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LITERATURE    &    DOGMA 


*Za  tendance  a  Vordre  ne  petit-elk  faire  tine  partie  essentielle 
de  nos  inclinations,  de  notre  itistinct,  covimc  la  tendance  a  la 
conseiTatio7i,  a  la  reproduction  ?  Sexancour, 

('May  not  the  tendency  to  condtici  form  an  essential  part 
of  our  inclinations,  of  our  instinct,  like  the  tendency  to  self- 
preservationj  to  the  reproduction  of  the  species  ? ') 


LITERATURE   &   DOGMA 

AN   ESSAY    TOWARDS 
A    BETTER    APPREHENSION   OF    THE    BIBLE  . 


BY 

MATTHEW    ARNOLD 

FORMERLY    PROFESSOR    OF    POETRY    IN    THE    f  DIVERSITY    OF    OXFORD 
AND    FELLOW    OF    ORIEL    COLLEGE 


POPULAR    EDITION 


LONDON 
SMITH,   ELDER,  &  CO.,   15  WATERLOO  PLACE 

1889 

\,All   rights    reserved'^ 


511 

m 


PREFACE 

TO     THIS     EDITION. 


When  I  praise  cheap  books  and  insist  on  the  need  foi  them, 
people  turn  round  upon  me  and  say,  *  Fhysiciaji,  heal  thy- 
self!  nobody's  books  are  dearer  than  your  own.'  Whether 
his  books  shall  be  cheap  or  not,  does  not  depend  wholly 
upon  the  author  j  and  I  might  urge,  besides,  that  in  fore- 
telling a  success  for  cheap  books,  I  was  thinking  of  books 
by  authors  more  popular  than  I  am.  A  volume  of  my  verse, 
however,  at  a  comparatively  cheap  price,  has  been  in  circu- 
lation for  some  time,  and  I  have  long  had  the  wish  to  try 
the  experiment  of  bringing  out  one  of  my  prose  books  at  a 
price  yet  cheaper.  That  wish  I  fulfil  by  the  publication  of 
the  present  volume.  The  book  chosen  has  been  more  in 
demand  than  any  other  of  my  prose  writings,  and  it  lent 
itself  to  my  purpose,  further,  by  admitting  of  considerable 
condensation.  The  argument  of  the  work  is  more  readily 
followed,  and  for  the  general  reader  it  probably  gains  in 
force,  by  the  suppression  of  a  good  deal  of  the  apparatus 
of  citation  and  illustration  from  Scripture  which  originally 


VI  PREFACE 

accompanied  it.  The  public  to  which  the  book  was  in  the 
first  instance  addressed  was  one  which  expects,  with  a  work 
of  this  kind,  such  an  apparatus.  But  to  the  general  public  its 
fulness  is  not  so  well  suited,  and,  for  them,  its  reduction  pro- 
bably improves  the  book  at  the  same  time  that  it  shortens  it. 

I  do  not,  however,  choose  for  the  experiment  of  a 
popular  edition  this  book,  merely  because  it  admits  of  being 
shortened,  or  because  it  has  been  much  in  demand.  I 
choose  it  far  more  for  the  reason  that  I  think  it,  of  all  my 
books  in  prose,  the  one  most  important  (if  I  may  say  so) 
and  most  capable  of  being  useful.  Ten  years  ago,  when 
it  was  first  published,  I  explained  my  design  in  writing  it. 
No  one  who  has  had  experience  of  the  inattention  and 
random  judgments  of  mankind  will  be  very  quick  to  cry 
out  because  a  serious  design  is  not  fairly  and  fully  appre- 
hended. Literature  and  Dogma,  however,  has  perhaps  had 
more  than  its  due  share  of  misrepresentation. 

The  sole  notion  of  Literature  and  Dogma,  with  many 
people,  is  that  it  is  a  book  containing  an  abominable  illus- 
tration, and  attacking  Christianity.  It  may  be  regretted 
that  an  illustration  likely  to  be  torn  from  its  context,  to  be 
improperly  used,  and  to  give  pain,  should  ever  have  been 
adopted.  But  it  was  not  employed  aggressively  or  bitterly ; 
on  the  contrary,  it  was  part  of  a  plea  for  treating  popular 
religion  with  gentleness  and  indulgence.  Many  of  those  who 
have  most  violently  protested  against  the  illustration  resent 
it,  no  doubt,  because  it  directs  attention  to  that  extreme 
licence  of  afiirmation  about  God  which  prevails  in  our  po- 
pular religion ;  and  one  is  not  the  easier  forgiven  for  direct- 


TO   THIS  EDITION.  vii 

ing  attention  to  error,  because  one  marks  it  as  an  object  for 
bdulgence.  To  protesters  of  this  sort  I  owe  no  deference 
and  make  no  concessions.  But  the  illustration  has  given  pair/, 
I  am  told,  in  a  quarter  where  my  deference,  and  the  defer- 
ence of  all  who  ca,n  appreciate  one  of  the  purest  careers  and 
noblest  characters  of  our  time,  is  indeed  due;  and  finding 
that  in  that  quarter  pain  has  been  given  by  the  illustration, 
I  do  not  hesitate  to  expunge  it. 

The  illustration,  then,  disappears  ;  let  me  add  a  word 
or  two  as  to  the  notion  that  Life?'atiire  and  Dogma  is  an 
attack  upon  Christianity.  It  is  not  even  an  attack  upon  the 
errors  of  popular  Christianity.  Those  errors  are  very  open 
to  attack ;  they  are  much  attacked  already,  and  in  a  fashion, 
often,  which  I  dislike  and  condemn  ;  they  will  certainly  be 
attacked  more  and  more,  until  they  perish.  But  it  is  not  the 
object  of  Literature  and  Dogma  to  attack  them.  Neither, 
on  the  other  hand,  is  it  the  object  oi  Literature  and  Dogma 
to  contend  with  the  enemies  and  deniers  of  Christianity,  and 
to  convince  them  of  their  error.  Sooner  or  later,  indeed, 
they  will  be  convinced  of  it,  but  by  other  agencies  and 
through  a  quite  other  force  than  mine ;  it  is  not  the  object 
of  Literature  and  Dogma  to  confute  them. 

The  object  of  Literature  and  Dogma  is  to  rc-assure 
those  who  feel  attachment  to  Christianity,  to  the  Bible,  but 
who  recognise  the  growing  discredit  befalling  miracles  and 
the  supernatural.  Such  persons  are  to  be  re-assured,  not  by 
disguising  or  extenuating  the  discredit  which  has  befallen 
miracles  and  the  supernatural,  but  by  insisting  on  the  natural 
truth  of  Christianity.  That  miracles  have  fallen  into  discredit 


viii  PREFACE 

is  to  be  frankly  admitted  ;  that  they  have  fallen  into  discredit 
justly  and  necessarily,  and  through  the  very  same  natural 
and  salutary  process  which  had  previously  extinguished  our 
belief  in  witchcraft,  is  to  be  frankly  admitted  also.  Even  ten 
years  ago,  when  Literature  and  Dogma  ^yas  first  published, 
lucidity  on  this  matter  was,  on  the  whole,  not  dangerous 
but  expedient ;  it  is  even  yet  more  expedient  to-day.  It 
has  become  even  yet  more  manifest  that  by  the  sanction  of 
miracles  Christianity  can  no  longer  stand ;  it  can  stand 
only  by  its  natural  truth. 

Of  course,  to  pass  from  a  Christianity  relying  on  its 
miracles  to  a  Christianity  relying  on  its  natural  truth  is  a 
great  change.  It  can  only  be  brought  about  by  those 
whose  attachment  to  Christianity  is  such,  that  they  cannot 
part  with  it,  and  yet  cannot  but  deal  with  it  sincerely.  This 
was  the  case  with  the  Germanic  nations  who  brought  about 
that  former  great  change,  the  Reformation.  Probably  the 
abandonment  of  the  tie  with  Rome  was  hardly  less  of  a 
change  to  the  Christendom  of  the  sixteenth  century,  than  the 
abandonment  of  the  proof  from  miracles  is  to  the  Christen- 
dom of  to-day.  Yet  the  Germanic  nations  broke  the  tie 
with  Rome,  because  they  loved  Christianity  well  enough  to 
deal  sincerely  "vnth  themselves  as  to  clericalism  and  tradition. 
The  Latin  nations  did  not  break  their  tie  with  Rome.  This 
was  not  because  they  loved  Rome  more,  or  because  they 
less  saw  the  truth  as  to  clericalism  or  tradition, — a  truth 
which  had  become  evident  enough  then,  as  the  truth  about 
miracles  has  become  now.  But  they  did  not  really  care 
enough  about  Christianity  (I  speak  of  the  nations,  not,  of 


TO    THIS  EDITION.  ix 

course,  of  individuals)  to  feel  compelled  to  deal  sincerely 
with  themselves  about  it.  The  heretical  Germanic  nations, 
who  renounced  clericalism  and  tradition,  proved  their 
attachment  to  Christianity  by  so  doing,  and  preserved  for  it 
that  serious  hold  upon  men's  minds  which  is  a  great  and 
beneficent  force  to-day,  and  the  force  to  which  Literature  and 
Dogma  makes  appeal.  Miracles  have  to  go  the  same  way 
as  clericalism  and  tradition  ;  and  the  important  thing  is,  not 
that  the  world  should  be  acute  enough  to  see  this  (there 
needs,  indeed,  no  remarkable  acuteness  to  see  it),  but  that 
a  great  and  progressive  part  of  the  world  should  be  capable 
of  seeing  this  and  of  yet  holding  fast  to  Christianity. 

To  assist  those  called  to  such  an  endeavour,  is  the 
object,  I  repeat,  of  Literature  and  Dogma.  It  is  not  an 
attack  upon  miracles  and  the  supernatural.  It  unreservedly 
admits,  indeed,  that  the  belief  in  them  has  given  way  and 
cannot  be  restored,  it  recommends  entire  lucidity  of  mind 
on  this  subject,  it  points  out  certain  characters  of  weakness 
in  the  sanction  drawn  from  miracles,  even  while  the  belief 
in  them  lasted.  Its  real  concern,  however,  is  not  with 
miracles,  but  with  the  natural  truth  of  Christianity.  It  is 
after  this  that,  among  the  more  serious  races  of  the  world, 
the  hearts  of  men  are  really  feeling  ;  and  what  really  furthers 
them  is  to  establish  it.  At  present,  reformers  in  religion  are 
far  too  negative,  spending  their  labour,  some  of  them,  in 
inveighing  against  false  beliefs  which  are  doomed,  others,  in 
contending  about  matters  of  discipline  and  ritual  which  are 
indifferent.  Popular  Christianity  derived  its  power  from  the 
characters  of  certainty  and  of  grandeur  which  it  wore  ;  these 


X  PREFACE 

characters  do  actually  belong  to  Christianity  in  its  natural 
truth,  and  to  show  them  there  should  be  our  object.  This 
alone  is  really  important. 

And  shown  they  can  be.  Certainty  and  grandeur  are 
really  and  truly  characters  of  Christianity.  Theologians 
and  popular  religion  have  given  a  wrong  turn  to  it  all,  and 
present  it  to  us  in  a  form  which  is  fantastic  and  false  ;  but 
the  firm  foundation  for  human  life  is  to  be  found  in  it,  and 
the  true  source  for  us  of  strength,  joy,  and  peace.  Sine  via 
non  itiir,  and  Christianity  can  be  shown  to  be  mankind's 
indispensable  way.  The  subject  of  the  Old  Testament,  Sal- 
vation by  righteousness,  the  subject  of  the  New,  Righteousness 
by  Jesus  Christ,  are,  in  positive  strict  truth,  man's  most 
momentous  matters  of  concern.  The  command  of  the  Old 
Testament,  '  Fear  God  and  keep  his  commandments,'  put 
into  other  words,  what  is  it  but  this  :  *  Reverently  obey  the 
eternal  power  moving  us  to  fulfil  the  true  law  of  our  being; ' 
— and  when  shall  that  command  be  done  away?  The 
command  of  the  New  Testament  :  '  Watch  that  ye  may  be 
counted  worthy  to  stand  before  the  Son  of  Man,'  put  into 
other  words,  what  is  it  ?  It  is  this  :  '  So  live,  as  to  be 
worthy  of  that  high  and  true  ideal  of  man  and  of  man's  life, 
which  shall  be  at  last  victorious.'     All  the  future  is  there. 

Jesus  himself,  as  he  appears  in  the  Gospels,  and  for  the 
very  reason  that  he  is  so  manifestly  above  tlie  heads  of  his 
reporters  there,  is,  in  the  jargon  of  modern  philosophy,  an 
absolute ;  we  cannot  explain  him,  cannot  get  behind  him  and 
above  him,  cannot  command  him.  He  is  therefore  the  per- 
fection of  an  ideal,  and  it  is  as  an  ideal  that  the  divine  has  its 


TO   THIS  EDITION.  xi 

best  worth  and  reality.  The  unerring  and  consummate  felicity 
of  Jesus,  his  prepossessingness,  his  grace  and  truths  are,  more- 
over, at  the  same  time  the  law  for  right  performance  on  all 
man's  great  lines  of  endeavour,  although  the  Bible  deals 
with  the  line  of  conduct  only. 

Even  those  corrections,  and  they  are  many  and  grave, 
which  will  have  to  be  applied  to  popular  Christianity,  are  to 
be  drawn  from  Christianity  itself.  The  materialistic  future 
state,  the  materialistic  kingdom  of  God,  of  our  popular 
religion,  will  dissolve  Mike  some  insubstantial  vision  faded.' 
But  they  will  dissolve  through  the  action,  through  the  gra- 
dually increasing  influence,  of  other  and  profounder  texts  of 
Scripture  than  the  popular  texts  on  which  they  base  them- 
selves. Using  the  language  of  accommodation  to  the  ideas 
current  amongst  his  hearers,  Jesus  talked  of  drinking  wine 
and  sitting  on  thrones  in  the  kingdom  of  God  ;  and  texts  of 
this  kind  are  what  popuk'ir  religion  promptly  seized  and  built 
upon.  But  other  profounder  texts  meanwhile  there  were, 
which  remained,  one  may  say,  in  shadow.  'This  is  life 
eternal,  to  know  thee,,  the  only  true  God,  and  Jesus  Christ 
whom  thou  hast  sent;' — '  The  kingdom  of  God  is  righteous- 
ness, and  peace,  and  joy  in  the  Holy  Spirit.'  These  deeper 
texts  will  gradually  come  more  and  more  into  notice  and 
prominence  and  use,  as  it  becomes  evident  that  the  future 
state  built  on  the  language  of  accommodation  has  no  reality. 
The  teachers  of  religion  will  more  and  more  bring  these 
texts  forward  and  develope  them.  And  as,  from  being 
everywhere  preached  and  believed,  the  illusory  future  state 
gained  power  and  apparent  substance,  so  too,  by  coming 


xii  PREFACE   TO    THIS  EDITION. 

to  be  more  and  more  dwelt  upon  and  to  possess  men's 
minds  more  and  more,  the  true  ideal  will  acquire,  in  its  turn, 
a  fulness  and  force  which  no  isolated  endeavours  can  give 
to  it. 

This  is  but  another  way  of  saying,  what  is  perfectly  true, 
that  not  only  is  Christianity  necessary,  but  the  Church  also. 
The  Church  is  necessary,  the  clergy  are  necessary  ;  the 
future  of  Christianity  is  hardly  concefvable^vithout  them. 
But  as  lucidity  is  a  condition  from  which  the  Christianity 
of  the  future  cannot  escape,  so  is  it  a  condition  from 
which  the  Church  and  the  clergy  cannot  escape  either.  At 
present  they  seem  scarcely  to  comprehend  this.  Archdeacon 
Norris  labours  v/ith  all  his  might  to  clear  the  so-called 
Athanasian  Creed  from  the  reproach  of  over-harshness,  not 
seeing  that  the  really  fatal  defect  of  that  document  is  not  its 
over-harshness  but  its  futility.  The  Gnardia7i  proclaims 
'  the  miracle  of  the  Incarnation  '  to  be  'the  fundamental  truth ' 
for  Christians.  How  strange  that  on  me  should  devolve 
the  office  of  instructing  the  Guardian  that  the  fundamental 
thing  for  Christians  is  not  the  incarnation  but  the  imitation 
of  Christ  !  In  insisting  on  *  the  miracle  of  the  Incarnation,' 
the  Guardian  insists  on  just  that  side  of  Christianity  which 
is  perishing.  Christianity  is  immortal ;  it  has  eternal  truth, 
inexhaustible  value,  a  boundless  future.  But  our  popular 
religion  at  present  conceives  the  birth,  ministry,  and  death 
of  Christ,  as  altogether  steeped  in  prodigy,  brimful  of  miracle  \ 
— and  miracles  do  not  happe7u 


PREFACE. 

(1S73.) 

An  inevitable  revolution,  of  which  we  all  recognise  the 
beginnings  and  signs,  but  which  has  already  spread,  perhaps, 
farther  than  most  of  us  think,  is  befalling  the  religion  in 
which  we  have  been  brought  up.  In  those  countries  where 
religion  has  been  most  loved,  this  revolution  will  be  felt  the 
most  keenly ;  felt  through  all  its  stages  and  in  all  its  incidents. 
In  no  country  will  it  be  more  felt  than  in  England.  This 
cannot  be  otherwise.  It  cannot  be  but  that  the  revolution 
should  come,  and  that  it  should  be  here  felt  passionately, 
profoundl}^,  painfully.  In  regard  to  it,  however,  there  is 
incumbent  on  every  one  the  utmost  duty  of  considerateness 
and  caution.  There  can  be  no  surer  proof  of  a  narrow  and 
ill-instructed  mind,  than  to  think  and  uphold  that  what  a 
man  takes  to  be  the  truth  on  religious  matters  is  always  to  be 
proclaimed.  Our  truth  on  these  matters,  and  likewise  the 
error  of  others,  is  something  so  relative,  that  the  good  or 
harm  likely  to  be  done  by  speaking  ought  always  to  be  taken 
into  account.  '  I  keep  silence  at  many  things,'  says  Goethe, 
*for  I  would  not  mislead  men,  and  am  well  content  if  others 
can  find  satisfaction  in  what  gives  me  offence/    The  man 


xiv  PRE  FACE. 

who  believes  that  his  truth  on  reUgious  matters  is  so  abso- 
lutely the  truth,  that  say  it  when,  and  where,  and  to  whom 
he  will,  he  cannot  but  do  good  with  it,  is  in  our  day  almost 
always  a  man  whose  truth  is  half  blunder,  and  wholly  use- 
less. 

To  be  convinced,  therefore,  that  our  current  theology  is 
false,  is  not  necessarily  a  reason  for  publishing  that  conviction. 
The  theology  may  be  false,  and  yet  one  may  do  more  harm 
in  attacking  it  than  by  keeping  silence  and  w^aiting.  To 
judge  rightly  the  time  and  its  conditions  is  the  great  thing; 
there  is  a  time,  as  the  Preacher  says,  to  speak,  and  a  time 
to  keep  silence.  If  the  present  time  is  a  time  to  speak, 
there  must  be  a  reason  why  it  is  so. 

And  there  is  a  reason ;  and  it  is  this.  Clergymen  and 
ministers  of  religion  are  full  of  lamentations  over  what  they 
call  the  spread  of  scepticism,  and  because  of  the  little  hold 
which  religion  now  has  on  the  masses  of  the  people, — the 
lapsed  masses,  as  some  call  them.  Practical  hold  on  them  it 
never,  perhaps,  had  very  much,  but  they  did  not  question 
its  truth,  and  they  held  it  in  considerable  awe.  As  the  best 
of  them  raised  themselves  up  out  of  a  merely  animal  life, 
religion  attracted  and  engaged  them.  But  now  they  seem  to 
have  hardly  any  awe  of  it  at  all,  and  they  freely  question  its 
truth.  And  many  of  the  most  successful,  energetic,  and  in- 
genious of  the  artisan  class,  who  are  steady  and  rise,  are  now 
found  either  of  themselves  rejecting  the  Bible  altogether,  or 
following  teachers  who  tell  them  that  the  Bible  is  an  exploded 
superstition.  Let  me  quote  from  the  letter  of  a  working- 
man,— a  man,   himself,   of  no   common  intelligence  and 


PREFACE.  XV 

temper, — a  passage  that  sets  this  forth  very  clearly.  '  De- 
spite the  efforts  of  the  churches,'  he  says,  '  the  speculations 
of  the  day  are  working  their  way  down  among  the  people, 
many  of  whom  are  asking  for  the  reason  and  authority  for  the 
things  they  have  been  taught  to  believe.  Questions  of  this 
kind,  too,  mostly  reach  them  through  doubtful  channels ; 
and  owing  to  this,  and  to  their  lack  of  culture,  a  discovery, 
of  imperfection  and  fallibility  in  the  Bible  leads  to  its  con- 
temptuous rejection  as  a  great  priestly  imposture.  And  thus 
those  among  the  working  class,  who  eschew  the  teachings  of 
the  orthodox,  slide  off  towards,  not  the  late  Mr.  Maurice, 
nor  yet  Professor  Huxley,  but  towards  Mr.  Bradlaugh.' 

Despite  the  efforts  of  the  churches,  the  writer  tells  us,  this 
contemptuous  rejection  of  the  Bible  happens.  And  we 
regret  the  rejection  as  much  as  the  clergy  and  ministers  of 
religion  do.  There  may  be  others  who  do  not  regret  it,  but 
we  do.  All  that  the  churches  can  say  about  the  importance 
of  the  Bible  and  its  religion,  we  concur  in.  And  it  is  the 
religion  of  the  Bible  that  is  professedly  in  question  with  all 
the  churches,  when  they  talk  of  religion  and  lament  its 
prospects.  With  Catholics  as  well  as  Protestants,  and  with 
all  the  sects  of  Protestantism,  this  is  so  ;  and  from  the  nature 
of  the  case  it  must  be  so.  What  the  religion  of  the  Bible 
is,  how  it  is  to  be  got  at,  they  may  not  agree ;  but  that  it  is 
the  religion  of  the  Bible  for  which  they  contend,  they  all 
aver.  '  The  Bible,'  says  Cardinal  Newman, '  is  the  record  of 
the  whole  revealed  faith ;  so  far  all  parties  agi-ee.'  Now,  this 
religion  of  the  Bible  we  say  they  cannot  value  more  than 
we  do.     If  we  hesitate  to  adopt  strictly  their  language  about 


xvi  PREFACE. 

its  fl-ZZ-impoitance,  that  is  only  because  we  take  an  uncom- 
monly large  view  of  human  perfection,  and  say,  speaking 
strictly,  that  there  go  to  this  certain  things, — art,  for  instance, 
and  science, — which  the  Bible  hardly  meddles  with.  The 
difference  between  us  and  them,  however,  is  more  a  difference 
of  theoretical  statement  than  of  practical  conclusion.  Speak- 
ing practically,  and  looking  at  the  very  large  part  of  human 
life  engaged  by  the  Bible,  at  the  comparatively  small  part 
unengaged  by  it,  we  are  quite  willing,  like  the  churches,  to 
call  the  Bible  and  its  religion  ^//-important. 

All  this  agreement  there  is,  both  in  words  and  in  things, 
between  us  and  the  churches.  And  yet,  when  we  behold 
the  clergy  and  ministers  of  religion  lament  the  neglect  of  reli- 
gion and  aspire  to  restore  it,  how  must  we  feel  that  to  restore 
religion  as  they  understand  it,  to  re-inthrone  the  Bible  as 
explained  by  our  current  theology,  whether  learned  or  popu- 
lar, is  absolutely  and  for  ever  impossible ! — as  impossible  as 
to  restore  the  feudal  system,  or  the  belief  in  witches.  Let 
us  admit  that  the  Bible  cannot  possibly  die ;  but  then  the 
churches  cannot  even  conceive  the  Bible  without  the  gloss 
which  they  at  present  put  upon  it,  and  this  gloss,  as  certainly, 
cannot  possibly  live.  And  it  is  not  a  gloss  which  one  church 
or  one  sect  puts  upon  the  Bible  and  another  does  not ;  it  is 
the  gloss  they  all  put  upon  it,  calling  it  the  substratum  of 
belief  common  to  all  Christian  churches,  and  largely  shared 
with  them  even  by  natural  religion.  It  is  this  so-called 
axiomatic  basis  which  must  go,  and  it  supports  all  the  rest. 
If  the  Bible  were  really  inseparable  from  this  and  depended 
upon  it,  then  Mr.  Bradlaugh  would  have  his  way  and  the 


PREFACE,  xvii 

Bible  would  go  too  ;  since  this  basis  is  inevitably  doomed. 
For  whatever  is  to  stand  must  rest  upon  something  which 
is  verifiable,  not  unverifiable.  Now,  the  assumption  with 
which  all  the  churches  and  sects  set  out, — that  there  is 
*a  Great  Personal  First  Cause,  the  moral  and  intelligent 
Governor  of  the  universe,'  and  that  from  him  the  Bible 
derives  its  authority, — cannot,  at  present,  at  any  rate,  be 
verified. 

Those  who  'ask  for  the  reason  and  authority  for  the 
things  they  have  been  taught  to  beheve,'  as  the  people,  we 
are  told,  are  now  doing,  will  begin  at  the  beginning.  Rude 
and  hard  reasoners  as  they  are,  they  will  never  consent  to 
admit,  as  a  self-evident  axiom,  the  preliminary  assumption 
with  which  the  churches  start.  So,  if  the  people  are  to 
receive  a  religion  of  the  Bible,  we  must  find  for  the 
Bible  some  other  basis  than  that  which  the  churches 
assign  to  it,  a  verifiable  basis  and  not  an  assumption. 
This  new  religion  of  the  Bible  the  people  may  receive  ;  the 
version  now  current  of  the  religion  of  the  Bible  they  will 
not  receive. 

Here,  then,  is  the  problem  :  to  find,  for  the  Bible,  for 
Christianity,  for  our  religion,  a  basis  in  something  which  can 
be  verified,  instead  of  in  something  which  has  to  be  assumed. 
So  true  and  prophetic  are  Vinet's  words:  *We  must^'  he 
said,  'make  it  our  business  to  bring  forward  the  rational 
side  of  Christianity,  and  to  show  that  for  thinkers,  too,  it 
has  a  right  to  be  an  authority.'  Yes,  and  the  problem 
we  have   stated  must  be   the  first   stage  in  the    business. 

a 


xviii  PREFACE. 

With  this  problem  unsolved,  all  other  religious  discussion  is 
idle  trifling. 

This  is  why  Dissent,  as  a  religious  movement  of  our 
day,  would  be  almost  droll,  if  it  were  not,  from  the  tempers 
and  actions  it  excites,  so  extremely  irreligious.  But  what  is 
to  be  said  for  men,  aspiring  to  deal  mth  the  cause  of  religion, 
who  either  cannot  see  that  what  the  people  now  require  is  a 
religion  of  the  Bible  quite  different  from  that  which  any  of 
the  churches  or  sects  supply  j  or  who,  seeing  this,  spend 
their  energies  in  fiercely  battling  as  to  whether  the  Church 
should  be  a  national  institution  or  no  ?  The  question,  at 
the  present  juncture,  is  in  itself  so  absolutely  unimportant ! 
The  thing  is,  to  recast  religion.  If  this  is  done,  the  new  re- 
ligion will  be  the  national  one  ;  if  it  is  not  done,  the  separating 
the  nation,  in  its  collective  and  corporate  character,  from 
religion,  will  not  do  it.  It  is  as  if  men's  minds  were  much 
unsettled  about  mineralogy,  and  the  teachers  of  it  were  at 
variance,  and  no  teacher  was  convincing,  and  many  people, 
therefore,  were  disposed  to  throw  the  study  of  mineralogy 
overboard  altogether.  What  would  naturally  be  the  first 
business  for  every  friend  of  the  study  ?  Surely,  to  establish 
on  safe  grounds  the  value  of  the  study,  and  to  put  its  claims 
in  a  new  light  where  they  could  no  longer  be  denied.  But 
if  he  acted  as  our  Dissenters  act  in  religion,  what  would  he 
do?  Give  himself,  heart  and  soul,  to  a  furious  crusade 
against  keeping  the  Government  School  of  Mines  ! 

Meanwhile,  however,  there  is  now  an  end  to  all  fear  of 
doing  harm  by  gainsaying  the  received  theology  of  the 
churches  and  sects.      For  this  theology  is  itself  now  a 


PREFACE.  xix 

hindrance  to  the  Bible  rather  than  a  help.  Nay,  to  abandon 
it,  to  put  some  other  construction  on  the  Bible  than  this 
theology  puts,  to  find  some  other  basis  for  the  Bible  than 
this  theology  finds,  is  indispensable,  if  we  would  have  the 
Bible  reach  the  people.  And  this  is  the  aim  of  the  follow- 
ing essay  :  to  show  that,  when  we  come  to  put  the  right 
construction  on  the  Bible,  we  give  to  the  Bible  a  real  experi- 
mental basis,  and  keep  on  this  basis  throughout;  instead 
of  any  basis  of  unverifiable  assumption  to  start  with,  followed 
by  a  string  of  other  unverifiable  assumptions  of  the  like 
kind,  such  as  the  received  theology  necessitates. 

And  this  aim  we  cannot  seek  without  coming  in  sight  of 
another  aim  too,  which  we  have  often  and  often  pointed  out, 
and  tried  to  recommend  :  culture,  the  acquainting  ourselves 
with  the  best  that  has  been  known  and  said  in  the  world, 
and  thus  with  the  history  of  the  human  spirit.  One  cannot 
go  far  in  the  attempt  to  bring  in,  for  the  Bible,  a  right  con- 
struction, without  seeing  how  necessary  is  something  of 
culture  to  its  being  admitted  and  used.  The  correspondent 
whom  we  have  above  quoted  notices  how  the  lack  of  culture 
disposes  the  masses  to  conclude  at  once,  from  any  imper- 
fection or  fallibility  in  the  Bible,  that  it  is  a  priestly  im- 
posture. To  a  certain  extent  this  is  the  fault,  not  of  the 
people's  want  of  culture,  but  of  the  priests  and  theologians 
themselves,  who  for  centuries  have  kept  assuring  men  that 
perfect  and  infiillible  the  Bible  is.  Still,  even  without  this 
confusion  added  by  his  theological  instructors,  the  homo 
unius  libru  the  man  of  no  range  in  his  reading,  must  almost 
inevitably  misunderstand  the  Bible,  cannot  treat  it  largely 


XX  PREFACE. 

enough,  must  be  inclined  to  treat  it  all  alike,  and  to  press 
every  word. 

To  understand  that  the  language  of  the  Bible  is  fluid, 
passing,  and  literary,  not  rigid,  fixed,  and  scientific,  is  the 
first  step  towards  a  right  understanding  of  the  Bible.  But 
to  take  this  very  first  step,  some  experience  of  how  men 
have  thought  and  expressed  themselves,  and  some  flexibility 
of  spirit,  are  necessary  ;  and  this  is  culture.  After  all,  the 
Bible  is  not  a  talisman,  to  be  taken  and  used  literally ; 
neither  is  any  existing  Church  a  talisman,  whatever  preten- 
sions of  the  sort  it  may  make,  for  giving  the  right  interpre- 
tation of  the  Bible.  But  only  true  culture  can  give  us  this 
interpretation  ;  so  that  if  conduct  is,  as  it  is,  inextricably 
bound  up  with  the  Bible  and  the  right  interpretation  of  it, 
then  the  importance  of  culture  becomes  unspeakable.  For 
if  conduct  is  necessary  (and  there  is  nothing  so  necessary), 
culture  is  necessary. 

And  the  poor  require  it  as  much  as  the  rich  ;  and  at 
present  their  education,  even  when  they  get  education,  gives 
them  hardly  anything  of  it.  Yet  hardly  less  of  it,  perhaps, 
than  the  education  of  the  rich  gives  to  the  rich.  For  when 
we  say  that  culture  is.  To  kiioiv  the  best  that  has  beefi  thought 
and  said  m  the  world,  we  imply  that,  for  culture,  a  system 
directly  tending  to  this  end  is  necessary  in  our  reading. 
Now,  there  is  no  such  system  yet  present  to  guide  the 
reading  of  the  rich,  any  more  than  of  the  poor.  Such  a 
system  is  hardly  even  thought  of;  a  man  who  wants  it 
must  make  it  for  himself.  And  our  reading  being  so  without 
purpose  as  it  is,  nothing  can  be  truer  than  what  Butler  says, 


PREFACE.  xxi 

that  really,  in  general,   no  part  of  our  time  is  more  idly 
spent  than  the  time  spent  in  reading. 

Still,  culture  is  indispensably  necessary,  and  culture  is 
reading ;  but  reading  with  a  purpose  to  guide  it,  and  with 
system.  He  does  a  good  work  who  does  anything  to  help 
this  ;  indeed,  it  is  the  one  essential  service  now  to  be  ren- 
dered to  education.  And  the  plea,  that  this  or  that  man 
has  no  time  for  culture,  will  vanish  as  soon  as  we  desire 
culture  so  much  that  we  begin  to  examine  seriously  our 
present  use  of  our  time.  It  has  often  been  said,  and  cannot 
be  said  too  often  :  Give  to  any  man  all  the  time  that  he 
now  wastes,  not  only  on  his  vices  (when  he  has  them),  but 
on  useless  business,  wearisome  or  deteriorating  amusements, 
trivial  letter-writing,  random  reading ;  and  he  will  have 
plenty  of  time  for  culture.  ''Die  Zeit  ist  imendlich  la7ig^^ 
says  Goethe  ;  and  so  it  really  is.  Some  of  us  w^aste  all  of  it, 
most  of  us  waste  much,  but  all  of  us  waste  some. 


CONTENTS. 


CHAPTER  PAGB 

INTRODUCTION I 

I.       RELIGION    GIVEN 8 

II.      ABERGLAUBB   INVADING 46 

III.  RELIGION   NEW-GIVEN 60 

IV.  THE   PROOF   FROM    PROPHECY 80 

V.       THE    PROOF    FROM    MIRACLES 87 

VI.       THE    NEW   TESTAMENT    RECORD       .  .  .    "       ,  .III 

VII.      THE  TESTIMONY   OF  JESUS  TO   HIMSELF      .            .           .      .  I24 

VIII.       FAITH   IN   CHRIST I4I 

IX.       ABERGLAUBE  RE-INVADING          .           ,           .           .           ■      .  149 

X.      OUR    'masses'  and   THE   BIBLE 175 

XI.      THE  TRUE  iGREATNESS   OF   THE  OLD   TESTAMENT        .     .  I95 

XII.      THE  TRUE  GREATNESS  OF  CHRISTIANITY        .           .           .  213 

CONCLUSION        .           t          • 227 


LITERATURE    &    DOGMA. 


IKTRODUCTION. 

Lord  Beaconsfield,  treating  Hellenic  things  with  the 
scornful  negligence  natural  to  a  Hebrew,  said  in  a  well-known 
book  that  our  aristocratic  class,  the  polite  flower  of  the 
nation,  were  truly  Hellenic  in  this  respect  among  others, — 
that  they  cared  nothing  for  letters  and  never  read.  Now, 
there  seems  to  be  here  some  inaccuracy,  if  we  take  our 
standard  of  what  is  Hellenic  from  Hellas  at  its  highest  pitch 
of  development.  For  the  latest  historian  of  Greece,  Dr. 
Curtius,  tells  us  that  in  the  Athens  of  Pericles  '  reading 
was  universally  diffused  ; '  and  again,  that  *  what  more  than 
anything  distinguishes  the  Greeks  from  the  Barbarians  of 
ancient  and  modem  times,  is  the  idea  of  a  culture  com- 
prehending body  and  soul  in  an  equal  measure.'  And  I 
have  myself  called  our  aristocratic  class  Barbarians^  which 
is  the  contrary  of  Hellenes,  from  this  very  reason  / 
because,  with  all  their  fine,  fresh  appearance,  their  open 
air  life,  and  their  love  of  field-sports,  for  reading  and  think- 
ing they  have  in  general  no  great  turn.  But  no  doubt  Lord 
Beaconsfield  was  thinking  of  the  primitive  Hellenes  of  north- 
western Greece,  from  among  whom  the  Dorians  of  Pelo- 
ponnesus originally  came,  but  who  themselves  remained  iii 
their  old  seats  and  did  not  migrate  and  develope  like  their 


2  LITERATURE  AND  DOGMA. 

more  famous  brethren.  And  of  these  primitive  Hellenes, 
of  Greeks  like  the  Chaonians  and  Molossians,  it  is  pro- 
bably a  very  just  account  to  give,  that  they  lived  in  the  open 
air,  loved  field-sports,  and  never  read.  And,  explained  in 
this  way,  Lord  Beaconsfield's  parallel  of  our  aristocratic  class 
with  what  he  somewhat  misleadingly  calls  the  old  Hellenic 
race  appears  ingenious  and  sound.  To  those  lusty  nor- 
therners, the  Molossian  or  Chaonian  Greeks, — Greeks  un- 
touched by  the  development  which  contradistinguishes  the 
Hellene  from  the  Barbarian, — our  aristocratic  class,  as  he 
exhibits  it,  has  a  strong  resemblance.  At  any  rate,  this 
class, — which  from  its  great  possessions,  its  beauty  and 
attractiveness,  the  admiration  felt  for  it  by  the  Philistines 
or  middle- class,  its  actual  power  in  the  nation,  and  the  still 
more  considerable  destinies  to  which  its  politeness,  in  Mr. 
Carlyle's  opinion,  entitles  it,  cannot  but  attract  our  notice 
pre-eminently,— shows  at  present  a  great  and  genuine  dis- 
regard for  letters. 

And  perhaps,  if  there  is  any  other  body  of  men  which 
strikes  one,  even  after  looking  at  our  aristocratic  class,  as 
being  in  the  sunshine,  as  exercising  great  attraction,  as  being 
admired  by  the  Philistines  or  middle-class,  and  as  having 
before  it  a  future  still  more  brilliant  than  its  present,  it  is  the 
friends  of  physical  science.  Now.  their  revolt  against  the 
tyranny  of  letters  is  notorious.  To  deprive  letters  of  the  too 
great  place  they  have  hitherto  filled  in  men's  estimation, 
and  to  substitute  other  studies  for  these,  is  the  object  of  a 
sort  of  crusade  with  a  body  of  people  important  in  itself, 
but  still  more  important  because  of  the  gifted  leaders  who 
march  at  its  head. 

Religion  has  always  hitherto  been  a  great  power  in  Eng- 
land ;  and  on  this  account,  perhaps,  whatever  humiliations 
may  be  in  store  for  religion  in  the  future,  the  friends  of 
physical  science  will  not  object  to  our  saying,  that,  after 


INTRODUCTION.  3 

them  and  the  aristocracy,  the  leaders  of  the  religious  world 
fill  a  prominent  place  in  the  public  eye  even  now,  and  one 
cannot  help  noticing  what  their  opinions  and  likings  are. 
And  it  is  curious  how  the  feeling  of  the  chief  people  in  the 
religious  world,  too,  seems  to  be  just  now  against  letters, 
which  they  slight  as  the  vague  and  inexact  instrument  of 
shallow  essayists   and  magazine-writers  ;  and   in  favour  of 
dogma,  of  a  scientific  and  exact  presentment  of  religious 
things,  instead  of  a  literary  presentment  of  them.     'Dog- 
matic theology,'  says  the  Gtcardian,  speaking  of  our  existing 
dogmatic  theology, — 'Dogmatic  theology,  that  is, precision 
and  dejiniteness  of  religious  thought.'     '  Maudlin  sentimen- 
talism,'  says  the  Dean  of  Norwich,  '  with  its  miserable  dis- 
paragements of  any  definite  doctrine  ;  a  nerveless  religion, 
without  the  sineiv  and  bo7ie  of  doctrine.'     The  distinguished 
Chancellor  of  the  University  of  Oxford  thought  it  needful  to 
tell  us  on  a  public  occasion  lately,  that  '  religion  is  no  more 
to  be  severed  from  dogma  than  light  from  the  sun.'     Every- 
one,  again,  remembers  the  Bishops  of  Winchester '    and 
Gloucester  making  in  Convocation  their  remarkable  effort 
'  to  do  something,'  as  they  said,  'for  the  honour  of  Our  Lord's 
Godhead,'  and  to  mark  their  sense  of  *  that  infinite  separa- 
tion for  time  and  for  eternity  which  is  involved  in  rejecting 
the  Godhead  of  the  Eternal  Son.'     In  the  same  way  :  'To 
no  teaching,'  says  one  champion  of  dogma,  '  can  the  appel* 
lation  of  Christian  be  truly  given  which  does  not  involve   he 
idea  of  a  Personal  God.'     Another  lays  like  stress  on  cor- 
rect ideas  about  the  Personality  of  the  Holy  Ghost.     '  Our 
Lord  unquestionably,'  says  a  third,  '  annexes  eternal  life  to 
a  right  knowledge  of  the  Godhead,' — that  is,   to  a   right 
speculative,  dogmatic  knowledge  of  it.     A  fourth  appeals  to 
history  and  human  nature  for  proof  that  '  an   undogmatic 
Church  can  no  more  satisfy  the  hunger  of  the  soul,  than  a 
'  The  late  Bishop  Wilbeifoice, 

B  2 


/J  LITERATURE  AND  DOGMA. 

snowball,  painted  to  look  like  fruit,  would  stay  the  hunger 
of  the  stomach.'  And  all  these  friends  of  theological  science 
are,  like  the  friends  of  physical  science,  though  from  another 
cause,  severe  upon  letters.  Attempts  made  at  a  literary 
treatment  of  religious  history  and  ideas  they  call  *  a  subvert- 
ing of  the  faith  once  delivered  to  the  saints.'  Those  who 
make  them  they  speak  of  as  '  those  who  have  made  ship- 
wreck of  the  faith  ; '  and  when  they  talk  of  '  the  poison 
openly  disseminated  by  infidels,'  and  describe  the  'progress 
of  infidelity,'  which  more  and  more,  according  to  their 
account,  *  denies  God,  rejects  Christ,  and  lets  loose  every 
human  passion,'  though  they  have  the  audaciousness  of 
physical  science  most  in  their  eye,  yet  they  have  a  direct 
aim,  too,  at  the  looseness  and  dangerous  temerity  of 
letters. 

Keeping  in  remembrance  what  Scripture  says  about  the 
young  man  who  had  great  possessions,  to  be  able  to  work  a 
change  of  mind  in  our  aristocratic  class  we  never  have  pre- 
tended, we  never  shall  pretend.  But  to  the  friends  of  phy- 
sical science  and  to  the  friends  of  dogma  wfe  do  feel  em^ 
boldened,  after  giving  our  best  consideration  to  the  matter, 
to  say  a  few  words  on  behalf  of  letters,  and  in  deprecation 
of  the  slight  which,  on  different  grounds,  they  both  put  upon 
them.  But  particularly  in  reply  to  the  friends  of  dogma  do 
we  wish  to  insist  on  the  case  for  letters,  because  of  the  great 
issues  which  seem  to  us  to  be  here  involved.  Therefore  of 
the  relation  of  letters  to  religion  we  are  going  now  to  speak  ; 
of  their  effect  upon  dogma,  and  of  the  consequences  of  this 
to  rehgion.  And  so  the  subject  of  the  present  volume  will 
be  literature  a?id  dogma. 


It  is  clear  that  dogmatists  love  religion ;— for  else  why 
do  they  occupy  themselves  with  it  so  much,  and  make  it, 


INTRODUCTION.  5 

most  of  them,  the  business,  even  the  professional  business, 
of  their  Hves?  And  clearly  religion  seeks  man's  salvation. 
How  distressing,  therefore,  must  it  be  to  them,  to  think  that 
'salvation  is  unquestionably  annexed  to  a  right  knowledge 
of  the  Godhead,'  and  that  a  right  knowledge  of  the  God- 
head depends  upon  reasoning,  for  which  so  many  people 
have  not  much  aptitude  ;  and  upon  reasoning  from  ideas  of 
terms  such  as  substance,  identity,  causation,  design,  about 
which  there  is  endless  disagreement !  It  is  true,  a  right 
knowledge  of  geometry  also  depends  upon  reasoning,  and 
many  people  never  get  it ;  but  then,  in  the  first  place,  salva- 
tion is  not  annexed  to  a  right  knowledge  of  geometry  ,  and 
in  the  second,  the  ideas  or  terms  such  as  pointy  line,  angle^ 
from  which  we  reason  in  geometry,  are  terms  about  which 
there  is  no  ambiguity  or  disagreement.  But  as  to  the 
demonstrations  and  terms  of  theology  we  cannot  comfort 
ourselves  in  this  manner.  How  must  this  thought  mar  the 
Archbishop  of  York's  enjoyment  of  such  a  solemnity  as  that 
in  which,  to  uphold  and  renovate  religion,  he  lectured 
lately  to  Lord  Harrowby,  Dean  Payne  Smith,  and  other 
kindred  souls,  upon  the  theory  of  causation  !  And  what  a 
consolation  to  us,  who  are  so  perpetually  being  taunted  with 
our  known  inaptitude  for  abstruse  reasoning,  if  we  can  find 
that  for  this  great  concern  of  religion,  at  any  rate,  abstruse 
reasoning  does  not  seem  to  be  the  appointed  help  ;  and 
that  as  good  or  better  a  help, — for  indeed  there  can  hardly, 
to  judge  by  the  present  state  of  things,  be  a  worse, — may 
be  something  which  is  in  an  ordinary  man's  power  ! 

For  the  good  of  letters  is,  that  they  require  no  extra- 
ordinary acuteness  such  as  is  required  to  handle  the  theory 
of  causation  like  the  Archbishop  of  York,  or  the  doctrine 
of  the  Godhead  of  the  Eternal  Son  hke  the  Bishops  of 
Winchester  and  Gloucester.  The  good  of  letters  may  be  had 
without  skill  in  arguing,  or  that  formidable  logical  apparatus, 


6  LITERATURE  AND  DOGMA. 

not  unlike  a  guillotine,  which  Professor  Huxley  speaks  of 
somewhere  as  the  young  man's  best  companion; — and  so  it 
would  be  his  best  companion,  no  doubt,  if  all  wisdom  were 
come  at  by  hard  reasoning.  In  that  case,  all  who  could  not 
manage  this  apparatus  (and  only  a  few  picked  craftsmen  can 
manage  it)  would  be  in  a  pitiable  condition. 

But  the  valuable  thing  in  letters, — that  is,  in  the  ac- 
quainting oneself  with  the  best  which  has  been  thought  and 
said  in  the  world,— is,  as  we  have  often  remarked,  the  judg- 
ment which  forms  itself  insensibly  in  a  fair  mind  along  with 
fresh  knowledge  ;  and  this  judgment  almost  anyone  with  a 
fair  mind,  who  will  but  trouble  himself  to  try  and  make 
acquaintance  with  the  best  which  has  been  thought  and 
uttered  in  the  world,  may,  if  he  is  lucky,  hope  to  attain  to. 
For  this  judgment  comes  almost  of  irself ;  and  what  it  dis- 
places it  displaces  easily  and  naturally,  and  without  any 
turmoil  of  controversial  reasonings.  The  thing  comes  to 
look  differently  to  us,  as  we  look  at  it  by  the  light  of  fresh 
knowledge.  We  are  not  beaten  from  our  old  opinion  by 
logic,  we  are  not  driven  off  our  ground  ; — our  ground  itself 
changes  with  us. 

Far  more  of  our  mistakes  come  from  want  of  fresh  know- 
ledge than  from  warit  of  correct  reasoning ;  and,  therefore, 
letters  meet  a  greater  want  in  us  than'does  logic.  The  idea 
of  a  triangle  is  a  definite  and  ascertained  thing,  and  to 
deduce  the  properties  of  a  triangle  from  it  is  an  affair  of 
reasoning.  There  are  heads  unapt  for  this  sort  of  work,  and 
some  of  the  blundering  to  be  found  in  the  world  is  from  this 
cause.  But  how  far  more  of  the  blundering  to  be  found  in 
the  world  comes  from  people  fancying  that  some  idea  is  a 
definite  and  ascertained  thing,  like  the  idea  of  a  triangle, 
when  it  is  not ;  and  proceeding  to  deduce  properties  from  it, 
and  to  do  battle  about  them,  when  their  first  start  was  a 
mistake  !     And  how  liable  are  people  with  a  talent  for  hard, 


INTRODUCTIONS!.  7 

abstruse  reasoning,  to  be  tempted  to  this  mistake  !  And 
what  can  clear  up  such  a  mistake  except  a  wide  and  familiar 
acquaintance  with  the  human  spirit  and  its  productions, 
showing  how  ideas  and  terms  arose,  and  what  is  their 
character?  and  this  is  letters  and  history,  not  logic. 

So  that  minds  with  small  aptitude  for  absti^jse  reasoning 
may  yet,  through  letters,  gain  some  hold  on  sound  judgment 
and  useful  knowledge,  and  may  even  clear  up  blunders 
committed,  out  of  their  very  excess  of  talent,  by  the  athletes 
of  logic. 


LITERATURE  AND  DOGMA. 


CHAPTER  I. 

RELIGION    GIVEN. 

I  HAVE  said  elsewhere  '  how  much  it  has  contributed  to  the 
misunderstanding  of  St.  Paul,  that  terms  like  grace^  neii 
birth,  just(ficatio7i, — which  he  used  in  a  fluid  and  passing 
way,  as  men  use  terms  in  common  discourse  or  in  eloquence 
and  poetry,  to  describe  approximately,  but  only  approxi- 
mately, what  they  have  present  before  their  mind  but  do 
not  profess  that  their  mind  does  or  can  grasp  exactly  or 
adequately,— that  such  terms  people  have  blunderingly 
taken  in  a  fixed  and  rigid  manner,  as  if  they  were  symbols 
with  as  definite  and  fully  grasped  a  meaning  as  the  names 
line  or  a?igle,  and  proceeded  to  use  them  on  this  supposi- 
tion. Terms,  in  short,  which  with  St.  Paul  are  literary 
terms,  theologians  have  employed  as  if  they  were  scientific 
terms. 

But  if  one  desires  to  deal  with  this  mistake  thoroughly, 
one  must  observe  it  in  that  supreme  term  with  which  religion 
is  filled, — the  term  God.  The  seemingly  incurable  ambiguity 
in  the  mode  of  employing  this  word  is  at  the  root  of  all  our 
religious  differences  and  difficulties.  People  use  it  as  if  it 
stood  for  a  perfectly  definite  and  ascertained  idea,  from 
which  we  might,  without  more  ado,  extract  propositions  and 
draw  inferences,  just  as  we  should  from  any  other  definite 
and  ascertained  idea.     For  instance,  I  open  a  book  which 

'   CitUure  and  Anarchy,  p.  1 60. 


RELIGION  GIVEN.  9 

controverts  what  its  author  thinks  dangerous  views  about 
religion,  and  I  read  :  *  Our  sense  of  morality  tells  us  so-and- 
so  ;  our  sense  of  God,  on  the  other  hand,  tells  us  so-and-so.' 
And  again,  '  the  impulse  in  man  to  seek  God '  is  distin- 
guished, as  if  the  distinction  were  self-evident  and  explained 
itself,  from  '  the  impulse  in  man  to  seek  his  highest  perfec- 
tion.' Now,  morality  represents  for  everybody  a  thoroughly 
definite  and  ascertained  idea  :— the  idea  of  human  conduct 
regulated  in  a  certain  manner.  Everybody,  again,  under- 
stands distinctly  enough  what  is  meant  by  man's  perfection : — 
his  reaching  the  best  which  his  powers  and  circumstances 
allow  him  to  reach.  And  the  word  '  God  '  is  used,  in  con- 
nexion with  both  these  words,  morality  and  perfection,  as 
if  it  stood  for  just  as  definite  and  ascertained  an  idea  as 
they  do ;  an  idea  drawn  from  experience,  just  as  the  ideas 
are  which  they  stand  for  ;  an  idea  about  which  everyone  was 
agreed,  and  from  which  we  might  proceed  to  argue  and  to 
make  inferences,  with  the  certainty  that,  as  in  the  case  of 
morality  and  perfection,  the  basis  on  which  we  were  going 
everyone  knew  and  granted.  But,  in  truth,  the  word  '  God ' 
is  used  in  most  cases  as  by  no  means  a  term  of  science  or 
exact  knowledge,  but  a  term  of  poetry  and  eloquence,  a 
term  thro7vn  out,  so  to  speak,  at  a  not  fully  grasped  object 
of  the  speaker's  consciousness,  a  literary  term,  in  short ; 
and  mankind  mean  different  things  by  it  as  their  conscious-, 
ness  diff'ers. 

The  first  question,  then,  is,  how  people  are  using  the 
word  ;  whether  in  this  Hterary  way,  or  in  a  scientific  way. 
The  second  question  is,  what,  supposing  them  to  use  the 
term  as  one  of  poetry  and  eloquence,  and  to  import  into  it, 
therefore,  a  great  deal  ot  their  own  individual  feelings  and 
character,  is  yet  the  common  substratum  of  idea  on  which, 
in  using  it,  they  all  rest.  For  this  will  then  be,  for  them,  and 
for  us  in  dealing  with  them,  the  real  sense  of  the  word  ;  the 


lo  LITERATURE  AND   DOGMA. 

sense  in  which  we  can  use  it  for  purposes  of  argument  and 
inference  without  ambiguity. 

Strictly  and  formally  the  word  '  God,'  so  some  philologists 
tell  us,  means,  like  its  kindred  Aryan  words,  Theos,  Deiis, 
and  Deva,  simply  shining  or  brilliafit.  In  a  certain  narrow 
way,  therefore,  this  would  be  (if  the  etymology  is  right)  the 
one  exact  and  scientific  sense  of  the  word.  It  was  long 
thought,  however,  to  mean  good,  and  so  Luther  took  it  to 
mean  the  best  that  manknoivs  or  can  know,  and  in  this  sense, 
as  a  matter  of  fact  and  history,  mankind  constantly  use  the 
word.  This  is  the  common  substratum  of  idea  on  which 
men  in  general,  when  they  use  the  word  God^  rest ;  and  wt 
can  take  this  as  the  word's  real  sense  fairly  enough,  only  it 
does  not  give  us  anything  very  precise. 

But  then  there  is  also  the  scientific  sense  held  by  theo- 
logians, deduced  from  the  ideas  of  substance,  identit)-, 
causation,  design,  and  so  on  ;  but  taught,  they  say,  or  at 
least  implied,  in  the  Bible,  and  on  which  all  the  Bible  rests. 
According  to  this  scientific  and  theological  sense, — which 
has  all  the  outward  appearances,  at  any  rate,  of  great  pre- 
cision,— God  is  an  infinite  and  eternal  substance,  and  at  the 
same  time  a  person,  the  great  first  cause,  the  moral  and 
intelligent  governor  of  the  universe  ;  Jesus  Christ  is  consub- 
stantial  with  him ;  and  the  Holy  Ghost  is  a  person  proceed- 
ing from  the  other  two.  This  is  the  sense  for  which,  or  for 
portions  of  which,  the  Bishops  of  Winchester  and  Gloucester 
are  so  zealous  to  do  something. 

Other  people,  however,  who  fail  to  perceive  the  force  of 
such  a  deduction  from  the  abstract  ideas  above  mentioned, 
who  indeed  think  it  quite  hollow,  but  who  are  told  that  this 
sense  is  in  the  Bible,  and  that  they  must  receive  it  if  they 
receive  the  Bible,  conclude  that  in  that  case  they  had  better 
receive  neither  the  one  nor  the  other.  Something  of  this 
sort  it  was,  no  doubt,  which  made  Professor  Huxley  tell 


RELIGION  GIVEN.  ii 

the  London  School  Board  lately,  that  '  if  these  islands  had 
no  religion  at  all,  it  would  not  enter  into  his  mind  to  intro- 
duce the  religious  idea  by  the  agency  of  the  Bible.'  Of 
such  people  there  are  now  a  great  many ;  and  indeed  there 
could  hardly,  for  those  who  value  the  Bible,  be  a  greater 
example  of  the  sacrifices  one  is  sometimes  called  upon  to 
make  for  the  truth,  than  to  find  that  for  the  truth  as  held  by 
the  Bishops  of  Winchester  and  Gloucester,  if  it  is  the  truth, 
one  must  sacrifice  the*  allegiance  of  so  many  people  to  the 
Bible. 

But  surely,  if  there  be  anything  with  which  metaphysics 
have  nothing  to  do,  and  where  a  plain  man,  without  skill  to 
walk  in  the  arduous  paths  of  abstruse  reasoning,  may  yet 
find  himself  at  home,  it  is  religion.  For  the  object  of  re 
ligion  is  conduct ;  and  conduct  is  really,  however  men  may 
overlay  it  with  philosophical  disquisitions,  the  simplest  thing 
in  the  world.  That  is  to  say,  it  is  the  simplest  thing  in  the 
world  as  far  as  understanding  is  concerned  ;  as  regards  doi?ig, 
it  is  the  hardest  thing  in  the  world.  Here  is  the  difficulty, 
— to  do  what  v/e  very  well  know  ought  to  be  done  ;  and 
instead  of  facing  this,  men  have  searched  out  another  with 
which  they  occupy  themselves  by  preference, — the  origin 
of  what  is  called  the  moral  sense,  the  genesis  and  physio- 
logy of  conscience,  and  so  on.  No  one  denies  that  here, 
too,  is  difficulty,  or  that  the  difficulty  is  a  proper  object  for 
the  human  faculties  to  be  exercised  upon  ;  but  thexiifficulty 
here  is  speculative.  It  is  not  the  difficulty  of  religion,  which 
is  a  practical  one  ;  and  it  often  tends  to  divert  the  atten- 
tion from  this.  Yet  surely  the  difficulty  of  religion  is  great 
enough  by  itself,  if  men  would  but  consider  it,  to  satisfy  the 
most  voracious  appetite  for  difficulties.  It  extends  to  right- 
ness  in  the  whole  range  of  what  we  csiW  co7iduct -,  in  three- 
fourths,  therefore,  at  the  very  lowest  computation,  of  human 
life.     The  only  doubt  is  whether  we  ought  not  to  make  tli^ 


12  LITERATURE  AND  DOGMA. 

range  of  conduct  wider  still,  and  to  say  it  is  four-fifths  of 
human  life,  or  five-sixths.  But  it  is  better  to  be  under  the 
mark  than  over  it ;  so  let  us  be  content  with  reckoning  con- 
duct as  three-fourths  of  human  life. 

And  to  recognise  in  what  way  conduct  is  this,  let  us 
eschew  all  school-terms,  like  moral  sefise,  and  volitmial.  and 
altruistic^  which  philosophers  employ,  and  let  us  help  our- 
selves by  the  most  palpable  and  plain  examples.  When  the 
rich  man  in  the  Bible-parable  says  :  '  Soul,  thou  hast  much 
goods  laid  up  for  many  years ;  take  thine  ease,  eat,  drink, 
and  be  merry  ! '  ^ — those  goods  which  he  thus  assigns  as  the 
stuff  with  which  human  life  is  mainly  concerned  (and  so  in 
practice  it  really  is), — those  goods  and  our  dealings  with 
them, — our  taking  our  ease,  eating,  drinking,  being  merry, 
are  the  matter  of  conduct^  the  range  where  it  is  exercised. 
Eating,  drinking,  ease,  pleasure,  money,  the  intercourse  of 
the  sexes,  the  giving  free  swing  to  one's  temper  and  instincts, 
— these  are  the  matters  with  which  conduct  is  concerned, 
and  with  which  all  mankind  know  and  feel  it  to  be  con- 
cerned. 

Or,  when  Protagoras  points  out  of  what  things  we  are, 
from  childhood  till  we  die,  being  taught  and  admonished, 
and  says  (but  it  is  lamentable  that  here  we  have  not  at  hand 
Mr.  Jowett,  who  so  excellently  introduces  the  enchanter 
Plato  and  his  personages,  but  must  use  our  own  words) : 
'From  the  time  he  can  understand  what  is  said  to  him, 
nurse,  and  mother,  and  teacher,  and  father  too,  are  bending 
their  efforts  to  this  end, — to  make  the  child  good ;  teaching 
and  showing  him,  as  to  everything  he  has  to  do  or  say,  how 
this  is  right  and  that  not  right,  and  this  is  honourable  and 
that  vile,  and  this  is  holy  and  that  unholy,  and  this  do  and 
that  do  not ; ' — Protagoras,  also,  when  he  says  this,  bears  his 
testimony  to  the  scope  and  nature  of  conduct^  tells  us  what 

'  Luke,  xii,  19. 


RELIGION  GIVEN.  13 

conduct  is.  Or,  once  more,  when  M.  Littre  (and  we  hope 
to  make  our  peace  with  the  Comtists  by  quoting  an  author 
of  theirs  in  preference  to  those  authors  whom  all  the  British 
public  is  now  reading  and  quoting), — when  M.  Littre,  in  a 
most  ingenious  essay  on  the  origin  of  morals,  traces  up, 
better,  perhaps,  than  anyone  else,  all  our  impulses  into  two 
elementary  instincts,  the  instinct  of  self-preservation  and  the 
reproductive  instinct, — then  we  take  his  theory  and  we  say, 
that  all  the  impulses  which  can  be  conceived  as  derivable 
from  the  insti»ct  of  self-preservation  in  us  and  from  the 
reproductive  instinct,  these  terms  being  applied  in  their 
ordinary  sense,  are  the  matter  of  conduct.  It  is  evident  this 
includes,  to  say  no  more,  every  impulse  relating  to  temper, 
every  impulse  relating  to  sensuality ;  and  we  all  know  how 
much  that  is. 

How  we  deal  with  these  impulses  is  the  matter  of  conduct, 
— how  we  obey,  regulate,  or  restrain  them  ;  that,  and  nothing 
else.  Not  whether  M.  Littre's  theory  is  true  or  false  ;  for 
whether  it  be  true  or  false,  there  the  impulses  confessedly 
now  are,  and  the  business  of  conduct  is  to  deal  with  them. 
But  it  is  evident,  if  conduct  deals  with  these,  both  how  im- 
portant a  thing  conduct  is,  and  how  simple  a  thing.  Impor- 
tant, because  it  covers  so  large  a  portion  of  human  life,  and 
the  portion  common  to  all  sorts  of  people  ;  simple,  because, 
though  there  needs  perpetual  admonition  to  form  conduct, 
the  admonition  is  needed  not  to  determine  what  we  ought 
to  do,  but  to  make  us  do  it. 

And  as  to  this  simplicity,  all  moralists  are  agreed.  'Let 
any  plain  honest  man,'  says  Bishop  Butler, '  before  he  engages 
in  any  course  of  action '  (he  means  action  of  the  very  kind  we 
call  conduct),  *  ask  himself :  Is  this  I  am  going  about  right 
or  is  it  wrong  ?  is  it  good  or  is  it  evil  ?  I  do  not  in  the  least 
doubt  but  that  this  question  would  be  answered  agreeably 
to  truth  and  virtue  by  almost  any  fair  man  in  almost  any 


14  LITERATURE  AND  DOGMA. 

circumstance'  And  Bishop  Wilson  says  :  ' Look  up  to  God' 
(by  which  he  means  just  this  :  Consult  your  conscience)  *at 
all  times,  and  you  will,  as  in  a  glass,  discover  what  is  fit  to  he 
done.'  And  the  Preacher's  well-known  sentence  is  exactly 
to  the  same  efiect  :  '  God  made  man  up  fight;  but  they  have 
sought  out  many  inventions,'  ^ — or,  as  it  more  correctly  is, 
^rnany  abstruse  reasonings.^  Let  us  hold  fast  to  this,  and  we 
shall  find  we  have  a  stay  by  the  help  of  which  even  poor 
weak  men,  with  no  pretensions  to  be  logical  athletes,  may 
stand  firmly. 

And  so,  when  we  are  asked,  what  is  the  object  of  religion? 
— let  us  reply  :  Conduct.  And  when  we  are  asked  further, 
what  is  conduct  ? — let  us  answer :  Three-fourths  of  life. 


And  certainly  we  need  not  go  far  about  to  prove  that 
conduct,  or  'righteousness,'  which  is  the  object  of  religion, 
is  in  a  special  manner  the  object  of  Bible-rehgion.  The 
word  '  righteousness '  is  the  master-word  of  the  Old  Testa- 
ment. Keep  judgment  and  do  righteousness  !  Cease  to  do  evil, 
learn  to  do  well .f^  these  words  being  taken  in  their  plainest 
sense  of  conduct  Offer  the  sacrifice.,  not  of  victims  and 
ceremonies,  as  the  way  of  the  world  in  religion  then  was, 
but :  Offer  the  sacrifice  of  righteousness  !^  The  great  concern 
of  the  New  Testament  is  likewise  righteousness,  but  righte- 
ousness reached  through  particular  means,  righteousness 
by  the  means  of  Jesus  Christ.  A  sentence  which  sums  up 
the  New  Testament  and  assigns  the  ground  whereon  the 
Christian  Church  stands,  is,  as  we  have  elsewhere  said,"* 
this  :  Let  every  one  that  nameth  the  name  of  Christ  depa?-t 
from  iniquity  /  ^     If  we  are  to  take  a  sentence  which  in  like 

'  Ecdesiastes,  vii,  29.  '  Isaiah,  Ivi,  i  ;  i,  16,  17. 

"  Psalm  iv,  5.  *  St.  Paul  and  Protestantism.,  p.  159. 

*  II  Timothy.,  ii,  19. 


RELIGION  GIVEN.  15 

manner  sums  up  the  Old  Testament,  such  a  sentence  is  this  : 
O  ye  that  love  the  Eternal.,  see  that  ye  hate  the  thing  which  is 
ei'il!  to  him  that  order eth  his  co7iversation  right  shall  be  show7i 
the  salvation  of  God} 

But  instantly  there  will  be  raised  the  objection  that  this 
is  morality,  not  religion  ;  morality,  ethics,  conduct,  being 
by  many  people,  and  above  all  by  theologians,  carefully 
contradistinguished  from  religion,  which  is  supposed  in 
some  special  way  to  be  connected  with  propositions  about 
the  Godhead  of  the  Eternal  Son,  or  propositions  about  the 
personality  of  God,  or  about  election,  or  justification.  Re- 
ligion, however,  means  simply  either  a  binding  to  righteous- 
ness, or  else  a  serious  attending  to  righteousness  and  dwell- 
ing upon  it.  Which  of  these  two  it  most  nearly  means, 
depends  upon  the  view  we  take  of  the  word's  derivation  ; 
but  it  means  one  of  them,  and  they  are  really  much  the 
same.  And  the  antithesis  between  ethical  and  religious  is 
thus  quite  a  false  one.  Ethical  means  practical,  it  relates 
to  practice  or  conduct  passing  into  habit  or  disposition. 
Religious  also  mesins  practical,  but  practical  in  a  still  higher 
degree ;  and  the  right  antithesis  to  both  ethical  and  religious, 
is  the  same  as  the  right  antithesis  to  practical  :  namely, 
theoretical. 

Now,  propositions  about  the  Godhead  of  the  Eternal 
Son  are  theoretical,  and  they  therefore  are  very  properly 
opposed  to  propositions  which  are  moral  or  ethical ;  but 
they  are  with  equal  propriety  opposed  to  propositions  which 
are  religious.  They  differ  in  kind  from  what  is  religious, 
while  what  is  ethical  agrees  in  kind  with  it.  But  is  there, 
therefore,  no  difference  between  what  is  ethical,  or  moraliiy, 
and  religion  ?  '  There  is  a  difference  ;  a  difference  of  degree. 
Religion,  if  we  follow  the  intention  of  human  thought  and 
human  language  in  the  use  of  the  word,  is  ethics  heightened, 

'  Ps.  xcvii,  10  :  1,  2^. 


i6  LITERATURE  AND   DOGMA. 

enkindled,  lit  up  by  feeling ;  the  passage  from  morality  to 
religion  is  made  when  to  morality  is  applied  emotion.  And 
the  true  meaning  of  religion  is  thus,  not  simply  morality^  but 
morality  touched  by  emotion.  And  this  new  elevation  and 
inspiration  of  morality  is  well  marked  by  the  word  *  righte- 
ousness/ Conduct  is  the  word  of  common  life,  morality 
is  the  word  of  philosophical  disquisition,  righteousness  is 
the  word  of  religion. 

Some  people,  indeed,  are  for  calling  all  high  thought 
and  feeling  by  the  name  of  rehgion ;  according  to  that  say- 
ing of  Goethe  :  '  He  who  has  art  and  science,  has  also  reli- 
gion.' But  let  us  use  words  as  mankind  generally  use  them. 
We  may  call  art  and  science  touched  by  emotion  religion^  if 
we  will ;  as  we  may  make  the  instinct  of  self-preservation, 
into  which  M.  Littre  traces  up  all  our  private  affections, 
include  the  perfecting  ourselves  by  the  study  of  what  is 
beautiful  in  art ;  and  the  reproductive  instinct,  into  which 
he  traces  up  all  our  social  affections,  include  the  perfecting 
mankind  by  political  science.  But  men  have  not  yet  got 
to  that  stage,  when  we  think  much  of  either  their  private  oi 
their  social  affections  at  all,  except  as  exercising  themselves 
in  conduct;  neither  do  we  yet  think  of  religion '4s  otherwise 
exercising  itself.  When  mankind  speak  of  religion,  they 
have  before  their  mind  an  activity  engaged,  not  with  the 
whole  of  life,  but  with  that  three-fourths  of  life  which  is 
cofiduct.  This  is  wide  enough  range  for  one  word,  surely; 
but  at  any  rate,  let  us  at  present  limit  ourselves  in  the  use 
of  the  word  religion  as  mankind  do. 

And  if  some  one  now  asks  :  But  what  is  this  application 
of  emotion  to  morality,  and  by  what  marks  may  we  know 
it? — we  can  quite  easily  satisfy  him  ;  not,  indeed,  by  any 
disquisition  of  our  own,  but  in  a  much  better  way,  by  ex- 
amples. *  By  the  dispensation  of  Providence  to  mankind,' 
says  Quintilian,  'goodness  gives  men  most  satisfaction.'^ 
*  Dedit  hoc  Providentia  hominibus  munus,  ut  hoaesta  magis  juvarent. 


RELIGION  GIVEN.  17 

That  is  morality.  'The  path  of  the  just  is  as  the  shining 
light  which  shineth  more  and  more  unto  the  perfect  day.'  ^ 
That  is  moraUty  touched  with  emotion,  or  religion.  '  Hold 
off  from  sensuality,'  says  Cicero  ;  '  for,  if  you  have  given 
yourself  up  to  it,  you  will  find  yourself  unable  to  think  of 
anything  else.' ^  That  is  morality.  'Blessed  are  the  pure 
in  heart,'  says  Jesus  Christ ;  '■  for  they  shall  see  God.'  ^ 
That  is  religion.  '  We  all  want  to  live  honestly,  but  cannot,' 
says  the  Greek  maxim-maker.'^  That  is  morality.  '  O 
wretched  man  that  I  am,  who  shall  deliver  me  from  the 
body  of  this   death  ! '   says  St.   Paul.^     That   is   religion. 

*  Would  thou  wert  of  as  good  conversation  in  deed  as  m 
word  ! '  ^  is  morality.  '  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,'  ^ 
is  religion.     '  Live  as  you  were  meant  to  live  ! '  ®  is  morality. 

*  Lay  hold  on  eternal  life  ! '  ^  is  religion. 

Or  we  may  take  the  contrast  within  the  bounds  of  the 
Bible  itself.  '  Love  not  sleep,  lest  thou  come  to  poverty,' 
is  morality.  But  :  '  My  meat  is  to  do  the  will  of  him  that  sent 
me,  and  to  finish  his  work,'  is  religion.'®  Or  we  may  even 
observe  a  third  stage  between  these  two  stages,  which  shows 
to  us  the  transition  from  one  to  the  other.  '  If  thou  givest 
thy  soul  the  desires  that  please  her,  she  will  make  thee  a 
laughing  stock  to  thine  enemies  ;'  ^^ — that  is  morality.  '  He 
that  resisteth  pleasure  crowneth  his  life  ; '  ^^ — ^that  is  morality 
with  the  tone  heightened,  passing,  or  trying  to  pass,  into 

'  Prffuerbs^  iv,  18. 

^  Sis  a  venereis  amoribus  aversus  ;  quibus  si  te  dedideris,  non  aliud 
quidquam  possis  cogitare  quam  illud  quod  diligis. 

^  Matthew,  v,  8.  *  @€\o/j.eu  icaXuis  ^rjv  irduTes,  aA\'  ov  dvvdfxeOa. 

*  Romans,  vii,  24.       ®  ElfQ'  ii<jQa.  cnccppwv  epya  toTs  xSyois  Icra. 
'  Matth.,  vii,  21.        ^  Ztjcov  Kara  cpixriv.  I  Tim.,  vi,  12. 

'•  Prov.,  XX,  13;  John,  iv,  34.  "  Ecclesiasiicus,  xviii,  31. 

'*  Ecclesiasiicus,  xix,  5. 

C 


1 8  LITERATURE  AND  DOGMA. 

religion.  '  Flesh  and  blood  cannot  inherit  the  kingdom  of 
God ; '  ^ — there  the  passage  is  made,  and  we  have  religion. 
Our  religious  examples  are  here  all  taken  from  the  Bible, 
and  from  the  Bible  such  examples  can  best  be  taken  ;  but 
we  might  also  find  them  elsewhere.  *0h  that  my  lot  might 
lead  me  in  the  path  of  holy  innocence  of  thought  and  deed, 
the  path  which  august  laws  ordain,  laws  which  in  the  highest 
heaven  had  their  birth,  neither  did  the  race  of  mortal  man 
beget  them,  nor  shall  oblivion  ever  put  them  to  sleep  ;  the 
power  of  God  is  mighty  in  them,  and  groweth  not  old  !' 
That  is  from  Sophocles,  but  it  is  as  much  religion  as  any  of 
the  things  which  we  have  quoted  as  religious.  Like  them, 
it  is  not  the  mere  enjoining  of  conduct,  but  it  is  this  enjoin- 
ing touched,  strengthened,  and  almost  transformed,  by  the 
addition  of  feeling. 

So  what  is  meant  by  the  application  of  emotion  to 
morality  has  now,  it  is  to  be  hoped,  been  made  clear.  The 
next  question  will  probably  be  :  But  how  does  one  get  the 
application  made?  Why,  how  does  one  get  to  feel  much 
about  any  matter  whatever?  By  dweUing  upon  it,  by 
staying  our  thoughts  upon  it,  by  having  it  perpetually  in  our 
mind.  The  very  words  mind^  memory^  remain,  come,  pro- 
bably, all  from  the  same  root,  from  the  notion  of  staying, 
attending.  Possibly  even  the  word  man  comes  from  the 
same  ;  so  entirely  does  the  idea  of  humanity,  of  intelligence, 
of  looking  before  and  after,  of  raising  oneself  out  of  the  flux 
of  things,  rest  upon  the  idea  of  steadying  oneself,  concen- 
trating oneself,  making  order  in  the  chaos  of  one's  impressions, 
by  attending  to  one  impression  rather  than  the  other.  The 
rules  of  conduct,  of  morality,  were  themselves,  philosophers 
suppose,  reached  in  this  way  ; — the  notion  of  a  whole  self  as 
opposed  to  a  partial  self,  a  best  self  to  an  inferior  self,  to  a 
momentary  self  a  permanent  self  requiring  the  restraint  of 
'   I  Corinthiajis,  xv,  50. 


RELIGION  GIVEN.  19 

impulses  a  man  would  naturally  have  indulged ; — because, 
by  attending  to  his  life,  man  found  it  had  a  scope  beyond  the 
wants  of  the  present  moment.  Suppose  it  was  so  ;  then  the 
first  man  who,  as  '  a  being,'  comparatively,  '  of  a  large  dis- 
course, looking  before  and  after,'  controlled  the  native, 
instanraneoLis,  mechanical  impulses  of  the  instinct  of  self- 
preservation,  controlled  the  native,  instantaneous,  mechanical 
impulses  of  the  reproductive  instinct,  had  morality  revealed 
to  him. 

But  there  is  a  long  way  from  this  to  that  habitual 
dwelling  on  the  rules  thus  reached,  that  constant  turning 
them  over  in  the  mind,  that  near  and  lively  experimental 
sense  of  their  beneficence,  which  communicates  emotion  to 
our  thought  of  them,  and  thus  incalculably  heightens  their 
power.  And  the  more  mankind  attended  to  the  claims  of 
that  part  of  our  nature  which  does  not  belong  to  con- 
duct or  morality,  properly  so  called  (and  we  have  seen  that, 
after  all,  about  one- fourth  of  our  nature  is  in  this  case),  the 
more  they  would  have  distractions  to  take  off  their  thoughts 
from  those  moral  conclusions  which  all  races  of  men,  one 
may  say,  seem  to  have  reached,  and  to  prevent  these  moral 
conclusions  from  being  quickened  by  emotion,  and  thus 
becoming  religious. 


Only  with  one  people, — the  people  from  whom  we  get 
the  Bible, — these  distractions  did  not  so  much  happen. 

The  Old  Testament,  nobody  will  ever  deny,  is  filled 
with  the  word  and  thought  of  righteousness.  *  In  the  way 
of  righteousness  is  life,  and  in  the  pathway  thereof  is  no 
death  ; '  *  Righteousness  tendeth  to  life  ; '  *  He  that  pur- 
sueth  evil  pursueth  it  to  his  own  death  ;'  'The  way  of  trans- 
gressors is  hard  ; ' — nobody  will  deny  that  those  texts  may 
stand  for  the  fundamental  and  ever-recurring  idea  of  the 

C2 


20  LITERATURE  AND   DOGMA. 

Old  Testament.^     No  people  ever  felt  so  strongly  as  the 
people  of  the  Old  Testament,  the  Hebrew  people,  that  con- 
duct is  three-fourths  of  our  life  and  its  largest  concern.     No 
people  ever  felt  so  strongly  that  succeeding,  going  right, 
hitting  the  mark  in  this  great  concern,  was  the  way  of  peace ^ 
the  highest  possible  satisfaction.     *He  that  keepeth  the  law, 
happy  is  he  ;  its  ways  are  ways  of  pleasantness,  and  all  its 
paths  are  peace;  if  thou  hadst  walked  in  its  ways,   thou 
shouldst  have  dwelt  in  peace  for  ever  ! '  ^     Jeshurun,  one  of 
the  ideal  names  of  their  race,  is  the  2ip7'igJit ;  Israel,  the 
other  and  greater,  is  the  wrestler  with   God,  he   who  has 
known  the  contention  and  strain  it  costs  to  stand  upright. 
That   mysterious   personage   by   whom   their   history   first 
touches  the  hill  of  Sion,  is  Melchisedek,  the  righteous  king. 
Their  holy  city,  Jerusalem,  is  the  foundation,  or  vision,  or 
inheritance,  of  that  which  righteousness   achieves, — peace. 
The  law  of  righteousness  was  such  an  object  of  attention  to 
diem,  that  its  words  were  to  '  be  in  their  heart,  and  thou 
shalt  teach  them  diligently  unto  thy  children,  and  shalt  talk 
of  them  when  thou  sittest  in  thine  house,  and  when  thou 
walkest  by  the  way,  and  when  thou  liest  down,  and  when 
thou  risest  up.'  ^     That  they  might  keep  them  ever  in  mind, 
they  wore  them,  went  about  with  them,  made  talismans  of 
them  :    *  Bind  them  upon  thy  fingers,  bind  them  about  thy 
neck  ;  write  them  upon  the  table  of  thine  heart  ! '  *     'Take 
fast  hold  of  her,'  they  said  of  the  doctrine  of  conduct,  or 
righteousness,    '  let   her  not   go  !  keep    her,  for  she  is  thy 
life.r^ 

People  who  thus  spoke  of  righteousness  could  not  but 
have  had  their  minds  long  and  deeply  engaged  with   it  ; 

'  Prov.^  xii,  2S  ;  xi,  19  ;  xiii,  15. 

•  Prov.,  xxix,  18;  iii,  17.      Baruch,  iii,  13. 

'  Deuteronomy,  vi,  6,  7.  "  Prov.,  vii,  3  ;  iii,  3. 

*  Prov.,  iv,  13. 


REUGION  GIVEJSr.  2i 

much  more  than  the  generaHty  of  mankind,  who  have  never- 
theless, as  we  saw,  got  as  far  as  the  notion  of  morals  or 
conduct.  And,  if  they  were  so  deeply  attentive  to  it,  one 
Ihing  could  not  fail  to  strike  them.  It  is  this  :  the  very 
great  part  in  righteousness  which  belongs,  we  may  say,  to 
7iot  ourselves.  In  the  first  place,  we  did  not  make  ourselves 
and  our  nature,  or  conduct  as  the  object  of  three-fourths  of 
that  nature ;  we  did  not  provide  that  happiness  should 
follow  conduct,  as  it  undeniably  does ;  that  the  sense  of 
succeeding,  going  right,  hitting  the  mark,  in  conduct,  should 
give  satisfaction,  and  a  very  high  satisfaction,  just  as  really 
as  the  sense  of  doing  well  in  his  work""  gives  pleasure  to  a 
poet  or  painter,  or  accomplishing  what  he  tries  gives  plea- 
sure to  a  man  W'ho  is  learning  to  ride  or  to  shoot ;  or  as  satisfy- 
ing his  hunger,  also,  gives  pleasure  to  a  man  who  is  hungry. 
All  this  we  did  not  make  ;  and,  in  the  next  place,  oui 
dealing  with  it  at  all,  when  it  is  made,  is  not  wholly,  or 
even  nearly  wholly,  in  our  own  power.  Our  conduct  is 
capable,  irrespective  of  what  we  can  ourselves  certainly 
answer  for,  of  almost  infinitely  different  degrees  of  force  and 
energy  in  the  performance  of  it,  of  lucidity  and  vividness  in 
the  perception  of  it,  of  fulness  in  the  satisfaction  from  it  ; 
and  these  degrees  may  vary  from  day  to  day,  and  quite 
incalculably.  Facilities  and  felicities, — whence  do  they 
come?  suggestions  and  stimulations, — where  do  they 
tend  ?  hardly  a  day  passes  but  we  have  some  experience  of 
them.  And  so  Henry  More  was  led  to  say,  that  'there  was 
something  about  us  that  knew  better,  often,  what  we  w^ould 
be  at  than  we  ourselves.'  For  instance  :  everyone  can 
understand  how  health  and  freedom  from  pain  may  give 
energy  for  conduct,  and  how  a  neuralgia,  suppose,  may 
diminish  it.  It  does  not  depend  on  ourselves^  indeed, 
whether  we  have  the  neuralgia  or  not,  but  we  can  under- 
stand its  impairing  our   spirit.     But   the  strange  thing   is, 


22         '  LITERATURE  AND   DOGMA. 

that  with  the  same  neuralgia  we  m^y  find  ourselves  one  day 
without  spirit  and  energy  for  conduct,  and  another  day  with 
them.  So  that  we  may  most  truly  say,  with  the  author  of 
the  Imitation  :  '  Left  to  ourselves,  we  sink  and  perish ; 
visited,  we  lift  up  our  heads  and  live.'  *  And  we  may  well 
give  ourselves,  in  grateful  and  devout  self-surrender,  to  that 
by  which  we  are  thus  visited.  So  much  is  there  incalculable, 
so  much  that  belongs  to  not  ourselves^  in  conduct ;  and  the 
more  we  attend  to  conduct,  and  the  more  we  value  it,  the 
more  we  shall  feel  this. 

The  not  ourselves^  which  is  in  us  and  in  the  world 
around  us,  has  almost  everywhere,  as  far  as  we  can  see, 
stiuck  the  minds  of  men  as  they  awoke  to  consciousness, 
and  has  inspired  them  with  awe.  Everyone  knows  how  the 
mighty  natural  objects  which  most  took  their  regards 
became  the  objects  to  which  this  awe  addressed  itself. 
Our  very  word  God  is,  perhaps,  a  reminiscence  of  these 
times,  when  men  invoked  '  The  Brilliant  on  high,'  sublime 
hoc  caiidens  quod  invocent  omnes  Jovem^  as  the  power  re- 
presenting to  them  that  which  transcended  the  limits  of 
their  narrow  selves,  and  by  which  they  lived  and  moved 
and  had  their  being.  Everyone  knows  of  what  differences 
of  operation  men's  dealing  with  this  power  has  in  different 
places  and  times  shown  itself  capable  ;  how  here  they  have 
been  moved  by  the  not  ourselves  to  a  cruel  terror,  there  to 
a  timid  religiosity,  there  again  to  a  play  of  imagination; 
almost  always,  however,  connecting  with  it,  by  some  string 
or  other,  conduct. 

But  we  are  not  writing  a  history  of  religion  ;  we  are  only 
tracing  its  effect  on  the  language  of  the  men  from  whom  we 
get  the  Bible.  At  the  time  they  produced  those  documents 
which  give  to  the  Old  Testament  its  power  and  its  true  cha- 
racter, the  not  ourselves  which  weighed  upon  the  mind  of 
'  Relicti  mergimur  et  pciiimis,  visitati  vcro  erii^imur  et  vivimus. 


RELIGION  GIVEN.  23 

Israel,  and  engaged  its  awe,  was  the  not  ourselves  by  which 
we  get  the  sense  for  righteousness,  and  whence  we:  find  the 
help  to  do  right.  This  conception  was  indubitably  what  lay 
at  the  bottom  of  that  remarkable  change  which  under 
Moses,  at  a  certain  stage  of  their  religious  history,  befell  the 
Hebrew  people's  mode  of  naming  God.^  This  was  what 
they  intended  in  that  name,  which  we  wrongly  convey,  either 
without  translation,  by  yehovah,  which  gives  us  the  notion 
of  a  mere  mythological  deity,  or  by  a  wrong  translation, 
Loi'd,  which  gives  us  the  notion  of  a  magnified  and  non- 
natural  man.     The  name  they  used  was  :  The  Eternal. 

Philosophers  dispute  whether  moral  ideas,  as  they  call 
them,  the  simplest  ideas  of  conduct  and  righteousness  which 
now  seem  instinctive,  did  not  all  grow,  were  not  once 
inchoate,  embryo,  dubious,  unformed.^  That  may  have 
been  so ;  the  question  is  an  interesting  one  for  science. 
But  the  interesting  question  for  conduct  is  Whether  those 
ideas  are  unformed  or  formed  7iow.  They  are  formed  now  ; 
and  they  were  formed  when  the  Hebrew^s  named  the  power, 
not  of  their  own  making,  which  pressed  upon  their  spirit : 
The  Eternal.  Probably  the  life  of  Abraham,  the  friend  of 
God,  however  imperfectly  the  Bible  traditions  by  themselves 
convey  it  to  us,  was  a  decisive  step  forwards  in  the  develop- 
ment of  these  ideas  of  righteousness.  Probably  this  was 
the  moment  when  such  ideas  became  fixed  and  ruling  for 
the  Hebrew  people,  and  marked  it  permanently  off  from  all 
other  peoples  who  had  not  made  the  same  step.  But  long 
before  the  first  beginnings  of  recorded  history,  long  before  the 
oldest  word  of  Bible  literature,  these  ideas  must  have  been 
at  work.  We  know  it  by  the  result,  although  they  may  have 
for  a  long  while  been  but  rudimentary.     In  Israel's  earliest 

*  See  Exodus,  iii,  14. 

-  '  Qu'est-ce  que  la  nature?'  says  Pascal  ;  ^ peut-eire  une  previiere. 
coutunic^  comme  la  coutume  est  uue  secoade  nature.' 


24  LITERATURE  AND   DOGMA. 

history  and  earliest  utterances,  under  the  name  of  Eloab, 
Elohim,  The  Mig/ify,  there  may  have  lain  and  matured, 
there  did  lie  and  mature,  ideas  of  God  more  as  a  moral 
power,  more  as  a  power  connected,  above  everything,  with 
conduct  and  righteousness,  than  were  entertained  by  other 
races.  Not  only  can  we  judge  by  the  result  that  this  must 
have  been  so,  but  we  can  see  that  it  was  so.  Still  their 
name,  The  Mighty,  does  net  in  itself  involve  any  true  and 
deep  religious  ideas,  any  more  than  our  Aryan  name,  Deva, 
Detis,  The  Shining.  With  The  Eternal  it  is  otherwise.  For 
what  did  they  mean  by  the  Eternal ;  the  Eternal  what} 
The  Eternal  cause?      Alas,  these    poor  people   were   not 

:  Archbishops  of  York.  They  meant  the  Eternal  righteous, 
who  loveth  righteousness.  They  had  dwelt  upon  the  thought 
of  conduct,  and  of  right  and  wrong,  until  the  not  ourselves, 
which  is  in  us  and  all  around  us,  became  to  them  adorable 
eminently  and  altogether  as  a  pouer  wliich  makes  for 
righte  usness ;     which     makes    for    it    unchangeably    and 

\  eternally,  and  is  therefore  called  The  Eternal. 

There  is  not  a  particle  of  metaphysics  in  their  use  of 
this  name,  any  more  than  in  their  conception  of  the  not 
ourselves  to  which  they  attached  it.  Both  came  to  them 
not  from  abstruse  reasoning  but  from  experience,  and  from 
experience  in  the  plain  region  of  conduct.  Theologians 
with  metaphysical  heads  render  Israel's  Eternal  by  the  self- 
existent,  and  Israel's  not  ourselves  by  the  absolute,  and  attribute 
to  Israel  their  own  subtleties.  According  to  them,  Israel  had 
his  head  full  of  the  necessity  of  a  first  cause,  and  therefore  said, 
The  Eternal)  as,  again,  they  imagine  him  looking  out  into 
the  world,  noting  everywhere  the' marks  of  design  and  adap- 
tation to  his  wants,  and  reasoning  out  and  inferring  thence 
the  fatherhood  of  God.  All  these  fancies  come  from  an 
excessive  turn  for  reasoning,  and  from  a  neglect  of  observing 
men's  actual  course  of  thinking  and  way  of  using  words. 


RELIGION  GIVEN.  25 

Israel,  at  this  stage  when  The  Eternal  was  revealed  to  him, 
inferred  nothing,  reasoned  out  nothing;  he  felt  and  expe- 
rienced. When  he  begins  to  speculate,  in  the  schools  ot 
Rabbinism,  he  quickly  shows  how  much  less  native  talent 
than  the  Bishops  of  Winchester  and  Gloucester  he  has  for 
this  perilous  business.  Happily,  when  TJie  Ett7'nal  was 
revealed  to  him,  he  had  not  yet  begun  to  speculate. 

Israel  personified,  indeed,  his  Eternal,  for  he  was  strongly 
moved,  he  was  an  orator  and  poet.  Ma7i  never  knows  how 
anthropo7no7'phic  he  is,  says  Goethe  ;  and  so  man  tends  always 
to  represent  everything  under  his  own  figure.  In  poetry 
and  eloquence  man  may  and  must  follow  this  tendency,  but 
in  science  it  often  leads  him  astray.  Israel,  however,  did 
not  scientifically  predicate /^tj-^//^?///)^  of  God  ;  he  would  not 
even  have  had  a  notion  what  was  meant  by  it.  He  called 
him  the  maker  of  all  things,  who  gives  drmk  to  all  out  of 
his  pleasures  as  out  of  a  river;  but  he  was  led  to  this  by  no 
theory  of  a  first  cause.  The  grandeur  of  the  spectacle  given 
by  the  world,  the  grandeur  of  the  sense  of  its  all  being  not 
ourselves,  being  above  and  beyond  ourselves  and  immea 
surably  dwarfing  us,  a  man  of  imagination  instinctively  per- 
sonifies as  a  single,  mighty,  living  and  productive  power ;  as 
Goethe  tells  us  that  tbe  words  which  rose  naturally  to  his 
lips,  when  he  stood  on  the  top  of  the  Brocken,  were  :  'Lord, 
what  IS  man,  that  thou  mindest  him,  or  the  son  of  man,  that 
thou  makest  account  of  him  ? '  ^  But  Israel's  confessing  and 
extolling  of  this  power  came  not  even  from  his  imaginative 
feeling,  but  came  first  from  his  gratitude  for  righteousness. 
To  one  who  knows  what  conduct  is,  it  is  a  joy  to  be  alive  ;  and 
the  not  ourselves,  which  by  bringing  forth  for  us  righteousness 
makes  our  happiness,  working  just  in  the  same  sense,  brings 
forth  this  glorious  world  to  be  righteous  in.  That  is  the  notion 
at  the  bottom  of  a  Hebrew's  praise  of  a  Creator;  and  if  we 
'  Ps.  cxlix,  3. 


26  LITERATURE  AXD   DOGMA. 

attend,  we  can  see  this  quite  clearly.  Wisdom  and  under- 
standing mean,  for  Israe',  the  love  of  order,  of  righteousness. 
Righteousness,  order,  conduct,  is  for  Israel  at  once  the 
source  of  all  man's  happiness,  and  at  the  same  time  the 
very  essence  of  The  Eternal.  The  great  work  of  the 
Eternal  is  the  foundation  of  this  order  in  man,  the  implanting 
in  mankind  of  his  own  love  of  righteousness,  his  own  spirit, 
his  own  wisdom  and  understanding  ;  and  it  is  only  as  a 
farther  and  natural  working  of  this  energy  that  Israel  con- 
ceives the  establishment  of  order  in  the  world,  or  creation. 
*  To  depart  from  evil,  that  is  understanding  !  Happy  is  the 
man  that  findeth  wisdom,  and  the  man  that  getteth  under- 
standing !  The  Eternal  by  wisdom  hath  founded  the  earthy  by 
understanding  hath  he  established  the  heavens  ; ' '  and  so  the 
Bible-writer  passes  into  the  account  of  creation.  It  all 
comes  to  him  from  the  idea  of  righteousness. 

And  it  is  the  same  with  all  the  language  our  Hebrew 
religionist  uses.  God  is  a  father,  because  the  power  in  and 
around  us,  which  makes  for  righteousness,  is  indeed  best 
described  by  the  name  of  this  authoritative  but  yet  tender 
and  protecting  relation.  So,  too,  with  the  intense  fear  and 
abhorrence  of  idolatry.  Conduct,  righteousness,  is,  above 
all,  a  matter  of  inward  motion  and  rule.  No  sensible  forms 
can  represent  it,  or  help  us  to  it ;  such  attempts  at  repre- 
sentation can  only  distract  us  from  it.  So,  too,  with  the 
sense  of  the  oneness  of  God.  'Hear,  O  Israel  !  The  Lord 
our  God  is  one  Lord.'  ^  People  think  that  in  this  unity  of 
God, — this  monotheistic  idea,  as  they  call  it, — they  have 
certainly  got  metaphysics  at  last.  They  have  got  nothing 
of  the  kind.  The  monotheistic  idea  of  Israel  is  simply 
seriousness.  There  are,  indeed,  many  aspects  of  the  not 
ourselves ;  but  Israel  regarded  one  aspect  of  it  only,  that  by 
which  it  makes  for  righteousness.  He  had  the  advantage, 
'  T/-OV.,  in,  13-20.  '^  Deut.t  vi,  4. 


RELIGION  GIVEN,  27 

to  be  sure,  that  with  this  aspect  three-fourths  of  human  life 
IS  concerned.  But  there  are  other  aspects  which  may  be  set 
in  view.  *  Frail  and  striving  mortality/  says  the  elder  Pliny 
in  a  noble  passage,  '  mindful  of  its  own  weakness,  has  dis- 
tinguished these  aspects  severally,  so  as  for  each  man  to  be 
able  to  attach  himself  to  the  divine  by  this  or  that  part, 
according  as  he  has  most  need.'  ^  That  is  an  apology  for 
polytheism,  as  answering  to  man's  many-sidedness.  But  Israel 
felt  that  being  thus  many-sided  degenerates  into  an  imagi- 
native play,  and  bewilders  what  Israel  recognised  as  our  sole 
religious  consciousness, — the  consciousness  of  right.  'Let 
thine  eyelids  look  right  on,  and  let  thine  eyelids  look  straight 
before  thee ;  turn  not  to  the  right  hand  nor  to  the  left ; 
remove  thy  foot  from  evil ! '  ^ 

For  does  not  Ovid  say,^  in  excuse  for  the  immorality  of 
his  verses,  that  the  sight  and  mention  of  the  gods  them- 
selves,— the  rulers  of  human  life, — often  raised  immoral 
thoughts?  And  so  the  sight  and  mention  of  ^//aspects  of 
the  not  ourselves  must.  Yet  how  tempting  are  many  of  these 
aspects  !  Even  at  this  time  of  day,  the  grave  authorities  ol 
the  University  of  Cambridge  are  so  struck  by  one  of  them, 
that  of  pleasure,  life  and  fecundity, — of  the  honiinuin  divom- 
que  voluptas,  alma  Venus, — that  they  set  it  publicly  up  as 
an  object  for  their  scholars  to  fix  their  minds  upon,  and  to 
compose  verses  in  honour  of.  That  is  all  very  well  at  pre- 
sent ;  but  with  this  natural  bent  in  the  authorities  of  the 
University  of  Cambridge,  and  in  the  Indo-European  race  to 

*  Fragilis  et  laboriosa  mortal itas  in  partes  ista  digessit,  infirniitatis 
suae  memor,  ut  portionihus  colertt  quisque,  quo  maxime  indigeret 
Nat.  Hist.,  ii,  5. 

2  Prov.,  iv,  25,  27. 
■  Tristia,  ii.  287  : — 

Quis  locus  est  templis  augustior  ?  hsec  quoque  vilet, 
In  culpam  si  qua  est  ingeniosa  suaia. 
Sec  the  whole  passage. 


28  LITERATURE   AND  DOGMA. 

which  they  belong,  where  would  they  be  now  if  it  had  not 
been  for  Israel,  and  for  the  stern  check  which  Israel  put 
upon  the  glorification  and  divinisation  of  this  natural  bent 
of  mankind,  this  attractive  aspect  of  the  not  ourselves  ?  Per- 
haps going  in  procession,  Vice-Chancellor,  bedels,  masters, 
scholars,  and  all,  in  spite  of  their  Professor  of  Moral  Philo- 
sophy, to  the  temple  of  Aphrodite  !  Nay,  and  very  likely 
Mr.  Birks  himself,  his  brows  crowned  with  myrtle  and 
scarcely  a  shade  of  melancholy  on  his  countenance,  would 
have  been  going  along  with  them  !  It  is  Israel  and  his 
seriousness  that  have  saved  the  authorities  of  the  University 
of  Cambridge  from  carrying  their  divinisation  of  pleasure  to 
these  lengths,  or  from  making  more  of  it,  indeed,  than  a 
mere  passing  intellectual  play ;  and  even  this  play  Israel 
would  have  beheld  with  displeasure,  saying  :  O  turn  away 
mine  eyes  lest  they  behold  vanity,  but  quicken  Thou  me  in  thy 
way!'^  So  earnestly  and  exclusively  were  Israel's  regards 
bent  on  one  aspect  of  the  not  ourselves-,  its  aspect  as 
a  power  making  for  conduct,  for  righteousness.  Israel's 
Eternal  was  the  Eternal  which  says  :  '  Be  ye  holy,  for  I 
am  holy  ! '  Now,  as  righteousness  is  but  a  heightened 
conduct,  so  holiness  is  but  a  heightened  righteousness  ;  a 
more  finished,  entire,  and  awe-filled  righteousness.  It  was 
such  a  righteousness  which  was  Israel's  ideal ;  and  therefore 
it  was  that  Israel  said,  not  indeed  what  our  Bibles  make 
him  say,  but  this  :  '  Hear,  O  Israel !  The  Eternal  is  our 
God,  The  Eternal  alone' 

And  in  spite  of  his  turn  for  personification,  his  want  of  a 
clear  boundary-line  between  poetry  and  science,  his  inapti- 
tude to  express  even  abstract  notions  by  other  than  highly 
concrete  terms, — in  spite  of  these  scientific  disadvantages, 
or  rather,  perhaps,  because  of  them,  because  he  had  no 
talent  for  abstruse  reasoning  to  lead  him  astray, — the  spirit 
'  Ps.  cxix,  37. 


RFUGION  GIVEN.  29 

and  tongue  of  Israel  kept  a  propriety,  a  reserve,  a  se^nse  of 
the  inadequacy  of  language  in  conveying   man's   ideas  of 
God,  which  contrast  strongly  with  the  licence  of  affirmation 
in  our  Western  theology.     '  The  high  and  holy  One  that 
inhabiteth  eternity,  whose  name  is  holy,' '  is  far  more  proper 
and   felicitous   language   than  'the    moral   and  intelligent 
Governor  of  the  universe,'  just  because  it  far  less  attempts 
to  be  precise,  but  keeps  to  the  language  of  poetry  and  does 
not  essay  the  language  of  science.     As  he  had  developed 
his  idea  of  God  from  personal  experience,  Israel  knew  what 
we,  who  have  developed  our  idea  from  his  words  about  it, 
so  often  are  ignorant  of :  that  his  words  were  but  throum 
out  at  a  vast  object  of  consciousness,  which  he  could  not 
fully  grasp,    and   which   he   apprehended    clearly   by    one 
point  alone, — that  it  made  for  the  great  concern  of  life, 
conduct.     How  little  we  know  of  it  besides,  how  impene- 
trable is  the  course  of  its  ways  with  us,  how  we  are  baffled 
in  our  attempts  to  name  and  describe  it,  how,  when  we  per- 
sonify it  and  call  it  '  the  moral  and  intelligent  Governor  of 
the  universe,'  we  presently  find  it  not  to  be  a  person  as  man 
conceives  of  persons,  nor  moral  as  man  conceives  of  moral, 
nor   intelligent    as    man    conceives   of    intelligent,    nor   a 
governor  as  man  conceives  of  governors, — all  this,  which 
scientific  theology  loses  sight  of,  Israel,  who  had  but  poetry 
and   eloquence,    and   no   system,  and  who  did  not  mind 
contradicting   himself,    knew.     '  Is   it  any  pleasure  to  the 
Almighty,  that  thou  art  righteous  ? '  ^     What  a  blow  to  our 
ideal  of  that  magnified  and  non-natural  man,   '  the  moral 
and  intelligent  Governor'!    Say  what  we  can  about  God, 
say  our  best,  we  have  yet,  Israel  knew,  to  add  instantly  : 
•  Lo,  these  dj:^  fringes  of  his  ways ;  bid  how  little  a  portion  is 
heard  of  hivif'^    Yes,  indeed,  Israel  remembered  that,  far 
better  than  our  bishops  do.     '  Canst  thou  by  searching  find, 
'  Ps.,  Ivii.  15.  2  JoIj^  jjxii.  3.  ^  Job,  xxvi.  I4._ 


30  LITERATURE  AND  DOGMA. 

out  God  ;  canst  thou  find  out  the  perfection  of  the  Ahnighty  ? 
It  is  more  high  than  heaven,  what  canst  thou  do  ?  deeper 
than  hell,  what  canst  thou  know  ?  '  ^ 

Will  it  be  said,  expeiience  might  also  have  shown  to 
Israel  a  7iot  ourselves  which  did  not  make  for  his  happiness, 
but  rather  made  against  it,  baffled  his  claims  to  it  ?  But  no 
man,  as  I  have  elsewhere  remarked,^  who  simply  follows 
his  own  consciousness,  is  aware  of  any  claims,  any  rights, 
whatever ;  what  he  gets  of  good  makes  him  thankful,  what 
he  gets  of  ill  seems  to  him  natural.  His  simple  spontaneous 
feeling  is  well  expressed  by  that  saying  of  Izaak  Walton  : 
*  Every  misery  that  I  miss  is  a  new  mercy,  and  therefore  let 
us  be  thankful.'  It  is  true,  the  not  ourselves  of  which  we  are 
thankfully  conscious  we  inevitably  speak  of  and  speak  to  as 
a  man  ;  for  '  man  never  knows  hows  anthropomorphic  he  is.' 
And  as  time  proceeds,  imagination  and  reasoning  keep 
working  upon  this  substructure,  and  build  from  it  a  mag- 
nified and  non-natural  man.  Attention  is  then  drawn, 
afterwards,  to  causes  outside  ourselves  which  seem  to  make 
for  sin  and  suffering  ;  and  then  either  these  causes  have  to 
be  reconciled  by  some  highly  ingenious  scheme  with  the 
magnified  and  non-natural  man's  power,  or  a  second  magni- 
fied and  non-natural  man  has  to  be  supposed,  who  pulls  the 
contrary  way  to  the  first.  So  arise  Satan  and  his  angels. 
But  all  this  is  secondary,  and  comes  much  later.  Israel, 
the  founder  of  our  religion,  did  not  begin  with  this.  He 
began  with  experience.  He  knew  from  thankful  experience 
the  not  ourselves  which  makes  for  righteousness,  and  knew 
how  little  vre  know  about  God  besides. 

4- 
The  language  of  the  Bible,  then,  is  literary,  not  scientific 
language  ;  language  thrown  out  at  an  object  of  conscious- 
*  Job,  xi,  7.  '  Culture  and  Anarchy,  p.  192, 


RELIGION  GIVEN.  3 1 

ness  not  fully  grasped,  which  inspired  emotion.  Evidently, 
if  the  object  be  one  not  fully  to  be  grasped,  and  one  to 
inspire  emotion,  the  language  of  figure  and  feeling  will 
satisfy  us  better  about  it,  will  cover  more  of  what  we  seek 
to  express,  than  the  language  of  literal  fact  and  science. 
The  language  of  science  about  it  will  be  below  what  we  feel 
to  be  the  truth. 

The  question  however  has  risen  and  confronts  us  :  what 
was  the  scientific  basis  of  fact  for  this  consciousness  ?  When 
we  have  once  satisfied  ourselves  both  as  to  the  tentative, 
poetic  way  in  which  the  Bible  authors  used  language,  and 
also  as  to  their  having  no  pretensions  to  metaphysics  at  all, 
let  us,  therefore,  when  there  is  this  question  raised  as  to  the 
scientific  account  of  what  they  had  before  their  minds,  be 
content  with  a  very  unpretending  answer.  And  in  this  way 
such  a  phrase  as  that  which  I  have  formerly  used  concerning 
God,  and  have  been  much  blamed  for  using, — the  phrase, 
namely,  that,  *  for  science,  God  is  simply  the  stream  of  ten- 
dency by  which  all  things  seek  to  fulfil  the  law  of  their  being' — 
may  be  allowed,  and  may  even  prove  useful.  Gertainly  it 
is  inadequate  ;  certainly  it  is  a  less  proper  phrase  than,  for 
instance  :  *  Clouds  and  darkness  are  round  about  him, 
righteousness  and  judgment  are  the  habitation  of  his  seat.'  * 
But  then  it  is,  in  however  humble  a  degree  and  with  how- 
ever narrow  a  reach,  a  scientific  definition,  which  the  other 
is  not.  The  phrase,  *  A  personal  First  Cause,  the  moral  and 
intelligent  Governor  of  the  universe,'  has  also,  when  applied 
to  God,  the  character,  no  doubt,  of  a  scientific  definition. 

'  Ps.  xcvii,  2.  It  has  been  urged  that  if  the  personifying  mode  of 
expression  is  more  proper,  it  must,  also,  be  more  scientifically  exact. 
But  surely  it  will  on  reflexion  appear  that  this  is  by  no  means  so. 
Wordsworth  calls  the  earth  '  the  mighty  mother  of  mankind,'  and  the 
geographers  call  her  *  an  oblate  spheroid  ; '  Wordsworth's  expression 
is  more  proper  and  adequate  to  convey  what  men  feel  about  the  earth, 
but  it  is  not  therefore  the  more  scientifically  exact. 


3?  LITERATURE  AND    DOGMA. 

But  then  it  goes  far  beyond  what  is  admittedly  certain  and 
verifiable,  which  is  what  we  mean  by  scientific.  It  attempts 
far  too  much.  If  we  want  here,  as  we  do  want,  to  have 
what  is  admittedly  certain  and  verifiable,  we  must  content 
ourselves  with  very  little.  No  one  will  say,  that  it  is  ad- 
mittedly certain  and  verifiable,  that  there  is  a  personal  first 
cause,  the  moral  and  intelligent  governor  of  the  universe, 
whom  we  may  call  God  if  we  will.  But  that  all  things  seem 
to  us  to  have  what  we  call  a  law  of  their  being,  and  to  tend 
to  fulfil  it,  is  certain  and  admitted  ;  though  whether  we  will 
call  this  God  or  not,  is  a  matter  of  choice.  Suppose,  how- 
ever, we  call  it  God^  we  then  give  the  name  of  God  to  a 
certain  admitted  reality  ;  this,  at  least,  is  an  advantage. 

And  the  notion  of  our  definition  does,  in  fact,  enter  into 
the  term  God.,  in  men's  common  use  of  it.  To  please  God, 
to  serve  God,  to  obey  God's  will,  means  to  follow  a  law  of 
things  which  is  found  in  conscience,  and  which  is  an  indica- 
tion, irrespective  of  our  arbitrary  wish  and  fancy,  of  what 
we  ought  to  do.  There  is,  then,  a  real  power  which  makes 
for  righteousness;  and  it  is  the  greatest  of  realities  for  us.^ 
When  St.  Paul  says,  that  our  business  is  '  to  serve  the  spirit 
of  God,'  '  to  serve  the  living  and  true  God  ; '  ^  and  when 
Epictetus  says  :  '  What  do  I  want  ? — to  acquaint  myself 
with  the  natural  order  of  things,  and  comply  with  it,'  -^  they 
both  mean,  so  far,  the  same,  in  that  they  both  mean  we 
should  obey  a  tendency,  which  is  7iot  oinseh'es,  but  which 

'  Prayer,  about  which  so  much  has  often  been  said  unadvisedly  and 
ill,  deals  with  this  reality.  All  good  and  beneficial  prayer  is  in  truth, 
however  men  may  describe  it,  at  bottom  nothing  else  than  an  energy 
oi  aspiration  towards  the  eternal  7ioi  ourselves  that  makes  for  righteous- 
ness, —  of  aspiration  towards  it,  and  of  co-operation  with  it.  Nothing, 
therefore,  can  be  more  efficacious,  more  right,  and  more  real. 

2  Philippians,  iii,  3  (in  the  reading  of  the  Vatican  manuscript)  ; 
I  Thessaloniajis,  i,  9. 

'  Ti  $ov\ofxat  ;   KaTa/xadiTu  t7;j'  (pvfiv  Koi  ravrrj  ^ireadai- 


RELIGION  GIVEN.  33 

appears  in  our  consciousness,  by  which  we  and  other  things 
fulfil  the  real  law  of  our  being. 

It  is  true,  the  not  ourselves,  by  which  things  fulfil  the  real 
law  of  their  being,  extends  a  great  deal  beyond  that  sphere 
where  alone  we  usually  think  of  it.  That  is,  a  man  may 
disserve  God,  disobey  indications,  not  of  our  own  making, 
but  which  appear,  if  we  attend,  in  our  consciousness, — he 
may  disobey,  I  say,  such  indications  of  the  real  law  of  our 
being,  in  other  spheres  besides  the  sphere  of  conduct.  He 
does  disobey  them,  when  he  sings  a  hymn  like  :  My  Jesus 
to  know,  and  feel  his  Mood  flow, — or,  indeed,  like  nine-tenths 
of  our  hymns, — or  when  he  frames  and  maintains  a  blunder- 
ing and  miserable  constitution  of  society,  as  well  as  when 
he  commits  some  plain  breach  of  the  moral  law.  That  is, 
he  may  disobey  them  in  art  and  science  as  well  as  in  con- 
duct. But  he  attends,  and  the  generality  of  men  attend, 
almost  solely  to  the  indications  of  a  true  law  of  our  being  as 
to  conduct ;  and  hardly  at  all  to  indications,  though  they  as 
really  exist,  of  a  true  law  of  our  being  on  its  aesthetic  and  in- 
telligential  side.  The  reason  is,  that  the  moral  side,  though 
not  more  real,  is  so  much  larger ;  taking  in,  as  we  have 
said,  at  least  three-fourths  of  life.  Now,  the  indications  on 
this  moral  side  of  that  tendency,  not  of  our  making,  by 
which  things  fulfil  the  law  of  their  being,  we  do  very  much 
mean  to  denote  and  to  sum  up  when  we  speak  of  the  will  of 
God,  pleasing  God,  serving  God.  Let  us  keep  firm  footing 
on  this  basis  of  plain  fact,  narrow  though  it  may  be. 

To  feel  that  one  is  fulfilling  in  any  way  the  law  of  one's 
being,  that  one  is  succeeding  and  hitting  the  mark,  brings, 
as  we  know,  happiness  ;  to  feel  this  in  regard  to  so  great  a 
thing  as  conduct,  brings,  of  course,  happiness  proportionate 
to  the  thing's  greatness.  We  have  already  had  QuintiHan's 
witness,  how  right  conduct  gives  joy.  Who  could  value 
knowledge  more  than  Goethe  ?  but  he  marks  it  as  being 

D 


34 


LITERATURE  AND  DOGMA. 


without  question  a  lesser  source  of  joy  than  conduct.     Con- 
duct he  ranks  with  health  as  beyond  all  compare  primary. 
*  Nothing,  after  health  and  virtue,'  he  says,  '  can  give  so 
much   satisfaction   as   learning   and   knowing.'     Nay,  and 
Bishop  Butler,  at  the  view  of  the  happiness  from  conduct, 
breaks  free  from  all  that  hesitancy  and  depression  which  so 
commonly  hangs  on  his  masterly  thinking.     '  Self-love,  me- 
thinks,  should  be  alarmed  !     May  she  not  pass  over  greater 
pleasures  than  those  she  is  so  wholly  taken  up  with  ? '     And 
Bishop  Wilson,  always  hitting  the  right  nail  on  the  head  in 
matters  of  this  sort,  remarks  that,   '  if  it  were  not  for  the 
practical  difficulties  attending  it,  virtue  would  hardly  be  dis- 
tinguishable from  a  kind  of  sensuality.'     The  practical  diffi- 
culties are,  indeed,  exceeding  great.     Plain  as  is  the  course 
and  high  the  prize,  we  all  find  ourselves  daily  led  to  say 
with  the  Imitation  :  '  Would  that  for  one  single  day  we  had 
lived  in  this  world  as  we  ought  ! '     Yet  the   course  is  so 
evidently  plain,  and  the  prize  so  high,  that  the  same  hni- 
tatio7i  cries  out  presently  :  *  If  a  man  would  but  take  notice, 
what  peace  he  brings  to  himself,  and  what  joy  to  others, 
merely  by  managing  himself  right ! '     And  for  such  happi- 
ness, since  certainly  we  ourselves  did  not  make  it,  we  in- 
stinctively feel  grateful)  according  to  that  remark  of  one 
of  the  wholesomest  and  truest  of  moralists,  Barrow  :  '  He  is 
not  a  man,  who  doth  not  delight  to  make  some  returns 
thither  whence  he  hath  found  great  kindness.'     And  this 
sense  of  gratitude,  again,  is  itself  an  addition  to  our  happi- 
ness !     So  strong,  altogether,  is  the  witness  and  sanction 
happiness  gives  to  going  right  in  conduct,  to  fulfilling,  so  far 
as  conduct  is  concerned,  the  law  indicated  to  us  of  our 
being.     Now,  there  can  be  no  sanction  to  compare,  for 
force,  with  the  strong  sanction  of  happiness,  if  it  be  true 
what  Bishop  Butler,  who  is  here  but  the  mouthpiece  of 
humanity  itself,  says  so  irresistibly  :  '  It  is  manifest  that 


RELIGION  GIVEN.  35 


nothing  can  be  of  consequence  to  mankind,  or  any  creature, 
but  happiness.'  But  we  English  are  taunted  with  our 
proneness  to  an  unworthy  eudaemonism,  and  an  AngHcan 
bishop  may  perhaps  be  a  suspected  witness.  Let  us  call, 
then,  a  glorious  father  of  the  Cathohc  Church,  the  great 
Augustine  himself.  Says  St.  Augustine  :  *  Act  we  must  in 
pursuance  of  what  gives  us  most  delight ;  quod  ainplius  nos 
delectat,  secundum  id  operetnur  necesse  est.' 

And  now  let  us  see  how  exactly  Israel's  perceptions 
about  God  follow  and  confirm  this  simple  line,  which  we 
have  here  reached  quite  independently.  First :  '  It  vs,joy 
to  the  just  to  do  judgment.'  ^  Then  :  *  It  becometh  well 
the  just  to  be  thankful''^  Finally  :  *  A //^^^^;2/ thing  it  is 
to  be  thankful.'  ^  What  can  be  simpler  than  this,  and  at 
the  same  time  more  solid  ?  But  again  :  *  The  statutes  of 
the  Eternal  rejoice  the  heart.'  *  And  then  :  *  I  will  give 
thanks  unto  thee,  O  Eternal^  with  my  whole  heart ;  at  mid- 
night will  I  rise  to  give  thanks  unto  thee  because  of  thy 
righteous  judgments  ! '  *  And  lastly  :  '  It  is  a  good  thing 
to  give  thanks  unto  the  Eternal  \  it  is  a  good  thing  to  sing 
praises  unto  our  God  \ '  ^  Why,  these  are  the  very  same 
propositions  as  the  preceding,  only  with  a  power  and  depth 
of  emotion  added  !     Emotion  has  been  applied  to  morality. 

God  or  Eternal  is  here  really,  at  bottom,  nothing  but  a 
deeply  moved  way  of  saying  '  the  power  that  makes  for  con- 
ductor righteousness.^  '  Trust  in  God'  is,  in  a  deeply  moved 
way  of  expression,  the  trust  in  the  law  of  conduct ;  '  delight 
in  the  EteriiaP  is,  in  a  deeply  moved  way  of  expression,  the 
happiness  we  all  feel  to  spring  from  conduct.  Attending  to 
conduct,  to  judgment,  makes  the  attender  feel  that  it  is  joy 
to  do  it.     Attending  to  it  more  still,  makes  him  feel  that  it  is 

•  Prov.,  xxi,  15.  2  p^^  xxxiii,  i. 

«  Fs.  cxlvii,  I.  *  Ps.  xix,  8. 

^  Fs.  cxxxviii,  i  ;  cxix,  62.  «  Fs.  xcii,  i  ;  cxlvii,  i. 
D  2 


36  LITERATURE  AND  DOGMA. 

the  commandment  of  the  Eternal,  and  that  the  joy  got  from 
it  is  joy  from  fulfilling  the  commandment  of  the  Eternal. 
The  thankfulness  for  this  joy  is  thankfulness  to  the  Eternal ; 
and  to  the  Eternal,  again,  is  due  that  further  joy  which  comes 
from  this  thankfulness.  '  The  fear  of  the  Eternal,  that  is 
wisdom  ;  and  to  depart  from  evil,  that  is  understanding.'  ^ 
'  The  fear  of  the  EternaV  and  ^  To  depart  from  eviV  here 
mean,  and  are  put  to  mean,  and  by  the  very  laws  of  Hebrew 
composition  which  make  the  second  phrase  in  a  parallelism 
repeat  the  first  in  other  words,  they  must  mean,  just  the 
same  thing.  Yet  what  man  of  soul,  after  he  had  once  risen 
to  feel  that  to  depart  from  evil  was  to  walk  in  awful  observ- 
ance of  an  enduring  clue,  within  us  and  without  us,  which 
leads  to  happiness,  but  would  prefer  to  say,  instead  of  '  to 
depart  from  evil,'  '  the  fear  of  the  Eternal '  ? 

Henceforth,  then,  Israel  transferred  to  this  Eternal  all 
his  obligations.  Instead  of  saying  :  '  Whoso  keepeth  the 
commandment  keepeth  his  own  soul,'  ^  he  rather  said,  *  My 
soul,  wait  thou  only  upon  God^  for  of  him  cometh  my  salva- 
tion ! '  3  Instead  of  saying  :  '  Bind  them  (the  laws  of  righ- 
teousness) continually  upon  thine  heart,  and  tie  them  about 
thy  neck  !  '"*  he  rather  said,  'Have  I  not  remembered  Thee 
on  my  bed,  and  thought  upon  Thee  when  I  was  waking  ?'  * 
The  obligation  of  a  grateful  and  devout  self  surrender  to  the 
Eternal  replaced  all  sense  of  obligation  to  one's  own  better 
self,  one's  own  permanent  interest.  The  moralist's  rule  : 
*  Take  thought  for  your  permanent,  not  your  momentary, 
well-being,'  became  now  :  '  Honour  the  Eterrial,  not  doing 
thine  own  ways,  nor  finding  thine  own  pleasure,  nor  speaking 
thine  own  words.'  ^  That  is,  with  Israel  religioti  replaced 
morality. 

It  is  true,  out  of  the  humble  yet  divine  ground  of  atten- 

1  Job,  xxviii,  28.  ^  Frov.,  xix,  16  '  Ps.  Ixii,  5,  I. 

*   Prav.^  vi,  2.  *  Ps.  Ixiii,  7,  «  Is.,  Iviii,  13. 


RELIGION  GIVEN.  37 

tion  to  conduct,  of  c^re  for  what  in  conduct  is  right  and 
good,  grew  moraUty  and  reHgion  both  \  but,  from  the  time 
when  the  soul  felt  the  motive  of  religion,  it  dropped  and  could 
not  but  drop  the  other.  And  the  motive  of  doing  right,  to 
a  sincere  soul,  is  now  really  no  longer  his  own  welfare,  but 
to  please  God ;  and  it  bewilders  his  consciousness  if  you  tell 
him  that  he  does  right  out  of  self-love.  So  that,  as  we  have 
said  that  the  first  man  who,  as  '  a  being  of  a  large  discourse, 
looking  before  and  after,'  controlled  the  blind  momentary 
impulses  of  the  instinct  of  self-preservation,  and  controlled 
the  blind  momentary  impulses  of  the  sexual  instinct,  had 
morality  revealed  to  him  ;  so  in  like  manner  we  may  say, 
that  the  first  man  who  was  thrilled  with  gratitude,  devotion, 
and  awe,  at  the  sense  of  joy  and  peace,  not  of  his  own 
making,  which  followed  the  exercise  of  this  self-control,  had 
religion  revealed  to  him.  And,  for  us  at  least,  this  man  was 
Israel. 

Now  here,  as  we  have  already  pointed  out  the  falseness 
of  the  common  antithesis  between  ethical  and  religions^  let 
us  anticipate  the  objection  that  the  religion  here  spoken  of 
is  but  natural  religion,  by  pointing  out  the  falseness  of  the 
common  antithesis,  also,  between  natural  and  revealed. 
For  that  in  us  which  is  really  natural  is,  in  truth,  revealed. 
We  awake  to  the  consciousness  of  it,  we  are  aware  of  it 
coming  forth  in  our  mind ;  but  we  feel  that  we  did  not 
make  it,  that  it  is  discovered  to  us,  that  it  is  what  it  is 
whether  we  will  or  no.  If  we  are  little  concerned  about  it, 
we  say  it  is  natural ',  if  much,  we  say  it  is  revealed.  But  the 
difference  between  the  two  is  not  one  of  kind,  only  of 
degree.  The  real  antithesis,  to  natural  and  revealed  alike,  is 
inve?tted,  artificial.  Religion  springing  out  of  an  experience 
of  the  power,  the  grandeur,  the  necessity  of  righteousness,  is 
revealed  religion,  whether  we  find  it  in  Sophocles  or  in  Isaiah. 
'The  will  of  mortal  men  did  not  beget  it,  neither  shall 


38  LITERATURE  AND  DOGMA. 

oblivion  ever  put  it  to  sleep.'  A  system  of  theological 
notions  about  personality,  essence,  existence,  consubstan- 
tiality,  is  artifidal  religion,  and  is  the  proper  opposite  to 
revealed;  since  it  is  a  religion  which  comes  forth  in  no  one's 
consciousness,  but  is  invented  by  theologians, — able  mei; 
with  uncommon  talents  for  abstruse  reasoning.  This  religion 
is  in  no  sense  revealed,  just  because  it  is  in  no  sense  natural. 
And  revealed  religion  is  properly  so  named,  just  in  propor* 
tion  as  it  is  in  a  pre-eminent  degree  natural. 

The  religion  of  the  Bible,  therefore,  is  well  said  to  be 
revealed,  because  the  great  natural  truth,  that  '  righteousness 
tendeth  to  life',  ^  is  seized  and  exhibited  there  with  such  in- 
comparable force  and  efficacy.  All,  or  very  nearly  all,  the 
nations  of  mankind  have  recognised  the  importance  of  con- 
duct, and  have  attributed  to  it  a  natural  obligation.  They, 
however,  looked  at  conduct^  not  as  something  full  of  happi- 
ness and  joy,  but  as  something  one  could  not  manage  to  do 
without.  But :  *  Sion  heard  of  it  and  rejoiced,  and  the 
daughters  of  Judah  were  glad,  because  of  thy  judgments,  O 
Eternal ! '  ^  Happiness  is  our  being's  end  and  aim,  and  no 
one  has  ever  come  near  Israel  in  feeling,  and  in  making 
others  feel,  that  to  rightcousiiess  belongs  happiness !  The 
prodigies  and  the  marvellous  of  Bible-religion  are  common 
to  it  with  all  religions  ;  the  love  of  righteousness,  in  this 


5- 
The  real  germ  of  religious  consciousness,  therefore,  out 
of  which  sprang  Israel's  name  for  God,  to  which  the  records 
of  his  history  adapted  themselves,  and  which  came  to  be 
clothed  upon,  in  time,  with  a  mighty  growth  of  poetry  and 
tradition,  was  a  consciousness  of  the  not  ourselves  which 
viakesfor  righteousness.     And  the  way  to  convince  oneself 

'  Prau.y  xi,  19.  '  Ps,  xcvii,  8. 


RELIGION  GIVEN.  39 

of  this  is  by  studying  the  Bible  with  a  fair  mind,  and  with 
the  tact  which  letters,  surely,  alone  can  give.  For  the  thing 
turns  upon  understanding  the  manner  in  which  men  have 
thought,  their  way  of  using  words,  and  what  they  mean  by 
them.  And  by  knowing  letters,  by  becoming  conversant 
with  the  best  that  has  been  thought  and  said  in  the  world, 
we  become  acquainted  not  only  with  the  history,  but  also 
with  the  scope  and  powers,  of  the  instruments  which  men 
employ  in  thinking  and  speaking.  And  this  is  just  what  is 
sought  for. 

And  with  the  sort  of  experience  thus  gained  of  the 
history  of  the  human  spirit,  objections,  as  we  have  said,  will 
be  found  not  so  much  to  be  refuted  by  reasoning  as  to  fall 
away  of  themselves.  It  is  objected  :  *  Why,  if  the  Hebrews 
of  the  Bible  had  thus  eminently  the  sense  for  righteousness, 
does  it  not  equally  distinguish  the  Jews  now  ? '  But  does 
not  experience  show  us,  how  entirely  a  change  of  circum- 
stances may  change  a  people's  character  ;  and  have  the 
modern  Jews  lost  more  of  what  distinguished  their  ancestors, 
or  even  so  much,  as  the  modern  Greeks  of  what  distin- 
guished theirs?  Where  is  now,  among  the  Greeks,  the 
dignity  of  life  of  Pericles,  the  dignity  of  thought  and  of  art 
of  Phidias  and  Plato  ?  It  is  objected,  that  the  Jews'  God 
was  not  the  enduring  power  that  makes  for  righteousness, 
but  only  their  tribal  God,  who  gave  them  the  victory  in  the 
battle  and  plagued  them  that  hated  them.  But  how,  then, 
comes  their  literature  to  be  full  of  such  things  as :  '  Shew 
me  thy  ways,  O  Eternal,  and  teach  me  thy  paths  ;  let  in- 
tegrity and  uprightness  preserve  me,  for  I  put  my  trust  in 
thee  !  if  I  incline  unto  wickedness  with  my  heart,  the  Eternal 
will  not  hear  me.'  ^  From  the  sense  that  with  men  thus 
guided  and  going  right  in  goodness  it  could  not  but  be  well, 
that  their  leaf  could  not  wither  and  that  whatsoever  they 

'  Fs.  XXV,  4,  21  ;  Ixvi,  18. 


40  LITERATURE  AND  DOGMA. 

did  must  prosper,^  would  naturally  come  the  sense  that  in 
their  wars  with  an  enemy  the  enemy  should  be  put  to  con- 
fusion and  they  should  triumph.  But  how,  out  of  the  mere 
sense  that  their  enemy  should  be  put  to  confusion  and  they 
sliould  triumph,  could  the  desire  for  goodness  come  ? 

It  is  objected,  again,  that  their  'law  of  the  Lord'  was  a 
positive  traditionary  code  to  the  Hebrews,  standing  as  a 
mechanical  rule  which  held  them  in  awe ;  that  their  *  fear 
of  the  Lord '  was  superstitious  dread  of  an  assumed  magnified 
and  non-natural  man.  But  why,  then,  are  they  always  say- 
ing :  '  Teach  me  thy  statutes,  Teach  me  thy  way.  Show  thou 
me  the  way  that  I  shall  walk  in.  Open  mine  eyes,  Make  me  to 
understand  wisdom  secretly  / '  ^  if  all  the  law  they  were  think- 
ing of  stood,  stark  and  written,  before  their  eyes  already  ? 
And  what  could  they  mean  by  :  '  1  will  love  thee,  O  Eternal, 
my  strength  ! '  ^  if  the  fear  they  meant  was  not  the  awe-filled 
obsei-vance  from  deep  attachment,  but  a  servile  terror  ?  It 
is  objected,  that  their  conception  of  righteousness  was  a 
narrow  and  rigid  one,  centring  mainly  in  what  they  called 
judgment :  '  Hate  the  evil  and  love  the  good,  and  establish 
judgment  in  the  gate  !  "*  so  that  '  evil,'  for  them,  did  not 
take  in  all  faults  whatever  of  heart  and  conduct,  but  meant 
chiefly  oppression,  graspingness,  a  violent,  mendacious 
tongue,  insolent  and  riotous  excess.  True ;  their  concep- 
tion of  righteousness  was  much  of  this  kind,  and  it  was 
narrow.  But  whoever  sincerely  attends  to  conduct,  along 
however  limited  a  line,  is  on  his  way  to  bring  under  the  eye 
of  conscience  all  conduct  whatever ;  and  already,  in  the  Old 
Testament,  the  somewhat  monotonous  inculcation  of  the 
social  virtues  of  judgment  and  justice  is  continually  broken 
through  by  deeper  movements  of  personal  religion.     Every 

^  Ps-  i,  3. 

*  Ps.  cxix,  12  ;  Ixxxvi,  11  ;  cxliii,  8  ;  cxix,  18  ;  li,  6. 

•  Ps.  xviii,  I.  ♦  Amos,  v,  15. 


RELIGION  GIVEN,  41 

time  that  the  words  contrition  or  hu77iility  drop  from  the 
hps  of  prophet  or  psalmist,  Christianity  appears. 

It  is  objected,  finally,  that  even  their  own  narrow  con- 
ception of  righteousness  this  people  could  not  follow,  but 
were  perpetually  oppressive,  grasping,  slanderous,  sensual. 
Why,  the  very  interest  and  importance  of  their  witness  to 
righteousness  lies  in  their  having  felt  so  deeply  the  necessity 
of  what  they  were  so  little  able  to  accomplish  !  They  had 
the  strongest  impulses  in  the  world  to  violence  and  excess, 
the  keenest  pleasure  in  gratifying  these  impulses.  And  yet 
they  had  such  a  sense  of  the  natural  necessary  connexion 
between  conduct  and  happiness,  that  they  kept  always  say- 
ing, in  spite  of  themselves  :  To  him  that  ordereth  his  con- 
versation right  shall  be  show 71  the  salvation  of  God  /  ^ 

Now  manifestly  this  sense  of  theirs  has  a  double  force 
for  the  rest  of  mankind, — an  evidential  force  and  a  practical 
force.  Its  evidential  force  is  in  keeping  before  men's  view, 
by  the  example  of  the  signal  apparition,  in  one  branch  of 
our  race,  of  the  sense  for  conduct  and  righteousness,  the 
reality  and  naturalness  of  that  sense.  Clearly,  unless  a 
sense  or  endowment  of  human  nature,  however  in  itself  real 
and  beneficent,  has  some  signal  representative  among  man- 
kind, it  tends  to  be  pressed  upon  by  other  senses  and 
endowments,  to  suffer  from  its  own  want  of  energy,  and  to 
be  more  and  more  pushed  out  of  sight.  Anyone,  for  in- 
stance, who  will  go  to  the  Potteries,  and  will  look  at  the 
tawdry,  glaring,  ill-proportioned  ware  which  is  being  made 
there  for  certain  American  and  colonial  markets,  will  easily 
convince  himself  how,  in  our  people  and  kindred,  the  sense 
for  the  arts  of  design,  though  it  is  certainly  planted  in 
human  nature,  might  dwindle  and  sink  to  almost  nothing, 
if  it  were  not  for  the  witness  borne  to  this  sense,  and  the 
protest  offered  against  its  extinction,  by  the  brilliant  aesthetic 
'  Ps.  U  23. 


42  LITERATURE  AND  DOGMA. 

endowment  and  artistic  work  of  ancient  Gjeece.  And  one 
cannot  look  out  over  the  world  without  seeing  that  the  same 
sort  of  thing  might  very  well  befall  conduct,  too,  if  it  were 
not  for  the  signal  witness  borne  by  Israel. 

Then  there  is  the  practical  force  of  their  example  ;  and 
this  is  even  more  important.  Everyone  is  aware  how  those, 
who  want  to  cultivate  any  sense  or  endowment  in  themselves, 
must  be  habitually  conversant  with  the  works  of  people  who 
have  been  eminent  for  that  sense,  must  study  them,  catch 
inspiration  from  them.  Only  in  this  way,  indeed,  can  progress 
be  made.  And  as  long  as  the  world  lasts,  all  who  want  to 
make  progress  in  righteousness  will  come  to  Israel  for  in- 
spiration, as  to  the  people  who  have  had  the  sense  for 
righteousness  most  glowing  and  strongest  j  and  in  hearing 
and  reading  the  words  Israel  has  uttered  for  us,  carers  for 
conduct  will  find  a  glow  and  a  force  they  could  find  nowhere 
else.  As  well  imagine  a  man  with  a  sense  for  sculpture  not 
cultivating  it  by  the  help  of  the  remains  of  Greek  art,  or  a 
man  with  a  sense  for  poetry  not  cultivating  it  by  the  help  of 
Homer  and  Shakespeare,  as  a  man  with  a  sense  for  conduct 
not  cultivating  it  by  the  help  of  the  Bible  !  And  this  sense, 
in  the  satisfying  of  which  we  come  naturally  to  the  Bible,  is 
a  sense  which  the  generality  of  men  have  far  more  decidedly 
than  they  have  the  sense  for  art  or  for  scien(  e.  At  any  rate, 
whether  this  or  that  man  has  it  decidedly  or  not,  it  is  the 
sense  which  has  to  do  with  three-fourths  of  human  life. 

This  does  truly  constitute  for  Israel  a  most  extraordinary 
distinction.  In  spite  of  all  which  in  them  and  in  their 
character  is  unattractive,  nay,  repellent, — in  spite  of  their 
shortcomings  even  in  righteousness  itself  and  their  insigni- 
ficance in  everything  else, — this  petty,  unsuccessful,  un- 
amiable  people,  without  politics,  without  science,  without 
art,'  without  charm,  deserve  their  great  place  in  the  world's 
regard,  and  are  likely  to  have  it  more,  as  the  wor]  i  goes  on. 


RELIGION  GIVEN.  43 

rather  than  less.  It  is  secured  to  them  by  the  facts  of 
human  nature,  and  by  the  unalterable  constitution  of  things. 
*God  hath  given  commandment  to  bless,  and  he  hath 
blessed,  and  we  cannot  reverse  it ;  he  hath  not  seen  iniquity 
in  Jacob,  and  he  hath  not  seen  perverseness  in  Israel ;  the 
Eternal,  his  God,  is  with  him  ! '  ^ 

Anyone  does  a  good  deed  who  removes  stumbling-blocks 
out  of  the  way  of  our  feeling  and  profiting  by  the  witness 
left  by  this  people.  And  so,  instead  of  making  our  Hebrew 
speakers  mean,  in  their  use  of  the  word  God,  a  scientific 
affirmation  which  never  entered  into  their  heads,  and  about 
which  many  will  dispute,  let  us  content  ourselves  with  masing 
them  mean,  as  a  matter  of  scientific  fact  and  experience, 
what  they  really  did  mean  as  such,  and  what  is  unchallenge- 
able. Let  us  put  into  their  '  Eternal '  and  '  God '  no  more 
science  than  they  did  : — the  endurmg  poiver^  not  ourselves^ 
which  makes  for  righteousness.  They  meant  more  by  these 
names,  but  they  meant  this  ;  and  this  they  grasped  fully. 
And  the  sense  which  this  will  give  us  for  their  words  is  at 
least  solid  ;  so  that  we  may  find  it  of  use  as  a  guide  to  steady 
us,,  and  to  give  us  a  constant  clue  in  following  wh-at  they  say. 

And  is  it  so  unworthy  ?  It  is  true,  unless  we  can  fill  it 
with  as  much  feeling  as  they  did,  the  mere  possessing  it  will 
not  carry  us  far.  But  matters  are  not  at  all  mended  by  taking 
their  language  of  approximate  figure  and  turning  it  into 
the  language  of  scientific  definition  ;  or  by  crediting  them 
with  our  own  dubious  science,  deduced  from  metaphysical 
ideas  which  they  never  had.  A  better  way  than  this,  surely, 
is  to  take  their  fact  of  experience,  to  keep  it  steadily  for  our 
basis  in  using  their  language,  aad  to  see  whether  from  usmg 
their  language  with  the  ground  of  this  real  and  firm  sense  to 
it,  as  they  themselves  did,  somewhat  of  their  feeling,  too, 
may  not  grow  upon  us.     At  least  we  shall  know  what  we  are 

'  Numbers^  xxiii,  20,  21. 


44  LITERATURE  AND  DOGMA. 

saying ;  and  that  what  we  are  saying  is  true,  however  in- 
adequate. 

But  is  this  confessed  inadequateness  of  our  speech,  con- 
cerning that  which  we  will  not  call  by  the  negative  name  of 
the  unknown  and  unknowable,  but  rather  by  the  name  of 
the  unexplored  and  inexpressible,  and  of  which  the  Hebrews 
themselves  said:  //  is  more  high  than  heaven^  what  cajtst 
thou  do .?  deeper  than  hell^  what  canst  thou  know  7  ^ — is  this 
reservedness  of  affirmation  about  God  less  worthy  of  him, 
than  the  astounding  particularity  and  licence  of  affirmation  of 
our  dogmatists,  as  if  he  were  a  man  in  the  next  street  ?  Nay, 
and  nearly  all  the  difficulties  which  torment  theology, — as  the 
reconciling  God's  justice  with  his  mercy,  and  so  on, — come 
from  this  licence  and  particularity ;  theologians  having 
precisely,  as  it  would  often  seem,  built  up  a  wall  first,  in 
order  afterwards  to  run  their  own  heads  against  it. 

This,  we  say,  is  what  comes  of  too  much  talent  for 
abstract  reasoning.  One  cannot  help  seeing  the  theory  of 
causation  and  such  things,  when  one  should  only  see  a  far 
simpler  matter  :  the  power,  the  grandeur,  the  necessity  of 
righteousness.  To  be  sure,  a  perception  of  these  is  at  the 
bottom  of  popular  religion,  underneath  all  the  extravagances 
theologians  have  taught  people  to  utter,  and  makes  the 
whole  value  of  it.  For  the  sake  of  this  true  practical  per- 
ception one  might  be  quite  content  to  leave  at  rest  a  matter 
where  practice,  after  all,  is  everything,  and  theory  nothing. 
Only,  when  religion  is  called  in  question  because  of  the 
extravagances  of  theology  being  passed  off  as  religion,  one 
disengages  and  helps  religion  by  showing  their  utter  delusive- 
ness. They  arose  out  of  the  talents  of  able  men  for  reason- 
ing, and  their  want  (not  through  lack  of  talent,  for  the 
thing  needs  none ;  it  needs  only  time,  trouble,  good 
fortune,  and  a  fair  m.ind ;  but  through  their  being  taken  up 
»  Job,  xi,  7. 


RELIGION  GIVEN.  45 

jvith  their  reasoning  power),  their  want  of  literary  experience. 
By  a  sad  mishap  for  them,  the  sphere  where  they  show  their 
talents  is  one  foi  literary  experience  rather  than  for  reason- 
ing. This  mishap  has  at  the  very  outset, — in  the  dealings 
of  theologians  with  that  starting-point  in  our  religion,  the 
experience  of  Israel  as  set  forth  in  the  Old  Testament, — 
been  the  cause,  we  have  seen,  of  great  confusion.  Naturally, 
as  we  shall  hereafter  see,  the  confusion  becomes  worse  con- 
founded as  they  proceed. 


46  LITERATURE  AND  DOGMA, 


CHAPTER   II. 

ABERGLAUBE  INVADING. 

When  people  ask  for  our  attention  because  of  what  has 
passed,  they  say,  '  in  the  Council  of  the  Trinity,'  and  been 
promulgated,  for  our  direction,  by  *  a  Personal  First  Cause, 
the  moral  and  intelligent  Governor  of  the  universe,'  it  is 
certainly  open  to  any  man  to  refuse  to  hear  them,  on  the  plea 
that  the  very  thing  they  start  with  they  have  no  means  of 
proving.  And  we  see  that  many  do  so  refuse  their  atten- 
tion ;  and  that  the  breach  there .  is,  for  instance,  between 
popular  religion  and  what  is  called  scie?ice,  comes  from  this 
cause.  But  it  is  altogether  different  when  people  ask  for  our 
attention  on  the  strength  of  this  other  first  principle  :  '  To 
righteousness  belongs  happiness  ; '  or  this  :  *  There  is  an 
enduring  power,  not  ourselves,  which  makes  for  righteous- 
ness.' The  more  we  meditate  on  this  starting-ground  of 
theirs,  the  more  we  shall  find  that  there  is  solidity  in  it,  and 
the  more  we  shall  be  inclined  to  go  along  with  them  and  to 
see  what  will  come  of  it. 

And  herein  is  the  advantage  of  giving  this  plain,  though 
restricted,  sense  to  the  Bible-phrases  :  '  Blessed  is  the  man 
that  feareth  the  Eternal ! '  and  :  '  Whoso  trusteth  in  the 
Eternal,  happy  is  he  ! '  ^  By  tradition,  emotion,  imagina- 
tion, the  Hebrews,  no  doubt,  came  to  attach  more  than  this 
plain  sense  to  these  phrases.  But  this  plain,  solid,  and 
experimental  sense  they  attached  to  them  at  bottom  ;  and 

'  fs.  cxii,  I  ;  Frov.f  xvi,  20. 


ABERGLAUBE  INVADING.  47 

in  attaching  it  they  were  on  sure  ground  of  fact,  where  we 
can  all  go  with  them.  Their  words,  we  shall  find,  taken 
in  this  sense  have  quite  a  new  force  for  us,  and  an  indis- 
putable one.  It  is  worth  while  accustoming  ourselves  to 
use  them  thus,  in  order  to  bring  out  this  force  and  to 
see  how  real  it  is,  limited  though  it  be,  and  insignifi- 
cant as  it  may  appear.  The  very  substitution  of  the  word 
Eternal  for  the  word  Loi'd  is  something  gained  in  this  direc- 
tion. The  word  Eternal  has  less  of  particularity  and  palpa- 
bility for  the  imagination,  but  what  it  does  affirm  is  something 
real  and  verifiable. 

Let  us  fix  firmly  in  our  minds,  with  this  limited  but  real 
sense  to  the  words  we  employ,  the  connexion  of  ideas  which 
was  ever  present  to  the  spirit  of  the  Hebrew  people.  In  the 
way  of  righteousness  is  life,  and  in  the  pathway  thereof  is  no 
death;  as  righteousness  tendeth  to  life,  so  he  that pursueth  evil, 
pursueth  it  to  his  own  death;  as  the  whirlwind passeth,  so  is 
the  wicked  no  more,  but  the  righteous  is  an  everlasti?ig  founda- 
tion ;— here  is  the  ground-idea.^  Yet  there  are  continual 
momentary  suggestions  which  make  for  gratifying  our  apparent 
self,  for  unrighteousness  ;  nevertheless,  what  makes  for  our 
real  self,  for  righteousness,  is  lasting,  and  holds  good  in  the 
end.  Therefore  :  Trust  in  the  Eternal  with  all  thine  heart, 
and  lean  not  unto  thine  own  imderstanding ;  there  is  no  wisdo?n, 
nor  understanding,  7iorcou?isel  agai?ist  the  Eternal ;  there  is  a 
way  that  seemeth  right  u?tto  a  man,  but  the  end  thereof  are 
the  ways  of  death  ;  there  are  many  devices  in  a  man's  heart, 
nevertheless,  the  counsel  of  the  Eternal,  that  shall  stafid."^  To 
follow  this  counsel  of  the  Eternal  is  the  only  true  wisdom 
and  understanding.  The  fear  of  the  Eternal,  that  is  wisdom, 
and  to  depart  from  evil,  iha.t  is  understanding.^  It  is  also 
happiness.     Blessed  is  everyone  that  feareth  the  Eternal,  that 

*  Prav,,  xii,  28  ;  xi,  19  ;  x,  25. 

'  Prav.^  iii,  5  ;  xxi,  30  ;  xiv,  12  ;  xix,  21.  •  Job,  xxviii,  28. 


48  LITERATURE  AND  DOGMA. 

walketh  in  his  ways  ;  happy  shall  he  be,  and  it  shall  be  well 
with  him  I  ^  O  taste  and  see  how  gracious  the  Eternal  is  I 
blessed  is  the  man  that  trusteth  in  him?  Blessed  is  the  man 
whose  delight  is  in  the  law  of  the  Eternal ;  his  leaf  shall  ?ioi 
wither,  and  whatsoever  he  doeth,  it  shall  prosper.^  And  the 
more  a  man  walks  in  this  way  of  righteousness,  the  more  he 
feels  himself  borne  by  a  power  not  his  own  :  Not  by  might 
and  7iot  by  power,  but  by  my  spirit,  saith  the  Eternal.^  O 
Eternal,  I  know  that  the  way  of  ma7i  is  not  in  himself  I  all 
things  C077ie  of  thee ;  in  thy  light  do  we  see  light ;  77ia7i's 
goings  are  of  the  Eter7ial ;  the  Eternal  ordereth  a  good  7na7'is 
going,  and  maketh  his  way  acceptable  to  hi77iself^  But  man 
feels,  too,  how  far  he  always  is  from  fulfilling  or  even  from 
fully  perceiving  this  tme  law  of  his  being,  these  indications 
of  the  Eternal,  the  way  of  righteousness.  He  says,  and 
must  say  :  I  am  a  s&anger  upon  earth.  Oh,  hide  not  thy 
co77imandments  fro7n  me  I  Enter  not  into  judg7nent  with  thy 
servant,  O  Eternal,  for  in  thy  sight  shall  no  7nan  living  be 
justified  f^  Nevertheless,  as  a  man  holds  on  to  practice  as 
well  as  he  can,  and  avoids,  at  any  rate,  '  presumptuous  sins,' 
courses  he  can  clearly  see  to  be  wrong,  films  fall  away  from 
his  eyes,  the  indications  of  the  Eternal  come  out  more  and 
more  fully,  we  are  cleansed  from  faults  which  were  hitherto 
secret  to  us.  Exai7iine  77ie,  O  God,  a7id prove  77ie,  try  out  my 
reins  a7id  77iy  heart ;  look  well  if  there  be  any  way  of  wickedness 
in  me,  and  lead  me  in  the  way  everlasti7ig  P  O  cleanse  thou 
me  fro7n  my  secret  faults  !  thou  hast  proved  7ny  heart,  thou 
hast  visited  7?ie  171  the  night,  thou  hast  tried  me  and  shall  fi7id 
nothing.^     And  the  more  we  thus  get  to  keep  innocency,  the 

*  Ps.  cxxviii,  I  ^  Ps.  xxxiv,  8. 

8  Ps.  i,  I,  2,  3.  *  Zechariah,  iv,  6. 

5  Jeremiah,  x,  23  ;  i  Chronicles,  xxix,  14  ;  Ps.  xxxvi,  9 ;  Prov.,xx,  24; 
Ps.  xxxvii,  23.  ^  Ps.  cxix,  89  ;  cxliii,  2. 

*  Ps.  xbc,  13;  cxxxix,  23,  24.  *  Ps  xix,  12  ;  xvii,^. 


ABERGLAUBE  INVADING.  49 

more  we  wonderfully  find  joy  and  peace.  O  how  plentiful  h 
thy  good^iess  iiuhich  thou  hast  laid  up  for  them  that  fear  thee  ! 
thou  shall  hide  them  in  the  secret  of  thy  presence  fro7n  the  pro- 
voking of  men.  ^  Thou  wilt  show  me  the  path  of  life.,  in  thy 
pi'esence  is  thefitlness  of  joy.,  at  thy  right  hand  there  are  plea- 
sures for  evermore?  More  and  more  this  dwelling  on  the 
joy  and  peace  from  righteousness,  and  on  the  power  which 
makes  for  righteousness,  becomes  a  man's  consolation  and 
refuge.  Thou  art  my  hiding-place.,  thou  shall  preserve  me 
fiom  trouble ;  if  my  delight  had  not  been  in  thy  law.,  I  should 
have  perished  in  my  trouble.^  Li  the  day  of  my  trouble  1 
sought  the  Etei'nal ;  a  refuge  ff'om  the  storm,  a  shadow  from 
the  heat  I  ^  O  lead  i?ie  to  the  rock  that  is  higher  tha?i  I/^ 
The  name  of  the  Eternal  is  as  a  strong  .tower,  the  righteous 
rimneth  into  it  and  is  safe.^  And  the  more  we  experience 
this  shelter,  the  more  we  come  to  feel  that  it  is  protecting 
even  to  tenderness.  Like  as  a  father  pitieth  his  own  children, 
even  so  is  the  Eternal  merciful  unto  them  that  fear  him.  ^  Nay, 
every  other  support,  we  at  last  find,  every  other  attachment 
may  fail  us  ;  this  alone  fails  not.  Can  a  womaji  forget  her 
sucking  child,  that  she  should  not  have  compassion  on  the  son 
of  her  womb  1  Yea,  they  may  forget,  yet  will  I  not  forget 
thee  I  ^ 

All  this,  we  say,  rests  originally  upon  the  simple  but 
solid  experience  :  'Conduct brings //^////zd-Ji",'  or,  'Righteous- 
ness tendeth  to  life.'  ^  And,  by  making  it  again  rest  there, 
we  bring  out  in  a  new  but  most  real  and  sure  way  its  truth 
and  its  power. 

For  it  has  not  always  continued  to  rest  there,  and  in 
popular  religion  now,  as  we  manifestly  see,  it  rests  there  no 

'  Ps.  xxxi,  19,  20.  -  Ps.  xvi,  II.  ^  Ps.  xxxii,  7  ;  cxix,  92. 

*  Ps.  Ixxvii,  2  ;  Is.,  xxv,  4.  *  Ps.  Ixi,  2. 

"  Prov.,  xviii,  10.  '  Ps.  ciii,  13. 

*  Is.,  xlix,  15.  ^  Prov.,  xi,  19. 


50  LITERATURE  AND  DOGMA. 

longer.  It  is  important  to  follow  the  way  in  which  this 
change  gradually  happened,  and  the  thing  ceased  to  rest 
there.  Israel's  original  perception  was  true  :  Righteousness 
tendeth  to  life  !  ^  It  was  true,  that  the  workers  of  righteous- 
ness have  a  covenant  with  the  Etei'nal^  that  their  work  shall 
be  blessed  and  blessing,  and  shall  endure  for  ever.  But 
what  apparent  contradictions  was  this  true  original  percep- 
tion destined  to  meet  with  !  What  vast  delays,  at  any  rate, 
were  to  be  interposed  before  its  truth  could  become  mani- 
fest !  And  how  instructively  the  successive  documents  of  the 
Bible,  which  popular  religion  treats  as  if  it  were  all  of  one 
piece,  one  time,  and  one  mind,  bring  out  the  effect  on  Israel 
of  these  delays  and  contradictions  !  What  a  distance  be- 
tween the  eighteenth  Psalm  and  the  eighty-ninth  ;  between 
the  Book  of  Proverbs  and  the  Book  of  Ecclesiastes  !  A 
time  some  thousand  years  before  Christ,  the  golden  age  of 
Israel,  is  the  date  to  which  the  eighteenth  Psalm  and  the 
chief  part  of  the  Book  of  Proverbs  belong.  This  is  the  time 
in  which  the  sense  of  the  necessary  connexion  between 
righteousness  and  happiness  appears  with  its  full  simplicity 
and  force.  The  righteous  shall  be  recompensed  in  the  earthy 
much  more  the  wicked  and  the  sinjier  I  is  the  constant  burden 
of  the  Book  of  Proverbs  ;  the  evil  bow  bejore  the  good,  and 
the  wicked  at  the  gates  of  the  righteous!  ^  And  David,  in  the 
eighteenth  Psalm,  expresses  his  conviction  of  the  intimate 
dependence  of  happiness  upon  conduct,  in  terms  which, 
though  they  are  not  without  a  certain  crudity,  are  yet  far 
more  edifying  in  their  truth  and  naturalness  than  those 
morbid  sentimentalities  of  Protestantism  about  man's  natural 
vileness  and  Christ's  imputed  righteousness,  to  which  they 
are  diametrically  opposed.  '  I  have  kept  the  ways  of  the 
Eternal,'  he  says  ;  *  I  was  also  upright  before  him,  and  I 
kept  myself  from  mine  iniquity ;  therefore  hath  the  Eternal 
*  Prov.t  xi.  19.  *  Frov.f  xi,  31  ;  Prov.y  xiv,  19. 


ABERGLAUBE  INVADING.  51 

rewarded  me  according  to  my  righteousness,  according  to 
the  cleanness  of  my  hands  hath  he  recompensed  me  ;  great 
prosperity  showeth  he  unto  his  king,  and  showeth  loving- 
kindness  unto  David  his  anointed,  and  unto  his  seed  for 
evermore.'  That  may  be  called  a  classic  passage  for  the 
covenant  Israel  always  thinks  and  speaks  of  as  made  by  God 
with  his  servant  David,  Israel's  second  founder.  And  this 
covenant  was  but  a  renewal  of  the  covenant  made  with 
Israel's  first  founder,  God's  servant  Abraham,  that  '  righteous- 
ness shall  inherit  a  blessing^  and  that  *  in  thy  seed  all  nations 
of  the  earth  shall  be  blessed'  * 

But  what  a  change  in  the  eighty-ninth  Psalm,  a  few 
hundred  years  later  !  '  Eternal,  where  are  thy  former  loving- 
kindnesses  which  thou  swarest  unto  David.?  thou  hast 
abhorred  and  forsaken  thine  anointed,  thou  hast  made  void 
the  covenant ;  O  remember  how  short  my  time  is  ! '  ^  '  The 
righteous  shall  be  reco7npensed  in  the  earth!'  the  speaker 
means  ;  '  my  death  is  near,  and  death  ends  all  ;  where, 
Eternal,  is  thy  promise  ?  ' 

Most  remarkable,  indeed,  is  the  inward  travail  to  which, 
m  the  six  hundred  years  that  followed  the  age  of  David  and 
Solomon,  the  many  and  rude  shocks  befalling  Israel's  fun- 
damental idea.  Righteousness  tendeth  to  life  and  he  that  pur- 
sueth  evil  pui'sueth  it  to  his  own  deaths  gave  occasion. 
*  Wherefore  do  the  wicked  live,'  asks  Job,  'become  old,  yea, 
are  mighty  in  power  ?  their  houses  are  safe  from  fear, 
neither  is  the  rod  of  God  upon  them.'  ^  Job  himself  is 
righteous,  and  yet  :  '  On  mine  eyelids  is  the  shadow  of 
death,  not  for  any  injustice  in  mine  hands.'"*  All  through 
the  Book  of  Job  the  question,  how  this  can  be,  is  over  and 
over  again  asked  and  never  answered  ;  inadequate  solutions 
are  offered  and  repelled,  but  an  adequate  solution  is  never 

'  I  Peter,  iii,  9  ;  Genesis^  xxvi,  4.       ^  Ps.  Ixxxix,  49,  "i^Z^  39,  74. 
3  Job,  xxi,  7,  9.  ♦  Job,  xvi,  16,  17. 

£  2 


52  LITERATURE  AND  DOGMA. 

reached.  The  only  solution  reached  is  that  of  silence  before 
the  insoluble  :  '  I  will  lay  mine  hand  upon  my  mouth.'  * 
The  two  perceptions,  Righteousness  fe?ideth  to  life,  and,  '  The 
ungodly  prosper  in  the  world'  are  left  confronting  one  another 
like  Kantian  antinomies.^  '  The  earth  is  given  tuito  the  hand 
of  the  wicked  I '  and  yet  :  '  The  counsel  of  the  wicked  is  far 
from  me;  God  reiuardeth  him,  and  he  shall  know  it ! '  ^ 
And  this  last,  the  original  perception,  remains  indestructible. 
The  Book  of  Ecclesiastes  has  been  called  sceptical,  epi- 
curean j  it  is  certainly  without  the  glow  and  hope  which 
animate  the  Bible  in  general.  It  belongs,  probably,  to 
the  fourth  century  before  Christ,  to  the  latter  and  worse 
days  of  the  Persian  rule  ;  with  difficulties  pressing  the 
Jewish  community  on  all  sides,  with  a  Persian  governor 
lording  it  in  Jerusalem,  with  resources  light  and  taxes  heavy, 
with  the  cancer  of  poverty  eating  into  the  mass  of  the 
people,  with  the  rich  estranged  from  the  poor  and  from  the 
national  traditions,  with  the  priesthood  slack,  insincere  and 
worthless.  Composed  under  such  circumstances,  the  book 
has  been  said,  and  with  justice,  to  breathe  resignation  at  the 
grave  of  Israel.  Its  author  sees  '  the  tears  of  the  oppressed, 
and  they  had  no  comforter,  and  on  the  side  of  their  op- 
pressors there  was  power;  wherefore  I  praised  the  dead 
w^hich  are  already  dead  more  than  the  living  which  are  yet 
alive.''*  He  sees  *  all  things  come  ahke  to  all,  there  is  one 
.event  to  the  righteous  and  to  the  wicked.'  ^  Attempts  at  a 
philosophic  indifference  appear,  at  a  sceptical  suspension  of 
judgment,  at  an  easy  7ie  quid  nimis  :  '  Be  not  righteous 
overmuch,  neither  make  thyself  overwise  !  why  shouldst 
thou  destroy  thyself?  '  ^  Vain  attempts,  even  at  a  moment 
which   favoured  them  !  shows  of  scepticism,  vanishing  as 

'  Job,  xl,  4.  2  z?;-^.^  xi,  19  ;  Fs.  Ixxiii,  12. 

*  Job,  ix,  24  ;  xxi,  16,  19.  *  Ecclcs.,  iv,  I,  2. 

*  Eccles.y  ix,  2.  «  Ecdes.y  vii,  16, 


ABERGLAUBE  INVADING.  53 

soon  as  uttered  before  the  intractable  conscientiousness  of 
Israel!  For  the  Preacher  makes  answer  against  himself: 
*  Though  a  sinner  do  evil  a  hundred  times  and  his  days  be 
prolonged,  yet  surely  I  know  that  it  shall  be  well  with  them 
that  fear  God ;  but  it  shall  not  be  well  with  the  wicked, 
because  he  feareth  not  before  God.'  ^ 

Malachi,  probably  almost  contemporary  with  the 
Preacher,  felt  the  pressure  of  the  same  circumstances,  had 
the  same  occasions  of  despondency.  All  around  him 
people  were  saying  :  '  Every  one  that  doeth  evil  is  good  in 
the  sight  of  the  Eternal,  and  he  delighteth  in  them ;  where 
is  the  God  of  judgment  ?  it  is  vain  to  serve  God,  and  what 
profit  is  it  that  we  have  kept  his  ordinance  ? '  ^  What  a 
change  from  the  clear  certitude  of  the  g®lden  age  :  *  As  the 
whirlwind  passeth,  so  is  the  wicked  no  more  ;  but  the 
righteous  is  an  everlasting  foundation  ! '  ^  But  yet,  with  all 
the  certitude  of  this  happier  past,  Malachi  answers  on 
behalf  of  the  Eternal :  '  Unto  you  that  fear  my  name 
shall  the  sun  of  righteousness  arise  with  healing  in  his 
wings  !  "* 

Many  there  were,  no  doubt,  who  had  lost  all  living  sense 
that  the  promises  were  made  to  righteoiisness  ;  who  took 
them  mechanically,  as  made  to  them  and  assured  to  them 
because  they  were  the  seed  of  Abraham,  because  they 
were,  in  St.  Paul's  words  :  '  Israelites,  to  whom  pertain  the 
adoption  and  the  glory  and  the  covenants  and  the  giving  of 
the  law  and  the  service  of  God,  and  whose  are  the  fathers.'^ 
These  people  were  perplexed  and  indignant  when  the  privi- 
leged seed  became  unprosperous  ;  and  they  looked  for  some 
great  change  to  be  wrought  in  the  fallen  fortunes  of  Israel, 
wrought  miraculously  and  materially.  And  these  were,  no 
doubt,  the  great  majority  ;  and  of  the  mass  of  Jewish  ex- 

'  Eccles.,  viii,  12,  13.  ^  Malachi,  ii,  17  ;  iii,  14. 

"  Prov.j  X,  25.  ^  Malachi,  iv,  2.  *  Rom..,  ix,  4,  5. 


54  LITERATURE  AND  DOGMA. 

pectation  concerning  the  future  they  stamped  the  character. 
With  them,  however,  our  interest  does  not  so  much  lie  ;  it 
lies  rather  with  the  prophets  and  those  whom  the  prophets 
represent.  It  lies  with  the  continued  depositaries  of  the 
original  revelation  to  Israel,  Righteousness  tendeth  to  life; 
who  saw  clearly  enough  that  the  promises  were  to  righteous- 
ness, and  that  what  tendeth  to  life  was  not  the  seed  of  Abra- 
ham taken  in  itself,  but  righteousness.  With  this  minority, 
and  with  its  noble  representatives  the  prophets,  our  present 
interest  lies  ;  the  further  development  of  their  conviction 
about  righteousness  is  what  it  here  imports  us  to  trace.  An 
indestructible  faith  that  the  righteous  is  an  everlasting  found- 
ation they  had ;  yet  they  too,  as  we  have  seen,  could  not 
but  notice,  as  time  went  on,  many  things  which  seemed 
apparently  to  contradict  this  their  belief  In  private  life, 
there  was  the  frequent  prosperity  of  the  sinner.  In  the  life 
of  nations,  there  was  the  rise  and  power  of  the  great  un- 
righteous kingdoms  of  the  heathen,  the  unsuccessfulness  of 
Israel ;  although  Israel  was  undoubtedly,  as  compared  with 
the  heathen,  the  depositary  and  upholder  of  the  idea  of 
righteousness.  Therefore  prophets  and  righteous  men  also, 
like  the  unspiritual  crowd,  could  not  but  look  ardently  and 
expectantly  to  the  future,  to  some  great  change  and  redress 
in  store. 

At  the  same  time,  although  their  experience  that  the 
righteous  were  often  afflicted,  and  the  wicked  often  pro- 
sperous, could  not  but  perplex  pious  Hebrews;  although 
their  conscience  felt,  and  could  not  but  feel,  that,  compared 
with  the  other  nations  with  whom  they  came  in  contact, 
they  themselves  and  their  fathers  had  a  concern  for  right- 
eousness, and  an  unremitting  sense  of  its  necessity,  which 
put  them  in  covenant  with  the  Eternal  who  makes  for  right- 
eousness, and  which  rendered  the  triumph  of  other  nations 
over  them  a  triumph  of  people  who  cared  little  for  righteous- 


ABERGLAUBE   INVADING.  55 

ness  over  people  who  cared  for  it  much,  and  a  cause  of  per- 
plexity, therefore,  to  men's  trust  in  the  Eternal, — though  their 
conscience  told  them  this,  yet  of  their  own  shortcomings 
and  perversities  it  told  themi  louder  still,  and  that  their  sins 
had  in  truth  been  enough  to  break  their  covenant  with  the 
Eternal  a  thousand  times  over,  and  to  bring  justly  upon  them 
all  the  miseries  which  they  suffered.  To  enable  them  to 
meet  the  terrible  day,  when  the  Eternal  would  avenge  him 
of  his  enemies  and  make  up  his  jewels,  they  themselves 
needed,  they  knew,  the  voice  of  a  second  Elijah,  a  change 
of  the  inner  man,  repentance} 


And  then,  with  Malachi's  testimony  on  its  lips  to  the 
truth  of  Israel's  ruling  idea,  Righteous ?tess  tendeth  to  life! 
died  prophecy.  Through  some  four  hundred  years  the 
mind  of  Israel  revolved  those  wonderful  utterances,  which, 
even  now,  on  the  ear  of  even  those  who  only  half  under- 
stand them  and  who  do  not  at  all  believe  them,  strike  with 
such  strange,  incomparable  power, — the  promises  of  pro- 
phecy. Through  four  hundred  years,  amid  distress  and 
humiliation,  the  Hebrew  race  pondered  those  magnificent 
assurances  that  ''the  Eternal's  arm  is  not  shortened^  that 
*  righteousness  shall  be  for  ever,'  ^  and  that  the  future  would 
prove  this,  even  if  the  present  did  not.  'The  Eternal 
fainteth  not,  neither  is  weary  ;  he  giveth  power  to  the  faint.^ 
They  that  wait  on  the  Eternal  shall  renew  their  strength  ; 
the  redeemed  of  the  Eternal  shall  return  and  come  with 
singing  to  Zion,  and  everlasting  joy  shall  be  upon  their 
head ;  they  shall  repair  the  old  wastes,  the  desolations  of 
many  generations ;  and  I,  the  Eternal,  will  make  an  ever- 
lasting covenant  with  them."*     The  Eternal  shall  be  thine 

*  Mai.,  iii,  17  ;  iv,  5.  ^  ig^^  jj^,  i ;  li,  8. 

■  Is.,  xl,  28,  29.  *  Is.,  xl,  31  ;  XXXV,  10;  Ixi,  4,  8. 


56  LITERATURE  AND  DOGMA. 

everlasting  light,  and  the  days  of  thy  mourning  shall  be 
ended ;  the  Gentiles  shall  come  to  thy  light,  and  kings  to 
the  brightness  of  thy  rising,  and  my  salvation  shall  be  for 
ever,  and  my  righteousness  shall  not  be  abolished.'  ^ 

The  prophets  themselves,  speaking  when  the  ruin  of 
their  country  was  impending,  or  soon  after  it  had  happened, 
had  for  the  most  part  had  in  prospect  the  actual  restoration 
of  Jerusalem,  the  submission  of  the  nations  around,  and 
the  empire  of  David  and  Solomon  renewed.  But  as  time 
went  on,  and  Israel's  return  from  captivity  and  resettlement 
of  Jerusalem  by  no  means  answered  his  glowing  anticipa- 
tions from  them,  these  anticipations  had  more  and  more  a 
construction  put  upon  them  which  set  at  defiance  the  un- 
worthiness  and  infelicities  of  the  actual  present,  which  filled 
up  what  prophecy  left  in  outline,  and  which  embraced  the 
world.  The  Hebrew  Amos,  of  the  eighth  century  before 
Christ,  promises  to  his  hearers  a  recovery  from  their  ruin  in 
which  they  shall  possess  the  revinaiit  of  Edom  ;  the  Greek  or 
Aramaic  Amos  of  the  Christian  era,  whose  words  St.  James 
produces  in  the  conference  at  Jerusalem,  promises  a  recovery 
for  Israel  in  which  the  res/di/e  of  men  shall  seek  the  Eternal? 
This  is  but  a  specimen  of  what  went  forward  on  a  large 
scale.  The  redeemer,  whom  the  unknown  prophet  of  the 
captivity  foretold  to  Zion,^  has,  a  few  hundred  years  later, 
for  the  writer  whom  we  call  Daniel  and  for  his  contempo- 
raries, become  the  miraculous  agent  of  Israel's  new  restora- 
tion, the  heaven-sent  executor  of  the  Eternal's  judgment, 
and  the  bringer-in  of  the  kingdom  of  righteousness, — the 
Messiah,  in  short,  of  our  popular  religion.  '  One  like  the 
Son  of  Man  came  with  the  clouds  of  heaven,  and  came  to 
the  Ancient  of  Days,  and  there  was  given  him  dominion 
and  glory,  and  a  kingdom,  that  all  people,  nations,  and 

^  Is,,  Ix,  20,  3  ;  li,  6.  ^  Am.,  ix,  I2  ;  Acts,  xv,  17. 

•''  Is.,  Hx,  20. 


ABERGLAUBE   INVADTNG.  57 

languages  should  serve  him ;  and  the  kingdom  and  dominion 
shall  be  given  to  the  people  of  the  saints  of  the  Most  High.' ' 
An  impartial  criticism  will  hardly  find  in  the  Old  Testament 
writers  before  the  times  of  the  Maccabees  (and  certainly  not 
in  the  passages  usually  quoted  to  prove  it)  the  set  doctrine 
of  the  immortality  of  the  soul  or  of  the  resurrection  of  the 
dead.  But  by  the  time  of  the  Maccabees,  when  this  passage 
of  the  Book  of  Daniel  was  \vritten,  in  the  second  century 
before  Christ,  the  Jews  have  undoubtedly  become  familiar, 
not  indeed  with  the  idea  of  the  immortality  of  the  soul  as 
philosophers  like  Plato  conceived  it,  but  with  the  notion 
of  a  resurrection  of  the  dead  to  take  their  trial  for  accep- 
tance or  rejection  in  the  Most  High's  judgment  and  kingdom. 

To  this,  then,  has  swelled  Israel's  original  and  fruitful 
thesis  : — Righteousness  tendeth  to  life !  as  the  whirhvind 
passeth,  so  is  the  wicked  710  7nore,  but  the  righteous  is  an 
everlasting  foundation  I  ^  The  phantasmagories  of  more 
prodigal  and  wild  imaginations  have  mingled  with  the 
product  of  Israel's  own  austere  spirit ;  Babylon,  Persia,  Egypt, 
even  Greece,  have  left  their  trace  there ;  but  the  unchangeable 
substructure  remains,  and  on  that  substructure  is  everything 
built  which  comes  after. 

In  one  sense,  the  lofty  Messianic  idea  of  *  the  great  and 
notable  day  of  the  Eternal,'  'the  consolation  of  Israel,'  'the 
restitution  of  all  things,'  ^  are  even  more  important  than  the 
solid  but  humbler  idea,  righteous7iess  tendeth  to  life,  out  of 
which  they  arose.  In  another  sense  they  are  much  less 
important.  They  are  more  important,  because  they  are  the 
development  of  this  idea  and  prove  its  strength.  It  might 
have  been  crushed  and  baffled  by  the  falsification  events 
seemed  to  delight  in  giving  it ;  that  instead  of  being  crushed 
and  baffled,  it  took  this  magnificent  flight,  shows  its  innate 

'  Dan.,  vii,  13,  14,  27.  *  Prov.,  xi,  19;  x,  25. 

3  Acts,  ii,  20  ;  Luke,  ii,  25  ;  Acts,  iii,  21. 


58  LITERATURE  AND  DOGMA. 

power.  And  they  also  in  a  wonderful  manner  attract 
emotion  to  the  ideas  of  conduct  and  morality,  attract  it  to 
them  and  combine  it  with  them.  On  the  other  hand,  the 
idea  that  righteousness  tendeth  to  life  has  a  firm,  experimental 
ground,  which  the  Messianic  ideas  have  not.  And  the  day 
comes  when  the  possession  of  such  a  ground  is  invaluable. 

That  the  spirit  of  man  should  entertain  hopes  and  anti- 
cipations, beyond  what  it  actually  knows  and  can  verify,  is 
quite  natural.  Human  Hfe  could  not  have  the  scope,  and 
depth,  and  progress  it  has,  were  this  otherwise.  It  is  natural, 
too,  to  make  these  hopes  and  anticipations  give  in  their  turn 
support  to  the  simple  and  humble  experience  which  was 
their  original  ground.  Israel,  therefore,  who  originally  fol- 
lowed righteousness  because  he  felt  that  it  tended  to  life, 
might  and  did  naturally  come  at  last  to  follow  it  because 
it  would  enable  him  to  stand  before  the  Son  of  Man  at  his 
coming,  and  to  share  in  the  triumph  of  the  saints  of  the 
Most  High. 

But  this  latter  belief  has  not  the  same  character  as  the 
belief  which  it  is  thus  set  to  confirm.  It  is  a  kind  of  fairy- 
tale, which  a  man  tells  himself,  which  no  one,  we  grant,  can 
prove  impossible  to  turn  out  true,  but  which  no  one  also 
can  prove  certain  to  turn  out  true.  It  is  exactly  what  is 
expressed  by  the  German  word  '  Aberglaube,'  exti-a-belief^ 
belief  beyond  what  is  certain  and  verifiable.  Our  word 
*  superstition '  had  by  its  derivation  this  same  meaning,  but 
it  has  come  to  be  used  in  a  merely  bad  sense,  and  to  mean 
a  childish  and  craven  religiosity.  With  the  German  word  it 
is  not  so  ;  therefore  Goethe  can  say  with  propriety  and  truth : 
^Aberglaube  is  the  poetry  of  life, — der  Aberglaube  ist  die 
Poesie  des  Lebens'  It  is  so.  Extra-belief  that  which  we 
hope,  augur,  imagine,  is  the  poetry  of  life,  and  has  the  rights 
of  poetry.  But  it  is  not  science  j  and  yet  it  tends  always  to 
imagine  itself  science,  to  substitute  itself  for  science,  to  make 


ABERGLAUBE   INVADING.  59 

itself  the  ground  of  the  very  science  out  of  which  it  has 
grown.  The  Messianic  ideas,  which  were  the  poetry  of  Hfe 
to  Israel  in  the  age  when  Jesus  Christ  came,  did  this  ;  and 
it  is  the  more  important  to  mark  that  they  did  it,  because 
similar  ideas  have  so  signally  done  the  same  thing  with 
popular  Christianity. 


6o  LITERATURE  ANV  DOGMA, 


CHAPTER  III. 

RELIGION   NEW-GIVEN. 

Jesus  Christ  ^Yas  undoubtedly  the  very  last  sort  of  Messiah 
that  the  Jews  expected.  Christian  theologians  say  con- 
fidently that  the  characters  of  humility,  obscureness,  and 
depression,  were  commonly  attributed  to  the  Jewish 
Messiah  j  and  even  Bishop  Butler,  in  general  the  most 
severely  exact  of  writers,  gives  countenance  to  this  error. 
What  is  true  is,  that  we  find  these  characters  attributed  to 
some  one  by  the  prophets  ;  that  we  attribute  them  to  Jesus 
Christ ;  that  Jesus  is  for  us  the  Messiah,  and  that  Jesus 
they  suit.  But  for  the  prophets  themselves,  and  for  the 
Jews  who  heard  and  read  them,  these  characters  of  lowli- 
ness and  depression  belonged  to  God's  chastened  servant, 
the  idealised  Israel.  When  Israel  had  been  purged  and 
renewed  by  these,  the  Messiah  was  to  appear ;  but  with 
glory  and  power  for  his  attributes,  not  humility  and  weak- 
ness. It  is  impossible  to  resist  acknowledging  this,  if  we 
read  the  Bible  to  find  from  it  what  really  those  who  wrote  it 
intended  to  think  and  say,  and  not  to  put  into  it  what  we 
wish  them  to  have  thought  and  said.  To  find  in  Jesus  the 
genuine  Jewish  Messiah,  or  to  find  in  him  the  Son  of  Man 
of  Daniel,  one  coming  with  the  clouds  of  heaven  and  having 
universal  dominion  given  him,  must  certainly,  to  a  Jew, 
have  been  extremely  difficult. 

Nevertheless,  there  is  undoubtedly  in  the  Old  Testa- 


•     RELIGION  NEW-GIVEN.  6i 

ment  the  germ  of  Christianity.  In  developing  this  germ 
lay  the  future  of  righteousness  itself,  of  Israel's  primary 
and  immortal  concern  ;  and  the  incomparable  greatness  of 
the  religion  founded  by  Jesus  Christ  comes  from  his  having 
developed  it.  Jesus  Christ  is  not  the  Messiah  to  whom  the 
hopes  of  his  nation  pointed  ;  and  yet  Christendom  with 
perfect  justice  has  made  him  the  Messiah,  because  he 
alone  took,  when  his  nation  was  on  another  and  a  false 
track,  a  way  obscurely  indicated  in  the  Old  Testament,  and 
the  one  only  possible  and  successful  way,  for  the  accom- 
phshment  of  the  Messiah's  function  : — to  bring  in  ever  las  tifig 
righteousness}     Let  us  see  how  this  was  so. 

Religion  in  the  Old  Testament  is  a  matter  of  national 
and  social  conduct  mainly.  First,  it  consists  in  devotion  to 
Israel's  God,  the  Eternal  who  loveth  righteousness,  and  of 
separation  from  other  nations  whose  concern  for  righteous- 
ness was  less  fervent  than  Israel's, — of  abhorrence  of  their 
idolatries  which  were  sure  to  bewilder  and  diminish  this  fer- 
vent concern.  Secondly,  it  consists  in  doing  justice,  hating 
all  wrong,  robbery,  and  oppression,  abstaining  from  insolence, 
lying,  and  slandering.  The  Jews'  polity,  their  theocracy, 
was  of  such  immense  importance,  because  religion,  when 
conceived  as  having  its  existence  in  these  national  and 
social  duties  mainly,  requires  a  polity  to  put  itself  forth  in  ; 
and  the  Jews'  polity  was  adapted  to  religion  so  conceived. 
But  this  religion,  as  it  developed  itself,  was  by  no  means 
fully  worthy  of  the  intuition  out  of  which  it  had  grown. 
We  have  seen  how,  in  its  intuition  of  God, — of  that  '  not 
ourselves  '  of  which  all  mankind  form  some  conception  or 
other, — as  the  Eternal  that  makes  for  rii^hteousness^  the 
Hebrew  race  found  the  revelation  needed  to  breathe  emo- 
tion into  the  laws  of  morality,  and  to  make  morality  religion. 
This  revelation  is  the  capital  fact  of  the  Old  Testament, 
'  Dan.,  ix,  24. 


62  LITERATURE  AND  DOGMA. 

and  the  source  of  its  grandeur  and  power.  But  it  is  evi- 
dent  that  this  revelation  lost,  as  time  went  on,  its  nearness 
and  clearness  ;  and  that  for  the  mass  of  the  Hebrews  their 
God  came  to  be  a  mere  magnified  and  non-natural  man, 
like  the  God  of  our  popular  religion  now,  who  has  com- 
manded certain  courses  of  conduct  and  attached  certain 
sanctions  to  them. 

And  though  prophets  and  righteous  men,  among  the 
Hebrews,  might  preserve  always  the  immediate  and  truer 
apprehension  of  their  God  as  the  Eternal  who  makes  for 
righteousness.,  they  in  vain  tried  to  communicate  this  appre- 
hension to  the  mass  of  their  countrymen.  They  had,  indeed, 
special  difficulty  to  contend  with  in  communicating  it ;  and 
the  difficulty  was  this.  Those  courses  of  conduct,  which 
Israel's  intuition  of  the  Eternal  had  originally  touched  with 
emotion  and  made  religion,  lay  chiefly,  we  have  seen,  in 
the  line  of  national  and  social  duties.  By  reason  of  the 
stage  of  their  own  growth  and  the  world's,  at  which  this 
revelation  found  the  Hebrews,  the  thing  could  not  well  be 
otherwise.  And  national  and  social  duties  are  peculiarly 
capable  of  a  mechanical  exterior  performance,  in  which  the 
heart  has  no  share.  One  may  observe  rites  and  ceremonies, 
hate  idolatry,  abstain  from  murder  and  theft  and  false 
witness,  and  yet  have  one's  inward  thoughts  bad,  callous, 
and  disordered.  Then  even  the  admitted  duties  themselves 
come  to  be  ill-discharged  or  set  at  nought,  because  the 
emotion  which  was  the  only  certain  security  for  their  good 
discharge  is  wanting.  The  very  power  of  religion,  as  we 
have  seen,  lies  in  its  bringing  emotion  to  bear  on  our  rules 
of  conduct,  and  thus  making  us  care  lor  them  so  much, 
consider  them  so  deeply  and  reverentially,  that  we  surmount 
the  great  practical  difficulty  of  acting  in  obedience  to  them, 
and  follow  them  heartily  and  easily.  Therefore  the  Israel- 
ites, when  they  lost  their  primary  intuition  and  the  deep 


RELIGION  NEW-GIVEN.  63 

feeling  which  went  with  it,  were  perpetually  idolatrous, 
perpetually  slack  or  niggardly  in  the  service  of  Jehovah, 
perpetually  violators  of  judgment  and  justice. 

The  prophets  earnestly  reminded  their  nation  of  the 
superiority  of  judgment  and  justice  to  any  exterior  ceremony 
like  sacrifice.  But  judgment  and  justice  themselves,  as 
Israel  in  general  conceived  them,  have  something  exterior 
in  them  ;  now,  what  was  wanted  was  more  i?iwardness^  more 
feeling.  This  was  given  by  adding  mercy  and  humbleness  to 
judgment  and  justice.  Mercy  and  humbleness  are  some- 
thing inward,  they  are  affections  of  the  heart.  And  even  in 
the  Proverbs  these  appear  :  '  The  mej'ciful  man  doeth  good 
to  his  own  soul  ;'  '  He  that  hath  mercy  on  the  poor,  happy 
is  he  ; '  '  Honour  shall  uphold  the  humble  in  spirit ; '  'When 
pride  cometh,  shame  cometh,  but  with  the  lowly  is  wisdom.'  * 
And  the  prophet  Micah  asked  his  nation  :  *  What  doth  the 
Eternal  require  of  thee,  but  to  do  justly,  and  to  love  mercy, 
and  to  walk  humbly  with  thy  God  ? ' — adding  mercy  and 
humility  to  the  old  judgment  and  justice.^  But  a  farther 
development  is  given  to  humbleness,  when  the  second 
Isaiah  adds  contrition  to  it  :  '  I '  (the  Eternal)  '  dwell  with 
him  that  is  of  a  cofifrite  and  humble  spirit ; '  ^  or  when  the 
Psalmist  says,  '  The  sacrifices  of  God  are  a  broken  spirit  \  a 
broken  and  a  contiite  hearty  O  God,  thou  wilt  not  despise ! '  * 

This  is  perso7ial  religion  ;  religion  consisting  in  the 
inward  feeling  and  disposition  of  the  individual  himself, 
rather  than  in  the  performance  of  outward  acts  towards 
religion  or  society.  It  is  the  essence  of  Christianity,  it  is 
what  the  Jews  needed,  it  is  the  line  in  which  their  religion 
was  ripe  for  development.  And  it  appeais  in  the  Old  Tes- 
tament. Still,  in  the  Old  Testament  it  by  no  means  comes 
out  fully.     The  leaning,  there,  is  to   make  religion  social 

'  Prov.^  xi,  17  ;  xiv,  21  ;  xxix,  23  ;  xi,  2.         ^  Micah,  vi,  8. 
»  Is.,  Ivii,  15.  ■»  Ps.  li,  17. 


64  LITERATURE  AND   DOGMA. 

rather  than  personal,  an  affair  of  outward  duties  rather  than 
of  inward  dispositions.  Soon  after  the  very  words  we  have 
just  quoted  from  him,  the  second  Isaiah  adds  :  '  If  thou  take 
away  from  the  midst  of  thee  the  yoke,  the  putting  forth  of 
the  finger  and  speaking  vanity,  and  if  thou  draw  out  thy 
soul  to  the  hungry,  and  satisfy  the  afflicted  soul,  then  shall 
thy  light  rise  in  obscurity  and  thy  darkness  be  as  the  noon- 
day, and  the  Eternal  shall  guide  thee  continually  and  make 
fat  thy  bones.'  ^  This  stands,  or  at  least  appears  to  stand, 
as  a  full  description  of  righteousness  ;  and  as  such,  it  is  un- 
satisfying. 

2. 

What  was  wanted,  then,  was  a  fuller  description  of 
righteousness.  Now,  it  is  clear  that  righteousness,  the 
central  object  of  Israel's  concern,  was  the  central  object  of 
Jesus  Christ's  concern  also.  Of  the  development  and  of  the 
cardinal  points  of  his  teaching  we  shall  have  to  speak  more 
at  length  by-and-by  ;  all  we  have  to  do  here  is  to  pass  them 
in  a  rapid  preliminary  revie^v.  Israel  had  said  :  *  To  him 
that  ordereth  his  conversation  right  shall  be  shown  the 
salvation  of  God.'  ^  And  Jesus  said  :  *  Except  your  right- 
eousness exceed  the  righteousness  of  the  Scribes  and  Phari- 
sees,'— that  is,  of  the  very  people  who  then  passed  for  caring 
most  about  righteousness  and  practising  it  most  rigidly, — 
*ye  shall  in  no  wise  enter  into  the  kingdom  of  heaven.'^ 
But  righteousness  had  by  Jesus  Christ's  time  lost,  in  great 
measure,  the  mighty  impulse  which  emotion  gives  ;  and  in 
losing  this,  had  lost  also  the  mighty  sanction  which  happi- 
ness gives.  *  The  whole  head  was  sick  and  the  whole  heart 
faint ;'  ^  the  glad  and  immediate  sense  of  being  in  the  right 
way,  in  the  way  of  peace,  was  gone ;  the  sense  of  being 

»  Is.,  Iviii,  9-1 1.  ""  Ps.  1,  23. 

»  Matth.,  V,  20.  *  Is.,  i,  5. 


RELIGION  NEW-GIVEN.  65 

wrong  and  astray,  of  sin,  and  of  helplessness  under  sin,  was 
oppressive.  The  thing  was,  by  giving  a  fuller  idea  of  right- 
eousness, to  re-apply  emotion  to  it,  and  by  thus  re-applying 
emotion,  to  disperse  the  feeling  of  being  amiss  and  helpless, 
to  give  the  sense  of  being  right  and  effective  ;  to  restore, 
in  short,  to  righteousness  the  sanction  of  happiness. 

But  this  could  only  be  done  by  attending  to  that  inward 
world  of  feelings  and  dispositions  which  Judaism  had  too 
much  neglected.  The  first  need,  therefore,  for  Israel  at 
that  time,  was  to  make  religion  cease  to  be  mainly  a  national 
and  social  matter,  and  become  mainly  a  personal  matter. 
*  Thou  blind  Pharisee,  cleanse  first  the  inside  of  the  cup, 
that  the  outside  may  be  clean  also  ! '  ^ — this  was  the  very 
ground-principle  in  Jesus  Christ's  teaching.  Instead  of 
attending  so  much  to  your  outward  acts,  attend,  he  said, 
first  of  all  to  your  inward  thoughts,  to  the  state  of  your 
heart  and  feelings.  This  doctrine  has  perhaps  been  over- 
strained and  misapplied  by  certain  people  since  ;  but  it 
was  the  lesson  which  at  that  time  was  above  all  needed.  It 
is  a  great  progress  beyond  even  that  advanced  maxim  of 
pious  Jews  :  *To  do  justice  and  judgment  is  more  accept- 
able than  sacrifice.'  ^  For  to  do  justice  and  judgment  is 
still,  as  we  have  remarked,  something  external,  and  may 
leave  the  feelings  untouched,  uncleared,  dead.  What  was 
wanted  was  to  plough  up,  clear,  and  quicken  the  feelings 
themselves.     And  this  is  what  Jesus  Christ  did. 

*  My  son,  give  me  thy  heart  T  says  the  teacher  of  right- 
eousness in  the  golden  age  of  Israel. ^  And  when  Israel 
had  the  Eternal  revealed  to  him,  and  founded  our  religion, 
he  gave  his  heart.  But  the  time  came  when  this  direct 
vision  ceased,  and  Israel's  religion  was  a  mere  affair  of 
tradition,  and  of  doctrines  and  rules  received  from  without. 
Then  it  might  be  truly  said  of  this  professed  servant  of  the 
'  Matth.,  xxiii,  26.  2  Py^v.,  xxi,  3.         ^  />;-^^.^  xxiii,  26. 

F 


/ 


66  LITERATURE  AND  DOGMA. 

Eternal :  *  This  people  honour  me  with  their  lips,  but 
have  removed  their  heart  far  from  me,  and  their  fear  toward 
me  is  taught  by  the  precept  of  men.'  ^  With  little  or  no 
power  of  distinguishing  between  what  was  rule  of  ceremonial 
and  what  was  rule  of  conduct,  they  followed  the  prescrip- 
tions of  their  religion  with  a  servile  and  sullen  mind,  '  pre- 
cept upon  precept,  line  upon  line,  here  a  little  and  there  a 
little,'  ^  and  no  end  to  it  all.  What  a  change  since  the  days 
when  it  wasy^_y  to  the  just  to  do  judgment !  ^  The  prophets 
saw  clearly  enough  the  evil,  nay,  they  could  even  point  to 
the  springs  which  must  be  touched  in  order  to  work  a  cure. 
But  they  could  not  press  these  springs  steadily  enough  or 
skilfully  enough  to  work  the  cure  themselves. 

Jesus  Christ's  new  and  different  way  of  putting  things 
was  the  secret  of  his  succeeding  where  the  prophets  failed. 
And  this  new  way  he  had  of  putting  things  is  what  is  in- 
dicated by  the  expression  epieikeia, — an  expression  best 
rendered,  as  I  have  elsewhere  said/  by  the  phrase  :  *  sweet 
reasonableness.'  For  that  which  is  epieikes  is  that  which 
has  an  air  of  truth  and  likelihood  :  and  that  which  has 
an  air  of  truth  and  likelihood  is  prepossessing.  Now, 
never  were  there  utterances  concerning  conduct  and  right- 
eousness.— Israel's  master-concern,  and  the  master-topic  of 
the  New  Testament  as  well  as  of  the  Old, — which  so  carried 
with  them  an  air  of  consummate  truth  and  likelihood  as 
Jesus  Christ's  did  ;  and  never,  therefore,  were  any  utterances 
so  irresistibly  prepossessing.  He  put  things  in  such  a  way 
that  his  hearer  was  led  to  take  each  rule  or  fact  of  conduct 
by  its  inward  side,  its  effect  on  the  heart  and  character ; 
then  the  reason  of  the  thing,  the  meaning  of  what  had  been 
mere  matter  of  blind  rule,  flashed  upon  him.  The  hearer 
could   distinguish  between  what  was  only  ceremony,  and 

'  Is.,  xxix,  13.  -  Is.,  xxviii,  13.  ^  Prov.^  xxi,  15. 

*  St.  Paid  and  Protestantism,  preface,  p.  xix. 


RELIGION  NEW-GIVEN.  67 

what  was  co7iduct ;  and  the  hardest  rule  of  conduct  came  to 
appear  to  him  infinitely  reasonable  and  natural,  and  there- 
fore infinitely  prepossessing.  A  return  upon  themselves, 
and  a  consequent  intuition  of  the  truth  and  reason  of  the 
matter  of  conduct  in  question,  gave  to  men  for  right  action 
the  clearness,  spirit,  energy,  happiness,  they  had  lost. 

This  power  of  returning  upon  themselves,  and  seeing  by 
a  flash  the  truth  and  reason  of  things,  his  disciples  learnt  of 
Jesus.  They  learnt  too,  from  observing  him  and  his  ex- 
ample, much  which,  without  perhaps  any  conscious  process 
of  being  apprehended  in  its  reason,  was  discerned  instinct- 
ively to  be  true  and  life-giving  as  soon  as  it  was  recom- 
mended in  Christ's  words  and  illustrated  by  Christ's  example. 
Two  lessons  in  particular  they  learnt  in  this  way,  and  added 
them  to  the  great  lesson  of  self-examination  and  appeal  to 
the  inner  man,  with  which  they  started.  '■Whoever  ivill  come 
after  me.,  let  him  re?ioimce  himself  and  take  up  his  avss  daily 
afid follow  me  !  he  that  will  save  his  life  shall  lose  it.,  he  that 
will  lose  his  life  shall  save  it.''  ^  This  was  one  of  the  two. 
*  Learn  of  me  that  I  am  mild  and  lowly  in  heart.,  and  ye  shall 
find  rest  unto  your  souls  !'^  was  the  other.  Jesus  made  his 
followers  first  look  within  and  examine  themselves  ;  he  made 
them  feel  that  they  had  a  best  and  real  self  as  opposed  to  their 
ordinary  and  apparent  one,  and  that  their  happiness  depended 
on  saving  this  best  self  from  being  overborne.  Then  to  find 
his  own  soiil^  his  true  and  permanent  self,  became  set  up  in 
man's  view  as  his  chief  concern,  as  the  secret  of  happiness  ; 
and  so  it  really  is.  '  How  is  a  man  advantaged  if  he  gain 
the  whole  world  and  forfeit  himself} '  ^  —  was  the  searching 
question  which  Jesus  made  men  ask  themselves.  And 
by  recommending,  and  still  more  by  himself  exemplify- 
ing in  his   own   practice,   by   showing   active   in    himself, 

»  Luke,  IX,  23,  24.  -  Matth.,  xi,'29. 

3  Matth.,  xvi,  25.  ■•  Luke,  ix,  25, 

Fa 


68  LITERATURE  AND  DOGMA. 

with  the  most  prepossessing  pureness,  clearness,  and  beauty, 
the  two  quaUties  by  which  our  ordinary  self  is  indeed  most 
essentially  counteracted,  self-renouncemait  and  mildness^ 
he  made  his  followers  feel  that  in  these  qualities  lay  the 
secret  of  their  best  self;  that  to  attain  them  was  in  the 
highest  degree  requisite  and  natural,  and  that  a  man's  whole 
happiness  depended  upon  it. 

Self-examination,  self-renouncement,  and  mildness,  were, 
therefore,  the  great  means  by  which  Jesus  Christ  renewed 
righteousness  and  religion.  All  these  means  are  indicated 
in  the  Old  Testament :  God  7'equireth  truth  in  the  inward 
pa7'ts!  Not  doing  thine  own  ways,  nor  finding  thine  own 
pleasure!  Seek  meekness /  ^  But  how  far  more  strongly  are 
they  forced  upon  the  attention  in  the  New  Testament,  and 
set  up  clearly  as  the  central  mark  for  our  endeavours  ! 
Thou  blind  Pharisee,  cleanse  first  the  inside  of  the  cup  that  the 
outside  may  be  clean  also  P  Whoever  will  come  after  me,  let 
him  renounce  himself  and  take  up  his  cross  daily  and  follow 
me  I  ^  Learn  of  me  that  L  am  mild  and  lowly  in  heart,  and 
ye  shall  Und  rest  unto  your  souls  f^  So  that,  although 
personal  religion  is  clearly  recommended  in  the  Old  Testa- 
ment, nevertheless  these  injunctions  of  the  New  Testament 
effect  so  much  more  for  the  extrication  and  establishment 
of  personal  religion  than  the  general  exhortations  in  the  Old 
to  offer  the  sacrifice  of  righteousness,  to  do  judgjnent,^  that, 
comparatively  with  the  Old,  the  New  Testament  may  be 
said  to  have  really  founded  inward  and  personal  religion. 
While  the  Old  Testament  says  :  Attend  to  conduct!  the  New 
Testament  says  :  Attend  to  the  feelings  and  dispositiofis  whence 
conduct  p7'oceeds !  And  as  attending  to  conduct  had  very 
much  degenerated  into  deadness  and  formality,  attending  to 

1  Ps.  li,  6  ;  Is.,  Iviii,  13;  Zephaniah,  ii,  3. 

2  J^Iatth.,  xxiii,  26.  ^  Luke,  ix,  23. 

*  Matih.,  xi,  29.  *  Ps.  iv,  5  ;  Is.,  Ivi,  i. 


RELIGION  NEW-GIVEN,  69 

the  springs  of  conduct  v/as  a  revelation,  a  revival  of  intuitive 
and  fresh  perceptions,  a  touching  of  morals  with  emotion,  a 
discovering  of  religion,  similar  to  that  which  had  been  effected 
when  Israel,  struck  with  the  abiding  power  not  of  man's 
causing  which  makes  for  righteousness,  and  filled  with  joy 
and  awe  by  it,  had  in  the  old  days  named  God  the  Eternal. 
Man  cam.e  under  a  new  dispensation,  and  made  with  God  a 
second  covenant. 

3- 

To  rivet  the  attention  on  the  indications  of  personal 
religion  furnished  by  the  Old  Testament ;  to  take  the  humble, 
inward,  and  suffering  '  servant  of  God '  of  the  prophets,  and 
to  elevate  this  as  the  Messiah,  the  seed  of  Abraham  and  of 
David,  in  whom  all  nations  should  be  blessed,  whose  throne 
should  be  as  the  days  of  heaven,  who  should  redeem  his 
people  and  restore  the  kingdom  to  Israel, — was  a  work  of 
the  highest  originality.  It  cannot,  as  we  have  seen,  be  said, 
that  by  the  suffering  servant  of  God,  and  by  the  triumphant 
Messiah,  the  prophets  themselves  meant  one  and  the  same 
person.  But  language  of  hope  and  aspiration,  such  as  theirs, 
is  in  its  very  nature  malleable.  Criticism  may  and  must  deter- 
mine what  the  original  speakers  seem  to  have  directly  meant. 
But  the  very  nature  of  their  language  justifies  any  powerful 
and  fruitful  application  of  it ;  and  every  such  application 
may  be  said,  in  the  words  of  popular  religion,  to  have  been 
lodged  there  from  the  first  by  the  spirit  of  God.  Certainly 
it  was  a  somewhat  violent  exegetical  proceeding,  to  fuse 
together  into  one  personage  Daniel's  Son  of  Man  coming 
with  the  clouds  of  heaven,  the  first  Isaiah's  '  Branch  out  of 
the  root  of  Jesse,'  who  should  smite  the  earth  with  the  rod 
of  his  mouth  and  reign  in  glory  and  peace  and  righteousness, 
and  the  second  Isaiah's  meek  and  afflicted  Servant  of  God 
charged  with  the  precious  message  of  a  golden  future ; — 


70  LITERATURE  AND  DOGMA. 

to  fuse  together  in  one  these  three  by  no  means  identical 
personages ;  to  add  to  them  the  sacrificial  lamb  of  the  pass- 
over  and  of  the  temple-service,  which  was  constantly  before 
a  Jew's  eyes  ;  to  add,  besides,  the  Prophet  like  to  himself 
whom  Moses  promised  to  the  children  of  Israel ;  to  add, 
further,  the  Holy  One  of  Israel  and  Redeemer,  who  for  the 
prophets  was  the  Eternal  himself;  and  then  to  say,  that  the 
combination  thence  resulting  was  the  Messiah  or  Christ 
whom  all  the  prophets  had  meant  and  predicted,  and  that 
Jesus  was  this  Messiah.  To  us,  who  have  been  formed  and 
fashioned  by  a  theology  whose  set  purpose  is  to  efface  all  the 
difficulties  in  such  a  combination,  and  to  make  it  received 
easily  and  unhesitatingly,  it  may  appear  natural.  In  itself, 
and  with  the  elements  of  which  it  is  composed  viewed 
singly  and  impartially,  it  cannot  but  be  pronounced  violent. 
But  the  elements  in  question  have  their  chief  use  and 
value,  we  repeat,  not  as  objects  of  criticism  ;  they  belong 
of  right  to  whoever  can  best  possess  himself  of  them  for 
practice  and  edification.  Simply  of  the  Son  of  Man  coming 
in  the  clouds,  of  the  Branch  of  Jesse  smiting  the  earth  with 
the  rod  of  his  mouth,  slaying  the  wicked  with  his  breath, 
and  re-establishing  in  unexampled  splendour  David's  king- 
dom, nothing  could  be  made.  With  such  a  Messiah  filling 
men's  thoughts  and  hopes,  the  real  defects  of  Israel  still 
remained,  because  these  chiefly  proceeded  from  Israel's 
making  his  religion  too  much  a  national  and  social  affair, 
too  little  a  personal  affair.  But  a  Messiah  who  did  not  strive 
nor  cry,  who  was  oppressed  and  afflicted  without  opening  his 
mouth,  who  worked  inwardly,  obscurely,  and  patiently,  yet 
failed  not  nor  was  discouraged  until  his  doctrine  made  its 
way  and  transformed  the  world, — this  was  the  Messiah  whom 
Israel  needed,  and  in  whom  the  lost  greatness  of  Israel  could 
be  restored  and  culminate.  For  the  true  greatness  of  Israel 
was  righteousness ;  and  only  by  an  inward  personal  religion 


RELIGION  NEW-GIVEN.  71 

could  the  sense  revive  of  what  righteousness  really  was, — 
revive  in  Israel  and  bear  fruit  for  the  w^orld. 

Instead,  then,  of  '  the  Root  of  Jesse  who  should  set  up 
an  ensign  for  the  nations  and  assemble  the  outcasts  of  Israel,'^ 
Jesus  Christ  took  from  prophecy  and  made  pre-eminent  '  the 
Servant  whom  man  despiseth  and  the  people  abhorreth/  but 
*  who  bringeth  good  tidings,  who  publisheth  peace,  publisheth 
salvation.'  ^  And  instead  of  saying  like  the  prophets  :  '  This 
people  must  mend,  this  iiation  must  do  so  and  so,  Israel  must 
follow  such  and  such  ways,'  Jesus  took  the  individual  Israelite 
by  himself  apart,  made  him  listen  for  the  voice  of  his  con- 
science, and  said  to  him  in  effect :  '  If  every  07te  would  mend 
o?te,  w^e  should  have  a  new  w^orld.'  So  vital  for  the  Jews 
was  this  change  of  character  in  their  religion,  that  the  Old 
Testament  abounds,  as  we  have  said,  in  pointings  and 
approximations  to  it  ',  and  most  truly  might  Jesus  Christ  say 
to  his  followers,  that  many  prophets  and  righteous  men  had 
desired,  though  unavailingly,  to  see  the  things  which  they, 
the  disciples,  saw  and  heard. ^ 

The  desire  felt  by  pious  Israelites  for  some  new  aspect 
of  religion  such  as  Jesus  Christ  presented,  is,  undoubtedly, 
the  best  proof  of  its  timeliness  and  salutariness.  Perhaps 
New  Testament  evidence  to  prove  the  workings  of  this 
desire  may  be  received  with  suspicion,  as  havin.2"  arisen  after 
the  event  and  when  the  new  ideal  of  the  Christ  had  become 
established.  Otherwise,  John  the  Baptist's  characterisation 
of  the  Messiah  as  '  the  Lamb  of  God  that  taketh  away  the 
sins  of  the  world,'  ^  and  the  bold  Messianic  turn  given  in 
the  twelfth  chapter  of  St.  Matthew  to  the  prophecy  there 
quoted  from  the  forty-second  chapter  of  Isaiah,  would  be 
evidence  of  the  highest  importance.  'A  bruised  reed 
breaketh  he  not,'   says   Isaiah  of  the  meek  servant  and 

1  Is.,  xi,  10,  12  2  is^^  xlix,  7  ;  lii,    7. 

'  Matth.,  xiii,  17.  *  John,  i,  29. 


72  LITERATURE  AND  DOGMA. 

messenger  of  God,  'and  a  glimmering  wick  quencheth  he 
not  ;  he  declareth  judgment  with  truth  ;  far  lands  wait  for 
his  doctrine.'  ^  *  A  bruised  reed  shall  he  not  break/  runs  the 
passage  in  St.  Matthew,  '  and  smoking  flax  shall  he  not 
quench,  until  lie  send  forth  judgment  nnto  victory  :  in  his 
name  shall  the  Gentiles  trust'  ^  The  words,  luitil  he  send 
forth  judgment  unto  victory^  words  giving  a  clear  Messianic 
stamp  to  the  personage  described,  are  neither  in  the  original 
Plebrew  nor  in  the  Greek  of  the  Septuagint.  Where  did 
the  Gospel- writer  find  them  ?  If,  as  is  possible,  they  were 
in  some  version  then  extant,  they  prove  in  a  striking  way 
the  existence  and  strength  of  the  aspiration  which  Jesus 
Christ  satisfied  by  transforming  the  old  popular  ideal  of  the 
Messiah.  But  there  are  in  any  case  signs  of  the  existence 
of  such  an  aspiration,  since  a  Jewish  commentator,  con- 
temporary, probably,  with  the  Christian  era,  but  not  himself 
a  Christian,  assigns  to  this  very  prophecy  a  Messianic  inten- 
tion. And,  indeed,  the  rendering  of  the  final  words,  in  his 
name  shall  the  Gentiles  trust,^  which  is  in  the  Greek  of  the 
Septuagint  as  well  as  in  that  of  St.  Matthew,  shows  a  similar 
leaning  in  the  Jews  of  Alexandria  some  two  centuries  before 
Christ. 

Signs  there  are  then,  without  doubt,  of  others,  besides 
Jesus  Christ,  trying  to  identify  the  IMessiah  of  popular  Jewish 
hope,— the  triumphant  Root  of  David,  the  mystic  Son  of  Man, 
— with  an  ideal  of  meekness,  inwardness,  patience,  and  self- 
denial.  And  well  might  reformers  try  to  eft'ect  this  identifi- 
cation, for  the  true  line  of  Israel's  progress  lay  through  it ! 
But  not  he  who  tries  makes  an  epoch,  but  he  who  effects ; 

'  Is.,  xlii,  3,  4.  2  Matth.,  xii,  20,  21. 

3  These  words  are  imported  from  an  undoubtedly  Messianic  passage, 
the  famous  prediction  of  the  *rod  out  of  the  stem  of  Jesse'  in  the 
eleventh  chapter  of  Isaiah.  Compare,  in  the  Septuagint,  Is.,  xi,  10, 
•vith  Is.,  xlii,  4. 


RELIGION  NEW-GIVEN.  73 

and  the  identification  which  was  needed  Jesus  Christ  cffcckd. 
Henceforth  the  true  IsraeUte  w^as,  undoubtedly,  he  who 
alhed  himself  with  this  identification  ;  w^ho  perceived  its  in- 
comparable fruitfulness,  its  continuance  of  the  real  tradition 
of  Israel,  its  correspondence  w^ith  the  ruling  idea  of  the 
Hebrew  spirit  :  Through  righteousness  to  happiness  !  or,  in 
Bible-words  :  To  hint  that  ordereth  his  conversation  right 
shall  be  shoivn  the  salvation  of  God!  ^  That  the  Jewish 
nation  at  large,  and  its  rulers,  refused  to  accept  the  identifica- 
tion, shows  simply  that  want  of  power  to  penetrate  through 
wraps  and  appearances  to  the  essence  of  things,  which  the 
majority  of  mankind  always  display.  The  national  and 
social  character  of  their  theocracy  was  everything  to  the 
Jews,  and  they  could  see  no  blessings  in  a  revolution  which 
annulled  it. 

It  has  often  been  remarked  that  the  Puritans  are  like  the 
Jews  of  the  Old  Testament  ;  and  J\Ir.  Froude  thinks  he 
defends  the  Puritans  by  saying  that  they,  like  the  Jews  of 
the  Old  Testament,  had  their  hearts  set  on  a  theocracy, 
on  a  fashioning  of  politics  and  society  to  suit  the  govern- 
ment of  God.  How  strange  that  he  does  not  perceive  that 
he  thus  passes,  and  with  justice,  the  gravest  condemnation 
on  the  Puritans  as  followers  of  Jesus  Christ  !  At  the 
Christian  era  the  time  had  passed,  in  religion,  for  outward 
adaptations  of  this  kind,  and  for  all  care  about  establishing 
or  abolishing  them.  The  time  had  come  for  inwardness  and 
self-reconstruction, — a  time  to  last  till  the  self-reconstruction 
is  fully  achieved.  It  was  the  error  of  the  Jews  that  they  did 
not  perceive  this  :  and  the  old  error  of  the  Jews  the  Puri- 
tans, without  the  Jews'  excuse,  faithfully  repeated.  And  the 
blunder  of  both  had  the  same  cause, — a  want  of  tact  to  per- 
ceive what  is  really  most  wanted  for  the  attainment  of  their 
own  professed  ideal,  the  reign  of  righteousness, 
'  Ps,  1,  23. 


74  LITERATURE  AND  DOGMA. 

When  Jesus  appeared,  his  disciples  were  those  who  did 
not  make  this  blunder.  They  were,  in  general,  simple 
souls,  without  pretensions  which  Jesus  Christ's  new  religious 
ideal  cut  short,  or  self-consequence  which  it  mortified. 
And  any  Israelite  who  was,  on  the  one  hand,  not  warped 
by  personal  pretensions  and  self-consequence,  and  on  the 
other,  not  dull  of  feeUng  and  gross  of  life  like  the  common 
multitude,  might  well  be  open  to  the  spell  which,  after  all, 
was  the  great  confirmation  of  Christ's  religion,  as  it  was  the 
great  confirmation  of  the  original  religion  of  Israel, — the 
spell  of  its  happiness.  *  Be  glad^  O  ye  righteous,  and  rejoice 
in  the  Eternal,' — the  old  and  lost  prerogative  of  Israel, — 
Christianity  offered  to  make  again  a  living  and  true  word  to 
him.^ 

4. 

For  we  have  already  remarked  how  it  is  the  great 
achievement  of  the  Israel  of  the  Old  Testament,  happiness 
being  mankind's  confessed  end  and  aim,  to  have  more  than 
anyone  else  felt,  and  more  than  anyone  else  succeeded  in 
making  others  feel,  that  to  righteousness  belongs  happiness. 
Now,  it  will  be  denied  by  no  one  that  Jesus,  in  his  turn, 
was  eminently  characterised  by  professing  to  bring,  and  by 
being  felt  to  bring,  happiness.  All  the  words  that  belong  to 
his  mission, — gospel^  kingdom  of  God,  saviour,  grace,  peace, 
living  water,  bread  of  life, — are  brimful  of  promise  and  of 
joy.  'I  am  come,'  he  said,  *that  ye  might  have  life,  and 
that  ye  might  have  it  more  abundantly  ; '  '  Come  to  me,  and 
ye  shall  find  rest  unto  your  souls ; '  'I  speak,  that  my 
disciples  may  have  my  joy  fulfilled  in  themselves.'  - 

You  can  see,  says  Jesus  to  his  followers,  you  can  see  the 
leading  religionists  of  the  Jewish  nation,  with  the  current 

*  Fs.  xxxii,  II  ;  xcvii,  12. 

^  John,  X,  10  J  Matth.,  xi,  28,  29  :  John,  xvii,  13. 


RELIGION  NEW-GIVEN,  75 

notions  about  righteousness,  God's  will,  and  the  meaning  of 
prophecy,  you  can  see  them  saying  and  not  doing,  full  of 
fierce  temper,  pride,  and  sensuality ; — this  shows  they  can 
be  but  bHnd  guides  for  you.  The  saviour  of  Israel  is  he 
who  makes  Israel  use  his  conscience  simply  and  sincerely, 
who  makes  him  change  and  sweeten  his  temper,  conquer 
and  annul  his  sensuahty.  Such  a  saviour  will  make  unhappy 
Israel  happy  again.  The  prophets  all  point  to  such  a 
saviour,  and  he  is  the  Messiah,  and  the  promised  happiness 
to  Israel  is  in  him  and  in  his  reign.  He  is,  in  the  exalted 
language  of  prophecy,  the  holy  one  of  God,  the  son  of  God, 
the  belov^ed  of  God,  the  chosen  of  God,  the  anointed  of 
God,  the  son  of  man  in  an  eminent  and  unique  sense,  the 
Messiah  and  Christ.  In  plainer  language,  he  is  'a  man 
who  tells  you  the  truth  which  he  has  heard  of  God  ; '  who 
came  not  of  himself  and  speaks  not  of  himself,  but  who 

*  came  forth  from  God,' — from  the  original  God  of  Israel's 
worship,  the  God  of  righteousness  and  of  happiness  joined 
to  righteousness, — '  and  is  come  to  you.'  ^  Israel  is  per- 
petually talking  of  God  and  calling  him  his  Father ;  and 

*  everyone,'  says  Jesus  Christ,  'who  hears  the  Father,  comes 
to  me,  for  I  know  Him,  and  know  His  will,  and  utter  His 
word.'  2  God's  will  and  word,  in  the  Old  Testament,  was 
righteotiS7iess.  In  the  New  Testament,  it  is  righteousness 
explained  to  have  its  essence  in  inwardness,  mildness,  and 
self -renouncement.  This  is,  in  substance,  the  word  of  Jesus 
which  he  who  hears  '  shall  never  see  death  ; '  of  which  he 
who  follows  it  '■  shall  know  by  experience  whether  it  be  of 
God.'^ 

But  as  the  Israel  of  the  Old  Testament  did  not  say  or 
feel  that  he  followed  righteousness  by  his  own  power,  or  out 
of  self-interest  and  self-love,  but  said  and  felt  that  he  fol- 

'  John,  viii,  40,  42  ;  xvi,  27,  28.         2  John,  vi,  45  ;  viii,  29,  16. 
^  John,  viii,  51  ;  vii,  17. 


;6  LITERATURE    AND  DOGMA, 

lowed  it  in  thankful  self-surrender  to  *  tJie  Eieriial  who 
loveth  righteousness,'  and  that  '  the  Eternal  ordei-eth  a  good 
man's  going  and  malzeth  his  ivay  acceptable  to  Himself',  ^— 
so,  in  the  restoration  effected  by  Jesus,  the  motive  which  is 
of  force  is  not  the  moral  motive  that  imvardness,  mildness, 
and  self-renouncement  make  for  man's  happiness,  but  a  far 
stronger  motive,  full  of  ardent  affection  and  gratitude,  and 
which,  though  it  really  has  its  ground  and  confirmation  in 
the  fact  that  inwardness,  mildness,  and  self-renouncement 
do  make  for  man's  happiness,  yet  keeps  no  consciousness  of 
this  as  its  ground.  For  it  acquired  a  far  surer  ground  in 
personal  devotion  to  Jesus  Christ,  who  brought  the  doctrine 
to  his  disciples  and  made  a  passage  for  it  into  their  hearts  ; 
in  believing  that  he  was  indeed  the  Christ  come  from  God  ; 
in  following  him,  loving  him.  And  in  the  happiness  which 
thus  believing  in  Jesus  Christ,  following  him,  and  loving 
him,  gives,  it  found  the  mightiest  of  sanctions. 

And  thus  was  the  great  doctrine  of  the  Old  Testament  : 
To  righteousness  belongs  happiness  I  made  a  true  and  potent 
word  again.  Jesus  Christ  was  the  Messiah  to  restore  the  all 
things  of  Israel,-— righteousness,  and  happiness  with  right- 
eousness ;  to  bring  light  and  recovery  after  long  days  of 
darkness  and  ruin,  and  to  make  good  the  belief  written  on 
Israel's  heart  :  The  righteous  is  an  everlasting  foundation  !  ^ 
But  we  have  seen  how  in  the  hopes  of  the  nation  and  in 
the  promises  of  prophecy  this  true  and  vital  belief  of  Israel 
was  mixed  with  a  quantity  of  what  we  have  called  Abcrglaube 
or  extra-belief,  adding  all  manner  of  shape  and  circumstance 
to  the  original  thought.     The  kingdom  of  David  and  Solo- 

»  Ps.  xi,  7  ;  xxxvii,  23.  -  Matth.,  xvii,  II  ;  Ads,  iii,  21. 

3  Prov..^  X,  25. 


RELIGION  NEW-GIVEN,  yj 

nion  was  to  be  restored  on  a  grander  scale,  the  enemies  of 
Israel  were  to  lick  the  dust,  kings  were  to  bring  gifts  ;  there 
A'as  to  be  the  Son  of  Man  coming  in  the  clouds,  judgment 
given  to  the  saints  of  the  Most  High,  and  an  eternal  reign 
of  the  saints  afterwards. 

Now,  most  of  this  has  a  poetical  value,  some  of  it  has  a 
moral  value.  All  of  it  is,  in  truth,  a  testimony  to  the 
strength  of  Israel's  idea  of  righteousness.  For  the  order  of 
its  growth  is,  as  we  have  seen,  this  :  '  To  righteousness  belo7igs 
happiness  :  but  this  sure  rule  is  often  broken  in  the  state  of 
things  which  now  is  ;  there  must,  therefore,  be  in  store  for 
us,  in  the  future,  a  state  of  things  where  it  will  hold  good.' 
But  none  of  it  has  a  scientific  value,  a  certitude  arising  from 
proof  and  experience.  And  indeed  it  cannot  have  this,  for 
it  professes  to  be  an  anticipation  of  a  state  of  things  not 
yet  actually  experienced. 

But  human  nature  is  such,  that  the  mind  easily  dwells  on 
an  anticipation  of  this  kind  until  we  come  to  forget  the  order 
in  which  it  arose,  place  it  first  when  it  is  by  rights  second, 
and  make  it  support  that  by  which  it  is  in  truth  supported. 
And  so  there  had  come  to  be  many  Israelites, — most  likely 
they  were  the  great  majority  of  their  nation, — who  supposed 
that  righteousness  was  to  be  followed,  not  out  of  thankful 
self-surrender  to  '  the  Eternal  who  loveth  righteousness,'  * 
but  because  the  Ancient  of  Days  was  to  sit  before  long,  and 
judgment  was  to  be  given  to  the  saints,  and  they  were  to 
possess  the  kingdom,  and  from  the  kingdom  those  who  did 
not  follow  righteousness  were  to  be  excluded.  From  this 
way  of  conceiving  religion  came  naturally  the  religious  con- 
dition of  the  Jews  as  Jesus  at  his  coming  found  it ;  and 
from  which,  by  his  new  and  living  way  of  presenting  the 
Messiah,  he  sought  to  extricate  the  whole  nation,  and  eiid 
extricate  his  disciples.  He  did  extricate  these,  in  that  he 
'  Fs.  xi,  7. 


78  LITERATURE  AND  DOGMA. 

fixed  their  thoughts  upon  himself  and  upon  an  ideal  of  in 
wardness,  mildness,  and  self-renouncement,  instead  of  a 
phantasmagory  of  outward  grandeur  and  self-assertion.  But 
at  the  same  time  the  whole  train  of  an  extra-belief,  or 
Aberglatibe,  which  had  attached  itself  to  Israel's  old  creed  : 
The  righteous  is  an  everlasting  foundation  !  transferred  itself 
to  the  new  creed  brought  by  Jesus.  And  there  arose,  ac- 
cordingly, a  new  A berglaude  like  the  old.  The  mild,  inward, 
self-renouncing  and  sacrificed  Servant  of  the  Eternal,  the 
new  and  better  Messiah,  was  yet,  before  the  present  genera- 
tion passed,  to  come  on  the  clouds  of  heaven  in  power  and 
glory  like  the  Messiah  of  Daniel,  to  gather  by  trumpet-call 
his  elect  from  the  four  winds,  and  to  set  his  apostles  on  twelve 
thrones  judging  the  twelve  tribes  of  Israel.  The  motive  of 
Christianity, — which  was,  in  truth,  that  pure  souls  '  knew  the 
voice '  ^  of  Jesus  as  sheep  know  the  voice  of  their  shepherd, 
and  felt,  after  seeing  and  hearing  him,  that  his  doctrine  and 
ideal  was  what  they  wanted,  that  he  was  '  indeed  the  saviour 
of  the  world,'  ^ — this  simple  motive  became  a  mixed  motive, 
adding  to  its  first  contents  a  vast  extra-belief  of  a  phantas- 
magorical  advent  of  Jesus  Christ,  a  resurrection  and  judg- 
ment, Christ's  adherents  glorified,  his  rejectors  punished 
everlastingly. 

And  when  the  generation,  for  Avhich  this  advent  was 
first  fixed,  had  passed  away  without  it.  Christians  discovered 
by  a  process  of  criticism  common  enough  in  popular  theo- 
logy, but  by  which,  as  Bishop  Butler  says  of  a  like  kind  of 
process,  '  anything  may  be  made  out  of  anything,' — they 
discovered  that  the  advent  had  never  really  been  fixed  for 
that  first  generation  by  the  writers  of  the  New  Testament, 
but  that  it  was  foretold,  and  certainly  in  store,  for  a  later 
time.  So  the  Aberglaube  was  perpetuated,  placed  out  of 
reach  of  all  practical  test,  and  made  stronger  than  ever. 
'  John,  X,  4.  "^  John,  iv,  42. 


RELIGION  NEW-GIVEN.  70 

With  the  multitude,  this  Aherglauhe^  or  extra-belief,  inevitably 
came  soon  to  surpass  the  original  conviction  itself  in  attrac- 
tiveness and  seeming  certitude.  The  future  and  the  miracu- 
lous engaged  the  chief  attention  of  Christians  ;  and,  in 
accordance  with  this  strain  of  thought,  they  more  and  more 
rested  the  proof  of  Christianity,  not  on  its  internal  evidence, 
but  on  prophecy  and  miracle. 


So  LITERATURE  AND  DOGMA. 


CHAPTER   IV. 

THE   PROOF    FROM    PROPHECY. 

*  AsERGLA  VBE  is  the  poetry  of  life.'  That  men  should,  by 
help  of  their  imagination,  take  short  cuts  to  what  they 
ardently  desire,  whether  the  triumph  of  Israel  'or  the 
triumph  of  Christianity,  should  tell  themselves  fairy-tales 
about  it,  should  make  these  fairy-tales  the  basis  for  what 
is  far  more  sure  and  solid  than  the  fairy-tales,  the  desire 
itself, — all  this  has  in  it,  we  repeat,  nothing  which  is  not 
natural,  nothing  blameable.  Nay,  the  region  of  our  hopes 
and  presentiments  extends,  as  we  have  also  said,  far  be- 
yond the  region  of  what  we  can  know  with  certainty.  Vvliat 
we  reach  but  by  hope  and  presentiment  may  yet  be  true  ; 
and  he  would  be  a  narrow  reasoner  who  denied,  for  in- 
stance, all  validity  to  the  idea  of  immortality,  because  this 
idea  rests  on  presentiment  mainly,  and  does  not  admit  of 
certain  demonstration.  In  religion,  above  all,  extra-belief 
is  in  itself  no  matter,  assuredly,  for  blame.  The  object  of 
religion  is  conduct ;  and  if  a  man  helps  himself  in  his  con- 
duct by  taking  an  object  of  hope  and  presentiment  as  if  it 
were  an  object  of  certainty,  he  may  even  be  said  to  gain 
thereby  an  advantage. 

And  yet  there  is  always  a  drawback  to  a  man's  advantage 
in  thus  treating,  when  he  deals  with  religion  and  conduct, 
what  is  extra-belief  and  not  certain  as  if  it  were  matter  of 
certainty,  and  in  making  it  his  ground  of  action.  He ;pays 
for  it.     The  time  comes  when  he  discovers  tliat  it  i^  not 


THE  PROOF  FROM  PROPHECY.  %\ 

certain ;  and  then  the  whole  certainty  of  religion  seems 
discredited,  and  the  basis  of  conduct  gone.  This  danger 
attends  the  reliance  on  prediction  and  miracle  as  evidences 
of  Christianity. 

They  have  been  attacked  as  a  part  of  the  'cheat'  or 
'  imposture '  of  religion  and  of  Christianity.  For  us,  religion 
is  the  solidest  of  realities,  and  Christianity  the  greatest  and 
happiest  stroke  ever  yet  made  for  human  perfection.  Pre- 
diction and  miracle  were  attributed  to  it  as  its  supports 
because  of  its  grandeur,  and  because  of  the  awe  and  admira- 
tion which  it  inspired.  Generations  of  men  have  helped 
themselves  to  hold  firmer  to  it,  helped  themselves  in  conduct, 
by  the  aid  of  these  supports.  ' Miracles  prove'  men  have 
said  and  thought,  '  that  the  order  of  physical  nature  is  not 
fate,  nor  a  mere  material  constitution  of  things,  but  the 
subject  of  a  free,  omnipotent  Master.  Prophecy  fulfilled 
proves  that  neither  fate  nor  man  are  masters  of  the  world.'  ^ 

And  to  take  prophecy  first.  '  The  conditions,'  it  is  said, 
which  form  the  true  conclusive  standard  of  a  prophetic  in- 
spiration are  these  :  That  the  prediction  be  known  to  have 
been  promulgated  before  the  event ;  that  the  event  be  such 
as  could  not  have  been  foreseen,  when  it  was  predicted,  by  an 
effort  of  human  reason;  and  that  the  event  and  the  prediction 
correspond  together  in  a  clear  accomplishment.  There  are 
prophecies  in  Scripture  answering  to  the  standard  of  an 
absolute  proof  Their  publication,  their  fulfilment,  their 
supernatural  prescience,  are  fully  ascertained.' ^  On  this 
sort  of  ground  men  came  to  rest  the  proof  of  Christianity. 


Now,  it  may  be  said,  indeed,  that  a  prediction  fulfilled, 
an  exhibition  of  supernatural  prescience,  proves  nothing  for 

*  Davison's  Discotirses  on  Prophecy ;  Discourse  ii,  Part  2. 
2  Discourses  ix  and  xii. 


g2  LITERATURE  AND  DOGMA 

or  against  the  truth  and  necessity  of  conduct  and  righteous- 
ness. But  it  must  be  allowed,  notwithstanding,  that  while 
human  nature  is  what  it  is,  the  mass  of  men  are  likely  to 
listen  more  to  a  teacher  of  righteousness,  if  he  accompanies 
his  teaching  by  an  exhibition  of  supernatural  prescience. 
And  what  were  called  the  '  signal  predictions '  concerning  the 
Christ  of  popular  theology,  as  they  stand  in  our  Bibles,  had 
and  have  undoubtedly  a  look  of  supernatural  prescience. 
The  employment  of  capital  letters,  and  other  aids,  such  as 
the  constant  use  of  the  future  tense,  naturally  and  innocently 
adopted  by  interpreters  who  were  profoundly  convinced 
that  Christianity  needed  these  express  predictions  and  that 
they  vmst  be  in  the  Bible,  enhanced,  certainly,  this  look ; 
but  the  look,  even  without  these  aids,  was  sufficiently 
striking. 

Yes,  that  Jacob  on  his  death-bed  should  two  thousand 
years  before  Christ  have  'been  enabled,'  as  the  phrase  is, 
to  foretell  to  his  son  Judah  that '  the  sceptre  shall  not  depart 
from  Judah  until  Shiloh  (or  the  Messiah)  come,  and  unto 
him  shall  the  gathering  of  the  people  be,'  *  does  seem,  when 
the  explanation  is  put  with  it  that  the  Jewish  kingdom  lasted 
till  the  Christian  era  and  then  perished,  a  miracle  of  pre- 
diction in  favour  of  our  current  Christian  theolog3\  That 
Jeremiah  should  during  the  captivity  have  'been  enabled' 
to  foretell,  in  Jehovah's  name :  *  The  days  come  that  I  will 
raise  unto  David  a  righteous  Branch;  in  his  days  Judah 
shall  be  saved,  and  Israel  shall  dwell  safely;  and  this  is  his 
name  whereby  he  shaU  be  called,  the  lord  our  righteous- 
ness ! '  '^—docs  seem  a  prodigy  of  prediction  in  favour  of  that 
tenet  of  the  Godhead  of  the  Eternal  Son,  for  which  the 
Bishops  of  Winchester  and  Gloucester  are  so  anxious  to  do 
something.  For  unquestionably,  in  the  prophecy  here 
f^iven,  the  Branch  of  David,  the  future  Saviour  of  Israel,  who 
^  Gen.,  xlix,  lO.  -  Jer, ,  xxiii,  5,  6. 


THE  PROOF  FROM  PROPHECY.  S3 

v\'as  Jesus  Christ,  appears  to  be  expressly  identified  with  the 
Lord  God,  with  Jehovah.     Again,  that  David  should  say  : 

•  The  Lord  said  unto  my  Lord,  Sit  thou  on  my  right  hand 
until  I  make  thine  enemies  thy  footstool,'  ^ — does  seem  a 
prodigy  of  prediction  to  the  same  effect.  And  so  long  as 
these  prophecies  stand  as  they  are  here  given,  they  no 
doubt  bring  to  Christianity  all  the  support  (and  with  the 
mass  of  mankind  this  is  by  no  means  inconsiderable)  which 
it  can  derive  from  the  display  of  supernatural  prescience. 

But  who  will  dispute  that  it  more  and  more  becomes 
known,  that  these  prophecies  ^  cannot  stand  as  we  have  here 
given  them  ?  Manifestly,  it  more  and  more  becomes  known, 
that  the  passage  from  Genesis,  with  its  mysterious  SJiiloh 
and  the  gathering  of  the  people  to  him,  is  rightly  to  be 
rendered  as  follows  :  '  The  pre-eminence  shall  not  depart 
from  Judah  so  long  as  the  people  resort  to  Shiloh  (the  national 
sanctuary  before  Jerusalem  w^as  won) ;  and  the  nations  (the 
heathen  Canaanites)  shall  obey  him.''  We  here  purposely  leave 
out  of  sight  any  such  consideration  as  that  our  actual  books 
of  the  Old  Testament  came  first  together  through  the  instru- 
mentality of  the  house  of  Judah,  and  when  the  destiny  of  Judah 
was  already  traced  ;  and  that  to  say  roundly  and  confidently  : 

*  yacob  7uas  enabled  to  foretell,  The  sceptre  shall  not  depart 
from  Judah,'  is  wholly  inadmissible.  For  this  consideration 
is  of  force,  indeed,  but  it  is  a  consideration  drawn  from  the 
rules  of  literary  history  and  criticism,  and  not  likely  to  have 

'  Fs.  ex,  I. 

-  A  real  prediction  of  Jesus  Christ's  Godhead,  of  the  kind  that 
popular  religion  desires,  is  to  be  found  in  Benjamin's  prophecy  of  the 
coming,  in  the  last  days,  of  the  King  of  Heaven  to  judge  Israel,  *  be- 
cause when  God  came  to  them  in  the  flesh  they  did  not  believe  in  him 
as  their  deliverer.'  But  this  prediction  occurs  in  an  apocryphal  Chris- 
tian writing  of  the  end  of  the  first  century,  the  Testajuenis  of  tJu 
Iwclve  Patriarchs.  See  Fabricius  Codex  Psciidcpigraphtis  Veicris 
Testamcnii^  vol.  ii,  p.  745. 

G  2 


84  LITERATURE  AND  DOGMA. 

weight  with  the  mass  of  mankind.     Palpable  error  and  mis- 
translation are  what  will  have  weight  with  them. 

And  what,  then,  will  they  say  as  they  come  to  know 
(and  do  not  and  must  not  more  and  more  of  them  come  to 
know  it  every  day  ? )  that  Jeremiah's  supposed  signal 
identification  of  Jesus  Christ  with  the  Lord  God  of  Israel : 
'  I  will  raise  to  David  a  righteous  Branch,  and  this  is  the 
name  whereby  he  shall  be  called,  the  Lord  our  righteous- 
ness,' runs  really  :  '  I  will  raise  to  David  a  righteous  branch ; 
in  his  days  Judah  shall  be  saved  and  Israel  shall  dwell 
safely  ;  and  this  is  the  name  whereby  they  shall  call  them- 
selves :  The  Eternal  is  our  rigJiteous7iess  I  ^  The  prophecy 
thus  becomes  simply  one  of  the  many  promises  of  a  suc- 
cessor to  David  under  whom  the  Hebrew  people  should 
trust  in  the  Eternal  and  follow  righteousness  ;  just  as  the 
prophecy  from  Genesis  is  one  of  the  many  prophecies  of  the 
enduring  continuance  of  the  greatness  of  Judah.  'The 
Lord  said  unto  my  Lord,'  in  like  manner ; — will  not  people 
be  startled  when  they  find  that  it  ought  instead  to  run  as 
follows  :  *  The  Eternal  said  unto  my  lord  the  king,' — a  simple 
promise  of  victory  to  a  royal  leader  of  God's  chosen  people  ? 


3- 

Leslie,  in  his  once  famous  Short  and  Easy  Methods  with 
the  Deists,  speaks  of  the  impugners  of  the  current  evidences 
of  Christianity  as  men  who  consider  the  Scripture  histories 
and  the  Christian  religion  '  cheats  and  impositions  of  cun- 
ning and  designing  men  upon  the  creduHty  of  simple  people.' 
Collins,  and  the  whole  array  of  writers  at  whom  Leslie  aims 
this,  greatly  need  to  be  re- surveyed  from  the  point  of  view 
of  our  own  age.  Nevertheless,  we  may  grant  that  some  of 
them,  at  any  rate,  conduct  their  attacks  on  the  current 
evidences  for  Christianity  in  such  a  manner  as  to  give  the 


THE  PROOF  FROM  PROPHECY.  85 

notion  that  in  their  opinion  Christianity  itself,  and  rehgion, 
is  a  cheat  and  an  imposture.  But  how  far  more  prone  wili 
the  mass  of  mankind  be  to  hearken  to  this  opinion,  if  they 
have  been  kept  intent  on  predictions  such  as  those  of 
which  we  have  just  given  specimens ;  if  they  have  been  kept 
full  of  the  great  importance  of  this  line  of  mechanical  evi- 
dence, and  then  suddenly  find  that  this  line  of  evidence 
gives  way  at  all  points  ?  It  can  hardly  be  gainsaid,  that,  to 
a  delicate  and  penetrating  criticism,  it  has  long  been  mani-i 
fest  that  the  chief  litei-al  fulfilment  by  Jesus  Christ  of  thingsj 
said  by  the  prophets  was  the  fulfilment  such  as  would 
naturally  be  given  by  one  who  nourished  his  spirit  on  the 
prophets,  and  on  living  and  acting  their  words.  The  great 
prophecies  of  Isaiah  and  Jeremiah  are,  critics  can  easily  see, 
not  strictly  predictioiis  at  all;  and  predictions  which  are 
strictly  meant  as  such,  like  those  in  the  Book  of  Daniel,  are 
an  embarrassment  to  the  Bible  rather  than  a  main  element 
of  it.  The  '  Zeit-Geist,'  and  the  mere  spread  of  what  is 
called  enlighte7iinent,  superficial  and  barren  as  this  often  is, 
will  inevitably,  before  long,  make  this  conviction  of  criticism 
a  popular  opinion,  held  far  and  wide.  And  then,  what  will 
be  their  case,  who  have  been  so  long  and  sedulously  taught 
to  rely  on  supernatural  predictions  as  a  mainstay  ? 

The  same  must  be  said  of  miracles.  The  substitution 
of  some  other  proof  of  Christianity  for  this  accustomed  proof 
is  now  to  be  desired  most  by  those  who  most  think 
Christianity  of  importance.  That  old  friend  of  ours  on  whom 
we  have  formerly  commented,^  who  insists  upon  it  that 
Christianity  is  and  shall  be  nothing  else  but  this,  '  that 
Christ  promised  Paradise  to  the  saint  and  threatened  the 
worldly  man  with  hell-fire,  and  proved  his  power  to  promise, 
and  to  threaten  by  rising  from  the  dead  and  ascending  into 
heaven^  is  certainly  not  the  guide  whom  lovers  of  Christi- 

*  See  St,  Patil  and  Protestantism^  p.  157. 


S6  LITERATURE  AND  DOGMA, 

anity,  if  they  could  discern  what  it  is  that  he  really  expects 
and  aims  at,  and  what  it  is  which  they  themselves  really 
desire,  would  think  it  wise  to  follow. 

But  the  subject  of  miracles  is  a  very  great  one  ;  it 
includes  within  itself,  indeed,  the  whole  question  about 
'  supernatural  prescience,'  which  meets  us  when  we  deal 
with  prophecy.  And  this  great  subject  requires,  in  order 
that  we  may  deal  with  it  properly,  some  little  recapitulation 
of  our  original  design  in  this  essay,  and  of  the  circumstances 
in  which  the  cause  of  religion  and  of  the  Bible  seems  to  be 
at  this  moment  placed- 


^7 


CHAPTER  V. 

THE    PROOF    FROM    MIRACLES. 

We  have  seen  that  some  new  treatment  or  other  the  religion 
of  the  Bible  certainly  seems  to  require,  for  it  is  attacked  on 
all  sides,  and  the  theologians  are  not  so  successful  as  one 
might  wish  in  defending  it.  One  critic  says,  that  if  these 
islands  had  no  religion  at  all  it  would  not  enter  into  his 
mind  to  introduce  the  religious  and  ethical  idea  by  the 
agency  of  the  Bible.  Another,  that  though  certain  common- 
places are  common  to  all  systems  of  morality,  yet  the  Bible- 
way  of  enunciating  these  commonplaces  no  longer  suits  us. 
And  we  may  rest  assured,  he  adds,  that  by  saying  what  v.-e 
think  in  some  other,  more  congenial,  language,  we  shall 
really  be  taking  the  shortest  road  to  discovering  the  new 
doctrines  which  will  satisfy  at  once  our  reason  and  our 
imagination.  Another  critic  goes  farther  still,  and  calls 
Bible- religion  not  only  destitute  of  a  modern  and  congenial 
way  of  stating  its  commonplaces  of  morality,  but  a  defacer 
and  disfigurer  of  moral  treasures  which  were  once  in  better 
keeping.  The  more  one  studies,  the  more,  says  he,  one  is 
convinced  that  the  religion  which  calls  itself  revealed  con- 
tains, in  the  way  of  what  is  good,  nothing  which  is  not  the 
incoherent  and  ill-digested  residue  of  the  wisdom  of  the 
ancients.  To  the  same  effect  the  Duke  of  Somerset, — who 
has  been  affording  proof  to  the  world  that  our  aristocratic 
class  are  not,  as  has  been  said^  inaccessible  to  ideas  and 


88  LITERATURE  AND  DOGMA. 

merely  polite,  but  that  they  are  familiar,  on  the  contrary, 
with  modern  criticism  of  the  most  advanced  kind, — the 
Duke  of  Somerset  finds  very  much  to  condemn  in  the  Bible 
and  its  teaching ;  although  the  soul,  he  says,  has  (outside 
the  Bible,  apparently)  one  unassailable  fortress  to  which  sht. 
may  retire, — faith  in  God. 

All  this  seems  to  threaten  to  push  Bible-religion  from 
the  place  it  has  long  held  in  our  affections.  And  even 
what  the  most  modern  criticism  of  all  sometimes  does  to 
save  it  and  to  set  it  up  again,  can  hardly  be  called  very 
flattering  to  it.  For  whereas  .the  Hebrew  race  imagined 
that  to  them  were  committed  the  oracles  of  God,  and  that 
their  God,  '  the  Eternal  who  loveth  righteousness,'  ^  was  the 
God  to  whom  '  every  knee  shall  bow  and  every  tongue  shall 
swear,'  ^  there  now  comes  INI.  Emile  Burnouf,  the  accom- 
plished kinsman  of  the  gifted  orientalist  Eugene  Burnouf, 
and  will  prove  to  us  in  a  thick  volume  ^  that  the  oracles  of 
God  were  not  committed  to  a  Semitic  race  at  all,  but  to 
the  Aryan  ;  that  the  true  God  is  not  Israel's  God  at  all,  but 
is  '  the  idea  of  the  absolute '  which  Israel  could  never  pro- 
perly master.  This  '  sacred  theory  of  the  Aryas,'  it  seems, 
passed  into  Palestine  from  Persia  and  India,  and  got  pos- 
session of  the  founder  of  Christianity  and  of  his  greatest 
apostles  St.  Paul  and  St.  John  ;  becoming  more  perfect, 
and  returning  more  and  more  to  its  true  character  of  a 
*  transcendent  metaphysic,'  as  the  doctors  of  the  Christian 
Church  developed  it.  So  that  we  Christians,  who  are 
Aryas,  may  have  the  satisfaction  of  thinking  that  '  the  re- 
ligion of  Christ  has  not  come  to  us  from  the  Semites,'  and 
that  '  it  is  in  the  hymns  of  the  Veda,  and  not  in  the  Bible, 
that  we  are  to  look  for  the  primordial  source  of  our  religion.' 
The  theory  of  Christ  is  accordingly  the  theory  of  the  Vedic 

»  Ps.  xi,  7.  2  Is.,  xlv,  23. 

^  La  Science  des  Religio7is  ;  Paris,  1872, 


THE  PROOF  FROM  MIRACLES.  89 

Agni,  or  fire.  The  Incarnation  represents  the  Vedic 
solemnity  of  the  production  o^fire,  symbol  of  force  of  every 
kind,  of  all  movement,  life,  and  thought.  The  Trinity  of 
Father,  Son,  and  Spirit  is  the  Vedic  Trinity  of  Sun,  Fire, 
and  Wind  ;  and  God,  finally,  is  '  a  cosmic  unity.' 

Such  speculations  almost  take  away  the  breath  of  a  mere 
man  of  letters.  What  one  is  inclined  to  say  of  them  is  this. 
Undoubtedly  these  exploits  of  the  Aryan  genius  must  be 
gratifying  to  us  members  of  the  iVryan  race.  The  original 
God  of  the  Hebrews,  M.  Burnouf  says  expressly,  *  was  not 
a  cosmic  unity  ; '  the  religion  of  the  Hebrews  '  had  not  that 
transcendent  metaphysic  which  the  genius  of  the  Aryas  re- 
quires ; '  and,  '  in  passing  from  the  Aryan  race  to  the  in- 
ferior races,  religion  underwent  a  deterioration  due  to  the 
physical  and  moral  constitution  of  these  races.*  For  religion, 
it  must  be  remembered,  is,  in  M.  Burnouf  s  view,  funda- 
mentally a  sciejice ;  '  a  metaphysical  conception,  a  theory,  a 
synthetic  explanation  of  the  universe.'  Now,  '  the  perfect 
Arya  is  capable  of  a  great  deal  of  science  ;  the  Semite  is 
inferior  to  him.'  As  Aryas  or  Aryans,  then,  we  ought  to  be 
pleased  at  having  vindicated  the  greatness  of  our  race,  and 
having  not  borrowed  a  Semitic  rehgion  as  it  stood,  but 
transformed  it  by  importing  our  own  metaphysics  into  it. 

And  this  seems  to  harmonise  very  well  with  what  the 
Bishops  of  Winchester  and  Gloucester  say  about  'doing 
something  for  the  honour  of  Our  Lord's  Godhead,'  and 
about  '  the  infinite  separation  for  time  and  for  eternity  which 
is  involved  in  rejecting  the  Godhead  of  the  Eternal  Son, 
Very  God  of  Very  God,  Light  of  Light  ; '  and  also  with  the 
Athanasian  Creed  generally,  and  with  what  the  clergy  write 
to  the  Guardian  about  '  eternal  life  being  unquestionably 
annexed  to  a  right  knowledge  of  the  Godhead.'  For  all 
these  have  in  view  high  science  and  metaphysics,  worthy  of 
the  Aryas.     But  to  Bible-religion,  in  the  plain  sense  of  the 


90  LITERATURE  AND  DOGMA. 

word,  it  is  not  flattering;  for  it  throws  overboard  almost 
entirely  the  Old  Testament,  and  makes  the  essence  of  the 
New  to  consist  in  an  esoteric  doctrine  not  very  visible  there, 
but  more  fully  developed  outside  of  it.  The  metaphysical 
element  is  made  the  fundamental  element  in  religion.  But, 
'  the  Bible-books,  especially  the  more  ancient  of  them,  are 
destitute  of  metaphysics,  and  consequently  of  method  and 
classification  in  their  ideas.*  Israel,  therefore,  instead  of 
being  a  light  of  the  Gentiles  and  a  salvation  to  the  ends  of 
the  earth,  falls  to  a  place  in  the  world's  religious  history 
behind  the  Arya.  He  is  dismissed  as  ranking  anthropo- 
logically between  the  Aryas  and  the  yellow  men ;  as  having 
frizzled  hair,  thick  lips,  small  calves,  flat  feet,  and  belonging, 
above  all,  to  those  'occipital  races'  whose  brain  cannot 
grow  above  the  age  of  sixteen  ;  whereas  the  brain  of  a 
theological  Arya,  such  as  one  of  our  bishops,  may  go  on 
growing  all  his  life. 

But  we,  who  think  that  the  Old  Testament  leads  surely 
up  to  the  New,  who  believe  that,  indeed,  '  salvation  is  of 
the  Jews,'  ^  and  that,  for  what  concerns  conduct  or  right- 
eousness (that  is,  for  what  concerns  three-fourths  of  human 
life),  they  and  their  documents  can  no  more  be  neglected 
by  whoever  would  make  proficiency  in  it,  than  Greece  can 
be  neglected  by  anyone  who  would  make  proficiency  in  art, 
or  Newton's  discoveries  by  whoever  would  comprehend  the 
world's  physical  laws, — we  are  naturally  not  satisfied  with 
this  treatment  of  Israel  and  the  Bible.  And  admitting  that 
Israel  shows  no  talent  for  metaphysics,  we  say  that  his  re- 
ligious greatness  is  just  this,  that  he  does  7iot  found  religion 
on  metaphysics,  but  on  moral  experience,  which  is  a  much 
simpler  matter ;  and  that,  ever  since  the  apparition  of  Israel 
and  the  Bible,  religion  is  no  longer  what,  according  to 
M.  Burnouf,  to  our  Aryan  forefathers  in  the  valley  of  the 
^  John,  iv,  22. 


THE  PROOF  FROM  MIRACLES.  91 

Oxus  it  was, — and  what   perhaps  it  really  was  to  them. — 
metaphysical  theory,  but  is  what  Israel  has  made  it. 

And  what  Israel  made,  and  how  he  made  it,  we  seek  to 
show  from  the  Bible  itself.     Thus  we  hope  to  win  for  the 
Bible  and  its  religion,  which  seem  to  us  so  indispensable  to' 
the  world,  an  access  to  many  of  those  who   now  neglect 
them.     For  there  is  this  to  be  said  against  M.   Burnouf's 
metaphysics  :  no  one  can  allege  that  the  Bible  has  failed  to  » 
win  access   for  want  of  metaphysics   being   applied  to  it.  \ 
Metaphysics  are  just  what  all  our   theology  runs  up  into,  1 
and  our  bishops,  as  we  know,  are  here  particular]y  strong.   \ 
But  we  see  every  day  that  the  making  religion  into  meta- 
physics is   the   weakening   of  religion;   now,    i\I.  Burnouf 
makes  religion  into  metaphysics  more  than  ever.     Yet  evi- 
dently the  metaphysical  method  lacks  power  for  laying  hold 
on  people,  and  compelling  them  to  receive  the  Bible  from 
it ;  it  is  felt  to  be  inconclusive  as  thus  employed,  and  its 
inconclusiveness  tells  against  the  Bible.     This  is  the  case 
with  the  old  metaphysics  of  our  bishops,  and  it  will  be  the 
case  witli  M.  Burnoufs  new  metaphysics  also.     They  will 
be  found,  we  fear,  to  have  an  inconclusiveness  in  tlieir  re- 
commendation  of  Christianity.      To   very   many  persons, 
indeed  to  the  great  majority,   such  a  method,  in  such  a 
matter,  imist  be  inconclusive. 


Therefore  we  would  not  allow  ourselves  to  start  with 
any  metaphysical  conception  at  ail,  not  with  the  mono- 
theistic idea,  as  it  is  styled,  any  more  than  with  the  pan- 
theistic idea;  and,  indeed,  we  are  quite  sure  that  Isrncl 
himself  began  with  nothing  of  the  kind.  The  idea  of  God, 
as  it  is  given  us  in  the  Bible,  rests,  we  say,  not  on  a  meta- 
pliysical  conception  of  the  necessity  of  certain  deductions 
Irom  our  ideas  of  cause,  existence,  identity,  and  the  like  ; 


92  LITERATURE  AND  DOGMA. 

but  on  a  moral  perception  of  a  rule  of  conduct  not  of  our 
own  making,  into  which  we  are  born,  and  which  exists 
whether  we  will  or  no  ;  of  awe  at  its  grandeur  and  necessity, 
and  of  gratitude  at  its  beneficence.  This  is  the  great  original 
revelation  made  to  Israel,  this  is  his  '  Eternal.' 

Man^  however,  as  Goethe  says,  7ie^er  knows  how  anthro- 
pomorphic he  is.  Israel  described  his  Eternal  in  the  language 
of  poetry  and  emotion,  and  could  not  thus  describe  him  but 
with  the  characters  of  a  man.  Scientifically  he  never  at- 
tempted to  describe  him  at  all.  But  still  the  Eternal  was 
ever  at  last  reducible,  for  Israel,  to  the  reality  of  experience 
out  of  which  the  revelation  sprang  ;  he  was  '  the  righteous 
Eternal  who  loveth  righteousness.'  They  w^ho  'seek  the 
Eternal,'  and  they  who  'follow  after  righteousness,'  were 
identical ;  just  as,  conversely,  they  who  '  fear  the  Eternal,' 
and  they  who  '  depart  from  evil,'  were  identical.  ^  Above 
all  :  '  Blessed  is  the  man  that  feareth  the  Eternal ; '  '  it  is 
joy  to  the  just  to  do  judgment ; '  '  righteousness  tendeth  to 
life ; '  '  the  righteous  is  an  everlasting  fotmdation'  ^ 

But,  as  time  went  on,  facts  seemed,  we  saw,  to  contradict 
this  fundamental  belief,  to  refute  this  faith  in  the  Eternal ; 
material  forces  prevailed,  and  God  appeared,  as  they  say, 
to  be  on  the  side  of  the  big  battalions.  The  great 
unrighteous  kingdoms  of  the  world,  kingdoms  which 
cared  far  less  than  Israel  for  righteousness  and  for  the 
Eternal  who  makes  for  righteousness,  overpowered  Israel. 
Prophecy  assured  him  that  the  triumph  of  the  Eternal's 
cause  and  people  was  certain  :  Behold  the  Ete7'nars  hand 
is  not  shortened^  that  it  cannot  save?  The  triumph  was 
but  adjourned  through  Israel's  own  sins  :  Yoiir  iniquities 
have    separated  between  you  and  your   God.^      Prophecy 

'  Is.,  li,  I ;  Prov.,  iii,  7. 

^  Ps.  cxii,  I  ;  Prcn.'.^  xxi,  15  ;  xi,  19  ;  x,  25. 

•  Is.,  lix,  I.  "Is.,  ix,  2. 


THE  PROOF  FROM  MIRACLES.  93 

directed  its  hearers  to  the  future,  and  promised  them 
a  new,  everlasting  kingdom,  under  a  heaven-sent  leader. 
The  characters  of  this  kingdom  and  leader  were  more 
spiritualised  by  one  prophet,  more  materialised  by  another. 
As  time  went  on,  in  the  last  centuries  before  our  era,  they 
became  increasingly  turbid  and  phantasmagorical.  In  ad- 
dition to  his  original  experimental  belief  in  the  Almighty 
Eternal  who  makes  for  righteousness,  Israel  had  now  a  vast 
Aberglaube,  an  after  or  extra- belief,  not  experimental,  in  an 
approaching  kingdom  of  the  saints,  to  be  established  by  an 
Anointed,  a  Messiah,  or  by  '  one  like  the  Son  of  Man,'  com- 
missioned from  the  Ancient  of  Days  and  coming  in  the 
clouds  of  heaven. 

Jesus  came,  calling  himself  the  IMessiah,  the  Son  of  Man, 
the  Son  of  God  ;  and  the  question  is,  what  is  the  true  mean- 
ing of  these  assertions  of  his,  and  of  all  his  teaching?  It  is 
the  same  question  we  had  about  the  Old  Testament.  Is  the 
language  scientific,  or  is  it,  as  we  say,  literary} -^th^X  is,  the 
language  of  poetry  and  emotion,  approximative  language, 
thrown  out,  as  it  were,  at  certain  great  objects  which  the 
human  mind  augurs  and  feels  after,  but  not  language  accu- 
rately defining  them?  Popular  religion  says,  we  know, 
that  the  language  is  scientific;  that  the  God  of  the  Old 
Testament  is  a  great  Personal  First  Cause,  who  thinks  and 
loves  (for  this  too,  it  seems,  we  ought  to  have  added),  the 
moral  and  intelligent  Governor  of  the  universe.  Learned 
religion,  the  metaphysical  theology  of  our  bishops,  proves  or 
confirms  the  existence  of  this  personal  God  by  abstruse 
reasoning  from  our  ideas  of  cause,  design,  existence,  identity, 
and  so  on.  Popular  religion  rests  it  altogether  on  revelation  1 
and  miracle.  The  God  of  Israel,  for  popular  religion,  is  a ' 
magnified  and  non-natural  man  who  has  really  worked  stupen-l 
dous  miracles,  whereas  the  Gods  of  the  heathen  were  vainly 
imagined  to  be  able  to  work  them,  but  could  not,  and  had 


94  LITERATURE  AND  DOGMA. 

therefore  no  real  existence.  Of  tiiis  God,  Jesus  for  populai 
religion  is  the  Son.  He  came  to  appease  God's  wrath 
against  sinful  men  by  the  sacrifice  of  himself;  and  he 
proved  his  Sonship  by  a  course  of  stupendous  miracles,  and 
by  the  wonderful  accomplishment  in  him  of  the  supernatural 
Messianic  predictions  of  prophecy.  Here,  again,  learned 
religion  elucidates  and  develops  the  relation  of  the  Son  to 
the  Father  by  a  copious  exhibition  of  metaphysics  ;  but  for 
popular  religion  the  relationship,  and  the  authority  of  Jesu? 
which  derives  from  it,  is  altogether  established  by  viirack. 

Now,  we  have  seen  that  our  bishops  and  their  meta- 
physics are  so  little  convincing,  that  many  people  throw 
the  Bible  quite  aside  and  will  not  attend  to  it,  because  they 
are  given  to  understand  that  the  metaphysics  go  necessarily 
along  with  it,  and  that  one  cannot  be  taken  without  the 
other.  So  far,  then,  the  talents  of  the  Bishops  of  Winchester 
and  Gloucester,  and  their  zeal  to  do  something  for  the 
honour  of  the  Eternal  Son's  Godhead,  may  be  said  to  be 
actual  obstacles  to  the  receiving  and  studying  of  the  Bible. 
But  the  same  may  now  be  also  said  of  the  popular  theology 
which  rests  the  Bible's  authority  and  the  Christian  religion 
on  miracle.  To  a  great  many  persons  this  is  tantamount 
to  stopping  their  use  of  the  Bible  and  of  the  Christian 
religion ;  for  they  have  made  up  their  minds  that  what  is 
popularly  called  viirQcIe  never  does  really  happen,  and  that 
the  belief  in  it  arises  out  of  either  ignorance  or  mistake.  To 
these  persons  we  restore  the  use  of  the  Bible,  if,  while  show- 
ing them  that  the  Bible-language  is  not  scientific,  but  the 
language  of  common  speech  or  of  poetry  and  eloquence, 
approximative  language  thrown  out  at  certain  great  objects 
of  consciousness  which  it  does  not  pretend  to  define  fully, 
we  convince  them  at  the  same  time  that  this  language  deals 
with  facts  of  positive  experience,  most  momentous  and 
real 


THE  PROOF  FROM  MIRACLES.  95 

We  have  sought  to  do  this  for  the  Old  Testament  first, 
and  we  now  seek  to  do  it  for  the  New.  But  our  attempt 
has  in  view  those  who  are  incredulous  about  the  Bible  and 
inclined  to  throw  it  aside,  not  those  v;ho  at  present  receive 
it  on  the  grounds  supplied  either  by  popular  theology  or  by 
metaphysical  theology.  For  persons  of  this  kind,  what  we 
say  neither  will  have,  nor  seeks  to  have,  any  constraining 
force  at  all ;  only  it  is  rendered  necessary  by  the  want  of 
constraining  force,  for  others  than  themselves,  in  their  own 
theology.  How  little  constraining  force  metaphysical  dogma 
has,  we  all  see.  And  we  have  shown,  too,  hoAv  the  proof 
from  the  fulfilment  in  Jesus  Christ  of  a  number  of  detailed 
predictions,  supposed  to  have  been  made  with  supernatural 
prescience  about  him  long  beforehand,  is  losing,  and  seems 
likely  more  and  more  to  lose,  its  constraining  force.  It  is 
found  that  the  predictions  and  their  fulfilment  are  not  what 
they  are  said  to  be. 

Now  we  come  to  miracles^  more  specially  so  called. 
And  we  have  to  see  whether  the  constraining  force  of  this 
proof,  too,  must  not  be  admitted  to  be  far  less  than  it  used 
to  be,  and  whether  some  other  source  of  authority  for  the 
Bible  is  not  much  to  be  desired. 

3- 

That  miracles,  when  fully  believed,  are  felt  by  men  in 
general  to  be  a  source  of  authority,  it  is  absurd  to  deny. 
One  may  say,  indeed  :  Suppose  I  could  change  the  pen 
with  which  I  write  tliis  into  a  penwiper,  I  should  not  thus 
make  what  I  write  any  the  truer  or  more  convincing.  Tliat 
may  be  sorin  reality,  but  the  mass  of  mankind  feel  differently. 
In  the  judgment  of  the  mass  of  mankind,  could  I  visibly 
and  undeniably  change  the  pen  with  which  I  write  this  into 
a  penwiper,  not  only  would  this  which  I  write  acquire  a 
claim  to  be  held  perfectly  true  and  convincing,  but  I  should 


96  LITERATURE  AND  DOGMA. 

even  be  entitled  to  affirm,  and  to  be  believed  in  affirming, 
propositions  the  most  palpably  at  v/ar  with  common  fact 
and  experience.  It  is  almost  impossible  to  exaggerate  the 
proneness  of  the  human  mind  to  take  miracles  as  evidence, 
and  to  seek  for  miracles  as  evidence  ;  or  the  extent  to 
which  religion,  and  religion  of  a  true  and  admirable  kind 
has  been,  and  is  still,  held  in  connexion  with  a  reliance 
upon  miracles.  This  reUance  will  long  outlast  the  reliance 
on  the  supernatural  prescience  of  prophecy,  for  it  is  not  ex- 
posed to  the  same  tests.  To  pick  Scripture  miracles  one  by 
one  to  pieces  is  an  odious  and  repulsive  task  ;  it  is  also  an 
unprofitable  one,  for  whatever  we  may  think  of  the  affirma- 
tive demonstrations  of  them,  a  negative  demonstration  of 
them  is,  from  the  circumstances  of  the  case,  impossible. 
And  yet  the  human  mind  is  assuredly  passing  away,  how- 
ever slowly,  from  this  hold  of  reliance  also  ;  and  those  who 
make  it  their  stay  will  more  and  more  find  it  fail  them,  will 
more  and  more  feel  themselves  disturbed,  shaken,  distressed, 
and  bewildered. 

For  it  is  what  we  call  the  Time-Spirit  which  is  sapping 
the  proof  from  miracles, — it  is  the  'Zeit-Geist'  itself. 
Whether  vv^e  attack  them,  or  whether  we  defend  them,  does 
not  much  matter.  The  human  mind,  as  its  experience 
widens,  is  turning  away  from  them.  And  for  this  reason  : 
/"/  secs^  as  its  experience  zvidens^  hoiu  they  arise.  It  sees  that 
under  certain  circumstances,  they  always  do  arise  ;  and  that 
they  have  not  more  solidity  in  one  case  than  another.  Under 
certain  circumstances,  wherever  men  are  found,  there  is,  as 
Shakespeare  says  : — 

No  natural  exhalation  in  the  sky, 
No  scape  of  nature,  no  distemper'd  day, 
No  common  wind,  no  customed  event, 
But  they  will  pluck  away  his  natural  cause, 
And  call  them  meteors,  prodigies,  and  signs, 
Abortives,  presages,  and  tongues  of  heaven. 


THE  PROOF  FROM  MIRACLES.  97 

Imposture  is  so  far  from  being  the  general  rule  in  these 
cases,  that  it  is  the  rare  exception.  Signs  and  wonders 
men's  minds  will  have,  and  they  create  them  honestly  and 
naturally ;  yet  not  so  but  that  we  can  see  Jiow  they  create 
them. 

Roman  Catholics  fancy  that  Bible-miracles  and  the 
miracles  of  their  Church  form  a  class  by  themselves  ;  Pro- 
testants fancy  that  Bible-miracles,  alone,  form  a  class  by 
themselves.  This  was  eminently  the  posture  of  mind  of  the 
late  Archbishop  Whately  : — he  held  that  all  other  miracles 
would  turn  out  to  be  impostures,  or  capable  of  a  natural  ex- 
planation, but  that  Bible-miracles  would  stand  sifting  by  a 
London  special  jury  or  by  a  committee  of  scientific  men. 
No  acuteness  can  save  such  notions,  as  our  knowledge 
widens,  from  being  seen  to  be  mere  extravagances,  and  the 
Protestant  notion  is  doomed  to  an  earlier  ruin  than  the 
Catholic.  For  the  Catholic  notion  admits  miracles, — so  far 
as  Christianity,  at  least,  is  concerned, — in  the  mass  ;  the 
Protestant  notion  invites  to  a  criticism  by  which  it  must  be- 
fore long  itself  perish.  When  Stephen  was  martyred,  he 
looked  up  into  heaven,  and  saw  the  glory  of  God  and  Jesus 
standing  on  the  right  hand  of  God.  That,  says  the  Protes- 
tant, is  solid  fact.  At  the  martyrdom  of  St.  Fructuosus 
the  Christian  servants  of  the  Roman  governor,  Babylas  and 
Mygdone,  saw  the  heavens  open,  and  the  saint  and  his  deacon 
Eulogius  carried  up  on  high  with  crowns  on  their  heads. 
That  is,  says  the  Protestant,  imposture  or  else  illusion.  St. 
Paul  hears  on  his  way  to  Damascus  the  voice  of  Jesus  say 
to  him  :  *  Saul,  Saul,  why  persecutest  thou  me  ? '  That  is 
solid  fact.  The  companion  of  St.  Thomas  Aquinas  hears  a 
voice  from  the  crucifix  say  to  the  praying  saint :  '  Thou  hast 
written  well  of  me,  Thomas  ;  what  recompence  dost  thou 
desire?'  That  is  imposture  or  else  illusion.  Why?  It  is 
impossible  to    find   any  criterion  by  which  one  of  these 

H 


98  LITERATURE  AND  DOGMA. 

incidents  may  establish  its  claim  to  a  solidity  which  we  refuse 
to  the  others. 

One  of  two  things  must  be  made  out  in  order  to  place 
either  the  Bible-miracles  alone,  or  the  Bible-miracles  and 
the  miracles  of  the  Catholic  Church  with  them,  in  a  class 
by  themselves.  Either  they  must  be  shown  to  have  arisen 
in  a  time  eminently  unfavourable  to  such  a  process  as 
Shakespeare  describes,  to  amplification  and  the  production 
of  legend ;  or  they  must  be  shown  to  be  recorded  in  docu- 
ments of  an  eminently  historical  mode  of  birth  and  publica- 
tion. But  surely  it  is  manifest  that  the  Bible-miracles  fulfil 
neither  of  these  conditions.  It  was  said  that  the  waters  of  the 
Pamphylian  Sea  miraculously  opened  a  passage  for  the  army 
of  Alexander  the  Great.  Admiral  Beaufort,  however,  tells 
us  that,  '  though  there  are  no  tides  in  this  part  of  the  Medi- 
terranean, a  considerable  depression  of  the  sea  is  caused  by 
long-continued  north  winds,  and  Alexander,  taking  advantage 
of  such  a  moment,  may  have  dashed  on  without  impedi- 
ment.' ^  And  we  accept  the  explanation  as  a  matter  of 
course.  But  the  waters  of  the  Red  Sea  are  said  to  have 
miraculously  opened  a  passage  for  the  children  of  Israel ; 
and  we  insist  on  the  literal  truth  of  this  story,  and  reject 
natural  explanations  as  impious.  Yet  the  time  and  circum- 
stances of  the  flight  from  Egypt  were  a  thousand  times  more 
favourable  to  the  rise  of  some  natural  incident  into  a  miracle, 
than  the  age  of  Alexander.  They  were  a  time  and  circum- 
stances of  less  broad  daylight.  It  was  said,  again,  that 
during  the  battle  of  Leuctra  the  gates  of  the  Heracleum  at 
Thebes  suddenly  opened,  and  the  armour  of  Hercules 
vanished  from  the  temple,  to  enable  the  god  to  take  part 
with  the  Thebans  in  the  battle.  Probably  there  was  some 
real  circumstance,  however  slight,  which  gave  a  foundation 
for  the  story.  But  this  is  the  utmost  we  think  of  saying  in  its 
'  Beaufort's  Karainania^  p.  Ii6. 


THE  PROOF  FROM  MIRACLES. 


99 


favour;  the  literal  story  it  never  even  occurs  to  one  of  us  to 
believe.  But  that  the  walls  of  Jericho  literally  fell  down  at 
the  sound  of  the  trumpets  of  Joshua,  we  are  asked  to  believe, 
told  that  it  is  impious  to  disbelieve  it.  Yet  which  place  and 
time  were  most  likely  to  generate  a  miraculous  story  with 
ease, — Hellas  and  the  days  of  Epaminondas,  or  Palestine 
and  the  days  of  Joshua?  And  of  documentary  records, 
which  are  the  most  historical  in  their  way  of  being  generated 
and  propagated,  which  the  most  favourable  for  the  admission 
of  legend  and  miracle  of  all  kinds,— the  Old  Testament 
narratives  with  their  incubation  of  centuries,  and  the  New 
Testament  narratives  with  their  incubation  of  a  century  (and 
tradition  active  all  the  while),  or  the  narratives,  say,  of 
Herodotus  or  Plutarch  ? 

None  of  them  are  what  we  call  critical.  Experience  of 
the  history  of  the  human  mind,  and  of  men's  habits  of 
seeing,  sifting,  and  relating,  convinces  us  that  the  miraculous 
stories  of  Herodotus  or  Plutarch  do  grow  out  of  the  process 
described  by  Shakespeare.  But  we  shall  find  ourselves  in- 
evitably led,  sooner  or  later,  to  extend  the  same  rule  to  all 
miraculous  stories ;  nay,  the  considerations  which  apply  in 
other  cases,  apply,  we  shall  most  surely  discover,  with  even 
greater  force  in  the  case  of  Bible-miracles. 

4. 

This  being  so,  there  is  nothing  one  would  more  desire 
for  a  person  or  document  one  greatly  values,  than  to  make 
them  independent  of  miracles.  And  with  regard  to  the  Old 
Testament  we  have  done  this  :  for  we  have  shown  that  the 
essential  matter  in  the  Old  Testament  is  the  revelation  to 
Israel  of  the  immeasurable  grandeur,  the  eternal  necessity, 
the  priceless  blessing  of  that  with  which  not  less  tiian  three- 
fourths  of  human  life  is  indeed  concerned, — righteousness. 
And  it  makes  no  difference  to  the  prcciousness  of  this  reve- 

H  2 


^ 


loo  LITERATURE  AND  DOGMA. 

lation,  whether  we  believe  that  the  Red  Sea  mh'aculously 
opened  a  passage  to  the  Israelites,  and  the  walls  of  Jericho 
miraculously  fell  down  at  the  blast  of  Joshua's  trumpet,  or 
that  these  stories  arose  in  the  same  way  as  other  stories  of 
the  kind.  But  in  the  New  Testament  the  essential  thing  is 
the  revelation  of  Jesus  Christ.  For  this  too,  then,  if  one 
values  it,  one's  great  wish  must  in  like  manner  be  to  make 
it  independent  of  miracle,  if  miracle  is  a  stay  v.-hich  one 
perceives,  as  more  and  mor:j  we  are  all  coming  to  perceive 
it,  to  be  not  solid. 

Now,  it  may  look  at  first  sight  a  strange  thing  to  say, 
jbut  it  is  a  truth  which  we  will  make  abundantly  clear  as  we 
'go  on,  that  one  of  the  very  best  helps  to  prepare  the  way 
for  valuing  the  Bible  and  believing  in  Jesus  Christ,  is  to 
convince  oneself  of  the  liability  to  mistake  in  the  Bible- 
i  writers.  Our  popular  theology  supposes  that  the  Old  Tes- 
tament writers  were  miraculously  inspired,  and  could  make 
no  mistakes  ;  that  the  New  Testament  writers  were  miracu- 
lously inspired,  and  could  make  no  mistakes  ;  and  that 
there  this  miraculous  inspiration  stopped,  and  all  writers  on 
religion  have  been  liable  to  make  mistakes  ever  since.  It 
is  as  if  a  hand  had  been  put  out  of  the  sky  presenting  us 
with  the  Bible,  and  the  rules  of  criticism  which  apply  to 
other  books  did  not  apply  to  the  Bible.  Now,  the  fatal 
thing  for  this  supposition  is,  that  its  owners  stab  it  to  the 
heart  the  moment  they  use  any  palliation  or  explaining 
away,  however  small,  of  the  literal  words  of  the  Bible ;  and 
some  they  always  use.  For  instance,  it  is  said  in  the  eight- 
eenth Psalm,  that  a  consuming  fire  went  out  of  the  mouth 
of  God,  so  that  coals  were  kindled  at  it.  The  veriest  literal- 
ist  will  cry  out  :  Everyone  kno^ys  that  this  is  not  to  be 
taken  literally  !  The  truth  is,  even  he  knows  that  tJiis  is  not 
to  be  taken  literally  ;  but  others  know  that  a  great  deal 
more  is  not  to  be  taken  literally.     He  knows  very  little  ; 


THE  PROOF  FROM  MIRACLES.  roi 

but,  as  far  as  his  little  knowledge  goes,  he  gives  up  his 
theory,  which  is,  of  course,  palpably  hollow.  For  indeed  it 
is  only  by  applying  to  the  Bible  a  criticism,  such  as  it  is, 
that  such  a  man  makes  out  that  criticism  does  not  apply  to 
the  Bible. 

There  has  grown  up  an  irresistible  sense  that  the  belief 
in  miracles  was  due  to  man's  want  of  experience,  to  his 
ignorance,  agitation,  and  helplessness.  And  it  will  not  do 
to  stake  all  truth  and  value  of  the  Bible  upon  its  having 
been  put  out  of  the  sky,  upon  its  being  guaranteed  by 
miracles,  and  upon  their  being  true.  If  we  present  the 
Bible  in  this  fashion,  then  the  cry.  Imposture!  will  more  and 
more,  in  spite  of  all  we  can  do,  gather  strength,  and  the 
book  will  be  thrown  aside  more  and  more. 

Butwhenmencometosee,  that,  both  in  the  New  Testament 
and  in  the  Old,  what  is  given  us  is  words  throwji  out  at  an 
immense  reality  not  fully  or  half  fully  grasped  by  the  writers, 
but,  even  thus,  able  to  affect  us  with  indescribable  force  ; 
when  we  convince  ourselves  that,  as  in  the  Old  Testament 
we  have  Israel's  inadequate  yet  inexhaustibly  fruitful  tes- 
timony to  the  Eternal  that  makes  for  righteousness,  so  we 
have  in  the  New  Testament  a  report  inadequate,  indeed, 
but  the  only  report  we  have,  and  therefore  priceless,  by 
men,  some  more  able  and  clear,  others  less  able  and  clear, 
but  all  full  of  the  influences  of  their  time  and  condition, 
2:)artakers  of  some  of  its  simple  or  its  learned  ignorance, — 
inevitably,  in  fine,  expecting  miracles  and  demanding  them,  , 
— a  report,  I  say,  by  these  men  of  that  immense  reality  not  \ 
fully  or  half  fully  grasped  by  them,  the  mind  of  Christ, — then  1 
we  shall  be  drawn  to  the  Gospels  with  a  new  zest  and  as  by 
a  fresh  spell.  We  shall  throw  ourselves  upon  their  narra- 
tives with  an  ardour  answering  to  the  value  of  the  pearl  of 
great  price  they  hold,  and  to  the  difficulty  of  reaching  it. 

So,  to  profit  fully  by  the  New  Testament,  the  first  thing 


10^  LITERATURE  AXD  DOGMA. 

to  be  done  is  to  make  it  perfectly  clear  to  oneself  that  its 
reporters  both  could  err  and  did  err.  For  a  plain  person, 
an  incident  in  the  report  of  St.  Paul's  conversion, — which 
comes  into  our  minds  the  more  naturally  as  this  incident 
has  been  turned  against  something  we  have  ourselves  said,* 
— would,  one  would  think,  be  enough.  We  had  spoken  of 
the  notion  that  St.  Paul's  miraculous  vision  at  his  conver- 
sion proved  the  truth  of  his  doctrine.  We  related  a  vision 
which  converted  Sampson  Staniforth,  one  of  the  early 
Methodists ;  and  we  said  that  just  so  much  proving  force, 
and  no  more,  as  Sampson  Staniforth's  vision  had  to  confirm 
the  truth  of  anything  he  might  afterwards  teach,  St.  Paul's 
vision  had  to  establish  his  subsequent  doctrine.  It  was 
eagerly  rejoined  that  Staniforth's  vision  was  but  a  fancy  of 
his  own,  whereas  the  reality  of  Paul's  was  proved  by  his 
companions  hearing  the  voice  that  spoke  to  him.  And  so 
in  one  place  of  the  Acts  we  are  told  they  did ;  but  in  an- 
other place  of  the  Acts  we  are  told  by  Paul  himself  just  the 
contrary :  that  his  companions  did  not  hear  the  voice  that 
spoke  to  him.  Need  we  say  that  the  two  statements  have 
been  *  reconciled '  ?  They  have,  over  and  over  again  ;  but 
by  one  of  those  processes  which  are  the  opprobrium  of  our 
Bible-criticism,  and  by  which,  as  Bishop  Buder  says,  any-_ 
thing  can  be  made  to  mean  anything.  There  is  between 
the  two  statements  a  contradiction  as  clear  as  can  be.  The 
contradiction  proves  nothing  against  the  good  faith  of  the 
reporter,  and  St.  Paul  undoubtedly  had  his  vision ;  he  had 
it  as  Sampson  Staniforth  had  his.  What  the  contradiction 
proves  is  the  incurable  looseness  with  which  the  circum- 
stances of  what  is  called  and  thought  a  miracle  are  related  ; 
and  that  this  looseness  the  Bible-relaters  of  a  miracle  ex- 
hibit, just  like  other  people.  And  the  moral  is  :  what  an 
unsure  stay,  then,  must  miracles  be  ! 

'  St.  Paul  and  Protestantism^  p.  54. 


THE  PROOF  FROM  MIRACLES.  103 

But,  after  all,  that  there  is  here  any  contradiction  or 
mistake,  some  do  deny  ;  so  let  us  choose  a  case  where  the 
mistake  is  quite  undeniably  clear.  Such  a  case  we  find  in 
the  confident  expectation  and  assertion,  on  the  part  of  the 
New  Testament  writers,  of  the  approaching  end  of  the 
world.  Even  this  mistake  people  try  to  explain  away  ;  but 
it  is  so  palpable  that  no  words  can  cloud  our  perception  of 
it.  The  time  is  short.  The  Lord  is  at  hand.  The  end  of  all 
things  is  at  hand.  Little  children^  it  is  the  Jinal  time.  The 
Lord's  coming  is  at  hand ;  behold^  the  judge  standeth  before 
the  door.^  Nothing  can  really  obscure  the  evidence  furnished 
by  such  sayings  as  these.  When  Paul  told  the  Thessa- 
lonians  that  they  and  he,  at  the  approaching  coming  of 
Christ,  should  have  their  turn  after,  not  before,  the  faithful 
dead  : — '  For  the  Lord  himself  shall  descend  from  heaven 
with  a  shout,  with  the  voice  of  the  archangel  and  witii  the 
trump  of  God,  and  the  dead  in  Christ  shall  rise  first,  then 
we  which  are  alive  and  remain  shall  be  caught  up  together 
with  them  in  the  clouds,  to  meet  the  Lord  in  the  air,'  ^ — 
when  he  said  this,  St.  Paul  was  in  truth  simply  mistaken  in 
his  notion  of  what  Avas  going  to  happen.  This  is  as  clear  as 
anything  can  be. 

And  not  only  were  the  New  Testament  writers  thus 
demonstrably  liable  to  commit,  like  other  men,  mistakes  in 
fact;  they  were  also  demonstrably  liable  to  commit  mistakes 
in  argument.  As  before,  let  us  take  a  case  which  will  be 
manifest  and  palpable  to  everyone.  St.  Paul,  arguing  to  the 
Galatians  that  salvation  was  not  by  the  Jewish  law  but  by 
Jesus  Christ,  proves  his  point  from  the  promise  to  Abraham 
having  been  made  to  him  and  his  seed,  not  seeds.     The  words 

'  I  Coi-.y  vii,  29;  PJiilipp.,  iv,  5  ;  I  Pet.,  iv,  7  ;  i  John,  ii,  18; 
James,  v,  8,  9.  We  have  here  the  express  declarations  of  St.  Paul, 
St.  Peter,  St.  John,  and  St.  Tames. 

2  i  Thess.y  iv,  16,  17. 


IC4  LITERATURE  AND  DOGMA. 

are  not,  he  says,  '  seeds,  as  of  many,  but  as  of  one  ;  to  thy 
seed,  which  is  Christ'  ^  Now,  as  to  the  point  to  be  proved, 
we  all  agree  with  St.  Paul ;  but  his  argument  is  that  of  a 
Jewish  Rabbi,  and  is  clearly  both  fanciful  and  false.  The 
writer  in  Genesis  never  intended  to  draw  any  distinction  be- 
tween ^;/f  of  Abraham's  seed,  and  Abraham's  seed  in  general. 
And  even  if  he  had  expressly  meant,  what  Paul  says  he  did 
not  mean,  Abraham's  seed  in  general,  he  would  still  have 
said  seed,  and  not  seeds.  This  is  a  good  instance  to  take, 
because  the  Apostle's  substantial  doctrine  is  here  not  at  all 
concerned.  As  to  the  root  of  the  matter  in  question,  we 
are  all  at  one  with  St.  Paul.  But  it  is  evident  how  he  could, 
like  the  rest  of  us,  bring  forward  a  quite  false  argument  in 
support  of  a  quite  true  thesis. 

And  the  use  of  prophecy  by  the  writers  of  the  New 
Testament  furnishes  really,  almost  at  every  turn,  instances 
of  false  argument  of  the  same  kind.  Habit  makes  us  so 
lend  ourselves  to  their  way  of  speaking,  that  commonly 
nothing  checks  us  \  but,  the  moment  we  begin  to  attend, 
we  perceive  how  much  there  is  which  ought  to  check  us. 
Take  the  famous  allegation  of  the  parted  clothes  but  lot- 
assigned  coat  of  Christ,  as  fulfilment  of  the  supposed  pro- 
phecy in  the  Psalms  :  '  They  parted  my  garments  among 
them,  and  for  my  vesture  did  they  cast  lots.'  ^  The  words 
of  the  Psalm  are  taken  to  mean  contrast,  when  they  do  in 
truth  mean  identity.  According  to  the  rules  of  Hebrew 
poetry,  y»r  my  vesture  they  did  cast  lots  is  merely  a  repetition, 
in  different  words,  of  they  parted  my  garmeiits  among  them, 
not  an  antithesis  to  it.  The  alleged  '  prophecy  '  is,  there- 
fore, due  to  a  dealing  with  the  Psalmist's  words  which  is 
arbitrary  and  erroneous.  So,  again,  to  call  the  words,  a 
bone  of  him  shall  not  be  broken?  a  prophecy  of  Christ,  fulfilled 
by  his  legs  not  being  broken  on  the  cross,  is  evidently,  the 

'   (7a/.,  iii,  i6.  -  Ps.  xxii,  i8.  ^  See  John,  xix,  36. 


THE  PROOF  FROM  MIRACLES.  105 

moment  one  considers  it,  a  playing  with  words  which  now- 
adays we  should  account  childish.  For  what  do  the  words, 
taken,  as  alone  words  can  rationally  be  taken,  along  with 
their  context,  really  prophesy?  The  entire  safety  of  the 
righteous,  not  his  death.  Many  are  the  troubles  of  the 
righteous,  but  the  Eternal  deliver eth  him  out  of  all ;  he  keepfth 
all  his  bones,  so  that  not  one  of  tlwn  is  broken}  ^\^orse 
words,  therefore,  could  hardly  have  been  chosen  from  the 
Old  Testament  to  apply  in  that  connexion  where  they 
come  ;  for  they  are  really  contradicted  by  the  death  of 
Christ,  not  fulfilled  by  it. 

It  is  true,  this  verbal  and  unintelligent  use  of  Scripture 
is  just  what  was  to  be  expected  from  the  circumstances  of 
the  New  Testament  writers.  It  was  inevitable  for  them  ; 
it  was  the  sort  of  trifling  which  then,  in  common  Jewish 
theology,  passed  for  grave  argument  and  made  a  serious 
impression,  as  it  has  in  common  Christian  theology  ever 
since.  But  this  does  not  make  it  the  less  really  trifling ; 
or  hinder  one  nowadays  from  seeing  it  to  be  trifling,  directly 
we  examine  it.  The  mistake  made  will  strike  some  people 
more  forcibly  in  one  of  the  cases  cited,  some  in  another, 
but  in  one  or  other  of  the  cases  the  mistake  will  be  visible 
to  everybody. 

Now^,  this  recognition  of  the  liability  of  the  New  Testa- 
ment wTiters  to  make  mistakes,  both  of  fact  and  of  argument^ 
will  certainly,  as  we  have  said,  more  and  more  gain  strength, 
and  spread  wider  and  wider.  The  futiHty  of  their  mode  of 
demonstration  from  prophecy,  of  which  we  have  just  given 
examples,  will  be  more  and  more  felt.  The  fallibility  of 
that  demonstration  from  miracles  to  which  they  and  all 
about  them  attached  such  preponderating  weight,  which 
made  the  disciples  of  Jesus  believe  in  him,  which  made  the 
people  believe  in  him,  will  be  more  and  more  recognised. 

'  Ps.  xxxiv,  19,  20. 


fc.6  LITERATURE  AND  DOGMA. 

Reverence  for  all,  who  in  those  first  dubious  days  of 
Christianity,  chose  the  better  part,  and  resokitely  cast  in 
their  lot  with  'the  despised  and  rejected  of  men'  !  Grati- 
tude to  all,  who,  while  the  tradition  was  yet  fresh,  helped 
by  their  writings  to  preserve  and  set  clear  the  precious 
record  of  the  words  and  life  of  Jesus  !  And  honour, 
eternal  honour,  to  the  great  and  profound  qualities  of  soul 
and  mind  which  some  of  these  writers  display  !  But  the 
writers  are  admirable  for  what  they  are,  not  for  what,  by  the 
nature  of  things,  they  could  not  be.  It  was  superiority 
enough  in  them  to  attach  themselves  firmly  to  Jesus ;  to 
feel  to  the  bottom  of  their  hearts  that  power  of  his  words^ 
which  alone  held  permanently, — held,  when  the  miracles, 
in  which  the  multitude  believed  as  well  as  the  disciples, 
failed  to  hold.  The  good  faith  of  the  Bible-writers  is  above 
all  question,  it  speaks  for  itself;  and  the  very  same  criti- 
cism, which  shows  us  the  defects  of  their  exegesis  and  of 
their  demonstrations  from  miracles,  establishes  their  good 
faith.  But  this  could  not,  and  did  not,  prevent  them  from 
arguing  in  the  methods  by  which  everyone  around  them 
argued,  and  from  expecting  miracles  where  everybody  else 
expected  them. 

In  one  respect  alone  have  the  miracles  recorded  by 
them  a  more  real  ground  than  the  mass  of  miracles  of 
which  we  have  the  relation.  Tsledical  science  has  never 
gauged, — never,  perhaps,  enough  set  itself  to  gauge, — the 
intimate  connexion  between  m^oral  fault  and  disease.  To 
what  extent,  or  in  how  many  cases,  what  is  called  illness 
is  due  to  moral  springs  having  been  used  amiss, — whether 
by  being  over-used  or  by  not  being  used  sufficiently. — we 
hardly  at  all  know,  and  we  far  too  little  inquire.  Certainly 
it  is  due  to  this  very  much  more  than  we  commonly  think  ; 
and  the  more  it  is  due  to  this,  the  more  do  moral  thera- 


THE  PROOF  FROM  MIRACLES.  107 

peutics  rise  in  possibility  and  importance.^  The  bringer  of 
light  and  happiness,  the  cahiier  and  pacifier,  or  invigorator 
and  stimulator,  is  one  of  the  chiefest  of  doctors.  Such  a 
doctor  was  Jesus  ;  such  an  operator,  by  an  efficacious  and 
real,  though  little  observed  and  Httle  employed  agency,  upon 
what  we,  in  the  language  of  popular  superstition,  call  the 
unckajt  spirits,  but  which  are  to  be  designated  more  literally 
and  more  correctly  as  the  uncleared,  unpurified  spirits,  which 
came  raging  and  madding  before  him.  This  his  own  lan- 
guage shows,  if  we  know  how  to  read  it.  '  What  does  it 
matter  whether  I  say,  Thy  sins  are  forgiven  thee  !  or  luhether 
I  say,  Arise  and  walk!'  ^  And  again  :  '  Thou  art  made 
whole;  sin  no  more,  lest  a  worse  thing  befall  thee!  ^  His 
reporters,  we  must  remember,  are  men  who  saw  thauma- 
turgy  in  all  that  Jesus  did,  and  who  saw  in  all  sickness  and 
disaster  visitations  from  God,  and  they  bend  his  language 
accordingly.  But  indications  enough  remain  to  show  the 
line  of  the  Master,  his  perception  of  the  large  part  of  moral 
cause  in  many  kinds  of  disease,  and  his  method  of  address- 
ing to  this  part  his  cure. 

It  would  never  have  done,  indeed,  to  have  men  pro- 
nouncing right  and  left  that  this  and  that  was  a  judgment, 
and  how,  and  for  what,  and  on  whom.  And  so,  when  the 
disciples,  seeing  an  afflicted  person,  asked  whether  this  man 
had  done  sin  or  his  parents,  Jesus  checked  them  and  said  : 
'  Neither  the  one  nor  the  other,  but  that  the  works  of  God 
might  be  made  manifest  in  him.'  '^  Not  the  less  clear  is  his 
own  belief  in  the  moral  root  of  much  physical  disease,  and 
in  moral  therapeutics  ;  and  it  is  important  to  note  well  the 

'  Consult  the  Charmidcs  of  Plato  (cap.  v.)  for  a  remarkable  account 
of  the  theoiy  of  such  a  treatment,  attributed  by  Socrates  to  Zamolxis, 
the^  god-king  of  the  Thracians. 

-  Matth.,  ix,  5.  3  j^i^i-,^  y,^  j^^  4  ]Q\iXi,  ix,  3. 


io8  LITERATURE  AND  DOGMA. 

instances  of  miracles  where  this  belief  comes  in.  For  the 
action  of  Jesus  in  these  instances,  however  it  may  be  ampli- 
fied in  the  reports,  was  real  ;  but  it  is  not,  therefore,  as 
popular  religion  fancies,  thaumaturgy, — it  is  not  what  people 
are  fond  of  calling  the  supernatural,  but  what  is  better  called 
the  non-naiiiral.  It  is,  on  the  contrary,  like  the  grace  of 
Raphael,  or  the  grand  style  of  Phidias,  eminently  natural  \ 
but  it  is  above  common,  low-pitched  nature.  It  is  a  line  of 
nature  not  yet  mastered  or  followed  out. 

Its  significance  as  a  guarantee  of  the  authenticity  of 
Christ's  mission  is  trivial,  however,  compared  with  the 
guarantee  furnished  by  his  sayings.  Its  importance  is  in 
its  necessary  effect  upon  the  beholders  and  reporters.  This 
element  of  what  was  really  wonderful,  unprecedented,  and 
unaccountable,  they  had  actually  before  them  ;  and  we  may 
estimate  how  it  must  have  helped  and  seemed  to  sanction 
that  tendency  which  in  any  case  would  have  carried  them, 
circumstanced  as  they  were,  to  find  all  the  performances 
and  career  of  Jesus  miraculous. 

But,  except  for  this,  the  miracles  related  in  the  Gospels 
will  appear  to  us  more  and  more,  the  more  our  experience 
and  knowledge  increases,  to  have  but  the  same  ground 
which  is  common  to  all  miracles,  the  ground  indicated  by 
Shakespeare  ;  to  have  been  generated  under  the  same  kind 
of  conditions  as  other  miracles,  and  to  follow  the  same  laws. 
When  once  the  'Zeit-Geist'  has  made  us  entertain  the 
notion  of  this,  a  thousand  things  in  the  manner  of  relating 
will  strike  us  which  never  struck  us  before,  and  will  make 
us  wonder  how  we  could  ever  have  thought  differently. 
Discrepancies  which  we  now  labour  with  such  honest  pains 
and  by  such  astonishing  methods  to  explain  away, — the 
voice  at  Paul's  conversion,  heard  by  the  bystanders  accord- 
ing to  one  account,  not  heard  by  them  according  to  another  ; 
the  Holy  Dove  at  Christ's  baptism,  visible  to  John  the 


THE  PROOF  FROM  MIRACLES,  109 

Baptist  in  one  narrative,  in  two  others  to  Jesus  himself,  in 
another,  finally,  to  all  the  people  as  well  ;  the  single  blind 
man  in  one  relation,  growing  into  two  blind  men  in  another  ; 
the  speaking  with  tongues,  according  to  St.  Paul  a  sound 
without  meaning,  according  to  the  Acts  an  intelligent  and 
intelligible  utterance, — all  this  will  be  felt  to  require  really 
no  explanation  at  all,  to  explain  itself,  to  be  natural  to  the 
whole  class  of  incidents  to  which  these  miracles  belong,  and 
the  inevitable  result  of  the  looseness  with  which  the  stories 
of  them  arise  and  are  propagated. 

And  the  more  the  miraculousness  of  the  story  deepens, 
as  after  the  death  of  Jesus,  the  more  does  the  texture  of  the 
incidents  become  loose  and  floating,  the  more  does  the  very 
air  and  aspect  of  things  seem  to  tell  us  we  are  in  wonder- 
land. Jesus  after  his  resurrection  not  known  by  Mary 
Magdalene,  taken  by  her  for  the  gardener ;  appearing  //; 
another  form ^  and  not  known  by  the  two  disciples  going 
with  him  to  Emmaus  and  at  supper  with  him  there  ;  not 
known  by  his  most  intimate  aposdes  on  the  borders  of  the 
Sea  of  Galilee ; — and  presently,  out  of  these  vague  begin- 
nings, the  recognitions  getting  asserted,  then  the  ocular 
demonstrations,  the  final  commissions,  the  ascension  j — one 
hardly  knows  which  of  the  two  to  call  the  most  evident 
here,  the  perfect  simplicity  and  good  faith  of  the  narrators, 
or  the  plainness  with  which  they  themselves  really  say  to 
us  :  Behold  a  legend  grounng-  imder  your  eyes  ! 

And  suggestions  of  this  sort,  with  respect  to  the  whole 
miraculous  side  of  the  New  Testament,  will  meet  us  at 
every  turn  ;  we  here  but  give  a  sample  of  them.  It  is 
neither  our  wish  nor  our  design  to  accumulate  them,  to 
marshal  them,  to  insist  upon  them,  to  make  their  force  felt. 
Let  those  who  desire  to  keep  them  at  arm's  length  continue 
to  do  so,  if  they  can,  and  go  on  placing  the  sanction  of  the 
Christian  religion  in  its  miracles.     Our  point  is    that  the 


no  LITERATURE  AND  DOGMA, 

objections  to  miracles  do,  and  more  and  more  will,  without 
insistence,  without  attack,  without  controversy,  make  their 
own  force  felt ;  and  that  the  sanction  of  Christianity,  if 
Christianity  is  not  to  be  lost  along  with  its  miracles,  must 
be  found  elsewhere. 


CHAPTER  VI. 

THE   NEW  TESTAMENT   RECORD. 

Now,  then,  will  be  perceived  the  bearing  and  gravity  of 
what  I  some  little  way  back  said,  that  the  more  we  con- 
vince ourselves  of  the  liability  of  the  New  Testament  writers 
to  mistake,  the  more  we  really  bring  out  the  greatness  and 
worth  of  the  New  Testament.  For  the  more  the  reporters 
were  fallible  and  prone  to  delusion,  the  more  does  Jesus 
become  independent  of  the  mistakes  they  made,  and  un- 
affected by  them.  We  have  plain  proof  that  here  was  a 
very  great  spirit ;  and  the  greater  he  was,  the  more  certain 
were  his  disciples  to  misunderstand  him.  The  depth  of 
their  misunderstanding  of  him  is  really  a  kind  of  measure 
of  the  height  of  his  superiority.  And  this  superiority  is 
what  interests  us  in  the  records  of  the  New  Testament ;  for 
the  New  Testament  exists  to  reveal  Jesus  Christ,  not  to 
establish  the  immunity  of  its  writers  from  error. 

Jesus  himself  is  not  a  New  Testament  writer  ;  he  is  the 
object  of  description  and  comment  to  the  New  Testament 
writers.  As  the  Old  Testament  speaks  about  the  Eternal 
and  bears  an  invaluable  witness  to  him,  without  yet  ever 
adequately  in  words  defining  and  expressing  him  ;  so,  and 
even  yet  more,  do  the  New  Testament  writers  speak  about 
Jesus  and  give  a  priceless  record  of  him,  without  adequately 
and  accurately  comprehending  him.  They  are  altogether 
on  another  plane  from  Jesus,  and  their  mistakes  are  not  his. 


112  LITERATURE  AND  DOGMA. 

It  is  not  Jesus  himself  who  relates  his  own  miracles  to  us  ; 
who  tells  us  of  his  own  apparitions  after  his  death  ;  who 
alleges  his  crucifixion  and  sufferings  as  a  fulfilment  of  the 
prophecy  :  Tiic  Eiernal  keepeth  all  the  ho7ies  of  the  righteous^ 
so  that  not  one  of  theni  is  broken  \  ^  who  proves  salvation  to 
be  by  Christ  alone,  from  the  promise  to  Abraham  being 
made  to  seed  in  the  singular  number,  not  the  plural.  If, 
therefore,  the  human  mind  is  now  drawing  away  from  reli- 
ance on  miracles,  coming  to  perceive  the  community  of 
character  which  pervades  them  all,  to  understand  their 
natural  laws,  so  to  speak, — their  loose  mode  of  origination 
and  their  untrustworthiness, — and  is  inclined  rather  to  dis- 
trust the  dealer  in  them  than  to  pin  its  faith  upon  him  ;  then 
it  is  good  for  the  authority  of  Jesus,  that  his  reporters  are 
evidently  liable  to  ignorance  and  error.  He  is  reported  to 
deal  in  miracles,  to  be  above  all  a  thaumaturgist.  But  the 
more  his  reporters  were  intellectually  men  of  their  nation 
and  time,  and  of  its  current  beliefs, — the  more,  that  is,  they 
were  open  to  mistakes, — the  more  certain  they  were  to  im- 
pute miracles  to  a  wonderful  and  half-understood  personage 
like  Jesus,  whether  he  would  or  no.  He  himself  may,  at 
the  same  time,  have  had  quite  other  notions  as  to  w^hat  he 
was  doing  and  intending. 

Again,  the  mistake  of  imagining  that  the  world  was  to 
end,  as  St.  Paul  announces,  within  the  lifetime  of  the  first 
Christian  generation,  is  palpable.  But  the  reporters  of 
Jesus  make  him  announcing  just  the  same  thing  :  *  This 
generation  shall  not  pass  away  till  they  shall  see  the  Son  of 
Man  coming  in  the  clouds  with  great  power  and  glory,  and 
then  shall  he  send  his  angels  and  gather  his  elect  from  the 
four  winds.'  ^  Popular  theology  can  put  a  plain  satisfactory 
sense  upon  this,  but,  as  usual,  through  that  process  de- 
scribed by  Butler  by  which  anything  can  be  made  to  mean 
»  Ps.  xxxiv,  20.  2  Matth,,  xxiv,  30,  31,  34. 


THE  NEW  TESTAMENT  RECORD.  11.3 

anything  ;  and  from  this  sort  of  process  the  human  mind  is 
beginning  to  shrink.  A  more  plausible  theology  will  say 
that  the  words  are  an  accommodation ;  that  the  speaker 
lends  himself  to  the  fancies  and  expectations  of  his  hearers. 
A  good  deal  of  such  accommodation  there  is  in  this  and 
other  sayings  of  Jesus  ;  but  accommodation  to  the  full 
extent  here  supposed  would  surely  have  been  impossible, 
To  suppose  it,  is  most  violent  and  unsatisfactory.  Either, 
then,  the  words  w^ere,  Hke  St.  Paul's  announcement,  a 
mistake,  or  they  are  not  really  the  very  words  Jesus  said, 
just  as  he  said  them.  That  is,  the  reporters  have  given 
them  a  turn,  however  slight,  a  tone  and  a  colour,  a  connexion, 
to  make  them  comply  with  a  fixed  idea  in  their  own  minds, 
which  they  unfeignedly  believed  was  a  fixed  idea  with  Jesus 
also.  Now,  the  more  we  regard  the  reporters  of  Jesus  as 
men  liable  to  err,  full  of  the  turbid  Jewish  fancies  about 
*the  grand  consummation'  which  were  then  current,  the 
easier  we  can  understand  these  men  inevitably  putting  their 
own  eschatology  into  the  mouth  of  Jesus,  when  they  had  to 
report  his  discourse  about  the  kingdom  of  God  and  the 
troubles  in  store  for  the  Jewish  nation,  and  the  less  need 
have  we  to  make  Jesus  a  co-partner  in  their  eschatology. 

Again,  the  futility  of  such  demonstrations  from  prophecy 
as  those  of  which  I  have  quoted  examples,  and  generally  of 
all  that  Jewish  exegesis,  based  on  a  mere  unintelligent 
catching  at  the  letter  of  the  Old  Testament,  isolated  from  its 
context  and  real  meaning,  of  which  the  New  Testament 
writers  give  us  so  much,  begins  to  disconcert  attentive 
readers  of  the  Bible  more  and  more,  and  to  be  felt  by  tbem 
as  an  embarrassment  to  the  cause  of  Jesus,  not  a  support. 
Well,  then,  it  is  good  for  the  authority  of  Jesus,  that  those 
who  establish  it  by  arguments  of  this  sort  should  be  clearly 
men  of  their  race  and  time,  not  above  its  futile  methods  of 
reasoning  and  demonstration.     The  more  they  were  this, 


114  LITERATURE  AND  DOGMA. 

and  the  more  they  were  sure  to  mix  up  much  futile  logic 
and  exegesis  with  their  presentation  of  Jesus,  the  less  is 
Jesus  himself  responsible  for  such  logic  and  exegesis,  or  at 
all  dependent  upon  it.  He  may  himself  have  rated  such 
argumentation  at  precisely  its  true  value,  and  have  based 
his  mission  and  authority  upon  no  grounds  but  soUd  ones. 
Whether  he  did  so  or  not,  his  hearers  and  reporters  were 
sure  to  base  it  on  their  own  fantastic  grounds  also,  and  to 
credit  Jesus  with  doing  the  same. 

In  short,  the  more  we  conceive  Jesus  as  almost  as  much 
over  the  heads  of  his  disciples  and  reporters  then,  as  he  is 
over  the  heads  of  the  mass  of  so-called  Christians  now,  and 
the  more  we  see  his  disciples  to  have  been,  as  they  were,  men 
raised  by  a  truer  moral  susceptiveness  above  their  country- 
men, but  in  intellectual  conceptions  and  habits  much  on  a 
par  with  them,  all  the  more  do  we  make  room,  so  to  speak, 
for  Jesus  to  be  a  personage  immensely  great  and  wonderful ; 
as  wonderful  as  anything  his  reporters  imagined  him  to  be, 
though  in  a  different  manner. 


We  make  room  for  him  to  be  this,  and  through  the  in- 
adequate reporting  of  his  follpwers  there  breaks  and  shines, 
and  will  more  and  more  break  and  shine  the  more  the 
matter  is  examined,  abundant  evidence  that  he  was  this.  It 
is  most  remarkable,  and  the  best  proof  of  the  simplicity, 
seriousness,  and  good  faith,  which  intercourse  with  Jesus 
Christ  inspired,  that  witnesses  with  a  fixed  prepossession, 
and  having  no  doubt  at  all  as  to  the  interpretation  to  be  put 
on  his  acts  and  career,  should  yet  admit  so  much  of  what 
makes  against  themselves  and  their  own  power  of  inter- 
preting. For  them,  it  was  a  thing  beyond  all  doubt,  that  by 
miracles  Jesus  manifested  forth  his  glory,  and  induced  the 


THE  NEW   TESTAMENT  RECORD.  115 

faithful  to  believe  in  him.  Yet  what  checks  to  this  para- 
mount and  all-governing  beUef  of  theirs  do  they  report  from 
Jesus  himself  !  Everybody  will  be  able  to  recall  such  checks, 
although  he  may  never  yet  have  been  accustomed  to  consider 
their  full  significance.  Except  ye  see  signs  and  wonders^  ye 
will  not  believe  I  ^ — as  much  as  to  say  :  '  Believe  on  right 
grounds  you  cannot,  and  you  must  needs  believe  on  wrong  ! ' 
And  again  :  '  Believe  me  that  I  am  in  the  Father  and  the 
Father  in  me  ;  or  else  believe  for  the  very  works'  sake  !  '^ — as 
much  as  to  say  :  '  Acknowledge  me  on  the  ground  of  my 
healing  and  restoring  acts  being  miraculous,  if  you  must ; 
but  it  is  not  the  right  ground.'  No,  not  the  right  ground  j 
and  when  Nicodemus  came  and  would  put  behef  in  Christ 
on  this  ground  ('We  know  that  thou  art  a  teacher  come 
from  God,  for  no  one  ca7i  do  the  miracles  that  thou  doest  except 
God  be  with  him '),  Jesus  rejoined  :  '  Verily,  verily,  I  say 
unto  thee,  except  a  inan  be  born  from  above,  he  cannot  see  the 
kingdom  of  God  ! '  thus  tacitly  changing  his  disciple's  ground 
and  correcting  him.^  Even  distress  and  impatience  at  this 
false  ground  being  taken  is  visible  sometimes:  'Jesus 
groaned  in  his  spirit  and  said,  Why  doth  this  generation  ask 
for  a  sign  ?  Verily  I  say  unto  you,  there  shall  no  sign  be 
given  to  this  generation  ! '  *  Who  does  not  see  what  double 
and  treble  importance  these  checks  from  Jesus  to  the 
reliance  on  miracles  gain,  through  their  being  reported  by 
those  who  relied  on  miracles  devoutly  ?  Who  does  not  see 
what  a  clue  they  offer  as  to  the  real  mind  of  Jesus  ?  To 
convey  at  all  to  such  hearers  of  him  that  there  was  any 
objection  to  miracles,  his  own  sense  of  the  objection  must 
have  been  profound  ;  and  to  get  them,  who  neither  shared 
nor  understood  it,  to  repeat  it  a  few  times,  he  must  have 
repeated  it  many  times. 

'  John,  iv,  48.  '  John,  xiv,  ii. 

'  John,  iii,  2,  3.  *  Mark,  viii,  12. 

I  2 


ii6  LITERATURE  AND  DOGMA. 

Take,  agiin,  the  eschatology  of  the  disciples,  their 
notion  of  the  final  things,  of  the  approaching  great  judg- 
ment and  end  of  the  world.  This  consisted  mainly  in  a 
literal  appropriation  of  the  apocalyptic  pictures  of  the  book 
of  Daniel  and  the  book  of  Enoch,  and  a  transference  of 
them  to  Jesus  Christ  and  his  kingdom.  It  is  not  surprising, 
certainly,  that  men  with  the  mental  range  of  their  time,  and 
with  so  little  flexibility  of  thought,  that,  when  Jesus  told  them 
to  beware  of  *  the  leaven  of  the  Pharisees,'  ^  or  when  he 
called  himself  *  the  bread  of  life '  and  said,  He  that  cateih  me 
shall  live  by  me^  they  stuck  hopelessly  fast  in  the  literal 
meaning  of  the  words,  and  were  accordingly  puzzled  or  else 
offended  by  them, — it  is  not  surprising  that  these  men 
should  have  been  incapable  of  dealing  in  a  large  spirit  with 
prophecies  Hke  those  of  Daniel,  that  they  should  have 
applied  them  to  Jesus  narrowly  and  literally,  and  should 
therefore  have  conceived  his  kingdom  unintelligently.  This 
is  not  remarkable  ;  what  is  remarkable  is,  that  they  should 
themselves  supply  us  with  their  Master's  blame  of  their  too 
literal  criticism,  his  famous  sentence  :  '  The  kingdom  of  God 
is  within  you  ! '  ^  Such  an  account  of  the  kingdom  of  God 
has  more  right,  even  if  recorded  only  once,  to  pass  with  us 
for  Jesus  Christ's  own  account,  than  the  common  materiali- 
sing accounts,  if  repeated  twenty  times  ;  for  it  was  manifestly 
quite  foreign  to  the  disciples'  own  notions,  and  they  could 
never  have  invented  it.  Evidence  of  the  same  kind,  again, — 
evidence  borne  by  the  reporters  themselves  against  their 
own  power  of  rightly  understanding  what  their  Master,  on 
this  topic  of  the  kingdom  of  God  and  its  coming,  meant  to 
say, — is  Christ's  warning  to  his  apostles,  that  the  subject  of 
final  things  was  one  where  they  were  all  out  of  their  depth  ; 

»  Matth.,  xvi,  6-12.  ^  JqI^j^,  ^i,  48,  57. 

8  Luke,  xvii,  21. 


THE  NEW  TESTAMENT  RECORD.  117 

^  It  is  not  f 07' you  to  kno'u  the  times  and  seasons  which  the 
.Father  hath  put  in  his  own  power.'  ^ 

So,  too,  with  the  use  of  prophecy  and  of  the  Old  Testa- 
ment generally.  A  very  small  experience  of  Jewish  exegesis 
will  convince  us  that,  in  the  disciples,  their  catching  at  the 
letter  of  the  Scriptures,  and  mistaking  this  play  with  words 
for  serious  argument,  was  nothing  extraordinary.  The  ex- 
traordinary thing  is  that  Jesus,  even  in  the  report  of  these 
critics,  uses  Scripture  in  a  totally  different  manner;  he 
wields  it  as  an  instrument  of  wiiich  he  truly  possesses  the 
use.  Either  he  puts  prophecy  into  act,  and  by  the  startling 
point  thus  made  he  engages  the  popular  imagination  on  his 
side,  makes  the  popular  familiarity  with  prophecy  serve  him; 
as  when  he  rides  into  Jerusalem  on  an  ass,  or  clears  the 
Temple  of  buyers  and  sellers.  Or  else  he  applies  Scripture 
in  what  is  called  'a  superior  spirit,'  to  make  it  yield  to 
narrow-minded  hearers  a  lesson  of  wisdom  ;  as,  for  instance, 
to  rebuke  a  superstitious  observance  of  the  Sabbath  he 
employs  the  incident  of  David's  taking  the  shewbread.  His 
reporters,  in  short,  are  the  servants  of  the  Scripture-letter, 
Jesus  is  its  master  ;  and  it  is  from  the  very  men  who  were 
servants  to  it  themselves,  that  we  learn  that  he  was  master 
of  it.  How  signal,  therefore,  must  this  mastery  have  been  ! 
how  eminently  and  strikingly  different  from  the  treatment 
known  and  practised  by  the  disciples  themselves  ! 

Finally,  for  the  reporters  of  Jesus  the  rule  was,  un- 
doubtedly, that  men  'believed  on  Jesus  when  they  saw 
the  miracles  which  he  did.'  ^  Miracles  were  in  these  re- 
porters' eyes,  beyond  question,  the  evidence  of  the  Christian 
religion.  And  yet  these  same  reporters  indicate  another 
and  a  totally  different  evidence  offered  for  the  Christian 
religion  by  Jesus  Christ  himself.     Eveij  one  that  hearcth 

»  Acts,  i,  7.  2  joi^n,  ii,  23. 


nS  LITERATURE  AND  DOGMA. 

and  learn eth  fi'om  the  Father,  cometh  unto  me}  As  the 
Father  hath  taught  vie,  so  I  speak;  ^  he  that  is  of  God  heareth 
the  words  of  God;^  if  God  was  your  Father,  ye  would  have 
loved  me  !  ^  This  is  inward  evidence,  direct  evidence. 
From  that  previous  knowledge  of  God,  as  '  the  Eternal 
that  loveth  righteousness,'  which  Israel  possessed,  the 
hearers  of  Jesus  could  and  should  have  concluded  irresis- 
tibly, when  they  heard  his  words,  that  he  came  from  God 
Now,  miracles  are  outward  evidence,  indirect  evidence,  not 
conclusive  in  this  fashion.  To  walk  on  the  sea  cannot 
really  prove  a  man  to  proceed  from  the  Eternal  that  loveth 
righteousness  ;  although  undoubtedly,  as  we  have  said,  a 
man  who  walks  on  the  sea  will  be  able  to  make  the  mass  of 
mankind  believe  about  him  almost  anything  he  chooses  to 
say.  But  there  is,  after  all,  no  necessary  connexion  be- 
tween walking  on  the  sea  and  proceeding  from  the  Eternal 
that  loveth  righteousness.  Jesus  propounds,  on  the  other 
hand,  an  evidence  of  which  the  whole  force  lies  in  the 
necessary  connexion  between  the  proving  matter  and  the 
power  that  makes  for  righteousness.  This  is  his  evidence 
for  the  Christian  religion. 

His  disciples  felt  the  force  of  the  evidence,  indeed. 
Peter's  answer  to  the  question,  '  Will  ye  also  go  away  ? ' — 
*  To  whom  should  we  go  7  tJiou  hast  the  words  of  eternal 
life  I '  ^  proves  it.  But  feeling  the  force  of  a  thing  is  very 
different  from  understanding  and  possessing  it.  The  evi- 
dence, which  the  disciples  were  conscious  of  understanding 
and  possessing,  was  the  evidence  from  miracles.  And  yet, 
in  their  report,  Jesus  is  plainly  shown  to  us  insisting  on  a 
different  evidence,  an  internal  one.  The  character  of  the 
reporters  gives  to  this  indication  a  paramount  importance. 
That  they  should  indicate  this  internal  evidence  once,  as  the 

*  John,  vi,  45.  -  John,  viii,  2S.  ^  John,  viii,  47. 

■*  John,  viii,  42.  *  John,  vi,  68. 


THE  NEW  TESTAMENT  RECORD.  119 

evidence  on  v/liich  Jesus  insisted,  is  more  significant,  we  say, 
tlian  their  indicating,  twenty  times,  the  evidence  from 
miracles  as  the  evidence  naturally  convincing  to  mankind, 
and  recommended,  as  they  thought,  by  Jesus.  The  notion 
of  the  one  evidence  they  would  have  of  themselves  ;  the 
notion  of  the  other  they  could  only  get  from  a  superior 
mind.  This  mind  must  have  been  full  of  it  to  induce  them 
to  feel  it  at  all ;  and  their  exhibition  of  it,  even  then,  must 
of  necessity  be  inadequate  and  broken. 

But  is  it  possible  to  overrate  the  value  of  the  ground 
thus  gained  for  showing  the  riches  of  the  New  Testament 
to  those  who,  sick  of  the  popular  arguments  from  pro- 
phecy, sick  of  the  popular  arguments  from  miracles,  are  for 
casting  the  New  Testament  aside  altogether?  The  book 
contains  all  that  we  know  of  a  wonderful  spirit,  far  above 
the  heads  of  his  reporters,  still  farther  above  the  head  of 
our  popular  theology,  which  has  added  its  own  misunder- 
standing of  the  reporters  to  the  reporters'  misunder- 
standing of  Jesus.  And  it  was  quite  inevitable  that  any- 
thing so  superior  and  so  profound  should  be  imperfectly 
understood  by  those  amongst  whom  it  first  appeared,  and 
for  a  very  long  time  afterwards  ;  and  that  it  should  come  at 
last  gradually  to  stand  out  clearer  only  by  time, — Tiine, 
as  the  Greek  maxim  says,  tlie  wisest  of  all  filings,  f 07' he  is  the 
nnf ailing  discoverer. 

Yet,  however  much  is  discovered,  the  object  of  our 
scrutiny  must  still  be  beyond  us,  must  still  transcend  our 
adequate  knowledge,  if  for  no  other  reason,  because  of  the 
character  of  the  first  and  only  records  of  him.  But  in  the 
view  now  taken  we  have, — even  at  the  point  to  which  we 
have  already  come, — at  least  a  wonderful  figure  transcend- 
ing his  time,  transcending  his  disciples,  attaching  them  but 
transcending  them  ;  in  very  much  that  he  uttered  going  far 
above  their  heads,  treating  Scripture  and  prophecy  like  a 


120  LITERATURE  AND  DOGMA. 

master  while  they  treated  it  hke  children,  resting  his  doc- 
trine on  internal  evidence  while  they  rested  it  on  miracles ; 
and  yet,  by  his  incomparable  lucidity  and  penetrativeness, 
planting  his  profound  veins  of  thought  in  their  memory 
along  with  their  own  notions  and  prepossessions,  to  come 
out  all  mixed  up  together,  but  still  distinguishable  one  day 
and  separable  j — and  leaving  his  word  thus  to  bear  fruit  for 
the  future. 

3- 

Truly,  then,  some  one  will  exclaim,  we  may  say  with  the 
*  Imitation  : '  Magna  ars  est  scire  conversari  cum  Jesu ! 
And  so  it  is.  To  extract  from  his  reporters  the  true  Jesus 
entire,  is  even  impossible  ;  to  extract  him  in  considerable 
part  is  one  of  the  highest  conceivable  tasks  of  criticism. 
And  it  is  vain  to  use  that  favourite  argument  of  popular 
theology  that  man  could  never  have  been  left  by  Providence 
in  difficulty  and  obscurity  about  a  matter  of  so  much  im- 
portance to  him.  Such  an  argument  we  arc  not  bound  to 
notice.  For  the  cardinal  rule  of  our  present  inquiry  is  that 
rule  of  Newton's  :  Hypotheses  nonfingo ;  and  this  argument 
of  popular  theology  rests  on  the  eternal  hypothesis  of  a 
magnified  and  non- natural  man  at  the  head  of  mankind's 
and  the  world's  affairs.  And  as  to  the  argument  itself,  even 
if  we  deal  with  it,  we  may  say  that  the  course  of  things,  so 
far  as  v/e  can  see,  is  not  so  ;  things  do  not  proceed  in  this 
fashion.  Because  a  man  has  frequently  to  make  sea-passages, 
he  is  not  gifted  with  an  immunity  from  sea-sickness  ;  because 
a  thing  is  of  the  highest  interest  and  importance  to  know,  it 
is  not,  therefore,  easy  to  know  ;  on  the  contrary,  in  general, 
in  proportion  to  its  magnitude  it  is  difficult,  and  requires 
time. 

But  the  right  commentary  on  the  sentence  of  the  '  Imi- 
tation' is  given  by  the  'Imitation'  itself  in  the  sentence 
following  :    Esto  hwnilis  et  facificus,   et  erit  tecum  Jesus ! 


THE  iNElV  TESTAMENT  RECORD.  121 

What  men  could  take  at  the  hands  of  Jesus,  what  they  could 
•use,  what  could  save  them,  he  made  as  clear  as  light  j  and 
Christians  have  never  been  able,  even  if  they  would,  to  miss 
seeing  it.  No,  never  ;  but  still  they  have  superadded  to  it 
a  vast  Aberglaube,  an  after  or  extra-belief  of  their  own  ;  and 
the  Aberglaiibe  has  pushed  on  one  side,  for  very  many,  the 
saving  doctrine  of  Jesus,  has  hindered  attention  from  being 
riveted  on  this  and  on  its  line  of  growth  and  working,  has 
nearly  effaced  it,  has  developed  all  sorts  of  faults  contrary  to 
it.  This  Abei'glaube  has  sprung  out  of  a  false  criticism  of 
the  literary  records  in  which  the  doctrine  is  conveyed  ; 
what  is  called  '  orthodox  divinity '  is,  in  fact,  an  immense 
literary  misapprehension.  Having  caused  the  saving 
doctrines  enshrined  in  these  records  to  be  neglected,  and 
having  credited  the  records  with  existing  for  the  sake  of  its 
own  Aherglatibe^  this  blunder  now  threatens  to  cause  the 
records  themselves  to  be  neglected  by  all  those  (and  their 
numbers  are  fast  increasing)  whom  its  own  Aberglaiibe  fills 
with  impatience  and  aversion.  Therefore  it  is  needful  to 
show  the  line  of  growth  of  this  Aberglaiibe^  and  its  delu- 
siveness ;  to  show,  and  with  more  detail  than  we  have 
admitted  hitherto,  the  line  of  growth  of  Jesus  Christ's 
doctrine,  and  the  far-reaching  sanctions,  the  inexhaustible 
attractiveness,  the  grace  and  truth,  with  which  he  invested 
it.  The  doctrine  itself  is  essentially  simple ;  and  what  is 
difficult, — the  literary  criticism  of  the  documents  containing 
the  doctrine, — is  not  the  doctrine. 

This  literary  criticism,  however,  is  extremely  difficult. 
It  calls  into  play  the  highest  requisites  for  the  study  of 
letters  ;  great  and  wide  acquaintance  with  the  history  of 
the  human  mind,  knowledge  of  the  manner  in  which  men 
have  thought,  of  their  way  of  using  words  and  of  what  they 
mean  by  them,  delicacy  of  perception  and  quick  tact,  and 
besides  all  these,  a  favourable  moment  and  the  '  Zeit-Geist.' 
And  yet  everyone  among  us  criticises  the  Bible,  and  thinks 


122  LITERATURE  AXD  DOGMA. 

it  is  of  the  essence  of  the  Bible  that  it  can  be  thus  criticised 
with  success  !  And  the  Four  Gospels,  the  part  of  the 
Bible  to  which  this  sort  of  criticism  is  most  applied  and 
most  confidently,  are  just  the  part  which  for  literary  criticism 
is  infinitely  the  hardest,  however  simple  they  may  look,  and 
however  simple  the  saving  doctrine  they  contain  really  is. 
For  Prophets  and  Epistlers  speak  for  themselves  :  but  in  the 
Four  Gospels  reporters  are  speaking  for  Jesus,  who  is  far 
abov£  them. 

Now,  we  all  know  what  the  literary  criticism  of  the  mass 
of  mankind  is.  To  be  worth  anything,  literary  and  scientific 
criticism  require,  both  of  them,  the  finest  heads  and  the 
most  sure  tact ;  and  they  require,  besides,  that  the  world 
and  the  world's  experience  shall  have  come  some  consider- 
able way.  But,  ever  since  this  last  condition  has  been  ful- 
filled, the  finest  heads  for  letters  and  science,  the  surest  tact 
for  these,  have  turned  themselves  in  general  to  other  de- 
partments of  work  than  criticism  of  the  Bible,  this  depart- 
ment being  occupied  already  in  such  force  of  numbers  and 
hands,  if  not  of  heads,  and  there  being  so  many  annoyances 
and  even  dangers  in  freely  approaching  it.  As  our  Re- 
formers were  to  Shakespeare  and  Bacon  in  tact  for  letters 
and  science,  or  as  Luther,  even,  was  to  Goethe  in  this 
respect,  such  almost  has  on  the  whole  been,  since  the 
Renascence,  the  general  proportion  in  rate  of  power  for 
criticism  between  those  who  have  given  themselves  to  secular 
letters  and  science,  and  those  who  have  given  themselves  to 
interpreting  the  Bible,  and  who,  in  conjunction  with  the  po- 
pular interpretation  of  it  both  traditional  and  contemporary, 
have  made  w^hat  is  called  '  orthodox  theology.'  It  is  as  if 
some  simple  and  saving  doctrines,  essential  for  men  to  know, 
w^ere  enshrined  in  Shakespeare's  Hamlet  or  in  Newton's 
Principia  (though  the  Gospels  are  really  a  far  more  complex 
and  difficult  object  of  criticism  than  either)  ;  and  a  host  of 
second-rate  critics,  and  official  critics,  and  what  is  called 


THE  NEW   TESTAMENT  RECORD.  123 

*  the  popular  mind  '  as  well,  threw  themselves  upon  Hamlet 
and  the  Principia,  with  the  notion  that  they  could  and  should 
extract  from  these  documents,  and  impose  on  us  for  our 
belief,  not  only  the  saving  doctrines  enshrined  there,  but 
also  the  right  literary  and  scientific  criticism  of  the  entire 
documents.  A  pretty  mess  they  would  make  of  it !  and  just 
this  sort  of  mess  is  our  so-called  orthodox  theology.  And 
its  professors  are  nevertheless  bold,  overweening,  and  even 
abusive,  in  maintaining  their  criticism  against  all  questioners  ; 
although  really,  if  one  thinks  seriously  of  it,  it  was  a  kind 
of  impertinence  in  such  professors  to  attempt  any  such 
criticism  at  all. 

Happily,  the  faith  that  saves  is  attached  to  the  saving 
doctrines  in  the  Bible,  which  are  very  simple ;  not  to  its 
literary  and  scientific  criticism,  which  is  very  hard.  And  no 
man  is  to  be  called  '  infidel '  for  his  bad  literary  and 
scientific  criticism  of  the  Bible  ;  but  if  he  were,  how  dread- 
ful would  the  state  of  our  orthodox  theologians  be  !  They 
themselves  freely  fling  about  this  word  infidel  at  all  those 
who  reject  their  literary  and  scientific  criticism,  which  turns 
out  to  be  quite  false.  It  would  be  but  just  to  mete  to  them 
with  their  own  measure,  and  to  condemn  them  by  their  own 
rule  ;  and,  when  they  air  their  unsound  criticism  in  public, 
to  cry  indignantly  :  The  Bishop  of  So-and-so,  the  Dean  of 
So-and-so,  and  other  infidel  lectitrers  of  the  prese?it  day  !  or  : 
That  rampant  infidel,  the  Arehdeaeon  of  So-and-so,  in  his 
recent  letter  on  the  Athanasian  Creed  I  or:  'The  Rock,' 
'  The  Church  Times,'  and  the  rest  of  the  infidel  press  I  or  : 
The  torre7it  of  infidelity  7uliich  pours  every  Stmday  fro?n  our 
pulpits  I  Just  would  this  be,  and  by  no  means  inurbane  ; 
but  hardly,  perhaps,  Christian.  Therefore  we  will  not  per- 
mit ourselves  to  say  it ;  but  it  is  only  kind  to  point  out,  in 
passing,  to  these  loud  and  rash  people,  to  what  they  expose 
themselves  at  the  hands  of  adversaries  less  scrupulous  than 
we  are. 


124  LITERATURE  AND  DOGMA. 


CHAPTER  VII. 

THE   TESTIMONY   OF  JESUS   TO    HIMSELF. 

In  our  third  chapter  we  passed  in  brief  review  the  teach- 
ing of  Jesus.  But  there  the  objection  met  us,  that  what 
attested  Jesus  Christ  was  miracles,  and  the  preternatural 
fulfihiient  in  him  of  certain  detailed  predictions  made  about 
him  long  before.  We  had  to  pause  and  deal  with  this 
objection.  And  now,  as  it  disperses,  we  come  in  full  view 
of  our  old  point  again  : — that  what  did  attest  Jesus  Christ, 
was  his  restoration  of  the  intuition,  Jesus  Christ  found 
Israel  all  astray,  with  an  endless  talk  about  God,  the  law, 
righteousness,  the  kingdom,  everlasting  life, — and  no  real 
hold  upon  any  one  of  them.  Israel's  old,  sure  proof  of 
being  in  the  right  way,  his  test  which  anybody  could  at 
once  apply, — the  sanction  of  joy  and  peace, — was  plainly 
wanting.  '  O  Eternal,  blessed  is  the  man  that  putteth 
his  trust  in  thee,'^  was  a  corner-stone  of  Israel's  religion. 
Now,  the  Jewish  people,  however  they  might  talk  about 
putting  their  trust  in  the  Eternal,  were  evidently,  as 
they  stood  there  before  Jesus,- not  blessed  at  all ;  and  they 
knew  it  themselves  as  well  as  he  did.  '  Great  peace  have 
they  who  love  thy  law,'  ^  was  another  cornel -stone.  But  the 
Jewish  people  had  at  that  time  in  its  soul  as  little  peace  as 
it  had  joy  and  blessedness  ;  it  was  seething  with  inward 
unrest,  irritation,  and  trouble.  Yet  the  way  of  the  Eternal 
1  Ps,  Ixxxiv,  13.  "^  Ps.  cxix,  165 


TESTUfOlSIY  OF  JESUS   TO  HIMSELF.       125 

was  most  indubitably  a  way  of  peace  and  joy ;  so,  if  Israel 
felt  no  peace  and  no  joy,  Israel  could  not  be  walking  in  the 
way  of  the  Eternal.  Here  we  have  the  firm,  unchanging 
ground,  on  which  the  operations  of  Jesus  both  began  and 
always  proceeded. 

And  it  is  to  be  observed  that  Jesus  by  no  means  gave  a 
new,  more  precise,  scientific  definition  of  God,  but  took  up 
this  term  just  as  Israel  used  it,  to  stand  for  the  Eternal  that 
loveth  righteousness.  If  therefore  this  term  was,  in  Israel's 
use  of  it,  not  a  term  of  science,  but,  as  we  say,  a  term  of 
common  speech,  of  poetry  and  eloquence,  throum  out  at  a 
vast  object  of  consciousness  not  fully  covered  by  it,  so  it 
was  in  Jesus  Christ's  use  of  it  also.  And  if  the  substratum 
of  real  affirmation  in  the  term  was,  with  Israel,  not  the  affir- 
mation of  '  a  great  Personal  First  Cause,  the  moral  and 
inteUigent  Governor  of  the  universe,'  but  the  affirmation  of 
*  an  enduring  Power,  not  ourselves,  that  makes  for  righteous- 
ness,' so  it  remained  with  Jesus  Christ  likewise.  He  set 
going  a  great  process  of  searching  and  sifting ;  but  this 
process  had  for  its  direct  object  the  idea  of  righteousness^ 
and  only  touched  the  idea  of  God  through  this,  and  not 
independently  of  this  and  immediately.  If  the  idea  of 
righteousness  was  changed,  this  implied,  undoubtedly,  a 
corresponding  change  in  the  idea  of  the  Power  that  makes 
for  righteousness  ;  but  in  this  manner  only,  and  to  this 
extent,  does  the  teaching  of  Jesus  rc-define  the  idea  of 
God. 

But  search  and  sift  and,  renew  the  idea  of  righteousness 
Jesus  did.  And  though  the  work  of  Jesus,  like  the  name 
of  God,  calls  up  in  the  believer  a  multitude  of  emotions 
and  associations  far  more  than  any  brief  definition  can  cover, 
yet,  remembering  Jeremy  Taylor's  advice  to  avoid  exhorta- 
tions to  get  Christ,  to  he  in  Christy  and  to  seek  some  more 
distinct  and  practical  way  of  speaking  of  him,  we  shall  not 


126  LITERATURE  AND  DOGMA, 

J  do  ill,  perhaps,  if  we  summarise  to  our  own  minds  his  work 
'by  saying,  that  he  restored  the  intuition  of  God  through 
).  transforming  the  idea  of  righteousness  ;  and  that,  to  do  this, 
/  he  brought  a  method^  and  he  brought  a  secret.     And  of  those 
two  great  words  w^hich  fill  such  a  place  in  his  gospel,  re- 
pentance ^xi^  peace, — as  we  see  that  his  Apostles,  when  they 
preached  his  gospel,  preached  ^  Repentance  unto  life '  ^  and 
^  Peace  through  Jesus  Christ,' 2— of  these  two  great  words, 
one,  repentance,  attaches  itself,  we  shall  find,  to  his  method, 
and  the  other,  peace,  to  his  secret. 

There  was  no  question  between  Jesus  Christ  and  the 
Jews  as  to  the  object  to  aim  at.  *If  thou  wouldst  enter 
into  life,  keep  the  commandments,'  said  Jesus.^  And  Israel, 
too,  on  his  part,  said  :  '  He  that  keepeth  the  commandments 
keepeth  his  own  soul.'  ■*  But  what  commandments  ?  The 
commandments  of  God;  about  this,  too,  there  was  no 
question.  But :  '  Leaving  the  commandment  of  God,  ye 
hold  the  tradition  of  men;  ye  make  the  commandment  of 
God  of  none  effect  by  your  tradition ;^  said  Jesus.-^  There- 
fore the  commandments  which  Israel  followed  were  not  those 
commandments  of  God  by  which  a  man  keeps  his  own  soul, 
enters  into  life.  And  the  practical  proof  of  this  was,  that 
Israel  stood  before  the  eyes  of  the  world  manifestly  neither 
blessed  nor  at  peace ;  yet  these  characters  of  bliss  and  peace 
the  following  of  the  real  commandments  of  God  was  con- 
fessed to  give.  So  a  rule,  or  method,  was  wanted,  by  which 
to  determine  on  what  the  keeping  of  the  real  command- 
ments of  God  depended. 

And  Jesus  gave  one :  *  The  things  that  come  from  within 
a  man's  heart,  they  it  is  which  defile  him  ! '  ® 

We  have  seen  what  an  immense  matter  conduct  is  ;— 

^  Acts,  xi,  i8.  "  Acts,  X,  36.  ^  Matth.,  xix,  17 

*  Proz'.,  xix,  16.  5  Mark,  vii,  9,  13. 

"  Matth.,  XV,  18;  INIark,  vii,  20,  21. 


TESTIMONY  OF  JESUS   TO  HIMSELF.      127 

that  it  is  three-fourths  of  life.  We  have  seen  how  plain  and 
simple  a  matter  it  is,  so  far  as  knowledge  is  concerned.  We 
have  seen  how,  moreover,  philosophers  are  for  referring  all 
conduct  to  one  or  other  of  man's  two  elementary  instincts, 
— the  instinct  of  self-preservation  and  the  reproductive 
instinct.  It  is  the  suggestions  of  one  or  other  of  these 
instincts,  philosophers  say,  which  call  forth  all  cases  in  which 
there  is  scope  for  exercising  morality,  or  conduct.  And  this 
does,  we  saw,  cover  the  facts  well  enough.  For  we  can  run 
up  nearly  all  faults  of  conduct  into  two  classes, — faults  of 
temper  and  faults  of  sensuality  ;  to  be  referred,  all  of  them, 
to  one  or  other  of  these  two  instincts.  Now,  Jesus  not  only 
says  that  things  coming  from  within  a  man's  heart  defile  him, 
he  adds  expressly  what  these  things  that,  coming  from  widiin 
a  man,  defile  him,  are.  And  what  he  enumerates  are  the 
following  :  '■  Evil  thoughts,  adulteries,  fornications,  murders, 
stealings,  greeds,  viciousnesses,  fraud,  dissoluteness,  envy, 
evil-speaking,  pride,  folly.' '  These  fall  into  two  groups : 
one,  of  faults  of  self-assertion,  graspingness  and  violence, 
all  of  which  we  may  call  faults  of  temper ;  and  the  other, 
of  faults  of  sensuality.  And  the  two  groups,  between  them, 
do  for  practical  purposes  cover  all  the  range  of  faults  pro- 
ceeding from  these  two  sources,  and  therefore  all  the  range 
of  conduct.  So  the  motions  or  impulses  to  faults  of  conduct 
were  what  Jesus  said  the  real  commandments  of  God  are  con- 
cerned with.  And  it  was  plain  what  such  faults  are ;  but, 
to  make  assurance  more  sure,  he  went  farther  and  said  what 
they  are.  But  no  outward  observances  were  conduct,  were 
that  keeping  of  the  commandments  of  God  which  was  the 
keeping  of  a  man's  own  soul  and  made  him  enter  into  life. 
To  have  the  heart  and  thoughts  in  order  as  to  certain  matters, 
was  conduct. 

This  was  the  *  method'  of  Jesus :  the  setting  up  a  great 

•  Mark,  vii,  21,  22. 


128  LITERATURE  AND  DOGMA. 

unceasing  inward  movement  of  attention  and  verification  in 
matters  which  are  three-fourths  of  human  life,  where  to  see 
true  and  to  verify  is  not  difficult,  the  difficult  thing  is  to  care 
and  to  attend.  And  the  inducement  to  attend  was  because 
joy  and  peace,  missed  on  every  other  line,  were  to  be  reached 
on  this. 

2. 

But  for  this  world  of  busy  inward  movement  created  by 
the  method  of  Jesus,  a  rule  of  action  was  wanted ;  and  this 
rule  was  found  in  his  scent.  It  was  this  of  which  the 
Apostle  Paul  afterwards  possessed  himself  with  such  energy, 
and  called  it  *  the  word  of  the  cross,'  ^  or,  neerosis,  'dying.' 
I'he  rule  of  action  St.  Paul  gave  was  :  '  Always  bearing 
about  in  the  body  the  dying  of  Jesus,  that  the  life  also  of 
Jesus  may  be  made  manifest  in  our  body  ! '  ^  In  the 
popular  theurgy,  these  words  are  commonly  referred  to  what 
is  called  '  pleading  the  blood  of  the  covenant,' — relying  on 
the  death  and  merits  of  Christ  (in  pursuance  of  the  contract 
originally  passed  in  the  Council  of  the  Trinity)  to  satisfy 
God's  wrath  against  sinners  and  to  redeem  us.  But  they  do 
really  refer  to  words  of  Jesus,  often  and  often  repeated,  and 
of  which  the  following  may  very  well  stand  as  pre-eminently 
representative  :  ^  He  that  will  save  his  life  shall  lose  it;  he 
that  will  lose  his  life  shall  save  it.  He  that  lovcth  his  life 
shall  lose  it.,  and  he  that  hatcth  his  life  in  this  world  shall  keep 
it  unto  life  eternal.  Whosoever  will  come  after  inc,  let  him 
renounce  himself  and  take  up  his  cross  daily.,  and  follow  ine.^  ^ 

These  words,  or  words  like  them,  were  repeated  again 
and  again,  so  that  no  reporter  could  miss  them.  No  reporter 
did  miss  them.  We  find  them,  as  we  find  the  method  of 
conscience,  in  all  the  four  Gospels.     Perhaps  there  is  no 

^  'O  Ko'^o^  0  ro'd  (TTuvpov. — I  Cor.,  i,  iS.      -  II  Cor.,  iv,  10. 
^  Luke,  ix,  24  ;  John,  xii,  25  ;  Luke,  ix,  23. 


TESTIMONY  OF  JESUS   TO  HIMSELF.      129 

other  maxim  of  Jesus  which  has  such  a  combined  stress  of 
evidence  for  it,  and  may  be  taken  as  so  eminently  his.  And 
no  wonder.  For  the  maxim  contains  his  secret,  the  secret  by 
which,  emphatically,  his  gospel '  brought  life  and  immortality 
to  light' ^  Christ's  metJiod  directed  the  disciple's  eye 
inward,  and  set  his  consciousness  to  work  ;  and  the  first 
thing  his  consciousness  told  him  was,  that  he  had  two  selves 
pulling  him  different  ways.  Till  we  attend,  till  the  method 
is  set  at  work,  it  seems  as  if  '  the  wishes  of  the  flesh  and  of 
the  current  thoughts '  ^  were  to  be  followed  as  a  matter  of 
course  \  as  if  an  impulse  to  do  a  thing  must  mean  that  we 
should  do  it.  But  when  we  attend,  we  find  that  an  impulse 
to  do  a  thing  is  really  in  itself  no  reason  at  all  why  we 
should  do  it ;  because  impulses  proceed  from  two  sources, 
quite  different,  and  of  quite  different  degrees  of  authority. 
St.  Paul  contrasts  them  as  the  inward  man,  and  the  man  in 
our  members  ;  the  mind  of  the  flesh,  and  the  spiritual  mind.* 
Jesus  contrasts  them  as  life,  properly  so  named,  and  life  in 
iliis  zoorld}  And  the  moment  we  seriously  attend  to  con- 
science, to  the  suggestions  which  concern  practice  and 
conduct,  we  can  see  plainly  enough  from  which  source  a 
suggestion  comes,  and  that  the  suggestions  from  one  source 
are  to  overrule  those  from  the  other. 

But  this  is  a  negative  state  of  things,  a  reign  of  check 
and  constraint,  a  reign,  merely,  of  morality.  Jesus  changed 
it  into  what  was  positive  and  attractive,  lighted  it  up,  made 
it  religion,  by  the  idea  of  tivo  lives.  One  of  them  life  pro- 
perly so  called,  full  of  light,  endurance,  felicity,  in  connexion 
with  the  higher  and  permanent  self ;  and  the  other  of  them 

»  II  Tim.,  i,  10. 

*  Ta  OeXrifxara  ttjs  (xapKos  Koi  tuv  Biavoiuv. — Ephesians,  ii,  3. 

*  Rom.,  chap.  viii. 

*  John,  xii,  25.  The  strict  grammatical  and  logical  connexion  of 
the  words  eV  T(p  KSfffxa  rovrcp  is  with  6  fxiauy,  but  the  sense  and  effect 
is  as  given  above. 

K 


130  LITERATURE  AND  DOGMA. 

life  improperly  so  called,  in  connexion  with  the  lower  and 
transient  self.  The  first  hind  of  Hfe  was  already  a  cherished 
ideal  with  Israel  ('  Thou  wilt  show  me  the  path  of  life  f');^ 
and  a  man  might  be  placed  in  it,  Jesus  said,  by  dying  to  the 
second.     For  it  is  to  be  noted  that  our  common  expression, 

*  deny  himself,'  is  an  inadequate  and  misleading  version  of 
the  words  used  by  Jesus.  To  deny  one's  self  is  commonly 
understood  to  mean  that  one  refuses  one's  self  something. 
But  what  Jesus  says  is  :  '  Let  a  man  disomn  himself,  re- 
nounce  himself,  die  as  regards  his  old  self,  and  so  live.' 
Himself^  the  old  man,  the  life  in  this  world,  meant  following 
those  '  wishes  of  the  flesh  and  of  the  current  thoughts  '  which 
Jesus  had,  by  his  method,  already  put  his  disciples  in  the 
way  of  sifting  and  scrutinising,  and  of  trying  by  the  standard 
of  conformity  to  conscience. 

Thus,  after  putting  him  by  his  method  in  the  way  to 
find  what  doing  righteousness  was,  by  his  secret  Jesus  put 
his  disciple  in  the  way  of  doing  it.  For  the  breaking  the 
sway  of  what  is  commonly  called  one's  self,  ceasing  our 
concern  with  it  and  leaving  it  to  perish,  is  not,  Jesus  said, 
being  thwarted  or  crossed,  but  living.  And  the  proof  of  this 
is  that  it  has  the  characters  of  life  in  the  highest  degree, — 
the  sense  of  going  right,  hitting  the  mark,  succeeding.  That 
is,  it  has  the  characters  of  happiness ;  and  happiness  is,  for 
Israel,  the  same  thing  as  having  the  Eternal  with  us,  seeing 
the  salvation  of  God.  *  The  tree,'  as  Jesus  said,  and  as 
men's  common  sense  and  proverbial  speech  say  with  him, 

*  is  known  by  its  fruits  ; '  ^  and  Jesus,  then,  was  to  be  received 
by  Israel  as  sent  from  God,  because  the  secret  of  Jesus  leads 
to  the  salvation  of  God,  which  is  what  Israel  most  desired. 
The  zvord  of  the  cross,  in  short,  turned  out  to  be  at  the  same 
time  the  word  of  the  Mngdom?    And  to  this  experimental 

1  Ps.  xvi,  II.  ^  MaUh.,  xii,  33. 

•  'O  Kiyos  rris  jSacrtAe/ay. — Matth.,  xiii,  19. 


TESTIMONY  OF  yESUS   TO  HIMSELF.       131 

sanction  of  his  secret,  this  sense  it  gives  of  having  the 
Eternal  on  our  side  and  approving  us,  Jesus  appealed  when 
he  said  of  himself :  *  Therefore  doth  my  Father  love  me, 
because  I  lay  down  my  life,  that  I  may  take  it  again.'  * 
This,  again,  in  our  popular  theurgy,  is  materialised  into  the 
First  person  of  the  Trinity  approving  the  Second,  because 
he  stands  to  the  contract  already  in  the  Council  of  the 
Trinity  passed.  But  what  it  really  means  is,  that  the  joy  of 
Jesus,  of  this  'Son  of  Peace,'  ^  the  'joy'  he  was  so  desirous 
that  his  disciples  should  find  '  fulfilled  in  themselves,'  ^  was 
due  to  his  having  himself  followed  his  own  secret.  And! 
the  great  counterpart  to  :  A  iife-gizmg  change  of  the  iiineA 
man, — the  promise  :  Peace  through  Jesus  Christ !  * — is  peace! 
through  this  secret  of  his. 

Now,  the  value  of  this  rule  that  one  should  die  to  one's 
apparent  self,  live  to  one's  real  self,  depends  upon  whether 
it  is  true.  And  true  it  certainly  is ; — a  profound  truth  of 
what  our  scientific  friends,  who  have  a  systematic  philosophy 
and  a  nomenclature  to  match,  and  who  talk  of  Egoism  and 
AlfrutS7n,  would  call,  perhaps,  psycho- physiology.  And  we 
may  trace  men's  experience  affirming  and  confirming  it, 
from  a  very  plain  and  level  account  of  it  to  an  account 
almost  as  high  and  solemn  as  that  of  Jesus.  That  an 
opposition  there  is,  in  all  matter  of  what  we  call  conduct, 
between  a  man's  first  impulses  and  what  he  ultimately  finds 
to  be  the  real  law  of  his  being ;  that  a  man  accomplishes 
his  right  function  as  a  man,  fulfils  his  end,  hits  the  mark,  in 
giving  eftect  to  the  real  law  of  his  being ;  and  that  happiness 
attends  his  thus  hitting  the  mark, — all  good  observers  report. 
No  statement  of  this  general  experience  can  be  simpler  or 
more  faithful  than  one  given  us  by  that  great  naturalist, 
Aristotle.^     '  In   all   wholes   made  up   of  parts,'   says  he, 

*  John,  X,  17.  -  Luke,  x,  6.  ^  John,  xvii,  13. 

*  Acts,  xi,  18;  x,  36.  *  PoUiics,  i,  5. 

K  2 


133  LITERATURE  AND  DOGMA. 

^  there  is  a  ruler  and  a  ruled  ;  throughout  nature  this  is  so  ; 
we  see  it  even  in  things  without  life,  they  have  their  hannony 
or  law.  The  living  being  is  composed  of  soul  and  body, 
whereof  the  one  is  naturally  ruler  and  the  other  ruled. 
Now  what  is  natural  we  are  to  learn  from  what  fulfils  the 
law  of  its  nature  most,  and  not  from  what  is  depraved.  So 
we  ought  to  take  the  man  who  has  the  best  disposition  of 
body  and  soul  \  and  in  him  we  shall  find  that  this  is  so  ; 
for  in  people  that  are  grievous  both  to  others  and  to  them- 
selves the  body  may  often  appear  ruling  the  soul,  because 
such  people  are  poor  creatures  and  false  to  nature.'  And 
Aristotle  goes  on  to  distinguish  between  the  bod}\  over  which, 
he  says,  the  rule  of  the  soul  is  absolute,  and  the  movement 
of  thought  and  desire,  over  which  reason  has,  says  he,  *  a  con- 
stitutional rule,'  in  words  which  exactly  recall  St.  Paul's 
phrase  for  our  double  enemy  :  *  the  flesh  and  the  current 
thoughts.^  So  entirely  are  we  here  on  ground  of  general 
experience.  And  if  we  go  on  and  take  this  maxim  from 
Stobccus  :  *  All  fine  acquirement  impHes  a  foregoing  effort  of 
self-control ',' ^  or  this  from  Horace:  ^  Ride  your  current 
self  or  it  will  rule  you  I  bridle  it  in  and  chain  it  down  ! '  ^  or 
this  from  Goethe's  autobiography  :  '  Everything  cries  out 
to  us  that  w^e  must  renounce ; '  ^  or  still  more  this  from^  his 
Faust :  *  Thou  must  go  without,  go  without !  that  is  the 
everlasting  song  which  every  hour,  all  our  life  through, 
hoarsely  sings  to  us  ! '  ^ — then  we  have  testimony  not  only  to 
the  necessity  of  this  natural  law  of  rule  and  suppression,  but 

*  ITavrbs  koAou  KTrj/iaros  ttovos  TrpoiTys^Tai  d  /car'  iyKpaieiav, 
'  .     .     .     .     Animum  rege,  qui  nisi  paret 

Iraperat  ;  hunc  frsenis,  hunc  tu  compesce  catenis. 
2  Alles  raft  uns  zu,  dass  wir  entsagen  sollen. 

*  Entbehren  sollst  du  !  soUst  entbehren  { 
Das  ist  der  ewige  Gesang, 

Den  unser  ganzes  Leben  lang 
Uus  heiser  jede  Stunde  singt. 


TESTIMONY  OF  JESUS   TO  HIMSELF.      133 

also  to  the  strain  and  labour  and  suffering  which  attend  it. 
But  when  we  come  a  little  further  and  take  a  sentence  like 
this  of  Plato  :  *  Of  sufferings  and  pains  cometh  helj>,  for  it  is 
not  possible  by  any  other  way  to  be  ridded  of  our  iniquity  ; '  ' 
then  we  get  a  higher  strain,  a  strain  like  St.  Peter's  :  *  He 
that  hath  suffered  in  the  flesh  hath  ceased  from  sin ; '  ^  and 
we  are  brought  to  see,  not  only  the  necessity  of  the  law  of  rule 
and  suppression,  not  only  the  pain  and  siifering  in  it,  but 
also  its  beneficence.  And  this  positive  sense  of  beneficence, 
salutariness,  and  hope,  come  out  yet  more  strongly  when 
Wordsworth  says  to  Duty  :  *  Nor  know  we  anything  so  fair 
as  is  the  smile  upon  thy  face ; '  or  when  Bishop  Wilson 
says  :  'They  that  deny  themselves  will  be  sure  to  find 
their  strength  increased,  their  afi"ections  raised,  and  their 
inward  peace  continually  augmented ; '  and  most  of  all, 
perhaps,  when  we  hear  from  Goethe  :  *  Die  and  come  to 
life  !  for  so  long  as  this  is  not  accomplished  thou  art  but  a 
troubled  guest  upon  an  earth  of  gloom  ! '  ^  But  this  is 
evidently  borrowed  from  Jesus,  and  by  one  whose  testimony 
is  of  all  the  more  weight,  because  he  certainly  would  not 
have  become  thus  a  borrower  from  Jesus,  unless  the  truth 
had  compelled  him. 

And  never  certainly  was  the  joy,  which  in  self-renounce- 
ment underlies  the  pain,  so  brought  out  as  when  Jesus  boldly 
called  the  suppression  of  our  first  impulses  and  current 
thoughts  :  life,  real  life,  eternal  life.  So  that  Jesus  not  only 
saw  this  great  necessary  truth  of  there  being,  as  Aristotle 
says,  in  human  nature  a  part  to  rule  and  a  part  to  be  ruled ; 

*  AC  a.Ayr]56uiou  Kol  odvvwv  yiyverai  i)  w0eAeto,   ov  yap  olov  t€  SaAwj 
adiKLus  aTraKKanetrQai. 
2  I  Pet.,  iv,  I. 

Stirb  und  werde  ! 
Denn,  so  lang  du  das  nicht  hast, 
Bist  du  nur  ein  triiber  Gast 
^uf  der  dunkeln  Erde  J 


134  LITERATURE  AND  DOGMA. 

he  saw  it  so  thoroughly^  that  he  saw  through  the  suffering  at 
its  surface  to  the  joy  at  its  centre,  filled  it  with  promise  and 
hope,  and  made  it  infinitely  attractive.  As  Israel,  therefore, 
is  '  the  people  of  righteousness,'  because,  though  others  have 
perceived  the  importance  of  righteousness,  Israel,  above 
everyone,  perceived  the  happiness  of  it;  so  self-renounce- 
ment,  the  main  factor  in  conduct  or  righteousrfi^  is  *  the 
secret  of  Jesus,'  because,  although  others  have  seen  that  it 
was  necessary,  Jesus,  above  everyone,  saw  that  it  \N2i's>  peace, 
joy,  life. 

Now,  we  may  observe,  that  even  Aristotle  (and  it  is  a 
mark  of  his  greatness)  does  not,  in  the  passage  we  have 
quoted  from  him,  begin  with  a  complete  system  of  psycho- 
physiology,  and  show  us  where  and  how  and  why  in  this 
system  the  rule  of  renouncement  comes  in,  and  draw  out 
for  us  definitively  the  law  of  our  being  towards  which  this 
rule  leads  up.  He  says  that  the  rule  exists,  that  it  is 
ancillary  to  the  law  of  our  being,  and  that  we  are  to  study 
the  best  men,  in  whom  it  most  exists,  to  make  us  see  that  it 
is  thus  ancillary.  He  here  appeals  throughout  to  a  verifying 
sense,  such  as  we  have  said  that  everyone  in  this  great  but 
plain  matter  of  conduct  really  has  ;  he  does  not  appeal  to  a 
speculative  theory  of  the  system  of  things,  and  deduce  con- 
clusions from  it.  And  he  shows  his  greatness  in  this, 
because  the  law  of  our  being  is  7iot  something  which  is 
already  definitively  known  and  can  be  exhibited  as  part  of  a 
speculative  theory  of  the  system  of  things  ;  it  is  something 
which  discovers  itself  and  becomes^  as  we  follow  (among  other 
things)  the  rule  of  renouncement.  What  we  can  say  with 
most  certainty  about  the  law  of  our  being  is,  that  we  find 
the  rule  of  renouncement  practically  lead  up  to  it.  In 
matters  of  practice  and  conduct,  therefore,  an  experience 
like  this  is  really  a  far  safer  ground  to  insist  on  than  any 
speculative  theory  of  the  system  of  things.    And  to  a  theory 


TESTIMONY  OF    JESUS   TO  HIMSELF,      135 

of  such  sort  Jesus  never  appeals.  Here  is  what  characterises 
his  teaching,  and  distinguishes  him,  for  instance,  from  the 
author  of  the  Fourth  Gospel.  This  author  handles  what  we 
may  call  theosophical  speculation  in  a  beautiful  and  im- 
pressive manner;  the  introduction  to  his  Gospel  is  un- 
doubtedly in  a  very  noble  and  profound  strain.  But  it  is 
theory ;  externally  it  seems,  at  any  rate,  to  deliver,  with  the 
forms  of  science,  a  theosophy  not  controllable  by  experi- 
ence. And  therefore  it  is  impossible  even  to  conceive  Jesus 
himself  uttering  the  introduction  to  the  Fourth  Gospel ; 
because  f/ieory  Jesus  never  touches,  but  bases  himself  invari- 
ably on  experience.  True,  the  experience  must,  for  philo- 
sophy, have  its  place  in  a  theory  of  the  system  of  human 
nature,  when  the  theory  is  at  last  ready  and  perfect ;  but 
the  point  is,  that  the  experience  is  ripe  and  solid,  and  fit 
to  be  used  safely,  long  before  the  theory.  And  it  was  the 
experience  which  Jesus  always  used. 

Undoubtedly,  however,  attempts  may  not  improperly  be 
made,  even  now, — by  those,  at  least,  who  have  a  talent  for 
these  matters, — to  exhibit  the  experience,  with  what  leads 
to  it  and  what  derives  from  it,  in  a  system  of  psycho- 
physiology.  And  then,  perhaps,  it  will  be  found  to  be 
connected  with  other  truths  of  psycho-physiology,  such  as 
fthe  unity  of  life,  as  it  is  called,  and  the  impersonality  of 
reason..  Only,  thus  exhibited,  it  will  be  philosophy,  mental 
exercitation,  and  will  concern  us  as  a  matter  of  science,  not 
of  conduct.  And,  as  the  discipline  of  conduct  is  three-fourths 
of  hfe,  for  our  aesthetic  and  intellectual  disciplines,  real  as 
these  are,  there  is  but  one-fourth  of  life  left ;  and  if  we  let 
art  and  science  divide  this  one-fourth  fairly  betv/een  them, 
they  will  have  just  one-eighth  of  life  each. 

So  the  exhibition  of  the  truth  :  '  He  that  Icveth  his  life 
shall  lose  it^  and  he  that  hateth  his  life  in  this  worid  shall 
keep  it  unto  life  eternal^'  in  its  order  and  place  as  a  truth  of 


136  LITERATURE  AND  DOGMA. 

psycho -physiology,  concerns  one-eighth  of  our  Hfe  and  no 

more.     But  Jesus,  we  say,  exhibited  nothing  for  the  benefit 

of  this  one-eighth  of  us  ;  this  is  what  distinguishes  him  from 

all  moralists  and  philosophers,  and  even  from  the  greatest 

of  his  own  disciples.    How  he  reached  a  doctrine  we  cannot 

say  ;  but  he  always  exhibited  it  as  an  intuition  and  practical 

rule,  and  a  practical  rule  which,  if  adopted,  would  have  the 

force  of  an  intuition  for  its  adopter  also.     This  is  why  none 

,  of  his  doctrines  are  of  the  character  of  that  favourite  doctrine 

I  of  our  theologians,  '  the  blessed  truth  that  the  God  of  the 

■1  universe  is  a  Person  ;  *  because  this  doctrine  is  incapable  of 

;  application  as  a  practical  rule,  and  can  never  come  to  have 

^'  the  force  of  an  intuition.     But  what  we  call  the  secret  of 

Jesus  :  ^  He  that  loveth  his  life  shall  lose  it,  and  he  that  hateth 

his  life  in  this  world  shall  keep  it  unto  life  eternal,'  was  a 

truth  of  which  he  could  say  :  '  It  is  so ;  try  it  yourself  and 

you  will  see  it  is  so,  by  the  sense  of  going  right,  hitting  the 

mark,  succeeding,  living,  which  you  will  get.' 

And  the  same  with  the  commandment, '  Love  one  another^  * 
which  is  the  positive  side  of  the  commandment,  '  Renounce 
thyself'^  and,  like  this,  can  be  drawn  out  as  a  truth  of 
psycho-physiology.  Jesus  exhibited  it  as  an  intuition  and  a 
practical  rule ;  and  as  what,  by  being  practised,  would, 
through  giving  happiness,  prove  its  own  truth  as  a  rule  of  life. 
This,  we  say,  is  of  the  very  essence  of  his  secret  of  self-de- 
nouncement, as  of  his  method  of  inwardness  ; — that  its  truth 
will  be  found  to  commend  itself  by  happiness,  to  prove 
itself  by  happiness.  And  of  the  secret  more  especially  is  this 
true.  And  as  we  have  said,  that  though  there  gathers  round 
the  word  '  God '  very  much  besides,  yet  we  shall  in  general, 
in  reading  the  Bible,  get  the  surest  hold  on  the  word  '  God ' 

»  John,  xiii,  34. 

^  *We  knoivXh.'sX  we  have  passed  from  death  to  life,' — how?  ^  bc' 
cause  we  love  the  brethren.'' — See  I  John,  iii,  14. 


TESTIMONY  OF  JESUS   TO  HIMSELF.       137 

by  giving  it  the  sense  of  the  Eternal  Power,  not  ourselves^ 
which  makes  for  righteo2isness,  so  we  shall  get  the  best  hold 
on  many  expressions  of  Jesus  by  referring  them,  though  they 
include  more,  yet  primarily  and  pointedly  to  his  '  secret '  and 
to  the  happiness  which  this  contained.  Bread  of  life,  living 
water,  these  are,  in  general,  Jesus,  Jesus  in  his  whole  being 
and  in  his  total  effect ;  but  in  especial  they  are  Jesus  as 
offering  his  secret.  And  when  Jesus  says  :  '  He  that  eateth 
me  shall  live  by  me  ! '  ^  we  shall  understand  the  words  best 
if  we  think  of  his  seci'et. 

And  so  again  with  the  famous  words  to  the  woman  by  the 
well  in  Samaria  :  '  Whosoever  drinketh  of  this  water  shall 
thirst  again,  but  whosoever  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  spring  of  water  welling  up  unto  ever- 
lasting life.'^  These  words,  how  are  we  to  take  them,  so 
as  to  reach  their  meaning  best?  What  distinctly  is  this 
'water  that  I  shall  give  him'?  Jesus  himself  and  his  word 
no  doubt ;  yet  so  we  come  but  to  that  very  notion,  which 
Jeremy  Taylor  warns  us  against  as  vague,  of  getting  Christ. 
The  Bishop  of  Gloucester  will  tell  us,  perhaps,  that  it  is  *  the 
blessed  truth  that  the  Creator  of  the  universe  is  a  Person,'  or 
the  doctrine  of  the  consubstantiality  of  the  Eternal  Son.  But 
surely  it  would  be  a  strong  figure  of  speech  to  say  of  these 
doctrines,  that  a  man,  after  receiving  them,  could  never 
again  feel  thirsty  ?  See,  on  the  contrary,  how  the  words  suit 
the  secret :  *  He  that  loveth  his  life  shall  lose  it,  and  he  that 
hateth  his  life  in  this  world  shall  keep  it  unto  life  eternal.' 
This  '  secret  of  Jesus,'  as  we  call  it,  will  be  found  applicable 
to  all  the  thousand  problems  which  the  exercise  of  conduct 
daily  offers ;  it  alone  can  solve  them  all  happily,  and  may 
indeed  be  called  '  a  spring  of  water  welling  up  unto  ever- 
lasting life.'  And,  in  general,  wherever  the  words  life  and 
'  John,  vi,  57.  2  John,  iv,  13,  14. 


138  LITERATURE  AND  DOGMA, 

death  are  used  by  Jesus,  we  shall  do  well  to  have  his  'secret* 
at  hand  ;  for  in  his  thoughts,  on  these  occasions,  it  is  never 
far  off. 

/  And  now,  too,  we  can  see  why  it  is  a  mistake,  and  may 
;  lead  to  much  error,  to  exhibit  any  series  of  maxims,  like 
I  those  of  the  Sermon  on  the  Mount,  as  the  ultimate  sum  and 
formula  into  which  Christianity  may  be  run  up.  Maxims  of 
this  kind  are  but  applications  of  the  method  and  the  secret  of 
Jesus  ;  and  the  method  and  secret  are  capable  of  yet  an  in- 
finite number  more  of  such  applications.  Christianity  is  a 
source-,  no  one  supply  of  water  and  refreshment  that  comes 
from  it  can  be  called  the  sum  of  Christianity. 


3- 
A  method  oi  inwardness^  a  secret  oi  self-renoiincement \ — 
but  can  any  statement  of  what  Jesus  brought  be  complete, 
which  does  not  include  that  temper  of  mildness  and  sweet- 
ness in  which  both  of  these  worked  ?  To  the  representative 
texts  already  given  there  is  certainly  to  be  added  this  other : 

*  Learn  of  me  that  L  am  mild  and  loiuly  in  heart,  and  ye  shall 
find  rest  tinto  your  soiils  I '  ^  Shall  we  attach  mildness  to  the 
method^  because,  without  it,  a  clear  and  limpid  view  inwards 
is  impossible?  Or  shall  we  attach  it  to  the  secret! — the 
dying  to  faults  of  temper  is  a  part,  certainly,  of  dying  to  one's 
ordinary  self,  one's  life  in  this  world.  Mildness^  however,  is 
rather  an  element  in  which,  in  Jesus,  both  m,ethod  and  secret 
worked ;  the  medium  through  which  both  the  method  and 
the  secret  were  exhibited.  We  may  think  of  it  as  perfectly 
illustrated  and  exemplified  in  his  answer  to  the  foolish  ques- 
tion. Who  is  the  greatest  in  the  kingdom  of  heaven  ? — when, 
taking  a  little  child  and  setting  him  in  the  midst,  he  said  : 

*  Whosoever  receives  the  kingdom  of  God  as  a  little  child, 

'  RIatth.,  xi,  29. 


TESTIMONY  OF  JESUS   TO  HIMSELF.       139 

the  same  is  the  greatest  in  it.'  ^  Here  are  both  inward  ap- 
praisal and  self-renouncement ;  but  what  is  most  admirable 
is  the  sweet  reasonableness,  the  exquisite,  mild,  winning 
felicity,  with  which  the  renouncement  and  the  inward  ap- 
praisal are  applied  and  conveyed.  And  the  conjunction  of 
the  three  in  Jesus, — the  method  of  inwardness,  and  the  secret 
of  self-renouncement,  working  in  and  through  this  element 
of  mildness, — produced  the  total  impression  of  his  'epieikeia,' 
or  sweet  reasonableness  ;  a  total  impression  ineffable  and  in- 
describable for  the  disciples,  as  also  it  was  irresistible  for 
them,  but  at  which  their  descriptive  words,  words  like  this 
'•  sweet  reasonableness^'  and  like  ^ full  of  grace  and  trnth^'  are 
thrown  out  and  aimed.  ^ 

And  this  total  stamp  of  'grace  and  truth,'  this  exquisite 
conjunction  and  balance,  in  an  element  of  mildness,  of  a 
method  of  inwardness  perfectly  handled  and  a  self- renounce- 
ment perfectly  kept,  was  found  in  Jesus  alone.  What  are 
the  method  of  inwardness  and  the  secret  of  self-renounce- 
ment without  the  sure  balance  of  Jesus,  without  his  epieikeia? 
Much,  but  very  far  indeed  from  what  he  showed  or  what  he 
meant ;  they  come  to  be  used  blindly,  used  mechanically, 
used  amiss,  and  lead  to  the  strangest  aberrations.  St.  Simeon 
Stylites  on  his  column,  Pascal  girdled  with  spikes,  Lacordaire 
flogging  himself  on  his  death-bed,  are  what  the  sec?-ei  by  itself 
produces.  The  method  by  itself  gives  us  our  political  Dis- 
senter, pluming  himself  on  some  irrational  *  conscientious 
objections,'  and  not  knowing,  that  with  conscience  he  has 
done  nothing  until  he  has  got  to  the  bottom  of  conscience, 
and  made  it  tell  him  7'igJif.  Therefore  the  disciples  of  Jesus 
were  not  told  to  believe  in  his  method,  or  to  believe  in  his 
secret,  but  to  believe  in  him ;  they  were  not  told  to  follow 

>  Matth.,  xviii,  1-4  ;  Mark,  ix,  15. 

"  Bossuet  calls  him  le  debonnaire  Jcsiis ;  Cowper  speaks  of  his 
questioning  the  disciples  going  to  Emmaus  '  with  a  Mud,  engaging  air. 


I.40  LITERATURE  AND  DOGMA. 

the  method  or  to  follow  the  secret,  but  they  were  told  : 
*  Follow  me ! '  For  it  was  only  by  fixing  their  heart  and 
mind  on  Jesus  that  they  could  learn  to  use  the  method  and 
secret  right ;  by  '  believing  in  him/  ^feeding  on  him;'  by,  as 
he  often  said,  '  remaiinng  in  him.' 

But  this  is  just  what  Israel  had  been  told  to  do  as  regards 
the  Eternal  himself.  '  I  have  set  the  Eternal  aliuays  before 
me  ;'  'Mine  eyes  are  ever towa?'d the.  Eternal;'  'The  Eternal 
is  the  sfre?igfh  of  my  life  ;'  *  Wait^  I  say,  07i  the  Eternal ! '  ^ 
Now,  then,  let  us  go  back  again  for  a  little  to  Israel,  and  to 
Israel's  belief. 

•  Ps.  xvi,  8;  XXV,  1$;  xxvii,  I,  14. 


141 


CHAPTER    VIII. 

FAITH    IN   CHRIST. 

As  the  Jews  were  always  talking  about  the  Messiah,  so  they 
w^ere  always  talking,  we  know,  about  God.  And  they  believed 
in  God's  Messiah  after  their  notion  of  him,  because  they  be- 
lieved in  God  after  their  notion  of  him  ; — but  both  notions 
were  wrong.  All  their  aspirations  were  now  turned  towards 
the  Messiah ;  whoever  would  do  them  good,  must  first  change 
their  ideal  of  the  Messiah.  But  their  ideal  of  God's  jMessiah 
depended  upon  their  notion  of  God.  This  notion  was  now 
false,  like  their  ideal  of  the  IMessiah  ;  but  once  it  had  been 
true,  or,  at  least,  true  comparatively ; — once  Israel  had  had 
the  intuition  of  God  as  t/ie  Eternal  that  loveth  righteousness. 
And  the  intuition  had  never  been  so  lost  but  that  it  was 
capable  of  being  revived.  To  change  their  dangerous  and 
misleading  ideal  of  God's  Messiah,  therefore,  and  to  make 
the  Jews  believe  in  the  true  Messiah,  could  only  be  accom- 
plished by  bringing  them  back  to  a  truer  notion  of  God  and 
his  righteousness.  By  this  it  could,  perhaps,  be  accomplished, 
but  by  this  only. 

And  this  is  what  Jesus  sought  to  do.  He  sought  to  do 
it  in  the  way  we  have  seen,  by  his  'method'  and  his  'secret.' 
First,  by  his  *  method '  of  a  change  of  the  inner  man.  '  Do 
not  be  all  abroad,  do  not  be  in  the  air,'  ^  he  said  to  his  nation. 
*  You  look  for  the  kingdom  of  God.  The  kingdom  of  God 
is  the  reign  of  righteousness,  God's  will  done  by  all  mankind. 
'  Mr/  fiir6wpi(i(rdtc,     Luke,  xii,  29. 


142  LITERATURE  AND  DOGMA. 

Well,  then,  seek  the  kingdom  of  God  !  the  kingdom  of  God  is 
li'ithin you / ' '^  And,  next,  by  his  'secret'  of  peace.  ^  Re- 
nounce  thyself  and  take  up  thy  cross  daily  and  folloiu  me  !  ^ 
He  that  loveth  his  life  shall  lose  if,  and  he  that  hateth  his  life 
in  this  world  shall  keep  it  unto  life  eternal.^  ^  And  the  revo- 
lution thus  made  was  so  immense,  that  the  least  in  this  new 
kingdom  of  heaven,  this  realm  of  the  'method'  and  the 
'secret,'  was  greater,  Jesus  said,  than  one  who,  like  John  the 
Baptist,  was  even  greatest  in  the  old  realm  of  Jewish  religion.* 
And  those  who  obeyed  the  gospel  of  this  new  kingdom  came 
to  the  light ',  ^  they  had  Joy ;  ^  they  entered  into  peace  ;  ^ 
they  ceased  to  thirst :  the  word  became  in  them  a  spring 
of  water  welling  up  unto  everlasting  life}  But  these  were 
the  admitted  tests  of  righteousness,  of  obeying  the  voice  of 
the  Eternal  who  loveth  righteousness.  'There  ariseth  light 
for  the  righteous,  and  gladness  for  the  upright  in  heart ;  ^  he 
that  feareth  the  Eternal,  blessed  is  he  ! '  ^° 

Now,  the  special  value  of  the  Fourth  Gospel  is,  not  that 
it  exhibits  the  method  and  secret  of  Jesus, — for  all  the 
Gospels  exhibit  them, — but  that  it  exhibits  the  establish- 
ment of  them  by  means  of  Israel's  own  idea  of  God,  cleared 
and  re-awakened.  The  argument  is  :  '  You  are  always  talk- 
ing about  God,  God's  word,  righteousness ;  always  saying 
that  God  is  your  Father,  and  will  send  his  Messiah  for  your 
salvation.  Well,  he  who  receives  me  shows  that  he  talks 
about  God  with  a  knowledge  of  what  he  is  saying ;  he  sets 
to  his  seal  that  God  is  true.^^  He  zvho  is  of  God  heareth  the 
%007'ds  of  God;^'^  every  one  that  heareth  and  learneth  of  the 
Father  cometh  unto  ;;/^,^^  and  ye  have  not  his  luord  abiding  in 

*  Luke,  xvii,  21.  '   Luke,  ix,  23.  '  John,  xii,  25. 

♦  Matth.,  xi,  II.  *  John,  iii,  21.  «  John,  xvii,  13. 
'  John,  xvi,  33.              *  John,  iv,  14.  »  Ps.  xcvii,  11. 

*<*  Ps.  cxii,  I.  "  John,  iii,  33.  '2  John,  viii,  47. 

»'  John   vi,  45. 


FAITH  IN  CHRIST.  143 

yoii^  because^  luhom  he  hath  sent,  him  ye  believe  not;  *  if  any 
one  will  do  GotTs  will  he  shall  know  of  the  doctrine,  7uhether 
it  be  of  God.''^  This,  therefore,  is  what  Jesus  said  : — 'I, 
whose  message  of  salvation  is  :  If  a  man  keep  my  word  he 
shall  never  see  death  I  "^  am  sent  of  God;  because  he,  who 
obeys  my  saying  :  Renoimce  thyself  and  follow  me!^  shall 
feel  that  he  truly  lives,  and  that  he  is  following,  therefore, 
Israel's  God  of  whom  it  is  said  :  Thou  wilt  show  me  the  path 
of  life:  ^ 

The  doctrine  therefore  is  double  : — Renounce  thyself  the 
secret  of  Jesus,  involving  a  foregoing  exercise  of  his  method  ; 
and,  Folloiv  me,  ivho  am  sent  from  God!  That  is  the 
favourite  expression  : — Sent  from  God.  '  I  come  forth  from 
the  Father  ;  the  Father  hath  sent  me  ;  God  hath  sent  me.'  ^ 
Now  this  identified  Jesus  and  his  salvation  with  the  Messiah 
whom,  with  his  salvation,  the  Jews  were  expecting.  For  his 
disciples  therefore,  and  for  Christendom  after  them,  Jesus 
was  and  is  the  Messiah  or  Christ. 

Meanwhile,  as  with  the  w^ord  God,  so  with  the  word 
Christ.  Jesus  did  not  give  any  scientific  definition  of  it, — 
such  as,  for  instance,  that  Christ  was  the  Logos.  He  took 
the  word  Christ  as  the  Jews  used  it,  as  he  took  the  word 
God  as  the  Jews  used  it.  And  as  he  amended  their  notion 
of  God,  the  Eternal  7vho  loveth  righteousness,  by  showing 
what  righteousfiess  really  was,  so  he  amended  their  notion 
of  the  Messiah,  the  chosen  bringer  of  God's  salvation,  by 
showing  what  salvation  really  was.  And  though  his  own 
application  of  terms  to  designate  himself  is  not  a  matter 
where  we  can  perfectly  trust  his  reporters  (as  it  is  clear,  for 
instance,  that  the  writer  of  the  Fourth  Gospel  was  more 
metaphysical  than  Jesus  himself),^  yet  there  is  no  difficulty 
'  John,  V,  38.  -  John,  vii,  17.  ^  JqI^^,  viii,  51. 

*  Matth.,  xvi,  24.  s  Fs.  xvi,  ii. 

*  John,  xvi,  27,  28,  30 ;  vi,  57  ;  vii,  29  ;  viii,  42  ;  xvii,  8. 

*  It  is  to  be  remembered  too,  that  whereas  Jesus  spoke  in  Aramaic, 


144  LITERATURE  AND  DOGMA. 

in  supposing  him  to  have  applied  to  himself  each  and  all 
of  the  terms  which  the  Jews  in  any  way  used  to  describe 
the  Messiah, — Messiah  or  Christy  God's  Chosen  or  Beloved 
or  Consecrated  or  Glorified  One^  the  Son  of  God,  the  Son  of 
Man ;  because  his  concern,  as  we  have  said,  was  with  his 
countrymen's  idea  of  salvation,  not  with  their  terms  for  desig- 
nating the  bringer  of  it.  But  the  simplest  term,  the  term 
which  gives  least  opening  into  theosophy, — Son  of  Man ^ — he 
certainly  preferred.  So,  too,  he  loved  the  simple  express 
sions,  '  God  sent  me  ,'  '  The  Father  hath  sent  me  j '  and  he 
chose  so  often  to  say,  in  a  general  manner,  '  I  am  He^  ^ 
rather  than  to  say  positively,  '  I  am  the  Christ.' 

And  evidently  this  mode  of  speaking  struck  his  hearers. 
We  find  the  Jews  saying  :  '  How  long  dost  thou  make  tis  to 
doubt  1  if  thou  be  the  Christ,  tell  us  plaifily.'^  And  even 
then  Jesus  does  not  answer  point-blank,  but  prefers  to  say : 
'  I  have  told  you,  and  ye  believe  not.'  Yet  this  does  not  imply 
that  he  had  the  least  doubt  or  hesitation  in  naming  himself 
the  Messiah,  the  Son  of  God ;  but  only  that  his  concern 
was,  as  we  have  said,  with  God's  righteousness  and  Christ's 
salvation^  and  that  he  avoided  all  use  of  the  names  God,  and 
Christ,  which  might  give  an  opening  into  mere  theosophical 
speculation.  And  this  is  shown,  moreover,  by  the  largeness 
and  freedom, — almosL,  one  may  say,  indifference, — of  his 
treatment  of  both  names ;  as  names,  in  using  which,  his 
hearers  were  always  in  danger  of  going  off  into  a  theosophy 
that  did  them  no  good  and  had  better  occupy  them  as  little 

the  most  concrete  and  unmetaphysical  of  languages,  he  is  reported  in 
Greek,  the  most  metaphysical.  What,  in  the  mouth  of  Jesus,  was  ihe 
word  which  comes  to  us  as  /.lovoyevrts  {only  hegottai)  ?  Probably  the 
simple  Aramaic  word  for  unique,  only.  And  yet,  in  the  Greek  record, 
even  the  word  [xovoyeuijs  is  not,  like  only  begotten  in  our  translation, 
reserved  for  Christ ;  see  Luke,  vii,  12;  viii,  42  ;  ix,  38. 

*  John,  iv,  26 ;  viii,  24,  28.  ^  John,  x,  24. 


FAITH  IN  CHRIST,  145 

as  possible.  '/  and  my  Father  are  one  !^^  he  would  say  at 
one  time  ;  and,  '  Aly  Father  is  greater  than  II '  ^  at  another. 
When  the  Jews  were  offended  at  his  calling  himself  the  Son 
of  God,  he  quotes  Scripture  to  show  that  even  mere  men 
were  in  Scripture  called  Gods ;  and  for  you,  he  says,  who  go 
by  the  letter  of  Scripture,  surely  this  is  sanction  enough  for 
calling  anyone,  whom  God  sends,  the  Son  of  God!^  He 
did  not  at  all  mean,  that  the  Messiah  was  a  son  of  God 
merely  in  the  sense  in  which  any  great  man  might  be  so 
called  ;  but  he  meant  that  these  questions  of  theosophy  were 
useless  for  his  hearers,  and  that  they  puzzled  themselves  with 
them  in  vain.  All  they  were  concerned  with  was,  that  he 
was  the  Messiah  they  expected,  sent  to  them  with  salvation 
from  God. 

It  is  the  same  when  Jesus  says  :  '  Before  Abraham  was, 
I  am  ! '  "*  He  was  baffling  his  countrymen's  theosophy, 
showing  them  how  little  his  doctrine  was  meant  to  offer  a 
field  for  it.  '  Life,'  he  means,  *  the  life  of  him  who  laysdoivn 
his  life  that  he  may  take  it  again^^  is  not  what  you  suppose. 
Your  notions  of  life  and  death  are  all  false,  and  with  your 
present  notions  you  cannot  discuss  theology  with  me ; 
follow  me  ! '  So,  again,  to  the  Jews  in  the  rut  of  their 
traditional  theology,  and  haggling  about  the  Son  of  David  ; 
— Jesus,  they  insisted,  could  not  be  the  Christ,  because  the 
Christ  was  the  Son  of  David.  Jesus  answers  them  by  the 
objection  that  in  the  Psalms  (and  the  Scripture  cannot  be 
broken  !)  David  calls  the  Christ  his  Lord  ;  and  *  if  he  call 
him  Lord,  how  is  he  then  his  son  ? '  ^  The  argument  as  a 
serious  argument  is  perfectly  futile.  The  king  of  God's 
chosen  people  is  going  out  to  war,  and  what  the  Psalmist 
really  sings  is  :  '  The  Eternal  saith  unto  the  king's  majesty, 
Tho7i  shalt  conquer!'     St.   Peter  in  the  Acts  gravely  uses 

*  John,  X,  30.  -  John,  xiv,  28.  *  John,  x,  34-36. 

*  John,  viii,  58.  *  John,  x,  17.  «  Matth.,  xxii,  42^45, 


146  LITERATURE  AND  DOGMA. 

the  same  verse  to  prove  Jesus  to  be  Christ :  '  God,'  says  he, 
'tells  my  Lord,  Sit  thou  up07i  my  7'ight  ha7id !  Yet  David 
never  went  up  into  heaven.'  ^  Now,  this  is  exactly  of  a 
piece  with  St.  Paul's  proving  salvation  to  be  by  Christ  alone, 
from  seed^  in  the  promise  to  Abraham,  being  in  the  singular 
not  the  plural. 2  It  is  merely  false  criticism  of  the  Old 
Testament,  such  as  the  Jews  were  full  of,  and  of  which  the 
Apostles  retained  far  too  much.  But  the  Jews  were  full  of 
it,  and  therefore  the  objection  of  Jesus  was  just  such  an 
objection  as  the  Jews  would  think  weighty.  He  used  it  as 
he  might  have  used  a  crux  about  personality  or  consub- 
stantiality  with  the  Bishops  of  Winchester  or  Gloucester  j — 
to  baffle  and  put  to  rout  their  false  dogmatic  theology,  to 
disenchant  them  with  it  and  make  them  cast  it  aside  and 
come  simply  to  ///;;/.  '■  See,'  he  says  to  the  Jewish  doctors, 
*  what  a  mess  you  make  of  it  with  your  learning,  and  evi- 
dences, and  orthodox  theology ;  with  the  wisdom  of  your 
wise  men  and  the  understanding  of  your  prudent  meii  I  You 
can  do  nothing  with  them,  your  arms  break  in  your  hands. 
Fling  the  rubbish  away,  cease  from  your  own  ivisdom,^  and 
throw  yourselves  upon  my  method  and  secret,— upon  7ne  / 
Believe  that  the  Father  hath  se7it  me ;  he  that  receiveth  77ie 
receiveth  Hi7n  thatse7it  me.  If  a7iy  ma7i  will  do  His  will,  he 
shall  k7iow  of  the  doctri7ie  whether  it  be  of  God,  or  whether 
I  have  i7ive7ited  it ! '  ^ 

And  no  grand  performance  or  discovery  of  a  man's  own 
to  brhig  him  thus  to  joy  and  peace,  but  an  attachment !  the 
influence  of  One  full  of  grace  and  truth  !  An  influence, 
which  we  feel  we  know  not  how,  and  which  subdues  us 
we  know  not  when ;  which,  like  the  wind,  breathes  where  it 
lists,  passes  here,  and  does  not  pass  there  !  Once  more, 
then,  we  come  to  that  root  and  ground  of  religion,  that 

»  Acts,  ii,  34.  =  GaL,  iii,  16. 

*  Prav.,  xxiii,  4.  *  John,  xii,  44 ;  xiii»  20;  vii,  17. 


FAITH  IN  CHRIST.  147 

element  of  awe  and  gratitude  which  fills  religion  with  emo- 
tion, and  makes  it  other  and  greater  than  morality, — the  7iot 
ourselves.  We  did  not  make  the  order  of  conduct,  or  pro- 
vide that  happiness  should  belong  to  it,  or  dispose  our  hearts 
to  it.  Mans  goings  are  of  the  Eternal,  as  Israel  said  ;  Eternal, 
I  know  that  the  way  of  maji  is  not  in  himself^  Neither 
did  we  invent  Jesus,  or  make  the  '  grace  and  truth '  of  Jesus, 
or  provide  that  happiness  should  belong  to  feeling  them,  or 
dispose  our  hearts  to  feel  them.  No  man  caji  come  to  me, 
as  Jesus  said,  except  the  Father  which  sent  me  draw  him."^ 
So  the  revelation  of  Jesus  Christ  in  the  New  Testament  is 
like  the  revelation  of  the  God  of  Israel  in  the  Old,  in  being 
the  revelation  of  'the  Eternal  not  ourselves  which  makes  for 
righteousness.'  It  is  like  it,  and  has  the  same  power  of' 
religion  in  it. 

2. 

Thus,  then,  did  Jesus  seek  to  transform  the  immense 
materialising  Aherglauhe,  into  which  the  religion  of  Israel 
had  fallen,  and  to  spiritualise  it  at  all  points  ;  while  in  his 
method  and  secret  he  supplied  a  sure  basis  for  practice. 
But  to  follow  him  entirely  there  was  needed  an  epieikeia, 
an  unfailing  sweetness  and  unerring  perception,  hke  his 
own.  It  was  much  if  his  disciples  got  firm  hold  on  his 
method  and  his  secret  ;  and  if  they  transmitted  fragments 
enough  of  his  lofty  spiritualism  to  make  it  in  the  fulness 
of  time  discernible,  and  to  make  it  at  once  and  from  the 
first  in  a  large  degree  serviceable.  Who  can  read  in  the 
Gospels  the  comments  preserved  to  us,  both  of  disciples 
and  of  others,  on  what  he  said,  and  not  feel  that  Jesus 
must  have  known,  while  he  nevertheless  persevered  in  saying 
them,  how  things  like  :  '  Before  Abraham  was,  I  ai?t,'  ^  or  : 

»  Frov.,  XX,  24  ;  Jer.,  x,  23.  2  John,  vi,  44. 

3  John,  viii,  5S, 
L2 


148  LITERATURE  AND  DOGMA, 

*  /  ivill  not  leave  you  comfo7'tless^  I  will  come  tmto  you^  ^ 
would  be  misapprehended  by  those  who  heard  them  ? 

But,  indeed,  Jesus  himself  tells  us  that  he  knew  and 
foresaw  this.  With  the  promise  of  the  Spirit  of  truth  which 
should,  after  his  departure,  work  in  his  disciples  first,  then 
in  the  world,  and  which  should  convince  the  world  of  sin,  of 
righteousness,  and  of  judgment,  and  finally  transform  it,  we 
are  all  familiar.  But  we  do  not  enough  remark  the  impres- 
sive words,  uttered  to  the  crowd  around  him  only  a  little 
while  before,  and  of  far  wider  application  than  the  reporter 
imagined.  '  Yet  a  little  while  is  the  light  with  you;  walk 
while  ye  have  the  light,  lest  the  darkness  overtake  you  un- 
awares / '  2  The  real  application  cannot  have  been  to  the 
unconverted  only  ;  a  call  to  the  unconverted  to  make  haste 
because  their  chance  of  conversion  would  soon,  with  Christ's 
departure,  be  gone.  No,  converts  came  in  far  thicker 
after  Christ's  departure  than  in  his  life.  The  words  are  for 
the  converted  also.  It  is  as  if  Jesus  foresaw  the  want  of 
his  sweet  reasonableness,  which  he  could  not  leave,  to  help 
his  method  and  his  secret,  which  he  could  leave ;  as  if  he 
foresaw  his  words  misconstrued,  his  rising  to  eternal  life 
turned  into  a  physical  miracle,  the  advent  of  the  Spirit  of 
truth  turned  into  a  scene  of  thaumaturgy,  Peter  proving  his 
Master's  Messiahship  from  a  Psalm  that  does  not  prove  it, 
the  great  Apostle  of  the  Gentiles  word-splitting  like  a 
pedantic  Rabbi,  the  most  beautiful  soul  among  his  own 
reporters  saddling  him  with  metaphysics ; — foresaw  the 
growth  of  creeds,  the  growth  of  dogma,  and  so  through  all 
the  confusion  worse  confounded  of  councils,  schoolmen, 
and  confessions  of  faith,  down  to  our  own  two  bishops  bent 
on  '  doing  something '  for  the  honour  of  the  Godhead  of  the 
Eternal  Son ! 

'  John,  xiv,  i8«  ^  John,  xii,  35. 


149 


CHAPTER   IX. 

ABERGLAUBE   RE-INVADING. 

Miracles,  and,  above  all,  the  crowning  miracles  of  the  Resur- 
rection and  Ascension  to  be  followed  by  the  second  Advent, 
were  from  the  first  firmly  fixed  as  parts  of  the  disciples'  belief. 
^  Behold^  he  cometh  with  clouds ;  and  every  eye  shall  see  him, 
and  they  also  ivhich  pierced  him,  and  all  kindreds  of  the  earth 
shall  wail  because  of  him  / '  ^  As  time  went  on,  and  Chris- 
tianity spread  wider  and  wider  among  the  multitudes,  and 
with  less  and  less  of  control  from  the  personal  influence  of 
Jesus,  Christianity  developed  more  and  more  its  side  of 
miracle  and  legend  ;  until  to  believe  Jesus  to  be  the  Son  of 
God  meant  to  believe  the  points  of  the  legend, — his  preter- 
natural conception  and  birth,  his  miracles,  his  descent  into 
hell,  his  bodily  resurrection,  his  ascent  into  heaven,  and 
his  future  triumphant  return  to  judgment.  And  these  and 
like  matters  are  what  popular  religion  drew  forth  from  the 
records  of  Jesus  as  the  essentials  of  belief.  These  essen- 
tials got  embodied  in  a  short  fonnulary ;  and  so  the  creed 
which  is  called  the  Apostles'  Creed  came  together. 

It  is  not  the  apostles'  creed,  for  it  took  more  than  five 
hundred  years  to  grow  to  maturity.  It  was  not  the  creed  of 
any  single  doctor  or  body  of  doctors,  but  it  was  a  sort  of 
summary  of  Christianity  which  the  people,  the  Church  at 
large,  would  r.aturally  develope ;  it  is  the  popular  science  of 
Christianity.  Given  the  alleged  charge  :  '  Go  ye  and  teach 
all  nations,  baptising  them  in  the  name  of  the  Father,  the 

*  Raxlation,  i,  7, 


150  LITERATURE  AND  DOGMA. 

Son,  and  the  Holy  Spirit,'  ^  and  the  candidate  for  baptism 
would  naturally  come  to  have  a  profession  of  faith  to  make 
respecting  that  whereinto  he  was  baptized ;  this  profession 
of  faith  would  naturally  become  just  such  a  summary  as  the 
Apostles'  Creed.  It  contains  no  mention  of  either  the 
'  method '  or  the  '  secret,'  it  is  occupied  entirely  with  external 
facts ;  and  it  mxay  be  safely  said,  not  only  that  such  a  summary 
of  religious  faith  could  never  have  been  delivered  by  Jesus, 
but  it  could  never  have  been  adopted  as  adequate  by  any 
of  his  principal  apostles,  by  Peter,  or  Paul,  or  John.  But 
it  is,  as  we  have  said,  the  popular  science  of  Christianity. 

Years  proceeded.  The  world  came  in  to  Christianity ; 
the  world,  and  the  world's  educated  people,  and  the  educated 
people's  Ar}^an  genius  with  its  turn  for  making  rehgion  a 
metaphysical  conception ;  and  all  this  in  a  time  of  declining 
criticism,  a  time  when  the  possibility  of  true  scientific  criti- 
cism, in  any  direction  whatever,  was  lessening  rather  than 
increasing.  The  popular  science  was  found  not  elaborate 
enough  to  satisfy.  Ingenious  men  took  its  terms  and  its  data, 
and  applied  to  them,  not  an  historical  criticism  showing  how 
they  arose,  but  abstruse  metaphysical  conceptions.  And  so 
we  have  the  so-called  Nicene  Creed,  which  is  the  learned 
science  of  Christianity,  as  the  Apostles'  Creed  is  the  popular 
science. 

Now,  how  this  sort  of  learned  science  is  related  to  the 
Bible  we  shall  feel,  if  we  compare  the  religious  utterances 
of  its  doctors  with  the  religious  utterances  of  the  Bible. 
Suppose,  for  instance,  we  compare  with  the  Psalms  the 
Soliloquies  of  St.  Augustine,  a  truly  great  and  religious 
man  ;  and  of  St.  Augustine,  not  in  school  and  controversy, 
but  in  religious  soliloquy.  St.  Augustine  prays  :  '  Come 
to  my  help,  thou  one  God,  one  eternal  true  substance,  where 
is  no  discrepancy,  no  confusion,  no  transience,  no  indigency, 
'  Matth.,  xxviii,  19. 


ABERGLAUBE  RE-h\VADING.  151 

no  death ;  where  is  supreme  concord,  supreme  evidence, 
supreme  constancy,  supreme  plenitude,  supreme  hfe  ;  where 
nothing  is  lacking,  nothing  is  over  and  above  ;  where  he 
w^ho  begets  and  he  who  is  begotten  of  him  are  one  ;  God, 
above  whom  is  nothing,  outside  whom  is  nothing,  with- 
out whom  is  nothing;  God,  beneath  whom  is  the  whole, 
in  whom  is  the  whole,  with  whom  is  the  whole  ! '  And  a 
further  Book  of  Soliloquies^  popularly  ascribed  to  St.  Augus- 
tine and  printed  with  his  works,  but  probably  of  a  later 
date  and  author,  shows  the  full-blown  development  of  all 
this,  shows  the  inevitable  results  of  bringing  to  the  idea  of 
God  this  play  of  intellectual  fancy  so  alien  to  the  Bible. 
The  passages  we  will  quote  take  evidently  their  inspiration 
from  the  words  of  St.  Augustine  just  given,  and  even  retain 
in  some  degree  his  forms  of  expression  :  '  Holy  Trinity, 
superadmirable  Trinity,  and  superinenarrable,  and  superin- 
scrutable,  and  superinaccessible,  superincomprehcnsible, 
superintelligible,  superessential,  superessentially  surpassing 
all  sense,  all  reason,  all  intellect,  all  intelligence,  all  essence 
of  supercelestial  minds ;  which  can  neither  be  said,  nor 
thought,  nor  understood,  nor  known  even  by  the  eyes  of 
angels  !'  And  again,  more  practically,  but  still  in  the  same 
style  :  *  O  three  co-equal  and  co-eternal  Persons,  one  and 
true  God,  Father  and  Son  and  Holy  Ghost,  who  by  thyself 
inhabitest  eternity  and  light  inaccessible,  who  hast  founded 
the  earth  in  thy  power,  and  rulest  the  world  by  thy  prudence, 
Holy,  Holy,  Holy,  Lord  God  of  Sabaoth,  terrible  and  strong, 
just  and  merciful,  admirable,  laudable,  amiable,  one  God, 
three  persons,  one  essence,  power,  wisdom,  goodness,  one 
and  undivided  Trinit}^,  open  unto  me  that  cry  unto  Thee 
the  gates  of  righteousness  ! ' 

And  now  compare  this  with  the  Bible  : — Teach  me  to  do 
the  thing  that  plcaseth  thee,  for  thou  art  my  God!  let  thy 
loving  spirit  lead  me  forth  into  the  land  of  righteousness  I ' 
*  Ps.  cxliii.  10. 


152  LITERATURE  AND  DOGMA. 

That  is  Israel's  way  of  praying !  that  is  how  a  poor  ill- en- 
dowed Semite,  belonging  to  the  occipital  races,  unhelped 
by  the  Aryan  genius  and  ignorant  that  religion  is  a  meta- 
physical conception,  talks  religion!  and  we  see  what  a 
different  thing  he  makes  of  it. 

But,  finally,  the  original  Semite  fell  more  and  more  into 
the  shade.  The  Aryans  came  to  the  front,  the  notion  of 
religion  being  a  metaphysical  conception  prevailed.  But 
the  doctors  differed  in  their  metaphysics  ;  and  the  doctors 
who  conquered  enshrined  their  victorious  form  of  metaphy- 
sics in  a  creed,  the  so-called  Creed  of  St.  Athanasius,  which 
is  learned  science  Uke  the  Nicene  Creed,  but  learned  science 
which  has  fought  and  got  ruffled  by  fighting,  and  is  fiercely 
dictatorial  now  that  it  has  won ;  learned  science  zuith  a  strong 
dash  of  violent  and  vmdictive  temper.  Thus  we  have  the 
three  creeds  :  the  so-called  Apostles'  Creed,  popular  science; 
the  Nicene  Creed,  learned  science  ;  the  Athanasian  Creed, 
learned  science  with  a  strong  dash  of  temper.  And  the  two 
latter  are  founded  on  the  first,  taking  its  data  just  as  they 
stand,  but  dressing  them  metaphysically. 

Now  this  first  Creed  is  founded  on  a  supposed  final 
charge  from  Jesus  to  his  apostles :  '  Go  ye  and  teach  all 
nations,  baptizing  them  in  the  name  of  the  Father,  the  Son, 
and  the  Holy  Ghost  ! '  ^  It  explains  and  expands  what  Jesus 
here  told  his  apostles  to  baptize  the  world  into.  But  we 
have  already  remarked  the  difference  in  character  between 
the  narrative,  in  the  Gospels,  of  what  happened  before 
Christ's  death,  and  the  narrative  of  what  happened  after  it. 
For  all  words  of  Jesus  placed  after  his  death,  the  internal 
evidence  becomes  pre-eminently  important.  He  may  well 
nave  said  words  attributed  to  him,  but  not  then.  So  the 
speech  to  Thomas,  *  Because  thou  hast  seen  me  thou  hast 
believed;  blessed  are  they  who  have  not  seen  and  yet  have 
believed ! '  ^  may  quite  well  have  been  a  speech  of  Jesus 

*  Matth..  xxviii,  19.  *  John,  xx,  29. 


ABERGLAUBE  RE-tNVADlMG.  153 

uttered  on  some  occasion  during  his  life,  and  then  transferred 
to  the  story  of  the  days  after  his  resurrection  and  made  the 
centre  of  this  incident  of  the  doubt  of  Thomas.  On  the  other 
hand,  again,  the  prophecy  of  the  details  of  Peter's  death  ^  is 
almost  certainly  an  addition  after  the  event,  because  it  is  not 
at  all  in  the  manner  of  Jesus.  What  is  in  his  manner,  and  what 
he  had  probably  at  some  time  said,  are  the  words  given  else- 
where :  '  Whither  I  go  thou  canst  not  follow  me  now,  but 
thou  shalt  follow  me  afterwards.'  ^  So,  too,  it  is  extremely 
improbable  that  Jesus  should  have  ever  charged  his  apostles 
to  '  baptize  all  nations  in  the  name  of  the  Father,  the  Son, 
and  the  Holy  Ghost.'  There  is  no  improbability  in  his 
investing  them  with  a  very  high  commission.  He  may 
perfectly  well  have  said  :  '  Whosesoever  sins  ye  remit,  they 
are  remitted;  whosesoever  sins  ye  retain,  they  are  retained.'^ 
But  it  is  almost  impossible  he  can  have  given  this  charge  to 
baptize  in  the  name  of  the  Father,  the  Son,  and  the  Holy 
Ghost  j  it  is  by  far  too  systematic  and  what  people  are  fond 
of  calling  an  anachronism.  It  is  not  the  least  like  what 
Jesus  was  in  the  habit  of  saying,  and  it  is  just  like  what 
would  be  attributed  to  him  as  baptism  and  its  formula  grew 
in  importance.  The  genuine  charge  of  Jesus  to  his  apostles 
ivas,  almost  certainly :  '  As  my  Father  sent  me,  even  so  send 
I  you,'  ^  and  not  this.  So  that  our  three  creeds,  and  with 
them  the  whole  of  our  so-called  orthodox  theology,  are 
founded  upon  words  which  Jesus  in  all  probability  never 
uttered. 


We  may  leave  all  questions  about  the  Church,  its  rise, 
and  its  organisation,  out  of  sight  altogether.  Much  as  is 
made  of  them,  they  are  comparatively  unimportant.     Jesus 

*  John,  xxi,  18.  2  John,  xiii,  i^, 

*  John,  XX,  23.  «  John,  xx,  22. 


134  LITERATURE  AND  DOGMA. 

never  troubled  himself  with  what  are  called  Church  matters 
at  all ;  his  attention  was  fixed  solely  upon  the  individual. 
His  apostles  did  what  was  necessary,  as  such  matters  came 
to  require  a  practical  notice  and  arrangement ;  but  to  the 
apostles,  too,  they  were  still  quite  secondary.  The  Church 
grew  into  something  quite  different  from  what  they  or  Jesus 
had,  or  could  have  had,  any  thought  of.  But  this  was  of  no 
importance  in  itself ;  and  how  believers  should  organise 
their  society  as  circumstances  changed,  circumstances  them- 
selves might  very  well  decide. 

The  one  important  question  was  and  is,  how  believers 
laid  and  kept  hold  on  the  revelations  contained  in  the 
Bible  j  because  for  the  sake  of  these  it  confessedly  is,  that 
every  church  exists.  Even  the  apostles,  we  have  seen,  did 
not  lay  hold  on  them  perfectly.  In  their  attachment  to 
miracles,  in  the  prominence  they  gave  to  the  crowning 
miracles  of  Christ's  bodily  resurrection  and  second  advent, 
they  went  aside  from  the  saving  doctrine  of  Jesus  themselves, 
and  were  sure, — which  was  worse, — to  make  others  go  aside 
from  it  ten  thousand  times  more.  I)Ut  they  were  too  near 
to  Jesus  not  to  have  been  able  to  preserve  the  main  Hnes  of 
his  teaching,  to  preserve  his  way  of  using  words  ;  and  they 
did,  in  fact,  preserve  them. 

But  at  their  death  the  immediate  remembrance  of  Jesus 
faded  away,  and  whatever  Aberglaiibe  the  apostles  themselves 
had  had  and  sanctioned  was  left  to  work  without  check. 
And,  at  the  same  time,  the  world  and  society  presented  con- 
ditions constantly  less  and  less  favourable  to  sane  criticism. 
And  it  was  then,  and  under  these  conditions,  that  the  dogma 
which  is  now  called  orthodox,  and  which  our  dogmatic 
friends  imagine  to  be  purely  a  methodical  arrangement  of 
the  admitted  facts  of  Christianity,  grew  up.  We  have 
shown  from  the  thing  itself,  by  putting  the  dogma  in  com- 
parison with  the  genuine  teaching  of  Jesus,  hew  little  it  is 


155 

this ;  but  it  is  well  to  make  clear  to  oneself,  also  (for  one  can), 
from  the  circumstances  of  the  case,  that  it  could  not  be  this. 
For  dogmatic  theology  is,  in  fact,  an  attempt  at  both 
literary  and  scientific  criticism  of  the  highest  order  ;  and  the 
age  which  developed  dogma  had  neither  the  resources  nor 
the  faculty  for  such  a  criticism.  It  is  idle  to  talk  of  the 
theological  instinct,  the  analogy  of  faith,  as  if  by  the  mere 
occupation  with  a  Hmited  subject-matter  one  could  reach 
the  truth  about  it.  It  is  as  if  one  imagined  that  by  the  mere 
study  of  Greek  we  could  reach  the  truth  about  the  origin  of 
Greek  words,  and  dogmatise  about  them  ;  and  could  appeal 
to  our  supposed  possession,  through  our  labours,  of  the 
philological  instinct,  the  analogy  of  language,  to  make  our 
dogmatism  go  down.  In  general  such  an  instinct,  whether 
theological  or  philological,  will  n\ean  merely,  that,  having 
accustomed  ourselves  to  look  at  things  through  a  glass  of  a 
certain  colour,  v/e  see  them  always  of  that  colour.  What 
the  science  of  Bible-criticism,  like  all  other  science,  needs, 
is  a  very  wide  experience  from  comparative  observation  in 
many  directions,  and  a  very  slowly  acquired  habit  of  mind. 
All  studies  have  the  benefit  of  these  guides,  when  they  exist, 
and  one  isolated  study  can  never  have  the  benefit  of  them  by 
itself  There  is  a  common  order,  a  general  level,  a  uniform 
possibility,  for  these  things.  As  were  the  geography,  history, 
physiology,  cosmology,  of  the  men  who  developed  dogma, 
so  was  also  their  faculty  for  a  scientific  Bible-criticism,  such 
as  dogma  pretends  to  be.  Now  we  know  what  their  geo- 
graphy, history,  physiology,  cosmology,  were.  Cosmas  In- 
dicopleustes,  a  Christian  navigator  of  Justinian's  time,  denies 
that  the  earth  is  spherical,  and  asserts  it  to  be  a  flat  surface 
with  the  sky  put  over  it  like  a  dish  cover.  The  Christian 
metaphysics  of  the  same  age  applying  the  ideas  of  substance 
and  identity  to  what  the  Bible  says  about  God,  Jesus,  and 
the  Holy  Spirit,  are  on  a  par  with  this  natural  philosophy. 


156  LITERATURE  AND  DOGMA. 

And  again,  as  one  part  of  their  scientific  Bible-criticism, 
so  the  rest.  We  have  seen  in  the  Bible-^\Titers  themselves 
a  quite  uncritical  use  of  the  Old  Testament  and  of  prophecy. 
Now,  does  this  become  less  in  the  authors  of  our  dogmatic 
theology, — a  far  more  pretentious  effort  of  criticism  than 
the  Bible-writers  ever  made, — or  does  it  become  greater  ? 
It  becomes  a  thousand  times  greater.  Not  only  are  definite 
predictions  found  where  they  do  not  exist, — as,  for  example, 
in  Isaiah's  I  ivill  restore  thy  judges  as  at  thefirst^^  is  found  a 
definite  foretelling  of  the  Apostles, — but  in  the  whole  Bible 
a  secret  allegorical  sense  is  supposed,  higher  than  the 
natural  sense  ;  so  that  Jerome  calls  tracing  the  natural  sense 
an  eating  dust  like  the  serpent,  in  inodum  serpentis  terrain 
comedere.  Therefore,  for  one  expounder,  Isaiah's  prophecy 
against  Egypt :  The  Eternal  rideth  upon  a  light  cloudy  and 
shall  come  into  Egypt^  is  the  flight  into  Egypt  of  the  Holy 
Family,  and  the  light  cloud  is  the  virgin-born  body  of  Jesus ; 
for  another,  The  government  shall  be  upon  his  shoulder^  is 
Christ's  carrying  upon  his  shoulder  the  cross  ;  for  another, 
The  lion  shall  eat  straw  like  the  ox,'^  is  the  faithful  and  the 
wicked  alike  receiving  the  body  of  Christ  in  the  Eucharist. 

These  are  the  men,  this  is  the  critical  faculty,  from  which 
our  so-called  orthodox  dogma  proceeded.  The  worth  of  all 
the  productions  of  such  a  critical  faculty  is  easy  to  estimate, 
for  the  worth  is  nearly  uniform.  When  the  Rabbinical  ex- 
pounders interpret:  IVoe  unto  them  that  lay  field  to  field  !^ 
as  a  prophetic  curse  on  the  accumulation  of  Church  pro- 
perty, or :  Woe  7uito  them  that  rise  tfp  early  in  the  morning 
that  they  may  follow  strong  drink /^  as  a  prediction  of  the 
profligacy  of  the  Church  clergy,  or  :  Woe  unto  them  that  draw 
iniquity  with   cords  of  vanity  P  as   God's  malediction  on 

>  Is.,  i,  26.  2  Is, J  xix,  I.  »  Is.,  ix,  6. 

<  Is.,  Ixv,  25.  ^  Is.,  V,  8.  *  Is.,  V,  II, 

»  Is.,  V,  18. 


ABERGLAUBE  RE-INVADING.  157 

Church  bells,  we  say  at  once  that  such  critics  thus  give  their 
measure  as  interpreters  of  the  true  sense  of  the  Bible.  The 
moment  we  think  seriously  and  fairly,  we  must  see  that  the 
Patristic  interpretations  of  prophecy  give,  in  like  manner, 
their  authors'  measure  as  interpreters  of  the  true  sense  of 
the  Bible.  Yet  this  is  what  the  dogma  of  the  Nicene  and 
Athanasian  Creeds  professes  to  be,  and  must  be  if  it  is  to 
be  worth  anything, — the  true  sense  extracted  from  the  Bible  ; 
for,  *  the  Bible  is  the  record  of  the  whole  revealed  faith,' 
says  Cardinal  Newman.  But  we  see  how  impossible  it  is 
that  this  true  sense  the  dogma  of  these  creeds  should  be. 

Therefore  it  is,  that  it  is  useful  to  give  signal  instances 
of  the  futility  of  patristic  and  medi?eval  criticism  ;  not  to 
raise  an  idle  laugh,  but  because  our  whole  dogmatic  theo- 
logy has  a  patristic  and  mediaeval  source,  and  from  the 
nullity  of  the  deliverances  of  this  criticism,  where  it  can  be 
brought  manifestly  to  book,  may  be  inferred  the  nullity  of 
its  deliverances,  where,  from  the  impalpable  and  incog- 
nisable  character  of  the  subjects  treated,  to  bring  it  mani- 
festly to  book  is  impossible.  In  the  account  of  the  Creation, 
in  the  first  chapter  of  Genesis,  'the  greater  light  to  rule  the 
day,  is  the  priesthood ;  *  the  lesser  light  to  rule  the  night,'  ^ 
borrowing  its  beams  from  the  greater,  is  the  Holy  Roman 
Empire.  When  the  disciples  of  Jesus  produced  two  swords 
and  Jesus  said  :  '  It  is  enough,'  2  he  meant,  we  are  told,  the 
temporal  and  the  spiritual  power,  and  that  both  were  neces- 
sary and  both  at  the  disposal  of  the  Church  ;  but  by  savins 
afterwaids  to  Peter,  after  he  had  cut  off  the  ear  of  Alalchus  : 
Tut  up  thy  sword  into  the  sheath,' ^  he  meant  that  the 
Church  was  not  to  wield  the  temporal  powxr  itself,  but  to 
employ  the  secular  government  to  wield  it.  Now,  this  is  the 
very  same  force  of  criticism  which  in  the  Athanasian  Creed 

*  Gen.,  i,  16.  2  L^^i^g,  xxii,  38. 

^  John,  xviii,  li. 


icS  LITERATURE  AND  DOGMA. 

'arranged,  sentence  after  sentence,'  that  doctrine  of  the 
Godhead  of  the  Eternal  Son  for  which  the  Bishops  of  Win- 
chester and  Gloucester  are  so  anxious  to  'do  something.' 

The  Schoolmen  themselves  are  but  the  same  false  criti- 
cism developed,  and  clad  in  an  apparatus  of  logic  and  system. 
In  that  grand  and  instructive  repertory  founded  by  the 
Benedictines,  the  Histoire  Litter  aire  de  la  France^  we  read 
that  in  the  theological  faculty  of  the  University  of  Paris,  the 
leading  medieval  university,  it  was  seriously  discussed 
whether  Jesus  at  his  ascension  had  his  clothes  on  or  not. 
If  he  had  not,  did  he  appear  before  his  apostles  naked  ?  if 
he  had,  what  became  of  the  clothes  ?  Moiistroiis  I  everyone 
will  say.^  Yes,  but  the  very  same  criticism,  only  full-blown, 
which  produced  :  '  Neither  confounding  the  Persons  nor 
dividing  the  Substance.'  The  very  same  criticism,  which 
originally  treated  terms  as  scientific  which  v/ere  not  scientific ; 
which,  instead  of  applying  literary  and  historical  criticism  to 
the  data  of  popular  Aberglaiibe,  took  these  data  just  as  they 
stood  and  merely  dressed  them  scientifically. 

Catholic  dogma  itself  is  true,  urges,  however.  Cardinal 
Newman,  because  intelligent  Catholics  have  dropped  errors 
and  absurdities  like  the  False  Decretals  or  the  works  of  the 
pretended  Dionysius  the  Areopagite,  but  have  not  dropped 
dogma.  This  is  only  saying  that  men  drop  the  more  palp- 
able blunder  before  the  less  palpable.  The  adequate  criti- 
cism of  the  Bible  is  extremely  difficult,  and  slowly  does  the 
'  Zeit-Geist '  unveil  it.  Meanwhile,  of  the  premature  and 
false  criticism  to  which  w^e  are  accustomed,  we  drop  the 
evidently  weak  parts  first ;  we  retain  the  rest,  to  drop  it 
gradually  and  piece  by  piece  as  it  loosens  and  breaks  up. 

•  Be  it  observed,  however,  that  there  is  an  honest  scientific  effort 
in  the  Schooh-nen,  and  that  to  this  sort  of  thing  one  really  does  come, 
when  one  fairly  sets  oneself  to  treat  miracles  literally  and  exactly ;  but 
most  of  us  are  content  to  leave  them  in  a  half  light. 


ABERGLAUBE  RE-INVADING.  159 

But  it  is  all  of  one  order,  and  in  time  it  will  all  go.  Not  the 
Athanasian  Creed's  damnatory  clauses  only,  but  the  whole 
Creed ;  not  this  one  Creed  only,  but  the  three  Creeds, — 
our  whole  received  application  oi science^  popular  or  learned, 
to  the  Bible.  For  it  was  an  inadec^uate  and  false  science, 
and  could  not,  from  the  nature  of  the  case,  be  otherwise. 

3. 

And  now  we  see  how  much  that  clergyman  deceives 
himself,  who  writes  to  the  G2iardian  :  '  The  objectors  to  the 
Athanasian  Creed  at  any  late  admit,  that  its  doctrinal 
portions  are  truly  the  carefully  distilled  essence  of  the  scat- 
tered intimations  of  Holy  Scripture  on  the  deep  mysteries 
in  question, — priceless  discoveries  made  in  that  field.' 
When  one  has  travelled  to  the  Athanasian  Creed  along  the 
gradual  line  of  the  historical  development  of  Christianity, 
instead  of  living  stationary  all  one's  life  widi  this  Creed 
blocking  up  the  view,  one  is  really  tempted  to  say,  when  one 
reads  a  deliverance  like  that  of  this  clergyman  :  Sanda 
simplicitas!  It  is  just  because  the  Athanasian  Creed  pre- 
tends to  be,  in  its  doctrine,  '  the  carefully  distilled  essence 
of  the  scattered  intimations  of  Holy  Scripture,'  and  is  so  very 
fa?' from  it,  that  it  is  worthless.  It  is  '  the  carefully  distilled 
essence  of  the  scattered  intimations  of  Holy  Scripture'  just 
as  that  allegory  of  the  two  swords  was.  It  is  really  a  mixture, 
— for  true  criticism,  as  it  ripens,  it  is  even  a  grotesque  mixture, 
— of  learned  pseudo-science  with  popular  Aberglanhe. 

But  it  cannot  be  too  carefully  borne  in  mind  that  the 
real  'essence  of  Holy  Scripture,'  its  saving  truth,  is  no  such 
criticism  at  all  as  the  so-called  orthodox  dogma  attempts 
and  attempts  unsuccessfully.  No,  the  real  essence  of  Scrip- 
ture is  a  much  simpler  matter.  It  is,  for  the  Old  Testament  : 
To  Jiim  that  ordereth  his  conversation  right  shall  he  shown  the 
salvation  of  God  I — and,  for  the  New  Testament  :  Follow 


i6o  LITERATURE  AND  DOGMA. 

fesus !  This  is  Bible-dogma,  as  opposed  to  the  dogma  of 
our  formularies.  On  this  Bible-dogma  if  Churches  were 
founded,  and  to  preach  this  Bible-dogma  if  ministers  were 
ordained,  Churches  and  ministers  would  have  all  the  dogma 
to  which  the  Bible  attaches  eternal  life.  Plain  and  precise 
enough  it  is,  in  all  conscience  ;  with  the  advantage  of  being 
precisely  rights  whereas  the  dogma  of  our  formularies  is  pre- 
cisely wrong.  And  if  anyone  finds  it  too  simple,  let  him 
remember  that  its  hardness  is  practical,  not  speculative.  It 
is  a  rule  of  conduct ;  let  him  act  it,  and  he  will  find  it  hard 
enough.  Utinam  per  iinnm  diem  bene  esse??ms  conversati  in 
hoc  vinndo  !  But  as  a  matter  of  mere  knowledge  it  is  very 
simple,  it  lies  on  the  surface  of  the  Bible  and  cannot  be 
missed. 

And  the  holders  of  ecclesiastical  dogma  have  always,  we 
must  repeat  and  remember,  held  and  professed  this  Bible- 
dogma  too.  Their  ecclesiastical  dogma  may  have  prevented 
their  attending  closely  enough  to  the  Bible-dogma,  may 
have  led  them  often  to  act  false  to  it ;  but  they  have  always 
held  it.  The  method  and  the  secret  of  Jesus  have  been  always 
prized.  The  Catholic  Church  from  the  first  held  aloft  the 
secret  of  Jesus ;  the  monastic  orders  were  founded,  we  may 
say,  in  homage  to  it.  And  from  time  to  time,  through  the 
I  course  of  ages,  there  have  arisen  men  who  threw  themselves 
on  the  method  and  secret  of  Jesus  with  extraordinary  force, 
with  intuitive  sense  that  here  was  salvation  ;  and  who 
really  cared  for  nothing  else,  though  ecclesiastical  dogma, 
too,  they  professed  to  believe,  and  sincerely  thought  they 
did  believe, — but  their  heart  was  elsewhere.  These  are 
they  who  *  received  the  kingdom  of  God  as  a  little  child,* 
who  perceived  how  simple  a  thing  Christianity  was,  though 
so  inexhaustible,  and  who  are  therefore  '  the  greatest  in  the 
kingdom  of  God.'  And  they,  not  the  theological  doctors, 
are  the  true  lights  of  the  Christian  Church ;  not  Augustine, 


ABERGLAUBE  RE-INVADING.  i6i 

Luther,  Bossuet,  Butler,  but  the  nameless  author  of  the 
Imitation^  but  Tauler,  but  St.  Francis  of  Sales,  Wilson  ot 
Sodor  and  Man.  Yet  not  only  these  men,  but  the  whole 
body  of  Christian  churches  and  sects  always,  have  all  at 
least /r^^^f'^  the  method  and  secret  of  Jesus,  and  to  some 
extent  used  them.  And  whenever  these  were  used,  they 
have  borne  their  natural  fruits  of  joy  and  life  ;  and  this  joy 
and  this  life  have  been  taken  to  flow  from  the  ecclesiastical 
dogma  held  along  with  them,  and  to  sanction  and  prove  it. 
And  people,  eager  to  praise  the  bridge  which  carried  them 
over  from  death  to  life,  have  taken  this  dogma  for  the  bridge, 
or  part  of  the  bridge,  that  carried  them  over,  and  have 
eagerly  praised  it.  Thus  religion  has  been  made  to  stand 
on  its  apex  instead  of  its  base.  Righteousness  is  supported 
on  ecclesiastical  dogaia,  instead  of  ecclesiastical  dogma 
being  supported  on  righteousness. 

But  in  the  beginning  it  was  not  so.  Because  righteous- 
ness is  eternal,  necessary,  life-giving,  therefore  the  mighty 
*not  ourselves  which  makes  for  righteousness'  was  the 
Eternal,  Israel's  God  ;  was  all-powerful,  all-merciful ;  sends 
his  Messiah,  elects  his  people,  establishes  his  kingdom, 
receives  mto  everlasting  habitations.  But  gradually  this 
petrifies,  gradually  it  is  more  and  more  added  to  ;  until  at 
last,  because  righteousness  was  originally  perceived  to  be 
eternal,  necessary,  life-giving,  we  find  ourselves  *  worship- 
ping One  God  in  Trinity  and  Trinity  in  Unity,  neither  con- 
founding the  Persons  nor  dividing  the  Substance.'  And 
then  the  original  order  is  reversed.  Because  there  is  One 
God  in  Trinity  and  Trinity  in  Unity,  who  receives  into 
everlasting  habitations,  establishes  his  kingdom,  elects  his 
people,  sends  his  Messiah,  is  all-merciful,  all-powerful, 
Israel's  God,  the  Eternal, — therefore  righteousness  is  eternal, 
necessary,  life-giving.  And  shake  the  belief  in  the  One 
God  in  Trinity  and  Trinity  in  Unity,  the  belief  in  righteous- 


i62  LITERATURE  AND  DOGMA, 

ness  is  shaken,  it  is  thought,  also.  Whereas  righteousness 
and  the  God  of  righteousness,  the  God  of  the  Bible,  are  in 
truth  quite  independent  of  the  God  of  ecclesiastical  dogma, 
the  work  of  critics  of  the  Bible,— critics  understanding 
neither  what  they  say  nor  whereof  they  affirm. 


4. 

Nor  did  even  the  Reformation  and  Protestantism  much 
mend  the  work  of  these  critics ;  the  time  was  not  yet  ripe 
for  it.  Protestantism,  nevertheless,  was  a  strenuous  and 
noble  effort  at  improvement ;  for  it  was  an  effort  of  return 
to  the  '  method '  of  Jesus, — that  leaven  which  never,  since 
he  set  it  in  the  world,  has  ceased  or  can  cease  to  work. 
Catholicism,  we  have  said,  laid  hold  on  the  'secret'  of 
Jesus,  and  strenuously,  however  blindly,  employed  it ;  this 
is  the  grandeur  and  the  glory  of  Catholicism.  In  like 
manner  Protestantism  laid  hold  on  his  *  method,'  and 
strenuously,  however  blindly,  employed  it ;  and  herein  is 
the  greatness  of  Protestantism.  The  preliminary  labour  of 
inwardness  and  sincerity  in  the  conscience  of  each  individual 
man,  which  was  the  method  of  Jesus  and  his  indispensable 
discipline  for  learning  to  employ  his  secret  aright,  had 
fallen  too  much  out  of  view ;  obedie?ice  had  In  a  manner 
superseded  it.  Protestantism  drew  it  into  light  and  pro- 
minence again  ;  was  even,  one  may  say,  over  absorbed  by 
it,  so  as  to  leave  too  much  out  of  view  the  'secret.'  This, 
if  one  would  be  just  both  to  Catholicism  and  to  Protestant- 
ism, is  the  thing  to  bear  in  mind  :— Protestantism  had  hold 
of  Jesus  Christ's  'method'  of  inwardness  and  sincerity, 
Catholicism  had  hold  of  his  '  secret '  of  self-renouncement. 
The  chief  word  with  Protestantism  is  the  word  of  the 
method  :  repeiitaiice^  cojiversmi.  The  chief  word  with  Catholi- 
cism is  the  word  of  the  secret :  peace,  Joy. 


ABERGLAUBE  RE-INVADING.  163 

And  since,  though  the  method  and  the  secret  are  equally- 
indispensable,  the  secret  may  be  said  to  have  in  it  more  of 
practice  and  conduct,  Catholicism  may  claim  perhaps  to  have 
more  of  religion.     On  the  other  hand,   Protestantism  has 
more  light :  and,  as  the  method  of  inwardness  and  sincerity, 
once  gained,  is  of  general  application,  and  a  power  for  all  the 
purposes  of  life.  Protestantism,  we  can  see,  has  been  accom- 
panied by  most  prosperity.     And  here  is  the  answer  to  j^.Ir. 
Buckle's  famous  parallel  between  Spain  and  Scodand,  that 
parallel  which  everyone  feels  to  be  a  sophism.    Scotland  has 
had,  to  make  her  different  from   Spain,  the   'method'  of 
Jesus ;  and  though,  in  theology,  Scotland  may  have  turned 
it  to  no  great  account,  she  has  found  her  account  in  it  in 
almost  everything  else.    Catholicism,  again,  has  had,  perhaps, 
most  happiness.     When  one  thinks  of  the  bitter  and  conten- 
tious temper  of  Puritanism, — temper  being,  nevertheless,  such 
a  vast  part  of  conduct^ — and  then  thinks  of  St.  Theresa  and 
her  sweetness,  her  never-sleeping  hatred  of  'detraction,'  one 
is  tempted  almost  to  say,  that  there  was  more  of  Jesus  in  St. 
Theresa's  little  finger  than  in  John  Knox's  whole   body. 
Protestantism  has  the  method  of  Jesus  with  his  secret  too 
much  left  out  of  mind  ;  Catholicism  has  his  secret  with  his 
method  too  much  left  out  of  mind.    Neither  has  his  unerrinor 
balance,  his  intuition,  his  siueet  reasoiiablejiess.    But  both  have 
hold  of  a  great  truth,  and  get  from  it  a  great  power. 

And  many  of  the  reproaches  cast  by  one  on  the  other  are 
idle.  If  Catholicism  is  reproached  with  being  indifferent  to 
much  that  is  called  civilisation^  it  must  be  answered  :  So  was 
Jesus.  If  Protestantism,  with  its  private  judgment,  is  ac- 
cused of  opening  a  wide  field  for  individual  fancies  and  mis- 
takes, it  must  be  answered  :  So  did  Jesus  when  he  introduced 
his  method.  Private  judgment,  ''  the  ftindamental  and  insen- 
sate doctrine  of  Ffotestantisnij  as  Joseph  de  Maistre  calls  it, 
is  in  truth  but  the  necessary '  method,'  the  eternally  incumbent 


l64  LITERATURE  AND  DOGMA, 

duty,  imposed  by  Jesus  himself,  when  he  said  :  '  Judge 
righteous  judgment.'^  ^]M<^gt  righteous  judgment'  is,  how- 
ever, the  duty  imposed ;  and  the  duty  is  not,  whatever  many 
Protestants  may  seem  to  think,  fulfilled  if  the  judgment  be 
wrong.  But  the  duty  of  inwardly  judging  is  the  very 
entrance  into  the  way  and  walk  of  Jesus. 

Luther,  then,  made  an  inward  verifying  movement,  the 
individual  conscience,  once  more  the  base  of  operations ; 
and  he  was  right.  But  he  did  so  to  the  following  extent 
only.  When  he  found  the  priest  coming  between  the 
individual  believer  and  his  conscience,  standing  to  him  in 
the  stead  of  conscience,  he  pushed  the  priest  aside  and 
brought  the  believer  face  to  face  with  his  conscience  again. 
This  explains,  of  course,  his  battle  against  the  sale  of 
indulgences  and  other  abuses  of  the  like  kind ;  but  it  ex- 
plains also  his  treatment  of  that  cardinal  point  in  the  Catholic 
religious  system,  the  mass.  He  substituted  for  it,  as  the  car- 
dinal point  in  the  Protestant  system,  justification  by  faith. 
The  miracle  of  Jesus  Christ's  atoning  sacrifice,  satisfying  God's 
wrath,  and  taking  off  the  curse  from  mankind,  is  the  founda- 
tion both  of  the  mass  and  of  the  famous  Lutheran  tenet. 
But,  in  the  mass,  the  priest  makes  the  miracle  over  again 
and  applies  its  benefits  to  the  believer.  In  the  tenet  of  justi- 
fication, the  believer  is  himself  in  contact  with  the  miracle  of 
Christ's  atonement,  and  applies  Christ's  merits  to  himself. 
The  conscience  is  thus  brought  into  direct  communication 
with  Christ's  saving  act ;  but  this  saving  act  is  still  taken, — 
just  as  popular  religion  conceived  it,  and  as  formal  theology 
adopted  it  from  popular  religion, — as  a  miracle,  the  miracle 
of  the  Atonement.  This  popular  and  imperfect  conception 
of  the  sense  of  Christ's  death,  and  in  general  the  whole  in- 
adequate criticism  of  the  Bible  involved  in  the  Creeds, 
underwent  at  the  Reformation  no  scrutiny  and  no  change. 
'  John,  vii,  24. 


ABERGLAUBE  RE-INVADING.  165 

Luthers  actual  application,  therefore,  of  the  'method'  of 
Jesus  to  that  inner  body  of  dogma,  developed  as  we  have 
seen,  which  he  found  regnant,  proceeded  no  farther  than 
this. 

And  justification  by  faitli,  our  being  saved  by  '  giving 
our  hearty  consent  to  Christ's  atoning  work  on  our  behalf,' 
by  'pleading  simply  the  blood  of  the  covenant,'  Luther 
made  the  essential  matter  not  only  of  his  own  religious 
system  but  of  the  entire  New  Testament.  AVe  must  be 
enabled,  he  said,  and  we  aix  enabled,  to  distinguish  among 
the  books  of  the  Bible  those  which  are  the  best ;  now, 
those  are  the  best  which  slioiu  C/irisf,  and  teach  what  would 
be  enough  for  us  to  know  even  if  no  other  parts  of  the 
Bible  existed.  And  this  evangelical  eleinejit,  as  it  has  been 
called,  ikivsy  fundamental  thouglit  of  tJie  Gospel,  is,  for  Luther, 
our  'being  justified  by  the  alone  merits  of  Christ.'  This  is 
the  doctrine  of  'passive  or  Christian  righteousness,'  as 
Luther  is  fond  of  naming  it,  which  consists  in  '  doing 
nothing,  but  simply  knowing  and  believing  that  Christ  is 
gone  to  the  Father  and  we  see  him  no  more  !  that  he  sits 
in  Heaven  at  the  right  hand  of  the  Father,  not  as  our  judge, 
but  made  unto  us  by  God  wisdom,  righteousness,  sanctifica- 
lion,  and  redemption  ;  ^  in  sum,  that  he  is  our  high-priest 
making  intercession  for  us.'  Everyone  will  recognise  the 
consecrated  watchwords  of  Protestant  theology. 

Such  is  Luther's  criticism  of  the  New  Testament,  of  its 
fundamental  thought.  And  he  picks  out,  as  the  kernel  and 
marrow  of  the  New  Testament,  the  Fourth  Gospel  and  the 
First  Epistle  by  the  author  of  this  Gospel,  St.  Paul's 
Epistles, — in  especial  those  to  the  Romans,  Galatians,  and 
Ephesians, — and  the  First  Epistle  of  St.  Peter.  Now, 
the  common  complaint  against  Luther  is  on  the  score  of 
his  audacity  in  thus  venturing  to  make  a  table  of  precedence 
>  I  Cor,^  i,  30. 


i66  LITERATURE  AND  DOGMA, 

for  the  equally  inspired  books  of  the  New  Testament.  Yet 
in  this  he  was  quite  riglit,  and  was  but  following  the  method 
of  Jesus,  if  the  good  neivs  conveyed  in  the  whole  New  Testa- 
ment is,  as  it  is,  something  definite,  and  all  parts  do  not 
convey  it  equally.  Where  he  was  wrong,  was  in  his  delinea- 
tion of  this  fundamental  thought  of  the  New  Testament,  in 
his  descriptioji  of  the  good  news  ;  and  few,  probably,  who 
nave  followed  us  thus  far,  will  have  difficulty  in  admitting 
that  he  was  wrong  here,  and  quite  wTong.  And  this  has 
been  the  fault  of  Protestantism  generally  :  not  its  presump- 
tion in  interpreting  Scripture  for  itself, — for  the  Church 
interpreted  it  no  better,  and  Jesus  has  thrown  on  each 
individual  the  duty  of  interpreting  it  for  himself, — but  that 
it  has  interpreted  it  wrongs  and  no  better  than  the  Church. 
'  Calvinism  has  borne  ever  an  inflexible  front  to  illusion 
and  mendacity,'  says  Mr.  Froude.  Surely  this  is  but  a 
flourish  of  rhetoric  !  for  the  Calvinistic  doctrine  is  in  itself, 
like  the  Lutheran  doctrine,  and  like  Catholic  dogma,  a  false 
criticism  of  the  Bible,  an  illusion.  And  the  Calvinistic  and 
I^utheran  doctrines  both  of  them  sin  in  the  same  way ;  not 
by  using  a  method  which,  after  all,  is  the  method  of  Jesus, 
but  by  not  using  the  method  enough,  by  not  applying  it  to 
the  Bible  thoroughly,  by  keeping  too  much  of  what  the 
traditions  of  men  chose  to  tell  them. 


5- 
The  time  was  not  then  ripe  for  doing  more  ;  and  we, 
if  we  can  do  more,  have  the  fulness  of  time  to  thank  for 
it,  not  ourselves.  Yet  it  needs  all  one's  sense  of  the  not 
ourselves  in  these  things,  to  make  us  understand  how  doc- 
trines, supposed  to  be  the  essence  of  the  Bible  by  great 
Catholics  and  by  great  Protestants,  should  ever  have  been 
supposed  to  be  so,  and  by  such  men. 


ABERGLAUBE  RE-INVADING.  167 

To  take  that  chief  stronghold  of  ecclesiasticism  and 
sacerdotalism,  the  institution  of  the  Eucharist.  As  Catholics 
present  it,  it  makes  the  Church  indispensable,  with  all  her 
apparatus  of  an  apostolical  succession,  an  authorised  priest- 
hood, a  power  of  absolution.  Yet,  as  Jesus  founded  it,  it  is 
the  most  anti-ecclesiastical  of  institutions,  pulverising  alike 
the  historic  churches  in  their  beauty  and  the  dissenting 
sects  in  their  unloveliness ; — it  is  the  consecration  of 
absolute  individualism.  '  This  cup  is  the  new  covenafit  in 
my  blood  which  is  shed  for  you.'  ^  When  Jesus  so  spoke, 
what  did  he  mean,  what  was  in  his  mind  ?  Undoubtedly 
these  words  of  the  prophet  Jeremiah :  '  Behold  the  days 
come,  saith  the  Eternal,  that  I  will  make  a  7iew  covena?it 
with  the  house  of  Israel,  not  according  to  the  covenant  that 
I  made  with  their  fathers,  which  covenant  they  brake  ;  but 
this  shall  be  the  covenant  that  I  will  make  with  the  house 
of  Israel  :  After  those  days,  saith  the  Eternal,  I  will  put 
my  law  in  their  inward  parts,  and  write  it  in  their  hearts, 
and  they  shall  teach  no  more  every  man  his  neighbour  and 
every  man  his  brother,  saying  :  Know  the  Eternal !  for  they 
shall  all  knoiv  me,  from  the  least  to  the  greatest.'  ^  No 
more  scribes,  no  more  doctors,  no  more  priests  I  the  crown- 
ing act  in  the  'secret'  of  Jesus  seals  at  the  same  time  his 
'method,' — his  method  of  pure  inwardness,  individual 
responsibility,  personal  religion. 

Take,  again,  the  Protestant  doctrine  of  Justification  ;  of 
trusting  in  the  alone  merits  of  Christ,  pleading  the  Blood  of 
the  Covenant,  imputed  righteousness.  In  our  railway 
stations  are  hung  up,  as  everyone  knows,  sheets  of  Bible- 
texts  to  catch  the  passer's  eye  ;  and  very  profitable  admoni- 
tions to  him  they  in  general  are.  It  is  said  that  the  thought 
of  thus  exhibiting  them  occurred  to  Dr.  Marsh,  a  venerable 
leader  of  the  so-called  Evangelical  party  in  our  Church,  the 

'  Luke,  xxii,  20.  -  Jer.,  xxxi,  31. 


i63  LITERATURE  AND  DOGMA. 

party  which  speciaUy  dings  to  the  special  Protestant  doctrine 
of  justification;  and  that  he  arranged  the  texts  which  we  daily 
see.  And  there  is  one  which  we  may  all  remember  to  have 
often  seen.  Dr.  Marsh  asks  the  prophet  Micah's  question  : 
'  Wherewith  shall  I  come  before  the  Lord,  and  bow  myself 
before  the  high  God  ? '  ^  and  he  answers  it  wath  one  short 
sentence  from  the  New  Testament :  '  With  the  precious 
blood  of  Christ.'  This  is  precisely  the  popular  Protestant 
notion  of  the  Gospel ;  and  w^e  are  all  so  used  to  it  that  Dr. 
Marsh's  application  of  the  text  has  probably  surprised  no 
one.  And  yet,  if  one  thinks  of  it,  how  astonishing  an 
application  it  is  !  For  even  the  Hebrew  Micah,  some  seven 
or  eight  centuries  before  Christ,  had  seen  that  this  sort  of 
gospel^  or  good  news,  was  none  at  all ;  for  even  he  suggests 
this  always  popular  notion  of  atonwg  blood,  only  to  reject  it, 
and  ends  :  *  He  hath  showed  thee,  O  man,  what  is  good  ; 
and  what  doth  the  Eternal  require  of  thee,  but  to  do  justly, 
and  to  love  mercy,  and  to  walk  humbly  with  thy  God  ? ' 
So  that  the  Hebrew  IMicah,  nearly  three  thousand  years 
ago,  under  the  old  dispensation,  was  far  in  advance  of  this 
venerable  and  amiable  coryphaeus  of  our  Evangelical  party 
now,  under  the  Christian  dispensation  ! 

Dr.  Marsh  and  his  school  go  wrong,  it  will  be  said, 
through  their  false  criticism  of  the  New  Testament,  and 
we  have  ourselves  admitted  that  the  perfect  criticisrn  of 
the  New  Testament  is  extremely  difficult.  True,  XhQ  perfect 
criticism  ;  but  not  such  an  elementary  criticism  of  it  as 
shows  the  gospel  of  Dr.  Marsh  and  of  our  so-called  Evan- 
gelical Protestants  to  be  a  false  one.  For  great  as  their 
literary  inexperience  may  be,  and  unpractised  as  is  their  tact 
for  perceiving  the  manner  in  which  men  use  words  and  what 
they  mean  by  them,  one  would  think  they  could  understand 
such  a  plain  caution  against  mistaking  Christ's  death  for  a 
*  Micah,  vi,  6. 


ABERGLAUBE  RE-INVADING.  169 

miraculous  atonement  as  St.  Paul  has  actually  given  them. 
For  St.  Paul,  who  so  admirably  seized  the  secret  of  Jesus, 
who  preached  Christ  cntcified^^  but  who  placed  salvation  in 
being  able  to  say,  /  aiii  crucified  with  Christ  I'^ — St.  Paul 
warns  us  clearly,  that  this  luord  of  the  cross,  as  he  calls  it, 
is  so  simple,  being  neither  miracle  nor  metaphysics,  that  it 
would  be  thought  foolishness.  The  Jews  want  miracle,  he 
says,  and  the  Greeks  want  metaphysics,  but  I  preach  Christ 
crucified!'^ — that  is,  the  '  secret '  of  Jesus,  as  we  call  it.  The 
Jews  zmnt  miracle  ! — that  is  a  warning  against  Dr.  Marsh's 
or  Mr.  Spurgeon's  doctrine,  against  Evangelical  Protestant- 
ism's phantasmagories  of  the  'Contract  in  the  Council  of 
the  Trinity,'  the  '  Atoning  Blood,'  and  '  Imputed  Righteous- 
ness.' The  Greeks  want  metaphysics ! — that  is  a  warning 
against  the  Bishops  of  Winchester  and  Gloucester,  with  their 
Aryan  genius  (if  so  ill-sounding  a  word  as  Aryan,  spell  it 
how  one  may,  can  ever  be  properly  applied  to  our  bishops, 
and  one  ought  not  rather  to  say  Indo-European),  dressing 
the  popular  doctrine  out  with  tine  speculations  about  the 
Godhead  of  the  Eternal  Son,  his  Consubstantiality  with  the 
Father,  and  so  on.  But  we  preach,  says  St.  Paul,  Christ 
crucified! — to  Mr.  Spurgeon  and  to  popular  religion  a 
stumbling-block,  to  the  bishops  and  to  learned  religion 
foolishness ;  but,  to  them  that  are  called,  Christ  the  power 
of  God  and  the  wisdom  of  God.  That  is,  we  preach  a 
doctrine,  not  thaumaturgical  and  not  speculative,  but  prac- 
tical and  experimental ;  a  doctrine  which  has  no  meaning 
except  in  positive  application  to  conduct,  but  in  this  appli- 
cation is  inexhaustible. 

6. 

So   false,  so   astoundingly  false   (thus   one  is   inchned 
to  say  by  the  light  which  the  'Zeit-Geist '  is  beginning  to 
'  I  Cor..,  i,  23.  -  Gai.,  \\,  -o.  ^  I  Cor.,  i,  2^. 


I/O  LITERATURE  AND  DOGMA. 

throw  over  them)  are  both  popular  and  learned  science  in 
their  criticism  of  the  Bible.  And  for  the  learned  science 
one  feels  no  tenderness,  because  it  has  gone  wrong  with  a 
great  parade  of  exactitude  and  philosophy;  whereas  all  it 
really  did  was  to  take  the  magnified  and  non-natural  Man  of 
popular  religion  as  God,  and  to  take  Jesus  as  his  son,  and 
then  to  state  the  relations  between  them  metaphysically. 
No  difficulties  suggested  by  the  popular  science  of  religion 
has  this  learned  science  ever  removed,  and  it  has  created 
plenty  of  its  own. 

But  for  the  popular  science  of  religion  one  has,  or  ought 
to  have,  an  infinite  tenderness.  It  is  the  spontaneous  work 
of  nature.  It  is  the  travail  of  the  human  mind  to  adapt  to 
its  grasp  and  employment  great  ideas  of  which  it  feels  the 
attraction,  but  for  which,  except  as  given  to  it  by  this  travail, 
it  would  have  been  immature.  The  imperfect  science  of 
the  Bible,  formulated  in  the  so-called  Apostles'  Creed,  was 
the  only  vehicle  by  which,  to  generation  after  generation  of 
men,  the  method  and  secret  of  Jesus  could  gain  any  access; 
and  in  this  sense  we  may  even  call  it,  taking  the  point  of 
view  of  popular  theology,  providential.  And  this  rude 
criticism  is  full  of  poetry,  and  in  this  poetry  w^e  have  been 
all  nursed.  To  call  it,  as  many  of  our  philosophical  Liberal 
friends  are  fond  of  calling  it,  '  a  degrading  superstition,'  is 
as  untrue,  as  it  is  a  poor  compliment  to  human  nature,  which 
produced  this  criticism  and  used  it.  It  is  an  Aberglatibe,  oi 
extra  belief  and  fairy-tale,  produced  by  taking  certain  great 
names  and  great  promises  too  literally  and  materially ;  but 
it  is  not  a  degrading  superstition. 

Protestants,  on  their  part,  have  no  difficulty  in  calling 
the  Catholic  doctrine  of  the  mass  'a  degrading  superstition.' 
It  is  indeed  a  rude  and  blind  criticism  of  Jesus  Christ's 
words  :  He  that  eatcth  me  shall  live  by  me.  But  once  admit 
the  miracle  of  the  '  atoning  sacrifice,'  once  move  in  this 


ABERGLAUBE  RE-INVADING.  171 

order  of  ideas,  and  what  can  be  more  natural  and  beautiful 
than  to  imagine  this  miracle  every  day  repeated,  Christ 
offered  in  thousands  of  places,  everywhere  the  believer  en- 
abled to  enact  the  work  of  redemption  and  unite  himself 
nath  the  Body  whose  sacrifice  saves  him  ?  And  the  effect 
of  this  belief  has  been  no  more  degrading  than  the  belief 
itself.  The  fourth  book  of  the  Imitation,  which  treats  of 
The  Sacrament  of  the  Altar,  is  of  later  date  and  lesser  merit 
than  the  three  books  which  precede  it ;  but  it  is  worth  while 
to  quote  from  it  a  few  words  for  the  sake  of  the  testimony 
they  bear  to  the  practical  operation,  in  many  cases  at  any 
rate,  of  this  belief.  '  To  us  in  our  weakness  thou  hast  given, 
for  the  refreshment  of  mind  and  body,  thy  sacred  Body. 
The  devout  communicant  thou,  my  God,  raisest  from  the 
depth  of  his  own  dejection  to  the  hope  of  thy  protection, 
and  with  a  hitherto  unknown  grace  renewest  him  and  en- 
lightenest  him  within ;  so  that  they  who  at  first,  before  this 
Communion,  had  felt  themselves  distressed  and  affectionless, 
after  the  refreshment  of  this  meat  and  drink  from  heaven 
find  themselves  changed  to  a  new  and  better  man.  For  tliis 
most  high  and  worthy  Sacrament  is  the  saving  health  of  soul 
and  body,  the  medicine  of  all  spiritual  languor ;  by  it  my 
"dices  ai'e  cured,  my  passions  bridled,  temptations  are  conquered 
or  diminished,  a  larger  i^^raee  is  infused,  the  beginnings  of  virtue 
are  made  to  grow,  faith  is  confirmed,  hope  strengthened,  and 
charity  takes  fire  and  dilates  into  fiame.^  So  little  is  the 
doctrine  of  the  mass  to  be  hastily  called  'a  degrading 
superstition,'  either  in  its  character  or  in  its  working. 

But  it  is  false!  sternly  breaks  in  the  Evangelical  Protest- 
ant. O  Evangelical  Protestant,  is  thine  own  doctrine,  then, 
so  true?  As  the  Romish  doctrine  of  the  mass,  'the  Real 
Presence,'  is  a  rude  and  blind  criticism  of,  He  that  eateth 
vie  shall  live  by  me ;  ^  so  the  Protestant  tenet  of  justification, 
1  John,  vi,  57. 


in  LITERATURE  AXD  DOGMA. 

*  pleading  the  blood  of  the  Covenant,'  is  a  rude  and  blind 
criticism  of,  The  Son  of  Man  came  to  gii'e  his  life  a  ^-aiisom 
for  7nafiy}  It  is  a  taking  of  the  words  of  Scripture  literally 
and  unintelligently.  And  our  friends,  the  philosophical 
Liberals,  are  not  slow  to  call  this,  too,  a  degrading  supersti- 
tion, just  as  Protestants  call  the  doctrine  of  the  mass  a 
degrading  superstition.  We  say,  on  the  contrary,  that  a 
degrading  superstition  neither  the  one  nor  the  other  is.  In 
imagining  a  sort  of  supernatural  man,  a  man  infinitely 
magnified  and  improved,  with  a  race  of  vile  offenders  to 
deal  with,  whom  his  natural  goodness  would  incHne  him  to 
let  off,  only  his  sense  of  justice  will  not  allow  it;  then  a 
younger  supernatural  man,  his  son,  on  the  scale  of  his  father 
and  very  dear  to  him,  who  might  live  in  grandeur  and 
splendour  if  he  liked,  but  who  prefers  to  leave  his  home,  to 
go  and  live  among  the  race  of  offenders,  and  to  be  put  to 
an  ignominious  death,  on  condition  that  his  merits  shall  be 
counted  against  their  demerits,  and  that  his  father's  goodness 
shall  be  restrained  no  longer  from  taking  effect,  but  any 
offender  shall  be  admitted  to  the  benefit  of  it  on  simply 
pleading  the  satisfaction  made  by  the  son  ; — and  then, 
finally,  a  third  supernatural  man,  still  on  the  same  high  scale, 
who  keeps  very  much  in  the  background,  and  works  in  a 
very  occult  manner,  but  very  efticaciously  nevertheless,  and 
who  is  busy  in  applying  everywhere  the  benefits  of  the  son's 
satisfaction,  and  the  father's  goodness ; — in  an  imagination, 
I  say,  such  as  this,  there  is  nothing  degrading,  and  this  is 
precisely  the  Protestant  story  of  yiistification.  And  how 
awe  of  the  first  of  these  supernatural  persons,  gratitude  and 
love  towards  the  second,  and  earnest  co-operation  with  the 
third,  may  fill  and  rule  men's  hearts  so  as  to  transform  their 
conduct,  we  need  not  go  about  to  show,  for  we  have  all  seen 
it  with  our  eyes.  Therefore  in  the  practical  working  of  this 
»  Matth.,  XX,  28. 


ABERGLAUBE  RE-INVADIXG.  173 

tenet  there  is  nothing  degrading;  any  more  than  there  is 
anything  degrading  in  the  tenet  as  an  imaginative  conception. 
And  looking  to  the  infinite  importance  of  getting  right  con- 
duct,— three-fourths  of  human  Hfe,—  estabhshed,  and  to  the 
inevitable  anthropomorphism  and  extra-belief  of  men  in 
dealing  with  ideas,  one  might  well  hesitate  to  attack  an 
anthropomorphism  or  an  extra-belief  by  which  men  helped 
themselves  in  conduct,  merely  because  an  anthropomorphism 
or  an  extra-belief  it  is,  so  long  as  it  served  its  purpose,  so 
long  as  it  was  firmly  and  undoubtingly  held,  and  almost  uni- 
versally prevailing. 

But,  after  all,  the  question  sooner  or  later  arises  in  respect 
to  a  matter  taken  for  granted,  like  the  Catholic  doctrine  of 
the  Mass  or  the  Protestant  doctrine  of  Justification :  Is  it  sit7'e7 
can  what  is  here  assumed  be  •verified'}  And  this  is  the  real 
objection  both  to  the  CathoHc  and  to  the  Protestant  doctrine 
as  a  basis  for  conduct; — not  that  it  is  a  degrading  supersti- 
tion, but  that  it  is  not  sure ;  that  it  assumes  what  cannot  be 
verified. 

For  a  long  time  this  objection  occurred  to  scarcely  any- 
body. And  there  are  still,  and  for  a  long  time  yet  there  will 
be,  many  to  whom  it  does  not  occur.  In  particular,  on 
those  *  devout  women '  who  in  the  history  of  religion  have 
continually  played  a  part  in  many  respects  so  beautiful  but 
in  some  respects  so  mischievous, — on  them,  and  on  a  certain 
number  of  men  like  them,  it  has  and  can  as  yet  have,  so  far 
as  one  can  see,  no  effect  at  all.  Who  that  watches  the  ener- 
gumens  during  the  celebration  of  the  Communion  in  some 
Ritualistic  church,  their  gestures  and  behaviour,  the  floor  of 
the  church  strewn  with  what  seem  to  be  the  dying  and  the 
dead,  progress  to  the  altar  almost  barred  by  forms  suddenly 
dropping  as  if  they  were  shot  in  battle, — who  that  observes 
this  delighted  adoption  of  vehement  rites,  till  yesterday  un- 
known, adopted  2nd  practised  now  with  all  that  absence  of 


174  LITERATURE  AND  DOGMA, 

tact,  measure,  and  correct  perception  in  things  of  form  and 
manner,  all  that  slowness  to  see  when  they  are  making 
themselves  ridiculous,  which  belongs  to  the  people  of  our 
English  race, — who,  I  say,  that  marks  this  can  doubt,  that 
for  a  not  small  portion  of  our  religious  community  a  diffi- 
culty to  the  intelligence  will  for  a  long  time  yet  be  no  diffi- 
culty at  all?  With  their  mental  condition  and  habits, 
given  a  story  to  which  their  religious  emotions  can  attach 
themselves,  and  the  famous  Credo  quia  ineptum  will  hold 
good  with  them  still.  To  think  they  know  what  passed  in 
the  Council  of  the  Trinity  is  not  hard  to  them :  they  could 
easily  think  they  even  knew  what  were  the  hangings  of  the 
Trinity's  council- chamber. 

Arbitrary  and  unsupported,  however,  as  the  story  they 
have  taken  up  with  may  be,  yet  it  puts  them  in  connexion 
with  the  Bible  and  the  religion  of  the  Bible, — that  is,  with 
righteousness  and  with  the  method  and  secret  of  Jesus. 
These  are  so  clear  in  the  Bible  that  no  one  who  uses  it  can 
help  seeing  them  there ;  and  of  these  they  do  take  for  their 
use  something,  though  on  a  \vrong  ground.  But  these,  so 
far  as  they  are  taken  into  use,  are  saving. 


175 


CHAPTER   X. 

OUR    '  MASSES  '  AND   THE   BIBLE. 

Many,  however,  and  of  a  much  stronger  and  more  important 
sort,  there  now  are,  who  will  not  thus  take  on  trust  the  story 
which  is  made  the  reason  for  putting  ourselves  in  connexion 
with  the  Bible  and  learning  to  use  its  religion ;  be  it  the 
story  of  the  divine  authority  of  the  Church,  as  in  Catholic 
countries,  or, — as  generally  with  us,— the  story  of  the  three 
supernatural  persons  standing  on  its  own  merits.  Is  what 
this  story  asserts  tnie^  they  are  beginning  to  ask  ;  can  it  be 
verified  ? — since  experience  proves,  they  add,  that  whatever 
for  man  is  true,  man  can  verify.  And  certainly  the  fairy- 
tale of  the  three  supernatural  persons  no  man  can  verify. 
They  find  this  to  be  so,  and  then  they  say  :  The  Bible  takes 
for  granted  this  story  and  depends  on  the  truth  of  it ;  what, 
then,  can  rational  people  have  to  do  with  the  Bible  ?  So 
they  get  rid,  to  be  sure,  of  a  false  ground  for  using  the  Bible, 
but  they  at  the  same  time  lose  the  Bible  itself,  and  the  true 
religion  of  the  Bible  :  righteousness,  and  the  method  and 
secret  of  Jesus.  And  those  who  lose  this  are  the  masses^  as 
they  are  called  ;  or  rather  they  are  what  is  most  strenuous, 
intelligent,  and  alive  among  the  masses,  and  what  will  give 
the  signal  for  the  rest  to  follow. 

This  is  what  everyone  sees  to  constitute  the  special  moral 
feature  of  our  times  :  the  masses  are  losing  the  Bible  and  its 
religion.  At  the  Renascence,  many  cultivated  wits  lost  it  ; 
but  the  great  solid  mass  of  the  common  people  kept  it,  and 


176  LITERATURE  AXD  DOGMA, 

brought  the  world  back  to  it  after  a  start  had  seemed  to  be 
made  in  quite  another  direction.  But  now  it  is  the  people 
which  is  getting  detached  from  the  Bible.  The  masses  can 
no  longer  be  relied  on  to  counteract  what  the  cultivated  wits 
are  doing,  and  stubbornly  to  make  clever  men's  extravagances 
and  aberrations,  if  about  the  Bible  they  commit  them,  of  no 
avail.  When  our  philosophical  Liberal  friends  say,  that  by 
universal  suffrage,  public  meetings,  Church-disestablishment, 
marrying  one's  deceased  wife's  sister,  secular  schools,  indus- 
trial development,  man  can  very  well  live  ;  and  that  if  he 
studies  the  writings,  say,  of  Mr.  Herbert  Spencer  into  the 
bargain,  he  will  be  perfect,  he  '  will  have  in  modern  and 
congenial  language  the  truisms  common  to  all  systems  of 
morality,'  and  the  Bible  is  become  quite  old-fashioned  and 
superfluous  for  him  ; — when  our  philosophical  friends  now 
say  this,  the  masses,  far  from  checking  them,  are  disposed 
to  applaud  them  to  the  echo.  Yet  assuredly,  of  conduct, 
which  is  more  than  three-fourths  of  human  life,  the  Bible, 
whatever  people  may  thus  think  and  say,  is  the  great  in- 
spirer ;  so  that  from  the  great  inspirer  of  more  than  three- 
fourths  of  human  life  the  masses  of  our  society  seem  now 
to  be  cutting  themselves  off.  This  promises,  certainly,  if  it 
does  not  already  constitute,  a  very  unsettled  condition  of 
things.  And  the  cause  of  it  Hes  in  the  Bible  being  made  to 
depend  on  a  story,  or  set  of  asserted  facts,  which  it  is  im- 
possible to  verify  ;  and  which  hard-headed  people,  therefore, 
treat  as  either  an  imposture,  or  a  fairy. tale  that  discredits  all 
which  is  found  in  connexion  with  it. 


Now  if  we  look  attentively  at  the  story,  or  set  of  asserted 
but  unverified  and  unverifiable  facts,  which  we  have  sum- 
marised in  popular  language  above,  and  which  is  alleged  as 


OUR  'MASSES'  AND    THE  BIBLE.  177 

the  basis  of  the  Bible,  we  shall  find  that  the  difficulty  really 
lies  all  in  one  point.  The  whole  difficulty  is  with  the  in- 
finitely magnified  man  who  is  the  first  of  the  three  super- 
natural persons  of  our  story.  If  he  could  be  verified,  the  data 
we  have  are,  possibly,  enough  to  warrant  our  admitting  the 
truth  of  the  rest  of  the  story.  It  is  singular  how  few  people 
seem  to  see  this,  though  it  is  really  quite  clear.  The  Bible 
is  supposed  to  assume  a  great  Personal  First  Cause,  who 
thinks  and  loves,  the  moral  and  intelligent  Governor  of  the 
Universe.  This  is  the  God,  also,  of  natural  religion,  as 
people  call  it ;  and  this  supposed  certainty  learned  reascners 
take,  and  render  it  more  certain  still  by  considerations  of 
causality,  identity,  existence,  and  so  on.  These,  however, 
are  not  found  to  help  the  certainty  much  ;  but  a  certainty 
in  itself  the  Great  Personal  First  Cause,  the  God  of  both 
natural  and  revealed  religion,  is  supposed  to  be. 

Then,  to  this  given  beginning,  all  that  the  Bible  delivers 
has  to  fit  itself  on.  And  so  arises  the  account  of  the  God 
of  the  Old  Testament,  and  of  Christ  and  of  the  Holy  Ghost, 
and  of  the  incarnation  and  atonement,  and  of  the  sacraments, 
and  of  inspiration,  and  of  the  church,  and  of  eternal  punish- 
ment and  eternal  bliss,  as  theology  presents  them.  But 
difficulties  strike  people  in  this  or  that  of  these  doctrines. 
The  incarnation  seems  incredible  to  one,  the  vicarious  atone- 
ment to  another,  the  real  presence  to  a  third,  inspiration  to 
a  fourth,  eternal  punishment  to  a  fifth,  and  so  on.  And 
they  set  to  work  to  make  religion  more  pure  and  rational,  as 
they  suppose,  by  pointing  out  that  this  or  that  of  these 
doctrines  is  false,  that  it  must  be  a  mistake  of  theologians ; 
and  by  interpreting  the  Bible  so  as  to  show  that  the  doctrine 
is  not  really  there.  The  Unitarians  are,  perhaps,  the  great 
people  for  this  sort  of  partial  and  local  rationalising  of  reli- 
gion ;  for  taking  what  here  and  tliere  on  the  surface  seems 
to  conflict  most  with  common  sense,  arguing  that  it  cannot 

N 


17S  LITERATURE  AND  DOGMA. 

be  in  the  Bible  and  getting  rid  of  it,  and  professing  to  have 
thus  relieved  religion  of  its  difficulties.  And  now,  when 
there  is  much  loosening  of  authority  and  tradition,  much  im- 
patience of  what  conflicts  \vith  common  sense,  the  Unitarians 
are  beginning  confidently  to  give  themselves  out  as  the 
Church  of  the  Future. 

But  in  all  this  there  is  in  reality  a  good  deal  of  what  we 
must  call  intellectual  shallowness.  For,  granted  that  there 
are  things  in  a  system  which  are  puzzling,  yet  they  belong 
to  a  system  ;  and  it  is  childish  to  pick  them  out  by  them- 
selves and  reproach  them  with  error,  when  you  leave  un- 
touched the  basis  of  the  system  where  they  occur,  and  indeed 
admit  it  for  sound  yourself.  The  Unitarians  are  very  loud 
about  the  unreasonableness  and  unscripturalness  of  the 
common  doctrine  of  the  Atonement.  But  in  the  Socinian 
Catechism  it  stands  written  :  '  It  is  necessary  for  salvation 
to  know  that  God  is  ;  and  to  know  that  God  is,  is  to  be 
firmly  persuaded  that  there  exists  in  reality  some  One,  who 
has  supreme  dominion  over  all  things.'  Presently  afterwards 
it  stands  WTitten,  that  among  the  testimonies  to  Christ  are, 
'  miracles  very  great  and  immense,'  iniracula  admodicm  magna 
it  imvmisa.  Now,  with  the  One  Supreme  Governor,  and 
miracles,  given  to  start  with,  it  may  fairly  be  urged  that  that 
construction  put  by  common  theology  on  the  Bible-data, 
which  we  call  the  story  of  the  three  supernatural  men,  and 
in  which  the  Atonement  fills  a  prominent  place,  is  the  natural 
and  legitimate  construction  to  put  on  them,  and  not  unscrip- 
tural  at  all.  Neither  is  it  unreasonable  ;  in  a  system  of 
things,  that  is,  where  the  Supreme  Governor  and  miracles, 
or  even  where  the  Supreme  Governor  without  miracles,  are 
already  given. 

And  this  is  Butler's  great  argument  in  the  Analogy.  You 
all  concede,  he  says  to  his  deistical  adversaries,  a  Supreme 
Personal  First  Cause,  the  almighty  and  intelligent  Governor 


OUR  '-MASSES'  AND   THE  BIBLE.  179 

of  the  universe  ;  this,  you  and  I  both  agree,  is  the  system 
and  order  of  nature.  But  you  are  offended  at  certain  things 
in  revelation;— that  is,  at  things,  Butler  mean«;,  like  a  future 
life  with  rewards  and  punishments,  or  like  the  doctrine  of  the 
Trinity  as  theology  collects  it  from  the  Bible.  Well,  I  will 
show  you,  he  says,  that  in  your  and  my  admitted  system  of 
nature  there  are  just  as  great  difficulties  as  in  the  system  of 
revelation.  And  he  does  show  it ;  and  by  adversaries  such 
as  his,  who  grant  what  the  Deist  or  Socinian  grants:,  he  never 
has  been  answered,  he  never  can  be  answered.  The  spear 
of  Butler's  reasoning  will  even  follow  and  transfix  the  Duke 
of  Somerset,  who  finds  so  much  to  condemn  in  the  Bible, 
but  *  retires  into  one  unassailable  fortress, — faith  in  God.' 

The  only  question,  perhaps,  is,  whether  Butler,  as  an 
Anglican  bishop,  puts  an  adequate  construction  upon  what 
Bible-revelation,  this  basis  of  the  Supreme  Personal  First 
Cause  being  supposed,  may  be  allowed  to  be  ;  whether 
Catholic  dogma  is  not  the  truer  construction  to  put  upon 
it.  Cardinal  Newman  urges,  fairly  enough  :  Butler  admits, 
analogy  is  in  some  sort  violated  by  the  fact  of  revelation ; 
only,  with  the  precedent  of  natural  religion  given,  we  have 
to  own  that  the  difficulties  against  revelation  are  not  greater 
than  against  this  precedent,  and  therefore  the  admission  of 
this  precedent  of  natural  religion  may  well  be  taken  to  clear 
them.  And  must  we  not  go  farther  in  the  same  way,  asks 
Cardinal  Newman,  and  own  that  the  precedent  of  revelation, 
too,  may  be  taken  to  cover  more  than  itself ;  and  that  as,  the 
Supreme  Governor  being  given,  it  is  credible  that  the 
Incarnation  is  true,  so,  the  Incarnation  being  true,  it  is 
credible  that  God  should  not  have  left  the  world  to  itself 
after  Christ  and  his  Apostles  disappeared,  but  should  have 
lodged  divine  insight  in  the  Church  and  its  visible  head  ? 
So  pleads  Cardinal  Newman  ;  and  if  it  be  said  that  facts  are 
against  the  infillibility  of  the  Church,  or  that  Scripture  is 

N  2 


i8o  LITERATURE  AND  DOGMA, 

against  it,  yet  to  wide,  immense  things,  like  facts  and  Scrip- 
ture, a  turn  may  easily  be  given  which  makes  them  favour 
it ;  and  so  an  endless  field  for  discussion  is  opened,  and  no 
certain  conclusion  is  possible.  For,  once  launched  on  this 
line  of  hypothesis  and  inference,  with  a  Supreme  Governor 
assumed,  and  the  task  thrown  upon  us  of  making  out  what 
he  means  us  to  infer  and  what  we  may  suppose  him  to  do 
and  to  intend,  one  of  us  may  infer  one  thing  and  another 
of  us  another,  and  neither  can  possibly  prove  himself  to  be 
right  or  his  adversary  to  be  wrong. 

Only,  there  may  come  some  one,  who  says  that  the  basis 
of  all  our  inference,  the  Supreme  Personal  First  Cause,  the 
moral  and  intelligent  Governor,  is  not  the  order  of  nature, 
is  an  assumption,  and  not  a  fact ;  and  then,  if  this  is  so, 
our  whole  superstructure  falls  to  pieces  like  a  house  of 
cards.  And  this  is  just  what  is  happening  at  present.  The 
masses,  v;ith  their  rude  practical  instinct,  go  straight  to  the 
heart  of  the  matter.  They  are  told  there  is  a  great  Personal 
First  Cause,  who  thinks  and  loves,  the  moral  and  intelligent 
Author  and  Governor  of  the  universe ;  and  that  the  Bible 
and  Bible-righteousness  come  to  us  from  him.  Now,  they 
do  not  begin  by  asking,  with  the  intelligent  Unitarian, 
whether  the  doctrine  of  the  Atonement  is  worthy  of  this 
moral  and  intelligent  Ruler;  they  begin  by  asking  what 
proof  we  have  of  him  at  all.  Moreover,  they  require  proof 
which  is  clear  and  certain  ;  demonstration,  or  else  plain 
experimental  proof,  such  as  that  fire  burns  them  if  they 
touch  it.  If  they  are  to  study  and  obey  the  Bible  because 
it  comes  from  the  Personal  First  Cause  who  is  Governor  ot 
the  universe,  they  require  to  be  able  to  ascertain  that  there 
is  this  Governor,  just  as  they  are  able  to  ascertain  that  the 
angles  of  a  triangle  are  equal  to  two  right  angles,  or  that  fire 
burns.  And  if  they  cannot  ascertain  it,  they  will  let  the 
intelligent  Unitarian  perorate  for  ever  about  the  Atonement 


OUR  'MASSES'  AND   THE  BIBLE.  i8i 

if  he  likes,  but  they  themselves  pitch  the  whole  Bible  to  the 
winds. 

Now,  it  is  remarkable  what  a  resting  on  mere  probabi- 
lities, or  even  on  less  than  probabilities,  the  proof  for  religion 
comes,  in  the  hands  of  its  great  apologist,  Butler,  to  be, 
even  after  he  has  started  with  the  assumption  of  his  moral 
and  intelhgent  Governor.  And  no  wonder  ;  for  in  the 
primary  assumption  itself  there  is  and  can  be  nothing  de- 
monstrable or  experimental,  and  therefore  clearly  known. 
So  that  of  Christianity,  as  Buder  grounds  it,  the  natural 
criticism  would  really  be  in  these  words  of  his  own  :  '  Sup- 
positions are  not  to  be  looked  upon  as  true,  because  not 
incredible.'  Hov/ever,  Butler  maintains  that  in  matters  of 
practice,  such  as  religion,  this  is  not  so.  In  them  it  is 
prudent,  he  says,  to  act  on  even  a  supposition,  if  it  is  not 
incredible.  Even  the  doubting  about  religion  implies,  he 
argues,  that  it  may  be  true.  Now,  in  matters  of  practice 
we  are  bound  in  prudence,  he  says,  to  act  upon  what  may 
be  a  low  degree  of  evidence  ;  yes,  *  even  though  it  be  so  low 
as  to  leave  the  mind  in  veiy  great  doiiht  ivliat  is  the  truth' 

Was  there  ever  such  a  way  of  establishing  righteousness 
heard  of?  And  suppose  we  tried  this  with  rude,  hard,  down- 
right people,  with  the  masses,  who  for  what  is  told  them  want, 
above  all,  a  plain  experimental  proof,  such  as  that  fire  will 
burn  you  if  you  touch  it.  AVhether  in  prudence  they  oifght 
to  take  the  Bible  and  religion  on  a  low  degree  of  evidence, 
or  not,  it  is  quite  certain  that  on  this  ground  they  never 
7uill  take  them.  And  it  is  quite  certain,  moreover,  that 
never  on  this  ground  did  Israel,  from  whom  we  derive  our 
religion,  take  it  himself  or  recommend  it.  He  did  not  take 
it  in  prudence,  because  he  found  at  any  rate  a  low  degree 
of  evidence  for  it ;  he  took  it  in  rapture,  because  he  found 
for  it  an  evidence  irresistible.  But  his  own  words  are  the 
best  :  '  Thou,  O  Eternal,  art  the  thing  that  I  long  for,  thou 


i82  LITERATURE  AND  DOGMA. 

art  my  hope  even  from  my  youth  :  through  thee  have  1 
been  holden  up  ever  since  I  was  born.^  The  statutes  of  the 
Eternal  rejoice  the  heart ;  more  desirable  they  are  than  gold, 
sweeter  than  honey ;  in  keeping  of  them  there  is  great  reward.^ 
The  Eternal  is  my  strength,  my  heart  hath  trusted  in  him 
and  I  am  helped  ;  therefore  my  heart  danceth  for  joy, 
and  in  my  song  will  I  praise  him.'  ^  That  is  why  Israel 
took  his  religion. 

3- 

But  if  Israel  spoke  of  the  Eternal  thus,  it  was,  we  say, 
because  he  had  a  plain  experimental  proof  of  him.  God 
was  to  Israel  neither  an  assumption  nor  a  metaphysical  idea; 
he  was  a  power  that  can  be  verified  as  much  as  the  power 
of  fire  to  burn  or  of  bread  to  nourish :  the  p02ae7',  not  oh? - 
selves^  that  makes  for  righteousness.  And  the  greatness  of 
Israel  in  religion,  the  reason  why  he  is  said  to  have  had 
religion  revealed  to  him,  to  have  been  entrusted  with  the 
oracles  of  God,  is  because  he  had  in  such  extraordinary 
force  and  vividness  the  perception  of  this  power.  And  he 
communicates  it  irresistibly  because  he  feels  it  irresistibly ; 
that  is  why  the  Bible  is  not  as  other  books  that  inculcate 
righteousness.  Israel  speaks  of  his  intuition  still  feeling 
it  to  be  an  intuition,  an  experience ;  not  as  something  which 
others  have  delivered  to  him,  nor  yet  as  a  piece  of  metaphy- 
sical notion-building.  Anthropomorphic  he  is,  for  all  men 
are,  and  especially  men  not  endowed  with  the  Aryan  genius 
for  abstraction ;  but  he  does  not  make  arbitrary  assertions 
which  can  never  be  verified,  like  our  popular  religion,  nor  is 
he  ever  pseudo-scientific,  like  our  learned  religion. 

He  is  credited  with  the  metaphysical  ideas  of  the  per- 
sonality of  God,   of  the   unity   of  God,   and   of  creation 

^  Ps.  Ixxi,  5,  6.  =  Ps.  xix,  8,  lo,  il. 

°  Fs,  xxviiij  7. 


OUR  'MASSES'  AND   THE  BIBLE.  183 

as  opposed  to  evolution ;  ideas  depending,  the  first  two  of 
them,  on  notions  of  essence,  existence,  and  identity,  the  last 
of  them  on  the  notion  of  cause  and  design.  But  he  is 
credited  with  them  falsely.  All  the  countenance  he  gives  to 
the  metaphysical  idea  of  the  personality  of  God  is  given  by 
his  anthropomorphic  language,  in  which,  being  a  man  him- 
self, he  naturally  speaks  of  the  Power,  with  which  he  is 
concerned,  as  a  man  also.  So  he  says  that  Moses  saw  God's 
hinder  parts ;  ^  and  he  gives  just  as  much  countenance  to 
the  scientific  asserdon  that  God  has  hinder  parts,  as  to  the 
scientific  assertion  of  God's  personality.  That  is,  he  gives 
no  countenance  at  all  to  either.  As  to  his  asserting  the 
unity  of  God  the  case  is  the  same.  He  would  give,  indeed, 
his  heart  and  his  worship  to  no  manifestation  of  power, 
except  of  the  power  which  makes  for  righteousness;  but  he 
affords  to  the  metaphysical  idea  of  the  unity  of  God  no 
more  countenance  than  this,  and  this  is  none  at  all.  Then, 
lastly,  as  to  the  idea  of  creation.  He  viewed,  indeed,  all 
order  as  depending  on  the  supreme  order  of  righteousness, 
and  all  the  fulness  and  beauty  of  the  world  as  a  boon  added 
to  the  stock  of  that  holder  of  the  greatest  of  all  boons  already, 
the  righteous.  This,  however,  is  as  much  countenance  as  he 
gives  to  the  famous  argument  from  design,  or  to  the  doctrine 
of  creation  as  opposed  to  evolution.  And  it  is  none  at  all. 
Free  as  is  his  use  of  anthropomorphic  language,  Israel 
had,  as  we  have  remarked  already,  far  too  keen  a  sense 
of  reality  not  to  shrink,  when  he  comes  anywhere  near 
to  the  notion  of  exact  speaking  about  God,  from  affirma- 
tion, from  professing  to  know  a  whit  more  than  he  does 
know.  '  Lo,  these  are  skirts  of  his  ways,'  he  says  of  what 
he  has  experienced,  '  but  how  little  a  portion  is  knoivn 
of  him  I '  ^  And  again :  '  The  secret  things  belong  nnto  the 
Eternal  our  God  \  but  the  revealed  things  belong  unto 
'  Ex.^  xxxiii,  23.  -  Job,  xxvi,  14. 


i84  LITERATURE  AND  DOGMA. 

us  and  to  our  children  for  ever :  that  we  may  do  all  the 
words  of  this  law.'  ^  How  different  from  our  licence  of  full 
and  particular  statement :  '  A  Personal  First  Cause,  who 
thinks  and  loves,  the  moral  and  intelligent  Governor  of  the 
universe ! '  Israel  knew,  concerning  the  eternal  not  ourselves, 
that  it  was  'a  power  that  made  for  righteousness.'  This 
was  revealed  to  Israel  and  his  children,  and  through  them 
to  the  world ;  all  the  rest  about  the  eternal  7wt  ourselves  was 
this  power's  own  secret.  And  all  Israel's  language  about 
this  power,  except  that  //  makes  for  righteousness,  is  approxi- 
mate language, — the  language  of  poetry  and  eloquence, 
thrown  out  at  a  vast  object  of  our  consciousness  not  fully 
apprehended  by  it,  but  extending  infinitely  beyond  it. 

This,  however,  was  '  a  revealed  thing,'  Israel  said,  to  him 
and  to  his  children  :  '  the  Eternal  not  ourselves  that  makes 
for  righteousness.'  And  now,  then,  let  us  go  to  the  masses 
with  what  Israel  really  did  say,  instead  of  what  our  popular 
and  our  learned  religion  may  choose  to  make  him  say.  Let 
us  announce,  not :  '  There  rules  a  Great  Personal  First  Cause, 
who  thinks  and  loves,  the  moral  and  intelligent  Governor  of 
the  universe,  and  therefore  study  your  Bible  and  learn  to 
obey  this  ! '  No ;  but  let  us  announce  :  *  There  rules  an 
enduring  Power,  not  ourselves,  which  makes  for  righteous- 
ness, and  therefore  study  your  Bible  and  learn  to  obey  this.' 
For  if  we  announce  the  other  instead,  and  they  reply :  '  First 
let  us  verify  that  there  rules  a  Great  Personal  First  Cause, 
who  thinks  and  loves,  the  moral  and  intelligent  Governor  of 
the  universe,' — what  are  we  to  answer?    We  cannot  answer. 

But  if,  on  the  other  hand,  they  ask :  *  How  are  we  to 
verify  that  there  rules  an  enduring  Power,  not  ourselves, 
which  makes  for  righteousness  ? ' — we  may  answer  at  once  : 
*  How  ?  why  as  you  verify  that  fire  burns, — by  experience !  It 
is  so ;  try  it  !  you  can  try  it ;  every  case  of  conduct,  of  that 
*  Deut.,  XXIX,  29. 


OUR  'MASSES'  AND   THE  BIBLE.  185 

which  is  more  than  three-fourths  of  your  own  hfe  and  of 
the  Hfe  of  all  mankind,  will  prove  it  to  you  !  Disbelieve  it, 
and  you  will  find  out  your  mistake  as  surely  as,  if  you  dis- 
believe that  fire  burns  and  put  your  hand  into  the  fire,  you 
will  find  out  your  mistake  !  Believe  it,  and  you  will  find  the 
benefit  of  it ! '     This  is  the  first  experience. 

But  then  the  masses  may  go  on,  and  say  :  *  Why,  how- 
ever, even  if  there  is  an  enduring  Power,  not  ourselves,  that 
makes  for  righteousness,  should  we  study  the  Bible  that  we 
may  learn  to  obey  him  ? — will  not  other  teachers  or  books  do 
as  well  ? '  And  here  again  the  answer  is  :  '  Why  ? — why,  be- 
cause this  Power  is  revealed  in  Israel  and  the  Bible,  and  not 
by  other  teachers  and  books  !  that  is,  there  is  infinitely 
more  of  him  there,  he  is  plainer  and  easier  to  come  at,  and 
incomparably  more  impressive.  If  you  want  to  know  plastic 
art,  you  go  to  the  Greeks  ;  if  you  want  to  know  science,  you 
go  to  the  Aryan  genius.  And  why?  Because  they  have 
the  specialty  for  these  things  ;  for  making  us  feel  what  they 
are  and  giving  us  an  enthusiasm  for  them.  Well,  and  so 
have  Israel  and  the  Bible  a  specialty  for  righteousness,  for 
making  us  feel  what  it  is  and  giving  us  an  enthusiasm  for  it. 
And  here  again  it  is  experience  that  we  invoke  :  try  it ! 
Having  convinced  yourself  that  there  is  an  enduring  Power, 
not  ourselves,  that  makes  for  righteousness,  set  yourself  next 
to  try  to  learn  more  about  this  Power,  and  to  feel  an  enthu- 
siasm for  it.  And  to  this  end,  take  a  course  of  the  Bible 
first,  and  then  a  course  of  Benjamin  Franklin,  Horace 
Greeley,  Jeremy  Bentham,  and  Mr.  Herbert  Spencer ;  see 
which  has  most  effect,  which  satisfies  you  most,  which  gives 
you  most  moral  force.  Why,  the  Bible  is  of  such  avail  for 
teaching  righteousness,  that  even  to  those  who  come  to  it 
with  all  sorts  of  false  notions  about  the  God  of  the  Bible,  it 
yet  does  teach  righteousness,  and  fills  them  with  the  love  of 
it  j  how  much  more  those  who  come  to  it  with  a  true  notion 


i86  LITERATURE  AND  DOGMA. 

about  the  God  of  the  Bible ! '  And  this  is  the  second  expe- 
rience. 

4. 

Now  here,  at  the  beginning  of  things,  is  the  point,  we 
say,  where  to  apply  correction  to  our  current  theology,  if 
we  are  to  bring  the  religion  of  the  Bible  home  to  the  masses. 
It  is  of  no  use  beginning  lower  down,  and  amending  this  or 
that  ramification,  such  as  the  Atonement,  or  the  Real  Pre- 
sence, or  Eternal  Punishment,  when  the  root  from  which 
all  springs  is  unsound.  Those  whom  it  most  concerns  us  to 
teach  will  never  interest  themselves  at  all  in  our  amended 
religion,  so  long  as  the  whole  thing  appears  to  them  un- 
supported and  in  the  air. 

Yet  that  original  conception  of  God,  on  which  all  our 
religion  is  and  must  be  grounded,  has  been  very  little  ex- 
amined, and  very  few  of  the  controversies  which  arise  in 
religion  go  near  it.  Religious  people  say  solemnly,  as  if  we 
doubted  it,  that  '  he  that  cometh  to  God  must  believe  that 
He  is^  and  that  He  is  a  rewarder  of  them  that  seek  him  ; '  ^ 
and  that  'a  man  who  preaches  that  Jesus  Christ  is  not  God 
is  virtually  out  of  the  pale  of  ChrisUan  communion.'  We 
entirely  agree  with  them  ;  but  we  want  to  know  what  they 
mean  by  God.  Now  on  this  matter  the  state  of  their 
thoughts  is,  to  say  the  truth,  extremely  vagae;  but  what 
they  really  do  at  bottom  mean  by  God  is,  in  general  :  the 
best  one  knows.  And  this  is  the  soundest  definition  they 
will  ever  attain ;  yet  scientifically  it  is  not  a  satisfying 
definition,  for  clearly  the  best  one  knows  differs  for  everybod}-. 
So  they  have  to  be  more  precise ;  and  when  they  collect 
themselves  a  little,  they  find  that  they  mean  by  God  a 
7}iagnified  and  non-7iatiiral  man.  But  this,  again,  they  can 
hardly  say  in  so  many  words.     Therefore  at  last,  when  they 

»  Heh.,  xi,  6. 


OUR  'MASSES'  AND   THE  BIBLE.  1S7 

are  pressed,  they  collect  themselves  all  they  can,  and  make 
a  great  effort,  and  out  they  come  with  their  piece  of  science  : 
God  is  a  Great  Personal  First  Cause,  who  thinks  a?id  loves, 
the  moral  and  intelligent  Governor  of  the  universe.  But  this 
piece  of  science  of  theirs  we  will  have  nothing  to  say  to,  for 
we  account  it  quite  hollow  ;  and  we  say,  and  have  shown 
(we  think),  that  the  Bible,  rightly  read,  will  have  nothing  to 
say  to  it  either.  Yet  the  whole  pinch  of  the  matter  is  here  ; 
and  till  we  are  agreed  as  to  what  we  mean  by  God,  we  can 
never,  in  discussing  religious  questions,  understand  one 
unother  or  discuss  seriously.  Yet,  as  we  have  said,  hardly 
any  of  the  discussions  which  arise  in  religion  turn  upon  this 
cardinal  point.  This  is  what  cannot  but  strike  one  in  that 
torrent  oi petitiones priucipii  {iox  so  we  really  must  call  them) 
in  the  shape  of  theological  letters  from  clergymen,  which 
pours  itself  every  week  through  the  columns  of  the  Guardian. 
They  all  employ  the  word  God  with  such  extraordinary  con- 
fidence !  as  if  '  a  Great  Personal  First  Cause,  who  thinks 
and  loves,  the  moral  and  intelligent  Governor  of  the  uni- 
verse,' were  a  verifiable  fact  given  beyond  all  question  ;  and 
we  had  now  only  to  discuss  ^^hat  such  a  Being  would  natu- 
rally think  about  Church  vestments  and  the  use  of  the 
Athanasian  Creed.  But  everything  people  say,  under  these 
conditions,  is  in  truth  quite  in  the  air. 

Even  those  who  have  treated  Israel  and  his  religion  the 
most  philosophicall}^  seem  not  to  have  enough  considered 
that  so  wonderful  an  eftect  must  have  had  some  cause  to 
account  for  it,  other  than  any  which  they  assign.  Professor 
Kuenen,  whose  excellent  History  of  the  Religion  of  Israel  ^ 
ought  to  find  an  English  translator,  suggests  that  the  Hebrew 
religion  was  so  unlike   that   of  any   other   Sem.itic  people 

'  De  GoJsdicnst  z'afi  Israel  tot  den  Ondcrgang  van  den  Joodsc'rcn 
Staat  (The  Religion  of  Israel  till  the  Downfall  of  the  Jewish  State) ; 
Haarlem.     An  English  translation  has  now  appeared. 


IS8  LITERATURE  AND  DOGMA, 

because  of  the  simple  and  austere  life  led  by  the  Beni-Israel 
as  nomads  of  the  desert ;  or  because  they  did  not,  like  other 
Semitic  people,  put  a  feminine  divinity  alongside  of  their 
masculine  divinity,  and  thus  open  the  way  to  all  sorts  of 
immorality.  But  many  other  tribes  have  had  the  simple 
and  austere  life  of  nomads  of  the  desert,  without  its  bringing 
them  to  the  religion  of  Israel.  And,  if  the  Hebrews  did  not 
put  a  feminine  divinity  alongside  of  their  masculine  divinity, 
while  other  Semitic  people  did,  surely  there  must  have  been 
something  to  cause  this  difference  !  and  what  we  want  to 
know  is  this  something. 

And  to  this  somethings  we  say,  the  'Zeit-Geist,'  and  a 
prolonged  and  large  experience  of  men's  expressions  and 
how  they  employ  them,  leads  us.  It  was  because,  while 
other  people,  in  the  operation  of  that  mighty  not  ourselves 
which  is  in  us  and  around  us,  saw  this  thing  and  that  thing 
and  many  things,  Israel  saw  in  it  one  thing  only : — that  it 
made  for  conduct^  for  righteousness.  And  it  does  \  and 
conduct  is  the  main  part  of  human  life.  And  hence, 
therefore,  the  extraordinary  reality  and  power  of  Israel's 
God  and  of  Israel's  religion.  And  the  more  we  strictly 
limit  ourselves,  in  attempting  to  give  a  scientific  account  of 
God,  to  Israel's  authentic  intuition  of  him,  and  say  that 
he  is  'the  Eternal  Power,  not  ourselves,  that  makes  for 
righteousness,'  the  more  real  and  profound  will  Israel's 
words  about  God  become  to  us,  for  we  can  then  verify  his 
words  as  we  use  them. 

Eternal s  thou  hast  been  our  refuge  from  one  generation  i9 
anotlier!^  If  we  define  the  Eternal  to  ourselves,  'a  Great 
Personal  First  Cause,  who  thinks  and  loves,  the  moral  and 
intelligent  Governor  of  the  universe,'  we  can  never  verify 
that  this  has  from  age  to  age  been  a  refuge  to  men.  But  if 
we  define  the  Eternal,  *the  enduring  Power,  not  ourselves, 
«  Fs.  xc.  I, 


OUR  'MASSES'  AND   THE  BIBLE.  1S9 

that  makes  for  righteousness,'  then  we  can  know  and  feel 
the  truth  of  what  we  say  when  we  declare :  Eternal,  thou 
hast  been  our  refuge  from  one  generation  to  another!  For  in 
all  the  history  of  man  we  can  verify  it.  Righteousness  has 
been  salvation ;  and  to  verify  the  God  of  Israel  in  man's 
long  history  is  the  most  animating,  the  most  exalting  and 
the  most  pure  of  delights.  Blessed  is  the  nation  whose  God 
is  the  Eternal!  ^  is  a  text,  indeed,  of  which  the  world  offers 
to  us  the  most  inexhaustible  and  the  most  marvellous  illus- 
tration. 

Nor  is  the  change  here  proposed,  in  itself,  any  difficult 
or  startling  change  in  our  habits  of  religious  thought,  but  a 
very  simple  one.  Nevertheless,  simple  as  may  be  this  change 
w^hich  is  to  be  made  high  up  and  at  the  outset,  it  undeniably 
governs  everything  farther  down.  Jesus  is  the  Son  of  God ; 
the  Holy  Spirit  is  the  Spirit  of  truth  that  proceeds  from 
God.  What  God  ?  '  A  Great  Personal  First  Cause,  who 
thinks  and  loves,  the  moral  and  intelligent  Governor  of  the 
Universe?' — to  whom  Jesus  and  the  Holy  Spirit  are  related 
in  the  way  described  in  the  Athanasian  Creed,  so  that  the 
operations  of  the  three  together  produce  what  the  West- 
minster divines  call  *  the  Contract  passed  in  the  Council  of 
the  Trinity,'  and  what  we,  for  plainness,  describe  as  the  fairy- 
tale of  the  three  supernatural  men  ?  This  is  all  in  the  air, 
but  in  the  air  it  all  hangs  together.  There  stand  the  Bible 
words!  how  you  construe  them  depends  entirely  on  what 
definition  of  God  you  start  with.  If  Jesus  is  the  Son  of  'a 
Great  Personal  First  Cause,'  then  the  words  of  the  Bible, 
literally  taken,  may  well  enough  lend  themselves  to  a  story 
like  that  of  the  three  supernatural  men.  The  story  can  never 
be  verified ;  but  it  may  nevertheless  be  what  the  Bible  has 
to  say,  if  the  Bible  have  started,  as  theology  starts,  with  the 
*  Great  Personal  P'irst  Cause.'  And  the  story  may,  when  it 
*  /v.  XXX  iii,  12. 


tgo  LITERATURE  AND  DOGMA. 

comes  to  be  examined,  have  many  minor  difficulties,  have 
things  to  baffle  us,  things  to  shock  us ;  but  still  it  may  be 
what  the  Bible  has  to  say.  However,  the  masses  wdll  get 
rid  of  all  minor  difficulties  in  the  simplest  manner,  by  re- 
jecting the  Bible  altogether  on  account  of  the  major  diffi- 
culty,— its  starting  with  an  assumption  which  cannot  possibly 
be  verified. 

But  suppose  the  Bible  is  discovered,  when  its  expressions 
are  rightly  understood,  to  start  with  an  assertion  which  can 
be  verified  :  the  assertion,  namely,  not  of  *  a  Great  Personal 
First  Cause,'  but  of  *  an  enduring  Power,  not  ourselves,  that 
makes  for  righteousness.'  Then  by  the  light  of  this  discovery 
we  read  and  understand  all  the  expressions  that  follow. 
Jesus  comes  forth  from  this  enduring  Power  that  makes  for 
righteousness,  is  sent  by  this  Power,  is  this  Power's  Son  ; 
the  Holy  Spirit  proceeds  from  this  same  Power,  and  so  on 

Now,  from  the  innumerable  minor  difficulties  which 
attend  the  story  of  the  three  supernatural  men,  this  right  con- 
struction, put  on  what  the  Bible  says  of  Jesus,  of  the  Father, 
and  of  the  Holy  Spirit,  is  free.  But  it  is  free  from  the  major 
difficulty  also  -,  for  it  neither  depends  upon  what  is  unverifi- 
able,  nor  is  it  unverifiable  itself.  That  Jesus  is  the  Son  of  a 
Great  Personal  First  Cause  is  itself  unverifiable ;  and  that 
there  is  a  Great  Personal  First  Cause  is  unverifiable  too. 
But  that  there  is  an  enduring  Power,  not  ourselves,  which 
makes  for  righteousness,  is  verifiable,  as  we  have  seen,  by 
experience ;  and  that  Jesus  is  the  offspring  of  this  Power  is 
verifiable  from  experience  also.  For  God  is  the  author  of 
righteousness;  now,  Jesus  is  the  Son  of  God  because  he 
gives  the  method  and  secret  by  which  alone  is  righteousness 
possible.  And  that  he  does  give  this,  we  can  verify,  again, 
from  experience.  It  is  so !  try,  and  you  will  find  it  to  be 
so !  Try  all  tlie  ways  to  righteousness  you  can  think  of, 
and  you  will  find  that  no  way  brings  you  to  it  except  the 


OUR  'MASSES'  AND   THE  BIBLE.  191 

way  of  Jesus,  but  that  this  way  does  bring  you  to  it !  And, 
therefore,  as  we  found  we  could  say  to  the  masses:  'xA-ttempt 
to  do  without  Israel's  God  that  makes  for  righteousness,  and 
you  will  find  out  your  mistake  ! '  so  we  find  we  can  now 
proceed  farther,  and  say :  *  Attempt  to  reach  righteousness 
by  any  way  except  that  of  Jesus,  and  you  will  find  out  your 
mistake ! '  This  is  a  thing  that  can  prove  itself,  if  it  is  so ; 
and  it  will  prove  itself,  because  it  is  so. 

Thus,  we  have  the  authority  of  both  Old  and  New 
Testament  placed  on  just  the  same  solid  basis  as  the  au- 
thority of  the  injunction  to  take  food  and  rest  :  namely,  that 
experience  proves  we  cannot  do  without  them.  And  we 
have  neglect  of  the  Bible  punished  just  as  putting  one's 
hand  into  the  fire  is  punished  :  namely,  by  finding  we  are 
the  worse  for  it.  Only,  to  attend  to  this  experience  about 
the  Bible,  needs  more  steadiness  than  to  attend  to  the 
momentary  impressions  of  hunger,  fatigue,  and  pain  ;  there- 
fore it  is  called  ya:/M,  and  counted  a  virtue.  But  the  appeal 
is  to  experience  in  this  case  just  as  much  as  in  the  other  ; 
only  to  experience  of  a  far  deeper  and  greater  kind. 

5- 
So  there  is  no  doubt  that  we  get  a  much  firmer,  nay  an 
impregnable,  ground  for  the  Bible,  and  for  recommending 
it  to  the  world,  if  we  put  the  construction  on  it  w^hich  we  pro- 
pose. The  only  question  is  :  Is  this  the  right  construction 
to  put  on  it  ?  is  it  the  construction  which  properly  belongs 
to  the  Bible  ?  And  here,  again,  our  appeal  is  to  the  same 
test  which  we  have  employed  throughout,  the  only  possible 
test  for  man  to  employ, — the  test  of  reason  and  experience. 
Given  the  Bible-documents,  what,  it  is  inquired,  is  the  right 
construction  to  put  upon  them  ?  Is  it  the  construction  we 
propose?  or  is  it  the  construction  of  the  theologians,  accord- 
ing to  which  the  dogmas  of  the  Trinity,  the  Incarnation,  the 


t92  LITERATURE  AND  DOGMA. 

Atonement,  and  so  on,  are  presupposed  all  through  the 
Bible,  are  sometimes  latent,  sometimes  come  more  visibly 
to  the  surface,  but  are  alwa3^s  there  j  and  to  them  every 
word  in  the  Bible  has  reference,  plain  or  figured  ? 

Now,  the  Bible  does  not  and  cannot  tell  us  itself,  in 
black  and  white,  what  is  the  right  construction  to  put  upon 
it ;  we  have  to  make  this  out.  x\nd  the  only  possible  way 
fO  make  it  out, — for  the  dogmatists  to  make  out  their  con- 
struction, or  for  us  to  make  out  ours, — is  by  reason  and  ex- 
perience. 'Even  such  as  are  readiest,'  says  Hooker  very 
well,  '  to  cite  for  one  thing  five  hundred  sentences  of  Scrip- 
ture, what  warrant  have  they  that  any  one  of  them  ^th 
mean  the  thing  for  which  it  is  alleged  ? '  They  can  have 
none,  he  replies,  but  reasoning  and  collection  j  and  to  the 
same  effect  Butler  says  of  reason,  that  'it  is  indeed  the  only 
faculty  we  have  wherewith  to  judge  concerning  ajiyt/iwg, 
even  revelation  itself  Now  it  is  simply  from  experience  of 
the  human  spirit  and  its  productions,  from  observing  as 
widely  as  we  can  the  manner  in  which  men  have  thought, 
their  way  of  using  words  and  what  they  mean  by  them,  and 
from  reasoning  upon  this  observation  and  experience,  that 
we  conclude  the  construction  theologians  put  upon  the 
Bible  to  be  false,  and  ours  to  be  the  truer  one. 

In  the  first  place,  from  Israel's  master-feeling,  the  feeling 
for  righteousness^  the  predominant  sense  that  men  are,  as  St. 
Paul  says,  '  created  unto  good  works  which  God  hath  pre- 
pared beforehand  that  we  should  walk  in  them,'  ^  we  collect 
the  origin  of  Israel's  conception  of  God, — of  that  mighty 
'  not  ourselves '  which  more  or  less  engages  all  men's  atten- 
tion,— as  the  Eternal  Power  that  makes  for  righteousness. 
This  we  do,  because  the  more  we  come  to  know  how  ideas 
and  terms  arise,  and  what  is  their  character,  the  more  this 
explanation  of  Israel's  use  of  the  word  '  God '  seems  the 

'  Eph.,  ii,  10. 


OUR   'MASSES'   AND   THE  BIBLE.  193 

true  and  natural  one.  Again,  the  construction  we  put  upon 
the  doctrine  and  work  of  Jesus  is  collected  in  the  same  way. 
From  the  data  we  have,  and  from  comparison  of  these  data 
with  what  we  have  besides  of  the  history  of  ideas  and  ex- 
pressions, this  construction  seems  to  us  the  true  and  natural 
one.  The  Gospel-narratives  are  just  that  sort  of  account  of 
such  a  work  and  teaching  as  the  work  and  teaching  of  Jesus 
Christ,  according  to  our  construction  of  it,  was,  which  would 
naturally  have  been  given  by  devoted  followers  who  did 
not  fully  understand  it.  And  understand  it  fully  they  then 
could  not,  it  was  so  very  new,  great,  and  profound ;  only 
time  gradually  brings  its  lines  out  more  clear. 

On  the  other  hand,  the  theologians'  notion  of  dogmas 
presupposed  in  the  Bible,  and  of  a  constant  latent  reference 
to  theni;  we  reject,  because  experience  is  against  it.  The 
more  we  know  of  the  history  of  ideas  and  expressions,  the 
more  we  are  convinced  that  this  account  is  not  and  cannot 
be  the  true  one ;  that  the  theologians  have  credited  the  Bible 
with  this  presupposition  of  dogmas  and  this  constant  latent 
reference  to  them,  but  that  they  are  not  really  there.  '  The 
Fathers  recognised^  says  Cardinal  Newman,  '  a  certain  trutli 
lying  hid  under  the  tenor  of  the  sacred  text  as  a  whole,  and 
showing  itself  more  or  less  in  this  verse  or  that,  as  it  might 
be.  The  Fathers  might  have  traditionary  information  of  the 
general  drift  of  the  inspired  text  which  we  have  not.'  Born 
into  the  world  twenty  years  later,  and  touched  with  the 
breath  of  the  'Zeit-Geist,'  how  would  this  exquisite  and 
delicate  genius  have  been  himself  the  first  to  feel  the  un- 
soundness of  all  this  !  that  we  have  heard  the  like  about 
other  books  before,  and  that  it  always  turns  out  to  be  not 
so,  that  the  right  interpretation  of  a  document,  such  as  the 
Bible,  is  not  in  this  fashion.  Homer's  poetry  was  the  Bible 
of  the  Greeks,  however  strange  a  one  ;  and  just  in  the  same 
way  there  grew  up  the  notion  of  a  mystical  and  inner  sense 

u 


194  LITERATURE  AND   DOGMA. 

m  the  poetry  of  Homer,  underlying  the  apparent  sense,  but 
brought  to  light  by  the  commentators ;  perhaps,  even, 
they  might  have  traditionary  informatioi.\  of  the  drift  of  the 
Homeric  poetry  which  we  have  not ; — who  knows  ?  But, 
once  for  all,  as  our  literary  experience  widens,  this  notion 
of  a  secret  sense  in  Homer  proves  to  be  a  mere  dream. 
So,  too,  is  the  notion  of  a  secret  sense  in  the  Bible,  and  of 
the  Fathers'  disengagement  of  it. 

Demonstration  in  these  matters  is  impossible.  It  is  a 
maintainable  thesis  that  the  allegorising  of  the  Fathers  is 
right,  and  that  this  is  the  true  sense  of  the  Bible.  It  is  a 
maintainable  thesis  that  the  theological  dogmas  of  the 
Trinity,  the  Incarnation,  and  the  Atonement,  underlie  the 
whole  Bible.  It  is  a  maintainable  thesis,  also,  that  Jesus 
was  himself  immersed  in  the  Aberglaube  of  his  nation  and 
time,  and  that  his  disciples  have  reported  him  with  absolute 
fideHty;  in  this  case  we  should  have,  in  our  estimate  of 
Jesus,  to  make  deductions  for  his  Aberglaube^  and  to  admire 
him  for  the  insight  he  displayed  in  spite  of  it.  This  thesis, 
we  repeat,  or  that  thesis,  or  another  thesis,  is  maintainable^ 
as  to  the  construction  to  be  put  on  such  a  document  as  the 
Bible.  Absolute  demonstration  is  impossible,  and  the  only 
question  is  :  Does  experience,  as  it  widens  and  deepens, 
make  for  this  or  that  thesis,  or  make  against  it  ?  And  the 
great  thing  against  any  such  thesis  as  either  of  the  two  we 
have  just  mentioned  is,  that  the  more  we  know  of  the  history 
of  the  human  spirit  and  its  deliverances,  the  more  we  have 
reason  to  think  such  a  thesis  improbable,  and  it  loses  its 
hold  on  our  assent  more.  On  the  other  hand,  the  great 
thing,  as  we  believe,  in  favour  of  such  a  construction  as  we 
put  upon  the  Bible  is,  that  experience,  as  it  increases,  con- 
stantly confirms  it;  and  that,  though  it  cannot  cofnmand 
assent,  it  will  be  found  to  wi?i  assent  more  and  more. 


^95 


CHAPTER  XL 

THE   TRUE   GREATNESS   OF   THE   OLD   TESTAMENT 

Win  assent  in  the  end  the  new  construction  will,  but  not  at 
once;  and  there  will  be  a  passage-time  of  confusion  first, 
It  is  not  for  nothing,  as  we  have  said,  that  people  take  short 
cuts  and  tell  themselves  fairy-tales,  because  the  immense 
scale  of  the  history  of  '  bringing  in  everlasting  righteousness, 
is  too  much  for  their  narrow  minds.  It  is  not  for  nothing  \ 
\heypayfor  it  It  is  not  for  nothing  that  they  found  religion 
on  prediction  and  miracle,  guarantee  it  by  preternatural 
interventions  and  the  coming  of  the  Son  of  Man  in  the 
clouds,  consummate  it  by  a  banquet  with  Abraham,  Isaac,  and 
Jacob,  in  a  city  shining  with  gold  and  precious  stones.  They 
are  like  people  who  have  fed  their  minds  on  novels  or  their 
stomachs  on  opium;  the  reality  of  things  is  flat  and  insipid 
to  them,  although  it  is  in  truth  far  grander  than  the  phantas- 
magorical  world  of  novels  and  of  opium.  But  it  is  long 
before  the  novel-reader  or  the  opium-eater  can  rid  himself 
of  his  bad  habits,  and  brace  his  nerves,  and  recover  the 
tone  of  his  mind  enough  to  perceive  it.  Distress  and  de- 
spair at  the  loss  of  his  accustomed  stimulant  are  his  first 
sensations. 

Miracles,  the  mainstay  of  popular  religion,  are  touched 
by  Ithuriel's  spear.  They  are  beginning  to  dissolve ;  but  what 
are  we  to  expect  during  the  process  of  dissolution  ?  Probably 
amongst  many  religious  people,  vehement  efforts  at  reaction, 

O  2 


196  LITERATURE  AND  DOGMA. 

a  recrudescence  of  superstition;  the  passionate  resolve  to 
keep  hold  on  what  is  slipping  away  from  them  by  giving  up 
more  and  more  the  use  of  reason  in  religion,  and  by  resting 
more  and  more  on  authority.  The  Church  of  Rome  is  the 
great  upholder  of  authority  as  against  reason  in  religion; 
and  it  will  be  strange  if  in  the  coming  time  of  transition 
the  Church  of  Rome  does  not  gain. 

But  for  many  more  than  those  whom  Rome  attracts  there 
will  be  an  interval,  between  the  time  when  men  accepted 
the  religion  of  the  Bible  as  a  thaumaturgy  and  the  time  when 
they  perceive  it  to  be  something  different,  in  which  they  will 
be  prone  to  throw  aside  the  religion  of  the  Bible  altogether 
as  a  delusion.  And  this,  again,  will  be  mainly  the  fault, — if 
fault  that  can  be  called  which  was  an  inevitable  error, — of 
the  religious  people  themselves,  who,  from  the  time  of  the 
Apostles  downwards,  have  insisted  upon  it  that  religion  shall 
be  a  thaumaturgy  or  nothing.  For  very  many,  therefore, 
when  it  cannot  be  a  thaumaturgy,  it  will  be  nothing.  And 
very  likely  there  will  come  a  day  when  there  will  be  less 
religion  than  even  now.  For  the  religion  of  the  Bible  is  so 
simple  and  powerful,  that  even  those  who  make  the  Bible  a 
thaumaturgy  get  hold  of  the  religion,  because  they  read  the 
Bible ;  but,  if  men  do  not  read  the  Bible,  they  cannot  get 
hold  of  it.  And  then  will  be  fulfilled  the  saying  of  the 
prophet  Amos :  *  Behold,  the  days  come,  saith  the  Eternal, 
that  I  will  send  a  famine  in  the  land,  not  a  famine  of  bread, 
nor  a  thirst  for  water,  but  of  hearing  the  words  of  the  Eter- 
nal ;  and  they  shall  wander  from  sea  to  sea,  and  from  the 
north  even  to  the  east  they  shall  run  to  and  fro  to  seek  the 
word  of  the  Eternal,  and  shall  not  find  it.'  ^ 

Nevertheless,  as  after  this  mournful  prophecy  the  herds- 
man of  Tekoah  goes  on  to  say :  '  TJicrc  shall  yet  ?wt  the 
least  grain  of  Israel  fall  to  the  earth  !'-  To  the  Bible  men 
'  Am.,  viii,  II,  12.  ^  Am.,  ix,  9. 


TRUE   GREATNESS  OF  OLD   TESTAMENT    197 

will  return;  and  why?  Because  they  cannot  do  without  it. 
Because  happiness  is  our  being's  end  and  aim,  and  happiness 
belongs  to  righteousness,  and  righteousness  is  revealed  in 
the  Bible.  For  this  simple  reason  men  will  returfi  to  the 
Bible,  just  as  a  man  who  tried  to  give  up  food,  thinking  it 
w^as  a  vain  thing  and  he  could  do  without  it,  would  return 
to  food ;  or  a  man  who  tried  to  give  up  sleep,  thinking  it 
was  a  vain  thing  and  he  could  do  without  it,  would  return 
to  sleep.  Then  there  will  come  a  time  of  reconstruction  ; 
and  then,  perhaps,  will  be  the  moment  for  labours,  like  this 
attempt  of  ours,  to  be  found  useful  For  though  everyone 
must  read  the  Bible  for  himself,  and  the  perfect  criticism  of 
it  is  an  immense  matter,  and  it  may  be  possible  to  go  much 
beyond  what  we  here  achieve  or  can  achieve,  yet  the  method 
for  reading  the  Bible  we,  as  we  hope  and  believe,  here  give. 
And  although,  in  this  or  that  detail,  the  construction  we  put 
upon  the  Bible  may  be  wrong,  yet  the  main  lines  of  the 
construction  will  be  found,  w^e  hope  and  believe,  right ;  and 
the  reader  who  has  the  main  lines  may  easily  amend  the 
details  for  himself. 


Meanwhile  to  popular  Christianity,  from  those  who  can 
see  its  errors,  is  due  an  indulgence  inexhaustible,  except 
where  limits  are  required  to  it  for  the  good  of  religion  itself. 
Two  considerations  make  this  indulgence  right.  One  is, 
that  the  language  of  the  Bible  being, — which  is  the  great 
point  a  sound  criticism  establishes  against  dogmatic  theology, 
— approximate,  not  scientific,  in  all  expressions  of  religious 
feeling  approximate  language  is  lawful,  and  indeed  is  all  we 
can  attain  to.  It  cannot  be  adequate,  more  or  less  proper 
it  can  be;  but,  in  general,  approximate  language  consecrated 
by  use  -aftd  religious  feeling  acquires  therefrom  a  propriety 
of  its  own.     This  is  the  first  consideration.     The  second  is, 


198  LITERATURE  AND  DOGMA, 

that  on  both  the  '  method '  and  the  *  secret '  of  Jesus  popular 
Christianity  in  no  contemptible  measure  both  can  and  does, 
as  we  have  said,  lay  hold,  in  spite  of  its  inadequate  criticism 
of  the  Bible.  Now,  to  lay  hold  on  the  method  and  secret 
of  Jesns  is  a  very  great  thing;  an  inadequate  criticism  of  the 
Bible  is  a  comparatively  small  one. 

Certainly  this  consideration  should  govern  our  way  of 
regarding  many  things  in  popular  Christianity ; — its  missions, 
for  instance.  The  non-Christian  religions  are  not  to  the 
wise  man  mere  monsters ;  he  knows  they  have  much  good 
and  truth  in  them.  He  knows  that  Mahometanistii,  and 
Brahminism,  and  Buddhism,  are  not  what  the  missionaries 
call  them ;  and  he  knows,  too,  how  really  unfit  the  mis- 
sionaries are  to  cope  with  them.  For  any  one  who  weighs 
the  matter  well,  the  missionary  in  clerical  coat  and  gaiters 
whom  one  sees  in  wood- cuts  preaching  to  a  group  of  pic- 
turesque Orientals,  is,  from  the  inadequacy  of  his  criticism 
both  of  his  hearers'  religion  and  of  his  own,  and  his  signal 
misunderstanding  of  the  very  Volume  he  holds  in  his  hand, 
a  hardly  less  grotesque  object  in  his  intellectual  equipment 
for  his  task  than  in  his  outward  attire.  Yet  everyone  allows 
that  this  strange  figure  carries  something  of  what  is  called 
European  civilisation  with  him,  and  a  good  part  of  this  is 
due  to  Christianity.  But  even  the  Christianity  itself  that 
he  preache^^,  imbedded  in  a  false  the^^logy  though  it  be, 
cannot  but  contain,  in  a  greater  or  lesser  measure  as  it  may 
happen,  these  three  things  :  the  all-importance  of  7'ighteous- 
ness^  the  method  of  Jesus,  the  secret  of  Jesus.  No  Christianity 
that  is  ever  preached  but  manages  to  carry  something  of 
these  along  with  it. 

And  if  it  carries  them  to  Mahometanism,  they  are  carried 
where  of  the  all-importance  of  righteousness  there  is  a  know- 
ledge, but  of  the  method  and  secret  of  Jesus,  by  which  alone 
is  righteousness   possible,  hardly  any  sense  at  all.     If  it 


TRUE   GREATNESS   OF  OLD    TESTAMENT    199 

carries  them  to  Brahminism,  they  are  carried  where  of  the 
all-importance  of  righteousness,  the  foundation  of  the  whole 
matter,  there  is  a  wholly  insufticient  sense;  and  w^here 
religion  is,  above  all,  that  metaphysical  conception,  or 
metaphysical  pla}-,  so  dear  to  the  Aryan  genius  and  to 
]\I.  Emile  Burnouf.  If  it  carries  them  to  Buddhism,  they 
are  carried  to  a  religion  to  be  saluted  with  respect,  indeed ; 
for  it  has  not  only  the  sense  for  righteousness,  it  has,  even, 
it  has  the  secret  of  Jesus.  But  it  employs  the  secret  ill, 
because  greatly  wanting  in  the  method,  because  utterly 
wanting  in  the  sweet  reasonableness,  the  unerring  balance, 
Xki^epieikeia.  Therefore  to  all  whom  it  visits,  the  Christianity 
of  our  missions,  inadequate  as  may  be  its  criticism  of  the 
Bible,  brings  what  may  do  them  good.  And  if  it  brings  the 
Bible  itself,  it  brings  what  may  not  only  help  the  good 
preached,  but  may  also  with  time  dissipate  the  erroneous 
criticism  which  accompanies  this  and  impairs  it.  All  this 
is  to  be  said  for  popular  religion  ;  and  it  all  makes  in  favour 
of  treating  popular  religion  tenderly,  of  sparing  it  as  much 
as  possible,  of  trusting  to  time  and  indirect  means  to  trans- 
form it,  rather  than  to  sudden,  violent  changes. 


Learned  religion,  however,  the  pseudo-science  of  dog- 
matic theology,  merits  no  such  indulgence.  It  is  a  separable 
accretion,  which  never  had  any  business  to  be  attached  to 
Christianity,  never  did  it  any  good,  and  now  does  it  great 
harm,  and  thickens  an  hundredfold  the  religious  confasion 
hi  which  we  live.  Attempts  to  adopt  it,  to  put  a  new  sense 
into  it,  to  make  it  plausible,  are  the  most  misspent  labour  in 
the  w^orld.  Certainly  no  religious  reformer  who  tries  it,  or 
has  tried  it,  will  find  his  work  live. 

Nothing  is  more  common,  indeed,  than  for  religious 
writers^  who  have  a  strong  sense  of  the  genuine  and  moral 


2CO  LITERATURE  AND  DOGMA. 

side  of  Christianity,  and  who  much  enlarge  on  the  pre- 
eminence of  this,  to  put  themselves  right,  as  it  were,  with 
dogmatic  theology,  by  a  passing  sentence  expressing  pro- 
found behef  in  its  dogmas,  though  in  discussing  them,  it  is 
\mpHed,  there  is  little  profit.  So  INIr.  Erskine  of  Linlathen, 
that  unwearying  and  much-revered  exponent  of  the  moral 
side  of  the  Bible  :  '  It  seems  difficult,'  he  says,  '■  to  conceive 
that  any  man  should  read  through  the  New  Testament 
candidly  and  attentively,  without  being  convinced  that  the 
doctrine  of  the  Trinity  is  essential  to  and  implied  in  every 
part  of  the  system.'  Even  already  many  readers  of  Mr. 
Erskine  feel,  when  they  come  across  such  a  sentence  as  that, 
as  if  they  had  suddenly  taken  gravel  or  sand  into  their 
mouth.  Twenty  years  hence  this  feeling  will  be  far 
stronger  \  the  reader  will  drop  the  book,  saying  that  cer- 
tainly it  can  avail  him  nothing.  So,  also,  Bunsen  was  fond 
of  maintaining,  putting  some  peculiar  meaning  of  his  own 
into  the  words,  that  the  whole  of  Christianity  was  in  the 
Lutheran  doctrine  of  justification  by  faith.  Thus,  too,  the 
Bishop  of  Exeter  chooses  to  say  that  his  main  objection  to 
keeping  the  Athanasian  Creed  is,  that  it  endangers  the 
doctrine  of  the  Trinity,  which  is  so  important.  Mr.  IMaurice, 
again,  that  pure  and  devout  spirit, — of  whom,  however,  the 
truth  must  at  last  be  told,  that  in  theology  he  passed  his  life 
beating  the  bush  with  deep  emotion  and  never  starting  the 
hare, — Mr.  Maurice  declared  that  by  reading  between  the 
lines  he  saw  in  the  Thirty-nine  Articles  and  the  Athanasian 
Creed  the  altogether  perfect  expression  of  the  Christian 
faith. 

But  all  this  is  mischievous  as  well  as  vain.  It  is  vain, 
because  it  is  meant  to  conciliate  the  so-called  orthodox, 
and  it  does  not  conciliate  them.  Of  his  attachment  to 
the  doctrine  of  the  Trinity  the  Bishop  of  Exeter  may 
make  what  protestations  he  will,  Archdeacon  Denison  will 


TRUE   GREATNESS  OF  OLD   TESTAMENT.    201 

still  smell  a  rat  in  them  ;  and  the  time  has  passed  when 
Bunsen's  Evangelical  phrases  could  fascinate  the  Evan- 
gelicals. Such  language,  however,  does  also  actual  harm, 
because  it  proceeds  from  a  misunderstanding  and  prolongs 
it.  For  it  may  be  well  to  read  between  the  lines  of  a  man 
labouring  with  an  experience  he  cannot  utter ;  but  to  read 
between  the  lines  of  a  notion-work  is  absurd,  for  it  is  of  the 
essence  of  a  notion-work  not  to  need  it.  And  the  Athana- 
sian  Creed  is  a  notion-work,  of  which  the  fault  is  that  its 
basis  is  a  chimaera.  It  is  an  application  of  the  terms  of 
Greek  logic  to  a  chimsera,  its  own  notion  of  the  Trinity,  a 
notion  unestablished,  not  resting  on  observation  and  ex- 
perience, but  assumed  to  be  given  in  Scripture,  yet  not 
really  given  there.  Indeed  the  very  expression,  the  Trinity^ 
jars  with  the  whole  idea  and  character  of  Bible-religion. 
But,  lest  the  Unitarian  should  be  unduly  elated  at  hear- 
ing this,  let  us  hasten  to  add  that  so  too,  and  just  as  much, 
does  the  expression,  a  Great  Personal  First  Cause. 

Learned  pseudo-science  applied  to  the  data  of  the  Bible 
is  best  called  plainly  what  it  is, — utter  blunder  ;  criticism  of 
the  same  order,  and  of  which  the  futility  will  one  day  be 
just  as  visible,  as  that  criticism  about  the  two  swords  which 
some  way  back  we  quoted.  To  try  to  tinker  such  criticism 
only  makes  matters  worse.  The  best  way  is  to  throw  it 
aside  altogether,  and  forget  it  as  fast  as  possible.  This  is  what 
the  good  of  religion  demands,  and  what  all  the  enemies  of 
religion  would  most  deprecate.  The  hour  for  softening 
down,  and  explaining  away,  is  passed  ;  the  whole  false 
notion-work  has  to  go.  Mild  defences  of  it  leave  on  the 
mind  a  sense  of  the  defender's  hopeless  inability  to  perceive 
our  actual  situation  ;  violent  defences  read,  alas  !  only  like 
'rtt  tale  told  by  an  idiot,  full  of  sound  and  fujy^  signifying 
nothing.^ 


202  LITERATURE  AND  DOGMA. 

4. 

But  the  great  work  to  be  done  for  the  better  time  which 
will  arrive,  and  for  the  time  of  transition  which  will  precede 
it,  is  not  a  work  of  destruction,  but  to  show  that  the  truth  is 
really,  as  it  is,  incomparably  higher,  grander,  more  wide  and 
deep-reaching,  than  the  AbergMitbe  and  false  science  which 
it  displaces. 

The  propounders  of  '  The  Great  Personal  First  Cause, 
who  thinks  and  loves,'  are  too  modest  when  they  sometimes 
say,  taking  their  lesson  from  the  Bible,  that,  after  all,  man 
can  know  next  to  nothing  of  the  Divine  nature.  They  do 
themselves  signal  injustice ;  they  themselves  know,  accord- 
ing to  their  own  statements,  a  great  deal,  far  too  much. 
They  know  so  much,  that  they  make  of  God  a  magnified 
and  non-natural  man  ;  and  when  this  leads  them  into  difh- 
culties,  and  they  think  to  escape  from  these  by  saying  that 
God's  ways  are  not  man's  ways,  they  do  not  succeed  in  making 
their  God  cease  to  resemble  a  man,  they  only  make  him  re- 
semble a  man  puzzled.  But  the  truth  is,  that  one  may  have 
a  great  respect  for  man,  and  yet  be  permitted,  even  however 
much  he  be  magnified,  to  imagine  something  far  beyond 
him.  And  this  is  the  good  of  such  an  unpretending  defini- 
tion of  God  as  ours  :  tlie  Eternal  Pozuer^  not  otirseives,  that 
makes  for  7'igliteoiLsness  ; — it  leaves  the  infinite  to  the  ima- 
gination, and  to  the  gradual  eftbrts  of  countless  ages  of  men, 
slowly  feeling  after  more  of  it  and  finding  it.  Ages  and  ages 
hence,  no  such  adequate  definition  of  the  infinite  not  our- 
selves will  yet  be  possible,  as  any  sciolist  of  a  theologian  will 
now  pretend  to  rattle  you  off  in  a  moment.  But  on  one 
point  of  the  operation  of  this  not  ourselves  we  are  clear  :  that 
it  makes  for  conduct,  for  righteousness.  So  far  we  know 
God,  that  he  is  'the  Eternal  that  loveth  righteousness ;''  and  the 
farther  we  go  in  righteousness,  the  more  we  shall  know  him. 


TRUE   GREATNESS  OF  OLD    TESTAMENT.    203 

And  as  this  true  and  authentic  God  of  Israel  is  far 
grander  than  the  God  of  popular  rehgion,  so  is  his  real 
afiirmation  of  himself  in  human  affairs  far  grander  than  that 
poor  machinery  of  prediction  and  miracle,  by  which  popular 
religion  imagines  that  he  affirms  himself.  The  greatness  of 
the  scale  on  which  he  operates  makes  it  hard  for  men  to 
follow  him ;  but  the  greatness  of  the  scale,  too,  makes  the 
grandeur  of  the  operation.  Take  the  Scripture-promises 
and  their  accomplishment.  As  the  whirlwind  passeth^  so 
is  the  wiched  no  more;  hit  the  righteous  is  an  everlasting 
foundation}  And  again  :  TJiey  shall  call  Jerusalem  the  throne 
of  the  Eternal,  and  all  the  nations  shall  be  gathered  unto  it? 
It  is  objected  that  this  is  not  fulfilled.  It  is  not  fulfilled  yet, 
because  the  whole  career  of  the  human  race  has  to  bring  out 
its  fulfilment,  and  this  career  is  still  going  forward.  '  Men 
are  impatient,  and  for  precipitating  things,'  says  Butler;  and 
Davison,  whom  on  a  former  occasion  I  quoted  to  differ 
from  him, — Davison,  not  the  least  memorable  of  that  Oriel 
group,  whose  reputation  I,  above  most  people,  am  bound  to 
cherish, — says  with  a  weighty  and  noble  simplicity  worthy  of 
Butler :  '  Conscience  and  the  present  constitution  of  tilings 
are  not  corresponding  terms  ;  it  is  conscience  and  the  issue 
of  things  which  go  together.'  It  is  so ;  and  this  is  what  makes 
the  spectacle  of  human  affairs  so  edifying  and  so  sublime. 
Give  time  enough  for  the  experience,  and  experimentally  and 
demonstrably  it  is  true,  that  'the  path  of  the  just  is  as  the 
shining  light  which  shineth  more  and  more  unto  the  perfect 
day.' 3  Only, the  limits  for  the  experience  are  wider  than  people 
commonly  think.  '  Yet  a  little  while,  and  the  ungodly  shall  be 
clean  gone  ! '  ^  but  '  a  little  while '  according  to  the  scope  and 
working  of  that  mighty  Power  to  which  a  thousand  years  are 
as  one  day.    The  w^orld  goes  on,  nations  and  men  arrive  and 

'  Frcv.,  X,  25.  2  jer.,  iii,  17. 

"  Frov.,  iv,  iS.  *  Fs,  xxxvii,  10, 


204  LITERATURE  AND  DOGMA. 

depart,  with  varying  fortune,  as  it  might  seem,  with  time  and 
chance  happening  unto  all.  Look  a  litde  deeper,  and  you 
will  see  that  one  strain  runs  through  it  all :  nations  and  men, 
whoever  is  shipwrecked,  is  shipwrecked  on  conduct.  It  is 
the  God  of  Israel  steadily  and  irresistibly  asserting  himself; 
the  Eternal  that  loveth  righteousness. 

In  this  sense  we  should  read  the  Hebrew  prophets. 
They  did  not  foresee  and  foretell  curious  coincidences, 
but  they  foresaw  and  foretold  this  inevitable  triumph  of 
righteousness.  First,  they  foretold  it  for  all  the  men  and 
nations  of  their  own  day,  and  especially  for  those  colossal 
unrighteous  kingdoms  of  the  heathen  world,  which  looked 
everlasting ;  then,  for  all  time.  '  As  the  whirlwind  passeth, 
so  is  the  wicked  no  more ; ' — sooner  or  later  it  is,  it  must  be, 
so.  Hebrew  prophecy  is  never  read  aright  until  it  is  read  in 
this  sense,  which  indeed  of  itself  it  cries  out  for ;  it  is,  as 
Davison,  again,  finely  says,  wipaticnt  for  the  larger  scope. 
How  often,  throughout  the  ages,  how  often,  even,  by  the 
Hebrew  prophets  themselves,  has  some  immediate  visible 
interposition  been  looked  for  !  'I  looked,'  they  make  God 
say,  '  and  there  was  no  man  to  help,  and  I  wondered  that 
there  was  none  to  uphold ;  therefore  mine  own  arm  brought 
salvation  unto  me.  The  day  of  vengeance  is  in  mine  heart, 
the  year  of  riiy  redeemed  is  come.'  ^  O  long-delaying  arm 
of  might,  will  the  Eternal  never  put  thee  forth,  to  smite 
these  sinners  who  go  on  as  if  righteousness  mattered 
nothing?  There  is  no  need  ;  they  are  smitten.  Down 
they  come,  one  after  another ;  Assyria  falls,  Babylon, 
Rome  ;  they  all  fall  for  want  of  conduct^  righteousness. 
'The  heathen  make  much  ado,  and  the  kingdoms  are 
moved  ;  but  God  hath  showed  his  voice,  and  the  earth  doth 
melt  away.' 2 

>  Is.,  Ixiii,  4,  5.  *  Ps.  xlvi,  6. 


TRUE   GREATNESS   OE  OLD    TESTAMENT    205 

Nay,  but  Judcea  itself,  the  Holy  Land,  the  land  of  God's 
Israel,  perishes  too, — and  perishes  for  want  of  righteousness. 
Yes,  Israel's  visible  Jerusalem  is  in  ruins;  and  how,  then, 
shall  men  '  call  Jerusalem  the  throne  of  the  Eternal,  and  all 
the  nations  shall  be  gathered  unto  it?'  But  the  true  Israel 
was  Israel  the  bringer-in  and  defender  of  the  idea  oi conduct^ 
Israel  the  lifter-up  to  the  nations  of  the  banner  oi  7ig/iteous- 
7iess.  The  true  Jerusalem  was  the  city  of  this  ideal  Israel. 
And  this  ideal  Israel  could  not  and  cannot  perish,  so  long  as 
its  idea,  righteousness  and  its  necessity,  does  not  perish,  but 
prevails.  Now,  that  it  does  prevail,  the  whole  course  of  the 
world  proves,  and  the  fall  of  the  actual  Israel  is  of  itself 
witness.  Thus,  therefore,  the  ideal  Israel  for  ever  lives  and 
prospers ;  and  its  city  is  the  city  whereunto  all  nations  and 
languages,  after  endless  trials  of  everything  else  except 
conduct,  after  incessantly  attempting  to  do  without  righteous- 
ness and  failing,  are  slowly  but  surely  gathered. 

To  this  Israel  are  the  promises,  and  to  this  Israel  they 
are  fulfilled.  'The  nation  and  kingdom  that  will  not  serve 
thee  shall  perish,  yea,  those  nations  shall  be  utterly  wasted.' ' 
It  is  so;  since  all  history  is  an  accumulation  of  experiences 
that  w^hat  men  and  nations  fall  by  is  want  of  conduct.  To 
call  it  by  this  plain  name  is  often  not  amiss,  for  the  thing  is 
never  more  great  than  when  it  is  looked  at  in  its  simplicity 
and  reality.  Yet  the  true  name  to  touch  the  soul  is  the 
name  Israel  gave :  rig]iteous?icss.  And  to  Israel,  as  the 
representative  of  this  imperishable  and  saving  idea  of 
righteousness,  all  the  promises  come  true,  and  the  language 
of  none  of  them  is  pitched  too  high.  The  Eternal,  Israel 
says  truly,  is  on  my  side. '^  'Fear  not,  thou  worm  Jacob,  and 
thou  handful  Israel !  I  will  help  thee,  saith  the  Eternal. 
Behold,  I  have  graven  thee  upon  the  palms  of  my  hands, 
Ihy  walls  are  continually  before  me.  The  Eternal  hath 
'  Is.,  Ix,  12.  »  Ps.  cxviii,  6. 


2o6  LITERATURE  AND  DOGMA. 

chosen  ZIon ;  O  pray  for  the  peace  of  Jerusalem  !  they  shall 
prosper  that  love  thee.  Men  shall  call  Jerusalem  the  throne  of 
the  Eternal,  and  all  the  nations  shall  be  gathered  unto  it.  And 
he  will  destroy  in  this  mountain  the  face  of  the  covering  cast 
over  all  people,  and  the  veil  that  is  spread  over  all  nations ; 
he  will  swallow  up  death  in  victory.  And  it  shall  be  said  in 
that  day :  Lo,  this  is  our  God  !  this  is  the  Eternal,  we  have 
waited  for  him,  we  will  be  glad  and  rejoice  in  his  salvation.'  ^ 

5- 
And  if  Assyria  and  Babylon  seem  too  remote,  let  us  look 
nearer  home  for  testimonies  to  the  inexhaustible  grandeur 
and  significance  of  the  Old  Testament  revelation,  according 
to  that  construction  which  we  here  put  upon  it.  Every 
educated  man  loves  Greece,  owes  gratitude  to  Greece. 
Greece  was  the  lifter-up  to  the  nations  of  the  banner  of  art 
and  science,  as  Israel  was  the  lifter-up  of  the  banner  of 
righteousness.  Now,  the  world  cannot  do  without  art  and 
science.  And  the  lifter-up  of  the  banner  of  art  and  science 
was  naturally  much  occupied  with  them,  and  conduct  was  a 
homely  plain  matter.  Not  enough  heed,  therefore,  was 
given  by  him  to  conduct.  But  conduct,  plain  matter  as  it 
is,  is  six-eighths  of  Hfe,  while  art  and  science  are  only  two- 
eighths.  And  this  brilliant  Greece  perished  for  lack  of 
attention  enough  to  conduct;  for  want  of  conduct,  steadiness, 
character.  And  there  is  this  difference  between  Greece  and 
Judaea:  both  were  custodians  of  a  revelation,  and  both 
perished ;  but  Greece  perished  of  ^z'^r-fidelity  to  her  revela- 
tion, and  Judaea  perished  of  ?/;/^<?r- fidelity  to  hers.  Nay, 
and  the  victorious  revelation  now,  even  now, — in  this  age 
when  more  of  beauty  and  more  of  knowledge  are  so  much 
needed,  and  knowledge,  at  any  rate,  is  so  highly  esteemed, 

'  Is.,  xli,  14;    xlix,  16;    Ps,   cxxxii,    13  ;    cxxii,  6;  Jer.,  iii,    17; 
Is.,  XXV,  7,  8   9. 


TRUE   GREATNESS   OF  OLD    TESTAMENT    207 

— the  revelation  which  rules  the  world  even  now,  is  not 
Greece's  revelation,  but  Jud^a's ;  not  the  pre-eminence  of 
art  and  science,  but  the  pre-eminence  of  righteousness. 

It  reminds  one  of  what  is  recorded  of  Abraham,  before 
the  true  inheritor  of  the  promises,  the  humble  and  homely 
Isaac,  was  born.  Abraham  looked  upon  the  vigorous,  bold, 
brilliant  young  Ishmael,  and  said  appealingly  to  God  :  '  Oh 
that  Ishmael  might  live  before  thee  ! '  ^  But  it  cannot  be ; 
the  promises  are  to  cmduct,  conduct  only.  And  so,  again, 
we  in  like  manner  behold,  long  after  Greece  has  perished, 
a  brilliant  successor  of  Greece,  the  Renascence,  present 
herself  with  high  hopes.  The  preachers  of  righteousness, 
blunderers  as  they  often  were,  had  for  centuries  had  it  all 
their  own  way.  Art  and  science  had  been  forgotten,  men's 
minds  had  been  enslaved,  their  bodies  macerated.  But  the 
gloomy,  oppressive  dream  is  now  over.  ^  Let  us  return  to 
Nature!^  And  all  the  world  salutes  with  pride  and  joy  the 
Renascence,  and  prays  to  Heaven  :  '  Oh  that  Lshmaet  might 
live  before  thee  ! '  Surely  the  future  belongs  to  this  brilliant 
new-comer,  with  his  animating  maxim :  Let  t(s  return  to 
Nature !  Ah,  what  pitfalls  are  in  that  word  Nature !  Let 
us  return  to  art  and  science,  which  are  a  part  of  Nature  ; 
yes.  Let  us  return  to  a  proper  conception  of  righteousness, 
to  a  true  use  of  the  method  and  secret  of  Jesus,  which 
have  been  all  denaturalised ;  yes.  But,  '  Let  us  return  to 
Nature  ; ' — do  you  mean  that  we  are  to  give  full  swing  to 
our  inclinations,  to  throw  the  reins  on  the  neck  of  our 
senses,  of  those  sirens  whom  Paul  the  IsraeHte  called  '  the 
deceiving  lusts,'  ^  and  of  following  whom  he  said,  '  Let  no 
man  beguile  you  with  vain  words,  for  because  of  these  things 
cometh  the  wrath  of  God  upon  the  children  of  disobe- 
dience '  ?  2  Do  you  mean  that  conduct  is  not  three-fourths 
of  life,  and  that  the  secret  of  Jesus  has  no  use  ?  And  the 
*  Gen.,  xvii,  18.  "-  Efh.,  \t,  22.  3  Eph.,  v,  6. 


2o8  LITERATURE  AND  DOGMA. 

Renascence  did  mean  this,  or  half  meant  this ;  so  disgusted 
was  it  with  the  cowled  and  tonsured  Middle  Age.  And  it 
died  of  it,  this  brilliant  Ishmael  died  of  it !  it  died  of  pro- 
voking a  conflict  with  the  homely  Isaac,  righteousness.  On 
the  Continent  came  the  Catholic  re-action ;  in  England,  as 
we  have  said  elsewhere,  '  the  great  middle  class,  the  kernel 
of  the  nation,  entered  the  prison  of  Puritanism,  and  had  the 
key  turned  upon  its  spirit  there  for  two  hundred  years.* 
After  too  much  glorification  of  art,  science,  and  culture,  too 
Uttle ;  after  Rabelais,  George  Fox. 

France,  again,  how  often  and  how  impetuously  for 
France  has  the  prayer  gone  up  to  Heaven  :  '  Oh  that  Ish- 
inael  might  live  before  thee  ! '  It  is  not  enough  perceived 
what  it  is  which  gives  to  France  her  attractiveness  for  every- 
body, and  her  success,  and  her  repeated  disasters.  France 
is  rJioiiivie  sensiiel  moyeji,  the  average  sensual  man  ;  Paris  is 
the  city  of  IJiomme  sensiiel  moyen.  This  has  an  attraction 
for  all  of  us.  We  all  have  in  us  this  Jiovime  sensiiel^  the 
man  of  the  '  wishes  of  the  flesh  and  of  the  current  thoughts; ' 
but  w^e  develop  him  under  checks  and  doubts,  and  un- 
systematically  and  often  grossly.  France,  on  the  other 
hand,  develops  him  confidently  and  harmoniously.  She 
makes  the  most  of  him,  because  she  know^s  what  she  is 
about  and  keeps  in  a  mean,  as  her  climate  is  in  a  mean,  and 
her  situation.  She  does  not  develop  him  with  madness, 
into  a  monstrosity,  as  the  Italy  of  the  Renascence  did  ;  she 
develops  him  equably  and  systematically.  And  hence  she 
does  not  shock  people  with  him  but  attracts  them  ;  she 
names  herself  the  France  of  tact  and  measure,  good  sense, 
logic.  In  a  way,  this  is  true.  As  she  develops  the  senses, 
the  apparent  self,  all  round,  in  good  faith,  without  mis- 
givings, without  violence,  she  has  much  reasonableness  and 
clearness  in  all  her  notions  and  arrangements;  a  sort  cf 
balance  even  in  conduct ;  as  much  art  and  science,  and  it 


TRUE   GREATNESS   OF  OLD    TESTAMENT.    209 

is  not  a  little,  as  goes  with  the  ideal  oiVJionime  scnsiiel  moyen. 
And  from  her  ideal  of  the  average  sensual  man  France  has 
deduced  her  famous  gospel  of  the  Rights  of  ]\Ian,  which  she 
preaches  with  such  an  infinite  crowing  and  self-admiration. 
France  takes  '  the  wishes  of  the  flesh  and  of  the  current 
thoughts'  for  a  man's  rights;  and  human  happiness,  and 
:he  perfection  of  society,  she  places  in  everybody's  being 
enabled  to  gratify  these  wishes,  to  get  these  rights,  as 
equally  as  possible  and  as  much  as  possible.  In  Italy,  as 
in  ancient  Greece,  the  satisfying  development  of  this  ideal 
of  the  average  sensual  man  is  broken  by  the  imperious 
ideal  of  art  and  science  disparaging  it ;  in  the  Germanic 
nations,  by  the  ideal  of  morality  disparaging  it.  Still,  when- 
ever, as  often  happens,  the  pursuers  of  these  higher  ideals 
are  a  little  weary  of  them  or  unsuccessful  with  them,  they 
turn  with  a  sort  of  envy  and  admiration  to  the  ideal  set  up 
by  France, — so  positive,  intelligible,  and,  up  to  a  certain 
point,  satisfying.  They  are  inclined  to  try  it  instead  of  their 
own,  although  they  can  never  bring  themselves  to  try  it 
thoroughly,  and  therefore  well.  But  this  explains  the  great 
attraction  France  exercises  upon  the  world.  All  of  us  feel, 
at  some  time  or  other  in  our  lives,  a  hankering  after  the 
French  ideal,  a  disposition  to  try  it.  More  particularly  is 
this  true  of  the  Latin  nations  ;  and  therefore  everywhere, 
among  these  nations,  you  see  the  old  indigenous  type  of 
city  disappearing,  and  the  type  of  modern  Paris,  the  city  of 
rhomine  sensiiel  inoyen^  replacing  it.  La  Bohcme,  the  ideal, 
free,  pleasurable  life  of  Paris,  is  a  kind  of  Paradise  of 
Ishmaels.  And  all  this  assent  from  every  quarter,  and  the 
clearness  and  apparent  reasonableness  of  their  ideal  besides, 
fill  the  French  with  a  kind  of  ecstatic  faith  in  it,  a  zeal 
almost  fanatical  for  propagating  what  they  call  French 
civilisation  everywhere,  for  establishing  its  predominance, 
and  their  own  predominance  along  with  it,  as  of  the  people 


210  LITERATURE  AND  DOGMA. 

entrusted  with  an  oracle  so  showy  and  taking.  Oh  that 
Ishmael  might  live  before  thee!  Since  everybody  has  some^ 
thing  which  conspires  with  this  Ishmael,  his  success,  again 
and  again,  seems  to  be  certain.  And  again  and  again  he 
seems  drawing  near  to  a  worldwide  success,  nay,  to  have 
succeeded; — but  always,  at  this  point,  disaster  overtakes 
him,  he  signally  breaks  down.  At  this  crowning  moment, 
when  all  seems  triumphant  with  him,  comes  what  the  Bible 
calls  a  crisis  or  judgment.  Now  is  the  Judgment  of  this 
world!  now  shall  the  prince  of  this  world  be  cast  out!^ 
Cast  out  he  is,  and  always  must  be,  because  his  ideal,  which 
is  also  that  of  France  in  general,  however  she  may  have 
noble  spirits  who  contend  against  it  and  seek  a  better,  is 
after  all  a  false  one.  Plausible  and  attractive  as  it  may  be, 
the  constitution  of  things  turns  out  to  be  somehow  or  other 
against  it.  And  why?  Because  the  free  development  of 
our  senses  all  round,  of  our  apparent  self,  has  to  undergo  a 
profound  modification  from  the  law  of  our  higher  real  self, 
the  law  of  righteousness  ;  because  he,  whose  ideal  is  the 
free  development  of  the  senses  all  round,  serves  the  senses, 
is  a  servant.  But  the  servant  abideth  not  in  the  hoiisefor  ever; 
ihe  son  abideth  for  ever!^ 

Is  it  possible  to  imagine  a  grander  testimony  to  the 
truth  of  the  revelation  committed  to  Israel  ?  ^Vhat  miracle 
of  making  an  iron  axe-head  float  on  water,  what  successful 
prediction  that  a  thing  should  happen  just  so  many  years 
and  months  and  days  hence,  could  be  really  half  so  impres- 
sive? 

6. 

So  that  the  whole  history  of  the  world  to  this  day  is  in 
truth  one  continual  establishing  of  the  Old  Testament  revela- 
tion :  ^  O  ye  that  love  the  Eternal^  see  that  ye  hate  the  thirg 

*  John,  xii,  3 1.  ^  John,  viii,  35. 


TRUE   GREATXESS   OF  OLD    TESTAMENT,    in 

that  is  evil!  to  him  that  ordereth  his  conversation  right,  shall 
he  shown  the  salvation  of  God.'  ^  And  whether  we  consider 
this  revelation  in  respect  to  human  affairs  at  large,  or  in 
respect  to  individual  happiness,  in  either  case  its  importance 
is  so  immense,  that  the  people  to  whom  it  was  given,  and 
whose  record  is  in  the  Bible,  deserve  fully  to  be  singled  out 
as  the  Bible  singles  them.  '  Behold,  darkness  doth  cover 
the  earth,  and  gross  darkness  the  nations ;  but  the  Eternal 
shall  arise  upon  thee.,  and  his  glory  shall  be  seen  upon 
thee  ! '  ^  For,  while  other  nations  had  the  misleading  idea 
that  this  or  that,  other  than  righteousness,  is  saving,  and  it 
is  not ;  that  this  or  that,  other  than  conduct,  brings  happi- 
ness, and  it  does  not ;  Israel  had  the  true  idea  that  riglit- 
coiisness  is  saving,  that  to  conduct  belongs  happiness. 

Nor  let  it  be  said  that  other  nations,  too,  had  at  least 
sometiiing  of  this  idea.  They  had,  but  they  were  not  pos- 
sessed wdth  it ;  now.  to  feel  it  enough  to  make  the  world  feel 
it,  it  was  necessary  to  be  possessed  with  it.  It  is  not  suffi- 
cient to  have  been  visited  by  such  an  idea  at  times,  to  have 
had  it  forced  occasionally  on  one's  mind  by  the  teaching  of 
experience.  No  ;  he  that  hath  the  bride  is  the  bridegroom  ;  ^ 
the  idea  belongs  to  him  who  has  most  loved  it.  Common 
prudence  can  say  :  Honesty  is  the  best  policy ;  morality 
can  say  :  To  conduct  belongs  happiness.  But  Israel  and 
the  Bible  are  filled  with  religious  joy,  and  rise  higher  and 
say  :  *  Righteousness  is  salvation  I ' — and  this  is  what  is  in- 
spiring. '  I  have  stuck  unto  thy  testimonies  !  Eternal,  what 
love  have  I  unto  thy  law  !  all  the  day  long  is  my  study  in  it. 
Thy  testimonies  have  I  claimed  as  mine  heritage  for  ever, 
and  why  ?  they  are  the  very  Joy  of  my  heart  I '  ^  This  is  why 
the  testimonies  of  righteousness  are  Israel's  heritage  for  ever, 
because  they  were  the  very  joy  of  his  heart.     Herein  Israel 

*  Ps.  xcvii,  10  ;  1,  23.  ^  Is.,  Ix,  2. 

"  John,  iii,  29.  *  Ps.  cxix,  31,  97,  ill, 

P2 


212  LITERATURE  AND  DOGMA. 

stood  alone,  the  friend  and  elect  of  the  Eternal.  'He 
showeth  his  word  unto  Jacobs  his  statues  and  ordinances 
unto  Israel.  He  hath  not  dealt  so  with  any  nation,  neither 
have  the  heathen  knowledge  of  his  laws.'^ 

Poor  Israel !  poor  ancient  people !  ^  It  was  revealed  to 
thee  that  righteousness  is  salvation ;  the  question,  what 
righteousness  is,  was  thy  stumbling-stone.  Seer  of  the 
vision  of  peace,  that  yet  couldst  not  see  the  things  which 
belong  unto  thy  peace  !  with  that  blindness  thy  sohtary  pre- 
eminence ended,  and  the  new  Israel,  made  up  out  of  all 
nations  and  languages,  took  thy  room.  But,  thy  visitation 
complete,  thy  temple  in  ruins,  thy  reign  over,  thine  office 
done,  thy  children  dispersed,  thy  teeth  drawn,  thy  shekels 
of  silver  and  gold  plundered,  did  there  yet  stay  with  thee 
any  remembrance  of  thy  primitive  intuition,  simple  and 
sublime,  of  the  Eternal  that  loveth  righteousness  2  Perhaps 
not ;  the  Talmudists  were  fully  as  well  able  to  efface  it  as 
the  Fathers.  But  if  there  did,  what  punishment  can  have 
been  to  thee  like  the  punishment  of  watching  the  perform- 
ances of  the  Aryan  genius  upon  the  foundation  which  thou 
hadst  given  to  it  ? — to  behold  this  terrible  and  triumphant 
philosopher,  with  his  monotheistic  idea  and  his  metaphysical 
Trinity,  '  neither  confounding  the  Persons  nor  dividing  the 
Substance'?  Like  the  torture  for  a  poet  to  hear  people 
laying  down  the  law  about  poetry  who  have  not  the  sense 
of  what  poetry  is,— a  sense  with  which  he  was  born  !  like  the 
affliction  to  a  man  of  science  to  hear  people  talk  of  things 
as  proved  who  do  not  even  know  what  constitutes  a  fact ! 
From  the  Council  of  Nicsea  down  to  Convocation  and  our 
two  bishops  '  doing  something '  for  the  Godhead  of  the 
Eternal  Son,  what  must  thou  have  had  to  suffer  ! 

'  Ps,  cxlvii,  10,  20.  *  Is.,  xliv,  7. 


213 


CPIAPTER  XIL 

THE  TRUE  GREATNESS  OF  CHRISTIANITY. 

No ;  the  mysteiy  hidden  from  ages  and  generations/  which 
none  of  the  rulers  of  this  world  knevv,^  the  mystery  revealed 
finally  by  Jesus  Christ  and  rejected  by  the  Jews,  was  not 
the  doctrine  of  the  Trinity,  nor  anything  speculative.  It 
was  the  method  and  the  secret  of  Jesus.  Jesus  did  not 
change  the  object  for  men, — righteousness.  He  made  clear 
what  it  was,  and  that  it  was  for  all  men,  and  that  it  was  this : 
— his  method  and  his  secret^  in  union  with  his  tcmpc?'. 

This  was  the  mystery,  and  the  Apostles  had  still  the 
consciousness  that  it  was.  To  'learn  Christ,'  to  *be  taught 
the  truth  as  it  is  in  Jesus,'  was  not,  with  them,  to  acquire 
certain  tenets  about  One  God  in  Trinity  and  Trinity  in 
Unity.  It  was, '  to  Ije  renewed  in  the  spirit  of  your  mind,  and 
to  put  on  the  new  man  which  after  God  is  created  in  righteoi/s- 
ness  and  trite  holiness.''^  And  this  exactly  amounts  to  the 
method  and  secret  of  Jesus. 

For  Catholic  and  for  Protestant  theology  alike,  this 
consciousness,  which  the  Aposdes  had  still  preserved,  was 
lost.  For  Catholic  and  Protestant  theology  alike,  the  truth 
as  it  is  in  Jesus,  the  mystery  revealed  in  Christ,  meant  some- 
thing totally  different  from  his  method  and  secret.  But 
they  recognised,  and  indeed  the  thing  was  so  plain  that  they 
could  not  well  miss  it,  they  recognised  that  on  all  Christians 
the  method  and  secret  of  Jesus  were  enjoined.    So  to  this 

»  Col^  i,  26.  2  I  Coj._^  jj^  g^  3  Epj,^^   y^  23,  24, 


214  LITERATURE  AND  DOGMA, 

extent  the  method  and  secret  of  Jesus  were  preached  and 
had  their  effect.  To  this  extent  true  Christianity  has  been 
known,  and  to  the  extent  before  stated  it  has  been  neglected. 
Now,  as  we  say  that  the  truth  and  grandeur  of  the  Old  Tes- 
tament most  comes  out  experimentally^ — that  is,  by  the 
whole  course  of  the  world  establishing  it,  and  confuting 
what  is  opposed  to  it — so  it  is  with  Christianity.  Its  gran- 
deur and  truth  are  far  best  brought  out  experimeiitally  ;  and 
the  thing  is,  to  make  people  see  this. 

But  there  is  this  difference  between  the  religion  of  the 
Old  Testament  and  Christianity.  Of  the  religion  of  the 
Old  Testament  we  can  pretty  well  see  to  the  end,  v/e  can 
trace  fully  enough  the  experimental  proof  of  it  in  history. 
But  of  Christianity  the  future  is  as  yet  almost  unknown. 
For  that  the  world  cannot  get  on  without  righteousness  we 
have  the  clear  experience,  and  a  grand  and  admirable  ex- 
perience it  is.  But  what  the  world  will  become  by  the 
thorough  use  of  that  which  is  really  righteousness,  the 
method  and  the  secret  and  the  sweet  reasonableness  of 
Jesus,  we  have  as  yet  hardly  any  experience  at  all.  There- 
fore we,  who  in  this  essay  limit  ourselves  to  experience, 
shall  speak  here  of  Christianity  and  of  its  greatness  very 
soberly.  Yet  Christianity  is  really  all  the  grander  for  that 
very  reason  which  makes  us  speak  about  it  in  this  sober 
manner,— that  it  has  such  an  immense  development  still 
before  it,  and  that  it  has  as  yet  so  little  shown  all  it 
contains,  all  it  can  do.  Indeed,  that  Christianity  has 
already  done  so  much  as  it  has,  is  a  witness  to  it ;  and  that 
it  has  not  yet  done  more,  is  a  witness  to  it  too.  Let  us 
observe  how  this  is  so. 


Few  things  are  more  melancholy  than  to  observe  Chris- 
tian apologists  taunting  the  Jews  with  the  failure  of  Hebra- 


TRUE   GREATNESS   OF  CHRISTIANITY.       215 

ism  to  fulfil  the  splendid  promises  of  propliecy,  and  Jewibh 
apologists  taunting  Christendom  with  the  like  failure  on  the 
part  of  Christianity.  Neither  has  yet  fulfilled  them,  or 
could  yet  have  fulfilled  them.  Certainly  the  restoration  by 
Cyrus,  the  Second  Temple,  the  Maccabean  victories,  are 
hardly  more  than  the  shadows  of  a  fulfilment  of  the  mag- 
nificent words  :  '  The  sons  of  them  that  afflicted  thee  shall 
come  bending  unto  thee,  and  all  they  that  despised  thee 
shall  bow  themselves  down  at  the  soles  of  thy  feet  j  thy 
gates  shall  not  be  shut  day  nor  night,  that  men  may  bring 
unto  thee  the  treasures  of  the  Gentiles,  and  that  their  kings 
may  be  brought.'  ^  The  Christianisation  of  all  the  lead- 
ing nations  of  the  world  is,  it  is  said,  a  much  better  fulfil- 
ment of  that  promise.  Be  it  so.  Yet  does  Christendom, 
let  us  ask,  offer  more  than  a  shadow  of  the  fulfilment  of  this  : 
*  Violence  shall  no  more  be  heard  in  thy  land ;  the  vile 
person  shall  no  more  be  called  noble,  nor  the  worker  of  mis- 
chief worthy  ;  thy  people  shall  be  all  righteous  ;  they  shall  all 
know  me,  from  the  least  to  the  greatest ;  I  will  put  my  law  in 
their  inward  parts,  and  write  it  in  their  hearts  ;  the  Eternal 
shall  be  thine  everlasting  light,  and  the  days  of  thy  mourn- 
ing shall  be  ended 'P^  IManifcstly  it  does  not.  Yet  the 
two  promises  hang  together  :  one  of  them  is  not  truly  ful- 
filled unless  the  other  is. 

The  promises  were  made  to  righteousness,  with  ail  which 
the  idea  of  righteousness  involves.  And  it  involves  Chris- 
tianity. They  were  made  on  the  immediate  prospect  of  a 
small  triumph  for  righteousness,  the  restoration  of  the  Jews 
after  the  captivity  in  Babylon  :  but  they  are  not  satisfied  by 
that  triumph.  The  prevalence  of  the  profession  of  Chris- 
tianity is  a  larger  triumph  :  yet  in  itself  it  hardly  satisfies 
them  any  better.     What  satisfies  them  is  the  prevailing  of 

^  Is.,  Ix,  14,  II. 

2  Is.,  Ix,  18  ;  xxxii,  5  ;  Ix,  21 ;  Jer.,  xxxi,  33,  34  ;  Is.,  Ix,  20. 


2r6  LITER ATURF  AND  DOGMA. 

that  which  righteousness  really  is,  and  nothing  else  satisfies 
them.  Now,  Christianity  is  that  which  righteousness  really 
is.  Therefore,  if  something  called  Christianity  prevails,  and 
yet  the  promises  are  not  satisfied,  the  inference  is  that  this 
sovicthing  is  not  that  which  righteousness  really  is,  and 
therefore  not  really  Christianity.  And  as  the  course  of  the 
world  is  perpetually  establishing  the  pre-eminence  of  right- 
eousness, and  confounding  whatever  denies  this  pre-emin- 
ence, so,  too,  the  course  of  the  w^orld  is  for  ever  establishing 
what  righteousness  really  is, — that  is  to  say,  true  Christianity, 
— and  confounding  whatever  pretends  to  be  true  Christianity 
and  is  not. 

Now,  just  as  the  constitution  of  things  turned  out  to  be 
against  the  great  unrighteous  kingdoms  of  the  heathen 
world,  and  against  all  the  brilliant  Ishmaels  we  have  seen 
since,  so  the  constitution  of  things  turns  out  to  be  against 
all  false  presentations  of  Christianity,  such  as  the  theology 
of  the  Fathers  or  Protestant  theology.  They  do  not  work 
successfully,  they  do  not  reach  the  aim,  they  do  not  bring 
the  world  to  the  fruition  of  the  promises  made  to  righteous- 
ness. And  the  reason  is,  because  they  substitute  for  what 
is  really  righteousness  something  else.  Cathohc  dogma  or 
Lutheran  justification  by  faith  they  substitute  for  the  method 
and  secret  and  temper  of  Jesus. 

Nevertheless,  as  all  Christian  Churches  do  recommend 
the  method  and  the  secret  of  Jesus,  though  not  in  the  right 
way  or  in  the  right  eminency,  still  the  world  is  made  par- 
tially acquainted  with  what  righteousness  really  is,  and  the 
doctrine  produces  some  efiect,  although  the  full  effect  is 
much  thwarted  and  deadened  by  the  false  way  in  which  the 
doctrine  is  presented.  However,  the  effect  produced  is  great. 
For  instance,  the  sum  of  individual  happiness  that  has  been 
caused  by  Christianity  is,  anyone  can  see,  enoimous.  But 
let  us  take  the  effect  of  Christianity  on  the  world.     And  if 


TRUB  GREATNESS   OF  CHRISTIANITY.        217 

we  look  at  the  thing  closely,  we  shall  find  that  its  effect  has 
been  this  :  Christianity  has  brought  the  world,  or  at  any  rate 
all  the  leading  part  of  the  world,  to  regard  righteousness  as 
only  the  Jetvs  regarded  it  lief  ore  the  coming  of  Christ.  The 
world  has  accepted,  so  far  as  profession  goes,  that  original 
revelation  made  to  Israel :  the  pre-eminejice  of  righteousness. 
The  infinite  truth  and  attractiveness  of  the  method  and 
secret  and  character  of  Jesus,  however  falsely  surrounded, 
have  prevailed  with  the  world  so  far  as  this.  And  this  is  an 
immense  gain,  and  a  signal  witness  to  Christianit}^  The 
world  does  homage  to  the  pre-eminence  of  righteousness; 
and  here  we  have  one  of  those  fulfilments  of  prophecy  which 
are  so  real  and  so  glorious.  '  Glorious  things  are  spoken  of 
thee,  O  City  of  God  !  I  will  make  mention  of  Egypt  and 
Babylon  as  of  them  that  know  me!  behold,  the  Philistines 
also,  and  Tyre,  with  the  Ethiopians, — these  were  born 
there!  And  of  Zion  it  shall  be  reported :  This  and  that  man 
was  born  in  Jier! — and  the  ]\Icst  High  shall  stablish  her. 
The  Eternal  shall  count,  when  he  writeth  up  the  people  : 
This  man  was  born  there E^  That  prophecy  is  at  the 
present  day  abundantly  fulfilled.  The  world's  chief  nations 
have  now  all  come,  we  see,  to  reckon  and  profess  themselves 
l?orn  in  Zion, — born,  that  is,  in  the  religion  of  Zion,  the  city 
of  rigiiteonsness. 

But  there  remains  the  question :  wliat  righteousness 
really  is.  The  method  and  secret  and  sw^eet  reasonableness 
of  Jesus.  But  the  world  does  not  see  this ;  for  it  puts,  as 
righteousness,  something  else  first  and  this  second.  So  that 
here,  too,  as  to  seeing  what  righteousness  really  is,  the  world 
now  is  much  in  the  same  position  in  which  the  Jews,  when 
Jesus  Christ  came,  were.  It  is  often  said  :  *  If  Jesus  Christ 
came  now,  his  religion  would  be  rejected.'  And  this  is  only 
another  way  of  saying  that  the  world  now,  as  the  Jewish 
*  Fs,  Ixxxvii,  3-6. 


21 8  LITERATURE  AND  DOGMA. 

people  formerly,  has  something  which  thv>'arts  and  confuses 
its  perception  of  what  righteousness  really  is.  It  is  so;  and 
the  thwarting  cause  is  the  same  now  as  then  : — the  dogmatic 
system  current,  the  so-called  orthodox  theology.  This  pre- 
vents now,  as  it  did  then,  that  which  righteousness  really 
is,  the  method  and  secret  and  temper  of  Jesus,  from  being 
rightly  received,  from  operating  fully,  and  from  accomplish- 
ing its  due  effect. 

So  true  is  this,  that  we  have  only  to  look  at  our  own 
community  to  see  the  almost  precise  parallel,  so  far  as  re- 
ligion is  concerned,  to  the  state  of  things  presented  in  Judaea 
when  Jesus  Christ  came.  The  multitudes  are  the  same 
everywhere.  The  chief  priests  and  elders  of  the  people, 
and  the  scribes,  are  our  bishops  and  dogmatists,  with  their 
pseudo-science  of  learned  theology  blinding  their  eyes,  and 
always, — whenever  simple  souls  are  disposed  to  think  that 
the  method  and  secret  of  Jesus  is  true  religion,  and  that  the 
Great  Personal  First  Cause  and  the  Godhead  of  the  Eternal 
Son  have  nothing  to  do  with  it,— eager  to  cry  out:  This 
people  that  hnoweth  not  the  lazv  arc  cmsed!  ^  The  Pharisees, 
with  their  genuine  concern  for  religion,  but  total  want  of 
perception  of  what  religion  really  is,  and  by  their  temper, 
attitude,  and  aims  doing  their  best  to  make  religion  impos- 
sible, are  the  Protestant  Dissenters.  The  Sadducees  are  our 
friends  the  philosophical  Liberals,  who  believe  neither  in 
angel  nor  spirit  but  in  Mr.  Herbert  Spencer.  Even  the 
Roman  governor  has  his  close  parallel  in  our  celebrated 
aristocracy,  with  its  superficial  good  sense  and  good  nature, 
its  complete  inaptitude  for  ideas,  its  profound  helplessness 
in  presence  of  all  great  spiritual  movements.  And  the  result 
is,  that  the  splendid  promises  to  righteousness  made  by  the 
Hebrew  prophets,  claimed  by  the  Jews  as  the  property  of 
Judaism,  claimed  by  us  as  the  property  of  Christianity,  are 
*  John,  vii,  49. 


TRUE   GREATNESS  OE  CHRISTIANITY.       2ig 

almost  as  ludicrously  inapplicable  to  our  religious  state  now, 
as  to  theirs  then. 

And  this,  we  say,  is  again  a  signal  witness  to  Christianity. 
Jesus  Christ  came  to  reveal  what  righteousness,  to  which 
the  promises  belong,  really  is ;  and  so  long  as  this,  though 
shown  by  Jesus,  is  not  recognised  by  us,  we  may  call  our- 
selves Christendom  as  much  as  we  please,  the  true  character 
of  a  Christendom  will  be  wanting  to  us,  because  the  great 
promises  of  prophecy  will  be  still  without  their  fulfilment. 
Nothing  will  do,  except  righteousness ;  and  no  other  con- 
ception of  righteousness  will  do,  except  Jesus  Christ's 
conception  of  it  : — his  method^  his  secret^  and  his  temper. 


3- 
Yes,  the  grandeur  of  Christianity  and  the  imposing  and 
impressive  attestation  of  it,  if  we  could  but  worthily  bring 
the  thing  out,  is  here  :  in  that  immense  experimental  proof 
of  the  necessity  of  it,  which  the  whole  course  of  the  world 
has  steadily  accumulated,  and  indicates  to  us  as  still  con- 
tinuing and  extending.  Men  will  not  admit  assumptions, 
the  popular  legend  they  call  a  fairy-tale,  the  metaphysical 
demonstrations  do  not  demonstrate,  nothing  but  experi- 
mental proof  will  go  down  ;  and  here  is  an  experimental 
proof  which  never  fails,  and  which  at  the  same  time  is  infi- 
nitely grander,  by  the  vastness  of  its  scale,  the  scope  of  its 
duration,  the  gravity  of  its  results,  than  the  machinery  of  the 
popular  fairy-tale.  Walking  on  the  water,  multiplying  loaves, 
raising  corpses,  a  heavenly  judge  appearing  with  trumpets 
in  the  clouds  while  we  are  yet  alive, — what  is  this  compared 
to  the  real  experience  offered  as  witness  to  us  by  Christianity? 
It  is  like  the  difference  between  the  grandeur  of  an  extrava- 
ganza and  the  grandeur  of  the  sea  or  the  sky, — immense 
objects  which  dwarf  us,  but  where  we  are  in  contact  with 


220  LITERATURE  AND  DOGMA. 

reality,  and  a  reality  of  which  we  can  gradually,  though  very 
slowly,  trace  the  laws. 

The  more  we  trace  the  real  law  of  Christianity's  action 
the  grander  it  will  seem.  Certainly  in  the  Gospels  there  is 
plenty  of  matter  to  call  out  our  feelings.  But  perhaps  this 
has  been  somewhat  over-used  and  mis-used,  applied,  as  it 
has  been,  chiefly  so  as  to  be  subservient  to  what  we  call  the 
fairy-tale  of  the  three  supernatural  men, — a  story  which  w^e 
do  not  deny  to  have,  like  other  products  of  the  popular 
imagination,  its  pathos  and  power,  but  which  we  have  seen 
to  be  no  solid  foundation  to  rest  our  faith  in  the  Bible  on. 
And  perhaps,  too,  we  do  wrong,  and  inevitably  fall  into  what 
is  artificial  and  unnatural,  in  labouring  so  much  to  produce  in 
ourselves  now,  as  the  one  impulse  determining  us  to  use  the 
method  and  secret  and  temper  of  Jesus,  that  conscious  ardent 
sensation  of  personal  love  to  him,  which  we  find  the  first 
generation  of  Christians  feeling  and  professing,  and  which 
was  the  natural  motor  for  those  who  were  with  him  or  near 
him,  and,  so  to  speak,  touched  him  ;  and  in  making  this 
our  first  object.  At  any  rate,  misemployed  as  this  motor 
has  often  been,  it  might  be  well  to  forgo  or  at  least  suspend 
its  use  for  ourselves  and  others  for  a  time,  and  to  fix  our 
minds  exclusively  on  the  recommendation  given  to  the 
method  and  secret  of  Jesus  by  their  being  true,  and  by  the 
whole  course  of  things  proving  this. 

Now,  just  as  the  best  recommendation  of  the  oracle 
committed  to  Israel,  Righteousness  is  salvation,  is  found 
in  our  more  and  more  discovering,  in  our  own  history 
and  in  the  whole  history  of  the  world,  that  it  is  so,  so 
we  shall  find  it  to  be  with  the  method  and  secret  of 
Jesus.  That  this  is  the  righteousness  which  is  salvation, 
that  the  method  and  secret  of  Jesus,  that  is  to  say,  con- 
science and  self-renouncement,  with  the  temper  of  Jesus, 
a7'e  righteousness,  bring  about  the  kingdom  of  God  or 
the  reign  of  righteousness,— this,  which    is   the    Christian 


TRUE   GREATNESS   OF  CHRISTIANITY.       221 

revelation  and  what  Jesus  came  to  establish,  is  best  impressed. 
for  the  present  at  any  rate,  by  experiencing  and  showing 
again  and  again,  in  ourselves  and  in  the  course  of  the  world, 
that  it  is  so  ;  that  this  is  the  righteousness  which  is  saving, 
and  that  none  other  saves.  Let  us  but  well  observe  what 
comes,  in  ourselves  or  the  w^orld,  of  trying  any  other,  of  not 
being  convinced  that  this  is  righteousness,  and  this  only ;  and 
we  shall  find  ourselves  more  and  more,  as  by  irresistible 
viewless  hands,  caught  and  drawn  towards  the  Christian 
revelation,  and  made  to  desire  more  and  more  to  serve  it. 
No  proof  can  be  so  solid  as  this  experimental  proof;  and 
none  again,  can  be  so  grand,  so  fitted  to  fill  us  with  awe, 
admiration,  and  gratitude.  So  that  feeling  and  emotion  will 
now  well  come  in  after  it,  though  not  before  it.  For  the 
whole  course  of  human  things  is  really,  according  to  this 
experience,  leading  up  to  the  fulfilment  of  Jesus  Christ's 
promise  to  his  disciples  :  Fear  not,  little  flocJz !  for  it  is  your 
Father's  good  pleasure  to  give  you  the  kingdom.  ^  And  thus 
that  comes  out,  after  all,  to  be  true,  which  St.  Paul 
announced  prematurely  to  the  first  generation  of  Christians: 
When  Christ,  who  is  our  life,  shall  appear,  then  shall  ye  also 
appear  with  him  in  glory. '^  And  the  author  of  the  Apocalypse, 
in  like  manner,  foretold  :  The  kingdom  of  the  world  is  become 
the  kingdom  of  our  Lord  and  his  Christ."^  The  kingdom  of 
the  Lord  the  world  is  already  become,  by  its  chief  nations 
professing  the  religion  of  righteousness.  The  kingdom  of 
Christ  the  world  will  have  to  become,  it  is  on  its  way  to 
become,  because  the  profession  of  righteousness,  except  as 
Jesus  Christ  interpreted  righteousness,  is  vain.  We  can  see 
the  process,  we  are  ourselves  part  of  it,  and  can  in  our 
measure  help  forward  or  keep  back  its  comiDletion. 

When  the  prophet,  indeed,  says  to  Israel,  on  the  point 

^  Luke,  xii,  32.  =  Col,  iii,  4. 

•  Rev.,  xi,  15.     The  Alexandrian  manuscript  is  followed. 


222  LITERATURE  AND  DOGMA. 

of  being  restored  by  Cyrus  :  *  The  iiatlon  and  kmgdcm  that 
will  not  serve  thee  shall  perish  I' '^  the  promise,  applied 
literally,  fails.  But  extended  to  that  idea  of  righteousness, 
of  which  Israel  was  the  depositary  and  in  which  the  real  life 
of  Israel  lay,  the  promise  is  true,  and  we  can  see  it  fulfilled. 
In  like  manner,  when  the  Apostle  says  to  the  Corinthians 
or  to  the  Colossians,  instructed  that  the  second  advent 
would  come  in  their  own  generation  :  '  We  imist  all  appear 
before  the  judgment-seat  of  Christ  1^'^ — *  When  Christy  who  is 
our  life,  shall  appear^  then  shall  ye  also  appear  with  him  in 
glory  I '  3  the  promise,  applied  literally  as  the  Apostle  meant 
it  and  his  converts  understood  it,  fails.  But  divested  of  this 
Aberglaube  or  extra-belief,  it  is  true  ;  if  indeed  the  world  can 
be  shown, — and  it  can, — to  be  moving  necessarily  towards 
the  triumph  of  that  Christ  in  whom  the  Corinthian  and 
Colossian  disciples  lived,  and  whose  triumph  is  the  triumph 
of  all  his  disciples  also. 

4. 

Let  us  keep  hold  of  this  same  experimental  process  in 
dealing  with  the  promise  of  immortality ;  although  here,  if 
anywhere,  Aberglaube,  extra-belief,  hope,  anticipation,  may 
well  be  permitted  to  come  in.  Still,  what  we  need  for  our 
foundation  is  not  Aberglaube,  but  Glaube-,  not  extra-belief 
in  what  is  beyond  the  range  of  possible  experience,  but 
belief  in  what  can  and  should  be  known  to  be  true. 

By  what  futilities  the  demonstration  of  our  immortality 
may  be  attempted,  is  to  be  seen  in  Plato's  Phado.  Man's 
natural  desire  for  continuance,  however  little  it  may  be  worth 
as  a  scientific  proof  of  our  immortality,  is  at  least  a  proof  a 
thousand  times  stronger  than  any  such  demonstration.  The 
want  of  solidity  in  such  argument  is  so  palpable,  that  one 
scarcely  cares  to  turn  a  steady  regard  upon  it  at  all.     And 

•  Is.,  Ix,  12.  «  II  Cor.,  V,  10.  »  Col,  iii,  4. 


TRUE  GREATNESS  OF  CHRISTIANITY.       223 

even  of  the  common  Christian  conception  of  immortality 
the  want  of  solidity  is,  perhaps,  most  conclusively  shown, 
hy  the  impossibility  of  so  framing  it  as  that  it  will  at  all 
support  a  steady  regard  turned  upon  it.  In  our  English 
popular  religion,  for  instance,  the  common  conception  of  a 
future  state  of  bliss  is  just  that  of  the  Vision  of  Mirza : 
'  Persons  dressed  in  glorious  habits  with  garlands  on  their 
heads,  passing  among  the  trees,  lying  down  by  the  fountains, 
or  resting  on  beds  of  flowers,  amid  a  confused  harmony  of 
singing  birds,  falling  waters,  human  voices,  and  musical 
instruments.'  Or,  even,  with  many,  it  is  that  of  a  kind  of 
perfected  middle-class  home,  with  labour  ended,  the  table 
spread,  goodness  all  around,  the  lost  ones  restored,  hymnody 
incessant.  ''  Poor  fragments  all  of  this  low  earth/'  Keble 
might  well  say.  That  this  conception  of  immortality  cannot 
possibly  be  true,  we  feel,  the  moment  we  consider  it  seriously. 
And  yet  who  can  devise  any  conception  of  a  future  state  of 
bliss,  which  shall  bear  close  examination  better? 

Here,  again,  it  is  far  best  to  take  what  is  experimentally 
true,  and  nothing  else,  as  our  foundation,  and  afterwards  to 
let  hope  and  aspiration  grow,  if  so  it  may  be,  out  of  this. 
Israel  had  said  :  '  In  the  way  of  righteousness  is  life,  and  in 
the  pathway  thereof  there  is  no  death.'  ^  He  had  said ; 
*The  righteous  hath  hope  in  his  death.' ^  He  had  cried  to 
his  Eternal  that  loveth  righteousness  :  '  Thou  wilt  not  leave  my 
soul  in  the  grave,  neither  wilt  thou  suffer  thy  faithful  servant 
to  see  corruption  !  thou  wilt  show  me  the  path  of  life  ! '  •* 
And  by  a  kind  of  short  cut  to  the  conclusion  thus  laid  down, 
the  Jews  constructed  their  fairy-tale  of  an  advent,  judgment, 
and  resurrection,  as  we  find  it  in  the  Book  of  Daniel.  Jesus, 
again,  had  said  :  '  If  a  man  keep  my  word,  he  shall  never  see 
death.'  ^     And  by  a  kind  of  short  cut  to  the  conclusion  thus 

'  Prov.,  xii,  2S.  2  Pr^i,^^  xiv,  32. 

'  Ps.  xvi,  10,  II.  *  John,  viii,  51. 


2-4  LITERATURE  AND  DOGMA, 

laid  down,  Christians  constructed  their  fairy-tale  of  the 
second  advent,  the  resurrection  of  the  body,  the  New  Jeru- 
salem. But  instead  of  fairy-tales,  let  us  begin,  at  least,  with 
certainties. 

And  a  certainty  is  the  sense  of  life,  of  being  truly  alive^ 
which  accompanies  righteousness.  If  this  experimental 
sense  does  not  rise  to  be  stronger  in  us,  does  not  rise  to  the 
sense  of  being  inextinguishable,  that  is  probably  because 
our  experience  of  righteousness  is  really  so  very  small. 
Here,  therefore,  we  may  well  permit  ourselves  to  trust 
Jesus,  whose  practice  and  intuition  both  of  them  went,  in 
these  matters,  so  far  deeper  than  ours.  At  any  rate,  we 
have  in  our  experience  this  strong  sense  of  life  from 
righteousness  to  start  with  j  capable  of  being  developed, 
apparently,  by  progress  in  righteousness  into  something 
immeasurably  stronger.  Here  is  the  true  basis  for  all 
religious  aspiration  after  immortality.  And  it  is  an  experi- 
mental basis;  and  therefore,  as  to  grandeur,  it  is  again, 
when  compared  with  the  popular  Aberglaiibe,  grand  with 
all  the  superior  grandeur,  on  a  subject  of  the  highest  serious- 
ness, of  reality  over  fantasy. 

At  present,  the  fantasy  hides  the  grandeur  of  the  reality. 
But  when  all  the  Aberglaube  of  the  second  advent,  with  its 
signs  in  the  sky,  sounding  trumpets  and  opening  graves,  is 
cleared  away,  then  and  not  till  then  will  come  out  the  pro- 
found truth  and  grandeur  of  words  of  Jesus  like  these  :  'The 
hour  is  coming,  when  they  that  are  in  the  graves  shall  hear 
the  voice  of  the  Son  of  God ;  ar?.d  they  that  hear  shall 
lii'e'  ^ 

5- 
Finally,  and  above  all.     As,  for  the  right  inculcation  of 
righteousness,  we  need  the  inspiring  words  of  Israel's  love 
>  John,  V,  25. 


TRUE   GREATNESS  OF  CHRISTIANITY.       225 

for  it,  that  is,  we  need  the  Bible ;  so,  for  the  right  inculca- 
tion of  the  method  and  secret  of  Jesus,  we  need  the  epieikeiay 
the  sweet  reasonableness,  of  Jesus.  That  is,  in  other  words 
again,  we  need  the  Bible;  for  only  through  the  Bible-records 
of  Jesus  can  we  get  at  his  cpieikeia.  Even  in  these  records, 
it  is  and  can  be  presented  but  imperfectly;  but  only  by 
reading  and  re-reading  the  Bible  can  we  get  at  it  at  all. 

Now,  greatly  as  the  failure,  from  the  stress  laid  upon  the 
pseudo-science  of  Church-dogma,  to  lay  enough  stress  upon 
the  method  and  secret  of  Jesus,  has  kept  Christianity  back 
from  showing  itself  in  its  full  power,  it  is  probable  that  the 
failure  to  apply  to  the  method  and  secret  of  Jesus,  so  far  as 
these  have  at  any  rate  been  used,  his  sweet  reasonableness 
or  epieikeia,—  his  temper, — has  kept  it  back  even  more.  And 
the  infinite  of  the  religion  of  Jesus, — its  immense  capacity 
for  ceaseless  progress  and  farther  development, — Hes  princi- 
pally, perhaps,  in  the  line  of  disengaging  and  keeping  before 
our  minds,  more  and  more,  his  temper,  and  applying  it  to 
our  use  of  his  method  and  secret.  For  it  is  obvious  from 
experience,  how  much  our  use  of  Jesus  Christ's  method  and 
secret  requires  to  be  guided  and  governed  by  his  temper 
of  epieikeia.  Indeed,  without  this,  his  method  and  secret 
seem  of  almost  no  use  at  all.  The  Flagellants  imagined 
that  they  were  employing  his  secret ;  and  the  Dissenters, 
with  their  'spirit  of  watchful  jealousy,'  imagine  that  they 
are  employing  his  method.  To  be  sure,  Mr.  Bradlaugh 
imagines  that  the  method  and  the  secret  of  Jesus,  nay, 
and  Jesus  himself  too,  are  all  baneful,  and  that  the 
sooner  we  get  rid  of  them  the  better.  So  far,  then,  the 
Flagellants  and  the  Dissenters  are  in  advance  of  Mr, 
Bradlaugh  :  they  value  Christianity,  and  they  profess  the 
method  and  secret  of  Jesus.  But  they  employ  them  so  ill, 
that  one  is  tempted  to  say  they  might  nearly  as  well  be 
without  them.     And  this  is  because  they  are  wholly  without 

Q 


226  LITERATURE  AND  DOGMA. 

his  temper  of  sweet  reasonableness,  or  epieikeia.  Now  this 
can  only  be  got,  first,  by  knowing  that  it  is  in  the  Bible,  and 
looking  for  it  there ;  and  then,  by  reading  and  re-reading  the 
Gospels  continually,  until  we  catch  something  of  it. 

This,  again,  is  an  experimental  process.  That  the 
ipieikeia  or  sweet  reasonableness  of  Jesus  may  be  brought 
to  govern  our  use  of  his  method  and  secret,  and  that  it  can 
and  will  make  our  use  of  his  method  and  secret  quite  a 
different  thing,  is  proved  by  our  actually  finding  this  to  be 
so  when  we  try.  So  that  the  culmination  of  Christian 
righteousness,  in  the  applying,  to  guide  our  use  of  the 
method  and  secret  of  Jesus,  his  sweet  reasonableness  or 
epieikeia^  is  proved  from  experience.  We  end,  therefore, 
as  we  began, — by  experience.  And  the  whole  series  of 
experiences,  of  which  the  survey  is  thus  completed,  rests, 
primarily,  upon  one  fundamental  fact, — itself,  eminently,  a 
fact  of  experience  :  the  necessity  of  righteous7iess. 


227 


CONCLUSION. 

But  now,  after  all  we  have  been  saying  of  the  pre-emu:iency 
of  righteousness,  we  remember  what  we  have  said  formerly 
in  praise  of  culture  and  of  Hellenism,  and  against  too  much 
Hebraism,  too  exclusive  a  pursuit  of  the  '  one  thing  needful,' 
as  people  call  it.  And  we  cannot  help  wondering  whether 
we  shall  not  be  reproached  with  inconsistency,  and  told  that 
we  ought  at  least  to  sing,  as  the  Greeks  said,  a  palinode ; 
and  whether  it  may  not  really  be  so,  and  we  ought.  And, 
certainly,  if  we  had  ever  said  that  Hellenism  was  three- 
fourths  of  human  life,  and  conduct  or  righteousness  but 
one-fourth,  a  palinode,  as  well  as  an  unmusical  man  may, 
we  would  sing.  But  we  have  never  said  it.  In  praising 
culture,  we  have  never  denied  that  conduct,  not  culture,  is 
three-fourths  of  human  life. 

Only  it  certainly  appears,  when  the  thing  is  examined, 
that  conduct  comes  to  have  relations  of  a  very  close  kind 
with  culture.  And  the  reason  seems  to  be  given  by  some 
words  of  our  Bible,  which,  though  they  may  not  be  exactly 
the  right  rendering  of  the  original  in  that  place,  yet  in  them- 
selves they  explain  the  connexion  of  culture  with  conduct 
very  well.  '  I  have  seen  the  travail,'  says  the  Preacher, 
'  which  God  hath  given  to  the  sons  of  men  to  be  exercised 
in  it ;  he  hath  made  everything  beautiful  in  his  time  ;  also, 
he  hath  set  the  world  in  their  heart.'  ^  He  hath  set  the  world 
in  their  heart  I — that  is  why  art  and  science,  and  what  we 

'  Ecdesiastcs^  iii,  lo,  ii. 


22S  LITERATURE  AND  DOGMA. 

call  culture,  are  necessary.  They  may  be  only  one-fourth 
of  man's  life,  but  they  are  ihere^  as  well  as  the  three-fourths 
which  conduct  occupies.  '  He  hath  set  the  world  in  their 
heart'  And,  really,  the  reason  which  we  hence  gather  for 
the  close  connexion  between  culture  and  conduct,  is  so 
simple  and  natural  that  we  are  almost  ashamed  to  give  it ; 
but  we  have  offered  so  many  simple  and  natural  explanations 
in  place  of  the  abstruse  ones  which  are  current,  that  our 
hesitation  is  foolish. 

Let  us  suggest  then,  that,  having  this  one-fourth  of  their 
nature  concerned  with  art  and  science,  men  cannot  but 
somehow  employ  it.  If  they  think  that  the  three-fourths  of 
their  nature  concerned  with  conduct  are  the  whole  of  their 
nature,  and  that  this  is  all  they  have  to  attend  to,  still  the 
neglected  one-fourth  is  there,  it  ferments,  it  breaks  wildly 
out,  it  employs  itself  all  at  random  and  amiss.  And  hence,  no 
doubt,  our  hymns  and  our  dogmatic  theology.  What  is  our 
dogmatic  theology,  except  the  m.is-attribution  to  the  Bible, — 
the  Book  of  conduct, — of  a  science  and  an  abstruse  meta- 
physic  which  is  not  there,  because  our  theologians  have  in 
themselves  a  faculty  for  science,  for  it  makes  one-eighth  of 
them  ?  But  they  do  not  employ  it  on  its  proper  objects  ; 
so  it  invades  the  Bible,  and  tries  to  make  the  Bible  what  it 
is  not,  and  to  put  into  it  what  is  not  there.  And  this  pre- 
vents their  attending  enough  to  what  is  in  the  Bible,  and 
makes  them  battle  for  what  is  not  in  the  Bible,  but  they  have 
put  it  there  ! — battle  for  it  in  a  manner  clean  contrary,  often, 
to  the  teaching  of  the  Bible.  So  has  arisen,  for  instance, 
all  reHgious  persecution.  And  thus,  we  say,  has  conduct 
itself  become  impaired. 

So  that  conduct  is  impaired  by  the  want  of  science  and 
culture ;  and  our  theologians  really  suffer,  not  from  having 
too  much  science,  but  from  having  too  little.  Wh^rer.s,  if 
they  had  turned  their  faculty  for  abstruse  reasoning  towards 


CONCLUSION.  229 

tlie  proper  objects,  and  had  given  themselves,  in  addition, 
a  wide  and  large  acquaintance  with  the  productions  of  the 
human  spirit  and  with  men's  way  of  thinking  and  of  using 
words,  then,  on  the  one  hand,  they  would  not  have  been 
tempted  to  misemploy  on  the  Bible  their  faculty  for  abstruse 
reasoning,  for  they  would  have  had  plenty  of  other  exercise 
or  it ;  and,  on  the  other  hand,  they  would  have  escaped 
that  literary  inexperience  which  now  makes  them  fancy  that 
the  Bible-language  is  scientific,  and  fit  matter  for  the  appli- 
cation of  their  powers  of  abstruse  reasoning  to  it,  when  it  is 
no  such  thing.  Then  they  would  have  seen  the  fallacy  of 
confounding  the  obscurity  attaching  to  the  idea  of  God, — 
that  vast  not  ourselves  which  transcends  us, — with  the  ob- 
scurity attaching  to  the  idea  of  their  Trinity,  a  confused 
metaphysical  speculation  which  puzzles  us.  The  one,  they 
would  have  perceived,  is  the  obscurity  of  the  immeasurable 
depth  of  air,  the  other  is  the  obscurity  of  a  fog.  And  fog, 
they  would  have  known,  has  no  proper  place  in  our  concep- 
tions of  God  ;  since  whatever  our  minds  can  possess  of  God 
they  know  clearly,  for  no  man,  as  Goethe  says,  possesses 
what  he  does  not  understand  ;  but  they  can  possess  of  Him 
but  a  very  little.  All  this  our  dogmatic  theologians  would 
have  known,  if  they  had  had  more  science  and  more  litera- 
ture. And  therefore,  simple  as  the  Bible  and  conduct  are, 
still  culture  seems  to  be  required  for  them, — required  to 
prevent  our  mis-handling  and  sophisticating  them. 


2. 

Culture,  then,  and  science  and  literature  are  requisite, 
in  the  interest  of  religion  itself,  even  when,  taking  nothing 
but  C07iduct  into  account,  we  rightly  make  the  God  of  the 
Bible,  as  Israel  made  him,  to  be  simply  and  solely  'the 
Eternal  Power,  not  ourselves,  that  makes  for  righteousness* 


230  LITERATURE  AND  DOGMA. 

For  we  are  not  to  forget,  that,  grand  as  this  conception  of  God 
is,  and  well  as  it  meets  the  wants  of  far  the  largest  part  of  our 
being,  of  three-fourths  of  it,  yet  there  is  one-fourth  of  our 
being  of  which  it  does  not  strictly  meet  the  wants,  the  part 
which  is  concerned  with  art  and  science  ;  or,  in  other  words, 
with  beauty  and  exact  knowledge. 

For  the  total  man,  therefore,  the  truer  conception  of 
God  is  as  '  the  Eternal  Power,  not  ourselves,  by  which  all 
things  fulfil  the  law  of  their  being  ; '  by  which,  therefore,  we 
fulfil  the  law  of  our  being  so  far  as  our  being  is  aesthetic  and 
intellective,  as  well  as  so  far  as  it  is  moral.  And  it  is  evident, 
as  we  have  before  now  remarked,  that  in  this  wider  sense  God 
is  displeased  and  disserved  by  many  things  which  cannot  be 
said,  except  by  putting  a  strain  upon  words,  to  displease 
and  disserve  him  as  the  God  of  righteousness.  He  is  dis- 
pleased and  disserved  by  men  uttering  such  doggerel  hymns 
as:  Sing  glory,  glory,  glo7y  to  the  great  God  Triwie!  and: 
Out  of  my  stony  griefs  Bethels  I'll  raise!  and :  My  Jesus  to 
hiow,  and  feel  his  blood  flow,  Uis  life  everlasting,  'tis  heaven 
below/ — or  by  theologians  uttering  such  pseudo-science  as 
their  blessed  truth  that  the  God  of  the  U7iiverse  is  a  person. 
But  it  would  be  harsh  to  give,  at  present,  this  turn  to  our 
employment  of  the  phrases,  pleasing  God,  displeasing  God. 

And  yet,  as  man  makes  progress,  we  shall  surely  come 
to  doing  this.  For,  the  clearer  our  conceptions  in  science 
and  art  become,  the  more  will  they  assimilate  themselves  to 
the  conceptions  of  duty  in  conduct,  will  become  practically 
stringent  like  rules  of  conduct,  and  will  invite  the  same 
sort  of  language  in  dealing  with  them.  And  so  far  let  us 
venture  to  poach  on  M.  Emile  Burnouf 's  manor,  and  to  talk 
about  the  Aryan  genius,  as  to  say,  that  the  love  of  art  and 
science,  and  the  energy  and  honesty  in  the  pursuit  of  art 
and  science,  in  the  best  of  the  Aryan  races,  do  seem  to  cor- 
respond in  a  remarkable  way  to  the  love  of  conduct,  and  the 


CONCLUSION.  231 

energy  and  honesty  in  the  pursuit  of  conduct,  in  the  best  of 
the  Semitic.  To  treat  science  and  art  with  the  same  kind  of 
seriousness  as  conduct,  does  seem,  therefore,  to  be  a  not 
impossible  thing  for  the  Aryan  genius  to  come  to. 

But  for  all  this,  however,  man  is  hardly  yet  ripe.  For 
our  race,  as  we  see  it  now  and  as  ourselves  we  form  a  part 
of  it,  the  true  God  is  and  must  be  pre-eminently  the  God 
of  the  Bible,  the  Eternal  who  makes  for  righteousness^  from 
whom  Jesus  came  forth,  and  whose  Spirit  governs  the  course 
of  humanity.  Only,  we  see  that  even  for  apprehending 
this  God  of  the  Bible  rightly  and  not  wrongly,  science,  and 
jsrhat  so  many  people  now  disparage,  letters,  and  what  we 
call,  in  general,  culture^  seem  to  be  necessary. 

And  meanwhile,  to  prevent  our  at  all  pluming  ourselves 
on  having  apprehended  what  so  much  baffles  our  dogmatic 
friends  (although  indeed  it  is  not  so  much  we  who  appre- 
hend it  as  the  *  Zeit-Geist '  who  discovers  it  to  us),  what  a 
chastening  and  wholesome  reflexion  for  us  it  is,  that  it  is 
only  to  our  natural  inferiority  to  these  ingenious  men  that 
we  are  indebted  for  our  advantage  over  them  !  For  while 
they  were  born  with  talents  for  metaphysical  speculation  and 
abstruse  reasoning,  we  are  so  notoriously  deficient  in  every- 
thing of  that  kind,  that  our  adversaries  often  taunt  us  with 
our  weakness,  and  have  held  us  up  to  public  ridicule  as 
being  '  without  a  system  of  philosophy  based  on  principles 
interdependent,  subordinate,  and  coherent.'  And  so  we 
were  thrown  on  letters  ;  thrown  upon  reading  this  and  that, 
—which  anybody  can  do, — and  thus  gradually  getting  a 
notion  of  the  history  of  the  human  mind,  which  enables  us 
(the  *  Zeit-Geist '  favouring)  to  correct,  in  reading  the  Bible, 
some  of  the  mistakes  into  which  men  of  more  metaphysical 
talents  than  literary  experience  have  fallen.  Cripples  in  like 
manner  have  been  known,  now  and  then,  to  be  cast  by  their 
very  infirmity  upon  some  mental  pursuit  which  has  turned 


232  LITERATURE  AND  DOGMA. 

out  happily  for  them  ;  and  a  good  fortune  of  this  kind  has 
perhaps  been  ours. 

But  we  do  not  forget  that  this  good  fortune  we  owe  to 
our  weakness,  and  that  the  natural  superiority  remains  with 
our  adversaries.  And  some  day,  perhaps,  the  nature  of 
God  may  be  as  well  known  as  the  nature  of  a  cone  or  a 
triangle  ;  and  then  our  two  bishops  may  deduce  its  pro- 
perties with  success,  and  make  their  brilliant  logical  play 
about  it, — rightly,  instead  of  as  now,  WTongly;  and  will 
resume  all  their  advantage.  But  this  will  hardly  be  in  our 
time.  So  that  the  superiority  of  this  pair  of  distinguished 
metaphysicians  will  never  perhaps,  after  all,  be  of  any  real 
advantage  to  them,  but  they  will  be  deluded  and  bemocked 
by  it  until  they  die. 


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LONDON 


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