V '.T >■ I • 1 Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2019 with funding from Princeton Theological Seminary Library https://archive.org/details/christianwaysofsOOrich CHRISTIAN WAYS OF SALVATION THE MACMILLAN COMPANY NEW YORK • BOSTON • CHICAGO • DALLAS ATLANTA • SAN FRANCISCO MACMILLAN & CO., Limited LONDON • BOMBAY • CALCUTTA MELBOURNE THE MACMILLAN CO. OP CANADA. Ltd. TORONTO CHRISTIAN WAYS OF SALVATION t' Lectures delivered before AUBURN THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY, AUBURN, N. Y. ON THE Russell Foundation, Easter Week, 1932 BY GEORGE W. RICHARDS, D.D., LL.D. Professor of Church History in the Theological Seminary of the Reformed Church in the United States, Lancaster, Pa. iReto 9otk THE MACMILLAN COMPANY 1923 All rig hit reserved PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA COPTBIGHT, 1923, Bt the MACMILLAN COMPANY. Set up and printed. Published March, 1923, Press of J. J. Little k Ives Company New York, U. S. A. TO GEORGE BLACK STEWART PRESIDENT OF AUBURN THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY PREFACE Portions of the contents of this book were presented in a course of six lectures before the Faculty and stu¬ dents of Auburn Theological Seminary. It was not possible, however, in the allotted time to deliver the material of even six of the chapters. I have enlarged each original chapter, and have added Chapter IX. — ^‘The Way of the Humanists’^; Chapter XII. — ^‘Con¬ clusions on the Way of Salvation, Continued”; and Chapter XIII. — “A Credible Creed.” Notwithstand¬ ing these additions I feel that much more is required for a complete discussion of the subject. When I chose the subject, — Christian Ways of Salvation, — it was not my purpose to define and to discuss theories of the atonement that have been ex¬ pounded in many books, pamphlets, and articles; nor did I aim to describe in detail the various methods by which the work of salvation is carried on by the churches. I tried, rather, to set forth the ideals and principles which control the process of salvation, as that is conceived of by the various Pagan and Christian groups. The foremost questions are: — Whence does salvation come? How is it given? How is it appro¬ priated? How is it expressed in doctrine, institutions, and deed? I am convinced that the answers to these questions determine the conceptions of God, of Christ, and of the Christian life: in other words, changes in soteri- Vll Vlll PREFACE ology require corresponding modifications in theology, christology, and ethics; yes, also, in the spirit and form of worship, in the mode of government and dis¬ cipline, and in the motives and manner of Christian living. Indeed, the different Christian churches have arisen because the founder of each was convinced that he had discovered a way of salvation truer to the way of Jesus and the apostles than the way of any of the existing churches. The fundamental difference be¬ tween Catholicism and Protestantism, as well as that between the various branches of Protestantism, is to be found in the way of salvation. If there could be agreement on that point, it would not be difficult to harmonize the other differences. In this view of the formative significance of the idea of salvation, I was confirmed by Bartlett and Carlyle in their recent work, ^^Christianity in History,” the controlling thesis of which is expressed in the words : religion is moulded by its idea of salvation. It is in this that continuity of type mainly consists and may be brought to the test.” It is my purpose, also, to present a point of view and an attitude toward the fundamental facts of the Christian revelation, the experience of Christians, and the results of historical and scientific scholarship, ac¬ cording to which one may be soundly evangelical with¬ out reverting to a static, intolerant dogmatism, or falling into a destructive and equally intolerant radi¬ calism. If Christianity is the power that saves men, it must be kept free from the blight of institutionalism and officialism, on the one hand; and from the frost of rationalism and self-dependent humanism, on the other. The one thing that ought to bind Christians of all churches into a common fellowship is the expe¬ rience of the saving power of God through Jesus PREFACE ix Christ, who inspires and enables men to live and labor for his Kingdom. In so comprehensive a survey of Pagan and Chris¬ tian ways of salvation, few men would attempt to base all their conclusions on original sources. I, at least, profess to have made use, in a number of the chapters, of the most recent and trustworthy authorities. In the footnotes I have mentioned the names of some of the authors whose books and articles I have consulted. I desire especially to call the attention of the reader to Professor Kilpatrick’s articles, in Hastings’ ^Encyclo¬ pedia of Religion and Ethics,” on ^‘Salvation (Chris¬ tian” and on ^^Soteriology,” respectively, these are of unusual excellence and were most helpful to me in the preparation of Chapter III. As a rule, where I quote from German books, I am responsible for the English translation. For valuable suggestions as to literary form and for aid in the reading of the proof, I am indebted to Pro¬ fessor C. Nevin Heller, Librarian in the Theological Seminary of the Reformed Church at Lancaster, Pa., and to my Secretary, the Rev. William A. Korn, Ph.D., through whose patient and persevering assistance I was enabled to prepare the manuscript for the printer’s hands. Theological Seminary, Lancaster, Pa. January 5, 1923. CONTENTS I PRE-CHRISTIAN WAYS OF SALVATION CHAPTER 1. The Quest for Salvation . • • • PAGB 3 11. Amelioration and Redemption . « • • 22 II CHRISTIAN WAYS OF SALVATION III. The Way of Jesus . 57 IV. The Ways of the Apostles • • • 83 V. The Ancient Catholic Way . • • • 116 VI. The Orthodox Catholic Way • • • 138 VII. The Roman Catholic Way . • • • 148 VIII. The Evangelical Ways — Luther- THERAN Way . -The Lu- 176 IX. The Evangelical Ways — Zwingli viN — The Reformed Way AND Cal- • • • 196 X. The Way of the Humanists . • • • 221 Ill CONCLUSIONS XL Conclusions on the Way of Salvation 257 XII. CoNCLUSIO]S(S ON THE WaY OF SALVATION — Continued . 281 XIII. A Credible Creed . 296 CHRISTIAN WAYS OF SALVATION J ! ) i I PRE-CHRISTIAN WAYS OF SALVATION I PRE-CHRISTIAN WAYS OF SALVATION CHAPTER I THE QUEST EOK SALVATION The idea of salvation grew apace with religion. Traces of it are found in the earliest stages of human life. It is neither a passing experience of savagery nor a refined product of culture. Gilbert Murray^ says: ‘^Religion, even in the narrow sense, is always looking for Soteria, for escape, for some salvation from the terror to come, or some deliverance from the body of this death.’’ Professor Ellwood^ says: ^Yhe end of all religion is in social and personal salvation, in help over the difficulties and redemption from the evils of life.” The ways of salvation vary as widely as the grades of culture and religion from primitive to present man. The variance in kind and degree becomes clear when we follow the evolution of rehgion from its lowest to its highest form. I In its earliest stage ^ religion must have been the reaction of primeval man to the universe as a whole. ^“The Religion of a Man of Letters,” p. 6. *'‘The Reconstruction of Religion,” p. 37. * Anthropologists distinguish seven stages in the evolution of religion, i.e., of man’s idea of the divine, namely: manaism, animism, 3 4 CHRISTIAN WAYS OF SALVATION The impact of the world upon him and his response to it are the elemental factors of religion. This stage may have been as many millenniums back of ‘‘belief in spiritual beings/^ which Tylor calls the essence of religion, as the Apostles’ Creed is in advance of the first ideas of spirits, ghosts, and gods. These begin¬ nings we can hardly comprehend; for it is almost impossible for us to divest ourselves of the accumu¬ lated heritage of prehistoric and historic ages, to transport ourselves into the dawn of time, and to “think savage” again. Yet, to have even a vague idea of his religion, of the state of his mind when he first faced the powers of nature, we shall have to roam with naked, houseless, and weaponless man through forests primeval, over lake and fen, by seaside and upon mountain-top; to gaze with him into the blinding blaze of noon and the starlit depths of night, and to feel the thrill that shot through his frame and made his heart beat faster and his eye glow brighter. In circumstances like these religion was born in the soul of man. We may call it a thrill in the presence of a mystery; and in these were hid all the possibilities and poten¬ cies of the religions of the ages. There were then, as now, though they were as yet unnamed and undefined, two factors in religion, the divine and the human, the objective and the subjective; reduced to their lowest terms, the one may be called a mystery, the other an emotion. To interpret the mystery and to express the emotion is the religious task of the race. totemism, ancestor worship, polytheism, henotheism, and mono¬ theism. These stages are not always sharply delimited, but often overlap and exist side by side; but they mark, none the less, definite grades in the evolution of the religious consciousness. See Ellwood, ^‘The Reconstruction of Religion,” pp. 24, 48-50. 5 THE QUEST FOR SALVATION The later definitions of religion are attempts of theologians and philosophers to put into words its essential and common elements. They, of course, presuppose a degree of spiritual development far in advance of that of primitive man. Yet they point to things latent in the earliest thrill and mystery. Among the notable definitions we shall cite the follow¬ ing, without passing judgment upon any of them: ^^a sense of absolute dependence” (Schleiermacher) ; “a desire which manifests itself in prayer, sacrifice, and faith” (Feuerbach) ; ^^a sense of our duties as based on divine law” (Kant) ; ^^a faculty of the mind which enables us to grasp the infinite independently of sense and reason” (Max Muller) ; belief in spiritual beings” (Tylor) ; ^^a universal sociomorphism, . . . the sense of dependence in relation to the wills which primitive man places in the universe” (Guyau) ; ^ ^The consciousness of the highest social values” (E. S. Ames). II Ages before men thought of the mystery as spirits, helpful or harmful, they had no more than a vague sense of power above and about them. The extraor¬ dinary phenomena that awakened wonder, the dust cloud, gigantic physical strength, bodily abnormities like epilepsy or deformity of limb, the ever-recurring mysteries of birth, life, death, and the effect of certain liquors, — all these phenomena were ascribed to super¬ natural power, though the word was not then in use. * Reinach, ‘‘Orpheus,” p. 2 ; also EUwood, “The Reconstruction of Religion,” pp. 46-48. CHRISTIAN WAYS OF SALVATION e The Malayans called it mana; ^ the American Indians manitou. It worked in the spell of the sorcerer, in the curse and the blessing, in the herbs or the crystals of the medicine man. The steam rising from a hot stone sizzling in water, the hooting owl and the howling wolf at night, were manitou. Wherever one felt a shudder or a thrill, there was manitou. It worked everywhere, entered into everything, in nature and man. Men met at certain places and times and, with the aid of music and dance, tried to control the mysterious force for their benefit. These were the first religious services, held under the open sky, in the forest gloom; and the feehngs of the heart were wrapped in the swaddling clothes of savage words.® Time came when men animized mana and turned it into spirits, strange beings, — part Caliban, part Ariel, — ^hiding in nooks and dells, sporting in rippling brooks, splashing in ocean waves, sighing in the winds, riding upon clouds, guiding the stars, dwelling in the sun. There were nymphs, Nereids, Oreads, Dryads, Erinyes. Some were friendly and others hostile ; some ® “Mana ist eine iibernatiirliche Kraft, die dem Gebiet des Unsicht- baren angehort, aber zugleich als eine Art Materie, als ein Kraft- fluidum aufgefasst wird.” (Mana is a kind of supernatural force belonging to the realm of the invisible, but is at the same time regarded as a kind of material, as a forceful fluid.) — Tiele, “Kom- pendium der Religionsgeschichte,” p. 25, 4 Aufl. “It is, moreover, becoming increasingly probable that the earliest form of this cosmic sense (if so I may call it) was not a belief in definite and manlike ‘spirits,’ but rather a feeling for that indefiin- able, impersonal, all-pervading power, which the Iroquois called orenda, the Algonquins manitou, the Sioux wakonda, the Mela¬ nesians mana; but which, under whatever name, is conceived as the ultimate source of power, the controller of happiness, the determiner of destiny.” — Pratt, “The Religious Consciousness,” pp. 261-262. “Giddings, “The Responsible State,” pp. 5, 6. THE QUEST FOR SALVATION 7 killed and others made alive. Faint echoes of this time are heard in the Ninety-first Psalm: For he shall deliver thee from the snare of the fowler, and from the noisome pestilence . . . Thou shalt not be afraid for the terror by night, nor for the arrow that flieth by day; For the pestilence that walketh in darkness, nor for the destruction that wasteth at noonday. With a keen intuition of reality, men were not content to animize the powers of nature, but took a step further and humanized them. They sought their ‘Tesh^^ 'fin the Godhead. They made gods after their own image: out of the powers of nature and the passions of the soul they created deities who con¬ trolled the physical world and ruled tribes and nations. In the words of Professor Ames, "the growth and objectification of the god goes hand in hand with the social experience and achievements of the nation.” Zeus was the god of the sky, Demeter of the earth, Poseidon of the sea. "From the womb of the dark enigma that haunted him in the beginning there emerges into the charmed light of a world of ideal grace a pantheon of fair and concrete personalities.” ® The age of myth and legend, the naive theology of primitive man, began. The great gods take their thrones and preside over the affairs of men, — provide, protect, and guide. Yea, one supreme ruler of the heavens and the earth, of gods and men, is adored under different names in different lands. In Israel he is Yahweh. Light is his garment, clouds are his ^ Mowinckel in his Psalmenstudien (1921) claims that the authors of the Psalms felt themselves haunted and pursued by witches, spirits, and demons. ^“Psychology of Religious Experience,” p. 113; see also Lllwood, “The Reconstruction of Religion,” p. 57. * Dickinson, “The Greek View of Life,” p. 3. 8 CHRISTIAN WAYS OF SALVATION chariot, the winds are his messengers, flames of fire his ministers (Psalm 104). In the Rig- Veda he is ‘Trajapati: ^^Thou art the one^ — and there’s no other — who dost encompass all these born entities!” ^ In the Upanishads the ultimate being, the unity in infinite diversity, designated variously as ^ht,” ^This,” “he,” is Brahma, or Purusha (the person or the soul), or, especially, Atman. In Egypt Serapis alone “is adored by kings as by private persons, by the wise as by the foolish, by the great as by the small.” In the Iliad we read of “Father Zeus, that rulest from Ida, most glorious, most great.” In prophecy and psalmody, in poetry and philos¬ ophy, God is celebrated as one. Polydsemonism and polytheism make way for monotheism, theistic or pantheistic. In the words of Rhys-Davids (“Bud¬ dhism,” p. 21), “the fact is, that, whenever there is sufl&cient intelligence and sufficient leisure in a country where the soul theory is held, there, by a logical process which is inevitable, men will come to believe in a num¬ ber of gods; and then, later on, to perceive a unity be¬ hind the many, and to postulate a single divinity as the supposed source of the many gods whom they them¬ selves have really fashioned.” While gods were humanized and unified, they were also ethicized. The Deity is not merely an arbitrary king, a capricious oriental despot, but a holy and righteous ruler and judge. These qualities he de¬ mands of his people: “Be ye holy, for I am holy.” “Who shall dwell in thy holy hill? He that walketh uprightly and worketh righteousness, and speaketh “Bloomfield, “Religion of the Veda,” p. 241. “Aristides, in Serapid, p. 89, quoted in Legge, “Forerunners and Rivals of Christianity,” I. p, 58. ^ Iliad III. 276. Lang, Leaf and Meyers translation, p. 67. 9 THE QUEST FOR SALVATION truth in his heart.” He finds no satisfaction in the customary, heartless routine of a ritual. He is not pleased ^^with thousands of rams, or with ten thou¬ sands of rivers of oil.” ^‘He hath shewed thee, 0 man, what is good; and what doth Jehovah require of thee, but to do justly, and to love kindness and to walk humbly with thy God?” Men called upon God as a father who loves, for¬ gives, and cares for his people. He is a good shep¬ herd, who feeds his flock, gathers the lambs with his arms and carries them in his bosom, and gently leads those that are with young. ^When Israel was a child,” cries the prophet Hosea, “then I loved him, and called my son out of Egypt. I taught Ephraim also to go, taking them by their arms; but they knew not that I held them. I drew them with cords of a man, with bands of love.” The great Unknown Prophet outdid even Hosea, when he said : “As one whom his mother comforteth, so will I comfort you, saith the Lord.” And now men of all colors and creeds look heavenward and cry: “Our Father, who art in heaven.” Not alone in the scriptures of Jew and Christian are there evidences of the justice and mercy of God. The voice of a penitent is heard from the palace of Assur-banipal, saying: 0 my god, my sins are many, my transgressions are great; I sought for help and none took my hand. • •••••• To my god, the merciful one, I turn myself, I utter my prayer. The feet of my goddess I kiss and water with tears. 0 Lord cast not away thy servant . . ^ Psalm 15:1 sq. Micah 6:8. / ^^Sayce, “The Religions of Ancient Egypt and Babylonia,” pp. 420 sq. 10 CHRISTIAN WAYS OF SALVATION Serapis is proclaimed as ^Trotector and Savior of all men,” ‘^most-loving of all gods toward men,” “greatly turned towards mercy.” Apollo approaches the blood¬ stained matricide Orestes in the “Eumenides” of iEschylus with words of comfort : Thee will I not betray, to thee aye true; Near to protect, yet from thee far removed. No grace nor favor will I show to those Who hate thee.^® The author of the speech against Aristogeiton in the fourth century b.c. said: “All mankind have altars dedicated to Justice, Law-abidingness, Pity, the fairest and holiest in the very soul and the nature of each individual.” In the words of Legge: “The reign of the warlike gods and goddesses of Homer — always, as Renan says, brandishing a spear from the top of the Acropolis — is over, and instead of them man has at last found ‘Gods, the friends of man, merciful gods, compassionate,’ who would certainly ‘answer him again’ as a father would his children.” The hopes, aspirations, and intuitions of men were finally realized in the incarnation, which expresses the essential kinship between God and man. God is humanized without the loss of divine prerogatives, and man is divinized without the loss of human qualities. In Jesus, men became conscious of God as nowhere else. Words failed to convey their conviction “Bousset, “What is Religion,” p. 105. ““Encyclopedia of Religion and Ethics,” Art. “Greek Religion,” p. 414. ““Forerunners and Rivals of Christianity,” I. p. 58. 11 THE QUEST FOR SALVATION of the dignity of the Man of Nazareth. He is the Messiah, the Logos, the fuUness of the Godhead bodily, the Word made flesh. In simple phrase, his disciples were overcome with the idea, which became the tap-root of a new life, that God is like Jesus and that Jesus is like God. This conception of God put men at peace, for in no other as in a Christlike God can men trust; him they can love, in him they can hope, with him and for him they can live and labor. The original thrill of primitive man had its latent possibilities no less than the mystery which he faced. The thrill grew into worship. At first it was probably no more than a sense of fear, shading into awe; fear and awe blossomed into reverence, and reverence was attended with a feeling of responsibility. The savage felt the need of living on good terms with the spirits of the air. He began to treat his gods as he treated the chief of his tribe. He praised them by action and word. He fed them by sacrifice. He bribed or tipped them with gifts. He did unto the gods as he would 'that the gods should do unto him. With the develop¬ ment of society, the throne supplied metaphors for the altar, the palace became a pattern for the temple, the prince set the fashion for the priest, politics furnished parables for religion. The thriU, also, turned into curiosity, and curiosity asked questions. The savage not only feared and revered the mystery, but he became a naive scientist and inquired into its nature. The naked foresters were the forerunners of Darwin and Haeckel, Spencer and Bergson. They tried to answer the eternal questions, Whence? What? Why? Whither? With them the romance of science began. For science and ;religion were twin-born. Too often, like Esau and Jacob, they 12 CHRISTIAN WAYS OF SALVATION dwelt apart and waged war against each other. They failed to recognize their kinship and their common purpose, to magnify God and to advance human wel¬ fare. Happily they are now approaching each other, and sending gifts on the way that they may meet as brothers. Ill The stages in the evolution of religion have corre¬ sponding conceptions of salvation. In its original form the idea of salvation seems to have been rooted in a sense of helplessness and need in the presence of powers playing around man and beyond his control. Fire burned, water drowned, storms uprooted, famine and pestilence left ruin and death in their path. Sun¬ shine warmed, dew refreshed, crystal springs quenched thirst, herbs and trees bore nourishing fruit. There were powers hostile and powers benign. Men were at their mercy, and instinctively felt the need to live at peace with them, to enjoy their aid and to escape their injury. The conviction gained ground that man’s destiny is decided by powers outside of him and be¬ yond his control. Man came also to feel the powers of a world within, as well as about, him. These powers were a part of him, and yet they came upon him and possessed him, so that he was under their control against his will. Here was the beginning of a new conflict, not with the powers of the air, but with the desires and passions of the soul. They were personified and became as real as the sun, the stars, the forests, and the storm. In Greece, for example. Aphrodite was the incarnation of love. Ares of war, Athena of wisdom, Apollo of music, the Furies of the pangs of guilt. They had to be 13 THE QUEST FOR SALVATION appeased, implored, and served. In various ways they were to be brought into the service of man for the advancement of his personal and his tribal life. Man’s needs were now felt to be inward and spiritual, and the struggle for life and salvation was shifted from the outer to the inner life, from things material to things moral. Professor Case admirably summarizes the needs of salvation as felt by men at different stages of civilization : It [the notion of salvation] arises as soon as man becomes conscious of contact with hostile forces from whose power he seeks deliverance. He may think his enemies to be natural phenomena, such as the cold of winter which threatens him with starvation; or they may be human foes who constantly endanger his life and happiness. They may be untoward social circumstances which lay heavy burdens upon him in every hour of his existence. They may be the impersonal forces of an inexorable destiny in whose meshes he seems hopelessly entangled, or destiny may have become personalized in the form of demonic powers lurking in every shadow ready to pounce upon him any moment. Or he may regard his worst enemy to be gross materialistic ex¬ istence which chokes and tarnishes his soul shut up in the prison house of the body. Again, he may lament that he has yielded to the wicked impulses of his heart and thus placed his conscience under the burden of sin and guilt. These hostile forces, acting singly or in combination, tend to make man conscious, early in his experience, of the need of salvation.^® Broadly speaking, there are two conceptions of salvation. The one is amelioration, seeking the better¬ ment of man’s condition in the present world with little or no thought of his existence after death. The / ““The Evolution of Early Christianity,” p. 284. 14 CHRISTIAN WAYS OF SALVATION other is redemption, seeking deliverance from the present evil world and entrance into a higher world either here or hereafter. Man was first concerned about amelioration. His needs were related to his physical weU-being. He had to have food, shelter, clothing; protection against in¬ jury from floods, earthquakes, drought, fire, famine and pestilence, the spirits of the dead and the caprice of the gods, wild beasts and savage men; healing of disease, and help in battle or the chase. To live his life courageously, triumphantly, and joyously, he had to make peace with his surroundings. Without divine prescription or traditional plan, he devised ways to ward off or to conciliate the harmful, and to please the helpful, powers. The early Vedic hymns are mostly concerned with earthly goods; their aim and outlook is limited to the present life. The benefits sought are those conducive to temporal well-being and enjoyment; and the only conscious need is deliverance from the adverse con¬ ditions of the present life, and an advance to a state of existence more richly blest with earthly goods. ^The future beyond the grave was not illuminated by a hope which made the present life seem valueless by comparison.’’ The Greek burghers sacrificed to the gods that they might obtain health, riches, children. Theirs was not an ethical, but a legal conception of religion, in which God and man were bound by the terms of a contract. To the ancient Teuton salvation meant riddance of the things that were evil and harm¬ ful, and preservation against destruction, danger, and calamity. Of evil spirits there were many kinds, — Hastings, “Encyclopedia of Religion and Ethics,” Art. “Salva¬ tion,” p. 133. 15 THE QUEST FOR SALVATION dwarfs, giants, dragons, kobolds; there were witches, wizards, sorcerers, and enchanters, with their arts and incantations for the annoyance and the injury of man. From their malign influence the Teuton sought salva¬ tion.^^ Wells, in his ^^Outline of History,’’ says: Confusedly under the stimulus of the need and possibility of cooperation and a combined life, Neolithic mankind was feeling out for guidance and knowledge. Men were becom¬ ing aware that personally they needed protection and direc¬ tion, cleansing from impurity, power behind their own strength. Confusedly in response to that demand, bold, wise men, shrewd and cunning men, were arising to become magicians, priests, chiefs, and kings. They are not to be thought of as cheats or usurpers of power, nor the rest of mankind as their dupes. All men are mixed in their motives ; a hundred things move them to seek ascendancy over other men; but not all such motives are base or bad.^^ The idea of ameliorating the conditions in which men live here, by the favor of the gods and the aid of superhuman powers, is usually followed by the conception of deliverance from the present, and en¬ trance into a higher, order of life, either now or in the future. This change of view takes place for various reasons. Long ages of experience convince men of the insufficiency and the vanity of the merely temporal life, whether of the individual or of the group. The history of the Greek people affords a concrete illustra¬ tion. ^^Amid the discouragements of the sixth century, the ebb of colonization, the internal wars, the fall of Sybaris and of the half-divine Nineveh, came, turning away from this life to the next, the setting of the heart on supernatural bliss above the reach of war and ^ Idem, p, 149. ^Vol. I. p. 134. / 16 CHRISTIAN WAYS OF SALVATION accident.” Men desire to be free from life’s petti¬ ness, narrowness, necessities, delusions, and ills: the nobler self seeks deliverance from this body of death. For man feels himself superior to nature and chafes under the limitations of his sensuous life. He is ready to mortify himself by ascetic practices, to forget him¬ self in mystic contemplation, to rise above himself in ecstatic exaltation and be submerged in God. The desire is rooted in a new valuation of the qualities of the spiritual life, — purity, temperance, knowledge, justice, love, mercy. This is naturally attended by the enrichment of the idea of God with ethical characteristics, and by the effort to find satisfaction for the highest aspirations in fellowship and kinship with him. ^ There is, moreover, an ever-widening gap between the soul and God, between things as they are and things as they ought to be. The barrier to fellowship is commonly defined as ‘Vorld,” — the material, ephemeral, selfish elements of life, which come to be known also as ^^sin.” To overcome the estrangement, to surmount the barrier, to escape from the bondage of the body and of time and space, to get rid of sin, by magic or mystery, by sacrament or ritual, by knowl¬ edge or morals, is the meaning and aim of salvation. When a religion rises to this conception of a life above the local and the temporal, it ceases to be provincial or national, and becomes universal and international. Its blessings are inward and spiritual, — • forgiveness, purity, goodness, — and are independent of color, time, or clime. Buddhism, Parseeism, and Christianity are religions of this kind, each seeking deliverance from the world and the attainment of the ** Gilbert Murray, “Literature of Ancient Greece,” pp. 64, 65. THE QUEST FOR SALVATION 17 supreme good by a return of the soul, in one way or another, to the Ultimate Being of the universe. The meaning of salvation, accordingly, varies with the ends in view. When physical and temporal wel¬ fare is most desired, men’s hearts are bent upon a Canaan flowing with milk and honey, secure from invading foes and free from harassing circumstances. When men feel themselves bound by fate, they have recourse to magic formulas and charms, by which the divine decree may be evaded. When the soul chafes under the limitations of the body, is stained by its lusts and hampered by its infirmities, deliverance from the prison, purging from impurities, and freedom to soar into ethereal realms are devoutly to be wished. When sin and guilt become the chief burden of life, men cry out for redemption and long for the holiness and righteousness of God. The ways of salvation are determined by the con¬ ception of its aim and content as well as of the character of the gods. The aid of superhuman powers is sought either by compulsion or by propitiation, each a reflection of the tendencies in human nature either to take a thing by force or to obtain it by suasion. To put it in another form, salvation is to be procured either by sacrifice or by self-conquest. In the one case, God saves men, though men may cooperate with him; in the other, men save themselves, though God may cooperate with them. The gods are supposed, by primitive people, to be compelled by the invoking of their names and the accurate observance of proper ceremonies. In return for these performances the benefits demanded ^ill necessarily follow, without regard to the applicant’s 18 CHRISTIAN WAYS OF SALVATION state of mind or the disposition of the deity. Maspero, in his ^^Egyptology/^ says: ^Trayer was a formula of which the terms had imperative value and the exact enunciation of which obliged the god to concede what was asked of him.^^ There are scholars, like Lord Avebury and Dr. Frazer, who hold that, in the earliest stage of religion among the tribes generally, men trusted entirely to their supposed powers of compul¬ sion in their dealings with the invisible world, and that the attempt to propitiate it developed out of this at a later period.^^ Propitiation of the gods is supposed to be effected by gifts, services, and sacrifices. It is assumed that they bestow blessings freely, and not of necessity. Men worship for the purpose of winning divine favor, and not to force divine gifts. For their daily food they ally themselves with the powers of nature that provide the things needful for the body; in battle they put their trust for victory over the foe in a tutelary god; for social justice in times of tyranny and oppression, they call upon the god who works righteousness; in their conflict with the spirits of the air and the pas¬ sions of the soul, they are sustained and upheld by divine grace, which makes them more than con¬ querors. The time comes, at a certain stage of human cul¬ ture, when men are disposed to rely upon themselves, more than upon the gods, for salvation. It is the way of self-conquest of the will guided by the reason, — the ideal of the Greeks from Socrates onward. Of salva¬ tion, as understood by the Jews, Morris Joseph says: “No superhuman ally is needed by the atoning soul. "^Vol. I. p. 163. ^Legge, ^‘Forerunners and Rivals,” I. p. 91. 19 THE QUEST FOR SALVATION The forces in the sinner’s own breast suffice.” In this respect there is much in common between Platonism, Stoicism, Judaism, Confucianism, Bud¬ dhism, and modern humanism.^® The idea of redemption by divine power was taught in the oriental mysteries which prevailed in Greece in the fourth century before Christ. Among these were the mysteries of Orpheus, Dionysus, Eleusis, Mithra. They have so much in common that they may be regarded as a new stage in the history of religion and of the idea of redemption. These brought to many a Greek a stronger intensity of religious life. The traditional cult of his phratry, tribe, or city, failed to satisfy his craving for things divine. He shifted his interest from the physical and political world around him to the spiritual world be¬ yond the grave. By initiation he entered into fellow¬ ship with those who are partakers of the blessings of the cult, and became a member of a religious congre¬ gation instead of a political community. His primary concern was his personal salvation, not the welfare of the tribe or nation in which he had lost hope. He entered upon a fellowship which death will not in¬ terrupt and which will continue in eternity. Herodo¬ tus tells us how the Thracians used to gather, weep¬ ing, round a newborn child, bewailing his entry into this miserable world; while they rejoiced over the death of any of their fellows, declaring that he had thus obtained a happy deliverance from his troubles.^'^ The blessings that men now craved were promised by the mysteries in a life after death. “ Hastings, “Encyclopedia of Religion and Ethics,” XI, p, 138. ^ On redemption and its attainment, see Case, “Evolution of Early Christianity,” pp. 285-287. ^Book V. c. 4. Legge I. p. 136. 20 CHRISTIAN WAYS OF SALVATION Blessed are the men who have beheld; he who has not part in the consecrations will not have a similar lot after death in the damp darkness of Hades.^® To them alone is life in Hades; to others it is all tor- ment.^^ At an earlier time the mysteries were a part of the nature religions through which provision was made for crops and herds and social needs. But later the welfare of the individual soul became uppermost. Men looked to the deity — who formerly guaranteed the perpetuity of nature’s life — to give the individual a similar assurance. ^^Thus a god which existed at first as a redeemer of vegetation became a redeemer of souls.” Union with the deity was effected through various means, such as dramatic representation of the birth and life, the death and resurrection, of a god; the use of sacred ablutions and sacramental foods, and other rites of purification and enduement; the recital of mystic dogmas and the communication of secret for¬ mulas. In this way the soul presumably was cleansed, and mystic fellowship with god was obtained, upon which the assurance of personal immortality was based. In the words of Farnell, ^The spirit of Dionysos lifted the votary above the conventional, moral, human life to wild joy of self-abandonment, the ecstasy of communion with God.” Professor Case says: The human spirit, conscious of its frailty and helpless at the loss of the older sanctions, eagerly turned toward ^Hymn to Demeter; see Rohde, ‘Tsyche,” p. 280. “Sophocles; see Rohde, “Psyche,” p. 294. “Hastings, “Encyclopedia of Religion and Ethics,” Art. “Greek Religion,” p. 409. 21 THE QUEST FOR SALVATION those cults which offered a personal salvation based upon a divine redemptive transaction. Among the oriental re¬ ligions of redemption which attempted to meet this situa¬ tion, Christianity was the last to arise, but it ultimately ^ triumphed over all its rivals.^^ 3ii