
[15 1 8] While there is nothing in the Nev/
Testament which can be rightly regarded as
a divergence from the authority of the Old
Testament, there is, on the other hand, abun-
dant evidence of the acknowledgment of the
Old Testament canon. Of direct quotations
from the Old Testament writers, in the New
Testament, there are 263, and these cover
almost the whole book, being taken from nearly
every writer ; while there are allusions, which
amount almost to quotations, still more nume-
rous, upwards of 350. — Ibid.
[15 19] What was the view of the first Chris-
tians.? It was remarkable that Jesus Himself
never quoted an apocryphal book. It was still
more remarkable that none of His apostles ever
quoted one as an author. ty.
130
A UTJIORITY OF THE SCRIP-
TURES.
I. Internal Evidence.
I Their own unique persuasiveness.
[1520] I have often thought with myself
whence the Scripture itself is so persuasive,
from whence it doth so powerfully intluence
the minds of its hearers, that it inclines or leads
them not only to receive an opinion, but surely
to believe. This is not to be imputed to the
evidence of reasons, which it doth not produce ;
nor unto the industry of art, with words smooth
and fit to persuade, which it useth not. See,
then, if this be not the cause of it, that we are
persuaded that it comes from the first Truth or
Verity. But whence are we so persuaded but
from itself alone ? As if its own authority
should effectually draw us to believe it. But
whence, I pray, hath it this authority ? We
saw not God preaching, writing, or teaching
it ; but yet, as if we Ikad seen Him, we believe
THE HOLY SCRIPTURES.
1520 — 1526]
[authority op the scripturi
267
and firmly hold that the things which we read
proceeded from the Holy Ghost. It may be
this is the reason why we so firmly adhere unto
it, that truth is more solid in it, thouj^h not more
clear, than in other writings ; for all truth hath
a persuasive power — the greater truth the
greater power, and that which is greatest the
greatest efficacy of all. — Baptista Mantitanus.
II. Historical and Scientific Evidence.
I Preliminary considerations.
( I ) Historical canojts for testing evidence.
[1521] I. When the record which we possess
of an event is the writing of a contemporary,
supposing that he is a credible witness and had
means of observing the fact, the fact is to be
accepted as possessing the first or highest degree
of historical credibility.
2. When the event recorded is one which the
writer may be reasonably supposed to have
obtained directly from those who witnessed it,
we should accept it as probably true, unless
it be in itself very improbable. Such evidence
possesses the second degree of historical credi-
bility.
3. When the event recorded is removed con-
siderably from the age of the recorder, and there
is no reason to believe that he received it from
a contemporary writing, but the probable source
of his information was oral tradition ; still, if the
event be one of great importance and public
notoriety, if it aftected the national life or pros-
perity— especially if it be of a nature to have
been at once commemorated by any rite or
practice, then it has a claim to belief as prob-
ably true, at least, its general outline. This,
however, is the third, and a comparatively low,
degree of historical credibility.
4. When the traditions of one race, which, if
unsupported, vvould have had but small claim
to attention, and none to belief, are corrobo-
rated by the traditions of another, especially if
a distant and hostile race, the event which has
this double testimony obtains thereby a high
amount of probability, and if not very unlikely
in itself, thoroughly deserves acceptance. The
credibility in this case may be as strong as the
highest or as weak as the lowest, since a new
and distinct ground of likelihood comes into
play which is not exactly commensurate with
the former cases mentioned. — RawlinsoJi
Historical Evidences.
(2) Historical juaterials.
[1522] Historical materials may be divided
into direct and indirect — such as proceed from
the agents in the occurrences, and such as are
the embodiment of inquiries and researches
made by persons not themselves engaged in the
transactions. — Ibid.
a Acceptance by the early Church of the
scriptural records.
[1523] From the days of the apostles until
now, Christianity has meant, not what philoso-
phers and critics ha\e assumed it to mean, but
what has flowed naturally and irresistibly from
the sacred books. It is indisputable, that the
early Church accepted the records of the Scrip-
tures, and reflected their teaching. In fact,
the triumphs of Christianity could not have
been eftected unless the Scriptures had been
simply, and openly, and fully accepted. Take
from history the New Testament, as it is, and
substitute for it a mere remnant or heap of
disjecta jnenibra, a vague doctrine of morality,
such as the sceptical school would fain prove
sufficient, and then the phenomena of primitive
Christianity are entirely inexplicable. — R. A.
Rcd/ord, file Christian's Plea.
3 Confirmation of scientific evidences from
various departments.
[1524] Geology bears witness to the recent
origin of man, of whom there is no trace in any
but the latest strata. Physiology decides in
favour of the unity of the species, and the prob-
able derivation of the whole human race from
a single pair. Comparative philology, after
divers fluctuations, settles into the belief that
languages will ultimately prove to have been all
derived from a common basis. Ethnology pro-
nounces that, independently of the Scripture
record, we should be led to fix on the plains of
Shina as a common centre from which the
various lines of migration and the several types
of races originally radiated. The Toldoth Beni
Noah has extorted the admiration of modern
ethnologists, who continually find in it antici-
pations of their greatest discoveries. — Rawlin-
son, Historical Evidences.
4 Supposed historical disproofs or contra-
dictions are failures.
[1525] It is not possible to produce from
ar.thentic history any contradiction of any por-
tion of the Hebrew records. When such a
contradiction has seemed to be found, it has
invariably happened that, in the progress of
historical inquiry, the author fiom whom it
proceeds has lost credit, and finally come to be
regarded as an utterly untrustworthy authority.
— Ibid.
III. Summary Statement of the Facts
OF the Case.
[1526] The facts before us are— first, that the
books of the Old Testament existed in the time
of our Lord in their present state, even to the
very text, of which, indeed, there has been since
that day but one recension ; secondly, that our
Lord and His apostles constantly asserted that
these Scriptures contained the supernatural ele-
ment of prophecy. It may be that we are not
able always to interpret the predictions. Some-
times these ancient sayings may have been
referred to the events of after times without
authority. But since man cannot predict the
future, it is quite clear that if there are found
throughout the " Law, the Prophets, and the
Psalms," certain "things concerning" One who
was to live centuries afterwards, these docu-
268
1526-1532]
THE HOLY SCRIPTURES.
[bible difficulties.
ments cannot be treated quite like " any other
book." — Lo7idon Quarterly Review.
IV. Paramount Nature of the Autho-
rity OF THE Scripture when estab-
lished.
I Upon a common-sense point of view.
[1527] Propose me anything out of this book,
and require whether I believe or no, and, seem
it never so incomprehensible to human reason,
1 will subscribe it with hand and heart, as
knowing no demonstration can be stronger than
this — God hath said so, therefore it is true.
2 According to the teaching of the Church
of England.
[152S] If any single point may be selected as
forming the distinctive and peculiar character
which the founders of the Church of England
most earnestly desired, I will not say to impress
on the structure they were rearing, but rather
to clear out from the incrustations which had
concealed it on the ancient walls of the priini-
th'c temple they were restoring, it was that
there is no other authoritative rule or standard,
as to the essential doctrines of a saving faith,
than the canonical Scriptures, the unquestioned
and unquestionable oracles of inspiration. This
she has distinctly inscribed in the first page of
her Articles ; this she most solemnly impresses
on the conscience of every minister. — Conybeare,
Anal. Exam, into the Writings of the Fathers.
131
BIBLE DIFFICULTIES.
I. Their Sources.
I Ignorance, often positively wilful ignor-
ance.
[1529] One of the sins of infidels is their
refusal to read the Scriptures in the light of
ancient times and distant lands. Want of
proper knowledge seriously interferes with our
appreciation of a book ; and I need not say
that ability to appreciate the teachings of the
Bible depends a good deal upon our degree of
learning. The least instructed mav be made
wise unto salvation by it ; but the most learned
will understand the book intellectually better.
I do not scruple to accuse many opponents of
Scripture of being wilfully ignorant. They start
a difficulty, or a supposed contradiction. Do
they try to get knowledge and an explanation ?
Do they receive the truth if it is offered to
them ? Do they cease their cavillings when they
have been told the truth .' They do not ; and
as I have said elsewhere, I say it here, that
when they have heard the truth, they have at
once gone to another place, and repeated their
old calumnious falsehood. — B. II. Cowpcr.
2 Prejudice or pride.
[1530] Evidently prejudice has much to do
with our knowledge. If you are prejudiced
against a man or a book, you will not be a just
and an intelligent judge ; you will not even give
a correct description. Hence the men who are
prejudiced against the Bible take a one-sided
view of everything, and oftcr us a caricature
for mockery rather than a description for infor-
mation. To such we say, your difficulties are
mainly in your crooked, gnarled temper, which
will not be informed ; tiiey are in your pride,
your self-will, your self-sufficiency, rather than
in the book. He that is humble, meek, and
teachable, does not see the difficulties you see,
showing that now, as of old, " with the lowly is
wisdom." — Ibid.
II. Their Contemplated Purpose.
I They are a moral test and intellectual
training.
[1531] It is fitted wisely to the purpose of
forming character. It is a revelation clear
enough to render faith possible, and obscure
enough to leave unbelief possible. Too bright
as well as too dark a revelation might defeat
the very end of revelation. It would liring the
educational and probationary period of life to a
close; it would bring on the day of judgment.
The very difficulties and limitations of reve-
lation are adapted, also, to the conditions of
moral growth. It requires, and it repays, toil.
It tasks, and tries, and puzzles, and strengthens
faith. It is like man to make everything regular,
easy, and plain ; but that is not like the God of
nature, of history, or of the Bible. A revelation
in which the way never could be missed ; a
revelation made level and smooth to our feet,
would be like the work of man, but not like the
builder of the mountains. Were there no Alps
for men to climb ; no ocean depths beneath the
plummet's reach ; no stars still unresolved ; no
Scylla and Charybdis waiting to catch up the
unskilful voyager ; no burdens of toil and sorr'~>w
laid upon our manhood ; if this life were only
the play of children, and all the days were sun-
shine—then, indeed, might we expect to find
a Bible without difficulties ; a gospel without
parables ; a kingdom of truth without tasks for
the athlete, rewards for the victor. But the God
of nature, of history, and of the Bil)lc, surely
does not intend to people His heaven with a
race of moral imbeciles. " To him that over-
cometh." — Smyth {A merica).
[1532] None are so ke6n in finding difficulties
in Scripture as those who have no desire that it
should be found true. There is left in the Bible
a sufficiency of stumbling blocks whereon, in
righteous retribution, all such as lack childlike
docility and humility are allowed to stumble.
To all those who sincerely and humbly desire
to do God"s will, seeming discrepancies prove
no stumbling-block. For many such, they have
already found, on dee^r search, prove to be
THE HOLY SCRIPTURES.
1533—1532!
269
'bible DIFFICULTltb.
hidden harmonies, as is the case in what seemed
to Zedekiah a discrepancy ; and as to those
difficulties which they cannot solve, they beUeve
that if they had more Hght they would find the
difficulties disappear, so that they are content
to trust God, and to wait His time for making
all that is now dark clear. — A. R. Faitssd.
III. Replies to Objections.
I Unsolved, possibly unsolvable, difficulties
existing regarding natural objects, do not
destroy their value.
(i) In the case of the sun.
[1533] I looked up into the sky and saw the
setting sun radiant in its brightness. After
hours of blessing to this and other nations it
was passing away to regions which we shall
never see. I said to myself— The poor and the
untaught, equally with the noble and the wise,
have participated in the advantages of that
luminary to-day ; but who that has lifted up his
eves and contemplated it, who that has observed
it as it has marched majestically through the
sky, who that has reflected upon its parts, its
comely proportions, and its wondrous motions,
and has asked how and whereby it is projected
through space, and is suspended in ether, has
not been overwhelmed with the conscious in-
ability of answering his own questions } The
difficulty is common to us all, and we shall
never surmount it ; but we may thank the great
Creator of the sun that all the obstacles we en-
counter when we endeavour to understand it, do
not interfere for a moment with our enjoyment
of it, and the profit we derive from it. Such a
fact meets practically every objection brought
against the Bible on the score of its difiiculties.
—B. H. Cowper.
(2) In the case of the production of food and
its assimilation.
[1534] The grains of corn which are cast into
the ground take root, spring up and grow ; the
stalk is green, the ear forms, and the wheat
ripens. We all eat the bread and declare it
"the staff of life," but we cannot explain the
processes which lead to such a result. The
wisest philosopher has never got beyond the
man of whom our Lord said, he should sow his
corn, and he should not know how it springs
and grows up. The difficulties are such that
they will be solved by no mortal man. But do
those difficulties interfere with the wholesome-
ness of our bread, and prevent us from extract-
ing nutriment from it? Verily, no ! So, if we
were advised to dispense with our ordinary food
because we cannot understand all about it, we
should regard the advice as that of a maniac.
Why should I not reason thus and act thus
in relation to the Bible.' Infidels urge, as a
reason why I should reject it, that 1 cannot
understand every statement in it. Very much
indeed is made of this argument; but the
practical benefits which the Scriptures convey
to the earnest Christian, prove that incidental
difficulties which appeal to the intellect, do not
prevent the Word from nourishing the soul of
the believer. — Ibid.
(3) In the case of science ge7terally.
[1535] Yet who will be so foolish as to say
that science is a useful and mischievous bug-
bear, because its followers are not all . . .
unanimous, ... its problems not all solved,
and its mysteries difficult to explore ? — Ibid.
2 Difficulties in the Bible an evidence in
favour of its Divine character.
[1536] We have said there are difficulties in
the Bible ; we admit them, do not wish to deny
them, and are proud of them. If the book,
which professed to come from a wise and holy
God, displayed no difficulties to fo.olish and
ignorant men, we should almost doubt its claims
to inspiration. If the Bible only embodied
human ideas, while avowedly containing the
dictates of the Holy Spirit, we should question
it. If it only manifested human ideas of love
and kindness, while setting forth claims to be
the glorious gospel of the blessed God, we should
suspect it. If it only reached the level of human
ideas of justice, goodness, and the claims of
truth, we should' doubt it. If its ideas were
within the scope of human ordinary thought,
and not beyond the range of common men, we
should" not' believe it. If it was merely suited
to one order or class of men, and did not speak
witli a voice intelligible to humanity, we should
challenge its pretensions. — Ibid.
3 The certainty of difficulties in every-day
life is compatible with progress.
[1537I Are there no difficulties in life? You
know too well that they look grimly on you as
you lay in the cradle, and that they have at-
tended you all along. But where is the father
who says to his son, " Boy, life is full of diffi-
culties, a struggle and a battle from beginning
to end. You will be beset by these obstacles at
every step. You will find it hard, not merely to
win honour, but to win your bread. Snap the
thread that binds you to the world, and repudi-
ate life, which is only evil, and that continually."
Men do not lightly shun the ills they know, or
fly to others that they know not. So we, what-
ever difficulties we find in the Bible, find it a
pleasant thing to behold its light, and will not
renounce it for the unknown and untried nega-
tions of unbelief. — Ibid.
4 Intellectual difficulties in Biblical revela-
tion accord with its professed design.
[1538] What is the avowed object of the
Bible? Is It not mental and spiritual culture—
the training of the intellect and the heart— "the
teaching of every man ? " If so, is not difficulty
essential ? The school-book, whose difficulties
the pupil has mastered, has lost its educational
worth. It has no longer a challenge to his
faculties. Its suggestive force has been ex-
hausted. If the Bible is always to be in our
world as its teacher, must it not always have
270
1538—1542]
THE HOLY SCRIPTURES.
[chronology of the bible.
something in it that man does not understand ?
Tell me of a period, when humanity in its pro-
gressive march shall have mastered every
difficulty in the Bible, and you tell me of a
period when the Bible shall cease to be the
teaching book of our race. Intellect in that
Colossean age will treat it as a vesture which it
has outgrown. — David Thomas.
5 Intellectual difficulties in relation to
Biblical revelation are what we might
have expected.
[1539] There stands the student of nature,
perplexed by every sentence on the page he
reads. He walked the fields of botany and
culled the flowers and the plants. Still, he
cannot tell how springs the little seed from the
earth, and how it covers hill and dale, mead
and forest, with such a vast profusion and end-
less variety of life. Has he studied the stars of
(iod, as they have swept along in silent splen-
dour through the dome of night ? Still he un-
derstands not the "ordinances of heaven." Has
he surveyed the exquisite and complicated
machinery of his own frame t Overwhelmed
with astonishment he must confess, " I am fear-
fully and wonderfully made." Let him be a
Humboldt in the sciences, yet everywhere will
he hear the great spiiit of nature reproving his
ignorance, and challenging his puny intellect to
interpret fully her mystic page. " Hast thou
perceived the breadth of the earth ? declare if
thou knowest it all. Where is the way of the
light? and as for darkness, where is the place
thereof, that thou shouldest take it to the bound
thereof, and that thou shouldest know the path
to the house thereof?'' &c. Go to that per-
plexed disciple of nature with the Bible — tell
him that it is a book written by the author of
the system he has been studying. Satisfy him
as to its divinity ; and then 1 ask, how would he
be likely to receive it from your hands ? Would
he do it with a thoughtless spirit? With what
ideas would he open its pages ? Would he
expect to master everything it contained ? Nay,
would not an awful solemnity pervade his being
at that moment, and would he not commence
its perusal, fully anticipating to meet in its every
section things that would baffle his thoughts
and outstrip his comprehension? We think so.
And if that man in the progress of the perusal
met with no difficulties, metiiinks his scepticism
•would be awakened, and he would renounce it
as an imposture. Still more, its difficulties
are as necessary for the training of the heart
as the understanding. They make us sensible
of our feebleness. They humble our proud
spirits. 'I'hey inspire us with stirring ques-
tions. They fill us with devout amazement and
solemn awe. They appear to me somewhat
analogous to the stupendous highlands and the
deep glens — the yawning chasms and the cir-
cuitous rivers — the craggy rocks and the
dashing seas, of a highly picturesque and
romantic territory ; there is an air of grandeur —
a living spirit of subHmity pervading the whole,
which starts in the bosom of the spectator in-
spirations he could never feel amidst the tame
and monotonous in nature. Would I have all
this removed from the Bible? Would I level
its Alpine heights ? Would I fill up its awful
deeps ? Would I make straight its labyrinthian
rivers, and turn its shoreless oceans into lakes ?
No. It is when I look up at those dizzy alti-
tudes, which I cannot climb — adown those
abysses, which I have no plummet to sound —
abroad on those oceans, through whose surges
no human bark has ever steered its course, that
I catch the apostolic inspiration, " Oh the depth
of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge
of God ! how unsearchable are His judgments,
and His ways past finding out." — Ibid.
132
CHRONOLOGY OF THE BIBLE.
I. Concessions which some Bible Stu-
dents ARE PREPARED TO MAKE.
1 That there is more than a supposed
collision between science and the letter
of Scripture upon chronology and genea-
logical tables.
[1540] It may be that not one of the argu-
ments of either the philologist, the ethnologist,
the antiquarian or the geologist is absolutely
conclusive ; but together they form a strong
cumulative proof of the inadequacy of the
current chronology which is founded on the
genealogical tables of Genesis, while there seem
to be no arguments of weight on the other side.
—J. H. Gladstone, Ph.D., F.R.S.
2 That certain inaccuracies have crept into
the early chronology of Genesis.
[1541] I ought to mention, however, that
another theory has lately been advanced which
even saves the common chronology. It is
argued that the first account of the creation
relates to the whole geims homo, but that the
second commencing at the fourth verse of the
second chapter of CJenesis refers to the Adamic
race, and that this branch of the great family is
alone treated of in subsequent history. Such a
hypothesis has the merit of removing several
difficulties at once ; and if it raises others of a
theological character, it is possible that these
may eventually disappear. — Ibid.
3 That there are two different accounts of
man in Genesis, one of the whole genus
and the other of the Adamic race.
[1542] Yet it requires no great scholarship
to satisfy ourselves that the computation of
the date of Adam, as made from the received
Hebrew, or the Septuagmt or Pcschito versions,
will differ by many centuries ; that the figures
in Genesis v. have been tampered with in early
days ; that genealogies ^ven in the New Testa
THE HOLY SCRIPTURES.
1542—1549]
[continuity of the sckipturi
71
ment are purposely curtailed ; that one man is
sometimes said to be the son of another, though
elsewhere it appears that many generations have
intervened between them ; and that the genea-
logical lists after the flood refer, partially at
least, to the descent, not of individuals, but of
nations, one nation being said to have begotten
other nations. As, therefore, it is evident that
these lists of names are intended to indicate
only the line of descent, and not every step on
the road, as they have suffered in transmission,
and as we cannot always in the earlier records
distinguish between nations and individuals, we
need not consider ourselves bound to any
chronology deduced from them. — Ibid.
[1543J It is a great mistake to suppose that
the facts of science respecting chronology are
so conclusively established as to need a recon-
struction of usually accepted modes of inter-
preting Scripture so as to interfere with leading
doctrinal truth — as the unityof the human race.
If science should be able to disprove the chrono-
logy, as now regarded, of Genesis, then and not
till then will be the time for the Church to con-
sider how far we must modify present views or
construct new theories. At present our duty is
to wait and be still, and not to fear true science
rightly interpreted, so far from clashing with, will
confirm and supplement Scripture. — C. N.
II. Leading Cause of Mistakes re-
specting Scripture Chronology.
I The confounding the six days' work of
re-formation with the work of creation.
[1544] The great confusion and mystification
on this question of chronology, is from mixing
the origin of the universe or of the earth, with
that of the present races of the animal and
vegetable kingdoms. All the difficulties in-
vented respecting Bible chronology, as to the
age of the universe, of the earth and of man,
arise from not distinguishing between the six
days' work — of renovating this world, restoring
vegetable and animal life in it, after rendering it
once more habitable, and the original creation
of the heavens and the earth (Gen. i. i). — B. G.
III. Hopeful Signs of an Harmony be-
ing established between Science
AND Scripture respecting Chrono-
logy.
I The tendency of modern discovery to
modernize the date of pre-historic times.
[1545] The facts do not require more than
seven or eight thousand years backward from
the present, for the antiquity of man. This con-
clusion agrees with the facts of history, and is
not in conflict with the chronology of Scripture.
The tendency of modern discovery is ever to
reduce the pre-historic period. By a survey of
the measurements of the skulls of various races,
and a comparison between the oldest men
known to us and now living men, it is sho.vn
that man appeared suddenly, in all essential
respects the same as the man of to-day. The
total absence of proof of any transition from the
man to the ape is pointed out, and the suffi-
ciency and consistency of the scriptural account
of man is shown.— Dr. Friedrich Pfarff.
[1546] With geological records of great un-
certainty, and written records declared to be
incomplete for this purpose, we submit that it is
sufficient for us to show a near approximation
between science and Scripture, and to express
the conviction, founded on actual facts, that the
more geology is studied and its facts ascer-
tained, the closer does this approximation be-
come ; already this is the case in the judgment
of some leading geologists, for undoubtedly the
tendency of modern observation and discovery
has been to bring down and modernize the
mammalian and prehistoric epochs.
Finally, the matter stands thus — the exact
age of man on the earth is not ascertainable by
science, but science shows to us a number of
converging probabilities which point to his first
appearance along with great animals about
eight thousand years ago, and certainly not in
indefinite ages before that. — Ibid.
See article No. 137, " Mosaic Cosmogony."
133
CONTINUITY OF THE SCRIP-
TURES.
I. As seen in the Merging of Judaism
into Christianity.
[1547] The Bible is made up of two parts,
Judaism and Christianity, but they constitute
but one system — one in principle, authorship,
and design ; Christianity is but the full unfold-
ment of Judaism, the germ advanced to the
fruit, the twilight brightened into noon, the
architectural plan elaborated into a magnificent
temple. — Homilist.
[i 548] The Bible may also be viewed as made
up of //-'/r^ parts — Adamic Patriarchalism, Juda-
ism, and Christianity. In the first was the
promise of a Redeemer ; in the second were the
types of ceremonial sacrifices and the prophe-
cies ; in the third are the anti-type and fulfil-
ment— "The Lamb of God that taketh away the
sin of the world," "slain," in promise, "from
the foundation of the wor.d." It is Christ who
gives unity to the Bible. — D. G.
II. As seen in one Directing and
Unifying Vital Force of Divine
Revelation.
[1549] The very naturalness and ease, if one
may so speak, of the manner in which the Bible
was formed, evinces the work of a Power which
had perfect mastery over the springs of human
272
1549-
THE HOLY SCRIPTURES.
■1554]
[credibility of gospel history.
history. It is difficult to explain the progress,
order, and unity of purpose in the Bible, unless
we take into the account something more than
individual genius, national temperament, or
peculiar historical conditions. There seems to
be some power behind all these, co-ordinating
them, arranging and guiding them, for the pro-
duction of this organic whole of the Scriptures.
— S my til {Anit'fita).
[1550] Its different writers were without inter-
communication, lived in different ages, and were
the medium of one Presiding Spirit, which ex-
plains the unity of the whole, as really from one
Authorship. — B. G.
[1551] The Bible itself is a standing and an
astonishing miracle. Written, fragment by
fragment, throughout the course of fifteen cen-
turies, under different states of society, and in
different languages, by persons of the most op-
posite tempers, talents, and conditions, learned
and unlearned, prince and peasant, bond and
free ; cast into every form of instructive com-
position and good writing, history, prophecy,
poetry, allegory, emblematic representation,
judicious interpretation, literal statement, pre-
cept, example, proverbs, disquisition, epistle,
sermon, prayer— in short, all rational shapes of
human discourse ; and treating, moreover, of
subjects not obvious, but most diflicult ;— its
authors are not found, like other writers, con-
tradicting one another upon the most ordinary
matters of fact and opinion, but are at harmony
upon the whole of their sublime and momentous
scheme.— /"r^ Maclagan, Discourses.
iii. as seen in the unbroken moral
Leadership of the Bible in His-
' TORY.
[1552] Follow through the Bible the continu-
ous adjustment of the revelation of truth to the
conditions of the life of Israel— and in this
adaptation of the environment of revealed truth,
to the struggle of the higher life in Israel, there
lie the evidences of a more than natural evolu-
tion. The Bible, when interpreted with anv
adequate historical sense, shows throughout
unbroken moral leadership. Its truths meet
the exigencies of its epochs, and lead on into
new eras, toward the one far-off JNIessianic goal.
Thus (for we can now only glance down the
course of development) Abraham receives the
word of the Lord which enables him to open the
way of reform, and to become the father of a
monotheistic nation. Moses, with the com-
mandments of the Lord, leads a chosen people
one great step onward toward the land of pro-
mise. Samuel receives the truth by whose
power he leads the twelve tribes out of political
chaos. David leads the kingdom to a throne
established in righteousness ; and the older
prophets come with the word of the Lord which
kings must hear. Isaiah, and the younger pro-
phets, lead relioion through the deadly tangle of
Canaanitish idolatries, over the arid wastes of
formalism, beyond the rocky fastnesses of Juda-
ism, to the living fountains of a spiritual worship,
and into the illimitable prospect of the Messi-
anic glory. The nation, in order to learn its
truths by heart, is sent into exile, " goes into
retreat to do penance for its sins." It is called
back, sobered and purified from idolatry, to
enter upon the Puritanism of the Jewish Church,
which also must precede the victory of faith, and
its final Christian liberty. — Sinylli {America).
IV. As SEEN in its Christological con-
verging AND DIVERGING SCRIPTURE
Rays.
[1553] "On the one hand," writes Lord
Hatherley, in his valuable work on the Con-
tinuity of Scripture, " what if, in the interval
between the closing of the Old Testament and
the destruction of Jerusalem, One appeared in
whom cejitred eiiary line of history and of pro-
phecy; what if such an One led a life, as man,
in which the most daring gainsayer cannot sug-
gest a flaw ; what if He also claimed to come as
fulfilling the older Revelation, and Himself fore-
told the downfall of the earthly Jerusalem, since
the purpose of its separation from the world
had been accomplished ; what if He in fact
commenced by the foundation of the Christian
Church, a new kingdom, in which the promised
King should reign, ' to whom it was a light
thing tiiat the Jews should be saved,' since to
Him 'all the Gentiles also were to be given ; '
\\\i?it \i sicch an Gne rose from the grave after
having to the letter accomplished, doth in life
and death, all that prophecy had foretold of Bis
earthly career, and then sent down the long-
promised gift of the Holy Spirit, the inward
teai_her of the heart, the builder of that spiritual
temple which was to supersede the material
edifice on Mount Moriah ; and what if such
temple (though, alas I too slowly and imper-
fectly) is gradually risii g throughout the civi-
I'zed world, to the honour and glory of the
Triune Jehovah? Surely this continuity of
events, establishes that the written word has its
outward counterpart, that the Old Testament is
but the germ of the New, and the one is con-
nected with the other as irdissolubly as the Word
of God made flesh is for ever united to the
nature of regenerated man.'' — Christian Evi-
dence Journal.
134
CREDIBILITY OF THE GOSPEL
HISTORY.
I. Internal Evidence.
I The existence and unique character of
the New Testament a moral miracle.
(1) If the facts 7-ecordcd be considered.
[1554] Had our Gospels been unauthentic,
they must inevitably havt partaken of the cha-
THE HOLY SCRIPTURES.
1554-1562^
[credibility of gospel history
273
racteristics which mark without exception every
early fiction about the Saviour's Hie. — Canon
Farrar^ Life of CJirist.
[1555] The birth of Jesus had first been re-
vealed by night to a few unknown and ignorant
shepherds ; the first full, clear announcement
by Himself of His own Messiahship was made
by a well-side in the weary noon to a single
obscure Samaritan woman. Who would have
invented things so unlike the thoughts of man
as these l—lbid.
(2) If the manner of recording the facts be
considered.
[1556] No literary fact is more remarkable
than that men, knowing what these writers knew,
and feeling what they felt, should have given us
chronicles so plain and calm. Their narratives
place us without preface, and keep us without
comment, among external scenes, in full view
of facts, and in contact with the Uving person
whom they teach us to know. The style of
simple recital, unclouded, and scarcely coloured
by any perceptible contribution from the mind
of the writers, gives us the scenes, the facts, and
the person, as seen in the clearest light and
through the most transparent atmosphere. —
Canon Bernard, Bainpton Lectures.
II. Historical and Scientific Evidence.
1 We have profane testimony of the first
order when the circumstances permit,
[1557] It is important to notice, regarding
many of the facts of the gospel history, (i) that
some of them (as the miracles, the resurrection,
the ascension) are of such a nature that no tes-
timony to them from profane writers was to be
expected, since those who believed them natur-
ally, and almost necessarily, became Christians ;
and (2) that with regard to others which are not
of this character, there does exist profane testi-
mony of the first order. — Raivlinson, Historical
Evidences.
2 Preservation practically of the entire New
Testament in the writings of the early
Fathers.
[1558] A gentleman dining with a literary
party, among whom were Lord Hales and Mr.
Buchanan, put the question, " Supposing all the
New Testaments in the world had been de-
stroyed at the end of the third century, could
their contents have been recovered from the
writings of the first three centuries.''" No one
even hazarded a guess in answer to the inquiry.
About two months after this meeting. Lord
Hales told Mr. Buchanan, " That question quite
accorded with the turn of my mind. On return-
ing home, as I knew I had all the writers of
those centuries, I began immediately to collect
them, that I might set to work on the arduous
task as soon as possible." Pointing to a table
covered with papers, he said, " There have I
been busy for these two months, searching for
VOL, I.
chapters, half-chapters, and sentences, of the
New Testament, and have marked down what
I have found, and where I have found it, so that
any person may examine and see for themselves.
I have actually discovered the whole New Tes-
tament from these writings, except seven or
eleven verses (I forget which), which satisfies
me that I could discover them also. Now, here
was a way in which God concealed or hid the
treasure of His word, that Julian the apostate
emperor, and other enemies of Christ who
wished to extirpate the gospel from the world,
never would have thought of : and, though they
had, they never could have eftected their de-
struction."
3 Chronological and geographical elements
incidentally mixed up in the histories
confirmed by modern researches and dis-
coveries.
[1559] The New Testament scene does not
lie in some misty, undefined portion of time, the
place of which cannot be ascertained, but in a
period as historical and as recognizable as that
of Queen Elizabeth or Charles the Second. The
geography of the New Testament is historical.
It includes empires and kingdoms, provinces
and cities, mountains and oceans, rivers and
valleys, which are all real and correctly indi-
cated. The smallest villages equally with the
largest cities are accurately represented and
located. The progress of modern discovery has
only tended to confirm the book in its minutest
details. This is not usual with mythical and
purely fabulous writings, with which, indeed, the
rule is quite the opposite. — B. //. Cowper.
[1560] Let us prove (d:) that the New Testa-
ment portrays scenes enacted in one of the
most exciting and anomalous periods in the
nnnals of a peculiar people ; {b) that its narra-
tives cover a wide and almost illimitable territory,
a territory co-extensive with the entire empire
of ancient Rome ; and ic) that the local allusions,
of which it is full, are not only very great in
number, but minute, oblique, and incidental in
their character. — Ram Chandra Bose, Truth
of Christian Religion.
[1561] After visiting Palestine, Renan found
it to reflect so thoroughly the life and lessons of
Jesus, that to him it appeared like a fifth Gospel.
The teaching of Jesus m Galilee and in Judtea
respectively has a flavour of the soil. This
feature is one of the numberless traces of reality
that mark the life of Christ as delineated in the
four Gospels, and that justify the remark that it
were far more wonderful that the life should
have been a myth, than that it should have been
a reality. — Dr. Blaikie, PVitness of Palestine to
the Bible.
4 Agreement of advanced medical science
with the peculiar physical circumstances
recorded by the Evangelists (unacquainted
with such knowledge) regarding our Lord's
death.
[1562] We have it now authenticated beyond
274
1562—1567]
THE HOLY SCRIPTURES.
[credibility of gospel history.
reasonable doubt that, what John noticcil, the
copious outflow of blaod and water, is precisely
what would have happened on the supposition
that the heart of our Redeemer had been
ruptured under the pressure of inward grief.
Would it not be wonderful, would it not
correspond with other evidences of the truth of
the gospel narrative, should it turn out to be
true that the accounts of the sufferings and
death of Jesus, drawn up by four independent
witnesses— all of them uninformed as to the true
state of the case, and signally ignorant how
that which they recorded might seem to reveal it
— did, nevertheless, when brought together and
minutely scrutinized, contain within them those
distinct and decisive tokens which the advanced
science of this age recognizes as indicative of a
mode of death, so singular in its character, so
rare in its occurrence, so peculiar in its physical
effects !
Would it not also give a new meaning to some
of the expressions which in Psalms Ixix. and
xxii. our Saviour is Himself represented as
employing, t'.^., Psalm Ixix. 20, 21, and Psalm
xxii. 14 ?
It seems also to spiritualize and elevate our
conception of the suflerings of Calvary ; it carries
our thoughts away from the mere bodily endu-
rances of the crucifixion ; it concentrates them
on the mysterious love which agitated His spirit.
How little had man to do physically with the
infliction of that agony wherein the great atone-
ment lay.— AV?/. W. Ha7ina, D.D., LL.D., Our
Lord's Life on Earlh.
III. Admissioxs from our Opponents.
1 As to internal evidence.
[i 563] Having pointed out the clear distinction
which exists between the moral teaching of the
New Testament, and what Mr. Mill designates
" Theological Morality "—by which he means
various systems of morality evolved during the
centuries of the Church's history — and which he
charges with various defects as necessarily in-
herent in Christian ethics, in any manner in
which it can be conceived, that philosopher
distinguishes between Christ's teaching and
human theology, which he condenses, saying :
" Far less would I insinuate this of doctrines
and precepts of Christ Himself. I believe
that the sayings of Christ contain all that I
can see any evidence of their having been
intended to be ; that they are irreconcilable
with nothing which a comprehensive morality
requires; that everything which is excellent in
ethics may be brought within tliem with no
greater violence to their language than has been
done to it by all who have attempted to deduce
from them any practical system whatever."' —
J. S. Mil/, Essay on Libcrly.
2 As to historical evidence.
[ij;64] On the whole I admit, as authentic, the
four canonical Gosiiels. All, in my opinion, date
from the first century, and the authors arc.
generally speaking, those to whom they are
attributed. — Renan, Vie de Jesus.
IV. Summary Statement of the Argu-
ments IN ITS Favour.
[1565] If the force of any one of the facts
enumerated is considered small, yet taken col-
lectively the series supplies a chain of evidence
which it will be difticult, if not impossible to
break. Some of the propositions are admitted
by sceptics themselves, but this is no reason
why any should be excluded ; we therefore
exhibit the whole in regular order.
1. Four Gospels are to this day received by
all those ancient Christian communities which
regard the Scriptures as a rule of faith and a
divine law of life. This is true of the Protestant,
Roman, Greek, Ethiopic, Syriac, Coptic, Arme-
nian, and other sections of the Church.
2. The Gospels so received are the same as
ours, and are ascribed to the same authors —
Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John.
3. These Churches have no tradition or record
of more than four canonical Gospels as ever
known and received.
4. None of these Churches has any idea that
fewer than four Gospels were ever regarded as
canonical since the production of that by St.
John.
5. No ancient proof or suspicion exists that
the original four genuine Gospels were different
from those now admitted.
6. Our four Gospels exist in manuscripts, of
which some are nearly fifteen hundred years old.
7. These Gospels exist in translations which
are older than any existing manuscripts.
8. Extracts from our Gospels are found in all
Christian writers back to the apostolic age.
9. The principal facts and doctrines contained
in the Gospels are embodied in Christian writ-
ings from the days of Clement of Rome down to
our own.'
10. The four Gospels were regarded in the
second century as the standards of orthodo.xy
by heretics, Jews, and pagans.
11. The four Gospels contain remarkable
internal proofs of being what they profess to
be, genuine and original documents. — Basil //.
Co^i'per.
[1566] Even the original text of the New
Testament, in its very details, is in the main
established by an overwhelming array of incon-
trovertible evidence. Such agreement is con-
clusive evidence that since about the middle of
the second century the widely separated tran-
scribers of the New Testament meant to be
faithful, and that they in each case possessed a
common original, whose authority was unques-
tioned.— G. F. Wright.
V. Counter- charges against Modern
Anti-miraculous School of Thought.
[1567] The following summary is given by
Dr. Christlieb of the counter-charges which the
Christian apologist is al^le to substantiate against
THE HOLY SCRIPTURES.
1567—1569]
[credibility of gospel history.
75
the whole of the modern critical school, in their
rejection of the miraculous narrative of the
gospel : — " I. They fail in historical perception.
They treat the records untruthfully to suit their
purpose. 2. They leave altogether unexplained
the existence ot the Christian Church. 3. Their
theory of the person of Christ breaks down. It
is neither Divine nor human, but a mere mon-
strosity. The dilemma holds them on its horns
transfixed — given the moral impurity of Jesus
and His disciples, to explain the moral eiitects
of Christianity ; given the truth of the gospel
history, to deny the Divinity of Christ. 4. They
fail to give an intelligent account of the con-
struction of the Gospels. The theory of myths,
legends, later inventions, and exaggerations, is
irreconcilable with the facts of the case, the age,
spirit, style of the gospel, the testimony of the
Epistles, and the undisputed history of the
early Church. 5. They supply no substitute for
that which they attempt to take away. Their
hard scientific criticism, or flimsy and immoral
romanticism, can afford no satisfaction, either
to the thoughtful doubter or to the troubled
spirit of the sufferer. 6. The whole school of
the modern anti-miraculous sceptics is panthe-
istic. Their thinking is vitiated by their evident
denial of the personality of God. They answer
themselves by their atheism."
VI. Difficulties in the way of those
who deny the genuineness and
Authenticity of the New Testa-
ment.
1 Negatively viewed.
( I ) The iiive7ition of a new gospel, when all the
facts of the case are duly weighed, would be as
great a juiracle as anything which the evan-
gelists record.
[1568] It is not the case of a body of com-
.petent scholars sitting down in the nineteenth
century, collecting around them the libraries of
books now existing, which would instruct them
in the history, political combination, linguistic
condition, and locomotive facilities of the first
century ; and then, taking a complete view of
the whole, inventing a history which should
touch all these things, combine them accurately
in one narrative, and present to the eye of the
most acute and unfriendly critics a picture in
which the sharpest gaze could, at the most,
detect only a questionable tint or form here and
there out of the hundreds of forms in all colours
standing out on the canvas.
The invention of the gospel history, and the
consistent connection therewith of the immense
body of dogma, morality, and mental philosophy
contained in the historical books and epistles
of the Christian Scriptures, would, even under
the conditions now supposed, be a greater effort
of human sagacity, knowledge, combination and
invention, than any existing monument of
human genius. How much greater would be
the marvel if the gospel histories, so-called,
should have been the invention of anv man or
any possible association of men living at the
period with which those supposed histoiies deal !
From any supposition possible as to the
persons who invented, the places in which they
carried on their imposition, their means of
information, their political, linguistic, and geo-
graphical knowledge, and the suppositions will
prove unequal to the weight of the gospel, if it
be an imposture.
If the writers, whoever they may be, do but
deal with invented personages, and have but
imagined the endless series of incidents which
the Christian books record, they must have
exposed themselves to detection at ten thousand
points.
Consider with what various authors the
accounts must agree, and by Vvhat an immense
series of facts, superstitions, national and sec-
tional views, transitory notions and permanent
monuments the accounts may be tested.
Suppose that the Gospels are the truthful
records of events, and the Epistles the actual
letters which they profess to be — that the writers
were recording things which had passed under
their own observation in the various countries
and places they mention, and all is consistent
and satisfactory ; but if we reject this solution
of the matter because there is a miraculous
element in the history and a Divine person
revealed, we propose a problem, the solution of
which would necessitate something contrary to
all probabilities and possibilities, something
against nature, and not like a miracle, only
above nature. We may reject the marvel of
the incarnation and the miracles of the gospel,
but we can do so only by credulously accepting
suppositions far more difficult of belief than are
the facts which they are used to discredit. — Rev.
7.. Critton.
2 Positively viewed.
[1569] Can any sceptic who doubts the truly
historical character of the New Testament
records solve the following problem ? —
To prove the possibility of a mythical or
mythological origin of the Christian system,
in view of the fact that Judsea was directly
under the government of Rome from the
reign of Augustus to the adoption of Chris-
tianity as the religion of the state.
It can be shown that Christianity first ap-
peared during the earlier poition of the period
in question.
It can be shown that writings on Christian
principles continued to appear during the
greater part of that period and in different
countries.
It can be shown that Christianity spread and
extended during tlie same period.
It can be shown that Christianity was op-
posed by the philosophies, the religions, and
the governments of the period.
It can be shown that Christianity was known
to the Jews and adopted by many of them in
those times.
It can be shown that heathen authors were
276
I569-I575]
THE HOLY SCRIPTURES.
[divine legation of KOSES.
aware of the existence of Christianity, that they
recognized it as a historical fact, and not as a
myth.
It can be shown that the history of Judaea
during that period was recorded in all its lead-
ing features.
It can be shown that Rome was in regular
communicatic n with Judaea during that period.
It can be shown that the New Testament
altogether corresponds with the history of the
time to which it relates.— C-iA/j/Za;; Evidence
Journal.
135
DIVINE LEGATION OF MOSES.
I. Preliminary Considerations.
I Mosaic economy rightly termed Divine,
on purely chronological and ethnological
grounds.
[1570] In entering upon this broad inquiry
concerning the supernatural development of
revelation, we begin with certain significant
facts which the progress of our questioning
thus f^ir has brought close at hand. One cir-
cumstance, which at once arrests our attention,
is the singular fact that Israel by some means
gained an exalted religion, while those tribes to
which it was nearest of kin, remained on the
lowest levels of idolatrous corruption. But this
contrast between Israel and his brethren, re-
markable in itself, appears the more significant
when we detect in Israel the same disposition
to evil which ran riot in the idolatries of kindred
and surrounding tribes. We find it difficult
upon any known law of heredity to conceive of
the pure worsiiip of the prophets as the out-
growth of " the natural religious geniality of
Israel," when we remember that the Israelites
were naturally a stiff-necked people, and that
their religion seems to have gained its authority
over them only by a prolonged struggle against
their nature. Here is an evolution not in
accordance with the natural tendency to varia-
tion, and contrary to the immediate historical
environment. The development of the Bible,
and the religion of the Bible, makes head seem-
ingly against the natural gravitation of the
Israelitish history. A people are pressed for-
ward who are always turning back. A religion
is lifted up into the light when the external
forces tend to carry it down into the darkness.—
Smyth {AtJieriia).
II. Two Chief Divisions.
[1571] The moral laws, as the Decalogue and
the two great commandments, on which hang all
the law and the prophets, are perfect and per-
petual and universal ; tiie civil and ceremonial
laws were temporary, and adapted to the Jews
or pre-Christian times. The general system, a
national theocracy. — B. G.
III. Nature and Relative Importance
OF THE Subject.
[1572] To treat of the claims of Moses, or
his " Divine Legation," as a separate question,
apart from the whole system of Biblical Revela-
tion, is to repeat the absurdity long ago ridi-
culed and exploded, namely, of carrying round
a single brick as the spccunen of a house on
sale.
Its place in the entire building is the proper
value of any brick or pillar; and so the place
and authority of Moses is seen in his relation
to the entire Biblical structure. — B. G.
IV. Conditions of the Question.
[1573] (0 The place and authority of Moses
cannot be isolated from the system of events
and revelation in which his part was played.
He "was faithful as a servant " (Heb. iii. 5) in
that household, wherein Christ our Saviour was
" the only begotten Son," and Heir Apparent,
of the Father ; and Elder Brother to all the
other members adopted into the Family.
(2) Our Lord Himself gives to Moses his
credentials in many places in the gospel ; and
this is greater than all other witness to his
" Divine Legation."
V. Distinctive Fe.vtures.
1 When viewed as a national constitution.
(l) The system of the theocracy midcr zuhich
the laws were placed.
[1574] The specific difference between the
Mosaic law, regarded as a national constitution,
and every other that is known to have existed,
consists not in its religious character taken by
itself, nor in any peculiarity of its civil enact-
ments, remarkable as some of these were, but
in the complete fusion which it presented of
civil and religious government. The system
under which the Jews were placed was a visible,
external theocracy. — Canon Liddon, Bampton
Lectures.
2 When viewed as an ethical code.
(i) The Jewish laws were complete at first,
and not the growth of cJia)iging legislation.
[1575J The learned Michaelis, who was Pro-
fessor of Law in the university of Gottingen,
remarks, " that a man who considers laws philo-
sophically, who would survey them with the eye
of a Montesquieu, would never overlook the
laws of Moses." Coguet, in his elaborate and
learned treatise on the " Origin of Laws," ob-
serves, that " the more we meditate on the laws
of Moses, the more we shall perceive their wis-
dom and inspiration. They alone have the
inestimable advantage never to have undergone
any of the revolutions cdnm.on to all human
laws. There has been nothing changed, nothing
added, nothing retrenched from the laws of
Moses for above thrte thousand years." Mil-
THE HOLY SCRIPTURES.
1375-
::;8il
[on
277
INE LEGATION OF MOSES.
man, in his history of the Jews, remarks, that
"the Hebrew lawgiver has exercised a more
extensive and permanent influence over the
destinies of mankind than any other individual
in the annals of the world."— Z?r. Gardiner
Spring, Obiigations of the World to the Bible.
(2) The most ancient in the world, and the
only one which has been preserved tmaltered in
any state.
[1576] The law by which this people is
governed, is in all respects the most ancient
in the world, and the only one which has been
preserved unaltered in any state. This Philo
the Jew has demonstrated on many occasions,
and Josephus, most admirably in his discourse
against Appian, where he proves it to have been
so ancient, that the very name of law was not
known in other countries till more than a thou-
sand years after ; insomuch that Homer, who
has spoken of so many nations, has not once
used the word. — Pascal, Thous,hts on Religion
(1023-1662).
(3) The old Hebrew laws have given an
inipettts to the inoral ideas of the world
gefierally.
[i 577] The Hebrew moral nature is celebrated
the world over. Some of the best thoughts on
this subject are in Matthew Arnold's recent
writings on the peculiar contrasts between the
Hellenic mind and the Hebrew mind. He has,
I think, joined in the affirmation that no more
wonderful moral development ever took place
than that which took place in the old Hebrew
nation. The moral ideas of the world had their
leaven, and largely their model, there. It shows
us the force of things invisible and intangible,
that the laws, the institutions, and the civil pro-
cedure of associated nations to-day, sprang from
moral conceptions which dawned in that little
pocket of the Orient on the eastern end of the
Mediterranean Sea, thousands of years ago.
The Hebrews struck so deep, and they struck
so utterly the great moral laws of God in their
relation to human life, and in their associated
action, that in its development the world has
more and more built itself upon that which was
disclosed by them.
3 When viewed as prophetical and typical
of a universal religion.
[1578] We cannot vindicate the Divine origin
of the Mosaic system solely on the ground of its
superior ethical character and apt expression of
the spiritual wants of man ; for it may have
been in this case, as a German writer expresses
it, "the first of the ethnic religions, but still
ethnic." The authentic signature of heaven is
still wanting, viz., the prophetical character, the
constructed reference to future events, which,
if it can be satisfactorily established, proves
beyond all doubt that the system in which it
inheres is not from man but Irom God. For,
whatever unaided reason may eft'ect, to deliver
a real prophecy, to construct a real type, is con-
fessedly beyond its power. — Canon Liddon,
Bainpt07i Lectnres.
VI. Points of Difference between the
Mosaic Penal Code and that of
MOST Modern States.
[1579] There are several striking points of
difference between the Mosaic penal code and
that of most modern states. One of these is the
requiring of two witnesses for every mortal
crime, and that the witnesses should aid in the
execution of the guilty. This is a very remark-
able provision among such a people as the
Hebrews ; wonderfully calculated to prevent
false testimony, and deserves imitation among
the most enlightened judges and legislators.
Another is that they had no law of imprison-
ment, either for debt or for crime. There are
but two recorded exceptions to this remark
within my knowledge, fhe one is the keeping
of a criminal in custod)^ for a single night, until
the will of the Deity could be consulted con-
cerning him. and the other is the appointment
of the cities of refuge for the manslayer. Though
of ancient usage and origin, imprisonment did
not originate with the law of Moses. Instead of
imprisonment for crime, the Mosaic code re-
quires the immediate and prompt execution of
the law. It was their doctrine that laws were
made to be executed ; and the Divine lawgiver
saw fit to decide that there should be no need-
less dcL':y in the execution. Another striking
difference related to the character of the crimes
that were punishable with death. They were
all either of high moral malignity, or crimes that
tended to the subversion of their whole civil
polity, and endangered the social existence of
the nation. — Dr. Ga^-diner Spriiig, Obligations
of the World to the Bible.
VII. The Paradoxical Argu.aient of
Dr. Warburton.
(i) The argument that Moses was able, by
present miracles, to dispense with future spiri-
tual sanctio7is.
[1580] Dr. Warburton's learned work on
"I'he Divine Legation of Moses" contains
many curious facts incidentally collated ; and
for these, it is still of some interest to those of
literary tastes ; but the main argument was, and
is, regarded rather as a paradox than a serious
logical deduction. The point was that because
Moses, as is assumed, omitted, or ignored, a
future life of rewards and punishments which
other early legislators relied upon for sanctions,
therefore Moses, who founded his law on present
miraculous interpositions, thereby proved his
Divine mission. — B. G.
VIII. Replies to Objections as to the
Severity of the Mosaic Code.
[15S1] The time was, and that less than two
hundred years ago, when by the laws of Eng-
land one hundred and forty-eight crimes were
278
THE HOLY SCRIPTURES.
-1591]
[^INSPIRATION.
punishable with death. By the Mosaic code
there are seventeen. Let the profane cease
from their rebukes of the penal statutes of
Moses ! — Dr. Garduier Spritu^, Oblis;ations of
the World to the Bible.
136
INSPIRATION.
I, The Senses in which the Word is
USED.
[1582] (i) "The inspiration of genius," as in
Shakespeare's plays ; (2) the common reason of
mankind, as distinguished from the lower ani-
mals— "there is a spirit in man, and the inspi-
ration of the Almighty giveth them understand-
ing" (Job xxxii. 81 ; "and the Lord God formed
man [as to his body] of the dust of the ground,
and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life,
\^livcs, faculties], and man became a living soul"
(Gen. ii. 7). These two inspirations, extraordinary
genius and the extraordinary faculties of human
nature, as distinguished from the animal crea-
tion, are the natural working of the human mind.
(3) But inspiration, as applied to the scriptures,
refers to the supernatural working of the human
mind, under the direct guidance of the Holy
Spirit, or the Divine mind, of which prophets
and apostles are the ministers and vehicles,
for the guidance of other minds, on those ques-
tions whose solution is beyond unaided human
reason, and on which man's eternal welfare
depends. — B. G.
IL Definitioxs and Important Dis-
tinctions.
I Negatively.
(2) In 7-ec;ard to the fact of inspiration as
connected with revelation.
[1583] "All Scripture is given by inspiration
of ijud " (2 Tim. iii. 6) ; but all Scripture is not
revelation— /.<?., does not contain things which
are a revelation from heaven.
[1584] A divine revelation of the mind of God
is a dirterent thing from a divine action on the
mind of man. To some, this remark may sound
like a self-evident truism ; but the turn of
modern metaphysical speculation in certain
quarters renders it necessary to make it.
[1585] Inspiration, as connected with revela-
tion, has respect, not to the receiving of divinely
communicated truth, but to the communication
of it to others. This again might seem so self-
evident as scarcely to need its being stated. But
in certain quarters there is great confusion of
ideas upon this very point.
(z) In regard to the manner of inspiration.
[1586] One other remark, under this head,
rnust be allowed. The fact of inspiration is a
different thing altogether from the manner of it.
The fact of inspiration may be proved by Divine
testimony, and accepted as an ascertained
article of iDelief, while the manner of it may be
neither revealed from heaven nor within the
range of discovery or conjecture upon earth.
2 Positively.
[1587] I am content to understand by revela-
tion whatever God has to say to man, whether
man might have discovered it for himself or not ;
and as to inspiration, I care for no admission or
acknowledgment of it which does not imply
infallibility. — Principal Candlish, Reason and
Revelation.
[158S] By inspiration in general, I would be
understood to mean, any srpernatural influence
of God upon the mind of a rational creature,
where it is formed to any degree of intellectual
improvement, beyond what it would, at that
time, and in those circumstances, have attained
in a natural way, that is, by the usual exercise
of its faculties, unassisted by any special divine
interposition. Thus, if a man were instanta-
neously enabled to speak a language which he
had never learned, how possible soever it might
have been for him to have obtained an equal
readiness in it by degrees, I believe {q.\x would
scruple to say, that he owed his acquaintance
with it to a divine inspiration. Or if he gave a
true and exact account of what was doing at a
distance, and published a particular relation of
what he neither saw nor heard, as some of the
prophets did ; all the world would own, if the
aftair were too complex, and the account too
circumstantial to be the result of a lucky guess,
that he must be inspired with the knowledge of
it ; though another account equally e.xact, given
by a person on the spot, would be ascribed to
no inspiration at all. — I". Doddridge, D.D.,
1702-1751.
III. The Connection between its two
Main Aspects, Objeciive and Sub-
jective Inspiration.
I In regard to the inspired writers.
[1589] Inspiration may be viewed as —
(i) Objective: the Holy Ghost's agency in
the composition of Scripture (2 Tim. iii. 16 ; 2
Peter i. 21).
(2) Subjective : the gift of the Holy Ghost
conferred upon the Church of the new covenant.
Those spiritual gifts of which the object is the
moral improvement of man.
See Collect in Communion Office : that for
the fifth Sunday after Easter ; and the hymn,
Veni Creator Spiritiis.
[1590] The inspiration of the authors of the
Bible was an energy altogether objective, and
directed to the moral improvement of the in-
dividual.
See McClintock and Strong's Cyclopitdia,
"On Inspiration," 4th ed., p. 243.
[1591] That inspiration is that divine influ-
ence under which thg Bible has been com-
THE HOLY SCRIPTURES.
1591—1599!
279
[iNSriRATION
posed, was absolutely unique, and specifically
different from those preventing and assisting
graces of the Holy Ghost (i Cor. xii. 14), where
he expressly lays down that " there are diversi-
ties of gifts, but the same spirit " (xii. 4), St. Paul
pauses (chap, xiii.) in order to point out that the
objective gifts may exist without the subjective
{ex. Balaam, Caiaphas, Disobedient Prophet). —
Davidson.
2 In regard to the readers of the inspired
record.
[1592] By the infallibility of the Bible I
simply mean that it is the infallible recoi-d of
an infallible revelation. The infallibility is
purely and simply objective. It is the attribute
of the revelation and of the record, viewed alto-
gether apart from the interpretation which each
may receive, and the impression which it may
make, in the subjective mind with which it
comes in contact. The revelation, as given-by
God, is infallible ; it may not be so, as appre-
hended by men. The record of it, as prompted
or superintended by God, is infallible ; it may
n6t be so, as read by us. — Principal Candlish,
Reason and Revelation.
IV. Views respecting its Nature, Per-
manence AND Completeness.
1 Verbal view.
[1593] It appears to me no very probable
supposition that an inspired writer should be
permitted in his religious discourses to affirm a
false proposition in a)iy subject, or in ajiy his-
tory to misrepresent a fact ; so that I would not
easily, nor indeed without the conviction of the
most cogent proof, embrace any notion in phi-
losophy, or attend to any historical relation,
which should be evidently and in itself repug-
nant to an explicit assertion of any of the sacred
writers. — Bp. Horsley^ Sermons.
2 Dynamical view.
[1594] The ORTHODOX, or generally accepted
view, which contents itself with considering
Scripture to be inspired in such a sense as to
make it infallibly certain when apprehended in
its legitimate sense, and of absolute authority
in all matters of faith and conscience. This
theory has lately been, with propriety, desig-
nated as the DYNAMICAL, purporting that the
potver, or influence, is from God, while the action
is human. — McClintock and Strong., Cyclopccdia.
[1595] This theory regards inspiration as the
actuating energy of the Holy Spirit, in whatever
degree or manner it may have been exercised,
guided by which the human agents chosen by
God officially proclaimed His will by word of
mouth, or have committed to writing the several
parts of Scripture.
[1596] In part or whole, deeds and sentiments
not approved by God, &c., are recorded ; but
there is a uniform and uninterrupted exercise
of the Holy Spirit's influence from Genesis to
Revelation.— AVy. J. H. Blunt.
[1597] We may presume, from all that we can
know on the subject, that when the Holy Spirit
communicates with our souls It does so in a
direct manner, independent of sensation, by in-
fusing ideas into the mind at once through the
capacity of apprehension, as also by stimulating
the reason, and influencing the emotions, in the
same way that information in general is com-
municated to us and affects us, except that in
this case the material organs are not exerted.
Inspiration may therefore be defined to be an
immediate and direct communication from the
Holy Spirit, in whom exists the infinity of know-
ledge of every description, to the soul of man of
information and ideas of a particular kind, for
a special purpose. Nevertheless, beyond such
special knowledge and ideas, and beyond what
is necessary for the object in question, it is not
to be supposed that any information is commu-
nicated. Nor does inspiration imply the impart-
ing of ideas or knowledge relating to collateral
matters connected with the subject which are
not necessary for its right understanding, ot to
answer the purpose directly intended. Thus,
from the Scripture narrative it would appear
that, while to apostles and prophets knowledge
and ideas were communicated relative to some
special matters which it was desirable they
should know, and to answer special purposes ;
beyond what was necessary for these particular
ends no knowledge was imparted, and they
were left in, and allowed to evince, an ignorance
common to the rest of mankind, to whonr no
inspiration was afforded. But if ideas are thus
communicated to us by God or by any spirits
in this way now, may they not have been com-
municated to us before, and antecedent to the
period of our birth } And hence many ideas
and notions may b«; in reality innate, or origin-
ally communicated to, and implanted in, "the
mind directly by God. — G. Harris.
[1598] God deals with man through the in-
strumentality of man, communicating by men
His will to man. The rain in its descent from
heaven falls upon the surface of our earth, per-
colates through the porous soil, and flowing
along rocky fissures and veins of sand, is con-
veyed below ground to the fountain whence it
springs. Now, although rising out of the earth,
that water is not of the earth, earthy. The
world's deepest well owes its treasures to the
skies. So was it with the revealed will of God.
It flowed along human channels, yet its origin
was more than celestial ; it was Divine. Those
waters at whose pure and perennial springs
faith drinks and lives, while conveyed to man
along earthly channels, have their source far
away, even in the throne of God. Theii
fountain-head is the Godhead. — Guthrie.
[1599] The human mind in inspiration re-
sembles an ^olian harp— all its faculties arc
sSo
JlIE HOLY SCRIPTURES.
599— t6o61
[inspiration,
ready strung witliin ; there are the chords of
the imagination, the memory, the judgment ;
but it cannot give forth the sound of a divine
oracle until the breath of (^od and Christ^even
His gracious influence, who came down from
heaven with a sudden great sound, as of a rush-
ing mighty wind — sweeps across it and wakens
the chords into harmony. — Dca7i GouUmni.
[1600] However the Spirit of God may have
used for His higher purposes the minds of men,
we can be assured that He did not overpower
their natural habits of expression, or hold indi-
vidual genius, as one might catch a song-bird,
passive and palpitating, in the grasp of His
Almighty hand. — Dr. Newman S7?tyth, Old
Faiths in New Light.
3 Mystical view.
[1601] The MYSTICAL, or extremely strict
view, thought to have been held by Philo,
Josephus. and some of the primitive Christian
Fathers, but condemned by the early councils as
savouring of heathenish navr'na, which regarded
the sacred writers as wholly possessed by the
Spirit, and uttering its dicta in a species of
frenzy. This, in opposition to the former, has
justl;^ been characterized as the mechanical
view, denoting the passivity of the inspired
object or agent. — McClintock and Strong,
Cyclopadia.
4 Latitudinarian view.
[1602] Tlie LATITUDINARIAN view, enter-
tained by rationalists of all orders, which deems
inspiration but a high style of poetic and reli-
gious fervour, and not inconsistent with errors
in fact and sentiment. This last view is not to
be confounded, however, with that of those who
limit inspiration to such matters in holy Scrip-
ture as directly pertain to the proper material
of revelation, i.e., to strictly religious truth,
whether of doctrine or prnctice.
See article " Inspiration," IVIcClintock and
Strong's Cyclopaedia.
[1603] That school of theologians claiming to
guide the Church in more "liberal lines of
thought, having carefully striven to show that
insjMi-ation, after all, has in it really nothing
supernatural, but who yet contend for the im-
portance of Scripture, reminds one of a person
who, having removed the works from a chrono-
meter, and the jewels from the case, should
imagine that, in this mutilated and denuded
form, it will retain its original use and value,
and be accounted worth prizing as a heirloom
to be handed down from generation to genera-
tion—C". N.
V. Proofs of tiik Scriptures being an
Ixsi'iKEu Book.
I From the nature and structure of reve-
lation made in the Scriptures.
[1604] In the first place, and to take the
broadest and most general view, it is absolutely
impossible to deny that the Bible occupies a
unique position with regard to mankind. I do
not say that the Bible is the only volume which
professes to contain sacred writings ; but cer-
tainly the Bible is bound up with the progress
and civilization of the world in a manner in
which no other book is : civilization and the
Bible are almost co-extensive with regard to
territory; and if there be a book which contains
a special message from God, I presume that
few will be found to argue in fnvour of any book
except the Biole. — Bishop of Carlisle.
[1605] I. Revelation was to be gradual and
progressive, not immediately and at once com-
plete. 2. It was to be practical and pointed ;
springing out of exigencies, and framed for the
occasions, of ordinary human lit'e and experi-
ence, from day to day, and from age to age ;
plastic, therefore, in its susceptibility of adapta-
tion to human modes of thought and feeling ;
not rigidly stereotyped in a ijivine mould of
absolute perfection. 3. It was to be natural
and free, not stiff and formal. 4. It was, never-
theless, to be throughout limited and restricted;
not ranging over the field of possible knowledge,
but embracing only what concerns the moral
government of God and the salvation of man.
Under such conditions as these let us assume
an infallible revelation to be given, and an infal-
lible record of it to be framed ; and let us ask
if that record would not present very much the
appearance which the Bible, as we now have it,
presents.^ — Principal Candlish, Reason aiid
Revelation.
[1606] Open the Bible, examine the fifty
sacred authors therein, from Moses, who wrote
in the wilderness four hundred years before the
siege of Troy, to the fisherman son of Zebedce,
who wrote fifteen hundred years later in Ephe-
sus and Patmos, under the reign of Uomitian,
and you will find none of those mistakes which
the science of every country detects in the works
of preceding generations. Carefully go through
the I5ible, from Genesis to Revelation, in search
of such faults, and as you carry on the investi-
gation remember that it is a book which treats
of everything, which describes nature, which
recounts its wonders, which records its creation,
which tells us of the formation of the heavens,
of the light, of the waters, of the air, of the
mountains, of animals, and of plants ; that it is
a book which acquaints us with the first revolu-
tions of the world, and which foretells also its
last ; that it is a book which describes them
with circumstantial details, in\ests them with
sublime poetry, and chants them in fervent
melodies ; that it is a book replete with Eastern
imagery, full of majesty, variety, and boldness ;
that it is a book which treats of the earth and
things visible, and .at the same time of the
celestial world and things invisible ; that it is a
book in which nearly fifty writers, of every
degree of cultivation, of every order, of every
condition, and sepanited from one another by
more than fifteen hundred years, have been
THE HOLY SCRIPTURES.
i6o5— 1610]
[inspiration.
engaged ; that it is a book written variously in
the centre of Asia, in the sands of Arabia, in
the deserts of Judcea, in tlie porches of the
Jewish temple, and in the rustic schools of the
prophets of Betliel and Jericho, in the magnifi-
cent palaces of Babylon, and on the idolatrous
banks of 'the Chcbar, and afterwards in the
Western centre of civilization, in the midst of
the Jews and their ignorant councils, among
Polytheism and its idols, and, as it were, in the
bosom of Pantheism and its foolish philosophy ;
that it is a book whose first writer was, during
forty years, brought up among the magicians of
Egypt, who regarded the sun, planets, and
elements as endowed with intelligence, reacting
upon and governing our world by their con-
tinual evaporation ; and that it is a book whose
first pages preceded by more than nine hundred
years the most ancient philosophers of Greece and
Asia — Thales, Pythagorus, Zaleucus, Xenophon,
and Confucius ; that it is a book which carries
its records into the scenes of the invisible world,
the hierarchy of angels, the latest periods of
futurity, and the glorious consummation of all
things. Well, search in its 50 authors, its 66
books, its 1,189 chapters, and its 31,173 verses ;
search for a single one of the thousand errors
with which every ancient and modern author
abounds when they speak of the heavens or
of the earth, of their revolutions or of their
elements, and you will fail to find it. — Ganssen.
2 From the universality of its spirit.
[1607] No volume ever commanded such a
prot'usion of readers, or has been translated
into so many languages. Such is the univer-
sality of its spirit, that no book loses less by
translation, none has been so frequently copied
in manuscript, and none so often printed. King
and noble, peasant and pauper, are delighted
students ot its pages. Philosophers have humbly
gleaned from it, and legislation has been thank-
lully indebted to it. Its stories charm the child,
its hopes inspirit the aged, and its promises
soothe the bed of death.
3 From the mighty and inspiring influence
which the Scriptures have exerted.
[1608] Its lessons are the essence of religion,
the seminal truths of theology, the first principles
of morals, and the guiding axioms of political
economy. Martyrs have often bled and been
burnt for their attachment to it. It is the theme
of universal appeal. In the entire range of
literature no book is so frequently quoted or
referred to. The ma-ority of all the books ever
published have been in connection with it. The
Fathers commented upon it, and the subtle
divines of the middle ages refined upon its
doctrines. It sustained Origen's scholarship
and Chrysostom's rhetoric. It whetted the
penetration of Abelard and exercised the keen
mgenuity of Aquinas. It gave life to the revival
of letters, and Dante and Petrarch revelled in
its imagery. It augmented the erudition of
Erasmus, and roused and blessed the intre-
pidity of Luther. Its temples are the finest
specimens of architecture, and the brightest
triumphs of music are associated with its poetry.
The text of no ancient author has summoned
into operation such an amount of labour and
learning, and it has furnished occasion for the
most masterly examples of criticism and com-
ment, grammatical investigation, and logical
analysis. It has also inspired the English muse
with her loftiest strains. Its beams gladdened
Milton in his darkness, and cheered the song of
Cowper in his sadness. It was the star which
guided Columbus to the discovery of a new
world. It furnished the panoply of that Puritan
valor which shivered tyranny in days gone by.
It is the Magna Charta of the woi Id's regenera-
tion and liberties. The records of false religion,
from the Koran to the Book of Mormon, have
owned its superiority, and surreptitiously pur-
loined its jewels. Among the Christian classics
it loaded the treasures of Owen, charged the
fulness of Hooker, barbed the point of Baxter,
gave colour to the palette and sweep to the
pencil of Bunyan, enriched the fragrant fancy
of Taylor, sustained the loftiness of Howe, and
strung the plummet of Edwards. In short, this
collection of lives and letters has changed the
face of the world, and ennobled myriads of its
population.
4 From the Scriptures* unique effect upon
the human heart, life, and civilization.
[1609] This remains, after all possible deduc-
tions for "ignorance of physical science," "errors
in numbers and chronology," " interpolations,"
" mistakes of transcribers," and so forth, whereof
we have read of late a great deal too much, and
ought to care for them and for their existence, or
non-existence, simply nothing at all, because,
granting them all (though the greater part of
them I do not grant, as far as I can trust my
critical faculty), there remains that unique ele-
ment beside which all these accidents are but
as spots on the sun compared to the great glory
of his life-giving light. The unique element is
there ; and I cannot but still believe, after much
thought, that it — the powerful and working ele-
ment, the inspired and Divine element, which
has converted, and still converts, millions of
souls — is just that which Christendom in all
ages has held it to be — the account of certain
"noble acts" of God, and not of certain noble
thoughts of man ; in a word, not merely the
moral, but the historic element ; and that, there-
fore, the value of the Bible teaching depends
on the truth of the Bible story. — Rev. C.
Kings Ly, Life ojtd Letfeis.
5 From the witness of the Spirit given to the
faithful readers of the Scriptures.
[16)0] This view of inspiration Rothe estab-
lishes by appeal to the experience of all devout
minds : " Every one who claims to be heard in
this matter should be reminded to bring with
him some experience of the quickening influences
of the Divine Spirit in the depths of his own
soul."
282
i6ii
THE HOLY SCRIPTURES.
1616]
[mosaic cosmogony.
[161 1] The witness of the Spirit is a proof
of the inspiration of Scripture, supplied by the
testimony which the Holy Ghost Himself con-
veys to each reader of the Scriptures. " This
argument is one which may always be employed
with reserve. It contains no proof whatever
for those who profess insensibility to the evidence
on which it rests. Its proper function is to
confrm, not to prove; it may be addressed to
the aiTections, not to the understanding."— i^-jz/.
7. //. Blunt.
6 General summary of proofs.
[1612] The apostolic claim as infallible
teachers was authenticated by (i) the nature of
the truth communicated ; (2) the power which
that truth had over the minds and hearts of
men ; (3) the witness of the Spirit ; and (4)
miraculous g\{\.s,.— Condensed from Dr. C.Hodge,
Sysieinaiic Theology.
137
MOSAIC COSMOGONY,
I. Methods of Interpretation.
I Their nature.
[1613] There are three methods of interpret-
ing this portion of the Bible : (i) the historical ;
(2) the allegorical ; (3) the mythical.
In support of the first are these considera-
tions :
(i) It purports to be a veritable history.
(2) It is an appropriate introduction to the
acknov.'ledged history which follows.
(3) It is referred to in other parts of Scripture
as a true account of the creation, specially the
fourth commandment.
(4) The facts here recorded lie at the founda-
tion of the whole revealed plan of redemption.
—Dr. C. Hodge, Systematic Theology.
a The consequences of false or presump-
tuous methods.
(i) Loss of God^s presence and of the poiver
of believing in Him.
[1614] With respect to this whole chapter, we
must remember always that it was intended for
the instruction of all mankind, not for the learned
reader only ; and that, therefore, the most simple
and natural interpretation is the likeliest in
general to be the true one. . . . Whether
taught or untaught, whether of mean capacity
or enlarged, it is necessary that communion
with their Creator should be possible to all ; and
the admission to such communion must be rested,
not on their having a knowledge of astronomy,
but on their having a human soul. In order to
render this communion poiisiblc, the Deity has
stooped from His throne, and has not only, in
the person of the Son, taken upon Him the veil
of our human llesh, but, in the person of the
Father, taken upon Him the veil of our human
thoughts, and permitted us, by His own spoken
authority, to conceive Him simply and clearly
as a loving Father and Friend : a being to be
walked with and reasoned with ; to be moved
by our entreaties, angered by our rebellion,
alienated by our coldness, pleased by our love,
and glorified by our labour ; and, finally, to be
beheld in immediate and active presence in all
the powers and changes of creation. This con-
ception of God, which is the child's, is evidently
the only one which can be universal, and there-
fore the only one which for us can be true. The
moment that, in our pride of heart, we refuse
to accept the condescension of the Almii^hty,
and desire Him, instead of stooping to hold our
hands, to rise up before us into His glory — we
hoping that by standing on a grain of dust or
two of human knowledge higher than our fellows,
we may behold the Creator as He rises— God
takes us at our word ; He rises into His own
invisible and inconceivable Majesty; He goes
forth upon the ways which are not our wa\'S, and
retires into the thoughts which are not our
thoughts; and we are left alone. And presently
we say in our vain hearts, "There is no God." —
Raskin.
II. Mythological Mosaic Cosmogony.
1 Statement in scientific form of the popular
error about the six days in Genesis.
[161 5] Even so eminent a person as Professor
Tyndall — forsaking his scientific province —
commits and encourages the following blunder
about Bible cosmogony : "It is hardly neces-
sary to inform you that the domain of the
naturalist has been immensely extended— the
whole science of geology, with its astounding
revelations regarding the life of the ancient
earth, having been created. The rigidity of
old conceptions has been relaxed, the public
mind being rendered gradually tolerant of the
idea that not for six thousand, nor for sixty
thousand, nor for six thousand thousand thou-
sand, but for aeons, embracing untold millions
of years, this earth has been the theatre of life
and death. The riddle of the rocks has been
read by the geologist and palaeontologist, from
Sub-Cambrian depths to the deposits thickening
over the sea-bottoms of to-day. And upon the
leaves of that stone-book are, as you know,
stamped the characters, plainer and surer than
those formed by the ink of history, which carry
the mind back into abysses of past time, com-
pared with which the periods which satisfied
Bishop Butler cease to have a visual angle." —
Address delivered before the British Association
assembled at Belfast.
2 Refutation of the erroneous view regarding
the six days in Genesis.
(i) ]Ve innst not confound the processes in
nature previous to the introduction of man, or
^' the life of the ancient earth,'' ivith the six days'
xvork, ivliich introduced a fiew era.
[1616J "The riddle of*the rocks," as "read
THE HOLY SCRIPTURES.
1616— 1625]
283
[mosaic cosmogony.
by the geologist," is altogether a difierent book
to that of "the Old Testament," and the subject
and testimony of that book is on a different
subject, and refers to a different time.
[161 7] There is such a thing as mythological
chronology or inverted dates, and confusion of
distinct and distant occurrences, which palms
off itself as scriptural, and gives some show of
plausil^ility to all manner of popular fallacies
regarding the six days' work.
(2). The Bible gives tts the start of the tmiveise
and the start of man, and leaves us to trace in
that universe anything that happened betweeti
these two primary events.
[161 8] The first verse in the Bible gives the
true date of the origin of the earth and the
universe. Many " leaves of the stone-book "
have to be turned over, and much care is
required in reading that book, to find the geo-
logical date ; but without turning a leaf, and by
looking only at the first verse of Genesis, we
have the Bible date—" In the beginning."
(3) The geological epoch lies between the
creation " in the beginni?i£^^'' and the reformation
or " making" of tlie world " in six days."
[1619] The Bible contains no other date of
the world's age ; this is " the chronology of the
Old Testament," and it finds room enough for,
and never can be exceeded or disproved by,
any " deposits thickening over the sea-bottoms
of to-day," or of any former day, through all
those "abysses of the past time," into which
cosmical philosophers retire, to find room in
the dark and in the distance, for those " integra-
tions and disintegrations," or conflicts and com-
binations of atoms, or molecules, out of which
man arose by the " formative laws " of conjec-
tural science, according to the Bible of the
atomical philosophers. However far they run
back for a start, they cannot get beyond " the
beginning." So the first word in the Bible
destroys all the confident objection to " Old
Testament cosmical chronology," and explains
" the riddle of the rocks " better than all the
eftbrts of those who see in " the riddle" a date
that contradicts the Bible, only by assuming
the possibility of going back further than " the
beginning." — B. G.
(4) The time element involved in the creation
is designedly kept in the backgrotmd of rev e la-
Hon.
[1620] It is noticeable that the modern theo-
logical abuse of the Mosaic word day— so
admirably chosen for its purpose — does not
occur throughout the Bible itself. Revelation,
that is, does not misinterpret itself, or use, so as
to perpetuate false notions, its own accommo-
dations to man's limited intelligence. Those
passages of Scripture which are the later com-
mentaries and expansions of this primeval
Hebrew " Song of the Creation," contain no
sign or trace of any six-day theory of the
making of the world. On the contrary, the
question as to the time-element involved in the
creation was a question kept in the background
of rev-elation ; it does not come to the front
among the truths of God's power, law, and
omnipresent efficiency, which occupy the fore-
ground of revelation. It is a scientific question
reserved for a scientific age, and we are still
j very much at sea with regard to it. — Dr. New-
1 ma7i Smyth, Old Faiths in New Light.
III. True Mosaic Cosmogony.
I Facts and leading principles.
[162 1] The two leading points of information
in Gen. i. and ii. are the origin of the universe,
and afterwards of man. These, with related
subjects, may be enumerated under five points :
I. The origin of the universe. 2. A subsequent
chaotic condition of this world. 3. The living
agent by which new life and order were re-
introduced. 4. The stages of this work in the
six days. 5. The recapitulation of the whole,
with the special make and nature of man, his
responsibility, social and religious relationships,
reco:::jnized in the institutions of marriage and
the Sabbath.— i?. G.
[1622] First, that this world and the worlds
around us were not self-caused or the result of
the long-continued action of forces directed by
no Intelligence, but, on the contrary, were made
and created by an AU-v^'ise and Omnipotent
God. "In the beginning God created the
heavens and the earth." Secondly, that the
reduction of the primordial state of things to the
present was by stages, and in a certain grada-
tional order. Thirdly, that all this was con-
siderably anterior to the appearance of the
human race on the earth, which race was called
into being separately and distinctly from other
races, only a few thousand years ago. — Bishop
Elbcott.
2 Its three distinct historical periods and
events as to this world and the universe.
(i) That of creation.
[1623] The origin of the universe: in "the
beginning God created the heavens and the
earth" (Gen. i. i). This is an independent,
separate proposition ; and was treated as such
before modern science originated. This em-
braces three points :—i. The Bible "chron-
ology " of the universe. 2. The Divine act of
creation. 3. The product of that fiat — " the
heavens and the earth."
[1624] Note : — The main geological pro-
cesses lie between the first historical period and
the end of the second period. This chaos, or
second historical stage, is given in Gen. i. 2, as
a change and subsequent condition of things on
the surface of the earth ; proved as follows : —
(2) .That of desolation.
[1625] Desolation, the changed condition of
this world, at some period subsequent to the
creation ; a state of desolation preceding the
re-formation and re-inhabitation of this world.
284
i626— 1633]
THE HOLY SCRIPTURES.
[mosaic cosmogony.
[1626] I. The word "was," means "be-
came," and has that meaning necessarily in
every case in this account. It does not mean,
and does not say that the earth had always, at
and from creation, been "without form and
void," Ijut this had become the case before the
six days' work, which restored it to a habitable
condition.
[1627] That this part of the second verse —
" and the earth was," or became, "without form
and void, and darkness was upon the face of
the deep" — was a change from a former, dif-
ferent condition, is seen for certain in two
points, and is implied in the third point con-
tained in these words.
[1628] 2. The second fact, proving that the
state of desolation was a change from a former
state of life and order, is contained in the words
translated — " without form and void." The
whole phrase occurs only three times in the
Bible: here in Gen. i. 2, Isa. xxxiv. 11, and
in Jer. iv. 23, 24. In both the prophets the
phrase of Gen. i. 2 is applied- to a state of dis-
order following after a state of order.
[1629] 3. The third proof of this is, the fact
noted that " darkness was upon the face of the
deep," which means, not that the sun was blotted
out, or not yet created, but that its rays had
been shut out from the surface of the earth.
This is plainly noted as another difference
from a previous condition. It had beco7)ic dark.
Let it further here be observed, that the dark-
ness was circumscribed — to " the face of the
deep," which means that there was light around
outside, waiting to penetrate, when permitted
by a change in the atmosphere, now laden with
impervious vapours.
3 That of re-formation or re-construction.
(i) The six days' re-formafioii and the
ori'^inal creation.
[1630] Before noticing separately the case of
man, which in this history stands out distinctly
from all others, it will be useful to observe that
their re-formation, or work of the week, is not to
be confounded with "the creation of the heavens
and the earth." They are different stages and
different processes. The six days' work is never
called "the creation of the heavens and the
earth" in the Bible. This is a mystical confu-
sion adopted by scientific opponents of the
Bible, from loose and popular language, and
wants what Professor Huxley, in his "Physio-
graphy," calls " that precision which dis-
tinguishes science from common information."
The commandment enforcing the Sabbath day
(Ex. XX. 1 1) gives the reason for it : " For in six
days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea,
and all that in them is." This refers to the six-
days' work which was subsequent to the orginal
creation, ''in the beginning."
(2) The stashes in the six days' 7vork.
[1631] First day (vv. 3, 4, 5), the re-introduc-
tion of" light ; " not its creation, but its admis-
sion into the atmosphere whence it had been
excluded, namely, over " the face of the deep."
Second day (vv. 6, 7, 8), the fuller clearance of
the air, or opening of the expanse, to make the
heavens visible ; not to make, nor to create, the
visible heavens — the creation of the heavens is
in the first verse. Third day (vv. 9, 10, 11, 12,
13), causing the retirement of the waters into
distinct seas ; the elevation of the lands, and
the springing up of vegetation. Fourth day
(vv. 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19), the complete clearance
of the atmosphere, so that the sun's disc might
be visible in the daytime, and the moon and
stars visible at night ; not creating these, but
giving or appointing them again " to shine upon
the earth," whence their rays had been ex-
cluded during chaos ; restoring the " rule " of
these rays in night and day, and appointing
them for the future to continue as the chro-
nologers " for signs and for seasons, and for
days and years," as they are to this day. Fifth
day (vv. 20, 21, 22, 23), the formation of fishes
and fowl. Here it is to be noted that the phrase
"and fowl that may fly above the earth in the
open firmament of heaven," is — as translated in
the margin — "let fowl fly," &c. Sixth day
(vv. 24, 25, 26, 27), the formation of animals
and man. All this was the production of the
7'ivifying spirit as the fiat of the presiding
Worker.
3 The living and Divine agent by which
the restoration of life on the earth was
affected.
[1632] The living agent, by which the new life
and order were to be introduced into the modern
earth, after the extinction of what is called in
the Belfast address, " the life of the ancient
earth " (p. 35), is given in the conclusion of the
second verse in the Bible : " and the Spirit of
God moved upon the face of the waters."
This word " moved," represents the Hebrew
term for broodeth, and is " tropically," for in-
fusing life into dead matter. It is a term of
very pregnant meaning, full of the deepest
suggestion as meeting the very difficulties and
confessed " mysteries " with which the biolo-
gists and more speculative scientists of the
present day are helplessly struggling.
[The foregoing extracts are abridgments from
" Ktema," a prize essay by Rev. Brewin Grant,
B.A.]
IV. Evidence in Favour of its Super-
natural Origin.
I It furnishes a sublime account of crea-
tion compared with the monstrous fables
and puerile concurrent conceits among
pagan nations.
[1633] I know, indeed, no greater contrast
than that between the childish, monstrous, and
often immodest myth(5logies of India, Egypt,
THE HOLY SCRIPTURES.
1633—1640]
28s
[mosaic cosmogony.
Greece, and Rome, and those opening pages of
the Book of Genesis, where God appears on the
scene — calling creation into being by His simple
but almighty word ; establishing order amid
unimaginable confusion ; evoking light out of
primeval darkness ; assigning their different
offices to the elements of earth and the shining
orbs of heaven ; building up the grand pyramid
of nature, and on its lofty apex placing man,
made in His own image, and enthroned lord of
all. Believe some, and this is all a fancy, a
mere fable. Foiled at every point, and on every
occasion, where they employed history, and
mental or moral science to attack the Christian
faith, compelled also to acknowledge that the
most formidable sceptics of other days, Hobbes
and Voltaire, David Hume and Tom Paine —
without followers now save among the dregs of
society — were ignominiously defeated, the in-
fidels of our day have changed their plan of
attack. Obliged to seek new weapons, they are
now attempting to overthrow the authority of
Moses by the authority of physical science ; and
ever as some old bone, some fragment of ancient
pottery, some stone axe or arrowhead tui-ns up
which they fancy will serve their purpose, there
is great shouting in the camp of the Philistines,
and fear seizes some that " the ark of God is
taken." Looking at the future in the light of
the past, we can only wonder at the timidity
of those who fear these assaults, and at the
credulity of such as, however fond of novelties,
allow such crude and silly arguments to seduce
them from the faith. — Dr. Guthrie.
2 It contains the only workable hypothesis
which explams tne beginning of the
creation.
[1634] We have no objection whatever to
investigate with the utmost accuracy and to
enumerate one by one the steps by which the
present state of the world has come into exist-
ence. Nothing in any of these inquiries touches
the action of God, and we have no fear whatever
that those extraordinary facts of nature, when
they are reduced to their original principles, will
be shown to be unworthy of God. The phe-
nomena will be as the language by which God
speaks, and the principles underlying them will
be the grammar of the Divine language. We
have no fear whatever that the more they are
studied the less they will show of the wisdom
that created them. Nay, rather are we sure
that the more man learns of the laws of God
and of the principles of God's government, the
more will he acknowledge the truth that their
architect and builder is God, Of the beginning
of all these things men have never even been
able to form even a plausible conjecture how it
came to pass, unless by the action of a first
cause. They have never told us how the be-
ginning commen.ced, and they never can imagine
or conjecture any reasonable, workable hypo-
thesis which can be set for one moment side by
side with the first verse of the first chapter of
the Book of Genesis. — Rev. W. Anderson, M.A.
3 It alone gives as part of the general scrij)-
ture-scheme, a consistent account of man's
existence and supplies an adequate answer
to all deeper questions.
[1635] This is the great moral argument
which, when fully and carefully developed, does
seem to bear with it a steadily increasing and
deepening conviction, and to appeal more and
more strongly to the soul, in proportion as time
and life's experiences are vouchsafed to us. —
Bp. ElUcott.
4 It coincides in many remarkable respects
with fully verified geological discoveries.
[1636] Moses has left us a cosmogony, the
exactitude oi which is confirmed day by day in
a very wonderful manner. — Ibid.
[1637] Taking into account the want of scien-
tific knowledge of the structure of the earth in
far past ages and the representations incon-
sistent witn facts which found currency, the
true marvel is that the statements of Scripture
so simply and naturally harmonize with dis-
coveries not made till the sixteenth century of
the Christian era. This is a marvel which will
more deeply impress the longer it is pondered.
— Prafessi r Calderivood, D.D., on the Relations
of Science and Reli^^ion.
[163S] (i) It acknowledges the common origin
and, substantially, the connnon chemical com-
position of all organic things ; (2) it indicates a
progression upwards from simpler to more com-
plex forms of lile, culminating in man. In a
document emanating from an unscientific race,
in an unscientific age, this is remarkable, for
the tendency of semi-barbarous myths is to
imagine the more perfect state of things as pre-
ceding the less perfect, as in the case of the
Golden Age. It seems very improbable that
the unaided imagination of the ancient Hebrews
or other Semitic race should have originated a
story of progress which undoubtedly agrees in
its general principle with the results, speaking
roughly and approximately, of modern geological
science. — Spectator.
[1639] The corn-plants are utterly unknown
throughout all the geological periods. Not the
slightest trace or vestige of them occurs in any
of the strata of the earth until we come to the
most recent formations, contempcn-aneous with
man. . . . The testimony of geology, therefore,
confirms unequivocally the testimony of Reve-
lation, and shows that corn was not only
specially created for man's use, but also got
ready specially for the appointed hour of his
appearance on earth. — Macniilian, Bible
Teachings iji Nature.
[1640] They who are curious to learn the
latest discrepancies and coincidences between
geology and Genesis, can find the subject
treated in detail in Principal Dawson's recent
book on the " Origin of the World." Some of
the coincidences which are to be found between
286
1640— 1644I
THE HOLY SCRIPTURES.
[undesigned coincidences of old and new testament.
the two, such as the Mosaic account of the ex-
istence of light before the creation of the sun,
the comparatively kite appearance of mammals
on the earth, and the indication that the great
geological periods were completed and the
world given over to the operation of existing
causes on the fourth day, would seem to be im-
portant confirmations of the truthfulness of the
Mosaic account. — Dr. Newman Sinyih^ Old
Fail/is in New Light.
V. Moot Points as to Hypotheses nega-
tived BY THE Mosaic Account.
[1641] Man}', both believers and unbelievers,
imagine that if the supposed discovery of traces
of pie-Adamite man were confirmed, it would
go very far to invalidate the authority of the
Scriptures, and would, at all events, be incon-
sistent with the biblical cosmogony. Is this so
certain .-' I am far from saying it has yet been
satisfactorily made out, or even that reasonable
grounds have been shown for thinking it prob-
able that any rational beings in human or even
in gorilla form did exist before Adam ; but is it
so clear from the words of the Bible that there
could not have been a prior type of humanity
which appeared and disappeared in one of those
periods of mundane existence, anterior to the
present state of things, at which Scripture hints,
though it makes no definite revelation l~Rev.
Dr. Robinson Thornton in Christian Opinion.
VI. Summary of Chief Points in regard
to the Present Conflict between
Science and Scripture.
[1642] I. Questions are raised as to the order
of creation.
2. Questions are raised as to the tijne-elemcnt
of creation : (i) Touching the age of the world.
(2) Touching the antiquity of man.
3. Scripture account is not to be dealt with as
a work written for scientific but spiritual pur-
poses, and in an age which was not scientific.
4. The Scripture account and interpretations
of that account are two perfectly distinct things.
5. The right principles upon which to inter-
pret the Mosaic economy may not yet be fully
understood or clearly enunciated.
6. Sciences are at present a vast network of
hypotheses in different stages of verification, and
which claim various degrees of confidence.
7. The right interpretations of the Scripture
account and well-established scientific dis-
coveries and principles will be mutually helpful.
8. Prejudices and prc-conceptions and mis-
understandings on both sides are being over-
come, and there are not a few hopeful signs of a
belter spirit between students of Scripture and
science being manifested towards each other.
9. If modern science has brought to notice
real or ajjparent discrepancies, it has afforded
a knowledge of more coincidences confirmatory
of Christian truth.
10. The principle of law, and nearly con-
nected with this, of evolution, has not been so
demonstrated as to contradict lor rather, it may
be said, to do without the necessity of) the
creative fiat or fiats at various periods of the
Creation, or of God's continual providential
agency, or chief of all of His miraculous inter-
vention at the Incarnation for man's redemption.
The book of nature without the book of revela-
tion will always be a mystery, while the book of
revelation without the book of nature will lose
much of its reality.
II. The perfect harmony of principles both
within and without revelation is not possible
with our present limited knowledge and facul-
ties.—C N.
[1643] We may rest assured that the true
"vestiges of creation" will never contradict
Genesis, nor will a correct " Cosmos " be found
at variance with the narrative of Moses. He is
the wisest who uses both the world -book and the
word-book as two volumes of the same work,
and feels concerning them : " My Father wrote
them both."
See article No. 13?, "Chronology of Scrip-
ture.''
133
UNDESIGNED COINCIDENCES OF
OLD AND NE W TESTAMENT.
I. Facts which they help to Establish.
I The several books of Scripture as indepen-
dent witnesses.
[1644] The argument deduced from coinci-
dence without design has further claims, be-
cause, if well made out, it establishes the authors
of the several books of Scripture as indepen-
dent witnesses to the facts they relate ; and this,
whether they consulted each other's writings or
not; for the coincidences, if good for anything,
are such as could not result from combination,
mutual understanding, or arrangement. If any
which I may bring forward may seem to be
such as might have so arisen, they are only to
be reckoned ill-chosen, and dismissed ; for it is
no small merit of this argument that it consists
of parts, one or more of which (if they be
thought unsound) may be detached, without
any dissolution of the reasoning as a whole.
Undesignedness must be apparent in the co-
incidences, or they are not to the purpose.
In our argument we defy people to sit down
together or transmit their writings one to an-
other, and produce the like. Truths known
independently to each of them must be at the
bottom of documents having such discrepan-
cies and sucii agreements as. these in ques-
tion. The point, therefore, whether the authors
of the books of Scripture have or have not
copied from one another, which in the case
of some of them has beei^ so much laboured, is
i644— 1644]
THE HOLY SCRIPTURES. 287
[undesigned coincidences of old and new testament.
thus rendered a matter of comparative indiffer-
ence. Let them have so done, still by our argu-
ment their independence would be secured, and
the nature of their testimony be shown to be
such as could only result from their separate
knowledge of substantial facts.
3 The Scripture narration of the super-
natural which is embedded in that of the
natural.
[1645] I will add another consideration which
seems to me to deserve serious attention : that
in several instances the probable truth of a
miracle is involved in the coincidence. This is
a point which we should distinguish from the
general drift of the argument itself. The general
drift of our argument is this, that when we see the
writers of the Scriptures clearly telling the truth
in those cases where we have the means of
checking their accounts ; when we see that they
are artless, consistent, veracious writers, where
we have the opportunity of examining the fact —
it is reasonable to believe that they are telling
the truth in those cases where we have not the
means of checking them— that they are veracious
where we have not the means of putting them
to proof But the argument I am now pressing
is distinct from this. We are hereby called
upon, not merely to assent that Moses and the
author of the Book of Joshua, for example, or
Isaiah and the author of the Book of Kings, or
St. Matthew and St. Luke, speak the truth when
they record a miracle, because we know them to
speak it in many other matters (though this would
be only reasonable where there is no impeach-
ment of their veracity whatever), but we are
called upon to believe a particular miracle,
because the very circumstances which attend it
furnish the coincidence. I look upon this as a
point of very great importance. 1 do not say
that the coincidence in such a case establishes
the miracle, but that, by establishing the truth
cf ordinary incidents which involve the miracle,
which compass the miracle round about, and
which cannot be separated from the miracle
without the utter laceration of the history itself,
it goes very near to establish it.
IL The Strength of the Argument
DRAWN FROM THEM FOR THE TRUTH
OF CHRISTIANITY' IT.SELF.
I On account of the providentially unique
and complex arrangements in the author-
ship of the Bible.
[1646] On the whole it is surely a striking
fact, and one that could scarcely happen inany
continuous fable, however cunningly devised,
that annals written by so many hands, em-
bracing so many generations of men, relating
to so many different states of society, abound-
ing in supernatural incidents throughout, when
brought to this same touchstone of truth, unde-
signedness, should still not flinch from it ; and
surely the character of a history, like the
character of an individual, when attested by
vouchers, not of one family, or of one place, or
of one date only, but by such as speak to it
under various relations, in different situations,
and at divers periods of time, can scarcely
deceive us.
III. The Practical Value of the Argu-
ment DRAWN FROxM THEM FOR THE
Truth of Christianity itself.
1 Generally and for the mass of men.
(i) // is an. argument easily grasped and
readily handled.
[1647] An argument thus popular, thus ap-
plicable to the affirirs of common life as a test
of truth, derives no small value when enlisted
in the cause of revelation, from the readiness
with which it is apprehended and admitted by
mankind at large, and from the simplicity of
the nature of its appeal ; for it springs out of
the documents the truth of which it is in-
tended to sustain, and terminates in them ; so
that he who has these, has the defence of
them.
2 Specially and for students dealing with
modern Biblical criticism.
{i) It is a weapon providentially placed in
our /lands to neutralise the force of the com-
bined assaults against the truth of Scripture
from the whole circle of the sciences.
[164S] The turn which Biblical criticism has
of late years taken, gives the peculiar argument
here employed the advantage of being the word
in season ; and whilst the articulation of Scrip-
ture (so to speak) occupied with its component
parts may possibly cause it to be less regarded
than it should be in the mass, and as a whole,
the effect of this argument is to establish the
general truth of Scripture, and 'with that to
content itself — its general truth, I mean, con-
sidered with a reference to all practical pur-
poses, which is our chief concern— and thus to
pluck the sting out of those critical difficulties,
however numerous and however minute, which
in themselves have a tendency to excite our
sjspicion and trouble our peace. Its effect, I
say, is to establish the general truth of Scripture,
because by this investigation I find occasional
tokens of veracity, such as cannot, I think,
mislead us, breaking out, as the volume is un-
rolled—unconnected, unconcerted, unlooked for ;
tokens which I hail as guarantees for more
facts than they actually cover ; as spots which
truth has singled out whereon to set her seal,
in testimony that the whole document, of which
they are a part, is her own act and deed; as
passwords with which the providence of God
has taken care to furnish His ambassadors,
which, though often trifling in themselves, and
having no proportion (it may be) to the length
or importance of the tidings they accompany,
are still enough to prove the bearers to be m
the confidence of their Almighty Sovereign, and
to be qualified to execute the general com-
mission with which they are charged under His
authoritv.— r/«'i- article chiefly taken Jrom J.
J. Bltcnfs " Coincidences."
SECTION II.
NAMES AND TITLES
OF THE
HOLY SPIRIT.
ac^o
SECTION II.
NAMES AND TITLES OF THE HOLY SPIRIT.
DIVISIONS OF TOPICS ILLUSTRATED.
PAGE
A.— NAMES EXPRESSIVE OF HIS NATURE 293
B.— NAMES EXPRESSIVE OF HIS DIVINE RELATIONS 300
[i] In regard to God the Father.
|_2] In regard to God the Son.
C— NAMES EXPRESSIVE OF HIS OFFICES.^ .„ .~ 313
[i] Bestowal of Redemptive Privileges.
[2] Imparting of Wisdom.
(1) Generally.
(2) Specifically.
[3] Work of Sanctification (generally).
[4] Execution of Judgment.
CLASSIFIED CONTENTS, SECTION II.,
BEING
The Na7nes and Titles^ Alphabetically arranged under their Respective Divisions and Subdivisions^
with Consecutive Numbers at left hand for facility of reference.
(See Sectional Index, p. , and General Index at the end of last volume.)
GOD THE HOLY SPIRIT.
Names Expressive of —
A.— HIS NATURE.
1 God ...
2 Lord, The ...
3 Spirit, Eternal
4 Spirit, The
B.— HIS DIVINE RELATIONS.
[i] In regard to God the Fathe
5 Breath of the Almighty
6 Power of the Higliest
7 Seven Spirits of God
8 Spirit of God
9 Spirit of the Father
10 Spirit of the Lord
11 Spirit of the Lord God
[2] In regard to God the Son.
12 Spirit of Christ
13 Spirit of God (Holy)
14 Spirit of Promise (Holy) .,.
15 Spirit of the Son
16 Voice of the Lord
293
295
296
297
300
301
302
3"3
303
303
303
306
307
308
309
310
C— HIS OFFICES.
[i] Bestow^al of Redemptive Privileges.
17 Adoption, Spirit of
18 Glory, Spirit of ...
19 Grace, Spirit of
20 Life, Spirit of
21 Might, Spirit of
[2] Imparting of Wisdom,
(i) Generally,
22 Knowledge, Spirit of ... ...
23 Prophecy, Spirit of .,,
24 Revelation, Spirit of
(2) Specifically,
25 Counsel, Spirit of
26 Fear of the Lord, Spirit of
27 Truth, Spirit of
28 Understanding, Spirit of
29 Wisdom, Spirit of
313
314
315
316
318
322
322
323
... 324
324
... 324
327
.,. 327
[3] Work of Sanctification (generally),
30 Comforter ... ... ... ... 330
31 Free Spirit 333
32 Good Spirit ... ... ... 334
33 Holiness, Spirit of 335
34 Holy Spirit 336
35 Truth, Spirit of 337
[4] Execution of Judgment.
36 Spirit of Judgment 339
DIVISION A.
NATURE.
NAMES EXPRESSIVE OF HIS
Pages 293 to 298.
ALPHABETICAL TABLE OF
TOPICS.
I
GOD.
2
LORD, THE.
SPIRIT, ETERNAL.
4
SPIRIT, THE.
292
293
SECTION II.
GOD. THE HOLY SPIRIT.
DIVISION A.
NAMES EXPRESSIVE OF HIS NATURE.
GOD.
(i John V. 7.)
I. Scripture Basis.
I The Holy Spirit possesses Divine attri-
butes and perfections.
[1649] Divine properties are assigned to
Him — as eternity : He is the " Eternal Spirit."
Immensity : " whither shall I flee from Thy
Spirit.'"' Omnipotence: "the Spirit of the
Lord is not straitened." Prescience : " this
scripture must be fulfilled, which the Holy
Ghost, by the mouth of David, spake concerning
Judas." Omniscience: "the Spirit searcheth
all things, even the deep things of God." — JoJiii
Owen.
[1650] He is the true God. He is called by
the incommunicable name Jehovah. He has
all the perfections of the Deity : eternity, omni-
presence, omniscience. He does the works that
are proper to God alone : He formed the body
of Jesus in the Virgin's womb; qualified Him
for the office He was to sustain ; is the Author
of every good work in us ; inspired from the
beginning all the prophets and apostles, that
they might communicate to us with infallible
certainty the inind and the will of God. He
receives also the worship that is due to God
only, and is joined with the Father and the Son
as the glorious Being to whom we are conse-
crated in our baptism, and is equally with Them
the source of all spiritual blessings. — C. Simeoti.
[165 1] The Holy Spirit is God, co-essential to
God the Father and God the .Son. One Divine
nature, with all its attributes and perfections, is
common to Him with the Father ; or (which is
the same) the Holy Spirit is God, that Most
High God, most absolute, and properly so called
(for, seeing the Holy Scriptures do frequently
inculcate that there is but one God, if the Holy
Spirit be God, He must necessarily be co-essen-
tial with the Father and the Son).
Divine operations, transcending the power of
any created thing, are ascribed to the Holy
Ghost. Such are, to create things and make the
world ; for it was the Spirit which, resting upon
the unshapen mass, did hatch the world. "By
His Spirit," saith Job, "He hath garnished the
heavens." And, " By the word of the Lord," saith
the Psalmist, " were the heavens made, and all
the host of them by the breath of His mouth," 01
by His Spirit. " But He," as the Apostle to the
Hebrews saith, "who made all things is God."
In fine, there is no work either of nature, or
of providence, or of grace, so sublime, or so
difficult, which is not ascribed to the efficacy of
the Holy Spnit ; the which doth show His
sovereign authority and His almighty power ;
for surely by no more plain and cogent argu-
ments than by these can the omnipotence of the
Supreme Deity itself be demonstrated. — Isaau
Barrow.
2 The Holy Spirit performs Divine offices.
[1652] We are agreed that the miraculous
gifts, of whatever kind they were, proceeded
from " that one and self-same Spirit," the third
Person in the ever-blessed Trinity. And here
we wish it to be distinctly noticed, how re-
peatedly that adorable Person is mentioned as
the author of the gifts. " To one is given by the
Spirit the word of wisdom ; to another the
word of knowledge, by the same Spirit ; to
another, faith by the same Spirit ; to another,
the gifts of healing, by the same Spirit ;" and
then, after mention of many other gilts, "All
these worketh that one and self-same Spirit."
This shows what a jealousy the apostle felt for
the honour of that Divine agent. — C. Suneon.
[1653] The Spirit of God in Christians is like
an organ : one man is one stop ; another,
another ; the sound is different, the instrument
the same, but music in all." — T. Adams.
[1654] Mark the rain that falls from above ;
the same shower that drops out of one cloud
increaseth sundry plants in a garden, and
severally, according to the condition of every
plant. In one stalk it makes a rose, in another
a violet ; diverse in a third, and sweet in all.
COD THE DLY SPIRIT.
(— 1664]
[god.
le Spirit works its multifarious efifects in
al complexions, and all according to the
ase of God. — Jeremy Taylor.
>55] The inditing of the Scriptures was a
argument of His Deity. Whom did the
hets mean when they said, ''Thus saith the
. of Hosts ?" Who was this Lord of Hosts
instructed them to speak or write ? Was
od the Father, or God the Son .'' No, it
God the Holy Ghost. " For the prophecy
I not in old time by the will of man, but
men of God spake as they were moved by
Holy Ghost." The Holy Ghost therefore
y the Lord of Hosts, He needs be God. —
'ridge.
rhe Holy Spirit shares Divine honour.
I As seen in the case 0/ Ananias.
556] Peter views the act of Ananias and
jhira solely in its relation to the Divine
it. Their sin is a trespass against the
,' Ghost. Now we have in this procedure
le apostle, essentially and directly, the evi-
:e both of the personality and of the Deity
le Holy Ghost. He says : " Satan hath
i thine heart to lie to the Holy Ghost,
u hast not lied unto men, but unto God.
lave agreed together to tempt the Spirit of
Lord." — Lattge's Commentary.
657] The lie of Ananias, when he lied to
Holy Ghost, and when he lied to God, is
lestionably one and the same sin. — Bengel.
658] The truth that the Holy Ghost is the
God is awfully demonstrated in the death
nanias. — Apost. Past.
659] The Holy Spirit is a Divine Person ;
is really God. ... It is revealed to us in
pture in the plainest manner. The same
es are applied to Him that are applied to
; the same infinite perfections attributed,
same works ascribed, and the same worship
ined. To be born of the Spirit is to be
1 of God ; to lie to the Holy Ghost is to lie
» God. The mind of God, which is known
to God Himself, this Spirit knows, and
kvs perfectly. " He searcheth all things, yea
deep things of God." Are these a creature's
3urs, or a creature's claims ? No more than
' are yours or mine. — C. Bradley.
) As involved in St. PauFs use of the meta-
y of a temple.
660] This also can be gathered from i Cor.
:6 : " Know ye not that ye are the temple of
I, and the Spirit of God dwelleth in you.'"
none can be the temple of God but he in
m God dwells ; for it is God's dwelling in a
e that makes that place the temple of God.
ither express scripture is A.cts v. 3, 4. Peter
i Ananias, "Why hath Satan filled thine
rt to lie to the Holy Ghost ?" and then tells
in the next verse, " Thou hast not lied to
men, but to God ; " and so expressly asserts the
Holy Ghost to be God. — Beveridge.
(3) As proclaimed in the specially terrible
nature of the sin against the third Person in
the Trinity.
[1661] Moreover, what dignity belongs to
the Holy Spirit ; what reverence is due to
Him, appears clearly from that the blasphemy
against Him is peculiarly unpardonable, where-
as the faults committed against God the Father,
and obloquy against the Son, are capable
of remission ; for the nature ol things doth
scarce bear that to detract from a creature
should be a crime so capital, or receive such
aggravation ; it cannot well be conceived that
the honour of a creature should in such a
manner be preferred to the honour of God
Himself. — Isaac Barrow.
IL Import.
[1662] I freely and resolvedly assent unto
this, as unto a certain and infallible truth, that
beside all other whatsoever, to whom the name
of spirit is or may be given, there is one parti-
cular and peculiar Spirit, who is truly and pro-
perly a Person, of a true, real, and personal sub-
sistence, not a created but an uncreated Person,
and so the true and one eternal God ; that
though He be that God, yet He is not the
Father, nor the Son, but the Spirit of the Father
and the Son, the third Person in the Blessed
Trinity, proceeding from the Father and the
Son. 1 Ijelieve this infinite and eternal Spirit
to be not only of perfect and indestructible
holiness in Himself, but also to be the imme-
diate cause of all holiness in us, revealing the
pure and undefiled will of God, inspiring the
Islessed apostles, and enabling them to lay the
foundation, and by a perpetual succession to
continue the edification of the Church, illumina-
ting the understandings of particular persons,
rectifying their wills and affections, renovating
their natures, uniting their persons unto Christ,
assuring them of the adoption of sons, leading
them in their actions, directing them in their
devotions, by all ways and means purifying and
sanctifying their souls and bodies, to a full and
eternal acceptation in the sight of God. — Bp.
Pearson.
[1663] There are three eternal acts of con-
sciousness, and the entire Divine Ego is in each
of these three acts. Each hypostasis has Being
iolely through the other two. Here there is no
temporal first or last. The entire Trinity stands
n one present Now, three eternal flames in the
line light. — Martensen.
I [1664] None can deny that Scripture assij
I he Holy Ghost attributes and operatic
iire simply Divine. There can be no"
' othe Scripture testimony to His '
il very where we hear hints both c
inctions and unitv of c--
GOD THE ULY SPJRJT.
1664-1669]
[the lc
indication of this may be found in the observa-
tion that whereas each Divine Hypostasis has a
special work and mode of revelation assigned
Him, the other two are throughout associated
with Him in its discharge. I he creation and
preservation of the universe is, for instance, the
special work of (iod the Father. . . . But it is
by the co-op)eration of the Word and the Spirit.
The special work of the Son is redemption.
But here, too, the Father and the Spirit are co-
witness. The special work of the Spirit is sanc-
titication, but He is sent forth to that work by
the Father and the Son. . . . No communion
with one Divine Person is possible for man
without a like fellowship with the others. He
that hath not the Spirit of Christ is none of His ;
he that denicth the Son hath not the Father.
We might venture to express this unity and
distinctness by three predicates : the Father is
the Holy One ; the Son. the Healing One ; the
Spirit, the Hallowing One." — Christlieb (con-
densed).
III. Its Practical Bearing.
[1665] That Jehovah, therefore, exists in three
Persons, is a truth which He, who only could
know it, hath been pleased to reveal in His
word, ilut it may be an everlasting truth in
itself, and yet no more truth to us, respecting
our comfort from it, than it is to fallen angels,
or the ground beneath our feet. The question
then occurs, " What interest has the soul of a
believer in this truth of a Tnnity, and of the
Divine personality and self-existence of the
Holy (ihost .'" Ail Divine truth hath its use ;
and the more clearly it shines (and clearly it;
would ever shine but for the clouds of sin and!
corruption^ the more comfortable and reviving]
—A. Serle.
[1666] The first great advantage which thu
Christian perceives to belong to him in this
doctrine of a Trinity is — the covenanted, cer-
tain, and unchangeable purpose of the whoUi
Godhead, both in establishing the means, and ii^
securing the end, of his eternal salvation. Ht|
perceives that the means are equal to the endj
and that the end must be the result of thii
nuai > : because the great Agents who use th<l
ire Divine and infinite, can neither bii
n in their views, nor be disapjjointed in
'rhovah, "who famteth not,
•t ; - the .Alehim, and is engaged,
by ,1:. covenant existing in Hi .
to create, recover, and pre '
Us people. Nothing, there
h hath not been foreseen I
'.n the way which wa
t;.::. ulty but which was de
The great sin of .Adam
innumerable stream
red the world, hath onl
re illustrious, b
idiJ lound, grace coul
If nothing, whic
iser)' of myriac
of souls for everlasting ages, " is too har
Jehovah." It is not too hard indeed for 1
but it would be infinitely too hard for all cr
strength, whether in earth or heaven,
but Jehovah could reconcile to Jehovah,
but Himself had either will, or love, or p
to accomplish the reconciliation. This
tainty and perfect ordination, then, of the
lastmg covenant, is a ground of great cor
tion to all who, through faith, have an im
in '\X.—Il)id.
[1667] Another comfort which the be!
hath a right to draw from these truths is
having the earnest of the Spirit in his soul
in quickening from the "death of sin,'
tlien working faith, hope, and love tc
Christ, he is privileged to receive some
gree of assurance from the word of Gc
proportion to the eviiience of this earnest
the Spirit of God, that He who hath bcgu
good work will carry it on to perfection,
written word declares the Divinity of this
tual agent ; and this agent brings the he;
the word, by which He gives His own U
persuasion ; so that the believer can say, "
to my seal upon Ciod's revealed truth, and
enabled to do it by the grace of CJod's en
ening Spirit : upon this united testimony i
behalf, I believe that God's love cannot
but that I am 'saved in' Jehovah 'wit
everlasting salvation.' " — Jbid.
[1668] In thyself originatesevery cause ol
plaint, not in thy merciful Lord. Thou can
exhaust an infinite ocean of everlasting gooc
thou mayest, as all too often do, shut thine
mouth, and taste for a time not a drop of i
tiie depth of unbelief! may we all cry, as
as " O the depth of the riches of God ! " 1
"deep" did not answer to the other, and
found it, the strongest believer in the
would not swim long upon the surface, but
be swallowed up in the dismal abyss. — lb,
THE LORD.
(2 Cor. iii. 17.)
I. Its Scriptural Basis.
I Old Testament allusions read in
light of the New.
[1669] The Lord Jesus was as fundan
a reality under the old covenant as unde
new. He was that Spirit which was truly
the letter, and the Lord from whom the p
then turned. The incarnation was not th
and abrupt entrance ofa Divine Person ini
humanity. Christ was not only the bo
every shadow (Col. ii. 17), but the age
every event and institution of the ancient
nant ; and whatever falsehood we discover
the Rabbinic fables of the "Angel Jehoval
296
i669-
GOD THE HOLY SPIRIT.
1679!
[the eternal spirit.
must recognize "the Lord the Spirit" under the
Jehovah of the ancient covenant. — C. F. Klins^.
[1670] He who is called by Isaiah "Jehovah,"
is called by Paul "the Holy Ghost." {See Acts
xxviii. 25, and Isa. vi. 8, 9.) — Dr. Ans;tcs.
[167 1] With Jer. xxxi. 33, 34 compare John
xvi. 13. This is the accomplishment of the
promise, that Jehovah the Spirit guides into all
truth, and makes Himself known to His people.
An obvious distinction is here made between the
teaching of God and of man. And as obvious
a fact it appears that the Spirit guiding, in one
text, is Jehovah promised in the other. — A.
Serle.
2 Direct New Testament teaching.
[1672] We find here (2 Cor. iii. 7) such an
identification of Christ and the Holy Spirit, that
the Lord, to whom the heart turns, is in no
practical respect different from the Holy Spirit
received in conversion. The fellowship of Christ
into which it entered when it turned to the
Lord, was in truth the fellowship of the Holy
Spirit. — C. F. Kling.
[1673] The apostle (2 Thess. iii. 5) meant only
to express a benevolent wish on behalf of the
Church at Thessalonica ; but he expressed it in
such terms as a person habituated to the doc-
trine of the Trinity would naturally use : he
prayed that " the Lord (the Spirit) would direct
their hearts into the love of God (the Father),
and into the patient waiting for Christ."— C".
^ivieoii.
THE ETERNAL STIR IT.
(Heb. ix. 14.)
L The Allusion of the Metaphor
CONTAINED IN THE TlTLE.
[1674] The Spirit is opposed to the condition
of irrational animals (ver. 13). The epithet
"eternal" is understood from vers. 12, 15, vii.
16 ; and is opposed to the ashes of a heifer. —
Betii^cL
n. Its Import.
[1675] The Spirit's work is the enduring
miracle. The human Saviour does the outward
and spiritual work ; the Eternal Spirit sets up
the inward and spiritual kingdom ; the man
heals the body, the Spirit renews the soul.
Which is the greater miracle — to heal a leper,
or to renew a soul '^. — to quiet the storm, or to
give peace to " a mind diseased .'' " — Dr. Joseph
Parker.
HI. Its Theological Bearing.
I It bespeaks the atoning efficacy of the
blood of Christ.
[1676] The Eternal Spirit in Hebrews ix. 14
is viewed as the Holy Spirit dwelling in Christ.
. . . Stress is laid on the spiritual power of
the offering of Christ, as an unblemished and
spotless Mediator, in its attribute of eternal. In
this epithet is, of course, then implied a contrast.
The words express a contrast with that which
originates and perishes in time, and they bring
the offering of Christ upon the cross into im-
mediate dependence upon the ministry of a
Spirit whose agency for this purpose at once
reaches back into the eternity of the past, and
carries its influence forward into the eternity of
the future. By the agency of this Eternal
Spirit, the atoning efficacy of the blood of Christ
is secured. — Moll [condensed).
2 It affords a hope full of immortality.
[1677] It is not enough to bring into promi-
nence the thoroughly moral character of the
sacrifice of Christ ; neither is it sufficient to lay
stress on the religious purity and acceptableness
in the sight of God of this act, with its moving
grounds and impelling causes. To the real
Christian this title of Eternal Spirit affords a
hope full of immortality. He is led to perceive,
from the eternity of His nature, that He is
capable of performing all the glorious operations
ascribed to Him in the Scriptures. — A. Serle.
3 It proclaims the world-embracing signifi-
cance of Christ's sacrifice.
[1678] In this case we should merely have a
sacrifice accomplished such as, in respect of
conscientiousness, love of truth, zealous faith,
and fidelity of compassion, all true Christians
are enabled by the influences of the Holy Spirit
to accomplish in a death by martyrdom. We
have to do with a movement and working of
the Spirit in Christ, which has its ground and
beginning not within the limits of time and
humanity, and thus with a sacrifice freely de-
termined upon in eternity, and accomplished
within the limits of time in perfect unity with
the Eternal Spirit, who works perpetually
through Christ's whole career of life and suffer-
ing— a sacrifice -which, for this reason, has a
world-embracing significance. — Moll [Lange).
IV. Personal Bearing.
I It points to the stability of Christian
work.
[1679] Unless I die, nothing will be done ;
you will continue as you are ; and everything
will continue in its old state, as it was before,
and is now — the Jews under the law of Moses,
I the heathen in their blindness, all under sin and
death ; and no man can be redeemed from them
1 or saved. No Scripture would then be fulfilled ;
j and I should have come in vain . . . But if I
! go and die . . . the Holy Ghost will come to
! you, and give you such courage that you shall
I convert the wiiolc world . , . and your doctrine
shall stand fast for ev^. . . . You shall help
I many, and make many blessed. — Luther
GOD THE HOLY SPIRIT.
i6So— i6gol
297
[the spirit.
2 It implies the settledness of the Christian
position.
[i6<So] Saith our Saviour, Fear it not, this is
the last dispensation; there is to be no altera-
tion when 1 am gone, the Comforter is to do all
the remaining work. There is not another to be
looked for, and 1 promise you Him ; nor shall
He depart from you, but always abide with you.
— J. Owen.
3 It announces the absolute security of the
believer.
[168 1] As He is the Eternal Spirit, so He is
the Church's eternal guest ; each saint's eternal
indweller, who shall abide with us for ever.
" The communion of the Holy Ghost (2 Cor.
xiii. 14) is that which no time, no change, can
affect ; which neither life nor death, things
present, or things to come, can dissolve." — H.
Bonar.
THE SPIRIT.
(i Cor. ii. 10.)
I. Thoughts suggested by the Title
ITSELF.
1 As to the spirituality of God.
[1682] Man has always wanted to see God,
and God has always refused to be seen. — Dr.
Joseph Parker.
2 As to the spirituality of man.
[1683] God is a spirit — so is man. Man has
a body, but he is a spirit. — Ibid.
3 As to the order of the revelation respect-
ing the Godhead.
[1684] The succession indicated by the words
Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, is a philosophi-
cal progress and culmination. — Ibid.
4 As to the law of order and progress
generally.
(i) Tlie whole movement of history, in all
that is vital and permanent, is a movement
from the outward and visible to the inward and
spiritual.
[1685] The order of creation is a movement
toward the spiritual. The succession runs thus :
(i) The elements, (2) animal life, (3) spiritual
life— man made in the image of God. — Ibid.
(2) The order in redeinption is a movement
toward spirituality.
[1686] (i) The Levitical ritual, (2) the Incar-
nation, (3) the Spirit — Jesus Christ. Christ did
not pass away as a figure complete in itself;
He ascended. Henceforth we know not Jesus
after the flesh. Mankind is now placed under
the tuition of a spiritual monitor. — Ibid.
(3) The order of written testimony moves
Preeisely in the same direction.
[1687] (i) The Old Testament, (2) the Sy-
noptic Gospels, (3) St. John's Gospel. You
have heard what the evangelists have had to
tell, and have seen the wonderful things which
they remember of their Master's ministry ; now
let me explain the deep meaning of the whole
— the Spirit. — Ibid.
(4) Precisely the same movement takes place
itt the consciousness and experience of every
pros^ressive life.
['1688] (i) The child, (2) the youth, (3) the
middle-aged man, (4) the hoary-headed thinker.
Whatever we may believe about the person-
ality of the Holy Ghost, we cannot get away
from the fact of spirituality in our own con-
sciousness. The spiritual world of the wise
man increases every day ; and, strangely enough,
in point of coincidence, that very increase
becomes to him what the Holy Ghost becomes
to the Church, viz., a Comforter, so much so
that a fool cannot trouble his peace. To this
spiritual consciousness Jesus Christ would add
a spiritual personality, and the spirit of sanctifi-
cation : " Receive ye the Holy Ghost."
In the onward march of history the soldier
gives place to the missionary (="the foolishness
of God") . . . The alphabet and the picture-
book will be found indispensable by the mis-
sionary. Then will come the narrative of Jesus
Christ's outward life — miracle, parable, and
startling word, then the prsetorium and the cup,
then the Holy Ghost. There is no escape from
this line : it is the line of spiritual training and
progress (and = first the natural, afterwards the
spiritual).— /(J/^/.
II. Import.
I As to His nature.
i [1689] He is called the Spirit, intimating His
nature as well as His oi¥ice. The Third Person,
of the Godhead is specially the Spirit, and a
Spirit ; the truest manifestation of the spiritual
character and being of that God who is a Spirit.
— H. Bonar.
[1690] What is the doctrine of the Holy
Spirit .^ It is the doctrine of the inter-working
of the Spirit of God upon the souls of men. I
have no philosophy al30ut it. All I say is this
— that God knows what is the secret way in
which mind reaches mind. I do not ; you do
not. I do not know why words on my tongue
wate up thoughts corresponding to those words
in you. I do not know why the soul of man,
like a complex instrument of wondrous scope, is
played upon by my words, so that there are
waked up in it notes along the whole scale of
being. I do not understand why these things
are so ; but unquestionably they are so. I do
not know how the mother pours her affection on
the child's heart ; but she does. Two stars
never shone into each other as two loving souls
shine into each other. I know it is so ; but I
GOD THE HOLY SPIRIT.
1690 — 1695]
[the spirit.
do not know why it is so. I do not know how
soul touches soul, how thou.i^ht touches thought,
or how feeling touches feeling ; but I know it
does. Now that which we see in the lower de-
partments of life— that which exists between you
and your friends, and me and my friends— that
1 take, and by my imagination I lift it up into
the Divine nature, and give it depth and scope
and universality ; and then I have some con-
ception of the doctrine of God's Spirit poured
upon the human soul. — H. W. Beecher.
[1691] This other Agent, Representative, and
Counsellor, now receives in immediate connec-
tion another name, derived from that influence
upon us which is primarily necessary — as further
in the Old and New Testaments we find many
names of the Holy Spirit designating Him ac-
cording to His energies and gifts in us. It is
the Spirit: this at once diverts from any such
expectation of a visible Person, as the 'AXXog
might have e>:cited, while it also points back to
all which from the Old Testament had been
recognized as the Cn'p^? nn or C^lpD nn-
2 As to His office.
[1692] The Lord Jesus Christ was here long
enough to remove all doubt as to His personal
identity, yet He withdrew Himself immediately
He had secured for His personality an unques-
tioned place in human history. Nothing more
was to be gained by His visible continuance on
earth ; His bodily mission had been wholly ful-
filled, and therefore He vanished out of the
sight of men. But what of the future of His
work? Then, according to Christian teaching,
was to come manifestation without visibility ;
instead of bodily presence, there was to be a
new experience of life, spirituality, insight, sen-
sibility, and sympathy almost infallible in holy
instinct. In one word, the Holy Man was to
be followed by the Holy Ghost.
As the disciples were to be sent abroad into
all coasts, to be scattered all over the earth to
preach the gospel, and not to stay together still,
in one place, Christ's corporeal presence would
have stood them in small stead. He could have
been resident but in one place, to have comforted
some one of them. . . . The Spirit, that was
to succeed, was much more fit for men dispersed.
He could be, and was, present with them all,
and with every one by himself, as filling the
compass of the whole world. — Bp. Andrewes.
III. Practical Bearing.
I The need of spiritual enlightenment.
[1693] I Cor. ii. 14. The natural man, the
man that hath not the Spirit, cannot discern
the things of God, for they are spiritually dis-
cerned.
He that shall discourse Euclid's Elements to
a swine, or preach (as Venerable Bede's story
reports him) to a rock, or talk metaphysics to a
boar, will as much prevail upon his assembly
as St. Peter and St. Paul could do upon uncir-
cumcised hearts and ears, upon the indisposed
Greeks and prejudiced Jews. An ox will relish
the tender flesh of kids with as much gust and
appetite as an unspiritual and unsanctified man
will do the discourses of angels, or of an apostle,
if he should come to preach the secrets of the
gospel. And we find it true by a sad experience.
How many times doth God speak to us by His
servants the prophets, by His Son, by His
apostles, by sermons, by spiritual books, by
thousands of homilies ; and we sit as uncon-
cerned as the pillars of a church, and hear the
sermons as the Athenians did a story, or as we
read a gazette ? . . . and the reason of this is
a sad condemnation to such persons ; they have
not yet entertained the Spirit of God, they are
in darkness. They were washed in water, but
never baptized with the Spirit. — Bp. Jeremy
Taylor.
2 Assurance of needed spiritual enlighten-
ment.
[1694] Remember that the words (of the
Bible) are Spirit, and can only be profitably
received by the teaching of the Spirit. Thus
reading, and thus praying, you have a scriptural
warrant to expect that He who wrote the Bible
will tell you words in secret which shall not
only be life to your own soul, but which, when
you proclaim them as you have opportunity to
others, shall be to the glory of God and the
good of men.— Broxvnloiv North.
[1695] In the Old Testament the law was in
the foreground, the Holy Spirit less prominent ;
in the New Testament the Holy Spirit is promi-
nent, the law in the background. Jesus was
anointed with the Spirit without measure ; we
receive a measure out "of His fulness" (John i.
16 ; iii. 34). Jesus by His unction Ijecame
Messiah or Christ (Isa. Ixi. i). We receive a
share of this " unction," whereby " we know all
things" needful for salvation (r John ii. 20).
The full outpouring of the Holy Spirit on Israel
and on the nations is yet future (Isa. xliv. 3 ;
xxxvi. 25-27 ; Zech. xii. 10 ; Joel ii. 28). Of
which the earnest was given on Pentecost (Acts
ii. 16-21). The law of the Lord is love, being
written on the heart instead of on stone as the
Decalogue (Jer. xxxi. t,-^, 34 ; Heb. viii. 8, 12 ;
X. 16, 17 ; 2 Cor. iii. 3). — luiusset.
DIVISION B.
NAMES EXPRESSIVE OF HIS DIVINE
RELATIONS.
[i] IN REGARD TO GOD THE FATHER.
Paj;^es 300 to 304.
ALPHABETICAL TABLE OF TOPICS.
5
BREATH OF THE ALMIGHTY.
6
POWER OF THE HIGHEST.
7
SEVEN SPIRITS OF GOD.
8
SPIRIT OF GOD.
9
SPIRIT OF THE FATHER.
10
SPIRIT OF THE LORD.
SPIRIT OF THE LORD GOD.
299
300
DIVISION B.
NAMES EXPRESSIVE OF HIS DIVINE RELATIONS.
[i] IN REGARD TO GOD THE FATHER.
BREATH OF THE ALMIGHTY.
(Job xxxiii. 4.)
I. Origin of the Allusion contained
IN Title itself.
[1696] Ghost is Spirit, Wind, Breath, &c.
Herein is an allusion to the breath of man ; for
as the vital breath of man has a continual
emanation from him, and yet is never utterly
separated from his person, so the Spirit of the
Father and the Son proceedeth from them by a
continual Divine emanation, still abiding one
with them. Hence our Saviour signified the
communication of the Spirit to His disciples,
by breathing on them.
II. Aspects.
I In reference to-creation.
[1697] "And the Lord God formed man of
the dust of the ground, and breathed into His
nostrils the breath of life, and man became a
living soul." God " breathed tlie breath of life"
— a vital immortal spirit ; something of Him-
self; something immediately of His own; not
of any pre-created matter. — John Owen.
[1698] The breath of God became the soul
of man ; the soul therefore is nothing but the
breath of Qod.—Ziegler.
[1699] The life of the animal is only the indi-
vidualizing of the breath of the Divine Spirit
already existing in matter. The spirit of man,
on the contrary, is an inspiration directly coming
forth from God . . . originated by the Spirit of
(iod, and endowed with life from the inbreathed
breath of the Almighty. — Delitzsch.
[1700] Man was made last because he was
worthiest. The soul was inspired last, because
yet more noble. No air, no earth, no water
was here used to give help to this work ; Thou,
that breathedst upon man and gavest him the
Holy Spirit, didst also breathe upon the body
and gavest it a living spirit ; we are beholden
to nothing but Thee for our scul. Our flesh is
from flesh, our spirit is from the Ood of spirits.
— np. Hall.
[1701] The Spirit of God and the Breath of
God are the same ; only one expression is
proper, the other metaphorical. The creation
of body and soul are both ascribed to Him.
" The Spirit of God hath made me, and the
Breath of the Almighty hath given me life." —
John Owen.
[1702] While man is dust taken from dust,
he is not like what preceded — a mere product
of the earth, impregnated with life by the Spirit
of God brooding over it. . . . The carrying out
of this supreme work is by inspiration of the
Divine Breath. — Dorner.
[1703] Analogous to the air or breath in the
annual life is the Almighty Spirit by which all
spiritual beings exist. — A. Serle.
2 In reference to regeneration.
[1704] Three points of comparison between
the wind and the Spirit in the work of regenera-
tion : (i) Freedom and independence ; (2) the
irresistible effect ; (3) the incomprehensibility,
both as to origin and termination. — P. Schaff.
III. Import.
1 As to the act.
[1705] Inspiration = inbreathing ; and is so
called from the nature and name of the Holy
Ghost. The name by which He is revealed to
us signifies breath ; and therefore when our
Saviour gave Him to His disciples He "breathed
upon them." — JoJin Oweti.
[1706] "Spirit" means breath; and then,
since breath is the concomitant and proof of
life, it means emphatically life. The Psalmist
says to God, " When Thou takest away their
breath they die, but when Thou sendest forth
Thv Spirit they are made alive" (Psa. civ. 29).
— T. Griffith.
2 As to its mode of operation.
[1707] This expression also denotes the gentle-
ness and facility of His operations on their
minds, whereby He gently and softly breathed
into them, as it were, the knowledge of holy
things. — Johti Owen.
IV, Practical Bearing.
[1708] He is invoked in prayer to revive
Israel, long dead Spiritually and politically :
GOD THE HOLY SPIRIT.
1708 — 1717]
30]
[power of the highest.
"Come, O Life-Breath, and breathe upon these
slain, that they may live." — Faiisset.
[1709] It agrees with the nature of God, who
is goodness, that, as all the fountains of the
great deep were broken up, and the windows of
heaven were opened, and so came the flood
over all, so there should be diluvinni Spiritiis,
a flowing out of the Holy Ghost upon all, as He
promises, " I will pour it out upon all." For
this Spirit breathes where it pleases Him ; and
though a natural wind cannot flow east and
west, north and south, together, this Spirit
breathes upon the most contrary dispositions
. . . that they become partakers of the Divine
nature, and be the same spirit with the Lord. —
Donne.
V. Thoughts suggested.
1 Inspiration viewed in regard to its simplest
forms.
[1710] It must never be forgotten that man
himself is an inspiration, seeing that God
" breathed into him the breath of life," and in
the Bible man is thus described : " There is
a spirit in man, and the inspiration of the
Almighty giveth him understanding." The
Bible, therefore, is addressed to a being who
has himself received some degree of the inspi-
ration of which the Book is probably the most
distinct and copious expression. — Dr. Joseph
Parker.
[171 1] The man born with what we call
"genius," which will mean, born with better
and larger understanding than others ; the man
in whom " the inspiration of the Almighty,"
given to all men, has a higher potentiality . . .
he, and properly he only, is the perpetual priest
of men ; ordained to the office by God Himself,
whether men can be so lucky as to get him
ordained to it or not. — Thos. Carlyle.
2 Inspiration viewed in regard to the feeble-
ness of its human agents.
[1712] The musician is limited by his instru-
ment. Though he may have ravished a world
by his strains, he could be almost angry with
the instrument which has failed to express the
still finer tones which madden him with in-
describable joy. In the matter of inspiration
the Almighty proposed to dwell in houses of
clay : what wonder if they were unequal to
such a Presence. — Dr. Joseph Parker.
3 Inspiration viewed in regard to the idio-
syncrasy of its human agents.
[1713] Persons under inspirations were not
like so many drawers, wherein the Holy Ghost
put such and such things, which they then took
out as something ready-made, and laid before
the world ; so that their recipiency with refer-
ence to the Spirit inspiring them was like that
of a letter-box. — Ackermann {Jr-o)n Hare).
[1714] Water springingup through the earth's
strata tastes of the various ingredients of the
soil through which it has passed — chalybeate,
saline, &c., hence its peculiar and medicinal
properties, as at Bath, Buxton, and elsewhere.
So the Holy Spirit, although using men as His
agents, " does not destroy the idiosyncrasies of
each." Their several prophecies taste, so to
speak, of the mental and other peculiarities by
which one man is distinguished from another.
The hopefulness of Isaiah, the despondency of
Jeremiah, and the sternness of Ezekiel, formed
the natural substratum through which the Holy
Spirit flowed. Man, as he is, is the organ upon
which the Holy Spirit discourses sweet music.
" Holy men spake, as they were moved by the
Holy Ghost."— i^. B. Procter.
4 Inspiration viewed in regard to its quicken-
ing influence on the memory.
[17 1 5] There is an inspiration of memory.
Readers of the Gospels must have been surprised
at the minuteness of recollection which is shown
in their pages. Conversations are reported ;
little turns of dialogue which seem to be merely
artistic are not omitted ; records of occasions
on which the disciples were actually not present,
and of which they could only have heard from
the lips of the Lord Himself, are presented with
much particularity and vividness : how, then,
was this done, and especially done by those
who certainly were not conspicuous for the kind
of learning which is needful for making literary
statements.'' The explanation of this artless art,
and this tenacious memory, is in the promise of
our Lord, " He shall bring all things to your
remembrance, whatsoever 1 havesaidunloyou :"
you shall live it all over again, and you shall be
so taught how to gather up the fragments that
nothing be lost. — Dr. Joseph Parker,
POWER OF THE HIGHEST.
(Luke i. 35.)
I. Scripture Basis and Origin.
[17 16] The Holy Ghost is the Power of the
Highest. The parallel between these two ex-
pressions exacts that the one should be inter-
preted by the other ; and their mutual light
teaches that the Holy Spirit has verily a life-
producing power, but by no means that He is
only power, without personality.
The conception of the Son of God, by the
Holy Spirit, is the beginning of the intimate
union between the Word made flesh and the
Spirit not of measure. The same Spirit who
formed the body of Christ forms also the
mystical body of Christ the Church. — J. J.
Van Oosterzee.
II. Practical Bearing.
[17 17] The Virgin Mary was told that the
Holy Ghost, who at the first creation " moved
302
I7I7-
GOD THE HOLY SPIRIT.
'723]
[seven spirits of god.
upon the face of the waters," and reduced the
chaotic mass to order and beauty, should, by
His almighty power, form in her that holy
Being who should, in His human as well as
His Divine nature, be the Son of God. God is
never at a loss : " with Him nothing is im-
possible."— C. Simeon.
[1718] The Holy Ghost denotes here the
Divine Power, the life-giving breath which calls
into developed existence the germ of a human
personality slumbering in Mary's womb. Thus
in this birth the miracle of the first creation
is repeated on a scale of greater power. Two
elements concurred in the formation of man : a
body taken from the ground, and the Divine
breath. With these two elements correspond
here the germ derived from the womb of Mary,
and the Holy Ghost who fertilizes it. — Godet.
[1719] The New Testament writers with most
startling abruptness invert the ancient method,
so that instead of man being made by God,
God Himself becomes man — a virgin is found
to be with child of the Holy Ghost— and for
"thus saith the Lord" we have "thus is the
Lord ! . . . A miraculous birth must not be fol-
lowed by a commonplace life ... In the work
of one who has been begotten by the Holy
Ghost we must never meet with almost a
miracle, we must have omnipotence. . . . He
must be more than powerful — He must be
Power : strength must be swallowed up in Al-
mightiness. The concurrent evidence of the
four evangelists is this : " The people were as-
tonished, and said, Whence hath this man this
wisdom and these mighty words?" "Whence
hath this man all these things .>*" "No man
can do those miracles that Thou doest, except
God be with him," &c. The secret of this
power can be best accounted for by the ministry
of the Holy Ghost.— Z>r. Joseph Parker.
SEVEN SPIRITS OF GOD,
(Rev. iii. 1.)
L Import.
I It indicates the perfection of the Spirit's
operations.
[1720] There is no doubt that by the seven
Spirits we are to understand not indeed the
sevenfold operations of the Holy Ghost, but
the Holy Ghost sevenfold in His operations.
Neither need there be any difficulty in recon-
ciling this interpretation with the doctrine of
His Personality. It is only that He is regarded
here not so much in His personal unity as in
His manifold energies; for "there are diver-
sities of gifts, but the same Spirit " (i Cor. xii. 4).
The manifold gifts, operations, energies of the
Holy Ghost are here represented under the
number seven, being as it is the number of
completeness in the Church. We have antici-
pations of this in the Old Testament. When
the prophet Isaiah would describe how the
Spirit should be given not by measure to Him
whose name is the Branch, the enumeration of
the gifts is sevenfold (xi. 2) ; and the seven eyes
which rest upon the stone which the Lord had
laid can mean nothing but this (Zech. iii. 9;. —
Abp. Trench.
[1721] "The seven Spirits of God" — the fulness
of the Spirit. The number seven denotes both
variety and perfection : and Christ has, both
for His own personal endowment and for the
benefit of His people, the Holy Spirit in all His
diversified operations. It was said, " The Spirit
of the Lord shall rest upon Him, the Spirit oi
wisdom and understanding, the Spirit of counsel
and of might, the Spirit of knowledge and the
fear of the Lord, and shall make Him of quick
understanding in the fear of the Lord." So en-
dowed. He was able to discern every motion of
men's hearts : not the slightest " imagination of
a thought" could escape His notice. "Every
spirit could be weighed by Him" in a perfect
balance ; and His "judgment could not but be
according to truth." Hence, "All things are
naked and opened unto the eyes of Him with
whom we have to do." — C. Simeon.
[1722] The seven Spirits before the throne are
the Holy Spirit of God considered as the perfect
fountain of every perfect gift and dispensation.
. . . John prays for grace and peace from the
seven Spirits that are before the throne, in the
Holy Ghost, whose operations are perfect and
complete. — J. Owen.
II. Interpretation.
[1723] Jehovah acknowledges Him (Christ),
and consecrates and equips Him for His great
work with the seven Spirits. The Spirit of
Jehovah is the Divine Spirit, as the communi-
cative vehicle of the whole creative fulness of
Divine powers. Then follow the six Spirits, in
three pairs, of which the first relates to the
intellectual life, the second to the practical life,
and the third to the direct relation to God.
For wisdom is the power of discerning the
nature of things through the appearance, and
understanding the power of discerning the dif-
ferences of things in their appearance. . . .
Counsel is the gift of forming right conclusions,
and might the ability to carry them out with
energy. The knowledge of the Lord is know-
ledge founded upon tlie fellowship of love ;
and the fear of the Lord (Jehovah), fear ab-
sorbed in reverence. There are seven Spirits,
which are enumerated in order from the highest
downwards ; since the Spirit of the fear of the
Lord is the basis of the whole (Prov. i. 7), and
the Spirit of the Lord is the heart of all. In
these seven powers the Holy Spirit descended
upon the second David for a permanent pos-
session. The seven Spirits are His seven eyes
(Rev. v. 6). — Delitssch.*-
GOD THE HOLY SPIRIT.
1724— 1731]
[spirit of the lord god.
[1724] The seven gifts of the Spirits (Prayer-
Book version) may be thus summed up : —
(i) Wisdom, to choose the one thing needful.
(2) Uiiderstanding, to know how to attain it.
(3) Counsel, the habit of seeking guidance of
God.
(4) Strength, to follow where He shall lead
us.
(5) Knowledge, that we may learn to know
God.
(6) Godliness, that, knowing Him, we may
grow like Him.
(7) Holy Fear, meaning reverence and ado-
ration.— Canofi Norris.
[1725] " Come, Holy Ghost, our souls inspire,
And lighten with celestial fire ;
Thou the anointing Spirit art,
Who dost Thy sevenfold gifts impart."
Ordiiiation Hymn, Church of England.
SPIRIT OF GOD.
(Gen. i. 2.)
I. Aspects.
1 In regard to natural gifts and to technical
skill.
[1726] Exod. xxxi. 2-5. The theologian is
entitled to claim astronomy, geology, botany,
agriculture, and chemistry, as sections of theo-
logy. If he trifle with this claim he will mistake
brethren and friends for rivals and enemies.
*' I have called Bezaleel, and I have filled him
with the Spirit of God, in wisdom, and in under-
standing, and in knowledge, and in all manner
of workmanship, to devise cunning works, to
work in gold, and in silver, and in brass, and in
cutting of stones, to set them, and in carving of
timber, to work in all manner of workmanship."
Bezaleel was an inspired theologian. . . . The
ministration of the Spirit is various : by it
Moses was made wise, Bezaleel was made skil-
ful, and Samson was made strong. "All these
worketh that one and selfsame Spirit, dividing to
every man severally as He will" (l Cor. xii.
11). — Dr. Joseph Parker.
2 In regard to the energies of the religious
life.
[1727] Every one knows the testimony of
Scripture to the exaltation of men's natural gifts
through the inrush of the Spirit of God. As in
Moses, of the gift of administrative wisdom
when " the Lord came down and talked with
him, and put His Spirit upon him, that he
might bear the burden of ruling his people."
And in. Paul, of the gift of apostolic diligence
and success, when he could testify, " I will not
dare to speak of anything but what Christ hath
wrought by me, through the power of the Spirit
of God" (Rom. XV. 19).— 7^. Griffith.
3 In regard to the inspiration of the Bible.
[1728] The Bible is a page torn out of the
great volume of human life ; only, torn by the
hand of God, and annotated by His Spirit. —
Dr. Joseph Parker.
SPIRIT OF THE FATHER.
(Matt. X. 20.)
I. Christological Aspect.
[1729] The expression is used by the Saviour
when commissioning His apostles, and its exact
form is worthy of notice. " For it is not ye that
speak, but the Spirit of your Father which
speaketh in you " (Matt. x. 20). The Saviour
often says, "My Father" (Matt. x. 32, 33 ; xi. 27 ;
xii. 50, &c.) He also says, "My Father and
your Father " (John. xx. 17). But He never puts
Himself on an equality with His disciples, as to
say "Our Father." While He realized that His
own Sonship was the mould of His disciples'
sonship. He could not lay aside the conscious-
ness of His very peculiar and peculiarly unique
filial relationship. He was His Father's "own
Son" (Rom. viii. 32), and His "only begotten
Son" (John. iii. 16). — James Morrison.
II. Practical Bearing.
[1730] There are moments in the Christian's
experience when he feels filled and flooded from
above. — Ibid.
10 and 11
SPIRIT OF THE LORD GOD.
(Judges xi. 29.)
I. Interpretation and Import.
I Generally.
[1731] The Spirit of God is the spiritual
principle of life in the world of nature and man ;
and in man it is the principle both of the natural
life which we receive through birth, and also of
the spiritual life which we receive through regen-
eration. In this sense the expressions " Spirit
of God " (Elohim) and " Spirit of the Lord "
(Jehovah) are interchanged throughout the
books of the Old Testament ; the former de-
noting the Divine Spirit generally in its super-
natural causality and'power, the latter the same
Spirit in its operations upon human life and
history in the working out of the plan of salva-
tion. In its peculiar operations the Spirit of
Jehovah manifests itself as a spirit of wisdom
and understanding, of counsel and might, of
knowledge and of the fear of the Lord (Isa. vi. 2).
The communication of this Spirit under the Old
Testament was generally made in the form of
extraordinary and supernatural influence upon
the human spirit. The expression used to
304
I73I
GOD THE HOLY SPIRIT.
1738]
[spirit of the lord god.
denote this is usually " The Spirit of the Lord
(Jehovah) came upon him." (See Judi;es xi. 29 ;
1 Sam. xi.K. 20, 23 ; 2 Chron. xx. 14 ; Numb. xxiv.
2.) The recipients and bearers of this Spirit
were thereby endowed with the power to perform
miraculous deeds, . . . ability to prophesy, . . .
also with power to work miracles or to accom-
plish deeds which surpassed the courage and
strength of the natural man. — Keil.
2 As to physical and mental energies.
[1732] The phrase "the Spirit of the Lord
coming on Jephthah," is explained in the Tal-
mud as " Force of mind for great undertakings,
and bodily strength," being granted him : a sense
which has a deep and wise meaning. — Cunning-
ham Geikie.
3 As to moral and spiritual energies.
(i) The work of the Spirit compared to an
outp07ired flood.
[1733] The Spirit of the Lord is, in Gideon,
the gift of martial valour, when " the Spirit of
the Lord came upon him, and God saved Israel
by his hand" (Judges vi. 34-36) ; in Samson,
the gift of bodily strength, when " the Spirit of
the Lord " began to stir in him, and " came so
mightily upon him that he rent the lion as he
would have rent a kid" (Judges xiii. 25; xiv. 6) ;
in Micah, the exaltation of the gift of moral
boldness, when he could declare, " I am full of
power by the Spirit of the Lord, and of judg-
ment and of might, to make clear to Jacob his
transgression and to Israel his sin" (Micah iii.
8).— Z. Griffith.
[1734] The Comforter,as the Spirit of the Lord
is compared to the inanimate and natural crea-
tion, to water and to wind, which are of so subtle
a nature, of so penetrating a virtue, and of so
extended a range. And most exactly have these
figures been fulfilled. His operation has been
calm, equable, gradual, far-spreading, overtak-
ing, intimate, irresistible. What is so awfully
silent, so mighty, so inevitable, so encompass-
ing as a flood of water 1 Fire alarms from the
first : we see it, and we scent it ; there is crash-
ing and downfall, smoke and flame ; it makes
an inroad here and there ; it is uncertain and
wayward. But a flood is the reverse of all this.
It gives no tokens of its coming ; it lets men
sleep through the night, and they wake and find
themselves hopelessly besieged ; prompt, secret,
successful — and equable ; it preserves one level ;
it is everywhere ; there is no refuge. And it
makes way to the foundations ; towers and
palaces rear themselves as usual ; they have
lost nothing of their perfection, and give no
sign of danger, till at length suddenly they
totter and fall. And here and there it is the
same, as if by some secret understanding ; for
by one and the same agency the mighty move-
ment goes on here and there and everywhere,
and all things seem to act in concert, and to
conspire together for their own ruin. And in
the end they are utterly removed, and perish
from off the face of the earth.— y. //. Nctuman.
(2) The working of the Spirit compared to an
invisible wind.
[1735] Such was the power of the Spirit in the
beginning, when He vouchsafed to descend as
an invisible wind, as an outpoured flood. Thus
He changed the whole face of the world. For
a while men went on as usual, and dreamed not
what was coming ; and when they were roused
from their fast sleep, the work was done ; it was
too late for aught else but impotent anger and
a hopeless struggle. The Kingdom was taken
away from them and given to another people.
The ark of God moved upon the face of the
waters. It was borne aloft by the power, greater
than human, which had overspread the earth,
and it triumphed " not by might, nor by power,
but by my Spirit, saith the Lord of Hosts."—
Ibid.
[1736] The only true test of the presence of
the Holy Spirit is its sanctifying influence on
our hearts and lives. It is evidenced only by
its effects. So much indeed would appear to
be conveyed to us even by the name by which
the Almighty Comforter has been pleased to
reveal Himself to us in the pages of His word.
The Spirit, Tzviv^a — the imperceptible, yet vital
breath, which is, and there is life and will and
motion ; which departs, and all is cold and
senseless and still ; — the impalpable and view-
less, but powerful and beneficent wind; now
rending the rocks and laying low the forests ;
now purifying the stagnant air or opening the
blossoms of spring ; now wafting the seeds each
to its appointed place. And thus it was said by
our blessed Lord Himself: "The wind bloweth
where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound
thereof,' but canst not tell whence it cometh and
whither it goeth ; so is every one that is born
of the .Spirit." As the vital principle of our
material frame — which science may search for
but cannot detect, and when it has dissected
the members, and analyzed the fluids, and un-
tied the muscles and ganglions, and followed
line by line the delicate tracery of the nerves, is
forced to confess that it has had to do but with
the instruments and mechanism of the mysterious
power within — may yet be recognized by a
child's intellect, in the fire of the eye, the force
of the arm, and the immediate certainty with
which action follows on the determination of
the will ; so the presence of the Holy Spirit of
God in the hearts of His people, though secret
itself— the presence of the Invisible— is dis-
cernible by its effects. — Bp. Jackson.
11. Christological Aspect.
[1737] "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me"
(Luke iv. iS ; Isa. Ixi. I). Jesus, in reading these
words, could not but apply them to His recent
baptism. —Godct.
[1738] Though Christ be the Head, yet is
the Holy Ghost the heart of the Church, Irom
whence the vital spirits of grace and holiness
are issued out unto the quickening of the body
mystical. — Heylin.
DIVISION B
[Continued).
NAMES EXPRESSIVE OF HIS DIVINE
RELATIONS.
[2] IN REGARD TO GOD THE SON.
Pages 306 /o 311.
ALPHABETICAL TABLE OF TOPICS.
12
SPIRIT OF CHrasT.
SPIRIT OF GOD (HOLY).
SPIRIT OF PROMISE (HOLY).
15
SPIRIT OF THE SON.
16
VOICE OF THE LORD
305
3o6
DIVISION B
{Conlinited).
NAMES EXPRESSIVE OF HIS DIVINE RELATIONS.
[2] IN REGARD TO GOD THE SON.
12
SPIRIT OF CHRIST.
(Rom. viii. 9; i Pet. i. ll.)
I. Theological Import.
[1739] The Spirit with which Christ was
anointed at His baptism, and which was there-
fore His Spirit during His official life, was
already, before He received it, active in the
prophets. This Spirit is none else than the
Eternal Spirit of God, in which the decree
relating to the Messianic salvation was formed
from eternity, and which could therefore testify
in the prophets, regarding this decree, in the
same way as it afterwards qualified the Messiah
Himself for its execution. — Weiss,
II. Christological Interpretation.
[1710] "The Spirit of Christ" used inter-
changeably with " the Spirit of God," or the
" Holy Spirit " (Rom. viii. 9 ; Phil. i. 19 ; i Pet.
i. 11), denotes the self-existent Divine Spirit.
Therefore the Spirit of Christ is the Spirit that
is the common possession of God and Christ,
not the Spirit sent by God and Christ to men,
proceeding from both in time. ... If God
sends tl'.e Spirit of His Son, He cannot be called
the Spirit of the Son because the Son sends
Him into the heart. But if He is called the
Spirit of the Son because He is the possession
of the Son, so much the more must He be called
the Spirit of God because He is God's posses-
sion ; for this reason, that the Son possesses only
what the Father does. Were He merely called
God's Spirit because God sends Him, it would
be said indeed " God sent forth His Spirit," but
not "the Spirit of His Son.'' . . . Because God
and Christ possess Him they can impart Him
to men ; or, in dogmatic terminology, the tem-
poral sending of the Spirit into believers' hearts
by the Father and the Son is based upon His
eternal procession from both. Thus Rom. viii.
9 contains, without doubt, a dic/iiin p7-ohaiis for
the western doctrine of the procession of the
Holv Spirit from the Father and the Son. —
Phi'lippi.
[1741] "The Spirit of Christ " is the Spirit
which Christ imparts, or the Spirit which makes
us like to Christ. ... It is remarkable that in
this short paragraph (Rom. viii. 9-1 1) "Spirit
of Christ," "Christ," and "the Spirit of Him
who raised up Jesus," z.,?., the Spirit of God
the Father, should be exchanged for each other,
and plainly stand for one and the same thing.
Is this not evidence that the apostle saw and
felt no inconsistency in speaking of Christ, and
of the Spirit of God or of Christ, as in some
respects distinct, and yet in others as constitu-
ting a unity of nature.^ The simple facts that
Christ and the Spirit are Divine, are one in nature
with God, and yet in some respect distinct from
the Father, seem to be the basis of the apostle's
language here and elsewhere ; while all specu-
lation on the subject, all attempts to make out
nice distinctions or metaphysical definitions,
are entirely neglected. Whenever the time
shall come that Christians are content with
simple facts relative to this great subject, much
that has proved to be injurious to the prosperity
of religion will be done away. — Moses Stuart.
III. Practical Bearing.
[1742] Rom. viii. 9. It is remarkable that
"the Spirit of Christ' is here used as the
equivalent for "the Spirit of God" in the pre-
ceding proposition. The Spirit of Jesus is that
of God Himself, whom He has converted by
appropriating Him perfectly here below into
His personal life, so that He can communicate
Him to His own. It is in this form that the
Holy Spirit henceforth acts in the Church.
Where this vital bond does not exist between a
soul and Christ, it remains a stranger to Him
and His salvation.
. . . The Holy Spirit, by whom Christ, cruci-
fied and risen, reproduces Himself in the believer.
—Cociet.
[1743] Christ's Spirit is the true Spirit ; men
out of Him are spiritless, however "full of the
Spirit" such unchristian people may fancy them-
selves.— Heiibiier.
[1744] Spirit of God, Spirit of Christ, illus-
trious testimony of the Holy Trinity.
He who has the Spirit, has Christ : and he
who has Christ, has God. — Beiigel.
[1745] As Christ fulfilled the will and work of
the Father upon earth,^o does the Holy Spirit
administer the will and work of Christ in the
GOD THE HOLY SPIRIT.
f74S— 1751]
[spirit of god (holy).
human soul. "What Christ effected in the world
of history, the Spirit inwardly appropriates and
brings into the inner world of the human soul.
—C. E. Luthardt.
[1746] The Scriptures make the want of the
Spirit a sign that a man is no true and sincere
Christian : " If a man have not the Spirit of
Christ, he is none of His ; " and, on the
contrary, makes our having the Spirit of
God a mark of a child of God : "As many
as are led by the Spirit of God are the sons
of God." But our Saviour hath assured us
that men may have the miraculous gifts of the
Spirit of God, may prophesy in Christ's name,
and cast out devils in His name, and in His
name do many wonderful works, and yet be
workers of iniquity, and shut out of the kingdom
of God. And, on the other hand, men may
not have these miraculous gifts, and yet be the
children of God. — Abp. Tillotson.
13
SPIRIT OF GOD {HOLY).
(Eph. iv. 30.)
I. Scripture Basis.
[1747] David, in the 68th Psalm, predicting,
according to St. Paul's interpretation of the
passage, these miraculous gifts of the Spirit,
speaks of them as subsequent to the Messiah's
ascension : " Thou hast ascended up on high,
thou hast led captivity captive, thou hast
received giits for men." What these gifts
should be is declared in the concluding verse —
*' that the Lord God may dwell among them."
This dwelling of God must signily something
more than God's residence in the Jewish sanc-
tuary ; for whatever might be in the mind of
the prophet, the prophetic spirit looked for-
ward to later times. It cannot signify the Son's
dwelling among men, when He came to preach
the doctrine of life and to pay the forfeit of
their crimes, because it is described as sub-
sequent to His ascension. It can signify,
therefore, no other dwelling of God than the
residence of the Holy Spirit in the Christian
Church. You have here an instance of a name
proper to the Deity applied to the Holy Spirit,
provided we are right in the application of this
last clause to Him. — Bp. Horsley.
II. Import.
[1748] "The Holy Spirit of God" (Eph. iv. 30).
This full designation shows the importance of
the matter (viz., grieving the Holy Spirit), and
compels us to recognize the objective reality
and personality of the Holy Ghost. . , . The
Holy Ghost, like God, is not apathetic, but
capable of being affected. He feels what occurs
in us, as a loving Friend, who does not Himself
change, but will help us, and change us, so long
as we grant that He be not rejected. — Lange.
III. Practical Bearing.
[1749] It may be said to a prodigal son.
Grieve not your father, lest he cut you off; or.
Grieve not your mother, lest you break her heart.
Which of the twain is the stronger appeal ? —
Jeremy Taylor.
[1750] "Grieve not the Holy Spirit of God."
In this expression the apostle seems to refer to
those who had " grieved the Lord in the wilder-
ness," and had therefore been excluded from
the promised land, and to those who " by
rebellmg against God had provoked His Holy
Spirit, so that He was turned to be their enemy."
Yet at the same time He informs them that
the Holy Spirit had sealed them, as the Lord's
property, unto the day of redemption, when He
would claim them as His own. . . . That we
may grieve the Holy Spirit, and that believers
are sealed by Him unto the day of redemption,
is equally certain : nor is there any great diffi-
culty in reconciling the two. Man never loses
his proneness to fall, notwithstanding God's
counsel shall ultimately stand ; and therefore
he needs at all times the caution in the text. —
C. Si/ueon.
IV. Thoughts suggested.
I The influences of the Holy Spirit are
an earnest of final salvation.
[1751] The proposition implied ... is this,
that the ordinary influences of the Holy Spirit
on the heart of every true believer, are to every
such person an earnest of his final salvation.
These influences are an immediate action of
the Holy Spirit of God upon the mind of man,
by which he is brought to will and enabled to
do according to God's pleasure ; to master the
importunity of appetite ; to curb the impetuosity
of passion ; to resist the temptations of the
world ; to baffle the wiles of the devil ; to
deny himself; to take up his cross, and follow
his crucified Lord through the strait and
thorny paths of virtue to the peaceful seats of
endless bliss and glory. It is the doctrine
of the Scriptures, that a strength conveyed
from God into the Christian's mind renders
his sufficient for these great performances.
And the text, assuming the doctrine as a con-
fessed and certain truth, teaches him to con-
clude that God's enabling to do what with-
out God's assistance could not be done, is a
certain argument of God's merciful design to
promote him to that happiness hereafter for
which the habits of a religious temper here are
the natural preparative. ... It was wisely said
by the philosophers of old, that nature does
nothing in vain. ... It is, however, only a
consequence from a higher and more general
principle, "that God never acts in vain." This
principle obtains universally in the moral no
less than in the material world. No act of the
io8
1751—1757]
GOD THE HOLY SPIRIT.
[spirit of promise (holy).
Deity can be without end : and when God
enables the behever to become that character
which shall be the object of His mercy in a
future Jite, the only end to which this action
can be directed is, to bring the person on whom
it is performed to that state of future happiness
in which this character fits him to be placed.
So that if the principle be true, that without a
constant action of God's Spirit on the mind of
man no man can persevere in a life of virtue
and religion, the Christian who finds himself
empowered to lead this life cannot err in his
conclusion, that God's power is at present
exerted upon himself in his own person for his
final preservation. — Bp. Horsley.
2 Evidences of being a subject of the sancti-
fying influence of the Spirit are tangible
and visible.
[1752] But here it may be asked by what
sensible evidence any private Christian may
be assured that he is himself a sharer in these
sanctifying influences of the Holy Spirit. . . .
It may be said of the Holy Spirit what Christ
has said of other spirits, " by His fruits ye
shall know Him." "The fruit of the Spirit is
love : " love of God ; love of man, as created in
the image of God ; a more especial love of
Christians, as brethren and members of Christ.
"Joy :" a mind untroubled and serene amidst
all the discouragements and vexations of the
world. . . . "Peace:" a disposition and en-
deavour to live peaceably with all men. . . ,
" Longsuffering :" a patient endurance of the
evil qualities and evil practices of men, ... a
temper more inclined to bear than to retaliate,
• . . esteeming injury and reproach a lighter
evil than the spirit of contention and revenge.
" Gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, tem-
perance." These are the fruits by which the
Spirit of God is known.
If a man's conscience is void of offence to-
ward God and toward man ; if he makes
it the business of this life to prepare for his
future existence ; if he uses the present world
without abusing it ; if he is patient in affliction,
not elated in prosperity, liberal in wealth,
honest in poverty, fervent in devotion, tem-
perate in pleasure ; if he does not rate the
present world above its real worth, and sets his
chief affection on eternity— this is the undoubted
work of God's Holy Spirit.— //-/(/.
14
SPIRIT OF PROMISE {HOL Y).
(Eph. i. 13.)
I. lNTHRPRET.\TION.
[1753] The Spirit is here the attesting seal.
The phrase "The Holy One" compels us to
accept a reference to the Holy Spirit ; it is
added with emphasis, so as to guard against
mistake, that the Spirit inherent in the promise
was meant. — Lant^e.
II. Scripture Applications.
I The sealing with the Holy Spirit ol
Promise.
[1754I Assurance of election is definitely
pointed out in vers. 13, 14, "Ye were sealed with
the Holy Spirit of Promise, who is the earnest
of our inheritance," and although in consequence
of faith, still on the ground of the promise of the
Holy Ghost, and the resulting bestowal of the
same — in the means of grace, the word, through
which Christ's merit, that is and suffices for all,
is attributed to us. On the ground of the cer-
tainty that God's word is true, that God has
loved the world, that Christ has died for the
sins of the whole world, and that God has called
you also— must have called you, because He has
loved you in Christ, have been accepted as a
child, endowed with the Holy Ghost, renewed,
regenerated, even though it be but germinally,
potentially, I am certain of my election before
the foundation of the world, and my inheritance
in eternity. — Ibid.
[1755] "The Holy Spirit of Promise" is the
seal of Christians, the stamp which they receive
that they are real children of God, the token by
means of which they appear and pass current as
Christians before celestial spirits. Without this
character faith is vain, and all Christianity a
mere sham. How many sham Christians there
are who have not this seal ! This Spirit is to
the Christian the strongest proof also of eternal
life, because in itself it is something eternal,
imperishable. — Heubuer.
[1756] Is there any test by which the pur-
chased possessions are distinguished from the
world 1 The text answers it by teaching us that
there is the seal of the Spirit. The object of
a seal is to denote property ; and here we may
trace the connexion between the seal and the pur-
chased possession. He hath sealed those whom
He hath made His own. They are in the world,
but yet not of the world ; moving amongst
other men, engaged in similar pursuits, subject
to the same laws, concerned in kindred interests,
but yet they are no more one with them than
the gold is one with the rough ore in which it
lies embedded ; and could we see as God seeth,
we should perceive on each heart the stamp
of the Holy Spirit separating them as God's
property, sealing them as God's people. The
great Agent in impressing this seal is plainly
the Holy Ghost, here called "the Holy Spirit of
Promise." — E. Hoare.
III. Historical Aspect.
[1757] The gift of the Holy Ghost is that
peculiar blessing which the Church in all ages
was taught to look for under the Christian dis-
pensation. A measure indeed of the Spirit was
vouchsafed to the godly at all times ; but the
GOD THE HOLY SPIRIT.
1757— 1763]
[spirit of the son.
fuller effusion was reserved for the times of the
apostles ; as it is said, " The Spirit was not yet
given, because Jesus was not yet glorified." If
we go back as far as the days of Abraham, we
shall find that the promise of the Spirit was
made to him, not so much for his decendants
after the flesh, but as for his spiritual progeny
among the Gentiles, to whom it was fulfilled in
the apostles' days. And the prophets taught
the Jews, in every successive period, to look
forward to the same time for the full enjoyment
of this privilege. The prophet Joel in particular
spoke strongly on this subject, and St. Peter
refers to his words as accomplished on the day
of Pentecost. Our blessed Lord also, both
before and after His resurrection, instructed
H is disciples to expect a more abundant measure
of the Spirit than had ever yet been vouchsafed
to the world : and to that very instruction of
His did St. Peter refer, when the Spirit was first
poured out upon the Gentiles. — C. Simeon.
15
SPIRIT OF THE SON.
(Gal. iv. 6.)
I. Interpretation.
[1758] "The Spirit of the Son" expresses both
the Spirit who proceeds from the Son, and also
who works in believers the spirit of a son. — C. N.
[1759] A peculiar expression— equivalent to
the Spirit which the Son of God has ; plainly,
moreover, which He has peculiarly as Son,
and implies His consciousness of Sonship, and
so means the Son of God's Spirit of Sonship.
God gives the very same Spirit into the hearts
of those whom He has accepted as His sons for
the sake of His Son Jesus Christ ; and there-
with they also attain to the consciousness of
sons relatively to God, so that they cry '• Abba,
Father." — Lange.
II. Doctrinal Import.
[1760] The Holy Spirit is here called "the
Spirit of the Son." Not that we are to conceive
of the Godhead as consisting of persons of
unequal majesty and glory ; for the Father,
Son, and Holy Ghost are in glory equal, and in
majesty co-eternal. But each jDerson in the
ever-blessed Trinity sustains a distinct office in
the economy of redemption : the Father send-
ing the Son to work redemption for us ; and
the Son sending the Holy Spirit to apply that
redemption to us. Agreeably to this distinc-
tion, we must go to the Father through the
Son and by the Spirit ; and expect blessings
from the Father in the very channel by which
we gain access to Him. Now if we go to
God in this way He will send His Holy Spirit
into our hearts as the Spirit of (His Son)
sonship. — C Simeon.
III. Practical Bearing.
1 The filial spirit is the simple and irn/
pensable qualification necessary for tfte
knowledge of God.
[1761] Father and Son ! Let philosophers
and divines discover what they may about God,
they will never discover anything so deep as
the wonder which lies in those two words,
Father and Son Who is God ? What
is God like .? Where shall we find Him, or
what is His likeness.? So has mankind been
crying in all ages, and getting no answer, or
making answers for themselves in all sorts of
superstitions, idolatries, false philosophies. And
then the gospel comes, and answers to every
man, to every poor and unlearned labourer :
Will you know the name of God .'' It is a
Father, a Son, and a Holy Spirit of love, joy,
peace ; a Spirit of perfect satisfaction of the
Father in the Son, and of perfect satisfaction
of the Son with the Father, which proceeds
from both the Father and the Son. It needs
no scholarship to understand that Name ; every
one may understand it who is a good father ;
every one may understand it who is a good
son, who looks up to and obeys his father with
that filial spirit of love and obedience, and
satisfaction with his father's will, which is the
likeness of the Holy Spirit of God, and can only
flourish in any man by the help of the Holy
Spirit which proceeds from the Father and the
Son. — C. Kings ley.
2 The filial spirit is a Divine work as well as
an inestimable privilege.
[1762] O how great a task is it for a poor
soul that comes, sensible of sin and the wrath
of God, to say in faith but this one word
Father ! The spirit must be sent into the
heart for this very thing ; it being too great a
work for any man to do knowingly and be-
lievingly without it. That one word spoken in
faith is better than a thousand prayers in a
formal, lukewarm way. I myself have often
found that when I can say but this word
Father, it doth me more good than when I call
Him by any other Christian name. — Bwiyan.
3 The filial spirit is the necessary result of
faith.
[1763] There is in every one, who receives
the gospel aright, a change, both in his state
before God and in the secret habit of his mind.
From an enemy to God, he is made a friend
and a son ; and from serving God by restraint,
as a slave, he comes to Him with a spirit of
adoption as a beloved child. . . . Taking this
view of Christianity, we must say that it has
been, and yet is, productive of incalculable
good ; for still, as well as in the apostolic age,
God begets sons to Himself by means of it ;
and " when they are made sons, He pours
forth the Spirit of His Son into their hearts,
cryirig, Abba, Father." — C. Simeo7i.
3IO
1764-
GOD THE HOLY SPIRIT.
[770]
[voice of the lord.
4 The honour of Divine sonship implies
true holiness.
[1764] In professincj to be led of the Spirit ot
God you claim, of course, the honour of being
the children of God. And if you claim this
honour, O think what manner of conversation
yours should be — how holy, spiritual, heavenly !
Not merely blameless, but you should shine as
lights in the midst of a dark world, and walk
worthy of Him who hath called you to His
kingdom and glory. Read the particulars in
St. Paul's direction to the Colossian Church :
Col. iii. 12-14. Herein is living Christianity ;
this is to walk as CI rist walked, and by this
shall all men know that ye are the disciples
of Christ, " the sons and daughters of the Lord
A\m'\g\\i\"— Ibid.
5 The folly and sin of curtailing even in
thought the privilege of sonship.
[1765] For what is the duty of the Lord Jesus
Christ is our duty, if we are the sons ot God in
Him. He is the Son of God by an eternal
never-ceasing generation : we are the sons of
God by adoption. The way in which we are to
look up to God, the Holy Spirit must teach us ;
what is our duty to God, the Holy Spirit must
teach us. And who is the Holy Spirit .? He is
the Spirit who proceeds from the Son as well
as the Father. He is the Spirit of Jesus Christ,
the Spirit of the Son of God, the Spirit which
descended on the Lord Jesus when he was
baptized, the Spirit which gave to Him without
measure. He is the Spirit of the Son of God ;
and we are the sons of God by adoption, says
St. Paul ; and because we are sons, he says,
God hath sent forth into our hearts the Spirit
of His Son, by whom we look up to God as
our Father ; and this Spirit of God's Son, by
whom we cry Abba, Father, St. Paul calls in
another place the " Spirit of adoption,'' and
declares openly that He is the very Spirit of
God.
Therefore in whatever way the Spirit of God
is to teach you to look up to God, He will
teach you to look up to Him as a Father ;
the Father of Spirits, and therefore your Father,
for you are a spirit. Whatsoever duty to God
the Holy Spirit teaches you. He teaches you
first, and before all things, that it is filial duty,
the duly of a son to a father, because you are
the son of God, and God is your Father.
Therefore, whatsoever man or book tells you
that your duty to God is anything but the duty
of a son to his father, does not speak by the
Spirit of God. Whatsoever thoughts in your
heart tempt you to distrust God's forgiveness,
and shrink from Him, and look up to Him as
a taskmaster, and an austere and revengeful
Lord, are not the Spirit of God. Fathers
and mothers ! if your son or daughter came
home to you thus, though they had insulted
you, disgraced you, and spent their substance
in riotous living, would you shut your doors
upon them .''... Do you fancy God less of a
Father than you are.' Is He not 7 '//<? Father,
the perfect Father, " from whom every father-
hood in heaven and earth is named?" God is
as much better a Father than you are, as Jesus
Christ is a better Son than you are. . . . And
believe, that whatsoever makes you distrust
God's love is neither the Spirit of God, who is
the spirit of sonship, nor the spirit of man ;
but the spirit of the devil, who loves to slander
God to men, that they may shrink from Him,
and be afraid to arise and go to their Father,
to be received again as the sons of God. —
C. Kijigsley.
16
VOICE OF THE LORD.
(Acts xxviii, 25.)
I. Scripture Basis.
[1766] "The Spirit of God moved upon the
face of the waters " at creation. Psalm xxix. says,
" The voice of the Lord is upon the waters."
Isaiah vi. 8, " The voice of the Lord said ; "
Acts xxviii. 25, <S:c. This Voice is indentical with
the Holy Ghost, who spake by Isaiah to the
fathers, " saying. Go unto this people." From
these texts it appears that the Voice of the Lord
is the Spirit of Jehovah. — A. Serle.
II. Historical Aspects and Signifi-
cation.
[1767] The words recorded in l Kings xix. 11,
"The Lord passed by Elijah," &c., naturally
suggest themselves in this connexion. Here,
too, the Lord Himself truly came, not in the
great and strong wind, nor in the earthquake,
nor in the fire, but in the still small voice, when
He entered into the hearts of His disciples and
spake by their mouth. — VVilliger.
[1768] We now hear another language, which
does not fill the heart with terror like the
voice heard on Mount Sinai ; it neither alarms
nor slays us, but rather inspires us with courage
and joy ; indeed, Christ had promised His
disciples that He would send to them the Holy
Ghost, who should not be a spirit of fear, but
a Comforter, imparting to them boldness, and
power to overcome every fear. — Ltcthcr.
[1769] The natural man would never have
conceived that the glory of God would manifest
itself in the still small voice. He wants some-
thing grand, splendid, pompous — temples,
mosques, and cathedrals, white and purple
robes and processions, incense offerings and
solemn chants, things that strike the eye and
the ear. — J. Ilarc.
III. Personal Realization.
[1770J A new tongue and effective eloquence
in the sphere of religion are gifts, not of nature,
but of the Spirit. — Lmige., Apost. Past.
GOD THE HOLY SPIRIT.
1771— 1773]
3"
[voice of the lord.
[1771! The Holy Ghost is never inactive, but
always worketh wherever He dwells ; one of
His principal instruments is the tongue. —
Sta?-ke.
[1772] Compare three well-known pictures
presented by the Holy Scriptures : —
(i) Ge)i. xi. : The human race, as one nation,
speaking one hmgiiage. They attempt to pre-
serve this unity by building a metropolitan city,
where the whole race might dwell, under one
government and one chief. Their leading idea
was that oneness of nationality, of speech, and
oi govoiiiiieiit would bind the whole race in the
closest bonds of brotherhood. But God was
left out of their thoughts. He had said, replenish
the earth. Hence apostasy of heart had already
taken place, and their idea was, as we should
say, anti-christian. A man of sin doubtless
sat as God opposing himself to His purposes,
and aimed at a universalism of sin. Akin to
this scheme of theirs are the many combinations
of men into guilds, brotherhoods, and great in-
ternational societies, whose avowed object is to
bring about a union of the human race in some
other than God's appointed way. And the
teaching of the New Testament is that Anti-
christ will seize hold upon this spirit of the age
and attempt universal empire. To stop the
human plan, and thwart sinful intention, God
interfered by confounding their language, and
the race was split up into fragments, which be-
came the starting-pointsof nations, and peoples,
and kindreds and tongues ; and men became,
henceforth, Barbarians, Scythians, Bond, Free
— anything but Brothers.
(2) Acts a. : is the companion picture. The
two should be studied side by side. 7'hat
showed how men became strangers and aliens :
this shows how God unites them into one family.
On the Day of Pentecost visible tongues de-
scended upon the Church of Christ, and forth-
with, being filled with the Holy Ghost, each
member thereof began to speak with foreign
tongues "the wonderful works of God." And the
whole community was really cemented into one
brotherhood, and had all things common. This
indicated God's way of uniting them : not by all
dwelling in one city, or kingdom, or speaking
one tongue ; not by any external bond ; but by
giving each individual man His Holy Spirit.
They may speak all the languages of the earth,
but their voice is one, the leaven is one, their
communion is one ; all kindreds and tongues,
nations and people, are being gathered together
from the dispersion caused by sin.
(3) Rev. vii. 9, 10, is the third picture. It is
a scene in heaven, where all is completed which
was only signified at Pentecost. The whole
family are gathered together— once separated
physically by seas and continents, and morally
by sin.
This great family is composed of the same
diversities that existed on earth. They are still
ki7idreds, and tiations, and peoples, and tongues,
and yet they are united — one family, all speak
the same praises, all sing one song. Ask, What
has made them so .^ Clearly not one tongue, as
was attempted at Babel, but it is the possession
of one spirit, which has attuned them all, and
brought them into fellowship with the Father
and the Son. " The Lamb is the light thereof,"
and His magnetic power attracts these once-
scattered units, now no longer under the centri-
fugal power of sin, but under the centripetal
intluence of the Holy Spirit.
IV. Suggested Thoughts.
I Contrast between the voice of the Holy
Spirit and that of the spirit of the age.
[1773] There are two spirits which on either
side perpetually address the soul of man. How
shall we know them apart ? Or rather, what
constitutes their ditTference.? It is marked and
strong. The time-spirit preaches boastfully
of man, of the world, of life ; the Holy Spirit
of sin, of righteousness, and of judgment. The
spirit of the age applauds and flatters us, the
Holy Spirit rebukes, reproves, convicts. The
time-spirit talks to us of the glory and greatness
of man, of temporal things as all-sufficient, of
the world as the measure of our destinies, of
a free and reckless life without responsibility,
faith, or fear. The Holy Spirit, on the contrary,
speaks of the sin of man, his weakness and
corruption, of a righteousness which consists
in faith, obedience, and self-denial, of a battle
against the world, of a coming Judgment on
the earth and its guilty tenants. Of sin, of
righteousness, and of judgment to come, the
time-spirit never speaks ; it avoids those subjects,
it makes no allusion to them unless by way of
contradiction and denial. . . . And this is the
essential difference between the voices — the one
bids to indulgence, the other to discipline ; the
one addresses the physical, the other the moral
nature ; the one displays the kingdoms of this
world and all the glory of them, the other
points to that strait and narrow gate through
which we enter into the kingdom of heaven.
The one says to man, " Lo, thou hast much
goods laid by for many years ; the lust of the
eye, the lust of the flesh, and the pride of life
are here ; take thine ease, eat, drink, and be
merry." The other utters the stern, brief words,
"Thou fool ! this night thy soul shall be re-
quired of tbee ; then where shall all this be
when for thee the world with its affairs is at an
end for ever.''" Diverse are the voices, and
never to be harmonized ; the one that of a
proud and reckless tempter, the other that of a
calm, holy, and thoughtful counsellor. They
reach our souls together; we hear both or have
heard both in our day ; our choice is between
them, and there is no middle path of safety. —
Rev. Morgan Dix.
DIVISION C.
NAMES EXPRESSIVE OF HIS OFFICES.
[i] THE BESTOWAL OF REDEMPTIVE
PRIVILEGES.
Pages 313 /t 320.
ALPHABETICAL TABLE OF TOPICS.
17
ADOPTION, SPIRIT OF.
18
GLORY, SPIRIT OF.
19
GRACE, SPIRIT OF.
LIFE, SPIRIT OF.
21
I^IIGIIT, SPIRIT OF.
312
3^3
DIVISION C.
NAMES EXPRESSIVE OF HIS OFFICES.
[i] THE BESTOWAL OF REDEMPTIVE PRIVILEGES.
17
ADOPTION, SPIRIT OF,
(Rom. viii. 15, 16.)
I. Scripture Basis.
[1774] The "Spirit of adoption" here is the
Spirit of God : cf. Gal. iv. 6, where there is no
uncertainty. "Spirit" in vers. 15 and 16 is not
the difference between an inward disposition
and the Spirit of God, but that which distin-
guishes two different modes of acting, followed
by one and the same Holy Spirit. — Godet.
n. Import.
[1775] The " Spirit of adoption " is the Spirit
of God producing the spiritual state correspond-
ing to sonship ; He may even be called the Spirit
of the Son Himself He puts us relatively to
God in the same position as Jesus when He
said, Father ! The term adoption reminds us
that Jesus alone is Son in essence (only Son).
To become sons, we must be incorporated into
Him by faith. — Ibid.
HI. Personal Realization.
I The witness of the Spirit.
[1776] The witness of the Spirit is a con-
sciousness of our having received, in and by the
Spirit of adoption, the tempers mentioned in the
word of God as belonging to His adopted chil-
dren— a loving heart toward God and toward
all mankind, hanging with childlike confidence
on God our Father, desiring nothing but Him,
casting a 1 our care upon Him. — Wesley.
[1777] That the world deny any such testi-
mony in the hearts of believers, and that they
look on it with scorn and treat it with derision,
proves only that they are unacquainted with it —
not that it is an illusion. It was a sensible and
true remark of the French philosopher, Hem-
sterhuys, in regard to certain sensations which
he was discussing, "Those who are so unhappy
as never to have had such sensations, either
through weakness of the natural organ, or be-
cause they have never cultivated them, will not
comprehend me." — Moses Stuart.
[1778] The testimony of the Spirit is imme-
diate, by His secret influence upon the heart,
quieting and calming all distrust and diffidence
concerning its condition, by His own immediate
power. Fear is banished by a soft whisper
from the Spirit of God in the heart ; and this
in such a way that, though the spirit of man is
calmed by it, yet it cannot tell how it comes to
pass. —Simon Ford.
[1779] How a man may know whether the
testimony which is within him be of the Spirit
or not. But how, say you, may I know whether
the testimony doth proceed from the Holy
Ghost, and tlierefore whether it be a true and
certain testimony ? I answer first, by the per-
suasion ; secondly, by the manner of the per-
suasion ; lastly, by the effects of this testimony
and persuasion. For the first, the Holy Ghost
doth not simply say it, but doth persuade with
us, that we are the sons of God, and no flesh
can do this. Again, He persuades us by reasons
drawn not from our works or from any worthi-
ness in us, but from the alone goodness of God
the Father, and grace of Christ. In this man-
ner the devil will never persuade any. Lastly,
the persuasion of the Holy Ghost is full ot
power and sweetness, for they which are per-
suaded that they are the sons of God cannot
but needs must call Him Abba, Father, and in
regard of love to Him do hate sin, and whatso-
ever is disagreeing to His will. And on the
contrary they have a sound and hearty desire to
do His will. If at any time thou hast lelt in
thyself any such testimony, persuade thyself it
was the testimony of the Holy Ghost, and that
very true and certam too, and therefore that
thou art the child of God and predestinate to
eternal life. This is the prop by which we must
underset that weak belief we have of our cer-
tain election to eternal life ; hold this without
wavering whatsover thou art that art tempted
to doubt of thy election. Even as nothing is
required at our hands to work our election (for
God chose us His alone of mere goodness) so
that we may truly know whether we be elect
or not, this one thing shall be sufficient, namely,
if we shall attain to the certain knowledge of
this, that we are in Christ and partakers of Him,
for He that is now engrafted in Christ and is
justified, it cannot be but that he was elected in
Christ before the foundation of the world. — H.
Zanchius, 1603.
[1780] The witness of the Spirit is a thing
that we cannot express ; a certain inexpressible
assurance that we are the children of God ; a
314
1780-
GOD THE HOLY SPIRIT.
-1786]
I GLORY, SPIRIT OF.
certain secret manifestation that God hath
received us and put away our sins. No one
knows it but they that have it. I confess it is
a wondrous thing, and if there were not some
Christians tliat did feel it and Icnow it, you
might beheve there was no such a thing ; but it
is certain there is a generation of men that
know what the seal of the Lord is. — Presioti.
2 Enjoyment of sonship.
[1781] The adoption must entirely depend on
the will of the adopter. The Scripture hath
not left us in darkness here. God never
appoints an end but He always provides the
means. As we are the " firstfruits " in Christ,
we are to have also the firstfruits of the Spirit ;
and " because we are sons and first-born, God
hath sent forth the Spirit of His Son into our
hearts, crying Abba, Father : wherefore, we are
no more servants, but sons ; and if sons, then
heirs of God through Christ." We are brought
therefore into this state, or born again, " not of
blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the
will of man, but of God." By this Spirit of
adoption it is that we can freely call upon God,
claim to be His sons, style Him our Father,
and plead all the benefits of our adoption. — A.
Serle.
[1782] Men conceive of Christianity as a
system of restraints ; or, at best, as a system of
doctrines and duties. But it is in reality a
system of privileges ; it " takes men from the
dunghill to set them among princes," and
" translates them from the kingdom of darkness
into the kingdom of God's dear Son." Con-
template Christianity in this view, as taking
" strangers and foreigners," and bringing them
not only into " the household of God," but mak-
ing them "sons and daughters of the Lord
Almighty." Well might St. John express his
wonder, saying, " Behold, what manner of love
is this, wherewith the Father hath loved us, that
we should be called the sons of God ! " Truly
this is the light in which we should view the
gospel, — C. Simeon.
3 The enjoyment of holy fellowship with the
Father and the Son.
[1783] To those who are converted He works
as a Spirit of adoption. He enables them with
confidence to cry "Abba, Father." Hegives them
an assured testimony of their acceptance with
God as a reconciled God and Father ; setting,
as it were, upon their hearts the Father's seal,
and witnessing with their spirits that they are
the children of God. Thus drawing them'with
His gracious influences. He brings them into a
state of holy "fellowship with the Father and
the Son," causing them to walk with (Jod as
dear children, and to live habitually as in His
presence ; they "dwelling in God, and (lod in
them ; " yea, being " one with God, and God
with them."'— Ihid.
4 The ennobling of our nature.
[1784] If we would but thus remember how
we spring from God, in such a way as no earthly
creature does, we surely never could indulge
any thoughts or deeds unworthy of God. What
if Cassar had adopted you into his family ? How
elated would you thenceforth be ! And shall
not, then, your being of the family of God rouse
up your spirit to its proper height .? Alas, that
so many should rather incline toward their
relationship with brutes than their relationship
with God l—EpiiteiHS {T. Griffith).
[1785] The truth which the most enlightened
heathens saw dimly and very rarely on the hori-
zon becomes a living factor in the experience of
the believer, as evidenced by the following sub-
lime address to the Third Person of the ever-
blessed Trinity by Augustine : — " O Holy Spirit,
love of God, who proceedeth from the Almighty
Father and His most blessed Son, powerful
Advocate, and sweetest Comforter, infuse Thy
grace and descend plentifiilly into my heart :
for in whomsoever Thou dwellest, the Father
and the Son come likewise and inhabit that
breast. Oh ! how happy is that breast which
is honoured with so glorious, so Divine a guest,
in whose company the Father and the Son
always come and take up their abode. O come.
Thou cleanser of all inward pollutions, and
healer of spiritual wounds and diseases !
Come, Thou strength of the feeble knees, and
raiser up of them that fall. Come, Thou star
and guide of them that sail in this tempestuous
sea of the world ; Thou only haven of the
tossed and shipwrecked. Come, Thou glory
and crown of the living ; Thou only stay and
shield of the dying. Come, in much mercy ;
come, and make me fit to receive Thee. And
all this I beg for the sake of Jesus, my only
Saviour, who, in unity of Thee, O Holy Spirit,
liveth and reigneth with the Father, one God,
world without end. Amen."
18
GLORY, SPIRIT OF.
(i Peter iv. 14.)
L Interpret.\tion and Import.
[1786] "Spirit of glory" denotes the Holy
Spirit, because He brings glory and seals it in
the suffering. Their state of bliss is inferred
from the glory already existing, although in-
visible to ordinary eyes. This Spirit being given
to you with the communion of Christ, you are
even now, by faith and hope, partakers of
future glory ; you anticipate it in the Spirit, and
therefore you are blessed. Hence Paul, in the
further development of this thought, called the
Spirit the earnest of the inheritance (Eph. i. 14).
. . . It is not the spirit of Elijah, or of an
angel, but the Spirit of (iod. " Tliis is to the
apostle so great and so blessed a thing, that
though the world is against them God is for
them, as their shield and exceeding great
reward." — Lange and ^Viesinger.
GOD THE HOLY SPIRIT.
1787—1795]
[grace, spirit of.
[1787] The Holy Ghost, who rests upon saints,
protects them, shines forth from them, is called
"the Spirit of glory " because He is holy, and
causes His holiness to eradiate, and because He
is worthy of being glorified by men and all
other creatures. — Lange.
II. Practic.'\l Bearing.
1 Need to exhibit more the Spirit of glory
in our daily life.
[1788] The Spirit is here called "the Spirit of
glory and of God ; " as being one with the
Father, who is " the God of glory ; " and one
with the Son, who is " the Lord of glory." His
office is to descend and dwell with the saints
as their Comforter. And when we really suffer
for Christ's sake, it is both an evidence that He
does rest upon us, and a pledge that He will be
with us in a more abundant measure. If the
Holy Spirit had not already wrought faith in
our hearts, and put somewhat of the image of
Christ upon our souls, the world would have
suffered us to rest in peace : for if we were of
the world, the world would love its own ; but
because we are not of the world, but Christ has
chosen us out of the world, therefore the world
hateth us. . , , I cannot but think that if God
were to pour out His Spirit upon us as He did
on the primitive Church, and our light were to
burn as bright as theirs, there would yet be
found much the same rancour in the hearts of
men against vital godliness now as there was
in former days ; for there are not wanting at
this hour many proofs of what men would do to
suppress real piety, if the toleration accorded
to us by the laws did not restrain them.— C
Simeon.
2 The present possession of the Spirit of
glory is the pledge of future glory.
[1789] The less the Christian finds esteem
and acceptance in the world, the more he turns
his eye inward to see what is there ; and tiiere
he finds the world's contempt counterpoised by
a weight of excellency and glory, even in this
present condition, as the pledge of the glory
before him. The reproaches be fiery ; but the
Spirit of glory resteth upon you — doth not give
you a passing visit, but stays within you, and is
indeed yours. — Abp. Leighton.
3 The present possession of incipient glory,
and the future prospect of perfected glory,
is a sustaining thought amid trials.
[1790] And in this the Christian can take
comfort, and let the foul weather blow over ; let
all the scoiTs and contempts abroad pass as
they come, having a glorious Spirit within, such
a guest honouring him with His presence, abode,
and sweet fellowship — being, indeed, one with
Him. So that rich miser at Athens could
say (when they scorned him in the streets he
went home to his bags, and hugging himself
there at the sight, let them say what they
would), " The crowd hiss me abroad ; but I
applaud myself at home, as soon as I contem-
plate my money in my chest." How much more
reasonably may the Christian say, Let them re-
vile and bark ; I have riches and honour enough
that they see not. — Ibid,
19
GRACE, SPIRIT OF.
(Heb. X. 29.)
L Interpretation and Import,
[1791] There is here a sin against the Holy
Ghost— that is, the sin of all sins which, as
here implied, is impossible without an inward
experience of grace. . . . The phrase (Spirit
of grace) is to be interpreted in connection
with Zech. xii. 10, as designating the Spirit as
the source of grace ; and this interpretation is
favoured by the strong personal term twlSpiaag.
—Dclitssch.
[1792] The outpouring of the Spirit (Zech.
xii. 10) points back to Joel iii. i, &c., except that
there the Spirit of Jehovah generally is spoken
of, whereas here it is simply the Spirit of grace
and of supplication. . . . The Spirit of grace is
the Spirit which produces in the mind of man
the experience of the grace of God. — Keil.
[1793] The perfected Mediator of the New
Testament first imparts His gift of eternal
redemption to the souls of men through the
Holy Spirit, who takes everything from Him
(John xvi. 13, 14). For the gaining of the re-
demption (Heb. ix. 12) is one act; the bestowal
of it upon individual men is a different one.
The procuring of salvation (i Cor. ii. 12) is dif-
ferent from its appropriation (Heb. iii. i ; vi. 4).
The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ is distinct
from the grace of the Holy Spirit. By the
former the whole world is reconciled (i John
ii. I, 2) ; by the latter an ever-increasing number
of individuals is reconciled to God (2 Cor.
v. 20). — Nitzsche.
II. Practical Bearing.
I As regards the sin against the Spirit of
grace.
(i) Its nature.
[1794] It is as a loving, living, gracious
Person that such despite is done to the Holy
Spirit. All gifts of grace under the New Testa-
ment are here summed up in, and referred to, the
Spirit of grace. To contemn or to do despite to
this Holy Spirit is to blaspheme the whole work
of grace of which one has once been the sub-
ject, and to exhibit it as a deception and a lie.
It is profanely to contradict the very truth of
God, and draw down upon one's self a vengeance
which cannot fail. — Delitssch.
[1795] Apostasy is a doing " despite unto the
3i6
1795-
GOD THE HOLY SPIRIT.
-1799]
[life, spirit of.
Spirit of grace." The Holy Spirit, both before
and after the death of Jesus, bare witness to
Him by signs and wonders innumerable ; and
when we are brought to the knowledge of the
truth, it is by that same blessed Spirit illumina-
ting our minds, and sealing the truth with power
upon our souls. But when we renounce the
truth we have received, we insult that Divine
Agent as having borne witness to a falsehood ;
and we ascribe all His miracles either to
Satanic agency, or to some mysterious impos-
ture. We even laugh also at the impressions
which He haih made upon our minds, and
deride all His merciful sugi;estions as fanaticism
and delusion. — C. Simeon.
(2) Ifs heiiioiisness.
[1796] If the only true atoning sacrifice, the
Son of God and His blood, have, in view of the
earlier experience of its sanctifying power, been
rejected as useless, and the Spirit of grace
spurned and scorned, not only is there nothing
to replace the sacrifice thus rejected and dis-
honoured, but this itself can no longer exercise
a saving influence upon him who has made
wilful and wanton wreck of all the previous
influences of grace.— Cc?;-/ Moll.
[1797] Against the apostate there are three
witnesses : the Father, who hath given to him
His Son; the Son, whose blood he tramples
underfoot ; and the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of
grace, to whom he does despite. — Starke.
2 As regards the evidence of the bestowal
of the Divine gifts.
[1798] The gifts of grace are directly applied
in Holy Scripture to the Holy Spu'it ; and so
directly are they applied to' Him, that it is
affirmed that no man can say that Jesus is the
Lord but by the Holy Ghost, because without
the Holy Ghost he can know nothing cf the
matter.— .^. Serle.
20
LIFE, SPIRIT OF.
(Rom. viii. 11.)
I. Christological Aspect.
[1799] Succession is distinctly traceable in
the mind of Christ, making his life a model
of moral progression. ... He thus becomes
our visible and outward conscience ; revealing
to us not only the end to which we must attain,
but the successive steps by which our nature
reaches it— the process as well as the result.
He is the type of the pure religious life : all its
development being crowded by the rapid ripen-
ing of His soul into His brief existence ; and
the gospel is a Divine allegory of humanity,
through which a holy mind rises to its most
godlike power.
The thoughts which constitute religion are
too vast and solemn to remain subordinate.
They are germs of a growth which, with true
nurture, must burst into independent life, and
overshadow the whole soul. When the mind
ponders the ideas of the infinite and the eternal,
it detects, as if by sudden inspiration, the im-
mensity of the relations which it sustains to
God and iir.m jrtality : the old formulae of re-
ligious instruction break their husk, and give
forth the seeds of wonder and love ; everything
that seemed before great and worthy is dwarfed,
and human affinities and duties all sink into
nothingness compared with the heavenly world
which has been discovered. There is a period
when earnest spirits thus become possessed ;
disposed to contrast the grandeur of their new
ideal with the littleness of all that is actual. At
such a crisis it was that Jesus gave the answer
to His parents ; when His piety first broke into
original and self-luminous power, and not only
took the centre of His system, but threatened to
put out those lesser and dependent lights which,
when their place is truly understood, appear no
less heavenly. ... It was inevitable that the
spiritual force within Him should make insur-
rection against the narrow and cramping condi-
tions by which it was confined ; that it should
strive to burst its fetters, and find or create a
career worthy of itself : in short, that we should
find Jesus no longer at Nazareth, but in the
wilderness ; led thither in spite of Himself, of
interest and comfort, of habit and home, by the
beckoning of the Divine image in His heart.
. . . His holy spirit won the victory ; and the
transition was made from the obscurity of ordi-
nary toil to the glory of His everlasting ministry.
. . . Even the last change in Christ appears to
be an internal development of His perlect char-
acter, the last unfolding of its progressive beauty :
to which also there is a corresponding stage,
wherever the true religious life fulfils its course.
When the first sanguine enterprises of con-
science seem to fail ; when a cloud descends
upon the prospects of the good ; when the evils
against which he has taken up his vow with-
stand the siege of his enthusiasm, and years ebb
away and strength departs with no visible im-
pression made ; and friends become treacherous,
and foes alert, and God's good providence seems
tedious and cruel — then weak spirits may suc-
cumb, able to keep faith alive no more, and
even the man mighty of heart may find the
controversy great whether to go on and bear
up against such sorrow of soul. But if he be
wise he clings more fully to his fidelity, and
thinks more truly of his mission, wherein he is
appointed not to do much, but to do well. He,
too, takes counsel of the prophets of old — the
sainted spirits of the good, who rebuke his im-
patience, and tell him that they followed each
other at intervals of centuries, and as they found,
so after true service did they leave, the mighty
work of good undone ; that the fruits of heaven
will not ripen in some sunny hour, but every
noble mind must lend its transitory ray ; and
then, when the full year of Providence has
gone its round, perchance the collective sunshine
GOD THE HOLY SPIRIT.
1799 — 1809]
[life,
SPIRIT OF.
of humanity may have matured the tree of life.
— James Martineau.
[1800] Jesus was the realized possibility of
life in God. His thoughts, His feelings. His
desires, His plans, were regulated by the Spirit
of His Father dwelling in Him, as the hands of
a watch, down even to the seconds, are regulated
by the mainspring within. — Martineau and T.
Griffith.
II. Theological Import.
[1801] Here is the Father's authoritative
quickening, He raised Christ from the dead,
and He shall quicken you (Rom. viii. 11) : and
the Son's mediatory quickening, for it is done
in the death of Christ : and the Spirit's imme-
diate efficacy, He shall do it by the Spirit that
dwelleth in you. — J. Owen.
III. Personal Realization.
Z A life of God in the soul.
[1802] Herein lies the new life provided in
Christ to empower His people for righteousness.
It is His own resurrection life, infused into the
soul of the believer by His Spirit. Paul's one
direction for overcoming all the lust of the flesh
— all the rebellious workings of our lower nature
— is "Walk in the Spirit ;" i.e.^ live habitually
as persons raised up out of this lower nature
into a higher and Divine world. . . . After all
the insults that have been hurled at what the
world calls "enthusiasm," and notwithstanding
all the suspicion raised by the excesses of fana-
ticism against the truth and beauty of this
exalted temper, it still remains undeniable that
religion, to have any powtr over us — to be any-
thing better than a cold assent to dogmas, and
a mechanical round of ceremonies— ;///<'i'/ be-
come what that word enthusiasm essentially
means, "a dwelling in God and God in us" — a
life of God in the soul. — T. Griffith.
[1803] My teaching is not of doing and
leaving undone, but of a radical change in the
man, so that it is not new works done, but a
new man to do them ; not another life only, but
another birth. — Luther.
[1804] Our Lord replies. It is not learning,
but life, that is wanted for the Messiah's king-
dom ; and life begins by birth. — Alford.
[1805] The Spirit is to the soul as the soul is
to the body. What is the body without the
soul ? A carcase — a loathsome, dead thing.
What is the soul without the Spirit .? A chaos
of darkness and confusion. — Sibbes.
[1806] What are our souls without His grace.''
As dead as the branch in which the sap circu-
lates not. What is our Church without Him.?
As parched and barren as the fields without
heaven's dew and rains. Where is the hope of
the world's conversion, or of the salvation of
dear loved ones, out of Christ ? If the Spirit
of God come not to our aid, our eyes may fail
with looking for these much valued blessings. —
Lewis.
[1807] The renewed man is entitled to talk to
himself in some such fashion as this : —
" I know that I am born again because of the
complete change of my convictions, sympathies,
and habitudes ; old things have passed away
and all things have become new ; still I am
often tempted, and often sorrowful on account
of sin ; when I would do good, evil is present
with me ; I delight in the law of God after the
inward man, but 1 see another law in my mem-
bers, warring agamst the law of my mind, and
bringing me into captivity to the law of sin
which is in my members ; yet through all my
conflict there comes a voice which tells me that
my Divine sonship is a fact, but that not until
resurrection has done for my body what re-
generation has done for my soul can I have
perfectness of spiritual release and enjoyment ;
this is the witness of the Spirit which calms me
with ineffable tranquility." The witness is not
that the whole work is done, but simply that it
is begun ; and after all, that is the great diffi-
culty. How to re-establish life was the question
which astounded and baffled the universe. — Dr.
Joseph Parker.
IV.. Practical Bearing.
1 Dejection of heart sometimes an evidence
of the Holy Spirit being at work.
[1808] It may be a comfort to know that de-
jection of heart may of itself be a fruit and an
evidence of the Holy Ghost having been at work.
. , . When the Psalmist complained that his
heart clave unto the dust, and therefore prayed
that God would quicken him, he perhaps did not
know that the quickening process had begun
with him already. One of the firstfruits of the
Spirit, in the apostle and his converts, was that
they groaned inwardly, being burdened, being
now touched as they never were before with a
feelingof their infirmities; . . . sin before unfelt
is now nearly overwhelming. The dead know
not that they are dead. — Dr. Chalmers.
2 Life in the soul is not the result of rea-
son, but the gift of the Spirit.
[1809] " Is it possible that these dry bones
can live?" The prophet knew nothing was too
hard for God, though everything of this kind
must be too hard for the creature, and therefore
referred the answer to His wisdom and power.
He was commanded to preach to these bones
in the name and by the word of the Lord. Could
his feeble voice avail .'' No. He might sooner
turn the tides of the sea, and cause the winds to
be still, than impart lite by his speaking to the
least of these dry bones. But he did not reason
like a rationalist : he obeyed like a true believer
in that God who cannot lie, who orders nothing,
and who will do nothing, in vain. As he spoke,
while the words were in his mouth, the effect
3iJ
GOD THE HOLY SPIRIT.
1809— 1815I
[might, spirit of.
began : the wind breathed upon the bones, and
they Hved, and stood up upon their feet, even an
exceeding great army. I nmiediately afterwards
is subjoined the e.xplanation ; " I will put My
Spirit in you, and ye shall live ; " z>., My word
by My appointed instruments must come forth ;
and My Spirit must accompany that word to
make it effectual for your regeneration. — A.
Scrle.
21
MIGHT, SPIRIT OF.
(Isa. xi. 2.)
I. Origin.
[1810] "Mighty signs and wonders were
worked by the power of the Spirit of God."
" Greater works than these shall ye do." How
is this possible ? By the Holy Ghost, who
should endow them with power from on high.
. . . And this power was exercised in the greater
and more difficult wonders of converting the
soul. . . . This was the demonstration of the
Spirit, who clothed the apostles' words with
power. . . . Hence He is styled the Spirit of
power. — A. Serle.
n. Historical Aspect.
[1811] The working of the Holy Ghost begins
with the glorification of Jesus and the effusion
of the Spirit at the Feast of Pentecost. Hence
there is a kind of truth in the view which has
often been entertained in the Church concerning
difficult dispensations of the Father, the Son, and
the Holy Ghost. The working of the Godhead
under the Old Testament was that of the Son ;
that of the Holy Ghost begins with the Feast of
Pentecost. The special work of the Holy
Ghost is that of regeneration, and the whole
creative action of God in the souls of men.
Hence regeneration belongs essentially to the
New Testament, because under this dispensa-
tion the Holy Ghost first manifested His specific
power. — Olshattsen.
[18 1 2] As the Son was working in the world
long before His incarnation, so did the Holy
Ghost also act upon mankind long before His
effusion. But as it was at the incarnation of
tiie Son that the fulness of His life first mani-
fested itself, so it was not uniil the effusion
which took place on the day of Pentecost
that the Spirit poured forth all His power. —
Ibid.
HI. Ecclesiastical Aspect.
X The Spirit of Might alone explains the
early triumphs of the gospel.
[1813] On the apostles His power was seen
in opening their minds, removing their preju-
dices, emboldening them for their work, and
enabling them to confirm their testimony with
miracles such as none could question or explain.
On the Jews who heard the gospel He displayed
His power by convincing them of sin, and
changing the very murderers of our Lord into
patterns of excellence. To the same power we
are taught to ascribe the union of the first
Christians ; their consecration and liberality ;
their joy in the conversion of the Gentiles,
though it seemed a mysterious arrangement ;
their steadfastness and faith. Stephen's wisdom
and love, his zeal and peace, had the same
origin; "he was full of the Holy Ghost," and
even whole Churches shared the blessing. How
instructive and consolatory that the dispensa-
tion of the Spirit should be introduced not only
with peculiar promises, but with a history of
rich manifestations of grace. If in the Gospels
we see the work of our Lord, in the Acts we
see the work of that blessed Agent, to whom,
so far as man is concerned, the first owes all its
success. We need but more of His influence to
complete the triumphs which this history begins.
—Dr. Angus.
a The Spirit of Might alone explains the
success of the Reformation commenced
by Martin Luther.
[18 14] Well indeed did Luther know the
power of God's word, the power which goes
along with it when it is truly the sword of the
Spirit. He knew it from what he himself had
felt ; in fact he could not have spoken of it as
he does except from personal experience. He
knevvT it also from the effect which he had often
seen it produce when it issued with the power
of the Spirit from his own lips. So far as any
written words can yield us a conception of that
power, his do. As he has somewhere said of
Paul's words, they are not dead words, but
living creatures, and have hands and feet. It
no longer surprises us that the man who wrote .
and spoke thus, although no more than a poor
monk, should have been mightier than the
pope, and the emperor to boot, with all their
hosts, ecclesiastical and civil ; that the rivers of
living water which issued from him should
have swept half Germany, and in course of time
the chief part of northern Europe, out of the
kingdom of darkness into the region of evan-
gelical light. — J. Hate, The Solitary JMonkand
the Mighty World.
[18 1 5] What made the fierce, rough jailer
tremble before a power whose mysterious influ-
ence he had never before felt ? How was it that
when his faculties were, one would think, en-
grossed about physical danger and personal
safety, he could ask the great question, "What
must I do to be saved .^" It was the work of
the Holy Spirit. What was the meaning of
that thrill of emotion that passed through the
assembled disciples at Jerusalem, and of the
new life that first poured itself into their souls,
and then out of their souls on to the wondering
multitude? It was the work of the Holy
Spirit who gave Savonarola his deep sense of
the Divine presence, an& John Huss his clear
GOD THE HOLY SPIRIT.
1815— 1821]
[might, spirit of.
views of God's free love. Who enabled John
Wyclifife at Lutterworth to forestall the truths
of the Reformation, and in later times Cranmer,
Latimer, and Ridley to bear a brave witness for
them ? Who woke the slumbering energies of
Luther, and gently opened the door of Erasmus's
tender soul ? \\ ho inspired Carey with mis-
sionary zeal, and led forth Henry Alartyn to die
a martyr for the gospel ? Who sent forth illu-
mination into the inquiring spirits of the Wesleys,
and made Whitfield a burning and shining light
to thousands of otherwise ignorant souls ? We
trace every grace and every power which these
men possessed to the operation of the Holy
Spirit. We live in the d'spensation of the
Spirit ; it is He who ministers to us, now that
Christ's bodily presence is taken from His
Church ; and it is from Him that the li e-giving
streams are to come that will refresh the people
of God in the nineteenth century. " Not by
might, nor by power, but by My Spirit^ saith the
Lord of Hosts "Samziel Pearson, M.^., Facets
of Iriith.
W. Practical Bearing.
I The Spirit of Might can alone quicken
souls.
[1S16] The promise of this Spirit is unto all
that are afar off, even as many as the Lord our
God shall call. And what is this call but the
word o{ poiver \^\\.\\ which the Holy Spirit pene-
trates the heart ? A minister might traverse the
churchyard and call up the dead from their
graves by saying the word live over them with
more ease than they, by saying the word live to
a congregation of people dead in soul, could
induce their conversion. People often think
that it is the multitude of words, or the strength
of an argument, which converts sinners. But
what was the force of argument when Christ
said to Matthew, "Follow Me?" Exactly the
same as when He said to the dead son of the
widow of Nain, "Arise!" The objects were
different, but the power was one. ... In pro-
portion as ministers are led to depend upon and
acknowledge Him — the Spirit of Power — is the
success of their ministry. Such are above play-
ing the orator ; . , . their desire is to please
God.— ^. Serle.
[1817] It is very difficult work to draw a soul
out of the hands of Satan, and out of the en-
tanglements of the world, and out of its own
natural perverseness, to yield itself unto God.
. . . The strongest rhetoric, the most moving
eloquence, is all too weak. . . . Only the Father
of spirits hath absolute command of spirits, viz.,
the souls of men, to work on them as He
pleaseth, and where He will. This, po-a/erfitl, this
sanctifying Spirit knows no resistance ; works
sweetly, and yet strongly ; it can come into the
heart, whereas all other speakers are forced to
stand without. That still small voice within
persuades more than all the loud crying with-
out.
When the Lord Himself speaks by this His
Spirit to a man, selecting and calling him out of
the lost world, he can no more disobey than
Abraham did, when the Lord spoke to him
after an extraordinary manner to depart from
his own country and kindred. There is a secret
but very powerful virtue in a word, or look, or
touch of this Spirit upon the soul by which it is
forced, not with a harsh, but a pleasing violence,
and cannot choose but follow it — not unlike that
of Elijah's mantle upon Elisha. — Abp. Leightoji.
[1818] In a mill where the machinery is all
driven by water, the working of the whole
machinery depends on the supply of water. Cut
off that supply, and the machinery becomes use-
less. Let on the water, and life and activity is
given to all. The whole dependence is placed
upon the outward supply of water ; still, it is
obvious that we do not throw away the machi-
nery through which the power of the water is
brought to bear upon the work. Just so in the
believer ; the whole man is carried on by the
Spirit of Christ, else he is none of His. The
working of every day depends upon the daily
supply of the living stream from on high. Cut
off that supply, and the understanding becomes
a dark and useless lump of machinery ; for the
Bible says that unconverted men have the
understi-nding darkened. Restore the Divine
Spirit, and life and animation is given to all —
the understanding is made a new creature.
Now, though the whole leaning or dependence
here is upon the supply of the Spirit, still it is
obvious that we do not cast away the machinery
of the human mind, but rather honour it far
more than the world does. — McCheyne.
2 The Spirit of Might necessary for our
transformation into the Divine image.
[18 1 9] It must be something of heaven in our
mind that shall resist the devil and hell. Open
thou thy window and let in the beams of the
Divine light ; then shalt thou find the shadows
of the night dispelled, and the warm breath of
love transforming thee from darkness to light,
from the similitude of Satan into the Divine
image.— /(9/i« Smith.
[1820] Suppose a blacksmith were sent for to
mend a number of old broken iron vessels, and
told that he must do it without fire, what would
he say to the proposal ? Yet sinners' hearts are
as hard and cold ! and just as foolish are they
who think that all that is needed is to begin and
go on hammering at them, and that will convert
them. No ; heat the iron, and it may be mended
and remoulded. Melt the soul with the Spirit
of burning, or we are without hope of seeing ajiy
saving change.
3 The Spirit of Might necessary to the
fulfilment of duties and overcoming of
difficulties.
[1821] How seldom does this indwelling of
320
l82I-
COD THE HOLY SPIRIT.
-1826!
[might, spirit op.
the Spirit of God in us seem to be considered
indispensable to all moral excellence ! You may
turn over volume after volume of dreary ethical
disquisitions and find, amidst the clearest classi-
fication of duties, almost nothing about hoxv these
duties are to be accomplished. The upshot of
their practical suggestions is simply, " Heal
thyself." The only counsel for the taming of
the passions is like the physician's advice to
poor Queen Mary —
" He says
That rest is all ; tells me I must not think ;
That I must rest ! . . .
Catch the wild cat, cage him, and when he
springs
And maims himself against the bars, say. Rest.'"
Not like Jesus, who first tamed the writhing
demoniac by casting out the devil that possessed
him ; who first healed the thirty years' cripple,
and put new life into him, and then said, when
He had made him whole, "Sin no more.'' The
spark (of life) must come to us from the Son of j
God ; must be fanned into flame by the Spirit
of God ; must kindle hope and power and
patience in all our conflicts with sin through the
stirring consciousness of God's indwelling in our
inner man. No one is made good but through
the indwelling of God. . . . Gaze at that
noble picture of " Diana or Christ." See how
the delicate, feeble girl is being raised out of
herself and her position, with no ear and no eye
for the quivering crowds around her ; nay, with
no heart for the agonizing looks of the lover
close to her. " Her eyes are homes of silent
prayer." She is filled with one single image,
sensible of one single Presence, gazing into one
single countenance, which eclipses all things
else.
" She sees a Hand they cannot see,
Which beckons her away ;
She hears a V'oice they cannot hear,
Which says she must not stay."
Instinctively we "fall down on our face, con-
fessing that Cod is in her of a truthP
The Christian experiences through the in-
coming of his Masters Spirit that he is made
the habitation of God. . . . Life and power
constitute that " firstfruits of the Spirit." — T.
Griffith.
[1822] Suppose we saw an army sitting down
before a granite fortress, and they told us that
they intended to Ijatter it down. We might ask
them, how ? They point us to a cannon-ball.
Well, but there is no power in that. It is
heavy, but not more than a hundredweight, or
half a hundredweight. If all the men in the
army were to throw it, that would make no
impression. They say, No, but look at the
cannon. Well, but there is no power in that ;
it is a machine, and nothing more. But look at
the powder. Well, there is no power in that ;
a child may spill it, a sparrow may pick it up.
Yet this powerless powder and this powerless
ball are put into this powerless cannon ; one
spark of fire enters it, and then, in the twinkling
of an eye, that powder is a flash of lightning,
and that cannon-ball is a thunder-bolt, which
smites as if it had been sent from heaven. So
is it with our Church machinery of the present
day. We have our instruments for pulling
down the strongholds, but oh .' for the baptism
of fire. — Rev. VV. Arthur.
4 The needed supply of might granted.
(i) For the fulfilment of the duties of the
Christian life.
[1823] The new position of the Christian is
like that of a bankrupt, for whom his liabilities
have been met, and who is set up with a new
capital, in a new partnership, to make a new
start in a new world. God interests Himself
for His client's future righteousness. God frees
him from the obligations of the past that he
may henceforth labour, unencumbered with any
liabilities, at this righteousness. God supplies
power for this righteousness by a special grant
of His own Spirit from Himself. — T. Criffith.
(2) To dispel troubles.
[1824] Comfort from the words and promises
of Christ doth sometimes break in through all
opposition, into the saddest and darkest con-
dition imaginable ; it comes and makes men
sing in a dungeon, rejoice in flames, glory in
tribulation, &;c. Whence is this ? The Spirit
works effectually ; His power is in it ; He will
work, and none shall let Him. . . . The saints
who have communion with the Holy Ghost know
to their advantage that their consolation nor
trouble depend not on any outward condition,
nor inward frame of their own hearts, but on the
powerful and effectual workings of the Holy
Ghost. — J. Owen.
(3) In accordance with persofial character.
[1825] The Holy Spirit acts now like the
gentle breeze upon minds as tenderly consti-
tuted as John, Melancthon, Zinzendorf, now
like a sweeping storm or whirlwind upon cha-
racters as strong as Paul, Luther, Calvin, Knox.
—P. Schaff.
(4) According to our special circumstances
ajid exigencies.
[1826] The so forming us, by a second birth,
into new creatures ; that what was doubted
becomes certain, what was closed becomes
opened, what was difficult becomes easy, what
had seemed impossible becomes within our
power. — Cyprian.
DIVISION C
{CotUinued).
NAMES EXPRESSIVE OF HI S OFFICES.
[i] THE IMPARTING OF WISDOM.
Pages 322 to 328.
ALPHABETICAL TABLE OF TOPICS.
(l) Generally.
22
KNOWLEDGE, SPIRIT OF.
23
PROPHECY, SPIRIT OF.
24
REVELATION, SPIRIT OF.
(2) Specifically.
25
COUNSEL, SPIRIT OF.
26
FEAR OF THE LORD, SPIRIT OF.
27
TRUTH, SPIRIT OF.
28
UNDERSTANDING, SPIRIT OF.
29
WISDOM, SPIRIT OF.
321
VOL. T.
322
DIVISION C
{Continued).
NAMES EXPRESSIVE OF HIS OFFICES.
[2] THE IMPARTING OF WISDOM.
(i) Generally, and (2) Specifically.
22
KNOWLEDGE, SPIRIT OF.
(Isa. xi. 2.)
[1827] The Spirit gives the knowledge of the
deep things of God (Matt. xi. 27).
::>ee " Seven Spirits of God," No. 7, p. 502.
23
PROPHECY, SPIRIT OF.
(Rev. xix. 10.)
I. Scripture Basis and Purport.
[1828] St. Peter tells us, "The prophets testi-
fied beforehand the sufferings of Christ and the
glory that should follow." By whose agency
also they were made known he tells us ; it was
" the Spirit of Christ ; " and so far were the
prophets from being the authors of their own
report, that they were forced " to inquire and
search diligently what the Spirit of Christ, which
was in them, did signify." In another place he
extends this observation to all the prophets from
the beginning of the world: " Prophecy came
not in old time by the will of man, but holy men
of God spake as they were moved by the Holy
Ghost." St. Paul also affirms : " All Scripture
is given by inspiration of God." What the
motives were which induced God thus to reveal
His purposes to men, we are at no loss to
declare. He did it first to prepare the world
for the reception of the Messiah ; next, to point
out ihat Messiah when He was come, so that
no doubt could exist respecting Him ; and lastly,
to make us know that all which He had revealed
respecting the ultimate state of the righteous
and the wicked shall surely be fulfilled in its
season. The Spirit of Prophecy reveals it. —
C. Simeon {condensed).
[1829] The whole Christian, spiritual life in
individuals, as well as in the Church, is to the
seer the result of the Spirit's work. But the
Spirit is to him sevenfold ; he recognizes, there-
fore, in Christendom a manifold variety of
powers or existence-forms, gifts, or modes of
manifestation of the one Spirit, which in their
union express His entire fulness. From the
manifoldly various gifts of the Spirit, from the
universal activity of the Spirit in Christians and
Christendom, from the individual peculiarities
of the Christian life in their relation to the
Divine principle, or, as the seer himself would
express it, from the number of the seven Spirits,
the Spirit com(?S before him especially and
almost exclusively as the Spirit of prophecy. . . .
Those who have the Spirit of prophecy enter
into the Spirit, or a state of inspiration. —
Gebhardt.
II. Christological Aspect.
[1830] The theme or burden of the Bible is
Jesus. Not philosophy, nor science, nor theo-
logy, nor metaphysics, nor morality, but Jesus.
• — H. Bonar.
III. Extended Meaning.
[183 1] Preaching is that ordinance in the
Church of later times which answers to the
prophesying in the apostolic age. Its subject
is the same ; Jesus, the Incarnate Son of God,
the Crucified Saviour of the world. Its purpose
is the same, and if it be faithful it will have
the same power — the power of the Spirit. — J.
Hare.
IV. Practical Basis.
I The spirit of prophecy not sufficiently
appreciated.
[1832] Many are far more willing to believe
that the power of the Spirit lies in outward acts
and symbols. Thus the fetish-worshipper and
the idolater have still their counterparts in
Christendom. There are the worshippers of
the mere elements in the Sacraments. There
are those who fancy the dead stones in God"s
house more precious than the living. There
are these who attach more importance to
gestures and postures, to crossings and genu-
flexions, to surplices and copes, than to the
doctrine of truth and the practice of love.
There are those who long to see the presence of
miracles in the Church, and would regard these
as a more certain token of the j^rescnce of God
than the prophesying of faith, the conviction of
the Spirit. — Ibid. *
GOD THE HOLY SPIRIT.
'33—1840]
[revelation, spirit
323
24
REVELATION, SPIRIT OR
(Eph. i. 17.)
I. The Work of the Spirit is Revela-
tion, NOT Creation.
[1833] The work of the Spirit is revelation,
not creation. He does not make Christ. He
explains Him. His text is Christ. From that
theme He never strays. The Christian student
sees a Christ which he did not see twenty years
ago — the same, yet not the same ; larger, grander,
tenderer every day ; a new music in His speech,
an ample sufficiency in His grace ; a deeper
humiliation in His cradle ; a keener agony in
His cross. This increasing revelation is the
work of the Holy Ghost. — Dr. Joseph Parker.
[1834] "Conceived by the Holy Ghost" is
the beginning ; " He shall glorify Me " is the
end. The Incarnation of the Son of God was
the work of the Holy Ghost ; how natural that
the explanation of Him should be by the same !
—Ibid.
II. Practical Bearing.
I The need of spiritual insight to discern
spiritual truth.
[1835] "Any tyro can see the facts for him-
self if he is provided with those not rare articles
—a nettle and a microscope." These words
are Mr. Huxley's. But why the microscope?
Suppose the " tyro " should be provided with
" a nettle " only .''
These inquiries point in a direction which
materialists are not willing to pursue. The
introduction of the microscope is an admission
that even the keenest eyes cannot see certain
substances, forms, and movements with the aid
of optical instruments. Great store is to be set
by this admission, for it requires in material
investigation precisely what is demanded in
spiritual inquiry. Suppose any one should in-
sist upon examining the nettle without the aid
of the microscope, and should declare that he is
unable to verify Mr. Huxlev's observations.
Mr. Huxley would properly reply that the inner
structure and life of the nettle could not be seen
by the naked eye, for they are microscopically
" discerned."
Now this is precisely what St. Paul states
when treating the subject of spiritual investiga-
tion : " The natural man receiveth not the things
of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness
unto him, neither can he know them, because
they are spiritually discerned." Without the
microscope we cannot scientifically examine the
plant, neither can any inquirer discern and
understand "the things of the Spirit of God"
without a spiritual organ adapted to the difficulty
of the investigation. — Ibid.
[1836] This is the very life of Divine faith,
touching the mysteries of salvation, firmly to
believe their revelation by the Spirit of God.
This word carries the lively stamp of Divine
inspiration, but there must be a spiritual eye to
discern it. He that is blind knows not that the
sun shines at noon, but by the report of others ;
but they that see are assured they see it, and
assured by no other thing but its own light.
The soul is nothing but darkness and blindness
within, till that same Spirit that shines without
in the word shines likewise within it, and effec-
tually makes it light ; but that once done, then
is the word read with some measure of the
same Spirit by which it was written, and the
soul has ascertained that it is Divine.
The Spirit of God within brings evidence with
it, and makes itself discernible in the word ;
this all arguments, all books and study cannot
attain unto. . . The things of God, even such
as are revealed in His word, cannot be known
but by His own Spirit ; so that though revealed,
yet they remain unrevealed till the Spirit teach
them within as well as without, because they
are intelligible to none but by those who are the
private scholars and hearers of the Holy Ghost.
— Abp. Leigliton.
[1837] Scripture can only be savingly under-
stood by the illumination of the Holy Spirit.
The gospel is a picture of God's free grace to
sinners. Now, were we in a room hung with
the finest paintings, and adorned with the most
exquisite statues, we could not see one of them
if all light were excluded : the Spirit's light is
the same to the mind that outward light is to
the bodily eyes. The most correct and lively
description of the sun cannot convey either the
light, the warmth, the cheerfulness, or the fruit-
fulness which the actual shining oi' that luminary
conveys ; neither can the most laboured and
accurate dissertation on grace and spiritual
things impart a true idea of them, without an
experience of the work of the Spirit upon the
heart. The Holy Spirit must shine upon your
graces, or you will not be able to see them ;
and your works must shine upon your. faith, or
your neighbours will not be able to see it. —
Toplady.
[1838] The inward teaching of the Holy
Ghost alone could make the Godhead of Jesus
a certainty of faith, as well as a conclusion of
the intellect. — Canon Liddon.
[1839] Revelation is made by a Spirit to a
spirit. "God hath revealed them to us by His
Spirit." Christ is the voice of God without the
man ; the Spirit is the voice of God within the
man. The highest revelation is not made by
Christ, but comes directly from the universal
Mind to our minds. Therefore Christ said
Himself, " He, the Spirit, shall take of Mine
and shall show it unto you." — F. W. Robertson.
[1840] This is the way and manner in which
we, too, receive the Holy Ghost, and in which
He begins to glorify the Saviour in us. Often
324
1840-
COD THE HOLY SPIRIT.
1847]
[counsel, spirit of.
years will pass away over us, as over the dis-
ciples, long years, during which we may hear
the word of the Lord daily, and are yet not
penetrated thorouglily thereby. He evermore
opens the fountains of His grace to refresh us
with His life-giving water ; but we let it dry up,
without drinking it into our hearts. We take
pleasure in His words ; but that which is
deepest and most precious in them is totally
lost to us, because our sense for it has not been
awakened yet. He has so many things to say
to us ; but we cannot hear them yet ; for the
life-giving Spirit has not come and enlightened
us. — Hossbach.
2 The Spirit as the Spirit of Revelation
supplies the needed spiritual insight.
[1841] "God hath revealed them unto us by
His Spirit." So the Christian sees a world
which is invisible to others. The horizon is the
prison line of other men, but to the man who is
enlightened and ruled by the Holy Ghost it is
the door of his Father's higher kingdom. He
has spiritual _/(Wj-4'"/'/, because he has spiritual
insight.
Grieve not the Holy Spirit of God by wishing
for another ministry than His own, pining after
the revelations given to the infantile world. . . .
He is all gifts in one.
One great office of this Holy Comforter
should never be wanting from the memory of
His people. He doth not call them to a set of
notions and opinions only ; but He works in
them a change of heart and newness of life.
Their tenets, therefore, are things rather than
words, and exist in facts more than in specula-
tions. A carnal man may know the form of the
gospel, but the true believer only knows the
matter of it. — Dr. Joseph Parker.
3 Love is the principle upon which spiritual
insight is given.
[1842] It may be difficult to express in one
word the nature of this spiritual organ ; im-
possible, indeed, unless we go to Jesus Christ,
who came to reveal the Father. He will give
us the universal term. . . .
God is love. Thou shalt love. I will mani-
fest Myself to him that loveth Me.
To whom will nature reveal itself? To the
clown or to the poet ? The poet gets some-
thing out of "the meanest flower that blows."
The wise man hears music in the wind, the
stream, and the twitter of birds. What does
the clown hear, or the sordid man .'' Noises —
tongues unknown and uninterpreted. Nature
says precisely what Jesus Christ says : " I will
manifest Myself to him that loveth Vi^.^—Ibid.
4 Joy is the accompanist of spiritual in-
sight.
[1843] To talk of Divine things, and to enjoy
ihem, are as different as substance and shadow ;
and to dispute about Christ without the Spirit
of Christ is only beating the air. Let me then
have the unction from the Holy One, that I
may not only know the things of God, but know
them aright — know them to be His— know them
to be mine in Him. May I ever be afraid of
naked, barren speculations, as children are of
spectres ! May it be my aim by the help of
this Spirit of revelation to seek not only for
substance in Divine things, but for their endur-
ing substance. Let me grow rich in faith
rather than in notions. Amidst a world of
opinions may I see it my privilege and duty to
rest upon Him who can never change, and upon
His Word which can never be broken ! Let me
never be taken with any fine spun speculations
of salvation. This is the joy of the believer's
heart, with which a stranger to God inter-
meddlcth not. — A. Serle.
25
COUNSEL, SPIRIT OF.
(Isa. xi. 2.)
[1844] The spirit of counsel and might are
closely related. They stand in juxtaposition in
Isa. xi. The former is the factilty of forming
counsels, while the latter is that of executing
them (Isa. xxviii. 29).
See " Seven Spirits of God," No. 7, p. 302.
26
FEAR OF THE LORD, SPIRIT OF.
(Isa. xi. 2.)
[1845] This refers to a reverential obedient
fear. This is a very different thing to a servile
fear, which, like a distant sun, brings no fruit
to perfection.
See " Seven Spirits of God," No. 7, p. 302.
27
TRUTH, SPIRIT OF.
(John xiv. 17.)
I. Christological Aspect.
[1846] The Holy Spirit will not come unless
He Himself departs. Why is this .-^ Could not
Christ, remaining on earth in His bodily pre-
sence, send the Holy Spirit.-' Yes; but we
cannot receive the Spirit so long as we know
Christ only according to the flesh. — Bp. Words-
worth.
II. QuE.STioNS Respecting its Interpre-
tation.
I The progressive character of the revela-
tion of the truth by the Spirit.
[1847] No one can be taught faster than he
can learn. — Anon.
GOD THE HOLY SPIRIT.
1848- 1855]
[TRUTH, SPIRIT OF.
[1848] In theology, as in every other depart-
ment of human knowledge, there is a law of
progress. . . . Truths, which in on£ age are
almost latent, are recognized simply and insu-
latedly by faith, on the authority of a positive
declaration, are brought out more distinctly by
subsequent ages, and ranged in their mutual
connection, in their position as parts of the
system of truth. . . . Not, however, that this
progress is always an advance along the line
of truth in theology, any more than in other
sciences. Man's path bends aside, winds, twists,
seems often to return upon itself. His orbit has
its aphelia as well as its perihelia. When he
has made a lodgment in a new field of know-
ledge, he will set about building a tower, the ton
of which, he fancies, shall reach to heaven ; and
generations, it may be, will spend their lives in
working at such a tower v^.^^'., the schoolmen),
until the spirit of division and confusion comes
down among the workmen. Thus one system
after another has passed away, each however
leaving behind some contribution, greater or
less, to the general stock of theological truth.
Meanwhile God's word stands fast, even as the
heavens and the earth. To the words of Scrip-
ture we cannot add ; nor may we take away
from them. But truth in Scripture is set before
us livingly, by examples, by principles, in the
germ, not by the enunciation of a formal dog-
matical system, according to which the thoughts
of men were to be classed and rubricated lor
ever after ; nor can any human scheme or
system make out a title to the possession of
such an absolute, conclusive ultimatum. . . .
The right theory of development by no means
implies that each later age must necessarily
have a fuller and deeper knowledge of Divine
things than its predecessors. The very reverse
having notoriously been often the case. For
the world is always wrestling to draw man
away from the truth, and will often prevail, as
Jacob did over the angel ; and when faith is at
a low ebb, when the visible and material pre-
dominate in men's hearts and minds over the
invisible, the ideal, the spiritual theology must
needs dwindle and decay. But when there is a
revival of faith, if this revival coincides with, or
is succeeded by, a period of energetic thought,
a deeper or clearer insight will be gained into
certain portions of truth, especially appropriate
to the circumstances and exigencies of the age,
and which have not yet been set forth in their
fulness {e.g., the true doctrine of the Trinity in
the fourth century ; that of justification by faith
in the sixteenth).— y. Hare [condensed).
2 Necessary limits to be assigned to the
truth revealed by the Spirit.
[1849] It is not omniscience that is promised,
but all necessary religious knowledge. — Camp-
bell.
[1850] "-All the truth''— "Cn^ truth as it is in
Jesus, the whole counsel of God. — J. Scott.
[1851] This truth, which the Holy Ghost is to
teach them, is not such a doctrine and know-
ledge as reason of itself can understand and hit
upon : for the Holy Ghost and Christ's Church
do not concern themselves with things which
are subject to man's understanding, and which
belong to this temporal life ; . . . . but treat of
far other matters, how God's children are to be
begotten out of sin and death unto righteous-
ness and everlasting life— how God's kingdom
is to be established, and the kingdom of hell to
be destroyed — how we are to fight against the
devil and to overcome him — how to cheer,
strengthen, and uphold faith, so that a man shall
continue alive in the midst of death, and even
under the consciousness of sin shall preserve
a good conscience and the grace of God. —
Luther.
[1852] One cannot too often urge that it is
necessary to lay aside the common meaning
which we attach to the word truth, if we would
form a right conception of St. John's aXriOtia.
By this word he denotes, not an object of theo-
retical knowledge, but a relation to God and
the things of God. The religions of the heathens
are represented in the Old Testament as mere
lies and nonentities ; and agreeably thereto a
right conception of the things of God, in accord-
ance with the will of God, on the part of man,
is termed truth. — y. C. Hare.
3 Evil consequences of failing to assign
the necessary limits to the truth revealed
by the Spirit.
[1853] The misprision of this passage (John
xiv. 17) has aided in fostering the delusive notion
that the Bible is a kind of encyclopjedia of uni-
versal knowledge, and that every expression in it
bearing, however allusively, upon astronomy, or
geology, or history, has the same Divine attes-
tation of its infallibility as what it reveals con-
cerning God, and concerning man in his relation
to God By reason of this notion man
would save himself from the labour of patient
and continuous thought . . . would fain believe
himself to be omniscient, without taking the
pains to become so. — J. Hare.
III. Questions respecting its Practical
Bearing.
I The nature and reality of the Spirit's
ofiP.ce as the revealer of Christian truth.
[1854] So imperfectly do we yet understand
the redemption wrought for us by Christ, and so
obstinate are we in separating what God has
united, as though it were impossible for the Tree
of Knowledge to stand beside the Tree of Life.
Yet in the redeemed world they do stand side
by side, and their arms intermingle and inter-
twine, so that no one can walk under the shade
of the one but he will also be under the shade of
the other. — J. Hare.
[1855] The Holy Ghost is the living, personal.
Divine unity of complete revelation, and, as
326
i855-
COD THE HOLY SPIRIT.
1862]
[tr[;th, spirit of.
such, the Spirit of Truth. He is the Spirit of
Truth inasmuch as He makes objective truth
subiective in believers, in order to the knowledge
of the truth. Objectivelv He is the Spirit of
God (Rom. viii. 14), and God Himself (Acts v.) ;
the Spirit of the Father (Matt. x. 20) ; the
Spirit of Christ (Rom. viii. 9) ; the Spirit of the
Lord (2 Cor. iii. 17) ; the Holy Spirit (Acts ii.)
Subjectively Pie is the Spirit of Truth, the
Spirit of wisdom and revelation (Eph. i. 17) ; the
Spirit of power, of love, and of sound mind (2
Tim. i. 7); the Spirit of saPctification(Rom. i. 4) ;
the Spirit of adoption and prayer (Rom. viii.
15), of life (Rom. viii. 10), of meekness (i Cor.
iv. 21), of comfort (Acts ix. 31), of glory (i Pet.
iv. 14), of sealing, of the earnest of eternal life
(Eph. i. 13, 14), of all Christian gifts (i Cor. xii.
4). As the Spirit of Truth the Holy Ghost
applies to believers the full truth of the perftct
rei'elation of Cod. — LaJii^e.
[1856] The Saviour here promises a new,
higher, and till then unknown principle, the
Spirit of 'Truth. This expression implies no
less that the Spirit produces the truth in those
who receive Him, than that He Himself is the
Trtith. As God Himself is the Truth, and the
Son as the revealer of the unseen Father, so the
Spirit also, the highest manifestation of the God-
head, is the Truth in Hiuiself and only imparts
the truth in that He imparts Himself. Truth
here is not the intellectual truth of reflection,
but that absolute Truth which is Life itself.—
Olshausen.
[1857] The object of faith must be truth.
The doctrine of the Deity of Christ and of the
Holy Spirit in union with the Father, so that
they are not three Gods but one God, is not
merely a proposition expressed in words to which
our assent is required, but it is absolutely
necessary to be known, since without it no one
truth respecting salvation can be rightly under-
stood ; no one promise duly believed ; no one
duty spiritually performed. . . . This doctrine
must appear irrational and absurd in the eye of
reason. ... No man can say that Jesus is the
Lord but by the Holy Ghost. — John Newton.
[1858] The Holy Spirit reveals to me no new
truths, but has only shown me the meaning of
His own written word ; nor is His light a par-
ticular revelation, it is common to all who are
born again. And thus though you and I cannot
fully agree about it, yet I almost daily meet with
persons from the east, west, north, and south,
whom, though I never saw them before, I find
wc understar.d each other at once.
I believe that the Holy Spirit (the gift of God,
through Jesus Christ) is the sure and only guide
into all truth, and the common privilege of all
believers ; and, under His guidance, I believe the
Holy Scriptures are able to make us wise unto
salvation, and to furnish us thoioughly for every
good work. — Idid,
2 The believer's recognition of the Spirit as
the Spirit of Truth.
[1859] Faith knows infallibly that the Spirit,
who reveals to us at once our adoption and the
Divine Fatherhood, and who glorifies Christ, is
Truth (1 John v. 8). For we know the truth by
the presence of truth in the spirit, which truth
makes itself evident as light does, and proves
itself efficacious by contact with our spirit, im-
parting knowledge ; and by contact with the
Spirit of God, we know the .Spirit of (^od has
imparted this certainty, which is infallible. —
Dorner.
3 The absolute need of the Spirit to reveal
Christian truth.
[i860] John xiv. 17 ; xv. 26 ; xvi. 13. 7'he
Spirit of Truth: In Him is all truth ; He is
the Spirit of Him who is truth ; He is the Spirit
who communicates tlie truth to the soul. In a
world of falsehood and an age of error, how
needful is such a spirit ! Truth is that which is
congenial to Him : error that which he hates.
It is in opposition to this Spirit of Truth that
the lie of the last days comes specially forth —
" The strong delusion " leading men to " believe
the lie." It is this Spirit of Truth that we are
to seek fellowship with ; and to do so specially
by cultivating the knowledge of the word of His
truth. — tl. Bonar.
[1861] The word truth contains a sense in the
original which is both precious to the soul and
confirmed by experience. It signifies not only
truth in the abstract, but also signifies to nourish
with the truth. In the former view the truth is
a rock, and full of perfection ; but in the latter
view it is nourishment with the truth communi-
cable, with all its train of blessings. . . . The
infallible rule is the Word of Truth ; and the
infallible guide is the Spirit of Truth.
If all the saints and apostles could descend
from heaven to instruct one soul, and if all had
the eloquence of angels, vain would be their
united efforts, unattended by this Holy Spirit,
to "translate" that soul "from darkness to
light," and to give it a right understanding of
the truth. They would " plant and water in
I vain" unless God (by His Spirit) should "give
' the increase." — A. Serle.
IV. Objections met.
[1862] "Because" our Saviour had forborne
to reveal several truths to His disciples, which
they were not then capable of. He would supply
this difficulty afterwards by His Holy Spirit,
who should instruct them fully in those truths,
which He, in condescension to their prejudice
and incapacity, had in His lifetime forborne to
do ; that is. He would take a fitter season to
instruct them fully by His Spirit in those truths
which, when He was upon earth, they were not
capable of receiving. ..." Ve cannot bear
them now." . . . He shall take up and supply
what is wanting.
GOD THE HOLY SPIRIT.
1 8 32— 1872]
[wisdom, spirit of.
It is not necessary at all times to preach all
truths which are of importance to be known.
. . . There ought to be a due regard to what
the people can bear ; we ought, in imitation of
our Saviour's example, patiently to expect and
endeavour to remove prejudice, before we ex-
pose truth to be rejected by those who have
taken up a violent prejudice against it. — Abp.
Tillotsott.
[1863] The writers of the Gospels,who were un-
learned and illiterate men, were enabled by the
Holy Ghost to record with minuteness and ac-
curacy the sublime sayings and marvellous acts
of Christ. Here is the refutation of all objec-
tions to their veracity. They were inspired by
the Spirit of Truth, who taught them all things,
and brought to their remembrance all things
that Christ had said to them. — Bp. Wordsivortli.
[1864] A disciple of the school of Voltaire
might indeed object that what the learned
divines at any period in the history of the
Church did nof know, was, at all events, known
to the Holy Ghost, and that He might have
taught it to them. To which I would only reply
by asking, Why did the same Spirit, who
spake by the mouth of the prophets under the
old covenant, merely declare the unity of the
Godhead, and not the Trinity, by the mouth of
Moses to the chosen people ^ . . . For my own
part I am satisfied with an answer,, which en-
ables us to discern the wisdom of the Saviour
already working under the old covennnt : " I
have many things to say unto you, but ye can-
not bear them now." — Gi'uitlier.
28
UNDERSTANDING, SPIRIT OF.
(Isa. xi. 2.)
[1865] This is a spirit of discernment and
prudence. For instances turn to our Lord's
replies to His adversaries, Matt. xxii. i8. Mark
xii. 34 ; and His insight into man, John ii. 25.
By the Spirit's aid we alone can have a right
judgment in all things, sanctified common sense,
and a quick discernment between good and
evil, and between the good things themselves
when they differ in excellence, and thus be-
come a matter which upon choice has to be used.
—C. N.
See "Seven Spirits of God," No. 7, p. 302.
29
WISDOM, SPIRIT OF.
(Eph. i. 17.)
I. Import.
[1866] The Spirit of Wisdom was given that
we might krow, be enlightened. It teacheth
us to profit. The kind of wisdom is not to be
raised by the intellect or industry of man —
it is life — and is the very principle of spiritual
being. ... It is from above. ... In this way
He renders His people (however ignorant in
worldly science) truly learned and deeply wise.
— A. Serle.
II. Practical Bearing.
I The Spirit, as the Spirit of Wisdom,
not needed on account of Scripture ob-
scurity, but man's moral obtuseness.
[1867] Men need Divine teaching, not be-
cause of the peculiar difficulty of Scripture
language, nor because of the incomprehensi-
bility of Scripture doctrine — for the things most
misunderstood are the things which are revealed
most clearly — but because, without that teach-
ing, men will not learn, nor can they know those
truths which are revealed only to those who
tell them. When Christ appeared, the light
shone in the darkness, and the darkness com-
prehended it not. Unholy affection had sur-
rounded the mental eye with the very opposite
of clear, "dry light," and had impaired the
organ itself. Blindness of heart produced igno-
rance ; and alienation "from the life of God"
was at once the cause and the aggravated effect
of an " understanding darkened." The source
of this teaching is clearly revealed. Christians
are " all taught of the Lord ; " and He who gave
to the Epliesian Church " the Spirit of Wisdom
and revelation," was "the God oiour Lord Jesus
Christ, the Father of Glory." — Dj'. Angus.
2 The Spirit gives us no new revelation,
but new views of the old revelation.
[1868] This is certain, that no new revelation
is to be expected by us. . . . The Spirit now
enlightens men by shining upon the written
word. . . . He will give us just views.
[1869] It is necessary to add, that the Spirit
of God does not communicate to the mind of
even a teachable, obedient, and devout Chris-
tian any doctrine or meaning of Scripture which
is not contained already in Scripture itself. He
makes men wise up to what is written, but not
beyond it. When Christ opened the under-
standing of His apostles, it was "that they might
understand the scriptures." — Dr. Angus.
[1870] I call by the name of wisdom— know-
ledge, rich and varied, digested and' combined,
and pervaded through and through by the light
of the 'i>'^\x\\..~-Dr. Arnold.
[1871] Though God will not catch you up to
Paradise, as He did the apostle Paul, or make
the heavens open to you, as He did to the dying
Stephen, yet will He shine into your hearts, to
give you light and knowledge, of which you have
at present scarcely any conception.— /vVz/. C.
Simeon.
[1872] The things which the Holy Ghost
discovers to us are no other for substance than
Z2d
1872-
GOD THE HOLY SPIRIT.
1877 1
[wisdom, spirit of.
those very things which are contained in the
written word ; only He affords regenerate per-
sons clearer light to discern them by than they
had before conversion. Turn a learned man to
the same author which he perused when a young
student ; he will find the same author, but see a
great deal further into it, because he hath now
got further light and knowledge. — Arrowsmith.
[1873] If I am asked how we distinguish be-
tween what is revealed to us by the Spirit of
God, and what we discover by the energy and
penetration of our own thought, I can only reply
that the question seems to me to rest on a mis-
conception of the nature of spiritual illumination.
The " wisdom which the Spirit grants us is not
a *' wisdom " separable from the ordinary activity
and discernment of our own minds ; it is not
something alien to our own higlier life ; it be-
comes our own wisdom, just as the vision which
Christ miraculously restored to the blind men
was not something foreign to them but their own.
They saw what before they had only handled,
and the nobler sense revealed to them what the
inferior sense could not make known ; they saw
for themselves what they had only heard of from
others. The reality of the supernatural work
was ascertained by the new discoveries it
enabled them to make of the world in which
they were living. Analogous effects follow the
illumination of the Holy Spirit. When the
"Spirit of wisdom and revelation " is granted to
us, "the eyes" of our heart, to use Paul's phrase
in the next verse, are " enlightened " — our own
eyes— and we see the glory of God. Apart
from this illumination no true knowledge of God
is possible to man. — R. IV. Dale.
[1874] Perhaps the safest description of the
gift which is promised to all Christians is that
which is contained in the text. It is the "spirit
of wisdom." It is not a blind impulse, resulting
in a conviction having no intelligible grounds ;
it is not an impression having nothing to justify
it except the obstinacy with which we hold to
it. When the Spirit of God illuminates the
mind, we see the meaning of what Christ said
and what Christ did. We simply find what was
in the Christian revelation from the beginning.
The discovery is no private and personal dis-
tinction. What we have seen in Christ, if our
vision is clear and true, other Christian men will
be able to see in Him for themselves. There is
nothing violent, nothing abnormal, in the expe-
rience of those who are thus illuminated by the
Holy Spirit ; they simply obtain the more effi-
cient use of a faculty which is necessary to the
integrity of human nature. — Ibid.
3 The Spirit gives us just views.
(i) (9/ God Himself.
[1875] Somewhat of God maybe known from
books, without any supernatural aid ; but the
knowledge gained in that way will be merely
theoretical ; it will have no suitable influence
upon the heart and life. But the very same
truths, when applied by the Spirit to the soul,
make a deep impression on the mind : they fill
the soul with wonderful love, and constrain the
enraptured saint to exclaim, " I have heard of
Thee by the hearing of the ear ; but now mine
eye seeth Thee!" How precious does Christ
appear at such seasons ! how " unsearchable
the length, and breadth, and depth, and height
of His incomprehensible love ! " These are the
manifestations of Himself which our blessed
Lord promised to His Church, and without
which we cannot know aright either Him or
His Father. . . . Let us pray, then, for the
Spirit of Wisdom and revelation, in and for the
knowledge of Him. — C. Simeon.
(2) Of the hope of our calling:
[1876] How low are our apprehensions of the
Christian's portion, when no particular revela-
tion of it is made to the soul ! We can speak
of pardon and acceptance, of grace and glory ;
but we speak of them with no more feeling than
if they were mere fictions. But, oh, what a
gloriously rich inheritance daes ours appear,
when our eyes are opened by the Spirit to
behold it ! One Pisgah view of the Promised
Land, how does it transport the soul to heaven,
and make us long to be dissolved, that we may
be with Christ ! As for the inheritances of
princes, they then appear as worthless as the
toys that amuse a child. The realities of the
eternal world surpass all sublunary things. — C.
Simeon.
(3) Of the work He has wrought in us.
[1877] We are apt to undervalue the v/ork
that is already wrought in us, because so much
remains to be done. But when God shines
upon His own work, we entertain very different
thoughts respecting it. It is no light matter,
then, in our eyes to have been quickened from
the dead, and "created anew in Christ Jesus."
It seems no less a work than that which was
" wrought for Christ when God raised Him from
the dead," and "set Him at His own right hand,
above all the principalities and powers," whether
of heaven or of hell. We were dead and buried ;
and Satan set, as it were, the stone, the seal, the
watch, to keep us securely under the power of
the grave. But our God came " by the mighty
working of His power," and made us triumphant
over all the powers of darkness. — JOid.
DIVISION C
(Continued).
NAMES EXPRESSIVE OF HIS OFFICES.
[3] THE WORK OF SANCTIFICATION
(GENERALLY).
ALPHABETICAL TABLE OF TOPICS.
30
COMFORTER.
31
FREE SPIRIT.
32
GOOD SPIRIT.
33
HOLINESS, SPIRIT OF.
34
HOLY SPIRIT.
35
TRUTH, SPIRIT OF.
329
230
DIVISION
{Contiitiied).
NAMES EXPRESSIVE OF HIS OFFICES.
[3] THE WORK OF SANCTIFICATION (GENERALLY).
30
COMFORTER.
(John xiv. 26.)
L Interpretation.
[1878] A Comfo7'ter : The word is a wide one.
It means one who comforts, or who pleads, or
who exhorts ; one who " calls us to His side," as
a father does his child when he has some special
thing to say. — H. Bonar.
[1879] We should not forget, in measuring
the fitness of Comforter "as the meaning of the
word Paraclete," that the fundamental idea of
Comforter, according to its etymology and its
early uses, is that of strengthener, and not con-
soler ; even as the TrapaKXiirog was one who,
being summoned to the side of the accused or
imperilled (hence the word advocate), stands by
to aid and encourage. — AdJ>. Trench.
II. Christological Aspect.
[18S0] The Son of Man was to be glorified
before the Spirit was to be given. Humanity
was to ascend to heaven before the Spirit could
be sent to humanity on earth. The revelation
of saving truth was to be complete before in-
spiration was to breathe it as the breath of life
into man's soul.
He is another Advocate, to be to believers in
all time what Christ was to the first disciples ;
to be in men an Advocate on earth, as Christ is
for men an Advocate with the Father. — //. W.
Wat kins.
[1S81] In our Lord's esteem, the Divine gift
of the Spirit, in a manner, surmounted the
benefit of His presence : God having designed
that His absence should be supplied by the
Comforter's more beneficial presence. And
wonderfully beneficial surely must that presence
be which could not only compensate but render
advantageous their loss. Could there be a more
indulgent Master, a more discreet (juide, a more
delightful Companion, a more faithful Friend,
a mightier Protector, a swpetcr Comlorter than
He.'' Yes, it secmeth that our Saviour did ap-
prehend, that upon some accounts those benefits,
with greater advantages, might accrue to them
by the gift of His Spirit, than by His own
immediate presence. Him, therefore, did our
Saviour leave the guardian of His otherwise
orphan disciples ; Him did He substitute to
undergo the care and tuition of them, to con-
duct them in the right way, to preserve them
from danger, to comfort them in distresses, to
manage all their concernments, to be their
Counsellor, Monitor, Advocate, and Patron ; by
Him He meant fully to make good His word,
that He would be with them till the end of the
world. — Isaac Barroiv.
III. Suggested Thoughts.
1 The failure of creature comforts.
[1882] How pleasant always to have con-
verse with the Comforter ! How many wretched
grounds of vain consolation does he devise to
himself who walks with the world ! One secretly
applauds himself, and says, " I enjoy a robust
body and strong health ;" another, " My reputa-
tion is unsullied, and I am in great esteem
amongst my neighbours ;'' another, " I have a
great friend at court;" another, "I have heaps
of money in store." Alas ! when the dreadful
day of calamity approaches, what will become
of all these things.? " Miserable comforters are
ye all," shall the soul say ; and be forced to
confess that no true satisfaction can ever be
expected but from the Father of all mercies and
the God of ail comlort, who, as the Shep'r.erd
of Israel, shall feed me in green pastures, and
lead me forth beside the waters of comfort. —
Bp. Hall.
2 The reality of the comfort afforded by the
Spirit.
[1883] The Comforter: The Paraclete, Sup-
port, Advocate. Wherever the Holy Spirit is
received. He is a Comforter. We may see it
in the pity and love of Christ. His disciples
were much cast down, for He had told them He
was going to leave them. He promises to send
the Spirit to abide with them and supply His
place ; and in doing so He speaks chiefiy of that
one act or operation of the Spirit which He
knew would meet their present feelings. It was
comfort they needed, and a t^omforter, He tells
them, they shall have His special em-
ployment on earth is to watch over the comfort
of the people of God The disciples were
made happier by Himovhen their Master was
GOD THE HOLY SPIRIT.
[COMFORTEK.
pone than they had ever been in His presence.
They were happier in prison and bonds, in
affliction, with Christ out of their sight, than
they were with Christ by their side in security
and quiet. — C. Bradley.
[1884] Another- Comforter. T\\\s,\vo\ A another
is full of meaning, and helps to link the Holy
Spirit and Jesus together. His office is not to
hide, but to show Jesus ; not to make us forget,
but to remember Him.
Another instead of myself. He will fill up my
place — my place of fellowship, counsel, comfort,
and love. He will be to you, for your consola-
tion, what I have been to you.
Another like myself. Another, and yet not
another: in having Him you have me.
A Comforter, who is the fruit of my inter-
cession. I will pray the Father, and He will
give. He does so still. There is always a
praying, and always a giving. We deal with
Him : and He deals with the Father for us.
"Ask of Me, and 1 will give thee" (Psa. ii. Sj.
—H. Bona?'.
[1885] This discourse of Christ's is His great
antidote for human trouble. In its chief promise
He incidentally teaches us some of the most
important truths of our holy religion. Let us
notice : —
(i) The work of the hicnrttatc Christ, as im-
plied in the alhcsion to Himself
If He says He will send "another comforter,"
it is clearly implied that He Himself is a Com-
forter. He virtually says, " I also am a Con-
soler." This aspect of His work is involved —
{a) In the needs He came to meet. To have
had no special mission to the sorrowful would
have been for Him to have neglected the most
evident of the world's wants. For if sin is worse
than sorrow, it does not appear so. {pj In the
predictions of Scripture concerning Hmi. " He
hath sent Me to heal the broken-hearted," &c.
{c) In the nature of His works and words. To
alleviate pain, to console bereavement, to meet
doubt, to lighten death. He set Himself with all
the absorbing interest of a master passion.
(2) Tlie work of the Holy Spirit resembles the
work of the Incarnate Christ.
The life of Jesus Christ is an index of the
work of " the Holy Cihost, the Comforter."
(a) What we read of Jesus Christ doing as a
Consoler, we read also of the Holy Spirit doing.
{b) What men saw Jesus Christ doing in Juda?a,
we may see and feel is being done by the Holy
Spirit now. We may expect that, as Christ led,
and inspired, and soothed, and elevated human
hearts, so the Spirit of God will ever continue
to do. Men are not left " Comfortless."
"Another Comforter" has come, who will abide
with us for ever.
(31 The work of the Holy Spirit transcejids
the similar work of the htcarttate Christ.
So far we have only said the one resembles
the other. Now we are led to consider that the
work of the Holy Ghost, the Comforter, is in
many respects superior even to the work, in His
earthly history, of our Blessed Saviour. There
is indeed a unity in the work. In the deepest
senses it is one. For the coming of the Holy
Ghost is a great revisitation. The points in
which this work of the Spirit is transcendent
are— (rt) In its permanence. Jesus Christ spoke
to His followers of His going away. His stay
amongst them was only for "a little while." At
the time of His uttering these words the air was
full of farewells. But the Holy Ghost is to abide
with men for ever, to take up His abode with
them, [b) In its universalit)-. Jesus Christ was
only known in His bodily form to those who
were around Him, to the comparatively few
dwellers in Judiea. But on every shore, in every
zone, under every sky, the Holy Ghost dwells
with men. (6) In its nearness. They who came
nearest to Christ but kissed His feet, or lay in
His bosom, or were led by His hand, or were
carried in His arms. This is immeasurably
distant in comparison with the dwelling in men,
the making the soul a temple, as is promised of
the Holy Cihost. Not as an external presence,
an external voice, an external touch, but as an
inner presence, voice, and touch, they who have
the Holy Spirit recognize and possess Christ.
Here we beyin to understand what the Lord of
Love niusthave meant when, promising"another
Comforter," He said to His distressed and cling-
ing disciples, " It is expedient for you that I go
away." Christ in us is better than Christ with
us. — Urijah R. 'Thomas.
[1886] All evangelical privileges which be-
lievers enoy in this world centre in the person
of the Holy Spirit. He is the great promise
that Christ made to His disciples, the legacy
which He has bequeathed to them. The grant
made to Him by the Father, when He had done
all His will, was this of the Holy Spirit, to be
communicated by Him to the Church. This
He received of the Father. This Spirit He
now gives to believers ; and no tongue can ex-
press the benefits which they receive thereby.
Therein they are anointed and sealed ; therein
do they receive the earnest and first fruits of
immortality and glory. In a word, therein are
they taken into a participation with Christ Him-
self, in all His honour and glory. Hereby is
their condition rendered honourable, safe, and
comfortable, and the whole inheritance is un-
changeably secured unto them. In this one
privilege therefore of receiving the Spirit, all
others are included. What greater pledge can
we have of the favour of God, what greater
dignity can we enjoy, what greater assurance
can we have of future glory, than that God hath
given unto us His Holy Spirit.? Hence also it
is manifest how abundantly willing He is, that
the heirs of promise should receive strong con-
solation in all their distresses, when they fiy for
refuge to the hope that is set before them. —
7. Uwen.
[1887] He is emphatically styled the Com-
332
i887-
GOD THE HOLY SPIRIT.
-1896]
[comforter.
forter, and no office does He more delight in
fulfilling to the faithful. He would have them
happy ; He bids tliem rejoice ; He proffers
them every blessing and comfort, that " their
joy may be full." — Patterson.
[1888] The Heavenly Bridegroom calls for
the Holy Spirit first as the " North Wind " to
" awake," that is, arise strongly as a Reprover,
then like the South Wind, to " come" gently as
the Comforter. — Fausset.
[1889] Christ came to tell us all, "That to as
many as received Him He gave power to be-
come the sons of God." The Holy Ghost comes
to tell thee that thou art one of them. — Donne.
3 The Holy Spirit, as the Comforter, best
understood in times of persecution.
[1890] The Comforter was to abide with
Christ's Church for ever. Hence it has been
repeatedly seen that, when He was forgotten,
and His abiding presence and influence were
almost denied, by those who occupied the chief
places in the outward Church, He has mani-
fested Himself to others, who, as of old, have
been mocked, and said to have been " full of
new wine," nay have been persecuted, and even
cast out from the outward communion of the
Church.— 7. Hare.
[1891] In the day of persecution God ever
did, and ever will, support His people with His
comforting grace.
This Comforter has show to the strong of the
world that "they are but as tow" with Him,
and that He can make the weakest of the weak
more than a match for all their strength.
Wherever the religion of Jesus was concerned,
it was often observed that persons who were
the most humane, civil, and polite upon all other
occasions, laid aside their usual character. . . .
Education may make men exceedingly accom-
plished, but no education and no habit can root
out the severity of the carnal mind against God.
It will discover itself to be perfectly the same,
whether it exists in a Roman emperor or a
reviling thief on the cross, in the highest or the
lowest, in the proudest or the meanest of man-
kind. The politician brings reasons of state ;
the religionist reasons of superstition ; the
tyrant, his strong reasons of power. It was the
same of old, " Christianos ad X&ov^^?,.''''— Ambrose
Serle.
IV. Enforcements.
I Rejecting: the Holy Ghost the sin of the
present time.
[1892] The world sees no need for the Spirit
at all. It can do without Him. By means of
science, reason, intuition, the verifying faculty,
it can find its way to truth ! The sin of the
world is not only the rejection of Christ, but
of the Holy Ghost. Is not this the special sin
of our intellectual age t—H Bmar.
2 The blessedness of receiving the Holy
Spirit.
[1893] Who has ever consoled like Him ?
There may be situations when an angel's word
would bruise the heart. But the Holy Spirit
does not articulate a single word ; He only
pours drop by drop the Divine oil upon the
wound, and the wound closes. — Gasparin.
[1894] What should we do in our times of
deep distress and sorrow — sorrow, I mean, such
as that which God sometimes sends upon us in
the loss of all our earthly stays and supports —
if it were not for the Holy Ghost the Com-
forter? What is it, think you, that keeps the
bereaved parent's heart, the widow's heart, from
breaking, but the Holy Ghost the Comforter ?
What is it that gives to prayers their wonderful
efficacy in soothing the agitated spirit and turn-
ing despair into the sweet current of resigned
tears, but the Holy Ghost the Comforter?
What is it that in the midst of earthly bereave-
ments lifts the poor mourner's soul to think of
God and heaven and the invisible world, and the
meeting again in the other world, except the
Holy Ghost the Comforter? What is it that
teaches the Christian soul to become more than
conqueror over pain and distress, and anguish,
to triumph in Christ over the worst assaults of
evil, and even when it is weakest then to be
strongest, except the Holy Ghost the Comforter?
Blessed be the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ,
who, departing from the world in the flesh, did
not leave us orphans, but sent the Holy Ghost
thus to be another, a very deep, and holy, and
blessed Comforter to us ! . . . May God give
us His grace that, never grieving Him, nor
quenching His blessed fire within us, nor re-
sisting His holy motions, we may each of us
taste of His comfort — His comfort in our sin,
leading us to true repentance and amendment ;
His comfort in our weakness, leading us to
strength and victory in our secret spiritual
battle ; His comfort in our sorrow, leading us to
that triumphant resignation which is like the
first realization of the holier and happier life
prepared in heaven for those who love and
follow Christ.— i)^. Moberly.
II. Objections met.
[1895] The Spirit in comforting His people
does not always remove the cause of grief. But
He draws happiness out of unhappiness. He
makes the subject of our tears the element of
our smiles. He does not take away the cloud,
but He makes a rainbow of the shower.— 6^. ^^
Bowes.
[1896] Do not wonder if that evidence of
which we speak vary and change in its clear-
ness and force in your own heart. " The flesh
lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against
the flesh." Do not think it cannot be genuine
because it is variable. There is a sun in the
heavens, but there are«heavenly lights, too, that
COD THE HOLY SPIRIT.
1896 — 1902]
[free spirit.
wax and wane ; they are lights, they are in the
heavens, though they change. — Maclaren.
[1897] A Comforter is accepted by all Christ's
disciples. " Ye know Him." He is no stranger
to you. He is your companion, your teacher,
advocate, friend, comforter. You cannot do
without Him. He is and shall be in you ; fill-
ing you as His house. His temple, His holy
vessels. Filled with the Spirit, is not that a
description of a Christian man t " Having not
the Spirit," is that not the description of the man
of the world ? O disciple of the Lord, prize this
gift of the ascended Christ, even the Comforter.
Live in the Spirit ; walk in the Spirit ; pray in
the Spirit. Thus shalt thou be a holy and
blessed man. — H. Bo/iar.
31
FJ^EE SPIRIT.
(Psalm li. 12.)
L Import.
I The Holy Ghost is not tied unto any rules
or course of procedure.
[1898] Much of the variety of the dispensation
of consolation by promise depends upon the
freedom of the Spirit's operation. Hence it is that
comfort is given unexpectedly, when the heart
hath reasons for distress and sorrow. The life
and soul of all our comforts lie treasured up in
the promises of Christ. They are the breasts of
our consolation. Who knows how powerless
they are in the bare letter, even when improved
to the uttermost, by our considerations of them,
and meditation on them ; as also how unex-
pectedly they sometimes break in upon the soul,
with a conquering, endearing life and vigour :
here faith deals peculiarly with the Holy Ghost ;
it considers the promises themselves ; looks up
to Him, waits for Him, considers His appear-
ances ; in the word depended on, owns Him in
His work and efficacy. No sooner doth the
soul begin to feel the life of a promise warming
his heart, relieving, cherishing, supporting, de-
livering from fear, entanglements, or troubles,
but it may, it ought to know, that the Holy
Ghost is there. — y. Owen.
[1899] The manner of the Spirit's working is
eftectually, voluntarily, and freely. Hence some-
times the dispute hangs long ; the cause is
pleading many years ; the law seems some-
times to prevail, sin and Satan to rejoice, and
the poor soul is filled with dread about its inhe-
ritance ; perhaps its own witness, from its faith,
sanctification, former experience, keeps up the
plea with some life and comfort. But the work
is not done, the conquest is not fully obtained,
until the Spirit, who worketh fully and effectu-
ally, when and how He will, comes in with His
testimony also ; clothing His power with a word
of promise, He makes all parties concerned to
attend unto Him, and puts an end to the con-
troversy.— y. Owen.
[1900] John iii. The necessity of regeneration
and faith to salvation is absolute ; the necessity
of baptism, or anything else, is merely relative.
Only unbelief — i.e., the. rejection of the gospel —
with or without baptism, condemns. — P. Schaff.
[1901] The grace of the Holy Ghost is free,
not bound either to means, persons, or times. —
JSIajus.
2 The Holy Spirit sometimes works alto-
gether outside the regular course of things.
[1902] Perhaps the most remarkable incident
in modern history is not the Diet of Worms,
still less the battle of Waterloo, or any other
battle ; but an incident passed carelessly over
by most historians, and treated with some degree
of ridicule by others ; namely, George Fox's
making himself a suit of leather. This man, the
first of the Quakers, and by trade a shoemaker,
was one of those to whom, under ruder or purer
form, the Divine Idea of the Universe is pleased
to manifest itself ; and shine through, in un-
speakable awfulness, unspeakable beauty, on
their souls : who therefore are rightly accounted
prophets, God-possessed. Sitting in his stall,
working on tanned hides, amid pincers, paste-
horns, rosin, swine -bristles, and a nameless
flood of rubbish, this youth had, nevertheless, a
living spirit belonging to him ; also an antique
inspired volume, through which, as through a
window, it could look upwards and discern its
celestial home. The task of a daily pair of
shoes, coupled even with some prospect of vic-
tuals, and an honourable mastership in cord-
wainery, and perhaps the post of third-borough
in his hundred, as the crown of long faith-sew-
ing,— was nowise satisfaction enough to such a
mind ; but ever amid the boring and hammer-
ing came tones from that far country, came
splendours and terrors ; for this poor cordwainer,
as we said, was a man ; and the temple of im-
mensity, wherein as man he had been sent to
minister, was full of holy mystery to him.
The clergy of the neighbourhood, the ordained
watchers and interpreters of that same holy
mystery, listened with unaffected tedium to his
consultations, and advised him, as the solution
of such doubts, to "drink beer and dance."
Blind leaders of the blind ! For what end were
their tithes levied and eaten ; for what were
their shovel-hats scooped out ; and their sur-
plices and cassock-aprons girt on ; and such a
church-repairing, and chaffering, and organing,
and other racketing, held over God's earth ; if
man were but a patent-digester, and the belly
with its adjuncts the grand reality. Fox turned
from them with tears and a sacred scorn, back
to his leather-parings and his Bible. Mountains
of encumbrance, higher than Etna, had been
heaped over that spirit ; but it was a spirit, and
would not lie buried there. Through long days
and nights of silent agony, it struggled and
334
IO02-
GOD THE HOLY SPIRIT.
-1908I
[good spirit.
wrestled, with a man's force, to be free : how
its prison-mountains heaved and swayed tumul-
tuously, as the giant spirit shook them to this
hand and that, and emerged into the hght of
heaven ! That Leicester shoe-shop, had men
known it, was a hoHcr place than any Vatican-
or Loretto-shrine. " So bandaged and ham-
pered, and hemmed in," groaned he, " with
thousand requisitions, obligations, straps, tatters,
and tagrags, I can neither see nor move : not
my own am I, but the world's ; and time flies
fast, and heaven is high, and hell is deep. Man !
bethink thee, if thou hast power of thought !
Why not ; what binds me here ? Want, want !
Ha ! of what.'' Will all the shoe-wages under
the moon ferry me across into that far land of
light ? Only meditation can, and devout prayer
to God. I will to the woods ; the hollow of a
tree will lodge me, wild berries feed ; and for
clothes, cannot I stitch myself one perennial
suit of leather !" — Thos. Carlyle.
II. Personal Realiz.\tion.
I Freedom from sin.
[1903] To know the way to heaven, sometimes
to cast a longing eye in that direction, and by
fit and start to make a feeble effort heavenwards,
can end in nothing. Man must get the Spirit
of God. Thus only can we be freed of the
shackles that bind the soul to earth, the flesh,
and sin. I have seen a captive eagle, caged far
from its distant home, as he sat mournful-like
on his perch, turn his eye sometimes heaven-
wards ; there he would sit in silence, like one
wrapt in thought, gazing through the bars of
his cage up into the blue sky ; and, after a
while, as if noble but sleeping instincts had
suddenly awoke, he would start and spread out
his broad sails, and leap upward, revealing an
iron chain that, usually covered by his plumage,
drew him back again to his place. But though
this bird of heaven knew the way to soar aloft,
and sometimes, under the influence of old in-
stincts, decayed but not altogether dead, felt the
thirst of freedom, freedom was not for him, till
a power greater than his own proclaimed liberty
to the captive, and shattered the shackles that
bound him to his perch. Nor is there freedom
for us till the Holy Spirit sets us free, and, by
the lightning force of truth, breaks the chains
that bind us to sin. — Cntlirie.
32
GOOD SPIRIT.
(Neh. ix. 20.)
I. Scripture Basis.
[190.^] "Thou gavest Thy good Spirit to in-
struct them" refers to the occurrence (Num. xi.
17, 25) where God endowed the seventy elders
with the spirit of prophecy for the conhrmation
of Moses' authority. — KciL
II. Its Significance.
[1905] "Thy good Spirit shall lead me." So
called because His nature is essentially good ;
and also because His operations are all good ;
and to believers, full of goodness in their eftects.
—7. Owen.
III. Practical Bearing.
1 The Spirit leads us into the good and
pleasant way.
[1906] The Lord, with whom the Psalmist
hides himself, alone is able to make known to
him what is right and beneficial in the position
in which he finds Himself, and is able to teach
him to carry out the " will of God, good, well-
pleasing, and perfect" (Rom. xii. 2) ; and this it
is for which he prays. . . . The Lord is indeed
his God, who cannot leave him who is assailed
and tempted without and within in error ; may
His good Spirit then lead him in a level country,
for "the path which the righteous man takes
is smoothness ; Thou makest the course of the
righteous smooth." — Delitzsch.
2 The Spirit, as the Good Spirit, strives with
us, despite our waywardness and stub-
bornness.
[1907] " Thou gavest Thy good Spirit to
instruct them." To such it was said, " Turn ye
at my reproof : I will pour out my Spirit to you,
I will make known my words unto you," &:c.
(Prov. i. 23, 24). We see whence their destruc-
tion came, not from God's first restraint of His
Spirit, but their refusing, despising, and setting
at nought His counsels and reproofs. And
when it is said, "They rebelled and vexed His
Spirit ; and He therefore turned and fought
against them, and became their enemy,'' it
appears that before His Spirit was not withheld,
but did variously and often make essays and
attempts upon them. And when Stephen, im-
mediately before his martyrdom, thus bespeaks
the descendants of these Jews, " Ye stiftnecked
and uncircumcised, ye do always resist the Holy
Ghost ; as your fathers did, so do ye, " it is im-
plied, the Holy Ghost had been always striving
fom age to age "with that stubborn people.—
John Howe.
[1908] Every vain thought and idle word, and
every wicked deed, is like so many drops to
quench the Spirit of God. Some quench it w'ith
the lust of the flesh ; some quench it with cares
of the mind ; some quench it with long delays,
that is, not plying the motion when it cometh,
but crossing the good thougins with bad thoughts,
and doing a thing when the Spirit saith not.
The Spirit is often grieved before it be quenched.
—H. Smith.
GOD THE HOLY SPIRIT.
1909—1919]
335
[holiness, spirit of.
33
HOLINESS, SPIRIT OK
(Rom. i. 4.)
I. Christological Aspect.
[1909] "Spirit of Holiness" is"the inner man,"
i.e., the whole inner life of Christ, which was
elevated above all purely human spirits, filled
with the Spirit of God, sinless and perfect. —
Meyer.
[1910] The Spirit of Holiness is the very force
by which Christ has taken away the power of
death, and has destroyed mortality, through the
triumph of His imperishable life. — Besser.
II, Suggested Thoughts.
1 The truth in itself, apart from the Spirit
of Holiness, does not sanctify.
[191 1] It has been seen from the days of
Balaam downward, that a man may have a hold
on the truth intellectually without its producing
any effect on his moral being. — J. Hare.
[191 2] Every thing connected with the actual
endowment and sanctification of the Church
belongs to the Holy Spirit. He directs our eyes
to the Sun of Righteousness ; He opens in our
hearts the streams of refreshing which make
glad the city of God ; He relaxes the grasp of
the destroyer, and dissolves the enchantment
which sin and the world have thrown over us ;
He brings light into our darkness, and into the
cold region of sin and death life, and peace,
and joy. He is the i:;z/z>/^/i7/^r. — Rev. William
Graham, D.D., of Bonn.
2 The Spirit, as the Spirit of Holiness, is
the sole principle of sanctification.
[1913] This is the Spirit of God, who, as the
sanctifying Spirit in the world, constitutes the
complete opposition and counteraction to the
entire corruption of sin ; who was first the
cause of the holy birth of Christ, and then of
His resurrection ; and who now proceeds from
the glorified Christ as the principle of the sanc-
tification of humanity and the world. — Lange.
[1914] His sanctifying; grace and assisting
grace subdues our affections to a willing com-
pliance with our inwrought convictions, enlarges
our moral capacity, infuses new energies, cherishes
and develops and brings to maturity the seeds
of virtue and benevolence, gives intensity to our
devotions, 'warmth to our charity, consistency
to our daily conduct ; in a word, newly " creates
us in Christ Jesus unto good works," destroys
the whole body of sin, clothes us with "the new
man in righteousness and true holiness," and
fits us for a habitation of God through the Spirit.
—Bp. Blomfeid.
[1915] Holiness is a word not easily written 1
on the rugged surface of human life, but it shall
in the long run be graven upon it indelibly. It
aims at universal empire ! It is now the one
condition of seeing the Father everlasting :
"without holiness no man shall see the Lord."
It is the peculiar characteristic of the sanctuary
in the heavens : " Nothing that is unholy shall
enter therein." It is the appellation of the
inhabitant of eternity: "His Name is Holy."
Toward holiness human life is being moved,
how slowly soever, by the ministry of the Holy
Ghost. — Dr. Joseph Parker.
[1916] The Holy Ghost is in Himself holiness,
and the source and worker of holiness, and
Author of this holy doctrine, which breathes
nothing but holiness, and urges it most press-
ingly upon all who receive li.^Abp. Leigh ton.
[1917] The Spirit of Holiness (Rom. i. 4).
And since in ourselves we are unholy and im-
pure, and without holiness no man shall see the
Lord (Heb. xii. 14), He inspires us with holy
desires, and prompts us to good counsels (Eph.
V. 9). He renews us unto repentance (Heb. vi.
6) ; His voice speaks to us through our con-
science ; and if we are careful not to quench
the Divine light He kindles within us (i Thess.
V. 19), or to resist Him when He prompts us to
pure thoughts and holy acts, or to grieve Him
by wilful sin (Eph. iv. 30), He " sanctifies us
and all the elect people of God," that is, all
members of the Churchof Christ.— Z?/'. Maclear.
3 The Spirit of Holiness within us is the
evidence of our election and the earnest
of our salvation.
[191 8] Indissoluble as the agents are, the
Father, the Son, and the Spirit, so are election,
and vocation, and sanctification, and justifica-
tion, and glory. Therefore, in all conditions,
believers may, from a sense of the working of
the Spirit in them, look back to that election,
and forward to that salvation ; but they that
remain unholy and disobedient have as yet no
evidence of this love.
Men may please themselves in profane scoff-
ing at the Holy Spirit of grace, but let them
withal know this, that that Holy Spirit, whom
they mock and despise, is that Spirit who seals
men unto the day of redemption.
Now this Spirit which sanctifieth, and sancti-
fieth to obedience, is within us the evidence of
our election, and the earnest of our salvation.
Let us not delude ourselves ; this is a truth, if
there beany in religion ; they who are not made
saints in the state of grace shall never be saints
in glory. — Abp. Lcighton.
4 The Spirit of Holiness within us is the
chief miracle.
[1919] The miracle of miracles is this, "A new
heart will I give you, and a new spirit will I put
within you ; and I will take away the stony
heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an
heart of flesh." ... To put the law " in the
3i^
1919-
COD THE HOLY SPIRIT.
-1929]
[holy spirit.
inward parts," and to " write it in the heart,"
is more than to till the firmament with stars. —
Dr. Joseph Parker.
34
HOL V SPIRIT.
(Eph. iv. 30.)
I. Scripture Basis.
[1920] The Spirit of Ho'iness is distinguished
from Jehovah as a personal existence (Isa. Ixiii.
10, II; Luke xi. 13). For just as the angel
who is His face, i.e., the representation of His
nature, is represented as a person, so also is the
Spirit of Holiness, by the fact that He can be
grieved, and therefore can feel grief '' Grieve
not the Holy Spirit of God" (Eph. iv. 30J. —
Delitzsch.
[1921] This is the most usual appellation of
Him in the New Testament, but it is derived
from the Old (Psa. li. 11 ; Isa. Ixiii. 10, 11),
and we must inquire into the special reasons for
this adjunct. Some suppose that it is only from
His peculiar work of sanctifying us, or making
us holy. . . . But this is not the whole reason,
for when He is first so mentioned He is called
the Spirit of God's Holiness (Psa. li. 11 ; Isa.
Ixiii. 10, II), and in the New Testament abso-
lutely, "the Spirit of Holiness.'' And this
respects His nature in the first place, and not
merely His operations. As God absolutely is
called " Holy," " Holy One," &c., so is the
Spirit called " Holy," to denote the holiness of
His nature. And on this account is the oppo-
sition made between Him and the unholy or
unclean spirit (Mark iii. 29,30). And herein first
His personality is asserted, for the unclean spirit
is a person, and if the Spirit of God were only
a quality or an accident there could be no
comparative opposition. ... So also are they
opposed with respect unto their natures. His
nature is holy, whereas that of the unclean
spirit is evil. This is the foundation of His
being called "Holy,'' even the eternal holiness
of His nature.— y. Oiven, D.D., 16 16- 1683.
II. Import.
[1922] Holy Spirit is so called because He is
God Himself. Holy both in nature and office.
If He were not holy in His nature He could not
perform that office in the covenant of grace,
which begins, is carried on, and is completed,
in the exercise and communion of holiness, to
the redeemed. He could not impart what is
not His own. No stream of holiness could pro-
ceed from Him were He not the fountain of it.
—A. Serle.
[1923] He is the Holy Spirit through whom
the holiness of Godhead specially reveals itself,
and is communicated to the creature. He is
specially the doer of holy deeds, the speaker
of holy words, the maker of holy men. As
the Holy Spirit, He dwelt in the Holy One ;
and dwells in the Church, and in aU saints. —
H. Bonar.
III. Suggested Thoughts.
1 The Holy Spirit is the essence of all
good gifts.
[1924] The Holy Spirit is the essence of all
good gifts which the P"ather in heaven can
bestow on His praying child. . . . The Holy
Spirit is the Christian's first necessity ; the
Holy Spirit is the Father's holy gift ; the Holy
Spirit in the heart is the fruit of believing
prayer. — Lange. *
[1925] To remove our bad dispositions, and
to beget those contrary to them, God in mercy
hath appointed the Holy Spirit to beget Divine
knowledge and faith in our minds . . . and all
pious and virtuous inclinations in us (which is
the work of sanctification). — Isaac Barrow.
[1926] God, for Christ's sake, has given us
the earnest of His Spirit in baptism to the end
that we may live under the continual govern-
ance of the Spirit, and may bring forth the
fruits of the Spirit. — Bp. Wilson.
[1927] Without the Spirit of God, as the per-
fective principle, nature would not have been
nature (Gen. i. 2). . . . All things would not
have been good and very good but by the com-
munication of goodness ; and without somewhat
of that Spirit there would be no moral goodness
in any of mankind. ... No man can be a
Christian, indeed, without the quickening, illu-
minating, and sanctifying work of the Spirit
upon his soul. — Baxter.
2 The Holy Spirit is the constant inspirer
of prayer in the believer.
[1928] Where a Christian is, there is really
the Holy Spirit, who does nothing there than
continually pray, for although He does not con-
tinually move the mouth or make words, yet
the heart goes and beats, even as the pulses of
the veins and the heart in the body, without
cessation or ceasing ; so that one can find no
Christian w^ithout prayer, as little as a living
man without the pulse, which stands never still,
but stirs and beats ever on, although the man
sleeps or does other things, so that he does
not become aware of it. — Luther.
3 The Holy Spirit's grace is continually
needed.
[1929] It would be no blessing for men to be
convinced of the truth of the Christian religion
by considering the miraculous powers of the
Holy Ghost, by which it was first established,
unless they afterwards live answerable to what
that religion requires of them, which they can-
not possibly do without the continual grace and
assistance of the Hol)^ Spirit. — Bp. Wilson.
GOD THE HOLY SPIRIT.
1930— 1934]
337
[truth, spirit of.
4 The Holy Spirit may be grieved and
quenched in us by a continual neglect.
[1930] Practically we must constantly keep in
view that communion with Christ may be lost
again by a continued grieving of the Holy Spirit
of God, by thoughts, words, and actions that
are unworthy of our Christian standing ; by a
continued resistance of His Spirit ; by con-
tinued indifference, lukewarmness, and neglect ;
by continued sins of weakness, against which
one does not strive ; by a continued quenching
of the Spirit. The inner life may imperceptibly
wither and die ; that communion may have
already ceased, whilst the man still imagines
that it exists. — Martensen.
35
TRUTH, SPIRIT OF.
(John XV. 26).
I. Relation of the Spirit's Working
TO THE Word of God.
I Onwards, not independently of it, but
through its medium,
(i) He does not make ns wise beyond what is
written, but He makes wise up to that which is
written.
[1931] The word of God is called the sword
of the Spirit. It is the instrument by which
the Spirit worketh. He does not tell us any-
thing that is out of the record ; but all that is
within it He sends home with clearness and
effect upon the mind. When a telescope is
directed to some distant landscape, it enables
us to see what we could not otherwise have
seen ; but it does not enable us to see any-
thing which has not a real existence in the
prospect before us. It does not present to
the eye any delusive imagery — neither is that
a fanciful and fictitious scene which it throws
open to our contemplation. The natural eye
saw nothing but blue land stretching along the
distant horizon. By the aid of the glass there
bursts upon it a charming variety of fields, and
woods, and spires, and villages. Yet who
would say that the glass added one feature to
this assemblage? It discovers nothing to us
which is not there ; nor out of that portion of
the book of nature, which we are employed in
cultivating, does it bring into view a single cha-
racter which is not really and previously in-
scribed upon it. And so of the Spirit. He
does not add a single truth or a single character
to the book of revelation. He enables the
spiritual man to see what the natural man can-
not see ; but the spectacle which He lays open
is uniform and immutable. It is the word of
God which is ever the same ; and he whom the
Spirit of God has enabled to look to the Bible
VOL. I.
with a clear and affecting discernment, sees no
phantom passing before him ; but, amid all
the visionary extravagance with which he is
charged, can, for every one article of his faith,
and every one duty or his practice, make his
triumphant appeal to the law and to the testi-
mony.— Dr. Chalmers, 1 780-1 847.
(2) He teaches over again the doctrine left
behind in the letter, but Himself first gives it
life.
[1932] The phrase, " The Spirit of the truth,"
which repeats the article, expresses more than
our common translation, " Spirit of truth," 01
merely, " The true Spirit." Beck says well
(" Christl. Reden." ii. 65). "They receive from
Him not merely a dead word, such as all
scholars have from their teachers ; but they
have a living word, the Spirit of truth — for the
life of the word is the Spirit." He has suffi-
ciently shown already that he does not mean
this in the sense which we must sometimes op-
pose in others, as if the Spirit was not coming
in the future, but left behind ; we would, how-
ever, prefer to say, in more scriptural language,
that they have now from their Lord and Master
not merely the word, the doctrine left behind
Him, the most precious legacy of humanity, the
words of the Word — but in addition to the
word comes to them the Spirit, and that the
Same who thought and spoke in Jesus, in order
to re-awaken and vivify that word in them ; for
the quickening of the word is the Spirit.
II. Moral and Spiritual Conditions
TO His Reception.
I Negatively.
[1933] A French lady of great personal beauty
was smitten with small-pox. It destroyed her
beauty, and as she became convalescent, her
friends, fearing the consequences, would not
acquaint her with the fact. But one day, not
getting an answer to her questions, she de-
manded a mirror to be given her ; and when
she saw the calamitous fact, that her beauty
was gone, she, in a fit of passion, smashed the
glass. It had told her the truth about herself;
so the Spirit of God, as the Spirit of Truth, tells
us what we are ; and some people, rather than
believe its witness, deny its existence. — F. IV. P.
See No. 27, where "the Spirit of Truth" is
treated under Division C, Subdivision [2].
2 Positively.
[1934] But to receive this Divine teacher a
moral preparation is needed. The soul in which
He comes to dwell must have been withdrawn
from the profane sphere. This is the reason that
Jesus said at the head of this passape (verse 15),
" Keep my commandments," and here also
added, " whom the world cannot receive." — F.
Godet, D. D., Commentary on the Gospel of St.
John.
DIVISION
c
NAMES
{Continued).
HIS
OFFICES.
EXPRESSIVE OF
[4]
THE EXECUTION OF
JUDGMENT.
Page 339.
TABLE OF TOPICS.
36
JUDGMENT. SPIRIT
' OF.
3J8
339
DIVISION C
(Continued).
NAMES EXPRESSIVE OF HIS OFFICES.
[4] THE EXECUTION OF JUDGMENT.
36
JUDGMENT, SPIRIT OF.
(John xvi. II.)
I. His Work as such in the Christian
Dispensation.
1 Its nature.
(i) He repro'ues men of their former or false
judgmeitts as to the realities of things.
[1935] The Comforter " reproves the world of
judgment, because the prince of this world is
judged." The designs of Satan are carried on
by means of delusion. Deceiving men : caus-
ing them to believe that things are different
from what they really are, he persuades them to
form erroneous "judgments." But the work of
Christ has detected him. His cheats are ex-
posed. Even now he is "judged," and this
present detection or judgment is an anticipation
of that future and final judgment in which he
shall be completely detected and cast out.
Those then whom the Comforter has reproved
of sin and of righteousness, will have their eyes
opened to see this delusion of Satan. They
will see how erroneous and destructive their
former judgments were, and what bondage they
were under ; and they will be able with true
spiritual discrimination to separate the false
from the true, and to understand things as they
really are. They will be " reproved " of their
former judgment. That judgment will be re-
futed and cast aside, and a new, and more
correct, and more trustworthy judgment, will
arise in its place. — Gordo7t Calthrope.
2 Its three successive stages.
(i) As indicated by our Saviour and recorded
by St. John.
[1936] The first thing which the Comforter
does for the man who is brought out of the
world, is to " reprove " him of sin, and that sin,
the sin of unbelief. The man awakened by the
gentle yet powerful touch of the Spirit of God,
will bewail, of course, his special transgressions
of the Divine law, but more than all will he
shame himself and humble himself, on account
of the one pervading transgression of his past
life, his resolute turning away from and rejection
of the Lord Jesus Christ.
[1937] Then comes the second step : in the
revelation of the righteousness of Christ which
may be his own, and in which he may stand
before God ; and of the invisible life of Christ,
by which his spiritual life is nourished and
maintained.
[1938] And lastly, and as the consequence of
the two preceding steps, it is the office of the
Comforter to impart to him spiritual discern-
ment : the power of distinguishing, the power of
detecting, the power of separating the falsehood
from the truth ; by virtue of which power he
judges all things, yet he himself is judged of no
man.
[1939] After the descent of the Holy Ghost
no lot-drawing was needed to make Peter to see
in Cornelius the Gentile an elect saint, and to
detect in Simon the sorcerer a child of the
devil. So much for a true spiritual instinct.
We hear no more of lot-casting (under which
Matthias was elected to the apostleship and to
obscurity : he was never heard of more). A
new and higher order has been established ;
they who live in the Spirit know what is right
by a sympathy sensitive and unerring, and when
they come into practical difficulties, instead of
resorting to signs and tokens, not far removed
from jugglery, they quietly wait for the salvation
of the Lord. — Dr. Joseph Parker.
(2) As answering in their inverted order to
the three stages or acts in redemption mentio?ied
by St. Paul in his Epistle to the Corinthians.
[1940] Invert the order, and you have the
three stages, or acts, of which I have just been
speaking : " redemption " — the setting free from
the curse and power of sin ; " righteousness and
sanctification" (i Cor. i. 30), the position and
the privilege, the status and the progressive
blessing, won for us by the righteous One, who
has been accepted of the Father ; " wisdom,''
the clear insight into mysteries, the understand-
ing and knowledge of all things, bestowed upon
those who are partakers, through grace, of the
anointing of God the Holy Ghost. — Ibid.
SECTION III.
THE BEATITUDES.
THE EIGHT BEATITUDES.
Matt. V. 3-12.
1st. Blecf^cD are t^e poor in spirit: for t|)eir'0
10 tljc kiiiffliom of Ijeatieiu
2nd. Blesfs^eti are tljcp tljat mourn: for r^ep
0t)all lie comcorteti*
3rd. 2BIe02feti are tl)e meek: for tlje?) 0ljall
mljerit rlje eartlj*
4th. Blessed are tljep to^iclj do Ijuiiffer and
tljirst after riffljteousne^^: for tijep ^Ijall be
filled.
5th. Blessed are tl)e merciful : for tl)ep 0l)all
obtain mercp.
6th. Blessed are tlje pure in Ijeart: for tljep
Sljall see (15od.
7th. Blessed are tlje peacemakers: for t^ep
Sljall be called tlje cljildren of (Bod.
8th. Blessed aretljep Voljic^ are persecuted for
ri'tyljteousness' Sake: for tljeir's iS tlje kingdom
of Ij eat en*
Blessed are pe, toljen men sljall reijile pou,
and persecute pou, and sljall sap all manner of
ebil against pou falselP, for ^^ sake.
HXejoice, and be e;cceeding; glad : for great is
pour rcVoard in Ijeaben: for so persecuted tljcp
tlje p;ropljets VDl)iclj toere before pou.
342
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THE EIGHT BEATITUDES.
PAGES
345
TABLE OF CONTENTS.
INTRODUCTION
FIRST BEATITUDE. POVERTY IN SPIRIT ... 348
... SPIRITUAL MOURNING ... 351
... MEEKNESS 353
... HUNGER AND THIRST
AFTER RIGHTEOUSNESS 356
... THE MERCIFUL 359
... PURITY IN HEART 361
... PEACEMAKERS 364
... THE PERSECUTED 366
SECOND
THIRD
FOURTH
FIFTH
SIXTH
SEVENTH
EIGHTH
344
345
THE BEATITUDES
INTRODUCTION.
I. Their Matchless Sublimity.
[1941] Perhaps the best materials the con-
structive imagination can use may be found
(after the beginning and end of the Apocalypse)
in reflection on the Beatitudes. To see God,
to obtain mercy, to be comforted, to be called
the children of God by Him, in the beatific
Presence ; to be filled with righteousness : these
words convey positive ideas as well as negative
To be comforted, for example, means not only
to be cured of immediate sorrow, but to have
inexpressible pleasure in God's actually and
personally comforting us. The whole passages
in Matthew v. and Luke vi. 20 may amount to
descriptions of perfect spiritual happiness ; and
an impartial observer might think such Chris-
tian conjecture both loftier and more subtle
than any other heaven or heavenly state he
knew of, whether Hindu, Greek, or Moham-
medan.— Church Quat-terly Review, 1880.
II. Their Structural Character.
I A general correspondence between the
whole.
[1942] As sources of happiness, they agree
in three things — they are all spiritual, unpopular,
and present. First. They are all spiritual :
they are states of heart. They are not some-
thing out of man, after which he has to reach,
nor something that is put into him as an entity
distinct from his being ; they are states into
which his heart is to pass— they are habits of
the soul. This is a feature of Christ's theory of
happiness that gives it a universal application,
that puts blessedness within the reach of every
man. Had Christ represented the elements of
happiness as consisting in any particular con-
dition of life, then it is clear that, whatever con-
dition that might have been, it would have
come not only partially without the reach of all,
but wholly without the reach of many ; or had
He represented them as connected with a cer-
tain order of intellectual talent, or a certain
amount of intellectual acquirement, it is perfectly
obvious that a large portion of every successive
generation, from the diversity of capacity and
opportunity, would be excluded from the blessed-
ness of being. But when He makes them to
consist in states of the heart, then he puts them
within the reach of all. Humility, meekness,
mercifulness, desire for rectitude, &c., are they
not states as attainable by the child as the
adult, the poor as the rich, the untutored as the
sage ? " Keep thy heart with all diligence, for
out of it are the issues of life." — Dr. Thomas.
III. Points of Difference between St.
Matthew's and St. Luke's Record.
[1943] Of eight beatitudes given in St. Mat-
thew, four only are recorded in St. Luke ; and
those four are in that Gospel accompanied
by corresponding denunciations of woe, which
are not found in St. Matthew. Blessed are the
poor, the hungry, the mourners, and those who
are evil spoken of by men ; woe to the rich, the
full, to those who laugh now, and to those whom
men speak well of. Moreover, the blessings
promised in St. Luke are fixed — both by the
omission of the loftier and more spiritual words
which occur in St. Matthew, and by their cor-
responding denunciations — to more outward,
and, so to speak, more superficial cases than
those intended in St. Matthew. Poverty, actual
poverty, hunger, sorrow, unpopularity amongst
men — these actual things are (no doubt because
of the opportunities which they offer the exercise
of high Christian graces) pronounced to be
blessed in St. Luke. Richness, fulness of bread,
mirth, popularity amongst men — these outward
things (no doubt because of the manifold and
dangerous temptations with which they are ac-
companied) are the precise things against
which in that Gospel woe is pronounced. — Bp.
Moberley.
IV. Contrast between the giving of
the Decalogue and the Sermon
on the Mount.
I Circumstances connected with the giving
of the Decalogue.
[1944] I. At Mount Sinai, in the desert.
2. At Mount Sinai, with bounds set round it,
and the people at a distance.
3. The people fleeing from Mount Sinai.
4. Moses alone with God, hidden in the
darkness.
5. Moses receiving the law through the min-
istry of angels.
6. One, addressing a particular nation.
7. The law given amid thunder and light-
nings.
346
1944— 1952-1
THE BEATITUDES.
[introduction.
8. In the one case producing terror.
9. In the one case appeahng to fear.
10. In the one successive demands.
11. In the one case the ancient Gospel law
transformed into law.
12. In the one case temporal things.
a Circumstances connected with the Sermon
on the Mount.
[r945j I. At Mount of Beatitudes, in a popu-
lous district in the holy land.
2. At Mount of Beatitudes, encompassed by
multitudes.
3. The people flocking to the Mount of
Beatitudes.
4. Jesus speaking sitting amidst His dis-
ciples.
5. Jesus speaking from the depths of His
own Divine spirit.
6. The other, addressing all mankind.
7. Jesus speaking in holy calmness and
peace.
8. In the other drawing the heart to the
Lord.
9. In the other case appealing to love.
10. In the other successive blessings.
11. In the other, even the law transformed
into the Gospel.
12. In the other, promises of spiritual things.
See Van Doren Series.
V. Their Purport.
I To correct carnal and unworthy notions
of the gospel kingdom.
[1946] The purport of all these beatitudes was
not to tell all men, who were the happy persons
that were fit for the Messiah's kingdom and to
give such descriptions of them, as were directly
contrary to the bad dispositions of mind they
laboured under, occasioned by their carnal
notions of that kingdom. What more contrary
to covetousness and ambition than poverty in
spirit.^ What more contrary to a sensual,
luxurious life than a spirit of humiliation,
mourning, and repentance .'' What more con-
trary to fierceness, fury, and revenge than a
spirit of meekness and humility ; or to rapine
and unjust conquest, than a spirit of justice and
righteousness? What more inconsistent with
hard-hcartcdness and cruelty than mercifulness
and compassion ; or with lust and uncleanness,
than purity of heart .^ What more contrary to
litigiousncss, insurrections, and rebellions, than
to be peaceable and peacemakers ? Or to per-
secuting others, than patience and martyrdom?
— J.Blair, M. A., 1723.
[1947] It is impossible to regard, with any
serious attention, the successive dispositions
pronounced blessed in this sermon, without
observing the perfect acquaintance with tlie
heart of man which this great prophet discovers.
He knew the roving of his spirit in quest of
happiness, and he would, therefore, direct its
attention to some suitable course where it may
be obtained. He saw that men were bent on
fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the
mind, and that the current of their affections
was towards the riches, honours, and shadows
of the present world. He, therefore, pitied
their mistake and their folly. Perfectly aware
that this state of mind was vicious, and that the
objects which it had been accustomed to seek
were as worthless as the pursuit was delusive,
he calls its attention from such as are transitory,
and directs it to such as are permanent ; from
the sordid to the spiritual, and from those which
are polluted and earthly to such as are pure
and heavenly. — Good (of Salisbury).
2 To lay broad and deep the foundations
of the gospel kingdom.
[1948] In this sermon our Lord is laying
broad and deep the foundations of His spiritual
edifice. A pure and loving heart, an open and
trustful conscience, a freedom of communion
with the Father of spirits, a love of man as man,
the measure of which is to be nothing less than
a man's love of himself; above all, a stern de-
termination at any cost to be true, such the
moral material of the first stage of our Lord's
public teaching. — Canon Liddon.
VI. Suggested Remarks about their
Teaching.
[1949] There are three things noticeable
about the beatitudes, i. Their intense spiri-
tuality; 2. The possibility of exemplifying their
practical conditions in daily life ; 3. The pre-
sent and personal blessedness which they aflirm.
—J. Parker, D.D.
[1950] We see (i) that some of them look to-
wards God, and others towards man ; theology
and morality should be united. 2. That some
persons are included and others are excluded
beyond our expectations ; the poor in spirit, the
mourners, and the weak are here ; but where
are the rich, the famous, and the mighty ? 3.
That right moral relations to Christ are always
associated with the richest personal rewards ;
the good enjoy not only a blessed condition, but
shall enjoy an ample compensation. 4. That
men have always mistaken the direction in
which '' blessedness " lay. 5. That the enemy
himself shall be a contributor to the saints' jov.
—Ibid.
[1951] The beatitudes are descriptive (I.) of
the longing spirit. I. In its humility before
God (ver. 3). 2. In its humility before men (vcr.
5). 3. In its earthly sorrow (ver. 4). 4. In its
heavenly aspirations (ver. 6). (II.) Of the satis-
fied spirit, " pitiful " toward the sorrowing ; (2)
pure before God. (3) " Peace-loving towards
all. (4) " Persecuted " by the world. — S. G.
Green, D.D.
VII. The Graces commended.
I They are intimately connected together.
[1952] Into which beatitude can I come?
Let each man ask for himself. 1 am not all
THE BEATITUDES.
1952— 1958]
[introduction.
these eight. Which is my little wicket gate,
through which I pass into God's reward. There
is only one gate that I see here that I ever have
any hope of getting in at. " Blessed are they
that hunger." If I cannot get through that gate,
1 fear all the others are shut. There is a gate
for all of us. And yet, methinks, that all the
gates somehow interfold, and that if we get
through one we shall seem to have gone through
all.— 7. Parker, D.D. {condensed).
2 They exist independently of particular
Church government.
[1953] The beatitudes put before us what
are those qualities, and what are those results
which alone the Founder of our religion regarded
as of supreme excellence. He does not say
blessed are the Churchmen, or the Noncon-
formists, the Episcopalians or the Baptists, the
Roman Catholics or the Protestants, but those
who show those graces in the character which
may be found in every one of these communions,
and under every one of these forms of belief. —
Dean Stanley.
3 They are of another order altogether than
that of human virtues as pourtrayed by
heathen writers.
[1954] Though an occasional glimpse of the
superior heroism of the meek and enduring, as
compared with the self-exalting and violent
forms of goodness, appears to have been at-
tained, as it were, for a moment, by one or other
of the ancient writers, yet when they come to
elaborate their pictures of virtue, they seem to
lose themselves altogether ii.' the admiration of
those showy and outwardly successful traits of
character which have their scope and obtain
their reward upon the earth. They have no
eyes for anything beyond. They are like men
looking, not without some natural powers of
sight and discrimination, at a vast and compli-
cated assemblage of objects, seeking in vain for
a point of view in which all may be seen to-
gether, and in their due relations to one another,
and therefore for ever mistaking the compara-
tive greatness, and true relative bearing and real
measure of the things that are before them, and
sure to be misled in their judgments in favour
of those which are nearest and brightest, and
which loom largest to their eyes. Open the
Sermon on the Mount, and it is plain at once
that the standpoint is gained. Human virtue,
on the grandest and truest scale, is seen in its
relation to God and eternity, to Christ and judg-
ment ; and forthwith the whole confusion is
gone. All falls instantly into perfect perspec-
tive. The scene is uniform and harmonious, and
can be read. For the light of God is on it, and
all is seen by Him who made it, and is con-
ducting it towards His own great eods. — Bp.
Moberley.
4 They form a higher standard of duty than
that of the law.
[1955] Christ was herein the author of a New
Law. He improved the Moral Law, delivered
by God and Moses to the Jews, to a much
greater height and severity of duty than it was
thought to extend to, or really did extend,
before (Matt. v. 20). — J. Gardiner, M.A., 1706.
5 There is a gradation observable in the
order in which they are mentioned.
[1956] I. The poor in spirit. — The death of
self-righteousness and self-assertion.
2. They that mourn. — The burial of self-
righteousness and self-assertion.
3. The meek. — The frame of mind which
takes the place of self-righteousness and self-
assertion.
4. Hunger and thirst after righteousness.—
The flow of spiritual life through the soul.
5. The merciful. — The soul conscious of
mercy received, exhibits enthusiastically mercy,
and so realizes the doctrine of mercy, or, other-
wise expressed, of grace.
6. The pure in heart. — The soul vigorous in
its struggle against sin, and in its exclusion of
foreign and polluting elements.
7. The peacemakers. — The soul pure within,
and so at peace with God, and itself, and the
world, seeks to realize the reign of the Prince of
Peace, and to make all others likewise at peace.
8. The persecuted for righteozcsness^ sake. —
The consequence of Christian aggressive move-
ments to increase the kingdom of peace, leads
to conflict with the vested interest of the king-
dom of evil, and ends in personal suffering.
This, however, gives scope for the exercise of
a new grace, patience or endurance. — C. N.
6 The}' describe not so much eight different
classes of people as eight different traits
or points of character in the same man.
[1957] Two of them relate to virtues which
are purely inward, absolutely confined to the in-
terior depths of a Christian man's Si'pmt.— purity
of heart, and hunger and thirst after righteous-
ness. Two of them are virtues inward indeed,
but having relation to our position among men
— poverty of spirit and meekness. Two of them
rather belong to the passive condition of human
virtue, placed in the midst of a sad and unkind
world — sorrow and perseciition. The seventh,
mercy, is the special virtue of the Christian in
his active and outward dealings with other men ;
and in peace-making, the last of the eight, he is
regarded as going altogether out from himself,
and entering into the transactions which arise
between other people, and in which he himself
has no personal share. — Bp. Moberley.
7 They form the complete portraiture of the
Christian man.
[1958] None but a Christian man can have
them perfectly ; for they require the onward,
faithful looking forward to glory in Christ,
through His atoning blood ; and they require
the indwelling aid of the Holy Ghost, which,
richly offered to Christian men in the Church of
Christ, is not, so far as we know, given save in
that Church. None but a Christian man can
have them perfectly ; and he who has them not
348
THE BEATITUDES.
1958— 1969. FIRST BEATITUDE.]
[poverty in spirit.
at all can hardly be called a Christian man at
all. He may have the position, the opportuni-
ties, the offered hopes, the responsibilities of a
Christian man, but in all the character, in all
the moral acceptableness, in all that should
adorn and justify his profession, he is surely no
Christian man at all. — Ibid.
3 They are possible for, and only for, the
members of Christ's kingdom.
[1959] The beatitudes may be truly regarded
as an exposition of morality purely Christian ;
and in attempting to make some examination
of them, we are to consider ourselves as being
under the full light of Christian truth and grace,
not dealing with abstract or general morality,
but with that which belongs to God's saints in
the Church of Christ, and is only possible to
them — and to them possible only by the help
and in the. strength of that Holy Spirit of whose
blessed influences the saints are permitted to
drink in the Church. — Ibid.
HI. The Blessings promised.
I Their appropriateness.
[i960] The blessings promised in each case is
the appropriate reward, we may say, the natural
result, of the particular character and line of
conduct commended.
[1961] I. Blessed are the poor in spirit, for
theirs is the kingdom 0/ heaven. — When emptied
of self and sin, we are capable of receiving the
heavenly riches.
2. Blessed are they that mourn, for they shall
be comforted. — God, who has broken the heart
for sin, will mend it. God who has caused the
tears of genuine sorrow to flow, will wipe them
away.
3. Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit
the earth. — Submission to God's will, and a
right tameness of spirit alone fits for the en-
joyment of possessions in time or eternity.
4. Blessed are they that hunger and thirst
after righteousness, for they shall be filed. — God
does not implant religious desires and instincts
in His servants to mock or torture them.
5. Blessed are the merciful, for they shall ob-
tain mercy. — The holy law of retaliation is
obvious the moment it is stated.
6. Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall
see God. — Sin is darkness, and righteousness is
light. The soul kept pure gains m mental and
spiritual powers to approach and hold commu-
nion with God.
7. Blessed arc the peace-makers, for they shall
be called the children of God. — Peace-makers
prove their heavenly origin and their spiritual
affinity with the Prince of Peace and the blood
royal of heaven.
8. Blessed are they that are persecjited for
righteousness' sake, for theirs is the kingdom of
heaven. — When stript for the Lord's sake and
the truth's sake by the Lord's enemies, we shall
have more than ample compensation for all pos-
sible loss.— C. N.
2 Their fulfilment.
[1962] In all these seven (rather eight) pro-
mises no interval of space or time intervenes
between the longing and the satisfaction — Lange.
2
FIRST BEATITUDE.
(Poverty in Spirit)
I. The Grace commended in Persons
BLESSED.
I Negatively interpreted.
(i) Not the destitution of temporal good.
[1963] Although physical poverty may be
overruled for spiritual good, it is nevertheless
an evil in itself. — Dr. Thojnas.
[1964] It is not poverty in the body, so as to
mean the mere want of money, or the luxuries
or comforts which money brings. This sort of
poverty may have its blessedness under the
beatitudes of St. Luke, but it is irrelevant to
that recorded by St. Matthew. — Bp. Moberley.
[1965] This beatitude rightly interpreted
effectnally excludes the Roman Catholic in-
terpretation, that it is an outward poverty or
riches of which Christ is speaking : that, for
example, He is fore-announcing here any mendi-
cant orders, with some singular beatitude which
should be theirs.
[1966] Outward poverty does not itself consti-
tute humility, however it might be a help to
it, nor were they necessarily " poor in spirit "
because poor in worldly goods. Every beggar
was not a Lazarus ; while on the other side
there were Abrahams and Jobs who were
adorned with this true poverty, even in the
midst of their worldly abundance. — Abp. Trench.
[1967] We should not confound "the poor in
spirit " with the poor in worldly circumstances.
A man may be poor, very poor as it regards the
things of this world, and yet be proud, haughty,
and insolent. Our circumstances in life do not
regulate our piety. The poor are not always
humble, nor are the affluent and the noble
always arrogant. — J. Jordan.
(2) Not the destitution of intellectual kfiow-
ledge.
[1968] This is a greater evil still than temporal
destitution. " For the soul to be without know-
ledge is not good." Better be without food for
the body than without ideas for the mind.
Great ideas are the pinions of the soul : by them
we soar, with eagle swiftness, from the earth,
cleave the clouds, and bask high up in the
bright day-beams of truth. — Dr. Thomas.
(3) Alot the destitution ofjnental independency.
[1969] Nor is it thfe destitution of mental in-
THE BEATITUDES.
1969 — 1979. FIRST BEATITUDE.]
349
[poverty in spirit.
dependency that is here meant. That fawning
spirit, the brand-mark of httle souls, which
sacrifices the rights of manhood for the smiles
of power, has ever been, and still is, one of the
greatest obstructions in the path of human pro-
gress. It is the broad base in society on which
all despotisms, political and religious, rear their
crushing iron thrones. — Ibid.
[1970] Still less is it poverty in the lower or
specific soul and its desires, so as to mean a
feeble and ignoble disposition, falling naturally
below the energy of man's wishes or ambition.
This sort of poverty has no blessing in either
gospel ; nor is it blessed. — Bp. Moberley.
2 Positively interpreted.
(1) An absence of spiritual pride.
[1971] But the destitution Jesus means is that
of selt-importance — the entire absence of all
pride and egotistic thought and feeling. Where
this humility is not, where there is pride in any
mind, there can be no blessedness. By pride
the pure spirits of heaven sank to hell ; by
humility the imperfect spirits of earth ascend
to heaven. He that humbleth himself is exalted.
— Dr. Thomas.
[1972] This poverty of spirit implies a mind
not agitated by any sinful emotions which
worldly pride is apt to suggest. If the rich man
is willing to part with his wealth rather than
betray the honour of the giver ; or if those in
low estate abstain from murmuring against
God's providence ; both are poor in spirit : in
the rich man, God sees a Moses who preferred
the afflictions of Israel to the splendours of
Pharaoh ;— in the other, Christ says, as to the
Church of Smyrna, " I know thy tribulation and
thy poverty ; but thou art rich ; " even in
patience, contentment, and faith. — Abp. Trench.
[1973] True humility of spirit knows nothing
of ostentation — seeks not to exhibit its beauty
— wishes not the approval of men. It has its
residence in the heart, like all the other graces,
and is awakened by that power which nothing
can resist. The heart is the habitation of God.
— y. Jordan.
(2) A consciousness of poverty in regard to
the true riches.
[1974] They felt poor when they thought of
(i) truth, (2) holiness, (3) happiness.
[1975] "I" spirit" — Tif imv^ari —denotes
that iti respect of which the righteous are
" poor." They are pronounced " poor," not in
respect of attainment or possession, but of their
spirit. A certain frame and certain exercises
of spirit, which are distinctive of the poor, are
found with them, and so far, and in this respect,
they are such as are properly denominated "the
poor." The manner of spirit they are of is one
of the characteristics to which the designation
is attached ; and, therefore, in reference to this
characteristic, and under the limitation of this
reference, it is applicable to them. Accordingly
they are here denominated " the poor," not in
all respects, and without limitation, but "in
spirit." Thus " in spirit " denotes that from
the presence of which, and not, as some have
held, that from the want of which, "the poor"
intended are denominated. — Mclntyre.
[1976] The term "poor" excludes the false
riches of pride and self-sufficiency, while " in
spirit " marks the region in which this poverty
should find place ; that He is not now speaking
of worldly riches or worldly poverty, not of the
things outside of a man, but of those which are
within. It is as much as to say, Blessed are
they that are inwardly poor, who in their hearts
and spirits have a sense of need, of emptiness,
and poverty. — Abp. Trench.
[1977] Hence, as the things which are unseen
and eternal are not to be fully possessed and
enjoyed here, the present state, at the best, is
characterized by much want. The spiritually
enlightened perceive and experience this ; and,
consequently, their feeling is that they are poor,
that they have not yet attained to their proper
portion and rest. Whatever they already
possess, or have already reached, they cannot
look upon it and receive it as sufficient to afford
them satisfaction. Hence, though they may be
rich comparatively, as already possessing much,
yet as regards their bearing towards what they
possess, being unable to rest in it, they_ are
" poor in spirit." Thus, to be " poor in spirit "
is to be " strangers and pilgrims upon the earth,
desiring a better country, that is an heavenly."
— Mclntyre.
(3) A consequent beseechingness of spirit.
[1978] May we not remember that the poverty
of spirit of this beatitude is, if we pursue the
Greek word exactly, rather a beseechingness, a
beggingness, if I may coin such a term, of
spirit? I do not doubt indeed that it is rightly
translated, for in the Greek of the New Testa-
ment the word has greatly lost its original mean-
ing, and is generallv used to signify "poverty"
only. Yet in its triie, first force, it signifies that
lofty, lowly beocring wherewith the spirit of man
lays itself in supplication before the Holy Spirit
of God, ever begging, ever longing, never satis-
fied, desiring more and more always of that
Divine indwelling wherein is its own strength,
and happiness, and peace.— ^/. Moberley.
(4) A consequent acquiescence in Cod's order-
ing concertiing us.
[1979] It must be a willing poverty, of grace,
not of nature, in the higher and spiritual part of
man ; not an outwardly imposed condition, nor
an inward deficiency of force, but a willing and
gracious selection and acquiescence by the spirit
of a Christian man enlightened and enabled by
the Holy Spirit of God, in a place, condition,
desires, and the like, analogous to that which
35°
1979-
THE BEATITUDES.
■1983. FIRST BEATITUDE.]
[poverty in spirit.
belongs to the outwardly and literally poor. It
must be a weakness, so to say, that comes of
strength ; a poverty, so to call it, on the earth,
that comes of riches not on the earth. For the
word poverty plainly belongs to this world, and
the poor in spirit is surely he who, while he
remains here, is in his spirit as a poor man
among men, content to take and occupy the poor
man's place, having no personal ambition nor
desire of anything greater upon the earth, lowly,
and content with lowliness, unaffectedly, simply
lowly among men, and in respect of the things
which belong to this world. — Idid.
II. The Blessing pronounced: "For
THEIRS IS THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN."
1 Its nature and import.
[1980] The kingdom of heaven meets the poor
in spirit : —
First : Iji the revelation oj Divine truth. He
that humbles himself and becomes as a little
child enjoys Divine disclosures of truth. The
hungry soul is filled with the food of Divine
revelation ; the poor in spirit partake of truth,
specially of the truth of Christ. Yea, that truth
becomes their inseparable possession. The
Spirit so brings it home to them, to their mind
and heart, that it becomes as it were a part of
their being, and they are thereby ennobled and
enriched. It develops itself in thought, feeling,
principle, and is thus indeed a rich possession,
a real blessedness, a joy for ever.
Secondly : In the bestownient of moral purity.
To the poor in spirit Jesus is made of God both
righteousness and sanctification. The poor in
spirit can name Jesus by this name, "The Lord
our righteousness." And they are besides re-
newed in true holiness. In them a work of
sanctification, in its nature complete and pro-
gressive, is being carried on. They are being
changed into the very image of Jesus, from glory
to glory.
Thirdly : In the securing of unending bliss.
The poor in spirit have blessedness here and
happiness in reserve. They have blessedness in
possession, the blessedness of pardoned sinners,
of a life of holiness, of Divine disclosures of
truth, of Divine sonship, &c. But in its full
glory and fruition it is a thing reserved. Here
their happiness is often mixed ; in heaven it
will be complete and without alloy, and never
withdrawn.
Are you in search of blessedness ? Then here
is true blessedness, the only true blessedness,
namely, to be in possession of " the kingdom of
heaven." Here are boundless provisions to
meet the deepest spiritual poverty — truth for
spiritual ignorance, purity for moral depravity,
bliss for merited wretchedness. Only be "poor
in spirit," "set your affections on things above,''
" seek first the kingdom of God and his right-
eousness."— Glenbervie.
2 Its special point.
[1981J The consideration of the kingdom of
heaven assures the poor in spirit of the fulness
of fruition and blessedness, and it assures the
persecuted of ultimate triumph and security.
The poor in spirit and the persecuted are both
in depressing circumstances, and to both, there-
fore, the most elevating view is presented — that .
of a kingdom, the kingdom of heaven ; and the
most elevating announcement is made, that this
kingdom is theirs. — Mclntyre.
3 Mistakes guarded against.
(i) The kinodom is not of an earthly and
politically revolutionary character.
[1982] The kingdom of heaven, of which this
sermon is the earliest manifesto, was not to be
of this world in its moral or spiritual temper ;
but it certainly was to be, in the fullest possible
sense, in this world ; " fulfilling'' — here a_c'ain —
and not " destroying," those domestic, civil, and
social moulds into which the original design of
God meant human life to run. — Dykes.
(2) The ki7iodom not to be restricted to one or
other of its two legitimate meanings.
[1983] Even to say "It is yours" might seem
to imply some exertion on our part in order to
secure or get the good of the gift ; and for this
a man may feel he has no might. To enter in
and possess a kingdom given may be too much
for him. Let me bring, then, to the weak soul's
aid an ambiguity in these words of Jesus which
may not be quite undesigned. When Jesus said
of little children '"'' of stich is the kingdom of
heaven," and when He said of men poor in
spirit that the kingdom is theits. He used the
same expression. It is capable of both senses.
Not only in grammar, but in fact, the relation
of Christ's kingdom to His disciples may be
apprehended from two sides. It consists of
them as its subjects or citizens — its population,
so to say ; or it belongs to them and is theirs as
their country, their city, their birthright and pos-
session. One may say either, " It has me, for
it includes me within the range of its laws and
protection ; I am counted in the census of its
people, and its King claims me for His own ;"
or one may say, " I have it, for 1 have within my
soul as my personal experience the spiritual
righteousness, peace, and joy of the Holy Ghost
in which it consists ; I realize what it implies of
Divine favour and holy rule." In this double
sense the kingdom of heaven, like any earthly
one, consists of all, even of the little children
whom it has just registered in its roll, and for
whom, as for its still helpless citizens, it under-
takes to care ; but the kingdom can only be
said to belong to the adult and veteran saint
whom Christ receives after trial and conquest to
sit with Him upon His throne. In the first
beatitude, blessed are the poor, because already,
in the dawn of spiritual life, the King counts
them for His own, and of them is the kingdom ;
in the last beatitude, blessed are the martyrs
who have kept the faith, and been made like
unto the King, for n*w in full fruition the king-
THE BEATITUDES.
1983 — 1991. SECOND BEATITUDE.]
351
[spiritual mourning.
dom of heaven is theirs. Let it not therefore
grieve any one if in the poverty of his spirit he
cannot as yet claim his inheritance. — Ibid.
4 Means necessary to be used for its reali-
zation.
_(i) Self-itispection and perfect honest dealing
with ourselves.
[1984] Does not each one of us require to
remind himself of this t to check himself, and
bring himself, as it were, forcibly back to re-
member that it is not worldly success or fame
that has the blessing and the promise of God,
but true Christian poverty of spirit ? Do not
worldly maxims surround us, and, as it were,
penetrate all our life } Do not worldly feelings
intrude upon us continually, almost whether we
will or no ? How many a heart-ache are they
spared whose humility is real, whose inner
spirit is lowly and spiritually poor in the sight
of God ! Let us not be misled by deceitful
imaginations, as though we desired the high
places of the earth, in order, as men say, to be
more useful, or the like. This is a very common
salve of conscience in the ambitious. But it is
a delusive one. We know not where we are
most useful. A devoted, Christian man, doing
his Christian work with all his might, is of un-
speakable use wherever he is. Only let us keep
our eyes and our hearts fixed on the eternal
kingdom, fixed on the return of the Judge in
judgment, and humbling ourselves in daily
penitence and confession of sin, and, growing
stronger daily in holiness and the strength of
the Holy Ghost, we shall by His grace realize
more and moi e the lofty lowliness of the blessed
poor in spirit, for whom, whatever be the lowness
of their place on earth, the high places are
surely appointed in the kingdom of heaven. —
Bp. Moberley.
in. Connection between the Condition
OF THE Persons blessed and the
Blessing itself.
[1985] Poor enough to bring nothing but
empty hands to God, and an empty heart ;
poor enough to take the heavenly kingdom as
a gift from the most rich and bountiful Lord of
it ; poor enough to have a simple accepting
faith when He says, " It is yours ! " — Dykes,
[1986] The disposition, of their minds is such,
that they are immediately capable of receiving
and entertaining all the precepts of the Christian
doctrine ; their hearts are, as it were, ploughed
xa^, and ready for the seed, the greatest obstacle,
viz , the world and their affections to it, being
already conquered. — J. Gardiner.
[1987] Poverty in spirit is the fruit of the law,
and the germ of the gospel. The triumph of the
law consists in that it makes poor : that of the
gospel, in that it makes rich. — Lafige.
SECOND BEATITUDE.
{Spiritual Mourning.)
I. The Grace commended in Persons
blessed.
1 Negatively interpreted.
[1988] Mourning arises from various causes.
Disappointments, bereavements, poverty, dis-
eases, social slander, oppression, moral con-
trition, are some of the sources from which
proceed those manifold streams of sorrow which
roll their turbulent billows over human souls. —
Dr. Thomas.
[1989] There is a mourning which has no
compensating blessing attached to it ; there is
misery enough among men, which yet has no
blessing, for it leads to no repentance, or at
best is only a " sorrow of the world." One is
groaning for one thing, one for another — for
this temporal loss, for that worldly tribulation,
for the hail that has laid waste his vineyard,
for the death that has entered into his dwelling,
for the powerful foes that are seeking his harm.
. . . This mourning gives too sure an augury
that there is reserved for him a mourning of
another kind, and which shall not be exchanged.
— Abp. Trench.
2 Positively interpreted,
(i) A godly soj-row.
[1990] It is to moral mourning — mourning on
account of sin — that Jesus here refers. This
penitential sorrow does not arise merely from
the fear of the consequences of sin, either tem-
poral or eternal, but from a deep sense of its
enormity as rebellion against the God of infinite
holiness and love. This "godly sorrow, which
worketh repentance to salvation not to be re-
pented of," is truly a " blessed " sorrow. Though
painful, it is only the Great Physician probing
the moral wound before He applies the "sove-
reign balm ; " it is but the passing tempest,
whose frowning fury is clearing the air, watering
the earth, making bright the sky, and unveiling
in fairer beauties the face of the world. This
element of well-being is not necessary in heaven,
because there is no sin there ; but it is indis-
pensable to the happiness of every depraved
soul on earth. Christ announces an irrevocable
law in this beatitude, and that is, that penitential
sorrow must precede human happiness : " Ex-
cept ye repent ye shall likewise perish."
E'er since the fall man's penitence his blessed-
ness precedes ;
'Tis grief that tunes his heart to music,
'Tis tribulation fits him for the skies.
— Dr. Thomas.
[1991] Worldly men know not of a mourning
which springs from a higher source, a mourning
for our own sins, for the sins of others, out of a
sense of our exile here, of our separation from
352
THE BEATITUDES.
199I — 2CX)4. SECOND BEATITUDE.]
[spiritual mourning.
the true home of our spirits, out of a lon.s^ing for
the eternal Sabbath. And yet it is only this
nobler grief that has the promise linked to it,
that shall be followed by any true consolation.
To be thus miserable is indeed to be happy. —
Abp. Trench.
11. The Blessing pronounced: "For
they shall be comforted."
1 Its nature and import.
(1) As to the present.
[1992] Spiritual mourners shall be comforted
(l) by an assurance of their personal interest in
Christ ; (2) by the promise that the cause of
their mourning shall be removed ; (3) by the
expression of Divine approval ; (4) by the pros-
pect of an eternity of happiness in heaven. —
J. Jordan.
[1993] He is the subject of "exceeding great
and precious promises " (Psa. cxxvi. 5, 6 ; Isa.
xl. I, 2), and of the ministry of the Holy Ghost
the Comforter. — Good {of Salisbury).
(2) As to the future.
[1994] The mourner shall forget his sorrows
in the comforts of eternity. — Pitman.
2 Its accessibleness.
[1995] This true comfort, which modulates
all the jarrings, reconciles all the differences,
smooths all the inequalities, and sweetens all
the bitterness of life, is within the reach of every
one of us, — may be this moment our own. —
Mojtsell.
3 Its special point.
[1996] The sorrows themselves contribute (i)
in the present state to the Christian's joys
(Rom. v. 2, 3 ; viii. 35-37) ; (2) to the increase
of his future glory (2 Cor. iv. 15-17).
[1997] This comfort consists in something
more than mere support under his burdens. It
is a surplus of peace and joy, over and above
the measure of his grief. It would be pleasant
indeed for the soldier always to have succour
equal to his necessity, and strength according
to his conflict ; but that does not amount to the
fulness of this promise. The idea which it con-
veys is that the consolations of the Christian
far surpass his sorrows ; and that his bitterest
afflictions, under the Divine blessing, conduce
to swell the magnitude of his triumph. — Good
{of Salisbury).
[1998] It is not every sort of comforting a
mourner will call " blessed." If you cannot let
me in through this gateway of distress to a
peace, a largeness of delight unfelt before ; if
you do not turn my very tears to showers of
sunshine, and lift me from my valley up to
heights of glorious bliss on which I could not
otherwise have stood : where, I pray you, is the
" blessedness " of my " mourning ? " — Dylces.
III. Connection between the Condition
OF THE Persons blessed and the
Blessing itself.
[1999] All around him changes, everything
seems brighter than before. And yet, nothing
without is changed, no more than the outer
world is changed to the senses of a man return-
ing to health. The whole change is within.
The heart is changed, it is new ! The man is
changed, he is born again ! The roseate colour
which life takes is not in itself, but in the medium
through which he gazes on it ; " He is a new
creature, old things are passed away, behold,
all things are become new." This is his comfort,
this is the way in which the blessing is realized,
and the promise fulfilled. It is thus those
lessons end, which he at first thought tended
only to melancholy and gloom. He was allured
into the wilderness, and God spake comfortably
to him there.
[2000] Sorrow because I am still wrestling
with sin, because mine eye, purified by living
with God, sees earth and sin, and life and death,
and the generations of men and the darkness
beyond, in some measure as God sees them !
And yet the sorrow is surface, and the joy
central ; the sorrow springs from circumstance,
and the gladness from the essence of the thing,
and therefore the sorrow is transitory, and the
gladness is perennial. — Alaclaren.
[2001] You must taste the sorrows of religion
in their verity, ere you can know the joys of re-
ligion in their reality and truth. There is no
surer sign of the Divine Life being in our souls
than the existence of this mourning in our hearts.
—Dykes.
[2002] What lies so near to a mourner's heart
as the bitterness of having thus departed from
the living God, unless it be the sore need which
the soul has of that absent and, it may be, angry
One's return, to be Himself the upbinder of His
own wounds? To this spiritual issue all "mourn-
ing" tends. For this Divine comfort 't always
seems to call. — Ibid.
IV. New Light thrown by this Beati-
tude UPON THE Philosophy of Life.
[2003] We are apt to think, Blessed are " the
merry ;" but Christ, who was Himself a great
mourner, says. Blessed are " the mourners." —
Matthew Henry.
[2004] " If the world addressed your majesty
(Louis XIV.) from this place, the world would
not say, ' Blessed are they that mourn,' but
'Blessed is the prince who has never fought but
to conquer; who has filled the universe with his
name ; who, through the whole course of a long
and flourishing reign, enjoys in splendour all
that men admire — extent of conquest, the esteem
of enemies, the love «f his people, the wisdom
THE BEATITUDES.
2004 — 2016. THIRD BEATITUDE.
353
[meekness.
of his laws.' But, sire, the language of the
gospel is not the language of the world." —
Massillon, 1663- 1742.
[2005] " Blessed are they that mourn, for they
shall be comforted." " O God," some one prays,
"teach us how to gn&x&V— Dykes.
[2006] What a mercy in tears, when they
cause the loving hand of God to come so near
us. — Flavel.
THIRD BEATITUDE. ^
{^Meektiess?}
I. The Grace commended in Persons
BLESSED.
X Its counterfeits.
(i) Cowardice.
[2007] It is not cowardice — the opposite of
the intrepid and the brave in feelin^j — but it is
calm energy of soul. Jesus meek, yet the Lion
of the tribe of Judah (Rev. v. 5).
(2) Stoical i?isensibility.
[2008] Jesus was meek, and yet no nature
was more sensitive than His : the softest zephyr
ripp'ei the deep crystal current of His heart. —
Dr. Thomas.
[2009] Not those who grieve at nothing, be-
cause they know nothing ; who are not discom-
posed at evils which occur, because they discern
not evil from good. Not those who are sheltered
from the shocks of life by a stupid insensibility,
who have either by nature or art the virtue of
stocks and stones, and resent nothing, because
they feel nothing. Apathy is as far from meek-
ness as from humanity. — J. Wesley.
2 Its origin.
[2010] The state which results from the two-
fold process of breaking and of softening — the
attitude to God in which the "hammer" and the
" fire " leave a man — is meekness. — Dykes.
[201 1] Meekness is first of all a state toward
God, not man. It is tameness of spirit before
our Heavenly Father. Hence one of old
(Gregory of Nyssa) called "humility, the mother
of meekness ;" and one of the moderns (Ram-
bach) has said, " It grows out of the ashes of
self-love and on the grave of pride." Rooting
itself deep in these antecedent beatitudes, in
undesert, the sense of which is soul-poverty,
and ill-desert, which worketh soul -sorrow, it
holds itself ready to fall in with anything, the
least or the worst, which God may give. This
blessed frame of spirit toward God has its con-
sequent and counterpart in the meek man's social
temper. — Ibid.
VOL I.
[2012] Christian meekness results chiefly (1)
from a deep sense of our own unworthiness ; (2)
from an earnest love of our fellow-men. He
who is humble in the meek consciousness of his
own vileness as a sinner will invariably be averse
from all overbearing ; and he who is zealous for
the well-being of others will forbear and forgive,
and keep down resentment, however injurious
the conduct of others ; thus we think that humi-
lity and love are among the chief ingredients of
meekness. — H. Melvill, Golden Lectures.
3 Its growth.
[2013] The naturally meek man being for the
most part the naturally timid and irregoiute, will
be so stimulated by grace that, while he retains
what is gentle, he acquires what is firm and
unbending. On the other hand, the naturally
vehement man, after having been renewed by
the Holy Ghost, is still as strong as before, and
as determined, but stripped of his impetuousness,
and softened with patience. Thus, in each case,
grace supplies the wanting quality ; or, to speak
more correctly, it takes the existing qualities,
removes the excess, and imparts all that was
heretofore deficient. — Ibid.
[2014] Your good-natured people, who by
constitution take the world as it comes, will
display, to begin with, a bastard species of
meekness, a wild slip on which perhaps may be
the sooner grafted the new grace. It will be
different with ardent and imperious natures,
with men impatient of injustice, or with such as
are aspiring and strong. To tame the leopard
into lying down with the kid, will ask a longer
and sterner education. The old nature will for
long be breaking out at times through super-
imposed lessons of gentleness. Still, the new
meek heart must be found in every converted
character, in fuller or in slighter development ;
for meekness is the seed of childlikeness. It is
the mark of the " little one '' who has a Father,
and, being weak and small, leaves all things to
that Father's care. — Dykes.
4 Its main characteristics.
(i) I'leived from its fte^^ative side.
[2015] A willingness to take wrong without
retaliation. It bears with provocations, con-
trols all feelings of irritation, and refuses to
regard personal injury and wrong. In the
natural imitations of Christian meekness, which
are not Christian meekness, but are outwardly
like it, this is perhaps the single, certainly
the one most characteristic, trait of all. — Bp.
Moberley.
[2016] It is that willingness to suffer wrong,
or pain, or insult, from our neighbour patiently,
and as a medicine from God, not a poison from
man, which flows from the conviction that we
deserve at God's hand far heavier chastisements
than we receive ; and that all things, even the
unkindnesses of others, are permitted for our
good, and may be converted into blessings. —
Monsell.
23
354
20I7-
TllE BEATITUDES.
-2026. THIKD BEATITUDE.]
[meekness.
[2017] The meek are those bowed down in
humility before God. They patiently endure
evils and injuries in the stren,qth of love : they
murmur not when God afflicts and punishes
them for their sins. They lie passive imHis
hand, having wholly surrendered their will. —
Van Dorcn Series.
[2018] It is that high and radiant state of
mind in which all the faculties act as if they
were held in the sweetness of the faith of God,
and in the spirit of sympathy and love which is
in God. It is all that is in a man, thinking,
willing, acting, but acting under calmness,
under sweetness, under the law of benevolence.
It exists when a man's nature is so under the
Divine impress as that the agitations which
come from the passions cease, and the passions
themselves become only auxiliaries, and are
entirely subservient to the Divine Nature. It
is the best side of a man under provocation
maintaining itself in the best mood, and con-
trolling all men. — H. IV. Beeclie?:
(2) Viewed more from its positive side.
(a) How the meek allow others to trejit them.
[2019] A meek man, in a Christian sense,
having his place in life, and with it his duties,
thinks nothing of himself, his claims, his dig-
nities, his station, but holding under God, and
discharging his duty to God, puts himself, and
all that relate to himself, out of his sight.
(d) How he treats others.
[2020] A Christianly meek man having duties
which affect other people, is gentle in treatment
of others, loving and modest, but firm and
simple, allowing no provocation to ruffle him,
not recognizing himself or his own claims, but
acting as God's minister, and lovingly ruling,
teaching, or otherwise directing those whom
God has put under his care. With total ab-
sence of the thought of se//, he discharges to-
wards men the duties which it owes to God. —
Bp. Aloberley.
[2021] It is power blended with gentleness —
boldness with humility — the hannlessness of
the dove with the prowess of the lion. It is
the soul in the majesty of self-possession, ele-
vated above the precipitant, the irascible, the
boisterous, and the revengeful. It is the soul
throwing its benignaiit smiles on the furious
face of the foe, and penetrating his heart
and paralyzing his arm with the look of love. —
Dr. Thomas.
5 Relation of the meekness of grace with that
of nature.
[2022] Natural meekness is very nearly allied
with timidity, sometimes with meanness, and
sometimes with insensibilty. It is the lameness
which belongs to a weak, thouf;h a placid and
amiable nature. But the meekness which is of
grace is essentially a brave thing. It is not the
natural product of a tasteless tree. It is the
Divine product of a strong natural stock.
Divine meekness requires strength, self-control,
tranquil courage — and all these in a high
degree. Perhaps the natural traits which suit
best with the ingrafted element of Divine meek-
ness, are rather such as, without grace, might
have ripened into a character the reverse of
meek, than into the soft and yielding disposition
which men call meekness. This, I say, it is
very important to remember ; in this, and in
similar cases. For the natural imitations of
Divine virtues are often so very unlike them
inwardly and really, as in fact to indispose
rather than to predispose the person in whom
they are found for the exalted and angelic
virtues, the strong and noble virtues, which
they counterfeit. Such is natural credulity as
compared with Divine faith, natural softness of
afiection as compared with Divine love, natural
insensibility to offence as compared with Divine
forgiveness, natural tameness of mind as com-
pared with Divine meekness. — Bp. Moberley.
II. The Blessing promised : "For they
SHALL INHERIT THE EARTH."
1 The manner of its fulfilment.
(i) Literally in the present.
[2023] The words are a literal citation from
the Septuagint version of Psalm xxxvii. 11. The
original meaning (perhaps suggested to David
by his own experience in the matter of Nabal),
refers probably to the temporal blessings pro-
mised by God under the old dispensation,
especially to Canaan, under the condition of
trusting in God and waiting patiently, instead
of attempting to obtain possession by human
power and violence. Our Lord gives a fuller
and more spiritual meaning to the temporal
promises of the older covenant. The Christian
faith, the representative of this virtue especially,
has brought, and will continue to bring, the
kingdoms of the earth under its influence : the
Church has gained by this, more than any other
quality, its spiritual dominion over men. —
Monsell.
[2024] The Church of God outlasts all the
kingdoms of this world (Daniel vii. 17, 18).
[2025] The inheritance of the earth is that
world dominion which Christians, as organs of
the Spirit of Christ, are ever more and more to
obtain, as the kingdom of God shall win in-
creasing sway over mankind and the relations
of society, until, in its final consummation, the
whole earth shall own its dominion ; and the
quiet might of gentleness it is, with which God's
kingdom is to subjugate the world. — Neander.
[2026] These words are a quotation from
Psalm xxxvii. 11, and considered in relation to
this reference and to our Saviour's words in
Luke xii. 15, they mean (i) God's blessing and
protection when His judgments should over-
take and cut off thft wicked (Psa. xxxviii. 9).
THE BEATITUDES.
2026 — 2034. THIRD BEATITUDE.]
355
[meekness.
(2) The enjoyment of our portion with quiet-
ness, contentment, and satisfaction (i Tim. iv.
8 ; Matt. vi. 33).— 7. 7?/<?/r, 1733-
[2027] It is now about a hundred and fifty
years since there Hved in this country two well-
known persons, whose character and history
may well illustrate the doctiine and truth of
which I speak. The one was one of the
greatest men of his time, one whose name
occupies one of the principal and brightest
pages of common history. A principal agent
in the revolution which placed William the
Third on the throne of England, he became in
the following reign the most powerful and
wealthiest of subjects. Through his wife he
obtained unlimited power over his sovereign.
He was the greatest general of modern history,
unequalled until this generation. He repressed
the pride and checked the conquests of the
Great Monarch, and conquered his most
famous leaders. His victories rank among the
foremost achievements of the British arms.
The result of his wars was a peace which, in
the very lowness of the terms on which it was
concluded, promised to settle upon a new and
equitable basis the contending claims of many
and mighty nations.
The other had, in earlier years, been lifted
from obscurity and made a bishop of the
Church of England ; but at the time I speak
of he was deprived of all position and emolu-
ment because he refused the oaths to the new
government. He was poor, evil-spoken of,
and watched with jealousy even in his gifts of
charity. So little apparent weight had he, or
those who acted with him, in the apparent
events of English history, that in a recent work
of considerable ability and fame, which records
that history from the early part of the last
century, neither his name nor theirs, neither
his conduct nor theirs, neither his existence nor
theirs, is so much as mentioned. And yet, if
any man should attempt to gauge the influence,
the real lasting influence of these two men
upon mankind, the real essential enduring
power, the true weight on man, on his being,
on his heart, on his prospects, on his real self-
—which, think you, has most truly inherited
this earth in power, the author of the Morning
and Evening Hymns, or the conqueror of
Blenheim ? he whose simple words and few,
not in themselves either particularly able or
particularly beautiful, whose few simple words
make, and have made, and no doubt will make,
sweet Christian music in the hearts of millions
who have never heard nor known his name,
or he whose station, ability, and success blazed
before the world's eyes tor a few years, and,
their effects swept away after a time by other
events, then disappeared absolutely and for
ever. — Bp. Mobcrley.
(2) IJtcraUy in the fufu7-e.
[2028] Such qualities are enforced as Christ
deemed to be the fundamental principles of the
new kingdom which he now announced. Since
that kingdom was not of this v.-orld, the land
which forms the inheritance of the meek can-
not, by consistency of ar<;ument, be considered
as an exception ; but must figuratively denote
that new earth wherein dwelleth righteousness.
— Pitman.
[202q] Our prime reason for insisting on the
expression "inherit the earth,"' is our thinking
that much of the present fulfilment of the
promise depends on the time which such an
expression denotes. The season of its ac-
complishment is to be future ; for in this life
the heir is nothing more than a son who has
not yet reached an age on which to enter into
possession. — H. Melvill, Golden Lectures.
(3) Figuratively in the future.
[2030] That this "inheritance" which "excels
in beauty," the inheritance of the meek Son to
be CO- inherited by His meek brethren, is to be,
not in a figure but in literal fact, the earth
regenerated and made new, redeemed from
corruption and reconstructed in glory ; this is
the last light which revelation suffered to fall
upon the ancient Abrahamic promise ere its
curtain fell in Patmos. — Dykes.
2 Its special point.
[2031] There is a designed emphasis in the
shape which the promise assumes, "for they
shall inherit the earth ; " and that in more ways
than one— "the earth," possession in land
always remaining the surest of earthly posses-
sions',— and "inherit," possession by inheritance
in the orderly succession of father and son being
ever counted to have the strongest promise and
pledge of continuance. — Abp. 'Irencli.
[2032] To the meek, the earth is not a stage
for self-exertion and the graspings of desire,
but an " inheritance " which they have received
from their Father. — DecDi Plwnptre.
[2033] The allusion here may be to Canaan ;
and as the Jews in the wilderness looked forward
to the inheriting of Palestine as the highest
good, prolDably Jesus uses the expression to
conve> to their minds the idea that the meek
in spirit shall receive the best of blessings.— Z>r.
21 10 mas.
3 Its apparent exceptions.
[2034] We often see meek men go to the wall,
but it is because they are weak. The declara-
tion is not that each meek man shall be victorious
over everybody else, but that in any given man
meekness is the strongest mood in which he
can carry himself; and that in regard to multi-
tudes of men, in the long run, those who carr)-
themselves according to their highest nature
shall succeed, and shall overtop those who
carry themselves by their lower nature.—//. \V.
Beecher.
3S^>
2035—2043. THIRD BEATITUDE.]
THE BEATITUDES.
[hunger and thirst after righteousness.
III. Connection between the Con-
dition OF THE Person blessed and
THE Blessing itself.
1 Negatively considered.
[2035] Although the treasures, the greatness,
the delights of all men living, were in the
present possession of one, yet somewhat be-
sides and above all this there would still be
sought, and earnestly thirsted for. Nay, it "is
certain, if one man were not only crowned
with the sovereignty of all the kingdoms of
the earth, but besides were made commander
of the motions of the sun, and the glory of
the stars, yet the restless eye of his unsatisfied
understanding would peep and pry beyond the
heavens for some hidden excellency and sup-
posed felicity, which the whole compass of this
created world cannot yield. So unquenchable
is the thirst of man's soul, until it bathe itself
in the river of life, and in the immeasurable
ocean of goodness and wisdom. So impossible
is it, that this material world, with all her per-
fections, should be a proportionable object to
so precious a nature, or that so divine a spirk
should cease rising and aspiring, until it joined
itself to that infinite flame of glory and majesty
from whence it first issued. — R. Ballon^ 1637.
2 Positively considered.
[2036] Men count that in a world of violence
and wrong, the meek will inevitably make them-
selves a prey ; that an Isaac, who gives up the
well again and again rather than contend for it,
will at length have nothing left him which he
may call his own (Gen. xxvi. 20). But it is not
so. Wonderful under God is the strength and
power of meekness ; with it is ever the victory
at the last : in the words of the eastern proverb,
"The one staff of Moses breaks in shivers the
ten thousand spears of Pharaoh.'' These "meek"
shall in the end inherit all things, even this
"earth," from which it seemed at the outset as
if they would be thrust out altogether. — Abp.
Trench.
[2037] Meekness builds up ; hot and rash
zeal pulls down. Blessedness of being free
from anger, jealousy, and hatred. Blessedness
of being free from suspicion and distrust.
Blessedness of being saved from strife and
contention. Blessedness of understanding the
truth and ways of God. Blessedness of being
like God, and having the mind of Christ. — Van
Doreti Series.
[2038] The meek man has nought to do with
the motives of others ; all that concerns him is
the manner in which he himself may be trained
and disciplined by those disquietudes, and dis-
comforts, and disheartenings of life, which the
conduct of others may bring. The result of this
is that he goes through the world, hurting, vexing,
irritating no one. He is taking the poison from
every sting. He is receiving upon his shield of
Faith every fiery dart of the wicked one. He is
neutralizing every bitter — he is enjoying every
sweet. And thus he appropriates the blessing,
thus he inherits earth, with a reality and a glad-
ness which the selfish, self-satisfied, dissatisfied,
proud man never can know. — Monsell.
[2039] Who is the man that most truly inherits
the earth .'' Not the man of an ambitious and
restless spirit, though he may call a million
acres his own. Such a man has no spirit-home :
his soul roams through his estates, like the
unclean spirit in the desert, seeking rest, but
finding none. It is the man of holy meekness
that inherits the earth. Though, on legal
grounds, he has no claim to a foot of soil, he
feels a vital interest and a spiritual property in
all. He is the master of himself ; he can sit
upon the throne of his own being, bid his intel-
lect turn the phenomena of the universe into
joyous realms of thought ; his heart, the wide
earth into a temple of devotion ; and his faith,
the fiercest roar of the elements into music.
He inheriis the earth — feels at home in all —
appropriates all — makes all serve the high ends
of his being. — Dr. Thomas.
IV. Contrast between the Teaching
OF THIS Beatitude and Prevailing
Sentiments.
[2040] This beatitude, like the two preceding,
contains a maxim which the world generally
disbelieves. It pronounces a class of persons
happy whom, of all others, the children of men
account contemptible and cowardly ; and it
promises them a reward which, above all men
on the earth, they are the most unlikely to
enjoy. — Good {of Salisbury).
V. Suggested Duties.
[2041] We should cultivate meekness, i. In
order to be conformed to the example of the
Son of God. 2. To refute the calumnies of the
infidel and to confound the scoffer. 3. In
obedience to Scripture precept and example. —
y. Jordan.
[2042] On this beatitude we have one of
Augustine's striking antithetic sayings : "Dost
thou wish to possess the earth .-' beware then
lest thou be possessed by it."
FOURTH BEATITUDE.
{Iliuigcr and Thirst after Righteousness.)
I. lis Relation to the other Beati-
tudes.
I To the preceding beatitudes.
[2043] Our Lord has hitherto been more im-
mediately employed in removing hindrances-
pride, which is taken «way by poverty of spirit ;
levity, which is removed by holy mourning ;
2043—2050 IIHRD BEATITUDE.]
THE BE A TITUDES. . 357
[hunger and thirst after righteousnes.s.
anger, impatience, discontent, which are healed
by meekness. When once these evil diseases
of the soul are removed, the native appetite of
a heaven-born spirit returns ; it hungers and
thirsts after righteousness. — J. Wesley, 1703-
1791.
2 To the succeeding beatitudes.
[2044] What Jesus here calls blessed is not
yet the unmixed gladness of attainment, of
being actually merciful and pure of heart and
makers of peace. As yet, it is the beatitude
only of desire, not of possession ; turbid still,
and urgent and unappeased. Nevertheless,
thanks to our Lord Christ, it is a beatitude.
Even to hunger and to thirst after righteousness
is, under the gospel, blessed. —Z>/Zv.y.
II. Its Doctrinal Aspect.
[2045] In no other of the beatitudes does
Christian doctrine come so near to the surface
of the words as in this one. It is quite true that
doctrine is not really absent from any. All the
eight belong to the Christian man alone, and
presuppose Christian truth accepted and be-
lieved, the aid of the sanctifying Spirit, and the
hope of heaven : but the subject of the other
seven is more precisely the Divine morality of
the Christian man— his hopes, his strength, his
belief being presupposed indeed, but not im-
mediately kept in view. In this one the case is
otherwise. Christ is Himself our righteousness.
We have none, nor can have any, save in Him.
Blessed is he who hungereth and thirsteth after
that righteousness — for none other — for right-
eousness in Christ, for righteousness which is
Christ. — Bp. Moberley.
III. Explanations of Terms employed.
[2046] The word righieoitsttess does not mean
the " righteousness of faith," by which, through
the merits of the Cross, we are freed from sin,
and justified before God. The word, in this
sense, occurs only in the epistles of St. Paul.
The Jews, whom our Saviour now addresses,
had no apprehension that the Messiah was to
die ; and much less that they were to be justi-
fied by His death : and, therefore, if Christ had
spoken of an imputed righteousness, they would
not have understood Him. — Fit7nan.
[2047] The reference in the word " righteous-
ness" is not (i) to the Christian religion, nor (2)
to uprightness, nor (3) the restoration of man,
but (4) to righteousness generally in all its re-
lationships, self-ward, man-ward, God-ward ;
(5) to the righteousness of heaven ; (6) to
righteousness not as a natural but super-
natural gift— a gift not of the outer but of the
inner life ; (7) to Christ Himself as the Sun of
Righteousness. — C. N.
IV. The Grace commended in Persons
BLESSED: Hungering and thirsting
AFTER Righteousness.
I Its origin.
[2048] It is not so much an active movement
of our will, or our thoughts toward God and
holy things, as it is a kind of involuntary appe-
tite rising and moving within us, for which we
deserve no more credit than we do for being
hungry for our natural food, which we can no
more produce in ourselves than we can pro-
duce our natural propensions, but which
we can mar, and spoil, and destroy by one
course of conduct, and cherish and strengthen
by another. It is, in fact, the healthy action of
the Divine life within our souls ; the acknov,-
ledgment of being conferred, the craving for
its enlargement and continuance ; the pulse ot
the new life which we have, the longing that we
should have it more abundantly. We should
ever remember that though we cannot create
life, we can starve it ; that, though the new man
can be born only of God, he can be hurt, and
dwarfed, and ruined by man. — Monsell.
[2049] There are in the body many condi-
ditions of inanition and resemblance ot hunger,
which yet are not real hunger, nor tend at all,
like real hunger, to strength, and growth, and
invigorated life. We all know what it is when
we are ill to leel as if we were hungry, and yet
not be able to eat when the food comes ; to feel
as if we wanted the food fas indeed we do, as a
matter of real need), and desired it eagerly, and
yet when it comes to have no stomach for it, to
turn away from it with disgust, or force ourselves
to eat it without benefit. There is a very close
parallel to this in the matter of spiritual hunger
— when men, in the deepest and saddest need
of God's forgiveness, conscious more or less of
need, and in a sort of way desirous of the supply
of it, are yet unable to embrace it when it is
offered them, cannot bring themselves to do
what is necessary in order to become partakers
of it, preferring rather the death of spiritual in-
anition, or atrophy, to the life of sacred forgive-
ness in Christ. Spiritual hunger, then, as it
requires the grace of the Holy Ghost to make it
hopeful, loving, longing, so it requires also the
faithful, eager search for that freely _ offered
pardon which is its food. If grace quicken it
not into loving faith, if loving faith do not seek
eagerly and by all appointed means for the
offeree! food, surely it is no hunger which is
blessed or shall be filled, nor can it be more
than starvation, famine, death.— ^/. Moberley.
2 Its nature and significance.
[2050] It indicates desire so intense as to be
almost painful. The dead hunger not : spiritual
hungering a sign of life. The diseased hunger
not^ spiritual hungering a sign of health.- Win
Daren Series.
358
205 1 — 2059.
FOURTH BF.ATITUnE.l
THE BEATITUDES.
HUNGER AND THIRST AFTER RIGHTEOUSNESS.
[2051] There is to be a longing for purity in
the inward man : a longing for truth, ardent and
unquenched ; a longing for all that is Godlike ;
for perfect manhood ; for that vigour and valour
which work with the gentleness, the sweetness,
the meekness, the humility which belongs to true
love ; for wealth of character ; for all that goes
to make the angelic conceptions of men ; a long-
ing for symmetry, and harmony, and intensity,
and continuity in the inward life ; above all, the
outreaching of the soul, along the line of its
ideals, forthose after-states which hang hovering
oxerlife to many of us. — H. II'. Bccclicr.
[2052] The hunger of a Christian soul after
righteousness is now a hunger simply to be like
Jesus, a hunger whetted evermore by the vision
of Him in His beauty. The conformity of
righteousness is desired now, not as conformity
to a hard or cold imperative from heaven, but
as assimilation through sympathy to the very
heart which for ever beats and glows in holy
love within the Beloved of our hearts. — Dykes.
[2053] Such is the "hunger and thirst" of
the Christian soul — a something which is never
satisfied, which, the more it receives, desires the
more ; which, having tasted that the Lord is
gracious, rests not until it tastes again ; which,
having found strength for duty in spiritual com-
munion, finds, in the discharge of that duty, the
return of a healthful appetite for spiritual com-
munion again. — Monseil.
[2054] It is like the ravenous hunger that
comes on when a person is beginning to get
w-ell of some desperate sickness. He may be
supposed to have been altogether incapable of
eating or drinking, at least with the slightest
appetite or relish, for many days or weeks, and
all that time may be compared with his many
years of unrcpcnted sin and total forgetfulness
of God ; and then as he begins to get better,
and with the improvement of health the appe-
tite begins to spring, we all know with what in-
tense eagerness a person longs for food, never can
be satisfied, would be, if he were allowed, always
eating, seems to gain, almost visibly, strength
from every meal, almost from every mouth-
ful that he eats ; well, that is the sort of hunger
and thirst with which a real penitent, one who
has many, and heavy, and long-continued sins
to be sorry for, for which he has never sorrowed
before, longs for God's pardoning righteousness,
when by the grace of the Holy Spirit the sacred
appetite is wakening up within him, and with it
the first symptoms of recovery and restoration
from his dire illness begin to show themselves.
—Bp. Mobcrlcy.
[2055] As a man that is full, who cares not for
eating grapes, and therefore stands looking and
gazing on them ; or as a man that is not athirst,
he will gaze more on the graving of the cup,
than he will desire to drink thnt wiiich is in the
cup ; whenas the hungry or thirsty man, he will
not so much gaze on the grape or respect the
outside of the cup as to eat and to drink ; so a
truly humbled man, he will not regard eloquence
and wit in the Word ; this is unto him but as a
graven cup, that will not satisfy him, but the
pure Word alone is that which will satisfy him,
and nourish him up in grace. — J. Preston, 1634.
V. The Blessing promised : " For
THEY SHALL BE FILLED."
I Scriptural parallels.
(i) In the Old Testament.
[2056] The Old Testament is full of gracious
words for yearning souls, " As the hart panteth
after the water-brook, so panteth my soul for
Thee, O God." So says David. Hear the
answer : '' As for me, I will behold Thy face in
righteousness ; I shall be satisfied when I awake
with Thy likeness." When I awake ! Ah, we
must all go to sleep, :is David, first. But, when
we awake ! God grant us David's awakening.
We must quote Isaiah, too. In the sixty-
fourth chapter and 4th verse, he says, '' For
since the beginning of the world, men have not
heard, nor perceived by the ear, neither hath
the eye seen, O God, beside Thee, what He
hath prepared for him that waiteth for Him."
And in the 13th and 14th verses of the next
chapter, he says, " Therefore, saith the Lord
Gocl, Behold my servants shall drink, behold
my servants shall rejoice, behold my servants
shall sing for joy of heart." — E. T. Davies {in
Ho nil list).
(2) /;/ tJie New Testament.
[2057] Such were the glorious anticipations
of the men who lived in the twilight of ante-
Christian times. How much more clearly do
Christ Himself and the writers of the New Tes-
tament speak of these hopes for which the incar-
nate Son of God was both the pledge and the
fulfilment in one and the same person.
He says to the Samaritan woman, "Whoso-
ever drinketh of the water that I shall give him
shall never thirst, but the water that I shall
give him shall be in him a well of water spring-
ing up into everlasting life." And John echoes
his Master's words when he writes," Whosoever
will, let him take the water of life freely." There
is also that glorious passage in John vi. 35, where
Christ tells us, " I am the bread of life : he that
Cometh to Me shall never hunger : and he that
believeth on Me shall never thirst." — Ibid.
2 Its Christological basis.
[2058] Christ and righteousness are contro-
vertible terms. Christians assume this as one
of the axioms of their faith. Christ is the em-
bodiment of all righteousness, and therefore
the complete satisfaction of all our soul-hunger
and soul-thirst.— //'/V.
3 Mode of its fulfilment.
[2059] When He confirms, by some auspi-
cious providence or wc^rd in season, a wavering
THE BEATITUDES.
2059—2068. FIFTH BEATITUDE.]
359
[the merciful.
purpose to do well, or secretly softens afresh a
hardening heart, or braces up the mind to en-
durance, or makes envy yield to kindness, and
revenge relent ; when He checks equivocation
on the tongue, drives the tempted soul to kneel
for help, or coaxes the anxious to leave its care
on God : then He is filling soul after soul with
righteousness. — Dykes.
VI. Connection between the Condition
OF the Person blessed and the
Blessing itself.
[2060] It is not that the hunger and thirst
are in themselves the blessing, but only as
they create a longing for the heavenly aliment,
which except for this hunger would be slighted
or loathed. — Abp. Trench.
[2061] Those who hunger for things higher
than social life, than civil life, than physical
attainments, who hunger for moral excellence —
for God and for the heavenly kind — have worked
out in them by that very hunger its supply. It
is an incitement to meditation, to faith, to
prayer, and to noble actions, out of which come
both instruction and fruit. They shall be sup-
plied even here ; and more gloriously hereafter,
when the present shall pass away, and they
shall see God as He is, and shall be like Him,
and shall be satisfied. — H. W. Becchcr.
[2062] Augustine cannot find the entire fulfil-
ment of the appended promise, " for they shall
be filled," in the present life ; for now our lips
are but sprinkled, as it were, with a few drops
from that river of jcy, whereof then we shall
drink to the full : yet the longing now is need-
ful, if there is to be a satisfying of the longing
hereafter ; and the more longing, the ampler
satisfaction, for this longing is itself the dilating
of the vessel that it may contain the more. —
Abp. Trench.
[2063] We have not all the same capacity.
But we can all be filled. No human soul is
large enough to contain the whole of Ch.ist.
The finite cannot grasp the infinite within its
tiny hand. But we may all make good the
poet's dream, and
'• Be filled of God-head as a cup
Filled with a precious essence,"
each one according to his measure, and thus
help to sweeten the world with the fragrance
we have borrowed from the source of all sweet-
ness, and light, and beauty. — E. T. Davics [in
Hoinilist).
[2064] It is in vain for God to put off the
soul that seeks Him, His kingdom. His right-
eousness, with lesser things : He knows that
cannot be (Psa. Ixxiii. 25). — Thomas Cole.
FIFTH BEATITUDE.
{The Merciful.)
I. The Class of Persons blessed : The
Merciful.
I Their previous spiritual history.
[2065] Before we can read the text as it
stands, " The merciful shall obtain mercy," we
must take for granted this earlier word : The
merciful have obtained mercy. It is they who
have first obtained mercy for themselves who
are able to show it to others. It was Isecause
God for Christ's sake had forgiven the disciples
at Ephesus, that St. Paul urged them to forgive
one another. That this is entirely in a line
with the lessons of Jesus Himself, we gather
from His parable of the unmerciful debtor. —
Dykes.
[2066] He pities, not from above, not as a
higher, holier being than they, but from their
own level ; as one who knows by his own sad
experience the weight of temptation and the
bitterness of sin, and nov/ cheerfully hopes that
he has obtained mercy of God to be faithful.
And thus the Christian assurance of mercy
already received, and the firm Christian hope
of the consummation of mercy yet to come,
become the real Christian basis of that Divine
pitifulness which the Lord in this precious verse
provided. — Bp. Moberley.
[2067] Christian pitifulness, then, is based
upon the consciousness of sin as upon its ulti-
mate foundation. Whatever Divine or angelic
pitifulness we might feel if we were unfallen
creatures, or creatures of a higher race or stock
than human, the pitifulness of Christian men
rests on this, that they desire pity for them-
selves, that blessed pity Irom God which is
truly called " mercy." The Christian man
knows himself to be deeply, and in himself
hopelessly, sinful. He has in himself neither
the conscience of past innocence, nor the con-
fidence of future goodness.— /i^/r/.
II. The Grace commended in Persons
blessed : Mercy or Mercifulness.
I Its difference.
[2068] Neither the prudent and calculating
pity of the colder-hearted, nor the instinctive
warmth and sympathy of the naturally com-
passionate, is the pitifulness meant in this
beatitude ; nor has it, consequently, any claim
to this blessing. This pitifulness is altogether
a Christian one ; based on Christian reasons,
proceeding on Christian rules, done for Christ's
sake, and looking for Christian rewards. In-
deed, I hardly know whether a large natural
pitifulness may not be regarded as less than
helpful towards the high Christian pitifulness of
this beatitude. For Christian pitifulness is a
strong thing. It has its own sure grounds, and
360
THE BEATITUDES.
2068—2080. FIFTH BEATITUDE.]
[the mercikul.
it has its own clear scope. But the large
natural pitifulness of which I spoke is rather a
weak thing, which is apt to yield to instinctive
impulses rather than to be based on principle.
—Ibid,
2 Its comprehensiveness as a Christian
duty.
[2069] Mercy is that mental quality which
comprises not merely an idle pain at viewing
the sorrows of others ; but a sincere and ardent
desire to relieve them. — Fit man.
[2070] I. This mercifulness signifies relief of
the temporal needs of our brethren. 2. A piti-
fulness embracing the whole outcomings of a
Christian's heart, whether in inward sympathies
or outward acts, in relation to the sorrows and
sufferings of his brethren. — Abp. Ti'oicli.
[2071] Perhaps the word here translated by
"mercitul" might with greater propriety have
been rendered into English by the word " piti-
ful." Mercy seems, at least in modern English,
to involve the idea of a person in a higher posi-
tion showing leniency or kindness tp an inferior.
A prince to a subject, a judge to a criminal,
a superior in any position in life may show
mercy to an inferior. But the Greek word
does not carry this idea in it of necessity : it is
equally applicable to all people who pity — who
pity those below them, those on their own level,
or those above them. And again, "mercy"
involves the further idea of pardon ; of guilt
incurred, and forgiveness given ; which is not
in the Greek adjective. Pity, then, which more
nearly represents the original word, may be
felt alike for persons above us or below us ; or
for sufferings deserved or undeserved ; for those
who are guilty and justly liable to suffering,
or those who are altogether guiltless. — Bp.
M obey ley.
[2072] This "mercy" of the text, and of all
these texts, is a very wide word. It covers both
the kindly feeling and the kindly act ; and it
stretches itself over both the great departments
of human necessity— men's sufferings and men's
sins. The same attitude of mind which makes
one relenting or forgiving to the penitent
offender, makes one also pity and relieve the
supplicant sufferer. He who sins becomes a
candidate for mercy so soon as he acknow-
ledges his sin.— Z?j'/'t'j.
[2073] God is merciful to us, else we could
not be merciful to others (Lam. iii. 22, 23).
The merciful not only " weep with those who
weep," but also, when possible, bestow time,
influence, money, as well as tears, upon the
sad and unfortunate. "Forgive, and ye shall
be forgiven."
[2074] Its acts : I. Consideration. 2. Com-
passion. 3. Prayer. 4. Helpfulness, according
to the need of the object. — J. Blair, 1723.
3 Objects for its exercise.
[2075] Its objects : Our neighbour, i. Erring
(James v. 19, 20). 2. Offending. 3. Under
persecution. 4. In want. 5. In sickness. 6.
In misfortune by the loss of good friends, or
untowardness of bad relations. — Ibid.
[2076] Hence the objects on which mercy is
exercised are as numerous as the wants and
calamities incident to human nature. The mer-
ciful man labours, as far as his means allow,
to instruct the ignorant ; to reclaim the wan-
derer; to shelter the persecuted ; to console the
mourner ; to forget injuries ; to relieve the indi-
gent ; to comfort the sick. If this world's goods
are wanting to him, he offers the tribute of
Christian sympathy, and beseeches God, with
earnest supplication, for their support. — Pitman.
4 Manner of its exercise.
[2077] Acts of mercy are to be performed.
1. With readiness and forwardness of mind
(2 Cor. ix. 7). 2. With modesty and humility
(Matt. vi. i). 3. From a kind and merciful, not
from a sellish and mercenary temper (Luke
vi. 32). 4. Without delay (Prov. iv. 28). 5.
Bountifully (i Tim. vi. 18). 6. With minds
full of gratitude to God (i Chron. xxix. 13, 7 1.
7. As to Christ Himself (Matt. x. 42).—/.
Blair, 1723 {condensed).
5 Its necessity in a world of sin and
suffering.
[2078] Mercy is another element indispen-
sable to the happiness of a moral being in this
world of sin and suffering. Mercy is a modi-
fication of benevolence : it is benevolence called
out in a certain direction, and feeling for a
certain class, and that class the suffering.
Mercy is benevolence commiserating the suf-
ferer. Nature, in her ten thousand modes,
expresses. God's benevolence. Christ, in His
sympathies and prayers, His doctrines and
doings, His sufferings and death, expresses
God's mercy. He is benevolence in contact
with suffering. So long as we are in a world of
suffering it is required of us that our bene-
volence should go out in the form of mercy. —
Dr. Thofnas.
6 Its fitness in this world of sin and
suffering.
[2079] Mercifulness beseems our situation,
and is essential to our spiritual culture. This
form of love is not required in heaven, because
of the absence of suffering from that happy
scene. "The merciful," says Christ, "shall
obtain mercy." We all here, as children of
woe, need mercy. — Ibid.
7 As illustrated in the pattern Life.
[20S0] The Son of (^od gave us a most illus-
trious pattern of mercy. The great inducement
to vail His original glory in assuming our nature
was not our merit, but our misery. He came
THE BEATITUDES.
361
2080—2090. SIXTH BEATITUDE.]
[purity in hear
to seek and to save them that are lost. When
He beheld the multitudes wandering as sheep
without a shepherd, He was moved with com-
passion (Matt. ix. 36). When His hearers
opposed the designs of His instructions, " He
is grieved for the hardness of their hearts"
(Mark iii. ^.— Dykes.
8 Its Christological aspect.
[2081] I take Jesus, then, to be the mercy of
God translated into act, embodied in a person :
it follows that the fundamental grace of His
kingdom's righteousness is mercy. Tender-
heartedness flowing out into practical helpful
Ijeneficence is the world's want ; it is the Divine
response to human selfishness ; it is, in a word,
Christ's life : therefore it is the first virtue of a
Christian.^/(^/^.
9 Personal reflections as to the cultivation
of its various aspects.
(i) Are we inercifiel in ottr fiidginents of our
fellow-men ?
[2082] Do we remember that we, like them,
are sinful creatures 1 Do we strive to believe
against appearances, that the act may not be
what it appears 1 — Bp. Magee.
{1) Are we 7nerciful in our speech to men ?
[2083] Do we not sometimes take pleasure in
making a criticism as sharp and pungent as we
can make it 1 Do we in our literature, in our
judgments of the political work or social life of
others, strive to speak charitably ; or rather, is it
not a keen gratification to think that the world
enjoys the criticism when the writer is sharp
and piquant, and seasons his criticism with that
unkindness which sends it home, as the feather
sends the arrow ? — Ibid.
(3) Are we merciful as employers of others ?
[2084] Do we feel that those around us in
domestic service, in business, should have their
feelings carefully considered.-' Surely there is
a sad want of thoughtful mercy ainongst us all !
There is no lack of that mercy which comes of
being strongly appealed to, and which moves a
man to give largely of his money, time, and
energ>', for the removal of suffering. But the
thoughtful, considerate mercy that seeks to
prevent suffering and to hinder crime is what
we desire to see.—Jdid.
III. The Blessing promised.
I Its nature and import.
[2085] As for external mercies, the Bible
promises them very fully to the merciful: i.
Deliverance out of trouble (Isaiah Iviii. 10;
Psa. xli. i). 2. God's blessing on his labours
and undertakings (Deut. xv. 7-10). 3- The
staving off of his trouble, and the lengthening
of his tranquillity (Dan. iv. 27). 4. Plenty
(Prov. xi.x. 17; iii. 9). 5. Honour (Psa. cxii. 9).
6. Deliverance from enemies (Psa. xli. 2).
7. God's comforts in his sickness (Psa. li. 3).
8. A blessing on his posterity (Psa. xxxvii. 26^.
9. More particularly man's help in distress and
God's providence. — f. Blair, 1723 {condensed).
IV. Connection between the Condi-
tion OF THE Persons blessed and
THE Blessing itself.
[20S6] I. The merciful soul is in sympathy
with the Divine nature. The standard of
Christian mercifulness is the mercy of God.
2. The merciful soul is in sympathy with those
who are in need of help (James i. 27). 3. The
merciful soul in the exercise of mercy is pre-
pared for the final mercy of God. — 7'. Davie s.
[2087] As men sow, they shall reap. By an
infallible decree, they shall have judgment with-
out mercy who have shown no mercy ; while
those who, Christ-like, go about doing good,
forgiving such as wrong them, helping such as
need, pitying such as suffer, seeking to save
others from sin as well as succour them in sor-
row, shall, Christ-like also, on leaving the world,
go to the Father. " Blessed are the merciful,"
says our Lord, " for they shall obtain mercy."—
Thomas Guthrie.
[2088] Do, and it shall be done. Do with
another, that it may be done with thee ; for thou
aboundest and thou lackest. Thou aboundest
in things temporal, thou lackest things eternal.
A beggar is at thy gate, thou art thyself a beggar
at God's gate. Thou art sought, and thou
seekest. As thou dealest with t/iy seeker, even
so God will deal with His. Thou art both empty
and full. Fill thou the empty out of thy fulness,
that out of the fulness of God thine emptiness
may be filled. — Augustine,
SIXTH BEATITUDE.
{Purity in Heart)
I. The Grace commended in Persons
blessed.
I Its origin and nature.
[2089] It consists of an inward change and
renovation of the heart by the infusion of such
a principle into it as naturally suits and com-
plies with whatsoever is pure and holy. It is
not a thing born with us, nor reared upon the
stock of nature. It is the product of " a new
creation." — A". South, 1633-17 16.
[2090] It was because men either had not
these gifts naturally, or because they had them
most imperfectly, that our Lord came to estab-
lish His kingdom. If men had been naturally
pure in heart, &c., there had been no need for
our Lord's mission. But because men were not
362
THE BEATITUDES.
2090—2099. SIXTH BEATITUDE.]
[PURITV IN HEART.
SO, He came to establish the kingdom in which
all these qualities should be supernaturally given
to men. — Bp. Mngce.
[2091] Among the Jews, as afterwards among
the monks, holiness was chiefly considered in
a certain ceremonial condition. Scribes and
Pharisees made clean "the outside of the cup
and of the platter," but within was corruption
(Matt, xxiii. 25). Unless the heart be pure, the
life cannot be pure. Christianity invariably
works from the centre to the circumference.
'Ihis purity is not merely the exclusion of some
gross sin — it is the exclusion of all. It is
righteousness as the ruling principle of the
heart and inner life. It is the steady direction
of the whole soul towards God. Purity in
thought, and affection, and aim, because the
heart is fully set upon Him who is absolutely
and eternally pure. — Van Doren Series.
2 Its analysis.
(i) Conquest of the evil ivilhin.
[2092] This is the beatitude of them that
have overcome ; overcome, that is, not yet in
the outward conflict with the sin of the world,
seeking to make peace on earth, and being per-
secuted for it — for that is a beatitude still to
come ; but it is the beatitude of those who in
the first and sorest strife, the strife within, have
overcome the lawlessness of their own bad
selves, and, by expulsion or subjugation, have
really set up within their own hearts the king-
dom of God. — Dykes.
(2) Freedom from foreign elements.
[2093] The Greeks usually explain KaOapdi;,
" pure," by upKcnoz, and a^uyiiQ, " unmixed."
Thus gold is said to be pure, when there is no
dross, nor any alloy of other metals in it ; honey
is said to be sincere and pure when it is sine
eerd, without wax or other recrements ; water
is said to be pure when there is no earth, nor
other elements in it, nothing but water itself:
for whatsoe\er is heterogeneous, or of another
nature, being mixed with a thing, alters the
nature of that thing, by communicating some-
thing of its own to it, by which means it ceaseth
to be purely and entirely the thing itself, and
therefore it is truly said to be impure and un-
clean, because corrupted or polluted by some-
thing tiiat should not be there. Now these
things being put together, we may easily dis-
cover who may be truly said to be " pure in
heart." — Bp. Bevcridge, 1638-1708.
[2094] Peevishness, hot temper, envy, malign
displeasure, excessive pursuit of gain, the puffcd-
up vanity of possession, and ambition, are ail
so many evil breaths blown into the heart, to
dim the tender purity of its motives, divide the
singleness of its aim, and obscure its vision of
Divine and heavenly things. The heart cannot
be pure if, in its loyalty to the will of (iod,
tliere mix some interested purpose of its own,
or some secret homage to another lord. — Dykes.
[2095] Purity in the heart, then, means no
doubt the absence of all manner of defilement,
whether it be of one sort or another, in it. Cor-
rupt and corrupting desires — some absolutely
and in themselves corrupt, some corrupt in their
excess, and faulty direction — all such, of what-
ever particular kind they be, are destructive of
perfect purity in the heart. Bodily desires of
all sorts, desires of ambition, of covetousness,
of dislike, of indignation — all these, and such
as these, as soon as they pass the limit of entire
innocence in degree and direction, begin to be
destructive of that perfect purity of heart which
is surely meant in this beatitude. Purity is the
freedom from all these. It is a clear brightness
of the soul in respect of things moral : a trans-
parent clearness, not arising from stillness, or
original feebleness in the natural desires, but
from the perfectly ordered activity of naturally
vigorous desire towards its legitimate objects,
whereby, in respect of all things moral, the soul
of a man is clear before God of everything that
defiles — the lively springs of feeling and desire
welling continually up with nothing but the
bright and crystal waters of a pure and holy
activity. — Bp. Moberley.
[2096] It is opposed to all formalism and
hypocrisy, for it is the establishment within of
that kingdom which is not meat and drink, but
righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy
Ghost.
3 Means by which its process is carried on.
[2097J When once the love of Christ begins
to fill the heart, the process of purification
begins in very deed ; when the love of Christ
fills the soul, the lower and impurer things of
the old nature cannot live there ; the love of
Christ, entering into and spreading through the
soul, fills it so entirely with His new self, that
there is no room for the wretched old self there.
—Monsell.
II. The Blessing promised: "For thev
SHALL SEE GOD."
I The ideas involved.
(i) Recognition of God's providential guidance
and ordering.
[2098] In all His providences relating to
themselves, the pure in heart see God. They
see His hand over them for good, giving them
all things in weight and measure, numbering
the hairs of their head, making a hedge round
about them and all that they have, and disposing
of all the circumstances of their life according
to the depth both of His wisdom and mercy. —
J. Wesley, 1 703-1 791.
(2) Direct spiritual communion with God.
[2099] You know that your friend is never
seen by the eye of the body ; you can discern
a form, a figure, a countenance, by which you
know that he is near ; but that is not the friend
you love ; you discern him spiritually ; you un-
derstand his iiwer character ; you know his
truth, nobleness, affection — all these the eye of
THE BEATITUDES.
2119— 2126. SEVENTH BEATITUDE.]
[peacemakers.
[21 19] This sort of spurious peacemaking
consists simply in "letting things alone," " not
meddling," " being sure that all will come right,"
"taking things easily," "minding one's own
business, and letting one's neighbours mind
theirs."
Now this "let alone" sort of peacemaking
makes — if it can be said to make anything — a
very shabby sort of peace. It leaves vice un-
checked, it leaves ungodliness rampant, it leaves
ignorance untaught, it leaves secret grudges to
fester in people's hearts : I know not whether
,selfishness or cowardice have the greater part
in it ; for seffishness and cowardice are both
very largely present in it, and selfishness and
cowardice are the very opposites of Christian
peace-making. And such miserable peace is no
peace at all ; for though it may be quiet for a
time, yet there is no security whatever that it
may not blaze out at any moment into the wildest
excesses of strife or evil.
(2) Iiioffcnsiveness and iveakness of character.
[2120] What Pope said about "most women"
is certainly true about many men, they "have
no character at all." It is impossible they
should ever quarrel. They cannot. They have
nothing to quarrel for. In the course of an hour
they will passively agree to a long succession of
opinions, no two of which can possibly be held
by the same man at the same time. Men who
have no vigour or moral principle to grasp or
maintain a principle, and are incapable of resist-
ing the persuasion of the first friend, may have
other virtues, but they have no right to claim
respect for their weakness, and to expect the
reward of those who "seek peace and ensue it."
—R. W. Dale {condensed).
[2121] He may be a good-natured man; he
may be one who likes to see other people com-
fortable and peaceable, rather than uncomfort-
able or quarrelling ; he may be liberator careless
of his money, and free in giving, or a lover of
quiet — but all this is hollow, uncertain, and un-
discriminating. A man who is only this may
change his mmd, or he may take offence, or he
may become soured by troubles or disappoint-
ments, or by ingratitude, so as to become harsh
in his judgments, and unkind in his words.
Any way he is no Christian peacemaker ; nor
can he be called — for a softness which is of
nature and not of grace, which comes rather of
human weakness than of Divine strength — the
child of God, doing, like his Father, God-hke
work in the world. — Bp. Moberley.
2 Its true elements.
(i) A peaceable temper.
[2122] Nothing more effectually exorcises the
evil spirits of strife than the gentle presence of
a pure and spiritual character. Such sweet and
holy influence breathes around a saint, a true-
hearted Christian woman, or a guileless child,
that from their very presence malign tempers
flee, and at their feet, like Una in our great
English poem, fawns the lion like a lamb. The
peaceful pure are thus involuntary peacemakers ;
and of such is the kingdom of God. — Dykes.
(2) Taking active steps as the world's recon-
cilers.
[2123] It is not enough for them now, when
that fire burns, to sit still and enjoy the peace
of God, or strive to be, as far as in them lies, at
peace with all men. That is good, but it is not
enough. To give no ofience. and where possible
take none ; to stand clear of strife ; to look on
when hearts are torn and lives are spent in a
mad contention with the laws of God ; to let
human nature fret itself to death, out of peace,
hateful and hating, rebellious and proud : this
is not to be like the Eternal Father. Had He
done so of old, the Son had kept His pure and
peaceful heaven ; no angels had sung peace on
earth at His birth ; no sweet message, like an
olive leaf, had grown out of His cross. Pacifi-
cation at His own cost and pain is the supreme
idea of our Christian God : His name is Recon-
ciler. They who have been born of Him, and
are so like him that they can see Him, are in
this w'orld as He was in it — the world's recon-
cilers.— Dykes.
III. The Blessing promised : " For they
SHALL BE called THE CHILDREN OF
God."
1 Its import.
[2124] The expression, when taken in con-
nection with other parts of Scripture, intimates
that the "peacemakers" shall be accredited and
accounted, by a kind of general consent, " the
children of God." The men of the world, in
general, are not very ready to acknowledge the
existence of any real good in the persons whose
holiness of life condemns their own impurity ;
nor are they willing to allow them the privilege
of any peculiar relation to the Divine Being.
But there is, notwithstanding this reluctance
to admit it, something in the conduct ot such
Christians which constrains all men to respect
them. — Good {of Salisbiay).
2 Its special point,
[2125] To the "poor in spirit," and to those
who are " persecuted for righteousness' sake,"
Christ promises mere citizenship in "the king-
dom of heaven ;" the peacemakers are to receive
more distinguished honour. Christ came to
make peace between man and God, and to make
peace between men themselves ; those who had
been trying to do the same work, though in an
inferior form. He is prepared to recognize at
once as His brethren, and as the true children
of His Father.— ye. W. Dale.
3 Its fulfilment irrespective of the success
or failure of Christians as peacemakers.
[2126] They manifest their likeness; for in
the divinest steps of their Father they tread ;
His most godlike deeds they do. If, as is most
likely, their peacemaking awaken hostility ; if,
366
THE BEATITUDES.
[26—2136. EIGHTH BEATITUDE.]
[the persecuted.
coming like Jesus to preach peace to earth, they
seem at first to send only a sword ; if men hate
them as they ha'ed the Master, and take up
stones to cast at the heralds of mercy : this too
will but manifest afresh their Godlikeness, and
introduce then* to a further and final blessed-
ness.— Dykes.
9
EIGHTH BEATITUDE.
{The Persecuted:)
I. Its Relation to the other Beati-
tudes.
[2127] The seven are all beatitudes of cha-
racter ; the eighth is the beatitude of condition.
The seven describe the inward and moral qi'aH-
ties of a true disciple or subject of the Divine
King ; the eighth defines his external position
in relation to this world. — Dykes.
[2128] People sometimes speak as if there
were no more than seven beatitudes. The
reason why this eighth is apt to be thus over-
looked is, that it stands apart from all the rest,
forming a class by itself, rather than, what some
call it, a mere appendix or supplement. The
seven are blessed attainments of the spiritual
life, which the Christian bears with him sub-
stantially into his hereafter, however in their
exercise they may be hereafter modified ; the
eighth is an unfortunate result of the circum-
stances which surround a Christian so long as
he lives here, but is to be exchanged hereafter
for a contrasted state of felicity and reward. —
Ibid.
II. Explanation of Terms.
I Persecuted for righteousness' sake.
[2129] This may refer to the following: — (i)
The profession of the Christian faith, or the
adherence to some eminent fundamental article
thereof; (2) worship of God in the way of his
own appointment ; (3) the practice of a religious
and holy life in general ; or (4) the discharge of
some particular duty laid down in Holy Scrip-
ture, or rationally inferred from thence ; as (5)
the refusing to do any thing which is plainly
forbidden in the word of God.— J. Gardiner,
1716.
III. The Relation in which Persecu-
tion STANDS TO THE CHRISTIAN LiFE.
X Its inevitable attendant.
[2130] One would imagine that such a person
as here described, humbly unselfish, so devoted
to God, sifth a lover of men, should be the dar-
ling of mankind. Our Lord knew better. He
therefore closes this character of the man of
God with showing him the treatment he is to
expect in the world. — J. Wesley.
[2 1 31] Now none of us can be sure that what
befell the early Christians will not befall us ;
tlierefore it is always incumbent on us to cherish
tfiis spirit, so that if we were called to choose
between worldly comfort on the one hand, and
poverty and persecution for Christ's sake on the
other, we should not hesitate one moment as to
our choice. And though in many ways there is
more toleration now, yet the spirit of tlie world
is unchanged, the enmity of the carnal heart to
God remains, and who can tell but it may break
out even yet in persecuting ways as wild as
ever? — Rev. W. G. Blaikie.
[21 ^2] To be misunderstood, to be abused, to
be bid hold their peace for fanatics or mad-
men, were the lightest forms of resistance to be
looked for. Resistance might become animosity,
and words turn to blows, and the attempt to
silence becomes an attempt to extirpate or to
crush. In such a world as this is, such men as
Jesus designed to make His disciples could find
no paradise ; they could find only persecution.
—Dykes.
2 An indispensable factor in its continued
development.
[2133] Persecution is not simply inevitable as
soon as the development of active Christian life
leads into collision with evil ; it is an indispen-
sable factor in the very development and per-
fecting of Christian life. Persecution is not
indeed a grace ; but persecution is the creator
of a grace, as St. James teaches us. "The trying
of your faith," says he, " worketh patience,'
that is, endurance.— /^/V/.
[2134] The old lessons of submission and
patience are put to proof by the things which
he has to suffer, that he may enter the
triumphant kingdom, not doing, but enduring.
Blessed, therefore, above all former blessed-
nesses are they whose very righteousness brings
on them persecution. Blessed, because through
slander and hardship chased out of earthly
kingdoms for the heavenly King's sake, they are
added to "the noble army of martyrs," and ad-
mitted to the most splendid rewards of Him
who Himself is "' the Martyr faithful and true."
—Ibid.
3 Tests its reality.
[2135] This is, I believe, the practical way
to deal with this subject, to make it a kind of
test or trial for us ail : how far those graces of
Christian character which the former beatitudes
referred to, have been wrought into our souls,
so as to make us true and humble followers of
Christ. How far our religion is of that real,
earnest, fervent, distinctive kind which stands
out from, and witnesses against, the corruption,
and coldness, and sinfulness of man. — Monsell.
[2136] Persecutions, then, belong to times of
reality. So long as there is nothing very real,
or distinctive, or protd^tant against error in the
THE BEATITUDES
136—2140. EIGHTH BEATITUDE.]
[the peksecuted.
religion of either an individual or a church, so
long the world will let it be. But let that
religion once come out in its truthfulness, and
let men feel themselves interfered with in their
sins, their pleasures, their pursuits, by its incon-
venient reality ; and then hatred and persecution
follow as a natural result. — Ibid.
IV. The Relative Trial of Outward
AND Violent and Secret and
Domestic Persecution.
[2137] I cannot but think that it has been, on
the whole, not less trying than those outward
and violent persecutions. For persons assailed
by it have to bear their troubles mostly in secret.
They have little sympathy from others ; nor
any of the rising of the spirit of passive (pass-
ing into active) heroism which, when men's eyes
are on it, is naturally roused into energetic
resistance. For, indeed, there are several things
which tend to hold a man up in his visible en-
durance of visible persecution. He is as a
champion of a cause ; his personal bravery and
earnestness, as well as his conscience, are on
trial. He knows that even among those who
hound on the cry of persecution against him,
there are those who admire his firmness in
bearing it. He believes that though over-
powered himself, and put to death perhaps, yet
suffering and death bravely borne leave a seed
behind them, which germinates and grows in
spite of persecution, and is wont to outlive it.
All these things and such as these mingle them-
selves up with the convictions of conscience,
and strengthen it, when the persecution for
righteousness' sake takes place in the sight of
men. But it is otherwise with all the secret,
and, if I may so call it, unpicturesque suffering
of social or domestic lite — the chill, and the
estrangement, and the unkindness, and the evil
report, and the misrepresentation, the thwarting
and jealousy, all the details of inward and un-
seen misery which goes to make up the real
persecution which has visited, and no doubt
visits still, thousands of people whose hearts'
desire it is to serve God faithfully, and are con-
tent to bear with evil for Christ's sake. And so
I can hardly doubt that " when that last account
'iwixt heaven and earth shall be made up," it
will be found that the persecution of private and
social life has been in total amount greater, and
maybe its actual bitterness not less, and so its
ultimate title of blessedness in Christ under
this beatitude as great, as that of those who
have been the well-known and admired sufferers,
the " persecuted unto blood "for Christ's sake.
—Bp. Moberley.
V. Grounds of Blessedness in the Case
of the Persecuted.
[2138] The blessedness of the persecuted.
They are happy —
1. Because of their conformity with their Lord
(Phil. i. 29 ; iii. 10).
2. On account of the honour conferred upon
them.
3. With respect to the promises given them
(Mark x. 29, yS).
4. Because of their abundant consolation (2
Cor. i. 3, 4)- . .
5. The Christian is happy in the cause for
which he suffers — the name of Christ and the
cause of righteousness.
6. In the noble army of martyrs which have
gone before him.
7. In the greatness of the heavenly reward. —
y. Gardiner, 17 16.
VI. Rules to guide our Conduct in
Aggressive Measures against Evil.
[2139] The difficulties in such cases are very
great and very various ; nor can they be settled
in the abstract. Each case much be dealt with
as it rises. Only let these points be quite clear
in our minds : —
1. That we must be holding fast by Christ's
righteousness, and not confounding with it our
own selves, or our wishes, or our likings, or any
such thing.
2. That if people oppose us, the opposition,
or ill-treatment if it should so be, must be
wholly their doing, and in no degree courted,
provoked, or desired by us.
3. That we are utterly and completely charit-
able to them ; both in the way of forgiving their
wrong, and in endeavouring to win them from
it ; not aggravating it by needless resistance,
not embittering it by hard words, but doing our
best to make their sin as small as possible, and
gain them to repentance. — Bp. Moberley.
VII. Homiletical Sketch.
[2140] I. The persecutions which attend the
followers of Christ. Not to mention the suffer-
ings of the early Christians and the Reformers,
Christians still suffer persecution. (i) In
marked disrespect ; (2) their society is shunned ;
(3) they are ridiculed and slandered.
2. The causes of persecution : (i) the de-
generate state of men ; (2) the influence of
Satan over the minds of men ; (3) the conduct
of Christians in the world.
3. The manner in which it is to be received.
It is not to be courted, but when it comes we
are to rejoice : (1) because the time of our
suffering is short ; (2) because we suffer in a
righteous cause ; (3) because we have the most
illustrious examples ; (4) because of the assur-
ance that if we suffer with Christ we shall also
reign with Him.
4. The encouragement : (i) Fellowship with
the prophets ; (2) reward— hea\en. — J. Jordan.
SECTION IV.
THE LORD'S PRAYER.
THE LORD'S PRAYER.
Matt. vi.
iSDuc iFatljec toljitlj act in lieatien.
^allotoeti be %\\^ name*
%\\1P kinpom come*
%^^ toill tie tone in eactlj, a0 it 10 in Ijeaten*
(Bite u0 tl)i0 Ua? our Dailp lireaD*
Sint} forffitie u0 our Detit0, a<s toe forgttie our Debtors*
^tiD leati u<s not into temptation j
But lieliter u0 from ebiL
jFor tlj ine 10 tlje lungDom,
anti tlje potoer,
anD tlje fflorp, for etser*
^men*
370
THE
LORD'S PRAYER.
INTRODUCTION ...
CONTENTS.
PAGES
.. 373
ADDRESS
" OUR FATHER, &c
.. 385
FIRST PETITION.
"HALLOWED BE THY NAME".
.. 396
SECOND „ ...
" THY KINGDOM COME," &c. .
1
.. 405
THIRD
«' THY WILL BE DONE," &c. .
.. 418 I
FOURTH „
"GIVE US THIS DAY," &c.
i
■• 434
FIFTH
" AND FORGIVE US," &c.
.. 448
SIXTH
"AND LEAD US NOT," &c.
SEVENTH „ ...
"BUT DELIVER US," &c.
.. 474
DOXOLOGY
"FOR THINE IS," &c
. 483
371
THE LORD'S PRAYER.
INTRODUCTION.
i'ages 373 to 383.
ITS STRUCTURE.
2
ITS AUTHORITY.
3
ITS EXCELLENCE.
4
ITS NATURE.
5
ITS CHARACTERISTICS.
6
ITS USES.
7
ITS RELATION TO EXISTING FORMS.
8
OBJECTIONS MET RESPECTING ITS FREQUENT USE.
372
373
SECTION IV.
THE LORD'S PRAYER.
INTRODUCTION.
I. Its Structure and
SIGN.
Structural de-
I Analysis.
[2141] It teaches us to pray—
I St. Concerning the glory of God.
(1) Regarding His character.
We are taught to address Him as " Our
Father, which art in heaven." — The in-
vocation.
(2) Regarding His name.
We are to say " Hallowed be Thy name.'
— The firxt petition.
(3) Regarding His kingdom.
We are to pray " Thy kingdom come.'" —
The second petition.
(4) Regarding His will.
We are to desire " Thy will be done in
earth, as it is in heaven." — The third peti-
tion.
(5) Regarding His praise.
We are to plead '' For Thine is the king-
dom, the power, and the glory, for ever and
ever. Amen.'' — The doxology.
Knd. Concerning the necessities of ourselves.
(i) Respecting the procuring of good.
Hence we ask for —
[a) Daily bread, '•' Give us this day our
daily bread." — The foiirth petition.
(b) And forgiveness, '' Forgive us our
trespasses." — The first part of the
fifth petition.
(2) And respecting the preventing of evil.
Hence we ask for —
{a) Guidance, "Lead us not into tempta-
tion."— The sixth petition,
{b) And deliverance, "But deliver us
from evil." — The seventh petition.
3rd. Coticerning our duty toward others.
Remembering the two great lessons of —
(i) Intercession for them.
Notice we are to say not " My Father,"
but '' Our Father," not "Forgive ME," but
'■' Forgive US."
(2) And forgiveness of them.
We are to profess our feeling in regard to
others after the following manner, " As we
forgive them that trespass against us."—
The second part of the fifth petition. The
absolute necessity of this duty is enlarged
upon by our blessed Lord at the end of
the prayer, " For if ye forgive men their
trespasses, your heavenly Father will also
forgive you : but if ye forgive not men
their trespasses, neither will your Father
forgive your trespasses" (Matt. vi. 14, 15).
— C. Neil., Holy Teachings.
[2142] It has put upon our lips the definite
mention of a name, and a kingdom, and a will,
of which men reck not, and a prayer concerning
each — a hallowing, and a coming, and a doing
—which it assumes to be desirable, and which
it would educate us to desire.— Z?t'<7« VauHian.
Our Father, which art
be done in earth,
this day our daily
And forgive us our
Division.
[2143] Iniwcation
in heaven,"
ist Petition — " Hallowed be Thy name
2nd Petition — "Thy kingdom come."
^rd Petition^^^ Thy wi
as it is in heaven."
^th Petition — " Give us
bread."
^th Petition, part 1st — '
trespasses,"
Sth Petition, part 2nd—'''' As we forgive them
that trespass against us."
6th Petition — " And lead us not into tempta-
tion ; "
yt/i Petition—" But deliver us from evil : "
Doxology — " For Thine is the kingdom, the
power, and the glory, for ever and ever.
Amen."
[2144] Of the arrangement of this prayer
many things have been noticed ; some fanciful,
some just. It has been compared to the law
of the Decalogue, inasmuch as, like it, this
prayer has two tables, the first pertaining to
the things of God, the second to the things of
man. There has also been noticed (if not with
374
2144— 2I5I
THE LORDS PRAYER.
[INTRODLCTION.
more justice, at least with more meaning) a
reference to the Trinity throughout ; the first
petition of either part of the prayer referring to
(iod as Creator and Preserver ; the second
petition of either part referring to God as
Redeemer ; and the third to God the Holy
Spirit. This has considerable foundation in
the form of the prayer, and not a little sig-
nificance with regard to the completeness of
the blessing we should seek. JJut the obvious
division is the useful one to bear in mind.
There are two parts. In the first part the
object of worship rivets the thought that has
been turned towards Him, and those desires
which concern His great purposes are first
uttered ; and only after that follows the second
part, in which the attention turns to our own
condition and wants. The petitions of the first
part are inseparable from one another; each
includes the one which follows ; the name of
(Jod must be recognized and hallowed before
His kingdom can be established, and only when
His kingdom has come can His will be done. —
Dods. ■
[2145] Such is this prayer in its compass :
now as to the general spirit which it breathes.
It has been remarked by some of the early
writers of the Church that tlie first petitions
correspond very much to the commandments of
the first table, and the last petitions to those of |
the second ; and this comparison between the
commandments of the old dispensation and
the prayer of the new, may be extended to the
general spirit which breathes in each. For as
our Lord summed up the commandments of
the first table under the general head, " Thou
shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy
heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy
strength ;" and those of the second table in the
words, " Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thy-
self," adding, that "on these two commandments
hang all the law and the prophets ;"' so we may
say that the love and service of God and of our
neighbour sums up the general spirit of the
Lord's Prayer, as it is that of the gospel at
large. The love and service of God — that is
the one chief aspiration throughout the prayer,
the one chief object to the desire of which our
spirit is impelled by it ; and with this is inter-
mingled the desire for the good of all other
men as well as our own, in the largest spirit of
Christian love — Kaislake.
3 Subject-matter and order
[2146] By almost all commentators the num-
ber of petitions in this prayer has been regarded
as seven.
(i) In the first petition we pray that all things
done on earth, all our actions as well as those
of our brethren, may minister to the glory of
(lod, that by our lives and in our hearts His
name may be hallowed.
(2) In the next petition we desire that all
things here may tend to the propagation of the
gospel, the establishment of God's kingdom in
all the world, and to the subjection of ourselves
to the rule of our heavenly Father.
(3) In the third petition we pray that we and
all men may keep the commandments and do
the whole will of God.
(4) In the fourth petition we beseech God to
give us day by day the bread we need, the food
necessary for the strengthening and nourishing
our body and soul ; so that, sustained by His
hand, we may be enabled to live to His glory.
("5) In the next petition we ask God X.o fors^ive
us those trespasses whicii have separated us from
Him, and to restore us to that peace which by
our actions we have disturbed, even as we for-
give our brethren, and renew that concord which
has been broken by our quarrels.
(6) In the sixth petition we pray for the pro-
tection and support of God against the assaults
ot the evil one, the flesh, and the world, for
deliverance from all temptations.
(7) By the seventh petition we seek deliver-
ance from all evil., temporal and spiritual, and
for the consummation of the work of God in our
hearts and lives.
[2147] (i) The invocation, Our Father luhich
art in heaven.
(2) The petitions, being six in number, of
which the three first relate to God ; and the
three last to ourselves. The first are drawn
with an aspect to God's glory, and the last with
an aspect to our own good and advantage. — •
7. Blair, 1723.
[2148] Now if we look first at the parts of
which it is composed, we find it is evidently
divisible into three portions : the invocation at
the beginning, the petitions in the middle
portion, and the doxology at the close. —
Karslake.
[2149] The petitions of the Lord's Prayer
may thus be ranked : The four first concern the
obtaining of good ; and the two last the removal
of evil— either the removal of evil past, and
already committed, or the removal of evil future,
and such as may be admitted by the temptation
of the devil. Among the former, those thing;
that do more immediately concern the glory of
God have the first place.— T. Manton, 1629-
1677.
[2150] This prayer consists of two parts : the
former of which, containing three petitions,
relates to Christian perfection ; the other, to
those methods by which that perfection is to be
obtained. The one part represents the end, and
the other the means of religion ; since the glory
of God's name, the advancement of Mis kingdom,
and the full performance of His will, are only
to be brought about by that pardon of sins, and
that supply of our wants, which are asked for
in the progress of this prayer. — T. J/angey,
1684-1755-
[2151] The first three petitions then refer to
THE LORDS PRAYER.
-2163]
375
[introduction.
the celestial life, the life in heaven ; for though
they concern what must be begun here, they
can only be consummated in heaven. The
three last refer to this present world : for in the
next life will neither be sin, temptation, nor
aught that is evil. — Hugo de S. CJiaro.
[2152] In the first, second, and third petitions
we look up to heave7i, in the fourth and fifth we
stand on earth, in the sixth and seventh we look
down to hell. — C. N.
[2153] These are petitions and more than
petitions ; for they are both hallelujahs and
hosannas : for we glorify God by the first, that
He is our Father ; by the second, that He is
our King ; by the third, that He is our Master :
and they are petitions : also the first, that we
may be His obedient children ; the second, that
we may be His loyal subjects ; the third, that we
may be His dutiful servants ; and irom these
first three gives a confidence unto us of obtain-
ing the last three, which, therefore, seem subor-
dinate to them, that as a Father, He will give to
us. His children, bread and sustenance ; and as
a King, He will grant to us, His subjects, a
pardon of our trespasses ; and as a Master, He
will not lay upon us. His servants, greater
burdens than we can bear. — Sir Ricliaj-d Bake?-.
1568-1645.
[2154] The first three petitions refer to the
worship of God, and these in their appropriate
order : (i) We pray that the name of God may
be recognized by all men ; His love and mercy
made known throughout the world. (2) That
His rule with all its blessings may be extended
to all ; that it may come to all mankind. (3)
That all those who outwardly acknowledge His
rule, who know and who own themselves to be
His children, may willingly obey Him in their
hearts, and show that obedience by their lives
and actions. — Estius.
[2155] Perfect in the subjects which are intro-
duced, and which form the parts of the prayer ;
perfect also in the order in which they are
arranged. First there is the order in which the
two great classes of petitions stand to one
another. Human desire, if not human wisdom,
feeling most pressingly its need of earthly
things, and only rising from these to aspiration
after the glory of God, would perhaps have
reversed the order ; but the Divine wisdom,
which has bidden us in precept to " seek first
the kingdom of God and His righteousness,"
has applied this principle in the prayer of our
Lord, where the first place is assigned to the
petitions referring to God and His glory, the
second to those which relate to human needs.
[2156] The seven petitions, besides the full
meaning of each separately, indicate at the
same time the progress of Imman life in indi-
vidual man. The child cries out to his Father
ard learns His Name, that it may be sanctified
in him ; the kingdom begins to come in him ;
the will begins to be revealed to him in instruc-
tion and discipline, that it may be done ; then
grows up the adult into life, to eat his own
bread, who should not forget in praying for it
his spiritual necessities ; rather should all the
more fully discern the gift of God which is
infinitely necessary ; then follows, commonly in
the second half of life, the thorough seeking for
forgiveness, the warfare of temptation ; finally,
in old age, the longing, ever increasing till
death, for deliverance from all evil, which is the
closing petition of the dying man, that merges
into the doxology of heaven. — Stier.
[2157] The conclusion, or doxology, intimates
the reason why we beg these things of God. —
J. Blair, 1723.
! 4 Persons for whom framed.
j (i) The faithful.
! [-158] The daily prayer of the faithful. — Aug.
\ [2159] It is a special gift to believers. This
{ prayer was taught by our Lord Jesus, and the
I several requests contained in it are only to be
procured in and through Him. Both the title to
use this prayer, and all the expectations of suc-
I cess from it, belong to us only as we are the
' faithful disciples of our Saviour. — T. Mangcy,
' 1684-1755-
[2160] We cannot too earnestly insist that the
i Lord's Prayer is beyond the use of mere world-
I lings. They have no heart for it. It is the
1 possession and badge of the disciple of Jesus
Christ. It belongs to those who can offer it in
humble and hearty faith. They whose own it
is are, like its w^ords, free from doubt and hesi-
i tation, and full of confidence and affection. —
I Robitison.
; [2 161] The Lord's Prayer is the saint's Amen
' to the Apostle's Creed, his way of saying the
Ten Commandments in his Father's ear, his
echoing acceptance of God's unchanging law,
his song of hope to the blessed angels, the
liturg)^ of sanctified self and universal love.
All that God says to us is replied to in the
Lord's Prayer, and prayers that derive from it
their inspiration. — Ibid.
[2162] The early Christians did not allow any
to use this prayer till they were baptized.
II. Its Authority.
I Its use is obligatory.
[2163] The Church has ever understood the
words of Christ, " When ye pray, say," as a posi-
tive command enjoining the use of this prayer.
Though, even were the words of our blessed
Lord less stringent, the mere fact that we are
permitted to use this prayer, and that it was
consecrated to us by having come from His lips
who spake as never man spake, would have all
the force of a command to those whose highest
376
2163-
THE LORDS PRAYER.
-2177]
[introduction.
glory it is that they are called by His name,
have been redeemed by His blood, have been
made members of His body, and derive their
whole spiritual life from Him. — Doiton.
[2164] We require no greater commendation
than this, that it is the Lord's Prayer ; for the
declaration that "the mouth of the Lord hath
spoken it" (Isa. xl. 5) is, conclusive as to the
authority of any precept and the sanctity of any
law. In this respect it excels all other prayers,
whether in the Old or in the New Testament ;
for the Lord's Prayer has not for its author any
one of the patriarchs, prophets, or apostles, nay,
not an angel from heaven, not man's speaking
by inspiration and at the command of God; but
it was given and commanded to be used by the
eternal Son, who with the Father and the Holy
Ghost is God and Lord. — Stella and Sahncrcni
{combined') .
[2165] "After this manner pray ye." This is
the lawful manner. "When ye pray, say '' this
prayer. Understand it, and say nothing different
from it. It is to be always your model. You
may say what it says in other and various
words ; but you must say what it says. You
are not at liberty to say anything in prayer
which it does not contain warrant, or suggest.
Only when, by His blessing, we are htaring
what God says to us, is God in His mercy hear-
ing what we say to Him. To go from the
Lord's Prayer is to go from the Lord ; no longer
to be with and behind the "one Mediator" at
the throne, but in advance and disrespect of
Him, exposing ourselves to God's anger. Never
may the soul or the Church dispense with the
guidance and aid of our "Advocate with the
Father." — Robinsoji.
HL Its Excellence.
[2166] How brief it is ! Like the flask of musk
one sees locked in the chemist's safe with his
papers and his money, which, though it is so
small, is powerful enough to perfume thousands
of his preparations. So brief that we never can
want time to repeat it, however hurried in the
morning, busied during the day, or wearied at
night.— £■. B.
[2167] For this great prayer, in the compre-
hensive variety and exquisite harmony of all its
petitions, is at once a manual of Christian in-
struction and a model of Christian devotion,
and is given to teach the true spirit, as also to
give the true expression, of the huniljly prayerful
soul. — l-oraine.
[2168] It is a prayer unexampled, for it is a
prayer given in answer to prayer. " Lord, teach
us to pray," said the disciples. The Master
answered, " When ye pray, say, Our Father." —
E. B.
[2169] "Five words with understanding" pre-
ferable to ten thousand of formality or repetition.
Here is no vain and heathenish babbling, as if
the length of our prayer were to measure the
value of its answer ; nor any explanatory repeti-
tion, as if God did not know what things we
have need of. But there is here only a straiglit-
forward laying before God of one desire after
another. — Dods.
[2170] All we mean to say is, that no man
should wish, expect, or ask anything which is
not summarily comprehended in this prayer.
Though the words may be very different, there
must be no difference in the sense. In this
way all prayers, both those which are contained
in the Scripture and those which come forth
from pious breasts, must be referred to it ;
certainly none can ever equal it, far less surpass
it in perfection. It omits nothing which we can
conceive in praise of God, nothing which we
can imagine advantageous to man ; and the
whole is so exact that all hope of improving it
may be well renounced. In short, let us re-
member that we have here the doctrine of
heavenly wisdom : God has taught what He
willed ; He willed what was necessary.— Ca/z/Zw.
IV. Its Nature.
I A form.
[2171] I suppose nobody hath so menn an
opinion either of St. John's or our Saviour's dis-
ciples as to think they were ignorant how to pray ;
therefore it is plain that they could mean nothing
else by their request but that Christ should give
them this particular form as a badge of their
belonging to Him, according to the custom of
the Jewish doctors. — Wheatley.
\
j [2172] Since He has said, "Whatsoever ye
shall ask of the Father in My name. He shall
give it you," how much more efficaciously shall
we obtain it if we ask it in this prayer! —
Cypria7i.
[2173] Our Lord gave His new disciples of
the New Testament a new form of prayer. —
Tertullian.
[2174] Christ, among many other wholesome
admonitions and Divine precepts by which He
provided for the salvation of His people, has
given us also a form of prayer, teaching and
' admonishing us what we are to pray for. —
j Cyprian.
[2175] God alone could teach how He would
have Himself prajed to. — Tertullian.
[2176] Christ Himself gave us a form of
prayer, and commanded us to use it, beceiuse,
when we speak to the Father in the Son's words,
we shall be more easily heard. — Cypi'ian.
[2177] It is a prayer — one of the six prayers
— brief, strong, explicit— of the one weighty and
solemn liturgy whicl^our Lord Jesus Christ left
behind Him to regulate and to quicken the
THE LORDS PRAYER.
■7—2187]
377
[INTRODL'CTION.
perpetual worship of His strugglinc^, sufifering,
and aspiring people. — Dean VaugJiaii.
[2178] Let us remember that we have here
nothing short of a Divine form, given to us by
Him who, Himself God, knew of what God
would approve ; who, Himself the only-begotten
Son, by whom all things were made, knew what
His creatures needed to ask ; and who, Himself
Man as well as God, knew by the experienced
feelings of humanity what was most conducive to
the due performance of that most needful act.
As His holy name is above every name, so is
His holy prayer above every prayer. — T/ioinas
Hugo.
[2179] That our Saviour did but set men a
bare example how to contrive or devise prayers
of their own, and no way bind them to use this,
is no doubt an error. John the Baptist's dis-
ciples, which had been always brought up in
the bosom of God's Church, were not so brutish
that they could be ignorant how to call upon
the name of God ; but of their master they
had received a form of prayer amongst them-
selves, which form none did use save his dis-
ciples, so ihat by it as by a mark of special
difference they were known from others. And
of this the apostles having taken notice, they
request that, as John had taught his, so Christ
would likewise teach them to pray. — Hooker.
[2180] "And it came to pass that, as He was
praying in a certain place" — perhaps Gethse-
mane, "for Jesus ofttimes resorted thither with
His disciples," and both discoursed on prayer
and prayed among the olive-trees — " when He
ceased, one of His disciples said unto Him,"
apparently in the name of all, " Lord, teach us
to pray, as John also taught his disciples." He
who had warned them against "vain repetitions,"
to which the hypocrites and the heathen were
addicted, did not blame them for making this
request. He did not seize the opportunity to
condemn the use of forms of devoiion. — Dods.
[2 181] Jesus Christ has been just praying
Himself. The disciples have been watching
Him from a little distance. They have seen
Him kneeling down upon the bare ground.
They have seen His hands clasped and His
eyes raised to heaven in humble, earnest suppli-
cation. The sight of Jesus praying made the
disciples long to be able to pray also. They
knew that John the Baptist, as you have already
heard, had taught his disciples a form of prayer,
and so the first thing which they did, when
Jesus returned to them, was to ask Him of His
great mercy to teach them a prayer too. —
Kennaway,
2 A model or pattern.
[2182] The painter who is copying a picture,
the sculptor who is copying a bust, in the first
instance sets before him that which he designs
to copy. This being done, he casts from time
to time his eyes upon his model, and guides his
hand accordingly. Now this was the view
which the ancient Church took of the Lord's
Prayer. This is not the only view which may
be taken of the pr.yer, but it is a most true, and
just, and scriptural view. Let us consider how
we can bring our own private prayers into a
closer conformity with the model. Let us bear
in mind that the Lord's Prayer teaches us not
only what to pray for, but also, if I may so
say, what should be the proportions of our
prayers. From the order of the petitions we
learn the blessings we should most covet, and
from the spirituality of the greater number of
them we learn how sparing, modest, and reserved
should be our prayers. — Dean Goulburn.
[2183] St. Matthew's model, as contained in
our Authorized Version, is adopted in the West-
minster Assembly's Catechisms ; and, with only
the ancient change in the fifth petition, taken
partially from St. Luke, and warranted fully by
a comparison of both records, and a variation
in the concluding doxology, it is also followed
in the Book of Common Prayer. To the usual
form there is no reason why all of us should
not, in our public services, scrupulously adhere.
— Robinson.
[2184] The Church of Christ did use to begin
and end her services with the Lord's Prayer,
this being the foundation upon w'lich all other
prayers should be built ; therefore we begin
with it, that so, the right foundation being laid,
we may justly proceed to our ensuing requests;
and it being the perfection of all prayer, there-
fore we conclude our prayers with it. — Bp.
Sparrow.
[2185] It is, doubtless, an outline which we
are encouraged to fill up, and which comprises
almost everything we may have occasion to ex-
press before the footstool of mercy. That we
are at liberty to enlarge upon it, according to
the variety of our wants and the state of our
feelings, is evident from the fact that the primi-
tive churches, and all their successors, so under-
stood it. — Good [of Salisbury^)
[2186] When the disciples said, " Lord, teach
us to pray," the prayer that we are now reading
was shown as a pattern. Here we have a
ground plan to fill in, and on whose lines we
may build the structure of our petitions every
time we pray. — Stanford.
[2187] The Divine order and plan is the only
right order and plan of every prayer which men
ofter to God. The object, first in dignity, is the
honour of God. Next, the salvation of man.
First, the great reward in the future, for " we
seek a country ; " next, the way to that " coun-
try " which we seek. First, for that glimpse of
highest truth which is not given but to the pure
in heart ; and that reaching up into the greitest
heights, which is granted only unto royal hearts
;78
2187-
THE LORDS PRAYER.
-2198]
[introduction.
whereby they take the kingdom ; and that en-
tering in within the highest good, which only
they attain whose wills are moulded into the
Divine will. And tiien for the power which
brings men up to such bliss — the in-gathering
of all good and precious gifts — the removing far
away of all evil and hurtful things.
The petitions of the Lord's Prayer are seven.
The gifts of the Holy Ghost are seven. The
deadly sins are seven. So in sevenfold or com-
plete prayer there come sevenfold or com-
plete gifts of the Divine Spirit to save the soul
from sevenfold or complete evil. — Tlie Chicrch-
niaii's Guide to Faith and Piety.
[2188] By the framework of devotion here
raised for us Christ teaches us this right order,
showing not only what we should ask for, but
what we should ask for first, what next, and on
to the end. If in the mere mechanism of our
praye's we may not always choose this pro-
gressive sequence, we must, at least, keep this
pattern before us as a general guide to their
spirit and structure. " It is a regulator by
which all ages should set their devotions." —
Stanford.
[2189] Take note of the fact that this pattern
was given twice. Christ had already given it
once, that is, in the Sermon on the Mount.
These suppliants, as if they had never heard of
it, asked Him to give what He had already
given. How was this? We suppose that, be-
sides the disciples who came from John to Jesus
at the commencement of His ministry, and the
story of whose call is told in the opening of the
fourth Gospel, tiiere were others whose en-
rolment came later, and that some of these
having been with John during the first delivery
of the Lord's Prayer, made the appeal which led
to this, the second delivery. — Ibid.
[2190] The prayer 'recorded by Luke was
delivered by our Lord at a time and under
circumstances differing from those to which
Matthew refers. The one was spoken in Galilee,
the other in Judeca. The one unasked for, the
other at the request of a disciple. The one
as He was preaching, the other after He had
been praying. — I'an Doren.
3 Both a form and a modeL
[2191] Our Saviour's express injunction, Luke
xi. 2, is, "When ye pray, say ;" and what should
they say but the words immediately following,
" Our Father which art in heaven " .^ <S:c. One
evangelist says, " Pray after this manner ; " the
other saith, *' When ye pray, say ;" from both
which, compared together, it is easy to collect,
that it is both a pattern for us to form our
prayers by, and that it is a prayer itself — Bp.
Hopkins, 1633-1690.
[2192] A specimen of the Christian's prayer
no less than its pattern. — Dean Alford.
[2193] It seems probable that the disciples
did not so distinctly understand our Lord to be
giving them a form when He first delivered the
prayer, but only received it as part of the
general instruction on the spirit of the Chris-
tian life which our Lord was giving them then ;
and that He repeated it when asked by them for
a set form. — Karslake.
[2194] In like manner our Master and
Saviour has Himself given us a form, which He
repeated twice in substance ; once to the multi-
tude, and once to His twelve disciples. This
He gave both as a pattern of prayer and a form
of prayer. — Pagan.
[2195] Did the Lord by " after this manner,"
signify these very words, or only their substance
and their manner ? No rational man can think
that it was his meaning that we should use these
words exclusively. But that it was His design
that they should be adhered to and used, as His
Church has understood Him and acted accord-
ingly, we have a most decisive proof in the re-
petition of the same words upon a subsequent
request of His disciples for a form of prayer.
For there they wished for a directory and form
for daily use, as John also taught his disciples.
The Lord did not refuse it, but most emphatically
referred them in their need to that which He had
given them a long time before. He knew no-
thing, and had nothing better for them, and now
says, more distinctly than on the former occa-
sion. When ye pray, and have need of prescribed
expressions, then say ye the same words. There
is a prayer of the heart without word, but let
him who should think himself so qualified and
capable for that at all times, as to be able to
despise the prayer of words, reflect upon this
saying of our Lord, '' When ye pray, say." Fur-
ther, the spirit of prayer does give the special
and ever new and appropriate words of prayer ;
but this does not remove the necessity of the
weak to fall back upon a given form of words,
yea, even of the strongest, v/ho are, sometimes
at least, equally weak, and know not either what
they ought to ask or how to ask it. — Siier.
[2196] After the regular form of prayer {i.e.,
the Lord's Prayer) has been first said by wav of
foundation, there is the privilege of building
thereon petitions. — Tcytullian.
[2197] All other prayers being of human com-
position, can neither deserve so much reverence
nor promise so much benefit in the use of them ;
and they are all more or less perfect, accord-
ingly as' they resemble this Divine form. — T.
Mangey, i68'4-i755.
[2198] It is not only a form to be spoken, but
also a pattern to be followed. Though the letter
of it is given by Christ, yet we are not to wor-
ship its letter, but only the Lord by whom it
was framed and commanded. The letter itself,
as found in the New Testament, directs us
THE LORDS PRAYER.
2198—2209]
379
[introduction.
to the Divine Spirit to whom it owes its vitality
and power. As if for the purpose of showing
that the language alone is insufficient, St.
Matthew and St. Luke have been permitted to
record it with some verbal difference. Its con-
nection in the Sermon on the Mount with the
sentences in which we are called to retired and
thoughtful devotion, proves that merely saying
it is not enough. Its style and construction
almost make it evident that only to use its letter
would be a vain repetition. The expression,
"after this manner," in both its superficial and
its deeper signification, teaches the necessity,
especially in private devotion, of extempora-
neous prayer. — Robinson.
4 A prayer of Christ for us, not His prayer
for Himself.
[2199] What is usually called the Lord's
Prayer is not such in the sense that Jesus
offered it in His own Person as the expression
of His wants. Not merely was it impossible for
Him, who was sinless, to use the fifth petition,
but we never find that the Lord, in addressing
God, or speaking of Him, uses the expression
" Our Father." He invariably says either
" Father," or " My Father," or " Your Father."
For even, when He gave to Mary Magdalene
the assurance that the disciples were His
brethren. He carefully reminded her that He is
the only begotten, and that His relation to
the Father is essentially different from ours.
But there are several prayers of Christ recorded
in the Gospels, and they are an invaluable trea-
sure and comfort to the Church. — Saphir.
[2200] We are to be like Christ, not in doing
the like deeds, or in saying the like words, but
in having the like spirit, animating us in the in-
finitely difierent offices we have to fill, and
works we have to do as saved sinners. It is out
of the question that we should offer for our daily
prayer the very words once used to express the
prayers of Christ for Himself. When, there-
fore, the disciples asked for a pattern that they
might pray just like Christ, the spirit of this the
opening sentence in His reply was — " No, your
prayers are not to be just like Mine. I pray after
that manner. After tliis manner pray ye. I
pray as the Lord ; but when ye pray, say," and
then He gave them these words — Stanford.
V. Its Characteristics.
I Spirituality.
[2201] There is only one petition for any
worldly want — " our daily bread," and that,
spiritually understood, means " all things
necessary for our souls and bodies." — E. B.
[2202] " For what prayer can be more spi-
ritual than that which was given to us by Christ,
by whom the Holy Spirit was also sent to
us ? The Father recognizes the words of His
own Son." — Cyprian.
[2203] I conclude with a remarkable saying
of a cabalistic work, which contains a most
beautiful, though unintentional, summary of the
Lord's Prayer.
" When the Schechina — that is the glory of
the Lord — is in His temple, all the prophets
ascend to Him, knock at the door, and say
' Lord, open Thou my lips.' The first three
petitions which they then offer are in refer-
ence to the soul, that through them they may
be brought to the Origin of all things, for in
this consists the life of the soul. The middle
petition refers to the supply of our bodily wants.
The last three obtain from the King the turn-
ing of evil unto good. And before all these
petitions there is a Hand which writes, and
after all these petitions is a Hand which seals."
— Hollar {quoted by Sciiottgen).
[2204] The Lord's Prayer, short, simple as it
is, tries to the uttermost the spirituality of His
people. — Dean Vaug]ia7i.
[2205] " When ye pray, say." And there is
no gettmg past the evident precept here de-
livered, that we ought habitually to use these
words. And as we use them, we shall find
that though we learnt them at our mother's
knee, it takes a lifetime to fill them with their
meaning, and eternity to give them all their
answer. — Dods.
[2206] The variations in the two Evangelists
allow us, when repeating it, a limited choice of
expressions. We may use one form or the
other, or, from the two, construct a third, in-
cluding what we consider preferable in either ;
and we may somewhat accommodate the lan-
guage of the several petitions, as our devotions
have respect to the body or the soul, to the
spirit or the conduct, to time or to eternity. \t
may always be well first to speak it literally in
some usual shape ; but if is a foundation from
which a temple may rise according to inspiration
and ability ; it is a root from which a tree may
grow and branch itself according to atmosphere
and season.
[2207] J. Blair describes the Spirit which
should mark our petitions: (i) That nothing
is to be prayed for but what makes either for
God's glory or our own or our neighbour's
good. (2) That of these two, the glory of God
ought to be preferred. (3) That the petitions
for the glory of God are to regulate and limit
all our other petitions ; for ourselves or others.
[2208] Regarded as a whole, the Lord's
Prayer contains but one thought— the desire
for the kingdom of God. Luther is right, there-
fore, in saying, " The true Christian prays an
everlasting Lord's Prayer, inasmuch as his
whole desire centres in God's kingdom." —
Olshausen.
[2209] The Church of all space and of all
time meets, and is one, in the Master's prayer.
38o
2209 — 2220]
THE LORDS PRAYER.
[introduction.
It is itself a sacrament of holy communion.
The aspirations of eighteen centuries have gone
up to God in it. — Dea7i Vatii^han.
[2210] Elaborate language, then, is no essen-
tial of prayer ; nor yet ingenious thought, nor
the observant penetration of spirit which dis-
covers the minute or hidden wants of man.
Only so much language is required as makes
the desire audible. We are backward in prayer,
not because it is too difficult, but because it is
too simple for us. It is so unlike our other
ways of gaining and getting, that we are always
trying to make it something more than it is, an
asking for what we want. — Dods.
i Comprehensiveness.
[22 11] All subjects for thought are repre-
sented in this prayer which begins with God,
comprehends heaven and earth, and terminates
in eternity. — \V. N. Pctxival.
[2212] If you run over and through all the
words of all holy prayers, you shall find nothing
which this prayer of the Lord doth not compre-
hend and cov\X.?^\\-\.— Augustine.
[2213] For like as the law of love is the sum
and abridgment of the other laws, so this prayer
is the sum and abridgment of all other prayers :
all the other prayers are contained in this
prayer ; yea, whatsoever mankind hath need of
to soul and body, that same is contained in this
prayer. — Bp. Latimer.
[2214] Any clause of it might suffice a whole
day as a fountain of pious thought, a base of
manifold petition, a medium of rich communi-
cation with the Father. — Robinson.
[2215] I. In opposition to ostentation our
Saviour calls us away from the eyes of men
to mmd Our Father which is in Heaven.
2. In opposition to vain repetitions, and a
great luxuriancy of words He has set us a
model of a very short compendious prayer.
3. In opposition to our prescribing to God in
a great many minute particulars we are taught
here to propose our wants and requests in
general terms, leaving the particulars to Al-
mighty God to answer those wants in which
particular manner He pleases. — J. Blair, 1723.
[2216] Other prayers, however good, are in-
evitably deficient : this is the voice of all human
want, the summary of heaven's law, and the
reception of every gospel blessing. The Church
learnt it in its infancy, and has breathed it in its
growth. It was styled "the daily prayer" in
the first centuries, and has been well called
"the salt of all Divine offices." It is the germ
and finish of Christian devotion. — Robinson.
[2217] As we look into this well, we look
through words of wonderful clearness down
into a wonderful depth. The oldest saint has
not sounded it, yet it is so simple that even a
child can understand enough of its real meanmg
to make it his own real prayer. It names the
whole world's wants, yet that little one can use
it. It fits the child, it fits the man, it fits the
father and mother, it fits the youngest saint,
and the saint with reverend head —
" On which from opening gates have shone.
The glories of the great white throne."
If Christ had left for our pathway of praying
language, words of passion, or utterances of
sublime expression, true only in moments of
rare light or exaltation, that sometimes would
not have been true prayer for us, for it would
not have fitted our average life, but this always
fits us. It fits every mood and stage of our
soul's history — it fits us when our wants are
few, when our pulsations are quiet, when our
thoughts are level ; it fits us when we are just
beginning and when we are just ending our
journey. So. when I am but a very young child
of the Most High, the moments of weakness
will be rare indeed when I cannot speak this
language, and be stronger for it, but if I have
just come down from the third heavens, feeling
that henceforth I shall be more than I ever yet
have been, all the life of my soul rides out in
these words. — Stanford.
[2218] The honouring of God in the Father,
the ' testimony of faith in the Name, the
offering of obedience in the will, the remem-
brance of hope in the kingdom, the petition for
life in a twofold sense in the bread, the con-
fession of debts in the prayer for forgiveness,
the anxious care about temptations in the call
for defence. — Tertullian.
[2219] The same general spirit of "desire for
the glory of God first, and then for the good of
our fellow-men, should be the pervading aim of
our active being, as well as the general inward
aspiration of the heart in prayer. — Karslake.
[2220] I used to think the Lord's prayer was
a short prayer ; but as I live longer, and see
more of life, I begin to believe there is no such
thing as getting through it. If a man, in praying
that prayer, were to be stopped by every word
until he had thoroughly prayed it, it would take
him a lifetime. "Our Father" — there would
be a wall a hundred feet high in just those two
words to most men. If they might say " Our
Tyrant," or "Our Monarch," or even "Our
Creator," they could get along with it ; but
" Our Father " — why, a man is almost a saint
who can pray that. You read, " Thy will be
done ; " and say to yourself, " Oh ! I can pray
that ;" and all the time your mind goes round
and round in immense circuits and far-oft
distances : but God is continually bringing the
circuits nearer to you, till He says, " How is
it about your tempei^and your pride .'' how is it
THE LORDS PRAYER.
-2230]
[introduction.
about your business and your daily life ? " This
is a revolutionary petition. Who can stand
at the end of the avenue along which all his
pleasant thoughts and wishes are blossoming
like flowers, and send these terrible words,
"Thy will be done," crashing down through it ?
I think it is the most fearful prayer to pray in
the world. — Beecher.
[2221] The words in which the wisdom of
God, descending upon us in perfect love, has
condensed and enshrined for us neither more
nor less than all, all which ever has ascended,
does now, or ever will ascend, from human
hearts in prayer to heaven. Yes, verily, what-
soever may not be included m this cannot be
fit subject of prayer, and may not be asked.
Such unlicensed prayer is, indeed, no prayer at
all in spirit and in truth ; for God's Spirit hath
not permitted it, neither can it be real com-
munion of the heart with the living God, for
presumption and error have neither the con-
fidence of faith. — Stier.
3 Catholicity.
[2222] Not only all who profess the faith of
Christ, by whatever denomination known, but
all believers in God may use this prayer accept-
ably, though it is the especial heritage of the
disciples of Jesus. — E. B.
[2223] From personal experience I know how
the Lord's Prayer commends itself to the mind
and conscience of a devout Israelite. The
following anecdote, mentioned by Arndt ("Vater
unser," p. 166), still further illustrates this point :
"A traveller in the East (Hay) was pitchmg his
tent near an Arab village, when he was sur-
rounded by an excited crowd, who cursed him
as an atheist. He addressed a venerable man,
whom he supposed to be a priest. How can
you say that we do not believe in God ? Listen
to my daily prayer, and then judge. He repeated
the Lord's Prayer. The people listened with
amazement. At length the priest exclaimed,
' Never will I speak against the followers of such
a faith ; your prayer shall be mine till my hour
of departure comes. Repeat it, I beg of you, O
Nazarene, that we may learn it and write it in
golden letters.' "—.4. Saphir.
[2224] It is man's common prayer. It is the
Redeemer's great legacy to any and every needy
soul that would draw near in worship to the
Eternal Father. It is the simplest and sublimest
form of words with which any human creature
can approach his God. Let it be the first
prayer with which the unwonted lips of the
awakened heathen are taught to plead with
" the Father of the spirits of all flesh." Let it
be the daily prayer of the Christian man, as he
struggles to live nearer to his Father-God, and
more kindly with his brother-man. Let it be
the earliest prayer with which you familiarize
the lisping accents of childhood. Let it be
among the last utterances of the dying saint, as
the final kingdom comes, and he is about to
attain eternal deliverance from the evil. It is
man's common right — his great charter of
prayer. When the hearts of mankind shall
have learned to feel, and their lives to manifest
the principles that this daily prayer involves,
Christianity shall have completed its mission on
earth. Man's next work will be to learn the
praises of heaven. — Loraine.
VI. Its Uses.
I Suitable for public worship or private
devotion.
[2225] Thevery petitions of the prayer, running
all along in the plural number, do evidently
show that it was primarily intended for the use
of the congregation. — IVheatley.
[2226] This prayer, being spoken privately
to the disciples (Luke xi. 1-4), is suitable as a
form of private prayer ; but since it uses the
words " our " and " us," it seems to have been
intended specially for public worship."— /"a^^w.
[2227] It is a social prayer. " Souls are not
saved in bundles ; the Spirit saith to the man,
how is it with thee — thee personally ? " So, in
teaching us to pray, Jesus begins with the in-
dividual. After He has said to each apart,
" Thoii^ when thou prayest enter into thy closet,
and when thou hast shut to thy door, pray to
thy Father, which is in secret," He goes on to
say, "After this manner pray yf ; " then when
each child has been with the Father alone, he
comes out into the family circle and joins with
the other children in this praying concert. —
Stanford.
2 Helpful as a summary of our previous
prayers.
[2228] The Lord's Prayer may be regarded in
two distinct lights— as a summary of prayer, and
as a model of prayer. In the first of these lights
it is the modern fashion to regard it, and under
this view it is naturally introduced, not at the
beginning, but at the end of prayer. We feel
that our prayers are imperfect at best, and
greatly need supplementing by some form in
which there are no defects ; and so at the end
of our private prayers, or at the end of our
family prayers, we 'recite the Lord's Prayer as
summing up all that we can want or wish for in
a few pregnant words. — Dean Goulburn.
[2229] We must all feel that we are then least
unfit to address our heavenly Father in the
prayer of His children, when we are most
strongly moved to contrition, to thankfulness, or
fervour of devotion. — Sciidamore.
[2230] Though, in the Ancient Liturgies, it
was always used at the beginning or very early
in the service— and in public worship the custom
is still followed, yet it is also introduced towards
the end, and in private prayer we generally
make it.
382
2231
THE LORDS PRAYER.
-2236]
[introduction.
3 Corrective of our private prayers.
[2231] Let me recommend, as a method of
counteracting onr partial tendencies in prayer,
that we should from time to time, in our private
devotions, enlarge upon the Lord's Prayer by
way of paraphrase. As in religious thought
generally, so in prayer particularly, we are sadly
apt to run in our own groove ; and thus the
frequent recurrence to and study of the Lord's
Prayer is very desirable, as tending to give
us a larger and more comprehensive range of
sympathies.— Z?t'a« Goulburn.
[2232] Most warily and wisely do they, who
refer all their prayers unto the Lord's Prayer,
unto the which they attribute the chief and
principal place ; and keeping it continually in
their mind, do meditate thereupon, and exercise
themselves therein. — BuUinf:;er.
VIL Its Relation to Existing Forms. *
1 Its similarity to Jewish forms of prayer.
[2233] The first petition, "Hallowed be
Thy Name," would be one familiar to the mind
of the Jews, amongst whom there was one
prayer : " O Lord our God, may Thy Name be
hallowed, and Thy memory be glorified, O our
King, in heaven above and on earth beneath."
And the third of their eighteen prayers was :
" Thou art holy, and Thy Name is holy, and
Thy saints do praise Thee every day. Selah.
For a great King, and a holy^, art Thou, O God.
Blessed art Thou, O Lord God, most holy."
And this first petition is found coupled in
some prayers with that which stands second in
the Lord's Prayer, " Thy kingdom come." One
of the Jewish prayers which Schottgen gives
runs thus : " May His great Name be magnified
and hallowed in the world, which according to
His good pleasure He has created, and may He
make His kingdom to prevail ; may His redemp-
tion flourish, and may Messiah come and set
His people free."
And another prayer was : " O, our God, who
only art in heaven, may Thy Name be established
for ever ; may Thy kingdom reign over us for
ever, and may Thy holy Name be sanctified
through our works."
And Lightfoot remarks that it " obtained as
an axiom in the Jewish schools, that prayer, in
which there is not mention of the kingdom of
God, is not a prayer."
The third petition, "Thy will be done in earth
as it is in heaven," finds a very imperfect parallel
in the "short" prayer, or prayer composed for
His disciples by one of the Jewish doctors:
" Do thy will in heaven, and give quietness of
spirit to them that fear Thee beneath," or in
earth.
Thus the first three petitions of the prayer
had already, in a certain measure, found their
place in Jewish worship, and were familiar to
Jewish minds; and it may be regarded as a
striking evidence of the peculiar nearness in
which the Jews were placed, spiritually, to God,
that they should thus have been permitted and
directed to offer up to Him petitions so closely
allied to those which form the most lofty portion
of the Lord's Prayer. — Karslake.
[2234] The passages collected from ancient
prayers and from modern Jewish writers are
generally given as follows : " Our Father which
art in heaven [Maimonides, in Tephillot] ; Thy
name be sanctified [ex Euchologiis Judicorum];
Thy kingdom reign [ex libro I\iusar] ; Do Thy
will in heaven [Rab. Berachoth] ; Forgive us our
sins [in most prayers] ; Lead us not into the
hand of temptation [ex libro Musar] ; and de-
liver us from Satan [in precib. Judjeorum] ; For
Thine is the kingdom, and Thou shalt reign
gloriously for ever and ever." — Denton.
[2235] This prayer, except "as we forgive oui
debtors," is said to be contained in the Jewish
Liturgy. — Van Doren.
[2236] The more we make this prayer our
own, the more will it interpret itself to us with
ever deepening impressiveness, from the name
of Father, the word which it places first on our
lips, down to the Amen of f;iith, with which we
seal and conclude the prayer. It is Christ who,
having first taught it to us and impressed it upon
our hearts, draws it again to our lips, that so
out of our own mouth our heart may be streng-
thened and confirmed through the power of
God's Holy Spirit.
A verbal resemblance between certain clauses
in the Lord's Prayer and expressions occurring
in some of the prayers used in the worship of
the synagogues, or in the writings of the Rabbis,
has led to the supposition that our blessed
Lord selected these particular expressions, and
united them in one prayer. The supposition,
however, receives but little support from fact.
It is by no means certain, that the prayers in
which these casual resemblances to the petitions
in the Lord's Prayer have been found, are older
than the Incarnation of Christ ; so that if the
one were really borrowed from the other, it may
be that the synagogue borrowed its petitions
from the Lord's Prayer, and not the Lord's
Prayer from those of the synagogue. But the
resemblances pointed out are so slight, and the
passages which contain the same thoughts as
those in the Lord's Prayer, are scattered over
so wide a surface, that they seem rather to be
accidental than intentional resemblances. It
has been thought absurd to suppose that the
(jreat High Priest who taught us to pray, and
who also prayed for us, who was the Wisdom of
(Jod as well as the Son of God, should have
taken the various petitions of this prayer from
the writings of obscure Rabbis. Again, though
it may be granted that most of the petitions
bear some resemblance to passages in Jewish
writings, yet they are never found joined in one
prayer, nor, though the words employed in the
one instance may be the same as those used in
the other, have they the same meaning and
emphasis. — Denton.
THE LORDS PRAYER,
2237—2244]
383
[introduction.
[2237] After Lightfoot, Schottgen, Wetstein,
Drusius, Vitringa, Witsius, and Surenhusius,
have laid under requisition every conceivable
parallel passage, even from much later Jewish
prayer-books, the result of their learning and
industry shows that only the first two petitions
of the Lord's Prayer contains what, after all,
amounts to no more than allusions to well-
known Old Testament or Messianic ideas and
expressions. Besides, it is quite possible that
the Jews may have borrowed even these from
the Lord's Prayer. — Laiige.
[2238] There is very slender proof of what
is often asserted that our Lord took nearly the
whole of this prayer from existing Jewish
formula. Not that such a view of the matter
would contain in it anything irreverent or ob-
jectionable ; for if pious Jews had framed such
petitions, our Lord who came to fulfil everything
that was good under the old covenant, might in
a higher sense and spiritual meaning have re-
commended the same forms to His disciples.
But such does not appear to have been the fact.
Lightfoot produces only the most general com-
monplace parallels for the petitions, from the
Rabbinical books. — Dean Alford.
[2239] Lightfoot writes, " That it was cus-
tomary with our Saviour, for the most part, to
conform Himself to the Church and nation, both
in religious and civil matters, so they were law-
ful, most evidently appears in this form of
prayer." If this be true, it would be more right
to regard the Lord's Prayer, not so much as
drawn from earlier forms, but as harmonizing
with them. — Karslake.
[2240] The Lord's Prayer was not culled from
Pharisaic rosaries, and was not merely made up
of pearls picked from the dust-heaps of the
Talmud.
[2241] The Lord's Prayer and the earlier
Jewish forms are alike, and yet different; dif-
ferent as being the one the higher and more
perfect utterance of what had in the others been
offered to God by the faithful Jews before our
Lord came ; all that was best in the old Jewish
prayers being taken up into a more simple, more
orderly, more elevated form, in the same way in
which all that was lasting in the old Dispen-
sation is taken up into the new, and passes into
a more perfect revelation in it. — Karslake.
VIII. Objections met respecting its
Frequent Use as savouring of
Vain Repetition.
\i2A,'i\ Using the Lord's Prayer often is much
praying, not much speaking. Lightfoot points
out the Jewish error to which our Lord refers
(Matt. vi. 7): " Omnis qui multiplicat orationem
auditur." — VVheatley.
[2243] They are taught to shun vain repe-
tition. Perhaps the term " battology," which is
thus translated in our English New Testament,
does not merely refer to the repetition of words,
but also to their senseless multiplication,' re-
peating the same prayer in our devotional appeal
is not always a vain thing, for Christ has sanc-
tioned it by His own example. — Sianjord.
[2244] "When ye pray," whether your prayer
be long or short, free or not from iteration, with
or without book, " use not vain repetitions."
The repetitions to be avoided are those without
reason or advantage. Other repetitions you
may use. Such as are occasioned by the pres-
sure of conviction and necessity, the forth-
burstings of desires kindled by God Himself,
are pleasing to our heavenly Father. What is
wanted is, not much speaking, but speaking
much. Luther comments thus : — " When thou
prayest, let thy words be few, but thy thoughts
and affections many, and, above all, let them be
profound. Few words and many thoughts is
Christian ; many words and few thoughts is
heathenish. External and bodily prayer is that
buzzing of the lips, that outward babble, which
is gone through without any attention, and
which strikes the eyes and the ears of men ; but
prayer in spirit and in truth is the inward desire,
the motions, the sighs, which issue from the
depths of the heart. The former is the prayer
of hypocrites, and of all those who trust in
themselves : the latter is the prayer of the
children of God, who walk in His fear. —
Robinson.
' Matt. vi. 7. The charge /xi) (SarToXoyymjTt is explained by Tro\v\oyia, " much speaking."
THE LORD'S PRAYER.
INVOCATION OR ADDRESS.
P^^g<''s 3S5 ^° 394-
ITS RELATION TO THE PETITIONS OF THE TRAYER.
2
GENERAL IMPORT OF THE CLAUSE TAKEN AS A
WHOLE.
3
POINTS OF ANALOGIES SUGGESTED BY THE CLAUSE
TxVKEN AS A WHOLE, BETWEEN OUR HEAVENLY
FATHER AND OUR EARTHLY PARENT.
4
IMPORT OF THE WORD "FATHER."
5
INTERPRETATION OF THE WORD "FATHER."
6
CHRISTOLOGICAL ASPECT OF THE WORD "FATHER."
7
THE CONDITION ON OUR SIDE NECESSARY FOR
THE REALIZATION OF THE WORD "FATHER"
IN ITS FULL MEANING.
8
LESSONS TAUGHT BY THE WORD "FATHER."
9
IMPORT OF THE WORD "OUR."
LESSONS SUGGESTED BY THE WORD "OUR."
II
IMPORT OF THE WORDS "WHICH ART."
12
IMPORT OF THE WORDS "IN HEAVEN."
LESSON TAUGHT BY THE WORDS "IN PIEAVEN."
14
REASONS FOR THE ADDITION OF THE WORDS
"WHICH ART IN HEAVEN," TO THOSE OF
"OUR FATHER."
15
OBJECTIONS MET RESPECTING THE ALLEGED
ABSENCE OF CHRISTOLOGY FROM THIS CLAUSE.
384
38s
THE LORD'S PRAYER
(^Continued).
INVOCATION OR ADDRESS.
{Our Father wlUch art in heaven)
I. Its Relation to the Petitions of
THE Prayer.
I Not only its preface, but its ground-work
and foundation.
[2245] These words are the preface and
proem, and make way to bring in the petitions
themselves ; a "fair frontispiece " set over the
whole work, as Pindar speaks. No art can
reach it, no oratory can equal it. It is not long,
nor doth it grow into a bulk : but three words,
"Our heavenly Father ; '' but these three are all
weighty, and in this narrow compass comprise
a world of matter. For, first, they are fitted
and proportioned to the petitions, and bear a
resemblance to every part, as light doth to the
colour of that glass through which it shines.
Whose name should be more holy to us than
our Fathers .f" Nature and equity consecrate
His name. Who should be my King and reign
within me but He whom I know to be as much
forme as He is above me.'' Whom should I
obey more than my Father.'' Let His will be
done, whose will is my salvation. Whom
should I ask my bread of, of whom should I
ask forgiveness, of whom should I crave
succour when evil assaults me, but of my
Father, who being our Father will, and being in
heaven can, give us whatsoever we want ? So
these words are not only a preface, but also a
groundwork and foundation on which every
petition is built up, and stands firm like Mount
Sion which cannot be moved. — Farindon.
2 A preparative to prayer.
[2246] Our Father which art in heaven. This
is used as a preparative to prayer : and what
greater inducement can there be to dispose us
into an holy awe and reverence of God, than
to set before us the greatness and glory of that
Majesty before whom we prostrate ourselves? —
Bp. Hopkins, 1 633- 1 690.
II. General Import of the Clause
taken as a Whole.
[2247] In this invocation we may observe (i)
that God is the sole object of Divine worship.
vol. I.
(2) That God would have us to address ourselves
to Him, under the notion of a heav(5nly Father.
(3) That in our prayers we are not to content
ourselves with particular regards, but ought to
extend the charity of our prayers to all man-
kind, saving, " Our Father," &;c. — J. Blair,
1723.
[2248] The word "Father" teaches Christians
faith and dependence, the word '• our " unity
and love, the words "which art in heaven"
temper that faith and love with awe and rever-
ence.— Ramsay.
[2249] God is a Father, i. By an eternal
generation, having in an inconceivable and in-
effable way begotten His Son, God co-equal,
co-eternal with Himself (John iii. 16). 2. By
temporal creation, as He gives a being to His
creatures, creating them after His image and
similitude (Heb. xii. 9 ; Job i. 6 ; Luke lii. 38).
3. By spiritual regeneration and adoption, by
which all true believers are said to be born of
God and to be the sons of God (John i. 12, 13 ;
Rom. viii. \']).—Bp. Hopkins, 1633-1690 {con-
densed).
[2250] I. The recognition of a Divine Father-
hood. 2. The expression of an appropriated
Fatherhood. 3. The declaration of a celestial
Fatherhood.—^. F. Mtiir.
[2251] I. The Almighty God is our Father, a
privilege more lofty tnan anything which this
earth can offer.
2. He is not only a Father, but a heavenly
Father, who, because He is so, has made us
inheritors of heaven, not of the possessions of
this changing earth, and of a temporal and ter-
restrial heritage.
3. He is the Father of all, as He is the Maker
and Disposer of all things in heaven as well as
on earth. So that all things necessary to us,
whether spiritual or temporal, shall be given to
us. — Gniltiaiid.
[2252] " Our Father," our Creator, the Author
of our being, who raised us from the dust of the
earth, who breathed into us the breath of life,
and we became living souls. " Our Father,"
our Preserver, who day by day sustains the life
He has given ; of whose continuing love we now
and every moment receive life, and breath, and
all things. Who hath received us for His own
children by adoption and grace ; and, "because
386
2252-
THE LORDS PRAYER.
-2'262]
[invocation or addri
we are sons, hath sent forth the spirit of His
Son into our hearts, crying "Abba, Father."
Therefore, we know that He heareth us always ;
therefore we pray to Him without ceasing.
And we say "our" Father, for He is the
Father of the universe ; of all the families both
in heaven and earth ; therefore with Him there
is no respect of persons.
Further we add, " Which art in heaven," high
and lifted up, God over all, blessed for ever.
The Lord and Ruler of all, superintending and
disposing all things ; Almighty, for whatsoever
He willeth to do is present with Him. — Wesley.
[2253] In other words, He made us, and is
our Father by creation : He preserves us. and is
our Father by His providential care : He has in
His mercy taken us into His family, and is
therefore cur Father by adoption : He has re-
deemed us by His infinite love, and delivered
us from the yoke of our sins and from bondage
to Satan, and is our Father by that act of re-
demption.— Maldonatus and Dion. Car thusianus
(combined).
[2254] Since God is our Father we should
address Him with childlike trust. Since God
is our Father in heaven we should address Him
with holy reverence. Since God is our Fatiier
we should address Him with universal charity
in our hearts. — C. N.
[2255] Thou art my Father, I will leave Thee
to give me what is best.
Thou art our Father, and we all are brethren.
I pray not therefore for myself only, but for all
men, since all are my brethren.
I am a very child, weak, and ignorant, be Thou
a Father, and a guide, and a help to me.
Thou art our Father, I will not fear to go to
Thee, since Thou wilt not cast off Thy child.
Thou art my Father, Thou hast therefore a
right to correct me, and I will bear with patience
that which must needs be for my good.
I have done amiss, but I will go to Thee, my
Father, and will say unto Thee, " Father, 1 have
sinned against heaven and in Thy sight, and
am no more worthy to be called Thy son."
Our Father is in heaven. This earth, there-
fore, is not the inheritance of those whose Father
is in heaven. — Denton.
III. Points of Analogies suggested by
THE Clause taken as a Whole,
BETWEEN OUR HEAVENLY FATHER
AND OUR Earthly Parent.
I God has adopted us independently of our
own will.
[2256] This is a relation prior to action, prior
to volition, prior therefore to merit and demerit
— a fact for all time ; a substantial reality over
•which change and sin can have no power. God
the Creator, God the Redeemer, God the Com-
forter, is "Our Father" whether we will or no. —
Dean Vauirlum.
[2257] It is not presumptuous, in a thankful,
loving, and obedient spirit, to call God our
Father. He has chosen for Himself this name.
— Robinson.
2 The relationship between us and God is
indissoluble.
[2258] " I will be a Father unto you, and ye
shall be My sons and daughters." In other
places it is said, "Ye shall be called My sons,"
but here, " You shall be My sons ;" you shall not
only be called so, but be so. He will really
perform all the parts of a father to us ; yea — no
father like God. The outward father is but a
shadow ; as in all comparisons, outward things
are but the shadow and similitude, the reality
is in inward things. A servant is not always a
servant, there may be a release ; a husband is
not always a husband, there may be a separation
by divorce ; but a father is always a father, and
a child a child. . . . The outward father is but
a shadow and similitude, the reality is in God ;
none so fatherly and kind as He : " If ye, being
evil, know how to give good gifts unto your
children, how much more shall your Father
which is in heaven give good things to them that
ask Him?" There is a how much more upon
the fatherly care of God. — T.Manton, 1629-1677.
3 God's love is parental.
[2259] God is Father ; government is personal.
All the tenderness which now is stored up in the
word "mother" was of old included in the name
" father." The household was governed by law,
and yet it was small enough to enable the father
to make himself the exponent of love and law.
In the household, strength and weakness are
bound together by the mysterious tie of love.
. . . " Our Father " is itself a whole theology. —
Beecher.
[2260] God is more a Father than our natural
parents are. They concur to our being but
instrumentally, God originally (Psa. cxxxix. 14 ;
Mai. ii. 10). — T. Manton, 1629-1677.
[2261] It is the glory of princes to have titles
to express their greatness, but it is Thy glory, O
G(xl, to have a title to express Thy love, and
therefore Thou hast given Thyself a name, re-
specting more the subject than the prince ; and,
lest it should be too big for us, Thou hast made
it too little for Thyself.
4 God's actions to us are those of a Parent.
[2262] How will God perform the part of a
Father, (i) In allowing us full leave to come to
Him in all our necessities, Gal. iv. 6. (2) In
supplying all our wants, Matt. vi. 26. (3) In
pitying our miseries, Psa. ciii. 13 ; Mai. iii. 17.
(4)' In disciplining and treating us with much
indulgence and wisdom and care, Heb. xii. 10.
(5) In providing able guardians for us, Heb. i.
14. (6) In laying up an inheritance for us, Luke
yii. 32. — 7\ Slanton, 1629-1677 {condensed).
THE LORDS PRAYER.
2263 — 2271J
387
[invocation ok address.
[2263] As a Father God (i) teaches us, Isa.
liv. 13. (2) Corrects us, Heb. xii. 9. (3) Pities
us, Psa. ciii. 13. (4) Protects us against temp-
tation, danger, &c. (5) Provides for us ; tem-
porally, Matt. vi. 25-31. Spiritually, Eph. i. 3.
Eternally, i Pet. i, 3. — Horlock (of Box).
IV. Import of the Word "Father."
1 The word "Father" implies a Personal
Deity and a special Providence. j
[2264] Father ! The word Father implies
personality. He is therefore a personal God
whom man is to worship. It is not a principle,
but a Person we are to invoke ; not nature, but
God, " our Father." All worship which loses
itself in vague generalities addressed to some
great abstraction, or trust in such a thing as
men call nature, is at once condemned by the
cpening words of this pattern prayer. " After
this manner, therefore, pray ye," to a living,
ever-present Person ; Himself moving amid
and regulating all His works, not estranging
Himself from His creation, and leaving it to
the unintelligent control of destiny or law, but
a Father ever working through all. — Loraiiie.
[2265] It is not the almighty Artizan con-
structing a marvellous piece of mechanism. It
is not the all-wise Artist touching into beauty
the temple that is built. It is not the irrespon-
sible Tyrant whom trembling slaves obey. It is
the Father. It is not the "unknown," the
"unthinkable" ; He is the Father. True, you
cannot see Him through microscope or tele-
scope. If it were a picture or a poem, a moun-
tain or a molecule, a nettle or a nerve centre,
material instruments might aid you. But the
affairs of the Spirit have to be seen by Spirit.
The vision of the soul goes farther than the
stars and sees the Father.-— i*?. Mitchell {con-
detised).
[2266] It is a grand thing to be told that the
title which God assumes is the first which we
are taught to lisp in infancy — with which, in the
davvning-tide of the understanding, we connect
an overshadowing love which covers our weak-
ness and toils for our support ; whose grave
labours are suspended to look on our weakness,
and whose careworn countenance is lit up with
our first laughter. — B. Kent.
2 The word " Father " rightly believed in
inspires conscious joy, and is an ever-
lasting spring of hope.
[2267] He is never alone. Nothing to him
appears empty or desolate. The solitary cham-
ber, the savage desert, for him is rilled with a
Being whom he loves and adores. He throws
open his window to the night-sky, and, while all
is still and slumbering below, above him, farther
than eye can reach or thought ascend, kindles
the outspread glory of the Father. He rejoices
to come with filial trust in all perplexities, and
shelter himself under this brooding Paternity. I
He feels the heart of infinite Love beating close to
his heart, and throbbing through all the pulses
of the universe. — Chapin.
3 The word "Father" realized affords both
a spiritual anchorage-ground and an
homestead.
[2268] This, instead of being less true than
earthly relationship, is the one relationship,
which, when a man enters into, he ceases
to be homeless and a wanderer, a fugitive
and vagabond upon the face of the earth,
and from the face of God — ceases to be a
mere withered leaf borne helpless on the wind,
whose origin none cares to trace, and whose
destiny none turns to see ; he has found his
place in the universe, he has found a hold and
a hope, and however in himself unstable, weak,
and incapable, he rests enduringly in the un-
changeable Father. He has been outside,
thinking the world a strange, cold, barren,
friendless, and unsatisfying place ; he has wan-
dered about, not seeing " through the thick
cloud," and still less dreaming that One was
seeing and caring for him, and now he finds he
has a Father, One to love. One to serve, One to
glorify, One to worship. — Dods.
V. Interpretation of the Word " Fa-
ther."
I He is our Father by the act of creation.
(i) As Jtnderstood by the heatJien.
[2269] The heathen application of the name
Father to God was only a dim recognition of
man's springing from some supreme Source,
some unknown Creator. A few nobler spirits
half deciphered from creation and human
affairs, and half guessed, that unknown Source
of life to be good, and hence, in some unknown
way, Father peculiarly of the good. — Lo7-ame.
(2) As revealed in the Scriptures.
[2270] In the Scriptures of the Jewish economy
the word " Father" occurs a few times in its ap-
plication to God. To the Israelite this word
brought a somewhat deeper and richer truth
than' to the heathen. To the former the story
of creation was no guess ; nor was the Divine
Being entirely a mystery. The Israelite wor-
shipped a revealed God. He knew— his nation's
matchless history told him with many tongues —
that God specially provides for the wants, and
interposes tor the protection of His children ;
and, therefore, the Jew could say," Have we not
all one Father.? hath not one God created us?"
(Mai. ii. \o.)—lbid.
[2271] QodiX'i oitr Father,\xv respect of— Our
creation. He made us. Thus He pleads with
us, " Is not He thy Father that hath bought
thee ? Hath He not made thee, and established
thee? Have we not all one Father? hath not
God created us ? " (Deut. xxxii. 6 ; Mai. ii. 10.)
— Denton.
388
22/2-
THE LORDS PRAYER.
2281]
[invocation or address.
2 He is our Father by the blessing of pre-
servation.
[2272] This blessing of preservation makes
God our P'ather in a nearer relation than that
of creation ; the one is a singleact of that power
we should admire ; the other is a repeated act
of that mercy we should love ; the one gives us
only life ; the other, all the comforts and con-
veniences of it.— 7". Mangey, 1684-1755.
3 He is our Father by the work of redemp-
tion,
[2273] What, then, shall only those who have
been thus renewed and adopted into the Divine
family use the blessed and encouraging words
"Our Father?" Surely not. They only c>an
use it in its fullest meaning ; but this is man's
prayer everywhere and in every condition. All
men are not regenerate, but all men are re-
deemed. By the freedom of their redemption
let them say, " Our Fat/ier."
In ancient Judaism, the bond- servants were
not allowed to apply the term "father" to their
master, but the free-servants were allowed this
privilege ; and their use of the word was under-
stood as indicating their desire to obtain adop-
tion into the family. The purchased price of
freedom is paid.- — Lof-aine.
4 He is our Father by the blessing of
adoption.
[2274] The Father of our Lord Jesus and
of us ; but not in the same way as of us. In
His Divine nature, Jesus is the eternal Son. In
that human nature of our Lord, " born of a
woman," by a manner inconceivable to us, He
is the only-begotten of God. But man's son-
ship is only that of sinning but redeemed, and,
in his best estate, regenerate and adopted,
humanity. St. Augustine truly says, " Christ
never so unites us as to make no distinction
between us and Himself." Therefore, we find
Christ praying for His disciples and teaching
them to prav, but never praying wit/i them. —
Uuf.
[2275] More especially there is a particular
sort of men to whom God is a Father in Christ,
and that is to believers (John i. 12). Those
which in tlieir natural state and condition were
children of wrath, and slaves to sin and Satan,
when they come, and are willing to welcome and
receive Christ into their hearts, in a sense of
their misery, are willing to make out after God
and Christ ; they have an allowance to call God
Father, and may have child-like communion
with Him, and run to Him in all straits, and lay
open their necessities to Him. — 7'. Mantoti,
1 629- 1 677.
5 He is our "Father" by sanctification.
[2276] In calling Himself our I-'ather, God
recalls to our mind the benefits of our creation,
our preservation, and redemption, the blessing
of adoption, and of that sanctification which He
has given to His children. — Denton.
\;i2-j'i'\ Thus in the Divine Fatherhood is ex-
hibited the work of the blessed Trinity —
1. That of the Father, in creation, providence,
and adoption.
2. That of the Eternal Son in redemption.
3. That of the Holy Spirit in sanctification. —
K.D.
VI. Christological Aspect of
Word " Father."
THE
[227S] The Christian, at the outset, invokes
God as Father, in the true filial spirit. " God
hath sent forth the spirit of His Son into our
hearts, crying, Abba, Father." Hitherto it had
not been so: Abraham knew God as "Al-
mighty ; " Moses as "Jehovah," or as a " Mer-
cifuland gracious God ; " David and the Psalmists,
as " The Lord is my Shepherd," or as " The
Shepherd of Israel." And each invoked God
as he knew Him. But it was not until the Son
of God came that men knev/ God, and invoked
Him as a Father. Nor could men have this
knowledge before, or by any other means. Only
the Son can reveal the Father. No one else
knows Him.- — Procter.
[2279] We need an objective representation,
a personal expression of God. We need some
name that shall signify the complete qualities of
His nature — that shall combine our sublimest,
devoutest, and tenderest ideas of Him. We
want an image of the Deity that this finite in-
tellect can steadily see, that this wandering
will and insufficient conscience can intelligejitly
represent and obey, that this yearning and agi-
tated heart can rest upon and love ; and we
want one epithet which will express all these
characteristics at the same time — which shall
tell their essential unity, and speak their highest
meaning. My friends, that Image has been
given us in Jesus Christ. That epithet He has
taught us in that word expressive at once of the
giving of life, the claims of authority, and the
quality of goodness — that name of cause, and
veneration, and love— the name of Father. —
Chapin.
[22S0] Learn from Christ what sonship means,
what election means, what liberty means.
Sonship means humility. Election means
separateness or holiness unto God. Liberty
means service. — A. Saphir.
VII. The Condition on our side neces-
sary FOR THE Realization of the
Word " Father " in its Full
Meaning.
[2281] Faith in the sonship of man to God in
Christ is the realization of the truth of God's
Fatherhood. Faith is indeed the blending of
the spirit of man with tiie spirit of God — the
enclasping of the Parent by the offspring, of
the offspring by the Parent. Indeed, faith is
the operation of the Divine affinities between
the spirit of man and tfte spirit of God. Unfaith
THE LORD S PRA YER.
-2290J
389
[invocation or address.
is the untruthful denial of those affinities. Man
is what he is, whether he believes it or not : he
only realizes his true relation to (jod by belief
in Christ. Unfaith so far unfilializes as to turn
the truth of God into a lie. Denial of man's
sonship is the denial of Christ, who Himself
became a member of the race of which He is
the Root and Redeemer. " Because the children
were partakers of flesh and blood, He also Him-
self likewise took part of the same." Christ is
the Universal Brother. The sonship of Christ
to God, and therefore of humanity in Christ to
God, is the rock upon which the Church is
built. The foundation is laid, and faith only
can build upon it. No man truly believes in
God and His Christ until he believes that he
himself is a cliild of God. " Because ye are
sons, God hath sent forth the Spirit of His Son
into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father." — W. N.
Percival.
VIII. Lessons taught by the Word
" Father."
1 The duty of holy desire and filial trust.
[2282] (i) He would have us ever listen to
Him with filial love, and not with servile fear.
(2) The very name Father should inspire us
with love, and He would have us speak to Him
out of a heart full of love, for the name itself
creates and increases our love.
(3) He would give us confidence in His will-
ingness to bestow upon us all that we can ask
or rightly desire. — Denton.
[2283] These views of the Great Being, "Who
is over all, God blessed for evermore," are being
displaced by such as harmonize more completely
with the wants of the heart. He is not a God
of merely terrible and wondrous might, of in-
conceivable and unattainable holiness, before
whom we must bend in abject silent fear as
slaves before their master, but One who loves
us all as our Father ; concerning whom an
ancient psalmist sang, " Like as a father pitieth
his children, so the Lord pitieth them that fear
Him." We do not turn our eyes upwards to
heaven as though we beheld One whose very
aspect causes us to tremble with alarm, but as
if expecting to catch a glimpse of a gracious
Friend, who places at our service a wealth of
loving and tender help for every time of need.
We do not worship a Being who must be ap-
proached with awe and dread, for fear He
should crush us, and take away our remem-
brance for ever, JDut a beneficent Father, whose
heart beats with a yearning tenderness of love
for us all.
[2284] This revelation of "The Father" has
swept away all the barriers of distance, it has
streamed into our souls through all the glories
of the universe, it has touched us with the
intimate nearness, the infinite condescension of
God, and gathered into that one name all that
is venerable with all that is lovely. Let us
habitually avail ourselves, then, of the privilege
made known to us. In every experience of life,
let us bring to His footstool hearts of reverence
and of penitence, of holy desire and of filial
trust. — Cliapin.
2 That we should imitate Him as our Father.
[2285] We are to listen to conscience, which
tells us that a likeness of character is expected
between father and child. This likeness is
found in all who call God Father in truth.
Such an assimilation Christ supposes, saying,
in this same Sermon on the Mount, '' Love
your enemies, do good to them that hate you,
that ye may be the children of your Father
which is in heaven." — Dods.
[2286] Ouesnel says justly, " Dieu est plus
imitable par ses enfans dans les perfections
ou il paroit Pere, que dans ceux ou il paroit
Dieu."
[2287] When once there has settled itself in
the soul the thought, " God is my Father," it
seems natural that we should be on His side —
natural that we should take interest in His will,
His work, and His glory. — Dean Vaughan.
IX. Import of the Word "Our."'
I The word "our" implies the universal
brotherhood of mankind.
[2288] Secondly, " Our," is the first word in
the English version of the paternoster. Who
but the Giver of the prayer has uttered that
word " our" in the entireness of its significancy?
He who knew there was something to honour
in all men, and has therefore commanded us to
"honour all men," comprehended all who ever
needed daily " bread " and daily " forgiveness "
in the petitions that compose the prayer of
the Lord, which is the true universal prayer.
Chronology and geography do not affect the
relationship of man to God which Christ came
upon earth to expound, to sustain, to realize.
Not more certainly does the vital atmosphere
enwrap the earth, than Christ's redemption en-
wraps the race of man. — W. N. Percival.
[2289] The key to the theology which is win-
ning its way, and which will rule in the Church
of the future, is the Father's authority and
government of a household— that household of
God being, not an elect company, but the wide
human world. The problem of the future is
the reconciliation of all the dark and difficult
passages of the Divine government, as we gather
our knowledge of it from the Scriptures on the
one hand, and from the history of this sad
world on the other, with the fatherly heart and
the fatherly reign of God. — Baidiaitt Brown.
[2290] If God be not the Father of every
child of man, there is no gospel to be preached
to every creature. The missionary has no glad
tidin<rs to take to heathen lands. The sense of
390
2290-
THE LORDS PRAYER.
•2299]
[invocation or address.
wrong, the experience of grief, the dread of
death, the honour of a devil-god, can never be
removed from the darkened mind of heathendom
until the truth, as it is in Jesus, that "there is
one God the Father of all," is proclaimed, and
all human lips are taught to pr.iy in spirit and
in truth, "Our Father which art in heaven,"
"Forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive them
tliat trespass against us." There is nothing for
the believer to believe if God be not the Father
of humanity. There is no warrant for God
being my Father, if He be not the Father of
the race of which I am a member. I can re-
pose in no exception made in favour of myself.
Whoever makes an exception in my favour, or
in his own favour, or in favour of any upon
whom he may fix as the elect, is making his
notions and interpretations of Scripture the
measure of God's love, and Christ's i-edemption,
and the Holy Spirit's operation.
[2291] There are many and great circles in
that word " our." The child's soul, as he folds
his little hands in the midst of brothers and
sisters, runs round our circle. The two or three
met in the name of Christ send their thoughts
round another. The larger congregation, touched
with a sense of wider kinship, make the word
enclose a larger space. The annual congress,
with currents of grateful feeling flowing into, or
out of, or around the represent^ative gathering,
speaks to us of a larger circle still. Different
nationalities, finding a voice in connection with
some religious alliance, carry us outward more
and more. And yet the circles widen. Any
man stepping out as representing the race may
gather up all human relations, possibilities, and
wants, and say, Our Father. — T. Mitcliell.
[2292] It is " a common prayer to the common
Father of all mankind.'' He who says and
means " Our P'ather," acknowledges his brother-
hood with the whole human race, but feels that
he is especially allied with those who, like
himself, are God's adopted and regenerate
children. — Robinson.
[2293] For He does not say, " My " Father
which is in heaven, but " our " Father, offering
supplications for the common body {tov koivov
(To'ijuarof). — Chrysostoin.
[2294] God revealed in Christ is not the
Father of the Jew only, but of the Gentile also.
The Father of a "whole family" (Eph. iii. 14).
Not the partial Father, loving one alone, the
elder, but the younger son besides ; the outcast
prodigal, who had spent all his living with
harlots and sinners, but the child still, and the
child of a father's love. This our Lord taught
us in His own blessed Prayer, Oiir Father ;
and we lose the meaning of that single word
oitr^ as we say my Father ; the Father of
7ne and of 7ny faction, of vie and my fellow-
believers ; instead of our Father, the Father of
the outcast, the profligate, of all who choose to
claim a Father's love. — Robertson.
[2295] It is in the universal that the individual
finds its standing-place and its starting-point.
Any limitation is fatal to the trust. Any con-
dition, introduced at that point, bars the entrance.
Yet the force and the fire of the universal lies
in the personal. The logic is perfect— If of all,
then of me — draw the inference ! " Loved us "
— then '• loved me." And from the individual
we go back strongly and irrefragably to the uni-
versal. If " Our Father," then " My Father" —
if mine, then ours.
We press this thought again and again,
because we feel that in it lies, not only the
one hope, but the one possibility, of fallen
humanity.
In this one word lies revelation — lies the
gospel. Jesus Christ stands upon the earth,
and declares God a Father.— Z?^a« Vaughan.
2 The word "our" is a confession of the
special brotherhood of believers.
[2296] Alone on the vast ocean, the sole
survivor of the wreck ; cast away on the desert
island, apparently " out of humanity's reach,"
the words "our Father" bring our souls into
communion with the great body of the faithful,
and God, the Father of us all. — E. B.
[2297] For He who calls God Father, by that
single v.'ord confesses at once the forgiveness of
sins, the adoption into the family of God, the in-
heritance of the kingdom of heaven, the brother-
hood which he has with the Only-Begotten, and
the gifts of the Holy Spirit. — Cyprian.
3 The word " our " links us with the
departed saints.
[2298] The noblest motive is offered, the
furtherance of God's glory and the advance-
ment of that kingdom, to found which anew,
and thereby restore the true sovereignty of God,
was the purpose of the coming of the Son of
God to earth ; the surest ground of confidence
that our prayer will be granted, our endeavours
made successful, is laid in the absolute power
of Him whom we address, alike over the world
of inanimate and irrational being, and over the
free, and, in that freedom, rebellious heart of
man. The whole race of mankind, in their
various degrees of nearness and interest to our-
selves, are brought into our thoughts, that their
needs as well as our own may be presented
before the throne of the Most High ; the whole
company of heaven is imaged before us, to
be an example and incitement for ourselves ;
the one true personal God is set before us to be
addressed in prayer, in the most loving aspect
in which He can be portrayed, as our Father,
and yet in all His sublime and awful majesty as
dwelling in the glories of heaven. — Karslake.
[2299] Death does not divorce : the first letter
of the Lord's Prayer is like a marriage-ring :
husband and wife, one of them deceased, join
hands still, saying Jogethcr, " Our Father."
Pleasantly conscious that we are on our journey
THE LORD S PR A YER.
2299 — 23 11]
[invocation or address.
home, we pray and sing with saints and angels,
" Our Father which art in heaven." — Robinson.
[2300] As it is not merely in the character of
a member of the human race, so it is not simply
in that of a member of the Church on earth,
that the Christian says, " Our Father." He
knows that the words he uses are, so far, still
on the lips of brethren who have gained the
skies. The apostle speaks of " the whole family
in heaven and earth."
" One family we dwell in Him,
One church above, beneath.
Though now divided by the stream,
The narrow stream, of death."
— Robinson.
X. Lessons suggested by the Word
" Our."
1 That our prayers shall not be selfish.
[2301] The very object of prayer is to prac-
tise suicide of self. You will find that your very
sufferings have shrunk to small dimensions ;
you will have seen how light they are in com-
parison with the cries and groans of a creation ;
you will have seen how absolutely trifling they
are when weighed against the Name, and the
Kingdom, and the Will ; you will have seen,
too, how safely they can be trusted in His
hands. — Dean Vaiti^han.
[2302] Do you not see how by the very first
word of this Divine formulary all selfishness is
banished ? how the thought of others is intro-
duced— the thought of our brethren, represented
by us at the throne of grace .'' — 7"/w;//ay Hugo.
[2303] The religion of Christ is individual in
its requirements, but general in its applications.
It demands the solitary discipline and the social
work, and even in our most secret devotions we
must not indulge the limitations of selfishness,
but remember all with whom God has linked us,
and for whom we should labour ; remember all,
kindred, friends, enemies, the world. — CJiapin.
2 That we should love as brethren.
[2304] As the word "Father" reminds you of
your duty towards God, so the word " our " may
remind you of your duty towards your neigh-
bour. The word " Father " may teach you faith,
and the word "our" charity. — Ramsay.
[2305] My Father, and not Our Father? But
is it not, that prayer, and especially this prayer,
is not a common, or rather is not a private
speech ; but must be said, as well in charity as
in faith : and charity can abide no singular
numbers ; it is against her nature to be without
company ; and company she will find to join
with her in praying, though she say her prayers
by herself alone? — Sir Richard Baker, 1568-
1645.
[2306] This word "our" strikes at all those
barriers, reared by pride or prejudice, that
estrange man from his brother-man. Not those
that distinguish station, but those that destroy
sympathy ; not those that strengthen and stab-
Msh convictions, but those that generate and
foster intolerance. This word "our" carries in it
the sublime purpose of the gospel, towering as
it does above the petty schemes of all religious
impostures, which have ever sought only a tribe
or nation — it demands the homage of a world.
It goes forth to do in the moral world what
science endeavours to do in the physical world
— to unite the islands of the sea and the con-
tinents of the earth in one electric bond of
fellowship.— Loraine.
[2307] Our Father should teach us (i) to
esteem one another as brethren ; (2) to be con-
tented with our present state and condition, for
God is a Father to us equally with the greatest ;
(3) to interest one another in our prayers ; (4)
our high privilege, inasmuch as we have a stock
of prayers going to heaven for us from our
fellow saints throughout the world. — Bishop
Hopkins {condensed), 1633- 1690.
[2308] We are all fraternally related. Hu-
manity Is one great brotherhood, and the senti-
ment of brotherhood should animate and rule
all. It should be stronger than nationality,
stronger than patriotism, stronger than eccle-
siastical affinities, stronger than commercial
competitions. Love for the common Father
should unite all hearts together in carrying out
His paternal purposes and pleasing His paternal
heart. — Chapin.
[2309] In the word "our" two golden threads
begin together, which continue interwoven
throughout the Lord's Prayer. Expressing a
filial spirit to God, the language breathes a
fraternal love to man. It agrees with the
maxim of the Jews that, whether alone or not,
a worshipper should speak in the plural, not
saving, " My Father," but, " Our Father."
Much more is implied in the use of the plural
than that the Lord's Prayer is adapted to public
worship. It is as appropriate in the closet as
at the domestic altar, or in the crowded church.
The Christian repeats it with a feeling of mem-
bership in God's universal {2im\\y.— Robinson.
3 That v/e should pray for one another.
[2310] If you pray only for yourself, you will
be the only person who will pray for you. But
because each individual prays for all— all pray
for each individual. — Ambrose.
[231 1] Some of us are burdened with many
wants and many sorrows which are not our own ;
and we find it difficult to pray them. We find
self busy even in our prayers— and when self is
satisfied, prayer ends. We imagine some sepa-
rate chapter of intercession — and we never
reach it. But Christ says, Bear others upon
your heart all through— pray for yourself and
392
231
THE LORDS PRAYER.
-2322]
[invocation or address.
them in one — say, " Our Father," and prayer is
intercession at once. — Vaicghaii.
4 That we allow no rivals to usurp His
place.
[2312] The term "our" protesteth that we will
have no other Elohim but Him : none other
patrons for our life and soul but Him, who is
our Creator : by Him we came into the world,
to His providence only we commit our state :
His angels pitch their tents about us, when He
commandeth.— //z^_g/z Broughton.
XI. Import of the Words "Which Art."
I They teach personality and eternity of
God.
[2313] To no other alleged divinity could we
say with truth, " Our Father which art." Other
gods are not. Our Father is. He lived in the
past, will live in the future, lives now. He is
the Ever-living. He calls Himself " I am." " I
am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the
ending, saith the Lord, 'which is, and which
was, and which is to come, the Almighty." We
have to say, with deep conviction and feeling,
•' Our Father which art." We realize Thy awful
presence. Thou art a Person. Thine eye sees ;
Thine ear hears ; Thy heart beats ; Thy hand
moves ; Thou art. — A'obinsoji.
[2314] Here even those words which seem of
least importance have a weight of their own ;
for when we say of God " Thou who art," the
word in its original form directly involves the
personality of God ; it speaks of Him as a real
personal Being, no mere abstraction, no power
at work throughout all the realm of nature ;
while further, it suggests, though it does not by
any means involve, what is the nature of that
mighty Being, namely, that He can be described
only by the words, " I am that I am ;" i.e., as
the one self-existent Being, existing in the depths
of eternity past, to e.\ist in the depths of eternity
to comt.—k'arslake.
XII, Tnr: Import of the Words "In
Heaven."
I They refer to the Divine immensity.
[2315] God is in heaven, which comprehends
earth and underlies all that is visible. The
Eternal is indeed above all time and beyond all
space. In the heaven of devout tiiought and
pure feeling does God dwell as well as in the
heaven of eternity and intinity. Philosophy
places God at a cold and terrible distance,
idolatry lowers Him to the earthly and sensual
and even to the devilish : but God's unveiling
of Himself shows Plim to be the illimitable
presence and personality pervading existence. —
W. N. Percival.
[2316] For heaven is here wherever that here
may be. The hell of wickedness is the presence
of an antagonized heaven. The consuming fire
will cause a man to cry out, " If I make my bed
in hell Thou art there." — Ibid.
[2317] But the word in the original here is in
the plural form [tv roic, ovpca'olc),"' in tne heavens."
In the tenth verse it is said, " Thy will be done
on earth as it is in heaven," where the word is
singular, and doubtless alludes to that " heaven
of heavens," of which we have spoken, where
worshipping hosts delight to do His will ; but
here the words, " in the heavens," suggest at
least what Holy Scripture elsewhere affirms,
" Behold, the heaven and the heaven of heavens
cannot contain ,PIim ;" He filieth immensity,
inhabiting all the heavens of space, making the
pavilions of the universe the temple of His
glorious presence. — Loraine.
XIII. Lesson taught by the Words
" In Heaven."
I Heavenly-mindedness.
[2318] "Which art in heaven" tells us where
our hopes and our hearts must be fixed, whither
our desires and our prayers must tend. .Sursum
corda : where our treasure is, there must our
hearts be also. — Jeremy Taylor.
XIV. The Reasons for the Addition
OF the Words " Which art in
Heaven " to those of " Our
Father."
I To distinguish the idea of our heavenly
Father from that of our earthly parents.
[2319] "In heaven" is added to distingviish
God from our earthly parents, who, though they
may have natural parental atTection, have it so
mixed with infirmities, and are so limited in
their abilities, that sometimes they will not, and
often cannot, relieve the wants of their children,
which our heavenly Father is always both able
and willing to do. — J: Blair, 1723.
[2320] The first words of this prayer inspire
confidence, the second awaken awe. Not our
Creator, Lord, King, or Judge — but Father:
yet not for a moment are wc to approach Him
or think of Him as an earthly parent, with err-
ing judgment and changeful wdl ; but as "the
Father of lights, with whom is no variableness,
neither shadow of turning." Thus the thoughts
are raised to a higher sphere of life, in confident,
yet lofty adoration. — Loraine.
[2321] The thought that our Father is in the
heavens restrains us from such light familiarity
as that with which children commonly approach
their parents, and fills us with adoring awe.
" Be not rash with thy mouth, and let not thine
heart be hasty to utter anything before God :
for God is in heaven, and thou upon earth ;
therefore let thy words be few." — Robinson.
[2322] There is but one God, therefore but
one Father, who is in hca\en ; and therefore
but one object of worship. In worship, tiust,
respect, obedience, we can recognize no " di-
vided duty," as in the case of our human parents.
—E. B.
THE LORDS PRAYER.
2323— 2334I
393
[invocation or address.
2 To inspire reverence.
[2323] We are bidden to add, " Which art in
heaven,'' lest that love degenerate into anything
Hke familiarity or irreverence, that trust into
presinnption. — Karslakc.
[2324] Whilst we say, " Our Father," we are
prevented from allowing the familiar to encroach
on the reverential feeling by the solemn addi-
tion, "which art in heaven." — Tliomas Hugo.
[2325] For as considering God in heaven, we
have just cause to be astonished with admira-
tion at the greatness of His majesty ; so, con-
sidering Him our Father, we have jnster cause
to admire Him with astonishment for the great-
ness of His love ; and so, while familiarity,
where it findeth effects of defect, breeds cause
of contempt, here, where it finds cause of admi-
ration, it breeds effects of respect. — Sir Richard
Baker, 1 568-1645.
[2326] The love of a Father may fill us with
confidence, but the majesty of God must strike
us with fear. I dare speak to God, because He
is my Father ; but I speak in trembling, because
He is in heaven. If we do not thus begin, we
lose our petitions before we utter them ; as the
mariner which unskilfully thrusts forth his ship
from shore, shipwrecks in the very haven. —
Farindon.
[2327] God is described by two of His most
eminent attributes, His grace and glory, His
goodness and His greati>ess ; by the one, in
that He is styled our Father; by the other, in
that He is said to be in heaven ; and both these
are most sweetly tempered together to beget in
us a holy mixture of filial boldness and awful
reverence, which are so necessary to the sanc-
tifying of God's name in all our addresses to
Him. We are commanded to come to the
throne of grace with boldness (Heb. iv. 16), and
yet to serve God acceptably with reverence and
with fear (Heb. xii. 28). Now, this excellent
mi\ture of awful and encouraging attributes
will keep us from both the extremes, of despair
on the one hand, and of presumption on the
other. — Bp. Hopkins, 1 633- 1690.
3 To give us confidence in His power.
[2328] And this name, by suggesting God's
love and care, should give us confidence in our
prayers. (See Matt. vii. 7-1 1.; — Catechisfi
Manual.
[2329] The name itself of Father prayeth for
us. — Maldonattcs.
[2330] This is our comfort, that v/hile we are
involved in this world we can appeal to One
who is above it, and uncontrolled by it. Or
this might be our comfort, did we not bring God
also down to earth, and either lose sight of Him
amid its confusion, or bind Flim helpless with
His own laws. Our prayer will not proceed in
faith until we raise God high above us and all
that we know, to the very supreme of power.
When the utmost skill and strength of the child
have failed, he runs to his father, never doubting
that with him is more skill and sufficient
strength. And we must learn to cease from
measuring the power of God by our own, and
reasoning from the one to the other. We must
learn to set God above His own laws ; not that
He will reverse them, but use them as we know
not how. We are not to think that, where we
see no possibility, God sees none ; that, when
all human skill has been fruitlessly spent, there
is no more that God can do ; that when every-
thing goes wrong with us, and we are ready to
sit down and wait for ruin, there is no help for
us in God. Too often we pray to a God whom
we do not set in the heavens ; to whom we do
not in fact ascribe as much wisdom and power
as we do to men, whose help we do not as fully
trust in as we should in the combiuL^d help of
some on earth we know of ; whom we scarcely
trust in much more than in ourselves, else we
should not be found despairing when we see no
remedy for our ills, and when our own strength
is exhausted. — Dads.
4 To remind us of His inaccessibility and so
bring us to Christ.
[2331] What is God like? We cannot tell.
The imagination of man only combines the
materials of his past experience into new forms.
But " who has seen God at any time ?" Where
is heaven .'' We say " above ; " while the earth
moves through space, and, as we raise our hand,
the place, to which we would have pointed, has
already changed. Alas ! v/ho will show us
God.'' Who will guide us to heaven.'' Why,
who but God— incarnate ! The man Jesus and
the God Christ. Who being God took man's
nature upon Him. Through whom alone we
have access to the Father in heaven. — E. B.
5 To give us hope of immortality.
[2332] God has fixed His dwelling-place in
heaven : (i) Because mortal men cannot endure
His glorious presence (Deut. V. 23). (2) To try
our faith and obedience (Heb. xi. i). (3)
That there should be a better place into which
the saints should be translated when their course
is run. — T. Manion, 1629-1677.
[2333] All good sons suffer from "home-sick-
ness " when they are in trouble, sorrow, or want
III foreign lands, and even when they are well
and happy. But where our Father lives, there
is our home, and there we long to be, and hope
for welcome. — E. B.
6 To make us realize the dignity of our
sonship.
[2334] It is a great honour to be the son of a
prince ; and the greater the prince is, the
greater the honour to be his son. Oh, then, my
soul, what honour is it to thee to be the son of Him
who is the Prince of prmces, whose kingdom is
everlasting, and power infinite ?
THE LORDS PRAYER.
-2341]
'iWncATION OK ADDRESS.
XV. Objections met respecting the
ALLEGED ABSENCE OF CHRISTOLOGY
FROM THIS Clause.
[2335] Some strangely contend that the Lord's
Prayer is not for the use of Christians, inas-
much, say they, as it is not oftered in the
Saviour's name, and does not plead His merit.
We maintain tiiat it is oftered in the name, and
does plead the merit, of the only Advocate and
Mediator. True, it does not conclude with the
usual words, "through Jesus Christ ;" but are
not those words spoken by it in all its parts and
as a whole .'' As the plea may be implied and
intended in every request, it cannot be said to
be impossible before God, who knows the heart,
to found prayer on Christ's merit and mediation
without literally repeating the prevailing name.
— Robinson.
[2336J " In calling God our Father," writes
Calvin, " we certainly plead the name of Christ.
For with what conhdence could any man call
God his Father ? Who would have the pre-
sumption to arrogate to himself the honour of a
son of God were we not gratuitously adopted as
His sons in Christ? He, being the true Son,
has been given to us as a Brother, so that that
which He possesses as His own by nature be-
comes ours by adoption, if we embrace this
great mercy with firm faith. As St. Jolm says
(i. 12), ' As many as received Him, to them gave
He power to become the sons of God, even to
them that believe in His name.'"
[2337] Not to find Christ in the Lord's Prayer
is to enter the sanctuary without the kindled
lamp. The light of the gospel shows it to be
His temple. The Lamb Himself is the light
thereof. It is bright with His presence, as the
firmament with the shining of the sun. He leads
our devotions in it. opening His lips to open
ours, saying for and with us, "Our Father."—
Robinson.
[2338] There He hath more especially estab-
lished His throne of grace, and there sits upon
it. Though He hears our prayers wheresoever
they are uttered, yet He nowhere hears them
with acceptance but in heaven, where they are
presented before Him through the intercession
of Christ.— ij^/^. Hopkins^ 1633-1690.
[2339] And where, in all this prayer (in which
we ask all things) do we ask anything in Christ's
name, but only in these words, by saying, " Our
Father ? " for if we come with saying My Father,
we leave Christ clean out, and come not at all
in His name, and so have neither warrant to
call God Fatlici\ nor promise to receive His
blessing ; but when we say *' Our Father," as we
challenge the adoption, so we acknowledge the
Author, and in these two only words we ex-
press the three great virtues. Faith, Hope, and
Charity, in the word " Father," our Hope ; in the
word our, our charity ; and in the words " Our
Father," our faith in Christ, in whom He is our
Father.— iV/- Richard Baker, 1568-1645.
[2340] It is impossible to oflfer it up, unless it
be in the name of Christ ; for we have no right
or title to call God " our Father." unless it be
through the merits and mediation of Jesus
Christ, who hath made us heirs of God, and
joint-heirs with Himself. — Wheatley.
[2341] When from the absence of the Spirit
of Adoption you cannot say " Our Father'' : (i)
Disclaim other confidences. If thou canst not
say Father, plead fatherless (Hos. xiv. 3). (2)
Own God in a mumbling way (Luke xv. 19).
(3) Call Him Father in wish.— Optando, si non
affirnian-do. (4) Come to Him as the God and
Father of our Lord Jesus Christ (Eph. iii. 14),
and whatsoever you ask in His name shall be
given you.— r. Manton, 1629-1677.
THE LORD'S PRAYER.
FIRST PETITION.
Pages 396 to 403.
REASONS WHY THIS PETITION STANDS FIRST.
2
IMPORT OF THE EXPRESSION "THY NAME."
3
MEANING OF THE WORD "HALLOWED."
4
WAYS IN WHICH GOD'S NAME IS HALLOWED BY
HIMSELF.
5
WAYS IN WHICH GOD'S NAME MAY BE, AND OUGHT
TO BE, HALLOWED BY MEN.
395
396
THE LORD'S PRAYER
(^Continued).
FIRST PETITION.
{Hallowed be thy Name)
I. Reasons why this Petition stands
First.
I Structural reasons.
(i) Because it has an essential connection with
the invocation.
[2342] The connection between this and the
preceding clause is not accidental, but essential.
In the natural order of things we cannot pray
" Hallowed be 7"hy name " until we know what
that name is ; and, when we do know it, we
cannot refrain from this as the next and imme-
diate expression. It is the outbursting ilame of
a kindled heart. It is the spontaneous utter-
ance of a soul rapt with the excellence of God,
and postponing its personal requests in a
general desire. — Chapin.
[2343] The name of God here has respect to
the benignant appellation the Saviour bids us
employ when we call upon Him : and that we
are, therefore, to pray, that He may be uni-
versally knowp and beloved as the almighty'
and gracious Parent of the family of man. —
Good {of Salisbury).
[2344] God would have us, first of all, to
worship Him not as the Ruler of all worlds, but
as bound to this world ; not as attending to all
parts of an infinite universe, but as regarding
us ; not, in short, as the Head of all things that
are, but mainly and in the first instance as
" Our Father." He confines our view that we
may see more distinctly : this name does not
show any part of His nature nor any portion of
His dealings with which we are not concerned,
but it runs directly between us and Him, and as
through a glass which by confining magnifies
and renders distinct, so through this name we
are separated from distracting views of God,
and led straight to all that He means to kindle
our worship.
Learning what God is, we ask that His name
may be hallowed or held sacred, regarded by all
as a true and holy thing that is at any cost to
be maintained in esteem, and under all tempta-
tion still believed m.—Dods.
[2345] For having called God " Our Father,"
and this petition coming so immediately upon
it, we seem to pray that His name of Father
may be hallowed by us ; and, if we understand
it so, what have the angels to do to say it .'
They may sav. Holy, holy, holy. Lord God of
Sabbaoth, and so hallow Him in His name of
Lord, as servants ; but to hallow Him in His
name of Father, as sons, they cannot. — Sir
Richard Baker, 156S-1645.
[2346] Dwelling upon the character of the
Most High, and addressing Him as our Father
in heaven, it is as if we read the first and fiftli
commandments together ; the first commmd-
ment of the first table, and the first command-
ment of the second table, each in the other.
At once adoring the living God and honouring
our heavenly Father, we breathe out, " Hal-
lowed be Thy name." — Stanford.
[2347] But though these words, " Hallowed
be Thy name," are a distinct petition, and not a
mere appendix to the invocation, yet without
the invocation we cannot understand nor use
this first petition. For to think of God as we
naturally do, and pray that His name may be
hallowed, is impossible. But such is not the
God to whom we have been introduced by
Christ ; He has taught us to say, " Our Father."
—Lorainc.
(2) Because all the succeeding petitions are
i>nplicd in it.
[2348] And indeed, if we mark this petition
well, we shall find a peculiar majesty, an
extraordinary pre-eminence in it above all the
others ; for it is not only the Priniuni Mobile,
from which all the others have their motions,
but it is the centre also to which all the others
bend their motions. For, when we say, " Thy
kingdom come," it is but to come that we may
hallow God's name; and when we say, "Thy
will be done," it is but for this, that we may
hallow God's name ; and when we pray for
"daily bread," it is but to strengthen us, that we
may hallow God's name ; and when we say,
" Forgive us our trespasses," it is but to cleanse
us, that we may hallow God's name ; and when
we say, "Lead us not into temptation," it is but to
remove impediments that we may hallow God's
name. " O Lord our God, how excellent is Thy
name in all the world I " — Sir Richard Baker,
1 568-1645.
2 Spiritual reasons.
(1) To show the spirit in which all our
prayers should be offcr^t.
[2349] The key-note for the great chorus of
THE LORDS PRAYER.
597
2349-2361]
[first petition.
human prayer, by which the jarring voices of
individual needs are harmon zed into an un-
seltish hymn to the glory of the Giver of all
good. — E. B.
[2350] Oh ! if one of us could honestly say,
"y do not signify — I, a very insignificant, very
worthless, very sinful being — I, who am but of
yesterday, and to-morrow shall not be — it
matters not what I have or lack, what I enjoy
or suffer for this little moment of time, on this
little atom of space ; but it is all important that
the great God should be honoured and obeyed
and glorified ; it is all important that the
blessed Saviour should spread far and wide His
wonderful gospel, His universal reign ; it is all-
important that the holy and blessed Spirit
should take up His abode in sorrowful, discon-
solate, sin-possessed hearts, bringing order out
of chaos, and heaven out of hell — and therefore,
disregarding myself, 1 will put God first, in all
my thoughts, and in all my supplications "—
1 say, not only, what a grand life would this
make out of our littleness and our pauperism,
but, which is the point now in our view, what
ease, what freedom, what sweetness, would this
spirit breathe at once into our prayers ! — Dean
Vaitghan.
[2351] By this petition, set at the head, we
regulate, correct, and renounce, whatever may
be amiss in all our following petitions. As if
we should say, Lord, we know not what to pray
for, and therefore beg that we may be directed
to pray for such things as tend to Thy honour
and glory : and if we should happen to ask
anything disagreeable thereto, we beg that
either it may not be granted at all, or at least
only in so far as may consist with this our first
and chief petition. — y. Blair, 1723.
(2) To teach that faith, worship, and
obedience are onr first duties.
[2352] As this is the first petition, it shows
that the belief and worship of God, especially as
laid out in the four commandments of the first
table, are the first of all duties. — Pagan.
[2353] The first petition is a prayer for
strength and zeal to keep the first four com-
mandments.— E. B.
II. The Import of the Expression "Thy
Name."
I It refers to God Himself, in regard to His
nature and personality.
[2354] God's name stands for God Himself,
and for what His words and works reveal to us
about His nature and His attributes. God's
nature is the essential property which belongs
to the Godhead. God's attributes refer to the
several qualities of the Divine nature. — C N.
[2355] Since men are said to call upon His
name, and to build a temple to it ; and since
God and His name are used as alike and of the
same power, we see that the name of God is
used for Himself, or the Divine nature. — Pagan.
[2356] Creatures have a nature and a name ;
but God's nature is His name. His name is
Himself; for whatsoever we can rightly name
of God is the name of God : for when we say,
"Hallowed be Thy name," we say as much as
hallowed be Thy majesty, Thy eternity, Thy
glory. Thy substance, Thy self, Thy all in all. —
Sir Richard BaJier, 1 568-1645.
[2357] His name is the expression of Him, or
the discovery of Him, written out or spoken out,
in this, that, or the other language. — Stanford.
[2358] By God's name in Holy Scripture is
most commonly signified God Himself : as in
speaking to a king, instead of thou and thee,
we say your majesty ; to a lord, your lordship ;
to a commander-in-chief, your excellency. By
which yet we mean no more than that we make
application to the person himself. So in speak-
ing to God, we say, "Glorify Thy Name," instead
of "Glorify Thyself;" " Let Thy name be magni-
fied ; " " I will sing praises to Thy name," and a
great many more of the like nature, wdiich signify
the very same thing as if we should say, "Glorify
Thyself;" "Be Thou magnified ;" "I will sing
pra'ises to thee," &c. — J. Blair, 1723.
[2359] It is well, however, to preserve a
wholesome fear of a semi-pantheism, which is
only too apt to steal into the hearts of men, often
betraying itself in their language ; a pantheism
that is in danger of confounding God with
nature ; and in the precision and constancy of
law, and in the well-ordered forces of creation,
seeing only a great system, and not the presence
of a living Intelligence, a Divine Person, that
originally established and that still moves in.
and controls His works. The intelligent use of
this prayer precludes such an error, teaching us
to acknowledge His personality in the words
" our Father." — Loraiiie.
[2360] Consider how it addresses itself to the
intellect, and reminds us of the true nature of
God. There have been those, we know, who
have either set their gods on a level, if indeed
on a level, with man, or else have held God to
be but an element, the Divine element, which
enters into all things, and especially into man.
But as the word " Father" reminds us of God's
personal being, so this portion of the prayer
recalls to our'thought all that Holy Scripture
teaches us respecting Him, as a being wholly
distinct from all earthly things, however He
may manifest Himself in them ; wholly raised
above them, as the Creator above the works of
His hands ; and therefore to be honoured with
an honour quite distinct from that given to any
of the noblest objects upon earth. — Karslalce.
2 It refers to God Himself, as revealed in
creation and revelation.
[2361] Alford, quoting a famous German com-
398
2361-
THE LORDS PRAYER.
-2372]
[first petition.
mentator, says, "God's name is not merely His
appellation, which we speak with the mouth,
but also, and principally, the idea which we
attach to it — His being, as far as it is confessed,
revealed and known." Stier has some remarks
precisely similar to the foregoing of De Wette.
Alfordalso himself adds, '• '1 he ' Name of God'
in Scripture is used to signify that revelation of
Himself which He has made to men, which is
all that we know of Him ; into the depth of His
being, as it is, no human soul can penetrate."
The word in Hebrew which we render Name,
(D^), signifies more than a mere appellation or
denomination, it implies distinction and charac-
ter ; so in Gen. vi. 4, it is rendered "renown,"
in Eccl. vii. I, "good name," and in i Chron. v.
24, it is represented by "valour" and "famous."
The name of God is, therefore, to us, the in-
transferable representation of the Divine charac-
ter.— Lof-aine.
[2362] The word "name" is sometimes used
for " person." By the " name " of God is here
to be understood God Himself, as portrayed in
His revealed perfections. His name brings
before us what He is. — Robinson.
[2363] From all that God has done and said,
gather up the various features of His character,
and express these, and in that expression you
have the name. The name of God is that which
we can contemplate and say " God is that." —
Dods.
[2364] There is this, always, in the " name "
of God—that it precludes the false, the erroneous
or idolatrous, conception of Him. The name
of God is always the real, the true, the revealed
God, as opposed to all man's ideas and man's
imaginations concerning Him.— Dean Vaiighan.
[2365] "Hallowed be Thy name" means —
Be Thou honoured in the hallowing of Thy
name. It will ever be impossible for us to
understand Thee in all Thy perfections, and
follow Thee in all Thy ways ; but Thou hast
sufficiently and abundantly made Thyself known
to us in the volumes of Thy works, providence,
and words, and especially in the gospel of Thy
redeeming love ; and Thou hast sent forth to
us Thy Holy Spirit as Thy infallible Interpreter.
By this gracious help and teaching we are
humbly learning, if not mastering. Thy saving
name ; and in every fresh discovery we love and
admire Thee more. — Robinson.
[2366] The name of God must be regarded
as equivalent to God Himself as He is known
to us. Know Him indeed, as He is, we can-
not ; we cannot see Him who is a Spirit, so
long as ovir own spirit lives in its present
material tabernacle of the flesh ; but in so far
as He has, as it has been expressed, " projected "
Himself upon creation, has exhibited His attri-
butes of wisdom, and power, and mercy, and
justice, either in outward nature or in the moral
government of the world ; in so far as He has
revealed them in His word, or declared them
in the Person of His Son, and His life among
men upon earth ; in so far, lastly, (may we not
add i') as He sets forth some faint image of them
even in those whom He makes more or less like
to Himself among men : so far may we attain
to a knowledge of the name, that is, of the
nature, of God. — Karslake.
3 It refers to God Himself, as revealed to
us in Christ Jesus.
[2367] Emmanuel, " God with us." There-
fore in Him whose name was Emmanuel must
be found the attributes of God, separatmg from
them the distinctive characteristics which belong
to the Man Jesus.— is". B.
[2368] But there is yet another and higher
source in which we are to learn the name of
God : in the Lord Jesus Christ, in His Person,
and in His offices. Christ ifi Himself is a
revelation of God, impersonating the Divine
attributes and perfections, that man, having a
clearer apprehension of the Divine Being, might
more intelligently and heartily adore and hallow
H is name. — Loraine.
[2369] This name we are not left to find out
for ourselves. From the first it has been the
care of God "to spell out Himself to us, some-
times by one perfection, and sometimes by
another." One feature after another of His
character has been revealed, until at length all
has been shown us in Him who is "the express
image of His Person." — Dods.
[2370] There is no manifestation or Divine
dispensation whatever wherein the Divine glory
so appeared as in and by our Lord Jesus Christ,
in whom His name is said to be, and who is
said to come in His name, and to declare His
name. — Beverley.
[2371] This was the name that our Saviour
came to comment on, showing His mercy in
pardoning us, and His justice in punishing our
sins in His Son, His truth in fulfilling that first
gospel preached in Paradise, '" The seed of the
woman shall bruise the serpent's head." And
this name of God He manifested to His disciples
and to us. — Sir Mattliciu Hale.
4 It designates that by which God is dis-
tinguished from all other beings.
[2372] What is a "name ?" What is it for us?
A name is the brief summary of a person. I do
not mean that a name, as some have dreamed,
can express the qualities, or the chief quality, of
a complex human character. But I mean that
the use of a name, the object of each man
having a name, is to supersede the necessity of
interminable descriptions, and to set before us,
by a sort of telegraphic despatch, the whole
person— lace, form, and properties— of him
whom we know and of whom we would make
mention. The " n^ie" is the catchword which
THE LORDS PRAYER.
2372 -2383 J
399
[first petition.
renders amplification needless, by bringing up
to us the person, figure and qualities and cha-
racteristics in one. The name is the man.
The absent, distant, inaccessible man is made
present to us in the naming of the name. Even
thus is it — with reverence be it spoken — with
the name of God. — Dean Vait^Jian.
[2373] Is the name of God of similar use and
meaning to the name of a man 1 A man's
name is that by which we speak of him to dis-
tinguish him from every one else. When we
use the name of any one, it calls up to our
minds a certain character, not always according
to truth, but according to our idea of the man.
And so, when we hear or use the name of God,
there is also present to our mmds a certain
character ; too often a character made up of
the ideas which we have thoughtlessly suffered
to cluster round the name ; sometimes, however,
a character which does on the whole agree with
what God has taught us to believe about Him.
The name of God is not God Himself, neither
is it our idea of God, but it is that expressed
idea of Him which He Himself would have us
to possess, and which may be gathered from
His own revelation. The name of God is not
the nature of God, nor His relationship to us ;
but if the conception which God would have us
to cherish of Him can be summed up in one
word, then that w-ord is the name of God. —
Dads.
[2374] So, then, we conclude that the " Name
of God " is to be taken in a twofold sense : first,
as equivalent to God Himself, of whom it is the
sign and whom it denotes ; second, as the name
simply of God whom it denotes, ihe sensible
emblem, representative, and sign on earth of
our idea of the invisible God in heaven. —
Kmslalce.
5 It includes any and all of His particular
appellations.
[2375] ifl) The Hebrews give to God gene-
rally the name "Jehovah," He who exists by
Himself, and gives being and existence to
others.
{b) They had such a veneration for this
name that they never pronounced it, but in-
stead of it made use of that of Adonai, which
signifies properly, '• ^\ Lords." in the plural
n'nnber ; and of Elohi, Eloi, or Elohim.
They likewise called Him El, which signifies
" strong ;" or Shaddai, whereby may be meant
one who is "self-sufficient;" or, according to
another pronunciation, "the Destroyer," the
'Powerful one ;"or Elion, the " Most High ;" or
El-Sabaoth, the "Lord of Hosts;" or Jah,
" God.'" — C7-uden.
[2376] This mode of speech was perfectly
intelligible to the Jews, because the Divine
Being was pleased to describe Himself to His
ancient people, by some significant appellation
suited to the occasion on which it was delivered.
— Good {of Salisbury).
[2377] God called Himself "I Am," to indi-
cate His existence without beginning or end —
the Eternal Present. — E. B.
[2378] He calls Himself Jehovah, the I Am,
the living God, who alone has life in Himself,
the eternal and unchangeable One, which is
and which was and which is to come. So
hallowed was this name by the Jews, that they
would not pronounce it. — Pods.
[2379] His name is : i. I Am (Exod. iii. 14).
2. Merciful (Exod. xxxiv. 6). 3. Eloly (Isa. Ivii.
15). 4. A strong tower (Prov. xviii. 10). 5.
Great (Psa. Ixxvi. i). 6. Excellent (Psa. cxlviii.
\i).—Horlock {of Box).
III. The Meaning of the Word "Hal-
lowed."
1 Made holy, i.e., manifested or treated as
holy; kept apait from all that is common
or unclean.
2380] Under the name of God here to be
sanctified, understand, besides the majesty of
His Godhead, that also whereupon His name is
called, or that which is called by His name (as
we in our Bibles commonly express this phrase
of Scripture) ; that is, all whatsoever is God's,
or of which God is the Lord and owner by a
peculiar right ; such as are things sacred,
whether they be persons, or whether things by
distinction so called, or times, or places which
have upon them a relation of peculiarness
towards God. For such as these are said in
Scripture to have the name of God called on
them, i.e., to be His. Thus we read of a house
which had the name of God upon it, i.e., was
God's house ; of a city upon which the name of
God was called, to wit, the holy city, Jerusalem,
the city of the great King, the Lord of Hosts ;
of a people upon which the name of God was
called, i.e., were His peculiar and holy people ;
as is said in like manner, and with like mean-
ing, of the Church of the New Testament.
[238 1 J Now sanctity or holiness is a condition
of discretion and disjunction from other things ;
and therefore to sanctify must be either to put
a thing into that state which we call to " con-
secrate," or, if it be such already, to put a
difference between it and other things, by way
of excellency, by appropriating and severing it
in the use thereof from things of ordinary and
common rank. — Mede.
[2382J A thing may be hallowed (i) by dedi-
cation, setting it apart for holy uses, Exod. xiii.
2 ; Eph. v. 26 ; (2) by infusion, or implanting
the real principles of holiness, John xvii. 17; (3)
by declaration, when we acknowledge and
reverence that as holy that is indeed so, Isa.
xxix. 23. This latter is the only way in which
the creature may sanctify the name of the
Creator. — Bp. Hopkins, 1633- 1690.
[2383] For, first, it expresses to " make holy," a
400
2383—2392]
THE LORDS PRAYER.
[first petition.
meanin<j which may be left out of consideration
here, since God, being perfectly holy, cannot
be made more holy than He already is. 13ut
it means also, secondly, to '' exhibit as holy,"
with a reference rather to the thing hallowed ;
and also, thirdly, to " treat as holy," with a
reference rather to the person hallowing ; " to
give to that which is separate and pre-eminent
its due and special regard." So that, since
God, being absolutely holy, does not admit of
the idea of making holy as applicable to Him,
the word "hallow" in this petition must be
confined to the two meanings, to " exhibit as
holy," and to " treat as being so."
[23S4] Think of the word "hallow" as express-
ing not so much two meanings, but rather two
or (if we include the intermediate step) three
stages in one process expressed : viz., first, to
manifest as holy ; second, to comprehend with
the mind and accept with the heart as holy ;
and third, to treat in a manner befitting that
which is so. — Karslake.
[2385] When we pray for the hallowing of
God's name, we pray implicitly for all things
necessary and conducing to it ; we pray for the
agent and for the instrument ; we pray for the
time and place ; we pray for the speaker and
for the hearer ; and, in one word, we pray for
the propagation of the gospel, that doors may
be opened to all men of faith, that so the build-
ing may go up of the new Jerusalem. That
labourers may be sent into God's harvest, that
so the weeds may be plucked up, and the good
corn brought into the barn ; that there may be
joy it! Sion and peace within her walls ; that
not the trumpet of war, but the trumpet of
praise and thanksgiving may be heard amongst
us ; that all ears may be circumcised, and all
tongues touched with coals from the altar ; that
so nothing be spoken, nor anything be heard ;
but tending all to the honour and glory of God"s
name. — St>- Ku/iard Bake?; 1 568-1645.
IV. The Ways in which God's Name is
HALLOWED HY HhMSELF.
1 In making Himself better known.
[2386] In breathing this prayer, we ask that
God would hallow His own name, or cause it to
be hallowed. The amount of this petition, the
condition of its fulfilment, is simply this : that
our Father in heaven would make Himself
known, would more and more reveal Himself
unto us and unto all men. For we see that the
gravest errors issue from undue conceptions of
Him ; error itself is the partial perception
rather than the total ignorance of truth. In
breathing this petition, we desire that God
w-ould reveal Himself as He is, and thus dispel
our false images of Him. For too much we
fashion God after our own hearts, and project
an idea of Him from among the lights and
shadows of our own souls. In saying, " Hal-
lowed be Thy name," we pray that God would
beam out in the blended ciualities of His nature.
So, everywhere, shall the altars of superstition
crumble, its fearful rites cease, its mental clouds
disperse in that great light. So, everywhere,
shall a superficial morality and a nerveless
sentimentalism be changed to a strenuous virtue
and a devout life. — C/iapiti.
[2387] Which is not so asked for as if the
name of God were not holy ; but that it maybe
reckoned holy by men, and that Ciod may be so
known to them, that they may think nothing to
be more holy ; by which they may the more
fear to offend Him. — Atigitstina.
[2388] What is it to be hallowed ? We desire
that the name of God may be revealed, opened,
manifested, and credited throughout all the
world. What is God's name.? All that is
spoken of Him in Holy Scripture, that is His
name. He is called "Gracious," "Merciful,"
"Righteous," a "Punisher of wickedness,"
"True," "Almighty," "Long-suffering," "A
Consuming Fire," " The King over the whole
earth," " A Judge," " A Saviour." These and
such like are the names of God.. Now, when I
make my petition unto Him, saying, " Hallowed
be Thy name," I desire that His name may be
revealed, that we may know what Scripture
speaketh of Him, and so believe the same and
live after it. I do not desire that His name may
be hallowed of Himself, for it needeth not— He is
holy already ; but I desire that He will give us
His Spirit, that we may express Him in all our
doings and conversations ; so that it may appear
by our deeds that God is even such an one
indeed as Scripture doth report Him ; and that
He, through His goodness, will remove and
put away all infidelity, and all things that may
let and stop the honour of His name. — Bp.
Latimer.
[2389] But, again, God's name can only be
hallowed where His nature is known. As God
more and more discovers Himself to the soul of
the worshipper, he becomes able to render a
homage increasingly worthy of that awiful name.
Thus this petition asks that God will reveal
Himself How fitting that this should be the
first cry of prayer ! — Lo?-a!ne.
2 By His indwelling.
[2390] " What is this V asks Augustine, "can
God be holier than He is.?" Not so, but our
conception of Him may be holier than it is.
We pray that He who is separated only by His
perfections from all other beings may be so
regarded ; and that more and more, in our own
souls as well as in the souls of all men — in our
thoughts, motives, desires, and actions, also in
theirs — He may be thus venerated and glorified.
— Stajiford.
[2391] We pray that God maybe hallowed by
us, and that He may be hallowed ifi \xs.— Thomas
Hugo.
[2392] Hallow, O Lord, Thy name, that all
THE LORDS PF AVER.
2392— 2404J
40 ]
[first petition.
may know how holy and pure Thou art. Do
Thou, O Father, who by the incarnation of
Thine only-begotten Son hast made us to be
Thy sons, make manifest to all men Thy work
of sanctification in us, that they may see how
holy, true, pure, and good Thou art. Amen. —
Stella.
[2393] We say not by whom we desire it may
be hallowed ; we ask therefore that it may be
known, and may be hallowed by all in earth or
heaven. liallowed by all means, and therefore
in and by us, but not limited to us. Not by a
small portion of the world, not by some tribe or
family only, but that His name nay be glorified
in all parts of the world, in ourselves and in all
our brethren. — Denton.
[2394] In us, by us, and in and by all men,
" let Thy name be magnified for ever." " Hal-
lowed be Thy name." — Stanfofd.
3 By preventing profanity.
[2395] We say not " May we hallow Thy
name," though that is included in the prayer.
We say impersonally " Hallowed be Thy name,"
that is, may it be hallowed by all. God hallows
His own name when He prevents it from being
profaned : "Say unto the iiouse of Israel, Thus
saith the Lord God ; I do not this for your
sakes, O house of Israel, but for mine holy
name's sake, which ye have profaned among
the heathen, whither ye went. And I will
sanctify my great name, which was profaned
among the heathen, which ye have profaned in
the midst of them ; and the heathen shall know
that I am the Lord, saith the Lord God, when
I shall be sanctified in you before their eyes"
(Ezek. xxxvi. 22, 23). — Denton.
[2396] (i) That God may lay so strong re-
straints upon us by His grace and providence,
that we never so much as aim at any ill thing.
(2) That if we do aim at it, we may be dis-
appointed, and not permitted to bring it to
effect.
(3) That God would interpose to defeat all
the evil works and designs of men, that their
machinations may not prosper.
(4) That in all our good works, our intentions
may be purely set on His honour and glory.
(5) That in all our indifferent actions, we
endeavour so to sanctify them, that they may
be directed to God's honour and glory.
(6) That God would be pleased so to over-
rule the wickedest actions of men, that they may
likewise turn to His honour. — J. B/air, 1723.
[2397] In calamity, in the convulsions of
nature, in the unexpected developments of His
providence, in the changing of designed evil
into unforeseen good, God "hallows " His name.
For in the contemplation of causes which we
cannot set in motion, and of effects which we
cannot control, profane thoughts perish in our
minds unformulated and unspoken. — E. B.
VOL. I.
V. The Ways in which God's Name may
be and ought to be hallowed ey
Men.
1 By putting God above all.
[239S] We must hallow God's name in our
lives — in our habitual conduct. Many a man
whose lips are clean from oaths, and who never
uses God's name lig'itly, may live without any
reference to His claims. Every man does live
so who has some object that is, practically,
higher than God, and that stands in the place
of God. — Chapin.
[2399] They who would hallow God's name
do not blot it over with the name of any human
master, Calvin, Arminius, or Wesley, or of any
ecclesiastical centre, Canterbury, (Geneva, or
Rome ; but find His presence in all Christian
societies, His children in all Christian believers,
His name in all Christian catechisms, con-
fessions, and creeds.
2 By holiness.
[2400] We say " Hallowed be Thy name,"
not that we wish God to be sanctified by our
prayers. But what we ask of Him is that His
name may be sanctified in us. By whom, in-
depd, could God be sanctified, who Himself
sanctifies .'' We need a daily sanctification,
that we who daily sin may cleanse our faults by
an unceasing sanctification. — Cyprian.
["2401] It was an inscription upon the mitre
of Aaron, as not only due to God, but due to Him
in the highest place, "holiness to the Lord."
O Lord God, so sanctify the faculties of my
soul, that 1 may love Thee for Thy goodness ;
and glorify Thee for Thy love ; and admire
Thee for Thy glory ; and hallow Thee in them
aW.—Sir KkJiard Baker, 1568- 164 5.
[2402] We conclude, then, it is not enough
to breathe these words into the air ; we must
really and in act will that sanctity which we
desire in our prayers. Otherwise, to pray and
to sit still ; to pray for holiness, and run on in
the ways of profaneness ; to pray that God's
name may be hallowed, and not strive to sanc-
tify it, is rather a feint than a devout prayer,
and makes us guilty of a kind of blasphemy,
even when we pray " Hallowed be Thy name.''
^Farindon.
[2403] Make us holy, that Thou too mayest
be glorified in us ; for as God is blasphemed
through me, so is He also hallowed, that is,
glorified as \\o\y.—T/ieop/iy/act.
[2404] Since, therefore, we are baptized, con-
secrated, and sanctified in this name, and as
this name is now made our name, it follows
that all the sons of God are, and ought to be
called, kind, merciful, chaste, just, true, shnple,
benevolent, peaceable, and sweetly affectionate
in heart towards all men, even towards those
who are their enemies. Behold, then, you here
26
402
2404-
THE LORD S PRAYER.
2413]
["first petition.
see what it is to sanctify God's name and be a
^aint. Even as a churcli is dedicated, and set
apart for the use of Divine worship only, so also
we ought to be sanctified in the whole of our
lives, that there may be found in us no use of
anything but of the name of God, that is, of
kindness, righteousness, truth, &r. 'Iherefore the
name of God is either sanctified or profaned,
not by the tongue only, but by all the powers
of the soul and the body.— Ltdher.
3 By reverence.
[2405] The Greek word for "ungodly" is
borrowed from the want of " revering "—from
the absence of a spirit of reverence in the heart
and in the life. To "hallow" is to make holy.
It is to set God's mark, the mark of His owner-
ship and of His consecration, upon a thing, or
upon a person— upon a day, or upon a building,
or upon a mountain — upon a portion of time, or
a piece of matter — or else upon a particular
man, or a particular family, or a particular
nation — according to the subject, and according
to the context, in each case. Instances of each
of these uses will readily occur to students of
the Bible.
But none of these applications of the word
are suitable here.
When we pray, " Hallowed be Thy name," we
pray that God, the true God, may be regarded
by us and by all men — regarded, remembered,
and therefore dealt with — as that Holy God
which He is. That we and all men — let me
rather say, that, without thinking of ourselves,
all men — all God's creatures everywhere — may
reverence Him as He ought to be reverenced.
That all unworthy conceptions, and all irre-
verent thoughts of Him, may be done away
with throughout His universe, and that He may
be known, and worshipped, and reverenced, by
all that He has made, according to His nature
and according to His sell-revelation. — Deatt
[2406] They who hallow the Creator's name
do not always substitute for it the word
"nature." Where others find only the laws of
nature, they are not ashamed to read aloud the
volitions and decrees of their Heavenly Father.
When they see any excellence in the creature,
they know and own that it exists in its perfec-
tion in the Creator. Remembering and eager
to acknowledge His unsleeping and unfailing
providence, they do not seriously talk of things
happening by chance. They honour the Bible,
in which God's name is written ; not quoting its
language with lightness and jesting ; not daring
to call its histories fables ; and not presuming to
alter one jot or tittle, while studious to distin-
guish every true point and letter of its inspired
jjages. They " reverence the sanctuary," the
"house called by His name," "the dwelling-
place of His name," which He has "chosen and
s.mctified, that His name may be there." and
where His "eyes and heart are perpetually,"
where " incense is offered unto His name, and
ii pure ofl'ering." — Staiijord,
[2407] They observe God's positive institu-
tions: "The Lord's Day," set apart, not for
recreation or mere repose, but for the special
contemplation and praise of His holy name ;
the sacrament of baptism, administered empha-
tically " in the name of the Father, and of the
Son, and of the Holy Ghost ;" and the sacra-
ment of the Lord's Supper, the church's united
and repeated recognition of Jehovah's name in
Jesus. — Ibid.
[2408] To hallow or to sanctify God, supposes
a thorough sense of His excellences, and a
readiness to express it with becoming respect
and reverence. This petition abridgeth those
who use it, not only of all criminal, but even
indecent liberties, and obligeth them to suit
their whole behaviour to the credit of religion.
— iXfangey., 1684-1755.
4. By shunning blasphemy.
[2409] So great respect was paid to the word
Jeliovah by the Jews, that they were not only
cautious of taking it in vain (a vice common
enough among Christians), but even of express-
ing it upon solemn occasions. They wrote the
word in their books, but reckoned it next to
blasphemy to repeat it ; and it was spoken
only once in the year by the High Priest in a
solemn benediction. This particular reverence
to God's name was older than the gospel, and is
in all probability alluded to by our Saviour in
this petition. — J. Blair., 1723.
[2410] We know what reverence the Jews
paid to the holy name : and shall it be pro-
faned by us Christians ? It was never pro-
nounced among them but upon the most solemn
occasions : and shall we use it in jesting and
ridicule, in anger and passion ? No ; let us
give to the Lord the honour due to His name ;
for His name only is excellent, and His praise
above heaven and earth. — Bp. Ncwtoii.
[241 1] Certainly, if the heart be so thoroughly
possessed with a sad awe of that Infinite
Majesty as it ought, the tongue dares not pre-
sume, in a sudden unmannerliness, to blurt out
the dreadful name of God, but shall both make
way for it, by a premised deliberation, and
attend it with a reverent elocution.— i)'/. Hall.
[2412] Too many have the name of God, that
great and awtul name, in their mouth or ear,
and have no correspondent thought in their
mind ; it passes with them as a transient sound,
as soon over as another common word of no
greater length, and leaves no impression. Per-
haps there is less in their minds to answer it
than most other words which men use in
common discourse. For they have usually dis-
tinct thoughts of the things they speak of But
the holy and reverend name of God is often so
slightly mentioned, as in common oaths, or in
idle talk is so merely taken in vain, that if they
were on the sudden stopped, and asked what
they thought on orliad in their mind when they
THE LORDS PRAYER.
2412 -2423 1
[first petition.
mentioned that word, and were to make a true
answer, they cannot say they thought of any-
thing ; as if the name of God, the All, were the
name of nothing. — J. Howe, 1630-1705.
5 By devotion.
[2413] The success of this petition tends to
our advantage. If we go on to honour God we
grow by every expression of this respect into an
habitual devotion ; which as it is the bet;inning
of the next life's perfection, so it is the best
pledge of its enjoyment. — Alafigey, 1684-1755.
[2414] By hallowing God's name, we mean,
not to make it holy, for it is hoHness itself; nor
to make it more holy, for it is infiniteness itself;
nor to keep it holy, for it is eternity itself; but
to join with the heavens in declaring His glory,
and with the firmament in showing His handi-
work : as then only hallowing His name when
we name Him only holy, and therein consisting
our work of sanctifying Him when in Him we
acknowledge our works to be sanctified. — Sir
Richard Baker, 1 568- 1 645 .
[2415] There are live principal ways of hallow-
ing the name of God. (i) By tiiinking of the
glory of God; (2) by standing or kneeling before
Him with awful reverence ; (3) by praise and
adoration, as the angels and seraphim praise
and adore it ; (4) by never taking it in vain, but
by always pronouncing it with solemn thought ;
(5) by love and trust, because the title of our
God is the name of Jesus. — Kennaway.
6 By the consecration of our lives and
conduct.
[2416] We do not really desire that God's
name may be hallowed, unless we resolve our-
selves to reverence it. That is no prayer which
does not join conduct to aspiration. We say :
" Our Father which art in heaven, hallowed be
Thy name," but the pointed question presses
home upon us — do we hallow it 1 — do we mean
to hallow it ? Or does it signify nothing with
us? Is it merely a form that we learned in
childhood t A familiar petition, that we mutter
without regard to what it implies or requires ?
If, on the other hand, this is a sincere prayer
with us, then will we resolve and endeavour to
consecrate this great name on our lips, in our
lives, and in our hearts.— Chapin.
[2417] His name of Father must be hallowed
by love ; of Lord, by obedience ; of judge, by
uprightness ; of almighty, by fear ; and of
everlasting, by constancy.— ^zV Richard Baker,
1 568-1645.
[2418] We hallow God's name with (i) our
hearts ; (2) our voices ; {^) our bodies ; (4) our
daily conduct. That is (i) by loving and fear- '
ing Him ; (2) by worshipping Him in public
and in private ; (3) by personal holiness and
outward reverence ; (4) by reverencing every-
thing that belongs to Him — His Word, His day,
His house, His sacraments. His ministers, and
His people ; and by leading such a life as m^^y
tend to the praise and glory of His Holy Name.
— Ramsay.
[2419] We hallow God's name (i) when we
confess our guilt ; (2) when we promote His
glory ; (3) when we are consistent in the pro-
fession of religion ; (4) when we are conformed
to the Divine image. — Horlock [of Box).
[2420] The Christian's shining practice is an
ornament to his profession, and whilst he hath
the comfort of a good conscience, his heavenly
Father, whose name he professes, will have the
praise of it. Religion will have the honour, and
his neighbour the instruction and encourage-
ment of his example, and in both these ends
God's name will be more especially glorified
(Matt. V. \6).—Mangey, 1684-1755.
[2421] Not in Thee, but in us: for if through
sinners the name of God is blasphemed among
the Gentiles, on the other hand, through the
just it is hallowed. — tiieronymus.
\2\ii'\ Essentially, I repeat. He is the Father
of all men ; but practically, subjectively. He is
not the Father of the man who forgets His
existence, overlooks His providence, disregards
His requirements, and, in fact, hves "without
God in the world." For there are no filial
aspirations in the heart of such a man. He has
no child-like trust or communion. To him
there is no spiritual life in the motions of the
universe, no expression of infinite tenderness
upon its face. Worshipping the objects of
sense, he does not notice the intense longings of
his own soul. Swept in the sounding tide of
passion, he hears not "the still, small voice,"
inviting to a holier and serener course. God's
love is over him, and God's mercy waits on
him ; but, in his sensualism and sin, he does
not see the Father. He does not realize his
relationship to God, and therefore, so far as it
depends upon his action, that relationship is as
though it were not. — Chapin.
[2423] God's name is hallowed (I.) in our
hearts, i Peter iii. 15 ; (i) when we have awful
thoughts of His majesty, Psa. cxi. 9 ; (2) when
in difiiculties or dangers we trust in His power
and sufficiency so as to go on cheerfully with our
duty. (II.) With our tongues when we use
God's name, ordinances, and word, as holy
things, v.'hen we speak of Him with reverence,
and are deeply affected with His praise, Psa.
li. 15. (III.) By our actions: (i) our worship.
Lev. X. 3 ; Eccles. v. i. ; (2) our lives {a) in
remembering that we have a holy God, Josh,
xxiv. J9 ; {b) in discovering to others that we
have a holy God, i Peter ii. 9. — T. Manton,
1629-1677.
THE LORD'S PRAYER.
SECOND PETITION.
Pages 405 to ^16.
I
CONNECTION BETWEEN THIS AND PRECEDING
PETITION.
2
DEFINITION OF THE WORD "KINGDOM."
THE KINGDOM VIEWED AS THE SOVEREIGNTY OF
GOD.
THE KINGDOM VIEWED AS THE MESSIANIC
KINGDOM.
THE IMPORT OF THE WORD "THY" PREFIXED TO
"KINGDOM."
ITS MODES OF REALIZATION.
ITS NEED TO BE OFFERED FROM THE CONDITION
OF MANKIND.
ENCOURAGEMENTS TO PRESS THE REQUEST.
9
THE WAYS IN WHICH WE HASTEN THE COMING
OF THE KINGDOM.
404
4° 5
THE LORD'S PRAYER,
{^Continued.)
SECOND PETITION.
{Thy Kingdom come).
I, Connection between this and Pre-
ceding Petition.
[2424] We have seen that the first two sen-
tences of the Lord's Prayer have an organic
connection. The same relation exists between
the words of the text and the preceding clause.
When God's name is everywhere hallowed,
His kingdom will have come. He will not be
truly worshipped until every hand and every
hsart shall have rendered Him its allegiance.
— Chapin.
[2425] Accordingly, as the first petition of
the Lord's Prayer laid the foundation of religion,
the second and third go on to rear the super-
structure. The first carried up the thoughts
and desires to God as He is in Himself, the all-
holy, all-glorious Being ; the second carries
them up to Him as He stands in relation to all
things above and below, as He is the great
King, the Lord and Ruler of all things both in
heaven and in earth. The first bore up to
heaven our desire that God might be more
known and loved, as He is in Himself, and that
He, His name, and all that is consecrated to
Him, might receive the reverence which are
their due. The second goes up to the throne
of grace, bearing our desire that He may be
known as the sovereign of the universe, and
may have — not a place, or even a special place
— but the one supreme place in our thoughts
and affections, and may sit spiritually upon the
throne of our hearts. In a word, in the first
we desire and pray that we and all mankind
may reverence Him as God ; in the second that
we may submit ourselves to Him, as Lord and
King. — Karslake.
[2426] The words " in earth as it is in heaven, '
belong chiefly to the clause, " Thy will be
done ;" but they also belong to this, and that
which went before. They are the end, as the
words "Our Father " are the beginning, f
each of the first three petitions. "Thy name
be hallowed, in earth as in heaven ; Thy king-
dom come in earth as in heaven ; Thy will be
done in earth, as it is in heaven." Not the
kingdom of triumph and rest beyond the grave,
but, to end in that, and endure in it for ever, a
kingdom that may be enjoyed below, established
speedily, and experienced now, is the kingdom
contemplated. We say not. Lift us without
delay to Thy kingdom in heaven, but, " Thy
kingdom come " to us here on earth. — Robinson.
[2427] Martin Luther, writing in the year
1 5 18, remarks, that when the children say,
"Hallowed be Thy name," the Father asks,
" How can my honour and name be sanctified
among you, seeing that all your hearts and
thoughts are inclined to evil, and you are in the
captivity of sin, and none can sing My song in
in a strange land ?"
Then the children speak again, thus : —
" O Father, it is true. Help us out of our
misery ; let Thy kingdom come, that sin may
be driven away, and we be made according to
Thy pleasure, that Thou alone mayest reign in
us, and we be Thy dominion ; obeying Thee
with all the powers of body and soul."
These antique sentences help to show the
vital connection between the first and second
petitions. It is not a connection without con-
sequence, like that of pearls in a circlet, or
links in a chain ; but thought grows out of
thought, and prayer out of prayer, like bough
out of bough in a stately, flowering tree. —
Stanford.
[2428] It is placed after that petition by
which we pray for the honour and glory of
God ; we may therefore infer that we are to do
nothing to the dishonour of God, even for so
noble an end as the propagation of the gospel,
or the advancement of God's kingdom in the
world. It goes before all other petitions, ex-
cept that one which sets God's glory as the
ultimate end ; we may infer, therefore, that the
seeking the kingdom of God by all lawful ways
and means is an endeavour duly subordinate
to the honour and glory of God. — J. Blair,
1723.
II. Definition of the Word " Kingdom."
[2429] I. The kingdom. The phrase "Thy
kingdom " means Thy " reign." In our language
we have one word foi a kingdom, another for
the reign in it ; for instance, we make a dis-
tinction between the kingdom of Queen Vic-
toria and her reign in that kingdom. In the
original language of the New Testament, one
word is used for both meanings — in one place
4o6
2429— 2438I
THE lord's prayer.
.SKCOND PETITION.
it stands for the territorv under kingly rule,
in another place for the 1 ':-;ly rule itsclt". Here
it stands for the kingly rule. -Stanford.
III. The Kingdom viewed as the Sove-
reignty OF God.
I Nature.
(i) Its universality andjternity.
[2430] There is a universal kingdom over all
things ; over angels and devils ; over men elect
and reprobate ; over beasts and living crea-
tures : and over inanimate things, sun, moon,
and stars (i Chron. xxix. 1 1).
There is no such monarch as God is, for
largeness of empire, for absoluteness of power,
and sublimity of His throne. This is not prin-
cipally understood here, but is implied as a
foundation and ground of faith, whereupon we
may deal with God about that kingdom, which
is specially intended in this request. — T. Man-
ton, 1629-1677.
[2431] It has always been. In some of its
essentials, it is as ancient as man's fall. So
long as God has dealt with our race on a footing
of mercy and judgment, so long there has
existed the "kingdom" which we speak of. —
Dean I'anqha/i.
[2432] "Thy kingdom come" does not imply
that God has not reigned and does not reign.
He is the Ruler and (Governor of the world from
Creation even till now. It is a petition that
God's kingdom may be manifested to men, and
accepted by them. — E. B.
[2433] As among earthly kingdoms there are
some so superior to others that it becomes a
point of ambition to be enrolled as their citizens,
because in them our rights are protected and
our safety secured, because our labour receives
its fullest recompense, and our liberty its freest
exercise ; so there is this kingdom of God,
founded from everlasting, and destined to en-
dure when time shall be no longer, the which,
if we enter into, we shall at once be installed in
a secure liberty, which is protected by the
Almighty, cared for by that King the meanest
of whose subjects knows no grievance, certified
of our eternal well-being, associated with all
that is joyous an I with all that is holy in the
universe, and confirmed m every good resolve,
and rewarded for every good service by the
favour of a loving K\x\g.—Dcds.
(2) Its reality and various elements.
[2434.] " Kingdom of God " is not in fact a
figurative expression, but most literal : it is
rather the earthly kingdoms and the earthly
kings that are figures and shadows of the true.
—ibid.
[2435] If we would understand it, we must
picture to ourselves an earthly kingdom, with
the various elements which go to make it up —
its king, its subjects, its laws, &c. ; and then we
must let this earthly picture become " trans-
figured," as it were, into a heavenly one — the
outline remaining, while spiritual things take the
place of temporal in each element of detail.
We are to conceive, then, of one great King,
dwelling, indeed, unseen amid the glories of
heaven, but yet ruling with ever-watchful care
this our globe which He has called into being.
Its inhabitants are the subjects of the King.
And the law of the kingdom is the perfect law
of God, controlling the irrational portion of the
creatures with irresistible power, while to the
rational portion, bearing more expressly the
Divine Image, is given the high privilege of
freedom of action, enabling them to yield a free
and conscious obedience to the laws of their all-
wise, all-beneficent King ; and to these last, the
rational portion, is appointed a dominion over
the remaining works of God's hand, and they are
made in a measure His vicegerents upon earth.
Such was the original economy of God's king-
dom among men. But man fell away from
obedience to his King, instigated by those spirits
who had themselves fiillen first, and who seem
to have some mysterious connection with our
globe. — Karslake {co/idensed).
[2436] This government is a perfect kingdom.
He hath majesty for His crown, mercy for His
seat, and justice for His sceptre. He hath
wisclom for His counsellor, almightiness for His
guard, and eternity for His date. He hath
heaven for His palace, the earth for His foot-
stool, and hell for his prison. He hath laws to
which nature assents, and reason subscribes ;
that do not fetter us but free us, for by them
nature gets the wings of grace, and transcends
the earth. Reason gets the eyes of faith, and
ascends up to heaven. He hath a yoke indeed,
but it is easy ; a burthen, but it is light. His
reward is with Him, and His work before Him.
He is established in His sovereignty, not by His
subjects' election of Him, but by His election of
His subjects ; not as raising Himself to a higher
title, but as humbling Himself to a lower calling ;
and as not receiving it from a predecessor who
is before all, so never leaving it to a successor,
who is after iiW.— Sir Ric/iard Baker, 1568-1645.
(3) Punishment for those who rebel against
His rule.
[2437] Let us remember, that though God is
ever King over all, for nothing can resist His
will, yet He may not reign in all ; nor are all
men within His kingdom of grace, but only
those who own Him as their King, and do His
•w'xW.—Hugo de S. Cliaro.
[2438] Man, in his fallen nature, is outside
the Father's kingdom. He threw it off to set up
for himself. To be his own master, he became
the slave of his own hists. Refusing to serve
Him whose throne is in the heavens, he made
himself the prey of "the rulers of the darkness
of this world." — ^t:binson.
THE LORDS PRAYER.
2439-2449]
[SF.C )ND IMCTITI
407
[2439] ft is true, in tliis universal kin.^dom
there are many rebels tbat would not have Him
to reign over them , but ihcy are subject to His
power and providence, and that in three respects :
as It grants permission ; as it imposcth re-
stramts ; and as it inflicts punishments. — Bp.
Hopkins, 1633- 1690.
IV. The Kingdom viewed as the Mes-
sianic Kingdom.
I Its different aspects.
[2J40] It will be seen that what are commonly
called the different meanings of the expression
"kingdom of heaven," have been represented
here rather as chffercnt aspects of the one
general idea. — Karslakc.
[2441] There are three different kingdoms of
God — first, the kingdom of (jocI in the heart ;
second, the kingdom of (jod in this world
through His Church ; and, third, the kingdom of
God in the holy and the happy heavens. For
all these three kingdoms you pray, when you
say, " Thy kingdom come." — Komaivay.
[2442] We pray for (i) the coming of His
kingdom of glory ; (2) the spread of His king-
dom of grace. — Kainsay.
[2443] The present kingdom is partly visible
and pirtly invisible. Every church of baptized
Christians inakes up part of the visible kingdom
of Christ : we can see them, and we know that
that seal of the cross has been marked upon
their brows, and the Spirit of God presented to
their acceptance. But hundreds and thousands
deny their baptism every day by their conduct.
They live to Satan, and they lie to God.
In that other glorious kingdom it shall not be
so. All shall be His from the least to the
greatest. Every man shall be a good and holy
man ; every child shall be a good and holy
child. This will be happiness. This will make
that kingdom a kingdom oi ]oy.^Ken?iazuny.
[2444] Of this especial kingdom there are two
notal^le branches and considerations. One is
that administration which belongeth to the pre-
sent life, and is called "the kingdom of grace ;"
and the other belongeth to the life to come, and
is called "the kingdom of glory." — T. M anion,
1629-1677.
[2445] The kingdom of grace and of glory are
the same kingdom, but under a different mani-
festation : that a concealed kingdom, a seed in
the ground ; this a manifestation of that king-
dom, a seed in the tree. — Sir Mattheiv Hale.
[2446] This kingdom signifies the visible
Christian Church, and by howsoever different
appellations it is called, it only means the same
thing in different lights. As it is called " the
kingdom of God," it sets forth those more per-
fect methods of obedience to His will which we
are taught by the gospel. As it is called " the
kingdom of Christ," it represents the immediate
founder and goxernor of it, our Lord Jesus.
And, lastly, as it is called " the kingdom of
heaven," it signifies that merciful dispensation
which will carry us thither, which must now
improve us in grace, and hereafter consummate
us in glory.— J/(?//;'0', 1684-1755.
[2447] These two kingdoms of grace and
glory differ not specifically, but gradually ; they
differ not in nature, but only in degree. The
kingdom of grace is nothing but the incohation
or beginning of the kingdom of glory ; the king-
dom of grace is glory in the seed, and the king-
dom of glory is grace in the flower ; the kingdom
of grace is glory in the daybreak, and the king-
dom of glory is grace in the full meridian ; the
kingdom of grace is glory militant, and the
kingdom of glory is grace triumphant. There
is such an inseparable connection between these
two kingdoms, grace and glory, that there is no
passing into the one kingdom but by the other.
At Athens there were two temples, a temple of
virtue and a temple of honour ; and there was
no going into the temple of honour but through
the temple of virtue ; so the kingdoms of glorj
and grace are so joined together that we cannot
go into the kingdom of glory but through the
kingdom of grace. Many people aspire after
the kingdom of glory, but never look after grace :
but these two, which God hath joined together,
may not be put asunder ; the kingdom of grace
leads to the kingdom of glory. — T. Watson.
2 Its place in the Divine economy.
[2448] The Son of God Himself would come
to this our earth, would take the nature of man
into union with His Deity, and so become
Mediator between God and man, the one true
Son of (rod in heaven interceding for the fallen
children of (iod on earth ; He would pay Him-
self the penally for our sins ; restore to us the
love and favour of God ; enable us to draw near
through Him, spiritually, to our offended Lord ;
become the immediate King on earth ; reinstruct
man as to the nature and the will of God ;
counteracting thus all the various elements of
anarchy and evil introduced by the fall, restor-
ing to man in a measure all that was lost, and
opening out to him again the prospect of dwell-
ing for ever in bliss unspeakable in the presence
of God. Accordingly, a new economy was
introduced into the otiginal one of the kingdom
of God on earth. Christ became our immediate
King. — Karslake {cojidensccl) .
[2449] In these words Uie Lord Jesus sanc-
tionecl and perpetuated a prayer that was com-
mon among the Jews. Tliey said, " He prays
not at all, in whose prayers there is no mention
of the kingdom of God ; " and one of their daily
petitions to the Father of Israel was, " Let Him
make His kingdom reign, let His redemption
flourish, and let His Messiah come and deliver
His people." The Messiah's kingdom foretold
by the prophets v/as what they meant by the
kingdom of God ; and such was also the under-
standing of the Baptist, of Christ Himself, and
400
2449—2454]
THE LORDS PRAYER.
'SECOND PETITION.
(jf the Lord's disciples, when they went about
preachin;^, " The kingdom of heaven, is at
hand." — Robinson.
3 Appropriateness of its title.
[2450] In this kingdom there is a Monarch,
Jesus Christ, to wliom all power and authority
IS given.- God the Father calls Him "My
King" (Psa. ii. 6). This King hath His throne
in the consciences of men, where thoughts are
brought into captivity to Him (2 Cor. x. 5) ; His
royal sceptre (Psa. ex. 2); His subjects, and they
are the saints (Rev. xv. 3) ; His laws and con-
stitutions— we read of " the law of faith " and
"the law of liberty." In this kingdom there are
privileges and roynl immunities ; there is free-
dom from the curse of the law, and from the
power of sin, and from the destructive influence
of Satan and the world. And here are punish-
ments and rewards both for body and soul :
there is hell and heaven. Now because all these
things do so fitly suit, therefore is the gospel
called a kingdom. — T. Manion, 1629-1677,
4 Its nature and character.
(i) // is vitally connected iviiJi the Sa^noin-'s
life and personality.
[2451] Considered externally it is an historical
fact, and it has an organized form. It is vitally
connected with the life and personality of Jesus.
It is a progressive principle, but it is not the
mere "principle of progress" in the ordinary
use of that phrase. It harmonizes with that law
of development by which the flower unfolds and
the tree grows ; it coalesces with that method
through which the intellect of man attains its
excellence ; but it is distinguished from these ;
it is something more than these. It is not what
we usually term a natural law. It springs from
a fixed point, it starts from a known era in the
world's history, it streams out from the central
Personage of the Gospels. I do not mean to say
that there were no preparations for it. There were
— in the world at large as well as in the Jewish
economy. But I do say that these preparations
owe their significance to Christ's coming. By
His coming we learn that they were prepara-
tions. I do say that by Him these preliminary
elements were first systematized. By Him they
were first concentrated and became a peculiar
force, as they were not while isolated. At His
coming they were drawn to a focus, brought to
bear upon the world, and produced an effect in
the world, as never before. As a special law of
progress, then — as " the kingdom of God " — this
spiritual force dates as an historical fact ; and
from the life and the teachings of Christ it first
begins to leaven the earih and to change its
complexion. — Cliapin.
[2452] He became one of us that He might
be our King; He clothed Himself in our dust
that we might wear His royal robe ; He lay in
our grave that we might sit on His throne ; He
founded our Joy in the deep bitterness of His
own soul, our kingdom in His own obedience
and subjection. Has He not claim to reign
over us ? — Dads.
[2453] We must have an intimate knowledge
of the King. For the laws of His kingdom are
the laws of His own nature — the extent of His
kingdom is the extent of His power, the duration
of His kingdom is the duration of His being. I
confess to delight in the thought that Christ is
an absolute King. Parliaments of men, the
grand confederations of the world, have been and
are necessary, because of the feeble character of
earthly sovereigns. But Christ has been mani-
fested in the midst of circumstances the most
difficult and trying, and so passed through those
circumstances as to be enabled to throw out
this challenge, "Which of you convinceth me of
sin ? "
(2) // is essentially pcrso7ial and spiritual in
its true development.
[2454] Our decision as to the success or defeat
of any great cause will depend very much upon
our scale of measurement. If we measure by
years, or by generations even, it may appear to
have gained nothing ; nay, owing to the limita-
tion of our vision, it may seem to retrograde,
instead of moving, as it really does, steadily
onward, as the stars seem to turn laackward
when we forget the motion of the earth and
mistake it for a fixed centie. In studying the
fact of human progress as affected by Chris-
tianity, then, we must employ a standard equal
to the magnitude of the movement. We must
not consider merely the access or recess in
isolated instances. We must examine the tide-
water marks of centuries, and then we shall find
that the great deep, as a whole, has been heaved
up to a higher level. The great doctrine of
human brotherhood, of the worth of a man, that
he is not to be trod upon as a footstool, or
dashed in pieces as a worthless vessel ; and the
doctrines that grow out of this, the doctrines of
popular liberty, education, and reform, all these
have become active and every-day truths only
under the influence of Christianity.
Consider, too, those ideas of religion which
breathe around us in the atmosphere of every
sabbath, which consecrate and lift up the
humblest congregation — the conceptions of God,
of human life, of immortality. How changed is
the attitude of men respecting spiritual things I
How has this material sphere burst into infinite
relations, and the grave lost its terror ! How
are the guilt and privation of life girdled about
with institutions of philanthropy, and its aftlic-
tions spanned by the midnight firmament of
faith 1
But contrast the general moral aspects of
humanity before and since the advent of Chris-
tianity, and, moreover, select the most unfavour-
able point for modern morality. It is a per-
plexing question whether, as nations advance in
refinement, they do not inevitably decline in their
moral life. We may inquire, therefore, whether
Christianity itself has a conservative influence
sufficiently vigorous fo prevent its communities
THE LORDS PRAYER.
2454—2463]
409
[second petition.
from sliding into the worst abominations of
Pompeii or Corinth. In one word, let us take
the problem presented by great cities — Paris,
London, New York — and we shall detect, I
think, even in such societies the indications of
a moral life far better than the best results of
ancient civilization. Think of the brutality of
those ancient times. Contrast the feelings with
which grave senators and chaste women thronged
the bloody amphitheatre with the disgust and
indignation which so generally follow the least
imitation of such spectacles at the present day.
Well has it been observed, too, that " Chris-
tianity has expurgated the literature of Greece
and Rome." While now immorality is intro-
duced by stealth among the productions of the
pen, and these are productions of the meanest
sort, how unblushingly did the best minds of
old, not only by permission but by expectacion,
blot their pages with hlth and vice. If such
things are done now. they are not done openly
by writers like Catullus and Juvenal. Again,
consider how vice now, even when practised,
hides itself, is protested against, is repudiated
even by the hypocrite who indulges it. Certainly
the respected and the wise condemn it, and such
a protest is essential to both their wisdom and
their reputation. Even when corruption in
modern society is deep, and seems deepening,
the true conception remains. There is a moral
ideal, a popular standard of virtue, that rebukes
this corruption, and that furnishes a recuperative
in fl ue nee. — CJiapiii.
[2455] As this kingdom makes its bloodless
conquests, and erects its beneficent throne
among men, the prophecies of "the latter-day
glory" shall have their noblest fulfilment. When
"righteousness, peace, and joy" dwell in every
heart, it may be that the lower creation shall be
infected with the spirit of gentleness and peace,
so that even, with an almost literal exactness,
"the wolf also shall dwell with the lamb, and
the leopard shall lie down with the kid ; and the
calf and the young lion and the fatling together ;
and a little child shall lead them. And the cow
and the bear shall feed ; their young ones shall
lie down together : and the lion shall eat straw
like the ox. And the sucking child shall play
on the hole of the asp, and the weaned child
shall put his hand on the cockatrice' den" (Isa.
xi. 6-8). But of this we are assured, that the
fiercer and less tameable passions of men shall
be subdued — " they shall not hurt nor destroy,"
and love, as a little child, shall lead them. —
Lofciine.
[2456] All our desires and faculties, our ima-
gination and our will, belong to this kingdom,
in which God is Sovereign. Man is like a
many-stringed instrument, on which God is to
be praised. All within us must be brought into
subjection to Him, and thus into harmony. He
is the great Musician who, by His Spirit,
touches the lyre ; for He works in us both to
will and to do. And yet is it our work in the
truest sense. And this is the beginning as welJ
as the soul of our work, that we ask Him, "Thy
kingdom come." Rule Thou in me by the sweet
influence of Thy grace, by the power of Thy
Spirit, by the love of Christ, by the guidance of
Thy providence, by the teaching of Thy word,
by the fellowship of Thy saints. — A. Sapliir,
[2457] Heaven must be in me before I can be
heaven, and I need the power of the new life to
master the sickness of sin. My heart would lift
its gates daily that the King of glory may come
in. J want Him "to lodge in the castle, with
His mighty captains and men of war, to the joy
ol the town of Mansouk" Therefore, on my
own account, my prayer shall be daily this,
"Tliy kingdom come." — Stanford.
[245 S] The kingdom of God is within, amongst
us ; a power subjecting the wills of men to the
Spirit of God, that is,' the rule of the Spirit of
God in the soul. — Hugo de S. Cliaro.
[2459] Pie came to found a monarchy more
splendid than any that had ever appeared to the
most ambitious dreams of former princes — the
monarchy of mind. He came to achieve con-
quests within the very spirit of man ; winning
the profoundest devotion of His affections and
the exultant homage of Plis thoughts. — Loraine.
[2460] Now the roots of this kingdom are not
in nationalities, or constitutions, or societies, but
in men, individually. We might have a perfect
constitution of things as far as national order
went to begin with ; but the order would soon
be ^//jorder if men were wrong.— A". T.
[2461] It was the purpose of Christ to reveal,
to claim, to institute, a kingdom. "Art Thou a
king, then.?" "Thousayest that I am a king."
But " My kingdom is not of this world." The
kingdom spoken of is a spiritual kingdom. It
is the sovereignty of God in hearts. — Dean
Vaiiglian.
(3) It has an outer and inner circle, known
in these divisions, however, to God alone.
[2462] The visible kingdom of God upon earth
are a company of people openly professing the
fundamentals of religion, and those truths neces-
sary to salvation, which God hath made known
unto the world, and joining together in the
external communion of ordinances.
The invisible kingdom are a company of true
believers who have internal and invisible com-
munion with God by His Spirit and their faith.
The visible Church is of a much larger extent
than the invisible, for it comprehends hypocrites
and formalists. — Bp. Hopkins, 1633-1690.
(4) Its manifest principles and consequent
blcssino;s.
[2463] The burden of John the Baptist's
ministry was, " the reign of heaven is at hand,
get ready for it." While this herald's voice was
sounding, the King came. He had not been
long her-e— in fact, had not yet in a formal wav
4IO
2463—2470]
THE LORDS PRAYER.
TSECOND PETITION.
commenced His undertaking, when, all eyes
being fastened on liim, all minds exercised
on tne question what His kingdom would be
like, he issued a manifesto, and we have it in
the Seven Beatitudes. The tirst beatitude is,
" Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the
kingdom of heaven." " This," says Augustine,
" is' inclusive of all the beatitudes, for all the
beatitudes that follow are the unfolding of this
tirst one. We have here the beginning both
of the principles and the blessings that make up
the kingdom of God." Let but these principles,
with their conscciuent blessings, have ascend-
ancy, and there, in all its perfection, is the
kingdom.
(5) Its sicbjccts viewed as trophies of Chrisfs
spiritual achie-tieiiients.
[2464] Of men wildly rebelling against all
righteous and conscience- binding authority,
Christ took in hand to make a people so
subniissive that they may be called "living
sacrifices." Of men who scorned His rule with
a special scorn. He has to mc.ke subjects who
gladly lay down their lives for their King : of
men hating one another, envying, maligning,
and despismg one another. He has to form a
community so attached, that all possessions,
and even life itself, are held as common pro-
perty, and willingly yielded for the good of the
wiiole ; of men who as soon as He leaves
them are invaded by His enemies, tempted,
threatened, bribed, allured to disaffection, He
undertakes to create faithful and stanch sup-
porters ; of those who are emphatically " not a
people," He has to form a peculiar people, a
people of God. And this He actually does. —
Dods.
(6) The cross of Christ is the instrument by
which its subjects fnust strive to extend its rule.
[2465] Christian men sometimes seem as if
they only half believe in the power of the cross.
They seem as if, like the Emperor Constantine,
they sec a glorious cross, and read the celestial
inscription under it, " by this conquer," yet,
believers as they nominally are, it is not by
this, that is, not by the cross alone, that they
expect to conquer, but by the fitness of the
means they employ in using the cross, and
tiieir real hope seems to be, after all, in the
inslruinoit of the instrument. — Stanford.
(7) Scope and sphere of its action.
[2466] The primary meaning of this petition
is not so much of an intensive as of an extensive
force. The kingdom of God must indeed first
be within us as a subjective fact, before we can
rightly pray that it may be co-cxtcnsive with
tlic whole world. The kingdom of Ckid, for
which we pray, is the visible Church of Christ.
And this petition is for the success of all mis-
sionary eftbrt ; that the kingdoms of this world
may become the kingdoms of our God and His
Christ ; that, in fact, they may become Christian
nations, and the ancient prophecy be fuliilled.
The earth shall be full of the knowledge of
God, as the waters cover the sea." When it
shall not, as now, be necessary for one man to
say to another, " Know the Lord," for all shall
know Him, from the least unto the greatest.
When the gospel of Christ shall have done its
work and lea.ened the whole world, as the
leaven leaveneth the whole lump of meal. — F.
B. Procter.
[2467] W^e must not, however, confound His
kingdom's origin uith its position and the scope
and sphere ot its action. Though not of this
world as derived from it, it is of it, as in it, and
playing a most important part among the visible
concerns of the sons of men. Christ s kingdom
is a real and integral part of human society,
and to ignore either its presence or its influence
would lead to inextricable confusion. — Thomas
Hugo.
[2468] It is impossible for any great earthly
dominion to be solitary and uninlluential ; it is
appealed to a.id must interfere, is imitated and
must mould others ; so it is impossible for this
kingdom of God to be side by side with other
influences and not reverse, increase, or some
way operate on them. As little is this possible,
as it is possible to carry a light through a dark
room and scatter no darkness, but confine the
light to the flame. This is the mode of the
kingdom's increase, and the promise is that it
will so increase. It will grow till there is no
room for any opposing dominion on earth. —
Dods.
[2469] Anything that is even of worldly worth
comes in the track of the knowledge of Christ,
and Him crucified. " Thy kingdom come " is a
prayer not only for all spiritual and moral good ;
it is a prayer for all political and all material .'
If each of us, if all around us, if all the nations
of the earth, were what Christianity would make
them, acted out in their dealings with one
another its teaching and spirit, what a happy
world this would be ! — Deati Vaughan.
(8) Its ultimate success and the fruitlcssness
of opposing its progress.
[2470] " Thy kingdom come." You may not
believe it now', but if you are progressing in a
right direction you will believe it by and by :
when you are brought to see that all secondary
causes are insuffic.ent to account for the shakings
and upheavals and revolutions which must and
will come. Everything in national life which
opposes the principles on which this kingdom
is founded must totter at its progress. There
is nothing which appears in this material world
but it has some unseen spiritual cause. The
fact of men refusing to acknowledge these
spiritual causes does not alter the greater fact
ot their existence.
While men are arguing the facts are working,
and in the long run the facts will always have
the best of it. Yes, my brethren, tyrants may
tvrannize, and the powerful may abuse their
power, and the ricli^grow wanton because of
THE LORDS PRAYER.
2470—2479]
411
[second petition.
their wealth, and in their wantonness oppress
and grind down the poor, and institutions dis-
posed to favour wealth and tyranny may for a
time exist and flourish, and adulterous unions
of various kinds may be perpetuated ; but
tyranny must succumb, and power must confess
itself weak, and wealth own its poverty, and
imjust institutions become things of the past,
the corrupt unions be dissolved by that power
which may seem long in its working ; but
though it be slow, it is sure, and because it is
slow, it is mighty ; aye, and terrible to those
who are found in opposition to it. -R. T.
[2471] In one word, Christianity, although
introduced by miracle, has fallen into the or-
dinary current of Providence. Not by external
ruptures and sudden shocks, but with an inner
life it gradually fills every pore and artery. It
is adjusted to the conditions of a progressive
race. And yet this adjustment is not a servile
compliance, but a condescending and uplifting
sympathy. Mingling thus with the conditions
of one age, it induces the better estate of
another, and creates those yet deeper wants
which it alone can satisfy. It exalts humanity
by accompanying it, and, ever creating higher
ideals, it always appears in the van as the only
help and interpretation. — Cliapin.
[2472] Great is truth, and mighty above all
things. The oKglit^ which is ours now, will one
day become the final must bi of the universe. —
W. Jackson.
(9) Its future constonmation.
[2473] However correctly, in some instances,
the phrase "kingdom of God," or "kingdom
of heaven," may be applied to the setting up of
the Christian dispensation, or to the blessedness
of the immortal world, no doubt the original
term should frequently be translated " reign,"
instead of "kingdom" — "reign of God,"
"reign of Heaven." It indicates a principle
rather than a form ; a progressive force, and
not a fixed dominion. In this sense it is em-
ployed in the Lord's Prayer, and, therefore, the
text should be rendered— " Thy reign come."
But, however we render the term, it certainly
signifies a consummation not yet attained. The
petition, " Thy kingdom come," is as proper
now as it was in the days of Jesus.
[2474] This word " come" implies a kingdom
yet in progress and imperfect. Therefore we
do not pray that God's universal kingdom may
come, for that is always the same. But we pray
that His peculiar kingdom may come, both mili-
tant and triumphant. — Bp. Hopkins, 1633-1690.
[2475] We neither hope nor pray for that
•which is. The prayer, " Thy kingdom come,"
teaches us to distinguish the era of grace from
the era of glory. It is a direct prayer for that
consummation which shall be the final subjuga-
tion of all enemies — unbelief, misery, sin, at last
death itself — to the great Lord of life and
salvation, the final rolling away of the reproach
of His people, the final entrance upon the ever-
lasting inheritance, for which a toiling and
suffering creation has been throughout its gene-
rations waiting and watching. — Dean Vaughan.
[2476] It is proper to this petition, that where
all the other have their present dispatches, and
are put in possession of their suits, this only
lives in expectation, and is put off with a
dilatory answer for God knows how long ; yet
is as well pleased with this expectation as the
others are with their present possessions ; and,
therefore, may justly be called the petition of
hope ; but hope that makes not ashamed, seeing
it consists not in the uncertainness of the mat-
ter, but only of the time. — Sir Richard Baker,
1 568-1645.
[2477] If you refer to the internal part of this
kingdom, then we beg (i) The beginning of it,
or the erection of a throne for Christ in our
hearts, and the hearts of others, that He may
fully exercise regal power. (2) The increase of
it by holiness and obedience and sincere sub-
jection to Him ; for the kingdom of grace is so
come already, that it will still be coming yet
more and more. So long as we need to pray,
so long shall we have cause to say, " Thy
kingdom come." (3) The consuniinatio7i of it,
when the fulness of glory in the second coming
of Christ shall be revealed ; when our head
shall be glorious, and His day shall come, r/jufpa
Kvpiov. For the present it is man's day, so the
Scripture seems to call it ; but then it is the day
of the Lord, when all the devils shall stoop, and
enemies receive their final doom, and the saints
shall have the crown of glory put upon their
heads in the sight of all the world.— 7". Manlon,
1629-1677.
[2478] While these last shall go into eternal
punishment, together with those evil spirits
who have led them away from their allegiance,
and for whom alone the terrors of hell are
properly prepared, the faithful servants of Christ
shall pass from the earthly and spiritual into
the heavenly and actual kmgdom. And then,
we seem clearly taught in Scripture, the media-
torial kingdom of Christ shall come to an end,
with those needs which called it into being ;
He shall give up all power to the Father, and
" God shall be all in ^W.^'—Karslake.
[2479] Whilst we heartily thank God for the
unspeakable gift of His Son, we cannot but feel
that so long as we have no access to Him but
through a Mediator, we have not altogether
recovered our forfeited privileges. The media-
torial office, independently of which we must
have been everlastingly outcasts, is evidence
throughout the whole of its continuance that
the human race does not yet occupy the place
from which it fell. But with the termination of
this office shall be the admission of man into
all the privileges of direct access to his Maker.
Then shall he see face to face ; then shall he
know even as he also is known. — Melville.
412
2480-
THE LORDS PRAYER.
■2489I
[SrJCOND PETITION.
(10) Evil cojtsequences of departure from its
ride.
[2480] There is one great reason for all that
is terrible and saddening and perplexing in
life ; this reason — men have departed, and are
departing, from the order which is in Christ
Jesus. 1 mean, that they are living contrary to
His laws. By their sins and their selfishness
men are doing what they can to darken the
light which He has shed upon life— to confound
and confuse what He has made plain ; to crook
what He has made straight ; to fritter down the
majesty of the truth which He tauglit ; to over-
wrap it and hide it by their own devices. — R. T.
V. The Import of the word "Thy"
PREFIXED to " Kingdom."
I It distinguishes God's from all other
kingdoms and influences.
[2481] The kingdom here spoken of is limited
by particular reference to God, not only to
difference it from the kingdoms of men, which
are subordinate to it, but those adverse king-
doms which are set up against God ; as the
kingdom of sin, Satan, antichrist, the destruction
of which we intend when we pray for the
advancement of God's kingdom. — T. Manton,
1629-1677.
[2482] Everywhere in the material world there
are the highest order and harmony ; whilst the
great forces of the moral world are in strife,
perplexity, conflict, disorder, for " where envy-
ing and strife is, there is confusion " (Jas. iii.
16). There is, therefore, manifestly some rebel
principle at work, at war with the moral govern-
ment of God and destructive of the highest
interests of the commonwealth. — Loraine.
[24S3] For we " fight not with flesh and blood,
but with principalities and powers ;" and seeing
we have a kingdom to assault us, we must like-
w'ise have a kingdom to assist us. Neither
our own forces, nor succour of saints, nor aid
of angels will stand us in stead. God Himself
must go forth with our armies, or we shall never
be able to overcome.— Sir RicJinrd Baker, 1568-
1645.
[2484] Of course the earth is already the
kingdom of God in the first sense of the word.
It cannot come to be so, for so it already is.
But other lords have dominion in it. An
impious war has been declared by the subjects
on earth against the Sovereign in heaven ;
there has been a revolt of the heart, of the
intellect, of the senses, and of all the faculties.
A general insurrection of the human race
against the Creator has been organized in this
world. — Staiiford.
[2485] Our gaze reaches infinity, over all
created spirits from earth to heaven. Over
each one of us He mi.st reign. Child of dust !
each act of thy hand must be subject to the
sceptre of thy King ; each word of thy mouth, I
each most secret desire that arises in the dark-
ness of thy breath. So ought it to be ; but
when we regard it, what is it ? Oh, what a
world of rebellion ; rebellion among the fallen
archangels in the depths of hell ; rebellion
among the children of earth ; rebellion without,
in the scene of their actions ; rebellion within,
in the scene of their thoughts. O holy King,
Thou who art our Father, when will Thy sceptre
rule entirely over us and all the world .'' So
cries the soul in prayer, "Thy kingdom come."
— Tlwiitck.
[2486] Shall we not then pray that this king-
dom come, obliterating all hostile distinctions,
using all diversity of gifts for one common Lord,
and putting one language and oath of allegiance
in the mouths of all, "We are Christ's, and
Christ is God's 1 " — Dads.
[2487] Ever}- kingdom is renowned for some
distinctive feature. Rome was conspicuous for
its warlike propensities. The Grecian states
were celebrated for their love of the fine arts.
France is eininent for its taste. The American
states are famous for their enterprise. England
is illustrious for its business-like habits. But the
distinguishing mark of the kingdom of God is
" rightto isness, and peace, and joy in the Holy
Ghost" (Rom. xiv. 17).— C N.
[2488] Mere acknowledgment of Christ's
kingship is not enough. The confession of
His right to reign on the throne of the universe.
King of kings and Lord of lords, is not enough.
His kingdom is but an expression of His own
nature. What Christ is, that His kingdom is.
The manifestation of Christ was a revelation of
what that kingdom is and will be. In this case,
the kingdom is but the kingly nature dominant
— the kingly nature ruling -the kingly nature
diffused — the kingly nature understood— the
kingly nature admired — the kingly nature re-
ceived—the kingly nature loved — the kingly
nature realized. And in this it differs from eveiy
other kingdom. Other kingdoms cannot repre-
sent it nor show it forth. They are but fingers
pointing to it. It is important to distinguish
between human and Divine kingship. Let us
not think that "man is the measure of the
universe," or that human institutions fully repre-
sent Divine truths bearing similar names. —
R. T.
[2489] We do not pray " my kingdom come,"
but " Thy kingdom come." Not the kingdom
which I have conceived, but Thine ; not the
kingdom of my false ideas and evil imaginations,
but the kingdom which Thou didst intend for
Thy own glory, and the expression of Thy own
fulness. Hence it is that this kingdom comes
under a form altogether foreign to our wishes
and anticipations. As in the Incarnation
Christ came to realize a kingship which had
never entered into the Jewish thought, came
to establish a dominion of which their ideas
THE LORDS PRAYER.
2489 — 2498]
fSECOND PETITION
were only the faint picture. Hence it was that
" When He came to His own, His own received
Him not." And so, in answer to our oft-repeated
prayer, "Thy kingdom come," that every king-
dom may come to us under an aspect which
we never looked for, and our minds having
determined what the kingdom shall be, when
it comes we may reject it as the Jew rejected
Christ, in utter blindness. We have been
praying, "Thy kingdom:" secretly, almost
unconsciously, to ourselves, we have meant
" my kingdom." — Ibid.
[2490] W^e pray to the Father, saying — " Thy
kingdom come ! " Not ours — not a deliverance
we can achieve, an ideal we have wrought. A
"kingdom of heaven." Not something we can
project from our unguided intuitions, or pluck
from the suggestions of science, or from systems
of philosophy. Before the advent of Jesus,
something was needed by humanity, and sought
for, which it could not obtain of itself. It is
this desire, this want, that sighs wistfully from
the great heart of heathenism. It is this that
heaves up in broken longings from among the
symbols of a declining worship. It is this that
clouds with • dissatisfaction the glory of the
oracle, and strips the veil from the beautiful
deceits of mythology. It is this that breathes
in snatches of fragmentary music, wandering as
if in search of the full harmony. It was because
of this that philosophy struggled but could not
attain, and the wisest intellects groped among
strange splendours and awful shadows. It was
this that made the world look at the time Christ
came like a world in eclipse, an exhausted
world, a world of orphanage. He filled a great
want which until then was unsatisfied. He
realized an ideal which until then was incom-
plete. He imparted a power to the soul which
until then it did not possess. — Chapin.
VI. Its Modes of Realization.
X In the hearts of men.
[2491] When our own hearts come under the
control of Divine affections, and are moved by
holy aspirations ; when Divine truth is clear to
our minds, and we are obedient to its dictates,
then is that prayer answered for ourselves —
then for us has that kingdom come. — Ibid.
[2492] The kingdom of heaven is not come
even when God's will is our law— it is come
when God's will is our will. While God's will
is our law, we are but a kind of noble slaves ;
when His will is our will, we are free children.
Robinson.
[2493] So will the kingdom of God come.
Man works with his hands, and this kingdom
will come as such a stone comes, " without
hands." It will come, that is, without that
power of motion which begins in man's working,
here fitly symbolized by '• hands." It will come
by the power of its own Divine vitality and
momentum. It will come in gospel truth, in-
stinct with the life of the Holy Spirit, reigning
in the lives of more and more believers, until
"the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the
Lord as the waters cover the sea." So mighty
and universal shall this reign be. — Stanford.
[2494] Nor should we obscure the true idea
of this consummation even with the glories of
heaven. It is true, we cannot fix a limit to the
whole idea which is involved in the prayer of
the text. We cannot say how much is external
and how much is internal in that desired con-
dition, or to what degree the blessedness of
heaven mingles with the possibilities of earth.
But again I say, let us remember that however
or wherever that consummation may appear, it
is essentially a state of the soul — it expresses
the bliss and excellence of holy and loving
spirits, and no material figures can adequately
symbolize it. —Chapin.
[2495] As Christ saith, " No man can come
unto me except the Father draw him," so we
most properly understand the kingdom to come
to us when the Father draws us and makes us
come unto it : and so in effect our petition is
this, that God by His Spirit would so rule
over us that our spirits may wholly be ruled by
Him and that His kingdom of grace may so
come unto us that we may come at last to His
kingdom of glory.— Sir Richard Baker, 1568-
1645.
2 In the evangelization of the world.
[2496] If you apply it to the external kingdom
of grace, then when we say, " Thy kingdom
come," the meaning is, let the gospel be pub-
lished, let churches be set up everywhere, let
them be continued and maintained against all
the malignity of the world and opposition of the
devil : and in the publication of the gospel,
where the sound of it hath not been heard, that
God would come there in the power of His
Spirit, and draw people into communion with
Himself (Matt. xii. 28).— T. Matiton, 1629-1677.
[2497] The kingdom of grace may be con-
sidered (i) as externally administered in the
means of grace ; (2) as internally received, ruling
the heart and causing the elect to submit to
Christ's sceptre. — Ibid.
[2498] Its establishment was on the great day
of Pentecost, when having ascended into heaven
He sent forth the Holy Spirit, in all the varied
offices of His gospel grace, to be the Presence
and the Power and the Life of God Himself in
the hearts of them that believe. From that day
to this the kingdom has been a reahty and a
power upon the earth. Men have entered it
outwardly by baptism, inwardly by faith — the
former a sacrament, involving promise, oppor-
tunity, responsibility — transferring a man from
heathenism into a state of knowledge and
grace, profitable or perilous according to its use 4
— the latter a gift of God, answering prayer, and
414
2498 — 25o3j
THE LORDS PRAYER.
[second petition.
turning heart and life into a new capacity and a
new nature. — Dean Vaughafi.
[2499] The truth of Christ, therefore, taught
and preached, accompanied b)' the Spirit of
Christ, is the agency of the M'orld's renovation.
It is this that is to change the whole moral and
spiritual condition of this disordered and suffer-
ing world, the means by which the conquests
of this new kingdom are to be achieved, its
government established over the kfe, its princi-
ples implanted in the heart, and the millennial
blessings of its beneficent reign bestowed on
universal man. Gospel truth is the instrumental
means, and the Holy Spirit, who is so emphati-
cally termed in the New Testament "the Spirit
of Christ," is the quickening and efficient power.
— Loraine.
[2500] And in these latter days there is no
desire more common to all Christians than that
the Church may extend her influence ; nor are
there any more conspicuous features of modern
Christianity than missionary zQ.d\.—Dods.
VII. Its Need to be offered from the
Condition of Mankind.
[2501] The kingdom has not yet come — i.
From the narrow extent of Christianity. 2.
From the want of due obedience in the mem-
bers. 3. From the fact that its true members
have not received their reward. 4. Its comple-
tion therefore is not to be until the second
coming of the King (Matthew \x\.)—Man<^ey,
1684-1755.
[2502] The kingdom of providence is not fully
revealed ; the righteous sutler, while the wicked
flourish ; the poor lack bread ; the cruelty and
oppression of man are very grievous ; God per-
mits it, and yet it is not according to His will.
When the true Son of David reigns, the poor
shall have bread, and be satisfied ; justice and
equity, truth and mercy, shall rule on earth ; in
His day shall the righteous flourish. — A. Saphir.
[2503] If heaven itself may be liable to any
defects, or capable of any additions— (i) It is
not yet full, nor shall it be till the whole number
of the elect shall be called, and the whole num-
ber of the called glorified. Many as yet are
conflicting here below, and fitting themselves
for their eternal reward ; many are as yet un-
born. (2) Those glorified saints that are now in
heaven, though their joys be perfect, yet their
persons are not— one part of them, their bodies,
continue still under the arrest of death and the
power of the grave.— Z.^. Hopkins.
[2504] We should pray, " Thy kingdom
come," because : (i) Common benevolence re-
quires it. (2) Patriotism dictates it, Joel iii. 16-
18. (3) Philanthropy recommends it. (4) The
Divine command obliges us to it. (5) Personal
obligation should constrain us to it, Rom. xii. i.
—Good {of Salisbury).
[250=5] But what need we to pray for the com-
ing of this kingdom 'i for seeing it is infinite, it
must needs be everywhere ; and being every-
where, it must needs be here already. But is
it not that there is a difi'"erence between the
being of this kingdom and the coming.? It is
indeed everywhere, but it comes not everywhere.
It is in the wicked upon earth, and it is in the
damned in hell, but it comes only to the faith-
ful on earth, or to the saints in heaven : for
where it only is, it is in power or justice ; but
where it comes, it is in love and bounty ; where
it only is, it leaves us at sea, and suffers us to
suffer shipwreck ; but where it comes, it brings
us into the haven and sets us safe on shore. —
Sir Richard Baker, 1 568-1 645.
VIII. Encouragements to press the
Request.
I Answers already vouchsafed.
[2506] " Thy kingdom come." The answer to
this petition may be seen in the following
figures, which have been given as a probable
estimate of the increase of Christians in the
world.
500,000
2,000,000
5,000,000
lo.ooo,oco
15,000,000
20,000,000,
24.000.000
30,000.000
40,000,000
50,000.000
70,000,000
80,000,000
75,003,000
80,000.000
100,000,000
1st
century
2nd
jj
3rd
4th
5lh
5J
6th
7th
J,
8th
„
9th
„
loth
„
nth
I2th
13th
„
14th
I5tli
i6th
17th
1 8th
j^
19th
V
,000,000
1 5 5 ,000,000
200,000,000
. 300,000,000
— Sharon Turner.
[2507] The prayer cannot be offered without
thankfulness. Since the Church began to utter
it, how Christianity has spread ! Since the
Christian began to use it, how he has grown in
grace ! But neither can it be presented without
concern. Is the kingdom so advanced in the
world or in the soul as, considering the prophe-
cies of the Spirit and the merit "of the Sun of
God, was to have been expected .'' While we
thank our Heavenly P'ather for its present ex-
tent, let us with truer self-upbraiding and
stronger faith than ever cry, "Thy kingdom
come." — Robinson.
[2508] " The kingdom of God cometh not
with observation" (Luke xvii. 20). As in the
kingdom of nature, so in the kingdom of grace,
the grandest operations are performed "witliout
observation." It is n«t the volcano, nor the
THE LORDS PRAYER,
2508—2520]
[second petition.
cataract, but the gentle dew and genial sun-
shine that freshen and fertilise the earth ; so
truth operates silently, and without ostentation.
As the advancing season moves in creation with
silent and unobserved energy, stirring the frozen
currents of natural life with the pulses of re-
viving vigour, obliterating the bleak and barren
traces of winter with the mantling beauty of the
spring ; so the mighty but silent influences of
truth work into the individual or national heart,
quickening it with the energy of new and nobler
principles, and adorning it with the beauty of
nobler life. — Loraine.
[2509] Much of the progress around him is in
directions which prey -^ re a way for the kingdom
of God. Increased intelligence and a more
general and careful education, attention to the
outcast, the distressed, and the criminal, more
liberal ideas of civil liberty, the cordial, frequent,
and increasing reference to union among dif-
ferent sections of the Church, and many other
features of the age that are continually men-
tioned, all make our prayer more hopeful. —
Dods.
[2510] In the fact that this kingdom is to
come, then, we see an evidence of its Divine
authenticity. In its adjustment to the law of
progress, in its ministration to the uplifting
sentiment of hope, we have an answer to the
troubled faith, or the sceptical sneer, which
asks — why Christianity did not come at once in
its full glory, and why, even yet, it has accom-
plished so little of its work. — Chapin.
[251 1] Blessed are they who see the day of
glory, bat more blessed are they who contribute
to its approach.
IX. The Ways in which we hasten the
Coming of the Kingdom.
I By prayer and personal self-consecration.
[2512] What kingdom, then, dost thou wish
for? That of which it is written in the gospel,
" Come ye blessed of my Father, receive the
kingdom prepared for you from the foundation
of the world." We pray that it may come in us ;
we pray that we may be found in it. Therefore,
when thou dost say this, thou dost pray for thy-
self that thou mayest live well. Let us have
part in Thy kingdom ; let that come even to
us, which is to come to Thy saints and righteous
ones. — A tigustine,
[2513] I do not say, you have no right to pray
this prayer for others ; on the contrary, I would
urge you to pray it with all your heart, but
chiefly for yourself. There are some men who
are very charitable and kind and loving towards
all people on earth, except their own families.
Abroad they are angels -at home they are
either brutes or devils. The house would be
happier without them. Something similar are
they who join the fashionable moan because of
darkness and evil, and leave their own natures
in the hardly disputed possession of everything
selfish and worldly. — A'. T.
[2514] Standing by the open grave, we pray,all
of us in our turn, as the hand of God smites us
with a fresh bereavement, " that it may please
Him shortly to accomplish the number of His
elect, and to hasten His kingdom." Yet whose
heart has not misgiven him, as he prayed that
prayer, lest perhaps he be asking his own con-
demnation, his own exclusion from the grace
of life? This is the Church's prayer — this is
the Lord's Prayer — is it, can it be, ours? —
Dca7i Vauglian.
2 By holiness.
[25 1 5] The clean soul can say with boldness,
Thy kingdom come ; tor he who has heard Paul
saying, "Let not sin reign in your mortal
body,',' and has cleansed himself in deed,
thought, and word, will say to God, "Thy
kingdom come." — Cyril of Je7'usalcm.
[2516] See how it pledges us to the warfare
with evil. See how it places us on the side of
God in the great war — how it makes it a
treachery and a falsehood. Afterwards, to go
over to the sin and to the denial which is sure to
assail and to entice it again. — Dean Vaug/iaji.
[2517] Not with untrained mobs, but dis-
ciplined legions, the Romans conquered the
world. Their word for an army was derived
from the verb to exercise. To say " Thy king-
dom come," is to accept the commandment
" Exercise thyself unto godliness." What can
be thought of the loyalty of those who repeat
this prayer, and yet are negligent of the means
of
-Robi)iso7i.
3 Obedience.
[2518] Let this- kingdom be so within us, that
we show a willing obedience in all things. —
A be lard.
[2519] By obedience to Thy laws : and in my
soul, by confidence in Ihy promises : frame my
tongue to praise Thee, my knees to reverence
Thee, my strength to serve Thee, my desires to
covet Thee, and my heart to embrace Thee ;
that as thou hast formed me to Thine image, so
Thou mayest frame me to Thy will ; and as
Thou hast made me a vessel by the stamp of
Thy creation to serve Thee on earth, so Thou
mayest make me a vessel of honour by the
privilege of Thy grace to Serve Thee in Thy
kingdom. — Sir Richard Baker, 1 568-1645.
4 By cultivating the gifts of the Spirit.
[2520] "Thy kingdom come." When you
say these words, you ask God to endow you
with all those graces of character— love, joy,
peace, gentleness, zeal, faith, truth, obedience —
which must be found wherever the kingdom of
God prevails. If you have tried to-day, or if
you will try to-morrow, to be more obedient,
4i6
2520—2527]
THE LORDS PRAYER.
''<;FrOND PETITIO
more gentle, more affectionate, more dutiful to
your parents and teachers, you will do what in
you lies to advance tSe kingdom of God in
your hearts. — Kouiaicay.
5 By example.
[2521] Much more the use of this prayer
pledges us to open our own hearts to receive
this kingdom in all its power and fulness, and
to give the most diligent heedfulness that we
are tolerating no habits that may enfeeble the
inlluence of our Christian life or mar the bfeauty
of its integrity ; but rather let us endeavour,
before and above all other means, to hasten the
fulfilment of our own prayers, by diffusing the
silent but mighty influence of a Christian life,
through personal life in Him who is the life
of men (John xi. 25, 26).
[2522] From praying that God's kingdom
may come, (i) we assuredly expect that in due
time it certainly will come ; (2) we should
learn to be cheerful in any outward distress of
the Church ; (3) we should be disposed to
unity ; (4) we should do cur best to promote
the interests of this kingdom, or our wishes
will be but so much useless breath. — Maitgey.
1684-175 5.
6 By labour.
[2523] It is to be fulfilled by our labour as
well as our supplications. — Chapin.
[2524] By the Spirit of God working through
His inspired truth, in the page of literature, by
the eloquence of the living voice, by teaching
and preaching, by the operation of mind upon
mind, and heart upon heart — so silently and
steadily it is to prevail. — Loraine.
[2525] That Christendom has prayed this
second petition so long, and prays it now so
much, without the corresponding missionary
impulse and missionary work, is the most
mournful evidence that could have been ad-
duced of the great blindness which opposes
everywhere this prayer and its clearest words of
light'.— .67/V7-.
[2526] By the use of this prayer, " Tky king-
dom come," we are pledged to activity in en-
deavouring to diffuse that gospel truth by which
the immortal triumphs of that kingdom are to
be won ; for I need not remind you of central
inlands into which the name of the Prince of
Peace has never been carried, of vast continents
upon which His flag has scarcely been unfurled.
I need not name empires, that count their popu-
lations by hundreds of millions, across whose
frontiers even the ambassadors of the new
kingdom have but just borne the treaties of
salvation. — Loraine.
[2527] If we sincerely and truly say, "Thy
kingdom come," we not only pray in word, read
the sacred volume, profess to be religious,
attend public services, and support missionary
societies, but are ourselves directly engaged in
Christian work. How? In what department?
God helping us as His subjects, what are we
doing, or have we done, to extend His kingdom ?
What post do we hold in His army? Whom
have we defeated for Christ, and whom be-
friended ? Where are the converted who be-
came such by our instrumentality ? Where are
the skilled soldiers of the Lord whom we trained
and disciplined ? What are the names of those
whom we guided when they were lost, whom
we raised when- they fell, whom w-e healed when
they were wounded, whom we revived when
they were dying ? What tents of the army are
there to which we contributed post or canvas,
cord or stake— what schools or chapelj in which
we placed a board or brick? Have we given
mind and strength to our duties ? Would it
have been worse for the church if we had never
been reckoned among its members ? The
appeal is to conscience- Let prayer and practice
agree. Let good works keep pace with good
wishes. — Robuison.
THE LORD'S PRAYER.
THIRD PETITION.
Pa^es 418 (0 432.
A. Introductory Remaiks.
EXPLANATION OF THE OMISSION. OF THIS CLAUSE IN ST
LUKE'S REPORT.
CONNECTION BETWEEN THIS^AND PRECEDING PETITIONS.
VARIOUS AGENCIES BY WHICH GOD HAS MANIFESTED HIS
WILL.
B. Treatment of the Petition in detail.
FIRST CLAUSE.
IMPORT OF THE WORDS "THY WILL," i.e. GOD'S WILL.
PRACTICAL REFLECTIONS ON THE WORDS "THY WILL."
6
IMPORT OF THE WORDS "THY WILL BE DONE."
METAPHYSICAL REFLECTIONS UPON THE W^ORDS "THY WII T
BE DONE."
SECOND CLAUSE.
8
MEANING OF THE WORD "PIEAVEN."
PRECISE FORCE OF THE WORif "AS," IN THE PHRA.SE "AS IN
HEAVEN."
VARIOUS INTERPRETATIONS OF THE PHRASE "IN EARTH"
AS IT IS "IN HEAVEN."
NATURE OF THE ANGELIC OBEDIENCE HELD UP FOR OUR
IMITATION IN THE WORDS "AS IT IS IN HEAVEnI"
LESSONS TAUGHT BY THE ADDITION OF THE WORDS "AS TT
IS IN HEAVEN."
C. Review of the Petition as a -whole.
GENERAL IMPORT OF THIS PETITION.
SPIRIT IN WHICH THIS PETITION SHOULD BE PRAYED.
NECESSITY OF TPIIS PETITION.
^^E^'^^/JCIAL RESULTS WHICH WOULD FOLLOW IF THIS PFTI
TION WAS PRACTICALLY CARRIED OUT IN OUR LIVES.
417
VOL I.
27
4lS
THE LORD'S PRAYER
( Continued ).
4
THIRD PETITION.
{Thy will be done in earth as it is in heaven.)
I. Explanation of the Omission of
THIS Clause in St. Luke's Report.
1 From a critical point of view.
[2528] According to the revisers, this sentence
is given only in St. Matthew. His report of
the wonderful prayer appears to be the standard ;
the report in St. Luke to be, in some respects,
an abridgment ; the design of our Lord in
this renewed utterance, not being to tell it over
again word for word, but to recall the attention
of His disciples to it, as to something which
they had not properly kept in mind. — Statiford.
2 From an ethical or religious point of view.
[2529] St. Luke omits altogether, according
to the best authorities, the petition, "Thy
will be done." He saw it, no doubt, in the
two former. He saw the Will included and
enveloped in the Name and the Kingdom.
Very beautiful is that freedom— that protest, so
to say, against formalism, against the idolatry
of the letter. — Dean Vaughan.
IL Connection between this and Pre-
ceding Petitions.
[2530] To add this petition is not to repeat,
though it be to develop and follow out the
preceding. The three petitions are to one
another as root, stem, and fruit ; as beginning,
middle, and end. In the hallowing of God's
name the foundation is laid for the establish-
ment of His kingdom ; it is the first opening of
the human eye to the majesty of God. Then
the kingdom is established, the heart of man
prostrates itself before its King, forgetting and
cancelling its old laws, and rejoicing in its new
allegiance. But this is not all ; no one praying
would stop here. It is not enough that the
kingdom be est.iblished, that its boundaries be
enlarged, and its glory delighted in ; there is an
end for which all this is brought about ; and
that end is, that the will of the Ruler may be
done. We desire that God may assert his
dominion over us and all men, and may give us
to know that He is a living and near God by
the force of His will upon us. From the
"name" we pass to the work (as displayed in
His kingdom), and from the work to the will.
From the outskirts of His personality we pass tc
its heart. — Dods.
[2531] 1st. With regard to their meaning—
(i) That God's name may be hallowed, His
kingdom must be established.
(2) And that His kingdom may be established,
His will must be obeyed.
" Not every one that saith unto me, Lord,
Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven ;
but he that doeth the will of my Father which
is in heaven" (Matt. vii. 21 : see also i John
ii. i7j.
2nd. With regard to the extent of their use —
(i) In hallowing God's name we are joined by
the holy angels.
"The angels stood round about the throne,
. . . and fell before the throne on their faces,
and worshipped God, saying. Amen : blessing,
and glory, and wisdom, and thanksgiving, and
honour, and power, and might, be unto our God
for ever and ever" (Rev. vii. 11, 12).
(2) In the use of the second petition we are
joined by the souls of the departed just.
" 1 saw under the altar the souls of them that
were slain for the word of God, and for the
testimony which they held : and they cried
with a loud voice, saying. How long, O Lord,
holy and true, dost thou not judge and avenge
our blood on them that dwell on the earth .^"
(Rev. vi. 9, 10).
(3) The third is the special petition of man,
and of man while still on earth.
"Lord, what wilt Thou have me to do?"
(Acts ix. 6: comp. John ix. j^).— Catcchist's
Alaniidl.
[2532] The unspeakable love and bounty of
God, expressed towards us in these three
petitions ! For by the first, we are assured of
eternity : by the second, of a kingdom : by the
third, to be like the angels. Or it we like it
better to say : by the first, we are informed
what we shall be, as angels ; by the second,
what we shall have, a kingdom ; by the third,
what we shall do, the will of Goil.—Sir Richard
Baker, 156S-1645.
[2533] We see li<?w this petition rises be-
yond the two preceding. For if we look at
THE LORDS PRAYER.
2533—2543]
419
I THIRD PETITION.
them in reference to God, the first respects
Him as He is in Himself, all holy ; the second,
as He stands in relation to all other things, as
their Lord and King ; the present petition, the
third, as He puis forth His power over all
things, either controlling them by an irresistible
law, or su tiering them to be partakers, in their
sphere, of His own freedom, co-operators with
Him in that which He wills to have done.
And so, if we look at them with reference to
man, the first desires only that God's Name
may have a place in the thoughts and aftcctions
of men, and be reverenced there ; the second,
that it may have its due place, its throne, there,
all the objects of thought and affection being
controlled by it ; and this third petition, that
as the thought of God occupies both the ele-
ments of the will, so it may support and govern
and quicken all the motions and outgoings of
that will, making it submissive with regard to
all that is to be borne, energetic to execute
faithfully all that is to be done by it. — Karslake.
[2534] As all intelligent prayer must be, so
this prayer is addressed to a Person. Its
opening words demand the recognition of this
fact from him who offers il. As a Person, He
to whom the prayer is offered js possessed of
will — a will founded in His nature. The words
of invocation require the acknowledgment of
His personality, and the first petition suggests
the glory of His Name— that is, of His nature,
of Himself, who is to be "hallowed" by us.
As that nature in itself is essentially perfect —
perect in every physical attribute and moral
perfection — so the will which springs out of
that nature must also be perfect. In it in-
justice, untruth, fallibility, or feebleness, can
find no place. — Lo7aine.
[2535] This follows upon the former in a
most rational and admirable method ; for as
before we pray that the kingdom of God might
come, as the best adapted means to hallow His
name ; so now we pray that His will may be
done by us, as the clearest declaration that we
are the subjects of His kingdom. — Bp. Hopkins,
1632-1650.
[2536] We may judge of our respect to His
name and kingdom by our obedience to His
will, without which we neither sanctify His
name nor submit to His kingdom. Before, we
pray that God would rule us, and now, for a
soft and pliable heart, that we may be ruled
by Him. Christ is not our king when we do
our own will.— 7". Ahmion, 1629-1677.
[2537] In the former petition, we pray not
only for the flourishing state of Christ's Church,
but for inward grace and assistance by which
the outward means may be made successful.
But as no means have a physical and certain
power, but only moral and persLiasive, here
follows a petition for the actual good success of
the means in bringing \is to a cheerful com-
pliance with the will of God. — J". Blair, 1723.
[2538] As this petition, then, teaches us to do
God's will, it very fitly follows that respecting
the kingdom. For, as that prays for Him to
reign, so this for us to obey ; as that prays for
the spread of His kingdom among men, so this
that its inward power may appear in their
godly conversation ; and as that sets before
us the obedience of the Church on earth, so
this a higher obfdience, even that of the family
of heaven, and shows us how we are best to
prepare for the kingdom in glory. — Paga7i.
[2539] But how do these petitions hang to-
gether .'' or how is not this directly contrary to
that which went before? For, there we desire
a kingdom, that we may do what we list : and
here we desire subjection, and to be at another's
command. Yet here is no contrariety : for there,
we desire to reign over our own wills ; and here
we desire to be subject to His will ; and this
subjection is our true reigning ; this service, our
perfect freedom. — Sir Richard Baker, 1 568-1645.
[2540] The Divine will may contradict man's
desires ; it cannot oppose his best interests.
It may frustrate his schemes, but only to further
his salvation. Therefore, as we are taught to
hallow in our every thought the Divine Name,
we must also hallow the Divine will— it is a
part of that Name — in our thoughts, feelings,
desires, prayers ; learning day by day to say,
" Thy will be done." — Loraine.
[2541] The happiness of the kingdom of God
wi.l be, that His will must then be done ; and
the preparation for the doing of His will in
heaven must be the performance of that will in
the earth and in our hearts.
When we say our prayers, therefore, and ask
that the will of God may " be done on earth as
it is in heaven," we ask that means may be
taken by which the kingdom of God may
speedily be brought about. — Keniiaivay.
III. Various Agencies by which God
HAS MANIFESTED HiS WiLL.
I The order of nature.
[2542] It is by the exercise of God's own
will that the material creation obeys Him. He
himself sways to unsinning obedience the tides
in their beat and the stars in their courses. It
is by Himself that His will is done in the
happy things of the earth, and air, and water. —
Stanford.
[2543] Whatever the mystery of substance,
of power, of form, and of motion may be, we
are certain that all the energies of the visible
heaven and earth are under the guidance of
that Divine will which called them into exis-
tence, and which teaches us what we cannot do
by what He does. He maintains the order of
that assemblage of powers which visible creation
is. And by these things which do appear He
teaches us to understand the invisible things of
Himself which have been named His Eternal
420
2543-2552]
THE LORDS PRAYER.
[third petition.
Power and Godhead, which must comprehend
all things. — Pej'dval.
[2544] And in looking to heaven as the model
of our service, we need not pass by the visible
heavens from which David so constantly drew
lessons for himself. To see how God's will
should be done, we have but to turn the eye to
the " unworn sky," old in the service of God,
but fulfilling His will as at first. We see the
precise regularity which should characterize our
service also. We see how unweariediy all per-
form their parts, the great sustaining the small,
the small reflecting and enhancing the glory of
the great ; all as members of one system, obeying
in peaceful harmony Him who calls them all by
their names. We see how the sun morning after
morning comes forth rejoicing to run his race,
how the moon observes her appointed seasons,
and the sun knoweth his going down ; how all,
though it be in an unvarying course, fulfil the
will of Gad untiringly. And is our glory to be
our shame.'' Is the only result of our being
gifted with will and intelligence to be that we
rebel against God, and revolt from His will ?
Ought not the order of nature, which we admire,
and to which we trust, be a perpetual rebuke to
us. — Dods.
2 His overruling providence.
[2545] That will of God which set nature (as we
speak) in motion — that will of God which keeps
providence (as we speak) in action — the one
securing the orderly course of material systems,
the other overruling the anxious,_ perilous, ter-
rible march of cause and consequence, of reap-
ing and sowing, in matters which have lives
and souls for their factors and for their results
— these two wills of God none can help and
none can hinder. — Vaug/mn.
[2546] Outward nature tells to the ear of
every one who will but listen to her voice, that
a law has been laid upon her which she may
not disobey, save at His bidding who first im-
posed it ; but it is only at occasional times and
in slight degrees that the veil is withdrawn
which hides the counsels of the Lord with
reference to man, and man is permitted to
see that each individual in his limited sphere,
and nations in their comparatively mighty in-
llucnce, are but instruments working out the
counsels of the Most High. Pharaoh, or Cyrus,
or the great Assyrian monarchs, or the Jewish
race — how great the influence which they exer-
cised on the destinies of mankind ! Yet the
Almighty God declares of each of them, that in
the exercise of that influence they were but
carrying out His will ; thereby intimating to
us (what our own natural conception of the
Almighty might lead us to expect) that all
things, small and great, good and evil, are
foreseen by His omniscient eye, and work out
the purposes of His wisdom and His love. —
Kars/a/cf.
[2547] There is no difficulty in this petition
when God's will runs parallel with man's will.
And often men congratulate themselves that
they are doing God's will, when really it is only
their own will that they are doing, which hap-
pens to agree with God's will. The child finds
no difficulty in obedience, so long as the com-
mand corresponds with its own dispositions and
desires ; but when the parental authority for-
bids the enjoyment of some pleasure, or com-
mands some unpleasant duty, then appear the
impatient tear and the fretful frown. So when
the currents of life run smoothly, when pros-
perity fills the sails of business, health flushes
the cheek, and happiness cheers the household,
the prayer soars lightly from the lip, " Our
Father — Thy will be done." But when the
Supreme Father interposes the authority of
His paternal love and wisdom between man
and the attainment of some cherished purpose
of his life, or when He deprives him of that
v/ith which the strong fibres of his affections
have been interwoven, then too often the spirit
resists, while the lips feebly falter as they utter
the prayer, " Thy will be done?'' — Lonune.
3 The Holy Scriptures.
[2548] Though the will of God is distinctly
impressed upon the material universe, and
clearly seen in those fixed laws by which it is
regulated ; and is discerned, though not so
plainly, in those circumstances, which we recog-
nize as providential, within the sphere of the
operation of His moral laws, yet it is in His
revealed word, disclosing to us the plan of
salvation, that His eternal purpose towards man
is fully made known. — E. B.
[2549] The precepts and commands of God
are likewise His will (Rom.xii. 2), His revealed
will, whereas the other is God's secret will until
it be manifested unto us by the events and
effects ofit.—Bp. Hopkins, 1633-1690.
[2550] God's will is made known to us by the
(i) revelation of His word, and (2) by the dis-
pensations of His providence. We show our
desire to do His will by (l) studying His word,
and (2) submitting to the decrees of His pro-
vidence.— Ramsay.
IV. Import of the Words, "Thy Will,"
i.e., Gods Will.
I When viewed generally.
[2551] God's will is His purpose towards His
creatures, revealed in His works and in His
word, and fulfilled in the exercise of His power.
-E. B.
[2552] His purpose, whereby He guides and
governs all events whatsoever ; so that there
is not the most inconsiderable occurrence that
happens, not the least flight of a sparrow, nor
the falling off of a hair, nor the motion of an
atom in the air, or a dust, or a sand on the
earth, but as it is effected by His power and
providence, so it was determined by His will
and counsel. — Bp. }h)pkitis, 1633-1690.
THE LORDS PRAYER.
2553-2562]
421
[third petition.
[2553] Nor must we confoiirld His will with
His sovereignty. His sovereignty is His abso-
lute control. His will is the disposition with
which He wields that control. Power is but
the instrument. Will is the intention which
■wields the instrument. Power is not a moral
quality. It may command our awe and our
admiration, but of itself it cannot claim our
worship. When we pray — " Thy will be done,"
then we must have reference to the character
of the Deity ; to His wisdom, justice, and
goodness, as well as His power. Otherwise,
the ejaculation is slavishness, not true worship.
It is a forced accjuiescence, not a devout desire.
The Christian always regards the moral signi-
ficance unfolded in every display of God's su-
premacy, and in all His workings. In one
word, he recognizes Cod in all. But the man
who sees only the power and not the intention ;
who says, " Ihy will be done," -because he
must, without discrimination as to whose will
it is, or what it is, hardly feels, in any sense, the
sentiment of the text. He would express the
same acquiescence if there were no God — if he
were chained to the wheel of destiny and driven
by the blind forces of nature. — Cliapin.
2 When viewed in relation to human agency.
[2554] Though we recognize with awe the
actif)n of God's will in creation, and with trust-
fulness in the operations of His providence, yet
in practice this prayer is the cry of human need,
and its answer is to men on earth. — E. B.
[2555] God, of whose will it cannot be so
truly said that it is ruled by reason, as that it is
the very rule of reason, nothing being otherwise
reasonable but as it is conformable to His will ;
and therefore He gave reason to man that he
might be capable to do His will, which because
He hath not given to beasts they are not. — Sir
Richard Baker ^ 1 5 68- 1645.
[2556] By tliis will is not meant His will in
His providence and rule over things, for this
He always does Himself; and it is not only
done in heaven, but in earth also ; and more-
over, we do not pray for Him to do it, but that
it may be done — i.e., by others. Hence, His
will here signifies what He commands or ap-
points to be done by men. — Pagan.
[2557] 1. The earth is the place of our exer-
cise and trial (John xvii. 4). 2. The earth is
the only place wliere this work is begun ; it
never can be hereafter. 3. On earth, to stimu-
late our longings for that happy estate wherein
we shall serve God in heaven. 4. On earth,
to show that we pray not for those in the other
^o\\A.— T. iM anion., 1629-1677 {condensed).
[2558] Feeling that there is a wide sphere in
which He acts irresistibly, we also feel that
there is a wide sphere in which He is not
served ; and so, with a mingled desire, we pray
— " Thy will be done !" — Chapin.
[2559] One step further. God's will is not
only to be done in us, but by us. " Thy will be
done on earth as it is in heaven " (literally, Thy
will be done as in heaven so in earth). Men
are agents by which God is pleased to advance
the purposes of His will among men, especially
as regards the diffusion of that revealed truth
by which His will is made known. Therefore,
by personal activity in every good and noble
cause, that aims either to improve the physical
or intellectual, and especially the spiritual con-
dition of men, and by exliibiting in life the
principles of Christian virtue, every one who
consistently prays " Thy will be done," must
endeavour to do God's will as in heaven so in
earth. — Loraine.
3 When viewed in relation to human con-
duct.
[2560] "The will of God," saith the apostle,
"is our sanctification ;" it contains all those
rules of duty that He hath imposed upon His
creatures in order to make them holy, as He
is holy, and perfect, as He their Father is per-
fect. It is called therefore, in respect of our
own narrow and imperfect dispositions, "the
good and acceptable and perfect will of God,"
and is set forth in those several laws which he
hath made the condition and measure of His
favour. — Mangey, 1684-1755.
[2561] And upon this foundation of God's
mercy we may build our assurance, that God's
will is not then done when His creatures are
undone ; but that, as it was His pleasure at first
to make us, so it is His pleasure still to preserve
us ; and as from His everlasting will we all
have our life, so by His will we should all have
everlasting life. When as yet we were not. His
will was we should be ; now that we are, His
will is that we should be holy. And if any
man sin, His will is He should repent ; and if
a man repent. His will is he should be saved.
Let this will, O Lord, be as thy last will, which
yet can come but as streams from the fountain
of thy first will ; for, as it was merely thy will
that at first made thee to make us, so it is
merely thy will that must make us to be holy,
that must make us to repent, that must make
us to be saved. These wills in God are as the
chain of His mercy, whereof eveiy link is fas-
tened to one another, and all of them firmly
fastened upon us, unless by the violence of our
sins and the sinfulness of our wills we do wil-
fully break them. O God, so frame our wills,
that they may be fit links to be fastened to this
chain of thy will. — .Sir Ric/ia/d Ba/cer., 1 568-1645.
[2562] The will— the great will— that which
is all love — that which would have all men
happy — that which would have consecration co-
extensive with existence — grant, O Father, that
that beautiful, that beneficent will may be done,
not only by a few, not amidst weariness and
painfulness, but as it is done in heaven. — Dean
Vajcislian.
422
2563—2573]
THE LORDS PRAYER.
[third petition.
[2563] The whole spirit of Christ was, " Lo,
I come to do thy will, O my God ; yea, thy
hiw is within my heart." Whoever possesses
tlie spirit of Christ dehghts in the will of God.
Down to the depth of the agony and bloody
sweat, and the cross and passion, the submissive
spirit descends in suftering, that the will of God
may be done. That goocmess should sufter, is
a problem that is solved in the joy of yielding
to the will of God, which is the sanctitication of
those who consecrate themselves to His service.
When God's shall is man's ivill, then it is that
God's will is done in earth as it is in heaven.
Then the depth of luiman submission and obe-
dience will respond harmoniously to the depth
of Divine determination and volition. Then
the reasons of the will of God will be seen to
comprehend all truth. — Pctxival.
[2564] Consider how much tliis petition im-
plies ! It is. if used sincerely, the givmg up of
all your affairs into the hand of God, to dispose
of them as He wills, so that if He gives or takes
away you will still say, " Blessed be the Name
of the Lord ;" but, further, it is to ask Him
to transfigure your whole moral and spiritual j
nature, to make you "a new creature in Christ." >
— Loraiiie.
[2565] The regulntive power of the universe
is the will of the Eternal Father, which Christ
prayed to '• be done in earth as it is done in I
heaven." That there is the will of God ; that ,
that will is done in heaven ; that it is not done I
in earth as it is in heaven as yet, but that it 1
may be so done, we have the full assurance of
our Redeemer's uttered heart. He is the Amen
of that Father's uttered will, which is that He
will have all men to be saved, and to come to
the knowledge of the truth. — Fcrcival.
4 When viewed in relation to human obli-
gations.
[2566] This w;is Christ's praver when He was
about to redeem us by the shedding of His own
precious blood. He wills that it should be our
prayer also ; that what the Saviour prayed on
our behalf we should pray for ourselves. {^Scc
Luke xxii. ^,2)— Denton.
[2567] This will of God should be doubly
engaging, both in the authority and usefulness
of it ; in the one, as it is the command of Him,
who, by creating us, has a right to all that we
can do ; in the other, as it is the advice of a
merciful Father, who hath no other design by
revealing it, but to make his children eternally
happy. — Mani^ey, 1684- 1755.
[2568] Consider these motives: (i) God's
absolute authority to command, i Tim. vi. 15.
(2) The equity of what He hath commanded,
Rom. vii. 12. (3) To be given up to our own
will is a great calamity, I'sa. Ixxxi. 12. (4) It
is the truest liberty to be subject to the will of
God, John viii. 26. (,5) He whose heart is bent
on God's will hath the clearest knowledge of
the Divine mind, John vii. 17. (6) God will
surely punish the violation of His will, James
iv. 12. — T. M anion, 1629-1677.
[2569] TJiyw'xW carries in it both an emphasis
and an exclusion, i. It emphatically signifies
that God's will ought to be preferred above and
before all others. Because (i) God's will is
most sovereign ; (2) most perfect. 2. It may
be taken exclusively, Thy will and not our own
be done, to teach us the hard lesson of self-
denial. -A^. Hopkins, 1633-1690.
V. Practical Reflections on the Words
"Thy Will."
1 Each one has a " My will."
[2570] "My will— let that be done," is the
prayer we are commonly disposed to offer. We
repeat it, not only in eftect, but in plain words,
and without the disguise of circumlocution. It
is so often said, that it ceases to strike us in
every instance as being too bold and most ir-
reverent. Only occasionally are we checked
and made ashamed by the recollection that
" Thy will be done " is what the Lord tells us
to say. — Robinson.
2 God has a " Thy will " for each one.
[2571] Care not what causes beyond thy con-
trol from without placed thee in that sphere ;
care not what aid from heavenly influences thou
mayest need to assist thee in that sphere ; care
not what consequences may flow out from thy
conduct in that sphere, in carrying out the
designs of God in the world. In that sphere,
wherein thy being moves, thou art free ; accept
that sphere cheerfully, and in it act freely, in
obedience to God's law, so far as thou canst
know it, and with the aid of the Holy Spirit,
working with but not controlling thy will ; and
thus, moving in thy sphere according to the law
of God, thou wilt accomplish thy destiny, and in
thee and by thee will the will of God, whatever
it be, be fulfilled. — Karslakc.
[2572] There is another aspect of the petition.
God has made a will concerning our actions.
He has given to each one his work and his
talent. It is a wonderful thought — but perfectly
true— that God, in the high and holy heaven,
cares what we do ; would have us occupied
thus, not thus, this day, this hour ; would
have us go hither, not thither ; see this person,
not that ; express ourselves thus, use our influ-
ence thus, write this letter, attend this service,
say this prayer. — Z^t'</;/ I'aiti^han.
3 God's " Thy will " and man's " My will "
necessarily often in collision.
[2573] Why are the purposes of life broken
off and its desires defeated ? God is all-wise,
all-powerful, all-loving; why does He not con-
trol the course of events, and shape the plans
THE LORDS PRAYER.
2573—2582]
[third petition.
of His providence to harmonize more nearly
with man's desires, and to agree with his judg-
ments ? Nay, my brethren, but is it not certain,
just because God is all-wise, all-powerful, all-
loving, that " His ways cannot be our ways, nor
His thoughts our thoughts ; " that when infinite
love, wisclom, ar.d power are working for man's
interest, they must frecfuently oppose man's
judgment and desire. — Loraine.
4 Which of the two wills, "Thy will" or
" my will," is our actuating principle.
[2574] In all my choosing, I am referring to
God's will, having resolved to do it ? Or I am
snatching my short time of wretched self-
government, before God calls me to account ?
Am I doing my best to shape my life, so as to
carry out God's will t or, having schemed a life
for myself, am I wresting Gocl's will so as to
bring it near to my own 1 Am I acting from
God's will as my reason, and motive, and guide,
or from my own untutored and unsubdued will ?
—Dods.
[2575] Grant that we may never seek to bend
the straight to the crooked, that is. Thy will to
ours, but that we, and all doers, may bend the
crooked to the straight, our will to Thine, " that
Thy will may be done." — Augustine.
VI. The Import of the Words "Thy
Will be done."
I Negatively.
(i) By abste7it!on from wrong-doing.
[2576] This is the prayer of all Christian
people who desire to do God's will ; but those
impenitent sinners who are not yet weary of
their sins do never pray ; for though they say
the words, it is to no purpose, it is but lip
labour, it is but the devil's service ; for a man
may serve the devil by saying this prayer, when
he saith it with a defiled mind. Let us, there-
fore, order ourselves so that we may say it
worthily, as it ought to be said. Let us put
away all wickedness and evil living, that we
may say from the bottom of our hearts, " Thy
will be done."— Lati/ner.
[2577] "As it is in heaven :" there there is no
disobedience, nothing disorganized, nothing but
the will, the kingdom, the honour of God ; as
in the courses of suns and stars, so among the
morning stars and sons of God (Job xxxviii. 7),
there is the festal service of those who, active in
rest, shout for joy in their ranks of blessedness.
So should it be upon earth. Vast is the mean-
ing which carries the promise in this prayer far
above all the stir and tumult of humanity, invit-
ing and urging all the children of God to rest-
less wrestling in prayer and receiving, and
fervour in doing His will. By this petition, if he
ventures to take it into his lips, the godless
man condemns himself ; with it the sufferer
comforts himself, and is assured that through
the gracious will of God all evil shall lose its
hold upon the meek, who have already in hope
the earth for their inheritance ; by it the sloth-
ful man invigorates himself, the self-willed
rebukes himself; and by it the will of the
Spirit, which must conquer, prays itself through
all the impediments of an opposing flesh to per-
fect victory. The Forerunner Himself, in the
weakness of our flesh, prayed this prayer before
us, yet without sin. — Sticr.
[2578] There is here a note of appropriation.
Thy will in opposition (i) to our own will, which
is the proudest enemy Christ hath on earth,
and cause of all the mischief that doth befall us
(Eph. ii. 3). (2) To Satan's will. Our lusts are
called his lusts, because they are of his in-
spiring and cherishing. (3) To the wills of
men (i Peter iv. 2).— 7'. Manton, 1629- 1677.
[2579] In heaven there is no disobedience, no
indolence, and no selfisl n;ss. In heaven all is
holiness, all is alacrity, all is love. Do we pray
that we may do the will of God as it is done in
heaven ? By this prayer we condemn ourselves
if we live sinfully, if we live indolently, if we live
selfishly. By this prayer we strengthen ourselves
for a life of purity, for a life of diligence, for a
life of love. By this prayer we comfort our-
selves in sadness and sorrow, when we look
upward into the indefinite heaven, and see it
inhabited by glorified and blessed spirits, our
companions, our friends, our fellow-worshippers,
already one with us in spirit, soon to be our
associates in the bright and holy Presence for
ever. — Dcatt Vaughan.
[2580] If not among them, among whom
shall we be ? The will of God must take effect.
If we do not pray in the third petition for our
salvation by obedience, do we not pray in it, if
we use it, for our damnation because of dis-
obedience.'' And do not all God's people pray
in it for the triumph of His will over that of His
enemies, including us.'' If we say to God,
" Thy will be done," and intend not to do it,
we shall but turn the petition from active into
passive, God's will into His anger, and draw it
down to be done upon us in earth, as it was done
in heaven upon the angels. Without holiness
"no man shall see the Lord." — Robinson.
2 Positively.
(i) By active obedience.
By ac
81] It
[2581] It may justly be called the petition
of obedience ; seeing all the others have their
ends in enjoying ; this only hath no end but in
obeying.— 6Yr kic/iard Baker, 1 568-1645.
[2582] By doing God's will we enter into Kis
kingdom (see Matt. vii. 21): "Not every one
that saith unto me. Lord, Lord, shall enter into
the kingdom of heaven ; but he that doeth the
will of my Father which is in heaven." It is not
the blandishment of a spiritual compliment, but
a true and hearty subjection to the will of God,
424
2582—2591]
THE LORDS PRAYER.
[third petition.
that availeth in God's kingdom, and is inkinded
by this petitionary clause, " Thy will be done."
— T. MaJiton, 1629-1677 {abrid^^ed).
[2583] And let all be done out of that only
true principle of obedience, love to God, and
presented unto Him upon that only ground of
acceptation, Jesus Christ, and seasoned with the
acceptable grace of humility. If when I have
done all that is enjoined I am but an unprofit-
able servant, how unprofitable am I when I
infinitely fail of what I am commanded ! — Sh-
Matthciv Hale.
[2584] When we pray "Thy will be done,"
we beg I, a heart to do it (Deut. v. 29) ; 2, skill
to do it (Psa. cxliii. 10) ; 3, strength to do it
(Heb. >:iii. 2\).—Jbid.
[2585] And as we may try to bear, so we may
try also to do God's will in some one thing in
which we feel that we have fallen short hereto-
fore.— Karslalce.
[2586] I. Some pretend to do God's will in
generals, but stick at particulars. 2. Some com-
mend the will of God, but do not practise it
(Matt. xxi. 29, 30). 3. For the moment, under
present conviction and persuasion, some have
high thoughts of doing the will of God (Deut.
V. 27). 4. A seeming awe rests upon the con-
science, and so many are urged to do God's
will ; yet the heart is averse from God all the
while, as Balaam. 5. Others have an idea that
they were brought under the power of it, as he
that stretched himself upon his bed and said,
Oh, that this were to labour! 6. In many cases
the will of God is halved, and men do part of it
but not all (Matt. v. 19). 7. There are those
who are reluctant either to know it or to come
under the power of it. — T. Alanion, 1629-1677
{condensed) .
[2587] The will of the Father and of the Son
harmonized in the prayer of Christ, and in
the practices of Christ. The Redeemer ot man
did the will of (iod His Father on earth as
that will is done in heaven : — Christ's obedience
to death being the measure of the obedience of
heaven and earth — Percival.
[2588] And here it is to be observed, that in
order to our carrying out the mightiest schemes
of Ciod, it is not necessary that we know what
these are. God gives to each what each can do,
and by the various gifts and labours of all fulfils
His own grand purpose. What we need to
know is only the commands of God, what He
sees fit for us to do. And doing this we may be
sure that, so far as we are concerned, the secret
purposes of God are accomplished. All mur-
muring and excusing is in vain, for these three
things, God's commandment, our circumstances,
and God's eternal purpose, are all of them
springing from one source, the will of God, and
do therefore harmonize. Our circumstances
are allotted by the same will which commands
us. — Dods.
(2) By passive stibmission.
[2589] So that when we pray "Thy will be
done," we pray that God may so rule, that to
the utmost ends of the earth, and in the minutest
actions of men, and in all the arrangements of
life, there may be the easily visible impress of
God's will. This we pray for, but more directly
that our circumstances may be so ordered as
to enable us to carry out most eftectually the
design of God with us, and that we may be so
gifted with wisdom, courage, and self-command,
as to see and follow out the line of conduct
most appropriate to us where God has set us.
Praying thus, we are strengthened for all duty,
whether it be active or sorely passive. We find
in all that happens to us an answer to this
prayer, and instead of being dismayed, as those
who have not prayed that the will of God may
be done, we find, in every change and seeming
chance ot life, new scope for carrying on the
work of God, our share in His plan ; and for
our ordinary -days which pass as yesterday
passed, we find no healthier influence to give
them a uniform tone and character than to write
on the threshold of each, " Thy will be done." —
Ibid.
[2590] In regard to God's absolute decrees,
we must use the words, "Thy will be done,"
not, as devils might use them, because we can-
not hinder His sovereign will, but in cordial
acquiescence, like that of the holy angels,
because His will is best ; and we have seen that,
as to the ways of His unerring providence, our
spirit and speech must be like David's when,
fleeing from Absalom, he said, "'Carry back the
ark of God into the city : if I shall find favour
in the eyes of the Lord, He will bring me again,
and show me both it, and His habitation : but if
he thus say, I have no delight in thee ; behold,
here am I, let Him do to me as seemeth good
unto him" (2 Sam. xv. 25). While His will is
the cause of all that is done, it is also the stan-
dard of all that we should do. Acquiescing in
His appointing will, we must obey His directing
w i 1 1 . — Robinson.
[2591] But may not this petition be thought
superfluous ; to pray for that which is, and will
be done, whether we pray for it or no .? For,
God doth whatsoever he will both in heaven and
in earth : and who hath resisted His will? But
we must consider, that we pray not for God, but
to God for ourselves ; that having undone our-
selves by doing our own will, we may be re-
paired by doing of His will ; and not of His will
absolute, but of His will in relation. Not when
He commands, as when He said, " Let there be
lii^ht," but when He gives commandments: as
when He said, " Thou shalt love the Lord thy
God with ail tliy heart." We therefore pray that
this will of His may be done of us, by our
obedient and cheerfi(4 acting it ; and done in us,
by our patient and thankful suffering it; that
THE LORDS PRAYER.
2591-
-2600I
[third petition.
concerning the first, we may do, as the captains
said to Jeremy, " Whether it be good or evil,
we will obey the voice of the Lord ;" and con-
cerning the latter, we may say as Eli said, "It
is the Lord, let him do to me as seemeth good
in his eyes." — air Richard Baker, 1 568-1645.
[2592] The will of God is revealed two ways,
in His word and in His works; the one to be
done by us, the other to be done upon us : the
one is Vohtnlas de nobis, God's will concerning
us ; the oth.er, Voliintas in nobis, God's will in
us, and to be done by us ; the one maketh way
for our active, the other for our passive obedi-
ence. Our active obedience hath respect to His
laws and commands, but our passive to His
providence. We show as much obedience in
the one as in the other, in patience as in holi-
ness ; for as in holiness we own God as the
supreme lawgiver, so in patience we own Him as
the supreme Lord, that hath a dominion over
all events and all things which fall out in the
world. — 7". Aianton, 1629-1677.
VI L Metaphysical Reflections uroN
THE Words, "Thy Will be done."
1 The possibility of disorder was God's will.
[2593] The doing of God's will is simply the
doing right, because God's will is rooted \\\ His
righteousness. We dare not assert that God
could not have prevented disorder, or the pos-
sibility of disorder. We must assert that the
possibility of disorder was His will. The AU-
J'ather has made provision in His government
for the co-existence of His will with the violation
of it. But the violation of God's will is only a
progress towards absolute submission to it. For
God's will is eternally righteous and almighty,
and He must, therefore, subdue all things to
H imself.^ — Percival.
2 God does not 'force man's free will, but
appeals to it and inclines it.
[2594] God works morally, so as to preserve
man's nature, and the principles thereof; there-
fore he works by sweet inclination, not with
violence. So He comes with blandishments
and comfortable words (Hosea ii. 14). Really
along with this persuasion there is an almighty
power ; for bare persuasion cannot make the
blind to see, the dead to live, or open the
heart of man, that is so desperately and
obstinately wicked, until He puts His fingers
upon the holes of the lock, until He begins to
open the heart. — T. M anion, 1629-1677.
[2595] Yet with this consciousness mingles
another — that of spiritual affinity to the Creator.
We know that we are not merely His creatures,
but His ofi"spring. We share His nature. And
the glory of that nature is moral freedom —
power to act or to resist, to choose or to reject.
So althoujuh as finite existences we hang upon
the Infinite, although as material creatures we
are held in an irresistible control, as spiritual
beings we have a sphere of our own, a realm of
voluntary action. Into this circle God does not
intrude His absolute power, but His intrinsic
righteousness. He does not force it, but He
appeals to it. He does not bind its service as
the omnipotent Maker, but demands its free
allegiance as the moral Governor. — CJiapin.
[2596] His will is done in the birds, insects,
and flowers ; but we, who are beings with wills
of our own, "are required to do willingly what
the flowers do unconsciously." W^e, by our
own choice, are to spread ourselves out to His
light, drink it in, and pour it out again in the
beauty and fragrance of holiness. We would
not obey His will against our own will, as slaves
do, but would be as happy children delighting
in the " dear God who loveth us." — Stanford.
3 Obedience to the Divine does not destroy
but renovates our will.
[2597] In praying that God's will may be
done, we are not to understand that man's will
is to be suspended, but only that it is to be sub-
ordinated to God's will. Not that man shall
not will, but that his erring will shall be harmo-
nized with the all-perfect and unerrable will of
God. — Loraine.
[2598] Some Christians dimly think that a
Christian is to have no will at all, and that the
consummation prayed for here is that our own
wills may die, and that the only will left living
should be God's. God's will is that our will
should by renovation be more energetically
alive than ever, working in harmony with His
o wn . — Stanford.
[2599] We do not pray that our will should
be wholly absorbed and lost in the will of God,
but only that it should be conformed to His will,
and subordinated to it ; that God's will may
indeed be done, but so that His will may be our
own.
That we may will the same which Thou
wiliest, do Thou, O Lord, enable us to do that
which Thou desirest, and to hate that which
Thou hatest, so that our corrupt and evil will
may not frustrate or hinder Thy gracious will
which v.'illest our good.
It is not enough that we do not resist God's
will, it must be done by us. — Denton.
[2600] Thus should man, self-regulating, regu-
late by a law his every thougiit and word and
deed ; self-controlling, he yet should keep in
check by it the motions of his will ; perfectly
free, and' yet perfectly under law ; exhibiting the
apparent contradiction of a will in which, as it
has been beautifully expressed, " perfect law
commeasures perfect freedom ; " ever freely
doing his own will, yet ever doing as entirely
the will of his Lord and his God. Here, then,
we seem to have reached the meaning of the
petition, " May Thy will be done on earth, O
\.ox^."—KarslaI;e.
426
26or-
THE LORDS PRAYER.
-2610]
[third petition.
4 Obedience to the Divine will alone gives
true freedom of will.
[2601] He allows you not to gratify your own
will in all things. You lind a barrier to your
power of doing what you will to do. In that
limitation of your power you meet with God.
Confess your unwillingness to pray and to sufler
and to do your known duty to the uttermost.
Confess that you cannot do the will of God
without His continual help. You will solve the
problem of necessity and freedom in action
alone. In all wrong action you will find en-
slavement. In air right doing you will find
freedom. It is the Son of God alone who can
make you free in His life and love and truth,
and then you will be free indeed.— /"tvr/Tvr/.
[2602] O wretch that I am ! I now see how
unhappy I am that 1 have a will, yet cannot but
think myself happy for having a will. For if I
had not a will, I could not love God ; and having
a will I cannot love Him as I should, for my
will is divided, and cannot love Him entirely ;
my will is corrupt, and cannot love Him
sincerely ; my will is wavering, and cannot love
Him constantly ; for I am not master of my
will, nor ever shall be, nor ever can be, unless
Thy will, O God, come and help me to master
it. That it is not the making the petition that
makes us to be bondslaves, but it is our being
bondslaves that makes us make the petition, as
having no other way to recover our freedom, but
only the virtue of this petition : "Thy will be
done in earth, as it is in heaven." — Sir Richard
Jhikcr, 1 568-1645.
[2603] The will, the spiritual within us, when
it is "good will," becomes the highest expression
of ourircedom, lifting the reason into its loftiest
sphere and delivering the heart from the thral-
dom of inferior motives. The obedience of this
nobler will to grace is the fiat which unites man
with God ; and faith, the light of the soul, is the
child of that union. The Creator's primal fiat
lux was an act of supreme authority ; the crea-
ture'sy^W volinitas iica is an act of humility, and
irradiates the world within. — Aubrey de Vcrc.
VHI. Meaning of the Word "Heaven "
AS HERE USED.
[2604] There are in Scripture three heavens
■ — the airy heaven, the starry heaven, and the
heaven of heavens. In all these heavens
God's will is done, God is obeyed in them
(Psa. cxlviii. 8). Winds and storms, and
all those things which seem to be most tem-
pestuous and unruly, to be the disorders of
nature, they are at God's beck. Then in the
starry heaven (ver. 4) they are under a law and
statute, and are not exorbitant and eccentric ;
the sun riseth, sets, and knows the just point
of his compass. But it is chiefly meant of the
heaven of heavens, where angels and blessed
we spirits are and they obey God perfectly (Psa.
ciii. 20, 21).— 7". Manto7i, 1629-1677.
[2605] To what do we refer here by the term
" heaven ? " Do we mean the material firma-
ment, the starry canopy above our heads ? The
reference is appropriate, even if this is our
meaning. For how beautifully is God's will
done by those revolving spheres, those bright
and circling systems ! .A. common influence
binds them ; and how diligent their obedience,
how peaceful their motions, how calmly the
eternal law shines out from them through all
the changing years ! And do we pray that thus
we and all men may move in harmony each
with each, and all with God ? That thus we
may obey, and feel the beating of His influence,
the current of His consent, mingling eternally
with ours ? — CJiapin.
IX. Precise Force of the Word "As,"
IN THE Phrase "As in Heaven."
I It is rather a note of similitude than
equality and identity.
[2606] " As " is rather a note of similitude than
of equality. But though our obedience on earth
cannot be equal to the obedience that is yielded
to God in heavtn, yet we pray that it may bear
as much similitude, proportion, and conformity
unto it as is possible for us to attain unto while
we are here in the body.— i.^. Hopkins, 1633-
1690.
[2607] It is not too great a boldness in this
petition, that where all the other make suit for
great, yet possible things, this only makes a
suit which is impossible.'' For how can earth
bring forth as good fruit as heaven? How can
men perform as perfect duties as the angels?
Indeed not in equality, but in similitude. Not
to do as well as they, but to do our best as well
as they. Not that our vessels can be as bright
as theirs, but be as clean ; and not hold as
much, but be as full. — Sir Richard Baker, 1568-
1645-
[2608] Here He illustrates by the services of
heaven the nature and the compass of obedience
below. — Dean I'aitghaji.
[2609] His will, being done by obedience to
Him, will consist of two parts : either in ful-
filling His commands, or in submitting to what
He appoints. It is according to the former
alone the angels can do it. — Pagan.
[2610] When our Lord here teaches us to
make such a petition, he does not mean that
we should do what angels or celestial spirits do
in heaven. The will of God concerning them
may widely difter from the will of God con-
cerning us. Now there is a wide difference
between the state of the inhabitants of heaven,
and the state of mankind upon earth, and this
will make a wide difference between His will
concerning them and concerning us.
I. They arc merely spiritual beings. ** He
maketh His angels spirits;" and the rest are
the "spirits of just men made perfect." Now
we are not spirit <yily, but flesh and blood also.
Here is a great difterence.
THE LORDS PRAYER.
2610— 2617]
427
[third petition.
2. The inhabitants of heaven dwell in His
immediate presence. They live around His
throne. They are the servants in waiting, the
courtiers of heaven, but we are removed to a
distance from Him.
3. They are not like us, exposed to temp-
tation. I speak on the supposition that the
fall of some of them is the establishment of the
rest. They have overcome, and are tempted no
more. We have to live in the tlesh, without
living after the flesh. He who is now driven
out from among them is become the prince of
this world. " Our adversary the devil, as a roar-
ing lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may
devour." *' We wrestle therefore against princi-
palities, against powers, against the rulers of
the darkness of this world, against spiritual
wickedness in high places."
4. We are encompassed about with afflictions.
We live in a disordered world. We dwell in a
body which is liable to weakness, weariness,
pain, and a thousand diseases. But the in-
habitants of heaven are strangers to all those
things, and God is pleased to recjuire nothing
of the kind from them.
5. We are fallen, while they retain their
original rectitude and keep their first estate, or
have regained it. But a great part of the will
of God concerning us (perhaps all of it), is a
discipline for our correction, a regimen for our
cure. Now all these things, however suited to
us, are not all adapted to them, any more than
the medicine prescribed to the sick is suited to
those who are in perfect health.
X. Various Interpretations of the
Phrase, " In Earth as it is in
Heaven."
[261 1] What is "in heaven and in earth," or
" as in heaven so in earth ? " The angels do
Thy will. May we do it also. Again, all
the holy patriarchs, all the prophets, all the
apostles, all the spiritual are, as it were, God's
heaven ; and we, in comparison of them, are
earth. Again, the Church of God is heaven ;
His enemies are earth. So we wish well for
our enemies, that they too may believe and
become Christians, and so the will of God be
done, as in heaven so in earth. Again, our
spirit is heaven, and the flesh earth. As our
spirit is renewed by believing, so may our flesh
be renewed by rising again. Again, our mind,
whereby we see truth, and delight in the truth,
is heaven ; as "I delight in the law of God
after the inward man."' What is the earth ? "I
see another law in my members, warring against
the law of my mind." When this strife shall
have ended, and a full concord be brought
about of the flesh and the spirit, the will of
God will be done, as in heaven so also in earth.
When we repeat this petition, let us think of all
these things and ask them of the Father.—
Angle siine,
[2612] One may easily solve the question here
bv taking "heaven" in a figurative sense for
" Christ," and "earth " for " the Church ;" and
then the meaning will be that each member of
tlie Church should pray that he may so fulfil
the will of his Father as Christ fulfilled it, who
came to do the will of His Father, and per-
formed it perfectly in every part. For a man
may so be united to Christ as to become one
spirit with Him, and thereby so to fulfil God's
will on earth as it is fulfilled in heaven. For
he that is joined to the Lord is one spirit, as St.
Paul saith (i Cor. vi. 17). — Origen.
[2613] "As in heaven so in earth" may be
understood in various ways : so that we may
say, " as in heaven," that is, in Christ, in whom
(our Lord being man) the Deity dwells : "as in
earth," that is, in the Church, that God's will
may be done. Or, "as in heaven," that is, the
angels ; " so in earth," that is, among men.
Or, "as in heaven," that is, in the soul of the
just man ; " so in earth," that is, in the flesh, so
that the flesh may in no manner be contradictory
to the Spirit, but agree with it in the same will.
Or, " as in heaven," that is, in holy men ; " so
in earth," that is, in sinners.- — Bernard.
XI. Nature of the Angelic Obedience
held up for our imitation in the
Words "As it is in Heaven."
I It is comprehensive in its range.
[2614] The obedience of the angels is abso-
lutely perfect, and that both with a perfection of
parts and degrees (Psa. ciii. 20; Rev. xiv. 14). —
Bp. Hopkins, 1633-16C0.
[2615] The consecration of the holy angels is
not the putting on of a robe, or the exercise of
a ministry — it is the Divine ownership going
through and through them, so as to exclude
and preclude any faintest spot or taint of the
thing which is not God's. — Dean Vatighan.
[2616] As the obedience of the angels of God
is universal, peacefully and cheerfully shown,
and their ministry speedily fulfilled, so it ex-
tends to all that is appointed them to do. —
Ward and Blackall {combined).
[2617] The petition, "Thy will be done."
For so far as it can rel'er at all to " God's will"
as it rules, and that by a fixed decree, the order
of nature or events in which we have no part, it
can only be an expression of our adoration of
the infinite power and wisdom of God. But, to
put this out of view, in so far as it refers to that
which God would have done, but which yet
depends for its performance on ourselves, we
desire that we and all men may more and more
perfectly conform to and carry out what God
would have done ; that in all things, small as
well as great, men, remembering the absolute
power, the infinite wisdom, and the perfect love
of God, may lovingly and humbly try to keep,
and be enabled to keep, the motions of their
wills within, and the actions of their outer life,
428
THE LORDS PRAYER.
[7—2631]
[third petition.
in harmony with the will of God, even as the
angels in heaven do ; and submit willingly to
all which He may lay upon them to be borne,
however repugnant to their natural desires, after
the example of {ob. of Eli, of St. Paul, still more
after the perfect pattern of our blessed Lord. —
Karslake.
[2618] But let it be granted that we are
satisfied concerning the knowledge of His will ;
seeing we have an oracle for it, God's word is
a lantern to our feet, and a light to our path:
yet what reason have we to pray that it may " be
done in earth as it is done in heaven.?" For
what do we know how it is done in heaven.?
And so we pray we know not for what. But
do we not know that there are none in heaven
but saints and angels, who are all ministering
spirits, and being spirits must needs serve God
in spirit. And Christ fetcheth this argument
higher, that "God Himself is a Spirit, and they
that worship Him must worship Him in spirit
and truth.'' If, then, we worship God in spirit
and truth, we do His will in earth as it is in
heaven.— .S'/r Richard Baker, 1 568-1645.
[2619] In heaven the angels do the will of
God without the intervention of any evil, any
rebellious spirit : in heaven there are none to
thwart His will, for into heaven can nothing
come that is opposed to the will of God.
2 It is spontaneous in its principle.
[2620] Their obedience is cheerful, not ex-
torted from thein by violent constraints of fear
or of suffering ; but it is their eternal delight,
and their service is their felicity. — Bp. Hopkins,
1 633- 1 690.
[2621] They do it willingly and cheerfully,
and therefore they are described to be winged,
to show that they fly about it.
[2622] The angels serve Thee in heaven, so
we may serve Thee on earth. For His holy
angels obey Him ; they do not offend Him ;
they do His commands through the love of
Viww.—Ajii^us line.
[2623J Whatever they are engaged in doing,
they do without needing to be urged, as though
God's will were displeasing to them.
[2624J They do God's will from a principle
of obedience, and for us other motives than
because He is pleased to impose them. They
have no little interests distinct from their
Master's service, and therefore whatever they
do they do it singly for His sake. -iiyr;;/ <;£'_)',
1684-1755.
[2625] It is a prayer, "not that God should
do what He wills, but that we may be able to
do what Ciod wills;" able to do with a will
what He wills we should do. The wicked do
His will, but against their own will. His will
is done in earth by all, but not by all in cirth as
by all in heaven. The nature of the obedience
of the holy angels must be considered, to know
the significance of this prayer. — Robinson.
\ibi(i\ We are not mere masses of matter ;
machines moved only by a foreign touch, and
propelled upon the orbit of an inrte.xible destiny.
We are spirits, we are moral, we are free ! And
if we would behold the ideal result of this
prayer, then we must look into the spiritual
heaven, the abode of angelic hosts, and of " the
just made perfect.'' " Let Thy will be done, O
God ! " we would say, " as it is there — in the
b.eaven of spiritual order but of voluntary
obedience ; where every will is free, yet is in
unison with Thine." That heaven whose glory
is the consciousness in each of a self-balanced
power gravitating to the Infinite Centre of all.
Where the bliss of each is to be like the will
that each does. Let Thy will be done, O God !
harmoniously, as in the material, freely, as in
the spiritual heaven. The convulsed and groan-
ing earth sends up the cry — our erring, guilty
hearts send up the cry : "Let Thy will be done
in earth," as it is done far above these sins and
sorrows, in the realm of obedience and joy, of
perpetual worship and perpetual action, of
boundless peace and boundless love 1 " — Cliapin.
yibi"]'] We may know what it is to do God's
will in earth as it is in heaven : by the which
St. John tells of the four and twenty elders,
" That they cast down their crowns before the
throne of God, saying. Thou art worthy, O God,
to receive glory, and honour, and power : " for so
we must do by our wills, which are indeed our
crowns : cast them down, and resign them up
to God ; but cast them down, not cast them
away ; resign them, but yet retain them ; for
without wills of our own, we can never do God's
will. Unwilling service is never acceptable : as
St. Paul saith, "If I do it willingly, I have a
reward ;" and thus, if we can have wills of our
own, and yet not do our own wills, if we can
willingly renounce our own wills, and take God's
will in their room, and make it our own will :
we shall then do with our wills, as the elders
did with their crowns ; and then we shall do
God's will as it is done in heaven. — Sir Richard
Baker, 1 568-1 645.
3 It is prompt in its execution.
[2628] As they readily undertake to do the
work which is allotted them, so they speedily
execute whatever is commanded them to do.
(2629] The will o*" God is done in heaven
with celerity and ready despatch (Isa. vi. 2). —
Bp. Hopkins, 163 3- 1690.
[2630] The will of God is done in heaven
with zeal and ardency (Psa. civ. 4). — Ibid.
4 It is lasting in its duration.
[2631] They dp it constantly, as well at one
time as at another. — J. Smith, 1629.
THE lord's prayer.
2632—2645]
429
[third petition.
[2632] The will of God is done in heaven
with constancy and perseverance (Rev. vii. 15).
—Bp. Hopkins^ 1 633- 1 690.
5 It is reverent in its attendant circum-
stances.
[2633] The will of God is done in heaven
with all possible prostration, reverence, and
humility (Rev. iv. 10). — Ibid.
XII. Lessons taught by the Addition
OF THE Words "As it is in Heaven."
1 The heavenly regulates the earthly, and
not the earthly the heavenly.
[2634] It is thus that the heavenly in all
things regulates the earthly, and not the earthly
in anything the heavenly. The standard of all
being is God's being. The will of the Eternal
is the regulating will of the universe. So all
things are of God. — Percival.
[2635] As if the example of men were not
sufficient, a heavenly example is set before us ;
as God has given to sailors to guide their
course, not headlands and beacons ot the earth,
but chiefly the sun and the stars of the sky. —
J'agan.
[2636] Our thoughts are carried to "heaven,"
the home of those angelic spirits who, with
enlightened intelligence and cheerful will, wor-
ship God, and as His messengers of mercy or
of judgment go forth with switt and strengthful
wing to execute His behests. So we are to
propose their willing and intelligent homage to
our imitation, and to ask God, as they do in
heaven, so He may enable us to do in earth. —
Lorauw.
2 The heavenly is the sphere for which we
are now being trained.
[2637] We pray then that as we shall, if
glorified, do God's will hereafter in heaven, so
now we may do it on earth. — Denton.
[2638] Since the life of man after the resur-
rection will be like that of angels, it follows that
our life in this world should be so ordered with
respect to that which we hope for hereafter. —
Gregory.
[2639] As our Lord hath told us that "They
which shall be accounted worthy to obtain that
world shall be equal to the angels," so He would
have us take them as patterns for our obedience.
— Williams.
[2640] In endeavouring thus to do God's will,
we are bidden to take as our example the
heavenly beings, that is the angels, as it is
commonly understood, though the example of
our Lord Himself must, it should seem, be in-
cluded also. Why the angels should be set
before us as patterns of obedience we can see
in some measure ; since we know that we are
one day to be joined to them, and made " equal
to the angels," filling up, as St. Ansehn con-
ceives, the vacancies which rebellion had caused
in their ranks. — Karslakc.
[2641] Certainly if ever we would do the will
of God in heaven, we must accustom ourselves
to do it here on earth. Here we are as appren-
tices that must learn the trade of holiness, that
when our time is out, we may be fit to be made
free denizens of the New Jerusalem. Here we
are to tune our voices to the praises of God,
before we come to join with the heavenly choir.
Here we are to learn what we must there for
ever practice.— i?/. Hopkins^ 1633-1690.
[2642] "As it is in heaven," is added (i) to
sweeten our subjection to God's will. We are
not held to a harder task than they in heaven.
(2) To show the reasonableness of this obedi-
ence. If we would have the happiness of the
angels, it is but equal we should imitate their
holiness. (3) That we might not miscarry by a
low example. (4) To teach us not only the
matter but the manner of our obedience. — T.
Majilon, 1629-1677 {condensed).
XIII. General Import of this Petition
viewed as a Whole.
[2643] This clause of the Lord's Prayer, as
applied to guidance in all our future, amounts
to saying, as to time or place, health or sickness,
life or death, and all possibilities, " Lord, what
Thou wilt, where Thou wilt, when Thou wilt " —
Baxter's last words.
[2644] The aid we have to expect is not the
very precarious aid we might receive from
dexterously availing ourselves of the power that
resides in the laws ot God's kingdom ; we do
not bring influences to bear on this earth which
may or may not reform it ; it is the will of the
Almighty we appeal to. It is a new hope which
possesses us, when we come to the persuasion
that the will which we have opposed, and which
is yet our sole hope for ourselves and all men,
is powerful as it is loving. And it is a new
resignation which possesses us, when we see
God, our Father, the living, loving, ordaining
Will, in the midst ot our lot, and can say, " Thy
will. Thy will "' — then it is altogether good. —
Dads.
[2645] If you would do the will of God, then
— (t) There must be some solemn time of
resigning the will to Him. (2) It must be with-
out bounds and reservations. (3) The things
\yhereof God hath more expressly signified His
will must be made the greatest conscience of
— Repentance, P^aith, Sanctification, Obedience,
Submission to providence. (4) We should be
willing to obey God whatever it costs us. (5)
For the greatest good that can possibly come
of it we should not cross God's revealed will
— T. Alanton, 1629-1677 {condensed).
430
2646—2654!
THE LORDS PRAYER.
[third petit ion.
XIV. Spirit in which this Petition
SHOULD BE PRAYED.
[2646] We pray that (Jod's will may be done
in us. We put off all s€[i-vi\\\.— Thomas Hugo.
[2647] We pray not that God may do what
He wishes, but that lue may be able to do what
God wishes.— Cj/r/rt;/.
[2648] Let us pray this prayer. It shall not
be cast out. Not in a spirit of indolent ac-
quiescence, not in a spirit of reluctant resi^j-
nation, not in the spirit of one who has tried all
turns and all escapes, and has to confess him-
self outmatched by a subtler, or vanquished by
a mightier — but rather as one who recognizes a
Fathers hand and a Father's love in the power
that constrains him, and would not, even if he
could, have any one thing other than it is, or
any voice at all of his own, in the arrangement
of his circumstances of joy or sorrow — thus let
us pray the prayer, " Thy will be done with
me." — Dean Vmighan.
[2649] (i) The prayer that God's will may be
done, is in those that use it a tacit promise of
obedience to it. (2) The different obedience on
earth and in heaven should teach us to endeavour
for greater perfection. (3) Great humility should
be the effect of thus praying, because we are
taught by it that virtue is not the single effect
of our own strength, but is owing to the influ-
ence of Divine grace. — Maiigey, 16S4-1755.
[2650] In order that we may do that for which
we here pray, we seek (i) for grace to perform
the commandments of God, and to abstain from
all sin. (2) W^e desire that all things which we
do may thwart the designs of the enemies of
God ; that we may not merely resist the temp-
tations of the world, the Hesh, and the devil,
but that we may grow in all virtue and godliness.
(3) We pray God that in all our ways and
doings He would make known His will to us.
(4) We ask that if, through tlie infirmity of our
nature, we at any time seek those things vvhich
conduce not to tiie glory of our Heavenly Father,
He would frustrate our self-will, and bring to
pass His own will. — Cosier.
[2651] Doubtless, there are many who assume
the attitude of pious resignation, without the
sentiment. They cast upon Providence the
burden of their own follies and sins. The slug-
gard mourns over his barren fields, and says :
" Thy will be done ! " •' Thy will be done ! "
exclaims the improvident man entangled among
the miseries of poverty. And he who has care-
lessly strained the laws of his physical being,
and lies wasting to death, utters the same
devout language. But let us understand that
fatalism, whether it assume the form of torpid
acquiescence, or of inconsiderate reliance, is not
resignation. It is right to recognize an over-
ruling Providence, but it is a Providence that
works with us, not for us. The impatience with
which we beat the walls of difficulty, and heave
against misfortune is not an impious discontent,
but a spring of noble enterprize, which God
encourages, for which He has opened a wide
sphere of action, and by which alone we can
achieve success. To suppose that He prevents
this effort is to suppose that He infrmges His
own ordinances, established for the wisest and
most benevolent ends. To attribute calamity
to Him without making this eftbrt is to con-
found faith with folly and religion with laziness.
Only by the diligent exertion of our will can we
realize the will of God mysteriously working
with us. Only when we have reached the
boundar)' of our extremest effort can we see the
superior purpose which encircles us. — CJiapin.
[2652] This is the corresponding feeling on
our parts. The answer to absolute care and
infinite love is absolute resignation and absolute
trust. The resignation and the trust are bound
together. We must be resigned because we
trust. There is a resignation conceivable which
simply expresses the despair of a creature in
the hands of a Being, a Law, mightier than
himself. " I will be resigned because all
struggle is hopeless, and I will not fight against
what is inevitable." Such might be the resig-
nation of one who believed that all things were
governed by a fixed fate, regardless of all but
its own certain course ; or of one who believed
that all things were the sport of chance, and
contained no spark of intelligence to guide
them. But our resignation is the resignation
of children absolutely trusting a Father who
knows us, and knows what is best for us, and
whose love guides even His \s'\%Aovc\..— Bishop
Jcinplc.
XV. Necessity of this Petition.
I The fact of this world being a sort of bar-
mony with the Divine will.
[2653] See how much woe man has mingled
with the inevitable evils of the universe ! See
now the fierceness of his passion, the folly of
his wickedness, witnessed by the torn standards,
the broken wheels, the pools of clotted blood,
the charred earth, the festering heaps of slain.
Nature did not make these horrors, and, when
those fattening bones shall have mouldered in
the soil, she will spread out luxuriant harvests,
to hide those horrors for ever.
No, my friends, the moral world, the world of
man's action, is not in harmony with the will of
God. The earth, like a huge whispering gallery,
reverberates with echoes of unnecessary woe.--
Cliaphi.
[2654] While, in bowing to the irresistible
evils of our lot, the human soul frequently illus-
trates its dignity, in yielding to difliculties which
it might resist, and that spring from its own
depths, it exposes its weakness and its shame.
And while from the desolations of the material
THE LORD S PRAYER.
2654-
[tiiikd petition.
universe — from the torn mountain, the earth-
quake's wrinkles, the scars of the tempest —
come rich suggestions of subhmity and beauty,
how striking, often, is the contrast between the
aspects of nature and the world that man
makes ! .Sunny lands overspread with indolence
and vice ; fair cities, whose splendours are
tarnished by streams of corruption ; while the
morning and the night look down upon crimes
that mock their loveliness and insult their
purity. — Ibid.
2 The ever-recurring difficulty of obedience
to the Divine will.
[2655] It is not that a man gives up willing,
nor resigns any property of his being whatso-
ever, when his will is conformed to that of God ;
it is not that he becomes either the unwilling
victim or the passive tool of another will, but
that the whole strength and bent of his will now
lead him in God's direction.
This yielding to the will of God, being a will
so different from our own, is a great difficulty.
We yield to-day, and to-morrow it seems as
hard as ever. We gather together all the
reasons there are for yielding, and at length
we are able sincerely to pray '' Thy will be
done ; " we are very peaceful and very glad,
and do not doubt that this is a final decision ;
but an hour undeceives us and shows us that
the decision has to be made again, and in still
more trying circumstances. If any petition
needs to be daily repeated, it is this. — Dods.
[2656] It is very hard often to believe that
temptations are good for us, when we meet with
them, and fall before their attacks. Our con-
sciences reprove us for yielding. But we put
off the burden of our guilt upon the temptation,
and complain that v/e should have been tried
so sorely. Especially is this the case with
sudden and violent temptations, which assail us
unexpectedly, just when we had made many good
i-esolutions and had fancied ourselves sate ; or,
again, with small but numerous temptations,
which beset our path and seem to make escape
from them an impossibility. Then, when we
have fallen, we are apt to get discontented with
our place, and to feel as if Providence had not
treated us fairly. We say that we have not had
a fair chance. We look with envy on others
whose trials are not so visible as ours, or it may
be (for who can settle such a point .'') not really
so severe as ours. We fancy that we alone
have these impulses to wrong ; we alone fall
into such tempting opportunities to sin ; we
alone are hampered and fettered, and cannot
tell how to get free ; we alone have longings
which we cannot gratify rightly while others
can ; we alone do not get the sympathy that
our nature needs. — Bp. Temple.
[2657] And so again it is very often hard
when not our spiritual growth, but our imme-
diate happiness is marred, to be able to say at
once, " Thy will be done." Disappointments in
our wishes for our own pleasure do not perhaps
perplex us so much as trials which have caused
our fall ; but they try us keenly for all that. To
have some dreadful thing happen to ourselves
or to those whom we love, to have a very pain-
ful thought ever present to the mind the moment
our attention is not occupied by what is before
our eyes, to bear a dead weight about, which
cannot be quite forgotten even when it is not
quite consciously remembered, this may some-
times be the lot of a Christian, and may make
it very hard for him to say, with full and entire
resignation, " Thy will be done." And even
short of this there are sure to be many trials
of this kind which are quite capable of trying
our faith, and if our faith fails, of souring our
temper. Not to get what you had set your
heart upon, to see another obtain what you had
hoped for yourself, to find others more highly
appreciated, and yet, as it seems to you, without
fair reason, to find others more successful, to be
tormented with all kinds of unsatisfied longings,
perhaps for more affection than you get, perhaps
for more trust, perhaps for more praise, perhaps
for more distinction — these are common trials,
but they are hard to bear. — Ibid.
XVI. Beneficial Results which would
FOLLOW IF THIS PETITION WAS PRAC-
TICALLY CARRIED OUT IN OUR LIVES.
[2658] They who, looking to God as their
common Father, do His will in earth as angels
do in heaven, excel without vanity and emulate
without envy. Hearts and congregations taking
this prayer for their key-note have unity in
their worship, whatever its diversities, and har-
mony in their organizations, whatever their
variety. The Church below, reflecting the Church
above, is not like a mob, where every man is a
law to himself, but like an army ; not like a
parliament, where parties bitterly oppose one
another, but like a family ; not like the world
with its changing tempests of babbling voices,
but like heaven, eternally fair, one-tongued, and
tuneful. Disciplined and united, "the sons of
God," in earth, as in heaven, perform their
allotted duties with mutual good-will and ad-
miration. Adoring and obeying the " one God
and Father of all," they love and help one
another as comrades and brethren. — Robinson.
[2659] This beautiful and happy state of mind
is called conformity to the will of God. Re-
member that this conformity to the will of God
is the state of all the blessed in heaven. Just
as the sorrows of earth spring from self-will and
disobedience, so will the happiness of heaven
arise from perfect obedience. Submission and
conformity of the will of the creature to the will
of the Creator will be the happiness of heaven.
■ — Kennaway.
[2660] And how blissful is the state of one
whose will has been brought thus, by the aid of
the Holy Spirit, into harmony with the will of
God. Like some stately ship as she passes
432
2G6o-
TlIE LORDS PRAYER.
2663]
THIRD PETITION.
over the waters of tlic deep, so, steered by the
unerring compass of (iod's law, wafted by the
breath of tlie Spirit of God, ht up at times with
gleams of brightness cauglit from the glory of
the heavenly world, he passes lightly over the
waves of time, and is borne firmly onward to
the other shore. And what a world would this
become were all thus brought to do (jod's will !
How would there be in each individual soul
that fulness of joy which can flow only from
thougiits and affections centred upon God, and
a will conscious of acting ever in harmony with
His will. How would there be perfect agree-
ment among communities of men. that agree-
ment which can only be where the wills of men
are brought into union with one another by
being in union with the one great Will ! How
would the glory of God, the one great end of
man's being on earth, abound, so that God,
looking down on His obedient children, imaging
His will on earth, might declare Himself well
pleased with the children of men, and pour
down on them His l)!cssings with an unsparing
hand ! This indeed cannot be. But still, as
each one tries to deny his own evil will more, to
check himself wlierever he feels he is contra-
vening the will of God, and to quicken his en-
deavours actively to do that will, in so far he
contributes something towards this blessed
result. — Karslake.
[2661] When the strife shall have passed
away, and full concord be brought about of the
flesh and spirit, the will of God will be done, as
in heaven so in earth. — AuL^iisiijie.
[2662] When the suljjcctive spiritual corre-
sponds to the objective natural, we shall find all
the felicity of Divine harmony in the universe
— Percival.
[2663] Some of you may have seen the waves
dashing and foaming in angry violence against
a rock, which stood unmoved amid them all ;
and then you may have visited the same spot
again, and seen the waves resting in calm un-
ruffled quiet round the rock, seeming to cling to
it in trustful reliance, and reflecting in their still
waters the image of its strength. So it is with
a soul which has been brought to submit itself
wholly to the will of an all-powerful, all-loving
God. — Karslake.
THE LORD'S PRAYER.
FOURTH PETITION.
Pages 434 to 446.
A. Introductory Remarks.
ITS CONNECTION WITH THE PRECEDING AND
FOLLOWING PETITIONS.
B. Treatment of the Petition in Detail.
FIRST HALF.
2
LESSONS TAUGHT BY THE WORD "GIVE."
LESSONS TAUGHT BY THE PLURAL WORDS "US
AND "OUR."
EXPOSITION OF THE WORDS "THIS DAY."
LESSON TAUGHT BY THE WORDS " THIS DAY."
SECOND HALF.
6
EXPOSITION OF THE WORD "DAILY."
LESSONS TAUGHT BY THE WORD "DAILY."
8
IMPORTANCE OF THE WORDS "DAILY BREAD."
C. Review of the Petition as a luliole.
9
LESSONS FROM THE PETITION VIEWED AS A
WHOLE.
433
28
434
THE LORD'S PRAYER
[Continued).
FOURTH PETITION.
{Give us this day our daily bread.)
I. Its Connection with the Preceding
AND Following Petitions.
[2664] They mistake greatly who imagine
that Christianity is merely contemplative, vision-
ary, transcendental. Like the ladder of the
patriarch's dream, it is " set upon the earth,
and the top of it reacheth to heaven." So this
model prayer, the true expression of Christi-
anity, is raised in adoration of the Eternal
Name, asks the speedy coming of the kingdom
of grace and glory, yet it begs for bread. —
Loraine.
[2665] It has been noticed also that the first
three petitions regard the life eternal ; the last
three the life temporal. " Now these first three
petitions regard the life eternal ; for God's
Name ought to be hallowed in us always, we
ought to be in His kingdom also always, we
ought to do His will always. This will be to all
eternity. But daily bread is necessary now ;
the forgiveness of our debts is necessary in this
life ; for when we shall have arrived at the other
life there will be an end of all debts. In this
life there is temptation ; in this life the sailing
is dangerous ; in this life something is ever
stealing its way through the chinks of our
frailties, which must be pumped out. But when
we shall be made equal to the angels of God,
no more need to say and pray to God to forgive
our debts when there will be none. Here it is
we pray to be delivered from evil ; for in that
life there will be no evil, but eternal and abiding
good. — A ugustine.
[2666] This petition commences what Calvin
calls " the second table " of the Lord's Prayer.
The first says, " Thy name," " Thy kingdom,"
'■'• Thy will;" the second, "Give us," "forgive
us,'' " lead us,'' " deliver us." This is the true
order of prayer — first, God and His glory ;
secondly, man and his interests. — Loraine.
[2667] How gracefully has the Divine Wisdom
arranged the order of the prayer, so that after
things heavenly, that is, after the name of God,
the will of God, and the kingdom of God, it
should give earthlv necessities also room for a
petition ! For the Lord withal issued His edict,
" Seek ye first the kingdom, and then even these
shall be added." — Teriullian.
[2668] This petition
those which refer to " 1
is prior to the spiritual— ^^;/i,'-^/.
placed first among
;ince the natural life
[2669] We are now come to the second sort
of petitions, that concern ourselves, as the former
did more immediately concern God. Now you
may observe the style in the prayer is altered.
It was before Thy, now it is us. Before, our
Lord had taught us to speak in a third person,
now, in a second person ; which is not so to be
understood as if we were not at all concerned
in the former part of the Lord's Prayer. In
those petitions the benefit is not God's but
ours. When His name is sanctified, His king-
dom Cometh, and His will is done ; these things
do not only concern the glory of God, but also
our benefit. It is our advantage when God is
honoured by the coming of Christ's kingdom
and the subjection of our hearts unto Himself.
But these latter petitions do more immediately
concern us. — T. Manton, 1629-1677.
[2670] Although, as has been shown, indi-
vidual reference is implied in preceding sen-
tences of this prayer, the text is the first in
which personal supplication is actually expressed.
The foregoing petitions are more largely quali-
fied by the sentiment of homage, this contains
more specially the sentiment of desire. When
we pray that God's name may be hallowed, or
His kingdom come, or His will be done, we
virtually pray that we may hallow His name,
that His kingdom may be established in our
souls, that His will may be accomplished
through the harmonious consent of our natures
with His. Yet these may be uttered as ejacu-
lations, breathed in the posture of worship,
general aspirations kindled by a contemplation
of God's glory, and only after reflection, drawn
down and applied to our personal wants and
duties. But the prayer of the text is, as it were,
forced out by the pressure of immediate necessi-
ties, and lifted as a stringent desire. In the
consciousness not only of God's power and
excellence, but of our human weakness and
solicitous need, we cry, " Give us this day our
daily bread ! " — Chapin.
THE LORDS PRAYER.
2671— 2680I
435
[fourth petition.
[2671] If we have truly prayed, " Hallowed
be Thy name, Thy kingdom come, Thy will be
done," all other things are ministered unto us
by the petitions following ; ior we have a deed
of gift of all temporal things by one, and a
general pardon of all faults by another, and
protection royal from all evil by the last. —
Sir Richard Baker, 1 568-1645.
[2672] When our minds are saturated with
the spirit of the foregoing words — uhen our
hearts are full of the life that says, " Our Father
which art in heaven, Hallowed be Thy name,
Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done (m earth,
as it is in heaven " — when we have the thorough
understanding that our desires are to be fenced
within these holy limits — and that what we ask
on our own account is to be ruled by the law
of subordination thus declared, then we begin
to pray for ourselves, and this is our first
petition — " Give us this day our daily bread." —
Stanford.
[2673] first, we seek God's glory as the end ;
His kingdom as the primary means ; our sub-
jection to that kingdom as the next means ; and
last of all, our comfortable subsistence in the
world as a remote subservient help, that we
may be in a capacity to serve and glorify God.
— T. Alanton, 1629-1677.
[2674] Since we do not come before God as
heathens or unregenerate persons, but as His
children, we, like children, first ask for daily
bread before we ask for forgiveness. We also
place the petition for daily bread first, because
of its connection with the third petition, since
without this bread we cannot do God's will. —
Faoan.
[2675] Our Saviour hath placed this petition
in the very midst and centre, being encompassed
round about with petitions for heavenly and
spiritual blessings. And this may intimate to
us, that we are only to bait at the world in our
passage and journey to heaven, that we ought
to begin with spirituals and end with spirituals,
but only to take up and refresh ourselves a
little with our daily bread in our way. — Bp.
Hopkins, 1633-1690.
[2676] This petition of asking bread is placed
here in the midst of these petitions, not as
some carnal man would think, to serve as a bait
in the midst of a journey ; nor yet as some
worldly man would think, lest if we should
speak of our trespasses first, we might haply be
denied it ; but therefore it is placed here be-
tween saints and sinners to show that temporal
blessings are distributed indifferently to them
both ; and that they lie as the commons of
God's general goodness, not as the severals of
His special favour. Or may it not give us to
observe that it stands below the petition of
saints, to show that temporal blessings are
below their consideration, and that with them
he doing of God's will is before the providing 1
for their own necessities ; but it stands above
the petition of sinners to show that temporal
benefits are the highest of their thoughts, and
that they set them before even their very salva-
tion.— Sir Richard Baker, 1 568-1645.
[2677] Are there not few who have chosen
the trade or business they follow because they
thought that therein they could best work out
God's will with them, compared to those who
have made their choice as being the most plea-
sant, or most rapid, or most secure way of
earning their bread : few to whom the supports
and comforts of tljis life are practically of less
importance than the doing of God's will 1 If we
divide men into two classes*, those who work
because they are hungry and have to work, and
those who work because there is something
to be done ; those who consider how they
may best win a livelihood, and trust that in it
they shall somehow find opportunity of doing
God's will ; and those who make it their first
consideration how they may best serve God,
and trust that in doing so bread shall be given
them ; we need not say which w^ill be the larger
class, and as little need we say which will be
the most Christlike class. — Dods.
II. Lessons TAUGHT by the Word "Give."
I Concerning the nature of God's giving.
(i) // is free, i.e., of grace.
[2678] Here, first, in this prayer, we come
upon the word " Give," the key to the treasury
of God's riches ; a word that opens over us the
windows of heaven, that wakes tlie omnipotence
of God, and causes the fulness of His resources
to flow forth. — Dods.
[2679] When we ask God to " give us," the
meaning is that the thing asked is simply and
freely the gift of God, whatever be the quarter
from which it comes to us, even when it seems
to have been specially prepared by our own art
and industry, and procured by our hands ; since
it is to His blessing alone that all our labours
owe their success.
As nothing is more difficult to human pride
than the admission of this truth, the Lord de-
clares that He gave a special proof for all ages,
when He fed His people with manna in the
wilderness, that He might remind us that man
shall not live by bread alone, but by every word
that proceedeth out of the mouth of God. It is
thus intnnated that by His power alone our life
and strength are sustained, though He ministers
supply to us by bodily instruments. — Calvitt.
[26S0] All good things from God are gifts.
" Gratis ' is written on every one, but most
vividly of all on this. Do you ask "How much.?"
Do you dream that salvation is for sale ? Can
God sell pardon ? sell a new heart ? sell love ':
sell righteousness? sell strength? sell any or all
of the things included in what we call grace 'i
436
268o
THE LORDS PRAYER.
■2693I
[fourth petition.
It is a gift, and you can give nothing for a gift.
You may, however, ask for it ; indeed, you must.
— Statt/ord.
[2681] Grace is the highest attribute of royalty
to exercise. Grace sits enthroned aljove the
sceptre of justice ; it forms the top stone of the
whole edifice of human society. Justice is its
foundation, but grace is its crown. We cannot
dispense with grace in human society ; how,
then, in our communion with God? — C. N.
[2682] O Lord, Thou didst at first freely give
me my being. I could not deserve it when I
was not ; the same title that I have to my being
I have to my preservation and support of my
being ; it is still free gift, and therefore I come
to Thee for my bread upon no other terms than
as a poor beggar to a bountiful Lord. . . .
Give me, I pray, bread for this day, and when
tomorrow comes, I will beg bread of Thee for
to-morrow. — Sir Malthew Hale.
[2683] O my soul, make much of this word
" Giving," and give it not over in any wise, but
account it the greatest strength of thy title, the
best title of thy tenure, for if thou look for any-
thing at God's hands, unless by his free gift,
thou mistakest thy case clean, and mayst stand
without doors amongst the foolish virgins. For
are there not many that spend tlie day in care-
fulness and the night in watchfulness, and yet
thrive not.'' Many that tire their bones with
labour and their brains with thinking, and all
because they seek to have that by purchase
which must be had by gift, and strive, as it were,
to extort that from God by violence which is not
to be obtained but by prayer. When ye want
it, ask God for it, and He will give it ; when ye
have it, thank God for it, and He will bless it. —
i)ir Richard Baker, 1 568-1645.
(2) // is, in a sense, indiscriminate, i.e., to all
alike, good and bad.
[2684] Some have even ventured the saying,
that the bread of the wicked is given at the
prayer of the just — that the " us " and the " our "
are of universal compass, and that the supply
of a world is the fruit of the intercession of a
Church. — Dean Vauglian.
[2685] God gives equally to the evil and to
the good. This which is said to be the privilege
of the faitliful is shared with them by the prayer-
less and by the profane. It is true. But is
there no difference— none even in outward things
— none even as to enjoyment — between the man
who idly takes and selfishly uses the gifts of
God, and the man who knows and confesses
whence they come, and is able to say, with
humble faith, " My Father givcth me all things
richly to enjoy." Is there no dirfcrence,-in value
and in prcciousncss, between the thing which
you bought with your money and th(^ thing
which was the keepsake of your friend ? — Ibid.
[2686] Sinners hold mercies by common
favour, believers by covenant title. — Van Doren.
2 Concerning the design of God's giving.
(i) // does not discourage but eticotirages
thought and industry.
[2687] But does this forbid planning of all
kinds? Does this preclude all saving or storing ?
Assuredly not. It forbids nothing which does not
interfere with present duty. It precludes no-
thing which does not indicate mistrust of God,
and beget fearfulness and depression of spirit.
—Dods.
[2688] We mean "Give us "our daily bread
through a blessing on our own use of right
means. One evening, we are told, Mahomet was
conversing with his followers and overheard one
of them say, "I will loose my camel, and trust :"
on which he said, " Friend, tic thy camel, and
trust." Do whatever is yours to do, then trust.
Work and trust, watch and pray. " If a man
will not work, neither shall he eat," is a law of
the kingdom. — Stanford.
[2689] He does not thrust His manna into
our mouths, but calls us to supply ourselves
from the ground. We have to stoop and fill our
vessels. We must collect and prepare the food
He creates and gives. In spiritual, as in temporal
matters, it is our duty and interest to work with
Him. To obtain the grace made manifest, we
are to use the means of grace. —Robinson.
[2690] The man who thinks Providence exists
simply to make up his lack of service despises
Providence. — Fan bairn.
[2691] Do not for a moment suppose that
there is here any curbing of our energies, any
surrender of our natural talents. Far from it :
use then all ; heartily, bravely, lovingly, use
them all ; only let us beware that we use them,
first, in entire dependence upon God ; secon lly,
in entire submission to His will ; thirdly, with-
out using, or allowing others to use, any unlaw-
ful means ; and, once more, remembering always
the true end which, in exercising them, should
be always in our view. The necessaries of life
must indeed be sought through them, as the
very condition of our continuing to employ
them ; but beyond this we may not go : this
end gained, the true end of all talents, health,
wealth, intellectual ability, infiuence, from what-
ever source derived, comes into view, namely,
the glory of God and the good of our fellow-
men, not our own abundance and the luxurious
enjoyment (as we are apt to speak) of life. —
Karslalce.
[2692] Stier quotes a striking proverbial say-
ing, '' We lift our empty hands to heaven, and
God lays work upon them."
3 Concerning our frame of mind in regard
to God.
(i) // implies our dependence on Him, and our
trust in Him. v
[2693] And here this word " Give " stands in
THE LORDS PRAYER.
2693 — 2702]
437
[fourth petition.
its simplicity, without apology, without circum-
locution ; in its childlike boldness and straight-
forwardness of request. It is the wide opening
cf the mouths of the young birds hungering
round the parent. — Dods.
[2694] This phrase implies acknowledgment
of dependence. Itamounts to this, P'ather, give
us our daily bread or we shall never have it.
Our personal and unceasing dependence on
Him for the supports ot mere existence is a fact
that few would formally question, but which,
perhaps, {^^ adequately feel. — Stanford.
[2695] Is it not too much the case that we
recognize God only in the whirlwind and the
flame ? What I wish to urge under this head,
then, is that we should constantly realize our
dependence upon the Deity — that we should
habitually and sincerely acknowledge Him as
the source of all our good. With clear faith,
with spontaneous emotion, we should own that
our most minute and ordinary blessings, the air,
the sunshine, our daily bread, come from God.
• -Chapi7i.
[2696] Do they not, virtually, consider some-
thing else than Ciod as the source of their bless-
ings 1 Is He not lost sight of, is He not put out
of view — as the Maker who has left the machine,
as the Creator who is hidden by His works.?
Nay, plenty itself, the most profuse evidence of
Goii, is often tiiat which most shuts us in from
Him. In the blasted harvest and the unfruitful
year, perhaps, we fall upon our knees, and think
of His agency who retains the shower and veils
tiie sun. But when the wheels of nature roll on
their accustomed course — when our fields are
covered with sheaves, and our garners groan
with abundance — we may lift a transient offering
of gratitude ; yet, in the continuous flow of
prosperity, are we not apt to refer largely to our
own enterprize and bless our "luck?" We are
apt to regard merely secondary causes, to glorify
our own power and skill, and, in the customary
flow of success, to feel but faintly our constant
dependence upon the great Giver. — Ibid.
[2697] For, when God gives us our bread, it
comes easily to us, because our labours are suc-
cessful, and leave us fresh to the enjoying ; but
when we think to have it only by our labour, it
tires out our spirits ; we make ourselves but
silkworms and spin ourselves to death. — Sir
Ric/iard Baker, 1568-1645.
[2698] He who made us, knowing us infinitely
better than we know ourselves, has so ordered
it that the greater number of his children have
to depend on His daily bounty — daily opening
of the hand which supplieth the want of every
living thing. He knows, and we too know, how
ready we are to forget the unseen arm that up-
holds us — the unseen hand that feeds us. It is
then, as even we can see, a gracious wisdom
w hich makes most of us live very mu<:h like the
fowls of the air. It is, in a high sense, well for
us that we are kept on the edge of extremity,
for, drawn into false security by the " good laid
up for many years," we cease to look trustfully
upward. Standing on the foundation of the
good stored up, the heart lets go its hold on the
invisible.
[2699] We are taught to fly fearless as those
who, year after year, have been fed on the wing,
flying they knew not whiiher. Thus we are
trained to undoubting trust in God. We have
for many years been found in food and raiment,
and sometimes in a truly wonderful way, and
here we are this day living proofs of a Providence
in whom we can trust with reliance absolute. —
y. Cameron.
III. Lessons taught by the Plural
Words "Us" and "Our," implying
as they do the community of
God's Gifts.
I Thoughtfulness for others.
[2700] Note here that our Saviour biddeth us
to say " us." This " us " lappeth in all other
men with my prayer : for every one of us prayeth
for another. When I say, " Give us," &c., I
pray not for myself only, if I ask as He biddeth
me, but I pray for all others. Wherefore say I
not, "Give me my daily bread?" For because
God is not my (jod alone. He is a common God.
And here we be admonished to be friendly,
loving, and charitable to one another ; for what
God giveth 1 cannot say, " This is my own,"
but I must say, " This is ours." For the rich
man cannot say, " This is mine alone ; God
hath given it me for mine own use." Nor yet
hath the poor man any title to it, to take it away
from him. No, the poor man may not do so ;
for when he doth so, he is a thief afore God and
man. But yet the poor man hath title to the
rich man's goods ; so that the rich man ought
to let the poor man have part of his riches to
help and to comfort him withal. Therefore,
when God sendeth unto me much, it is not mine,
but ours ; it is not given unto me alone, but I
must help my poor neighbours withal. — Latimer.
[2701] Last of all, here I may see Thy good-
ness, which, as Thou wilt give me all things
necessary for this life (or else Thou shouldest
not bid me ask), so Thou commandest all men
to pray and care for me, and that bodily ; much
more then, if they be able, are they commanded
to help me both in body and in soul. — Bradford.
[2702] Charity is difficsiva sui : and asks as
well for others as for ourselves ; and though it
begin at home, yet it tarries not at home, but
dilates and spreads itself. If, therefore, any
man's charity be so wedded to keep home, that
it means not much to stir abroad, what should
he do using these spreading terms of " Us " and
" Our bread," but rather speak plainly as his
meaning is, "Give me this day my daily bread"?
— Sir Richard Baker, 1 5 68- 1 645 .
43»
2703-
THE LORDS PRAYER.
■2714]
[fourth petition.
[2703] The voice of charity is still clear in the
prayer, in the words " our " and " us." Avarice
and jealousy say, "Give me," and mean no
more. Love says, " Give us." We will share
with others what Thou givest. Or, we will be
content to receive Thy gifts through others.—
Robinsoi.
[2704] It is not meant thereby that we should
limit our prayers or endeavours to what will
barely keep body and soul together. Nay, it is
certain that we are encouraged to endeavour
after not only the supply of our own wants, but
that we may have wherewithal to supply the
wants of others (i Thcss. iv. 11-12; Eph. iv.
28).— 7. Blair, 1723.
[2705] Not give me bread only, but give my
fellow-creatures generally bread also. In this
our Lord would teach us charity, and to exercise
a compassionate concern for all the poor and
needy. — Horlock {of Box).
[2706] But it is " our daily bread " for which
we are to pray. Christianity tolerates no selfish
exclusiveness in prayer, nor does it allow us,
even in the eager cry for the supply of our own
wants, to forget our brother's need. As we
say, " Our Father," in confession of a common
brotherhood, so we are to say, '' Give us," in ac-
knowledgment of a joint interest in the common
needs ol mankind. — Loraine.
[2707] To be a possession of safety and glad-
ness, it must be used as a means of dispensing
happiness. Your emaciated neighbour cannot
till his jar with manna. Your stronger arm
must help him. A Christian is to "labour,
working with his hands the thing which is good,
that he may have to give to him that needeth."
"Go thy way, eat thy bread with joy, and drink
thy wine with a merry heart ; for God now ac-
ccpteth thy works." — RoOitison.
[2708] The duty which this petition brings
before us has reference rather to our fellow-men.
We are recipients of the Divine bounty, de-
pendants from hour to hour upon the hand of
God. What a lesson does this teach us of our
duty to others ! How clearly does it exhibit us
as bound to give to others even as God gives to
us, if we are to be imitators of the Most High.
"Freely ye have received, freely give," is His
express command. — Karslakc.
[270C)] As we ask God for our daily bread, the
.uiswer to our prayer should remind us not only
of our dependence upon Him, but of the relative
dependence of others upon us. Have we, after
all, ever known what it is to lack bread ? Have
we ever lifted this cry in the bitterness of intense
hunger, and in absolute want ? Wiiile we have
tinis prayed, have we not always been surrounded
with plenty, and a plenty which sometimes in-
duces forgcifulness of (lod ? But if this usual
abundance were removed from us, perhaps we
sliouid discover that then, for the first time, we
had prayed in sincerity : " Give us this day our
daily bread." And yet this piercing cry does
go up from wasted fields and family-smitten
nations, from the lanes and cellars of cities, from
homes of destitution all around us. Nor does
this prayer issue merely from the lips of those
who would have their daily bread without exer-
tion, without using xXxGincans. A more sad and
fearful utterance is the cry : " Give us ivorlc,
that we may earn, and eat, and live." — CJiapin.
[2710] This prayer is the recognition of
common brotherhood and common depend-
ence upon " our Father." Let, therefore, the
rich distribute of his wealth with discreet and
generous hand. Let the educated man endea-
vour to impart of his knowledge. But because
the spiritual life is the most momentous, let all
men Lei a bounden duty to help each other
towards Him who is its source and centre ; and
in proportion as we have His life in us, we may
help others to Him : "Give us ^«r daily bread."
— Loraine.
[271 1] And so it is when we ask from God
our daily bread. Continue us in life, we say to
God ; and not from heaven but from within
there comes an answering voice. Why should
God continue us in life? Is it to cumber His
ground ; to take up room others might better
occupy ; to waste His goodness and abuse His
forbenrance.'' Was it to do nothing more than
you have done, that God gave you this life, and
made you what you are .'' Have you done all
for yourself that you could, so that now you are
as like to Christ as possible ? Have you done
all for others that you could, so that none are
hungering now, who might have been fed by
you ; none in sorrow now, whom a word or
deed of yours might have relieved ; none in
bitterness of spirit or enmity against you now,
whom a slight humiliation on your part might
have saved from sin ; none mistaken as to the
character of Christ and His religion, who might
have known differently had you done what you
could l—Dotis.
2 Avoidance of covetousness.
[2712] We would next place emphasis on the
word "our" in this connection. We only ask
for our bread, not for the bread belonging to
others. One man is not to have more than his
share, or to live on that which ought to support
another man's life. — Stiiiifoni.
[2713] We are to ask for our oivn bread, and
we are not allowed to ask the bread of others —
we must not covet our neighbour's goods, but
must be content with what Ciod gives us in the
way of honest industry, or by the kindness of
our friends. — Brown.
[2714] Not only " Give us bread," but "our
bread." The first truth which this suggests,
when we pray, is that what we ask for must be
ours and not another's. We must, that is, ask
for what God may give us without detriment to
others. We are nof to expect to reap what
THE LORDS PRAYER.
-2729]
439
[fourth petition.
others have anxiously sown, nor to enter into
other men's labours.— Z?^(/j-.
[2715] Here our Lord would teach us honesty.
We are not to ask for the bread of our neigh-
bours, nor the bread of deceit, nor the bread of
idleness, but bread which we have obtained in
an honest manner. — Horlock (of Box).
IV. Exposition of thk Words "This
Day."
I Its relation to the rest of the petitions in
this second division of the prayer.
[2716] To day ; that though it be expressed
only in this petition, yet it is to be understood
also in the petitions following? For the three
former are common to us with the saints in
heaven ; but the three latter are proper only to
us, and no way communicable to any of them ;
the three former are without limitation of time,
but these three latter are bounded with time ;
they must be obtained either now or never,
in this lifa or not hereafter ; they prepare us
indeed for another life, but when another life is
once come, both tne prayers and the things
prayed for shall all cease ; for after the day of
this life, there shall be no more eating of bread.
— Sir Richm-d Baker, 1 568-1645.
V. Lesson taught by the Words "This
Day."
I The sin of over-anxiety for the morrow.
[2717] We are to pray for this day only.
And this is a point of so much importance to
the right ordering of the godly life on earth,
that our Lord follows it out in the subsequent
discourse, and impresses it with a beauty and
force of persuasion which have made this a
marked passage of Scripture. Ke anticipated
the objection that we must provide for to-
morrow as well as to-day, and reminds us that
he who clothes the lilies of the field, and makes
provision for the birds of the air, knows that we
also have lives to be maintained, and constantly
recurring necessities. — Dods.
[2718] Properly therefore the disciple of Christ
asks sustenance for himself day by day, since he
is forbidden to take thought for the morrow ;
because it would be contradictory in itself, and
repugnant to us, to ask to live long in the world,
when we pray that the kingdom of God may
come quickly. — Cyprian.
[2719] He who has what he needs for to-
day, and says, What shall I eat to-morrow.'' has
not faith. He who creates the day, creates the
food for it. — Talmud, quoted by Dr. Gill.
[2720] Even the Arabs rebuke you by their
proverb, "The bread of to-morroW; to-morrow."
— Sta7iford.
[2721] We are to take no thought for the
morrow. For this very end has our wise
Creator divided life into these little portions of
time, so clearly separated from each other, that
we might look on every day as a fresh gift of
God, another life, which we may devote to His
glory, and that every evening may be as the
close of life, beyond which we are to see nothing
but eternity. — Wesley.
[2722] About to start on a long and perilous
journey, Burckhardt secreted a small piece of
bread in the folds of his dress. His Arab host
exclaimed, " Now 1 have found you out : you
could not trust God for a single day." The act
was not foolish. Prudence and forethought
are not forbidden in the holy book which tells
us to imitate the industrious ant, and be ready
for wintry days, condemns unwatchful and
slothful servants, and teaches that parents ought
to lay up for their children, but the timid fear,
which is unbelief in God, and the profane curi-
osity, which restlessly complains that it cannot
lift the sacred veil of the future. Wise as was
the traveller's precaution, there was equal wis-
dom in the Bedouin's words. — Robinson.
[2723] It is not a full granary, but a day's
food that we are to ask, and that of the day we
are entered upon. We do not, in the proper
offering up this petition, desire to have an estate
settled upon us for life, that so afterwards we
may live of ourselves on our own income ; but
we are contented to live every day upon the
fresh supplies of providence, and we in effect
say that we shall be well pleased if we do not
want, although we have nothing beforehand. —
Bp. Blackhall.
[2724] We cannot make food, do what we
will ; and as little can we store it up for years
and centuries. That which shall sustain us in
the years to come has now actually no existence.
— Dods.
[2725] God did not at once give Elijah store-
houses full of provision to last him through the
famine, but just enough day by day for his
wants; so He gives His people just the strength
they need, and no more. '
[2726] He would have us to be on every
hand unencumbered and winged ready for flight,
yielding just so much to nature as necessity
compels. — CJirysostoni.
[2727] We are thankful for the crumbs now
in the company of Lazarus, if we may feast with
him and Abraham hereafter. — Robinso7i.
[2728] It is a foolish thing J:o load ourselves
with much provision in our mn, when we know
not whether we shall stay one night. We only
ask from day to day, that we may always show
our readiness to depart whenever God shall call
us ; for too much plenty makes us unwilling to
die. — Cojnbcr.
[2729] Our bread, though in itself stale and
440
2729-
THE LORDS PRAYER.
■2736J
[fourth petition.
mouldy as that ot the Gibeonites, is every
day new, because a new and hot blessing, as I
may say, is daily begged and bestowed of God
upon it." — Thomas Fuller.
VI. Exposition of the Word " Daily."
z Its various meanings.
[2730] We will just record the fact, for what
it may be worth, that here is one original word
(at least) in the Lord's Prayer.
Here is a word to which different scholars,
from very early times, have given at least three
widely different senses.
That of the old Latin Version, so venerable
in its antiquity, so extensive in its circulation, is
^^ siipersiibsfatitunr' — meaning, I suppose, im-
material, or incorporeal. This would at once
e,levate and restrict the petition to a spiritual
sense.
A second conjectural rendering of the word
has been ^'' sufficu'ul.'" It has been imagined to
be the opposite of another Greek word imagined
to mean '• superfluous " — and so to be the brief
compendium of the well-known prayer of the
Old Testament, " Give me neither poverty nor
riches : feed me with food convenient for me."
The remaining possible interpretation is one
which derives the adjective from a common
Greek expression for "to-morrow"' — "the day
which is coming on.'
" Our bread lor the morrow," a morrow al-
ready (in one sense) begun, " give us," Father,
"to-day." It is the Evening Prayer of the
Hebrew Christian Church. The bread for the
coming day is asked overnight. That coming
day will end, as it begins, at evening, and then
the prayer for the next twenty-four hours' sup-
plies will naturally and of course succeed this.
"Our bread — for the coming day— j.ive us
to-day." The want, the sum of the want, is
carried to the Father, and one little word
" give " transfers the whole from the region of
weakness and confusion into the region of per-
fect Wisdom, of limitless Power, and infinite
Love. — Dean VaKghan.
[2731] " Daily." The original word, it is
well known, is nowhere else found, either in
sacred or classical literature. It is conjectured
that Matthew and Luke coined it, as a transla-
tion of the Aramaic phrase used by our Lord.
More than thirty different explanations of it
have been suggested, and the revisers make no
attempt to settle its derivation or meaning. As,
however, grammarians have found much to
say for the rendering "our bread for the coming
day," they have,*in both evangelists, inserted
this in the margin, but have retained in the
text the word " daily." — Stanford.
[2732] The word rendered "daily" is impor-
tant, if for no other reason than that it is no-
where found but in the Lord's Prayer. Some
have supposed that the apostles coined it, cor-
rectly to transfer the sentence, as given by the
Lord, from the vernacular of the Jews into the
language in which the Gospels are written. It
signifies " daily," but with a deeper meaning
than, in its ordinary use, the English word con-
veys. What was the exact expression from the
lips of our Lord is not discovered. It may have
been that in the prayer of Agur, " Give me
neither poverty nor riches ; feed me with food
convenient for me." — Robinson.
[2733] Jerome and Abelard translate uprov
liriovatov by " panem superstantialem," and
would confine its meaning to the Holy Eucharist;
but there is no need of thus limiting the mean-
ing to either spiritual or bodily nourishment.
Both Beza and Erasmus translate " panem
quotidianum ;" and "bread sufficient for our
subsistence " (which seems the real force of
iTTioi'trioc) comes to much the sam.e thing as
" daily bread." The lesson to be learned is
"moderation in our desires." — Ramsay.
[2734] Its precise meaning has been differently
interpreted, but it appears that the most respect-
able authorities render the words '■''daily bread"
— "bread {or subsistence." ^'' Give us bread for
stibsiste7ice." Using the term '■^ bread"— 3.% I
have throughout this discourse— as an equivalent
for all temporal provisions, I draw from this
translation of these words the inference that we
should be careful as to what ends we apply our
earthly blessings, and for what purposes we
desire them. " Bread for subsistejice" ttecessary
temporal good, that is ; not provisions for luxury,
ostentation, or pride. — Chapin.
VII. Lessons taught by the Word
"Daily."
I As to time.
(i) Every morning and evening., especially
seasonable on the Lorcfs day.
[2735] Consider then, I beseech y^ou, the force
of this word daily. Is not the petition of the
text one that should be daily lifted up.? Are
not our wants always new.'' Are not His
mercies fresh every morning and evening.' —
Chafifi.
[2736] We may, indeed, be thankful for the
variation, for each sentence throws light on the
other. St. Luke's phrase reaches farther into
the future, implying day after day till life shall
come to a close. That of St. Matthew requires
that the prayer, either in the words he records,
or words equivalent, shall every day be repeated.
We are not once for all, or by fits and starts, to
pray, " Give us day by day our daily bread,"
but every day to ask, "Give us tliis day our
daily bread." One might be inclined to the
opinion that St. Matthew's form is the fitter
prayer for the mornin.^. and St. Luke's for the
evening; but the Jew might use St. Matthew's in
the evening, as the beginning of his day ; and it
may be spoken by us as expressing the night's
wants as well as those of the daytime, asking
THE LORDS PRAYER.
2736-2746]
44 J
[fourth petition.
for protection, rest, and restoration, in asking
for food and health. — Robinson.
2 As to occasions.
(i) Family worship, viewing the family as a
co7tgregation.
['2737] This prayer is especially seasonable on
the Lord's Day. The fourth petition answers
to the fourth commandment. So sacred a day
was the Sabbath tliat God, on behalf of His
people, provided for it the day before. A
miracle was wrought rather than the day of
rest should be dishonoured. As God had His
day of preparation for the Sabbath on behalf of
Israel, let us on our part, according to His com-
mandment, have our day of preparation for it in
honour of the God of Israel, and of the holy
day. On no account must we willingly toil on
the Lord's day for the bread that perisheth.
The world must be swept aside. Offensive to
God, and poisoning the bodies and souls of
men, profit is loss made on the day appointed
for pious rest. Property then gathered is not
manna from God, but mere tamarisk gum of
the wilderness. — Robinson.
[2438] This prayer is a strong implied com-
mand for family prayer (as that family forms a
congregation which meets " daily "). It can no-
where else be used so as fully to come up to the
meaning of the original intention ; and nowhere
else can it be breathed forth with so much pro-
priety and beauty, as from the lips of a father,
the venerable priest of his household, and the
pleadei with God for those rich blessings which
a parental bosom desires on his beloved off-
spring.— Barnes.
VI 11. Importance of the Words " Daily
Bread."
I When viewed temporally.
(i) All things necessary to sustain life.
[2739] The words before us show that earthly
interests and animal wants have an appropriate
place in our prayers. The body is not essentially
vile. It is marred by our passions, and having
broken down the fences of the soul, we yield
to evil suggestions which steal in through its
agency. But it is the intricate and beautiful
workmanship of God, the consummate evidence
of His skill, and the instrument of countless
blessings. The earth, though often called "a
den of wickedness," and " a vale of tears," is
not wholly so. It is a world which the Creator
has adorned with loveliness and filled with
wonder. \iwe will, it may prove to us a porch
of knowledge, a temple of devotion, and a noble
theatre of duty. Life is to be cherished as a
sacred thing ; health is to be cared for as a
precious gift ; in short, the means of temporal
welfare are to be sought and preserved as a
religious duty — for in our holiest moods, in our
prayers, we are instructed to say : " Give us
this day our daily bread." — Chapin.
'2740] Temporal mercies may be lawfully
prayed for (Gen. xxviii. 20). They are need-
ful as the means God hath appointed for tb.e
preservation of our temporal life and being
(Matt. vi. 32). Being needful and promised he
is a self-murderer who neglects them. — Bp.
Hopkins, 1633- 1650.
[2741] This is, then, in other words, the wise
prayer of Agur, " Feed me with food conveiiietit
for ;«^."
[2742] The word " bread," as it is used in the
Lord's Prayer, and was commonly used by the
Jews, does not mean only moistened, fermented,
kneaded, and baked flour, but food in general.
Cakes, milk, butter, flesh, fruit, wine, all come
under the denomination. In the time when our
Lord gave this form, " breaking bread " was an
expression in common use for taking a meal
together. Bread signifies even more than what
is requisite as food : it includes " those things
which are needful to the body,'' that it may be
" warmed " as well as " filled." Like the Latin
word victiis, it extends to dress. It not only
means meat and drink, but everything necessary
to health, "food and raiment" or "covering,"
both clothing and habitation. — Robinson.
[2743] This word bread, representing a primary
and universal need, also suggests to us, by a
common figure of speech, temporal blessings
generally. Bread, the staff of life, is made re-
presentative of all the requirements of bodily
life. Gregory Nyssen says, "Bread, including
every bodily need." — Loraine.
[2744] Because we have need of very many
things for our present subsistence, as food, rai-
ment, habitation, and each of these comprehend
many otTier necessaries in them, all which would
have been too long particularly to enumerate in
this compendious prayer, therefore our Saviour
hath summed them up in the word bread ; figu-
ratively denoting all kinds of provisions neces-
sary for this natural life, whereof bread is the
most usual and the most useful. — Bp. Hopkins,
I 633- I 690.
[2745] Our Saviour hath not directed us to
pray for superfluous wealth, for luxury, or any
gratifications of that kind, but only for bread,
and in that for the mere necessaries of life. —
C]irysostoui.
[2746] Each word of Christ is signific?.nt.
" Bread," we know, nourishes not without con-
ditions. There must be the frame adapted to
it ; and that frame must be in health, not in
disease. There must be a process, which it is
not man's to dii-ect or to rule over, of digestion
and assimilation within, else the food will lie
useless, and worse than useless, however excel-
lent its quality, or however moderate its U'^e.
When we pray for bread, we pray for health ;
for all that is necessary to make bread nutri-
tious.— Dean Vanghcui.
442
2747-
THE LORDS PR AVER.
■2737]
[fourth petition.
[2747] Or is it that, as bread feeds us in the
day, so sleep feeds us in the nii^dit ? and then, if
sleep be bread for the night, in praying for bread
for the day, we pray as well for sleep for the
night : for the evening and the morning make
but one day. — Sir Richard Ba.':er, 1 568-1645.
[2748] Prayer for " daily bread " is prayer that
we may have enough. The word " bread " points
to what is simple and moderate. We have no
encouragement to s;iy give us this day a ban-
quet.— Sianjo/d.
[2749] In connection with gifts for the sup-
port of existence, think of His gifts for its en-
joyment. If this world had been meant as a
place for the bare physical life of man during
his allotted time, " a world less beautiful would
have served the purpose. ... A big, round
island, half of it arable, and half of it pas-
ture, with a clump of trees in one corner, and a
magazine of fuel in another, might have held
and fed ten millions of people ; and a hundred
islands, all made on the same pattern, big and
round, might have held and fed all the popula-
tions of the globe. There was no need for the
carpet of verdure or the ceiling of blue ; no need
for the mountains and cataracts and forests ; no
need for the rainbow, no need for the flower.—
Hamilton.
(2) Ail things suitable- to our station and cir-
CUfnstances.
[2750] We ask for " bread." It ought not,
I think, to be doubted that " bread " here
stands for all necessary supplies, whether of
food, clothing, dwelling-place, health, reason,
bodily faculties, or suitable companionship —
leaving entirely and absohitely to (iod the de-
cision, in kind and in degree, what these are for
us. — Dean Vaughan.
[2751] Breathing contentment, this petition
condemns censoriousness. It is not a levelling
prayer. It does not in its spirit break the tenth
commandment. It does not insist upon the
same lot for all. It does not demand that others
should do more than the petitioner according to
his circumstances. It docs not say. The daily
bread for me is enough for anybody, or. The
daily bread of another ought to be mine. It
sees the prosperity of a neighbour without envy
and without displeasure. It allows that what is
a daily supply for one is not the daily bread of
another, and that it is God who allots the dif-
ference.— Robinson.
[2752] Besides things that are naturally neces-
sary, there are things which are necessary to the
state and condititm in which Providence hath
set us ; as for men of high birth, or of public
note or employment, for cedars require more
sap than shrubs. But we must take care that
neither covctousness nor ambition impose upon
us and make us measure necessaries by our in-
ordinate desires. — />/. Hopkins., 1633-1690.
[2753] The bread we pray for includes that
which is needful to support all our life in
this world. This is manifold more than the
life of the body. Our life is compound, made
of earth and heaven, dust from the ground
and breath from Deity. It is even more than
this, for it must mean the life suitable to the
particular station we have to fill. — Stanford.
[2754] This subsistence is not in all men
alike, but differs according to the ditTerent sta-
tions of men, and according to the greater or
lesser charge of children, and other domestics
and relatives they have to provide for. For
what would be a good competency for a single
person in a private station, would fall much
short for a man with a great family, or in a
public station. — J. Blair, 1723.
[2755] There are different stations in life, each
having its own necessities. What would be
proper and necessary for one sphere of life,
would be altogether out of place and mischiev-
ous even to desire in another. Men are to pray
for such things as are proper for subsistence,
and that in the various spheres in which they
are placed. Let the several classes of society
not become envious and imitative of those
which are immediately above them, but let each
work and pray for such gifts and blessings as
are suitable to their station. Let not the poor
be envious of the rich, " for a man's life consist-
eth not in the abundance of the things which
he possesseth." Let not the rich become the
victim of artificia.1 wants, forgetful of the poor
man's need. — Loraine.
(3) All the means whereby necessaries are
prn'idcd.
[2756] In asking for our daily bread, we vir-
tually ask for ability and opportunity to obtain
it. Nor is this inconsistent with the truth upon
which I have just been dwelling. P^or. of course,
in saying that we are dependent upon God for
our daily bread, I have not intended to say that
it is to be acquired without the use of means.
I have only urged the fact that God is in the
means. And, therefore, I observe now, that, in
this prayer, we ask Gody<;;-the means, for those
faculties and agencies by which our food and
all temporal necessaries are to be secured. No
sane man will be apt to run into the extreme of
fatalism in regard to these interests. As to his
spiritual welfare, he may sink into an apathetic
and presumptuous reliance upon the work of the
Deity, and may make no effort for righteousness
because he expects all the movement to come
from on high Nevertheless, he sees clearly
that food, raiment, animal comforts cannot be
possessed without diligent exertion. — Chapin.
[2757] In the spirit of this prayer we ask Him
to give us the means of supporting life lawfully
and honourably, and to give us working facul-
ties. If we live by the skill of our fingers, we
ask Him to give us this skill ; if by the sight of
our eyes, to let no curtain of darkness fall over
them ; if by strength of limbsj to let no evil
THE LORDS PRAYER.
2757— 2767I
^43
[fourth pf.tition.
strike that strength ; if our minds have to work,
that our minds may be kept from weakness or
ecHpse, that so, giving us these, He may give us
our daily bread. — Stanford.
[2758] God gives us our bread when He gives
the earth strength to bring forth bread : God
gives us our bread when He sends seasonable
weather to gather in our bread : God gives us
our bread when He grants us peace and quiet
to eat our bread : God gives us our bread when
He gives us health and strength to earn our
bread : and if we could reckon up all the ways
of God giving us our bread, we should find them
to be more than the very grains of corn of the
bread we eat. — Sir Richard Bak:r, 1 568-1645.
[2759] It is not true that, in the prayer for
daily bread, I pray only for what people call a
physical blessing. As this world goes I cannot
eat a crust without the loyalty of a cook, with-
out the skill of a millwright, without the endur-
ance of the stoker of a steam-engine. I pray
God for such loyalty, skill, and endurance. Nor
do I pray for my own beiioof alone. I pray for
the whole world — the great organism of which
1 am part ; not for 7;y lonely crumbs, but for our
daily bread. — E. Hale.
[2760] "Laws of Nature'' indeed! Why,
just what we want is to have the laws of nature
continued. What we know is, that somehow or
other, in this world as it is, when loyal men
work bravely and truly — when they do the duty
that comes next their hand— when boys do this
on the prairie, when millers do it in the mills,
when stokers work for us day and night in Mis-
sissippi steamers, when firemen drive engines
day and night across Canada and New York
for us, when poor canal boys trudge on behind
hard-strained horses for us, and then after the
flour has come a thousand miles from its birth-
place, when ten thousand hard hands speed it
on its way, when a thousand other hands store
it, handle it, move it here, move it there, and at
last leaven it, knead it, and bake it, with the fire
that has lain hidden for that end for some
thousand thousand years, till a thousand other
hard hands brought the coal to the kneaded
dough — what we know is, that by the common
effort of millions of hard-working men and a
million " laws of nature," we have some chance
of daily bread. Just what I am asking God for
is, that that chance may continue ; not for me
alone who pray, but for this whole world. — E.
Hale.
2 When viewed spiritually.
(i) All things necessary for soul as well as
body.
[2761] God has made man oi a twofold sub-
stance, namely, ijodily and spiritual. Because,
therefore, man is composed of two substances,
a twofold sort of bread is necessary to him,
namely, that suitable to the body and that suit-
able to the soul. That suitable to the body
refreshes the body, and that suitable to the soul
refreshes the soul. — Abelard.
[2762] Thus the deepest and most sacred
needs of man's spiritual being are linked by an
ever-suggestive figure, with the comnionest and
most regularly recurring wants of his daily life.
As though the Eternal Father would remind us,
by the various necessities of the physical life
that force themselves upon our attention, of
those deeper though more silent necessities of
the soul. For what are these bodily appetites
but the shadows and symbols of spiritual need ?
They are the voices of the soul telling, with all
the eloquent urgency of physical hunger, thirst,
and desire, its nimost and immortal necessities.
— L.oraine.
[2763] As in regard to the outward life, so in
relation to spiritual food, we ask for " daily
bread," for what is indispensable, for " grace to
help in time of need." Thank God for the
Christian prince who, among his many demon-
strations of wisdom, suggested the inscription
on the architrave of the Royal Exchange of the
saying of Israel's king, "The earth is the Lord's
and the fulness thereof ; " so keeping the people
of London, visitors from the country, merchants
of every land, and strangers of every com-
plexion, in mind of the needful prayer, " Give
us this day our daily bread." — Robinson.
[2764] He will starve in eternity, who secures
not the bread of life in time.— Van Doren.
[2765] But above all, ever give me the Bread
of Life, that whilst my body is fed my soul may
not be starved, either for the want of that ever-
lasting Bread, or for want of an appetite for it.
—Sir Matthew Hale.
[2766J The word rendered " daily " is an un-
common word ; indeed, it seems to have been
formed specially for this prayer ; but words are
the representatives of thought. Surely, then,
the Inspirer of truth intended to suggest some
special thought by this special word. It sug-
gests deeper wants than those that belong to
mortal life ; it signifies that which is necessary
for the subsistence of our life in all the fulness
of our complete humanity. — Loiainc.
[2767] We are creatures of manifold needs.
The phrase " necessaries of life " includes many
other things than those which are required for
our physical well-being. The higher part of
our nature requires its " daily bread." To
starve our finer faculties is no more allowable
than to starve our bodies. To cultivate the
mind, to feed it, is a duty. Books and all the
means of intellectual instruction are among the
necessaries of life ; they are necessary to our
mental health and growth, and to the full de-
velopment of our nature. But the majority ot
men and women do not realize what it is to
starve the mind. The fainting and failing ot
intellectual facultv for want of anything to feed
444
2767-
TH E LORDS PRAYER.
[fourth petition.
upon they do not understand. They live in
their lower nature, live to eat, and drink, and
sleep, and make money, and enjoy themselves ;
they look well after their bodies and tverything
which concerns them, but tiicy nejj;iect the cul-
ture of their minds. When they pray tor " daily
bread" their tliouyhts rise no higher than the
dinner-table and its bill of fare. .If they be-
lieved that the mind was more than the body
they would be quite as anxious to supply it with
the food which is necessary to its growth and
strength.
But man is a social as well as an intellectual
being. He is not complete in himself. His
finest life is rooted in the social affections.
Much that is grandest in human character is
nourished out of those deep and sweet fountains
of feeling of which some men are weak enough
to be ashamed. The social nature therefore
requires its appropriate food. We cannot be
satisfied from ourselves. We require help and
sympathy from others, and we require to give
help and sympathy to others as our daily bread.
But we have wants deeper still, and which
cannot be satisfied by the hardest work, the
largest knowledge, or the dearest love. For
something more we cry. We have a nature
that touches God, and which keeps us unquiet
till it finds its satisfaction in Him. We have an
inward spiritual life which can only be fed in
communion with the Divine. We need God.
He is the Bread of our life. Only as we are
filled with His fulness do we " hunger no more."
W'ould that always we could be faithful to the
claims of our greatest need.
[2768] All commentators say that in these
words we pray for everything necessary for the
sustenance and refreshment of both body and
soul. And "the bread for which we ask is our
bread, the bread which is suited to us, food tem-
poral and spiritual, which is good and necessary
forour maintenance, in order that we in our whole
nature, body and spirit, may be strengthened to
do the will of (Jod, and to perform those duties
which He has assigned ws,.— Denton.
(2) Spiritual food pfopcrly so called,
I. The Word of God.
[2769] The word of God, which is daily ex-
plained to us in words, and is, in a manner,
broken, is daily bread. And as our bodies eat
that bread, so our minds eat this.— yh^j^nstine.
[2770] Again, what I am handling before you
now is daily bread ; and the daily lessons which
ye hear in church are daily bread, and the
hymns ye hear and repeat are daily bread. For
all these are necessary in our state of i)ilgrimage.
But when we shall have got to heaven shall we
hear the word, we who shall see the Lord Him-
self, and hear the Word Himself, and cat and
drink Him, as the angels do now ? Surely not.
Therefore has it been said, touching our daily
bread, that this petition is necessary for us in
this \\{Q.—lbid.
[2771] Christ is received, indeed, in the Sacra-
ment, but that Sacrament is in vain unless there
be a distributing and teaching of the word at
the same time. P'or it is the doctrine of the
word that brings Christ forth unto the people,
and makes Him known to their hearts, without
which He can never be understood in the Sacra-
ment. Secondly, internally, when God Himself
sheds abroad the power of His own doctrine.
There must be this internal communication of
the Divine word added to that which is done
externally, or else all the external act of preach-
ing will be attended with no fruits. But when
the external act is rightly performed (as it ever
ought to be) then the internal effect will not be
wanting, because God will not permit His W^ord
to pass by without being attended with fruits ;
for He is ever present, and teaches that M^ithin
which is brought forth by the minister without,
as He Himself saith by the Prophet Isaiah :
" As the rain cometh down, and the snow from
heaven, and returneth not thither, but watereth
the earth and maketh it bring forth and bud,
that it may give seed to the sower and bread to
the eater: so shall My word be, that goeth
forth out of My mouth : it shall not return unto
Me void, but it shall accomplish that which I
please, and it shall prosper in the thing where-
unto I sent it"(lsa. Iv. 10, 11). Hence they
who know Christ, and feel and taste Him by in-
ward experience — such are made true Christians.
— Luther.
2. The Sacrament of the Lord's Supper.
[2772] The early Christians considered that
this petition had special reference to the Bread
of Life, given in the sacrament of the Lord's
Supper, which they used to partake of daily. —
Jiai/isay.
[2773] " Daily bread " means either all those
things which minister to the necessity of this
life, or the sacrament of the body of Christ
which we daily receive. — Augustine.
[2774] There is a necessary supply of bodily
food, for the preservation of our daily life, with-
out which we cannot live. This is food and
clothing, but the whole is understood in a part.
When we ask for bread, we thereby understand
all things. There is a spiritual food also, which
the faithful know, which ye too will know, when
ye shall receive it at the altar of CJod. This
also is daily bread, necessary only for this life.
For shall we receive the Eucharist when we
shall have come to Christ Himself, and begun
to reign with Him for ever? So then the
Eucharist is .our daily bread ; but let us in such
wise receive it that we be not refreshed in our
bodies only, but in our souls. For the virtue
which is apprehended there is unity; that,
gathered together into His Body, and made His
members, we may be what we receive. Then
will it be indeed our daily bread. — Ibid.
[2775] When, therefore. He says, that- who-
ever shall cat of His bread shall live for ever;
THE LORDS PRAYER.
2775—2783]
445
[fourth petition.
as it is manifest that those who partake of His
body and receive the Eucharist by the right of
communion are living, so, on the other hand,
we must fear and pray lest any one who, being
withheld from communion, is separate from
Christ's body, should remain at a distance from
salvation ; as He Himself threatens, and says,
" Unless ye eat the flesh of the Son of Man, and
drink His blood, ye shall have no life in you."
And therefore we ask that our bread, that is,
Christ, may be given to us daily, that we who
abide and live in Christ may not depart from
His sanctification and body. — Cyprian.
[2776] Thousands, who do not every day
partake of the sacrament of the Lord's Supper,
pray every day with success, " Give us this day
our daily bread." It is impossible to allow that
the sacramental elements are expressly spoken
of in this petition, when we remember that the
Lord's Prayer was given and used before the
institution of the Lord's Supper. — Robinson.
3. Christ Himself.
[2777] We request the Lord to give us spiritual
bread.
Christ is spiritual bread (John vi. 35).
Christ as bread (i) has been bruised, Isa. liii. 5 ;
(2) begets, maintains, and perfects spiritual
life in the soul, John vi. 35 ; (3) satisfies the
soul ; (4) enriches the soul.
The word of God is spiritual bread (Psa.
cxix. 103). If we feed upon it (Psa. cxix. 11) by
faith and meditation, we shall become strong in
the Lord, and in the power of His might, and be
nourished up into everlasting life (Psa. i. 2, 3).
Divine grace is spiritual bread, (i) It sup-
ports the soul, 2 Cor. xii. 9 ; (2) it causes the
soul to grow, Hosea xiv. 5 ; (3) produces healtli
in the soul, Isa. xxxv. 5-7 ; (4) makes the soul
happy ; (5) everlastingly preserves the soul. —
H or lock (of Box).
[2778] Bread from heaven (John vi. 51),
which is the bcdy and blood of Christ ; bread
of the Spirit, which is the word of God, and
His grace, feeding the starving inner man, and
refreshing him with the nourishment of holy
habits ; and bread from the earth to strengthen
man's heart (Psa. civ. 15), wherewith his bodily
life is sustained. — Churchtnaiis Guide to I'aith
aftd Piety.
IX. Lessons from the Petition viewed
AS A Whole.
General lessons.
[2779]
" Give," a lesson of dependence.
" Bread," „ „ contentment.
" Our bread," „ „ industry.
" To-day," a lesson against care.
" Daily," „ of trust.
" Give us/' „ „ love.
— Van Doren.
Or, again —
" Give us," teaches us dependence on God.
" Our," „ „ industry.
"Daily," „ „ frequency in devotion.
"Bread," „ „ moderation.
—Ramsay.
[2780] I. The text shows us how we ought to
content ourselves with the necessaries and con-
veniences of life, and how we should retrench
the superfluities of it. 2. Reproves the sin of
covetousness, and teaches us to wean our hearts
from the world, and if God blesses us with
riches, to put them to a charitable use. 3. Con-
demns those whose dependence is on costly
' things, and on their own skill and industry, but
in whose thoughts God is not. 4. Suggests that
as God bestows our bread not by miracle, but
by blessing our endeavours, we must set upon
nothing upon which that blessing cannot be
bestowed. 5. Inculcates gratitude to the giver
of every good and perfect gift. — J. Blair, 1723
{condensed).
[2781] I. It tends to deliver the mind more
from anxious cares and fears than straightened
circumstances. 2. It enlarges the heart more
in thanksgivings to Almighty God. 3. It puts
us in a capacity to do more good in works of
piety and charity. 4. It helps better to carry
on the public good, which often suffers egre-
giously for want of having wherewithal, and for
want of a public spirit, which want is occasioned
by pinching circumstances. — Ibid.
[2782] And in bidding us pray for this bread,
and to pray for it every day of our lives, Christ
teaches us what we are to avoid.
1. W^e are not to seek more even of these
necessary things than is sufficient for us. We
are warned by the terms of this petition against
inordinate appetite, gluttony, surfeiting, and
drunkenness.
2. We are not to permit ourselves to obtain
these things which are necessary to us by fraud
or by robbery, we are to seek them only in ac-
cordance with the will of God ; in other words,
we are not to covet.
3. We are not to be unduly careful, nor
anxious even, for those things, which are most
needful for us, but are to remember that all good
things come from God, and are the fruits of His
bounty and love towards us, and that He giveth
to all His creatures that which is necessary for
them. — Avendano.
[2783] Christ saith, "give us this day.'' i.
That every day we may pray to God. There-
fore it is not this month or year (i Thess. v. 17).
2. Because there should be family prayer. All
that taste their meat are to come and say. Give
lis. 3. To make way for our gratitude for God's
mercies as they individually come (Psa. Ixviii.
19). 4. To show us to renew our dependence
daily upon God whose mercies are needed every
446
2783-2794]
THE LORDS PRAYER.
[fourth petition.
day. 5. That we may not burden ourselves
with over-much thoughtfuhiess (Matt. vi. 34).
6. That worldly things should be sought in a
moderate pro.portion : if we have sufficient for a
day that should be enough. 7. That we might
be trained up with thoughts of our life's uncer-
tainty (Jas. iv. 13). 8. To awaken us after
heavenlythingsQohn vi. 27).— 71 Maiiton, 1629-
1677.
2 Particular lessons.
(r) Concerning the relative importance of
duties.
I. Worldly things rank after the things of God.
[2784] The position of this petition may in-
instruct us in the government of our lives, to use.
worldly comforts as here we pray for them.
Spiritual and heavenly things are our greatest
concernments, and should be our greatest care ;
with these we should begin, and with these we
should end. — Bp. Hopkins, 1633-1690.
(2) Concerning the performance of daily
duties.
[2785] The answer therefore to this petition
will be, that our spirits will be cleansed from
worldliness, covetousness, and hardness of
heart ; from high-mindedness, self-confidence,
and dishonesty; from discontent, envy, and in-
dolence ; and that we shall be enabled, without
repining at what is past, or fretting ourselves
with thoughts of the future (though repenting of
the past and preparing for the future), to sum-
mon all the powers given us to this day's duty. —
Dods.
( 3) Concerning the principles and dispositions
b fitting us in the performance of daily duties.
I. Self- ward.
a. Contoitment.
[2786] Contentment is one of God's blessings
that we ask in this prayer, "Give us this day
our daily bread ; " that is, such provisions as
are necessary for us, contentment and cjuiet of
mind in the enjoyment (Joel ii. 19).— 7'. Alanton,
1629-1677.
[2787] In this petition God almost audibly
cries to the ear of all who will understand,
" Cease, O men, from your covetous longings
after things that profit not." — Gregory.
b. Afoderation in our desires.
[2788] By teaching us to ask for bread, our
Lord indicates that our desires for worldly good
should not be passionate, but moderate. For
this the word bread naturally suggests to us.
We say that we do not desire a great deal, but
enough to enable us to do God's will effectively,
to be the most we can. — Dods.
[2789] Let the child be content to "ask
bread." If he cry for poisonous dainties, fine
clothes, expensive parlies, costly playthings, he
may deserve and provoke disease, disaster, dis-
cipline. Teaching us to ask for no more than
"our daily bread," our Lord commands modera-
tion. In this petition we accept His law of
self-denial, and pledge ourselves to Him that
we will be Christianly temperate. — Robinson.
2. Man-ward,
a. Cene?-osity.
[2790] This is one way, and a perfect one, for
getting of bread, by praying for it ; yet Solomon
telleth us of another, a more active way, which
yet hath its force from this : " Cast thy bread
upon the waters, and after many days thou shalt
find it." For, indeed, as poor men stand beg-
ging at rich men's gates, so rich men stand
begging at God's gate. And the next way to
receive it is to give it ; and if they will have
their need helped and their hunger filled, they
must help the needy and fill the hungry. — Sir
Richard Baker, 1 568-1 645 .
[2791] They to whom God has given abun-
dantly can select from His gifts, and present to
Him not a richer sacrifice than the widow's
mite, but a larger oftering. " For if there be
first a willing mind, it is accepted according to
that a man hath, and not according to that he
hath not." The "daily bread" determines the
daily sacrifice. — Robinson.
3. God-ward.
a. Faith in God.
[2792] Grant us food for the day and faith for
the morrow. — Vajt Dor en.
[2793] This prayer for daily bread should
direct us to great comfort and cheerfulness.
It we have much ease and comfort from the
interest of a common friend, whose capacity to
serve us is but short, and his affections, like all
other mortal things, very uncertain ; how rich
should we think ourselves in the friendship of
that " Father of lights, with whom is no variable-
ness, neither shadow of change ? " — Mangcy,
1684-1755-
b. Thanksgiving for daily mercies.
[2794] Wherever there is material for prayer,
there is material for thanksgiving. If we need
to pray to God even for our bread, then even for
our bread let us give thanks to Him. If to-day's
supply does not come by chance, nor because
we were similarly supplied yesterday and the
day before, but because God regards our wants
of to-day and for this day also grants us life ;
then this day ought we to thank Him for this
day's mercies, though they be but the same as
yesterday's, and what all other men are enjoying.
As each rising sun, touching the wing of the
sleeping birds, wakes through the woods a fresh
burst of glad melody, as if sun had never risen
before ; so let each day's mercies awake our
hearts afresh to the sense of God our Father's
smile, and turn our lives towards His light.
" Where nothing'is deserved, everything should
be received with thanksgiving ;" how then shall
we ever discharge our debt of thanks, who
deserve to know the power of God's anger, but
experience the powe'V of His mercy.'' — Dods.
THE LORD'S PRAYER.
FIFTH PETITION.
Pages 448 /^ 461.
A. Introductory Remarks.
I
STRUCTURAL CHARACTER AND INTER-RELATIONS.
B. Treatment of the First Clause of the Petition.
2
ETYMOLOGICAL MEANING OF THE WORD "FORGIVENESS."
3
THE GRATUITOUS AND ABSOLUTE CHARACTER OF THE FORGIVENESS SOUGHT.
4
ORIGIN AND METHOD OF THE BESTOWAL OF THE FORGIVENESS SOUGHT.
5
LESSONS TAUGHT CONCERNING SIN OR TRESPASS BY THE VERY DUTY ITSELF
OF SEEKING FORGIVENESS.
6
FORCE OF THE PLURAL "OUR" IN THE WORDS "OUR DEBTS."
7
THE RELATION BETWEEN THE WORD "DEBTS" AND THAT OF "TRESPASSES."
8
LESSONS TAUGHT BY THE PHRASE "OUR DEBTS."
9
CONSIDERATIONS RESPECTING THE WORDS "OUR DEBTS" WHICH GIVE
SPECIAL POINT TO THE REQUEST "FORGIVE."
10
CONSIDERATIONS RESPECTING THE WORDS "OUR TRESPASSES" WHICH GIVE
SPECIAL POINT TO THE REQUEST " FORGIVE."
C. Treatment of the Second Clause of the Petition.
THE INFERENCE TO BE DRAWN FROM THE WORD "AS."
12
QUESTIONS SUGGESTED BY THE WORD "AS," IMPLYING THE TERMS OF
OUR FORGIVENESS.
13
THE ASSERTION "AS WE FORGIVE" VIEWED IN REGARD TO THE FUNDA-
MENTAL (SUBJECTIVE) PRINCIPLES OR REQUIREMENTS OF THE GOSPEL.
14
THE COMPREHENSIVE MANNER IN WHICH THE WORDS "AS WE FORGIVE"
ARE TO BE CONSTRUED.
15
SOLEMN REFLECTIONS SUGGESTED BY THE ADDITION OF THE WORDS
"AS WE FORGIVE."
16
PRACTICAL HINTS FOR THE CARRYING OUT OF THE ASSERTION "AS WE
FORGIVE."
THE COMPREHENSIVE MANNER IN WHICH THE WORDS "OUR DEBTORS"
ARE TO BE CONSTRUED.
D. Concluding Remarks.
18
THE HERESIES OF EARLY TIMES INFERENTIALLY CONDEMNED IN THIS
PETITION.
447
44»
THE LORD'S PRAYER
{^Continued).
FIFTH petition:
{Atid fori^ive us our trespasses as ive forgive
tliem that trespass against tis.)
AS GIVEN BY ST. MATl'HEW.
"And forgive us our debts {rd ocptiXiiftma) rs
we forgive {a<piiiiiv) our debtors (vi. 12). For
if ye forgive men tlieir trespasses {TTapa-irTotnaTa)
your heavenly Father will also forgive you," &c.
(vi. 14).
AS GIVEN BY ST. LUKE.
" And forgive us our sins (Tag afiapTlag) ; for
we [ourselves, R.V.] also forgive every one that
is indebted to us" (xi. 4).
I. Structural Character and Inter-
relations.
1 This petition marks a division in the
prayer itself.
[2795] We have now done with the supplica-
tions of this prayer, and are come to the depre-
cations. The supplications are those petitions
which we make to God for obtaining of that
which is good. The deprecations those for
removing of evil. — T. Manton, 1629-1677.
2 This petition related to all the preceding
ones.
[2796] This petition is strictly connected
with tlie former ; for though we have received
grace and gifts from God, yet we often misuse
them, and there:ore have need to ask for iox-
giveness.— /'t^;'««.
3 This petition specially related to the pre-
ceding one.
(l) Viewed by themselves.
[2797] The grace of God in Christ is seen in
the very order of its sentences. If the Master
had written them on separate slips of parch-
ment, and told the disciples to arrange them,
would they have thought of placing the prayer
for food before that for forgiveness ? Jesus's
plan reminds us that our Heavenly Fatiier's
bountifuiness preceded man's disobedience and
is unimpaired. Adam began his course sur-
rounded by God's gifts, and in the midst of the
plenty of Eden he learned to transgress. If we
are born in the wilderness, it is under the star
of Bethlehem, and the Lord prevents us with
His flowing goodness.
[2798] After supply of food, pardon of sin is
asked for, that he who is fed of God may live
in God ; care being had not only for the life
that now is, but for that which is to last for
eve r. — Cyprian .
[2799] Forgiveness is as much the basis of a
day's duty as bread. If we are to serve on
earth, we must have bread ; but if we are to
serve either on earth or elsewhere, we must
have forgiveness. As surely as we faint and
die without bread, so surely do we faint and
die from all godly life, and for all godly pur-
poses, if we have not forgiveness. — Dads.
[2800] A former petition was " as in heaven
so in earth." Now it is " as in earth, so in
heaven." — Bengel.
(2) Viewed by the aid of the instructive con-
Junction ujiiting them together.
[2801] This clause of the divinely given prayer
begins with " and." Christ uses no waste words,
and be sure this is not one. It marks the con-
nection and fi-xes the order between this and
the preceding request. " Forgive us our sins "
titly follows " Give us this day our daily bread."
Even life would not be a boon if not connected
with pardon. When the great Inspirer gives
continuous life through the continuous gift of
that which feeds it, we find to our sorrow that
in this world the life thus given goes wrong —
it is always sinning, and therefore, always need-
ing forgiveness. — Stanford.
[2802] There is a word which though it be no
part of the petition, yet because it brings the
petition in, it is not itself to be left out ; namely,
the conjunction and : which in all the former
petitions was never used, because indeed there
was no use of it. For they went all singly by
themselves, as chiefly referred to the honour of
God, who is actus siniplicissiinus, and chiefly
fitted for the mouths of angels, who are sub-
stantice simp/ices. But now that we are come to
the petitions for the only use of men, now there
is use of this conjunction : for all blessings in
this world are tied as it were by links together,
and are not good but in conjunction ; and there-
THE LORDS PRAYER.
449
[fifth PF,1
fore this conjunction ajid is now here used :
that as the first use of it that ever was was to
join the bodies themselves of heaven and earth
together, so the use of it here is to join the
blessings of heaven and earth together ; for as
an earth without a heaven would have made but
a miserable world, so these earthly blessings
without the heavenly will make but a miser-
able man. And therefore we have no sooner
said, " Give us this day our daily bread," but it
presently follows, "And forgive us our tres-
passes ; " as if it would infer, that unless the
spiritual blessings be added also, these temporal
blessings will do us small good, or rather in-
deed will do us more hurt than good. But all
this is helped by this conjunction and, for if
the spiritual blessing be added to the temporal;
thy riches will prove a good unto thee, as being
a purse for charity ; thy honour will prove a
good unto thee, as being a stage for humility ;
thy wisdom will prove a good unto thee, as
a lantern for devotion and a shield against
temptations. — Sir Richard Baker, 1 568-1645.
[2803] " Give us this day our daily bread," is
not the conclusion of the Lord's Prayer : and it
is not a petition which we may offer once more,
until we have gone on to the end. The word
"and " tells us that there is a serious continu-
ation. Before we ask again for the supply of
our temporal wants, we must say, " And, our
Father which art in heaven, forgive us our
debts." — Robinson.
[2804] The particle and links this petition to
the former, showing us (i) that without pardon
all the good things of this life will do us no good.
(2) Our unworthiness. Our sins are so many
and so grievous that we are not worthy of one
morsel of bread. Gen. xxxii. 10. (3) That sin
is the great obstacle and hindrance of all the
blessings we expect from God, Jen v. 25. —
T. Manton, 1629- 167 7.
4 This and the succeeding petitions are
governed by the preceding one.
[2805] The expression, " this day," also im-
plies that Christians themselves are to pray for
pardon. As the words, " in earth as in heaven,"
belong to each of the first three prayers, so the
phrase " this day " is a part of each of the last
three. "This day, give us our daily bread.
This day, forgive us our debts. This day, de-
liver us from evil." — Robinson.
II. Etymological Meaning OF THE Word
"Forgiveness."
[2806] "Forgive" — the original word is
'• Dismiss" — our trespasses. — Dea7i Vaiighan.
[2807] This word " forgive " {('((phji^u) signifies
to set at liberty, to loose, to free from obligation,
to emancipate, and from this verb is derived
the word which is generally used in the New
Testament to express the remission of sins or
forgiveness. The year of jubilee was called the
year of setting free, of remission, of forgiveness
{iviavTvc a^tfrfwf. Lev. XXV. 10, S:c., Sept.), be-
cause the debts were cancelled, the captives
were set free— the obligations were "forgiven."
So possibly this word grew up to the nobler use
of the New Testament. — Lorainc.
III. The Gratuitous and Absolute
Character of the Forgiveness
sought.
[2808] Forgiveness of sins, then, signifies that
gracious pardon which God, the lawgiver, ex-
tends to man, the law-breaker. — /bid.
[2809] For pardon is one of the 'things that
we can only have by asking. It is a thing
which must come from another — from him,
namely, whom we have wronged. It is his to
forgive, and nothing we can do can earn it. We
cannot pass a free pardon upon ourselves, remit
the debts we owe to another, absolve ourselves.
But God whom we have offended, and in whose
debt we are, says we may have pardon for the
asking. — Dods.
[2810] We are represented here as pleading
in forma pauperis, and applying ourselves to
God's mercy not as a composition but as a
pardon. — J. Blair, 1723.
[2811] God's forgiveness is (i) extensive — All
offences, Psa ciii. 3 ; all characters, Manasseh,
Saul, &c. (2) Willing, Nehem. ix. 17. (3)
Complete, thorough, hearty, both to forgive and
forget, Micah vii. 18, 19. (4) Constant, daily,
hourly, Lam. iii. 22-32. — Hoi'lock {of Box).
[2812] The word " debts" is here used figura-
tively. Debtors are those who are bound to
others for some claim in commercial transac-
tions. Literally there can be no such transac-
tion between God and man. We have not met
the claims of law. We have violated its obliga-
tions. We are exposed to its penalty. We are
guilty. And God only can forgive, in the same
way, as none but a creditor can forgive a
debtor. Debts therefore mean sins, or off'ences
against God — offences which none but God
can forgive. — Barnes.
IV. Origin and Method of the be-
stowal of the Forgiveness sought.
[2813] I. Jehovah is the source of forgive-
ness (Isa. xliii. 25). 2. Christ is the channel
through which forgiveness flows (Acts xiii.
38). 3. Prayer is the means by which forgive-
ness is- obtained (2 Chron. vii. 14). — Horlock (of
Box).
V. Lessons taught concerning Sin or
Trespass by the very Duty itself
of seeking Forgiveness.
I That we are all sinners.
[2814] Lest any man should flatter himself
as if innocent, when no one is innocent, and
29
45°
THE LORDS PRAYER.
-2825I
[fifth petition.
should the more perish by exalting himself, he
is taught that he sins dnily, by being com-
manded to pray daily for his sins. — Cyprian.
[2815] Prayer for pardon is confession, be-
cause he who seeks for pardon confesses a
fault. — Tcrtttllian.
[2816] All are concluded under sin, and con-
sequently under guilt, the effect of sin, and con-
sequently under death and a curse, the wages
of sin. And this sin, guilt, and curse is so
closely bound to every one of Adam's posterity,
that there is no possibility in the best of them
to deliver themselves from it ; therefore, O
Lord, teach us to pray, " Forgive us our sins."
— air Matthew Hale.
[2817] After the preservation of our beings
(the foundation of our enjoying other good
things), our first care, we see, ought to be con-
cerning the welfare of our better part and
state, which chiefly consists in the terms where-
on we stand toward God, upon whose favour all
our happiness dependeth, and from whose dis-
pleasure all our misery must proceed ; since,
therefore, we all do stand obnoxious to God's
wrath and justice, having omitted many duties
which we owe to Him, having committed mani-
fold ofl'ences against Him, it is therefore most
expedient that we first endeavour to get Him
reconciled to us, by the forgiveness of our debts
and offences. — Barrow.
[2818] To say that we do not sin is itself a
sin. Sure as that we sin daily, do we need
forgiveness daily. What we may think to be
our sanctities need it as well as what we call our
sins. Our tears need it, our prayers need it, our
holiness, our humility, our \o\q.— Sta?i/ord.
[2819] Like one who has been for some time
amid the dazzle of the banquet or the dance,
and now the chamber is empty and its bril-
liancy has gone, and the sober light in his
hand serves only to show the tinsel character of
all that had seemed so bright ; so is one from
whom, amid the silence of the sick chamber, or
the solitudes of nature, or the retirement of the
house of God, the fascinations which threw a
lustre over the things of earth have vanished,
and he sees the pomp and the splendour of
life in its true character, and he feels that he
has been lured along a false path in forgetful-
ness of God, if not in direct violation of His
laws, and so in sin, if indeed all that is not
of faith— all, that is, which is not done as in
the thought of tiod and with a desire to serve
Him — is sin. And is not this the case more or
less with all of us, as we look fixedly on our
own past life in the light of God's word? Do
not its condemnations meet us perpetually, and
say to each one of us. Thou art the man i* —
Karslakc.
2 That though believers are justified, yet
they still need daily cleansing from sin.
[2820] By this petition then it appears that
every man commits sin, because every man is
here enjoined to ask forgiveness. But are there
not the just? Yes, but they were just before
God in His mercy, not in His justice; before
God as a father, not as a judge ; before God in
Christ, not in themselves. And, in a word, to
make good David's words— they are just be-
fore God, not by their not committing, but by
God's not imputing sin unto them. — Hir Richard
Baker, 1 568-1645.
[2821] The one sweeping forgiveness may lie
far in the past — yet is there day by day a for-
giveness needed, and a forgiveness vouchsafed.
"He that hath bathed himself " all over, once
for all, in the ocean of atonement, " needeth
not" afterward "save to wash his feet" — yet
that partial washing he needs, and here it is
provided for. " When ye pray, say, F'orgive us
our sins," and He that hears in heaven His
dwelling-place, when He hears, forgives. — Deari
Vaughan.
[2822] But seeing God hath forgiven our
sins already in Christ, what need we to trouble
God or ourselves to ask forgiveness again, as
though our words could do more than Christ's
deeds ? but is it not as when a king proclaims a
general pardon to all oftenders, yet none shall
have benefit by it but only such as sue it forth
and fetch it out ; so God indeed hath granted a
general pardon to all sinners in the merits of
His Son, but none shall have benefit by it but
such only as sue it forth by the tongue of faith
and fetch it out by the feet of charity, and this
is the tongue of faith when we say, " Forgive us
our trespasses." These are the feet of charity,
when we " Forgive them that trespass against
us." — Sir Richard Baker, 1 568-1645.
[2823] Even the best works we can do, as of
ourselves we do them, have all of them a need
of saying this petition. That as the devil in
the swine told Christ his name was legion,
bccaus:; they were many, so we more truly
may say of our trespasses that their name is
legiai., b -'cause they are exceeding many. —
Ibid.
[2824] After the petition for the sustenance
of life, then follows most naturally this petition
for forgiveness.
" Give" and " Forgive." We pass on from
the thought of existence to that of guiltiness.
For "there is no man that liveth and sinneth
not."
This petition is for pardon ; not merely the
pardon of justification, but that daily cleansing
from sin indicated by our Lord, when He taught
His disciples, saying, "He that is washed
necdctli not, save to wash his feet ;" i.e., from
the defilement contracted by us in each day's
walk throui;h life, and contact with others from
our citizenship in this world. — Procter.
[2825] Seest thou surpassing mercy ? After
taking away so grdat evils, and after the un-
THE LORD'S PRAYER.
2823—2834]
fFIFTH PETITION.
speakable greatness of His gift, if men sin
again, He counts them such as may be forgiven.
For that this prayer belongs to believers is
taught us both by the laws of the Church and
by the beginning of the prayer. For the un-
initiated could not call God Father. If, then,
the prayer belongs to believers, and they pray,
entreating that sins may be forgiven them, it
is clear that not even after the laver is the profit
of repentance taken away. Since, had He not
meant to signify this, He would not have made
a law that we should so pray. — Clirysostoni.
[2826] "Duty," the thing ^z/^,has not been paid,
and out of our own resources we have no means
of payment. In the world of commerce, the
secret consciousness of being bankrupt is often
mastered by reckless levity or forced composure.
Sometimes debtors, in despair of paying their
debts, afraid to look into their books, or to face
the facts of their position, put the whole question
away, launch into extravagance, run up tremen-
dous bills, and get into a rate of expenditure
beyond their calculations. So does the sinner
sometimes act with reference to sin, until God
in tender mercy, by His sovereign Spirit, brings
him out of his delirium, and makes him cry,
" God be merciful to me a sinner !" Sin after
conversion is the same thing as sin before it.
Sins are always debts. — ^Siaiiford.
[2827] " Debt " is a designation of sin which
calls to mind a large class of sins, which we are
very prone to forget in seeking pardon — sins of
omission. These have no palpable and visible
existence, such as glaring acts of sin possess.
While they rival positive acts of wrong-doing in
their iniquity, they outrival them in their power
of eluding conscience. — Dods.
[2828] Both converted and -unconverted per-
sons may be exhorted to a more feeling and
intelligent use of this petition. They are both
God's debtors ; the unconverted, shamefully and
guiltily ; the converted, lovingly and thankfully,
but not with sufficient love and thankfulness.
— Robinson.
[2829] How wonderful that Christ the Re-
deemer should thus mercifully recognize by
anticipation the very failure of His own re-
demption— that He should thus incorporate in
His own Prayer the recognition of that failure
■ — that, whereas He came "that we should not
sin," He yet bids us pray on the supposition
that we have sinned ! I know nothing more
human, more Divine, anywhere in His gospel,
than this recognition. — Dean VaitgJian.
VI. Force of the Plural " Our" in the
Words " Our Debts."
1 It marks the fact that our trespasses are
our absolute property.
[2830] In " our Father " others have a right ;
in " our bread " others may claim a share ; but in
"our trespasses" none can challenge any part
with us, for every man must bear his own
burden ; every man must be accountable for his
proper dthis'.— Sir Richard Baker, 1 568-1645.
2 It reminds us of our responsibility for sins
of others caused through our influence.
[2831] But why say we "our trespasses?"
have we not trespasses enough of our own to
pray for, but we must pray also for the trespasses
of others ? Indeed not only charitably, but most
justly, seeing the trespasses of others are often-
times the trespasses of our trespasses. For if
we infect others by our counsel, or by our ex-
ample, are not our trespasses a cause of theirs .^
or, if they infect us, are not their trespasses a
cause of ours ? — Ibid.
VII. The Relation between the Word
"Debts" and that of "Trespasses."
I They are but slightly different and supple,
mentary aspects of the one Hebrew word
" choba," sin.
(i) The former is negative and the latter
positive, referring respectively to acts of omission
and commission.
[2832] A term including the two meanings
was probably employed by our Lord. " The
word which Christ used, as interpreters note,
was choba, a Syriac word, and signifies both
debts and trespasses, which as to the purpose
here are both as one ; unless we may say that
sins may more properly be called debts, being
taken as omissions when we leave that undone
which we ought to have done ; and more pro-
perly trespasses, being taken as commissions
when we do that we ought not to do." — Robinson.
[2833] He that sins against God or man is in
Syriac termed a debtor, and so a sin is a debt ;
"This people have sinned a sin" (Exod. xxxii.
31). The Targum reads, " hath owed a debt."
— Van Dor en.
[2834] How happens it that St. Matthew,
making mention of this petition, sets down
debts, and St. Luke trespasses 1 which cannot
both be true ; for if Christ said debts, then St.
Luke is in an error, who sets down trespasses ;
and if Christ said trespasses, then St. Matthew
is in an error, who sets down debts. This,
indeed, may seem a knot, but it is none, at
least, not hard to be untied ; for the word which
Christ used (as interpreters note) was choba, a
Syriac word, and signifies both debts and tres-
passes ; which, as to the purpose here, are both
as one ; unless we may say that sins may more
properly be called debts, being taken as omis-
sions when we leave that undone which we
ought to have done, and more properly tres-
passes, being taken as commissions, when we
do that we ought not to do ; and the evangehsts,
being not able in a translate tongue to express
Christ's word in one, have expressed his sense
in two, which shows not so much a diversity in
the writers as an unity of the spirit by which
452
^334-
TllE LORDS PRAYER.
-2844]
[fifth PETITrOX.
they write. And yet withal we may observe,
that though St. Matthew in the petition itself
sets down debts, yet in the repetition presently
after he sets down trespasses ; and St. Luke,
also, thouj^h in the forepart of the petition he
sets down sins, yet in the latter part he sets
down debtors ; that it is but a knot sought in a
bulrush, to seek from these words to lay asper-
sion upon these holy writers. — Sir Richard
Baker, 1 568-1645.
[2835] The parallel place in St. Luke is some-
what different, "Forgive us our sins, for we also
forgive every one that is indebted to us ; " froni
whence it appears that the Lord's Prayer in
our Liturgy follows rather the sense than the
words of both places ; the meaning however is
the same, whether we with St. Matthew read
" debts," or with St. Luke, sins or " trespasses."
—Mangey, 1684-17 5 5.
(2) The former refers more to the fcict itself,
while the latter marks the moral significance of
that existing indel'tedness.
[2836] By the word "trespass" is meant, a
going beyond the bounds of the law of God. It
has, then, a like meaning with the word " sin,"
which is a missing, or going away from, the
path of the Law. Hence, both words really
describe the same thing, viz., a breaking of
the commands of God. They are also called
" debts." For, first, they are the neglect of
duty ; and since duty is what we owe to God,
the neglect of it is a debt ; and, secondly, they
are like an account owing to the justice of God,
which He may exact to the uttermost or freely
forgive. — Pagan.
[2837] The parallel passage in St. Luke's
Gospel (chap. xi. 4) guides us at once to the
meaning of this prominent word " debts "
(o^f(\('//iara), by supplying the word "trespasses"
(«^«ori«c, sins), showing us that these "debts"
allude to the moral obligations under which
man lies to God. His law is the supreme and
constant rule of human life. God's right is
man's obedience. Every infraction of the
Divine law is a violation of the Divine rights.
To disobey is to incur a debt. — Loraine.
VII L Lessons taught by the Phrase
'• Our Debts."
I As to the far-reaching nature of sin.
(i) Sin is an ei'il in ourselves which is not
only our own affair, but an evil in its aspect
towards God.
[2838] Here, speaking of man's relation to
God, and his transactions with Him, the Saviour
calls our sins our debts. The principle taught
is, that sin is not as some would have us think,
a weakness, a sickness, an evil in ourselves. —
Stanford.
[2839] When we confess, we are helped by
viewing them as debts ; an expression which
leads us to consider, not so much the evil dis-
positions from which our sins proceeded, as the
relation to God in which they have left us.
And manifestly it is this which is most appro-
priate to be on our minds ("and which, in truth,
must be on our minds), when we come before
God to ask His forgiveness. This view of sin
takes us and sets us down in our true position
before God as His debtors. It throws into my
soul the confession, " I am connected with God,
and the connection is — debt." It is not a word
which directly points to the moral evil of sin,
but it very distinctly declares the position of
the sinner. It exhibits the relation I hold to
God. And this is just what we need to see
clearly when we pray for pardon — that we are
debtors, not only miserable sinners, whose
pitiable case may well move God to com-
passion, but His servants who, in sinning and
ruining themselves, have been most grievously
wronging and defrauding Him, and whose sins
have done as much injury (so He represents it)
to Him as to themselves. — Dods.
2 As to the evil qualities and energies of sin.
(i) // produces jmivci'sal mischief atid miseiy.
[2840] When an individual has contracted a
large debt, unless payment can be made, he
loses his property, his comforts, his companions,
his character, and is reduced to poverty and
misery. And sin has wrought a similar change
in msLXi.— JJbrlock {of Box).
[2841] A sin committed is a seed of sorrow,
suffering, shame, it may be death, flung out
into the world, bringing forth its harvest of
mischief and misery, "in some thirty, in some
sixty, in some an hundred fold." — Loraine.
[2842] We are in debt. We have known,
perhaps, at some moment of our boyhood or
manhood, what the burden of a deljt may be
towards man — how it undermines strength,
destroys rest, makes cowards and criminals of
the bravest and the most upright. " The one
owed five hundred pence, and the other fifty : "
what matters the sum, if we " have not to pay .''"
— Dean Vauglian.
(2) // casts a dark shado70 07'er human life.
[2843] It strikes us that in all the variety and
wealth of words used to show the evil qualities
and energies of sin, not one is more graphic
than this, and not one more mournful.
Even in this earthly life, and with reference
to earthly creditors, while still the conscience is
sensitive, and the soul alive, scarcely a word in
the English language drops on to us with such
a deadening blow. It is the horror that holy
poverty shrinks from. — Stanford.
IX. Considerations respecting the
Words "Our Debts" which give
Special Point to the Request
" Forgive."
I The two chief classes into which our debts
naturally fall.
( I ) I/iherited or original sin.
[2844] As a man who is heir to his father's
THE LORD S PRAYER.
-28S4j
453
[fifth petition.
estate takes upon him likewise the burden of
his debts, so that his father's debts, being
transmitted to him, become his debts ; so it is
with original sin — it is a heavy debt trans-
mitted to us from our father Adam, which, if we
had not a friend to help us out and to discharge
it for us, would utterly sink and ruin us. —
J. Blair, 1723.
(2) Personal or actual sin.
I. Viewed general] v.
[2845] We have followed our father's steps,
and have infinitely increased this debt by our
own bad conduct, to that degree that- if the
creditor will deal rigidly with us, we must be
utterly miserable to all intents and purposes. —
Ibid.
1. As suggested by the antecedent sentences
in the prayer itself.
[2846] The antecedent sentences suggest, as
perhaps they were intended to suggest, what our
debts are. Is God our Father? We owe Him
loving reverence. Is He in heaven.? We owe
Him a life of heavenly affections and aims.
Should we say, "Hallowed be Thy name " ? We
owe devotion to His glory. Is it right to say,
" Thy kingdom come " ? We owe Him the tri-
bute of subjects. Is it right to say, " Thy will
be done".'* We owe Him, not , only the
service of the active, but the surrender of the
choosing faculties. Is it right to say, " Give
us this day our daily bread"? We owe Him
the worshipping sense of dependence. These
things we owe. — Stanford.
2 Extent of our debts.
(l) As individuals.
I. With regard to the nature of the claims
against us.
[2847] He makes all the law and prophets to
hang upon a whole-hearted love to God and to
our neighbour (Mark xii. 28, et seq.) Thus
God's laws reach the deepest seats of life.—
Loraine.
[2848] Obedience being a debt we owe to
God, any one who commits sin thereby con-
tracts a kind of oblii^ation to he paid, by suffer-
ing the punishment awarded to delinciuency.
And "forgive" means to remit the penalty. —
Bloomjicld.
[2849] As debts stand upon record, so God
hath His book of remembrance (Mai. iii. 16).
And as men's writings or bonds, which they
have to show for their debts owing them, are
sealed up in a bag, so are our iniquities (Job
xiv. 17). — T. Manton, 1 629-1677.
[2850] Sin is called a debt, not indeed
properly, as if we owed it, but by a metonymy,
as it is the meritorious cause of that punish-
ment, the suffering of which we owe to Divine
justice (Rom. vi. 23). — Bp. Hopkins, 1633-1690.
[2851] As we are creatures, we owe the deht
of obedience. And to the payment of this debt
we stand bound both to the absolute sovereignty
of God, who is the supreme Lord of all His
creatures, and therefore may oblige them to
what He pleaseth ; and, likewise, by His mani-
fold favours and mercies conferred upon us. —
Ibid.
[2852] The law requires of us perfect obedience.
By breaking the law we become debtors, as God
requires us to adhere to each and to every pre-
cept contained in the decalogue, and, moreover,
to love Him with all our heart, mind, soul, and
strength, and our nei'jhbour as ourself. — Horlock
[of Box).
2. With regard to our inability to meet our
obligations.
a. Man-ward.
[2853] Upon me lies a burden which I cannot
shift upon any other human creature — the
burden of duties unfulfilled, words unspoken, or
spoken violently and untruly ; of holy relation-
ships neglected, of days wasted for ever. Are
they debts to our fellows? Often we think so.
We are bound to them by sacred ties which
were forgotten ; the friend repulsed, because we
did not understand him, or his opinions seemed
dangerous, or because we took a cry of agony
for a mocking laugh ; the child petted and
fondled into sin, or driven into it by roughness
and what we call parental authority ; those who
looked to be raised and purified by us, degraded
through our weak and grovelling ways ; those
who would have entered into the kingdom of
heaven hindered, because we cared not that
they should be wiser and better than ourselves.
b. God-ward.
[2854] But if our debts are to our fellow-
creatures, they cannot discharge them. If we
could hear each one distinctly saying out of the
grave or from heaven, " I forgive,"' though the
words might be unspeakably delightful, we feel
they would not penetrate deep enough, they
would not set us free from that which has
seemed to become a part of our own being.
Are they debts to God ? The first vague con-
sciousness of such a belief, how terrible it is !
All the former aspects of the debt seem mild to
this one ; yet all were surely prophetical of this
one. That sense of permanence, of eternity
being bound up with our acts and the results of
them, what was this but a witness that they had
a relation to God Himself? He surely was
speaking some strange conjuring I Why cannot
he cast them a.side as dreams of the night?
Are they anything more ? They come back with
fearful distinctness, the very act of which con-
science testifies, every circumstance, look, tone,
clearly recorded : it is no dream of the night.
The voice, be it from heaven or hell, is a real
one, which says, " It is done," that voice which
we thought came from ourselves, and which was
echoed by every person in the world around.
Yes, debts are trespasses ; we have not only for-
feited an obligation, but committed a sin ; we
have broken a law which was not formed on
454
2854-
TIIE LORDS PRAYER.
■2865I
[fifth petitiom.
earth, and cannot be repeated on earth.—
Maurice.
[2855] As a debtor is bound to make satis-
faction to the creditor, or else is liable to the
process of the law, so are we all (Rom. iii. 19)
become bankrupt. We can never pay the
original debt of obedience, and must therefore
be left to lie under the debt of punishment. —
T. Maiiton, 1629-1677.
[2856I This debt of obedience is irrcmissible,
and we are eternally and indispensably bound
unto it, otherwise it would make the creature a
deity. To this His sovereignty obhgeth our
subject condition, and His mercy and goodness
our ingenuity.— i?/. Hopkins, 1633-1690.
[2857] Is the faithful and full observance of
these penetrating laws, God's right at man's
hand .' Who, then, has not defrauded his
Maker? Thoughts are the soul's acts; God
judgeth the soul. "As a man thinketh in his
heart, so is he." Where is the self-righteous
man that can justify himself before Jehovah t
Who can set aside this legal claim 1 Who can
discharge this accumulated obligation ? Bank-
rupt through this " debt." burdened with these
" trespasses," cruslied with such " sins," there is
but one attitude for all— helpless but hopeful
supplication. " Our Father— forgive ! " — Loraine.
[2858] Thou canst never pay God, nor dis-
charge the least of thy debts for ever. Thou
canst not possibly do it by any duties or ser-
vices in this life ; for whatsoever thou dost is
either required or not required. If it be not re-
quired, it will be so far from being a satisfaction
for thy sins that it will be an addition to them,
and a piece of will-worship, which will meet
with that sad greeting at the last day, "Who
hath required these things at your hands?" If
it be required, it is no more than thou owest to
God before, and if thou hadst never sinned wert
obliged to pay it. — Bp. Hopkins., 1633-1690.
(2) As co7n}nunities.
[2859] As the sins of the individual, so are
the sins of the community, debts due to God
— debts of duties unperformed, of trespasses
actually committed. In the dark ages of the
Church's history, in the troubled periods of the
nation's life, what a fearful debt of wrong-doing,
of neglect of truth, mercy, and justice, has been
incurred! "The sins of the fathers upon the
children to the third and fourth generation ! "
The debts of the fathers must be paid by the
children to the third and fourth generation. A
great part of our indebtedness is by inheritance.
The national sins form the national debt to
God. Alas I in enduring the consequences of
|!ast evil we pay only the interest on the debt,
the vast principal remains unreduced. — li. B.
3 Steps necessary to avoid the penalties in-
curred by us as debtors to God.
[2860] First, the Scriptures declare repent-
ance necessary in order to remission of sins.
The second step is appealing to God's mercy.
We can never cancel our debts by works. If
our Father has no mercy, we hav^e no salvation.
Here is no case for an appeal to justice. Jus-
tice is our stern creditor. We are the prisoners
of justice. Justice points us down to dungeons.
Blessed be God, we may look to mercy. If we
are the prisoners of justice, justice has been
hitherto the prisoner of mercy. We have been
spared because visited and screened by mercy.
To justice we shall always be debtors. But a
third step is necessary, that they pray not in
vain. Divine love is not blind to righteousness.
The mercy that would save the sinner honours
justice, and prevails for the sinner by satisfying
justice ; and the sinner is turned into a saint, in
proportion as he is converted into the resem-
blance of justice as well as of mercy, taught and
enabled " to do justly, and to love mercy, and to
walk humbly with his God." " Mercy and truth
are met together ; righteousness and peace have
kissed each other." — Robinson.
[2861] I. There is required an acknowledg-
ment of the debt. 2. The satisfaction of Christ
must be pleaded in the court of heaven, that
there may be an owning of the surety. 3. Sin
must be forsaken. He that hath been released
of his debt must not run into new arrears. —
T. Manton, 1629-1677.
[2862] See that you feel as well as call your-
self a sinner — but know and believe that God
knows all things, and trust Him to apply your
prayer to the history of the life open before
Him. One earnest gaze upon Christ is worth a
thousand scrutinies of self — the man who be-
holds the cross, and beholding it weeps, cannot
be really blind nor perilously self-ignoi^ant. —
Dean Vaughan.
4 Penalties incurred by non-payment of our
debts.
[2863] As we are transgressors, so we owe
God a debt of punishment, to be suffered by us
to make God some reparation to His honour,
of satisfaction to His justice, for our trans-
gression of His law. It is this debt that we
pray God that He woiild forgive us. — Bp. Hop-
kins, I 633- I 690.
[2864] After this reckoning there is execution.
A bankrupt that cannot satisfy his creditor is
cast into prison ; so God hath His prison for ob-
stinate, impenitent sinners, and no getting out
again until they have paid the utmost farthing :
Luke xii. 59.— T. Manton, 1629-1677.
[2865] If we die impenitent, sin places us in
the prison of hell. The natural debtor may be
released from his confinement, as his debt may
be paid oft", or he may be forgiven on earth. But
the spiritual debtor can never be freed from the
prism of hell, the office of a mediator having
been laid aside, and the loving-kindness of the
Almighty having been shut up in eternal dis-
pleasure.— Horlock (of Box).
THE LORDS PRAYER.
2866—287:
455
[fifth petition.
[2866] There is a creditor to whom the debt
is due. God is a creditor as our creator and
benefactor, from whom we received all we have ;
as a lawgiver, inasmuch as we are under a law
to serve and honour Him who made us and gave
us what we have, and did not dispossess Him-
self of His right ; as a.j7tds;e who will call us to
account for our stewardship. He obligeth us
as our creator, imposeth a necessity of obedience
as lawgiver, and will reckon with us as judge. And
he who abuseth God's mercy as a creator ofi'ends
Him as a lawgiver, and will be punished by Him
as a judge. — T. J\J anion, 1629- 1677 {abridged).
5 Grounds upon which our debts are for-
given.
( 1 ) Viewed negatively.
I. Not the sufficiency of human repentance.
a. As testified to by natural religion.
[2867] t^y the general prevalence of propitia-
tory sacrifices over the heathen world, this
notion of repentance alone being sufficient to
expiate guilt appears to be contrary to the
general sense of mankind. — Bp. Butler.
[2868] Moreover, we hold that the insuffi-
ciency of repentance to atone for sin, and the
consequent doctrine of substitution, are ex-
hibited by the analogy of nature, the general
constitution of the Divine government, and
the history of the world's various religions. —
Loraifie.
b. As involved in the very idea of sin.
[2869] Seeing that sin is not simply an offence
done against God, but also against the deepest
interests of men, would it be consistent with a
just, not to say with a loving regard to the well-
being of all, that sin should be pardoned on re-
pentance alone ? — Ibid.
c. As involved in the very admissio?t of the
act itself.
[2870] What want is there of vicarious merit ?
Were his penitence and confession unavailing?
No ; but they were insufficient ; they might have
been 'unavailing ; they were no satisfaction to
offended justice ; they did not pay the suppliant's
debts. Instead of being meritorious, penitence
is a discovery of lack of merit, and confession a
declaration of that discover}\ — Robinso?i.
(2) Viewed positively.
I. The all-sufficiency of Christ's vicarious
sufferings.
a. Formal statements.
1st. By Anglican standards and Anglican
divines.
[2871] The Church of England, in her second
Article says, there " is one Christ, very God and
very man ; who truly suffered, was crucified,
dead and buried, to reconcile His Father to us,
and to be a sacrifice, not only for original guilt,
but also for actual sins of men.'' It is therefore
true that our Lord Jesus Christ, by one most
precious and propitiatory sacrifice, which was
His body, a gift of infinite worth, offered for the
sins of the whole world, hath thereby once re-
conciled us to God, purchased His general free
pardon, and turned Divine indignation from
mankind. — Hooker.
[2872] God was pleased to provide a sacrifice
in nature so pure, in value so precious, as might
be perfectly satisfactory for our offences ; in
regard to which obedience, God has become
reconciled, and opens His arms of grace to
mankind; in respect to which sacrifice He
tenders remission to all men that, upon His
terms (most equal and easy terms), are willing
to embrace it. — Barrow.
[2873] M''in who violated, by sinning, the law
of God, and by that violation olTended God, and
was thereby obliged to undergo the punishment
due unto sin, and to be infiicted by the wrath of
God, is, by the price of the most precious blood
of Christ, given and accepted in full compensa-
tion and satisfaction for the punishment which
was due, restored unto the favour of God, who,
being thus satisfied, and upon such satisfaction
reconciled, is faithful and just to take off all
obligation unto punishment from the sinner:
and in this act of God consistcth i\\&fo7giveness
of sins. — Pearson.
2nd. By Puritan and modern writers.
[2874] A debtor that is insolvent is undone,
unless there be some means found out to satisfy
the creditor : so we must altogether lie under
the wrath of God, unless satisfaction be made.
Therefore Jesus Christ comes under the notion
of a surety. Because He took the debt of man
upon Himself, therefore (Heb. vii. 22) He is
called, "the surety of a better testament."
Christ satisfying as our surety, all those which
had an interest in His death are set free from
the wrath of God, and have a release from this
great debt owed. As when the ram was taken,
Isaac was let go ; so when Christ was taken,
the sinner is released and discharged (Job xxxiii.
24).
From hence in His name there is proclaimed
redemption to the captives, freedom to poor
prisoners that were in debt, and weak, and
could not acquit themselves. And therefore
the publication of the gospel is compared to the
year of jubilee : Luke iv. 19, Christ came "to
preach the acceptable year of the Lord." It
relates to the year of jubilee, wherein all debts
were cancelled. — T. Manton, 1629-1677.
[2875] How is this forgiveness to be obtained,
consistently with the integrity of these laws.?
How are the attributes of the eternal to be re-
conciled, in the dispensation of mercy and the
iust guardianship of Divine commandments.?
How is the law-breaker to be dealt with as a
law-keeper, the transgressor to be treated as
just ? By the great law of substitution, by the
mediation of another, who says,
"Behold me, then; me for Him — life for
life I offer."
456
THE LORDS PRAYER.
2875-2883]
[fifth petition.
This doctrine of salvation through a living faith
in the Great Substitute — "forgiveness -of sin"
through the alone merits of Christ's atonement —
we urge upon you as the doctrine of Holy Scrip-
ture, the doctrine of the apostolic fathers, the
doctrine of the Church of England, the doctrine
of her greatest divines of the seventeenth and
eighteenth centuries, and the doctrine most
agreeable with human consciousness. Holy
Scripture paints us to one who " hath borne our
griefs and carried our sorrows," upon whom
hath been laid '"the iniquity of us all," "by
whose stripes we are healed" (Isa. liii.) "For
He hath made Him to be sin for us who knew
no sin, that we might be made the righteousness
of God in Him." — Loraiiic.
b. Popular statements.
[2876] In processes of commerce you see a
double page ; there is a column on the left hand
and a coiunm on the right. The one is called
Lhar<^t; the other rt'/.?cliarge. You observe in
settled accounts that although on the side of
charge a vast page may be crowded with entries,
on the side cf discharge there is but a single
line : yet accounts at the bottom are equal and
balancing. There is a name written under-
neath the second column ; that stands for all the
money, and that alone secures the discharge. In
the day when God's books are opened, revealing
in long lines our heavy debts, Christ's name
marked to our account is our discharge. —
William A mot.
[2877] Christ hath not only satisfied for the
punishment, but Hehath procured favour for us;
wherein he dittcrethfrom an ordinary and com-
mon surety. Christ does not only free us from
bonds, but also hath brought us into grace and
favour with the Creator, Lawgiver, and Judge. —
7". Matitou, 1629-1677.
[2878] To save His people from their sins is
represented as the leading work of the Saviour;
and even from an Old Testament point of view
this was indispensable, since the forgiveness of
sins is regarded as the foundation and condition
of all the other blessings of salvation ; and
therefore tlie Messiah would be no true Saviour,
if He were unable to grant this first of all. All
the rest may be regarded as simply additional.
The forgiveness of sins is, strictly speaking, the
fundamental benefit of which the poor human
family stands in need. David, who was merely
a king, might very well bring tiie judgment of
(k>d upon the nation by his sin, but he could
never atone for the nation. He therefore looks
forward with longing eyes for the King, who is
•also High Priest. A nation of sinners could
only be sure of the victory s|)oken of in Psalm
ex., when the King was also High Priest. —
Heiii^stcnbcrij;.
[2879] Is not all this accomplished by the
mediation and vicarious sufferings of Christ —
Himself bearing the just penalty of sin, and
thereby providing a way of mercy for the sinner?
Does not this evangelical doctrine of atonement
blend the most solemn requirements of law and
the most tender accents of love ! Is not Calvary
more awful than Sinai, even while it discovers
such a scheme of mercy as shall quicken the
pulses of a world "dead in trespasses and in
sin," to "love Him, because He first loved us.'"
— Loraine.
2. The all-prevailing nature of Christ's inter-
cession.
[2880] But then there comes the question,
how can this prayer be answered.'' How can
God forgive? How can He, who is perfect
justice as well as perfect love, forgive the dis-
obedience of His creatures to His will? The
Christian has at once an answer : he knows how
mercy and truth arc met together, he knows of
the one perfect atonement made for the sins of
God's rebellious world ; he knows that he has a
Saviour who sympathizes with all our difficulties,
and is ever ready to intercede for man. — Kars-
lake.
X. Considerations respecting the
Words "Our Trespasses" which
GIVE Special Point to the Request
" Forgive."
I The multitudinous character of our tres-
passes.
[2S8 1 ] Call not yourselves righteous, as though
ye had no cause to say, " Forgive us our debts."
Though ye abstain from murder, and adulteries,
and fornications, and all such other sins which
1 do not name, for which it is necessary that
the sinner be cut off from the altar, still there is
no want of occasions whereby a man may sin.
A man sins when he sees with pleasure what he
ought not to see. How great sins doth the
deadly tongue commit ? How often do we pray
and our thoughts are elsewhere, as though we
forgot before whom we are standing, or before
whom we are prostrating ourselves? If ail
these things be collected together against us,
will they therefore not overwhelm us because
they are small faults?' What matter is it whether
lead or sand overwhelm us ? The lead is all
one mass, the sand is small grains, but by their
great number they overwhelm thee. So thy
sins are small. Seest thou not how the rivers
are filled, and the lands are wasted by small
drops ? They are small, but they are many. —
Aiei;;usti/!C.
2 Aspects in which our trespasses may be
regarded.
[2882] Duties unfulfilled, words unspoken or
spoken lightly, violentl)- or untruly, holy relation-
ships neglected, days wasted and now gone for
ever, evil thoughts once cherished, which are
ever reappearing as fresh as when they were
first admitted into the heart, talents cast away,
aftcclions trifled with, light within turned to
darkness. — Maurice.
[2883] We commonly employ the word "tres-
passes," but either word is sufficientlyexpressive.
The man who has trespassed on his neighbour's
THE LORDS PRAYER.
2883—2894]
457
[fifth petition.
property and has thereby done him injury, is so
far indebted to him. So he who trespasses the
lawofGod, and transgresses His salutary and
righteous precepts, is "a debtor" to Him.
XI. The Inference to be drawn from
THE Word "As."
I That God's forgiveness is conditional on
ours.
[2884] Necessarily this "«j-" grows into a
cottdition, on which the answer of our prayers is
suspended. " If ye forgive not, neither will ye
be forgiven." If you have not learned to forgive
men their trespasses against you, you are not
in a moral condition to have your sins forgiven
by God. — Loraine.
[2885] This is the invariable rule by which
God dispenses pardon. He that comes before
Him unwilling to Ibrgive, harbouring dark and
revengeful thoughts, how can he expect that
God will show him that m.ercy which he is
unwilling to show to others ? — Barnes.
XII. Questions suggested by the Word
'•'As," implying the Terms of our
Forgiveness.
I In what sense God's forgiveness is con.
ditional on ours.
(i) Forgiveness is not the meritorious cause,
but the required condition on our part to receive
the gratuitous gift.
[2886] It is not because we forgive that we
ought to be forgiven ; but because we are for-
given that we ought to forgive. — E. B.
[2887] The words then are a sort of mutual
stipulation and covenant between God and
man ; and as one part contains the petition of
what we desire Him to do for us, so the other
sets forth a profession of what we are ready to
do for him. — Maiigey., 168^-1755.
[2888] It is not for a moment to be thought,
that our forgiveness of those that trespass
against us is, in any way, a meritorious cause
of the forgiveness of our sins by God ; that
because we forgive, we ought also to be forgiven ;
for there is no proportion (as the original words
suggest) between our "sins," or debts," {dfuXi)-
fj-ara) to God, and our " trespasses" (TrapaTrrw-
ficiTci) against one another. The Lord Christ
alone is the meritorious cause of forgiveness. —
Loraine.
[2889] By "as we forgive," we do not mean
"in the same measure," but only " in the same
manner." Not meaning that our forgiveness is
to be the cause of God's, but that it is the con-
dition, or thing required on our part, or that
without which we cannot be forgiven. — Pagan.
[2890] It is clear that our forgiveness of sin
committed against ourselves, is not the ground
and reason of God's forgiveness of our sins
against Him. It is not as if we said, "seeing
that we forgive those who are indebted to us,
therefore, O Father ^ forgive what we owe
Thee!" A supposition that would not only
attribute to man the meritorious initiative in
obtaining his own pardon, but would imply an
estimate that brings down to the low level of an
insignificant human injury our sins against the
Majesty of Heaven. — 'Sta7iford.
[2891] There is something standing in the
way of your forgiveness, which you must re-
move. Something is to be done before God
can forgive you, which you must do. But then
it is a thing which you cannot but be doing, if
you are compelled to seek God's forgiveness
from any just sense of your own sin. For just
in proportion as your own sin against God
appears great, so will the offences of others
against yourself appear small. It is not that
our forgivingness of spirit wins the forgiveness
of God, but that our unforgivingness cannot
accept the forgiveness of God. 13y forgiving
others we do not earn our own forgiveness, but
most assuredly we cannot receive that forgive-
ness until we forgive others. We are not pre-
pared to seek it ; we have not seen our own
great debt, and are merely asking God for we
know not what, unless humility and joy in the
hope of God's pardon have excluded from our
hearts all malice against our neighbour. — Dods.
2 How far it is a qualification ("as").
(i) Negatively.
[2892] I. It is not a meritorious cause, or a
price given to God why He should pardon us,
for that is only the blood of Christ. 2. It is not
a pattern or rule. We imitate God, but God
doth not imitate us in forgiveness, and it would
be ill with us if He should. 3 It doth not
denote priority of order. In all acts of love God
is first, and His mercy to us is the cause of our
mercy to others. 4. It doth not import an
exact quality, but some kind of resemblance.
It is a note of similitude, and implies that there
is some correspondent action on our part. —
T. Manton, 1629-1677 (condensed).
(2) Positively.
[2893] I. It is a condition or moral qualifi-
cation found in the persons pardoned. 2. It is
a sign or note of a pardoned sinner. 3- It
is a necessary effect of God's mercy shed abroad
in our hearts ; for mercy begets mercy as heat
doth heat. 4. It is a solemn undertaking that
if God will show mercy to us this will incline
us to show mercy to others. 5. It is an
arrangement breeding confidence in God's
pardoning mercy. We that have so little grace
forgive our debtors ; if this be so, much more
God.— /^/^.
[2894] Until we have been first forgiven, we
clearly cannot forgive, in a real sense, those
who thwart, stand in our light, misunderstand,
misrepresent, injure, or hate us. It is by a
458
2894—2903]
THE LORDS PRAYER.
[fifth petition.
sense of forgiveness in our own souls that we
exercise the supernatural power or grace of for-
giveness. But in the normal state of the Chris-
tian life, this fact cannot be too clearly realized
and enforced, that our forgiveness of others is
that frame of mind without which God's for-
giveness of us does not and cannot, according
to His own spiritual laws, flow to our souls from
the infinite ocean of His love. — C. N.
3 The reason why God's forgiveness is con-
ditioned by ours.
[2895] I. A sifiiili, from a like disposition in
us. Thus, what is good in us was first in God,
for He is the pattern of all perfection. If we
have such a disposition planted in our hearts,
and if it be a virtue in us, surely the same dis-
position is in God, for the First Being wanteth
no perfection.
2. The argument may be taken a dispan, or
a minori ad inajus, from the less to the greater.
If we, that have but a drop of mercy, can for-
give the offences done to us, surely the infinite
God, that is mercy itself. He hath more bowels
and more pity.
3. The argument may betaken from the con-
dition or «he qualification of those that are to
expect pardon. They are such that, out of a
sense of God's mercy to them, and the love of
God shed abroad in their hearts, are inclined
and disposed to show mercy to others. So
Christ explains it, making it a condition or quali-
fication on our part. — T. Matiton, 1629-1677.
[2896] For God's mercy can never enter
where man's cruelty keeps possession ; and it is
impossible a pardon should be sealed to him
in whom hardness of heart suffers not the seal
to make impression. — Sir RicJiard Bhker,
1 568-1645.
4 The light in which we should regard God's
forgiveness being conditioned by ours.
(i) As an aid to realize the Jtature of Divine
ntercy in the case of mir own forgiveness.
[2897] So in this great prayer our Lord sup-
plies a test to prove whether we really and
spiritually know how great is the extent of our
debt, and wonderful the mercy required for its
forgiveness, by teaching us that we are to for-
give men's trespasses against us, as we expect
God to forgive our sins against Him : "Forgive
us our trespasses, as we forgive them that
trespass against us.'' — Loraine.
{2) As a test of Christian 7ne;n/>ershi/>,
standing, and character.
[2898] Our Lord partly uses this expression
as a badge by which He excludes from the
number of His children all who, prone to
revenge and reluctant to forgive, obstinately
keep up their enmity, cherishing against others
that enmity which they deprecate fiom them-
selves, so that they should not venture to
invoke Him as a Father. In the Gospel of St.
Lukevvc have tliis distinctly stated in the words
of Christ. — Calvin.
[2899] When we say, " Forgive us our tres-
passes," doth not Christ seem to take our person
upon him ? and when we say, " As we forgive
our debtors," do not we seem to take Christ's
person upon us? seeing in the petition that
seems verified which was spoken of Christ, "He
was accounted among the wicked," and in the
condition that seems verified which is spoken of
us, " Of His fulness we have all received." —
Sir Richard Baker, 156S-1645.
[2900] This petition at once excludes all anti-
nomianism from our heart — the mere selfish
dead faith that confesses but disbelieves. It is
a test of the depth of our convictions and reality
of our prayer. " Forgive, as we forgive." "As
we forgive." — Lo7-aine.
[2901] For hard indeed it is ; so hard, that
(as has been remarked) it was a duty scarcely
required of the Gentiles, or even of the Jews ;
and the disciples themselves, when it was pro-
pounded to them by our Lord that an offending
iDrother was to be forgiven seven times a-day,
immediately replied, " Lord, increase our faith."
— Katslake.
(3) As an opportunity to render God accept-
able service.
[2902] For in contrast between God and us,
there are indeed two kinds of values : a value
of worth and a value of acceptance ; and in the
value of worth we are, God knows, nothing
worth ; for what have we that we have not
received? but in the value of acceptance, there
comes in our wealth, which, as it chietly con-
sists in sacrifices, so of all our sacrifices, there
is none more acceptable to God. None that
makes a sweeter incense to God's sense (though
to common senses of no scent) than our for-
giving of trespasses. — Sir Richard Baker,
1568-1645.
(4) As a solace to the 7veakness of our faith.
[2903] The condition of being forgiven as we
forgive our debtors is not added because by
forgiving others we deserve forgiveness, as if
the cause of forgiveness were expressed ; but
by the use of this expression the Lord has been
pleased partly to solace the weakness of our
faith, using it as a sign to assure us that our
sins are as certainly forgiven as we are certainly
conscious of having forgiven others, when our
mind is completely purged from all envy, hatred,
and malice. This conformity to the mind of
Christ is an evidence unto a man of his partici-
pation of Him, and that God heareth him as a
father heareth his child ; and by this means
faith is strengthened, and the soul argues in
this petition, "O Lord, I am guilty in myself of
many sins, but yet, if I am found in Thy Son,
Thou wilt look upon me with the same tender-
ness that a father looks upon his child, and wilt
be more ready to forgive me than I can be to
ask it ; I find Thy Son was merciful, and ready
to forgive even His enemies ; and I thank Thy
good grace I find iir myself the same mind that
THE LORDS PRAYER.
2903—2911]
459
[fifth petition.
my Saviour bore, a mind ready to forgive the
injuries that were offered Him ; and this dis-
position I have not from myself, nor my own
spirit, for that spirit lusteth after envy; but
surely it comes from that meek and gentle
Spirit that is in Thy Son." — ^7;- Alatthew Hale.
(5) As a means to increase our own peace and
Jiappiness.
[2904] So that the beginning is of us, and we
ourselves have control over the judgment that
is to be passed upon us. . . . If, saith He, thou
forgive thy fellow servant, thou shalt obtain the
like favour from Me ; though, indeed, the one
be not equal to the other. For thou forgivest
in thy need, but God having need of none ;
thou, thy fellow slave, God, His slave ; thou
liable to unnumbered charges, God, being with-
out sin.
But yet even thus doth He show forth His
loving-kindness towards man ; since He might
indeed, even without this, forgive thee all thine
offences ; but He wills thee hereby also to
receive a benefit, affording thee on all sides
innumerable occasions of gentleness and love
towards man, casting out what is brutish in thee
and quenching wrath, and in all ways cement-
ing thee to him who is thy own member. For
what canst thou have to say ? That thou hast
wrongfully endured some ill from thy neighbour 1
But thou, too, art drawing near to receive for-
giveness for such things, and for much greater.
— Chrysostom.
[2905] It is not that He establishes harsh
conditions as barriers between us and Him.
" I command thee this day," the old lawgiver
said to Israel, "for thy good." Tell me, ye who
have tried both states, which is the happier — the
state of discord, or the state of peace ? Was
the effort unrewarded, was it unblessed, by
which you, the injured, constrained the love of
the injurer ? Was it without even a present, a
human recompense, that you sought out him
who had done the wrong, took all the blame
upon yourself, and so sent him, and went your-
self, loved and loving, to the throne of grace ?
These are gospel struggles, gospel victories — in
making them duties, God has but bound us to
our own peace and to our own happiness. — Deati
Vatizhan.
(6) As an expedient to promote the forgiveness
of injuries.
[2906] It is hardly possible to imagine a more
effectual expedient to promote the forgiveness
of injuries than this — of making it a part of our
daily prayers, to ask such pardon from God,
as we impart to our offending brother. For
this circumstance, every malicious purpose
against him would turn this petition into an
imprecation, by which we should, as it were,
bind down the wrath and vengeance of God
upon ourselves. — Doddridge.
XIII. The Assertion "As we forgive"
VIEWED IN REGARD TO THE FUNDA-
MENTAL (subjective) Principles or
Requirements of the Gospel.
[2907] (i) Considering this petition with the
context, we may easily discover faith in Christ ;
for everywhere in the New Testament we find
that our privilege to call God our Father, or to
expect forgiveness of sins from Him, is solely in
and through Christ (Rom. viii. 1 5). It is ascribed
to our adoption that we cry " Abba, Father."
And (Gal. iv. 5) one of the ends of sending
Christ is said to be "That we might receive the
adoption of sons." This liberty then of address-
ing God as His adopted children, and the liberty
of asking forgiveness of our sins is owing to
faith in Christ. (2) We are taught here to
come unto God as humble supplicants, confess-
ing our sins, and begging pardon ; so here is
the qualification of repentance. (3) We are
taught here that though God is now rendered
propitious to mankind in Christ, yet it is
requisite that we continually sue out our pardons
by incessant prayer. (4) We are put in mind
here of the necessity of charity, particularly
that highest kind of it, consisting in the for-
giving our enemies, by putting it expressly into
our prayers. "Forgive us our debts as we
forgive our debtors."—/. Blair, 172;^.
[2908] Do we not pray for faith, when we
pray tor the having of that which cannot be
had but by the hand of faith — forgiveness of
our sins? Certainly, seeing we pray for the
causes and the effects, for the root and the fruit
of faith, it is not the want of naming faith that
can be a reason to make us doubt that we pray
not for faith, no more than the want of naming
Christ in this prayer is any reason to prove that
we pray not here in the name of Christ. — Sir
Richard Baker, 1 568- 1 645 .
[2909] The apostles had afterwards the
power of working miracles to convert the world,
as had also the other first Christians ; and yet
it was seen and allowed that no miracle which
they wrought in changing the course of nature
had so great an effect in converting the world
as this miracle of faith, which they carried about
in their own hearts, by which they overcame all
injuries by forgiving them. — Williams.
[2910] To forgive, however, is but one thing
really required of us. Besides forgiving, we
must believe, especially in Jesus Christ ; and
also be sorry for, repent of, confess and forsake
sin. And then, if w^e forgive, God will forgive
us for Christ's sake. — Pagan.
XIV. The Comprehensive Manner in
which the Words "As we for-
give " ARE TO BE construed.
I It implies the absolute nature of our for-
giveness of others.
[291 1] Forgiving our debtors consists in the
46o
291
THE LORD S PR A YER.
-2922]
[fifth petition.
inward frame and temper of our hearts towards
them, that we bear them no malice, no ill-wili ;
but be as much in charity with them as though
they never had offended us. — Bp. Hopkins,
1 633-1 690.
[2912] There are persons who repeat this
petition, and are yet not afraid to say, " I for-
give, but cannot forpfet." In those words there
is Uttle agreement with the prayer. They may
have the spirit and sound of cherished animosity.
They are self-contradictory, professing to put
out the flame while pouring on oil. Such charity
is hypocrisy. It is unforgiveness wearing the
affectation of benevolence. — Robinson.
2 It implies the absolute re-consecration of
our lives.
[2913] The prayer, "Forgive, as we forgive,"
more than denotes relation and similitude ; it
expresses a full purpose of living nearer than
ever to God in the sense of being like Him
(Ephes. ii. 11-13, 17). Alluding with humble
thankfulness to the possession already of a God-
like spirit. — Robinson.
XV. Solemn Reflections suggested by
THE Addition of the Words " As
WE FORGIVE."
I Those unable honestly to repeat this
clause are placed in a spiritual dilemma.
[2914] But must I say to you, " If ye do not
love your enemies, say not in the Lord's Prayer,
'forgive our debt?'" Suppose 1 were to say,
" Do not use these words." If ye do not, your
debts are not forgiven ; and if ye do use them
and do not act thereafter, they are not forgiven.
In order, tlicrefore, that ye may be forgiven, ye
must both use the prayer, and do thereafter. —
Augustine.
[2915] How imprudent is it, either to pass the
day without prayer, while you omit giving satis-
faction to your brother ; or to make vain your
prayer by persevering in anger. — Tertullian.
[2916] Remember that he who cannot use in
sincerity the " Lord's Prayer," can use no prayer
that is acceptable unto God ; but this prayer re-
quires us to say, " forgive us, as we forgive " —
to make our forgiveness the standard by which
we are to be forgiven, therefore he who uses this
prayer, unless he himself forgives men their
trespasses, asks God, in the solemn language of
prayer, to refuse him forgiveness. " Forgive us
our trespasses, as we forgive them that trespass
against us." — Loraine.
[2917] Re merciful to my sins— for they are
few, or small, or easily to be apologized for —
because " the serpent beguiled me," or because
"the woman whom Thou gavest to be with me
gave me of the fruit" — this is the prayer which
defeats and contradicts itself— the prayer of the
self-excuser for whom Christ Himself died in
vain.
XVI. Practical Hints for the carry-
ing OUT OF the Assertion "As we
FORGIVE."
1 As to what really is implied in the duty
of Christian forgiveness.
[2918] I. All private revenge is certainly for-
bidden, and it is left entirely to the magistrate's
office to do right between man and man. 2. All
rancour and malice in the heart are forbid ; and
the duty of love and charity enjoined, which is
very consistent with the doing of right to all.
3. The rigour of justice, where it borders upon
cruelty, exaction, or severity, is condemned.
4. Where there is probability of reclaiming an
enemy by a seasonable kindness, such as neither
encourages transgression in general, nor wrongs
any third person in particular, it is commend-
abfe to pass by a personal injury, and to be the
first in breaking off contention ; for the retali-
ating injury with injury is the way to perpetuate
strife, and to increase animosities. 5. As to
debts and injuries, where the party offending
has not capacity or ability to repair them, and
shows no malice in the case, then the Christian
part is rather to forgive than to use the offenders
rigidly.—/. Blair, 1723.
2 As to what is not implied in the duty of
Christian forgiveness.
(i) // 7'efers to forgiveness in a persofial, not
official or Judicial capacity.
[2919] We cannot forgive our enemy's sin,
only his debt to us. — Van Doren.
[2920] Our Saviour did not intend to en-
courage the doing of injuries to others ; as it
would certainly be a great encouragement to all
manner of injuries if they were all to escape
unpunished. Nor did He design that injustices
should be passed by or connived at, and that
innocent persons should suffer. Our Saviour
did not design to interfere with the magistrates'
office, or to hinder their calling offenders to
account, that tending very much to the peace
and quiet of the world, and the good of human
society.—/. Blair, 1723.
(2) We are not required in all cases to forgive
debts in a pecuniary sense.
[2921] To them we have a right, though it
should not be pushed with an overbearing and
oppressive spirit ; nor so as to sacrifice the feel-
ings of mercy in order to secure the claims of
right. No man has a right to oppress ; and
when a debt cannot be paid, or when it would
greatly distress a wife and children, a widow
and an orphan ; or when calamity has put it out
of the power of an honest man to pay the debt,
the spirit of Christianity requires that it should
be forgiven. — Barnes.
(3) ]Ve are not required to court the intimate
society of implacable enemies or otherwise in-
jurious persons.
[2922J It is, indeed, not altogether impossible
THE LORD S PR A VER .
2922—2926]
461
[fifth petition.
truly to forgive those with whom it may be our
duty to have no further familiar intercourse.
We may " heap coals of fire on their head "
(Rom. xii. 20) ; and yet, as we cannot, like God,
burn out the dross of their malice, and melt
their hearts into loyalty, we are not required to
court their intimate society. — Robinson.
XVII. The Comprehensive Manner in
WHICH THE Words " our Debtors"
are to be construed.
[2923] " Our debtors " is not meant in the
vulgar sense only of those who stand engaged
for a sum of money due to us ; but such as have
offended us in word or deed. — T, Manton,
1629-1677.
[2924] As the word is used in the prayer, we
may have many more debtors than such as owe
us money. They who, of whatever grade, and
in whatever particular, neglect their duty to-
wards us, are our debtors ; especially when they
wilfully injure us by word or deed. It may oc-
casionally be necessary to exact restitution or
reparation from them ; but we must never do
so unforgivingly. We must be so charitable as
not hastily to take steps even to defend our-
selves, or enforce our lawful claims. Never
must we clamour for the fulfilment of the bond,
like Shylock. We must be very content with
bad debts sometimes, and eager to do good to
our unfortunate debtors. We are debtors our-
selves to our neighbours, until we have learnt to
say with truth to our heavenly Judge, " Forgive
us our sins ; for we also forgive every one that
is indebted to us." — Robinson.
[2925] Ye have enemies ; for who can live on
this earth without them .? Take heed to your-
selves : love them. In no way can thy enemy
so hurt thee by his violence as thou dost hurt
thyself if thou love him not. And let it not seem
to you impossible to love him. Believe first
that it can be done, and pray that the will of
God may be done in you. For what good can
thy neighbour's ill do to thee ? If he had no
ill, he would not even be thine enemy. Wish
him well, then, that he may end his ill, and he
will be thine enemy no longer. For it is not the
human nature in him that is at enmity with thee,
but his sin. . . . Let thy prayer be against the
malice of thine enemy, that it may die, and he
may live. For if thine enemy were dead, thou
hast lost, it might seem, an enemy, yet hast
thou not found a friend. But if his malice die,
thou hast at once lost an enemy and found a
friend. — A uf^iistinc.
XVIII. The Heresies of Early Times
inferentially condemned in
this Petition.
[2926] In this petition two notable heresies of
early times are inferentially condemned. The
Novatian idea that sin, when once committed
after baptism, can never have forgiveness ; and
the Pelagian notion that sin is a mere idea, or,
at least, that original sin is but a fancy. The
prayer " Forgive us," implies that God will for-
give ; and this daily cry for pardon proves that
man does commit sin, and that he is unable of
himself to expel its power or evade its conse-
quences.— Hugo.
THE LORD'S PRAYER.
SIXTH PETITION.
Fa^^es 463 to 472.
A. Iiiirodiidory Kcinarks.
COMrREIIENSIVE CHARACTER OF THIS AND THE THREE LAST PRECEDING
PETITIONS.
2
LESSONS TAUGHT P.Y THE ADDITION TO THE LAST PRECEDING PETITION OF
THIS, WITH ITS APPENDED SUPPLEMENT.
B. Treatment of the Separate Words in the Petition,
3
THE DIFFERENCE OF MEANING BETWEEN "LEAD" IN AUTHORIZED VERSION
AND " BRING " IN REVISED VERSION.
4
SIGNIFICANCE OF THE WORD "US" IN THE PHRASE "LEAD US."
5
IN WHAT SENSE W^E USE THE WORD "NOT" IN THE PHRASE "LEAD US NOT
INTO TEMPTATION."
6
MEANING AND FORCE OF THE WORD " TEMPTATION " IN TPIE PHRASE
"LEAD US NOT INTO TEMPTATION."
C. Treatment of tlie Petition as a ivhole.
7
MEANING AND IMPORT OF GOD'S LEADING US INTO TEMPTATION, AS IMPLIED
IN THIS PETITION.
8
WAYS IN WHICFI GOD ANSWERS TPIIS PETITION.
9
FALSE VIEWS REMOVED CONCERNING TEMPTATION BEING A POSITIVE EVIL.
10
REASONS WHY GOD ALLOWS US TO BE LED INTO TEMPTATION, AS IMPLIED
IN THIS PETITION.
II
GROUNDS FOR CONSOLATION IF GOD SEES FIT, NOTWITHSTANDING OUR
REQUEST TO THE CONTRARY, TO LEAD US INTO TEMPTATION.
12
LESSONS AND REFLECTIONS SUGGESTED BY THIS PETITION.
D. Coneluding Remarks.
13
REALITY OF THIS PRAYER AS DEALING IN A REAL WAV WITH THE REALITIES
OF LIFE.
14
FRAME OF MINI) IMPLIED IN THIS PRAYER.
462
4^3
THE LORD'S PRAYER
( Continued).
SIXTH PETITION.
{And lead {bring, R. V. (aVtviyKj/c)] us not into
temptation.)
I. Comprehensive Character of this
AND THE Three Last Preceding
Petitions.
1 They include spiritual overthrow of Satan's
kingdom.
[2927] When you seriously set yourselves to
call upon God, Satan saitli within himself, " This
man will pray for God's glory, and then I am at
a loss ; for tire coming of Christ's kingdom, and
then mine goeth to wreck ; that God's will may
be done upon earth as it is in heaven, and that
minds me of my old fall, and my business is to
cross the will of God ; he will pray for daily
bread, and that strengtheneth dependence ; for
pardon and comfort, and then I lose ground (for
the devils are the ' rulers of the darkness of this
world,' Eph. vi. 12) ; he will pray to be kept from
sin and temptation, and that is against me."
Thus Satan is afraid of the prayers of the saints.
— T. Manton, 1629- 167 7.
II. Lessons taught by the Addition
to the Last Preceding Petition of
THIS, WITH its Appended Supplement.
1 Prayer which ended with the past and
made no mention of the future would
leave a hopeless hiatus.
[2928] If the Lord's Prayer had ended with
forgiveness, I should have felt confident that it
was mutilated. Christ would not leave it so.
St. Luke leaves out the petition about the will.
Doubtless he felt it to be included in the "name "
and the " kingdom.'' St. Luke leaves out the
" Deliver us from evil."- Doubtless he felt that
it was involved in the " Lead us not into tempta-
tion." St. Matthew and St. Luke both (accord-
ing to the best authorities) omit the doxology
— end with the petition before us. Doubtless
that was an early, though a perfectly pure and
reverent, addition by the Church, for purposes
of worship, to the actual liturgy of Jesus Christ.
— Dea7i Vaughan.
2 We not only require pardon for the past,
but grace and guidance for the future.
[2929] This ought to teach us that it should
be our care not only to seek for the pardon of
our past sins, but to endeavour the prevention
of sin for the future. — Bp. Hopkins, 1633-1690.
[2930] Our Saviour directed His disciples in
the foregoing petition to avoid the guilt and
punishment of their past sins, and in this
teacheth them to prevent their danger for the
future : in the former, they ask forgiveness from
God's mercy ; in the latter, protection from His
providence and assisting grace from His Spirit.
— iMangcy, 1684- 1755.
[2931] You therefore see the connection
between what we now are saying and what has
just been said. This connection is suggested
by the introductory use of the word " and."
Now, as in the last instance in which the
paiticle has this peculiar place — it links two
petitions together, so that the spirit of the first
still runs on into the second, if the hurry of
our joys at the answer to our prayer '" forgive
us our debts," should make us forget to add,
"lead us not into temptation," the weight of
debt may be scarcely lifted before we are in
debt again. That sentence is therefore followed
up by this. Having pardon for the past we want
grace for the future. — .Utafi/ord.
[2932] In the last two petitions we have first
looked upon ourselves as we are in our own
being, and seen ourselves to be entirely depen-
dent upon God, from whom, therefore, we have
asked for a supply of what is necessary for our
temporal and spiritual life ; and then we have
looked on ourselves as we have used that being
which we possess, in the past, and, finding our-
selves to have lived, at least in great measure, if
not wholly, in the neglect of God's will, we have
in earnest prayer besought Him to forgive us all
our trespasses for Christ's sake. And thus we
trust that we are made clean. Morning and
evening, as we say this prayer, we trust that the
soils contracted during the hours of the dark-
ness or in the business of life are washed away,
and we go forth pure again. But then there is
the future. — Karsiake.
3 Not to rest in the quiet calm of forgive-
ness, unmindful of the awful possibility
of sinning in the future.
[2933] " Thy sins be forgiven thee " is followed
forthwith not by " Well done, good and faithful
464
2933—2941]
THE LORDS PRAYER.
[sixth PETITION'.
servant, enter thou into the joy of thy Lord,"
but by "Go and sin no more." But this "go,"
what a bleak and dangerous world does it launch
us into ; to what possibilities of disaster and
hurt, to what likelihood of ruin does it dismiss
us ! How contradictory it seems to add "sin
no more ! " We cannot but turn and say, " Do
thou, then, Lord, lead us ; and lead us not into
temptation." — Dads.
4 Daily pardon of sin is not to diminish
our dread of sin.
[2934] No sooner have we asked and received
forgiveness than we look forward with fear and
an.xiety to the power and subtlety of temptation ;
having washed our garments and made them
white in the blood of the Lamb, we are anxious
to keep ourselves unspotted from the world ; we
therefore pray, " And lead us not into tempta-
tion." The forgiven soul fears God and dreads
sin. — A. Saphir.
[2935] Yet, there is the world, and our prayer
has not altered it. There is the flesh, and our
prayer has not altered it. There is the devil —
waiting to devour — and our prayer leaves him
as he was, alike in power and in malignity.
The soul forgiven, its trespasses must go back
into the world in which it has trespassed. Can
it do so in a light or confident spirit? — Dl\i/i
Vaughan.
[2936] Those who have nothing to lose are
very little put about by the presence of thieves;
and of those whose hopes are small, the fears
also are few and slight. The fear of defilement
found no place in our souls until the grateful
sense of purity introduced it. It seemed a small
thing to risk all temptation before we experienced
the peace and joy of the goodwill of God ; but
now that we have tasted His goodness, and
prize his favour as our choicest possession, it
seems a hazardous thing to venture into a sea
of temptations, one or other of which will almost
inevitably sweep over our soul, and leave it bare
of its prize under the displeasure of God. I do
not purpose to sin ; I have no present and special
resolve which I know to be wrong, but am I
therefore secure ? Or has it not often happened
with me that, when least I expected it, evil was
very powerfully present with me ? Besides sin-
ning deliberately, have I not sinned through
ignorance, through weakness, through surprise,
through Xwh'w.'i—Dods.
5 To pray not only for forgiveness of sins,
but for deliverance from the evil out of
which these have sprung.
[2937] Some suppliants seem to be concerned
only that they may have forgiveness, but sin
itself seems to give them but little concern.
Although they take deep interest in their own
spiritual symptoms ; they arc nervous rather
than penitent, and what they want is simply
impunity. They will tell you that they glory
in the cross, because the righteousness of Jesus
there "finished" is the only righteousness that
will satisfy the justice of God and save the soul
of man. They watch the Lamb of God, not as
bearing away sin, but simply the consequences
of sin. Like the priest of old, who in the name
of the people laid his hand over the head of the
scape-goat, and ceremonially transferred their
sins to it ; they in fancy put a hand on the
mystic burden-bearer, and think with a selfish-
ness that passes for Christian joy that their sins
are now clean forgiven and taken for ever out of
sight. This is the one thing they seem to think
ot, or to care for. — Stanford.
[2938] In this petition we pass from sins— of
omission and commission — to be forgiven, to
sins to be avoided. As sanctification succeeds
justification, so this petition succeeds the pre-
vious one. It is our side of " Go, and sin no
more." It is a prayer that God would not with-
draw His protecting and guiding hand from us ;
nor leave us unguarded, like sheep without a
shepherd ; or, like inexperienced children, in the
midst of crafty people, who, with the tempter's
guile, decoy the young and unwary to their ruin.
Against which danger we are forewarned :
" Watch and pray, that ye enter not into temp-
tation." Temptation will come : God permits
it to try us. Trial is as necessary for us as the
wintry blast is to the blade of grass. Blessed
is the man that endurcth it. But the flesh is
weak, and help must be sought. — F. D. Procter.
[2939] Often it calls us to give up prospects
of great attraction, but which we fear would
be adverse to our spiritual growth. We see the
beauty of the prospect, it allures us on, but we
know not whether the flowers wave and rustle
with the healthy breath of heaven or with the
subtle windings of the serpent. We will not ven-
ture where there may be danger, and where there
is not a necessary call, but will pray still to God,
" Lead us not thither." And this fear to go
where we may offend God is the same feeling
as gives us absolute courage to go wherever we
may serve Him. — Dods.
III. The Differenxe of Meaning be-
tween '■ Lead" in Auihorized Ver-
sion AND "Bring" in Revised Ver-
sion.
[2940] The word "bring" (iiVij^yKj/c) in our
prayer points to the act of God in taking us
into temptation, and in this case our consent of
will takes the form of resignation rather than of
active obedience. — Stanford.
[2941] The authorised version, in every other
instance where the Greek word in question is
used, renders it " bring," and there seems to be
no good reason why we should not so translate
it here.
Every one sees the meaning of the word lead;
i
THE LORDS PRAYER.
2941--2952]
[sixth petition.
we put the same meaning into the word bring,
only giving it greater strength. " Leading "
may mean the gentlest of directive help along
the road, but "bringing" is something more
energetic. In order to bring, a leader may have
sometimes to carry, sometimes to fight, some-
times to clear away obstructions. The pilgrim
is his charge, therefore by all needful processes,
and in the most effectual way, he fulfils what he
undertakes. — Ibid.
IV. Significance of the Word "Us" in
THE Phrase "Lead us."
I We are reminded of the effect of our con-
duct upon that of those engaged with us
against a common foe.
(i) In regard to stiiinbling.
[2942] " Lead us not into temptation," brings
before our thoughts all mankind also, and es-
pecially those who are connected with us, as
engaged in the same struggle with ourselves.
And thus we are lecjuued to aid others in their
warfare, far more not to side with their adver-
sary in the fight. Think ! the battle-field is the
soul of some brother, or dependant, or friend
— eternity hangs on the issue — and our evil
counsel, our evil example, nay, perhaps our in-
difference, has turned the scale, and enabled
the hosts of the evil one to triumph, and that
soul has lost part of its brightness, perhaps
fallen for ever, and we have been fellow-workers
with Satan in leading that soul into temptation,
and delivering it to the evil one for time and
for ever ! Who can tell the horror of such a
thought clinging perhaps to us through eter-
nity ? — Karslalcc.
(2) In regard to steadfast)icss.
[2943] Think, on the other hand, if, through
some word spoken in season, through some good
example set, some carefulness shown for the
spiritual interests of our servants or those in any
way influenced by our example or committed to
our charge, if such a soul has been thus saved
from the temptation which was assailing it, and
we have been found fellow-workers with God,
and have gained a soul for Christ to its own
salvation and the glory of the crown of Christ,
what momentary charm of sin, or even of inno-
cent enjoyment, could compare with such bliss
as would be ours for ever from thisi* — Ibid.
V. In what Sense we use the Word
"Not" in the Phrase "Lead us
not into Tempt.\tion."
[2944] "Lead." Suffer us not to be led by others,
nor by our hearts (Jer. xvii. 9). Providentially
led, we may be tempted, but never compelled
to sin (Matt. iv. 3). Humbly shrinking from
trials of our loyalty to heaven. It confesses our
streftgth as well as our i7tnocejtce\s lost. It sup-
presses all presumption and flattery of the heart
(Prov. xxviii. 26). — Van Doren.
VOL, I.
[2945] We ask of God in this petition that
assistance of His Holy Spirit that may enable
us to go through temptations. — Matigey, 1684-
'755-
[2946] Temptation is the arrow of the evil
one. We pray that, if directed against us, we
may be defended by the shield which God in-
terposes, so that the arrow may not wound us.
[2947] Trying enough it is to fall into temp-
tation after praying, but to fall into it without
praser is a confounding and disastrous thing.
It may be good for us to meet temptations, but
it is never good to hope for them. It is God's
prero.i^ative to lead us into them, for He also —
and He only — can bring us through them : it is
ours to watch and pray against them, knowing
our own weakness. —Dods.
[2948] Humility, the base of every virtue, and
the indispensable condition of God's indwelling,
breathes in the closing petitions of the Lord's
Prayer. As the believer comes to maturity, like
the ripened, rich grain, he bends in lowliness. —
C. N.
[2949] A family of tourists climbed up certain
perilous rocks on the coast of Cornwall ; as the
father went on first, with his little son, the
mother from below called out to her boy, " Have
you fast hold of your father ? " Then was heard
the siirill ring of a voice, answering with perfect
sense of safety in its tone — "No, mother, but
he has .fast hold of me." So is our Father in
heaven leading us by bringing us up through
danger, and out of it. Catching sight of certain
dangers called temptations, we utter this cry. —
Stanford.
[2950] Temptation is always in our midst,
therefore we pray, not that it may not exist, but
that it may not touch or conquer us. — Bengel.
[2951] (i) We pray here for the staving off of
such temptations as are disproportioned to our
measure of strength and grace ; (2) for prevent-
ing grace to keep our minds in a good frame
and temper, well fortified agamstall temptations
we may be encountered with ; (3) that God
would not desert us in the hour of temptation,
but that His grace may be sufficient for us to
bring us off victorious ; (4) that if we are en-
snared by any temptation, we may be quickly
delivered from the power of it, and rendered
more humble, penitent, and watchful. — J. Blair,
1723.
[2952] We pray of Him to keep us secure, as
far as may be, and as far as it is good for us
that we should be, amid the dangers, known
and unknown, which beset us from Satan, from
the world around us, and from ourselves, either
(1) withdrawing us from them, or (2) enabli.ig
us to meet them victoriously, though humbly, in
His stren;4th, and so to carry us safe through
the spiritual struggle of life into that blessed
state where there shall be no more evil, and
30
466
2952-2963]
THE LORDS PRAYER.
SIXTH PETITION.
sorrow, and temptation, but all shall be good-
ness, and joy, and peace. — Karslake.
[2953] In this petition, according to the com-
mon idiom of Scripture, which assigns, as in the
case of Pharaoh, actions to the Almighty which
He permits others to do, we entreat Him not to
suffer us to be led either by providence or by
our own delusions and inclinations into circum-
stances of strong temptation ; or if brought into
them, that He would not leave us to struggle in
our own strength, but enable us to resist, and
finally overcome. — Good {oj Salisbury)-
[2954] We by this petition desire the blessing
of Gods providence. We here desire a merciful
God so to order our external aftairs. that no
difficulties in them may tempt us to distrust or
to forfeit His goodness. — Mangey. 1684-1755.
[2955] Here we pray: (i) that we may not
be tempted ; or (2) if the Lord see it fit w^e
should be tempted, that we may not yield ; or
(3) if we yield, that we may not totally be over-
come.
VI. Meaxing and Force of the Word
"Temptation" in the Phrase "Lead
us not into Temptation."
[2956] We find that in the Bible the word
" temptation " is used with two different meanings.
Sometimes it simply means to "try ;" sometimes
to "entice ;" the purpose in the one cas.e being
good, in the other evil. — Stanford.
[2957] In the Greek language the term "temp-
tation" here signifies "trial," which is always the
signification of the word when it is used with
reference to i^od.—HorloJc {of Box).
[2958] " Temptation " (in the original Greek
Treipafr/ic'c,) is simply "trial,'' so that anything
whatever which tends to try and discover what
is in the heart or will of man is and may be
called a " temptation." — Karslake.
[2959] Words frequently exhibit a tendency
either to turn entirely aside from their original
meaning, or considerably to enlarge its sphere.
In the course of its common use, a word is often
brought into such a close connection with some
thougiu, nearly allied with that which the word
itself primarily represents, that at length this
secondary thought is gathered up also to share
the use and divide the meaning of the original
term ; thus words come to have occasionally a
dubious or doulile, and often a deteriorated
sense. So it is with the Greek word {ttupcktiiov)
in my text rendered by temptation— as also,
indeed, with this its ICnglish equivalent, signify-
ing originally to test, put to the proof, as applied
only to an intelligent agent, and so was used to
signify the various trials with which Cod is
pleased from lime to time to prove His children,
testing their fortitude and fidelity. IJut just
because, alas ! the moral nature so often yields
beneath the proof, fails in the day of trial,
because the test, trial, temptation, though hav-
ing no evil in itself, so often finds evil in man,
and becomes the occasion of bringing it out into
activity, the word sinks into a lower stratum of
meaning, and then conveys, along with the
thought of trial or test, that also of evil, through
failure in the proving hour, or because it de-
velops evil. — Loraine.
[2960] I need scarcely say that the Greek has
but one word for "trial" and "temptation."
The idea is the same. It is exploration. It is
the idea of piercing or penetrating the outer shell
and husk of a man, to discover what is within
him. You know how ambiguous is the cha-
racter of a human being, while he simply goes
his way, does his business, mixes in society, and
makes his little mark upon a street, a town, or a
congregation. You do not know him — does
he know himself.'* — as he is in God's sight, as
he is for eternity. At last something occurs.
He is placed in circumstances which must be
dealt with. Many have been " explored " by
an opportunity of advancing themselves by
means not perfectly upright — by some possible
secret venture with another's credit or another's
property — by an opportunity of screening that
which, if known, wou'd be fatal — of covering up
some fraud, of disguising some guilt, of which
they dare not confront the exposure and the
ruin. Many more, ten thousand in comparison
with one, have been " explored " by a suggestion
of sinning. Some one has too much trusted
them — they have won an affection which it
is possible to abuse — they have gained a reputa-
tion which may be the opportunity of deception
■ — they have to settle, on the instant, no man
seeing their motive, how this shall be. — Dean
Vaughan.
VII. Meaning and Import of God's
leading us into Temptation, as
Implied in this Petition.
I Negatively.
( 1 ) Victued gen erally •.
[2961] By tiie word, leading into temptation,
as it is applied to God, must not be understood
the ensnaring us in sinful courses, as if He were
the author or contriver of sin, which is far from
the purity of His nature (J as. i. 13).—/. Blair,
1723.
[2962] In these three last petitions we beg
daily bread, daily pardon, daily strength. We
can neither live without the one nor the other :
we cannot live without daily bread, nor live
coinfortahly without daily pardon, nor live holily
without daily grace.— T. Maiiton, 1629-1677.
(2) Viewed in connection with St. fames'
statement.
[2963] In Gen. xxii. i. it is said, God did
tempt Abraham. ^ The Hebrew word there sim-
ply means to try, test, prove. The same word
THE LORDS PRAYER.
467
2963—2972]
[sixth petition.
occurs in i Kings x. i, where it is said tlie
(2ueen of Sheba came to "prove" Solomon.
So also in Dent. iv. 34 ; where the word is re-
presented by " assayed," and likewise " tempta-
tion." The same word occurs in several other
passages also, in which God is represented,
either in fact or in explicit terms, as tempting,
i.e., trying or proving His servants ; the one
case we have quoted teaches plainly what the
whole analogy of Scripture only confirms. Then
the question arises, how is this passage (Gen.
xxii. i) to be harmonized with that in St. James
i. 13, " Let no man say when he is tempted, I
am tempted of God : for God cannot be tempted
with evil, neither tempteth he any man." Does
not the word temptation here carry in it that
secondary meaning of which I have spoken, as
often attaching to the word ? Does it not mean
more than simply trial or testing, and imply an
admixture of evil with the trial, and that taking
some hold, too, upon the moral nature of the
tempted.'' Indeed, does not the text suggest
this, by the remarkable addition of the words,
" with evil 1 " " God cannot be tempted with
evil, neither tempteth He any man," i.e., with
evil. In this sense, indeed, only he who is
himself the evil one can tempt men. — Loraine.
[2964] Temptation is sometimes taken in a
middle and indifferent sense, for any occasion
by which the moral quality of persons (their
virtue or vice) is examined and discovered. So
God is said to have " tempted Abraham," when
He propounded to him the offering up of his
son ; and because affliction is of such a nature
as to try the temper, disposition, and intentions
of men, therefore temptation is often used for
affliction. It seemeth also sometimes put in a
good sense, for an occasion designed to exercise,
or to improve, or to declare the virtues of a
person ; so the inconveniences and crosses in-
cident to our nature and condition here, the
which our Lord did undergo, are by St. Luke
and others of the apostles styled temptations.
But the word is commonly taken in a worse
sense, for an occasion presented with ill purpose,
or naturally tending and not easily avoided of
falling into sin, a stumbling-block, a snare ; as
when St. Paul saith, "They that will be rich do
fall into temptation and a snare ; " thus St.
James assureth us, that " God tempteth no
man ;" that is, doth not intend to seduce or
inveigle any man into sin. — Barrow.
[2965] If we take this petition generally, doth
it not seem to make us speak exceeding strangely?
as though we thought God a seducer, and where
all this while we have expected He should do
us good, we should now begin to fear He would
do us hurt ? But the truth is, we are not dis-
trust I ul of God, but of ourselves ; not of His
leading, but of our following. Not that God
tempts us, for St. James hath cleared Him of
that, where he saith, "God tempts no man."
But we have other tempters, the world, the flesh,
and the devil, who have all their several ways
of tempting.— 6'/;- Richard Baker, 1 568-1645.
[2966] There is no discrepancy with Jas.
i. 13, which speaks not of the providential
bringing about, but of the actual solicitation of
the temptation. — Alford.
[2967] God tempts no man to evil (Jas.
i. 13). God, however, tries His servants' faith,
to manifest its reality to the world, as in the
case of Abraham (Gen. xxii. 1-12). All trials
are calculated in themselves to do us real good,
though they often prove through our own evil
hearts the occasion of our sinning. — C. N.
2 Positively.
( I ) By the permitted agency of Satan.
[2968] The prayer is an example of a form of
speech occurring frequently in the Scriptures,
in which God is said to do that which He
permits to be done. — Robinson.
[2969] Yet because nothing in the world, either
good or bad, doth happen without God's per-
mission and governance, and the devil himself
must obtain license from God before he can
tempt any man or do any mischief (as we see in
Job's case and in the history of Ahab), since
God seeth whatever is done, and with greatest
ease could hinder it, and doth not otherwise
than for some good end suffer any evil to be
designed or achieved, it is the style of Scripture
to attribute such things in some sense to Him.
■ — Barrow.
[2970] This phrase must be used in the sense
oi permitting. Do not suffer us or pcr?nit us to
be tempted to sin. In this it is implied that
God has such control over us and the tempter,
as to save us from it if we call upon Him. —
Barnes.
[2971] There is the subtle seduction of
Satan who, with his host of attendant spirits,
is bent on gaining souls to share his awful ruin,
and to do further despite to his God, while yet
his little time of power lasts, and is for ever
placing attractions to evil in our path, suggest-
ing evil imaginations, prompting vain or sinful
desires within ourselves. — Karslake.
[2972] There lies deep down in every man's
nature an unsuspected weakness to which temp-
tation may make a sudden appeal with success,
and he may do some wicked thing in conse-
quence unlike his general character altogether.
The tempter may come, and the tempter does
come in — to storm and command the very cita-
del of his soul. In that instant the man is not
himself, but another, tie is himself in so far
as that he himself is responsible. He is not
himself but another, and that other the evil one,
in so far as that the evil one is for the moment
master in that house of clay, and the man him-
self seems to be living, breathing, thinking,
doing by substitution. It is then that he acts
as he never acted before, and never will, God
468
2972-
THE LORDS PRAYER.
[sixth petition.
helping him, again. It is then the great con-
tradiction takes place. He will do that to
which his nature has most instinctive repulsion,
and which will rob his after life of all tranquility.
— Rev. Page Roberts.
[2973] No sooner has Christ come out of the
waters of baptism, than He comes into the fire
of temptation. No sooner does the Spirit come
in the form of a dove, than He is "led by the
Spirit into the wilderness." No sooner doth
God say " this is my beloved Son in whom I
am well pleased," than Satan darts the sugges-
tion of doubt, ''{/"Thou be the Son of God." —
Bp. Hall.
[2974] To tempt us is properly the work of
Satan : to lead us into temptation is oftentimes
the work of God. It was God that led Christ
into the wilderness to be tempted ; but it was
the devil that tempted Him in the wilderness.
And even this is our case ; if God lead us into
temptation the devil will be sure to fall a tempt-
ing us, to lead us into sin ; and to resist the
devil's temptings, Christ found it so difficult for
Himself, that He knows it to be impossible for
us ; and, therefore, what He knows we cannot
resist, He teacheth us to prevent, which is only
done by this petition. For if God lead us not
into temptation, the devil may have the will to
fall a tempting us ; but he sh;ill never have the
power to tempt us to falling. — Sir Richard
Baker, 1 568-1645.
[2975] Though the first Adam was tempted
in a garden, the second was tempted in a wil-
derness. There it was that through forty days,
with no rich fruits to stay the sting of hunger, no
clear stream rippling over golden sands to slake
His thirst, no shelter from the fiery day or the
freezing night, and where — beauty banislied,
grim desolation sat enthroned — He who after-
wards died for us was tempted, and the wilder-
ness was the memorable field in which man's
great representative fought with man's great
foe. After this, let no follower of His hope to
escape ''the fiery darts of the wicked one," by
living in any wilderness of self-inflicted poverty
or pain. The principle of seeking retirement
from tlie world of temptation, either in some
kind of Kdcn or in some kind of wilderness, is
always being tried in some form or other, and
always fails. — Stattford.
{2) By DiTine non-internention.
[2976] God is said to lead us into temptation
when He leaves us as we are rushing on to sin.
— Chrysologus.
(3) By unihdraival of prc7'cntin<r gi-ace.
[2977] In some sort (]od is s.iid to "lead into
temptation." First, by withdrawing that grace
of His, whereby we are prevented from, and
defended against, temptation. We walk in the
midst of enemies and snares ; the prince of the
air hath his instruments, that most vigilantly
take all opportunities to draw us into sin — evil
angels, and evil men. And were there not a
devil or his instruments without us, to tempt us
to evil, we have an old man within us, a foun-
tain, a sea of corruption, a deceitful and wicked
heart, a body of sin and death, that can with
much advantage, and doth with much ease,
draw us into sin ; and the merciful God that
seeth these snares which the evil one lays for
us in our way, thougli we see them not, sends
out His own grace and Spirit, and sometimes
removes the snare out of our way ; sometimes
leads us another way, that we miss the snare ;
He overrules and restrains this raging sea of
our corruptions, and, as our Saviour did to the
winds and seas, commands them, '' Peace, be
still ; " He doth by tlie same Spirit strengthen
and enable our hearts to resist, oppose, and
subdue those temptations that rise from within,
and that come from without. And this grace of
His He owes not to us. It is merely of His
free mercy, " For I withheld thee from sinning
against Me " (Gen. xx. 6) ; and yet, such is His
goodness, that He seldom withdraws this grace
from us, except we thrust it away and reject it ;
and then He withdraws that grace of His, and,
that being withdrawn, that cruel and subtle
enemy of our souls falls in upon us and subdues
us, and that sea of corruption within us, that hath
now no banks to keep it in. breaks in and over-
whelms us. — Sir Matthew Hale.
(4) By Divine direction.
[2978] What God often does, what He did in
the case of Abraham, of Job, and especially of
our Lord Himself, is to expose a man in a very
critical and precarious position, to bring him in
the course of his life into circumstances where
sin is very easy, holiness very difficult. We
read that it was " of the Spirit" that "Jesus was
led up into the wilderness to be tempted of the
devil ;" a very instructive intimation, giving us
in one view all the parties concerned. The
human nature, with its liability to temptation,
its capability to suM'er and to enjoy ; the Divine
nature, ordering the circumstances which may
permit the temptation to take place ; and the
diabolical nature, the tempter. — Dads.
[2979] " God is said to lead us into temptation "
when He providently presents outward objects
and occasions, which do solicit and draw forth
our inward corruptions. When the temptations
of our inward lusts meet with external induce-
ments that are cast in a man's way by Gods
providence, then, as we may be said to tempt
Him, so God may be said to "lead us into temp-
tation."— f. Blair, 1723.
[2980] If we believe at all in God's oversight
of our life— in other words, in His guiding and
"leading" hand — we must feel that there are
times and, as it were, places of " exploration "
to which we do come under His direction ; cir-
cumstances of trial, opportunities, in other
words, of choosing between good and evil,
which we cannot avoid, which confront us with-
THE LORDS PRAYER.
2980 — 2987]
469
fsIXTH PETITION.
out our seeking. " God did tempt Abraham "
— His word scruples not at the saying — He
brought upon him a great " crisis " — what is
"crisis" but the Greeic word for "trial".'' —
which formed a decision as to his faith. If he
was entirely faithful, he would act thus — if not,
he would act thus. God " led him into tempta-
tion " that He might bring out his faith as gold
from the furnace. Was there no specimen there
of God's dealing 1 Has God ceased thus to
"tempt" His people.? — Dean Vaughan.
3 Homiletical summary.
[29S1] Man is tempted by God fGen. xxii. i)
when He trieth what is in him (Deut. viii. 2).
iMther I. What of grace, by (i) affliction (i Pet.
i. 6) ; (2) delay of promises (Psa. cv. 19) ; or, 2.
What of sin (i) by offering occasions in the
course of His providence sometimes by want
(John vi. 5,6) ; sometimes by fulness (Deut. viii.
16) ; (2) by withdrawing His grace (2 Chron.
xxxii. 31) ; (3) by permitting the temptations of
Satan and his instruments (Matt. iv. i). Con-
cerning this notice (i) God's tempting is not to
inform Himself, but to discover His creatures to
themselves and others ; (2) is always good and
for good; (3) never as a solicitation to sin. — T.
Mantoii, 1629-1677 {conciensea).
[2982] Indeed, life is one grand temptation.
And it is necessarily so. Temptation is in-
volved in the very idea of probation. Tempta-
tion is one of the chief forces of the disciplinary
system of this life ; one of the mightiest agencies
in that great educational process by which the
Parental Ruler of the spirits of all flesh seeks to
qualify man for a life beyond life. For by
education, in its truest sense, is meant, as one
of the greatest of modern writers has said,
" That mighty system of central forces hidden
in the deep bosom of human life, which by
passion, by strife, by temptation, by the ener-
gies of resistance, works for ever — resting not
day nor night, any more than the mighty wheel
of day and night itself, whose movements, like
spokes, are glimmering for ever as they re-
volve."— Loraine, Suspiria de Profimdis.
[2983] According to that which we saw was
the simplest notion of temptation, as merely
equivalent to trial, God does so tempt man as
to put before him special circumstances which
may try or prove him, and so bring out that
good or evil within him which, though known
to God, is perhaps unknown to the man him-
self, and still more to his fellow-men. In this
way God was said to tempt Abraham, where
the true nature of the temptation is well ex-
pressed in one of the old Greek versions, that
of Symmachus, who paraphrases it " God glori-
fied .Abraham," i.e., gave him a special oppor-
tunity of showing his entire trust in God, and
thus of obtaining the glorious title of the "father
of the faithful" to all times. In this sense
then, first, God is said to tempt men when He
specially tries them, in order either to bring out
the good which is in them, or else give them,
and others by their example, a warning of the
evil which lurks unsuspected within their hearts,
this being wholly for man's good. — Karslake.
VIII. Ways in which God answers this
Petition.
[2984] How the answer shall come to this
petition it is not for us to decide. God, in one
way or other, may either make it a physical
impossibility for us to be in the way of tempta-
tion, or He may add to our condition some
balance, which keeps us from rushing into the
arms of sin at every invitation. So that, whether
the temptations we have reason to fear be in
the way of our callings, or have been voluntarily
and recklessly encountered by us, this petition
is suitable ; and it will inevitably rise to our
lips, if we be fearing sin. — Dods.
IX. False Views removed concerning
Temptation being a Positive Evil.
[2985] You shall not think that it is an ill
thing to be tempted. No, for it is a good thing,
and Scripture commendeth it, and we shall be
rewarded for it ; for St. James saith, " Blessed
is the man that endureth temptations patiently."
The devil moveth me to do this or that. Now
this is a good thing ; for if I withstand his
motions, and more regard God than his sug-
gestions, happy am I, and I shall be rewarded
for it in heaven. Temptations be a declaration
of God's favour and might ; for though we be
most weak and feeble, yet through our weak-
ness God vanquisheth the great strength and
might of the devil. Let us remember that our
life is a warfare ; let us be contented to be
tempted. There be some, when they fall into
temptations, they be so irksome that they give
place— they will fight no more. Again, there be
some so weary that they rid themselves out of
this life ; but this is not well done. They do
not after St. James's mind. — Latimer.
[2986] Temptation is like a winter torrent,
difficult to cross. Some, then, being most skilful
swimmers, pass over, not being whelmed beneath
temptations, nor swept down by them at all,
while otliers who are not such, entering into
them, sink in them. As, for example, Judas,
entering into the temptation of covetousness,
swam not through it, but, sinking beneath it,
was choked both in body and spirit. Peter
entered into the temptation of the denial, but
having entered it, he was not overwhelmed by
it, but manfully swimming through it he was
delivered. — Cyril.
X. Reasons why God allows us to be
Led into Tkmptation, as implied in
this Petition.
I For the development of Christian graces
and character in regard to ourselves.
[2987] Sometimes the " exploration" comes in
47°
2987-
THE LORDS PRAYER.
■2999]
[sixth petition.
love — to reveal the thoroughness of the faith,
the absoluteness of the self-devotion. Some-
times it conies, rather, to show to the man
what is in him oi &\\\.—Dean Vaui(/tan.
[2988] Temptations are offered by Satan, not
by his own power, but by permission of God,
either for the purpose of punishing men for
their sins, or proving and disciplining them
in accordance with the Lord's m&xcy.—Azt^quS'
tine.
[2989] It is a necessary thing to be tempted
of God ; for how should we know whether we
have the love of (iod in our hearts or no except
we be tried. Therefore David saith, " Lord,
prove me and tempt me." — Latimer.
[2990] There is another sort of temptation,
which is called a proving. Of this kind of
temptation it is written, " The Lord your God
tempteth (proveth) you, to know whether ye
love Him," (Deut. xiii. 3). What means "to
know." To make you know, for He knoweth
already.— Augustine.
[2991] As a father seeing his child to be busy
about the fire catcheth his finger and thrusts
it to a coal, to make him the more afraid of it
after ; so God sometimes lets us taste of sin
that we may the more detest it and hate it
while we live.
[2992] This petition stands last, and is the last
which we can rightly understand. Its true need
only becomes manifest as we grow in ripeness
of experience. It only gradually dawns upon us
the strategical skill of Satan and the strength
and unconquered virus of sin in us. " Tempta-
tions are," as Fdnelon puts it, "a file which
rub off much of the rust of self-confidence."
Again, temptation may be regarded as the spade
which breaks up the ground of a believer's heart,
and helps to discover the corruptions of the
fallen nature. — C. N.
[2993] The shepherd sets his dt)g upon the
strayed sheep, not to worry him, but to lodge
him, and bring him back again into the fold :
so doth God suffer His children to be buffeted
and exercised by Satan, to their great trouble,
but for their good in the issue ; for He knoweth
how to turn all these things for good. — T.
Manton, 1629-1677.
2 For the advancement of His own glory.
[2994] God permits His own children to be
tempted, that by their victory over temptations
He may confound the malice of Satan, and com-
mend the excellency of His own ways and
service. — Bp. Hopkins, 1633-1690.
[2995] The general may, according to his
discretion, lead which band he pleaseth, and
set them in the forlorn hope, and appoint
others for reserves. So God may single out
His champions to combat for His glory, and
leave others in a more quiet posture according
as He pleaseth.
3 For judicial purposes.
[2996] Power is used against us for two pur-
poses, either for punishment when we give way,
or for glory when we endure the test. — Cyprian.
[2997] For the punishment of former sins,
God may give up the wicked to be blinded and
hardened by Satan to their own destruction,
which is one of the most dreadful of Gods
judicial acts.— r. Manton, J629-1677.
4 Homiletical summary.
[2998] Why God leads His people into temp-
tation. I. For His own glory, to discover the
power, fulness, and riches of His grace. 2.
For the trial of the grace He hath wrought in us
(Matt. XV. 25-28). 3. To humble us that we may
never be proud of what we have, or conceited
of what we have not (2 Cor. xii. 7). 4. To con-
form us to Christ who was tempted (Heb. ii. 7).
5. To mortify sin ; not only that to which we
are tempted, but others that we may not be
heedless (Psa. li. 6). 6. To make us meek to
others. 7. To give us experience of the care,
providence, and promises of God. — Jbid.
XI. Grounds for Consolation if God
SEES FIT, NOTWITHSTANDING OUR RE-
QUEST TO THE Contrary, to Lead us
INTO Temptation.
I They include the necessary elements for
our success as children of the heavenly
kingdom.
[2999] But seeing God is in power, almighty;
in wisdom, infinite ; in care, most tender ; in
watchfulness, most vigilant — what need we to
fear, or can we be afraid of, if He be our leader.''
No cause indeed of any fear on God's part ; all
the fear is on our parts ; for though God be
powerful, yet we are weak, as Christ saith, "The
spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak." Though
God be wise, yet we are foolish ; that God saith
of us, "My people have no understanding."
Though God be careful, yet we are wilful ; that
it may be said as well of us as of the Jews, that
we are a stiff-necked generation. Though God
be watchful, yet we are drowsy ; that Christ may
say to us, as He said to the apostles, " Could
ye not watch with me one hour.''" And now if
God should leave us to our infirmities, and add
His leading to our own aptness of falling into
temptations, it were impossible that this house of
ours, which is built upon the sands, should ever
be able to stand upright. O Lord, let Thy
Spirit lead me, for without leading I am afraid
to fall ; but let him not lead me into temptation,
for by such leading I am sure to fall. So load me
in the way that I be not led captive away ; yet
know, O my sonl, and despair not, that if it
should so ill befall thee, yet He which led
THE LORDS PRAYER.
2999— 3010 1
[sixth petition.
captivity captive is able to deliver thee. — Sir
Richard Baker, 1 568- 1 645 .
[3000] There is a third class of temptations
against which we have urgent need to use this
petition. There are sudden surprises, which
neither occur in the ordinary duties of our em-
ployments, nor as we might have anticipated.
They emerge unexpectedly, and we cannot take
precautions against them. A special importance
attaches to these, for it is thus that many of our
greatest sins have been committed ; and, when
resisted, it is then that we have taken the
greatest steps in advance Godwards. In short,
these are the temptations in which, beyond all
others, it is evident that God is making proof of
w'i.—Dotls.
[3001] The temptations of God and Satan
are very different : Satan tempts that he may
destroy, confound, throw headlong ; God, that
by proving His people He may make trial of
their sincerity, and by exercising their strength
confirm it ; may mortify, tame, and cauterize
their flesh, which, if not curbed in this manner,
would wanton and exult above measure. Be-
sides, Safan attacks those who are unarmed and
unprepared, that he may destroy them unawares ;
whereas, whatever God sends, He "will with
the temptation also make a way to escape, that
ye may be able to bear it." — Calvin.
[3002] God tempts one way, the devil another.
The devil tempts that he may overwhelm us ;
God tempts that He may crown us. — Ambrose.
XH. Lessons and Reflections sug-
gested BY THIS Petition.
I Generally.
(i) The duty of ?iot parleying with tempta-
tions of any sort.
[3003] To have parleyed with temptation is to
have lost strength already. Go a mile with the
tempter, and the chances are that he will per-
suade you to go two. He will first tell you that
you are not going out of your way at all, and
forthwith he will tell you that you have gone too
far to go back. — Dods.
[3004] Stay not to meet temptation face to
face from a fancy of the strength of your deter-
mination and the glory of the conquest, but
" escape for thy life," like Lot from Sodom,
without once looking behind thee, or abiding in
the perilous proximity of a thing so dangerous
to thine eternal peace. — Hugo.
(2) The duty of not stepping into posts of
moral hazard unless at the call of duty,
[3005] But however charged with the Spirit's
influence, we shall not step into a post of great
moral hazard without clear orders. Once,
while William of Orange was laying siege to a
town on tlie Continent, an officer with a mes-
saf^e \entured to go to the spot where he was in
the act of directing the operation of his gunners.
When the message was delivered, and the an-
swer to it received, he still lingered. " Sir,"
said the Prince, " do you know that every mo-
ment you stand here is at the risk of your life 1 "
" I run no more risk," replied the gentleman,
" than your Highness." " Yes," said the
Prince, " but my duty brings me here, and yours
does not." While only led by our own inclina-
tion into a risk, we have no Divine guarantee of
protection. Led and filled by God Himself, our
souls are safe anywhere. Not only so, but
temptations will be made subservient to the
highest purposes of profit to man and glory to
God. — Stanforck
(3) The duty of taking active and precaution-
ary measures against things, persons, or places
likely to tempt us.
[3006] And it carries with it two great lessons
for the conduct of our daily life. What we pray
God to do for us, that we must do, so far as we
can, for ourselves. We ask Him not to lead us
into temptation, and we must then fly from it,
and watch against its assaults. We may not
live just on the borders of the enemy's country,
and think ourselves safe in the stronghold of our
principles and faith. — Karslake.
[3007] A man conscious of suicidal mania
will designedly put away from him the imple-
ments of death, and avoid occasions of loneli-
ness, so far as his disease will permit him. So
should we put away from us the materials of
evil, and avoid the occasions of sin. — E. B.
[3008] We in this petition desire God to ex-
cite our own care and watchfulness. The way
then to prevent temptations is with a religious
foresight to guard against their most distant
approach. — Mangey, 1684-1755.
[3009] The wind, when it has ceased raging
from one point, after a short calm frequently re-
news its violence from another quarter. — C. N.
(4) The duty of extricating ourselves from
certain conditions, in which we almost invari-
ably, if not invariably, sin, despite all our re-
solves to the contrary.
[3010] The harder we purpose in our souls to
live to God, the more clearly do we see how we
displease Him. We begin to take account of
this, that there are certain conditions, in which
we almost invariably, if not invariably, sin, des-
pite all our resolves to the contrary. We re-
member our resolves, nay, we remember how a
few hours ago we besought pardon of similar
sin, and yet we yield. There are persons whose
company always betrays us into slandering or
scoffing, or bitter envy, or hypocrisy, or some
evil passion ; there are places in which we can-
not inaintain, or have at least never yet main-
tained, even our usual regard to the will of God,
and from which we return less disposed than we
ought to remember Christ, or engage in any re-
472
30I0-
THE LORD S PR A YER.
■3018]
[sixth petition.
ligious duty ; there are books we read, or trains
of thought we indulge in, which lower our tone
and unhinge the mind for serious, vigorous, and
devout exercise. Now it is very often the case,
that it is quite at our option that we thus put
ourselves in the way of temptation. — Dcds.
2 More in detail.
(i) 77ie dan^^er of weakly dallying xuith for-
bidden desires.
[301 1] Weak dallying with forbidden desires
is sure to end in wicked clutching at them.
Young men, take care ! You stand upon the
beetling edge of a great precipice, when you
look over, from your fancied security, at a wrong
thing ; and to strain too far and to look too
friendly, leads to a perilous danger of toppling
over and being lost ! If you know that a thing
cannot be won without transgression, do not
tamper with hankering for it. Keep away
from the edge, and shut your eyes from behold-
ing vanity. — Maclaren.
(2) The hazard of trifling with the purity of
our thoughts.
[3012]' But if through the furnace, heated even
seven times hotter than its wont, you pass un-
scathed through the gracious protecting pre-
sence of " One like unto the Son of Man," yet
surely upon the garments of the tempted soul
the smell of the fire will have passed. Remem-
brance will demand its retribution in after-
years. There will be pictures in the gallery of
memory that he cannot remove ; ghostly recol-
lections that he cannot lay, moving to and fro
in the haunted corridors of thought. What
would many a troubled spirit give to blot from
memory scenes and stories that, in his eager-
ness to " know life," he too rashly sought !
Young man, " Keep thy heart with all dili-
gence "(Prov. iv. 23). " Blessed are the pure in
heart : for they shall see God" (Matt. v. 8).
Dally not with temptation. Do not, I be-
seech you, hazard the integrity of your charac-
ter, nor trifle with the purity of your thoughts.
" Be wise ; know what to leave unknown."
— Loraitte.
(3) The risk of frequenting old scenes of temp-
tation.
[3013] If you had a ditch to cross on your
way to work, and it was so broad that you could
not leap over it, after trying and tumbling once
or twice perhaps, you would go round by the
bridge. It would be no reason to you that
neighbour such a one could leap it. You would
i.iy, " He is welcome to leap it then ; but I can
only leap into it : 1 have tried twice already :
twice have I only welted myself and dirtied my
clothes : so I will not run the risk again I The
safe way over the bridge is good enough for me."
In like manner, if by frec,ucnting such a place,
or such a company, you have fallen once or
twice into sin, listen not to the tempter when he
bids you try again. Say within yourself:"!
have tried too often. I will run no further risk
of hurting and dirtying my soul. Christ has
cleansed it with His blood ; it is too precious a
thing to be polluted." — Augustus IV. IVare.
XIII. Reality of this Prayer as deal-
ing IN A Real W.\y with the
Realities of Life.
[3014] Want is real, sin is real, temptation is
real. The prayer which left out these would be
the prayer of dreams and fancies, pious senti-
ments, and unpractical emotions ; not of real
life, not of manly sympathy, not of Divine help.
— Dean Vaughan.
[3015] Indeed, what is Hfe but temptation.''
Every sphere presents its own tests. '' Every
condition of life and feeling is a temptation, a
dangerous temptation ; every condition of life
and feeling is pregnant with a blessing or a
curse." — Loraine.
[3016] Riches, we know, are temptations ;
poverty, we know equally, is a very great one.
The king, in the Proverbs, was judicious in
desiring a mean ; but therein, too, lies a peril of
its own ; a kind of secure hardness, self-indul-
gence comforting itself with the assurance that it
is not luxury, the rich and the poor man's sins
both regarded with abhorrence because they
interfere with us, and because there is no know-
ledge of either. — Maurice.
[3017] We have sinned greatly in the past;
we have fallen even where we thought we were
most strong ; and how shall we not fall again ?
Temptation is all around us ; temptation from
within, temptation from without ; temptation in
health, temptation in sickness ; in wealth and
in poverty ; in youth and in age ; in solitude
and in society ; in wisdom and in ignorance ;
in labour and in rest ; in joy and in sorrow ; in
hope and in despair ; in every sphere and under
all circumstances temptation is all around us,
pressing upon us on every side, like the atmo-
sphere in which we move, and we are for ever
being drawn away to forget or disobey God. —
Karslake.
XIV. Frame of Mind implied in this
Pk.aver.
I The tremulous recoil of the mind from sin.
[3018] It is essential to the reality of this, as
of the connectional petitions, that before coming
to it we should pray, " Thy will be done." The
larger petition governs the smaller. It may
seem like inconsistency first to say, " Lead us
into temptation if it be Thy will ; " then to say,
" Lead us 7tot into it" — but there is no incon-
sistency. It is only akin to the Saviour's prayer,
when He went into Gethsemane, saying with
shrinking and tremulous dread, " Father, if it be
possible, let this cup pass from me, nevertheless,
not my will, but Thine be done.' — Stanford.
THE LORD'S PRAYER.
SEVENTH PETITION.
Pages 474 to 480.
A. hitrodiictory Kcmarks,
I
STRUCTURAL CHARACTER.
B. Treatment of the Pditioti in detail.
2
SENSE OF THE WORD " EVIL " AS HERE USED.
3
MISTAKEN NOTIONS ABOUT EVIL.
4
MODES (CHIEFLY DIRECT) OF DIVINE DELIVERANCE
WHEN EVIL IS REGARDED AS SIN.
5
MODES (CHIEFLY INDIRECT) OF DIVINE DELIVERANCE
WHEN EVIL IS REGARDED AS TRIALS.
6
MODES OF DIVINE DELIVERANCE VIFAVED IN REGARD
TO THE SOURCE OF TEMPTATION.
7
EXTENT OF DIVINE DELIVERANCE.
C. Concluding Remarks,
8
NECESSITY OF THIS PRAYER FOR DELIVERANCE.
9
FRAMES OF MIND AS REFLECTED IN THE VERY FACT
OF SEEKING DELIVERANCE.
10
PRE-REQUISITES TO RIGPITLY OFFER UP THIS
PETITION.
473
474
THE LORD'S PRAYER
{Coniiniied).
SE VENTH PETITION.
(But deliver us from evil—'-'- the evil one "
Revised Versioji.)
'AWci |uiJ.Tat iiij.idij ciTrd rov Troviipov.
I. Its Structural Character.
1 As simply explanatory of the immediately
preceding petition.
[3019] The sixth and seventh petition are
closely connected, so that they are by some
considered as one. — Bengcl.
[3020] Origen tells us in his treatise Dc
Oratio7ie, that the words dKKd pvaa rjl^ai; cltto
Tov TToviipDv are not apart of the prayer as found
in the Gospel of St. Luke. We believe that no
reference is to be found to this in the writings of
any Greek Father before his time. He died
about a.D. 254.
[3021] This sentence and the following one,
" But deliver us from evil,' are regarded here as
making up but one petition, as was noticed in
the first Dissertation. '* They belong," writes
St. Augustine, " to one sentence. By delivering
us from evil Me leadcth us not into temptation ;
by not leading us into temptation He delivers us
fro m evil.' ' — Kar slake .
[3022] I am prevented from agreeing with
those -.viio divide it into seven by the adversa-
tive diction used by the evangelist, who appears
to have intended to unite two members toge-
ther ; as if he had said, Do not allow us to be
overcome by temptation, but rather bring assis-
tance to our frailty, and deliv-er us that we may
not fall. Ancient writers also agree with us,
that what is added by St. Matthew as a seventh
head, is to be considered as explanatory of the
sixth petition. — Calvin.
2 As supplementary to the immediately
preceding petition.
[3023] A person may use these words as two
distinct petitions ; but, as they here stand, they
are connected and form one douljle request.
It is one utterance of the soul. The soul does
not first view temptation and utter its desire
about this, and then view evil and utter a new
desire about that ; but seeing at one view temp-
tation and evil, and knowing, moreover, how
they are joined together, a prayer is uttered
which, though it has two parts, is one. There
is no end that we can propose for ourselves
short of deliverance from evil, and no means
can be suggested as more necessary to the at-
tainment of this than being kept from temptation.
— Dods.
[3024] In this petition we pray directly for
this, that God in His consideration of our frailty
would so order our life day by day that as little
as possible we may be exposed to temptation.
But it will be asked, " Has this petition, then,
no reference to the temptations we do actually
meet .'' Does it only avert possible temptations,
and bring no strength to help us in those that
actually occur ? ** Directly it does not ask from
God any such aid. And it seems a profitless
exercise of ingenuity, to wrest the words so that
they shall include what is evidently included in
the second part of the petition, " Deliver us
from evil." He who prays these concluding
words will surely be little concerned to make
the former words mean "bring us out of temp-
tation safely" as well as " lead us not into it." —
Ibid.
[3025] Deliver us from (the) evil into which,
under temptation, we are apt to slide, or to
which we are apt to yield. — C. N.
3 As comprehending the three previous
petitions, and going beyond them in its
scope.
[3026] It sums up the whole of our wants,
since in it we seek to be delivered from ail
kinds of evil, whether they be the consequences
of our past sins, or the grief, affliction, and
suffering which befall Gods servants here.
Poverty, nakedness, the want of bread and of
shelter ; the trespasses which we commit, and
which are evil to us ; the temptations which
surround us, and which we so often turn into an
occasion of evil. — Tost at us.
[3027J " Deliver us from evil." These words
are a summary of the Lord's Prayer, as it is a
summary of the whole gospel. Is it not evil
that has alienated and disinherited man from
his Di\ine Father? and which impedes his re-
conciliation and cg-adoption .'^ Is it not evil
that estranges man from man, and makes it
THE LORDS PRAYER.
3027— 3037I
475
[seventh petition.
difficult to say ''our Father?" Is it nrt evil
that dishonours the Divine Name? Is it not
evil that stays the coming of His kingdom ? Is
it not evil that resists His will on earth? Is it
not evil that pollutes and impoverishes the
supplies of daily life ? Is it not evil that has
induced those trespasses through which man
needs "a Saviour and a great one?" "Our
Father, deliver us from evil."' — Loraine.
[3028] These words form a seventh and most
affecting petition, reaching far beyond the
last. They are the expression of the yearning
for redemption of the sons of God (Rom. viii.
23), and so are fitly placed at the end of the
Prayer, and as the sum and cubstance of the
personal petitions. — Alford.
II. Sense of the Word " Evil" {ttovijpov)
AS HERE USED.
I Evil may be viewed in a comprehensive
sense.
[3029] There are two senses of the word
"evil." For it may signify evil in general, or
in particular the evil one, the principle and
fountain of all evil. If we take it in the former
sense, we desire God to deliver us from evil,
without expressly naming what is so, leaving
that to be determined by His infinite wisdom,
which judges better for us than we can do for
ourselves, and will do for us exceeding abun-
dantly, above all that we can ask or think (Eph.
iii. 20). If we take it in the latter sense, the
petition is still much the same, and differs only
as the cause from its effect. For most of
the evils which happen to mankind are effected,
I conceive, by the permission, indeed, of God,
but by the agency of the devil and his instru-
ments.—i>/i. Ne'wto7t.
[3030] Evil one, meaning the devil ; whether
as the principal or head of the temptation, or
as the tormentor, to whose lot we shall fall, if
the temptation succeeds. Others mean in
general the evil of sin, that God by His grace
and providence would so fortify, defend, and
extricate us, that we be not led into sinful
courses or actions ; or if we are, that we be
quickly delivered by a thorough repentance and
amendment. — J. Blair^ '^l-'h-
[3031] The word translated "evil," in the
connection with which it stands in this verse,
denotes either the "evil thing." or the "evil
one : " which is to be understood, either of sin,
or of Satan — or both. But it appears, accord-
ing to the comprehensive import of all the ex-
pressions which our Lord uses in this model of
supplication, to comprise every species of evil
to which man, in the present state of his
existence, is \\sh\e.— Good (of Salisbury).
[3032] Many interpreters have understood
this word evil {jov wovi^pov) here as alluding to
the evil one. But surely this is unwarrantably
to narrow the comprehensive completeness of
this great petition. Is it not a brief but full
translation into simple words of the restless
longing of humanity for freedom from that many-
shaped but ever hideous thing evil, which de-
forms, distresses, and disorders life through
countless agencies ? Satan is not the sole
source of temptation, for St. James says, " Every
man is tempted, when he is led away of his own
lust, and enticed" (chap. i. 14). If, therefore,
we would be delivered from evil, and our Lord
taught us so to pray, we must not only ask to
be delivered from Satan, but also from self. —
Loraine.
2 Evil may be viewed in a restricted sense.
(i) Personally.
[3033] He saith not, " Deliver us from evil
men," for it is not they who injure us, but "the
evil one." — Theophylact.
[3034] He is the chief author of evil, his temp-
tations are all unto evil, his delight is only in
evil, he is the father of all those that do evil.
And therefore this is the most proper and sig-
nificant character of the devil. But yet it is also
ascribed unto men according to their resem-
blance of him. — Bp, hopkins, 1633-1690.
[3035] 'O TTovj/pof, " the evil one," Matt. xiii.
19 ; I John ii. i3 ; v. 18 ; Eph. vi. 16. In
all these places the devil is so called, be-
cause his great business is to draw and
drive others to sin ; and therefore, as God
is "the holy one," so Satan is called "the
wicked one." The devil may fitly be called " the
evil one," for he is the oldest sinner, i John
iii. 8. And he is the greatest sinner, Eph, vi. 12.
And he is the father of sin, John viii. 44. So all
the sins in the world are by his furtherance, both
actual and original. Again, he hath a great
stroke in temptation, that he is the artificer, the
designer, the improver of them ; therefore he is
called 6 Trtipa^wv, "the tempter," Matt. iv. 3. —
T. Maiiton, 1629-1677.
[3036] The Divine Author seems to have in-
terpreted at the same time also the other saying
— " Deliver us from evil." The original is am-
biguous. It maybe rendered, " from evil," or,
"from the evil one." I think the latter is the
more probable meaning. Considering our Lord's
frequent references to a personal tempter — con-
sidering the special instance just quoted, " Satan
hath desired you . . . but I have prayed for
thee " — it seems natural to suppose that it is
from " the wicked one" tliat He here bids us
pray for deliverance, rather than from the less
definite, more abstract thing to which we give
the impersonal name of "evil." — Dean Vaitghan.
[3037] I am not about to enter on the discussion
of the vexed question as to the translation of the
Lord's Prayer, which has been debated so ex-
haustively by such masterly scholars and theo-
logians as Bishop Lightfoot and Canon Cook.
476
3037—3041]
THE LORDS PRAYER.
[seventh petition.
It has struck me, however, that the following-
contribution towards the solution of that prob-
lem—which, so far as I remember, has not as
yet been noticed on either side — may not be
without interest. It will be seen that the great
poet of mediaeval Christendom, the student of
Aquinas, the follower of P'rancis of Assisi, and
therefore, in the highest sense, the representative
at once of the religious philosophy and of the
devotion of his age, throws the weight of his
authority into the scales of the Revised Version,
and tells us in what sense Latin Christendom
has used the prayer, Libera nos a malo.
In the opening of the nth Canto of the
Ptirgatorio^ Dante gives a paraphrase of the
Lord's Prayer as sung by souls who are being
purified from the stains of earth. It would, of
course, be sufficient for my immediate purpose
to quote the lines that correspond with the clause
of that prayer now in question ; but the whole
paraphrase is of such exceeding beauty, and is
so little known (but few readers of Dante seem
to get beyond the Inferno), that I think your
readers will not blame me for asking you to
permit me to give the whole from an unpublished
translation —
" Our Father, Thou Who dwellest in the heaven,
Not circumscribed, save as by greater sense
Of love which Thou to Thy first works hast
given,
Praised be Thy Name and Thine Omnipotence
By every creature, as is meet and right,
To render thanks to Thy sweet effluence.
Thy Kingdom come to us in peace and might,
For of ourselves we may not it attain.
If it come not, with all our reason's height.
As of their will Thine angels chant their strain.
And high hosannas offer up alway.
So may men also wills for Thy will gain.
Our daily Manna give to us to-day,
Without which whoso through this desert
bleak
Journeys, goes back, though pressing on
his way.
And as the trespass men upon us wreak
We each forgive, so. Lord, do Tiiou forgive
Of Thy great goodness, nor our merits seek.
Otcr virtue, ivhich so soon doth harm receive,
Put not to peril with our ancient Foe,
Hut from his evil sting deliverance give.
This final prayer, dear Lord, from us doth flow,
Not for ourselves, for that we no more need,
But for their sakes whom wc have left be-
low."
It may be well, perhaps, that I should give
the original text of the three lines for the sake
of which I have quoted the whole—
" Nostra virtu che di leggier s'adona
Non spermentar con 1' antico avversaro,
Ma libera da lui, che si la sprona."
Dean Pluinptre, Letter to The Guardian, 18S2.
[3038] Thoughts and feelings of humility and
godly fear must stir within us always as we
meditate on, or offer up, this prayer. How
forcibly it brings before the mind all the great
truths of faith which Scripture teaches respect-
ing the fall of our first parents, and its conse-
quences to mankind, and respecting the person-
ality of the evil spirit who both tempted them,
and now, with his hosts of attendant angels, is
for ever seeking the destruction of each indi-
vidual man. — Karslake.
[3039] Is the word translated " evil " mascu-
line or neuter? Does it signify the evil one, or
that which is evil .'' According to the majority
of interpreters, ancient and modern, it means
the evil one. Such is thought to have been
the meaning of the corresponding word of the
Jewish prayer from which probably the clause
is taken. Satan is undoubtedly called the evil
one in Holy Scripture. In agreement with a
saying of the Lord recorded by St. John, in
which sinners are described as " of their father
the devil," the expression occurs in the Gospel
according to .St. Matthew, in the passage, " The
tares are the children of the wicked one : " and
in the same chapter we read, " When any one
heareth the word of the kingdom, and under-
standeth it not, then cometh the wicked one ; "
as St. Mark writes, " Satan ;" as St. Luke says,
" the devil."- — Robinson.
(2) Iinpersonnlly.
a. Import of the word evil in its neutral
rendering.
[3040] All evils are here meant, whether they
be of sin or sorrow, whether they be transgres-
sions or punishments ; and that either temporal
punishments in those judgments which God
inflicts upon sinners here, or eternal judgments.
— Bp. Hopkins, 1633-1690.
b. Negative argument for the neuter render-
ist. Biblical criticism lea'i'es tis perfectly free
to adopt the neuter rendering -which accords
best with Scripture analogy and spiritual in-
stincts.
[3041] The words " deliver us from " {(wnai
airb) may refer to deliverance either {a) from a
personal enemy, or {b) from an impending
calamity or a moral evil.
{a) In Romans xv. 31, and in 2 Thess. iii. 2,
the apostle refers to deliverance from unbeliev-
ing Jews, a very difterent thing from praying to
be delivered from Satan.
{b) I Thess. i. 10 : " Jesus which delivcreth
(A.V. delivered) us from the wrath to come."'
The amendment is necessary as St. Paul speaks
of a continuous action on the part of our Lord.
2 Tim. iv. iS : "The Lord will (A.V. shall) de-
liver me from every evil work."
These passages certainly add force to the
assumption that in the Lord's Prayer deliver-
ance from evil, specially from moral evil, guilt
and its punishment, is primarily intended. It
seems to me, and \ think to the generality of
Christians, more in^accordance with the position
THE LORDS PRAYER.
3041—3047]
477.
[seventh petition.
of those whom Christ has dehvered from the
power of Satan, to pray to be delivered from
moral evil, the sin that besets us continually, and
from its penalty, than from " the evil one," the
devil who will flee from those who resist him
(James iv. 7).
The real question, however, is whether rov
TToviipov is masculine or neuter.
1. If it is certainly masculine, it is correctly
rendered " the evil one," whether that evil one
be a spiritual or human adversary.
2. If it is neuter, ''evil" is the only true
rendering.
3. If, again, the gender is doubtful, a double
rendering — one in the text, another in the mar-
gin— is admissible, or necessar\'.
We must not forget, however, the important
fact that 6 Troviipoij, " the evil one," is a designa-
tion of Sntan in the New Testament. Thus, in
Matt. .xiii. 19, we read, "then conieth tlie evil
one.'"
St. John, moreover, in his First Epistle, four
times uses the masculine adjective, with the
definite article, as equivalent to Satan. This
leaves no doubt as to tlie admissibility of the
rendering " the evil one." when it is supported
by the context ; but it must be observed, first,
that the Epistle of St. John was written more
than half a century after the delivery of the
parable in St. Matthew, i.e., at a time when the
expression, taken from the exposition of the
parable itself, had probably become idiomatic ;
and secondly — a point of great importance —
that St. John does not represent the evil one as
a foe, or tyrant from whom the Christian has to
be delivered, but as an enemy whom even the
young men have overcome (i John ii. 13, 14),
and who is powerful over those only who aban-
don themselves to his influence (chap. v. 18, 19).
As for the Christian, St. John assures us "that
evil one toucheih him not."'
But further, St. Paul uses the Greek word to
TToviipov (Rom. xii. 9) in the precise sense of
"evil:" "Abhor that which is evil," literally
abhorrmg evil, i.e. wickedness. To -Kovrfpov is
the antithesis to to a-yaQdv to koXov kui wrptXi/jot'.
These are the only passages in the New
Testament in which the gender is distinctly
marked. They certainly do not settle the ques-
tion, so far as the grammatical construction is
concerned. We are free to choose that sense
which is most in accordance with scriptural
teaching. In my opinion, it is that which fixes
our mind upon the real point of spiritual danger,
— the sinful thought, word, or act which alone
gives access to "the evil one," from which
Christ has delivered every true child of God. —
Canon F. C. Cook.
[3042] To pray that we may be delivered
from evil generally, seems to be all that might
be required of us ; nor are we, if our prayer be
granted, a bit less safe from the evil one than if
he is expressly named in the supplications which
we offer up. In the latter case, however, we
take no note of the various evils to which human
life is physically liable, whilst we pray for pro-
tection against the devil, whose agency is of
a spiritual nature. And yet the word T-onipov
is primarilv and principally discriptive of phy-
sical or bodilv evil, as well as of the mind. —
AVz'. 7. A. Giles.
[3043] The introduction of "the evil one"
would here be quite incongruous and even
absurd. — A If or d.
c. Positive arguments for the neuter rendering.
( 1 ) On account of its original meaning.
[3044] The word 7roj'?;poc has first of all a
reference to pain, hurt, and bodily evil gene-
rally, and from that meaning is transferred
to moral evil, sorrow, grief, and other mental
sufferings. The poet Theognis well expresses
this where he says that the ingratitude of chil-
dren whom you have well and carefully brought
up is the most painful (ponerotaton) of all
diseases. This also will be seen from an
analysis of the passages in which this word is
used in the New Testament. — J. A. Giles.
(2) On account of this appellative for Satan
being unknotvn to our Lord's hearers.
[3045] My argument is this. Our Lord's
countrymen and the readers of the first Gospel
would naturally and instinctively understand
any words of doubtful signification in the sense
with which they were already familiar. This
would involve the meaning of "evil," not the
"evil one," the latter sense not being found in
any contemporary or previously existing docu-
ment. I further state that, according to the
usage in Palestine in our Lord's time and for
many years after, the term corresponding to
6 TTovTipog was not employed as an equivalent for
Satan. — Canon F. C. Cook.
(3) On account of St. Matthew's use of an
unambiguous term for Satan in his descriptio?t
of the tetnptation.
[3046] It is a point worth noting that since,
in the record of our Lord's temptation, Satan is
distinctly named, it might be expected that, if
his personality were meant, it would here be
marked by the same, or an equally unmistak-
able, designation. In the former instance, the
readers of St. Matthew's Gospel might be as-
sumed to be familiar with the word o TtovnpoQ had
it been commonly understood as an appellative;
but in this prayer the multitude who heard it
would surely need the clearest and most un-
ambiguous designation, had our Lord intended
to fix their attention upon Satan.— /i^/^.
(4) On account of the designed a7nbiguousness,
or rather co7nprehefisiveness, of the word itself.
[3047] The only literal and truthful rendering
of ciTTo tov Trovijpoi is either "from evil," or "from
the evil." The old versions read— Syr., P. and
Phil., Georg., Armen., Slav., Goth., and tov
THE lord's prayer.
478
3047— 3052I
TTovijpoi' ; Memph., "from the evil ;" but Sahid.»
"from the evil one" (compare I John v. 18, 19);
Cod. aur and Vulg., " a malo." The Greek has
only one word, tt v-qpov, so let the English have
only one too— "evil ;" and let every one under-
stand it as he will. Had our Saviour meant it
to be aught but an open question He would
have explained it as He did His parables. But
He did not. Whence we may safely conclude
that the rendering of Authorized Version, "de-
liver us from evil," is best, since it implies not
only our great enemy " the evil one," with his
hosts of evil spirits, but all sin and shame,
trouble and sorrow, grief and sickness, pain,
suffering, and loss of every kind ; so that in the
words of St. Isidorus (Eph. iv. 24), ivcmav
eipwviinv inrtplSaWsi, " it is above all cavil." —
S. C. Malan.
(5) On accowtt of the climatic position luhich
the clause sustaining the word occupies in the
Prayer.
[3048] The Gothic version has "af thamma
ubilin ; " a Lord's Prayer of the eighth century
has "fona allem sunton;" one of the twelfth
century, "von dem ubilem ;" and, in accordance
with these, Luther has rendered the expression,
both in Matthew and Luke, "'von dem uebel"
(from the evil, or, from evil). Many, on the
other hand, prefer to render it " from the evil
one," meaning not evil in the abstract, but
Satan. But the place occupied by the petition,
at the close of the Lord's Prayer, is in favour of
Luther's translation. Deliverance in the most
comprehensive sense of the word, for which we
ask here, is more than deliverance from the
devil. — Evangelical Review.
in. Mistaken Notions about Evil.
I Regarding trials as necessarily evil.
[3049] Faith is awake to the fact that our
heavenly Father, in infinite wisdom and mercy,
may answer our prayer by present disappoint-
ments and troubles. The very means He uses
for our protection and escape may be another
trial. Amen. If He grant the petition, what
matters it how ! He is delivering us from evil,
and He only knows what will save us. The
artist on the lofty scafi'olding was so intent upon
the picture on the ceiling at which he was
working, that he forgot tlie danger of his situa-
tion, liack and back he stepped, reviewing his
painting— back to the very edge of the platform.
Another step and he would have been a mangled
corpse below. Quick as thought, too sagacious
to speak to him of his peril, one seized a brush,
and proceeded to disfigure his beautiful picture,
pushing forward to arrest the rude arm, the
indignant painter cried, "What have you done?"
" Saved your life, sir," was the answer. We are
often taken up with our picture-painting till
"there is but a step between us and death."
Suddenly, in severe mercy, God causes our
pleasant handiwork to be marred. Shall we
complain ? Nay, we must thank our Deliverer.
[seventh petition.
We are drawn from the verge of perdition, .
snatched from the power of temptation, saved
from eternal evil. Our trials are thus our life.
— Robinson,
[3050] Only as you call a flail evil, that sepa-
rates the grain from the chaff; a wheel evil that
grinds jewels to burn in a crown ; a knife evil
that prunes a tree ; a tree evil that bears good
fruit ; a plough evil whose colter crashes
through the hard soil, opens it to the chemistry
of nature, and makes it a soft, porous, receptive
seed-plot for the harvest ; the medicine evil that
brings back the colour of health to the white
face, and the flash of gladness to the dim eye ;
the hand evil that snatches back a heedless
child from the nest of the serpent, or the lip of
the river, just in time to save its life— only in
this qualified sense can you call an affliction an
evil. Out of our greatest sorrows grow our
greatest jovs. The worst of all these is not evil
itself ; not all these together could make what
is here set down as " the evil." — Sta?iford.
2 Regarding the existence of evil without
the agency of the devil.
[3051] The evil one and that which is evil are
as closely connected as source and stream, root
and tree, substance and shadow, fang and
poison, fire and flame. Everything done by the
devil, and whatever he suggests, is evil. All
his aims and hopes are evil. He has pleasure
in nothing but scheming, practising, instilling,
and encouraging evil. His malice is at the
bottom of most developments of wickedness
and woe. He rules in the kingdom of evil,
from the chains and darkness of which God"s
people have escaped ; against the power of
which they, in the prayers preceding, beseech
the Almighty to uplift His arm; ancl the guilt
and misery of relapsing into which they depre-
cate in this petition. It may not be impossible
to imagine the existence of evil without the
devil ; but it does not exist without him.—
Robinsofi.
3 Regarding sin in any other light than
essentially and absolutely evil.
[3053] There is no good at all in sin. First,
there is no good of entity, or being. God hath
a being ; and everything that hath a being hath
some good in it, because it is of God. But sin
is a non-entity, a no-being ; it is rather the de-
privation of a being than any being at all ; and
here is a great mystery of iniquity, that what is
a non-entity should have such a mighty eflicacy
to trouble heaven and earth. Secondly, it hath
no good of causality; that is, sin is so evil that
it can bring forth no good. Afflictions do bring
forth good. Sin is such an evil that it cannot
be made good nor an instrument for good.
When God brings good out of sin, He does so
occasionally, not instnaiic/i tally. An instnnncnt
gives some efficacy towards the effect; Init sin
has in itself not even an instrumental efficacy
towards a good effect, as afflictions have ;
though God maf take occasion to bring good
THE LORDS PRAYER.
3052—3064]
479
[seventh petition.
out of sin committed, He never makes sin itself
an instrument of good. — Jeremiah Burroughs.
[3053] The greatest evil is sin. i. In the
nature of it, as being contrary to the greatest
good, even God. 2. In the effect and con-
sequences of it here and hereafter. 3. There-
fore to pray is to pray against all other evils
whatsoever ; for the devil, the evil one, cannot
hurt us but by sin. And no other evil can befall
us but for sin, God inflicting them as the due
guerdon and reward of our transgressions. —
Bp. Hopkins, 163 3- 1690.
IV. Modes (chiefly direct) of Divine
Deliverance when Evil is regarded
AS Sin.
1 Negatively.
(i) Not removal from scene of temptation.
[3054] In the prayer which sums up His
intercession for all disciples, our High Priest
draws a distinction between the world and the
evil in it. " I pray not that thou shouldest take
them out of the world, but that thou shouldest
keep them from the evil." — Stanford.
2 Positively.
(i) By circinnstaitce enabling Providence.
[3055] That if it shall please God to " lead us
into temptation," yet that He would not leave
us under the power of temptation, but with
"every temptation He would make a way for
us to escape, that we may be able to bear it.'' —
Bp. Hopkifis, 1 633- 1 690.
(2) By restraifiing Provideitce.
[3056] God sometimes delivers by putting an
hook into men's nostrils, and a bridle into their
jaws, and by a powerful hand reining them in
when they are most fiery and furious. — Ibid.
(3) Bv restraining grace.
[3057] God preserves men from sin by pro-
pounding to them such considerations and argu-
ments as may be sufficient to engage conscience
against it, when yet the will and affections are
still bent towards it. — Ibid.
[3058] God keeps men from sin by special
and sanctifying grace. His grace is habitual
and exciting, and God by the one quickens and
stirs up the other, which else would lie sluggish
and dormant. Both concur to produce actual
grace as necessarily as there must be both the
concurrence of the heat of the sun and the life
of the root to the production of a flower. — Ibid.
[3059] Blind and feeble, we gratefully yield
ourselves to Thee, O Heavenly Father, to give
us light and strength, or, which is the same
thing, to hold our hand. Thou knowest what
is evil, when we do not ; and we humbly confide
in Thee. — Robinson.
(4) By reciifyiftg grace.
[3060] That if at any time temptation should
get the upper hand, and prevail over us to the
coinmission of sin, yet that God would not
leave us under the power of that sin, but raise
us up again by true repentance and godly
sorrow, that so at last we may be delivered from
the great and soul-damning evil of obduration
and impenitency. — Bp. Hopkins, 1 633-1 690.
[3061] Now as there are two things in sin
which make it so exceeding evil, the guilt of
it whereby it damns, and the filth of it whereby
it pollutes the soul : so God hath two ways to
deliver us from it. First, by removing the guilt
already contracted, which He doth in justifying
and pardoning the sinner. Secondly, by prevent-
ing us from falling into the filth and pollution
of it for the future. — Ibid.
[3062] Evil. Should we be led into temp-
tation, then, " Deliver us from evil."
Evil of sin, the greatest, because the cause of
all others. — I'aji Doren.
V. Modes (chiefy indirect) of Divine
Deliverance when Evil is regarded
AS Trials.
[3063] God, in various ways, answers this
petition, and delivers us from evil.
1. When, however much we are afflicted, we
are not weighed down by evils, but are enabled
to rise superior to them.
2. When we are surrounded by evil, and
God consoles us by His gracious presence, and
comforts " us in all our tribulations, that we
may be able to comfort them which are in any
trouble by the comfort wherewith we ourselves
are comforted of God :" and these consolations
of God are as numerous and varied as the evils
which befall us ; so that the Christian is able
to say with David, " In the multitude of my
thoughts within me Thy comforts delight my
soul."
3. We are delivered from evil when, after
we have suffered evil, God sends us those good
things which more than compensate us for any
sorrow which we have endured, and blots out
by present good the memory of those evils which
are past.
4. He delivers us from evil when the evil
itself is turned into good, and becomes the
means of blessing to us. Thus when St. Paul
besought God that the evil under which he
suffered might depart from him, instead of the
removal of the thorn in the flesh, we read —
" He said unto me, My grace is sufficient for
thee ; for my strength is made perfect in weak-
ness."
5. God delivers us from evil when the evil
itself is manifestly taken from us, or when that
which we fear is not allowed to approach us. —
Chrysostom.
VI. Mode of Divine Deliverance
VIEWED in regard TO THE SOURCE
of Temptation.
[3064] I. If the force and strength of a temp-
4So
3564—3075]
THE LORDS PRAYER.
[seventh petition.
tation be chiefly from the vehement, restless,
and incessant importunities of the evil spirit, ,
God often puts an issue to the temptation, by '
rebuking and commanding down the tempter |
himself. ]
2. If the force of a temptation be from the
weakness of a man's mind, rendering it unable !
of itself to withstand and bear up against the
assaults of the tempter, God oftentimes delivers
from it by mighty, inward, unaccountable sup-
plies of strength, conveyed to the soul im-
mediately from Himself.
3. If the force of a temptation springs chiefly
from the unhappy circumstances of a man's life,
continually exposing him to tempting objects
and occasions of sin, God frequently delivers
such an one by a providential change of the
whole course of his life and the circumstances
of his condition.
4. And lastly, if the force and strength of a
temptation be chiefly from the powerful sway
and solicitation of some unruly and corrupt
at'l'ection, God delivers from it by the over-
powering influence and operation of His Holy
Spirit, gradually weakening, and .'it length
totally subduing it. — South^ 1633-1 7 16.
VII. Extent of Divine Deliverance.
[3065] That God would not only deliver us
from gross and self-condemning impieties, but
from every evil way and work, and preserve us
blameless to the heavenly kingdom of His Son.
— Bp. Hopkins, 1 633-1 690.
[3066] That. He would be pleased not only to
deliver us from that which is in itself evil, but
from all the occasions and all the appearances
cf evil, for these also are evil, if not in effect,
yet in tendency. — Ibid.
VIII.
The Necessity of
FOR Deliverance.
Tins Prayer
I On account of the deadly influence and
vitality of indwelling sin.
[3067] Unless we have a right sense of the
power of evil, sin that dwelleth in us, we soon
drift away from the true attitude of suppliants
and the place of children. — C. A'.
[3068] Take from this world all that sin has
wrought, and you will have a world fairer than
your imagination, though not than God's pur-
pose, can conceive. No doubt we inherit a
troop of evils, and fall heirs to the ills that men j
have been aggravating from the first, but there
is that in eacli one of us which, if we be not de- |
livcred from it, will turn the happiest and most
faultless inheritance into sorrow and confusion.
Our evil dispositions do not show all their
deadly influence now, only because what they
would do is done already. They do not destroy
the world, because the woild is already destroyed.
— Dods.
[3069] When, in the course of our fight with
sin, we are in the very act of exulting over some
great victory, it shoots us down again, and we
are gnashing our teeth in the dust. When it
seems to sink in one part of our nature, it seems
to rise in another. As we felt the first bliss of
forgiveness, we almost thought that we had done
with it for ever, and that Christ would make it
as easy to be holy as it is to breathe. We felt
ready to borrow the exclamation, " O my soul
thou hast trodden down strength." I5ut sin
seems to be strongest when it has had its death
blow. The eagle when down strikes at you with
a beak like a bolt of iron, and may flap you dead
with its wing. The red deer when down may
fell you with its antlers. The dying horse may,
in trie plun'.;e of its agony, break a man's limb.
A harpooned whale may dash a boat over. Sin
is like that. Speared through by its conqueror,
it may grasp us in its last convulsions, and seem
to be stronger dying than living ; but we shall
soon spring out from it, and cry, " Deliverance !"
— Statiford.
2 On account of the unalterable and seduc-
tive influence of the world.
[3070] The world has not changed to suit our
condition. We would not now sin as once we
did, but the world will still be as pressing in its
offers of easy helps to sin as ever it was. — Dods.
[3071] The world is called evil (Gal. i. 3,4).
I. Its amusements are evil. 2. Its society
(Rom. xii. 2). 2. Its riches (i Tim. vi. 9, 10;
Prov. xxviii. 20). 4. Its dress (Matt. vi. 25-32 ;
I Tim. ii. 9, lo). 5. Its communications. —
H or lock {of Box).
3 On account of the subtle powers of evil
banded against us.
[3072] " Deliver us from the evil one." Put
forth Thy Almighty power for my rescue in the
unequal struggle with leagued and banded
spirits of wickedness. The very air is peopled
with them. By night and by day they find
access. Every unguarded point in my armour
is perceived and made advantage of. A wily
and experienced foe watches my going out and
my coming in, my lying down and m_\- rising
up. — Dean VaicgJian.
[3073] " Where the devil cannot come, he
will send," shows the pe/ietrative character of
temptation ; the certainty that it will find men
out in the most secret retreats. No outward
arrangements, cloistral retirements, flights into
the wilderness, can keep sin at a distance.
Temptation will assuredly overleap all such
barriers. The enemy is formidable, eininus as
well as comiiius. — Trench.
4 On account cf the degradation of being
the slaves of the evil one.
[3074] To be kept from the evil of sin is a
greater mercy than to be kept from the trouble
of temptation. — T. Maiiton, 1629-1677.
[3075] I rememlper to have read a story of one
Gunno, king of the Danes, that having over-
THE LORD S PRAYER.
481
3705—3803]
[seventh petition.
corne a people, he set a dog over them to be
their governor : that is, he would have his com-
mands to go out under the name of the dog
and they should be under the government of
the dog; this he did in disdain and indignation
against those people he overcame. Much more
debasement is it for a soul to be under com-
mand of the devil. — Jeremiah Btirroiighs.
IX. Frames of Mind as reflected in
THE VERY FACT OF SEEKING DELIVER-
ANCE.
1 A spirit of self-distrust and of trust in
God.
[3076] When we say, "Lead us not," we seem
to doubt God ; but when we say, " Deliver us,"
we show our trust in God. When we say,
" Lead us not," it implies we are fearful ; but
when we say, " Deliver us," it implies we are
confident. And how should this variation come
to happen ? In the first, we look upon ourselves
and can see nothing but weakness, and there-
fore can see nothing but doubtfulness and fear ;
but in the second we look upon God, and can
see nothing but goodness, and therefore can
feel nothing but hope and confidence. In the
first we consider the great hate and power of
the devil over us, and this makes us fearful.
In the second we consider the great love of
Ciod to us and his great power over the devil,
and this makes us confident. In the first we
consider the law and what is threatened to
transgressors, and have cause to fear. In the
second we consider the gospel and what is
promised to believers, and have cause to hope.
Thus the law sends us to Christ. — Sir Richard
Baker, 1 568-1645.
2 A sense of helplessness.
[3077] This petition tells us that we are bound
and tied by various evils ; that we are unable to
extricate ourselves from the various forms of
suffering and of woe, and need the hand of God
to rid us of those evils which encompass us on
all sides. — Coster.
[3078] This prayer, to be delivered from evil,
is a cry to " the stronger than the strong " for
help in an unequal contest ; to the " Advocate
with the Father " for His interposition on our
behalf; to the "Good Shepherd" to deliver His
sheep from the teeth of the destroyer, and to
save them to the uttermost, both of peril and of
need. — F. B. Proctor.
[3079] I. Because we cannot deliver our-
selves (John vi. 44-2). Because God is the only
Deliverer. — Horlock [of Box).
3 A sense of ignorance.
[3080] Plato, seeing the ignorance of men in
presenting their desires to God, desires which,
if granted, would often be most injurious to
them, declares the best form of prayer to be
that which an ancient poet has furnished — " O
King Jupiter, give what is best, whether we wish
it or wish it not ; but avert from us what is evil,
even though we ask it." — Karslake.
X. PrE-REQUISITES to rightly OFFER UP
THIS Petition.
1 Personal experience of the antagonism of
sin and the awful possibility of falling.
[3081] In proportion as any one has striven
to be like his great Ensample, holy, harmless,
undefiled, in that proportion will he realize the
intensity of the struggle, the anguish of the
antipathy which pervades a nobler nature when
it has been dragged into even apparent prox-
imity to the possibilities of evil. — Farrar.
2 Honesty of purpose to struggle against
sin in all its forms.
[3082] And who, brethren, can pray this
prayer with a good conscience r Not he who
trifles with evil. Not he who "runs" into
danger. Not he who can tranquilize a false
heart by praying for protection, and then
thrust himself upon the place or the com-
panionship or the meditation which he has
a thousand times found to be the threshhold
and the vestibule of sinning. Not he, certainly,
who here intercedes for his brother, " Lead us
. . . deliver us ... " and goes forth to weaken
his decision for good, or to overbear and over-
power it for evil. —Dean Vaui^ha7i.
3 The actual abandonment of sin, in mea-
sure at least.
[3083] The love of sin is pretty well broken
within us, if we can use this petition always and
fully ; if, considering the persons we shall this
day meet, the things that may be said to us,
the gratifying offers that may be made to us,
the opportunities of pleasure or advancement
that may occur, we can yet say, " Rather let me
meet none of these than that they should so
much as tempt me to evil." Happy indeed is
the man who, in the fulness and depth of this
petition, can say, " I this day wish to be far
from everything which will nourish evil within
me, and 1 desire the presence of such things
only as will mature a Christian disposition. —
Dods.
VOL. I.
THE LORDS PRAYER.
THE DOXOLOGY.
Pages 483 to 487.
A. Introductory Remarks.
I
ITS STRUCTURAL CHARACTER.
2
ITS ORIGIN.
3
THEORIES AS TO THE METHOD BY WHICH IT CREPT INTO THE TEXT.
4
ITS RELATION TO CHRISTIAN LITURGIES.
5
ITS ANGLICAN USE.
B. Treatment of the Separate Words,
6
FORCE AND IMPORT OF THE CONNECTING PARTICLE "FOR."
7
IMPORT OF THE WORDS "THE KINGDO:\I."
8
IMPORT OF THE WORDS "THE POWER."
9
LESSON TAUGHT BY THE WORDS "THE POWER" FOLLOWING, AND NOT
PRECEDING, THAT OF "THE KINGDOM."
10
IMPORT OF THE WORDS " THE GLORY."
II
IMPORT OF THE PHRASE "FOR EVER."
12
IMPORT OF THE WORD "AMEN."
13
LITURGICAL USES OF THE WORD " AMEN."
14
CONSIDERATIONS WHY WE SHOULD NOT PASS LIGHTLY OVER, BUT EARNESTLY
UTTER, THE WORD "AMEN."
15
THE FRAME OF MIND OF WHICH THE WORD "AMEN" IS INDICATIVE.
16
LESSONS TAUGHT BY THE WORD "AMEN."
C. Concluding Remarks.
17
IMPORT OF THE DOXOLOGY VIEWED AS A WHOLE.
18
PRE-REQUISITE AND ACCOMPANYING FR.\ME OF MIND IN REGARD TO DAILY
DUTIES OF LIFE FOR ITS RIGHT USE.
48 2
483
THE LORD'S PRAYER
{Continued).
10
THE D 0X0 LOGY.
" For Thine is the kingdom^ the power, and the
glory, for ever and ever. A men '' {omitted in
R. V. ill at t. vi. 13).
I. Its Structural Character.
1 It harmonizes with the preface and the
body of the prayer.
[3084] In the beginning of this Prayer our
Saviour teacheth us to strengthen our faith in
the mercy of God, by teaching us to call Him
Father, and in the power of God by teaching
us to call Him our Heavenly Father ; that under
both these considerations we may look upon
Almighty God in the entrance into our prayers ;
and, because our thoughts are easily taken oft'
from these considerations, and, like Moses' arm,
our faith soon declines, and our light soon burns
out, and because there is an equal necessity of
intention of spirit, as well in our last request as
in our first, our Saviour teacheth us to remind
those considerations that may support and for-
tify our souls in the close of the prayer as well
as in the beginning ; that so the consideration
of Almighty God, His power and goodness, who
is the Beginning and the End, the First and the
Last, may be also the beginning and the end, as
of our prayers, so of all our services. — Sir Jlf.
Hale.
[3085] As the commencement of the prayer
expresses the Unity, so the conclusion the three
Persons of the Godhead. It is the kingdom of
Christ which is now come ; in the power of the
Holy Ghost ; and to the glory of God the Father.
■ — Williams.
[3086] And first we ascribe to God all domi-
nion, in the words, " For Thine is the kingdom,"
which carry us back to the thoughts suggested
by the second petition, " Thy kingdom come." —
Kar slake.
2 It forms a natural climax to the ascend-
ing scale observable in the whole prayer.
[3087] For the three first petitions seem
chiefly referred to the honour of God, in whom
all His attributes are equal; and therefore in
them we go, as I may say, upon even ground.
We can find neither rising nor falling in them ;
we seem to see nothing that carries any higher
than the earth, or that carries any longer than
this life (and therefore that clause, " In earth as
it is in heaven," though it be expressed only in
the third petition, yet it is by many understood
also in the other two) : but in the three latter,
which are referred to our own benefit, we seem
to be climbing up Jacob's ladder, for at every
petition we take a step higher. In the first, we
begin very low, and ask, as Jacob did, but only
meat and raiment. In the second, we take a
step higher, and ask a pardon of our faults. In
the third, we go yet higher, and ask an absolute
protection from all dangers and deliverance
from all evil ; wherein we may be said to have
wrestled with the angel, and obtained a blessing,
for this is the highest step we can possibly at-
tain to in this mortal life. But how does this
step reach so high as Jacob's ladder, which reach-
eth up to heaven .'' Mark, therefore, O my soul,
for,havingbegun in humility, it seems as if Christ
should here say unto us, ''Friend, sit up higher ;"
for this step of our deliverance from evil seems
to deliver us to heaven, seeing it is contiguous,
and joins immediately to the first step we shall
take in heaven, when all tears shall be wiped
from our eyes, and they be made clear to behold
the blessed vision of God, which is the highest
step of all, and in which consists the sum and
siimmum of our eternal happiness. — Sir Richard
Baker, 1 568-1645.
II. Its Origin.
I Liturgical, not textual, on both critical
and historical grounds-
[3088] I shall not trouble you with a dispute
which is among the learned, whether these
words were put in by our Saviour Himself as a
part of this excellent prayer, or whether, being
a common conclusion of prayers in use in the
Jewish Church, as such they were added to this
prayer by the Church. It is certain there are
several eminent fathers who leave out this Dox-
ology, even where they expressly explain the
Lord's Prayer, and others of them put it in. St.
Luke leaves it out ; our Church sometimes puts
it in, and sometimes leaves it out in the Common
Prayer. But none will object to the usefulness
of it, and it has now for a long time, ever since
St. Chrysostom's days, at least, been used in the
Greek Church.— ^;/^. Hopkins, 1633-1690.
[3089] The doxology at the close of the Lord's
484
3089-3099:
rilE LORDS PRAYER.
[the doxoi.ogy.
Prayer is found in one of the three oldest and
most important manuscripts. In another it is
said to bear evidence of not having been writ-
ten by the original copyist. It is wanting in
the third. \Ve do not read it in the (Gospel
according to .St. Luke ; but in frequent instances
verses are absent in one evangelist which are
supplied in another. Of the fathers who wrote
on the Lord's Prayer, some make no mention of
the doxology. Cyprian remarks, " We conclude
by saying,* But deliver usfrom evil.' " — Robinson.
[3090] The doxology must on every prin-
ciple (^f sound criticism Ije omitted. Had it
formed part of the original text, it is absolutely
inconceivable that all the ancient authorities
should with one consent have omitted it. They
could have no reason for doing so ; whereas the
habit of terminating liturgical prayers with as-
criptions of praise would naturally suggest some
such ending, and make its insertion almost cer-
tain in course of time. — Alford.
[3091] As doxologies of this kind were much
in use among the Jews and early Christians,
there is great reason to suppose that it was in-
terpolated from the ancient liturgies, in which
we know it formed the response of the people,
the prayer alone being pronounced by the
priest. It is surely far more likely to have been
introduced from the liturgies, than to have been
removed from the passage, because of its not
being contained in the parallel one of St. Luke.
— Bloomjicld.
[3092] The closing doxology wanting here is
wanting also in all the best and most ancient
copies of St. iMatthew's Gospel. Perhaps our
Lord purposely left that part open ; and as the
grand Jewish doxologies passed immediately
into the Christian Church, probably this prayer
was never used in the Christian assemblies, but
in its present form, as we find it in St. Matthew,
while in St. Luke it has been allowed to stand
as originally uttered. — D. Brown,
III. Theoriks as to the Method by
WHICH it crept into THE TEXT.
[3093] It is supposed that, during public wor-
ship, in the simple liturgy used immediately
after the apostolic times, the elder or minister
having repeated the Lord's Prayer to the end of
the sixth petition, the people, educated to the
habit, as the Gloria Patri became subsequently
added to the Psalms, continued with united
voice, " For Thine is the kingdom, and the
power, and the glory, for ever. Amen." It is
further conjectured that, in making copies of the
Gospel according to St. Matthew, the tran-
scribers inserted it in ink of a different colour,
or, as in several manuscripts, wrote it in the
margin, regarding it as an inseparable adjunct,
until, as copies were multiplied, it was gradually
admitted, without any distinctive mark, into the
body of the text, and came to be viewed as an
integral portion of the Lord's Prayer. — AV/'///.VfV/.
IV. Its Relation to Christian Litur-
gies.
I It was the first of those supplements to the
Lord's Prayer out of which a liturgy gradu-
ally grew up.
[3094] " And He said unto them. When ye
pray, say." The conclusion is inevitable that
the Lord's Prayer is a form of devotion pre-
scribed by the Saviour for literal adoption and
use.
It was the only formula used by the new-born
church. The first appendage to it, as will be
subsequently explained, was the doxology, " For
Thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the
glory, for ever. Amen." Thus extended, it
seems to have sufficed for a time as the sole
consecration prayer in the service of the Holy
Communion. Gradually there flowed from it,
and were attached to it, not superseding it,
numerous sentences of devotion. — Robi?tson.
V. Its Anglican Use.
1 With discrimination in regard to the cha-
racter of the office where it occurs.
[3095] The doxology is used in our liturgy
not capriciously but usually with studied care.
In eucharistic parts it is added, in penitential
or supplicatory it is omitted.— C. N.
2 In harmony with its eucharistic principles
of Divine worship.
[3096] The doxology at the close is greatly
to be prized, as possessed by us alone among
Western churches. It also serves to impart to
this Divine summary of our worship, as the
general thanksgiving does to the office itself,
the dominant and pervading aspect of praise.—
Freeman,
VI. Force and Import of the Connect-
ing Particle "F\)R"(y«pi.
I In regard to the doxology as a whole.
[3097] The doxology or ascription of praise
is connected with the prayer by the word '' for,"
to signify that it is not because we are to be
benefited, but that God's name and perfections
may be manifested. — Barnes,
[3098] The doxology points out what should
be our motive in view at once in our living and
in our prayers ; and also our ground of confi-
dence that our prayers will be answered, and
we be enabled to live as we pray. — Karslake.
[3099] As an additional praise and thanks-
giving, which is always very fit to be joined
with prayer, q.ii., we humbly hope for a grant
of tiiese our petitions, when we reflect and con-
sider that "Thine is the kingdom," and that
Thou hast hitherto defended it against all the
attempts of Thine and our enemies, and that
Thine is " the power," and that whene\er Thou
hast been pleased to exert it, there is nothing
THE LORDS PRAYER.
3099— 31 12]
4«5
[the doxology.
too hard for Thee ; and that Thine is the glory,
z>., Thou hast always gained honour to Thy-
self by answers to prayer ; and as it has been so
in time past it will be so for ever and ever. —
J. Blair, 1723.
[3100] "Thine is the kingdom;" Thou hast
control over these things, and canst so order
them as to answer these petitions. "The
power ; " we are weak, but Thou art almighty,
and all things are possible with Thee. " The
glory," that is the honour, the praise, not om-
honour. But Thy glory, Thy goodness, will be
displayed in providing for our wants ; Thy
power in defending us ; Thy praise in causing
Thy kingdom to spread throughout the earth.—
Barnes.
[3101] The doxology teaches us the ground
on which the several petitions are made ;
namely, because the kingdom for the further-
ance of which we pray is God's ; because His
is the power to grant the mercies we ask for ;
and His the glory which springs from the hal-
lowing of His name, the extension of His king-
dom, and the performance of His will. — Ramsay.
[3102] All these attributes of God are annexed
to the petitions of this prayer by the illative
particle "for." And this carries in it the strength
and force of a reason, both why we pray unto
God, and likewise why God should grant us
those things that we pray for.
1. We pray unto God, for His is the "king-
dom," and the " power," and the " glory for
ever," and therefore He alone is able to relieve
and supply us.
2. We plead for the obtaining of those good
things which we ask of Him ; therefore grant
them unto us, "for Thine is the kingdom, and
the power, and the glory for ever." This adds
strong consolation and assurance to our faith,
that we shall be heard in these requests that
we present to God. — Bp. Hopkins, 1633-1690.
2 In regard to each word in the doxology.
[3103] I. His "is the kingdom," and we are
His subjects, and therefore we may depend
upon Him as our King for help and protection.
2. His "is the power." and therefore He is
able to supply and help us, and to do abundantly
for us above what we can ask or think.
3. His " is the glory," and therefore since
what we ask is for His honour and praise, we
may firmly believe our requests shall be granted
unto us. And,
4. All these are His " for ever," and therefore
we may rest assured that at no time our prayers
shall be in vain. — Ibid.
VII. Import of the Words "The King-
dom."
[3104] For Thine is the kingdom; here we
acknowledge God's absolute and universal
dominion. — J. Boyle.
[3105] Earthly princes have a kingdom, a
kingdom of power, and a certain glory in this
world, but it is not the kingdom which endureth
for ever and ever. — Bp. Andrews.
[3106] The Lord's property as here set forth.
The kingdom. (i) God's universal dominion
over all things. (2) The visible Church of
Christ. (3) I'he covenant state of the saints,
Rev. i. 6. (4) Future glory. — H or lock {of Box).
VIII. Import of the Words "The
Power."
[3107] For Thine is the power, which knows
of no limit, and which can admit of no inter-
ruption.— J. Boyle.
[3108] As His kingdom, or authority and
right, is absolute over all, so also is His power
or ability to do what He wills in that kingdom
infinite likewise. In earthly rulers we see these
two, the right and the power, separate at times ;
but in God alone they are both for ever and
entirely united in one. — Karslake.
[3109] God is powerful (i) in Himself, as
evidenced by the works of creation, redemption,
conversion, and preservation ; (2) through the
creature ; (3) through His forces — natural,
angelic, human. — H or lock {of Box).
IX. Lesson taught by the Words "The
Power" following, and not pre-
ceding, that of "The Kingdom."
[3 no] This order was probably chosen for
this reason, that it is not the Divine Omnipo-
tence in general that is meant, but the entire
prayer presupposes its application in the estab-
lishment of the kingdom of God. Hence the
doxology being, as it were, an assurance of the
certain fultilment of the prayer, declares very
appropriately, first, that the kingdom is the
object of God's desire, i.e., its realization is
willed by God : and connected with this is the
idea that He Himself completes it, and will
assuredly bring it to a consummation ; other-
wise it looks as if the power should have been
mentioned before the kingdom, as the more
general idea by the instrumentality of which the
kingdom is realized. — Olshausen.
X. Import OF the Words "The Glory."
[3 in] For Thine is the glory, which neither
time nor accident can diminish. — J. Boyle.
[3 II 2] The essential ^oxy of God is the col-
lection and system of those attributes which
eternally and immutably belong unto the Divine
nature.
The declarative glory of God is the manifes-
tation of those His attributes, so that His
creatures may take notice of them with praise
and veneration. Both are here intended by our
Saviour when He teacheth us to ascribe the
"Glory unto God."— i?/. Hopkins, 1633-1690.
486
3"
THE LORDS PRAYER.
-3122]
[the doxolcgy.
[31 13] The glory. God is glorious (1) in
Himself; (2) in His works; (3) in His attend-
ants, Isa. vi. ; (4'' in His residence. — Horlock,
of Box {condensed).
XI. Import of the Phrase "For Ever."
[31 14] And to this ascription of dominion,
and power, and glory to God, -we add the words
" For ever." The kingdoms of the world crumble
into decay, empire after empire rising and ful-
filling its destiny in the order of events, and
then passing away ; the glory of earthly mon-
archs and of the great men of the world shines
for its little day and then sets, and is at most
remembered only as a thing of the past ; the
mightiest energies of man, the most powerful
:igencies of nature, gradually lose their force ;
but in striking contrast is all that belongs to the
Most High. His power never fails ; His king-
dom lasts on through ages and ages thnt shall
never end ; His glory remains unchanged, the
same in the past, and the present, and for ever.
— Karslake.
XII. Import of the Word "Amen."
[3 1 1 5] "Amen" is a word of Hebrew origin,
from a word which signifies to be firm, secure,
true, and faithful. — Barnes.
[31 16] This word is met with in the Holy
Bible as a verb, meaning to trust, verify, be
firm, be faithful ; as an adjective, in the sense
of true and stable; and as a noun, signifying
truth, reliance, hrmness, constancy. It is a
title of Jesus Christ as the great Fountain and
Teacher of truth. " These things saith the
Amen, the faithful and true Witness." — Robinson.
XIII. LiTURGic.\L Uses of the Word
''Amen."
[31 17] As this particle "Amen" used in the
beginning of a speech is assertory of the un-
doubted truth of it, so when it is suljjoined and
used at the end of it is precatory, and signifies
our earnest desire to have our prayers heard,
and our petitions granted. — Bp. Hopkins, 1633-
1690.
[31 18] Amen must vary, obviously, with the
place in which it occurs in our services. Some-
times it stands at the end of a confession, and
then it means, "The sins which have been con-
fessed are my sins ; the pardon which has been
implored I also need and ask." Sometimes it
stands at the end of an absolution, and then it
means, "The release from condemnation and sin-
fulness here announced I also believe in and I
also claim." Sometimes it str.nds at the end of
the Lord's own prayer, and then it means, " I
too regard (iod as my Father ; desire that His
name. His kingdom. His will, may be hallowed,
be established," be done; look to Him for the
supply of my daily needs, the forgiveness of my
daily sins, the preservation of my soul fiom
temptation, and my life from evil." Sometimes
it stands at the end of an ascription of praise.
and then it means, " I too acknowledge God as
worthy of all adoration, as the alone Great, and
Good, and Holy." Sometimes it stands at the
end of a creed, and then it means, "This God,
this Saviour, this Holy Spirit, is my God : I
too am persuaded that He is, and is that He is."
Sometimes, most often, it stands at the end of a
prayer, properly so called, and then it means,
" That which the voice of another has read in my
hearing is the voice of my heart : I too need,
I too desire, I too ask, that which another has
asked for himself and for the congregation ; God
grant it, even this special gift, to me also, for
His Son's sake." — Dea7i Vaughan.
XIV. Considerations why we should
not pass lightly over, but
earnestly utter, the word
" Amen ! "
1 Its interesting association.
[3119] With this word did our Lord Jesus
Christ Himself introduce most of His most im-
pressive revelations. The phrase so constantly
recurring in His discourses, " Verily, verily, I
say unto you," is in the original language,
'■ Amen, Amen, I say unto you." ■ — Dean
VaiigJian.
2 Its catholicity.
[3120] In this one instance we pray or give
thanks, not only in the sense, but in the ver}'
sound and form, in which patriarchs and pro-
phets under the law, as well as apostles and
evangelists under the gospel, prayed and gave
thanks before us. We have not translated but
transferred their language into our own. The
Greek Church and the Latin, the French, the
German, and the English, every Church, so far
as we know, in which the name of Christ is
named, has adopted and naturalized this one
Hebrew utterance, and, so far as we know, this
one only. A sound which in itself would be un-
meaning in the tongue in which we were born,
has been invested by the piety of ages with a
force and a significance which belongs to few of
the sounds of that tongue itself. — Ibid.
3 Its prevailing power.
[3 1 21] He that says Amen, if he heartily
desire what the other perfunctorily and with his
lips only utters, not praying with his heart and
with the acceptabilities of a good life, the Anien
shall be more than all the prayer, and the peo-
ple shall prevail for themselves when the priest
could not. — Jeremy Taylor.
XV. The Frame of Mind of which the
Word "Amen" is Indicative.
[3122] The " Amen " at the,close is expressive
both of faith and praise.
1. Of praise, as signifying "so it is ;" that is,
"These things are indeed true of Thee."
2. And of faith, as signifying " so be it," or
" so shall it be ; " that is, " This I trust He will
do of Mis mercy aixl goodness, and therefore I
say. Amen, so be \\.."—Caiecftisfs Manual.
THE LORDS PRAYER,
487
3123— 3 1 29 J
[the doxology.
[3123] Amen (so let it be) is thus enlarged by
Bp. Ken : " For the sake, O heavenly Father,
of Thy Beloved, in whom all ' Thy promises are
Amen,' and who is Himself ' the Amen, the
faithful and true witness' of Thy love to us,
hear me, and pardon my wanderings and cold-
ness, and help me to sum up and enforce my
whole prayer, all my wants, and all the wants
of those I pray for, in a hearty, and fervent, and
comprehensive Amen."
[3124] This particle "Amen," therefore, sig-
nifies " certainly," " surely," " firmly," and is a
term expressing a solid soul-faith. It is as if
one should say, " I do not doubt, O Divine
Father, since these things are certain for which
I have prayed, that they will be done and ac-
complished ; not, however, because I have
poured out my prayer for these things, but be-
cause Thou hast commanded that they should
be prayed for, and hast promised that Thou
wilt bestow them. Therefore, I am certain that
Thou art true and canst not lie. And therefore,
also, it is not the worthiness of my prayer, but
the all-persuasion of Thy truth, that makes me
to believe, and to be persuaded beyond all
doubt, that all is, and will be, 'Amen.'" —
LiitJier.
XVI. Lessons taught by the Word
"Amen."
[3125] This teacheth us to put up all our
petitions, first, with understanding, duly weigh-
ing and considering what it is we ask of God.
Secondly, it teacheth us to present all our
requests to the throne of grace, with fervent
zeal and affection : "Amen" is a wing to our
prayers ; it is the bow that shoots them up to
heaven. — Bp. Hopkins, 1633-1690.
XVII. Import of the Doxology viewed
AS A WHOLE.
[3126] We have here God's sovereignty, om-
nipotence, excellency, and eternity. In ascrib-
ing to Him these attributes, we may consider,
(i) the eminency of them in the particle " the ;"
for His kingdom is that which ruleth over all ;
His power that which no created power can con-
trol ; His glory such as stains all other excel-
lences, and makes all their light and lustre to
be only the shadow of God. (2) The propriety
of them in the particle " thine." Though others
may have kingdoms, and power, and glory, yet
these in their eminency belong only unto God.
They are Thine originally, infinitely, and un-
changeably.— Ibid.
[3127] That is, for Thou hast a perpetual and
unmovable authority, whereby justly to dispose
of all things ; Thou hast an indefectible and
irresistible power, whereby Thou canst effect
whatever seems just and good to Thee ; where-
fore we profess only to rely upon and seek help
from Thee ; with hope and confidence we ad-
dress ourselves to Thee for the supply of all our
needs ; Thine is the glory ; all honour and
reverence, all love and thankfulness are due to
Thee ; therefore we render our adorations and
acknowledgments to Thee. Even so to Thee,
God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy
Ghost, be for ever ascribed all glory and praise.
Amen. — Barrow.
[3128] "O Lord God of our fathers, art not
Thou God in heaven .'' and rulest not Thou over
all the kingdoms of the heathen 1 and in Thine
hand is there not power and might, so that none
is able to withstand Thee ?" or again, "The Lord
hath prepared His throne in the heavens ; and
His kingdom ruleth over all (2 Chron. xx. 6 ;
Psa. ciii. 19). — Deition.
XVIII. PRE-REQUISITE AND ACCOMPANYING
Frame of Mind in regard to
Daily Duties of Life for its
Right Use.
[3129] I might go on and give you a thou-
sand instances more, but they all come alike to
this, that whensoever you fancy that you cannot
earn your daily bread without doing wrong your-
self, or leaving your children to do wrong, then
you do not believe that the kingdom, and power,
and glory of this earth on which you work is
your heavenly Father's. For if you did,
you would be certain that gains, large or
small, got by breaking the least of His com-
mandments, could never prosper you, but must
brmg a curse and a punishment with them ;
and you would be sure also that, because God
is your Father, and this earth and all herein
is His, He will feed you with food sufficient for
you, if you do but seek first His kingdom — that
is, try to keep His laws ; and seek first His
righteousness — that is, strive and pray day by
day to become righteous even as He is right-
eous. — Kingsley.
SECTION V.
MAN, AND HIS TRAITS OF CHARACTER;
BEING DESCRIPTIVE AND CLASSIFIED LISTS,
FORMING AN INTRODUCTION TO THE SUCCEEDING SECTIONS
ON THE SUBJECT,
TvoiOl aeavTov.
SECTION V.
MAN,
AND HIS TRAITS OF CHARACTER.
PAGE
FIRST PART.
MAN'S NATURE AND CONSTITUTION
493
SECOND TART.
LAWS BY WHICH MAN IS CONDITIONED..
499
THIRD PART.
VIRTUES, INCLUDING EXCELLENCES
501
FOURTH PART
VICES, INCLUDING FAULTS AND DEFECTS
510
490
491
MAN, AND HIS TRAITS OF CHARACTER.
TJie folloiviiig distinctions xvill prove Jiclpful hi the studying of the succeeding
classification : —
Feelings refer to emotional capacity or inner excitement of the mind viewed as an abstract or
purely mental state.
Emotions (Lat. cinovere^ to move forth) are the feelings, tending to manifest themselves by their
effect upon the body. They are the feelings externalizing themselves. The feelings may be com-
pared to the waters in the spring before it reaches the surface working their way upward, or in
hidden cavern ; while the emotions would be the stream as it follows downward to the river's bed.
Sensation is the impression produced upon the mind by the external world, whether material or
mental. It is feeling in its simplest and most elementary form. We are acted upon, and the
mind and will are not definitely active on our side. We are like a man struck, and who does not
know whence the blow comes.
Perception is the conscious reference of sensation to the cause which produced it. We are like
a man struck, but who can trace whence the blow came.
Sensibilities are the feelings viewed in regard to both physical and mental conditions. They
are the feelings of the soul acted upon and intensified by the nervous system, and refined and
rendered acute by iesthetic instincts as well as by intellectual endowments and accomplishments.
Virtues and vices have to do respecti\ely with RIGHT and WRONG, good and bad, true and false.
Vices are on either side, in moral things, of the boundary line of virtues. They are faults and
defects, negative in idea, but positive in reality. Virtues may be compared to fruit when it is
perfectly ripe, and vices to fruit either unripe and sour, or else over-ripe and rank.
The following summary of the nature and effects of virtues, if carefully kept in mind in the study
of moral philosophy, will be a useful guide, and prevent much confusion of thought.
1st. Virtues are qualities or actions, either in conformity with the principles of truth and justice,
benevolence and wisdom, or else connected with the right control of man's complex being.
2nd. Virtues are qualities or actions in accordance with the bye-laws of local standards,
political, domestic, and ecclesiastical, in so far as these do not contradict nor contravene the
higher and general laws of moral government.
3rd. Actions to be regarded as virtues must have the approval of the conscience.
4th. Actions to be virtues must be done from a right and pure motive.
5th. Virtues or right actions in their tendencies and effects will be found to be useful, profitable,
beneficial, and productive of the highest happiness.
6th. Virtues or right actions will be found to agree with man's intuitions and judgments, in so
far as man is true to himself and reaches his proper perfection.
7th. Virtues or right actions will be found to agree with the public opinion of society, of the State,
and of the Church, so far as these are permanent expressions or founded upon ultimate
principles.
There is no near cut, such as Hedonism or Eudeemonism, utilitarianism, sensationalism, or
intuitionism, to the discovery of moral standards. In fact, without outward revelation there can
be no fixed ethical principles or science, and without inward illumination there can be no love
or abiding loyalty to duty in its higher phases.
492
FIRST PART
MAN'S NATURE AND CONSTITUTION.
SYLLABUS.^
PAGE
A.— MAN'S IMATERIAL SIDE 493
1. The Five Senses.
(i) Those which more immediately refer to the Mind, [i]
(2} Those which more remotely refer, if at all, to the Mind. [2]
2. The Appetites.
(i) Those for the preservation of Man as an Individual. [3]
(2) Those for the preservation of Man viewed as a Social Being. [4]
B.— MAN'S MENTAL SIDE ... ... ... ... ... ... ... 493
1. The (Mental) Desires.
(i) As being linked with the Material. [5]
(2) As having a Mental or Intellectual side. [6]
(3) As having a Moral side. [7]
2. The Emotions.
A. The more simple Emotions —
(i) Of a r<^7^i'//z;/^nature. [8]
(2) Of an attractive nature. [9]
(3) Oi a. disturbing and u?tdrfined ■m.\.nrt. [10]
B. The more complex Emotions. [11]
3. The Passions.
(i) Of a. re/>elling- nature. [12]
(2) Of an attractive nature. [13]
4. The Affections and Sentient Attachments. [14]
5. The Intellectual Endowments.
(i) Consciousness. [15]
(2) Belief. [16]
(3) Understanding. [17]
(4) Reason.
a. Spontaneous and Common Sense. [iS]
d. Cultured and Scientific Sense. [19]
(5) Memory.
a. Passive side, viz., Retention. [20]
d. Active side, viz., Recollection. [21]
6. The Intellectual Accomplishmenis.
(i) Language.
a. Natural. [22]
l>. Artificial. [23]
(2) Wit. [24]
(3) Taste. [25]
7. The Faculty of Genius. [26]
(i) Origination, includuig Imagination and Fancy.
C— MAN'S MORAL SIDE ... ... ... ... ... ,„ ... 497
1. The Will. [27]
(i) Its Motive Power.
(2) Its relation to the Mind.
2. The Conscience, viewed as to— [28]
(1) The Mind.
(2) The Will.
(3) The Emotions.
' Numbers on right hand side of page, in brackets, reler to numbers so placed in the classification.
493
FIRST PART
MAN'S NATURE AND CONSTITUTION.
CLASSIFICA TION.
A.— MAN'S MATERIAL SIDE.'
1. THE FIVE SENSES.2 The Media between the soul and the external world.— The Avenues
to the soul. Namely —
A. THOSE WHICH MORE IMMEDIATELY REFER TO THE MIND, as [l]
Seeing (light, colour, signs of distance, form, &c.).
Hearing (loudness, softness, shrillness).
Touch (distinguishing between soft and rough, cold and heat).
B. THOSE WHICH MORE REMOTELY REFER, IF AT ALL, TO THE MIND, as [2]
Smelling (The distinguishing between the pleasant and offensive).
Tasting (The distinguishing between the sweet and acrid).
2. THE APPETITES. Restless, urgent cravings, after certain objects, without which the
bodily emotions cannot be satisfied — spurs to work with a view to
provide for absolute necessities.
Those —
A. FOR THE PRESERVATION OF MAN AS AN INDIVIDUAL. [3]
Hunger and 1 Centrifugal Forces,
rhn-st ) -' ^
B. FOR THE PRESERVATION OF MAN VIEWED AS A SOCIAL BEING. [4]
Sexual mstvnct—Cefttripetal Force.
B.— MAN'S MENTAL SIDE.
I. THE (MENTAL) DESIRES. Mental Appetites. Spurs to action with a view to human
progress and civilization.
Occasioned by the several conditions of the Nature and Constitution of Man —
A. As being linked with the material, hence [5]
The Desire of Possession (or, the affinity ot the Material).
B. As having a MENTAL (or intellectual) side, hence — [6]
The Desire of Society (or the affinity of Mind and Heart).
The Desire of Knowledge (or, the cravings of the Soul).
C. As having a MORAL side, hence — ■ [7]
The Desire of Liberty and Independence (or, the self-asserting nature of the Freedom
of the Human Will, as regards itselfj.
The Desire of Power and Superiority . (or, the self-asserting nature of the Freedom
of the Human Will, as regards others).
The Desire of Praise (or, on its higher side, the effect of Con-
science, and, on its lower, the desire of
Society).
2. THE EMOTIONS. Conditions of excitement tending to action — the Tides and Currents, or
the Counter-Tides and Counter-Currents of the Soul, by which the Soul's
equilibrium is disturbed and its course affected.
Namely —
A. THE MORE SIMPLE EMOTIONS, those
(i) Of a repelling xvaX.\xxQ, as — [8]
^The effects of an outrage committed
a. Pain and its usual complement . . - against the laws and constitutions of the
(human mechanism.
I The effect of realizing the cause of our
^ Qi-ief I pain soas to allow the loss of the pleasure
1 sustained by it to become a weight pre-
i venting the mind rising to its normal level.
' Comprises those various characteristics and endowments which are of an intermediate class, where mind and
matter touch.
2 If we were regarding man from a purely physical and not physico-mental point of view, " General Sensibility"
would have preceded the Five Senses ; " bleep," " Exercise," and " Repose " have been included in the Appetites ;
and "Speech " {see " Language") and also "Instinct '' would have come into this group.
494
man''s nature and constitution.
(2) Of an attractive nature, as — [9]
a. Pleasure, and its usual complement
b. Joy
/The effect produced by the realization of
our wants being supplied and evils re-
-< moved, wholly or approximately, up to
I the standard of our anticipations, aspira-
' tions, and gratifications.
/The effect of the mind so regaling itself
J in the sense of the pleasure received so
j as to feel that it has been lifted above its
i normal level.
(3) Of a disti/rtufigand. undcifincd n^ime.
as— [10]
IThe sense of uneasinesss and unrest
produced upon the mind by causes, in-
ternal or external, which persistently
challenge and provoke either by way of
disturbing its repose, or intensifying its
wonted activity.
The effect produced upon the mind by
an event happening in a manner contrary
Surprise' -^ to ordinary laws and currents of tnoughts,
so as momentarily to paralyze the faculty
Vof identification.
B. The more complex emotions^ — [11]
Namely— Occasioned by
(i) Attachment A sense of pleasure J arising from the discovery and reali-
(A desire of union.) (zation of identities and affinities.
(2) Aversion A sense of pain and arising from the perception and
(A desire of severance.) grief -j realization of antipathies and anta-
.gonistic influences.
(3) Fear. A sense (or rather ap-
(A recoil from anticipated prehension) of grief
evil.)
(4) Hope A sense of probable
(An expectation of future pleasure and joy. .
good.)
(5) Sorrow A sense of grief . .
(The permeating of grief
I arising from the perception of im-
"( pending evil.
(arising in the belief in anticipated
'(good.
mto the whole being of
man.)
(6) Mirth A sense of joyous ir-
(Venting the buoyancy of ritation or surprise .
the spirits, as, for example,
manifested in youthful
sportiveness.)
(7) Suspense The combined sense
(The sense of uncertainty of fear and hope .
concerning the foothold for
the present, and concerning
its character in the future.)
(8) Curiosity 3 The sense of pleasure
(The desire to gratify the
natural craving for know-
ledge without regard to the
means by which it is ob-
tained.)
(9) Prides The sense of pleasure
(The desire to excel for
selfish objects.)
(arising from reflecting upon the
causes, and attending circum-
stances, of our trials and losses as
irremediable.
(arising from the appreciation of
those things which affect sanguine
and buoyant {i.e., the youthful)
temperament.
/arising from inability to discern the
angle of vision from which to see
-j things clearly, so as to set our
j minds at rest concerning them as
Ithey affect the present or the future,
/arising from the hope of gratifying
J the mere desire of acquiring know-
1 ledge without regard to its right or
(higher uses.
(arising from taking an exaggerated
\ estimate of the deference in some
(degree due to ourselves.
' Both irritation and surprise are capable of being analysed. Surprise, for instance, is (i) broach of expecta-
tion and (2) shock of contradiction ; but both of these emotions are less complex than those given in the next group.
Hence the division— not of simple and complex, but of the more simple and of the more complex, has been adopted.
' Nos. I, 4, 6, 8, 12 are of an attractive nature,
a repelling ,,
a conflicting
,, 2, 3, 5, 10, 13
.. 7. 9- II .. a conflicting ,, (z.*"., attractive and repelling).
^ Curiosity and pride may have also a good side. The former, then, would be the desire of knowledge ; the
latter, the sense of self-respect and superiority.
MAN S NATURE AND CONSTITUTION.
495
(lo) Shame '
(The recoil of the soul,
darkened by guilt, from the
glare of truth upon it, mak-
ing the darkness visible and
felt, and so intensifying the
light, and rendering it in-
tolerable.)
(ii) Pity
(The approach of the
sensitive side of our nature
toward the sufferer, caused
by our sense of his suffering,
without necessarilyinvolving
the admixture of affection.)
(12) Admiration
(The homage rendered
by our moral and aesthetic
nature to moral and aesthetic
excellence.)
(13) Envy
(Grudging theenjoyments
of moral or material posses-
sions by others, through a
lack of benevolence or
otherwise.)
The sense of pain
The sense of pain .
The sense of pleasure
The sense of pain
and uneasiness . .
/arising from the consciousness of
something done or left undone,
-^ which, if exposed, would bring upon
j us merited or even unmerited con-
Uempt, or self-reproach.
/■arising from the effects of distress
■{ without necessarily involving sym-
ipathy with the sufferer.
[arising from the inspiring effects of
■j superiority or excellence in pro-
(duction in others.
'arising from hostile contemplation
j^of the good fortune of others.
3. THE PASSIONS. The intensified emotions, i.e.,
Those-
Of a REPELLING nature, as
(i) Anger and hatred . .
[12]
. Active
(2) Terror Passive
Of an ATTRACTIVE nature, as [13]
(both Passive
and Active
those emotions excited by sotne specific
object in regard to which they are directed
and excited. The volcanic convulsions
of the soul.
In which you repel— the drawing of the
dagger.
In which you are repelled — the dagger
thrust at the breast.
The magnetic influence of the loadstone
drawing us to itself.
The rowing in spite of wind and tide,
storm and tempest, rocks and shoals, to
the Delectable Isle.
4. THE AFFECTIONS AND SENTIENT ATTACHMENTS. [14] The settled and quiet
attraction of love towards some particular
object with which we are in some way
Namel)' — connected — the tie of Love.
(i) Natural Affection That which is accidental, belonging to
our original environments, and indepen-
dent of our choice.
(2) Acquired Affection That which is a matter of choice. The
landing upon the Delectable Isle, tying
up our boat, exploring the country, and
quietly enjoying its beauties.
5. THE INTELLECTUAL ENDOWMENTS
Namely —
I. Consciousness [15]
The instruments by which we arrive at
the knowledge of the world (material or
spiritual) external to ourselves.
The knowledge which the mind has of
itself, and of the facts of its own experi-
ence—the accompaniment and " the
echo" of all our faculties. It is the very
keystone of the philosophy of mind.
The primary aspect of shame is here taken, shame as connected with guilt.
496 man's nature and constitution.
2. Belief' "The recognition of the reality of an
object which is neither present in con-
sciousness nor discovered by the senses."
3. Understandino. [17]
Its elements being the capacity of —
apprehension The realization of the external, and thus
introducing a picture into the studio of
the Mind. Ideas.
ADJUSTMENT The placing the picture in any position,
and at any angle, for the purpose of ex-
amination. Comparison of ideas.
INVESTIGATION The examining the picture in all its de-
tails. Scrutiny.
COMPREHENSION- The seeing the picture definitely — z>., as
a whole. Grasping the subject.
4. Reason—
Its elements being —
(i) The capacity of SPONTANEOUS and COMMON SENSE, and may be viewed — [18]
a. As to its APPLIANCES, viz.,
{a) Those intuitive powers which are found in every sound and well-balanced mind.
b. As to its EXERCISES, viz.,
[a) The forming a correct judgment upon objects in regard to X\\t\r general character
and purpose.
(2) The capacity of CULTURED and SCIENTIFIC SENSE, and may be viewed — [19]
a. As to its APPLIANCES, viz.,
{a) Common Sense enlarged in its powers by Logic, Mathematics, Philosophy, or
Technical Education.
b. As to its EXERCISES — Comparison, Analysis, Judgment, or in more detail, viz.,
{a) The dividing the objects in the mental storehouse into their constituent elements
or component parts.
{b) The discerning the character and relations of the several parts thus divided.
(6") The forming a complete and adequate judgment upon the objects (as a whole),
especially with reference to the laws and principles by which they are governed,
and with due regard to their proper order, relative importance, and specific ends.
5. Memory, viewed in regard to— Mind as a storehouse.
(1) Its Passive side, viz., [20]
a. Retention,3 which is dependent upon —
{a) The sensitiveness of the mind, and The mind may be compared to the sensi-
interest in the subject. tive plate of the photographer.
{b) The intensity with which the facts The more striking the event, the deeper
are presented. the event. Every one remembers an
earthquake.
(2) Its Active side, viz., [21]
a. Recollection, which is dependent upon — Recollection is collecting again what is
scattered.
{a) The degree of the intensity with which the facts were first presented, and the
interest in them.
{b) The method with which the received impressions have been stowed away with a
design for ready reference in the classified cabinet of the mind.
{c) The association of ideas or the recurrence of associated circumstances.
6. THE INTELLECTUAL ACCOMPLISHMENTS. Those gifts, partly natural and partly
acquired, which have to do with artistic
combinations and aesthetic elements.
I. Language Expression of thought, feeling, and pur-
pose, whether spoken or written. The
ends of language are (i) to make known
one's thoughts or ideas to another with
ease and quickness ; (2) to convey and
increase the knowledge of things. {See
Locke, " Essay on Human Understand-
ing," vol. iii. ch. 10, and Mons. Duval-
Jouve, " Logic," p. 201.)
» The mind's assent to the truth of a proposition is the secondary meaning of belief, but is rather a habit or
frame of mind than an endowment.
» Comprehension includes what is often termed abstraction, generalization, and conception.
3 Repetition, associations of similarity and contrast and incongruity, and concentration of mind, as attention, &c.,
though useful as mechanical aids, are no part of memory itself.
MAN S NATURE AND CONSTITUTION. 497
(i) Natural. [22]
Absolute, i.e Cries and gestures.
Conventional, i.e Speech, music.
(2) Artificial. [23]
Absolute, i.c Painting, sculpture.
Conventional,/.^ Emblems, telegraphic signs,hierOglyphics,
and writings.
2. Wit, including — [24] Congruous incongruity coupled with in-
tuitive felicity, so as to produce an electric
and pleasing eftect.
(i) Humour, with reference to sentiments or It runs in the vein of a man's nature, and
things. though apparently capricious, like the
wind in its course, is still under control,
and governed by subtle laws of its own
good nature.
(2) Satire of all kind, viz., direct or indirect, \Vit tripping up his opponent. Saying
simple or assisted by heart. what is not meant, but which is under-
stood in a sense not said.
3. Taste [25], and may be viewed as to — The sense of, or the extempore judgment,
in regard to the beautiful or the pictur-
esque ; that is, the beautiful associated
in the mind with art. ^Esthetic culture.
(i) Its Exercises, viz.,
a. The power to appreciate the good and the
true in, or with a view to, their combi-
nation.
b. The power to harmonize the good and the
true, and to discern such harmony where
it exists.
c. Instructive discernment in art and man-
ners or the fitness of things.
7. THE FACULTY OF GENIUS. [26] The man of genius is one who does not
obtain his excellence by dint merely of
labour, but by an endowment distinctly per-
sonal, and his superiority may be regarded
as steam power versus horse power.
I. The capacity of ORIGINATION, viz., 'I'o discern a want, and to supply the
means to meet it, or else giving life to
new ideas, or breathing new life mto old.
(i) Fancy' The imaging through the Feelings —
through likes and dislikes.
(2) Imagination' ' The imaging through the Intellect— \\\^
mind soaring, piercing, penetrating —
creative and constructive.
C— MAN'S MORAL SIDE.
I. Its MOTIVE POWER. [27]
THE WILL. The power of self-determination. The turning of the wheel at the helm of
man's being. " The essential character-
istic of volition consists in the conscious-
ness of a power of choosing between two
alternative determinations." — Mansel.
The result of some active influence, direct
or indirect, external or internal.
Its EXERCISES—
(i) It Starts and keeps the mind going.
(2) It fixes the mind to the object to be studied.
(3) It enables the mind to bring up from the treasure-house of the memory facts material
to the case, as well as to use, as required, its proper faculties and capacities.
(4) It removes intercepting thoughts and clears generally the mental atmosphere.
(5) It stirs the mind to exert and to concentrate its full power on the subject under
consideration.
(6) It is the self-regulating power of the whole man, constituting his moral agency.
In their ordinary form rank as a species of intellectual endowment.
32
49^ MAN^S NATURE AND CONSTITUTION.
2. THE CONSCIENCE [28], and may be viewed as It is what a man knows in himself or
to — with himself. Man's Arbitrator, Regu-
lator, Prosecutor for the Crown, and
Judge, all in one.
N.B. — Conscience as to the Moral
Faculty tells us that there is such a thing
as right and wrong, enables us, by the aid
of the mind, to discern between these, and
so suggests that there must be a Moral
Standard, Lawgiver, and a Judge.
1. The Mind, since
(i) Conscience works through the aid of the mind to determine right and wrong according
to the standard possessed.
2. The Will, since
(i) Conscience authoritatively announces to the will, its decisions to be carried out
3. 7 he Emotions, since
(i) According as its decisions are obeyed or disobeyed. Conscience works throughout the
whole consciousness of man pleasurable or painful effects, satisfaction or dissatisfaction,
peace or remorse.
N.B. — It maybe noted that the faculties "are not distinct entities, but modes of operation of
the conscious mind. The whole mind thinks, the whole mind feels, the whole mind wills." They
are the distinct phases of the one Mind or Man.
499
SECOND PART.
LAWS BY WHICH MAN IS CONDITIONED.
SYLLABUS.
PAGE
^.—PHYSICAL LAWS 499
1. Hereditary Tendencies, [i]
2. Distinctive Organization. [2]
3. Temperament. [3]
4. Animal Spirits. [4]
500
B.— METAPHYSICAL LAWS
1. Impressibility. [5]
2. Habit. [6]
3. Reaction. [7]
C— MORAL OR IDEAL LAWS (Purely) 500
1. Light of Nature. [8]
2. Political, Social, and strictly Ethical Codes. [9]
D.— REVEALED LAWS
1. Supernatural Revelation. [10]
2. Divine Grace. [11]
500
CLA SSIFLCA TION.
A.— PHYSICAL -LK^NS,.
1. HEREDITARY TENDENCIES, [i] . We derive from our parents, or even remote
ancestors, not only material organization, but
mental and moral qualities and opinions.
2. DISTINCTIVE ORGANIZATION. [2] There is a peculiarity of texture and tempera-
ment, and vital fluid and gaseous substances,
in every human being, which indirectly affects
his mental and moral being.
(i) Physical Health or disease, perfection or imperfection,
of bodily members or organs influences our
lives.
(2) Physico-MENTAL The nature and extent of our knowledge is
determined by nature, range, and conditions
of our cognitive powers. In knowing, we
know not the thing itself, but the thing as
related to our faculties and capacities. This
is termed the Relativity of human knowledge.
3. THE TEMPERAMENT. [3] Is apart of personal identity, can be modified,
but not essentially changed. Temperament
in different persons is like the variation in the
colour which exists in such plants as the
dahlias. Temper, on the other hand, is a very
variable state, and changes in the same person
several times in the course of the day, like
the flowers of the common pink phlox, which
early in the morning have a light blue colour,
and alter as the sun advances and becomes
quite pink.
(l) The Phlegmatic Due to the abundance of fatty matter. The
statics of temperament. Persons of such
temperament require extraneous powers con-
stantly to be exerted to augment their natural
leverage. They want spurs.
500
LAH'S BV WHICH MAN IS CONDITIONED.
(2) The Sanguine Due to the velocity of the flow of blood. The
dynamics of temperament. Persons of such
temperament require an extraneous power to
be exerted for restraint and discipline. They
want reins.
(3) The Choleric Passionate, feeling strongly, acting with
vigour. They want a brake.
(4) The Bilious and Melancholic . This is the disposition to eliminate the
brighter elements from the lot of life. Per-
sons of such temperament magnify the evil
and diminish the good, making the bright
dark and the dark very dark, and refuse to
see the silver lining in the cloud. They espe-
cially need the ''kindly light "of religious hope.
. . A species of the melancholic temperament.
This temperament arises from poisonous
sediments in the saccharine matter of the
constitution. Persons of such temperament
convert the sweet into the acid, and have a
predisposition to mental aberrations. They
need mental correction of bodily tendencies.
. . Such are overborne by the hyper-sensitive-
ness of their highly strung nervous system.
They need tonics, bracing up, as astringents.
. . These are the vibrations of the tightly strung
cords of the constitution ; they are the
reasoning elements of life, like the salt to
food. They are preserved by culture, purity,
and noble aspirations.
(5) The Lymphatic
(6) The Nervous
4. THE ANIMAL SPIRITS. [4]
B.-
-METAPHYSICAL LAWS.
I. IMPRESSIBILITY. [5] Effects are produced by the accidents attend-
(i) Early, or First Impressions
(2) Puhlic Opinion and Laws of Asso-
ciation
(3) The Spirit of the Age
2. HABIT. [6]
3. REACTION. [7]
mg our lives.
While we are in a passive state impressions
have been stamped upon us with moulding
effect upon our character and disposition.
The insinuating effect of the prevailing tide
of thought and feeling which insensibly
affects, like the washing of the waves upon
the rocks, and if not above the ground causes
the landslip.
This is but the outer circle of the circum-
ference of public opinion. It is frequently
the rush of a panic crowd, to be avoided by
stepping aside.
The compliance and submission to laws and
practices either of a free choice or imposed
upon the will.
This is the tendency of conduct after ten-
sion. If the contraction is not too violent as
to stop future tension, this is a healthy state.
Sometimes, however, reaction is simply wilful
contrariness.
C— MORAL OR IDEAL LAWS.
I. LIGHT OF NATURE. [8]
2. POLITICAL, SOCIAL, AND STRICTLY ETHICAL CODES OF THE DAY. [9]
-REVEALED LAWS.
1. SUPERNATURAL REVELATION. [10]
2. DIVINE GRACE. [11]
{Here we arrive at the rci^ion of TllEOLOGY.)
50I
THIRD PART.
VIRTUES, INCLUDING EXCELLENCES.
SYLLABUS.
A.— TRUTH ... „ ...''502
1. Generally.
2. In relation to Personal Character.
3. As SHOWN IN dealing WITH OTHERS.
4. Its Negative Aspects.
5. In regard TO THE Habits requisite to Fulfil Duty.
(i) As to Time.
(2) As to Manner.
B.— JUSTICE 503
1. Generally.
2. Specifically.
3. In regard to the Rights of Others.
(i) By Prerogative.
(2) By Equality or Generally.
4. In regard to the Merits of Others.
5. In regard to the Demerits of Others.
6. In regard to the Good Offices of Others.
C— WISDOM 504
1. Generally.
2. As shown in guarding against Hurtful Influences and Opposing Forces.
3. As shown in securing the Materl\l Resources and Comforts of Life.
4. As TO THE Habits requisite for training the Mental Endowments.
D.— BENEVOLENCE cqc
1. Generally.
(i) As to Inward Character.
(2) As to Outward PIxpression.
2. In CONNECTION WITH THE DISTRESS OF OTHERS.
(i) As to Inward Character.
(2) As to Outward Expression.
3. In CONNECTION WITH THE FAULTS OF OTHERS.
4. In connection with the Good Qualities of Others.
5. In regard to the doing Good to Others as related to us.
(i) Family Love.
(2) Social Love.
6. In regard to the Disposition requisite for doing Good to Others.
(i) As to their Inward Expression.
(2) As to their Outward Expression. '
E.— SELF-CONTROL ^c6
1. In regard to the Enthronement or Dethronement of'a Desire or Set cf
Desires (or both).
(i) Generally.
(2) As to the Means Employed.
2. In regard to the Enlisting the Passions (Love in Particular) on the side
OF THE Enthroned Desire or Set of Desires.
3. In regard to the Control of the Bodily Appetites.
4. In regard to the Control of the Emotion of Fear.
5. In regard to the Regulation and Healthy Development of the Emotion of
Hope through the Control of Fear.
(i) As to its Active Side.
(2) As to its Passive Side.
6. In regard to the Control of the Emotion of Pride.
(i) As to its Passive Side.
(2) As to its Active Side. '
7. In regard to the Control of the Animal Spirits (also Capacity for Wit, and other
exhilarating and disturbing elements).
8. In connection with the Right Development of the Taste, chiefly.
(i) In regard to dealing with Things.
{2) In regard to Conduct.
9. In regard to the Control of the (repelling) Passions, and all Elements
in us of a Discordant Temperament.
10. In regard to the Control of the Temper, chiefly.
502
INTRODUCTORY NOTE.
A.-TRUTH \
B.— JUSTICE/
C— WISDOM
D.— BENEVOLENCE
E. -SELF-CONTROL
'A/t'rt/ Virtues — i.e.^ Virtues which have reference chiefly to a
, standard of duty.
[Intellectual Virtues — i.e.^ Virtues which have reference chiefly
[to the reasoning and reflective powers of man.
' Ifistinctive Virtues — i.e.. Virtues which are dependent on
natural impulse or affection rather than on standards of duty
or on the reasoning faculties, and yet to be modified by such
I standards and faculties.
{Intermediate Virtues — i.e., Virtues which belong to that
region where the physical touches the mental and the mental
touches the physical, and which includes all the appetites,
[desires, passions, and other like elements of man's complex
nature which constantly act and re-act upon each other, and
Ineed regulation and self-adjustment.
CLASSIFICA TION
A.— TRUTH.
GENERALLY.
/Exact conformity of thought, word, and deed with the Real.
1. TRUTH . . .\ 1 The idea of Truth runs up into that of the Divine Law — an
2. TRUTHFULNESS]' ' ' * 1 ideal Standard. It is "the eye of reason" and the only possible
(basis of human happiness.
3. VERACITY The true representation of things.
IN RELATION TO PERSONAL CHARACTER.
4. RECTITUDE Absolute conformity to the rule of right in principle and prac-
tice. A Chinese copy : page answering to page, line to line,
dot to dot, as in Bagster's editions of the Bible.
5. UPRIGHTNESS .... Fulfilling obligations from right principles.
6. INTEGRITY Fulfilling one's obligations from a high Standard of self-respect.
7. PRoniTY Fulfilling one's obligations from a sense of honour and duty.
8. CONSCIENTIOUSNESS . . Fulfilling one's obligations according to the dictates of con-
science.
9. HONOURABLE Action animated by a just and proper aim, or intentions.
10. GENUINENESS .... Real to the standard in question, and noble.
11. CONSISTENCY .... Unchangeableness (in principle) of conduct.
12. CONSTANCY Continuity in conduct. The northern star.
AS SHOWN IN DEALING WITH OTHERS.
13. FAITHFULNESS .... Fulfilling obligations not merely to the letter but to the spirit.
14. GOOD FAITH To act faithfully to the extent of confidence pledged Or engaged.
15. TRUSTWORTHINESS. . . Proved fidelity.
16. CANDOUR Openness of conduct with moral effort.
17. FRANKNESS Natural openness of conduct. Saying what you mean, and
meaning what you say.
18. .STRAIGHTFORWARDNESS . Unrestrained frankness of character.
19. INCORRUPTIBILITY . . . Proof against debasing overtures. Not to be bribed or seduced.
, ITS NEGATIVE ASPECTS.
20. NATURALNESS .... Conformity to nature, truth, or reality.
21. TRANSPARENCY .... Using no arts to hide one's motives. Human glass beehives.
Open and above-board.
22. INNOCENCE Freedom from guilt. " Is like polished armour ; it adorns and
defends." A virtue of youth.
23. GUILELESSNESS .... Freedom from dissembling. A virtue of riper years.
24. SIMPLICITY Freedom from duplicity. The expression of truth. A virtue
of youth.
&
' See Sectional Index p. 534, and General Index at the end of last volume. See also Introductory Note, p. 491.
503
5- IN REGARD TO TH-E HABITS REQUISITE TO FULFIL DUTY.
(i) As to Time, namely,
Losing no time, keeping close to the work to fulfil one's duty.
Readiness for practical purposes.
Acting with celerity.
Scrupulous regard to time.
25. DILIGENCE . . .
26. PROMPTNESS . . .
27. EXPEDITIOUSNESS .
28. PUNCTUALITY . .
(2) As to Manner,' namel
29. ACCURACY ....
30. CORRECTNESS . .
31. EXACTNESS . . .
32. PRECISION ....
S2- STRICTNESS . . .
34. SVSTEMATICALLV .
With regard to the care bestowed.
With reference to some rule or standard.
Without defect or redundance as compared with the original.
Conformity with some rule or model in the mode of action.
Rigorously nice.
Formed with regular connection and adaptation or subordina-
tion of parts to each other, and to the design of the whole
(symmetry— adjustment).
35. ORDERLY According to rule and in a regular and successive manner.
36. METHODICALLY .... Acting according to a natural or convenient order.
37. SCIENTIFICALLY .... Evincing profound and systematic knowledge. Acting con-
sistently with principles, ultimate laws ; in fact, with truth.
B.— JUSTICE.
1. GENERALLY.
38. JUSTICE Rendering to every one his due right or desert. " Honour all
men." Having always an even balance and honest weights.
"Justice is the keynote of the world, and all else is ever out of
tune." Truth rests upon revelation. Justice is intuitive.
39. EQUITY Rectified human justice. Human law on account of the rotation
of circumstances continually deviates from the strict line of
right and needs adjustment.
2. SPECIFICALLY.
40. HONESTY Acting with conscious regard to justice. "A straight line is the
shortest in morals as well as in geometry."
41. FAIRNESS Honesty in dealing.
42. IMPARTIALITY . . . .' Honesty in dealing to the exclusion of one's personal interest,
prepossessions, and bias.
3. IN REGARD TO THE RIGHTS OF OTHERS, namely,
(i) By Prerogative.
43. OBEDIENCE Subjection to rightful restraint or control. " The virtue of
paganism was strength. The virtue of Christianity is obedi-
ence."
44. LOYALTY ...... Obedience united to reverence or love. Truth and affection.
(2) By Equality or Generally.
45. CIVILITY Avoiding to be rude, and acting as a polished citizen.
46. POLITENESS Trying to please. Treating others just as you love to be treated.
47. CHIVALROUS Homage to weakness, involving courage and self-sacrifice.
48. COURTESY Elegance of manner, as becomes or adorns a court.
49. URBANITY Polished refinement. Not acting as a rude rustic, but as a
cultured citizen.
4. IN REGARD TO THE MERITS OF OTHERS, namely,
50. RESPECT Regard to rank or worth.
51. REVERENCE Respect coupled with love, or fear, or esteem.
52. DEFERENCE Yielding our opinions to those of persons of acknowledged
superiority.
53. ADMIRATION Respect coupled with affection.
54. VENERATION . . . '. . Respect for tried and matured excellence.
55. AWE > • . Respect and fear at overwhelming degree of superiority.
Homage to power and greatness.
5. IN REGARD TO THE DEMERITS OF OTHERS, namely,
56. INDIGNATION (just) . . Revolt of feeling against injustice.
57. RESENTMENT (PROPER) . Feeling roused to retaliation. A weapon for defence only.
' See Group No. 8, p. 508.
504 VIRTUES.
6. IN REGARD TO THE GOOD OFFICES OF OTHERS, namely,
58. GRATITUDE An inner state : thankfulness mingled with affection.
59. THANKFULNESS .... An acknowledgment of favours,
C— WISDOM.
I. GENERALLY.
60. WISDOM The selection of right ends as well as right means. Wisdom is
the right use or exercise of knowledge, and differs from know-
ledge as sight from seeing. The union of high mental and
moral excellence.
61. JUDGMENT The comparing of ideas to find their mutual relations. Every
thought has its pedigree, and belongs to one of the trees in the
garden of knowledge.
62. DISCERNMENT .... Accuracy and keenness of mental vision. The telescope needs
to be kept steady, and to have its lenses clean.
63. DISCRIMINATION . . . The tracing out minute distinctions and the nicest shades
of thought. The microscope is, in many branches of know-
ledge, a necessity.
64. ACUTENESS The faculty of nice discrimination. A surgeon must have
fingers to discern to a nicety.
65. ACUMEN The faculty of quick discernment, owing to the increase of
mental stores.
66. PENETRATION .... The power of seeing deeply into a subject in spite of everything
that intercepts the view. The mind must bring a powerful
and intense flame of its own in order to render luminous the
truth which is usually hid beneath a thick and opaque covering.
2. AS SHOWN IN GUARDING AGAINST HURTFUL INFLUENCES AND OPPOS-
ING FORCES.
(>"]. PRUDENCE Using right means rather in avoiding danger than in taking
decisive measures for the accomplishment of an object. Sir
Robert Walpole was in many respects a prudent statesman, but
he was far from being a wise man.
68. DISCRETION Judgment and calm thought in the proper use of the right
means. "The greatest parts without discretion maybe fatal
to their owner, as Polyphemus, deprived of his eyes, was only
the more exposed on account of his enormous size." — Addisftii.
69. WATCHFULNESS .... Careful and diligent observation for the purpose of preventing
or escaping danger, or of avoiding mistakes and misconduct.
Being on the watch-tower.
70. VIGILANCE Careful not only to escape danger but to detect evil. Keeping
both eyes wide open on the watch-tower.
71. FORETHOUGHT .... Provision against forseen dangers and wants.
72. CAREFULNESS .... Persistently guarding against danger.
72- CIRCUMSPECTION . . . Looking with Argus eyes at things all around before acting.
74. CAUTIOUSNESS .... Prudence in regard to contingencies. " When clouds are seen,
wise men put on their cloaks." — Shakespeare.
3. AS SHOWN IN SECURING THE MATERIAL RESOURCES AND COMFORTS
OF LIFE.
75. FRUGALITY Cuts off all unnccessaries. All riches have a limit. "The
daughter of prudence, the sister of temperance, and the parent
of liberty."
76. ECONOMY The right use of necessaries. " I will study rather how to give
a good account of my little, than how to make it more." — Bp.
Ball.
77. THRIFT Economy and frugality, in order to accumulate, with a view to
independence, advancement, and^jrovision against casualties.
4. IN REGARD TO THE HABITS REQUISITE FOR TRAINING THE MENTAL
ENDOWMENTS.
78. OBSERVATION .... The FIXING of thought with a view to acquire knowledge.
" The hearing ear and the seeing eye."
79. .\TTENTlON The FIXITY of thought with a view to make progress in know-
ledge.
80. EXAMINATION .... The SCRUTINY of thought Or tilings with a view to attain
accurate knowledge.
VI R TUBS.
505
APPLICATION The INTENSITY of thought with a view to attain complete
knowledge.
STUDY, involving care,"| -j-j^g ABSORPTION of thought with a view to dive into the very
pam, and toil . . . . v depths of knowledge.
83. REFLECTION
84
DILIGENCE.
INDUSTRY .
SEDULOUSNESS
ASSIDUOUSNESS
/Diligence is the steady and constant application of our energies
and powers to a selected and set purpose. Industry is a settled
1 and high-principled diligence. Diligence is of a more fitful cha-
-! racter than industry. Fox was industrious, but Burke was
eminent both for diligence and industry; he was always at
work, and always looking out for some new field of mental
leffort.
Industry in a particular department that leaves little or no
room for other matters. Sitting down to it ; sitting at it.
Industry in a particular department. As specialists. As the
range of knowledge increases this quality is increasingly
necessary for success.
D.— BENEVOLENCE.
1. GENERALLY.
(i) As to Inward Character.
88. BENEVOLENCE I .... The motive which prompts US to seek the good of Others for its
own sake. "These are as real and the same kind of indica-
tions that we were made for society, and to do good to our
fellow-creatures, as that we were intended to take care of our
own life, and health, and private good." — Bp. Butler.
89. CHARITY, LOVE .... Seeking the welfare of others by the exercise of our moral
sensibilities.
90. HUMANE FEELINGS . . Motive power of action due to civilizing influences around us.
91. KINDNESS Rather a social than a moral virtue.
92. LOVING-KINDNESS ... An intensified kindness.
93. DISINTERESTEDNESS ^ . . Refers to the purity of motive, as for others, and not for our
own interest.
(2) As to Outward Expression.
94. SELF-DENIAL Giving up something for a person or a cause.
95. SELF-DEVOTION .... Consecration of ourself to a cause.
96. SELF-SACRIFICE .... Giving up one's self to a cause regardless of consequences to
ourselves.
2. IN CONNECTION WITH THE DISTRESS OF OTHERS.
(i) As to Inward Character.
97. SYMPATHY Puts one's self on a level with the sufferer. " The transfusion of
mind into mind." The extent of our sympathy is determined
by that of our sensibility.
98. COMPASSION Sympathy merely on the -ground of mercy.
99. PITY Sympathy, with a certain recoil of the mind toward the
suft'erer.
100. KIND-HEARTEDNESS . . Readily disposed to benevolent actions.
(2) As to Outward Expression,
joi. LIBERALITY Refers to the warmth of spirit, and to largeness of giving.
102. GENEROUSNESS .... Refers to the extent of the sacrifice made.
103. MUNIFICENCE .... Refers to the quality and quantity of things bestowed.
104. BENEFICENCE .... Respects everything done for the good of Others.
3. IN CONNECTION WITH THE FAULTS OF OTHERS.
105. FORGIVENESS Passing over the offence instead of vindictively punishing the
offender; restraining angry feelings ; forgetting the offence save
so far as to prevent, if possible, its recurrence, and not allow-
ing it to lead to alienation.
106. MERCIFULNESS .... Justice restrained through love.
107. INDULGENCE Yielding freely to the wishes and feelings of those under our
care.
108. TENDERNESS Dealing feelingly with the offender.
' See foot-note to p. 508.
2 The qualities in other aspects might otherwise be grouped ; yet in their primary forms they are impulses of
love, e.^., a mother's self-sacrifice, &c.
5o6
VIRTUES,
109. CLEMENCY
I 10. LENIENCY . .
III. PEACEMAKING
112. PEACEABLENESS .
. The disposition which does not enforce justice to the full
against the otTender.
. Marks the character of an act which is clement.
. Aidently endeavouring to rouse and to bring into play feelings
of amity and concord around us. Peacemaking in which we
are tn/eresied parties.
. Trying to conciliate the offender, and net to insist too strictly
upon cur rights and claims. Not giving offence.
4. IN CONNECTION WITH THE GOOD QUALITIES OF OTHERS.
113. ESTEEM Our appreciation of the good qualities in others.
114. REGARD Our sense of approbation of the exercise of good qualities
others.
5. IN REGARD TO THE DOING GOOD TO OTHERS AS RELATED TO US.
(i) Family Love, as —
115. PATERNAL & MATERNAL Self-Originating love springing from our relationships,
116. FILIAI Responsive Icve of children to parents.
. . . Social Icve of children to each other.
. . . Social and sexual love of husband and wife.
Hence-
117. FRATERNAL
118. CONJUGAL .
(2) Social Love, as
119
regards —
120.
121.
122.
FRIENDS Love from affinities and interest, and association.
NEIGHBOURS Love froin convenience and interest, and acquaintance.
CITIZENS ....It r r j e .. ■ ■
Love from a sense of common danger, from traming, con-
venience, and a sense of duty, and common interest.
FELLOW-COUNTRYMEN
(Patriotism.) )
MASTER AND SERVANT
Love from respect and convenience of mutual dependence.
3. IN REGARD TO THE DISPOSITION REOUISITE FOR DOING GOOD TO
OTHERS.
(i) As to their Inward Expression.
124. GOOD WILL Being favourably disposed to help.
125. GOOD HUMOUR .... A happy frame of mind.
126. GOOD NATURE .... A readiness to oblige Others. An easy disposition.
127. AGREEABLENESS . , . A readiness to please Others.
128. AMIABILITY The easy manners of a character desirous to please. A kind
disposition.
129. GENIALITY Sympathetically cheerful and cheering. A healthy develop-
ment of animal spirits. Pleasantness of manner.
130. AFFABILITY The easy manners of a character desirous to win Or gain one's
end. Ready to speak with, and to be spoken to by others.
131. GRACIOUSNESS .... A generous disposition on the part of a superior to appreciate
and honour the good qualities in an inferior.
132. BENIGNITY The disposition on the part of a superior to act kindly to an
inferior.
(2) As to their Outward Ex
133. OBLIGING ....
134. ACCOMMODATING
135. COMPLAISANT
136. CONSIDERATE
137. SUAVITY . .
138. ACCESSIBLE .
pression.
Bein<
takin
ready with more than mere courtesies of demeanour, and
pleasure in doing some actual service.
Meeting the particular or specific requirements of the time and
occasion in favour of others, even at tl^e cost of a little personal
inconvenience.
Desiring to please best befits those who have superiority or
power on their side.
Meeting the wants of others, or relie\ing them of trouble, by
placing one's self thoughtfully in their place and circumstances.
Pleasantness of manner.
Sacrifice of time, inclination, and convenience for the accom-
modation of others. Readiness to receive and hear applicants.
E.— SELF-CONTROL.
. IN REGARD TO THE ENTHRONEMENT OR DETHRONEMENT OF A DESIRE
OR SET OF DESIRES (or both).
(1) Generally —
(The government and regulation of all our natural appetites,
■ (desires, passions, and affections. *
139. SELF-CONTROL
VIRTUES. 507
140. SELF-CONQUEST . . . . To have one's self in his own power. Those who can com-
mand themselves, command others.
141. TEMPERANCE Moderation as to pleasure, chiefly of touch and taste.
(2) As to the means employed.
142. DECISION Choice out of several courses after deliberation. Taking a
stand, and keeping to the stand taken.
143. DETERMINATION . . . The adhering to our choice uninfluenced by circumstances.
144. RESOLUTION Adhering to our choice regardless of consequences.
145. FIXITY OF PURPOSE . . Unmovableness in the pursuit of the object of our choice.
146. TENACITY OF PURPOSE . Pursuing one's course with dogged persistency spite of dangers
and temptations.
147. STEADINESS .... Uniformity of action, on principle, in pursuit of one's choice.
148. STABILITY I ^ ) r r ; r
149. UNCHANGEABLENESS . . Habit of mind leading to Steadiness.
' IN REGARD TO THE ENLISTING THE PASSIONS (LOVE IN PARTICULAR)
ON THE SIDE OF THE ENTHRONED DESIRE OR SET OF DESIRES.
150. ENERGY Power efficiently and forcibly exerted.
151. ENTHUSIASM Aspiration inspired by firm belief in the ideal perfection of
one's cause.
152. ZEAL Fired energy.
153. EARNESTNESS .... Intensity of desire with a sense of the gravity of the cause.
154. ARDOUR Concentration of energy until it is wrought up to a white heat.
155. FERVOUR With not quite as intense but a steadier flame than that of
ardour.
3. IN REGARD TO THE CONTROL OF THE BODILY APPETITES.
156. TEMPERANCE Regulated indulgence as to eating and drinking. Keeping the
reins well in hand.
157. ABSTEMIOUSNESS . . . Restricting eating and drinking on account of special Circum-
stances.
158. SOBRIETY Freedom from intoxication. Keeping our balance.
159. MODERATION .... Imposing due restraint upon our appetites. A gentle touch ot
the hand in playing.
,, ,.,^ » (Imposing due restraint upon the desire of the sexes. Re-
160. CHASIIIY l . . , .-; straining conjugal indulgence within ties.
161. CONTINENCE) \^^^^^ ^^/^^^ j^ l^^^^ j^^^ j-^Ug^.
162. PURITY Chastity with reference more to the mind.
163. CLEANLINESS The removal of any element of impurity by which either body
or mind is disfigured or dishonoured.
164. MODESTY AND RESERVE. Womanly adjuncts to virtue. The eyelids to the eyes.
4. IN REGARD TO THE CONTROL OF THE EMOTION OF FEAR.
165. BOLDNESS Meeting danger — defensive attitude.
166. DARING Courting danger — otTensive attitude.
167. BRAVERY Laudable contest with danger and difilculties.
168. RESOLUTE Having a purpose and sticking to it.
169. ENTERPRISING .... Prompt to undertake and seeking spheres of action.
170. VALOUR Bravery in war.
171. UNDAUNTIODNESS . . . Awed by nothing but sin and Avrong-doing.
172. INTREPIDITY A firm unshaken confidence without fear or trepidation.
173. FORTITUDE Endurance with perseverance.
174. HEROISM The genius of courage.
5. IN REGARD TO THE REGULATION AND HEALTHY DEVELOPMENT OF THE
EMOTION OF HOPE THROUGH THE CONTROL OF FEAR.
(i) As to its Active Side.
175. CHEERFULNESS . . . . A disposition to discern and enjoy the bright side of things and
not to take too gloomy a view of one's fortune.
176. HOPEFULNESS .... A disposition to rise above the depressing effect of present
circumstances by consideration of the probable brighter future.
(2") As to its Passive Side.
177. ENDURANCE Carrying the load uphill to the very Summit without fainting.
178. CONFIDENCE Freedom from doubts. Having faith in success.
179. RELIANCE Trusting to the efficacy and sufficiency of the means employed
to secure the end.
180. SELF-RELIANCE .... Trusting to one's own powers and resources as sufficient to
the end.
508 VIRTUES.
i8i. CALMNESS Freedom from agitation.
182. COLLECTEDNESS . . . A quality requisite for determined promptitude. Calmness /;z
a storm.
183. COMPOSEDNESS .... Calmness o/Z^-r a storm.
6. IN REGARD TO THE CONTROL OF THE EMOTION OF PRIDE,
(i) As to its Passive Side.
184. HUMILITY The thinking truly and thus little of ourselves, because of the
knowledge of the required standard for human perfection.
185. LOWLINESS The spirit in which humility is exercised.
186. DIFFIDENCE Distrust in our own powers.
187. TRACTABLENESS . . . Easily managed or taught. Willing to be guided.
188. MODESTY Absence of all over-confidence and conceit.
189. DOCILITY A consciousness of our own ignorance and a childlike readiness.
(2) As to its Active Side.
190. INDEPENDENCE . . . . ^'^^-r^j'/^d:/ in directing one's Own affairs, without being burden-
some to others, and resenting improper interference.
191. NOBLENESS Elevation of mind above what is low, mean, degrading, dis-
honourable.
192. MAGNANIMITY .... Sacrificing one's feelings and interests, or yielding up one's
claims for the accomplishment of some noble object. " Strike
but hear me." Ex. — The daring excursion of David's three
worthies to fetch a drink of water from the well of Bethlehem
at the risk of their lives.
7. IN REGARD TO THE CONTROL OF THE ANIMAL SPIRITS (also Capacity for Wit,
and other exhilarating and disturbing elements).
193. SOBERNESS Opposed to the extravagant in thought or action.
194. QUIETNESS Opposed to nervousness and restlessness.
195. SEDATENESS Opposed to the undignified and unbecoming.
196. TRANQUILLITY .... Freedom from agitation.
197. STAIDNESS Opposed to the frivolous.
198. SERIOUSNESS Opposed to the jocose.
199. SOLEMNITY Opposed to unseemly ebullition of mirth and to irreverence.
200. GRAVITY Opposed to the light.
201. SERENITY Tranquillity of the highest order. Might be ranked as the reflex
influence of wisdom.
8. IN CONNECTION WITH THE RIGHT DEVELOPMENT OF THE TASTE, chieflv.
(i) In regard to dealing with Things.
202. TIDINESS Things in good order.
203. NEATNESS Things free from what spoils their beauty or effect ; cleanliness
and tidiness with a view to effect.
(2) In regard to Conduct.
204. DECENCY The becoming in conduct.
205. DECORUM The becoming in behaviour.
206. PROPRIETY Consonance with established principles, rules, or customs.
207. SEEMLiNESS Decency in minor morals.
208. FITNESS Regulated by local circumstances.
209. SUITABLENESS .... With reference to the person, occasion, &c.
210. BECO.MING That which presents a pleasant exterior.
9. IN REGARD TO THE CONTROL OF THE (REPELLING) PASSIONS, AND ALL
ELEMENTS IN US OF A DISCORDANT TEMPERAMENT.
(N.B.— These, as also next group (No. 10), are virtually Christian graces, and may be
regarded also as developments of love and benevolence).'
2X1. GENTLENESS Acting without offending, or unnecessary violence.
. Forbearing under injuries, a disposition which delights in exer-
cising forbearance and gentleness.
. An absence of everything which is acrid, harsh, or discordant
in action.
. In regard to the of)iiiions of others ; or, rather, as to their
right humanly considered to liold such.
. In regard to \\\q faults of others.
212. MEEKNESS
213. MILDNESS .
214. TOLERANCE
215. INDULGENCE
This group in some of its aspects might be classed under Benevolence. Sec p. 505.
VIRTUES. 509
216. LONG-SUFFERING . . . In regard to the /r^j/rtj-jd'j of Others.
217. FORBEARANCE .... In regard to the trespasses of others (only more or less con-
ditional).
10. IN REGARD TO THE CONTROL OF THE TEMPER, chiefly.
218. UNCOMPLAININGLY. . . The negative side of patience.
219. PATIENCE Carrying the load of cares without irritation, and so to suffer
no damage. Medicine which leaves no bad effects.
/The acquiescence of the mind in the portion of good which
220. CONTENTMENT) J we possess. "A restless and timid man is never content ; an
221. SATISFACTION [ • • • • j avaricious man is never satisfied." "A tub was large enough
(.for Diogenes, but a world was too little for Alexander."
222. RESIGNATION The submission of the will to another. It acknowledges both
the power and the right of a superior to afflict.
223. SUBMISSION Bowing to the will of a superior, with unresisting, unmurmuring
acquiescence.
5IO
FOURTH PART.
VICES, INCLUDING FAULTS AND DEFECTS.
SYLLABUS.
I>AGB
A.— LACK OF TRUTH .„ ... 512
1. Generally.
2. As INVOLVING THE NON-FULFILMENT OF A PROMISE OR OF A DUTY.
3. In REGARD TO THE CHARACTER OF OTHERS.
4. Through Cowardice or Sinister Motives.
(i) To stand well with others.
(2) To get others to stand well with us.
5. As DISPLAYED IN InDETERMINATENESS.
6. As DISPLAYED IN PLAUSIBILITY.
7. As DISPLAYED IN PRETENCE.
8. As INVOLVING Stealth.
9. As INVOLVING Fraud.
B.— LACK OF JUSTICE « ... .„ .„ ... ^ ,„ 515
1. Generally.
2. As TO Offences against Rights and Usages.
(i) By Defect.
(2) By Excess.
3. When Governing.
4. When Governed.
5. As Failing to acknowledge the Good Offices of Others.
C— LACK OF WISDOM „ 517
1. As to Defective Knowledge and Judgment.
2. As to Defective Common Sense.
3. As TO Disregarding the Means of guarding against Hurtful Influences
and Opposing Forces.
4. As TO Disregarding the Material Resources and Comforts of Life.
D.— LACK OF BENEVOLENCE 51S
1. Generally.
2. In regard to the Distress of Others, chiefly.
3. In regard to the Faults of Others, chiefly.
4. In regard to Social Relations.
5. In regard to Dispositions connected with the Want of Benevolence.
(i) As to the Inward Character.
(2) As to the Outward Expression.
51'
PAGE
LACK OF SELF-CONTROL ^ .„ .^ .. 520
1. As EXHIBITED IN WANT OF ENERGY.
2. As TO Defective Will-Power and Misapplied Energy.
3. As to Ill-regulated Will-Power.
(The sequel to Want of Energy and Ruined Will-Power.)
4-
As to the Appetites.
(i) Generally.
(2) Hunger.
(3) Thirst.
(4) Sexual Instinct.
5-
As TO THE Mental Desires.
(i) Desire of Possession.
6.
As TO the Emotions.
(i) Fear.
i. By its Absence,
ii. By Excess.
a. Passively.
b. Actively.
(2) Hope.
(3) Curiosity.
(4) Pride.
i. By Excess.
a. As a Personal Quality.
b. As manifested in External Display.
c. In our Treatment of Others.
ii. By Defect.
(5) Envy.
7.
As TO the Passions.
(i) Anger.
i. Generally.
ii. As displayed in Noise chiefly,
iii. As displayed in Words chiefly,
iv. As displayed in Disputes chiefly.
V. When accompanied with Ill-humour and Bitterness
especially.
a. As to Temper and Disposition.
b. As displayed outwardly.
vi. When accompanied with Fierceness.
8.
As TO the Mental Endowments.
(i) Taste.
i. By Deficiency,
ii. By Extravagance or Excess.
9.
As TO THE Animal Spirits.
512
CLASSIFICA TION:
I. GENERALLY,
I. LYING .
2. falsehood)
3. FALSITY )
4. MISREPRESENTATIONS
5. PERJURY . .
6. INCONSISTENCY
7. UNTRUTH
8. ERROR"
9. MISTAKE ^'- . .
10. EXAGGERATION
11. INCOHERENCE
12. INCONGRUITY
2. AS INVOLVING THE
13. UNFAITHFULNESS
14. TREACHERY
15. PERFIDY . . .
16. PROCRASTINATION
17. UNPUNCTUALITY
18. DIL..\TORY . . .
3. IN REGARD TO TH
19. VILIFICATION
20. REVILING .
21. CALUMNY
22. DETRACTION
A. LACK OF TRUTH.
(from O. Eng. lee, a lie ; A. S. leocran). Untruth uttered for
"the express purpose of deceiving. " Like the arrow directed at
a god, flies back and wounds the archer."
(from 'L.fallere, to deceive). A statement uttered usually with
the intention to deceive. Little less criminal than lying. "No
watches, however, so effectually deceive the wearers as those
that are sometimes right."
(from pra;se?itare, to place before, to present). False or
erroneous representations.
(from L. per, through, over, and jurare, to swear). Wilfully
taking a false oath.
(from L. consistcre, to stand together). Statements or actions
opposed to each other, so that they cannot be adjusted to some
recognized standard.
(from O. Eng. triithe). A statement uttered without intention
necessarily to deceive, or through ignorance.
Arisen from absence of knowledge. " Ignorance is a blank
sheet on which we may write ; but error is a scribbled one
from which we must first eras>e."
Arises from insufficient or false observation. "They most
assume who know the least."
(from L. aggerare, to heap up). Representations greater than
truth or justice will warrant. We always weaken whatever we
exaggerate.
(from L. hcerere, to stick, adhere). Defective form of state-
ment, no interdependence of one part with another,
(from L. in, and congruere, to agree). Disagreement of parts,
want of symmetry, statements, or actions.
NON-FULFILMENT OF A PROMISE OR OF A DUTY.
(from 'L.Jidere, to trust). Violation of vows, promises, allegi-
ance, or other duty.
(from F. tricher, to cheat, to trick). Violation of allegiance,
faith, or confidence. " Men are oftener treacherous through
weakness than design."
(from L. per, through, beyond, and fidus, faithful ; fides, faith).
Violation of a trust reposed. Aggravated treachery,
(from L. pro and crastinus, of to-morrow). Postponing acting
when one might or ought to have begun. " By ihe street of
By and by one arrives at the town of NeverP
(from L. putictus, piinctuDi, a point). Failing to act when the
clock of duty strikes.
Going tardily and after time about one's work in any of its
stases.
CHARACTER OF OTHERS.
(from L. vilis, cheap, ^.x\difacere, to make)
Indirect reviling.
Eloquent defamation. " No sword bites so fiercely as an evil
tongue."
(L. caliuiima, false accusation). The inventing as well as the
propagating an evil report. "There is nobody so weak of in-
vention that cannot make some stories to vilify his enemies."
(from L. de and trahere, to draw). Discounting unfairly the
conduct of another, attributing actions to less worthy motives
than actuated them. " Silkv moths that eat an honest name."
' 5<'<r Sectional Index, p. 536, and General Index at the end of last volume. 5« also Introductory Note, pp.
491 and 502. *
• .Asterisks are prefixed to the names of qualities which, though ranked here as vices, are not necessarily so.
5^3
23- ASPERSION (L. aspersio, from aspergere, aspersinn, from ad and spargere,
to strew, scatter). The casting upon unsullied worth the
imputation of dishonourable conduct. " Cutting honest throats
by whispers." "Throwing dirt, and hoping some mav stick."
24. DEFAMATION .... (from L. de and fama, fame). The spreading far and wide
what is injurious to the good name of another.
25. LIBEL (from L. liber, a. book). Holding a person up to public con-
tempt and ridicule. The pestilence which rages at noon-day.
26. SLANDER (from L. scaiidalnui, Gr. oKuvtaXov, a snare laid for an enemy).
Secret and underhand defamation. The arrow shot in the
dark. " The revenge of a coward."
27. DEPRECIATION .... (from L. de and pretium, price ; F. depriser, to disparage).
Lowering from personal motive the reputation of another.
28. DISPARAGEMENT . . . {hom h. dzs ?l\v\ paraganii, piij-aticiiju, ^auiy oi cor\d\x.\ori OY
birth). Making others think less highly of the reputation of
another. " They are not the worst fruits on which the wasps
alight." ^
29. SCANDAL (L. scandalwft, Gr. vKarSaXov, a snare laid for an enemy). Un-
founded and injurious imputation upon reputation. Silence is
golden respecting those we dislike.
(from A.S. godsidl', from god, God, and sib, alliance, relation).
30. GOSSIPING . ) 1 The circulation of (groundless) rumours in social circles. Gos-
31. TITTLE-TATTLE) sipers " murder characters to kill time." Gossiping need not,
Vhowever, be definite untruth.
32. BACKBITING Speaking evil in the absence of the person traduced. Perhaps
more mean and petty than slander.
4. THROUGH COWARDICE OR SINISTER MOTIVES.
(i) To stand well with others.
^T,. COMPROMISE (L. compyomittere, to promise mutually, from con and proinit-
terc, to promise). Selling the truth for the sake of peace. To
be liberal with another's property.
34. TEMPORISING .... (from L. tempus, temporis, time). Yielding to the current of
opinion or circumstances against our own convictions. A reed
shaken by the wind.
35. TRIMMING (from A.S. trymian, frymiiian, to prepare, dispose, make
strong). Fluctuating between parties so as to appear to favour
either. Running with the hare and following the hounds. A
weathercock, hx. Lord Halifax.
36. TIME-SERVING .... (from L. /t'w/z/'i', time, and Jd?rz/«j-, a slave). One who obse-
quiously complies with the ruling power. Ex. The Vicar of
Bray, and Dryden.
(2) To get others to stand well with us.
37. FLATTERY Praise and admiration for the sake of gratifying vanity or
gaining favour. Improves upon existing excellences. Cor-
rupts both the receiver and the giver.
38. ADULATION (L. adulatio, from adulari, to flatter). Excessive and exag-
gerative flattery, with a mingled spirit of falsehood and
hypocrisy. Praises non-existing excellences. AdiiIatio7i is
practised by courtiers, ^.a/'/^r)/ by lovers.
39. PARASITE ...... To play the (L. parasitus, Gr. TvapaairoQ, literally eating be-
side, with, or at the table of another, from Trapa, beside, and
aiTtIv, to feed). A parasite was among the Greeks an overseer
and apportioner of the corn brought for the public sacrifices.
The earning invitations to the tables of the wealthy by flattery
and conversational arts.
40. SYCOPHANT To play the (L. sycophanfa, Gr. ffVKofdvrT]^, from (tvkov, a fig,
and (paiviiv, to show). The acting an obsequious and servile
part, in which flattery is necessarily used. "No flattery so
adroit or effectual as that of implicit assent."
41. FAWNING (from A.S. fahnian, to rejoice, flatter, wheedle). Courting
favour by low cringing, as a dog ; flattering meanly. " Spaniels
love not their master's good, but their master's goods."
42. SERVILITY (from L. servire, to sei-ve). Slavish deference. "Through
dirt to dignity."
VOL. I. 33
5M
VICES.
5. AS DISPLAYED IN INDETERMINATENESS.
43. PREVARICATION . , . (from L. /r^7/(3:r/<frt/;/:^, to walk Crookedly). Talkin.sr all round
the question, hoping to " dodge" it, and disclose nothing : like
putting a blot in the writing so that it is illegible.
44. EQUIVOCATION .... (from L. ceqtiiis, equal, and vox, vocis, word). Using words
which have a double meaning, so that in one sense he can
claim to have said the truth, though he does in fact deceive,
and intends to do so. Showing the obverse instead of the right
side of the medal.
45. EVASION (from L. r, out, from, and vadere, to go, walk). Avoiding a
definite answer. Ostensibly answering a question, but really
turning aside to some other point.
46. AMIJIGLTTY ; . . . . ( L. rt;///(^z>/r//'<:?i', from <a;w(^/Vf;;,?, to wander about with irresolute
mind, from ainbi, round about, or ainbo, two, and agere, to
drive). Leaving the sense of an expression doubtful. Having
two strings to one's bow.
47. SHUFFLING (from A.S. scufa7i, to shove, push). Evading fair questions.
Shifting one's ground.
48. QUIBBLING (from L. quid, what, and libet, it pleases). Trifling in argu-
ment.
49. CAVILLING (from L. cavillari, to practise jesting, to censure, from cavilla,
bantering jests, sophistry, literally an empty, vain speech,
from cainis, hollow, vain). Raising captious and frivolous
objections.
50. VAGUENESS [^xova'L. vagHs). Becoming indefinite from want of clearness
of statement or conception.
51. LOOSENESS (from KS. Icsan, lysan),ox\ Wanting in logical strictness and
52. LAXITY (from L laxarc, to unloose) [ propriety.
53. INDEFINITENESS . . . (from L. fiui's, a boundary, limit, end). Not precise or cer-
tain. No well-defined horizon. No scientific frontier.
AS DISPLAYED IN PLAUSIBILITY.
54. SPECIOUSNESS . .
PLAUSIBILITY
SOPHISTRY
SUPERFICIALITY
SHALLOWNESS
(from L. specere, to look, to behold). Appearing well at first
view, yet covering something unsound or false.
(from L. plaudere, plausioii, to applaud). Pleasing the ear,
l)ut yet leaving distrust in the judgment.
(from Gr. o-o^iit", wise). Reasoning, sound in appearance only.
" Like poison, at once detected and nauseated when presented
to us in a concentrated form."
(from L. super, above, over, ?LX\d fades, make, figure, shape).
Comprehending only what is obvious or apparent.
(from A.S. scelfe, a shelf). Wanting in depth. A term of
reproach."
7. AS DISPLAYED IN
59. DOUBLE-DEALING
60. HYPOCRISY . .
61. INSINCERITY . .
62. DISSEMBLING
63. DISGUISE . . .
64. HOLLOWNESS . .
65. FEIGNING . . .
66. PRETENCE . .
PRETENCE.
. . (from L. rt'/(;J///'i', double, etc.). The profession of one thing and
the practice of another. The inner and outside of man are not
counterfoils.
. . . (from L. hypocrisis, Gr. viroKpimg, the playing a part on the
stage, simulation, outward show). Pretending to virtue or
piety. " The homage which vice pays to virtue."
. . . (from L. sincerus, from sme, without, and cera, wax). Failing
to be in reality what one appears to be. A thin coating of
veneer.
. . . (from L. dis and siimilare, to make like another ; from sivtilis,
like, resembling). Disguise is general, dissembling is specific.
" A prince might disguise himself as a beggar ; but unless he
held such communications with others as to practically deceive
them, he would not be dissembling."
. . . (L. dis and F. guise, manner, from L. visus, appearance).
Cloaking by what is fitted to mislead.
. . . (A.S. //(V, hole, allied to Gr. K-oJXiic, hollow). Lacking sound-
ness and reality. Men of straw in the world of morals.
. . . (from L.y/;/i,v;r, to form). Putting out false appearances.
. . . (from L. /tv'/^/fvr, to stretch). J'utting out false facts as well as
false appearances.
VICES.
515
67. SIMULATION .
68. DISSIMULATION
69. AFFECTATION
Feigned exhibition of what does 72of
Feigned concealment of
(from L. similis, like).
exist — suggcstio falsi.
(from L. si7inlis. like, resembling),
what really exists — siippressia vcri.
(from L. affectare.to strive after, from ad ■^x\^ faccrc, to make).
A forced and often an awkward imitation of what should be
genuine and easy. Wanting the beauty that accompanies
what is natural. "A greater enemy to the face than small-
pox."
8. AS INVOLVING STEALTH.
70. CRAFTY
71. WILINESS
72. ARTFUL
-Jl. SLYNESS .
74. DECEITFUL
75. CUNNING .
76. DESIGNING
(from A.S. a'aft, strength, power, art). Wide awake, and
making a cunning use of one's experience and knowledge. A
talent for dexterously deceiving.
(from A.S. ivtle., fraud ; vela, to deceive). Mischievously
artful in attack, defence, or escape. A talent for the use of
stratagems.
(from L. ars, artis, skill in joining or fitting, from Gr. cipuv, to
join, to fit together ; dpTven', to arrange, prepare). Unfairly
exercising means which baffle the interpretation or escape the
observation of others. Trained or scientific use of the quality
of cunning,
A vulgar kind of cunning. The sly man goes with muffled
tread.
(from L. decipere, to deceive, from de and capere, to take,
catch}. Trying to lead others astray. The betrayal of truth,
(from A.S. ciinnan, to know, to be able). Acting conceal-
ment and disguise, as applied to the lower order of wants or
designs. The characteristic quality of the fox.
(from L. de and signare, to mark out, from sigftwn, mark,
sign). Scheming for desired objects even to the injury of
others.
(from L. dis ?LnA.ijtgeTnius,'mhoYn, innate, noble, frank). Want-
ing in candour, unworthily or meanly artful. Hiding the real
purpose.
(from L. clandestinus, from clam., secretly, from celare, to hide).
A purposed and unlawful secrecy. Acting on the quiet.
Using secret and often fraudulent means.
(from L. t?-iae, hindrances). Schemes, usually complicated, for
effecting some purpose by secret artifices. Backstairs influence,
(from O. Fr. guile, A.S. -wile). A wily regard for one's own
interests.
(from L. con and celare, to hide). Hiding from the knowledge
of others.
(from L. secernere, to put apart, to separate).. Keeping to one's
self a fact. Purposed concealment.
(from L. siib and tela, a web, warp). Finding both the means
for executing one's purpose, and weighing and dissecting the
purpose itself. The bringing analytical and scientific skill to
bear in the executing of one's purposes.
AS INVOLVING FRAUD.'
85. KNAVERY (from A.S. r;?c?/«2, or <r«^_/2r, a rogue). A term of contemptuous
reproach for a dishonest man.
86. FRAUD (from 'L.fraHS,fraudis). Deceiving our neighbour to his loss
and our benefit.
87. IMPOSITION (from L.^^z/tTt', to place). A trick or deception laid upon others
to exact more than is due.
88. DISHONEST {hom'L. dis ^ndhonestus,{vom.honos,'hono\ir). Robbing others
of their rights.
77. DISINGENUOUS
78. CLANDESTINE
79. UNDERHAND .
80. INTRIGUE . .
81. GUILE . . .
82, CONCEALMENT =
^2>- SECRECY-'- . .
84. SUBTLE- . .
1. GENERALLY.
89. INJUSTICE .
B.— LACK OF JUSTICE.
(from 'L.Justus, just). Violation of the rights of the individual
jay deprival or infliction.
This involves want of Jicstice as well as want of Truth.
5i6 VICES.
90. UNPRINCIPLED .... Sinning against justice and integrity.
91. UNFAIRNESS Showing unjust preferences.
92. UNREASONABLENESS . . (from L. reri, ratus, to reckon, think). Excess of demand and
claim. Beyond all reason or right.
2. AS TO OFFENCES AGAINST RIGHTS AND USAGES.
(i) By Defect.
93. OUTRAGE ,.,,.. (from L. z^Z/rcz, beyond). Gross and violent insult and indignity,
or overbearing or cruel violation of the feelings or the person.
94. INSULT (from L. zV/j/Z/rt', to leap upon). Words or actions of au offen-
sive and derogatory kind.
95. INDIGNITY (from L. zV/^!!'zX''''^rt:;7, to disdain). An insult to a person entitled
to respect. Unmerited contemptuous treatment.
96. AFFRONT (from L. ac/ and //W/J-, forehead, front). A marked breach of
politeness.
97. COARSE Want of mental refinement.
98. ROUGH {ixom. 'L.iiancus). Want of polite training and natural gentle-
ness.
99. BLUNT (G. ambhmo, to dull ; Ger. bladde, a dull knife ; Sw. and I eel.
blunda., to sleep). Abrupt in address, unceremonious.
100. PERT (from L. aperire, to uncover, to open). Sprightliness without
dignity, or proper regard to the respect due to others.
loi. RUDE (from L. rudis, allied to raiv., rough, and c7-iide). Personally
offensive to others from roughness of manners (intentional or
unintentional). Violation of the proprieties of social hfe either
from ignorance or carelessness.
102. GROSS (from L. crass2(s, thick, dense, fat). Unrestrained exhibition of
the animal part of human nature. Ex. Henry VIII.
103. DISCOLTRTEOUS . . . . (L. dis, and F. courtoisie, courtesy). Rude and disrespectful
actions. A want of dignified complaisance and kindness.
104. UNCIVIL (from L. aWj-, citizen). Withholding customary attentions and
the amenities of civilized and social life.
105. IMPOLITE (from L. z'w/(7/z7?/J', unpolished). Wanting in easy and graceful
manners, and the desire to anticipate the wants and wishes of
others, and to avoid causing them pain.
106. OBSTRUCTIVE (from L. fl/^ and .y/zz/'^'n', to pile up). Throwing hindrances or
impediments in the way of any one's progress. The Irish
Members of Parliament, 18S1. 1882, made a science of this
method of procedure, and hence the closure.
107. IMPUDENT A jaunty disrespect.
108. INJURY (from L.yzzj-, /zzz-zj, right, law, justice). Wronging another.
(2) By Excess.
109. INTERFERENCE .... (from L. i?iter, between, and fcrirc, to strike). Intermeddling
with others' concerns.
I lo. OFFICIOUS (from L. oh, and facctr, to make or do). Obtruding one's
offices or assistance when not needed. A want of tact.
III. IMPERTINENCE .... (from 'L. pertinere, to pertain to). Intermeddling in affairs
which do not concern us. A want of breeding, or a spirit of
sheer impudence.
1X2. STIFFNESS (from A.S. .y/z/). Affected precision.
113. FORMALITY (from L.y^;;-zz/f?, make, shape, manner). Conventional slavery.
" Red-tapeism."
114. FUSSINESS (from A. S./z?j-, ready, quick). Over-anxiety about trifles. To
make a bustle or ado.
115. BUSY-BODIES (A.S. /y'jz> to see, and (^^7^z>, body). Meddling persons.
3. WHEN GOVERNING.
116. TYRANNICAL (from L. /»7V7;/z/z/.r, Gr. riV«''''oc, an absolute sovereign, after-
wards a cruel ruler). Domination and caprice, involving
suffering or oppression. Tyranny and anarchy are never far
asunder.
117. ARBITRARY (from L. <rz7^zV;v7;7, to hear, decide). Making one's own will the
principle of government. Being a law to one's self in that and
no worse sense, hence//V/(Vr.
118. DESPOTIC (from Gr. affTTo-iK-, master, lord). Regardless of constitutions
and laws, hence imperious. " Making one person more than
man makes the rest less."
VICES.
517
119. SEVERITY (from L. severus). Extreme strictness, insisting upon things
without regard to others.
120. STRICTNESS (from L. ^/;7«^W6', to draw or bind tight). Abridging hberty in
favour of method.
121. RIGOUR (from L. rz>^r(?, to be stiff). An unbending adherence to rule
or principle. Deaf to entreaty. " The bow snaps that is bent
too stiffly."
122. STERNNESS (from A.S. Sterne, styrne, allied to Ger. starr, staring, stiirrig,
stubborn). Applicable to look, and demeanour, and manners.
(Often anything but a fault.)
123. THREATENING .... (from A.S. thredtian, to urge, threaten). Alarming with the
promise of evil.
124. DICTATION (from L. ^/(T^r^, to say). Prescribing beyond our province.
125. AUSTERITY (from L. a^^j'/frz^i', Gr. ouo-n;poc, harsh, like the flavour of unripe
fruit). Exacting upon one's self as well as upon others.
" Taking a slighting view of the enjoyments and relaxations
of life."
126. BRIBING (from F. bribe^ a hunch of bread, scrap, leavings of meals).
Perverting the judgment of another, or corrupting his action by
some gift or promise. " The universe would not be rich enough
to buy the vote of an honest man."
4. WHEN GOVERNED.
127. TREACHERY Violation of allegiance.
128. SEDITION (from L. se, aside, and t'/is, a going). Public discontent.
Seething rebellion.
129. INSURRECTION .... (from L. iiisur:[ere, ijisurrectwii, to rise up against), A rising
up of individuals against the laws of a community or state.
130. INSUBORDINATION ) j (L. in, not, sub, under, and ordo, ordinis, rule). N ot submissive
or DISLOYALTY | * ' ( to authority. Definite manifestation of disloyalty.
131. REBELLION (from L. (^6'//rt:?r, to make war). Efflorescence of disloyalty.
132. REVOLUTION {ixom.'L. re,h-\<iV, dM.^ volvere, voliitiiin,\.o X.\xxVi). The fructifi-
cation of disloyalty.
133. LAWLESSNESS (from O. Eng. /r/)/y A.S. /^6;^«;/, to lay. A law is that which is
laid, set, or fixed, like stahite, constitution). Not subject to the
law of morality or of society.
134. DISOBEDIENCE . . . . (L. dis and obedientia, obedience). Not observant of duty or
rules prescribed by authority.
135. DISRESPECTFULNESS . . (from L. dis and re, again, back, and specere, spiccre, to look, to
view). Failing to hold others in their right esteem.
136. UNDUTIFULNESS .... (from L. debere, to owe). Not submissive to natural or legal
superiors.
5. AS FAILING TO ACKNOWLEDGE THE GOOD OFFICES OF OTHERS.
137. UNTHANKFULNESS . . . (from A.S. thancian, to thank). Failing to acknowledge or
make returns for favours received.
138. INGRATITUDE .... (from L. gratus, agreeable). Want of a disposition to repay.
Is treason to mankind.
C— LACK OF WISDOM.
I. AS TO DEFECTIVE KNOWLEDGE AND JUDGMENT.
139. IGNORANCE =•= .
140. INFATUATION
141. INJUDICIOUSNESS
142
SHORT-SIGHTEDNESS
Want of knowledge of such matters as
Inclining to anything in a manner
(from L. ignorantid).
v/e ought to know,
(from L. fatuus, foolish),
not justified by reason,
(from L. jiidiciian, judgment, decision). Acting without due
attention to the mutual relations of things, and without suffi-
ciently examining circumstances.
(from A.S. scort, sceortj L. ciirtiis, short ; and A.S. siht, sight).
Inability to see far into things deep or abstruse, or not evident
at first sight.
2. AS TO DEFECTIVE COMMON SENSE.
143. ECCENTRICITY =■= . . . . (L. ^^^^«/'r/f«i'y Gr. tKKfi'T-poc, out of the centre, from k", out of,
and Kh'-pov, L. centrum, centre). Deviating from the usual or
common-sense course. " He that will keep a monkey should
pay for the glasses he breaks."
5i8
144. FOOLISHNESS. .
145. SENSELESSNESS .
146. GARRULOUSNESS =:
147. TALKATIVENESS
148. LOQUACIOUSNESS
Failing to act according to the principles of practical wisdom.
A weak mind. " Letting down buckets into empty wells, and
growing old with drawing up nothing."
(from L. sentire, sensiwi, to perceive, to feel). Acting contrary
to reason or sound judgment. A warped mind.
{As shown in words)
(from L. garrire, to chatter, from gar, to shout). Prosy talk,
with frequent and lengthened details. Ex. An old man in his
dotage.
(from Prov. Ger. talken, to speak indistinctly). Talking for
talking's sake. "An unbraced drum which beats a wise man
out of bounds." Kx. A child.
(from L. log III ^ to speak). A great flow of words at command.
The less persons think, the more they talk.
AS
TO DISREGARDING
INFLUENCES AND
149.
NEGLIGENCE . . . .
150.
151.
152.
REMISSNESS . . .
IMPRUDENCE . . . .
CARELESSNESS . .
153-
HEEDLESSNESS . .
154.
THOUGHTLESSNESS
155-
UNWARINESS . . .
156.
INATTENTION . .
157-
INCONSIDERATION .
158.
FORGETFULNESS .
4. AS TO DISREGARDIN
LIFE.
159. IMPROVIDENCE .
160. WASTE ....
161. SQUANDERING
162. PRODIGALITY .
THE MEANS OF GUARDING AGAINST HURTFUL
OPPOSING FORCES.
(from L. nee, not, and legerc, to pick up, gather). A term more
of reproach than mere remissness.
(from L. reinitiere, to send back, to relax). Inattention in
regard to matters of duty and responsibility,
(from L. prudens, prudent). Want of due regard to conse-
quences.
(from L. eura, care). Inattention to matters usually of minor
or ordinary moment, from unawakened interest,
(from A.S. heda?i). Inattention to the consequences of conduct
respecting the passing matters of the moment,
(from A.S. ihenean, to think). Serious inattention to matters
of graver moment.
(from A.S. warn, caution). Failing to guard against deception
and artifices.
(from L. a//('«(/^r^, to stretch). Impatience of persistent'thought
respecting casual matters.
(from L. eon and sidere, to sit). Inattention to the circumstances
which regard safety or propriety.
(from A.S./<^;' and getan, to get). Letting facts and duties slip
from the mind. " Men are men ; the best sometimes forget."
G THE MATERIAL RESOURCES AND COMFORTS OF
(from h. pro, before, and videre, to see). Neglect of foresight.
(from L. vastare, to lay waste). Want of care in spending or
using. " More water glideth by the mill than wots the miller
of"
(from Ger. schwinden, to vanish, dwindle). Spending lavishly
or profusely without need and without return.
(from L. pro, forward, forth, and agere, to drive). Spending to
excess and recklessly, and usually for improper purposes.
1. GENERALLY,
163. MALICE .
ir,4. MALEVOLENCE
165. .\L\LIGNITV .
166. CRUELTY .
167. INHUMANITY
-LACK OF BENEVOLENCE.
ffrom L. iiia/i/s, bad, ill, evil). Delighting in doing harm for
harm's sake. " Sucks up the greatest part of her own venom,
and poisons herself."
(from L. 7nale, ill, and 7'olfl, to wish). Malice directed against
others.
(from L. nialignari, to do or act maliciously). Virulently bent
upon harm or evil. " Malicious carries the idea of designing ;
malevolence that of impulse of nature ; malignant, intrinsic
vice or harmfulness."
Inflicting pain regardless of the feelings of those injured.
(from L. ho7no, man). Destitute of the tenderness which
belongs to a human being. *
VICES.
519
168. SARDONIC (L. sardo)iiciis,Gx. (!mpuv,\.o ox\n like a dog-, or from o-«pooj'(o)/,
a plant of Sardinia, Gr. ^apcu>, which was said to screw up the
face of the eater). Sarcasm, with heartless or bitter elements.
169. SELFISHNESS {from A.S. stV/, se//). Supremely caring for one's self.
170. UNKINDNESS (from A.S. fy«, kin). Want of natural aftection.
2. IN REGARD TO THE
171. INSENSIBILITY . .
172. HARD-HEARTEDNESS
173. RUTHLESSNESS . .
174. CHURLISHNESS . .
175. ILLIBERALITY . .
176. SENTIMENTALITY .
3. IN REGARD TO THE
177. IMPLACABLfe . . .
178. UNRELENTING . .
179. UNFORGIVING . .
180. TACITURN
l8r. MERCILESS 1^
182. UNMERCIFUL)
183. UNCHARITABLE
184. HARSH
DISTRESS OF OTHERS, Chiefly.
(from L. sensus, feeling). Want of susceptibility of emotion
and passion.
(from A.S. //mr<^and heorte). Without feelings of pity. "A
man whose blood is very snow-broth."
(from A.S. herowan, to be ashamed). Without any mercy or
compassion.
(from A.S. ceorl, a freeman of the lowest rank, man, husband).
Wanting in softness and liberality.
(from L. h'bt'ralis, liberal). " Withholding more than is meet."
(from L. sentire, to perceive, think, feel). Mawkish feeling.
FAULTS OF OTHERS, Chiefly.
(from I., placere, to please). Not to be appeased.
(from L. lentus, pliant, flexible, slow). Having no pity.
(from A.S. /tr and ^//«;/, to give). Not disposed to overlook,
or to condone.
(from L. iacere, to be silent). Habitually silent, not free to
converse.
I (from L. incrces, hire, pay, reward). Acting without compas-
( sion for the offender.
(from L. carus, dear, costly, loved). Severity in judgment,
failing to make due allowances.
(from Ger. harsch, hard ; D. haerscit, hoarse). Dealing with
others without regard to their affections and feelings, or rights.
4. IN REGARD TO SOCIAL RELATIONS.
185. INHOSPITABLE .... (from L. hospes, guest). Want of tenderness to strangers.
186. inaccessible .... (from L. r£v/<i'rt', to move, to yield). Standing at bay.
187. unsociable • (from L. socii/s, a companion). Averse to companionship or
conversation.
5. IN REGARD TO DISPOSITIONS CONNECTED WITH THE WANT OF BENE-
VOLENCE.
Failing to show
(i) As to the Inward Character.
188. ungraciousness . . . (from L. .^ra/z/j-, beloved, dear, agreeable).
grace or tenderness of heart.
189. ill-nature (from A.S.j/7/6'/, evil and L. ftactis, born). A nature in which
the bitter or bad elements predominate.
190. ILL-WILL (from A.S.yvel, evil, and itille). A nature which carries a
grudge against others,
(2) As to the Outward Expression.
{The following resemble a nest of wasps.)
191. annoying (from L. nocere, to hurt). Molestation from continued acts or
inconvenience.
PROVOKING (from L. pro, forth, vox, vocis, voice, cry, call). The awaken-
ing of some open expression of decided anger. The calling
out to combat.
TEASING (from A.S. /<2'Jrt«, to pluck, pull). The repetition of unpleasant
acts or words.
VEXING (from L. 7/^.x-a?r, to shake). Making angry by little provocations.
AGGRAVATING .... (from L.^r^zTz/j', heavy). Making worse the burden or grievance
of another.
IRRITATING (from L. itt and tra, wrath). Exciting slight resentment.
EXASPERATING .... (from L. asper, rough, harsh). A provoking of anger in its
unrestrained exercise. " Susceptible and nervous people are
most easily irritated ; proud people are o^mck\y provoked ; hot
and fiery people are soonest exasperated."
192
193-
194.
195.
196.
197.
520
5. TANTALISING (from Tantalus, in mythology, a Phrygian king, condemned in
Tartarus to perpetual thirst with tempting fruits and water near
him, which he could never reach). To torment by exciting
hopes or expectations which can never be realized.
E.— LACK OF SELF-CONTROL.
1. AS
199.
200.
201.
202.
203.
204.
205.
206.
207.
208.
EXHIBITED I
INDIFFERENCE
APATHY . .
INSENSIBILITY
LUKEWARMNESS
INACTIVE . .
COLDNESS . .
LETHARGY .
IDLENESS .
INDOLENCE
LAZINESS .
209. SLUGGISHNESS
210.
211.
LISTLESSNESS
SUPINENESS .
212. INERTNESS
WANT OF ENERGY.
(from L. differe, to put off, to separate, be unlike). UnafTected
lay the presence or absence of a person or thing.
(Gr. uTTuOna, from d priv. and nd9oc, from TzaOtiv ■Kaaxnv, to
suffer). Incapable of being ruffled by pleasure, pain, or passion.
(from F. iiisensibilite). Want of power to be readily moved or
affected.
(from A.S. wIcec, warm, warmish, remiss). Never hot nor
cold.
(from L. agere, to do, act). From mere want of stimulus to
effort.
(from A.S. ceald, from colian, to be cold ; akin to L. gelu,
frost). The absence of heat as regards the feelings and
passions.
(L. lethargm, Gr. \ifiapyoQ, forgetful, from ^nQt], forgetfulness,
and dpyoQ, idle, lazy). Invincible sluggishness.
(from A.S. idel, idle, vain, empty). Reluctance to force one's
self to what one does not like.
(from L. dolere, to feel pain). A habitual love of ease, a
settled dislike of movement or effort.
(from O. Eng. lasie. O. Ger. lassen, to leave off). Is opposed
to industry, and is frequently found among those who are
compelled to work for others.
(from sleac, side, slack). Implies some defect of temperament
which directly impedes action.
(from A.S. lystaji). The absence of desire.
(from L. supmum, bent or thrown backward). The absence ot
interest, the wilful absence of interest and will-interest.
(from L. iners, inertis, unskilled, idle). Has something in his
constitution or his habits which operates like a weight holding
him back from exertion.
2. AS TO DEFECTIVE WILL-POWER AND MISAPPLIED ENERGY.
213. IMPULSIVENESS . . . . (from L. /^//^r^, to drive). Hasty inclination.
214. CAPRICE (from F. caprice, L. caper, a goat, as it were a fantastical
goat-leap). Acting on the slightest preference of the moment,
and from one moment to another without such choice as is
founded on deliberation. It manifests itself in abrupt changes
of feeling, opinion, or action.
215. HUMOUR (from L. /w/w^rt', to be moist ; allied to Gr. x'^/'oc, liquid, juice).
Alaking the indulgence of one's temper or mood the principle
of action.
216. WHIM (from W'clsh chwim, a brisk motion). Expresses not any
quality or temper of mind, but something external. A passing
wish or fancy, generally an unreasonable one. Personal
eccentricity.
217. FANTASY (from L. phantasia ; Gr. ^avraaia, 2l making visible, from 0«i-
vnv, to brmg to li^ht). The product of an eccentric or unregu-
lated imagination. It invests objects without attention or
inquiry, with supposed charms or otherwise.
218. RESTLESSNESS .... (from L. r^', again, back, and j^f^-f, to Stand, Stay). Disposed
to wander or to change place or condition.
219. FICKLENESS (from A.S./(:W, crafty, from//V<i«, to touch Hghtly, to flatter).
Belongs rather to the disposition, the others to the temper and
mood. It IS that inconstancy of mind and tastes which shows
itself in inconstant preferences and attachments.
220. CHANGEADLENESS . . . (from L. cambire, to exchange, barter). Refers to humour,
disposition, and temper. ^
221. VARIABLENESS .... (from L. z/z/r/wj, various). Refers to mood.
VICES, 521
OSCILLATION (from L. osdlhan, a swing). Moving backward and forward,
fluctuating between fixed limits.
VACILLATION (from L. vacillare). Going backward and forward in his
opinions and purposes, without any fixity of mind or principles.
WAVERING (from A.S. w«)fcr;/, to hesitate). Distrust of an opinion actually
formed. Is applied to matters of intellectual decision. Shrink-
ing back at the approach of difficulty or danger.
HESITATING (from L. hcsrere, to hang or hold fast). Pausing or delaying
from fear, or doubt, or cowardice.
FLUCTUATING .... (from L. fliicre^^ to flow). As applied not only to matters of
intellectual decision, but to states of feeling. To move as we
are acted upon.
INDECISION (from L. decidere, to determine). Want of settled purpose, or
of firmness in the determination of the will.
PLIABILITY (from L. pHcare, to fold). Capable of being bent about, being
cats' paws.
WEAKNESS (from A.S. ivican, to yield, to totter). That kind of failing
which comes from insufficient energy or judgment to resist, a
propensity unrestrained, though acknowledged to be unwise.
YIELDING (from A.S. gelaan, gildan, to pay, to render). Incapacity of
resistance to the will of another, even when such resistance is
lawful or needful. Nose of wax.
OBSEQUIOUSNESS . . . (from L. ob and scqiii, to follow). Over-compliant, or demon-
stratively, over-courteously, and almost servilely attentive to
the wishes of another.
PRECIPITOUS (from L./ri^c'^/j-, headlong). Evincing rash haste.
HURRY (A.S. //rtvrt//, to move hastily). Not allowing sufficient time or
not taking sufficient thought for necessary steps.
222.
223,
224.
225,
226.
227.
228.
229.
230.
231.
232.
233-
3. AS TO ILL-REGULATED
234. WAYWARDNESS
235. WILFULNESS .
236. PERTINACITY .
237. OBSTINACY .
238. CONTUMACY .
239-
240.
241.
242.
243-
244.
UNRULY
HEADSTRONG
INTRACTABLE
UNGOVERNABLE
HEADY . . .
PERVERSENESS
245. REFRACTORINESS
246.
247.
248.
249.
250.
STUBBORNNESS .
INCORRIGIBLE .
UNCONTROLLABLE
UNMANAGEABLE .
HARDENED . .
WILL-POWER.
(from A.S. wed^ woe, evil, malice). Wilfully and unreasonably
following one's own course.
(from zuill ds^^fuU). Governed by the will without yielding to
reason.
(from L. per, through, and icitax, tenacious, from ienere, to
hold). Holding on, clinging to one's own purpose or opinion,
(from 'L.obstare, to stand before). Inflexible conduct, standing
out against persuasion, instruction, intreaty. Holding out
unreasonably when one ought to give in.
(L. conhonax, insolent, either from con and ttanere, to swell, or
from contcmnere, to despise). Resistance to the demands of
constituted authority.
(from L. reget'c, to govern, to direct, to keep straight). Dis-
posed to violate law. Not submissive to rule,
(from A.S. kedfiid, allied to L. caput, Gr. KKpnXi^ ; and A.S.
strcmg). Directed by ungovernable will, or proceeding from
obstinacy.
(from L. tractare,Xo draw violently, to handle, treat). Refusing
to be taught, disciplined, or tamed.
(from L. gubernare, Gr. Kvfttpvuv). Not capable of being ruled
or restrained.
(from A.S. hedfud). Hurried on by will or passion,
(from L. perverlere, to turn around). A settled obstinacy of
the will, and likes and dislikes by the rule of contradiction to
the will of others.
(from L. f?-aiigere, to break). Perverse or sullen obstinacy in
opposition or disobedience.
(from O. Eng. stteb, or stock). A high degree of obstinacy,
(from L. corrigere, to correct). Incapable of being corrected
or amended.
(from L. 7-otiila, a little wheel). Incapable of being restrained
by right and lawful influence.
(from L. manere, to dwell). Incapable of being brought round
to the plans of those we co-operate with or serve,
(from A.S. Jwardiajij allied to Gr. Kpiroc, strength, vigour). A
settled disregard of, and habit of resistance against, the claims
of persuasion, duty, and sympathy.
OBDURATE
12. CALLOUS
253-
254.
256.
. (from L. ciiirtts, hard). The state of being hardened against
moral influences, a moral determination in opposition to both
moral principle and natural feeling.
. (L. callosus, hard-skinned, from callcrc, to be thick). Having
the sensibilities deadened.
. (from doi^). Surlily obstinate, sourly impracticable.
. (from l^.Jledere, to bend). Obstinacy of temper or will. Not
to be turned.
{The sequel to luafit 0/ Energy and Ruined Will- Power.)
DECLENSION (from L. c//««rt^, to lean, incline). A falling off from excellence
or perfection.
. (from L. des^enerare, to degenerate, from de and genus, generis,
birth, race). Having become worse than one's kind, having
declined in goodness.
. (from L. deterior, worsej. The state or result of growing
worse.
DOGGEDNESS .
INI-LEXIDILITV
DEGENERATION
;7. DETERIORATION.
4. AS TO THE APPETITES.
(ij Generally.
258. LUXURIOUSNESS . . . ,
259. VOLUPTUARY
260. IMMODERATION . . . ,
261. INTEMPERANCE . . .
262. SENSUALITY
(2) Hunger.
263. EPICURE .
264. GOURMAND .
265. GLUTTONY. .
(3) Thirst.
266. DRUNKENNESS
267. INTOXICA'IION
268. INEBRIATION 1
269. INEBRIETY ;
(4) Sexual Instinct.
270. LICENTIOUS
271. DISSOLUTE
272. ABANDONED
273. REPROBATE
274. PROFLIGATE
27;. DEPRAVED .
(from L. luxus, excess). Indulging frce'.y or excessively in
pleasure.
(from L. voluptas, pleasure). The voluptuary lives for pleasure,
but is nice in his tastes.
(from L. moderatus, moderate, from modus, measure). Is
statical, belonging to quantity ; exceeds just, reasonable, or
ordinary bounds generally.
(from L. tempus, time ; Gr. Ttfivetv, to cut off). Unrestrained
indulgence of the desires, undue licence given to will, or the
acting or speaking without self-control. Is dynamical, belong-
ing to force and action.
(L. sensualis, st'nsus, sense). Gratifying the animal propensi-
ties with little discrimination. Immoral indulgence.
To act as an (L. Epicurus ; Gr. 'EiriKovpoc, the Greek philoso-
pher, who assumed pleasure to be the highest good). Devoted
to the luxuries of the table ; with him quality is their recom-
mendation.
To act as a (from F. gourmer, to sip, to lap ; gourmacJicr, to
eat improperly), (hiantity is the point.
(from L. giutirc, to swallow). Eating voraciously or to excess.
Being intoxicated by strong drink.
(from L. toxicum; Gr. toIikuv {sc. tpapfiaKov), a poison in which
arrows were dipped ; from -i^ioj-'. bow, arrow). A wider term
than drunkenness.
nfrom L. ebrius, drunk). The former is the result of drunken-
1 ness. The process or the state (not the habit). The latter
[expresses the state and the habit, but not the process.
(from L. Uccrc, to be permitted). Implies sensual indulgence.
(from L. dissolverc, to let loose). Wanton disregard of every-
thing intervening between desire and its gratification.
(F. abandoiiiier, from a, to, ban, proscription, exile, and danner,
to give). A voluntary surrender of self to a life of self-indul-
gence regardless of every consideration. Sinning against
sobriety and self control.
(from L. reprobare, rcprobatujn, to disapprove, condemn). Cast
away without hope of recovery.
(from L. pro, forward, and///i,'vvr, to strike down). The throw-
ing away of honour, principle, and virtue, and all such-like
moral wealth.
(from L. depravarc, to corrupt, from de and praviis, crooked,
wicked, distorted, perverse, vicious). Perversion of the standard
of rijiht.
523
276. INDELICATE .
277. INDECEN'CV .
278. IMMODESTY .
279. IMMORALITY .
280. INCONTINENT
281. UNCHASTITY .
282. UNCLEANNESS
283. WANTONNESS.
284. LEVYDNESS . .
285. DEBAUCHERY .
286. FORNICATION
287. ADULTERY
288. LECHERY . .
(from L. delicicE, delight). Offending against refined propriety,
good manners, or perfect purity of mind.
(from L. decere, to become). Impure as to outward acts and
appearance or expressions.
(L. iviinodcsttis ; from iti and inodcstiis^ modest ; from modus,
measure). Impure as to character and disposition.
(from L. in and moralis, moral ; from mos, fuoris, manner,
custom). Violation of morality.
(from L. contiiiere, to restrain).
passions and appetites.
(from L. cast us, pure, chaste).
sexual appetites.
(from A.S. claene, of Celtic origin).
degrading and polluting the body.
(W. i^iua/itan, variable, fickle ; gwantwy, apt to move away ;
gwantu, to sever). Without rule or restraint of the appetites.
(from O. Eng. Icwed. lewd, lay, ignorant, vile). The unlawful
indulgence of lust.
(from F. dcbauclicr, orig. to entice away from the workshop,
from banc/ie, workshop). Excessive indulgence of lust.
(from L. fornix, arch, vault, a brothel). The incontinence of
an unmarried person.
(from L. adulter, unchaste).
people.
(from L. lecator, gluttonous).
Incapacity to restrain the
Unlawful indulgence of the
Immorality viewed as
The unfaithfulness of married
Wholesale indulgence of lust.
5. AS TO THE MENTAL DESIRES.
(i) Desire of Possession.
289. AVIDITY (from L. avidiis, eager, avere, to long). Intense desire for
matters of enjoyment and possession. However, more fre-
quently used in its good than in its bad sense.
290. COYETOUSNESS .... (from L. cupidus, eager, from cupere, to desire). Desire of
obtaining what we have not ; regardless, in measure at least,
of the means used.
291. GREEDINESS ..... (from A.S. ^raV/6««, to cry, call). A low, animal, or selfish form
of desire.
292. AVARICE (from L. a.vere, to covet). Inordinate desire of gain. Eager-
ness to get, and hugging the gain when got.
293. SORDIDNESS (from L sordere, to be filthy or dirty). The sacrifice or loss of
what is noble, and the adoption of what is mean in feeling and
conduct in reference to the acquisition of gain.
294. NIGGARDLY (from Icel. hnoggr, sparing, economical). Unwilling to part
with one's money, and hard upon others. Might be placed
under " lack of benevolence."
295. MISERLY (from L- miser, wretched, miserable). Hard upon himself as
well as others.
296. AGGRANDISEMENT . . . (from L. ad and grandis, large, great). Seeking to exalt one's
self in power, wealth, rank^ or honour. " That join house to
house, that lay field to field, till there be no place, that they
may be placed alone in the midst of the earth ! " (Isa. v. 8.)
297. GAMBLING (from A.S. gamian, to play). Playing or gaming for money or
other stake.
6. AS TO THE EMOTIONS.
(i) Fear.
i. By its Absence.
298. RASHNESS (from A.S. hrysan, to rush). The courage of unreflectiveness
and inexperience.
299. TEMERITY (from 'L. temcre,hy chance, rashly). The underrating or dis-
regarding personal danger or consequences. The passive state
of which rashness is the active quality.
300. AUDACITY (from L. audere, to dare). Presumptuous boldness.
301. RECKLESSNESS .... Rashness in its wild abandonment of self-rcspect and restraint.
ii. By Excess.
a. Passi\ely.
302. ALARM (F. alarme, from al, very, and garm, noise, cry). Dread of
possible harm.
524
VICES.
yc)"^. AGITATION (from L. agitare, to put in motion, to drive). The inquietude
and restlessness of the soul.
304. FEAR (A.S./rt'r, a coming suddenly upon, deceit, fear, anger). Giving
way before the nearness of the perilous.
305. FRIGHT (from A. S./r////a;z, to terrify). Sudden confusion of the senses
by an external appearance which produces in an instant an
unreflecting fear.
306. DISMAY (connected with magin, to be able, like our English word may).
Gloomy apprehension destroying the spirit of energy and
enterprise.
307. TERROR (from L. /^rr^n', to frighten). A strong confusing sense of fear.
308. SHYNESS (A.S. J-fT^"!?/;, to shun, avoid). Easily frightened. Overscnsitive-
ness to criticism.
309. BASHFULNESS .... (from daisser, to lower, abash, to hang one's head). Excessive
or extreme modesty, arising from self-distrust, awkwardness,
and oversensitiveness.
310. SHAMEFACEDNESS . . . (from A.S. sccamfast, restrained by shame). Easily confused
or put out of countenance.
b. Actively.
311. COWARDICE (from L. cateda, tail; one who turns tail, like a scared dog).
Slinking back like a terrified beast with the tail between the legs.
312. CRAVEN (from A.S. crajian). Begging one, or shrinking at the
approach of danger.
313. POLTROON (It. pultrone, an idle fellow, sluggard, coward ; usually errone-
ously derived from L. pollice trioicus, maimed in the thumb, it
being once a practice of cowards to cut off the thumbs to avoid
military service). A mean-spirited coward.
314. DASTARD (A.S. adastrigan^ to frighten). A strong term of reproach for
a coward.
315. SNEAKING (from A.S. snacan, snican, to creep, to sneak). Telling in a
cowardly manner against another.
(2) Hope.
316. DEJECTION (from L. dejicere, dejccium, irom. de :\nd jacc7r,io throw). A
state of sadness or sorrow as affecting the countenance and
demeanour, giving a downcast look.
317. DOLEFULNESS .... (from L. <^(-;A';t, to feel pain, to grieve). Full of grief.
318. DEPRESSION iSronx h. de ^.nd premere, pressum,io }^xe.ss). Lowness of spirit,
chiefly constitutional.
319. DESPONDENCY .... (from L. de and spondere, to promise solemnly). A state of
mind, the result of sad or disheartening reflections, as upon a
loss which cannot be recovered, or a failure which cannot be
retrieved, or a hope which is likely to be frustrated, or an
unfavourable aspect of personal aflairs.
320. MELANCHOLY .... (from Gr. ^d\ac, black, and xo\oc, gall, bile). Such dejection
or depression as is either constitutional or chronic in the
individual, and often results from a number of impressions
•which cannot be resolved into any one direct cause of grief or
sadness.
321. DESPAIR (from L. ^/6' and j;^^rrtr<^, to hope). Loss of hope.
(3) Curiosity.
322. INQUISITIVENESS . . . (from L. inquircre, to search into). Busying one's self with
inquiries on a small scale of no intrinsic importance or concern
to himself.
323. CURIOUSNESS . . . . (L. curiosus, careful, inquisitive, from ciira, care). Eager for
information generally of things of little intrinsic importance, or
of little concern to himself.
324. PRYING ''probably contracted from pcr-cye, to eye or look through).
Using one's own powers of observation, rather than questions
put to others, for the purpose of discovering their secret aflairs,
from a low-minded curiosity.
(4) Bride.
i. By Excess.
a. As a Personal Quality.
325. PRIDE •■= (from A.S. f>ryt, honour, ornament). An exaggerated estimate
of the deference due to something which really exists in us,
or belongs to us. Disdains othe«;s, converting superiors into
equals, and equals into inferiors.
J-^
. nAuo-rtiiiMiSpb . . . .
zv
. SELF-CONCEIT . . . .
328
. ARROGANCE
329
. DOGMATISM
330
. VANITY
331
. PRESUMPTION . . . .
'iz'^
AMBITION *
ZV:>
SELF-WILL
334
SELF-SUFFICIENCY . . .
b. As manifested in ]
335-
OSTENTATION ....
336.
DISPLAY
zn-
PARADE
338.
BOASTING
339.
VAUNTING
340.
BOMBAST
341-
PEDANTRY
342.
FOPPISHNESS
c. In our Treatment (
343-
CONDESCENSION- . . .
344-
SUPERCILIOUSNESS . .
345-
SCORN
346.
DISDAIN
347-
VAIN-GLORIOUS ....
348.
CENSORIOUSNESS . . .
349-
CONTEMPTUOUS . . .
350-
SNEERING
351-
OVERBEARING ....
352-
IMPERIOUS
353-
DICTATORIAL ....
354-
DOMINEERING ....
"^^^•-^- 525
, (from L. altiis, high). Intense consciousness of a superiority,
real or imagined.
(from A.S. silf, self, and L. con and capere, to take). The
entertaining an overweening opinion of one's self.
(L. arrogantia,i\:ovc\. ad and roiiare^ to ask, request). Exclusive
self-deference. The extreme of self-assertion.
Asserting with overbearing and arrogance,
(from L. vames, empty, vain). An excessive desire of applause,
approbation, or admiration. Subjects of vanity are good looks,
talents, personal ini^uence, or success, etc.
(from L. prce, before, and sumere, to take). Blind or unreason-
able confidence arising from rashness or conceit.
(L. ainbitio, a going around, especially of candidates for office
in Rome, to solicit votes ; hence, desire for office or honour,
from ajnbirc, to go around). An eager and sometimes an in-
ordinate desire of preferment.
(from A.S. si/p, self, and L. volo, velle, to will). Thinks nothing
of right or wrong ; whatever the impulse of the moment suggests
is the motive to action.
(from A.S. silf self and L. sub, under, and facere, to make).
Through conceit refusing the assistance of every one.
External Display,
(from L. ostendere, to show). Studied display and parade of
possessions or qualities.
(from L. dis, abroad, and plicare, to fold). Courting publicity,
(from L. parare, to prepare). Ostentation of anything calcu-
lated to impress the minds of others in relation to one's own
capacities, powers, possessions, or superiority and excellences
of any kind.
(O. Eng. bost; Ger. pattsten, to swell). Speaking in ostenta-
tious language, with a view to self-praise or self-exaltation.
Connected with vanity.
(from L. vamis, vain). Bringing forward anything to show it
off. Connected with pride.
(from L. bombashim, a doublet of cotton). Swelling words
without much meaning.
(from Gr. tvcCxq, TraiSog, a boy, and dystv, to lead, guide). A
boastful display of one's learning.
(from Ger. foppen, to make a fool of one, jeer). Courting
admiration by personal extravagances,
of Others.
(from L. de, down, and scandere, to climb). Arrogant politeness.
(from L. super, above, over, and ciliiim, an eyelid). Lofty with
pride.
(from L. ex, from, and cornu, a horn). Extreme and passionate
contempt.
(from L. dis and dignari, to deem worthy ; digniis, worthy). A
feeling of mingled contempt and aversion.
(from L. vanus, empty, vain, and gloria, glory). Vain to
excess of one's achievements.
(from L. censo7'ius, pertaining to the censor, from censere to
value, to tax). Severe in making remarks on others.
(from L. contemnere, con and temnere, to slight). Treating
others as greatly inferior to ourselves, and as not worthy of
notice.
(Prov. Eng. snert, to sneer at, snort, to laugh loudlyV Casting
contempt indirectly or by covert expressions.
(from L. super, Gr. vir'ip, and 'L.ferre, to bear, carry, produce ;
Gr. feptn'). Tending to repress or subdue by insolence or
effrontery.
(from L. imperare, to command). Exercising one's authority
in a manner highly offensive for its spirit and tone.
(from L. diccre, to say). Acting like one with absolute power
and regardless of others.
(from L. doniifius, master, from domus, house). Ruling with
insolence and arbitrary sway. Giving orders in a way to make
others feel their inferiority.
526
355- RIDICULE (from L. ridere, to laugh). Contemptuous derision.
356. MOCKERY (from Gr. /uwicoc, buffoon, scorner). Mimicking the Avords or
actions of another.
357. DERISION (from L. de and ridere, to laugh). Scornful or contemptuous
treatment.
358. SCOFFING (from Dan. j-/fz(^, to deceive, delude ; Icel. j>^«//<2, to laugh at).
The use of insolent mockery and derision.
359. JEERING (O. Eng._^tvr^,^i,'-d'<?rt', perhaps a modification of (:/i!^^r, to salute
with cheers or shouts of joy, taken in an ironical sense). The
use of severe sarcastic reflections.
ii. By Defect.
360. LITTLENESS {{vom. A.S. lytel). Dissembling for want of spirit.
361. MEANNESS ('from A.S. mcEtie, gemctnc ; L. communis). The morally
paltry.
362. PALTRINESS (from Ger. ^rt//^, a rag, tatter). Anything that is low, shuffling,
or marked by equivocation, is paltry.
363. BASENESS (from L. bassiis, thick, fat, short, humble). The morally
degraded.
364. SHAMELESSNESS . . . {ixom K.'S. scamu, sceamu,s\i2ss\&,'ax\.^ ldssa,\&%%). An absence
of shame where a feeling of shame is due.
365. VENALITY (from L. t/67K/i', sale ; z/dV/Zr^?, to be sold). Prostration of talents,
offices, or services for money.
366. UNMANLlNESS .... Not worthy of a noble mind. The predominance of feminine
elements ; want of courage ; often allied with meanness.
(5) Envy.
367. RIVALRY (from L. j'ivalis, from rivus, a river, hostile tribes being often
thus separated). Trying to get something for one's self which
is of the nature of a possession, against one or more others
who are trying for the same thing.
368. MISTRUST Withholding trust through doubt or envy.
369. SUSPICION (from L. specere, to look, view). A painful apprehension of
wrong or harm.
370. ENVY (L. ifividia). The feeling of unhappiness or uneasiness pro-
duced by the contemplation of any good belonging to another.
371. JEALOUSY (from L. ^£'/z(ri-, Gr. <J>}\vc, emulation, zeal, jealousy). A painful
apprehension of rivalry.
7. AS TO THE PASSIONS.
(i) Anger.
i. Generally.
372. ANGER (L. angor, frorn angerc, to choke, strangle, torture, vex ; con-
nected with Gr. ayx"»S to press tightly). Keen displeasure
against wrong, real or supposed, whether in the case of others
or themselves.
373. WRATH (from A.S. -wrcedh, violent). Violent and continuous anger,
accompanied with vindictiveness, or, at least, by a desire ot
inflicting suff"ering upon its object.
374. CHOLERIC (L. cholcriciis, Gr. xoXtpik-iJf, from x^^^*^-! bile). The constitu-
tional aspect of anger, or the feeling as it affects the frame,
gestures, and countenance of men.
375. PASSIONATE (from L. />(<//, /ajjw^-, to suffer). Easily excited or agitated by
injury or insult.
376. RAGE (from L. r(^!;/;t'r^, to rave). A vehement, ungovernable ebullition
ot anger akin to the influence of a disease ; breaking forth into
extravagant expressions and violent demeanour. Wrath may
be justifiable, and anger may be just, but rage is a distemper
of the soul, to be regarded only with abhorrence.
377. RESENTMENT .... (from L. ?c, again, and scntire, to feel). Anger inflamed by
sense of personal injury or insult, and hence is too often a
moody feeling, leading one to brood over real or supposed
wrongs with a deep and lasting hatred.
378. VEHEMENCE (from L. 7't'//i7;/tv?j, probably a protracted form for T'^w^/j-, from
7r, an inseparable particle denoting privation, and niens^ the
mind). Acting with greater force than is necessary or expe-
dient.
VICES.
S^l
379. VIOLENCE (from L, vis, strength, force). Excited by strong feeling or
passion, beyond limits of law.
380. FIERCENESS (from h.fertis, wild). Vehement in anger. Marks the haste
and violence of the act.
381. FURY (from L.fitrerc, to rage). Excess of rage, amounting almost
to madness,
ii. As displayed in Noise chiefly.
382. BOISTEROUS (W. btuysf, stormy, furious ; O. Eng. boist, a swelling, threat ;
Scot, bo/si and boas^, to threaten). Violence and rudeness of
noise in words and movements. The result of conflicting,
contrariant, and irregular forces, exerted without uniformity or
self-control.
383. CLAMOROUS (from L. c/amare, to cry out). A noisy use of the voice in con-
tinuous or reiterated angry cries.
384. TURBULENT (from L. h/rba, disorder). A disposition not only to disorder,
but to insubordination.
385. TUMULTUOUS .... (from L. tumere, to swell). Inclined to make a noise in turbu-
lence or in merriment ; but the effect is direct, while that of
boisterous is unintended.
iii. As displayed in Words chiefly.
386. SATIRE (from L. sat, satis, enough). Lively sallies of the imagination
against the character and acts of others.
387. SARCASM (from Gr. aapKa(Tj.i6Q, from aaoKul^tiv, to tear flesh like dogs, to
bite the lips in rage, to speak bitterly, to sneer, from aap'i,
capKOQ, flesh). Satire with poisoned fangs.
388. IRONY (from Gr. fi'iOEij', to speak). A mode of censuring by contraries.
Jt ridicules by pretending to admire, and condemns by feigned
approval.
389. INVECTIVE (from L. vehere, to carry). Aimed at character or conduct,
and may be conveyed in writing and in refined language, and
dictated by indignation against what is itself blameworthy.
Public abuse under such restraints as are imposed by position
and education.
390. ABUSE (L. abusHs, from ab and idi, to use). More personal and coarse
than invective, being conveyed in harsh and unseemly terms,
and dictated by angry feelings and bitter temper,
iv. As displayed in Disputes chiefly.
391. MISUNDERSTANDINGS. . Slight quarrels.
392. DISSENSIONS (from L. dissent ire, to disagree, from dis and sentire, to think).
Partisan and contentious divisions.
393. ALTERCATION .... (from L. altef'care, altercari, from alter, another). An angry
dispute between two parties, involving an interchange of severe
language.
394. SQUABBLES (from L. Ger. quabbeln, to quarrel). Debating peevishly, con-
tending for superiority.
395. WRANGLING (from A.S. ivringan, to wring, strain, press). A confused and
noisy altercation.
396. VARIANCE (from L. varius, various). A difference upon some practical
and not merely an abstract matter of opinion, the result of
previous faults.
397. QUARRELSOMENESS . . (from L.7z^£-r^, to complain). Inclined to petty fighting.
398. PUGNACIOUSNESS . . . (from L. jJz/^/z^r^, to fight). Inclined to fight.
v. When accompanied with Ill-humour and Bitterness especially.
a. As to Temper and Disposition.
399. TARTNESS (from A.S. tearan, to tear, split). Slight asperity, which is
n.o.e unbecoming than bitter, and indicates inconsiderateness
and self-conceit.
400. SOURNESS (from A.S. surian, to sour). Harsh in temper, cross, crabbed,
peevish, discontented.
40X. BITTERNESS (from A.S. biter; Goth, baitre, bitan, to bite). An excessive
decree of impiacableness of passions or emotions.
402. PIQUE (irjm F. piquer, to prick or sting). A quick sense of resent-
ment for some supposed neglect or injury, but the feeling .is
not usually permanent or marked by malevolence.
403. IRRITATION (L. z>r//<?/-ir, from /m, anger). Excitement of quick and slightly
angry feeling.
528
VICES.
404.
405.
EXASPERATION
VEXATION . .
406. MORTIFICATION .
407.
408.
409.
410.
418,
419.
DISCONTENTMENT
CHAGRIN . . .
b. As displayed
COMPLAINING
FRETFULNESS
411. CROSSNESS
412.
413-
414.
4:5-
416.
PEEVISHNESS .
SNAPPISHNESS
PETULANCE .
HARSHNESS .
ASPERITY . .
417, ACRIMONY .
ANIMOSITY
GRUDGE
420. SPITE
421.
HOSTILITY
422.
RANCOUR . .
423-
VITUPERATION
424.
SCURRILITY .
425.
INSOLENCE .
426.
RAPACIOUS
427.
RAVENOUS
428.
FEROCIOUS
429.
FIERCE . .
4^,0.
SAVAGE . .
431-
liARBAROUS
. . (from L. asper, rough, fierce). Increase of violence or malignity.
. , (from L. vcxare, to shake). Making angry by little provoca-
tions.
. , (from L. mors, mortis, death, and facere, to make). Depres-
sion of self-approval. That mortifies which botli disappoints
and humiliates us ; or, while it vexes us, interferes with our
self-complacency, reverses what we had set our minds upon.
. . (from L. dis and contenius, contented, from con and tenere, to
hold). Uneasiness and inquietude of mind.
. . (from F. chagrin or chagrain, shagreen, a particular kind of
rough and grained leather ; also a rough fish-skin used for
graters and files ; hence, figuratively, for a gnawing, corroding
grief). A state of vexation, and also the keenest sense of
mortification.
outwardly.
(from L. co7t ^r\di phuigcre, to bewail). Making a formal asser-
tion of injuries.
(from l.. fricare, fricium, to rub). A disposition which exag-
gerates and feels unduly causes of annoyance or irritation, and
so exhibits itself in a complaining impatience.
(L. crux, criicis, a cross). A thing of humour, and often
quickly passes away. Peevishness mixed with vexation or
anger.
(Etymology uncertain.) A sour, fretful temper,
(from Ger. schnappeii). Sharp in reply, apt to speak angrily
or tartly.
(from i.. petere, to seek, provoke). Temporary or capricious
irritation.
Sometimes similar to asperity j refers rather to some incidental
act than to the manner or nature.
(from L. asper, rough). Relates rather to the manftcr than to
the disposition. A rough way of dealing with others which is
not incompatible with kindness of heart. Opposed to mildness.
(L. acrimonia, from acer, sharp). A deep-seated bitterness of
feeling which shows itself in language and manner. A kind of
habitual bitterness of character showing itself in small things.
(L. animositas, from animus, soul, spirit, courage). A violent,
irritable, and inconsiderate hatred.
(from O. Eng. grutche, gruiclic, to murmur, grumble, com-
plain). Cherished and secret enmity, with an unforgiving
spirit. Ex. Esau and Jacob.
(abbreviated from despite, from L. despiccre, to look down with
contempt on). A temper which delights to express itself in
biting and cutting language, or in low and irritating actions.
A disposition to vex and cross others in trifling matters,
(from L. /lostis, enemy). A desire to thwart and injure,
(from L. rancere, to be rank or rancid). Deep-seated and
malignant enmity.
(from L. vitiu/n, a fault, and parare, to prepare, or parere, to
bring forth). Severe censure,
(from L. scurra, a buffoon, jester). Vulgar abuse,
(from L. so/ere, to be accustomed). Pride and haughtiness
manifested in contemptuous and overbearing treatment of
others.
cd with Fierceness.
(from L. rapcre, to seize and carry off, to snatch away)
Given
Ready to devour an
The disposition
to seizing from a desire of possessing
(from L. rapere, to seize and take away)
opponent.
(trom L. fcror, fierce, allied to ferus, wild).
marking wildness and cruelty.
(L./t'r«j, wild, savage, cruel). Implies haste and violence in
cruelty.
A cruel and unfeeling spirit.
(L. barbarus, (ir. liap^^apaq, foreign, barbarous). Implies the
coarseness and brutality by which the act was marked.
VICES. 529
432. ATROCIOUS (from L. at7-ox, cruel, fierce). Implies extreme heinousness or
cruelty.
433. SANGUINARY (from L. sanguis, blood). Anger, thirsting for bloodshed.
434. BRUTISH (from P. brut, raw, rough, rude ; L. brittus, stupid, irrational).
Unfeeling, unintelligent in carrying out one's rage.
435. RUFFIAN ...... (from L. r//^a;«^j-, a pimp, a follower of r/^2^, loose women, so
called from wearing red or auburn hair, from rubies, red).
Boisterous, brutal conduct.
8. AS TO THE MENTAL ENDOWMENTS,
(i) Taste.
i. By Deficiency.
436. AWKWARD (O. Eng. rt^e//^, left, and 7£/«r^/). Untowardness of movement.
437. CLUMSY (from Prov. Eng. clumps, a stupid fellow). Natural and
general heaviness of limb.
438. UNGAINLY (from A. S., /^/z, not, and ^^;z^,?, strong). Chronic clumsiness.
439. UNCOUTH (from A.S. cutman, to know). Is in matters of demeanour
what the awkward and clumsy is in matters of action or move-
ment.
440. ABRUPT {L. abrufitus,iYOTs\ ab and rumpere,\.Q> break). Want of ease
in passing from one thing to another.
441. ROUGH [ixom.'L. raucus). Lacking refinement.
442. UNSEEMLY (from O. Eng. seem, to become, befit). Acting in an un-
becoming manner.
443. INDECOROUS (from L. decoris, gracefulness). Violating the established rules
of propriety, or the duties of respect which age or station
requires.
ii. By Extravagance or Excess. %
444. DAINTINESS (O, Fr. dain. dainty, fine, quaint, curious, probably from L.
digfius, worthy, suitable). Requiring the choicest of every-
thing.
445. SCRUPULOUSNESS . . . (from L. scrupulus, a doubt). A small sharp or pointed stone,
the twenty-fourth part of an ounce, a scruple. Hesitation
as to action from the difficulty of determining what is right or
expedient.
446. FASTIDIOUSNESS . . . (from L. fcistidcre, to disdain ; fastus, haughtiness). Taste
and feeling are offended by trifling defects or errors. Diffi-
cult to please.
447. SQUEAMISHNESS . . . (from A.S. ciuellan, to slay ; Ger. qualm, a disposition to
vomit). Vicious, or rather pretended delicacy of taste.
9. AS TO THE ANIMAL SPIRITS.
448. GIDDINESS (from A.S. ^/</(//a;?, to be giddy). Exuberance of spirits with-
out the checks of experience and reflection.
449. VOLATILITY (from L. volare, to fly). Lightness of disposition ; a tendency
to fly from one thing to another from curiosity and petty
interest, and to extract pleasure of a passing kind from a
variety of objects and pursuits.
450. LIGHTNESS (from L. levis, light in weight). Holding on to principle in
thought and action with a perilously attenuated thread.
451. FLIGHTINESS (from A.S. 7?ftf_^a;z, to fly). Comes of mental unsteadiness or
deficiency, which may show itself in capricious fancies, irregular
conduct, and disordered conceptions.
452. LEVITY (from L. levis, light in weight). A disrelish for ideas of
principle and duty. A disregard of the proprieties of time and
place.
34
SECTIONAL INDEX.
SECTION I.
CHRISTIAN EVIDENCES.
{See pp. I-
Reference is given not only to the page where the article occurs, but to the number of the article marked on the left-hand side
of Classified List (pp. 4, 5), as well as in the body of the book; and with both, these aids the subjects sought should invariably
be studied.
Agnosticism
Altruistic Secularism
Analogy as a Guide to Truth ...
,, as an Aid to Faith
Anthropological Argument
Antinomianism ...
Apollinarianism ...
A posteriori and a priori Argument
Archjieology
Arianism ...
Atheism ...
,, Materialistic ...
Authority of the Canon
,, ,, Scriptures
Basis of Faith
Belief, Primary ...
Bible, Chronology of the
,, Difficulties
Brahminism
Buddhism
Canon, Authority of the
Character of Christ, j-^-t' Teaching of ...
Characteristics, Christian
Christ, Divinity of
,, Resurrection of
,, Teaching of, see Character of ...
Christian Characteristics
,, Church, Existence of
,, Morals (generally)
,, Philosophy
,, Heathen, and Jewish Systems
Christianity, as adapted to Man's Nature
and Needs ...
Christianity, sec Divine Origin of
,, sec Modern Civilization ...
,, .fft' Moral Philosophy
,, Jf^ Philosophy of
,, see Progress of
, , see Reasonableness of
,, see Temporal Benefits of...
,, see Theistic Elements of...
Chronology of the Bible
Church, see Christian Church
,, of the Future and its Conflicts
Civilization, see Modern Civilization ...
Coincidences, see Undesigned ...
Communism
PAGE
148
ART.
69
Confucianism
PAGE
217
ART.
104
151
70
Connection of Science and Philosophy
50
24
with Religion
28
15
50
24
Cosmogony, IVIosaic
282
137
74
37
Cosmological Argument
75
39
230
no
Cosmologism, Philosophical
195
94
232
III
Constitution and Course of the World
53
26
74
3S
Continuity of the Scriptures
271
133
112
54
Conversion of St. Paul
114
55
232
112
Credibility of the Gospel History
272
134
160
74
Critical and Verifying Faculty of Man
254
122
166
76
265
129
Deism
184
84
266
130
Difficulties, Bible
268
131
,, of Infidelity
138
64
53
25
Divine Government, The
54
27
64
Zl
,, Legation of Moses
276
135
270
132
„ Origin of Christianity
11
16
268
131
Divinity of Christ
7
I
210
102
Dogmatic Faith
255
123
211
103
Doubt
152
71
Dualism ...
236
"3
265
129
Efficacy of Prayer
256
124
127
62
Ethical Argument
78
40
125
60
Evolutionism
191
93
7
I
E.xistence of the Christian Church
115
56
116
57
127
62
Faith and Freethought ...
260
126
125
60
,, ,, Philosophy ...
260
125
"5
56
,, Dogmatic
255
123
121
59
,, j-f^ Busis of
53
25
126
61
Fatalism ...
237
114
23
13
Fetishism...
218
105
Final Causes of Natural Things
55
28
21
12
First Cause
58
29
•ZZ
16
Formalism
200
97
^^0
17
Freetliought
190
91
38
18
Freethought, see Faith and
260
126
40
19
Future, .fiv Church of the
27
14
42
20
Life, The
9
2
43
21
,, State, .ff^ Soul ...
68
35
44
22
47
23
God, Personality of
17
S
270
132
Gospel History, Credibility of the
272
134
"5
56
Gnosticism
237
"5
27
14
36
17
Heathen Systems, see Christian and ...
23
13
286
138
Heresy (generally)
228
109
206
99
Historical Argument
80
41
5J»
SECTIONAL INDEX.
llUtoiy (g.nnallv)
.. ..f Hi.ImIi.I
llitly (Mionl, rri>n)iml Aii<ii( y i>l llu- ..
Itiiiiiiiitiilily (luilividtml) of Man
l...,.n.,.l(nll. Vlio
Iii>lillii.'iili-.hi
Iiilol.'lily. IXIIinillU'Hor
,, (vifwril i-t'Uiiully)
Iiixpiittlloii
Iiiiliiirl"!, Ufligioii-i
IlllllitilllUllillU
IllNVUIll Wlllll-..
It^wl>«li Sylrnis, i,v l'liu-.ii.«n Mini
nulitiitiii (MoiltMii)
l.ck<al(i>ii til Mtwd, .*iv hivine ...
Mail i>n A Spiiitual llrii\ij
,, J'u"«" uiul K»<>.|umNililc
Miu\'i N.itun'tunl Nt^t^^lH,,^^v^■hli^lii\l\ity
MiUoualiMMt
l'hil..so|.Ma»l
MtUfiialUiit- .AiluMhiu .,, ,,, ,,,
Mokttinitio l'(u|>l>f('y
Mola|i|\yxital .\iminuM\l
Miriulo rtiul S» i»>i\»o . ,
,, (i;rmM.\llv)
,, *>f r«iiiVi»< *u\il ^a|>i^t•>
MotltMU l'ivin<rtlli>ii i» Uclaliou lv>
I'lvuxtirtuity ...
Mv..l.M.» Tlu.uKl't
M>>l>.>tnm»'ilrtuiM»»
Mxial l'lltU-.Ol>l>V ilt Kol.tlU'M U^ i'ltlls
liamlY
>h.ialN. riuiMiau
Mum-!., st< l>ivuu" l.c^-ativiu of
Mv<.luism
Mytlu.UHiV
Nntuial rhiUttviphy
NaIuio
I'Dtloimtty *>t
NaUu<\li«i)\
NvH'osi^ily ol" Kt>v«)Ativku, >v»v TuwiUiUiy
ol
Nis>K«i;v ...
Nuud'n, A 1 ink l>ot\\ivn \\w Pivinc
luU'lli^viKo (\ml Muuun
Oi»u»Kv^ival A\\\\ W\:\.A\A\y^\K\\\ Avgu-
HUMU
1 1 1
S.i
l.ll>
fS
lo
J
II
4
«4
s
\m
06
•J«
H
'.%
68
f'7
i''»
I7t.
ki
«.M
f'.i
21
«<
3I<>
lo6
31
l66
96
Si
u>7
iJi
jSj
376
J41
I So
107
iii
'.55
ti
7
13
75
\l
47
42
40
.|S
5^
«7
(.6
107
St.
iS
5'>
>.i7
n6
imS
I'atjAU'*, iw Miuu'U** t>f ...
. 107
5^
r.u>i)>o»\»\
'74
J^^
r H'>>1>, >vV MivAClCii ol
U7
^0
l\i.i^;i,>mM\\
-43
".5
ro>>v>».»Uiy v»f IUkI
,: .;5
^VvM^vv^^u^
...
79
rh>Uw»o|>hK"»l i \«»wxl^>j>Um
.. >05
W
,, NUtfiUliMu
.. l6^
77
rh»Kv\v>jv)»v. Vhusli.KU ...
IJO
61
-v.v \U>ua ThiKvsxHvby
3S
iS
,, NttUual
M
31
|'hvUk*v>i4vy, .>»v v.\v»viuvUott
*.vf Sciciwc
ana jS
"15
,, see Knilh uml
,, of ("hrisliuuily
S,uvulaliv.-
o( Uul.rlicl
|•lly^u■o.■nu•ol,.^;ilal, or Teleological
Aluumtui ...
ToNMiliility uiul Necessity of Ui-vilation
I'layt-r, KlVuary of
I'rimaiy Mtlicf
I'i<>^;uss ol t'luislianily
l'">l">'<-'y.(H<«HMally)
rioviilciitial .\i^;um<i\l ...
I'lovMuv oi UtaM.u
l'.syrlu>lojiH.al Aimmnut
Rationalisiu
Keasou, I'luviiu'f t>t
,. ThiuKs al.ove
K<-asoiuil>leness of C'hiisliaiuly
KriU'itiptiou, Moral Ncccs.sily of
Kelij;ii>i\, .VfV .Science ami
Kelinious Instincts
Kes»irrcctii>n of Christ, The ...
Kcvdation, .ttv l\>s.siliility of
Sabellianism
.Sicptiiism
.Science, .ftv Connecliiin of Science
,, ,fe-«? Miracles ami
Scientism
.Scriptures, Authority of the
(.\>nlin«iiy of the
Sccul.nisnx
,, Altruistic ...
Semi IVlajiiauism
Sin, The Reality of
.Socialism., .
Sivinianism
Soul, The, ami the Future St.xc
Spivnlative I'hilosophy ...
.Spmtualisnv
St. Taul, .v'tv Tonveision of
Snpernattiral, The
Superstition
Teaching and Character ivt Christ
TeleoKv^ical At^unvent
IVmpvMal Uenehts of Christianity
Theism
Theistic Klements of Christianity
Thinjjs alH>ve Reason
Thvmjjht, .MvAlern
Travlition
Transcenvlcntalism
Trinity, The lively
I'nbelief, PhiUvsv^phy v>f
l"»uleM^ne\l Coincideiuvs of the OKI
anvl New l\Mament
rnitv>rmity v»f Natur« ...
l'nit,»ii.uusm
V'mxeisalisn^
Vcrifyinj; K.vculty, ,fev Critical and
\Vitnc.v>, ln\\at\l
l-AOR
ART.
260
135
40
19
I7S
82
144
67
.11
44
5'
256
124
64
33
42
20
95
46
93
1^^
262
84
43
i.SS
.S.)
-•(.J
uS
J(>1
>27
4.?
iS
9
28
J5
n
34
lit.
57
loS
5»
245
118
•-■^^
• 72
38
>5
106
40
it)6
95
206
130
371
«33
«57
73
307
100
>5>
70
-47
no
iS
10
30S
lOl
24S
120
6S
35
»7S
S3
1S7
ss
114
55
UK)
S3
-WJ
. 9i>
127
(>3
Sn
44
44
2i
l^S
H
47
23
301
137
141
66
1 Iv)
ss
»44
3 So
i;S
r*.''
;o
lOl
03
-4S
131
254
133
>34
P3
533
SECTIONAL INDi:X
SECTION II.
NAMES AND TITLES OF THE HOLY SPIRIT.
Reference is given not only to the page wliere the articles 0(
of Classi/ieii List (xt. 319X ns well n:; in the body of the (took;
iir, b\it to the number of the article marked on the left-hand side
iind with boik these aids the subject sought should invariably be
Adopt i.)u, Spirit of
lircalli of Ihc Alinit;lily
Christ, Spirit of ,..
Comforter
Counsel, Spirit of
I'^ternal Spirit, Tlic
KatluT, Spirit of (lie
KcMroftlu-Lonl, Spirit
Free Spirit
Glory, Spirit of ...
Gon
God, Spirit of ...
Good Spirit
Grace, Spirit of ...
Holiness, Spirit of
Holy God, Spirit of the
Holy Spirit
Judgment, .Sjiirit of
3CKI
306
.?-'4
.503
J3J
3>4
293
30J
3.?4
J'5
335
307
336
339
Kiioulcdi^e, Spirit of ..
Life. Spirit of
I.oui., riu-
Lord, Spirit of the
Lord Cod, Spiiit of the..,
Mi};hl, Spirit of
Power of the ilit^hest ...
Promise, Spirit of Holy
Propheey, Sjiirit of
Revelation, Spirit of
Seven .Spirits of God
Son, Spirit of the
The Spirit
Truth, Spirit of
Understanding, Spirit of
Voice of the Lord
Wisdom, Spirit of
TACK
322
Ah-r.
22
3>6
295
303
303
3'J<
20
2
10
1 I
301
30S
322
'4
-'3
323
-N
302
3"9
7
«5
207
324
337
4
27
35
327
2S
310
16
327
29
534
SECTIONAL INDEX.
SFXTION V.
MAN, AND HIS TRAITS OF CHARACTER.
Third Part.
THE VIRTUES, INCLUDING EXCELLENCES.
(See Classified Descriptive List, p. 502).
Abstemiousness ...
Accessible
Accommodating . . .
Accuracy ...
Acumen
Acuteness
Admiration
Affability
Agreeablcness
Amiability
Application
Ardour
Assiduousness
Attention
Awe
Becoming
Beneficence
Benevolence
Benignity
Boldness ...
Bravery
Calmness
Candour ...
Carefulness
Cautiousness
Charity (Love) ...
Chastity ...
Cheerfulness
Chivalrous
Circumspection ...
Citizens ...
Civility
Cleanliness
Clemency
Collecteihiess
Compassion
Complaisant
Com posed ness ...
Confidence
Conjugal ...
Conscientiousness
Considerate
Consistency
Constancy
Contentment
Continence
Correctness
Courtesy ...
Daring
Decency
Decision ...
Decorum ...
507
157
Deference
506
I3S
Determination ...
506
134
Diffidence
503
29
Diligence
504
65
,,
504
64
Discernment
503
53
Discretion
506
130
Discrimination ...
506
127
Disinterestedness
'506
128
Docility
505
81
507
154
Earnestness
505
87
Economy
504
79
Endurance
503
55
Energy ...
Enterprising
508
210
Enthusiasm
505
104
Esteem
505
88
Equity
506
132
E.xactness
507
165
Examination
507
167
E.xpeditiousness ...
508
181
Fairness ...
502
16
Faithfulness
504
72
Fellow-countrymen
(Patriotism
504
74
Fervour
505
89
Filial
507
160
Fitness
507
175
Fixity of Purpose
503
47
Forbearance
504
73
Forethought
506
121
Forgiveness
503
45
Fortitude...
507
163
Frankness
506
109
Fraternal
508
182
Friends ...
505
98
Frugality...
506
135
508
183
Generousness
507
178
Geniality
506
118
Gentleness
502
8
Genuineness
506
136
Good Faith
502
Cjood Humour ...
502
12
(lood Nature
509
220
Goodwill
507
161
Graciousness
503
30
Gratitude
...
503
48
(Gravity
Guilelessness
507
166
508
204
Heroism
...
507
142
Honesty
*
508
205
Honourable
P.^GE
ART.
503
52
507
143
508
186
503
25
505
84
504
62
504
68
504
63
505
93
508
ib9
507
153
504
76
507
177
507
150
507
169
507
151
506
"3
503
39
503
31
504
80
503
27
503
41
502
U
506
122
507
155
506
116
508
208
507
145
509
217
504
71
505
105
507
173
502
17
506
117
506
119
504
75
505
102
506
129
508
211
502
10
502
14
506
125
506
126
506
124
SO6
^^0
504
58
508
200
502
23
507
174
503
40
502
9
SECTIONAL INDEX.
535
Hopefulness
Humane Feelings
Humility...
Incorruptibility ...
Indignation
Indulgence
Impartiality
Independence
Industry ...
Innocence
Integrity ...
Intrepidity
Judgment...
Justice
Kind-heartedness
Kindness...
Leniency...
Lii:)erality
Long-suffering ...
Love
Loving-kindness
Lowliness
Loyalty ...
Magnanimity
Master and Servant
Meekness
Methodically
Mercifulness
Mildness
Moderation
Modesty
Munificence
Naturalness
Neatness ...
Neighbours
Nobleness
Obedience
Obliging ...
Observation
Orderly
Paternal and Maternal
Patience
Peaceableness
Peacemaking
Penetration
Pity
Politeness
Precision ...
Probity
Promptness
Propriety...
Prudence...
Punctuality
Purity
Quietness
Rectitude
Reflection
Regard
507
176
Reliance
505
90
Resentment
508
184
Reserve ...
Resignation
502
19
Resolute ...
503
56
Resolution
505
107
Respect
508
215
Reverence
503
42
508
190
Satisfaction
505
85
Scientifically
502
22
Seemliness
502
6
Sedateness
507.
172
Sedulousne.ss
61
Self-conquest
504
Self-control
503
38
Self-denial
Self-devotion
505
100
Self reliance
505
91
Self-sacrifice
506
Serenity ...
no
Seriousness
505
lOI
216
Simplicity
509
Soberness
505
89
Sobriety
5°l
92
Solemnity
508
185
Stability
503
44
Staidness
Steadiness
508
192
Straightforwardness
506
123
Strictness
508
212
Study
503
^\
Suavity
^°^
106
Submission
508
213
Suitableness
ioi
159
188
Sympathy
Systematically ...
505 •
103
502
20
Temperance
508
506
508
203
120
Tenacity of Purpose
191
Tenderness
Thankfulness
503
506
505
503
43
35
Thrift
Tidiness
Tolerance
Tractableness
Tranquillity
S06
115
Transparency
Trustworthiness ...
509
219
Truth
506
506
504
505
503
503
502
503
112
III
Truthfulness
66
99
Unchangeableness
46
32
7
26
Uncomplainingly
Undauntedness ...
Uprightness
Urbanity ... "
508
206
504
67
Valour
503
28
Veneration
507
162
Veracity
Vigilance
508
194
Watchfulness ...
502
4
Wisdom
505
83
506
114
Zeal
PAGE
ART.
507
179
503
57
507
164
509
222
507
168
507
144
503
50
503
51
509
221
503
37
508
207
50S
195
505
86
506
140
506
139
505
94
505
95
507
180
505
96
508
201
50S
198
502
24
508
193
507
158
508
199
507
148
508
197
507
147
502
18
503
33
505
82
506
137
509
223
508
209
505
97
503
34
507
141
507
156
507
146
505
108
504
59
504
77
508
202
508
214
508
187
508
196
502
21
502
15
502
I
502
2
507
149
509
218
507
171
502
5
503
49
507
170
503
54
502
3
504
70
504
69
504
60
507
152
536
SECTIONAL INDEX
SECTION V.
MAN, AND HIS TRAITS OF CHARACTER.
Fourth Part.
THE VICES, INCLUDING FAULTS AND DEFECTS.
{See Classified Descriptive List, p. 521.)
Abandoned
Abrupt
Abuse
Acrimony...
Adulation
Adultery ...
Affectation
Affront ...
Aggrandisement .
Aggravating
Agitation...
Alarm
Altercation
Ambiguity
Ambition...
Anger
Animosity
Annoying
Apathy ...
Arbitrary...
Arrogance
Artful ...
Asperity ...
Aspersion
Atrocious...
Audacity ...
Austerity ...
Avarice ...
Avidity ...
Awkward...
Backbiting
Barbarous
Baseness ...
Bash fulness
Bitterness
Blunt
Boasting ...
Boisterous
Bombast ...
Bribing ...
Brutish ...
Busybodies
Callous ...
Calumny ...
Caprice ...
Carelessness
I'AGE.
ART.
222
272
529
440
527
390
52S
417
513
38
523
287
515
69
516
96
523
296
519
195
524
303
523
302
527
393
514
46
525
332
526
372
528
418
519
191
520
200
516
117
525
328
515
72
52cS
416
513
23
529
432
523
300
517
125
523
292
523
289
529
436
513
32
528
431
526
363
524
309
527
401
516
99
525
338
527
382
525
340
517
126
529
434
516
"5
522
252
512
21
520
214
5IS
152
Cavilling ...
Censoriousness
Chagrin ...
Changeableness
Choleric ...
Churlishness
Clamorous
Clandestine
Clumsy ...
Coarse
Coldness ...
Complaining
Compromise
Concealment
Condescension
Contemptuous
Contumacy
Covetousness
Cowardice
Crafty ...
Craven
Crossness...
Cruelty ...
Cunning ...
Curiousness
Daintiness
Dastard ...
Debauchery
Deceitful ...
Declension
Defiimation
Degeneration
Dejection...
Depraved...
Depreciation
Depression
Derision ...
Despair ...
Designing
Despondency
Despotic ...
Deterioration
Detraction
Dictation...
Dictatorial
Dilatory ...
Discontentment
PAGE
ART.
514
"^t
525
348
528
408
520
220
526
374
519
174
527
383
515
78
529
437
516
97
520
204
528
409
513
33
82
515
525
343
525
349
521
238
523
290
524
3"
5IS
70
524
312
528
411
518
166
515
75
524
323
529
444
524
314
523
285
515
74
522
25s
513
24
522
256
524
316
522
275
513
27
524
318
526
357
524
321
515
76
524
319
516
522
257
512
22
517
124
525
353
512
18
528
407
SECTIONAL INDEX.
537
Discourteous
Disdain
Disguise ...
Dishonest
Disingenuous
Dismay ...
Disobedience
Disparagement ...
Display
Disrespect fulness
Dissembling
Dissensions
Dissimulation
Dissolute...
Doggedness
Dogmatism
Doleful ness
Domineering
Doul:)le-dealing ...
Drunkenness
Eccentricity
Envy
Epicure ...
Equivocation
Error
Evasion ...
Exaggeration
Exasperating
Exasperation
Falsehood
Falsity
Fantasy ...
Fastidiousness ...
F'awning ...
Fear
Feigning ...
Ferocious
Fickleness
Fierce
Fierceness
Flattery
Flightiness
Fluctuating
Foolishness
Foppishness
Forgetfulness
Formality
Fornication
Fraud
Fright
Fretfulness
Fury
Fussiness
Gambling
Garrulousness
Giddiness
Gluttony ...
Gossiping
Gourmand
Greediness
Gross
Grudge ...
Guile
Hardened
Hard-heartednc3s
Harsh
Harshness
Haughtiness
516
525
514
515
515
524
517
513
525
517
514
527
515
522
522
525
524
525
514
522
517
526
522
514
512
514
512
519
528
103
346
63
88
77
306
134
28
336
135
62
392
68
271
253
329
317
354
59
266
143
370
263
44
8
45
10
197
404
512
2
512
3
520
217
529
446
513
41
524
304
514
65
528
428
520
219
528
429
527
380
513
37
529
451
521
226
518
144
525
342
518
158
516
113
523
286
515
86
524
305
528
410
527
381
516
114
523
297
518
146
529
448
522
265
513
30
522
264
523
291
516
102
528
419
5IS
81
521
250
519
172
519
184
528
415
525
326
Headstrong
Heady
Heedlessness
Hesitating
Hollowness
Hostility
Humour ...
Hurry
Hypocrisy
Idleness
Ignorance
Illiberality
Ill-nature...
Ill-will
Immoderation ...
Immod^gty
Immorality
Imperious
Impertinence
Implacable
Impolite ...
Imposition
Improvidence
Imprudence
Impudent
Impulsiveness
Inactive ...
Inaccessible
Inattention
Incoherence
Incongmity
Inconsideration ...
Inconsistency
Incontinent
Incorrigible
Indecency
Indecision
Indecorous
Indefiniteness
Indelicate
Indignity...
Indifference
Indolence
Inebriation
Inebriety
Inertness ...
Infatuation
Inflexibility
Ingratitude
Inhospitable
Inhumanity
Injudiciousness ...
Injury
Injustice ...
Inquisitiveness ...
Insensibility
Insincerity
Insolence
Insubordination or Disloyalty
Insult
Insurrection
Intemperance
Interference
Intoxication
Intractable
Intrigue
Invective...
Irony
Irritating
Irritation...
521
240
521
243
518
153
521
225
514
64
528
421
520
215
521
233
514
60
520
206
517
139
519
175
519
189
519
190
522
260
523
278
523
280
525
352
516
III
519
177
516
105
87
518
159
518
151
516
107
520
213
520
203
519
186
518
156
512
II
512
12
518
157
512
6
523
280
521
247
523
277
521
227
529
443
514
53
523
276
516
95
520
199
520
207
522
268
522
269
520
212
517
140
522
254
517
138
185
519
518
167
517
141
516
108
5IS
89
524
322
520
201
519
171
514
61
528
425
517
130
516
94
517
129
522
261
516
109
522
267
521
241
515
80
527
389
527
388
519
196
427
403
538
SECTIONAL INDEX.
p.\r.E
ART.
P.AGE
ART.
Jealousy ...
... 526
371
Prodigality
... 518
162
Jeering ...
... 526
359
Profligate
Provoking
... 522
... 519
274
192
Knavery
- 51S
85
Prying
... 524
324
Pugnaciousness
■.. 527
398
Lawlessness
••• 517
^Zl
Laxity
... 514
52
Quarrelsomeness
... 527
397
Laziness ...
... 520
208
Quibbling
... 514
48
Lechery ...
••• 523
2S8
Lethargy
... 520
205
Rage
... 526
376
Levity
... 529
452
Rancour ...
... 528
... 528
422
Lewdness...
■•• 523
284
Rapacious
426
Libel
- 513
25
Rashness
... 523
298
Licentious
... 522
270
Ravenous
... 528
427
Lightness
••• 529
450
Rebellion
••• 517
131
Listlessness
... 520
210
Recklessness
••• 523
... 521
... 518
... 522
301
Littleness
... 526
360
Refractoriness
245
Looseness
... 514
51
Remissness
150
Loquaciousness
... 518
148
Reprobate
273
Lukewarmness ...
... 520
202
Resentment
... 526
377
218
Luxuriousness ...
... 522
258
Restlessness
... 520
Lying
... 512
I
Reviling ...
... 512
20
Revolution
•.. 517
132
Malevolence
... S18
164
Ridicule
... 526
355
Malice
... 518
163
Rig-nir
... 517
121
Malignity
... 518
165
Rivalry
... 526
367
Meanness
... 526
361
Rough
... 516
98
Melancholy
... 524
320
,,
... 529
441
Merciless...
••• 519
181
Rude
... 516
lOI
Miserly
... 523
295
Ruffian
... 529
435
Misrepresentations
... 512
4
Ruthlessness
... 519
Mistake ...
... 512
9
Mistrust ...
... 526
368
Sanguinary
... 529
433
Misunderstandings
.•• 527
391
Sarcasm
•■. 527
3S7
Mockery ... '^
... 526
356
Sardonic ...
... 519
168
Mortification
... 52S
406
Satire
... 527
386
Savage
... 528
430
Negligence
... 51S
149
Scandal
•■• 513
29
Niggardly
•■• 523
294
Scoffing
... 526
358
Scorn
... 525
345
Obdurate
... 522
251
Scrupulousness ...
... 529
445
Ohsequiousness ...
... 521
231
Scurrility...
... 528
424
Obstinacy
... 521
237
Secrecy
•■• 515
83
Obstructive
... 516
106
Sedition ...
... 517
128
Officious
... 516
no
Self-conceit
••. 525
327
Oscillation
... 521
222
Selfishness
... 519
169
Ostentation
... 525
335
Self-sufficiency
••• 525
334
Outrage
... 516
93
Self-will
•■■ 525
Overbearing
••• 525
351
Senselessness
... 51S
145
Sensuality
... 522
262
Tahriness
... 526
362
Sentimentality ...
... 519
176
I'arade
••• 525
337
Servility
••• 513
42
Parasite ...
■• 513
39
Severity ...
••. 517
119
Passionate
... 526
375
Shallowness
... 514
58
Pedantry
... 525
341
Shamefacedness ...
... 524
310
Peevishness
... 528
412
Shamclessness
... 526
364
Perfidy
... 512
15
Shortsightedness
••• 517
142
Perjury ...
... 512
5
Sliutlling ...
... 514
47
Pert
... 516
100
Shyness
•■■ 524
308
Pertinacity
... 521
236
Simulation
•■■ 515
67
Perverseness
... 521
244
Slander
... 513
26
Petulance
... 52S
414
Sluggishness
... 520
20Q
Pique
... 527
402
Slyne.ss
... 515
73
Phusibiliiy
... 514
55
Snappishness
... 52S
413
Plial)ility
-. 521
22S
Sneaking...
... 524
315
Poltroon
••• 524
313
Sneering
••■ 525
350
Precipitous
... 521
232
Sophistry
... 514
50
Presumption
... 525
ZZ^
Sordidness
•■■ 523
293
Pretence ...
... 514
66
Sourness ...
.■• 527
400
Prevarication
514
43
Sjieciousness
... 514
54
Pride
.^-4
325
Spite ... ..>
... 528
420
Procrastination ...
512
16
Squabbles
••. 527
394
SECTIONAL INDEX.
539
Squandering
Squeaniishncss .
Sternness
Stiffness ...
Strictness
Stubbornness
Subtle
Superciliousness .
Superficiality
Sujiineness
Susi)icion
Sycophant
Taciturn ...
Talkativeness
Tantalising
Tartness ...
Teasing ...
Temerity ...
Temporising
Terror
Thoughtlessness
Threatening
Time-serving
Tittle tattle
Treachery
Trimming
Tumultuous
Turbulent
Tyrannical
Uncharitable
Unchastity
Uncivil ...
Uncleanness
Uncontrollable
Uncouth ...
Underhand
Undutifulness
Unfairness
Unfaithfulness
Unforgiving
Ungovernable
Ungainly ...
'AGE
AKT.
518
161
Ungraciousness ..
529
447
Unkindness
517
122
Unmanageable ..
516
112
Unmanline.ss
517
120
Unmerciful
521
246
Unprincipled
515
84
Unpunctuality ..
525
344
Unreasonableness
514
57
Unrelenting
520
211
Unruly
526
369
Unseemly
513
40
Unsociable
Unthankfulness ..
519
I So
Untruth
5rS
147
Unwariness
S20
198
527
399
Vacillation
519
193
Vagueness
523
299
Vain -glorious
513
524
34
307
Vanity
Variableness
518
517
154
123
Variance ...
Vaunting
513
36
Vehemence
513
31
Venality ...
512
14
Vexat on ...
517
127
Vexing ...
513
35
Vilification
527
385
Violence ...
527
384
Vituperation
516
116
Volatility
Voluptuary
519
523
183
281
Wantonness
516
104
Waste ...
523
282
W^avering
521
248
Waywardness
529
515
439
79
Weakness
Whim ...
517
136
Wilfulness
516
512
519
91
13
179
Wilincss ...
Wrangling
Wrath ...
521
242
529
438
Vielding ...
..\GE
519
ART.
188
519
170
521
249
526
366
519
182
516
90
512
17
516
92
519
178
521
239
529
442
519
187
517
137
512
7
518
155
521
223
514
5"
525
347
525
330
520
221
527
396
525
339
526
378
526
36s
528
405
519
194
512
19
527
379
528
423
529
449
522
259
523
283
518
160
521
224
521
234
521
229
520
216
521
235
515
71
527
395
526
373
521
Advt.]
SPECIMENS OF SUCCEEDING VOLUMES.
CHRISTIAN DOGMATICS.
Notwithstanding the formation of Twenty " Relief" Sections, yet the Christian Dogmatics
Section "Proper" contains nearly Three Hundred topics, some of which have, in orderly
arrangement, ONE to Two HUNDRED Extracts. Patristic and Puritan as well as Living Authors
are well represented in this department of the work.
REPENTANCE.
The following is the syllabus of the article upon this topic : —
I. Definitions.
1. Etymologically.
2. Theologically.
II. Its Necessity."
1. From the nature of things.
2. From the teaching of Scripture.
III. Its Origin.
1\'. Its Nature.
1. The heart broken y^^r sin andy)^;// sin.
2. The heart set against sin.
V. Its Effects.
1. Freedom from sin as an oppressing power.
2. Freedom from sin as a ruling power.
VI. Warnings.
1. As to reality.
2. As to thoroughness.
3. As to danger of delay.
(i) Because lost opportunities never return.
12) Because fresh opportunities may never be given.
(3) Because abused opportunities may prove fatal.
4. As to after conduct.
(i) On account of dangers without.
(2) On account of dangers within.
VII. Tests as to Genuineness.
VIII. Characteristics of False Repentance.
I. As to its origin and results.
IX. Its Phases as illustrated from Scripture Examples.
1. True repentance of believers.
2. True repentance of unbelievers.
3. False and superficial repentance.
4. Hopeless repentance, i.e. remorse.
X. Its Relation to other Doctrines.
XI. Homiletical Hints.
II. Its Necessity. ■•
I From the nature of things.
[ ] If the soul does not repent with con-
trition, and not merely with attrition, the nature
of things forbids its peace. But the biblical and
the natural truth is that prolonged dissimilarity
of feeling with God may end in eternal sin. If
there is eternal sin, there will be eternal punish-
ment. Final permanence of character under
the laws of judicial blindness and the self-pro-
pagating power of sin, is the truth emphasized
by both God's word and His works. Under
irreversible natural law there can be no blessed-
ness without holiness. Here I leave you, face
to face with the nature of things, the authority
which dazzled Socrates. God's omnipotence
cannot force blessedness on a soul that lias lost
the predominate desire to be holy. Omni-
science cannot make a happy man who loves
what God hates, and hates what God loves. If
you fall into predominant dissimilarity of feeling
SPECIMENS OF SUCCEEDING VOLUMES.
[Advt.
NAMES AND TITLES OF CHRIST
There has long been felt the want of a treatise dealing with the Figurative Appellations used in
Scripture, which should be at once comprehensive in its range, minute in its analysis, and rich in
its illustrative material. Usually the Scripture names and titles of the Church, Ministers, and
Saints, also of Satan and the Wicked, are either not noticed at all, or cursorily dismissed with a
critical or commonplace remark, or else worked out in a fanciful and arbitrary manner. In the
present work special pains have been used to furnish a complete, soberly written, and richly
suggestive handbook of Scripture tropes and descriptive names.
SUN OF RIGHTEOUSNESS.
Mal. iv. 2 ; cf. PSA. Ixxxiv. ii.
I. Analogies suggested —
1 Historical : The course of Christ's ministry
on earth.
(i) The Dazi'ii.
[ ] Its almost unrecognized commence-
ment, and the steady though gradual extension
of its influence.
(2) The Forenoon.
[ ] The fuller light, as manifested in the
Teaching and Miracles throughout Galilee.
(3) The Noonday.
[ ] The fuller revelation of Christ's power
before the people, and deeper instruction to His
disciples.
(4) The Settini^r,
[ ] From the last supper and the agony in
Gethsemane to the cross and grave. — Frcb.
Griffith, Sermons for the Times {condensed).
s Moral : The illuminative glories of Christ.
(i) The sun sliines freely on all luitliout dis-
tinction.
[ ] The beams of Christ's -mercy gladden
alike the cottage and the palace. " The sun,
though it light a palace, docs not disdain to fall
with its golden woof on the straw-thatched cot-
tage."— Calderon de la Barca, 1 601 -i 681.
[ ] As the sun shines upon all, yet doth
not heat all, so Christ is otiered to all. He
shines on all where the gospel comes, but all
are not enlightened ; and all that are enlightened
do not burn in love to Him ; nay, some are
more hardened by it, as it is the nature of the
sun to harden some bodies. — Sibbes. 1 577-1635.
(2) The si/n, when its rays are admitted,
renders visible dust and motes before unobseriied.
[ ] The imperfections which cleave to our
best actions are only made clear to our con-
sciousness by the higher light of Christ.
(3) The sun invests with beauty that which
has no glory in itself.
[ J 1 he landscape owes all its beauty to
the sun. No heart so dark but the light of
Christ can illuminate it.
[ ] The mind upon which the celestial sun
doth shine is pre-eminently enriched and beauti-
fied ; every grace springs up : the once wretched
spirit appears gay and blooming ; the libertine
becomes continent, the churl bountiful, the de-
bauchee pure, the blasphemer devout ; the
bitterest enemy of the cross is transformed into
the humble, devoted follower of the Redeemer ;
vanity is succeeded by seriousness ; the once
useless, nay, injurious member of society be-
comes a blessing to himself and others. — The
British Fulfil.
[ ] No character so unattractive but the
light of Christ can render it beautiful.
" Shine in my heart, and bring me joy and light,
Sun of my darkened soul ; dispel its night.
And shed in it the truthful day abroad ;
And all the many gloomy folds lay bare
Within this heart, that fain would learn to
wear
The pure and glorious likeness of its Lord."
Translation from a German Hymn.
II. Nature and Properties.
(i) Its central position.
[ ] This allusion of all others most justly
represents the glory of the Redeemer in the
spiritual world of grace and His influence in
and upon His church. The natural sun is the
centre and the glory of the surrounding system,
upon which it all depends ; and such is the Lord
Jesus in the system of redemption, in the
spiritual and the heavenly world.
(2) Its attracti-i>e power.
[ ] Birds are very fond of catching the
last evening rays of a winter's sun, and are
always to be found in the afternoon on banks
facing the west, or swinging, if there is no wind,
on the topmost branch of tiie small fir-tree. On
the mountains, too, all birds, as the sun gets
low, take to the slopes that the face west ;
whilst, in the morning, they betake themselves
to the eastern banks and slopes to meet his
rays. This is very remarkaljle in the case of
the golden plovers, who, in the evening, ascend
from slope to slope, as each becomes shaded by
the intervening heights, until they are all col
lected on the very last ridge which the sun
shines upon. So men of pure hearts delight in
the shining of the Sun of Righteousness, and
find their deligh'l in the Presence of Christ. -
St. John's Tour in Switzerland.
Advt.]
SPECIMENS OF SUCCEEDING VOLUMES.
LOGICAL, METAPHYSICAL, AND PHYSICAL TERMS.
In these sections there has been prepared a vocabulary of Philosophy, Mental, Moral, and
Metaphysical, with quotations and suggestive headings and illuminative framework for the use of
Preachers. Theology, Philosophy, and Science, when rightly viewed, are a sacred triumviratej
and the necessity of aids to illustrate their mutual relations and right harmony is increasingly felt.
CONSCIENCE.
I. Its Nature.
I Meaning and use of the term.
[ ] The popular name for the moral faculty
applies to a cognitive power — conscience. Con-
science and consciousness are similarly com-
pounded, and are, in fact, originally the same
word — conscicntia. Conscience is immediate
knowledge of moral law, as clear and indubit-
able as a single fact of consciousness. Con-
science is, however, popularly applied to the
whole moral nature of man. This free use of
the name makes it often synonymous with con-
sciousness, or the knowledge of the harmony of
personal conduct with moral law. — H. Caldcr-
wood, Handbook of Moral Philosophy.
[ ] As science means knowledge, con-
science etymologically means self-knowledge ;
and such is the meaning of the word in Latin
and French, and of the corresponding word in
Greek [cotiscienlia, conscience, avvt'iciimo). But
the English word implies a moral standard of
action in the mind as well as a consciousness
of our own actions. It may be convenient to
us to mark this distinction of an internal moral
standard, as one part of conscience ; and self-
knowledge, or consciousness, as another part.
The one is the internal law ; the other the
internal accuser, witness, and judge. — Dr.
1 1' 'hew el I, Eleiiiettts of Morality.
[ ] The conscience is sometimes called
our moral sense ; that is, an inward sense of
moral qualities and actions, a sense of right
and wrong, answering to our outward senses ;
and as these distinguish the qualities of ex-
ternal objects, distinguishing in like manner the
c|ualities of moral objects, or the difference
between moral qualities. Conscience is the
judgment of the mind in regard to all the acts
and movements of our being. Sometimes it is
so slight as not to be noticed, being merely a
consciousness, general and indefinite, that does
not take shape in a particular judgment. — Dr.
ChecTcr, Bibliotlicca :Sacra.
III. Theories of Conscience.
I Intuitional.
[ ] Some philosophers, with whom I agree,
ascribe the power of determining what is morally
good, and what is morally ill, to an original
power or faculty in man which they call the
moral sense, the moral faculty, conscience.
This opinion seems to me to be the truth ; to
wit, that, by an original power of the mind,
when we come to years of understanding and
reflection, we not only have the notion of right
and wrong in conduct, but perceive certain
things to be right and others to be wrong.
The first principles of morals are the dictates
of this faculty, and we have the same reason to
rely upon those dictates as upon the determi-
nations of our senses or of our other natural
faculties. — Reid.
[ ] In favour of the simple and intuitive
character of moral sentiment it is argued: —
1. That our judgments of right and wrong
are immediate and instantaneous. We do not
need to deliberate or inquire or to canvass
reasons and considerations for and against in
order to declare a murder, a theft, or a lie to
be wrong.
2. It is a faculty or power belonging to all
mankind.
3. Mo.-al sentiment is said to be radically
different in its nature from any other fact or
phenomenon of the mind. We have many feel-
ings that urge us to act and abstain from acting ;
but the prompting of conscience has something
peculiar to itself, which has been expressed by
the terms rightness, authority, supremacy. — A.
Bain, Mental and Moral Science.
[ ] Alone, of all the moralists of this
school, the disciple of Hartley recognizes con-
science as an important element of our nature.
Hobbes defines it as " the opinion of evidence ;"
Locke, as "' our own opinion or judgment of the
moral rectitude or pravity of our own actions."
In Bentham there is very little on the subject ;
but in one place ("Deontology," i. p. 137) he
informs us that "conscience is a thing of fic-
titious existence, supposed to occupy a seat in
the mind." — Lecky, History European Morals.
3 Evolutional.
[ ] Increased sympathy, as well as an in-
creased recognition by each unit of the " social
organism" of what he might do fcr the gratifi-
cation or desires without bringing pain upon
himself through the anger of his fellows, would
gradually teach him the necessity of subordi-
nating within certain limits his realization of
egoistic impulses, and the need, even for the
sake of his own happiness, of continually bear-
ing in mind the wants and wishes of his fellow-
men. Equally important, however, among savage
races are those limitations which " expediency"
compels the individual to recognize as imposed
by his fellow-men upon the freedom of his own
actions. Such considerations, in concert per-
SPECIMENS OF SUCCEEDING VOLUMES.
[Adv
SCRIPTURE CHARACTERS.
Upon the leading scriptural characters there will be an average of One Hundred Extracts,
bringing out distinctly and graphically the IDENTITY of each. The man and his characteristics,
his living self as distinct from all others, is the object of these articles. Such extracts are not to be
obtained in any number, from any existing commentary, Bible Dictionary, common-place book.
Scripture Character book, or separate sermons.
ELIJAH.
Formation of Character.
1 The influence of his solitary life and exter-
nal nature tended to produce HEROISM
[ ] The grand and sublime has always
proved a "meet nurse" for heroic spirits. . . .
Gilead — Elijah's birthplace, the cradle of his
youth, and where he remained until the time of
iiis showing unto Israel — was that wild, rugged,
and, in many parts, picturesque country, lying
east of the Jordan, the " rocky " region as the
word implies, with its deep ravines and water-
courses, its sheep-folds and herds of wild cattle,
in contradistinction to Bashan, "the level or
fertile land." The soul of Elijah was tutored
for his prophetic mission amid the rushing
streams, " the pipings of flocks," the awful soli-
tudes, and the rough freebooter life of the most
distant territory of the sacred tribes. Jehovah,
in the selection of the human instrument for a
great revival in Israel, would magnify the
sovereignty of His own grace. He chooses no
rabbi nor learned doctor of the schools, no
hierarch with the prestige of hereditary office
or outward form of consecration, but a lay
preacher from the Highlands of Palestine — a
man who had graduated in no school but
nature — who had been taught, but taught only
of heaven. Forth he comes, a prophet of fire,
a burning and a shining light in one of the
darkest periods of Hebrew history. — J. R.
Macduff, D.D.
2 The influence of his solitary life and ex-
ternal nature tended to produce STERN-
NESS.
[ ] Of all the prophets he is the one who
is most removed from modern times, from
Christian civilization. There is a wildncss, an
isolation, a roughness about him, contrasting
forcibly even with the mild beneficence of his
immediate successor Elislia, still more with the
bright serenity of Isaiah and the plaintive
tenderness of Jeremiah, but most of all with
the patience and loving-kindness of the gospel.
Round his picture in the churches of Eastern
Christians at the present day are placed by a
natural association the decapitated heads of their
enemies. Abdallah Pasha, the fierce lord of Acre,
almost died of terror from a vision in which he
believed himself to have seen Elijah sitting on
the top of Carmel. It is the likeness of liis stern
seclusion which is reproduced in John the Bap-
list, and which in him is always contrasted
with the character of Christ.— Z?f«« Stanley.
[ ] The solitary life which had been as-
sumed nurtured that fierceness of zeal and that
directness of address which so distinguished
him. It was in the wild loneliness of the hills
and ravines of Gilead that the knowledge of
Jehovah, the living God of Israel, had been im-
pressed on his mind, which was to form the
subject of his mission to the idolatrous court
and country of Israel. — Cyclopedia of Biblical
Literature.
DANIEL.
Special Characteristics.
I Humility.
[ ] The entire absence of self-conscious-
ness seems to us a fundamental element in the
noble character of Daniel. Vanity would have
marred everything. Perhaps it would not have
occurred to us to note this trait, had not the
very opposite been charged against him. There
can be no doubt that self-obtrusion is alike
unlovely, and to the subject of it fraught with
great peril. The constant exhibition, in every
spoken or written word, of the "1 ; " the evident
living on the breath of popular approbation, the
object being to secure a fair show of seeming
good, instead of solid and permanent worth :
all this tends to insure misery to the man,
offence to others, and the destruction of all that
might have otherwise been great and good.
It is one form of that self-centredness in which,
not without reason, the very essence of sin has
been said to consist. Daniel was singularly free
from this fundamental vice of character. — Picsey.
DA VI D.
i ] There never was a specimen of man-
hood so rich and ennobled as David, the son
of Jesse, whom other saints haply may have
ecjualled in single features of his character ; but
such a combination of manly, heroic qualities,
such a flush of generous godlike excellences
have never yet been embodied in a single man.
— Edward Irving.
RUTH.
[ ] Her vow has stamped itself on the
very heart of the world ; and that, not because
of the beauty of its form simply, though even in
our English Version it sounds like a- sweet and
noble music, ^but because it expresses, in a
worthy form and once for all, the utter devotion
aifatoiUi®
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Prncfor, Ricliarfl A.
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Pryclf, DaviJ, L.L..I>.
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Pulpi. Talks. (Rylance.) 11
Ramsey. F^clward B.
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Companion to the Revised New Testament ... 8
RobertRtik 'riCemenni il Addresses. 16
Itock t<iat is Higlier tlian T. (Johnson.) 13
Rowland Hill. (Charles worth.) No. 23... 17
Ruskin, John, L.L..D.
Letters t J Workmen and Laborers. Nos. 20-21. 17
Ethics of the Dust. No. 29 17
Frondea Agrestss. No. 35 17
Rylance, J. H., D.D. Pulpit Talk 11
Sala, Oeo'ge Auga-tus.
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S;-li>nof i»iadum Meeker. (D Hausson-
ville ) Nos. 28 and 3S and 6i IV
Sanillobart. (Fulton.) No. 89 ...20
Sartor Xesartus. (Carlyle.) Clota 16
Paper, No. 60 18
SchaflT, Philip, D.O., 1.L..D.
Schaflf-Herzog Encyclopedia 12
Sroti tmi Cnaractvrisiicii. (Paxton Hood.)
No. 94 19
Scii-nce in Sliort Chapters. (Williams.)
No. 81 19
Servant «.f All. (Parker.) See "Inner Lilc"... 11
Shairp,Prof.J. C.
Culture and Religion. No. 50 18
Shvppard, Nathnn.
E.s8ay8 of George Eliot. No. 87 20
Sh«i>vood, .James HI.
The History of the Cross 9
Spu--geoii, Rev. 1 Iiarles H.
Bible and the Newspaper. No. 42 18
HiB Life and Work (Yarrow.). No. 46
John Ploughman's Pictures. No. 40
John Ploughman's Talk. No 1
Talk to Farmers ,
The Treasury of David
Page
$mith, Rev. J. Hyatt.
Gilead: An Allegory 9
Si all. Rev. Mylvana«.
How to Pay Church Debts 10
Standard Hymns. (Thwing.) 16
Standard L.ibrary 19-20
Standard Series 17-18
Siandard Serips, Clasi A. (Cloth) 16
Stuckenberg, .T. H. W.,1>.D.
Christian Sociology 7
S<u<lies in the Bo'tk of Mark. (Hughes )
See Commentary on Mark 7
Studley, Mary J., M.O.
What Our Girls Ought to Know 16
Talks to Boys and Oiris about Jesus.
(Crafts.) 16
Talks to Farmers. (Spurgeon.) 16
Tenny-on, Alfred.
Idyls of the King. No. 22 17
TIte Theocratic Kingdom. (Peters.) 12
Theology of ttle Old Testumeni.
(Oehler.) 12
Tlit-se Sayings of Mine. (Parker.) 10
Things t oncerning Himself. (Parker.) 11
Thomas, David, H.O.
The HomUist 10
Tltoughis of John Foster. (Everts.) 13
Tliougotv of the Emperor Antoninus.
(Long.) No.37 18
TiirousrH the Prison to tlie Throne.
(Van Dyke.) 13
Th^ving. Kev. Hdvrard Fayson.
DriU Book in Vocal Culture 14
Outdoor Life in Europe. No. 26 17
Persian Queen. No.63 18
Standard Hymns 16
The Preacher's Cabinet 11
Town Geology. (Kingsley.) No. 24 17
Trap* for the Vonng. (Comstock.) 16
Van Ooren, W H., D.O.
Commentary on Luke. Cloth 7
Paper. Nos. 54 -57 18
Vnn Dyke, Rev. Jos. S.
From Gloom to Gladness... - 9
Giving or Entertainment 15
Popery 11
Through the Prison to the Throne 13
AValt^r, Robert, M.D.
Nutriti'^aOure. No. 59 13
Warrt, raiss Anna 1..
Cyclopedia of Qu'-'Titions 14
What Our «j<irls Onglit to Know.
jStudleV 1^
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Pastor's Record 16
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Life and Work of Rev. Charles H. Spurgeon.
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Voang, Robert, L.L..D.
Analytical Bible Concordance 6
Analytical Bible Trea-sury 6
/ nalytical Concordance to 8,080 Changes 6
BibUcal Notes and Quiries 6
Companion to the Revised New Testament.. . . S
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