^ PRINCETON, N. J. ^ 
 
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THE GOSPEL FOR 
 AN AGE OF DOUBT 
 
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THE GOSPEL FOR 
 AN AGE OF DOUBT 
 
 BY 
 
 HENRY VAN DYKE 
 
 D.D. (PRINCETON, HARVARD, YALE) , LL.D. (UNION) "V^ -^( / fC-' ' 
 
 PASTOR OF THE BRICK CHURCH IN NEW YORK 
 
 MAY 24 iij, 
 
 SIXTH EDITION REVISED 
 WITH A NEW PREFACE 
 
 " But if any speak not concern i77g Jesus Christ, 
 J look upon them as tombstones and sepulchres 
 of the dead, on which are written only the 
 na?nes of men." 
 
 St. Ignatius, Epist. ad Phil. 
 
 Neiu gork 
 THE MACMTLTAN COMPANY 
 
 LONDON : MACMILLAN & CO., Ltd. 
 1898 
 
 All rights reserved 
 
Copyright, 1896, 
 By the MACMILLAN COMPANY. 
 
 Set up and electrotyped September, 1896. Reprinted December, 
 1896; January, October, 1897; September, 1898. 
 
 Xortoooti iprrss 
 
 J. S. Cashing & Co. — Berwick & Smith 
 
 Norwood Mass. U.S.A. 
 
PREFACE 
 
 TO THE SIXTH EDITION 
 
 Two years have passed since this book was 
 first printed. A new edition is now prepared 
 for popuhar use by leaving out the appendix 
 and making the volume smaller. 
 
 In writing a new preface, I am glad of the 
 opportunity to express my sincere gratitude to 
 the many friends who have given the book a 
 welcome in different parts of the world, and liave 
 translated its message into other languages. 1 
 wish to acknowledge also the benefit received 
 from those intelligent critics who have pointed 
 out some of its faults and shortcomings, and 
 to make some brief reply to those other critics 
 who have misconceived its purpose and misrep- 
 resented its meaning. But most of all I would 
 like to say a word to make the spirit and aim 
 of the book more clear, and so to bring it into 
 touch with the personal life of those into whose 
 hands it may fall. 
 
 It was w^ritten in the form of a course of 
 lectures on preaching, on the '' Lyman Beecher 
 
xiv Preface 
 
 Foundation," and delivered before the divinity 
 students of Yale University. But the aim of 
 these lectures was not to teach the art of making 
 sermons. It was to accentuate the truth that 
 the question, What to preach, comes first, and the 
 question, How to preach, comes afterwards. A 
 man must have a distinct message, clear and 
 luminous to his own soul, — a message which 
 comes to him with a joyful sense of newness 
 and demands utterance, — he must feel the liv- 
 ing fitness of this precise message to the needs 
 of the world, before he can learn to deliver 
 it with freedom and power. 
 
 The study of theology as a science is a very 
 important study. The training of men in the 
 art of preaching is a very valuable discipline. 
 But the vital experience of faith is deeper and 
 broader than the theories of theology. The 
 art of preaching is worth little unless it serves 
 to enrich and ennoble the larger art of living. 
 Religion is the secret of this larger art of liv- 
 ing. And the power of religion to inspire and 
 guide men to purer, stronger, happier, more 
 beautiful lives, does not depend upon the modes 
 and forms in which it is preached, but simply 
 upon the concrete gospel, the good news about 
 God and tlie world, which it brings into their 
 hearts. 
 
Preface xv 
 
 The audience in the Yale chapel appealed to 
 me less as students of theology, than as young 
 men with a life to live and a work to do in the 
 modern world, in the present age. Around 
 them I felt the pressure of those great, myste- 
 rious forces which are silently changing the 
 current of human thought and the face of 
 human society. Behind them I saw the wider 
 circle of the young men and women of the new 
 generation, the children of this age, born into 
 the turmoil and confusion, the intellectual stress 
 and storm, of a period of transition. It was to 
 this wider circle that I really wanted to speak, 
 through the divinity students who composed 
 the immediate audience. I wanted to tell the 
 men who were studying for the ministry that 
 they must not let themselves be educated out 
 of sympathy with the modern world; that they 
 must understand the trials and difficulties of 
 the present age in order to serve it effectively; 
 that they must keep in touch with living men 
 and women, outside of the circle of faith as 
 well as within it, if they wished to help them. 
 
 But more than this. I wanted to show that 
 there is a message of religion especially fitted 
 to meet the needs of our times. There is an 
 aspect of Christianity which comes to the world 
 to-day as glad tidings. There is a newness in 
 
xvi Preface 
 
 the old gospel which shines out like a sunrise 
 upon the darkness and despondency that over- 
 shadow so much of modern life. This aspect 
 of Christianity centres in the person of Jesus 
 Christ, as the human life of God. This new- 
 ness of the gospel lies in believing in Him as a 
 real man, in whose sonship the Fatherhood of 
 God is revealed and made certain to all men. 
 And the power of this message to enrich and 
 ennoble life lies in the fact that those who 
 receive it are set free from a threefold bond- 
 age : first, from the heavy tliought that they 
 are creatures of necessity whose actions and 
 destiny are determined by heredity and en- 
 vironment ; second, from the haunting fear that 
 the world is governed by blind chance or brute 
 force ; and third, from the curse of sin, which 
 is selfishness. To see Christ as the true Son of 
 God and the brother of all men, is to be sure 
 that the soul is free, and that God is good, and 
 that the end of life is noble service. 
 
 This is the message that I wanted to deliver 
 in this book, as the true gospel for an age of 
 doubt. 
 
 The title has been misunderstood by some of 
 the critics who have read it, apparently without 
 going any further into the book. They have 
 
Preface xvll 
 
 taken it as if it were an arraignment of the 
 present age for irreligion and infidelity. They 
 have resented it as if it were a confession of 
 tlie decline of Christianity. They have found 
 fault with the writer for a want of sympathy 
 with the intellectual perplexities of the men 
 and women of to-day, and a lack of insight into 
 their spiritual life and moral purposes. 
 
 It seems strange that any one should make 
 such a criticism. The answer to it may be 
 found in the first chapter, where I have tried 
 to draw the distinction between doubt and 
 infidelity. But in order that there may be no 
 room for mistake, I will say what I mean again, 
 and yet more clearly. 
 
 In calling the present "an age of doubt," I 
 do not mean that it is the only age in which 
 doubt has been prevalent, nor that doubt is the 
 only characteristic of the age. I mean simply 
 that it is one of those periods of human history 
 in which the sudden expansion of knowledge 
 and the breaking-up of ancient moulds of 
 thought have produced a profound and wide- 
 spread feeling of uncertainty in regard to the 
 subject of religion. The remarkable achieve- 
 ments of the critical method as applied to 
 philosophy, history, and literature, have led 
 men to ask Avhether it may not be applied in 
 
xviii Preface 
 
 the same way to theology, and to take it for 
 granted that the result must be destructive. 
 The difficulty of adjusting the new discoveries 
 of science to the established forms of theo- 
 logical doctrine, has produced in some reluctant 
 and irritable minds a disposition to resent all 
 scientific research, and to denounce it as atheis- 
 tic. But in a far greater number of minds it 
 has begotten a misgiving, that if religion needs 
 to defend itself by denying facts it must stand 
 on a very insecure foundation. There is a 
 large class of people, thoughtful, earnest, sin- 
 cere, w^ho live under the shadow of this 
 misgiving. They want religion. They are 
 attracted by its spiritual ideals, by its moral 
 inspiration. But they hesitate to accept it, 
 at least in its Christian form, for fear that 
 it may not be reasonable. The questioning 
 temper holds possession of their minds. Their 
 attitude toward religious things is interroga- 
 tive. The secular spirit insensibly gains do- 
 minion over their thoughts and feelings. 
 They grow weary of asking questions which 
 seem to find no answer. The influence of the 
 great mass of popular literature in which 
 religion is practically ignored, tends to foster 
 the impression that it is a subject in regard to 
 which certainty is neither necessary nor attain- 
 
Preface xix 
 
 able. The existence of God, the reality of 
 the soul, the prospect of immortality, — these 
 appear like insoluble problems to many of the 
 children of this age. They are troubled and 
 depressed and impoverished by the Avant of 
 faith, but they accept indecision as the only 
 rational attitude, and try to do the best that 
 they can without believing in 
 
 " The truths that never can be proved." 
 
 This is what I mean by an age of doubt. 
 Who that knows the young men and women of 
 to-day, can deny that multitudes of the very 
 best of them are feeling the influence of this 
 kind of doubt, and suffering under it? Who 
 can fail to see that in many ways this kind of 
 doubt is an evidence of spiritual sincerity, of 
 moral earnestness, of a desire to be true to the 
 truth at all costs ? Who can forget that the 
 sadness, the despondency, the pessimism of 
 many of those who have surrendered faith at 
 the call of what they conceived to be an intel- 
 lectual duty, is in itself a proof that religion is 
 necessary to complete human life and make the 
 world endurable ? 
 
 This is a doubting age. But it is not there- 
 fore an age to be despised or despaired of. It 
 is a hopeful age, an earnest age, an age of gen- 
 
XX Preface 
 
 erous feeling and noble action. What it needs 
 is a clear answer to its doubt, and a poAverful 
 remedy for its sadness. This ans^Ye^ and this 
 remedy are found in the person of Jesus Christ. 
 His life is a fact which cannot be explained 
 without God. His character is a standing 
 proof of the reality of the spiritual world. A 
 universe of matter and force could never have 
 produced such a person. His teaching is a 
 direct witness to things which are unseen and 
 eternal. Those who will receive it shall find 
 His words a fountain of living waters springing 
 up Avithin them unto everlasting life. 
 
 It is not to be supposed tliat any one can write 
 or speak so as to make everybody perceive and 
 accept this truth. All human preaching comes 
 far short of the fulness of the gospel. Even 
 Avhile Christ was on earth there were many who 
 doubted, and held fast to their doubts. But T 
 am sure that the most helpful, the most con- 
 vincing message for a doubtful age is that 
 which centres in His person, and seeks to make 
 Him evident as the final and immutable revela- 
 tion of God. 
 
 Tliat is what this book tries to do. It is in 
 fact nothing more than an endeavour to prove 
 these two things: Christ is a real person; 
 Christ is God manifest in the flesh. 
 
Preface xxi 
 
 But it differs from otlier arguments for the 
 Divinity of Christ in at least one point. It 
 accepts without reserve or qualification the per- 
 fect humanity of Christ. The cliapter in which 
 this view of the person of Jesus is expressed 
 has been criticised as dangerous. I cannot 
 alter it, because it represents my most profound 
 convictions. To me it seems not dangerous, 
 but safe, — far more safe, indeed, than any 
 other view, because it corresponds more closely 
 w4th the facts. The life which Christ lived on 
 earth was a veritable human life. The person 
 who lived it Avas the Son of God. But in order 
 to live that human life He had to become man, 
 not in a dramatic sense, but actually and en- 
 tirely. There were not two wills and two 
 minds working within the person of Jesus. 
 The mind that was in Christ was a single mind, 
 and His will was the expression of an undi- 
 vided personality. He was subject to igno- 
 rance, to limitation, to weakness, to temptation, 
 even as we are. The only point of difference 
 between Him and us is that we sin, but He 
 sinned not. The Godhood that was in Him 
 was such as manhood is capable of receiving. 
 There is no evidence in His life or in His 
 character of the omniscience and omnipresence 
 and onniipotence that would have separated 
 
xxii Preface 
 
 Him from us. His existence among men was 
 simply the human life of God. 
 
 It seems to me that this is the view of Christ 
 Avhich is given in the New Testament. I have 
 tried to express it clearly, because it opens the 
 way to the dissolving of many doubts, and 
 makes His Divinity at once easier to be be- 
 lieved, in and more precious in its significance. 
 And if it does this for one reader who has 
 been troubled by unbelief in the Divinity of 
 Christ, if it shows one seeker after God how to 
 find Him in the man Christ Jesus, the chief 
 purpose of the book will be accomplished. 
 
 The same considerations and desires have 
 controlled my treatment of the doctrines of fore- 
 ordination, sovereignty, and election. There 
 has been no intention to enter into theological 
 controversy. Indeed, if I had intended to do 
 this, the report of tlie critics upon the result 
 would fill me with curious confusion. For 
 they seem to be unable to decide upon which 
 side of the controversy the book is to l)e 
 reckoned. One of them calls it '' a violent and 
 unfair attack upon Calvinism " ; another says 
 that "it presents the doctrines of the West- 
 minster Confession so winningly that they are 
 accepted almost before they are recognized." 
 
Preface xxiii 
 
 The compliment and the reproach are alike 
 undeserved. In point of fact I was not think- 
 ing at all of Calvinism or of the Westminster 
 Confession, but only of the New Testament, 
 and of how directly it meets the wants of our 
 age with the liberating teachings of Christ. 
 Nothing has been more effective in begetting 
 and increasing doubts than the idea that 
 Christian doctrine required us to believe that 
 all events, good and evil, were foreordained by 
 God, and that some men were eternally chosen 
 to be saved, without regard to their faith or 
 works, while all the rest were left to inevitable 
 destruction. There is no trace of such an idea 
 in the mind of Christ. On the contrary. He is 
 the great liberator of men from the bondage of 
 fatalism, and His invitation to all the weary 
 and heavy-laden to come unto Him is a divine 
 assurance that whosoever will may have ever- 
 lasting life. 
 
 After years of doubt and iuAvard conflict I 
 have arrived at great peace and comfort in the 
 unreserved acceptance of these teachings of 
 Jesus. I do not believe that all things that 
 happen are determined beforehand. The soul 
 is free. The evil that men do is all their own; 
 God has not foreordained it. His only pre- 
 destination is to good, and if men will accept 
 
xxiv Preface 
 
 their divine destiny, God will help them to fulfu 
 it. Election is not the arbitrary choice of a 
 few to receive blessings from which the many 
 are excluded. It is the selection of certain 
 races and men to receive great privileges to fit 
 them for the service of all mankind in the 
 divine kingdom. This is m}^ faith in regard to 
 these questions. I have made no secret of it. 
 The recent agitation concerning ministerial 
 honour in creed subscription seemed to require 
 that it should be frankly confessed. If such a 
 faith were inconsistent with any ecclesiastical 
 obligations, I should be prompt to renounce 
 them. But it is evident that there is no incon- 
 sistency. A man may hold this faith and 
 preach it, as a loyal Christian, in the fellow- 
 ship of the Presbyterian Church. 
 
 It remains only to add a word of explanation 
 in regard to a criticism of this book which goes 
 deeper than any of those of which I have 
 spoken. A Avriter, for whose opinion I have 
 great respect, has said that the volume does 
 not give due place and proportion to the truth 
 of the Atonement ; that it fails to set forth 
 Christ as " the Lamb of Ood which taketh 
 away the sin of the world." 
 
 If this were altogether true, 1 should be very 
 
Preface xxv 
 
 sorry. 1 certainly believe that Christ is the 
 only Saviour of sinners ; that He died to re- 
 deem men from tlie curse of sin, and that the 
 attractioii of His cross is most potent upon the 
 human heart. I have tried to say this very 
 distinctly in the second chapter and at the 
 close of the fourth chapter. 
 
 But that the criticism is partly true I must 
 admit. The Atonement does not appear in its 
 due place and proportion in this book. It 
 would not have been possible without pro- 
 longing the volume to a much greater length 
 and turning aside from the purpose for which 
 it was written. It was not intended to be a 
 complete statement of Christian truth. It was 
 meant only to present that aspect of the gospel 
 which seemed to be especially adapted to the 
 wants of an age of doubt. I was thinking of 
 the men and women whose minds are confused 
 and troubled by modern speculations, Avho are 
 oppressed by the intellectual difficulties of 
 belief, who feel the benumbing influence of the 
 secular spirit, and who stand sadly in doubt in 
 regard to the reality of the whole spiritual life. 
 I wanted to say something to help them, some- 
 thing to make it easier for them to believe in 
 Christ, and, through Christ, in God. 
 
 I know very well that it is not enough for 
 
xxvi Preface 
 
 men to be delivered from doubt. They need 
 also to be saved from sin. But before this can 
 have any meaning to them they must begin to 
 believe in a Divine Being and in their own 
 spiritual relationship to Him. What does sin 
 mean to a man Avho doubts whether there is a 
 personal God, and thinks that his soul may be 
 only a name for a certain secretion of the gray 
 matter in his brain, and has no sure expectation 
 of a life beyond death ? What he needs first 
 of all is a gospel which will bring him news of 
 a real spiritual world, a gospel whose simplicity 
 and directness and personal force will make the 
 first adventure of faith possible. It was of 
 such men as this that I was thinking, when 
 this book was written. 
 
 I know very well that the book is incom- 
 plete. It touches only one aspect of the great- 
 est of all subjects. It needs a sequel, to make 
 it harmonize more fully with the truth as it 
 is in Jesus, and to bring it into touch with 
 another side of the need of humanity. Very 
 soon, I hope to be permitted to follow this 
 volume on " The Gospel for an Age of Doubt," 
 with another, on " The Gospel for a World of 
 Sin." 
 
 "Thui.e," York Harbour, 
 
 July 10th, 18'J8. 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 lECTTJRB 
 I. 
 
 An Age of Doubt .... 
 
 PAGE 
 
 1 
 
 11. 
 
 The Gospel of a Person 
 
 . 41 
 
 III. 
 
 The Unveiling of the Father 
 
 . 81 
 
 :v. 
 
 The Human Life of God 
 
 . 123 
 
 y. 
 
 The Source of Authority . 
 
 . 167 
 
 YI. 
 
 Liberty 
 
 . 203 
 
 VII. 
 
 Sovereignty 
 
 . 245 
 
 VIII. 
 
 Service 
 
 . 281 
 
 Index 
 
 
 . 319 
 
AN AGE OF DOUBT 
 
" Cleave ever to the sunnier side of doubt, 
 And cling to Faith beyond the forms of Faith ! 
 She reels not in the storm of warring words, 
 She brightens at the clash of ' Yes ' and ' No,' 
 She sees the Best that glimmers thro' the Worst, 
 She feels the Sun is hid but for a night, 
 She spies the summer thro' the winter bud, 
 She tastes the fruit before the blossom falls, 
 She hears the lark within the songiess egg, 
 She finds the fountain where they wail'd ' Mirage ' ! " 
 — Tennyson, The Ancient Sage. 
 
AN AGE OF DOUBT 
 
 There is one point in wliicli all men resem- The person- 
 ble each other : it is that they are all different. «J.«f''«^^'«'^ 
 
 •^ of the age. 
 
 But their differences are not fixed and immuta- 
 ble. They are variable and progressive. Types 
 of character survive or perish, like the forms 
 of animal life. Some predominate ; others are 
 subordinated. 
 
 Thus it comes to pass that underneath all 
 the diversities of individual life, we may dis- 
 cern, not with the clearness of a portrait, but 
 with the vague outlines of a composite photo- 
 graph, the features of a Zeitgeist, a spirit of 
 the time. Generations differ almost as much 
 as the men who compose them. There is a 
 personal equation in every age. 
 
 To know this is a necessity for the preacher. 
 Even as the physician must apprehend tlie idio- 
 syncrasy of his patient, and the teacher must 
 recognize the quality of his pupil, so must the 
 preacher be in touch with his age. 
 3 
 
Literature 
 as an index 
 of life. 
 
 4 An Age of Doubt 
 
 In endeavouring to arrive at this knowledge, 
 contact with the world is of the first conse- 
 quence. For one who desires to make men and 
 women what they ought to be, nothing can 
 take the place of an acquaintance with men 
 and women as they are. It seems to me that 
 one of the best means of obtaining this ac- 
 quaintance is through literature, — not that 
 highly specialized and more or less technical 
 variety of literature which is produced ex- 
 pressly for certain classes of readers, but liter- 
 ature in the broader sense, as it appeals to 
 cultivated and intelligent people in general, 
 including contemporary history and criticism, 
 poetry and fiction, popular' philosophy and di- 
 luted science. This kind of literature is the 
 efflorescence of the Zeitgeist. It is at once a 
 product, and a cause, of the temperament of 
 the age. In it we see not only what certain 
 men have written by way of comment on the 
 movement of the times, but also what a great 
 many men are reading while they move. It 
 expresses, and it creates, a sjjirit, an attitude 
 of mind. '' I do not imagine," saj^s a keen 
 observer, " that I am announcing an altogether 
 novel truth in affirming that literature is one of 
 the elements of the ethical life, — the most im- 
 portant perhaps ; for in the decline, more and 
 
An Age of 'Doubt 5 
 
 more evident, of traditional and local influences, 
 the book is taking its place as tlie great ini- 
 tiator."! 
 
 For this reason I believe that a course in The vaine 
 modern novels and poetry miofht \Yell be made ^-^ ^^»«'*"' 
 
 i- J f^ reading. 
 
 a part of every scheme of preparation for the 
 ministry. The preacher who does not know 
 what his people are reading does not know his 
 people. He will miss tlie significance of tlie 
 current talk of society, and even of the daily 
 comments of the newspapers, which are in fact 
 only a cheap substitute for conversation, unless 
 he has the key to it in the tone of popular 
 literature. It is from this source that I have 
 drawn many of the illustrations for this lecture. 
 If they appear unfamiliar or out of place in a 
 theological seminary, I can only say that they 
 seem to me none the less, but perhaps the more, 
 significant and valuable o]i that account. For 
 I think that one of the causes by which, as 
 John Foster wrote seventy years ago, " Evan- 
 gelical Religion has been rendered unaccepta- 
 ble to persons of cultivated taste," ^ has been 
 a certain ill-disguised contempt on the part of 
 
 1 Paul Bourget, Essais de Psychologie Contemporaine, 
 Paris, 1895. 
 
 2 John Foster, Essays, " On the Aversion of Men of Taste 
 to Evangelical Religion," p. 188. 
 
6 Ail Age of Doubt 
 
 persons of orthodox opinions for what they 
 are pleased to call, "mere belles-lettres.^' And 
 though I do not fancy that there is any sym- 
 pathy with that frame of mind in this place, 
 yet the occasion seems opportune for saying 
 in a definite way that the preacher who wishes 
 to speak to this age must read many books in 
 order that he may be in a position to make the 
 best use of what Sir Walter Scott called '' the 
 one Book." He must keep himself in touch 
 with modern life by studying modern litera- 
 ture, which is one of its essential factors. 
 
 A douhting Ag goon as we step out of the theological cir- 
 cle into the broad field of general reading we 
 see that we are living in an age of doubt. 
 
 I do not mean to say that tliis is the only 
 
 feature in the physiognomy of the age. It 
 
 I has many other aspects, from any one of whicli 
 
 ! we might pick a name. From the material 
 
 \ side, we might call it an age of progress ; 
 
 \ from the intellectual side, an age of science ; 
 
 from the medical side, an age of hysteria ; from 
 
 the political side, an age of democracy; from 
 
 the commercial side, an age of advertisement ; 
 
 from the social side, an age of publicomania. 
 
An Age of Doubt *? 
 
 But looking at it from the spiritual side, wliicli 
 is the preacher's point of view, and considering 
 that interior life to which every proclamation 
 of a gospel must be addressed, beyond a doubt 
 it stands confessed as a doubting age. 
 
 There is a profound and wide-spread un- rne ques- 
 settlement of soul in regard to fundamental ^^'^!^[y 
 truths of religion, and also in regard to the 
 nature and existence of the so-called spiritual 
 faculties by Avhich alone these truths can be 
 perceived. In its popular manifestations, this 
 unsettlement takes the form of uncertainty 
 rather than of denial, of unbelief rather than 
 of disbelief, of general scepticism rather than 
 of specific infidelity. The questioning spirit 
 is abroad, moving on the face of the waters, 
 seeking rest and finding none. 
 
 It is not merely that particular doctrines, 
 such as the inspiration of the Bible, or the 
 future punishment of the Avicked, are attacked 
 and denied. The preacher who concentrates 
 his attention at these points will fail to realize 
 the gravity of the situation. It is not that a 
 spirit of bitter and mocking atheism, such as 
 Bishop Butler described at tlie close of the 
 last century, has led people of discernment 
 to set up religion '^as a principal subject of 
 
8 An Age of Loiiht 
 
 mirth and ridicule, as it were by way of re- 
 prisal for its liaving so long interrupted the 
 pleasures of the world." ^ The preacher who 
 takes that view of the case noAv will be at 
 least fifty years too late. He will fail to 
 understand the serious and pathetic temper of 
 the age. 
 Respectful The questioning spirit of to-day is severe 
 
 but not bitter, restless but not frivolous ; it 
 takes itself very seriously and applies its meth- 
 ods of criticism, of analysis, of dissolution, 
 with a sad courtesy of demeanour, to the deep- 
 est and most vital truths of religion, the being 
 of God, the reality of the soul, the possibility 
 of a future life. Everywhere it comes and 
 everywhere it asks for a reason, in the shape 
 of a positive and scientific demonstration. 
 When one is given, it asks for another, and 
 when anotlier is given, it asks for the reason 
 of the reason. The laws of evidence, the prin- 
 ciples of judgment, the witness of history, the 
 testimony of consciousness, — all are called in 
 question. The ansAvers which have been given 
 by religion to the most difficult and pressing 
 problems of man's inner life are declared to 
 be unsatisfactory and without foundation. The 
 
 J Joseph Butler, The Analogy of Beligion (London, Bell 
 & Daldy, 1858). "Advertisement," p. xxiv. 
 
An Age of Doubt 9 
 
 question remains unsolved. Is it insoluble? 
 The age stands in doubt. Its coat-of-arms is 
 an interrogation point rampant, above three 
 bishops dormant, and its motto is Query? 
 
 Causes of 
 scepticism. 
 
 If we inquire the cause of this general scep- 
 ticism in regard to religion, the common answer 
 from all sides would probably attribute it to 
 the progress of science. I do not feel satisfied 
 with this answer. At least I should wisli to 
 qualify it in such a way as to give it a very 
 different meaning from that which is implied in 
 the current phrase '' the conflict between science 
 and religion." 
 
 Science, in itself considered, the orderly and Science not 
 
 hostile to 
 
 reasoned knowledge of the phenomenal universe religion. 
 of things and events, ought not to be, and has 
 not been, hostile to religion, simply because it 
 does not, and cannot, enter into the same sphere. 
 The great advance which has been made in the 
 observation and classification of sensible facts, 
 and in the induction of so-called general laws 
 under which those facts may be arranged for pur- 
 poses of study, has not even touched the two 
 questions upon the answer to which the reality 
 £md nature of religion depend : first, the pos- 
 
10 An Age of Doubt 
 
 sible existence of other facts wliich phj^sical 
 science cannot observe and classif}^ ; and sec- 
 ond, the probable exphmation of these facts. 
 The task of What has happened is just this. The field in 
 'c/i miffed, but wliicli faith has to work has been altered, and 
 enlarged. it seems to me enormousl}^ broadened. But 
 the work remains the same. The question is 
 whether faith has enough vital energy to face 
 and accomplish it. For example, the material 
 out of which to construct an argument from 
 the evidences of final cause in nature has been 
 incalculably increased by the discoveries of the 
 last fifty years in regard to natural selection 
 and the origin of species. The observant wan- 
 derer in the field of nature to-day no longer 
 stumbles upon Dr. Paley's old-fashioned, open- 
 faced, turnip-shaped Avatcli lying on the ground. 
 He finds, instead, an intricate and self-adjusting 
 chronometer, capable not only of marking time 
 with accuracy, but also of evolving by its own 
 operation another more perfect and delicate 
 instrument, with qualities and powers which 
 adapt themselves to their surroundings and so 
 advance forever. The idea of final cause has 
 not been touched. Only tlie region which it 
 must illuminate has been vastly enlarged. It 
 remains to be seen whether faith can supply 
 the illuminating power. Already Ave have the 
 
An Age of Doubt 11 
 
 promise of an answer in many books, by mas- 
 ters of science and philosophy, who show that 
 the theory of evolntion demands for its com- 
 pletion the recognition of the spiritual nature 
 of man and the belief in an intelligent and per- 
 sonal God. 
 
 The spread of scepticism is often attributed ^''^^ erpan- 
 to the growth of our conception of the physical knowledge. 
 magnitude of the universe. The bewildering 
 numbers and distances of the stars, the gigan- 
 tic masses of matter in motion, and the tremen- 
 dous sweep of the forces which drive our tiny 
 earth along like a grain of dust in an orderly 
 whirlwind, are supposed to have overwhelmed 
 and stunned the power of spiritual belief in 
 man. The account seems to me incorrect and 
 unconvincing. I observe that precisely the 
 same argument was used by Job and Isaiah 
 and the Psalmists to lead to a conclusion of 
 faith. The striking disproportion between 
 the littleness of man and the greatness of the 
 stars was to them a demonstration of the ne- 
 cessity of religion to solve the equation. They 
 saw in the heavens the glory of God. And if 
 man to-day knows vastly more of the heavens, 
 does not that put him in position to receive a 
 larger and loftier vision of the glory ? 
 
12 
 
 A7i Age of Doubt 
 
 Devout men 
 of pure sci- 
 ence. 
 
 The arro- 
 gance of 
 sciencs 
 falsehj so- 
 called. 
 
 We observe, moreover, that it is just in those 
 departments of science where the knowledge of 
 the magnitude and splendid order of the physi- 
 cal universe is most clear and exact, namely, in 
 astronomy and mathematics, that we find the 
 most illustrious men of science wdio have not 
 been sceptics but sincere and steadfast believ- 
 ers in the Christian religion. Kepler and 
 Newton were men of faith. The most brill- 
 iant galaxy of mathematicians ever assembled 
 at one time and place was at tlie University of 
 Cambridge in the latter half of this century. 
 Of these " Sir W. Thomson, Sir George Stokes, 
 Professors Tait, Adams, Clerk-Maxwell, and 
 Cayley — not to mention a number of lesser 
 lights, such as Routh, Todhunter, Ferrers, etc. 
 — were all avowed Christians." ^ Surely it 
 needs no further proof to show tliat the pur- 
 suit of pure science does not necessarily tend 
 to scepticism. 
 
 No, we must look more closely and distin- 
 guish more clearly in order to discover in the 
 scientific activities of the age a cause of the 
 prevailing doubt. And if we do this I think 
 Ave shall find it in the fallacy of that kind of 
 science Avhicli mistakes itself for omniscience. 
 
 1 George John Bomanes, M.A., LL.D., F.R.S., Thonghts 
 on Belie/ion (Chicago, 1895), p. 147. 
 
An Age of Doubt 13 
 
 " What we see is the pretence of certain sci- 
 ences to represent in themselves all hnman 
 knowledge. And as outside of knowledge 
 there is no longer, in the eyes of science thus 
 curtailed, any means for man to come in con- 
 tact with the realities, we see the pretence 
 advanced by some that all reality and all life 
 should be reduced to tliat which they have ver- 
 ified. Outside of this there are only dreams 
 and illusions. This is indeed too much. It is 
 no longer science, but scientific absolutism. "^ 
 
 " The history of the natural sciences," said 
 Du Bois-Reymond in 1877, " is the veritable 
 history of mankind." '^The world," saj^s an- 
 other, " is made of atoms and ether, and there 
 is no room for ghosts." M. Berthelot in the 
 preface to his Origines de Valehimie^ modestly 
 claims that " the world to-day is witliout mys- 
 teries " ; meaning thereby, I suppose, that 
 there is nothing in existence, from the crys- 
 tallization of a diamond to the character of a 
 saint, which cannot be investigated and ex- 
 plained by means of a crucible, a blow-f)ipe, a 
 microscope, and a few other tools. 
 
 This is simply begging the question of a Animmense 
 spiritual world in the negative. It is an im- (assumption. 
 
 1 Charles Wagner, Yoiitli, translated from the French by- 
 Ernest Redwood (New York, 1893), p. 28, 
 
14 All Age of Doubt 
 
 mense and stupefying assumption. It is a 
 claim to solve the problems of the inner life 
 by suppressing them. This claim is not in any 
 sense necessary to the existence of science, nor 
 to any degree supported by the work which 
 it has actually accomplished. But it is made 
 with a calm assurance which imposes power- 
 fully upon the popular mind ; and, being made 
 in the name of science, it carries Avith it an 
 appearance of authority borrowed from the 
 great service which science has rendered to 
 humanity by its discoveries in the sphere o. 
 the visible. 
 Results of The result of this petitio i^rinclpii in the 
 
 minds of those who accept it fully and carry 
 it out to its logical conclusion, is a definite 
 system of metaphysical negation Avhich goes 
 under the various names of Naturalism, Posi- 
 tivism, Empiricism, and Agnosticism. Its re- 
 sult in tlie minds of those who accept it 
 partially and provisionally, but lack the abil- 
 ity or the inclination to formulate it, is the 
 development of a sceptical temper. Its result 
 in the miiuls of those avIio are unconsciously 
 affected by it, through those profound instincts 
 of sympathy and involuntary imitation which 
 influence all men, is an attitude, — more or 
 less sincere, more or less consistent and con- 
 
 this assump- 
 tion. 
 
An Age of Doubt 15 
 
 tinuous, — an attitude of doubt. The spirit 
 of the age tacitly divides all the various 
 beliefs which are held among men into two 
 classes. Those which are supported by sci- 
 entific proof must be accepted. Those which 
 are not thus supported either must be re- 
 jected, or may safely and properly be disre- 
 garded as matters of no consequence. 
 
 Ill 
 
 Now this general scepticism, in all its The mirror 
 shades and degrees, from the most clear, self- ^-^ ^^^^^^.tur^ 
 
 ^ ' and the 
 
 conscious, and aggressive, to the most vague, shadow of 
 diffused, and deprecatory, is reflected in the '^^^"^^• 
 productions of current literature. Never was 
 literary art more perfect, more accomplished, 
 more versatile and successful than in the pres- 
 ent age. Never have its laAvs been more widely 
 understood and its fascinations more potently 
 exercised. Never has it evoked more magical 
 and charming forms to float above an abyss 
 of disenchantment and nothingness. 
 
 In the lay sermons and essays of Huxley 
 and Tyndall and Frederic Harrison and W. K. 
 Clifford, scepticism appears militant and trencli- 
 ant. These knights-errant of Doubting Castle 
 are brilliantly equipped as men of war ; and 
 
16 An Age of Doubt 
 
 even when they fall foul of each other, as the}' 
 often do, the ground of the conflict is an accu- 
 sation of infidelity to the principles of unbelief, 
 and its object is to drive the adversary back 
 into a more complete and consistent negation. 
 
 Over the fragmentary but majestic life- 
 philosophies of Carlyle and Emerson, lying 
 in the disarray of stones hewn for a temple 
 yet unbuilt, imaginative scepticism hangs like, 
 a cloud. Over Carlyle, it is the shadow of 
 a noonday tempest, full of darkness and tu- 
 mult and muttering thunder. Over Emerson, 
 it floats like a cumulus of evening vapours, 
 luminous and beautiful, alluringly transfigured 
 
 "In the golden lightning 
 
 Of the sunken sun." ^ 
 
 In the vivid and picturesque historical 
 studies of Renan and Fronde, scepticism is 
 at once ironical and idealistic, destructive and 
 dogmatic. In the penetrative and intelligent 
 critiques of Scherer and ]\Iorley, it adheres 
 witli proud but illogicrd persistence to the 
 ethical consequences of the faith with whicli 
 logic has broken : like a son disinherited, but 
 resolved to maintain the riglit of possession 
 by the strong arm. 
 
 1 ghelley, " Ode to a Skylark." 
 
An Age of Bouht 1? 
 
 In the novels of unflinching and unblushing Fiction 
 naturalism, — like those of Zola and Maupassant -^^^^"^y* 
 and the later works of Thomas Hardy, scepticism 
 speaks with a harsh and menacing accent of the 
 emptiness of all life and the futility of all 
 endeavour. In the psychological romances of 
 Flaubert and Bourget and Spielhagen, George 
 Eliot and Mrs. Humphry Ward, it holds the 
 mirror up to human nature to disclose a face 
 darkened with inconsolable regret for lost 
 dreams. Far apart as Madame Bovary and 
 Oosmopolis^ Prohlematische Naturen and Middle- 
 march and Robert Elsmere may be in many of 
 their features, do they not wear the same ex- 
 pression, — the cureless melancholy of disil- 
 lusion ? 
 
 Fiction in its more superficial form, dealing 
 only with the manners and customs of the so- 
 cial drama, and relying for its interest mainly 
 upon local colour and the charm of incident 
 narrated with vivacity and grace, betrays its 
 scepticism by a serene, unconscious disregard 
 of the part which religion plays in real life. 
 In how many of the lighter novels of the day 
 do we find any recognition, even between the 
 lines, of the influence which the idea of God or 
 its absence, the practice of prayer or its neg- 
 
spondent. 
 
 18 An Age of JJoubt 
 
 lect, actually exercise upon the character and 
 conduct of men ? Take, for exam^jle, Trilhy^'^ as 
 the type of a clever book carelessly Avritten for 
 the thoughtless public of a passing moment. It 
 is incredibly credulous in regard to the dramatic 
 possibilities of hypnotism. It is pitifully in- 
 adequate in its concejjtion of the actual poten- 
 cies of religion ; and it uses Christianity chiefly 
 as a subject for caricature in the style of the 
 illustrated newspapers, Avhich are called comic. 
 Poetrtj de- Poctry has always been the most direct and 
 
 intimate utterance of the human heart. And 
 it is in poetry that we hear to-day the voice 
 of scepticism most clearly, ''making abundant 
 music around an elementary nihilism, now 
 stripped naked." ^ Listen to its sonorous chant- 
 ings as they come from France in the verse of 
 Leconte de Lisle, celebrating the sombre ritual 
 of human automata before the altar of the un- 
 known and almighty tyrant, who agitates them 
 endlessly for his own amusement. Listen to 
 its delicate and decadent lyrics, as Charles 
 Baudelaire sings his defeat in life and his 
 thirst for annihilation. 
 
 *'Morne esprit, autrefois amoureux de la lutte, 
 L'Espoir dont I'eperon attisait ton ardeur 
 
 '^ George Du Maurier, TrlVnj (Harpers, 1895). 
 
 2 Paul Desjardins, Le Devoir Present (Taris, 18'.)2), p. 05. 
 
An Age of Doubt 19 
 
 Ne veut plus t'enfourcher. Couche toi sans pudeur, 
 Vieux cheval dont le pied a chaque obstacle butte. 
 
 Resigiie-toi, mou coeur, dors ton sommeil de brute. 
 
 Et le Temps m'engioutit minute par minute 
 Comme la neige immense un corps pris de roideur : 
 Je contemple d'en haut le globe en sa rondeur 
 Et je n'y cherche plus I'abri d'une caliute ! 
 
 Avalanche, veux tu m'emporter dans ta chute?" i 
 
 Turn to England and hear its musical con- 
 fession in the cool, sad, melodious tones of 
 jNIatthew Arnold, no enemy of faith, but her 
 disenchanted lover. 
 
 *' Forgive me, masters of the mind, 
 At whose behest I long ago 
 So much unlearned, so much resigned — 
 I come not here to be your foe ; 
 I seek these anchorites not in ruth, 
 To curse and to deny your truth ; 
 
 Not as their friend, or child, I speak 
 
 But as on some far northern strand, 
 
 Thinking of his own gods, a Greek, 
 
 In pity and mournful awe might stand 
 
 Before a fallen Runic stone, — 
 
 For both were faiths, and both are gone." 2 
 
 There is a poem by Tennyson (who never 
 broke with faith, though he felt the strain of 
 
 1 Charles Baudelaire, Flaws du Mai (Paris, 1888), p. 205. 
 " Le gout du N^ant." 
 
 2 Matthew Arnold, Poems (New York, Macniillan, 1878), 
 p. 337. " Stanzas from the Grande Chartreuse." 
 
20 An Age of t)ouht 
 
 doubt), in wliicli he describes with iiiteiiJ^e 
 dramatic sympathy the finality of scepticism 
 in the human souh It is called "Despair." 
 A picture of There is another poem, called "Sea Dreams," 
 doubt. ill which he gives a vision of the rising tide of 
 
 doubt as it threatens to undermine and over- 
 whelm the beliefs of the past. The woman is 
 telling- her husband the dream which came to 
 her in tlie night as she Avatched by their sick 
 child. 
 
 " But round the North, a hght, 
 A belt, it seem'd, of luminous vapour, lay, 
 And ever in it a low musical note 
 Sweird up and died ; and, as it swell'd, a ridge 
 Of breaker issued from the belt, and still 
 Grew with the growing note, and when the note 
 Had reach'd a thunderous fulness, on those cliffs 
 Broke, mixt with awful light (the same as that 
 Living within the belt) whereby she saw 
 That all those lines of cliffs were cliffs no more, 
 But huge cathedral fronts of every age, 
 Grave, florid, stern, as far as eye could see, 
 One after one f and then the great ridge drew, 
 Lessening to the lessening music, back. 
 And passed into the belt and sw^ell'd again 
 Slowly to music : ever when it broke 
 The statues, king, or saint, or founder, fell ; 
 Then from the gaps and chasms of ruin left 
 Came men and women in dark clusters round, 
 Some crying, ' Set them u}) ! they shall not fall ! * 
 And others, ' Let them lie, for they have fall'n.' 
 And still they strove and wrangled: . . . 
 . . . and ever as their shrieks 
 
An Age of Douht 21 
 
 Ran highest up the gamut, that great wave 
 Returning, while none mark'd it, on the crowd 
 Broke, mixt with awful light, and showM their eyes 
 Glaring, and passionate looks, and swept away 
 The men of flesh and blood, and men of stone, 
 To the waste deeps together." i 
 
 It was but a dream, dispelled from the mind The pity oj 
 of her to whom it came in the night-watches '^' 
 by the crying of her little child, and soon for- 
 gotten in the sweet reality of human love. 
 Only a dream, but how many souls have felt 
 the vague sadness, the haunting, helpless pity 
 and fear of a like vision, looking out upon the 
 landscape of man's inner life, and seeing the 
 ancient landmarks slowly melted or swiftly 
 swept away, the shrines of memory shaken 
 and removed, the fair images of immortal de- 
 sire and aspiration dissolving and disappearing 
 in the onward waves, silently creeping, or surg- 
 ing with mysterious and inarticulate music out 
 of the waste deej) of doubt, — 
 
 " The unplumbed, salt, estranging sea." ^ 
 
 Who can think of the sharp . anguish and dull 
 grief that have fallen upon innumerable hearts 
 through the loss of their most precious faiths ; 
 
 1 Tennyson's Poetical Works (Macmillan, 1890), p. 138. 
 
 2 Matthew Arnold, "To Marguerite." Foems (Macmil- 
 lan, 1878), p. 184. 
 
22 An Age of Douht 
 
 who can think of the gray, formless, ever-mov- 
 ing, yet immovable flood of mordant gloom that 
 has covered so many once bright and fertile 
 fields of human hope and endeavour, so many 
 once secure and peaceful homes of human trust 
 and confidence, — who can tliink of these things, 
 even though his own standpoint be still un- 
 touched, his own faith-dwelling founded upon 
 an untrembling rock far above the tide, with- 
 out a sorrowful perturbation of spirit and a 
 deep, inward sense of compassionate distress 
 and dread ? We stand upon the shore, but we 
 stand beside the sea. And we look out upon 
 it, as Emile Littre sadly wrote, ^ like the women 
 of Troy, whom the Roman poet ^^ictured gaz- 
 ing at its mighty currents and engulfing Avaves: 
 
 " Pontum adsjjectabant Jiejites." 
 
 TV 
 
 Sympathy It is with no careless and exaggerating hand, 
 
 ■ it is in no unsympathetic and condemning spirit, 
 that I have tried to draw this picture of the 
 sceptical age in which we live. Its faults, its 
 perils, are mine and yours. The preacher who 
 assumes a supercilious and damnatory attitude 
 
 1 ^mile Littr^, Conservation., Bevohition. Positivisme, 
 Bemarqnes, p. 430. 
 
An Age of Doubt 23 
 
 towards the doubts of the present time can do 
 little to relieve, and may do much to increase 
 them. If we desire to be true ministers to a 
 doubting age, we must put ourselves in the posi- 
 tion of Maurice, who said, " I wisli to confess 
 the sins of the time as my own.''^ So far as 
 current scepticism has its source in evil, it flows 
 from faults of which we all partake, — tiie pride 
 of intellect, the haste of judgment, the prefer- 
 ence of the seen to tlie unseen, the impatience 
 of ignorance, the vain demand of perfection in 
 the finite comprehension of the infinite, and the 
 disloyalty of reason to conscience. 
 
 But indeed this is not the point of view from Lessons of 
 which we speak. This lecture is not an indict- ,^^^'',*^^''''"^" 
 ment. It is a diagnosis. Doubt, as we are 
 thinking of it, is not a crime, but a malad}^ 
 And if we are to have any hope or power of 
 staying its progress and healing its ravages, we 
 must not only be sympathetic in our understand- 
 ing of it, but we must also look through it, 
 earnestly and patiently, to see whether there 
 are not some favourable symptoms, some signs 
 of enduring vitality, some promises of returning 
 health and strength in the spirit of the age. 
 
 Of these it seems to me that there are three, 
 
 1 The Life of Frederick Denison Maurice (New York, 
 Scribuers, 1884), vol. ii., p. 235. 
 
24 
 
 An Age of Doiiht 
 
 Pessimism. 
 
 Cheerful 
 scepticism 
 almost ex- 
 tinct. 
 
 SO evident and so important, that we ought not 
 to overlook them. First, the acknowledged 
 discontent and pain of unbelief ; second, the 
 practical recoil of some of the finest minds 
 from the void of absolute scepticism ; third, 
 the persistent desire of many doubting spirits 
 to serve mankind by love, self-sacrifice, and 
 ethical endeavour. In other words, I would 
 read the lesson of encouragement in the suffer- 
 ings of doubt, in the doubts of doubt, and in 
 the splendid moral inconsistencies of doubt. 
 
 Begin, then, with pain, which is not only a 
 warning of disease, but also a sign of life. The 
 pessimism which goes hand in hand with scep- 
 ticism in this nineteentli century is a cry of 
 suffering. The closely reasoned philosophies of 
 Schopenhauer and Hartmann, with their prem- 
 isses of misery and conclusions of despair, are 
 only the scientific statement of a widely diffused 
 sentiment of dissatisfaction and despondency in 
 regard to life.^ Their spread, like that of some 
 apparently new disease, is due to the fact that 
 they give a name to something from which men 
 have long suffered. 
 
 It seemed at one time as if the course of 
 modern scepticism was to be free from sadness, 
 a ])ainless malady. At the beginning of the 
 1 James Sully, Pessimism, pp. 2, 3. 
 
An Age of Doubt 25 
 
 centuiy the tone of infidelity was jubilant and 
 triumphant. Percy Bysshe Shelley walked into 
 the inn at Montanvert and wrote his name in 
 the visitors' book, adding " democrat, philan- 
 thropist, atheist,*' — as if it were a record of 
 victory and a title of glory. This cheerful 
 type of scepticism still survives, here and tliere, 
 in a few men who insist that the process of dis- 
 enchantment is pleasant and jo^^ous, and that 
 the optimism which belonged to faitli may re- 
 main while the faith itself disappears. It is 
 like the smile of the famous cat, in the child's 
 story-book, Avhich broadened and brightened 
 while the cat faded, until finally the animal was 
 gone and nothing but the grin was left. 
 
 But for the most part modern doubt shows a The sorroiv 
 sad and pain-drawn face, heavy with grief and ^ -^jl^^^'' 
 dark with apprehension. There is an illustra- 
 tion of this cliange in the life of George Eliot. 
 In her girlhood she passed suddenly, by an un- 
 conditional surrender, out of a warm faith in 
 Evangelical Christianity into the coldest kind 
 of rational scepticism. She w^rites of tlie dull, 
 and now forgotten, book which wrouglit this 
 change, Charles Hennell's Inquiry concerning 
 the Origin of Christianity^ with strange and al- 
 most fantastic merriment: "Mr. Hennell ouglit 
 to be one of the happiest of men that he has 
 
26 An Age of Doubt 
 
 done such a life's work. I am sure if I had 
 written such a book I shoukl be invulnerable 
 to all the arrows of all the gods and goddesses. 
 The book is full of wit to me. It gives me that 
 exquisite kind of laughter which comes from 
 the gratification of the reasoning faculties. "^ 
 But the arrows which she despised struck 
 home, ere life was ended, to her own heart. 
 
 " I remember," Avrites Mr. F. W. H. Myers, 
 "how at Cambridge I walked with her once 
 in the Fellows' Garden of Trinity, on an even- 
 ing of rainy May, and she, stirred somewhat 
 beyond her wont, and taking as her text 
 the three words which have been used so 
 often as the inspiring trumpet-calls of men, 
 — the words God, Immortality, Duty, — pro- 
 nounced, with terrible earnestness, how in- 
 conceivable was tlie first, how unbelievable 
 was the second, and how peremptory and abso- 
 lute the third. Never, perhaps, had sterner 
 accents affirmed the sovereignty of imper- 
 sonal and unrecompensing law. I listened and 
 night fell ; her grave, majestic countenance 
 turned towards me like a Sibyl's in the gloom ; 
 it was as though she withdrew from my grasp, 
 one by one, the two scrolls of promise, and 
 
 1 George ElioVs Life, as related in her Letters (New York, 
 Harpers), vol. i., p. 119. 
 
An Age of Doubt 27 
 
 left me the third scroll only, awful with in- 
 evitable fate." 1 
 
 An inevitable fate, seen through the gloom The sad as- 
 of falling night, — that indeed is the aspect of P''^""^'^'-^''- 
 life which the literature of doubt displays to 
 us. A gray shadow of melancholy spreads 
 over the questioning, uncertain, disillusioned 
 age ; languid sighs of weariness breathe from 
 its salons and palaces. Bitter discontent mut- 
 ters in its workshops and tenements. "Never, 
 I believe," says Paul Desjardins, " have men 
 been more universally sad than in the present 
 time." And then he adds, with keen insight, 
 " (3ur misery lies in feeling that we are less 
 men than we were sixty years ago." ^ Human 
 ife has been unspeakably impoverished and 
 narrowed by the loss of faith. Comedy has 
 become tragic, and tragedy has grown mean 
 and sordid. 3 Men have lost the sound of a 
 Divine voice in the story of their existence 
 and learned to listen to it as 
 
 "a tale 
 
 Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury 
 
 Signifying nothing." 
 
 1 R. H. Hutton, Modern Guides of English Thought 
 (London, Macmillan, 1887), p. 262. 
 
 2 Le Devoir Present, pp. 17, 19. 
 
 3 See the plays of Ibsea : Ghosts, A DolVs House, The 
 Wild Duck, etc. 
 
ness of man. 
 
 28 An Age of Doubt 
 
 Love itself, the great purifier and eniiobler, has 
 been transformed in the subtle analysis of sex- 
 ual passion, from the sea-born Venus, pure and 
 radiant with immortal youth, to a dirt-engen- 
 dered goddess, concealing her secret ugliness 
 with illusory and artificial charms, and presid- 
 ing with malignant power over the lower cur- 
 rents of man's being, — a veritable Cloacina of 
 human life.^ 
 The mean- The thought of '' the grandeur and misery 
 of man," as Pascal conceived it, was painful 
 but elevating. The conception of the insig- 
 nificance and misery of man as scepticism pre- 
 sents it, is painful and dispiriting. Born of 
 blind force and unconscious matter, quickened 
 by some mysterious cruelty to a consciousness 
 of his own origin and a foreboding of his inex- 
 plicable and fruitless destiny, he " drees his 
 weird," between two fathomless abysses of 
 gloom, as one who is indeed weary and heavy- 
 laden. The music with which he accompanies 
 his march towards the blank and dismal bourn, 
 rolls and clashes through the literature of every 
 land with deep and mournful discords, as if 
 man had at last invented that strange organ of 
 
 1 Bourget, Psychologie Contemporaine, pp, 5, 8. 
 
An Age of Doubt 29 
 
 expression which a satirist has called " the Mis- 
 eropho7i.'' ^ 
 
 '' This philosophy," says Stendhal, comment- The nausea 
 ing upon the last reflections of his hero in Hoxige 
 et Noi7\ " was perhaps true, but it was of such a 
 nature as to make one long for death." And 
 then the critic from whom I have quoted these 
 words, adds his own commentary. " Do you 
 perceive, at the close of this work, the most 
 complete which the author has left, the break- 
 ing of the tragic dawn of pessimism ? It rises, 
 this dawn of blood and tears, and, like the clear- 
 ness of a new-born day, it overspreads with 
 crimson hues the loftiest spirits of our age, 
 those whose thoughts are at the summit, those 
 to whom the eyes of the men of to-morrow lift 
 themselves, — religiously. I am come in this 
 series of psychological studies to the fifth and 
 last of the personages whom I propose to ana- 
 lyze. I have examined a poet, Baudelaire ; a 
 historian, Renan ; a romancer, Flaubert ; a 
 philosopher, Taine ; I have just examined one 
 of these composite artists in whom the critic 
 and the imaginative writer are closely united ; 
 and I have found in these five Frenchmen of 
 
 1 Anton Bettelheim, article in CosmopoUs, January, 189G. 
 
30 All Age of Doubt 
 
 such importance, the same philosophy of dis- 
 gust with the universal nothingness."^ 
 
 If we turn to Russia, which has given us 
 some of the most brilliant and influential, 
 though undisciplined, writers of modern fic- 
 tion, do we not hear, in an accent harsher 
 and more formidable, the same conclusions, 
 the same cries of nausea over the inextricable 
 confusion and vain efforts of human life? If 
 we turn to England, do we not see the same 
 cloud of melancholy, less threatening, less 
 angry, but no less dark, rising from the 
 chasm which doubt has made between man's 
 inner life and the world as scientific posi- 
 tivism pictures it? How mournful is the 
 voice in which W. K. Clifford proclaims, 
 " The Great Companion is dead I " How dark 
 with silent, passionate grief is that lonely 
 wood in which " Robert Elsmere " feels him- 
 self going blind to the dearest visions of his 
 former faith. ^ How black the air in which 
 " Jude the Obscure " breathes out the last 
 throbbings of his insurgent heart in curses 
 upon his sordid and desperate fate ! ^ Let a 
 
 1 Paul Bourget, Psychologie Contemporaine, p. 321. 
 
 2 Mrs. Humphry Ward, Bohert Elsmere (Macmillan, 
 1888), vol. ii. , chap, xxvi, 
 
 8 Thomas Hardy, Jude the Obscure (Harpers, 1896). 
 
An Age of Doubt 31 
 
 poet, with that sublime insight of genius 
 which endures even amid the ruins created 
 by its own destructive passion, speak the 
 last word of doubt, — the epitaph of The 
 City of Dreadful Night. The portentous fig- 
 ure of " Melancholia " sits enthroned above her 
 vast metropolis. 
 
 " The moving Moon and stars from east to west 
 Circle before her in the sea of air ; 
 Shadows and gleams glide round lier solemn rest. 
 Her subjects often gaze up to her there : 
 The strong to drink new strength of iron endurance, 
 The weak, new terrors ; all, renewed assurance 
 And confirmation of the old despair." ^ 
 
 r 
 
 But why despair, unless indeed because Painf/ivef. 
 
 an arrju- 
 ment of 
 
 man, in his very nature 'and inmost essence, 
 is framed for an immortal hope ? No other hope 
 creature is filled with disgust and anger by 
 the mere recognition of its own environment 
 and the realization of its ow^n destiny. This 
 strange issue of a purely physical evolution 
 in a profound revolt against itself is incred- 
 ibly miraculous. Can a vast universe of atoms 
 and ether, unfolding out of darkness into dark- 
 ness, produce at some point in its progress, 
 and that point apparently the highest, a feel- 
 ing of profound disappointment with its par- 
 
 1 James Thomson, The City of Dreadful Night, xxi. 12. 
 
32 An Age of Doubt 
 
 tially discovered processes and resentful grief 
 at its dimly foreseen end? To believe this 
 would require a monstrous credulity ! Athe- 
 ism does not touch this difficulty. Agnosti- 
 cism evades it. There are but two solutions 
 which really face the facts. One is the black, 
 unspeakable creed that the source of all things 
 is an unknown, mocking, malignant Power, 
 whose last and most cruel jest is tlie misery 
 of disenchanted man.^ The other is the hope- 
 ful creed that the very pain which man suffers 
 when his spiritual nature is denied, is proof 
 that it exists, and part of the discipline by 
 which a truthful, loving God would lead man 
 to Himself. Let the world judge which is 
 the more reasonable Jaith. But for our part, 
 while we cling to the creed of hope, let us 
 not fail to '' cleave ever to the sunnier side 
 of doubt," and see in the very shadow that 
 it casts the evidence of a light behind and 
 above it. Let us learn the meaning of that 
 noble word of St. Augustine : Thou hast made 
 us for Thi/self and unquiet is our heart until it 
 rests in Thee. 
 
 1 "It must have been an ill-advised God, who could fall 
 upon uo better amusement than the transforming of Himself 
 into such a hungry world as this, which is utterly miserable and 
 worse than none at all." — David Friedrich Strauss, quoted 
 in The British Quarterly Bevieiv, January, 1877, p. 146. 
 
An Age of Doubt 33 
 
 Yes, the inquietude of the heart which Therenais^ 
 doubt has robbed of its faith in God, is an ^"'^^^^/ 
 
 ' faith. 
 
 evidence that scepticism is a mahidy, not a 
 normal state. The sadness of our times under 
 the pressure of positive disbelief and negative 
 uncertainty has in it the promise and potency 
 of a return to health and happiness. Already 
 we can see, if we look with clear eyes, the 
 signs of what I have dared to call "the re- 
 action out of the heart of a doubting age 
 towards the Christianity of Christ and the 
 faith in Immortal Love."^ 
 
 Pagan poets, full of melancholy beauty and 
 vague regret for lost ideals, poets of decadence 
 and despondence, the age has born, to sing its 
 grief and gloom. But its two great singers, 
 Tennyson and Browning, strike a clearer note 
 of returning faith and hope. " They resume 
 the quest, and do not pause until they find 
 Him whom they seek."^ Pessimists like Hart- 
 mann work back unconsciously, from the vague 
 remoteness of pantheism, far in the direction, 
 at least, of a theistic view of the universe. 
 His later books — Religionsphilosophie and 
 
 1 The Poetry of Tennyson (New York, Scribners, 1889), 
 p. xiii. 
 
 2 Vida D. Scudder, The Life of the Spirit in the Modern 
 English Poets (Houghton, Mikin, & Co., 1895), p. 333. 
 
 D 
 
34 An Age of Douht 
 
 Selhstersetzung des Christenthums — breathe a 
 different si^irit from his Philosophie des Un- 
 hewussten} One of the most cautious of our 
 younger students of philosophy has noted with 
 care, in a recent article, the indications that 
 'Hhe era of doubt is drawing to a close." ^ A 
 statesman, like Signor Crispi, does not hesitate 
 to cut loose from his former atheistic connec- 
 tions and declare that "the belief in God is 
 the fundamental basis of the healthy life of 
 the people, while atheism puts in it the germ 
 of an irreparable decay." The French critic, 
 M. Edouard Rod, declares that " only religion 
 can regulate at the same time human thought 
 and human action." ^ Mr. Benjamin Kidd, 
 from the side of English sociology, assures 
 us that "since man became a social creature, 
 the development of his intellectual character 
 has become subordinate to the development 
 of his religious character," and concludes that 
 religion affords the only permanent sanction 
 for progress.'^ A famous biologist, Romanes, 
 
 1 James Orr, The Christian Vieio of God and the World 
 (New York, Kaiidolpli, 1893), pp. 456, 457. 
 
 2 The Methodist lieview, January, 1896. "The Keturn 
 to Faith," by Prof. A. C. Armstrong, Jr. 
 
 3 Edouard Hod, Les Idees Morales du Temps Present 
 (Paris, 1894), p. 304. 
 
 4 Benjamin Kidd, Social Evolution (London, 1894), 
 p. 245. 
 
An Age of Doubt 35 
 
 who once professed the most absolute rejec- 
 tion of revealed, and the most unqualified 
 scepticism of natural, religion, thinks his way 
 soberly back from the painful void to a posi- 
 tion Avliere he confesses that " it is reasonable 
 to be a Christian believer," and dies in the 
 full communion of the church of Jesus. ^ 
 
 All along the line, we see men who once 
 thought it necessary or desirable to abandon 
 forever the soul's abode of faith in the unseen, 
 returning by many and devious Avays from the 
 far country of doubt, driven by homesickness 
 and hunger to seek some path which shall at 
 least bring them in sight of a Father's house. 
 
 And meanwhile we hear the conscience, the The indomi- 
 ethical instinct of mankind, asserting itself 
 with splendid courage and patience, even in 
 those Avho have as yet found no sure ground 
 for it to stand upon. There is a sublime con- 
 tradiction between the positivist's view of man 
 as "the hero of a lamentable drama played in 
 an obscure corner of the universe, in virtue of 
 blind laws, before an indifferent nature, and 
 with annihilation for its denouement," ^ and the 
 doctrine that it is his supreme duty to sacrifice 
 himself for the good of humanity. Yet many 
 
 ^ Thoughts on Beligion, p. 196. 
 
 2 Madame L. Ackermann, Ma Vie (Paris, 1885), p. xviii. 
 
 table con- 
 science. 
 
crusade in 
 FrcDice. 
 
 36 An Age of Doubt 
 
 of the sceptical thinkers of the age do not 
 stumble at tlie contradiction. Tliey hold fast 
 to love and justice and moral enthusiasm even 
 though they suspect that they themselves are 
 the products of a nature wldch is blind and 
 dumb and heartless and stupid. Never have 
 the obligations of self-restraint, and helpful- 
 ness, and equity, and universal brotherhood 
 been preached more fervently than by some of 
 the English agnostics. 
 The neio In France a new crusade has risen ; a cru- 
 
 sade which seeks to gather into its hosts men 
 of all creeds and men of none, and which pro- 
 claims as its object the recovery of the sacred 
 places of man's spiritual life, the holy land in 
 which virtue shines forever by its own light, 
 and the higher impulses of our nature are in- 
 spired, invincible, and immortal. On its ban- 
 ner M. Paul Desjardins writes the word of 
 Tolstoi, '•'•Ilfaut avow une dine; it is necessary 
 to hav^e a soul," and declares that the crusaders 
 will follow it wherever it leads them. " For 
 my part," he cries, " I shall not blush certainly 
 to acknowledge as sole master the Chris^ 
 preached by the doctors. I shall not recoil if 
 my premisses force me to believe, at last, as 
 Pascal believed." ^ 
 
 1 Le Devoir Present, 45. 
 
An Age of Doubt 37 
 
 In our own land such a crusade does not yet The new 
 
 crusade i 
 America. 
 
 appear to be necessary. The disintegration of ^''"^"^^^ ^^ 
 
 faith under the secret processes of general 
 scepticism has not yet gone far enough to make 
 the peril of religion evident, or to cause a new 
 marshalling of hosts to recover and defend the 
 forsaken shrines of man's spiritual life. When 
 the process Avhich is now subtly working in so 
 many departments of our literature has gone 
 farther, it may be needful to call for such a 
 crusade. If so, I believe it will come. I be- 
 lieve that the leaders of thought, the artists, 
 the poets of tlie future, when they stand face 
 to face with the manifest results of negation 
 and disillusion, which really destroy the very 
 sphere in which alone art and poetry can live, 
 will rise to meet the peril, and proclaim anew 
 with one voice the watchword, " It is necessary 
 to have a soul! And though a man gain the 
 whole world, if his soul is lost, it shall profit 
 him nothing." But meanwhile, before the fol- 
 loAving of the errors of France in literature and 
 art has led us to that point of spiritual impov- 
 erishment where we must imitate tlie organized 
 and avowed effort to recover that which has 
 been lost, we see a new crusade of another 
 kind: a powerful movement of moral enthu- 
 siasm, of self-sacrifice, of altruism, even among 
 
38 An Age of Doubt 
 
 those who profess to be out of sympathy with 
 Christianity, which is a sign of promise, be- 
 cause it reveals a force that cries out for faith, 
 and for Christian faith, to guide and direct it. 
 Never was there a time when the fine aspira- 
 tions of the young manhood and young woman- 
 hood of our country needed a more inspiring 
 and direct Christian leadership. The indica- 
 tions of this need lie open to our sight on every 
 side. Here is a company of refined and edu- 
 cated people going down to make a college set- 
 tlement among the poor and ignorant, to help 
 them and lift them up. They declare that it is 
 not a religious movement, that there is to be 
 no preaching connected with it, that the only 
 faith which it is to embody is faith in human- 
 ity. They choose a leader who has only that 
 faith. But they find, under his guidance, that 
 the movement will not move, that the work 
 cannot be done, that it faints and fails l)ecause 
 it lacks the spring of moral inspiration which 
 can come only from a divine and spiritual 
 faith. And they are forced to seek a new 
 leader who, although he is not a preacher, yet 
 carries within his lieart that power of religious 
 conviction, that force of devotion to the will of 
 God, that faith in the living and supreme 
 Christ, which is in fact the centre of Christian- 
 
An Age of Doubt 39 
 
 ity. All around the circle of human doubt 
 and despair, where men and women are going 
 out to enlighten and uplift and comfort and 
 strengthen their fellow-men under the perjjlex- 
 ities and burdens of life, we hear the cry for a 
 gospel which shall be divine, and therefore 
 sovereign and unquestionable and sure and vic- 
 torious. All through the noblest aspirations 
 and efforts and hopes of our age of doubt, we 
 feel the longing, and we hear the demand, for 
 a new inspiration of Christian faith. 
 
 These are the signs of the times. Surely we The signs of 
 must take note of them, surely we must labour 
 and pray to understand their true significance, 
 if we are to say anything to our fellow -men 
 which shall be Avorth our saying and their 
 hearing. 
 
 Renan made a strange remark not long be- 
 fore his death : '' I fear that the Avork of the 
 Twentieth Century will consist in taking out 
 of the waste-basket a multitude of excellent 
 ideas which the Nineteenth Century has heed- 
 lessly thrown into it." The sceptic's fear is 
 the believer's hope. Once more the fields are 
 white unto the harvest. The time is ripe ; 
 ripe in the sorrow of scepticism, ripe in the 
 return of aspiration, ripe in the enthusiasm of 
 
 t?ie times. 
 
40 An Age of Doubt 
 
 humanity, for a i-enaissance of the spiritual 
 life. 
 
 Already the horizon brightens with the tokens 
 of this renaissance. There is a new interest in 
 religion as the most living of all topics. There 
 is a ncAv sense of its vital meaning for the w^hole 
 life of man. There is a new^ determination to 
 apply it all around the circle of human respon- 
 sibilities and test its value everywhere. There 
 is a new cry for a Christ who shall fulfil the 
 hopes of all the ages. There is a new love 
 waiting for Him, a new devotion ready to fol- 
 low His call. Doubt, in its nobler aspect, — 
 honest, unwilling, morally earnest doubt, — has 
 been a John the Baptist to prepare the way for 
 His coming. The men of to-day are saying, as 
 certain Greeks said to apostles of old, " Sirs, we 
 would see Jesus." The disciple who can lead 
 the questioning spirits to Him, is the man who 
 has tlu' (io.spel for an Age of Doubt. 
 
n 
 
 THE GOSPEL OF A PERSON 
 
Subtlest thought shall fail and Tiearning falter, 
 Churches change, forms perish, systems go, 
 
 But our human needs, they will not alter, 
 Christ no after age shall e'er outgrow. 
 
 Yea, Amen ! O changeless One, Thou only, 
 
 Art life's guide and spiritual goal, 
 Thou the Light across the dark vale lonely, — 
 
 Thou the eternal haven of the soul. 
 
 — John Campbell Shairp. 
 
II 
 
 THE GOSPEL OF A PERSON 
 
 The prevalence and the quality of modern How shall 
 
 doubt, with its discontent and sadness, its 
 self-misgivings and reactions, its moral incon- 
 sistencies and fine enthusiasms, bring the 
 preacher who is alive and in earnest, face to 
 face with the most important question of his 
 life. What can I do, what ought I to do, as 
 a preacher, to meet the strange, urgent, com- 
 plicated needs of such a time as this? 
 
 First of all, as a man. — and every preacher 
 ought to be a man, though not every man is 
 bound to be a preacher — as a man. it is nec- 
 essary to lead a clean, upright, steadfast, use- 
 ful life, purged from all insincerity, and lifted 
 above all selfishness, and especially above that 
 form of religious selfishness which is the beset- 
 ting peril of those who feel themselves rich in 
 faith in the midst of a generation that has been 
 made poor by unbelief. Never has there been a 
 time when character and conduct counted for 
 43 
 
 we serve the 
 present age? 
 
44 
 
 The Gospel of a Person 
 
 more than they do to-da}'. A life on a high 
 level, yet full of helpful, healing sympathy 
 for all life on its lowest levels, is the first debt 
 which we owe to our fellow-men in this age. 
 
 But beyond this, is there not something per- 
 sonal and specific which the conditions of the 
 present demand from us, as men who have not 
 only the common duty of living, but also the 
 peculiar vocation of speaking directly and con- 
 stantly to the inner life of our brothers ? We 
 want some distinct and definite message, which 
 is to be clearly formed in our thought and feel- 
 ing and utterance, as the central, guiding, domi- 
 nating force in all our efforts to realize the fine 
 aspiration of the old hymn : 
 
 " To serve the present age, 
 My calling to fulfil, — 
 Oh, may it all my powers engage 
 To do my Master's will ! " 
 
 Now the moment we look at the problem in 
 this light, Ave see that there are various lines 
 of activity open to us, and along all of these 
 lines men are making promises and prophecies 
 of usefulness and success. The cures Avhich 
 are suggested for the malady of the age are 
 many and diverse. Of some of them we need 
 speak only in passing, to recognize that for 
 us, at least, they are unsuitable. 
 
The G-ospel of a Person 45 
 
 HeiT Max Nordan, for example, in his Reaction to 
 
 curious and chaotic book, Der/etferafion, diag- 
 noses the sickness of modern times as the 
 result, not of a loss of faith, but of a fatal 
 increase of nervous irritability pioduced by 
 the strain of an intricate civilization. He 
 declares that the malady must run its course, 
 but tliat in time it will be healed by the re- 
 storative force of '' misoneism, that instinctive, 
 invincible aversion to progress and its difficul- 
 ties that Lombroso has studied so much and to 
 which he has given this name."^ 
 
 The name is certainly not a pretty one, nor 
 do I think that, after the first feeling of pleas- 
 ure in learning to pronounce a newly imported 
 word has passed, the contemplation of its 
 meaning will afford us any profound sense of 
 satisfaction or hope. The picture of mankind 
 as a magnified Jemmy Button, returning from 
 his temporary residence in England to his na- 
 tive Terra del Fuego^ and flinging away his 
 gloves and patent-leather shoes, to relapse into 
 a peaceful and contented barbarism, is not in- 
 spiring. Who is there that would care to do- 
 vote his life to the hastening of such a result? 
 Who but the veriest quack, himself affected by 
 the hysteria of the age, would think of curing 
 1 Max Nordau, Degeneration (New York, 1895), p. 642. 
 
 barbarism. 
 
46 The Gospel of a Person 
 
 the convulsions of St. Vitus' dance in an over- 
 strained humanity by throwing the patient into 
 the stupor of typhoid fever ? 
 Psychical Another and very different method of deal- 
 
 ing with the malady of the times is suggested 
 by those Avho believe that Science itself, in the 
 immense future advance which is predicted for 
 it, will supply the antidote for the scepticism 
 which has accompanied its previous course. 
 New discoveries will be made which will sup- 
 port the proposition : II faut avoir une dme. 
 New arguments will be constructed which will 
 give us a scientific demonstration of the un- 
 seen universe and the future life. It is in 
 this spirit that Mr. F. AV. H. Myers calls at- 
 tention to the phenomena of mesmerism and 
 hypnotism and telepathy, and suggests that 
 the need of the age is a more cordial and 
 general interest in the investigations of the 
 Society of Psychical Research. ^ I do not 
 think, for one, that these investigations are 
 to be slighted or despised. They may be of 
 great value. But it is difficult to believe that 
 this is the source to which the preacher is to 
 look either for his inspiration or his message. 
 For, in the first place, it is highly improbable 
 that science is about to make any such aston- 
 
 ^ Science and A Future Life (Macmillan, 1893), pp. 34, 44. 
 
The Gospel of a Person 47 
 
 ishing advance, either in methods or results, 
 as some men anticipate. The best authorities 
 admit this, and warn us that there are "limi- 
 tations in the nature of the universe which 
 must circumscribe the achievements of specu- 
 lative research."^ Mr. Myers himself makes 
 the same admission, and says that so far as 
 our discoveries are confined to the physical 
 side of things, there is no ground whatever 
 for sanguine hope. Moreover, in the second 
 place, whatever work may be done in this di- 
 rection must be accomplished, not by preachers, 
 but by scientists. The average preacher has 
 no particular vocation, and no adequate qual- 
 ification, for the task. Neither by tempera- 
 ment nor by training is he fitted to judge 
 of these matters. Now and then you will find 
 a rare exception ; but as a rule nothing could 
 be of less value than the scientific sermons of 
 preachers who have only a bowing acquaint- 
 ance with science. If the cure of modern 
 scepticism is to be accomplished by the further 
 progress of physical investigation, at least we 
 must confess that this enterprise is not for us. 
 
 But there are two other ways of deal- 
 ing with current doubt which demand closer 
 attention. (3ne of tliem is tlie philosophic 
 
 1 C. H. Pearson, Xational Life and Character (Macmillan, 
 1893), p. 291. 
 
48 The G-ospel of a Person 
 
 Thorough- method of a reductio ad ahsurdum. The logic 
 
 goliir/ 
 rationalism. 
 
 of rationalism is applied to its own premisses 
 in order to show that they are unfounded and 
 unverifiable. The result of this attack, as it 
 has been made with a relentless and masterly 
 hand by Mr. Arthur James Balfour in his 
 Defence of Philosophic Doid)t^ is to exhibit the 
 startling fact that ''the universe as repre- 
 sented to us by science is wholly unimaginable, 
 and that our conception of it is what in The- 
 ology would be termed purely anthropomor- 
 phic." ^ The evidence for the existence of a 
 world composed of atoms and ether is no 
 more conclusive, tlie account which science 
 gives of their nature and qualities is no more 
 coherent, than the evidence and account which 
 faith gives of a world created by a personal 
 God and inhabited by immortal souls. Pure 
 asfnosticism is thus forced into the service of 
 Christianity and used to destroy all a priori 
 objections to it. Giant Doubt is brought low 
 by turning his own weapons against himself, 
 even as Benaiah, the son of Jehoiada, slew the 
 Egyptian "with his own spear." ^ 
 
 The "value of this service of philosophy is 
 
 1 A Defence of Philosophic Doubt (Macmillan, 1879), 
 pp. 284, 285, 287-289. 
 
 2 1 Chron. xi. 23. 
 
The Gospel of a Person 49 
 
 considerable. The Christian preacher ought 
 not to be ignorant of its actual results, for 
 they are such as to encourage him in preserv- 
 ing his independence against the tyrannous 
 claims of positivism ; nor unfamiliar with its 
 methods, for they are fitted to train and disci- 
 pline his mind by hard exercise and exact work. 
 But it must be remembered that only a mighty 
 man of valour, one who, like Benaiah, ranks 
 above the host, and above the thirty captains of 
 the host, can hope to play a leading part in this 
 enterprise of ''carrying the war into Africa." 
 It must be remembered also that the reduction 
 of scientific naturalism to an absurdity falls far 
 short of the establishment of religious faith as 
 a verity. Grateful for all that philosophy can 
 do, and is doing, to clear the way, the preacher 
 must have a principle, an impulse, a line of 
 action which will carry him beyond the nega- 
 tive result of making unbelief doubtful, to the 
 positive result of making belief credible. 
 
 At this point our attention is called to an- Theological 
 other way of dealing with current scepticism, -^^^ *• "' ^^"" 
 — the dogmatic method, which relies for the 
 defence of faith upon the construction of a 
 complete and consistent system of doctrine in 
 regard to God and man, the present world and 
 the future life. Faith, in other words, is to 
 
50 The Grospel of a Person 
 
 be established by fortification, surrounded and 
 entrenched with banquette and parapet, scarp 
 and ditch and counterscarp of iron-worded 
 proof, defended on every side by solid syllo- 
 gisms, and impregnable against all assaults of 
 unbelief. It is foolish not to recognize the 
 great work which has been done along this line 
 by wise and strong men in the past. Those 
 who affect to despise it and make light of it, 
 are simply ignorant of some of the loftiest 
 achievements of the human intellect. The 
 works of Augustine and Anselm and Thomas 
 Aquinas, of John Calvin and Richard Hooker 
 and John Owen, of Ralph Cudworth and 
 William Chillingworth, of Richard Baxter and 
 Samuel Clarke and Joseph Butler, of Jonathan 
 Edwards and Charles Hodge and W. G. T. 
 Shedd, are massive works. They impose a 
 sense of wonder upon every thoughtful ob- 
 server. 
 Changed But concerning the attempt to conquer mod- 
 
 ern doubt by a system of dogmatic theology, 
 certain things must be remembered. The con- 
 ditions of warfare change from age to age. 
 The vast fortresses of solid stone Avhose posses- 
 sion was once regarded as the security of 
 nations, are not ranked so high as they were 
 a hundred years ago. The earthwork, the 
 
The G-ospel of a Person 51 
 
 rifled cannon, the iron-clad ship, the torpedo, 
 have wrought great changes. Deductive logic 
 is just as strong as it ever was, but somehow or 
 other men are not as much impressed by it. 
 Induction is the method of to-day: and that is 
 a subtle, evasive, mobile method. It cannot 
 be shut in by a ring of fortresses. Already 
 the dogmatic systems in which the inductive 
 method is ignored or subordinated (whether 
 made long ago, or constructed yesterday on 
 ancient models) are out of date. They are 
 good for the men Avho are within them, but 
 on the outside world they have no more effect 
 than Windsor Castle would have in prolocting 
 England from a foreign invasion. 
 
 We feel sure that theology, in time, mu:;t The/uture 
 and will vindicate its claim to be considered as ^ ^^ ^'^^ 
 an essential factor in the intellectual life of 
 man, by adapting itself to the changed condi- 
 tions, and producing even mightier works by 
 the new methods than those which it produced 
 by the old. Already we see the promise of a 
 renaissance of dogmatics in such books as Mul- 
 ford's The Republic of Grod, Harris' The Self- 
 Revelation of (rod, Orr's The Christian View of 
 God and the World, and Fairbairn's The Place 
 of Christ in Modern Theology. But we must 
 remember that even those who anticipate and 
 
52 The G-ospel of a Person 
 
 Great things predict this reconstruction of the old truth on 
 theTewthe- ^^^® ^^^^ luiQ'S, most enthusiastically, recognize 
 ologian. that it must be a long and difficult tast, and 
 that the man who is to be a master-builder 
 must have a magnificent equipment. How ex- 
 hilarating at the first sight, but at the second 
 sight how overwhelming and discouraging, are 
 the demands of the age upon him who would 
 fain be an epoch-making theologian, as they are 
 stated, for example, in Mr. Balfour's Founda- 
 tions of Belief, or in Dr. George A. Gordon's 
 inspiring book The Qhrist of To-day. Truly it 
 appears that such a man must realize the sup- 
 position of St. Paul : he must speak with the 
 tongues of men and of angels, and have the 
 gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries 
 and all knowledge. Who is sufficient for these 
 things? It will take a long time for the best 
 of us to learn all this. Perhaps the most of us 
 may never go so far. Meantime, whether we 
 are labouring towards that goal, or despairing 
 of it, we need something divinely simple and 
 divinely true that we can preach at once, di- 
 rectly, joyfully, fervently to the heart of the age. 
 A view of the world, a Welt-anschaimng, is de- 
 sirable, perhaps in the long run necessary, for 
 the mind of man ; but there is another thing 
 
The G-ospel of a Person 53 
 
 which is more desirable and of prior necessit}', ^ starting- 
 and that is a standpoint of practical conviction ^^-J)^ •g^^;^^ 
 from which to obtain such a view. It may be first neces- 
 but a foothold, only a single point of contact, *^ ^" 
 but we must have it, and it must be solid as a 
 fact. A complete and consistent theology is a 
 consummation most devoutly to be wished for ; 
 but before it can come there must be some- 
 thing else, — a living, active power of faith in 
 the soul. This power, as we believe, already 
 exists in every human being. But there is 
 only one thing tliat can awaken it and call it 
 into action, and that is a gospel^ a message 
 clear as light, which in its very essence is a 
 force to quicken and stir the soul. 
 
 We look out upon the world and we see that Preaching 
 some men have had such a gospel without be- 
 ing in any sense finished and systematic theo- 
 logians. St. Paul and St. Peter and St. John 
 had it. St. Chrysostom and St. Francis of 
 Assisi and Savonarola had it. John Wesley 
 and George Whitfield had it. In different ages 
 and under different conditions these preachers 
 had the primal message which moves men to 
 believe. And in our own age, under our own 
 conditions, a like message has been proclaimed 
 with power. Pere Lacordaire preached such a 
 message in Notre Dame, and Canon Liddon in 
 
64 The G-ospel of a Person 
 
 St. Paul's, to listening thousands. Bishop 
 Brooks made it thrill like a celestial music 
 through the young manhood of America; and 
 Dwight L. ^Nloody has spoken it with vigorous 
 directness in every great city that knows the 
 English tongue. In many things, in ecclesias- 
 tical relation, in theological statement, in dress, 
 in manner, in language, these preachers are 
 unlike. One thing only is the same in all of 
 them, and that is the source of their power. 
 Their central message, the core of their preach- 
 ing, is the piercing, moving, personal gospel 
 of Jesus of Nazareth, the Son of God and Sav- 
 iour of mankind. This, in its simplest form ; 
 this, in its clearest expression ; this presenta- 
 tion of a person to persons in order that they 
 may first know, and then love and trust and 
 follow Him — this is pre-eminently the gospel 
 for an age of doubt. 
 
 The Gospel The adaptation of our central message, thus 
 conceived and thus expressed, to meet the 
 peculiar needs of a time of general scepticism, 
 is the theme of this lecture. 1 do not say that 
 this is the whole of Christianity. I do not say 
 that when the preacher has delivered this mes- 
 sage in this form he has fulfilled all of his 
 
The Gospel of a Person 55 
 
 duties. He may have to bear testimony against 
 errors of thought and vices of conduct ; he is 
 certainly bound to give encouragement and 
 guidance to new efforts of virtue and new en- 
 terprises of benevolence in every field. But 
 his first and greatest duty, the discharge of 
 which is to give him influence over doubting 
 hearts and strength for all his other work, is 
 simply to preach Christ. 
 
 This gospel meets the needs of the present The gospel 
 time because it is the gospel of a fact. ^-^ ajact. 
 
 Personality is a fact. Indeed we may say 
 that it is the aboriginal fact ; the source of all 
 perception ; the starting-point of all thought ; 
 the informing and moulding principle of all 
 language. ^' All human observation implies 
 that the mind, the ' I,' is a thing in itself, a 
 fixed point in a world of change, of which world 
 of change its^own organs form a part. It is the 
 same, yesterday, to-day, and to-morrow. It 
 was what it is, when its organs were of a dif- 
 ferent shape and consisted of different matter 
 from their present shape and matter. It will 
 be what it is, when they have gone through 
 other changes."^ 
 
 1 Sir James Fitzjames Stephen, Liberty, Equality, Frater- 
 nity. Quoted by Huttoii, Contemporary Thought, I., p. 114. 
 
66 The Crospel of a Person 
 
 Personality This fact of a rational, free, conscious, persist- 
 dation. ^nt self is the foundation of all sensation and 
 
 of all reflection; it is the basis of physics as well 
 as of metaphysics. By contrast it gives us our 
 first notion of matter ; by resistance, our first 
 notion of force ; by operation, our first notion 
 of causality. It is a necessary assumption even 
 in the philosophies of agnosticism, positivism, 
 and materialism. They cannot move a step 
 without it. 
 
 " They reckon ill who leave me out." 
 
 To deny personality is to deny the possibility 
 of any kind of knowledge and reduce the uni- 
 verse to a blank. ^ 
 
 Moreover, it is not only true that the recogni- 
 tion of our own personality lies at the root of 
 perception and reasoning. It is also true that 
 contact Avith other personalities, conscious, in- 
 telligent, free, and persistent like ourselves, is 
 the gateway through wliich we reach the reality 
 of all external things. To a solitary mind the 
 outward world may be only a dream. But the 
 moment two minds come into contact and com- 
 munication, it becomes at least a permanent 
 possibility of sensation. \\y comparison and 
 contrast with tiie sensations and cxpv^riences of 
 
 1 Alfred Williams Momerie, Personality, the Beginning 
 and End of Metaphysics (Blackwood, 1889), pp. 23, 132. 
 
The G-ospel of a Person 57 
 
 others, we verify our own. If it were not for 
 this the whole universe would dissolve around 
 us like the baseless fabric of a vision. The 
 subtle analysis of modern science, transforming 
 the apparently solid elements into invisible 
 atoms, and these atoms into vortex rings in 
 the impalpable and immeasurable ether, throws 
 us back, more and more, upon personality, sub- 
 jective and objective, as the only thing that 
 remains sure and immutable. 
 
 Persons, then, are the most real and substan- Persons are 
 tial objects of our knowledge. They touch us ^^^ ^^^^^' 
 at more points, they affect us in more ways and 
 with greater intensity, they fit more closely into 
 the faculties and powers of our own being, than 
 anything else in the universe. A person who 
 has influenced us or our fellow-men leaves a 
 more profound, positive, permanent, and real 
 impression than any other fact whatsoever. 
 We live as persons in a world of persons, far 
 more truly than we live in a world of phenomena 
 or laws or ideas. 
 
 Now, in an age that is characterized, as some 
 German writer has said, by " a hunger for facts,'' 
 the gospel of a person, if it is rightly appre- 
 hended and preached, ought to have peculiar 
 power because it is a factual gospel. We can 
 come to those who are under the benumbing 
 
58 The Gospel of a Person 
 
 spell of universal doubt and say : Here is a 
 fact, a personality, real and imperishable. It is 
 not merely a doctrine that was believed in Pales- 
 tine eighteen hundred years ago. It is some 
 one who was born and lived among men. It is 
 not merely a theory of God and the soul and 
 the future life that sprang up in the East in the 
 first century and has strangely spread itself 
 over the world. This religion is historical in 
 every sense of the word, as the actual fulfilment 
 of an ancient hope, and the starting-point of a 
 new life. 
 The reality Xhe person of Jesus Christ stands solid in the 
 history of man. He is indeed more substantial, 
 more abiding, in human apprehension, than any 
 form of matter, or any mode of force. The 
 conceptions of earth and air and fire and water 
 change and melt around Him, as the clouds 
 melt and change around an everlasting moan- 
 tain peak. All attempts to resolve Him into 
 a myth, a legend, an idea, — and hundreds of 
 such attempts have been made, — have drifted 
 over the enduring reality of His character and 
 left not a rack behind. (The result of all criti- 
 cism, the final verdict of enlightened common- 
 sense, is that Christ is historical. He is such a 
 person as men could not have imagined if they 
 
The Gospel of a Person 59 
 
 would, and would not have imagined if they 
 could. He is neither Greek myth, nor Hebrew 
 legend. The artist capable of fashioning Him 
 did not exist, nor could he have found the 
 materials. A non-existent Christianity did not 
 spring out of the air and create a Christ. A 
 real Christ appeared in the world and created 
 Christianity. This is what we mean by the 
 gospel of a fact. 
 
 II 
 
 And here we come at once into sight of the The gospel 
 second quality of this gospel which is pecul- 
 iarly fitted to meet the needs of a doubting age. 
 
 If it be true that a person is a fact, it is no 
 less true that a person is a force. Tlie world 
 moves by personality. All the great currents 
 of history have flowed from persons. Organi- 
 zation is powerful ; but no organization has 
 ever accomplished anything until a person has 
 stood at the centre of it and filled it with his 
 thought, Avith his life. Truth is mighty and 
 must prevail. But it never does prevail actu- 
 ally until it gets itself embodied, incarnated, in 
 a personality. Christianity has an organiza- 
 tion. Christianity has a doctrine. But the 
 force of Christianity, that which made it move 
 
60 The G-ospel of a Person 
 
 and lent it power to move the world, is the Per- 
 son at the heart of it, who gives vitality to the 
 organization and reality to the doctrine. All 
 the abstract truths of Christianity might have 
 come into the world in another form, — nay, 
 the substance of these truths did actually come 
 into the world, dimly and partially through the 
 fragmentary religions of the nations, more 
 clearly and with increasing, prophetic light 
 through the inspired Scriptures of the He- 
 brews ; but still the world would not stir, still 
 the truth could not make itself felt as a univer- 
 sal force in the life of humanity until 
 
 "The Word had breath, and wrought 
 
 With human hands the creed of creeds, 
 In loveliness of perfect deeds, 
 More strong than all poetic thought." ^ 
 
 I think we must get back, in our conception of 
 
 Christianity and in our preaching of it, to this 
 
 primary position. The fount and origin of its 
 
 power was, and continued to be, and still is, the 
 
 Person Christ. 
 
 (Jhristivas This was the secret of His ministry. He 
 
 ffospei. Himself was the central word of His own 
 
 preaching. He offered Himself to the world 
 
 as the solution of its difficulties and the source 
 
 1 Tennyson, In Memoriatny xxxvi. 
 
The G-ospel of a Person 61 
 
 of a new life. He asked men simply to be- 
 lieve in Him, to love Him, to follow Him. He 
 called the self-righteous to humble themselves 
 to His correction, the sinful to confide in His 
 forgiveness, the doubting to trust His assur- 
 ance, and the believing to accept His guid- 
 ance into fuller light. ^ To those who became 
 His disciples He gave doctrine and instruction 
 in many things. But to those who Avere not 
 yet His disciples, to the world. He offered first 
 of all Himself, not a doctrine, not a plan of 
 life, but a living Person. This was the sub- 
 stance of His first sermon when He stood up 
 in the synagogue at Nazareth and having read 
 from the Book of Isaiah the prophecy of the 
 Great Liberator, declared unto the people 
 " This day is this Scripture fulfilled in your 
 ears." 2 This was the attraction of His univer- 
 sal invitation, " Come unto Me, all ye that 
 labour and are heavy laden and I will give 
 you rest."^ This was the heart of His sum- 
 mary of His completed work when He said, " I, 
 if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all 
 men unto Me."* 
 
 1 Henry Latham, Pastor Pastorum (New York, James 
 Pott & Co., 1891), pp. 273-275, 
 
 2 St. Luke iv. 16-21, 
 
 3 St. Matt. xi. 28. 
 
 4 St. John xii. 32, 
 
62 The G-o.^pel of a Person 
 
 We are not considering, at this moment, the 
 tremendons implications of snch a personal 
 self-assertion, unparalleled, I believe, in the 
 founder of any other religion. We pass by 
 for the present that famous and inevitable 
 alternative, Aut Ohrisfus Beus, aut liomo non 
 bonus est. The point, now, is simply this. 
 As a matter of history, setting aside all ques- 
 tion of the divine inspiration and authority 
 of the Gospels, taking them merely as a 
 trustworthy report of a certain sequence of 
 events,^ it is plain that the force which started 
 the religion of Jesus was the person Jesus. 
 Christ w^as His own Christianity. Christ was 
 the core of His own gospel. 
 
 Read on through the other books of the New 
 Testament, the Acts and the Epistles, and you 
 will see that tliey are just the record of the 
 operation of this force in life and literature. 
 It was this that sent the apostles out into the 
 
 1 The evidence for the historic trustworthiness of the 
 Gospels may be found summed up in its modern form in Dr. 
 Sahnon's Introduction to the New Testament, fourth edition 
 (New York, Young & Co., 1889); in Bishop Liglitfoot's Es- 
 says on ''Siqjernatural Religion'' (Macmillan, 1889); in 
 Beyschlag's Neiv Testament Theology (Edinburgh, T. «& T. 
 Clark, 1895), pp. 29-31, 210-221 of volume i. ; and in Prof- 
 George V. Fisher's Grounds of Theistic and Christian Be- 
 lief (Scribners, 1883). 
 
The Gospel of a Person 63 
 
 world, reluctantly and hesitatingly at first, then 
 joyfully and triumphantly, like men driven by 
 an irresistible impulse. It Avas the manifesta- 
 tion of Christ that converted them,^ the love 
 of Christ that constrained them,^ the power of 
 Christ that impelled them.^ He was their 
 certainty* and their strength.^ He was their 
 peace ^ and their hope.'^ For Christ they la- 
 boured and suffered ; ^ in Christ they gloried ; ^ 
 for Christ's sake they lived and died.^^ i'litjy 
 felt and they declared that the life that was in 
 them was His life.^i They were confident that 
 they could do all things through Christ which 
 strengthened them.^^ xhe offices of the Church 
 — apostle, bishop, deacon, evangelist, — call 
 them by what names you will — were simply 
 forms of service to Him as Master ; ^^ the 
 doctrines of the Church were simply unfold- 
 ings of what she had received from Him as 
 Teacher ; ^^ the worship of the Church, as dis • 
 tinguished from that of the Jewish Synagogue 
 and the Heathen Temple, was the adoration 
 of Christ as Lord.^^ 
 
 Now it was precisely this relation of the 
 
 1 Gal. i. 16. 6 Eph. ii. 14. " Gal. ii. 20. 
 
 2 2 Cor. V. 14. ' Col. i. 27. 12 phQ. iy. 13. 
 
 3 2 Cor. xii. 9. « Phil. iii. 8-10. i3 Eph. iv. 8-12. 
 *2Tim. i. 12. ^ Gal. vi. 14. " 1 Cor. xi. 1, 23 ; xv. 8. 
 s 2 Tim. ii. 1. 10 2 Cor. iv. 5, 11. i^ phil.ii.ll; 1 Cor. xii. 3. 
 
64 
 
 The Gospel of a Person 
 
 early Cliurcli, in her organization and doctrine 
 and worship, to the person Christ, held fast 
 in her memory as identical with the real Jesus 
 who was born in Bethlehem and crucified on 
 Calvary, conceived in her faith as still living 
 and present with His disciples, — it was this 
 personal animation of the Church by Christ 
 that gave her influence over men. Contrary 
 to all human probability, against the prejudice 
 of the Hebrews who abhorred the name of a 
 crucified man, against the prejudice of the 
 Greeks and Romans who despised the name 
 of a common Jew, she made her Avay, not by 
 concealing, but by exalting and glorifying, the 
 name of Jesus Christ. Indeed, it seems as if 
 her career of conquest Avas actually delayed 
 until that name was taken up and written upon 
 her banners. It was in Antioch, where the 
 disciples were first called Christians,^ tliat the 
 missionary enterprise of the Church began, and 
 it was from that centre, with that title, that 
 she went out to her triumph. 
 
 The name of Christ was magical ; not as a 
 secret and unintelligible incantation, but as 
 the sign of a real person, know^n and loved. 
 It enlightened and healed and quickened the 
 heart of an age which, like our own, was dark 
 1 Acts xi. 26 ; xiii. 1-3. 
 
TJie Gospel of a Person 65 
 
 and. sorrowful and heavy with douht. It was 
 the charm Avhich drew men to Christianity out 
 of the abstractions of philosophy,^ and the con- 
 fusions of idolatry darkened Avith a tliousand 
 personifications but empty of all true person- 
 ality. The music of that name rang through 
 all the temple of the Church, and to its har- 
 monies her walls were builded. The acknow- 
 ledgment of that name was the mark of Christian 
 discipleship. To confess that "Jesus is the 
 Christ " was the way to enter the Church. The 
 symbolism of that name was the mark of Chris- 
 tian worship. The central rites of the Church 
 were baptism into Christ and communion with 
 Christ. Fidelity to His name was the crown 
 of Christian martyrdom. Unnumbered multi- 
 tudes of men and women and children went 
 down to death because they would not deny 
 the Christ. Whatever the early Church 
 was and did, beyond a doubt her character 
 and her activity were but the resultant of 
 the personal influence that flowed from Jesus 
 Christ.2 
 
 When we 'urn to follow the liistory of Chris- 
 tianity thro^Jigh the later centuries down to the 
 
 1 See Justin Martyr, Dialogue with Trypho, cliap. viii. 
 
 2 George B. Stevens, The Pauline Theology (New York, 
 Scribners, 1892), pp. 321-323. 
 
66 
 
 The Gospel of a Person 
 
 Thepersonai present time, we see that the same thing is 
 true. The temporal power of the Bishop of 
 Home doubtless grew out of the union of the 
 Church with the Empire. The immense wealth 
 and secular authority of ecclesiastics may be 
 traced to social and political causes. But the 
 inward, vitalizing, self-propagating power of 
 Christianity as a religion has always come from 
 the person of Jesus who stands at the heart of 
 it. The attraction of its hymns and psalms and 
 spiritual songs, the beauty of its holy days and 
 solemn ceremonies, were derived from Him 
 ^^'ho is the central figure in praise and prayer. 
 The renaissance of Christian Art sprang from 
 the desire to picture to the imagination the 
 visible, adorable form and face of Him whom 
 speculative theology had so often concealed or 
 obscured. The penetrating and abiding fra- 
 grance of Christian literature resides in those 
 books, like The Imitation of Christy in which the 
 sweetness of His character is embalmed forever. 
 The potency of Christian preaching comes from, 
 and is measured by, the clearness of the light 
 which it throws upon the personality of Jesus. 
 Read the roll of those in every age whom the 
 world has acknowledged as the best Christians, 
 kings arid warriors and philosophers, martyrs 
 and heroes and labourers in every noble cause, 
 
The Gospel of a Person 67 
 
 the purest and the highest of mankind, and you 
 will see that the test by which they are judged, 
 the mark by which they are recognized, is 
 likeness and loyalty to the personal Christ. 
 Then turn to the work which the Church is 
 doing to-day in the lowest and darkest fields 
 of human life, among the submerged classes of 
 our great cities, among the sunken races of 
 heathendom, and you cannot deny that the 
 force of that work to enlighten and uplift, still 
 depends upon the simplicity and reality with 
 which it reveals the person of Jesus to the 
 hearts of men. Christianity as a missionary 
 religion would be fatally crippled if you took 
 out of it the familiar story of Jesus and His 
 love. 
 
 "Mr. Darwin," says Admiral Sir James Sulli- The testi- 
 
 . . mony of a 
 
 van, " had often expressed to me his conviction doubter. 
 that it was utterly useless to send missionaries 
 to such a set of savages as the Fuegians, proba- 
 bly the very lowest of the human race. I had 
 always replied that I did not believe any human 
 beings existed too low to comprehend the sim- 
 ple message of the Gospel of Christ. After 
 many years he wrote to me that the recent 
 account of the mission showed that he had been 
 wrong and I right . . . and he requested me 
 to forward to the Society an enclosed cheque 
 
68 
 
 The Gospel of a Person 
 
 for X5, as a testimony of his interest in theii 
 good work." ^ 
 
 Observe, we are not constructing an argu- 
 ment. We are only tracing a force, — the 
 force that flows from the person of Jesus Christ. 
 The more closely, the more powerfully we can 
 feel it in ourselves and in others, the more confi- 
 dently we can come to a doubting age and say : 
 Here is this force, intense, persistent, far- 
 reaching. It has moved all kinds of men, 
 from the highest to the lowest. What do you 
 make of it ? What will you do with it ? Is 
 it not the only thing that can lift and move 
 you out of your doubt ? For scepticism is 
 just the inertia of the soul which stands 
 poised between contrary and mutually destruc- 
 tive theories. From that state of impotence 
 there is but one deliverance, and that is by 
 force, the force of life embodied in a person. 
 
 in 
 
 But the force which proceeds from the person 
 of Jesus is not mere power, blind and purpose- 
 less. It moves always in a certain direction. 
 It has a quality in it which produces certain 
 
 1 Alfred Barry, Some Lights of Science on the Faith 
 (London, Longmans, 1892), p. 116. 
 
The Gospel of a Person 69 
 
 results. And one of these results is an im- 
 mediate and overwhelming sense of the reality 
 and nearness of spiritual things. This is the 
 third point of adaptation in the gospel of the 
 personal Christ to tlie needs of a sceptical age. 
 It carries with itself an evidence of things not 
 seen, a substance of things hoped for. 
 
 An aura of wonder and mystery surrounded ^('^ mustery 
 Jesus of Nazareth in His earthly life. All who 
 came in contact with Him felt it ; in love, if 
 they desired to believe ; in repulsion, if they 
 hated to believe. In His presence, faith in the 
 invisible, in the soul, in the future life, in 
 (jod, revived and unfolded with new bloom 
 and colour. In His presence hypocrisy was 
 silenced and afraid, but sincere piety found a 
 voice and prayed. This effluence of His char- 
 acter breathes from the Avhole record of His 
 life. It was not merely what He said to men 
 about the eternal verities that convinced them. 
 It was something in Himself, an atmosphere 
 surrounding Him, and a silent radiance shining 
 from Him, tliat made it easier for them to 
 l)elieve in their own spiritual nature and in 
 tlie Divine existence and presence. He drew 
 out of their fallen and neglected hearts, by 
 some celestial attraction, spontaneous, gentle, 
 irresistible, a new efflorescence of faith and 
 
70 The Gospel of a Person 
 
 hope and love. Where He came a spiritual 
 springtide flowed over the landscape of the 
 inner life. Blossoms appeared in the earth 
 and the time for the singing of birds was come. 
 The effect of Faith was not imposed on doubting hearts 
 
 His pres- 
 
 ence. hy an external and mechanical process. It 
 
 grew in the warmth that streamed from Him. 
 It was not merely that men were at their best 
 in His company, except, indeed, those who 
 were at their worst through sullen resistance 
 and malignant alarm at His power. It was 
 tliat men were conscious of something far bet- 
 ter than their best, a transcendent force, an 
 influence from the immeasurable heights above 
 them. And to withstand it they must sink 
 below themselves, make new falsehoods and 
 new negations to bind them down, grapple 
 themselves more closely to the base, the 
 earthly, the sensual. But if they yielded to 
 that influence, it lifted and moved their 
 thoughts inevitably upward. It was not 
 merely what He told them of His own sight 
 of spiritual things. It was what they saw 
 reflected in His face and form of that loftier, 
 wider outlook. He was like one standing on a 
 high peak, reporting of the sunrise to men in 
 the dark valley. They heard His words. But 
 they saw also upon His countenance the glow 
 
The Gospel of a Person 71 
 
 of dawn, and dazzling all about Him the 
 incommunicable splendours of a new day. 
 
 This was the effect of the personality of 
 Jesus, as He stood amid the shadows and un- 
 certainties of human life ; an effect strangely 
 overlooked and ignored, often even beclouded 
 and hidden, in much that has been written 
 about Him by theologians and historians. I 
 do not dream that I can put it into words. 
 But I know that it can be felt as a reality in 
 the Gospels. And I turn back to one who saw 
 Him face to face, one who touched His hand 
 and leaned upon His bosom, for the expression 
 of the soul-uplifting, faith-begetting Avonder of 
 the person of Christ : The Word was made flesh 
 and divelt among us, and ive beheld His glory, 
 the glory as of the only-hegotten of the Father, 
 full of grace and truth?- 
 
 Nor has this effect vanished from the world ^'^e i),flu- 
 with the removal of the bodily presence of picture. 
 Jesus. It has perpetuated itself by its own 
 vital power, increasing rather than diminish- 
 ing. It still flows from the picture of His life 
 which is preserved in the Gospels, from the 
 image of His character as it is formed in the 
 minds of men. Eliminate, if you please, what 
 is called the miraculous element. Make what 
 
 1 St. John i. 14. 
 
72 The Gospel of a Person 
 
 allowance you will for the entlinsiasm and 
 unguarded utterance of His disciples. There 
 still remains that enthusiasm itself to be reck- 
 oned with, an enthusiasm which was kindled 
 by Him alone. There still remains the figure 
 of the person of Christ, who never can be 
 expressed in terms of matter and force, who 
 never can be explained by natural and histori- 
 cal causes, who carries us by His own inherent 
 mystery into the presence of the spiritual, the 
 divine, the supernatural. 
 
 Something of this spiritual light, I will ad- 
 mit, — nay, I will maintain with joyous and 
 firm conviction, — comes from every human 
 personality, even the lowliest, in so far as it 
 refuses to be summed up in terms of sense 
 perception, in so far as it gives evidence, by 
 its affections and hopes and fears, of ele- 
 ments in man that are not of the dust. But 
 in Christ tliis light is transcendent and unique, 
 because He manifestly surpasses the ordinary 
 attainments of humanity, because He cannot 
 be accounted for by the laAVS of heredity 
 and environment. The more closely we apply 
 these, laws, the more clearly He shines out 
 above them.^ 
 
 "The learned men of our day," says M. 
 1 J. S. Mill, Essays on Iteliyion^ p. 253. 
 
The Gospel of a Persoyi 73 
 
 Pierre Loti in his latest book, La Galilee^ 
 "have endeavoured to find a liuman explica- 
 tion of His mission, but they have not yet 
 reached it. . . . Around Him, none the less, 
 there still glows a radiance of beams wliich 
 cannot be compi-chended." ^ 
 
 Historically He appears alone, as no great Christ 
 
 1 1 1 r • solitary. 
 
 man lias ever appeared beiore or since. 
 Heroes, teachers, and leaders of men have 
 always been seen as central stars in larger 
 constellations, surrounded by lesser but kin- 
 dred lights. Plato shines in conjunction with 
 Socrates and Aristotle; Cfcsar with Pompey and 
 Crassus ; Luther with Melanchthon and Cal- 
 vin ; Shakespeare Avith Beaumont and Fletcher 
 and Ben Jonson ; Napoleon surrounded with 
 his brilliant staff of marshals and diplomats ; 
 Wordsworth among the mild glories of the 
 Lake poets. In every case, if you search the 
 neighbourhood of a great name, you will find 
 not a blank sky, but an encircling galaxy. 
 But Jesus Christ stands in an immense sol- 
 itude. Among the prophets who predicted 
 Him, among the apostles who testified of 
 Him, there is none worthy to be compared or 
 conjoined Avith Him. It is as if the heavens 
 were sAvept bare of stars ; and suddenly, un- 
 1 Pierre Loti, La Galilee (Paris, 1895), p. 93. 
 
74 The G-ospel of a Person 
 
 expected, iiiiaecompanied, the light of lights 
 appears alone, in supreme isolation. 
 
 Nor is there anything in His antecedents, 
 in His surroundings, to explain His appear- 
 ance and radiance. There was nothing in the 
 soil of the sordid and narrow Jewish race 
 to produce such an embodiment of pure and 
 universal love.^ There was nothing in the 
 atmosphere of that corrupt and sensual age 
 to beget or foster such a character of stainless 
 and complete virtue. Nor was His own life, 
 — I say it reverently, — judged by purely hu- 
 man and natural laws, calculated to result in 
 such an evident perfection as all men have 
 wonderingly recognized in Him. The high- 
 est type of human piety, the excellence of a 
 beautiful soul, has never been reached among 
 men without repentance and self-abasement. 
 But Jesus never repented, never abased Him- 
 self in shame and sorrow before God, never 
 asked for pardon and mercy. Alone, among 
 His followers who kneel at His command to 
 confess their unworthiness and implore for- 
 giveness. He stands upright and lifts a cloud- 
 less face to heaven in the inexplicable glory 
 
 i Amory H. Bradford, Heredity and Christian Problems 
 (New York, Macmillan, 1895), p. 266. 
 
The Gospel of a Person 75 
 
 of piety without penitence. Moral perfection 
 of this kind is not only Avithout a parallel ; 
 it is also without an approach. Men have 
 never attained to it, and there is no way for 
 them to climb thither. We can only look up 
 to that perfection, serene, sinless, unsurpassable, 
 and feel that here we are in sight of something 
 which cannot be expressed except by saying 
 that it is the glory of eternal spirit embodied 
 in a person. 
 
 IV 
 
 But the force which resides in the person The gospel 
 of Jesus is not exhausted in the production 
 of this profound impression of its own spirit- 
 ual and transcendent nature. It goes beyond 
 this result of a vivid sense of the reality 
 of the unseen. It has in itself a purifying, 
 cleansing power, a delivering, uplifting, sanc- 
 tifying power. The Gospel of Christ is the 
 gospel of a person who saves men from sin. 
 And herein it comes very close to the heart 
 of a doubting age. 
 
 The great and wonderful fact of this expe- 
 rience, which can neither be questioned nor 
 fully explained, is not involved in the theo- 
 logical speculations which have gathered about 
 
76 
 
 The Gos]jel of a Person 
 
 it. The person of Jesus stands out clear 
 and simple as a powerful Saviour of sinful 
 men and women. In His presence, the publi- 
 can and the harlot felt their hearts dissolve 
 with I know not what unutterable rapture 
 of forgiveness. At His word, the heavy- 
 laden were mysteriously loosed from the 
 imponderable burden of past transgression „ 
 He suffered with sinners, and even while 
 He suffered He delivered them from the 
 sharpest of all pains, — the pain of conscious 
 and unpardoned evil. He died for sinners, 
 according to His own word ; and ever since, 
 His cross has been the sign of rescue for 
 humanity. Whatever may be the nature 
 of that sublime transaction upon Calvary ; 
 whatever the name by wliich men call it, — 
 Atonement, Sacrifice, Redemption, Propitia- 
 tion ; whatever relations it may have to the 
 eternal moral law and to tlie Divine right- 
 eousness, — its relation to the liuman lieart is 
 luminous and l)eautiful. It does take away 
 sin. Kneeling at that holy altar, the soul at 
 once remembers most vividly, and confesses 
 most humbly, and loses most entirely, all her 
 guilt. A sense of profound, unutterable relief, 
 a sacred quietude, diffuses itself through all 
 the recesses of the troubled spirit. Looking 
 
The Gospel of a Person 11 
 
 Linto Christ crucified, we receive an assurance 
 of sin forgiven, which goes deeper than thought 
 can fathom, and far deeper than words can 
 measure. 
 
 "We may not know, we cannot tell 
 What pains He had to bear, 
 But we believe it was for us 
 He hung and suffered there. 
 
 "He died that we might be forgiven, 
 He died to make us good ; 
 That we might go at last to heaven. 
 Saved by His precious blood." 
 
 This is not theory, this is not philosophy, 
 tliis is not theology^) It is veritable fact. 1'he 
 person Jesus, living with men, dying for men^ 
 has actually brought this gift of pardon for 
 the past and hope for the future, into the heart 
 of mankind. And from pure love of Him — e 
 love which is first of all and most of all a sense 
 of gratitude for this immeasurable service — 
 have blossomed, often out of the very abysses of 
 sin and degradation, the saintliest and sublimest 
 lives that the world has ever seen. 
 
 Now this, as I know from my own experience, 
 is the gospel for doubting men, and for an age 
 of doubt ; the gospel of a Person wlio is a fact 
 
78 The Ciospel of a Person 
 
 and a force, an evidence of the unseen, and a 
 Saviour from sin. Can we preach it ? Will we 
 preach it? Then one thing is necessary for 
 us, a thing which might not be necessary, 
 perhaps, if our message were of another kind. 
 
 All knowledge, of the world, of human na- 
 ture, of books, will be helpful and tributary ; 
 all gifts, of clear thought, of powerful speech, 
 of prudent action, will be valuable and should 
 be cultivated ; but one thing will be abso- 
 lutely and forever indispensable. 
 To know If we are to preach Christ Ave must know 
 
 throne Christ, and know Him in such a sense that we 
 
 thing need- can say with St. Paul that we are determined 
 ■ not to know anything save Jesus Christ and 
 
 Him crucified. 1 We must study Him in the 
 record of His life until His character is more 
 real and vivid to us than that of brother or 
 friend. We must imagine Him with ardent 
 soul, until His figure glows before our inward 
 sight, and His words sound in our ears as a 
 living voice. We must love with His love, and 
 sorrow with His grief, and rejoice with His joy, 
 and offer ourselves with His sacrifice, so truly, 
 so intensely that we can say, as St. Paul said, 
 that we are crucified by His cross and risen in 
 His resurrection. 2 We must trace the power 
 1 1 Cor. ii. 2. 2 Qal. ii. 20. 
 
The Gospel of a Persoii 79 
 
 of His life in the lives of our fellow-men, fol- 
 lowing" and realizing His triumphs in souls 
 redeemed and sins forgiven, until we know 
 the rapture that tlirilled the breast of a St. 
 Bernard, a St. Francis, a Thomas a Kempis, a 
 Samuel Rutherford, a Robert McCheyne ; the 
 chivalrous loyalty that animated a Henry Have- 
 lock, a Charles Kingsley, a Frederick Robert- 
 son, a Charles Gordon ; the deep devotion that 
 strengthened a David Brainerd, a Henry Mar- 
 tyn, a Coleridge Patteson. We must become 
 the brothers of these men througli brotherhood 
 with Christ. We must kindle our hearts in 
 communion with Him, by meditation, by prayer, 
 and by service, which is the best kind of 
 prayer. No day must pass in which we do not 
 do something distinctly in Jesus' name, for 
 Jesus' sake. We must go Avhere He would go 
 if He were on earth. We must try to do what 
 He Avould do if He were still among men. 
 And so, by our failure as well as by our effort, 
 by the very contrast between our incomplete- 
 ness and His perfection, the image of our Com- 
 panion and our saving Lord will grow radiant 
 and distinct within us. We shall know that 
 potent attraction which His person has exer- 
 cised upon the hearts of men, and feel in 
 our breast that overmastering sense of loyalty 
 
80 The Gospel of a Person 
 
 to Him, which alone can draw us to follow 
 Him through life and death. 
 
 " If Jesus Christ is a man, — 
 And only a man, — I say 
 That of all mankind T cleave to Him, 
 And to Him will I cleave alway. 
 
 "If Jesus Christ is a God, — 
 And the only God, — I swear 
 I will follow Him through heaven and hell, 
 The earth, the sea, and the air."^ 
 
 1 Richard Watson Gilder, " Song of a Heathen, sojourmng 
 in Galilee, a.d. 32." 
 
Ill 
 
 THE UNVEILING OF THE FATHER 
 
He, who from the Father forth was sent, 
 
 Came the true Light, light to our hearts to bring; 
 
 The Word of God, — the telling of His thought; 
 
 The Light of God, — the making visible; 
 
 The far-transcending glory brought 
 
 In human form with man to dwell ; 
 
 The dazzling gone — the power not less 
 
 To show, irradiate, and bless ; 
 
 The gathering of the primal rays divine. 
 
 Informing Chaos to a pure sunshine ! " 
 
 — George MacDonald. 
 
Ill 
 
 THE UNVEILING OF THE FATHER 
 
 In the famous fifteenth chapter of The De- ^ sceptic's 
 dine and Fall of the Roman Umpire, the author, ^ll^Jlrgf^dof 
 who was but a superficial sceptic though a Christian- 
 profound historian, introduces an acci)unt of ^ ^' 
 the rise and spread of the Christian Religion. 
 He attributes its remarkable triumph over the 
 established religions of the earth to a series of 
 causes which he ironically describes as sec- 
 ondary, and uniformly treats as primary. He 
 exhibits them as in themselves sufficient to 
 explain the peculiarly favourable reception of 
 the Christian faith in the world, and sets aside 
 the question of a possible divine origin as 
 unnecessary. With serene self-satisfaction he 
 traces the rapid growth of the Christian Church 
 to the five following causes : I. The Zeal of 
 the Ch'istians, derived from the Jews, — but 
 purified from that narrow and unsocial spirit 
 which, instead of inviting, had deterred the 
 Gentiles from embracing the law of Moses. 
 83 
 
84 
 
 Tlte UnveiUny of the Father 
 
 II. The Doctrine of a Future Life, improved 
 by every additional circumstance which could 
 give weight and efficacy to that important 
 truth. III. The Miraculous Powers ascribed 
 to the primitive Church. IV. The Pure and 
 Austere Morals of the Christians. Y. TJie 
 Union and Discipline of the Christian Hepublic, 
 which gradually formed an increasing and in- 
 dependent state in the lieart of the Roman 
 empire.^ 
 
 Now this is a very fair, we may even say a 
 brilliant, example of the kind of work which 
 was done by the shallow and complacent scep- 
 ticism of a century ago. But the moment Ave 
 subject it to the more searching analysis of the 
 scepticism of the present age, it dissolves into 
 a thin and incoherent absurdity. For it is 
 evident that, so far from giving an explanation 
 of the growth of Christianity, Gibbon is simpl}^ 
 describing some of the phenomena which ac- 
 companied tliat growth. Wliat, for example, 
 is " tlie zeal of the Christians " but an unillu- 
 minating name for a contagious and irresistible 
 enthusiasm Avhich spread through the world 
 in connection with faith in Christ ? What is 
 
 1 Edward Gibbon, Esq., A History of the Decline and 
 Fall of the Boman Empire (Loudon, John Murray, 8tli 
 Edition, 1854), vol. ii., p. 152. 
 
The Unveiling of the Father 85 
 
 " the union and discipline of the Christian re- 
 public " but a description, without explanation, 
 of tlie organic unfolding of a new, myste- 
 rious principle of felloAvship. These alleged 
 " causes," more closely examined, are in fact 
 the very things that require to be accounted 
 for. Instead of clearing up the mystery, they 
 increase it. 
 
 By a singular fatality of language, the seep- The"ex- 
 tical historian has embodied in the statement ^^^^^^ ^^ ^g 
 of his position the demonstration of its insuf- explained. 
 ficiency. In each of his causes, and in the 
 relation that subsists between them, he has 
 practically suggested a difftculty which de- 
 mands another and a higher solution of the 
 whole problem. Examine his words carefully. 
 
 By what means, human or divine, was the Questions 
 zeal of the Christians ' purified from the narrow ^^^^^^j ^^^ 
 and unsocial spirit of the Jews ' ? The natural answer. 
 liistory of sects and schisms teaches us that 
 their invariable tendency is to intensify rather 
 tlian to eliminate bigotry and exclusiveness. 
 Through what influence was the doctrine of a 
 future life 'improved by every additional cir- 
 cumstance that could give it Aveight and effi- 
 cacy ' ? The inevitable course of its human 
 development under the guidance of abstract 
 philosophy has been towards vagueness, cold- 
 
86 The UnvelUnri of the Father 
 
 ness, and uncertainty; under the guidance of 
 concrete superstition, towards puerility and 
 crass sensualism. On what grounds Avere mir- 
 aculous powers ascribed to the early Church ? 
 They must have been ascribed truly or falsely. 
 If truly, tliere must have been some basis of 
 fact for them to rest upon. If falsely, the 
 Cliristians themselves were either ignorant, 
 or cognizant, of the falsehood. Take the 
 former supposition, and you present yourself 
 with the inexplicable theory that what Pliny 
 the Younger called superstitio prava iimnodica^ 
 and imagined would be easily and certainly ex- 
 tirpated, was able to hold its own against all 
 the assaults of learning and philosophy. Take 
 the latter supposition, and you are forced to the 
 incredible assumption that a conscious decep- 
 tion was the fountain of highest and strongest 
 moral force that the world has ever felt.^ 
 HoAV then did the " pure and austere morals of 
 the Christians " come into existence ? From a 
 lie, or from a truth? If from a truth, what 
 was the nature of that truth, in Avhat form Avas 
 it expressed, and how did it win credence ? 
 
 1 Carlyle, Heroes and Hero- Worship, sect. ii. : "A false 
 man found a religion ? Why, a false man cannot even build 
 a brick house ! If he do not know and follow truly the 
 properties of mortar, burnt clay, and what else he works in, 
 it is no house that he makes, but a rubbish heap." 
 
The tlnveiUng of the Father 87 
 
 And, finally, liow did ''the Christian republic" 
 succeed in maintaining and increasing itself as 
 an independent state in the heart of the Roman 
 empire ? Every other attempt to do this par- 
 ticular thing, by secret philosophic doctrine, or 
 by open political organization, failed, and was 
 violently crushed by imperial power, or silently 
 dissolved and absorbed by imperial statesman- 
 ship. How was it that this one invisible fel- 
 lowship, this one visible organization, lived, 
 and spread, and stood out at last, serene, com- 
 plete, and magnificent, Avlien the time-worn 
 ruins of the empire crumbled around it? 
 
 The answer to these questions is found in the The answer 
 person of Christ. This is not a matter of choice. *^ Ghnst. 
 It is a matter of necessity. For if He was, as 
 all candid observers will admit, the originator 
 and animator of Christianity, then to stop short 
 of Him in our inquiry as to the causes of its 
 existence and progress is to stop half-way, as 
 if one should account for the flow of the Nile, 
 after the fashion of the ancient geographers, by 
 attributing it to the melting of the snows on 
 the jNIountains of the ^Nloon, instead of tracing 
 it to its great fountain in the Albert Nyanza. 
 
 Christ stands above and behind the Church, 
 and all these secondary causes which have been 
 
88 The Unveiling of the Father 
 
 Christ, the enumerated to account for her growth and 
 Christian- po^ver flow directly from Him. He it was who 
 ^iy- purified and humanized the zeal of Christians, 
 
 so that they emerged from the narrowest of 
 races to preach the broadest and most universal 
 of all relio"ions. He it was who cleared and 
 enlarged their view of immortality, so that it 
 became at once important and efficacious, the 
 only doctrine of a future life that has exercised 
 a direct and uplifting influence upon the pres- 
 ent life. He it was who endowed the Church 
 with whatever powers she possessed. He it was 
 who cleansed and ennobled her moral ideals and 
 gave her the only pattern and rule of virtue 
 which has been universally acknowledged as 
 self -consistent, satisfactory, and supreme. He 
 it Avas who cemented lier union and strength- 
 ened lier discipline to such an indestructible sol- 
 idarity, that the tie which bound the individual 
 soul to Him was regarded as superior to all 
 earthly relations, and the fellowship which that 
 common tie created, surpassed and survived all 
 fellowships of race, of culture, of nationality. 
 
 These are simj)le historical facts. In stating 
 them we make no assumptions and propound 
 no tlieories. It is not necessary to take any- 
 thing for granted or to adopt any particular 
 theological or philosophical system, in order to 
 
The TJnveAling of the Father 89 
 
 see clearly and beyond the possibility of mis- 
 take that all the force and influence of Chris- 
 tianity in the world have, as a matter of fact, 
 flowed directly from Jesus Christ and from the 
 faith which He has inspired in the hearts of men. 
 
 The one question of supreme importance, Who, then, 
 then, if we would understand Avhat Christian- *^ ^*^^ 
 ity really means, is, Who is this person who 
 stands at the centre of it and fills it with life 
 and strength? What did the first Christians 
 see in Him that made them believe in Him so 
 absolutely and implicitly and gave them power 
 to do such mighty works? What has the 
 church seen in Him through the ages that has 
 bound her to Him as her living Lord and Mas- 
 ter ? And what are we to see in Him if He is 
 to be in deed and in truth the theme of our 
 gospel? What think ye of Christ? 
 
 This question, you see, is vital and inevitable. ^^''^ ^^^wi- 
 If we are to have a Christianity which is real j^^^ 
 and historical, we must get into line with his- 
 tory. If we are to have behind us the power 
 which comes from actual achievements of our 
 gospel in the world, we must understand the 
 relation which it has always held to the person 
 of Christ. If we are to be in any sense the 
 followers of the first Christians, and to share the 
 joy and peace and power of their religion, we 
 
90 
 
 The Unveiling of the Father 
 
 The historic 
 unsioer. 
 
 must take the view which the}^ took, of Jesus 
 of Nazareth. 
 
 Now, the object of this lecture may be stated 
 in a single sentence. It is to show that the 
 first Christians saw, and that the Church has 
 always seen, in Jesus Christ a real incarnation 
 of God ; a true and personal unveiling of the 
 Father ; God in Christ, reconciling the world 
 unto Himself. In other words, not only must 
 we find in Jesus Christ tlie centre of Christian- 
 it3% but we must also behold an actual divinity 
 as the centre of life in Jesus Christ. 
 
 Christ's 
 (Jodhood 
 slowly re- 
 vealed. 
 
 AVe are not to suppose that faith in Christ 
 began with a clear and definite conception of 
 His divinity. On the contrary, it is evident 
 from the Avhole gospel record tliat the idea that 
 Christ was divine gradually developed and un- 
 folded in the minds of those who knew and 
 loved and trusted Him. The idea of an incar- 
 nation was foreign to the Hebrew mind. There 
 Avas no race in the world that held so strongly 
 to the thouglit that God was solitary, unsearch- 
 able, and incommunicable. They believed that 
 even His true name could not be pronounced 
 by human lips, and that it was impossible for 
 
process of 
 faith. 
 
 Tlie Unveiling of the Father 91 
 
 human ejes really to behold His glory. And 
 the very strength of this ancestral faith of 
 theirs, standing as it must have done directly 
 in the way of belief in an incarnation, is an evi- 
 dence of the tremendous power and unquestion- 
 able reality of the experience which forced the 
 disciples, by slow degrees, to believe firmly and 
 unhesitatingly in the divinity of Christ. 
 
 The process by which this result was accom- The gradual 
 plished lies open to our thought in the New 
 Testament. We must go back to the point in- 
 dicated in the second lecture. It was the im- 
 pression made upon the disciples by Clirist's 
 own manifestation of Himself, His character, 
 His actions, and His words, evidently consistent 
 and unique, which led them at last to see in 
 Him the object of divine faith and worship. 
 He was not a mere man. That was evident and 
 undeniable. He was higher than men ; holier 
 than men ; He possessed an excellence and a 
 power which made them feel in His presence 
 that He was more than they were. What then 
 was He ? There were but two directions in 
 which their faith could move. The alternative 
 was sharply set before the disciples on that 
 memorable day at Csesarea Philippi, when Christ 
 asked them first, ''AVhom do men say that I, the 
 Son of man, am ? " and then, '' But whom say ye 
 
92 
 
 The Unveiling of the Father 
 
 The new 
 line of Chris- 
 tian belief. 
 
 What it 
 meant to he 
 the Christ. 
 
 that I am ? " There were but two lines open to 
 them. One was the line of popular superstition, 
 which led them back into the past to see in 
 Christ only the ghost of John the Baptist, or 
 Elias, or one of the prophets come to life again. 
 The other was the new line of Christian faith 
 which led them forward to see in Jesus " the 
 Christ, the Son of the living God." ^ 
 
 New ? Of course it was new ! It had to be 
 new, in order to fit the facts, which were such 
 as had never been seen before. And just be- 
 cause it was so new it had to unfold itself by 
 degrees to the fulness of conscious apprehension 
 of all that it involved. 
 
 It is evident that the disciples did not know 
 at first what was meant by the Christhood, 
 the Messiahship, the fulfilment of all ancient 
 prophecy and sacred ritual in Jesus. But they 
 learned the lesson as they kept company Avith 
 Him. They heard Him speak with an author- 
 ity which none of the prophets had ever claimed. 
 Recognizing a divine inspiration in the Old 
 Testament Scriptures, He distinctly set Him- 
 self above them as the bringer of a new and 
 better revelation. He accomplished, interpreted, 
 and revised them. ^ Ye have heard how it hath 
 been said by them of old time " — by Avhom ? 
 1 St. Matt. xvi. 13-16. 
 
The Unveiling of the Father 93 
 
 By the lawgivers and prophets and psalmists 
 whom Christ recognized as His own forernn- 
 ners and foretellers. " But I say unto you, 
 love your enemies, bless them that curse you, 
 and pray for them that despitefully use you/' ^ 
 
 Suppose that this were all ; suppose that the Ayiew power 
 Sermon on the Mount were the whole of tlie 
 
 New Testament, what should we behold in it ? 
 Not merely the amazing revelation of a morality 
 more pure and perfect than any other the human 
 heart has conceived, proceeding from the lips 
 of an unlearned Nazarene peasant of the first 
 century, but the absolutely overwhelming sight 
 jf a believing Hebrew placing Himself above 
 the rule of His own faith, a humble teacher 
 asserting supreme authority over all human 
 conduct, a moral reformer discarding all other 
 foundations, and saying, " Every one that hear- 
 eth these sayings of mine and doeth them, I 
 will liken him unto a wise man which built his 
 house upon a rock."^ Nine and forty times, in 
 the brief and fragmentary record of the dis- 
 courses of Jesus, recurs this solemn phrase 
 with which He authenticates the truth: Verily^ 
 I say unto you. And every time that tlie dis- 
 ciples heard it they must have gotten a new 
 idea of what it meant to be the Christ. 
 
 J St. Matt. V. 43, 44, 2 St. Matt. vii. 24. 
 
 truth. 
 
94 
 
 The Unveiling of the Father 
 
 A new 
 rdation to 
 humanity. 
 
 y 
 
 ' Think also of the significance which the 
 favourite Messianic title used by Jesus to de- 
 SL'iibe Himself must have had to their minds. 
 He called Himself "the Son of man.''^ Why? 
 Was it because He was merely human? If 
 that was all, surely it would not need to 
 be asserted and emphasized again and again. 
 Imagine any other man, the highest and the 
 holiest, insisting upon the reality of his human 
 life, dwelling upon it, repeating the assertion 
 of it over and over. But this title was, in fact, 
 the claim to a peculiar and supreme relation to 
 the human race. Christ was not a son of man, 
 but the Son of man, one who, in the luminous 
 words of Irenaius, recapitulavit in se ipso longam 
 hominum expositionem.^ And as such He as- 
 sumed on earth and in His prevision of heaven 
 a position Avhich no mere man could rightly 
 take. " The Son of man hath power on earth 
 to forgive sins.'*^ ''The Son of man is Lord 
 also of the Sabbath." ^ ''When the Son of 
 man shall come in His glory, and all the holy 
 
 1 In St. Matthew, 30 times ; in St. Luke, 25 times ; in 
 St. Mark, 14 times. 
 
 - Irenseus, Adv. Ilcer., iii. 18. 1 : "He summed up in 
 himself the long unfolding of humanity." The Syriac ver- 
 sion of this passage is equally beautiful and significant; 
 " He commenced afresh the long line of men." 
 
 ^ St. Matt. ix. 6. ■* St. Mark ii. 28, 
 
Tlie Unve'dlng of the Father 95 
 
 angels Avith Tlim, then shall He sit upon the 
 throne of His glory ; and before Him shall be 
 gathered all nations, and He shall separate 
 them one from another, as a shepherd divideth 
 the sheep from the goats." ^ 
 
 Consider what this implied. It was a decla- ^ supreme 
 
 fation that Jesus expected, and was willing, to j^id^l^f/^ 
 ake into His own hands the task of discrimi- world. 
 mating between the good and the bad in the 
 unsearchable confusions and complexities of 
 the human heart, and of determinino:, without 
 hesitation, without misgiving, without redress, 
 the final destinies of the untold myriads of 
 men ; " an office," it has been well said, " in- 
 volving such spiritual insight, such discern- 
 ment of the thoughts and intents of the heart 
 of each one of the millions at His feet, such 
 awful, unshared supremacy in the moral world, 
 that the imagination recoils in sheer agony 
 from the task of seriously contemplating the 
 assumption of these duties by any created in- 
 telligence." ^ When the disciples heard their 
 Master declare that He would fulfil this office 
 of Judge of the World, they must have begun 
 to feel what it meant to be the Christ. 
 
 1 St. Matt. XXV. 31, 32. 
 
 2 H. P. Liddoii, The Divinity of Our Lord (London, 
 1885), p. 176. 
 
96 The Unveiling of the Father 
 
 What it ;N'or do I suppose that they realized at first 
 
 The Son of tlie fiill intention of that second phrase in 
 frofi. which their view of Jesus Avas expressed. The 
 
 Son of the living God^ — that also was an idea 
 to be gradually apprehended and unfolded. 
 And think what light must have fallen upon 
 it from the conduct of Jesus as they followed 
 Him from day to day. The more closely they 
 knew Him, the more deeply they felt His sin- 
 less purity and sovereign virtue. There was a 
 certainty, an independence, a freedom from all 
 effort and from all restraint in His goodness, 
 such as no other good man has ever shown. 
 He had the deepest knowledge of the evil of 
 sin, yet no shadow or stain of it fell upon His 
 own soul. He was on terms of closest inti- 
 macy — an intimacy such as no saint ever 
 dared to assume — with God. He conversed 
 with the Father in a friendship which was 
 utterly without fear or regret or misgiving. 
 Now Avhen the disciples saw this, it must have 
 put them upon deep thoughts, and the guidance 
 to these thoughts was given by Christ's own 
 words about Himself. He put Himself side by 
 side with the Divine activity. " My Father 
 worketh hitherto and I work."^ The Jews 
 who heard Him say tliis, sought to kill Him, 
 1 St. John V. 17. 
 
 Ch7'ist'sow)i 
 words. 
 
The Unveiling of the Patlier 97 
 
 because He had not only broken the Sabbath, 
 but said also that God was His Father, making 
 Himself equal with God. And if the Jews 
 thought this, what did His own disciples think? 
 He claimed a Divine origin and mission : "I 
 came forth from the Father ; " ^ " My Father 
 sent me. " ^ He claimed a Divine knowledge and 
 fellowship : '' No man knoweth the Father save 
 the Son;"^ "O righteous P^ather, the world 
 hath not known Tliee, but I have known 
 Thee.''"^ He claimed to unveil the Father's 
 being in Himself : '' He that hath seen me hath 
 seen the Father. I am in the Father and the 
 Father in me."^ 
 
 To what conclusion must such conduct and The 
 
 inevitable 
 
 such words as these lead the disciples in their conclusion. 
 interpretation of the true meaning of the title 
 *' the Son of God " ? A conclusion wdiich Jesus 
 Himself, if He was as wise and good as all men 
 admit, must inevitably have foreseen. A con- 
 clusion which He Himself, if He had been only 
 a holy man, better than His disciples but of 
 the same nature, would certainly have guarded 
 against and prevented at any cost. A con- 
 clusion which is expressed in the attitude of 
 
 i St. John xvi. 28. ^ gt. Matt. xi. 27. 
 
 2 St. John xii. 49. ■* St. John xvii. 25. 
 
 5 St. John xiv. 9, 11. 
 
The disci- 
 ples believed 
 that Christ 
 ivas Divine. 
 
 98 T/te Unveiling of the Father 
 
 Thomas, kneeling at the feet of Christ and 
 crying, ^'My Lord and my God.^i ^ conclu- 
 sion which is finally and definitively embodied 
 in the action of the apostles going out into the 
 world to disciple all nations, and to baptize 
 them " into the name of the Father, and of the 
 Son, and of the Holy Ghost. "^ 
 
 n 
 
 There cannot be any question as to the state 
 of mind which this action implied. It was the 
 deep conviction, not necessarily reasoned out 
 and formulated, but lying at the very root of 
 conduct, that Jesus Christ the Son was the un- 
 veiling of His Father God, and that the Holy 
 Spirit wlio came upon the disciples was the 
 Spirit of the Father and the Son. The part 
 which the resurrection played in the clarifying 
 and confirming of this conviction was impor- 
 tant. But we must not misunderstand the 
 meaning of the resurrection. It w\as not in 
 any sense a new and different revelation of 
 God, imagined or actually received. Whatever 
 the form in which Jesus appeared to the dis- 
 ciples during the forty days that followed His 
 death. He was recognized as the same Jesus ; 
 and the one effect of Mis appearance was 
 1 St. John XX. 28. - St. Matt, xxviii. 11). 
 
The Unveiling of the Father 99 
 
 simply to confirm and deepen the truth of what 
 He had said and done while He was with them. 
 And with this confirmation the truth took shape 
 and substance as an active and enduring power 
 in human faith and life and Avorship. 
 
 There is no more room for doubt that the 
 early Christians saw in Christ a personal un- 
 veiling of God, than that the friends and fol- 
 lowers of Abraham Lincoln regarded him as a 
 good and loyal American citizen of the white 
 race. And even if we could find no direct and 
 definite statement of either of these views, the 
 CA'idence that men held them could be clearly 
 and certainly read in the facts of history. 
 
 Divine lionours were paid to Christ in the The early 
 primitive Church. The first common prayer y^orsMpved 
 of the disciples, when they were assembled to Christ. 
 choose an apostle in the place of the traitor 
 Judas, was addressed to Christ. ^ The Chris- 
 tians were distinguished both from the Jews 
 and from the heathen as those who called upon 
 the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. ^ The dying 
 martyr Stephen showed what was meant by this 
 phrase in his prayer, " Lord Jesus, receive my 
 spirit/'^ Saul of Tarsus, when he was con- 
 
 ^' Acts i. 24. See Alford in loc. 
 2 Acts ix. 21 ; 1 Cor. i. 2. 
 8 Acts vii. 59. 
 
100 The Unveiling of the Father 
 
 vinced by that strange experience on the road 
 to Damascus that Jesus was not an impostor, 
 but the Christ, at once addressed Him in 
 prayer, '' Lord, what wilt thou have me to 
 do?"^ And Ananias, who received Saul into 
 the Church, asked guidance and direction from 
 the same Lord.^ Peter baptized the multi- 
 tudes on the day of Pentecost in the name of 
 Jesus Christ.^ John wrote of prayer to the 
 Son of God as a familiar ground of confidence 
 in Christian experience.* The apostolic bene- 
 diction was : " The grace of our Lord Jesus 
 Christ, and the love of God, and the communion 
 of the Holy Ghost be with you all."^ The 
 whole current of adoration and devotion in the 
 New Testament leads up naturally and without 
 surprise to the magnificent words of St. Paul, 
 in which he speaks of " Christ, who is over all, 
 God blessed forever."^ 
 
 It should be frankly recognized that the first 
 Christians assigned a certain subordination to 
 the Son in relation to the Father ; but it must 
 be admitted with equal candour that this sub- 
 ordination was not in any sense a separation, 
 
 1 Acts ix. C. 2 Acts ix. 13. » Acts ii. 38. 
 
 4 I John V. 13-15. 5 2 Cor. xiii. 14. 
 
 6 Rom. ix. 5. Cf. Stevens, The Pmiline Theology, p. 201, 
 for a succinct statement of the grounds on which this inter- 
 pretation of the text is preferred. 
 
The Unveiling of the Father 101 
 
 and that it really implied and involved a unity 
 between them whicli made it possible and nat- 
 ural and inevitable for the disciples to pay an 
 adoration to the Son with the Father, which, if 
 it had been offered to, or claimed by, the great- 
 est and best of the apostles, would have been 
 instantly repudiated by the whole Church as 
 not only absurd but radically blasphemous. 
 
 It is an easy matter to trace the worship of 
 Christ in the later development of Christianity. 
 There are two sources of evidence : the Chris- 
 tian hymns and liturgies ; the heathen attacks 
 and the apologies which they evoked. 
 
 The earliest hymns of the Greek Church, the The testi- 
 " Thanksgiving at lamplighting," '' Shepherd of ^hy^^^s. 
 tender youth," " The Bridegroom cometh," the 
 ''Hymn to Christ after Silence," celebrate the 
 praise of the Lord Jesus. Syriac poetry, through 
 its great poet, Ephrem Syrus, takes up the same 
 strain of adoration to the Son of God, and its 
 undying music may still be heard among the 
 mountains of Armenia where the unspeakable 
 Turk is exterminating a whole race for loyalty 
 to the name of Christ. Latin hymnody, from 
 its earliest origin in translations from the Greek 
 like the Gloria in Excelsis and the Te Deum, 
 through its splendid unfolding in the poetry 
 of Hilary of Poictiers, Ambrose of Milan, and 
 
102 The Unveiling of the Father 
 
 Gregory the Great, to its sweet culmination in 
 the two Bernards, him of Clairvaux and him of 
 Climy, repeats the same burden : 
 
 " O Jesus, Thou the glory art 
 Of angel worlds above ; 
 Thy name is music to my heart, 
 Enchanting it with love." 
 
 In every land and language, in German, in 
 French, in English, the most precious and 
 potent melodies of the Church are fragrant Avith 
 the name of Christ. 
 The testi- The early liturgies bear the same testimony 
 
 earhj litur- ^o the pre-cmineuce of the Lord Jesus in the 
 fi'ies- doxologies and supplications of Christian faith. 
 
 The Apostolical Constitutions,^ the liturgy of 
 St. James,2 tlie liturgy of St. Mark,^ the liturgy 
 of St. Adieus and St. Maris,* unquestionably 
 preserve the spirit of the early Christian wor^ 
 ship; and they all are witnesses to the fact that 
 the Christians praj^ed directly to Christ. In- 
 deed, it lies upon the very surface of history 
 that the growth of Christianity, as manifested 
 
 1 Apost. Const., Book VIII., chap. vii. 
 
 2 The Divine Liturgy of St. James, iii. : " Sovereign 
 Lord Jesus Christ, () Word of God," etc, 
 
 3 The Divine Liturgi/ of the Holy Apostle and Evangelist 
 Mark, v., xxii., etc. 
 
 4 Liturgy of the Blessed Apostles, composed by St. Adceiis 
 and St. Maris, xiv. 
 
The Unveiling of the Father 103 
 
 ill a sjDreading worship, was not simply the in- 
 crease of those who were willing to adore God 
 on the authority of Christ. It was distinctly 
 and essentially the diffusion of an inward force 
 which impelled men to blend the name of Christ 
 with the name of God in their prayers, and to 
 worship the Son Avith the Father. The beauti- 
 ful Praj^er of St. Chrysostom, which closes the 
 Litany and the Morning and Evening Prayers 
 of the Protestant Episcopal Church, is addressed 
 to Christ, " who dost promise that when two or 
 three are gathered together in Thy name. Thou 
 wilt grant their requests."^ There is not in 
 the world to-day a single great liturgy, Greek, 
 Roman, Armenian, French, German, Scotch, or 
 English, which does not contain ascriptions of 
 divine glory, and petitions for divine grace, 
 addressed to Jesus Christ. 
 
 Heathen writers of very early date assure us The testis 
 that this was the practice of Christians from /Ig^JJ^p'J^. 
 the beginning. The younger Pliny reported 
 to the Emperor Trajan that the people called 
 Christians were accustomed to assemble before 
 daybreak and " sing a hymn of praise respon- 
 sively to Christ, as it were to God."^ In the 
 
 1 St. Matt, xviii. 20. 
 
 - A.D. 112. See the chapter on "Pliny's Report and 
 Trajan's Rescript " in Ramsay, The Church in the Roman 
 Empire (New York, Putnam, 1893), pp. 196 ff. 
 
Christians 
 despised for 
 worshipping 
 
 104 The Unveiling of the Father 
 
 public trials that followed there ^yas never any 
 denial of this statement. It was admitted alike 
 by those who apostatized under the pressure of 
 persecution and by those who remained faithful 
 to the name of Christ. The Emperor Hadrian 
 wrote to Servian that of the population of Alex- 
 andria ''some worshipped Serapis, and others 
 Christ." Lucian, the pagan satirist, says in 
 his biography of Peregrinus Proteus : " The 
 Christians are still worshipping that great man 
 who was crucified in Palestine." ^ 
 
 In all the apologies for the Christian religion 
 which were put forth during the persecutions 
 Christ. under Hadrian, and his successors Antoninus 
 
 Pius and Marcus Aurelius, there was no at- 
 tempt to refute the universal charge that the 
 Christians worshipped Christ. ^ As if to con- 
 firm this evidence by one of those indications 
 which are all the more significant because they 
 are so slight and so clearly unpremeditated, 
 there still exists a rude caricature, scratched 
 by some careless hand upon the walls of the 
 
 1 Luciani Samosatensis Opera. (Ed. Leipsic, 1829), Tomus 
 iv., p. 173. 
 
 2 The First Apology of Justin Martyr., chap. xiii. : " Our 
 teacher of these things is Jesus Christ ; and that we reason- 
 ably worship Him, having learned that He is the Son of the 
 true God Himself, and holding Him in the second place, and 
 the prophetic Spirit in the third, we will prove." 
 
The Unveiling of the Father 105 
 
 Palatine Palace in Rome not later than the 
 beginning of the third century, representing a 
 human figure with an ass's head hanging upon 
 a cross, while a man stands before it in the 
 attitude of worsliip. Underneath is this ill- 
 spelled inscription, — 
 
 " Alexamenos adore his God." ^ 
 
 Thus the songs and prayers of believers, the 
 accusations of persecutors, the sneers of seep 
 tics, and the coarse jests of mockers all join 
 in proving beyond a doubt that the primitive 
 Christians paid divine honour to the Lord 
 Jesus. I do not see how any man can be in 
 touch with Christianity as a living form of 
 worship in the world, unless he knows the 
 reality and appreciates the force of this un- 
 questionable fact. 
 
 Ill 
 
 Nor will it be possible to understand the Christ was 
 intellectual and moral teachings of the Chris- 
 tian religion, as they are recorded in the New 
 Testament, unless we put ourselves at the focal 
 point from which, as a matter of history, these 
 teachings were first conceived and then un- 
 
 1 Das Spott- Crucifix der Bomischen Kaiser Paldste, Fer- 
 dinand Becker (Gera, 1876). Das Spott-Crucifix vom Pala- 
 tini Franz Xaver Kraus (Freiburg, 1872), 
 
 a nevj 
 theology. 
 
106 The Unveiling of the Father 
 
 folded. Tnid point was the vision of an un- 
 veiling of the being and mind of God in 
 Christ. It was not merely that Jesas said 
 certain things about God which men had not 
 known, or had forgotten. It was that they 
 saw in the coming of Christ a personal revela- 
 tion of the Divine Being. And this revelation 
 touched and transformed every possible sphere 
 of thought and feeling in regard to the prob- 
 lems of religion. The personality of God was 
 made distinct and luminous, not only by the 
 recognition of an eternal Fatherhood in His 
 nature, but by the light of the knowledge of 
 His glory sliining in the face of a person.^ 
 The righteousness of God was disclosed in a 
 new aspect by the thought that He had sent 
 His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and 
 for sin to condemn sin in the flesli.^ The good- 
 ness of God was confirmed and made sufficient 
 for all possible human needs by the conviction 
 that He who spared not His own Son, but freely 
 delivered Him up for us all, would also with 
 Him freely give us all things.^ The saving 
 will and power of God were apprehended 
 through the vision of Him in Christ reconcil- 
 ing the world to Himself.^ The everlasting 
 
 1 2 Cor. iv. 6. 2 Rom. viii. 3. 
 
 8 Rom. viii. ;J2. ^ 2 Cor. v. 19. 
 
God 10 as 
 
 The Unveiling of the Father 107 
 
 and inseparable love of God became the sure 
 ground of hope only when it was seen em- 
 bodied in Christ Jesus our Lord.^ The true 
 meaning of filial obedience to God and of 
 union with God was interpreted in the light 
 of conformity to the image of His Son.- And 
 the immense significance of immortality was 
 comprehended in the possession of a life hid 
 with Christ in God.^ 
 
 Now the window through which men caught 
 sight of these truths was, and could have been, ^chHst.^^'^^ 
 nothiuQ^ else than faith in a real incarnation 
 of God in Christ. The personal, moral, sym- 
 pathetic view of God which distinguished the 
 early Church was seen only through that open- 
 ing.^ She saw the Divine Being beaming with 
 a new radiance, she saw the wide landscape of 
 human duty and destiny illuminated and trans- 
 figured, she saw a new heaven and a new earth, 
 when she saw in Christ all the fulness of the 
 Godliead dwelling bodily. And it was in the 
 
 1 Rom. viii. 89. 2 Rom. viii. 29. ^ Col. iii. 3. 
 
 4 First Epistle of St. Clement, chap, xxxvi. : "By Him 
 we look up to the heights of heaven. By Him we behold, 
 as in a glass, His immaculate and most excellent visage. By 
 Him are the eyes of our heart opened. By Him our foolish 
 and darkened understanding blossoms up anew towards the 
 light." Bp. Lightfoot's Edition. (Macmillan, 1890.) 
 
108 The Unveiling of the Father 
 
 strength and enthusiasm of this vision, that she 
 concentrated all her moral and intellectual en- 
 ergies on the one point of keeping that window 
 open, and maintaining against direct assault 
 and secret dissolution the real and personal 
 Deity of Christ. 
 
 IV 
 
 Christian J am careful to put the statement in this 
 
 ffrew around fo^m bccausc I believe that it alone corresponds 
 the Deity of with the facts, and because it is only by get- 
 ting our minds into this position that we can 
 hope to understand the course, the meaning, 
 and the force of Christian doctrine. The early 
 Christians looked at God through Christ : they 
 did not look at Christ through a preconceived 
 idea and a logical definition of God. The true 
 development of tlieology, to put the matter 
 plainly, was not abstract, it was personal 
 and practical. The doctrine of the Trinity 
 came into being to meet an imperious neces- 
 sity. That necessity was the defence of the 
 actual worship) of Christ, the actual trust in 
 Christ as the Unveiler of the Father, which 
 already existed at the heart of Christianity. 
 It was recognized instinctively that the loss 
 of this trust, the silencing of this worship, 
 
The Unveiling of the Father 109 
 
 meant the death of Christianity by heart-fail- 
 ure. Every speculation which threatened this 
 result, every theory of human nature or of 
 divine nature which seemed to separate the 
 personality of Christ from the personality of 
 God, was regarded by the Church as dangerous 
 and hostile. P^very attempted statement of 
 theological dogma which appeared to obscure 
 or to imperil the reality and the eternal valid- 
 ity of the unveiling of the Father in the Son, 
 was resented, and a counter statement of theo- 
 logical dogma was framed to meet it. This 
 was the intellectual conflict of Christianity in 
 the first centuries : a struggle for life centring 
 about the actual Deity of Christ. 
 
 As we trace the progress of this conflict, ^^^^ conflict 
 
 with heresy 
 its Vital importance emerges more and more 
 
 clearly. Often, I suppose, we cannot help feel- 
 ing a sense of sympathy with the earnest pur- 
 pose and the personal character of those men 
 who were called heretics. Often we are con- 
 scious of a certain distrust for the meta- 
 physical and exegetical arguments, and of a 
 grave repugnance for the physical and politi- 
 cal methods, which were used by the orthodox 
 to enforce their definitions. Athanasius was 
 not an altogether lovely person. Some of the 
 early Church Councils were almost as disor- 
 
110 The Unveiliyig of the Father 
 
 derly and reckless as some of the regiments that 
 have fought in various wars to defend the cause 
 of human liberty and justice. But the question 
 is not one of the manner of defence or attack. 
 It is a question of the reality and significance of 
 the cause attacked and defended. And here we 
 see that Athanasius with all his faults v/as on 
 the right side, and Arius with all his virtues 
 was on the wrong side. Through all the con- 
 fusion of metaphysical disj^ute about the exact 
 meaning of substance and subsistence, nature 
 and personality, ideal existence and real exist- 
 ence, — terms wdiich, as I conceive them, must 
 change their significance as the methods of 
 human philosophy change, and must always 
 represent imperfectly a mystery which is for 
 us unsearchable and indefinable, — through all 
 this confusion one fact shines out clear and dis- 
 The Palla- tinct. The unveiling of the Father in Christ 
 was, and continued to be, and still is, the 
 Palladium of Christianity. All who have sur- 
 rendered it, for whatever reason, have been 
 dispersed and scattered. All who have de- 
 fended it, in whatever method, have been held 
 fast in the unity of the faith and of the know- 
 ledge of the Son of God.^ 
 
 1 Eph. iv. 13. 
 
 dium of 
 Christian- 
 ity. 
 
The Unveiling of the Father 111 
 
 This point of view must condition the atti- Thedoc- 
 tude of our minds towards the doctrine of the Trinity con- 
 Trinity. No Christian man can be hostile or st-uctedto 
 indifferent to it when he remembers its history, j^'^^^y ^j 
 It may have been too much elaborated by minds <^^^"'i«^- 
 over-curious in metaphysical distinctions. It 
 may have been put in a position of undue pre- 
 eminence by theologians whose energies were 
 all absorbed in its construction and in the con- 
 templation of the work of their own reason in 
 the service of Christianity. But in spite of all 
 excesses and errors, it stands as an enduring 
 monument of the loyalty of the faith to its cen- 
 tral conviction. In all its forms, from the 
 sharply tri-personal Trinity of Athanasius, to 
 the essentially tri-modal Trinity of Augustine, 
 the great service which it has rendered is not 
 abstract nor philosophical. It is practical. 
 It has protected the conviction that the real 
 nature of God is revealed in Christ ; it has jus- 
 tified the consciousness that the Spirit of Christ, 
 animating the Christian life, is the Spirit of 
 God ; it has preserved the sense of real com- 
 munion with God in Christ which is the nerve 
 of Christian worship. 
 
 And yet the doctrine of the Trinity is not the 
 gospel, nor is it the foundation of the gospel. 
 It cannot be preached as a saving message to the 
 
112 The Unveiling of the Father 
 
 souls of men, except in that form in which we find 
 it in Phillips Brooks' noble Sermon for Trinity 
 Sunday^ and Dr. George A. Gordon's powerful 
 discourse on The Trinity the Ground of Humanity, 
 It is the effort to apprehend a relation of the 
 Being of God to the conscious experience of 
 man ; a truth exhibited in the course of revela- 
 tion and recognized in its mysterious unfolding 
 both before and after all efforts to symbolize 
 it in theological language ; in brief, it is the 
 reaching out of the human mind, conscious of 
 its limitations and conditions, towards a vision 
 and worship of the Father in the Son through 
 the Spirit. The doctrine of the Trinity is not 
 the Palladium. It is the defence. I will con- 
 fess that in its broad outlines it seems to me 
 necessary and satisfactory. I will confess that 
 no other answer to the profound questions 
 which inevitably arise out of the contact be- 
 tween the idea of God, and the experience of 
 real life in all its manifoldness, appears to me 
 half 80 reasonable or complete as that which 
 asserts that " the various fundamental forms of 
 society on the earth, the essential relationships 
 of humanity, have their Archetype, their Eter- 
 nal Pattern and Causal Source, in the nature of 
 the Infinite." 1 I will confess that tlie form of 
 1 Gordon, The Christ of To-day, p. 101. 
 
TJie Unveiling of the Father 113 
 
 this answer which contemplates the existence 
 of these eternal relationship's in the Divine 
 nature as most clearly and positively personal, 
 is more conclusive to my mind than any other. 
 But if other men think otherwise on this point, 
 we are not therefore divided from each other, 
 or from the Christian faith. The question is 
 one of metaphysics. It is not a question of re- 
 ligion. All modes of defining the Trinity as a 
 doctrine must be kept subordinate to the pur- 
 pose for which it exists. All attempts to ex- 
 press it are valuable only in so far as they help 
 us to keep in view the unveiling of the Divine 
 nature which centres in Him who was mani- 
 fested in the flesh, justified in the Spirit, seen 
 of angels, preached among the nations, believed 
 on in the world, received up in glory. ^ 
 
 Now wherein is a message like this, the gos- The gospel 
 
 of the 
 Incarnation 
 
 pel of a personal unveiling of God in the per- 
 son of Christ, adapted to the needs of the adapted 
 present age? ^^^'«^'- 
 
 1. It seems to me first of all that the course 
 of modern thought has prepared the way for it 
 by destroying the a priori objections to the In- 
 1 1 Tim. iii. 16. 
 
 to 
 
^4: The Unveiling of the Father 
 
 carnation. Shallow.iignqsticism makes two as- 
 sumptions which are contradictory. It assumes 
 that man is unable to attain to the knowledge 
 of God ; and tliat it is impossible for God to 
 reveal Himself to man. But if we cannot 
 know Him, how can we know that He cannot 
 reveal Himself? This would be in effect the 
 most intimate kind of knoAvledge. To take it 
 for granted that an Incarnation of God is im- 
 possible or incredible is to profess a most per- 
 fect and exclusive understanding of the Divine 
 nature. "At one time," says Mr. Romanes, 
 " it seemed to me impossible that any proposi- 
 tion, verbally intelligible as such, could be 
 more violently absurd than that of the Incarna- 
 tion. Now I see that this standpoint is wholly 
 irrational. ... ' But the Incarnation is op- 
 posed to common sense.' No doubt : utterly 
 so ; but so it ought to be if true. Common 
 sense is merely a rough register of common 
 experience. But the Incarnation, if it ever 
 took place, whatever else it may have been, 
 was not a common event. ' But it is deroga- 
 tory to God to become man.' How do you 
 know? Besides, Christ was not an ordinary 
 man. Both negative criticism and the positive 
 effects of His life prove this ; while if we for a 
 moment adopt the Christian point of view for 
 
points 
 towards it. 
 
 The Unveiling of the Father 115 
 
 the sake of argument, the whole raison d'etre 
 of mankind is bound up in Him. Lastly, there 
 are considerations per contra^ rendering an In- 
 carnation antecedently probable." ^ 
 
 2. Now these considerations to which Ro- 
 manes alludes are not foreign to the intellect- 
 ual atmospliere of our age ; they are native to 
 it ; they are in fact the offspring of the times, 
 born of the spirit which now leads the best 
 thoughts of men. 
 
 The whole doctrine of development, as it is Evolution 
 conceived by the deepest and clearest minds, 
 looks forward to the discovery of an Incarna- 
 tion which shall be at once the crown and the 
 completion of the process of natural evolution. 
 If nature is an orderly and progressive mani- 
 festation of an Unseen Power ; if each succes- 
 sive step in this manifestation realizes and 
 exhibits something higher and more perfect, 
 to which all that has gone before has pointed, 
 and in which the potentialities of all previous 
 developments are not only summed up, but 
 raised to a new power ; if the mechanical struct- 
 ure of inorganic substances contains a proph- 
 ecy (only to be interpreted after the event) of 
 organic life, and organic life is a basis for in- 
 stinct and the elementary processes of intellect, 
 1 Thoughts on Beligion., p. 186. 
 
116 
 
 The Unveiling of the Father 
 
 Personality 
 the final 
 revelation. 
 
 and the rude forms of thought and feeling in 
 the lower animals foreshadow the unfolding of 
 reflective reason and moral consciousness in 
 man, — then surely this reflective reason and 
 this moral consciousness, in themselves con- 
 fessedly imperfect, must be only the founda- 
 tion for a fuller and more perfect manifestation 
 of that Unseen Power out of whose depths 
 all preceding manifestations have come forth. 
 And if the universal verdict of human science 
 and philosophy is correct in assundng that the 
 lower must precede the higher, and that or- 
 ganic life is above inorganic life, and that rea- 
 son is above instinct, and that virtue is above 
 automatic action, then it is to be expected that 
 the complete manifestation of that Unseen 
 Power which makes for Reason and Righteous- 
 ness will neither be omitted nor intruded before 
 its time. It cannot come too soon, without vi- 
 olating the order of evolution. It cannot fail 
 to come, without destroying the significance of 
 evolution. 
 
 But in what form can it come except in one 
 Avhich at once sums up all that has gone before 
 it, and advances to a new level ? If the uni- 
 verse contains an unveiling of the might, and 
 wisdom, and reasonableness, and righteousness, 
 of its Primal Cause, then certainly it must con- 
 
The Unveiling of the Father 117 
 
 tain at last an unveiling of His personality. 
 This is the only thing that remains to be 
 added. This is the only thing that embraces 
 all the rest and raises it to a new power. The 
 highest category known to onr minds is that 
 of self-conscious life. Without the conception 
 of a personal (xod, man's view of the universe 
 must remain forever incomplete, incoherent, 
 and unreasonable. Without the revelation of 
 a personal God, the process of evolution as the 
 unfolding of the real secret of the universe 
 must remain unfinished and futile. Philosophy 
 as well as religion pushes us forward to this 
 conclusion. Personality is the ultimate reality. 
 Personality must be the final revelation. But 
 a person can be unveiled only in a personal 
 form. Therefore all the presumptions of rea- 
 son are in favour of an Incarnation of the 
 Deity, not outside of nature, but in nature, to 
 consummate and crown that visible evolution 
 whereby the invisible things of Him from the 
 creation of the world are clearly seen. And 
 all the processes of intelligence are satisfied, 
 and rest and repose in the conviction that 
 the Word, which was in the beginning with 
 God and which was God and by whom all 
 things were made, finally became flesh and 
 dwelt among us, revealing His glory, the glory 
 
118 
 
 The Unveiling of the Father 
 
 The gospel 
 of the 
 
 Incarnation 
 is histori- 
 cally con- 
 sistent. 
 
 as of the only-begotten of the Father, full of 
 grace and truth.^ 
 
 3. Moreover, this view of Christ is adapted 
 to the present age because it is historically con- 
 sistent. We have seen that it underlies the 
 very existence and growth of the Christian 
 Church. The testimony of eighteen centuries 
 to the impossibility of explaining the person- 
 ality of Christ on humanitarian grounds is in 
 itself an evidence of His divinity. 
 
 Lincoln was right when he said : " You can 
 fool some of the people all of the time, and all 
 of the people some of the time, but you can- 
 not fool all of the people all of the time." A 
 thousand attempts to account for the life of 
 Christ without admitting His divinity have 
 been made. Not one of them has succeeded 
 in winning the assent and approbation of any 
 great mass of men for any great length of 
 time. They have hardly survived the lives of 
 those who have invented them. Each new 
 naturalistic theory of Christ has discredited 
 and demolished its predecessors. And if any 
 one of them is alive and finds credence to-day, 
 it is only because it is the latest, and it is but 
 
 1 See Lyman Abbott, The Evolution of Christianity 
 (Houghton, Mifflin & Co., 1894), "Christ is not the prod- 
 uct of evolution, but the producer," pp. 240-242, 
 
The Unveiliyig of the Father 119 
 
 waiting for its successor (as the theory of 
 Socinus waited for the theory of Strauss, and 
 the theory of Strauss for the theory of Renan) 
 to be its judge and destroj^er. 
 
 Meantime historic Christianity, whicli l)e- The impre!,. 
 holds God incarnate in Christ, stands as a rock of Chn's- 
 around which the tides of opinion ebb and How, tianity. 
 The Church has changed in some things, but 
 not in this. It has modified, enlarged, dimin- 
 ished, or abandoned some articles of faitli, but 
 not this. If it be an error, it is such an error 
 as the world has never seen anywhere else ; 
 for it has not only stood firm through the 
 fiercest and most persistent storm of criticism 
 that has ever been directed against any human 
 opinion, but it has also been the foundation of 
 the strongest and saintliest lives that humanity 
 has ever known. If it be a truth, it must be 
 for every Christian preacher the central truth. 
 For it is certain that this age of ours, with 
 its ruthless critical spirit, with its keen histori- 
 cal sense, will never respect the intelligence, 
 though it may acknowledge the good inten- 
 tions, of a man who professes to s})eak in the 
 name of Christianity without proclaiming, as 
 the core of his message, the Divine Christ. 
 
 4. And this gospel meets the need of our 
 times because it is the satisfaction of humanity. 
 
120 
 
 The Unveiling of the Father 
 
 The incar- 
 nation 
 satisfies the 
 human 
 heart. 
 
 More urgent and painful even than the ques- 
 tions of the intellect in regard to the being and 
 nature of God, are the misgivings of the heart 
 in regard to His relations to us. If He is that 
 remote and inaccessible Sovereign 
 
 " Who sees with equal eyes, as Lord of all, 
 A hero perisli or a sparrow fall," 
 
 what possible answer can we find in Him to 
 the longings and desires of our souls for a 
 Divine love ? what possible support can we find 
 in Him for our struggles against outward 
 temptation and indwelling evil ? what possible 
 sympatliy can we find in Him for our hopes 
 and aspirations and upward strivings, out of 
 the quicksands of heredity and environment, 
 towards liberty and light ? The religion of 
 the Incarnation is the only one that brings us 
 near to Him, assures us of our kinship with 
 Him, and of His infinite, practical, helpful love 
 for us. This faith alone bridges the chasm 
 that divides the eternal self-existent Spirit 
 from our finite, despondent, earthbound souls. 
 This faith alone gives us any knowledge of the 
 things that we most need to know about Him. 
 Deism is like a message written in an inscruta- 
 ble hieroglyph which conveys no clear meaning 
 to the mind. Theism is like a message which 
 is intelligible to the intellect, but unsatisfac- 
 
The Unveiling of the Father 121 
 
 tory to the heart, because it has no personal 
 address and no signature. Christianity is a per- 
 sonal message, signed by the hand of a Father, 
 and conveyed to us by the hand of the Son. 
 
 The comparison is imperfect. It falls far Christ is 
 short of the truth. In Christianity the mes- J^ ^^ 
 senger is the message. The love which sent 
 and the love which delivered it are the same. 
 Christ is Immanuel, God with us. The gospel 
 of the Incarnation does not profess to remove 
 all intellectual perplexities in regard to the 
 existence of God and our own souls. It pro- 
 fesses simply to establish such a conscious re- 
 lation between our souls and God that our 
 ethical needs shall be satisfied at once ; and 
 thus it shall be infinitely easier, either to dis- 
 solve, or to endure, our intellectual perplexi- 
 ties. This relation is possible only in Christ. 
 And it is possible in Him only when we receive 
 Him as the unveiling of the Father. This re- 
 quires an act of faith. But it is a faith which 
 is simpler in its form, more natural in its 
 method, and more profound in its spiritual re- 
 sults than any other. For in the last analysis 
 it is just an act of personal confidence in a 
 person. And this does not demand perfect 
 knowledge, but absolute trust. 
 
122 The Unveiling of the Father 
 
 The Deity of To imagine that we can adapt onr preaching 
 ^t^rengtho/ ^^ ^^^^ ^S^ ^^ doubt by weakening, concealing, 
 our gospel, or abandoning the truth of the Deity of Christ 
 is to mistake the great need of our times. It 
 is to seek to commend our gospel by taking 
 away from it the chief thing that men really 
 want, — an assurance of sympathy and kinship 
 with God. " One of the great marks of the 
 youth of to-day," says Ernest Lavisse, — ''I 
 speak of thinking youth, — is a longing for the 
 Divine." 1 This longing is to be met not by 
 slighting, but by emphasizing, not by clouding, 
 but by clarifying, not by withdrawing, but by 
 advancing, the true Deity of our Lord Jesus 
 Christ. Let us take up the words of the ancient 
 creed : " We believe in one Lord Jesus Christy 
 the Son of God, only -begotten of the Father, that 
 is of the substance of the Father, G-od of God, 
 Light of Light, very God of God, begotten, not 
 made, being of one substance with the Father : 
 by Whom all things were made which are in 
 heaven and earth: Who, for us men and for our 
 salvation, came doivn, and was iricarnate, and was 
 made man, and suffered, and rose the third day, 
 and ascended into the heavens, and shall come 
 to judge the quick and the dead.'"^ 
 
 1 Ernest Lavisse, La Generation de 1890. 
 '^ Symbolum Nicaenum, The Creeds of Christendom, Vol. 
 ii. (Harpers, 1882). 
 
IV 
 
 THE HUMAN LIFE OF GOD 
 
" Behold Him now where He comes ! 
 
 Not the Christ of our subtle creeds, 
 
 But the light of our hearts, of our homes, 
 
 Of our hopes, our prayers, our needs ; 
 
 The brother of want and blame, 
 
 The lover of women and men, 
 
 With a love that puts to shame 
 
 All passions of mortal ken. 
 
 ****** 
 *' Ah no, thou life of the heart, 
 
 Never shalt thou depart ! 
 
 Not till the leaven of God 
 
 Shall lighten each human clod; 
 
 Not till the world shall climb 
 
 To thy height serene, sublime, 
 
 Shall the Christ who enters our door 
 
 Pass to return no more." 
 
 — Richard Watson Gilder, 
 The Passing of Christ. 
 
rv 
 
 THE HUMAN LIFE OF GOD 
 
 Nearly fifty years ago, Horace Bushnell, ^ff^^^at 
 
 .,(,... , . truth in 
 
 the most mystical of logicians, or the most logi- eclipse. 
 cal of mystics, delivered before Yale University 
 a magnificent discourse upon The Divinity of 
 Christ. In that fine work of genius, wrought 
 out of darkness and light, mystery and clear- 
 ness, like an intricate carving of ebony and 
 gold, I find these words : " Christ is in such 
 a sense God, or God manifested, that the un- 
 known term of His nature, that which we are 
 most in doubt of, and about which we are least 
 capable of any positive affirmation, is the 
 human." ^ 
 
 This sentence, it seems to me, is not of light, 
 but of darkness. It does not represent that 
 illuminating and harmonious kind of truth 
 which comes directly from the divine revelation 
 of Christ. It belongs rather to that obscured 
 
 1 Horace Bushnell, God in Christ (New York, Scribners, 
 1887), p. 123. 
 
 125 
 
126 
 
 The Hmnan Life of G-od 
 
 Theolofjy 
 has lost 
 sight of 
 Christ's 
 hnmanitij. 
 
 and discordant manner of presenting truth 
 which is the consequence of studying it too 
 much at second-hand and too little at first- 
 hand, too much in the speculations and reason- 
 ings of men and too little in the facts of life 
 wherein it was first manifested. Whatever 
 may be said of this sentence as a statement of 
 the result of dogmatic theology, — and in this 
 sense I, for one, do not question its accuracy, 
 — when we consider its plain meaning as an 
 expression of Christian experience and faith, 
 one thing is clear : It is utterly out of touch 
 with the experience and faith of the first dis- 
 ciples. It is in sharp and striking discord 
 with the consciousness of the primitive Church. 
 For if there is anything in regard to which the 
 New Testament makes positive and undoubting 
 affirmation, it is the complete, genuine, and 
 veritable humanity of Christ. If there is any 
 fact which stands out luminous and distinct 
 in the experience of the early Christians, it is 
 that they saw in Christ, not merely a myste- 
 rious manifestation of the Divine in a form cal- 
 culated to beget new doubts, and under con- 
 ditions which must remain, inscrutable and 
 incomprehensible, but something utterly differ- 
 ent. They saw the mystery reduced to terms 
 of simplicity, the revelation levelled to the 
 
The Human Life of G-od 127 
 
 direct apprehension of man, the unveiling of 
 the Father under conditions which were so 
 familiar that they dissolved doubts and diffi- 
 culties. They saw in Christ the human life 
 of God. 
 
 The object of this lecture is, first, to trace How shall 
 very briefly the way in which this view of ^ L^'f'J ? ^^ 
 Christ has been beclouded so that His human- 
 ity has appeared doubtful and less capable of 
 positive affirmation ; second, to show how the 
 primitive view of His person and life may be, 
 and in the history of Christian faith often has 
 been, recovered and restored to its pristine 
 brilliancy and beauty ; and third, to try to 
 express, though but imperfectly, the meaning 
 and importance of this view for the present 
 age. 
 
 Definition is dangerous. Necessary it may Obscuration 
 be ; useful it undoubtedly is ; but our recogni- y-/^^^"^' ^^' 
 tion of these qualities ought not to make us 
 forget or deny the peril which the process cer- 
 tainly involves. And this is the nature of the 
 danger : the definition has an inherent ten- 
 dency to substitute itself for the thing defined. 
 The terms in which a fact is expressed creep 
 into the place of the fact itself. The reality is 
 
128 
 
 The Human Life of God 
 
 An illustra- 
 tion from 
 the history 
 of Art. 
 
 removed insensibly to a remote distance behind 
 the verbal symbols which represent it. The 
 way of access to it is blocked, and its influ- 
 ence is restricted by the forms of expression 
 invented to define it. 
 
 I do not know where we can find a more vivid 
 illustration of this process than that which is 
 given, in many ways, in the history of art. The 
 first effort of the artist is to represent something 
 that he has seen or imagined. Oat of this 
 effort and the work which it produces, grow 
 certain methods and habits of representing 
 landscape and architecture and the human 
 figure. Out of these habits grow rules and 
 formulas, not only for the hand but also for the 
 eye. On these formulas schools are founded. 
 In these schools the example of masters comes 
 to have an authority which overshadows and 
 limits the vision of facts as well as the repre- 
 sentation of them. The Japanese artists, of 
 certain schools, actually reproduce that infan- 
 tile condition of sight in which all things 
 appear flat, in a single plane, Avithout perspec- 
 tive. The Giotteschi of Italy carried their 
 disregard of anatomy to such a point that 
 johits and articulations vanished from the 
 human figure. 
 
The Human Life of God 129 
 
 Now this same process of limitation by for- R^presenta- 
 mill as may be observed, on the ideal side, in (J^^J 
 the course of religious art. The first pictures 
 of Christ, traced in colour upon the walls of 
 the Catacombs, or carved in stone upon the sar- 
 cophagi of the Christian dead, do not give us 
 indeed tlie very earliest conception of Him ; for 
 the Christian art of the first two centuries, if it 
 ever existed, has long since perished. But that 
 Avhich remains, dating from the third and fourth 
 centuries, bears witness to an idea of the Christ 
 Avhich was simple and natural and humane. 
 He appears as a figure of youthful beauty and 
 graciousness ; the good Shepherd Ijearing a 
 lamb upon His shoulders ; the true Orpheus 
 drawing all creatures and souls by the charm 
 of His amiable music. ^ These are only sym- 
 bolic representations, yet they evidence a con- 
 ception of Him which was still in touch with 
 the facts. A little later we find an effort to 
 conceive and dejDict Him with more realism. 
 His face appears in pictures which resemble 
 the description given in the spurious Epistle 
 of Lentulus : " A man of dignified presence, 
 with dark hair parted in the middle and 
 flowing down, after the custom of the Naza- 
 
 1 So in the paintings from the Catacombs of S. Agnese 
 and S. Callisto. 
 
130 The Human Life of God 
 
 renes, over both shoulders ; His brow clear 
 and pure ; His unfurrowed face of pleasant 
 aspect and medium complexion ; His mouth 
 and nose faultless ; His short, light beard 
 parted in the middle ; His eyes bright and 
 lustrous."^ 
 Tradition ^ But whcn wc pass on to the creations of so- 
 
 iiptv I tip ^ 
 
 Christian Called Byzantine art, we find ourselves face to 
 ^''^- face with an utterly different view of the Christ. 
 
 His countenance now stares out in glittering 
 mosaic from the walls of great churches, huge, 
 dark, threatening, a dreadful and forbidding 
 face. The fixed and formal lines are repeated 
 and deepened by artist after artist. Every feat- 
 ure of naturalness is obliterated ; every feature 
 that seemed to express awfulness is exagger- 
 ated and emphasized. The wide-set eyes, the 
 long narrow countenance, the stern, inflexible 
 mouth, — in this ocular definition the man 
 Christ Jesus has vanished, and we see only the 
 immense, immutable, and terrible Pantokrator, 
 who cannot be touched with the feeling of our 
 infirmities. 2 
 
 When we turn to the intellectual life of the 
 Church out of which this type of art grew, we 
 
 1 This is the imago Christi which we see in the painting 
 from the Catacomb of S. Ponziano. 
 
 2 Tliis type was shown in the mosaic in the Cliurcli of St. 
 Paul outside tlie walls, near Rome, hitely destroyed by tire. 
 
The Human Life of God 131 
 
 see there the process explained. The early Dogmas 
 Greek Fathers, like Trenyeus, went directly to ^-g^^ ^y 
 the Holy Scriptures for their view of the per- Chinst. 
 son of Christ, and frankly accepted all the 
 features of the living, lovely portrait there dis- 
 closed. They recognized without reserve the 
 reality of Christ's human growth in w^isdom and 
 stature and in favour with God and men ; the 
 actual limitations of Christ's human knowledge 
 as expressed in the questions that He asked and 
 in His profession of ignorance in regard to the 
 time of His second advent ; the intimacy of His 
 sympathy with us in temptation, suffering, and 
 deatii. But with the development of theological 
 definition this direct view of Christ was modified, 
 obscured, and at last totally eclipsed. Instead of 
 looking at God through His revelation in Christ, 
 the Fathers began to look at Christ through a 
 more and more abstract, precise, and inflexible 
 statement of the metaphysical idea of God. It 
 became necessary to harmonize the Scripture 
 record of the life of Jesus with the theories of 
 the divine nature set forth in the decrees of 
 councils and defined with amazing particularity 
 in the writings of theologians. In the effort to 
 accomplish this, two main lines of thought were 
 followed. One line abandoned the belief in 
 
132 The ilummi Life of Grod 
 
 The hiding Christ's real and complete humanity, and re- 
 IfJesiis^^ duced His human life to a tenuous and filmy 
 apparition. The other line distinguished be- 
 tween His humanity and His Divinity in such 
 a way as to divide Him into two halves, either 
 of which appears virtually complete without 
 the other, and both of which are united, not in 
 a single and sincere personality, but in an out- 
 ward manifestation and a concealed life, cover- 
 ing in some mysterious way a double centre of 
 existence. It is only fair to say that the ex- 
 treme results of these two lines of thought were 
 condemned by the Church in the heresies of 
 Doketism and Apollinarianism, Eutychianism 
 and Nestorianism. But it is equally fair to say 
 that the influence of these theories was by no 
 means checked nor extirpated. They continued 
 to make themselves felt powerfully and perni- 
 ciously ; now in the direction of dissolving 
 the humanity of Christ into a mere cloud 
 enveloping His Deity ; and again in the 
 direction of dividing and destroying the 
 unity of His person in the defniitions of His 
 dual nature. 
 Bending the It is not neccssary, nor would it be possible, 
 deiiniiions. f^^' ^^ ^^ tracc tliis proccss in detail through all 
 its complexities and self-contradictions. It 
 will be enough to give two or three specimens 
 
The Human Life of God 133 
 
 of the kind of work to which it led in dealing 
 with two essential features of the picture of 
 Christ which is given to us in the Gospels : His 
 human limitation of knowledge, and His human 
 growth in wisdom, stature, and grace. Both 
 limitation and growth are unexempt conditions 
 of manhood. Both are unquestionably attrib- 
 uted to Clmst in the New Testament. Both 
 are explicitly denied by theologians. Ephrem 
 Syrus, commenting upon the Diatessaron of 
 Tatian, says : '' Christ, though He knew the 
 moment of His advent, yet that they might not 
 ask Him any more about it, said, I hiow it not.''^ 
 Chrysostom, in his explanation of St. Matthew 
 xxiv. 36, paraphrases Christ's words in this 
 extraordinary fashion : " For if thou seek after 
 the day and the hour thou shalt not hear them 
 of me, saith He ; but if of times and preludes, 
 I will tell thee all exactly. For that indeed 
 I am not ignorant of it^ I have shown by many 
 things. — I lead thee to the very vestibule ; 
 and if 1 do not open unto thee the doors, this 
 also I do for your good."^ John of Damascus, 
 defending the orthodox faith, declares that, 
 
 1 Evang. Concordant. Expos. (Aucher and Moesinger, 
 Venice, 1876), p. 16. 
 
 2 St. Chrysostom, Homilies on the Gospel of St. Matthew, 
 Ixxvii. 2. The Nicene Fathers (New York, Christian Litera- 
 ture Co., 1888), vol. X. 
 
134 The Human Life of G-od 
 
 " Christ is said to advance in wisdom and 
 stature and grace, because He grows in fact in 
 stature, and through His growth in stature 
 brings out into exhibition the wisdom which 
 already existed in Him. ... But those who 
 say that He really grew in wisdom and grace as 
 receiving increase in these, deny that the flesh 
 was united to the word from the first moment 
 of its existence."^ Peter Lombard does not 
 explicitly adopt, but quotes with evident ap- 
 proval, the opinion that the person of the eter- 
 nal Word put on a human body and soul as a 
 robe, in order that He might appear suitably to 
 the eyes of mortals, yet in Himself He was not 
 changed by this incarnation, but remained one 
 and the same, immutable. ^ 
 
 A very full and clear exhibition of the dark- 
 ness and unreality in which the patristic and 
 mediaeval theologians involved the person of 
 Christ may be found in Professor A. B. Bruce's 
 great book on The Humiliation of Christ,^ and 
 in Canon Charles Gore's two admirable vol- 
 umes on The Incarnation^'^ from which I have 
 
 1 John Damascene, De Fide Orthod., Lib. iii. chap. xxii. 
 
 2 Peter Lombard, Sentt., Book iii., Dist. vi. § G. 
 
 3 Prof. Alexander Bahnain Bruce, The Humiliation of 
 Christ (New York, Armstrongs, 1887). 
 
 4 Canon Charles Gore, The Incarnation of the Son of God^ 
 Bampton Lectures, 1891 (New York, Scribners, 1891). Dis- 
 
The Human Life of Crod 135 
 
 taken some illustrations after verifying them. 
 Professor Bruce sums up the matter by saying : 
 " The effect, though not the design, of theories 
 of Christ's person has been to a large extent to 
 obscure some of these elementary truths, — 
 the unity of the person, or the reality of the 
 humanity, or the divinity dwelling within the 
 man, or the voluntariness and ethical value of 
 the state of the humiliation. That is, certain- 
 ties have been sacrificed for uncertainties, facts 
 for hypotheses, faith for speculation." ^ 
 
 Canon Gore, in his Bampton Lectures, ^^^^ej/ian- 
 
 hood of 
 
 adroitly uses the Jesuit theologian De Lugo as jesus van- 
 a man of straw through whom he may safely **^^*' 
 and vigorously attack the false conceptions of 
 Christ's person which are still current, and to a 
 considerable degree dominant, in dogmatic the- 
 ology. He says that De Lugo depicts a Christ 
 "who, if He was, as far as His body is con- 
 cerned, in a condition of growth, was, as re- 
 gards His soul and intellect, from the first 
 moment and throughout His life in full enjoy- 
 ment of the beatific vision. Externally a way- 
 farer, a viator, inwardly He was throughout 
 a comprehensor, He had already attained. . . . 
 It is denied that He can be strictly called 
 
 sertations on Subjects connected with the Incarnation (New 
 York, Scribuers, 1895). i The Hiimiliation of Christ, p. 192. 
 
136 The Human Life of aod 
 
 ' the servant of God ' even as man, in spite of the 
 direct use of that expression in the Acts of the 
 Apostles. He is spoken of at tlie institution of 
 the Eucharist as offering sacrifice to His own 
 Godhead."! 
 Modern ex- Canon Gore condemns this picture by De 
 false Chris- I^ugo as in striking contradiction to that which 
 toiogy. w^Q New Testament presents. But the point 
 
 which I wish to make clear and distinct, is that, 
 in spite of this contradiction, the picture has 
 not been frankly and finally discarded in Chris- 
 tian theology. It still exercises an obscuring 
 and perverting influence upon the vision of 
 Christ. It still produces, by imitation, repre- 
 sentations of Him in which definitions dominate 
 facts, and formulas hide or obliterate realities. 
 We do not need to go back to the seventeenth 
 century, nor abroad to the Jesuits, for our ex- 
 amples. We may turn to Archdeacon Wilber- 
 force's book on The Incarnation^ and find him 
 representing the body of Clirist as miraculous 
 in its freedom from sickness, its power over 
 animals, its exemption from the necessity of 
 death, and its inherent power of communicat- 
 ing life to others.'^ In regard to the mind of 
 
 1 The Incarnation, p. 164. 
 
 2 Archdeacon Wilberforce, The Doctrine of the Incarna- 
 tion (New York, Young, 1885), pp. 60-65. 
 
The Hummi Life of aocl 137 
 
 Christ, he says that '^smce it would be impious 
 to suppose that our Lord had pretended an 
 ignorance which He did not experience, we 
 are led to the conclusion [astonishing conclu- 
 sion !] that what He partook, as man, was 
 not actual ignorance, but such deficiency in 
 the means of arriving at truth as belongs to 
 mankind/'^ We may turn to the Dogmatic 
 Theology of Dr. W. G. T. Shedd and read: 
 "Jesus Christ as a theanthropic person was A double 
 constituted of a divine nature and a human ^^^^ 
 nature. The divine nature had its OAvn form 
 of experience, like the mind in an ordinary 
 human person ; and the human nature had its 
 own form of experience, like the body in a com- 
 mon man. The experiences of the divine nature 
 were as diverse from those of the human nature 
 as those of the human mind are from those of 
 the human body. Yet there was but one per- 
 son who was the subject-ego of both of these 
 experiences. At the very time when Christ 
 was conscious of weariness and thirst by the 
 well of Samaria, He also Avas conscious that He 
 was the eternal and only-begotten Son of God, 
 the second person in the Trinity. This is proved 
 b}' His words to the Samaritan woman : ' Who- 
 soever drinketh of the water that I shall give 
 1 Ibid., p. 71. 
 
138 The Human Life of God 
 
 him shall never thirst ; but the water that I 
 shall give him shall be in him a well of water 
 springing up into everlasting life. I that speak 
 unto thee am the Messiah.' The first-mentioned 
 consciousness of fatigue and thirst came through 
 the human nature in His person ; the second- 
 mentioned consciousness of omnipotence and 
 supremacy came through the divine nature in 
 His person. If He had not had a human nature, 
 He could not have had the former consciousness; 
 and if He had not had a divine nature. He could 
 not have had the latter. Because He had both 
 natures in one person, He could have both."^ 
 We may turn to Canon Liddon's magnificent 
 work on The Biviyiity of our Lord and find him 
 writing : *' Christ's Manhood is not of Itself an 
 individual being ; It is not a seat and centre of 
 personality ; It has no conceivable existence 
 apart from the act whereby the Eternal Word 
 in becoming Incarnate called It into being and 
 made It His Own. It is a vesture which He has 
 folded around His person ; It is an instrument 
 through which He places Himself in contact with 
 men and whereby He acts upon humanity." ^ 
 
 1 W. G. T. Shedd, Dogmatic Theology (New York, Scrib- 
 ners, 1888), vol. ii., pp. 307, 308. 
 
 2 H. P. Liddon, The Divinity of our Lord and Saviour 
 Jesus Christ, Bampton Lectures, 1866 (London, Rivingtons, 
 11th edition, 1885), p. 262. 
 
The Human Life of God 139 
 
 And so, if we accept this picture of Christ, The human 
 the manhood of Jesus fades, retreats, grows ^^^^ 
 dim and shadowy. It wavers like a veil. It 
 dissolves like mist. It descends again mys- 
 terious and impenetrable, illusory and imper- 
 sonal, to envelop Him whom we love and adore 
 in its strange and unfamiliar folds. We grope 
 after Him, but we can touch nothing but the 
 hem of His mystic robe. We long for Him, 
 but He approaches us, and comes into contact 
 with us, only tlxrough an instrument. He is 
 not what He seems. The Son of God behind 
 that veil is beyond our reach. The Son of 
 man, whom human eyes beheld and human 
 hands touched, is not the real, living, veritable 
 Saviour, but only the form, the garment, of an 
 inscrutable life. And if, in our dire confusion, 
 our reasoning faith still succeeds in holding 
 fast to the Eternal Logos, our confiding faith is 
 maimed and robbed by the loss of that true, 
 near, personal, loving, sympathizing Jesus, who 
 was born of a woman, suffered under Pontius 
 Pilate, was crucified, dead, and buried. He is 
 gone from us, as certainly as if the Pharisees 
 had spoken truth when they said that His dis- 
 ciples came by night and stole Him away. The 
 thing of which we are most in doubt, and 
 about which we are least capable of any positive 
 
140 
 
 The Human Life of God 
 
 affirmation, as Dr. Bashnell said, is the human- 
 ity of Christ. We are left with a perfectly 
 orthodox doctrine of two natures, but we no 
 longer have a clear and simple gospel of One 
 Person to preach to doubting men. 
 
 n 
 
 The 10 or- 
 ship of the 
 Virgin 
 Mary. 
 
 The cry of But the heart of Christendom has never 
 
 a human rested content with this distant, vague, uncer- 
 
 Saviour. tain view of the real manhood of our Lord. 
 
 There has always been a protest against it. 
 
 There has always been an effort to escape from 
 
 it. 
 
 We can see a strange and indirect but 
 indubitable evidence of this deep inward dis- 
 satisfaction, in the rise and growth of an im- 
 passioned devotion to the human mother of 
 Jesus. The worship of the Virgin Mary was 
 a reprisal for the obscuration of the humanity 
 of her Son. In the thought of her true 
 womanly tenderness and affection, her real and 
 unquestionable sorrows, her simple and familiar 
 joys, her intimate, genuine, unfailing sympathy 
 with all that makes our mortal life a bitter, 
 blessed reality to us, the souls of the lowly and 
 the lonely found that peace and consolation 
 
The Human Life of God 141 
 
 which they could no longer find in the con- 
 templation of the distant Second Person of the 
 Trinity through the telescope of theology. 
 That which Jesus Himself was to John and 
 Peter, to the household of Bethany, to the 
 penitent publican, and to the woman which 
 Avas a sinner, Mary became to the baffled and 
 confused faith of a later age, — an approachable 
 mediator of the divine mercy, a helper who 
 could really understand and feel the need of 
 those who cried for help, a warm and living 
 image of the Eternal Sympathy in flesh and 
 blood. In the light of mediaeval dogmatics 
 Mariolatry appears not without its justifica- 
 tion. And for my part, I should not Avish to be 
 bound to the Christology of Peter Lombard 
 and Thomas Aquinas, without finding the com- 
 pensation which their followers found in per- 
 sonal devotion and confidential trust, flowing 
 instinctively and irresistibly towards the blessed 
 Virgin. 
 
 But, after all, this was only a substitute for The search 
 the real thing. It gave to faith the image of 
 a lovely and adorable humanity in closest union 
 with God ; but it did not give back the old 
 vision of the human life of God. And so 
 through all the ages we see men turning, now 
 in solitary thought, now in great companies, to 
 
142 The Human Life of G-od 
 
 seek that vision. The renaissance of Christian 
 art, with its beautiful pictures of the infancy of 
 Jesus, with its piercing and pathetic representa- 
 tions of the sufferings of Jesus, bears witness 
 to the eagerness of that search. The revivals 
 of Christian life, seen in such diverse yet cog- 
 nate forms as the rise of the " Poor Men of 
 Lyons " and the foundation of the " Brother- 
 hood of St. Francis " are evidences of the same 
 movement back to Christ. Peter Waldo outside 
 of the Church, and Francis of Assisi within the 
 Church, were awakened by the same vision of 
 Jesus, " a man of sorrows and acquainted with 
 grief," and were inspired by the same desire to 
 make His real human life the pattern of all piety 
 The spirit and the example of all goodness. The Refor- 
 mation, which was at once and equally an intel- 
 lectual and a spiritual protest against the arro- 
 gance of current theology and the coldness of 
 religious life, supplies no better watchword to 
 express its great motive than the saying of 
 Erasmus : " I could wish that those frigid subt- 
 leties either were completely cut off, or were 
 not the only things that the theologians held as 
 certain, and that the Christ pure and simi^le 7night 
 he implanted deep within the minds of men.^'^ 
 
 1 Erasmus, quoted in Gore, Dissertations^ etc., p. 180, 
 Epistle 207. 
 
 oftheRefor 
 mation 
 
The Human Life of God 143 
 
 Modern Biblical scholarship, with its splendid 
 apparatus of linguistic and historical learning, 
 proceeding in part, at first, from a sceptical im- 
 pulse, has developed in our generation, either 
 through the conversion of sceptics in the process 
 of research, or through the awakening of be- 
 lievers to the necessities of their faith, into a 
 reverent and eager quest for the historic Christ, 
 the Jesus of the Gospels, the Lord of the primi- 
 tive Church, that we may see Him as the first 
 Christians saw Him, in the integrity of His per- 
 son and the sincerity of His life, and receive from "Back to 
 Him what they received, — a faith that dissolved 
 doubts and an inspiration that conquered diffi- 
 culties. Back to the New Testament of our 
 Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, — back to the 
 facts that lie behind the definitions, back to 
 the Person who embodies the truth, back to the 
 record and reflection of that which the apostles 
 "heard, and saw with their eyes, and looked 
 upon, and their hands handled of the word of 
 life," — this, and this only, is the way that leads 
 us within sight of 
 
 " the heaven-drawn picture 
 Of Christ, the hving Word." 
 
 Now it is a marvellous thing, and one for 
 which we can never be grateful enough, that 
 
144 The Human Life of Grod 
 
 when we come to the New Testament in this 
 spirit, we find in it exactly what we need ; not an 
 abstract formula, not a collection of definitions, 
 but the graphic reflection of a Person seen 
 from a fourfold point of view, and the simple 
 record of manifold human experience under the 
 direct and dominant influence of that Person. 
 And the one fact that emerges clear and tri- 
 umphant from the reflection and the record, is 
 that the writers of the New Testament never 
 were in doubt of the human nature of Christ 
 and never hesitated to make the most positive 
 affirmations in regard to it, 
 
 The Christ of the Gospels is bone of our 
 bone, flesh of our flesh, mind of our mind, 
 heart of our heart. He is in subjection to 
 His parents as a child. He grows to man- 
 hood. His character is unfolded and perfected 
 by discipline. He labours for daily bread, and 
 prays for Divine grace. He hungers, and 
 thirsts, and sleeps, and rejoices, and weeps. 
 He is anointed with the Spirit for His minis- 
 try. He is tempted. He is lonely and dis- 
 appointed. He asks for information. He 
 confesses ignorance. He interprets the facts 
 of nature and life with a prophetic insight. 
 But He makes no new disclosure of the secrets 
 of omniscience. There is no hint nor indica- 
 
The Human Life of Crod 145 
 
 tion that He is leading a double life, reigning 
 consciously as God while He is suffering appar- 
 ently as man. His personality is simple and 
 indivisible. The glory of what He is and does, 
 lies not only in its perfection, but in the hard 
 conditions of its accomplishment. Superhuman 
 in His origin, as the only-begotten Son of God ; 
 superhuman in His office and work, as the re- 
 vealer of the Father and the redeemer of man- 
 kind ; in His earthly existence the Christ of the 
 Gospels enters without reserve and without de- 
 ception into all the conditions and limitations 
 Avhich are necessary to give to the world, once 
 and forever, the human life of God. 
 
 When we turn to the Epistles to see how ^^^ Christ 
 this view of Christ was affected by the recog- Epistles. 
 nition of His divine glory and power as one 
 who had been raised to the right hand of God 
 and made head over all things to the Church, 
 two things strike us with tremendous force. 
 First, the identity of His person was not lost, 
 nor the continuity of His being broken : the 
 exalted Christ is none other than "this same 
 Jesus." ^ Second, the reality and absoluteness 
 of His humiliation are emphasized as the ground 
 and cause of His exaltation. 
 
 How vividly these two things come out, for 
 1 Acts i. 11. 
 
146 The Human Life of Giod 
 
 example^ in the writings of St. Paul. It has 
 been well said that " the Christ whom Paul had 
 seen was the risen Christ, and the conception 
 of Him in His glorified character is the one 
 which rules his thoughts and forms the start- 
 ing-point of his teaching." ^ Corresponding to 
 this present glory, Paul assumes an eternally 
 pre-existent glory of Christ as the image of 
 the invisible God, the medium and end of crea- 
 tion. ^ Now it is of this Person, divinely glori- 
 ous in the j)ast as the One who is before all 
 things and in whom all things consist,^ divinely 
 glorious in the present as the One who is far 
 above every name that is named, not only in 
 this world but in that which is to come,* — 
 it is of this Person that Paul writes, in words 
 so strong that they touch the very border of 
 the impossible : " For our sakes. He beggared 
 Himself that we through His beggary might 
 be enriched."^ And again: "He, existing in 
 the form of God, did not consider an equal 
 state with God a thing to be selfishly grasped 
 and held, but emptied Himself and took the 
 form of a slave, being made in the likeness of 
 man."^ These powerful expressions, "self- 
 
 1 Stevens, The Pauline Theology, p. 206. 
 
 2 Col. i. 16. 3 Col. i. 17. 4 Eph. i. 21. 
 ^ 2 Cor. viii. 9. e pijii. ii. o^ 7. 
 
The Human Life of Grod 147 
 
 beggary," "self-emptying," seem to be directly 
 designed to break up the conventional moulds 
 in which dogmatic theology has attempted to 
 cast the truth and let it harden. They bring 
 back a vital warmth and motion into the facts 
 of the Incarnation. Once more it glows and 
 flows. Once more we see that it is not a mere 
 exhibition of being but a process of becoming. 
 The idea of self-beggary mightily overflows 
 the mere statement that a human nature was 
 added and united to the divine nature ; for 
 that would have been no impoverishment but 
 an enrichment. The idea of self -emptying The 
 shatters the narrow dogma that the Son of 
 God suffered no change in Himself when He 
 became man. It was a change so absolute, so 
 immense, that it can only be compared with 
 the vicissitude from fulness to emptiness. He 
 laid aside the existence-form of God, in order 
 that He might take the existence-form of man. 
 Whatever right He had to an equal state of 
 glory with God, that right He did not cling 
 to, but surrendered, in order that He might 
 become a servant. And upon this real self- 
 emptying there followed a real self-humilia- 
 tion, wherein, being found in fashion as a man. 
 He became obedient unto death, even the death 
 
148 The Human Life of God 
 
 of the cross. ^ It was on account of this, — 
 and by " this " we must understand the entire 
 actual operation of the self-denying, self-hum- 
 bling, self-sacrificing mind of Christ, — it was 
 for this reason, St. Paul declares, that '' God 
 highly exalted Him, and gave unto Him the 
 name which is above every name."^ And I 
 know not how to interpret such language 
 with any reality of intelligence, unless it 
 means that the present glory of the Son of 
 God is in some true sense tlie result of His 
 having become man and so fulfilled the will 
 of God. 
 The Epistle This view, which St. Paul condenses into a 
 brotherhood. Single pregnant "wherefore," is expanded in 
 the Epistle to the Hebrews. The object of 
 this Epistle is to show the superiority of the 
 priesthood and sacrifice of Christ, which are 
 substantial and enduring, to the priesthood and 
 sacrifice of the old dispensation, which were 
 shadowy and transient. But the method which 
 the writer follows is not to deny, but to assert 
 the verity of Christ's humanity. Without this 
 He could not be the true priest nor offer the 
 true sacrifice. ''In all things it behoved Him 
 to be made like unto His brethren. "^ " For we 
 have not an high priest which cannot be touched 
 1 Phil. ii. 8. 2 Phil. ii. 9. 3 jieb. ii. 17. 
 
of conde- 
 scension. 
 
 The Humayi Life of Qod 149 
 
 witli tlie feeling of our infirmities : but was in 
 all j)oints tempted like as we are, yet without 
 sin." ^ " Though He were a Son, yet learned 
 He obedience by the things which He suffered, 
 and being made perfect, He became the author 
 of eternal salvation unto all them that obey 
 Him."'^ This complete incarnation, this thor- The gioi-y 
 ough trial under human conditions, this perfect 
 discipline of obedience through suffering, was a 
 humiliation. But it was in no sense a degrada- 
 tion. On the contrary, it was a crowning of 
 Christ with glory and honour in order that He 
 might taste death for every man. "For it be- 
 came Him, for whom are all things, and by 
 Avhom are all things, in bringing many sons to 
 glory, to make the captain of their salvation 
 perfect through suffering." ^ If the Epistle to 
 the Hebrews teaches anything, it certainly 
 teaches this. The humanity of Jesus was not 
 the veiling but the unveiling of the divine 
 glory. The limitations, temptations, and suffer- 
 ings of manhood were the conditions under 
 which alone Christ could accomplish the great- 
 est work of the Deity, — the redemption of a 
 sinful race. The seat of the divine revelation 
 and the centre of the divine atonement was and 
 is the human life of God. 
 
 1 Heb. iv. 16. 2 Heb. v. 8, 9. s Heb. ii. 9, 10. 
 
160 
 
 The Human Life of Crod 
 
 III 
 
 A summa}^ 
 of conclu- 
 sions. 
 
 Current 
 theology 
 at fault. 
 
 11 a man 
 theories 
 not to he 
 insisted 
 upon. 
 
 Here, then, we may pause for a moment and 
 try to sum up the conclusions to which the New 
 Testament leads us in regard to the person of 
 Christ. 
 
 I am sincerely anxious not to be misunder- 
 stood. On the one hand, I would not conceal 
 for a moment my conviction that current theol- 
 ogy has failed, very often and very largely, to 
 do justice to the meaning of the Incarnation on 
 the human side, and that we must go back to 
 the image of Jesus Christ as it is reflected in the 
 Gospels to purify, and refresh, and simplify 
 our faith. We should not vsuffer any reverence 
 for ancient definitions of doctrine, however well 
 founded, nor any fear of incurring reproach and 
 mistrust as innovators, to deter us from that 
 necessary and loyal return to the reality of tlie 
 Person in whom our creed centres and on whom 
 it rests. To find Jesus anew, to see Him again, 
 as if for the first time, in the wondrous glory 
 of His humility, is the secret of the revival of 
 Christianity in every age. This is not innova- 
 tion ; it is renovation. 
 
 On the other hand, we have no right and we 
 ought to have no inclination to insist exclusively 
 upon any particular theory as the only possible 
 
The Human Life of Grod 151 
 
 explanation of the facts of the Incarnation. 
 Every earnest and thoughtful man must feel 
 that these facts are so deep and mysterious that 
 the plummet of human reason cannot sound 
 their ultimate recesses. With all our thinking 
 upon this subject, there must ever mingle a con- 
 sciousness of insufficiency and a confession of 
 ignorance. But with this confession of igno- 
 rance there must go also a clear recognition of 
 those portions of the truth which are unques- 
 tionably revealed in the New Testament. Three 
 things are there made plain to faith. 
 
 1. God is so closely related to man, and the Three vital 
 likeness of God in man is so real, that the Di- 
 vine Logos is able to descend l)y a free act of 
 self-determining love into tlie lower estate of 
 liuman existence, and liiimbly Himself to the 
 conditions of manhood without losing His per- 
 sonal identity. 
 
 2. The essence of the Gospel is its declara- 
 tion of the fact that this act of condescension, 
 of self-humiliation, actually has been performed, 
 and that Jesus Christ is the eternal Son of God 
 who has taken upon Him the existence-form of 
 a servant, and lived a truly human life, and 
 been obedient even unto death, in order to re- 
 veal to the world the saving love of God. 
 
162 The Human Life of God 
 
 3. The distinctive attributes of personality 
 in Christ (self-consciousness and self-deter- 
 mination) are not dual, as of two persons, 
 the one divine and the other human, co-exist- 
 ing side by side in a double life, but individual, 
 and manifested as the life of one person. That 
 person is the Son of God, who laid aside the 
 glory which He had with the Father, and emp- 
 tied Himself, and so became the Son of man ; 
 and on account of this humiliation God hath 
 highly exalted Him and crowned Him with 
 glory and honour as the God-man forever. 
 These points These are the points which are vital to the 
 reality of the Gospel of the Incarnation. All 
 theories which make these points clear, safe- 
 guard the truth in its integrity and in its rec- 
 onciling power. The question of the method 
 of the divine humiliation and the human exal- 
 tation of Christ, lies beyond these points. It 
 is not necessary to insist upon any particular 
 form of its solution. Indeed, it may well be 
 that the profundity of the question, the inher- 
 ent mystery of the facts of life and personality 
 with which it deals, and the limitations of 
 human thought and language, preclude the 
 possibility of a complete and final answer at 
 present. It must be frankly acknowledged 
 that none of the solutions which have been pro- 
 
 de fended. 
 
The Human Life of God 153 
 
 f)ounded hitherto are free from serious perplex- 
 ities. But it must be recognized with equal 
 frankness that the theories which have been 
 put forward in modern times, with new earnest- 
 ness and power, by men of unquestionable loy- 
 alty to the Christianity of the New Testament, 
 who have sought to find a clear and positive 
 meaning for the great word ICenosis, which 
 St. Paul uses to describe the self-emptying of 
 Christ in the Incarnation, — theories which 
 have been stigmatized as kenotic^ as if the name 
 were enough to mark them as unorthodox, — 
 are so far from being heretical that they have 
 the rare merit of conserving and emphasizing a 
 truth of surpassing value, undoubtedly taught 
 in the Bible, and too much neglected, if not 
 practically denied, during many centuries of 
 theological speculation. It may be, as Julius 
 Mliller held, that the distinctive attributes of V(^rious 
 
 . methods of 
 
 personality are, abstractly considered, identical safe-guard- 
 in God and man, so that, by the divine self- 
 limitation in the Incarnation, they are actually 
 unified, like two circles which have a common 
 centre. 1 It may be, as Dr. Fairbairn holds, 
 that the Son of God, being the eternal repre- 
 
 1 For this statement of Miiller's view, which he gave in 
 his lectures, I am indebted to Dr. George P. Fisher, who was 
 one of his hearers. 
 
 ing them. 
 
154 The Human Life of God 
 
 sentative of the filial relationship within the 
 Godhead, the symbol of the created within the 
 uncreated, needed but to surrender the form 
 and status of the uncreated Son in order to 
 assume, by the same act, the form and status 
 which man as the created Son was intended to 
 realize.^ It may be, as Godet holds, that the 
 Incarnation was by deprivation, and that the 
 Eternal Word renounced His divine mode of 
 being, and entered into life, without omnisci- 
 ence, omnipresence, or omnipotence, as an un- 
 conscious babe. 2 It matters little in what form 
 of words we try to express the transcendent 
 truth. But it matters much, it is supremely 
 important for the integrity of our Gospel and 
 for its influence upon the heart of this doubting 
 age, that we should liold fast to the fact that 
 the life of Jesus of Nazareth is simply and 
 sincerely the human life of God. 
 
 The time is at hand when this simple and 
 profound view of Christ, which beholds in Him 
 the God-man in whom Deity is self-limited 
 and humbled in order that humanity may be 
 divinely exalted and perfected, must break 
 through the clouds which have obscured it, and 
 become the leading light of religion and theol- 
 
 1 The Place of Christ in Afodern Theology, p. 476. 
 
 2 Godet, Commentary on John i. 14. 
 
The Human Life of G-od 155 
 
 ogy. The life of Christ needs to be restudied 
 and rewritten under this luminous guidance, in 
 absolute and unhesitating loyalty to the facts 
 as they lie before our eyes in the Gospels. ^ The 
 doctrine of Christ's person needs to be recon- 
 structed and restated in this light. It must 
 include, as the creed of Chalcedon included, 
 not only the truth of a Homoousia — a sameness 
 of nature and experience — with God, which 
 the past has vindicated ; but also the equal 
 truth of a Homoousia with man, which the fut- 
 ure is to unfold as the universality of Christ's 
 manhood is exhibited through His progressive 
 triumphs among all the races of men and all 
 the modes of human life. The humanity of the 
 incarnate Christ must stand out as clear, as pos- 
 
 1 "No action of our Saviour's earthly life, from Bethlehem 
 to Calvary, exhibits divinity. He appears first as a helpless 
 habe in the manger. He is subject to His parents. As the 
 child grows, He w^axes strong in spirit and increases in wis- 
 dom. Such an increase in wisdom implies increase in know- 
 ledge, and less knowledge or greater ignorance to-day than 
 to-morrow. Omniscience could not have been exercised by 
 the Jesus who was growing in wisdom. If any say here, as 
 we usually do, that the humanity grew but the divinity was 
 omniscient, let us ask if there were two persons in Jesus. 
 This Nestorianism is practically the creed of the present day 
 with the Reformed Churches, They have gone over to a 
 virtual duplication of the person of Christ." — Howard 
 Crosby, The True Humanity of Christ (New York, Ran- 
 dolph, 1880). 
 
156 The Human Life of God 
 
 itive, as indubitable, as His Deity. Nay, more, 
 it must stand where the New Testament puts 
 it, in the foreground of faith. For it is only in 
 this humanity that we can truly find the Son of 
 God who loved us and gave Himself for us. 
 The old How Urgent and pressing are the needs of 
 
 definitions i • i 
 
 inadequate, o^^' o^n age which call US to this work! How 
 far behind us, how effete and inadequate, are 
 the terms and illustrations which were used in 
 former ages to express the results of human 
 thought in regard to the person of Christ ! 
 Recall, for instance, that fine similitude of the 
 heated sword which the Lutheran theologians 
 borrowed from the Fathers to explain the 
 union of the divine with the human in Christ! 
 To them it was satisfactory because they re- 
 garded heat as one substance and iron as 
 another substance. In their view the divine 
 nature penetrated and pervaded the human 
 nature as the caloric fluid was supposed to per- 
 meate a mass of metal. But in our world the 
 caloric fluid does not exist. Heat is not a sub- 
 stance, but a mode of motion in substances. 
 In the light of modern science the old simili- 
 tude fades into a meaningless comparison of 
 things which cannot be compared. 
 
 We cannot accept the scholastic terminology 
 of " natures " and '• subsistences " in the final 
 
The Huma7i Life of God 157 
 
 and absolute sense in which it was once em- 
 ployed. The philosophy of realism, which 
 ascribed an objective existence to universals 
 apart from individuals, is not the philosophy of 
 to-day. Its language is not only foreign, but 
 dead. The philosophy of being and not-being 
 has opened to receive the philosophy of becom- 
 ing ; and, in so doing, it has been utterly trans- 
 formed. 
 
 Life is now the regnant idea ; personality its Life is the 
 utmost expression. It is in the facts of life, ^^g^"^ 
 its secret potencies, its mysterious limitations 
 in germ and seed, its magnificent unfoldings in 
 the process of development that we must seek 
 our comparisons for the Incarnation. And the 
 very search will bring us face to face with the 
 conviction that life in all its manifestations 
 transcends analysis without ceasing to be the 
 object of knowledge. 
 
 In the living world the boundaries of imagi- ^^'^ ^"'^^ 
 
 . life but can- 
 
 nation are not coterminous with the limits of ^ot define it. 
 
 apprehension. We know many facts and 
 
 forms of life whose modes of becoming we 
 
 cannot imagine. It is just as impossible for 
 
 us to conceive how the life of the oak, root and 
 
 trunk and branch and leaf, form and colour 
 
 and massive strength, is all folded in the tiny, 
 
 colourless, unshaped seed, as it is to conceive 
 
158 
 
 The Human Life of God 
 
 how the life of God is embodied in the man 
 Christ Jesus. But the difficulty of conceiving 
 the manner of this infolding, this embodiment, 
 does not destroy for us the reality of the life. 
 Indeed, if we could explain it entirely, if we 
 could trace it perfectly as in a diagram, if we 
 could observe it completely, as in one of those 
 beautiful models of flowers which a skilful 
 artist 1 has recently made to illustrate his lect- 
 ures on botany, we should know that it was not 
 life, but only a picture of it. The picture is 
 useful, but it is not vital. The metaphor has 
 its value, but it falls far short of the truth. 
 Self-heggary and self -emptying are but "words 
 thrown out towards " an unimaginable but not 
 unreasonable manifestation of the Divine Love 
 as life. The reality to which they point us is 
 the Son of God descending to live under all 
 the conditions and limitations of energy and 
 consciousness which are proper to the Son of 
 man : the Word made flesh and dwelling among 
 us, like unto His brethren in all things. 
 
 IV 
 
 The import- j^ would be hard to overestimate the signifi- 
 
 ance of this /. i • • i. i 
 
 view for the cancc of this vicw lor the present age, and the 
 present age. importance of setting it forth as a living truth 
 1 William Hamilton Gibson. 
 
The Humayi Life of God 159 
 
 in the language of to-day. It is the only view 
 which gives us any ground of reality for our 
 faith in the kinship of man with God. If the 
 Son of God, who is the image of the Father, by 
 laying aside the outward prerogatives of His 
 divine mode of existence, actually becomes 
 human, then, and only then, the divine image 
 in which man was created is no mere figure of 
 speech, but a substantial likeness of spiritual 
 being. There is a true fellowship between 
 our souls and our Father in heaven. Virtue 
 is not a vain dream, but a definite striving 
 towards His perfection. Revelation is not a 
 deception, but a message from Him who knows 
 all to those who know only a part. Prayer is 
 not an empty form, but a real communion. 
 
 " Speak to Him, thou, for He hears, and Spirit with Spirit 
 can meet : 
 Closer is He than breathing, and nearer than hands 
 and feet."i 
 
 This view of the spiritual relation of man to The Unship 
 
 ^ -. -T -I 1 *• 1 i-- • of man to 
 
 God cannot possibly have any foundation m g^^ 
 fact, deep enough and strong enough to with- 
 stand the sweeping floods of scepticism, unless 
 it builds upon the rock of a veritable Incarna- 
 tion. The discoveries of modern science, en- 
 larging enormously our conceptions of the 
 1 Tennyson, The Higher Pantheism. 
 
160 The Humayi Life of God 
 
 physical universe, have not only put man (as 
 we said in the first lecture) in a position to 
 receive a larger and loftier vision of the glory 
 of God, but they have made such a vision in- 
 dispensable. And they have emphasized, with 
 overwhelming force, the form in which that 
 vision must come in order to meet our needs 
 and strengthen faith for its immense task. If 
 we are not to be utterly belittled and crushed 
 by the contemplation of the vast mass of matter 
 and the tremendous play of force by which we 
 are surrounded ; if we are still to hold that the 
 vital is greater than the mechanical, the moral 
 than the material, the sjDiritual than the physi- 
 cal ; if we are to maintain the old position of 
 all noble and self-revering thought, that " man 
 is greater than the universe," — there is nothing 
 that can so profoundly confirm and establish 
 us, there is nothing that can so surely protect 
 and save us from ''the distorting influences of 
 our own discoveries," as the revelation of the 
 Supreme Being in an unmistakably vital, moral, 
 spiritual, and human form. 
 The true Such a revelation at once rectifies, purifies, 
 
 view of God. . p 
 
 and elevates our view of God Himself. For if 
 the Son of God can surrender omnipresence, 
 omniscience, and omnipotence without destroy- 
 ing His personal identity, then the central 
 
The Human Life of Q-od 161 
 
 Essence of the Deity is neither infinite wisdom 
 nor infinite power, but perfect holiness and 
 perfect goodness. And so from the very 
 h:)west valley of humiliation we catch clear 
 sight of the very loftiest summit of theology, 
 the serene and shining truth that God is Love. 
 
 In the light of this truth we behold also the The supreme 
 highest perfection of man and the path which ^^^^g 
 leads to it. Love is the fulfilling of the law, 
 and the supreme pattern of love is the example 
 of Christ. And whether we look at it from 
 the divine side as the supreme self-sacrifice of 
 God, or from the human side as the complete 
 obedience of man, everything depends upon the 
 genuineness and sincerity of this example. Un- 
 less the Son of God truly became man, the Li- 
 carnation cannot be, as Bishop Westcott calls 
 it, "a revelation of human duties." What 
 strength could we draw from His victory over 
 temptation if He was not exposed as we are 
 to the assaults of evil ? What consolation 
 could we draw from His patience if He was 
 not a man of sorrows and acquainted with 
 grief ? " Jesus Christ," says one of the greatest 
 of French theologians, " is not the Son of God 
 hidden in the Son of man retaining all the 
 attributes of Divinity in a latent state. This 
 
162 The Human Life of God 
 
 would be to admit an irreducible duality which 
 would make the unity of His person vanish 
 and withdraw Him from the normal conditions 
 of human life. His obedience would become 
 illusory, and His example would be without 
 application to our race. No, when the Word 
 became flesh, He humbled Himself, He put off 
 His glory, being rich He made Himself poor, 
 and became as one of us, only without sin, that 
 He might pass through the moral conflict with 
 all the risks of freedom." ^ When we see Him 
 thus, we know what it means to follow Him 
 and to be like Him. 
 The value of Finally, the whole value of the Atonement, 
 
 the atone- .,. . ^ „ 
 
 ,nen<. 11^ its reconciling mnuence on the heart oi man, 
 
 in its exhibition of the heart of God, depends 
 upon the actuality of the Incarnation. If He 
 who died on Calvary was a mere theophany, 
 like the angel of Jehovah who appeared to 
 Abraham, then His death was merely a dra- 
 matic spectacle. The body of Jesus was broken, 
 
 God suffers but God was not touched. But if the Father 
 truly spared not His own Son, but delivered 
 Him up for us all, then the Father also suf- 
 fered by sympathy, making an invisible sacri- 
 fice, an infinite surrender of love for our sakes. 
 
 1 De Pressens6, Jesus-Christ (Paris, 1865), Book I., chap. 
 v., p. 254. 
 
 with and for 
 us. 
 
The Human Life of (rod 168 
 
 Then the Son also suffered, making a visible 
 sacrifice, and pouring out His soul unto death 
 to redeem us from the fear of death and the 
 power of sin. And this becomes real to our 
 faith and potent upon our souls only when we 
 see the human life of God, agonizing in the 
 garden, tortured in the judgment-hall, and ex- 
 piring upon the cross. Then we can say 
 
 " Oh Love Divine ! that stooped to share 
 Our sharpest pang, our bitterest tear." 
 
 Then we can look up to a God who is not im- 
 passible, as the speculations of men have falsely 
 represented Him, but passible, and therefore 
 full of infinite capacities of pure sorrow and 
 saving sympathy. Then the dumb and sullen 
 resentment which rises in noble minds at the 
 thought of a Universe in which there is so ^^^^^ ^^ ^;J 
 much helpless pain and hopeless grief, created thought of 
 by an immovable Being who has never felt r,athy. ^ 
 and can never feel either pain or grief, — that 
 sense of moral repulsion from the idea of an 
 unsuffering and unsympathetic Creator which 
 is, and always has been, the deepest, darkest 
 spring of doubt, fades away, and we behold a 
 God who became human in order that He 
 might bear, though innocent and undeserving, 
 all our pains and all our griefs. 
 
l64 Tlie Human Life of Crod 
 
 Thejnding ^pj ^l ^ j^^ believe in the human life 
 
 of the 
 
 human of God can stand before the doubting age, as 
 
 David stood before the disillusioned, downcast, 
 
 despondent Hebrew king, in Robert Browning's 
 
 splendid poem of " Saul." The word, sought in 
 
 vain among the glories of nature, among the 
 
 joys of human intercourse, the word of faith 
 
 and hope and love and life, comes to us, leaps 
 
 upon us, flashes through us. 
 
 " See the King — I would help him, but cannot, the 
 wishes fall through. 
 
 Could I wrestle to raise him from sorrow, grow poor 
 to enrich, 
 
 To fill up his life, starve my own out, I would — know- 
 ing which, 
 
 I know that my service is perfect. Oh, speak through 
 me now ! 
 
 Would I suffer for him that I love ? So wouldst 
 Thou — so wilt Thou! 
 
 So shall crown Thee the topmost, ineffablest, uttermost 
 crown — 
 
 And Thy love fill infinitude wholly, nor leave up nor 
 down 
 
 One spot for the creature to stand in ! It is by no 
 breath. 
 
 Turn of eye, wave of hand, that salvation joins issue 
 with death ! 
 
 As Thy Love is discovered almighty, almiglity be 
 proved 
 
 Thy power, that exists with and for it, of being be- 
 loved ! 
 
 He who did most, shall bear most; the strongest shall 
 stand the most weak. 
 
The Human Life of Crod 165 
 
 'Tis the weakness in strength, that I cry for ! my flesh, 
 
 that I seek 
 In the Godhead ! 1 seek and I find it. O Saul, it 
 
 shall be 
 A Face like my face that receives thee; a Man like 
 
 to me. 
 Thou shalt love and be loved by, forever; a Hand 
 
 like this hand 
 Shall throw open the gates of new life to thee! 
 
 See the Christ stand I " 
 
THE SOURCE OF AUTHORITY IN 
 THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN 
 
" But Thee, but Thee, O sovereign Seer of time, 
 But Thee, O poets' Poet, Wisdom's Tongue, 
 But Thee, O man's best Man, O love's best Love, 
 O perfect life in perfect labour writ, 
 O all men's Comrade, Servant, King, or Priest, — 
 "What if or yet, what mole, what flaw, what lapse, 
 What least defect or shadow of defect. 
 What rumour, tattled by an enemy. 
 Of inference loose, what lack of grace 
 Even in torture's grasp, or sleep's, or death's, — 
 Oh, what amiss may I forgive in Thee, 
 Jesus, good Paragon, thou Crystal Christ ? " 
 
 — Sidney Lanier, The Crystal. 
 
command- 
 ment. 
 
 THE SOURCE OF AUTHORITY IN 
 THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN 
 
 Preach Christ, is the apostolic watchword The new 
 that rings to-day, with all the force and charm 
 of a new commandment, through the heart of 
 a Church, which has felt, more deeply than it 
 has yet confessed, the age-pervading chill of 
 a winter of doubt and discontent. The very- 
 entrance of that mystic and reviving word has 
 already brought a glow of enthusiasm into the 
 Christian life, and caused new blossoms of hope 
 and love, manifold and beautiful activities of 
 help and healing, to appear in the earth. It 
 seems as if some fresh and secret tide of vital- 
 ity were flowing through the veins of Christen- 
 dom, and breaking everywhere towards the 
 light in deeds of charity and enterprises of 
 mercy. Hospitals, asylums, red cross societies, 
 rescue missions, salvation armies, spring into 
 existence as if by magic. Never has there 
 been a time when Christian men have tried to 
 169 
 
170 The Source of Authority 
 
 The new ^^ ^o mueli fur their fellow-men in the name 
 '''""'^^' and for the sake of Christ. Never has there 
 been a time when they have recognized so 
 clearly and fully that there was so much yet 
 to be done. It is an age of secular doubt, as 
 many other ages have been. But it is also an 
 age of Christian beneficence, as hardly any 
 other age has been. And this beneficence is 
 not self-satisfied and complacent. It is self- 
 reproachful, and, in its best expressions, nobly 
 discontented with all that has been accom- 
 plished hitherto. It seeks, not always wisely, 
 but Avith splendid eagerness, for jDlans which 
 shall lead beyond the relief, to the prevention 
 of human suffering. It aims to bring about 
 not only the immediate mitigation, but also the 
 ultimate abolition, of war. It demands that 
 cliarit}" sludl be translated into the terms of 
 national, as well as of individual life. It will 
 not be satisfied until in some real and palpable 
 sense the kingdom of this world is become the 
 kingdom of our Lord and of His Christ.^ 
 Christ is the Now this renewal, this splendid expansion of 
 Christian activities, evident by many signs to 
 all thouglitful observers, depends for its power 
 and permanence upon the setting forth of 
 Christ, vividly, personally, practically, as the 
 1 Rev. xi. 15. 
 
 fountain. 
 
The Source of Autliority 171 
 
 pattern of all virtue and the Trince of Peace 
 among men. The sense of absolute confidence 
 in Him as the perfect example of goodness, and 
 of thorough loyalty to Him as the j\1 aster of 
 noble life, is the hidden reservoir of moral 
 force. The organized charities of Christendom 
 are the distributing system. Not more instant 
 and more complete would be the water-famine 
 on ^Manhattan Island if the great dam among 
 the Croton hills were broken and all the lakes 
 and streams dried u[), than the drought that 
 would fall upon the beneficence of the world if 
 there Avere a sudden break in the reservoir of 
 love and loyalty in Christian hearts to their 
 moral Master, or a stoppage of the myriad and 
 multiform feeders which keep it full by preach- 
 ing Christ. 
 
 But in all this renewal and expansion of what The peril of 
 
 ' ^ r-^^ • ■ • practical 
 
 is well and proudly called practical Christianity, Christianity 
 there is, if I mistake not, a danger, or at least 
 a serious possibility, of loss. The life of man 
 is not only practical, it is also intellectual. His 
 relations to his fellow-men are important, but 
 his relation to truth is no less important. He 
 cannot help acting ; neither can he help tliink- 
 ing. When his thinking is divorced from his 
 acting, when he has one standard for truth and 
 a different standard for conduct, he is like a 
 
172 The Source of Authority 
 
 house divided againi^t itself. If the Christian- 
 ity of to-day, by dwelling exclusively or too 
 much on the ethical side of the Gospel as a 
 beautiful and beneficent rule of conduct illus- 
 trated by a perfect Example, tends to ignore the 
 intellectual necessities of man and fails to real- 
 ize that it has a message to deliver in the realm 
 of truth as well as in the realm of righteous- 
 ness, it will not and it cannot meet the deepest 
 wants of tlie present age. Indeed, it may even 
 aggravate those wants and make them more 
 painful. It may seem to give assent, by 
 silence, to the desperate assumption of scepti- 
 cism that the unseen Avorld is unknown and 
 unknowable, even to the most perfect of men. 
 It may foster the sad feeling that the reality of 
 religion is beyond our reach and that we must 
 content ourselves with the convenient dreams 
 of virtue. It may preach, in effect, a Christ 
 whose character and conduct are to be accej^ted 
 as infallil)le, but wdiose thoughts and convic- 
 tions in regard to God and the soul and the 
 future life are mere fallacies and illusions. 
 What fhes Preach Christ, if it is to be a true. watchword 
 
 to preach ^^^' ^'^i* ministry to the present age, must be 
 (JhriHt? cleaicd and vivified and expanded in our con- 
 sciousness. We must know what we mean by 
 it. and we must try to know what we ought to 
 
The Source of Authority 173 
 
 mean. We must ask ourselves again and again 
 whether the thing that we do mean is always 
 quite, or even approximately, the thing that we 
 ought to mean when we use this precious and 
 powerful phrase. It was commonly employed, 
 say fifty j^ears ago, to describe by way of dis- 
 tinction a presentation of Jesus wliich dwelt 
 chiefl}^ or entirely upon His death as the vicari- 
 ous sacrifice for sin. It is frequently employed 
 now as if it meant little or nothing more than 
 the graphic description of Clu-ist\s life and 
 actions as the supreme type of virtue and love. 
 But surely to preach Christ exclusively in either 
 of these ways is to divide Him. It is not enough 
 to have a Christocentric theology. It is not 
 enough to have a Christocentric morality. We 
 must not only put Him at the centre; but we 
 must also draw the circumference so that it 
 shall embrace the whole of human life. 
 
 If Christ is the Lamb of God that taketh A gospel /or 
 
 . the whole 
 
 away the sin of the world,-^ He is also tiie true ^^^.^j^ ^j- 
 Light Avhich lighteth every man that cometh human no. 
 into the world. ^ If He is the fulfilment of all 
 dim prophecies of good, He is also the head and 
 source of a new unfolding of spiritual vision. 
 If He is the way and the life. He is also the 
 truth. 3 If He is immortal love, regenerating 
 1 St. John i. 29. '^ St. John i. 9. ^ st. John xiv. 6, 
 
174 
 
 The Source of Authority 
 
 the affections, He is also immortal wisdom re- 
 organizing tlie tliouglits, and immortal power 
 strengthening the wills, of men. If His heart 
 is to be the norm of our feeling, His mind is 
 to be the norm of our thinking. If He is the 
 herald and founder of a new and celestial 
 dominion upon earth, He is also the source of 
 authority in the kingdom of heaven. 
 
 Tlip king- 
 dom of 
 heaven the 
 keynote of 
 (.'hrisVs 
 teachiufj. 
 
 The idea of the kingdom of heaven, as an act- 
 ual reign of God over living men, in which all 
 ancient anticipations of good are accomplished 
 and a new state of virtue and blessedness is es- 
 tablished on earth, was foremost and dominant 
 in the teaching of Jesus. ^ It was the keynote 
 of His ministry. Everything that He said, 
 everything that He did, was in harmony with 
 this master thought. 
 
 It is passing strange to see how often and 
 liow utterly this keynote has been changed in 
 the variations which men have woven about the 
 
 1 The word " kingdom " is used in the Gospels more than 
 a liundred times to express the new condition of human life 
 which Christ came to announce and establish. In St. 
 Matthew's Gospel the favourite phrase is "the kingdom of 
 heaven." St. Mark and St. Luke use "the kingdom of 
 God." 
 
The Source of Authority 175 
 
 original theme of Christianity ; and how far False inter- 
 we are, even 3^et, from hearing it clearly, and ^^^^"^^^^^^• 
 sounding it with dominant fulness, in the 
 music of religion. At times the kingdom of 
 heaven has been identified with the visible 
 church as an outAvard embodiment of power in 
 the Avorld. And surely this interpretation is 
 far enough away from the thought of Christ, 
 who taught expressly that the kingdom was 
 invisible and inward. At other times men have 
 removed their conception from the present to 
 the future, and looked for its realization in the 
 life of the redeemed after death, or in the second 
 coming of Christ to reign in millennial glory. 
 And surely this interpretation is equally remote 
 from Christ's teaching, at the very outset of His 
 ministry and all through its course, that the 
 kingdom of heaven was at hand, that it had 
 already come near to men, and was lying all 
 around them, close to them, pressing upon them 
 from every side so that many were already en- 
 tering into it and dwelling within it. 
 
 The unreality and incompleteness of these The idea 
 two opposite interpretations of the kingdom 
 produced their natural results. The idea fell 
 out of its true place in Christian thought. It 
 became obscure, subordinate, and was finally 
 
176 Tlte Source of Autliority 
 
 almost obliterated. No further illustration of 
 this statement is necessary than that which 
 may be obtained by consulting one of the most 
 popular aids to the study of the Bible : Talbot's 
 Analysis, revised by the Rev. Nathaniel West, 
 and again revised by the Rev. Dr. Roswell D. 
 Hitchcock, and set forth under the title of A 
 Complete Analysis of the Holy Bible; or^ the 
 Whole Bible arranged in Subjects.^ In the in- 
 dex to this work there is but one solitary 
 reference to the kingdom of God. When we 
 turn to look at it, Ave find eleven verses, under 
 the heading of " The Millennium ; the Growth of 
 the Kingdom of God." The kingdom of heaven 
 is dismissed with a general reference to the 
 Parables. To any one who is really familiar 
 with his New Testament, the insufficiency of 
 such a treatment of one of its controlling ideas 
 must appear evident and surprising. 
 The idon But it may be said that in very recent times 
 
 there lias been an intense revival of interest in 
 tliis idea and an immense amount of good work 
 (h»n(' in the study and explication of it. This 
 is true and it should be gratefully recognized. 
 Such books as those which Dr. James S. Cand- 
 lisli and Professor A. B. Bruce have written 
 
 1 Wilmore\s New Analytical Reference Bible (New York, 
 J891). 
 
 hoffins to he 
 restored 
 
The Source of AutJiority 177 
 
 upon " The Kingdom of God," are most valua- 
 ble gifts to Christian literature.^ And yet I 
 will frankly confess that these books, and others 
 like them, seem to me rather to point the way 
 than to reach the goal. The fulness of the 
 conception of the kingdom of heaven is not 
 yet restored in current theology. Its regnancy 
 in all spheres of human life is not yet com- 
 pletely rounded. There is still a great deal 
 of Avork to be done in this direction by the 
 Christian thinker and the Christian preacher. 
 The vision of the kingdom is obscured, the 
 proclamation of the kingdom is weakened, be- 
 cause it is still presented too exclusively as 
 a kingdom of grace, and not with equal em- 
 phasis as a kingdom of truth : it is set up too 
 partially as a standard for the character and 
 conduct of men, and not with equal clearness 
 as a standard for their thoughts and convic- 
 tions. 
 
 One reason of this one-sidedness, it seems to it must he 
 
 T . 1 ^ 1 1 ^ ' lA j_ ^ Studied in 
 
 me, lies m the lact that we have hitherto been all/our 
 looking almost entirely to the first three Gos- Gospels. 
 pels as the source of our knowledge of the true 
 
 1 The Kingdom of God, Biblically and Historically Con- 
 sidered, James S. Candlish (Edinburgh, Clarks, 1884). The 
 Kingdom of God, or Christ's Teaching according to the 
 Synoptical Gospels, Alexander Balmain Bruce (New York, 
 Scribners, 1889). 
 
178 The Source of Authority 
 
 meaning of the kingdom of heaven. But the 
 Fourth Gospel, if indeed it be, as the best 
 modern schoLars say it is, "the most faithful 
 image and memorial of Jesus that any man 
 could produce," must be no less important, no 
 less signilicant in the light which it throws 
 upon this controlling idea of His mind. And 
 when we turn to study it with this aim in view, 
 we find at once that it gives us what we need. 
 It completes and rounds out the record of the 
 three other Gospels. It answers the ques- 
 tions which they suggest. It keeps the prom- 
 ises which they seem to make to our faith. 
 And it is only when Ave take the fourfold 
 narrative in its entirety that we begin to catch 
 sight of the satisfying and convincing fulness 
 of tlie idea of the kingdom of heaven. 
 The kincj- xiils idea underlies the whole Gospel accord- 
 
 St. John. I'^to to St. John. It IS no less fundamental, no 
 less necessary here than it is in the Synoptic 
 Gospels. It is presented in different forms, 
 because the type of the writer's mind and the 
 purpose of his book are different. But it is 
 the same idea. And this presentation of it is 
 essential to its completeness. 
 
 In the Synoptics we have the conditions of 
 entrance into the kingdom, a child-like spirit,^ 
 1 St. Matt, xviii. 3. 
 
The Source of Authority 179 
 
 faith,^ repentance,^ and obedience. ^ In St. John Compared 
 we have the spiritual birth by which alone ^syrlopUcs. 
 those requisites are made possible.* In the 
 Synoptics we have the laws of tlie kingdom.^ 
 In St. John we have the new life in which 
 alone those laws can be fulfilled.^ In the 
 Synoptics we have the parables and pictures 
 of the kingdom." In St. John we have the 
 inmost sense of those parables, spoken directly 
 to the soul, in words of which Christ Himself 
 says ''they are spirit, and they are life."^ In 
 the Synoptics we have the new order of liuman 
 society in the imitation by the disciples of 
 Christ's obedience to the will of God.^ In St. 
 John we have the organizing principle of that 
 new order in Christ's revelation of Himself to 
 the disciples as the way, the truth, and the 
 life.^^ In the Synoptics we have the supremacy 
 of Christ's example over men's hearts. In St. 
 John we have the supremacy of Christ's teach- 
 ings over men's minds. 
 
 Of course, I do not mean to say that either 
 
 1 St. Matt. ix. 22 ; St. Mark ^ st. Matt, xiii., xxi., xxv.; 
 
 X. 52. St. Luke xiii., xvii., xix., 
 
 2 St. Luke xiii. 3. etc. 
 
 3 St. Matt. V. 20. 8 St. John vi. 03; viii. 12-51. 
 
 4 St. John iii. 5. 9 St. Matt. xii. 50. 
 ^ The Sermon on the Mount. ^" St. John xiv. 6. 
 
 6 St. John vi. 22-05. 
 
180 The Source of Authority 
 
 Both views of these aspects of the kingdom is confined ex- 
 neces^ary. ^.^^gjyg^y ^^ ^\^q source in which it is most fully 
 and clearly exliibited.^ But this is what I 
 mean. The Synoptics give us the first and 
 simplest description of the nature of the king- 
 dom. St. John gives us the fullest and clear- 
 est revelation of the mind of the King. We 
 cannot understand the former without the lat- 
 ter. Wc cannot enter into the full meaning 
 of the initial proclamation of Jesus, when He 
 walked beside the Sea of Galilee crying " The 
 kingdom of heaven has come near," ^ unless Ave 
 go on with Him to the judgment-hall, and hear 
 Him give His final answer to Pilate : '^ Thou 
 sayest that I am a King ; to this end have I 
 been born, and to this end am I come into the 
 world, that I should bear witness unto the 
 truth ; every one that is of the truth heareth 
 my voice." ^ 
 
 When we stand at this point, when we ac- 
 cept this declaration as the key to unlock and 
 open the inmost meaning of the manifestation 
 of tlie Father in the human life of the Son, we 
 
 ' See Bruce, The Kingdom of God, p. 185, on the personal 
 claim of Christ in the Synoptics. See R. F. Horton, The 
 Teaching of Jesus (New York, 1896), pp. 219-233, on relation 
 between Synoptic doctrine of the kingdom and Johaunine 
 doctrine of eternal life. 
 
 2 St. Matt. iv. 17. 3 St. John xviu. 37. 
 
The Source of Autliority 181 
 
 begin to apprehend the inexhaustible scope and The king- 
 significance of our call to preach Christ to an ^^ ^^.,,ii ^^.^ J 
 age of doubt. It is a gospel not only for the fjrace. 
 affections, but also for the intellect. It takes 
 up His words as well as His works and makes 
 them vital in the lives of men. It conceives 
 and proclaims the kingdom of heaven as some- 
 thing more than " the reign of divine love ex- 
 ercised by God in His grace over human hearts 
 believing in His love and constrained thereby 
 to yield Him grateful affection and devoted 
 service."^ It is also the reign of divine truth 
 exercised through a faithful witness over the 
 minds of men who subnut to His guidance and 
 are led by Him into inward peace and unity of 
 thouo-ht. And the source of authoritv in this 
 kingdom of heaven, which is equally a realm of 
 truth and a realm of grace, is Jesus the Christ, 
 whose doctrine, as well as His example, is ulti- 
 mate and supreme. 
 
 n 
 
 Let us observe in passing that we have pre- The Kin<:< -.• 
 
 . . 1 « teacher. 
 
 cisely the same basis to rest upon m our preach- 
 ing of the doctrine of Jesus as in our preaching 
 of His character and life. If historical criticism 
 1 Bruce, The Kingdom of God, p. 4(3. 
 
182 The Source of Authority 
 
 gives us good reason to believe, as all candid 
 inquirers now admit, that the four Gosj^els con- 
 tain a veritable picture of an actual personage 
 who once lived on earth, there is equally good 
 reason to believe that they have preserved for 
 us a trustworthy account of His teaching in its 
 sul)stauce and spirit. If we can justly claim 
 The doctrine tj^^t His character is so perfect and transcen- 
 dent that no man of that age, however gifted or 
 learned, and least of all such men as the writers 
 of the New Testament, could possibly have in- 
 vented it ; we can make the same claim, with 
 equal justice, for the body of doctrine which 
 is attributed to Christ. In its coherence, its 
 clarity, its sublimity, and its universality it 
 altogether surpasses the mental abilities and 
 the religious insight of the writers of the four 
 Gospels. Indeed, it is frankly confessed that 
 the disciples of Jesus were so far from being 
 able to invent His doctrine, that they actually 
 misunderstood and misinterpreted many of its 
 truths when they first heard them. It was 
 contrary to their prejudices and expectations. 
 They did not put it into His mouth. He re- 
 vealed it to their minds. Their faith in it 
 rested upon His personal authority. And it 
 was only as they kept company with Him 
 and followed Him, receiving His word into 
 
The Source of Authority 18B 
 
 their souls and translating it into their lives, 
 that it became to them luminous and satisfy- 
 ing and convincing. 
 
 We are entitled, or rather we are compelled, ^*» objective 
 to regard the teaching of Jesus as an objective ^^" ^ ^' 
 fact just as much as His life and character. 
 The record of it bears on its face the over- 
 whelming evidence of verity. All the results 
 of literary criticism are squarely against the 
 supposition that such a doctrine as that which 
 is presented to us under His name in the four 
 Gospels, could ever have been pieced together 
 out of the thoughts and imaginations of widely 
 separated and divergent minds, and attributed 
 to an unknown and perhaps mythical Master. 
 It is not a mosaic ; it is a living unity. It is 
 not a creation of faith ; it is the creator of faith. 
 The hypothesis that four men agreed, or hap- 
 pened, to gather together out of the Hebrew 
 prophets, and the heathen philosophers, and the 
 mysterious and inexplicable inner conscious- 
 ness of the new-born Christian churches, cer- 
 tain beautiful ideas in regard to God and the 
 soul and the future life, and ascribe tliem to 
 Jesus, utterly breaks down at the touch of real- 
 ity. The central, unif3dng, formative quality 
 of the teaching of Christ is the one thing that 
 
184 The Source of Authority 
 
 is most evident in the record. It is empha- 
 sized by all the phenomena of growth, of vital 
 development, of deepening power, which may 
 be traced from the sermon in the synagogue 
 at Nazareth to the discourse in the upper room 
 at Jerusalem. It shines out unmistakably 
 through all the living variety of impressions 
 which it made upon various minds, and 
 through all the consequent many-sidedness of 
 the report which is given of it. Not more 
 certainly did the character of Christ inspire 
 and unite the lives of His followers than 
 His doctrine illuminated and controlled their 
 beliefs. The onl}^ view which meets the facts 
 is that Jesus really lived, and really taught, 
 thus and so, as He is presented to us in the 
 (lospels. 
 The form of This brings us at once to the most important 
 le recon . fgr^^^^g jj^ j^\^q record of His teaching. It is not 
 given to us in the form of an abstract system, 
 a treatise on theology, or a summary of doc- 
 trine, written down by the hand of Jesus. He 
 Himself made no record of His words. Only 
 once do we see Him writing, — in the beautiful 
 episode which a later tradition has added to the 
 eighth chapter of St. John's Gospel. Histori- 
 cal or not, the incident is profoundly sugges- 
 tive. For Jesus wrote not with a pen upon 
 
The Source of Authority 185 
 
 enduring parchment, nor with a stylus upon 
 imperishable brass : 
 
 " He stooped 
 And wrote upon the unrecording ground." ^ 
 
 He would not leave even a single line of manu- 
 script where His followers could preserve it 
 with literal reverence and worship it as a 
 sacred relic. He chose to inscribe His teach- 
 ing upon no other leaves than those which are 
 folded within the human soul. He chose to 
 trust His words to the faithful keeping of 
 memory and love ; and He said of them, Avith 
 sublime confidence, that they should never pass 
 away.^ He chose that the truth which He 
 declared and the life which He lived should 
 never be divided, but that they sliould go down 
 together through the ages. 
 
 And this is precisely what has come to pass, inseparable 
 The Church in past asfes has often been inclined -^7'" ^^'* 
 
 ^ '^ character. 
 
 to abstract the doctrines of Christianity concern- 
 ing the person and work of Christ from their 
 union with His human life, and to condense 
 them into a purely formal system of dogma for 
 the intellect. The Church in the present age 
 shows at least a tendency to separate the image 
 
 1 Katrina Trask, "A Night and Morning in Jerusalem" 
 (Hm-per's Magazine, April, 1896). 
 
 2 St. Mark xiii. 31. 
 
186 The Source of Authority 
 
 of Jesus from the truths which He taught, and 
 hold Him up to men merely as an ideal of holi- 
 ness and goodness. But the one barrier that 
 stands firm against both these false tendencies 
 is the marvellous narrative of the Gospels, in 
 which the life and the doctrine of Christ are 
 woven together, one and inseparable, like a 
 robe without seam. 
 Words and How cau Avc Understand His grace, unless we 
 eachothe7.^ acccpt His truth ? How can we appreciate His 
 truth, unless Ave receive His grace ? At every 
 step, His action is interpreted and explained by 
 His words. He trusts in Providence, and He 
 commands His disciples to trust, not merely be- 
 cause submissive confidence is a beautiful and 
 happy thing, but because He knows and declares 
 that God is reall}^ a Father, worthy to be trusted.^ 
 He prays, secretly and openly; secretly because 
 He is sure that God hears Him always, and 
 openly because He would fain give this as- 
 surance to others.2 He seeks the sinful and 
 the lost, not merely because such a ministry is 
 lovely and gracious, but because He knows and 
 declares that it is the will of God, and that 
 there is more joy in heaven over one sinner 
 that repenteth than over ninety-and-nine just 
 
 1 St. Matt. vi. 25-30. 2 gt. John xi. 41, 42. 
 
The Source of Authority 187 
 
 men that need no repentance.^ He cares for 
 the bodies of men and He relieves their wants, 
 but He cares infinitely more for their souls and 
 He teaches them to care more, because He 
 knows that the soul is capable of immortality 
 and more precious than all that this world can 
 give. 2 He moves willingly and obediently to 
 the cross, not because it is inevitable, not be- 
 cause resignation is the crown of virtue, but 
 because He knows and declares that this is the 
 sacrifice appointed for Him as the Christ, the 
 laying down of His life as a ransom for many, 
 the lifting up by which He is to draw all men 
 unto Himself.^ He goes down into death with 
 unshaken courage, not because it is a fine thing 
 to be brave, but because He knows and declares 
 that He is returning to the Father and that He 
 will bring those wdio love Him to be with Him 
 where He is forever.* 
 
 Now these are declarations of great truths. The doctrine 
 If we deny them, if we make them uncertain, iasisofiUs 
 the life which was built upon them has no conduct. 
 meaning, no substance, no power in it. It be- 
 comes a splendid illusion, a heroic mistake. 
 
 1 St. Luke XV. 7. 
 
 2 St. John vi. 27; St. Mark viii. 36, 37. 
 
 » St. Mark ix 12 ; St. Matt. xx. 28 ; St. John xii. 32. 
 * St. John xiv. 1-3. 
 
188 The Source of Authority 
 
 But if we accept them, then, and only then, 
 that life becomes the rock of our confidence, 
 the substance of things hoped for and the evi- 
 dence of things not seen.^ For it was on the 
 knowledge of these things that Jesus actually 
 founded His own character and His conduct. 
 It was by believing thus and so, and by living 
 up to His belief, that He was made perfect. 
 And it was by teaching His disciples to believe 
 thus and so that He would bind them to follow 
 His example and inspire them to share His life. 
 " Whosoever heareth these sayings of mine and 
 doeth them, I will liken him unto a Avise man 
 which built his house upon a rock."^ "Now 
 ye are clean through the word which I have 
 spoken unto you." "If ye abide in me, and 
 my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye 
 will and it shall be done unto you."^ 
 
 1 " Nicht das Leben Jesu an sich in seinem geschichtlichen 
 Verlaufe, sondern die Aiiffassung der religiosen Bedeutung 
 desselben, auf welche die alteste N. T. liche Verkundigung 
 ruht, bildet den Ausgangspunkt fur die biblische Theologie. 
 Diese Auffassung war aber zunachst bedingt durch die Lelire 
 Jesu, sofern dieselbe die autlientische Erlauterung liber die 
 Bedeutung seiner Person und seiner Erscheinung gab, und 
 daher muss eine Darstellung dieser Lehre den grundlegenden 
 Abschnitt der biblischen Theologie bilden." — Berxhard 
 Weiss, Lehrhuch der Biblischen Theologie des Neuen Testa- 
 ments (2te Auflage, Berlin, 1873), p. 31. 
 
 2 St. Matt. vii. 24. 3 gt. John xv. 3, 7. 
 
The Source of Authority 189 
 
 m 
 
 The importance which Christ ascribed to The 
 His words as the authoritative revehition of "^.''/l,^''!'f. 
 
 oj Christ s 
 
 unseen verities to the coiifused and darkened teachiw). 
 minds of men, cannot be denied or overlooked 
 by any one who reads the Gospels candidly and 
 intelligently. It is true, indeed, that He ex- 
 pressly disclaimed the idea that His doctrine 
 was created, or invented, or even discovered by 
 Himself. He said, "My doctrine is not mine 
 but His that sent me," ^ " All things that 1 
 have heard of my Father I have made known 
 unto you." 2 But it is equally true that He 
 claimed an absolute infallibility for the mes- 
 sage which was revealed in Him, committed 
 unto Him, and delivered by Him. This claim 
 is made with equal force in the Synoptics and 
 in St. John. " No one knoweth who the Son 
 is, save the Father ; and Avho the Father is, 
 save the Son, and he to Avhomsoever the Son 
 Avilleth to reveal Him."^ " We speak that we 
 do know, and bear witness of tliat we have 
 seen."^ This is not the language that an 
 honest and conscientious teacher would use to 
 describe his religious opinions or his spiritual 
 
 1 St. John vii. IG. 3 gt. Luke x. 22. 
 
 2 St. John XV. 15. ■* St. John iii. 11. 
 
original. 
 
 190 The Source of Authority 
 
 hopes. The wisest and the best of men have 
 always hesitated to assume this tone of cer- 
 tainty in regard to their deepest reflections 
 upon the mysteries of being. But from first 
 to last this tone marks the teaching of Jesus. 
 " They were astonished at His teaching ; for 
 He taught them as having authority, and not 
 as the scribes."^ 
 It «•>«• It is evident that He intended to speak thus. 
 
 For nothing is more striking in the manner of 
 His teaching than the absence of all reliance 
 upon corroborative testimony or traditional 
 support.^ He did not seek to defend His posi- 
 tions with a formidable array of great names. 
 He did not make a long catena of quotations 
 from learned sources. He gave out His doc- 
 trine from the depth of His own consciousness 
 as a flower breathes perfume, fresh, pure, origi- 
 nal, and convincing. He certainly felt a Divine 
 inspiration in the ancient Hebrew Scriptures. 
 The law and the prophets conveyed to Him the 
 
 1 St. Mark i. 22. 
 
 2 " Avec une certitude sereine, qui iie semble pas terrestre, 
 il disait ces choses. II chantait, comme aucun propli^te 
 n'avait su le faire, le chant des revoirs ^ternels qui a berc^ 
 pendant des si6cles les souffrances et les agonies. Et ce 
 chant-1^, voici que de nos jours, au triste d^clin des temps, 
 les liomines sc meiireiit de ne plus Pentendre." — Pierre 
 LoTi, La (hdiU'e (Paris, 1896), p. 94. 
 
The Source of Authority 191 
 
 word of God. He used them on certain occa- 
 sions to repel the assaults of evil, as in the temp- 
 tation in the wilderness. He used them on other 
 occasions to convince and convict the Scribes 
 and Pharisees out of their own Scriptures. 
 But He never rested upon them as the sole and 
 sufficient basis of His doctrine. He was not a 
 commentator on trutlis already revealed. He ^^^mj 
 
 revelation 
 
 was a revealer ot new truth. His teaching was 
 not the exposition ; it was the text. And this 
 higher revelation not only fulfilled, but also 
 surpassed, the old ; replacing the temporal by 
 the eternal, the figurative by the factual, the 
 literal, by the spiritual, the imperfect by the 
 perfect. How often Jesus quoted from the Old 
 Testament in order to show that it was al- 
 ready old and insufficient ; that its forms of 
 speech and riiles of conduct Avere like tlie husk 
 of the seed which must be shattered by the 
 emergence of the living germ. His doctrine 
 was in fact a moral and intellectual day- 
 break for the Avorld. He did far more than 
 supply a novel system of conduction for an 
 ancient light. He sent forth from Himself a 
 new illumination, transcending all that had 
 gone before, as the sunrise overfloods the pale 
 glimmering of the morning star set like a 
 beacon of promise upon the coast of dawn. 
 
192 The Source of Authority 
 
 He did not rely upon reasoning for the proof 
 of His doctrine. He put no trust in the com- 
 pulsion of logic, in the keenness of dialectics. 
 We look in vain among His words for an 
 exhibition of the ''evidences of Christianity." 
 He did not endeavour to demonstrate the ex- 
 istence of God or the immortality of the soul. 
 What He said was meant to be its own evi- 
 dence. His method was not apologetic ; it 
 was declaratory. 
 
 " He argued not, but preached, and conscience did the rest." 
 
 The result of this is marvellous and magnifi- 
 cent. His teaching is cleared and disentangled 
 from all that is temporary and transient in 
 human thought. If He had reasoned with 
 men, it must have been done upon the prem- 
 isses and in the forms of philosophy current 
 in that age. Otherwise He could not have 
 reached their intelligence, His reasoning would 
 have been of none effect. But because He 
 passed by all these processes and left them on 
 one side while His doctrine moved simply, di- 
 rectly, and majestically to the heart of the truth, 
 it comes to us to-day free and unencumbered 
 by any of those theories of physical science, of 
 psychology, of political economy, which the 
 growth of knowledge has changed, discredited, 
 
The Source of Authority 193 
 
 or discarded. His teaching is neither ancient Itisuni- 
 nor modern, neither deductive nor inductive, ^^^^^ ' 
 neither Jewish nor Greek. It is universal, 
 enduring, valid for all minds and for all times. 
 There are no more difficulties in the Avay of 
 accepting it now than there were when it was 
 first delivered. It fits the spiritual needs of 
 the nineteenth, as closely as it fitted the 
 spiritual needs of the first, century. It car- 
 ries the same attractions, the same credentials 
 in the Western Hemisphere as it carried in 
 the Eastern. It stands out as clearly from all 
 the later, as it did from all the earlier, philoso- 
 phies. It finds the soul as inevitably to-day 
 as it did at first. And the men of this age 
 who hear Christ can only say, as His disciples 
 said long ago, " Lord, to whom shall we go ? 
 Thou hast the words of eternal life.'* ^ 
 
 And yet how few are those words, compared -^< « small 
 . , ," c 1 TT in compass. 
 
 With the utterances oi other teachers. How 
 small in compass is the doctrine of Jesus as it 
 has come doAvn to us. Eighty pages of a duo- 
 decimo book will hold all of His recorded dis- 
 courses and the story of His life. Other words 
 He must have spoken while He was on earth, 
 but I doubt not that they moved within the 
 same circle. For even in the present record 
 1 St. John vi. G8. 
 
194 The Source of Aiitliority 
 
 we find the same truths recurring again and 
 again, expressed in different language, arranged 
 in different sequence, as the evangelists re- 
 trace, each from his own point of view, the 
 memory of the things which Jesus taught to 
 the multitudes and to His disciples. The lit- 
 erature of the world holds no other doctrine 
 so limited in bulk, so limitless in meaning. 
 
 The teaching of Christ differs from that of 
 all other masters in its fontal quality. It is 
 comprised in a little space, but it has an infi- 
 nite fulness. Its utterance is closely bounded, 
 but its significance is inexhaustible. The 
 sacred books of other religions, the commen- 
 taries and expositions on the Christian religion, 
 spread before us a vast and intricate expanse, 
 like lakes of truth mixed with error, stretch- 
 ing away into the distance, arm after arm, 
 bay after bay, until we despair of being able 
 even to explore their coasts and trace their 
 windings. When we come back to Christ, we 
 find, not an inland sea of doctrine, but a clear 
 fountain of living water, springing up into 
 everlasting life. 
 
 Calm, pure, unfatliomable, it is never clouded 
 and it never fails. The inspiration of other 
 teachers rises and falls like an intermittent 
 spring. To-day it is brimming full; to-mor- 
 
The Source of Authority 195 
 
 row it is empty and dry. But the truth that 
 flows from Jesus is constant and unvarying. 
 The Spirit always rests upon Him. The 
 Father is always with I Tim. Out of the deep 
 serenity of His soul, as from some secret vale 
 of peace high among the eternal hills, the vital 
 spring of truth wells up forever, and forever 
 the crystal stream runs down to refresh and 
 revive the souls of men. 
 
 New meanings come out of the teaching of Always 
 Jesus in every land and in every age. New 
 stars are mirrored in its depths. New flowers 
 blossom on its banks. New fields of love are 
 fertilized by its waters. It is not that each 
 succeeding century and race adds something of 
 its own to the doctrine of Christ. It is that 
 each finds in that source something which was 
 meant to become its own, and so to satisfy its 
 deepest needs. The old questions are repeated 
 in new words, and the new answer comes in the 
 old words. ^ The truth as it is in Jesus does 
 not have to be changed and adapted to fit it for 
 a world-Avide missionary enterprise. It needs 
 only to be purified from the things that men 
 
 1 "Socrates asked questions wliich his disciples tried to 
 answer ; Jesus provoked His disciples to ask questions which 
 He answered." — James Stalker, Imago Christi (New York, 
 Armstrongs, 1889), p. 270. 
 
idicitti that 
 is in Christ 
 
 196 The Source of Authority/ 
 
 Lave mingled witli it, restored to the simplicity 
 that is in Christ, and it proves itself as fresh, as 
 satisfying, as life-bestowing to the thirsty soul 
 in America or in the islands of the sea, as it did 
 in Galilee or on the hillsides of Judea. 
 The Sim- Wlieii wc ask oursclvcs why it is that the 
 
 doctrine of the Master has this enduring, self- 
 renewing, fontal character, I think we must 
 find the answer in the fact that it simply bears 
 witness, witli a directness and inevitableness 
 altogether unparalleled, to the actual existence 
 of a spiritual world corresponding to the spirit- 
 ual faculties and aspirations of men. It does 
 not turn aside to discuss metaphysical problems 
 or theological subtleties. The distinction be- 
 tween the natural and the supernatural does not 
 even appear in the teaching of Jesus. There 
 may, or there may not, be such a distinction. 
 If there is, He at least does not think it impor- 
 tant enough to speak of it. The one thing of 
 whicli He wishes to make men sure is that the 
 same God who sends His sunshine and His rain 
 upon the evil and upon the good, the same God 
 whose bounty feeds the birds of the air and 
 clothes the lilies of the field with beauty, hears 
 in secret the prayers of the penitent and believ- 
 ing and rewards them openly. The question 
 of t lie how and the where of the life after death 
 
The Source of Authority 197 
 
 is not even touched in the teaching of Jesus. 
 It matters little. The one thing that He de- 
 clares with unfaltering certainty is the reality 
 of that life. The one thing that He presses 
 home upon the minds of men Avith calm inten- 
 sity is the danger of losing it through sin and 
 unbelief. The one thing that He tenderly and 
 urgently pleads with them to do, is to make 
 sure of its immortal blessedness through faith 
 and love and obedience to Him. And so, at 
 every point, He passes by the non-essential to 
 touch the essential, He disregards the passing 
 curiosity to satisfy the real anxiety, He neglects 
 the shadows to reveal the substance of the 
 unseen world. 
 
 Teaching like this is the only kind of teach- Words of 
 ing that will always renew itself, ahvays have 
 something more to bestow upon us. It cannot 
 grow obsolete. It cannot be drained of its sig- 
 nificance. It is like life. Nay, it is life, and it 
 gives life. 
 
 rv 
 
 Let us understand, then, that if our Christi- Loyalty to 
 anity is to satisfy our whole nature, if it is to tg„(.itiii'/. 
 have its real and full meaning, and power to 
 bring in the kingdom of heaven, it must in- 
 clude this element. We must be as loyal to 
 
198 The Source of AutJiority 
 
 the teaching of Jesus as we are to His example. 
 We must count no pains too great to spend 
 upon the study of that teaching as it lies in 
 the records, and no effort too severe to make 
 in order that it may be restored in its integ- 
 rity and entirety, rounded and harmonized, 
 within the very centre of our minds. And 
 then we must preach it, simply, sincerely, cer- 
 tainly, as the only doctrine Avhich can lead 
 men out of the intellectual anarchy of doubt 
 into the peaceful realm of truth. 
 The age This is what the age is looking and longing 
 
 authoritij. ^^r. It cau find no joy in the kingdom of 
 heaven unless it finds there a source of author- 
 ity for the mind as well as for the heart. Au- 
 thority is what the sociologist demands, in order 
 that he may have a sure basis for the precepts 
 of altruism. Authority is what the philosopher 
 seeks, in order that he may have a fixed point 
 of departure and certain limits of speculation. 
 Authority is what the poet craves, as he clings 
 to 
 
 " The truths that never can be proved, 
 
 Until we close with all we loved 
 And all we flow from, soul in soul." i 
 
 Men are crying lo here ! and lo there ! We 
 nuist find the source of authority in an in- 
 
 ^ Tennyson, In Memoriam. 
 
"^' authority. 
 
 The Source of Author ity 199 
 
 errant Book, or in an enlightened reason, or 
 in an infallible Church, or perhaps in all three ; 
 as if there could be three sources of one author- 
 ity, or as if a channel could ever be rightly 
 called a source! Let us not hesitate to pass 
 through this confusion of tongues and of ideas, 
 serene and untroubled, with the message of a 
 more excellent Avay. 
 
 Christ is the Light of all Scripture. Christ t'hnst is the 
 is the Master of holy reason. Christ is tlie "''"^^^'"^ 
 sole Lord and Life of the true Church. By 
 His word Ave test all doctrines, conclusions, 
 and commands. (3n His Avord Ave build all 
 faith. This is the source of authority in the 
 kingdom of heaA^en. Let us neither forget 
 nor hesitate to appeal to it always Avith un- 
 trembling certainty and positiA^e conviction. 
 If Christ did not knoAv and preach the truth, 
 then there is no truth that can be knoAvn or 
 preached. Unless Ave are sure of this, Ave 
 Avould better go out of business entirely. It 
 is inconceiA^able that the loftiest character in 
 history should be the most mistaken man that 
 <iA^er thought about the real basis and meaning 
 of life. It is incredible that the noblest life 
 in the Avorld should be founded upon a faith 
 that was vain. It is impossible that a supreme 
 devotion and a real likeness to Christ should 
 
tm^k, to learn 
 His creed 
 
 20 The Source of Authority 
 
 have been produced and perpetuated in the 
 world without a veritable apprehension of that 
 Avhich He knew and taught concerning God 
 and man. 
 (jur great To have tliis apprehension clearly formed 
 
 within us must be our ardent and joyful intel- 
 lectual endeavour. We are not to rest content 
 with the study of single words and separate 
 phrases. The limitations of language, the con- 
 ditions of transmission, will always expose us 
 to error if we follow that course. The truth 
 as it is in Jesus does not lie in fragments, but in 
 the rounded whole. We must get back to 
 the unity and integrity of the thoughts of 
 Jesus, the creed of Christ. The broad outline 
 of His vision of things human and divine, the 
 central verities which appear firm and un- 
 changeable in all the reports of His teaching, 
 the point of view from which He discerned 
 and interpreted the mystery of life, — that is 
 what we must seek. And when we find it, 
 we must take our stand there as men who feel 
 the solid ground beneath their feet. Illustra- 
 tions and confirmations we may gather from 
 science and history and philosophy. But the 
 rock of certainty is the mind of Jesus, ex- 
 pressed in His living words and in His speak- 
 
The Source of Authority 201 
 
 ing life. Beyond tins we need not and we 
 cannot go. Here is the ultimatum. This is 
 the truth, we say to men, because Jesus knew 
 it, and said it, and lived it. 
 
 But one thing we may not, we dare not, for- We must 
 get. The condition of apprehending, and how ^t^^j^Zwins 
 much more of preaching, the truth revealed by doctrine. 
 Christ is that we abide in Him. The word of 
 Jesus in the mind of one who does not do the 
 will of Jesus, lies like seed-corn in a mummy's 
 hand. It is only by dwelling Avith Him and 
 receiving His character. His personality so 
 profoundly, so vitally that it shall be with us 
 as if, in His own words, we had partaken of 
 His flesh and His blood, as if His sacred 
 humanity had been interwoven with the very - 
 fibres of our heart and pulsed with secret power 
 in all our veins, — it is thus only that we can 
 be enabled to see His teaching as it is, and set 
 it forth with luminous conviction to the souls 
 of men. 
 
 And if ever we ourselves become afraid of Return to 
 our own task, and shrink from it ; if the scep- 
 ticism of our age appalls us and chills us to the 
 very marroAV ; if we question whether a gospel 
 so simple, so absolute, as that which is com- 
 mitted to us can find acceptance in such a 
 world, at such a time as this, — be sure it is 
 
202 The Source of Authority 
 
 because we have gotten out of fellowship with 
 Him who is our Peace and our Hope, our Light 
 and our Strength. A Christless man can never 
 preach Christ. We have been anxious and 
 troubled about many things, and have forgot- 
 ten the one thing needful. Peace we must have 
 before we can have power. Let us straight- 
 way return, in prayer, in meditation, in trust, 
 in faithful simple-hearted obedience, to Him 
 who is the only centre of Peace because He is 
 the only source of authority. 
 
 " I have a life in Christ to live, 
 
 But ere I live it must I wait 
 Till learning can clear answer give 
 
 Of this and that book's date ? 
 I have a life in Christ to live, 
 
 I have a death in Christ to die ; — 
 And must I wait till science give 
 
 All doubts a full reply? 
 
 Nay, rather, while the sea of doubt 
 
 Is raging wildly round about. 
 
 Questioning of life and death and sin, 
 
 Let me but creep within 
 
 Thy fold, O Christ, and at Thy feet 
 
 Take but the lowest seat, 
 
 And hear Thine awful voice repeat 
 
 In gentlest accents, heavenly sweet, 
 
 Come unto Me and rest ; 
 
 Believe Me, and be blest." ^ 
 
 ^ John Carxipbell Shairp. 
 
VI 
 
 LIBERTY 
 
" But, perfect in every part, 
 
 Has the potter's moulded shape 
 Leap of man's quickened heart, 
 
 Throe of his thought's escape. 
 Stings of his soul which dart 
 
 " Through the barrier of flesh, till keen 
 She climbs from the calm and clear 
 
 Through turbidity all between 
 
 From the known to the unknown here. 
 
 Heaven's ' Shall be,' from Earth's ' Has been '? 
 
 " Then life is — to wake and not sleep. 
 
 Rise and not rest, but press 
 From earth's level where blindly creep 
 
 Things perfected, more or less, 
 To the heaven's height, far and steep, 
 
 " Where, amid what strifes and storms 
 
 May wait the adventurous quest, 
 Power is Love — transports, transforms 
 
 AVho aspired from worst to best, 
 Sought the soul's world, spurned the worms.' " 
 
 — Robert Browning, Reverie. 
 
VI 
 
 LIBERTY 
 There are three i3oints at which tlie teacli- Three great 
 
 iiig of Jesus comes into closest contact with tlie 
 needs of the present age. Three problems of 
 profound difficulty are pressing to-day upon all 
 thoughtful men: the psychological problem of 
 the freedom of the Avill; the theological prob- 
 lem of the actual relation of God to the uni- 
 verse ; and the moral problem of man's duty 
 to his fellow-men in a world of inequality. 
 Out of the depths of these problems dark and 
 multitudinous doubts are forever rising, like 
 the clouds of smoke and steam which issue from 
 the labouring bosom of Vesuvius, while sub- 
 terranean thunder is muttering and rolling 
 underneath. Most of the intellectual perplex- 
 ities and practical perils of our times come 
 directly from these questions, to Avhich modern 
 scepticism gives an answer of despair, or at 
 best only a dubious and uncertain reply. 
 
 But the gospel of Christ, rightly appre- 
 hended and interpreted, offers us a solution 
 
 pi'ohlems. 
 
206 
 
 lAherty 
 
 crty, sover- 
 eif/nty, and 
 service. 
 
 Three great of these problems which is full of light and 
 hope and moral certainty. There is a breath 
 of the Spirit in His teaching, pure and strong, 
 pouring like a clean wind out of heaven, to 
 scoff away the obscuring vapours, and reveal the 
 changeless verities and glories of the spiritual 
 landscape. Three truths emerge in His doc- 
 trine, and stand out clear and sharp as moun- 
 tain peaks against the blue : the truth of 
 human liberty, the truth of Divine sovereignty, 
 and the truth of universal service. Of these 
 three truths we must never lose sight, if our 
 thinking is to be in accordance with the mind 
 of Jesus. To these three truths we must bear 
 witness, unhesitatingly, faithfully, and joy- 
 fully, if our preaching is to be a gospel for 
 this age of doubt. 
 
 No one who has looked steadily upon the 
 face of modern life as it is reflected in popular 
 literature can doubt that it is '' sicklied o'er " 
 with the dark shadow of fatalism. It is evident 
 in the writings of the learned and in the scrib- 
 blings of the ignorant. Everywhere there is a 
 tendency to explain the whole life of man as 
 tlie product of heredity and environment. The 
 student of physiology, tracing the strange and 
 
Liberty 207 
 
 subtle correspondence between the processes of 
 consciousness and the clianges and movements 
 of the nervous system, makes the enormous 
 assumption that the correspondence amounts to 
 identity. All the hopes and fears, all the affec- 
 tions and aspirations, which glorify this mortal 
 life, are in their last analysis the result of cer- 
 tain puckerings and tintinnabulations of the 
 gray matter of the nerves. The actions which 
 flow from them are as necessary as the fall of 
 an apple when the stem is broken. The caress 
 which a mother gives to her child, and the blow 
 with which a murderer strikes his victim dead, 
 are equally automatic and inevitable. They are 
 the motions of delicately constructed puppets, 
 and the triumph of modern investigation is the 
 discovery of the string which moves them and 
 the forces which pull it. 
 
 It is true that many of the teachers who steer Materialism 
 
 T T , ^ l^ • 1 disavovjed 
 
 US, more or less openly, towards tJns conclu- ^^^ taunht. 
 sion are careful to disavow the idea that they 
 are teaching materialism. The name is highly 
 unpopular at the present moment, and there 
 is hardly one of the men of science of to-day 
 who has not protested with indignation that 
 no one should dare to call him a materialist. 
 They have devised subtle theories of some- 
 thing called "mhid-stuff" which they hold. 
 
208 Liberty 
 
 "svith W. K. Clifford, "is the reality which we 
 perceive as matter." They distinguish, with 
 Huxley, between matter and force, and a third 
 thing which they call consciousness and which 
 they admit cannot conceivably be a modifi- 
 cation of either of the first two things ; but 
 they go on to say that " what we call the 
 operations of the mind are -functions of the 
 brain, and the materials of consciousness are 
 products of cerebral activity." ^ In short, they 
 give a materialistic explanation of the origin 
 and processes of thought, and then protect 
 themselves against the imputation of being 
 materialists, by solemnly averring that they 
 have not the slightest idea of what matter 
 really is, nor the slightest intention of sug- 
 gesting that it has any resemblance to the 
 so-called mental operations which are prob- 
 ably produced by one of its own forms of 
 activity. 
 licsponsibii- A scheme like this certainly has no room for 
 
 ill/ crowded 
 
 f,^i_ rree-wiU or personal responsibility. It makes 
 
 a man's character and action entirely depen- 
 dent upon the amount and quality of nervous 
 energy that has been transmitted to him by his 
 ancestors and developed by the circumstances 
 of his life. He lives, as Professor Tyndall 
 1 T. II. Iluxloy, ill The Fortnightly lieview, vol. xL, 793. 
 
Liherty 209 
 
 says, in a realm of " physical and moral neces- 
 sity," — though why he should be at pains to 
 say "moral," I can hardly conceive. One ad- 
 jective would serve as well as two, when they 
 both mean the same thing. It requires but 
 a little exercise of this nervous energy on our 
 part, in the form of imagination, to trace it back 
 to its previous form of heat stored up in cer- 
 tain hundredweights of food and appropriated 
 by digestion. From this point our cerebral 
 activity skips lightly and altogether without 
 volition along the various lines of animal and 
 vegetable life, of chemical and physical trans- 
 formations of energ}^, until we arrive at the 
 idea of the sun. From this idea a certain un- 
 controllable change in the gray substance of 
 our brain produces the further notion that 
 the arrangement of certain quantities of mat- 
 ter and force Avhich took place in some in- 
 explicable way long before the birth of the 
 solar system was really the thing that settled 
 the question whether you and I shoukl prefer 
 telling the truth to lying, — if we do. Indeed, 
 there never has been any question at all about 
 it; it was fixed from the beginning. We have 
 no more responsi])ility for it than we have for 
 the colour of our eyes or the shape of our 
 noses. 
 
:210 Liberty 
 
 *' Thoughts I have found a brief and explicit statement 
 tomaton." ^^ ^lie position to which this method of think- 
 ing forces those who follow it, in an article 
 ironically entitled " Thoughts of a Human Au- 
 tomaton" in a recent English periodical. ^ 
 
 '^ I am an automaton — a puppet dangling on 
 my distinctive wire, Avliich Fate holds with an 
 unrelaxing grip. I am not different, nor do I 
 feel differently, from my fellow-men, but my 
 eyes refuse to blink away the truth, which is, 
 that I am an automatic machine, a piece of 
 clockwork wound up to go for an allotted time, 
 smoothly or otherwise, as the efficiency of the 
 machinery may determine. Free-will is a myth 
 invented by man to satisfy his emotions, not 
 his reason. I feel as if I were free, as if I were 
 responsible for my thoughts and actions, just 
 as a ]3erson under the influence of hypnotism 
 believes he is free to do as he j^leases. But he 
 is not ; nor am I. If it were once possible for 
 a rational being to question this fact, the dis- 
 coveries of Darwin must have set his doubts at 
 rest. . . . 
 
 "What is crime? A crime is an action 
 tlireatened by the law with punishment, says 
 Kant; and freedom of action or free-will 
 
 1 Henry Beauchainp, in The Fortnightly Review, English 
 edition, Marcli, 1892. 
 
Liberty 211 
 
 is a legally necessary condition of crime. But 
 the law of heredity conclusively demonstrates 
 that free-will and freedom of action stand in 
 the category of lively imaginings. Therefore 
 crime, as the law understands it, is non-existent, 
 since no imputability can be recognized Avhen a 
 man is not responsible for his actions. There- 
 fore tlie law is not justified in inflicting pun- 
 ishment. . . . 
 
 " Briefly to conclude. Religion can no more 
 mix with science than oil with water. Science 
 acknowledges no necessity for the existence of 
 religion, and finally severs the bonds between 
 morality and religion. Morality, altogether 
 independent of religion, is entirely based upon 
 self-interest. The suj)posed connection between 
 religion and morality is an illusion most per- 
 nicious to the general welfare and advance 
 of mankind. Religion, as a superfluity, should 
 be excluded from all educational institutions. 
 Its place will be su]3plied by the creed of scien- 
 tific philosophy — Determinism. The primary 
 principle of Determinism, namely, that a human 
 being is an automaton, and therefore not respon- 
 sible for his thoughts or his acts, taken together 
 with its corollaries, more than suflices for every 
 intellectual need hitherto provided for by re- 
 ligion. For the two great factors in the value 
 
212 Liberty 
 
 of religion are its ethics and its sedative prop- 
 erties, and in both these uses Determinism 
 displays overwhelming intellectual superiority. 
 Its ethics are more universal and its consolation 
 more assured ; for they both rest on irrefraga- 
 ble scientific truth. The Determinist is con- 
 sequently never harassed by doubts — the Rock 
 of Ages is fragile compared with the adaman- 
 tine foundation of his creed." 
 The creed of This curious claim of an automaton to have 
 a " creed " Avould be deliciously humorous, if 
 it were not so unutterably sad, and so detest- 
 ably dangerous. For though, as a matter of 
 fact, there are few men who will make, even 
 under an assumed name, such a candid con- 
 fession of faith in their own moral non-entity 
 as that wdiich we have just read, there are many 
 men who are, consciously or unconsciously, 
 preaching the same black creed of Necessity 
 in the subtle forms of literary art, and multi- 
 tudes who are silently accepting it as gospel 
 truth. Fatalism broods over modern fiction 
 and the modern drama like a huge, shapeless 
 spectre; and its influence is felt in all the 
 judgments and conceptions and unspoken but 
 clearly revealed sentiments of a society which 
 finds its chief intellectual pabulum in novels 
 and plays. 
 
Liherty 213 
 
 Here is the famous French realist, Zola, of ''The 
 
 Human 
 Beast.*' 
 
 whose books it is said that enough have been 
 sold to build a pile as high as the Eiffel tower. 
 He writes a novel called La Bete Humaine^ in 
 which he shows how unswervingly the lines of 
 evil run through the plan of life. He describes 
 seven inevitable murders, occurring within eigh- 
 teen months in close connection with a certain 
 fated house, and closes his book with the descrip- 
 tion of a railway train, crowded with soldiers, 
 dragged by an engine whose driver has been 
 killed, dashing at headlong speed into the mid- 
 night. The train is the world ; we are the 
 freight ; fate is the track ; death is the dark- 
 ness ; God is tlie engineer, — Avho is dead. 
 
 Here is the leader of the Dutch Sensitivists, ''Footsteps 
 T . ^ 1 • -.1 1 «/ Fate:' 
 
 Louis Couperus, who writes a romance called 
 
 Noodlot^ " Destiny ^^^ in which four human lives 
 are tangled together in an inextricable and hor- 
 rible coil. One of his characters pauses for an 
 instant in the shameful career to wliich he is 
 impelled. " He threw himself back in his chair, 
 still feebly wringing his hands, and the tears 
 trickled again and again down his cheeks. He 
 saw his own cowardice take shape before him. 
 He stared into its frightened eyes, and he did 
 not condemn it. For he was as fate had made 
 
Ghosts. 
 
 Tho small 
 fatalists. 
 
 214 Liberty 
 
 him. He was a craven, and he could not heip 
 it. Men called such an one as he a coward ; it 
 was but a word. Why coward, or simple and 
 brave, or good and noble ? It was all a matter 
 of convention, of accepted meaning ; the whole 
 world was mere convention, a concept, an illu- 
 sion of the brain. There was notliing real at 
 all _ nothing ! " i 
 
 Here is the Norse dramatist, Ibsen, — -the 
 new Shakespeare by the grace of heredity. He 
 writes a drama of life which he calls Grhosts, 
 and shows how every player is haunted by dead 
 ancestors who look through his eyes, speak in 
 his words, and act in his deeds. Echoes of 
 spent passion, shreds and patches of worn-out 
 sin, rags and tatters of the past, — that is the 
 stuff of Avhich life is fabricated, like a piece of 
 shoddy cloth, in the great mill of circumstance 
 which stands on the banks of the river of time 
 and turns out the shabby lives of men and 
 women. 
 
 Nor is this view of life confined to the great 
 fcjreign masters of realism. It pervades almost 
 all the minor schools of fiction ; it diffuses it- 
 self insensibly through the work of the feeble 
 and fatuous imitators. A keen and wholesome 
 
 1 Louis Couperus, The Footsteps of Fate (New York, 
 Appletons), p. 05, 
 
Liberty 2ir) 
 
 critic of our own literature, i\Ir. Cliarles Dudley 
 Warner, put his finger ui)()ii the fact when he 
 wrote : " It has come about that the novels and 
 stories wliich are to fill our leisure hours and 
 cheer us in this vale of tears have become what 
 we call tragic. It is not easy to define what 
 tragedy is, but the term is applied in modern 
 fiction to scenes and characters that come to 
 ruin from no particular fault of their own, — 
 not even when the characters break most of the 
 ten commandments, — but by an unappeasable 
 fate that dogs and tliAvarts them. This is the 
 romance of fatality, and if it is tragedy, it is 
 the tragedy of fatalism." 
 
 It is not possible that such a theory of ex- 
 istence should prevail without bringing sadness Melancholy 
 and heaviness into the hearts of men. The "^^"^■^"^'^^*- 
 modern melancholy of which w^e spoke in the 
 first lecture is largely the result of this gen- 
 eral sense of a godless predestination. It is 
 Calvinism with the bottom knocked out. It 
 robs life of all interest, of all joy, of all en- 
 thusiasm. AVas it morphine that drove Guy de 
 Maupassant, the most brilliant of the younger 
 French novelists, to insanity ? Or was it his 
 philosophy that drOve him to morphine as a 
 refuge from the despair and ugliness of exist- 
 
216 Liberty 
 
 ence ? Pessimism exudes from fatalism like 
 sepia from tlie cuttlefish. What could be 
 more dispiriting tlian to doubt the reality of 
 all effort, to deny the possibility of self-con- 
 quest and triumpli over circumstances, to find 
 heroism an illusion and virtue a dream? What 
 could break the spring of life more completely 
 than to feel that our feet are tangled in a net 
 whose meshes were woven for us by our ances- 
 tors, and for them by tailless apes, and for them 
 by gilled amphibians, and for them by gliding 
 worms, and for them by ciliated larvae, and for 
 them by amcebse, and for them by God does 
 not know what ? It does not help the case 
 in the least to do as some theologians have 
 tried to do and bring back into the theor}^ by 
 the aid of certain misconstrued and very 
 much overworked passages of Scripture, the 
 idea of a supreme Deity who has constructed 
 the loom and devised the pattern of the net 
 and decreed the weaving of every loop. The 
 chain of Fate is not inade less heavy by fasten- 
 ing the end of it to the distant throne of an 
 omnipotent and impassive Creator. If our 
 false sense of freedom comes from such a Be- 
 ing, who is Himself free, it is all the more a 
 cruel and bitter enigma. If moral responsi- 
 
fatalism. 
 
 Liberty 217 
 
 bility has been imposed upon us by the same 
 hand which has bound us to an inalteral)le 
 destiny, it is all the more a crushing and mis- 
 erable fraud. To baptize fatalism witli a Baptized 
 Christian name does not cliange its nature. 
 To hold fast to the metaphysical conception of 
 God while accepting Heredity and Environment 
 as His only and infallible prophets is simply to 
 add a new ethical horror to the dismal delusion 
 of life, and to fall back into the pessimism of 
 Omar Khayyam. 
 
 " We are no other than a moving row 
 Of Magic Shadow-shapes, that come and go 
 Round with this Sun-ilhimined Lantern, held 
 In Midnight by the Master of the Show; 
 
 " Impotent Pieces of the (xame He phiys 
 Upon this Checker-board of Nights and Days; 
 Hither and thither moves, and checks, and slays, 
 And one by one back in the Closet lays. 
 
 " The Moving Finger writes; and, having writ, 
 Moves on; nor all your Piety nor wit 
 Shall lure it back to cancel half a Line, 
 Nor all your tears wash out a Word of it. 
 
 " And that inverted Bowl they call the Sky, 
 Whereunder crawling coop'd we live and die, 
 Lift not your hands to It for help — for it 
 As impotently rolls as you or L"! 
 
 1 Buhdiyat of Omar Khayydm. Rendered into English 
 verse by Edward Fitzgerald, with an accDnipauimeut of draw- 
 ings by Elihu Vedder (Boston, 1884), stanzas 72, 7o, 75, 70. 
 
218 Liberty 
 
 II 
 
 Is determin- This is the solution which modern positivism, 
 ismproie . ^j^^.j^^gj^g^l ^j, unchristenecl, offers for the prob- 
 lem of the freedom of the will. Before we 
 turn to consider the verj^ different answer 
 which Christ gives to the same question, let 
 us stay for a moment to ask whether this 
 current and popular solution is of the nature 
 of a demonstration, or of the nature of a doubt. 
 Is it so clearly proven that science forces us 
 to accept determinism ? Or is it an unveri- 
 liable assumption, which is made under tlie 
 influence of a general scepticism in regard to 
 spiritual realities, and which leaves out of 
 view quite as many and quite as important 
 facts as those which it professes to explain? 
 Are we compelled to admit it ; or is it only one 
 of two alternatives, neither of which is scientifi- 
 cally demonstrable, so that the choice between 
 them must rest upon other considerations ? 
 
 I do not hesitate to say tliat the whole weight 
 of sober and sane criticism inclines to the lat- 
 ter conclusion. Determinism has not yet been 
 established either by physiological, psychologi- 
 cal, or metaphysical argument. 
 rininnnphy 'Hic couimou assumptiou that the abstract 
 "'^■' ""■ reasoning of Jonathan Edwards against the 
 
Liberty 219 
 
 liberty of the will lias never been and cannoc 
 be refuted, is based upon ignorance of the facts. 
 An American philosopher, ^Ir. Rowland Haz- 
 ard, has answered it with great clearness and 
 force. Professor George P. Fisher says : " The 
 fundamental point of Mr. Hazard's criticism 
 of Edwards is full}^ established. It must l)e 
 allowed that his confutation of that conception 
 of the Avill which underlies the reasoning of the 
 great theologian is sound and conclusive."^ 
 
 The support which modern science is sup- Science s(h/s 
 posed to give to the theory of determinism 
 turns out, upon closer examination, to be alto- 
 gether illusor3^ The soundest and most care- 
 ful investigators utterly decline to commit 
 themselves to that metaphysical dogma, or to 
 bind out science as a maid-of-all-work in the 
 service of fatalistic theology. 
 
 The most distinguished of living English Free-will a 
 scientists recently said : " The influence of „„>ac/e. 
 animal or vegetable life on matter is intinitely 
 beyond the range of any scientific inquiry 
 hitherto entered on. Its power of directing 
 the motions of moving particles, in the demon- 
 strated daily miracle of our human free-w ill, ^and 
 
 1 Rowland Hazard, Freedom of Mind in Willing (Boston, 
 Houghton, Mifflin & Co., 1889). Introduction by George P. 
 Fisher, p. xxxi. 
 
220 Liberty 
 
 in the growth of generation after generation of 
 plants from a single seed, are infinitely dif- 
 ferent from any possible resnlt of the fortui- 
 tons concourse of atoms. The real phenomena 
 of life infinitely transcend human science." ^ 
 The theory that consciousness is a function of 
 the brain breaks down completely when it 
 attempts to explain the phenomena of sleep. 
 Why should all the other functions of the 
 body be carried on without fatigue and with- 
 out interruption while this alone demands rest 
 and admits of intervals of cessation ? If con- 
 sciousness is a function of nerve-matter, sleep 
 abolishes it. How does it come back again 
 without losing the sense of personal identity? 
 Thought is Is it couccivable that the highest character, 
 the loftiest genius, is purely an intermittent 
 secretion of certain nerve-cells, and that dur- 
 ing the hours of sleep, embracing one-third of 
 its entire history, it is absolutely non-existent ? 
 ''Function," says an eminent neurologist, "is 
 a physiological term, and it is, I submit, im- 
 proper to speak of states of consciousness as 
 being functions of the brain. ... It is not 
 the mind, but the physical basis of mind, which 
 is a product of physical evolution. It is the 
 
 ' Lord Kelvin (Sir William Thomson), in The FoHm(/htly 
 Jieview, March, 18U2. 
 
 II '>t a secre 
 (ion. 
 
Liberty 221 
 
 organ of mind, not the mind of itself, wliicli 
 being an evolution out of the rest of the body 
 is representative of it.''^ 
 
 The fact that the brain is a double organ, — The bruin 
 that there are really two brains, only one of [llZind 
 which is used, — cannot be explained on the 
 theory that consciousness is merely the result 
 of the vibration of nerve filaments, as the music 
 of the ^olian harp is the result of the pas- 
 sage of the wind over its strings. A distin- 
 guished physiologist has cleverly shown that if 
 this were the case a double brain would mean 
 a double amount of thought, just as tAvice the 
 number of strings would mean twice the quan- 
 tity of music. 2 But the fact that this is not so, 
 points clearly to the hypothesis that the brain 
 is not an JEolian harp helplessly vibrating 
 under external impulses, but a double organ 
 with tw^o sets of keys, and the mind is like the 
 player who can use either one of them to make 
 the music. And this corresponds closely with 
 our own sense of the process. For we are 
 conscious not only of passive thoughts and 
 
 1 Dr. J. Hughlings Jackson, " Lecture on the Comparative 
 Study of Diseases of the Nervous System " (British Medical 
 Journal, August 17, 1889). 
 
 2 Dr. William H. Thomson, Materialism and Modern 
 Physiology of the Nervous System (New York, Putnams, 
 1892), pp. 83 ff. 
 
222 Liberty 
 
 feelings, evoked within ns by external canses, 
 Ijut also of thoughts and feelings voluntarily 
 directed and combined, woven together in crea- 
 tive harmonies, and moving under the guidance 
 of chosen ideals towards a symphonic complete- 
 ness. Even the sense of discord and conflict 
 which often rises Avithin us is an evidence that 
 there is a player as well as an instrument. For 
 it is inconceivable that an Jj^olian harp, ill- 
 strung, should dislike its own bad music, and 
 endeavour, or think that it could endeavour, to 
 make a better, sweeter sound. 
 
 Heredity is undoubtedly a real and power- 
 ful force. It supplies the outfit of life. But 
 does it determine the use which we shall make 
 of it ? The very extension of the doctrine 
 by the investigations of science dissolves this 
 narrow and absolute conclusion. We inherit 
 from thousands, from hundreds of thousands, 
 of ancestors. The blood of man}' families and 
 tribes and races is mingled in our veins. 
 What is it that decides which of these many 
 lines Ave shall folloAv ? It must be either blind 
 chance or free choice. All the phenomena of 
 society, all the facts of consciousness, are in 
 fa \- our of the latter supposition. We see men 
 wliose lieritage is of the lowest and the worst, 
 working their way up, by sheer strength of 
 
Liberty 228 
 
 moral choice and effort, to a higher pUuie. 
 
 We see men whose heritage is of the loftiest 
 
 and the best, declining 
 
 "tliro' acted crime, 
 Or seeming-genial venial fault, 
 Recurring and suggesting still," i 
 
 to the very depths of infamy. It is true that 
 a man cannot bring out of himself anything 
 that is not already there. But it is true also, 
 by virtue of heredity, that there are many 
 potential men in every man, and which of them 
 is to emerge, he chooses for himself by a thou- 
 sand silent moral preferences ; by yielding or 
 by resisting; by the cowardice and corruption, 
 or by the courage and purification of his own 
 free-will. 
 
 Even those who write of liuman life from a Moral juda- 
 professedly naturalistic standpoint cannot p-et "'^^^'^ 
 
 ^ 'J i o assume 
 
 rid of this conviction. Take Zola, for example, liberty. 
 If he were consistent, he would speak with 
 equal and impassive coldness of all his charac- 
 ters, tangled together in the inextricable toils 
 of heredity. I>ut he cannot help letting his 
 hatred and contem})t for the selfish, the luxu- 
 rious, the vicious, express itself in the very 
 accent with whicli he describes them. He 
 cannot help showing his admiration and affec- 
 
 1 Tennyson's poem, Will. 
 
224 Liberty 
 
 tion for those who, like Benise and Doctor 
 Fascah and Clotilde, rise out of the infamy 
 which envek)ps the family Rougon-Macqiiart. 
 Virtue and vice may be scientifically treated 
 as if they were merely natural products like 
 sugar and vitriol ; but when we come to talk 
 of them from a human and humane standpoint, 
 there is something within us which demands 
 that we shall recognize a merit in being virt- 
 uous, and a shame in being vicious, — qualities 
 which can never belong to mere secretions, 
 whether of plants or of nerves, — qualities 
 which have no possible meaning unless there 
 is a free-will in man, capable of choosing be- 
 tween the evil and the good. 
 The testi- Now that a free-will is possible, modern psy- 
 
 nuxieni oliology assures us, as the result of its latest re- 
 ],!<ijr.hoi<jgy. searches. It does not attempt to demonstrate 
 the existence of such a power by physiological 
 investigation. It confesses that this demon- 
 stration is impossible w^ith our present know- 
 ledge. But it declares with equal candour that 
 tlie contrary attempt to show that the sense of 
 freedom is a delusion, is inconclusive. " The 
 last Avord of psychology here," says Professor 
 William James, ''is ignorance, for the forces 
 engaged are too delicate and numerous to be 
 followed in detaiL" He points out the ex- 
 
Liherty 225 
 
 tremely reckless and inconsequent niiture of 
 the reasoning by which the determinists seek 
 to make mere analogies drawn from the course 
 of rivers, and reflex actions, and other material 
 phenomena, serve as proofs that the Avill is a 
 mechanical effect. He exposes the bold as- 
 sumption by which they ignore tlie testimony 
 of consciousness in the presence of feeling and 
 effort. He shows that the utmost whicli any 
 argument for determinism can do is to present 
 a possible hypothesis, which a man who lias 
 already determined to hold fast to the idea 
 that the whole universe is one chain of inevi- 
 table causation may accept if he likes. But 
 meanwhile the other alternative stands equally 
 open. The moral arguments all point in that 
 direction. The only course, in such a situa- Free-will is 
 tion, is voluntary choice. "For scepticism it- 
 self, if systematic, is also voluntary choice. If, 
 meanwhile, the will be indetermined, it would 
 seem only fitting that the belief in its inde- 
 termination should b^ voluntarily chosen from 
 amongst other possible beliefs. Freedom's 
 first deed should be to affirm itself. . . . 
 Thus not only our morality but our religion, 
 so far as the latter is deliberate, depends on 
 the effort wliich we can make. * Will you or 
 ivonH you have it so f is the most pi-obing 
 
 Q 
 
 possible. 
 
226 Liberty 
 
 question Ave are ever asked : we are asked it 
 every hour of the da}^, and about the largest 
 as well as the smallest, the most theoretical as 
 well as the most practical, things. We answer 
 hy consents or non-consents^ and not by words. 
 What wonder if these dumb responses should 
 seem our deepest organs of communication 
 with the nature of things I What wonder if 
 the effort demanded by them should be the 
 measure of our worth as men ! What wonder 
 if the amount Avhich we accord of it be the 
 one strictly underived and original contribu- 
 tion which we make to the world ! " ^ 
 
 m 
 
 Christ says Here, then, modern science, careful, exact, 
 real. ^ ^^ reverent, as distinguished from modern scep- 
 ticism, leaves us before the two doors. And 
 here Christ comes to us, calling us to enter 
 through the door of liberty into the pathway of 
 eternal life. "Ask, and it shall be given you; 
 seek and ye shall find; knock and it shall be 
 opened unto you." 2 ''If any man willeth to 
 do His will, he shall know of the teaching. "^ 
 
 1 William James, Psychology, vol. ii., p. 579. 
 '^ St. Matt. vii. 7. 
 8 St. John vii. 17. 
 
Liberty 227 
 
 Tlie whole life and ministry of Jesus is a ^^^ ^^f*^ ^f 
 
 1 • p ^ c -t TT- Jesus, a 
 
 revelation oi moral ireedom. His entrance reveiationoj 
 into the world was voluntary. His continu- P'^^-^^ii^- 
 ance in human life was voluntaiy. His death 
 was voluntary. At the first crisis of His life 
 He chose to go about His Father's business. 
 In the temptation He chose to resist the allure- 
 ments of the Evil One. On the Avay to the 
 cross He chose not to call on God for the 
 deliverance which He knew would come in 
 answer to His call. He was, indeed, fulfilling 
 an appointed task, treading the path which 
 had been marked out for the feet of the 
 Christ ; but He Avas fulfilling the task freely ; 
 He was walking in liberty because He loved 
 to do the will of God. The triumph of His 
 virtue lay in the freedom of His choice. 
 
 There was a singular propriety in the text of The preach- 
 
 TT. r> ITT rj 11^- ing of Jesus, 
 
 His first public discourse. It was a declaration ^ gospel of 
 of liberty, as well as of grace. It was an eman- ^i^^^'tu- 
 cipation proclamation as well as a gospel of com- 
 fort and help. ^' The spirit of the Lord is upon 
 me, because He anointed me to preach good 
 tidings to the poor; He hath sent me to pro- 
 claim release to the captives, and recovering of 
 sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that 
 are crushed, to proclaim the acceptable year of 
 
sees taught 
 Fate. 
 
 228 Liberty 
 
 the Lord."^ And what was the oppressive 
 bondage from which He prochiimed release? 
 Was it not the tyranny of a false doctrine of 
 necessity over the minds of men, as well as the 
 enslaving influence of sin over their inert and 
 hopeless wills ? 
 The Phari- Here Avere the scribes and Pharisees teach- 
 ino' that the whole world was divided into 
 two classes, — the chosen and the not-chosen, the 
 rio-hteous for whom salvation was secure what- 
 ever they might do, and the sinners for whom 
 salvation was impossible whatever they might 
 do. Here were the outcast, the lost, the neg- 
 lected, shut out, by no choice of their own, but 
 by their birth, by the occupations in which 
 they were engaged, by their ignorance, by the 
 very conditions of their life, from all part in 
 the kingdom of heaven as the scribes and 
 Pharisees conceived it ; not only the harlots 
 and the publicans, but also Am Haarez^ ''the 
 people of the land," with whom it was not fit- 
 ting tliat a righteous person should have any 
 dealings; 2 miserable souls, bound by inheri- 
 tance to a desperate and unhallowed fate. Here 
 came Jesus, taking His way directly to these 
 lost ones, these outsiders, and telling them that 
 all this doctrine of inevitable doom was a chain 
 1 St. Luke iv. 18. - Brace, Kingdom of God, 145. 
 
Liberty 229 
 
 of lies, breaking the imaginary fetters from Jesus tavc/ht 
 their souls and assuring them by His lirst 
 word that they were free, even though they 
 were ignorant of it. "Repent," He cried, "for 
 the kingdom of heaven has approached unto 
 you."i "Except ye be converted and become 
 as little children, ye shall not enter into the 
 kingdom of heaven. "^ And what is tlie signili- 
 cance of these words, "repentance" and "con- 
 version," — their real significance, I mean, not 
 that which has been read into them by centuries 
 of false and formal theology? They are not 
 passive and involuntary words ; they do not rest 
 upon the idea of qualifications which may or 
 may not be in the possession of those to whom 
 Christ speaks. They are active words, — words 
 of inward movement and exertion. " Repent " 
 means change your mind; make that simple 
 effort of the soul for internal change which 
 is the ultimate act of the free will , ^ put forth 
 
 1 St. Matt. iv. 17. 
 
 2 St. Matt, xviii. 3. 
 
 3 " Every intelligent being, capable of conceiving of higher 
 ethical conditions than he has j-et attained, has in his own 
 moral nature for the exercise of his creative powers an inti- 
 nite sphere, within which ... he is the supreme disposer. 
 ... A man who does not want to be pure and noble, may yet 
 begin one step lower in the scale of moral advancement, with 
 the wish to want to be pure and noble ; and, here comnieuc- 
 ing the cultivation of his moral nature, ascend from this lower 
 
230 Liberty 
 
 that power of fixed attention to the new motive 
 
 which is the central essence of liberty and the 
 
 creative force of the soul.^ "Be converted," 
 
 as Christ spoke the word, is not passive ; it 
 
 expresses an action exercised by the soul within 
 
 itself ; it means simply " turn around " ; set 
 
 yourself in a new relation to God, to truth, to 
 
 Faith is yirtue. The name of this relation is faith. 
 free. 
 
 '' Believe " is Christ's great word. It is the 
 '•'open sesame''^ of the kingdom. "Believe in 
 God, believe also in Me.'' ^ " He that belie veth 
 hath everlasting life." ^ "All things are possible 
 to him that believeth." ^ But it is never spoken 
 of as a mere intellectual opinion, or emotional 
 experience, an irresistible conviction wrought 
 by external evidence in the mind, or bestowed 
 without effort upon the soul. The Bible never 
 says that faith is a gift. There is a voluntary 
 element in it. It is something to be done by 
 the exercise of an inward power. It is a com- 
 ing of the soul to Christ ; it is a following of the 
 
 point, through the want to be pure and noble, to the free effort 
 to gratify this want." — Rowland Hazard, Freedom oj 
 Mind in Willing, "Of Effort for Internal Change" (Bos- 
 ton, Houghton, Mifflin & Co., 1889), chap. xiv. 
 
 1 "The essential achievement of the will when it is most 
 • voluntary,' is to attend to a difficult object and hold it fast 
 before the mind." — Jamks, Psychology, vol. ii., p. fiOl. 
 
 2 8t. John xiv. 1. 3 gf joim vi. 47. ^ St. Mark ix. 23. 
 
Liberty 231 
 
 soul after Him ; it is the first step in a long 
 course of spiritual activit3\ It is a deed. The 
 disciples said unto Christ, "What must Ave do 
 that we may work the works of God ? " Jesus 
 answered, "This is the Avork of God, that ye 
 believe on Him Avhom He hath sent." ^ 
 
 Now there is not a hint in all the teaching of All may 
 Jesus that this first act of freedom is impossible *^ ^^^^' 
 for any soul to whom He speaks. He has no 
 idea of an eternal predestination binding some to 
 belief and others to unbelief, a secret decree in- 
 cluding certain men in the kingdom and exclud- 
 ing others from all possibility of entering into it. 
 It is true that He says, " No man can come unto 
 Me except the Father draAV him "; ^ but what He 
 means by this drawing He tells us in the par- 
 able of the Lost Son, where it is the simple 
 knowledge of the Father's abundant love that 
 draws the prodigal back from the far country 
 of sin; 3 and in the parable of the Publican in 
 the Temple, * where it is the sense of the Divine 
 mercy and forgiveness that makes the outcast 
 man cry, "God, be merciful to me a sinner." 
 There is prevenient grace in the doctrine of 
 Jesus. But the grace is there. It has already 
 come. All that man has to do is to meet it, to 
 
 1 St. John vi. 28, 29. » St. Luke xv. 
 
 2 St. John vi. 44. * St. Luke xviii. 10-14. 
 
232 
 
 Liberty 
 
 Christ is 
 God's call 
 to faith. 
 
 No predesti- 
 nation to 
 death. 
 
 put himself into the upward swing of it, that it 
 may lift and help him heavenward. 
 
 A calling and a choosing by God are neces- 
 sary before any man can be saved. But Jesus 
 does not speak of this choosing and calling as 
 eternal. Christ Himself is the call, and all 
 who answer it are chosen. '' If any man thirst, 
 let him come unto Me and drink." ^ " Him that 
 cometh unto Me I will in nowise cast out.''^ 
 The heavenly invitation is set forth in all its 
 generosity and sincerity in the story of the 
 Marriage P'east.^ The bidding went out into 
 the highways and hedges, to the bad and to the 
 good; and all who heard and accepted it were 
 welcome. And if a single guest was turned 
 away, it was only because his own conduct 
 showed that he had not really taken the invi- 
 tation honestly and accepted willingly all that 
 was provided for him. 
 
 There is not a single word in all that Jesus 
 said to suggest any other reason than this for 
 the exclusion of a single person from the bless- 
 ings of the kingdom. " Ye icill not come unto 
 Me that ye might have life.'"* ''How often 
 would I have gathered thy children together 
 even as a hen gathereth her chickens under 
 
 1 St. John vii. 37. 
 
 2 St. John vi. T. 
 
 3 St. Matt. xxii. 1-14. 
 ^ St. John V. 40. 
 
Liberty 233 
 
 her wings, and ye would not.'''^ There is not 
 one statement that anything else but mercy 
 and grace has been eternally prepared by God 
 for any human soul. In tliat awful parable of 
 judgment which discloses the convincing picture 
 of the final separation of the evil from the 
 good, Christ says distinctly that the joy of 
 the blessed has been prepared for them from 
 the foundation of the world, but of the punish- 
 ment of the cursed, He says with equal dis- 
 tinctness that it was not prepared for them, 
 but for the devil and his angels. ^ No one is 
 ever lost because lie cannot do good, but only 
 because he will not do what he can. 
 
 Christ recognizes the undoubted trutli wliicli Christ on 
 lies in the doctrine of heredity ; but Pie ex- 
 poses, and almost ridicules, the false and 
 fatal extremes to which men think it out. 
 To the Jews, who claimed that because they 
 were Abraham's seed they must be free, He 
 shoAved that they were in bondage to their 
 own sins. They had cliosen to break away 
 from the heredity of faith and rigliteousness, 
 and Avere no longer the true children of Abra- 
 ham. They had become the children of the 
 devil, because they had '' willed to do his 
 works." 2 lie said to His disciples wlio took 
 
 iSt. Matt, xxiii. 87. ^st. Matt. xxv. :U-41. 
 3 St. Jolm viii. 3:3-47. 
 
The iveak- 
 ness of viun. 
 
 234 Liberty. 
 
 up the cant of the day about hereditary sin and 
 punishment, asked Avhether the blind man or 
 his parents had sinned that he was born blind, 
 " Neither hath this man sinned, nor his parents, 
 but that the works of God should be made 
 manifest in him." ^ The true inheritance, the 
 deepest inheritance which Jesus recognizes in 
 the human race, is an inheritance from God ; 
 a nature made in the Divine image, spiritual, 
 free, responsible, and capable, though so sadly 
 marred, though so far astray, of returning to 
 communion with the Heavenly Father. 
 
 Undoubtedly Christ perceived and taught 
 the immense difficulty of being good ; the in- 
 firmity which long centuries of sin has wrought 
 into the very fibres of the soul; the awful 
 and almost inaccessible height of true holi- 
 ness ; the enormous obstacles which lie in the 
 way of attaining it. The gate is strait, and 
 we must agonize to enter in by it. The 
 road is steep, and we must toil to climb it. 
 "J low hardly shall they that have riches enter 
 into the kingdom of God." 2 And yet "the 
 kingdom of heaven suft'ereth violence, and men 
 of violence take it by force. "^ There is an 
 effort which succeeds even in this greatest 
 of all endeavours, not in its own strength, 
 
 1 8t. John ix. 3. 2 gt. Mark x. 23. 
 
 8 St. Matt. xi. 12. 
 
Liberty 235 
 
 but because it is sure of a Divine assistance. T/w (/race 
 "With man it is impossible, but not with "■' ^"''" 
 God."i To the human will, enfeebled and 
 corrupted, so that it is like a sick man, barely 
 able to turn Jiimself U[)on his couch, and look 
 and long and cry for help, three great sources 
 of strength are always open and accessible. 
 
 The first is prayer. "Men ought always to ^'-ayer. 
 pray, and not to faint." ^ How sweet and 
 serene is the voice that rings through the vain 
 disputations and doubtful wranglings of the 
 scribes and Pharisees, and calls every sinful 
 soul to pray ! Pray I you may not be able to 
 realize your ow'n ideal, but you can ask (iod 
 to help you hold fast to it and struggle towards 
 it. Pray ! 
 
 " More things are wrought by prayer 
 Tliaii this world dreams of." ^ 
 
 Pray ! For God is not deaf, nor sleeping, nor 
 gone upon a journey ; He has not bound you 
 to an inexorable fate and bound Himself not to 
 interfere with it. Pray ! The liberty of your 
 o^vn soul, and the liberty of God Hinisi'lf, dwells 
 in that word ; for when you stretch your feeble 
 hand to Him, a Divine hand will meet it, and 
 
 1 St. Mark x. 27. 2 st. Luke xviii. 1. 
 
 3 Tennyson, llie Passimj of Arthur. 
 
Spirit. 
 
 Christ our 
 Helper. 
 
 236 Liberty 
 
 break your fetters, and lift you out of darkness 
 and death into life and light. 
 The Holy The second source of strength is the Holy 
 
 Spirit. It is inconceivable, morally impossible, 
 that there should be such a Spirit, and yet that 
 His influence should be withheld from those 
 who need and implore it. '' If ye then, being 
 evil, know how to give good gifts unto your 
 children, how much more shall your heavenly 
 Father give the Holy Spirit unto them that 
 ask Him."i 
 
 The third source of strength is Christ Him- 
 self. Does the sense of past guilt stand in the 
 way of future effort ? He says, '' I have power 
 on earth to forgive sins." ^ Does the soul feel 
 dead and hopeless under the burden of evil 
 habits ? He says, " I came that they may have 
 life, and may have it abundantly." ^ Do the 
 works of a true and vital righteousness seem 
 far beyond our power? He says, ''Without Me 
 ye can do nothing ; " ^ but, " Lo, I am with you 
 alway, even unto the end of the Avorld." ^ " He 
 that believeth on ^le, the works that I do shall 
 he do also, and greater works than these shall he 
 do, because I go unto the Father."^ The whole 
 
 1 St. Luke xi. 13. * St. John xv. 5. 
 
 2 St. Mark ii. 10. 6 st. Matt, xxviii. 20. 
 
 3 St. John X. 10. 6 St. John xiv. 12. 
 
Lihertij 237 
 
 life of Christ is summed iij) in tlie words, " liut 
 as many as received llim, to them gave lie power 
 to become the sons of God." ^ 
 
 But this receiving, Ave need to rememl)er and The way of 
 assert again and again, is not a i)assive thing. '^''^'^''''""'■^• 
 It is an action of the soul, the opening of a door 
 within the heart, the Avelcoming of a heavenly 
 master. God does not save men as a watch- 
 maker who repairs and sets a watch, but as a 
 King Avho recalls his servants to their duty, as 
 a Father who makes new revelations of His love 
 to draw His lost children back to Himself. The 
 dogmas of the schools in regard to the working 
 out of what they call the scheme of redemption 
 sound like the creak and rattle of some vast 
 machine. The doctrine of Christ is like the 
 soft breath of spring, evoking the songs of birds 
 and the unfolding of new life. No fiery chariot 
 of grace swoops down to snatch men to glor}'. 
 But a living ^Messenger comes forth from God 
 to ask men to turn and walk back with Him to 
 their soul's home. The invitation itself is a 
 guarantee of the power to accept it. With au- 
 thority Christ commanded the Avinds and the sea 
 and they obeyed Him. But with gracious plead- 
 ing He invited the hearts of men, and those that 
 were willing gladly heard and followed Him. 
 1 St. John i. 12. 
 
238 
 
 Liberty 
 
 God helps 
 those icho 
 help them- 
 selves. 
 
 Christus 
 Liberator. 
 
 ^*lf any man ivills to come after Me," i — that is 
 the prelude of His message. He offers a leader- 
 ship to men who can follow, a mastership to 
 men who can obey. Out of this first movement 
 He promises to guide and direct the whole de- 
 velopment of the new life, — not a passive life 
 of retirement, of ascetic meditation, of reflec- 
 tion upon secret truth, — but an active life of 
 service, of warfare against evil in the world, a 
 life which translates truth into conduct. 
 
 Contrast the religion of Jesus in this respect 
 with the Oriental religions, and with those 
 forms of Christianity which have borrowed the 
 garments of Buddha and speak with the accent 
 of Mahomet. They despise and slight per- 
 sonality. Christ respects and emphasizes it. 
 They aim to reduce and evaporate responsi- 
 bility. Christ aims to deepen and increase 
 it. They point forward to a blank Nirvana 
 in which the individual is lost and absorbed, 
 or a Paradise in Avhich he is forever lapped in 
 sensual ease and pleasure. Christ speaks of 
 the perfecting of the individual through the 
 Divine communion and service on earth, and 
 liis entrance in heaven upon a new stage of 
 tlie same communion, the same service, — 
 " not in a blessed idleness, but in an exalted 
 
 1 St. Matt. xvi. 24. 
 
Liberty 239 
 
 kingly work and activity/' And the entrance 
 to this kingdom on earth, the continuance in 
 its reahn of liberty, the attainment of its final 
 glory, are all through an act of the will. The 
 freedom which originated in God is only to l)e 
 preserved by returning to God and abiding in 
 Him. 
 
 " Our wills are ours, we know not how ; 
 Our wills are ours, to make them Thine." ^ 
 
 That is the teaching of Jesus. That is the 
 truth which, when it comes to men, makes 
 them and keeps them free. 
 
 IV 
 
 It is impossible that we should be faithful The age 
 
 - needs this 
 
 preachers of Christ to the present age, unless message. 
 we preach this truth. There may have been 
 ages in which it was important to dwell upon 
 other sides and aspects of the manifold reality 
 of the spiritual world. But to-day this is the 
 important side ; this is the aspect whicli de- 
 mands a clear recognition and an unfaltering 
 proclamation by those who mean to be true to 
 Christ and loyal to the needs of humanity. I 
 do not believe that there is a single passage in 
 the Old Testament which contradicts Christ's 
 1 Tennyson, In Memoriam, Prooni. 
 
240 Liberty 
 
 doctrine of the real liberty of the soul. But 
 if there were such a passage, I would leave it 
 forever alone, as belonging to that knowledge 
 which was in part, and which was done away 
 when that which was perfect had come. I do 
 not believe that there is a single word in the 
 writings of St. Paul which stands against this 
 doctrine of the real liberty of the soul. I 
 cut loose from the false interpretations which 
 men have read into his words. I take the 
 light of Christ's teaching in my hand, and I 
 go back to interpret by tliat light the teach- 
 ings of the great Epistle to the Romans with 
 its glorious revelation of '^ the mystery which 
 hath been kept in silence through times eter- 
 nal, but now is manifested, and by the Scriptures 
 of the prophets, according to the commandment 
 of the eternal God, is made known unto all 
 the nations unto obedience of faith.'' ^ I hear 
 again the cry of the struggling, labouring, con- 
 quering apostle : '' To toill is present with 7ne, 
 but to do that Avhich is good is not. ... O 
 wretched man that 1 am, who shall deliver me 
 out of the body of this death? I thank God 
 through Christ Jesus our Lord ;'"^ and I know 
 that St. Paul also was a believer in the free- 
 dom of the will, and that he received this 
 1 Rom. xvi. 26. 2 i^om. vii. 18, 24, 25. 
 
Liheriy 241 
 
 gospel and the power to fulfil it, through tlie 
 proclamation of libert}' in Jesus Clirist. 
 
 "This matter of free-will," wrote one of the Fr'^^-ii-m 
 most orthodox of theologians, but a few years quesUan.'^'^ 
 before his death, "underlies everything. If 
 you bring it to question, it is infinitely more 
 tJian Calvinism. ... I believe in Calvinisui, 
 and I say that free-will stands before Calvin- 
 ism. Everything is gone if free-will is gone ; 
 the moral system is gone, if free-will is gone ; 
 you cannot escape except by Materialism on 
 the one hand or by Pantheism on the other. 
 Hold hard therefore to the doctrine of free- 
 will."! 
 
 Yes, and we may say more than tliis. Not 
 only is the moral system gone, but the great 
 attraction of Christ is gone, the power of His 
 gospel to liberate men is gone, if free-will is 
 gone. 
 
 The age has hypnotized itself. It is drift- The aye has 
 
 "^ T ^ T T 1 • r hypnotized 
 
 ing steadily towards fatalism. It denies tree- i^^^if 
 dom, and therefore it is not free. It is in 
 bondage to its own doubt. It is enslaved by 
 its own denial. If there is such a thing as 
 liberty, it can only be developed, as everything 
 else has been developed, by action, by exercise. 
 
 1 A, A. Hodj^e, Popular Lectures on Theological Themes 
 (Philadelphia, 1887), p. 184. 
 
242 
 
 lAherty 
 
 Life is self-change to meet environment. Lib- 
 erty is self-exertion to unfold the soul. The 
 law of natural selection is that those who use 
 a faculty shall expand it, but those who use it 
 not shall lose it. Religion is life, and it must 
 grow under the laws of life. Faith is simply 
 the assertion of spiritual freedom ; it is the 
 first adventure of the soul. Make that ad- 
 venture towards God, make that adventure 
 towards Christ, and the soul will know that it 
 is alive. So it enters upon that upward course 
 which leads through the liberty of the sons of 
 God to the height of heaven. 
 
 " Where love is an unerring light 
 And joy its own security." ^ 
 
 This is the truth with which we are to go 
 out a-gospelling in this age of doubt. We are 
 to tell men that though much has been deter- 
 mined for them by causes beyond their control, 
 — their circumstances, their talents, their facul- 
 ties, — one thing has not been determined, and 
 that is what they will do with them. Much has 
 been ordained before their birth, — their nation- 
 ality, their family, their station in life, — but 
 one thing has not been ordained, and that is 
 whether they are to move from this starting- 
 1 Wordsworth, Ode to Duty. 
 
Liberty 243 
 
 point towards life or towards death. They 
 may be like men sunken in a nightmare dream 
 of helplessness, muttering in their sleep, "If I 
 am to be saved, I shall be saved ; if I am to be 
 lost, I shall be lost," — but we must cry to them 
 with the voice of the Spirit : '' Awake, thou 
 that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and 
 Christ shall give thee light." 
 
VII 
 
 SOVEREIGNTY 
 
" I say to thee, do tliou repeat 
 To the first man thou iiia3^est meet 
 In lane, highway, or open street — 
 
 " That lie and we and all men move 
 Under a canopy of love, 
 As broad as the blue sky above ; 
 
 *' That doubt and trouble, fear and j^ain 
 And anguish, all are shadows vain. 
 That death itself shall not remain ; 
 
 " That weary deserts w^e may tread, 
 A dreary labyrinth may thread. 
 Through dark ways underground be led; 
 
 " Yet if we will one Guide obey, 
 The dreariest path, the darkest w^ay, 
 Shall issue out in heavenly day ; 
 
 " And we, on divers shores now cast, 
 Shall meet, our perilous voyage past, 
 All in our Father's house at last." 
 
 KiCHAIJD ClIENEVIX ThENCH, 
 
 The Kingdom of God. 
 
science. 
 
 VII 
 
 SOVEREIGNTY 
 
 The questions about the world Avhich science ^''^ ^o""- 
 consiclers and answers, all have to do with 1"/.!!/' 
 secondary causes. Beyond that sphere she does 
 not need to go, and within that sphere her wis- 
 dom is sufficient. We come to her like curious 
 children. We "want to see the wheels go 
 round." We want to know what the wheels 
 are made of. She tells us, and there she stops. 
 All that we have a right to ask of her is that 
 she shall be true to facts, and that she shall 
 confine herself to them. When the astronomer 
 Laplace was reproached for not mentioning God 
 in his treatise on the dynamics of the solar 
 system, he answered, "I had no need of that 
 hypothesis." And this reply was just, as Mr. 
 John Fiske has pointed out, because " in order 
 to give a specific explanation of any single 
 group of phenomena, it would not do to ap- 
 peal to divine action, which is equally the 
 source of all phenomena."^ 
 
 1 Christian Literature, January, 1896, "The Everlasting 
 Reality of Religion," p. 300. 
 
 247 
 
248 Sovereignty 
 
 The great But the moment we take tliis reasonable 
 
 Veytnd^^ ^^ ^^^^ modest position (and it is a great pity 
 them. that theology has not been more ready to take 
 
 it), we perceive that curiosity in regard to 
 single groups of phenomena by no means satis- 
 fies or exhausts the activity of the questioning 
 spirit in man. There is a deeper curiosity in 
 regard to the relation of these single groups 
 of phenomena to each other, and to ourselves, 
 and to the possibility of a meaning, a purpose, 
 an end, underlying all things and all theii 
 workings. Out of this deeper curiosity rise 
 the questions which are most urgent and vital 
 — questions which, when we consider them ab 
 stractly, are philosophical, and condition the 
 unity of our intellectual life ; but when we con- 
 sider them personally, they are religious, and 
 upon their answer our spiritual peace and moral 
 action absolutely depend. How are we to think 
 about the things that we know ? What are we 
 to believe in regard to the things that sciences 
 tells us we cannot know, but which we stil! 
 feel are necessary conditions of all intelligent 
 and right conduct ? Is there an invisible wniiy 
 beneath all the visible diversity of phenomena? 
 What is the nature of that unity, personal oi 
 impersonal, conscious or unconscious? Is there 
 anything behind the mechanical working of 
 
tioji of 
 sovereignty. 
 
 Sovereignty 249 
 
 the world, now so wonderfully explained, which 
 corresponds to what there is in us wlien we 
 make and use a machine or an instrument, 
 when we plant and cultivate a garden, or when 
 we select and train a noble race of animals? 
 Is there a final cause towards whicli things 
 work together, and a supreme power which 
 guides them to that end? 
 
 This is the question of sovereignty. We The ques 
 can no more help asking it than we can help 
 thinking. 
 
 We are in the world like voyagers on a ship. 
 We inquire what the ship is made of; and 
 science tells us, — iron and wood. .Vud wliat 
 makes it float ? The buoyancy of the air which 
 it contains. And what makes it go? Steam. 
 And what makes the steam? The heat of the 
 furnace. Then, if we are sufficiently inter- 
 ested, science takes us down into the engine- 
 room, and shows us all the condensers and 
 pistons and cranks and wheels, more fully than 
 they have ever been shown before ; and we are 
 amazed and profoundly grateful. We come up 
 again into the light of day. We look into the 
 overarching heaven, the home of sunshine and 
 storm, the deep mother of light and darkness. 
 We look out upon the great and wide sea, 
 full of mystery and terror. New questionings 
 
Doubt 
 
 ii'isicers, 
 
 X.). 
 
 250 Sovereigyity 
 
 j[asthe spring to our lips. Where is the ship going? 
 
 Zarttainf ^^ there a captain on board ? Does he know, 
 does he care, what is to become of it? Is he 
 wise, is he faithful, is he a good captain ? Can 
 he direct the vessel through tempests and dan- 
 gers? Can he tell us how to work with him, 
 how to act in times of peril and perplexity? 
 Can we be sure of him, can we trust liim ? 
 
 Now to this questioning, scepticism gives a 
 repl}' of desperate uncertainty ; and positivism 
 answers with a stern and sullen. No ! The 
 world is a derelict vessel, and we are master- 
 less and lost mariners. This answer has been 
 expressed by a French poet in powerful and 
 pathetic verse. 
 
 " Jouet de I'ouragan, qui I'eniporte et le mene, 
 Enconibre de tresors et d'agres submerges, 
 Ce navire perdu, mais c'est le nef humaiiie, 
 Et nous sommes les r.aufrages. 
 
 •' L'equipage affole manoeuvre en vain dans I'ombre; 
 L'fipouvaiite est a bord, le Desespoir, le Deuil; 
 Assise au gouvernail, la Fatalite sombre 
 Le dirige vers un ecueil."i 
 
 But Christ gives a very different answer. 
 It seems as if His very words Avere chosen to 
 contradict this view of life as a helpless, hope- 
 
 1 L. Ackerman, Ma Vie, Poesies, etc. (Paris, 1885), " Le 
 Cri,'' p. 180. 
 
Sovereignty 251 
 
 less voyage, and humanity as a sliipwrecked Christ 
 race. For what is it that He says to His y^^^"'"^'' 
 disciples as they look out upon the mystery of 
 existence ? 
 
 " Seek not what ye shall eat, and what ye 
 shall drink, neither be ye as a ship that is tossed 
 on the ivaves of a tempestuous sea {/ni] /xerecopi- 
 ^eaOe), for your Father knoweth that ye have 
 need of these things." ^ 
 
 The vessel is not driving masterless over the 
 ocean. The Captain is on board. He is God. 
 He is also our Father. For all who trust and 
 serve Him, it is a sure voyage, a certain port, 
 a safe harbour. 
 
 The doctrine of the presence and sovereignty The 
 
 c r^ t • TT- 11' r ii ■ sovereiffuty 
 
 01 (jrod in His world, m one lorm or another, is ^j- qq,j 
 essential to the validity of any reasoning which 
 attempts to go beyond the mere appearance of 
 things. Without it we find ourselves, as one 
 has well said, " put to permanent intellectual 
 confusion." Without it the world lies before 
 us, as Pope wrote in the first draft of liis Essay 
 on Man^ — 
 
 ** A mighty maze, and all without a plan." 
 
 1 St. Luke xii. 29. 
 
252 
 
 Sovereignty 
 
 Christ's 
 view of it. 
 
 Contrasted 
 icith other 
 vieics. 
 
 And if we follow the poet in that cold j^hilo- 
 sophical deism which led him to revise his fa- 
 mous line so that it now reads 
 
 " A mighty maze, but not without a plan," ^ 
 Ave are still in the dark, still confused and 
 hopeless, unless Ave go further and learn enougli 
 of Him Avho made the plan, to trust Him even 
 w^hen we cannot perfectly understand His Avork- 
 ing, and to confide absolutely in ''His most 
 holy, wise, and powerful preserving and govern- 
 ing all His creatures and all their actions." ^ 
 
 This is Avhat Christ gives us : a Adew of God 
 in His Avorld which requires faith to accept it, 
 but which Avlien it is accepted, satisfies the rea- 
 son and the heart better than any other view, 
 clears away many of the intellectual and moral 
 difficulties Avhich beset us, and becomes the in- 
 Avard source not of doubt and distress, but of 
 certainty and peace. 
 
 This is not true, Ave must admit, of some of 
 the forms in which the doctrine of divine soa^- 
 ereignty has been preached in Christ's name. 
 They have often disregarded the facts of nat- 
 ure. They have often outraged the moral 
 instincts of humanity. They have created 
 new obstacles to faitli. They have driven men 
 
 1 Pope's Essay on Man, part i., line 6. 
 '^ The Shorter Catechism, question xi. 
 
Sovereignty 253 
 
 back in dumb resentment to believe in the 
 positivist's ''sombre Fatality," rather than in 
 an absentee (Jod who has foreordained, by one 
 and the same decree, all the evil and all the 
 good, all the sorrow and shame and suffering 
 that are in the world. 
 
 Not so with Christ's teaching. It is sane 
 and sweet. It allays resentment and begets 
 serenity. It gives a reconciling, harmonizing, 
 atoning view of God's sovereignty. And if 
 Ave can see it clearly and 23reach it faithfully, 
 it will be to-day, as it was in His day, one of 
 the great attractions of the gospel for an age 
 of doubt. 
 
 II 
 
 Christ's doctrine of the divine sovereignty ChHsVs 
 was both old and new. It Avas old because it 
 recognized the truth, uttered so magniticently 
 by prophets and psalmists, of God's right and 
 poAver to rule the universe Avhich He has 
 made. ''Thy throne, O God, is for ever and 
 CA^er."! "The Lord hath prepared His throne 
 in the heavens and His kingdom ruleth over 
 all."^ "He doeth according to His Avill in the 
 army of heaven, and among the inhabitants of 
 the earth : and none can stay His hand, or say 
 unto Him, What doest Thou? "^ 
 1 Psalm xlv. 6. 2 psalm ciii. 19. -^ Daniel iv. 35. 
 
 and nexo. 
 
254 Sovereignty 
 
 A simpler But Clirist's cloctriiie Avas new because it 
 
 revealed the presence of the sovereign God in 
 the physical universe more simply, more natu- 
 rally, more intimately, than it had ever been 
 revealed before. How gentle, how plain, how 
 mildly luminous, is the language in which 
 Jesus expresses this truth, compared with the 
 flashing, rolling speech of the prophets I He 
 uses the words of common life, transfigured 
 Avith emotion, — the language of 13^10, rather 
 than of epic, poetry. 
 
 God in His The manifestations of divine power in the 
 Old Testament appear chiefly as mighty works, 
 exceptional forthputtings of supernal force. 
 It seems sometimes as if they came from a 
 distance ; as if God had withdrawn from the 
 world and had been called back to it by the 
 peril and the cry of His people. But Clirist 
 would teach us to feel that He has never gone 
 away for an instant. He is always here. 
 Nothing tliat happens is hidden from Him. 
 Nor does He hide Himself from any avIio 
 would behold Him. We may see Him every 
 day, in the feeding of the birds, in tlie blos- 
 soming of the flowers, 
 
 <' And every wayside bush aflame with God." 
 
 In all the processes of nature He is present 
 and sovereign. 
 
Sovereignty 255 
 
 This view of tlie relation of God to the nia- '^''*<^ <Uvine 
 
 terial world is not external and mechanical. 
 It is inward and vital. God has not made the 
 world and wound it up and left it to run l)y 
 itself. He is in it, as really as a man is in the 
 house that he inhabits, and all the potencies 
 that move and animate it Hoav directly from 
 Him. The Jews thought tliat (lod liad fahri- 
 cated the universe in six days and sat down lo 
 rest on the seventh, laying aside His work as 
 a clock-maker Avould put down a linislied 
 clock. But Christ said, "My Fatlier worketh 
 until now, and I work." ^ Creation is not 
 ended, it is going on all the time. ycsler(Lay 
 Avas a creative day ; and so is to-day ; and so 
 to-morrow will be. The divine thought is 
 still Aveaving its beautiful garment on the 
 roaring loom of Time. 
 
 But God's activity in the Avorld is not ca- 
 pricious or disorderly. No one Avas more sen- 
 sitive than Jesus to "the rhythmic element 
 in nature, — the floAv of rivers, the procession 
 of stars, the antiphony of day and niglit, tlie 
 silent but inviolate order of the seasons." ^ Jt 
 Avas He Avho expressed the law of growtli : 
 
 1 St. John V. 17. 
 
 2 H. W. Mabie, Essays on Nature and Culture (New York, 
 1896), p. 295. 
 
 immanence. 
 
 The divine 
 orderliness. 
 
256 Sovereignty 
 
 "first the blade, then the ear, and after that 
 the full corn in the ear/'^ It was He Avho 
 suggested the analogy of natural law in the 
 spiritual world, appl3'ing the figure of gernn- 
 nation to His own death and resurrection : 
 " Except a corn of wheat fall into tlie ground 
 and die, it abideth alone ; but if it die, it 
 bringeth forth much fruit. "^ Xhe parables 
 which He used to describe the kingdom of 
 heaven Avere drawn from nature and based on 
 law. It was like "leaven which a woman 
 took and hid in three measures of meal until 
 the whole was leavened," or "like a grain of 
 mustard seed, Avhich a man took and sowed 
 in his field ; which indeed is the least of all 
 seeds, but Avhen it is grown it is the greatest 
 among herbs." ^ He taught His disciples to 
 look upon the regular and steadfast ordinances 
 of nature as the proof that their Heavenly 
 Father was mindful of them and would take 
 care of them. You will not find any such su- 
 perfluous phrase as " special Providence " in the 
 teaching of Jesus. His thought was of a gen- 
 eral and universal Providence, wide enough 
 and deep enough to embrace the wants of all 
 creatures and provide for them. God's chil- 
 
 1 St. Mark iv. 28. 2 gt. John xii. 24. 
 3 St. Matt. xiii. 32, 33. 
 
Sovereignty 2o7 
 
 dren were not to trust in miracles and marvels 
 for their daily bread ; tliey were not to l)e 
 always looking and calling for the extraordi- 
 nary, — manna from the sky, water from the 
 riven rock. They were to rest rather upon 
 the course of nature in quiet coniidence, and 
 work with it in cheerful joy, knowing that 
 He Avho clothes the grass of the field will much 
 more clothe them,^ — and by the same power 
 working in the same way. 
 
 Yet Jesus did not think of God as having Miracles not 
 exhausted all possible modes of His activity J'"^",'/,!^ 
 in those which are familiar to us. His pres- 
 ence in the world is of such a personal kind 
 that it necessarily brings with it the power of 
 direct, personal, infinitely varied action. Out 
 of this power spring those strange signs and 
 wondrous works which we call miracles. Jesus 
 never said that they were against nature. He 
 never even said that they were supernatural. 
 He claimed only that they were proofs of a 
 divine mission, because they Avere such works 
 as could only come from God. They were 
 signs, just as all uncommon and extraordinary Sh/n^ »f 
 acts are signs. But signs ot what/ ur per- 
 sonality, of that power of choice in modes of 
 
 1 St. Matt. vi. 30. 
 
God through 
 law 
 
 '•It)'^ Sovereignty 
 
 action wliicli is the essential attribute of a 
 free spirit. They Avere Avr ought in order 
 that men miglit believe, not in order that 
 they might be astonished; and just as truly 
 in order that they might believe in the order 
 of nature as in the Person who upholds it by 
 His presence. 
 The reign of ^* An energy," says i\lr. Ruskin, "may be 
 natural without being normal, and divine 
 without being constant." Jesus did not teach 
 the reign of laAV. He taught the reign of God 
 through law. And in order that men might 
 be sure that the law did not bind God like a 
 chain, but freely expressed His sovereign will, 
 it was given unto Jesus to show men those 
 rare works, unique and transcendent, like 
 strokes of genius, which reveal, as if by flashes 
 of light, tlie true relation between the sover- 
 eign God and tlie universe which He is mak- 
 ing and ruling. 
 
 It is always to this personal God that Jesus 
 would direct the thoughts and confident affec- 
 tions of men. How is it possible for any one to 
 miss His meaning, and translate it into some- 
 thing entirely different, as Matthew Arnold 
 does in his misinterpretation of what he calls 
 "the secret of Jesus" ? It is not merely the joy 
 
 TIte secret 
 of Jesus. 
 
in a 
 
 Sovereignty 259 
 
 and peace of self-renunciation that Jesns sets 
 forth to His disciples. It is the inward qui- 7'/"^< 
 etude and rest of self-surrender to a loving 7,\^^/,pJf' ^ 
 Father who is also the Mighty God. And it 
 is not from the sense of His resistless power, 
 but from the consciousness of His love, of 
 His Fatherhood, that peace comes. " Yea, 
 Father, for so it Avas well-pleasing in Tliy 
 sight." ^ '' Father, all things are possible unto 
 Thee ; remove this cup from ^le : howbeit 
 not what I Avill, but wdiat Thou wilt."'^ 
 " Father, into Thy hands I commit My spirit."^ 
 This is the secret of Jesus. He does not teach 
 bare sovereignty to Avliicli we must yield be- 
 cause it is irresistible. He teaches sover- 
 eignty of a certain kind, — the sovereignty 
 of a Father, who is as much better, as He is 
 more powerful, than all earthly parents or 
 rulers, and who will never forsake His world, 
 nor suffer His children to slip from His mighty 
 hand. 
 
 in 
 
 But sovereignty of this kind necessarily im- 
 plies distinctions in the manner of its exercise. 
 It cannot possibly be conceived of in terms of 
 
 1 St. Matt. xi. 26. 2 st. Mark xiv. 30. 3 St. Luke xxiii. 46 
 
260 
 
 Sovereignty 
 
 The highest 
 kind of 
 sovereignty 
 discrimi- 
 nates. 
 
 A loioer 
 kind of 
 sovereignty 
 mechanical. 
 
 any single force or confined to any one mode of 
 operation. It must be flexible and discriminat- 
 ing. It must include within itself as many 
 forms of rule as there are forms of being under 
 its dominion. What, for example, should we 
 say of a king who had but one way of dealing 
 with all his subjects, young and old, Avise and 
 ignorant, loj'al and disloyal, and who treated 
 his servants under precisely the same condi- 
 tions as his horses and his chariots ? Or what 
 should we say of a father who attempted to reg- 
 ulate and rule his children without reference to 
 their character, and who made no distinction 
 between them and the furniture of his house ? 
 Yet this, in effect, is the theory of the divine 
 sovereignty which has frequently been set forth 
 by theologians as if it were the only one which 
 did justice to the glory of God. 
 
 '* The will of God," according to this theory, 
 " is the irresistible force. It is the source of 
 all things, all persons, all events. From it they 
 all proceed, under it they all act, by an invari- 
 able necessity. This will lias already deter- 
 mined from all eternity everything that comes 
 to pass. Every character in the world, like 
 every rock and every plant, is just what God 
 willed it to be. Everything that happens, hap- 
 pens because Ylv willed it and precisely as He 
 
Soverei'i/itt// 261 
 
 willed it. The life of mankind is far from 
 being in any sense a voyage, an adventure, a 
 probation. It is simply the process of printing 
 a history which has already been Avritten and 
 set in type down to the last letter. The great 
 press is in motion. Our souls are the blank 
 pages. On one is printed a foreordained prayer. 
 On another a foreordained blasphemy. Death 
 is the folding knife. Judgment is the act of 
 binding, in which the fair pages will be pre- 
 served and the foul pages rejected and buruLMl. 
 The sovereignty of God is exercised in seeing 
 that the book goes through the press exactly as 
 it was written, without the addition or sub- 
 traction of a single syllable of the foreordained 
 text." 
 
 But surely, even if this theory were true and The lower 
 could be proved, it is not of a nature to give glorious 
 aid and comfort to those who are zealous for 
 the glory of God. It does not really exalt and 
 magnify the divine sovereignty, but narrows 
 and degrades it. It does not call for tlie per- 
 fect wisdom and unlimited resources of a potent 
 Ruler able to meet emergencies, to overcome 
 oppositions, to guide and direct intelligent and 
 free subjects like Himself, and to conduct a 
 high enterprise, through all the difficulties tliat 
 may arise, to a successful end. It calls for 
 
262 Sovereignty 
 
 qualities of a lower kind and a strictly limited 
 scope ; the exact knowledge and the applied 
 strenofth of a skilful machinist ; not the broad 
 intelligence, the swift genius, the inexhaustible 
 patience, and the triumphant personal influ- 
 ence of a great Captain, a Master and Lord of 
 men. 
 Which kind It is conceivable, of course, that God might 
 chosen? have chosen to create a universe in which His 
 sovereignty should be exercised in this one un- 
 varying line of foreordained necessity. Being 
 supreme. He has both the right and the power 
 to make such a sphere, or spheres, for the rev- 
 elation of His attributes as may please Him. 
 But it is not liumanly conceivable that He 
 should have made this particular choice which 
 is ascribed to Him for His own glory. If He 
 had chosen this kind of a universe, so far as we 
 can see, it must have lowered and hidden His 
 glory. It must have left Him with a field in 
 which the highest qualities of personality could 
 not possibly be exercised. It must have made 
 all subsequent choice, and all approval or 
 disapproval, and all truly moral government 
 impossible. The existence of rewards and pun- 
 ishments, the sense of merit or demerit among 
 the creatures of such a world, would be inex- 
 plicable. Nay more, it would be a cruel delu- 
 
Sovereignty 263 
 
 sion, which, since it must come like everything- 
 else, according to this theor}^ from the will of 
 the Maker, Avould reflect a dark shadow of dis- 
 credit upon His moral character. To claim 
 that this sense of responsibility, like all other 
 parts of the system, may be a necessity, a legal 
 fiction which is essential to the working of a 
 scheme far above our comprehension and there- 
 fore above our judgment, makes it more awful, 
 but not more admirable. If there is any valid- 
 ity whatever in our moral instincts, we need not 
 hesitate to say, that from our present i)oiut of 
 view, which is for us the only one attainable, 
 this theory of the absolute and unconditional 
 sovereignty of God, exercised by one law of 
 necessity over all creatures, is so far from Ijeing 
 for God's glory that it is apparently for His 
 shame and dishonour. 
 
 As a matter of fact, it has been, and still is, ^^^^ '^^•^'" 
 
 ml ties of 
 
 the most fertile mother of doubts. "A uni- absoiufi.'<m. 
 verse in which all the power was on the side of 
 the creator, and all the morality on the side of 
 creation, Avould be one compared with which 
 the universe of naturalism would shim' out as a 
 paradise indeed." ^ The idea of an irresponsible 
 God ruling by an eternal and inflexible fiat 
 over responsible men, is a moral nightmare, 
 1 Foundations of Belief, p. 32G. 
 
264 Sovereignity 
 
 under which liumanity groans, and from which 
 it struggles to awake, even though it should 
 have to open its eyes upon the blank darkness 
 of an unsearchable night. Between the un- 
 knoAvable God of agnosticism and the unlov- 
 able God of absolutism, there is indeed little 
 to choose. But the choice, such as it is, lies 
 on the side of agnosticism. It is unspeak- 
 ably better to doubt God's personality. His 
 supremacy. His very being, than it is to 
 doubt His eternal goodness and His moral 
 integrity. 
 Jesus de- But the teaching of Jesus is designed and 
 
 livers us 
 
 from them, ^ttcd to deliver us, if we will accept it, from 
 both of these doubts. He reveals a God who 
 is not only Lord of all, but who exercises His 
 sovereignty in discretion, in justice, and in 
 love. He does not look upon all His creatures 
 with the same eyes. He discriminates. He 
 distinguishes. He has regard to their differ- 
 ences of nature and character. The human 
 soul is of more value to Him than many spar- 
 rows.^ How much is a man better than a 
 sheep ? 2 By so much as he is more like God, 
 spiritual, free, responsible, immortal. These 
 qualities, which God Himself has created, God 
 Himself respects. Every word of Jesus takes it 
 1 St. Matt. X. 31. 2 St. Matt. xii. 12. 
 
Sovereignty 265 
 
 for granted that God is not an infinite Auto- (^'^d is a 
 crat, a hard master, reaping where He has not •^"" "'^'•''^'''• 
 sown, and gathering where He has not strewed, 
 but a fair and equitable Lord, who takes into 
 consideration all the conditions of His subjects 
 and renders unto all their dues. The forces of 
 nature obey His will inevitabl}^ and for them 
 there is neither praise nor blame. Tlie souls 
 of men are invited to love Him, and com- 
 manded to serve Him, but they are left free to 
 choose Avhether they will obey or disobey, and 
 upon their choice the approval and blessing of 
 God depend. 
 
 Who can question for a moment that this is The divine 
 the view of the divine sovereignty which un- ^^/"mL'Jefr 
 derlies all the parables of Christ ? The omnip- «" action. 
 otence which He teaches is not sheer, absolute, 
 unconditioned. It is a self-restrained power. 
 It is able to limit itself, to act in such a way 
 and under such conditions as God chooses to 
 create. If He could not do this. He would not 
 be truly omnipotent. If there were but one 
 method in which He could manifest His will, 
 and that the method of necessity, He would be 
 forever shut out from personal relations, wliicli 
 can only exist where there are different wills, 
 capable of agreement or disagreemeut, of co- 
 operation or conflict, of harmony or discord. 
 
266 Sovereignty 
 
 Jesus believed and taught that God has actu- 
 all}^ chosen to limit the autocratic exercises of 
 His sovereignty by creating beings who have 
 the power of yielding to His will or of resist- 
 ing it. 
 Th- origin p^-^^^ from this resistance flow all the evil, 
 
 of' erU not 
 
 in God. 3,11 the sorrow, all the misery oi the world. 
 
 God does not ordain sin. God does not even 
 permit sin, in the sense that He allows it to 
 exist witliout opposition and condemnation on 
 His part. It may be a necessary feature of 
 a world of free choice and moral probation. 
 Jesus seems to imply as much when He says 
 "It must needs be that offences come." But 
 He adds at once, " Woe unto that man by whom 
 the offence cometh."^ That man is not doing 
 the will of God. He is a rebel, a traitor, an 
 apostate. Sin is a perversion of the heart from 
 its true purpose just as blindness is a perver- 
 sion of the eye from its true f unction. ^ When 
 the tares appear in the field, Christ does not 
 leave us to suppose for a moment that they 
 were planted by the same hand that sowed the 
 good seed. He says, " An enemy hath done 
 this."^ Satan, who is the embodiment of evil 
 and the leader of all wlio are opposed to God, 
 
 1 St. Matt, xviii. 7. 2 gt. Luke xi. 34-36. 
 
 3 St. Matt. xiii. 28. 
 
Sovereignty 267 
 
 is the great enemy, the adversary not only of 
 souls, but also of the Divine will. 
 
 Turn for a moment to the narrative of the ^'^^^ ^^ ^^'e 
 temptation of Christ. i He was led up by the ^Jmy^f "" 
 Spirit into the wilderness to be temi)ted of 
 the devil. But did the same Spirit lead the 
 devil ? Was Satan acting under the divine 
 sovereignty in the same sense, in the same way, 
 that Jesus was? Set aside, if you will, the 
 question of the personality of the evil une. 
 There was a suggestion of evil l)efore the mind 
 of Jesus. Did that suggestion come from tlie 
 same source as the liol}^ strength that resisted it, 
 — the all-creating, all-controlling will of God? 
 Can the same fountain send forth sweet and 
 bitter Avaters? Why then should the one be 
 called cursed and the other blessed? Such a 
 view simply obliterates all moral distinctions. 
 It completely undermines and ruins the sig- 
 nificance of Christ's life as a free obedience to 
 the w^ill of God, and it utterly paralyzes His 
 gospel as a divine call to men to enter freely 
 into the same obedience. 
 
 Jesus teaches very distinctly that there are Two sphn-es 
 two spheres in which the sovereignty ot God sovercUintii. 
 is exercised, — in heaven and on earth. ^ These 
 
 1 St. Matt. iv. 1-11. 
 
 2 Beyschlag, New Testament Theology, vol. i., pp. 84,85. 
 
268 
 
 Sovereignty 
 
 Triumphant 
 in heaven. 
 
 Militant 
 on earth. 
 
 Divine 
 
 omni- 
 
 ii"Aence. 
 
 two spheres are not conceived locally but spirit- 
 ually. They are realms in which tlie power of 
 God is working under different conditions. In 
 heaven the Divine will is unopposed, and there- 
 fore the empire of heaven is peace and holiness 
 and unbroken love. On earth the Divine will 
 is opposed and resisted, and therefore earth is 
 a scene of conflict and sin and discord. For 
 this reason the kingdom of heaven must come 
 to earth, it must win its way, it must strive 
 with the kingdom of darkness and overcome it. 
 God's sovereignt}^ in heaven is triumphant. 
 God's sovereignty on earth is militant, in order 
 that it may triumph, — and triumph not in uni- 
 versal destruction, but in the salvation of all 
 who will submit to it and embrace it and work 
 with it, — triumph not by bare force, as gravi- 
 tation triumphs over stones, but by holy love, 
 as fatherly wisdom and affection triumph over 
 the reluctance and rebellion of wayward chil- 
 dren. 
 
 It must be admitted frankly that this view 
 of Divine sovereignty does not seem to be 
 consistent with the theory of absolute divine 
 foreknowledge of all volitions and all events. 
 This has been urged as a fatal objection against 
 it. But the objection cannot be pressed because 
 
Sovereignty 269 
 
 it lies in a region where our ignorance is so 
 great that dogmatism is, to say tlie least, unbe- 
 coming. There may be some way of reconcil- 
 ing the self -limitation of God's omnipotence 
 with the certainty of His foreknowledge, Avhich 
 is beyond the reach of our logic. Hut whether 
 there be any such reconciliation or not, one 
 thing is clear : we have not the right to make 
 a logical statement of our ignorance of one 
 divine attribute a reason for refusing to accept, 
 frankly and sincerely, Christ's revelation of 
 the mode in Avhich another divine attribute is 
 exercised. 
 
 God knows everything. But when we say Forcknov- 
 that, we mean simply that He knows everv- '''•'/-' ^""■''" 
 thing which can be the object of knowledge, the facts. 
 He knows all things as they are. He does not 
 know them as they are not. The very perfec- 
 tion of His knowledge consists in its exact 
 correspondence Avith the nature of its object. 
 If an event is certain, fixed, and foreorchiined, 
 then God knows it as certain, fixed, and fore 
 ordained. If it is contingent upon tlie free, self- 
 determining, preferential action of a human will, 
 then God knows that it is contingent, for He 
 Himself has foreordained that it should be so. 
 
 God waits to hear whether His children will ^'"^ "'"''^• 
 call upon Him in their distress; and if the^' 
 
270 
 
 Sovereignty 
 
 call, He hears and helps them. If Jesus teaches 
 anything, He teaches that prayer really in- 
 fluences the purpose and action of God. 
 
 God waits to see whether His husbandmen 
 will return to Him the fruits of His vineyard ; 
 whether they will receive and honour the mes- 
 sengers Avhom He sends unto them ; and if they 
 are rejected. He sends other messengers ; and 
 last of all He sends His Son, saying, "It may be 
 they will reverence him." ^ But when this last 
 mayhe does not come to pass, then judgment 
 falls upon the wicked husbandmen, not because 
 they have fulfilled the secret will of the King, 
 but because they have rebelled against Him. 
 
 This conception of God in His world, not as 
 the mere spectator of the fulfilment of His 
 own immutabls decrees, but as the Lord of 
 Hosts, presiding over the great scene of con- 
 flict between good and evil in the souls of 
 men who can only attain to real holiness 
 through real liberty, and warring mightily on 
 the side of good in order that it may win the 
 victory, infinitely exalts and glorifies Him. 
 We see Him in the teaching of Jesus, as the 
 High Captain of the armies of love, working 
 salvation in the midst of the earth, pleading 
 Avith men to accept His mercy, warning them 
 1 St. Luke XX. 13. 
 
Sovereignty 271 
 
 to escape from His judgments, sustaining the 
 
 good in their goodness, overthrowing the 
 
 wicked in their wickedness, bringing light 
 
 out of darkness and triumph out of defeat, 
 
 amid all strifes and storms maintaining His 
 
 kingdom of righteousness and peace and joy 
 
 in the Holy Ghost. His sovereignty embraces Sovereignty 
 
 human liberty as the ocean surrounds an island. /-Jlg,!/,'^^* 
 
 His sovereignty upholds liuman liberty as the 
 
 air upholds a flying bird. His sovereignty 
 
 defends human liberty as the authority of a 
 
 true king defends the liberty of his subjects, 
 
 — nay, rather, as the authority of a father 
 tenderly and patiently respects and protects 
 the spiritual freedom of his children in order 
 that they may learn to love and obey him 
 gladly and of their own accord. For this is 
 the end of God's sovereignty : that His king- 
 dom may come ; that His Avill may be done 
 on earth, — not as it is done in the circling 
 of the stars or in the blossoming of flowers, 
 
 — but as it is done in heaven, where created 
 spirits freely strike the notes that blend in 
 perfect harmony with the music of the Divine 
 Spirit, where 
 
 " Thousands at his bidding speed 
 And post o'er land and ocean without rest; 
 They also serve who only stand and wait." 
 
272 
 
 Sovereignty 
 
 IV 
 
 But does not the acknowledgment that God 
 has thus limited the operation of His sover- 
 eignty on earth by conditioning His actions 
 upon the character and conduct of other beings 
 than Himself, throw us back into confusion and 
 uncertainty? Does it not make the course of 
 the world insecure and the end of all things 
 doubtful? 
 
 It would do so if it Avere not for the other 
 truth which Jesus reveals with equal clearness, 
 that God is in the world guiding, ruling, and 
 directing it, and that He has kept the suprem- 
 acy in His own hands. His presence is the 
 talisman of creation. He is the master of the 
 ship ; His hand is on the helm ; and whether 
 the sailors obey or mutiny, He will guide the 
 vessel to her appointed haven. 
 
 The power of evil is a finite, transient, self- 
 destroying power. It disintegrates, it dies, it 
 passes away with the enfeeblement and de- 
 struction of the soul that yields to it. But 
 the power of goodness is eternal and incor- 
 ruptible, because it is of God. Satan is the 
 prince of this world, but his might is limited 
 to tlie perverted and enslaved wills that sub- 
 mit to him. He is not the ruler of nature. 
 
Sovereignty 273 
 
 God is the master of winds and waves and 
 earth and stars. The great battalions are on 
 His side and under His control. If for one 
 instant the cause of Christ were in real dan- 
 ger, He could summon celestial hosts without 
 number to His assistance. ^ But because He 
 kncAV this, He knew also that His cause was 
 never in danger. He knew that His kingdom 
 was an everlasting kingdom. He knew that 
 He had already overcome the world. 
 
 How" serene and splendid are the words with ''odt/te 
 which He reassures His disciples, again and J,'','^^./' 
 again! ''Fear not! Care not! Be not a/Li- 
 ious! thoii of little faith, wherefore dicht thou 
 doubt f Have faith in Crod ! Upon this rock 
 will I build my church and the gates of hell shall 
 not prevail against it ! Fear not, little flock, for 
 it is your Father's good pleasure to give you the 
 kingdom ! '' How glorious is the vision of that 
 kingdom which Jesus unfolds as He looks for- 
 ward to the new birth of earth and heaven in 
 the perfect fulfilment of the pui-pose of God ! 
 How absolute is the confidence wdth wliicli He 
 rests upon God's power to work out all that 
 may be needed to bring about that blessed 
 consummation. The unwavering faith of Jesus 
 in the permanence and world-Avide dilTnsioii and 
 1 St. Matt. xxvi. 53. 
 
274 Sovereignty 
 
 ultimate triumph of His kingdom of truth and 
 holiness and love, is not the least — some- 
 times I think it is the greatest — evidence 
 of His divinity and charm of His gospel. 
 The inftpira- Communicated by His divine influence to the 
 heroism. hearts of His disciples, this faith has been a 
 force of incalculable potency and inspiration in 
 the lives of men. The noblest deeds of hero- 
 ism and self-sacrifice and liberation have been 
 wrought in the strength of it. The greatest 
 conquests over self and sin, the supreme vic- 
 tories of righteousness and love and peace in 
 human hearts, have been won through this faith. 
 Deus vult — God wills it ! — is the war-cry that 
 rouses the human will to its highest endeavour. 
 The secret Here is a man struggling against evil, long- 
 
 ing and striving to rise to high and holy life. 
 And if he is alone in the struggle, what assur- 
 ance has he, what promise or hope of success ? 
 He may fail, he may perish. But Avhen the 
 great truth flashes into his heart that God is 
 with him in the fight, that God is "not will- 
 ing that any should perish but that all should 
 come to repentance," 1 that God is the captain 
 of his salvation and the leader of his soul, 
 — then he is emancipated, then he triumphs, 
 then he is joined to the Invincible. He cries 
 1 2 Pet. iii. 9. 
 
 of courafje. 
 
Sovereignty 275 
 
 with Paul, " If God is for us, who is against 
 us?"i 
 
 Here is a saint called to endure sharp and The 
 heavy trials, to drink the bitter waters of 
 affliction, to pass through the fires of pain, to 
 go down into the dark valley of the shadow. 
 Alone, it would be impossible ; human patience 
 could not endure it, hunuxn courage could nut 
 face it, human wisdom could not solve the niys- 
 tery of goodness called to suffer. But with 
 God, believing that He is sovereign, and tliat 
 He is love, — how different it is ! Now you 
 shall see the wondrous spectacle of a frail, gen- 
 tle, mortal soul, strengthened by simple sub- 
 mission to God's will, persecuted but not for- 
 saken, cast doAvn but not destroyed, trembling 
 but victorious. Sucli a soul cries : '' The will 
 of God be done. It cannot be His will that I 
 should lose my faith. It cannot be His will 
 tliat I should deny Him. It cannot be His 
 Avill that I should be lost, for He is good, He is 
 my King, my Father, He will save me. It 
 may be His will that I should suffer trial for 
 the purif3-ing of my faith, for a more perfect 
 fellowship with Christ, for a better reward in 
 heaven. Even so, Father, for so it seemetli 
 good in Thy sight. " 
 
 1 Rom. viii. 31. 
 
 strength of 
 endurance. 
 
God in 
 history. 
 
 276 Sovereignty 
 
 "I welcome all Thy sovereign will, 
 For all that will is love ; 
 And when I know not what Thou dost, 
 I wait the light above." 
 
 How radiant and magnificent is that truth 
 as it appears in the history of the Church. The 
 people of God have often been persecuted and 
 oppressed, yet God has been on their side, and 
 no weapon that has been formed against them 
 has prospered. Here is Philip of Spain send- 
 ing his great Armada to crush the Reformed 
 Church of England and destroy religious lib- 
 erty in the cradle. Like a huge flock of vul- 
 tures with outspread wings and fierce talons 
 and harsh innumerable cries of menace, that 
 most terrific company of war-ships that ever 
 darkened air and sea swoops towards its prey. 
 But the wrath of God meets it on the ocean, 
 and drives disorder tlirough its serried ranks ; 
 the swift little ships of England pierce it, and 
 break its wings, and riddle it with terror ; its 
 onset is changed to flight, and as it flies, the angry 
 blasts of heaven and the wild waves of wrath 
 catch it again, and whirl it away, and scatter 
 on a hundred rocky shores and lonely beaches 
 the wrecks and fragments of the lost Armada. 
 How often has that wondrous history been 
 repeated ! How often has God proved His 
 
Gud. 
 
 Sovereignty 277 
 
 sovereignty by preserving and rescuing iind 
 delivering His people from overwhelming 
 perils ! Even when it has seemed to ])e other- 
 Avise, even when the Church has ajjpeared for- 
 saken and helpless, when the billows of perse- 
 cution have rolled fathom-deep above her head, 
 when avalanches of falsehood have l)uried the 
 truth out of sight, it has onl}- been for a time, 
 and the end has been the victory ot" the de- 
 feated. The blood of the martyrs has l)een 
 the seed of the Church. The boastful shouts of Truth and 
 error have been the advertisement of the silent 
 truth. Error has had kings and generals, 
 philosophers and orators, empires and armies ; 
 truth has had God. Error has had swords and 
 spears, ships and cannons, fortresses and dun- 
 geons, racks and fires ; truth has had God. 
 God and one make a majority. Unless the 
 Church doubts, she cannot fear. Unless the 
 Church denies, she cannot despair. In the dark- 
 est days, when the confusion seems greatest, 
 the conflict most unequal, she can look out on 
 the great battle-field and cry 
 
 '* History's pages but record 
 One death-grapple in the darkness 'twixt old systems and 
 
 the Word ; 
 Truth forever on the scaffold, Wrong forever on the 
 
 throne, — 
 
The victory 
 is sure. 
 
 The final 
 
 coiisununa- 
 
 tion. 
 
 278 Sovereignty 
 
 Yet that scaffold sways the future, and behind the dim 
 
 unknown 
 Standeth God within the shadow, keeping watch above 
 
 His own." ^ 
 
 But is it for the Church alone, is it not for 
 the whole world that this truth of God's sov- 
 ereignty shines ? To our eyes the conflict of 
 life and death, of good and evil, seems to be 
 undecided, and we think it may be perpetual. 
 The dust blinds us ; the uproar bewilders us ; 
 as far as our sight can pierce we see nothing 
 but the rolling strife, — sin always in arms 
 against holiness, the created will always resist- 
 ing and defying the creator. But Christ sees that 
 the conflict is decided, though it is still in prog- 
 ress. Christ sees that the victory is won, 
 though it is not yet manifest. On the hill of 
 the cross the captain of salvation met the cap- 
 tain of sin and conquered him. Calvary is 
 victory. Through death Christ hath overcome 
 him that had the power of death, that is the 
 devil. 2 Satan has received his mortal wound ; 
 and if he still fights more fiercely, it is because 
 he knoweth that he hath but a short time.^ The 
 day is coming when he must perish ; the day is 
 coming when sin and strife shall be no more ; 
 
 1 James llussell Lowell, The Present Crisis. 
 
 2 Heb. ii. U. » Rev. xii. 12. 
 
Sovereignty 279 
 
 the day is coming when Christ shall put all 
 enemies under His feet^ and shout above the 
 grave of death, "O tliou enemy, destructions 
 are come to a perpetual end " ; the day is com- 
 ing when the great ship of the world, guided 
 by the liand of the Son of God, sliall tloat out 
 of the clouds and storms, out of the shadows 
 and conflicts, into the perfect light of love, and 
 God shall be all in all. The tide that bears the 
 w^orld to that glorious end is the sovereignty 
 of God. 
 
 O mighty river, strong, eternal Will, 
 In which the streams of human good and ill 
 Are onward swept, conflicting, to the sea, — 
 The world is safe because it floats in Thee. 
 
 1 1 Cor. XV. 25-28. 
 
VIII 
 SERVICE 
 
" Thyself and thy belongings 
 Are not thine own so proper as to waste 
 Thyself upon thy virtues, they on thee. 
 Heaven doth with us as we with torches do, 
 Xot light them for themselves ; for if our virtues 
 Did not go forth of us, 't were all alike 
 As if we had them not. Spirits are not finely touched 
 But to fine issues ; nor Nature never lends 
 The smallest scruple of her excellence, 
 But, like a thrifty goddess, she determines 
 Herself the glory of a creditor — 
 Both thanks and use." 
 
 — Measure for Measure. 
 
VIII 
 
 SERVICE 
 
 That strange and searching genius, Nathaniel This uneven 
 Hawthorne, in one of his spiritual phantasies 
 has imagined a new Adam and Eve coming to 
 the earth after a Day of Doom has swept away 
 the whole of mankind, leaving their works and 
 abodes and inventions, — all that bears witness 
 to the present condition of humanity, — un- 
 touched and silently eloquent. The represent- 
 atives of a new race enter with wonder and 
 dismay the forsaken heritage of the old. They 
 pass through the streets of a depopulated city. 
 The sharp contrast between the splendour of 
 one habitation and the squalor of another, fills 
 them with distressed astonishment. They are 
 painfully amazed at the unmistakable signs of 
 inequality in the conditions of men. They are 
 troubled and overwhelmed by the evidence of 
 the great and miserable fact that one portion 
 of earth's lost inhabitants was rich and com- 
 fortable and full of ease, while the multitude 
 283 
 
284 Service 
 
 was poor and weary and heavy-laden with 
 toil.i 
 The sense of This feeling of sorrowful perplexity over the 
 fife'Tbie- unevenness and apparent injustice of human 
 qnality. life, which the prose poet puts into the heart 
 of his new Adam and Eve, is really but a reflec- 
 tion from the tender and pitiful depths of his 
 own. Who is there that has not sometimes 
 felt it rising within his own breast, — this pro- 
 found sentiment of inward trouble and grief, 
 this feeling of spiritual discord and wondering 
 repugnance at the sight of a world in which the 
 good things of life are so unequally distributed, 
 in which at the very outset of existence, before 
 the factor of personal merit or demerit, the 
 element of work and wages, enters into the 
 problem at all, so much is given to one man 
 and so little to another man that they seem to 
 be forever separated and set at enmity with 
 each other by the unfairness with which they 
 are treated ? 
 The sympa- This Sentiment has been strangely deepened 
 and intensified in the nineteenth century by 
 innumerable causes, until it has become one of 
 the most marked characteristics of the present 
 age. Never before have men felt the sorrows 
 
 1 Hawthorne's Works, Riverside I^dition, 1884 ; Mosses 
 from an Old 3Ianse, p. 297. 
 
 (hy of the 
 
Service 285 
 
 and hardships of their fellow-men so widely, so 
 keenly, so constantly as to-day. In one sense 
 this is the honour and glory of our age. It is 
 an evidence of quickened moral sensibilit3% a 
 revival or renewal of the noblest capacities of 
 our human nature. 
 
 But in another sense it is tlie greatest peril a n»bie 
 of our age. For it has been seized by the spirit ^J^'ento 
 of scepticism and transformed into an ally of ^nafincss. 
 annihilating doubt. It has been used as an 
 argument against the possibility of discovering 
 a moral order in such a "hungry, ill-condi- 
 tioned world" as this. Man's inhumanity to 
 man has been employed to prove God's indiffer- 
 ence or injustice to man. The feeling of sor- 
 row and perplexity has been aggravated by 
 Avild and whirling words into a passion of 
 resentment against the present conditions of 
 life. Rash and sweeping schemes for their 
 total destruction have been proclaimed as a new 
 gospel. Christianity has been first claimed as 
 a supporter of these schemes, and then de- 
 nounced and repudiated as the chief obstacle 
 to their success. The cry goes up that the 
 whole world is out of joint. " Everything is 
 wrong and crooked and unfair : the race of 
 man has been deceived and maltreated and 
 oppressed by the creation of sucli an order of 
 
What shall 
 we do? 
 
 286 Service 
 
 life as the present. If God created it, so much 
 the worse for God. But it is almost certain 
 that He did not create it, almost certain that 
 there is no God. The world of inequality is 
 man's mistake. There is but one thing to do, 
 and that is to break it all up, at once and 
 utterly, and begin anew. Create a new world 
 if possible. If not, then let the old wreck sink 
 and be blotted out, for it is worse, infinitely 
 worse, than the blank desolation of an uncon- 
 scious chaos." 
 
 This cry of anger and despair rings to- 
 day in the ears of all earnest and thoughtful 
 men and women. The element of sincerity, 
 of truth, of justice, that thrills unmistakably 
 through its strange, fierce music, stirs our 
 hearts to the core. We are filled Avith per- 
 turbation and distress and deep anxiety to 
 know the right and to do it, to understand the 
 meaning of this exceeding great and bitter cry, 
 and the duty to which it calls us. Is it indeed 
 the utterance of true equity and wisdom ? Is 
 it the voice of a new Adam, appearing after so 
 many ages of delusion, with open ej^es to con- 
 demn tlie old world, and with ruthless hand to 
 break it in pieces ? Must we welcome him and 
 hearken to him and believe in him, as the true 
 judge and regenerator and leader of mankind ? 
 
Service 287 
 
 The very form of the question points the Christ's 
 way to the only Master who can answer it. «^«"''«'; «'"' 
 
 •^ / examjne. 
 
 Hawthorne's picture of the second Adam was 
 a poetic dream. But tlie Apostle Paul uses the 
 same figure to reveal a historic truth. "The 
 first man Adam became a living soul. The last 
 Adam became a life-giving spirit, llowbeit 
 that is not first which is spiritual, but that 
 which is natural ; then that which is spiritual. 
 The first man is of the earth, earthy ; the 
 second man is of heaven." ^ The new Adam 
 has already come upon the earth, eighteen cen- 
 turies ago. He was called Jesus. With pure 
 and perfect heart He entered into the world, 
 not desolate and depopulate, but thronged with 
 the myriads of toiling, suffering men. With 
 clear eyes He looked upon their different con- 
 ditions, their manifold inequalities, their out- 
 ward and inward joys and sorrows. With 
 steadfast heart He set Himself to the divine 
 task of beginning a new humanity and inaugu- 
 rating the kingdom of heaven on earth. 
 
 He did not strive nor cry, neither Avas His His caim- 
 voice heard in the streets. ^ He did not protest ",^*^/|^"' 
 against the moral government of the universe, 
 because one man was rich and anotlier poor, 
 one strong and another weak, one happy and 
 1 1 Cor. XV. 45-47. - St. Matt. xii. 19. 
 
288 Service 
 
 another wretched, one good and another evil. 
 He did not say that God must be unjust be- 
 cause He has given, in things spiritual as well 
 as in things temporal, much to one and little 
 to another. He did not teach His followers 
 that the only way to help the world was to 
 rebel against this order, and refuse to submit 
 to it, and denounce it, and light against it. 
 He did not even proclaim a social and j^olitical 
 revolution. He was the most peaceful, orderly, 
 obedient, loyal citizen of all that subject land of 
 Palestine ; rendering unto Ciesar the things 
 that were Ceesar's, discharging every duty of 
 His lowly lot with cheerful fidelity, and labour- 
 ing patiently for His daily bread. 
 He knows He was not blind, nor dull of heart to feel 
 
 the secret. ^^le troubles of life. The problem of inequality 
 lay wide open before Him. But it did not 
 agitate nor distract Him. He neither raved 
 nor despaired. He was serene and sane. 
 
 " He saw Hfe clearly and He saw it whole." 
 
 He looked through the problem to its true 
 solution. He knew the secret which justifies 
 the ways of God to man. He knew the secret 
 by which an eternal harmony is to be brought 
 into the apparent discords of life. He knew 
 the secret by which men living in an unequal 
 
Service 289 
 
 world, and accepting its inequality as the con- 
 dition of their present existence, can still be- 
 come partakers of a perfect, peaceful equity, 
 and citizens of an invisible, imperishable city 
 of God. That secret was none other than the 
 highest, holiest doctrine of Jesus, the divine 
 truth of election to service. 
 
 Before we set our hearts to take in the Christ's 
 meaning and the fulness of this truth, let us 9o-v^ei/or 
 
 . the present 
 
 try to get them in tune for it by listening to world. 
 some of the other teachings of Jesus which are 
 meant to quiet and steady us in the contempla- 
 tion of the unevenness of human existence. 
 
 And first of all He reminds us that our real 
 happiness in this world does not depend upon 
 our outward condition, but upon our inward 
 state. '' The life is more than meat and the 
 bod}^ than raiment." ^ ''A man's life consist- 
 eth not in the abundance of the things which 
 he possesseth."2 ^i^q j.^j^j Qf ^yealth is not the 
 empire of peace. Joy is not bounded on the 
 north by poverty, on the east by obscurity, on 
 the west by simplicity, and on the south by 
 servitude. It runs far over these borders on 
 
 1 St. Matt. vi. 25. - St. Luke xii. lu. 
 
 V 
 
290 Service 
 
 every side. The lowliest, plainest, narrowest 
 life may be the sweetest. Most of the disciples 
 of Jesus were peasants, but they were as happy, 
 as contented, even in this world, as if they had 
 been princes. There was more gladness and 
 singleness of heart in that frugal breakfast of 
 broiled fish and bread beside the boats on the 
 shore of the sea of Tiberias,^ than in the 
 splendid feast in the house of Simon the Phari- 
 see. Life has its compensations and its com- 
 forts for all estates. Work means health. 
 Obscurity means freedom. The best pleasures 
 are those that are most widely diffused. 
 The secret of I do uot mean to say that Jesus overlooked 
 the bitter hardships of toil under bad masters, 
 under false and cruel and oppressive laws. I 
 do not mean to say that He would not have 
 been full of pity and indignation at the sight 
 of the crushed and crippled state of great mul- 
 titudes of human beings in our modern cities. 
 But I am sure that He teaches us to believe 
 that the real source of human misery is not in 
 poverty, but in a bad heart; that envy is not a 
 virtue, but a vice ; that life is a great gift to all 
 who will receive it cheerfully and contentedly, 
 even in a world where its material things are 
 unevenly distributed ; and that the true beati- 
 
 1 St. John xxi. 1-13. 
 
 happiness. 
 
Service 291 
 
 tades are not monopolies reserved for the few, 
 but blessings within the reach of all, and glori- 
 ously independent of all outward contrasts in the 
 lives of men. Indeed it seems as if He would 
 go even beyond this, and remind us that some 
 of these blessings could not be ours except in a 
 w^orld of contrast and temporal inequality. Of 
 the eight beatitudes which Jesus Himself pro- 
 nounced, four at least, — the blessing of the 
 mourners, and of the meek, and of the mer- 
 ciful, and of the peace-makers, — imply the 
 existence of differences and degrees among 
 men ; and one — the blessing of those who are 
 persecuted for righteousness' sake — is only 
 possible in a world where evil is sometimes 
 actually more powerful and prosperous than 
 good. 
 
 I have not been able to find a single word of The compen- 
 Christ that looks forward to a time in which ^..^ 
 there shall be no more inequalities on earth, no 
 more rich and poor, no more masters and ser- 
 vants, no more wise men, and no more babes. 
 But there are many words of His that pierce 
 with mild and gracious light through all these 
 outward distinctions to reveal the truth that 
 this kind of inequality is superficial and illusory, 
 that the babes rejoice in beholding those mys- 
 teries which are hidden from the wise and pru- 
 
earth. 
 
 292 Service 
 
 dent, that servants are often nobler and more 
 free than their masters, that the poor may 
 have treasures laid up in heaven which are 
 beyond all earthly reckoning, and that this is 
 the true wealth which brings contentment and 
 peace. 
 Peace on It is a great mistake to suppose that Jesus 
 
 preached a gospel which was melancholy and 
 depressing for those who received it in this 
 world. It is a great mistake to suppose that 
 He taught men that they must resign them- 
 selves to earthly misery and make the journey 
 of life as a weary and mournful pilgrimage. 
 He came to cheer and brighten the hearts of 
 all who would accept His guidance and tread 
 the path of virtue with courage and fidelity and 
 hope. He came to give us rest in the midst of 
 toil, and that refreshment which only comes 
 from weariness in a good cause. He came to 
 tell us not to despair of happiness, but to re- 
 member that the only way to reach it on earth 
 is to seek first usefulness, first the kingdom of 
 God, and then the other things shall be added. 
 He that loseth his life for Christ's sake shall 
 not lose it but find it,^ — find it in deep inward 
 contentment, 
 
 " And vital feelings of delight," 
 1 St. Matt. X. 39. 
 
Service 293 
 
 which make up the true and incomparable joy 
 of living. 
 
 Jesus does not differ from other masters in Thr sccrrt 
 that He teaches us to scorn earthly felicity. ''^^''^''^''''"' 
 The divine difference is that He teaches us how- 
 to attain earthly felicity, under all circum- 
 stances, in prosperity and in adversity, in sick- 
 ness and in health, in solitude and in society, 
 by taking His yoke upon us, and doing the 
 will of God, and so finding rest unto our souls. 
 That is the debt which every child of God owes 
 not only to God, but also to his own soul, — 
 to find the real joy of living. 
 
 " Joy is a duty," — so with golden lore Joy is a 
 
 The Hebrew rabbis taught in days of yore. duty. 
 
 And happy human hearts heard in their speech 
 Almost the highest wisdom man can reach. 
 
 But one bright peak still rises far above, 
 
 And there the Master stands whose name is Love, 
 
 Saying to those whom heavy tasks employ 
 
 " Life is divine when duty is a joy." 
 
 The second point in the teaching of Jesus The icorui 
 which is meant to rectify our views of the un- ^^^^g* 
 evenness of the world, is His doctrine of a future 
 life, — not a different life, but the same life mov- 
 ing on under new conditions and to new issues. 
 This world is not all. There is anotlier world, a 
 better age, a more perfect state of being, in wliich 
 
294 Service 
 
 the sorrows and losses of those who now suffer 
 unjustly will be compensated, and in which — 
 let us not hesitate to say it as calmly and as 
 firmly as Jesus said it — those who have un- 
 justly and selfishly enjoyed their good things 
 in this Avorld will suffer in their turn. It is 
 the fashion nowadays to sneer at such teaching 
 as this; to call it " other- worldliness " ; to 
 declare that it has no real power to strengthen 
 or uplift the hearts of men. Jesus did not 
 think so. Jesus made much of it. Jesus 
 pressed home upon the hearts of men the con- 
 solations and warnings of immortality. He 
 showed the miserable failure of the man who 
 filled his barns and lost his empty soul.^ He 
 bade His disciples, when they suffered and were 
 persecuted for righteousness' sake, " rejoice and 
 be exceeding glad, for great is your reward 
 in heaven. "2 
 The errors Let US not impoverish our gospel by flinging 
 
 of' time call . £ - ^ - • x. ^^ • 
 
 for th" away, in our fancied superiority, tins precious 
 
 baiwceof truth. It is impossible to justify the present 
 
 c.e? ni y. fragmentary existence of man if we look at it 
 
 and speak of it as the whole of his life. Earth 
 
 has mysteries which naught but heaven can 
 
 explain. Earth has sorrows whicli naught but 
 
 heaven can heal. Yes, and earth has evils, 
 
 1 St. Luke xii. 16-21. 2 st. Matt. v. 12. 
 
Service 295 
 
 black and secret offences of man against man, 
 false and foul treasons against the love of God, 
 crimes which take a base advantage of His pa- 
 tience and long-suffering and hide themselves 
 like poisonous serpents in the shelter of the 
 very laws which He has made for tlie good of 
 the world, sins all entangled with the present 
 structure of society and beyond the reach of 
 human law, undiscoverable iniquities, unpardon- 
 able and unpunishable cruelties, — which naught 
 but hell can disclose and consume. The errors 
 of time call for the balance of eternity. Pa- 
 tient labour, patient endurance, patient resig- 
 nation in this present life shall be greatly 
 rewarded in the life to come. Now is the day 
 of toil and trial ; but the pay-day will surely 
 dawn. Much of the best that is done in this 
 world receives no earthly wages. Those to 
 whom it is done, — the poor, the maimed, the 
 lame, the blind, — " they cannot recompense 
 thee ; but thou shalt be recompensed at the 
 resurrection of the just."^ 
 
 Thus Jesus teaches ; and He shows us that This un- 
 the present order of inequalit}^ so far from ^q^I'^\,/{J^_ 
 being an obstacle to this result, is tlie very tionforthe 
 means by which it is to be accomplished. The 
 discipline of this uneven life is the education 
 1 St. Luke xiv. 14. 
 
296 Service 
 
 by Avhich alone \yq can be prepared for the 
 heavenly life. Jesus does not present Himself 
 as a rectifier of life's unequal conditions of 
 outward fortune. He distinctly refuses this 
 office. " Man, who made me a judge or a 
 divider over you?"^ Jesus does not preach an 
 equality which is synonymous with life on a 
 Fraternity dead level. He does not preach equality at 
 equality. ^11- He preachcs fraternity. And frater- 
 nity implies differences, — older and younger, 
 stronger and weaker, higher and lower. The 
 elder brother is the heir; all that the father 
 has is his ; but his sin lies in holding fast 
 to his inheritance selfishly, in shutting out 
 his younger brother, in forgetting and deny- 
 ing that he is a brother at all.^ The distinc- 
 tions of life are not meant to obscure, but to 
 reveal and to beautify its best virtues. Out of 
 dependence spring the sweet blossoms of grati- 
 tude and loyalty. Out of mastership flow the 
 refreshing streams of forbearance and justice 
 and mercy. The apostle tells us that the love 
 of money is a root of all kinds of evil.^ 
 But Christ shows us the deeper truth that 
 the right use of money is a means of all 
 kinds of good. " It is more blessed to give 
 
 1 St. Luke xii. 14. 2 st. Luke xv. 25-32. 
 2 1 Tim. vi. 10. 
 
Service 297 
 
 than to receive. "1 P2very gift of Providence 
 to us is an opportunity and therefore a re- 
 sponsibility, and the blessing does not come 
 with the gift until we recognize the responsi- 
 bility, and use the opportunit}^ The maninion 
 of unrighteousness can oiily be destroyed by 
 a process of transformation which transmutes 
 it into the pure gold of the celestial treasury. ^ 
 The name of that process is charit3\ And the 
 translation of that name is wise and holy 
 love. 
 
 Let us try to think distinctly. It is said Chrittianity 
 nowadays that Christianity means communism, 
 and that it is the dut}^ of all Christians to 
 give away everything that they possess. It 
 is strange that Christ never proclaimed this 
 duty except to one man, and that man was not 
 a Christian.^ Of course it must be admitted 
 at once that this would l)e the duty of all 
 Christians if it could be shown that it would 
 be for the real ci'ood of their fellow-men. But 
 this never has been shown. On the contrary, 
 communism lias always turned out badl}'. It 
 was tried in Jerusalem, in a limited way, when 
 the early Christians sold all that they had and 
 made a common purse ; but it led, in less 
 
 I Acts XX. u.J. ' St. Luke xvi. 19, 
 
 3 St. Mark x. L>1. 
 
 and Com- 
 7nunism. 
 
298 " Service 
 
 than ten 3'ears, to confusion and strife, and 
 sank the Jerusalem church into a condition 
 of pauperism and dependence upon the other 
 churches, which had avoided the well-meant 
 but dangerous experiment. It was tried in 
 France, under atheistic auspices, and its fruit 
 was wide-spread misery and injustice. It was 
 tried to some degree in England, under a sys- 
 tem of poor laws which were based upon the 
 idea that every man had a right to eat whether 
 he would work or not, and it resulted in such 
 disorder and demoralization that it had to be 
 discarded as a menace to society. 
 Love thy There is nothing in the teachings of Christ 
 
 neuji oui ^yi^i(3i^ would make us blind to these plain 
 
 as ivisely . ^ 
 
 and well as lessous of history. On the contrary. He de- 
 ^^^ sires and commands us to discover and do that 
 
 which Avill really bless and help our fellow- 
 men. " Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thy- 
 self," ^ — the same kind of love, the same in- 
 ward regard for the higher ends and aims of 
 life, which is the saving grace of the indi- 
 vidual soul, is to be the saving grace of so- 
 ciety. And what kind of love is that? It 
 is a wise and holy love, a love which puts 
 character first and comfort second, a love which 
 seeks to purify and bless and uplift the whole 
 1 St. Matt. xxii. 39. 
 
Service 299 
 
 man. Such a love may be shown b}- withhold- 
 ing as truly as by bestowing. False charity 
 pampers self and pauperizes others. True char- 
 ity educates self by helping others. Tlie so- 
 called Christian who never gives is a false 
 Christian. The Cliristian who gives carelessly, 
 blindly, indiscriminately, however generously, 
 is a very imperfect Christian. The Christian 
 who gives thouglitfully, seriously, fraternally, 
 bending his best powers to the accomplishment 
 of a real benefaction of his fellow-men, bestow- 
 ing himself Avith his gift, is in the true and 
 only way of the following of Jesus. 
 
 Preach this truth. Preach it liome to the Evenj in-h-i 
 hearts of men, without fear or favour for rich 
 or poor. Preach it home to your own heart 
 so close that it shall save you from the min- 
 ister's besetting sins of spiritual selfishness and 
 cant. Tell the Lady Bountiful that she is not 
 called to discard her ladyhood, but to give her- 
 self with all her refinements, with all her ac- 
 complishments, with all that has been given to 
 her of sweetness and light, to the ennobling 
 service of humanity. Tell the Mercliant-Prince 
 that he is not called to abandon his i)lace of 
 influence and power, but to fill it in a princely 
 spirit, to be a true friend and father to all wlio 
 are dependent upon him, to make his i)r()sper- 
 
 letjo is i( cull 
 to service. 
 
300 Service 
 
 ity a fountain of blessing to his fellow-raen, to 
 be a faithful steward of Almighty God. And 
 then let us tell ourselves, as members of the 
 so-called ^' educated classes," to whom God has 
 given even greater gifts than those of rank and 
 riches, — privileges of knowledge, opportunities 
 of culture, free access to the stored-up wisdom 
 of the ages, — let us tell ourselves with un- 
 flinching fidelity that God will hold us to a 
 strict account for all these things. If our salt 
 loses its savour it shall be trodden under foot 
 of men. If our culture separates us from hu- 
 manity we shall be cast into the outer darkness. 
 Our light must shine or be shamefully extin- 
 guished. Every faculty and every gift we 
 possess must be honestly and entirely conse- 
 crated to the service of man, in Christ's name 
 and for Christ's sake. This is the gospel for 
 the present age, and for every age. This is 
 Social re- the way in which the kingdom of heaven is to 
 be established on earth. This is the way in 
 which the inequality of this mortal life is to 
 be transfigured and irradiated with a divine 
 equity. " What we look for, work for, pray 
 for, as believers, is a nation where class shall 
 be bound to class by the fullest participation 
 in the treasure of the one life ; where the mem- 
 
 f/eneration. 
 
Service 301 
 
 bers of each group of workers sliall lind in their 
 work the development of their character and 
 the consecration of their powers : where the 
 highest ambition of men shall be to be leaders 
 of their own class, so using their special powers 
 without waste and following the common tradi- 
 tions to noble issues : where each citizen shall 
 know, and be strengthened by the knowledge, 
 that he labours not for himself only, nor for 
 his family, nor for his country, but for GOD."i 
 
 II 
 
 Thus far the teaching of Christ leads us with incquaiitu 
 
 clear serenity in our understanding of the dif- ^^ia^riT' 
 
 ferences among men in the distribution of the 
 
 goods of this present world. But the deeper 
 
 problem still remains untouched. There is an 
 
 apparent inequality in the bestowal of spiritual 
 
 blessings. In the life of the soul also, it seems 
 
 that much is given to one and little to another. 
 
 Some men are born very close to the kingdom 
 
 of heaven and powerfully drawn by unseen 
 
 hands to enter its happy precincts. Other men 
 
 are born far away from the gates of light, and 
 
 it looks to us as if all the influences of their life 
 
 w^ere hindrances rather than helps to holiness. 
 
 1 B. F. Westcott, Bishop of Durham, The Incarnation 
 and Common Life (London, Macmillan, 1893), p. 8?. 
 
302 
 
 Service 
 
 The doctrine 
 of election. 
 
 The search- 
 ing question. 
 
 False ' 
 ansioers. 
 
 There is an undeniable contrast in the religious 
 world which can only be interpreted as a divine 
 foreordination, — that is to say, an act by which 
 some men are set before others, given the pre- 
 cedence, offered an earlier and apparently an 
 easier opportunity of spiritual life. If God is 
 sovereign, this act, by which the means of grace 
 are unevenly dispensed, must be the result of a 
 divine choice. 
 
 The formal recognition of this choice is the 
 doctrine of election. It is an inevitable doc- 
 trine. It is founded upon facts which admit 
 of no denial. And it brings every thoughtful 
 and earnest soul face to face with the question 
 of questions, upon the answer to which the 
 nature and reality of religion depend. 
 
 Is God arbitrary, is God partial, is God unjust ? 
 Does He bless some of His children and leave 
 the rest under an irremediable curse without a 
 single reason which can be exhibited to human 
 faith and justified in perfect love ? In the last 
 and highest realm of life, the realm of the spirit, 
 does He make it more blessed to receive than 
 to give, and exercise His sovereignty in favour- 
 itism, and establish heaven as a kingdom of 
 infinite and eternal and inexplicable inequality ? 
 
 It is an idle thing to answer this question by 
 an appeal to God's absolute right to dispose of 
 
Service 303 
 
 all His creatures as He will. For the very Anarbi- 
 
 essence of true religion is the faith that He is ^'""''^ ^'"'" 
 
 such a God that He wills to dispose of all His 
 
 creatures wisely and fairly and in perfect love. 
 
 And the very essence of a true revelation, as 
 
 the message which calls religion into being, is 
 
 that it makes God's wisdom and fairness and 
 
 love manifest, and so hel^DS us to understand 
 
 and adore and trust Him, not only for ourselves 
 
 but for the wliole world. 
 
 It is an idle thing to answer this (|uesti(iii l)v >i'i?r/-espo>^ 
 
 ^ r~i ^ • ^ ' sihle God. 
 
 saying that God is under no obligation to be 
 good to everybody, and therefore that He may 
 be good to whomsoever He pleases. The idea 
 of an irresponsible God is a moral mockery. 
 Poisonous doubt exhales from it as malaria from 
 a swamp. To teach that all men are God's 
 debtors, and that therefore it is right for Him 
 to remit the debt of one man, and to exact the 
 penalty from another to the last farthing, is to 
 teach what is logically true and morally false. 
 Our hearts recoil from such a doctrine. If 
 God has made us, and made us spiritual 
 paupers, utterly incapable of anything good, 
 we are not His debtors. Jesus teaches us that 
 God asks of us only to give as freely as we have 
 received.^ He demands only tliat which lie 
 ■ 1 St. Matt. X. 8. 
 
;04 
 
 Service 
 
 A God 
 lohose glory 
 is not 
 goodness. 
 
 IJlection 
 perverted in 
 human 
 theology. 
 
 Himself has made us able to pay. And He 
 forgives like the good master in the parable, 
 with a free pardon Avhich needs but the con- 
 fession of helplessness and poverty to call it 
 forth. 1 
 
 It is an idle thing to answer this question by 
 an appeal to ignorance, and to say that God 
 elects some men to be saved and leaves the rest 
 of mankind to be lost simply for His own un- 
 searchable and inexplicable glory ! For God's 
 glory, as revealed by religion, is identical with 
 His goodness. Faith, true and joyful and up- 
 lifting faith, answers only to a gospel which 
 makes that identity more clear and luminous, 
 and shows that the divine election in the realm 
 of grace is perfectly consistent with that wide 
 and deep love wherewith God so loved the 
 whole world that He sent His only begotten 
 Son that whosoever believeth in Him should 
 not perish but have everlasting life. 
 
 Now it is because men have forgotten this 
 that they have found no answer, or a false and 
 misleading answer, to the problem of inequality 
 in the spiritual world. It is because they have 
 torn the doctrine of election from its roots in 
 the divine love, and petrified it with unholy 
 logic, that it has lost its beauty, its perfume, 
 I St, Matt, xviii. 27. 
 
Service 305 
 
 its power of fruitfulness to everlasting life. 
 
 We must go back from the dead skeleton as it 
 
 is preserved in the museum of theology to the 
 
 living plant as it blossoms in the field of the 
 
 Bible. We must go back of Jonathan Edwards, 
 
 and back of John Calvin, and back of Augustine, 
 
 to St. Paul, and see huw, under his hiind, all 
 
 the mj'sterioQS facts of election as they are 
 
 unfolded in human history, break into flower 
 
 at last in the splendid faith that ''God hath 
 
 shut up all unto disobedience that He might 
 
 have mercy upon all." ^ We must go still 
 
 farther back, to Christ, and learn from Him 
 
 that election is simply the way in which God 
 
 uses His chosen ones to bless the world, — 
 
 the divine process by which the good seed is 
 
 sown and scattered far and wide and the 
 
 heavenly harvest multiplied a thousand-fold. 
 
 " I elected you," He says to His disciples and 
 
 to us, " I elected you, and appointed you, that 
 
 ye should go and bear fruit, and that your fruit 
 
 should abide. "2 
 
 Christ's doctrine of election is a living, C'lirist's doc- 
 trine of 
 fragrant, fruitful doctrine. It is the most election to 
 
 beautiful thing in Christianity. It is tlie very 'fervice. 
 core and substance of the gospel, translated 
 
 1 Romans xi. 32. 
 
 2 St. John XV. 10. 
 
306 
 
 Service 
 
 Christ as 
 the elect 
 servant. 
 
 Th'- disciple 
 must he as 
 his Lord. 
 
 from the heart of God into the life of man. It 
 is the divine law of service in spiritual things. 
 It is the supreme truth in the revelation of an 
 all-glorious love ; the truth that God chooses 
 men not to be saved alone, but to be saved by 
 saving others, and that the greatest in the king- 
 dom of heaven is he who is most truly the 
 servant of all. 
 
 Is not this true of Christ Himself ? He is 
 the great example of what it means to be elect. 
 He is the beloved Son in wdiom the Father 
 is well pleased. And He says " Behold, I am 
 in the midst of you as he that serveth."^ Ser- 
 vice was the joy and crown of His life. Service 
 was the refreshment and the strength of His 
 soul, the angel's food, the " meat to eat " of 
 which His disciples did not know.^ 
 
 Was not this the lesson that He was always 
 teaching them by j)ractice and by precept, that 
 they must be like Him if they would belong 
 to Him, that they must share His service if 
 they would share His election ! '' I have ap- 
 peared unto thee for this purpose," He said 
 to Saul, " to make thee a servant (^vTrrjpeTijv, a 
 rower in the ship), and a witness both of those 
 things which thou hast seen and of the things 
 
 1 St. Luke xxii. 27. 
 
 2 St. John iv. 32. 
 
Service 307 
 
 in the which 1 will appear unto thee."^ The 
 vision of Christ is the call to service. And if 
 Paul had not boon obedient to tht; heavenly 
 vision could Saul have made his calling and 
 election sure? But he answered it with a noble 
 faith. "It pleased God to reveal His son in 
 me in order that I might preach lit in amorKj 
 the nations."" Henceforward, wherever lie 
 might be, among his friends in Cilicia, in the 
 dungeon at Philippi, on the doomed vessel 
 drifting across the storm-tossed Adriatic, in 
 the loneliness of his Roman prison, this was 
 the one object of his life, to be a faitliful ser- 
 vant of Christ, and therefore, as Christ was, a 
 faithful servant of mankind. ^ 
 
 How can we interpret Christ's parables, witli- Parables of 
 out this truth? The parables of tlie Pounds P^^^'^^'^_ 
 
 Jl ana .service. 
 
 and the Talents are both pictures of election 
 to service. They both exhibit the sovereignty 
 of God in distributing His gifts ; they both 
 turn upon the idea of man's accounta])ility for 
 receiving and using them; and they botli declare 
 that the reward will be proportioned to fidel- 
 ity in serving. The nature and meaning of 
 tliis is ex2)lained by Christ in His great descrij)- 
 tion of the judgment, wliich immediately fol- 
 lows the parable of the Talents in St. ]\Iatt]iew's 
 1 Acts xxvi. 16. 2 Gal. i. 16. » 2 Cor. iv. 5. 
 
308 Servi 
 
 vice 
 
 Service, the 
 
 dom 
 
 Gospel.^ Many of those who have known Him 
 will be rejected at last because they have not 
 served their fellow-men. Many of those who 
 have not known Him will be accepted because 
 they have ministered lovingly, though igno- 
 rantly, to the wants and sorrows of the world. 
 Service is the key-note of the heavenly king- 
 the king- dom, and he who will not strike that note shall 
 have no part in the music. The King in the 
 parable of the Wedding Feast ^ chose and called 
 his servants, not to sit down at ease in the 
 palace, but to go out into the highways and 
 bid every one that they met, to come to the 
 marriage. And if one of those servants had 
 refused or betrayed his mission, if he had neg- 
 lected his Master's business, and sat down on 
 the steps of the palace or walked pleasantly in 
 the garden until the supper was ready, do you 
 suppose that he would have found a place or a 
 welcome at the feast? His soul would have 
 stood naked and ashamed without the wedding- 
 garment of love. For this is the nature of 
 God's kingdom, that a selfish religion abso- 
 lutely unfits a man from entering or enjoying 
 it. Its gate is so strangely strait that a man 
 cannot pass througli it if he desires and tries 
 
 1 St. Matt. XXV. 31-46. 
 
 2 St. Matt. xxii. 1-13. 
 
Service 309 
 
 to conie alone ; but if he will bring others with 
 him, it is wide enough and to spare. 
 
 Who seeks for heaven alone to save his soul, 
 May keep the path, but will not reach the goal ; 
 While he who walks in love may wander far. 
 Yet God will hring- him where the blessed are. 
 
 IIow wonderfully all this comes out in the Theprai/er 
 great intercessory prayer of Christ at the last ^-^^^j 
 supper.^ That prayer is the last and highest 
 utterance of the love wherewith Christ, liaving 
 loved His own which were in the world, loved 
 them unto the end. He prays for His chosen 
 ones : " I pray for them : I pray not for the 
 w^orld but for those whom Thou hast given Me." 
 '^ Holy Father, keep them in Thy name wliich 
 Thou hast given Me, that they may be one even 
 as We are. For their sakes I consecrate Myself, 
 that they themselves also may be consecrated 
 in truth. Neither for these only do I pray, but 
 for them also that believe on Me through their 
 word ; tliat they may all be one, even as 'i'hou. 
 Father, art in Me, and I in Tliee, that tlicy also 
 may be in Us ; that the world may ])elieve that 
 Thou didst send Me." How the prayer rises, 
 like some celestial music, througli all tlie inter- 
 woven notes of different fellowships, the fellow- 
 ship of the Father with the Son, the fellowship 
 1 St. John xvii. 
 
Christ's 
 ideal. 
 
 310 Service 
 
 of the Master with the disciples, the fello^^Bp 
 of the disciples with each other, until at last it 
 strikes the grand chord of universal love. Not 
 for the world Christ prays, but for the disciples 
 in the world, in order that they may pray for 
 the world, and serve the world, and draw the 
 world to faith in Him. And so, in truth, while 
 He prays thus for His disciples. He does pray 
 for the whole world. Circle beyond circle, orb 
 beyond orb, like waves upon water, like light 
 from the sun, the prayer, the faith, the conse- 
 crating power spread from that upper room 
 until they embrace all mankind in the sweep of 
 the divine intercession. The special, personal, 
 elective love of Christ for His own is not 
 exclusive ; it is magnificently and illimitaljly 
 inclusive. He loved His disciples into loving 
 their fellow-men. He lifted them into union 
 with God ; but He did not lift them out of 
 union with the world ; and every tie that 
 bound them to humanity, every friendship, 
 every fellowship, every link of human inter- 
 course, was to be a channel for the grace of 
 God that bringeth salvation, that it might 
 appear to all men.^ 
 
 This is Christ's ideal : a radiating gospel : 
 a kingdom of overflowing, conquering love ; a 
 1 Titus ii. 11. 
 
Service 311 
 
 church that is elected to be a means of blessing- 
 to tlie human race. This ideal is tlie very 
 nerve of Christian missions, at lionu' and 
 abroad, the effort to preach tlie nospcl lo every 
 creature, not merely because the world needs 
 to receive it, but because the C'hureli will be 
 rejected and lost unless she gives it. 'Tis not 
 so much a question for us Avlietlier anv of our 
 fellow-men can be saved without Christianity. 
 The question is whether we can be saved if we 
 are willing to keep our Christianity to our- 
 selves. And the answ^er is, No ! The only 
 religion that can really do anything for me, is 
 the religion that makes me want to do some- 
 thing for you. The missionary enterprise is 
 not the Church's afterthought. It is Clirist's 
 forethought. It is not secondary and optional. 
 It is primary and vital. Christ has put it into 
 the very heart of His gospel. We cannot 
 really see Him, or know Him, or love Him, 
 unless we see and know and love His ideal for 
 us, the ideal which is embodied in the law of 
 election to service. 
 
 For this reason the spirit of missions lias Missiomt 
 
 , , ,, . , • c • essentitil to 
 
 always been the saving and puriiymg jiowcr ^7„.,-„^,„„. 
 of the Christian brotherhood. Whenever and ity- 
 wherever this ideal has shined clear and stronir. 
 
812 Service 
 
 it has revealed the figure of the Christ more 
 simply and more brightly to His disciples, and 
 guided their feet more closely in the way of 
 peace and joy and love. 
 Missions In the first century it was the spirit of for- 
 
 the eurii- eign missious that saved the Church from the 
 church. bondage of Jewish formalisjn. Paul and his 
 
 companions could not live without telling the 
 world that Clirist Jesus came to seek and save 
 the lost — lost nations as well as lost souls. 
 The heat of that desire burned up the fetters 
 of bigotry like ropes of straw. The gospel 
 could not be preached to all men as a form of 
 Judaism. But the gospel must be preached to 
 all men. Therefore it could not be a form of 
 Judaism. The argument was irresistible. It 
 was the missionary spirit that made the Eman- 
 cipation Proclamation of Christianity. 
 Missions In the dark ages the heart of religion was 
 
 kept beating by tlie missionary zeal and efforts 
 of such men as St. Patrick, and St. Augustine, 
 and Columba and Aiden, and Boniface, and 
 Anskar, who brought the gospel to our own 
 fierce ancestors in the northern parts of Europe 
 and wild islands of the sea. In the middle 
 ages it was the men who founded the great 
 missionary orders, St. Francis and St. Dominic, 
 who did most to revive the faith and purify 
 
 keep the 
 gospel pure. 
 
Service 813 
 
 the life of the Church. And wlien the Refor- 
 mation had lost its first high impulse, and 
 sunken into the slough of dogmatism ; when 
 the Protestant churches had l)econR' entangled 
 in political rivalries and theological controver- 
 sies, while the hosts of philosophic intidelity 
 and practical godlessness were sweeping in 
 apparent triumph over Europe and America, 
 it was the spirit of foreign missions tliat 
 sounded the reveille to the Christian world, 
 and lit the signal fire of a new era — an era of 
 simpler creed, more militant hope, and hroadcr 
 love — an era of the Christianity of (lirist. 
 The desire of preaching the gospel to every 
 creature has drawn the Church back from liei- 
 bewilderments and sophistications ek)ser to the 
 simplicity that is in Christ, and so closer to that 
 divine ideal of Christian unity in which all 
 believers shall be one in Him. You cannot 
 preach a complicated gospel, an abstract gos- 
 pel, to ever}' creature. You cannot preach a 
 gospel that is cast in an infiexil)le mould of 
 thought, like Calvinism, or Arminianism, oi- 
 Lutheranism, to every creature. It will not 
 fit. But the gospel, tlie only gos[)el which is 
 divine, must be preaclied to every creature. 
 Therefore, these moulds and foi-ms cannot l»e an 
 essential part of it. And so we work our way 
 
One mes- 
 sar/e and 
 viany ways 
 
 314 Service 
 
 back out of the tangle of human speculations 
 to^var{l that pure, clear, living message which 
 Paul carried over from Asia to Europe, the 
 good iiCAvs that God is in Christ, reconciling 
 the Avorld to Himself. 
 
 This is the gospel for an age of doubt, and 
 for all ages wherein men sin and suffer, question 
 of preach- ^nd despair, thirst after righteousness and long 
 for heaven. There are a thousand ways of 
 preaching it, with lij^s and lives, in words and 
 deeds ; and all of them are good, provided only 
 the preacher sets his whole manhood earnestly 
 and loyally to his great task of bringing home 
 the truth as it is in Jesus to the needs of his 
 brother-men. The forms of Christian preach- 
 ing are manifold. The spirit is one and the 
 same. New illustrations and arguments and 
 applications must be found for every age and 
 every race. But the truth to be illuminated 
 and applied is as changeless as Jesus Christ 
 Himself, in whose words it is uttered and in 
 whose life it is incarnate, once and forever. 
 The types of pulpit eloquence are as different 
 as the characters and languages of men. But 
 all of them are vain and worthless as sound- 
 ing brass and tinkling cymbals, unless they 
 speak directly and personally and joyfully 
 of that divine love which is revealed in 
 
f/ospel. 
 
 Service 315 
 
 Christ in order that all who will lielieve in 
 it may be saved from doubt and sin and self- 
 ishness in the everlasting kingdom of the lov- 
 ing God. 
 
 This is the gospel which began to shine The only 
 through the shadows of this earth at Bethlehem, 
 Avhere the Son of God became the child of Mar}-, 
 and Avas manifested in perfect splendour on 
 Calvary, where the Good Shepherd laid down 
 His life for the sheep. For eighteen centuries 
 this simple, personal, consistent gospel has been 
 the leading light of the best desires and liopes 
 and efforts of humanity. It is the one bright 
 star that shines, serene and steady, through the 
 confusion of our perplexed, struggling, doubting 
 age. He who sees that star, sees God. He 
 who follows that star, shall never perish. It has 
 daw*ned upon my heart so clearly and so con- 
 vincingly that the one thing I have cared and 
 tried to do in these lectures is to make it plain 
 that this is the essence of Christianity, the only 
 gospel that is worth preaching in all Avays to 
 all men, that Jesus Christ is God who loves us 
 in order that we may learn to love one anotlier. 
 But if I have failed to make this view of reli- 
 gion clear, if an imperfect utterance has be- 
 clouded and obscured the message, at least let 
 this last word be plain, at least let nothing hide 
 
The last 
 loord. 
 
 316 Service 
 
 from your soul or from mine, this supreme, 
 saving truth of election to service. 
 
 The vision of God in Christ is the greatest 
 
 gift in the world. It binds those who receive 
 
 it to the highest and most consecrated life. To 
 
 behold that vision is to be one of God's elect. 
 
 But the result of that election depends upon 
 
 the giving of ourselves to serve the world for 
 
 Jesus' sake. Noblesse oblige. 
 
 Believers Let US not miss the meaning of Christianity 
 
 th2 servants ^^ ^^ comes to US and claims us. We are 
 
 of God's love choscn, we are called, not to die and be saved, 
 
 to the vjhole 
 
 ivorid. but to live and save others. Ihe promise ot 
 
 Christ is a task and a reward. For us there is 
 a place in the army of God, a mansion in the 
 heaven of peace, a crown in the hall of victory. 
 But whether we shall fill that place and dwell 
 in that mansion and wear that crown, depends 
 upon our willingness to deny ourselves and take 
 up our cross and follow Jesus. Whatever our 
 birthright and descent, whatever our name 
 and profession, whatever our knowledge of 
 Christian doctrine and our performance of 
 Christian worship may be, — when the great 
 host is gathered in the City of God, with 
 tattered flags and banners glorious in their 
 bloodstained folds, with armour dinted and 
 swords worn in the conflict, with wounds which 
 
Service 317 
 
 tell of courage and patient endurance and 
 deathless loyalty, — when the celestial knight- 
 hood is assembled at the Round Table of the 
 King, our name will be unspoken, our crown 
 will hang above an empty chair, and our place 
 will be given to another, unless we accept now, 
 with sincere hearts, the only gospel which can 
 deliver us from the inertia of doubt and the 
 selfishness of sin. We must enter into life by 
 giving ourselves to tlie personal Christ who un- 
 veils the love of the Father in a Human Life, 
 and calls us with Divine Authority to submit 
 our Liberty to God's Sovereignty in blessed 
 and immortal Service to our fellow-men for 
 Christ's sake. 
 
VERBUM DEL 
 
 THE YALE LECTURES ON PREACHING, 1893. 
 
 By ROBERT F. HORTON, M.A. 
 
 Price $1.50. 
 
 " His intensely sensitive spirit makes him eager to be in flu* highest 
 degree helpful to the faith and holy living of the people of his time, lie 
 knows well the thoughts, the questionings, the doubts, the longings, of 
 the immense number of thoughtful ]ieople who are in danger of tum- 
 bling over some mistaken idea or unfounded prejudice before getting at 
 the truth." — The Advance. 
 
 " Such a book is not alone for the young theological student. It con- 
 tains a revelation for every preacher, every layman, every understanding 
 mind." — 7Vie A'a/Ji's Horn. 
 
 " The author opens a fresh field." — Boston Traveler. 
 
 SOCIAL EVOLUTION. 
 
 By BENJAMIN KIDD. 
 
 NEW EDITION, REVISED, WITH A NEW PREFACE 
 
 Crown 8vo. Cloth. Price $1.50. 
 
 " It is a study of the whole development of humanity in a new light, 
 and it is sustamed and strong and fresh throughout. ... It is a pro- 
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 out new lines of study, and is written in that calm and resolute tone 
 which secures the confidence of the reader. It is undoubtedly the al)lest 
 book on social development that has been published for a long time."— 
 Boston Herald. 
 
 "Those who wish to follow the Bishop of Durham's advice to his 
 clergy — 'to think over the questions of socialism, to discuss them with 
 one another reverently and patiently, but not to improvise hasty judg- 
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 day. We heartily commend this really valuable study to every student 
 of the perplexing problems of socialism." — The Churchman. 
 
 THE MACMILLAN COMPANY, 
 
 66 FIFTH AVENUE, NEW YORK. 
 
Outlines of Social Theology 
 
 BY 
 
 WILLIAM DeWITT HYDE, D.D., 
 
 President of Bowdoin College and Professor of Mental and 
 Moral Philosophy. 
 
 i2mo. Cloth. $1.50. 
 
 " It is a work of much power, and cannot fail to attract much 
 attention." 
 
 " President Hyde does not aim to upset established religion, only to 
 point out how the article we now have may be improved on its social 
 side, as to which there will be no dispute that it is wofully lacking. His 
 argument is sound and sensible, and his book deserves to be widely 
 read." — Philadelphia Evetmig Bulletin. 
 
 " President Hyde has given us a stimulating restatement of old truth; 
 a new starting-point for religious thought; an admirable example of 
 the modern passion for reality. No man who is endeavoring to work 
 his way through a traditional theology into the heart of Christian thought 
 can afford to miss reading this work. The work is carefully done with 
 much labor and precision." — Booh Review. 
 
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 and sociological. It is clearly written and does not fail in interest from 
 cover to cover." — Louisville Commercial Joiumal. 
 
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 cal Magazine. 
 
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 Congregationalist. 
 
 THE MACMILLAN COMPANY, 
 
 66 FIFTH AVENUE, NEW YORK.