PRINCETON, N. J. BR 145 .S78 1893 Stuckenberg, J. H. W. 1835- 1903. The age and the Church Shelf m ^^^/ ^Ifc? ^^..-, ^^^---^ AGE AND TF[& CJiURCH. BEING A STUDY OF THE AGE, AND OF THE ADAPTATION OF THE CHURCH TO ITS NEEDS. ' ' Can ye not discern the signs of the times ? BY J. H. W. STUCKENBERG, D. D. THE STUDENT PUBLISHING COMPANY Hartford, Conn., U. S. A. COPYRIGHTED 1893. BY THE STUDENT PUBLISHING CO. C. A. PIDDOCK, MANAGER. D. S. M08ELEY, PRINTER, HARTFORD. PREFACE. This volume concentrates the attention on the age which forms us and on which all our influence is exerted. In seeking the dominant factors of the times, we must look to the leading nations, namely, to those of Western Europe and to the United States. So in the study of the adaptation of the church to the age, it is not enough to take into account a particular locality or denomination, but we must consider the entire church of Christ and all the advanced nations. Principles and general characteristics are sought rather than details ; hence the special application of the results at- tained can be made by the reader himself to his own locality, nation and church. Some tendencies are more marked in Europe than in America. In such cases the aim has been to give the leading traits of the movements, although these traits may be found in different countries in various forms and with different degrees of prominence. Thus the condition of the church differs greatly in the United States, in Great Britain, and on the Conti- nent. On the whole, it seems least hopeful in vi PREFACE continental Europe, and most promising in Amer- ica. What is said of the status in general must not therefore at once be transferred with all its lights and shadows to any particular denomination or country. So with that monster of the nine- teenth century — Socialism. It is more dominant in Europe than in the United States, and the char- acteristics of it given in this volume are taken chiefly from continental Europe. But it will be found that there is a constant tendency to make great movements international, so that what is strongest in Socialism in one nation is likely soon to affect the m_ovement in other nations also. This breadth of view, this comprehensiveness both in respect to the age at large and the church, was necessary in order to give an idea of our times and of what is demanded of religion. The subject naturally divides itself into three parts. First the age itself must be studied in order that we may discern its spirit, the Zeitgeist ; then we must consider the present character and condition of the church ; and lastly, the adaptation, of the church to the needs of the times. The purpose is to answer three questions : What is the Age? What is its Church? What ought the Chui'ch to be? J. H. W. Stuckenberg. Berlin, February^ ^^93- TABLE OF CONTENTS. CHAPTER I. Principles of Investigation i CHAPTER H. Characteristics of the Age 21 CHAPTER III. Characteristics of the Age (Continued) . . 45 CHAPTER. IV. Religion and Theology in the Age ... 89 .CHAPTER V. The Church 117 CHAPTER VI. The Adaptation of the Church to the Times . 163 CHAPTER VII. Protestantism and Catholicism .... 197 CHAPTER VIII. The Church and Culture 231 CHAPTER IX. The Church and Socialism 273 CHAPTER X. The Outlook 321 APPENDIX. The Study of the Age 339 CHAPTER I. Principles of Investigation. In all great problems a revelation of depth and intricacy is the reward of profound inquiry. As we dig, we make the discovery that the smooth surface buries gnarled roots that intertwine and intergrow. Problems lie in groups ; and only as we evolve the problems in our minds can we per- ceive how involved they are. The thinker sees thought in its relations, and therefore feels the weight of mystery, where to the unthinking all seems simple and clear. But the very investigation which entangles the thinker in mysteries also leads to their solution. To the student, the age, which some imagine so evident as not to require special inquiry, since it lies open before them and they themselves form a part of it, presents at the first survey a scene of interminable confusion. Innumerable details ap- pear, whose connection is not apparent, and the various tendencies are complicated and conflicting. The age seems to be "without form, and void." The broader the survey, the greater the distraction; and for sometime the continued contemplation of 2 THE AGE AND THE CHURCH. the chaos makes the prospect more bewildering. Long and profound study may be required to dis- cover order and system. We cannot, however, question that underlying this diversity there must be unity, and that its discovery is in some degree within reach of the human mind. This unity must of course be found in the age itself, not in- vented, not taken from some theory of the philos- ophy of history and dogmatically forced on the times. Even a single life for a single day, with its thoughts and impulses, its words and acts, presents a confusing variety. How vastly is this increased when we take into account the whole of humanity and the entire age. Not only do the extent and variety of the scene seem to transcend all possi- bility of comprehension, but every thing also appears to be ceaselessly changing. Is there now in this endless variety, where all is moving and every moment undergoing transformation, any- thing constant ? Are the ages nothing but change, or do certain elements remain the same amid the changes ? If any permanent factors can be found, they may give a valid and "important basis for the study of the ages themselves. First of all, let us inquire into the actor, the doer of the deeds and the subject of the events which constitute the age. This is evidently humanity. That is the one object to which all our inquiries pertain. But humanity is composed of individual PRINCIPLES OF IN VES TIG A TION 3 men. Thus man himself, the individual, the per- son, is the permanent factor, which remains essen- tially the same throughout all generations. In all the processes of development from the lowest to the highest forms, we have but the unfolding of the same human substance under different circum- stances and influences, and in various degrees of progress. In races, nations, and individuals numerous peculiarities prevail, which tend to different forms of development ; but to all alike pertain the qualities which are essential to m.an and make him human. Through whatever pro- cesses humanity may pass, it can never do more than develop what is in it and that for which it has capacity. Not in his isolation does the individual consti- tute the permanent factor we seek. Separate points form no processes, and individuals as a mere aggregation do not constitute history. The object of our inquiry is the individual as he enters into social relations, unites with his fellows in organizations and institutions, creates states, and constitutes organisms, and the various forms of solidarity from the family to the totality of human- ity. It is evident that as the individual enters into these various relations, he becomes subject to great changes ; yet no transformation can take him out of himself or beyond himself. Besides man, there is another factor which remains the same, namely, the powers of nature. 4 THE AGE AND THE CHURCH. under whose influence and amid whose surround- ings, man develops. In nature as well as in man there is evolution ; but in this evolution only the powers of nature can be evolved by nature. Unless some new power is communicated to them, man and nature can become actually only what they are in idea or potentially. It is because there are permanent factors, that there is a continuity in human affairs, that ages can judge of one another, and that history becomes possible. Unless we find in ourselves something like the men of ancient Greece and Rome, how can we form any idea of their character and ex- plain their conduct ? The historian can transfer himself to the events he describes, and can make himself a partaker of the thoughts and motives of men of the distant past, because he has essentially the same mind and the same heart which controlled men in all ages. Hence, it is so important for the historian to be a thorough student of psychology and anthropology We do not enter upon the discussion of the free- dom of the will and of divine influence. They are factors which are not siibject to scientific expla- nation. Here we can deal only with such perma- nent factors as lie within the limits of mental inquiry. The very fact of freedom implies that its course cannot be predetermined. All we can do is to investigate character and learn what conduct may justly be expected from certain characters. PRINCIPLES OF IN VES TIG A TION. 5 It is therefore evident that the study of our age is concerned chiefly with the two permanent fac- tors, man and nature. Within and between these lie all the phenomena which are within reach of rational interpretation. And since humanity is the object of our inquiry, it is especially man as our age presents him that concerns us. What now is it that controls man ? That ot course which interests him most. Unless he acts under restraint of some external force, we cannot see how anything which does not interest him can govern his conduct. A man's interests are not isolated, but vitally connected with all that he is and does. They are concentrated in his tastes ; and his tastes are an expression of his personality. The interests which a man cherishes are the light which beams from him, illuminating the sphere to which he is attracted and in which he moves. Thus our interests are not abstracted feelings ; but our culture, our intellectual attainments, our re- ligion, our conscience, have a part in their creation ; indeed, it may be said that all these culminate in our interests and are absorbed by them. Thus the interests of a man need not be sensuous, selfish, or irreligious ; they may be devoutly religious, humanitarian, and intellectual. The struggle for existence is not the sole concern of life ; it has significance only because existence has values worthy of aspiration. This struggle is therefore but the means to attain the great end of 6 THE AGE AND THE CHURCH. existence, and not mere empty existence itself. The strong tendency in modern ethics to regard pleasure, as the end of human existence and the source of conduct, has much truth ; but it forgets that pleasure itself is but an expression of the character, and that consequently not pleasure but character is the ultimate aim in ethics. Pleasure may be holy or sinful ; and it is the personality of a man, what he is, that determines whether the divine or the diabolical shall afford him pleasure. We must therefore look at the pleasures and inter- ests of men as an expression of what the men themselves are. If now we want to understand the age, we must understand its interests. What are its chief con- cerns, what most of all enlists its energies ? Its interests are the centres around which are concen- trated its thoughts, its feelings, its pursuits, and the totality of its life. The interests which absorb the attention and determine the conduct of men spring chiefly from their wishes and desires. These are not, however, absolute. The world, the peculiar surroundings in which the desires are to be realized, must be taken into accotmt. No sane man will fight what he knows to be inevitable, nor will he work for the attainment of what he recognizes as an impossi- bility. There can be no inspiration where there is no hope. It is thus seen that the effort to realize one's desires is conditioned by his surroundings. PRINCIPLES OF IN VES TIG A TION. T by knowledge, by faith, and by hope. Our sub- jective impulses are limited by what the objective world is or is thought to be. In man himself the physical element is first of all developed. Sensation and impression are the constant accompaniments of this physical develop- ment. It is in this first stage that the struggle for existence seems supreme ; yet the first stage is not necessarily the last. The higher forms of intel- lectuality, together with what is ethical and spirit- ual, come later. The primitive, sensuous state may, however, remain the controlling factor of life, and actually does so in most cases. What is called culture and refinement is often but sensu- ousness in a developed and veneered form. Since in this world the physical must always remain the basis of life, we find its influence strong even where not controlling, as in the case of intellectual and spiritual men. As all men have substantially the same physical basis, they are in this respect essentially alike. So in all that is immediately connected with this basis they are governed by the same motives. Thus in their lower elements there is a remarkable similarity among men. The differ- ences are generally found to consist chiefly in what strength is taken from the lower elements into the intellectual and moral stages. What is sensuous in a man may even determine the character of his intellectual pursuits ; and how great a warfare the flesh may wage with the spirit can be learned from 8 THE AGE AND THE CHURCH. the seventh of Romans. The physical and the sensuous, with the mighty passions which bum with a consuming fire, must be regarded as the strongest motive power in far the larger part of humanity. When now we turn from this subjective state to the world, we find that its most direct and most powerful appeals are made to our sensuous nature. As the appetites prevail in man, so the first influ- ence of the world about us is exerted for their gratification. It is a physical world, and it is inev- itable that it shot:ld appeal to our physical nature. We need but understand our appetites, and know how the world appeals and responds to them, in order to learn why mere gratification exerts so mighty a power in all ages and is so potent a fac- tor in our age. In individuals, in tribes, and in nations, the first intellectual efforts are usually devoted to securing the means of existence and the gratification of the appetite. But these very efforts also tend to de- velop intellectual tastes and to create intellectual interests. These tastes and interests may become so strong as to change a life of lower gratification into a life of intellectual pursuits. Thought de- velops, new departments of intellect are discov- ered, the mind is enlarged and its interests increase. Thus man's higher nature reveals itself and de- mands the proper exercise of its powers. Capac- ities are recognized which cannot be filled by the PRINCIPLES OF INVESTIGA TION. 9 immediate surroundings, and interests of an ex- alted kind are discovered. The powers exercised most tend to concentrate into themselves the entire personality. When the intellect is developed into the ruling energy, it no longer studies the world merely as an object of carnal gratification, but also as a sphere for scientific inquiry and for intellectual enjoyment. So the thoughts also rise to inquiries which pertain to other beings and powers, and the mind learns to recognize religious needs and religious objects. It is therefore evident that the lower elements in man, the appetites, the wild, turbulent, and blind impulses and passions, become in a measure subject to the guidance of the clear apprehensions of the intellect and of the visions of faith. In their sensuous nature men are essentially the same in all ages ; but in intellect and faith they differ. In order to understand our age, we must therefore see how its intellect and faith affect the perma- nent elements in man's lower nature, and how they direct, control, and modify his appetites and passions. The social relations of men furnish means to gratify and develop the sensuous nature, but they also create higher interests. Instead of unhin- dered bestial gratification, society puts its mem- bers under restraint, and promotes other tastes than those which arise from personal selfishness. Society obliges the individual to enlarge his views beyond self into sympathy with others. 10 THE AGE AND THE CHURCH. Nor is it the individual intellect merely that is to be considered, but that intellect as it comes in contact with the intellect of others. As the intel- lect develops in the social relations, there is a growth of culture, that is, the whole personality of man, the totality of his being is unfolded, refined and exalted. The nature of the culture, however, necessarily depends on the character of the intel- lectual development. A purely secular intellect secularizes the entire personality and makes the culture secular ; but a predominantly moral and spiritual intellect makes the culture moral and spiritual. Mere intellectuality is no guaranty against sensuousness. The two may exist together in the individual and in society. When, however, the intellectual element in a man absorbs his ener- gies, then of course the sensuous cannot rule. The mightiest impulse to rise above sensuous- ness is given by pure religion. Faith in God and in eternal life is- the most potent factor in lifting man above his appetites, and above the appeals and responses of nature to these appetites. This faith gives a man new ideals, puts him into new relations, presents the most exalted aim to life, quickens his conscience, and develops all the ener- gies for the highest and best purposes. So deep and permeating is genuine religion that nothing else can so profoundly affect the human heart. Including ethics, and allied with intellect, we must regard religion as the most powerful agent in the processes of civilization. PRINCIPLES OF INVESTIGA TION. 11 Not only must the factors working in an age be considered, but also their relative predominance. Thus the radical difference between Roman Cath- olicism and Protestantism is not in the recognition of Scripture, but in the place given to Scripture. It is not so much the amount as the character of the intellectual activity which determines the ten- dencies of the day. The dominant factor in a movement deserves more attention than it usually receives ; it is the engine which moves the entire course of events, determining their nature as well as their direction. As the individual is molded by what is dominant in his intellect, so in the intel- lectual movements of the day the dominant or controlling factor is of chief importance. When now, guided by the principles indicated, we come to the study of the age, we find that it has much that is common to all ages. Thus the study of other times will greatly aid us in under- standing our own. This study reveals constant elements in history, as well as in man and in nature. Now, as throughout the past, movements may be very prominent and seem to carry all before them, when in reality they are weak and short-lived. Perhaps violent and noisy movements are only one-sided reactions against an extreme of the pre- ceding age. The law of reactions is of especial importance in the study of the ages. By exercise the human powers are developed. But while by 12 THE AGE AND THE CHURCH. the exclusive exercise of a power it is developed, yet it is not normal, because not unfolded in har- mony with all the other powers and not in the right proportion. A power overstrained gives out and ceases to act. But a neglected power, unless destroyed by the neglect, will assert its rights ; and the one-sided neglect will be avenged by a one-sided energy. Thus one extreme begets an- other. An unduly exerted power spends its force, and an unduly neglected but not destroyed power may spring into vigorous exercise, become violent, and threaten to absorb the whole of human energy. But this very violence leads to exclusiveness and to another extreme, and this produces a reaction again. Movements may be intense in proportion to their narrowness. Their very narrowness ex- cites antagonisms ; these antagonisms embody what is ignored and opposed by the narrowness in the movements. An extreme movement may con- tinue for awhile ; but its one-sidedness must event- ually excite reaction against itself. Two opposite movements, both of them extremes, may run par- allel with each other, the extreme element in the one constantly intensifying the extreme in the other. Both are right and both are wrong, and neither has the conditions of healthy develop- ment. But if antagonistic movements can be so combined that the truth in each is adopted, while the errors and extremes are rejected, then there will be a permanent gain. PRINCIPLES OF IN VES TIG A TION 13 By ignoring the law that produces reactions some of the most common mistakes respecting the age are made. Mere reactions, the product of cir- cumstances, are taken as normal forces and treated as permanent factors. Reactions are so powerful because men become partisans, and let their parties interpret the age for them, instead of so mastering for themselves the movements as to extract their truth and reject their errors. Conservatives see only the errors of the radicals, and this increases their conservatism. The radicals see only the errors of the conservatives, and this makes their radicalism more intense. The one conserves only the past, adds nothing new, and is not progres- sive ; the other rushes wildly forward, breaks its connection with the past, and is destructive, not constructive. Progress consists in a union of con- servatism and radicalism, rigorously conserving all that is true and good in the past, mercilessly destroying all that is false, and joyfully putting in its place whatever is true and good in the new. No tendency can be permanent unless it puts all human powers in their proper relation, and exer- cises all in a healthy manner and in due propor- tion. Reactions are the confessions and judgments of history ; the true repentance which produces the fruits that need not be repented of : that is, it does not create a new extreme which must termi- nate in remorse and failure, but it leads to health and a full-orbed completeness in the exercise of 14 THE AGE AND THE CHURCH. the powers. No movement which violates man or nature, or which is in conflict with the truth, can endure. Only the eternal elements have the con- ditions of eternity. Owing to circumstances, movements which to-day are powerful may soon disappear without leaving a visible trace behind, as has been the case with so many tendencies in the past. Therefore the truth, the justice, the completeness of a movement, determine its per- manence. Never can the human mind be content to rest in any thought or system which fails to meet all its needs. We must therefore conclude that the breadth, the noise, and the violence of a movement are no tests of its enduring qualities. While history is so largely controlled by the forces that are mere reactions, we find that but few persons have sufficient independence and en- ergy to escape the extremes which these reactions promote. Men are usually creatures of their age, formed by their surroundings, rather than origi- nators of their own course. Not from the depth of reason and from the nature of things, but from their superficial environment most men draw their inspiration. Instead of being truly the meas- ure of things, man makes the things about him the measure of himself. He becomes the sport of passing events, and the repository of prevailing opinions. The man who thinks for himself, and who has the hardihood to become an embodiment of the truth and the ethics he has wrought out for PRINCIPLES OF INVESTIGA TION. 15 himself, is the only one who is the master of re- actions. Besides the law that works in reactions, another fact common to the ages is important for the study of our times. We are apt to treat the movements of an age as conscious, and the actors as fully aware of what they are about. ■ But in every age, not excepting the most enlightened, bHnd forces are at work, of which the actors themselves are not conscious. In many respects the unconscious activity of the soul is more powerful than the con- scious ; and this is also true of an aggregation of individuals. Thus in proportion as an age is ex- cited and agitated, is it likely to be controlled by instinct, by impulse, by passion, and by prejudice. The whole life of an individual may be a process of growth in the consciousness of self, his aim, his motives, his dominant powers only very slowly emerging from the abyss of unconsciousness ; and great multitudes never become aware of them- selves and of the powers which control them. And so with the blind forces that work in move- ments ; ages may be required before a movement becomes fully conscious of itself. Every age has tentative elements which work and feel their way toward full consciousness. Some tendencies are passing from the night of unconsciousness into twilight, and are moving toward the day, where all is visible ; but they are strong especially in the invisible powers of the night from which the 16 THE AGE AND THE CHURCH. movement is just emerging, and the most energetic forces in pushing the movement forward are the hidden, unconscious, blind impulses. From the movements themselves we must learn what dark forces are at work in them. From their words, we learn the clearly perceived purposes of men ; but what they do, reveals also the uncon- scious and semi-conscious impulses of their hearts. Only what is distinctly apprehended can men formulate in words ; but what men are^ that they do. By studying his blind impulses as they work in spite of himself a man may learn what he really is ; and the same is true of the age. Not infrequently the movements which men inaugurate become master of their originators. The first act of a reformation or revolution may be but a handful of snow, the beginning of an avalanche whose course and force cannot be imag- ined by him who drops the snow from his hand. Only from their results can the powers of causes be known. Call the unconscious forces that work in history heavenly or fiendish, human or natural, their existence is evident from their fruits. These fruits are luxuriant in proportion to the energy of the age. It is especially in crises, in revolutions, in the uprising of the masses, and in all volcanic agitations, that the dark and secret powers burst forth into the light. Since in their culmination they reveal themselves by a fearful explosion, they are naturally looked upon as horrible furies. PRINCIPLES OF INVESTIGA TION. 17 "Nations are not governed by rational consid- erations ; their course is determined by great feel- ings." This dictum of Ranke, a deduction from his study of the whole course of human history^ gives a deep insight into the movements of the ages. But although feeling, which changes, rather than reason, which is unchanging, is the potent factor in the phenomena of nations, we must be careful not to let mere feeling be the interpreter of an age. Rational insight is required. Thus what is implied in a movement must be fathomed ; it is not enough to observe the apparent elements. The acorn does not reveal the oak it contains. The reason and the feeling, the logic and the facts in movements may not correspond perfectly. Reason continues after the feelings have changed, and the logic works after the force of certain facts has been spent. The logic of a movement forges link after link until the whole chain is completed. There are facts which are only bark that falls off ; but the logic is the seed, whose full energy can be learned only from the perfectly developed plant it produces, the first germ, the first leaves and buds, being but imperfect revelations of that energy. Through facts and feelings the logic of an event pushes resistlessly to the final conclusion. Thought is an organism which grows in an age and through the ages ; and only from the perfected organism can its nature be learned. Whoever gets the logic in a movement is the prophet who can foretell its 2 18 THE AGE AND THE CHURCH. future. Although Luther did not know it at the time, the ninety-five theses he nailed on the door of the Castle church in Wittenberg contained the Reformation. In the movements of an age, the movers are few and the moved are many. One master mind thinks and feels for multitudes. What is individual be- comes social, and what is at first local becomes general. Individuals are the creators of organi- zations and institutions ; and when an association acts, it is usually some individual who originates the action and works through the association. The power of strong men and of eminent person- alities is among the most important factors in the tendencies of the ages. Thus a man may rise above his age, taking its thoughts to master and sift them, developing them into new powers, and thus going beyond the age. Such a man is stronger than his times, and the future belongs to him. Perhaps he is so completely the embodiment of his times that its powers culminate in him. He has the ripe fruit, while others have only leaves, and buds, and flowers. The intellectual, the moral, and the religious characteristics of an age are often misunderstood because viewed too much as the product of past development, while in reality they are in the main the result of present efforts. It is common even among thoughtful men to speak of the growth of thought, of morals, and of spirituality, as if one PRINCIPLES OF IN VES TIG A TION. 19 age transmitted them to another. What the ages transmit is materials and symbols, not intellect itself, not ethics and not religion. Every age must do its own thinking, no matter what the past may have done in the way of preparatory work. Hence there is not necessarily a regular growth in thought. One age may have more thought than its succes- sors. Thus the times from Socrates to Aristotle, and from Kant to Hegel, were not equalled in philosophic thought by any others in the world's history. So the ages of Homer, Sophocles, Virgil, Shakespeare, and Goethe, have not been equalled by others in literature. The thought of an age de- pends on itself, not on what others have done, although an age may begin its career under pecu- liarly favorable circumstances on account of what the past has accumulated, and what the children learn from their fathers and teachers. Still more is this true of morals and religion. All we can speak of as having come to an age from its predecessors is certain examples and conditions. True morality cannot be hereditary, but must be the product of each man's own effort. This is also the case with religion ; it cannot be communicated from parents to children, or from age to age. Whatever the existing material and conditions may be, however excellent the instructors and the instruction, each age must begin at the beginning with its ethics and spirituality. What a genera- tion attains in these depends wholly on the use of 20 THE AGE AND THE CHURCH. the materials at its command and on the exercise of its moral and spiritual energy. It may fall be- hind its predecessors, either because it lacks moral and religious energy or because other interests absorb its attention. Therefore it is a mistake to view the ages as pushing each other higher and higher in point of intellect, of morals, and of re- ligion. How far there is actual growth must be determined by an examination of the age, it can- not be settled by any theory of progress. CHARACTERISTICS OF THE AGE. 21 CHAPTER II. Characteristics of the Age. The foregoing principles we now apply to our age. Some of its characteristics are so marked as at once to arrest the attention of the student. There is a stirring activity, the like of which the world has never witnessed. Great quickening and stimulating influences have been at work, and they have resulted in a marvelous awakening and de- velopment of consciousness. If we regard man as energy and nature as energy, we may affirm that their inherent power is always the same ; yet in our day the energy of man has been wonderfully aroused and the energy of nature has been brought to unusual exercise. While there has been no in- crease of mass, more of the mass has been put into motion than heretofore. Never before has knowl- edge been so generally diffused. It has ceased to be a monopoly of titled nobility, of wealth, and of the professions, and has penetrated, energized, and moved the masses. Education is a purely human factor, depending not on adventitious circumstan- ces for its effect, but working as powerfully on the mind of the pauper's child as on the heir of a 22 THE AGE AND THE CHURCH. throne. It is, like truth, one of the equalizing- factors of humanity, making men alike in spite of their external positions and distinctions. The means which brought about this distinguish- ing feature of our times, namely, the great awakening and development of consciousness, are too evident to require detailed discussion. As is usual in such cases, many things have cooperated to promote this result. Schools have been multi- plied, have become public and popular, the appli- ances of education have been vastly improved, and education itself has been made obligatory by the state or else by force of circumstances. Con- nected with this establishment and development of common education is the press, its mightiest auxiliary. So vast are the transformations wrought by these two factors that we cannot imagine what a condition of things prevailed when there was no printing press, and when there were no common schools. These two forces have in fact inaugu- rated a new world. Now the press penetrates all parts of the world and brings information to the most remote hamlet. Not its mere existence, which has already continued for centuries, is the fact we here consider. Like the common schools, the press has grown, and it required centuries of development in order to attain its present magni- tude and power. It is the influence which it has now attained — an influence great beyond all com- putation — which is the significant fact to be con- CHA RA C TERIS TICS OF THE A GE. 28 sidered in discussing the characteristics of the age. ^ Literature has become universal and is constantly on the increase. Besides the millions of copies of daily, weekly, and monthly newspapers and jour- nals, there appear annually scores of thousands of books. The mind is not able to form a definite conception of the millions which express the num- ber of copies of papers and volumes constantly dropping from the press. To these inestimably great forces must be added the modern postal arrangements, a marvel of perfection ; the tele- graph and the telephone, all important factors in the spread of knowledge. Yet all these are but a few members in the group of modern agencies for the means of general enlightenment. The modern facilities of intercourse make communication and travel easy ; we say that time and space are annihilated ; foreign parts are accessible to such j even as have but limited means, and a trip around the world has become a diversion. The horizon of all classes has been enlarged to such an extent that the whole world has become the immediate environment. The capitals, the maritime ports, the large cities and the centres of power, have more influence than formerly. The means of communication have ended the isolation possible in other days. It really means more to live now than a century ago, because power has a larger sphere of operation, and influence is more rapidly and more widely diffused. The wind that form- 34 THE AGE AND THE CHURCH. erly caused a ripple on a pond may now agitate a sea that touches all shores and affects all lands. Therefore the dominant factors have become more dominant than ever ; from their centre they reach a circumference whose limit is the globe. So con- stant and so rapid is now the communication that thought continually tends to become interna- tional. Important discoveries, significant tenden- cies, and popular agitations can no longer be limited by nations, mountains, seas or continents. Not only thoughts, but likewise interests and movements quickl}^ become international. Thus whatever is of especial weight now finds the world an interested audience. While the known world has become our neighbor, there are ceaseless ex- plorations of unknown parts, so that soon there likely will be no more worlds to conquer. The desire for knowledge, the ambition for fame, the love of adventure, the greed for gain, and the divine spirit of missions, have all contributed to make man familiar with inhospitable as well as with the habitable parts of the globe. Africa has been explored, Greenland has been traversed, the polar regions have been entered. The actual achievements of modern exploration throw into shade the ancient fables of adventure and dis- covery. It is enough simply to call these things to mind, and therefore only a panoramic view of them is here attempted. While the details are endless, CHARACTERISTICS OF THE AGE. 25 the general facts are familiar to all. But whether we stop with the general facts or enter upon de- tails, we can form no adequate conception of the power exerted and the changes made by these modern factors of civilization. The world is rap- idly becoming cosmopolitan. Cities are every- where monotonously alike: and the cities are pushing their views, their fashions, their manners, their phrases, and their vices into the country. The newspaper, burdened with the facts of the world, has suppressed folk-lore and banished troubadours. Travelers seek out-of-the-way places to find relics of former customs and fashions ; but the country folk are ashamed of their peculiarities and ape the cities. Call it a lowering, call it an elevating process, there is a strong tendency to a common level for all humanity. In this enlargement of view and in this tendency to internationalism of thought and interest we have a characteristic of the times which affects every phase of life. That enlightenment is more general than heretofore, expresses only a part of this modern peculiarity. The enlightenment itself differs from that of former ages. The kind and the sphere of knowledge have changed. Intelli- gence has come to mean a knowledge of the world at large, and an interest in what transpires abroad as well as in home affairs. The result is a peculiar kind of education, namely, in breadth, in multi- plicity, in heterogeneity, and in details. This 26 THE AGE AND THE CHURCH. education is often of the most superficial charac- ter, requiring less a substantial intellectual effort than an abuse of the memory in matters read only to be forgotten. The trend is to cultivate a gen- eration of distracted readers rather than of pro- found thinkers. Objects of no direct concern to the reader are presented in such multitudes and without system as to be bewildering. Nothing is long before the mind, nothing is carefully consid- ered, nothing requires the exertion of intellect to the utmost. The thoughts of others take the place of original thought, information is substi- tuted for ideas, and a knowledge as shallow as it is worthless often passes for modern intelligence. Newspapers sink to the level of vulgar gossip, and the ability to satisfy idle curiosity is frequently their highest standard of excellence. Sensational methods are adopted, exciting details are sought, and thus an appetite for what is still more exciting and more sensational is cultivated. The multitude of home and foreign affairs, in which the reader has scarcely any other interest than idle curiosity, is calculated to deaden the sensibilities and weaken thought, rather than to develop the emotional powers or rational faculties. When people live on such empty news as their chief mental food, it is not surprising that an enlightenment is the result which Cannot in any true sense be called solid, deep, or elevating. These facts are patent to all who study the press, and are nowhere more faith- CHARACTERISTICS OF THE AGE. 27 fully exposed than by such journals as are truly educators and seek the highest interests of their readers. To the already-mentioned causes of the awaken- ing of consciousness, particularly on the part of the masses, we must add the greater freedom of the people and their increased interest in affairs, especially in politics. With the privileges the re- sponsibility of the people has increased. They have greater influence than formerly, their affairs depend more on themselves, they are in touch with more objects, and are obliged to consider much which was until recently wholly beyond their reach. All these things have aroused the masses, they have attained their majority, or are at least convinced that they have done so, and are rapidly developing the consciousness that has been awak- ened. The processes especially prominent in this awak- ening must be traced back at least as far as the Reformation. In more recent times the American and French revolutions, the introduction and de- velopment of machinery, and numerous popular movements and uprisings, have brought the masses to the front, have made them aware of their con- ditions, and have enabled them to realize their power. Never before have the masses had the same privileges, freedom, and advantages, as at present, and never does their lot in general seem to have been better ; yet they are more restless 28 THE AGE AND THE CHURCH. and turbulent than ever. The explanation is found in the awakening of their consciousness, in having become aware of themselves, of their needs, of their rights, and of their possibilities. The means of commnnication have enabled them to form an international solidarity. They have learned the power of organization and of agita- tion. Their intelligence and privileges have been a spur to ambition and hope. Not the least factor is the conviction that they make demands which are just and whose realization cannot be distant. With much truth this has been called the age of the masses. Their relative prominence as com- pared with former times gives our age some of its most marked features. Scholarship and culture, as well as politics and industries, must reckon with them. If they cannot be leavened with the culture of the day and be made a factor in the processes of civilization, they may overthrow the culture which is the culmination of many ages of progress. It is considerations like these which give such momen- tous importance to the rising of the masses. Not only what the masses are and demand must be considered, but also the fact that the more favored classes are largely absorbed by movements among the poorer. These movements have arrested the attention of thrones and governments, are shaping parties and determining legislation, are seriously affecting philosophy, literature, and art, and are forcing the church and society at large to ponder CHA RA C TERIS TICS OF THE A GE. 29 the duty of the favored to the less favored brother. Not only what the masses themselves have become and demand makes this their age, but also the fact that they are the focus into which the thought, the feeling, and the life of all classes are being concen- trated. Education has served to minimize the real dif- ferences between men. It has developed in the lowly members of mankind certain human ele- ments which may exalt them far above those more favorably situated. Education deals with the ele- ments of our common humanity, not with excep- tional circumstances ; and what it develops in the rich it develops likewise in the poor. We can call it the great humanizer. A people with the same education for all will either wipe out or ignore the hereditary distinctions. If the education is of the true kind, it will tend to put inner tests of excel- lence for outer ones. But there is another marked effect as the result of general education. It seems to put individuals on a common level, when this is in reality not the case. When all have the same opportunities, men are apt to estimate themselves according to these opportunities, not according to the use they make of them, and not according to their actual attain- ments. In an era when the equality of men is emphasized, it is common for all to think them- selves equal by nature and therefore equal in fact, not taking into account what has been made of 30 THE AGE AND THE CHURCH, that nature by training. It often happens that mere legal equality is supposed to confer universal equality : as if the law could make anything of us, instead of being a mere declaration of our legal relations and treatment. The equality of men as now held by many is not merely a fiction, but a most pernicious deception. Men are not equal in fact, and that largely because some use their ad- vantages, and are worthy in mind and character, while others neglect or abuse them, and are igno- rant and base. But the fiction of equality serves to promote the fiction that as all men can cast the same powerful ballot, so they can alike judge of all that transpires. The consequence is that even subjects which requires special preparation in order to be properly estimated are judged by the masses. Science is popularlized for their sake, scholarship is made easy so that they may appro- priate it. Papers and books are devoted to this popularizing process, and the opinion is spread that, because nothing is too good for the masses, so nothing is beyond them. Yet scientists and philosophers protest that a competent judgment of their labors requires a scientific and philosophic mind. Immaturity of judgment coupled with conceit is one of the signs of the times. The people, once too much ignored, have now by a kind of reaction made themselves masters in all things. Boys and girls who cannot decide the profoundest religious prob- CHARACTERISTICS OF THE AGE. 31 lems are in danger of not being- considered very bright by their equals. We live in an era when popularity is commonly viewed as the decisive and final test. Perhaps the authorship of the Pentateuch will yet be submitted to a popiilar vote. The popular level is the sum- mit of excellence. Papers, books, preachers, teach- ers, politicians, principles, theories, churches, are valued according to their popularity. The popular voice determines questions of truth and right ; and in religious assemblies the way of salvation is the way the majority vote. Even the judicial ermine may receive its sanctity from the popular breath! "The voice of the people is the voice of God." Whoever declares that the demagogue, the saloon, and the corrupt practices of popular politicians are not the will of God, blasphemes the divine majesty of the people! When the masses rule, only that of course can rule which reigns in the masses. Whether this reigning element is the highest and deepest intel- lect, the purest nobility, and the most divine spirit- uality, every thinker can decide for himself. One thing is beyond question : there is an almost irre- sistible tendency to make the popular level the test of every thing, and to drag all persons to this level and keep them there. It has been observed by students of the times that individuality has be- comie exceedingly difficult. So largely have the world and society absorbed men that the individual 32 THE AGE AND THE CHURCH. gives up himself, abandons his peculiarity, yields himself to things, and ignores what is racy, for the sake of becoming popular. The crowning glory of the processes for a cen- tury is the growing emancipation of the people ; and the results attained seem to be but the begin- ning of a still greater emancipation during the coming century. What wonder that, in the mighty forward bound, many go too far ? But thinkers and educators, who seek the true welfare of the masses, will strive to make them see their actual condition, for the sake of leading them to a higher plane. Popular conceit is the deadly foe of such as cherish it. The blessing of privilege is in its use ; its abuse turns it into a curse. There is no worse tyranny than that of ignorant, self-sufficient, and corrupt majorities. The best scholar is one who rejoices in being of the people, not haughtily and aristocratically isolated above them. And be- cause he feels himself one of the people, he will recognize his responsibility to his fellow men. He is leaven that works in the meal, not the meal which the unthinking ones leaven. When we honestly consider our times, we must weigh the disadvantages as well as the advantages which spring from the reign of the masses. This reign has its unquestioned political rights ; but it also abounds in wrong, when it usurps authority in mat- ters wholly beyond its proper sphere. Further on we shall discuss more fully the ris- CHARACTERISTICS OF THE AGE, 33 ing of the masses as seen in socialism ; here we consider it merely as one of the general character- istics of the day. But this rising is only one of the many movements in our times. The very agitation on the part of labor is calculated to arouse the op- position of other classes, thus producing a reaction. The labor movement is itself largely a reaction against the treatment received by laborers from capital, from monopolies, from intellect and cul- ture, from the churches, and from the more fa- vored classes generally. When now we turn from the masses to the dom- inant factor in the intellectual pursuits of the day, we name without hesitation Natural Science. So evident is this, to any one who takes a survey of the whole domain of thought, that it requires no special proof. Not only is natural science the dominant intellectual factor of the day, but the movement among the masses is also avowedly based largely on natural science. Particularly in Germany, where - socialism is most thoroughly or- ganized and most systematically developed, the claim is constantly made that the movement rests on science, and that its future course will depend mainly on the development of science. Here then we have a factor whose influence prevails among the intellectual classes as well as among the masses ; the present dominance of natural science therefore demands especial consideration. Ours is called a ''scientific" age, and the wel- 3 34 THE AGE AND THE CHURCH. come flattery is gratefully accepted. The exact application of the term is not at once evident, and yet for our purpose this application is important. That the age itself has really become scientific can seriously be meant only ironically. The truly scientific men are scarce ; but these few are sup- posed to give the age its character. It is the age of science, as there was an age of Shakespeare, and an age of Goethe, a single individual or pur- suit standing for the age. The second and third rate scientists are very numerous, doing such nec- essary work in science as making experiments and observations, registering and classifying facts, without that profound inquiry and severe thought which are characteristics of the true scientist. In much of what is called science, to say nothing of other departments of thought and of the age at large, the scientific spirit, the absolute method, the mathematical exactness, and the severe limitations of science, are wanting. It is the fate of science, as well as of religion, to attract by its very excel- lence charlatans and hypocrites. Still it is true that science has become the most powerful factor in modern intellectual life. Not only are its stu- dents very numerous, but the effects of scientific investigation are powerfully felt throughout the domain of intellect. Great discoveries have been made in natural science which have revolutionized thought and life. There is in science a coopera- tion of laborers, and also a continuity of progress, CHARACTERISTICS OF THE AGE. 35 which are not found in an equal degree in any other discipline. Ever since the days of Galileo there has been a growth in science, which has gradually but surely undermined other intellectual processes and taken their place. During the present century the progress has been very marked, even marvelous, so that now natural science rules in the realm of intellect. While its discoveries have arrested the attention of the cultured classes and the masses, it is the method of natural science which has exerted the most powerful influence on other intellectual pur- suits. The method is definitely fixed, it is mathe- matically exact, and the results attained by it are absolute and final. The ground once gone over need not be traveled again and again, but the har- vests once gathered can be used as seed for all future progress. The objects with which natural science deals are definite, thousands can examine them under exactly the same conditions, and the circumstances and conditions can be varied at will for the sake of experiment. So superior are these advantages, that the strongest efforts are made to model other studies after natural science ; and it has become common to value all intellectual pur- suits in proportion as they can be made to approach scientific definiteness and exactness and finality. The application of scientific discovery to the arts and industries and commerce is not specially con- sidered here. Not only is it a powerful factor in 36 THE AGE AND THE CHURCH. giving prominence and popularity to science, but it also has a very strong influence on the tendencies of the day, particularly on the materialistic and practical interests. But this will become more evident further on ; and, then, much of it is too patent to require special mention. Here we are more concerned with the power of natural science in determining the character of the intellect and the tendency of thought. That it has become the controlling factor in a very large part of the intellectual life is seen in positivism, in agnosticism, in materialism, in psychology, and in the discredit into which studies less mathematically exact than natural science have fallen. It is this: influence, together with the actual discoveries in natural science and their applications, which en- title our age to be called scientific. The relative prominence of science and philos- phy has completely changed, science now occupy- ing the front rank, formerly so generally accorded to philosophy. The conclusions of science are universally accepted, while those of philosophy are regarded with suspicion. Science pushes stead- ily on in its course of progress, while confusion prevails in philosophy, its aim, its principles, its method, its objects, and its results being subjects of dispute among philosophers themselves. As a consequence, that speculation which is so charac- teristic of philosophy has fallen into disrepute. The predominance of natural science was pro- CHARACTERISTICS OF THE AGE. 37 tQoted by the fact that the philosophical systems, which had received such wide-spread influence, lost their prominence, and were regarded as teeming with fallacies. That systems once so powerful should at last be rejected as false, led scholars to question the validity of all philosophical inquiries. As one system of philosophy overthrew another, and as principles formerly held to be eternal proved unsatisfactory, scholars . turned more eagerly to a method which promised absolute certainty and unchangeable results. They were unwilling to build on foundations that might be undermined. Science deals with the acknowledged real, and cultivates a taste for the real. The reality with which it deals is put to the severest tests and is brought into the clearest evidence. In other de- partments the reality is not so apparent, at least not so tangible. To the certainty of reality must be added the practical utility of the objects of natural science. Other subjects without the same evident reality and utility have been depreciated in comparison with natural science. This is true of the classics, of history, of philosophy, and of other studies. Particularly was theology depre- ciated, because its objects are neither tangible, nor mathematically demonstrable. So large a domain of absolute certainty and reality had been conquered in natural science that the ideal, the visionary, and the possessions of faith were thought to be superfluous. Then the habit of testing every 38 THE AGE AND THE CHURCH. object before the mind by the standard of the ex- actness and certainty of mathematics made con- ditions with which, from the very nature of the case, religion cannot comply. Especially when the senses are made the ultimate test of real existence must religion suffer, as well as all that pertains to the ideals of the mind. Besides, certain theories advanced by scientists seemed to conflict with the generally received religious views. Evolution affected deeply the prevalent conception of the universe, and threatened to overthrow the theo- logical doctrines of creation, of design, and of miracles. The suspicion aroused by natural science, re- specting the reality of the objects of religion was not new. The negative attitude of leading scien- tists towards religious certainty and reality was similar to that for a long time held by various philosophical thinkers. The empirical tendencies in the philosophy of England, France, and America had concentrated the attention on the objects of natural science, while religion was treated by a large part of this philosophy, particularly by Hume and his followers, as either an empty ideal, or else as an affair of a doubtful faith. The logic of an exclusive empiricism is agnosticism. Kant's philos- ophy has often been proclaimed as rational, in dis- tinction from the empirical tendency which Locke inaugurated ; yet the result of its rational specu- lation is largely the same as that of empiricism. CHARACTERISTICS OF THE AGE. 39 Whatever reality transcends the test of the senses lies, according to Kant, beyond the realm of the demonstrable. If empiricism assumes the impossi- bility of metaphysics, Kant's philosophy professes to demonstrate this impossibility. Instead, how- ever, of overthrowing ethics and religion, Kant professes to give them an immovable basis. But this basis consists of postulates, which are not the- oretical necessities and are not demonstrable, but are required by the practical reason. As he him- self said, Kant destroyed knowledge in order to get room for faith. It is significant that the empirical and the Kan- tian philosophy united in emphasizing the world of the senses as the only demonstrable reality. The attainment of the same result by systems so differ- ent in their start, in their principles and methods, was certainly remarkable, and of powerful effect. The present opposition to metaphysics in Germany is a product mainly of Kant's philosophy, and affords a mighty lever to empiricism. Foreigners have expressed their astonishment that German philosophers of the present show a strong inclina- tion toward the empirical English philosophers ; the surprise must end as soon as the conclusions of the Kantian philosophy are fully appreciated. Those who demanded a return to Kant usually meant a return to his theory of knowledge, not to his postulates, on which ethics and religion are based. 40 THE AGE AND THE CHURCH. It is thus clear how both empiricism and the Kantian philosophy prepared the way for the tri- umphs of natural science. But for understanding the trend of modern thought another fact must be considered. Among the most powerful factors in recent intellectual tendencies is the critical spirit, due chiefly to the philosophy of Kant. His three principal works are Critiques, and his system is called the Critical Philosophy. While much of what he taught has been rejected or superseded, the critical spirit which he introduced has con- tinued and wrought powerful effects. Objects which the mind had accepted without the slightest suspicion were now questioned, and the proof of their validity was demanded. The mind was required to give the strictest account of all its possessions, to show exactly what they are, whence and how they came, and to what validity they can lay claim. Thus knowledge, faith, fancy, and opinion, all must be critically investigated and dis- criminated, and each must give the reason for its existence. It is by means of this merciless criti- cism, that the mind was made conscious of its own character and of the nature of its contents. Error, however dearly cherished, was ruthlessly exposed and unconditionally rejected. Sometimes the men- tal revolution thus inaugurated worked with such a rash fury as to endanger what on more calm ex- amination proved itself true and valuable. It is not strange that the critical revolution was de- CHA RA CTERISTICS OF THE A GE. 41 structive rather than constructive, negative rather than positive. Intent on exposing and overthrow- ing error, it revealed such a multitude of them in the human mind, all cherished as truth, that it actually became a question whether that mind has any absolute truth, whether it is capable of discov- ering and establishing eternal principles, and whether it is not the dupe of its own processes and fallacies ? Skepticism was the natural result, a skepticism something like that into which thought had fallen in Greece at the time when Socrates appeared. Gradually this critical spirit extended to all departments, determined to leave nothing that pertains to the mind unaffected. It became a habit and a method. So dominant has this spirit become that ours is justly called the critical age. A sharp distinction is made between mental con- cepts and the reality for which they are supposed to stand. It soon became evident that the mind is liable to move among fictions as if realities. The ignorant take their mental concepts, without criticism, for realities outside of the mind. This is the naive view, the standpoint of the child. The critical spirit discriminates between external reality and our intellectual apprehension of it. Thus the mental world in which a man lives as his reality may be very different from the actual world. The ultimate aim of the critical spirit was the 42 THE AGE AND THE CHURCH. discovery of reality ; and every thing was made to minister to this discovery. Reality itself was more carefully defined ; the mind was concentrated on reality as alone worthy of its search and confi- dence, and its abhorrence of error and deceptions was intensified. For a long time noetics or the theory of knowledge was dominant in philosophy, the supreme questions being, What is knowledge ? How is it related to being ? What are the criteria of knowledge ? What are the limits of knowledge ? The dominant aim of the critical spirit, the dis- covery of reality, is manifest in all its operations. In the general problem of knowledge, it wants to discrirninate between genuine knowledge and the other contents of consciousness. In the problem of the relation of mental conceptions to reality, it wants to determine what the universe of being is. When it becomes biblical criticism, it wants to get the exact and total reality of Scripture, so far as authorship, text, events, chronology, and teachings are concerned. The aim is truth, the truth re- specting reality. So in historical criticism, the aim is to get through the preserved records and monuments to the actual events. As through our mental representations we want to get to reality, so through the records the historian wants to get behind the records to the real occurrences. Men of course had always sought reality, but had been too easily satisfied that it was found. They had not sought it critically, and what they CHAR A CTERISTICS OF THE A GE. 43 found was not subjected to critical tests. All this has been changed during the era of criticism. Whereas formerly the search was hardly a definite purpose, reality being thought discoverable with- out any distinct aim, the real was now chosen as the specific and dominant object of all inquiry. There was a cultus of reality which had heretofore been unknown. And it is characteristic of modern thought that this conscious search for reality is not confined to the philosophic few, but has be- come general. Through the popularization of thought, so common now, the masses have learned to discriminate between mental presentations and external reality. They have been taught that the mind may be the home of fictions, which work with all the power of realities and actualities. Hence skepticism, formerly an exception, has now affected the people. The result is seen especially in the domain of religious faith. The masses now in- quire into the reality in their faith and hope, even though the means for answering the inquiries are not within their reach. Thus the effects of the critical spirit are felt by minds that do not under- stand its nature, and are hardly aware of its exist- ence and operations. This spirit has become epidemic, so that it involuntarily and uncon- sciously seizes and controls men. As the worship of God is essential to religion, although religions may have different doctrines respecting the nature of God; so the cultus of 44 THE AGE AND THE CHURCH. reality is the dominant factor in modern thought, although the nature of this reality may be in dis- pute. In this cultus the critical spirit, empirical philosophy, and natural science are united. Real- ity is the centre toward which modern thought and research gravitate. This reality is conceived as not synonymous with mental object, opinion, belief. Reality is sought which does not depend upon our conception, but of which our conception is the product. CHARACTERISTICS OF THE AGE, 45 CHAPTER III. Characteristics of the Age (Continued). Reality is the conscious demand of the awakened age. Even those not fully awake are affected by the general trend of conscious intellect. But, as we have seen, the reality that is merely subjective no longer satisfies a critical, empirical, scientific age. Too often what seemed a reality to the mind was, without further inquiry, endowed with ob- jective reality; but thought has discovered the haunt of illusions, and is resolved henceforth to banish them. The age in its deepest thought and dominant aim demands a reality, whose subjective validity rests on the proof of its objective actuality. We can therefore say that a reality which attests itself to the mind as real is sought. Summing up the results of our investigation we therefore affirm that the tendency to Objective Realism is the leading characteristic of the age, the dominant factor in thought, the ruling power in the movements of the day. We have seen that the powers which dominate us are not always distinctly outlined in conscious- ness. It must not be thought strange, therefore, 46 THE AGE AND THE CHURCH. if some, who are not aware of any particular factor as ruling the age, do not at once recognize as dominant the one which has just been indicated. If the process which has led us to the discovery of that factor does not convince them that it is dominant, then let them simply apply that factor to the age, and thus learn whether it is really the chief element in the explanation of the phenomena of the times. If this test is satisfactory, it will furnish indubitable proof that the chief charac- teristic of the age has been discovered. Vision- aries continue to exist and superstitions abound, and there may be movements whose impulse is not consciously toward reality ; but such elements are common to all ages, and are by no means charac- teristics of this particular age. The past has been greatly absorbed by the con- templation of values. The heart was won by objects which interest and please, which meet some craving or satisfy an aspiration. Not less now than formerly do the real or imaginary values attract men ; but there is more earnest inquiry into the nature of the supposed values and into their basis. Men may pursue a dream as if it were a most precious treasure. This is now realized ; therefore, besides the contemplation of values, we inquire into their actuality, whether they are sub- stantial, resting on a solid basis, abiding, or objects that vanish when we most desire to seize them Hope is not less dear to the heart, but the ground CHARACTERISTICS OF THE AGE. 47 of the hope is subjected to severer scnitiny and to more radical criticism. Thus the important dis- tinction between a reality before consciousness, and a reality outside of consciousness, has now be- come common. Once clearly apprehended, this distinction makes it impossible to regard the whims and fancies of the mind as the standards of reality. In order to make sure of the real, men now lay hold of the nearest object of whose reality they are convinced, while they persistently refuse to consider whatever seems of doubtful validity. Where demonstrations are demanded, opinion and faith are below par. The great awakening and development of con- sciousness, which have culminated in the demand for objective realism, of course does not imply an intuitive knowledge of the nature of reality. Mod- ern research emphasizes the question. What is reality ? And it is in the answers to this question that the greatest conflicts of modern thought occur. In its search for reality the age is united ; but in its interpretation of reality the age is divided. The great exaltation of power in our day is an evidence of the emphasis placed on reality. Power is unmistakably real and therefore sought. It has taken the place of poetic fancies and of enraptur- ing visions. Power, admired at all times, has in our day become the object of direct search and has been made a controlling factor in literature. The formerly blind influence of power has now been 48 THE AGE AND THE CHURCH. consciously apprehended and intelligently formu- lated. What men can do has become the test of greatness. Not the devotion, the learning, or the position of a man is now the chief consideration, but his inherent strength, his actual performance. Bismarck and Moltke are marked illustrations, and every country has examples. In the most popular of the recent systems of German philosophy, the will is made the essence of the universe. In its deification of power, literature does not make the ethical element, or the character of the strength, the main thing, but power itself, power for its own sake. So absorbed is our age by mere power that the aesthetic as well as the moral element is apt to be overlooked. The search for truth, so marked a characteristic of the times, is but another form of the general demand for reality. Truth is a mental reality ; and the desire for it has been intensified by the fact that the human mind has so often been de- ceived. Truth alone is recognized as satisfying and enduring. Yet realism in the sense of truth is apt to be the aim of the more intellectual of an age, rather than the whole generation. To the masses, and to men of ordinary culture, truth in the abstract seems too subtle, too vague, as the chief object of search ; what they mean by reality is something more concrete, more tangible, or, as they would likely say, more real. Truth, in fact, is more comprehensive than what is usually meant CHARACTERISTICS OF THE AGE. by reality. Truth is purely intellectual ; but ob- jective reality, which is usually meant by reality, exists whether or not intellectually apprehended. Truth is limited by the mind's apprehension ; real- ity comprehends the universe of being, whether apprehended or not. Were we to consider Christians only, we should find that to them religion is the highest realism. They regard spiritual objects as the very essence of reality. God is the being from, through, and to whom all things are. But as we are now con- sidering the age aside from the church, we cannot emphasize spiritual or Christian realism. Clear as it is that the search for objective realism interprets the age, so clear likewise is the nature of the reality which dominates the age. It is the reality of the senses, the tactual and immediately observable, the physical, which affects what is physical in us. This hard reality, which forces itself on our attention, is regarded as so evident that its existence cannot be doubted. Many have been so engrossed by the palpably real, that they want to consider only it and the needs which it meets. The power of the nearest and most obvious real- ity over thinking minds, as well as over the masses, is a mark of our times. Lotze and other philos- ophers have found a deep distrust of spirit by the spirit a present characteristic. The mind, by which alone matter can be known, has actually 4 50 THE AGE AND THE CHURCH. been lost in matter. The senses have been treated as if endowed with reason, and the problem of the universe has been interpreted to mean the count- ing, weighing, measuring, analyzing, relating, labelling, and classifying of things ! A method valuable, because so important an aid to thought, has been lauded above profound thinking, because by means of it the thoughtless were supposed to possess as great a power as the thinkers. In order that the immediate effect of force on the senses might not be perverted, logic was ignored, gener- alizations were ridiculed because they involved too much thought, reason was dethroned, and a com- prehensive view of the universe pronounced im- possible ; hence mere details were treated as if possessing the value of the universe itself. Meta- physics was denounced by materialism, itself the worst form of unconscious metaphysics. Specu- lation was decried, and then what was called science was made to teem with speculation. The unthinking senses were supposed to pick up the problems of the universe from the surface of things, and to solve them by picking them up. When thought was nevertheless permitted to soar above the things to which the senses tethered it, the universe was apt to be limited by the analogical reasoning of a narrow specialty. Not to the think- ers in science, the only true scientists, but to infe- rior scientists, and to such as had been affected by some kind of scientific contagion, reality meant CHARACTERISTICS OF THE AGE. 51 the material universe, and all else was treated as imagination. Materialism is nothing but a philosophical hy- pothesis ; but it was heralded as scientific, and this made it so effective with the masses. Materialism as a working theory for the explanation of natural phenomena has great advantages ; but as an inter- pretation of the universe, as the essence of all be- ing, it is the source of gross abuses. No one knows what matter is ; yet mind and spirit were reduced to matter, and consciousness, thought, ethics, religion, were viewed as the product of mechanical forces. The brutalizing effect of this tendency is too patent to require elaboration. For two decades theoretical materialism has been waning. So monstrous had its abuses be- come that scientists and philosophers united in its opposition. It is still advocated by a few scien- tists ; but it is generally admitted by thinkers that it is a mere hypothesis, that it does not explain the phenomena of the universe, and therefore must be false. Consciousness, ideas, the notion of free- dom, ethics, and religion, are wholly beyond the reach of materialistic interpretation. Atoms are postulated ; but how to conceive them as in space and yet indivisible, and how to unite them and get them to evolve the universe, has never even been imagined. Nor has it ever been conceived how the mind can discern between truth and error, good and evil, and can work according to design, 52 THE AGE AND THE CHURCH. if there is only mechanical force in the universe, a force whose results are an absolute necessity. Error, evil, design, as the product of necessity, are inconceivable ; the contradiction is palpable. Theoretical materialism aimed to banish spirit from the imiverse : but now it has itself become a ghost, still haunting dark minds and hovering- about among the masses. The dregs of theoretical materialism remain in the shape of practical materialism. Theoretical materialists have protested against the charge that their theory involves practical grossness and cor- ruption. Theoretical materialism has been pro- claimed as ethical, social, as cherishing ideals, and intent on the welfare of humanity. Although these fruits have neither been very evident nor abundant, yet it must be admitted that materi- alists, like D. F. Strauss and Feuerbach, did not lead lives of grossness. But the effect of theo- retical materialism can hardly be judged from materialists who received a Christian training, who formed their character under Christian influ- ence, and were constantly subject to Christian surroundings. In a nation of theoretical materi- alists we cannot see how higher motives than Epi- curean selfishness and social expediency could control men. It is not likely that the stream would rise higher than its source. Practical materialism now has the field. This does not always mean that the spiritual is rejected, CHARACTERISTICS OF THE AGE. 53 or that matter is supposed to be able to account for everything. Matter is treated as the great certainty, if not the sole reality, while spiritual ob- jects are regarded as not so evident ; and men are intent on seizing what is certain and within reach. ''This sidedness," ''this worldliness" is the force which masters, domineers, overwhelms men. If men can only secure success in this life, they will gladly "jump the life to come." Socialistic and materialistic masses denounce religion as an effort to cheat them out of the pleasures of this world with the hope of heaven. This dominant tendency has assumed various names. In distinction from the former roman- ticism it is actualism ; in distinction from idealism it is realism ; in distinction from spiritualism it is materialism ; and in distinction from supernat- uralism it is naturalism. In each case the imme- diate and sensible environment is made the centre of the thoughts and feelings and pursuits. The prominence given to nature is partly the cause and partly the effect of this tendency. Na- ture is regarded as the sure and substantial reality to which all objects worthy of inquiry must be reduced. But it is evident that the tendency to reality could not end with dumb matter or with brutes. Man is nearest himself, and his interests are naturally centered around objects which some- how concern himself. Thus the very processes in natural science led up to man. Biology, physiol- 54 THE AGE AND THE CHURCH. ogy, psycho-physics, became the centres of scien- tific inquiry. Even where materialism was not openly advocated, it was tacitly understood that science deals only with matter and its forces. Thus unconsciously, and perhaps unintentionally, materialistic premises were smuggled into the study of man. It is not surprising that the absorb- ing contemplation of matter cultivated a habit which unfitted investigators for the appreciation of other than material forces. Even where postu- lates and reservations are made with respect to the mental and the spiritual, the whole force of the mind cultivated only by the material tends to the recognition of the material universe as the only substantial reality, and of mechanical forces as the only actuality. Thus in the study of humanity man was treated as a purely natural product ; he was sunk into the brute, and then the brute was made the interpreter of man. The most effective way of brutalizing man is to persuade him that he is nothing but a brute. Of course ethics and religion must then be explained as but the necessary working of the forces of nature, and as an evolution of the in- stincts and powers of brutes : and both ethics and religion lose their significance when thus ex- plained, just as legerdemain loses attraction when its tricks are exposed. Conscience becomes a tyrant, responsibility a myth, and the most diabol- ical crime as natural and innocent as the devouring CHARACTERISTICS OF THE AGE, 55 of a lamb by a hungry wolf. Instead of punish- ment, the innocent criminal requires medicine, and instead of prisons, we need only hospitals and lunatic asylums. And in deeds the most horrible, as well as in books, the worst consequences of practical materialism have been drawn. Nature itself sets limits to debauchery and vio- lence, even where social restraints and penal codes do not curb the demoniac element in man. But aside from its directly bestial and criminal influ- ence, practical materialism proves its dominance in other respects. Indeed, the leaven of practical materialism as the essence of realism has every- where became painfully evident. Thus in all human affairs material interests have attained an absorbing influence. This has indeed in a meas- ure been true of all ages ; but never before have the means for cultivating these interests by ma- chinery, by industries and commerce, been so great, and never have these interests been so prominent ; besides, the ideal tendencies are not as strong relatively as in former times. Industries and commerce meet real needs ; hence they are esteemed as the real concerns of man. Science and art and discoveries have been made to minister to the greed for material gain, and even learning has come to be regarded largely from a monetary point of view. The discovery of gold in California and of oil in Pennsylvania, the applications of steam and electricity, the improvements in ma- 56 THE AGE AND THE CHURCH. chinery, and the vast development of mineral and agricultural resources, all have ministered to the cultivation of material interests. The poetry, the science, and the humane considerations in the dis- covery of new territory, are lost in the estimate of the commercial advantages. Scarcely is the Dark Continent explored, when nations begin to quarrel over the possession of the land for the purpose of finding a market for their goods. Even the most Christian nations do not hesitate to force the opium and the rum traffic on savage and heathen tribes, though fearful devastation is the inevitable result. The accursed slave trade is viewed chiefly in the light of pecuniary loss and gain. In Amer- ica, in England, and on the Continent, the passion for money is the flood which resistlessly sweeps along the peoples and overwhelms all other inter- ests. vSocialism, with its worship of earth and its emphasis on the gratification of the appetite, is but the culmination of the dominant realism of the day. Intimately connected with this form of realism is the hankering after pleasure, a marked and growing feature of the times. It must be gross and materialistic, in order to have the solid basis of reality for the ordinary mind. An inquiry into the proportion of individuals who know no higher aim for life than enjoyment, leads to startling results. Vast majorities reveal scarcely a trace of an earnest ethical purpose, and of genuine spirit- CHARACTERISTICS OF THE AGE. 57 uality, and we wonder whether they are capable of high aspiration, of noble sacrifice, of devotion to truth, or of consecration to anything but selfish interest. In our great cities the most numerous and most successful palaces are the haunts of pleasure, and they are usually haunts of vice. The road to the passions is the way to the purses of men. The opera, the theatre, the concert, read- ing, company — all for pleasure. Fashionable soci- ety, with its inanity, its barbaric displays, its sensuous interests, its gluttonous feasts, its resort to balls and cards for entertainment, its miserable vanities — what is it but refined grossness, glossed voluptuousness, and aristocratic heathenism ? The police and the reporters know that even in intel- lectual and the most wealthy circles, the most devout worshipers of Venus and Bacchus abound. Sport sits on the neck of the culture of the age, and is a demon driving its victims to destruction by the thousand. Those who worship wealth do it largely for the sake of getting means of sport and carnal gratification. A palace and millions of money, and outwardly brilliant society, do not save a man from "living in filth," as the Germans express it ; they may be the very means of drag- ging him down to hell. Indeed, the common greed for pleasure is seriously affecting our language. Entertainment has so become the supreme aim of life, that even our worship must be entertaining to be acceptable. We estimate a divine service by 58 THE AGE AND THE CHURCH, the pleasure it gives ; we enjoy the sermon, the hymns, the prayer. Not the benefit, not the duty, not the communion with God, not the culture of faith and hope, but enjoyment is the test. In the church, in society, in excursions, in literature, in art, the dominant question is the same as at the ball and in the theatre : Did you enjoy yourself ? In consistency we ought also to change our forms of salutation into greetings of pleasure. It is in the realism of gratification that we most of all approach heathenish bestiality, or actually sink below it. Modern life has likewise become absorbed by politics as never before. The legislation, formerly in the hands of a few, has now become the business of the people. The very freedom gained by na- tions has attracted to politics the best powers for- merly devoted to scholarship, to theology, to the professions, and to art. From ideal pursuits men have been drawn to consider matters of immediate practical interest. This is especially striking on the continent of Europe, where formerly the think- ers had no sphere of activity but scholarship, be- ing excluded from politics ; but now they are drawn from learned pursuits into the prejudices and disputes of parties. In Germany, where until lately scholarship and ideal pursuits were the only avenues to fame, some of the most eminent pro- fessors, as Mommsen, Treitschke and Virchow, have been drawn into the arena of politics. The CHA RA C TERIS TICS OF THE A GE. 59 affairs of state have a human reality, an actuality, which is not so apparent in purely learned pur- suits. The national life is constantly agitated by political affairs, and thus attention is taken from other considerations. The leading political ques- tions deal with material affairs, such as national finances, duties, trade and commerce, taxes, and the general secular welfare of the people. Expe- diency rules so exclusively that, even if a politician acts from principle, it is hard to believe such an exception possible. Partisanship reigns, and par- tisanship usually means some particular method to secure secular interests and selfish ends. There are nobler aims, but the whole world knows that they are not dominant. When now we turn to the daily press, we find it a correct exponent of the interests of the day, and the mightiest promoter of the same. It is studi- ously careful to give the people what they want; what they need is a different matter. Often papers exist for the advertisements ; the reading matter being as thoroughly materialistic as the advertise- ments themselves. Politics, business, commerce, industries, finances, and social gossip, are the standing themes, and these are the subjects in which the nations are daily educated, as if ordi- nary life were not already sufficiently burdened with them. The greed for entertainment is of course sedulously cultivated ; hence the sensa- tional element, truth being no necessary ingre- 60 THE AGE AND THE CHURCH. dient. Some journals are especially strong in the attractions and details of all that is abominable. Papers so outrageous that ancient heathen nations would have felt disgraced by them are taken by Christian families ; and their editors and reporters, the vilest corrupters of youth and the creators of the criminals that fill the prisons, are, perhaps, members of churches and admitted into decent society ! These materialistic tendencies, often gross and deeply corrupting, have a power so absorbing and universal that it seems almost impossible to resist their tyranny. They are patent to all ; but men think them perfectly natural because so universal, and because they are themselves controlled by them. What men themselves are is not apt to astonish them when they find it in others. So completely is the age domineered by material in- terests and pleasures that many people know of nothing else ; and they have no conception of the practical materialism of the day, for the reason that they have lost all ideal standards with which to compare that materialism. It is not alone in the hamlets of continental Europe that people live for the amount of manure they can collect. Gross materialism and gross naturalism are the burden under which the age groans, crushing its spirit, oppressing its life, and burying its ideals. Reason must be tethered to matter. Even religion must be natural, not supernatural ; and unless it CHARACTERISTICS OF THE AGE. 61 can somehow be rubbed out of the atoms, it ought to be wiped out of the human heart. Not only- must philosophy be made certain, which is a rea- sonable demand, but it must also be made subject to the same method and tests as material objects ; and then its sole value is made to consist in deal- ing with material problems and mechanical forces, and not with the great themes which have always been its essence and which constitute its dignity. The same is true of literature in general. From all lands the report comes that the ideals have vanished. Realism reigns, and realism often means naturalism. It is almost omnipotent in France, has largely expelled idealism and roman- ticism from Germany, and is in the main the sub- stance of the literature of other lands. Men must now go to the history of philosophy and of liter- ature for the ideals which the present has lost. Even poetry is said to have had its day, being too idealistic for the present realism. Real life and materialistic concerns are the themes of novels, and vanities have taken the place of great thoughts in dramas. So far has this naturalism gone that it emphasizes the basest forms of reality, describ- ing them with painful minuteness. Much of the literature of the day belongs to the aesthetics of filth. Crime and lust and pollution are favorite themes ; they afford the best elements of sensa- tionalism. Perhaps their excess in literature will produce satiety — that seems now in some regions 63 THE AGE AND THE CHURCH. the only hope. The craving for excitement is a craze of the age ; the literature that feeds also develops it ; but there are limits it cannot trans- cend, and when they are reached the reaction must come. Now a tendency to naturalism is pro- moted, especially in France, which limits thought severely to the present actuality. Human possi- bilities are as little considered, as human respon- sibility. Crime ends with crime, despair in despair; hope, belonging to the future, is not a present real- ity, and is therefore ignored. It is not remembered that seeds from which future growths may spring are real, and that a real night may also have real stars of hope. The writers do not consider, or do not care, that familiarity with the corruptions described is one of the most powerful means of promoting these corruptions. Their novels are text books in the school of vice. All seems valid if only natural, whether it be in the novel or the drama. The natural school is said to have become so naturalistic as actually to be unnatural. Even the most enlightened nations look admiringly to Tolstoi and Ibsen as apostles of modern realism. The discoverer of a new and exciting reality in life is more popular than the scientific discoverer. The same tendencies are seen in art, called Fine or Beautiful, but really Representative or Contem- plative. It has been noted as a characteristic of modern art that religious subjects are rare. The well known court-preacher of Stuttgart, Gerok, CHARACTERISTICS OF THE AGE. 63 felt it his duty to protest against the modern theory, that religion furnishes no suitable themes for poetry and art. Even classic and historic scenes have yielded their place to modern realism. Natural scenery, cats, dogs, horses, cows, archi- tecture, portraits, social gatherings, family scenes, love affairs, battles, industrial pursuits, and other, often very trivial subjects of practical and mate- rial interest, are the rule. While former artists chose grand subjects, exalted themes, and noble ideals, living artists choose reality ; former artists, it has been said, chose beauty as their subject ; modern artists aim to paint beautifully, if beauty can at all be attributed to their work. Where formerly beauty had an aesthetic interest, now it often seems but the minister to base passion. From sesthetic idealism art has descended to a copy of reality. Claude Lorraine is depreciated because his pictures have too much ideal beauty. Nature must be severely copied, originality, ideal- ity, and genius in conception must be banished as unreal. An art critic has said that formerly art exalted earthly things into heaven, but that now all that is heavenly is dragged to earth. Whether the reality be beautiful or ugly is of little concern, the main thing is reality. As an artist who had studied under Thorwaldsen said, " Modern artists paint a cowstable with all its filth, instead of selecting what is agreeable and beautiful, the proper domain of art." 64 THE AGE AND THE CHURCH. Music is the most popular art. Of all the arts it affects the feelings most deeply, and seems to have the most realistic human interest. Wagner is the most popular composer ; his tones vibrate with passion, just what men living in and for excite- ment want. Largely the music of the day culti- vates and gratifies the taste for pleasure, without exalting the spirit to great ideas which expel self- ish interests. When therefore we consider the literature and art of the day, there can be no doubt as to the character of the realism of the age. This world and its affairs, matter and its products, human life and its earthly interests, are the supreme consid- erations of the present. Respecting all that trans- cends the earth and our immediate temporal concerns there is much suspicion and doubt ; it is treated with indifference or consigned to agnos- ticism. Even where men of the world profess to believe in another life, that does not loosen their grip on materialistic realism. With its modern improvements, its increased advantages, and its practical inventions, this world has become much more to men than heretofore, while the transcen- dental world with its spiritual objects has receded to a distance too dim to lend enchantment to the view. When we thus characterize the age as sec- ular and naturalistic, it must be remembered that we are considering the age outside of the church. As we now pass to the intellectual characteristics CHARACTERISTICS OF THE AGE. 65 of the times, we find a marked predominance of such studies as deal with natural and secular real- ism. Natural science, with its various departments and numerous practical applications, comes first. It is supposed to lead to the most substantial, if not the only reality, and to the ground and source of all utility. Although biology, physiology, an- thropology, and medicine cannot be made as math- ematically exact as physics and chemistry, still they are included in the circle of the natural sciences ; and it is well known that efforts have been made to draw into the same circle psychol- ogy, philology, sociology, and in fact all the studies that deal with reality. The advance of technical education, and the increase of technical schools and literature, are among the signs of the times. Indeed, it has become common to regard science as but the means for furthering practical concerns, and all scientific discoveries are imraediately util- ized for the arts and life. Besides natural science, history receives especial attention. New principles of investigation have been established, historiography has been better formulated as a system, the great archives of Europe have been opened and carefully studied, men like Ranke being leaders in the research, and many historic errors have been exposed, and dark periods illuminated. Ancient inscriptions have been deciphered and buried cities excavated, so that monuments and ruins have contributed their 5 66 THE AGE AND THE CHURCH. revelations to those made by the archives. Thus the study of past actuality is added to that of the present reality. Great interest is manifested in biography with its personal realism. In the numerous histories of nations, persons, events, and intellectual pursuits, the present seems desir- ous of making itself the possessor of all past real- ities and actualities. Some subjects, in fact, seem to live only in their history. Great efforts are also made for the development of secular and directly practical affairs. Earthly human interest and human environment are supreme. There seems to be no end to books on industrial, agricultural, commercial, and financial pursuits. Much prominence is given to geograph- ical study, and it is brought into intimate relation with these pursuits. A remarkable impetus has been given to political studies, to economic science, and to sociology. While thus the age is intent on obtaining objec- tive realism, we learn from these dominant tend- encies and thoughts what the nature of reality is supposed to be. The intellect of the age gravitates earthward and is concentrated on the earthly inter- ests of man. Philosophy, so far as it is ontology and pure speculation, receives little attention from scholars. The theory of knowledge has received prominence, because it leads from fictions to real knowledge. Much attention has been given to aesthetics, which deals with the mind's interest in CHARACTERISTICS OF THE AGE. 67 beauty ; but even in aesthetics, thought walks on earth instead of soaring into the realm of Plato's ideas. Just now the preeminence in philosophy- seems to belong to ethics. This is chiefly owing to the momentous human interests involved in ethics, and to the prominence given to moral prob- lems by socialism. The encroachment of materi- alism on ethics has made it necessary to reexamine the freedom of the will and all the ethical prin- ciples, and to reconstruct the whole system of morality. The very existence of a moral basis and the possibility of truly moral conduct have to be established. Responsibility, personality, and all that pertains to the highest conceptions of humanity, must now be defended against a de- structive naturalism. Characteristic of the trend of philosophic thought is the effort to prove ra- tional psychology impossible, to put empirical psychology at the basis of philosophy, and to make psycho-physics, to which great prominence is now given, the basis of empirical psychology. When we turn from the subjects which engross the attention of the age to the purely intellectual character of the thought of our times, we cannot be in doubt as to the result of the inquiry. Intel- lect is subjected to the reality that rules. That it has a value of its own, that its pure products are a significant revelation of the nature of the mind, and that its proper exercise is supreme joy, seems a myth. Its own reality is lost in the external 68 THE AGE AND THE CHURCH. reality for whose sake it is supposed to exist. Hence purely rational exercises are at a discount. Ideas in which the mind most fully expresses itself, and most distinctly beholds itself, are pronounced fiction. Ideas are general and abstract, as good- ness, beauty, truth, love ; ideals are concrete forms of ideas : thus the idea of beauty becomes con- crete in a statue of Venus, and the idea of power is concreted in a bust of Jove. But because so purely rational, the ideals are deemed too little real for the present. All thought that rises far above the grossly real and the sensibly actual is regarded with suspicion ; and those who cherish such thought are called visionaries, or cranks. Principles contain all practice, but in the most condensed form and as an intellectual appre- hension ; nothing is more practical than principles, and yet they are disparaged, because the practice does not lie on the surface. It is not surprising therefore that great intel- lectual systems are not a characteristic of the age. We have specializations rather than comprehensive systems ; we are so intent on analysis that we cannot get at the work of synthesis ; we have a philosophy of language, of law, of history, of pol- itics, but no philosophy of the universe. Formerly intellect was supposed to illuminate nature ; now nature is the light of intellect. There is much complaint on the part of careful students of the times respecting the lack of origi- CHARACTERISTICS OF THE AGE. 69 nality. Thought is not independent and daring enough to be creative. It has been so completely buried in the dominant external realism, that it cannot free itself sufficiently to become itself and go its own way. The mind has become afraid of itself and suspicious of its own powers, unless under the safe guidance of mechanical forces and transpiring events. What the senses perceive, and what the understanding can mathematically demonstrate, is deemed the limit of intellectual safety. Hence the mind is an observer and exper- imenter, and must limit its course to the guidance and control of its observations and experiments. With this is connected research into facts and an exact record of the same. Thus there is often an astounding accumulation of materials of knowl- edge, where there is little real knowledge, the mind being so overwhelmed by its accumulations as not to be able to come to itself sufficiently to master its possessions. The exclusive absorption by things and facts cultivates the mind in and for these only, and seems to unfit it, by lack of time and exercise, for the great problems belonging peculiarly to reason. Besides the naturalism and actualism in which the age so generally loses itself, we find that intellect is also intent on learning what others have thought and done. There is research rather than creation, even where we have a right to expect creation. Investigation and learning prevail over the thinking. Ours is 70 THE AGE AND THE CHURCH. an age of scholiasts, annotators, commentators. There is a marvelous intellectual activity ; but it inquires, rehearses and interprets, more than it originates ; it is bound rather than free intellect ; it copies and retouches what others have produced ! Ours is the day for critics, translators, transposers and historians. A German writer quotes an Englishman, who had the politeness to call Ger- many a nation of thinkers. The German says, ** Heavens, how that man is mistaken ! " And he says, not thinking, but rather a dread of thought characterizes the nation. Even among students vigorous thought is rare. The universities have become pumping stations, as much is pumped into each mind as it will hold. These facts have be- come commonplaces in ^'the land of thought." The climax of genius now seems attained if a Ger- man writer can determine exactly what Goethe said, what he meant when he said it, where he said it, and what the particular circumstances during the saying. An item of great literary moment would be attached to a poem of the eminent man, if it could be scientifically established just when he took snuff and sneezed while writing it. No wonder that a recent rector of the university of Berlin exposed this servile spirit by making *' Goethe and no End " the subject of his inau- gural address. For lack of originality writers make Shakespeare, Emerson, Victor Hugo, Schil- ler, Goethe, and many others turn their thoughts CHARACTERISTICS OF THE AGE. 71 over and over, to see whether they cannot be in- duced to say what they do not say. It is therefore not surprising that with all the excited, frenzied activity of the age there is so little individuality and peculiarity. Not only do the same things out- side of the mind control all and tend to make them alike ; but men become imitators, in order to make sure of what has been real and actual to others ; they think in schools, en masse, by means of their environment, by proxy, and in epidemics. The theory of the adaptation of organisms to their environment has been made to serve materi- alism. Not only has theory been applied to plants, to animals, and to man in his lower forms of evo- lution, but also to human history and to humanity in all stages of development. So completely was man made subject to his environment, that the innate power of his mind was ignored. While it was emphasized that he could be molded by cir- cumstances and transformed into the likeness of his surroundings, it seemed like defying science to claim that he can start processes himself, that he can change his environment and adapt it to him- self, and that he can grow up amid earthly things and yet become their master. He was treated as forever a child, the earth about him, the body which domineered his mind, and the tutelage to which he was thus subjected robbed him of the confidence and courage to give free play to his mental powers. Mind that dared to free itself 72 THE AGE AND THE CHURCH. from the dominion of matter was thought to drift without rudder and pilot on a boundless and fath- omless sea. Those who know how mind has been limited by the environment to which it was teth- ered will understand the character of the domi- nant thought and its lack of creative energy. If the environment is lord, mental originality is a violation of the mind's duty as a servant. It must wait for the command and yield implicit obedi- ence. And the race which thus degrades the mind has not yet vanished from earth. Thus far it has been the aim to find the domi- nant factor. The tendencies have been given in a condensed form, often scarcely more than hints being possible. The main features in the charac- teristic movements of the age have been stated ; they are the summits from which the details in the movements can be studied. But in presenting this interpretation of the essence of the thought, the feeling, the interests, and the pursuits of the times, we have not by any means exhausted the age. There are also movements of a different character, which have come down from the past, are innate tendencies of the human mind, are due to the influence of the church, or else are reactions against the exclusively earthly realism. In pro- portion as the spirit of man is developed will it rebel against limiting its capacities and interests to naturalism. The innate tendency of the spirit to seek its own similitude impels it beyond a mate- CHARACTERISTICS OF THE AGE. 73 rialistic to a spiritual realism. A long list of phi- losophers, of whom Plato, Berkeley, Fichte, Hegel and Lotze are only the principal ones, have advo- cated idealism as the true reality, natural objects being but its symbols and mirrors. Even to those who are absorbed by naturalism thoughts will come which cannot rest in materialism. Were man but the product of matter, how could he ever seek to rise above nature ? Like produces like ; how then can the natural produce spiritual long- ings and tendencies ? It is no explanation to de- clare these tendencies fallacies. Either matter must have spiritual qualities, or it cannot be the source of what is spiritual in man. Whence intel- lect, whence self-consciousness, whence conscience and the notion of responsibility, whence all the aspirations of the human mind? Not only is it impossible to answer these questions on the suppo- sition that all being is material, but it would be impossible to ask them if in the universe matter were the only propounder of questions. Pessimism is the shadow of theoretical and prac- tical materialism. The human mind finds intol- erable the thought that all its dearest interests and noblest aspirations are but deceptions and doomed to end in nihilism. Among scientists themselves, particularly in the United States and England, are found some of the strongest oppo- nents of materialism. Unfortunately, what is material has so generally been regarded as the 74 THE AGE AND THE CHURCH, sole positive element, that the spiritual has seemed only as its negation, not as itself a positive entity. This has made the conception of the spirit pecul- iarly difficult. But vagne as the conception of the spirit and the spiritual has been, positivism with its cultus of humanity, agnosticism with its post- ulates of the realm of the unknowable, and the numerous efforts to find some substitute for re- ligion, prove that there are demands of the inner man which are not material and which matter cannot satisfy. The proposed substitutes for re- ligion are evidence of the reality of the needs which religion meets. The experiment of athe- ism is being tried in various countries ; but athe- ism is emptiness, and that cannot fill the soul. There are already decided reactions against it, and in southern Europe it is not unusual for the atheist to pass to the other extreme of Catholicism. Even in lands where materialism was most pow- erful there has been a tendency to pass from nature to man, and from the body to the spirit. And in proportion as man himself has become the absorbing theme, the intellectual, the moral, and the religious elements have been pushed more and more into the foreground. The essentially and peculiarly human factors are determined to mani- fest themselves. It looks, however, as if the vari- ous possibilities of materialism, pessimism, and atheism would have to be tried thoroughly, in order to learn their power to meet the inmost CHARACTERISTICS OF THE AGE. 75 cravings of man. Numbers are already testifying; that they are destructive of hope, of inspiration, of energy, and of progress ; that therefore they are intolerable. The mind cannot rest in a natu- ral realism which ignores the most essential fac- tors of human realism. The questions involved are those of humanity ; and we may be sure that their answer has significance for all history, as well as for our generation. The present status of thought evidently makes it necessary to begin at the very bottom, in order to reconstruct ethical and spiritual systems. The reality which is accepted as established, or which can be demonstrated as genuine, must be made the basis for the search of all other existing reality. If now we postulate a reality, as spirit- uality, for instance, and construct a system of it, then the whole will have only the value of the postulate. We must find the real about which we want to philosophize ; and this can be done only by proceeding from one reality to another. All fictitious constructions of reality must close. This demand for substantial reality as the basis of all our intellectual processes is the inexorable require- ment of the science of the day. Men insist on reality, and they insist on the proof of the vaHdity of all that claims to be real. Those who fail to see how deep and earnest is the search for unquestion- able reality, and what irrefragable proof of reality is now required, fail to understand the result of the 76 THE AGE AND THE CHURCH. philosophic and scientific processes of the age. The radical, thorough work now required in all departments of thought is one of the marks of our times. The greatest possible demands are made on intellect ; and these must be raet by him who would do enduring work. The effort to meet them has produced an intellectualism, w^hich seems to base all hope solely on the intellectual solution of the problems of the universe, thus being in danger of an intellectuality so one-sided as to ignore feel- ing and faith. As the critical thought of the age has attempted to get to the very bottom of reality, so has it gone to the bottom in reconstructing the system of the universe. Scholars have gone to the basis of sci- ence for their foundation of ethics and religion. Thus according to the principles of science, and by means of raathematical demonstrations, it has been attempted to establish the existence of God and the immortality of the soul. If there are only necessary laws, then, it has been argued, religion, their necessary product, must be true. On Dar- winian principles it has been contended, that Christianity is the product of the highest evolu- tion ; and that if this product of evolution is false, then the evolution which produced it must likewise be false. The important law of science, that things must be taken as they are, and judged by what they are, not by preconceived notions or unproved hypotheses, has been used against naturalism. It CHARACTERISTICS OF THE AGE. 77 has been insisted that man must be judged by what he is and manifests, with all his wealth of intellect and spirit, and not by any theory respect- ing matter or man's relation to the brute. The effort to make nature, or any reality exter- nal to man, the test of all things meets with an insuperable difficulty. It has never been con- ceived, and never can be, how it is possible for the mind to get out of itself into something external to itself and make that its standard of reality. The mind can only deal with what is within it, namely, its own perceptions and conceptions. This is one of the best established results of critical thought, and its validity is admitted by the best scientists. Thus modern intellect has reached the conclusion of the ancient Greeks, that man is the measure of all things, though we do not mean by it the same as the old Sophists. Not being that is independent of our mind and unknown to us, but being as apprehended by us and as present to our consciousness constitutes our world. Things are to us intellectually as we think them. He who wants to know things as they are, but not as they are thought, wants to think the universe without thinking it, or wants to conceive the universe as it is not conceivable. Man as the measure of things is thus the chief ob- ject of study. Even things he can study only in his percepts and concepts of them. Man is thus elevated above external things, and in his appre- 78 THE AGE AND THE CHURCH. hension of the universe his own intellectual appre- hension is the object of study. Thus the dominance of intellect over matter is assured ; we know matter itself only as an intellectual concept. And the modern distrust of intellect is modern ignorance. The sense is pitted against reason, because the senses are supposed to be nearer reality. But we can only understand the senses with the reason and with the exercise of all our intellectual powers. Some imagine that through the senses they get a material result ; but what we perceive by means of the senses is purely mental ; there is not even a ghost of matter in it. Thus by reflecting on itself, on its processes, on its knowledge, the mind has attained an intel- lectuality which raises it out of the dominion of naturalism and of all external objects. Therefore the mind is supreme. And the demands of the mind are the supreme demands. How monstrous then to suppose that the mind, the measure of all things, should not regard its own requirements as imperative ! Whatever its conclusions respecting external objects may be, the mind's demands are the supreme concern of the mind. Here is the key to the unrest, the pessimism of the day, to the reactions against naturalism, and to the mighty efforts to rise into the realm of ethics and religion. A philosophy of personality is now attempted, the establishment of the reign of personality instead of the reign of mechanical forces. CHARACTERISTICS OF THE AGE. 79 The mind, overwhelmed by a sudden acc-umtila- tion of material forces and material interests, required time to come to itself. This process of self-consciousness is now at work, and its results cannot be doubtful. There are many proofs that this self-consciousness includes more than a cold intellectuality. In the reality outside of us there may be many elements for which we have no intellectual formulas ; the consciousness of our ignorance of things has become as clear as our knowledge. We know more than our forefathers, because we know that we know less. But if we cannot find absolute formulas for external things, there always being a dark residue of the un- known, why may not this be equally true re- specting what is in man himself? Can we ex- press in intellectual formulas all that he is ? From the limits of the intellect we are led to the feel- ings. They are real, and have a basis of reality as truly as the intellect. Why should not the feel- ings then reveal a reality which the intellect does not so fully reveal and cannot clearly formulate ? Perhaps our intellectuality can touch but not in- terpret or exhaust what is highest and best. Whoever wants the entire personalit)^ must take all its manifestations, the emotions and the will, as well as the intellect. As thus thought deepens and enlarges, it must comprehend man's emotional nature, his longings, his faith, his ethics, and his religion. And from the bottom struck by science 80 THE AGE AND THE CHURCH. the process of reconstruction is going on which includes the whole man, his spirit, his personality, his feelings, not merely his cold intellect. While therefore science is absolute, so far as it goes, it cannot compass the whole of being, it does not comprehend all of man's interests, and it is not the limit of his aspirations. Science cannot take the place of faith ; it can at best draw the line where mathematical proof ends and faith begins. Nor does faith build on science ; it builds on the capacities and needs of man, using science and all other light for guidance. While therefore the value of science is not questioned, other than sci- entific interests are emphasized, and other than scientific studies are cultivated. The process is going on from nature to man ; from matter to mind ; from the severe science in physics and chemistry to the admission of speculation and theories in the less exactly scientific studies of biology, physiology, anthropology, medicine, psycho-physics ; and from these the process leads to psychology and the whole domain of philosophy. Those who thought that the mind must end with science have had time to learn that they mistook the beginning for the end. The effort to rise above the dominant realism is also seen in the growing interest in philosophical thought. While the thoroughness of specialization is praised, its narrowness and exclusiveness are lamented. It is admitted that knowledge has be- CHARACTERISTICS OF THE AGE. 81 come fragmentary, that bits of ruins are now dis- tributed among investigators, but that the master mind to construct the whole into a beautiful sys- tem is wanting. The numerous philosophical works now produced are hailed with joy as an evidence that the fragments of specialization are to be united, so as to enable the mind once more to get a view of the universe as a totality. Instead of stopping with atoms and mechanical forces, mind, reason as supreme in the universe are em- phasized, and with Aristotle, Leibnitz, Hegel, and Lotze design is recognized as the evidence of a controlling reason. There are also proofs that the dominant natural- ism and realism have not been able wholly to banish the ideals from literature and art. Real life has so much of the gross and the prosaic, that men at last tire of having the same perpetually obtruded upon them in books and pictures. Both in France and Germany critics are analyzing the coarseness of the prevalent naturalism and expos- ing its disgusting features. It has become evident that the studio is largely ruled by the market. Art exhibitions bring together pictures with such trivial subjects, so little thought, and so poorly executed, that aesthetic taste is offended. Some things are put on exhibition, which seem to have been designed for the aesthetics of swine rather than for human appreciation. The plea is that this is the art that vulgar wealth wants ; that the 6 82 THE AGE AND THE CHURCH. artist wants money, and therefore he paints such stuff. But this lack of ideas, this degeneracy of art, is exciting more comment in ever-increasing circles and cannot last. Things may become so bad that human nature itself at last revolts ; and this stage has been attained by much of the art of the day. Men are tiring of the naturalism and animalism, and are asking for a little human- ism, intellectualism, sestheticism, and spiritualism. Especially among young men of culture and aspi- ration is a new idealism beginning to flourish. Alexander Dumas fils writes that a reaction will no doubt soon take place against "the constant portraiture of wickedness," and that posterity will care to preserve only the works which aim at the purification and welfare of mankind. " The future generation will want a spiritual ideal to lift men out of the mire." The same spirit is manifesting itself in other lands. Men are experimenting with the various forms of reality to learn how far these can meet the needs of the soul. Here naturalism fails. Human nature testifies, that it wants what interprets the soul to itself and fulfils the prophe- cies buried in the heart. Hence a present reality without a future, an insight into what now is, but with no hint as to what is to come, cannot be final. Mind, like nature, is full of seeds whose energy pushes toward a harvest. Still more than nature even is man full of prophecies. Hence that spirit in literature and art, which has a present reality CHARACTERISTICS OF THE AGE. 83 with no future hope or aspiration, is false. That realism which has only a present, and that present nothing but a grave, is not adapted to the soul. There are therefore tendencies in literature and art toward a truer and better realism than that presented by the dominant naturalism. And the day for the revival of poetry, and for the preva- lence of ideals and prophecies in fiction and art, may not be distant. Indeed, it looks as if the human mind, in order to avenge itself for the in- dignity heaped on it by the dominant realism, sought compensation in the revival of supersti- tions and in the ghosts of spiritualism, now so abundant in lands the most scientific. That the dominant spirit and trend of the age are arousing opposition is evident from the numer- ous efforts to reform education. Some of these efforts are of course made by the dominant spirit, as the tendency to make nature instead of man, the body rather than the spirit, the controlling factor in education. But there are also counter- tendencies. The present systems of education are admitted to be failures in many respects, and are made responsible for a large share of the existing evils. In opposition to the materialistic trend of culture, it is claimed that the highest interests of man must receive more attention in the schools, that an ethical purpose must be more emphasized, and that a religious spirit ought to be cultivated. Instead of heaping a mass of learned material on 84 THE AGE AND THE CHURCH. the mind, stress is laid on thinking, on the educa- tion of the mind itself, on the actual development of intellectual power, so that, as the Germans say^ not what a man knows, but what he can^ is the test of his education. So there is a reaction against the exclusive intellectualism in the schools. Not intellectuality merely, but the normal develop- ment of the whole man, of the heart and will, as well as of the head, is proclaimed as the mission of the teacher. The school is held responsible for the formation of the character, for the symmetrical unfolding and strengthening of the personality, for the training of boys and girls into true men and women. Even the emphasis now placed on the necessity of training men for the state and for society is an advance on the dominance of purely natural studies and interests. Some of the phenomena of the day are really more favorable than at first sight appears. This is true of certain literary tendencies. Much is made of the light and trashy character of the lit- erature which forms the intellectual food of mil- lions ; it looks like an evidence of degeneracy compared with former times. The predominance of this kind of literature certainly throws an im- portant light on the popular intellect of the age. But it ought to be considered, that the producers and readers of literature have greatly increased over past ages. Where formerly there were no readers at all now there are multitudes. Intelli- CHA RAC TERIS TICS OF THE A GE. 85 gence has been more widely diffused, and literature has ceased to be a monopoly. Since the masses have joined the reading public, it is not strange that there has been a rapid increase in light litera- ture. The fact that more novels are read than formerly is no evidence that solid books are in less demand than heretofore. There are more readers now, and they naturally seek what is adapted to their tastes and capacities. More light books are read than ages ago, but also more solid ones. Never were more learned works produced than now. The specialties alone, each with its own literature, produce whole libraries of substantial volumes. It should also be considered, that much of the best material formerly put into books is now pub- lished in journals. Literature has became so vast that the demand for condensation is strong and growing. Men insist on brief articles, where formerly they had time for volumes. There are journals for all the departments of thought, through which scholars communicate with one another and with the public. This indeed promotes dilettante- ism, but also general intelligence. It is no less true that specialists have greatly increased than that enlightenment has become more universal. Among the most marked changes is the fact that literature has become a profession, while in former ages it was pursued more from love or for the sake of fame. Perhaps it is too dignified to 86 THE AGE AND THE CHURCH. call literature a profession ; in many cases, at leasts it is more correct to call it a trade, a mercantile pursuit. If former authors wrote for immortality, or because some inner impulse was irresistible, or some great cause demanded their advocacy, now multitudes write for money. Every country abounds with writers, who are ready to supply what the market needs. They write to order, and about equally well on all subjects. As common food is most in demand, they are able to furnish a very common article. The sensational novel and spectacular play pay best ; therefore they flood the market. Even truth, justice, morality, and re- ligion have their pecuniary value. The reading public get what the reading public want. Men can easily be found who have their price, and who have so many opinions of the public as to have none of their own. A man may even have princi- ples without being a man of principle. Here too, therefore, we are apt to be mistaken respecting the trend. We have something where formerly there was nothing ; and while what we now have is often worse than nothing, we also have more that is excellent than heretofore. There are many valuable journals where formerly none ex- isted, and the constant demand for superior articles is developing the best class of authorship. The evils in journalism and literature are seen, and this is the first requisite for overcoming them. Journalism, the great educator, is itself being edu- cated. CHARACTERISTICS OF THE AGE. 87 While thus the study of the age reveals charac- teristics that are extremely sad and cause serious apprehension, we also see tendencies of a more hopeful character. With the basest we find also the noblest powers in our times. All are pecul- iarly energized ; the conflicts of the ages have been intensified. For the man of thought, of piety, of energy, it is not an age to dream idly of the good old times, but an age of opportunity, of possibility, grand achievements. It must also be considered that our age is but a fragment. A drop is not the stream. An age is not humanity, and its interests and concerns are not an exhaustive revelation of what is in man. The ideas that dominate a generation may be as fleeting as the generation itself. The crusades, which frenzied nations and ages, have gone to re- turn no more. So with other dominant ideas, they had a temporal, not an eternal significance. The same applies to the dominant powers of this age. The notions of materialistic realism are not only liable to change, but are already in a process of transition. With our age, then, we must also study other ages in order to get the full truth. And this study is now one of the strongest levers to lift the age above itself. Thus the knowledge which the human intellect has deposited in history, in lin- guistics, in the philosophy of religion, and in other subjects which are the growth of ages, may exalt 88 THE AGE AND THE CHURCH. the mind into a realm above naturalism. All studies which centre in man and in his higher products are calculated to break through the dom- inant realism. In connection with theology and religion, whose position in the age will be consid- ered in the next chapter, the historic studies have helped to conserve and develop a taste for the ideal treasures of humanity. The characteristics of the age, largely inter- preted as a reaction against the wild speculation and the unreality in past pursuits, and in so many respects justifiable, give an insight into the great problems around which the conflict now rages. Matter and spirit, nature and personality, the brute and man, naturalism and spiritualism, mechanical force and design, atoms and God, are the great themes in the controversy. All the deepest inter- ests of man are involved, ethics and religion, as well as the highest intellectual concerns. Reality is the quest of all the disputants ; but on the nature of reality the disputants are divided into different camps. Never were the problems more momentous, never the disputants more in earnest, and never were the requirements for the purpose of securing the final victory greater. RELIGION AND THEOLOGY. 89 CHAPTER IV. Religion and Theology in the Age. Spirituality in the midst of naturalism and materialism; religious faith in an era concen- trating its energies on empirical investigation and insisting on demonstration ; and theology in an age of criticism, positivism, and agnosticism : these are the problems we are now to consider. Not the place of religion and theology in the church is our aim, but in the world outside of the church. Since religion and morality are a life of the heart and the will, we cannot regard their outward manifestations as absolute criteria of their actual condition. The number professing Christianity in a nation no more indicates the religious char- acter of the people, than a state religion makes the state religious. The vast majority in a state may be indifferent to religion ; and in some cities, called Christian, not over two per cent of the members of the state church attend divine ser- vices. How little the actual condition of religion can be learned from the existence of a state church is evident from the fact, that even atheists and the most abandoned characters are regarded as mem- 90 THE AGE AND THE CHURCH. bers, unless by some official declaration of their own they withdraw from the church. It is the real, not the nominal place of religion which we are seeking. The stress now laid on statistical Christianity is calculated to withdraw attention from the real power of the Christian religion. The nominal membership, the annual growth, the increase of churches, the amount of the contributions, perhaps the wealth of denominations and the brilliancy of ecclesiastical displays, receive the greatest empha- sis. Nothing more than religion depends on real- ity as its essence ; and yet in no department do empty phraseology and hypocritical form play a more conspicuous part. The relative position of religion in the world has undergone a great change. Even if now re- ligion were as extensive and powerful as some centuries ago, its place could not be the same as then, because other subjects and interests have attained greater prominence than formerly. In- stead of being the sole lord, or at least the chief among dominant factors, religion is now not only obliged to yield the dominion to other pov/ers, but in many places it is hardly considered either in politics or in public life as a controlling force. The secular have been emancipated from the vSpiritiial authorities, and in some respects have made the latter subject to them. The restoration of the supremacy of the spiritual power is the RELIGION AND THEOLOGY. 91 great aim of ultramontanism and Jesuitism. Even in Catholic countries the relative position of the temporal and spiritual powers has been reversed. This change has been as marked in education as in politics. Not the confessions but the states control the schools. This alone is enough to give a new aspect to religious affairs in France, Italy, Austria, the Catholic states of Germany, and in other countries. By taking the schools from the priests, the entire education of the people, from the elementary schools to the universities, has undergone a change. In Germany the professor- ships in other than the theological faculties of the universities are accessible to men of all shades of religion, and even to avowed atheists. At Halle, where Tholuck and Julius Mueller were once professors, the authorities of the university elected a Jew as rector for the year 1 890-1 891. The change in the relative position of the spirit- ual and secular authorities was possible, only be- cause religion and its leaders had lost their former place. Protestant as well as Catholic countries have been affected. Protestantism has not made religion secular, but it has enlarged the views and interests of religion, while at the same time it has made secular affairs more independent. Thought and feeling and the world have been enlarged, and long processes of development have inaugu- rated a new era, with new interests, new studies, and new pursuits. Where formerly the church 92 THE AGE AND THE CHURCH. and religion were supreme in the thoughts of the people, now politics, industries, machinery, and other secular concerns absorb the attention. The church has yielded to the market, and the worship- ers have become bu5^ers and sellers. Each of the intellectual and secular characteristics of the day, given in the preceding chapter, is the centre of a multitude of transformations, all of which affect the position of religion. Amid the dominant intellectual, political, and industrial pursuits religion has been thrown on the defensive, and is obliged to contend for its place. The world with its earthly concerns has become larger and mightier, and has encroached on the domain of religion. We can understand the solitary j^rominence of the church in former time : it had no rivals, its opponents among the people were few and weak, and its interests over- awed all secular affairs. Then religion could be separated from other concerns ; its isolation was that of a monarch on a throne. This by no means implies that then religion was truer, purer, and better than at present ; it only shows that it occu- pied a place which has become impossible in mod- ern society. The church building may remain the same as in former ages ; and yet where once it was the most conspicuous object in the city, it may now be invisible, because palaces and business blocks tower above it and hide it from view. The old saying, where God builds a church, the devil RELIGION AND THEOLOGY, 9a builds a chapel beside it, is hardly applicable to our times ; it is nearer the truth to say that where the people build a chapel, the devil builds a cathe- dral beside it. The relative place of religion may be learned from the daily press. Even where this is friendly, but little space is given to religious affairs. Espec- ially is this true of continental Europe. Often the press is totally indifferent, sometimes bitterly hostile. Empty compliments are of course paid the churches in order to secure subscribers. That the press is actually controlled by a Christian spirit is not true of any land. If it were true, the press could not be what it is. There are excep- tions, but they are striking because so rare. A large part of the press on the Continent ignores religion, because regarded as too weak to deserve special attention. Society at large also has other than religious interests to occupy its attention. How little of the thought, the conversation, and the life, even of the most religious nations, is really concerned about religion. This is what ought to be expected in an age sub- stantially secular. Add to the dominance of mate- terial interests the prevalence of doubt, and the consequent loosening of moral restraints, and we shall have the interpretation of many of the phenomena of the day. The very distractions of modern life are hostile to religious meditation. So many external objects engage the attention 94 THE AGE AND THE CHURCH. that the culture of the inner man is neglected. The whole force of modern realism is exerted to thrust religion into the background, if it is not buried under earthly rubbish. The change in the place of religion does not in- dicate its decay. The transitions are the same as those usually found in crises. Religion as an insti- tution, as embodied in a church, is not as promi- nent as formerly. When in politics and in the press the Catholic church is lauded, it is less for its religious character than for its organization and external power. Religion as a hierarchy and as ecclesiasticism has suffered great loss in popu- lar estimation ; but this is largely due to the fact that religion is now regarded more as a personal affair, as a concern of the heart. The idea of religion has been purified and deepened. It is now admitted that a man may be churchly and sectarian without being either moral or pious. As a conviction and life of the heart religion is re- spected in circles which are not religious. There is a tendency to emphasize it as a private, personal concern, rather than as institutional and churchly. It is thus esteemed even by skeptics, because it is admitted that each one has a right to his own sub- jectivity, and ought to follow his honest convic- tions. With all that seems averse to religion in our day, there are also processes which tend to free religion from its false attachments, and to make it in the best sense a personal life and a per- RELIGION AND THEOLOGY. 95 sonal power. Many elements of religion, formerly regarded as exclusive possessions of the church, have now become part of the life of the people and of the leaven of nations. As men may be churchly without being pious, so they may be religious without being churchly. This is the case in the Latin countries, where many are alienated from the Roman Catholic church, and yet cherish religious faith and hope. But it is also true of Protestant lands, particu- larly of those in continental Europe. Where a state church prevails, it is apt to be regarded as an institution of the government ; and hostility to the government is likely to engender hostility to the church. The church is no longer the same standard of religion as in former times ; piety is not any more so exclusively dependent on it, being- regarded as more directly dependent on Scripture and an immediate communion with God. Thus, while there may be much less religion than the attendance on divine services implies, there being- many whose religion is only formal ; so there may also be much more religion than is represented in the churches. In many places there are believers, who find the condition of the churches such that they think themselves able to worship God in spirit and in truth better at home. Particularly are the denominational and confessional standards unfit for tests of the prevalence of religion. There is much piety which is neither denominational nor 96 THE AGE AND THE CHURCH. confessional, but springs directly from Scripture, is chiefly a trust which cannot be compressed into dogmatic formulas, and manifests itself in love to God and to man. The age outside of the church is probably far more religious than is usually supposed. The fact that it often manifests so little spirituality is largely due to circumstances. The very attacks on religion are proof that men cannot ignore it. The prevalence of religious doubt is evidence that there is not religious death. Many of the religious phenomena of the day are due to the fer- ment of the times. There is much longing and searching for religion, and this may be followed by a period of realization and finding. Religion has been made more inclusive than formerly, and spiritual inspiration may now be found, where heretofore it was not sought. Ways may now lead to God which were formerly thought to end only in the world ; and what was once thought to be foreign to Christ may be found intimately related to His kingdom. The emphasis has heretofore been placed on the saying of Christ, " He that is not with me is against me ; " but the time has come to heed also the other saying, " He that is not against us is on our part." Were it not liable to misunderstanding, we might say that the age has much unconscious religion, that it is rich in spirit- ual prophecies which are aw^aiting their fulfilment. Its spiritual seeds are largely buried in earthly RELIGION A ND THEOLO G V. 97 substances, and it remains yet to be seen whether in such a soil these seeds can germinate and bear fruit. Perhaps the earthly environment has been too much neglected by religion, and now this world, in the form of a reaction, is asserting its rights, and demanding that there shall be a new and healthier adjustment of the spiritual and the material, the heavenly and the earthly. Still more than religion has the place of theology been affected. Indeed, owing to a mistaken iden- tification of theology with religion, it is often sup- posed that there has been a change in religion when the theological opinions have changed. Many men of the world profess a high regard for religion who will have nothing to do with theology. This is the more significant, since the growth in intellectual pursuits would lead us to expect that theology, the intellectual expression of Christian faith and experience, ought to grow in favor with intellectual progress. Religion has the advantage of immediateness, being a direct, spontaneous ex- pression of the personality, and therefore seeming to be a manifestation of the soul's reality ; while theology is more reflective, and suffers from the general depreciation to which thought transcend- ing the dominant realism is subject. So sharply is the religious element in certain quarters now being distinguished from the theological, that re- ligion is respected as a right of human nature, no matter whether it be Jewish or Christian, Protest- 7 98 THE AGE AND THE CHURCH. ant or Catholic, Buddhistic or Mohammedan, It is a respect for the religious instinct rather than regard for any particular religion. So wholly has the religious content been treated as indifferent that not only positivism, but even atheism, has been advocated as religious ! Theological unrest is a common symptom of the day. The same dissatisfaction is found in peda- gogics, philosophy, and many other departments of thought, as well as in theology. It belongs to the era of transformation. But no student of the times can fail to see, that the prominence formerly given to theology is now either shared with other departments or is yielded to them. Scientific specializations, until recently unknown, now hold the foremost place in the university and in litera- ture. The vast realm of political, sociological, economical, technical, industrial, and commercial literature, is essentially a modern creation. While new worlds of thought thus require attention, lit- tle study is devoted to theology by men outside of the church. Nor is it now, as in former times, the norm in intellectual pursuits, making other de- partments of thought subservient to its principles. Science, philosophy, philology, history, and all de- partments of secular scholarship, pursue their course without regard to theological tenets. The fact that it deals with revelation and divine things formerly gave theology the preeminence as the science of sciences ; but what formerly gave it the RELIGION AND THEOLOGY. 99 preeminence, is now deemed by many a sufficient reason for excluding it from the sciences. Not only have the departments formerly subject to theology become independent, but the rationaliz- ing and secularizing processes of these depart- ments have entered the domain of theology and affected its character. Most striking is the change in the relative posi- tion of theology and philosophy. Formerly Plato and Aristotle were regarded as valuable, because they could help theology, and it is still the theory of the Catholic church that philosophy is the ser- vant of theology. But no philosopher of note thinks of shaping his philosophy according to the dictates or dogmas of theology. Philosophy is recognized as a purely rational discipline ; and as reason alone is concerned in its development, noth- ing can be permitted to^ dictate to that reason or to hamper it in its researches. After the great philosophical systems of modern times were com- pleted, efforts were made to harmonize them with the prevalent dogmas, or to overthrow the philo- sophical conclusions. But equally strong have been the attempts to adapt theology to philosophy. In his " Religion within the Limits of Pure Rea- son," Kant gave the philosophical principles which he regarded as normative for religion and theology. And in other than the Kantian school of philoso- phy, strenuous efforts were made so to reconstruct theology as to make it harmonize with the preva- 100 THE AGE AND THE CHURCH. lent philosophical system. Kantian and Hegelian theologians have been especially numerous ; and much of the best German thought of the century, from Schleiermacher to the present, has been affected by attempts to reconcile theological dog- mas with the various schools of philosophic thought. As the philosophic systems changed rapidly, this also led to frequent changes in theology ; and now the school of Ritschl aims to sever theology from the influence of philosophy, or at least metaphysics. Outside of Germany the influence of philosophy on theology has also been powerful, as intuitionalism and '' common sense " in Scotland and America, Locke, Berkeley, Hume, Mill, and Spencer in Eng- land, and sensationalism in France. In all these countries German philosophy has also exerted a powerful influence. In none of these lands can a philosophy, which is controlled by theological dogmas instead of rational principles, hope to gain a dominant influence over thinkers. This reversal of the positions of theology and philosophy is the result of a long and general process of thought, and is characteristic of our times. As the domain of empirical inquiry was enlarged and intellectualism made more exclusive, faith received less attention and became subject to more suspicion. Rationalism, positivism, natural- ism, and agnosticism are terms which indicate that empiricism and reason are regarded as all- sufficient, so that supematuralism and faith can RELIGION AND THEOLOGY. 101 be dispensed with. When empirical and rational methods are subjected to the severest tests, as by the critical spirit of the times, can we be surprised that a critical and negative spirit has seriously affected theology ? The domain of knowledge has become so vast and so attractive that not a few scholars hesitate to enter the realm of faith in which theology lives. The questioning of faith is not modern. There was a Thomas among the disciples and an Abelard among the Scholastics. But never before were the attacks so radical, aiming at the destruction of the very fundamentals of belief and tending to make theology impossible. Not only have we in- herited the objections raised against Christian faith by Hume, Kant, Hegel, and their disciples, but also those of numerous other systems ; and these objections have permeated the masses and are a strong element in the general tendencies of the day. There is a deeply rooted suspicion that theology deals with incomprehensible mysteries and with uncertainties, and that the time spent on their investigation is lost. Besides this barrier in the way of theological inquiry, the exclusive habit formed by scientific study and the taste developed by secular pursuits are unfavorable to theology. Religion as the test of reason has been changed into reason as the test of religion. Even down to the Reformation, and during the Reformation, faith was exalted above reason, and men boasted of 102 THE AGE AND THE CHURCH, believing against reason. Nor has this spirit van- ished in our day. But it is opposed by the trend of modern thought. Not only the thinkers but also the masses reject whatever is deemed un- reasonable. Respecting problems which transcend empiricism a rationalism prevails, which insists that reason must be the test of all values. The depreciation of theology is largely the re- sult of reaction. The human mind is apt to be absorbed by a particular object, to concentrate on that object all its powers, and to develop it in soli- tary isolation to an abstract culmination. This may continue for ages, but not forever ; the neglected faculties of the mind will, as we have seen, assert themselves, and the ignored objects will demand recognition. There is no doubt that theology it- self is largely to blame for its present position. It has not been deep and broad and exact enough. It has been exclusive where it should have been inclusive. The emphasis has been placed on the supernatural, without admitting the claims of the natural ; religious faith and feeling have not been balanced by reason, and their human conditions have not been properly examined ; divinity dealt with God and heaven, but forgot human nature and the claims of the present world ; the spirit was cultivated, but the body was treated as if out- side of the sphere of religious interests ; a relig- ionism was promoted which was divorced from ethics ; and as religion itself was one-sided and RELIGION AND THEOLOGY. 103 unhealthy, it could not create a healthy and com- plete theology. We are living in the reaction, and the human mind is avenging itself for the injustice it has suffered. Not only has human nature been treated as sinful, but also as so despicable that the query arose, how it could receive divine influences and how Christ was possible. If human nature is wholly foreign to the divine, why not let man be absorbed by what is natural? The very term "natural" in theology has been fruitful of abuse. The apostle Paul uses "natural" to designate man's perverted, sinful nature ; but theologians have forgotten that behind this sinful nature the original nature as it came from God is pure. Man as God's offspring, as made in God's image, and as therefore created for God, was lost sight of. The natural itself, and not only as sinful, was opposed to the divine ; and thus Christianity was placed in a false antagonism to nature. That the purely natural is the soil for the spiritual was ignored ; that religion is to man what the spirit is to the body wa's overlooked ; theology has been so op- pressed by man's degradation that the dignity which the Gospel ascribes to him has been un- heeded ; for his longings and aspirations and deep adaptation to spirituality there has been httle appreciation, and the saying of TertuUian, that the soul is by nature a Christian, would still be branded by many as heretical ; this misunder- standing of the natural has led to an unnatural 104 THE AGE AND THE CHURCH. separation between the spiritual and the natural, as if Christ had prayed that his disciples might be taken out of the world, instead of merely being kept from the evil in it ; and there has even been a deeply seated prejudice against natural knowl- edge, in certain quarters, as if hostile to divinity and in league with the devil. Religion was treated as if it were a spirit without a body, its earthly relations and conditions not being properly con- sidered. This unnatural and inhuman divorce between the spiritual and the natural, the divine and the human, has interfered with the production of a healthy theology. Religion has been made so exclusively a matter of God, and God has been put so infinitely above man and nature, that men have wondered how religion could concern them. And it is not surprising that many have been in- clined to postpone their religion, which seemed intended only for glory, until, freed from the body and removed from the earth, their spirits enter heaven. That an unearthly and inhuman or super- human religion is not adapted to this earthly and human life seemed self-evident to men. And it was not strange that a one-sided supernaturalism in theology led to rationalism and naturalism. Faith and reason have been placed in an antag- onism in which the mind cannot possibly rest. Belief and knowledge have likewise been repre- sented as antagonistic, and then the question arose, Which is to be regarded as supreme ? The diffi- RELIGION AND THEOLOGY. 105 culty consisted in the fact that the terms were not properly defined, and that the objects for which they stood were not mastered by thought. The use of the term "reason" has been very varied. It has been used as synonymous with common sense ; the mind's logical processes have also been called reason ; sometimes it has been employed, as by Jacobi, to designate the faculty of faith ; and frequently it was used for the highest mental pow- er, that which deals with the ideas, and with the principles of thought, of ethics, and of religion. Those who affirmed the supremacy and absolute- ness of reason of course meant the ideal, perfect, abstract reason which transcends the powers of any individual mind ; but practically they put their own fallible reason on the throne and made it final. The confusion in the use of the term still prevails, and reason, rational, rationalism, must be defined if they are to have a definite meaning. While the relation of reason to faith is still a prob- lem, it is evident that theology cannot ignore rea- son in the sense of the highest intellectual demand for definiteness and certaint}^ This theology ad- mits in its efforts to establish the rationality of its teachings. Particularly important now is the dis- tinction between the reasonableness of a doctrine, and the full comprehension of the doctrine by reason. An historical event which we cannot fully understand may yet be so well authenticated that it would be unreasonable to deny it. Faith may 106 THE AGE AND THE CHURCH, be rational in the sense that there is good ground for the belief, while the objects of faith cannot be fully explained. Thus faith in objects not rational (above reason, not comprehensible by reason) may be rational. Reason, as the mind's highest crite- rion, destroys credulity but establishes a valid faith. In an age which puts reason on the throne, a theology which does not give reason an exalted place in its system naturally fails. . Some theolo- gians have highly exalted reason, but many others have depreciated it. And then it was not only what theologians said, but the general attitude of the church to reason which affected men of the world. The very exaltation of faith as supreme offended them. Often the objects of faith have been presented as not only absolute, but as also belonging to a holy of holies which reason is not allowed to enter. It cannot be denied that in the church reason has frequently been treated as if innately hostile to God, as the tree of the knowl- edge of good and evil, the eating of whose fruit meant the fall of man. One would have to wipe out the history of Protestantism in order to deny, that it as well as Catholicism has instituted inqui- sitions against the free use of reason. Faith and reason, belief and knowledge, have by no means always been treated as supplementary. Theology is not alone or wholly to blame for the confusion and the abuse of terms. The very ones RELIGION AND THEOLOGY. 107 who most severely criticize theology may be least able to stand the scrutiny of a critical spirit. Men who find fault with the light may simply need an oculist. Those who object to faith that it cannot be demonstrated and does not lie within the realm of science, are right according to the meaning of demonstration and science as used by them. In that sense theology cannot be a science. But they are mistaken when they draw the inference that there is no ground for faith. All history is a mat- ter of faith, not of scientific demonstration ; but is there no proof of historic events ? There may be such proof as makes faith rational, while unbelief is by that proof made irrational. In another respect there is confusion. The faith of childhood and youth is frequently based on in- sufficient and even false reasons ; yet how often are these the only grounds of belief even in man- hood ! Now it is very common to reject the ob- jects believed in when our faulty reasons for the belief are overthrown. That there may be other and valid reasons for believing in those objects, say God and immortality, is not considered. Let us suppose that a man regards Kant as a critical philosopher because he wrote a '' Critique of all Revelation," a book originally attributed to Kant. Afterwards, the man discovers that the volume was not written by Kant, but by Fichte ; hence he concludes that Kant is not a critical philoso- pher. But he is not aware that Kant wrote three 108 THE AGE AND THE CHURCH. Other Critiques, and that his system is thoroughly critical, and that Fichte received from Kant the impulse to write his book. The fact that my ground for believing in an object is false has not the slightest effect on the object itself, and does not prove that validity of faith in the object is impossible ; it affects only my basis of faith. Not only must the mind now begin at the bottom in order to work its way up to the ideals of which it has been robbed, but many tendencies also seek to keep the mind at the bottom. In many instances the whole domain of faith must be re-conquered ; the realism of faith must be re- constructed. Even the right of faith must be established. It must again be made evident that even in temporal things we live far more by faith than by demonstration. For all that transcends the senses and for all that concerns man's highest interests, we are shut up unto faith. Living so largely in a world of sense as the present genera- tion, men find faith in the supernatural extremely difficult, and it almost seems a miracle to some that it is still possible. Only its inherent necessity is the explanation of its existence. If now theo- logians leave the impression that they fear reason, they greatly increase the difficulties of faith ; sus- picion is aroused that their doctrines cannot bear candid inquiry. When theologians speak dispar- agingly of reason, and of the results of science which are afterwards universally accepted, they RELIGION AND THEOLOGY. 109 not only injure themselves, but also the theology which they represent. Still deeper and broade^r is the effect when theological tenets are actually overthrown, as the revolution of the sun around the earth and the age of our globe. The mind that is to be gained must not be abused. Not only is the reason that is disparaged likely to react and become supreme, but also to abstract itself from the other mental powers, and to make itself the sole arbiter, regardless of the claims of the heart and the will. In modern conflicts theology has not been the only sufferer. Reason has lost its former pres- tige, and a haughty intellectuality has been hum- bled. The world, which by wisdom knew not God, has also learned that it is profoundly ignorant even of human and natural things. Not only did the critical philosophy show the inefficiency of the speculative reason respecting transcendental prob- lems, but the conflicts of the century have also destroyed confidence in the ability of the human mind to solve any of the great problems of being. There is reason for agnosticism ; whether a sufficient reason is another matter. Agnosticism is the end of thought's inquiry and of doubt's agony, which is no end, but only a new beginning. You can tie a knot in the thread of thought, while the thread itself cannot be cut off and ended. The course of theology, as well as the trend of modern thought, has been promotive of agnosticism. In 110 THE AGE AND THE CHURCH, universities, seminaries and pulpits, claims to the- ological certainty were made which could not be sustained, and absolute knowledge was boasted of where faith only was possible. What the Christian knows by experience the world is not able to accept as knowledge, simply because it has not had the experience, and so the world has misun- derstood believers. The speculations based on such experience seemed visionary to those whose world of experience was wholly different. And who can doubt that these speculations have been carried beyond the limits of intellectual modesty ? Theologians have treated religion too much as if it could be exhaustively expressed by intellectual formulas. Dogmas were put for doctrine, doctrine for faith, creeds for piety, and theology for spirit- uality. A standard for the intellectual apprehen- sion of doctrine was made the test of religion. A "rationalistic orthodoxy," cold, critical, spiritless, and dead, was made the measure of a man's ac- ceptance with God! This became intolerable ; all who reflected on genuine religion felt that any intellectual formula requires a plus and a minus, in order to be the correct expression of religion. Hence the deep and resolute determination to distinguish between religion and theology, be- tween faith and its intellectual formulas. It now seems monstrous that a purely intellectual appre- hension could ever be made a substitute for re- ligion, which involves the whole personality. Too RELIGION AND THEOLOGY. Ill long has faith as an act of the soul been confounded with a system of doctrines in which faith is sup- posed to believe. The age pities the delusion of a man who presents his theology as his religion ; and if a new Kant were to arise and offer us a religion within the limits of pure reason, we should decline with thanks, and inform him that there is no religion within such limits, but that it requires faith and heart and will, as well as reason. Theology has also lost, in the estimation of the age, through the dogmatic disputes between the different sects and theological schools. Points which men of large mind and profound thought could only regard as petty in comparison with the momentous problems of the age, have been raised to the importance of denominational characteristics and made conditions for entering the kingdom of heaven. Nice speculative doctrinal distinctions of doubtful validity were made the grounds for sec- tarian division ; a mere form of government was stamped as exclusively divine ; a question of ritual and liturgy was made the test of fellowship, if not of Christianity. Non-essentials were magnified as if they were the total essence of religion. All this served to alienate thinkers, trained amid the abso- lute verities of science and amid the fundamental problems of the times. Men are too busy and life is too short to investigate all the petty points made burning questions by the animosity of narrow sects. Advocates of infidelity arose, who exposed the 112 THE AGE AND THE CHURCH. weak points of the contending theologians, used the strongest weapons forged in the name of sci- ence, philosophy, and criticism, against Christianity, and did their utmost to prove that the Christian dogmas can no longer claim the adherence of men of culture. This is a common view among the educated classes of continental Europe. There is a tacit understanding in certain social circles that religion is not to be discussed, and he who broaches the subject is regarded as an intruder. In various countries the open hostility to theological tenets is not so pronounced as formerly, partly because men are weary of discussion, partly because they think all has been said, partly because religious indif- ferentism prevails, and some think that disputes cannot settle the problems. There is no question that the prevalent doubt and agnosticism are largely due to intellectual conditions. A corrupt heart is often the hot-bed of infidelity, and men in the folly of their heart may say, " There is no God," when they say it only to get license for their libertinism. Faith itself must be vitiated if its essential moral conditions are ignored. But at the same time we must freely and fully admit, that the most earnest scholarship and the most serious moral purpose may find the way to faith beset with difficulties. It is evident that the prevalent doubt and agnos- ticism are not final. The human mind cannot rest in them. They belong to our age as a transition RELIGION AND THEOLOGY. 113 period. Criticism and negations may be evidence of attainments beyond the past, but they may also be evidences of weakness, because not able to get the affirmations and positions required for the future. The mind agonizes to rise on its doubts into certainty. This is the meaning of pessimism, which is not a ghost in the most refined and most sensitive circles, but an awful, despairing, suicidal reality. And no theory or practice, so long as faith is absent, can ameliorate this horrible real- ism. It has seriously been proposed to substitute the ideals of religion for the real objects of faith, so that God and immortality might be cherished as empty notions, although the mind is aware that no reality corresponds with them. This absurdity speculates on a species of madness which has not yet become general. A life of pleasure has been proposed as a substitute for religion ; but the pros- pect of death makes the pleasure ghastly. Men have been exhorted in the name of atheism to let high earthly aims so absorb them as to forget the future. But when religion and ethics are gone, when man is made a brute, and the brute is only breathing matter, it is impossible to find exalted objects and worthy aims. In many instances the religious draught has in- creased the spiritual thirst. Religious novels with skeptical tendencies would have no attraction, were it not for their religious elements, and be- cause they meet in some measure the needs of the 114 THE AGE AND THE CHURCH. religious instincts. The devastations of skepti- cism, which emptied the souls of men, have also paved the way to Rome. Men reject all authority but that of a cold intellectuality, and then submit unconditionally to the papacy. Weary of their endless inquiries and painful doubts, some seem to see no alternative between atheism and Rome, and resolve to let an infallible church do their thinking- and believing. But with all the skepticism and secularism of the day, there are, as we have seen, many re- ligious germs outside of the church, which the longings of the heart and the deeper experiences of life cultivate. Even in lands where doubt has made the most ruins, the funerals and tombstones are not the only witnesses that the religious ele- ment has not been banished from skeptical hearts ; all through life there are eloquent testimonies that it is only in God that the soul can rest. Re- ligious impulses remain where the definite dogmas have vanished. We are fully justified in affirming that the age is far more religious than dogmatic or theological. But even the remains of religion in the world, outside of the church, are liable to be buried under secular affairs and interests. The church thus finds unusual difficulties in leavening the world with the Gospel. The intel- lectual demands have in general been heightened, and those now made on the church and theology are greater than ever. Religious thought presented RELIGION AND THEOLOGY. 115 to men of the world finds them preoccupied, dis- inclined to consider it, prejudiced against it, and armed to repel its demands. But peculiarly hard as the religious work has thus become, there is no ground for a pessimistic view. Many indications are, in fact, favorable. The long and severe con- flict has made the real needs both of the human heart and of theology more clear. The problems have been deepened and made more definite, and on the side of both of the advocates and of the antagonists of religion, extremes have been aban- doned as untenable. It is evident now that re- ligion is so deeply grounded in man's nature, and so essential to his being and welfare that it is here to remain. Theology has become more cautious ; if it knows less than formerly, it is also more clear, more exact, and more thorough. If it has aban- doned some positions, it has fortified others. It has gained greatly by recognizing itself as not isolated, but as in organic connection with the other departments of thought. Beside its attain- ments, it reveals many evidences that it has excel- lent conditions for future growth. Theology has become more modest respecting intellectual for- mulas, but it has learned to place more emphasis on love. Theology and religion have been made more fully self-conscious, and also more aware of what the world is and requires. In Germany re- ligion has made gains within the last few decades, so that after a long descent the ascent has begun. 116 THE AGE AND THE CHURCH. Religion has withstood the fiercest and most powerful attacks ever made against it, and it still lives and grows. The worst onslaught on the part of materialistic science, and of a pantheistic and atheistic philosophy, seem to belong to the past decades rather than to the present time. Relig- ion has had time to recover from the violence of the first shock. Destructive forces are still at work ; but in America, in England, and on the Continent, the opposition is neither so loud nor so violent as it was ; even its most bitter enemies have learned that religion is deep and energetic, and cannot be overcome as easil}^ as they imagined. Through a long line of able thinkers theology has been more and more adjusted to the situation. The end is by no means yet ; much of the best Christian thought is still devoted to efforts at harmonizing theology with science, philosophy, and the whole of modern culture, efforts which do not meet solely with mistakes and failing on one side, and only truth and perfection on the other. We are still in the midst of religious and theologi- cal crises, and transformations are still occurring. Respecting many subjects the age is moving in a twilight ; some think it the twilight which ends the day and precedes the night ; but we believe that we see in the twilight the dawn which ends the night and ushers in the day. But whether it shall be the night or the day depends largely on the church, on whose consideration we now enter. THE CHURCH. 117 CHAPTER V. The Church. The highest claim which an}^ institution can make, is to affirm itself to be "the house of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth." The love and reverence of the Christian for such an institution will lead him to examine earnestly its claim, to learn whether it corresponds with the actually existing church. "The pillar and ground of the truth" trains its sons in the truth, and obliges them freely to speak their well-matured convictions of the truth. The suppression of such convictions may have its rea- sons in a cowardly spirit, or in the fear that the church may not be able to bear honest criticism. Men with strong faith in the church, and with an earnest desire for its welfare, are likely to take counsel of their duty rather than of their fears. A discussion of the state of the church has no value, unless it is perfectly frank and honest. If in some respects this chapter is a criticism rather than merely an exposition, the explanation is found in the aim to learn what is required in order to adapt the church to the age. 118 THE AGE AND THE CHURCH. The church as part of the age is affected by the characteristics of the age, and in turn affects them. The church in the age, and what it ought to be to the age, is the object of our inquiry. What is meant by the church ? A dogmatic definition does not suit our practical aim ; and such general views of the church as the congregation of believers, or the communion of saints, are not ex- pressive of the reality we seek. We want to con- sider the visible church as it lives and works in the age. This church includes the whole of Chris- tendom, so far as organized into congregations. But Christendom consists of churches, not of a single church, so that church history is obliged to treat of different churches, as the Greek, the Ro- man Catholic, and the Protestant. The discussion of the Greek church and the times would have little significance for our subject. That church in general is so extremely conserva- tive, is so helplessly tethered to the past and to its dogmatic petrifactions, and is so limited by national and political considerations, that it cannot exert any great influence on the prominent movements which are characteristic of the most enlightened nations. Even in the Russian church there are many signs of life. Sects have sprung up which have occasioned much agitation in the established church, and popular writers have attempted to adapt religion to the times, or to undermine it altogether. The masses are, in their way, very THE CHURCH. 119 religious ; but their religion is often a conglomera- tion of ignorance, superstition, prejudice, bigotry, and formality. The churches are largely priestly institutions. So intimately are church and state connected, that conservatism in politics also means conservatism in religion. Indeed, Pan-Slavism is religious as well as political, and has been well defined as orthodox, autocratic, and national. There are hopes that the Greek church will undergo an intellectual and spiritual revival. In that case it will, no doubt, have religious peculiarities which may be of value to the age at large. The Russian empire, now so imposing on account of its massive- ness, is striving to take its place among the leaders in civilization ; when it takes this place its church will also likely become a powerful factor in cul- ture. But at present we must look to Greece for the most hopeful signs of religious and intellectual life in the Greek church. But this life, largely due to the influence of German Protestant the- ology, cannot be said to affect the age at large. Very different from the Greek is the position of the Roman Catholic church. Not only is it the largest church, but also international. Its size, its compact unity, its severe uniformity, its military organization and discipline, and its perfect control by one head, give it an ecclesiastical power and a world-wide influence such as no other institution possesses. Even in strongly Protestant countries, political parties and governments often show 120 THE AGE AND THE CHURCH. a greater regard for Roman Catholicism than for the largest or the state church. Thus the Roman Catholic church becomes dominant as an ecclesi- astical institution and political power, even where it is in the minority. In Southern Europe, in Austria and Belgium, in Ireland, South America, and Mexico, no other church disputes its supre- macy. Its net of missionary operations encircles the globe. In such Protestant countries as Ger- many, Holland, Switzerland, Great Britain, the United States, and even Scandinavia, it is deter- mined to overthrow Protestantism, and cherishes the hope of accomplishing this end. An especial study is required in order to appreciate the depth, the intensity, the extent and the determination, of the recent revival in the Roman Catholic church. The spirit of the revival is ultramontane and Jesuitical, the Pope is proclaimed ruler of the world, the church is exalted above the state, the papacy is heralded as the only authority that can meet the anarchy of socialism, and can secure the stability of governments, and an infallible ecclesi- asticism is offered to the distracted, agonized world as the solver of all doubts and the haven of eternal rest. The revival is most marked where Protestantism prevails, or where it exerts a decided influence on Catholicism. In purely Catholic countries the neglect of the people is notorious ; but as soon as Protestant missionaries arrive, the church is THE CHURCH. 121 aroused, schools are established, and the welfare of the people professedly becomes the great con- sideration. It seems as if Catholicism hardly had within itself the intellectual energy and the re- ligious inspiration for great forward movements, but that it depends for these upon the friction which comes from Protestant scholarship and life. While mainly conservative and largely station- ary, like the Greek church, we must nevertheless regard Catholicism as a very important factor in the age. It has revealed unexpected energy, proves that it has progressive elements, and it manifests an adaptation to the age which is mar- velous. It will therefore require especial consid- eration. That is not, however, the church on which the hopes for the present and the future are centered by the culture or the leading nations of the day. The freedom demanded is not there ; it has not the intellectual leadership ; it is not the controlling religious factor in the lands which de- termine the characteristics of the age ; and even in leading Catholic lands, where it held undisputed sway for ages, it has lost its dominion, namely, in France and in Italy. The United States, Great Britain, and Germany are the dominant nations, and they are Protestant. The science and philosophy of the day, and the leadership in intellect, belong to Protestantism. Besides, Evangelical Christianity has in its very principles the conditions of progress and of adap- 122 THE AGE AND THE CHURCH. tation. In considering the church and the times we shall, therefore, first of all have to take the Protestant church into account. In a separate chapter on Protestantism and Catholicism, we shall be able to give a general idea of the relation of each to the age. A fair estimate of present Protestantism is diffi- cult. It is an aggregation of churches rather than a church, and what is true of one denomination, or one locality, may not be equally applicable to others. Respecting details the opinions are likely to vary ; but with regard to general characteristics an agreement may be possible. Especial care must be taken not to let denominational or local preju- dice, or a narrow view of the church as it now is, decide the standpoint from which the whole is judged. In numbers and efficiency the church was, per- haps, never more favorably situated than to-day. In many, if not in all, respects there is no reason for lamenting that the good old times are past, for the simple reason that our times are better than the past. But this does not make the church rela- tively more prominent than heretofore, since, as we have seen, other objects have attained a greater prominence than formerly, and the church may not have advanced with equal rapidity. Never were the demands equal to the present, and what was success in the past might in our day be failure. It is therefore in the light of the whole age that THE CHURCH. 123 the church must be considered. Not a comparison with the past, but the actual condition of the pres- ent is our aim. If the world calls this the century of natural science, the church might call it the century of missions. This one department alone has given the church new life and new inspiration. Yet it is but one of many new movements in the religion of the times. Bible Societies, Sunday Schools, Christian Associations of various kinds, Temper- ance Organizations, and similar institutions, have sprung up and changed the character of the re- ligious life. These are subjects for congratulation and are full of encouragement, but they are no occasion for empty boasting or vain conceit or satisfied indolence. Among the worst signs in a church is the tendency to dwell on success and to rest in it, as if now all further effort might cease. Not less reprehensible is the disposition, which so glories in past achievements, that even the truest criticism is denounced as hostility to the church. A healthy state is one of full self-consciousness, which sees the true condition of things, and avoids conceited self-sufficiency, as well as despairing depreciation Protestantism continues to be a protest ; its strongest protest is not, however, in words but in character and deeds. The protest is still needed against the enslavement of reason and conscience, and against thrusting the church and priest as 124 THE AGE AND THE CHURCH. barriers between the believer and God. The need of the protest may be as great in Protestantism as any where. Are reason and conscience truly free ? Are all believers kings and priests unto God ? Can each believer interpret Scripture for himself? Were protests no longer necessary, then Protest- antism would also cease, since its mission would have been accomplished. Not in what it forever settled is the glory of the Reformation, but in that it showed clearly what was to be settled and how it ought to be settled. The Reformation did not free men ; freedom is an ethical process, which each one must perform for himself. But the Reformation demanded freedom for all, showed the way to freedom, and thus it helps men to free themselves. The past has not shoved its morality, religion and theology on us and made them our possessions. If we have the same as the past, it is because we have wrought them out for ourselves, and have wrought them into ourselves. A Pauline faith and a Johannine love are possible only to such as have an inner spiritual process, like that of Paul and of John. Since the Reformers help us, their attainments should be easier for us than they were for them- selves ; and for that reason our attainments should transcend theirs. Protestantism is a constant ask- ing, seeking, and knocking ; as soon as it rests in a victory as final, and ceases with Paul to press forward, it leaves the Pauline basis with which it started. THE CHURCH. 135 That the Reformers opened up all subjects to a free and full Christian examination, and then made their own views an exception, is incredible. Such a claim would inestimably degrade the Reforma- tion, and no free man could respect its authors. Has the history of religion, of the inquisition, of Jesuitism a more despicable chapter than that of men who destroyed the authority of the fathers, the popes, and the church, for the sake of estab- lishing their own infallibility? Is the German proverb true, that the Roman Catholics have but one pope, but that the Lutherans have a pope in each pastor ? The world was flooded with Luther literature in 1883, the four hundredth anniversary of the Reformer's birth. The anniversary was a great eulogy. The reaction came speedily. The defects in the life and work of Luther, which were omitted by Protestants, have been supplied and magnified by Catholics. Janssen has heaped up accusations against the Reformers and their work, and his his- tory is a mine which others quarry in order to bring its metal and mud before the world. Luther is treated by ultramontane writers as the climax of baseness and iniquity, and even the old slander that he ended his life in suicide has been revived. Extreme begets extreme, but two extremes may also beget the truth. Protestant writers freely and more candidly than Catholics criticize the Refor- mation. Here the demand for historic realism is 126 THE AGE AND THE CHURCH. imperative, and the whole truth will be known. The principles of the Reformers, their doctrines, their polity, and their practices are all alike thrown open to the world for inspection, for frank criti- cism, for honest acceptance or as honest rejection, for modification and for development. As conver- sion may be sudden, and yet but the beginning of a life whose process of conversion is continuous: so the Reformation was but the beginning of a process, whose reformatory work can cease only with the church itself. A reformation which ends has never truly begun ; if genuine, it is the intro- duction of an ever-growing seed and continuously working leaven. The Reformation is therefore a period to start from, not an era in which to anchor the church. Not what it was in its day gives the Reformation its value, but what of its spirit and truth and life are living and working factors in our day. Its present reality is the criterion of its present value. Beyond the popes, beyond the councils, beyond the existing church, to Christ and to Scripture: that was the cry and the meaning of the Reforma- tion. The Reformation was a John the Baptist, leading back to the Messiah who had come, but had been obscured. What a monstrous perversion to stop with the Baptist instead of being led by him to Christ, who gives the Baptist himself all his sig- nificance ! The Protestantism of to-day must be tested by its ability to pass over the Reformation, THE CHURCH. 127 as a bridge, to the Bible and to Christ. How com- mon to treat mere means as the end itself ! Many think presumptuous the claim, that the church of to-day ought to be in advance of the church at the birth of Protestantism. Did then the Reformers produce a still-born church ? Did they so reform the church that death, instead of life and growth, was the result ? Then the Refor- mation was a Dead Sea, not a fountain whence issued a living stream. If that great revival made the church conscious of its ever-expanding life, and gave it the impulse and conditions to expand that life, then such as have not progressed beyond the Reformation, or have not even attained its standpoint, should blush to call themselves chil- dren of the Reformation. Reverence for Luther, Calvin, Zwingli, Knox, and the whole host of glorious Reformers, does not require that they be made idols and their admirers superstitious idolaters. The worst ene- mies of the Reformers are their blind followers, who are not their true followers, but deny the very principles which make their work so grand. It is time to say as emphatically as language can, that those who let the reformers, or any other purely human authority, do the thinking and be- lieving for them are not Protestants, and that they would need another Reformation, if there were any hope that they could be delivered from their papacy. The Reformers' act of freedom was not 128 772^^' AGE AND THE CHURCH. for them. " Who then is Paul, and who is Apollos, but ministers by whom ye believed, even as the Lord gave to every man ?" Concentrate into one focus the grand work of the Reformers, and it means, " Therefore let no man glory in men. For all things are yours ; whether Paul, or Apollos, or Cephas, or the world, or life, or death, or things present, or things to come ; all are yours ; and ye are Christ's ; and Christ is God's." Human reformers, and founders of denomina- tions, were so mighty because they dared to inves- tigate, to criticize, and to combine conservative with revolutionary principles, and thus to promote true progress. To future generations their watch- word was, *'Go and do likewise." They gave doc- trines as guideboards, not as a wayside on which living truth was to be trampled under foot. They did not hurl a corpse of divinity at the Christian, but they led him to the fountain of living truth. Not a lawless subjectivity, but respect for divine authority as normative was their guide. They freed men from men by making them dependent on God ; they wanted no school but that of Christ, no followers of themselves but followers of the Lord. They had the courage to look into the unveiled face of truth, and to speak the truth, though the church itself cursed as bitterly as did the spiritual authorities in the days of Christ. To be like the Reformers means to have the same spirit, the same love of the truth, and the THE CHURCH. 139 same truthfulness in the expression of honest con- viction. This is more than a mere negation ; it is very positive. That this spirit will lead into the great essentials of the Reformation is self-evident ; but it can never lead into slavery. If in their in- quiries and convictions the children of the Reform- ers cannot be as free as the Reformers themselves, then are they unworthy children and a disgrace to their fathers. The Reformation has taught us to tell the truth. But what is the truth respecting the Reformation itself ? It could not possibly do the work of our age ; but because it did so admirably the work of its own age, it prepared the way for our generation to do its own work. With a reverence for the Re- formers, bounded only by the conviction of the truth, we say frankly that the marvelous revival of the sixteenth century is without a parallel in Christian history since apostolic times. The new spiritual life broke the fetters of tradition ; and where that revival has not spent its force, it still breaks the fetters of tradition. But the Reformers were severely limited by the limits of their age. Not since Paul's day, we are convinced, has there been such an insight into divine things as they reveal, particularly Luther, whose insight at times looks like spiritual intuition. But shall that induce us to belie that age and the Reformers ? Had they the purest and best text of Scripture ? Were the great manuscripts known and had they been col- 9 130 THE AGE AND THE CHURCH. lated ? Where was textual criticism ? Were the languages of the Bible and their cognates under- stood as now ? The Reformation really only be- gan the great work of modern exegesis. With the growth of the ages, the knowledge of Scrip- ture has deepened and broadened, each preceding age being the means of making brighter the light of succeeding ones. The Reformers began to emerge from the scho- lasticism of the middle ages, and the process is not yet completed. As men who escape from the burning have the smell of fire, so the Reformers had the effects of scholasticism upon them. Church history was little known in the Refor- mation. The fathers, the councils, the doctrines of the past, were imperfectly understood. The history of dogmas was still in the future. Prim- itive Christianity was largely in the dark ; even at present it is full of unsolved problems, though now a subject of profoundest investigation. Plato and Aristotle were known only through imperfect scholastic sources, and the most confused notions prevailed respecting their real character. Modern philosophy was still unborn, and ages had to pass before modern science was so much as defined. The world of the Reformers was totally different from ours, and their view of the universe it would be difficult, if not impossible, for us to conceive. All efforts to tether the present to that period must and ought to be a lamentable failure. Superstitions THE CHURCH. 131 abounded. A harshness of judgment respecting dissenting doctrines prevailed, a coarseness and brutality in controversy, and a spirit of persecution, which can be understood at that period, but which, if prevalent now, would deserve the severest cen- sure. Princes were made rulers of the church, which was treated as part of the political machin- ery ; and the secular prince, no matter what his character, decided and persecuted the faith of his subjects, as he saw fit. Even during the Reformation doctrinal petrifac- tions began which threatened the very life of the Reformed churches. Philosophical dogma was put for Scriptural truth, doctrinal statement took the place of faith, and scholasticism was substituted for religion, so that the emotional and practical elements of religion, and the rights and liberties of believers, were endangered and in many cases actually destroyed. Reactionary movements began which reverted to the spirit and principles of the papacy, which produced schism, so that the church was split into wrangling, persecuting, and cursing factions ; the way was prepared for the success of Jesuitism ; many of the best fruits of the Reforma- tion were destroyed by their inheritors ; and a one-sided intellectualism was promoted, which needed but development in order to end in cold rationalism. A dead ''rationalistic orthodoxy" actually usurped the glories of the Reformation. These are not Catholic perversions ; they are 132 THE AGE AND THE CHURCH. facts which Protestant scholarship has brought to light, and which Protestant truthfulness refuses to question or conceal. They are perversions for which the Protestant principles are not to blame, but which are due to the fact that those who had just come from the papacy were not at once pre- pared for the great privileges into which they were ushered. But now to hide these things until those who hate Protestantism bring them to light and use them for the glory of Rome — that is a crime against which every true Protestant must protest. We rejoice in the reformers, because they planted a seed whose fruit is of greatest value to our age ; but tares were also sown, and they, too, have grown. That our age could not even be known in the sixteenth century and could not be provided for then, ought to be self-evident. Religion, the- ology, and the church are in a different position ; new problems have arisen, and a new era in thought, in politics, in society, in industries, and in interests generally has dawned and requires new adaptations. The Reformation is the begin- ning, but neither the end nor the limit of Protest- antism. Not only do we live at a time when all things are becoming new ; but we are actually in a new world. But while the age has been moving on with remarkable rapidity, the church has been too stationary. Christians have viewed the present THE CHURCH. 133 g-eneration as an estuary, into which history made its deposits, while it is really a fountain whence a new stream is to issue. Our era teems with such weighty problems and our task is so great, because the past has done so much. The harvests grown throughout the ages can be ours only if we reap them ; and the greater the harvest we reap, the more seed we get for future sowing, and the greater our responsibility. Here is one of our most serious difficulties : what is merely given to us as a problem for solution is treated as a solution finished for all ages ; what was given the church of every age to do for itself, is regarded as absolutely and finally done by the Reformation. The Reformation says, with the apostle, ''All things are yours." We read this, and glory in the great universe unlocked by a divine key, and rejoice in the impulse the Refor- mation gave to enter this universe and make it ours ; and then we go and limit our faith to a Luther, a Zwingli, a Calvin, a Knox, a Wesley! We become the slaves of men, and yet profess to be- lieve the apostle when he says, "Who then is Paul, and who is Apollos, but ministers by whom ye believed, even as the Lord gave to every man ? " Believers stop with the Reformation ; and yet its sole value consists in the fact that it leads through and beyond itself to primitive Christianity. Protestant in theory and Roman Catholic in practice describes a large part of the Protestantism 134 THE AGE AND THE CHURCH. of to-day. It is a theory that Scripture is free, and that reason and conscience and faith are free ; and in many instances the theory is constantly denied in practice. A man is perfectly free to interpret the Bible for himself, provided that free interpre- tation brings him into perfect harmony with his church. There are little, narrow Protestant sects in which there is far less room for free movement than in the large Roman Catholic church. There is a false Protestantism, which every positive Evangelical Christian must oppose in the name and interest of true Protestantism. If we cannot practice the freedom we profess, then, like honest men, we ought to say so. What a significant fact that there are circles, in which a man cannot claim that freedom which Christ gives and the Reforma- tion proclaims, without at once exciting the sus- picion that he is not orthodox! " Prove all things ; hold fast that which is good," is admitted to be an excellent theory ; bt:t he who honestly practices it, does so at the risk of his denominational standing. The good to be held fast is often interpreted to mean what is good for the sect. These are facts, and every student of history and of the present knows that they are facts. Why then not freely and fully state them ? Noth- ing but truth is eternal ; and from the pearl of truth, which the prejudice of one age hides, another age will wash away the mire and dirt. All the glory of the Reformation vanishes, all its principles THE CHURCH. 135 are a lie, if that Reformation freed the mind and freed Scripture, and then laid a track on which thought must inevitably run to that goal of human authority, which is stamped as absolute and final in the name of a Reformer, So far has the dis- graceful process of this miserable new papacy gone that Reformer is pitted against Reformer, and the work of the one is used to destroy the other, instead of using all they did to lead back to Christ. Thus a sectarianism worthy of a licentious and heathen Corinth has become a curse to Protes- tantism, a curse which is actually withering the fairest fields of Evangelical Christianity. This state of things is promoted especially by the theological education. It is more free in Ger- many than any where else, the theological profes- sors being appointed by the state, not by the church. This appointment is one of the evils of the union of church and state, but it secures a free- dom found nowhere else. The professor is bound by no party ; the creeds are regarded as valuable historic documents, but subject to the same criti- cism as other historic remains. For his divinity the professor goes directly to Scripture, examining it candidly in the light of all the aids that Christian theology, science, philosophy, and histoty can give him. The goal he is to reach is not fixed for him beforehand ; that must be left to his own free in- quiry. From the living Word he tries to construct his system of theology — his in the true sense, and 136 THE AGE AND THE CHURCH. yet biblical. That at least is the theory and is honestly accepted as the practical rule. If a man has more light next year than this, he walks in the better light, not in the old darkness. His consis- tency demands that when the truth is discovered, it shall take the place of error, and his motto is, that what is good is the enemy of what is better. Where this spirit prevails the students are treated as free beings, who must construct their theology for themselves. In different universities, with the same state church, or even in the same university, they can hear different views. They are directed and helped in forming their theologi- cal tenets ; no vain attempt is made to do for them the work which they can do only for themselves. Errors of course arise and work disastrously ; but even error and the discussions it produces are promotive of truth. And a sublime confidence in the truth prevails, a genuine faith being sure that the light will always cause darkness to flee. Whoever has lived in German schools and the- ologies knows how far they are from perfection. But it is true that the most eager and advanced theological students, preachers, and professors come from other countries to enjoy their freedom. Some in the agony of doubt long for perfectly free investigation ; they feel that on this their spiritual life and peace depend. Strange, that from the lands most free it should be deemed the especial glory of Germany that there truth is free, and that THE CHURCH. 137 there thought is free in its honest search after truth! As if this were not the case wherever Protestantism prevails! The church of the age is largely the product of the theological education of the age. Open secrets ought to be freely expressed. Even the pew is protesting, and that most emphatically, that the pulpit lacks most essential elements to adapt it to the times, and the source of the fault is found mainly in the theological training. In Ger- many these complaints are as loud as any where else, though in some respects peculiar. In all lands there is complaint that the theological semi- naries do not fit directly enough for the pulpit. Students are frequently trained in the past and for the past, and then find themselves unfit for the present. Preachers from seminaries pronounced the best declare, that they have no hope that the theological institutions will understand the age and meet its demands. These are voices of men who love the church, but who also understand something of the demands of the times. Specialists are found in the pew who of course know more of their specialty than the preacher. But the pew also enters the specialty of the pulpit. Scientists enter the domains of design and mira- cles. The laity read Strauss, Renan, and the theories of Wellhausen. The pulpit dare not spec- ulate on the ignorance of its hearers. Robert Ellsmere appears, and what should be familiar to 138 THE AGE AND THE CHURCH. every preacher is received as a startling novelty ; theories of the past are presented, and those who ought to be versed in theology do not know that criticism has gone beyond these theories and left them behind. The standpoint of the book, and the attitude of theologians toward it, are such that Professor Beyschlag of Halle indignatly exclaims that the only explanation of the phenomenon is this: ^'' England has no theology'' Too much of the theology in different lands is a relic, not a life. The theological training is anti- quated. Students are forced into narrow grooves and are run into ruts, in which they stick. The education must be denominational, otherwise the denomination is in danger of losing its men! In- ferior schools are pronounced the best in the world ; and a man who dares to go outside of his church in order to get the best theological thought of the world is suspected of being a traitor. Views not of the denomination are presented only for refuta- tion ; and truth is valued in proportion as it suits sectarian purposes. Against this course a decided reaction is in pro- cess, both in the church and in the institutions them- selves. Young men of energy and resoluteness, eager for pure truth and the whole truth, declare that they have been unfairly dealt with. They feel that their faith has been minimized, and that they have been defrauded for life ; and they in- sist that others shall not be wronged a*s they have been. THE CHURCH. 139 One need but look fairly at these things to see how sadly the church is in many places behind the age. Some are convinced that it gives a stone for bread, a scorpion for a fish. Creeds whose original intent is doubtful, and whose doctrines are in dis- pute, absorb the attention of theologians, when aside from these theologians, neither the church nor the world thinks it worth while to read the creeds. Creeds which once were the faith of churches have now degenerated to the means of keeping up the organization of the church. What was once the actual faith has become an unmean- ing symbol of faith. Catechisms are forced upon innocent children, with doctrines and statements so difficult, that theologians and philosophers can- not understand them. The fathers did it; ergo, we must do it. What's in a name ? Perhaps an entire system ; or at least what is deemed most essential, and de- serves especial prominence and greatest culture. The name is supposed to give the essence of a thing. And the names of our denominations? Lutheran — the name of a Reformer who protested vehemently against the attachment of his name to a church, which should be only Christ's. And in Germany, the original home of that church, the official designation is not Lutheran, but Evangeli- cal. At first applied as a stigma, it afterward became an honored designation. But the bride takes the name of the bridegroom in a legal mar- 140 THE AGE AND THE CHURCH. riage. The term Lutheran makes what should be divine too human, and it implies that Luther is to be followed where Christ should be the only leader. Hence the name has been used to tether the church to Luther, to make it a bigoted sect, to oppose progress, and to abuse all who in the spirit of Luther went beyond Luther. Still it also includes many who claim the freedom of the Reformation for the sake of a progressive, forward movement. Is the term Calvinist any better ? Or the term Arminian? Or Wesleyan? Can the man who freely stands in Christ accept them without mental reservation? And if one honestly accepts the term, must he not be free to reject it so soon as he transcends its limits ? Perhaps still less fortunate is the designation of a church from the form of government, as if that were the essential thing. Such a designation was natural, so long as a particular form of govern- ment was regarded as of divine origin and of ex- clusive authority. But Christian scholars admit that no form of government has exclusive Scrip- tural authority, and that the Christian spirit and truth ought to develop their own form, according to the growth, the peculiarities, and the needs of the ages. The terms Episcopal, Presbyterian, Congrega- tional, represent nothing but forms of government. Can any one claim that they indicate any thing essential? The Methodist church may be Epis- THE CHURCH. 141 copal, as well as the Anglican ; the Greek church is Episcopal, so is the Roman Catholic church, and so is the Lutheran church in Scandinavia. Why could not Mormonism be Presbyterial ? Unitarians can and do become Congregational. Designations really insignificant, or at least secondary, receive an importance which gives them undue promi- nence in Christian thought and life. Other names, as Methodist and Baptist, simply exalt into especial prominence a particular method or rite. The method which gave Methodism its name is in many Methodist churches no longer emphasized. In what sense then are they Metho- dist ? One must study the history of the church to know its meaning. '' Baptist " exalts a rite as if it were the essence of the church, and thus it is treated as if the very heart of religion. Even "Protestant" stands for a mere negation, and hence has repeatedly been appropriated by bald rationalism in its protests against cherished doctrines of Scripture. " Christian " and " Evan- gelical" really designate what the Reformation aimed at ; but these terms have also been robbed of their original meaning to suit sectarian pur- poses, or have been made vague and indefinite. "Independent" and "Nonconformist" have his- toric rather than present value ; they are negative, reveal no positive content, and yet the age urgently demands what is positive and has a transforming energy. 142 THE AGE AND THE CHURCH. All the sectarian names are inadequate, they make a wrong impression, standing for something that no longer exists, and failing to designate something that does exist. The churches are more, greater, than their names designate. They have become men and still wear the clothes of their childhood. Denominations are often denounced as an un- mitigated curse. But that ignores their historic origin, and the honesty of the conviction and the right of the protest which led to their origin. Why not let Abraham and Lot separate peaceably, if they must quarrel when they live together? Denominationalism does not imply greater diver- sity than may exist in a single church. Different denominations may be more truly united than are the various parties in the English and German state churches. Not the fact of difference of view is reprehen- sible, if the fundamentals are accepted ; this differ- ence belongs to Christian liberty and to the rights of the Christian personality. The denominations may be but the means for furnishing the various types of Christianity the best opportunity for ex- pression and development. Between a mechanical, external uniformity and a free denominationalism, the latter is undoubtedly preferable. But while under the circumstances when they were formed the denominations were justifiable, that does not necessarily justify them now. So THE CHURCH. 143 long as the view prevailed that all must have ex- actly the same dogmas, and that the slightest difference is ground for schism, we do not see how sects could be avoided; indeed, we cannot see how the process of dissection can ever stop where men are at all free and think for themselves. Where difference, however slight, receives the emphasis, it becomes the nucleus of thought and feeling, overshadows all points of agreement, and makes division inevitable. Now, however, many emphasize that which unites believers, and the tendency to Christian union is growing. All Christians are admitted to be one ; how else can they be Christians ? There is no doubt that at present the work of Christ can, in many cases at least, be best done through denominational channels. But no one honestly believes that Christ is the Founder of a narrow sect. That belittles Christianity too much, as well as its Lord. It is not necessary in order to insure the death of narrow denomination- alism to devote one's life to opposing sectarianism. That is doomed, and the process of decay is going on rapidly. Earnest men are unwilling to conse- crate their powers to a cause that has no future ; they want to live for what is eternal. And in spite of the apparent growth of the sectarian spirit in some quarters, it cannot last. The life promoted by the rivalry of denomi- nations is used as an argument in their favor. 144 THE AGE AND THE CHURCH. But it is questionable whether a church which needs such rivalry is worthy of the Christian name. Antagonism to the world affords rivalry enough for the church of Christ. The opposition of Chris- tians to one another on account of denominational peculiarities is a far greater injury to religion than is usually supposed. This opposition is more quiet than formerly, but it works most disastrously in some regions. In Germany ministers are found in the state church who bitterly oppose and even per- secute the "sects," as they call such churches as the Methodist, Baptist, and United Brethren. Yet millions of persons are found who attend no church, and there is room for these "sects." And so long as rivalry is the rule, why not let all have free play ? And what a pitiable spectacle is pre- sented in England, where the Christians cannot even unite in relieving the miseries of the suffer- ing masses ? No language can do justice to the superciliousness of clergymen that treat with con- tempt ministers who have not their apostolic suc- cession and their ritualism ; clergymen who, as an English journal says, have been "pitchforked into the church ;" who purchase their sermons as they purchased their charge with its souls ; whose theo- logical ignorance and bigotry disgrace their pro- fession and cast reproach on Christianity ; who dispense their blessings with an air of lordly supe- riority, and are known by all the world, themselves excepted, as the worst caricature of the religion of THE CHURCH. 145 which they profess, like the Pharisees of old, to be the first representatives. That the many grand men in that grand church can stand this condition of things is marvelotis. They will no doubt do their utmost to banish such clergymen from real life to novels. The exclusiveness of narrow Lutheranism ; the hardness of an extremely dogmatic Calvinism ; the clannishness of one-sided Methodism ; the perver- sion of a mere rite, as Baptism, to the test of the dearest Christian fellowship ; the divinity of the Episcopacy ; and the undue emphasis on minor matters, as is the case in smaller denominations ; all would be impossible if the condition of the age were appreciated. There are great themes and great interests which, if properly realized, would so absorb the attention that the insignificant things would shrink into their insignificant proportions. The weightier matters of the law need not prevent the tithing of mint, anise, and cummin, but they would put this tithing where it belongs. It is not honest denominational conviction, but the empha- sis on sectarian prejudice and the undue exaltation of side-issues which is deprecated. The present state of the church is evidence that the age and its demands are not understood. The denominations too often make the impression that the conquest of the world for Christ has vanished from their aims, and that they exist for their own sake and glory, to honor their own name, to mag- lO 146 THE AGE AND THE CHURCH. nify their own institutions, to put their own creed in place of Scripture, and to exalt their own men and methods and means. Even on mission fields sectarians are found, who convert to their sect other Christians, instead of converting the heathen to Christ. And all this when the questions agitat- ing the world are: Is there a God? Is Christ the Saviour of the world ? Is the soul any thing but matter ? Is the Bible what it purports to be ? Is morality still possible in face of the reduction of all existence to natural law by certain scientists ? Is not crime, like the cholera, merely a disease ? Is there a life beyond death ? These are the thoughts that agitate the age ; and in view of them the fact that little sectarian interests can absorb the atten- tion of believers proves them mad. The churches are largely occupied with things which have noth- ing to do with the salvation of the world, about which the age cares nothing, and which only serve to convince the age that the salt of the church has lost its savor, that the leaven is deprived of its working power, and that its light has been put under a bushel, where it may be bright enough for the denomination, but cannot be the light of the world. In many places the church has lost its hold on culture, men of intellect declaring that the church does not meet their needs, that its petty disputes do not concern them, and that it is bury- ing itself, with its dead denominational issues, out of sight of living men of the present. Earnest THE CHURCH. 147 men appeal from the church to Christ, from the religion of the church to the living Christianity of the Bible ; and they protest that the religion of the age is not confined to the church, perhaps is purest among such as worship God without being drawn into the ordinary affairs of the church. Among the saddest signs of the times is the fact that young men of piety and of the best culture are restless in the church ; some of them despair of the ability of the church to maintain itself. All the doubt, uncertainty, and expectancy found in periods of transformation are common now among church members. There are old attachments which are hard to sever ; but with not a few it is the question of a life, the question of the use or the waste of powers. The bonds which hold men to their respective churches are largely ties of birth, of tradition, of relationship, of habit, of fashion, and of expediency. Conviction, conscience, reason, are in many cases against these ties. There is a mere tolerance where there ought to be the heart- iest consent. This is the actual state of many students, theological as well as others ; and it is also true of many preachers and professors. The age, like a vigorous horse, is ever pressing onward, and all in the age must likewise move for- ward. The church is expected to be in the van of progress. Its place should surely not be that of the tail, which is also obliged to go forward, and yet is always in the rear. There is a spirit in the 148 THE AGE AND THE CHURCH. church, which declares that it will not give up cer- tain dogmas and positions unless it is forced to do so. Those who say this cannot know the meaning of their statement. It implies that they will cling" to errors as long as possible, and then abandon them, whereas the church should adhere only to the truth, and should be most zealous to lead every movement which overthrows error and promotes truth. These are things against which earnest believers protest, and which make the present condition of the church untenable. Either the church must change so as to progress from its own inner im- pulse, or very much of the age will advance so far as to be wholly beyond its reach. Perhaps the devastations of atheistic socialism are necessary to make the church conscious of its great interests ; perhaps the aggressions of Rome are required to bring Protestants together. But it is sad that it must be left to the destructive influence of the enemies of the church of Christ to accomplish what the love of brethren and devotion to the supreme interests of religion ought to be strong enough to bring about. The time must come when it will be impossible to comprehend how,, with the fundamental principles of union accepted by all, it was possible for minor considerations to divide believers. Christian unity is a reality ; wherever there are Christians they are united by indissoluble bonds,. THE CHURCH. 149 such as the same Lord and Spirit, the same essen- tials of faith, the same love, the same work, and the same hope. It is not unity merely that Christ prays for in John 17 ; but He prays for the per- fection of this unity, and for its visible manifesta- tion before the world. Everywhere this unity is presupposed in Scripture. The one kingdom of God, the vine and the branches, the body with its members, the temple of God, one Shepherd and one flock, one husbandry, and other figures teach that believers must be one. Christ established one church, not many. The full, hearty recognition of this inherent oneness is now needed ; and all in- volved in this recognition must be made manifest. Those who go about to establish Christian unity overlook what Christ has already done. What is needed now is the perfecting and making visible of what is already real, but not yet fully developed or properly manifested. Let the seed now buried beyond the eyes of men be unfolded to a beautiful plant, and the existing organism of Christian unity will pass from the invisible to the visible stage. In this unity which the world can behold, Christ's prayer is answered: " I in them, and thou in me, that they may be made perfect in one ; and that the world may know that thou hast sent me, and hast loved them, as thou has loved me." Great crises, like those which mark the present, lead to new forms which meet the needs of the day. That old things are insuflicient is proof that 150 THE AGE AND THE CHURCH. progress has been made, and that the demands are now greater than in the past. Just what the bet- ter type is to be must be left to development. The effort to produce it must not be wasted in merely- attacking existing imperfections ; the work must be positive, constructive, the emphasis being placed on the fundamental truths and the essential regen- erative powers. The negative, destructive work is likely to be done by a godless culture, by the materialistic masses, and by Roman Catholicism. That positive work will emphasize the existing unity and will promote its manifestation. Already the barriers are being taken down, which keep Christians and preachers from changing from one denomination to another. The foes of the church are already forcing Christians so near each other that the friction may produce more warmth of Christian love. A union which is a compromise of Christian conviction and honesty is not worthy of Christians. It is a strange view, that believers who associate together become responsible for each other's whims and errors and failings. That is as foolish as to suppose that a valuable truth can only be preserved by a schism, which puts it by itself and gives it a one-sided emphasis. Not strength of faith, but the power of unfaith, lies at the basis of this procedure: the truth is thought too weak in itself, so external force and organization must help it along. An honest Christian tolerance, not big- otry, must be the spirit of the union. And the THE CHURCH. 151 union must be a spiritual growth, not a mechanism or patchwork. Even with the existing denominations a measure of visible unity is possible. Different states, vary- ing in size and influence, each with separate legis- lative bodies, and with peculiar rights, views and interests, may form but one nation. All the states need not have the same constitution and name ; the peculiarities may be very great, and these peculiarities may add richness to the whole. Monotony is not unity ; sameness makes organism impossible. The greatest unity in variety, and the greatest variety in perfect unity, is needed. It is not a question of abandoning principles, or of merging one denomination into another ; the rights, the privileges, the peculiarities, and the Christian freedom of each, must be fully respected. The visible union now needed and possible is cooperative. Its aim is religious and practical rather than dogmatic. Only so much of a doctrinal basis is required as all true believers can and must recognize ; and it is to be a basis for union in such cooperation as concerns the entire church. De- nominational work will not be interfered with ; but all general Christian causes, as the spread of the Bible, the observance of the Lord's day, the war against intemperance, against vice, and crime, and similar objects, which concern equally all the denominations, would fall within the province of this Cooperative Union. It would unite Christians 152 THE AGE AND THE CHURCH. against the powers of evil, and would form a solid host against the aggressions of the papacy and the destructive tendencies of materialistic socialism. The mightiest conflicts of the day involve Chris- tianity itself ; and it is for the defence of these interests that such a Union is necessary. Not the maximum, but the minimum, of Chris- tian faith must be confessed by the Union, so that all Christian differences may have room. Such a minimum might be accepted by a church which could nevertheless not enter the Union, because the church has some exclusive principle which refuses the recognition of other believers. Such a church, as the Roman Catholic, for instance, would exclude itself. A denomination that lacks Chris- tian tolerance toward other denominations does not belong to that visible unity for which our Lord prayed. The minimum of faith as a basis would likely cause little difficulty. If presented as a religious basis and personal trust, not as a dog- matic groundwork, which is not what is sought, there seems to be no reason why somethng like the following could not be adopted : God our Father, as revealed in Christ ; Jesus Christ, the Son of God and of man, our Lord and the Saviour of the world ; the Bible as the rule of faith and practice ; and love to God and to man as the bond of union among Christians, and the inspiration to do the works of this love and to make the love itself universal. Would not Christ have received THE CHURCH. 153 all who can honestly accept these statements? And what was enough for Him — ought it not to be enough for the cooperation of His followers ? This Union, constituted by the various denomi- nations, expressive of what is common to all of them, and interfering with nothing > peculiar to any, can be most real and most efficient, a mani- festation of what is best in each denomination. Annual meetings can be held by the delegates appointed by the various denominational bodies. The great themes of the church as the leaven of the world, equally significant for all churches, could be discussed. Out of narrow spheres of work the consciousness that the church of Christ is to conquer the world would again be aroused. Not only would the real oneness of believers be made evident to the world, but their actual one- ness against common foes, would give them a strength they now so sadly lack. Besides, on the great themes the fullest and best light could be concentrated from the various denominations, and the benefits would accrue to all. Infringement on purely denominational themes must of course be excluded ; but with such great subjects as the conversion of the heathen, the evangelization of the masses and of the culture of the day, the mak- ing of nominally Christian nations actually Chris- tian, and the overthrow of false forms of religion, w^ould awaken little inclination to enter the especial domains of denominations. The peculiar demands 154 THE AGE AND THE CHURCH. of the age on the church of Christ would alone furnish themes enough for all conventions. Even if the conventions are limited to discussions, they may be very useful. Resolutions expressing the sense of the convention cannot be made binding, but can be presented for Christian consideration to all believers. On the same basis, the churches in a particular locality or section can hold conven- tions, to consider such points as are essential to the welfare of all. The work to be done or pre- pared by this Cooperative Union must of course be left to the Union itself. In this respect there would be no lack ; the work is so overwhelmingly great that it is apt to bewilder by its magnitude. That this Cooperative Union is to become interna- tional is self-evident. Similar to the Evangelical Alliance, it would yet be very different. Chris- tians of the world are to be made acquainted with each other, and are to be united. The reproach is to cease that Roman Catholic priests are the black internationals, and socialists are the red interna- tionals, while Protestants are nothing but local sects, fighting one another, and thus doing among themselves the destructive work which the Jesuits and socialists can then the more easily finish. That realism which marks the age the church lacks. Its professed unity is not real enough, its love of the brethren is not real. The deepest need of the church is Christian realism. Thoughts are put for things, words for thoughts, theories for actualities, professions for deeds. Realization is THE CHURCH. 155 needed. Phraseology has taken the place of real- ity. Faith lives in cloud-land, hope is often an idle dream, love is a fiction. A real religion would make the condition now existing in Christian lands impossible. Our most Christian cities have horrors which cannot find a parallel in heathendom. Jap- anese students come to Christian lands, and in many instances are confirmed in their views of the weakness of Christianity by the actual condition of the churches and professing Christians ; or if Christian themselves, these students admit that their faith was put to the severest test by what they saw in Christian lands. The worst influences are exerted on heathen lands by so-called Chris- tian countries, and the worst heathen are found in Christian lands. The most urgent mission fields are at home. All this must be realized ; and to meet these facts the church must realize and make real to the world what is now implied in the church, but is not real. Among the realizations required is the kingdom of God, which seems to have dropped out of the faith of believers. The very distractions in Prot- estantism make it impossible to conceive its divid- ed churches as the kingdom of God. The Roman Catholic church deserves credit for retaining the idea of God's kingdom ; but falsely it makes itself solely and exclusively that kingdom. When the Protestant theologian Ritschl again emphasized the kingdom of God and gave it the prominence which it occupies in the Gospel, it was hailed, even 156 THE AGE AND THE CHURCH. by opponents of his theology, as an act which restored an important Christian idea long ignored. Yet on the establishment of that kingdom Christ concentrates his aim. That kingdom consequently occupies a central place in His teachings ; and it is only by the establishment of the kingdom that His mission can be accomplished. But by absorb- ing the attention by denominational work, and by limiting the vision to the denomination, there was no room for the grand conception of God's king- dom. Thus what most of all interested Christ has ceased to interest the denominations. They can not shrink the kingdom of God to a sect, and it is just as impossible to enlarge the sect to the dimen- sions of God's kingdom. No denomination is the kingdom of God ; and one m.ust greatly transcend the idea of a denomination to be able to grasp that of the kingdom. So completely does the church fail to cover the idea of the kingdom of God, that much of the best work of that kingdom is not at all the work of the church as a church. That large sphere of Chris- tian activity, embraced in Germany under the head of '' Inner Mission," is not the work of the organ- ized church ; and yet it is the best evidence of the power of religion. The state church is too un- wieldly to do the work, and pastors sometimes oppose that work, because it involves so much lay activity. The Inner Mission is carried on by vol- untary associations, such as the work in behalf of neglected children, fallen women, released prison- THE CHURCH. 157 ers, and the like. Not the church begins the work, but the faith and love of some Christian heart are the source. Parties may contribute to these causes who never attend divine service, while the church itself, perhaps, contributes nothing. Some minis- ters urge that all organizations for Christian work should be made an organic part of the church, and that must be the case when the church and the kingdom of God are synonymous ; but now this is impossible. A man converted where there is no church, or where there is no church to which he can honestly belong, is in the kingdom of God, but not in the visible church ; and all Christian work is in this kingdom, but it may not be in the church. No demand is more thoroughly Christian than that the church shall be made, as far as pos- sible, the kingdom of God. If this is not done, Christ's followers may prefer to be in the kingdom of God, whether they are in the church or not. This kingdom of God is the whole sphere of God's operations on earth through Christ. In re- spect to quality, it includes all the influences which emanate from Christ, all the manifestations of His truth and Spirit. In point of extent, this kingdom embraces the world so far as Christ's influence is exerted— the world where the wheat grows beside the tares. Heaven is all wheat ; the world outside of divine influence is all tares ; in God's kingdom, considered in point of external extent, the wheat and tares are together, but the wheat alone is the kingdom. 158 THE AGE AND THE CHURCH. In point of influence the kingdom of God in- cludes all who experience the effects of the Gospel. Many are under this influence in a preparatory- stage, being taught and trained for full member- ship. By the schoolmaster they are being led unto Christ. Some not aware of the fact are greatly affected by the truth of this kingdom. The king- dom, as confined to the church, is so narrowed as to lose essential features given by Christ Himself. Christian truth in all its fulness and with all its ramifications is included! and all that prepares for this truth, whether in heathendom, in Judaism, or wherever found, is related to this kingdom. Buddha, Confucius, and Plato as well as Moses and Isaiah, have significance for it. It is a king- dom of truth, and Christ came to bear witness unto the truth. And as all truth is connected, as truth leads to truth, and as the spirit of truth finds no truth foreign to itself, we can see how all truth is intimately connected with this kingdom. "We can do nothing against the truth." There is worship in this kingdom ; but what is commonly called "divine service "is but a small part of the divine service of Christians. All truly divine service is included, all that finds an illustra- tion in Christ's word and work. This service in- cludes all embraced in the immense sweep of love to God and love to man. Nothing done in Christ's name and spirit is excluded. He heals the sick and feeds the hungry ; and work like this is not only included in the kingdom, but in Matt, xxv, it is THE CHURCH. 159 even made the test of belonging to the kingdom. The law of the kingdom is divine and human love and sympathy. All Christian works come under this law. The spirit and work of this kingdom far reach beyond the limits usually assigned to them. It is the kingdom of God, but for men ; human therefore as well as divine. Nothing truly of humanity is foreign to it. Christ came to spread joy, and all pure joy has a home in this kingdom. Culture, too, here finds the purest soil and the best seed. The kingdom has room for art, for music, and for poetry, as well as for science and philoso- phy. When the apostle says, " Whether therefore ye eat, or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God," he evidently includes in this divine service all the Christian does as a child of God. It is astonishing, in view of the teachings of Scrip- ture, that worship in church can be called divine service, while the study, the profession, the busi- ness, the recreations, and the joys of the Christian, are excluded from divine service. Christ lifts His own, and all pertaining to them as His own, into the realm of His kingdom. Thus the Christian life and all the Christian's concerns are divine ser- vice ; and He who could command that the net be cast into the sea and be drawn from it has digni- fied labor. The business of the Christian is not outside of but within God's kingdom. Even in Protestantism the Roman Catholic idea of divine service often prevails, instead of the evangelical view. Divine service {Gottesdtenst) as 160 THE AGE AND THE CHURCH. merely worship is a Roman Catholic notion, and this notion, as well as the term itself, is an inheri- tance from the papacy. We confine religion to the church and its services, and thus adopt the leaven of Rome. There is no religion anywhere except in a man, in his heart, his soul and all worship and doing is but an expression of his religion, not that religion itself. Religion means character, person- ality ; it is being, essence, substance, not a fleeting phenomenon. Religion is a spiritual organism in a man ; it is the real, actual life of the soul, known by its fruits, as the tree is, and yet the tree is more than its fruit. The fruit is effect, not cause. We do not worship too much, but the other divine ser- vice — that of the life — is not made as great propor- tionately as the worship. We make "to glorify God" mean to worship God; but Jesus made it mean to do the work of God. "I have glorified thee on earth : I have finished the work which thou gavest me to do." It does not seem clear how God can be better glorified than by doing His will, namely, by a faith which worketh by love. Wor- ship is but a small part of divine service and may be but the poorest part. Jesus clearly teaches that to serve God by robbing man is sacrilege. Mark 7 : 11-13. Is it not highly significant that Jesus established neither time, nor place, nor form, for worship, but constantly lived His love and taught His disciples to do likewise ? THE CHURCH. 161 The church of to-day must be measured by the idea of the kingdom of God and of its divine ser- vice. As this idea itself has so largely vanished from the church, we cannot be surprised that there are regions where the church itself has scarcely more than shadows, cast by the light of this king- dom. Some, perhaps, feel that in order to stand fully with Christ, the Gospel, the kingdom of God and of heaven, they must stand aloof from the ex- isting churches. It is one of the many mercies of God, that He enables the believer to be alone with Him. The isolation of the church and its concerns has ceased. Theology and religion have lost their separateness from other human affairs, and have taken their place as members of the great organ- ism of humanity. This intimate connection with worldly thought and interest may endanger their purity, but it also increases their power. Religion cannot be abstracted from other factors in man, or from his earthly relations and interests. As a spirit or disposition it must enter all that enlists his heart. Consequently religion as a separate profession no longer enjoys the reverence of former times. Religion, as an addition to worldliness and selfish- ness, is but " as a jewel of gold in a swine's snout." Not only has the mysterious sanctity conferred by office, or by peculiar ceremonies, lost its influence with men of culture, but the church itself has been 163 THE AGE AND THE CHURCH. more fully drawn into ordinary human affairs. The leaven, long kept apart as a divine arcanum, is now to be placed into the meal to prove that the glory of its inherent character consists in its trans- forming energy as exercised on the world. Re- ligion has thus come to mean a divine power that is thoroughly human, and its perfect humanity is among the strongest proofs of its divinity The immanent, permeating power of religion is another test of the position of the church in our age. How far it meets the demand made on it, of permeating science, philosophy, literature, art, politics, social institutions, capital, labor, and life generally, it is impossible to state exactly. But there is no question that the church can be viewed hopefully in the light of problem and possibilities rather than in that of attainment. Its majesty is in its problems and possibilities, and in achieve- ments only so far as they realize its ideals. And is not the same true of Christianity ? It is an ideal which Christ has set up before believers of all ages, but which the existing Christianity has at no period realized. That the church is so far from the ideal and so teems with imperfections is no ground for despair, but is reason for the most thorough self-examination, and for the greatest energy to turn the possibilities into realities. An optimistic pessimism is possible: pessimism respecting the present condition of the church, optimism respect- ing what can be made of the church. THE ADAPTATION OF THE, &^C. 163 CHAPTER VI. The Adaptation of the Church to the Times. This adaptation will here be considered in its most general character ; the specific adaptation of the church to particular movements will be dis- cussed in the following chapters. The modern demand for reality is just, although the conception of reality may be too limited and even false, and the methods to attain reality may be considerably modified in the future. However mere visions and shams may prevail, when once the demand for objective realism has become a fact of the general consciousness, it is not likely ever to lose its imperative character. The demand will grow, controlling minds as yet little affected by it, entering departments still outside of its do- minion, and overawing as of first importance all other demands. This realism, as the enemy of what is deceptive and false, is a requirement of reason, of conscience, and of every consideration of interest. Who would build his hopes and labors on a foundation of lies ? Christ and His religion insist, that what is real and actual shall take the place of fictions. These considerations have be- 164 THE AGE AND THE CHURCH. come a power in the age and are shaping the course of religion. Empty speculation on divine subjects has lost its force ; mere theories are recognized as having no regenerative power ; subjective views^ however dogmatically asserted, are known to be no evidence of objective validity ; and in the world at large, professions are at a discount, because the fulfilment so often belies the prophecy. The whole weight of the age is an emphasis on the demand for Christian Realis77t. By its Christian, realism the church must establish that Spiritual Realism which the world denies, and must over- throw the materialistic exclusiveness which domi- nates the present. The spirituality ignored by the masses can be demonstrated a reality only by be- ing made an actuality. By a deep spiritual awak- ening the church must appropriate what is com- mitted to it, and must realize in actual life what its faith, and profession, and calling imply. The con- sciousness of reality, attained by the age, must likewise be attained by the church ; and the de- mand for reality must be honestly met by the act- ual spirituality of the church. The aesthetic contemplation of religion, as that of a picture or statue, has no spiritual significance. The ethical era has succeeded the aesthetic. Eth- ical energy means will, self-appropriation, and self-elaboration ; divine food must be eaten, appro- priated, and assimilated, so as to become heart and soul. " The words that I speak unto you, they are THE ADAPTATION OF THE, &-C. 165 Spirit, and they are life." Christ's teachings be- come spirit and life, are wrought into soul, grow into heart, and the spirit which these teachings become, lives in a man, and lives out of him and through him into the world. Divine truth, transformed into life, overcomes the one-sided views of religion which have been so common in the history of Christianity. It makes impossible the conception of religion as exclusively or chiefly a dogmatic system. The one-sided em- phasis of dogma has now brought about a reaction that is not less partial. On the one hand it is claimed, that not only philosophical dogmas of theology but likewise simple statements of doc- trine, have nothing to do with religion. Thus some claim that religion is solely a matter of feel- ing, and that neither at its basis, nor in its expres- sion, can we look for definite doctrine. Religion is thus put on a level with beauty or art, and is at best a vague mysticism or an emotional pantheism. Others put action in place of dogma, and make conduct the essence of religion. It is thus made mainly ethical, with the will as the chief or sole factor in its exercise. The very fact that thus but a part of man's na- ture is affected by religion proves these views de- fective. It is a common experience that, when one faculty has for awhile been made the sole seat of religion, a reaction necessarily comes in favor of the other faculties. Religion can be truly 166 THE AGE AND THE CHURCH. healthy only when it affects harmoniously all the powers of the mind, or has its seat in the heart, as that term is used in Scripture, namely, in that deep sense according to which the heart lies at the basis of the intellect, the feelings, and the will, and is the source of their activity. Therefore religion may begin with the intellect, with the heart, or in the will ; but it cannot be complete unless it per- meates the entire man, and thus becomes his spirit or the personality itself. It is this deep and broad, this permeative nature of religion, which overcomes the one-sided ten- dencies of the day. Men constantly put asunder what God has joined together. Christianity is doc- trine which becomes actual spirit and life. The doctrine of communion with God as Father is for real communion ; the doctrine of pardon is for the sake of actual forgiveness ; and the doctrine of love is for the sake of the love that loves. All faith, every grace is real, and a deception unless real. What is this reality ? Personality. In all the universe there is not an iota of truth, except in persons. Scripture has only symbols of truth ; these symbols become truth only to the interpret- ing mind. Letters, words, volumes are no more truth than the piano is music. The Bible itself may be made a fetish, but only by the heathen. It is not an end in itself, but means to an end ; it is a symbol, and the reality of the symbol is in the mind that reads aright the symbol. THE ADAPTATION OF THE, &-C. 167 In its deepest and best realistic sense the inter- pretation of Scripture means that a man himself must become the truth whose symbols are found in the Bible. Spiritual truth transforms him into its own likeness. Truth as a mere conception, as an object before the mind, becomes actual being. The man is an embodiment of the truth ; he is the truth in personality, in spirit, in life. Regener- ation is a process which transforms divine truth from a mental image into a personal reality. Christian faith means so to believe that we become what we believe ; and we can truly believe only the truth we are. And we can do only what we are. Religion is reality, personality, truth which is spirit and life. Many Christians emphasize the witness to the truth as the great mission of the church. The exaltation of truth in the Gospel of John is in keeping with the strictest scientific and philosoph- ical demand of the age. Christ represents himself as having come into the world to bear witness to the truth, and as Himself the way, the truth, and the life. He promises the Spirit of truth that leads into all truth ; He makes truth the power that frees and sanctifies, and requires that those who come to Him shall be of the truth. His testi- mony to the truth was in word and in work, in doctrine and in life. We can hardly imagine a greater perversion of His truth than by making it consist in confession alone or chiefly. The truth lived is the truth witnessed unto. 168 THE AGE AND THE CHURCH. Wherever we look we find a deepening of spirit- ual processes necessary in the church. Whatever new forms may be instituted, it is in the deepening of religious conviction, in sinking the truth more into the heart, in spiritualizing the being, the very essence of man, that the process of regeneration consists and the hope of reformation lies. Spirit- uality as a life-process, as a personal energizing, is needed. The truth as superficial, mechanical, as something a man has in his intellect, but which is not his personal substance and which he is not, this truth is ineffective or moves only the surface of men. Religion has become institutional. Sabbatic, a power that hovers over a man, instead of becoming his soul. Men become religious, are somehow and somewhat affected by spirituality ; but religion does not become Peter, John, Paul. A man gets religion, but religion does not get the man. Piety lacks reality because it fails of the substantiality of the personality. The man himself is the meal which divine truth is to leaven. Religion is per- sonal or it is nothing. Christ makes religion personality. The Sabbath is for man, not man for the Sabbath. This implies that all religion included in the wSabbath is for man. There is no way of sanctifying the Sabbath, except by sanctifying men. Religion for man in- volves a total revolution of many current ecclesi- astical views. Religion for God's sake, as if it THE ADAPTATION OF THE, &^C. 169 could somehow meet His needs or benefit Him, is a heathen notion. Man needs religion, and that is the human ground for its existence. God de- mands that a man become religious, as the con- dition for bringing the soul into harmony with Himself. But the blessing is man's. How signifi- cant the fact that Christ came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, thus by His own service proving that religion serves man. Religion solely for God's sake has brought about a reaction, mak- ing religion wholly human and earthly. The love to God has been interpreted to mean prayer and praise merely in word, as if that could delight Jehovah. The doing of His will is the strongest proof of love to Him. The other command, made by our Lord equal to the first, namely, the love of the neighbor like unto the love of self, has been too much ignored. For that love to man the de- mand is now greater than ever. There is in that love an actuality and a reality which all the world can see. Religion for man, as a minister such as Christ was and is, means more than religion as a comfort in times of distress. Religion that is occasional, exceptional, a mere thought or mere feeling, is not Christianity. Such a religion lacks the spirit and life, the reality which Christianity is. Not for occasions but for man is the religion of Christ, for the whole man, so that he has religion and religion has him, and he is in the truest sense religious. 170 THE AGE AND THE CHURCH. Religion as power, and that power as personal, is the great need of the times. Much of the hope of the church consists in the exaltation of the re- ligious personality to its proper place. Things have absorbed the attention to the neglect of the person. Temples, books, places, relics have been made holy, when only what is free and personal can be truly holy. Think of holy water and holy vestments! Awe inspiring or religiously conse- crated places may be termed holy in Scripture, but never in that idolatrous sense which ignorance and superstition now adopt. The mere attachments or possessions of persons have been unduly exalted, while the person him- self was overlooked. Thus a dogma, which is nothing but an abstraction, unless it is in the mind, has been treated as if it had some independent ex- istence and ought to be revered for its own sake, whereas only as it affects the person has it signifi- cance. Man has been regarded as existing for the sake of some doctrine ; whether the doctrine ever became to the soul a reality, a personal power, seemed to be a secondary matter. Man seemed to exist for some profession, some ceremony, some institution, especially for the church. Religion was deemed foreign to man, w^hich somehow un- humanized him in order to bring him into contact with holy things, instead of being a divine and human power within him and making him most truly human. To a dogma, a sacrament a man THE ADAPTATION OF THE, &»C. 171 cried, "I believe," as if faith were a projection of the man outside of himself to the object of faith, a stick to touch objects outside of him. That faith is within a man, and possesses nothing but what it has within a man, this has not been appreciated. Things are still deemed holy. In Protestant lands it is common to regard a cemetery defiled by the burial of a suicide. What does defiled earth mean in such a case ? St. Paul's Cathedral must be reconsecrated after a suicide. But does the Cathedral need it ? Does God need it ? Or is it simply for man's sake, somehow to affect his thoughts and feelings ? But in religion the person is now coming to the front, and mere things are thrust into the back- ground, where they belong. The person of Christ as the centre of the Gospel has received marked emphasis during the century. Not that a full and healthy Christianity ignores doctrine ; but Christ viewed in his completeness has come to be re- garded as the embodiment of His doctrine, as well as the source of the life recorded in the Gospel. As inclusive of doctrine, life, death, and resur- rection, Christ became the centre of Christian thought and affection. The great conflicts of the century, especially with the Tuebingen school, have brought into unusual prominence the person of Christ. That He is the Gospel has become more and more the conviction of the Christian world. This is but the first step to the recognition 172 THE AGE AND THE CHURCH. of His work as personal. In that work we have simply the expression of Himself. Nothing is perfunctory, all is heart and soul and privilege. His life is literally a sacrifice, in the sense that in work and word, as well as in suffering and death, He gave Himself. All who put their hearts, or in other words, themselves into their work, under- stand this element of sacrifice, the life as a giving of self. To this personal work of the personal Christ another personal element must be added, namely, His aim was personal. The person was always and everywhere His aim ; and all else was but means to attain this end. When we say that Jesus taught the truth, we are apt to think that all has been said. But His work is much better charac- terized by saying that He came to teach men^ and that He made truth the means of this teaching. He made His truth fit into the organism of man, so that it might fit men for the truth, molding them into its likeness and making them true. Jesus built no churches, established no particular institutions, drew up no constitutions or forms of government, gave no liturgy, and wrote no Gospel. He simply taught and trained disciples, made them the repository and embodiment of all He came to accomplish on earth, and thus finished His work. Where was the church after the departure of Christ ? No Gospel had been written, and not an external Christian institution of any kind existed. THE ADAPTATION OF THE, &-C. 173 The believers were the church and all there was of Christianity. The total result of Christ's labors was their personality and what was embodied therein. Their minds had been developed and had certain treasures which Christ had given them ; their spirits had been formed into His like- ness. The disciples themselves were Christ-\3.n% and in them was found what there was of Christ in the world. Personality, and personality only. They wrote the Gospels, making them a record of their observation and experience, a transcript of their hearts. They wrote the Epistles, adapting what they had learned and had become to peculiar regions, occasions and persons. They established churches and did the first work of Christianity after their Lord's departure. But what they accomplished was not now to take the place of the original work of Christ, but was simply to be the continuance of Christ's work. Things, churches, institutions were not henceforth to be a substitute for the personal work of Christ, but these were to be means to continue that work. In a sentence the apostle Paul concentrates his work : " I seek not yours, but you." Thus his work, as that of his Master, had a purely personal aim. In this all-absorbing, personal element we see the grandeur of the origin of Christianity and find the condition of its conquering power. And it is the changes with respect to the position of the per- sonal element in religion, which have marked the 174 THE AGE AND THE CHURCH. perversions and the decay of Christianity. The perversions have been of two kinds: institutions were thought capable of doing what persons alone could accomplish ; and something else than per- sons was thought to be the aim of Christianity. Thus the power w^hich exists only in persons was transferred to things. That abstraction called the church was made omnipotent ; institutions were deemed sacred and the embodiment of a sanctify- ing energy ; mere perfunctory acts, so mechanical that the personality in its true sense was not en- listed, were treated as means of grace. That the effect was deadening, and that a mechanically moved corpse took the place of the religious life, was natural. But the very end of religion was perverted. Instead of making the person the great aim of all religion, so that every effect of religion terminated in personality, and that the personal development of the person was made the great purpose — this great aim was wholly lost sight of and is still largely ignored. The time is not yet past when a few were regarded as persons, and all others were treated as things. A few were lords, whether from position or from intellectual advantages ; the rest wxre domineered over, as if they were but things to be mechanically controlled. What they were to think, to believe, and to do, was determined for them, just as if they them- selves had no intellect, no freedom, no heart, no responsibility. Then personalities were treated as THE ADAPTATION OF THE, 6-C. 175 if they existed for dogmas, which dogmas can exist nowhere but in persons. Men were treated as if they had value only for sacraments, for forms and ceremonies, for institutions, and for the church. Thus, what was originally intended to be means for reaching persons, was perverted into the end, and persons were made the means for the attain- ment of that end. Things reigned, and persons were treated as if they were things, and this com- pleted the perversion and the decay of Christianity. The first and most general demand in order that the church may meet the needs of the times is, that the personality receive that soHtary promi- nence which Christ and the apostles ascribe to it. " Take heed that ye offend not one of these little ones," must be learned in all its fulness of mean- ing. In religion the personality is the reality, and the only reality. If now religion gets all but the personality, it in reality gets nothing; but if it gets the personality, it also gets all that belongs to the personality. A return from views and practices prevalent in many parts of Christendom to the essence of Christ's teachings and methods would involve the most radical change. And yet the times impera- tively demand that change. When we seize the just demand of the times for objective realism, we learn that a Christian realism alone can meet this demand. Real religion is nothing less than a re- ligious personality; and this real religion mani- 176 THE AGE AND THE CHURCH. fested to the world is nothing less than the religious personality objectified, really presented, actually given to the world. What has been said makes it evident that the person does not exist for Scripture ; but the Scrip- ture, with all its teachings and commands, exists for the person. The individual Christians are the members which constitute the body which is the church. Take away the members, and where is the church ? The members are the church ; and as are the members, so is the church. The church thus has value only for the sake of the members ; and it is a degradation to the members and the church to treat persons as if they existed only for the church as an empty abstraction — as if the church could be something else than a mere organ- ism of the members. Where in the church is Christ, or the Spirit, or grace, or truth, or spiritual power, except in the believers who constitute the church ? Institutions for persons, not persons for institu- tions ; things for persons, not persons for things. Organizations of persons for persons, not persons for organizations, not organizations as a substitute for persons. We constantly make abstractions, which are empty without the concrete reality, take the place of the concrete. What is any organiza- tion but a union of persons ? And where is the union when the persons are gone ? Organizations are not substitutes for personal work, but means THE ADAPTATION OF THE, &-C. 177 through which that work is accomplished. Organ- ization has been pronounced the great power of the age. Let us overthrow this heresy by affirm- ing that personality is the supreme power of the age, and that organization is valuable solely so far as it recognizes, develops, and directs personality, and thus makes the personality most efficient. Better dissolve organizations than destroy the personality. " The good seed are the children of the kingdom."' The kingdom of God is a kingdom of persons. This change of the emphasis from institutions and things to persons involves the proper appre- ciation of all that is Christian. Doctrines and commands have their place ; not, however, as a dead letter or mechanical routine, but as spirit and life, as personality and actuality. The church and all institutions have significance ; not, however, in themselves, but solely for the sake of persons. The life is not ignored, but it is made real because it is the life of the person. Authority is not superseded by self-will, but the authority is saved from exter- nal legalism and is made evangelical, because it has become personal. Not what Christians have or profess, or are esteemed to be, but what they are, is thus the essential thing in religion. And the essence of the Christian life is that believers do what they are. The life itself is the Christian personality before the world. Where the personality is the essence, there the 12 178 THE AGE AND THE CHURCH. onesidedness so common now will be avoided. The totality of the being will be the main consid- eration. Thus all the faculties and powers of the soul will be regarded, and religion will be made a concern of the whole man. The main stress will not be laid on the intellect, as if religion were mainly theology, and as if its essence were a dog- matic intellectuality ; nor on the feelings, as if the substance of religion could be foimd in the inten- sity of passing emotions ; nor on practical affairs, as if religion were merely a doing before the world. But religion as a matter of the personality requires that all the powers be harmoniously developed and exercised. If the religion of the personality is to be real only what is real must be required of the person. The fictions now so common in the church must be banished. These fictions pertain chiefly to a faith which does not exist. All sound education is based on the principle that the subjects taught and the capacity of the pupil must harmonize. As the mind grows, so the appreciation of subjects increases. Of each capacity only an appreciation of that which is adapted to that capacity can be expected. That the same rule applies to religion is evident ; and yet that rule is constantly ignored. Children are drilled in certain religious doctrines, and then a confession is required of them whose meaning they cannot comprehend. In Europe the confir- THE ADAPTATION OF THE, &^C. 179 mation of children is thus largely a burlesque on religion ; and the instruction, given preparatory to confirmation, has been declared by social demo- crats to be the most efficient means for alienating the youth from the church. Religion cannot be taught ; it is a creation, an inspiration. All that can be done by others is to teach religious truth and to help a soul in its efforts to become religious. Spirituality is preeminently ethical and personal, wholly an act of the soul itself ; whatever human and divine aids may be given. This is so clear from Christ's method with souls and from all ex- perience that it cannot be questioned. But be- cause certain doctrines can be taught, it seems to be taken for granted that religion itself can be taught. Certain doctrines are consciously or un- consciously substituted for religion, so that the confession of these doctrines is taken as proof that the confessor is religious. This is perhaps one of the most radical evils in the church, and accounts for the discrepancy between the confession and the life. Why lead a religious life, if a confession of faith is sufficient ? The child and the newly converted cannot be expected to understand more than the elements of Christianity ; and in their confession of faith noth- ing more can be expected. But in many instances they are required to confess what they cannot pos- sibly understand. They do not confess what they really believe, but what the church thinks they 180 THE AGE AND THE CHURCH. ought to believe. And when later they find that they have deceived themselves, the reaction may be so strong as to turn them against religion. In order to avoid this falsehood, faith should not be taken so exclusively in the sense of an intel- lectual apprehension of doctrines, but as inti- mated, more in the sense of personal trust in the person of Christ. This trust can be exercised by a child, while the doctrinal apprehension may be very imperfect ; and while the trust may be im- plicit, room can be left for the growth of doctrine with the growth of the child. That there must be some conception of the person trusted, and some doctrine respecting him, is clear ; but it is not so clear that the child, or even the grown person, can put this conception in the form of a distinct doc- trinal statement. The fishermen leaving their nets, Matthew called from the receipt of custom, and many others in that day who were asked to believe before the Gospel was all preached and the redemptive work completed, could not possibly know all about the doctrines, or even the whole character of Christ. But they trusted Him and in Him, though much He said was obscure to them, and many things He had yet to say could only be revealed later. Often their spiritual ignorance was very marked ; but their trust was unfailing. Christ, as their Epistles prove, was the centre of the faith of the apostles ; and it was trust in Him which led to that faith as doctrine. THE ADAPTATION OF THE, &^C. 181 The age is not renowned for its dogmatic prod- ucts. It is rather given to the study of details, which are necessary as a preparation for the for- mation of dogmatic systems. The Scriptures are studied in fragments, but a system of their teach- ings is not possible while the mind is absorbed by the preparatory work. It is not strange that, under these circumstances, there are tendencies in the church which in a dogmatic point of view seems to be retrogressive. The tentative efforts to form new creeds, or to adapt old ones to the present views, are largely a failure. The age is not dogmatically creative enough to accomplish the task well. Hence men are afraid to make changes, they are radically conservative, because they have not the ability to be progressive ; and because they cannot create, they unconditionally accept what others have prepared. But much of this conservatism has only the old creed, not the old faith. Confessions are interpreted more liber- ally and subscribed to more conditionally than of old. The trend is strong in certain quarters to substitute personal trust in the person of Christ and in the Father for the old elaborate, severe, and difficult confessions. In all departments and in all respects the great aim of the church, so far as the work of the age is concerned, must be to attain an earnest Christian realism. In its realities, and in these alone, will the age be able to see the ground for its existence. 182 THE AGE AND THE CHURCH. If love is the essence of the church, then by means of its love the church must attest its genuineness.. But if its love is so weak that it cannot tolerate the least honest doctrinal differences, what wonder if the world regards the church as the arena for theological conflicts rather than as the home of religion ? In the services of religion, in all the confessions it makes, in every doctrinal statement^ in every institution and sacrament, reality must be the first concern ; and what is not real must either be made so, or if this is not possible, then it must be banished. All this can be done without the least infringement on faith. The demand for reality is in perfect keeping with the conviction that much which we cannot understand may yet be true. Faith that is real is likewise always a learner. As now the church is to be made intensely, per- fectl)^ real, so it must treat men as they really are. For this purpose the age itself must be thoroughly studied. We are apt so take our conceptions of men from history, or from any other source rather than from men themselves, In America, in Eng- land, in Germany, there are peculiarities which require peculiar adaptations on the part of the Gospel. Christ is in this respect the great model and teacher. How He meets each particular case according to its merits ! That the church in differ- ent countries may thus be the same and yet differ- ent is clear, just as the Gospel is ever the same,. THE ADAPTATION OF THE, &-C. 188 and yet is preached according to the peculiarity of the times. Everywhere the church must adapt itself to the actual situation. Hence its forms are not to be unyielding, but pliable, adaptable. The church is a spirit and a life, so organized as ever ready to adapt itself in the best possible manner to the needs of the times- What was formerly emphasized may now be obsolete ; what was for- merly unknown may now be an especial demand. Thus the contents of the teachings of the church are ever the same, and yet they bring out different elements of the Gospel according to the different needs. So different occasions may require differ- ent forms of government, and there is no reason why that form of government which will best accomplish the purpose of the Gospel should not be chosen. So at different times different kinds of work are required, and the church should be pre- pared to meet the requirement. Both in the study of the age and in the adapta- tion of the church to its needs, the scientific method must be adopted as far as possible. Instead of visions, unproved theories, and haphazard methods, which so often prevail in religion, there must be empirical investigation, the inductive method, healthy specialization, for the sake of learning the actual condition of things and actually meeting the present requirements. He who fails to study the actual situation which he wants to affect by means of spiritual truth, is as foolish as the farmer who 184 THE AGE AND THE CHURCH. studies the seed he sows, but neither examines the soil, nor inquires into the adaptation of the seed to the soil. With unmistakable emphasis the signs of the times declare that a thoroughly real church, adapted to the realities of the day, is the demand every where. That to the age as it is the church is not real, is the most serious objection. Honest men declare that they do not understand the church ; that it makes demands which they cannot appreciate ; that it lays stress on dogmas which with the greatest effort they cannot comprehend ; that the pulpit deals with subjects which have no significance for them, and often in language be- yond their comprehension ; religion is for them too much of the remote past or of the heavenly future, not a reality for the present and for this world ; and that therefore it is not a help in their anxieties and struggles, but seems to them wholly antiquated, or else adapted only to beings different from them- selves. The church is too much confined to itself and to its own sphere of ideas to enter the realm of the thoughts of others. It demands that men come to it ; but it fails to go to them in the hedges and highwa3^s, and to compel them by its moral and spiritual adaptation and power to come in. The church exists too much apart from the age, as an institution by itself, intent on its own interests, instead of apprehending its mission as the leaven of the whole world. The real church for the real THE ADAPTATION OF THE, &-C. 185 age, such as Christ was to His age, is the demand. The age has lost the appreciation of abstractions. Hence the church as having its concrete reality in its members must be emphasized. In what its members do on individuals is its strength. It can- not act otherwise than through its members and on individuals. All its utterances are but utter- ances of individuals in an organized capacity. We make the work of the church a fiction, except so far as that work is the work of individuals ; and we speak of the power of the church as if that power were a reality otherwise than as the power of the members of the church. As the efficiency of the church then consists in the efficiency of the individuals in it, the great aim is to do the work of the church through its members. The church is its members ; and all its members are the church. The church is but individuals united ; and the church at work is but the individuals at work. The real power of the church is in the real power of each member. Thus the work of the church, even in its organized capacity, is the work of individ- uals. This individual efficiency is the real demand now, but it is an efficiency which is to affect the whole of humanity. That this Christian realism in adapting itself to the age is not to lose its truly Christian elements ought to be self-evident. The adaptation to the age does not mean that Christian truth is to be compromised. The adaptation to the needs of the 186 THE AGE AND THE CHURCH. age means, that what the age really needs is to be supplied. The adaptation is to be of such a char- acter that the age may be won to the Gospel. The adaptation may require that much of the age shall be pronounced false ; and it must be such that all that is false will be overcome. It is thus an adap- tation which respects the truth and history of Christianity, but which so applies these to the age that the age itself becomes Christian. The church is not to go with the age ; in many respects it may be obliged to oppose the age ; but as the teacher adapts himself to the capacity and needs of the pupil, so the church is to adapt itself to the capacity and needs of the age. This return to the Christian personality, which is in reality a return to Christ and the Gospel, in- volves other considerations of great importance. The personality being esteemed for its own sake, it must under no pretext be degraded to a mere tool. As an end in itself, that personality must never be treated as if mere means to attain some other end. Many of the evils of the day have their origin in this perversion of means and end. Since the personality is supreme, its most complete and highest development must be the chief aim. The person must be so highly respected that all violence to its inherent rights is out of the ques- tion. The individuality is to be unfolded accord- ing to its own nature. The diversity which Paul describes is life, the degradation of all to the level THE ADAPTATION OF THE, &-C. 187 of a common monotony is death. The greatest va- riety in the most perfect unity belongs to the ideal church. Instead of suppressing Christian peculiar- ity in the interest of a mechanical sameness, its utmost perfection and complete manifestation should be the direct aim of the church. This in- dividual peculiarity is the condition of originality and the soul of genius. Instead of suppressing this originality in religion, religion offers the very sphere in which it should have free play and the greatest encouragement. The divine truth and Spirit can be trusted in their free influence on the free Christian individuality. But while the wealth of Christian peculiarity and the originality of Christian genius are made objects of direct and especial cultivation, they are to be free from all selfishness. The developed in- dividuality is only true when it manifests itself, when it acts out its inherent nature. The Chris- tian personality is a leaven, spontaneously begin- ning its leavening process so soon as brought into contact with meal. It is the very nature of light to shine, of salt to preserve and sweeten, and of leaven to work. And Christians are the light, the salt, and the leaven, of the world. Thus the truth, the Spirit, the love, and the sympathy, which in the believer have become principle, and character, and personality, also work through him upon others, just as they work in and upon himself. Thus the true Christian individuality overcomes 188 THE AGE AND THE CHURCH. the one-sided perversions so common in our day. This individuality is neither selfish egotism nor mere means for helping others. Just because it is Christian individuality, it is the truth it professes, and it lives the truth which it is. A foreign ele- ment impressed on my personality is something which I myself can never truly be or live ; it is at best but a fiction with a semblance of reality. But the peculiarity and individuality which constitute the personality, are its own peculiar self ; and the reality which the personality is, must also be the actuality of its life. Personality, the beginning and the end of Chris- tianity, the reality of the church, and the actor as well as the aim in all Christian work, the person- ality restored to the throne, means the rights and privileges of individuality and peculiarity, but also their responsibility and duty. Money, organiza- tions, institutions are valuable only as means for the use and for the influence of personalities. As the agents of personal Christian power they are of great importance ; but as substitutes for the per- sonality they are an injury. It is the Christian personality that is to work through all that it is, and by means of all that it has. Thus Christian organizations are not depreciated, but they are put into their right place and into the right relations. Roman Catholicism emphasizes the externals, even at the risk of losing the heart of religion ; Protestantism is at times in danger of THE ADAPTATION OF THE, &^C. 189 SO emphasizing the spirit as to imply that it could exist without a body in this world. The most per- fect spirit in the best body, but the body for the sake of the spirit, that is the law for the Christian. It is the nature of the body through which the spirit works, in which the adaptation of the church to the times is largely to manifest itself. As thoughts are expressed in words, as the spirit has a body, so religion has its external manifestation. That form is best which most perfectly embodies and expresses the spiritual reality of religion. As the soul of religion controls the body, so the body reacts on the soul. Worship has a form and should have the best form ; but it should be free, spon- taneous, with the movement of life, not a mechan- ism or a monotony or an empty ceremony. Christian organization should be the best ; Christian union should be the most perfect in its visible manifesta- tion, as well as in its inner essence ; and Christian effort should have the best means and the best method. That much, very much remains yet to be done in this respect constantly forces itself on the atten- tion in the most painful manner. The work treated as finished, and therefore not to be touched, has hardly begun. In the church where all should be life and growth, with the free play of Christian spontaneity, with the richness of spiritual peculiar- ity, and with the originality of divine genius, a state has actually been attained which cannot en- 190 THE AGE AND THE CHURCH. dure and yet leaves little hope of a reformation. It almost looks as if nothing but a revolution would suffice. A Luther, a Spener, a Wesley, a Schleier- macher, each in his own way, attempted to make a sterile, external, objective Christianity an inner, subjective Christianity. This same process is again required, a process which, however, embraces all the results of the depth and breadth of past experience. In the demand for objective realism, the faith which a church merely professes must no longer be taken for the actual faith of the church. The confession of faith and the real faith must be distinguished. Lying must cease, and the truth must be spoken. So great is the task of adapting the church to present demands, that the subject becomes endless when once fairly entered. In Germany the re- organization of the church is one of the burning questions. It must be reorganized so as to enable the pastor to oversee the congregation and do the pastoral work required ; so as to bring the mem- bers, rich and poor, into actual contact and living sympathy with one another ; so as to develop lay activity, and to make the universal priesthood of believers consist in the duty of personal Christian work, as well as in the privilege of direct com- munion with God ; and so as to make the church the actual leaven of the community in which it exists. Each congregation is to be a parish that can actually be illuminated by the Christian light THE ADAPTATION OF THE, &^C. 191 of believers. The scheme so to divide into dis- tricts the whole nation, the country and the cities, that each congregation may have a definite and limited work, is a grand one. How far the ideal can be realized remains to be seen. Evidently in a Christian land there should be no outlying dis- tricts belonging to no church. Why not make parishes of the whole world ? A hearty love for the church and a careful study of the age will lead to such adaptations as the national and local peculiarities of the situation de- mand. A divinely guided Christian personality, with spiritual insight, wisdom, and skill, taught by Scripture, by history, and by the needs of the times, and inspired by love to God and to man, will know and feel what is now required, and more than this: such a personality is the truest, the best and the only adaptation of Christianity to the age. As a summary of the general requirements for adapting the church to the age, the following con- siderations are presented: I. In the church, as imperatively as in the age, the demand for objective realism must be made. The demand is thoroughly Christian ; and the church ought to lead in insisting on fully meeting this demand. It is a common observation that re- ligious doctrines and discussions, formerly interest- ing and effective, have lost their influence. The usual explanation is that men have become worldly and are absorbed by other interests. But this 192 THE AGE AND THE CHURCH, does not go to the root of the matter. Were these doctrines really believed, they would have great power. But they are now ineffective because their objective realism is questioned, even by many who would otherwise gladly accept them. They are presented to minds intent on values and on the highest values ; but these m.inds ask a valid reason for the faith which seizes and a hope which cherishes values. Thus a great problem is presented to the church, the problem of estab- lishing its teachings so as to give them an im- movable basis. Not that these teachings are now too subjective ; they must in fact be made more subjective, more permeative of the soul, more real to the heart. But their subjective value is con- ditioned by their objective reality. The doctrines of God, of redemption, of immortality are valuable to the soul, because they represent a reality which the soul can seize and possess. The construction of spirituality as a reality is therefore required as the basis of all other constructions. 2. The demand for realism in ecclesiastical teachings must also be made respecting the church itself. The church must be real in the deepest and most earnest sense. In its reality is its power ; in its substitutes for reality is its weakness. Per- sonality is its reality. Persons constitute the church ; things are but attachments, bodies, means, of persons. Scripture, creeds, all truth are a reality to the church, only so far as they are THE ADAPTATION OF THE, &-C. 193 embodied in persons. Unless they have become personal, they are at best only symbols of truth. The church is the actual repository and witness of the truth, only so far as it really possesses and lives the truth, or only so far as it is the truth. Profession is not necessarily possession ; it may be a falsehood. The real creed of a church is in its members ; the professed creed, about which so much ado is made, may remain a dead letter on a dead page. The real church is not an institution, but an organism ; it is not a mechanism, but a cre- ation ; it is not a system of doctrines, but a system of personalities in whom the doctrines have be- come spirit and life. The church, as a creation of spiritual personalities through the regenerative process of the Spirit, is a living system of personal realities and personal power. As that church con- sists of personalities which are embodiments of the truth, the vSpirit, so the mission of the church is the reaching of personalities in order to mold them by means of the truth into the truth. 3. The work of the church as a reality of Chris- tian personalities must be pedagogical, psycho- logical. There is no culture of truth except in the culture of personalities. Where can the truth be developed except in some mind ? And how can the truth enter a mind, tmless adapted to the capacity and the apprehension of the mind ? What the hand grasps depends upon its grip ; and what the mind comprehends depends on the grip 13 194 THE AGE AND THE CHURCH. of the mind. Hence the teachings of the church must be severely adapted to the capacity of the taught. The truth grows in the mind ; its process is organic and cannot be forced. As the mind itself grows, it also grows in the truth. This is as clear from Christ's parables as from Paul's teach- ing respecting the apprehension of spiritual truth as a child and as a man. Conversion is a change of spirit, of disposition, the beginning of an end- less spiritual process ; it is not a sudden, magical transformation into all truth and all Christian per- fection. It is the planting of the seed, not the maturing of the plant ; it is the entrance of school, not the graduation. The church is a school of personalities for the training of personalities. All the pupils must be docile, all must have the spirit of willing learners ; but all cannot have equal in- tellectual apprehensions of the truth. Personal trust in the Central and Creative Personality of Christianity is the seed whence all Christian life must spring, and the beginning of the understand- ing of all Christian doctrine. 4. The church as a system of living spiritual personalities makes all that pertains to religion personal. Whatever cannot be made personal is but the body of the soul, the shell of the kernel. The church as a religious organism has no reality except in its Christian personalities. The numer- ous modern substitutes for persons, the undue exaltation of things, are perversions which are THE ADAPTATION OF THE, &-C. 195 destructive of religion. An abstract church, a soulless form, the transfer of grace to dead things, rob religion of its most essential elements. There is no Christian work but that like Christ and the apostles — personal work directly on and for per- sons. The church as a personal reality must pre- sent to the age a realism whose power is in its spiritual actuality. The personal power which the church is, the world feels. 5. The church has been highly endowed by various gifts, such as defining and developing and systematizing doctrine, and defending it against error ; formulating creeds and producing cate- chisms ; establishing rites ; instituting govern- ments ; making liturgies ; and creating various Christian organizations. " Covet earnestly the best gifts " says the apostle. But he adds : " Yet show I unto you a more excellent way." This more ex- cellent way is love. Without this love the gifts are nothing. As the "more excellent way," love is the inspiration, the guide, the life, and the light of the gifts. This chapter treats only of the most general requirements. We shall now proceed to consider the specific needs of special conditions and ten- dencies, attempting to discover what the church must become in order to adapt itself to these needs PROTESTANTISM AND CATHOLICISM. 197 CHAPTER VII. Protestantism and Catholicism. We speak of a church as Christian ; but do not think through the subject sufficiently to know what the statement means. "Christian" repre- sents ideal perfection ; but even in its best state the church is very imperfect. To say nothing of the sins of omission and of commission, on the part of its members, its actual doctrines are not the absolute truth in absolute perfection. In its teach- ings and in its life the church is tentatively Chris- tian. It is a hospital and a school, with a blending of health and sickness, and a union of truth and error. It is only the abstract church which has the absolute truth ; this church we cheerfully leave to its abstract existence. We want to deal with the real church in the discussion of Protest- antism and Catholicism. And when we consider any existing church, we are sure to find it a com- bination of excellencies and imperfections. This is not, however, the only conviction which is prominent, as we enter on the consideration of Protestantism and Catholicism. The subject ex- cites intense feeling and deep prejudice ; the 198 THE AGE AND THE CHURCH, utmost care should therefore be taken to state the truth, the full truth, and the truth only. Not only does the true man owe it to himself, and to the cause he represents and discusses, that he tell the truth ; but he ought to rest assured that all false statements will be exposed, and will eventually work injury to the cause they are intended to pro- mote. But with the most earnest desire to state only the truth, the limitations of knowledge and an unconscious bias may lead the fairest mind astray. The very desire not to overstate a case may produce understatement. Ranke was suspi- cious that his History of the Popes might be too unfavorable to Protestants, just because he, being himself a Protestant, was so extremely anxious not to be unjust to Catholicism. Protestant schol- arship can not only afford to be fair to antagonists, but it must be so if true to itself. Its attacks on an opponent must be based on the proper appre- ciation of the opponent. The views here given of Roman Catholicism are the result of a long and careful study of the pres- ent condition, as well as of the past history of that church. Besides a long residence in the United States and Germany, the author has been in Italy five times, has by personal visits and study formed a knowledge of the situation in Great Britain, France, Austria, and Scandinavia, and has taken a deep interest in the ultramontane literature and tendencies of the day. Inductions on this broad PROTESTANTISM AND CATHOLICISM. 19^ basis have led to conclusions which are likely to conflict with those dependent on purely local cir- cumstances. The result of this study is the con- viction that the papacy is much stronger, and at the same time much weaker than is usually sup- posed ; that is is better than its enemies represent, and worse than abstract thinkers, historical minds, and mystical religionists are apt to admit ; and that it has some elements which give it an im- mense practical advantage over certain phases of Protestantism, particularly where Protestantism is a state church. Roman Catholicism is a wonderful institution, requiring the profoundest study and the most thorough, impartial criticism. So great is it that many are lost in the massiveness of a mere fragment, and imagine they see in that frag- ment the whole structure. Especially important is it to remember, that it is only on the stream of truth that error can be transmitted from age to age. It is well again to consider that, according to its original idea. Protestantism is emphatically a religion of the personality, and of organizations in which the personality is the chief factor. The Reformers were not always true to this idea ; but their emphasis on personal freedom, on the rights of reason, and on the living character of faith involved this supremacy of the personality. If Catholicism may be defined as an idea, which is apt to dominate most completely such as under- stand it most imperfectly. Protestantism is an idea, 200 THE AGE AND THE CHURCH. whose dominion is possible only where it is rightly apprehended by the individual. In Catholicism the church comes first : institutionalism is its power ; in Protestantism the personality is first. It in fact requires unusual personal development for one to be able to appreciate the fundamental principles emphasized by the Reformation ; and those who move on a low plane of religious cul- ture may profess to be Protestants, while in reality they are controlled by the leaven of Roman Cath- olicism. Not merely in its attainments, but still more in its essence, consists the value of all that has life and growth. In the inherent quality of the seed and in the possibilities in the development of that seed its value consists. Not in its greatest extent and widest worldly influence is the perfection of religion seen ; but in Christ we behold its beauty and its glory. We must apply the same rule to Protestantism. It is a seed, a life, that is ever to unfold greater power and more beautiful perfection. It is the greatest compliment to Evangelical Christianity, that it is full of unrealized possibilities. Its truth, its faith, its love, its work, its hope, all are living seeds. So the greatest glory of Protestantism is found in its vital principles and its spirit of endless growth. The Protestant ideal must always tran- scend the actual attainments. Thus the Scriptures, as the basis of Protestantism, are to be interpreted PROTESTANTISM AND CATHOLICISM. 201 in the process of the ages ; and what the Scriptures are ideally, they are more and more to become actually and really to the church through the un- ceasing labors of Christians. The truth alone is. absolute ; hence for all coming time truth is the object of supreme search. Reason and conscience are pronounced free ; and yet that is only ideally true, the actual freedom is still a hope, a matter for endless effort. It is thus evident, that the principles of the Reformation have significance only where the emphasis is placed on the person- ality and on the progress of the individual. Protest- antism stands for an ideal spirituality which cannot be fully expressed by any intellectual formula ; and the Christian life is a process of growth toward this ideal spirituality. So Christ is made the centre of Scripture and the ground of justification ; but that does not mean that the doctrine of Christ has now been exhausted, and that He has ceased to be the problem of the ages. Protestantism is a grand prophecy, ever to be fulfilled, and yet never ful- filled ; and such as take the prophecy itself as the fulfilment have never understood even the prophecy. In a preceding chapter it has been intimated that Protestantism is a problem, not a solution. Those who regard it as a solution must pronounce Protest- ism a failure, just as all ideals are a failure in real life. And v/hile the world stands Protestantism will remain a problem. But that attests its gran- 203 THE AGE AND THE CHURCH. deur.^ Great creative periods plan more than they themselves or succeeding generations can execute They are like Michel Angelo ; with all their achieve- ments, they begin much more than they can com- plete. Some so pervert the Reformation as not only to regard it as a pool instead of a fountain, but they think that the pool is to be transmitted from age to age. Shall he who prefers living water to the stagnant pool be anathema ? From its origin to the present, Protestantism has teemed with problems. The freedom of the Bible and of faith is an ideal never yet realized. With most persons it is nothing but an empty theory that each Christian is to interpret Scripture for himself ; every body knows that people usually read their Bible through the spectacles of others, through tradition, through custom, through their sect, and through the accepted authorities. The Reformation solved much for itself ; but we must work out its solutions for ourselves, if we want to understand and test them. Only he who works through the problems of Newton can understand Newton's solutions. Still more is this true with all religious problems. It is the mission of every age to seek for itself the solution of the Protestant problems and the realization of the Protestant ideals. Protestantism is at a great advantage in that its very principles contain the conditions, as well as the demand for the correction of error. Enough PROTESTANTISM AND CATHOLICISM. 20S of the protesting element is left to protest against the error still found in its midst. So fully is Protestantism devoted to truth as the aim of search, that it cannot be tethered to exposed error, however dearly cherished, and cannot rest until it exposes all error. Progress in truth, and through error to truth, is the very life of Protestantism. Hence it is not strange that with the growth of the ages the ideas of truth, right, freedom, personality, reason, authority. Scripture, have grown in clear- ness and definiteness. The living tree may have dead or wild branches that must be lopped off; and new growths may be possible, which shall greatly surpass all past development. Not less freely than it removes error can Protest- antism assimilate the truth wherever it may be found. There is no more reason for rejecting a truth taught by a heathen, or an atheist, than there is for clinging to an error advocated by a Luther or a Calvin. Error can never be glorified by its possessor, or by the system to which it belongs ; and truth is always divine, no matter who dis- covered it. The whole universe of truth is thus open to Protestants. Every consideration should lead them to learn eagerly from Catholicism what- ever lessons of value it may have to teach. We cannot doubt that the Protestant principles embody the essence of Christianity, and contain the conditions which necessarily lead to the most complete apprehension of the Gospel. That Scrip- 204 THE AGE AND THE CHURCH. ture is the only rule of faith and practice ; that faith in Jesns Christ is the condition of justifica- tion ; that reason and conscience are free, and that therefore the personality with its individuality and peculiarity ought to be respected ; and that each believer has direct access to God through Christ: these are truths which will ever constitute the glory and the strength of Christianity. But growth may be expected in the interpretation of Scripture, in the knowledge of Jesus Christ, in the apprehen- sions of reason, conscience, and the personality, and in the clearness and intimacy of communion with God. There is thus an admirable union of the permanent and the growing elements in Prot- estantism. The essence, the spirit, and the life re- main the same ; but the same spirit and life grow, and therefore are subject to the transformations common to all that lives. As the knowledge of Scripture increases, the old scriptural test of doc- trine continues, and yet it is a new test, a new cor- rective of error, with impulses to fresh growth. Protestantism is life, energy, movement, a faith, a hope, an effort ; it is an ideal ever tending toward realization. Its leaven remains the same, but it ever begins anew its process in fresh meal, and its work is too great ever to be completed. As an ideal ever approaching realization, it is similar to Christianity itself. When has this ever been realized on earth ? As a realization of its ideal, Protestantism, as we have seen, is a failure and PROTESTANTISM AND CATHOLICISM. 205 ever will be, just as Christianity itself, just as every great ideal is, just as Paul's life, as not yet having- attained, was a failure. What has been called the failure of Protestantism may be a testimony to its grandeur. No amount of vituperation can degrade a summit because it is so high that men fail to reach it. In its culmination the power and weakness of a system become manifest ; then the wheat and the tares can be distinguished. ''By their fruits ye shall know them." In its latest decrees Roman Catholicism has culminated ; and that culmination, we are persuaded, is the beginning of the end. Papal Infallibility is, as the Jesuits claim, unques- tionably the logic of the whole system ; but it is a fatal logic. Scripture, reason, and the very his- tory of the popes put the seal of condemnation upon the doctrine. It is not fatal to this church that, as it now is, it has no room for so deep, so broad, so sincere, and so Catholic a scholar as Doellinger; but the fact is fatal that it cannot make room for such a scholar, without going back on decrees which it has pronounced final. In other words, only by destroying itself can Roman Catho- licism save itself. All Protestant polemics against Rome are weakness itself compared with the sim- ple publication of papal decrees, encyclicals, and statements of Roman Catholic authors. No argu- ment against the papacy is equal to the exposition of the papacy by its advocates. 206 THE AGE AND THE CHURCH. Fairness requires that a distinction be made be- tween Roman Catholics and ultramontanes. Ro- man Catholicism designates the historic system, which has many doctrinal elements in common with Protestantism ; but ultramontanism empha- sizes those elements which are most antagonistic to Evangelical Christianity, and which have been developed in direct antagonism to Protestantism. These are found mainly in the decrees of the coun- cils of Trent and of the Vatican. Thus especial stress is laid on the infallibility and supremacy of the pope, on the authority of the church or the hierarchy, on the appeal to tradition, on the power of the keys, and similar doctrines. Since all that antagonizes Protestantism is emphasized, ultra- montanism inflames the zeal of Roman Catholics against Protestants. In this spirit of ultramon- tanism the Jesuits are the leaders. While Roman Catholicism must be distinguished from ultramontanism, we must nevertheless recog- nize the latter as now the controlling power. It rules the Vatican and domineers the church. In Europe the papal press is under the supervision of the bishops ; and the bishops are as a rule under the control of the Jesuits. This determines the character of the press : it is ultramontane, intensely hostile to Protestantism, and intent on destroying Evangelical Christianity. Among the most astounding events of modem times is the marvelous revival of Roman Catho- PROTESTANTISM AND CATHOLICISM. 207 licism, all in the spirit of ultramontanism — a re- vival which until recently was deemed impossible. This revival must be made a specialty if its char- acter, its depth, its intensity, its determination, its zeal, and its hopefulness are to be appreciated. The revival means a burning zeal for the dis- tinctive doctrines of the Roman Catholic church and for the destruction of its opponents. Numer- ous factors have combined to bring about the re- vival. Leo XIII. is able and sagacious ; and still more shrewd are the Jesuits, the power behind the pope. The new dogmas of the Immaculate Con- ception and of Papal Infallibility became centres around which zeal concentrated. The loss ot tem- poral sovereignty, and the Prussian May laws of 1875, were used to the utmost to represent the Catholic church as a martyr. This inflamed and united the Catholics ; and though the May laws have been repealed, the Catholic Centre is to-day by far the strongest political party in Protestant Germany, with more members in parliament than any other party, and with a spirit that is thoroughly ultramontane. The growth of infidelity usually re- acts in favor of the papacy ; in their agony of doubt, a church that professes to give absolute certainty is apt to become a welcome refuge for those agitated by uncertainty, particularly if they lack the strength to solve the problems which no one else can solve for them. Amid the revolu- tionary agitations of socialism Roman Catholicism 208 THE AGE AND THE CHURCH. presents its claims as the only possible saviour of society. The loud boast that the Pope is the ruler of the world seemed to receive confirmation, when the first statesman of the age appealed to him to arbitrate between Germany and Spain, and when Protestant sovereigns vied with Catholic rulers in honoring the Pope at the celebration of his jubilee. Amid the great progress of historic studies Catholic historians have done their utmost to bring to light the glories of Catholicism, while all that learning could do to degrade Protestantism was done with zeal. Nor must the fact be overlooked that Prot- estantism revealed gi*eat weaknesses. It had scarcely any international bonds, was divided and distracted, its different factions were intent on de- stroying each other, and petty disputes wasted the best energies, while the great themes were ignored. Roman Catholicism became so strong, because Protestantism was so weak. We must interpret the revival as an awakening of the Catholic con- sciousness, as an appreciation of the situation, and as an adaptation of the church to the situation. It became conscious of the process of decay to which it was subject, and its very needs aroused its energies. Such has been the actual progress of that church, that it reveals far more wisdom in its study and use of the age than is done by Prot- estantism. While Protestants rest securely and indifferently in the superiority of their principles, the Catholics PROTESTANTISM AND CATHOLICISM. 209 have put into motion all the powerful machinery of the orders, the hierarchy, and the laity, to en- sure victory for ultramontane views. This has been done with a resoluteness and a consistency which are worthy of emulation. " Never for the sake of gaining a present advantage do we aban- don a principle," is the declaration of the recently deceased Catholic leader in Germany ; and so they push their claims step by step, until every one is wrested even from Protestant governments. The pope is proclaimed supreme, and so in honor he is always placed first, and the ruler of a land, second. The church is held to be superior to the state in point of all ecclesiastical affairs, and therefore is arrayed against the state when its wishes are not met. The inquisition is glorified, even in Protest- ant Germany, as a beneficent institution. The Jesuits are proclaimed the purest of modern saints, and their return is imperatively demanded. In the very land of Luther the Reformation is de- nounced as the source of modern corruptions. Protestantism is proclaimed a traitor, and Roman Catholicism made synonymous with German patri- otism. A regular system has been made of writ- ing biographies of celebrated authors in such a way as to attribute all that is good in them to Catholicism, and to trace all that is base to Prot- estantism. In Prussia, the leading state of the German empire, nearly two-thirds of the inhabitants are 14 210 THE AGE AND THE CHURCH. Protestant. From the Catholic clergy who refused to obey the May laws of 1875 the state withheld their usual allowance. The amount thus withheld is over sixteen million marks, or four million dollars. The May laws have been repealed, and the ultramontanes celebrated the victory over Bis- marck, over the Protestants, and over the state, and rejoice in greater privileges than are granted to the Evangelical or state church. And this is not all. The sixteen million marks, which the state surely does not owe to those who violate its laws, have been voted to the Catholic church. It looks like an enormous premium for defying the laws of the land. The plea is that this sum must be given to the defiant church, in order that the way may be prepared for peace. That church threatens hostility unless this demand is complied with, so the money is given. Not that peace is now secured ; the pope and the ultramontanes say it is but the beginning in complying with the con- ditions of peace. Other demands must be met before that church will cease its hostility to the state. It wants the Jesuits back, it insists on the control of the schools where there are Catholics. Some feel that such a reward to a disobedient body will only feed its avarice and weaken the authority of the state. But when the donation of this large sum was discussed, Protestants were warned to be quiet, to yield implicitly to the de- mand, otherwise the ultramontane wrath would PROTESTANTISM AND CATHOLICISM. 211 again be aroused ! People are actually beginning to wonder whether there is any Protestant con- sciousness left, and whether the state is henceforth to be controlled by the defiance and threats of ultramontanism. And this is Prussia, which con- tains Eisleben, where stood the cradle and the coffin of Luther, Erfurt, where Luther was edu- cated, and Wittenberg, the scene of the Refor- mation ! The intellectual element in the revival is worthy of note. The Catholic press has grown astonish- ingly in numbers, in circulation, and in ultramon- tane character. In Germany, where contact with Protestantism has made Catholic theology more learned than in any other land, the literary activity of ultramontane writers is astounding. Histor- ical, biographical, apologetic, and polemic works abound, many of them masterly productions of the Jesuits and admirably adapted to the accom- plishment of their special end. Falsehoods are continually exposed by the superior scholarship of the Protestants ; but the exposition does not reach the Catholics. Incredible as it may seem, that church is now glorified as the mother of freedom, the advocate and protector of reason, the source of science and philosophy, and the inspiration and the guide of modern progress. For the special literary needs of ultraraontanism there always seem to be scholars and money in greatest abun- dance. It is a most serious blunder on the part of 212 THE AGE AND THE CHURCH, Protestants to overlook the wonderful literary and learned ability of writers, whose services are wholly given to the interests of nltramontanism. The sphere of the revival is coextensive with the Catholic church, but it is most intense in Prot- estant lands. Statistics show that it is common for a church in the minority to display unusual zeal. Possession seems to beget security, if not indifference. The losses of the papacy have been most serious where its supremacy has never been disputed, and where it has had fullest liberty and power to manifest its real character : Italy. Hardly less is the papacy detested in France. But in Italy Protestantism is a distracted handful, and in France it has not become the leaven of the people. Mere religious negation will not, however, satisfy. In both countries clericalism is being more united and concentrated, and it is justly feared, that the demand for some form of religion will mean a return to Roman Catholicism. In Protestant countries the revival is strong in Switzerland and Holland. Scandinavia, with its almost unbroken Lutheranism has become a favor- ite mission field for Roman Catholic propagandists. But nowhere is the power of nltramontanism more evident than in Germany. Protestant governments make concession after concession to the Catholics. Many of the leading Protestants utter notes that express despair. Indeed, the ultramontane press exults over the many victories gained. The bold PROTESTANTISM AND CATHOLICISM. 213 and united front and the dogged perseverance of the Catholics have won admiration even from the liberals. The Protestants are politically divided and ecclesiastically distracted, so that, although they have two-thirds of the population, they do not make Protestantism as strong an external, political factor as is Roman Catholicism. The revival is inner, intensifying the Catholics, but not as yet winning many from the ranks of Protestantism. During the century the converts on the Continent to Rome have been especially numerous on the part of princes and the nobility. But the effect of the revival is evident from the serious appre- hensions of Protestants. In Great Britain there are also marked evidences of the revival. Of those who have gone over to Rome many were prominent as Anglican clergy- men and noblemen. The High Church party, which has led such large numbers into the Catholic fold, has become so extreme, that those who reject the Protestant name can find satisfaction in that party without going to Rome. The greatest hopes of the church are centered on the United States. The freedom of that people is regarded as the most favorable soil for Roman Catholicism. The Protestants are apt to trust in their free principles and to regard them as self- preservative. This indifferentism affords a great advantage to Jesuitic zeal and wisdom, and to hier- archical aspirations. The freedom of the United 214 THE AGE AND THE CHURCH. States Rome uses to the utmost for itself. It can there, as every where, become a political fac- tor, and can hold the balance of power and dic- tate its terms. Of its work and plans it will let its enemies know only as much as it thinks best. It wisely trains its children in its own schools, and thus makes them more intensely Roman Catholic than the other children are Protestant. The pos- session of America is the key to the western conti- nent, and it virtually secures the dominion of a large part of the world. The prize is worth covet- ing — that the Jesuits, who flock there when ban- ished from Europe know full well. Prophecy is cheap ; but we know that the confidence of success is a great inspiration to Roman propagandism. Already the power gained, especially in many of the leading cities from New York to San Francisco^ is greater than is usually supposed. It appears now far more probable, that in the middle of the next century Rome will control the United States^ than it seemed twenty, or even ten years ago, that ultramontanism would secure its present power in Germany. If in 1883, when the Luther jubilee flooded the cotmtry with literature on the Refor- mation and aroused the greatest enthusiasm, a prophet had foretold the victories Rome has now gained in Germany, he would have been pro- claimed a madman. Bismarck refused to go to Canossa, then went to Rome in order to induce the pope to mediate between Germany and Spain. If PROTESTANTISM AND CATHOLICISM. 215 Rome continues its revival and Protestantism its apathy, the doom of the latter is sealed. However^ there are signs that the Protestants in Germany are being aroused to the dangers of the situation. They have organized an Alliance for self-protec- tion and to repel the aggressions of ultramontanism. The author formerly sided with such Protestants as believed that, especially in the United States, Roman Catholicism will necessarily undergo a great transformation. This hope was based on theories of progress, on the influence of American Protestantism, and the effect produced by free in- stitutions. Very reluctantly he has been obliged to change his views. More careful study and more extensive observation have convinced him, that after what has occurred in Prussia, in Plolland, in Scandinavia, and in England, there is but little prospect of a serious modification of Catholicism in the United States. So long as that church ex- ists the pope will be its head ; for many years emigration, chiefly from Catholic lands, will con- tinue ; a large number of the priests will be edu- cated abroad, especially in Rome ; the children will be kept out of the public schools ; and the head and the heart of that church will stand aloof from the life and progress of the United States, outside of it, foreign to it. Changes may occur in individual members ; but the church itself must be destroyed before its ultramontanism, now de- creed its very essence, can be destroyed. What 216 THE AGE AND THE CHURCH. hope of change for the better can be expected of a church submitting to the doctrine of the Immac- ulate Conception and Papal Infallibility! The bigotry, superstition and fanaticism possible in the midst of the most enlightened Protestants on the Continent are also possible in the United States. The supposed garment, bone, or blood of a saint would awaken boundless enthusiasm and devotion. Were an American prelate to become pope, he would as likely become a fanatical tool of the Jesuits as did the liberal Pius IX. Those who think Rome will change in America do not know Rome. Tliere are in fact strong grounds for ex- pecting an unusual development of ultramontane power in the United vStates. Not the religion but the political maneuver of that church is the menace. It is to-day the greatest, the most determined, and the most successful political machinery on the face of the globe. This the Vatican knows ; this Bis- marck felt and Germany experiences ; this the ever-vigilant Catholic lobby at Washington con- firms ; this our political parties have learned ; and of this the nomination and election of congressmen and state-officers give revelations so ominous, that most Protestants are not yet sufficiently awake to believe them. It is certainly significant that on the recognition of the French Republic by the pope, the Vatican organs at Rome claim for the pope an infallible auth(jrity in political as well as in religious matters. PROTESTANTISM AND CATHOLICISM. 217 The elements of power in Roman Catholicism deserve careful study. To the injury of their cause, many Protestants fail wholly to appreciate them. The Catholic church has an external, visi- ble, earthly and human realism, which meets prominent and extensive demands of the times. That church is largely empirical and tangible ; and with multitudes this is far more weighty than sub- tle argument. What are to the masses learned research, elaborate reasoning, and difficult princi- ples ? Numbers, some contagious influence, the spectacular, the striking example, a blind impulse, some external advantage, are often decisive factors in their estimation. Its tangible realism is a marked characteristic of that church, while Protestantism is more inner, invisible, spiritual. Catholic wor- ship has a remarkable union of the esoteric and the exoteric elements, so that it affects profound natures as well as the ignorant. The senses are appealed to and attracted, and yet they move in a world of symbols. Christ and the divine powers seem to be brought very near the worshiper ; and in the mass and throughout the various services there seems to be a union of the human and the divine. Even Protestants are often deeply affected by these services, especially when witnessed at Rome or in some great cathedral, with all the pomp vso marvelously developed for effect. Yet the most devout services of monks and nuns, and of the highest prelates, lack a healthy and rounded 218 THE AGE AND THE CHURCH. completeness. The devotional and mystical ele- ments are exalted at the expense of the intellectual. Frequently the service has more of the cloister than of God's free daylight ; it seems constrained, artificial, perfunctory, with more ceremon}^ than heart, is more aesthetic than ethical or spiritual. And attractive as some of the services are, their total effect on reflective minds is often repulsive. Catholic worship makes men slaves to ecclesiastical and priestly grace ; it does not freely lift the freed soul into immediate communion with God. And particularly in the Latin countries the worshipers are an illustration of how sadly the people have been kept in ignorance and superstition, and even in an idolatry that savors of heathenism. Of course what a Protestant most severely condemns ma}^ be the greatest attraction to such as know no other than a sensuous, spectacular, or symbolical religion. The remarkable oneness of the church produces a great effect. It is an organization which is par- alleled only by the German army. The pope is the head, and one purpose, one will rules the car- dinals, the bishops, the priests, the orders, and the laity. As an institution encircling the globe, an external unity with but one will wherever found, it has not its equal on earth. As an organization, the product of the accumulated wisdom of many centuries, its power seems almost irresistible. When its force is actually concentrated, it makes the impression of being overwhelming in effect. PROTESTANTISM AND CATHOLICISM. 219 Not the least factor is the obedience, the secrecy, the devotion, the sacrifice, and the enthusiasm of its orders. No matter where the members of the church go, the services are familiar to them, the Latin language being a common bond. Objec- tionable as the doctrine of the church and of the priesthood is, it secures the subjection of the laity who accept the doctrine. The power of the keys confers a certain degree of omnipotence. To this must be added the confessional, giving the priest the direction of the conscience. On many minds the mystical elements in the church, its music architecture, sculpture, and painting, also exert a powerful influence. The celibacy of the priests and orders, the quiet devotion as well as restless activity fovmd in the church, the benevolent insti- tutions, all are calculated to make a deep impres- sion, particularly on certain minds. Contemplative, Aesthetic natures, souls seeking rest from the agi- tations of doubt, are apt to find very much in the Catholic church to allure them. And we can well understand why it has attracted to its fold a num- ber of persons of real devotion and superior ability. Its unbroken history for so many centuries has an imposing effect, gives the church a massive realism, and has great influence over minds predominantly historical. Its claim to have continued the same since the days of the apostles is false ; and yet many who are not Catholics are deeply impressed with its remarkable historic record. Its long do- 220 THE AGE AND THE CHURCH. minion over the religious world gives it the ven- erable aspect of antiquity, and in the eyes of many the prestige of authority. It claims as its own the fathers and the councils ; and especially, since the middle ages are better understood and more highly appreciated, is it admitted to have embraced a host of able and devoted men, and to have given birth to systems of great intellectual power. Historic, mystical and aesthetic minds find at- tractive elements in that church, which are usually absent in Protestant communions. Absorbed by some particular attraction, they pay less attention to the objectionable factors or apologize for them. Especially striking is the permanent objectivity in Catholicism as contrasted with the subjectivity and distracting multiplicity in Protestantism. These elements of power must be carefully studied if Rome is to be understood and if its aggressive movements are to be checked. There is something monumental in the church, an ele- ment of grandeur which it is foolish to deny or ignore. Rome can be met only by those who un- derstand it, who are prepared to do full justice to it, and who are armed to fight, not windmills, but that institution which in point of unity, of interna- tionalism, of organization, and of external force has no equal on earth. Attacks often serve to strengthen the system and to arouse all its mighty, though dormant powers. The strongest hope of disintegration and final overthrow is from within. PROTESTANTISM AND CATHOLICISM. 231 Where it reigns supreme, it usually fails to meet the needs of culture ; its own people outgrow its symbols, its superstitions, its tyranny, and its ex- ternality. The more enlightened, if they remain in the church, are apt to take refuge in its esoteric and mystical elements, unless their religion has degenerated to a mere form. They may overlook the things which attract the masses, while empha- sizing the venerable antiquity of the church, its great influence, which seems to them an attestation of divine favor, its fathers, its martyrs, its saints, its councils, its scholars, and its great systems of thought. We must look fully into the face of truth. Com- pared with the majestic elements in Roman Cath- olicism the Protestant sects often present a pitiable sight. Endless divisions, constant disputes, per- petual distractions seem to have set the seal of divine disapproval on Protestantism. Here and there the Italian sees a handful of Protestants, each claiming to be the true church or its best rep- resentative ; and the sight is apt to confirm him in his infidelity, or to impress him more deeply with the majest}^ of Catholicism. In Holland the Cath- olics are in the minority ; but they are united and inflamed with zeal, while twenty to thirty Protes- tant bodies are warring among themselves. In Germany the growing strength of Catholicism is largely due to the divisions and conflicts among Protestants. In Great Britain and the United 222 THE AGE AND THE CHURCH. States Protestantism is divided into scores or even hundreds of denominations. The present con- dition of Protestantism gives no hope of meeting the aggressions of Rome. The appeal to the love of religions freedom is futile. Except on a few points, Rome is more tol- erant than most of our denominations, having more room for peculiarities, and furnishing in its extensive domain opportunities for the use of the most varied gifts. At present the greatest evi- dences of intolerance are furnished by those who cannot tolerate difference of opinion, but make necessary a new sect for new views and individual peculiarities, even if there is agreement on essen- tials. Until we overcome sectarian intolerance and even tyranny, so long as we cannot live to- gether in peace on the great essentials of Chris- tianity, it is better to say nothing about the intolerance of Rome. Let us magnify our princi- ples and glory in our great problems, but hang our heads when we come to concrete reality and patent actuality. Nor can we hope to meet Rome with the argu- ment that it is in glaring conflict with modern thought. The Catholic makes his standpoint, not ours, the test of modern thought. And has Protes- tantism harmonized its doctrines with those of sci- ence and philosophy ? Most of the modern attacks affect Protestantism as seriously as Catholicism, just because the two systems have so much in PROTESTANTISM AND CATHOLICISM. 223 common. Frequently the apologetics of the one can be adopted by the other, applying equally to both. As there are pessimists who see only the evils and dangers of Roman Catholicism, not its excel- lencies ; so there are optimists who behold in it only evidences of future purity and goodness. The latter, controlled not by facts but by their subjective views and wishes, are sure that Roman Catholicism will outgrow its extremes and enter into the line of modern progress. This view was formerly quite general in Germany among Prot- estants, and to the surprise of all, its falsehood has been demonstrated by facts. Not for centuries has ultramontanism been so bitter, and so power- ful, and so progressive, as at present. And as all past prophecies of a gradual reform of the papacy have proved false, so the prophecies of other re- forms will also be a delusion. In spite of all hopes of progress, the wildest claims of the middle ages respecting the power of the pope have in our day received the stamp of absolute authority. And what hopes does a church inspire which exhibits at Treves what it proclaims as the seamless gar- ment of Christ, when that garment is not sub- mitted to scientific examination to determine from its fibre its age, and when there are in that church twenty other garments for which the same claim is made ! The expected reforms in that church are based 224 THE AGE AND THE CHURCH. on the false supposition that progress is contin- uous, passing in an unbroken line from generation to generation. This fiction has already been ex- posed. Destructive as well as progressive forces are at work, and nation after nation proves that there may be retrogression in morals, in religion, and in intellect, as well as progress. This we learn from the seats of the ancient civilizations ; and how completely Protestantism has been destroyed in lands where once it was in a fair way to gain the ascendancy ! There would be more hope for the progress of the Roman Catholic church, if its controlling factors were in living contact with this progress. But the pope, the cardinals, the bishops and priests, the numerous orders, the papal schools in Rome where the clergy are trained for all parts of the world, are isolated, their separation from the world being their boast, their traditions being of the remote past and hostile to many of the pres- ent, progressive elements, and their spirit and pur- pose making them enemies of the trend of modern thought. Not the Jesuits in the world, but the general of the order, is the ruling spirit of that mighty organization. The wonderful adaptation of that church does not mean conformity to the progress of the day, but it means an adaptation to the world for the sake of conforming the world to Roman Catholicism. It would be different if the masses of that church, as they come in contact with enlightened PROTESTANTISM AND CATHOLICISM. 225 and tolerant Protestants in the United^ States, Great Britain, and Germany, were independent, could form their own religions views, choose their own line of conduct, and could then control their church. But so long as they remain loyalfto the church this is impossible. One need but look at the exact situation to learn, why a man who under- stood the Roman Catholicism of the day as fully as Doellinger despaired of its regeneration. This despair is due to the fact that the papacy has taken a position which makes reform of principles, where most of all needed, impossible. With the doctrine of papal infallibility modern Roman Catholicism must stand or fall. The only possible reform is conditioned on the destruction of this dogma. With papal infallibility must likewise be destroyed the hierarchical clericalism and the tyrannical ecclesiasticism of that church, in order to get the first conditions of principiant reforms. But the destruction of these involves the very destruction of the papacy as it is. The reform of Roman Catholicism therefore means the destruction of the present papal system, and the introduction of something entirely different in its place. With Protestantism the case is different. As consistency with ultramontane principles is the condemnation of ultramontanism, so the develop- ment and zealous practice of Protestant principles is the hope of Protestantism. The Evangelical church is strong in proportion as Protestant real- ms 226 THE AGE AND THE CHURCH. ism and actualism prevail. If absorbed by attacks on other churches, and if it lives in mere nega- tions, a church may prove that it lacks the best strength, namely, the strength which is inner, pro- duces real growth, and does positive work. That good is most desirable whose inherent strength of itself overcomes the evil. There can be no question that its own purifi- cation and its growth into harmony with its prin- ciples is now the greatest demand made on Protestantism. With itself judgment must begin ; it must remove the beam from its own ej^e, then attend to the mote in the eye of another. By understanding the situation, and by a conscious- ness of its own deep needs, it may be prepared for the overwhelming work of the age. What it would do, it must become ; it must be the leaven which it wants to use in leavening humanity. Unless its truth, its boasted tolerance, and its love can unite the members of its own household, how can it present to the world and to Rome other than a spectacle of weakness? Much may be learned even from Catholics ; and nothing of truth and goodness and power, wherever found, should be foreign to Protestantism. There is much in the polemics against Rome which is unjust, and hurts only its authors and their cause. Every fair-minded scholar knows that it is one-sided and exaggerated. German ultramontanism treats Evangelical Christianity in PROTESTANTISM AND CATHOLICISM. 221 that way, and finds evils enough to expose. There are abuses in the Catholic church which, just be- cause they are abuses, are no test of the essence of that church. We protest against the world when it judges Christianity itself by the imperfect prac- tice of Christians ; and shall we violate our own rule in judging Rome ? Mere excitement against priests and Jesuits and nuns is verily not going to shake Roman Catholicism. It must be an unvary- ing rule that only the truth shall be the weapon of attack. If that cannot win, then failure is prefer- able to victory. As the fatal error of Rome is in the principles which constitute its essence, these must be exposed, and their exposure will be their condemnation. The abuses in that church may be removed, its celibacy may be chastity itself and its obedience saintly, and yet its principles remain intact and as reprehensible as ever. In its practices that church may undergo a total reformation and throw practical Protestantism into the shade, and yet the system itself be false. That church has not the future, because its foundations are rotten ; and no matter how grand and beautiful and massive the superstructure may be, it must go with its foundations. The best polemics against that church consists in making known exactly what it is, root and sap and trunk and branch and flower and fruit. Some see the weakness of Protestantism in its individualism. It would be nearer the truth to 328 THE AGE AND THE CHURCH. say that its lack of individualism is its weakness. Just in proportion as it fails to develop this suf- ficiently, it prepares its members for the Church of Rome. The more perfect the individualism^ the independence, the peculiarity, and the diversity of the members, the greater the church. But it must be individualism in organism ; each individual the most perfect in himself, and then most perfectly united to the whole. The promotion of legitimate Protestant diversity is an urgent demand ; but with this diversity must likewise be developed all that makes believers one. Not from Catholicism,, but from Protestantism itself, must the lesson of true unity be learned. In the former the union is too external, mechanical, military ; according to Protestantism it must be inner, real, the unity of life. It cannot be made ; it must grow. Catholics are held together by a church that overawes them ; Protestants grow together. Catholics exist for the church ; Protestants themselves constitute the church, which exists for them and grows as they grow together. It is only a one-sided, false in- dividualism which is to be deprecated. The revival in Roman Catholicism can be met only by a revival. Never was the call for inner improvement more urgent than at present. Protes- tantism will overcome Roman Catholicism exactly in proportion as it really surpasses it in Christian excellence, and actually reveals more of the truth, the spirit, and the work of Christ. As the weak- PROTESTANTISM AND CATHOLICISM. 229 ness of Protestantism promotes the strength of Catholicism, so the strength of Protestantism will overcome the weakness of Roman Catholicism. As history has proved that the world at large was not prepared for the pure spirituality of orig- inal Christianity, so it has proved that it was not ready to embody and live the purest doctrines of Protestantism. The constant tendency to formal- ism makes one wonder whether Evangelical Chris- tianity is not too exalte'd for the present generation. An empirical, materialistic age can appreciate an external, massive uniformity, so devoid of real unity that the members in many instances do not even know what the church believes, and there- fore lack the elements of true union ; while a deep, inner, spiritual unity is not appreciated. Is the age fit for Protestantism ? Is it not too sensuous, too outer, to appreciate the grand principles which are the glory of the Reformation, and also of the development since that era ? Perhaps true Protes- tantism is now the religion of the few, and must re- main the religion of the few, so long as gross conceptions prevail even in the realm of divinity. Its hope is in its educational elements, in its spirit- ual training, in the moral and religious exaltation of the personality. THE CHURCH AND CULTURE. 231 CHAPTER VIII. The Church and Culture. The culture of an age is the totality of its en- lightened factors, of all that enters into its civil- zation as essential elements. Culture lives and grows, and in this respect differs from refinement, with which it is so often confounded. We speak of sheep culture, of horticulture, and of floricul- ture, the idea always being that a life is to be unfolded. Only such objects as have an inherent energy which can be developed are capable of cul- ture. Thus mind can be cultivated and heart can be developed. This view of culture as substantial and capable of growth gives it rich and valuable content. Refinement, on the other hand, simply refers to the purification or beautifying of an ex- isting substance, not to its development. The sugar we refine is not increased by the process, but it is made more pure. Refinement, as applied to the individual and to society, frequently means polish. Whatever a person ha.s, however insignifi- cant it may be, is made the most of from an aes- thetic point of view. Refinement refers chiefly to form, often it is simply a kind of speech or manner. 232 THE AGE AND THE CHURCH. Sometimes the substance is made light of, while the whole stress is laid on the appearance. Thought is secondary, the style of first importance. Rhetoric is the chief thing. Thus mere accomplishment is put for real education, and sound for sense. The prevalent idea of refinement may be hostile to culture, leading society to live in a vain show instead of solid realities. A life devoted to the polishing of what has been attained, especially if the polishing be merely an outward process, is not likely to increase the attainments. Such a process is promotive of shams, it is intent on veneering and gilding ; and why seek the hard expensive diamond, if paste can be made to look like dia- mond ? Refinement may become the ape of cul- ture, putting art for nature, and the artificial for art. When refinement takes the place of culture, a life of vanity is the necessary result. The very existence of this hollow refinement depends- on seeming what it is not. Different from this is that refinement which is the natural product of culture. The mind in its growth may throw off coarseness, develop a love of beautiful objects, and seek to put all its attain- ments into the best possible form. Thus refine- ment is valued, because something real and valuable is developed to the highest perfection. The re- finement is therefore an actual growth, a natural unfolding of the substance itself, a real quality of an existing content, not a pretence. Refinement THE CHURCH AND CULTURE. 333 in this sense means health, it is culture in its best development, it is a form inherent in the substance. Culture in its highest form is simply humanity at its best ; but mere external refinement unhuman- izes, the man himself is refined away or glossed over, a form or phrase takes the place of his soul, and a kid glove is thrust between his heart and suffering. Neither is learning any more than refinement synonymous with culture. Learning may be a dead mass, which neither grows itself nor pro- motes the growth of the soul. Instead of culti- vating anything, it is a dull weight that suppresses culture, a mere burden a man bears about with him. Culture, in the best sense, is often most re- mote from those who have accumulated much learned stuff. Many of them are coarse and brutal, mistaking what they have adopted from the think- ing and researches of others for mental develop- ment. Not only do they lack real mental power, but also heart and soul. They are vain and super- cilious, repulsively arrogant and haughty, the best evidence that they are not cultured. The ethical element, the heart of all genuine culture, is absent from a large part of the learning of the day. The fact that intellect has a grand moral purpose is denied by the egotism so largely prevalent in in- tellectual pursuits. Scholarship has been degraded to the level of covetousness, in that it is used as means for making money, and to the level of pol- 234 THE AGE AND THE CHURCH. itics, in that it is the minister of place and reputa- tion. Intellect, as giving worthiness to its possessor and as power for noble ends, has been lost sight of by many of those who enjoy the highest intellectual advantages. Nor must art be confounded with culture. In too many instances it is nothing but a trade, a mechanical process, as devoid of soul as of the ideal. The market has largely become its standard^ One is seriously tempted to ask whether the com- mon view of the refining influence of art is not a delusion. At least artists, who still have regard for ethical consideration, find it necessary to apol- ogize for the grossness, the voluptuousness, and the filthy lives of many in their fraternity. It is certainly not accidental, that the ancient statues of Apollo usually give him a weak and effeminate face. Beauty is by no means strength. Our age goes into raptures over musicians, whose intellect and morals would place them below the level of vulgar respectability. So much is society absorbed by mere externals that the performance is every- thing, the inner qualities of the soul are not con- sidered. And many young persons of ability are so affected by the dominant fashion that they neg- lect the deeper elements of culture, and in their studies seek those elements which are for show, have spectacular effect, promote sensationalism, win popular applause, and make money. Thus the theatre has in many places lost all claims to art, THE CH UR CH A ND CULTURE. 235 and has become the stage for what is vile and the means of debauchery ; painting has put skillful technique for heart and high inspirations ; and music often only ministers to the wild passions which it embodies in sound. Now the so-called culture of the day — whether it be genuine or empty refinement, or dead learn- ing, or heartless skill and mechanical performance — is naturally deemed by its possessors as the standard of all mundane and supermundane affairs. The more thoroughly a sham, the more conceited it is apt to be. If now the culture of the day is pitted against religion, the partakers of that cul- ture will either reject religion, or else find their culture in conflict with their religion. The church still embodies much of the culture of the day, and exerts a powerful influence on the various factors of civilization. But we have seen that, in many places, the dominant culture has been alienated from the church and is actually hostile to its principles. The dominion exercised by the church over culture in the middle ages has long ceased. The sciences, philosophy, literature, and art have been emancipated. The church no longer controls education ; theology has ceased to be the chief study, and purely intellectual and secular subjects have taken the leading place once occu- pied by divinity ; and literature and art have been absorbed by temporal interests. Much of the cul- ture of the day treats with indifference what the 236 THE AGE AND THE CHURCH. church regards as supreme, and is devoted to pursuits in which religion is ignored or even antagonized. On the continent of Europe, the divorce between the church and a large part of culture is so great that there hardly seems a bridge from the one to the other. They are like opposing parties, with not even the conditions for understanding each other. Different spirits are cultivated, hostile camps are formed, so that each regards the de- struction of the other as the condition of its own preservation. This state of things, although most marked on the Continent, is not peculiar to it. The conflict between Christianity and modern thought, between religion and culture, between faith and knowledge, characterizes the times. Hence the agony of doubt through which so many have to pass, when with the faith of their youth they engage in the deeper studies of the age. If the conflict is to be overcome, the elements engaged in it must be candidly and thoroughly mastered. Dogmatic authority on the one hand, and a tone of intellectual superiority on the other, can only serve to deepen and broaden the existing gulf. The hostility of secular culture to the church is partly a reaction. That thought is an organism, that each truth is in living connection with every other truth, and that each member is supreme in its place and an essential part of the whole system, THE CHURCH AND CULTURE. 237 was not apprehended. Instead of putting secular culture in its proper place in the organism and giving it due freedom there, it was put under restraint; what wonder that now it rebels and opposes its former master ? In more respects than is usually supposed, we are still living either in a reaction against the middle ages, or even in the principles of those ages. The present condition of things also furnishes abundant ground for the conflict. Within the church, in Protestantism as well as in Catholicism, there have been utterances which culture interpreted to mean opposition to free inquiry. Nearly every great progress in sec- ular thought has been opposed by some, who pro- fessed to speak in the name of the church. The pulpit and the religious press have frequently taken a hostile attitude toward intellectual move- ments before they were fully understood. Igno- rant and violent denunciation has taken the place of calm and profound inquiry; and theological opinions were made criteria in matters which only reason, research, and scholarship can settle. This disgraceful meddling with things not understood has incalculably injured the church in the ranks of culture. The church was regarded as arro- gating to itself an authority whose claim is no longer admitted, and its anxiety respecting the safety of its doctrines was interpreted as weakness. There are regions where it is common to regard even Protestant orthodoxy as afraid to have its 238 THE AGE AND THE CHURCH. position freely investigated and criticized, because at heart it lacks confidence in its position. It is then taken for granted that this position can be held only by suppressing free inquiry, or by be- coming a hypocrite. Many regard a robust in- tellectuality inconsistent with the spirit of the church ; and they are ready to reject without inquiry the Bible, the history of religion, and the theology of the church, because treated by believ- ers as if unable to stand the profoundest research and severest critical tests. The world estimates the church by its actual, not by its ideal religion ; hence the attitude of be- lievers has been so effective in alienating scholar- ship. A narrowness and bigotry have often been manifested which are intolerable to the scholarly mind, and have made men wonder whether the Christianity of Christ is really to be found in the church. Hostility to the church is therefore not necessarily hostility to religion. Often those deemed peculiarly devout assume an indifferent or hostile attitude toward intellectual pursuits. Feeling running in narrow grooves is excited, an enthusiasm bordering on fanaticism is cultivated, while science, philosophy, and intellectuality are disparaged. Even in religious circles it is ad- mitted that there are evangelistic efforts which antagonize scholarship ; and certain religious bodies and associations have made for them- selves the unenviable reputation of opposing deep THE CHURCH AND CULTURE. 239 and thorough and broad cultiire. Science is men- tioned sneeringly by such as cannot define it, and have not the ability to separate the true from the false ; philosophy is ridiculed as metaphysics and transcendentalism by such as have never been affected by a philosophic thought ; and the deepest yearning of the intellect is treated as if unworthy of the Christian. These facts are patent to all, and often produce a more powerful impression than the truly intellectual spirit and profound scholarship, so characteristic of a large part of the church. The ctilture innately opposed to religion, seizes whatever is objectionable in the church and makes the most of it, while overlooking the earnest efforts of Christian scholars to attain the highest culture, and to promote only the truth. As in the church we find a mixture of truth and error, so we find the same mixture in culture. Those most bitter in their attacks on the church are frequently the very ones whose character un- fits them to do justice to the church. It is the old story of the mote and the beam. How often has culture been shallow, one-sided, vain and flippant ? Instead of making superior attainments the meas- ure of responsibility, these have often been re- garded as exalting their possessor above the claims of duty and giving free play to licentiousness. Even genius in literature and art has unblushingly been made an apology for vice. What wonder that genius once worshiped is now treated in 240 THE AGE AND THE CHURCH. learned works as a species of insanity ! A cold intellectualism has been deified at the expense of heart and character, and scholarship controlled by a base spirit has been permitted to tyrannize over morals and religion. The groundless opinions of men of science have been taken for science itself, so that, even when they uttered nonsense, they were supposed to speak with scientific finality. Imaginations were thus dubbed hypotheses, hy- potheses were taken for theories, and theories were promulgated as demonstrations. Observation, ex- periment, and mathematical deductions were de- clared the essence of science, and then the wildest speculations were stamped as scientific. What is called science in our day is largely a conglomeration of philosophical speculations which can be pro- claimed scientific only by a courtesy that is hypo- critical. Atoms, ether, matter, are all postulates ; and those who w^ork w^ith them usually put into them what is needed in order to explain the phe- nomena, for whose interpretation they were pos- tulated. What is legitimate as a postulate may be an abuse, when made the creator of the universe. It has been claimed that Newton needed imagina- tion for his work as much as Shakespeare did ; but he did not construct his science by means of his imagination. By scientists, as well as by philosophers, it is admitted that science has been put in a false light. Claims have been made for it with which it could THE CHURCH AND CULTURE. 241 not comply. Vast as its domain is, there are realms beyond its sphere, and these are the ones which pertain to the highest interests of man. It has be- come evident that no theory of the universe will be regarded as final, tmless it meets the demands of the heart as well as of the intellect. Those who treated man as a brute, and his ideals and longings, his ethics and religion, as not so worthy of study as a reptile or a bug, were the very ones who assumed the leadership in culture, and professed to occupy the highest summit to which the progress of the ages has pushed scholar- ship. In the name of science, whose method is absolute and whose conclusion is final, they affirmed that morality had been undermined and religion overthrown. As a consequence, some men who had ignored religion were now startled, and the abyss to which they saw culture hastening appalled them. It seemed, in fact, as if civilization itself was endangered. When continental socialism pro- nounces materialism the basis of thought, pleasure the aim of life, and atheistic anarchy the spirit of its movements, it professes to follow the star of science. Socialists claim that scientists have over- thrown God, immortality, and ethics ; and as man has been made a brute, a consistent logic impels many to let the beast in man rule. Thus science is abused by making it an apology for every crime and every abomination. There is now a decided reaction against these i6 242 THE AGE AND THE CHURCH. abuses. Science is not depreciated, but efforts are made to limit it to the sphere to which its objects and method confine it. The discovery has also been made that the absoluteness of science is not conferred on mere opinions and inferences of scientists. A man may be profoundly intelligent on material subjects, and as profoundly ignorant of religion. Specialization is still regarded as the wa)^ to thoroughness ; but the narrowness of specialization is now seen to be bigotry, if it shrinks the universe to its limits. The efforts of philosophy to form a consistent view of the totality of being are becoming more common, and are regarded as an evidence that thought must supple- ment sensation, that reason must be the interpreter of phenomena, that from empiricism must be ex- tracted the principles involved in it, and that the perversions of analogical reasoning from a narrow specialty must be overcome. Jean Paul says, ''Formerly prejudice regarded every thinker an atheist ; now, on the other hand, it regards every atheist a thinker. . . Whoever fails to echo the fashionable views is judged not to stand on the summit of his age." A general consensus of opinion is apt to prevail in cultured circles and to be made authoritative. The the- oretical demand for realism by no means banishes subjective arbitrariness. Philosophy and science are supposed to have settled certain things ; and then, without personal investigation or actual THE CHURCH AND CULTURE. 243 knowledge, the philosophical and scientific views generally prevalent in society are adopted. Thus persons whose ignorance of real science and phil- osophy is apparent, do not hesitate to affirm dog- matically that no man of culture any longer believes in miracles or in revelation. In religion and in morals authority is denied and the wildest subjectivity advocated, while, even in matters wholly outside of their specialty, the views of scientists and philosophers receive the stamp of infallibility. And the moral character of culture ? It has re- ceived severest condemnation from scholars who make no claim to religion. Much of the intellect of the day is selfish, thoroughly base, polluting the very atmosphere in which it moves, so that pure men and chaste women shrink from it in horror. There are circles of intellect and culture which are a moral pestilence, in which the very attain- ments seem to be means of bestiality and of heathenish debauchery. In these loathsoihe dens purity is made a mockery and virtue an object of ridicule. After the diabolical lust of cultured devils has destroyed its victim, all efforts to help or save the deluded wretch are left to Christian hearts which still believe in regenerative and re- demptive power. Language has not the force to curse such fiends as they deserve. Yet they claim to stand on the pinnacle of intellectual culture! Much of the culture of society called the "best" 344 THE AGE AND THE CHURCH. is hardly worthy of contempt. Alexander von Humboldt has never been forgiven for permitting- letters to be published, which revealed his disgust at the court circles in which he was obliged to move. The inanity was intolerable ; but it was thought that there was no need of letting the world ' into the secret. Diplomatic circles are often noto- rious for their empty formality and insipid cere- monies. In much of the " first class " of the day mere accomplishment is apt to be taken for schol- arship, just as dilettanteism in music is called an education! Frequently cards and the dance must be resorted to, in order to bring out the best quali- ties of the cream of culture! And these circles of "culture" are the social standards of moralit)^ and spirituality! And this at the close of the nine- teenth century! One need but consider the culture of the day, as it is found outside of the church, in order to dis- miss all thought of making it a law for Christians. Its crititisms are worth heeding, but it is not a model the church can safely follow. It is a culture constantly undergoing changes, and the religion guided by it would have to be as variable. Not only does it lack the redemptive elements needed by society, but in many respects it is also a pro- moter of the worst elements in man, and cannot even appreciate religion. Its tests are at best in- tellectual, and for that reason are likely to have more significance for theology than for spirituality. THE CHURCH AND CULTURE. 245 But even in point of intellect culture must be severely tested before it influences religious belief. If Christians at times have ignorantly opposed the conclusions of scholars, how often have these con- clusions been used hastily and hatefully against the church, and how common has it become to spread them before the public not prepared to judge of them, in order to prejudice them against Christianity ? And what a time the church would have, if obliged to adapt itself to every new sci- entific and philosophical theory! How rapidly religion would have been obliged to change within this century, in order to put itself into harmony with every new system of philosophy! And which of the numerous old and new systems now advo- cated is to be the law for the church ? Only what is final in thought can be a law for the mind ; and only what is true and pure and moral and religious in culture is worthy of being assimilated by the church. Perhaps nothing needs criticism more than the culture which makes itself the final ap- peal in religion. But the very fact that the culture of the day so deeply needs the moral and spiritual leaven is an urgent reason why the church should study this culture, and should so adapt its religious power as to make it most effective. Culture, particularly on the Continent, has to an alarming degree for- saken the church. This is true in Protestant as well as in Catholic countries. With the exception 246 THE AGE AND THE CHURCH. of theologians, we find that in Germany prof essors^ students, authors, artists, and professional men are rarely found in sympathy with the church. The daily press, and literature in general, largely either oppose or ignore the church. Not in the same degree is this the case in Great Britain, where the church includes much more of the culture. But there, too, the daily press, the magazines and books, furnish abundant proof that much of the culture is skeptical, agnostic, positivistic and ma- terialistic. Probably of all lands the alienation between the church and culture is least marked in the United States. The church, being free from the state, can adapt itself to the needs of the people more readily, and new organizations can spring up as required. And yet there, too, numer- ous volumes and journals attack the church, to say nothing of associations, and speakers openly hostile to Christianity. And it is also evident that there is much outward conformity to religion, while in reality doubt and indifference prevail. There are evidences, too, that doubt and agnosti- cism and materialism are in some quarters on the increase on the part of students and professional men. In view of the assaults of positivism, agnos- ticism, and criticism, it looks as if, in its con- structive processes, the church would have to begin at the very foundation. When the prin- ciples are attacked, the principles must first of all THE CHURCH AND CULTURE. 24T be firmly established. Behind all biblical and his- torical criticism is the problem of the basis of spirituality in the soul. For science and philos- ophy the ultimate appeal is neither to Scripture nor to history, but to man himself. The trend of the history and philosophy of religion is toward the establishment of a psychological basis of re- ligion. As grounded in the very nature of man, religion not only exists of right but is a necessity. With this psychological basis established, we find history and Scripture but confirmations of religion. Christ's religion, with its wonderful adaptation to man, brings through its very humanity a proof of its divinity. Christianity as the most perfect sys- tem has claims superior to all other religions ; and we are not surprised to find that the argument has been advanced, that even if regarded as only the most perfect product of religious evolution it must be true ; for evolution, proceeding according to necessary laws, cannot err. All the deeper ten- dencies of the age indicate that it is the work at the bottom which must first of all be well done, and then the work on the superstructure can be continued. There is little use in patching the roof while the foundations are being undermined. Christians may not need this fundamental work for themselves ; but it is essential in order to meet the demands of the culture of the age. While the abuses of secular culture may lie largely beyond the influence of the church, it can 248 THE AGE AND THE CHURCH. immediately affect such abuses as are found within itself. The great work of the church must be within and upon itself, its ilhimination of the re- gion outside depending on the brilliancy and per- fection of its own light. Self-examination, a full realization of its true condition, repentance, refor- mation, and inner growth are primary conditions of efficiency. As freely as we criticize culture, so freely must we also criticize the church. In all lands leading Christian thinkers admit, that there exist conditions in the church itself which are cal- culated to alienate culture. And how deeply cor- ruption has affected the church is evident from the fact, that abuse is heaped on such as dare hint that for some prevalent evils in society the church itself is to blame. So far has the disease pro- gressed in certain quarters, that the system has lost the very consciousness of its existence and seems incapable of taking the needed remedy. Not only in individual believers but also in church organization much prevails, which must repel men of scientific and philosophical culture. With their enlarged conceptions of the universe and its Ruler, they cannot believe that God places any emphasis on the trifles which so often absorb the attention of believers, but to the thinker seem a degradation of religion. Disputes about mere forms of worship, when spirit and truth constitute its essence, seem to put religion on the level of the vanities. A stress is placed on rites, on govern- THE CHURCH AND CULTURE. 249 tnent, and on sectarian peculiarities, which lose their significance in view of the momentous funda- mental problems which now agitate earnest minds and devout hearts. Often religion is made too eschatological, and the divine element too tran- scendental. It is common also for theologians to treat as finally settled what seems to other scholars as still an open question. The culture outside of the church thus regards as problematic much which the pulpit presents as solved. How can theologians expect theology, to which they devote a life of study, to be equally appreciated and apprehended by those who make of it no specialty ? Intricate speculative dogmas are usually perplex- ing in proportion as men think exactly and pro- foundly. Science and philosophy train men to discover problems and unfathomable depths, where others see only the surface or hear only words. Agnosticism is right if we depend wholly on absolute knowledge, just as positivism is right, if there is no domain beyond science ; but both are wrong, if there is a realm of faith. Yet even to Christian faith there are deep mysteries. And as there is a Christian positivism, in which no true believer wavers, so there is a Christian agnos- ticism, of which the apostle Paul is the most emi- nent representative. Instead of the spiritual real- ism with which the Gospel teems, we now often find an astonishing unreality in religion. Opinions are put for truth, and human inventions for divine 250 THE AGE AND THE CHURCH. decrees. Sermons are often too dogmatic, not scriptural enough, not giving food for thought and for the soul, but petrifactions, finished, unchange- able products, to be laid away as perfect, and to be taken up when needed. There seems to be no disposition to present problems as problems, to let the hearers consider them for themselves and to treat them as their Christian judgment dictates. Culture does not require of the pulpit a cold intel- lectuality, which can be found in abundance out- side of the pulpit ; but it does require a deep and earnest spirituality, which cannot otherwise be easily obtained. A union of the best intellect- uality with the deepest spirituality is urgently needed. Sermons antiquated in thought and in language, unearthly, unhuman, remote from the actual problems and interests of the day, are not for living men and for the living present. Specialists, professional men, and scholars gen- erally are more apt to be religious than theological. They have more time for the Bible than for the- ology, and the creed of their heart is likely to be far more elaborate than that of their head. A creed in simplest language, and confined to the essentials of religion and faith, is far more accept- able to them than one full of archaisms, with terms that engender strife, and embodying a system of theology which a life-time of study cannot com- prehend. The elaborate confession which seems so imposing to the illiterate, may be bewildering THE CHURCH AND CULTURE. 351 to the scholar who knows its history and appre- hends the unsolved problems involved. And some scholars cannot comprehend why they should not go directly to Scripture for their doc- trines, if it is the Scripture in the creed which gives that creed its value. To them it is clear that the confession, which was once an actual ex- pression of the faith of the church, has now largely become the symbol of a faith which is no subjective reality, and is used merely as a tradition of faith, as a means of organization, and as a sec- tarian bond. The thinker knows that the creed which a man merely adopts is apt to be a sham ; and that only the word, of which Christ says that it is spirit and life, is the real faith of a man. The actual creed of a church and believer is an organic growth in the heart and mind, that which is really lived, not that which was made in the past. A more genuine religious spontaneity is de- manded by culture. Whoever knows the liabilty of the human mind to err, cannot understand why so much more stress should be laid on logical in- errancy than on the heart's devotion. Can a God of infinite mercy condemn him who honestly seeks the truth, and yet cannot give a perfect expression to that truth in intellectual schedules ? From free Scripture free men may freely draw their own con- clusions, helped by others, by the church, but not enslaved by them. Morality and religion are crea- 252 THE AGE AND THE CHURCH. tions of the soul tinder ethical and spiritual influ- ences ; they may be aided, but cannot be forced. Dogma may be tyrannical ; religion is tolerant ; Deep and broad scholarship may be religious, and yet hesitate to give final utterances on speculative subjects. It is not clear why the church should not have larger place for the prayer which Christ heard : " Lord, I believe ; help thou mine unbe- lief." Perhaps more room for that prayer would promote growth, where now dogmatic stagnation reigns. The church which appreciates the present diffi- culties of religious thinkers must be tolerant. How severe often the trials of honest scholars, who work their way to religion through the laby- rinths of science and the abysses of philosophy ! Of the intellectual barriers in the waj^ of faith in certain departments of thought those who devote themselves exclusively to theology and religion can have no conception. With the intensest yearning for faith the intellect may meet with almost insuperable difficulties, so that scholars confess, with the philosopher Jacobi, that with the heart they are Christian, but with the head hea- then. Science and philosophy intensify the de- mand for truth and realism, and prevent confes- sions which either lack clearness or sufficient proof. The will, the disposition, the spirit may be inclined to religion, and Christ's teachings may exert an almost irresistible power, while the intel- THE CHURCH AND CULTURE. 353 lect meets with obstacles which the pulpit, theol- ogy, and the church increase. The number of such persons is already large and apparently on the increase. Their state must be fairly considered by the church if culture is not to be banished, or if it is to be won when alienated. Their upright- ness, their devotion to truth, their tolerance, their religious aspirations, and their faith and love de- serve full recognition. Perhaps they are with the Baptist on the way to Christ. Often their spirit is worthy of imitation, and such as we cannot but believe that Christ would have welcomed. A failure to appreciate their situation, and instead of this to charge to a wicked heart or a perverse will what is really a difficulty of the truth-loving mind, can only serve to drive away such as might be bright lights in the church. The demands of the pew may be exceedingly difficult to satisfy, and frequently they are unjust. But it should be remembered that questions of criticism are no longer confined to theologians ; they have entered the pew. It is therefore a rea- sonable requirement that the pulpit be informed on these questions. This of course does not mean that every new theory must at once be introduced into the pulpit, to the confusion of such as are not in a condition to investigate such problems. Mere negations are a weakness of our age, and some seem to delight in them for the sake of novelty. It is the positive elements which are for edification. 254 THE AGE AND THE CHURCH. Where these are properly presented, the prevalent criticism need not be feared. But what is a mere theory, and is likely to yield soon to another, should be distinguished from what is actually set- tled. One who knows what transformations crit- cism has undergone and is still undergoing, will be careful about its use for unsettling faith which needs edifying. With that perfect freedom in critical inquiries, which is a demand of Protestant- ism, we must also insist that criticism is not the creative force in spiritual life. It is not the end which so many make it, but only the means to an end, namely, to the actual contents of Scripture and history. Tolerance is usually preached by liberals to the orthodox ; and yet liberals may be most illiberal and sadly lack the tolerance they preach. Some- times they denounce the orthodox as if they had no right to their views, and are truly liberal only to siich as agree with them. Thus in Germany religious liberalism is in many instances narrowly intolerant. Equally unjust is the claim of liberalism with respect to ecclesiastical positions. Severely as an intolerant church is denounced, what shall be said of men who violate the trust committed to them ? It is self-evident that no Christian will take an oath which he cannot faithfully keep ; and if all free scholars would refuse to take an intolerant oath in assuming a professorship, some of the THE CHURCH AND CULTURE. 255 schools might soon be obliged to make their con- ditions more Protestant. A church has a right to protect what it regards as sacred doctrines ; if its means of protection are intolerant, tolerant men have a right to withdraw from its communion and go where they can feel at home. Such a course would hasten the end of intolerant and narrow churches. There is no doubt that the problem of the relation of freedom to authority in the church has not yet been solved. And in our day, when there is a strong tendency to reject all ecclesiasti- cal authority, it is necessary to reject libertinism as emphatically as to emphasize true freedom. What has been said about men of culture in general applies largely to theological students and to preachers. Unless the signs of the times de- ceive, a crisis in theological study is at hand. The unrest in theological circles of England, Scotland, and the United States is very significant. Often the agitation is strongest in the foremost minds. Earnest, energetic, and gifted young men are said to dismiss the thought of studying theology, be- cause they decline to say now what the result of all their theological training shall be. It looks to them like mental slavery ; and it seems to them that prejudice is made to determine what free in- quiry alone can settle. If they study and do not attain the dogmatic results required of them, they know that their ecclesiastical status will be lost. The risks are too great, the conditions unaccept- able, and so they turn to other pursuits. 256 THE AGE AND THE CHURCH. Those who enter upon the study of theology frequently find their course beset with difficulty. Many complain that they are not taught to build up their theology from Scripture, as Protestantism requires, but that it has been built up for them long ago. The very light in which Scripture must be read is decided by dogmatic views ; and when dogmatic theories of inspiration are ques- tioned, as is so often the case now, then they find that they have not learned to form their theory of inspiration from the contents of Scripture. The rule, that the denominational view must prevail at any cost, has lost its charm with many students ; and yet they cannot but feel that for that purpose the school was established, the professors ap- pointed, and for that the students are supposed to exist. There are institutions which would regard as a traitor a professor, who made the truth his aim irrespective of denominational views, and made the doctrinal standards objects of candid criticism, and the start for new and greater and better truth. Candor compels the statement that traditionalism, doctrinalism, and ecclesiasticism are frequently in the way of that objective realism which the age insists on. There are theological faculties that make it their chief aim to prepare the students for their great work by teaching them to think for themselves, teachers, books, and the denomination being but aids to make them free and strong Christian thinkers ; but are they THE CHURCH AND CULTURE. 257 rule ? The usual report of students is that all is run in a sectarian groove ; that the opinions of writers antagonistic to the denomination are quoted for refutation, not for fair investigation ; that an en- largement of mind, so as to comprehend the whole kingdom of God, is out of the question ; and that these institutions are not the places where one gets full and candid statements respecting the actual state of the theology of the day. The best stu- dents often lament that their difficulties were not met, and that they received no adequate idea of the great historical and critical problems respect- ing the Old and the New Testament. Some leave these institutions with the conviction, that they were better prepared for archaeological pursuits than for the work of the present. It is astounding how of late years the number of theological stu- dents and preachers has increased, who have aban- doned all hope that the theological seminaries will meet the demands made on them ! Most painful of all is the fact that theological students and preachers, in lands where the church is free, bitterly complain that during their training they were subjected to a species of mental slavery. In not a few cases the reasons for what has been learned must be sought after leaving the seminary, or the faith has to be entirely reconstructed. What was learned must be unlearned again. The pro- cess of mental development was not living and organic ; it was rather a heaping up of learned 17 258 THE AGE AND THE CHURCH. material than an unfolding of intellectual and spir- itual power. The trend of modern thought is irre- sistibly pushing Scripture and church history into the place heretofore occupied by dogmatics, and is putting personal inquiry and thorough criticism in the place of traditionalism. Even in Germany, where thought is most free, many theological students fear that they cannot meet the dogmatic requirements made at their examination and by the chnrch. The gulf be- tween the old and modern theological thought, which all the world sees, must be considered by the church. That gulf must be filled or bridged, or the church and culture will be irreconcilably divorced. In view of the culture of the day the theological training is in many instances wholly inadequate, not only from the intellectual but also from the spiritual side. Some of the theological seminaries are making earnest efforts to remove the evils. When so much prominence is given to science, philosophy, sociology, the history and philosophy of religion, the relation of these subjects to theo- logical study ought to be taught in every seminary. It should be evident how religion is affected by philosophy and science, what the exact sphere of each is, and how they maybe harmonized. Where the theological faculty is a part of the great or- ganism of a university, as in Germany, the con- nection of theology with the whole domain of THE CHURCH AND CULTURE. 259 thought is more apparent than where the faculty is isolated. Not only do the theological professors feel the influence of other branches, but the)^ must also remain in living contact with them ; and the students can pass from a lecture on theology to one on science or philosophy. But even when iso- lated, theology must determine its relation to the great problems which agitate the culture of the day, and in fact constitute its essence. The prob- lems of criticism and of modern thought have en- • tered China and Japan, and cannot be shut out of schools in Christian lands. Christian thought must advance ; to stand still or to retrograde means to be left behind. In relation to culture the church now has rare opportunities. An approach toward religion is manifest in various quarters. A merely negative attitude to the great interests of the soul does not satisfy. From the ranks of philosophy and science men are seeking a way to religion. Their theology as well as their religion is often peculiar ; but the very interest in spirituality deserves encourage- ment. All the ways from art and literature and philosophy and science to Christianity should be made as plain as possible, and the slightest dispo- sition toward spirituality deserves encouragement. The problem for religion is not how it can give up its principles so as to make them acceptable to culture ; but how it can so adapt itself to culture as to make that culture Christian. 260 THE AGE AND THE CHURCH. Overwhelming are the demands made on the church by culture ; but surely that is no reason for ignoring them. They ought to be fairly and fully studied, especially by those who love the church, who know its trials and difficulties, who are sure that nothing can shake the firm foundation of its faith, and who appreciate its sacrifices and its effi- ciency. Among the most trying demands are the profoundly intellectual ones. The vanities and petty quarrels in churches are proof that these momentous problems are not appreciated. If these demands are to be met, there must be progress from the narrow to the large, and from the little to the great things. The ground of despair is in the church : in the absorbing devotion to trifles and secondary matters, when greatness, depths breadth, and the largeness of God's kingdom are the demand. Perhaps he who would rise to the demands of the hour must isolate himself, and must face bitter and bigoted opposition from the ministry and the laity. Instead of the church, he must make God, Scripture, the divine Spirit, and his conscience his guide. There are regions where a minister can hardly study a scientific or philo- sophical specialty, without arousing suspicion that he has become false to his calling as a preacher. Even with the example of Paul at Athens before them, Christians speak of a simple Gospel, when they really mean an ignorant Gospel. There are regions where a student or professor is denounced THE CHURCH AND CULTURE. 261 as a renegade, if he goes to Germany in order freely to investigate the great critical and histor- ical problems, which he must investigate if his heart is to be at rest and his ministry honest. And there are regions where men summarily dispose of problems they have not investigated, and denounce earnest students whose only crime is a love of truth that is stronger than life. In the presence of the highest culture of the day this spirit means defeat. It is a wrong to the church of Christ. That church must insist on de- bating and settling every question according to the merits of the case. The church that welcomes children and the illiterate should also have room for the deepest and broadest and most independent intellect ; and where the most reverent spirituality prevails, the highest intellectuality should find a home. Many objections to religion on the part of culture result from inquiries that are not deep enough. Doubt is often shallow. The one advice is : Go deeper, get to the bottom, there the spirituality, which doos not lie on the surface you traverse, will be found. Verily, there is no more urgent need than the living truth of Scripture in a living way, but with an adaptation that requires divine as well as human wisdom. Our earthly and empirical times are not easily affected by preaching which begins and ends with God and heaven ; it is too remote from men. But preaching which begins 262 THE AGE AND THE CHURCH. with the soul, adapts spiritual truth to the hearty and leads the spirit up to God, has not lost its pow- er. As men have become conscious of themselves, they demand what is suited to them ; and what is more deeply adapted to them than the teachings of Christ ? Vital religion is for all living men ; but for the cultured it must not be presented in a manner that ignores the problems which fill the hearts and minds of scholars. This does not im- ply that a sermon is to be loaded with philosoph- ical and scientific theories, which are everywhere accessible to men of culture, and which the pew may understand better than the pulpit. But in deep spirituality scholars may find a needed com- plement to their ordinary pursuits. Not so much are ordinary apologetic sermons the regular de- mand, as sermons based on principles which un- derlie all apologetics, and which are in their essense and effect apologetic, since they undermine doubt, and yet do not let the apologetics appear on the surface. The age has no taste for theological controversy. It suspects in the disputants prejudice, partisan zeal, and a carnal love of conquest. The dog- matic indifference of the day is apt to degenerate into indifference to truth and its sharp formula- tion. Yet the truth must be put into the best form, and on its maintenance the existence and power of the church depend. All that has been done in the past to formulate and defend the truth THE CHURCH AND CULTURE. 26^ is but a condition for still greater effort and still deeper work. After hearing so much about broad men in theology, the time may come when we shall also hear of deep men. Without fear of losing its prestige theology must honestly recognize and treat problems as problems, not as solutions. There are human and divine subjects on which inquiry can never cease ; and the prof oundest and freest investigation should be most encouraged. The minimum of faith must, as we have seen, be the condition of Christian fel- lowship ; the church of Christ can exclude no one whom Christ would accept. Whatever is true and good, no matter where found, is a schoolmaster unto Christ. It does not appear why the Christian cannot everywhere recognize the kinship of hon- esty of purpose, earnestness of spirit, love of truth, and faithfulness to conviction. Jesus prefers an honest publican to a hypocritical Pharisee. There is much evil in the church that should be cast out ; and there is much good outside of the church which ought to be in it. How much the church can teach, and how much the church can learn! A strong faith in the omnipotence of truth is needed. Men may have to pass through crises in order to discover and become the truth ; and the truth itself may have to pass through various crises in order to attest its power and secure the victory. The machinery which men manufacture to support the truth, is often but a confession, that 264 THE AGE AND THE CHURCH. truth is thoug-ht not to have the power to support itself. The truth requires nothing but to be known as truth. And especially is there need of that heroic faith, which never doubts that God will lead into the truth every soul that trusts Him and unreservedly consecrates itself to the cause of truth. What an awful fate, if an earnest heart were persuaded that God will consign it to per- dition, because wholly intent on discovering the truth! If the free and honest search for truth leads out of the church, then the church has no room for the best culture of the day, and its ex- alted mission is at an end. We have seen that the prevailing culture is in many respects false, and needs moral and spiritual leavening. Were the church to capitulate to every new and rapidly changing philosophical system, and were it to trail its banner in the dust at the command of every new hypothesis advanced in the name of science, it would not be worthy of re- spect. Systems change ; religion abides. This applies also to theological systems ; and it is a monstrous perversion to identify them with re- ligion. Where was theology in Christ's day? Where would the illiterate disciples, to say noth- ing of women and children, have been if required to master our modern divinity? Theologies are human and transient, as are the ages and philoso- phies which helped to form them, and whose ex- pression they are. Whatever may be said of the THE CHURCH AND CULTURE. 265 Ritschl school, it deserves credit for emphasizing this fact. That theology therefore develop and progress with the ages is the very condition of its vitality, its value, and of its adaptation. As other ages, as those of the church fathers and the Refor- mation, did their thinking, so their lesson to our age is that it must likewise do its own thinking. But just because our age is to do its own thinking, that thinking must be that of an age which has learned from the past, knows the fathers and the reformers, and makes Scripture, history, and the church factors in its thought. Nothing can be more irrational than a necessarily limited subjec- tivity, which makes itself the standard of objective realism, while ignoring what the ages and the church have thought and decreed and pronounced an authority. As a union of the highest intel- lectuality and deepest spirituality are now re- quired, so must depth and breadth be united ; and the old saying, " Not many things, but much," must be changed to read, Many things for the sake of much. The time has also come when it should seriously be considered, whether many terms dear to cul- ture and expressive of real values ought not to find a home in Christian theology, instead of being treated as hostile to religion. Their meaning must of course be changed ; but this is easy, since they contain so much that is especially dear to the Christian. 266 THE AGE AND THE CHURCH. In the best and truest sense, he whom Christ makes free should be a " free-thinker." Those now designated by that term may be enslaved by pas- sion, or impelled by vanity or prejudice, and may be free only from conscience and reason. The term "rationalist" is now used most irrationally, being applied to various classes from Christian thinkers to an atheistic vStrauss. Intellectual self-respect should make this unmeaning vague- ness impossible. A "rationalistic orthodoxy" is the latest discovery. There are quarters where Paul would be denounced as a rationalist, if for the first time he uttered the words, "Prove all things ; hold fast that which is good." So far as the term emphasizes the just demands of reason, the Christian ought to be a rationalist. He should be able to give a reason for the hope in him ; and if his faith is not rational, must it not be irrational ? It is only in a sense hostile to true reason that "rationalist" expresses any thing averse to Chris- tian faith. On the Continent it is common to put liberal against orthodox Christianity. But how ominous \ It actually implies that the orthodox are not lib- eral, which leaves only the inference that they are illiberal. The term "broad " is used for views re- jected by Evangelical Christians. But are we then to infer that Evangelical Christianity is nar- row ? The term is often employed to designate men who are shallow, who are indifferent to truth. THE CHURCH AND CULTURE. 367 and who are ready to compromise with the world ; and it is self-evident that in this sense the desig- nation is no honor. But in the best sense Chris- tians must be broad, just as is the kingdom of God. So humanitarianism is pitted against Chris- tianity, as if this lacked the humanitarian element. A humane Christianity is sometimes spoken of, just as if there were a Christianity that is not hu- mane. One term is common in theological circles which has received a signification which men accustomed to think of the meaning of their words find in- comprehensible ; namely, " Christian conscious- ness." Theologians violently argue against the Christian consciousness of the age as the ultimate appeal in matters of faith. Do they really under- stand the import of their objection ? What con- sciousness, if not the Christian, is the ultimate ap- peal ? That of the world ? That of a past age ? Certainly not, for the Christian cannot appeal to a consciousness which he has not got. He must ap- peal to Scripture, it is said. This seems conclusive ; and yet it is a fallacy, when the appeal to Scrip- ture is pitted against the appeal to the Christian consciousness. How can a theologian appeal to Scripture, except so far as it is a part of his con- sciousness ? The Christian's appeal for Christian truth is always an appeal to the Christian con- sciousness ; but in this consciousness that which is letter and symbol in Scripture is a living con- 268 THE AGE AND THE CHURCH. tent. We can say that it is the Scripture in the Christian consciousness of the age, to which the ultimate appeal is made : but that is still the Christian consciousness. Luther, Spener, and Wesley, no less than Schleiermacher, aimed to make outer and objective faith inner and subjec- tive, so that it might be an actual possession of the believer, namely, his Christian consciousness. A man can no more leave his consciousness in think- ing, than his intellect can step out of the mind into things. This is but a single illustration of the need of thinking through theological terms in common use, in order to get from the words to the thoughts. When, however, the consciousness is severed from Scripture, or is even pitted against Scripture, then it is difficult to see in what sense it is a Christian consciousness. Not in negations or mere attacks is the hope of the church with respect to culture, but in the best positive work, such as its own growth in truth, in intellectuality and in spirituality. Not by mini- mizing moral precepts and religious earnestness can culture be transformed. Religion and ethics ought to be made more full and more vital than heretofore. The attention now devoted to biblical and historical criticism is in danger of leading to a neglect of the relation of religion to science and philosophy. While the church is intent on solving the critical problems, it cannot afford to forget that the scientific and philosophical problems are THE CHURCH A ND CULTURE. 269 also of first importance, and that they are intimately connected with the critical ones. Thoroughly devout Christian philosophers and sci- entists are as urgently in demand, as able preach- ers and profound theologians. A remarkable development of apologetic literature has taken place in Catholicism ; but outside of that church the suspicion prevails that it is a foregone conclu- sion, and not the free scientific spirit which that literature aims to promote. The world looks with a similar suspicion on Protestant apologetics. But if by encouraging science and philosophy, the church can produce free systems of thought supe- rior to those now used against Christianity, then its purpose will be accomplished. Here is the grand opportunity for Christian scholars. Well has it been said that the wounds struck by learn- ing must be healed by learning. The church will be the leader of the culture of the day in propor- tion as it is the actual leader in science and phi- losophy. But science and philosophy must be cultivated for their own sake, if they are to be free and are to attain the highest perfection. Now the exact nature of science and philosophy, their spheres, their limits, their relation to each other, and to theology and religion, are among the most vital themes for Christian thinkers and for the culture of the age. The harmony of the church and culture is an ideal whose perfect realization is not possible. 270 THE AGE AND THE CHURCH. The church is most powerful in the removal of the evils within its own pale. The evils in the culture of the day are largely beyond its reach. Not a tyrannical dominion over culture can be the aim of the church, but the effort to leaven culture with the best ethical and spiritual elements. The church, having made itself the embodiment of the best culture, must put itself into organic connec- tion with the highest thought, and communicate to it the inspiration of the Christian life. If it can- not do this on account of the perversion of culture, it should be remembered that Christ could not win the culture of His day, but turned to the people. Numerous efforts to put something in place of the existing churches may be expected. Men ex- cluded from the churches, or dissatisfied with them, will doubtless organize associations which give them the desired freedom of thought and action. Buddhistic, theosophic, humanitarian, and ethical societies have already been established. Some want to put Christianity in a line with the great ethnic religions, but giving it the first place. Es- pecially powerful is the Christian teaching with respect to love, and many are prepared to accept it as an ethical and social law who reject dogmatic Christianity. Sometimes these associations espec- ially emphasize what they think lacking in the churches. Even on Christian principles and doc- trines individual churches may be founded, which THE CHURCH AND CULTURE. 271 make an ethical and practical Christianity espec- ially prominent. There is an unmistakable trend in the churches themselves to make the minimum of Christian doctrine the basis of fellowship, and to get this directly from the Bible and express it in biblical terms, just enough for organization, just what Christ and the apostles would have deemed sufficient. The emphasis would then be placed on communion with God through Christ, on the religious spirit, on the disposition, on Chris- tian love as the unifying element, on the religion of the heart and the life. Personal Christian trust would then take the place of what is now ex- pressed in intellectual formulas. Already in many cases this trust prevails in our churches instead of dogmatic faith ; often men of culture accept the views of denominations with mental reservations. But whatever associations maybe formed, whether ethical, or tentatively Christian, or for the practice of loving benevolence, they may be preparations for leading the members into a fuller knowledge of Scripture and unto Christ. The most serious difficulty the culture of the day finds respecting Christianity is the miraculous and supernatural element. This difficulty is largely owing to the conception of God. He is not appre- hended as personal, as immanent in nature, as really concerned for man. With the Christian conception of God, the miraculous and supernat- ural element in Christianity became natural, just 272 THE AGE AND THE CHURCH. what ought to be expected. Culture is apt to form its conception of God too much from nature^ and to treat objects of faith too strictl}- as if they were objects of science. The fact is that the cul- ture of the day insists too exclusively on knowl- edge and is not prepared for faith. But culture has its fashions, and this one may change. That the right of most thorough investigation and most profound criticism with respect to the miraculous and supernatural elements must be tolerated and even invited, requires no special mention. As thus we consider the church and culture, we marvel at the problems which burst upon us. Not the existence of these problems is so new as the awakening of consciousness to their apprehension. But the awakening which apprehends the prob- lems is also the first condition for their solution. THE CHURCH AND SOCIALISM. 273 CHAPTER IX. The Church and Socialism. Socialism, the most striking popular movement of the times, is a problem of profound depth, of intense interest, and of the gravest importance. Ours is peculiarly the age for the rising of the masses, with mighty upheavals at the bottom of society, when the power is virtually in the hands of the common people and majorities rule. As veins in the earth unite and burst forth in a foun- tain, so there have been below the surface of soci- ety historic social movements, which now burst forth with surprising and even startling force. The stream issuing from this fountain may be- come less muddy and less turbulent in its course, but in volume and force it is likely to increase. Already socialism has become so mighty that it is absorbing the attention of emperors, kings, diplo- mats, and statesmen ; it is concentrating on its problems much of the best thought and deepest scholarship ; a host of specialists is engaged in studying its principles, in mastering its details, and in searching for the conditions to meet its overwhelming demands ; in the Catholic church i8 274 THE AGE AND THE CHURCH. the power from the pope to the humblest priest and weakest member of an order, is exerted to the utmost to gain control of the movement ; and ear- nest Evangelical Christians, with their finger on the pulse of the age, declare that the power and glory of Protestantism are at an end, unless it can at last be aroused to ponder deeply the socialistic problem, and be impelled to do its part in the solution with the spirit of Christ. Well may we question the ability of the human mind fully to comprehend the socialistic problem. The longer one studies the subject, the deeper and broader it becomes, until it seems to be infinite. No wonder that students, overawed by its magni- tude, either pronounce the solution impossible, or else defer it to the indefinite future. " Even if the solution could be thought out, it could not be real- ized in society," says one of the students. It is useless to argue with those who flippantly declare that there is no social question, or who think that it will solve itself. Those who are alive must do the work of the living ; they have no time to bury the dead. Such as think that the church has nothing to do with the matter are as much mistaken as those who declare that the church can do all that is required. Students of socialism know but too well that all the conserva- tive and regenerative forces of society must coop- erate, if the dangers in the movement are to be averted, and if what is just in its demands is to be met. THE CHURCH AND SOCIALISM. 275 It is not socialism as a doctrinal system, an econ- omic problem, or a political theory, which espec- ially concerns our inquiry. We consider the movement so far as it affects the church and makes demands on Christians. For an adequate discussion from our point of view volumes would be required. Here only a general survey and summary treatment is possible. Sociology is a theory of society, giving the prin- ciples involved in its organization, the history of its origin and development, and the factors which constitute its life, form its institutions, and propel its movements. Sociology is therefore philosoph- ical and historical, discussing the doctrines and essential conditions of society, and involving all the forces of the social organism. While sociolog}^ is an interpretation of society, socialism is a prac- tical movement aiming at the transformation of society. While sociology shows what society is and how it grew, socialism aims to realize its social- istic theory of what society ought to be. Sociology is inductive and speculative ; socialism is ethical and practical. Sociology is a theoretical contem- plation of society as a totality ; but the actual socialism of the day is the movement of a class, with special interests and special aims, and with tendencies affecting the entire social structure. In its deepest and broadest sense the practical socialism of the day is a united effort on the part of the laboring classes or the masses to rise into better condition. The 276 THE AGE AND THE CHURCH. better condition may be purely imaginary or a dangerous delusion, and the means used for its attainment may defeat their aim ; nevertheless this effort gives the heart and the trend of the movement. There are different kinds of socialism^ from the peaceable and legal to the anarchical and nihilistic, from the Christian to the materialistic and atheistic. Local, national, and industrial peculiarities also prevail, giving the movement elements that are contradictory, and a variety that is endless and confusing. But they are one in the aim to improve the condition of what are called the lower classes. They differ, however, respect- ing the nature of the improvement and how it is to be accomplished. There are small parties and side-issues in socialism which our purpose does not lead us to consider ; we deal with the general features of the great movement among the masses themselves, known preeminently as the socialism of the day. Whatever the character of socialists may be, the movement itself is not necessarily atheistic or an- archical. In Germany, where the socialists are largely atheistic, it is declared by the social demo- crats that, religion is a private matter and must be left to the individual conscience ; and there it is the avowed principle of socialism that its aims are to be gained by peaceable and legislative means, not by anarchy. At the same time it is well know that the anarchical elements are very strong. THE CHURCH AND SOCIALISM. 277 Nor must the movement be regarded as affect- ing laborers only, or as intent solely on an increase of wages. Socialism is rather to be regarded as a symptom of the age itself, a psychological phenom- enon of the times, and as in some degree affecting all the tendencies of the age. The very term "' laborer" as used with respect to the movement is misleading. The capitalist, the professional man, and the student may labor more than the men ordinarily called laborers. There is a ten- dency on the part of workingmen to underestimate the labor actually involved in intellectual efforts. The supervisor of laborers may do more real work than the laborers themselves. The capitalist and laborer do not necessarily form a contrast so far as the element of work is concerned. Nor is there an impassable gulf between them. Not only do laborers often become capitalists, but from the favored circles of society persons are continually passing to the least favored, through misfortune, drunkenness, vice, crime, lavishness, mismanage- ment, or indolence. That socialism is only a question of wages is re- sented by the more intelligent in the movement. Money is a most important factor and a condition for rising ; but money is valued because it buys food, clothing, a comfortable home, and secures the means of culture. In the mighty impulse to rise, many of the laborers, particularly the young men, are availing themselves of the best means to 278 THE AGE AND THE CHURCH. secure an education, and frequently more solid and more valuable literature forms their mental food than usually prevails in other ranks. We must therefore regard the problem as in the widest sense a social one. While particular factors may be emphasized, all the interests of the entire structure of society are involved. If there is class- prejudice, class-hatred, and a one-sided emphasis on class-interests, it must somehow originate from a false social theory or practice, perhaps from both. The usual discussion of the subject from the point of class-selfishness and class-bitterness destroys all hope of a fair understanding and har- monious adjustment. When now we inquire into the cause of the movement, we are confronted by a host of forces which have contributed their share to produce the present great uprising of the masses. It is evident that the conditions which existed heretofore in an equal degree as at present, or in a still more ex- aggerated form, without producing socialism can- not be the causative factors we seek. Those who look for the reason of the movement in the mere fact that the condition of the laborers is lamenta- ble, overlook the fact that formerly this condition was in many respects worse, and yet socialism was unknown. Never was more done for laborers than at present, never was their position in general more favorable, and yet never before have there been such socialistic agitations. The introduction THE CHURCH AND SOCIALISM. 279 of machinery ; the remarkable growth of cities and the massing of laborers ; the increase of cap- ital, the growth of monopolies, and the astounding concentration of wealth, have all had an important part in the creation of modern socialism. And yet all these factors may exist, and actually do exist,, where socialism has no power. The key to the movement is found in modern progress, particu- larly with respect to the education, the freedom, and the privileges of the masses. The American and French revolutions are leading factors in this process of evolution. We must look to the awakening of the masses as the chief element in the explanation of the move- ment. The laboring men have become conscious of themselves, have been made aware of their actual condition, have been aroused to a realiza- tion of their rights, their power, and their possi- bilities. This is the reason why their burdens were never so heavy, though in reality they may be lighter than ever. The great change in the burden-bearers has made their burdens seem in- tolerable. Not to the most degraded and the brutalized laborers do we look for the socialistic leaders ; but to the most favorably situated, to the best edu- cated and the most ambitious ones. Not in heathen but in Christian lands do we find socialism ; and there chiefly in those countries which are the most advanced. This is surely not accidental. Lavelaye ru^ ^. 280 THE AGE AND THE CHURCH. even says, " As the oak springs from the acorn, so may socialism be traced to Christianity. In every Christian there is a germ of socialism, and every socialist is unwittingly a Christian." There is cer- tainly much truth in the statement. In the aspi- ration of the masses to attain a better condition, there is an element of grandeur which may be traced directly to Christianity ; and it is this grandeur which makes it one of the most signifi- cant movements of the ages. Christianity has preached the dignity of man and the rights of the personality, until even the masses have caught the meaning of the preaching, and have taken seriously the teaching that the person is above price. The doctrine was proclaimed that all are equal before God, with whom is no distinction of persons, all being alike his children. And when the lesson had once been learned, men could not understand why, if before God all are equal, the distinctions on earth should be so great. As a socialist said, " If we are made in God's image, we ought to live in a manner worthy of that image." The earthly distinctions were seen to be mainly artificial ; and in spite of these distinctions, the rights of man were made the watchword of the most advanced nations. With the emphasis on the personality, and with the doctrine of the rights of men as men, socialism became inevitable. The difference be- tween theory and practice was too glaring to escape notice. With such doctrines as the inspiration of THE CHURCH AND SOCIALISM. 281 their hearts, the people could not understand why some should dwell in idleness, revel in luxury and superfluity, occupy favored positions and receive the highest honors, while others were slaves of toil, lived in abject poverty and hopeless wretch- edness, and were treated as if cursed by a divine decree. With their consciousness once aroused every thing appeared in a different light. Those most fully awake naturally aspired to what they had continually heard praised as the most desira- ble of objects. Conscious of themselves and of the great advantages of the age, aspiring, ambi- tious, they saw themselves excluded from what are proclaimed the greatest prerogatives of the times. Poorly clad, inadequately fed, badly housed, they lacked the comforts they had learned to regard as conditions of humanity. The despair they felt re- specting themselves they felt also as the doom of their children. In spite of the exalted doctrine of the rights of the personality, the intellect and the culture of the day were not for them. Indeed, it seemed as if the progress of civilization only in- creased their misery and deepened their despair. Numerous factors served to promote this awak- ening of consciousness. Among these are of especial power political rights ; the ballot, which puts the humblest on the level of the highest ; the free discussion of national affairs, in which all participated ; and the feeling that the power and the interests of the nation are alike the concern 283 THE AGE AND THE CHURCH. of every citizen. As an influence whose power cannot be estimated we must name the press, the great educator of the people. Particular interests had their organs, grievances were freely discussed and remedies proposed. Science too was popu- larized, so that the arcanum of the schools came within reach of the masses. Under all these in- fluences the laborers themselves became different. New possibilities of privilege, position, and culture enchanted them ; and when they banded together to consider their interests, it was with a conscious- ness of their power, and with the hope that their efforts would be crowned with success. The mass- ing of laborers in the centres of population, the ease of combination, and the means of rapid com- munication, were all favorable to the development of socialism. This awakening and intensifying of conscious- ness is only in the first stages ; we must expect the process to continue and to grow. But already much that was in the dark has now been placed under the electric light. Thus it has become evi- dent that the emancipation of the slaves was but a small part of the emancipation of humanity ; a much greater work remains to be done. Where titles, rank, privileges were abolished, it was done only nominally and legally ; all that was real in their advantages remains. The names have dis- appeared ; but the wealth, the actual power, the real distinctions, and the personal advantages still THE CHURCH AND SOCIALISM. 383 exist, and in many instances they have been aug- mented. Where the legal aristocracy is abolished, an actual social aristocracy lives, whose real privi- leges have never been equalled by the privileged classes of the old world. What wonder that those who realize the situation feel that the emancipa- tion which has been only nominal must be fol- lowed by an emancipation that is real ! The conviction also prevails that all persons should have an equal opportunity to attain culture to secure a livelihood, and to enjoy the comforts of life. With equal chances in the race of life, the victory ought to be to character, to energy, and to wisdom. But the reality shows that some have all the advantages and the rest none. Some are born to be lords, others are condemned to slavery. Put now the awakened consciousness of the laborer into the present actuality, and socialism ceases to be a mystery. Capital rules ; even the rich are startled by the concentration of wealth in the hands of a few. What a dangerous power when controlled by a diabolical, selfish spirit! In some countries the land is owned by a small minority, and the tenant who can hardly live from his toil has no hope of ever getting possession or of bettering his condition. Whatever fault may attach to the laborers, that does not by any means account for all their suffering. The most honest and most industrious are often doomed to abject misery. In Nimes, France, the most careful sta- 284 THE AGE AND THE CHURCH. tistics proved that of the large number of families visited by Protestant philanthropists only one- fifth were in misery through the fault of the head of the family. While writing this, the weavers in Silesia are in danger of starvation. The wages at Glatz are as follows : 30 per cent of the laborers receive 18 cents a day ; 50 per cent receive 13 and 20 per cent receive only 6. And these men have families to support! Whoever has labored among the poor knows that the suffering among the in- nocent is often terrible. All this while others have more than they can use. Often haughtiness prevails in families of wealth, a splendor reigns that reminds of oriental luxury, and excessive means are made the min- isters of lust and passion. Even the stables of horses and the kennels of dogs have a comfort compared with which the laborers are hovelled in wretchedness. The man is literally placed below the brute. Prisoners are often much better pro- vided for than honest workmen. If the employer's laborer dies, it is no loss, for he can easily be re- placed ; but if a mule dies, it is a serious loss, because that represents a certain money value. How now appreciate the situation ? Put yourself in place of the laborer with his suffering and despairing family! Or if there is no actual suffer- ing, learn his appreciation of the greatest advan- tages of the age, and feel with him what it means to have himself and familv excluded from them. THE CHURCH AND SOCIALISM. 285 More severe than the actual suffering is the consciousness of degradation to which the laborer is often subject. He is treated as a thing, worth as much as the machine that turns out an equal amount of work. The man himself is too often estimated solely according to his brute force. The capitalist, if he stoops to recognize him at all, does it only so far as the laborer can compete with a mule or an engine. All else pertaining to the man and his family is absolutely ignored. He is treated as a tool and knows that as such he is estimated. There are exceptions; much of the wealth is in the hands of the noblest of men ; but the treatment of laborers as mere things is com- mon in all lands, is intolerable, and should arouse to intensity the indignation of all who have any humanity left. In the tendency from aesthetics to ethics, an emphasis on the claims of humanity is taking the place of absorption in the contemplation of art. In this tendency socialism is a dominant factor. It makes human concerns of supreme importance. Socialism has already given startling revelations of social conditions, and yet its work has only be- gun. Slowly but surely modifications are in prog- ress, which will affect our terminology as well as our social status. Already the terms " gentleman " and "lady" are losing their old meaning. They will either designate a different class of persons than formerly, or else they will have a contempt- 286 THE AGE AND THE CHURCH. uous instead of an honored sense. These terms have designated persons not obliged to work for a living, and thus have served to dignify idleness and to cast reproach on labor. This will be im- possible with the newly awakened consciousness of society. Among the causes which embitter socialists, one of the most powerful is the existence of a large number of social drones. Without any merit or effort of their own, they have the highest advan- tages afforded by society. These they abuse for low personal ends, and often for the oppression of those subordinate to them. They do not work, and yet they live on the fat of the land ; they do not even concern themselves for those on whom they live, not to say anything of the welfare of society at large. The usual voluptuousness and vices of indolence control them. Although but the boils and blisters of humanity, they claim to be on the social summit from which they can look down upon all others. Not only are they an intol- erable nuisance, but their influence in inflaming honest workmen with intense bitterness is of the most pernicious and most dangerous character. Not only can no one discover of what use they are to society, but it is well known that often they are a moral pest to a community. Their very promi- nence makes their example the more contagious. They train their families to their own idleness, worthlessness, and vice. THE CHURCH AND SOCIALISM. 387 No matter how much indolence or vice may be gilded, it is not possible to make it respectable. When it leads the heir of one of Europe's haugh- tiest thrones to commit suicide, the world is ap- palled at the awful corruption in what are termed the highest circles ; but it says that such an end was but natural. And were it possible for a prince to forget the earnestness of the present situation and of his responsibility, and to devote himself to social frivolity and degrading sport and despicable gambling, he would have to be transformed as much as Henry V., before any but the Falstaffs among his companions could respect him as a monarch. Woman is a delicate subject to be discussed in this connection ; but we cannot withhold the truth. More frequently than her brother is she trained to indolence in families of wealth. She is then treated as if she had no mission were she to fail of mar- riage ; and so she is brought up in idleness and for lazhiess. All this is now publicly ventilated and heartlessly commented on. These toys are so de- veloped that they may become the most convenient playthings. It is freely stated that many of them take their fashions from the "abandoned" among their sisters ; and that their influence in society is of a corresponding character. The parlor, the theatre, the ball-room, the street, the store, are their spheres. A smattering of French, a slight accomplishment in music, foreign travel in hope of 288 THE AGE AND THE CHURCH. absorbing some scenic and artistic effects, the sum- mer at fashionable watering places to find relief from the tasks that have not been performed — these glorify their career. It would be impossible not to be satirical, were it not that these creatures are themselves the most bitter satire on womankind. The much naturally expected from them, and actu- ally done by the noble ones among their sisters, deepens the pity with which these ladies are regard- ed by worthy toilers. Nor is pity the limit of the feeling which they inspire. Did they but know what earnest people think and publicly proclaim respecting them, they would seek to hide the shame they now so impudently parade. These are conditions at which we can only hint. The reality is immeasurably worse than pen can describe. The Christian looks with greatest esteem on the noble mission of a daughter, sister, wife and mother ; and even if woman's sphere is limited to the home, it is second to none in importance. If this mission in the home is not accomplished, she cannot be expected to fulfill any other. Her sphere, however, reaches beyond the home. Look but at the theatres and operas and concerts, and see whether the most public places are not occupied by women. Her public influence is so great that its purity and exaltation are among the chief con- cerns of the present. Not without reason is this called the era of woman. She has been a powerful factor in creating socialism, and she can be an THE CHURCH AND SOCIALISM, 289 equally powerful factor in meeting its demands. Intelligent socialists are well aware that the blame for the existing social condition does not belong wholly or chiefly to individuals. It is due rather to society as such. This becomes evident when we study the social structure. In a healthy state society is an organism whose constituent parts are members. All the factors exist for each other, and their harmonious cooperation promotes the welfare of each member and of the entire body. No part can do without the other, much less be complete without it. Vvhat pertains to one pertains to all. '' And whether one member suffer, all the members suffer with it ; or one member be honored, all the members rejoice with it." Such an organism means unity, sympathy, cooperation. Now it is ever}^ where painfully apparent that this scriptural and rational view of society nowhere exists. Society is not an organism, not even a well constructed mechanism. Instead of members, we have disjointed parts, fragments of ruins touching each other, but not even cem.ented together. In- stead of unit}^ there is disunion, instead of sympa- thy there is hatred, and instead of cooperation there is war. We do not usually speak of social mem- bers, but of social cliques, classes, and parties, each forming a separation by itself, intent on fur- thering only its own interests, ignoring or actually antagonizing other classes, and thus producing enmity and distraction. Selfishness, self-interes^, 19 290 THE AGE AND THE CHURCH. self-seeking are the rule ; others are considered only so far as self demands such consideration. Hence society is split into factions. Political par- ties identify their aims with the welfare of the state, and then, with the basest egotism, substitute for patriotism the narrowest partisanship. Were a political party inadvertently to become generous to another party, no one would believe in the gen- erosity. It is taken for granted that selfishness or even meanness, with a show of disinterestedness, is the rule. When one class forms an alliance to protect its interests, without the slightest regard to the interests of others, then other classes are also driven together to promote iheir peculiar in- terests. Thus we find capitalists, laborers, me- chanics, farmers, merchants, and other classes, banded together for class purposes. Only what pertains to self is considered, and in the course of time nothing else can be seen. Prejudice is fos- tered, so that an understanding with others is out of the question. Those who are in the way of self- seeking are viewed as enemies, and such must be overcome or destroyed. War is consequentl}- the natural state of this condition. Where this class- antagonism increases, it must eventually lead to the dissolution or destruction of the social structure. Such a state becomes peculiarly dangerous when the usual bonds which hold different parties to- gether are loosened or wholly severed. That is the case now. In view of personal and class inter- THE CHURCH AND SOCIALISM, 291 ests common traditions are losing- their hold on nations ; political and economic principles conflict ; antagonistic sociological theories prevail ; the foun- dation, the nature, and the authority of ethics are in dispute ; and over vast masses religion has lost its force. So absorbing, so intense, and so exclu- sive have personal or party or class concerns be- come, that the common human and even national and social considerations are lost sight of. When now socialism organizes a particular class to further its own interests, and to antagonize the interests supposed to be in conflict therewith, it is simply doing what all others are doing. Its plea is self-defence ; and from the defensive it passes to the offensive. That it opposes selfishness by selfishness is glaringly apparent. But it does not merely put itself on the common level of other classes, it adopts a more radical aim. The socialist thinks that he recognizes the evils of society so far as labor is concerned ; and he views these evils as a necessary product of the present constitution of society. This brings us to the heart of socialism. Were the blame with individuals, then there would be hope that they might be removed or their influ- ence overcome. But as the blame rests on society itself, which communicates its spirit to the domi- nant factors and makes them an expression of itself, there is but one hope, and that is in the change of society. Reformation or revolution is therefore the cry ; and as there is scarcely any 292 THE AGE AND THE CHURCH. hope of reformation, the emphasis is placed on revolution. Factories, workshops, organizations, meetings, books, papers, cooperation, strikCvS, all possible means are used to secure the ends of labor- ers now, or to prepare to secure them in the future. In Germany it is claimed that twenty per cent, of the population are socialists, or about nine millions of the inhabitants. In other lands they are less organized, but also strong and growing. Many socialists freely admit that anarchy and nihilism are their hope and aim. Just how to reconstruct society when it has been destroyed seems at the present stage of agitation of little concern to them. First destruction ; the construction will take care of itself. Often a demoniac element, a fiendish ferocity is prevalent, utterly regardless of the question whether the culture of centuries, the civ- ilization of nations, and the religion of Christ be buried under the ruins. These things, they de- clare, have no significance for them ; not onl}^ do they claim to have no share in their blessing, but they often view them as the means of their curse. The success of our socialists would no doubt prove the direst calamity to the laborers them- selves. Even if they change their theory of the state as the sole capitalist, land-owner, and em- ployer, making all labor in point of value essen- tially alike, issuing certificates for work, and putting all workers on a communistic level ; still we cannot believe that the spirit and ability and THE CHURCH AND SOCIALISM. 293 aims of socialists can improve the constitution of society so as to meet the just demands of the labor- ers. But if not successful, socialism may never- theless prove the worst of social fiends. Thus far the laborers have been trained under Christian in- fluence ; now they are in many places trained in niaterialism and atheism. The young men are worse than the older socialists, and the boys are worse than the young men. There is a remarka- ble growth in the brutal elements. The better dressed people are hated, the palace of the rich excites bitterness. The masses have the majority and feel their power; and when the restraints which now hold them in check are gone, what will the result be ? And that restraint is rapidly van- ishing, and often the leaders find it all but impos- sible to keep their followers from violence. With dynamite and petroleum and all the other means of destruction a few desperate ones may work in- calculable devastation. Men alive to the situation realize that society sleeps on a volcano, whose fearful monitions are distinctly heard ; and even if socialism fails, much of society may be destroyed. These are the facts with which the astute states- men and most pow^erful governments reckon. It is not strange that a kind of panic seizes society, when a student of socialism declares that states- men and governments and CathoHcism and Protes- tantism are unable to check the triumphant march of socialism ; that but one force is able to do it, 294 THE AGE AND THE CHURCH. and that is the German army. But in this very army the socialists themselves are trained for the conflict which many declare inevitable. We cannot stop to consider the right and wrong in the socialistic movements. No one with a Christian heart can deny the justice of the claim that the personality is supreme ; that the soul and the character determine man's dignity, not the clothes, not the wealth, not the position ; that human beings, no matter what their financial status, ought to receive human treatment, and should never be degraded to beasts of burden and to machines of toil ; that the aspiration of the poorest to attain a comfortable livelihood and to secure the advantages of education and culture are just. These efforts to rise into better condition I deserve the greatest encouragement and most efficient help. There are elements in socialism which make it one of the most righteous causes ever affecting humanity, which will draw to its consideration the best thought and the most Christian spirit, and which will make it the absorb- ing problem of the future. But the practical socialism of the day in n?iany respects appalls one, on account of its diabolical elements. It teems with materialism, atheism, and selfishness ; it emphasizes earthly gratification as life's aim, ignores the historic conditions of social structures, and proclaims a class-hatred animated by the spirit of a demon ; it fosters lust, passion THE CHURCH AND SOCIALISM. 295 and brutality, proving that in many cases the noble aspirations for culture are a mere pretext ; the character is ignored, the fact is overlooked that an increase of money would frequently serve only to feed intemperance, debauchery, and crime ; on the condition of things and on other persons blame is thrown which really attaches to self, and there- fore the help which can only come from self-effort and inner improvement is expected from the environment ; and socialism is the death of individ- uality, making the community or society a mael- strom swallowing up personality and peculiarity, so that the worst form of tyranny prevails. These revolting elements are in the movement, and they need but be cultivated to produce a spirit which delights in destruction for the sake of destruction. But it is as wrong to lose sight of the noble ele- ments because there are base ones, as to concen- trate attention upon the noble ones and forget the other side. Discrimination is needed, otherwise there is no hope of successful social work. Many laborers, now repelled by the socialistic spirit, may join the movement, if their just claims are ignored by society. Then it must also be considered that among socialists there are many whose aspirations are worthy of encouragement ; they are accessible to reason, to heart, and to sympathetic help. And even where the worst elements prevail, a new spirit may be introduced. Socialism is tentative, not an ultimate dogma ; this fact inspires strong hopes 296 THE AGE AND THE CHURCH. that the character of socialists and the dangerous tendencies in the movement may be changed by- proper effort. These facts so faintly delineated, whose full im- port no mind can fully conceive, much less any pen describe — these facts the church must face. The church is in the movement, is deeply affected by it, so much so that not a few declare that its very existence is threatened. Slowly the actual situation is dawning on the church, and its duty to the masses has become a burning question. Awful things are heard. Socialists declare that it is too late for Christians to do anything now ; the oppor- tunit)^ being lost forever. At a social congress of Evangelical Christians in Berlin, one of the most efficient Christian workers in behalf of laborers said, "It is too late." All over the Continent laborers express their surprise that the love, so loudly professed by the church, did not lead to more earnest work for suffering humanity ; and they affirm that every body knows the church is now aroused to do something for tliC poor, not because it cares for the poor, but because it wants to save itself! Painful beyond utterance is the statement often heard, that the Catholic church has shown some heart for the poor, but Protestant- ism none! False of course ; but how did such a view become possible, and why is it so common ? What now shall the church do in view of the problems presented by socialism ? THE CHURCH AND SOCIALISM. 297 The strong conservatism of the church is often peculiarly needed in times of agitation. Its doc- trinal and historical elements, and its long-tried and approved methods, ma)^ be the conditions of efficient activity in revolutionary periods. No one recognizing the Gospel as the power of God unto salvation can wish to change the spiritual leaven which Christ introduced, or to substitute for it any earthly force. Spirituality is rather to be quickened and deepened. Those, however, who continually oppose innovations under the plea that nothing but the old Gospel is now needed, usually mean that nothing is required but the human methods to which they themselves have been accustomed. They forget that peculiar times need peculiar adaptations, and that the same Gospel may have an endless variety in meeting the needs of different ages. But it is true that such adaptations are growths, the product of the times themselves, and called forth by the situation. Arbitrary innova- tions, violent revolutions, and novel experiments may work evil only, unless they prove useful in showing that they are not the divine method In their very zeal to meet emergencies hasty persons may go to the extreme, and by their excesses may destroy more than they edify. A world not only indifferent but actually hostile to religion is to be won by the church. Those apparently not susceptible to spiritual influences are to be made spiritual. They are not present to 398 THE AGE AND THE CHURCH. hear the usual sermon ; and if they were present, they would be but wayside to the spiritual seed. This alone shows how hopeless the theory of the simple preaching- of the old Gospel in the old way. People must be touched where they are, and where they are susceptible. Not that truth is to be adapted to their tastes, for this might require that the truth be degraded ; but it must be adapted to their needs in order that they may thereby be adapted to the truth. The way to their souls may be through their bodies, their earthly circum- stances, and through their intellect or conscience. Here the rule prevails that the church must not become earthly ; but without losing its spirituality it is so to adapt itself to men as to draw them to religion. Such persons as secularize the church make its means earthly, and degrade it to an ordinary social institution, neglect the peculiar mission of the church, and attempt what is already done to superfluity. The church is not established for earthly pleasure ; and when a life of pleasure and sport has become a common and destructive passion, it may be a supreme duty to oppose vig- orously the muddy tide and to emphasize duty. What men do, they cultivate ; and an undue atten- tion to harmless pleasure, as it is called, cultivates the passion for mere gratification, and drives out all higher aims and nobler pursuits. But pleasure that springs from the performance of duty and that prepares for duty, and entertainment that is a THE CHURCH AND SOCIALISM. 299 necessary recreation, are worthy of careful Chris- tian culture. Even in such cases, however, the worldly must not supersede the spiritual means and aims. The church must approach the world in order to win the worldly ; but the approach must be learned from Christ and his apostles. There are so many avenues from the world to Christ, so many schools and schoolmasters to Him, that the earthly and human means which lead to Christ are legion. All that is done for the body may receive spiritual significance and be used for religious ends. This of course does not mean that only such are to be helped as can be brought into the church. The very heart of Christians will lead them to help the needy wherever found. But few of these whom Christ blessed became His followers. If the laborers are to become friends of the church, the church must prove itself their friend in deed and in truth, not merely in word. Chris- tian love must be practiced more than it is preached, or it must be preached most eloquently by works. The faith which worketh by love is the faith now especially needed. This love, if genuine, gives the suffering and the poor what is most helpful. There may be times when the best spiritual work begins its edification with the body. A model in this respect is found in the "Inner Mission" in Germany, including, as we have seen, all work in Christ's name by voluntary Christian 800 THE AGE AND THE CHURCH. agencies, for the body as well as for the soul. Labor colonies, in which men receive work and are trained for useful occupations ; societies to help released prisoners ; the calling of deaconesses in hospitals and in sick families ; the efforts to save fallen women ; the care for neglected chil- dren ; and all labor in behalf of the suffering, come under this head. It ought to be done by the church itself ; but the state church is too un- wieldly, too imperfectly organized, and too severely restrained, to undertake the task. In this human and humane work is found much of the best hope of Christianity. And this hope will increase in proportion as the church can be enlarged to the kingdom of God ; that is, to that comprehensiveness which includes all that Christ put into that kingdom, and which makes the mis- sion of the church all the work that Christ per- formed for humanity. This opens a remarkable sphere for the church as a human and divine, a bodih^ and a spiritual, an earthly and a heavenly institution. This unites into an organism what has been violently sepa- rated. The earthly and physical conditions of re- ligious culture have been too much neglected ; now the worldly environment is emphasized, some- times at the expense of the spiritual environment. The church cannot longer afford to be indifferent to any suffering or need which enlisted the sym- pathies and efforts of Christ. Just because the THE CHURCH AND SOCIALISM. 301 church is so spiritual, it cannot afford to treat with indifference any thing that pertains to humanity. We live in an era with the most urgent demands for all kinds of institutions to help the needy. The needs themselves must be studied, and then, the best adaptations to them must be sought. In- dustrial, political, sanitary concerns lie near the heart of the true church ; but it cannot domineer in spheres where it is not a specialist. Religion has entered the great organism of this world, and this makes the health of the entire organism an essential condition of its own health. As religion is to affect the entire organism, so in turn it is affected by all pertaining to the organism. And its work in and upon the organism must be nat- ural, according to psychological laws, and through the human adaptations of the divine. Instead of asking what can be done by the church in this great sphere in this kingdom of God according to the Gospel idea, we are rather im- pelled to ask what cannot be done. The existing institutions and agencies for the relief of humanity can be increased in efficiency, in numbers, and in kind. Only the feeblest germs of the vast possi- bilities in this respect have appeared. The relief of existing suffering is itself a task of overwhelm- ing magnitude. No suffering that Christianity can relieve should be tolerated in the world. That the present misery is possible in Christian lands, and especially in Christian cities, is amazing. It is one 302 THE AGE AND THE CHURCH. of the most effective argtiments against the genu- ineness of the Christian spirit in the church. And yet this relief of existing suffering is but a fraction of the great work now requiring especial attention. So far as possible the causes of suffering should be removed. This involves the problems of pov- erty and crime, all that pertains to that awful realm in which sin and misery reign. Cure and prevention — what a mission ! And prevention is the most certain cure. While the church cooperates with all the helpful factors of society in order to meet the demands made by socialism, its peculiar mission leads it to lay the greatest stress on character. So long as it does not succeed in making that moral and spiritual, its chief aim is not accomplished. All is valuable in proportion as it can be used to form a good char- acter. In order that it may accomplish this diffi- cult task, it must be a positive power, must use positive agencies, and deposit positive leaven. Mere opposition may be strong enough to produce death, but too weak to create life. Mere attacks are not regenerative forces. Evil culture must be overcome by stronger good culture ; false educa- tion, by a more powerful true education ; earthly pleasures of a destructive character, by a refining, elevating pleasure, with positive, upbuilding ele- ments ; haunts of vice, and dens of iniquity, and the hells of drunkenness and debauchery, must be conquered by positive, helpful, attractive insti- THE CHURCH AND SOCIALISM. 308 tutions, with agencies the most effective in respect to what is human and divine ; wherever there is death it must be overcome by the best and the most vigorous life. All this involves an awa,kening of which only- faint signs are now seen in the church. But the sleep has been disturbed and the beginning of life is evident. The wonderful awakening of Christian students of the times is apt to be contagious. How Christian inquiries into social problems are inter- esting students in Germany, England, and Amer- ica ! This must bear fruit. And yet there are amazing facts which we almost fear to mention ; they are too humiliating. In many cases it is the church which seems least concerned about the de- mands made by socialism. Its apathy is inter- preted by many outsiders as an evidence that its day is past. With pain we notice that students of the relief of suffering are drawn less, in their in- quiries, to the institutions of the church than to ethical societies, and other secular or merely moral organizations in behalf of the poor. Indeed, among earnest Christians themselves there is de- spair respecting the willingness of the church to undertake the work vigorously, and they look to means outside of the church for the undertaking. Not a few look with more hope to the Salvation Army than to the church itself. Those alive in the church are held back by the unburied dead. Dead weights clog the wheels of 304 THE AGE AND THE CHURCH. progress. vSome lose their souls in dead issues, and cannot get to the life of the Gospel of Christ. There are well meaning ones who would be will- ing to live in the present and move forward into the future, provided the}^ could drag along the lost past. Unread creeds, unbelieved dogmas, mechan- ical forms, lying names, antiquated phraseology, hypocritical cant, an apostolical succession Vv'ithout the apostolic spirit, hierarchical pretensions of a clerical Pharisaism, a sacramentalism which puts the symbols of grace for grace, and rites which have body without soul, cannot do the v/ork re- quired. Those attached to such things maybe the hardest to regenerate. He who feels the demands of the crisis may have to sever himself from them, or at least leave them behind. Resolutely the living must forsake the graveyards and go to liv- ing fields ; otherwise they are doomed to death and burial. If those who are alive to the require- ments of the temple of the living God will do their duty, the ghosts of the past, which haunt the present, will prove to be vanishing shadows. With the best efforts of the church directed to the best ends, much, very much will be done to relieve suffering and to change society. The so- cial needs will not all be met, the social problems will not all be solved, and social agitations will not cease. The subject will last as long as humanity. But the church can do a wonderful work in the crisis, a work now not done at all, or but very im- THE CHURCH AND SOCIALISM. 805 perfectly ; and the church may be the most effi- cient agency for the blCvSsing of the laborers, for the improvement of society, and for the preser- vation and advancement of the threatened civiliz- ing factors. The resort to repressive measures is futile and may be wicked. If it is in any measure true that the church has any heart for laborers only because socialism threatens the very existence of the church, it is surely time to wipe out the disgrace. The inherent love of Christians, like that of Christ, ought to be the impulse of the Christian heart to seek the needy. If socialism could be overthrown to-day, it would be the most urgent duty of believ- ers to their fellowmen to arouse in the most neg- lected and most oppressed the consciousness of their personality and their rights. Were the labor- ers to sink into apathy again, Christians ought to give them the Gospel of aspiration, of divine and human sympathy and helpfulness, of equality and of freedom. Surely, when the best thought of philosophy and secular scholarship is won by the justice in the socialistic demands, the church can not desire to crush socialism by trampling on all that is noble in the humblest members of the human family. It is time for all Christians to ad- mit that the aspiring elements in socialism can be destroyed only by the destruction of the culture and Christianity of the day. which have affected the masses as great uplifting but sadly misunder- stood powers. 20 306 THE AGE AND THE CHURCH. In certain quarters, great hopes have been cen- tered on the Papal Encyclical on the Labor Prob- lem. Repeated announcements respecting it had excited expectation ; and it was thought that with the aid of eminent prelates in different countries, and of the vast ability in its orders and priests all over the world, the utterances of Rome on this theme would be a concentration of the highest wisdom, an inspiration to the most exalted con- duct, and a prophetic outlook into the future. The Encyclical was issued May 17, 1891. Its contents are a significant revelation, indeed, but most of all significant of the inability of ultramontanism to cope with the social problems. It is worthy of note that to the state is given an important place in the solution of the social questions, and it is not treated as a mere servant of the church. The time for this subordination is evidently past. The supremacy for meeting the demands made by socialism is, of course, claimed by the pope for Roman Catholicism — a claim of which men are suspicious until they see some results to justify it. The document teems with platitudes and truisms ; they have been reiterated until they have lost their effect on the minds of men. It is not so serious a charge that it contains nothing new ; but it is most damaging that it is not even on the summit of the actual attainments on the question. The discus- sions of the subject in Germany, and also in other lands, reveal a deeper insight into the problem THE CHURCH AND SOCIALISM. 307 and better measures for its solution than the Encyclical. The Bull is proof that that church is behind the times on the subject. This leaves but one hope respecting the power of the church in the socialistic agitations : that hope is in Protestantism. Pastors who have families, and are an integral part of the people, can evidently understand the social problems better than prelates whose element is traditionalism, and whose contact with the people lacks vital elements of the deepest interests and of personal concern for future generations. Roman Catholicism cannot transfer men back into the past, the proper sphere of that church, and it can not get out of itself sufficiently to get into the heart of the people. ProtestantLsm is essentially per- sonal, and emphasizes the person and personal concerns. Protestantism can go boldly forward into the future ; it can get the hearts of the people, if it understands and performs its mission. This throws an overwhelming responsibility on Prot- estant Christians. The call is unmistakable : it is their mission to put themselves at the head of the movements to meet the just claims of socialism, and to overthrow the false ones. Protestantism ought now to become what the papacy has hereto- fore claimed to be — the best friend of the needy. Succeeding in this, it will reveal a power and gain an influence never before attained ; it will mani- fest the Christian realism now required, and will make actual the scriptural principles it professes to embody. 308 THE AGE AND THE CHURCH. Only in a very condensed form can some idea be given here of the specific work that may justly be expected of the church with regard to the demands of socialism. I. The first and greatest work of the church is within its own borders. Self-examination, repent- ance, forgiveness, a new spirit and a new life, are the conditions for meeting the social crisis. It is an imperative demand that the church in its own character meet the requirement of the Gospel ; that it first become the good it would do, and that it make itself what it would make others. The tree must be good, if its fruit is to be good. The church as it now is cannot do the required work ; it must first be saved before it can save socialism; it must itself be quickened, before it can give life to the dead. In proportion as the church itself is animated by the spirit of Christ will it be prepared to study and appreciate socialism, to enter sympa- thetically into the condition of the poor, and to work efficiently for the spiritualization of the masses. So long as the condition of the church itself is the despair of its most earnest members, there is no hope. A deep and honest consciousness of its own state is absolutely necessary. It must itself pass through a crisis before it can master socialism. 2. This condition being complied with, the church must study socialism thoroughly, impar- tially, with the loving, sympathetic heart of Christ. THE CHURCH AND SOCIALISM. 309 The lamentable ignorance respecting social prob- lems, an ignorance which is astounding and a deep disgrace, must cease. The depth of the problem must be fathomed and its far-reaching influence must be traced, in order that the present superfi- cial treatment in the pulpit and in journals may yield to thorough and hopeful discussion. The problem so fascinating to philosophers and philan- thropists will be found full of absorbing interest by the Christian thinker. It is the problem of the present and of the future, of the individual and of society, of the church, the state, and of the world. Socialism is not a spectre, but a terrible and a growing reality ; and it requires realistic, not vis- ionary study. Profitable as fascinating is the theme. The church is not prepared to appreciate the Christian possibilities in socialism, and there- fore it is so slow to seize the wonderful opportu- nities offered. It is a privilege to live in the present social crisis, since there is so much to be done, and because there are great prophecies of good which seem on the verge of fulfilment. Be- sides the external reasons for the study, it is also required by the Christian's love of the truth, by his humanity, by his relation to the neighbor as revealed in the parable of the Good Samaritan, and by the spirit of that Lord whose follower he is. 3. Understanding itself and the situation, the church must study and master the sociological teachings of the New Testament. The rich soci- ology of that book is now largely ignored by the 310 THE AGE AND THE CHURCH. pulpit and the pew. A merely legal morality and a low social standard now prevail, where we have a right to expect conformity to Christ. The New Testament respects the rights of property ; but its strongest emphasis is on the duty of property. The possession is not absolute, the use is not uncondi- tional ; the real owner is the Lord, and Christians are His stewards. All selfish hoarding or use is thus excluded. Earthly possessions are means, not ends ; they are held under God, to be used in Christ's spirit, with His love as the inspiration in the use, with His works as the model. The cov- etous and the miser are fools in God's sight. From the prevalent human estimate of men the church must turn to God's estimate. Jesus reversed the heathen view, so that in God's kingdom, not he that is served most, but he that serves most, is the greatest. Property, intellect, position, influence, mean privilege and advantage ; but privilege and advantage mean responsibility and duty and serv- ice. Superiority of any kind is opportunity to help the inferior. " But whoso hath this world's good, and seeth his brother have need, and shutteth up his bowels of compassion from him, how dwelleth the love of God in him ? " 4. Whatever ecclesiastical reform or revolution may be required, the church must literally _aiid uncompromisingly become the embodiment of the sociological principles of the New Testament. It must fully preach and honestly practice them. This demand is for Christians as imperative and THE CHURCH AND SOCIALISM. 311 ahsoliite as it is self-evident, and it must be com- plied with or the church ceases to be Christian. Christ drove the buyers and sellers out of the tem- ple ; if now they have turned around and have driven Him out, the temple is no longer Christ's. The insanity of preaching at people who do not hear the sermon, and of denouncing evils not reached by the denunciation, while the individuals and evils within reach are ignored, must be cured. The worth of the soul must be treated as Christ did ; the personality must be exalted above things, as is done throughout the Gospel ; all that a man has must be recognized as included in the decla- ration, that the earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof ; in the church, as before God and under the Gospel, meii rniist be esteemed according to character, not according to clothes and houses and .money and place ; and the socialistic epistle of James must be read and preached and practised. The church of Christ cannot but be equally just to the rich and the poor ; and for that reason it can- not be what some have claimed it has become, "the lackey of the rich ;" and it can never become a palace in which the rich man fares sumptuously and is preached into Abraham's bosom, while Laz- arus is made the companion of dogs and the recip- ient of waste crumbs on earth, and then consigned to still greater torment in the life to come. Equal justice to all in Christ's sense means love and sym- pathy and help for all, whether they be rich or 812 THE AGE AND THE CHURCH. poor. The nearest neighbor to the church is the most needy one. 5. The realistic age demands of the church a Christian realism. Reality or nothing has become the watchword. The church, if real, is Christian love in action. Not the shallow cry, " Life without doctrine," is now the herald of salvation ; but the doctrine which becomes spirit and life is urgently needed. It requires no proof that the church which cannot meet the needs of the times is not the church for the times ; it is doomed to perish. The worship of God in temples made with hands is not more glorious than the worship of God by so blessing men that they become temples of the Holy Spirit. In a genuine, real Christianity, Christ's gospel to the poor, the sick, the distressed, is practised. It seem incredible that with Christ's example before them Christian communities are still possible in which the causes of suffering are not investigated, and their removal, as well as that of suffering itself, is not absorbing the neglected energies of the church. Much of the world might be transformed, if Christians were to devote to this object the time now wasted in social vanities and in selfish gratification. 6. What the attitude of the church shall be to the laboring classes can best be determined, when their attitude to the church is understood. The attitade must be such as to overcome their preju- dices and hostility, if it is to bring them back to the church. In different countries their alienation THE CHURCH AND SOCIALISM. 313 from the church is so complete that many Chris- tians despair of regaining them. Yet that alien- ation is growing. The youth, the families, the people, en masse, are trained in atheistic principles, for materialistic aims, with a deep aversion to re- ligion, and with an intense hatred toward the church as their enemy. There are regions where nearly every workshop is an atheistic and materi- alistic training school for the young. They are taught that the church favors the rich and despises the poor, and that therefore it should be destroyed. All this must be known in order to be overcome. 7. The thorough study of the subject will lead to the best means to win the laborers. The social differences in various localities make the require- ments different. Much would be gained, if our colleges and theological seminaries prepared their vStudents for an intelligent treatment of socialism. Especially important is it that the church put the laborers on an equal footing with the rich in the church. Rented pews and magnificent display in dress, which drive away the poor, must not be esteemed above the souls which Christ yearns to save. Every believer with a particle of the spirit of Christ must blush w4th shame to hear of fash- ionable and aristocratic churches. Perhaps they are the basest crime in the name of Christ. The pastors who foster such institutions already bear the seal of condemnation, and can be left to the curse they heap upon themselves. How low the church has in some cases sunk, may be learned 314 THE AGE AND THE CHURCH. from the fact that men speak of it as nothing but a social or aristocratic "club." Many churches in the cities are said virtually to exclude the poor. i And such institutions bear the name of Christ ! 1 Wealth is the standard according to which the in- ' crease of membership is sought. To their infinite disgrace, even preachers are said to have their price, and to be prized according to their money value. It is declared that frequently the pastors do not have their churches, but the churches have their pastors for so and so many thousands ; and sometimes a nabob has both the pastor and the church. And yet men wonder that socialists have lost respect for the church ! The poorest churches deserve the best pastors, and must have them, if the masses are to be brought back to the house of God. And where there are rich and poor, they must be brought together as brethren in the same church. If they cannot worship together in Prot- estant churches, as they do in the Catholic, then there is no alternative but that the masses, so far as still religious, will be won by Catholicism ; and the Catholic church will inevitably become the church of the future. 8. Christian associations should be formed in which the rich and the poor, capitalists and labor- ers meet on brotherly terms, learn to know one another, and cultivate Christian friendship. In that way their lamentable ignorance of one an- other, and the class-hatred now so common and so dangerous, might be overcome. The rich will THE CHURCH AND SOCIALISM. 315 then learn that the poor brother has much that is noble and worthy of the best culture ; and the laborer will learn that the capitalist may be a man of heart, earnest in promoting the best interests of his fellow men, and truly actuated by the spirit of the Master. If they meet as brothers, the laborer may learn that the capitalist is a harder laborer than he himself, and that labor without capital means ruin ; while the capitalist may learn what claims the laborer has on him, and that he owes his workmen more than mere wages. Shops and factories are now arranged on selfish, monetary principles, as if employers had greed without con- science, and the laborers hands but no souls. By bringing together capitalists and laborers on a Christian basis, the former will learn that God has given him the rarest opportunity to bless and exalt the mind and heart of the men he employs and of their families. Some emplo3^ers seize this oppor- tunity, and the effect is most encouraging. By making their position and means intellectual, ethi- cal and spiritual light, they have illuminated those peculiarly intrusted to them and most of all need- ing illumination. Employer and employee must get nearer each other as men. This saying is attributed to Cavour : " There is but one way of meeting socialism : the highest classes must de- vote themselves to the welfare of the lower classes ; otherwise internal war is inevitable." In many cases the capitalists are the best friends of the laborers : while laborers themselves often are their 316 THE AGE AND THE CHURCH. own worst enemies, treating one another with a heartless selfishness and with disgusting brutality. 9. When socialism first appeared as a horrible monster threatening to devour the church, the state, culture, and society itself, the attention of Christians was concentrated mainly on the evils of socialism. They have had time to take a more general view of the situation ; and is is now ad.- mitted that atheistic socialism has learned inany of its lessons in materialism, in selfishness, and in pleasure, from the wealthy and the educated. Christians are therefore beginning to wonder, whether it is not the cultured and favored classes which first of all need preaching, morality, and spirituality. Men are being startled when they see how completely much of the education of the day lacks even the ethical, to say nothing of the spiritual, element. Has any body discovered that the scholarship of the day is the Good Samaritan, who pours oil and wine into the wounds of the man that falls among thieves, puts him on his beast, takes him to an inn, and relieves his sufferings ? It is broadly hinted that society furnishes the thieves, that scholarship is the Levite, wealth the priest, and that the robbed and bleeding man is still waiting for the Good Samaritan. Such reflec- tions show that the greatest reformatory work of the church is probably required at the top, among the very persons who were the first in Christ's day and yet were the last, of whom most is expected THE CHURCH AND SOCIALISM. 317 and least realized, who should be the greatest ser- vants of society but arrogate to themselves the place of lords, who need grace the most and yet are most difficult to reach. It will be a most hope- ful sign of the best progress when the aristocratic, wealthy, and scholarly elements of society can be truly leavened with the Gospel. In very many cases, the first duty of the church is to them. Let Matthew xxiii and James ii be laid on their hearts, lo. Many Christians, who have been awakened to the social situation and to their duty, are bewil- dered by the demands and know not what to do. Feverish and frantic efforts, as if born of despair, are made in some regions in order to avert the awful devastations threatened by atheistic social- ism. Numerous discussions in Protestant con- gresses and Catholic assemblies, and even those of the pope with the aid of his mighty hierarchy, fail to touch the heart of the matter. Much done for relieving and improving the suffering masses is at best but temporary ; it is an expedient, not a cure. Twigs are cut off, but others grow more numer- ously and more luxuriantly in their place. A rad- ical cure demands the ax at the root of the evil. This root is found in the fact already stated, that society now consists of classes, whereas Christ and His apostles make it an organism of members. Christ teaches brotherly love ; this implies that society consists of actual brothers. Paul says, ''And whether one member suffer, all the mem- 318 THE AGE AND THE CHURCH, bers suffer with it ; or one member be honored, all the members rejoice with it." He also says, " Now are they many members, yet but one body." From social action we must proceed to social being, if we would get at the essence. Not in temporary relief is the hope, but in the transformation of society, so as to make it an actual family, a real body in which all are dependent and all cooper- , ative. The classes with their class-interests must ^ be changed into members. Capitalists and labor- ers are brothers, not rivals or enemies ; mistress and maid are sisters. The feet cannot do without the head, nor the head without the feet ; the heart needs the hands, and the hands need the heart. I Until this rational and scriptural view of society / as a living organism prevails, socialistic agitations '• and dangers must continue. All socialistic move- ments are valuable now in proportion as they help to make society a healthy body with cooperative members. If a member becomes useless, it dies or is cut off. If the social body has idle, worthless, injurious substances, the system must be purged. From the healthy body all the efforts in behalf of the members of the body must proceed. It is this reformation of society so as to make it an actual organism of members which is so difficult, which is the imperative demand, and for the accomplish- ment of which the church can be most efficient Many other things are required of the church in order to meet its present responsibility ; but they THE CHURCH AND SOCIALISM. 319 cannot be mentioned in detail. The earnest Chris- tian who understands the situation will easily dis- cover them. Every Christian should have an especial mission in the great work, and for his mission he should be trained by the church to the highest wisdom and the best skill. The young re- quire particular attention ; most of all the children of the rich, with their immense opportunities and grand responsibilities. Each person is to be trained with a view to the greatest perfection of individuality and to the best membership in the social organism. Individuals must be wTought upon ; only through individuals can humanity be affected. Leading Christian personalities are in demand, to be moral and spiritual leaders in the social crisis. They are not all godless who wonder, whether in many places the church is not so utterly devoid of the spirit of Christ as not to be worth saving. Some institutions, called churches, seem beyond hope of redemption and will no doubt be de- stroyed ; but it is evidently not the true church of Jesus Christ which is doomed to destruction. There is something terrible in the fact that we are obliged to hear atheistic socialists declare, that if the spirit of Christ prevailed in society socialism would not exist ; and it is dreadful to see them despise the church, because they claim that it has completely abandoned His love and His gospel for the poor. They are unjust to the church. But a 320 THE AGE AND THE CHURCH. false rumor believed is as effective as a true report. A generation of able and devout young men is pressing to the front, determined, b}^ God's help, that the existing condition shall be changed. Aged servants of God are also with them. These earnest, resolute men hear the ominous roar of the cataract, and they vow that they will go against the current at any cost, rather than continue the down- ward course to destruction. They speak freely of abandoning to inevitable ruin the churches which cannot be redeemed from their haughty worldliness, and of consecrating their own lives to work which Christ can approve and God pronounce blessed. With abhorrence they speak of churches from which they have come, in which the god of this world is worshiped with all the luxury of ori- ental heathenism, and with all the contempt of the poor and of labor which marks the lord of slaves in the east. The beginning of the end has come ; the pastors and churches which throw disgrace on the cause of Christ by despising the poor and pro- moting the hatred of class-distinctions, will be buried imder the curses of men, if they escape the wrath of God. Prophecies of a new era abound. But that era is no longer a matter of prophecy ; it is already here. The signs of the times need but be rightly interpreted to prove that we are already in a new world. But how many in the church discern the signs of the times ? THE O UTLOOK. 331 CHAPTER X. The Outlook. Not a prophecy is to be ventured, only a calm survey of the prospect. As the present reality is the basis on which we work and the soil from which the future must spring, so we abide with this present in taking our survey. Eager, restless, progressive minds are apt to discover crises in whatever age they live. They project their own spirit into their surroundings, and take for granted that what they think ought to be will come to pass. Thus we find that in past ages, in which we see no great onward movement, men speak seriously of the crises about them. It is indeed likely that at all times changes take place which seem to be of moment ; and yet unless they are unusual and promotive of mighty transfor- mations, we have no right to speak of them as crises. While some see crises where there are none, many more do not see them when they really come. This has been the case at all times when great decisions were made. No matter how mighty the changes, the way to them is always 2X 322 THE AGE AND THE CHURCH. somehow mediated, and minds may be impercep- tibly prepared for them. There are no leaps in history. Besides, much of the old continues, for a while at least, and those who still cling to it may not be aware of the vast transformations around them. It is a peculiarity of certain minds to rec- ognize no changes, simply because they themselves have undergone no change. These considerations lead us to weigh the con- dition of the age carefully before we affirm or deny that a crisis has come, that events are hasten- ing toward an epoch when a new start shall be taken in the cause of human development. Yet the careful student of the times can hardly miss the right interpretation. The conviction that im- portant changes are imminent is not confined to a few minds ; it has become general. Voices to this effect are heard from all quarters, from men in different situations and of the most varied degrees of culture. This is natural, because transforma- tions are actually and rapidly proceeding before the eyes of men, and they seem to be but the prep- aration for still greater ones. The unmistakable signs of a crisis are upon us — a general dissatis- faction with the existing state of things ; the con- viction that it is not able to meet actual demands, and therefore cannot last ; the doubt, hesitation, uncertainty, unrest, longing, and expectancy, so common in eras preparing for new creations ; and the numerous efforts at reforms and revolutions. THE OUTLOOK. 323 the proposed substitutes for the old, and the reme- dies for prevalent ills. Not only are these signs general, they are also found in various depart- ments — in art and literature, in philosophy and theology, in religion and in social life. All this is clear to one who observes his own mind and studies the psychology of the times, who fathoms the thought of the day, studies the press, watches gov- ernments and politics, and puts his finger on the social pulse. It is characteristic of such times that prophecies abound, and yet no one knows what is to come. Hope and fear alternate, as day and night, or blend, as light and darkness in the twilight. Some are in a kind of paralysis, owing to the overwhelm- ing greatness of the demand, and to the uncer- tainty, in which they know not what to do. Other minds are marvelously stimulated, exalted by a great inspiration to put forth their utmost ener- gies to meet the demands of the hour. Not less are such times burdened with difficulties than they are times of opportunity, of possibility, of privilege, and of realization. The age is moving through the irresistible logic of events. Hence we say that some things are in the air or in the age. By opposing them they are but strengthened and their reserved forces brought into most vigorous exercise. Catastrophes are has- tened by efforts to prevent them. There are fires to which water is oil. Resistlessly, as by fate, the 324 THE AGE AND THE CHURCH. minds seem to be carried along a certain course. The ages have passions which, like storms, can be quieted only when their fury is spent. We must reckon with the inevitable. The man who attempts to uphold a falling building may not support the structure but be buried under its ruins. Just when work is most needed, it may be most difficult to know what to do. Certain principles are, however, beyond question, and enduring work will result from following their guidance. What is partial cannot satisfy ; what is inefficient cannot last ; error is doomed to exposure ; the truth must conquer ; the mind can rest finally only in what fills all its capacities and meets all its needs.. There is much anxiety that is worse than useless ; it wears out the anxious, but does not accomplish what they desire. A notion or object most devot- edly cherished may be doomed in spite of all our effort and sacrifice. Christ may be crucified, and yet the old order not preserved and the entrance of the new not prevented. The new that comes in with a flood may speedily be followed by the ebb. Yet while it lasts, that flood is likely to carry all before it. Passion rushes furiously on when reason should hold the reins. Men may slaughter their fellows, until destruction has been so cultivated that for its own sake it be- comes a pleasure. So men may form a habit of destroying the old, just as others form a habit of clinging to the old and rejecting the new. That THE OUTLOOK. 325 which has lasted for ages may be the very foun- dation needed when all seems to be tottering ; yet the fact that it has lasted for ages affords no proof that it will last forever. Whether the inclination of men leads them to be conservative or liberal, it is well to remember that neither conservatism nor liberalism decides any thing. The truth alone is absolute, and therefore rises above party consid- erations ; it is eternal, and therefore neither new nor old. It is the only foundation on which the true man is willing to work. Labor on the basis of objective truth, not on subjective opinions merely, is a sowing for eternity, Few convictions are more important than that true progress con- sists in conserving the old as far as true, and equally adopting the new so far as true, and reject- ing both in the old and the new whatever may be false. Mercilessly the living age will sweep past those who cling to an unadapted or unsatisfying past. It may be best to leave them alone ; effort can be more profitably spent otherwise than in opposing them. If you succeed in momentarily lifting cer- tain men out of their cherished ruts, they will immediately fall back again. " Let the dead bury their dead : but go thou and preach the kingdom of God." That the work to be done is positive, that negatives are for the sake of positives, that error is to be overcome by the truth, the evil by the good, has been sufficiently emphasized in the 326 THE AGE AND THE CHURCH, preceding pages — if, indeed, it can be sufficiently emphasized at a time when the critical spirit is dominant, and when negations become a mania. Criticism the most thorough for the sake of posi- tions the most firm, is a good rule. That amid the severest criticism and most destructive negations the best work can be performed with the utmost confidence, is no question to him who believes in God, in religion, and in truth. He has the assur- ance that all conflict must eventually promote man's highest interests, of which interests he may himself become aware only through the conflict. The Christian will not seek to outrun providence, but will be studious to follow its guidance. Our times are similar to those in which the prophets came with important messages ; and now men of a prophetic spirit are in demand, listening to God rather than men, wondrously adapted to their times and anxious to apply God's truth to them, leaders and yet led, very bold and yet very humble. Efforts at reform are likely to abound at such times, and it may be difficult to distinguish between the true and the false. There is need for patient wait- ing and for a careful discerning of the spirits. False reformers, like false Messiahs, may destroy their followers. Self-constituted reformers differ essentially from such as are carried along by a mighty divine impulse to do God's will. These may be least conscious of any special merit, not even thinking that they are reformers, but wholly THE O UTLOOK. 327 absorbed by some great truth or great plan. Boasting is never heard from their lips, they sim- ply express the ideas of which they are an embod- iment, and which burn for utterance. The glory of a reformer in our age is not likely to be the sol- itary effulgence of an individual ; it belongs rather to the truth that works in many, and of which a few are the clearest and best representatives. Yet personal work is peculiarly in demand. What churches and associations do is after all but the work of individuals, not indeed as isolated, but in an organized capacit)^ To this personal work we look for the solution of many of the problems of the day. The church, whatever its divine and spir- itual factors, aside from the members is nothing tangible and can do nothing ; the members of the church can do everything. Neither individualism nor socialism is the hope of the age ; but an indi- vidualism that exists for society, and a socialism that exists for the individual. The personality is the great thing ; but not in itself, not selfish or egotistic, but as finding its perfection in the social organism which it helps to constitute and on which it depends. From individuals we expect the ini- tiative in all great undertakings. Around the individuals the associations must form, from indi- viduals the impulses must proceed which shall shape the coming events. Revisions are undoubtedly necessary. What sprang into being in the full power of life and 328 THE AGE AND THE CHURCH. beauty and adaptation, is in danger of becoming a lifeless scheme, an empty form, a mechanical tra- dition, as it passes down to other ages. What an age elaborates for itself develops that age, is an expression of itself, is a peculiar embodiment of its life, and also peculiarly adapted to its needs. Thus the creator lives, grows, and acts in the cre- ations. But what an age receives merely as a transmission from former times is not organically wrought into the age, and does not develop into itself and for itself the substantial energy of the age. Dogmas, creeds, associations, liturgies, modes of government, valuable in themselves, full of life and energy at their creation, are apt to lose their original freshness as handed down to later gener- ations. It is the same difference as between a thought which the mind works out for itself, and one which it learns from an( ther. I become the thought I work out ; while the thought I learn from another may lie superficially on the memory. The common tendency to de;.;eneracy with age is due largely to subjective concations. An age will lose its vital force, if everything is done for it by the past ; if it does nothing for itself, it will not develop itself. The most hopeless students are those who have everything done for them, so that they themselves need do nothing. There is no self -growth where there is no self -energy. Here we have a law of first importance for our age. Much that is valuable in itself may be inop- THE O UTLOOK. 329 erative, because it is a transmission instead of an elaboration. It must be earned in order to be possessed, as an eminent poet has said. It must be a creation in order to have creative power. Doctrines of fundamental significance are lifeless because doctrines of past ages, but not of our age. They must be mastered, must be worked out de novo again, in order to enter the fibres of the age. Works on dogmatics are of supreme value, if they help to construct scriptural doctrines from Scrip- ture ; but as a substitute for Scripture they are a hindrance. Our theological seminaries need re- vision. Too often they finish for the student what never can be finished on earth ; they do for the student what he must be taught to do for himself ; they let the past think for him, instead of teaching him to think ; they give him learning, when he needs power ; they adapt him to theological sys- tems, when he ought to learn to adapt all systems to the needs of the times. Few psychological facts are better established than the fact that mental elaboration is the condition of the greatest mental energy. This law is constantly violated by the emphasis placed in our schools on objective truth to be learned, rather than on the subjective unfold- ing of that truth by the mind itself. Hence sys- tems hover over men, instead of energizing within their souls. Dogmas become mechanical, not a life such as the mind and heart develop when the liv- ing truth is wrought, in a living way, into the 330 THE AGE AND THE CHURCH, mind by the mind itself. Only the truth which grows in a man and into which a man grows, is really his truth and a living power. Theological training — not mere teaching — as a living method, making all truth an element of life and for life, is promotive of freshness and power. The mind must be fresh if truth is to be fresh. The supreme end in training is inner development, so that the student, when he enters life, may have larger mind, greater vigor, and more freshness, than when he began his course. There ought to be a revision of methods of study, in order to accomplish this. When we inquire into the sub- jects to be studied, we are bewildered by their number. Even now it is impossible to make thor- ough work of all the disciplines crowded into a few years. At best the theological school can only prepare the student for a life of study. If well grounded in philosophy, the student will have the conditions for a deep and broad survey in the vari- ous departments of thought. And, then, especial attention should be given to the character of the age, so that the student may know with what fac- tors he is to deal during life. Scripture and church history are now the leading theological disciplines. The one is the seed of the spiritual life, the other is the growth of this seed throughout the Christian ages. The age is culti- vating history and biography ; it finds in them the evidence of the realism it seeks. The church has THE O UTLOOK. 331 in its own history and in Christian biography the best evidence of the power and reality of Chris- tianity. Here is an element of Christian realism which can be far more effectively used than is now the case. The people ought to be made partakers of the wealth buried in Christian history and biog- raphy. This mine, if properly worked, would give richness, freshness, and power to the pulpit \ it would make Sunday school and church libraries more solid and more valuable ; it would give the Christian home the most entertaining and most instructive literature ; and it would furnish the most popular and most effective apologetics. Were the churches better instructed in ecclesiastical his- tory, by lectures, sermons, journals, and books^ many one-sided views now prevalent might be overcome. The eminent church historian Hase affirms : " We are approaching a time when church history will be regarded as a part of gen- eral culture." Those who help to fulfill this prophecy are likely to be among the most efficient Christian benefactors of the age. Everywhere earnest minds are being aroused to the greatest energy to furnish the thoughts, the organizations, the adaptations now required. It is hardly safe to hazard an opinion respecting the new creations, that may be expected from the church in its efforts to meet the demands of the times. These creations must spring from the re- ligious life of the church, a life in which ethics 332 THE AGE AND THE CHURCH. and intellect are factors, but for which life they cannot be substitutes. Inner deepening and quick- ening are the conditions for new outer growth. A great point has been gained in that the conviction has become general, that as now constituted the church cannot leaven the age. How significant that much of the best Christian work of the age is done by individual effort, or by associations not immediately connected with the church ! Not only is the organized church not the sole Christian organism on earth, but it is itself composed of too many separate fragments to present the totality of an organic life. Not only are the churches without visible bonds that unite them, but the divine serv- ice of God in an individual church is often divorced from the divine service of man. The Christian life of a church is not a unit, not a spiritual organ- ism ; it is not a vitality felt in the church building on Sunday and in the family and the world during the week. The church is not light and not salt enough. Here is a grand problem : what creative energy can be developed by the contact of the spiritual life with the age ? As Christ and the dis- ciples are a perpetual model for the church, so in our day the family is in many respects a model for the organism of the church. And surely there is need, too, of determining more clearly the organic relation of the church to intellect and culture, to amusements and recreations, to politics and social- ism, and to all that pertains to the needs, the sufferings, and the welfare of the people. THE OUTLOOK. 333 Whatever may come that is new, it ought to be born, not of a desire for novelty, but from the necessity of the case, from the reason in things. And how can we doubt that the times will create what is especially adapted to its needs ? It is one of the firmest convictions of the Christian that God will awaken the men and bestow the gifts especially needed. Peculiar demands will call forth peculiar supplies. It is in religious crises that spiritual genius appears, with an intuitive insight into the age, feeling more deeply and more keenly than others the pangs of the generation, seeing more clearly what is required, and endowed with peculiar wisdom and skill in adapting divine truth to human needs. The new thing may be but the revival of some old but neglected truth or method. Buried truth of Scripture may be resurrected. Some idea long cherished may be put in a new light, so as to reveal new possibilities and new beauties. Perhaps ideas long held apart are brought together, and the new relation is also a new revelation. Often the new is in the old ; indeed, we may say that it is always there. How could we get to the new, unless in and from the old there is some path to the new ? But the new is buried in the old, lies there implic- itly rather than explicitly, is a seed instead of the plant that grows from it. By simply introducing a new method of inquiry or work a new world may be the result. And the mightiest reformations or 334 THE AGE AND THE CHURCH, revolutions may spring from a change in the rela- tive prominence of thoughts. Thus a ruling thought is made subordinate, or a subordinate thought is made dominant, and as a consequence there is a total transformation in human affairs. The men for the time are therefore those who dis- cern its signs, who seize its divine thought, who put creative ideas in their proper place, suitably imite them, evolve the bud into the flower and the fruit, and give the method for their most perfect evolution, and for their best adaptation to the age Ideas are persons. The personality is but the sum of the ideas in a man. You may not be able to find the intellectual formula which expresses the sum of these ideas ; but the personality is this expression. Ideas obscure, unconscious, pressing upward into clear consciousness, now implicit, then explicit, with an inherent energy tending to pro- mote growth, sometimes in the form of feeling, sometimes bodied forth in action, sometimes a great intellectual system — ideas constitute the per- sonality. The man in whom the ideas of the age have become personal is the most complete expres- sion of the age. Be he artist, poet, philosopher, theologian, this is true. The personality in which the age has taken form, and in which God likewise dwells, is the religious personality for the times. Such a great personality is the hope of many who painfully feel the need of the times. Perhaps such a personality is most difficult in our day. It THE O UTLOOK. 335 seems to involve contradictory elements : the dis- traction of the times and the absorbing divine contemplation of the truest mysticism ; a profound knowledge of worldliness and a still more pro- found knowledge of divinity; the highest intel- lectuality and the most devout spirituality ; the deepest feeling and the iniensest action. Yet such a synthesis is essential. The thoughts which an analytic age has severed must be united again. There is dualism where the mind demands mon- ism ; there are classes where there should be members ; there is diversity whose unity must be found. In this work all earnest men are fellow- laborers ; each can do his part, though that may be but small. In the church especially, where all are brethren, all ought to cooperate in the name of Christ, but still more in His Spirit and with His love. Then the greatness of the result may justly be expected to be proportionate to the greatness of the crisis. We have found the demands, owing to their number and weight, oppressive. The trend of the age has much that induces pessimism. Taking, however, the entire age into account, the Chris- tian's attitude must be that of an optimistic pessi- mist. He fathoms the meaning of the sad facts in order to become their master. Reason for hope abounds. The long descent is followed by an ascent. The spurs to energy, the opportunities for workers, the inspiration of great result, were 336 THE AGE AND THE CHURCH. never surpassed. The very needs in society, in culture, in the masses, in the church, and in the school, are a mighty impulse to awaken creative energy and to inspire Christian genius. If there is no hope in conventions and assemblies, there is hope in consecrated, self-denying individuality and personality. The problems are not questions of majorities, but of Christ, of truth, of humanity. The right leaders, isolated and maligned at first, will eventually gain the pastors and the people. How readily efficient associations spring up in our churches ; how eager young men and young women are to work, if only the opportunities are given and the way is shown ! Thinking and work- ing, the development of the entire personality and the giving of the entire personality in the work — that is now the need. And the need will be met — met by men and women who care more for Christ and His truth than for existing inefficient forms ; who appreciate the age and appropriate its excellencies, but also see its defects and strive to overcome them ; who learn from all ages, in order to pass beyond the present into a richer and better future ; who prize both the material and the spir- itual, the empirical and the rational, the analytic and the synthetic, the realistic and the ideal ; who know that the world is not perfect but also know that men are apt to blame the existing order of things, when they themselves are to blame and need changing : who are not depressed by the de- THE OUTLOOK. 337 cay of the old which has become effete, but are cheered by the new and better truth and form that spring into being ; who feel the power of the crisis, but interpret it to mean a death that leads to a new life, and a transformation which must result in a creative epoch from which a new period of devel- opment shall date ; and whose trust in God inspires the greatest personal energy in producing the ad- aptation of the church to the needs of the times. 22 APPENDIX. THE STUDY OF THE AGE. 341 The Study of the Age. The age is a problem, and the energies of the age are concentrated on the solution of that prob- lem. Not that all men are consciously engaged in solving the mysteries of the times ; many are impelled by blind forces and follow dark instincts, not even aware of the existence of the problem in whose solution they are engaged. The majority move as a mass rather than as individuals, so that even their choices are products rather than initia- tives. They are a mystery to themselves, and therefore the age of which they are an embodi- ment is likewise a mystery to them. Only the very few, who are profoundly conscious of them- selves and of the times, work rationally for the solution of the riddles of their being and of the age. The tree is the solution of the problem con- cealed in the seed whence it springs ; and as un- consciously as the tree in solving its problem are many engaged in solving the problem of their age. The most evident things often escape our notice. They are too apparent to require any effort on our part, and therefore attention and thought are not concentrated on them. Some things are so clear that it is necessary to make a special effort to be- come conscious of their existence. Other objects are so common that our very familiarity makes us 343 APPENDIX. heedless of them. That is the case with much about us ; it does not impress us, because it is taken as a matter of course. Hence the common affairs of the age, the daily occurrences, and the self- evident things, are so apt to be ignored. And yet attention to them may be most fruitful of results. Even if insignificant in themselves, in their rela- tions they may be of greatest importance. Life is apt to become a mere routine, with a constant succession of familiar objects which are not contrasted with anything new or strange, and therefore lose their effect and are not placed in the right relation. The fish which swims about in a net does not know that it is caught. It cannot get into the great sea outside of its prison, and there- fore cannot compare its narrow limits with the sea itself. If it knew the difference, it would attempt to escape in order to be free. Narrowly limited lives might be enlarged by making them aware of the greatness of the age beyond their immediate environment. With real instead of imaginary free- dom there would come also an expansion of mind and heart, and an increase of power. The growth of men is largely a development in the appreciation of the reality about them, and of their relation to the totality of this reality. The study of the age means an enlargement of consciousness to the actualities and realities of the present. It exposes fancies as fancies, and reveals the truth as truth. This study makes the age our possession, so that we can apprehend it, use it, and intelligently influence it. This our age is the only one in all eternity in which we can live and act on earth. This one, only life is molded by the age and is to tell on the age. The age as energy, and THE STUDY OF THE AGE. 34S the only energy with which we have directly to do, thus assumes an importance great beyond esti- mation. Unless this energy is understood, it does not appear how wisdom, can be exercised in its use. If the times are not known, how can their truth be appropriated and their error avoided, how can their real interests be promoted and the false ten- dencies suppressed ? It goes without saying, that those who want really to live want to be in touch with the real age. It is natural for the intellect conscious of itself to seek a comprehension of the generation from which it receives all its light, and to which it gives all its energies. But there are still other reasons for making our times the object of profoundest inquiry. The problems and interests involved are the highest. We live in a period of marvelous activity, the like of which the world never before witnessed. This activity is no longer confined to a few individuals, but affects the masses, and is constantly assuming larger proportions. The agi- tations on the surface are but symptoms of the deep interests which absorb the minds and fill the hearts of men. Not only have many problems come down to the present on the stream of history, but the very effort to solve them has also thrust upon us new and deeper problems. In all great concerns the controversies have gravitated from details to principles ; and it is the ultimate ques- tions of thought and being which give the age its intellectual characteristics. Moving amid the most momentous themes, the intellect would commit a crime against itself to withdraw from their energy and inspiration and responsibilities. To the thoughtful mind these considerations 344 APPENDIX. ought to be manifest ; and a little reflection would add many other weighty reasons for an especial investigation of the character of our generation. Yet such is the importance of the study that we may well question whether any amount of study can lead to its deserved appreciation. If, for in- stance, we want to learn what the church ought to be and do in order to attain the greatest efficiency, we must fathom the meaning of the times and get an insight into the peculiar energy of the age. For Christians, therefore, the careful study of the existing reality has a practical aim whose signifi- cance is second to none. While the principles of Christianity must ever be the same, their application necessarily varies with the peculiar conditions and demands of the ages. In the striking adaptation of his teachings to men and circumstances, Jesus gives a lesson of wisdom to all generations of Christians ; and the apostle Paul, in becoming all things to all men, illustrated the adaptability of Christ's Gospel. Sys- tems of divinity aim to exhibit the unchangeable doctrinal and ethical elements of the Christian re- ligion ; but the history of Christianity shows that this religion also has variable elements, and that they are developed by the effort to meet the pe- culiar religious needs of the different countries and periods. Christianity thus reveals the plia- bility and adaptability of life, in distinction from the monotony of dead and sterile systems. It is unity, but the unity of a manifold diversity, as in the case of an organism. In an age teeming with religious crises there is not only a demand for bringing into action the spiritual forces held in reserve, but also for such a THE STUDY OF THE AGE. 345 wise use of them as will meet the peculiar emer- gencies. Perhaps Scripture has neglected seeds for which the soil is now ready and waiting ; it may have buds whose time for blooming into flowers and developing into fruit has come. Are there not prophecies in Christianity for whose ful- filment the fullness of time has arrived, and are there not possibilities which are now ready to be- come realities ? Such are questions which arise in view of the deep and urgent religious needs of the day ; and it is clear that the needs must be appre- ciated, if their supply is to be attempted. The church, so far as it is the embodiment of Christianity, is likewise the same in different peri- ods, and yet is ever changing. The same leaven is introduced into Judaism and heathenism, and yet it works differently because the meal differs. A form of organization peculiarly effective when first made, because adapted to the peculiar times, may afterwards become an old bottle which cannot hold the new wine of the new era. Many believe the church now on trial, the test being whether it has the ability to meet the demands made on it. This ability to meet the needs of the day is re- garded as the condition for the continued existence of the church. Not from enemies of the church but from its most devoted friends comes the proph- ecy, that the church of the future is the church which meets the actual needs of the times. If the days are evil, the need of redeeming the time, or purchasing from it by severest effort whatever good it may have, is all the more necessary. Those who cannot use and develop the good of the age so as to overcome its evil, will be overwhelmed and engulfed by the evil. 346 APPENDIX. How weighty in view of these things the ques- tion of Christ, " Can ye not discern the signs of the times?" Many believers work in the dark because they have failed to ponder that question seriously ; and through ignorance they injure the very cause they desire to promote. There has been a great awakening respecting the importance of understanding one's own age. In journals and in books, in meetings of associa- tions and in private circles, the subject is now fre- quently discussed. Suddenly men seem to have become aware that nothing is of greater signifi- cance to them than the forces acting about and upon them. By means of this awakening they have also become conscious of their ignorance on the subject, and the neglect of the study of the age amazes them. They are surprised that churches do not better prepare their members to grapple with the problems which agitate the times. It has become a common complaint that while preachers may understand their local church and denomi- nation and the general movements in Christendom, they do not make an especial study of the age out- side of the church, or of the elements of Chris- tianity which are especially adapted to meet the demands of the times. Much of their inefficiency is attributed to this neglect. At a large conference of ministers in Germany a professor read a paper on the teaching of Christianity respecting wealth, one of the most timely themes. At the close of the address the subject was open for general dis- cussion, but scarcely any took part in it, not having the requisite knowledge. Yet this was in the land where theological education is reputed to be the best in the world, and where the threatening THE STUDY OF THE AGE. 347 aspects of socialism make the Christian view of property a burning question. No wonder that in Germany the appointment of theological professors to teach economic and social questions from an ethical and religious standpoint is advocated. It is claimed that with all his superior scholarly ad- vantages the German theological student is not prepared for actual life ; hence it is urged that a larger number of especial schools than now exist for this preparation ought to be established, to be entered after the course in the university has been completed. That the age is gravitating more and more to a consciousness of self is evident from the absorbing attention devoted to prominent movements of the day. Much of the power of modern specialization is concentrated on fathoming actual needs and meeting their demands. So overwhelming in its influence has the present reality become, that there is danger in certain quarters of losing the appre- ciation of the past and the future, as well as of principles and ideals. If heretofore knowledge and truth and power have been esteemed for their own sake, now they are sought for the sake of their adaptation to the present. Earnest men want adapted truth, adapted knowledge, adapted faith ; and the demand is not for institutions or personalities in the abstract, but for real, concrete ones pecul- iarly suited to the times. All this is proof that the living age has become the focus of thought, as it is of interest and of effort. The age itself has be- come an object of profoundest study. Usually ministers are thrown wholly on their own resources for the study of the age, not so much as the conditions and method of the investi- 348 APPENDIX. gation having been taught them while theological students. In beginning their pastoral work they are thrust into the midst of the most momentous practical problems, with but little preparation to meet them. Among these problems are such as affect culture, agitate the masses, and produce conflicts between Protestantism and Roman Cath- olicism. The preacher comes in contact with per- sons who believe that the very existence of religion, or at least of the church, is at stake, and he is re- quired to discuss the deepest and most vital ques- tions of spirituality in order to meet the difficulties and objections of men. The spirit and achieve- ments of science, the trend of philosophic thought, the character of the literature of the day, the genius controlling art, the revolution aimed at by socialism, the factors dominating politics, society, industries, and life, all are weighty concerns for the preacher. Not less important is the study of the church itself, and an inquiry into its means for doing the work of the age. These and similar facts enable us to understand why from so many quarters live and earnest men urgently appeal to Christian thinkers and workers to make a specialty of the study of the times. They feel that men for the times must be men of the times — not the slaves of the age but its masters, in it and yet above it, and above it because the}" have mastered it, know- ing its needs and how to supply them. It is not preachers alone who lament that they have never been led into the study of the age, and have not even been taught the importance of this study. Inquiry among students from different countries has led to the conviction, that the age is not a thorough and systematic study in the schools THE STUDY OF THE AGE. 349 of any country. Let a number of intelligent per- sons be asked what the characteristics of the times are, and their confused and conflicting answers, if they give any, are likely to be a revelation of igno- rance and thoughtlessness on the subject. Some take for granted that the age, being constantly exposed to our view, is too familiar to require special investigation. Others go to the other extreme and regard our own age almost, if not wholly, beyond our comprehension. They hold that we are too much a part of the age to be able to judge of its character. We are formed by it and can live in no other ; hence they think that we cannot rise above the age sufficiently to take a fair survey of its movements, and cannot under- stand it, because we have no experience of another age with which to compare our own. But this argument would also make all knowledge of self and of what most immediately concerns us impos- sible. It is likewise claimed that many of the ten- dencies in which we live have not yet culminated, and therefore cannot be understood ; we must wait till they are completed, then they will be historic and subject to our comprehension. This objection would be serious if our aim were the future instead of the present ; but we want to study the move- ments as they now proceed, not what their future is likely to be, though in some cases that may also be foretold. Nor is absolute knowledge the goal sought, but only such knowledge as is within reach. For the reasons indicated, historians usually treat some period before their own as the close of their historic research, leaving to future historians the description of the present. So the age of 350 APPENDIX. which a man himself forms a part is thought not prepared to do him justice ; hence it is claimed that a man must have been dead some time before his biography can be written. All this may be true of the movements of parties which arouse passion and excite prejudice, and also of men who have been leaders in these movements. Such men and movements can be more impartially judged, when the prejudices have died and personal inter- ests are no longer concerned. But it is not evident how prejudice can seriously affect the study of the age itself, when we simply want to know what ex- ists, without regard to personal interest. Indeed, it seems incredible that those who live in an age and experience its power should be least capable of appreciatino^ its character. This conclusion and this conflict of opinions are reasons for an impartial and thorough study of the subject. It is important to learn what can be done by reducing the inquiry to system. If possible, the principles of the investigation should be made as specific as those of history. What is meant by the age, how it is to be studied, what can be learned respecting it, and how the results of the study can best be utilized, all should be carefully elaborated and systematized. The demand for light is so great that we have a right to expect professorships to be established for the instruction of students in the character of their own times. It may then become evident that, instead of being no legiti- mate object of study, our age is the only possible study, all that we investigate of the past being within our reach only so far as that past is in the present, or so far as a knowledge of the past is present knowledge. Of course all knowledge of THE STUDY OF THE AGE. 351 the past that is not part of the knowledge of our age is hidden from us. Whether we study the past or the future, we can do it only in the present ; and all knowledge of the past and the future, of the present and the absent, is knowledge in our age and a part of the age. That only what is pres- ent can be presented to us needs no elucidation for him who thinks. After indicating the importance of the study of our own times, it is essential for clearness and defi- niteness that we determine the exact aim of the study. What is meant by the Age ? As essentially syn- onymous with the term, we use our generation, our day, our time or times. Without attempting to fix exactly its beginning or continuance, the age is used to designate the period in which we live. As one part of a stream cannot be severed from the rest, so in the stream of time no age can be completely separated from the past and the future. There are of course times of special sowing and of special harvests ; but all sowing is preceded by harvests, and all harvests prepare the way for future sowing. The fruit which is the product of ages is likewise a seed whence fruits and seeds shall grow in the future. There is perpetual sow- ing, unceasing growing, and constant harvesting. In this continuous process our age may have crises and epochs, but it has no absolute beginning or ending ; it is itself part of an endless process. Our age as the time in which we live includes, in the most comprehensive sense, the whole of humanity, and everything that transpires in human- ity and affects man. Every occurrence of nature, so far as it affects man, is therefore included ; and we might even embrace all that transpires in the 353 APPENDIX. universe, were it within reach and did we not con- fine ourselves to humanity in the study of the age. Now it is evident that in this comprehensive sense, as including all that pertains to humanity in our times, there is no possibility of understanding our age. Not even the details of a single life are wholly at our command ; how much less those of every human being on the globe. In the study of the times w^e take the individual into account only so far as he is an expression of the age and affects it. We seek the totality, not the individual ; and in this totality we want to discover what is charac- teristic. Much may occur which is insignificant or exceptional, or which is peculiar to a limited circle ; this cannot be called a mark of the age, and does not lie within the range of our discussion. So a nation may have striking peculiarities ; but for the reason that they are peculiar to that nation they are not characteristics of the age itself, unless we identify the nation with the age. Characteristics we seek, revelations of the char- acter of the age. We w^ant to learn its essence. All ages have much in common, and this universal element cannot be neglected in the study of any age. But why study a particular period if it pos- sesses only what all others have ? What our day has in common with others it may have in a pecul- iar form, with a different degree of development, and in new relations. What is dominant at one time may at another lose its preeminence and sink into insignificance. So new ideas may arise and rule an era. Now it is that which marks our time and gives it a stamp of its own which especially arrests our attention. Not, however, for compar- ison with other periods, but for the purpose of THE STUD V OF THE A GE. 853 understanding the essence of our own shall we consider what is peculiar to our times, as well as what they have in common with other ages. The key to individual and national character is in the dominant power or powers. The same is true of ages. Every age has certain dominant or leading powers, more prominent and more potent than the rest, making other forces subservient to themselves, determining the aim and purpose of the movements, and shaping events. In these monarchical powers, as we may call them, we find a concentration of the spirit of the age and behold the leadership in the tendencies of the day. These dominant or ruling factors are the unity in the endless details and distractions of the times. We might call them the principles which work in and through the age and form its characteristics. An age is essentially compressed in its energizing principles, as a plant is compressed in its seed. As thus we limit our inquiry to the dominant powers or principles as the essence and substance of the age, so we likewise limit the sphere of our investigation. We need not take into account all peoples, since many of them have no marked effect on the age, and the dominant powers are not found in them or only in a low degree. All the peoples in a lower stage of development are excluded ; whatever of significance prevails among them is likewise found in advanced nations and in a much more developed form. For the dominant factors of the age we naturally limit ourselves to the dom- inant nations. These stand for the age, as certain persons stand for nations, being an embodiment of their essential characteristics. Certain nations are the pilots of history, now Egypt, then Persia, now 23 354 APPENDIX. Greece, then Rome. The leadership is no longer confined to one people, but it belongs to a number, though not to all in an equal degree. It is to the leading nations that we look for the leading ideas. It thus becomes evident that we limit our inquiry into the age to Europe and America. And in these all peoples have not an equal value for our pur- pose. We look to the most advanced, the most energetic, and the most progressive nations for the best material. While the leading nations deter- mine the character of the age, others are virtually followers or domineered. The nations whose study especially concerns us are therefore those of west- >ern Europe and the United States. But what element of dominance in nations is of especial value for our purpose ? National parade and display, and all momentary effervescences of power, have little interest for us. We seek causes, permanent factors, fruitful and abiding efforts, and characteristic tendencies. The love of dis- play may of course be a dominant disposition and so far significant. But what makes most show and the loudest noise is often evanescent, while a per- manent power may be hidden and quiet. It is the deep undercurrents, the inherent powers in move- ments, the energies of which all national life and public movements are but manifestations, which we aim to discover. But how can we discover the dominant powers of the age ? There must be a specific method of inquiry ; but what is it ? So little attention is de- voted to the systematic study of the age that no method seems to be established, and each investi- gator has now to undertake the work of marking- out his course as best he can. THE STUDY OF THE AGE. 355 Were the history of our times the object of in- quiry, then we should have no difficulty in deter- mining the method. Ranke showed that it is not a series of national histories which constitutes universal history, as had usually been supposed ; but that only such occurrences in nations as affect the general (and not merely national) course of events constitute general history. If now we wxre to write the history of the age in the sense of gen- eral history, we should give only events which have significance for the age as a totality ; all that is merely local or limited to a particular nationality would be omitted. Although such a history of the age is not our aim, yet it would give exactly the material we want for our purpose. The events which marks the age as such, being sufficiently general to characterize the age itself, would give the data whose investigation would furnish the results we need. The characteristic events of the age are the manifestations of the potent factors we seek. Sim- ilar phenomena in the advanced nations imply the working of similar powers. And it is these powers, powers that dominate the nations and the age, which we want to understand. Not in isolated instances merely, but also in events generally are the ruling powers revealed. How could the powers be dominant, unless their dominance were found in general manifestations ? It is thus clear that our problem does not involve the impossible task of examining all that occurs, since every significant phenomenon of general prevalence contains what we seek. The powers of an age manifest themselves in life generally, in society, in politics, in business, in 356 APPENDIX. science, in philosophy, in literature, in art, and in religion. In all these spheres the same causes may be at work, though in each case the manifes- tations differ. Whatever now is characteristic in all these spheres, or in most of them, will also be the chief or dominant power of the age. There can be no question that in the course of time a ruling power of a period must affect every depart- ment of thought and life. We must therefore adopt the method of exam- ining these various manifestations of power in order to discover the power itself. Any general tendency of the times will afford a clue to a power whose working is general ; and the most general tendency will reveal the power which itself is the most general. Different tendencies may be foimd in their last analysis to spring from the same causes, their difference being the product of sec- ondary influences. Perhaps analysis will reveal some one power as lying at the basis of all the tendencies, other powers and agencies coming in only as accessories and giving particular tendencies their peculiarities. Two departments of thought draw from all the rest and furnish a kind of summary of them, namely, philosophy and general literature ; and it is to these that we must look for the most com- plete expression of the age. Philosophy, being intent on principles, seeking the ultimate causes of events and the reason in things, is a concen- tration of the age or an epitome of its powers. Hence the philosophy produced by an age is regarded by thinkers as a culmination of the thoughts and interests of the times. Thus the speculative, the inductive, the materialistic, the THE STUDY OF THE AGE. 357 pantheistic, and the theistic movements of the age, are likely to find expression in the philosophy of the day. Particularly is this true when a philos- ophy is not only a product of the times but also receives general recognition. A philosophy may of course reach out beyond the times, being an explicit statement of what is only implied in them ; or it may be prophetic, waiting for its day to come in the future. But however original a philosopher, the age in some measure thinks in and through him, and concentrates and embodies in him the thought of the times. Perhaps he only expresses clearly what others blindly seek. We are fully justified in saying that the dominant philosophy is likely to express the dominant thought and power of an age. If different philosophies prevail, or if there is confusion in philosophic thought, then we may conclude that there is a conflict or confusion of principles in the age itself. While philosophy is the domain of the few, the other department, general literature, is for the public. As the literature of a period is a creation of the period and a manifestation of the produc- tive power of the times, so likewise is it an evi- dence of the character of the public taste. Liter- ature is written to be read ; and whatever ideal standards have prevailed in the past, in our day the people themselves have become the literary standard. All departments of thought blossom and bear fruit in literature ; and what the people read is an indication of what they seek, and also of the culture promoted among them. The pop- ular literature expresses the power and reveals the ten dene V of the times. 358 APPENDIX. If any particular sphere of thought receives especial attention and gains a controlling influence, then this fact will be an important hint for the study of the times. Thus if marked prominence is given to science, to philosophy, to history, to politics, or to any other department, it is a reve- lation of the tendency of thought, of the concen- tration of interests, and of the direction given to energy. If a particular subject absorbs the spirit of the age, it will determine the character, the disposition, and the power of the age. What has been said leaves no doubt as to our method. We do not propose to construct our view of the times according to any ideal or preconceived notions. We go directly to the age itself for our knowledge of the age. Our process is inductive ; we examine the facts, draw from them their laws, and then discern the forces at work in the laws. We thus proceed from the operations of the age to their causes. When the causes at work are found, we want to reduce them, as far as possible, in order to discover a single power as the seed of all these causes ; or if this is not possible, then we want to reduce the powers to as few as we can, so as to discover the least number of ultimate powers, of which all other powers are but manifestations or modifications. After any power has been found, its dominance can easily be tested. The different departments of thought and life need but be examined in order to learn whether it exerts a controlling influence in them. Thus if a principle is found dominant in philosophy, it need but be applied to political and social movements in order to discover whether prevalent in them also. THE STUDY OF THE AGE. 359 But, as we have seen, the present is not isolated. It is an effect and also a cause ; it was produced by the past and will work throughout the future. "The present is saturated with the past," Ranke said. And his pupil Waitz declared that " history is to enable us to understand and to judge the present." The historian Giesebrecht affirmed that the value of history consists in the fact that it lives in the present ; and he holds that universities, professors, and students are pow^erful in proportion as they meet the demands of the times. Our day is the last page of history ; as soon as we turn the page we enter the future. In the present we be- hold the past and steal prophetic glimpses of what is to come. Thus the age, which is the fruit of the past, is likewise the seed of the future. There is truth in the view which prevailed from Heraclitus to our day, that nothing is, but that all is in process of becoming. Our age is not a pool, but a current ; and if the present current is to be understood, we must know whence it came, and what forces have been gathered into its movement. Changing the figure, wx view our period as a growth of the past ; and we can understand the present stage of devel- opment only in its organic connection with the preceding processes of growth. We must adopt Aristotle's rule, that things as they are can be un- derstood only by studying their genesis, or the processes which made them what they are. We therefore add to the inductive the genetic method, the process of investigating things accord- ing to their genesis. The development of powers in the past is the condition for understanding their culmination in the present. A stream in any of its parts could of course be fully explained only if 360 APPENDIX. traced to its source and to all its tributaries. But a history of the processes working in our day would require a history of the world, for these processes extend back through all time and through all na- tions. Although these processes cannot here be followed in detail, nevertheless the results given in this book are the product of the union of the inductive and the genetic method. Viewed in this light, it is evident that an insight into the age requires deep as well as broad con- templation. Only as involving a retrospect as well as a prospect, the past as well as the future, does the age receive its proper setting. When therefore we speak of enlarging our consciousness so as to embrace the age, we at the same time mean an enlargement that transcends the age, reaching out to the sources whence it comes and to the goal whither it tends. So when the atten- tion is concentrated on the study of the age, the aim is not to let the age absorb our powers, but to make us lords rather than slaves of our times. Instead of being unconsciously impelled by the spirit of the age, whether its impulses be true or false, right or wrong, we want to get control of this spirit and make it our minister. W© strive to test and criticize the genius of the day, to learn how far it is demoniac and how far divine. Only by thinking through the age can we hope to rise above it ; only by mastering it can we make it our servant. By comparing our day with other times, and the ruling motives of the present with the principles of ethics and religion, we shall get the vantage-ground from which to estimate our age, and the basis on which we can make life tell most for the present and the future. ^^, ■,0.<^"^ - -^-^ ^m^:.^^^k:'^^":H^'^ Date Due :^;j:^^^a&fifc6w#ifl .V.U JjJ-'^' -K^^^jwuLijazi. "^^r^. ■ ^1 u^,> !^?'v£ / ~^ o ^ cv v^ IN U. S. A. 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