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Christian Htoctrfne 
 
 AND 
 
 Systematic ZLbeology 
 
 J m 
 
 Augustus ScbUlt3C D. X. t>. 2)., 
 
 President Moravian College and Theological Seminary, 
 Author of Theology of Peter and Paul,'' "Books of the Bible Analyzed," 
 "Essentials of the Christian Faith," etc. 
 
 SECOND EDITION. REVISED. 
 
 BETHLEHEM PA 
 Bethlehem Printing Company 
 1914 
 
preface to tbe jfirst Coition. 
 
 The pages of this volume contain the substance of lectures 
 on Systematic Theology which have been given by the 
 writer, for nearly forty years, to successive classes of 
 students at the Moravian College and Theological Seminary 
 of Bethlehem, Pa. It is the first work of this kind written 
 in the English language by a member of the oldest Protes- 
 tant Church, founded by the followers of John Hus in 1457. 
 While in no sense an official publication, but entirely inde- 
 pendent and personal in its statements and conclusions, it 
 will be found to represent fairly the view-point of the Mo- 
 ravian Church or TJnitas Fratrum, as to the leading 
 features of Christian Doctrine and Systematic Theology. 
 
 Some persons may think it ill advised to publish such a 
 work at this time of theological unrest and of apparently 
 sharp contrasts between traditional and modern theology. 
 But as to all that is really essential in Christian doctrine, 
 it is as timely now as ever, "to contend earnestly for the 
 faith which was once for all delivered unto the saints" 
 (Jude v. 3). The Gospel of Jesus Christ, our blessed 
 Saviour, is as well suited to the needs of the twentieth cen- 
 tury of the Christian era as to the first. As for non- 
 essentials, such as denominational distinctions, ecclesiastical 
 formulas, dogmatical definitions and historical criticism, it 
 behooves all honest seekers after the truth, whether they 
 call themselves orthodox or liberal, conservative or ad- 
 vanced, to acknowledge the limitations of our religious 
 knowledge and understanding. For at best "we know in 
 part and we see in a mirror darkly" (I Cor. 13:9, 12). 
 Realizing this truth, we will be prepared to discuss all ques- 
 tions that present themselves in the different departments 
 of Christian doctrine, in the spirit of "charity," without 
 narrow prejudice or assumption of a monopoly of wisdom, 
 taking into consideration, if possible, all the new light 
 which science, history and Christian experience have shed 
 
preface to tbe jftrst EoMon. 
 
 The pages of this volume contain the substance of lectures 
 on Systematic Theology which have been given by the 
 writer, for nearly forty years, to successive classes of 
 students at the Moravian College and Theological Seminary 
 of Bethlehem, Pa. It is the first work of this kind written 
 in the English language by a member of the oldest Protes- 
 tant Church, founded by the followers of John Hus in 1457. 
 While in no sense an official publication, but entirely inde- 
 pendent and personal in its statements and conclusions, it 
 will be found to represent fairly the view-point of the Mo- 
 ravian Church or Unitas Fratrum, as to the leading 
 features of Christian Doctrine and Systematic Theology. 
 
 Some persons may think it ill advised to publish such a 
 work at this time of theological unrest and of apparently 
 sharp contrasts between traditional and modern theology. 
 But as to all that is really essential in Christian doctrine, 
 it is as timely now as ever, "to contend earnestly for the 
 faith which was once for all delivered unto the saints" 
 (Jude v. 3). The Gospel of Jesus Christ, our blessed 
 Saviour, is as well suited to the needs of the twentieth cen- 
 tury of the Christian era as to the first. As for non- 
 essentials, such as denominational distinctions, ecclesiastical 
 formulas, dogmatical definitions and historical criticism, it 
 behooves all honest seekers after the truth, whether they 
 call themselves orthodox or liberal, conservative or ad- 
 vanced, to acknowledge the limitations of our religious 
 knowledge and understanding. For at best "we know in 
 part and we see in a mirror darkly" (I Cor. 13:9, 12). 
 Bealizing this truth, we will be prepared to discuss all ques- 
 tions that present themselves in the different departments 
 of Christian doctrine, in the spirit of "charity," without 
 narrow prejudice or assumption of a monopoly of wisdom, 
 taking into consideration, if possible, all the new light 
 which science, history and Christian experience have shed 
 
iv 
 
 CHRISTIAN DOCTRINE. 
 
 upon the old established beliefs. The writer claims but 
 little originality. The thoughts and expressions of other 
 men have been freely assimilated and used, and it is not 
 possible to credit them individually. Our guiding principle 
 is the motto of the Moravian Bishop and educator, 
 Comenius: "In essentials unity, in non-essentials liberty, 
 in all things charity." 
 
 That the publication of this work may redound to the 
 glory of God and the furtherance of His kingdom, is the 
 earnest wish and prayer of 
 
 The Author. 
 
 Go tbe Secono EMtion. 
 
 After the greater part of the first edition of this book had 
 been sold, the remainder was consumed by fire in the partial 
 destruction of Comenius Hall, of the Moravian College. It 
 was, therefore, desirable that a second edition be published 
 of this volume, which is used as a text-bok in several theo- 
 logical Seminaries. As we have quoted very few authorities 
 for the opinions expressed on the various articles of Chris- 
 tian doctrine, outside of the Holy Scriptures, it seems proper 
 to mention some of the books on Systematic Theology which 
 have been consulted. A list of such works, for reference, 
 will be found at the end of this volume. 
 
 The Author. 
 
Contents. 
 
 fntroouctfon. 
 
 Chapter I. The Scope of Christian Doctrine 1 
 
 1. Dogmatics. 2. Theology. 3. Systematic Theol- 
 ogy. 4. Relation to other branches. 
 
 Chapter II. Religion 4 
 
 1. What is religion. 2. Subjective aspect of religion. 
 3. The object of religion. 4. False religions. 
 
 Chapter III. The Existence of God 7 
 
 1. An axiom of religious truth. 2. Doubt and denial. 
 3. The positive proof (cosmological, anthropological, 
 ontological arguments). 4. The negative proof. 
 
 Chapter IV. Revelation of God 10 
 
 1. Need of a divine revelation. 2. Actuality of reve- 
 lation. 3. Objective evidence (personal manifesta- 
 tion, prophecy). 4. Subjective evidence. 
 
 Chapter V. The Bible as the Standard of Christian 
 Doctrine 13 
 
 1. Need of a standard. 2. The books of the Bible. 
 3. Their integrity. 4. Authenticity and authority. 
 5. Inspiration of the Scriptures. 6. Distinctions and 
 limitations. 7. Difference between Roman and Pro- 
 testant standpoints. 
 
 Chapter VI. Summary of the History of Christian 
 
 Doctrine 21 
 
 1. The early Church. 2. Middle Ages. 3. Reforma- 
 tion times. 4. The seventeenth century. 5. The 
 eighteenth century. 6. The nineteenth century. 
 
 Part JFlrBt— ©oo tbe Creator. 
 
 Chapter VII. The Nature and Attributes of God. ... 31 
 1. Can we know God? 2. Oneness of God. 3. 
 Methods of defining the nature of God. 4. The per- 
 sonality of God. 5. Metaphysical attributes (eter- 
 nal, unchangeable, omnipresent, omniscient, al- 
 mighty). 6. Moral attributes (holy, righteous, 
 kind, merciful). 
 
CHRISTIAN DOCTRINE. 
 
 Chapter VIII. The Holy Trinity 36 
 
 1. The idea of the Trinity. 2. The Biblical testi- 
 mony. 3. Relation and work of the three (of the 
 Father, of the Son, of the Spirit). 4. Church con- 
 troversies. 5. Illustrations and practical aspect. 
 
 Chapter IX. The Creation of the World 44 
 
 1. The meaning of creation. 2. The object of crea- 
 tion. 3. Creation and evolution. 4. The Mosaic 
 record. 
 
 Chapter X. The Government of the World 47 
 
 1. Preservation. 2. Providence. 3. Miracles. 4. 
 The divine decrees. 
 
 Chapter XI. The Angels 51 
 
 1. Existence of angels. 2. Nature of angels. 3. 
 Relation to man. 4. General work. 5. Present em- 
 ployment. 6. Guardian angels and worship of an- 
 gels. 7. Value of the doctrine of angels. 
 
 Chapter XII. Origin and Nature of Man 56 
 
 1. Origin. 2. Antiquity. 3. Nature of man. 4. 
 Unity of the race. 5. Origin of the individual soul 
 (pre-existence, creation, propagation). 
 
 Chapter XIII. The State of Mankind in Paradise.. 62 
 1. The image of God. 2. Intellectual condition. 3. 
 Moral condition. 4. Physical condition. 5. Exer- 
 cise of man's powers. 
 
 ©art SeconO— Sin. 
 
 Chapter XIV. Evil Spirits 67 
 
 1. Their existence. 2. The origin of evil. 3. Nature 
 of evil spirits. 4. General activity. 5. Value of the 
 doctrine of evil spirits. 
 
 Chapter XV. The Fall of Man 74 
 
 1. The nature of human sin (sensuous, limitation, 
 antagonistic theory, Scriptural definition). 2. The 
 temptation. 3. Immediate effects of the fall. 4. 
 Why was the fall not prevented? 
 
 Chapter XVI. Universality and Guilt of Sin 80 
 
 1. The inherited depravity. 2. The Pelagian heresy. 
 3. The universality of sin (co-extensive with race, 
 a radical evil, propagated). 4. Theories of imputa- 
 tion (natural head theory, federal head, pre-exist- 
 ence, mediate, no imputation). 5. The question of 
 responsibility. 6. Personal guilt. 
 
CONTENTS. Vii 
 
 Chapter XVII. The Growth of Sin and its Successive 
 
 Stages 87 
 
 1. Not all equally sinful. 2. The power of sin. 3. 
 Classification of sins. 4. Stages of sin (discord, 
 slavery, false security, hardening of the heart).. 5. 
 Sin against the Holy Spirit. 
 
 Chapter XVIII. The Penalty of Sin 92 
 
 1. Why sin is punished. 2. Degrees of punishment 
 (evil conscience, physical or social pain, bodily 
 death). 3. Punishment as a means of grace. 4. 
 Future punishment. 
 
 Gbico part— Gbrist tbe Saviour. 
 
 Chapter XIX. The Plan of Salvation 96 
 
 1. Salvation possible. 2. God's gracious purpose. 3. 
 Theories of predestination (Supralapsarianism, sub- 
 lapsarianism, conditional redemption, resistance the- 
 ory, Arminian). 4. Arguments for and against un- 
 conditional predestination. 5. Conclusion. 
 
 Chapter XX. The Time of Preparation 101 
 
 1. Two covenants (of works, of grace). 2. Prepara- 
 tion of the Gentiles. 3. Preparation of Israel (Pa- 
 triarchal, Mosaic, Prophetic period). 4. The promise 
 of Messiah. 5. The fullness of time. 
 
 Chapter XXL The Person of Christ 109 
 
 1. Jesus the Messiah (Christ). 2. The Son of man. 
 3. The Son of God. 4. Christ a divine-human per- 
 son. 5. Why the Saviour must be devine-human. 6. 
 Theories at variance with the orthodox creed 
 (Ebionitism, Gnosticism, Apollinarianism, Nestorian- 
 ism, Eutychianism, Socinianism, Swedenborgianism) . 
 
 Chapter XXII. The State of Humiliation 117 
 
 1. What constitutes the state of humiliation. 2. 
 Supernatural birth. 3. The mystery of the incarna- 
 tion. 4. Earthly life. 5. Sufferings. 6. Death and 
 descent to Hades. 
 
 Chapter XXIII. The State of Exaltation 126 
 
 1. The resurrection of Christ (possibility, Biblical 
 account, external results, spiritual effect). 2. The 
 forty days. 3. The ascension. 4. Sitting at the 
 right hand of God. 
 
 Chapter XXIV. The Prophetic Office of Christ 131 
 
 1. The three offices. 2. Christ the greatest prophet. 
 3. Principal teachings (sinfulness of man, plan of 
 salvation, repentance and faith, sanctification) . 
 
viii 
 
 CHRISTIAN DOCTKINE. 
 
 Chapter XXV. The Priestly Office of Christ 134 
 
 1. Christ, the true priest. 2. His atonement. 3. 
 Various aspects of the atonement (moral, commer- 
 cial, legal, sacrificial). 4. Redemption. 5. Substi- 
 tution. 6. Objections considered. 7. Is the atone- 
 ment limited? 8. High priestly intercession. 
 
 Chapter XXVI. The Kingly Office of Christ 142 
 
 1. Christ a King. 2. The mediatorial Kingdom. 3. 
 The Kingdom of grace. 4. The Kingdom of glory. 
 
 ©art Jfourtb— (personal Salvation. 
 
 Chapter XXVII. The Beginning of Personal Salva- 
 tion 145 
 
 1. Salvation a gift of God. 2. Salvation not without 
 man. 3. Individual preparation (Preparation out- 
 side of the Church, within the Church). 
 
 Chapter XXVIII. The Call to Salvation 148 
 
 1. The Gospel call. 2. The inward call. 3. The ef- 
 fectual call. 4. Relation between preparation and 
 the call to salvation. 
 
 Chapter XXIX. Repentance 151 
 
 1. The need of repentance. 2. False conceptions of 
 repentance. 3. Elements of true repentance. 4. 
 The author of repentance. 5. The motive of repent- 
 ance. 
 
 Chapter XXX. Faith 155 
 
 1. The need of faith. 2. The elements of faith. 3. 
 The object of faith. 4. The author of faith. 
 
 Chapter XXXI. Regeneration and Justification 158 
 
 1. The change of heart. 2. Regeneration. 3. Justi- 
 fication. 4. Justification before sanctification. 5. 
 Union with Christ. 6. The state of grace. 
 
 Chapter XXXII. Sanctification and Conflicts 163 
 
 1. The new life. 2. Conflicts. 3. Progress in sanc- 
 tification. 4. Times of weakness. 5. Stages of spir- 
 itual growth. 6. The question of sinless perfection. 
 
 Chapter XXXIII. Good Works 169 
 
 1. Necessity of good works. 2. What are good 
 works? 3. Christian virtues. 
 
 Chapter XXXIV. The Standard of Holy Living. ... 173 
 1. The teachings of the Bible. 2. Personal example. 
 3. The testimony of the Spirit. 4. Special directions. 
 5. The incentive to holy living. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 ix 
 
 Chapter XXXV. Prayer 180 
 
 1. Meaning and purpose of prayer. 2. What to pray 
 for. 3. Prayer in the name of Jesus. 4. Hearing 
 •of prayer. 5. Can the departed pray for us? 6. 
 Prayer for the departed. 
 
 Chapter XXXVI. Christian Perseverance 186 
 
 1. Can a believer fall from grace? 2. Groundless 
 fears. 3. Assurance of future salvation. 
 
 part ffiftb— Gbe Gburcb. 
 
 Chapter XXXVII. Origin and Nature of the Church 192 
 1. The need of fellowship. 2. The divine-human 
 character of the Church. 3. The visible and the in- 
 visible Church. 4. Merits of the visible Church. 5. 
 National and independent Churches. 6. Relation 
 between Church and State. 
 
 Chapter XXXVIII. Essentials of the Church 199 
 
 1. Criterion of a true Church. 2. Churches and 
 sects. 3. Creeds and confessions. 4. Sunday and 
 the house of God. 
 
 Chapter XXXIX. Elements of Prosperity in the 
 
 Church 204 
 
 1. Spirituality and revivals. 2. Missionary work. 
 3. The union spirit. 4. Variety of ritual. 5. 
 Church government. 6. Discipline. 
 
 Chapter XL. The Ordinances of the Church 211 
 
 1. Means of grace. 2. Christian fellowship and the 
 word of God. 3. The sacraments. 4. Difference 
 between word and sacrament. 5. What is essential 
 to the sacrament? 6. The necessity of the sacra- 
 ment. 
 
 Chapter XLI. Baptism 218 
 
 1. The meaning of the word. 2. Origin of the rite. 
 
 3. Significance of the rite. 4. Conditions for bap- 
 tism. 
 
 Chapter XLII. Infant Baptism 222 
 
 1. Antiquity of the rite. 2. Various reasons for in- 
 fant baptism. 3. The meaning of infant baptism. 
 
 4. Reasons for preferring infant baptism. 5. Whose 
 children are to be baptized? 6. The rite of confir- 
 mation. 
 
 Chapter XLIII. The Holy Communion 229 
 
 1. The institution of the rite. 2. The observance 
 of the rite. 3. The controversy regarding the "body 
 and blood" (ancient Church, middle ages, the re- 
 
X 
 
 CHRISTIAN DOCTRINE. 
 
 formers, the practical view). 4. The benefits of the 
 holy communion. 5. Proper candidates for the holy 
 communion. 
 
 part Sfitb— 3final Ibings. 
 
 Chapter XLIV. The Immortality of the Soul 237 
 
 1. An axiom of Christian belief. 2. Rational argu- 
 ments (historical, metaphysical, teleological, moral). 
 3. The teachings of the Bible. 
 
 Chapter XLV. The Departed Spirits or the Inter- 
 mediate State 241 
 
 1. Opinions expressed on this subject (Transmigra- 
 tion, Hades, Purgatory; Immediate and final bliss or 
 woe). 2. The existence of an intermediate state. 
 3. The state of transition. 4. The condition of the 
 believer. 5. The condition of the unbeliever. 6. 
 Infants and thoes who have not heard the Gospel. 
 7. The "place of the departed spirits." 
 
 Chapter XLVI. The Resurrection 252 
 
 1. The Valuation of the body. 2. The truth of the 
 resurrection. 3. The nature of the resurrection body 
 (incorruptible, Christ-like, material, identity). 4. 
 Connection with the present body. 5. Transforma- 
 tion. 
 
 Chapter XLVII. The Judgment Day 259 
 
 1. Its reality. 2. The judge and the judged. 3. 
 The grounds of the judgment. 4. The final state of 
 the blessed (perfect peace, perfect life, grateful 
 memories, happy environments, degrees of glory). 
 5. The state of the ungodly. 
 
 Chapter XL VIII. The Future of the Church of Christ 265 
 1. The importance of the subject. 2. Early expecta- 
 tions. 3. The millennium idea. 3. The objections 
 to the millennial expectation. 4. Is there a two- 
 fold bodily resurrection? 
 
 Chapter XLIX. Final Events and the Coming of 
 
 Christ 272 
 
 1. Certainty of Christ's return. 2. Anti-Christ. 3. 
 Universal proclamation of the Gospel (the future of 
 the Hebrew race?). 4. The coming of Christ. 
 
 Chapter L. The End of this World and the Final 
 
 Destiny of All 279 
 
 1. Regeneration of the earth. 2. The question of 
 universal restoration. 3. The question of annihila- 
 tion. 
 
 Books of Reference 285 
 
 Index of Subjects 287 
 
a Gompenoium of Christian Doctrine 
 ano Systematic Gbeology. 
 
 flntrofcuction. 
 
 Chaptee I. The Scope of Christian Doctrine. 
 
 The two terms most frequently applied to a comprehensive 
 presentation of Christian doctrine are "Dogmatics," and "Sys- 
 tematic Theology." What is the meaning of these terms? 
 
 1. Dogmatics. 
 
 Dogma, from douei, in classical usage, meant a decree 
 issued by a king, a resolution passed by an assembly, or 
 simply a personal opinion, particularly a philosophic con- 
 viction or tenet. In the New Testament, the word occurs 
 first for the edict which went out from Caesar Augustus 
 (Luke 2:1). Next it designates the "decree" laid down by 
 the council of the apostles in Jerusalem (Acts 16 :4) and the 
 "ordinances" of the Mosaic Law (Eph. 2:15). Since the 
 fourth century of the Christian era, the term has been used 
 almost exclusively for the doctrines of the Christian faith, 
 as professed either by the whole or some branch of the 
 Church. Accordingly dogmatics may be defined to be, the 
 science which treats of the articles of Christian doctrine as 
 expressed in the symbols of the Church. 
 
 2. Theology. 
 
 The word theology ("speaking of God") in the early 
 Christian Church, was used with the special meaning of 
 giving prominence to the divinity of Christ. In this sense 
 John, the Evangelist, and Gregory Nazianzen (A.D. 350), 
 who defended the deity of Christ against the Arian heresy, 
 were sometimes designated as "theologians." The term is 
 
2 
 
 CHRISTIAN DOCTRINE. 
 
 still employed in a limited sense for that department of 
 dogmatical teaching which treats of God, his attributes and 
 his works. Peter Abelard (about A.D. 1100), in his treatise 
 "Theologia Christiana," first applied the term to the entire 
 range of Christian doctrine. In the general sense of the 
 word, therefore, "theology" means the science which gives 
 an account of the revelation of God to man and the relation 
 of man to God. Christian theology is the science of the 
 Christian faith, as accepted and sanctioned by the Christian 
 Church. 
 
 Looking at the sources, from which the facts and truths of 
 theology are derived, it is customary to distinguish between 
 a natural and a supernatural theology. Natural theology 
 deals with the knowledge of God which is gained from 
 natural sources, such as the physical world, secular history, 
 reason and conscience. Supernatural theology supplements 
 this general knowledge of the divine government by the 
 special revelation of God which, it claims, has been granted 
 to man. This supernatural theology accepts at the outset 
 certain facts and truths of revealed religion. Some, there- 
 fore, raise the objection that the term "science" does not 
 apply to a theology which accepts as true something that has 
 not been properly proven and is, perhaps, incapable of 
 proof. But there is no science which does not build upon 
 some axioms, that must be taken for granted. While it may 
 be admitted, that the exponents of theology have, sometimes, 
 committed the mistake of placing themselves in opposition 
 to the laws of science, by presenting teachings which are 
 contrary to reason, this error does not annul the many evi- 
 dences, that Christian theology can and does conform to the 
 rules that obtain in the apprehension of scientific truth in 
 general. 
 
 3. Systematic Theology. 
 
 We call it "systematic theology," when the facts and 
 truths, both of natural and revealed theology, are presented 
 
INTBODUCTION. 
 
 3 
 
 in their rational unity and in the form of a doctrinal system. 
 But why should there be any system of theology? If the 
 Christian religion is founded upon faith in the person and 
 the work of Christ, what more is needed than a personal 
 appropriation of this faith? 
 
 The need of a system will appear from the following con- 
 siderations : a, There is an innate desire of the human mind 
 to harmonize and to systematize the facts and beliefs which 
 are accepted as true. "Study to present thyself approved 
 unto God a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, hand- 
 ling aright the word of truth" II Tim. 2 :16. b. These 
 truths cannot be fully understood without a system which 
 connects them in proper order and defines their relation to 
 
 each other, "which things also we speak combining 
 
 spiritual things with spiritual words." I Cor. 2 :13. c. A 
 rational understanding makes the faith more sure {"Credo, 
 ut intelligam.") ; as Peter declared in his confession : "We 
 have believed and are sure (or: and know)" John 6:69. 
 Christians should be able "to give an answer to every man 
 that asketh a reason of the hope that is in them" (1 Pet. 
 3:15). This is what systematic theology endeavors to ac- 
 complish in the presentation of Christian doctrine. 
 
 4. Relation to Other Branches. 
 Four other branches of theology are closely related to 
 systematic theology, yet must be distinguished from it. 
 a. Biblical theology is that branch of theological study which 
 largely furnishes the foundation for systematic theology. 
 Ignoring any other source of information, it collects the 
 teachings of the different books of the Bible and presents 
 them in proper order (e. g. Stevens, Theology of the New 
 Testament), b. Historical theology traces the development 
 of Christian doctrine from the time of the Apostles to the 
 present day, showing the changes which it has undergone 
 in different epochs of the Church's history (Harnack, His- 
 tory of Dogma), c. Apologetic theology gives prominence 
 
4 
 
 CHRISTIAN DOCTRINE. 
 
 to the evidences of the truth of the Christian religion, which 
 it maintains and vindicates against opposing doubt and error 
 (Bruce, Apologetics), d. Symbolism has regard mainly to 
 the points of difference between the doctrines as held and 
 taught in different denominations, generally with the object 
 of defending the creed of one particular Church (Schaff, 
 The Creeds of Christendom). 
 
 Chapter II. Religion. 
 1. What is Religion? 
 
 Since theology and Christian doctrine deal with the facts 
 and truths of religion, it is important, first of all, to define 
 what we understand by this word. Religion is not the same 
 as morality, that is the consciousness of certain fixed prin- 
 ciples of right and wrong, good and bad. Morality may 
 exist without religion, even as there exist certain forms of 
 religion without morality. But what is religion? The word 
 has been derived either from the Latin verb "religare," to 
 bind, or from "relegere," to read over, to consider. While 
 the best authorities, from Cicero down to present time, de- 
 cide in favor of the latter derivation, nevertheless the term 
 religion as now used, seems to combine the two elements 
 contained in the two verbs, viz. : a thinking over and a bind- 
 ing, or respect and dependence. 
 
 Religion is not something that is imparted from without, 
 it is an innate faculty, a consciousness of the existence of a 
 higher power, a feeling of dependence on and a sense of 
 veneration and duty toward that power. We may speak of 
 an unconscious religion as existing and manifesting itself 
 even in the irrational creature, as the Psalmist says : "All 
 the earth doth worship thee, the Father everlasting." But 
 as a conscious faculty, religion is a part of the higher nature 
 of man. Some human beings possess it to a larger, some to a 
 lower degree; in some men it seems to be lacking almost 
 entirely. There is also much unconscious or half-conscious 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 5 
 
 religion among men. It is capable of development and 
 cultivation, and it can become so degenerate or atrophied, 
 as not to be perceptible at all any more. 
 
 2. Subjective Aspect of Religion. 
 
 Religion has a twofold aspect, a subjective and an ob- 
 jective one. It requires a subject which stands in relation 
 to the higher power, and a supreme Being, a God, who is 
 the object of religion. Looking at the subjective side, the 
 first question is: What faculty in man is the seat or center 
 of religion? Some philosophers and teachers of religion 
 have sought it exclusively in the intellect, the perceptive 
 faculty, declaring a man religious, if he has the right con- 
 ception of the truth and accepts certain teachings. But this, 
 surely, is a onesided view, to make religion merely a matter 
 of belief or of knowing. Some have made feeling the main 
 test of religion and conclude that a man is religious, if his 
 sentiments are religiously excited, whether this be done by 
 art, (especially music), or by human love, or by any other 
 form of emotion or ecstacy. Others are inclined to regard 
 the will as the main, if not the exclusive seat of religious 
 energy, making it identical with moral action. "To do right 
 is religion." 
 
 But these onesided definitions fail to comprehend the 
 central character of religion which is simply spiritual life. 
 Although, according to the different individual disposition, 
 one or the other function of the soul will be more promi- 
 nently affected, true religion is not confined to the exercise 
 of any one of the powers of intellect, emotion or will. Re- 
 ligion is the spiritual life of man. It has its seat in the 
 central faculty of man and from there controls all his 
 powers. The most expressive figure for this central faculty 
 of religion is the Biblical term of "heart," as used in the 
 Old and New Testaments (Gen. 6:5, Deut. 6:5, Matth. 6:21, 
 Rom. 1 :21). The heart, as the center and the motive power 
 
6 
 
 CHRISTIAN DOCTEINE. 
 
 of physical life, is a fit symbol for the spiritual principle 
 and center of man's being. 
 
 3. The Object of Religion. 
 
 If the subjective consciousness and energy of religion are 
 to be more than a dream and a self-delusion, there must be a 
 corresponding object of man's reverence and worship, a 
 divine Being, towards whom man's religion tends. A re- 
 ligion which denies the existence of God is self-contra- 
 dictory, because it takes away the very essence of religion, 
 the recognition and worship of the higher power. The 
 exercise of religion presupposes the possibility of com- 
 munion with God and requires a God who relates himself to 
 man. There may be many different forms of worship and 
 expressions of religion, in words, sentiments and acts, but 
 in order to make these effective, there must be a God to 
 receive this worship. 
 
 4. False Religions. 
 
 Forms of religion which do not come up to this standard, 
 are the following: a. Pantheism and nature worship, the 
 religion which holds that the universe is God, that he is 
 identical with the world and has no personal being, b. Poly- 
 theism and Ancestor worship, that is the belief in the 
 existence of many limited and imperfect Gods. c. Dualism, 
 and Devil worship, or the notion that there are two an- 
 tagonistic principles, with equal claims and both self- 
 existing, viz., mind and matter, or the good and the evil, 
 d. Deism, or the religion which believes in the existence of 
 God, but of a God who does not concern himself about the 
 world or, at least, who gives no immediate and supernatural 
 revelation of himself, e. Agnosticism, the attitude of in- 
 difference toward all matters of religion, or else a negation 
 of all possible knowledge concerning God and his relations 
 to man and the world. /. Atheism or Naturalism, which 
 simply denies the existence of God, believes in matter and 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 7 
 
 force only and traces all religion back to mere illusion or the 
 cunning of priests and deceivers. 
 
 Chapter III. The Existence of God. 
 
 1. An axiom of religious truth. 
 The great majority of men, whether they be Christians, 
 Mohammedans, Brahmanists, Buddhists or other heathen, 
 believe in the existence of God as the primary article of re- 
 ligion. "Wherever men live, in all parts of the world and as 
 far back as we have any historical record, however degraded 
 they may otherwise be, they have some conception of a God 
 or Gods, to whom they pray or whom they dread, and some 
 superstitious ceremony at least, which is intended for wor- 
 ship or to appease the anger and tbe wrath of the God whom 
 they fear. The literature of all nations begins with the 
 religious element. Although "no man hath seen God at any 
 time," men need not be taught first that there is a God ; 
 they know it by intuition, as a self-evident truth. Cicero 
 declares in De Natura Deorum : "Necesse est esse deos, 
 quoniam insitas eorum vel potius innatas cogitationes 
 hdbemus," and the Psalmist calls him a fool who "says in 
 his heart, There is no God" (Ps. 14:1). 
 
 2. Doubt and Denial. 
 There are, however, quite a number of thoughtful men, 
 who have no such convictions, who are either indifferent as 
 to the question of the existence of God or who positively 
 deny or scoff at this belief. While there may be few who, 
 strictly speaking, can be called atheists, (as nearly every- 
 body believes in some sort, of a Higher Being,) the number 
 of agnostics and of those who reject the idea of a personal 
 God is large. Over against such doubt and denial, is there 
 any absolute evidence obtainable, that will compel universal 
 acceptance? Apparently not. We can prove, however, that 
 the belief in a personal God rests upon facts more reasonable 
 than the denial of his existence. The strongest evidence of 
 
8 
 
 CHRISTIAN DOCTRINE. 
 
 this kind, doubtless, is furnished to the Christian believer in 
 the person and work of Jesus Christ and in his own personal 
 experience of the love of God. But there are certain a priori 
 arguments, irrespective of the Christian religion, which may 
 serve as a foundation for the general conviction of the Being 
 of God. 
 
 3. The Positive Proof. 
 
 Four main arguments are thus presented : a. The physical 
 or teleological argument (Bom. 1:19, 20, Acts 14:17). This 
 is the evidence derived from the order and design of the 
 Universe ("t£\os " end). It is evident that there is design 
 in the world. The most skilled work of man does not equal 
 the beauty, order and harmony of the natural organism. 
 The world is constructed according to a distinct plan; the 
 same laws prevail everywhere. In the cocoon of the cater- 
 pillar, e.g., the legs, antennas and wings of the future 
 butterfly are all folded up, in preparation for its future 
 life. An unconscious adapting of means to an end is in- 
 conceivable. Therefore the world must owe its origin to an 
 allwise creator. 
 
 b. The cosmological argument, derived from the de- 
 pendence of every part of the universe on a previous cause. 
 The world around us is contingent; it has a beginning. 
 Everything begun owes its existence to some producing 
 cause. "Evolution" may be the general law of the de- 
 velopment of the universe, but it cannot be the cause of 
 existence. Logic requires a first cause, some self-existing 
 Being, who is absolutely independent, eternal and unchange- 
 able. The cause of the universe must be greater than the 
 universe. 
 
 c. The anthropological argument. This argument rests on 
 man's mental and moral nature. We have a sense of right 
 and wrong. The right we know is what we ought to do and 
 the wrong is what we ought to avoid. Conscience, ("the Cate- 
 gorical Imperative" of Kant,) exercises authority over 
 
INTBODUCTION. 
 
 9 
 
 every man and there is a general sense of responsibility. 
 This proves, that there must be a lawgiver and judge. So, 
 likewise, man's emotional nature, his feeling of love and 
 devotion, point to the existence of a Being who is the source 
 of love and who can be the object of human affection. 
 
 d. The oniological or psychological argument (as given by 
 Anselm and Descartes). Man has an innate idea of an in- 
 finitely perfect Being. This Being must have reality. If 
 God did not actually exist, we could conceive of a Being 
 greater than God, because, with other perfections, he would 
 have the attribute of existence. This argument apparently 
 moves in a circle, in that it assumes the existence as neces- 
 sary, which is the very thing to be proved. To meet this 
 objection, it is urged, that the idea of God is not a voluntary 
 idea, but a necessary conception, so that you cannot get rid 
 of it and therefore it demands a reality to correspond to it. 
 
 4. The Negative Proof. 
 
 If the positive proof for the existence of God in the fore- 
 going arguments is not absolutely conclusive, it will bear 
 comparison with the arguments of the opponents. The 
 latter, unless they declare themselves simply indifferent 
 agnostics, must be either materialists or pantheists. The 
 materialist's substitute for God is an infinite number of 
 atoms. All existence, rational and irrational, is assumed to 
 be the result of fortuitous combinations of one and the same 
 substance. But such materialism contradicts the testimony 
 of human consciousness. We know that we have a self 
 which thinks, and we feel ourselves morally accountable. 
 Pantheism regards the universe as the unconscious evolution 
 of an impersonal mind or substance, which reaches con- 
 sciousness only in man. The human personality itself is 
 declared to be but a passing moment in the evolution of the 
 infinite, and yet the only personal manifestation of the 
 Godhead. However, this theory again contradicts our 
 
10 
 
 CHRISTIAN DOCTRINE. 
 
 innermost conviction of an individual existence and of our 
 responsibility toward a supreme personality. 
 
 Chapter IV. Revelation of God. 
 1. Need of a Divine Revelation. 
 
 If our belief in God is to be tbe ground of our re- 
 ligion, we must know more of God than bis mere existence. 
 Tbere must be a relationship established between God and 
 man and tbere can be no such relation, unless God makes 
 it possible by a revelation of himself. (Revelation derived 
 from "relevare," to draw back a veil.) True religion must 
 be taught of God. The idea of religion implies the belief in 
 a divine revelation. This revelation may be general or 
 special, natural or supernatural. 
 
 Many professed believers in the existence of God admit 
 the natural or general revelation, through nature, history 
 and conscience, but deny any special revelation or personal 
 communion between God and man. They declare it incon- 
 sistent with the idea of God, that he should do anything that 
 would change the natural course of events, as fixed by 
 eternal law. Such interference, they claim, would imply 
 that the world was made imperfect and needed improve- 
 ment. 
 
 a. But a personal God who created the world and did not 
 merely mould it, must be supposed to exercise constant 
 supervision and control, since without his personal support 
 the world could not exist. 
 
 b. Furthermore, in the present condition of the human 
 race, at least, the mediate or general revelation of God 
 seems insufficient to evoke and to satisfy true religion. It 
 does not satify the longing of the heart after communion 
 with God and, above all, it does not teach the way of salva- 
 tion. 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 11 
 
 2. Actuality of Revelation. 
 
 Our need, therefore, of something more than a knowledge 
 of God which we derive from nature, as well as the general 
 evidence of his love and wisdom, which we have, afford 
 ground for the hope that our intellectual and moral wants 
 will be met by the supply of a special divine revelation. 
 Such revelation, we believe, has been given to mankind at 
 various times and in various ways, which can be classified 
 under the two heads of external or objective manifestation 
 and of internal or subjective revelation, through testimony 
 born to the human heart and mind. 
 
 3. Objective Evidence. 
 
 We find it recorded, that from the earliest times of human 
 history, God has revealed himself, on special occasions, by 
 supernatural means, such as the appearing of heavenly 
 messengers (angels), by wonderful signs and miracles, 
 by ecstatic visions and dreams that were granted to certain 
 men, and by the light of inspiration in the holy prophets. 
 (Hebrews 1:12.) 
 
 a. Personal Manifestation. These manifestations cul- 
 minate in the person and work of Jesus Christ, the God-man, 
 and on the acceptance of this central revelation the reality 
 of previous and later manifestations substantially depends. 
 There can be no reasonable doubt, that Jesus of Nazareth 
 did claim to be the "Son of God," to have come from God 
 for the purpose of revealing the will of his Father and to be 
 the Saviour of men. He was crucified for that claim, and 
 his disciples, after his resurrection and ascension, made it 
 the pillar of their proclamation. The influence which pro- 
 ceeded from the belief in Christ's divinity has not only con- 
 tinued to this day to conquer all opposition, but has proved 
 highly beneficial in making men holier and happier. The 
 conclusion is reasonable, that God has revealed himself, first 
 of all, in a supernatural manner, in the man Jesus Christ. 
 
12 
 
 CHRISTIAN DOCTRINE. 
 
 b. Prophecy. Another form of special divine revelation is 
 that given through prophecy. There have been among many 
 nations, but especially among the Hebrews, "prophets," 
 that is men who claimed to be inspired of God and to bring 
 a direct message from him. Among the predictions re- 
 corded as coming from these prophets, some have had such a 
 remarkable fulfillment, that the foreknowledge of the future 
 proves the fact of a special revelation accorded to these 
 prophets; such as the prophecies concerning the Messiah, 
 the judgment and the restoration of Israel, the destiny of 
 the surrounding nations, the future of the Christian Church, 
 etc. 
 
 Other objective evidences of the reality of a supernatural 
 divine manifestation are found in the miracles recorded in 
 the Bible, in the exalted character and contents of the Holy 
 Scriptures in general, and in the wonderful history of the 
 Christian Church. 
 
 4. Subjective Evidence. 
 
 The external or objective evidence is supplemented and 
 strengthened by the inner testimony of practical experience 
 and rational conviction. . In order to become fully convinced 
 of the reality of the divine revelation, we must enter into 
 that personal communion with God, through the Holy 
 Spirit, which is promised to the Christian believer. The 
 personal experience of divine grace, of prayers answered, of 
 hearts and lives changed — that is the surest evidence that 
 can be given. And what, at first, is a matter of faith, be- 
 comes more and more also a matter of rational conviction. 
 The facts and truths of revealed religion satisfy the de- 
 mands of sound thinking and appear as an organic whole, 
 in which each part supports the other. 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 13 
 
 Chapter V. The Bible as the Standard of Christian 
 Doctrine. 
 
 1. Need of a Standard. 
 
 As the natural revelation of God in the physical world is 
 continuous, so likewise his supernatual manifestation is not 
 confined to any particular time and place. Hence the facts 
 and truths of revealed religion are not limited to Bible 
 times and the Bible is not the exclusive record or the only 
 source of divine revelation. The Christian Church existed 
 before the New Testament was written ; and God revealed 
 himself to the patriarchs and to the children of Israel long 
 before the books of the Old Testament were composed. 
 There has been a continued divine revelation also given to 
 men, both direct and indirect, since the Canon of the Bible 
 was closed. 
 
 However, in as much as this revelation of God has one 
 great historical center in the person and work of Jesus 
 Christ, we need a reliable record of that central revelation, 
 upon which our salvation depends. Our knowledge of the 
 words and deeds of Christ, our Saviour, must not rest on 
 uncertain traditions, but upon the testimony of reliable 
 witnesses. Hence the record given in the four Gospels is of 
 primary importance because of the great facts and truths 
 which they transmit to us. The other parts of the Bible are 
 of value, mainly, as far as they are connected with this 
 central revelation. The history of Israel, the law and the 
 prophets, form the preparation for the time of Christ ; the 
 book of Acts and the New Testament Epistles show us the 
 right appropriation and exemplification of the facts and 
 truths of salvation. These records have been put in writing 
 for permanent use and handed down from century to 
 century, constituting what we call the Canon (rule) of the 
 Old and New Testaments. 
 
14 
 
 CHRISTIAN DOCTRINE. 
 
 2. The Boohs of the Bible. 
 
 The Bible is a book of books, as well as the book of books. 
 Sixty-six parts, viz., 39 in the Old Testament and 3 x 9 in 
 the New Testament, make, up the collection of sacred lit- 
 erature which has been accepted by the Jewish Synagogue 
 and by the Church Councils as the "Holy Scriptures." The 
 canonization of these books was very gradual, extending 
 through centuries ; that of the Pentateuch is generally assign- 
 ed to the time of Ezra, that of the prophets (JSTebiim) must 
 have been accomplished when the Septuagint translation 
 was made The third part of the Old Testament, the so- 
 called Ketubim or "writings," though already fixed by 
 general agreement at the time of Christ's birth, did not re- 
 ceive the official endorsement of the Jewish authorities until 
 about A. D. 150. 
 
 As regards the New Testament, we find before the end 
 of the second century, the four Gospels, the book of Acts, 
 13 Epistles of Paul, the first Ep. of John and that to the 
 Hebrews generally recognized as canonical. About the year 
 300 A. D., the Church father Eusebius enumerates as books 
 of undoubted canonical authority, the aforementioned and 
 the first Ep. of Peter ; as disputed, second Peter, second and 
 third John, James, Jude and the Apocalypse. The Coun- 
 cil of Laodicea, in the fourth century, fixed the New Test. 
 Canon by endorsing all the books as at present received, ex- 
 cept the Apocalypse, which was added by subsequent 
 synods. It appears, therefore, that the Canon has been de- 
 termined, not by special divine revelation, but by the con- 
 current opinion of the Church. 
 
 3. Their Integrity. 
 
 It may be asked first, whether the books now included in 
 our Bible have been handed down to us unaltered, as they 
 were originally written, and whether they were written by 
 men properly authorized and qualified to record the facts 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 15 
 
 and truths of divine revelation. As to the text of the Old 
 Testament writings, we are hardly in a position, positively, 
 to decide on its original form. The oldest Hebrew manu- 
 script, regarded as authentic, does not date back further 
 than A. D. 916, and there is some difference between our 
 present Hebrew Text, the Samaritan Pentateuch and the 
 Septuagint translation. But it can be safely asserted that 
 the variations of readings do not seriously affect any part 
 of either the history or the doctrine of the Old Testament. 
 For the New Testament we have an abundance of early 
 codices, among them two uncial manuscripts, the Sinaiticus 
 and the Vatican, from the fourth century. These manu- 
 scripts, as may be expected, present many variations, but 
 none of them of such a nature, as to make the leading facts 
 or teachings uncertain . Mark 16 :9-20 is wanting in several 
 old manuscripts; John 7:53-8:11 is omitted in some of the 
 best and seems to be out of its natural context, though it 
 may be genuine. John 5 :3-4, Matth. 6 :13, Acts 8 :37 and 1 
 John 5 :7 are probably later additions, but even the passages 
 cited contain nothing that is at variance with the teachings 
 of the New Testament. 
 
 4. Authenticity and Authority. 
 Most of the books of the Old Testament are named after 
 the persons of whom they speak, while the author is not 
 designated and there is much uncertainty as to the time of 
 composition of some of them. The authority and credibility 
 of these books, then, depends not so much upon their writer, 
 as upon the self-testimony for truth contained in the record 
 itself. We know from the Tel el Am a ma letters and the code 
 of Hammurabi, that the art of writing was well known be- 
 fore the time of Moses and of Abraham, so that the possi- 
 bility of the existence of historical documents from the time 
 of the Exodus and before is assured. We have the testi- 
 mony of Christ and of the Apostles for the high value and 
 the trustworthiness of the history and doctrine contained in 
 
16 
 
 CHRISTIAN DOOTRINB. 
 
 the Old Testament books, all of which, with the exception 
 of six, are quoted in the New Testament. Besides this, the 
 superior character and tone of their contents pledges their 
 general credibility and authority. 
 
 For the New Testament we have abundant proof from 
 the early Church fathers, that the historical books and the 
 epistles, with few exceptions, were accepted in their day as 
 written by the men to whom they are ascribed, — the Gospels 
 of Matthew, Mark and Luke before A.D. 70, and First Thes- 
 salonians already about A.D. 50, only twenty years after the 
 death and resurrection of Christ, the rest of the New Testa- 
 ment before the year A.D. 100. The genuineness of all the 
 Pauline epistles and the Apostolic origin of the fourth 
 Gospel have again and again been confirmed by an unbiased 
 examination of all the available testimony. But whether or 
 not all the books of the New Testament are accepted as 
 authentic, the wonderful story of the life, the words and the 
 redeeming work of our Saviour, and of the founding of the 
 Christian Church, is told with such honest simplicity and 
 positive assurance, in such a remarkable agreement of the 
 testimony of the various writers, and with such a solemn 
 appeal to the divine witness for the truthfulness of their 
 record, that we cannot doubt the Gospel story, as transmitted 
 to us by the disciples of Jesus Christ, to be genuine. 
 
 5. Inspiration of the Scriptures. 
 
 But, in order to be truly authoritative, more is required of 
 the Bible than that its books be proven authentic, intact and 
 generally trustworthy. These books record certain facts 
 which could not have been known, except by a supernatural 
 revelation and which we could not accept as true, if they 
 were not vouched for by special divine authority. Many of 
 the doctrines contained in the Bible, likewise, transcend all 
 ordinary human thinking and sentiment, so as to point to 
 a higher source. 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 17 
 
 Accordingly, we find that the authors of these sacred 
 Scriptures frequently claim to speak and write with divine 
 authority. In the Old Testament this is done in the expres- 
 sion : "Thus saith Jehovah" or "Hear ye the word of Je- 
 hovah," and this claim for the teachings of the Old Testa- 
 ment is fully endorsed in the New Testament, in such decla- 
 rations as the following: "The Holy Ghost spake before 
 by the mouth of David" (Acts 1 :16) ; or, "jSTo prophecy ever 
 came by the will of man, but men spake from God, being 
 moved by the Holy Ghost" (II Peter 1 :21)." "From a babe 
 thou hast known the sacred writings which are able to make 
 thee wise unto salvation, through faith which is in Christ 
 Jesus. Every Scripture inspired of God is also profitable 
 for teaching, etc." (II Tim. 3:15, 16). 
 
 As for the New Testament itself, we find it recorded, that 
 Christ promised his disciples that the Holy Ghost, whom the 
 Father would send, would "teach them all things and guide 
 them into all the truth" (John 14:26 and 16:13). The 
 apostle Paul writes in 1 Cor. 2 :12 "We received the Spirit 
 of God that we might know the things that are freely given 
 to us by God," and in Gal. 1 :11, 12, "I make known to you, 
 brethren, as teaching the Gospel which was preached by me, 
 that it is not after man. For neither did I receive it from 
 man, nor was I taught it, but it came to me through revela- 
 tion of Jesus Christ." 
 
 These declarations concerning a special revelation and in- 
 spiration are rightly applied to the whole Bible, a. Here we 
 have sixty-six books or parts, written by many authors, at 
 long intervals of time, yef all showing wonderful unity of 
 spirit and aim, as if they were the work of one mind. b. The 
 stories told in them and the truths presented appeal to the 
 wants and aspirations of the soul in a peculiar manner, be- 
 ing adapted to the needs and wants of man in all ages and 
 conditions of life. c. The moral and religious teaching of the 
 2 
 
18 
 
 CHRISTIAN DOCTRINE. 
 
 Bible is so spiritual, pure and perfect, that it cannot be 
 traced to any other but a divine origin and the conception 
 of the person and character of Jesus Christ is so exalted, that 
 we could not account for it as the product of human genius. 
 d. Finally, the powerful and beneficent influence exerted by 
 the sacred Scriptures upon the souls of men, even to the pres- 
 ent day fully confirms the Christian belief in the inspiration 
 of the Bible. 
 
 6. Distinctions and Limitations. 
 
 As to the mode and degree of this Inspiration, we find 
 that the ancient Jewish Synagogue, in fixing the Old Testa- 
 ment canon, distinguished three degrees of inspiration. The 
 first and highest degree was ascribed to the Torah or the 
 Pentateuch, <f beeause God spoke with Moses mouth to 
 mouth;" the second degree to the Nebiim or prophets, to 
 whom the word of God came by internal revelation of the 
 Spirit ; the third to the Ketubim or poetical books and later 
 historical writings, whose authors had the divine inspiration 
 in a mediated form only While this classification rested 
 on a slight foundation, it serves to point out a difference in 
 the form and manner of the inspiration granted to the writers 
 of the various books. 
 
 What we claim for all parts of the Bible, is the dynamical 
 inspiration of the writer rather than a verbal inspiration of 
 the writing, that is a quickening and elevating of the human 
 faculty, so as to enable the writer to present the facts and 
 truths in reference to man's relation to God and the divine 
 plan of salvation, accurately and fully. But all divine reve- 
 lation as contained in the Scriptures, has passed through the 
 medium of human thought, language and writing. It was 
 adapted to the human needs and it was a progressive revela- 
 tion. It is evident that these writers did not lose their in- 
 dividuality or nationality, when inspired to write religious 
 history or doctrine. An educated man wrote differently from 
 one who had no education, Peter differently from Paul (II 
 
INTBODUCTION. 
 
 19 
 
 Pet. 3:15, 16), Amos from Isaiah (Amos 7 :14), a Hebrew 
 differently from a Greek, a writer in the tenth century before 
 Christ differently from one living in the fifth century. The 
 evangelist Luke expressly states in his preface, that he has 
 "traced the course of things accurately," before he under- 
 took to write his Gospel. 
 
 It must be admitted that here and there, in the Bible, the 
 human element includes traces of human error in minor 
 matters of historical detail. Certain numbers and dates 
 contain discrepancies, such as "Solomon had forty thousand 
 stalls of horses" (1 Kgs. 4:26), by the side of Solomon 
 had four thousand stalls (II Chron. 9:25), or "seven years 
 of famine" in II Sam. 24:13," against "three years' fam- 
 ine" in 1 Chron. 21 :12. It is not always possible to harmon- 
 ize certain statements found in the Bible books, both in the 
 Old and New Testaments, with results gained from other 
 sources or even with each other. Some passages, apparently 
 of no value, are duplicated in the same book, like the gene- 
 alogy of Gibeon in I Chron. 8 :29-38 and 9 :35-44. 
 
 On the other hand there is generally a surprising accuracy 
 even in historical and geographical matters of small import- 
 ance and a wonderful wisdom in the use of popular terms 
 that may be tested by advanced scientific knowledge. Over 
 against the critical tendency of the day, which hunts out 
 and magnifies the discrepancies and errors of the Bible, it is 
 only fair to say that a book of such unquestionable excel- 
 lence and practical value can not lose much by occasional 
 marks of human limitation and in all points of uncertainty 
 deserves to be given the benefit of the doubt, rather than to 
 be judged faulty. 
 
 There has been much fruitless discussion of such questions 
 as "the inerrancy of the Scriptures," "plenary" and "ver- 
 bal" inspiration, and whether we should say that the "Bible 
 is the word of God" or "contains the word of God," — fruit- 
 less because of the different meanings attached to these 
 
20 
 
 CHRISTIAN DOCTRINE. 
 
 terms. What is essential, is that we accept the Bible as in 
 a unique sense divinely inspired, a trustworthy record of 
 the great facts of dfvine revelation for the salvation of man, 
 and a standard of religious truth, by which all Christian 
 doctrine can be tested and measured. 
 
 7, Difference Between Roman and Protestant Standpoints. 
 The Koman Church regards the apocryphal books of the 
 Bible, the Church tradition, and the decrees of the Church 
 councils, as of equal authority with the sacred Canon. 
 Protestants do not accept these as of like value, because the 
 apocrypha were never endorsed by the proper authorities as 
 canonical and are manifestly inferior in the substance and 
 form of their contents. As to Tradition and Church Coun- 
 cils, we hold, that however important they may otherwise 
 be, the Holy Scriptures are sufficient as a standard of Chris- 
 tian teaching, by which even the decrees and resolutions of 
 Synods and Church Councils should be tested. 
 
 In the matter of interpreting the Bible, Rome virtually 
 limits the right of teaching to the clergy, subject to official 
 direction. Protestants hold that the great facts and doc- 
 trines which we find in the Bible are sufficiently plain to be 
 read and understood by every man. As a rule of Christian 
 faith and practice, the Scriptures do not need the mediation 
 of an infallible interpreter. In order to understand the sub- 
 stance of the Bible, that is, the Word of God as revealed to 
 man, nothing more is required than that the divine spirit di- 
 rectly testify to the human heart. 
 
 As to the intellectual comprehension of the individuality 
 of different books of the Bible, the mutual relation of the 
 facts and doctrines presented and the like, it is evident, that 
 this requires an intellectual study of men fitted for this task. 
 Again the proper appreciation of the historical, linguistic and 
 archaeological features of the Canon presupposes an acquaint- 
 ance with these branches. He who combines the gifts and 
 faculties thus brought into requisition, whether he be a 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 clergyman or a layman, will, under the guidance of the Holy 
 Spirit, be a competent interpreter of Holy Writ. An intel- 
 ligent and trustworty use of the Bible as the rule of faith 
 and the standard of Christian doctrine cannot consist in a 
 mechanical quotation of detached "proof texts" for this or 
 that belief, but must search into the true meaning of the 
 words of Scripture in their connection and as a part of the 
 divine revelation contained therein, comparing Scripture 
 with Scripture. See Matthew 4 :6 and 7. 
 
 Chapter VI. Summary of the History of Chistian 
 Doctrine. 
 1. The Early Church. 
 
 The Apostle Paul, we may say, was the first systematic 
 theologian of the Christian Church. His epistle to the 
 Romans is a systematic treatise on the doctrine of salvation 
 (Soteriology). Ordinarily, Christian instruction during 
 the apostolic age does not seem to have been imparted ac- 
 cording to a definite plan or method. It was altogether 
 popular and practical. The Churchfather Ignatius was, 
 perhaps, the first to draw up a statement of the Christian 
 faith in a series of propositions (about A. D. 110). The 
 Didache or teaching of the Twelve Apostles, from the begin- 
 ning of the second century, is a church manual for catechists 
 and for congregations, containing both moral precepts and 
 directions as to worship and discipline. The "Diatesseron" 
 of Tatian, that is, selections from the four Gospels, is an- 
 other monument from the early Church. The so-called 
 Apostles' Creed, (Symbolum Apostolicum) in its earliest 
 form of a confession of faith, was used in the Church at 
 Rome before the middle of the second century, though legend- 
 ary authority connects it with the apostles themselves. 
 
 About the same time Christianity was attacked by the 
 Epicurean philosopher Celsus and by the writer of satire, 
 Lucian. To meet these attacks, several educated Greeks who 
 
22 
 
 CHRISTIAN DOCTRINE. 
 
 had joined the Church, began to apply the philosophic terms 
 with which they were familiar to the Christian doctrine. 
 Such men were Justin Martyr, Clement of Alexandria, and 
 Origen (A. D. 185-253),- -with his treatise on "De Princi- 
 piis" (First Truths.) From that time on, the philosophic 
 systems of successive ages have generally exercised consid- 
 erable influence upon the form of the Christian doctrine. In 
 the fourth century, a controversy arose between Arius, a 
 presbyter in the Church at Alexandria and his bishop 
 Alexander, on the question, whether the Son of God was 
 "equal" to the Father in all respects or only similar. This 
 controversy led to the convening of a General Council at 
 Nicaea and to the formulating of the Nicene Creed (A. D. 
 325), which declares the Son to be "God of God, begotten 
 and not made, consubstantial with the Father." The 
 Athanasian Creed (or Symbolum Quicunque), named after 
 Bishop Athanasius, as the chief opponent of Arius, though 
 of later origin, covers about the same ground, but is more 
 dogmatic in form and contents. 
 
 The most prominent Christian teacher at the beginning of 
 the fifth century was Augustine, the author of the "Con- 
 fessions," of the "Christian Manual" and of the "De Civi- 
 tate Dei." To his time belongs the controversy against 
 Pelagius and Pelagianism on the question of the natural de- 
 pravity of man. 
 
 2. Middle Ages. 
 
 The Greek theologian, John of Damascus (A. D. 700-760) 
 is named as the first who expounded the Christian doctrines 
 in proper order and showed their relation to one another. 
 His "Summary of the Orthodox Faith" is the most impor- 
 tant doctrinal text-book of the Greek Church and has gained 
 for its author the name of the "Father of systematic theol- 
 ogy." After the twelfth century, however, many such sys- 
 tems were published in the Western or Latin Church. Here 
 a distinction is made between Scholasticism and Mysticism. 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 23 
 
 a. Scholasticism devoted itself mainly to the work of sys- 
 tematizing the accepted Church doctrines of the Catholic 
 Church, and endeavored to prove them by means of the phil- 
 osophy of Aristotle. The foremost names here are those of 
 Archbishop Anselm, of Canterbury, the writer of "Cur 
 Deus Homo," and of the two French theologians : the monk 
 Peter Abelard and the first "doctor of theology," Peter 
 Lombard ( + 1164), whose Libri Sententiarum Quatuor was 
 the theological text-book of the Middle Ages. 
 
 b. Mysticism. In opposition to these Scholastics, whose 
 tendency was to treat Christian doctrine simply as a sub- 
 ject for intellectual study and abstract speculation, other 
 divines emphasized the necessity of a personal interest in 
 this doctrine and declared that to be the true object of theo- 
 logical training. They called themselves mystics. At the 
 head of this school stood Bernard of Clairvaux (+1153), 
 a contemporary of the famous Abelard and author of the 
 maxim : "Tantum Deus cognoscitur, quantum diligitur," 
 (We know God only as much as we love him). In a wider 
 sense, the Waldensians also, in their simple acceptance of 
 the Scriptures as the rule of faith, their practical piety, and 
 their rejection of the scholastic dogmas of the Catholic 
 Church, may here be reckoned in. John "Wyclif of England 
 (+1384), and John Hus of Bohemia (+1415) anticipated a 
 new era of Christian faith and doctrine, and prepared the 
 way for it. 
 
 3. Reformation Times. 
 
 The followers of John Hus. the Bohemian and Moravian 
 Brethren, published a large number of Church confessions 
 and catechisms, the first one as early as 1467. The Churches 
 of the German Reformation, likewise, soon formulated their 
 belief in systematic treatises. In matters of doctrine, the 
 Reformation dealt principally with personal salvation and 
 the meaning of the sacraments, besides maintaining the 
 supreme authority of the Bible, instead of the Church. 
 
24 
 
 CHRISTIAN DOCTRINE 
 
 Luther's great work is his translation of the Bible into the 
 German language. Melanchthon wrote the Augsburg Con- 
 fession (1530), Zwingli a "Commentary on the true and the 
 false Religion," and Calvin his "Institutio religionis 
 Christian ae," a master work in theology, but with absolute 
 predestination for its central doctrine. 
 
 The principal Protestant Creeds, resulting from the Re- 
 formation, were the following: For the Lutheran Church, 
 the Augsburg Confession, with the Articles of Schmalkalde 
 and the Formula concordiae; for the Reformed Churches, 
 the Heidelberg Catechism, of 1562 and the Helvetic Con- 
 fession. The two latter formed the basis of the Confessio 
 Anglicana, better known as the Thirty-nine Articles of the 
 Church of England (1562); also of the Westminster Con- 
 fession (1646) of the Presbyterians and the Decrees of the 
 Synod of Dort, for the States of Holland (1618). The 
 strong protests raised by J. Arminius and his followers 
 against the Calvinistic doctrine of predestination were, at 
 the Synod of Dort, put aside and the Arminian teaching 
 was declared heretical. 
 
 The Roman Catholic Church, in consequence of the at- 
 tacks made by Protestantism, felt constrained to revise or 
 at least to further define her position with regard to various 
 points of doctrine. This was done at the Council of Trent 
 (1545-63), resulting in the promulgation of the "Canones 
 et Decreta Concilii Tridentini" and the Catechismus Ro- 
 manus. The Greek Catholic Church was not much influenced 
 by the Reformation. However, about a century later, the 
 Russian metropolitan, Peter Mogilas, assisted by several 
 Greek priests, drew up a confession of faith for the Eastern 
 Church, which, in 1672, received the sanction of a Council 
 held in Jerusalem. It bears the title, "The orthodox agree- 
 ment of the Catholic and Apostolic Church of the East." 
 
 4. The Seventeenth Century. 
 
 The theology of the seventeenth century was mainly con- 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 25 
 
 servative. It maintained and defined the confessional doc- 
 trines of the various Churches of the Reformation. Leonard 
 Hutter and Abr. Calov (+1686) were prominent champions 
 of the Lutheran faith, Hugo Grotius and John Cocceius of 
 the Reformed. The last named was the father of the so- 
 called "federal head" theory, on the imputation of Adam's 
 sin to his descendants. In England the Baptist, John 
 Bunyan (+1688) wrote Pilgrim's Progress and "Gospel 
 Truths opened," and the Puritans, John Owen and Richard 
 Baxter, published a number of valuable works on the mean- 
 ing of Scripture and on practical topics. Toward the end of 
 the century, however, a great change in the aspect of Chris- 
 tian doctrine was being prepared, when philosophy, which 
 so far had been the handmaid of theology, made itself 
 independent and broke away from the Church Rene 
 Descartes, the author of the maxim "Cogito, ergo sum" (I 
 think and therefore I am) began his philosophic research 
 with universal doubt, intending to seek something that 
 would be absolutely undeniable. The Jewish philosopher, 
 B. Spinoza (+1677) then converted Cartesian principles 
 into Pantheism. 
 
 5. The Eighteenth Century. 
 
 The history of Christian doctrine in the eighteenth cen- 
 tury is characterized by two opposite movements, both of 
 them reactions against the rather formal orthodoxy of the 
 preceding period, viz. : Rationalism and a Revival of Per- 
 sonal Religious Experience. 
 
 The Rationalistic movemeni appeared first in England in 
 the form of Deism, as represented by Lord H. Bolingbroke 
 (+1751) and others, who established for themselves a system 
 of natural religion, as opposed to revelation and exalted 
 reason to the position of supreme judge in the realm of re- 
 ligious truth. In France the freethinkers Voltaire and 
 Rousseau were the leading spirits of their time. In Ger- 
 many the current of Rationalism appeared both in the theo- 
 
26 
 
 CHRISTIAN DOCTRINE. 
 
 logical teachings of the University, with such men as Semler 
 and Wegscheider and in the preaching from the pulpit. It 
 was somewhat checked by the critical philosophy of Kant, 
 who pointed out, that pure reason by itself is unable to 
 make any positive statement, but that human consciousness 
 or "practical reason" requires certain axioms of religious 
 truth, such as the belief in God, virtue and immortality. 
 But Kant's philosophy could not revive Christian faith or 
 inspire Christian life. 
 
 Such a revival of Christian faith and practice, founded 
 upon experimental evidence, came simultaneously with the 
 wave of Rationalism. It began with the rise of Pietism in 
 Ph. J. Spener (+1705), who emphasized the need of per- 
 sonal experience against a dead orthodoxy of belief and in- 
 stituted prayer-meetings and circles for the cultivation of 
 practical piety and the study of the Bible, the "Ecclesiolae 
 in Ecclesia" (little churches within the Church). A. H. 
 Francke (+1727), founder of the Halle Orphanage, the 
 Halle Bible-house, the Divinity School and Foreign Mis- 
 sionary Society, continued Spener's work. Later the devout 
 Count Ludwig von Zinzendorf (1700-1760), the Founder of 
 the renewed TJnitas Fratrum, and Bishop Spangenberg 
 (+1792), the writer of the "Idea Fidei Fratrum," with the 
 "Moravian Brethren," proved and proclaimed anew the wis- 
 dom and power of the Gospel of Jesus Christ by their re- 
 legious fervor, their earnest Christian life and their en- 
 thusiastic and successful Missionary activity. John Wesley 
 (1703-1791), with the Methodists, also made the same per- 
 sonal experience of the living power of the Holy Spirit in 
 converting the soul, and then, with burning evangelistic zeal, 
 spread the story of salvation, through the cross of Jesus, 
 among the people far and wide. 
 
 It was only after these preachers and missionaries had 
 again practically established the leading facts and truths 
 of the Christian religion by experimental evidence, that the 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 27 
 
 schools of theology ventured to reconstruct their doctrinal 
 systems. American theology of that time, however, as taught 
 by Jonathan Edwards (+1758) and other New England 
 divines, was not much influenced by the 18th Century na- 
 tionalism. It was largely engaged in questions of Calvin- 
 istic doctrine, particularly that about the "guilt of inborn 
 depravity," on which point it divided into the Old and the 
 New School. 
 
 6. The Nineteenth Century. 
 
 In Germany the new era of positive Christian theology 
 began with F. Schleiermacher (1768-1834), who had been a 
 student of the Moravian College at Niesky and who, though 
 himself still somewhat under the influence of nationalism, 
 inspired many thousands of students with a new and fervent 
 interest in religion and theology, especially in the person 
 of Christ, the Saviour. In his work, "The Christian Faith," 
 the subjective element of the inner consciousness and of 
 pious feeling, rather than any objective evidence or tradi- 
 tional authority, is made the foundation of the confession 
 of faith. 
 
 For a time the philosophy of Hegel (1770-1831), with its 
 theory of the identity of thought and being, and of a suc- 
 cession of self-evolving world-conceptions, led many again 
 into the error of treating all records of a special and miracu- 
 lous revelation as myths and self-delusion. This culminated 
 in D. F. Strauss, in 1836, publishing his "Life of Jesus," 
 intended to show, that the wonderful facts of Christ's life 
 are but myths, unconscious fictions of the Christian Church. 
 What Strauss wrote for German scholars, that Renan did 
 for French novel readers. The great majority, however, of 
 the leaders in theology and Christian doctrine, in Germany 
 and elsewhere, were moved to take a firmer hold on the es- 
 sentials of revealed religion, as transmitted to us by the 
 early Church. Thus many "Lives of Jesus" were composed 
 
28 
 
 CHRISTIAN DOCTRINE. 
 
 by different writers and the study of the Bible was taken up 
 with greatly increased interest and zeal. 
 
 Then followed a large array of important Evangelical 
 works on Systematic Theology published in different coun- 
 tries and from the standpoints of different denominations. 
 Among these may be mentioned: Richard Watson (+1833), 
 with his "Theological Institutes," the textbook of the Meth- 
 odist faith; Thomas Chalmers ( + 1847) and Thomas Dick 
 (+1857), both Scotch Presbyterians; the Danish Lutheran 
 Bishop Martensen (1808-1884) and the German Lutherans, 
 Luthardt, Delitsch and Kahnis; Herman Plitt, "Evan- 
 gelische Glaubenslehre," of the Moravian Church; Lange, 
 the great Bible scholar, and Ebrard (1818-1888) represent- 
 ing the Reformed standpoint in Germany and Van Oosterzee 
 (1817-1881) in Holland; I. A. Dorner (1809-1884), A. G. 
 Tholuk and Martin Kaehler of the Evangelical State Church 
 of Germany. 
 
 In the United States, the three volumes of "Systematic 
 Theology," by Chas. Hodge of Princeton (+1878), together 
 with the works of L. F. Stearns, H. B. Smith and Wm. 
 Schedd of Union Theol. Sem. in New York, represent the 
 strict and the moderate Calvinism of the Presbyterian 
 Church, and the "Systematic Theology" of A. H. Strong 
 of Rochester, the viewpoint of the Baptist denomination. 
 All these and many other most valuable works, published 
 in America and in Europe, give a systematic exposition of 
 Christian doctrine, in accordance with the teachings of the 
 Bible as the standard of religious belief. 
 
 A great change, however, in religious thought and ex- 
 pression has taken place during the last fifty years. Since 
 the publication of C. Darwin's "Origin of Species," in 1859, 
 the theory of evolution has pretty generally been accepted, 
 and not only in matters of science. In every department 
 of thought the idea of development prevails. The Christian 
 religion, also, is a part of the world's development and is a 
 
PART FIHST GOD THE CREATOR. 
 
 29 
 
 historic religion. Therefore, in order to be properly under- 
 stood, it must be studied in connection with the general 
 history of humanity. The Bible in particular, as a part of 
 the sacred literature of the world, yet with the claim of 
 being the inspired record of divine revelation, is subjected 
 to a critical historical examination. "Higher criticism" 
 enquires into the origin, composition and authoritative value 
 of every part of the Canon. This enquiry frequently leads 
 to negative results. 
 
 There have been so many surprising discoveries in science 
 and biology, in geology and ancient monuments, in psy- 
 chology and comparative religion, that the old belief in the 
 Bible and in the truth of the Christian faith has, in the 
 case of many professed Christians, given way to doubt and 
 unbelief. Many real or supposed bulwarks of Christian 
 doctrine have fallen or are crumbling away. There is a 
 general tendency among younger "scholars" to disparage 
 all traditional authority, to exaggerate discrepancies and 
 difficulties found in the Bible and in the Christian belief, 
 and to make sweeping assertions as to what may or may not 
 be accepted as true. At the Universities and Divinity 
 schools, the teachers of theology are divided into two camps; 
 the old, so-called traditional, and the modem theology, the 
 advanced or radical and the positive or conservative party, 
 the old faith and the new. The attempts of some of the 
 foremost leaders in German theology at mediating between 
 the two extremes, like A. Harnack in "What is Christian- 
 ity?" and Albert Ritschl (J 822-1 889), in "Die christliche 
 Lehre von der Rechtfertigung und Versohnung," have 
 proved satisfactory to neither side. 
 
 There must come a better general understanding of what 
 are the essentials of the Christian faith and what are non- 
 essentials. The real issue centers in the two questions: 1. Is 
 the Bible simply a book like other books of human litera- 
 ture, a product of the human mind and human develop- 
 
30 
 
 CHRISTIAN DOCTRINE. 
 
 ment, or is it in any sense a record of divine revelation and 
 the inspired "word of God?" 2. Is the religious life and 
 belief of mankind a natural or a supernatural process? 
 Does it come from man only or was it given and directed by 
 God? Was Jesus Christ simply a religious enthusiast or is 
 he our Saviour? 
 
 The increased general interest in the person of Christ 
 and the great revival and success of missionary activity are 
 the two most cheering evidences of the undying vitality of 
 the Christian faith. They also pledge the continued up- 
 holding of the essential doctrines of Christian theology, as 
 founded on the Bible and personal experience. 
 
part ©ne— <Bot> tbe Greator. 
 
 Chapter VII. The Nature and Attributes of God. 
 1. Can we know God? 
 
 The philosopher Schelling defined the divine Being as a 
 dark primary substance which cannot be fathomed by the 
 Being itself, and Herbert Spencer declares it "the most 
 certain of all facts that the power which the Universe mani- 
 fests to us, is utterly inscrutable." Contrary to these state- 
 ments, the Bible tells us that men may and should know 
 God (Rom. 1:19, John 17:3). While it is plain that finite 
 man cannot fully comprehend an infinite God, that such 
 knowledge can only go as far as God has pleased to reveal 
 himself and as far as man consciously enters into the fel- 
 lowship of God, yet it pleased God to make himself known 
 to man. Our knowledge of God, as Augustine has shown by 
 an illustration, may be as imperfect and circumscribed as 
 that of the little boy at the seashore who lets the tide run 
 into a hole which he has scooped out of the sand in order to 
 have his own sea. But if God himself has taught man to 
 know him, such knowledge must be pure and precious. 
 
 2. Oneness of God. 
 
 We know, in the first place, that there is but one God. 
 This was a fundamental principle of Old Testament teach- 
 ing: "Hear, O Israel, Jehovah, thy God, is one God" (Deut. 
 6:4). It is distinctly corroborated by the testimony of 
 Christ and his apostles: "There is one God, and there is 
 none other but he" (Mark 12:32), comp. Eph. 4:6 and 
 I Cor. 8 :4-6. This truth is, furthermore, apparent from 
 the unity of design in the Universe. Uniformity of law 
 throughout the creation proclaims the unity of the Creator. 
 The notion of 1wo or more Gods is self-contradictory. One 
 
32 
 
 CHRISTIAN DOCTRINE. 
 
 absolute God is sufficient to create and to govern the world, 
 a second one would be superfluous. There cannot be two 
 beings infinitely perfect, since the perfections of the one 
 would include those of tie other; and finally, two Gods 
 could not be omnipotent, since the one could not act without 
 the consent of the other. In short, divine perfection allows 
 of no division, dualism or polytheism. 
 
 3. Methods of Defining the Nature of God. 
 
 In endeavoring to define the Being of God and to predi- 
 cate anything about him, two methods can be pursued: 
 a. The inductive or Bible method. This takes the Bible as 
 the decisive authority with regard to God's attributes and 
 collects the various declarations there found, which are then 
 simply classified under general heads. b. The rational 
 method. This method takes man as the "image of God" 
 for a starting point, and proceeds to define the nature of 
 God by way of negation and eminence. It denies the ex- 
 istence of any imperfections in God, that may be found in 
 created beings, and ascribes to him absolutely all the per- 
 fections found in man, adding whatever may be necessary 
 to explain his manifestation to the world. 
 
 It must be admitted that these attributes, so far as they 
 are derived from human conditions and couched in human 
 language, can but imperfectly express the nature of God; 
 but their Biblical endorsement as well as our Christian con- 
 sciousness assure us that they are not merely human con- 
 ceptions of a finite mind. 
 
 4. The Personality of God. 
 
 We find in the New Testament two brief definitions of 
 the Being of God, the one in John 4 :24, as given by Christ 
 to the Samaritan woman: "God is Spirit," the other from 
 the apostle, in I John 4:8: "God is Love." These two 
 declarations are both fundamental and comprehensive. 
 
 a. God is Spirit, must mean, in the first place, that he is 
 
PART FIRST GOD THE CREATOR. 
 
 33 
 
 not material, that is not visibly or tangibly perceived, and 
 not compounded. If he were a material Being, he would 
 not be infinite nor immutable. The term "Spirit" also im- 
 plies self-consciousness and self-determination. Man has a 
 spirit which gradually develops into conscious life, with 
 thought, feeling and volition; but God is all Spirit and 
 therefore has all knowledge and metaphysical attributes 
 from the beginning. 
 
 b. In like manner the declaration, "God is Love" desig- 
 nates him as the perfection of ethical attributes. Man is 
 able to love and pure, unselfish love is man's highest ac- 
 complishment. It is this that distinguishes man from the 
 brute creation, that he has a spirit and can love. That 
 constitutes him a personal being, intellectually and morally. 
 But man's personality is limited. God, in whose image man 
 was created, must be the absolute personality, metaphysic- 
 ally and ethically the superlative of the human personality. 
 (Exod. 3:14). 
 
 Pantheists object to the ascribing of the term "person- 
 ality" to the supreme Being, because the distinction be- 
 tween subject and object, self and not-self in a personality 
 implies limitation. But the true definition of personality is 
 not limitation, rather full control of every part and faculty, 
 self determination in the fullest sense, the complete harmony 
 between the subject and the object. A human personality, 
 indeed, is subject to the limitations of time and space, but 
 God, the absolute personality, is not. He would not be 
 the Absolute one, if he were not also the absolute personality. 
 
 5. Metaphysical Attributes. 
 
 The attributes of God, that is the qualities and faculties 
 which we ascribe to him, on the authority of the Bible and 
 of their manifestation, can be divided into classes, in various 
 ways. We classify them under the two heads indicated by 
 3 
 
.34 
 
 CHRISTIAN DOCTRINE. 
 
 the terms: Spirit and Love, as metaphysical and moral 
 Attributes. First, the metaphysical: 
 
 a. Eternal. Every created being has the ground of its 
 existence in something else, God must be independent of 
 any other existence. He is the first cause of every thing 
 and the source of life. He is without beginning or end. 
 Man may be said to live in the past and future only, to God 
 all time is an eternal present. Time is to him but the mode 
 of existence which he has appointed for his creatures, to 
 appear and to vanish in successive ages. There was no time, 
 when he was not and there will be none, when he shall not 
 be. (Psalm 90 :l-2, Isaiah 48 :12.) 
 
 b. Unchangeable. All created beings change, but God is 
 immutable. As he is neither material nor compounded, he 
 cannot increase nor decrease. All change must be for better 
 or for worse, but God is absolute perfection. His knowledge 
 and power cannot become greater or less, nor can he become 
 holier or more gracious than he ever was. No change can 
 be produced by any outside cause, because he is not depend- 
 ent on anything. He appears changed simply, because of 
 the changing position of the creature toward him, as the 
 sun "goes down," when the earth turns away from it. But 
 immutability does not mean inactivity, nor is it inconsistent 
 with perfect freedom. Psalm 102 :27, James 1 :17. 
 
 c. Omnipresent. God's presence is not limited by space, 
 be it a heaven or an earthly abode. He is immanent in the 
 universe, not by compulsion, but by the free act of his own 
 will, and he transcends all creation. His is not a material 
 omnipresence, else there would be a division, one part of 
 God here and another elsewhere. It is a dynamical presence 
 of God in the universe. With this omnipresence the Scrip- 
 tural declaration that heaven is the throne of God does not 
 conflict. For he can manifest his glory more brightly in the 
 realm which we call heaven, be that a locality or merely a 
 sphere of activity. Psalm 139 :7-10, Acts 17 :28. 
 
PART FIRST GOD THE CREATOR. 
 
 35 
 
 d. Omniscient and Allwise. Human knowledge is limited 
 in many respects, but all knowable things are known to 
 God, because be himself is the eternal light. His knowledge 
 is all pervading, a direct beholding of whatever exists in all 
 its extension and to its deepest ground. He knows things 
 future, as well as things past, not only what is, but also 
 what may be. God foreknows even the free will and the 
 free acts of man, because man's thought and determination 
 are compassed about by the creator. God is all wise, always 
 selecting the best means for the accomplishment of his pur- 
 pose. His wisdom is made manifest everywhere in the realm 
 of nature, but most of all in the plan of salvation. Psalm 
 139 :l-4, Romans 11 :33. 
 
 e. Almighty. We predicate of God Omnipotence — that is 
 power without limitation. He can do whatever he wills and 
 there is nothing impossible with God. He can accomplish 
 whatever is an object of power. But God's will is de- 
 termined by his nature; therefore he cannot do anything 
 that would be contrary to himself. He can do all that he 
 will, but he cannot will what is contrary to his own law. 
 As light cannot be darkness, so God can do no evil. Psalm 
 135 :6, Luke 1 :37. 
 
 6. Moral Attributes. 
 
 Taking the term "Love" in its most comprehensive sense, 
 we may class under this head four moral attributes, which 
 we find most frequently ascribed to God in the Scriptures 
 and which express the love of God in its various aspects, 
 both as divine self-preservation and as a caring for the 
 happiness of other beings. 
 
 a. Holy. God is holy. His moral excellence, first of all, 
 consists in being absolutely pure and perfect, without any 
 blemish or defect. He is forever separated from and averse 
 to anything that is unholy or impure, a consuming fire 
 which destroys whatever is unholy. The negative aspect of 
 this manifestation of God's holiness is sometimes called the 
 
36 
 
 CHRISTIAN DOCTRINE. 
 
 wrath of God, or we find it stated that he is a "jealous" 
 God. Isaiah 6:3, I Pet. 1:16. 
 
 b. Righteous and true. God is righteous in all his works, 
 that is uniform in all his dealings. This attribute of God 
 again presents a positive and a negative aspect. He is true 
 to himself and faithful toward all who work righteousness. 
 His promises are "yea and amen," but he cannot indulge 
 the sinner. He must condemn sin, as opposed to his holy 
 law, and he cannot pardon the guilty, unless the demands 
 of justice are complied with. Deut. 32 :4, Rom. 2 :6. 
 
 c. Kind and good. God is good. By this attribute we 
 understand the principle of God's nature which leads him 
 to favor all his creatures by communicating to them his own 
 blessedness, as far as they are able to receive his gifts. Such 
 goodness of God is manifest in his providence and in all the 
 temporal and spiritual blessings vouchsafed to man. Ps. 
 145 :8, 9, Matth. 5 :45. 
 
 d. Merciful and gracious. Mercy is that attribute of God 
 which causes him to seek the temporal good and eternal 
 salvation even of those, who do not deserve his love. This 
 attribute is of primary importance to the sinner and to fallen 
 humanity. The Lord is long suffering and full of com- 
 passion. His mercy has been fully revealed in the re- 
 demption of our race through Jesus Christ, the Saviour 
 Exod. 34 :6, 7, John 3 :16. 
 
 Chapter VIII. The Holy Trinity. 
 
 1. The Idea of the Trinity. 
 
 The term "Trinity" is not found in the Bible, although 
 the conception which it expresses is Biblical. It represents 
 the truth, that in the one God whom we worship there are 
 certain "distinctions," which are expressed by various 
 names, but most frequently under the figure of three per- 
 
PART FIRST GOD THE CREATOR. 
 
 37 
 
 sons, as Father, Son and Holy Spirit. The existence of 
 such a distinction in God may be surmised on philosophic 
 grounds, as implied in the idea of the divine personality. 
 If God was eternally self-conscious, he must be objective to 
 himself, and if thinking and being in God must be identical, 
 the distinction of thought involves the distinction of 
 existence. Again the "love" of God requires an eternal 
 object of his affection. This object could not have been 
 first supplied by the creation of the world; he must have 
 possessed it in himself, or else he would have needed the 
 world to become perfect. Thus reason supports the idea of 
 a plurality in the divine essence. 
 
 Traces of a belief in a threefold distinction are found in 
 the mythologies of the various pagan nations, as that of the 
 Greeks, Germans and Chinese. The Babylonian Magi 
 taught, that there was a threefold mind of God, viz., the 
 supernatural or the first cause, the filial or world builder, 
 and the wisdom of God. Similarly Plato distinguished in 
 the divine Being, first, his essence ("the good") ; second, 
 the "reason" or "word" (Logos), as the revelation of God; 
 third, the "world-soul," which produced the universe. 
 However, the Christian idea of the Trinity is based upon 
 the Bible. 
 
 2. The Biblical Testimony. 
 
 In the Old Testament we find but few indications of a 
 distinction or plurality in God, such as the following: 
 
 a. The use of the plural form in the divine names, Elohim 
 and Adonai and in passages like: "Let us make man" and 
 "let us go down" (Gen. 1 :26 and 11 :7). 
 
 b. The "angel of the Lord" and the "angel of the face," 
 to whom divine honor is rendered (Gen. 22:15, 16, Judges 
 6:12, 14). 
 
 c. Passages where Jehovah is distinguished from Jehovah 
 (Gen. 19 :24, Psalm 110 :l-2). 
 
38 
 
 CHRISTIAN DOCTRINE. 
 
 d. The Spirit and the Word of God are distinguished 
 from God in Gen. 1:2, 3, Isaiah 55:11, Ps. 104:30, etc. 
 
 e. The threefold repetition of the name of Jehovah in the 
 Old Testament benediction (Numb. 6:24-26) and the three- 
 fold "Holy" of the Seraph-song in Isaiah 6 :3. 
 
 In the New Testament the distinction of Father, Son and 
 Holy Spirit is clearly taught. 
 
 a. In a few passages the three are named side by side, viz., 
 in the formula of baptism (Matth. 28 :18-20) ; in the New 
 Testament benediction (II Cor. 13:14), and in I Pet. 1:2. 
 The two last named, however, substitute the name of Christ 
 for the Son. To them may be added yet I Cor. 12 :4-6. "JSTow 
 there are diversities of gifts, but the same Spirit, and there 
 are diversities of ministration, and the same Lord. And 
 there are diversities of workings, but the same God, who 
 worketh all things in all." 
 
 b. More frequently, the three are mentioned separately as 
 divine. Thus we read of God the Father in I Cor. 8 :6 and 
 Eph. 4 :6 ; of the Son in Hebr. 1 :2 and Gal. 4 :4 ; and of the 
 Holy Spirit as a personal Being in Acts 13 :2 : "The Holy 
 Ghost said, Separate me Barnabas and Saul for the work, 
 whereunto I have called them." Christ in speaking of the 
 Holy Spirit, John 16 :8, uses the personal pronoun "He," 
 and in I Cor. 2 :10 and 13, the Spirit is said to act by search- 
 ing all things and teaching men. 
 
 3. Relation and Work of the Three. 
 "With regard to the respective functions of Father, Son 
 and Spirit, we find four facte predicated of each of the 
 three: 
 
 a. Of the Father: 1. He is the first cause, the origin of 
 all things. (Rom. 11:36.) 2. He is the Father of the Son 
 of God, as the only begotten and the object of his love (John 
 17:5). 3. He made the worlds through the Son (Heb. 1:2) 
 and reconciled the world to himself (II Cor. 5:18, 19). 
 4. He draws men to the Son, in order to save them (John 
 
PART FIRST GOD THE CREATOR. 
 
 39 
 
 6:44), and adopts them as children and sons of God in the 
 only begotten one (I John 3:1). 
 
 b. Of the Son: 1. He is the eternal son of the Father, 
 begotten before the foundation of the world and equal with 
 him in glory and power (John 17:5, Heb. 1:3). 2. He 
 came forth from heaven, in order to reveal the Father unto 
 men and to do the Father's will (John 1:18 and 6:38). 
 3. Through him all things were created and in him all 
 things consist (Col. 1:16, 17). 4. He is the mediator of 
 salvation, by whom alone men can be saved (John 3:16). 
 
 c. Of the Spirit: 1. He is the Spirit of God, knowing 
 and revealing the deep things of God. He proceeds from 
 the Father and is sent by the Son (I Cor. 2 :10, John 15 :26). 
 2. He brooded over the waters of the natural creation with 
 quickening power and gives light and life in the moral 
 world (Gen. 1:2, John 14:26). 3. By his "overshadowing" 
 the "word was made flesh" and Christ, the Saviour, was 
 baptized with the Holy Spirit (Luke 1 :35, John 1 :14 and 
 26). 4. He guides men into the truth, regenerates the soul 
 and dwells in the children of God as the principle of 
 spiritual life (John 16:13, Rom. 5:5). 
 
 4. Church Controversies. 
 
 This being the substance of Biblical teaching concerning 
 the Trinity, the Apostolic Church made no attempt at 
 further defining, how these distinctions in the triune God 
 should be understood. Learned Christians of the second 
 century, like Clement of Alexandria, who had studied the 
 Platonic philosophy, first began to apply Platonic terms to 
 this point of Christian doctrine, comparing the Son to 
 "reason" and the Spirit to "virtue" in man. The word 
 Trias came from the Alexandrian School and Tertullian 
 was the first to use its Latin form, Trinitas. 
 
 A. D. 190 a controversy began between Tertullian and the 
 Greek Praxeas, the latter contending that Father, Son and 
 Spirit are not different subjects, but three manifestations of 
 
40 
 
 CHRISTIAN DOCTRINE. 
 
 the same subject. One of his followers, Sabellius, gave to 
 this idea the definite form: "There is but one divine Hy- 
 postasis (substance or existence) ,but three modes of ap- 
 pearance or manifestation." This declaration involved a 
 denial of the eternal existence of the Son of God and called 
 forth a decided protest from many theologians, who styled 
 the followers of Sabellius, "Patripassians," that is, men 
 who say that God the father himself suffered and died on 
 the cross, because they believe in but one divine substance 
 or existence. In 218 A. D. another dispute arose on the 
 Trinity. Arius of Alexandria contended thai: the Son of 
 God did exist before the birth of Christ, but as the first 
 creature. He was not of the same essence with the Father, 
 not like him, but similar. Arius, though deposed from office 
 and excommunicated, secured the adherence of large num- 
 bers both of the clergy and laity to his view. This con- 
 troversy, finally, led to the convening of the first ecumenical 
 Church Council at Nice in Nicomedia, A. D. 325, in order to 
 have the question settled. 
 
 5. The Orthodox Creed. 
 The Nicene Creed has ever since been regarded as the 
 standard of orthodox belief, with regard to the Holy 
 Trinity. Beginning with "We believe in one God, the 
 Father almighty," etc., it continues: "and in one Lord 
 Jesus Christ, the Son of God, only begotten, begotten of the 
 Father, i. e., of the essence of the Father, God of God, Light 
 of Light, very God of very God, begotten and not made, 
 consubstantial with the Father, by whom all things are 
 made in heaven or on earth, etc. . . . and we believe in the 
 Holy Ghost. But those who say that there was a time, 
 when the Son was not, that he was not before he was made, 
 or was made out of nothing, or of another or different 
 essence or substance, that he was a creation or mutable or 
 susceptible of change, the Holy Catholic Church anathe- 
 matizes." 
 
PART FIRST — GOD THE CREATOR. 
 
 41 
 
 With regard to the Spirit, the Nicene Council as yet had 
 no detailed declaration, although it was the general under- 
 standing that the Holy Spirit also was "consubstantial with 
 the Father." But as some disputed this, a second ecumeni- 
 cal Council was called at Constantinople, A. D. 381, to de- 
 cide that point. Here the following was added: "Who is 
 the Lord and giver of life, who proceeded from the Father." 
 Some Greek theologians and the majority of the Roman 
 divines, then, contended that the Spirit proceeds not from 
 the Father only, but also "from the Son." In the sixth 
 century this question again appeared of great importance, 
 because the followers of Arius who had gained many con- 
 verts, pointed to the "proceeded from the Father" as an 
 endorsement of their contention, that the Son was not equal 
 with the Father. Thereupon the Roman churches had an- 
 other Council called in the city of Toledo in Spain, A. D. 
 589. Here it was decided to add the words "and from the 
 Son" (Filioque). As this was no "Ecumenical" Council, 
 the Greek Churches did not accept the decision and the 
 controversy, stimulated by the rivalry between the Metro- 
 politan of Constantinople and the Pope of Rome, continued 
 until in the eleventh century, when it became one of the 
 leading causes in the division between the Greek and the 
 Roman Catholic Churches. 
 
 6. The Disputed Points. 
 As to the "Filioque" (and from the Son), it may be 
 stated that although Holy Scripture nowhere expressly 
 teaches it and the Greek Church has this in her favor, yet 
 we find that whatever is predicated of the Spirit's relation 
 to the Father, is also predicated of his relation to the Son. 
 The Apostle Paul calls the Spirit of God, — the Spirit of 
 Christ — and in that sense at least, he proceeds from the Son. 
 In general, the doctrine of the Trinity has been substanti- 
 ally left by the Christian Church, where the Councils of the 
 fourth century placed it. The Reformers of the sixteenth 
 
42 
 
 CHRISTIAN DOCTRINE. 
 
 century had other points of doctrine, of greater practical 
 importance, to discuss and to decide and the Protestant 
 creeds simply incorporated the Trinity dogma as given in 
 the Catholic creed. However, the teachings of Sabellius 
 and of Arius, though condemned by the Church as heresies, 
 frequently in one form or another found new defenders, 
 and the sixteenth century added a new heresy, under the 
 name of Socinianism. Two professors, Laelius and Faustus 
 Socinus, uncle and nephew, attacked the ISTicene creed as 
 teaching three Gods, God Father, God Son and God Spirit. 
 They taught that Christ was not an incarnation of the Son 
 of God, but a human being like ourselves, and only after 
 his death exalted to divine honor, a deified man; and that 
 the Holy Spirit is not a divine person, but a mode of divine 
 operation. Their followers became known as Unitarians. 
 
 It must be said that this Socinian Unitarianism is not in 
 accord with Scripture doctrine. The Bible distinctly teaches 
 a divine Trinity of Father, Son and Holy Ghost, but as to 
 the exact nature of this Trinity several questions are open 
 to discussion, such as: whether the Trinity of revelation 
 necessarily involves an immanent, or ontological Trinity? 
 whether it is a threefold existence or only a threefold mode 
 of existence in one divine personality? whether the designa- 
 tion of three persons in the Godhead is appropriate? 
 
 If, as we believe, the revelation of God to the world is the 
 exposition of his true being,, it appears that the temporal or 
 economic Trinity, as it has been called, must have a corre- 
 sponding immanent and eternal Trinity. Again, if the 
 Father begets the Son and if the Spirit proceeds from the 
 Father, if, as John writes (John 1:1-2), the ""Word was in 
 the beginning with God," a threefold personality also ap- 
 pears well proven. The term: "three persons," however, is 
 not derived from Scripture and in the present use of the 
 word is somewhat objectionable, because in different human 
 persons there is no unity of substance. Originally, "per- 
 
PART FIRST — GOD THE CREATOR. 
 
 43 
 
 sona" simply meant a mask worn by an actor and then the 
 part or character played by him. 
 
 In whatever form the doctrine of the Trinity may be 
 stated, it contains a mystery which transcends our under- 
 standing. Nor is it essential that we should penetrate this 
 mystery. We may be thankful, that in formulating the 
 general Creed of the Christian Church this and other points 
 of doctrine were examined and defined by the Church 
 Fathers, with the acumen peculiar to the Greek mind and 
 language, but we do not attach as much importance to such 
 definitions. We know that the practical New Testament 
 confession of belief in the Trinity is not : We have "one 
 God Father, one God Son and one God Holy Spirit," but 
 "one God, the Father, one Lord Jesus Christ, and the Spirit 
 of God" (I Cor. 8:6 and 7:40). 
 
 7. Illustrations and Practical Aspect. 
 Analogies for the mystery of the triune God have been 
 found both in unities which contain a plurality and in 
 pluralities which form a unity. Such are: 
 
 a. Inanimate objects: A triangle with three sides; a 
 flame with three points; space having the three dimensions 
 of length, breadth, and thickness; electricity, manifested in 
 heat, light and motion; a plant, containing root, stalk and 
 flower. 
 
 b. Man. Man, made in the image of God, consists of body, 
 soul and spirit ; has the three faculties, of intellect, emotion 
 and will, or of knowledge, love and power. 
 
 c. The family. This illustration, in the form of father 
 and son, is directly authorized by Scripture and alluded to 
 in I Cor. 11 :3 and 3 :23, though we are hardly warranted in 
 representing the Spirit as the "mother," as some have 
 done. 
 
 For the practical importance of the doctrine of the 
 Trinity, the following points may be mentioned: a. It helps 
 us to a better understanding of the eternal independence 
 
44 
 
 CHRISTIAN DOCTRINE. 
 
 and blessedness of the triune God. b. It enables us to under- 
 stand, bow Christ could become the Saviour and mediator 
 between God and man, because the son of God became in- 
 carnate in him. c. It shows, how by the Holy Spirit's dwell- 
 ing in the hearts of men, humanity can be truly united with 
 God (John 3:5). 
 
 Chapter IX. The Creation of the World. 
 1. The Meaning of Creation. 
 
 We believe in God "the creator of heaven and earth," 
 that is both of the visible and invisible world (Gen. 1:1). 
 When we say that God created the universe, we mean that, 
 by an act of free will, he produced something, without the 
 use of preexisting materials, something which was not be- 
 fore. This statement meets with the objection, that "nothing 
 can come out of nothing." Ancient mythologies and philoso- 
 phies assumed an eternal existence of matter. Plato taught 
 that God formed a world-soul by mixing divine ideas with 
 matter and thus moulding the visible world. Similarly, 
 modern scientists assume a primeval condition of the universe 
 in a chaotic diffusion of matter, with all the properties and 
 powers latent in it, which afterwards became apparent. But 
 such scientific belief does not explain the origin of matter 
 itself nor answer the question, how inorganic material could 
 ever have evolved into living forms, without a conscious 
 intelligence directing such evolution. 
 
 If the principle, that nothing comes out of nothing, means 
 that there can be no effect without cause, it does not conflict 
 with the belief in a creator. For the cause of the world is 
 not nothing, but an almighty and all wise God. Heb. 11 :3 
 teaches, that "the worlds have been framed by the word of 
 God, so that, what is seen hath not been made out of things 
 which appear," but has its origin in the infinite faculties and 
 potencies of divine power (Rom. 4:17). 
 
PART FIRST GOD THE CREATOR. 
 
 45 
 
 2. The Object of Creation. 
 
 It has been claimed by some, tbat a creation in time would 
 involve a change in God from inaction to activity. For that 
 reason, Origen assumed that there was an eternal succession 
 of created worlds. But creation from eternity is a contra- 
 diction in terms. The Christian belief in the Trinity im- 
 plies an eternal activity within the divine Being, which 
 needs no created world. The world is eternal only in the 
 sense of Eph. 3:11, that it was created according to an 
 "eternal purpose," but not in its material existence. There 
 was a time when there was no world. Its creation was an 
 act of God's free will. No outside necessity constrained 
 him to create. He did not need the world, to have an object 
 of his love, because the rriune God was sufficient unto him- 
 self and he had in the Trinity an abundant scope for the 
 exercise of divine activity. On the other hand, it follows 
 from the nature of an infinite Being, that the final object 
 of the creation must be in God and not outside of him. 
 
 This leads to the conclusion that God created the world 
 for his own glory, in the manifestation of his divine excel- 
 lence. Such manifestation of his perfection, however, as 
 the God of love, implies the happiness of his creatures. 
 Hence it has been well said, that the world was created for 
 the glory of God and for the happiness of the creature. 
 
 3. Creation and Evolution. 
 
 A divine creation does not exclude orderly growth and 
 development. While the visible world is to us first of all 
 "creatura," it is also "natura," an organism regulated by 
 fixed laws. Its forces and elements are unfolded in a great 
 variety of forms, but under the absolute control of the 
 divine will. Natural science deals mainly with the laws of 
 natural development, without reference to tbe lawgiver, 
 while theology emphasizes more the fact that behind all the 
 laws of nature stands the name of God Almighty, as the 
 first and last cause of all finite things. But neither the 
 
46 
 
 CHRISTIAN DOCTRINE. 
 
 Nebular Hypothesis nor any other theory of Evolution is 
 necessarily antagonistic to revelation, as long as it ac- 
 knowledges that it is God who fixed the laws of evolution 
 and who rules by them. If science should render it certain, 
 that all present species of living creatures were derived by 
 natural descent from a few original germs, we should not, 
 therefore, lose the belief in the divine creation. Evolution 
 presupposes something that evolves and that must first have 
 been created. 
 
 4. The Mosaic Record. 
 How the world came into existence and how it attained its 
 present status, cannot be known by the testimony of eye- 
 witnesses. Nor is it necessary that we should have a clear 
 understanding of the birth and growth of our earth, further 
 than What is revealed to us through God's book of nature in 
 the strata of geology, the "autobiography of the earth." 
 We have, however, in the opening chapters of the Bible a 
 brief account of the origin and gradual formation of the 
 earth, which can rightly claim to be considered not the 
 fanciful conception of a poetic imagination, but a simple 
 statement of actual events. Unlike the cosmogonies of pagan 
 nations, such as is given in the Babylonian Creation Tablets, 
 it places God the creator at the head of the record and then 
 proceeds to give a pictorial sketch of the history of creation 
 in a form suited to the common mind and to the under- 
 standing of men in all successive ages. While it, probably, 
 rests on ancient tradition handed down from primeval times, 
 it has approved itself as composed under special divine 
 guidance, by the remarkable manner, in which its simple 
 language is adapted to meet the ascertained results of modern 
 research. 
 
 The general outline of its creative days or acts agrees 
 well with the accepted epochs of geology. Both teach that 
 tihere came first: an inorganic epoch, with three successive 
 stages, viz., a. light, b. land, and c. vegetation; second: an 
 
PART FIRST GOD THE CREATOR. 
 
 47 
 
 organic epoch, with three successive stages, viz., a. the ap- 
 pearing of fish, b. of birds and reptiles, c. of land animals 
 (mammals) and man. 
 
 Chapter X. The Government of the World. 
 
 1. Preservation. 
 
 With the doctrine of the Creation, that of the Preserva- 
 tion of the world is intimately connected. If the world was 
 called into being by God it must be absolutely dependent 
 upon him. It owes its continued existence entirely to his 
 will and would cease to be, if for one moment it were not 
 supported by his power. As the flowing of a stream de- 
 pends upon the supply of water from its fountains, so the 
 life of the creation constantly depends upon the Creator 
 (Nehem. 9:6, Ps. 104:29.) 
 
 Two points are implied in this axiom of the necessary 
 relation between God and the world. One is, that the 
 Creator must fully understand 'his creation in all its parts. 
 If he were merely the world builder, the world might be 
 foreign to him and he would be obliged to make himself 
 acquainted with its detail. Not so the Creator. The other 
 is, that God can never leave the care of the world. As 
 Melanchthon has illustrated, a shipbuilder may go away from 
 his ship and relinquish it to the sailors, when completed, but 
 not our Lord. This was the fundamental error of the Deism 
 of the seventeenth century, which regarded the universe as 
 a self-sustained mechanism, which God left to its natural 
 development after he had created it. The position of so 
 many Christians in our own day who, if not in theory, at 
 least practically hold that God is not concerned in the detail 
 of the world's course, is as illogical as it is contrary to 
 Scripture. 
 
 2. Providence. 
 
 God not only preserves and maintains what he has 
 created, he also provides for and controls everything in the 
 
48 
 
 CHRISTIAN DOCTRINE. 
 
 world. This providence is both general,— extending over 
 the physical world, over the affairs of nations, over the 
 general events of human history, — and it is particular, that 
 is including what seem to us the minor affairs of nature and 
 human life. We call it special providence, when the effect 
 produced bears a special relation or makes a special im- 
 pression upon us. 
 
 Many who acknowledge God's general providence, deny 
 the divine arrangement of particular events. They hold, 
 that when God created the world, he fixed the laws of 
 nature definitely and irrevocably, so that there can be no 
 continued intervention on his part. His activity is limited 
 to the maintenance of general laws. This idea, however, is 
 contrary to the explicit declarations of the Bible. 
 
 a. In Christ's sermon on the Mount even the ordinary 
 operations of physical law are traced to the particular or 
 special providence of God ; such as "he sendeth rain," 'Tie 
 feedeth the fowls of the air and clothes the grass of the 
 field" (Matth. 5:45 and 6:26, 30), and in another place: 
 "Not one sparrow shall fall on the ground without your 
 Father: but the very hairs of your head are all numbered" 
 (Matth. 10:29, 30). Therefore, the laws of nature are 
 under the constant control of the Creator and a general 
 control of the course of nature or history is impossible with- 
 out control of particulars. 
 
 b. Furthermore, the nature of God, as the God of love, 
 warrants the assurance that he watches over the destinies 
 of his creatures in the smallest details. Indeed, faith in a 
 particular providence is essential to personal religion. 
 There can be no devout worship without a direct relation to 
 God, without the belief that God accepts and attends to the 
 prayer and supplication of each individual worshipper. 
 
 c. Christian experience, also, confirms this assurance that 
 there is a special providence watching over us and that par- 
 ticular events are brought about by God for the special 
 
PART FIRST — GOD THE CREATOR. 
 
 49 
 
 benefit of individual men. In all this providence, as a rule, 
 God makes use of ordinary laws of nature to accomplish his 
 purpose. 
 
 3. Miracles. 
 
 When something occurs which cannot be explained on the 
 ground of natural laws, we call it a miracle. The Holy 
 Scriptures record many miracles of healing, of deliverance 
 and special providence, as well as miraculous manifestations 
 of divine justice and power. It should be noted, however, 
 that where the "Authorized Version" reads "miracles" 
 (wonderful things), the original has either "signs" or 
 "powers." That wonderful things and events happen and 
 have happened, no one can deny, but there are many who 
 do not believe in any miracle, in the sense of something that 
 is not in conformity with the laws of nature, ever occuring 
 either in our day or in Bible times. They hold to the abso- 
 lute uniformity of natural law. But miracles can be ac- 
 counted for in one of three ways: a. a suspension of the 
 regular law, b. an extraordinary application of the ordinary 
 law, c. the working of a law, yet undiscovered by man. It 
 may be said, that we are unable to determine what is a 
 miracle and what not, because we have not discovered all 
 the laws, and because the occurence of what is termed a 
 miracle rests largely on uncertain human testimony. 
 
 The possibility, however, of miracles in the sense of 
 supernatural acts cannot be denied: 
 
 a. We observe that even in the ordinary course of events 
 natural laws are frequently superseded or counteracted by 
 higher laws or by human will producing results opposite 
 to what nature would accomplish. 
 
 b. Belief in a personal God implies the assurance, that the 
 author of the laws of nature cannot be fettered by those 
 laws in such a manner as to make it impossible for him to 
 
 4 
 
50 
 
 CHRISTIAN DOCTRINE. 
 
 use special measures for the accomplishment of special pur- 
 poses. 
 
 c. Miracles, therefore, have their place as accompani- 
 ments and attestations of a special divine revelation. Thus 
 we find in the Bible, that epochs of signal miracles were 
 generally coincident with epochs of new and needful revela- 
 tion. 
 
 And the time of miracles has not yet passed. They are 
 constantly happening. There are miracles of answered 
 prayer, miracles of help and deliverance, miracles of grace, 
 "miracles of missions." Two extremes must be guarded 
 against. The one is an unhealthy, superstitious craving for 
 miracles; the other is the desire to explain away every 
 miracle, in the Bible or elsewhere, by tracing it to natural 
 causes. To the Christian believer, miracles are a constant 
 evidence of God's personal government of the world. 
 
 4. The Divine Decrees. 
 
 The divine government of the world includes the fore- 
 knowledge and foreordaining of future events. The limita- 
 tions of time do not apply to Him who inhabits eternity. 
 The events of time are but the gradual unfolding of the 
 eternal purpose of God (Ephes. 1:11, Rom. 9:17). This 
 doctrine, so far as it also includes the will and act of rational 
 creatures in the divine plan, presents some difficulty. It 
 seems incompatible with the free agency of man, which is 
 the distinguishing mark between him and the brute crea- 
 tion, and it seems to destroy all motive to self-exertion, if 
 whatever is done was predetermined. This twofold diffi- 
 culty can be met; the first, by saying that an event or act 
 may be foreordained and yet free, if the divine decree in- 
 cludes the free will of the creatures as a part of the decree; 
 the second, similarly, by holding that the means of accom- 
 plishing something, as well as the end, are foreordained. 
 
 It must be admitted, however, that this combination of 
 necessity and freedom is a mystery which our finite under- 
 
PART FIRST GOD THE CREATOR. 
 
 51 
 
 standing cannot fully comprehend. Both Scripture and 
 practical experience teach, that man's free will is limited 
 by many things beyond his control, but they also assure us 
 that there is room left, within the divine decree, for man's 
 choosing either the good or the evil and that the eternal 
 divine purpose is founded upon infinite wisdom and love. 
 
 Chapter XI. The Angels. 
 1. Existence of Angels. 
 
 According to Scripture, all creation is divided into two 
 classes, viz., a visible and an invisible creation, — material 
 and spiritual existences (Col. 1:16, II Cor. 4:18). To the 
 latter belong what are called angels (messengers) or 
 spirits, both good and evil. The existence of such beings 
 might be assumed on the ground of a gradation of created 
 beings. As in the material world there is a gradual ascent 
 from the stone to man, so in the invisible sphere there may 
 be creatures of higher than human intelligence. This possi- 
 bility is declared a certainty by the testimony of Holy Writ. 
 
 Because of the absences of present day manifestations, 
 many doubt the existence of angels and declare this belief 
 a remnant of polytheism or simply a personification of 
 spiritual forces. The latter view has some support in the 
 fact that at least the Cherubim and Seraphim in the Old 
 Testament writings and the "living creatures" of the book 
 of Revelation are, evidently, symbolical appearances rather 
 than personal beings. Again in Psalm 104:4; "Who maketh 
 winds his angels and a flaming fire his ministers" and in 
 II Kings 19 :35, " the angel of the Lord went out and smote 
 in the camp of the Assyrians an hundred fourscore and five 
 thousand," simple powers of nature seem to be designated as 
 angels. (Compare John 5:4.) But whatever degree of 
 individuality or personality there may be in different classes 
 of angels, Scripture clearly teaches the actual existence of 
 spiritual beings, besides humanity. We cannot set aside the 
 
r.2 
 
 CHRISTIAN DOCTRINE. 
 
 testimony of Christ and the Apostles who have endorsed the 
 belief in angels in the most definite manner. See Matth. 
 22 :30, Acts 7 :53, Heb. 1 :14. In truth, it is the most natural 
 thing to believe in a spiritual world analogous to the world 
 of man and its counterpart. If this material world is every- 
 where teeming with forms of life, in earth and water and 
 air, it would be strange not to find the invisible realms in- 
 habited by a like gradation of spiritual powers and person- 
 alities. 
 
 2. Nature of Angels. 
 The Scripture statements with regard to the nature of 
 angels can be summed up under the following heads : 
 
 a. They are spirits (Heb. 1:14), not limited by the laws 
 of material existence nor by those of sexual relation (Matth. 
 22:30). Having no material body, they are not subject to 
 physical death (Luke 20:36). But they can materialize, so 
 as to become visible and tangible and to be able to eat and 
 drink (Gen. 18:8). 
 
 b. They have a superhuman intelligence and power, yet 
 are subject to the limitations natural to all creatures. They 
 are not omnipresent and do not know the future; they are 
 deficient, when compared with the perfections of God (II 
 Pet. 2 :11, Mark 13 :32, Job 4:18). 
 
 c. They are of great number. They are called a host in 
 the Old Testament and an innumerable company in the New 
 Testament (Gen. 32:2, Heb. 12:22). 
 
 d. They differ in rank and office, possibly also in at- 
 tributes and spheres of activity. We read in Zech. 1 :11 of 
 an angel of the Lord to whom others bring their report ; in 
 Dan. 10 :13 of "Michael, one of the chief princes," in 
 I Thess. 4:16. of the archangel. Paul in Eph. 1:21 and 
 Col. 1 :16 enumerates four classes of angels, viz., thrones, 
 dominions, principalities and powers. 
 
 e. Like all of God's world, they have been created good 
 (Gen. 1:31). But so far, as they are self-conscious and 
 
PART FIR8T GOD THE CREATOR. 
 
 53 
 
 personal beings, they seem to have had the free choice of 
 self-determination, like man in Paradise, and some fell into 
 sin (II Pet. 2:4). Those who remained steadfast, are now 
 holy angels, who cannot commit sin. They have an absolute 
 desire to do the will of God and they enjoy perfect bliss 
 (I Tim. 5:21). 
 
 3. Relation to Man. 
 
 We are nowhere in Scripture told when or how angels 
 and spirits were created. It would appear, that they must 
 have come into existence before man, if a fallen angel 
 tempted Adam and Eve to sin. Cherubim and a flaming 
 sword were appointed to keep out the sinners from Para- 
 dise. 
 
 In some respects, the angels are represented as far 
 superior to men. They are stronger and wiser, they are 
 free from guilt and perfectly happy, they have attained to 
 tie perfection to which men will attain only through the 
 resurrection. In other respects again, Adam's race appears 
 to surpass the angels. The latter may not possess the same 
 degree of individuality which man has. In the angelic 
 manifestations, as recorded in the Bible, the outline of 
 personality and name is generally veiled by their official 
 employment. (Gabriel — man of God, Michael — who is like 
 God?) The writer of the epistle to the Hebrews (2:16) 
 declares it man's privilege, that the Son of God "doth not 
 take hold of angels, but he taketh hold of the seed of 
 Abraham." Paul writes in I Corinthians, that the saints 
 shall at last "judge angels," and Peter (I Pet. 1:12), that 
 angels desire to look into the mystery of redemption, which 
 has been made known to man. 
 
 4. General Work. 
 The work of angels is twofold. 
 
 a. They stand in the presence of God and worship him. 
 Like the servants of an earthly monarch surround their 
 
54 
 
 CHRISTIAN DOCTRINE. 
 
 sovereign, so the heavenly host the throne of God. In 
 rendering this service, particular mention is made of the 
 Cherubim and Seraphim. The former, as seen by the 
 prophet Ezechiel under the figure of a combination of lion, 
 eagle, ox and man, to represent the leading divisions of 
 natural powers, appear themselves to be the living throne of 
 God. The latter (Seraphim), as described in the vision of 
 Isaiah (chp. 6:1-13), incessantly unite on magnifying the 
 name of God with their: "Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of 
 hosts." 
 
 b. They execute the divine will in the government of the 
 world. Some epochs of the history of Israel seem to have 
 had frequent manifestations of angels, while others had few 
 or none. The patriarchal age abounds in them, the time of 
 Moses is devoid iof them; the book of Judges records 
 numerous appearances, while the period of the monarchy 
 hardly mentions them at all. Was the angelic agency 
 visibly employed for divine revelation mainly, when neither 
 prophet nor the written word were available? Angels were 
 used to execute God's judgment, as well as to establish his 
 kingdom on earth. An angel slew the first born of Egypt 
 (Ex. 12) and an angel smote the army of Sennacherib 
 (II Chron. 22). The law on Mt. Sinai was "ordained 
 through angels." The children of Israel enjoyed the special 
 protection of the "angel of Jehovah" and the angel of his 
 presence saved them (Isai. 63:9). Angels announced the 
 birth of Christ the Saviour; they attended him in all his 
 earthly life and ministry; they were seen and heard at his 
 resurrection and ascension. 
 
 5. Present Employment. 
 
 But not only in the past have they been employed in the 
 service of God, on earth. Scripture teaches, that they still 
 continue to minister to Christ's people (Heb. 1:14). They 
 rejoice over one sinner who repenteth (Luke 15:10). They 
 belp to bring men into touch with the Gospel of salvation, 
 
PAST FIEST GOD THE CREATOR. 
 
 55 
 
 though they do not take part in preaching the Gospel (Acts 
 10:3). They watch over God's children (Psalm 91:11), 
 assist and protect individual believers (Dan. 6:22). They 
 wait for the accomplishment of the divine plan of salvation 
 (Eph. 3:10) and at the end of days, when Christ shall 
 return in glory, they shall appear with him, "to gather 
 together his elect and to gather out of his kingdom them 
 that do iniquity" (Matth. 13:41 and 24:31). 
 
 6. Guardian Angels and Worship of Angels. 
 
 The belief of some, that individual men and nations have 
 their special guardian angels finds little support in Scrip- 
 ture. The passages in Dan. 10 :12, 13, cited for the latter, 
 and Acts 12 :15, for the former belief, are scarcely to the 
 point. As regards children, Christ's word: "Their angels 
 do always behold the face of my Father which is in heaven" 
 (Matth. 18:10), indeed, assures us that those who are con- 
 sidered little among men are, nevertheless, under the con- 
 stant supervision of angels who give an account of them to 
 the most high God. It does not follow, however, that a 
 special angel is assigned to each child or even that a par- 
 ticular class of angels takes care of the children. 
 
 The Koman Catholic Church teaches that angels should 
 be worshipped, not indeed with the worship due to God, but 
 "with human veneration and civil homage." The Bible 
 furnishes no instance of angels accepting such worship, 
 except the "prince of the host of Jehovah" who appeared 
 to Joshua (Josh. 5:14). Testimony to the contrary is given 
 in Rev. 19 :10 and Col. 2 :18. 
 
 7. Value of the Doctrine of Angels. 
 But little attention is paid in our time to the doctrine of 
 Angels. Neither the pulpit nor private devotion seem to 
 find in it much that is of practical use to the Christian. 
 However, the value of what we know about the angels and 
 its claim on our abiding interest will appear from the fol- 
 lowing considerations : 
 
56 
 
 CHRISTIAN DOCTRINE. 
 
 a. The angels belong to the same heavenly kingdom which 
 we are called to inherit. It enlarges our idea of the great- 
 ness of the divine power and grace, that there is an in- 
 numerable host of spirits, to serve God in company with us. 
 
 b. We are thankful for the honor bestowed upon us, by 
 their being appointed to minister to our wants; and en- 
 couraged by their interest in our temporal and spiritual 
 welfare. 
 
 c. It enlarges our conception of the dignity of man and 
 incites us to strive more earnestly against the temptations 
 of sin, to know that holy angels mark our failings and our 
 victories, in the conflicts of a Christian life. 
 
 d. If angels rejoice over every sinner that repents, be- 
 lievers should rejoice over the sinless glory of the holy 
 angels and join with the angelic host in the praise of a 
 common Lord : "Bless ye the Lord, all his hosts, that do his 
 pleasure; bless the Lord, O my soul" (Ps. 103). 
 
 Chapter XII. Origin and Nature of Man. 
 1. Origin. 
 
 The question of the origin of man does not lie altogether 
 outside of the domain of Christian doctrine. For according 
 to the Bible, man originated by a special act of the creator, 
 who formed his body out of the dust and breathed his spirit 
 into him (Gen. 2:7). Scripture thus contradicts the theory, 
 that man is a spontaneous product of natural forces, grown 
 out of the soil, as taught by the ancient Stoics and by many 
 modern naturalists. According to their theory the earth 
 originally contained nothing but living germs, from which, 
 in successive stages of development, by the laws of varia- 
 tion, natural selection and struggle for life, all the varieties 
 of present existence have evolved, the spiritual as well as 
 the material. The race of man, thus, in a slow but direct 
 line of ascent, has sprung from the same source as stone, as 
 well as plant and animal life. In so far as this theory deals 
 
PART FIRST GOD THE CREATOR. 
 
 57 
 
 only with the physical origin of the human species and does 
 not deny the Creator, it has no direct bearing upon religion. 
 Man's physical system may be derived by natural descent 
 from the lower animals. His being formed of the dust of 
 the ground does not determine whether the creation of the 
 body was mediate or immediate. But the inbreathing of the 
 spirit and the making of man "in the image of God" calls 
 for a special creative act. 
 
 Aside of the religious authority of the Biblical account of 
 man's origin, the theory of an unbroken spontaneous evolu- 
 tion meets with serious objections on scientific and historical 
 grounds. While there is an endless mingling of varieties, 
 no instance has yet been adduced of the transformation of 
 one animal species into another or of the body of any brute 
 ever having developed into that of man. As far as natural 
 science can look back, the same divisions seem to have 
 existed. It is also an established law, that the species of 
 higher organism, when mingled, produce no fertile off- 
 spring. Every effort at finding the missing link between 
 the ape and man, so far, has failed. During thousands of 
 years, since the ape has been known, he has not made the 
 slightest progress towards becoming man. The gorilla skull 
 has a capacity of 25 — 341/2 inches, while the lowest man has 
 a skull capacity of 62 — 114 inches, and the skull of primeval 
 man, the contemporary of the mammoth, is as large as that 
 of the average man of to-day. Moreover, man's self-con- 
 sciousness, power of self-determination, faculty of speech 
 and his moral sense mark him as a being radically different 
 from the irrational creature. Hence we conclude that the 
 Bible account of the origin of man, which indicates a pause 
 between the creation of the animals and of man, and a special 
 creative act in "Let us make man," is more plausible, than 
 a spontaneous evolution from some lower animal form. 
 
 2. Antiquity. 
 
 A question of minor importance, in connection with the 
 
58 
 
 CHRISTIAN DOCTRINE. 
 
 origin of man, is that of his antiquity. According to 
 Biblical chronoloogy, as commonly received, the advent of 
 man on this earth would not date back much over 6000 
 years, whereas scientists are inclined to make it 30,000 
 years or more. Here mutual concessions seem possible. 
 Some claim that it must have required countless ages to 
 evolve the different races of primeval man. But variations 
 among domestic animals, like dogs, much more striking than 
 those of the human races, have arisen within recent historic 
 times. Again, the monumental records of Babylon and 
 Egypt are supposed to go back far beyond the time when 
 the Mosaic record puts the flood. But even the few early 
 dates that are said to be fixed, like that of the Assyrian 
 King Sargon I, at B. C. 3800, are still subject to doubt. The 
 strongest evidence for an earlier existence of man on the 
 earth is, doubtless, furnished by the finding of human re- 
 mains in the deposits of the glacial period.. Primeval man, 
 using nothing but stone implements, appears to have wit- 
 nessed the great changes of the earth's condition connected 
 with the ice-age. But recent calculations are to the effect 
 that the post-glacial time does not exceed 8000 years. 
 
 On the other hand, it is not an article of faith that Adam 
 was created B. C. 4000. However strictly we may hold to 
 the principle of inspiration, the Bible is not primarily in- 
 tended to furnish a chronology of history. Besides, different 
 readings in the genealogical table of Gen. 11, varying in 
 the Septuagint from the present Hebrew text, and some un- 
 certainty as to the exact meaning of the genealogy, leave 
 room for a difference of opinion on the early Bible chro- 
 nology. However, both the historical and geological 
 records confirm the belief that the advent of man upon the 
 earth is comparatively recent. 
 
 3. Nature of Man. 
 Man is both a sensuous and a spiritual being, the crown 
 of the earthly creation and the connecting link between the 
 
PART FIRST GOD THE CREATOR. 
 
 59 
 
 material and the spiritual world. He is appointed to have 
 dominion over the irrational creature, both the organic and 
 the inorganic. Nature being without self-consciousness and 
 free agency, finds in man its interpreter. He is the repre- 
 sentative of the earthly creation, the microcosm, a little 
 world in himself. Light and sound, beauty and purpose 
 are understood only by him, who is God's vice-regent in the 
 government of the earth (Gen. 1:26, 28). 
 
 The story of the creation speaks of man's being formed 
 of the dust of the ground and of God's breathing the breath 
 of life into him. This points to man's consisting of two 
 elements, a material and a spiritual one, matter and mind. 
 Some hold to a trichotomy (three parts) of substances in 
 the composition of man, viz., body, soul and spirit. But it 
 seems impossible to separate between soul and spirit as 
 different elements or to imagine a third substance besides 
 mind and matter. In Scripture, generally, soul and spirit 
 are used promiscuously; what is predicated of the one, is 
 predicated of the other. Where "spirit and soul and body" 
 are mentioned side by side, as in I Thess. 5 :23, it is evidently 
 a paraphrase for the whole man. Spirit and soul designate 
 the immaterial principle from different points of view. 
 When viewed as conscious, intellectual life, it is soul 
 (psyche) ; when viewed as moral and religious life, it is 
 spirit (pneuma). "The spirit is man's nature looking God- 
 ward, the soul is man's nature looking earthward" (I Cor. 
 15:44). Thus it may be said that man has a threefold re- 
 lation or a threefold sphere of activity, viz., a. a material 
 sphere, with which his senses bring him into contact; b. a 
 psychical sphere, through his relation to the intellectual 
 world around him; c. a spiritual sphere, related to matters 
 of religious interest and concern. 
 
 4. Unity of the Race. 
 
 According to the Bible, all men have one common origin 
 and are descended from one pair (Act9l7 :26,ICor. 15 :22,49). 
 
60 
 
 CHRISTIAN DOCTRINE. 
 
 Opposite views are, either, that different species of 
 the human race arose in the different continents, or that a 
 number of pairs, all belonging to the same species, came 
 into existence. The Scripture statement is confirmed by 
 the following arguments : 
 
 a. Historical. So far as the history of nations and tribes 
 in both hemispheres can be traced, it points to a common 
 ancestry, somewhere in Southwestern Asia. 
 
 b. Physiological. There is an essential identity of the 
 human races in their anatomical structure, respiration 
 and digestion; and there is, also, permanence of propaga- 
 tion in the mingling of these races. 
 
 c. Psychological. All men have essentially the same 
 mental and moral characteristics, the same faculties of 
 memory and reason, the same sentiments of pleasure and 
 pain, the same convictions of right and wrong. 
 
 d. Linguistic. Comparative philology points to a com- 
 mon origin of most of the large branches of human 
 language or at least to certain fundamental principles in 
 the formation of language, which are common to all. 
 
 Certainly, there are no races of men so different from the 
 rest, that they cannot be regarded as having had the same 
 origin. The descent of all mankind from one couple is of 
 importance mainly for the recognition of the equality of 
 men, the common brotherhood of all, and especially for the 
 doctrine of sin and salvation. All men are involved in the 
 consequences of Adam's fall, and all have a share in Christ, 
 the Saviour, because they are members of the same human 
 family (Rom. 5:15). 
 
 5. Origin of the Individual Soul. 
 Respecting the manner in which the individual human 
 soul originates, Scripture is almost entirely silent. Never- 
 theless this question is of some importance as bearing upon 
 our connection with Adam and has frequently been dis- 
 cussed. There are three main theories : 
 
PART FIRST GOD THE CREATOR. 
 
 61 
 
 a. Pre'existence of the Soul. The philosopher Plato 
 taught that the universe is the embodiment of eternal ideas 
 clothed in matter. Applying this theory to the human 
 race, the churchfather Origen held that all the souls of 
 men have had a personal existence in a previous state and, 
 having sinned in that state, are sent into the material body 
 to be purified from sin. This theory directly contradicts 
 the Scriptural account of the creation and the fall of 
 man. 
 
 b. Creation of the Soul. This view, which was first pro- 
 pounded by Jerome and Pelagius, assumes that the soul of 
 every man is separately created, at the time of conception 
 or at birth. It is based upon the idea that the soul being 
 indivisible cannot be transmitted from parents to children 
 and that the talents and the disposition of many children 
 differ from those possessed by their parents. The objection 
 to this theory is, that it ignores the evident reproduction of 
 mental and moral traits in the same family and that it 
 makes God the author of evil, in that he either creates a 
 sinful soul or places a pure soul in a sin-stained body. 
 
 c. Propagation of the Soul or Traducian Theory, first 
 presented by Tertullian and urged by Augustine in the 
 controversy against Pelagius. This theory holds, that the 
 souls of children as well as their bodies are propagated by 
 natural generation, either so that the child-soul exists in the 
 parent as an individual being, like the seed of plants or else 
 as a latent force, comparable to a flame, which is kindled by 
 another flame. The principal argument in support of this 
 view is the undeniable fact, that individual and national 
 traits of endowment and character are constantly trans- 
 mitted. The child resembles one or both parents in their 
 good and bad qualities and tendencies, according to the 
 general law that like begets like. The Traducian theory, 
 however, must admit divine overruling and guidance in 
 every part of the development of the human race. 
 
62 
 
 CHRISTIAN DOCTRINE. 
 
 Chapter XIII. The State of Mankind in Paradise. 
 1. The Image of God. 
 
 With, regard to the original state of mankind, there are 
 two entirely opposite views. The one is the view of the 
 naturalist, who holds that in the gradual ascent of man 
 from the state of the brute, he was at first an utter savage, 
 perhaps a cannibal, without articulate speech, without 
 morality and without religion ; the other is the view pre- 
 sented in the Biblical account of the creation, that man be- 
 gan his career endowed with intelligence and happiness, 
 but that he lost his original high state by apostacy from 
 God. 
 
 We read that God created man in "his image." In what 
 did this image of God consist? It is evident that it must 
 not be sought primarily in the body, as a material quality, 
 but in that excellence of the human nature which dis- 
 tinguished man from the other creatures, his natural and 
 moral ability and endowment. As God is the absolute 
 Spirit, so man has a spiritual element, in virtue of which 
 he is able to understand, to feel and to will; to have self- 
 consciousness and self-determination. Again, as God is 
 Love, — the perfection of moral excellence, — so man is able 
 to love and to follow moral impulses. These two character- 
 istics, then, which constitute man a personality, mark the 
 divine image in man. The body reflects that image of God 
 in so far, that it is the organ of the Spirit and as such 
 destined to share in the glory of the perfected human 
 personality. 
 
 Sometimes the "image of God" has been defined as ex- 
 pressing the "original righteousness and holiness," which 
 the first human pair possessed, but which was lost in the 
 fall. Theie are two objections to this view: a. While man 
 was created good, this natural goodness, in order to become 
 holiness, first had to be tested, if holiness is rightly defined 
 as conscious possession of goodness, b. Though the image 
 
PART FIRST GOD THE CREATOR. 
 
 63 
 
 of God in man was, doubtless, marred by the fall, it was 
 not altogether lost. For Scripture testifies, that sinful man 
 still bears this image at least in a limited sense (Gen. 9:6, 
 James 3:9, I Cor. 11:7). In the full sense of the word, 
 Christ alone was "the image of the invisible God" (Col. 
 1 :15), "the effulgence of his glory and the very image of his 
 substance" (Heb. 1:13). Therefore ,also, redeemed man is 
 "to be conformed to the image of the Son, that he might be 
 the firstborn among many brethren" (Kom. 8:29). 
 
 2. Intellectual Condition. 
 
 Many races of men have a tradition of a "golden age" at 
 the beginning of human development. The Mosaic record 
 confirms the belief, that the primitive state of man was a 
 high and happy one. It tells us, that Adam (man) was 
 from the first endowed not only with self-consciousness, but 
 also with a clear understanding of his surroundings. He 
 was given dominion over the lower creation, and having 
 quickly gained an insight into the nature of the animals 
 around him, he was able to give them names and to rule 
 them. Thus he developed the faculty of speech. 'No doubt, 
 his knowledge and his language were in every respect limited. 
 The primitive language could have but few words and forms, 
 but it possessed the rudiments of articulate speech. Primi- 
 tive man had no house, clothes, money or tools and no 
 inventions were as yet made, but he had the ability to make 
 them. He may have had to go in regular succession, from 
 the use of stone implements, to the discovery of fire and 
 cooking, and to the working of bronze and iron. But his 
 original state was not one of brutish barbarism. 
 
 It is noteworthy that the ancient nations generally traced 
 their civilization as having been brought from the east. 
 There is also a surprising degree of art and intellectual 
 culture in the oldest known monuments of Egypt and 
 Babylon, and the fact that nations, like the Eskimoes and 
 Kaffirs, have a language, wonderfully rich in grammatical 
 
64 
 
 CHRISTIAN DOCTRINE. 
 
 forms and fine distinctions, proves that the intellectual en- 
 dowment surpassed the actual attainments of the different 
 races. Some nations, clearly, have degenerated from a 
 higher civilization into rude savagery. 
 
 3. Moral Condition. 
 
 Morally man was created good. By this we understand, 
 that his natural disposition or quality was pure and right, 
 and the tendency of his affection and will, fundamentally 
 good. He lived in communion with his Creator and did 
 what was right in childlike innocence. The assertion of 
 naturalists, that the religious history of mankind uni- 
 versally has progressed from fetichism through polytheism, 
 to monotheism, is unproven. So far as it does rest on facts, 
 these can be accounted for on the ground of religious de- 
 generacy after the fall. But man had not as yet made use 
 of his free will and he had no knowledge of evil. His 
 morality was not yet a personal possession because it had 
 not been tested. The Eoman Catholic teaching, that 
 original man had in him an antagonism between the body 
 and the spirit, which needed an adjustment, and that the 
 remedy was furnished in a supernatural gift of special 
 grace, afterwards lost by the fall, finds no confirmation in 
 Scripture. 
 
 4. Physical Condition. 
 Physically, also, man must have had a good start. While 
 the brute creation is downward bent, looking at the ground 
 from which it originated, man's posture was erect ; he 
 looked aloft, as well as beneath and around him and his 
 features expressed his higher attributes and aspirations. 
 His body, as originally constituted, must have been vigorous, 
 full of the joy of health, well fitted to share in the spirit's 
 domain over nature. There was no conflict between body 
 and spirit, the sensuous impulses being in perfect submission 
 to the control of the spirit. Yet the physical state of man 
 
PART SECOND— SIN. 
 
 65 
 
 was not final. The body was material and therefore perish- 
 able. Death was an existing possibility, but it did not 
 threaten man as long as he remained near the divine source 
 of life, of which the "tree of life" was the emblem. Perhaps 
 the material body was to be raised gradually to a higher state 
 of existence, and thus changed or transfigured into the 
 spiritual body of the resurrection, of which Paul writes 
 in I Cor. 15:51, 53. 
 
 5 Exercise of Man's Powers. 
 The story of the creation, in the book of Genesis, also 
 records what provision was made by the Creator for the 
 exercise of man's faculties and powers. He was given a 
 home in a pleasant, garden-like region of the earth, called 
 Eden (delight) or Paradise (a park). His work was to 
 dress and keep this garden by cultivating the ground, by 
 planting flowers and trees and raising crops of grain ; and 
 this exercise of the body would, at the same time, be to him 
 a source of joy, vigor and beauty. His intellectual faculties 
 were to be developed by the exercise of inventive thought 
 and imagination and by the gradual enlargement of the 
 power of speech. Exercise for his moral and spiritual 
 powers was furnished by daily intercourse with God, what- 
 ever the form of that intercourse may have been, and by 
 the test of his willing obedience through a commandment. 
 For there could be no conscious morality and no true 
 worship of God without a personal decision in the exercise 
 of free will. 
 
 An important factor in this human development was the 
 establishment of the human family. The formation of 
 woman marks the beginning of the history of our race. The 
 sexual polarity of husband and wife found a higher har- 
 mony in the relation of father, mother and child. This 
 human family was destined, by the law of propagation and 
 association, to grow into a nation, and to become the King- 
 5 
 
66 
 
 CHRISTIAN DOCTRINE. 
 
 dom of God on earth which, as Christ has taught us, was 
 being "prepared from the foundation of the world" (Matth. 
 25:34). The law and prevailing motive of this Kingdom 
 was to be the love of God and of fellow man. The physical 
 impulse of love, through the charm of bodily attraction and 
 enjoyment (what the Greeks called Eros), was to lead to 
 the higher, mental love of relatives, friends and associates 
 (Philia), and ripen into the highest form of spiritual and 
 divine love (Agape). I John 4:7. 
 
Ipart Seconfc— Sin. 
 
 Chapter XIV. Evil Spirits. 
 
 1. Their Existence. 
 The course of the happy development of the human race 
 was interrupted by the appearance of sin and evil in the 
 world, and this evil, according to the Scriptures, must be 
 traced to the existence of an evil spirit, prior to the fall of 
 man. 
 
 The books of the Old Testament make but a few refer- 
 ences to an evil power, but in the New Tetsament we find 
 frequent mention of fallen angels or demons, and especially 
 of one called Satan (the enemy) or Devil (diabolos, deceiver 
 or slanderer). 
 
 The existence of such evil spirits is doubted or rejected 
 in our days by many, on the following grounds : 
 
 a. This belief, they say, is a creation of superstition and a 
 remnant of barbarism. The more ignorant men are, the 
 more they are afraid of evil spirits and this fear decreases 
 in proportion to their enlightenment. 
 
 b. Almighty God could not permit the continued existence 
 of creatures who have become apostate and who constantly 
 oppose him. And the evil spirits themselves must know the 
 power of God and could not continue their rebellion, with- 
 out realizing the folly of their efforts. 
 
 c. The belief in a devil degrades man by representing him 
 as a slave of Satan; and it is morally hurtful, because it 
 transfers the blame of human sin to the being Who tempts 
 man. 
 
 In reply to these arguments we must urge the following 
 considerations : 
 
 a. There must be some real foundation for this general 
 
68 
 
 CHRISTIAN DOCTRINE. 
 
 belief in the existence of evil spirits, which is as universal as 
 the belief in God. It is a part of the inner consciousness of 
 the most enlightened Christians and confirmed by their re- 
 ligious experience, as it also furnishes the most reasonable 
 explanation of the fall of Adam. 
 
 b. If almighty God has permitted the wickedness of sin- 
 ful man to continue for thousands of years and if the 
 human intelligence can be so perverted by sin as to continue 
 in disobedience and rebellion against God to the present 
 day, why should that be impossible with evil spirits ? 
 
 c. Neither Scripture nor conscience allow temptation by 
 the devil to be an excuse for sin, or to regard Satan as 
 having power to control man without his will. We are 
 taught that it is man's fault, if he yields to the devil 
 (Matth. 15:19). Experience proves that belief in the per- 
 sonality of the devil makes sin to be more abhorred, while 
 giving up this belief is apt to lead to laxity. 
 
 d. According to the New Testament, it is certain that 
 Christ and the apostles taught the existence of Satan and 
 of evil spirits. To declare this teaching an accomodation 
 to popular belief or a simple personification of evil passions 
 and principles, is incompatible with the plain statements of 
 the Gospels. While the expression: "he has a demon" may 
 have been used in the sense of, "he is insane," Christ's own 
 references to the devil, both in public and private teaching 
 are so explicit, that they cannot be explained away as figura- 
 tive (Matth. 12:28, Luke 10:18, John 8:44). This fact, 
 however, does not exclude the possibility of impersonal 
 powers being used by a personal agent, even as men use 
 guns and dynamite to kill. 
 
 2. The Origin of Evil. 
 But, if there are evil spirits, how did the evil in them 
 originate? It is an axiom of Christian belief that the origin 
 of evil cannot lie in God. He never tempts to evil, though 
 he brings to light the hidden sin within (James 1:13). All 
 
PART SECOND SIN. 
 
 69 
 
 that we can say is, that the abstract possibility of evil is 
 implied in the gift of a free will to the creature, because 
 such freedom of thought or action necessarily involves a 
 self-limitation of the divine will. Freedom of choice on the 
 part of the creature, therefore, implies the logical alterna- 
 tive of either doing or not doing the will of God, loving God, 
 or not loving him, being with God or without him. If any 
 creature, in the exercise of this prerogative of rational be- 
 ings, instead of yielding a loving obedience to the Creator, 
 chooses to live for himself, such determination would be 
 identical with doing evil. How the abstract possibility ever 
 became an actuality, how an evil volition arose in spirits 
 created pure, is an unsolved mystery. 
 
 Respecting the nature of this sin and apostacy of the 
 devil and his angels, we would infer from the nature of 
 spiritual sin among men, that it was pride, the desire to be 
 like God, self-deification, a transgression of the first and 
 greatest commandment : "I am the Lord, thy God" (Gen. 
 3:5, compare I Tim. 3:6). If the spirit-world is not bound 
 together by the tie of blood-relationship, like the human race, 
 the apostacy of one angel could not bring on the apostacy of 
 others, except through personal counsel and example. 
 Jewish theology, and some Church fathers, held that God 
 had entrusted to certain angels different provinces of do- 
 minion and that some, becoming discontented with their 
 position, formed a rebellious league with each other. This 
 theory seeks to account for the connection of Satan and the 
 evil spirits with our earth in particular; but its supposed 
 scriptural support in the epistle of Jude, v. 6, is very slight. 
 Some, on the ground of II Pet. 2 :4 and 5, in connection 
 with Gen. 6:1-4, have assumed, that a second apostacy took 
 place in the spirit-world after the fall of Adam and Eve, 
 through the sin of sensuality. Thus in the spirit-world, as 
 among men, sin would manifest itself in the twofold form of 
 pride and lust. The designation of "unclean spirits," the 
 
70 
 
 CHRISTIAN DOCTRINE. 
 
 fact that men appear to be tempted by the devil to sins of 
 impurity, as well as of pride, and the occurence of de- 
 moniacal possessions would lend some weight, at least, to the 
 general idea of a twofold type of diabolical sin. 
 
 3. Nature of Evil Spirits. 
 
 The evil spirits are banded together in a community, 
 called the Kingdom of Satan, in opposition to the Kingdom 
 of God. Satan or the Devil appears to be superior in rank 
 and power to the other spirits (Matth. 12 :26). To him are 
 applied also such names as Belial (worthless) and Beelzebul 
 (Lord of the dwelling) or Beelzebub (Lord of flies) (II Cor. 
 6:15, Matth. 12: 24). His subjects or associates, the evil 
 spirits, are frequently called demons, a term which in Greek 
 mythology stood for ministering spirits, employed in the 
 government of the world. The Jews who held that the 
 gentile world was ruled by Satan, under the name of Zeus, 
 or Baal, or Jupiter, naturally regarded these demons as 
 servants or emissaries of the evil one. The Apostle Paul, 
 in Ephesians 6 :12, distinguishes "principalities, powers, 
 world rulers of darkness and spiritual hosts of wickedness 
 in the heavenly places." 
 
 If the origin of evil, with Satan and his subjects, lies 
 within themselves, we must infer that sin is the controlling 
 motive of these spirits, their very nature. Christ called the 
 devil a "murderer from the beginning — a liar and the 
 father thereof" (John 8:44) and the Apostle John wrote: 
 "the devil sinneth from the beginning" (I John 3:8). As 
 will and intellect are closely connected, we must suppose 
 that the apostacy of the will from God was followed by a 
 blinding of the understanding so that these spirits do not 
 see the folly of their wickedness. On the other hand, we are 
 taught that they possess great energy and power, which 
 they use altogether for hindering or destroying every good 
 work. 
 
 As to their personal condition, we are led to believe that 
 
PART SECOND — SIN. 
 
 71 
 
 it must be one of great unhappiness, because of tbeir being 
 entirely separated from God wbo is tbe source of all true 
 felicity. But on tbese points we bave no authoritative 
 declaration in Holy Scripture. 
 
 4. General Activity. 
 
 Satan and bis angels are represented as thoroughly active 
 in making war against the works of God. Especially does 
 the world of man appear to be their field of operation. Ac- 
 cording to Scripture, it was Satan who caused Adam and 
 Eve to fall into sin (Rev. 12:9), and ever since the fall, he 
 and his associates have endeavored to gain control and to 
 extend their dominion over this sinful world. It is for this 
 reason that Christ called Satan the prince of this world 
 (John 14:30) not because he is the rightful owner, but 
 because he exercises dominion over fallen humanity. 
 Wherever sin reigns, there Satan and the evil spirits reign. 
 They strive to defeat the will of God and they hinder man's 
 temporal and eternal welfare. 
 
 The working of evil spirits is represented as being partly 
 of an ordinary and partly of an extraordinary or super- 
 natural character. Scripture tells us that this special and 
 extraordinary influence is exerted upon the physical, the 
 mental and the spiritual sphere of man's life. 
 
 a. Physical. The great affliction and severe illness which 
 tried the patience and faith of Job is traced to Satan's 
 baving received special permission to injure him. Paul's 
 "thorn in the flesh" was caused by a messenger of Satan to 
 buffet him (II Cor. 12:7). 
 
 b. Mental (psychical). There are many instances men- 
 tioned in tbe Bible of a supernatural influence upon the in- 
 tellectual faculties of certain men, causing a complete or a 
 partial loss of reason and power of will; as in the case of 
 Saul, when he raved; of the false prophets and sorcerers 
 (Acts 16:16), who had a spirit of divination, and especially 
 
72 
 
 CHRISTIAN DOCTRINE. 
 
 of the "possessed" and lunatics who were healed by Christ. 
 
 c. Spiritual. Sometimes the attack is made directly upon 
 the religious and moral part of man, by Satan's taking pos- 
 session of the heart of man, as in the case of Judas and of 
 Ananias (Acts 5 :3). 
 
 The ultimate object of such special and extraordinary at- 
 tacks upon certain men, on the part of the devil, must have 
 been, if possible, to destroy body, soul and spirit. The occa- 
 sion for it may sometimes have been the commission of some 
 particular sin. But in other cases it appears as a simple 
 affliction, a disease, which needs healing. The frequency of 
 men suffering under this affliction at the time of the earthly 
 ministry of Christ may be accounted for on the ground, that 
 when the Redeemer of men came, Satan increased 'his 
 efforts, in order to hinder the work of redemption. He was 
 permitted to do so, because this special manifestation of the 
 evil power resulted in a greater manifestation of the saving 
 power of Christ. 
 
 5. Relation to Christians. 
 If, what is recorded in the Bible concerning the activity 
 of the devil and of evil powers in the past, is accepted as 
 true, the question may be asked, whether that activity has 
 not come to an end, when Christ, our Saviour, delivered 
 fallen man from the power of the evil one. The apostles 
 teach that such is not the case, but that the devil and his 
 associates still seek to hinder men from entering Christ's 
 kingdom or, after they have entered, seek to make them 
 apostates. In this endeavor they use either cunning, "Satan 
 fashioning himself into an angel of light" (II Cor. 11:14), 
 or else violence, "the devil walking about as a roaring lion" 
 (I Pet. 5:8). Paul in I Thess. 2:18 writes about Satan 
 hindering his coming to Thessalonica, and on many oc- 
 casions, in the course of the history of the Christian Church, 
 since the days of the apostles, have servants of Christ been 
 convinced, that the obstacles put in the way of the spread 
 
PART SECOND SIN. 
 
 73 
 
 of Christ's Kingdom and the persecutions which have come 
 upon believers, though directly attributable to evil men, 
 must be traced to the instigation of evil spirits. It seems to 
 be well proven that demoniacal possession, such as is re- 
 corded in the Bible, does occur occasionally in our own time, 
 especially in connection with missions among the heathen. 
 
 Above all, the evil influence of Satan still manifests itself 
 in certain temptations to sin to which believers and un- 
 believers are subject in our days, as well as of old ; as Paul 
 writes in Eph. 6:11 and 12, "Our wrestling is not against 
 flesh and blood, but against the principalities ... against the 
 spiritual hosts of wickedness." But James gives the ad- 
 monition : "Resist the devil and he will flee from you. 
 Draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you" (James 
 4:7). Watchfulness, earnest prayer and the right use of 
 the Word of God are the appointed weapons against all the 
 assaults of evil spirits. 
 
 6. Witchcraft and Sorcery. 
 During the Middle Ages and to the end of the seventeenth 
 century, it was the general belief that wicked men could 
 make >a compact with Satan whereby, for a season, they 
 were endowed with supernatural power, upon the condition 
 that, after death, their souls be given over to perdition. 
 Through these witches and sorcerers, it was thought, the 
 devil exercised a great sway both over the elements of 
 nature and over the minds and bodies of men. Upon this 
 belief rested the prosecutions and convictions for witch- 
 craft and sorcery, which form one of the most deplorable 
 episodes in human history. While this superstition in its 
 unchristian and cruel form is fortunately a thing of the 
 past, the idea of a special connection of evil spirits with 
 pretended sorcery, witchcraft and even spiritualism in our 
 day still has a strong hold on the popular mind. The 
 Mosaic Law recognized the belief in sorcery to this extent, 
 that it put the death penalty on those who pretended to be 
 
74 
 
 CHRISTIAN DOCTRINE. 
 
 witches and who "turned after familiar spirits" (Ex. 22:18, 
 Lev. 20:6). In the book of Acts, we read, that Christian 
 converts from the heathen who had "practiced curious arts, 
 brought their books together and burned them" (Acts 19 :19). 
 
 While, therefore, the possibility of sorcery and witch- 
 craft, as connected with evil spirits, may not be denied, 
 yet, in view of the terrible abuse to which this belief has 
 led men and women in the past, we should be slow to assume 
 an immediate working of the evil power, as long as natural 
 causes suffice to account for strange occurrences. 
 
 7. Value of the Doctrine of Evil Spirits. 
 In spite of all that has been said and of the direct testi- 
 mony of the Holy Scriptures, some Christians have no use 
 whatever for the doctrine of evil spirits. While it has 
 rightly been said that our salvation depends not upon belief 
 in the devil, but upon belief in Christ, yet the following 
 points deserve consideration for the right valuation of this 
 doctrine : 
 
 a. It is of great importance for the proper understanding 
 of the nature of sin as being not simply traceable to human 
 weakness, but to a personal author and head in the spirit- 
 world. 
 
 b. It shows us the greatness of the work of salvation, as a 
 gracious redemption from the power of the evil one. 
 
 c. The more clearly we understand the abomination and 
 the dangerous character of sin, as a rebellion against God, 
 the more earnestly will the battle against sin be fought and 
 the more sure is the prospect of a final complete victory 
 over sin. 
 
 Chapter XV. The Fall of Man. 
 
 1. The Nature of Human Sin. 
 
 The existence of human sin is an undeniable fact. There 
 is general agreement as to certain acts, words and thoughts 
 
PART SECOND SIN. 
 
 75 
 
 being wrong and the sin offerings which have been brought 
 among all nations, from time immemorial, are an acknowl- 
 edgment of human consciousness of sin. But what is that, 
 which we call "sin?" Is it a substance or a principle, a 
 condition or an act? 
 
 a. Sensuous theory. Without considering the theory that 
 sin is equivalent to matter, which is contrary to Bible teach- 
 ing, and entirely destroys the moral aspect of good and 
 evil, we first have to consider the sensuous theory, which 
 regards sin as the necessary product of man's sensuous 
 nature. This view is partly founded on a misunderstanding 
 of the use of the word "flesh" in Eomans 8 and elsewhere. 
 It defines sin as the predominance of the appetites of the 
 body over the higher, spiritual part of man. But, accord- 
 ing to Scripture, the most sinful beings are evil spirits, and 
 if the body only were the seat of sin, its decay in old age 
 ought to make a man virtuous, while in reality the aged 
 sinner gets hardened in pride and unbelief. Above all, if 
 sin were an inherent attribute of our physical nature, God 
 in being the author of our bodily organism, would be the 
 responsible originator of human sin. 
 
 b. Limitation theory. This theory explains sin as a neces- 
 sary result of the limitations of man's finite being: "God 
 alone is perfect, because he is infinite ; no created being can 
 be perfect. When God created the world, he made man 
 weak and liable to error, because the creature cannot be 
 otherwise. Hence sin is identical with limitation and weak- 
 ness and a necessary attribute of humanity." But if such 
 were the case, sin ought to be an object of pity and not of 
 condemnation before God. This view of sin contradicts 
 both conscience and Scripture, by denying human respon- 
 sibility and putting the blame of sin on the Creator. 
 
 c. Antagonistic theory. Some contend that all life, the 
 moral as well as the physical, moves in contrasts. As there 
 is no light without a shadow, there oan be no goodness 
 
76 
 
 CHRISTIAN DOCTRINE. 
 
 without its counterpart — badness, or sin. The moral world 
 without any wrong-doing would be a stagnant pool without 
 commotion, a monotonous harmony without the discord of 
 sin. Sin is the necessary' disharmony which leads to a 
 higher harmony, therefore ian element in human education 
 and a means of progress. But if sin were the mother of 
 holiness, God would have ordained the existence of some- 
 thing which he now punishes. Compare Paul's declaration, 
 Rom. 3 :8, "as some affirm that we say, Let us do evil, that 
 good may come; whose condemnation is just." 
 
 d. Scriptural definition.. While it can be said that all 
 men have a vague consciousness of sin as an evil, a defect 
 or a crime, there seems to be no proper conception of the 
 nature of sin outside of the sphere of revealed religion. 
 For there can be no proper definition of sin which makes 
 no reference to a personal God. According to the testimony 
 of Scripture, which is confirmed by the Christian conscience, 
 sin is 1st. Alienation from God and 2d. Transgression of 
 the law of God. Comp. Rom. 8 :7, "The carnal mind is 
 enmity against God," and I John 3 A, "Sin is the trans- 
 gression of the law." 
 
 Sin has reference to a law which represents the will of 
 God. The creature must live and act in conformity with 
 the will of the Creator — must obey God. Sin means dis- 
 regard of that will, disobedience, transgression of God's law. 
 
 As the lawgiver and his law are inseparable, God himself 
 is the proper center of the life of the creature, the center 
 around which the thought, feeling and volition of the 
 creature must revolve. Sin means the opposite tendency, 
 a mode of existence in which the place of God is usurped by 
 the creature. The sinner is out of harmony with God, 
 alienated from him, ungodly. Sin is self-love, self-seeking, 
 selfishness. 
 
 2. The Temptation. 
 The existence of sin in the world of man calls for an 
 
PART SECOND SIN. 
 
 77 
 
 explanation of its origin. Reason affords no light on this 
 question, but the Bible, in the third chapter of Genesis, 
 gives an account of how our first parents lost their state of 
 communion with God, through Satan's temptation and their 
 disobedience to the divine commandment. While this ac- 
 count, in its childlike simplicity, may contain some symbol- 
 ical features, there is no reason for declaring it a mere 
 allegory or myth. It certainly furnishes the most rational 
 explanation of the present condition of man. Christ and 
 the apostles repeatedly refer to it as a historical fact and 
 we may well accept it as true in all its essential parts. The 
 record speaks of two trees in the garden of Eden which, 
 by divine appointment, had a peculiar significance, the one, 
 the tree of life, an emblem of man's communion with God 
 and a pledge of immortal life, the other, the tree of 
 knowledge, the emblem of man's freedom of choice, with 
 regard to his relation to the Creator. God forbade the 
 eating of its fruit. He did not forbid the knowledge of 
 good and evil but gave the commandment, in order to evoke 
 the free obedience of man. It was the experimental knowl- 
 edge of evil which Adam and Eve were to avoid. They 
 were to learn to know the good as something which they, 
 by their own free choice, desired and practiced, and the 
 evil as a possibility which they did not desire and would 
 not admit into their being. As the medium of probation 
 was a tree, so the instrument of temptation was a serpent, 
 so that both the animal and the vegetable world were in- 
 volved in the fall. But the serpent was simply a disguise 
 of Satan, the evil spirit, as was later made plain to man 
 (John 8:44, II Cor. 11:3, Rev. 12:9). 
 
 The temptation is described as having proceeded in three 
 stages, viz., first, exaggeration of the prohibition and doubt 
 with regard to its meaning; second, direct denial of its 
 truth and a promise; third, the aAvakening of pride and 
 lust. By presenting the fruit of the tree to the eye, the 
 
78 
 
 CHRISTIAN DOCTRINE. 
 
 sensuous nature was appealed to, While the prospect of 
 independence and knowledge ("be as God" and "desired 
 to make wise") was calculated to rouse a feeling of self- 
 will and conceit. Thus man fell inwardly, before the out- 
 ward act was committed. Allowing self to take the place 
 of God, gave rise to desire and desire led to the act of 
 transgression (James 1:15, Gen. 3:1-6). Eve ate of the 
 forbidden fruit. Adam followed her example and thus 
 through the parentage of self-will and desire, sin was born 
 into the world of man. How it was possible, that the first 
 evil inclination found lodgment in the pure heart of man, 
 we are, indeed, unable to explain. But the Biblical account 
 of the origin of human sin is the best that has ever been 
 given. 
 
 3. Immediate Effects of the Fall. 
 
 Adam and Eve, at once, realized the difference between 
 good and evil, by finding themselves in the evil. They had 
 become their own gods, by being inwardly separated from 
 the grace of the Creator ; but all that they had gained was a 
 feeling of shame and fear. Their conscience was disturbed 
 by the sense of spiritual disgrace and loss of the proper 
 balance, in the spirit's rule over the impulses of sense. The 
 higher element in man had followed the suggestions of the 
 lower, animal, nature and Adam and Eve felt that they 
 were now no longer able to control their appetites which, 
 hitherto pure and good, had become perverse. This con- 
 sciousness of disorder produced the feeling of shame which, 
 in turn, resulted in the feeling of guilt and fear. 
 
 With this internal effect of the fall came a realization of 
 the outward consequences of sin, as expressed in the story 
 of the divine judgment, which followed the fall and in the 
 sentence of trouble, disease and death pronounced upon the 
 sinners. That physical death, in the sense of change, decay 
 and dissolution of the body, was in this world before the 
 appearance of man and therefore before the entrance of 
 
PART SECOND SIN. 
 
 79 
 
 sin, seems to be an established fact. Whether or not the 
 apparent physical suffering and death in the animal crea- 
 tion is explained on the ground of a judicial anticipation 
 of the entrance of sin, as some think (Rom. 8:21, 22), it is 
 evident that the nature of man's body as formed of earthly 
 materials implied the possibility of mortality or dissolution 
 from the first. But what was only possible, became actual, 
 when the soul was no longer able to spiritualize the body 
 and when sinful man was cut off from approach to the 
 "tree of life" (Gen. 3:19, 22). 
 
 4. Why was the Fall not Prevented? 
 
 Here the question is often raised: Why was Satan per- 
 mitted to tempt man? and, could not the creator have given 
 the needful power of resisting the temptation? Some have 
 made the reply, that sin was evidently a necessity for bring- 
 ing about the desired progress of the human race or for the 
 final increase of man's happiness, because he would never 
 have known the depth of the love and mercy of God, had he 
 not fallen into sin. But as it is an axiom of Christian 
 faith, that the holy God cannot ordain sin in order to effect 
 good by it, we cannot accept that reply. The cause of the 
 temptation and of Adam's fall, must lie in man's freedom 
 and the need of a conscious choice between Good and Evil. 
 Man made his choice contrary to the will of God. 
 
 We may say, however, that the Creator made provision 
 for the eventuality of man's fall in various ways: 
 
 a. He created man a physico-spiritual being, in which the 
 human personality but gradually grows into full conscious- 
 ness and corresponding responsibility. Accordingly the 
 Fall of man was not the apostacy of a fixed personality and 
 a fully determined will. It was a sin of weakness rather 
 than of presumption. 
 
 b. By allowing the temptation to approach man from 
 without, God lessened the effects of the Fall and prevented 
 an absolute ruin. It was the mitigating circumstance of 
 
so 
 
 CHRISTIAN DOCTRINE. 
 
 man's Fall, that his sin did not originate within himself. 
 
 c. The body of man, while it was a factor in the trans- 
 gression, also helped to divert the worst consequences of 
 sin through sickness, suffering and death. Furthermore, 
 as the physical part in man was the medium of temptation, 
 it has also been made the medium of salvation, through the 
 incarnation of Christ and through the preaching of the 
 Gospel. 
 
 d. Although we dare not say that man will eventually 
 attain to a higher objective felicity through his Fall, his 
 subjective enjoyment of salvation may be heightened, by his 
 having tasted the bitterness of sin and having learned to 
 know Christ as the Saviour from sin. 
 
 Chapter XVI. Universality and Guilt of Sin. 
 1. The Inherited Depravity. 
 
 The effects and consequences of the Fall were not con- 
 fined to our first ancestors. They have influenced the en- 
 tire race of man. How the first sin gave rise to the sins of 
 countless millions of mankind, on this point the Bible gives 
 us no information. It simply states the fact, that there is 
 a causal connection between Adam's trangression and the 
 sins of his descendants. In particular does Paul in Rom. 
 5 :12 declare, that "through one man sin entered into the 
 world and death through sin; and so death passed unto 
 all men, for that all sinned," and in v. 19 : "through the 
 one man's disobedience the many were made sinners." 
 The nature of the connection between the first Fall and the 
 sins of Adam's posterity is not stated and we may not be 
 able to explain it, but the results of the inheritance are 
 clearly taught here and elsewhere in Scripture and con- 
 firmed by experience. 
 
 Both in the Old and the New Testaments man's present 
 nature is defined as flesh" (Gen. 6:3 and John 3:6). Man 
 has lost the true spiritual life. His physical and his moral 
 
PART SECOND SIN. 
 
 81 
 
 activity are no longer ruled by the spirit, but by the flesh. 
 The leading attributes of this state of man — the natural 
 human character — are designated, on the one hand, as 
 weakness, physical and spiritual infirmity, on the other hand, 
 as positive enmity against spiritual and divine things. And 
 this inherited corruption is coextensive with humanity, how- 
 ever different in degree it may be. All men are liable to 
 disease and death and all are sinners. The natural tendency 
 of every man is to be selfish, to live for himself rather than 
 to love God and to live for God (Rom. 5 :14 and 8 :7). This 
 is what is sometimes called "original sin" (peccatum 
 originale), because it is accounted for on the ground of 
 inheritance from the first ancestors and clings to every 
 individual human being as a member of the race. The 
 use of the term "original sin" however, is objectionable as 
 liable to misunderstanding. 
 
 2. The Pelagian Heresy. 
 
 The doctrine of a universal depravity of the human race 
 and of the connection of the prevailing corruption with 
 Adam's Fall was first openly denied by the British monk 
 Pelagius, who taught that sin is not propagated and that 
 the fall of our first parents has exercised no prejudicial 
 influence on their posterity. All men are born in a state 
 of innocence, possess the power of free will and may there- 
 fore live without sin, if they earnestly strive to do so. They 
 are by nature neither holy nor sinful, except that children 
 now born are exposed to evil influences by precept and ex- 
 ample. Sin is not a condition or natural state, but only a 
 voluntary act. God does not require more than man can do. 
 Hence only a deliberate choice of evil is sinful. 
 
 This Pelagian heresy was condemned by the Council of 
 Carthage, A.D. 412, the Church having fully endorsed the 
 teaching of Augustine, that Adam's sin made all his pos- 
 terity sinful and alienated from God. However, the decla- 
 6 
 
82 
 
 CHRISTIAN DOCTRINE. 
 
 ration of some Church Fathers, that man, born in sin, can 
 do absolutely nothing that is good, stirred up new opposition, 
 which took shape in the so-ealled Semipelagian doctrine. It 
 held, that the effect of Adam's sin was to make the body 
 mortal and the soul inclined to evil, but the sinner is able 
 to begin the work of conversion by co-operating with the 
 grace of God, in gaining salvation and sanctification. Semi- 
 pelagianism, also, was condemned by several Church councils 
 as a heresy, although the Roman Catholic Church before 
 the Reformation in the sixteenth century, practically, taught 
 it almost everywhere. However, the Reformers and the 
 Catholic Council of Trent again took their stand on the 
 Augustinian doctrine, as taught in the Bible and confirmed 
 by Christian consciousness. 
 
 3. The Universality of Sin. 
 The points comprised under the general head of univer- 
 sal depravity appear to be the following : 
 
 a. It is coextensive with the race. All men are infected 
 with sin. We are a race of sinners. No tribe, family or 
 individual is entirely free from the contamination. There 
 is no place found, where sin is not and none from which 
 it can be excluded. We have no record of any human being 
 that is or was without fault or sin. The universality of sin 
 offerings among pagan nations testifies to the general con- 
 viction of man in regard to this fact. The Old Testament 
 ritual is based upon the supposition that all men are guilty 
 of transgression and the testimony of Holy Scripture both 
 in the Old and New Testament is plain and emphatic. 
 Compare I Kings 8 :46, "There is no man that sinneth not 
 Rom. 3 :23, "for all have sinned and fall short of the glory 
 of God ;" I J ohn 1 :10, "If we say that we have not sinned, 
 we make him a liar, and his word is not in us." 
 
 b. It is a radical evil. We need not, endorse the declara- 
 tion of Augustine that "all the virtues of the heathen are 
 but shining vices." Men are not all equally wicked or 
 
PART SECOND SIX. 
 
 83 
 
 altogether destitute of moral worth. They are certainly 
 able to distinguish between right and wrong, to choose the 
 good and to reject the evil. Some are naturally "righteous," 
 pure and unselfish. But they all have the taint of sin in 
 the form of a corrupt germ or tendency and this is a radical 
 evil, a poison that has penetrated to the very core of man's 
 being. It is impossible to get rid of it. Men have subjected 
 themselves to painful discipline, they have withdrawn from 
 society ,they have made every effort to eradicate the evil 
 tendency; all to no avail. 
 
 c. It is propagated by heredity. That this universal and 
 deep-rooted corruption in its twofold manifestation of sin 
 and death stands in connection with the fall of Adam and 
 Eve, is distinctly taught in Rom. 5 :12, 18. It is propagated 
 from generation to generation. It shows itself in early 
 childhood, before example or precept have influenced the 
 child either way. As soon as the child becomes capable of 
 any moral manifestation, a tendency to self-will, envy and 
 anger is likely to be noticed and the natural development, 
 if left to itself, is worldly and not godly (Ps. 51:5). "We 
 inherit from our ancestors not only their bodily peculiari- 
 ties and mental qualities, but also the moral and religious 
 disposition. Repeated sins, which have become fixed habits, 
 are thus transmitted to the descendants, so that the children 
 come into the world with a disordered nature. They also 
 come into a world, where sin abounds and are affected by 
 the sinful environment, which is a part of our race inherit- 
 ance. Thus the fall of Adam has affected all his posterity 
 physically, intellectually and spiritually. The entire race 
 is implicated in the consequences of Adam's sin. 
 
 4. Theories of Imputation. 
 
 A question much debated among theologians has been 
 that of the "Imputation of Adam's sin," in other words, 
 the question whether all men are held responsible — liable to 
 condemnation — for this inherited depravity or not? The 
 
84 
 
 CHRISTIAN DOCTRINE. 
 
 term Imputation comes from the Vulgate Translation of 
 Rom. 5 :12, 13, "in quo imputantur," but there is no agree- 
 ment as to the exact meaning attached to the word. The 
 principal theories on Imputation are the following: 
 
 a. Natural Head Theory (Augustine). It holds, that God 
 imputes the sin of Adam to all his posterity in virtue of 
 the organic unity by which the whole race at the time of 
 Adam's transgression existed enclosed in their common 
 ancestor, like the oak-tree in the acorn. The total life of 
 humanity was then in Adam and his will was that of the 
 race. All humanity acted responsibly in him. 
 
 b. Federal Head Theory (Cocceius of Leyden, +1669). 
 According to this theory Adam was constituted by God's 
 appointment the representative of the whole human race. 
 With Adam God entered into a covenant, in accordance with 
 wbich God accounts all his descendants as sinners because 
 of Adam's transgression. As the head of a nation is held 
 responsible for the people and the latter for their ruler, 
 thus Adam's posterity is punished for the breaking of the 
 covenant on the part of the federal head of the human race. 
 
 c. Preexistence Theory (Origen). Some who believe that 
 man existed in another state, before he was born into this 
 material world, claim that all men have voluntarily and 
 individually sinned against God, in that preexistent state, 
 and are now burdened with the guilt of sin committed in 
 the spirit, before their earthly birth. 
 
 d. Mediate Imputation Theory (Placeus of Saumur, 
 + 1655). Some deny all direct imputation of Adam's sin, 
 but believe in an indirect or mediate imputation. We in- 
 herit a corrupt nature and sinful tendencies and it is this 
 hereditary taint which makes us guilty before God. Adam's 
 sin is not imputed to us in Adam, but in ourselves, because 
 the inborn depravity is the source of all actual sin. Not 
 the wickedness of sin, but the liability to punishment is 
 imputed. 
 
PAET SECOND SIN. 
 
 85 
 
 e. No Imputation. Many theologians, to whom none of 
 the preceding theories seemed satisfactory, have entirely 
 discarded the idea of an imputation of guilt on account of 
 Adam's fall. Leaving out of consideration the Pelagian 
 error that there is no such thing as inherited depravity, 
 both the Arminian and the "New School" (New England) 
 theologians have rejected the imputation of Adam's guilt, 
 the former holding that the depraved nature of the de- 
 scendants does not in itself involve guilt, unless consciously 
 appropriated, the latter that nothing can be properly called 
 sin except a voluntary act of transgression. 
 
 5. The Question of Responsibility. 
 As already stated, the advocates of the doctrine of impu- 
 tation base their arguments mainly upon St. Paul's teach- 
 ing in Rom. 5 :12-21, and much can be said in favor of both 
 the theories, of the natural and of the federal headship of 
 Adam. "We see the principle of representation exemplified 
 throughout the entire course of history. God's moral 
 government in dispensing sufferings and happiness, judges 
 nations as an organic whole. Compare Ex. 34:7, "visiting 
 the iniquity of the fathers upon the children, and upon the 
 children's children," also Jerem. 32 :18, and the self-impre- 
 cation of the Jews : "His blood be on us and on our chil- 
 dren," bitterly fulfilled in their descendants. Children do 
 bear the iniquity of their fathers. But, does that prove 
 that the children are responsible for the iniquity of their 
 fathers? Will a righteous God hold the generation of men 
 now born into the world guilty for the sin committed by 
 Adam and Eve, because it has been transmitted to them? 
 Could the God of love condemn a soul to eternal punish- 
 ment because of the involuntary inheritance of a depraved 
 nature? That is utterly at variance with our conception 
 of God. 
 
 We must keep in view the twofold position of man. On 
 the one hand, he is a free agent, personally accountable, an 
 
86 
 
 CHRISTIAN DOCTRINE. 
 
 individual being, created after the image of God; on the 
 other hand, he is but a small part of the human race, limited 
 and influenced by heredity and environment. All men, as 
 descended from one pair and members of the same family, 
 share in the hereditary taint of sin and the hereditary taint 
 of suffering, in ungodly tendencies and desires, in lack of 
 true understanding and in physical weakness and disease. 
 This corrupt or disordered nature debars the natural man 
 from communion with the holy God and excludes him from 
 the kingdom of heaven. But personal guilt and punishment 
 for guilt can be attributed or imputed only, where there is 
 personal assent to the evil, as is also taught in Scripture. 
 Compare Ezek. 18 :20, "The son shall not bear the iniquity 
 of the father," Jer. 31 :30, "Every one shall die for his own 
 iniquity." 
 
 Accordingly, the inherited corruption unfits man for 
 heaven, but does not as such condemn him to punishment. 
 If the Son of God had not come to redeem mankind, it would 
 be a question, what becomes of children who die before 
 they have committed any conscious sin and yet are separated 
 from God by their natural depravity. But now the question 
 of imputation is of no practical consequence, as Paul writes 
 in Rom. 5 :19, "As through the one man's disobedience the 
 many were made sinners, even so through the obedience of 
 the one shall the many be made righteous." As the right- 
 eousness of Christ does not save us, unless we personally 
 receive and appropriate it, so Adam's sin does not condemn 
 us, unless we have made it our own. 
 
 6. Personal Guilt. 
 With the awakening of moral consciousness begins the 
 responsibility for transgression. Whether the voice of con- 
 science is heard before, warning us not to yield to the evil 
 tendency or whether that voice speaks only after the evil 
 is committed, we feel guilty of sin, irrespective of any in- 
 herited depravity. To a greater or less extent, all men, 
 
PART SECOND SIN. 
 
 87 
 
 beginning at childhood, consent by free choice to the tempta- 
 tions which come to them from their disordered nature and 
 sinful surroundings. Some, indeed, appear to be born into 
 a state of greater corruption than others, so that their 
 personal responsibility is lessened. 
 
 It exceeds our power of discrimination, to decide how 
 much of the sin committed is due to heredity and environ- 
 ment, and how much to free choice. Accordingly, we cannot 
 determine the measure of personal guilt in other men, and 
 especially among the heathen. We cannot even judge our- 
 selves. But under the new covenant, (the covenant of salva- 
 tion), there is but one sin which actually and definitely 
 condemns the sinner, viz., a willful rejection of the offer 
 of salvation in Christ Jesus (John 3 :36). 
 
 Chapter XVII. The Growth of Sin and its Successive 
 Stages. 
 
 1. Not all Equally Sinful. 
 
 The universal depravity of mankind does not exclude 
 grades in sinfulness. There are men who know nothing of 
 redeeming grace and yet are naturally good, well disposed 
 and honest. It can be said of them that they are "not far 
 from the kingdom of God" (Mark 12:34), while others seem 
 very depraved. There are those who may be called virtuous, 
 and there may even be a progress in the direction of 
 righteousness, though, as a rule, the tendency is toward in- 
 creased transgression, indifference and spiritual blindness. 
 The term "total depravity" which is frequently applied to 
 all unconverted men, if it is to express a state of utter 
 wickedness, is hardly appropriate. 
 
 We find whole families, and even tribes of men, in whom 
 honesty, sobriety, and a certain religiousness seem to be a 
 hereditary possession, while in others sin has attained a 
 luxuriant growth and produces the most abominable vices. 
 Piety and morality can be improved by training and ex- 
 
8S 
 
 CHRISTIAN DOCTRINE. 
 
 ample. Environments, even the climate, have much to do 
 with the manifestation of either sin or righteousness. 
 Furthermore, special visitations of grace or of discipline, 
 provided by the educational wisdom of God, frequently put 
 a check upon the gross outbursts of sin, and moral reforma- 
 tions are frequently brought about in nations, as well as in 
 individuals, after they have been, for a time, totally given 
 over to the practice of sin. 
 
 2. The Power of Sin. 
 While, therefore, the natural man is not always as de- 
 praved as he might be, yet standing, as he does, in a false 
 relation to God, the main purpose of his life is wrong. His 
 virtue does not satisfy the demands of perfect righteousness 
 and holiness, and cannot be acceptable to God. The sinful 
 corruption within operates like a poison, spreading itself 
 simultaneously with the growth of consciousness. The 
 heart, the fountain of life, is ungodly; accordingly the 
 conscience is being defiled, the spiritual understanding is 
 dimmed and the will is enslaved to sin. The body also 
 yields its members as "instruments of unrighteousness" 
 (Rom. 6:13). Every outbreak of sin prepares the way for 
 another outbreak, as sin begets sin. The evil propensity 
 waxes stronger, while the restraining power grows weaker. 
 
 3. Classification of Sins. 
 
 It is customary to distinguish between gross sins and 
 light sins, and this distinction has some foundation in John 
 19:11, "he hath greater sin," and in Luke 12:48, "shall be 
 beaten with few stripes," etc. However, since God alone 
 knows the heart and all the conditions and circumstances 
 which shape a man's course, he only can decide which sins 
 are really gross or light, great or small. 
 
 As to the manifestations of sin, we distinguish between 
 sins of lust and sins of pride. The former result from 
 man's degrading himself beneath the sphere assigned to him, 
 
PART SECOND — SIN. 
 
 89 
 
 to the level of the brute, the latter from his trying to raise 
 himself above his station and thus running the risk of be- 
 coming a devil. Compare I John 2 :16, "the lust of the 
 flesh, and the lust of the eyes and the vain glory of life," 
 and I Tim. 3 :6, "lest being puffed up he fall into the con- 
 demnation of the devil." 
 
 Other classifications of sins are: a. Sins against God, 
 against our neighbor and against ourselves, h. Sins of com- 
 mission and omission, c. Sins in thought, word and deed. 
 d. Sins of ignorance and sins of presumption, that is, wil- 
 fully committed. 
 
 The Roman Church, in addition, distinguishes between 
 what are called venial sins (peccata venalia) and mortal 
 sins (peccata mortalia), a distinction based upon I John 
 5 :16. Mortal sins, they say, are those that "subvert the 
 end of the law," venial or pardonable sins only "divert" 
 the end of God's law to some extent. We hold that every 
 sin unpardoned is mortal, and that all sins are pardonable, 
 since Christ has died for all, provided they are repented of. 
 
 4. Stages of Sin. 
 
 In the growth and development of sin, we can distinguish 
 four successive stages which follow upon each other in 
 natural order. 
 
 o. The first is the state of discord. It arises from the 
 disharmony between the sinful tendency and the spiritual 
 desire in man. The natural man may live for a shorter or 
 longer time without becoming aware of any such discord. 
 The law of God is not revealed to the heart, as Paul writes :. 
 "I had not known sin, except through the law . . . And I was 
 alive apart from the law once" (Rom. 7 :7, 9). But then 
 there is a conflict going on within, between the dictates of 
 conscience on the one hand and evil desires on the other 
 hand, as Paul expresses it in Rom. 7 :14, "we know that the 
 law is spiritual, but I am carnal, sold under sin." 
 
90 
 
 CHRISTIAN DOCTRINE. 
 
 b. Slavery. The result of this conflict, as a rule, is 
 spiritual bondage. The sinful tendency prevails. After a 
 short struggle man becomes a captive to a hostile power. 
 He is compelled to do what he feels to be wrong, although 
 conscience upbraids him. Rom. 7 :19, "For the good which 
 I would, I do not; but the evil which I would not, that I 
 practice." 
 
 c. False Security. The oftener a man thus acts against 
 better knowledge, the less and less vigorous the resisting 
 power and the protest of conscience become. Sinful acts 
 produce sinful habits, and sinful habits form a sinful 
 character. The evil strikes deeper roots in the will, as well 
 as in the perception and feeling of the sinner, resulting in 
 a condition of spiritual indifference, which in Scripture is 
 referred to under the figure of a deep sleep or even of 
 death. Eph. 6 :14, "Awake thou that sleepest and arise 
 from the dead." 
 
 d. Hardening of heart. The la9t stage in this downward 
 progress is that of positive unwillingness to be roused from 
 the state of indifference, a state of conscious hardening of 
 the heart against the divine testimony. Often the sinner is 
 drawn out of this condition by divine chastisement or 
 mercy; but if it continues unchecked, the sleep of sin can 
 only end in spiritual death. Sin gains complete control 
 over the sinner who loses the faculty for repentance. He 
 takes delight in the evil as such and eventually becomes 
 entirely identified with sin. He commits the sin to which 
 our Saviour refers as the unpardonable sin. 
 
 5. Sin against the Holy Spirit. 
 When the Pharisees, with deliberate falsehood, ascribed 
 the works of healing performed by Christ to the power of 
 the devil, they were warned not to blaspheme against the 
 Holy Spirit, because "whosoever shall speak against the 
 Holy Spirit, it shall not be forgiven him, neither in this 
 world nor in that which is to come" (Matth. 12:32). The 
 
PART SECOND SIN. 
 
 91 
 
 context of the passage quoted and the general declarations 
 of Scripture on this point make it plain, that the Sin 
 against the Holy Spirit is not to be regarded as an isolated 
 act, but as the culmination of a long course of self -hardening. 
 The blasphemous words of Christ's enemies were an 
 evidence of deliberate opposition and conscious rejection of 
 the salvation offered to the world through Christ Jesus. 
 The Holy Spirit represents the last and highest manifesta- 
 tion of the saving grace of God. The Pharisees were in 
 danger of committing the unpardonable sin by their obsti- 
 nate impenitence and hardening of the heart. 
 
 Some contend that this sin cannot be committed at the 
 present time, because eyewitnesses only of Christ's miracles 
 had such conclusive evidence of the gracious revelation of 
 God. as seems necessary for a wilful and final rejection of 
 salvation. However, all sinning against better knowledge 
 is a step in that direction, because it tends to destroy 
 spiritual life, and the sin against the Holy Ghost is 
 spiritual suicide (compare Heb. 10:26). It is unpardon- 
 able, not because of any lack of saving power in Christ, but 
 because those who commit this sin, will not repent and 
 seek forgiveness. 
 
 Whether or not in any special case, this sin has been com- 
 mitted, men can not decide. However deep a sinner may 
 have fallen, however long he may have continued impeni- 
 tent, however terrible may be his despair, when at last he 
 realizes his condition, every sinner can obtain pardon and 
 peace with God, provided he repents. But Holy Scripture 
 solemnly warns the sinner not to harden his heart, for fear 
 that, eventually, repentance and a change of heart may 
 become impossible (Hebr. 6:4-6, I John 5:16). 
 
92 
 
 CHRISTIAN DOCTRINE. 
 
 Chapter XVIII. The Penalty of Sin. 
 
 1. Why Sin is Punished. 
 By penalty of sin we mean every pain or loss, direct 
 or indirect, by which the transgressor pays for his wrong- 
 doing, whether the suffering be the natural consequence of 
 the sin committed or a positive infliction of punishment. 
 That sin be punished, is demanded both by the power of 
 God and by his holiness. Unpunished sin would present 
 the alternative, either that God had no power to conquer 
 sin, or that he was reconciled to the evil. Punishment of 
 sin is not at variance with God's love. He is always the 
 same loving God, even though to the sinner he appears as a 
 stern judge; just as the sun always shines the same, but 
 dark clouds may intervene or his rays, which quicken the 
 vital germs and produce vigor and beauty, may scorch and 
 destroy that which has lost its vitality. Punishment for 
 sin is a simple asserting of the holiness of God and of his 
 law. 
 
 The Biblical terms which are used to express divine dis- 
 pleasure, particularly those in the Old Testament, may 
 appear to some inappropriate and unworthy of God, relics 
 of a supposed narrow view of the Father in heaven. They 
 are, doubtless, borrowed from the conduct of an offended 
 human ruler or judge. The wrath, anger, curse, revenge 
 of God are all anthropopathic illustrations, but they are no 
 exaggerations. They express forcibly and graphically the 
 fact that sin is an abomination before the holy God, some- 
 thing that cannot be endured or condoned (Bom. 1 :18). 
 
 2. Degrees of Punishment. 
 
 There are different degrees or stages of punishment, even 
 as there are different grades of sin. 
 
 a. The first experience of the divine displeasure comes to 
 the sinner through the moral consciousness that he has lost 
 the true relation to God. This we call the evil conscience, 
 
PART SECOND — SIN. 
 
 93 
 
 the voice within, which tells man that, by transgressing the 
 divine law, he has rendered himself unworthy of the divine 
 favor. Conscience speaks with authority and pronounces 
 judgment on our acts as well as on our condition, either 
 past or present. The effect of this testimony is a feeling of 
 unrest, fear and remorse. The pangs of conscience may 
 become a source of great suffering, more painful than 
 physical affliction. 
 
 b. The next form of punishment for sin is physical and 
 social pain or loss. The sinner, because he is separated 
 from the fountain of life and happiness, must expect suffer- 
 ing, whether it comes as the natural result of a trans- 
 gression of physical and social laws or as a providential ap- 
 pointment. Bodily weakness and disease, various affec- 
 tions of the mind, as well as domestic and social troubles, 
 poverty, bereavement, grief and shame, in short all the 
 sufferings to which man is liable are, at least indirectly, the 
 fruit and penalty of sin. In many cases the troubles that 
 come upon us, are simply the result of our own mistakes 
 and wrong doings, "we reap what we have sown;" in other 
 cases there is no apparent connection of personal guilt. 
 There is individual sin and punishment, and there is race 
 sin, with race punishment. Natural calamities which visit 
 a community or an entire nation, such as : war, famine and 
 epidemics, must be traced to the same cause. The Flood, 
 the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, the plagues of 
 Egypt, the Babylonish captivity and the destruction of 
 Jerusalem by the Romans are mentioned in Scripture as 
 examples of the rule, that human sin is punished by physical 
 and social suffering. It must not be concluded, however, 
 that sin and suffering always stand in the same proportion 
 to each other, neither can the degree of the individual guilt 
 be measured by the degree of suffering to which a man or 
 a community is subjected. (Luke 13 :4, "those eighteen upon 
 whom the tower of Siloam fell and killed them, think ye 
 
94 
 
 CHRISTIAN DOCTRINE. 
 
 that they were offenders above all the men that dwell in 
 Jerusalem? I tell you Nay.") Some men suffer because 
 of the transgression of their parents, some, by special divine 
 ordaining, for their own improvement, and some for the 
 benefit of others. 
 
 c. To the class of earthly and temporal punishments for 
 sin, finally, belongs bodily death or the separation of the 
 soul from the body. It is on account of sin, that men are 
 doomed to die and that the body returns to the dust from 
 which it was taken. Death is a race punishment, which 
 befalls the bad and the relatively good alike. Accordingly, 
 it is generally anticipated by men with feelings of fear 
 and anxiety. Rom. 6 :23, "The wages of sin is death." 
 
 3. Punishment as a Means of Grace. 
 
 All earthly punishments, be they of the moral, social or 
 physical kind, are at the same time means of grace, that is, 
 a discipline intended to save the sinner from future punish- 
 ment. All natural evils are checks upon sin and incentives 
 to repentance and salvation. While it has been rightly 
 said, that the primary object of penalty is not reformatory 
 or preventive, but vindication of the sanctity of the law, 
 there is always an element of grace in the divine punish- 
 ment. Bodily death even, the last earthly punishment, may 
 often become a means of grace. The certain approach of 
 death, as well as the uncertainty of the time when it may 
 come, are strong incentives to turn from things temporal to 
 things eternal. In many afflictions that come upon us, it is 
 not possible to determine objectively, how far they repre- 
 sent punishment or how far the educational wisdom of a 
 loving parent is manifested. (Compare the different pro- 
 portion of chastisement prompted by love and a simple 
 punitive justice, in the three relations: of parent and child, 
 master and servant, judge and criminal). 
 
PART THIRD CHRIST, THE SAVIOUR. 
 
 95 
 
 4. Future Punishment. 
 The last punishment for sin, which the Bible calls 
 "second death" (Rev. 20 :14) and "everlasting punish- 
 ment," is reserved for those who are unsusceptible to the 
 correction of earthly chastisement. When through con- 
 tinued impenitence the sinner renders himself unable to 
 repent and to be saved, when, consequently, divine love 
 finds no room any more to reveal itself, then penal justice 
 alone comes into action Which delivers the sinner to de- 
 struction. This is the future punishment, described nega- 
 tively as a state of everlasting banishment from the 
 presence of God, involving the complete loss of true life and 
 happiness and positively in the suffering of hell-fire or 
 the punishment prepared for the devil and his angels. See 
 Eschatology, Part Sixth. 
 
part Gbiro— Christ, tbe Saviour. 
 
 Chapteb XIX. The Plan of Salvation. 
 
 1. Salvation Possible. 
 
 Fallen man burdened with the guilt of sin and con- 
 trolled by the power of sin, is utterly unable to save him- 
 self from his sinful state or to restore himself to the lost 
 communion with God. If he is to be saved and restored, 
 help must come from above. John 3 :3, 6, "Except a man 
 be born anew (or from above), he cannot see the kingdom 
 of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh and that 
 which is born of the Spirit is spirit." 
 
 However, there remains the possibility of salvation as 
 long as the sinner still bears the image of God, though 
 greatly defaced, and as long as he is not wholly identified 
 with sin. If the fallen angels cannot be restored to their 
 original state, it must be, because their apostacy was alto- 
 gether a personal and final act. With fallen man the case 
 is different. Though God cannot love the sinner in his sin, 
 he can have compassion upon his creature oppressed by the 
 power of sin and unable to help himself. The unchanging 
 love of God, on the one hand, and the partial ignorance 
 and lack of evil intention in man's fall, on the other hand — 
 constitute the ground on Which the possibility of human re- 
 demption rests. The natural discord in the sinner's heart 
 between the attractions of sin and the demands of con- 
 science, proves that sin is man's second nature only, not his 
 truest essence. Man still has the capacity for being saved, 
 because he is neither beast nor devil, but man. 
 
 2. God's Gracious Purpose. 
 Holy Scripture teaches that the salvation of mankind has 
 been accomplished and that the redemption of the sinner 
 
PART THIRD CHRIST, THE SAVIOUR. 97 
 
 rests on an eternal purpose of God which "he purposed in 
 Christ Jesus before the foundation of the world" (Eph. 
 1:4 and 3:11), and accomplished in the fulness of time. 
 This is what we call the plan of salvation. As the world 
 was created by the Father through the Son of God, so pro- 
 vision for the redemption of the world was made through 
 the only begotten Son. Both Peter and Paul declare that 
 this Saviour was "foreknown indeed before the foundation 
 of the world" (I Peter 1:20) and that the "purpose and 
 grace of God was given us in Christ Jesus before times 
 eternal, but manifested by the appearing of our Saviour 
 Christ Jesus" (II Tim. 1:9). The Apostle Paul, in par- 
 ticular, emphasizes the sovereignty of God in granting this 
 highest benefit to mankind, without respect to any merit 
 or virtue of man, declaring that the salvation of the sinner 
 is in no sense due to his own efforts but is solely the work of 
 divine grace. Incidentally, in Rom. 9 :22, the same apostle 
 also speaks of "vessels of wrath fitted unto destruction," 
 and Peter similarly of some who "stumble at the word, 
 being disobedient, whereunto also they were appointed" 
 (I Pet. 2:8). 
 
 These declarations have called forth many questions and 
 controversies as to the extent of this divine salvation and 
 its bearing upon the free will of man, such as: Is the re- 
 demption provided in the plan of salvation limited or is it 
 universal? Did God predestinate some men unto salvation 
 and others unto perdition irrespective of their personal wish 
 or worthiness? Is there a decree of reprobation as well as 
 an election of grace? 
 
 3. Theories of Predestination. 
 
 The principal theories that have been advanced with 
 regard to the plan of salvation and its results are the fol- 
 lowing : 
 
 a. Supralapsarianixm, the theory, that God before the 
 7 
 
9S 
 
 CHRISTIAN DOCTRINE. 
 
 foundation of the world selected from men to be created a 
 certain number to be recipients of divine mercy and others 
 to be "vessels of wrath," irrespective of the fall of Adam 
 ("supra lapsum") and the spiritual condition of man. 
 
 b. Sublapsarianism (Augustine, Calvin, Luther (?)). God 
 first decreed to permit the fall and then on the strength of 
 his foreknowledge elected from the mass of fallen men (in 
 prospect) a certain number to be saved, while he left the 
 rest to their fate. The Son of God came to save the elect 
 and died for them. The others suffer the consequences of 
 their sins. 
 
 c. Conditional Redemption (Saumur, 1596-1664) . This 
 theory holds that God, indeed, sent his son to die for all and 
 thus provided a universal salvation. But the sinner cannot 
 believe in the Saviour without divine help, without the 
 effective operation of the Holy Spirit within him. This 
 power to receive and to enjoy the objective redemption is 
 given to some; the others perish because they do not believe. 
 
 d. Resistance Theory. Salvation is provided for all men 
 as an act of free grace, which is independent of the will of 
 man. But this grace of God may be resisted and such re- 
 sistance on the part of some is the reason why they are not 
 predestinated unto salvation. God foreknew, who would accept 
 and who would resist. 
 
 e. Arminian Theory. (Arminius of Leyden, Holland, 
 1560-1609). Redemption is not only prepared for all men 
 equally, but it rests altogether with man whether he will 
 accept or reject it. Those who of their own free choice re- 
 pent and believe are saved and those who do not, are lost. 
 Men, therefore, are predestinated unto life or condemnation in 
 so far as they predestinate themselves, by their own will and 
 act. 
 
 4. Arguments for and against Unconditional Predestination. 
 
 Most of the Churches of the Reformation have included 
 the doctrine of predestination among the articles of their 
 
PART THIRD CHRIST, THE SAVIOUR. 
 
 90 
 
 Church Creed, generally choosing between the strict Cal- 
 vinistic and the Resistance theory. 
 
 a. In favor of an unconditional predestination, the fol- 
 lowing arguments are urged : I : The theory is consistent 
 in that it allows no conflicts in the divine mind. If it is 
 certain that some are saved, while others perish, God must 
 have so decreed it; else he would not be sovereign in power. 
 He wills whatever he permits. II. It is a fact that, in re- 
 gard to temporal affairs, men are placed by the hand of 
 God in the most different conditions of happiness. In the 
 matter of our eternal destiny his will, likewise, must be 
 decisive. III. Paul in Rom. 9 :11 and 13 expressly states, 
 that God chose Jacob and rejected Esau, before either of 
 them could do any good or evil, "that the purpose of God 
 according to election might stand." 
 
 b. Against an unconditional predestination note the fol- 
 lowing considerations : I. It is incompatible with the love 
 and justice of God, which demands that all be saved who 
 possibly can be saved. How, otherwise, would the love of 
 God be manifested to a sinner who is predestined to per- 
 dition? II. If God elected men for salvation by a sovereign 
 act of volition, why was it necessary for his son to die for 
 man? Or why should the Saviour pay the penalty of sin 
 for the elect, with so much suffering, if they can be saved 
 by a simple decree of absolute predestination? III. If some 
 men cannot possibly be saved, because they are not pre- 
 destined, how shall they feel any responsibility for a condi- 
 tion which they cannot change? How can any one feel 
 guilty of deserving eternal punishment, simply because he 
 is not "elect"? IV. The general testimony of Scripture is 
 overwhelmingly against a particularistic view. We are 
 taught that God "willeth that all men should be saved" (I 
 Tim. 2:4) and that Christ is "the propitiation for our sins 
 and not for ours only, but also for the whole world" (I 
 John 2:2); that it is the sinner's fault alone, if God's pur- 
 
100 
 
 CHRISTIAN DOCTRINE. 
 
 pose is not fulfilled in him (Matth. 23 :37) and that, at the 
 last judgment, the ungodly go away into the eternal fire 
 which is prepared, not for them, but for the devil (Matth. 
 25:41). 
 
 5. Conclusion. 
 
 Predestination, certainly, is a mystery in regard to which 
 official teaching should confine itself to the plain statements 
 of Scripture. For a comparison of these and for the further 
 harmonizing of apparently contradictory declarations, the 
 following may yet be noticed : 
 
 a. The parallel testimony of Scripture. Both in the Old 
 and in the New Testament we find the two representations: 
 deterministic and undeterministic, absolute and conditional 
 predestination, closely grouped together, e.g., Ex. 3 :19 — 7 :3, 
 Isaiah 1:19, 20—6:9, 10, John 12:43—12:39, John 6:67— 
 6:65, Acts 10:35—13:48, Rom. 2:6—8:30, Phil. 2:12—2:13, 
 1 John 2:28—2:19. 
 
 In the passage of Rom. 9 :11 — 20, which is generally quoted 
 as the decisive Scripture statement of an absolutely uncon- 
 ditional predestination, the apostle makes no reference at 
 all to individual salvation, but to God's dealings with nations 
 and his purpose is to meet the claim of self-righteous Jews, 
 that their prerogatives must be regarded. In the predestina- 
 tion passage of Rom. 8 :29, Paul begins his declaration with 
 the words: "Whom he foreknew, he also foreordained." This 
 implies some willingness on the part of man to be saved as 
 an element in the foreordaining and recognizes the moral 
 responsibility of man as well as the divine sovereignty. 
 
 b. Predestination not limited by our conception of time. 
 May we not profitably, in the attempt to harmonize eternal 
 predestination with tbe exercise of a free will, refer to the 
 divine transcendence of our conceptions of time. If to God 
 all time is an eternal present, predestination before time 
 began, means, independent of human time. Thus the opera- 
 tion of saving grace which, from the standpoint of eternity, 
 
PART THIRD CHRIST, THE SAVIOUR. 101 
 
 is absolute, becomes conditioned by the human will, when 
 it enters the human sphere and relation. 
 
 c. The practical aspect. Whether or not we succeed in 
 finding a place for the human will within the divine pre- 
 destination, it must be evident to a student of the Bible, 
 that the teaching of this doctrine was not intended to furnish 
 a fruitful topic for controversy. Wherever it is referred 
 to in Scripture, it is done with the practical purpose of 
 strengthening God's people and of comforting them in the 
 trials of life. Paul found no difficulty in teaching: "Work 
 out your own salvation Avith fear and trembling: for it is 
 God who worketh in you both to will and to work, for his 
 good pleasure" (Phil. 2:12, 13) and Peter wrote: "Give the 
 more diligence to make your calling and election sure" (II 
 Pet. 1:10). Man may become certain of his being predes- 
 tinated by the evidences of divine grace around him and 
 within him. The Christian who understands his helplessness 
 apart from God and Christ, and his absolute safety and 
 strength, as built upon the divine election of grace, has 
 courage, cheerfulness and power for work, knowing that he 
 "who began the good work in them, will perfect it." 
 
 Chapter XX. The Time of Preparation. 
 
 1. Two Covenants. 
 While the divine plan of salvation made the objective 
 provision for the redemption of fallen man, the latter in 
 turn had to be prepared for this salvation. Accordingly, 
 the history of mankind, from the time of the fall to the 
 coming of the Saviour, was providentially arranged to 
 prepare the way for redemption. Fallen man was excluded 
 from communion with God for two reasons: first, because he 
 is defiled by sin and unable to do the will of God; and 
 second, because he has offended against the holiness of God 
 by his disobedience. Two things, therefore, were required, 
 
102 
 
 CHRISTIAN DOCTRINE. 
 
 in order to restore the sinner to his lost relation, viz., satis- 
 faction for the sins committed, resulting in absolution from 
 guilt; and a regeneration or renewal of the sinner's hear; 
 and life. 
 
 To accomplish this twofold end was the object of God's 
 gracious dealing with sinful humanity. And here Holy 
 Scripture speaks of two covenants or compacts made suc- 
 cessively for this purpose, between God and man. 
 
 a. The Covenant of Works, made first with mankind in 
 general and then with Israel in particular, through the 
 Mosaic Law. The compact was this: Put away sin, make 
 atonement for the past and turn to God with your whole 
 heart, and he will be your God and you shall be his people. 
 Men were asked to make satisfaction for past wrong doings, 
 to abstain from evil and to do what is right before the Lord. 
 If so, God would be gracious to them and bless them. The 
 attempt was made to live up to this compact, by bringing 
 sacrifices for sin, as well as thank offerings and burnt offer- 
 ings to show their devotion and consecration, and by an 
 earnest endeavor to keep the law of God. But it was found 
 that man was unable to fulfill the requirements of this 
 covenant. He could neither make proper satisfaction for 
 sins committed nor live a holy life. 
 
 b. The Covenant of Grace. Moved with compassion for 
 his fallen creatures, God offered another covenant, the 
 covenant of grace. It stipulated that a mediator between 
 God and man should be found, who would do and suffer 
 ■whatever was necessary to bring absolution from guilt and 
 »vho would regenerate the sinner by the divine Spirit. Thus, 
 what man could not attain by his own effort, viz., forgive- 
 ness of sin and righteousness of life, would be provided 
 and bestowed as a free gift. The only condition of the new 
 covenant was faith in the Mediator, a faith which would be 
 counted for righteousness, because it would reunite the sinner 
 with his God. 
 
PART THIRD CHRIST, THE SAVIOUR. 
 
 103 
 
 The working of these two covenants is not strictly suc- 
 cessive, but often simultaneous. While, in general, the time 
 between Adam and Christ was the time of the old covenant 
 of works, enough of the new covenant was anticipated to 
 encourage men in their striving after salvation. 
 
 2. Preparation of the Gentiles. 
 Immediately after the fall, (so we are told in Gen. 3 :15,) 
 God gave the promise of a future restoration, by the 
 "woman's seed bruising the head of the serpent." But four 
 thousand years, or more, passed before this was accom- 
 plished, the object of the long delay being, apparently, to 
 allow sufficient time for man's attempt to reform his life and 
 to atone for his sin, until it was fully proven that this 
 endeavor to redeem himself was fruitless. At the same 
 time the human race was given every opportunity to un- 
 fold and improve the powers and faculties of soul and body, 
 with which it was endowed. The Lord God, like a wise 
 Father, adapted the mental and moral training of man to 
 the needs of the different epochs of history, the needs both 
 of nations and individuals. He raised up among them 
 leaders of the people, kings and priests, prophets and poets, 
 through whom he directed their course, overruled their en- 
 deavors and led them onward in their appointed ways of 
 development. lie did, indeed, "suffer all the nations to walk 
 in their own ways; and yet he left not himself without 
 witness" (Acts 14:16). They became idolaters, worshipping 
 the creature in place of the Creator, stars, plants, animals, 
 fellow men or evil spirits. And they "received in themselves 
 that recompense of their error which was due" (Rom. 1 :27). 
 They fell into many sins and abominable vices, and reaped 
 the wages of their apostacy in physical suffering, disgrace 
 and death. 
 
 Yet the Gentile world, also, had its seasons of refreshing 
 and of temporal and spiritual prosperity. There were times, 
 when the mercy and goodness of God touched the hearts of 
 
104 
 
 CHRISTIAN DOCTRINE. 
 
 men with, a sense of gratitude, or when the divine judgment 
 against evil caused them to turn away from sinful ways 
 (compare Jonah at Nineveh). The history of the Greeks 
 and the Romans, as well as of Egypt and Babylon, shows 
 plainly, especially during certain periods, how large a part 
 of their life was given to religious exercises, to prayer and 
 offering of sacrifices, as St. Paul declared to the Athenians : 
 "In all things I perceive that ye are very religious" (Acts 
 17:22). The Gentiles offered sin offerings, as well as thank 
 offerings, acknowledging both the need of atonement and 
 the obligation to consecrate their property and their time 
 to God. Finally, they were all taught to understand and 
 to feel, more or less clearly, the need of a new divine revela- 
 tion for the salvation of the world. 
 
 3. Preparation of Israel. 
 What in the case of the Gentiles appears to be rather a 
 groping in the dark, with the light of a few scattered stars, 
 was a clear leading of Jehovah in the case of Abraham and 
 his descendants. The people of Israel were not. so much in 
 advance of the Gentiles by superiority in art, culture or 
 political achievements. Their special mission and strength 
 lay in the sphere of religion, to be a witness of revealed truth, 
 both as to human sinfulness and divine deliverance, and we 
 can trace a progressive manifestation of the divine plan of 
 salvation. 
 
 a. Patriarchial Period. The history of Israel began with 
 the special call extended to the man Abram of Ur in Chaldea : 
 "Get thee out of thy country" and the promise "In thee 
 shall all the families of the earth be blessed" (Gen. 12 :3). For 
 a season, the covenant of works was set aside so far as 
 Abraham and his family were concerned. The Lord God, 
 overlooking the barrier of sin which separated Him from 
 the children of men, established with Abraham and his seed 
 the covenant of grace, in the promise of free salvation, and 
 the faith of Abraham was "counted to him for righteous- 
 
PAET THIRD CHRIST, THE SAVIOUR. 105 
 
 ness" (Gen. 15:6). The ram was substituted for the sacrifice 
 of Isaac. 
 
 b. Mosaic Period. But after the promise came the law. 
 God's holy will had to be made known to the children of 
 Israel, in rites and ordinances that were suited to their 
 understanding. The law of Moses was a specialization of 
 the covenant of works. It served several purposes. It 
 separated the sons of Israel from the Gentiles and from 
 their abominations and was a check against any gross out- 
 burst of sin. It brought a knowledge of sin and of the in- 
 ability of the sinner to extricate himself from the power 
 and guilt of sin, showing the hopelessness of man's finding 
 salvation by the works of the law. It also served as a "tutor 
 (schoolmaster) to bring men to Christ" in positive prepara- 
 tion for salvation by its sacrifices, rites and symbols 
 of atonement and purification. Note, particularly, the sin- 
 offering and the burnt-offering, the annual celebration of 
 the pass-over and of the "day of atonement." 
 
 c. Prophetic Period. The relation between the two cove- 
 nants and the meaning of the Mosaic institutions were 
 further explained by the prophets. These combined the two 
 instrumentalities for the preparation of Israel, the promise 
 and the law, in showing the gracious purpose of God both 
 in blessings and in judgments and endeavored to lead their 
 people to a deep conviction of sin, a true longing for deliv- 
 erance and a firm trust in God's gracious promises. 
 
 4. The Promise of Messiah. 
 The hope and the promise of a future redemption, as ex- 
 pressed by the prophets of Israel, gradually found its center 
 in the expectation of the coming of Messiah, the "anointed" 
 ruler who would come to judge the heathen and to save 
 his people. King David personally received the promise of 
 an everlasting kingdom, for himself and his descendants 
 (II Sam. 7:13, 16). To this promise, perhaps, the origin 
 of the idea of the Messiah may be traced. But each of the 
 
106 
 
 CHRISTIAN DOCTRINE. 
 
 prophets whose writings have been handed down to us in 
 the Old Testament Canon seems to have added some promi- 
 nent feature to this ideal of Israel's hope. Jonah, in the 
 order of time apparently the oldest of these prophets, can 
 be regarded as a personal type of the work to be accom- 
 plished by the Messiah, and Joel's prophecy refers to the 
 expected future salvation, without as yet mentioning the 
 author of this salvation (Joel 2:28-33). Amos first sees the 
 house of David again flourish in the latter days (Amos 
 9:11, 14), while Hosea foretells the reunion of the divided 
 kingdoms of Ephraim and Judah under a Davidish king 
 (Hos. 3:4, 5). 
 
 Midway between the time of Moses and the coming of 
 Christ, (about B. C. 720,) a clearer vision arises before the 
 prophetic eye of Micah and Isaiah. In Micah 5 :l-4 Bethle- 
 hem Ephratah is mentioned as the prospective birthplace 
 of the Messiah ; in Isaiah 7 :14 his birth of the virgin and 
 the name Immanuel ("God with us") ; 9 :l-6, his appear- 
 ance in Galilee, and 11:1-10, his divine attributes and 
 peaceful reign. All these prophecies speak of the glory of 
 the Messiah without as yet indicating any struggle or conflict 
 that must precede his exaltation. 
 
 The latter is first pointed out in the second part of Isaiah 
 (chp. 53), in the "servant of Jehovah," who goes through 
 the dark valley of suffering and death, before he reaches 
 the height of glory. Jeremiah confirms the predictions of 
 the earlier prophets and proclaims : "Behold the days come, 
 saith the Lord, that I will raise unto David a righteous 
 Branch (Zemach) and a king shall reign... and this is his 
 name whereby he shall be called, the Lord our Righteousness" 
 (Jerem. 23:5, 6). He also announces a new covenant as 
 the result of Messiah's coming, namely, God's law written in 
 the hearts of men, their sins forgiven, and "I will be their 
 God and they shall be my people" (Jerem. 31:33). EzeTciel 
 represents the bringer of salvation under the name of a good 
 
PART THIRD CHRIST, THE SAVIOUR. 
 
 107 
 
 shepherd, who, as a second David, will rule his people after 
 risking his life to save the scattered sheep of his flock. He 
 also sees a new temple built by him and a stream of life- 
 giving water gushing forth from beneath that temple (Ezek. 
 34:23 and 47:1-12). 
 
 After the Babylonish exile, Daniel speaks of a "Son of 
 Man" as coming in the clouds of heaven, to whom an ever- 
 lasting kingdom is given (7:13, 14) and the ninth chapter 
 of Daniel seems to predict the time when "Messiah the 
 Prince" shall appear (9:24-27). Zechariah more plainly 
 describes the expected Saviour as one who will combine the 
 office of king with that of high priest in his person (Zech. 
 6:12, 13 and 9:9). Haggai predicts, that the glory of the 
 second temple shall be greater than the first, because "the 
 desire of all nations shall come" (2:7) and Malachi an- 
 nounces a forerunner of the Messiah, a second Elijah who 
 will herald his appearance (Mai. 4:5). John the Baptist, 
 the last of the prophets and the promised herald, personally 
 introduced Jesus of Nazareth in his twofold capacity, as 
 the mighty Lord, "the latchet of whose shoe he was not 
 worthy to unloose" and as "the Lamb of God which bearetb 
 the sin of the world" (John 1:27, 29). 
 
 In regard to all these and other predictions and anticipa- 
 tions of the future salvation, it should be understood that 
 there are various kinds of messianic prophecies found in the 
 Old Testament. 
 
 a. Sometimes God made use of a certain event occurring 
 in the ordinary course of history to foreshadow the promised 
 deliverance, as in the sacrifice of Isaac, the pass-over and the 
 exodus from Egypt. 
 
 b. Again, individual men in their personal character or 
 official capacity typified some feature of the work of the 
 coming Saviour, as Melchizedek, Joshua, David, Solomon 
 and Jonah. 
 
 c. Frequently a prophet uttered words which primarily 
 
108 
 
 CHRISTIAN DOCTEINB. 
 
 referred to an event happening in his own time hut which 
 found a higher and more perfect fulfilment in the person 
 and mission of the Messiah, as Isaiah 7 :14, Psalms 2 and 22. 
 
 d. There are, however, some verbal prophecies which seem 
 to have exclusive reference to the Messiah, even though the 
 prophets who uttered them may not have grasped their full 
 meaning (I Pet. 1:10, 11). 
 
 5. The Fullness of Time. 
 
 Salvation and the Saviour came, when according to the 
 counsel of God the preparation of humanity for the promised 
 redemption was completed, as Paul expresses it : "In the 
 fullness of time" (Gal. 4:4). Both Judaism and Paganism 
 had proved unable to save mankind without a divine inter- 
 position, and the need of a new revelation was manifest. 
 The prevailing moral and religious condition was one of 
 degeneracy and doubt. Pilate's question: "What is truth?" 
 in one or the other form, echoed the general sentiment of the 
 Gentile world. 
 
 On the other hand, both Jew and Gentile were ready for 
 the coming of the Saviour. The Gospels tell us of a general 
 expectation of the Messiah among the Jews, so that the 
 wise men from the East could at once be directed to go to 
 Bethlehem as the place where the Christ should be born. 
 Jewish influence, through the Greek translation of the Old 
 Testament (the Septuagint) and the building of synagogues 
 in every part of the Roman empire, had spread the knowl- 
 edge of the law and the promise of Israel. The subjection 
 of a large part of the then known world to Rome had broken 
 down the partition walls which separated the nations and 
 the general introduction of the Greek language was most 
 serviceable for the diffusion of the news of salvation. A 
 wonderful unification of the world had been accomplished, 
 when the "decree went out from Caesar Augustus that all 
 the world should be enrolled" (Luke 2 :1). Paul and Apollos 
 
PART THIRD CHRIST. THE SAVIOUR. 
 
 109 
 
 were Jews by faith, Greeks by culture and Komans by citizen- 
 ship. 
 
 Chapter XXI. The Person of Christ. 
 
 1. Jesus the Messiah (Christ). 
 
 The prevailing idea among the Jews was that the Messiah, 
 or as the Greek speaking Hebrews called him, the Christ 
 (Christos — "anointed''), would be a king like David or Solo- 
 mon, who would make Jerusalem the capital of his kingdom, 
 bring judgment upon the Gentiles and sinners, and give to 
 his people the dominion over the earth. He would be born 
 of the family of David, perform great miracles, introduce 
 new religious rites, such as baptism, and he would never die 
 (John 7:31; 1-25; 12:34). Some, but their number was 
 not large, expected a redeemer from sin, a teacher of right- 
 eousness and a restorer of true worship (John 4:25; Luke 
 1:74: 2:30-32). Some, like the Jewish philosopher Philo 
 and the Sadducees, rejected the hope of a Messiah as a 
 popular superstition. 
 
 We know that the four Gospels were written for the pur- 
 pose of proving that the confession of the earlv Christians 
 was true, viz., that Jesus of Xazareth is the Christ, the 
 promised Messiah of Israel and the Saviour of the world. 
 The fourth Gospel expressly states this to be the object of 
 writing, "that ye may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the 
 Son of God" (John 20:31). The Evangelists show us how 
 all the prominent features of the person and work of the 
 Messiah, as foreshadowed in the Old Testament prophecies, 
 were found in Jesus of Xazareth. His name, Jesus 
 (Jeshua), meant Saviour. He was born at Bethlehem of 
 the family of David, announced by angelic voices as "the 
 Saviour who is Christ, the Lord" and heralded by John the 
 Baptist, as Malachi had foretold. His disciples declared 
 him to be the one "of whom Moses in the law and the 
 prophets did write" (John 1 :45), "the Christ, the Son of 
 
110 
 
 CHRISTIAN DOCTRINE. 
 
 the living God" (Matth. 16:16). He himself accepted this 
 title and confirmed it under oath, when asked : "Art thou the 
 Christ, the Son of the Blessed?" by answering, "I am; and 
 ye shall see the Son of man sitting at the right hand of 
 power and coming with the clouds of heaven" (Mark 
 14:61, 62). 
 
 He proved his name and mission by the miracles which 
 he performed, by the pure and sinless life which he lived 
 and by the exalted and precious doctrines which he taught. 
 He proclaimed a new law and a new revelation of God 
 the Father, through his Son, the mediator. But "he was 
 despised and rejected of men;... he was wounded for our 
 transgressions and the Lord laid on him the iniquity of 
 us all;... he was brought as a Lamb to the slaughter," 
 exactly as the prophets had foretold (Isa. 53:5-7). There- 
 fore we believe that in Jesus of Nazareth there was also 
 fulfilled the messianic promise, "that he shall see of the 
 travail of his soul and shall be satisfied .. .because he hath 
 poured out his soul unto death and bare the sin of many" 
 (Isa. 53:11, 12), and that other word: "The Lord said unto 
 my Lord, Sit thou on my right hand, until I make thy foes 
 thy footstool" (Ps. 110:1). 
 
 2. The Son of Man. 
 
 Jesus Christ spoke of himself frequently as "the Son of 
 Man." While the use of that title has a special reference 
 to the prophecy in Dan. 7 :13 and to the Son of Man to 
 whom was given dominion and an everlasting kingdom, it 
 applies to Christ as well in its broadest meaning. He was a 
 true man, not merely in outward form but in all things, sin 
 only excepted (Hebr. 4:15). Peter speaks of him as a man 
 ordained of God (Acts 2 :22-24), and Paul as the man Christ 
 Jesus (I Tim. 2:5), and the second Adam (I Cor. 15:45). 
 He had a material body of flesh and blood which passed 
 through the ordinary stages of human growth from infancy 
 to manhood and manifested the ordinary human wants; 
 
PART THIRD— CHRIST, THE SAVIOUR. 
 
 Ill 
 
 sleep, hunger and thirst. He likewise had a human soul, 
 subject to the laws of earthly development. He learned and 
 acquired wisdom (Luke 2 :52), he had a finite human intellect 
 which was limited not only in the sphere of secular knowl- 
 edge but even with regard to events in the spiritual world, 
 such as the hour of his return (Mark 13:32). He reasoned 
 as men do ; he was joyful and sorrowful. He prayed to God 
 as men do and he could be tempted. "He learned obedience 
 and he was made perfect through suffering." Yet he was a 
 unique man in his moral perfection and absolute sinlessness 
 and he was the "Son of Man" in the sense of being the ideal 
 man, the universal or representative man, the second Adam. 
 
 3. The Son of God. 
 
 But Jesus Christ was more than man, more than the 
 perfect man ; he was also the "Son of God." In the Gospel 
 account of the earthly ministry of Christ we find that desig- 
 nation frequently applied to him. Luke records the an- 
 nouncement of the angel to the virgin Mary: "The power 
 of the Highest shall overshadow thee: therefore the holy 
 thing that shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of 
 God" (Luke 1:35), and at the baptism of Jesus a voice 
 from heaven was heard saying, "Thou art my beloved son" 
 (Luke 3:22). Mark writes: "The beginning of the Gospel 
 of Jesus Christ, the Son of God" (Mark 1:1). John says: 
 "We beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of 
 the Father, full of grace and truth" (John 1:14). 
 Nathanael, when first meeting him, addresses him with, 
 "Rabbi, thou art the Son of God." Peter, in the name of 
 the disciples, confesses: "We believe and are sure that 
 thou art Christ, the Son of the living God," and Thomas, 
 after becoming fully convinced of the resurrection of Jesus, 
 calls him : "My Lord and my God" (John 1 :19 ; 6 :69 ; 20 :28). 
 
 While, undoubtely, the term "Son of God" was used by 
 different persons and at different times with more or less 
 depth of meaning, and at first, probably, altogether as an 
 
112 
 
 CHRISTIAN DOCTRINE. 
 
 official title belonging to the Messiah, it is evident that the 
 disciples of Christ expressed by it far more than that a divine 
 mission and work was being accomplished by their master. 
 They believed him to be a partaker of the divine nature, as 
 John expresses it, "the Word which was in the beginning 
 with God, which was made flesh and dwelt among us, the 
 only begotten Son who was in the bosom of the Father." 
 And Christ himself not only accepted the title as belonging 
 to him and the worship due to the Son of God, but he con- 
 firmed the claim by saying, that he was greater than Moses, 
 Solomon end the prophets, the revealer of the Father in 
 heaven, the Saviour and the Judge of men. He claimed to 
 have come down from heaven, that he was before Abraham 
 was born (John 8:58), that he had glory with the Father, 
 before the world began (John 17 :5) and that he had power 
 to forgive sin (Matth. 9:6). Finally he made the explicit 
 declaration: "I and my Father are one" (John 10:30). It 
 is the Apostle John who has recorded the most striking utter- 
 ances of Christ respecting his divine nature, but the Apostle 
 Paul, also, speaks of him as "the image of the invisible God, 
 the first bom of all creation" (Col. 1 :15) and declares that 
 "in him dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead bodily" 
 (Col. 2:9), "who was declared to be the Son of God with 
 power by the resurrection of the dead" (Rom. 1:4). 
 
 4. Christ, a Divine-Human Person. 
 From the testimony of Scripture, as just given, the 
 Christian Church has derived its doctrine of Christ as 
 being the eternal Son of God, a unique personality in 
 which God and man were united. Jesus of Nazareth was 
 one person with the Son of God or the Word of God, the 
 Logos. (John 1 :1). It was not a mere instilling of the divine 
 Spirit into a human being, but a union of a divine and human 
 nature. As the Ecumenical Council, held at Chalcedon, 
 A.D. 451, has formulated it: "Jesus Christ is truly God 
 and truly man, of a rational soul and a body. . . He is one 
 
PART THIRD CHRIST, THE SAVIOUR. 
 
 1 13 
 
 and the same Christ, Son, Lord, only begotten, existing in 
 two natures without mixture." As the union of spirit and 
 body constitute man a personality, so the union of the 
 second person in the divine Trinity with a human spirit and 
 body constitute the personality of the "God-man." The 
 Church has endeavored to further define the relation be- 
 tween the two natures in the following three propositions, 
 which have been generally accepted as true : 
 
 a. The divine and human natures in Christ are not 
 mixed, so as to produce a compound nature. The finite 
 cannot become infinite. The Son of God was not changed 
 into a human being, nor did the man Jesus rise to the state 
 of divinity. Each nature retained its attributes. Christ, 
 had a finite and an infinite intelligence; a human and a 
 divine will. The human intellect increased in wisdom and 
 the human will learned obedience, while the divine nature 
 ever remained infinitely perfect. 
 
 b. Communion of attributes and acts. On the other hand, 
 it follows from the union of two natures in one person, that, 
 whatever can be predicated of either nature, can be affirmed 
 of Jesus Christ, the God-man, as a personality. (Com- 
 municatio Idiomatum.) Thus the God-man was finite and 
 infinite, limited in knowledge and omniscient, lie was born 
 at Bethlehem in the days of Herod and he was preexistent 
 before the foundation of the world. But it was the divine 
 nature only which was preexistent, not the human ; and it 
 was the man Jesus only who was crucified, not the God- 
 head. So, likewise, the two natures cooperate in the acts of 
 Christ, although some acts of his are purely human, such as 
 eating and sleeping, and some are purely divine, such as 
 raising himself from the dead. However, all the acts of 
 Christ are the acts of one personality. When his human 
 nature suffered, his Godhead added an infinite value to 
 this suffering. Likewise the obedience which Christ learned 
 
 8 
 
114 
 
 CHRISTIAN DOCTRINE. 
 
 belongs to the human nature, yet being the obedience of a 
 divine-human person it involves infinite value for the 
 human race. 
 
 c. Christ, an object of ivorship. It follows, in the third 
 place, from the union of the two natures, that the person 
 of Jesus Christ as such is the proper object of religious 
 worship. Here again, it is not his human nature as 
 such, even though exalted above every other creature, 
 which is the ground of worship. But the human nature 
 having entered into a permanent union with the divine and 
 thus become an integral part of the Son of God, the man 
 Jesus Christ is an object of worship ; compare Phil. 2 :10, 
 "that in the name of Jesus every knee should bow." 
 
 5. Why the Saviour must be Divine-Human. 
 
 What Scripture teaches with regard to the twofold 
 nature of the Saviour is in many respects an inscrutable 
 mystery to our limited understanding. Particularly the 
 relation of the Son of God or the divine Word (Logos) to 
 the humanity during the earthly life of Christ is a problem 
 which no man can claim to have properly solved. Paul in 
 Col. 2 :2 calls it "the mystery of God, even Christ, in whom 
 are all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge hidden." 
 Nevertheless this union of God and man is in full accord 
 with rational Christian thinking. The justice of God re- 
 quires that the human nature which had sinned must also 
 make satisfaction for sin, and that man after turning away 
 from God must, through this Son of Man, return to God. 
 Therefore the Redeemer must be a man. 
 
 But human nature alone could not do this. Neither could 
 an angel, by assuming human nature, take the place of man 
 and make atonement. But the Son of God, through whom, 
 as the eternal Word, the world was created and in whose 
 image man was made, he could make his abode in the man 
 Jesus Christ in order to reunite humanity with God and 
 infuse his own holiness into the human nature (II Cor. 5 :19). 
 
PART THIRD CHRIST, THE SAVIOUR. 
 
 115 
 
 Furthermore, a divine-human Saviour meets the needs of 
 humanity also subjectively, in that man needs a human God 
 to whom he can address himself with full confidence, be- 
 cause he is of our race, knows our wants and has perfect 
 sympathy with our weakness (Heb. 2 :17, 18; 4:15, 16). 
 6. Theories at Variance with the Orthodox Creed. 
 It took the Christian Church nearly four centuries to 
 formulate the doctrine concerning the person of Christ in 
 such a manner, that the orthodox creed was, with a few 
 exceptions, generally accepted. The following theories of 
 ancient and modern times are at variance with the Bible 
 doctrine as understood by the Church : 
 
 a. Ebionitism. The Ebionites were a judaizing sect of 
 the second century who held that Christ was the Son of 
 Joseph and Mary, distinguished from ordinary men only 
 by a holy life and the endowment of divine gifts. They 
 denied the deity of Christ, the same as many Christians 
 of to-day. 
 
 b. Gnosticism. The Gnostics denied the true humanity 
 of the Saviour, claiming that Christ had no real body, but 
 only a phantom body so that his crucifixion was but a scenic 
 representation. They held that matter is equivalent with 
 evil and that Christ assumed the appearance of human 
 flesh in order to deliver man from material existence. 
 
 c. Apollinarianism. Apollinaris, bishop of Laodicea, 
 holding to a trichotomistic division in man, of body, soul 
 and spirit, taught that the human nature of Christ con- 
 sisted only of the body and the animal-soul, but that the 
 divine Logos (the Son of God) supplied the Spirit or reason 
 of Christ. At the council of Constantinople, A.D. 381, this 
 was declared an error and unorthodox, because the human 
 nature would not be complete without a human spirit and 
 will. Compare John 6 :38, "I came not to do mine own 
 will" and 13 :21, "he was troubled in the spirit." 
 
 d. Nestorianism. Nestorius, the patriarch of Constanti- 
 
116 
 
 CHRISTIAN DOCTRINE. 
 
 nople, rightly contended that the Virgin Mary should not 
 be called the "mother of God," as many divines in his day 
 already began to call her, without limitation. For the 
 divine nature could not be born. But the followers of 
 Nestorius carried the distinction of the two natures in the 
 God-man so far as to speak of two personalities, a divine 
 person and a human person. A synod held at Ephesus, 
 A.D. 431, condemned this error and the Nestorians removed 
 to Persia, where they founded the Nestorian Church. 
 
 e. Eutychianism. The controversy with Nestorius led 
 some of his opponents to another extreme. Eutychius, a 
 presbyter of Constantinople, denied the co-existence of two 
 natures and held to a mingling of the divine and human 
 elements in one nature. His followers were called Mono- 
 physites. A Council at Constantinople declared this to be a 
 heresy and a subsequent Synod at Ephesus (A.D. 449) 
 pronounced it orthodox. After the death of Eutychius, a 
 new Church Council at Chalcedon (A.D. 451) reaffirmed 
 the Church doctrine of one person and two natures, but the 
 controversy continued long and vehement. The emperor 
 Heraclius proposed a compromise, viz., "two natures, but 
 one will" (Monotbelites) ; but the sixth Ecumenical Council 
 of Constantinople (A.D. 681), decided with overwhelming 
 majority: "two natures and two wills, without confusion." 
 The Maronites of Syria still hold to the teaching of 
 Eutychius. 
 
 /. Socinianism. Laelius and Faustus Socinus, in the 
 sixteenth century, taught that the Christian doctrine of the 
 Trinity was unreasonable and that the "Son of God" could 
 not have existed before the birth of Jesus Christ. There- 
 fore Christ was not pre-existent, not God-man, and bad no 
 divine nature, but after his death and resurrection he was 
 raised to divine honor. (Unitarians in America.) 
 
 g. Swedenborgianism. Emanuel Swedenborg, (1688-1772), 
 a mining superintendent and believer in spiritualism, was 
 
PART THIRD CHRIST, THE SAVIOUR. 117 
 
 the founder of the so-called New Church, which interprets 
 all Scripture spiritually or figuratively. "Every man has 
 a material and a spiritual body. In like manner God has a 
 spiritual essence and a bodily form, the one is called the 
 Father, the other the Son. The Son is the human nature in 
 God and assumed a material form in Jesus of Nazareth; but 
 this material form was, at the ascension, absorbed in the 
 spiritual body of God"( ?) 
 
 Chapter XXII. The State of Humiliation. 
 1. What Constitutes the State of Humiliation. 
 
 Although the redeeming work of Christ, the Saviour, 
 forms an unbroken whole, we may attempt to analyze it 
 by dividing it into a number of successive stages. It has 
 been customary to distinguish a twofold "state" in which 
 the Lord accomplished his work, viz., the state of humilia- 
 tion and the state of exaltation. The Scripture foundation 
 for this distinction is found in Phil. 2 :6-ll, "Christ Jesus, 
 who being in the form of God. . .emptied himself, taking 
 the form of a servant being made in the likeness of men; 
 and being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, 
 becoming obedient even unto death, yea, the death of the 
 cross. Wherefore also God highly exalted him and gave 
 unto him the name which is above every name, etc." The 
 dividing line between the two states cannot be strictly 
 drawn. But in a general way the earthly life and ministry 
 of Christ, ending with his death, is regarded as marking 
 the limits of the state of humiliation. The state of exalta- 
 tion, therefore, begins with the resurrection from the grave. 
 
 2. Supernatural Birth. 
 
 Holy Scripture teaches that Jesus Christ was born of a 
 
 woman, but begotten of the Holy Spirit and not of a 
 
 human father (Matth. 1:20, Luke 1:35). This "virgin 
 
118 
 
 CHRISTIAN DOCTRINE. 
 
 birth" is doubted or denied by some Christians on these 
 grounds: That it is mentioned only by Matthew and Luke, 
 not by Mark and John nor in the Epistles; that the gene- 
 alogy of Christ in Matthew is traced through Joseph; that 
 it is unnecessary for the establishment of the divine nature 
 of Christ or his perfect sinlessness; that it rests on a mis- 
 understanding of Isaiah 7 :14, "Behold, the virgin (almah) 
 shall conceive :" that it was invented to explain the exalted 
 character of the Saviour and the veneration of the Virgin 
 Mary ("semper virgo") ; and finally, that it is contrary to 
 the laws of nature. 
 
 Consider in reply to these arguments, the following: 
 a. The opening chapters of Matthew and Luke are integral 
 parts of these Gospels and there is no reason for suspecting 
 their genuineness and historical character. If Mark and 
 John omit the account of Christ's birth, it is probably 
 because they relate only what they themslves had a per- 
 sonal knowledge of. The Apostle Paul was called to be a 
 witness of Christ's resurrection as a pillar of the Christian 
 faith, not of his miraculous birth. John certainly appears 
 to know of it, when he writes about "children of God, 
 born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will 
 of man, but of God," and "no man hath ascended into 
 heaven, but he that descended out of heaven" (John 1 :13 
 and 3:13). b. Matthew, who traces Christ's genealogy 
 through Joseph, according to Jewish law, expressly does 
 not say : Joseph begat Jesus, but he was "the husband of 
 Mary, of whom Jesus was born." c. The supernatural 
 birth of Christ, if it was not the only way in which the 
 union of the divine and human natures in one person could 
 be affected, is the most natural and rational way of ac- 
 counting for it. The objection that it is contrary to the 
 laws of nature counts for very little in this greatest self- 
 revelation of God, which must be supernatural, d. By 
 means of the virgin birth we have in Jesus Christ a true 
 
PART THIRD CHRIST, THE SAVIOUR. 119 
 
 representative man, not a limited individuality, as ordi- 
 nary men are, but a universal man, a second Adam. 
 
 3. The Mystery of the Incarnation. 
 
 The manner in which such a union of the divine Spirit 
 with the embryo of a human being was brought about and 
 the relation existing between the babe of Bethlehem and the 
 eternal Word or Logos, is to our finite understanding an 
 unfathomable mystery. By way of illustration, analogies 
 have been found in a piece of iron heated through with fire, 
 or in two concentric circles, viz., a small circle within a 
 large one. Consider also the following suggestions : 
 
 a. As God is the absolute cause of his existence, he can 
 certainly change his mode of existence for a higher purpose. 
 b. If the race of man is created in the image of God, it does 
 not seem to be outside of the sphere of divine operation to 
 enter this race in closest union, in order to restore the 
 image marred by sin. c. An antitype of the incarnation of 
 the Son of God in the man Jesus is given us in the mystery 
 of the spiritual birth or regeneration of every "child of 
 God." Here also the begetting principle is the Spirit of 
 God and through the receptive faith of the repentant sinner 
 the new man is born "that after God hath been created in 
 righteousness" (Eph. 4:24). If the Spirit of God can enter 
 the soul of ordinary men and make his abode there, it is 
 not altogether strange that he should find his abode in the 
 perfect humanity of Jesus Christ. 
 
 As to the mode of manifestation of the divine nature in 
 Christ during his earthly life, three different theories have 
 been advanced, a. The first is the Emptying or Kenosis 
 theory (Phil. 2 :7, exi vwffe, "emptied himself") viz., The 
 divine Son, in the incarnation, divested himself of his 
 divine attributes of omniscience and omnipotence, (some 
 hold, also of his self-consciousness,) and became a human 
 soul in a human body. As men, while asleep, relinquish the 
 attributes of their spiritual being, so the Son of God re- 
 
120 
 
 CHRISTIAN DOCTBINB. 
 
 duced himself to the dimensions of humanity in the infant 
 Jesus, b. The second theory is that of a 'progressive Incar- 
 nation. Divinity and humanity found a common meeting 
 point in the personality of the God-man and the Logos 
 united himself at the incarnation to the child Jesus, with- 
 out loss of any divine attribute; but he communicated him- 
 self to the human nature only in proportion as the latter 
 developed. So far as the human element was immature, so 
 far the divine nature also was not fully revealed, c. The 
 third theory is: Full divine attributes, but no exercise of 
 them. The divine nature was unaltered and from the first 
 was fully united with the human nature. The humiliation 
 was a giving up of the use or exercise of the divine attri- 
 butes. The Son of God divested himself of his "glory" 
 (John 17:5) and of his "riches" (II Cor. 8:9), so that 
 the God-man continuously surrendered the exercise of the 
 divine powers with which, in virtue of his divine nature, he 
 was endowed. 
 
 While the last named theory is considered the orthodox 
 view, having most to support it in the Scripture testimony, 
 something may be said also in favor of the two others. But 
 it seems useless to argue further about a mystery which, to 
 limited human knowledge, is inscrutable. In the view of 
 the God-man presented to us in the Gospels, certainly, the 
 divine nature during most of his earthly life is latent and, 
 apparently, only now and then present in his consciousness 
 and manifested to his disciples. 
 
 4. Earthly Life. 
 
 The God-man then, as to his human nature, passed through 
 the ordinary stages of earthly life, in its threefold develop- 
 ment of growth in body, intelligence and spiritual capacity 
 (Luke 2:52). We like to think of Christ as the ideal of 
 manly beauty and artists of successive ages have en- 
 deavored to give expression to this idea, but none of the 
 Evangelists have left us a picture of the countenance and 
 
PART THIRD CHRIST, THE SAVIOUR. 
 
 121 
 
 stature of the Saviour, perhaps purposely avoiding what 
 might detract from the universality of the person of the 
 Redeemer or cause Christians to build their faith upon 
 things visible, rather than invisible. The early Church 
 emphasized the idea of the suffering Messiah of Isaiah 53, 
 so as to apply to Jesus Christ literally the declaration: "He 
 hath no form or comeliness and when we shall see him there 
 is no beauty that we should desire him." But it is reason- 
 able to think, that the face of the Son of Man reflected, at 
 least in some degree, the beauty, harmony and nobility of 
 the indwelling spirit. The power of his looks is several 
 times mentioned in the Gospels (Mark 3:5, 34). The man 
 to whom mothers brought their children to have them 
 blessed and who took them into his arms could not have had 
 a hard face, but one that inspired confidence. The voice of 
 the preacher of the sermon on the Mount that brought the 
 response, "they were astonished," or that rebuked the 
 spirits of the water with a "Peace be still," must have been 
 strong and sweet. He who constantly wandered about with 
 his disciples, who frequently fasted or spent a part of the 
 night on a mountain in prayer, must have been robust and 
 healthy. However, his body was subject to ordinary human 
 limitations; it needed food and drink and sleep, it was 
 liable to disease and pain. 
 
 Jesus Christ being one with God, must have had the full- 
 ness of divine wisdom and knowledge at his command, 
 whenever he needed them for his work (John 14:6). But 
 in the ordinary course of his earthly life his knowledge 
 increased gradually within the limitations of environment 
 and opportunity. He was a Hebrew among Hebrews, of 
 circumscribed mental capacity. While we must suppose 
 that his divine mission was with him from the beginning of 
 personal consciousness, that also grew in clearness, as he 
 entered upon his public ministry. 
 
 The God-man could be tempted, not indeed in his divine 
 
122 
 
 CHRISTIAN DOCTRINE. 
 
 nature, but as the Son of Man. Though free from the taint 
 of hereditary sin (Heb. 7:26), he was brought into daily 
 contact with sin and exposed to temptations from without. 
 His sinlessness was not a simple necessity of nature, but a 
 personal act of self-determination. He was "born under 
 the law" and "he learned obedience" (Gal. 4:4, Heb. 5:8). 
 The possibility of his yielding to the temptations was not 
 excluded (compare Matth. 16:23, "thou art a stumbling 
 block unto me"). Only by constantly conquering the 
 power of evil, sin became to him a moral impossibility. As 
 he came forth from each new temptation untouched by sin, 
 he became the pattern of human righteousness. What John 
 predicates of every true believer, viz., (I John 3:9), "he 
 cannot sin," applied then without limitation to Christ. 
 
 5. Sufferings. 
 
 In some respects the entire life of Christ on earth was a 
 life of suffering. He was subject to hunger and thirst, 
 weariness and want. For thirty years, he lived a life of 
 obscurity, as the carpenter's son at Nazareth. Later in his 
 ministry, he became a homeless wanderer who sometimes 
 had not where to lay his head (Matth. 8:20). He was 
 despised of men and persecuted. They even sought to kill 
 him, though he "told them the truth" and "went about doing 
 good" (John 8:40, Acts 10:38). He also suffered from the 
 ordinary daily intercourse with sinners, who were wearying 
 his soul (Luke 9:41). But in a narrower sense his suffering 
 began a short time before his death. He suffered first the 
 anticipation of death in the spirit, on Palm Sunday, when 
 the Hosannas of the people ceased and the Greeks' coming 
 reminded him that the hour had come, "for the Son of Man 
 to be glorified" (John 12:23-27). He suffered, next, in his 
 soul, in the garden of Gethsemane, when the awfulness of the 
 approaching maltreatment, as of a criminal, and of the death 
 of a sinner, overwhelmed him and caused him bitter anguish 
 
PART THIRD CHRIST, THE BAVIOUR. 123 
 
 and agony. He suffered finally in the body before Pilate and 
 in the torments of the crucifixion on Calvary. 
 
 If the anguish of soul manifested by our Saviour in Geth- 
 semane and on Calvary has been a surprise to some, as com- 
 pared with the cheerful fortitude of certain Christian 
 martyrs under long continued torture, we must consider, 
 that to the holy Christ his suffering and death was a far 
 more revolting experience than to ordinary men and par- 
 ticularly to Christian martyrs. For the cross which was 
 laid on him and to which he was nailed embodied the sins 
 of the world, and he tasted the bitterness of death, as the 
 penalty of sin, in a manner in which no other mortal ever 
 was required to experience it. 
 
 The greatest depth of suffering must have been reached, 
 when the Saviour uttered the cry: "My God, my God, why 
 hast thou forsaken me?" because the guilt and penalty of sin 
 that were laid on him so completely covered his human 
 nature as to cut him off, momentarily at least, from com- 
 munion with the Holy God. 
 
 6. Death and Descent to Hades. 
 Though the redeeming work of Christ on earth was com- 
 pleted when he said: "It is finished," yet the state of 
 humiliation continued, including the experience of physical 
 death and his descent to the world of departed spirits. 
 There have been and there are those who doubt the reality 
 of Christ's death and who hold that he was deposited in the 
 grave in an unconscious state and afterwards revived. Such 
 a theory, instead of explaining the story of the resurrection, 
 can only make it an inexplicable problem. Futhermore, 
 the Evangelist John, in order to meet any possible doubt of 
 this kind, expressly mentions evidences of the actuality of 
 Christ's death, such as the piercing of his heart and the 
 flow of blood and water from it. The burial of the lifeless 
 body, according to current ideas, was rather honorable. 
 Still the fact itself of the body of the holy Christ being laid 
 
124 
 
 CHRISTIAN DOCTEINB. 
 
 away, like that of sinful men, to "return to the dust," must 
 be regarded as a part of his humiliation. 
 
 As to the state of the "human soul or spirit of Christ, 
 while the body lay in the tomb, the (so called) Apostles 
 Creed contains the words: ''descended into hell." This 
 declaration is taken from Acts 2 :27, where Peter applies to 
 Christ the words of Psalm 16:9, "Thou wilt not leave my 
 soul in hell; neither wilt thou suffer thine Holy One to see 
 corruption." The Hebrew has, Sheol and the Greek, 
 Hades, words which simply designate the spirit world or 
 the invisible state of the dead, conceived by common belief 
 to be a place, where the departed spirits congregate. 
 Jewish theology distinguished in this spirit world between, 
 Abraham's bosom or Paradise for the righteous, and 
 Gehenna for the wicked; and Greek belief correspondingly 
 divided Hades into Elysium and Tartarus. 
 
 The Church fathers, therefore, held that while Christ's 
 body lay in the grave, his spirit abode in the realm of the 
 departed spirits, the most general belief being, that he there 
 proclaimed the good tidings of the accomplished atonement 
 to the faithful believers of the Old Covenant who had been 
 waiting for his coming. Origen was the first who taught, 
 that Christ descended into Gehenna, the place of the con- 
 demned, in order to deliver the prisoners of Satan who 
 were there detained. Gradually the Church in general in- 
 clined toward this belief, on the ground of I Peter 3 :19 : 
 "he went and preached unto the spirits in prison, which 
 aforetime were disobedient," and because of the prevailing 
 conviction that all men after death must pass through a 
 purgatory before they can enter heaven. To this day, the 
 Roman Church teaches that the object of Christ's descent 
 was to free the Old Testament believers from bondage (the 
 "limbus patrum") and to lead them to heaven. 
 
 Protestant teaching is not united on this point. Luther 
 held that the Saviour went to hell as a conqueror in 
 
PART THIRD CHRIST, THE SAVIOUR. 
 
 125 
 
 triumph, to proclaim his victory over Satan and to an- 
 nounce liberty to the captives. Calvin said that Christ de- 
 scended to the place of torment, in order himself to endure 
 the pain of the condemned, as a part of his substitutional 
 suffering. The Heidelberg Catechism explains "the de- 
 scent to hell" as "unspeakable anguish, sorrows of death 
 and hellish agonies" which Christ endured on the cross, 
 while the "Westminster Catechism defines it to mean nothing 
 more than that he died and was buried. 
 
 Scripture testimony in regard to this question is very 
 limited. The quotation in Acts 2 :27, "Thou wilt not leave 
 my soul in Hades," only expresses the confidence that 
 Christ could not remain under the power of death. We 
 know of but three passages which seem to have a bearing 
 on this point, viz., Col. 1 :18, Christ is "the first born from 
 the dead," that is from the assembly or company of dead 
 men; Luke 23:43, the promise to the malefactor, "To-day 
 shalt thou be with me in Paradise;" and I Peter 3:18, 19, 
 "Being put to death in the flesh, but quickened in the spirit, 
 in which also he went and preached unto the spirits in 
 prison, etc." The "Paradise" must be that which was taught 
 in Jewish theology and the most obvious meaning of the 
 words in I Pet. 3, though referred by some to Christ as pre- 
 existent in the days of Noah, appears to be that Christ, 
 "made alive after the death of his body for a higher spiritual 
 existence, proclaimed the Gospel of salvation in the world of 
 spirits to the contemporaries of Noah," as well as to Moses 
 and Elijah. This, however, would not exclude the idea of 
 the dying Saviour having entered the state of rest which 
 men enjoy, when the sufferings of this life are ended. Com- 
 pare Rev. 14:13, "They rest from their labors." 
 
 Thus considered, Christ's descent into "Hell" or the world 
 of departed spirits, has a threefold significance: 1. It is an 
 additional proof of his real humanity which extended also 
 to the state after death. 2. It testifies of the far reaching 
 
126 
 
 CHRISTIAN DOCTRINE. 
 
 effect of his redemptive work, as availing both for the quick 
 and the dead. 3. It shows that "in none other is there sal- 
 vation, neither is there any other name under heaven wherein 
 we must be saved" (Acts 4:12). 
 
 While, therefore, in some respect, the descent to Hades 
 marks the beginning of Christ's exaltation, yet his sharing 
 the lot of humanity by entering the world of departed spirits, 
 forms the turning point from humiliation to exaltation. 
 
 Chapter XXIII. The State of Exaltation. 
 1. The Resurrection of Christ. 
 During the earthly life and ministry of Christ a veil was 
 drawn over his glory, though even then the "grace and truth" 
 in him shone through that veil (John 1:14). The sublime 
 doctrines which he proclaimed, the perfect life which he 
 lived, the wonderful miracles which he performed, the voices 
 from heaven which accompanied his birth, baptism and 
 transfiguration, were anticipations of his glory. Properly 
 speaking, however, the state of exaltation begins with the 
 resurrection. 
 
 The resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead is de- 
 clared by the Apostle Paul and all the disciples of Christ 
 to be the fundamental fact of the Gospel proclamation. It 
 was so regarded by Christ himself, being the divine attesta- 
 tion and seal of his redemptive work. All his claims and 
 promises rest on this fact. Without the resurrection, the 
 Gospel would be a myth and redemption a failure, as Paul 
 writes in I Cor. 15 :14, "If Christ hath not been raised, then 
 is our preaching vain, your faith also is vain." 
 
 When we read in Acts 2 :24, that "God raised up" Jesus 
 and in John 10:18 Christ himself declared, "I have power 
 to lay down my life, and I have power to tafce it again," we 
 conclude that the Godman raised up his human nature by 
 his divine nature being one with God. But neither the 
 
PART THIBD CHRIST, THE SAVIOUR. 
 
 127 
 
 apostles nor we are so much concerned about the manner of 
 his resurrection or the nature of his resurrection body, as 
 about the fact itself, that "Christ being raised from the 
 dead dieth no more" (Rom. 6:9), "I was dead and behold, 
 I am alive for evermore" (Rev. 1:18). The opponents to 
 Christian belief have always taken special pains to attack 
 this pillar of Christianity. We read in Acts 4 :2 that the 
 Sadducees were grieved or "troubled, because the disciples 
 proclaimed in Jesus the resurrection from the dead" and 
 the champions of modern unbelief triumphantly declare, 
 that Christianity, as taught and believed in by Paul and the 
 other apostles, has fallen with the myth of Christ's resur- 
 rection. We, however, hold this to be a primary article of 
 the Christian faith. 
 
 a. The possibility of a resurrection from the dead is con- 
 ceded with the belief in a personal God. He who created 
 heaven and earth, must certainly be able to restore a body 
 to life, and nature presents countless illustrations and ex- 
 emplifications of this possibility, in every sprouting blade 
 of grass and every butterfly that comes out in the spring 
 time. 
 
 b. . The Biblical account expressly states that the dis- 
 ciples, having despaired of the cause of Christ, when he 
 expired on the cross, did not, at first, believe the story of 
 his resurrection. But becoming fully assured by at least 
 ten successive appearances of Jesus, that he was alive and 
 bodily present with them, they made this fact the leading 
 message of their proclamation and many af them sealed 
 their testimony with their own blood. 
 
 c. The external results. The wonderful success which 
 has accompanied the preaching of this truth testifies to its 
 objective reality. What else could have overcome the 
 terrible persecutions which assailed the Church during the 
 first centuries? What else brought to the foot of the cross 
 peoples and rulers of all realms and races, but a living, 
 
128 
 
 CHRISTIAN DOCTRINE. 
 
 risen Christ? What else gives to the Christian Church her 
 undying vitality and missionary inspiration, but the firm 
 assurance, that Christ is her living head ? . 
 
 d. The spiritual effect. It may be urged that certain 
 superstitions which have held sway for a long time have 
 also produced wonderful achievements of external success; 
 but no conscious falsehood could have regenerated the 
 morality of the world, like the preaching of the resurrection 
 of Christ has done. It has proved in every way beneficial 
 and salutary, elevating, cheering and strengthening the 
 Christian believer. 
 
 2. The Forty Days. 
 After his resurrection Christ, apparently, remained in 
 this earthly realm for forty days. At least, his disciples 
 saw and met him now and then, either singly or gathered 
 together. The object of these manifestations was threefold: 
 a. The disciples were given full and convincing evidence of 
 the master's being alive and bodily present, b. He wanted 
 to teach them certain truths which they could not grasp 
 before his death, yet were to learn personally from their 
 Lord, such as the fulfillment of messianic prophecies, c. 
 They were gradually to be weaned away from the physical 
 to the spiritual, from the visible to the invisible presence of 
 the Saviour. 
 
 He appeared to them in the body which had been nailed 
 to the cross, in so far that it showed the prints of the nails 
 which had pierced his hands and feet and the open wound 
 in his side. Yet his body was changed. Mary Magdalene 
 did not recognize the Lord, until he called her by name, and 
 the two disciples on the way to Emmaus walked and talked 
 with him a long time before their eyes were opened. The 
 risen Christ entered a room, the doors of which were locked 
 or bolted, and he vanished before their eyes in a mysterious 
 manner. The resurrection body retained the properties of 
 material existence to the extent of partaking of food and 
 
PAST THIRD CHRIST, THE SAVIOUR. 129 
 
 drink, but its flesh and blood were changed into a higher 
 form of bodily manifestation. 
 
 As the risen Christ spent but a small portion of the forty 
 days with his disciples and yet did not ascend to heaven, it 
 has been surmised, that the activity referred to in I Peter 
 3 :19, namely, the proclaiming of salvation to the Spirit 
 world, belongs to this period as well as, or more than, to the 
 time before his resurrection. There is, however, no positive 
 Scripture evidence for this theory, which must remain a 
 simple supposition. 
 
 3. The Ascension. 
 
 The third stage in the exaltation of Christ was his ascen- 
 sion. As he had foretold in John 6 :62 and 14 :2, 3, that he 
 would go to heaven whence he had come, so in the presence 
 of many disciples he was taken from the earth and being 
 lifted up, visibly, he vanished in a cloud. The story of the 
 ascension, as given in the Bible, makes it appear that there 
 was a local transfer of Christ's body from this earth to 
 some other region or realm, called heaven, as Christ himself 
 had told his disciples : "In my father's house are many 
 mansions; I go to prepare a place for you." Though we 
 cannot tell, what stars or worlds in particular may be the 
 center of the material heavens, it is quite conceivable that 
 there is a place, where the Creator manifests his glory, in 
 this visible universe, in a special manner. 
 
 So much we know, that the ascension was Christ's final 
 entrance into his invisible glory. It was a fitting conclusion 
 of the work of redemption that his human nature was re- 
 ceived into the glory of heaven. For this sinful earth is no 
 fit abode for the glorified Redeemer until it is regenerated. 
 Furthermore, Christ went to the Father to make intercession 
 for his brethren, on the strength of his atoning work, as he 
 had promised (John 14:3. 13) and, finally, he went to send 
 the Holy Spirit, whose invisible working was better suited 
 9 
 
130 
 
 CHRISTIAN DOCTRINE. 
 
 to complete the work of salvation, than the visible presence 
 of the God-man (John 16:7). 
 
 4. Sitting at the Right Hand of God. 
 
 In these words, the Apostles' Creed expresses the fourth 
 stage of Christ's exaltation, as declared by the Evangelist 
 in Mark 16 :19, and elsewhere and in accordance with the 
 promise given in Psalm 110 :1 : "The Lord said unto my 
 Lord, Sit thou at my right hand, until I make thine enemies 
 thy footstool." This is evidently a figure borrowed from the 
 palace and throne of an earthly monarch. It denotes the 
 high dignity bestowed upon the Saviour after his ascension. 
 We cannot conceive of the divine nature of the God-man as 
 having an increase of dignity, but his human nature after 
 the ascension shared in the divine glory. See Ephes. 
 1 :20-22 and Phil. 2 :9-ll. All power in heaven and on earth 
 is now given to Jesus Christ, the God-man, because he is the 
 Saviour of man, and this honor and glory constantly increase 
 in proportion as the promise is being fulfilled "that at the 
 name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on 
 earth and under the earth, and that every tongue should con- 
 fess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the 
 father" (Phil. 2:10, 11). 
 
 A disputed point in connection with this "Sitting at the 
 Right Hand" is, whether the God-man, since his ascension, 
 can be said to be bodily present with the believer on earth 
 or only through the divine Spirit? This question is of im- 
 portance mainly for the understanding of the mode of the 
 presence of Christ in the Sacrament. The parting declara- 
 tion of the Saviour, before his ascension, was: "Lo, I am 
 with you always, even unto the end of the world." Are we 
 to understand this to mean, that the glorified body shares 
 the divine attribute of omnipresence, that it is ubiquitous? 
 The idea of a human body would seem to imply the attri- 
 bute of limitation to a definite form and space. Hence 
 locality appears inseparable from our conception of a body 
 
PART THIRD CHRIST, THE SAVIOUR. 131 
 
 and we must think of the body of Christ as confined to a 
 definite place "in heaven." But as the human and the divine 
 nature in the God-man are inseparably united, we may, 
 nevertheless, believe that the divine-human Saviour as such 
 is everywhere personally present with his people. The 
 manner in which this is done, we cannot attempt to explain. 
 
 Chapter XXIV. The Prophetic Office of Christ. 
 
 1. The Three Offices. 
 
 As, in considering the person of Christ, we speak of him 
 as passing through the two states of humiliation and exalta- 
 tion, so the mediatorial work of Christ may be most clearly 
 set forth under the title of three "offices" (Lat. officia) or 
 functions, viz., a prophetic, a priestly and a kingly office. 
 We are told that Jewish theology, even before the birth of 
 Christ, taught that the Messiah would wear a threefold 
 crown, viz., the crown of the law, the crown of the priest- 
 hood and the crown of the kingdom. While these terms and 
 titles, when applied to the Saviour, must be understood to 
 be figurative, (as well as those of physician, shepherd, lamb, 
 etc.,) there is good Scripture authority for using them. In 
 Duet. 18:15 Israel is given the promise: "Jehovah thy God 
 will raise up unto thee a Prophet from the midst of thy 
 brethren, like unto me (Moses) ; unto him shall ye harken." 
 In Psalm 110:4 we read: "Thou art a Priest forever, after 
 the order of Melchizedek," and Jeremiah 23 :5 proclaims : 
 "Behold the days come, saith the Lord, that I will raise 
 unto David a righteous Branch, and a King shall reign and 
 prosper and shall execute judgment and justice in the earth" 
 (compare Zechar. 9:9). These three titles given to Christ 
 correspond to a threefold need of the human race. Being 
 ignorant, guilty and helpless in consequence of the fall, the 
 sinful world needs a prophet, to teach the way of salvation, 
 
132 
 
 CHRISTIAN DOCTRINE. 
 
 a priest, to atone for its sins and a king, to uplift and to 
 direct his people. 
 
 2. Christ, the Greatest Prophet. 
 
 A prophet is one who speaks in the name and by the com- 
 mission of God, one who is inspired to teach the truth and 
 to make known the will of God. Jesus Christ himself de- 
 clared that he came into the world to "bear witness of the 
 truth." He was recognized as a prophet by Jews and Samar- 
 itans. (Luke 7 :16, "A great prophet is arisen among us" 
 and John 4:19, "Sir, I perceive that thou art a prophet.") 
 In his ministry he combined the principal functions of the 
 prophetic office, by teaching, miracle working and foretelling 
 future events. Before the covenant of grace between God 
 and man could be established, it was necessary to teach and 
 to reveal the truth concerning the plan of salvation and to 
 point out the way for obtaining this salvation, by the preach- 
 ing of: "Repent and believe: for the kingdom of heaven is 
 at hand." 
 
 Jesus Christ was greater than all other prophets, a. He 
 was better qualified for the office in that he was not hin- 
 dered by human sin and error, b. In virtue of the union of 
 the divine nature with the human in Christ, the revelation 
 of God through him was direct and personal. Instead of 
 the "Thus saith Jehovah" of the Old Testament prophets, 
 he could say: "The words that I speak unto you, I speak 
 not from myself, but the Father abiding in me doeth the 
 works" (John 14:10). c. He was not merely a witness for 
 the truth, but he was the truth incarnate, because in him, 
 the Eternal Word, the perfect revelation of God to the 
 world was made manifest. His whole life not less than his 
 words are a revelation of God. "He that hath seen me, 
 hath seen the Father" (John 14:9). Therefore, also, all 
 other prophets point to him, but the revelation given through 
 him is not to be superseded by a more perfect one. 
 
PAET THIRD CHRIST, THE SAVIOUR. 
 
 133 
 
 3. Principal Teachings. 
 Among the great truths which Christ in his prophetic 
 office has taught are the following: 
 
 a. The Sinfulness of Man. In spite of all endeavors to 
 keep the law of God and to live righteously, the natural man 
 is evil (Matth. 7:11) and carnal (John 3:6), hence excluded 
 from the kingdom of God, until his sin is removed and the 
 sinner is regenerated. The beginning of salvation is the 
 conviction and confession of sin and the recognition of the 
 need of salvation. "Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs 
 is the kingdom of heaven" (Matth. 5:3). 
 
 b. The Plan of Salvation. Christ revealed the love of God, 
 as manifested to the world in the decree of salvation. The 
 Father in heaven has sent his son into the world to save it. 
 A new covenant, the covenant of grace, is offered to all who 
 will accept it. The kingdom of heaven is brought near to 
 men by the Son of Man, who is also the Son of God and the 
 mediator of salvation (John 3 :16). 
 
 c. Repentance and Faith. The one inevitable condition 
 for obtaining salvation is, that all men must repent of their 
 sins and believe on him whom the Father has sent. For he 
 is appointed to be the Saviour of all those who put their 
 trust in him. But he will also be the judge of those who 
 reject him (John 6:29, 40). 
 
 d. Sanctification. This offer of free salvation, however, 
 does not change the requirement of holiness. The righteous- 
 ness of the heirs of the kingdom must exceed that of the 
 Scribes and Pharisees. The New Testament demand is: 
 "Ye therefore shall be perfect, as your heavenly Father is 
 perfect" (Matth. 5:48). But the power of sanctification 
 also is the gift of God, freely bestowed upon those who 
 through faith become united with Christ, the Redeemer, and 
 receive the gift of the Holy Spirit, whom Christ doth send 
 (John 17:19 and 14:17). 
 
134 
 
 CHRISTIAN DOCTRINE. 
 
 The prophetic activity of Christ is continued by the en- 
 lightening influence of the Holy Spirit and the preaching 
 of his apostles and ministers (John 16:12, 13). 
 
 Chapter XXV. The Priestly Office of Christ. 
 1. Christ, the True Priest. 
 
 As the prophetic activity of the Saviour is especially con- 
 nected with his public ministry on earth, so his priestly 
 function is naturally associated with his death. A priest in 
 Old Testament times was a man who represented his fellow- 
 men before God, just as the prophet represents God before 
 his fellow-men. The duties of the priest, accordingly, were 
 threefold : a. To offer sacrifice for the people ; b. To inter- 
 cede for them with prayer and supplication; c. To give 
 absolution for sin and to bless the people. Sinful man needs 
 a mediator to present his person and his offering to God, in 
 such a manner as to make them acceptable. 
 
 But the priests and the sacrifices of the Old Testament 
 were not priests and sacrifices in the proper sense. Jesus 
 Christ alone possessed all the qualifications required for this 
 office. ISTo other priest had the right of access to God, no 
 sacrifice but his could really atone for sin, and no one but 
 he, in truth, could bring the blessing of God to his people. 
 Hence even the high priests of Israel, as shown in the epistle 
 to the Hebrews, were but imperfect types of the true priest- 
 hood of Christ. They exemplified how sin should be atoned 
 for, while Christ actually removed sin by the sacrifice which 
 he offered for the sins of the world, himself the Lamb of 
 God (Hebr. 10:10). 
 
 2. His Atonement. 
 That Christ suffered and died for sin, to make atonement, 
 that is to make man and God "at one" and reconciled, is a 
 truth explicitly taught in many passages of Holy Scripture. 
 While the word "atonement" itself does not occur in the New 
 
PAST THIRD CHEIST, THE SAVIOUR. 135 
 
 Testament, and in the Old Testament, where it is used, stands 
 for a "covering" of sin, all the ~New Testament writers agree 
 in their testimony, that the Saviour died on account of 
 human sinfulness and to save sinners. See I Cor. 15 :3, 
 "Christ died for our sins I Peter 2 :24, "His own self 
 bare our sins in his body on the tree ;" I John 2 :2, "He is 
 the propitiation for our sins;" Hebr. 9 :12, "Through his own 
 blood, he entered in once for all into the holy place, having 
 obtained eternal redemption." 
 
 This truth, however, is denied or doubted by many pro- 
 fessing Christians of our day, who assert : a. Christ suffered 
 and died only to leave us an example of patience and hope; 
 or b. To confirm the truthfulness of his teaching and seal 
 his testimony, as a martyr for the truth (the theory of 
 Faustus Socinus, +1604) ; or c. To reveal to men the great 
 love of God which constrains the sinner to be reconciled to 
 God (Abelard). But the death of Christ was not only a 
 martyrdom. If it were intended to be mainly an example 
 of patience and faith, other martyrs who died with triumph- 
 ant joy would have excelled Jesus in this respect. If it were 
 merely to attest the truth of his doctrine, it could, at best, 
 prove only his personal sincerity and conviction, not the 
 objective truth of his testimony. If he died to constrain the 
 sinner to be reconciled to God, such reconciliation could not 
 take place without the sinner's being first delivered from the 
 curse and the power of sin, which hold men captive. 
 
 3. Various Aspects of the Atonement. 
 
 Turning to the Scripture testimony concerning the true 
 significance of the atonement, we may classify the leading 
 declarations under four heads : 
 
 a. The moral or ethical aspect. The atonement is a mani- 
 festation of God's love, in which he reconciled the world unto 
 himself, and by an act of free grace, for the sake of his dear 
 Son, pardons the sinner and cleanses him from all guilt. 
 See John 3 :16, "God so loved the world that he gave his only 
 
136 
 
 CHRISTIAN DOCTEINE. 
 
 begotten son, that whosoever believeth on him should not 
 perish, but have eternal life." Rom. 5 :8, II Cor. 5 :15. 
 
 b. The commercial aspect. The atonement is a ransom 
 which was paid by Christ to redeem the sinner, and his death 
 is the price of our deliverance from the slavery of sin and 
 death. Matth. 20:28, "The Son of Man came to minister, 
 and to give his life a ransom for many." I Tim. 2 :6. 
 
 c. The legal aspect. The atonement is further described as 
 a fulfillment of the requirements of justice. The holiness of 
 the law was vindicated and satisfaction was made for sin, 
 by Christ's bearing the penalty of sin, in order to acquit the 
 guilty. II Cor. 5 :21, "Him who knew no sin he made to 
 be sin on our behalf; that we might become the righteousness 
 of Cod in him." Rom. 5 :19. 
 
 d. The sacrificial aspect. The atonement was a work of 
 priestly mediation, a sin-offering presented in behalf of sin- 
 ful humanity. Christ, the high priest and the Lamb of God, 
 died as the substitute of man. John 1 :29 : "Behold the Lamb 
 of God which taketh away the sin of the world." Col. 1 :20, 
 Hebr. 9 :11, 12. 
 
 4. Redemption. 
 Among these various methods of representing the meri- 
 torious work of Christ, the Christian Church, for a long time, 
 gave special preference to the commercial aspect. The death 
 of Christ is called in the New Testament hvrpov (lytron), 
 a ransom (Loesegeld), indicating deliverance from captivity 
 or slavery, by paying the price for the one held in bondage. 
 Some of the Church fathers, therefore, beginning with Origen 
 (+254), held, that through the fall Satan became the right- 
 ful owner of sinful humanity, as he is styled the "prince of 
 this world" (John 12:31). God in his justice, respecting 
 the rights even of Satan, offered his son as a ransom for 
 captive humanity and the transfer was made in the Saviour's 
 death. But as the sinless and divine Christ could not be held 
 by Satan, the latter was deceived in the transaction (John 
 
PART THIRD CHRIST, THE SAVIOUR. 137 
 
 14:30, "the prince of the world cometh, and he hath nothing 
 in me"). Others regarded the suffering and death of Christ 
 rather as a battle with the devil, in which he conquered 
 Satan and "taking his armor, divided his spoils" (Luke 
 11 :22), by delivering captive man from his bondage. 
 
 The scripture foundation for this conception of redeeming 
 or rescuing the sinner from the ownership of Satan is rather 
 uncertain. While we are taught that the devil has permission 
 to inflict the penalty of sin upon the sinner, it is nowhere 
 stated that he has any claim in justice to hold sinful man 
 in bondage. Accordingly, Athanasius already (+373), and 
 after him especially Anselm of Canterbury (+1109), in his 
 treatise : "Cur Deus Homo ?" dismissed the idea of redeeming 
 man from the power of the devil and substituted for it that 
 of a debt paid to God. The debt was sin and Christ paid 
 the debt, by voluntarily submitting to the death of the cross. 
 The ransom paid by Christ thus becomes the same as the 
 making of satisfaction, by becoming man's substitute. 
 
 5. Substitution. 
 
 It has been said that, for the right understanding of the 
 Scriptural doctrine of the atonement, we must combine the 
 fourfold aspect of the mediatorial work of Christ, viz., the 
 moral, commercial, legal and sacrificial, to get the proper 
 view of it. The most prominent feature, however, and the 
 one most clearly presented is that Christ's suffering and 
 death were vicarious, that the atonement was accomplished 
 through substitution. From ancient times, Jew and Gentile 
 had brought sacrifices for sin. The victim was put in the 
 place of the sinner, as an offering "for his soul" (Lev. 
 17:11). By laying his hands upon the animal's head and 
 confessing his sins, the sinner endeavored to transfer his 
 guilt upon his substitute. This type, according to Scripture 
 testimony, was fulfilled, when Jesus Christ, the Saviour, 
 became our substitute and as the Lamb of God, bore the 
 
138 
 
 CHRISTIAN DOCTRINE. 
 
 guilt of sin in our stead, not by compulsion but willingly, 
 out of love (Isai. 53:6, John 10:17, 18, Kom. 5:8). 
 
 God himself has provided an atonement which was in 
 harmony both with his love and with his holiness, recon- 
 ciling the world unto himself, by Christ satisfying the de- 
 mands of divine justice and rendering it consistent with 
 his holiness to have the sinner acquitted. Christ Jesus, the 
 God-man, after living a life of sinless perfection, in place 
 of man and as a man, yet permitted himself to be identified 
 with man's sin in Gethsemane and on Golgotha, and bore 
 what the sinner should have born, viz., God's holy dis- 
 pleasure against sin. The sinless life which he lived as a 
 man and the suffering which he endured in man's stead, 
 through the union of the divine with the human nature in 
 him, became of such infinite value that the holy and righteous 
 God could accept the sacrifice as an equivalent for what 
 mankind in general should have done and suffered. Thus 
 the guilt of the human race was canceled, when Christ cried : 
 "It is finished." 
 
 6. Objections Considered. 
 
 Two principal objections have been raised against this 
 doctrine of substitution and vicarious suffering. 
 
 a. It is inconsistent with reason, because sin is a personal 
 act of transgression which cannot be atoned for by Christ's 
 taking the place of the sinner. And, it lowers the standard 
 of human obligation, if instead of working out our own 
 salvation, we depend upon the merits of another. But 
 human sin differs from devilish sin in this very feature, 
 that it is not altogether a personal act of conscious inten- 
 tion. It is a disease rather than a crime, involuntary 
 slavery rather than rebellion. Sin committed with deliber- 
 ate purpose, "with a high hand" (or presumptuously, Numb. 
 15 :30) could not be atoned for with sacrifice even under 
 the Jewish law. But human sin is not an absolutely deliber- 
 ate act of malice. The sinner is not fully identified with his 
 
PART THIRD CHRIST, THE SAVIOUR. 
 
 139 
 
 sin. If he could submit to the penalty for sin and, while 
 suffering, cling to God in full trust, until he is purified from 
 evil, the atonement would be accomplished. 
 
 But no sinful man is able to undergo this process of 
 cleansing and live, much less could he pay the penalty for a 
 fellow man. Christ, the God-man and the representative 
 man, the second Adam and head of the race, could live and 
 die in man's place, do and suffer whatever was required, 
 because he stands in central relation to all souls of men. 
 The other objection, viz., "that it lowers the standard of 
 human obligation," rests simply on a misunderstanding of 
 the plan of salvation. No man can "work out his own 
 salvation" unless "God worketh in him to will and to do;" 
 but Christ's atonement secures pardon only for those who 
 acknowledge their sinfulness and whose faith in the Saviour 
 contains the germ of holy living. 
 
 b. Another objection is raised on the ground that the 
 sufferings of Christ were temporal and finite, whereas the 
 punishment which threatens the sinner is eternal. How can 
 the redeeming work of the Saviour which was limited to a 
 brief time, avail for sins that have been committed for 
 thousands of years? Scripture answers, because "God was 
 in Christ reconciling the world unto himself, not reckoning 
 unto them their trespasses" (II Co. 5:19). The vicarious 
 suffering of the man Jesus is of infinite value, not because 
 he endured every form of punishment which might be due to 
 each sinner, paying as it were eye for eye and tooth for 
 tooth, but because the perfect life and the perfect love of 
 the holy Son of Man were accepted of God as an equivalent 
 for the guilt of humanity. It was not merely the outward 
 act, but chiefly the spirit and purpose, the holy will and the 
 infinite dignity of the sufferer, which constituted his suffer- 
 ing a full equivalent in the eyes of infinite justice. 
 
140 
 
 CHRISTIAN DOCTRINE. 
 
 7. 7s the Atonement Limited? 
 
 There are two theories of a limitation of the atonement, 
 which deserve consideration and which may be briefly termed 
 the Romanist and the Calvinist limitation. 
 
 a. At one time in the history of the Christian Church, it 
 was believed that the redemption of Christ availed only for 
 the sins committed before baptism and that for sins com- 
 mitted after receiving this rite the sinner himself must 
 make satisfaction. This theory having been rejected by 
 Church councils as a heresy, many Catholic divines held, 
 that the atonement avails indeed for the remission of eternal 
 punishment for all sins, but that the sinner will suffer the 
 temporal punishment for his sin, not only on earth, but also 
 hereafter, unless he makes satisfaction for his sin. (Hence 
 the doctrine of "indulgences.") But how can a sinner make 
 satisfaction for his sins, either now or hereafter, if what- 
 ever he may offer is again stained with sin? The Bible 
 teaches, that "the blood of Jesus Christ cleanseth us from 
 all sin" (I John 1:7), that he "has obtained an eternal re- 
 demption," and "by one offering hath perfected forever them 
 that are sanctified" (Hebr. 9:12 and 10:14), so that nothing 
 remains to be added. 
 
 b. The other limitation of the meritorious work of Christ 
 is the belief that he died for the elect only, for those who 
 are predestined to eternal life. But we have clear and 
 ample Scripture testimony to show, that Christ died for all 
 men without exception. To quote but a few passages, we 
 read in I John 2 :2, "He is the propitiation for our sins ; 
 and not for ours only, but also for the whole world ;" I Tim. 
 2 :4 and 6, "God, our Saviour, who willeth that all men 
 should be saved . . . and He gave himself a ransom for all ;" 
 Hebr. 2 :9, "that by the grace of God he should taste of 
 death for every man." In Rom. 5 :12-19 the apostle makes 
 this the basis of his argument, that, as sin came by one man 
 
PAET THIRD CHRIST, THE SAVIOUR. 
 
 141 
 
 upon all, so righteousness and forgiveness of sin has come 
 by one for all men. 
 
 The few passages which seem to limit the benefit of the 
 atonement, must, therefore, be explained in harmony with 
 these declarations. Thus the declaration in Matth. 20 :28, 
 "The son of man came not to be ministered unto but to 
 minister and to give his life a ransom for many" does not 
 contrast the "many" with "all," but with "few." The same 
 applies to the statement; that "he laid down his life for his 
 friends" (John 15:13). So far as God and Christ are 
 concerned, salvation is unlimited. The whole world, as seen 
 in Christ, is redeemed ; objective provision is made for all, 
 by the canceling of our guilt in the atonement. Those who 
 by their unbelief reject this salvation, exclude themselves 
 from the human world which Christ came to redeem. 
 
 8. Highpriestly Intercession. 
 
 The highpriestly work of Christ continues after his as- 
 cension to heaven. The New Testament makes repeated 
 mention of the activity of the exalted Saviour, who inter- 
 cedes for his own before the Father (Rom. 8 :34, Hebr. 7 :25, 
 I John 2:1). This intercession in heaven does not detract 
 from the sufficiency of Christ's work on earth. It is not a 
 pleading by which the Father is moved to compassion, but 
 the continued presentation of the sacrifice once brought for 
 sin and, at the same time, a constant mediation of divine 
 grace to the redeemed. "For of his fulness we all received, 
 and grace for grace." (John 1 :16). Objects of this inter- 
 cession are those who believe in Christ, not the world as 
 such. The world is entreated to accept salvation, while 
 those who, through Christ, have become children of God are 
 ever presented to the Father, by the "only begotten son." 
 Thus Christ's intercession is a daily application of the 
 sacrifice once offered to the daily needs of the redeemed. 
 
142 
 
 CHRISTIAN DOCTRINE. 
 
 Chapter XXVI. The Kingly Office of Christ. 
 
 1. Christ a King. 
 Israel's Messiah, and the Saviour of the world was pre- 
 dicted in the Old Testament to come as a king (Isai. 9:7), 
 and proclaimed in the New Testament to be such, from the 
 time of his birth (Luke 1:32, Matth. 2:2). Even in the 
 hour of his greatest humiliation on earth, when standing 
 before Pilate, Christ called himself a king, who had come 
 to establish his kingdom. But he is a king in more than one 
 sense. In his divine nature the God-man was a king from 
 eternity, seeing that he is the sovereign ruler of the world, 
 which was created of God by Him, who is the eternal Word. 
 However, when Christ's kingship is spoken of in the New 
 Testament, it is generally not this dignity which belongs to 
 him in virtue of his being the Son of God, but the media- 
 torial kingdom that belongs to Christ, in virtue of his human 
 nature being exalted to divine honor and glory. 
 
 2. The Mediatorial Kingdom. 
 
 By the term Mediatorial Kingdom, therefore, we under- 
 stand that dominion which is the reward of the God-man 
 for accomplishing the work of salvation. With regard to 
 the world at large it is a kingdom of power, with regard to 
 the present establishment, of the Church it is a kingdom of 
 grace and with regard to the future, it will be a kingdom 
 of glory. He was a king, while on earth, but rather a king 
 by right, than by actual rule. His coronation took place at 
 his ascension, as he told the disciples, saying: "All authority 
 hath been given unto me, in heaven and on earth" (Matth. 
 28:18). God has put into the hands of the God-man the 
 administration of his providence. In Hebr. 2 :8 we read : 
 "In that he subjected all things unto him, he left nothing 
 that is not subject to him." Accordingly, during the present 
 Christian dispensation, Christ is our king, the Lord over 
 all, the supreme ruler, to whom the whole earth must yield 
 
PART THIRD CHRIST, THE SAVIOUR. 
 
 143 
 
 obedience. Earthly monarchs and governments possess au- 
 thority only as they derive it from him, and he uses all the 
 institutions of mankind for the advancement of his kingdom. 
 
 3. The Kingdom of Grace. 
 
 In a narrower sense, Christ exercises his kingly office in 
 and over the Church, the kingdom of grace (Ephes. 1 :22, 
 23). For the Church is the temporary, crystallized form 
 of the kingdom of God. Christ founded it ; he rules in it 
 by his Spirit, he defends it, he perfects it by cleansing it 
 and by giving it the victory over every foe. The relation 
 which he holds towards the Church in general, as head and 
 king, he also holds towards each part of the Church in 
 particular and to each member of the Church. In other 
 words, Christ is the only true Lord, having absolute authority 
 and control of the Church, king, bishop, or elder of his 
 people. He has the right to direct both the spiritual life 
 and the temporal concerns of every branch of the Church 
 universal, as well as of every member therein. 
 
 This kingdom of grace, though established on earth and 
 with earthly forms of organization, is unlike the kingdoms 
 of this world. It can and does exist under all forms of civil 
 government, without any interfering with them. Its primary 
 object is to exercise dominion over the souls rather than 
 over the bodies of men, and although it aims at a complete 
 change of the world of man, including its social and political 
 aspect, this change is to be brought about, not by revolution, 
 but by regeneration. 
 
 4. The Kingdom of Glory. 
 
 The third phase of Christ's kingdom is still future. It is 
 that for which in particular we pray : "Thy kingdom come !" 
 The progress of this kingdom also is in a large measure 
 dependent upon the prayer and the exertion of Christian 
 men and women, until "in the name of Jesus every knee 
 shall bow . . . and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is 
 
144 
 
 CHRISTIAN DOCTRINE. 
 
 Lord, to the glory of God the Father" (Phil. 2:9, 10). 
 Then will begin the kingdom of glory, when Christ will 
 return to the earth and gather his own into that kingdom 
 which has been "prepared for them from the foundation of 
 the world" (Matth. 25:34). 
 
 This kingdom is of eternal duration, as we read in Kev. 
 11 :15, "The kingdom of the world is become the kingdom 
 of our Lord and of his Christ ; and he shall reign for ever 
 and ever." The declaration of the Apostle Paul in I Cor. 
 15 :24 that, when the last enemy, death, is destroyed, "Christ 
 shall deliver up the kingdom to God, even the Father," 
 clearly is not intended to deny this truth. It refers to the 
 mediatorial kingdom in its specific purpose of bringing sal- 
 vation to a sinful world. When the plan of salvation has 
 been fully accomplished, there will be no further need of a 
 mediator and of a mediatorial kingdom. The triune God, 
 Father, Son and Holy Spirit, will reign and govern, as he 
 did before sin came into the world. 
 
fl>art jfourtb— personal Salvation. 
 
 Chapter XXVII. The Beginning of Personal Salvation. 
 
 1. Salvation a Gift of God. 
 The objective salvation prepared for humanity in Christ, 
 the Saviour, becomes a personal possession of man, when 
 he accepts it with the conditions under which God has 
 placed it. God will have all men saved and on his part, 
 whatever is needful for godliness and happiness, has been 
 provided. But the sinner must be saved in the manner 
 ordained of God and here the first principle is this, that 
 "all glory of man is excluded" (Bom. 3:27). It is only 
 the grace of God which works any spiritual good in man. 
 He who quickens all natural life is also the sole creator of 
 spiritual life. Man cannot purchase salvation at the price 
 of repentance and faith. It is simply a gift of God, who, 
 through the Holy Spirit, bestows upon sinful man all that 
 is needed. It is the work of the Spirit of God to enlighten, 
 to justify and to sanctify. Only by the operation of the 
 Spirit, can Christ for us become Christ in us. Our personal 
 salvation, even from the first desire to be saved, is a divine 
 work, as Paul writes in Ephes. 2 :8, 9, "By grace have ye 
 been saved, through faith; and that not of yourselves; it is 
 the gift of God; not of works, that no man should glory." 
 
 2. Salvation not ivithoiit Man. 
 Divine grace, however, does not annul conscious self-de- 
 termination on the part of man. It does not work by magic, 
 but in accordance with the rational and moral nature of 
 man. It remains ineffectual, unless it meets with the re- 
 sponse of human willingness. The Christian, that is every 
 one who makes a personal experience of salvation, may be 
 said to be a likeness of Christ himself. As in him a divine 
 10 
 
146 
 
 CHRISTIAN DOCTRINNE. 
 
 and a human nature were united in one personality, so in 
 the regeneration of the sinner the divine and the human 
 agencies must work together. As Christ was conceived of 
 the Holy Spirit, but born of the Virgin Mary, so each "child 
 of God" must be begotten of the divine spirit, but born in 
 a human soul. (Compare John 1:12, 13). As the relation 
 between the two natures in Christ is a mystery to our limited 
 understanding, so is likewise the exact relation between the 
 divine or creative and the human or receptive principle, in 
 the salvation of man. 
 
 The analogy of physical birth, as illustrating the work 
 of personal salvation, was pointed out by Christ himself in 
 John 3 :3, and all the ISTew Testament writers make use of it 
 (Tit. 3:5, I Pet. 1:3, James 1:18, I John 3:9). As in the 
 natural sphere, so in the spiritual, there are successive stages 
 of growth, a. Life begins first in an embryonic state, when 
 by the operation of the Spirit the call to salvation is ex- 
 tended and accepted, b. The child of God is then born, 
 through repentance and faith, c. He grows up to spiritual 
 manhood, by a gradual increase of life and activity. 
 
 3. Individual Preparation. 
 
 The actual beginning of personal salvation is to be found 
 in the various means employed of God for preparing the 
 sinner to receive the call to salvation. Christ himself testi- 
 fied ,that no man can come to him, "except the Father draw 
 him" (John 6 :44). Whenever, therefore, a sinner is brought 
 nigh unto salvation, it is in consequence of such a divine 
 drawing, independent of his own will or act. This is some- 
 times called "prevenient grace." Its form and manner 
 differ, according as a man is either born and brought up in 
 the care of the Church or without the Church. For it is 
 not immaterial, whether a child grows up in a Christian 
 community and is being "nurtured in the chastening and 
 admonition of tbe Lord" (Ephes. 6:4), or whether it is sur- 
 
PART FOURTH PERSONAL SALVATION. 
 
 147 
 
 rounded by the opposite influences up to the time, when a 
 personal experience of saving grace it made. 
 
 a. Preparation outside of the Church. This class includes, 
 besides the heathen, Mohammedans and other non-Christians, 
 the millions of nominal Christians who, though born in a 
 Christian country and perhaps baptized, grow up without 
 the blessings of Christian precept and example. Such men 
 often receive a special preparation for salvation by mani- 
 festations of divine help or of divine chastisement, which 
 attract their attention. Certain experiences which they 
 make, whether they be of a joyful or painful nature, awaken 
 in them a longing for something better and higher than the 
 natural life affords. Or they are furnished an opportunity 
 to hear and read a testimony to the truth, by coming into 
 contact with Christian men and women who can instruct 
 them. 
 
 In some cases the general revelation of God, through 
 nature, history and the inner voice of conscience, is em- 
 ployed to give men the preparation for the salvation to be 
 offered to them. In other cases a direct testimony of re- 
 vealed religion through a word of Scripture or a Christian 
 hymn which they hear, serves the purpose of making an im- 
 pression or awakening an interest in spiritual matters. 
 
 b. Preparation within the Church. The case is different 
 with those who receive a Christian training. Where the 
 church and the family attend to their respective duties, 
 preparatory divine grace finds more material to work with. 
 Children of Christian parents who are instructed in the 
 Bible, who attend divine worship and who are taught to pray, 
 are comparable to the children of Israel, as distinguished 
 from the Gentiles. They know the divine will and his gra- 
 cious promises; they believe in the Saviour in a general 
 way, but do not as yet make a personal experience of religion, 
 because they do not realize their sinfulness and have no 
 personal interest in salvation. 
 
148 
 
 CHRISTIAN DOCTRINE. 
 
 Chapter XXVIII. The Call to Salvation. 
 
 1. The Gospel Call. 
 
 The transition from preparatory grace to actual, saving 
 grace is made by the divine call which invites the sinner to 
 come and share in the benefits of the salvation provided by 
 Christ. God calls men, first, by the preaching of the Gospel, 
 as Paul writes in II Tim. 1 :9 : "He called us with a holy 
 calling, not according to our works, but according to his 
 own purpose and grace which was given us in Christ 
 Jesus," and Col. 1 :6 : "Whereof ye heard before in the 
 word of the truth of the Gospel, which is come unto you, 
 even as it is in all the world." 
 
 This general Gospel call includes three things, viz. : 
 a. Christian instruction, or a presentation of the plan of 
 salvation, b. A promise of God to save all who are willing 
 to be saved, c. An urgent invitation and admonition to 
 accept this offer. 
 
 The Gospel call is addressed to all who hear or read the 
 word of God. It is not confined to any age, nationality or 
 class of men. It is Christ's invitation: "Come unto me 
 all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you 
 rest" (Matth. 11:28). It is the call of the "Spirit and the 
 bride" (the Church) : "Come ; he that is athirst let him 
 come; he that will, let him take the water of life freely" 
 (Kev. 22:17). It is the mission call, as it is written: "How 
 shall they believe in him whom they have not beard? and 
 bow shall they believe without a preacher ? . . So belief cometh 
 of hearing, and hearing by the word of Christ" (Rom. 
 10:14, 17). Christ has promised that, before the close of 
 this world-period, the Gospel shall have reached every tribe 
 of men. As for those who died before the word of salvation 
 in Christ could be proclaimed on earth, we may conclude 
 from I Pet. 3 :19 and 4 :6. that this may have been done for 
 them in the Spirit-world, and the same hope may be enter- 
 
PART FOURTH PERSONAL SALVATION. 
 
 149 
 
 tained with regard to the heathen who are now dying with- 
 out having heard the Gospel. 
 
 2. The Inward Call. 
 
 The external call, through the preaching of the Gospel, is 
 accompanied or followed by an inward call of the Holy 
 Spirit addressed to the heart of the sinner. The Gospel 
 call alone would not suffice to awaken sinful man from his 
 sleep and to conquer the natural aversion of the heart to 
 spiritual things. The Spirit of God must first reprove and 
 "convict the heart of sin, of righteousness and of judg- 
 ment" (John 16:8), in order to effect a spiritual awaken- 
 ing. But this inward call of the Spirit is not always heeded. 
 Some of those who hear the Gospel call seem averse to it 
 from the beginning; others remain indifferent, from first to 
 last ; while still others, who apparently began to listen and 
 were awakened, sink back into the sleep of sin and harden 
 their hearts, so that the call becomes of none effect. 
 
 What is the cause of this fact? Some have assumed, that 
 there is a difference between what they term a serious and a 
 not serious call. The former conquers the natural in- 
 difference or enmity of the human heart, so as to compel 
 the sinner to yield to the divine influence; the latter pro- 
 duces no permanent results. But the thought, that God's 
 call to some men should not be altogether a serious or sin- 
 cere call, is utterly at variance with the testimony of Scrip- 
 ture and the nature of God. The inward call to salvation, 
 if it is to be of value to the sinner, must involve the fur- 
 nishing of all that is required to accept the offer, so that its 
 rejection is an act of man's free will. 
 
 3. The Effectual Call. 
 
 It must be admitted, however, that from the experimental 
 point of view, the distinction between an effectual and an 
 ineffectual call is well founded. Not only is there ample 
 evidence that the divine call does not produce the desired 
 
150 
 
 CHRISTIAN DOCTRINE. 
 
 awakening in the hearts of all men, but even the same per- 
 son who for a long time has not heeded the call to re- 
 pentance and faith, often" does so at last. This shows that 
 there is a difference between what has been termed a 
 general and a special or personal call. It appears that the 
 special call is addressed to the individual whenever he or 
 she is properly prepared either to accept or reject the offer 
 of salvation, in such a manner as thereby to decide their 
 destiny. If some are called in childhood, or at the third 
 hour of life, others at the sixth hour, and still others not 
 until the eleventh, in old age (as pointed out by our Saviour 
 in the parable of the laborers, Matth. chp. 20), the cause of 
 the delay may be altogether the natural perverseness of the 
 human heart which will not yield to the Spirit's pleading. 
 But it may be due also to the educational wisdom of God, 
 who delays the decisive call until the right time has come. 
 
 The manner in which this personal and special call comes, 
 varies greatly with different men. Some can testify that 
 they were drawn by the Lord "with bands of love," as the 
 prophet said of Israel : "When Israel was a child, then I 
 loved him and called my son out of Egypt" (Hosea 11:1), 
 or as the boy Samuel at Shiloh who hardly yet recognized 
 the divine voice, while he listened. Such men can scarcely 
 tell afterwards, when and how they became spiritually 
 awakened. Others, on the contrary, like the jailer of 
 Philippi, are struck with terror and cry out trembling: 
 "What must I do to be saved?" (Acts 16:30). (Note the 
 contrast with Lydia of the same city, "whose heart the Lord 
 opened, that she attended unto the things which were spoken 
 of Paul," Acts 16:14) 
 
 4. Relation between Preparation and the Call to Salvation. 
 
 In the case of men born in a Christian community, the 
 sacrament of baptism and the Christian training which 
 they receive may be said to constitute the general call to 
 
PART FOURTH PERSONAL SALVATION. 151 
 
 salvation. To make this general call a special and effectual 
 one, the only requirement is a personal realization of their 
 need of a Saviour, because of the natural perverseness of 
 the heart and the inability to love God and to keep his 
 commandments. Such knowledge of sin and the consequent 
 effectual call may come very early in life. In a majority 
 of cases, however, the needful conviction of sin seems to 
 come only with a longer experience of life. 
 
 The relation between the awakening call and preparatory 
 grace is not necessarily one of a succession in time, but 
 rather of logical sequence. With Christian children, at 
 least, the work of preparation to a large extent follows 
 after the general call to salvation has been given. Further- 
 more, the general call often is not limited to one short 
 moment, but extends over a longer period. Time and man- 
 ner in this, as in every stage of personal salvation, cannot 
 be fully defined or circumscribed. But all who find salva- 
 tion in Christ Jesus, are first called by the Gospel, through 
 the Holy Ghost. Every effort to lead sinners to repentance 
 and faith proves unavailing, until this awakening call has 
 been heard and heeded. 
 
 Chapter XXIX. Repentance. 
 
 1. The Need of Repentance. 
 After considering the means by which the Lord prepares 
 and invites the sinner to accept salvation, we turn to the 
 effects produced thereby and the human conditions required 
 for the actual obtaining of this personal salvation. John 
 the Baptist, and Christ himself, commenced their preaching 
 with the demand : "Repent ye : for the kingdom of heaven 
 is at hand" (Matth. 3:2 and 4:17). "Repent" (piSTavoelrs) 
 means "change your mind" or turn about, be converted. 
 The natural position of sinful man is away from Christ and 
 his salvation, either indifferent and careless or self- 
 righteous. Accordingly, the first demand made upon the 
 
152 
 
 CHRISTIAN DOCTRINE. 
 
 natural man is that he acknowledge his need of a Saviour, 
 and turning away from self and sin to Christ, receive from 
 him forgiveness and the regeneration of heart and life, 
 without which it is impossible to enter the kingdom of God. 
 
 This turning away from sin to Christ is what we term 
 "Conversion." It has a negative and a positive aspect. The 
 former, that is the turning from sin, is called repentance, 
 the latter, that is the turning to Christ and putting our 
 trust solely in the Redeemer, is called faith True repent- 
 ance must lead to faith ; the two are inseparable, simply two 
 phases of the same act. 
 
 2. False Conceptions of Repentance. 
 
 The word "repentance" is liable to misconceptions. To 
 the minds of many people it conveys the idea of a human 
 accomplishment by which man is bringing about his salva- 
 tion. The Roman Catholic Church has a whole system of 
 so called "penances" imposed upon the sinner, who desires 
 to make himself a worthy object of divine grace. She has 
 made repentance a "sacrament of penance" requiring three 
 acts, viz., contrition, confession, and satisfaction. Many 
 Protestant Christians also entertain views which are not in 
 accord with Scripture teaching. 
 
 Some understand by repentance, good resolutions of moral 
 improvement and spiritual reform, or a public profession of 
 religion, followed by a joining of the Church. Others think, 
 that repentance means the intellectual acceptance of the doc- 
 trine of universal depravity and a confession of sinfulness. 
 Still others define it as an experience of great grief and 
 anguish of soul over the sins committed. While these and 
 other manifestations are in order, as expressions of a re- 
 pentant mind, we must pronounce it an error to regard good 
 resolutions, excited feelings and public confession of sin, the 
 trve essence of repentance, or to measure its genuineness by 
 them. 
 
PART FOURTH PERSONAL SALVATION. 
 
 153 
 
 3. Elements of True Repentance. 
 
 Evangelical doctrine, as moulded by Scripture teaching, 
 defines repentance to mean such a turning of the mind and 
 disposition, as will bring with it a deep conviction of sin, 
 coupled with an earnest longing for salvation. The ele- 
 ments of such true repentance are set forth in the three 
 first beatitudes of the Sermon on the Mount (Matth. 5:2-4), 
 to be the following, a. "Blessed are the poor in spirit, for 
 theirs is the kingdom of heaven." This is, first of all, a matter 
 of intellectual conviction, a recognition of sin as meaningboth 
 guilt and helplessness (Ps. 51:3). b. "Blessed are they that 
 mourn." The conviction of sin is accompanied by an 
 emotional element, a deep sorrow for sin, not merely for the 
 consequences of sin, but for sin itself (Ps. 51:1). c. "Blessed 
 are the meek." The mourning of the soul for sin leads to 
 meekness, that is willingness to surrender self-will and self- 
 righteousness, and to accept the offer of salvation in the 
 manner in which it is presented. Thus in true repentance, 
 successively, the intellect, feeling and will are affected and 
 prepared to recive the gift of divine grace. 
 
 4. The Author of Repentance. 
 
 As there cannot be anything truly good in man which does 
 not proceed from God, it follows that true repentance is a 
 work wrought in man by the Spirit of God Unless He 
 enables the sinner to repent and to turn from the error of his 
 way, there can be no acceptable repentance. But man must 
 make use of the power which God gives. Holy Scripture 
 recognizes the voluntary activity of the human soul in this 
 change, as distinctly as the divine origin. Otherwise re- 
 pentance could not be urged upon man as a duty; compare 
 Acts 3:19, "Repent and be converted (or turn again), that 
 your sins may be blotted out." In this respect repentance 
 differs from preparatory grace and the call to salvation, 
 which are purely divine acts. Repentance is divine-human, 
 the first stage of the new relation between God and man. 
 
154 
 
 CHEISTIAN DOCTKNE. 
 
 5. The Motive to Repentance. 
 
 But what is the agency employed by the Spirit of God 
 to produce repentance? Does it come by the Law or by the 
 Gospel? Christian experience has proved, that for the 
 realization of guilt which is necessary for true repentance, 
 the commandments of the Law must first convict us of sin, 
 as Paul writes in Rom. 3 :20, "Through the law cometh the 
 knowledege of sin." However, the effect of a purely nega- 
 tive testimony can be but negative, a feeling of fear or re- 
 morse, which eventually must lead to despair or else to a 
 hardening of the heart. "For the law worketh wrath" (Rom. 
 4:15). 
 
 The Gospel of love has a better effect. The deepest con- 
 viction of the guilt of sin and the most earnest longing to 
 be free from the bondage of sin are awakened by a con- 
 templation of the love of God manifested in Christ Jesus, 
 and him crucified. The Saviour suffering for our sin is the 
 most powerful incentive to repentance (Acts 2:36, 37). 
 In the accursed death of the holy Christ we read most 
 clearly God's wrath against all sin, and our own guilt. 
 This is the testimony of successful missionary labor, from 
 Paul's preaching in Corinth and Ch. Henry Rauch's story 
 of the crucified Saviour among the Mohican Indians at 
 Shekomeko (in 1740), to the present day. Nevertheless, 
 most men do not at once understand the significance of the 
 death of Christ and remain indifferent toward the Gospel 
 of love, unless it is mingled with, or preceded by the stern 
 demands of the law. 
 
 As in the general preparation of humanity the law served 
 as a "school master" to lead to Christ, so with individual 
 men the law's demand must first break the natural in- 
 difference of the human heart. We conclude, therefore, 
 that the law is a necessary factor in preparing the sinner 
 
PART FOURTH PERSONAL SALVATION. 
 
 155 
 
 for repentance, but the Gospel of the crucified Saviour com- 
 pletes this preparation. Repentance conies not without the 
 law, hut by the Gospel. 
 
 Chapter XXX. Faith. 
 
 1. The Need of Faith. 
 
 The need of faith in God and in his promise, in order to 
 receive a share in the divine offer of salvation, is frequently 
 set forth in the Bible. The exalted position of the patriarch 
 Abraham, the "father of all believers," is declared to be 
 due to the strong faith which he manifested. Psalmist and 
 Prophet unite in the testimony, that without faith it is im- 
 possible to please God. Compare Psalm 78 :22, "Anger 
 came up against Israel, because they believed not in God 
 and trusted not in his salvation;" Isaiah 7:9, "If ye will 
 not believe, surely ye shall not be established;" and Hab. 
 2 :4, "But the just shall live by his faith." 
 
 In the New Testament proclamation of salvation, the 
 call to repentance is closely linked with the exhortation to 
 believe in him whom God has sent to be the Saviour of men. 
 In Christ's own teaching, faith in himself and in his Gospel 
 was declared to be the special work which God required of 
 man (John 6:29), and the apostles, with one accord, make 
 this faith the unalterable condition of personal salvation. 
 Pom. 1:16: "The Gospel (of Christ) is the power of God 
 unto salvation to every one that believeth;" I John 5:10, 
 etc. 
 
 Faith and repentance belong together, as parts of the 
 same act, the act of conversion, and repentance toward God 
 involves faith in the Lord Jesus Christ (Acts 20:21.) 
 
 2. The Elements of Faith. 
 Faith, like religion in general, has a subjective and an 
 objective aspect. As a subjective energy, it is not limited 
 to one or the other mental faculty of man, but involves the 
 
156 
 
 CHRISTIAN DOCTRINE. 
 
 exercise of all of them. It consists of three elements. It is a. 
 An intellectual belief in the doctrine of man's sinfulness and 
 dependence upon Christ, b. An interest in the person or 
 thing in which we believe, viz., the grace of Jesus Christ, our 
 Saviour, c. A trust in the object of our faith and a conse- 
 quent surrender of the heart to Christ and a reception of his 
 pardon and spiritual life. Thus faith concerns the under- 
 standing, the sentiment and the will. If James in his epistle 
 speaks of a faith which the devils also have and tremble, 
 apparently limiting the idea of faith to the understanding, 
 he merely refers to a misunderstanding of Christian teach- 
 ing, common enough in his day, as also in ours. Saving faith 
 certainly involves a firm trust and an interest of the heart, 
 as the center of man's personality. 
 
 The only definition of faith given in the New Testament, 
 viz., Heb. 11 :1, "Faith is the assurance of things hoped for, 
 the proving of things not seen," shows that it means a 
 laying hold of something which cannot be obtained by 
 sensuous perception or logical reasoning. It is a moral act 
 which includes the willingness to accept the Saviour and 
 the salvation which is offered in him. We are saved by his 
 grace, but faith is the hand which receives the grace of God. 
 Faith has no merit in itself ; it does not win salvation for us. 
 It is valuable not for what it gives, but for what it gets. 
 3. The Object of Faith. 
 
 In Heb. 11 :1 the general scope of faith is declared to be 
 "the proving of things not seen," viz., the creation of the 
 world by the word of God, his government and his entire 
 revelation of himself. The whole truth of God then, so far 
 as it is made known to mankind, forms the general object of 
 religious faith. Under this head may be comprised all the 
 worship of God which devout men have rendered in ancient 
 and modern times, even outside of the sphere of revealed 
 religion. Socrates, Plato and Sophocles had faith in God, 
 though the scope of their faith was limited to God's natural 
 
PART FOURTH PERSONAL SALVATION. 157 
 
 revelation of his truth and grace. Abraham and the 
 children of Israel had faith which was counted to them 
 for righteousness, though the plan of salvation was not yet 
 made fully known to them. All such faith was implicitly 
 a faith in Christ and would become a conscious trust in the 
 Saviour, when made known to them, in this or in the future 
 world, as Christ said, in Matth. 8:11, "Many shall come 
 from the east and the west, and shall sit down with Abraham, 
 and Isaac and Jacob, in the kingdom of heaven." 
 
 The New Testament faith differs from this general faith 
 in having for its specific object Christ and his salvation. 
 The person and work of Jesus Christ, as the embodiment of 
 the revelation of divine love and mercy, constitute the one 
 great object of Christian faith. John 20 :31, "These are 
 written that ye may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son 
 of God, and that believing ye may have life in his name." 
 Accordingly Christian faith is a trust, a. In the work of 
 Christ, his life, suffering, death and resurrection, as the 
 ground of salvation, b. In the person of Christ, as the God- 
 man, the mediator of salvation, our exalted Lord, Master 
 and Friend. 
 
 4. The Author of Faith. 
 As to the origin of saving faith, the same holds good that 
 was said of repentance, viz., that it is a gift of God that 
 must be appropriated by man to be acceptable and efficient. 
 The more decisive this act is in determining the destiny of 
 man. the more certainly such saving faith must be of divine 
 origin, must be God's work in us. On the other hand, how- 
 ever, this faith can be pleasing to God only if freely ap- 
 propriated by the human heart and by the exercise of a free 
 human will. It is the expression of personal confidence in 
 the revelation of the redeeming love of God in Jesus Christ, 
 our Saviour. God gives the power to believe, but man is 
 free to take or to refuse this power (John 6:29). 
 
158 
 
 CHRISTIAN DOCTKINE. 
 
 Chapter XXXI. Regeneration and Justification. 
 
 1. The Change of Heart. 
 Repentance and faith combined in what we call "con- 
 version" produce a change in the sinner's condition and 
 relation to God, which is represented by the two terms, re- 
 generation and justification. While repentance and faith 
 are partly divine and partly human acts, this change of the 
 heart is exclusively a divine work. It is the divine aspect 
 of that operation which, viewed from the human side, is 
 termed conversion ; it is God turning the soul to Himself. 
 This fact is brought out clearly by the term regeneration. 
 For men cannot beget themselves, nor are we ever in Holy 
 Scripture exhorted to do so, while we are urged to repent 
 and believe. But this change of heart and of the relation 
 between the human heart and God, again presents a two- 
 fold aspect, as expressed by the two words: Regeneration 
 and justification, the one marking the ethical, the other the 
 judicial side of the same act. We find that the Apostle 
 John emphasizes more the ethical or creative aspect, using 
 frequently the terms "born again" and "cleansed from sin," 
 or "fellowship with Christ," whereas Paul lays stress on the 
 judicial phase. The terms most often occurring in his let- 
 ters are "justification, forgiveness and righteousness." 
 
 2. Regeneration. 
 
 When the sinner by repentance and faith has been 
 brought to that state of willingness which accepts the offer 
 of divine grace unconditionally, the Holy Spirit by an act 
 of divine power exerts such an influence upon the soul of 
 man as to virtually make him a new creature. This is ac- 
 complished through a personal and organic union with 
 Christ, the Redeemer, by which Christ enters into the soul 
 and the believer shares in the merits of Christ's life, death 
 and resurrection. 
 
 The figure of a birth is employed in order to indicate the 
 
PART FOURTH PERSONAL SALVATION. 
 
 159 
 
 absolute newness of the relation and condition of the regen- 
 erate, and the principle of the new life-power that is com- 
 municated by fellowship with Christ. Regeneration is not 
 a physical change, but the giving of a new direction or 
 tendency to the faculties and powers of man. The believer's 
 life is no longer self-centered and sin is no longer the govern- 
 ing principle. The sinner is transformed into a child of God. 
 The old sinful self gives place to a new self which has its 
 center and life in God. Compare John 1 :12, 13 : "As many 
 as received him, to them gave he the right to become children 
 of God, even to them that believe on his name: which were 
 born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will 
 of man, but of God ;" and I Peter 1 :3 : "Blessed be the God 
 and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to his 
 great mercy begat us again unto a living hope, by the resur- 
 rection of Jesus Christ from the dead." 
 
 3. Justification. 
 
 The doctrine of justification is set forth briefly by the 
 Apostle Paul in Eom. 3:22-26, in these words: "Now a 
 righteousness of God hath been manifested through faith in 
 Jesus Christ unto all them that believe ; . . . being justified 
 freely by grace through the redemption that is in Christ 
 Jesus: whom God set forth to be a propitiation through 
 faith, by his blood,. . .that he might himself be just and the 
 justifier of him that hath faith in Jesus." As thus defined, 
 justification is a judicial act by which God, on account of 
 Christ, to whom the sinner is united by faith, declares that 
 sinner free from guilt and acquitted. God acquits the un- 
 godly who believe in Christ, and declares them just on the 
 ground of what Christ has done for them. 
 
 It is because the sinner in childlike trust has cast himself 
 upon the grace of God and Christ, that God can see him as 
 being one with Christ, and in Christ, and for Christ's sake 
 forgives his sin, as Paul writes to the Ephesians : "In whom 
 we have our redemption through his blood, the forgiveness 
 
160 
 
 CHRISTIAN DOCTRINE. 
 
 of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace" (Eph. 
 1:7). This justification and forgiveness of sin carries with 
 it reconciliation and peace with God, a free access to the 
 throne of grace and the assurance of our having become 
 children of God and heirs of salvation. Compare Eom. 
 5 :1, 2, "Being therefore justified by faith, we have peace 
 with God through our Lord Jesus Christ; through whom 
 also we have had our access by faith into this grace wherein 
 we stand." 
 
 4. Justification before Sanctification. 
 The doctrine that justification is simultaneous with re- 
 generation ought to be guarded against the error of the 
 Roman Church, that the sinner must first become righteous, 
 before he can be declared righteous and that to this end he 
 must cooperate in bringing about his justification, by chang- 
 ing his heart, as the Canons of Trent declare : "Justification 
 consists in the sanctification and renewal of the inner man 
 by the voluntary reception of God's grace and gifts." The 
 great obstacle to man's being restored to communion with 
 God is unforgiven sin. That sin must first be removed be- 
 fore the grace of God can take possession of the heart. But 
 how can the sinner be declared righteous, when he is not? 
 How can he be justified, before he is sanctified? Simply 
 through the imputation of the merits of Christ's work. By 
 faith the sinner becomes so identified with the Saviour, that 
 he shares in his righteousness; he is ideally righteous, be- 
 cause his faith is counted for righteousness (Rom. 4:9). 
 
 5. Union with Christ. 
 The immediate result as well as the inherent cause of 
 regeneration and justification is, that the sinner is restored 
 to that communion with God which belonged to the original 
 state of man, as a state of grace. It is the Apostle John, in 
 particular, who emphasizes this truth, that the believer has 
 fellowship with God in Cbrist ; e. g., I John 1 :3, "Our fellow- 
 
PART FOURTH PERSONAL SALVATION. 
 
 163 
 
 ship is with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ." 
 But the Apostle Paul often expresses the same thought in 
 saying: We are in Christ and Christ is in us. "There is 
 therefore now no condemnation to them that are in Christ 
 Jesus" (Eom. S:l). "It is no longer I that live, hut Christ 
 liveth in me" (Gal. 2:20). The relation between Christ 
 and the believer is represented under the figures of head 
 and body, husband and wife, vine and branches, the 
 Saviour himself having made use of the last named com- 
 parison in John 15:5, "I am the vine, ye are the branches: 
 he that abideth in me, and I in him, the same beareth much 
 fruit, for apart from me ye can do nothing." 
 
 This union with Christ, according to Scripture teaching, 
 is virtually a fellowship with the Father, the Son and the 
 Holy Spirit. The Spirit represents the indwelling of the 
 Godhead in particular (Rom. 8:9, "if so be that the Spirit 
 of God dwelleth in you"), and the Father the primary 
 cause of the divine self-communication (John 14:23, "If a 
 man love me, he will keep my word and my Father will love 
 him and we will come unto him, and make our abode with 
 him"). Christ the Saviour is living in his disciples through 
 the Holy Spirit and at the same time interceding for them 
 with the Father. He, the God-man, the only mediator be- 
 tween God and man, must remain the personal center of our 
 relationship to God. But through him and on account of his 
 redemption we receive the adoption of sons," the Spirit him- 
 self beareth witness with our spirit, that we are children of 
 God" (Rom. 8:16). 
 
 6. The State of Grace. 
 This truth is of practical importance also for the right 
 understanding of what is essential in the condition of those 
 who have personally experienced salvation, and are in the 
 state of grace, as contrasted with the state of the unre- 
 generate. In many instances, the external manifestations 
 11 
 
162 
 
 CHRISTIAN DOCTRINE. 
 
 of conversion are not very perceptible. Judging by these 
 only, it may sometimes appear doubtful, whether a work of 
 grace has begun. Some can point to the day and the minute, 
 when they were regenerated, others cannot do that. The 
 change takes place without any striking signs. A Christian 
 child whose heart is open to the influence of the Holy Spirit 
 from the earliest infancy, possesses that poverty of spirit, 
 to which Christ adjudges the kingdom of heaven, and which 
 is the essential part of repentance, even though it may 
 lack the deeper understanding of the corruption of sin and 
 the grief over it. Such a child, furthermore, may have the 
 substance of saving faith, a simple trust in Christ, our 
 Saviour, without the clearness which belongs to the full- 
 grown faith. Accordingly such a child can and does make 
 an experience of saving grace and of the change of heart, 
 receives the forgiveness of sin and the gift of the Holy 
 Spirit, yet without consciously passing through the regular 
 stages of conversion, as before described, and as experienced 
 by those who grow up in indifference or unbelief. 
 
 The majority of Christ's own disciples may have been led 
 in this Johannean way, as it has been termed, in distinction 
 from the Pauline way of conversion, in which each stage 
 is distinctly marked by a special experience. If the apostolic 
 writings contain fewer instances of this kind (see, however, 
 II Tim. 1:5 and 3:15), the reason is apparent, viz., that in 
 those days there was as yet no generation of Christian chil- 
 dren, trained by their parents and by the Church, "nurtured 
 in the chastening and admonition of the Lord" (Eph. 6:4). 
 The latest New Testament writings, the epistles and the 
 gospel of John, bear ample testimony to the fact that it is 
 not the manner or method of conversion which is essential, 
 but the result, viz., a personal appropriation of salvation 
 which proves its genuineness by a living communion with 
 Christ, the Saviour, and by the fruits of grace and peace 
 
PART FOURTH PERSONAL SALVATION. 
 
 163 
 
 which grow from it. I John 5:12, "He that hath the Son 
 hath the life; he that hath not the Son of God hath not the 
 life." 
 
 Chapter XXXII. Sanctification and Conflicts. 
 
 1. The New Life. 
 The Christian believer, who has been justified by grace, 
 through faith in Christ, and regenerated by the power of 
 the Holy Ghost, lives a new life, the life of sanctification. 
 The man who, through his union with Christ, receives for- 
 giveness of sin and peace with God, is thereby also delivered 
 from the power of sin. He is set apart for God and right- 
 eousness, cleansed from sin and consecrated to his Lord and 
 Saviour. His body has become a temple of the Holy Ghost 
 (I Cor. 6:19). As a child of God, in principle, he is sancti- 
 fied. Compare I Cor. 1 :2, "Unto the Church of God, to them 
 that are sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints." But 
 sanctification differs from regeneration as growth does from 
 birth. It is the continuation of the work begun in regenera- 
 tion, the continuous operation of the Holy Sprit in the be- 
 liever, effecting a gradual renewal and reformation of the 
 whole life of man and of all his faculties. The believer is 
 a new creature in Christ Jesus, in whom all things have 
 become new, his disposition, his motives and his hopes. In- 
 stead of living only for earth and time, he lives for heaven 
 and eternity, as Paul says in Gal. 2 :20, "The life which I 
 now live in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God, 
 who loved me, and gave himself for me." 
 
 2. Conflicts. 
 
 This new life of sanctification, however, is not a course of 
 unimpeded progress toward the goal of perfection. There 
 remain tendencies to evil within the believer and tempta- 
 tions without which must be overcome. In fact, there are 
 now two natures bound up in one and the same person, 
 
164 
 
 CHRISTIAN DOCTRINE. 
 
 which the apostle terms the old and the new man (Eph. 
 4:22-24) or the flesh and the spirit (Gal. 5:17), and which 
 are utterly opposed to each other. Christian sanctification 
 is not a simple process of spontaneous evolution, hut an 
 active contest, a warfare against the sinful nature within 
 and the power of evil without. The exhortation is ad- 
 dressed to them : "Work out your own salvation with fear 
 and trembling; for it is God who worketh in you both to 
 will and to work for his good pleasure" (Phil. 2:12, 13). 
 
 The three last petitions of the Lord's prayer make reference 
 to this conflict : "forgive us our trespasses, lead us not into 
 temptation, but deliver us from evil." James in his epistle 
 addressing "beloved brethren," writes: "Wherfore put- 
 ting away all filthiness and overflowing of wickedness re- 
 ceive with meekness the implanted word. Be ye doers of 
 the word and not hearers only, deluding your own selves" 
 (James 1:21, 22) and even the Apostle John, in spite of the 
 idealistic standpoint which he occupies, speaks of a conflict 
 as unavoidable in the life of the believer, when he says : "If 
 we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves. . .if we 
 confess our sin, he is faithful and righteous to forgive us 
 our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness" 
 (I John 1:8, 9). 
 
 But most of all does Paul deal with this conflict between 
 the flesh and spirit, the old and the new man, saying, "For 
 the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against 
 the flesh; for these are contrary the one to the other, that 
 ye may not do the things that ye would" (Gal. 5:17); and 
 "But now put ye also away all these: anger, wrath, malice, 
 railing, shameful speaking out of your mouth ; lie not one to 
 another; seeing that ye have put off the old man with his 
 doings, and have put on the new man, which is being re- 
 newed unto knowledge after the image of him that created 
 him" (Col. 3:8-10). These terms indicate that the struggle 
 is not merely against the weakness of flesh and blood which 
 
PART FOURTH PERSONAL SALVATION. 165 
 
 must be overcome, but against deep-rooted besetting sins tbat 
 still remain in tbe bearts and lives of tbe regenerate. He 
 admonisbes bis "son in tbe faitb" Timothy, to flee tbese 
 tbings and to "figbt tbe good figbt of tbe faitb." He, fur- 
 thermore, exborts tbe Epbesians to put on tbe wbole armor 
 of God, tbat they "may be able to stand against tbe wiles 
 of tbe devil. For our wrestling is not against flesb and blood, 
 but against tbe principalities, . . . against tbe spiritual bosts 
 of wickedness" (Epb. 6:12). 
 
 It is for tbis cause, tbat righteousness and peace, tbougb 
 tbey are a present possession of tbe children of God, are 
 frequently spoken of in tbe Epistles, as things of the future 
 and tbat the believer looks forward with longing desire to 
 the time, when the conflict shall be ended and the victory 
 gained. 
 
 3. Progress in Sanctification. 
 This testimony of tbe Scriptures is fully corroborated by 
 tbe experience of believers, in all ages of the Church. They 
 tell us of hard conflicts with sin in their Christian life and 
 of their ardent longing for the final victory. They feel that 
 tbey still have need of daily forgiveness for daily sins and 
 that as long as they live here on earth tbey remain im- 
 perfect. But this confession does not conflict with an 
 earnest striving after holiness. In spite of many temporary 
 defeats, the life of the child of God is essentially a vic- 
 torious warfare. There is no real duality of nature in the 
 regenerate, demanding equal recognition. Tbe new nature 
 of the Christian believer alone has a right to exist, while the 
 old sinful nature is, by right, crucified with Christ and 
 dead. In this sense, the Apostle John can write: "Whoso- 
 ever is begotten of God doeth no sin, because his seed 
 abidetb in him; and he cannot sin, because be is begotten 
 of God" (I John 3:9), although he has testified before, in 
 the same epistle: "If we say that we have no sin, we de- 
 ceive oureslves." The child of God as such cannot commit 
 
166 
 
 CHRISTIAN DOCTRINE. 
 
 sin, cannot wilfully and intentionally live in sin. The sins 
 of the sanctified are not truly personal sins to which the 
 heart has given assent. . The regenerate nature alone is 
 recognized as rightfully dominant in the believer's life. 
 
 4. Times of Weakness. 
 However, there occur in the life of every believer, times 
 of special weakness, when his spiritual nature appears to be 
 paralyzed, when he is conscious of the sinfulness of certain 
 thoughts, words or actions, yet powerless to resist the temp- 
 tation. From the practical point of view, at such times, the 
 regenerate differs little from the unconverted man. His 
 condition is even more dangerous, because of his experience 
 of divine grace which increases his responsibility. But 
 such a state, as it is abnormal, is generally of short dura- 
 tion. 
 
 To determine by rule, what sins a child of God may be 
 liable to fall into, at such a period of spiritual disease, is 
 impossible. The New Testament records a "dissimulation" 
 of Peter, after the day of Pentecost (Gal. 2:13), unfaith- 
 fulness on the part of Mark (Acts 15:38), selfishness among 
 the companions of Paul (Phil. 2:21), gross immorality of a 
 member of the Corinthian Church (I Cor. 5:1), and a biting 
 and devouring one another among the Galatian Christians 
 (Gal. 5:15). What are usually termed gross sins, are not 
 always the most dangerous. But the common characteristic 
 of sins thus committed by the regenerate is that they spring 
 from spiritual weakness and from a partial ignorance, rather 
 than from wilful self-abandonment. 
 
 This weakness and ignorance must be healed by penitent 
 faith and a new measure of divine grace and light, so that 
 the final outcome of such "backsliding," as the prophet 
 Jeremiah has called it, may be an actual progress in Chris- 
 tian life and experience. For it will bring a deeper in- 
 sight into the danger of being careless and the need of great- 
 er watchfulness, together with a fuller realization of the 
 
PART FOURTH PERSONAL SALVATION. 
 
 167 
 
 hatefulness of sin and our absolute dependence upon the grace 
 of God. The more the spiritual nature in the believer grows 
 in strength, the more the remaining evil will be confined 
 to the external parts of man's being, without affecting the 
 center of his life. Sin will appear more and more as a 
 burden, a suffering which the believer has to bear, not as 
 something that he is in sympathy with or desires. The 
 ideal to be attained is to become like Christ who bore the 
 sin of the world in his body, though it was not his own sin. 
 
 5. Stages of Spiritual Growth. 
 
 The spiritual life of the believer presents a variety of 
 phases and stages of development. Some Christians 
 progress further and with more rapid strides on the road of 
 sanctification than others. 'Not all have the same capacity 
 for spiritual growth and not all make the same use of their 
 opportunities. The general course, however, is the same in 
 all believers. St. Paul marks two successive stages, which 
 he terms: babes or infants {yifnioi) and perfect, carnal and 
 spiritual, the weak and the strong. St. John distinguishes 
 three classes, viz., children, young men and fathers in Christ 
 (I John 2:12-14). The "babes" of Paul and the "children" 
 of John, possess what every child of God must have, viz., 
 a saving trust in the Redeemer and a beginning of spirit- 
 ual life, but they lack as yet, what the "young men" or the 
 "strong," have gained, spiritual power to conquer their be- 
 setting sins, and the temptations of the world and Satan. 
 The "fathers," or the "perfect," add to these possessions a 
 clearer apprehension of the truth as it is in Christ Jesus 
 and a more unreserved consecration (Coloss. 1 :9). They can 
 say with the apostle: "For to me to live is Christ, and to 
 die is gain." "Christ is all, and in all" (Col. 3:11) has be- 
 come their guiding principle and rule of life. 
 
 Another way of designating two successive stages of 
 spiritual life and experience, is to distinguish between the 
 mere general possessing of the Holy Spirit and the being 
 
168 
 
 CHRISTIAN DOCTRINE. 
 
 filled or "the Infilling" with the Spirit (Acts 13:52). Con- 
 ditions for making this second experience are: Emptiness 
 of self and sin; a complete surrender and acceptance of all 
 that God has offered to his children in Christ. The bless- 
 ings gained thereby are defined as : "Spiritual power, victory 
 over sin, Christ and the Bible made more real to the be- 
 liever, and joy and assurance which were not experienced 
 before." 
 
 6. The Question of Sinless Perfection. 
 
 It is the desire and the duty of the children of God to fol- 
 low after the "sanctification (A. V. Holiness) without which 
 no man shall see the Lord, looking carefully lest there be 
 any man that falleth short of the grace of God" (Heb. 
 12:14, 15). It is their aim to become perfect, even as their 
 heavenly Father is perfect (Matth. 5:48). But is complete 
 sanctification ever attained in the present life? In the great 
 revival of personal religion in Germany and England, dur- 
 ing the eighteenth century, the Moravian Brethren were in 
 full accord with John Wesley about the necessity and 
 privilege of the Christian's being wholly consecrated to God 
 and becoming Christlike in act, word and thought. Yet it 
 was this very point on which Moravians and Methodists 
 could not agree, the former declaring it as their conviction, 
 that no Christian while here on earth, ever can attain per- 
 fection and that those most advanced in Christian graces 
 must confess themselves still to be "poor sinners." 
 
 Those who believe in sinless perfection, support their 
 belief by these arguments: a. The command addressed to 
 Christians to be perfect, implies the possibility to attain 
 perfection, b. The promises and declarations of Scripture, 
 such as I Thess. 5:23, "The God of peace himself sanctify 
 you wholly; and may your spirit and soul and body be pre- 
 served entire, without blame;" I John 2:5, "Whoso keepeth 
 his word in him verily hath tfhe love of God been perfected. 
 
PART FOURTH PERSONAL SALVATION. 
 
 169 
 
 Hereby know we that we are in him ;" and 3 :6, "Whoso- 
 ever abideth in him, sinneth not; whosoever sinneth hath 
 not seen him, neither knoweth him." c. The consciousness 
 of not having committed any sin voluntarily for some time, 
 as Paul writes in I Thes. 2 :10, "Ye are witnesses and God 
 also, how holily and righteously and unblamably we be- 
 haved ourselves toward you that believe." 
 
 In reply to this claim the following must be said: a. 
 While we may not deny the abstract possibility of attaining 
 perfection, the actual imperfections of the supposedly 
 perfect Christians are clearly manifest. There is no man, 
 woman or child living, who is entirely without sin. b. The 
 overwhelming testimony of Scripture confirms this fact, 
 e.g., James 3:2, "For in many things we all stumble;" 
 I J ohn 1 :8, "If we say that we have no sin, we deceive our- 
 selves;" Phil. 3:12, "Not that I have already obtained or 
 am already made perfect, but I press on if so be that I may 
 apprehend that for which also I was apprehended by Christ 
 Jesus." c. The most mature Christians and the holiest men 
 and women who ever lived, have freely confessed their im- 
 perfection. The very seal of relative perfection attained 
 by the fathers and mothers in Christ has always been an 
 humble acknowledgment of their lack of perfection. 
 
 Chapter XXXIII. Good Works. 
 
 1. Necessity of Good Works. 
 
 The genuineness of saving faith and of the change of 
 heart is attested by good works, which are the fruits of 
 spiritual life. Accordingly the demand for good works is 
 as imperative in New Testament times, as it was for the Old 
 Testament believer, with this understanding, however, that 
 no man is saved by his good works, as such, and that no 
 man can claim any merit because of these good works. The 
 grace of God alone saves to the uttermost, not our good 
 
170 
 
 CHRISTIAN DOCTRINE. 
 
 deeds, for "It is the gift of God, not of works, that no man 
 should glory" (Eph. 2:9). Evangelical doctrine is opposed 
 to that teaching of the Roman Church which distinguishes 
 between common duties, that are incumbent upon every 
 Christian, and between good works, which may be utilized 
 for supplementing the deficiencies of other men. Hence the 
 doctrine that the good works of the Saints constitute a 
 treasure at the disposal of the Church, which has led to a 
 churchly traffic in "indulgences." 
 
 Over against this manifest error, the Protestant Churches 
 rightly emphasize the truth that our best works are stained 
 with sin and imperfection, and that what is truly good in us 
 is a gift of divine grace and does not entitle us to a special 
 reward. When we have done all the things that are com- 
 manded, we are still "unprofitable servants," at best, Who 
 "have done that which it was our duty to do" (Luke 17 :10). 
 But it is also true, as James writes, that "faith without works 
 is barren" or dead (James 2:20), and Christ himself has 
 said : "Let your light shine before men, that they may see 
 your good works, and glorify your Father who is in 
 heaven." 
 
 2. What are Good Works? 
 
 Good works are defined as being practical manifesta- 
 tions of sanctification in various lines of Christian activity. 
 In the sermon on the Mount the duties of the disciples of 
 Christ, in this respect, are summed up concretely under the 
 three heads of almsgiving , fasting and prayer, that is duties 
 toward our fellowmen, toward ourselves and toward God, 
 or consecration of our property, of our body and of our 
 soul to the service of the Lord. Our Saviour, besides 
 emphasizing the need of the true motive and spirit of such 
 works, warns against measuring their value by outward 
 appearance and by quantity, rather than quality. The 
 ordinary daily duties call for a faithful performance, as 
 much as the extraordinary occasions, and there is room for 
 
PART FOURTH PERSONAL SALVATION. 171 
 
 good works in the common routine of apparently insignificant 
 labors and conditions of domestic and business life. Proper- 
 ly speaking, there is for the Christian believer but one good 
 work to perform, viz., to know and to do the will of his 
 Lord. But this general duty presents a -positive and a nega- 
 tive aspect, according as it means, on the one hand, an 
 increase in spiritual strength and activity and, on the other 
 hand, a mortifying of the old sinful nature of man. 
 
 As the Old Testament law required of every Israelite 
 obedience to the will of God, exemplified in the ten com- 
 mandments, so the New Testament enjoins upon the dis- 
 ciples of Christ the duty of keeping the commandments of 
 Christ. The Saviour himself made this the condition of 
 discipleship (John 14:15). It is not the slavish obedience of 
 a servant that is enjoined, but the cheerful obedience of a 
 good child or a friend. See John 15 :14, "Ye are my friends, 
 if ye do the things which I command you," and Gal. 4:7, 
 "Thou art no longer a bond-servant, but a son, and if a 
 son, then an heir through God." Therefore James calls it 
 "the law of liberty" (James 1 :25), because it requires 
 nothing but an obedience inspired by love and gratitude. 
 As Christ himself proved his love to the Father by doing 
 his will and accomplishing his work (John 4:34), so the 
 children of God and the followers of Christ desire nothing 
 better than to show a loving submission to the will of God, 
 in all that they are and do. Such sincere consecration of 
 heart and hand, naturally includes almsgiving, temperance, 
 piety and any service of God and man, that may be re- 
 quired by circumstances. 
 
 But this service of God is an act of cheerful willingness 
 only so far as the new spiritual nature of the Christian is 
 concerned. The old sinful nature rebels against it and this 
 sinful tendency must be mortified, if the good work which is 
 pleasing to God shall be accomplished, as Christ has said: 
 "If any man would come after me, let him deny himself 
 and take up his cross daily, and follow me" (Luke 9:23). 
 
172 
 
 CHRISTIAN DOCTRINE. 
 
 For although this mortifying of the sinful nature, in 
 principle, has taken place already in the act of regeneration, 
 it needs to be confirmed by daily repetition. The chief war- 
 fare here is directed against our besetting sins (Heb. 12 :1, 
 "the sin which doth so easily beset us"), deeprooted habits 
 and tendencies, which again and again threaten to gain the 
 mastery over the new man. The more enlightened the be- 
 liever's conscience becomes by the light of the Holy Spirit, 
 the more clearly will the spiritual eye detect also the smaller 
 stains and defects which in the beginning of sanctification 
 were scarcely noticed, and the struggle against these seem- 
 ingly lesser sins is not on that account less painful. 
 
 The most mature Christians realize most vividly the 
 necessity of "resisting unto blood, striving against sin" 
 (Heb. 12:4), because they learn not to spare the dearest 
 idols of their sinful nature and to surrender even ap- 
 parently innocent enjoyments, whenever the Lord demands 
 such sacrifice. What the child in Christ is willing to do, 
 what the young man in Christ has bravely begun, that still 
 remains a daily task for the father in Christ to accomplish, 
 even to the end of his earthly life. 
 
 3. Christian Virtues. 
 We speak of Christian virtues and graces which the be- 
 liever must strive to acquire and the apostolic writings 
 refer to them extensively and frequently. They are but an 
 amplification of the one requirement of doing the work of 
 God by a loving obedience to his will. Accordingly they 
 also, naturally, divide themselves into positive and nega- 
 tive forms. As the ten commandments of the Old Testament 
 law represent so many phases of the required obedience to 
 the will of God, so we may distinguish ten virtues, grouped 
 in pairs, which comprehend the New Testament fulfilment 
 of the law of Christ with regard to God and our fellow-men, 
 in both its positive and negative aspect. To the former 
 would belong such graces as 1. Godliness and truthfulness. 
 
PART FOURTH PERSONAL SALVATION. 173 
 
 2. Gentleness and kindness. 3. Brotherly love and sympathy. 
 4. Honesty and industry. 5. Beneficence and liberality; to 
 the latter : 6. Watchfulness and soberness. 7. Temperance and 
 purity. 8. Humility and meekness. 9. Contentment and 
 cheerfulness. 10. Patienc-j and hope. 
 
 Bightly combined, these virtues represent the consecra- 
 tion of the human faculties and energies in every line of 
 work, including thought, word and deed, to the Lord and 
 to his service, as Paul writes, in summing up the Christian 
 ideal, in Phil. 4:8, "Whatsoever things are true, whatsoever 
 things are honorable, whatsoever things are just, whatso- 
 ever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatso- 
 ever things are of good report; if there be any virtue and 
 if there be any praise, think on these things." 
 
 Chapter XXXIV. The Standard of Holy Living. 
 1. The Teachings of the Bible. 
 
 If the sum and substance of sanctification and of good 
 works is to do the will of God, we must know where this 
 will of God is made known to the Christian. The answer to 
 this question is threefold. God has revealed his will a. In 
 the teachings of the Bible, as the word of God. b. In the 
 personal example set by Christ and by godly Christian men. 
 c. In the voice or testimony of the Holy Spirit, within the 
 heart of the believer, who applies the Bible word and the 
 Christian example to the individual case. A combination 
 of this threefold witness constitutes the rule of life for the 
 Christian. 
 
 The will of God has been revealed to men, in the first 
 place, in the law of the Old and of the New Testaments. As 
 to the Old Testament law, Christ has taught, that not "one 
 jot or title shall pass away, till all things be accomplished" 
 (Matth. 5:17). The commandments of the Old Testament, 
 therefore, in so far as they are an exposition of the will of 
 God, are not abrogated. There was in the "Mosaic Law" 
 much that was purely local. The civil law had but a 
 
174 
 
 CHRISTIAN DOCTRINE. 
 
 temporary value. The Council of the Apostles in Acts 15 
 expressly declared, that it "seemed good to the Holy 
 Ghost" and them, to "lay no greater burden" upon the 
 Gentile Christians than a few necessary things. As to the 
 moral law, however, while the form was transitory, while 
 the symbols and ceremonials have been fulfilled in Christ 
 and have passed away, yet its spiritual substance abides. It 
 is no longer the Mosaic law as such, that furnishes the rule 
 of holy living, but the unchanging will of the Lord God, 
 which, under the Old Covenant, was exemplified in the law 
 of Moses and has been made manifest to us in Christ Jesus, 
 as John writes : "The law was given through Moses ; grace 
 and truth came (into existence) through Jesus Christ" 
 (John 1 :17). The Old Testament commandments, to a large 
 extent, are of the nature of a shadow which vanishes before 
 the light revealed in Christ. Therefore the apostle can say: 
 "Let no man judge you in meat, or in drink, or in respect of 
 a feast day or a new moon or a Sabbath day; which are a 
 shadow of the things to come, but the body is Christ's (Col. 
 2 :16, 17), and "Christ is the end of the law unto righteous- 
 ness to every one that believeth" (Eom. 10:4). 
 
 Even the ten commandments of the Decalogue have in 
 their form something of a transitory character. They are 
 only prohibitive or negative, saying: Thou shalt not, and 
 they command a worship of God and an abstaining from 
 evil simply on the ground of God being the creator of the 
 universe and the Saviour of Israel. The love of God which 
 has been manifested to us in the work of redemption, was 
 not revealed to them of old. Accordingly, man's obedience to 
 these commandments coul 1 not then be based upon the grate- 
 ful love of a pardoned sinner; and the love to the neighbor, 
 as enjoined in Lev. 19 :18, was not yet the love of a child of 
 God for fellowmen, as members of the same household of 
 God, as John writes: "Whosoever loveth him that begat 
 loveth him also that is begotten of him. Hereby we know 
 
PART FOURTH PERSONAL SALVATION. 
 
 175 
 
 that we love the children of God, when we love God and do 
 his commandments" (I John 5:1, 2). 
 
 Nevertheless, as a summary of the moral law, as revealing 
 the divine will for Israel, the "Decalogue" must always 
 remain a standard of holy living which only needs to be 
 read and understood in the light of the New Testament. 
 Compare Christ's teaching in the sermon on the Mount: 
 "Ye have heard that it was said to them of old time: Thou 
 shalt, etc. But I say unto you . . . ," and Paul in Romans 
 13 :8, 9, "For he that loveth his neighbor hath fulfilled the 
 law. For this, Thou shalt not commit adultery, Thou shalt 
 not kill, Thou shalt not steal, Thou shalt not covet, and if 
 there be any other commandment, it is summed up in this 
 word, namely, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself." 
 
 In the New Testament we find no code of laws, no formu- 
 lated system of ethics extending over all the details of 
 every day life. But Christ and his apostles have laid down 
 the guiding principles for personal conduct and social rela- 
 tions, which only need to be applied to the various condi- 
 tions of life, in order to direct our course into a knowing 
 and doing of the will of God. Thus the Christian believer, 
 who is in possession of both the Old and the New Testa- 
 ments, has double cause to say with the Psalmist: "Thy 
 word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path" 
 (Ps. 119:105). 
 
 2. Personal Example. 
 Our Saviour, furthermore, has taught the will of God by 
 his own life, which furnishes a complete pattern for a Chris- 
 tian walk and conversation. Christians are to think, to 
 speak and to act in the same spirit that animated his words 
 and deeds. His holy and spotless life shows us how to live. 
 Not that we can exactly follow his specific example, in all 
 respect, because he stood in a unique relation to man and 
 God, but we can learn from him what he would have us do. 
 Compare I John 2 :6, "He that saith he abideth in him, 
 
176 
 
 CHRISTIAN DOCTRINE. 
 
 ought himself also to walk even as he walked," and I Pet. 
 2:21, "Leaving you an example, that ye should follow his 
 steps." 
 
 In a similar manner, though with limitations, examples 
 of holy living are offered to the believer in the lives of the 
 patriarchs, prophets and apostles, in the devout men and 
 women of the Bible, notably in St. Paul, of whom we know 
 most. To a more limited degree, the fathers of the Christian 
 Church, the founders of the various denominations, of con- 
 gregations and societies, may serve to the members as guides 
 and patterns of Christian life, worthy of imitation. "Re- 
 member them that had the rule over you, which spake unto 
 you the word of God ; and considering the issue of their life, 
 imitate their faith," Heb. 13 :7. Finally, the spiritual heads 
 of a Christian community, the pastor and the elders of the 
 Church, the fathers and mothers of a Christian family, all 
 these may and should be living expositors of the will of 
 God, always provided, that no human authority can take 
 precedence of the clear testimony of the Bible and that no 
 human ideal can supersede Christ, the only absolute exemp- 
 lar of perfection. 
 
 3. The Testimony of the Spirit. 
 The voice of the Holy Spirit who, through the medium of 
 an enlightened conscience, explains and applies to us both 
 the written Word and the personal example, constitutes the 
 third standard or rule of spiritual life. Without the Spirit's 
 light, the Bible remains a dead letter, insufficient for guid- 
 ance through the variety of every day experiences. (I John 
 2 :20, "Ye have an anointing from the Holy One and ye 
 know all things.") This inward testimony may, at times, 
 lead different Christians to different conclusions with regard 
 to the true intent of the will of God. If so, believers may 
 differ from each other as to various matters of practical 
 life and not consider themselves bound by the judgment of 
 their fellow-believers. "Who art thou that judgest the serv- 
 
PAET FOURTH PERSONAL SALVATION. 
 
 177 
 
 but of another? to his own lord he standeth or falleth. Yea, 
 he shall be made to stand ; for the Lord hath power to make 
 him stand," Rom. 14:4. 
 
 If believers are faithful in following the light of knowl- 
 edge granted to them for the time being, they may disagree 
 from the views of other Christians. Such disagreement has 
 apostolic sanction in Phil. 3 :15, "If in anything ye are other- 
 wise minded, even this shall God reveal unto you; only, 
 whereunto we have already attained, by that same rule let 
 us walk." Experience teaches that in the really important 
 matters of Christian life and conduct, a faithful searching 
 of the Scriptures and a careful listening to the voice of the 
 Spirit will, generally, result in a remarkable unanimity, if 
 not in theory at least in practice, among true believers. 
 
 4. Special Directions. 
 In special cases, when an important step must be taken, 
 the general direction of the Christian's life, as given through 
 the threefold agency just mentioned, may not seem sufficient 
 for determining the course to be taken. If so, believers may 
 claim the privilege of children of God to ask for special 
 directions from above, as James writes: "If any of you 
 lacketh wisdom, let him ask of God who giveth to all liber- 
 ally and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him. But 
 let him ask in faith, nothing doubting" (James 1 :5). Such 
 directions were given in the days of the early apostolic 
 Church, sometimes by the use of ordinary and sometimes by 
 extraordinary means. "When Paul and his companions had 
 been forbidden to preach the word in "Asia" and had come 
 down to Troas, "a vision appeared to Paul in the night. 
 There was a man of Macedonia standing, beseeching him 
 and saying, Come over into Macedonia and help us" (Acts 
 16:9); and on the storm-tossed ship, sailing to Italy, Paul 
 could announce to his fellow-passengers: "There stood by 
 me this night an angel of the God whose I am, whom also 
 12 
 
178 
 
 CHRISTIAN DOCTRINE. 
 
 I serve, saying, Fear not, Paul: thou must stand before 
 Caesar, and lo, God hath granted thee all them that sail 
 with thee" (Acts 27:23,s24). 
 
 Many testimonies of similar directions, through natural or 
 supernatural occurrences, for the guidance of the Church and 
 of individual Christians, have continued to be given to the 
 present day. Frequently the desired clearness as to the 
 course of action to be followed is given by a special degree 
 of cheerfulness for doing the work which is to be done. Care 
 must be taken, however, that the momentary and personal 
 feeling does not run contrary to the plain teaching of Scrip- 
 ture or the clear voice of the Spirit. 
 
 The example of the apostles in Acts 1 :24, in using the lot 
 to decide who of the apostles should take the place of Judas, 
 as one of the Twelve, and numerous instances from the Old 
 Testament, have led many Christians to the employment 
 also of this special agency for ascertaining the will of God 
 under certain circumstances. When used in childlike faith 
 and with earnest prayer, the decision of the lot has some- 
 times proved an evident blessing to the Church and to indi- 
 vidual Christians. But such special direction must never 
 be sought merely as a cover for carelessness or in unbelief. 
 After all, cases will remain, where the Lord does not give 
 the desired positive direction by outward signs or inner voice, 
 or where the believer does not feel free to ask for special 
 direction. The safest way then appears to be that of choos- 
 ing the course which requires "the most of Christian faith 
 and of self-denial for the flesh." 
 
 5. The Incentive to Holy Living. 
 
 The question, as to what is the true incentive for the be- 
 liever's doing the will of God and "following after right- 
 eousness and godliness," as Paul calls it (I Tim. 6:11), is 
 doubtless well answered by saying: Grateful love to Christ, 
 our Redeemer, is the best motive to holiness. It is true, the 
 apostle several times speaks of fear as an element in sanctifi- 
 
PART FOURTH PERSONAL SALVATION. 179 
 
 cation, as when he writes in Phil. 2 :12, "Work out your 
 own salvation with fear and trembling" and II Cor. 7 :1, 
 "Let us cleanse ourselves from all defilement of flesh and 
 spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God." Yet the 
 same apostle seems to exclude all fear from the state of 
 grace, calling it a sign of bondage, when he says: "Ye re- 
 ceived not the spirit of bondage again unto fear, but ye re- 
 ceived the spirit of adoption whereby we cry, Abba, Father." 
 Evidently there are two kinds of fear, viz., the fear of 
 reverence and the slavish dread of punishment. The child 
 of God as such knows but the fear of losing Christ and his 
 salvation. Such fear is quite consistent with the state of 
 grace, because it is identical with childlike reverence for the 
 will of God. 
 
 In the beginning of Christian life, this fear may yet con- 
 tain a considerable element of selfishness. The young 
 Christian is afraid not only of losing the grace of Christ, 
 but also of the judgment and of being cast into hell fire. 
 However, the more he progresses in sanctification, the more 
 such negative fear will give way to confidence and affection, 
 as John writes: "There is no fear in love, but perfect love 
 casteth out fear." (I John 4:18). The fear of condemna- 
 tion, as well as the mere selfish desire to enjoy the blessings 
 of heaven, irrespective of truth and holiness, belong to the 
 things that must pass away. 
 
 True sanctification, therefore, is the fruit of the love of 
 God, "which hath been shed abroad in our hearts through 
 the Holy Ghost," (Rom. 5:5). This love is a. Grateful love 
 for mercy received, because our sins were forgiven and our 
 transgression is healed, b. Personal love of the Saviour, 
 who not only loved us so much that he died for us, but who 
 also is now our best friend, our daily helper, our advocate 
 at the throne of God and our only sure hope for the future. 
 c. Love of right and truth itself, as it is revealed to us in the 
 will of God. This is the New Testament fulfillment of the 
 
180 
 
 CHRISTIAN DOCTRINE. 
 
 ideal proclaimed in the 119th Psalm as the desire of the Old 
 Testament believer: "Thy testimonies are my delight and 
 my counsellors. Thy statutes have been my songs in the 
 house of my pilgrimage. O how love I thy law! it is my 
 meditation all the day. Thy testimonies are wonderful: 
 therefore doth my soul keep them," (w. 24, 54, 97, 129). 
 
 Chapter XXXV. Prayer. 
 
 1. Meaning and Purpose of Prayer. 
 
 All exercise of religion presupposes prayer, which is a 
 universally acknowledged part of the worship due to God. 
 It is not exclusively a Christian practice but is connected 
 with almost every form of religious belief. It is man's 
 approach to God and the expression of his adoration, con- 
 fession and supplication to the object of his worship. In 
 particular, however, is every successive stage in the Chris- 
 tian's experience of personal salvation connected with and 
 conditioned by prayer. While the objective power which 
 animates and sustains the new life of the believer is the 
 power of the Holy Spirit, there can be no personal appro- 
 priation of the divine grace and life except through prayer. 
 Prayer is the holding out of the hand for receiving the gift 
 of God, the breathing of the divine atmosphere in which the 
 believer is placed. 
 
 The primary object and purpose of prayer is, therefore, 
 not that of being a moral exercise for self-improvement and 
 edification, a sort of spiritual gymnastics, as some regard it, 
 nor is it simply the natural expression of religious sentiment, 
 but it is a communing of the soul with God. It is true, much 
 that goes by the name of prayer is meaningless and useless, 
 as when the prayer-mill of the Tibetan innumerable times re- 
 volves the sacred words : Om-ma-ni-pad-me-hum, or when 
 Christians (as our Saviour said) "use vain repetitions, as 
 the Gentiles do," even though they pray "the Lord's prayer," 
 thinking "that they shall be heard for their much speaking," 
 
PART FOURTH PERSONAL SALVATION. 
 
 181 
 
 (Matth. 6:7). Neither is it a real prayer to God, if offered 
 in order to be seen or heard of man, for a show of piety 
 or of ability, and to win the praise of men. "Verily," says 
 Christ, "they have received their reward," but not from God. 
 
 True prayer is directed to God and not to man, and it has 
 nothing else in view but our need and the grace and glory 
 of God. It is a sacred duty and a precious privilege of the 
 children of God to pray every where and at all times, (I 
 Thess. 5:17). The four Evangelists tell us that Jesus 
 Christ himself, while on earth, was in constant communion 
 of prayer with the Father in heaven, and both he and the 
 apostles exhort the believer to pray frequently, fervently 
 and perseveringly, to pray in the hour of joy and of afflic- 
 tion, when at rest and while at work, in private and in 
 public, alone and in company with fellow-believers (Eph. 
 6:18; Phil. 4:6). As to the proper attitude in praying, 
 Scriptural example and a true realization of the meaning 
 and purpose of prayer, direct that it be offered either stand- 
 ing or kneeling and this rule should be observed also in the 
 united prayer of a Christian congregation, except in cases of 
 infirmity or where circumstances make this attitude difficult 
 or impossible. The too general custom of the congregation 
 remaining seated can hardly be commended. 
 
 2. What to Pray for. 
 The term prayer includes a fivefold object in addressing 
 God, viz., a. Worship or adoration. "O come let us worship 
 and bow down, let us kneel before the Lord our Maker," 
 (Ps. 95:6). "Worthy art thou, our Lord and our God, to 
 receive the glory and the honor" (Rev. 5:11). b. Thanks- 
 giving for temporal and spiritual blessings. "Offer unto 
 God the sacrifice of thanksgiving; and pay thy vows unto 
 the most high," (Ps. 50:14). c. Confession of sin and con- 
 fession of faith. "I said, I will confess my transgressions 
 unto the Lord, and thou forgavest the iniquity of my sin," 
 (Ps 32 :5) : "Thomas said unto him, My Lord and my God," 
 
182 
 
 CHRISTIAN DOCTRINE. 
 
 (John 20:28). d. Petitions for temporal and spiritual 
 blessings. "In nothing be anxious; but in everything by 
 prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests 
 be known unto God," (Phil. 4:6). "Truly my soul waiteth 
 upon God; from him cometh my salvation," (Ps. 62:1). 
 e. Intercessions for individuals and for God's people in 
 general. "I exhort, therefore, that supplications, prayers, 
 intercessions, thanksgivings be made for all men," (I Tim. 
 2 :1). "To which end we also pray always for you, that our 
 God may count you worthy of your calling and fulfill every 
 desire of goodness and every work of faith, with power," 
 (II Thess. 1:11). 
 
 Among the prayers recorded for general use, in the Bible 
 or in Prayer and Hymn Books of the Church, some repre- 
 sent mainly or altogether one of the forms of prayer just 
 mentioned, e.g., the Te Deum — worship and adoration ; 
 Psalm 103 and others — thanksgiving; Psalm 51 — confession 
 of sin, etc. But most prayers, both private and public, as 
 is natural, combine these different elements, petitions and 
 supplications being especially prominent. As to the sub- 
 jects of these petitions that are most desired and prayed for, 
 the unconverted man, if he prays at all, will probably ask 
 for temporal blessings only, for preservation in danger and 
 deliverance from trouble, for health and wealth, for pleasure 
 and earthly prosperity. The believer who has learned to 
 know that the most needful gift is the grace of God and the 
 Holy Spirit, desires this gift for himself and others, in 
 preference and if need be in place of temporal blessings 
 
 This order of placing spiritual and eternal interests first 
 and earthly or temporal needs second, is observed in the 
 prayer which Christ taught his disciples to pray. The 
 "Lord's Prayer" is a model prayer, because it embodies the 
 principal needs of the individual Christian and of the Church 
 of Christ within the smallest compass of words. It is how- 
 eve r, not a binding formula, nor has its frequent repetition 
 
PART FOURTH PERSONAL SALVATION. 183 
 
 as such any special merit. Prayer, as little as breathing, can 
 be bound within fixed forms, although certain definite rules 
 and models of prayer, especially for public services, have 
 been found wholesome and necessary. But there must be 
 some variety. Even the Lord's Prayer is not always the 
 best expression of the heart's needs and aspirations. It 
 contains only petitions and no thanksgiving, and it does not 
 embody the New Testament plea, "for Christ's sake." It 
 was given before the work of redemption was fully accom- 
 plished. 
 
 3. Prayer in the Name of Jesus. 
 
 The Saviour directed his disciples to pray in his name. 
 "Whatsoever ye shall ask in my name, that will I do, that 
 the Father may be glorified in the Son. Verily, verily, I say 
 unto you, If ye shall ask anything of the Father, he will 
 give it you in my name. Hitherto have ye asked nothing 
 in my name, ask and ye shall receive, that your joy may be 
 full," (John 14:13 and 16:23, 24). By this prayer in the 
 name of Jesus we understand a. An appeal to the person 
 and work of Christ as thfi ground of our plea. b. A prayer 
 offered in spiritual fellowship with Christ, the mediator 
 between God and man and our intercessor with the Father. 
 The triune God is accessible to sinful man only through 
 Jesus Christ, the Saviour. Hence every prayer to be ac- 
 ceptable must be offered in the name of Jesus, though it is 
 not necessary, that this be always expressed in the form of 
 address or in the appeal "for Christ's sake." 
 
 As most of the books of the Bible were composed before 
 the advent of the Redeemer, the prayers recorded in the 
 Bible are generally addressed to God Almighty, to the Lord 
 (Jehovah) or to the Father, not to Christ. In view of the 
 gracious revelation of salvation granted to us through his 
 Son, however, it seems most appropriate for the repentant 
 sinner, as well as for the Christian believer in general, when 
 conscious of his need of divine grace, to address himself to 
 
184 
 
 CHRISTIAN DOCTRINE. 
 
 the Saviour, Christ, "the friend of sinners," the mediator 
 of divine grace, our inteicessor with the father, as well as 
 the head of the kingdom of heaven. Compare Acts 7 :59 ; 
 II Cor. 12 :8. The grateful and confident prayer of the 
 mature Christian and the united prayers of the Church are 
 suitably addressed to the Father, who through Jesus Christ 
 has become our father. Ephes. 3 :14, "I bow my knees unto 
 the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ," and Acts 4:24. 
 Strictly speaking, the New Testament records no prayer 
 addressed to the Holy Spirit, who represents the immanent 
 rather than the transcendent revelation of God; but there 
 can be no valid objection against this form of address also. 
 
 4. Hearing of Prayer. 
 
 Prayer in the name of Jesus has the promise of a divine 
 answer. The believer prays relying upon Christ and in 
 spiritual union with Christ, the Holy Spirit praying within 
 him as Paul says: "The Spirit helpeth our infirmity: for 
 we know not how to pray as we ought: but the Spirit itself 
 maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be 
 uttered," (Kom. 8:26). A prayer thus endorsed cannot 
 remain unanswered. But not every prayer is a prayer in 
 the name of Jesus, even though it contain the words: "for 
 Christ's sake." Accordingly the promise: "Ask and it shall 
 be given," first of all, does not apply to any sinful wish or to 
 petitions offered in unbelief or indifference. Furthermore, 
 Christians sometimes pray for things which are not best 
 for them (Matth. 20:22, II Cor. 12:8, 9). In all temporal 
 concerns, therefore, and even with regard to the manner in 
 which spiritual blessings are expected, the Christian's prayer 
 must follow the rule which Jesus himself observed, when he 
 said: "Not mine but thy will be done" (Matth. 26 :39). 
 
 Many in our day doubt or deny, that prayers for temporal 
 good can have any effect on the action of God in providence, 
 because they think God can and will never change the course 
 once decreed nor the working of natural laws. To their 
 
PART FIFTH THE CHURCH, 
 
 185 
 
 minds all such prayer is useless, a mere form, as Buslmell 
 said, "a kiud of dumb-bell exercise, good as exercise, but never 
 to be answered." However, the Christian's God is under no 
 other necessity but that of his own will and freely controls 
 the realm of nature and of man. The men of the Bible 
 certainly prayed for definite temporal gifts and results, and 
 the experience of believers confirms the conviction that such 
 prayers are answered. There are occasions, when a Christian 
 feels that he may ask for a special thing, such as recovery 
 from sickness, relief of want or the fulfillment of some spe- 
 cial wish, in full assurance that the prayer will be granted. 
 Such cases are rather the exception than the rule. Christ 
 gave to his disciples power to heal the sick by prayer, but they 
 made rare use of that power. The Apostle Paul did not heal 
 Timothy who often had "infirmities," nor his own "thorn in 
 the flesh." He counts such a miraculous power of prayer 
 among the special gifts bestowed upon certain persons for 
 the purpose of advancing Christ's kingdom and thus serving 
 a higher end. While, perhaps, many Christians in our day do 
 not exercise the power of effectual prayer as they should, the 
 special gift of faith healing appears to exist sometimes in 
 persons who are, otherwise, not faithful nor sanctified and 
 who may finally be rejected, in spite of having done great 
 things in the name of Christ. Compare Matth. 7 :22, "Many 
 will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, did we not by thy 
 name do many mighty works?" and I Cor. 13 :2. 
 
 5. Can the Departed Pray for Us? 
 We are not postively told in Scripture that the blessings 
 of intercessory prayer are limited to this present life. The 
 prayer of the rich man in Hades (Luke 16) and the parable 
 of the unjust steward who expects to be received by his 
 friends in "the everlasting tabernacles," have been taken 
 as implying that the departed can pray for the living. It 
 may be added that it would seem unnatural to think, that 
 the departed believer at once ceases to take a prayerful 
 
186 
 
 CHRISTIAN DOCTRINE. 
 
 interest in the cause of CLrist on earth, while the Saviour's 
 highpriestly intercession continues. If believers are to judge 
 the world together with Christ, will they not continue to pray 
 with him for the saving of souls, as long as it is possible? 
 However, as the Bible gi\es no positive declaration on this 
 point, evangelical doctrine cannot regard it as well establish- 
 ed. We are not authorized to implore the intercession of 
 the saints in our behalf, much less can such intercession 
 supersede Christ, or open a door to heaven other than the 
 door of grace and faith which is opened by the Redeemer. 
 
 6. Prayer for the Departed? 
 Closely connected with the preceding question is the other, 
 viz., whether or not the Christian believer may intercede for 
 those who have departed this life. The answer depends 
 largely on the view taken in regard to the intermediate state. 
 So much, however, is certain that the Bible nowhere directly 
 enjoins or authorizes such prayer for the departed, least of 
 all by the reading of soul masses and requiems for the benefit 
 of the dead, or by paying money to Church and priest, for 
 the redemption of a soul from purgatory. On the other 
 hand, it must be acknowledged, that the simple prayer of 
 intercession for a departed relative or friend is not prohibit- 
 ed in Scripture. Only we should remember that those who 
 have been removed from our world and association, are in 
 the hands of a God who is more compassionate and merciful 
 than we can ever be. 
 
 Chapter XXXVI. Christian Perseverance. 
 
 1. Can a Believer Fall from Grace? 
 A disputed question, in connection with the duty resting 
 upon every Christian to "follow after sanctification," is, 
 whether or not a believer can fall away and be lost? The 
 answer depends largely on the meaning given to the term 
 
PART FIFTH THE CHURCH. 
 
 187 
 
 "believer.'" When taken in the ordinary sense of one who 
 confesses the name of Christ or who professes conversion, 
 Scripture and Christian experience answer in the affirmative: 
 "A believer can jail from grace." For Christ himself 
 warned his followers to Leware of apostacy (Matth. 7 :21, 
 John 8:31) and the apostles repeat this warning in unmis- 
 takable language, cautioning the believer against a possible 
 and fatal falling away. See I Pet. 1 :17, "Pass the time of 
 your sojourning in fear, knowing that ye were redeemed, 
 not with corruptible things," etc. ; I Cor. 10 :12, "Let him 
 that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall !" and Hebr. 
 6 :4, 6, "As touching those who were once enlightened and 
 tasted of the heavenly gift...., and then fell away, it is 
 impossible to renew them again unto repentance." 
 
 Some would limit this possibility of an absolute apostacy 
 to such as have first fully tasted the grace of God and then 
 committed the "sin against the Holy Ghost," because only 
 a continued resistance against the full manifestation of divine 
 grace can produce such hardening of the heart, that the fall- 
 ing away is "without repentance." Others, and especially 
 those of the Calvinist persuasion, on the contrary, hold that 
 the regenerate can never fall from grace, because the life of 
 God when once quickened in the human soul cannot die. 
 Certain passages in the first epistle of John seem to support 
 this view, viz., I John 2 :19 and 3 :9, "They went out from 
 us, but they were not of us ; for if they had been of us, they 
 would have continued with us." "Whosoever is begotten of 
 God doeth no sin, because his seed abideth in him; and he 
 cannot sin, because he is begotten of God." Yet the same 
 apostle who teaches that he who falls away has never 
 been a child of God, nevertheless earnestly warns the 
 believer: "My little children, let no man lead you astray, he 
 that doeth righteousness is righteous; he that doeth sin is of 
 the devil" (I John 3:7) The Apostle Paul not only fre- 
 quently exhorts his readers, not to lose the grace of God 
 
188 
 
 CHRISTIAN DOCTRINE. 
 
 which they have, but mentions cases where this has been 
 done, saying: "Holding faith and a good conscience which 
 some having thrust from them made shipwreck concerning 
 the faith: of whom is Hymenaeus and Alexander" (I Tim. 
 1:19). 
 
 When the question turns on what may be expected of 
 God's faithfulness, there can be no doubt, but that God is 
 both able and willing to keep us from falling. The good 
 Shepherd will not let any one take his sheep out of his hand 
 (John 10:28) and the gifts and the calling of God are with- 
 out repentance (Eom. 11:29). St. John who generally 
 regards human affairs from the view-point of final results, 
 properly sums up the course of spiritual development in the 
 declaration, that those who fall away never were true children 
 of God. But from the ordinary point of view which fol- 
 lows the Christian's life in its changing aspects of increase 
 and decrease, of victories and defeats, it must be admitted 
 that, as the spiritual life grows stronger, it may also grow 
 weaker and may even die again. We are warranted in be- 
 lieving in a preservation of the believer as guaranteed by 
 the power and love of God, but not in unalterable "persever- 
 ance of the saints." There are examples of men who to all 
 human appearance at one time were children of God, yet 
 have fallen from grace. This danger diminishes, as sancti- 
 fication progresses, but it does not disappear altogether until 
 the last chain that binds the Christian to a sinful world, 
 is broken. 
 
 2. Groundless Fears. 
 
 Such an absolute falling away as is referred to in Hebr. 
 6 :4- 6, can, however, not occur by a man's being overcome 
 of sin suddenly or unconsciously as it were. A Christian 
 may fall into gross sins in this way, but the sin against the 
 Holy Spirit, which is absolute, is something different, is a 
 spiritual suicide which results from continued living in sin 
 
PART FIFTH THE CHURCH. 
 
 189 
 
 and hardening the heart. Accordingly, men who really fear 
 that they may have committed that sin show by this very 
 fear that their soul, or thtir heart, is not dead. There may 
 have been a dangerous approach to that fatal rejection of 
 the grace of God. A frequent yielding to temptation may 
 gradually lead to a willing and conscious commission of sin, 
 which temporarily knows of no repentance. But if at any 
 time this state of apostacy and service of sin is followed by 
 a realization of the wickedness of such a condition, an earnest 
 regret of the unfaithfulness manifested and a sincere desire 
 for forgiveness, the comforting promises of the word of God 
 will eventually restore to the backslider the lost sense of the 
 grace of the Saviour, who says : "Though your sins be as 
 scarlet, they shall be as white as snow ; though they be red 
 like crimson, they shall be as wool." 
 
 With regard to those who show absolutely no sign of 
 repentance, it is not for us to decide, whether or not they 
 may have committed the unpardonable sin. Even where for 
 the time being there is not the least desire for deliverance 
 from the slavery of sin, but on the contrary a reveling in 
 conscious commission of evil or else that hopeless despair 
 and the "sorrow of the world," of which the apostle writes 
 that it "worketh death" (IlCor. 7:10), no man should 
 pronounce judgment over a fellow-man, however wicked and 
 hardened he may seem to be. 
 
 3. Assurance of Future Salvation. 
 
 The Roman Catholic teaching regards an humble un- 
 certainty both as to our present and future salvation as one 
 of the Christian virtues. Protestant Christians believe that 
 it is possible to have an assurance of both. But neither of 
 these can be based upon anything that man has or does. 
 Our present salvation is rot assured by the degree of sancti- 
 fieation which we have attained, nor by the regular use of 
 the means of grace which we may enjoy, nor finally by any 
 
190 
 
 CHRISTIAN DOCTRINE. 
 
 special experience of divine grace that has been made in 
 the past. 
 
 The best works which we have done are tainted with sin. 
 The means of grace offered by the Church, such as baptism, 
 holy communion and attendance at divine worship, do not 
 have a magic influence to make our personal salvation certain. 
 The experience of divine grace in the past is no sure pledge 
 of our present standing. But these same manifestations of 
 spiritual life, when built upon the foundation of an humble 
 trust in the unchanging love of God in Christ Jesus, do 
 become pledges of our present salvation and adoption as 
 children of God. We can say with the Apostle John : "We 
 know that we have passed from death unto life, because we 
 love the brethren" and "Hereby know we that we dwell in 
 him and he in us, because he hath given us his Spirit" (John 
 3:14 and 4:13). 
 
 Essentially the same assurances are given us concerning 
 our future and final salvation. It rests first and foremost 
 not upon what we have, are or do, but upon the unchanging 
 faithfulness of the divine promises pledged to us in the death 
 and resurrection of our Saviour. Yet these promises are con- 
 firmed by the witness of the Spirit in our hearts and the 
 victories so far gained over the temptations of world and sin. 
 We know that He who "began the good work," will not leave 
 it unfinished, but "will perfect it until the day of Jesus 
 Christ" (Phil. 1 :6), that He who saved us in the past, is able 
 to "save to the uttermost them that draw near unto God 
 through him" (Hebr. 7:25), and that He who created even 
 the first desire to be saved will uphold this desire and cause 
 it to prevail to the end (Luke 22:32). In this sense, 
 therefore, future salvatiou can be to believers a matter of 
 grateful and joyful assurance, even as it was to the Apostle 
 Paul in Komans 8 :38, 39. This assurance, though at times 
 veiled by divers trials or by reason of human unfaithfulness, 
 
PART FIFTH THE CHURCH. 
 
 193 
 
 will at other times rise to a glorious triumph ; while the 
 fact that the grace of God does not work irresistibly, will 
 preserve in the child of God that humble watchfulness, which 
 is needed against any carnal security and which will con- 
 stantly urge him on to make his calling and election even 
 more sure (II Cor. 12 :9, IT Pet. 1 :10). 
 
lpart jftftb — ^Tbc Gburcb 
 
 Chapter XXXVII. Origin and Nature of the Church. 
 
 1. The Need of Fellowship. 
 
 While the primary object of saving grace is the salvation 
 of the individual man, thii is not its final aim. Christ came 
 to establish a kingdom, the kingdom, of heaven among men 
 and this divine plan meets the human need of fellowship, 
 both for the true enjoyment of life and for the benefit derived 
 from combined activity. Man is a social being. God himself, 
 the eternal ideal of perfection, has been revealed to us as a 
 Trinity. The human race was, from the first, constituted a 
 family and intended to grow into a people, and a state or 
 community. Futhermore, as every descendant of Adam 
 shares the common depravity of the race, so he also has a 
 share in the common salvation gained by Christ, the Son of 
 Man and our brother. God's plan includes the continued 
 salvation of man by his fellow-man. 
 
 Accordingly the principle of fellowship is an integral part 
 of the Christian religion. The followers of Christ, whatever 
 their position in life may be, their nationality or their intel- 
 lectual culture, are knit together by a common bond of union. 
 They are members of a tody, of which Christ is the head. 
 In the course of time, the spiritual union of Christian fel- 
 lowship has largely been replaced by outward uniformity of 
 creed, ritual and church government and a difference of stand- 
 point has developed between the Catholic and the Protestant 
 Churches. From the Catholic view-point, the Church comes 
 first and the individual receives salvation only through the me- 
 diation of the Church, ["Extra Ecclesiam nulla salus,"] while 
 to the Protestant the Church is rather the union of individual 
 believers. The Catholic principle is : "Where the Church is, 
 
PART FIFTH THE CHURCH. 
 
 193 
 
 there is Christ and Christians," the Protestant : "Where 
 Christ and Christians are, there is the Church." But the 
 necessity of Church fellowship is equally recognized from 
 both standpoints, because it is grounded in the social and 
 religious nature of man. Only through fellowship can the 
 individual Christian attain to a deeper apprehension of the 
 truth, as it is revealed in Christ Jesus, and Christian fellow- 
 ship is the necessary field for the exercise of vital religion. 
 This need has been supplied by the founding of the Christian 
 Church. 
 
 2. The Divine-Human Character of the Church. 
 
 The Church is not a mere human Institution in the sense 
 of ordinary organizations and associations founded by men. 
 For it was founded by Christ, the God-man, and was divine- 
 ly endowed by the outpouring of the Holy Spirit. Jesus 
 Christ established its leading principles, ordained its solemn 
 rites and appointed its first officers. The actual history 
 of the Church began with the day of Pentecost, when the 
 Spirit descended upon the assembly of disciples and when 
 Church-membership was given by the rite of baptism. The 
 Church is not the same as the kingdom of God, but it is 
 devoted to the advancement of the kingdom, through the 
 preaching and teaching of the Gospel. The kingdom is the 
 end and the Church a means to that end. It is divine in its 
 origin and divine in its aim. It supersedes all national and 
 social distinctions of the past, recognizing but one great 
 division among men, viz., those who believe in Jesus Christ 
 as their Saviour, and those who do not. The Church has 
 the promise, that it shall conquer the world and overcome 
 all opposition, until its boundaries shall be coextensive with 
 the ends of the earth (Matth. 16 :18). 
 
 We call it the Church, Kirke or Kvpza]ct')(heloT\gmg to the 
 Lord), because it is the temporary and visible form of the 
 kingdom of God, as Paul writes: "Ye are of the household 
 13 
 
194 
 
 CHRISTIAN DOCTRINE. 
 
 of God, being built upon tbe foundation of the apostles 
 and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the chief corner- 
 stone ; ... in which ye also are builded together for a habita- 
 tion of God in the spirit. To the intent, that now unto the 
 principalities and the powers in the heavenly places might 
 be made known through the Church the manifold wisdom 
 of God (Eph. 2 :20, 22 and 3 :10). 
 
 But the Church is also an Ecclesia, Ekkhr/ffia (an assembly 
 of the people), established on earth with earthly forms. As 
 it was founded by the instrumentality of men, so it must 
 adapt itself to earthly needs and environments, in matters 
 of proclamation, ritual and church government. Further- 
 more the Church, though not "of the world," is in a sinful 
 world and partakes of the imperfections of earthly condi- 
 tions, both as regards the spiritual state of its members 
 and in its institutions and doctrines, so far as the latter are 
 formulated by imperfect men. The Church is not infallible. 
 She cannot ward off every insincere intruder, nor guarantee 
 the spiritual character of all her members. She cannot 
 avoid all misconception of the great facts and truths of 
 salvation entrusted to her stewardship nor prevent all 
 misuse of her sacred privileges. While it is her duty, by a 
 constant and energetic effort to conquer sin and error, 
 without and within the Church, and thus aim at perfection, 
 she cannot expect to reach this goal of perfection, until the 
 head of the Church returns in glory, "to present the Church 
 to himself a glorious Church, not having spot or wrinkle 
 or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without 
 blemish" (Eph. 5:27). 
 
 3. The Visible and the Invisible Church. 
 
 Gradually, as the borders of the Church were enlarged, 
 it became necessary to distinguish not only between the 
 universal Church and the individual Church or denomina- 
 tion, in which the universal Church takes local and temporal 
 form, but also between the true spiritual Church representing 
 
PART FIFTH THE CHURCH. 
 
 195 
 
 the kingdom of God, which is largely an invisible Church 
 and the external, organized Christian community, or the 
 visible Church. To the latter belong all those who profess 
 the name of Christ as the Lord and are in any way connected 
 with and under the care of the Church Institution. This 
 visible Church was compared by Christ to a dragnet cast 
 into the sea which gathers all manner of fish, good or bad. 
 The members of this visible Church are not as such children 
 of God and heirs of the kingdom of God, but the Church is 
 to train them and fit them for Christ and his kingdom. 
 
 The invisible Church, on the other hand, comprises all 
 true believers, the fellowship of the saints who, though 
 widely scattered throughout the visible Church, are knit 
 together by an invisible bond of union. ~No single branch 
 or division of the visible Church has an exclusive claim to 
 represent the kingdom of God, no church organization is 
 exclusively the true Church. The Lord has in every de- 
 nomination those who are his, because they have the Spirit 
 of Christ. This invisible Church is the life-giving breath, 
 the soul, within the external Church-body, the "holy catholic 
 Church," and the confession of the apostolic creed : "Credo 
 in unam sanctam ecclesiam catholicam" attains its true 
 meaning, when applied to this largely invisible Christian 
 Church. 
 
 4. Merits of the Visible Church. 
 
 While some Christians overestimate the value of external 
 Church connection as such, many others are not only in- 
 different to the merits of the visible Church organization, 
 but assume even a hostile attitude toward it. A false 
 separatism and individualism needs to be reminded that the 
 Church, even as an external organization, has great claims 
 on our gratefulness, because of the eminent services which 
 she has rendered and is constantly rendering, not only to 
 the cause of Christianity, but also to humanity at large. 
 
 The Church has preserved and spread the Holy Scrip- 
 
196 
 
 CHRISTIAN DOCTRINE. 
 
 tures, erected and maintained houses of worship, educated 
 and ordained ministers and missionaries, and provided the 
 means of grace and sacraments. She has brought joy and 
 comfort into millions of Christian homes, by hallowing the 
 marriage relation and the family life; has founded schools 
 and colleges, established orphanages and asylums, mitigated 
 or abolished the evils of slavery, raised woman to the 
 position due to her, promoted arts and sciences and in many 
 other ways benefited the social as well as the religious con- 
 dition of mankind. Without a visible Church organization, 
 Christianity itself could not have continued unto the present 
 time. The individual Christian, however advanced he may 
 be, cannot look with indifference upon the institution, by 
 whose instrumentality he has been brought to a saving know- 
 ledge of the truth, which regularly supplies the means of 
 grace, instructs the young, comforts the bereaved and tenders 
 the last consolation to the dying. 
 
 The acknowledgment of these facts involves the obligation 
 of the Christian to connect himself with some branch of the 
 visible Church and its activities; to support its enterprises 
 by giving liberally to the Church causes and advocating her 
 claims, and by conforming to the rules of the Church in his 
 walk and conversation. The tendency to keep aloof from 
 Church connection is owing, in most cases, either to a false 
 selfishness and conceit, which thinks itself above the common 
 needs of believers, or else to the desire of evading the obli- 
 gation resting upon church-members, financially, socially or 
 morally. 
 
 5. National and Independent Churches. 
 Since the reign of Constantine, Christianity has become 
 the established religion of entire nations, so that in certain 
 countries the Church has become identified with the people 
 as a nationl Church, e.g., the Greek Catholic Church in 
 Russia, the Roman Catholic in France, Spain and Central 
 or South America, the Anglican Church in England, the 
 
PART FIFTH THE CHURCH. 
 
 197 
 
 Lutheran in Denmark and Sweden, etc. Here then every 
 member of the nation is counted as belonging to the national 
 Church. Can such a national Church be regarded as a true 
 Church? The testimony of the New Testament scriptures 
 is to the effect, that the apostolic Church comprised only 
 those who by their own free choice belonged to it, not men 
 who were born into the Church by virtue of their nationality. 
 The establishment of national Churches has tended to lower 
 the standard of Christianity and to create formalism and 
 superstition or indifference. Some of the Reformers of the 
 sixteenth century endeavored to return to the apostolic ideal, 
 but found it impossible, because of the low spiritual state of 
 the Christian world in their days, and yielding to necessity 
 accepted the definition of the Church which makes it simply 
 a "Coetus Vocatorum," an Institution for educating the 
 people up to the true standard of Christianity, not a 
 "Communio Fidelium" (communion of believers). 
 
 For all that, something may be said in favor of national 
 Churches. When Christ, speaking in parables about the 
 coming of the kingdom of heaven, illustrated its develop- 
 ment by the picture of "Tares in the field," the "Dragnet 
 cast into the sea and gathering of every kind," and the 
 "Mustard seed" growing into a tree in whose branches the 
 birds build nests, he must have foreseen a time, when through 
 the preaching of the Gospel entire nations would become 
 Christianized, without being thoroughly converted. We note 
 also that the Apostle Paul, in speaking of mixed marriages 
 between believers and unbelievers writes: "The unbelieving 
 husband is sanctified in the wife, and the unbelieving wife is 
 sanctified in the brother (husband) ; else were your children 
 unclean; but now are they holy" (that is, set apart for 
 Christ's kingdom) I Cor. 7 :14. 
 
 There are some advantages gained from these national 
 organizations, viz. : a. The general religious instruction of 
 the young as a part of their schooling, b. The opportunity 
 
198 
 
 CHRISTIAN DOCTRINE. 
 
 which it offers for bringing all classes of people under re- 
 ligious influence, in baptism, confirmation and marriage, 
 etc. c. Certain forms, of ritual and Church government, not 
 to say of doctrine, seem to fit an entire nation better than 
 other forms. It may be added that the national Churches 
 are not so much more lacking in spiritual life, compared 
 with the free Churches, as to regard this point as decisive. 
 Nevertheless the independent Church appears to be the more 
 perfect form of Church organization, because it comes nearer 
 to the apostolic ideal and seems better calculated to promote 
 individual Christian life as well as to maintain the spiritual 
 character of the Church in general. 
 
 6. Relation between Church and State. 
 
 The Church is to be a blessing to the world, to regenerate 
 human society and to leaven all earthly institutions; but it 
 is not a rival of the State nor a substitute for ordinary 
 social and political organizations. Hence that relation be- 
 tween Church and State would seem proper and desirable 
 which will give to both free scope without mutual interfer- 
 ence, so that the Church does not attempt to control the State, 
 nor the State to control the Church. "Render therefore 
 unto Caesar the things that are Caesar's and unto God the 
 things that are God's" (Matth. 22:21). As Paul wrote to 
 the Roman Christians : "Let every soul be in subjection to the 
 higher powers; for there is no power but of God; and the 
 powers that be are ordained of God" (Rom. 13:1). The 
 Romanist claim, that the Church has a right to exercise 
 secular as well as spiritual oversight and rule, has the testi- 
 mony of Scripture and of history against it. But neither 
 must kings or civil magistrates assume authority or do- 
 minion over the Church. 
 
 The fact that in many countries the Church receives 
 financial aid from the civil government and in return ac- 
 knowledges the authority of rulers and parliaments in Church 
 affairs, has produced much confusion and injury. We do 
 
PART FIFTH THE CHURCH. 
 
 199 
 
 not say, that the welfare of either Church or State requires 
 an absolute separation between the two. Both have a 
 common interest in many matters, such as the education of 
 the young, the marriage relation and social reforms, and 
 may co-operate on the principle of equal rights and duties. 
 An absolute exclusion of religion from the institutions of the 
 State is neither possible nor desirable. The Church should 
 exercise a wholesome influence upon the State and the public 
 school, as well as upon the enactment and observance of 
 beneficial laws, and the futherance of good citizenship. In 
 turn, it should allow the State a corresponding supervision 
 over its own organization. In brief, a free Church, loyal to 
 the best interests of the State, and a free State, recognizing 
 the good services of the Church, appears to be the ideal to 
 be followed. 
 
 Chapter XXXVIII. Essentials of the Church. 
 1. Criterion of a True Church. 
 
 Although no Church is found anywhere on earth, that is 
 perfect, the relative superiority of one branch of the Church 
 universal over the other is evident. Not all the denomina- 
 tions now in existence have an equal right to the name of a 
 Christian Church, which is conditioned upon their fulfilling 
 the function of the Church, to manifest the redeeming work 
 of Christ and to win the world for the kingdom of God. 
 There may be true Christians in a church organization, 
 which does not provide any means of grace for nourishing 
 the spiritual life of her members or which has subverted the 
 very foundations of a Church of Christ. 
 
 But what are these essentials, the necessary characteristics 
 and requirements of a true Church? Since the Christian 
 Church, in the course of time, through various causes has 
 become divided into many parts, each part is apt to con- 
 sider their distinguishing marks of greatest importance. 
 
200 
 
 CHRISTIAN DOCTRINE. 
 
 Some make the apostolic succession and the authority of an 
 infallible Church and pope the condition of Church fellow- 
 ship. Some regard their form of Church government, be it 
 the "historic episcopate" or the "presbytery" or the "con- 
 gregational polity," as indispensable. Others declare mat- 
 ters of ritual, the form of administering the sacraments and 
 the like, the decisive test of a true Church. But, however 
 valuable and important these matters of distinction may be, 
 must not all Christians agree that the real, fundamental 
 requisite of the Church of Christ is the one pointed out by 
 Paul in I Cor. 3 :11 : "Other foundation can no man lay than 
 that which is laid, which is Christ ?" The unreserved accept- 
 ance of the person and work of Christ, as presented to us in 
 the Bible must remain the unchanging foundation of the 
 Church's faith and practice. It was when Peter, with the 
 Apostles, confessed: "Thou art the Christ, the Son of the 
 living God," that the answer was made: "Upon this rock I 
 will build my Church and the gates of Hades shall not 
 prevail against it" (Matth. 16:18). This, then, is the first 
 essential, the Gospel of Jesus Christ as found in the scriptures 
 — the corner-stone of every true Christian Church. 
 
 But this first essential includes a second one, viz., the ob- 
 serving of the ordinances instituted by Christ, especially the 
 holy sacraments, even as we read of the first Christian 
 Church: "They that received his word were baptized. . . and 
 they continued steadfastly in the apostles' teaching and 
 fellowship, in the breaking of bread and the prayers" (Acts 
 2:41, 42). "Word and sacraments" are the two principal 
 instrumentalities for awakening and promoting the spiritual 
 life of the Church. They are largely objective in their 
 character and independent of the persons who administer 
 them. Their maintainance in any branch of the Christian 
 Church ought to suffice to entitle the same to the name of a 
 true Church. 
 
PART FIFTH THE CHURCH. 
 
 201 
 
 2. Churches and Sects. 
 
 Two extremes should be avoided in applying this test of 
 word and sacrament and determining the standing of any 
 Church organization. The one is that of limiting the 
 standard of "true church essentials" to certain large or old 
 established Churches and to denounce all the more recent or 
 the smaller denominations as sects. The other extreme is 
 that of finding fault with the older Churches and declaring 
 them corrupt, simply on the ground of their being old and 
 perhaps showing less vitality or spirituality, than the newer 
 organizations. 
 
 The existence of denominational distinctions is not in 
 itself a misfortune or an injury to the cause of Christ, not 
 something to be denounced or lamented. True unity is 
 spiritual rather than formal; it consists in manifoldness 
 rather than in sameness. There was such a distinction in 
 the Christian Church from the first, between the Gentile 
 Church and the J ewish Christians, the Churches of Asia and 
 the Churches of Macedonia, etc. The Saviour did not say: 
 "there shall be one fold and one shepherd" (A.V.), but, "there 
 shall be one flock, one shepherd" (R. V.). The variety of 
 denominations is a blessing to the Church universal (catho- 
 lic), if they are so many embodiments of the kingdom of 
 Christ, each presenting some special features or aspects of the 
 one true Church of God. Their right of existence rests on the 
 natural and needful variety of human form and thought. 
 The Lord himself clearly, from time to time, has called new 
 denominations into being, in accordance with the needs of the 
 age or of the people. They have been the means for deepen- 
 ing the spirituality of the Church, increasing the missionary 
 activity and giving emphasis to certain truths, otherwise 
 overlooked. 
 
 There is, however, a false subjectivism and separatism, 
 which has caused divisions on no other ground but that of 
 selfishness and conceit. These may rightly be termed 
 
202 
 
 CHRISTIAN DOCTRINE. 
 
 "sects." For a sect means a member of the body of Christ 
 which is cut off from that body. Sects cling to what is one- 
 sided and partial, they emphasize fragments of the truth, 
 to the detriment of the whole truth, substituting the unessen- 
 tial for the essential and making human ordinances or teach- 
 ings the main issue. 
 
 3. Creeds and Confessions. 
 
 It is proper and desirable, that each separate Church or- 
 ganization should have its creed or confession of faith, setting 
 forth its understanding of the leading truths of Christianity. 
 As every nation has its national character indicated in its 
 constitution, customs and language, so each Church naturally 
 declares its position in certain articles of faith. These con- 
 fessions of faith serve a threefold purpose, a. To be a guide 
 to the members of the Church, supporting and promoting their 
 growth in Christian knowledge and life. b. To be a banner 
 of the Church before the sister denominations, marking its 
 individuality of faith and practice, c. To be a declaration of 
 faith before an unbelieving world. 
 
 However, in order to accomplish these objects, the creed 
 of the Church should be: a. A positive declaration of the 
 truth, rather than a polemical document, b. A practical 
 and popular statement, setting forth the actual faith of the 
 Church, rather than a definition of theological terms or a 
 discussion of metaphysical questions, c. Such a creed should 
 not be regarded as fixed for all time to come and unalterable, 
 so as to do away with the duty of searching the Scriptures and 
 comprehending the revelation of God more fully. All human 
 creeds are at best imperfect expositions of the truth and not 
 infallible. 
 
 4. Sunday and the House of God. 
 Among the essentials of the Church, in the sense of things 
 required for the maintenance and work of the Church, may 
 well be counted the observance of the "Lord's day" and the 
 
PART FIFTH THE CHURCH. 
 
 203 
 
 regular meeting together of Christian people for worship 
 in some consecrated place. 
 
 The setting apart of the first day of the week as the Lord's 
 day and a Sabbath, or rest day, is an institution of the 
 Christian Church, based upon the foundation of the Mosaic 
 law and the divine order manifested in nature and history. 
 It is not the Jewish Sabbath as such that is of binding 
 authority. Neither Christ nor his disciples ever enjoined 
 upon the disciples the duty of keeping the Sabbath day and 
 St. Paul in writing to Gentile believers declares : "Let no man 
 judge you in respect of a feast day, or a new moon or a 
 Sabbath day : which are a shadow of the things to come, but 
 the body is Christ's" (Col. 2:16, 17). The Mosaic prescrip- 
 tions with regard to the form of keeping the Sabbath are 
 abrogated, but the Sabbath- itself, as "made for man" (Mk. 
 2 :27), is of abiding obligation, because of the blessing which 
 it brings to the individual, to the community and to the 
 Church of Christ. The Old Testament Sabbath was a gift 
 of God's goodness to Israel, intended to promote their 
 physical, mental and spiritual good and built upon the record 
 of the creation and the deliverance from the bondage of 
 Egypt. The Christian Church, recognizing the value of a 
 weekly day of rest and worship, from the first century began 
 to observe the first day of the week, Sunday, as the Lord's 
 day, because on that day Christ rose from the dead and on the 
 same day the Holy Spirit was poured out upon the Church on 
 Pentecost. That day, therefore, was set apart for rest and 
 worship, as well as for missionary work and gifts of charity 
 (I Cor. 16 :2 ; Acts 20 :7 ; Eov. 1 :10). 
 
 The history of the Christian Church has amply proved the 
 great value, nay the absolute necessity of a faithful obser- 
 vance of such a Christian Sabbath day. It corresponds to a 
 threefold need of man : physical, intellectual and spiritual 
 rest and growth. And what to the true believer is a simple 
 necessity of love, may to the weak and indifferent Christian 
 
204 
 
 CHRISTIAN DOCTRINE. 
 
 be a necessity of educational discipline for his spiritual 
 support. The Christian Church should endeavor to guard 
 the Christian observance.of Sunday against all anti-Christian 
 tendencies, in order that a stated opportunity be given to all 
 to hear the word of God and to enjoy the means of grace. 
 
 The need of a special day set apart as the Lord's day, 
 implies also the need of a special place of worship, where 
 Christian people can meet for united worship, for mutual 
 exhortation and edification and for united counsel as to how 
 best to carry on the work of the Lord. Whether the ap- 
 pointed place of worship be a grand and beautiful cathedral 
 or a plain and humble meeting-house, the Christian congre- 
 gation needs some building dedicated to the service of God 
 and calculated to direct thought, feeling and will heaven- 
 ward; and it is a duty as well as a privilege of Christian 
 people, to go to church and to attend divine service as regu- 
 larly as possible. Though the believer is free to make every 
 place a house of God, he can not with impunity forsake the 
 assembling together of Christians (Heb. 10:25), and he may 
 well test the degree of his Christian fervor and of his church 
 loyalty by the question, as to whether he can truly say with 
 the Psalmist : "How amiable are thy tabernacles, O Lord of 
 hosts. For a day in thy courts is better than a thousand. 
 I had rather be a door-keeper in the house of my God, than 
 to dwell in the tents of wickedness" (Ps. 84:1, 10). 
 
 Chapter XXXIX. Elements of Prosperity in the 
 Church. 
 
 1. Spirituality and Revivals. 
 It is not enough that a church organization have existence. 
 It must also contain elements of growth and prosperity. 
 Just as the spiritual life of the individual Christian must 
 progress if it is not to become stagnant or retrograde, so the 
 
PART FIFTH THE CHURCH. 
 
 205 
 
 life of the Church must grow, within and without. Here the 
 following points may be noted as of special importance for 
 churchly prosperity and as tests of vitality. First of all, a 
 Church should rank high or low in the scale of true churches 
 according to the measure of spiritual life manifested among 
 its members. While no church organization has yet succeeded 
 in admitting only regenerate persons or purging its lists from 
 every unworthy name, there should be an earnest effort in a 
 true Church of Christ to represent as much as possible the 
 kingdom of God, by an increasing spiritual knowledge and a 
 consistent Christian walk on the part of its members. Accord- 
 ing to apostolic admonition, Church members are to "exhort 
 one another and build each other up" (I Thess. 5:11). 
 Pastors and people should use all the means at their command 
 to promote vital religion, by services calculated to quicken 
 spiritual life and to bring about a revival of religion. 
 
 It is desirable that there should be organizations and 
 associations formed for the upbuilding of the Church, by the 
 cultivation of spiritual gifts and graces and for the cure and 
 care of souls. In these respects, the Church may keep in view 
 the institutions of the apostolic Church as a pattern, without, 
 however, limiting itself to any transitory form. Here belong 
 Christian Endeavor Societies, King's Daughters, and other 
 associations, or Class meetings, etc. Compare Eph. 5 :19, 
 "Speaking one to another in psalms and hymns and spiritual 
 songs." One of the strongest agencies for the upbuilding of 
 the kingdom of God, and the most important department of 
 Church work, is that which is concerned with the religious 
 education of the young, particularly the Sunday School. 
 Its aim is to instruct the scholars in the word of God, to 
 sing with them the "songs of Zion," and to present the great 
 facts and truths of salvation to them in such a way as to win 
 their souls for Christ and to develop a Christian character. 
 The Sunday School calls for the service of consecrated and 
 properly trained teachers and leaders, and it gives the promise 
 
206 
 
 CHRISTIAN DOCTRINE. 
 
 of the most blessed results for the cause of Christ. "From a 
 babe Thou hast known the sacred writings which are able 
 to make thee wise unto salvation through faith which is in 
 Christ Jesus." II Tim. 3 :15. 
 
 2. Missionary Work. 
 
 Again, a Church will the more deserve the name of a 
 living Church, in proportion to the zeal with which it labors 
 for the extension of the kingdom of God. A live Church 
 must be a working Church, must endeavor to spread the 
 Gospel at home and abroad and seek to win souls for Christ, 
 both among the heathen and among nominal Christians. As 
 to home mission work, the Church will find many opportuni- 
 ties for needful effort in providing for a continued Christian 
 training and guarding of its members and for the exercise 
 of useful Christian activity, through Young Women's and 
 Young Men's Christian Associations; by the formation and 
 maintenance of Bible and Missionary Societies in "going out 
 into the streets and lanes of the city, to bring in the poor and 
 the maimed, the halt and the blind," or out into "the highways 
 and hedges to compel them to come in" (Luke 14:21,23). 
 There is still much room for charity work and social reform, 
 in the relation between the rich and the poor, in orphanages, 
 hospitals and prisons. There is a loud call for rescue missions, 
 for promoting civic righteousness and fighting intemperance 
 and vice, without however assuming to do the work of the 
 state, and without forgetting that the specific function of 
 the Church is to proclaim the Gospel of Christ. 
 
 There remains also much work yet to be done in the 
 foreign mission field. The Church of Christ begins to re- 
 alize more and more the duty and the privilege of taking part 
 in carrying out the Saviour's injunction : "Go ye therefore, 
 and make disciples of all nations." An active interest in 
 foreign mission work is the best test of the vitality of the 
 Church. Not by angels but by men is the world to be con- 
 verted to Christ. Gratefulness for the light and life received 
 
PART FIFTH THE CHURCH. 
 
 207 
 
 through the Gospel, heartfelt pity for fellow-men who are 
 suffering under the ban of superstition, cruelty and vice, an 
 earnest desire to help in giving to as many men as possible a 
 personal share in Christ's salvation, these are the most potent 
 and sufficient motives for carrying on the foreign mission 
 work with zeal and devotion. Experiences show that the 
 home Churches themselves are greatly benefited by such work. 
 Doors are opening everywhere; men and means are needed 
 to enter in. The call of the Lord is still as urgent a* ever: 
 "Whom shall I send and who will go for us" (Isa. 6 :8) ; "The 
 harvest indeed is plenteous, but the laborers are few; pray ye 
 the Lord of the harvest, that he send forth laborers into his 
 harvest." (Luke 10:2). 
 
 3. The Union Spirit. 
 In the next place, a Church deserves higher praise in 
 proportion to its standing on the broad platform of the 
 Church universal, endeavoring to keep the bond of peace with 
 all those who love the Lord in sincerity, and confessing itself 
 to be but a part of the "holy catholic Church," which is the 
 communion of saints. It cannot be right and in accord with 
 the spirit of Christ:, to build up the walls of partition be- 
 tween Churches so high as to exclude as unorthodox or secta- 
 ian all other denominations but one's own. Loyalty to the 
 individual Church does not conflict with the higher duty of 
 promoting Christian unity, in accordance with the high- 
 priestly prayer of Christ : "I pray for them also that believe 
 on me through their word; that they may all be one" (John 
 17:20). 
 
 Such union in the spirit does not mean uniformity of 
 ritual, Church government or doctrine, nor a merging of all 
 the Churches or an abolishing of denominational distinctions. 
 We cannot advocate an indiscriminate unification or a con- 
 formity of denominations, which would efface all churchly 
 individuality. "In necessariis unitas.innonnecessariislibertas, 
 in utrisque caritas" (In essentials unity, in non-essentials 
 
208 
 
 CHRISTIAN DOCTRINE. 
 
 liberty, in both charity), is a good old motto. It finds its 
 practical demonstration in the establishment and mainten- 
 ance of fraternal relations, of church comity and of a 
 "federation of Churches" which will enable them to combine 
 their strength in the battle against sin and unbelief, and to 
 labor more effectively for the conversion of the world. The 
 nearer the Churches come to Christ, the nearer they will 
 come to each other and the more closely will they realize the 
 ideal of the future, "one flock and one shepherd." 
 
 4. Variety of Ritual. 
 
 In the matter of ritual and worship, there can and should 
 be a great variety of forms according to the needs of the 
 age and the religious training of the people. Liturgical 
 forms and ceremonies, vestments and art, especially music, 
 play an important part in the public worship and in the 
 expression and cultivation of true devotion but no one form 
 of worship can or should be made binding for all times or 
 for all kinds of people. 
 
 The ritual should be adapted to the spiritual needs of all 
 tbe members of the Church, so that provision is made not 
 only for the "fathers in Christ," but likewise for the begin- 
 ners in discipleship, and for those who are yet strangers to 
 the household of God. Accordingly, no Church should have 
 one exclusive form of service, whether it be the preaching 
 service or the liturgical worship. The preaching of the 
 Gospel, doubtless, will also remain a very important feature 
 of united worship, both for the sake of the unconverted and 
 for the needful continued instruction and quickening of 
 believers. But preaching alone does not satisfy nor suffice. 
 A variety of devotional exercises, including an active par- 
 ticipation of the congregation in the service, by singing, 
 prayer or testimony, will prove most effective in upbuilding 
 the Church. 
 
PAET FIFTH THE CHURCH. 
 
 209 
 
 5. Church Government. 
 
 That Christ is the head of the Church universal and the 
 king of the kingdom of grace which he came to establish on 
 earth, is a truth recognized more or less clearly by every 
 Christian denomination. This fundamental principle of 
 church authority being fully accepted, a variety of forms 
 of government and of church organization must be regarded 
 as permissible. We know that Christ appointed certain 
 disciples to be apostles (or missionaries) and these, in turn, 
 appointed or ordained elders, bishops (overseers) and dea- 
 cons, to direct and to manage the affairs of the Church. 
 (Acts 14:23, "And when they had appointed from them 
 elders in every Church and had prayed with fasting, they 
 commended them to the Lord." Titus 1 :5, 7, "For this cause 
 left I thee in Crete that thou shouldest set in order the 
 things that were wanting and appoint elders in every city, 
 as I gave thee charge. For the bishop must be blameless, as 
 God's steward; not self-willed, not soon angry," etc.) Order 
 is indispensable, where the object of the kingdom of God on 
 earth is to be attained and order cannot be maintained with- 
 out authority; but extremes should be avoided in too much 
 or too little government. 
 
 The Roman Church demands the universal acceptance of 
 the pope as the successor of Peter and vice-regent of Christ, 
 whose decisions "ex cathedra" are infallible in matters of 
 doctrine and ritual. But this claim rests on a spurious com- 
 mission of authority, as entrusted exclusively to Peter (com- 
 pare Matth. 16:19 with 18:18) and transferred to self-ap- 
 pointed successors. However, some Christians may prefer 
 to recognize the pope as the supreme earthly ruler of the 
 Church. Others prefer an episcopal government, others a 
 presbyterian, still others a congregational rule of demo- 
 cratic independence. The testimony of experience appears 
 to prove that a conferential government, whether by the 
 14 
 
210 
 
 CHRISTIAN DOCTRINE. 
 
 hands of bishops, by a presbytery or by an executive board, 
 appointed by Synod, offers the greatest advantages, with 
 the fewest dangers. 
 
 If this is true of the entire Church, it applies also to each 
 congregation. It must be regarded as an exigency, if the 
 pastor or rector alone is the spiritual head of a church. 
 Theological training and churchly ordination are indeed 
 necessary for the proper superintending of the affairs of a 
 congregation, especially in matters of doctrine and in the 
 administration of the sacraments, but the minister must have 
 the assistance and support of representatives of the congre- 
 gation, if his work is to be truly successful. 
 
 6. Discipline. 
 
 The welfare of the Church, finally, requires the proper 
 exercise of discipline, in the broadest sense of the word. This 
 includes, in the first place, the adoption of rules and regula- 
 tions for the admission or exclusion of members and for the 
 general conduct of church affairs. While every member of 
 the church must be allowed the right to withdraw from 
 church-fellowship, without thereby losing any civil or social 
 rights, the Church must also have the right to dismiss or to 
 exclude those who do not fulfill their duties as church mem- 
 bers, or who forfeit their membership by gross sins. For the 
 exercise of that negative church discipline, the Bible and the 
 apostolic age give but few general directions. Private of- 
 fences are to be dealt with according to the rule in Matth. 
 18:15-17 and James 5:19, 20; for public offences directions 
 are found in I Cor. 5 :3-5 ; I Thess. 5 :14 and II Thess. 3 :6. 
 
 It is a matter of deep regret that the abuse of the so-called 
 "power of the keys," in the Confessional and the Inquisition, 
 has brought Church discipline into disrepute and has made 
 it an object of suspicion and hatred to many. In order to be 
 effective, the exercise of Church discipline must be supported 
 by the religious spirit and the life of the Church. Whatever 
 savors of priestly lordship must be avoided. The Church can 
 
PART FIFTH THE CHURCH. 
 
 211 
 
 only make use of moral means in administering discipline 
 and with nothing else in view, than the removal of offences, 
 the reformation or conversion of the offender and the quick- 
 ening of the spiritual life of the Church. 
 
 Chapter XL. The Ordinances of the Church. 
 
 1. Means of Grace. 
 The term "means of grace" is used in the Church both in a 
 broader and a narrower sense. In its largest sense it includes 
 every thing which God in Christ has given us for the quicken- 
 ing and strengthening of spiritual life. In this sense, prayer 
 is the greatest means of grace. In a narrower sense, however, 
 we understand by it institutions and ordinances of a public 
 character which are offered through the mediation of the 
 Church, for the promotion of the life of its members. These 
 means of grace, therefore, are divine in their origin, but 
 human in their application. The gift is substantially the 
 same in all cases, viz., the grace of God, but the form or vessel 
 in which the gift is presented, varies. The ordinances of the 
 Church are made means of grace by the Holy Spirit. The 
 principal agencies to be considered under this head are: 1. 
 Christian fellowship, especially as exercised in united wor- 
 ship 2. The word of God, as publicly proclaimed or privately 
 read and studied. 3. The ordinance of Baptism. 4. The 
 Holy Communion. 
 
 2. Christian Fellowship and the Word of God. 
 The communion of faith which exists among believers 
 becomes a means of grace, through the opportunities afford- 
 ed by the Church for Christian fellowship and mutual edi- 
 fication. In the first place, we have the united worship, es- 
 pecially on the Lord's day, but also on other occasions. All 
 organizations which are formed for the purpose of promo- 
 ting Christian fellowship, for advancing godliness and for 
 united effort in the upbuilding of the Church of Christ and 
 
212 
 
 CHRISTIAN DOCTRINE. 
 
 the kingdom of God, may be classed as such means of grace 
 mediated by the Church. A concrete symbol of the benfits of 
 such Christian fellowship, introduced by the apostolic 
 Church and perpetuated in several denominations is the so- 
 called "Love-Feast" or Agape. 
 
 The Word of God supplied by the Church is, first of all, 
 a. the printed Bible, which is put into the hands of the mem- 
 bers of the Church for their personal use. And certainly, 
 the prayerful study of the sacred volume as the standard of 
 the Christian faith and practice is a most important means 
 of grace, b. The holy Scriptures, furthermore, as publicly 
 preached and applied, are a most valuable agency for Chris- 
 tian instruction and aid. The conversion of sinners and 
 the spiritual growth of believers are closely bound up with 
 the effectual preaching of the Gospel, c. But the ministry 
 of the Word is not confined to those who have been formally 
 set apart by ordination to the service of the Church. Their 
 testimony must be supplemented by the mutual instruction 
 and edification of lay members, in Bible study and in the 
 teaching of the Sunday-school, d. The most effectual sup- 
 plementing of the Word of God, as a means of grace offered 
 to the Church, both for public and private use, is, doubtless, 
 furnished in the Church Hymnbooks, with or without music. 
 Here is a collection of the poetic expression of Christian 
 truth, sentiment and practical experience, adapted as well to 
 the different phases of united divine worship, as to the vari- 
 ous conditions and needs of the individual believer. 
 
 3. The Sacraments. 
 In a special sense the two ordinances, known as Sacra- 
 ments, constitute means of grace offered by the Church. 
 The word sacrament is taken from the Vulgate translation of 
 the Greek word fxverqpi or (mystery, or revealed secret,) in 
 Eph. 1 :9 and Col. 1 :27. Accordingly, in the early Church, 
 it was applied to various sacred rites as well as to certain 
 doctrines, like the Trinity and the incarnation of Christ. 
 
PART FIFTH THE CHURCH. 
 
 213 
 
 Later, however, its meaning became limited. Augustine de- 
 fined a sacrament thus: "Accedit verbum ad elementum et 
 fit sacramentum" (word and element — make a sacrament) 
 and Peter Lombard: "Sacra est invisibilis gratiae visibilis 
 forma" (a sacred visible form of an invisible grace). The 
 "scholastics" then fixed the number of sacraments at seven 
 and the Roman Catholic Church still so counts tbem, viz. : 
 1. Baptism. 2. Eucharist. 3. Confirmation, as based on 
 Acts 8:17. 4. Confession or Penance (James 5:16). 5. Holy- 
 Orders or Ordination (Acts 13:2, 3). 6. Matrimony (Eph. 
 5 :32). 7. Extreme Unction (James 5 :14). 
 
 The Protestant Churches count the first and second only 
 and for the following reasons: Two of the seven, viz., con- 
 firmation and extreme unction, can hardly be shown to be 
 meant in the passages of Scripture quoted with them. Ac- 
 cording to the generally received interpretation, Acts 8 :17 
 tells about a special conferring of power of the Holy Spirit 
 upon certain Christians at Samaria, and James 5 :14 refers 
 to an anointing of the sick with oil for their restoration to 
 health and not in preparation for death. Two other Catholic 
 sacraments, viz., ordination and matrimony, are not ap- 
 pointed for all men, in fact are made to exclude each other. 
 Consequently they are not means of grace intended for all, 
 if they are to be considered such at all. The fourth Roman 
 sacrament, Confession or Penance, has no material element 
 accompanying it, unless the imposition of hands be so re- 
 garded. If the word sacrament is to be understood in the 
 broad sense of a Church ordinance, other rites e. g. love- 
 feast, foot-washing, and the like, might be counted in also. 
 
 Hence the Protestant Churches limit the meaning of sacra- 
 ment to "a holy ordinance instituted by Christ himself, where- 
 in the blessings of the Gospel are pledged by visible signs." 
 Thus three things make a sacrament : a. Christ's institution. 
 b. A promise of a blessing, c. A visible element. Baptism 
 and the Lord's Supper were instituted by Christ and were re- 
 garded as permanent ordinances by the apostles. (See Matth. 
 
214 
 
 CHRISTIAN DOCTRINE. 
 
 28:19— Acts 2:38, and Matth. 26:26-28— I Cor. 11:26). 
 Both have a definite promise accompanying the rite (Mark 
 16:16; Titus 3:5; I Cor. 10:16), and both have a visible 
 element as a tangible pledge of divine grace. Furthermore 
 these two sacraments take the place of the two sacred rites 
 of Israel, circumcision and passover, the former the initiatory 
 rite of consecration and the sign of reception into the coven- 
 ant of God, the latter the memorial of the deliverance from 
 bondage and death by the blood of the Lamb. 
 
 Some Christian denominations hold foot-washing to be a 
 third sacrament and an ordinance of binding obligation. 
 It is true, that the three tests of the sacrament generally 
 accepted by Protestants seem to apply also to this rite, viz., 
 Instituted by Christ, a promise and a visible element. (Com- 
 pare John 13 :8, 14). But we may doubt, whether the words 
 of Christ : "Ye also ought to wash one another's feet," were 
 intended to make it a permanent rite. The Epistles, while 
 mentioning foot-washing (I Tim. 5:10), do not speak of it 
 as an established ordinance. Doubtless, the underlying 
 principle of humility and service is of lasting obligation, 
 but a literal observance seems out of place in countries where 
 the people do not walk barefooted, as they did in Palestine. 
 Moreover, as a sacrament of daily remission of sin, foot- 
 washing would be but a repetition of the Holy Communion, 
 which includes this idea as well as that of mutual affection 
 among God's children. 
 
 4. Difference between Word and Sacrament. 
 
 As to the relation between the Word and the Sacrament 
 and the difference between them, opposite views are repre- 
 sented by the Roman Catholics on the one side and Zwingli 
 and his followers on the other side. The former hold that 
 the ordinance as such, as an outward act, is the divinely 
 appointed means for the impartation of a mystic grace, not 
 to be obtained in any other way. The latter regard them 
 simply as visible signs of the saving truth of the Gospel, 
 
PABT FIFTH THE CHUKCH. 
 
 215 
 
 memorials of Christ's redemption and a public confession of 
 faith, and becoming effective for salvation only through an 
 intelligent apprehension of the truth, but not conveying any 
 gift of grace, additional to the benefit derived from the Word 
 of God. 
 
 Scripture teaching and Christian experience support a 
 middle view, viz. : There is no essential difference between the 
 gift or grace conveyed by the Word and by the Sacrament, 
 but a difference in the mode and degree of conveying it. The 
 Sacrament by being a memorial and seal of Christ's redeem- 
 ing work, becomes a real means, by which that redemption is 
 applied. The difference between Word and Sacrament may 
 be defined in the following four points: 
 
 a. The sacrament, as Augustine said, is the "visible word." 
 The element supports our faith by appealing to the senses. 
 It furnishes a tangible pledge of the divine offer of salva- 
 tion by a corporeal contact with the Word. b. While the 
 grace of God as bestowed through the Word is mediated by 
 the intellectual process of human thinking, the gift in the 
 Sacrament comes in a more direct and concrete form by act 
 and sentiment, as the message of complete redemption, c. 
 In the Sacrament the offer of divine salvation is more indi- 
 vidualized than in the word of preaching. The promise and 
 assurance given are special and direct to the individual 
 ("take, eat; this is my body"), d. The combining of a ma- 
 terial element with the spiritual gift has a prophetic signifi- 
 cance. It testifies, that the physical nature of man also shall 
 share in the future glory of the redeemed spirit. 
 
 5. What is Essential to the Sacrament? 
 
 The apostles, as we learn from Acts 10 :48 and I Cor. 
 1 :17, did not generally administer the sacrament of baptism 
 themselves, but left this to others. It would appear, there- 
 fore, that the blessing of the sacrament does not depend upon 
 the person who officiates. While it is eminently proper, that 
 these holy ordinances should be administered by men duly 
 
216 
 
 CHRISTIAN DOCTKINE. 
 
 set apart and ordained for the ministry, their efficacy is not 
 conditioned upon the spirituality of the man who officiates. 
 However, the Sacraments should be administered according 
 to Christ's command, in using the words, the elements and 
 the mode of performing the rite as directed in the New Testa- 
 ment. 
 
 a. The words of institution must be pronounced substan- 
 tially as given by Christ, though no particular importance 
 attaches to the letter; for the Bible record itself differs as 
 to the exact wording. Compare Paul's version of the Insti- 
 tution of the Lord's supper, in I Cor. 11 :24-26, with Christ's 
 words, as given in Matth. 26:26-28; and the apostolic pro- 
 cedure in Acts 2 :28 and 10 :48 in baptizing "in the name of 
 Jesus Christ," with "in the name of the Father and of the 
 Son and of the Holy Ghost," in Matth. 28 :19. 
 
 b. The elements used must be in accordance with the 
 Lord's directing. But here again the spirit of Scripture 
 and the example of the early Church warrant the belief that 
 the intention of complying with Christ's command is of 
 more importance than conformity in detail. The efficacy of 
 the Sacrament does not appear to depend upon the kind of 
 bread or of wine that is used in the Holy Communion, 
 whether it be leavened or unleavened bread or a wafer, 
 whether it be fermented or unfermented wine. Likewise, it 
 matters not, what kind of water is used in Baptism, whether 
 warm or cold, running or stagnant, whether much water or 
 little water. 
 
 c. The mode of administering the sacrament should be 
 guided by the same principle of carrying out the Lord's di- 
 rection, without feeling bound to any one particular form. 
 It cannot make an essential difference, whether the bread 
 be received with the hand or the lips and while the com- 
 municant is standing or kneeling, whether the water is 
 poured or sprinkled upon the candidate or whether he is 
 immersed in the water forward or backward, as long as there 
 
PART FIFTH THE CHURCH. 
 
 217 
 
 is an earnest desire to fulfill the will of Christ, as we under- 
 stand it and as circumstances may seem to require. 
 
 6. The Necessity of the Sacrament. 
 
 The foregoing considerations may suggest the question, 
 whether the elements are at all necessary, and whether the 
 Sacraments as such are indispensable for salvation. The 
 Society of Friends deny this doctrinally and many other 
 Christians practically, by not taking the Sacraments. 
 
 The relative necessity of the Sacraments will appear from 
 the following considerations: a. ~No believer has a right to 
 set aside as unimportant a divine ordinance because of as- 
 sumed spiritual superiority. If Christ directed his disciples 
 to baptize all who want to be saved and if he enjoined upon 
 all his followers to commemorate his death in the rite of 
 the Holy Communion, no man may say that it is unneces- 
 sary to obey his explicit command, b. No believer is so 
 strong in the faith as to be able or desirous to dispense with 
 the visible and tangible pledges which are given expressly in 
 support of human weakness. 
 
 On the other hand we do not ascribe to the Sacraments 
 such unique efficacy as to make them absolutely indispensable 
 to salvation. The Apostle Peter does not mention the Sacra- 
 ment of the Lord's supper in his epistles and John does not 
 refer to either of the Sacraments by name. The early Church 
 fathers declared the baptism of blood, which those received 
 who died as Christian confessors, before they were baptized, 
 as an equivalent. On the same principle, the baptism of tears 
 shed by a penitent sinner may be considered an equivalent 
 for the Sacrament, when the latter is impossible. Augustine 
 referring to cases, where the enjoyment of the Holy Commun- 
 ion was precluded said : Crede et manducasti (Believe and you 
 have eaten). Christ's disciples may have been baptized with 
 the baptism of John, but they did not receive the Christian 
 baptism. We conclude, therefore, that the Sacraments have 
 the necessity of precept or divine ordination, but that the 
 
218 
 
 CHRISTIAN DOCTRINE. 
 
 benfits which they convey are not bound up with them in such 
 a manner, that they cannot be secured in any other way. 
 Compare Mark 16 :16, "He that believeth and is baptized 
 shall be saved; but he that disbelieveth shall be con- 
 demned," not, "he that is not baptized." 
 
 Chapter XLI. Baptism. 
 
 1. The Meaning of the Word. 
 The Baptists and related denominations generally hold, 
 that the word "baptism" means nothing else but dipping 
 or immersion, but according to the understanding of other 
 Christians it means an application of water, a washing, 
 irrespective of the mode of procedure. In classic usage 
 fianToo and (SarniCa) certainly mean "to dip," but they also 
 denote to dye, to cover with water and to wash ; men are said 
 to be "baptized" (overwhelmed) with debts, with puzzling 
 questions, showing that the effect rather than the process is 
 expressed. In the Septuagint translation of Dan. 4:30 we 
 meet the word in the sense of Nebukadnezzar's body being 
 wet with the dew of heaven, and in Mark 7 :4 we read, that 
 the Jews when coming from the market, do not eat, "except 
 they bathe themselves" ^anriGoovrai. In Acts 2 :41 it is re- 
 corded that 3000 persons were baptized in Jerusalem on the 
 day of Pentecost, although there is no running stream in 
 summer time in or near the city for immersing people. The 
 "Teaching of the Twelve Apostles," which dates from the 
 first half of the second century, has this direction : "If thou 
 hast neither (living water nor standing water in sufficient 
 quantity), pour water on the head three times, in the name of 
 the Father, Son and Holy Ghost." Add to this, that where 
 the element is mentioned in the New Testament we find 
 "baptized with water or in water and in the Holy Spirit 
 (Luke 3:16; Acts 1:5; John 1:26), not into, except once 
 "into the Jordan," In the baptismal formula of Matth. 28 : 
 19, "baptizing them into the name," a "binding or consecra- 
 
PART FIFTH THE CHUKCH. 
 
 219 
 
 ting unto the name," rather than a dipping into, is evidently 
 intended. Compare I Cor. 10 :2, "were all baptized unto 
 Moses." 
 
 These facts show that, although doubtless immersion was 
 the most frequent and in some respects the most expressive 
 mode of baptism, it was not the exclusive form and it is not 
 the only possible Christian baptism. So far as the Sacra- 
 ment symbolizes a dying and "being buried with Christ 
 through baptism" (Rom. 6:4), this idea evidently is best 
 expressed by immersion. On the other hand, the "washing 
 of regeneration" (Tit. 3:5) and the "having our hearts 
 sprinkled from an evil conscience and our body washed with 
 pure water" (Heb. 10:22) will be better typified by pour- 
 ing or sprinkling. 
 
 The real value of the Sacrament as symbolical of the 
 cleansing of the soul cannot depend upon the quantity of 
 water that is used, or the manner of its application. Im- 
 mersion in an ocean of water cannot make a black man 
 white nor a sinner clean, but one drop of the blood of Christ 
 cleanses the soul from all sin. Since the rite of baptism is 
 designed for all climes of the earth and for all classes of 
 men and immersion would be fatal to some and impossible 
 to others, we conclude that in administering this rite such 
 application of water is required as will make the act suf- 
 ficiently typical of the cleansing of the heart. 
 
 2. Origin of the Rite. 
 Christian baptism has its historic ground in the command 
 which Christ gave before his ascension to heaven, Matth. 
 28 :18-20. The rite as such is older. Christian baptism was 
 preceded by the baptism of John which, in turn, can be traced 
 further back to the ablutions prescribed in the Mosaic law, 
 for the cleansing of body and soul. In the last instance, the 
 ordinance is founded on the general sentiment of mankind, 
 that an outward cleansing of the body is emblematic, if not 
 a part of the cleansing of the soul. Lustrations of one kind 
 
220 
 
 CHRISTIAN DOCTRINE. 
 
 or another have been used at all times also by heathen 
 nations. The Christian sacrament differs from other rites 
 of ablution mainly in this respect, that it pledges to the 
 candidate a share in Christ's salvation and connects him with 
 the person and work of the Redeemer. When Christians are 
 baptized in or rather unto the name of the Father, Son and 
 Holy Ghost, this means in the first place, that they confess 
 belief in the revelation of the triune God and willingness to 
 consecrate themselves to his service. In virtue of this willing- 
 ness the candidates are received into the fellowship of the 
 Christian Church. 
 
 3. Significance of the Rite. 
 
 So far all Christians agree, as to the significance of this 
 rite; but not on the more important question, in what sense 
 the Sacrament pledges admission to the invisible Church or 
 the kingdom of God. The Church of Rome teaches, that 
 baptism is equivalent to regeneration, the Sacrament by 
 which salvation is imparted to the candidate. The Baptists 
 and others hold that regeneration must precede baptism, 
 the Sacrament being simply the sign of the salvation re- 
 ceived and a confession of faith. Most Protestant Churches 
 take a middle view, which neither identifies baptism and 
 regeneration, nor sunders them, but makes the Sacrament 
 the divinely appointed sign and pledge of admission to the 
 covenant relation with God in Christ Jesus. Peter, in Acts 
 2 :38, adds to the admonition : "Repent ye and be baptized," 
 the distinct promise, "unto the remission of your sins; and 
 ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost" and quotes our 
 Lord as saying : "Ye shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost" 
 (Acts 11:16). Paul declares, in Gal. 3:27, "As many of 
 you as were baptized into Christ did put on Christ." 
 
 On the ground of these and similar teachings of the New 
 Testament, we find the significance of Baptism in the follow- 
 ing points : a. Baptism is a sign typifying that the candidate, 
 who is being "baptized unto Christ," is thereby set apart 
 
PAET FIFTH THE CHURCH. 
 
 221 
 
 from an unbelieving world for Christ and is cleansed from 
 the guilt of sin by the washing of the blood of Christ, b. 
 Baptism is a pledge of the promise of salvation. Our Lord 
 instituted this ordinance after the work of redemption had 
 been accomplished, for the evident purpose of offering a 
 tangible seal of this salvation, as applied to each individual. 
 
 c. Baptism is a medium of salvation, a means of grace, by 
 which the salvation thus signified and pledged is actually 
 conveyed to the candidate. 
 
 In Acts 10 :44 we read that the Holy Spirit was given to 
 some Christian converts before they were baptized and in 
 Acts 8:16 the opposite, viz., that an additional laying on of 
 hands was needed to impart the power of the Spirit to 
 baptized Christians. How much of divine grace, therefore, 
 precedes the sacrament, how much goes with the administer- 
 ing of the rite, and how much is left for later time, cannot 
 be determined by a general rule. 
 
 4. Conditions for Baptism. 
 The question, who are the proper candidates for baptism, 
 must be decided by the design of the ordinance and the ex- 
 ample of the early Christian Church. In Acts 8 :37, the 
 Evangelist Philip says to the Ethopian: "If thou believest 
 with all thy heart, thou mayest (be baptized) and lie answered 
 and said, I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God," 
 and in Mk. 16:16, we read: "He that believeth and is bap- 
 tized shall be saved." It is true, that both these declarations 
 are wanting in the oldest Greek manuscripts of the New 
 Testament and may be later additions. But they certainly 
 express the fact, that in the apostolic Church a confession of 
 faith in Christ, as the Saviour from sin, was required of the 
 candidates for baptism. Such a confession presupposes a 
 preparatory instruction in the truths of the gospel and a 
 corresponding evidence of an earnest desire to be delivered 
 from the guilt and power of sin. It is not in accord with this 
 principle to baptize the heathen in crowds, with the idea 
 
222 
 
 CHRISTIAN DOCTRINE. 
 
 that the administering of the sacrament will make them 
 Christians, as has been done now and then. 
 
 On the other hand, it does not appear necessary to wait 
 with the rite until the candidate has proved the genuineness 
 of his conversion by a Christian life. If the sacrament of 
 baptism, as we understand it, marks the establishment of the 
 covenant relation between Christ and the believer and the 
 beginning of spiritual life, its proper place is at the com- 
 mencement of the new life, not in the middle or at the close. 
 
 All additional ceremonies and ecclesiastical usages, which 
 have been introduced in certain Churches, such as anointing 
 with holy oil, dressing the candidates in white robes, abjuring 
 the service of the devil, changing the name, may be valuable 
 accessories, but are not essential to the sacrament. 
 
 Chapter XLII. Infant Baptism. 
 1. Antiquity of the Rite. 
 
 The great body of Christian denominations, viz., the Greek 
 and the Roman Churches, as well as most Protestant Church- 
 es, administer the rite of baptism to infants as well as to 
 adults. This custom can be traced back with certainty only 
 to the year 200 A. D., when Tertullian speaks of it as being 
 in vogue in his day, but himself disapproves of it. His 
 younger contemporary, Origen, declares, that it had been 
 practiced since the days of the apostles. 
 
 As to the testimony of Scripture, it should be admitted 
 that infant baptism is nowhere expressly commanded ; but 
 the following declarations should be noted : a. The words of 
 institution of the sacrament in Matth. 28 :19 read : "Make 
 disciples of all the nations, baptizing them (or "having bap- 
 tized" — f3a7tTi6avT£S) in the name of the Father and of the 
 Son and of the Holy Spirit ; teaching them to observe all 
 things, etc." Here baptism is placed first and teaching sec- 
 ond, b. The command to make disciples of nations naturally 
 would include the children and as the Old Testament coven- 
 
PART FIFTH THE CHURCH. 
 
 223 
 
 ant rite of circumcision was performed on children, the Jews, 
 when becoming Christians, would naturally present their 
 children also for the new covenant rite of baptism, especially 
 after Peter's declaration in Acts 2 :38, 39, "Kepent ye and be 
 baptized every one of you. . . For to you is the promise and to 
 your children." c. In Acts 16 :15 we read of Lydia that "she 
 was baptized and her house" and in I Cor. 1 :16 Paul records 
 that he "baptized the house of Stephanas," which may be pre- 
 sumed to have included children. 
 
 However, the children are nowhere directly mentioned and 
 the question as to their standing, probably, did not arise 
 until a Christian community had been established. 
 
 2. Various Reasons for Infant Baptism. 
 Several Christian denominations disapprove of or denounce 
 Infant baptism ("pedobaptism") as an abuse of the sacra- 
 ment, a remnant of popery and a violation of the divine com- 
 mand. Those who adhere to this rite do so on very different 
 grounds, largely because of much vagueness or uncertainty as 
 to the true significance of the sacrament in general. 
 
 a. Many look upon infant baptism simply as a time- 
 honored ceremony and a churchly rite, by which the infant 
 is admitted to the fellowship of the visible church and to 
 membership in the Christian community. If it meant noth- 
 ing else, it would be no sacrament at all, like the baptism of 
 adults. 
 
 b. Some who believe in infant baptism as a true sacrament, 
 bold, that it belongs to children as a part of their Christian 
 inheritance. As baptism has taken the place of the Old 
 Testament rite of circumcision, they bold, that the children 
 of Christian parents are in like manner received into the 
 covenant of God, in virtue of their parentage. 
 
 c. If it is insisted upon that faith is a necessary requisite 
 for baptism, many say, that infant baptism rests on the vica- 
 rious faith of parents or sponsors, as in the healing of the 
 nobleman's son at Capernaum (John 4:50), the Syrophoeni- 
 
224 
 
 CHRISTIAN DOCTRINE. 
 
 cian woman (Matt. 15:28), and the man sick of the palsy 
 (Mark 2:5). But the two first instances refer to bodily- 
 healing and the third imthe words : "seeing their faith" doubt- 
 less includes the faith of the sick man himself. 
 
 d. Some claim that the child receives the sacrament in 
 virtue of its own spiritual fitness, because it was said of John 
 the Baptist, that "he shall be filled with the Holy Spirit, 
 even from his mother's womb" (Luke 1:15). But while the 
 Holy Spirit's influence may begin with the very first germ 
 of individual existence, it can certainly not be shown that 
 an infant has conscious faith. 
 
 Nevertheless the reasons thus given contain elements of the 
 truth and when combined with each other carry some weight, 
 but they may be said to lack the right starting point of the 
 argument, which is found in Christ's invitation : "Suffer the 
 little children and forbid them not to come unto me; for to 
 such belongeth the kingdom of heaven" (Matth. 19 :14), and 
 in the consequent right understanding of the meaning of 
 infant baptism. 
 
 3. The Meaning of Infant Baptism. 
 
 What is true of the sacrament of baptism in general, 
 must apply also to infant baptism, viz., that it is not re- 
 generation, not equivalent to personal salvation, nor on the 
 other hand is it simply a church rite admitting to the mem- 
 bership of the visible Church. But it is the symbol and seal 
 of the objective redemption accomplished by Christ and at 
 the same time the means of grace, by Christ's appointment, 
 for conveying the benefits of this redemption so far as that 
 can be done objectively, without taking away the right and 
 duty of personal self-determination. Hence baptism, ob- 
 jectively speaking, marks the beginning of personal salvation 
 through the application of the merits of Christ's redemption. 
 This objective offer of saving grace includes two things, viz., 
 acquittal from the guilt of sin or justification, and the im- 
 
PART FIFTH THE CHURCH. 
 
 225 
 
 planting of the divine life or regeneration. Can an infant 
 receive these? 
 
 a. As to the former, we know that every child, as "flesh 
 born of the flesh" has its unavoidable share of inherited de- 
 pravity and a corresponding share in the displeasure of God 
 against all defilement of sin, as Paul writes, "we were by 
 nature children of wrath, even as the rest" (Eph. 2:3). 
 Accordingly, aside of any personal sin, the child needs the 
 sprinkling of the blood of Christ, for a cleansing of the 
 heart (compare Ps. 51:5, 7). Thus the infant as such is a 
 proper subject for the manifestation of the grace of God. 
 As the sin of Adam is objectively transmitted to every child 
 because it cannot resist, so the saving grace of Christ, so far 
 as it means an objective offer of acquittal from sin, can be 
 transmitted to every Christian child, of whom the apostle 
 writes in I Cor. 7 :14, "Your children are holy," i. e. set 
 apart for the kingdom of heaven. 
 
 This promise and pledge then of an objective share in 
 Christ's redemption is the first thing which the sacrament 
 of infant baptism expresses. 
 
 b. As to the other aspect of personal salvation, the in- 
 fusion of the divine life or regeneration, we again know 
 that all spiritual life comes to man as a gift of the Holy 
 Spirit. It is not man who regenerates himself and quickens 
 his heart. The sinner cannot even repent or believe by his 
 own strength. "It is God who worketh in us both to will 
 and to do." All that is required of man, is that he renounce 
 his natural enmity and pride, and accept the divine life which 
 is given. The child, though it feels as yet no longing for 
 salvation, at least offers no resistance. It was doubtless 
 partly for this reason, that the Saviour commanded the 
 little children to be brought to him that he might bless them 
 and said, "To such belongeth the kingdom of heaven" and 
 "Except ye turn, and become as little children, ye shall in 
 
 15 
 
226 
 
 CHRISTIAN DOCTRINE. 
 
 no wise enter into the kingdom of heaven" (Matt. 18:3). 
 
 It is true that Christ did not directly command that 
 children should be baptized. But if to such (even to infants 
 and "babes," Luke 18:15) belongeth the kingdom of heaven, 
 why should they be denied the sacrament which Christ or- 
 dained to be the sign and pledge of admission to that king- 
 dom? If infants are excluded from this rite because they 
 have no conscious faith, they are to the same extent debarred 
 from the kingdom of heaven, because "without faith it is 
 impossible to be well-pleasing to Cod." It is the same Jesus 
 who said : "Except a man be born anew he cannot see the 
 kingdom of God" and who speaking of little children de- 
 clared, "To such belongeth the kingdom." 
 
 The fact that many who were baptized in infancy, after- 
 wards show no signs of spiritual life, merely proves that the 
 sacrament does not work mechanically, but that baptismal 
 grace is conditional in infants, as well as in adults. While 
 the child is too young to know the meaning of the ordinance, 
 it is not too young to be set apart for Christ and his king- 
 dom, nor too young to be received into that Christian fel- 
 lowship, which pledges to the child the blessings of the 
 Church and a "nurturing in the chastening (better: training 
 or education- naidsia) and admonition of the Lord" (Eph. 
 6:4). Unquestionably such merely objective dispensation of 
 divine grace must be followed later by a personal appropria- 
 tion of this grace, in the exercise of conscious faith. But 
 even with adults, the real permanent blessing of the sacra- 
 ment is altogether conditioned upon a faithful abiding in 
 the fellowship of the Lord. 
 
 4. Reasons for Preferring Infant Baptism. 
 The foregoing arguments would prove only, that the sacra- 
 ment of baptism may also be administered to infants. It 
 remains for us to give reasons why the great majority of 
 Christians prefer infant baptism to waiting until the chil- 
 
PART FIFTH THE CHURCH. 
 
 227 
 
 dren have come to a mature age. Three such reasons may- 
 he stated: 
 
 a. The desire of Christian parents to secure to their chil- 
 dren as early as possible the objective sign and pledge of 
 their share in the blessings of redemption. This is a part 
 of the loving provision which devoted parents make for their 
 children, in the form of gifts and preparations, which are 
 intended mainly for future use. They consecrate their chil- 
 dren to the triune God, praying for their salvation, and they 
 are resolved, by word and example, to lead them to the 
 Saviour, as soon as there is the first sign of an awakening 
 consciousness, so that the spiritual life may be implanted and 
 may grow in them, simultaneously with the natural life. 
 
 b. As the sacrament of baptism marks the beginning of a 
 Christian life, no time in later years seems better or even 
 as well suited for receiving this initiatory rite, than the 
 earliest infancy. For the work of the Holy Spirit manifests 
 itself even in infants. Children do begin to love the Saviour, 
 as well as they love their parents ; they learn to give thanks, 
 to pray to him and to feel the need of divine help ; in short, 
 they make an experience of divine grace, in proportion to 
 their understanding. If in later years the sense of guilt is 
 clearer and faith as a personal possession is more definite, 
 the power of sin, on the other hand, likewise has become 
 greater than it was in infancy. 
 
 c. As regards the visible results of the sacrament, the 
 Churches which administer infant baptism can claim at 
 least so much, that persons who are baptized in infancy and 
 afterward brought Tip in Christian training, are not in any 
 way behind the members of Churches which baptize adults 
 only, in Christian graces, and that the most faithful and 
 efficient servants of Christ, throughout many centuries of the 
 Christian era, have been baptized in infancy. 
 
 5. Whose Children are to be Baptized? 
 It should be understood, however, that infant baptism is 
 
228 
 
 CHRISTIAN DOCTRINE. 
 
 a privilege and a sacred trust granted to church members 
 and it must be regarded against abuse. Unfortunately, the 
 sacred ordinance too often is degraded into a meaningless 
 ceremony, or else into a superstitious opus operatum of 
 supposedly magical effect. The Baptists are perfectly right 
 in their protest against an indifferent formalism, as well as 
 an unwarranted sacramentarianism. The administering of 
 infant baptism is in place only, where there is a reasonable 
 hope that the sacrament will actually mark the beginning 
 of Christian discipleship and that the operation of the Holy 
 Spirit will have a free course in the heart of the child. 
 
 Hence infant baptism is out of place, where there is no 
 prospect whatever of the child receiving such a Christian 
 training, that is among the children of heathen, or where 
 parents and relatives are outspoken unbelievers and where 
 the Church cannot expect to exercise the needful influence, 
 through the Sunday School and otherwise. The rite is out of 
 place, where it is merely asked for on superstitious grounds. 
 Ministers and Church officers should take pains to explain 
 the true meaning of the sacrament, where this is not properly 
 apprehended and should impress, upon parents and relatives 
 the obligation which the rite imposes upon them, to bring up 
 the child for Christ and the Church. 
 
 6. The Rite of Confirmation. 
 
 "Confirmation" was not instituted by Christ, but is a 
 solemn rite of the Church, originating in the early custom 
 of anointing the forehead of young persons and pronouncing 
 the blessing of the Lord upon them, preparatory to their first 
 partaking of the Lord's supper. Hence in the Churches 
 which observe this rite, it connects, as it were, the first 
 sacrament with the second, by making the confirmands 
 communicant members of the Church. Confirmation does 
 not objectively complete the sacrament of infant baptism. 
 However, the covenant between the child and the Redeemer 
 which in baptism is objectively declared on the part of God, 
 
PART FIFTH THE CHURCH. 
 
 229 
 
 receives its subjective ratification, when the confirmand pub- 
 licly confesses his belief in Christ and his salvation, as well 
 as a sincere desire to be a disciple of Christ. Such a per- 
 sonal ratification of the baptismal covenant may and should 
 take place before the rite of confirmation is administered. 
 
 The latter is but a public declaration of Christian faith, 
 on the strength of which the candidate is then admitted to 
 the Holy Communion and to full membership in the church. 
 However, as confirmation is generally preceded by careful 
 instruction in Christian doctrine, by prayer with and for 
 the confirmands and by spiritual admonition, this rite be- 
 comes an occasion for renewing and strengthening the cov- 
 enant of grace and for imparting to the confirmand a new 
 and special blessing from the Lord. Compare Matt. 10 :32. 
 "Every one therefore who shall confess me before men, him 
 will I also confess before my Father who is in heaven," and 
 I Tim. 6 :12. In this sense, also, the special experience of 
 Christian disciples at Samaria, may be appropriated and 
 renewed for a class of confirmands; as we read in Acts 
 8 :14-17, that "Peter and John prayed for them that they 
 might receive the Holy Spirit: for as yet it was fallen on 
 none of them : only they had been baptized unto the name of 
 the Lord Jesus. Then laid they their hands on them and they 
 received the Holy Spirit." 
 
 Chapter XLIII. The Holy Communion. 
 1. The Institution of the Rite. 
 We have in the New Testament four accounts of the in- 
 stitution of this holy ordinance, three of them in the his- 
 torical records of the three synoptical gospels and the 
 fourth in Paul's first epistle to the Corinthians as given him 
 by special revelation. (Matt. 26; Mark 14; Luke 22; I Cor. 
 11.) They all agree in stating that the Holy Communion, 
 also called the Lord's Supper, was instituted by Christ at 
 the close of the last passover meal which he celebrated with 
 
230 
 
 CHRISTIAN DOCTRINE. 
 
 his disciples, in the night before his death. The ancient 
 Jewish rite of the passover was fulfilled, when the true 
 paschal lamb, Christ, was offered for the redemption of the 
 world. 
 
 Four points appear prominent in the institution of the 
 rite: a. By making the broken bread and the poured out 
 wine the emblems of his own body and blood Christ, in the 
 first place, emphasized the certainty of his impending death. 
 b. In the next place, he presented this death in the most 
 comforting light as the source of permanent Messing to the 
 disciples ("given for you, ... poured for many, unto remis- 
 sion of sins"), c. By saying: "Do this in remembrance of 
 me" he made this ordinance a permanent memorial of his 
 dying love for them. The death of the Master, instead of 
 separating him from the disciples, should bind them more 
 closely to him in a covenant of love. d. It should also bind 
 them together with one another in a holy fellowship of spirit- 
 ual communion. 
 
 That the apostles and early Christians so understood the 
 ordinance and regarded it as an integral part of Christian 
 worship, appears from Acts 2 :46 and 20 :7 and I Cor. 11 :23. 
 In apostolic times it was called "the breaking of bread," 
 because it was observed at the close of a meal, and also the 
 Eucharist (i. e., thanksgiving). Later the names "offering" 
 and "sacrifice" were introduced, gradually assuming the 
 meaning of the sacrament being a repetition of the sacrifice 
 brought by Christ. Hence the term hostia (victim), or host, 
 for the consecrated bread. As it was customary to celebrate 
 the sacred rite, after the promiscuous assembly of wor- 
 shippers had been dismissed, with the words: "Missa est," 
 the celebration of the sacrament has also received the name 
 of the "Mass." 
 
 2. The Observance of the Rite. 
 
 The commandment of Christ and the order of the Church 
 prescribe the use of the elements, as instituted by our Lord, 
 
PART FIFTH THE CHURCH. 
 
 231 
 
 viz., bread and wine. In the eleventh century a controversy 
 arose between the Greek and the Latin Churches on the 
 question what hind of bread should be used, the Latin Church 
 holding, that it must be unleavened bread or a wafer, be- 
 cause the rite was instituted on the evening of the passover, 
 when all leaven was removed from every Jewish household, 
 while the Greek Church claimed, that Christ ate the passover 
 and instituted the sacrament on the evening before the pass- 
 over and that he died, when the passover lambs were killed. 
 If in regard to this point, undoubtedly, the Western Church 
 has the better of the arguments, it should be admitted that 
 the wafer used in the Roman Catholic Church and in many 
 of the Protestant denominations as bread has a very small 
 claim to be thus designated. 
 
 The wine ordinarily offered in the Holy Communion, both 
 in the Eastern and Western Churches, has been the fer- 
 mented juice of the grape, as most likely used at the institu- 
 tion of the rite, although it is claimed by some, that the 
 passover wine was unfermented. The latter is now pre- 
 ferred by many Christians, as is also the individual com- 
 munion cup. Neither the one nor the other should be re- 
 garded as essential to the validity of the ordinance. 
 
 The most prominent features in the celebration of the 
 sacraments are the following: a. The consecrating prayer. 
 Its object is to prepare the hearts of the communicants for 
 the sacrament, to confess the need of Christ's salvation, to 
 thank him for the gift of grace and to invoke the divine 
 blessing upon the celebration, b. The pronouncing of the 
 words of institution, the breaking of the bread and the 
 pouring of the wine. As the bread represents the broken 
 body of Christ and the wine the poured out life blood of the 
 Saviour, these features seem to be important enough not to 
 be lightly omitted, c. The partaking of the elements. This 
 may be done simultaneously or successively. But the com- 
 mandment of Christ is not obeyed, when the priest alone 
 
232 
 
 CHRISTIAN DOCTRINE. 
 
 regularly partakes of the bread and the wine, or when the 
 cup is withheld from the laity altogether, on the pretext 
 that the body contains the blood and that there is danger of 
 profaning the blood of Christ, by spilling any of the wine. 
 3. The Controversy Regarding the "Body and Blood." 
 
 a. The Ancient Church. In the early Church, apparently, 
 no explanation as to the relation between the elements and 
 the person of Christ was attempted. Justin Martyr and 
 Irenaeus (about 150 A. D.) first began to write about the 
 sacrament as a repetition of the atoning death of Christ. 
 That idea having gradually prevailed, Bishop Gregory of 
 Rome (A. D. 600), who first formally assumed the title of 
 pope, sanctioned it by declaring that the celebration of the 
 Mass meant a daily repetition of the expiatory sacrifice of 
 the Redeemer. About the same time the theory was ad- 
 vanced that, by the consecration of the elements, bread and 
 wine were actually changed into the flesh and blood of Christ. 
 
 b. The Middle Ages. However, five centuries passed, 
 before Hildebert of Tours (+1134) coined the word Trans- 
 substantiation and another century, before a Church Council 
 held in Rome in A.D. 1215, under Pope Innocence III, gave 
 the official sanction to the new doctrine by deciding that in 
 the act of consecration, bread and wine become flesh and blood 
 of Christ ("Corpus Christi"), though color, taste and shape 
 remain. Then also the custom became general to withdraw 
 the cup from the laity, and this practice was formally sanc- 
 tioned at the council of Constance (A.D. 1415), the same 
 council which condemned Hus and his followers as heretics. 
 
 c. The Reformers. The Unitas Fratrum in Bohemian and 
 Moravia from its beginning (A.D. 1457) rejected the doc- 
 trine of transubstantiation and held to the view afterwards 
 adopted by Luther, that we partake of the spiritual body of 
 Christ. Later the Brethren inclined more to the teachings 
 of Calvin and eventually expressed themselves as most in 
 accord with Melanchthon, in emphasizing the personal 
 
PART FIFTH THE CHDECH. 
 
 233 
 
 presence of Christ in the sacrament, without trying to define 
 the connection between the Saviour and the sacramental 
 elements. Luther, while rejecting the Roman doctrine of 
 transubstantiation, yet held to a literal understanding of the 
 words, "This is my body" as requiring a substantial presence 
 of the glorified body of Christ in and with the visible 
 elements. Accordingly his followers teach -the real, sacra- 
 mental presence of the body of the God-man in the Holy 
 Communion, so that when the bread and wine are received 
 naturally, the body and blood of Christ are received by a 
 supernatural eating and drinking. 
 
 The Swiss Reformers were more radical in their view. 
 Zwingli in particular held, that the glorified body of Christ 
 being in heaven, cannot enter into the sacrament, either 
 directly or indirectly. The design of the ordinance is simply 
 that of a memorial and an act of confession. Bread and wine 
 are emblems of the work of redemption and nothing else. 
 
 The discarding of all the mysterious or miraculous features 
 of the Sacrament not being satisfactory to many Protestants, 
 Calvin endeavored to meet the want by declaring that there 
 is something special in the sacramental gift. The believer 
 in partaking of the elements, by faith is lifted up to the 
 presence of the glorified Redeemer in heaven and a super- 
 natural power proceeds from the God-man, like the rays 
 which emanate from the sun. Melanchthon, Luther's as- 
 sistant in the German Reformation, also occupied a middle 
 ground between Luther and Zwingli. He, however, simply 
 emphasized the parting promise of Christ, "Lo, I am with 
 you always" (Matt. 28 :20) and the fundamental relation 
 between Christ and his Church, the head and the body, as 
 vouching for the real presence of the God-man in the 
 sacrament, without attempting to define the nature of this 
 presence. 
 
 d. This practical view which holds to the personal 
 presence of Christ in the sacrament, without discussing 
 
234 
 
 CHRISTIAN DOCTKINE. 
 
 speculative questions, like the "ubiquity" of the glorified 
 body, coininends itself to Christians of different denomina- 
 tions. Certainly at the time of the institution of the ordi- 
 nance neither the material nor the glorified body of Christ 
 was given to the disciples of which to partake. Besides that, 
 a strictly corporeal conception of the Lord's supper separates 
 this sacrament too much from the other sacrament of Bap- 
 tism. For the water of Baptism, though it represents the 
 Blood of Christ poured out for our forgiveness, is not taken 
 by any one as being actually either the material or glorified 
 blood of Christ. On the other hand the promise given : "Lo, 
 I am with you alway" assures the believer of Christ's con- 
 tinued personal presence with his people, which by the sacra- 
 ment is made special and tangible in the elements. 
 
 As to unbelievers, what is said of the Holy Spirit, viz., 
 that the world cannot receive him, must also apply to the 
 sacramental gift. They receive only the material elements 
 and not Christ, but the contempt of the sacrament on their 
 part brings a judgment. 
 
 4. The Benefits of the Holy Communion. 
 
 As the sacrament of Baptism symbolizes and pledges the 
 beginning of spiritual life and of the covenant relation be- 
 tween God and man, so the Holy Communion is the sacra- 
 ment for nourishing and strengthening this life through 
 continued communion with our Saviour. On this general 
 principle the following particular points may be enumer- 
 ated as benefits of the sacrament : a. It is a memorial of the 
 death of Christ and a profession of faith in his redeeming 
 work on the part of the believer, Luke 22 :19. b. It is a 
 tangible pledge of the forgiveness of our sin through the 
 shedding of the blood of Christ, Matt. 26:28. c. It is a 
 covenant rite between the believer and Christ who is the 
 "bread of life" and imparts to us an increased power of 
 sanctification , John 6 :56. d. It is also an emblem of the 
 communion of believers with each other, and intended to 
 
PART FIFTH THE CHUECH. 
 
 235 
 
 strengthen Christian fellowship, I Cor. 10 :17. e. Finally, it 
 confirms the assurance of eternal life and of the resurrection 
 of the body; John 6:54 and Matt. 26:29: "I say unto you, 
 I shall not drink henceforth of the fruit of the vine, until 
 that day when I drink it new with you in my Father's 
 kingdom." 
 
 While all these blessings may substantially be enjoyed 
 through the Word of God without the sacrament, they are 
 made more tangible and more direct by the presence of the 
 elements. 
 
 5. Proper Candidates for the Holy Communion. 
 According to Scripture and Church rule, there are three 
 requirements for a worthy partaking of the sacrament of 
 the Lord's Supper, viz. : 
 
 a. Baptism and Christian Instruction. The ordinance of 
 baptism naturally precedes the second sacrament, as in 
 meaning so in the order of time. A proper understanding 
 of the significance of the ordinance also is needed, not in 
 the sense of a clear intellectual comprehension, yet sufficient 
 for a true valuation of this solemn rite. 
 
 b. Earnest self-examination, resulting in a sincere desire 
 to be cleansed from the guilt and power of sin, I Cor. 11 :28 
 •'Let a man prove himself and so let him eat of the bread and 
 drink of the cup." 
 
 c. Prayer and faith in the divine promise of salvation 
 and of communion with Christ. 
 
 The Protestant Churches do not admit children to the 
 second sacrament, because the self-examination which the 
 Apostle Paul enjoins upon all communicants cannot be 
 expected, until the child is old enough to make a public 
 profession of faith. The custom of some denominations of 
 holding a communion Love-Feast before the celebration of the 
 Holy Sacrament has its Biblical foundation in the Agape of 
 the apostolic Church (I Cor. 11 :20) and is a valuable symbol 
 
236 
 
 CHRISTIAN DOCTRINE. 
 
 of the spirit of brotherly love, which should animate all 
 those who want to come to the Lord's table. 
 
 Some denominations do not allow the administering of 
 the sacrament in private, because it is a rite of Christian 
 communion. While this argument may be urged against 
 the Roman priests taking the sacrament regularly, without 
 the congregation participating, it does not apply to giving 
 the communion to the sick. For it is first of all a com- 
 munion between Christ and the individual believer, and in 
 the second place only, a communion of believers with each 
 other. 
 
 Some churches admit to the sacrament none but members 
 of their own Church (Close Communion). So far as the 
 ordinance is expressive of Christian fellowship, the draw- 
 ing of denominational lines may be in order. Those who do 
 not acknowledge Christians of other denominations as 
 properly qualified to fill the requirements of communicants, 
 act consistently, if they keep close communion. On the 
 other hand, the conviction that membership in any Christian 
 Church, accompanied by the manifestation of a Christian 
 life, is a sufficient qualification for admission to the sacra- 
 ment, naturally implies open Communion. 
 
B>art Siith— jftnal GbniGS. 
 
 Chapter XLIV. The Immortality of the soul. 
 
 1. An Axiom of Christian Belief. 
 The natural end of our earthly life is physical death. 
 When the heart stands still and the pulse ceases to beat, the 
 dissolution of the body begins and the material parts, held 
 together so far by the human soul or spirit, fall asunder. 
 What becomes of that soul itself? It is a general human 
 conviction and an axiom of the Christian faith that the soul 
 of man does not perish with the death of the body but con- 
 tinues to exist as an individual essence. The philosopher 
 Im. Kant called this belief one of the three postulates of 
 practical reason — with God and duty as the two others, — while 
 the naturalist Haeckel has termed them the three buttresses 
 of superstition which must be demolished. Materialism 
 regards the soul as a mere function of bodily organs, which 
 therefore will perish, when these organs cease to work, while 
 the pantheist declares that the soul of the human race, as a 
 whole, may be imperishable, but the individual soul is 
 drowned in the ocean of eternity. The question indeed is 
 not about continued existence as such. The evident conser- 
 vation of both matter and energy in nature excludes the 
 thought of annihilation. Nothing perishes; death merely 
 means change of the form of existence. But the immortality 
 of the individual soul and consciousness is to many men a 
 matter of doubt or unbelief. 
 
 2. Rational Arguments. 
 
 Ancient and modern philosophers and thinkers have en- 
 deavored to firmly establish the immortality of the indi- 
 vidual soul by various arguments which may be summed up 
 under the following heads: 
 
 a. Historical Argument. Belief in man's continued ex- 
 
238 
 
 CHRISTIAN DOCTRINE. 
 
 istence after death is one of the most ancient and widespread 
 human convictions. From the dawn of history to the present 
 day, the idea of personal immortality is common to all 
 nations. Egyptians, Babylonians, Greeks and Romans, 
 Chinese and Hindus, Kaffirs and Eskimos have a common 
 faith in holding to a conscious life after the dissolution of 
 the body. Such a universal conviction, it is claimed, must 
 spring from an objective reality. 
 
 b. Metaphysical argument. The soul of man appears to 
 have an absolutely simple subject in the personal conscious- 
 ness of self or "I," which as such cannot perish in death, 
 because, what is not compounded, cannot be dissolved. But 
 is there such an individual and indivisible existence of the 
 soul aside from the body? As argued in Plato's Phaedon, 
 the soul might be only the harmony of a musical instrument, 
 which ceases with the instrument, or a flame of fire which 
 is quenched, when the material on which it feeds is con- 
 sumed. If all the animal souls are perishable, why should all 
 human souls be imperishable? 
 
 c Teleological argument. Man is conscious of capacities 
 and ideals, for which the brief span of the present life offers 
 no room of realization. The majority of men do not attain 
 the object of their striving, nor achieve that for which they 
 have talents and inclination. Continued individual exist- 
 ence is necessary, in order to complete what remains unfin- 
 ished at the hour of death. Man is the one being on earth, 
 that has the power to understand the world and God has 
 "set eternity in his heart" (Eccles. 3:11). He discovers and 
 aims at the infinite. Must there not be another life, when 
 this earthly life is cut off? Is the individual, as some say, 
 to be nothing more than a leaf or blossom on the world-tree, 
 which must wither and die, while the tree of humanity con- 
 tinues to grow? 
 
 d. Moral argument. There is a universal sense of justice 
 in the human soul, which declares that right doing and happi- 
 
PART SIXTH FINAL THINGS. 
 
 239 
 
 ness, wrong doing and punishment or pain, belong together. 
 This connection is not always maintained in the present life. 
 Man is not adequately rewarded or punished for his deeds. 
 Therefore, we expect a future retribution. God's righteous 
 rule must be fully vindicated, if not here, then in a life to 
 come. This argument, it is true, presupposes the existence 
 of a personal and righteous God. As in regard to the exist- 
 ence of God, so here and even in a higher degree, all philo- 
 sophic arguments can give no absolute evidence, so as to com- 
 pel belief; they furnish but a rational basis for the natural 
 conviction of personal immortality. 
 
 There might be added to these arguments the occasional 
 testimony of creditable witnesses, as to a direct evidence of 
 the continued existence of the departed, received through 
 certain sights and sounds, tangible manifestations and mes- 
 sages from the dead. But such evidence is too sporadic and 
 subjective to be generally accepted. 
 
 3. The Teachings of the Bible. 
 
 The certainty of a continued personal existence after 
 death must be based upon divine revelation. The ancient 
 covenant people already had a firmer assurance of the im- 
 mortality of the spirit, than Greek and Roman philosophy 
 generally could furnish. "We read of Abraham that in dying 
 he was gathered to his people (Gen. 25:8, 9) and of Jacob, 
 that he expected to meet his son Joseph in the spirit-world 
 (Gen. 37:35). The record of the translation of Enoch and 
 Elijah and the calling up of the spirit of Samuel (I Sam. 28) 
 testify to the general belief in a future conscious existence. 
 However, as the Old Testament deals mainly with the present 
 life, as to righteousness and piety and their reward, the rev- 
 elation concerning the future life is still very limited. The 
 righteous and the wicked alike go to Sheol or the spirit-world, 
 where they rest from earthly troubles, but have only a shad- 
 owy existence of weakness and darkness. Gradually, how- 
 
240 
 
 CHRISTIAN DOCTRINE. 
 
 ever, a higher conception of the future and of reward or 
 punishment after death became general. 
 
 Job confesses his conviction in these words : "I know that 
 my Redeemer liveth . . . and after my skin, even this body, is 
 destroyed, then without my flesh shall I see God, whom I, 
 even I, shall see" (Job. 19:25, 26). The Psalmist expects a 
 deliverance of the righteous from Sheol; "Thou wilt not 
 leave my soul to Sheol, neither wilt thou suffer thy holy one 
 to see corruption" (Ps. 16:10), and the prophets Isaiah, 
 Ezekiel and Daniel interpret the assurance of the restoration 
 and revival of their nation, to include the resurrection of 
 the individual members of their people and the restoration 
 even of their bodies. (Isa. 26 :19 ; Ez. 37 :1, etc. ; Dan. 12 :2,3.) 
 In the days of the Maccabees, the doctrine of personal im- 
 mortality and rewards and punishments in the other world 
 was distinctly proclaimed and became a source of strength 
 and comfort to the pious (Mac. 7:9, 14). 
 
 This Jewish belief in immortality received a confirmation 
 as well as a deeper meaning in the promise of eternal life, 
 given by Christ and pledged by his own resurrection from 
 the dead; as Paul writes: "Our Saviour, Christ Jesus, 
 abolished death and brought life and immortality to light 
 through the gospel" (II Tim. 1:10). It is noteworthy, 
 however, that this promise of eternal life is invariably 
 coupled with faith in Christ and communion with him. 
 (John 11 :25, "He that believeth on me, though he die, yet 
 shall he live, and whosoever liveth and believeth on me shall 
 never die." I Cor. 15 :17, "If Christ hath not been raised, 
 your faith is vain ; then they also that are fallen asleep in 
 Christ have perished"). Man viewed merely as a natural 
 being is not necessarily immortal, and sinful man, as such, 
 has not eternal life dwelling in him. The Creator alone 
 has immortality as an absolute possession (I Tim. 6:16) 
 and can dispose of the creature, as he pleases, or bring to an 
 end the life which he called into existence. 
 
PART SIXTH FINAL THINGS. 
 
 241 
 
 Christ, indeed, gave to the words life and death a new 
 meaning by saying: "This is life eternal that they should 
 know Thee, the only true God, and Him whom Thou didst 
 send, even Jesus Christ" (John 17:3), and "He that heareth 
 my word and believeth him that sent me, hath eternal life, 
 ...and hath passed out of death into life" (John 5:24). 
 This is a spiritual life or a spiritual death beginning in 
 man while here on earth, which must work out its destiny 
 in the other world. Thus eternal life, in the sense of con- 
 scious blessedness and immortality, is promised to believers 
 only. Independent, however, of such immortality, the !N"ew 
 Testament also states distinctly, that unbelievers shall have 
 to give an account of themselves and of their lives here- 
 after and shall be brought before the judgment seat of Christ, 
 to receive their final doom. In that sense, the immortality 
 or continued existence of all souls after death is taught in 
 the Bible. 
 
 Chapter XLV. The Departed Spirits or the Inter- 
 mediate State. 
 
 1. Opinions Expressed on this Subject. 
 
 "When it is accepted and conceded that the soul of man 
 survives the death of the body and maintains an independ- 
 ent, individual existence, the important question is, what is 
 the state or condition of this departed spirit? 
 
 a. Transmigration. Among nations and people outside of 
 the pale of revealed religion the idea of a transmigration 
 of the soul after death has found many adherents, both 
 among uncivilized savages and among the most cultured 
 people and thoughtful philosophers. It is either on the 
 ground of the spirit of man needing an embodiment and 
 therefore seeking a new body, or on the moral and ethical 
 ground of the soul having to pass through a number of 
 births and material forms of existence, for the sake of its 
 16 
 
242 
 
 CHRISTIAN DOCTRINE. 
 
 purification, that the belief in the transmigration of the 
 departed spirit, has been very generally accepted and taught. 
 Brahmanic Hindus and. Buddhists agree in holding, that 
 until the soul of man has fully expiated for sin and been 
 entirely purified, it must continue to be born in some material 
 form. The Jewish "Cabbala" (mystical writing) and the 
 Christian sect of the Manichaeans entertained the same 
 opinion. 
 
 b. Hades, the Spirit world. The prevailing idea among 
 the Jews at the time of Christ's birth was, that after death 
 all the departed spirits meet in a place or realm called 
 Sheol, where they remain in expectation of the coming of 
 the Messiah (Dan. 12:13). This Sheol was generally sup- 
 posed to be a subterranean abode, where the departed dwelt 
 as shades, forms without substance, living in a dream-like 
 state. However, the condition of the souls in Sheol was not 
 regarded as all alike. There were two divisions, viz., 
 Abraham's bosom for the faithful, where rest and comfort 
 could be found after life's tribulations, and Gehenna, the 
 place of torment for the wicked and the idolaters. 
 
 With the prevalence of the Greek language, the Greek word 
 Hades, ( invisible or unseen world) replaced the Hebrew Sheol, 
 and the two divisions became Paradise and Tartarus. 
 Although the teachings of Christ necessitated some modifica- 
 tion of this belief, the Church fathers in substance accepted 
 these Jewish and Greek ideas, about an intermediate state 
 between death and resurrection. It was generally held, that 
 the spirits of the departed are all gathered in Hades, await- 
 ing the second coming of Christ which would bring the 
 resurrection of the dead. Martyrs alone would go right after 
 death to the heavenly paradise, spoken of by Paul in II Cor. 
 12 :2-4. 
 
 c. Purgatory. Origen declared that no Christian could 
 come into the presence of God before he hod passed througb 
 the refining fire of purification, referred to in I Cor. 3 :12-15. 
 
PART SIXTH FINAL THINGS. 
 
 243 
 
 Augustine also spoke of the ignis purgatorius, which no one 
 could escape Who had not become entirely free from the 
 pollution of sin before dying. Pope Gregory, the Great, 
 (A.D. 600) then gave his official sanction to the doctrine of 
 purgatory as a place of purification and training, through 
 suffering for sins that were not yet atoned for. The inter- 
 cession of the saints might shorten the time of purgatory. 
 This idea led to the establishment of soul masses and 
 requiems. 
 
 The scholastic theology of the Middle Ages then taught 
 a fourfold distinction of states or abodes of the departed 
 spirits, viz. : 1. The Heavenly Paradise, for the saints. 
 2. Hell, for the devils, the heathen and all men who die in 
 mortal sin without confession. 3. Purgatory, for all un- 
 sanctified Christians. The duration and intensity of suffer- 
 ing here depends on the degree of guilt incurred. It may be 
 for a few hours or for thousands of years, but it can be 
 shortened by intercessory prayer and the sacrifice of the 
 Holy Mass. 4. The Limbus Infantum (Infants' Enclosure) 
 for unbaptized children, who are not admitted to heaven, 
 because their "original sin" has not been washed away in 
 baptism, yet cannot be punished either, because they have 
 not consciously sinned. 
 
 d. Immediate and final bliss or woe. The Reformers of 
 the sixteenth century, as well as the TJnitas Fratrum before 
 them, rejected all these speculations as to the condition of 
 the departed spirits. They held, that the one sacrifice of 
 Christ avails for the forgiveness of all sin and that any 
 additional satisfaction after death is both superfluous and 
 impossible. But being concerned mostly about the present 
 need of salvation, these Reformers paid little attention to 
 eschatological questions. Hence the creeds of the Protes- 
 tant Churches, in general, make little reference to the state 
 of the soul after death. The prevailing conviction how- 
 ever was this, that death is followed immediately by the 
 judgment either of salvation or condemnation. 
 
244 
 
 CHRISTIAN DOCTEINE. 
 
 Accordingly the departed at once enter either the state of 
 eternal bliss or eternal woe; they are either in heaven or in 
 hell; as the Westminister Catechism puts it: "The souls of 
 the righteous being made perfect in holiness, are received 
 into the highest heavens, where they behold the face of God, 
 while the souls of the wicked are cast into hell, where they 
 remain in utter darkness." It was generally held, also, that 
 this judgment of condemnation included all Heathen, Jews 
 and Mohammedans. In the eighteenth century, when the 
 age of missions began, this view gradually began to be 
 changed. 
 
 2. The Existence of an Intermediate State. 
 The first question in the consideration of this subject 
 must be: Is there really such an intermediate state? Aa 
 the resurrection of the body does not take place immedi- 
 ately after death and as the last judgment is still a thing of 
 the future, it appears self-evident that the intervening of 
 some kind of an intermediate state for the spirits of the 
 departed is well established. The believer does not attain 
 to the state of perfection, until he is clothed with the new 
 and immortal body, and the state of the unbeliever is not 
 yet absolutely final, so long as the last judgment has not 
 taken place. The different degree of maturity of the spirits 
 of men, at their departure, also confirms the belief that a 
 transition period will prepare them for their final destiny. 
 
 3. The State of Transition. 
 Some hold that the soul after death has only an uncon- 
 scious existence, is either dead or asleep until the time of 
 resurrection. This belief is based partly upon the difficulty 
 of conceiving any kind of conscious life and activity of the 
 spirit without a bodily organism, and partly upon the words, 
 "death" and "sleep," as applied in Scripture to the departed, 
 necessarily implying unconsciousness. But this theory does 
 not agree with our Saviour's declaration concerning the inter- 
 
PART SIXTH FINAL THINGS. 
 
 245 
 
 mediate state. He spoke of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, as 
 all "living unto God" (Luke 20:38) ; of Abraham's rejoicing 
 to see His day, "and he saw it and was glad" (John 8:56) ; 
 and in the parable of the Rich man, he represents him as 
 conversing with Abraham from Hades. What is more, Christ 
 cheered the malefactor on the cross by the promise: "Today 
 shalt tbou be with me in Paradise" and Paul looked forward 
 with desire to the time, when he would "depart and be with 
 Christ: for it is far better" (Phil. 1:23). A "soul sleep" 
 from the day of death to the day of resurrection would not 
 be a joyful prospect to the Christian, who here on earth had 
 the Spirit of Christ dwelling in him and who would thus be 
 deprived of the blessings of a conscious communion with 
 Christ and with fellow-believers. 
 
 "We therefore look upon the intermediate state as a state 
 of conscious transition from the earthly life to the final con- 
 dition of man. Death brings us into a new world, which 
 must be a world of realities, as contrasted with this world of 
 appearances. When the veil which in this world of sense 
 covers many things is lifted, when the confounding voices of 
 earthly excitement have been silenced, the spirit of man may 
 awake to a fuller consciousness than it ever had before. 
 Death changes the environment, but it may not change the 
 fixed character and individuality of the departed. It seems 
 but natural to think, that the difference in principles and 
 tendencies which here on earth exists between the children of 
 God and the ungodly, will become more marked and the gulf 
 between both will widen (Luke 16:26). As indicated in the 
 parable of the Rich man and Lazarus, the awakening in the 
 spirit world must, to him who lived a life of sin, bring a 
 sense of want and a feeling of anguish, in anticipation of 
 the judgment to come. To the believer, the entrance into the 
 new world should bring a sense of relief and a joyful antici- 
 pation of eternal bliss. 
 
 At the same time the intermediate state may be supposed 
 
246 
 
 CHRISTIAN DOCTRINE. 
 
 to be one of development. The great majority of men die 
 before they have attained their spiritual maturity. There will 
 be room for growth in sanctification and purification. We 
 cannot accept the Roman doctrine of purgatory, because to 
 make satisfaction for sins committed on earth is neither 
 necessary nor possible. The one offering of Christ suffices 
 for all times and for all sin that is repented of (I John 1 :7). 
 However, in a purely spiritual sense, such a gradual purging 
 and perfecting of the spirit for the purpose of attaining 
 holiness appears more probable, than a sudden attainment of 
 perfection. 
 
 4. The Condition of the Believer. 
 
 Scripture and reason, therefore, appear to warrant our 
 acceptance of the following five declarations concerning the 
 condition of the departed believer as being well founded. 
 
 a. It will be a state of rest from labor and trouble, of de- 
 liverance from the misery of a sinful world. Heb. 4:9, 
 "There remaineth a sabbath rest for the people of God." 
 Rev 14:13, "That they may rest from their labors; for 
 their works follow them." All the imperfections and in- 
 consistencies of this earthly life, also, which originate from 
 the conflict between flesh and spirit may be supposed to 
 cease, when the body is laid to rest and the spirit is free 
 from temptation, b. The believer goes to his Saviour, to 
 enjoy undisturbed fellowship with him, as Paul writes in 
 II Cor. 5 :8 : "We are of good courage and are willing rather 
 to be absent from the body and to be at home with the Lord," 
 and in Phil. 1 :23, "Having the desire to depart and be with 
 Christ." In this sense, we may say that the departed be- 
 liever is in heaven; because where Christ is, there is heaven 
 and happiness. But the intermediate state is not yet the 
 state of perfection, not the attainment of eternal glory. 
 c. As a time of waiting and preparation for the "redemption 
 of the body" (Rom. 8 :23), we may expect a gradual maturing 
 of all vital germs of spiritual life that were implanted into 
 
PAET SIXTH FINAL THINGS. 
 
 247 
 
 our being while on earth. It may be a growth comparable 
 to that of a flower bulb planted in the ground, which first 
 strikes roots beneath, before the stalk, the leaf and the flower 
 appear above ground, d. Such a state of rest, however, need 
 not exclude activity for Christ's kingdom. It would seem 
 unlikely, that those who have served their Lord in their 
 earthly lives with zeal and cheerfulness, should in the in- 
 termediate state pass their time entirely inactive. From 
 passages like Heb. 12:1, "compassed about with so great a 
 cloud of witnesses," it may be concluded that the departed 
 are cognizant of events transpiring in this material world, 
 and from the reported appearing of Samuel to Saul, and 
 Moses to Elijah on the mount of transfiguration, it may be 
 inferred that at least exceptionally the departed spirits may 
 come into direct contact with the world of man. e. Finally, 
 we cannot help thinking that they must be able to commune 
 with each other. Earthly ties of love and friendship, if 
 sanctified by divine love, seem to be an essential part of con- 
 tinued human happiness, which cannot be wanting in the 
 intermediate state. However, the vague and sentimental 
 expectation of a universal happy reunion of all in the spirit 
 world who on earth were connected by natural relationship 
 or affection, finds no support either in the letter or in the 
 spirit of the Holy Scriptures. We are led to believe rather, 
 that in the world to come all relations of love and fellowship 
 are conditioned upon the fundamental relation of the soul to 
 Christ and his salvation. 
 
 5. The Condition of the Unbeliever. 
 As regards the ungodly, we know that the intermediate 
 state is also not final. Otherwise there would be no judg- 
 ment day for them at the end of our world. Furthermore, 
 in order that the judgment appear in strict accord with mani- 
 fest guilt, a maturing of the sinful principles and tendencies 
 of the ungodly and unbeliever is required. If physical death 
 is to the believer the opening of a gate which leads to para- 
 
248 
 
 CHRISTIAN DOCTRINE. 
 
 dise, and brings a foretaste of heaven, the same gate must to 
 the unbeliever mean a passing into a dungeon or rather a deep- 
 er descent toward the final doom. To him who has lived a life 
 of ungodly selfishness and sin, the spirit world must bring 
 a painful realization of want, a loss of all that was dear to 
 him, a feeling of misery and suffering, such as is illustrated 
 by the outcry of Dives in the parable: "I am in anguish in 
 this flame" (Luke 16 :24). If the wicked take their evil con- 
 science, their envy and hatred, their pride and lust, and all 
 their ungratified passions with them into the intermediate 
 state, their condition cannot be otherwise than wretched. 
 Compare II Pet. 2 :9, "The Lord knoweth how to keep the 
 unrighteous under punishment unto the day of judgment." 
 
 Holy Scripture holds out no hope of conversion after 
 death to those who have wilfully rejected the grace of God 
 and have thus committed the sin "against the Holy Spirit 
 which shall not be forgiven, neither in this world nor in that 
 which is to come" (Matt. 12:32). There is no "second pro- 
 bation" after death promised to him "who hath trodden under 
 foot the Son of God and hath done despite unto the Spirit 
 of grace" (Heb. 10:29.) For him there remains nothing 
 but "a certain fearful expectation of judgment" (Heb. 
 10:27). Here on earth, the sinner may cover his evil heart 
 and life with the cloak of hypocrisy ; he may deceive others 
 as well as himself, to the last, with vain hopes of reformation. 
 But this deception must cease after death ; the manifestation 
 of the innermost tendency must become ever more plain, as 
 men are ripening for the judgment day. 
 
 6. Infants and Those who Have not Heard the Gospel. 
 
 But how about those who can neither be properly classed 
 with the believers nor with the unbelievers, because, while 
 in this earthly life, they neither had any conscious faith in 
 Christ nor did they reject the grace of God and his salvation 
 consciously or wilfully. There are three classes of such, viz. : 
 a. All those who die in infancy, before arriving at moral con- 
 
PAET SIXTH FINAL THINGS. 
 
 249 
 
 sciousness; that is about one-third of humanity, b. People 
 living in Christian countries who, though they may have 
 some knowledge of Christianity, yet never in their life had 
 the gospel properly presented to them. c. All the Moham- 
 medans, Jews and Heathen of the present day who die with- 
 out knowing the way of salvation, including all the millions 
 who departed this life before the birth of the Saviour. 
 
 With regard to Infants, we have Christ's promise: "To 
 such belongeth the kingdom of heaven," and "It is not the 
 will of your father who is in heaven that one of these little 
 ones shall perish" (Matt 17 :14 and 18 :14). But we are also 
 taught that "what is born of the flesh is flesh" and "except 
 one be born anew, he cannot see the kingdom of God." 
 Infants also can be saved only through Christ and must be 
 regenerated. Some are of the opinion that, as infants at the 
 time of death can as yet have no personal faith, this condition 
 of salvation is not required in their case and they are saved 
 without probation or personal decision. Some derive special 
 comfort from the thought, that thus at least one-third of 
 humanity is sure to be saved by dying in infancy, before they 
 commit personal transgression. But the dying infants surely 
 cannot for ever remain infants, incapable of personal decis- 
 ion. If all who die in infancy are of necessity heirs of the 
 kingdom, irrespective of any exercise of their free will and 
 knowledge, why should not all those who would be lo9t by 
 continuing to live, be rather permitted to die as children? 
 If the intermediate state is in any sense a time of development 
 and training, what is more natural than to think, that the 
 hour of decision and of conscious faith will come to these 
 infants after death? Without saying that every one who 
 dies in childhood must on that account go to heaven, we 
 may have this confidence, that the love and wisdom of God 
 will appoint to every human being the best opportunity for 
 attaining salvation, whether it be by living in the body and 
 in this material world or out of the body and in the spirit 
 world. 
 
250 
 
 CHRISTIAN DOCTRINE. 
 
 As to the Heathen and the many nominal Christians who 
 depart this life without having gained a saving knowledge 
 of Christ, we cannot believe, that the majority of all these 
 die in a state of spiritual hardening and wickedness that 
 would make their sin absolute and unpardonable. God 
 "would have all men to be saved and come to the knowledge 
 of the truth" (I Tim. 2 :4), and "he is no respecter of persons, 
 but in every nation he that feareth him and worketh right- 
 eousness, is acceptable to him" (Acts 10:35). And yet "in 
 none other is there salvation, neither is there any other name 
 under heaven, wherein we must be saved," but the name of 
 Jesus Christ. We have Christ's own promise, tbat the Gospel 
 "shall be preached in the whole world for a testimony unto 
 all the nations" (Matt. 24:14), before the end comes. Does 
 this not also include those in the world of departed spirits? 
 It is admitted that the passages of Holy Scripture which may 
 serve as proof-texts for this belief are few and of disputed 
 application. However, they furnish sufficient ground for 
 the hope that, before the judgment day, the salvation which 
 is in Christ Jesus shall have been offered to all the dead as 
 well as to all the living. Peter testifies : "For unto this end 
 was the gospel preached even to the dead, that they might 
 be judged indeed according to men in the flesh, but live 
 according to God in the spirit" (I Pet. 4:6). If Christ 
 "preached unto the spirits in prison, that aforetime were 
 disobedient, when the long suffering of God waited in the 
 days of Noah" (I Pet. 3:19), what hinders us to believe, 
 that such preaching has been continued ever since, by the 
 servants of Christ, to all those who have died before the joyful 
 message of salvation reached them. For this means the 
 great majority of the human race. 
 
 Some indeed consider this a dangerous doctrine, because 
 they fear it might lessen the missionary zeal of saving the 
 heathen, before they die and are lost, or because it admits a 
 "probation" or decision after death. They hold that the 
 
PART SIXTH FINAL THINGS. 
 
 251 
 
 time of decision for all men must be in this life and that 
 the heathen will be judged without reference to the Gospel, 
 simply on the ground of their ivorks and their faithfulness, 
 with the light of knowledge which they had of God and of 
 righteousness. (Eom. 2 :6, 8, "Who will render to every 
 man according to his works : to them that by patience in well 
 doing seek for glory and honor and incorruption, eternal 
 life; but unto them that are factious and obey not the 
 truth, but obey unrighteousness, shall be wrath and indigna- 
 tion.") But if the heathen could be saved without the gospel 
 of Jesus Christ, his salvation, his suffering, death and resur- 
 rection would avail only for a small portion of humanity, 
 instead of being the "propitiation not for our sins only, but 
 also for the whole world" (I John 2:2). Surely the decla- 
 rations of Scripture, .that men cannot be saved without faith 
 in Christ and without his grace, are plain and emphatic 
 (Acts 4:12; Mark 16:16, etc.) 
 
 This fact does not conflict with the idea that the work of 
 preparation for salvation ("prevenient grace") begins, even 
 with the heathen, in their earthly life and that the response 
 to it marks the fundamental tendency of every man. In 
 that sense, the decision is made here, without a knowledge of 
 Christ. The heathen may have a saving faith and the grace 
 of God working in him; only he needs to be brought to the 
 light and to the personal knowledge of the Redeemer, before 
 his faith can be perfected and his calling and salvation be 
 made sure. 
 
 7. The "Place of the Departed Spirits." 
 
 The idea has frequently been expressed that the departed 
 spirit may have some kind of an intermediate body, the fruit 
 as it were of the earthly development and the vital germ for 
 the resurrection body. Some think that this interim body 
 furnishes the medium of communication between the departed 
 spirits. In the absence of any Biblical instruction or other 
 
252 
 
 CHRISTIAN DOCTRINE. 
 
 evidence for this theory, it can only be an interesting sug- 
 gestion. 
 
 Connected with it is the question about the place or abode 
 of the departed. Several Old Testament declarations give 
 expression to the idea, that the realm of the departed spirit 
 is some kind of an underground world (Ez. 32:18, 21; Isa. 
 14:9, 15). However, these passages simply refer to the pre- 
 valent idea of antiquity, that the soul after death still remains 
 near the body which is buried in the earth. Doubtless the 
 spirit-world is a condition or state of existence, rather than a 
 place; the soul as such needs no local abode and cannot be 
 confined to any particular locality. Still the natural limita- 
 tion which attaches to everything human, including the 
 human spirit, seems to demand some kind of a definite abode 
 or sphere for departed spirits. Shall we conclude from father 
 Abraham's reply to the rich man in the parable : "Between us 
 and you there is a great gulf fixed," that there is a local sepa- 
 ration of the blessed dead from the ungodly? Does Paul's 
 statement in II Cor. 12 :2-4, about his being "caught up even 
 to the third heaven, into Paradise and hearing unspeakable 
 words, . . . whether in the body or apart from the body," refer 
 to such a heavenly abode of the souls of believers? These 
 and similar questions cannot at present be answered definitely. 
 
 This doctrine of Hades holds out no hope of a second pro- 
 bation for those who have known the truth on earth and 
 have rejected it, but it avails itself of the riches of divine 
 love and mercy, as open to all who can be saved. 
 
 Chapter XLVI. The Resurrection. 
 1. The Valuation of the Body. 
 The belief in the resurrection or restoration of the body is 
 not exclusively a Christian dogma. The teaching of 
 Zoroaster of Persia (Zarathustra), and the mythologies of 
 different nations, as well as the popular belief of men in 
 general holds to it, but the philosophers of Greece and of 
 
PART SIXTH FINAL THINGS. 
 
 253 
 
 India almost unanimously oppose it. The latter, realizing 
 the conflicts which constantly arise from the contact of flesh 
 and spirit, declared the body a clog to the spirit, a prison- 
 house of the soul, or at best a temporary home, a garment 
 which man must be glad to lay aside when he attains to his 
 perfect state. Accordingly the blessedness of the future 
 life, as depicted by these philosophers, includes a permanent 
 release of the good and wise from the fetters of the body, as 
 the cause of misery and the source of evil. 
 
 The Christian, on the contrary, who knows that the ma- 
 terial world is good because God made it, that the physical 
 part of his being is a divine creation as well as his spiritual 
 part, regards the body as the Godgiven organ and home of 
 the soul. It is only in consequence of the apostacy of the 
 human spirit from God, that the body has become sinful flesh, 
 which must be mortified. But such mortifying applies also 
 to the soul of the natural man, and the regenerate are sancti- 
 fied in body as well as in spirit (I Thess. 5 :23). The physical 
 part receives a new preeiousness and dignity as the temple 
 of the Holy Spirit, as Paul writes in I Cor. 6 :19 : "Know ye 
 not that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit which is in 
 you, which we have from God ? glorify God therefore in your 
 body." Thus we look upon the body as essential to complete 
 our manhood. Although, because of sin, it must undergo a 
 radical change, it is destined to share the future glory of the 
 sanctified spirit, in order that man may again become the 
 physico-spiritual being that he was, when originally created. 
 Hence the Christian looks forward to a time when his phys- 
 ical nature also will be regenerated and made to conform to 
 the regenerate spirit. 
 
 2. The Truth of the Resurrection. 
 The resurrection or regeneration of the body is rejected, 
 a. By the materialist, who holds that soul and body are identi- 
 cal and that there is no future life and resurrection, because 
 the death of the body ends the existence of the soul; b. By 
 
254 
 
 CHRISTIAN DOCTRINE. 
 
 the pantheist, who teaches that the individual soul loses its 
 personality in death and is absorbed in the world-soul; c. 
 By the Swedenborgian, who believes, that the material body 
 cannot rise again, because the spiritual body has its resurrec- 
 tion at the moment of death, and the physical part of man is 
 only the shell that must be broken, in order to bring the 
 spiritual body to light. 
 
 Over against these denials, the Christian finds the resur- 
 rection of the body plainly taught in the Holy Scriptures. 
 In the Old Testament, this is done rather by implication than 
 directly. Thus the prophets Hoeea, Isaiah and Ezekiel 
 announce the national restoration and resurrection of Israel, 
 under the figure of a bodily re^animation or regeneration. 
 (Isa. 26:19, Hosea 13:14, Ezek. 37: 5, 12, "Thy dead shall 
 live : my dead bodies shall rise." "I will ransom them from 
 the power of Sheol ; I will redeem them from death. 0 death, 
 where are thy plagues? O Sheol, where is thy destruction?" 
 "Thus saith the Lord Jehovah unto these bones : Behold, I 
 will cause breath to enter into you and ye shall live. Behold, 
 I will open your graves and cause you to come up out of your 
 graves.") The only direct declaration of a future resurrec- 
 tion both of the godly and the ungodly is given in Dan. 12 :2 : 
 "And many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth, shall 
 awake, some to everlasting life and some to shame and ever- 
 lasting contempt." As in Old Testament times the resurrec- 
 tion of Christ was still a future event, the true relation be- 
 tween the present state of man and the future spiritual state 
 could not be fully revealed even unto the prophets. 
 
 In the New Testament, however, the resurrection of the 
 body is clearly taught in many places, like Phil. 3 :21, "Who 
 shall fashion anew the body of our humiliation that it may be 
 conformed to the body of his glory." Christ himself bore 
 witness to this truth in public discourse and private con- 
 versation with his disciples, saying e. g., "The hour cometh, 
 in which all that are in the tombs shall hear his voice and 
 
PART SIXTH— FINAL THINGS. 
 
 255 
 
 shall come forth ; they that have done good, unto the resurrec- 
 tion of life, and they that have done evil, unto the resurrection 
 of judgment" (John 5:28). St. Paul, in defending this 
 truth against certain Corinthian teachers who doubted or 
 denied the doctrine, makes it an essential of the Christian faith 
 by writing : "If there be no resurrection of the dead, neither 
 hath Christ been raised ; and if Christ hath not been raised, 
 then is our preaching vain, your faith also is vain" (I Cor. 
 15:14). 
 
 It is noteworthy, however, that this resurrection, so far as 
 it means a restoration or regeneration of the body, is closely 
 connected with the person and work of Christ only. It would 
 appear, therefore, that the assurance of our resurrection rests 
 on these two points : 1. On the resurrection of Christ as the 
 objective pledge and guarantee of the promise. John 11 :25, 
 "I am the resurrection and the life : he that believeth on me, 
 though he die, yet shall he live." 2. On personal fellowship 
 with Christ and the infusion of his Spirit as the power that 
 will raise the body of the believer. Rom. 8 :11, "If the Spirit 
 of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwelleth in you, 
 he that raised up Christ Jesus from the dead shall give life 
 also to your mortal bodies through his Spirit that dwelleth 
 in yon." Thus the resurrection unto life is directly assured 
 only to the believer. 
 
 Independently of this promise, both Christ and the apostles 
 speak of a resurrection of unbelievers, not unto life, but unto 
 condemnation. As it is difficult to conceive of a regeneration 
 of the bodies of the ungodly, their resurrection may possibly 
 mean simply, that their souls will be called up only for judg- 
 ment and to receive their final doom. However this may 
 be, in some sense or other, there will be a resurrection of all 
 men, though this may not imply a restoration of their bodies. 
 
 3. The Nature of the Resurrection Body. 
 With regard to the nature of the resurrection body, we 
 find in the New Testament two negative statements, viz., 
 
256 
 
 CHRISTIAN DOCTRINE. 
 
 Christ's word in Matt. 22 :30, "In the resurrection they 
 neither marry, nor are given in marriage, but are as angels 
 in heaven," and Paul's word in I Cor. 15 :50, "Now this I 
 say, brethren, that -flesh and blood cannot inherit the king- 
 dom of God ; neither doth corruption inherit incorruption." 
 Whatever therefore in the present body is intended to meet 
 earthly requirements only, in the matter of sex or material 
 form and condition, will cease with the life which now is. 
 The future body will not be a natural or psychical body, 
 adapted to the present earthly nature of man's soul and to 
 the material world in which he lives and moves, but a spirit- 
 ual (pneumatic) body fitted for the use of the sanctified 
 spirit and adapted to the regenerated world in which we are 
 to live. See I Cor. 15 :44-49. 
 
 Paul's teaching on this subject in the passage just quoted, 
 in Phil. 3:21 and in Eom. 8:22, 23, together with John's 
 declaration: "We know that if he (Christ) shall be mani- 
 fested, we shall be like him : for we shall see him even as he 
 is," (I John 3 :2) enable us also to make some positive state- 
 ments concerning the nature and form of the resurrection 
 body, viz. : a. It will be incorruptible, honorable and perfect, 
 not like the present body subject to accidents which mar the 
 beauty or destroy the energy of the body. "It is sown in 
 corruption ; it is raised in incorruption ; it is sown in dis- 
 honor; it is raised in glory; it is sown in weakness, it is 
 raised in power" (I Cor. 15:42, 43). 
 
 b. It will be Christ-like. As Jesus Christ manifested him- 
 self after his resurrection during the forty days and after 
 his ascension in human form, so that he was recognized by 
 the disciples, so shall our resurrection body be a glorified 
 likeness of the present body, yet so that the higher religious 
 principle shall have the predominance over the natural and 
 psychical elements. "He shall fashion anew the body of our 
 humiliation, that it may be conformed to the body of his 
 glory" (Phil. 2:21). 
 
PAHT SIXTH FINAL THINGS. 
 
 257 
 
 c. It will be a material body. The very idea of a body 
 and the existence of a visible and tangible universe as the 
 abode of the redeemed imply, that the resurrection body will 
 be of a physical nature, visible and tangible. It may be 
 lighter than ether, quicker than lightning and more dynamic 
 than electricity and yet be material in substance. It will 
 bring man, on the physical side, back into the right relation 
 to God and the universe, and through man nature also, 
 "now subject to vanity,. . .shall be delivered from the bondage 
 of corruption" (Rom. 8:20, 21). 
 
 d. It will preserve the identity with the present body, ex- 
 pressing the individuality and the characteristics of each 
 one, perhaps to a far more perfect degree than was the case 
 on earth. This would imply also, that we shall recognize 
 our friends and all the children of God of whom we have a 
 spiritual knowledge, even as the disciples recognized Moses 
 and Elijah on the mount of transfiguration, and as we are 
 promised to sit down in the future kingdom with Abraham, 
 Isaac and Jacob. The resurrection body will be a perfect 
 organ of the spirit for blessed fellowship with all the saints. 
 
 4. Connection with the Present Body. 
 There is no need of thinking or saying, that the same 
 material substance which goes to make up the present body 
 must be preserved for the formation of the resurrection body. 
 Such a thing indeed is inconceivable. In the course of a 
 life time the material particles of a human body are con- 
 stantly renewed by organic functions, so as to be changed 
 entirely even within a year. In fact, life is preserved only 
 by the constant throwing off of dead matter and the assimi- 
 lation of new particles. The same atoms which pass into one 
 body may before have been in other combinations and may, 
 in the course of centuries, have formed a part of many bodies, 
 both of animals and of men, so that, according to the Saddu- 
 cean reasoning about the wife who had seven husbands, seven 
 17 
 
258 
 
 CHRISTIAN DOCTRINE. 
 
 different persons might claim the same body. But it is not 
 the material particles which constitute the unity of the body 
 in different periods of life. In a living organism identity 
 depends rather upon the continuity of the inward life and the 
 formative principle. The infant and the man are the same 
 person through the unity of individual consciousness. Other- 
 wise a person who has lived eighty years would represent a 
 number of persons. 
 
 St. Paul, in writing to the Corinthians, has explained the 
 relation between the present and the future body, by the 
 grain which is put in the ground to die, but which produces 
 the stalk of wheat. The grain of wheat is entirely unlike 
 in substance to the full grown stalk and the ear of wheat 
 that springs from it, yet the two belong together. What con- 
 stitutes the connecting link between this earthly body and the 
 resurrection body, it may be hard to define. Some think, 
 that it is nothing more than the "individual idea," according 
 to which God then fashions a new body having the same 
 characteristics as the former body. But the stress laid by 
 the Apostle Paul on the necessity of sanctifying our present 
 material body and keeping it pure, in view of the future life, 
 would indicate that he, at least, thought of a direct physical 
 connection, a vital germ of the resurrection body which accom- 
 panies the spirit into the intermediate state, awaiting the 
 time when it may unfold its glory in the regenerated world. 
 5. Transformation. 
 
 This idea of a vital germ, as a connecting link between the 
 earthly and the glorified body may help us to a better under- 
 standing of the transformation which, according to Scripture, 
 those Christians shall experience who at the return of Christ 
 will yet be found living on earth. For these shall not die 
 but shall be changed (I Cor. 15:51-53 and I Thess. 4:17). 
 Their present material form of existence is to be transformed 
 into the spiritual state "in a moment, in the twinkling of an 
 eye, at the last trump : for the trumpet shall sound, and the 
 
PART SIXTH FINAL THINGS. 
 
 259 
 
 dead shall be raised incorruptible and we shall be changed." 
 Such a transformation may have taken place in the case of 
 Enoch and Elijah, if they were transferred to the world of 
 glory without seeing death. The possibility of a spiritual 
 germ forming within the present material organism would 
 best account for such a sudden transformation. It is the 
 change which probably would have been given to all men, 
 without their seeing death, if sin had not interrupted the 
 regular course of human development. 
 
 Chapter XLVII. The Judgment Day. 
 1. Its Reality. 
 
 It has been said that the history of the human race, with 
 all the punishment of individual transgression and all the 
 manifestation of divine justice among the nations, is a con- 
 tinuous judgment day. "Die "Weltgeschichte ist das Welt- 
 gericht." But these temporal judgments are only partial 
 and imperfect. Holy Scripture announces the coming of a 
 "last judgment" as the closing act of the present world- 
 period. In the prophetic writings of tbe Old Testament, 
 this "day of the Lord" was expected to come at the appear- 
 ing of the Messiah, who would execute judgment upon the 
 nations and bring salvation to God's chosen people. "When 
 Christ came, he said : "I came not to judge the world but to 
 save the world" (John 12:47). At the same time he de- 
 clared that the Father had given him "authority to execute 
 judgment, because he is a son of man" (John 6:27), and in 
 his last prophetic discourse, in Matt. 25, he gave a full de- 
 scription of that final judgment, in which the destinies of 
 men are to be ultimately decided. It is an outward and 
 visible event which will occur at a definite time in the future. 
 While we cannot form an adequate conception of such a gen- 
 eral judgment of mankind, we cannot doubt its reality, which 
 is testified to most solemnly by Christ and his apostles. 
 
260 
 
 CHRISTIAN DOCTRINE. 
 
 2. The Judge and the Judged. 
 
 Jesus Christ, the Saviour, is appointed to be the judge, 
 as Paul writes: "We must all be made manifest before the 
 judgment-seat of Christ." He who humbled himself before 
 the unjust tribunal of Caiphas and of Pilate, will execute 
 a righteous judgment over all the tribes of men. He has 
 assumed human nature, was tempted, as men are, has died 
 to save men from sin and perdition and thus stands in 
 closest relationship to mankind. At the same time he is 
 divine, omniscient, all righteous and all merciful, thus en- 
 suring all that is needful for a true judgment. 
 
 Tbe 'persons to be judged, according to Rev. 20 :12 and II 
 Peter 2 :4, are men and angels. Here we meet an apparent 
 contradiction in the statement of John 5 :24, that the be- 
 liever "cometh not into judgment, but hath passed out of 
 death into life," with the declaration in Rom. 14:10, that 
 "we shall all stand before the judgment-seat of God." But 
 the contradiction is only apparent. All must come into the 
 presence of the judge to have their sentence proclaimed, but 
 the judgment of the believer is one of honorable acquittal. 
 Again in Matt. 19 :28 the disciples are told that "when the 
 Son of man shall sit on the throne of his glory, they also 
 shall sit upon twelve thrones judging the twelve tribes of 
 Israel ;" and in I Cor. 6 :2 and 3, "Know ye not, that the 
 saints shall judge the world?. . .Know ye not, that we shall 
 judge angels?" Unless we assume a twofold judgment, as 
 some do, one for believers and a second one for unbelievers, 
 at which the believers take an active part, the obvious under- 
 standing will be this, that the judgment passed on the be- 
 liever, since it manifests his perfect salvation, is equivalent 
 with his judging the unbelieving world. The righteousness 
 which the children of God have gained through faith in 
 Christ Jesus and the works of love which they have been 
 engaged to do, by the grace of God, will testify against those 
 who have not accepted this salvation. 
 
PART SIXTH FINAL THINGS. 261 
 
 3. The Grounds of the Judgment. 
 
 The object of the final judgment then is not so much to 
 ascertain, as to manifest the character of the persons to be 
 judged and to assign to them their corresponding destiny. 
 What has virtually been decided already in the particular 
 judgment of each individual, will in this general judgment 
 be publicly vindicated and proclaimed. This character of 
 the last judgment accounts for the fact that, in numerous 
 passages of Scripture, the works of the children of God are 
 mentioned as the evidence of their salvation, rather than 
 their faith. As the harvest day shows the fruit, so the 
 judgment day will show the inward nature of all by their 
 works, in such a manner as to leave no shadow of doubt in 
 regard to the justice of the sentence which shall be pro- 
 nounced. Christ will make manifest the counsels of the 
 heart, and then shall each man have his praise from God" 
 (I Cor. 4:5). But this does not annul the oft repeated 
 declaration, that only "he that believeth shall be saved, but 
 he that disbelieveth shall be condemned;" and "He that 
 believeth on Him is not judged, he that believeth not hath 
 been judged already, because he hath not believed on the 
 name of the only begotten Son of God" (John 3 :18). 
 
 There can be no double standard of judgment, some to be 
 judged by the Gospel and some by the law of works. The 
 works are not the ground of salvation, but they prove the 
 genuineness of saving faith. Whatever has been said and 
 done will be considered in its relation to Christ, the only 
 Saviour of mankind. The righteous will be accepted, be- 
 cause what they have done was done unto Christ, con- 
 sciously or unconsciously, and the unrighteous will be con- 
 demned, because they have done nothing unto Christ. 
 Compare Matt. 25 :45, "Then shall he answer them saying : 
 Verily, I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye did it not unto one 
 of these least, ye did it not unto me." 
 
262 
 
 CHRISTIAN DOCTRINE 
 
 4. The Final State of the Blessed. 
 To the believer, the day of judgment presents a happy 
 prospect, which inspires him with grateful joy. For it will 
 bring to him the actual inheritance of "the kingdom prepar- 
 ed for them from the foundation of the world" (Matt. 25 :34). 
 The blessedness of this future state is presented to us in the 
 New Testament as including the following : 
 
 a. Perfect "peace with God and uninterrupted communion 
 with Christ and the children of God. Scripture combines 
 the attractions of a home, the enjoyment of a marriage feast, 
 the charms of the paradise and similar figures, in speaking 
 of the future state of believers. It means glory (II Cor. 4 :17), 
 holiness (Rev. 21:27), knowledge (I Cor. 13:8-10), and wor- 
 ship (Rev. 19:1). 
 
 b. Perfect life. The idea of the "life eternal" which the 
 blessed will inherit, involves a happy activity, without weari- 
 ness and disturbance. While the perfect life of the creature 
 can have only one eternal center around which it moves, viz., 
 the triune God, the creator, redeemer and finisher of salvation, 
 we may rest assured, that there will be the greatest diversity 
 in the manifestation of this life and many channels of work 
 and activity. 
 
 c. Grateful memories. Another source of happiness must 
 be the relief from trouble and pain, the freedom from all the 
 sin and misery, which in the present life disturb our felicity. 
 A thankful recollection of the gracious leadings of the Lord 
 with each individual soul, as well as the contemplation of 
 the wonderful plan of salvation, then first fully understood, 
 and of the divine wisdom and love manifested in the history 
 of the Church and the world, — will doubtless furnish an 
 inexhaustible theme of adoration and thanksgiving. 
 
 d. Happy environments. As to the place or sphere of the 
 future life indicated by the word "heaven," we are given 
 in the Scriptures but a few intimations, sufficient to excite 
 our hope and inspire our faith, but not enough to enable us 
 
PART SIXTH FINAL THINGS. 
 
 263 
 
 to form a clear conception of what it will be. We read of 
 many mansions in the Father's house (John 14:2), of a new 
 heaven and a new earth (II Pet. 3:13), and in the book of 
 Revelation a full description is given of a new Jerusalem, 
 "the foundations of the wall of the city were adorned with all 
 manner of precious stones; . . . and the twelve gates were 
 twelve pearls; . . . and the street of the city was pure gold; 
 and a river of water of life in the midst of the street, and on 
 this side of the river and on that was the tree of life, bear- 
 ing twelve manner of fruits, yielding its fruit every month" 
 (Rev. 21-22). There is no reason for doubting that with 
 the glorified body the redeemed will also receive an abode 
 specially fitted for them, whether this be our regenerated 
 earth or some other star or stars in the universe. 
 
 e. Degrees of glory. Finally, Scripture teaches that there 
 will be different degrees of glory. Already in the book of 
 Daniel it is written: "They that are wise shall shine as the 
 brightness of the firmament and they that turn many to 
 righteousness as the stars for ever and ever" (Dan. 12:3); 
 and the Apostle Paul, in I Cor. 3 :8, 14, tells us that "each 
 shall receive his own reward according to his own labor; if 
 any man's work shall abide which he built thereon, he shall 
 receive a reward; if any man's work shall be burned, he 
 shall suffer loss." While all who inherit eternal life will 
 be perfectly happy, so that their cups of blessing will run 
 over, the cup itself will be of different size; the capacity 
 for receiving determines the degree of glory. Beside the 
 gift of salvation which all recive, there are crowns to be 
 won. A crown of righteousness (II Tim. 4:8), a crown of 
 glory (I Pet. 5 :4), a crown of life (Jam. 1 :12), or a martyr's 
 crown (Rev. 3:11), await those who have been most faithful 
 either in confessing Christ or in using the gifts and graces 
 that were entrusted to them for Christ's kingdom. 
 
 5. The State of the Ungodly. 
 A dark contrast to the picture of heavenly glory prepared 
 
CHRISTIAN DOCTRINE. 
 
 for the blessed, is presented in the condemnation which 
 awaits the ungodly. Their future condition is described by 
 Christ and the apostles as utterly wretched, "eternal de- 
 struction from the face of the Lord and from the glory of 
 his might" (II Thess. 1:9). Their place of abode is called 
 "hell" (Gehenna, Matt. 10:28), a "furnace of fire" or a 
 "lake of fire" and "the eternal fire prepared for the devil 
 and his angels" (Matt. 13:42, Eev. 20:15, Matt. 25:41). 
 Their suffering is sometimes represented under the figure of 
 a being burnt alive, sometimes under that of being consumed 
 by worms, and sometimes simply as a being cast out from 
 the king's palace into the cold darkness outside, where "there 
 shall be the weeping and the gnashing of teeth" (Luke 13 :28). 
 
 It is evident that the figure of hell or gehenna, as a place 
 where the fire is not quenched and their worm does not die 
 (Mark 10:48), is drawn from the valley of Hinnom, south 
 of Jerusalem, the sewer of the city, where the rubbish and 
 carcasses were thrown to be devoured of vultures or gnawed 
 by worms, and where fires were kept up to consume the 
 refuse and to purify the atmosphere. Accordingly it is not 
 essential to insist upon there being a material hell-fire, more 
 than to take the worm which never dies to be a material 
 worm. Yet the sufferings of the ungodly may be equal to, 
 if not surpassing any picture that human imagination has 
 drawn. 
 
 These sufferings must be supposed to arise from the fol- 
 lowing causes : a. The loss of all earthly pleasures which con- 
 stitute the highest good and the only source of happiness of 
 the ungodly. The appetite and passion remain, but there is 
 no more gratification (Luke 16:24, "Send Lazaraus that he 
 may dip the tip of his finger in water, and cool my tongue"). 
 
 b. Exclusion from the presence and favor of God, which in- 
 volves an absolute separation from Him, who is the source 
 of all happiness (Matt. 25:41, "Depart from me, ye cursed"). 
 
 c. Unrestrained dominion of sinful passions, without any re- 
 
PAET SIXTH FINAL THINGS. 
 
 265 
 
 deeming feature. If the love of God and of each other will 
 he the chief cause of the happiness of the redeemed, the abso- 
 lute selfishness and hatred which must be supposed to sway 
 the condemned, must make their state most unhappy, espe- 
 cially if it is combined with a compulsory association of like 
 beings, so that their envy and fury can only turn against 
 each other. (Rev. 22 :15, "Without are the dogs and the 
 sorcerers and the fornicators and the murderers and the 
 idolaters and every one that loveth and maketh a lie.") 
 
 Chapter XL VIII. The Future of the Church of Christ. 
 1. The Importance of the Subject. 
 
 The Holy Scriptures not only tell us of a beginning of 
 human history but also of a consummation of all earthly 
 things in the future. Though an unbelieving world declares 
 that "all things continue as they were from the beginning 
 of the creation" (II Pet. 3:4), Christians are taught to look 
 forward to a final goal of the earthly development, when 
 the kingdom of nature and the kingdom of grace will be 
 united in the kingdom of glory. To this end Christians are 
 admonished to watch the "signs of the times" (Matt. 16:3) 
 and the development of the kingdom of God, for the coming 
 of which they pray. They are to do their part toward bring- 
 ing about its consummation, knowing also that the individual 
 believer is to find his perfection only in connection with the 
 general establishment and triumph of that kingdom, as the 
 writer to the Hebrews testifies in saying: "These all having 
 had witness borne to them through their faith, received not 
 the promise, God having provided some better thing con- 
 cerning us, that apart from us they should not be made 
 perfect" (Heb. 11:39, 40). 
 
 However, as to the manner in which this consummation 
 will be brought about, we are largely in the same condition, 
 as were the Old Testament believers with regard to "the day 
 of the Lord" and the coming of the Messiah. They did not 
 
266 
 
 CHRISTIAN DOCTRINE. 
 
 understand all the prophecies that were given and were 
 unable to harmonize some of them, like the promise of the 
 glorious and unending reign of the Christ, with the picture 
 of the suffering and dying servant of Jehovah. The per- 
 spective of prophecy and the typical character of so many 
 events in the history of the divine revelation did not enable 
 them to always grasp the pragmatism of history before- 
 hand, and many prophecies were eventually fulfilled in a 
 manner entirely different from what nearly every one ex- 
 pected. Thus likewise the general course of the future of 
 the Church of Christ and of the Kingdom of God has been 
 indicated to us, but all detail is largely a matter of un- 
 certainty. 
 
 2. Early Expectations. 
 
 Our Saviour himself, while on earth, appears to have 
 generally spoken of the end of this "age" or world-period 
 as near at hand (Matt. 16:28; 24:34); although there are 
 some declarations of his recorded which imply a longer 
 delay, such as that "the Gospel of the kingdom shall be 
 preached in the whole world, for a testimony unto all the 
 nations, and then shall the end come," and, "Jerusalem 
 shall be trodden down of the Gentiles, until the times of the 
 Gentiles be fulfilled" (Matt. 24:14 and Luke 21:24). 
 
 Accordingly, the apostolic writings, in general, looked 
 forward to a near end. Paul, Peter and John, in their 
 Epistles, expressed the hope of a speedy return of Christ ; 
 compare I Thess. 4 :15, I Pet. 4 :7 and I John 2 :18. The Old 
 Testament prophecies had connected the first and the second 
 coming of the Messiah, or "the day of the Lord," so closely, 
 that the intervening period was expected to be of short 
 duration. Besides that, the persecutions which the early 
 Christians experienced caused them to long very earnestly 
 for a speedy deliverance from trouble. While the Apostle 
 Paul, in his later Epistles, had become convinced that he at 
 least would not live to see the return of Christ (II Tim. 
 4:6, 8), the book of Revelation again placed the fulfilment 
 
PART SIXTH FINAL THINGS. 
 
 267 
 
 of the prophecies, the corning of Christ and the consumma- 
 tion of his kingdom, in the immediate future. (Eev. 1 :7, 
 22 :20, "He who testifieth these things saith, Yea : I come 
 quickly. Amen, come, Lord Jesus.") This expectation was 
 not altogether mistaken. According to the divinely arranged 
 parallelism of historic events and the typical character of 
 Biblical prophecy, both of the Old and New Testaments, the 
 prophecies uttered find their fulfilment in a succession of 
 events, which in point of time may be far apart, yet are 
 parts of the same development. The destruction of Jerusa- 
 lem and the victory of Christianity over .the hostile Roman 
 world-power were a partial fulfilment of the expectation of 
 the end of the world, and of the coming of Christ in his glory. 
 
 3. The Millennium Idea. 
 While the Christian Church was still suffering persecu- 
 tion, there arose the so-called Millennium expectation based 
 upon Rev. 20 :l-6, namely, that at the coming of Christ, the 
 devil and the evil powers would be bound for a thousand 
 years and Christ would establish a kingdom on earth which 
 would last one thousand years. Among prominent church 
 fathers, Irenaeus and Tertullian especially favored this ex- 
 pectation, while Origen and Clement of Alexandria opposed 
 it. When the persecution ceased in the reign of Constan- 
 tine, the interest in the Millennium waned. Augustine 
 suggested, that the reign of Christ on earth had begun with 
 the founding of the Christian Church and as the Church 
 continued to grow in power, wealth and extension, the 
 fondest hopes with regard to the kingdom of glory seemed 
 to have a prospect of immediate fulfilment. Under the im- 
 pression that the Millennium had actually commenced, fears 
 were entertained that after the crusades it might come to an 
 end. 
 
 The persecuted Christians of the middle ages, however, 
 continued to wait for the coming of Christ as the time of 
 the destruction of the anti-Christian powers and of the 
 
268 
 
 CHRISTIAN DOCTRINE. 
 
 establishment of Christ's kingdom. The fact that, at the 
 beginning of the Reformation, the Anabaptists revived the 
 millennial hope in a somewhat fanatical manner, caused the 
 Protestant Reformers to throw aside as unchristian the en- 
 tire idea of a reign of Christ on earth and the Protestant 
 creeds accordingly, as drawn up after the Reformation, 
 have very little to say about the future of the Church. 
 
 It was Spener, the father of Pietism, (the religious revival 
 at the beginning of the eighteenth century,) who again advo- 
 cated the belief that before the return of Christ to this 
 earth, there would come a time of great spiritual advance- 
 ment together with great general prosperity, a period, when 
 the power of evil would be broken, when Israel as a nation 
 would accept Christ as their Messiah and when the Gospel 
 would have universal sway. The Wiirtemberg theologian 
 and Bible student, A. Bengel (+1752), in his commen- 
 tary on the book of Revelation, was the first to give a de- 
 tailed statement of the prospective fulfillment of eschato- 
 logical prophecy. He fixed the time of the coming of Anti- 
 christ for the years 1831-1836 and the beginning of the 
 Millennium for 1836. The facts of history have proved that 
 his chronology, at least, was an error. The first "Adventists" 
 in America, the followers of William Miller, of Massa- 
 chusetts, who believed that Christ would return to our earth 
 in July of 1843, experienced the same disappointment. 
 3. Objections to the Millennial Expectation. 
 
 While the great majority of Christians in our day are 
 indifferent to the question of a coming Millennium, there 
 are still many devout and earnest believers who fervently 
 hold to this hope. But they are divided into postmillennial 
 and premillennial believers. 
 
 The former expect the Millennium to precede Christ's 
 return, while the latter regard the coming of the Saviour 
 as the necessary condition and preparation for the establish- 
 ment of his kingdom. The practical value of the considera- 
 
PART SIXTH FINAL THINGS. 
 
 269 
 
 tion of this question lies in the bearing which it has upon 
 the immediate future of the Church and the cause of Christ. 
 In the post-millennial theory the prospects for the general 
 conversion of the world and the success of every effort for 
 the advancement of Christ's kingdom are bright; we may 
 expect an uninterrupted progress, victory after victory, 
 until righteousness covers the earth as the waters cover the 
 sea. In the pre-millennial view, the world at large will 
 remain either indifferent or hostile to Christ. The revivals 
 with which the Church is blessed here and there, do not 
 mark the beginning of a general triumph of the kingdom of 
 God, but only temporary results which eventually will be 
 overthrown in the great apostacy of the last times. Conse- 
 quently all missionary work and all efforts for social and 
 national reform can only have individual conversions and 
 partial success in prospect. 
 
 There are great difficulties in the way of accepting the 
 belief in a literal Millennium before or after the advent of 
 Christ. Against & Millennium before the coming of Christ 
 the following arguments are presented : 
 
 a. In the great prophetic discourse of Christ recorded in 
 Matthew, it is distinctly stated, that when the Son of man 
 comes, the world will be in the same mood as in the days of 
 Noah, "eating and drinking, marrying and giving in mar- 
 riage, until the day that Noah entered into the ark, and they 
 knew not, until the flood came and took them all away; so 
 shall be the coming of the Son of man" (Matt. 24:38, 39). 
 We also read of persecutions of the children of God which 
 will be brought to an end only by Christ's appearing, and 
 of "Antichrist," the enemy of God's people, being destroyed 
 at the coming of Christ (II Thess. 1 :7, 8 and 2 :8). 
 
 b. Christians are exhorted to watch for their Lord's re- 
 turn, which will not be known before hand, but "as a thief 
 cometh in the night" or as the bridegroom after the virgins 
 have fallen asleep (Matt. 24:42, 43 and 25:6). Such ex- 
 
270 
 
 CHRISTIAN DOCTRINE. 
 
 hortation would be unnecessary, if a Millennium of spiritual 
 prosperity preceded the second advent. 
 
 c The fulfillment of prophecies which are generally re- 
 ferred to this earthly Millennium, would require such a 
 complete change of the condition of the earth, such a re- 
 generation, as can come only by a direct, and supernatural 
 interposition of Christ. 
 
 On the other hand, there are equally strong arguments 
 against the expectation of an earthly Millennium after 
 Christ's coming: 
 
 a. Christ and St. Paul teach that, when Christ returns, 
 the nations of the earth shall all be gathered before his 
 judgment seat to receive their final sentence. Hence there 
 is no room for an earthly Millennium, based on present re- 
 lations, after the judgment (Matt. 25:32, II Thess. 1:9, 10). 
 
 b It seems inconceiveable that during Christ's reign on 
 earth, in the Millennium, sinful men shall continue to live 
 and to multiply and heathen tribes remain unconverted. 
 But if not, how shall we account for the appearance of "the 
 nations, Gog and Magog, to gather together to the war; the 
 number of whom is as the sand of the sea?" (Eev. 20:8). 
 
 In view of these arguments there seems to be very little 
 ground for the expectation of a literal Millennium on earth, 
 such as Kev. 20 :l-7 is supposed to predict. While there are 
 certain other Scripture passages that may be applied to an 
 earthly, visible reign of Christ, such as Matt. 5 :5, "they shall 
 inherit the earth ;" Luke 19 :17, "have thou authority over 
 ten cities;" Matt. 26:29, "that day when I drink it new with 
 you in my Father's kingdom ;" not one of these in itself re- 
 quires a millennial interpretation. The Apostle John, 
 the supposed writer of the book of Revelation, makes no 
 other mention of the Millennium in the Gospel and the 
 Epistles. 
 
 This obscure passage, therefore, which is found in one of 
 the most figurative books of the Bible, must be interpreted by 
 
PART SIXTH FINAL THINGS. 
 
 273 
 
 other and plainer statements. Closely examined, it does not 
 teach a visible reign of Christ on earth, but may be in- 
 terpreted as referring to an anticipation of eternal bliss 
 enjoyed by the departed believers. That, however, does not 
 exclude the idea, that before the course of the present world's 
 history runs out, there will be a general, great advancement 
 in knowledge, prosperity and enjoyment of divine blessings 
 by all men, and that the cause of Christ may triumph over 
 the powers of evil, within and without, in such a manner, as 
 to make it possible to speak of an actual reign of Christ in 
 his kingdom. But the event which the Church is directed to 
 look for, is the coming of Christ rather than a Millennium. 
 
 4. 7s there a Twofold Bodily Resurrection? 
 
 The passage of Eev. 20:5-6 is also frequently quoted as 
 teaching a twofold resurrection from the dead, viz., first a 
 resurrection of the saints, which is to occur before the Mil- 
 lennium, and a general resurrection of the rest of the dead, 
 after the Millennium. There are some other statements of 
 Scripture which can be understood in the same sense, but 
 do not by themselves require this interpretation. Such are 
 Luke 14:14, "Thou shalt be recompensed in the resurrec- 
 tion of the just;" I Thess. 4:16, "For the Lord himself shall 
 descend from heaven, with a shout. . .and the dead in Christ 
 shall rise first ;" Phil. 3:11, "If by any means I may attain 
 unto the resurrection out of the dead ( s^avafftaffis and 
 I Cor. 15 :22-23, "As in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall 
 all be made alive; but each in his own order: Christ the 
 first fruits, then they that are Christ's at his coming. Then 
 cometh the end." 
 
 Over against these few passages, however, we have the 
 frequent and definite declarations of one universal resurrec- 
 tion, both of the godly and ungodly, e. g., John 5:28,29 and 
 6:40, "Marvel not at this; for the hour cometh, in which all 
 that are in the tombs shall hear his voice and shall come 
 forth, they that have done good, unto the resurrection of 
 
272 
 
 CHRISTIAN DOCTRINE. 
 
 life; and they that have done evil, unto the resurrection of 
 judgment." The seemingly different statements quoted 
 before, are easily harmonized with this declaration. "The 
 dead in Christ shall rise first/' is not in antithesis to a later 
 resurrection, but as the context shows, it states that the dead 
 shall "first" rise before the living are changed. Likewise 
 in I Cor. 15 :22, there is no reference to a second resurrection 
 of the ungodly, in the words "then the end," but to Christ 
 delivering the kingdom of God the Father. In short, a 
 twofold bodily resurrection is not anywhere in the new 
 Testament distinctly taught, unless Rev. 20 :5 and 6 is taken 
 literally and not interpreted as referring to a spiritual 
 quickening. 
 
 However, the remarkable statement in Matt. 27 :52, 53, 
 that at the time of Christ's resurrection on Easter day, "the 
 tombs were opened ; and many bodies of the saints that had 
 fallen asleep were raised, and coming forth out of the tombs, 
 after his resurrection, they entered into the holy city and 
 appeared unto many," indicates the belief that some of the 
 departed may rise in anticipation of the general resurrection ; 
 and there is no positive reason against such a belief. 
 
 Chapter XLIX. Final Events and the Coming of Christ. 
 1. Certainty of Christ's Return. 
 "Whatever opinion may be held with regard to "the Mil- 
 lennium," it is certain that the New Testament teaches a 
 visible and glorious return of Christ to this earth. The 
 Evangelists report that the Saviour, especially in his part- 
 ing discourses to the disciples, gave them repeated assur- 
 ances of his coming again (Luke 17:24; 21:27) and that at 
 Christ's ascension they heard a heavenly message to this 
 effect, that "this Jesus who was received up from you into 
 heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye beheld him going 
 into heaven" (Acts 1:11). This is the great fact toward 
 which the whole New Testament looks. It appears already 
 
PART SIXTH FINAL THINGS. 
 
 273 
 
 on the horizon of the Old Testament prophecy, in such 
 passages as Zech. 14:1-4 and 12:10; Dan. 7:13, 14, hut not 
 clearly distinguished from other typical advents of the Lord. 
 
 The actual bodily return of Christ is doubted by those 
 who claim that the announced coming ( napovaia ) means 
 nothing more than the spiritual "presence" of Christ, since 
 his ascension. Christ does come to the individual when he 
 calls him home by the angel of death, he came to the circle 
 of disciples on Pentecost, by the outpouring of the Holy 
 Spirit, he came at the destruction of Jerusalem by sending 
 the Roman eagles and he has come since, often times, bring- 
 ing salvation or judgment to the world and the Church ; but 
 these partial and typical comings are to be concluded by a 
 final and perfect self-manifestation of the God-man. 
 
 Whatever actual progress has been made and is being 
 made in the establishment of the kingdom of God here on 
 earth, in "overcoming evil with good" in national, social 
 and personal advancement, the evident limitation and in- 
 completeness of human attainments call for the second advent 
 of Christ, to bring the imperfect to perfection and to give to 
 the ideal of human development its full realization. It is 
 necessary also, that the glory and dominion of the Eedeemer 
 shall be universally manifested on this earth which has 
 witnessed his deepest humiliation, and that the king shall 
 hold a triumphant entrance into his kingdom, after it has 
 been fully established. The apostolic writing, therefore, 
 urges the second coming of Christ upon the attention of 
 Christian people as a motive to patience, joy and holy living, 
 and an event which should be an object of longing expecta- 
 tion, because it will not only bring back their Lord whom 
 they love, to be seen with their own eyes, but with him also 
 will bring their full redemption (Tames 5:8, Heb. 9 :28). 
 
 2. Antichrist. 
 
 Christ's coming, according to the testimony of the apostles, 
 18 
 
274 
 
 CHRISTIAN DOCTRINE. 
 
 will be preceded by the appearing of Antichrists. This 
 term itself, meaning both a usurper of the name of Christ 
 and an enemy of Christ, occurs only in the Epistles of John, 
 but reference to the Antichrist is made already in Matt. 
 24:24. The word is used to designate both a tendency and 
 a ■person. It is first an antichristian spirit which we are told, 
 will manifest itself particularly in the last times. For John 
 writes (I John 2 :18, 22), "Little children, it is the last hour; 
 and as ye beard that antichrist cometh, even now have there 
 arisen many antichrists; whereby we know that it is the 
 last hour. . . . "Who is the liar but he that denieth that Jesus 
 is the Christ? This is the antichrist, even be that denieth 
 the father and the son;" and Paul testifies in I Tim. 4:1, 
 "The Spirit saith expressly, that in later times some shall 
 fall away from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits 
 and doctrines of demons, through the hypocrisy of men that 
 speak lies." 
 
 But the same apostle speaks of a special, personal mani- 
 festation of tbis antichristian spirit in some man who will 
 be a complete incarnation of evil, "the man of sin, the son 
 of perdition, he that opposeth and exalteth himself against 
 all that is called God or that is worshipped; so that he 
 sitteth in the temple of God, setting himself forth as God" 
 (II Thess. 2:3, 4). The apostle must have had some one 
 definitely in mind whose coming he expected in tbe near 
 future, as be writes: "The mystery of lawlessness doth 
 already work : only there is one that restraineth now, until 
 he be taken out of the way. And then shall be revealed the 
 lawless one, whom the Lord Jesus shall slay with the breath 
 of his mouth and bring to naught by the manifestation of 
 his coming" (II Thess. 2:7, 8). 
 
 These words in connection with the prophecy in Daniel 
 about the "little horn" and the man "who shall exalt him- 
 self, and magnify himself above every God" (Dan. 7 :25 and 
 11 :36), and in connection with certain apocalyptic visions 
 
PART SIXTH FINAL THINGS. 
 
 275 
 
 in the book of Revelation, have excited the attention of Bible 
 readers and Christians in general, throughout all the cen- 
 turies of the Christian era. The general opinion was for a 
 long time, that the Antichrist would be some prominent 
 man, in Church or State, and successive centuries found per- 
 sonalities that fitted their ideas of the character and action 
 of the Antichrist; among them particularly some of the 
 popes. The Reformers of the sixteenth century, almost with- 
 out exception, applied the term not to any one individual 
 but to the papacy, as a power that, as they declared, was sup- 
 ported "by lying wonders, persecuting the saints and sitting 
 in the temple of God as a God." Later, the combination 
 presented in the vision of the seventeenth chapter of Revela- 
 tion of a woman sitting on a beast with ten horns, was in- 
 terpreted as indicating, that the Antichrist would be both an 
 ecclesiastical and a secular power. The woman should stand 
 for the apostate Church, the beast which at first supports and 
 then hates the woman (Rev. 19), should represent the anti- 
 christian state persecuting the Church, either in despotism 
 or anarchy. 
 
 Looking at the past, without passing judgment upon any 
 particular persons or representatives, we may well say that 
 antichristian powers have been at work, both without and 
 within the Church, manifesting themselves in a bitter hatred 
 of every thing Christian and sometimes in a bigotry which 
 makes a false pretence of religion. We must expect such 
 antichristian manifestations to continue to the end of this 
 Christian dispensation and perhaps, as during the time of 
 the earthly ministry of Christ, showing itself again more in 
 open hostility or in one and another kind of demoniacal 
 possession. It may well be that, as we read of Judas that 
 Satan entered into him, taking full possession of his spirit, 
 so there may be some man in whom sin and the devil will 
 become so impersonated, as to make him a Satan revealed in 
 human form ; just as in Jesus Christ the true God was made 
 
276 
 
 CHRISTIAN DOCTRINE. 
 
 manifest to men. As in Christ, the mediator between God 
 and man, redeemed humanity has been reunited with God, 
 so, it may be, those who serve sin and the devil will, by this 
 incarnation of Satan, become fully identified with him unto 
 judgment. 
 
 3. Universal Proclamation of the Gospel. 
 
 On the other hand, we have a word from Christ himself 
 saying, that the end shall not come until the Gospel has first 
 been proclaimed in every land and to every people, as it is 
 written in Matt. 24:14: "This gospel of the kingdom shall 
 be preached in the whole world, for a testimony unto all 
 the nations; and then shall the end come." That does not 
 saj, that all the heathen will be christianized or all the 
 Mohammedans individually shall accept Christ as their 
 Saviour ; but the proclamation is to be made everywhere and 
 to all mankind for a testimony, either unto salvation or unto 
 condemnation. By the commission given to the Church: 
 "Go ye, therefore, and make disciples of all the nations," 
 it has become a solemn duty and a precious privilege for 
 Christian people to help the Mission cause and thus to hasten 
 the day when Christ shall return, because "the kingdom of 
 the world is become the kingdom of our Lord and of his 
 Christ and he shall reign forever and ever" (Rev. 11:15). 
 
 The general christianization of the world, naturally, in- 
 cludes the conversion of the Jews, as Paul declares in Rom. 
 11 :25, 27, "A hardening in part hath befallen Israel, until 
 the fulness of the Gentiles be come in and so all Israel shall 
 be saved, even as it is written, There shall come out of Zion 
 the deliverer ; He shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob : 
 and this is my covenant unto them, when I shall take away 
 their sins." In accord with this expectation, we have 
 Christ's own prediction : "Your house is left unto you deso- 
 late. For I say unto you. Ye shall not see me henceforth, 
 till ye shall say, Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the 
 Lord" (Matt. 23:39). 
 
PART SIXTH — FINAL THINGS. 
 
 277 
 
 As to the future of the Hebrew race in general and their 
 relation to the final establishment of Christ's kingdom, 
 various ideas have been expressed, such as : a. The Jews will 
 be converted to Christ and then be restored to Palestine, 
 there to live, a chosen people of God, as of old. b. They will 
 return to Palestine unconverted, restore the Old Testament 
 ritual and become the foremost nation of the earth, c. There 
 will be no such general return and no restoration of the 
 Hebrew nation as such. The converted Jews will be merged 
 into the Christian Church, as in the days of the apostles and 
 since. 
 
 If in the attempt of forecasting the future, the New 
 Testament is taken as a guide, we shall find very little that 
 would point to any lasting prerogative of the Jews as a 
 chosen race. St. Paul, notwithstanding his emphasizing the 
 exalted mission of the Hebrews in the past, sees the glory 
 of the gospel dispensation in the very fact that in the king- 
 dom of Christ there shall be no distinction between Jew and 
 Gentile (Rom. 4:16, 17, Gal. 5:6). The children of God 
 are the seed of Abraham and the true Israel (Rom. 9 :8, 
 Ephes. 2 :14, 19) ; the Gentile believers are built up, together 
 with the Jews, into one spiritual temple of God. It should 
 be noted, that the Apocalypse, which otherwise has so much 
 of the Old Testament coloring, has remarkably little to say 
 about a special future of the Jews, (compare chap. 7 :4-8, etc.). 
 
 The impression is different when we turn to the Old 
 Testament prophecy. While it has been customary, for a 
 long time, to understand and to interpret all the prophecies 
 foretelling the restoration of Israel as applying to the Chris- 
 tian Church and her spiritual glory, the obvious impression 
 produced by many of these predictions is that they refer 
 to the future of the Hebrew race. Some of the leading 
 passages here are: Isa. 11:11-16 and 61: 4-6; 66:19, 20; 
 Jerem. 31:38-40; Ezek. 36:24-28, 37:24-25; Amos 9:11-15. 
 Some of these predictions, no doubt, have been fulfilled by 
 
278 
 
 CHRISTIAN DOCTRINE. 
 
 the return of the Jews from the Babylonish exile, some in 
 the days of the Maccabees and in the days of the founding 
 of the Christian Church. Some are being fulfilled at the 
 present day 
 
 A literal fulfillment, however, of the remainder would 
 seem to imply the rebuilding of the temple and the restora- 
 tion of the Old Testament ritual; contrary to the truth that 
 there is no further need of sacrifices. Besides, Israel's 
 restoration in several passages is represented in connection 
 with a condition of affairs which no longer exists and with 
 a reference to neighbors, like the Philistines and Edomites, 
 that makes a literal fulfilment impossible. Again, a lasting 
 superiority of the remnant of the Hebrew race would mean 
 an exaltation of that portion of Israel which hardened itself 
 against the Gospel and thus remained separate, while the 
 best portion of the ancient covenant people, all those who in 
 the course of centuries accepted Christ, have become identi- 
 fied with the Gentile Church and the Christian people. 
 
 On the other hand, a special future for the Jews as a 
 nation is not excluded. If in the early days of the Chris- 
 tian era the Greeks and Romans, and later the Germans and 
 Anglo-Saxons have been given the position at the head of 
 all Christian nations, it cannot be deemed impossible, that 
 the converted people of Israel may yet come to hold a place 
 among the Gentiles similar to that which it occupied of 
 old (Compare Acts 3 :20, 21 and 1 :6, 7) ; not, indeed, in the 
 sense of being a mediator of salvation to the others, but by 
 developing the special gifts and graces which seem to be 
 entrusted to this people. Recent events have made the ful- 
 filment of certain Old Testament prophecies to that effect 
 not improbable. 
 
 4. The Coming of Christ. 
 Apparently at an unexpected time, Christ will come to 
 this earth, visibly and bodily. He told his disciples : "As 
 the lightning cometh forth from the east, and is seen even 
 
PART SIXTH — FINAL THINGS. 
 
 279 
 
 unto the west, so shall be the coming of the Son of man" 
 (Matt. 24:27). Christians are urged to watch for his ap- 
 pearing, because the day and the hour will not be known 
 beforehand. "Be ye also ready: for in an hour that ye 
 think not the Son of man cometh" (Luke 12:40). At the 
 same time we are told, that when Christ comes this fact will 
 at once be known to all (Luke 17 :24). He will come in his 
 kingly glory. The risen saints will come with him and the 
 believers on earth, as Paul tells us, will be "changed," so 
 as to be made ready to meet their glorified Lord. This is 
 the general prospect of the coming of the Lord, his 
 "parousia," manifestation or revelation, as the apostles call it. 
 
 As to the manner of his coming, we read in Matt. 24 :30, 
 "And then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in 
 heaven ! and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn and 
 they shall see the Son of man coming on the clouds of 
 heaven with power and great glory." The sign of the Son 
 of man has been interpreted by some to be the star of Beth- 
 lehem which the Magi saw, or the light cloud (Shechina) 
 which marked Jehovah's presence at Israel's sanctuary, or 
 the figure of the cross, or finally the mark of the pierced 
 side on Christ's person, because of Zechariah 12 :10 and 
 John 19 :37, "They shall look on him whom they pierced." 
 However, this as well as other signs mentioned in connec- 
 tion with the coming of Christ, such as "flaming fire, the 
 trump of God and the voice of the archangel" (I and II 
 Thess.), must for the present remain hieroglyphs, for the 
 proper understanding of which the key is still wanting. 
 
 Chapter L. The End of this World and the Final 
 Destiny of All. 
 
 1. Regeneration of the Earth. 
 With the coming of Christ and the end of the present 
 dispensation, the earth also which we inhabit shall, in its 
 present state at least, come to an end. It will not be de- 
 
280 
 
 CHRISTIAN DOCTEINE. 
 
 stroyed or annihilated, but regenerated and transformed, 
 like the human body. In II Pet. 3 :7, 10, we are taught, that 
 "the heavens that now are and the earth have been stored 
 up for fire, being reserved against the day of judgment and 
 destruction of ungodly men,. . .and the earth and the works 
 that are therein shall be burned up." But the same letter 
 adds : "According to his promise, we look for new heavens 
 and a new earth, Wherein dwelleth righteousness" (II Pet. 
 3:13). 
 
 What, according to the teachings of geology, has happened 
 in the past, may happen again in the future, viz., an over- 
 throw of the surface of the earth resulting in a transforma- 
 tion at least of this planet. As we are taught, that this 
 present world of ours has become involved in the consequen- 
 ces of the Fall of Adam, it is but rational to expect, that it 
 will likewise share in the redemption of the human race. 
 That is what Paul anticipated in Rom. 8 :20, 21, when he 
 says: "For the creation was subjected to vanity, not of its 
 own will, but by reason of him who subjected it, in hope that 
 the creation itself also shall be delivered from the bondage 
 of corruption into the liberty of the glory of the children 
 of God." In Christ's discourse, as recorded in Matt. 19 :28, 
 it i3 called a regeneration or new birth, and Peter speaks of 
 a "restoration of all things." Who knows, but that this 
 renovated or regenerated earth may be a part of that king- 
 dom which has been prepared for God's people "from the 
 foundation of the world?" (Matt. 25:34.) 
 
 2. The Question of Universal Restoration. 
 
 With the end of our present world, the eternal age begins. 
 Here the question recurs, whether the consummation of all 
 things and the complete establishment of the kingdom of 
 God does not also imply a universal restoration of all fallen 
 creatures, to the state of happiness and holiness. Hopes to 
 that effect have been expressed from the days of Origen to 
 the present time, the Universalists making it the prominent 
 
PART SIXTH — FINAL THINGS. 
 
 281 
 
 feature of their teaching, that at last all creatures, however 
 sinful they may be, whether men or devils, shall be purged 
 from guilt and enter into the mansions of the blessed. 
 The main arguments in support of this belief are: 
 
 a. If the evil, and sin, did not exist from the beginning, 
 they cannot last forever. Man created in the image of God 
 cannot forever persist in sinning; he must eventually return 
 to his creator. But consider, that sin as well as righteous- 
 ness are not mere natural attributes and qualities, but are 
 personal matters. The freedom of choice which is the 
 essential characteristic of humanity and the essence of 
 holiness, involves the possibility of a permanent choosing 
 of evil on the part of the creature. 
 
 b. It is thought irreconcilable with the love and justice of 
 God, that any creature should be condemned forever. Sins 
 committed in time can only be punished within the limit of 
 time, not by an endless penalty; and shall not the Almighty 
 and all-loving Father finally overcome all sinful resistance 
 of the creatures, so as to reconcile them to Himself? But, 
 according to Scripture, those who will be finally condemned 
 are those who have become wholly identified with sin. Hence 
 God's holy love, being an absolute hatred of sin, can but 
 consume the sinner who definitely rejects the salvation that 
 was offered. "Eternal punishment" then is not so much 
 punishment for sins committed in the past, as the vindica- 
 tion and manifestation of God's holiness toward continued 
 sin and wickedness. 
 
 c Again, it is urged that the existence of the condemned 
 will be incompatible with the happiness of the blessed. To 
 know that any one should be in torment who was related by 
 ties of blood or bonds of friendship, would mar the felicity 
 of the children of God. However, with them who inherit 
 the future kingdom, earthly relations and affections cer- 
 tainly can continue only so far as the spiritual connection 
 remains. The holy affection of the saints in glory, like 
 
282 
 
 CHRISTIAN DOCTRINE. 
 
 God's own love, can feel no sympathy for sin and for those 
 who are openly declared the enemies of God. (See I Cor. 
 16:22.) 
 
 d. Finally, there are certain declarations of Scripture, 
 especially in the Epistles of Paul, which appear to favor a 
 final salvation of all, such as Col. 1 :19, 20, "It was the good 
 pleasure of the Father. . . through him to reconcile all things 
 unto himself;" Rom. 11:32, "For God hath shut up all unto 
 disobedience, that he might have mercy upon all;" Phil. 
 2 :10, "That in the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of 
 things in heaven, and things on earth and things under the 
 earth, and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ 
 is Lord." But these passages clearly give the objective aspect 
 of unlimited salvation, not the subjective use and the outcome 
 from it. 
 
 On the other hand the scriptural testimony against the 
 belief in a universal restoration of sinful creatures is posi- 
 tive and conclusive. Not so much in the Old as in the new 
 Testament, after the love and mercy of God have been fully 
 revealed in the giving of his only begotten son for the redemp- 
 tion of the world, is the awful danger of eternal condemnation 
 of the sinner most clearly set forth. Not to Paul and Peter, 
 but to Christ the Saviour himself are attributed the most sol- 
 emn warnings of Matt. 25 :41, 46, "Depart from me ye cursed, 
 into the eternal fire which is prepared for the devil and his 
 angels ; . . .and these Shall go away into eternal punishment ;" 
 and Mark 9 :47, 48, "It is good for thee to enter into the 
 kingdom of God with one eye, rather than having two eyes 
 to be cast into hell, where their worm dieth not, and the fire 
 is not quenched." Note, furthermore, the testimony concern- 
 ing the sin against the Holy Spirit which "shall not be for- 
 given, neither in this world, nor in that which is to come" 
 (Matt. 12:32), and the declaration concerning Judas: "Good 
 were it for that man if he had not been born" (Matt. 26 :25). 
 If any one contends that the Greek word for eternal(aicovio5), 
 
PAKT SIXTH — FINAL THINGS. 
 
 283 
 
 strictly speaking, means only "age-long" and that in Heb. 
 9 :26 we read of the "end of the ages," we must reply that 
 the same word certainly is used to express the duration of the 
 happiness of the blessed (Matt. 25:46) and the eternal 
 existence of God himself. 
 
 3. The Question of Annihilation. 
 If the revealed Word forbids the assumption of the final 
 restoration of the wicked, may we look forward to a time 
 when all that is evil will be annihilated? In favor of an 
 affirmative reply to this question, the following arguments 
 can be presented : 
 
 a. Scripture passages like I Cor. 15 :26, 28, "The last 
 enemy that shall be abolished is death ; . . .that God may be 
 all in all," as implying that, if the world's history is not to 
 continue in disharmony, the evil must be annihilated. 
 
 b. After an adequate retribution has overtaken the wicked, 
 their further existence seems without purpose. 
 
 c Endless existence of a creature cut off from the source of 
 life, which is God, seems impossible. If eternal life is an 
 ever increasing manifestation of the divine power given to 
 the children of God, must not eternal death end in the ex- 
 tinction of being for the ungodly? 
 
 d. If the essence of human existence lies in individual 
 consciousness and in personal morality, will not the loss of 
 these be a virtual annihilation of being? If so many men 
 already in this present life, through vice or self-indulgence, 
 seem to have lost their individual and moral consciousness, 
 will not the "second death" (Rev. 21 :8) of these mean the 
 dissolution of the soul itself? 
 
 Whatever weight the foregoing considerations and argu- 
 ments may have with regard to personal convictions or 
 hopes, they do not avail for setting aside the emphatic 
 declarations of Scripture, which warn the sinner against 
 incurring the penalty of eternal punishment. It is a proper 
 part of the preaching of the Gospel, to declare the doctrine 
 
284 
 
 CHRISTIAN DOCTRINE. 
 
 of eternal punishment, not as the highest motive but as an 
 important motive for the renunciation of sin and for ac- 
 cepting the Saviour, as Jude writes: "On some have mercy, 
 who are in doubt and some save, snatching them out of the 
 fire" (v. 23). The preaching which ignores the fear of 
 future condemnation, lowers the holiness of God and the 
 value of the redeeming work of Christ, who suffered and 
 died to save from sin. 
 
 We are exhorted to give "the more diligence to make our 
 calling and election sure" (II Pet. 1 :10) and to work out 
 our "own salvation with fear and trembling; for it is God 
 who worketh in you both to will and to work, for his good 
 pleasure" (Phil. 2:12, 13). As for the rest, we have the 
 assurance that the love and wisdom of God manifested in 
 Christ through the Holy Spirit will leave nothing undone, 
 to save all who want to be saved. 
 
PART SIXTH FINAL THINGS. 
 
 285 
 
 Books of Reference 
 
 Aquinas, Thomas. Summa Totius Theologiae (Rome 1886). 
 Augustine. De Civitate Dei and De Trinitate. 
 Briggs. Messianic Prophecy, New York, 1886. 
 Bruce. Apologetics, Edinburg, 1892. 
 Calvin. Institutio Christianae Religionis, 1536. 
 Darwin, Chas. Origin of Species and Descent of Man, 1871. 
 Dorner. System der Christlichen Glaubenslehre, Berlin, 
 1879. 
 
 Drummond. Natural Law in the Spiritual World. 
 Ebrard. Christliche Dogmatik, Konigsberg, 1862. 
 Fairbairn. The Place of Christ in Modern Theology, Lon- 
 don, 1896. 
 
 Fisher, Geo. F. History of Christian Doctrine, New York, 
 1896. 
 
 Gess. Lehre von der Person Christi, transl. Andover 1870. 
 Harnack, A. The History of Dogma, London, 1894. 
 Hegel. Religions philosophie, transl., London, 1895. 
 Hodge, Chas. Systematic Theology, New York, 1872. 
 Hus, John. De Ecclesia. (1410). 
 Huxley. Evidence as to Man's Place in Nature, 1863. 
 Kahler. Die Wissenschaft der christlichen Lehre, 1893 
 Leipzig. 
 
 Kaftan, Julius. Dogmatik. Freiburg, 1897. 
 Kant, Im. Kritik der reinen Vernunft, Konigsberg. 
 Kostlin. Der Glaube und seine Bedeutung, Berlin, 1895. 
 Kuyper, Abr. The Work of the Holy Spirit, Amsterdam, tr. 
 1900. 
 
 Luthart. Die Lehre von den letzten Dingen, Leipzig, 1885. 
 Macpherson, John. Christian Dogmatics, Edinburg, 1898. 
 Martensen. Christliche Dogmatik, 1849. 
 Melanchthon, Ph. Confessio Augustana, 1530. 
 Menzies. History of Religion, London, 1895. 
 
2S6 
 
 CHRISTIAN DOCTRINE. 
 
 Midler, Julius. Christian Doctrine of Sin, tr. Edinburg, 
 1868. 
 
 Nitzsch. Lehrbuch der evangelischen Dogmatik, Freiburg, 
 1892. 
 
 Oosterzee. Christian Dogmatics, tr. London, 1874. 
 
 Orr, James. Eitschlian Theology and the Evangelical 
 
 Faith, London, 1897. 
 Philippi. Kirchliche Glaubenslehre, 1867. 
 Plitt, Hermann. Evangelische Glaubenslehre, Gotha, 1863. 
 
 Gnade und Wahrheit in Christo Jesu, 1883. 
 Ritschl, A. Theologie und Metaphysik, Bonn, 1881. 
 Eothe. Dogmatik, Tubingen, 1870. 
 Schaff, Phil. The Creeds of Christendom, 1877. 
 Schleiermacher. Der christliche Glaube, Berlin, 1821. 
 Schultz, Herman. Old Testament Theology, tr. Edinburg, 
 
 1892. 
 
 Schultze, Aug. The Theology of Peter and Paul, Bethlehem, 
 1896. 
 
 Spangenberg, Aug. G. Idea Fidei Fratrum 1782, Engl. tr. 
 
 London, 1784. 
 Stearns, L. F. Present Day Theology, London, 1893. 
 Stevens, G. B. Theology of the New Testament, New York, 
 
 1899. 
 
 Strauss, Fried. Die christliche Glaubenslehre Tubingen, 
 1840. 
 
 Strong, Aug. H. Systematic Theology, Rochester, 1886. 
 Zinzendorf, Ludw. v. Theologie, dargestellt von Hermann 
 
 Plitt. Zinzendorf, Philosophie und Kirchentum, von 
 
 Bernhard Becker, 1886. 
 Zwingli. Commentarius de vera et falsa religione, 1525. 
 
Unoer of 5ub|ect0, 
 
 A 
 
 Abelard, Peter, 2, 23. 
 
 Abraham's bosom, 242. 
 
 Adventists, 268. 
 
 Agnosticism, meaning of, 6. 
 
 Almighty, attribute of God, 35. 
 
 Ancient Church, on the Holy Com- 
 munion, 232. 
 
 Angels, existence of, 51; nature, 
 52; relation to man, 53; work 
 and employment, 54; value of 
 doctrine, 55. 
 
 Annihilation, arguments for and 
 against, 283. 
 
 Anselm of Canterbury, 23; on re- 
 demption, 137. 
 
 Anthropological argument, 8. 
 
 Antichrist, 273; antichristian 
 spirit, 274; impersonation of 
 Satan, 275. 
 
 Antiquity of man, 57. 
 
 Apocryphal books, 20. 
 
 Apollinarianism, 115. 
 
 Apologetic theology, 3. 
 
 Apostles' Creed, 21. 
 
 Arius, teaching about Christ, 22, 40. 
 
 Arminius, J., 24; no imputation, 
 85; on predestination, 98. 
 
 Ascension of Christ, 129. 
 
 Assurance, of present and final sal- 
 vation, 189. 
 
 Athanasian creed, 22. 
 
 Atheism, 6. 
 
 Atonement of Christ, aspects of, 
 
 135; not limited, 140. 
 Attributes of God, 33; communion 
 
 of attributes in Christ, 113. 
 Augsburg Confession, 24. 
 Augustine, St., 22; on knowledge 
 
 of God, 31; on sacraments, 213, 
 
 217; on millennium, 267. 
 Authenticity and authority of 
 
 Bible, IS. 
 
 Awakening call, addressed to all, 
 148. 
 
 B 
 
 Baptism, meaning of word, 218; 
 origin and significance, 219; con- 
 ditions, 221. Infant baptism, 222; 
 meaning, 224. 
 
 Beatitudes, the, 153. 
 
 Beelzebub, 70. 
 
 Believer, condition after death, 
 246. 
 
 Benefits, of the Holy Communion, 
 234. 
 
 Bengel, J. A., on millennium and 
 return of Christ, 268. 
 
 Bernard of Clairvaux, 23. 
 
 Besetting sins, 165; war against 
 them, 172. 
 
 Bible, as standard of doctrine, 13; 
 interpretation, 20; teaching on the 
 Trinity, 37; in hands of Chris- 
 tians, as means of grace, 212. 
 
 Biblical theology, 3. 
 
 Birth, supernatural of Christ, 117; 
 illustrating salvation, 146; and re- 
 generation, 158. 
 
 Blessed, final state of the, 262; per- 
 fect life, 262. 
 
 Bodily presence of Christ, 130; in 
 Holy Communion, 234. 
 
 Body, valuation of, 252; resurrec- 
 tion body, 255; identity, 257; 
 connection with present body, 257. 
 
 Bohemian Brethren, 23. 
 
 Books of the Bible, 14; books of 
 reference, 285. 
 
 Bunyan, John, 25. 
 
 c 
 
 Call to salvation by Gospel, 148; 
 
 inward and effectual call, 149; 
 
 special, 150. 
 Calvin, 24; on predestination, 98; 
 
 perseverance of saints, 187; Holy 
 
 Communion, 233. 
 Candidates for Holy Communion, 
 
 235. 
 
 Canon of the Bible, 14. 
 
 Catholic, Roman, view of the 
 Church, 192; the true Catholic 
 Church, 201. 
 
 Change of heart, 158. 
 
 Children, to be baptized, 227; not 
 admitted to Holy Communion, 235. 
 
 Christ, Jesus the, 109; divine- 
 human, 112; the greatest prophet, 
 132; the true priest, 134; a king, 
 142; our pattern, 175. 
 
 Christian virtues, 172. 
 
 Church, the, 192; divine-human, 
 193; merits of visible Church, 195; 
 national and independent, 196; 
 relation to state, 198; Church and 
 sects, 201; creeds, 202; govern- 
 ment, 209; the future of, 265. 
 
288 CHRISTIAN DOCTRINE. 
 
 Close communion, 236. 
 
 Cocceius of Leyden, 84. 
 
 Coetus vocatorum, 197. 
 
 Coming of Christ, second, 272; cer- 
 tainty, 273; manner, 278. 
 
 Commandments, the ten, 164; v of 
 Christ, 171, 174. 
 
 Commercial aspect of atonement, 
 136. 
 
 Communicant members of Church, 
 229. 
 
 Communion, Holy, 229; institution 
 and observance, 229; controversy 
 on "body and blood," 232; bene- 
 fits of, 234; proper candidates, 235. 
 
 Conditional redemption, 98. 
 
 Conferential government, in Church, 
 209. 
 
 Confession of sin, 181; of faith, 
 
 202; Roman sacrament, 213. 
 Confirmation, the rite of, 228. 
 Conflicts of the Christian, 163. 
 Conscience, 8. 
 Constance, council of, 232. 
 Constantinople, council of, 41. 
 Consummation of all things, 265. 
 Conversion, not after death, 248; 
 
 of the Jews, 276. 
 "Corpus C.hristi," 232. 
 Cosmological argument, 8. 
 Covenants, the two, of works, 101; 
 
 of grace, 102. 
 Creation, meaning and object of, 
 
 44-45; creation of soul, 61. 
 Creeds, what they should be, 202; 
 
 on future life, 243. 
 Criterion of a true Church, 199. 
 Crowns, future, to be gained, 263. 
 
 D 
 
 Damascus, John of, 22. 
 Daniel, on the "Son of man," 107. 
 Darwin, C, the "Origin of Species," 
 28. 
 
 Day, the, of the Lord, 259. 
 
 Death, physical, punishment for sin, 
 94; Christ's death, 123; second 
 death, 95, 283. 
 
 Decalogue, transitory and abiding, 
 174-175. 
 
 Decrees, divine, 50. 
 
 Degrees of punishment, 92; of fu- 
 ture glory, 263. 
 
 Deism, meaning of, 6; in England, 
 25. 
 
 Denominations, right of existence, 
 201. 
 
 Dkparted, prayer for or by them, 
 185; contact with world of man, 
 247; place of departed spirits, 252. 
 
 Depravity, inherited, 80; reference 
 to infant baptism, 225. 
 
 Descartes, Rene, 25. 
 
 Descent to Hades, Christ's, 123. 
 
 Devil, nature of, 70; relation to 
 
 Christians, 72. 
 Devout men, patterns of holy living, 
 
 176. 
 
 Diatessaron, 21. 
 Didache, of twelve apostles, 21. 
 Discipline, in the Church, 210. 
 Divine, revelation, 9; nature, in 
 
 Christ manifested, 119. 
 Dogmatics, meaning of, 1. 
 Dort, Synod of, 24. 
 Dualism, 6. 
 
 E 
 
 Early expectations, concerning re- 
 turn of Christ, 266. 
 Earth, regeneration of, 280. 
 Earthly life of Christ, 120. 
 Ebionitism, 115. 
 
 Ecclesia and Church, 194; eccles- 
 iastical usages in baptism, 222. 
 
 Edwards, Jonathan, 26. 
 
 Elect, the, did Christ die for them 
 only? 140. 
 
 Elements, the, in the sacraments, 
 216. 
 
 Essentials of the Church, 199; 
 essential to the sacraments, 215. 
 
 Eternal, God is, 34; Christ's King- 
 dom, 142; eternal life through 
 communion with Christ, 240; eter- 
 nal punishment, 284. 
 
 Eucharist, the, 230. 
 
 Eusebius, 14. 
 
 Eutychianism, 116. 
 
 Evangelical, works on theology, 28. 
 
 Evidences of Divine revelation, 11. 
 
 Evil spirits, existence, 67; origin of 
 evil, 68; nature of evil spirits, 70; 
 activity, 71; relation to Christians, 
 72. 
 
 Evolution and creation, 45. 
 Existence of God, 7; denial and 
 evidences, 8. 
 
 F 
 
 Faith, need of, 155; elements of, 
 
 155; object, 156; author, 157. 
 Fall of man, 77; effects, 78; can a 
 
 believer "fall away," 187. 
 Family, the human, 65. 
 Father, God the, 38; prayer to, 183; 
 
 fathers m Christ, 167. 
 Federal head theory, 84. 
 Federation of Churches, 208. 
 Fellowship with Christ, 160; need 
 
 of Christian, 192; as a means of 
 
 grace, 211. 
 "Filioque," the spirit proceeding, 41. 
 Filled with the Spirit, 168. 
 Final state of the blessed, 262. 
 
INDEX OF SUBJECTS. 
 
 289 
 
 Flesh, the natural man, 80; war 
 against the flesh, 164. 
 
 "Foot washing" considered a sacra- 
 ment, 214. 
 
 Forty days, Christ's manifestations, 
 128. 
 
 Francke, A. H., 26. 
 Fulfilment of prophecy, successive, 
 267. 
 
 Fullness of Time, the, 108. 
 
 Gehenna, 242; valley of Hinnom, 
 264. 
 
 Gentiles, prepared for salvation, 
 103. 
 
 Glacial period, 58. 
 
 Glory, the Kingdom of, 143; future 
 
 degrees of, 263. 
 Gnosticism, 115. 
 
 God, necessary object of religion, 6; 
 existence, 7; oneness, 31; person- 
 ality, 32. 
 
 Good works, necessity, 169; what are 
 good works? 170. 
 
 Gospel, call to salvation, 148; mo- 
 tive to repentance. 154; those who 
 have not heard it, 248; judged by 
 the Gospel, 261; universally pro- 
 claimed before the end, 276. 
 
 Grace, covenant of, 103; kingdom of, 
 143; state of, 161; falling from, 
 187; means of grace, 211. 
 
 GREEK-Catholic confession, 24; sepa- 
 ration, 41. 
 
 Gregory, bishop and pope, on "mass," 
 232; on purgatory, 243. 
 
 Guardian Angels, 55. 
 
 Guilt, personal, 86. 
 
 Hinnom, 264. 
 Higher criticism, 29. 
 Highpriestly intercession of Christ, 
 141. 
 
 Historical theology, 3; argument for 
 
 immortality, 237. 
 History of Christian doctrine, 21. 
 Holy, God, 35; Holy Spirit, 39; 
 dwelling in man, 161; holy living, 
 
 176; Holy Communion, 229. 
 Home mission work, 206. 
 Hostia, 230. 
 
 House of God, need of, 204. 
 Humiliation, state of Christ's, 117. 
 Hus, John, 23. 
 
 Hymnbooks, as means of grace, 212. 
 
 H 
 
 Hades, Christ's descent into, 123; 
 the departed spirits, 127; the 
 spirit-world, place of, 242. 
 
 Harnack, A., 29. 
 
 Healing of sickness, by prayer, 185. 
 
 Hearing of prayer, 184. 
 
 Heart, central faculty of religion, 5; 
 
 hardening of, 90; change of heart, 
 
 158. 
 
 Heathen, preparation for salvation, 
 103; Gospel call, 148; mission 
 work needed, 206; future oppor- 
 tunity, 250; judgment not without 
 Christ, 251. 
 
 Heaven, Christ's ascension to, 129; 
 believers going to, 246. 
 
 Hebrew race, their future, 277. 
 
 Hegel, 27. 
 
 Heidelberg Catechism, 24, 125. 
 Hell, "Christ descended into," 124; 
 Roman doctrine of, 243; valley of 
 
 Ignatius, 21. 
 
 Image of God in man, 62. 
 
 Immersion, question of mode of bap- 
 tism, 218. 
 
 Immortality of soul, 237; an axiom 
 of Christian belief, 237; rational 
 arguments, 237. 
 
 Imputation of sin, theories of, 83. 
 
 Incarnation, mystery of, 119. 
 
 Incentive to holy living, 178. 
 
 Independent Churches, 196. 
 
 Inductive method of defining nature 
 of God, 32. 
 
 Indulgences, doctrine of, 140. 
 
 Infant baptism, 222; Scripture tes- 
 timony, 222; meaning of, 224; 
 reasons for preferring, 226; whose 
 children to be baptized, 227. 
 
 Infants, their salvation, 248; future 
 decision, 249. 
 
 Infusion of the divine life, 225. 
 
 Inspiration of the Bible, 16; distinc- 
 tions and limitations, 18. 
 
 Integrity of Bible books, 14. 
 
 Intercession of Christ for us, 141; 
 our — for others, 182. 
 
 Intermediate state, opinions on, 241; 
 existence, 244; nature of, 244; 
 condition of believers, 246; of un- 
 believers, 247. 
 
 Irenaeus, 232. 
 
 Jesus, the Messiah (Christ), 109. 
 Jews, their conversion, 276; future 
 
 of the race, 277. 
 John, the Baptist, 107. 
 Johannean way of salvation, 162: 
 
 view of "perseverance of saints," 
 
 Judgment day, reality of, 259; 
 grounds of judgment, 261; the per- 
 sons to be judged, 260. 
 
290 CHRISTIAN DOCTRINE. 
 
 Justification of sinner, 159; pre- 
 cedes sanctification, 160. 
 Justin Martyr, 232. 
 
 K 
 
 Kant, I., on conscience, 8; pure rea- 
 son, 26. 
 
 Kenosis theory, 119. 
 
 Kind and good, God, 36. 
 
 Kingdom of God, 66; mediatorial 
 kingdom, 142; a kingdom of grace 
 and glory, 143; future kingdom, 
 265. 
 
 Kingly office of Christ, 142; Christ 
 a King, 142. 
 
 L 
 
 Language, primitive, 63. 
 
 Law, Mosaic, ohject of, 105; motive 
 
 to repentance, 154; the law of 
 
 liberty, 171; law abrogated and 
 
 permanent, 174. 
 Legal aspect of atonement, 136. 
 Life, earthly, of Christ, 120; new 
 
 life of Christian, 163; eternal life 
 
 pledged by Christ, 241. 
 Limbus Infantum, 243. 
 Limited atonement, 140. 
 Locality of departed spirits, 251. 
 Lombard, Peter, 23. 
 Lord's Prayer, 183; supper, see Holy 
 
 Communion, 229. 
 Lot, used to direct our course, 178. 
 Love, God is, 33; grateful love of 
 
 Christ incentive to holy living, 179. 
 LovE-Feasts, meaning of, 212; before 
 
 Communion, 235. 
 Luther, on the Holy Communion, 
 
 233. 
 
 M 
 
 Man, his origin, 56; evolution theory, 
 57; nature of man, 58; intellec- 
 tual condition, 63; moral and 
 physical, 64. 
 
 Manifestation of Divine nature in 
 Christ, 119; manifestation to dis- 
 ciples after resurrection, 128. 
 
 Mass, Roman, the meaning of, 232. 
 
 Matrimony, not a sacrament, 213. 
 
 Means of grace, what are they? 211. 
 
 Melanchthon, 24; on the Holy 
 Communion, 233. 
 
 Merciful, God is, 36. 
 
 Messiah, promise of, 105; Messianic 
 prophecies, 106. 
 
 Metaphysical attributes of God, 33; 
 argument for immortality of soul, 
 
 238. 
 
 Method, the, of conversion, 162. 
 Methodists, 26. 
 
 Millennium idea, 267; objections, 
 268; premillennial and postmillen- 
 nial return of Christ, 269. 
 
 Miracles, meaning of, 49; possibil- 
 ity and significance, 49. 
 
 Missionary work, need of, 206. 
 
 Mode of administering the sacra- 
 ments, 216. 
 
 Modern theology, 29. 
 
 Moral argument for immortality, 
 238; attributes of God, 33. 
 
 Moravian Brethren, 23, 26. 
 
 Mosaic record of creation, 46; Mo- 
 saic period, 105. 
 
 Mystery of Trinity, 43; of the in- 
 carnation, 119. 
 
 Mysticism, 23. 
 
 N 
 
 Name of Jesus, prayer in the, 183. 
 
 National Churches, 196. 
 
 Nature and evolution, 45; of man, 
 58; divine-human nature in Christ, 
 112; of resurrection body, 255. 
 
 Necessity of sacraments, 217. 
 
 Need of a standard of religion, 13. 
 
 Nestorianism, 115. 
 
 New School, New England, 27, 85. 
 
 New Testament, the canon, 14; au- 
 thenticity, 16; teaching on Trinity, 
 38; standard of holy living, 175; 
 on the resurrection. 254; on future 
 of Hebrew race, 277. 
 
 Nice, Council of, 40. 
 
 Nicene Creed, 22, 40. 
 
 Nominal Christians, their future, 
 249. 
 
 o 
 
 Object of religion, 6. 
 
 Offices of Christ, three, 131. 
 
 Old and new man, 164. 
 
 Old Testament, canon, 14; authen- 
 ticity, 15: teaching on immortality, 
 239; on resurrection, 254; on future 
 of Hebrew race, 277. 
 
 Omnipresent, God is, 34. 
 
 Omniscient and allwise, God, 35. 
 
 Oneness of God, 31. 
 
 Ontological argument for existence 
 of God, 9. 
 
 Ordinances of the Church, 211. 
 
 Ordination, not a sacrament, 213. 
 
 Origen, on preexistence, 84; on 
 purgatory, 242. 
 
 Origin, of man, 56; of individual 
 soul, 60; of the rite of baptism, 
 219. 
 
INDEX OF SUBJECTS. 
 
 291 
 
 Pantheism, 6. 
 
 Papacy, thought to be Antichrist, 275. 
 
 Paradise, the earthly, 65 ; the heav- 
 enly, 125, 243. 
 
 Patriarchal period, 104. 
 
 Pauline way of conversion, 162. 
 
 Pelagian heresy, 81. 
 
 Penalty of sin, the, 92. 
 
 Penance, for repentance, 152; Ro- 
 man sacrament, 213. 
 
 Perfection, sinless, arguments for 
 and against possibility, 168. 
 
 Perseverance, christian, 186. 
 
 Personal, guilt, 86; salvation, 145; 
 example of holy living, 175. 
 
 Personality of God, 32; of man, 
 62. 
 
 Peter, the pope as successor of, 209. 
 
 Philosophy, Greek, on the resurrec- 
 tion of the body, 253. 
 
 Pietism in Germany, 26. 
 
 Place of the departed spirits, 251. 
 
 Plan of salvation, the, 96. 
 
 Plato, his idea of a Trinity, 37. 
 
 Putt, Herman, Evangelische Glau- 
 benslehre, 28. 
 
 Polytheism, 6. 
 
 Pope, declared infallible "ex cathe- 
 dra," 209. 
 
 Possession, by evil spirits, 72. 
 
 Postmillen.nial advent of Christ, 
 269. 
 
 Praxeas, 39. 
 
 Prayer, meaning of, 180; true 
 prayer, 180; what to pray for, 
 181; the Lord's prayer, 182; in the 
 name of Jesus, 183; whom to ad- 
 dress in prayer, 183. 
 
 Predestination, theories of, 97; ar- 
 guments for and against, 98; prac- 
 tical aspect, 101. 
 
 Preexistence of soul, 61; an impu- 
 tation-theory, 84. 
 
 Premillennial expectation,, 268. 
 
 Preparation, time of, 101 ; of gen- 
 tiles, 103; of Israel, 104; individual 
 preparation for salvation, 146; out- 
 side of Church, 147. 
 
 Presence, personal, of Christ in Holy 
 Communion, 233. 
 
 Preservation of the world, 47; of 
 believers, 188. 
 
 Priest, Christ a true, 134; his 
 priestly office, 134. 
 
 Private communion, 236. 
 
 Probation, no second after death, 
 248. 
 
 Promise of the Messiah, 105. 
 
 Proofs for the existence of God, 8. 
 
 Propagation of the human soul, 61. 
 
 Prophecy, evidence of divine revel- 
 ation, 12; the prophetic period, 
 105; the promise of the Messiah, 
 105. 
 
 Prophet, Christ the greatest, 132; 
 
 Old Test, prophets, 106. 
 Protestant, Bible standpoint, 20; 
 
 view of the Church, 192. 
 Providence, general and particular, 
 
 47-48. 
 
 Psychological argument for exist- 
 ence of God, 9. 
 
 Punishment of sin, degrees, 92; as 
 a means of grace, 94; future, 95; 
 question of eternal, 281. 
 
 Purgatory, 242; Roman Catholic 
 doctrine, 243. 
 
 Question, of predestination, 97; of 
 sinless perfection, 168; of univer- 
 sal restoration, 280. 
 
 Rational conviction of divine rev- 
 elation, 12. 
 Rationalism, 25. 
 Redemption, 136. 
 
 Reformers, the, on the Holy Com- 
 munion, 232; on the Millennium 
 idea, 268. 
 
 Regeneration, what it means, 158; 
 of the earth, 279. 
 
 Relation between preparation and 
 call to salvation, 150. 
 
 Religion, what it is, 4; derivation 
 of the term, 4; false religions, 6. 
 
 Repentance, need of, 151; wrong 
 conception of ,152; the author of, 
 153; true motive, 154. 
 
 Resistance theory, as to predestina- 
 tion, 98. 
 
 Responsibility, the human, 85. 
 
 Restoration, question of universal, 
 280. 
 
 Resurrection, of Christ, 126; re- 
 sults, 127; of man, 252; truth of 
 resurrection, 253; conditioned by 
 person and work of Christ, 255; 
 nature of resurrection body, 255; 
 connection with present body, 257; 
 question of twofold resurrection, 
 271. 
 
 Return of Christ, early expectation, 
 266; certainty, 277; glorious, 273. 
 
 Revelation, need of, 10; given, 11; 
 the Bible a record of, 29; the book 
 of Revelation, 266; the millennium, 
 270; the antichrist, 275. 
 
 Revivals, need of, 205. 
 
 Righteous and true, God, 36. 
 
 Ritschl, Albert, 29. 
 
 Ritual, variety desirable, 208. 
 
 Roman Catholic Church, 24; view of