A 55198 2
DUPL
༈?,^
*

ARTES
LIBRARY
1837
VERITAS
DAVANAGARAM.
UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN
JEFLURIBUS-UNIM
SCIENTIA
TUEBOX
OF THE
QUAERIS PENINSULAM AMOENAMI
CIRCUMSPICE
HMIIDII
BHI
KinagimiuJINTAIMUNITY
MTBIK
OXFORD SERMONS.
A. Wylie
7/
BV
4310
•A15

OXFORD SERMONS
PREACHED BEFORE THE UNIVERSITY
BY THE
REV. EDWIN A ABBOTT, D.D.
FORMERLY FELLOW OF ST. JOHN'S COLLEGE, CAMBRIDGE.
London:
MACMILLAN AND CO.
1879.
The Right of Translation and Reproduction is Reserved.
LONDON:
R. CLAY, SONS, AND TAYLOR,
BREAD STREET HILL.
F
INTRODUCTION
CONTENTS.
I. LIBERAL CHRISTIANITY
M
II. TRANSITIONAL TEACHING
THE LAW OF RETRIBUTION
CRITICISM AND WORSHIP.
THE WORD NOT YET MADE FLESH
THE WORD MADE FLESH
HOPE FOR THE LIVING
HOPE FOR THE DEAD.
"WHAT MANNER OF MAN IS THIS?"—____
I. THE QUESTION
II. THE ANSWER
1
161769
PAGE
vii
vii
xxxi
1
24
46
65
86
. 104
124
140
INTRODUCTION.
CHAPTER I.
LIBERAL CHRISTIANITY.
IF the object of Revelation is to reveal God to
men, and if God is revealed to men mainly by
the experiences of a heaven-guided life, then it
would seem that Revelation is intended to teach
us how to live. But if Revelation is to teach us
how to live, and if life changes and grows
grows from
century to century, then it would seem that
Revelation must grow also, that the proportion
between the two may be maintained.
Such a
view of Revelation is persistently enforced
throughout the whole of the Bible. Old and
New Testament alike assert that religion is to
be a progress, not a standing-still. The Law
and the Prophets point to a Redeemer; the
Redeemer promises us a Spirit which shall
guide us into all truth.
viii
INTRODUCTION.
But in every Church and in every age the Party
of Growth has to contend with two other parties,
the Party of Destruction, who would destroy every-
thing, and the Conservative Party, who would pre-
serve everything as it is; and these two Parties
will always make themselves more easily intelli-
gible than the first-the Party of Progressive
Truth. To retain everything exactly as it is, or
to destroy everything root and branch-either
of these has the merit of being a plain policy,
appreciable by the laziest of minds in the laziest
of humours; and this in itself is no small
commendation in a busy age which finds desul-
tory reading far more attractive than thought
or study. The policy of the Party of Growth,
necessarily involving partial destruction and par-
tial conservation, obliges them to give reasons
for destroying some things and preserving others,
and to justify their discrimination. But to dis-
criminate, how tedious! And to justify discrimi-
nation, how dull for the reader of the justification!
Not half so amusing, after dinner, as a slashing
demonstration in some magazine (which everybody
will read and talk about) that everything is naught,
nor half so intelligible as next month's rejoinder,
set off with epigrams, that whatever is, is good!
Who is puerile enough to complain of this state
LIBERAL CHRISTIANITY.
ix
of things, or to lament that growth is slow and
unsensational? One might as well complain that
the quiet processes of Nature are less amusing than
the transformation scenes of a pantomime. Besides,
those who are disposed to feel a little irritated at
the nonsense that is published and tolerated by
extreme parties, and a little disheartened by the
slow progress of intelligent religion, may take
courage from the thought that the present neglect
of truth is as natural and inevitable as its ultimate
triumph, The times just now are against us.
Besides depression in the material prosperity of
the nation, wars and politics-war in its most
degrading aspect, and politics in their lowest and
basest signification-distract our minds from pro-
gress of every kind, religious as well as social. If
it is a mark of "barbarous times " to have at the
head of affairs a government degrading to the
national morality, and if it is a "calamity" and
"disaster" that the nation should be dragged into
unjust wars and impracticable engagements by a
policy from which the educated conscience of the
country recoils with disgust, then we may easily
account for a temporary outbreak of superstition
among us. For superstition, says Bacon, is caused
by calamity no less than by ritualism: The causes
of superstition are pleasing and sensual rites and
X
INTRODUCTION.
ceremonies
and lastly, barbarous times,
especially joined with calamities and disasters.
Some of these causes at least are readily remov-
able; and when they are removed we may hope
for better things. But even when progress comes,
let us pray that it may come naturally and there-
fore slowly. If we are certain that we have found
the truth, and if we are confident that the truth
must ultimately prevail, we can afford to innovate
by degrees, following the example of time itself;
which indeed innovateth greatly, but quietly, and by
degrees scarce to be perceived. As we commend
this sentence to the attention of the Destructive
Party, so we may offer for the consideration of the
Conservative Party another sentence by the same
author: Surely every medicine is an innovation, and
he that will not apply new remedies must expect
new evils. For time is the greatest innovator; and
if time, of course, alters things to the worse, and
wisdom and counsel shall not alter them to the
better, what shall be the end?
The following sermons-of which six were
preached before the University of Oxford, from
1877 to 1879, and the seventh in the Chapel of
Balliol College in 1878-are intended as a contri-
bution to the views of that Middle Party described
above, that Party which desires neither to destroy
LIBERAL CHRISTIANITY.
xi
everything nor to retain everything, but to imitate
Time, or rather Nature, the greatest innovator, and
to reform things greatly but quietly, and by degrees
scarce to be perceived.
The characteristic which especially distinguishes
the Party of Progressive Truth from the Conserva-
tive Party in religion is, that the latter desires to
be under an unchangeable Law, while the former
claims the Liberty of development. Both desire to
be in Christ. But the latter, interpreting literally
the precept to stand fast in the Lord, imagines that
standing fast implies standing still; while the
former adds to this command that other which
bids us stand fast in the liberty wherewith ye are
called. For the Party of Progress believes that
the Word of God is not Himself standing still,
but even now yearly and daily revealing to us
some new truth about Himself that we may grow
up into Him in all things. If some single epithet is
needed to describe this species of Christian thought,
and to distinguish the Party of Growth from the
Conservatives and Destructives, there seems no
reason why we should disown the epithet which
most naturally expresses that liberty upon which
St. Paul insisted most strongly as the precious
privilege of those who were under Christ and
not under the Law. Liberalism in religion as
xii
INTRODUCTION.
1
well as in politics may be at times too destructive
or too conservative; but in our English associations
with the word there is nothing that should pre-
vent a Christian who believes in the progress of
Christianity from adopting, as a distinguishing
title, the name of Christian Liberal. Possibly the
characteristics of Liberal Christianity may derive
some light from being briefly contrasted with
those of the two extreme Parties, the Destruc-
tives, and the Conservatives.¹
1 The framework of the Three Parties has been adopted for
convenience because it gives opportunities for illustration by
contrast as well as by exposition. But the author is far from
asserting that the Liberal Party here described is conterminous
with any one of the three recognized Parties in the English
Church. Strictly speaking, we ought to substitute for "Liberal
Party" some such expression as "Liberal Tendency," meaning
thereby that species of religious thought which claims and
allows a liberty to vary the shape and expression of worship,
provided that the worship itself is righteous, and the expression
natural. Such a tendency, it is to be hoped, is not entirely un-
represented in any of the three Church Parties.
But then it may be urged, "If this is your meaning, why use
the word Party? Why not rather speak of the policy that would
be advocated by those who believe in the growth of religious truth, or
some other periphrasis?" The answer is, "because it is a
periphrasis." For a similar reason the term Liberal Tendency
is inadmissible, because we cannot say "the Liberal Tendency
believes this or that," but must needs say, 'the Liberal
Tendency would lead us to believe this or that: " which is not
only long, but also, in a complicated sentence, conducive to
obscurity. If indeed there were the slightest danger of being
LIBERAL CHRISTIANITY.
xiii
I. First for the Destructive Party.
1. These thinkers would destroy God as an in-
fluence on mankind, asserting that He is unknow-
able by which they mean that they have never
succeeded, and see no chance of succeeding, in
detecting Him by analysis in the laboratory, or
exhibiting Him beneath a microscope.
They
ignore love, trust, and awe, the very faculties by
which the Supreme appears to us to have intended
misunderstood, any periphrasis would be preferable to a delusive
brevity but with this explanation, none need misunderstand.
:
A second objection may be urged, that "when people speak
now, in the superficial way that is allowable as such, of the
Liberal Party in religion, they mean to include all who, not being
of the High Church or Evangelical Party or strictly orthodox,
are also not Atheists." But if this be so, the phrase is clearly
misused to denote what might be much better expressed by a
single word-Theists, leaving the phrase Liberal Party free for
a happier application.
“But in a religious discussion, the introduction of the phrase-
ology of political parties is open to much objection, and likely to
mislead. Are there not many of all political parties, who may
belong to the Liberal Party in religion?" Undoubtedly there
are: and for that reason it has not been thought necessary in
the text to disclaim the identification of the Liberal Party in
politics with the Liberal Party in religion. But to prevent any
possible misunderstanding, let the disclaimer be made here:
the Liberal Party in Religion is not conterminous with the Liberal
Party in Politics. And if any of my readers has no objection
to newfangled expressions, he may take his pen and substitute
for "Conservative" "Retentive," and for "Liberal Party"
،،
Party of Growth"-the expressions originally used by the
author but erased for their objectionable novelty.
xiv
INTRODUCTION.
•
His children to feel His presence; and then, after
refusing to seek Him with the faculties that might
have revealed Him, and after going through the
form of seeking Him with the faculties that could
not possibly have revealed Him, they pronounce
Him non-existent. Their argument is this: "There
is no God, for we cannot perceive Him by touch,
taste, smell, or sight. Credite non expertis." As
if two or three confident persons should come into
an assembly of ordinary human beings endowed
with the normal faculty of vision, and resolutely
shutting their eyes, should asseverate, "There is
no moon up yonder; for we can neither smell nor
hear, nor taste, nor touch it!"
There can be no argument here, for there is not
a strip of common ground upon which to meet and
do battle. Believers in a God will do wisely to
waste no more time in discussing the existence of
a God than they would waste in discussing wedded
love or filial reverence. Atheism may be safely left
to be gradually destroyed by the irresistible argu-
ments which Nature, that is, the Word of God, is
continually applying to us: the experience of life,
the birth and training of children, the requirements
of the individual soul and the necessities of national
growth.
But, though argument is out of place, it is
LIBERAL CHRISTIANITY.
XV
.
important to disentangle, once for all, the pretensions
of the Destructive Party from the claims of scien-
tific truth. For, in the attempt to dispense with a
God, some think they find assistance from the dis-
covery of new links in the chain that unites effects
with the First Cause; not seeing that protoplasm,
potential atoms, and any other secondary causes
that may hereafter be discovered, no more enable
us to dispense with a God than do the æons of the
ancient Gnostics. The more links we detect in the
chain of creation, the more, and not the less, won-
derful becomes the chain, and consequently the
Creator of the chain. If Protoplasm, subject to
certain laws, is the maker of all things, how mar-
vellous is Protoplasm! But how much more than
marvellous is the Cause of Protoplasm, the Maker
of the maker of the world!
2. The Destructive Party destroys religion
because it has contained illusions; not per-
ceiving that without
without illusions Nature leads
mankind to no truths.
Jah
3. The Destructive Party destroys the Old
Testament because it contains accounts of mir-
acles; not perceiving that the removal of the
miraculous element from the ancient history of
Israel still leaves the record of a long series of
national events which have moulded that famous
xvi
INTRODUCTION.
people to be the spiritual teachers of the world—a
record in which the believer in a God discerns
(none the less clearly for the absence of miracles)
the over-ruling Providence that shapes the ends of
nations. Give us the power of stopping the sun at
will, of turning sea into dry land, and of calling
forth bread from the skies and water from the
rock-and we too, even we poor mortals, will
undertake to shape a nation that shall not forget
our Law, and that shall transmit to a remote
posterity a reverence for the delivering Hand!
To create a people of priests and prophets is a
comparatively easy task with unlimited miraculous
machinery; but to shape it in the course of nature
is surely a far more marvellous accomplishment.
In the same lazy spirit the Destructive Party
rejects the whole of the New Testament, not only
for its miracles, but also because it records a Life
and Character pre-eminently grand and powerful ;
which they-being unwilling to accept it because
they have never met with, or found in the history
of other nations, a character of precisely equal
power-resolve to call, not a Man, but a Myth.
And thus, pusillanimously abhorrent of facts, and
resolutely blind to the laws of human nature, the
countrymen of Bacon and Shakespeare are content
to take their theology on trust from the Germans,
LIBERAL CHRISTIANITY.
xvii
and to leave unexplained the greatest Revolution
that has taken place in the history of mankind.
4. The Destructive Party, from a priori grounds,
rejects every narrative of miracle, modern or
ancient, without attempting to discriminate be-
tween (a) what is false and written with purposes
of falsehood; (b) what is false, but developed from
truth and collected round truth by accretion; (c)
what is false, but originated by misunderstanding
of metaphor; (d) what is true, but not miraculous
except in appearance; that is to say, exceptional
but not unnatural.
II. Next for the Conservative Party.
1. These, admitting no growth in our knowledge
of God, deny that we can learn anything new about
Him from His newly-discovered works, that is,
from poetry, history, and science. To them, these
forms of truth, instead of seeming to be Servants
of Religion, appear to be her antagonists; or, at
least, not friends, but altogether out of her circle.
Thus the world goes on, but their Religion stands
still; and, the natural order of things being
reversed, the Church, instead of welcoming scientific
discovery, retards it, and accepts no new revelation
of the Word of God that is not forced upon her by
inexorable facts. The World becomes the light of
the Church.
b
1
xviii
INTRODUCTION.
·
2. Admitting no growth in the knowledge of
right and wrong, they disclaim the highest pri-
vilege of a national church, that of raising the
national morality. If they desire to educate the
people at all, it is mainly in the matter of stoles
and chasubles and eastward positions. Even the
internal policy of the nation does not concern
them, except so far as it concerns "Church in-
terests," that is to say, the adjournment of Dis-
establishment and the preservation of the wealth
and social position of the clergy. As for the external
policy of England, it is wholly outside their pro-
vince. Not from the clergy in past generations
proceeded the attempt to wipe off from England's
honour the disgrace of tolerating slavery; not from
many of the clergy in this generation proceeds any
utterance of protest against injustice to the Zulu
and the Afghan. The Herodians and Sadducees of
England, speaking through the Pall Mall Gazette,
declare that "it is hypocrisy to ignore the law of
conflict which is at present the law of the relations
between all nations, or to pretend that our policy
is one whit less subject to it than that of our
neighbours.
Surely we might be candid
enough to admit that our motives, though per-
fectly legitimate, were perfectly selfish: " and the
voice of the Church of Christ, speaking through
LIBERAL CHRISTIANITY.
xix
an archdeacon of the Church of England, reproves
the leading journal of religious thought for pro-
testing against this "perfectly selfish" policy, on
the ground that, "selfish" though it is, it does not
affect the Church: "Why insert violent articles on
State policy which in no way affects Church policy?
Then in the name of Him who scorned the tithing
of mint, anise, and cummin, in comparison with
judgment and mercy-what is "Church policy?"
Is it not the "policy" of the Church to elevate
and purify the policy of the State? Or else, what
is the significance and purpose of a State Church?
Is her ministry upon the State to consist in being
"established" after the manner of that apostle
who had the bag and bare what was put therein?
Alas, how does the same human nature reproduce
itself under the most various masks! Caiaphas
the Sadducee protesting that scruples about the
death of one man should not be allowed to stand in
the way of the interests of the whole nation, and an
expedient policy; the Pharisees declaring that the
obligation to support a starving father in no way
affects the right of the Church to take the gifts of
the unnatural son; Demetrius the silversmith and
his Ephesian fellow-tradesmen shouting for their
pockets and for Diana of Ephesus; and, lastly, this
venerable archdeacon of the Church of England
""
72
XX
INTRODUCTION.
rebuking the Guardian for "violent articles on
State policy which in no way affects Church policy"
are they not all a band of brothers ?
3. Admitting no progress in religious truth, the
Conservative Party cannot believe that the truth
of Christ was, like all other truth, conveyed to
the disciples from the very first through illusions.
That in the fourth, or fifth, or eleventh, or sixteenth
centuries corruptions crept into the Church and
obscured the truth, is readily admitted by them;
but that the first century, and even the first gene-
ration of Christians was not without its illusions-
this is to them incredible. But for the express
statement of all the Gospels, they would not admit
that the apostles ever misunderstood Christ.
Rather than believe that John the Baptist had
at one time his doubts about the wisdom of the
course adopted by Jesus, or that St. Peter was for
a time not quite settled in his notions about the
relations between Jews and Gentiles in the Church,
they would prefer to believe that the Baptist sent
his disciples to ask a question that had no meaning,
and that St. Peter had made a private arrangement
with St. Paul, allowing the latter to rebuke him
publicly and groundlessly with the view of thereby
bestowing upon the deluded church of Antioch
some unknown and inconceivable advantage. The
LIBERAL CHRISTIANITY.
xxi
undoubted fact that, long after the death of Jesus,
some of the Apostles expected the Coming of the
Lord within a few years, fills them with such
terror that no force of evidence will induce them
to accept it.
4. Admitting no progress, the Conservative Party
will not admit that we are growing in our know-
ledge of the Scriptures by the discovery of errors
and interpolations in the books of the Old and
New Testaments.
ܝ
If the chronology, or astronomy, or geology of
the Bible is shown by honest unbiased students
of these several subjects to be erroneous, they
waste a generation or two in attempting to show
that the students are wrong. A century after-
wards, when time has forced upon them the
conviction (which the outside world has had for
a hundred years) that they themselves are wrong,
and not the students, they waste another century
in attempting to show that, though the students
may be right, yet the Bible never meant what it
was supposed to mean, but something else which
every one but a Conservative knows it could not
possibly have meant. The constant duty of de-
fending and apologising for the Good News of
Christ creates in their minds a chaos of theo-
logical hopes and fears, which naturally gives
xxii
INTRODUCTION.
birth to all manner of monstrosities of criticism.
No soundness of scholarship, no integrity in the
ordinary relations of life, is proof against the tre-
mendous temptation to show that the Book which
they regard as the one Guide of their lives is
free from all error, and even from all interpo-
lation: and hence it has come to pass that, even
in this generation, a blameless and respected
Professor in our most ancient University has
actually ventured to defend the genuineness of
one of the spurious appendices of the Gospel of
St. Mark!
But such intellectual derelictions ought to be
indulgently regarded. Who has not experienced
the distorting influence of combined terror and
ignorance?
Or in the dark, imagining some fear,
How easy is a bush supposed a bear!
The existence of various readings, interpolations,
and books of doubtful genuineness in the Old
and New Testaments, instead of suggesting to the
Conservatives thankfulness, because we are thereby
delivered from the danger of idolatry to a Book,
fills their camp with night-alarms, and instigates
them perpetually to wild and useless acts of
self-defence against imaginary foes.
But every-
LIBERAL CHRISTIANITY.
xxiii
thing must be pardoned to those who live in
the sincere fear that their Christianity may be
exploded to-morrow by the application to the
Greek Testament of the same rules of criticism
which we should apply to
Thucydides
or
Eschylus.
5. Again, admitting no progress, the Conser-
vative Party cannot admit that the experience of
eighteen centuries, increasing our knowledge of
physiology and of history-and more especially
of the history of religions-has enabled us to
interpret more truly than was possible in former
times the miraculous narratives in the Scriptures.
With the majority of this Party, therefore, all
miracles stand on one footing of authority, and are
all equally certain. Here, it is true, the party is
divided. Not all can go to the length of regarding
as equally historical the narrative of the stopping
of the sun and that of the instantaneous cure of
the paralytic. Yet the instinct of the Party guides
most of them, in strict accordance with the Con-
servative principle, to retain all as historical,
arguing somewhat after this manner: "If we once
begin to give up miracles, there will be no end of
it. If one miracle may have sprung from meta-
phor misunderstood, or from accretion, or the like,
so may another. Once set foot on the slope of
xxiv
INTRODUCTION.
Rationalism and we shall find no stopping-place.
We will therefore remain as we are."
So they remain. But each year sees their foot-
ing grow more perilous. Every new discovery of
science tends to undermine the ledge on which
they are tremulously standing. And well may
they tremble. For if Christianity is based upon
miracles, and miracle after miracle melts away
beneath the rays of scientific and critical discovery,
there is clearly but one fate possible for the super-
structure. Meanwhile they remain as they are,
awaiting the inevitable, neither able to move
themselves nor to help others upward. The whole
character of Christianity is corrupted by their fears,
and from being a religion of liberty it sinks to a
superstition only fit for slaves. We look for the
good news of Christ and they give us apologies,
and when we ask for the doctrine of the kingdom
of God they put into our hands Paley's Evidences
and the Horæ Paulinæ.
Beneath all these errors of the Conservative Party
there lies one fundamental error; that of ignoring
Nature as a mirror of the Word of God, and of
refusing to take the Book of the Universe as a
commentary upon the written Scriptures. Hence
Nature becomes to them unmeaning, unprogres-
sive, and unholy; and Christ, the Word of God,
LIBERAL CIIRISTIANITY.
XXV
1
becomes unnatural.
Hence the Son of man is
dissociated from the Son of God; and what Christ
has joined together in Himself, they put asunder.
III. We pass to the consideration of the middle
or Liberal Party.
1. The Liberal Party, believing that God made
the Bible and the Universe to illustrate each other,
and to lead to the higher worship of Himself,
believes that each fresh truth elicited for men in
poetry, history, and science, comes from Him and
points to Him; and that as the world grows in
the knowledge of Nature so ought it to grow in
the knowledge of God. Hence it is not a boast
or a dream, but a simple duty that this generation
should, at least in some respects, surpass the first
and all other previous generations of the Christian
Church in the knowledge of spiritual things; and
in like manner on the generations yet to come
rests the same responsibility to surpass us in the.
knowledge of the Supreme. Thus the life of man
teems with the highest hopes: and the Church
will ever instigate her children to the discovery
of new truths in every department of knowledge,
that on these we may rise to that highest Know-
ledge of all which we have been taught by the
Master to call Eternal Life.
2. The Liberal Party, believing that religious
xxvi
INTRODUCTION.
as well as scientific truth is progressive, and re-
cognising that in religion as in astronomy, and in
churches as in individuals, Nature has always been
wont to teach through the medium of partial
error-sees neither cause for fear (as the Conser-
vatives do) nor for mockery (as the Destructives
do) in the fact that, from the earliest times, the
Christian Church has never been free from
illusions; which, after serving the purpose of
protecting immature truths, are destined to be
ultimately cast off like husks or shells by the
growth of the fruit within.
3. Applying this belief to the Scriptures, the
Liberal Party assumes, as almost a matter of
course, that in the text of the Old and New
Testaments there will be found some errors which
it is the duty of successive generations to discover
and remove.
The removal of errors and excres-
cences from the Bible cannot affect their faith in
that Life and Character which could still less
have arisen from errors than from inventions; a
Life to which testimony is borne not by isolated
texts, but by the New Testament as a whole and
by the whole life of the Christian Church. When
the astronomers, by their disputations about the
spots of the sun, shall succeed in wiping out the
sun itself from the heaven, then, and not till then,
LIBERAL CHRISTIANITY.
xxvii
will the Liberal Party apprehend any danger that
textual criticism of the Gospels may efface Jesus
of Nazareth from the history of mankind.
4. Concerning miracles, the Liberal Party is
alone unbiased and alone competent to pass a
fair judgment. The Destructives hate miracles as
an interference with their high a priori notions of
what the government of the world ought to be:
the Conservatives cling in desperation to miracles
as an indispensable basis for their faith; neither
party, therefore, can judge them dispassionately.
But the Liberal Party, having on the one hand no
a priori prejudice against miracles nor against
facts of any kind, and on the other hand feeling
no need of miracles to sustain their faith and
justify their worship of Christ (whom they adore
not as a wonder-worker but as the Healer of the
souls of men) is able to discuss the miraculous
element in the Scriptures as an interesting but
by no means vital question, with a dispassionate-
ness scarcely possible to either of the two extreme
parties, and very conducive to the attainment of
correct results.
This last consideration brings out with perfect
clearness the radical difference between Liberal
and Conservative Christians. It turns on the
xxviii
INTRODUCTION.
meaning of worship; which the latter neither
analyse, nor regard as capable of analysis, but
define as the right attitude of man to God. If
therefore you ask them why you are to worship
Christ, their answer is, "Because He is God";
and to the question, "How do you know that He
is God?" they reply, "From certain texts of
Scripture," or else, "From His miraculous works
and fulfilments of prophecy." Thus their path to
the worship of Christ lies through a kind of syllo-
gism, thus: “Worship is the feeling due to God.
The Scriptures prove Christ to be God. There-
fore the Scriptures prove that Christ is to be
worshipped."
But the path traced out by the Liberal School to
lead them to the worship of Christ is altogether
different: "We see in righteous worship three
elements-love, trust, and reverence. For the
development of these feelings Nature, that is,
the Word of God, seems to have been moulding
mankind from the beginning, inculcating reverence
through the teaching of non-human nature, and
love and trust through the training of the family
and society. Christ, taking up the previous work
of the divine Word, has not only developed these
feelings in us still further, but has also attached
LIBERAL CHRISTIANITY.
xxix
them to Himself as their object. Hence we wor-
ship Him; not led by the demonstration of a syllo-
gism but because we feel more trust and love and
reverence for Him than for any other, and because
we cannot think of the Father unless our thoughts
pass upward through the thought of the Son. For
us He sits at the right hand of God, not merely
because St. Stephen saw Him there eighteen
hundred years ago, but because our spirits place
Him, and cannot but place Him, by the side of
the Majesty on high. To Him and through Him
we offer up our petitions, not because of the Proto-
martyr's precedent, but because, when we lift the
wishes of our hearts to heaven, He is our Treasure
there; and where our treasure is, there must our
hearts be also.”
Surely this, the natural worship of Jesus, is the
purest and highest as well as the safest-to worship
Him because one's instincts dictate it! Were a
father to ask his children why they loved him,
which answer would please him best,-" Because I
cannot help it," or, "Because of the fifth com-
mandment?" And can we doubt which answer
from us, who have been taught to call ourselves
the children of God, would be most acceptable
to the Father in heaven and to the Eternal Son,
XXX
INTRODUCTION.
if we were asked to give our reasons for worship-
ping Jesus of Nazareth-" Because we cannot help
it," or, "Because of thirteen texts of Scripture
which we interpret rightly, though the Unitarians
say we are wrong?"
CHAPTER II.
TRANSITIONAL TEACHING.
THUS much having been stated about the two
extreme sections of religious thought, and the
position occupied between the two by the Liberal
School, it may be useful to add a few words
about the best means of diffusing new truth in
a time of religious transition. As to which, there
appear to be three rules-first, to construct before
destroying; second, to distinguish between ascer-
tained truth and unascertained; third, to dis-
tinguish between teaching and discussing.
1. The precept to construct before destroying
will be distasteful to many Liberals; and it is
without doubt inconvenient for the purposes of
immediate success. If you attempt to obey it, it
will expose you to attacks from all sides. In the
first place your constructive efforts are sure to be
faulty, and likely to be crude and immature. Most
novelties are. We have high authority for
<<
xxxii
INTRODUCTION.
believing that as the births of living creatures are
at first ill-shapen, so are all innovations which are
the births of Time. Consequently, your friends
will tell you that it is better to omit positive
and constructive theories: "Be as negative as you
like; but to put forward a new constructive
theory will expose you to all sorts of attacks and
thus discredit your negative theory." This sounds
like very sensible advice. You may be prepared to
turn a deaf ear to the Conservatives who rebuke
your rashness for obtruding wild speculations that
clash with established truths; or to the Destruc-
tives who accuse you of half-heartedness and sup-
pression of the truth; or to both parties when
they condemn your construction as a great deal
more improbable than any other theory that has
ever claimed attention; but it is not so light a
matter to disregard the advice of sober seekers
after truth, who say, "At best you can but make
your theory probable; at the worst you may neu-
tralise what would otherwise be a real success
in clearing error out of the way."
Nevertheless the precept ought certainly to be
obeyed; or at all events disobedience ought to
be the exception, not the rule. Nature, in her
ordinary processes, does not pierce the integument
of the fruit from without, but casts it off by
Akt
TRANSITIONAL TEACHING.
xxxiii
expansive growth from within. Noxious insects
may adopt the former course, but the Christian
who follows as his guide the quiet course of
Nature, will adopt the latter. It is better to
remain for many years altogether silent about
such errors as have been for centuries the inte-
guments of truth than to begin tearing away the
protecting covering before one clearly discerns
through the interstices the ripened fruit. All
widely prevalent illusions contain some truth, and
to reveal the inclosed truth is generally the best
way to dissipate the inclosing illusion. We ought
not to desire to wrest from poor shivering souls
the encumbering garments wherewith they have
sought to protect themselves from the deadly
chill of atheism, but rather to make them feel
the all-pervading warmth of the natural worship
of the Eternal Word, the Sun of righteousness,
which will render such encumbrances superfluous.
Vain will be the most cogent criticism if applied
to the mere purpose of destruction. Men must
have some kind of worship; and until you supply
them with a religion, it is useless to attempt to
take from them their superstitions.
The first and principal business therefore should
be, not to attack such beliefs as those in a material
heaven and a material hell; nor the perverted
с
xxxiv
INTRODUCTION.
shapes assumed by the several doctrines of justifi-
cation by faith, of the atonement, of the remission
of sins, and the like; but rather to show in each
of these beliefs the spiritual truth which is now
latent. No blow, for example, can be struck so
effectually against the notion that forgiveness is
a sacerdotal and technical act, as by exhibiting for-
giveness as a natural human faculty, the highest
energy of which the human soul is capable, the
truest form of sacrifice, based on the deepest faith.
The nature of self-sacrificing forgiveness, the uplift-
ing effect upon the sinful, and its power to justify
all those who have faith to accept it, these are
phenomena not indeed obtainable by experiment
(because the very thought of experimenting on
the highest emotions is not to be entertained),
but verifiable by the commonest experiences of
the commonest lives. It will be then seen
that the power of remitting sins is imparted to
every Christian by the Spirit of Christ, and that
it was part of His Good News that He had
brought down this power from heaven, in a strength
before unknown, and diffused it among men. In
the same way every Christian doctrine being
analysed and illustrated by the experience of life,
will be stripped of all its corruptions and all its
terrors; and the written Gospel of Christ, while
TRANSITIONAL TEACHING.
XXXV
itself receiving light from the unwritten commen-
taries of the gospel of daily life, will also shed fresh
light and sanctity upon all the ordinary relations
and actions of mankind. This is one of the firmest
foundations for belief in Christ. Plain men and
women who do not read history or understand
geology, and who cannot therefore understand the
witness of the work of the Word, not yet made
flesh for us, can none the less understand the
harmony between Christ the Word of God as
revealed in the pages of the New Testament,
and Christ the Word of God as revealed in the
relations of the Family.
Applying the constructive theory to the text
of the New Testament, we ought by no means to
make it our first business to attack certain parts as
interpolations, or certain narratives as erroneous.
Such a course would induce some to cast the whole
of the Gospels at once aside, as being the work of
fraud; while others, in their determination not to
reject the New Testament as a whole, will deter-
mine to retain it as a whole, errors as well as truths.
But the right course is to begin from certainties
and to rise from them to probabilities. Thus
beginning with those passages which are common
to the first three Gospels we must show, (1) that
there existed, antecedent to any of them, an
Se
c 2
xxxvi
INTRODUCTION.
i
Original Tradition, which exhibits Jesus of Naza-
reth as the Founder of a religion, or rather as
the originator of a social Revolution, based upon
the principle that all men are to be brothers in a
divine family wherein God is Father; (2) that the
Life therein described-though unique in history,
and though it reveals One who unquestionably
offered Himself to His disciples as the source of
Forgiveness and Peace, and the sustenance of
the souls of men-is nevertheless not mythical
but necessary, as a historical fact, for the explana-
tion of the history of the Christian Church.
Not till this has been done shall we pass to
consider the miraculous element in the Original
Tradition. We shall then find that many of the
miracles of healing are indirectly supported by the
testimony of St. Paul, who in his Epistles assumes
as a matter of course that he also had performed
instantaneous cures. What the Disciples could
do-whether through their influence on the highly-
wrought imagination or from whatever other cause
-that we may well believe the Master Himself could
do. These therefore we accept as a class, but
not binding ourselves to accept each individual
instance. For it occurs to us that if Jesus
possessed the power of healing some diseases, it
was inevitable (in an age which was not in the
TRANSITIONAL TEACHING.
xxxvi
habit of distinguishing between things according
to nature and things against nature) that He
should be supposed to have healed all diseases;
and round a nucleus of historical acts of healing
an accretion of unhistorical miracles might easily
cluster. As regards the other miracles we find
that they may have in each case arisen from the
misunderstanding of metaphors and particularly
of eucharistic metaphor.¹ But here we are in the
region, not of certainty, but of probabilities. All
we shall assert is, that if these miracles are non-
historical, they by no means imply deceit in the
narrators, or discredit the non-miraculous part of
the narrative.
Passing thence to those parts of the Gospels
which are common to two narrators, and last of
all to those parts which are peculiar to each of
the three, we shall note the gradual amplification
of the miraculous element in the narrative of the
Incarnation and the Resurrection, and in each
1 An attempt has been made in a recently published work
called "Philochristus" to embody this theory. But the author
of that work, although perhaps justified in giving an approxi-
mate explanation where he was precluded by the limits of his
narrative from giving the true explanation, must nevertheless
have known that the full exposition of the origin of the mira-
culous element requires at least the lapse of a generation from
the time of the death of Christ.
xxxviii
INTRODUCTION.
#
case we trace the influence of (1) prophecy; (2)
heathen religions; (3) Eastern metaphor acting on
Western literalism; (4) the ritual and language
of the Lord's Supper; (5) the universal predilec-
tion for the marvellous; (6) the fall of Jerusalem.
But this analysis, by enabling us to detach later
accretions from the living words of the Lord Him-
self, so far from destroying or obscuring the great
central Character of the Gospels, will only serve
to bring Him out in clearer relief, towering above
all miracles and fulfilments of Messianic pro-
phecies, and revealing Himself, not as a worker
of material wonders, nor as a prophet of material
futurities, but as spiritually powerful and spiritually
wise.
At this stage it is important to point out that
these late additions to the Gospel, though possibly
or probably not historical, nevertheless represent
spiritual truths, in material shapes which were
perhaps necessary to make the truths intelligible
to the Church. For example, we all believe that
Jesus is, spiritually, the only-begotten Son of
God; the Healer of the souls of men; the
Worker of mighty deliverances; who raises them
that are dead in sin; who satisfies the hungry
soul; who guides the Church through the Tem-
pest; whose path is on the deep waters of sin
TRANSITIONAL TEACHING.
xxxix
7
and misery as He hastes to deliver them that
perish; and who rises triumphant from death,
and manifests Himself in increased power to the
hearts of His disciples. This we all believe.
But probably these beliefs would never have been
handed down to us had they not been clothed
in accounts of material transactions. These
accounts still remain, and are considered by some
of us historical, by others not historical, by others
doubtful. The difference between us and others,
therefore, is this, that what we believe to be
spiritually true of Christ, others believe to be
true not only spiritually but materially. If so,
we are spiritually agreed; the difference between
us and them is merely an intellectual one. But
for them, no less than for us, it is a matter of
vital importance (as well as for the increasing
multitude who suspend their judgment about the
miracles) that their spiritual belief should be in-
dependent of a material shape which is already
rejected by many Christians, and likely, before
long, to be rejected by all.
Turning from the work of the Word of God
made flesh, to the work of the Word in other
ages, we should attempt to show how one thread of
purpose pervades the whole web; how, since the
resurrection of Christ, the successes or failures
xl
INTRODUCTION.
of the Church may be explained by fulfilment
or neglect of His precepts, and how, before His
incarnation, the conflicts of nations prepared the
way for His doctrine of peace. But here, in our
contemplation of the earlier of these two periods,
science steps in to help us; for in treating of the
times before the incarnation, we are brought into
contact with the recent discoveries and specula-
tions of students who have investigated the origin
and growth of mankind.
To specialists it must be left to discuss and to
establish the truths of their special studies, and,
among others, the true theory of the origin and
development of the human race. But even a
non-specialist, pondering, without criticising, their
discussions and speculations, may be permitted
to ask, "Supposing this theory of the Origin of
mankind to be established, what do I learn from
it concerning the working of the Eternal Word?”:
and the answer to that question lies outside the
province of specialists, and may be returned by
any intelligent person-an answer full of delight
for those who desire to see the universe declare the
glory of God. For the new theory of the Origin
of mankind reveals progress where we fancied we
had discerned retrogression, and brings out more
clearly than ever the thread of the same redeeming
TRANSITIONAL TEACHING.
xli
purpose which is manifested in the work of the
Word made flesh. We see indeed, as before, con-
flict and death: but whereas, according to the old
theory, death stepped in as an after-thought and as
an arbitrary unimproving penalty, now, according
to the new theory, death and conflict are found
from the first subserving progress and preparing
the way for higher forms of life. We see as
before, Evil: but whereas, according to the old
theory, Evil gained a triumph over good, so that
it repented the Lord that He had made man, now
according to the new theory, Evil is from the first
subordinated to Good, and sin itself is but the
dark shadow cast by human free-will as it emerges
from animal instinct; a fall indeed in appearance,
but in reality an ascent from the innocence of
ignorance to the righteousness that is bred by
repentance and faith. As one example of the
fascinating inferences derivable from this new
theory, we may take the hypothesis of the origin
of the belief in spirits and hence in the immortality
of soul. It is supposed to have been deduced from
visions of the departed appearing to the survivor
during his dreams by night. If this be so, can we
have a better example of the utilization of seeming
waste and of the triumph of weak things over the
strong, than that Night and Sleep should be used
xlii
INTRODUCTION.
by the divine Word as His messengers to prepare
the way for the triumph over Death by instilling
into the minds of men the ennobling suggestions
of immortality?
Too much stress cannot be laid upon the present
duty of Christians to construct, while destroying.
In the building up of some simple form of
Christianity lies the only hope for the working
classes of England and consequently for the whole
nation at large in the generation that is to come.
There is no danger that working men will become
Romanists or ritualists: but there is a great
danger that from a state of indifference they will
pass into hostility against Christianity, when the
truth once penetrates far enough downward that
the New Testament is not wholly and literally
true. The English mind is naturally (which is
one of its merits) intolerant of falsehood, but
consequently apt (which is one of its defects) to
make no distinction between illusions and lies.
Therefore against the total rejection of the New
Testament and of Christ with it, the only safe-
guard is that Englishmen of all classes, and
especially of the poorest, should be accustomed
to recognise in the Life of Christ a solid and
indestructible ground-work of historical fact and
spiritual truth, applicable to the needs of every
TRANSITIONAL TEACHING.
xliii
Į
age and nation, and directly bearing upon the
exigencies of the present time.
But the working men of England will never
realise Christ as the Son of God till they have
realised Him as the Son of man. Christ therefore
they should be taught to regard as their true
though invisible Leader in all rightful efforts to
uplift the poor. They should be brought to look
on the Carpenter of Nazareth as the Originator
of a vast Revolution, as yet only in its beginning;
a Revolution tending to genuine and universal
Liberty, Fraternity and Equality; a Revolution
assuredly destined to be consummated in due
time, but likely to be retarded now, as it was
a hundred years ago, by all attempts to inaugu-
rate it with the aid of violence. In Christ they
should recognise the Champion of Liberty against
Despotism; the Condemner of pride, pomp, luxury
and every other artificial distinction between man
and man; the Liberator who prepared the way
for the destruction of slavery, and who is pre-
paring the way for the destruction of war, by
leading mankind to those first principles of life
which are ultimately to break down all hostile
barriers between nations as well as between indi-
viduals; the Just One who judges all things as
they are, not as they seem; the True One who
xliv
INTRODUCTION.
loathes all lies, and who specially selected religious
falsehood and conventional morality to blast them
for all ages with His ever-following curse. Thence
they must pass upward to the contemplation of
Him not as the mere Tribune of an oppressed
class, but as the Elder Brother of all humanity.
In Him they must see the type of social fellow-
ship; in Him the incarnation of pity, trustful-
ness, and love; in Him the unique expression
of that passionate sympathy which should lead
the strong to bear the burdens of the weak.
In other words, Christ, and the Church of
Christ should supplant, or rather supplement and
elevate, trades unions, by enabling them to supply
for the poor all, and far more than all, that
they can supply at present-zeal without class-
selfishness, unity without class-antagonism, deter-
mination to lift up the poor without unnecessary
or vindictive depression of the rich, perpetual
inducement to self-sacrifice, and bright hopes of
a continuous progress in this present life. If
this can be done, there is no fear that more will
not be done. Never will any who accept Christ
as their Leader for their work below, fail ulti-
mately to follow His guidance when it leads them
upward to a yet higher life above. Let the most
anti-religious secularists but consent to take Christ
!
TRANSITIONAL TEACHING.
xlv
T
in this spirit as the practical guide of their actions
for a few brief years in the wilderness of this
mortal life, and they will soon find themselves
unconsciously answering the question of their
invisible Helper Whom say ye that I am? with
St. Peter's words, Thou art the Redeemer, the Son
of the Living God. On the rock of this confession,
and on no other, is there a hope that our nation
may build up a permanent greatness unimperilled
by civil discord.
2. Our second rule was that we are to dis-
tinguish between ascertained truth and unascer-
tained.
This rule may seem so obvious as scarcely
to need formal statement: but the neglect of it
in Germany has been among the causes which
have stricken with barrenness nearly a century
of theological criticism. Very melancholy is the
succinct history of German criticism on the
Synoptic Gospels, given by Dr. Holtzmann in
Schenkel's Bibel-Lexicon. The impression pro-
duced by it amounts to this, that no theory of
the origin of the Gospels has been so baseless
as not to find some advocate to support it (often
with the acrimony inspired by personal attacks
and recriminations) in "a lifelong struggle" with
the scarcely less absurd supporters of some other
xlvi
INTRODUCTION.
theory equally baseless and barren. The main
cause of all this mischief has been the neglect
to distinguish between certainties and probabilities,
and to begin with the former. Each disputant
has felt himself bound to bring forward at his
debut some complete theory to save all the
phenomena of the Synoptists: there has been a
complete neglect of the laws of induction; immense
labour, but labour with a bias; vast treasures of
evidence, but evidence unclassified or, classified
perversely in the interest of a preconceived
theory; and no attempt at all to verify the
results of Synoptic criticism by comparing them
with the results of the criticism of other docu-
ments. And what has been the end of it all?
The riddle was given up in pusillanimous despair:
and when Strauss came forward in 1835 to say that
there was no riddle at all worth guessing, for that
the Gospels were nothing but one mass of myths,
not only desultory readers, but even sober scholars,
were ready to accept his conclusions for very
weariness, and to leave unexplained and confessedly
inexplicable the origin of the greatest Revolution
in the history of the world!
Thus German criticism exhibits, not a conquest
nor a progress, but rather a wandering in the
wilderness. We in England, who have been
TRANSITIONAL TEACHING.
xlvii
content to dwell like slaves in the bonds of an
Egyptian ignorance, should be the last to scoff
at our German brethren who have wandered and
explored for us, unsuccessfully, in the search after
knowledge and spiritual freedom. Nevertheless
the fact must not be concealed, that the success
has been hitherto small, and deservedly small.
The respect that every scholar must feel for the
labours of Holtzmann, Weiss and others, cannot
be extended to all. Of far too many volumes
of German theology it must be confessed, that
when we seek help from them, we find scarcely
one suggestive thought or useful piece of infor-
mation amid many pages of negative polemics
and personalities, and many more of wind-begotten,
wind-begetting theory. These are no guides to
us; or if guides, helpful only to teach us what
we must avoid: we mourn over them as over
the bones of hapless travellers overthrown in
stony places. Let those who get up theological
controversies for the purpose of shining in modern
conversation be permitted for another generation
to admire indiscriminately all German criticism,
and, on the strength of it, to efface Jesus of
Nazareth from history by calling Him a myth:
but to scholars and seekers after truth, reviewing
the poor results of a century of wandering towards
xlviii
INTRODUCTION.
a Promised land of Truth not yet attained, it
must needs be evident that there has been a
protracted failure, the causes
causes of which must
not be suppressed either by our gratitude to
the laborious many, or by our admiration for
the successful few. It is the old story. These
wanderers in the wilderness have refused to
hear the Voice of Truth and have hardened
their hearts against Induction, and Truth has
pronounced upon them her inevitable sentence:
they have not entered into her rest. Instead
of admiration, they deserve respectful pity, not
without gratitude for the warning which they
have transmitted to us their followers: these things
were our examples, to the end we should not
lust after immediate demonstrations as they also
lusted; and they are written for our admonition :
wherefore let him that standeth take heed lest he
fall.
Let us then make up our minds that, at present,
we have attained few certain results about the
origin of the Synoptic Gospels, and that we shall
attain very few more without a great deal of
mechanical labour, undertaken without pre-
possessions, but with more attention than has
yet been paid to the classification of evidence.
The river will not be bridged without much
TRANSITIONAL TEACHING.
xlix
preliminary pile-driving. Just as Bacon's re-
searches into heat were clever but barren, and
could hardly but be barren till the thermometer
had been invented, so the German theorists of
the early part of this century might theorize
prettily enough, but could hardly do more, till
Bruder arose to help them with his Concordance
for the Greek New Testament. Bruder has been
the pile-driver of this century: and if Holtzmann,
Weiss, and others seem at last on the point of
pushing forth a substantial arch or two into the
stream, it is because Bruder has been before
them.
In addition to the mechanical help of a Con-
cordance, now supplied, we need a harmony of
the Synoptic Gospels shewing by different types
and colours (1) the matter common to the three
Synoptists; (2) the matter common to each pair ;
(3) the matter peculiar to each one. With the aid
of this harmony it will be possible not merely
to suggest, nor merely to make probable, but to
demonstrate-as certainly as a proposition of
Euclid, and in such a manner as to prevent
further controversy on the point-that St. Mark's
Gospel, in many passages, contains an original
tradition from which St. Matthew and St. Luke
borrowed. It may be also easily made in the
d
1
INTRODUCTION.
highest degree probable (and with a little labour,
that probability may be made to reach certainty
itself) that all the three Gospels are borrowed from
one antecedent Greek tradition. These two facts
may be accepted as facts: and on these a great
superstructure of inference may be built up as
to the date, authenticity, and object of the three
Gospels, some of which inferences it will be
possible to support with such a force of con-
verging evidence as to obtain for them general
acceptance. Nevertheless, for some time, it will
be well, even with exaggerated and obtrusive
caution, to mark off the probable from the certain,
and, as it were, to warn the public off that part of
the bridge which is not, properly speaking, a part
of the bridge at all, but only a kind of wooden
out-work or scaffolding intended to hold the pile-
drivers and bridge-makers. About the Gospels, at
present, this is the sum of our knowledge. We
know that they cannot be explained away by
the myth theory; we know that they point to an
antecedent Tradition; and we know that this
antecedent Tradition contains the record of a Life
unique in the history of the world. Beyond
this, we have several defensible conjectures, but
—at least in the English sense of the word-no
knowledge.
1
TRANSITIONAL TEACHING.
li
3. Our third rule was, that we are to distin-
guish between teaching and exploring.
In every transition, and especially in religious
transition, it is not always easy to do one's duty
consistently as a teacher and as an explorer. In
astronomy for example, Galileo writing to Kepler
in 1597, informs the latter that he had adopted
the new system of astronomy several years before,
though he continued to teach the old or Ptolemaic
system. Is this conduct to be imitated by minis-
ters preaching to mixed congregations, and by
teachers and tutors of the young? In a time of
transition, many statements are put forward and
supported with more or less of cogency, varying
from barely possible speculations to almost re-
cognised certainties. What degree of probability,
then, will justify the teacher, for example, of the
highest form of a public school in teaching that
a particular miraculous narrative in the Old
or New Testament is probably not historical,
but the result of some misunderstanding?
The answer which the experience of the present
writer would suggest, is, that although a teacher
or minister ought under no circumstances to
teach anything that is contrary to his own
convictions, yet he ought with equal caution to
abstain from inculcating with the authority of
d 2
lii
INTRODUCTION.
his position, upon those who are not his equals
in knowledge and who have not the opportunity
of argument or reply, anything that is directly
contrary to the present convictions of the great
majority of those, or the parents of those, whom
he is addressing.
Such abstention is dictated by two motives.
In the first place, however certain the teacher may
be of the truth of his theories, it does not seem
fair to enforce them ex cathedra, nor to pretend
to discuss them with those who cannot discuss
them on equal terms. In the second place, the
teacher or minister who is a sincere Christian
has before him one paramount duty, that of
leading others to the worship of Christ; and this
task is so absorbing and exacting in its demands
on his time and his powers of illustration that,
if he does justice to it, he will probably find as
little leisure as inclination to dwell upon negations
and disputes. Solvitur ambulando. Let any one
stand up to preach in the presence of some
hundreds of people, young and old, learned and
unlearned, all needing to be helped to understand
Christ better, and to have their weakness strength-
ened by practical participation in His living
Spirit; or let him come into a class-room to
teach boys who have not yet learned to distinguish
TRANSITIONAL TEACHING.
liii
between wonder and worship, between forgiveness
and indulgence, between faith in a person and
faith about a person, besides being absolutely
ignorant of the state of Jewish society in the
time of Christ-and the most ingenious artificer
of "the religious difficulty" (even in this some-
what difficult time of religious transition) will
find that he can elaborate no difficulty at all.
For where a man is thus honestly, however im-
perfectly, striving to preach Christ or to teach
Christ in a natural way, there is a Presence in
the very atmosphere that makes both hypocriti-
cal teaching and proselytizing teaching equally
revolting and equally impossible.
Circumstances may no doubt occur where two
conscientious teachers may act somewhat differently.
For example, in dealing with the miraculous
narrative in the Old Testament which describes
the staying of the sun at the bidding of Joshua,
one teacher may adhere to a fixed rule, viz., to
ignore in the classroom all questions concerning
the miraculous element in the Scriptures. Another
--knowing that the pupils now before him were
perhaps an hour ago studying astronomy, and
feeling bound to help them over a possible
stumbling-block-may give them what appears
to him the correct explanation of the passage.
liv
INTRODUCTION.
And this he may be the more ready to do, because
he knows that the parents of his pupils place in
their hands without any hesitation, the Speaker's
Commentary which tells them that "The whole
passage may and even ought, on critical grounds,
to be taken as a fragment of unknown date and
uncertain authorship interpolated into the text
of the narrative." In this case probably the
majority of teachers would do well to adopt the
latter and the bolder course.
But, on the other hand, in reading the Gospel of
St. Matthew, coming to that undoubtedly excep-
tional miracle which describes the finding of the
coin in the fish's mouth, some teachers may feel
bound to point out the singularity of the narrative,
and to express in language even more explicit
than that used by Canon Farrar (Life of Christ,
Vol. ii. p. 46), their " doubt whether in this instance
some essential particular may not have been either
omitted or left unexplained;" while other more
reticent teachers (among whom the present writer
would rank himself), preferring to say nothing
rather than so little, would pass over the narrative
without any remark at all. Possibly the lapse of
a very few years may in this case also justify or
even dictate the bolder course; but where there
is a doubt, the fear of unfairness to those who
TRANSITIONAL TEACHING:
lv
have not the right of reply or the power of dis-
cussion on equal terms, may well turn the scale.
in favour of silence.
But reticence in teaching does not necessitate
reticence in discussion, where one is dealing no
longer with inferiors but with equals or superiors
in learning. Here, therefore, it seems one's duty
simply to put forward the views that appear most
probable, and, after stating them with clearness
and supporting them to the best of one's ability,
to leave the matter in the hands of those who are
competent to investigate and to decide. One may
regret that there is not a separate language for
investigators, unintelligible to desultory readers:
but the duty of seekers after truth to seek it at all
hazards and by all means, seems so obvious that
any departure from it may fairly be regarded as
a serious dereliction. And in the present instance,
as the author is not now preaching but writing,
and writing for readers who are supposed to have
given some attention to the study of the New
Testament, there would seem something like an
insincere suppression if he did not frankly avow
his belief that the time has now come when the
miraculous element (with the reservation of some
of the works of healing, and of some visible
manifestations of the spiritual resurrection of the
lvi
INTRODUCTION.
Saviour) may be regarded as doubtful or un-
historical without any prejudice to the worship of
Christ-a belief which may be summarised in the
following extract: ¹-
1
"To any one who has studied the divine training
of children, of nations, and of churches through
illusions (not delusions), which, for a time, partly
conceal the truths which they inclose and preserve, it
will not seem strange that Providence should pre-
serve, through records of physical miracles, the truth
that Jesus was the worker of spiritual miracles ;
and through literal quasi-fulfilments of written
prophecies, the truth that Jesus fulfilled the un-
written aspirations and tendencies of humanity
from its first creation. If, indeed, the miraculous
element in the synoptics were a mere pious fraud,'
then we could not help fearing that, here and there
at all events, some of the words of the Lord Jesus
ཀ
1 This extract is from a work, part of which may be found
in an article entitled " Gospels," in the new edition of the
Encyclopædia Britannica. While gratefully acknowledging the
very ample space placed at his disposal by the Editors, the
author desires to take this opportunity of stating that the
omission of these, and other passages, arises not from the
author's reticence, nor in any great degree from the want of
space, but from the feeling of the Editors (probably a very
just one) that an Encyclopædia should be a book of reference
rather than a collection of discussions.
TRANSITIONAL TEACHING.
lvii
ever.
might have been vulgarised and falsified by passing
through the dishonest medium; but if we once
admit that miracles were certain to be attributed
to Jesus, whether He wrought them or not, because
they would be assumed as necessary both by Jews
and Gentiles, both by friends and foes, then all
suspicion of dishonesty vanishes at once, and the
non-miraculous element remains as credible as
"The vast majority of Christians will probably
continue, for many years to come, to believe in
physical miracles; and as long as this physical
integument is necessary to preserve the belief in
Christ's spiritual powers it is most desirable that
this belief should be general wherever it can be
honestly and sincerely entertained. But there is an
increasing minority who may find it difficult to
believe in the physical miracles, and who too
hastily conclude that, if they reject them, they
must reject the Gospel as a whole. For their sakes,
it is most important to recollect that the physical
miraculous element in the New, is no more essential
than the miraculous element in the Old Testament.
No one now, at least no educated person, believes
in the literal accuracy of the narrative of the
Mosaic creation, the stopping of the sun, and the
like; yet who does not read the Old Testament
e
I viii
INTRODUCTION.
with increased rather than diminished reverence,
and with a fresher recognition of the guiding hand,
moulding a people of priests and princes, now that
he is delivered from bondage to the cramping letter
of the mere outward and literal expressions of
spiritual truth, which have become antiquated and
oppressive to modern thought? The day is perhaps
distant, but not so distant as it may seem to some,
when men will be enabled to read the New Testa-
ment with the same freedom, and as a consequence
to worship Christ with a firmer faith and deeper
reverence."
SERMONS.

SERMONS.
THE LAW OF RETRIBUTION.
Give, and it shall be given unto you; good measure, pressed
down, and shaken together, and running over, shall men give
into your bosom.-ST. LUKE VI. 38.
THUS the words stand in our authorised version;
but it is well known that a slight change is
necessary to make the version exactly accurate.
Instead of men we should read THEY, meaning by
THEY the angels and ministers of The Supreme,
much in the same way as in the well-known saying
of one of the Jewish Fathers, "Whoso profaneth
the name of Heaven in secret, THEY punish him
openly." ¹ If we ask who are these angels and
ministers, we find an answer in the Psalm which
tells us how the whole world and all the elements
thereof minister unto the Almighty, who walketh
upon the wings of the wind and who maketh His
1
1 This, and the following quotations, are taken from Mr. C.
Taylor's Sayings of the Jewish Fathers, Cambridge University
Press, 1877.
Press¿
B
2
THE LAW OF RETRIBUTION.
ministers a flaming fire. By THEY, therefore, we
mean the world in action upon men. We do not
exclude the children of men, but we include a
great deal more-we include all things that are.
Thus then interpreted our text will run, Give, and
it shall be given unto you; good measure, pressed
down, and shaken together, and running over, shall
all things visible and invisible give into your bosom.
The most suggestive of English philosophers
predicted that a time would come when there
should exist a Highest, or, as he termed it, a First
Philosophy, which should contain all such profitable
observations and axioms as fall not within the com-
pass of any of the special parts of philosophy or
science, but are more common and of a higher stage.
Certainly in these words of our Lord, if in any
words, we seem to find one of these axioms of a
First Philosophy, higher even than that which was
contemplated by Bacon. For this saying is com-
mon to art, to science, to morals, and, if we would
believe it, even to politics. Give, and it shall be
given to you—these words go to the root of all
Christ's teaching, and shed light upon the whole
of His work on earth and in heaven; for all His
words and works are based upon the Law of
Retribution.
But what was this Law of Retribution? The
notions of the Jews about retribution were very
clearly defined, even to a quaint minuteness of
detail. It is a common saying in the Talmud that
with what measure a man measures THEY measure
THE LAW OF RETRIBUTION.
3
unto him. But take one or two of their instances.
Samson, who followed the desire of his eyes, was
deprived of his eyes. Absalom, who prided him-
self upon his hair, was hung up by his hair. The
great Hillel, seeing a skull floating on the face of
the water, said to it, Because thou drownedst, they
drowned thee, and in the end they that drowned thee
shall be drowned. Other instances might be given
to show how strong and at the same time how
arbitrary and artificial a hold the Law of Retribu-
tion had on the Jewish mind.
But now, what was our Lord's teaching on the
Law of Retribution? When He said Give, and it
shall be given unto you, did He mean no more
than this give so many shekels, and ye shall
receive so many more shekels, or ye shall receive
so much happiness in heaven? Impossible. Such
a supposition is not only derogatory, it is in-
consistent with the whole of His teaching, and
particularly with His use of these very same
words in a context which expressly connects
them with the giving and receiving of spiritual
knowledge. Take heed what ye hear; with what
measure ye mete it shall be meted to you; and
again, Freely ye have received, freely give.
Here let us pause to collect a few of the
other sayings of our Lord bearing on the Law
of Retribution. Whosoever will save his life
shall lose it; but whosoever shall lose his life
for my sake and the gospel's, the same shall
save it. Whosoever will be great among you, let
B 2
4
THE LAW OF RETRIBUTION.
him be your minister. Forgive and ye shall be
forgiven. Judge not, that ye be not judged.
Strangest of all are the two following sayings:-
He that receiveth a prophet in the name of a
prophet shall receive a prophet's reward; and he
that receiveth a righteous man in the name of a
righteous man shall receive a righteous man's
reward; and again, There is no man that hath
left house, or brethren, or sisters, or father, or
mother, or wife, or children, or lands, for my
sake and the gospel's, but he shall receive an
hundredfold now in this time, houses, and brethren,
and sisters and mothers, and children, and lands,
with persecutions; and in the world to come
eternal life.
Receive now, in this life, houses and lands,
and mothers an hundredfold! The saying, if in-
terpreted according to the letter, is meaningless;
yet the wording of the letter is evidently in-
tentional. Some series of exact correspondences
is hinted at; there is some reference to a Law
of Retribution. Light perhaps may be thrown
on this passage by the one previously quoted,
He that receiveth a righteous man in the name
of a righteous man shall receive a righteous
man's reward. Here at least a natural law is
apparent, a law of sympathy, a spiritual law,
stating the spiritual results of spiritual causes.
Whoso receiveth into his heart a righteous man,
that is to say a man that observeth the com-
mandments of the law, he by sympathy will
K
THE LAW OF RETRIBUTION.
5
3
identify himself with them that observe the com-
mandments, and will receive as a consequence
that blessing which springs from such observance;
but whoso receiveth a prophet, or a son of God,
will identify himself with a nobler rank in the
hierarchy of God, and will naturally receive a
nobler blessing. Clearly our Lord is not here
speaking of any arbitrary reward, so many shekels
for so much service, no, nor even so much joy in
heaven for so much self-sacrifice on earth. A Law
of Retribution is in His mind, divine, but none the
less orderly and immovable; self-executing, but
none the less divine, being the very voice of
the Father in heaven.
-
Note here, by the way, that no teacher in this
age nor in any age ever recognised that high
unchangeable Will which we call Law more
reverentially than that Teacher who was the Son
of God. When He is asked to give by favour the
chief places about His throne, He replies that they
are not His to give, save to them for whom they
have been prepared. This word prepared is often
in His mouth to describe the nature and source of
all His mighty words and works. He must do the
works, He says, that have been prepared for Him to
do. If He forgives, it is because He discerns faith,
or at least such a germ of faith as can be quickened
into life by the very utterance of the words, I
forgive. But He cannot forgive the soul, nor heal
the body, where there is no faith. Be it unto thee,
He
says to one, according to thy faith. It is true
T
6
THE LAW OF RETRIBUTION.
A
that to another He says, All things are possible ;
but He adds, to him that believeth. And when He
says, All things are possible, He seems to mean, not
that God will at any moment reverse His own laws,
but that there is no limit to the redeeming power
of God where faith is present. For when He Him-
self said, If it be possible, did not He imply, and
proclaim to us for all time, that there are certain
things which are not possible?
Thus the whole of the doctrine of Christ is based
upon a recognition of Law, pointing indeed always
to an ultimately perfect future, but through a
path of long, painful, necessary, and natural pro-
cesses. As the wheat springs from the good seed
and the tares from the bad, so it is with the
spiritual harvest; as summer is known to be at
hand when the fig-tree puts forth her leaves, so is
the coming of the Redeemer to be discerned by the
throes and pangs of human nature yearning for
deliverance. Wars and rumours of war will pre-
cede that Advent, but the exact hour is not known
even to the angels of heaven; no, not to the Son,
but to the Father only.
Even the dull and blinded Pharisees are re-
proached for not discerning the signs of the times
as they discerned the signs of the weather. Every-
where effect is traced to cause, and the future pre-
dicted from the present. Peace was to be at last,
but peace through the sword, and concord through
division. He Himself was destined to send a fire
upon earth, which should destroy as well as purify.
THE LAW OF RETRIBUTION.
7
The wise and prudent must needs be blinded to the
Gospel; yea, even among the poorer and simpler
sort, the great mass would see and not perceive,
would hear and not understand, lest they should
be converted and healed. His disciples must needs
betray Him or forsake Him. He Himself must
needs be rejected and slain. Against Jesus of
Nazareth who shall bring the charge that He
prophesied smooth things or subordinated insight
to desire? Never surely did prophet more clearly
or dispassionately discern and realise, coming in
between the baseness of the imperfect present
and the far-off ideal of the perfect WILL BE, the
intervening pain of the inevitable MUST BE.
But what then was the theory of the kingdom of
heaven based upon this strange Law of Retribution
Give, and it shall be given unto you? Briefly it
was this: All true kingdom, and all true power,
arise from knowledge. But all true knowledge con-
sists in knowing the causes of things. Therefore,
the cause of all things being a Father, it follows
that the basis of all true kingdom or power is the
knowledge of the Father in Heaven. But the
knowledge of the Father is necessarily only to be
attained by those who can approach Him as chil-
dren, and who can give up their hearts to Him as
simply and unreservedly as earthly children them-
selves trust to the love of earthly parents. There-
fore give, and it shall be given unto you: give your
life unto God, and they (the angels and ministers
of the Father) shall give you back your life
+
со
THE LAW OF RETRIBUTION.
ད
T
multiplied a hundredfold. Thus interpreted, the
words mean much the same as that other well-
known saying, Except a man be born again he
cannot enter the kingdom of God.
By the heroes, and conquerors, and law-givers of
the ancient world, this Law of Retribution was not
recognised. Compared with Jesus of Nazareth the
best of them were but as thieves and robbers.
They had striven to regenerate the world by force,
by arbitrary constraint, coming as it were over the
wall, and over-riding human nature; but Christ
came to regenerate the world by the suasion of
natural forces, coming into the fold through the
gate of childhood and working through the Law of
Retribution. The old redeemers of the world ap-
proached mankind and approached inanimate
nature aggressively in the attitude of the brag-
gadocio, to whom the world was but as it were an
oyster which he with sword would open. There-
fore they knocked at the door, but the porter
opened it not, and the sheep would not hear their
voice. Their empires failed; the fabric of their
sciences fell to pieces like the leaves of a prema-
ture frost-bitten flower. But the new Redeemer
approaching mankind in the unaggressive attitude
of a child, coming through the gate of love, and
being Himself the very archetype of love, and the
eternal Child of the Father in Heaven, needed but
to touch the door, and lo it flew open, and the
sheep hear His voice, and He calleth His own
sheep by name and leadeth them out. All this
M
THE LAW OF RETRIBUTION.
9
was the natural result of law, the Law of Retri-
bution. Christ gave Himself to mankind, and
received back in return the brightness of His love,
reflected from the hearts of all that had felt its
vitalising warmth.
Yet we shall never understand Christ's Law of
Retribution aright unless we bear in mind that
our Lord in all His words and works dealt always
with invisible things. For to Jesus of Nazareth
all visible things on earth were only so far of
import as they testified to their purpose in the
mind of God, that is, to their invisible counterparts
in heaven. How poor and petty to Him seemed
all substantial and tangible objects as compared
with words, which are the expression of thoughts!
Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words
shall not pass away. When, therefore, He spoke
of great works and mighty works, He did not mean
the destruction of trees or uprooting of mountains,
but the destruction of sins and the uprooting of
deeply-planted errors. Even in the language of
the teachers of His countrymen an UPROOTER OF
MOUNTAINS signified a remover, not of material,
but of spiritual obstacles. Much more therefore
when Jesus of Nazareth declared that His disciples
should hereafter do greater works than He had done,
He meant not that they should cure more diseases or
cast out more unclean spirits, but that they should
uproot the mountain of spiritual error which has
crushed down the hearts of the children of men.
Can we doubt that to the Son of God who seeth
10
THE LAW OF RETRIBUTION.
things as they are, the healing of the lame man by
St. Peter or the destruction of Ananias by the
same Apostle, though mighty works indeed, were
not so mighty as the conception of that sublime
hymn on charity composed in the days of Nero by
a pupil of the Rabbi Gamaliel, whereby the Spirit
of Christ speaks to mankind through St. Paul for
ever and ever. The story of Ananias and Sapphira
shall pass away, but St. Paul's praise of charity
shall never pass away.
Not that our Lord walked through the midst of
this beautiful world as some of the Pharisees are
said to have done, with eyes half-closed, muttering
passages from the Law or from the Mishna. He
who is walking by the way, said a certain Rabbi,
and studying, and breaketh off his Mishna and
sayeth, How fine is that tree! How fine is this
fallow! THEY account it to him as though he were
guilty of death. But with our Master it was not
so. Trees and fallows, flowers and harvests, shep-
herds seeking the strayed sheep in the wilderness
or keeping the flock safe in the fold, sunshine and
rain, birds of the air on their flight for food, chil-
dren playing round the well, women at their house-
hold work leavening bread or sweeping the floor
for a lost coin-all these things escaped Him not,
and yet so far from causing Him to break off his
study, they blended with His teaching and strength-
ened His communion with the Father in heaven.
Nay, may we not go a step further? St. Luke
tells us that Jesus of Nazareth increased in wisdom
THE LAW OF RETRIBUTION.
11
as well as in stature; the writer of the Epistle
to the Hebrews adds that He was heard in that He
feared, and that He learned obedience from the
things that He suffered. Is it more bold or less
reverent to believe that He was heard also in that
He loved, and that He learned obedience also from
the things He looked upon and enjoyed? Surely
it must needs have been so. Could the wind blow
whither it listeth and whence no man knoweth ;
could rain and sunshine come down to earth on
their errands of love; could the lilies of the fields
spring up, and blossom, and fade; could all these
ministers of the Father bring their subtle messages
of love, and joy, and trust, to all the children of
men, and yet bring no message to Him who called
Himself by the especial title of the Son of Man?
Surely of all wastes the strangest and most terrible
waste would have been that the Son of Man should
have lived, say rather that He should have gone
through the form of living, for more than thirty
years on earth, and yet during all that time should
have learned nothing from that world which His
Father had made and pronounced very good.
But you say, Though He was the Son of Man, yet
He was also the Son of God. He was.
He was
the very Son of God; from all eternity in the
bosom of the Father, and now made flesh for us;
a man, and not the semblance of a man, walking on
earth amid the flowers and trees and waters, moving
amid the elements and forces of the universe, and
recognising in them the angels and ministers of
12
THE LAW OF RETRIBUTION.
But what then?
His Father in Heaven.
Because
He was the Son, was He to take upon Himself to
turn the servants of His Father from their ap-
pointed tasks? Was He not rather to manifest
His exceptional Sonship by an exceptional readi-
ness to obey?
He was hungry but should He stamp on the
ground to raise an instantaneous harvest, or should
He turn the stones to bread? That be far from
Him. He was athirst: yet should He strike water
from the rock? He longed that men should trust
in Him, yet should He work a sign in heaven or
cast Himself down from a pinnacle to procure the
instant allegiance of all Israel? Nay, it was not
to be; it was a voice of Satan. Let the ancient
records of the wandering of the Chosen People
assign to Moses the power of striking water from
the rock; let the legends of the Conquest and the
stories of the Prophets declare that Joshua caused
the sun to stand still in heaven, and that Elijah
called down fire from heaven upon his adver-
saries. That spirit was not His. They were but
as servants in the house of the Father; but He was
the Son. Rather let the Son of God subject Him-
self to the friendly pressure of the forces of His
Father, and what He gave would come back to
Him an hundredfold. Thus did the true and only
Son of God move as a source of Light, not only
amid the children of men, but even amid the inani-
mate and unconscious world, and power streamed
from Him even to all inanimate and unconscious
}
THE LAW OF RETRIBUTION.
13
things, and He received back the light reflected
from Himself as a light bestowed upon Him.
How the Law of Retribution was worked by
Christ in His dealings with the children of men is
too well known to need description. Armour of
sensuality, panoply of selfishness, thick-plated, ten-
fold, adamantine breastplate of worldliness, forged
round a publican's heart by avarice and tempered
by the hatred of the poor and by the scorn of the
rich-all the proof mail of sin (save only hypo
crisy), snapped like glass before the touch of His
irresistible compassion. He gave His pity, and
sinners repaid Him with repentance; He gave His
confidence, and they paid Him back in a life of
righteousness; He gave His love, and though they
could never pay back as much as He gave them,
yet in proportion to their natures, the love of pub-
licans and sinners might be said to have matched
the love of Christ Himself. True that He pro-
fessed only to heal and to forgive where there
was faith, yet His very word and utterance, and
sometimes even His presence, had the power of
engendering the faith that was needed. His trust
justified itself by making the person trusted
trustworthy.
So great was His power that He Himself mar-
velled at its scope and results, and accepted as a
revelation the retribution of faith that comes back
to Him. It is not meet to take the children's bread
and cast it unto dogs: thus spoke He, as it were
questioning His own Spirit and awaiting the
14
THE LAW OF RETRIBUTION.
result and there came back good measure into
His bosom-the word of God speaking through a
heathen woman, as it had spoken before through
a foreign soldier, and declaring that the Law of
Faith knoweth no distinctions of persons, and that
many should come from the east and from the
west, and sit down with the children of Abraham.
Thus, therefore, in His dealings with human nature,
no less than in His dealings with non-human
nature, may it be said of Jesus of Nazareth that-
Power streamed from Him, and His soul received
The light reflected as a light bestowed.
The painful power of forgiving is one of the
most notable instances of the general Law of Retri-
bution. For what do we mean when we speak of
remitting and retaining sins? Not surely the
mere utterance of words; not surely the mere re-
mission of penalty; but a spiritual process, a taking
away of sin and an engendering of righteousness.
Now, when a man has the faith and spirit of Christ
so that he can discern a brother's heart with some-
thing of the insight of Christ, and can see the soul
of goodness even in things most evil, so that he is
honestly able to say to a sinner, I trust you, all the
world knows what a magical, and yet what a
natural power this gift of trust has to create a
giving back of trust multiplied a hundredfold;
whence springs up in the heart of the sinner a
trust not only in the forgiver, but in human nature
as made by God the Father, and hence a trust in
THE LAW OF RETRIBUTION.
15
the ideal of human nature or Christ, and hence a
trust in God the Father Himself. This trust is
but another name for righteousness. Forgiveness
itself is but a part of the working of the Law of
Retribution.
This Law of Forgiveness (as every other law)
was at work in the world of human hearts before
the Word became flesh. But it was Jesus of
Nazareth who first consciously used this law and
revealed it unto mankind, not only by precept, but
by example and influence; thereby so vivifying it
that it became virtually a wholly new power or
authority, namely, the authority given unto the
Son of Man, and through Him to man, to forgive
sins now and upon earth. This power He not only
consciously used, but also exalted as being the
very key to that temple built up out of the
souls of men, which is called the Church. This
power also He bequeathed unto His disciples, and
to this day the power remains upon all who con-
sciously or unconsciously are imbued with His
spirit. But most of all should it remain among
those who directly worship Christ; and to this day
whoso hath not, albeit in slight measure, Christ's
power of remitting and retaining sins, he is not
Christ's disciple.
Our Lord has taught us to believe that this same
Law of Retribution pervades the whole of our lives,
and our relations with all things with lands and
with houses, as well as with fathers and mothers.
All these relations, He has taught us, will be
16
THE LAW OF RETRIBUTION.
1
purified and their value multiplied an hundred fold
in the new Kingdom of Heaven. For Christ despised
not visible things, but honoured them because
they testified of the Father. Bread and wine and
raiment, and the mirth of feasting; houses, and
lands, and money, and all material wealth; fathers
and mothers, brothers and sisters, husbands or
wives all these visible objects were to Him so
many shapes in which the Everlasting Arms of the
ever-watching Providence stretched itself out into
the world, moulding and shaping the children of
men into the image of the Child of God.
Into this mould human nature was cast, gifted,
as clay is gifted, with a certain power of resisting
pressure and preserving consistency, so as not to
fall to pieces like sand; but gifted also, as clay is
gifted, with a certain power of yielding to the
Divine pressure of the Heavenly Artist-gifted,
in other words, with a will, and with the power
to sacrifice that will to a Higher Will. There-
fore whoso gave up any earthly blessing to God,
he must needs receive from God that spiritual
outcome from the earthly blessing which corre-
sponded to the pressure of the heavenly Hand.
Whoso gave up bread and wine, which fill man's
heart with joy and gladness, should receive another
food productive of a deeper joy and of gladness
which none should take away; whoso gave up
houses or lands should receive a settled rooted
thankfulness and peace in the prospect of the
Happy Fields and the Eternal Home-an hundred-
་
THE LAW OF RETRIBUTION.
17
F
fold surpassing the complacent thankfulness with
which the owner of the cornfields surveys his
labourers storing the golden harvest; whoso gave
up sister or brother should know the brotherhood
of the Elder Brother of all humanity; whoso gave
up mother or father should know that which
passeth knowledge, even the depths of the mystery
of the Fatherhood of Him whose name is Love.
Thus in all things, great or small, the same Law of
Retribution should still prevail; Give, and it shall
be given unto you; good measure, pressed down, and
running over, shall they give into your bosom; for
with what measure ye mete, it shall be meted to you
withal.
Such, then, is the scope of the saying which we
have ventured to call a part of the First Philo-
sophy of Jesus, as being one of those profitable
observations and axioms that fall not within the
compass of any special philosophy or service, but
are more common and of a higher stage. For to
what province or department of life can this pro-
fitable observation and axiom be pronounced un-
suitable or unnecessary? Is it unfit for art? But
what can be more fit or needful than a warning that
bids the artist delight in and honour all visible
things, and go sit at the feet of Nature, forgetful
of his own little dignities and petty eccentricities,
to learn from her and to receive into his soul her
whispered lessons?
Is it unfit for science? Why, where can you
find such an amulet against the baneful superstition
C
18
THE LAW OF RETRIBUTION.
»
which, says the poet, tramples all knowledge and
all research under her accursed foot, as in the
blessed certainty that whatever is faithfully given
to the Universe shall come back multiplied an
hundredfold? We have seen above that the Law
of Retribution is but another shape of the saying
that Except a man be born again, he cannot enter
into the Kingdom of God. And what else is the
requirement of the great herald and prophet of
the Advancement of Learning, who predicted that
men could never enter into the new kingdom of
man over nature, unless they would study to be
perfect in her language, and, becoming again as
little children, condescend to take the alphabet of
it into their own hands?
Is it unfit for the morals of social life? Christ's
experience answers, No. Your own consciences
answer, No. I grant that perhaps as much harm
as good may sometimes have been done by that
parody and caricature of Christ's saying, which
represents Him as teaching us that every sacrifice
is repaid by an arbitrary reward. But the Law of
Retribution, as it was taught by Christ, as ordained
by a Father in heaven, a law self-executing, natural,
inevitable, who shall deny that this is at the very
basis of all sound and healthy social existence ?
""
Lastly, I ask, is it fit for art, fit for science, fit
for morals, but only unfit for politics? Yes,"
cries the present consent of the civilised world; "it
is wholly unfit, it is a mere dream to suppose that
it could ever be fit." Well, then, let Christ's spirit
THE LAW OF RETRIBUTION.
19
|
1
T
be excluded from politics for one more generation.
Yet there is nothing so glorious, so ideally perfect
in the political history of the past as to make the
present time unsuitable for reconsidering our re-
jection of Christ's teaching. The politics and
politicians whose pole-star has een the balance of
power or the preservation of national intérests,
have they been hitherto altogether successful in
averting the disgraces, the disasters, and destruc-
tions of nations? For one case where a politician
may seem to have done good in setting aside the
interest of other nations, and unjustly preferring
the apparent interests of his own nation as para-
mount, might not some maintain that there have
been a score of cases where politicians have
wrought desolation and ruin ?
But let Christ's words be rejected for yet another
generation: no nation can for ever reject them, and
live. The Angels and Ministers of God are many,
who shall teach us our error. War, with its train
of famine, pestilence, and poverty-these are not
the only appointed Ministers of God to punish the
national violation of the law of Christ. Selfishness
abroad begets (must needs beget, at least in a
Christian country) selfishness at home.
It was a lesser evil for Greece and Rome to be
selfish. They violated no principle, lowered no
standard of the national conscience. They did not
believe that God had made all the nations of the
earth of one blood, to be the children of a common
father. But a Christian nation docs believe this,
C 2
20
THE LAW OF RETRIBUTION.
and is bound (in virtue of its allegiance to Christ)
to look upon other nations as brethren-to be
punished perhaps, perhaps to be warred against; if
need be, even to be destroyed (just as we prosecute,
and punish, and destroy offending individuals in a
Christian society), but never to be despised or
regarded with indifference, never to be regarded as
stepping-stones whereon we can ascend to some-
thing which we choose to call our "national
interests.'
Our "national interests!"
In what a prepos-
terous manner is this phrase perpetually abused!
No doubt the true and ultimate interests of every
nation are the same as the interests of mankind,
and as the interests of righteousness; but what
purpose, save the purposes of evil, can be fulfilled
by putting interests first and righteousness second?
It is the interest of England, no doubt, that she
should be known throughout the world as the
liberator of slaves, the champion of the oppressed,
the representative of honesty, the herald of the
Gospel of Christ; but what end except the degra-
dation of England is gained by sinking all these
noble objects and strength-inspiring motives, so
that instead of saying that England should con-
tend against slavery, against oppression, against
dishonesty, and against all those shapes of sin
which are the spiritual enemies of the Gospel of
Christ, we must needs be perpetually exhibiting
our country in the eyes of Christian Europe as ready
to contend for nothing but her "national interests?"
THE LAW OF RETRIBUTION,
21
And mark the inevitable moral consequences of
this preposterous error. If a Christian nation is
to regard itself as created for its own interests, why
should not a class in a Christian nation do the
same? Why then may not the poorest of the poor,
and the most illiterate of the illiterate, practise at
home in behalf of their class those precepts of self-
interest which they hear commended on the highest
political authority as worthy to regulate the con-
duct of a Christian nation abroad? And if a class,
why may not a Christian individual make his in-
dividual interests paramount, rejecting, first in
practice and soon in theory also, the Christian
rule of life, and substituting for it a rule of avowed
and deliberate selfishness? Thus, from a selfish
policy abroad, creeps into the heart of a selfish
nation, even in its home, a disease that slowly but
surely must destroy the national life.
To take an example from a well-known and
recognised blemish in our foreign policy, I mean
our opium trade with China. For the present,
only a small, though probably a rapidly increasing
number of our countrymen, are almost as keenly
alive to the iniquities of that traffic as to the diffi-
culties of abandoning it. But look forward ten more
years to a time when the great masses of our popu-
lation shall be moderately educated, at least so far
as to know through the medium of the press what
is going on in China, and what we have been doing
there during the last thirty years. Then, under
those changed circumstances, does any rational
G
22
THE LAW OF RETRIBUTION.
being suppose (provided at least he believes that
there is such a thing as moral cause producing
moral effect)-does any one, I say, suppose that
England can any longer continue deliberately to
keep up the opium trade with China, when once
the eyes of the people of England are opened to
the nature and circumstances of that iniquitous
traffic, without a consequent retribution poisoning
the national conscience and indirectly tainting the
morality of every city, every village, every house-
hold, every little child in England? Or does any
one dream that the paltry half a million flung by
way of alms to India can expiate for the annual
extortion of say only five millions from China, to
the ruin of the bodies and souls of thousands of
the nations on which we impose the yoke of our
pernicious trade? If therefore we must needs go
on for yet another generation in our un-Christian
course, let us at least have the merit of going with
open eyes to our destruction. Let us not suppose
that the eternal Law of Retribution can be broken
for our sakes. Let us give to other nations, if we
are so determined, a policy of narrowness, selfish-
ness, and distrust. Be it so it shall be given to
us again. Our furies shall pursue us, lame-footed
but sure corruption, superstition, discontent, dis-
cord, and civil strife; good measure, pressed down,
and running over, shall THEY give into our bosom.
All things move violently to their place, but
casily in their place; and what is true of all things
is truc likewise of nations. If the nations of the
THE LAW OF RETRIBUTION.
23
}
1
earth now move violently, it is because they are
not yet in their place, not yet doing perfect homage
to the incarnate Word of God. Nor will the
nations of the earth ever cease to move violently
and learn to move easily till they move in their
place, each in its orbit about the throne of Him
who is King of kings and Lord of lords, recognising
in their international no less than in their domestic
policy that Law of Retribution, or Law of child-
hood, or Law of love-call it what you will-
which is a part of the First Philosophy of Jesus
of Nazareth.
K
.
CRITICISM AND WORSHIP.
Judge not, that ye be not judged.-ST. MATTHEW VII. 1.
I am nothing if not critical, says the most diabolical
character ever conceived by human imagination;
and it is this critical spirit that Christ seems here
to prohibit; warning us, not surely against oc-
casionally criticising, or occasionally judging, or
occasionally condemning, but, as it would seem,
against living in the critical spirit. Of course the
ideal criticism or judgment is not here contem-
plated. The judgment of God, which discerns the
inotives of men, passing on each man such a self-
executing sentence of approval or condenination as
is best for each-this is true mercy, as well as true
judgment. But the judgment here contemplated is
different. Man's imperfect judgment implies, for the
most part, first, a fixed law; second, an attention
to actions rather than motives; third, an isolation
of the judge from those who are judged. Now
Christ recognises no law, but a spirit; He takes
cognisance not of action, but of motive; lastly, He
forbids isolation. Therefore, in each of these three
.
-
CRITICISM AND WORSHIP.
25
points the ordinary attitude of judging is opposed
to the attitude enjoined by Christ on His disciples.
Let us consider, first of all, very briefly, this habit
of criticising or judging; and then the necessity
of casting away this habit of mind when we would
approach Jesus of Nazareth.
The critical spirit is the opposite of the filial
spirit; and, as the filial spirit is the foundation of
the kingdom of God, so is the critical spirit of the
kingdom of the Devil. The same Law of Retribu-
tion which opens art and science and nature, both
animate and inanimate, to all who approach them
in the spirit of a child, closes art and science and
nature against all who approach in the attitude of
a superior critic. The child or youth who criticises
his parents and relations and companions, banishing
from his own heart the sense of fatherhood, brother-
hood, and friendship, finds critics where others find
fathers, brothers, and friends. The student or
artist in whom the spirit of criticism predominates
always over admiration, sympathy, and reverence,
often misses even in books and pictures the meaning
and inspiration which he might else have perceived;
and his own creative efforts are paralysed by the
consciousness of the critical spirit within him and
the dread of critical retaliation from without. Even
in science it has been said by those best competent
to speak, that there is scope for the imagination in
suggesting the hypothesis that is to link facts into
a harmonious law; and the great discoveries of
nature have been made by those who instead of
26
CRITICISM AND WORSHIP.
approaching her as superior critics, were content
to take her alphabet into their hands, sitting at
her feet as little children. But if in art and in
literature, and even in science, the critical spirit is
unfavourable to the attainment of truth, it requires
no argument to prove that it must be much more
unfavourable to the attainment of the highest
truth, that is, the knowledge of God.
How, then, are we to avoid the critical habit of
mind in all things, and especially in religion? Are
we to throw away our understanding and to say,
I believe because it is impossible, or to cast away all
use of reason and to say, It is the heart that makes
the theologian? Surely a very mad and heathenish
attempt at worship-a kind of self-marring and
mutilation of the divine faculties of humanity,
worthy rather of the priests of Cybele than of the
worshippers of that God who long ago taught us
that we are to love Him with all our heart and
with all our soul and with all our mind and with
all our strength ! No, neither the brain alone, nor
the heart alone, can lead men to the highest truth;
body and brain and heart must combine together
to help the human whole to obey the Divine attrac-
tion and to move in its assigned orbit. There is
a symmetry in the human faculties which, if rightly
developed, is intended to lead us to the knowledge
of the highest truth through the course of a sym-
metrical life. Think of it a moment.
Can you
seriously suppose that you can arrive at the know-
ledge of the One True God by spending so many
CRITICISM AND WORSHIP.
27
hours in prayer daily, or by giving away such and
such a proportion of your income, or by any other
acts, considered as isolated acts? No: each of
these acts may, if done in a right spirit, help you
a certain way on your path; but the knowledge of
God must be the product of a life in which every
faculty is exercised. If the grand words of Edward
Irving are true, that all things do testify concerning
the Lord Jesus, from the archangel in heaven to
the worm that crawleth on the ground, must it not
be equally true that a great chain of intervening
links of evidence testifies to each of us concerning
the same Divine object-parents, friends, schools,
books, art, science, nature, action and rest, reason
and faith? And none of these testifying faculties
can be with impunity neglected, and none of these
departments of life (so far as we are brought
naturally into them) can be with impunity despised.
Instead, therefore, of asking how can we avoid the
critical spirit, the wiser question will be, how can
we so symmetrically develop all our faculties as
to enter at last into that filial spirit which is
Christ's Kingdom of God?
It can hardly be denied that for the younger
students at the University there must be, amid the
many wholesome influences here, some influences
which tend to stimulate the critical faculty to an
unwholesome excess. In the first place, much of
your most valuable reading bears on subjects in
the study of which it is your duty to compare and
criticise the thoughts of the great men of the past.
28
CRITICISM AND WORSHIP.
In the second place, your life has probably less
scope for social action than it had. Free from the
immediate attraction of home ties, and the social
pressure of neighbourly interests; or else (if you
have come from any of the great public boarding-
schools) free from the responsibilities and duties
which were familiar to many of you as prefects or
monitors; leading comparatively isolated and inde-
pendent lives; cut off by your very duty from much
action, and bound to devote the next three or four
years of your life to self-culture-you ought to be
on your guard lest you lose somewhat (at least for
a time) by being temporarily withdrawn from many
of those natural influences which seem intended
by God to mould our minds into conformity with
His truth.
Before speaking of the one main safeguard
against the critical spirit, I would briefly mention
two or three minor remedies, which some may find
very useful during this period of probation; not
forgetting, of course, that different remedies may
suit different natures. Action of almost any
unselfish and beneficent kind is likely to be of
some use, lifting one, though for a short time, out
of the region of books and theories. I have heard
some men (and those of no mean ability) say
that teaching in a Sunday-school, though it were
but for an hour a week, helped to dissipate many
theological spectres, which looked formidable in
the study, but vanished somehow when brought to
the test of teaching. Another remedy (which may
CRITICISM AND WORSHIP.
29
apply to all) is the avoidance of luxury. A plain
and simple way of living has a direct influence
in increasing fellow-feeling and sympathy with
others. Some of you, perhaps, may have good
reasons at home for denying yourselves up here.
If you have, believe me, when you leave Oxford,
you will not only look back upon such self-denial
as one of the best and purest of your recollections,
but you will also find that it has been a powerful
agent in guiding you toward the highest truth.
Even to others who may have no such cogent
causes for rigorous economy, permit me to suggest
that, although a man is by no means bound to
make himself uncomfortable simply for the sake of
ascertaining how well he can bear discomfort, yet
it is not amiss that, when you look round your
college rooms, you should be sometimes reminded
of this or that which you would like to purchase,
but will not, because the money may be better
spent. To dwell on friendship as a safeguard
against the critical spirit would be to trespass on
the common-places of the ancients: and therefore
with one brief word of protest that in these busy
days friendship ought not to be extinguished by
width of acquaintance, I will add but one other
remedy, I mean the reading and re-reading of some
few of the best and noblest books—a habit morally,
and not merely intellectually useful. For such
reading breeds something better than critical
appreciation; imbuing the reader with the spirit
of the author, and sowing seeds that will germinate
30
CRITICISM AND WORSHIP.
and fructify because they fall upon the deep soil of
reverence and faith.
Let this suffice for the minor safeguards against
the critical spirit. But now to speak both of the
greatest danger to be apprehended from it, and at
the same time of the greatest safeguard against it.
The greatest safeguard seems to me to be the
worship of Jesus of Nazareth as the Son of man,
and the greatest danger seems to be the habit of
judging or criticising the Son of man; and the rest
of this discourse will be devoted to the maintenance
of this proposition, that we cannot hope to under-
stand the life and work of Jesus Christ if we
approach it in the attitude of a judge or critic.
Carefully distinguish, however, between two
things essentially different; between judging the
historical accuracy of narratives, or the genuine-
ness or date of documents, and judging a soul, a
character. To the former task, to the criticism of
the text of the Scriptures, we ought to bring a
judicial spirit, seeking only the truth; but to
appreciation of a character we must bring some-
thing more than the cool dispassionateness of a
judge. Even to understand an ordinary human
being some degree of sympathy is necessary. Now
the most sceptical critic of the New Testament
ought to recognise, as a historical fact, beneath
those early traditions which relate the history of
the great revolution of the world, an Originator
of that Revolution, whose character and teach-
ing ought to seem, even to sceptics, the most
CRITICISM AND WORSHIP.
31
stupendous fact in human history. If, therefore, it
be true that even an ordinary selfish narrow human
creature cannot be rightly estimated by any critic
who has not the power to discern the soul of
goodness in things evil, and who does not bring
something of pitying sympathy to the task of
criticism; if it be also still further true of any
great and good man that he cannot be under-
stood unless he is approached with something of
admiration and reverence and trust; how much
more must it be true that we cannot hope, even
in the slightest degree, to apprehend the human
nature of Jesus of Nazareth, as long as we bring to
the study nothing but the faculties of an acute
critic. We are not to judge Him, but to love; or
rather, we are first to love, that we may afterwards
judge of Him aright.
But it may be urged that our knowledge of the
words and deeds, and hence of the character of
Christ, is derived from documents which, as we
have admitted, must be criticised, and which, if
discredited by criticism, may efface, together with
themselves, that very Character upon which our
faith and hopes are based. It is this fear which
seems at this moment, more than any other evil
influence, to paralyse Christian activity. To meet
it I would suggest the following considerations:
1st, That our knowledge of Christ depends not
only on the books of the New Testament, but also
on a fact by all acknowleged, I mean that great
Revolution commonly called Christianity, which
32
CRITICISM AND WORSHIP.
was and is one of the most indisputable facts in
the history of the world: 2nd, No satisfactory or
scientific account of that Revolution has been given,
or can be given, which ignores the Originator of it:
3rd, It is absolutely incredible that the Originator
of so vast and so complete a Revolution should
have achieved his success by accidents, delusions,
or impostures: 4th, It is credible and probable
à priori that He succeeded, in virtue of a singular
intuition into the tendencies of things, and a pro-
found sympathy with the aspirations and degrada-
tions of mankind: 5th, The general consent of our
Gospel narrative exhibits to us just such a cha-
racter as this, one endowed with a singular
intuition into the tendencies of things (which we
better call the will of God), with singular power
of attracting, uplifting, and strengthening, the
aspirations of men (which we call faith): and
lastly, with a singular power of sympathising with
and destroying by His sympathy, the degradations
of mankind (which we call sins) This character,
for those who accept it as a historical fact, explains
the phenomena of Christianity; but those who
reject it as fabulous impose upon themselves the
necessity of believing one of the most incredible
and monstrous of miracles. For since a fable
must have sprung from some inventor or inventors,
it follows that those who reject Christ's personal
character as fictitious must suppose that in the
days of Tiberius Cæsar, Pontius Pilate being
governor of Judæa, Annas and Caiaphas being
CRITICISM AND WORSHIP.
33
¡
the high priests, and the Pharisees being the
spiritual directors of Israel, there arose a sect of
Galilean peasants who, under stress of circum-
stances some strong spiritual excitement arising
from no particular cause-succeeded in consciously
or unconsciously inventing some myth or fable
which was afterwards developed into the character
of Christ. Surely he must be a very credulous
man who can believe so monstrous a miracle as
this.
Having, therefore, in the human nature and the
human character of Christ, and in the history of
His influence upon the world after as well as before
His death, a veritable rock whereon to base our
faith, we need not fear to criticise the Scriptures
freely, while we worship and fear to criticise Christ.
Why are we so tremulous because here and there in
the pages of the New Testament there are not only
various readings but also occasionally interpola-
tions, some of which are already recognised by all
scholars, and more of which may possibly be
recognised hereafter? Consider the effect of the
supposed literal inspiration of the Koran on the
followers of Mohammed, or consider the effect of
the same belief, applied to the Bible, upon some
Christians who have perverted the books of the
Scriptures into one uniformly and literally inspired
oracle, and you will then perceive that the apparent
imperfections of the Bible have really been the
providential means of rescuing Christendom from
a gross idolatry.
D
34
CRITICISM AND WORSHIP.
But there is a prejudice in some minds that if
the Scriptures are, in any high sense, the Word
of God, then they must be wholly and exactly and
even literally accurate. But where in God's world
do we find a basis for such a notion? Ought we
not rather to say, with Origen, that if the Gospels
proceed from God, and if the world proceeds from
God, then in the Gospels we may expect to find
the same phenomena as meet us in the world?
And if we turn from the search after truth in the
Bible to the search after truth in the world, what
meets us there? Surely, whether we look at the
life of the individual in its passage from childhood
to old age, or at the lives of states, or at the growth
of scientific knowledge, or at the development of
Christianity itself, nothing seems more ordinary
than that eternal verity should be continually in-
volved as it were in some transitory shape which,
like a shell, obscures and protects the ripening fruit
of truth. Applying, therefore, this analogy to the
Gospels, let us welcome all honest, keen, and
thorough criticism of such things as are fit to be
criticised, believing that criticism of this kind is
an appointed means for removing, in God's good
time, all such integuments as may obscure the
eternal truths of God: but when we approach the
Son of man let us cast away the spirit of criticism
and take up faith and reverence.
I speak rather of the worship of Christ as the
Son of man than of Christ as the Son of God, not
of course because Christ is not to be worshipped as
CRITICISM AND WORSHIP.
35
the Son of God and as very God of very God, but
because it seems to be God's prescribed lesson that
(at all events in the generation that is to come) we
are to ascend to the worship of Christ as God through
the worship of Christ as man. Let us endeavour to
trace the ascent of such a worship; but first a word
as to the other method-the method of descent.
For our ordinary course in religious teaching is,
as you all know, entirely different from the ascend-
ing method. We begin, even in our earliest child-
hood, with the conception of Christ as God, and
many children are so brought up as hardly to be
aware that Christ was very man as well as very
God. But is the result of our system quite satis-
factory? Is it not the fact that many, and these
not children but men, calling themselves and being
in a certain sense Christians, have passed through
life worshipping Christ as God, but have never
even for an instant in their whole lives realised the
fact that He really lived, pitied, sorrowed, was
tempted-much less that (in the words of the
authors of the Gospel of St. Luke and the Epistle
of the Hebrews) He grew in wisdom as well as in
stature, and learned obedience from the things
that He suffered? That He had the body of a
man all, of course, believe; but how many believe,
at least in their hearts as well as with their lips,
that He was perfect man, endowed with human
motives as well as with human flesh? I know
one who has said that he never had any difficulty
in believing Christ to be God, but that for the first
D 2
36
CRITICISM AND WORSHIP.
C
twenty years of his life he could never succeed in
so far undoing the results of early associations as
to realise that He was also very man.
And yet
from the want of such a realisation what deplorable
consequences follow! For if Christ be not a man
indeed, but only the semblance of a man, then all
the life and loyalty pass at once out of our religion:
His love becomes condescension: His pity a mere
amiable appearance: His life a chaos: His death a
portent and He Himself a mysterious amalgam.
Is this danger of worshipping a non-human Christ
altogether beyond our own experience? Are there
not some of us even here who might confess, if we
would search our hearts, that we have been more
touched by the story of the death of Socrates, more
thrilled by the familiar and fictitious miseries of
King Lear, than by the narrative of the sorrows of
Jesus of Nazareth? And why? Why but because
our hearts have not yet realised that He, being
man, endured for us the mental and spiritual
sufferings of humanity, as well as the mere bodily
agonies of human flesh? Therefore I conclude, in
the first place, that our present worship of Christ
often fails to appreciate His human nature, and
that there is a danger in worshipping Him as Son
of God before we have learned to worship Him as
Son of man.
This conclusion is confirmed by our knowledge
of the manner in which Christ Himself trained His
disciples to worship Him. Carry yourselves back
in imagination to the central moment of Christ's
CRITICISM AND WORSHIP.
37
work on earth, the crisis in the history of the
world, the moment in which the Universal Church
was founded in heaven simultaneously with the
confession of faith by St. Peter upon earth. On
that day Christ was an exile. But yesterday He
had been hailed as Messiah by the acclamations of
His countrymen; the patriots of Galilee had sought
to crown Him as their king; even the Pharisees
had not so very long ago been disposed to welcome
Him as a possible pillar of the Law. Partly by
the power of His presence, partly by His mighty
works of healing, partly owing to the general
expectation of a deliverance, He had mounted
at once into the recognised position of a prophet,
if not the Deliverer of Israel. But now all was
changed. The official homage which His coun-
trymen had paid to Him as the Messiah, and
the political homage which was tendered to Him
by the Galileans, He rated as nothing worth and
had deliberately cast aside; the professional over-
tures of the Pharisees He had even more abruptly
rejected; the homage that came to Him from all
quarters as being a worker of miracles came to
Him often against His will. He would not attempt
to work such miracles as they desired, though in
return for them the united nation would have given
Him their allegiance: such signs as He did work
He often worked in secret. He would not suffer
Himself to be made a king. Not as a King, nor
as a Conqueror, nor as a Worker of wonders,
but as a Son of man, as a Man of sorrows and
38
CRITICISM AND WORSHIP.
acquainted with griefs, He lived and moved among
His disciples, stripping as it were from their con-
ception of Himself everything official and adventi-
tious, and leading them to love Him and worship
Him only for Himself and in Himself—as Man,
simply as the Son of man.
But when the disciples were now duly prepared,
and the pre-ordained hour was come for founding
the Universal Church, then it came to pass that
Jesus led the disciples away from the borders of
Galilee into the parts round about Cæsarea and
there, in a heathen land, hard by the cave of Pan,
gazing on the temple of Cæsar Augustus, with
everything around Him to discourage and to re-
press His followers, and with nothing but Himself
to give them confidence, He, an outcast, the rejected
of Israel, began to question His disciples, calling
Himself not Son of God, nor Christ, nor Messiah,
but only Son of man, and saying, Whom say ye that
I, the Son of man, am?
Then, when the disciples searched their hearts to
consider what answer they might truly make, they
perceived that, though Jesus of Nazareth would
not be the King of the Galileans, though He
would work no sign for them in heaven, though
He seemed to break the Sabbath, though He were
rejected by all Israel, yea, even by those that sat
in Moses' seat, yet, for all that, He had become
unto them as the very breath of their lives, and
without Him they were not able to live; so that
their hearts replied to Him in the words of the
CRITICISM AND WORSHIP.
39
1
T
Psalmist, Whom have we in heaven but thee? and
there is none on earth that we desire in comparison
of thee. Thus, in that instant, the dormant germ of
faith which had been lying undeveloped in the hearts
of men since man was first created, the faith or
hope that, after all, and in spite of all appearance
to the contrary, Right is Might, and is Lord of
the world-this faith, I say, quickened by the
life and teaching and presence of Jesus of Nazareth,
sprang up in the hearts of the disciples into a new
and fruitful life, taking a new and indestructible
shape in the confession of St. Peter, the spokes-
man of the disciples, that the righteous Son of man
was also the mighty Son of God. Thus were the
disciples led through the worship of the Son of man
to the worship of the Son of God-and this by the
Teacher of teachers, by Jesus of Nazareth Himself.
May it not be that in the history of the Church
after the Apostolic times some similar process is
to be traced whereby Christ is detaching us from
merely official worship and leading us to adore not
His office but Himself? In the early and middle
ages of the Church all or almost all worshipped
Jesus as the Lord; but did they not unduly ignore
His human nature? If they worshipped Him at
all as human, it was as the little child in the arms
of the Virgin Mother; so that, as an inevitable
consequence, much of the worship was diverted to
the Mother from the Son. Otherwise they wor-
shipped Him not as the Man of spiritual sorrows,
acquainted with the griefs and sins of men, but as
40
CRITICISM AND WORSHIP.
the worker of wonders on earth, or the inexplicable
Sufferer on the cross, or the future Judge from
heaven. Even in the Reformed Church, love and
loyalty to the Lord Jesus were too often lost in the
adoration of His vicarious sacrifice, and He was
regarded as naught but the centre of a great
system of theology.
It need not be said that there were exceptions to
this rule, saintly souls in every age whom Christ
drew towards Himself with a personal and pas-
sionate faith which may well put most modern faith
to shame. But in the great masses of men faith was
of a coarser nature, much like the faith of the
multitudes who hailed Jesus as Messiah on His
first appearance in Galilee. Perhaps this was
necessary. Whenever truth is cast into the hearts
of men, it is (perhaps it must be) at once encased
in a crust of illusion. So when the incarnate
Truth appeared in Galilee, the eternal and vital
faith in a Deliverer was at once encrusted in a
transitory official shape, attributing to the De-
liverer certain local, temporary, and material
attributes. This opinion was shared by the
Apostles themselves. It was not a delusion: it
was an illusion, that is to say, a natural integu-
ment of truth, without which the truth itself might
perhaps have found no entrance into any Jewish
heart. Similarly, in the early ages of the Christian
Church, when the first impulse of the constraining
personal love of Christ had passed away, an illu-
sory belief in the speedy coming of Christ as a
CRITICISM AND WORSHIP.
41.
visible Judge took possession of the hearts of His
followers. But for the strengthening protection
of that illusion (which contains the eternal truth
that Christ is judging and shall finally judge the
world) Christianity might not perhaps have out-
lasted the storms of persecution. But when its
purpose was served it passed away to make way
for other illusions, each destined to remain only so
long as it might be needed to preserve some truth
which might otherwise have perished.
There are signs that now, in this generation, we
in England are approaching a crisis when we may
expect some new manifestation of Christ, and con-
sequently also the disappearance of some old illu-
sion. For Christ is no longer worshipped in this
country with an unanimous, scarcely even with a
general, worship. As He was rejected in old times
by the scribes and students of the Law of Moses,
so is He rejected in these days by a certain section
of the students of the laws of Nature, and on
somewhat similar grounds.
Salah
<<
He destroyeth the Law of Moses, and is not
needful for the attainment of righteousness, said the
Scribes and Pharisees. He interferes with our
system. He is not necessary for the attainment of
scientific truth. His existence is contrary to the
laws of Nature, cry the Scribes of modern times.
Both charges strictly parallel, and equally false.
Again, as He was rejected in former times by the
multitude of His countrymen and by the Galilean
patriots, so He is rejected at this present time by
42
CRITICISM AND WORSHIP.
}
multitudes of the poor, and by some of the educated
and philanthropic. Why doth He not free John the
Baptist? why doth He not cast out the Romans? cried
the one. Why does He not destroy poverty and
disease? ask the other. Why does He suffer His fol-
lowers to become a prey to schism, to discord, and to
war? Others, again, a very numerous class, who
still worship Him in name, stumbling as
stumbled in the days of old because Christ
would work no sign in heaven, ask tremulously,
Why has He not given us, as a secure basis for
our faith, an unanimous and world-wide Church?
Others, again, Why have we not the unerring oracle
of a literally inspired book to save us from that
destruction of our faith which to-morrow's criticism
may possibly bring forth? Thus, from various
causes, all who worship Christ, not with their com-
bined faculties but with the brain alone; all those
who worship Him not for Himself but for what they
may get from Him; all those of us who worship
Him, not on the testimony of His own life and
works but simply on the authority of a Church,
or the authority of a book--all these seem to be
parting from Christ: and Christ seems to be leaving
us, and casting behind Him all our official worship,
and going away from us into the wilderness alone.
Brethren, let us pray that we may have grace to
follow our Master thither; and gathering around
Him there, casting aside the critical spirit, let us
be content to sit a while patiently at His feet,
gazing up in reverence at His face, if perchance
CRITICISM AND WORSHIP.
43
through faith and trust we may attain to some
apprehension of His nature; and there, in the
wilderness, if need be, let us wait till the grace of
God shall enable us to make answer to that ques-
tion which it is the supreme object of our lives to
answer aright, Whom say ye that I, the Son of
man, am?
Take with you into the wilderness of probation
all aids and appliances to faith: The Bible first;
then prayer, prayer patient and regular in spite of
apparent failure, prayer that shall knock success-
fully in the end at the unyielding doors of your
own stubborn and faithless heart; take with you
thoughts of home and of home life; and, as the
years roll on, take, as your hearts will bid you, the
prayerful memory of the blessed dead; take a
spirit of reverence and humility, and a resolute
determination not to dislocate your life by giving
up the use of public worship, but to be patient and
constant amid doubts, suspending your judgment,
and waiting a while until age and experience may
help you to ascertain whether new life may not be
breathed into the old forms and phrases. Take
also, if you will, commentaries and concordances
and all that is included in our apparatus criticus;
but in the study of the ideal Character of Man
leave some place for Wordsworth and Shakespeare,
whom God has surely not given to English students
without a Divine purpose in the gift. Take with
you a mind framed to judge and to discern
things true from false; but take also a body toned
1
I
|
44
CRITICISM AND WORSHIP.
and attuned for noble thoughts by pure habits
and by manly exercises; and lastly, take an
earnest and laborious life, not only imbued with
noble hopes of future well-doing, but, if possible,
tinctured also with some present habits of unselfish
action.
If you will do this there need be no fear for the
ultimate result. The Son of man, through whom
you strive to contemplate all things in heaven and
earth, shall sanctify all influences for your good;
the stars in their courses shall fight for you. In
spite of seeming retrogressions, Christ shall guide
you still onward and upward; and each year, as it
develops in you the faculties of manhood, shall
develop in you also His growing presence. Raised
above all fears, doubts, and misgivings as to the
final triumph of the Supreme Good, you shall
receive and retain the conviction of St. Peter
daily deepened in your heart, that there is none in
heaven but Christ and the Father whom He hath
revealed, and none on earth whom you may desire
in comparison with Christ. Then, when you wor-
ship Christ as one with God, you will not be
timidly using an old form of words which for old
associations' sake you would not willingly give up,
but you will be expressing a faith which will have
become a part of your very being, that Jesus of
Nazareth sums up in Himself, and verily is, the
Eternal Word of God, the King of Kings and
Lord of Lords: and that, as He hath already
subjected death to His own glory, enthroning
CRITICISM AND WORSHIP.
45
Himself by means of death in the hearts and
affections of mankind, so shall He also, in
the far-off future, make sin itself and every
other evil subservient to His eternal purposes,
to the end that, rising upon the altar-steps of
this mysterious world, through illusion, through
pain, through corruption, through death, and
through sin, the imperfect children of men may
ascend at last to the perfection of the Father
in heaven.
t
THE WORD
NOT YET MADE FLESH.
In the beginning was the Word . . . all things were made by
Him.-ST. JOHN I. 1, 3.
WE
We believe that the world was made by the
Eternal Word for the hallowing of God's name.
But if this be so, then the more we learn about
the history of the world and all things therein,
the more we are learning about the instruments
framed by the Word of God to mould the minds
of men for the righteous worship of Him. When,
therefore, historians reveal to us new truths about
the rise and fall of nations, or physiologists about
the origin of the operations of the brain and
nerves, or geologists about the formation of the
strata of the earth, or astronomers about the
motions and origins of the heavenly bodies, or
dramatists about the potent effects of human
passions shaping character for good or ill, or the
poets of nature about the subtle influence of sun-
set and sunrise, clouds and mountains and lakes
in developing unnamed and unnameable aspir-
ations-in all these cases we are learning some-
•
THE WORD NOT YET MADE FLESH.
47
thing more about the operations of the Eternal
Word guiding us towards worship. Consciously
or unconsciously, all these, and many other
workers, are leading us to a better apprehension
of the Word of God, and therefore to a higher
worship of Christ, who is the Eternal Word made
flesh.
In different ages of the Church different bases
for faith in Christ have commended themselves
to men, some of which are now withdrawn from
us. For example, the civilised world being now
imbued with the Spirit of Christ, we have no
longer the striking testimony to His power once
supplied by the contrast between Christianity and
Paganism. Nor have we any longer the support
of the apparent unanimity of the visible Church
in all points of ritual and doctrine. But to
compensate for these and other seeming losses
we have two or three manifest gains: first, the
testimony of I know not how many centuries
bearing witness to the work of the Eternal Word
before the Word was made flesh; secondly, the
witness of eighteen centuries, after the Word was
made flesh, attesting the power of His influence
and the truth of His doctrine; thirdly, a recently
increasing appreciation of the divineness of Christ's
human nature, or the Word made flesh. The
history of the world divided into these three
sections may be compared to a trilogy of which
till very lately only the two last dramas had
been discovered, and the drift of the whole had
48
THE WORD
been consequently obscured. But now, page after
page of the introductory drama being brought
to light, the two latter dramas are made more
intelligible, and the meaning of the Author more
apparent.
It is to the first drama in this sublime trilogy
that I desire to call your attention to-day-to the
connecting thread of purpose and method trace-
able in the creation and development of that
which St. Paul calls "The first Adam." On
another occasion, if opportunity should allow, it
might be possible to trace the same purpose and
the same method in the manifestation of the
"Second Adam," that is, in the Incarnation ;
and lastly, in the conformation of the first Adam
to the Second, that is, in the history of the
Church of Christ. The method, rather than the
purpose, will engage our attention-a method
in which progress and development will be found
effected by natural laws and quiet, unobtrusive
processes; and evil, continually obtruding and
developing itself, is not eradicated, but subordi-
nated to the purposes of good. Evil, as well
as good, is developed in each stage of the pro-
gressive world-evil, which our precipitate fancies
would lead us to destroy in the germ; but the
divine method has ever been the same, Let both
grow together till the harvest.
The best illustration of the subordination of
evil to good may perhaps be found in the first
scene of the drama of creation, as we contemplate
NOT YET MADE FLESH.
49
the rudiments of the coalescing earth and the
great law which regulates its growth. The his-
tory of every single particle of matter is a kind
of type and prophecy of the history of each
human soul and of the whole human race.
Consider such a particle. It had a motion of
its own (we know not whence); its desire, let us
call it, which impelled it into space. But it
was arrested in its course by attraction to a
powerful centre of force. If either of these two
original forces had been absent the result would
have been no world. Take away the motion of
desire, and the particle would have been absorbed
into the attracting centre; take away the central
attraction, and desire would have hurried the
particle into the barren void. But, as the result
of these two simultaneous forces, the particle
moves in the harmonious orbit of life. Moreover,
by the same law by which each particle is at-
tracted to the common and parental centre, by
that same law each is attracted to each, brother
to brother. Thus the attracting law of father-
hood, so to speak, is really but another form
of the social law of brotherhood.
Let us not take this material law, ordained by
the Word of God, for more than a mere illustra-
tion of His corresponding law in the immaterial
world, whereby the love of the brother and love
of the Father are closely connected. Yet even of
such illustrations some may be inclined to say
with a great man (substituting God for Nature),
E
..
50
THE WORD
21
These are not only similitudes, as men of narrow
observation may conceive them to be, but the same
footsteps of God, treading or printing upon several
subjects or matters.
Let us imagine ourselves fresh from the spectacle
of a chaos converted to order by a simple law of
motion, present as spectators of the cooling globe,
while it rolls round the sun, tenantless as yet, half
in light but half in darkness; and the question is
put to us, What is the governing force of this
world? Knowing nothing of what is to come,
and looking only to the sublime victory of order
over disorder, our reply at this stage might per-
haps be no more than this, The governing power
of the world is a law of motion.
But now life appears, life at first of a low order,
the life of the vegetable; growth rather than life:
nevertheless a vast stride upwards. But side by
side with growth, or the germ of life, appears its
shadow, decay, or the germ of death. Moreover,
along with growth there appears a new kind of
conflict or struggle, not like that struggle between
two forces for the direction of the particle (a
struggle which we saw resolving itself at once
into a peaceable compromise), but a destructive and
internecine struggle for existence in which some
living things choke and exterminate others. A
problem ancient as thought, and as insoluble as
ancient-the problem of waste and death. Yet
here, even from the beginning, we see the first dim
suggestion of that incisive solution of the knot
A
NOT YET MADE FLESH.
51
which was afterwards to be made prominent in the
death of the highest Life; for from the decay and
death of one, we behold the fertilised earth giving
birth and life to others.
Let us imagine ourselves again upon the surface
of the earth, wondering spectators of the fresh-
born kingdom of vegetable life, ignorant as yet of
decay, and accepting the spectacle of the first
decaying thing as the manifestation of a new
power in the world. What a shock should we have
felt when the newly-created living creature faded
and withered and perished before our eyes! That
first death would have darkened our vision of the
governing force of earth, till from the ground on
which we are gazing, mourning at the apparent
triumph of disorder and destruction, and all un-
aware of the latent seed deposited by the parent
plant, there springs up the new living creature,
type of a triumphant resurrection. Moreover, we
discern that the struggle for existence in the vege-
table world, wherein so many are called and so
few chosen, helps on the progress of those that are
to come after, by leaving the fittest to survive, and
by thus raising the level of life. Thus are our
hearts inspired with confidence to declare The
governing force of the world is after all not dis-
order, but order; not death, but life.
As growth brought with it the shadow of decay,
so the advent of a brighter life of action brings
with it the shadow of a darker death of suffering;
and pleasure brings with it inseparable pain.
—
E 2
52
THE WORD
Myriads of moving things are seen rejoicing in
existence, but struggling to exist; leading lives
diversified with pain and pleasure, but always
ending in pain. Unquestionably the problem pre-
sented by the death of the first breathing thing
must have been far more terrible and perplexing to
the imaginary spectator than the spectacle of the
mere decay of any inanimate object. Think even
of the mere natural death of any of the higher
animals, for the first time contemplated. Yonder
self-moving machine, how wonderfully made! How
admirably adapted for the plains or forests wherein
it seeks its sustenance ! What grace in all its
movements! What a light of life in its eyes!
How great its enjoyment in mere untroubled exist-
ence! But see it falters, stumbles, and falls, not
to rise up again; the windows of light are dark-
ened in it; the quiet grace of its calm repose and
the beauty of its motion, are replaced by unsightly
gaspings and convulsions, and after a few distort-
ing struggles the exquisitely constructed machine
is shattered for ever. How much more terrible
still when some stronger life swoops down upon
the weaker, and, in spite of vain resistance, cries,
and agonies, hurries the doomed thing away to its
final and inevitable pain! Must not such a
spectacle have led the imaginary spectator in the
primæval world to cry aloud in despair, Truly
death and destruction are the governing forces of
the world?
At this stage, therefore, as counterpoises to the
G
NOT YET MADE FLESH.
53
increased power of death, we see for the first time
introduced among the higher animals a new and
unheard-of force. It is a kind of attraction, com-
parable to the attraction between the magnet and
the iron; only it seems not to be a mere law of
motion, nor any law of inert matter, but to be
found most prominent where the animal differs
most from the vegetable. Instead of the mere
contiguity of the seedling to the mother plant, the
contact of nutrition between offspring and parent
in certain higher races has issued in a maternal
thrill of something which, in its permanent shape,
we call instinctive love. But for this new force of
protective love the rising generations of the higher
races could not be sustained. There is also the
lower instinct of generative love by which the
tribes of the waters as well as those of earth and
air are influenced. To these affections all animate
things, even the most savage, are subjected; and
thus, though faintly as yet, above the voices of
death and destruction, other voices are making
themselves heard.
Moreover, as though to supplement the new
power, and to counterpoise brute strength, another
power is being quietly introduced. How many of
us have admired, with some sense of worship, the
beauty that meets us everywhere in Nature-the
beauty of the flowers of the field, beauty in bird
and beast, and the still higher beauty of the inde-
scribable melodies with which our English birds
gladden our hearts in spring-time-how many of
1
54
}
1
THE WORD
us in our boyhood noted all these things, and
knew not that these delights had been wrought out
for us by the Eternal Word through natural and
quiet processes of countless generations! Yet so
it has been. Beauty, whether of fragrance, or
form, or colour, or sound, has been, though all
unnoted by men, an attracting power for the lower
creatures since the world was created, attracting
the insects to this flower and not to that, fertilising
the more beautiful, repressing the less beautiful,
and thus adorning the fields with a brightness
which increases as the ages roll on. In the same
way, in the animal world, not mere strength, but
beauty in song, or shape, or colour, attracting all
living things together, has perpetuated the more
beautiful and repressed the less, so that at this day
we may say that each flash of the breast of the
humming-bird, every speck in the wing of the
butterfly, every note of the nightingale, comes
to us through countless ages, elaborated in the
processes of nature by the Eternal Word.
Against the increased power of death we see,
therefore, the new power of instinctive love, and
that highest kind of order which we call beauty,
allying themselves with life. And beside these
helps, we have the same aid which science gave us
in contemplating vegetable decay. Here, as there,
struggle produces fitness, and death is seen to be
the basis of a higher life. Even in its most vast
and fearful aspect, death dooming to destruction
whole races at a blow, whether in the animal or in
NOT YET MADE FLESH.
55
the vegetable world, is seen to be working no
wanton waste, but to be building up, stratum
above stratum, that surface which is to be the
home of the higher race that is yet to come.
With these allies and aids to help us, we are able
to confront primæval death and to say, Between
life and death in themselves we find it hard to
pronounce which is the more powerful; but we see
coming into the world two new attracting forces-
love and beauty; and both of these seem to tend,
not towards disorder but to order, not to the
encouragement of brute destructive strength, but
to the development of a higher life. These two new
powers seem to turn the scale of life as against
death; and perchance life, with its two allied
forces, love and beauty, are the governing powers
of the world.
Passing over a great gulf in the progress of
creation we come now to man, gifted with attention,
memory, and forethought. The memory of past
kindnesses develops the former instinctive love
into a deliberate and permanent affection. And
when we view the ideal father in the ideal family,
then we might well deem that wheresoever two or
three have thus been gathered together by the
Eternal Word, there, more than elsewhere, has the
Eternal Word been; and fatherhood and brother-
hood might seem to be entitled to be called the
governing forces of the world. But we are far off
at present from the ideal man, far back in the
remotest ages contemplating man in the condition
J
56
THE WORD
་
of a savage. And, contemplated thus, what a fall
does man exhibit! Attention and memory, these
are bright gifts. Yes, but what dark curses in-
separably attend them! Does not the same
memory which develops love also develop hate?
By the great gift of language men are united into
communities and become aware of the utility of
law, and learn to love the rewards and praises
of obedience and to shrink from the punishment
and dispraise of disobedience, and dimly to feel
that, apart from all reward or punishment, the law
is to be obeyed; thus, from the sense of utility,
being led by the Eternal Word to feel their way
toward the sense of righteousness. But the fall
seems in proportion to the rise. For with the
painful privilege of obeying law comes the strong
temptation to disobey; and the promised birth of
righteousness is counterbalanced by the threatened
advent of a new enemy, as yet unknown, an enemy
more terrible even than death.
Thus each bright gift brings its dark shadow;
and as in the transition from vegetable to animal
life, so now again in the transition from rational to
irrational life, the shadow seems at first to gain the
victory over the light. Hope, for example, brings
with it its shadow, fear; and fear seems at first
stronger than hope. For who could assert that
hope and fear were fairly matched as long as hope
could look forward to nothing beyond the grave,
while fear beheld, ever at hand, inevitable death?
Memory also brought, as we have seen, hate as well
NOT YET MADE FLESH.
57
as love; and it brought another seeming evil
peculiar to men. The herd and the flock can forget
their dying companion even while the breath is
passing from its body; there is reserved for men
the privilege of recollecting, long after death, the
not-returning dead.
It is the destiny of this planetary home of ours
to be half in darkness, but always half in light. Is
it possible that it should be the destiny of man
himself that darkness should overspread the larger
portion of his life? Could that seem right?
No, it could not seem right. And therefore
Hope arises to do battle against Death, and to
discern, beyond the grave, visions of blessing for
the dead, happy islands of peace, or Elysian
meadows, or far-off hunting-fields where the chase
shall never cease. On the side of Hope there range
themselves strange allies, who would have seemed
more suitably ranked on the side of death. Night
and Sleep stretch out their hands to mould the
mind of man for the contemplation of an invisible
world, unapproachable by death. Strange, that
Sleep, the very twin brother of Death, should thus be
enforced to take up arms against it! Strange, that
darkness (of all natural agencies) should be found
preparing the way for the discernment of an
inextinguishable light!
Darkness! What a waste it seems, for all things,
in proportion to their activity! Sleep, too! how
ignoble and base a condescension that such a
piece of work as man should require for the mere
1
58
THE WORD
!
readjustment of his complex machinery a period
of inactive torpor, almost equal in length to one
half the time devoted to action! But as darkness
covers the paths of earth, the streams, and forests,
and yet leaves the nightly wanderer none the less
certain that paths, streams, and forests are still
there and will re-appear with the morrow's light;
and as, with contrary effect, when the veil of day
is withdrawn from the stars, the night restores
them to the eye in their wonted splendour, so by
slow degrees the minds of men are led through the
suggestion of darkness to meditate and rest, first on
things that are not seen, and then on things that
cannot be seen. The horizon of hope being thus
enlarged by darkness, sleep steps in to people the
new world. The dreams of night presenting the
vision of some dead chief or father, appearing in his
armour even as he lived, startle the sleeper from his
slumbers to grasp at the fleeting apparition, and
to find that it evades him like a shadow, and
vanishes like a breath into the thin air. None the
less, the whole tribe is summoned on the morrow
to learn that the Breath or Spirit or Shade of the
departed chief still lives, demanding food or
worship, and that he has powers for good or evil in
a world beyond the grave.
Here, if not before, comes into the world the
first germ of the natural religion of humanity: I
mean the religion that enjoins the worship of a
being endowed with human attributes. Before,
perhaps, the personification had been almost
}
NOT YET MADE FLESH.
59
unconscious, when homage had been paid to the
potent agencies of nature-the sun, the sky, the fire
and the water, or to other baser objects of adoration.
But now, behind all these visible objects, there is
thrown by the imagination the presence of an
invisible personality. If the great Chief has a
breath or spirit, not subject to change, and working
weal or woe for those that honour or dishonour
him, how much more must this be true of the other
objects of adoration, the great Gods of Nature!
Now, therefore, all nature is personified, and begins
to possess a will, the will of the united Gods,
or perchance of the Father of them all. This will,
though not written in stone or brass, is above
all written laws of men. To conform oneself to
this highest unwritten Law is reverence, virtue,
righteousness. A great stride upwards, surely,
this! But alas, the ascent is matched by an equal
descent. For with the discovery of righteousness
comes the discovery of its shadow, unrighteous-
ness; to disobey the laws of men-that had been
only a crime; but now, as man rises higher, to the
contemplation of a higher than human law, he
is found capable of a darker disobedience and a
deeper fall; for the new disobedience is sin.
dyna
When these two spectres-sin and the fear of
death-had first obtruded themselves upon the
mind, would it not have seemed to us—would-be
creators and critics of the world—a fitting work for
a beneficent governor of all things to crush them
upon the threshold? But that has not been the
60
THE WORD
:
F
›
method of the Eternal Word. Death is to be
utilised, sin to be subordinated; but, first of all,
each must run its course. Death must manifest
all its terrors, and sin must be made exceeding
sinful.
Now, therefore, begins the age of ancient civilisa-
tion, of which one object was to make men
consciously miserable, that they might be delivered
from their misery. As in the lower world of
irrational creatures, so here, the races of men
battle and struggle together for existence or
supremacy; and the supremacy of the fittest brings
prominently forward different powers; first force,
then cunning, then the power of multitude, skill,
orderly union, patriotism, reverence for law and
order. During the excitement of the struggle, the
fear of death was forgotten, and sin scarcely
recognised. Leonidas breakfasts cheerfully at
Thermopylae ready to dine in Hades: it is sweet
and honourable to die for one's country. Only in
one little province of Syria is a voice heard crying
to the governing Power of the world for deliverance
from the fear of death. My heart is disquieted
within me, and the fear of death has fallen upon
me. Only in the same despised corner of the earth
is there heard the strange prayer, Make me a
clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit
within me. The sacrifice of God is a troubled
spirit; a broken and a contrite heart, O God,
shalt thou not despise. But that was the solitary
cry of Israel. Rome and Greece, in the freshness
1
NOT YET MADE FLESH.
61
of their maturity, knew not the fear of death, nor
the need of a contrite heart.
Yet all the while, even in Greece and Rome, the
two spectres were only dormant, not driven out.
Therefore at last, when the empire of Rome had
welded the civilised world into one great society,
the nations sat down at leisure for the first time
to think and to be miserable, face to face with
death and sin. A law-abiding, peace-loving spirit
pervaded the world, and the path was clear for the
combined action of all civilised nations; but the
motive for action seemed to have disappeared.
Women of all classes, and all the slaves and poor,
are found deserting the old national religions, and
resorting to novel rites and strange expiations, if
perchance they may discharge their minds of this
new uneasy feeling called in Judæa sin. Jugglers,
travelling priests, and astrologers make profit of
the universal yearning for one glimpse into the
secrets of the after world. If it was impossible
to secure happiness after death, yet to exist, or at
least to be remembered, began now commonly to
seem one of the most precious of treasures; and
many an inscription still records for us how Tullius
or Tullia builds a tomb for himself or herself while
living, and leaves an estate to the intent that twice
a year, for all time, his freedmen, and their descend-
ants for ever, may sprinkle upon his tomb spring
violets or summer roses, and feast together around
his sepulchre. Even the poor slave, whose body is
thrown by a cruel master to the dogs and crows,
62
THE WORD
L
has a provision made for his hard case by his
humble burial-club, enacting that in such a case
he shall at least receive an imaginary funeral.
Deep down beneath the literary froth of a little
noisy bubbling scepticism, the thoughts of the
masses of men were more than ever given to re-
ligion, turning, now hither now thither, to every
god and goddess of the Pantheon for deliverance
from their intolerable burdens. But gods and god-
desses were dumb. Crowded into cities, or toiling
as slaves in gangs upon the lands of a master, the
poor and miserable who made up the majority of
the empire felt that the old glory had departed for
ever from the great gods of Nature: living at a
time when heroism was extinct, they found the
worship of the ancient heroes no longer helpful.
The West turned to the East for deliverance; but
Isis and Serapis, imported into Rome, gave no
permanent aid. Turning from the blank heaven
to earth, men saw there no God more real and
powerful than the being who sat upon the one
remaining throne, whose will was law throughout
the empire, the Master of many legions, whose
existence was the peace of the world and the
worship of a Tiberius or a Caligula became popular
and natural and insuppressible; and Nero found
worshippers after his death.
-
Yet there was still the old question obtruded by
the inopportune and ever premature Spectre, which
not even an emperor could answer-What is there
after death? As long as I live will I hang lamps
NOT YET MADE FLESH.
63
A
around thy tomb, says the inscription of a faithful
freedman engraved on the master's tombstone: after
death-I know not. That plaintive utterance ex-
presses the universal cry of the suffering and toiling
classes of the empire. After death we know not. It
was with them as with Hamlet: the time was out
of joint, and the fear of death puzzled the will and
diverted the ancient currents of enterprise. To
whom should be assigned, cries the imperial poet,
the task of propping the falling empire and of ex-
piating its guilt? The poet who put that question
had a courtly answer of his own: he looks to the
Julian laws for the reformation of the race, and
sees the Saviour in Augustus. But if to our
imaginary spectator of the changing world this
same question had been addressed a few years
afterwards, say in the fifteenth year of Tiberius
Caesar, he would have been prompted, I think, to
an altogether different answer, something after this
fashion: Unless men can be delivered from the
bondage of death and sin, the development of
the civilised world is at an end: whatsoever
therefore shall be able to effect this deliver-
power
ance, that power will be at one with the governing
Power of the world, continuing the work that has
been wrought from the beginning.
We might have added, having regard to the past
history of the world, that such a deliverance would
probably be achieved, if ever, not by a great
convulsion or instantaneous revolution, but by
quiet means and inobtrusive processes; not by a
UoFM
-
64
THE WORD NOT YET MADE FLESH.
•
recurrence to force, but by appeal to peaceful
powers; not by imposing an external law, but by
diffusing an internal spirit; not by setting aside all
human institutions and habits, but by regenerating
them all, and most of all, the institution of the
family and the habitual sense of fatherhood. That
such a deliverance should ever be effected by a
single human being would perhaps have seemed
to us impossible: but if it had been predicted to us
that assuredly one Man would accomplish this great
task, revivifying the sense of fatherhood, destroying
the weight of sin, and blunting the sting of death,
and that He would do all this by calling mankind
to come to Himself, to take His yoke upon them,
and to accept Him as the source of forgiveness
and as the sustenance of their higher life, then
we should have unhesitatingly replied that such a
human Being must be, though human, yet in some
sense divine, and at one with the governing Power
of the world. What else we should believe about
Him belongs to the second drama of the trilogy,
and we are at present witnessing only the first
drama, the Work of the Word not yet made flesh.
Maou
*T*
THE WORD MADE FLESH.
The Word was made flesh.-ST. JOHN 1. 14.
WE have spoken of the history of the world before
the coming of Christ as being a kind of ascent of
worship. Now we are to speak of the coming of
Christ as introducing the highest worship of all; a
worship which has raised many generations of men,
but which will need many centuries more before
men can rise (if ever) to the full height of it; a
worship that (in some form or other) is natural
for every healthy human heart, and necessary for
every heart that would attain health; a worship
free from intellectual doubtings and disputations,
because it rests upon simple and verifiable spiritual
axioms. What would we not give in these days
for a simple religion!
To be rid for ever of religious controversies; to
be uplifted from the dusty atmosphere of polemical
turmoil to the higher level of some safe and natural
worship where one can breathe the fresh free air of
peace, faith, hope, and love, so that flinging all
doubt to the winds we may concentrate all our
F
•
66
THE WORD MADE FLESH.
faculties on hopeful action-this is an object
surely devoutly to be desired, and on the attain-
ment of such a worship as this it is worth while to
spend some thought and to give some attention.
But first let us be agreed as to what we mean by
worship. Concerning unrighteous worship we shall
have nothing to say. But as to the highest kind of
worship we shall agree (without argument probably)
that it contains, as one of its elements, love.
Love, however, is not all. Parents love their
children; and the strong and wise love the weak
and ignorant but that love is a love that looks
down. Worship implies looking up; and the
love that is contained in worship must not look
down, but up. This looking up we call awe
or reverence; and we shall agree (still probably
without argument) that the highest worship im-
plies not only love but also looking up, that is,
reverence or awe.
Closely allied to love and reverence is a third
feeling which springs almost necessarily out of the
other two when the worshipper turns from the
object of his worship to think of himself: "Who
am I that I should set up my will against the will
of the Being whom I love and reverence? Since
Thou art so good and so powerful, I may trust
myself in Thy hands and submit my will to Thine."
Trust, then (not a mere trust or belief in the exist-
ence of the object worshipped, but a trust implying
some kind of self-surrender), may be added as a
third element, joining with love and awe to make
THE WORD MADE FLESH.
67
up a triple combination which in its highest form
we call worship.
Taking this, therefore, as a working definition
of our highest worship, we have to ask where we
are to find a worship that shall be noble, natural,
and, above all, safe? When we say safe, we do
not mean a worship that can be demonstrated to
us as a proposition of geometry is demonstrated,
or as a geometrical axiom commends itself without
demonstration: but we do ask this, that it shall
not be a worship based on a foundation which may
be at any moment shaken by forces beyond our
control.
Is there then anything which, environing our
life on all sides, pressing on us as naturally and
as ubiquitously as the air, causes us to feel one or
all of the elements of worship? Yes, there is the
glory of the visible world which has in all times
drawn the heart upwards. The poet who sang how
his heart leaped up when he beheld the rainbow
in the sky, expressed the feeling of our remotest
forefathers, and of all those great nations which
have lived a healthy vigorous life and have left
their mark upon the history of mankind. With
awe men have looked up, even in the dawn of
history, to the vast phenomena of the universe;
nor have they been able to behold the well-ordered
stability of beneficent Nature without a feeling
approaching to trust.
But there has been absent the third element,
love. Moreover, the second element, trust, has
F 2
68
THE WORD MADE FLESH.
1
often been feeble: not without cause, in the pre-
sence of pain and death and the physical and
moral disorders of mankind. Therefore something
more is needed, besides the visible world, to satisfy
the instinct of worship. While we can never dis-
pense with the revelation of God as the Architect
of the visible world outside us, the Creator of the
sun and moon and stars, we also need some revela-
tion of Him as the Maker of the unseen world
within us, as the Creator of righteousness, pity,
justice, hope, faith. As the body instinctively
expands and exults in the warmth and light of
the sun, so in the unseen world of thought is there
not some power that causes the soul no less in-
stinctively to feel a thrill of exultant expansion ?
There is such a power in the unseen world, to
which we have given the name of love; and this
attracting force, which knits together families,
societies, nations and mankind, points to a far
higher worship than is indicated by the mere
physical attraction that knits together the atoms
and systems of the material world.
KON
But where can we realise and touch with our
mind this invisible object of worship? In the
material universe the sun, the source of light and
warmth, is the natural symbol of material bene-
ficence; where is the corresponding natural symbol
of immaterial beneficence? In ourselves? God
forbid the prospect would not be hopeful. In our
neighbours? We can too often see but faint glimmer-
ings of it there. In the collective lives of all the
THE WORD MADE FLESH.
69
T
good men that have ever lived? Yes; but in those
broken lights the splendour is too diffused to elicit
our highest worship. We need to have some one
Life, which shall sum up the influence of love, past,
present and to come, and which shall be to lesser
lives what the sun is to the myriad reflections of its
rays. The blessed illusion of Nature presents to
most of us in our childhood the life of a father or
mother, who is to our childish mind, in wisdom, or
power, or goodness, the image of the Supreme.
When that illusion breaks, where is the real life
that should be found beneath it? If we can find
such a life, that life will be the sun of our souls,
the natural object of our highest aspirations.
Again, we mentioned but now pain, sin, and
death. As long as these are recognised as parts
of the regular phenomena of the Universe, it is
hard for us to worship the Maker. Do but prove,
or even hold out a strong and reasonable hope, that
these are not regularities, but irregularities, which
have crept into the work and which shall ulti-
mately be subordinated to the purposes of the
building, and then our worship can go on in the
strength of faith: but till we have this faith we
are at a stand. Who can grant unto us this hope
or faith? Who can so imbue us with it as to
deliver us from bondage to the fear of death?
Who can impress upon our hearts the hope that
pain, both mental and bodily, will be subordinated
to the highest joy; that death will prove to be the
stepping-stone to a nobler life; and that sin itself
70
THE WORD MADE FLESH.
may be made the soil out of which righteousness
may spring? If there is no such inspirer of hope
our need remains unsatisfied; but in any case we
see clearly what we need. We need one who
shall be the embodiment of the divine law of love,
and who shall also solve, or at least suggest a
solution of, the mysteries of pain, death, and sin.
"But if such a being ever comes into the world,"
-you say, perhaps-" he will indeed claim our
highest love and our trust; but will he not detach
us from that other kind of worship which we
naturally and necessarily give to the Architect of
the Material Universe? And so, will not the
human mind be at discord with itself, offering its
awe to the fearful and unknown Maker of good
and evil, but its love and trust to the human in-
terpreter of good and evil, who has subordinated,
and shown us how to subordinate, the evil to the
good?" True, it would be so if that human in-
terpreter and incarnation of the divine Law were
to be in antagonism to the Maker. But what if
that Interpreter should tell us that all His own
being comes from the Maker ?
That His own
love is but the expression of the Maker's love?
That, in a word, the Maker is rightly known only
through the Interpreter ? Or, best of all, that the
Maker and the Interpreter stand in the relation of
Father and Son ? If that be so, all danger of
discord passes from our worship. If that be so,
then heaven and earth, God and man, seen and
unseen, are leagued together, and the teaching
THE WORD MADE FLESH.
71
of the world without is brought into complete
harmony with the teaching of the world within.
We claim for Jesus of Nazareth that He has
revealed unto us in Himself this highest kind of
worship. Putting aside all other grounds con-
cerning which there may be the least controversy
or shadow of a doubt, we claim that He, more than
any other, expressed in His life, and diffused after
His death, the sense of the divine Fatherhood of
God as the governing principle of the world; that
He, more than any other, enabled those who
trusted in Him to go joyfully from this world to
the next, not through fear of pain here, not through
hope of reward hereafter, but through the longing
desire for His presence, through the yearning to
be with Christ; that He, more than any other, has
lifted up the sinful and abject, introducing into
the world the almost unheard-of power of for-
giveness, which has blessed alike the forgiver and
the forgiven. His influence is present and potent
among us to this day, to be recognised, not only in
our rarer moments of elevated thought, but in our
daily lives and most ordinary habits—yes, even in
the very language which is the necessary vehicle
of our thoughts.
"But," it may be urged, "though this is true of
England and of any other Christian country, how
can it be held true of non-Christian countries ?
The sun is always present in every sky to exhibit
and enforce the worship of the Maker; but what
token is equally present in all nations and climates
{
1
72
to enforce the worship of Christ ?" I answer, the
Family. Place the missionary of Christ in any
jungle or desert of the most savage and brutal tribe,
unpenetrated hitherto by civilised man; and even
there will be found some sense of fatherhood. Even
to the hardest and most degraded heart the message
of the missionary may surely convey some intel-
ligible meaning when he points to the little ones
who are Christ's ubiquitous messengers, and says,
"I proclaim to mankind a new empire in the world.
The governing power of the universe is not the
brute strength which you dread in the tiger, nor
even the glorious and beneficent majesty to which
you look up with awe and trust in the great
luminary above your head; but it is that love
which bound your parents to you in days gone by,
and which in each age unites the generations to-
gether. That love should still be remembered by
you; perhaps, if you have children of your own,
the memory of it has been renewed and purified.
But do you desire to see it manifested on a world-
wide scale, and yet expressed in one intelligible
image? Do you wish to worship it clothed and
made accessible in an earthly vesture, yet not de-
prived of its celestial purity? Behold it then
made flesh for you, in One who, without steel, or
gold, or cunning, or noble birth, was made vic-
torious through suffering, and triumphant through
death; so that already He has subjected all civilised
nations to His sway. This great Conqueror claims
your trust, your reverence, and your love. In Him,
THE WORD MADE FLESH.
-
THE WORD MADE FLESH.
73
and not in idols of wood or stone, behold and worship
the All-Powerful manifested as the Father of men."
Does not Christ's Kingdom, thus viewed, appeal
to us as no less natural than powerful; let us say, as
being powerful because natural, because the law of
the kingdom of heaven is the same as the law of the
family on earth? But this natural aspect is too
often lost because we explain away Christ's de-
liberate selection of childhood as the type of the
citizenship of the New Kingdom into a mere
sentimental fondness for the frankness and sim-
plicity of children. This misunderstanding arises
from our own selfish and frivolous natures, and
from the rooted folly of our notions concerning
children. Because we cannot see the difference
between the childish innocence that comes from
ignorance or weakness, and the manly virtue that
comes from knowledge and self-control, we are
sometimes disposed to gloss over the faults of child-
hood and to attribute to children a faultlessness
which they do not possess. Again, we are too apt
to regard children as playthings to distract us from
serious cares, indulging them for the sake of giving
ourselves a present pleasure; and to this selfish
indulgence we give the name of love. But it was
not in this selfish or sentimental spirit that Christ
declared that the angels of little children always
behold the face of the Father in heaven. What can
that saying mean except that He who uses the winds
and the clouds as His angels or messengers, and for
whom every power of the seen and unseen world
74
THE WORD MADE FLESH.
performs some angelic service, employs more es-
pecially the ministry of children in conveying the
message of divine love, thereby conforming the
human race to the divine image ?
In the same spirit Christ reiterated to His dis-
ciples the necessity of becoming as little children,
and of considering a little child as His veritable
ambassador. His followers were to become as little
children, not only in relation to the Father in
heaven, but also in their relations with their
enemies on earth. The unsuspicious and unreserved
affection of little children-even though it has
arisen too often, alas! from ignorance-has never-
theless been a redeeming influence among man-
kind, from generation to generation, making war
against selfishness and softening brutality. Taking
advantage of this universal influence, Jesus ordered
His followers, while retaining the wisdom of mature
manhood, to adopt the unsuspecting nature of
childhood. Instead of viewing their neighbours as
enemies, or even as strangers, against whom they
were to be always in an attitude of aggression or
defence, His disciples were to disarm themselves,
becoming, in the midst of a hostile world, as little
children, without power to fear or to suspect, and
by these self-disarming tactics He promised that
they should conquer the world.
Let us be permitted to lay emphasis upon one or
two points in this natural and reasonable aspect of
the life and work of Jesus. First, He worked upon
the lines of law-a definite though neglected law of
་
75
human nature. Secondly, upon obedience to this
law, He based nothing less than a complete revo-
lution of human affairs. Thirdly, amid all His
humility, patience, and sorrow, while identifying
Himself most absolutely with suffering humanity,
He none the less exhibited Himself as the centre of
the hope and trust and devotion of His followers,
calling upon all that were weary and heavy-laden
to come unto Him, and yet (strange paradox)
alleging His very humility as the reason why
mankind should take His yoke upon them: I am
meek and lowly of heart. The whole of His life
shows that this paradox to us was no paradox to
Him. The best servant was the best king; the
meekest and lowliest was the fittest to impose the
yoke; the most obedient son was most in harmony
with the will of the Father, and best able to apply
His laws. As we read in the manuals of material
philosophy that material Nature is controlled by
being obeyed, so in the New Testament we are
told by the Master of all spiritual secrets that in
the unseen world the same law prevails;—whoso
will serve, he and he alone shall rule; whoso
giveth, THEY shall give to him; whoso is meek,
he shall inherit the earth; whoso forgiveth, he
shall be forgiven. If there is any fact patent to
dispassionate students of history, it is that Jesus
of Nazareth logically and naturally claimed for
Himself the Kingdom over mankind as being their
most devoted and loving servant.
Why is there so prevalent a blindness to the
THE WORD MADE FLESH.
"
76
THE WORD MADE FLESH.
1
wisdom of the divine intuition upon which Jesus
based His new Kingdom? Many, even of those
who worship Him, speak of His work in Galilee
as though it were a mere incidental and casual
episode between His birth and crucifixion; as if
He went about doing good, healing the sick, and
preaching the Gospel, merely to fill up the time
till the hour should arrive for the sole important
action of His life-His death. We fail to recog-
nise in that Galilean proclamation the announce-
ment of a Revolution. I call it Revolution,
because to speak of it as a Kingdom of God
attracts no attention now, the phrase being over-
worn. Yet the disciples, as well as our Lord, use
all manner of phrases to show us the revolutionary
tendencies of the New Kingdom. It was to be no
patchwork, but a new garment; it was to be a
new birth, till the accomplishment of which all
creation was in travail; old things were to pass
away and all things were to be new in Christ; what
was highly esteemed by men would in that day be
cast down, and that which was despised would be
set up. The utter subversion of the old order of
things is well expressed in the saying attributed to
our Lord by a late tradition :— Unless ye shall cause
that which is on the right to be on the left, and that
which is on the left to be on the right, and that which
is above to be below, and that which is before to be
behind, ye have no knowledge of the Kingdom of
God. Whatever may be the origin of these words,
their spirit represents the spirit of the Galilean
}
сананы
THE WORD MADE FLESH.
77
proclamation of the Kingdom of God. But all this
we fail to see, because the law is so simple and
such an every-day matter. As if one were to deny
credit to Newton for discovering the great law that
binds the solar system together, because forsooth
after all it is only the same ordinary law that we may
observe for ourselves every day in the fall of a stone
to the earth! But as in the material, so also in
the spiritual world, the simplicity and universality
of the law on which some great discovery is based,
ought surely to increase, instead of diminishing,
our reverence for the wisdom of the discoverer.
.
For these reasons Jesus claims worship: not a
mere sentimental affection or admiration, not a
mere distant reverence and cold awe, not a mere
intellectual confidence in His wisdom, power, and
righteousness, but that combination of affection,
reverence, and trust which places Him beside God
in our hearts. If indeed His life had been merely
the highest expression of vain self-sacrifice, fruitless
compassion, and misplaced love, we might then
have loved Him, but without trust or awe: if He
had been manifested to us simply as the intuitive
originator of a marvellously wise, subtle, and vast
plan for the regeneration of all sinful and miserable
mankind, but had never forgiven individual sinners,
and pitied individual sorrowers, dying as well as
living with the burden of our sins and sufferings
upon His soul, our trust in His wisdom and power
might then have been devoid of any tinge of affec-
tion lastly, if He had come in His own name,
78
THE WORD MADE FLESH.
planning wisely and working lovingly, but never
directing our thoughts to One above, to One
greater than Himself, yet with whom He was at
perfect unity, then too, though we loved and
though we trusted, we might not have felt that
thrill of awe which we instinctively feel to be an
essential part of worship. But as it is, Jesus claims
from us the combination of these three feelings in
the highest degree in which we are capable of
feeling them-our love, our trust, and our awe:
our love for His all-embracing compassion; our
trust for the forethought, wisdom, and power with
which He has planned and is accomplishing the
regeneration of the human race; and our awe, not
only for the moral grandeur of His character, but
(much more than that) because we behold in Him
the incarnate expression of the governing Power
of the world.
In thus holding up Jesus as a necessary object
of our reasonable worship, no mention has hitherto
been made of some claims which may appear to
most of you superior to all others. Many, for
example, will think that they discern a higher
proof of the divine mission of Jesus in the acts of
instantaneous healing performed by Him than in
the spiritual triumphs of His life. On this point
let us be content, for the present, to differ. Our
minds are not all similarly constituted. To some, for
example, the forgiveness of the sins of the man
sick of the palsy, and the conscious and deliberate
introduction into the world of that marvellous
THE WORD MADE FLESH.
79
power of forgiving, successfully used by Jesus and
transmitted by Him to His disciples, appeals much
more forcibly than the narrative (although none
can doubt its historical accuracy) which tells how
the palsy itself was cured by the word of Jesus.
With a large class of minds it will be otherwise,
and to them the miracles of Jesus will seem of
pre-eminent importance. But those who worship
Jesus on the basis which is here suggested, wor-
shipping Him not for His miracles but for His
spiritual work, or rather Himself and for His life
and work taken as a whole, because they cannot help
loving Him, trusting Him, and reverencing Him
more than all the rest of the human race put toge-
ther-those will be the last to despise what may
seem to them a somewhat more insecure and less
worthy worship of Him. They may anticipate a
time when that form of Christianity which is based
upon the miracles of Christ will be terribly shaken
in the minds of the masses of believers: they may
even deem that the time has already arrived when
it is true kindness to shake that belief in the minds
of those whose learning should fit them to be the
guides of the multitude, and whose profession
should stimulate them to search for truth; but
even where they feel bound to destroy, they will
feel still more bound to construct. What if to them
the army of the Church militant seems scattering
its strength in defending a too extensive line of
untenable outposts which do but invite attack!
Does it follow that they should at once spread
80
THE WORD MADE FLESH.
panic through the host of their fellow-soldiers by
sounding a premature alarm? Far better first
prepare for the inevitable future by gradual pro-
cesses, by defining and making clear, at first to a
few, and through those few to the rest, the lines
of those inner and impregnable entrenchments to
which all will ultimately retire, and from which
they themselves already look down in perfect
security upon the surging battle between science
and religion.
Did I say "perfect security? Let me hasten
to modify an expression that may seem too pre-
sumptuous. We are not secure we never can be
secure in the worship of Christ as long as we are
liable to mortal imperfection. But the enemy that
threatens us is not truth, nor even scientific specu-
lation prematurely professing to be truth. Let
science teach us what it may concerning the links
that unite the different forms of existence; it will
but cause us to worship with more reverence the
Maker of that creative chain which hangs down
from above, having, as it ever will have, its upper
extremity wrapped in the clouds of heaven. In
old times, before science came to sharpen our
vision, we could perceive in this chain no more
than four or five ponderous links; now science has
helped us to discern, say four or five hundred ;
soon, as we hope, it will enable us to discern even
more, say four or five thousand; or, if it were
conceivable, four or five million. But what then?
Still, as before, the upper extremity of that vast
""
THE WORD MADE FLESH.
81.
;
chain hangs down from above wrapped in a dark-
ness whither the eye of science never can penetrate.
To the question, What is the ultimate cause of
things? science itself dreams not of ever returning
any answer except, I know not. We, who believe
in a God, say that the beginning of the chain is
wound about the throne of God; and, so far as
science has taught us anything, it has helped to
confirm, not shake, our belief in a divine Artificer.
The chain of creation having been demonstrated to
be infinitely more beautiful and subtle and orderly
than we had supposed, it has become more difficult
to dispense with a Creator, and more difficult to
approach Him without awe. Science also has, of
late, given us fresh cause for trusting as well as
for reverencing the Maker of the Universe. For
the insoluble problems of pain, conflict, and death
are as old as creation, and not now for the first
time presented to us; but the new discoveries of
science make those painful problems more tolerable,
revealing in many cases pain preparing the way
for happiness, conflict subserving development,
death subordinated to progressive life. Thanks be
to Science, handmaid of Faith, and servant of the
Eternal Truth, for thus helping mankind to mag-
nify and to worship the unknown Maker of the
world!
I would not indeed deny that there are intel-
lectual dangers to faith; but they are few, and
closely allied to moral dangers. The habit, for
example, during youth, of setting oneself up as a
G
82
THE WORD MADE FLESH.
·
judge of the vital questions that have occupied the
wisest of mankind, is partly an intellectual but
partly a moral error. The literature of the present
day too much encourages this habit. The con-
densed articles in our magazines-some of which
deal with questions so momentous as the existence
of a God, and solve or suggest the solution within
the compass of a score of pages-may possibly be
useful reading for a few thinkers who have to
watch closely and exactly the varying surface of
contemporary thought, but they cannot be whole-
some reading for any one else. The faith in a
good God, like reverence for a father, or like
wedded love, or like parental affection, is an
instinct which ought not to be blunted by arguing
about it in the fashion of a dilettanti. Irrepres-
sible doubts must be faced and grappled with; but
mere suggestions of doubt we should do well to
suppress by an effort of the will; the very mention
of them ought not to be endured in the presence
of the young.
But your main danger comes not from intellec-
tual but from moral foes. Worship has deadly
enemies, though they are not such as are commonly
supposed. Reflect once more on the essentials of
But
worship-they are love, trust, and reverence.
what if you are wrapped up in yourself, and care
little or nothing for others? What if you are re-
served to excess, jealous, suspicious, incapable of
trusting any human being? What if you are
wholly destitute of the faculty of reverence? if
THE WORD MADE FLESH.
83
the phenomena of nature inspire you with no
awe? if the highest and noblest human excellence
prompts you instinctively not to admire and love,
but to carp and pick holes: Doth Job serve God
for naught? The habit of reverence for men and
women, when once lost, cancels for the time all
faculty of worshipping God. Reverence for one's
parents, reverence for the aged, reverence for the
great and good in all times and ages, this is a
necessary foundation of all pure religion and of all
righteous worship. He that reverences not the
father on earth whom he hath seen, how can he
reverence the Father in heaven whom he hath not
seen? Devoid of love and trust and reverence,
you may repeat the three creeds night and morn-
ing if you will, but they will have no more power
than a Buddhist prayer-mill to revive in you the
dead germ of the faculty of worship.
By cultivating this habit of reverence; by
avoiding the practice of parodying and belittling
great and noble thoughts; by suspending your
judgment about matters in the judgment of which
the experience of age must necessarily form an
element; by the avoidance of fragmentary read-
ing, and by making yourself conversant with a few
great works of the greatest spirits of all times; by
endeavouring even amid the engrossing occupations
of your work up here to take up some little by-work
of a different nature which may remind you that
others have claims upon you; and lastly, by aiming
G 2
da
84
THE WORD MADE FLESH.
-
at purity in thought, word, and deed, you will
be opening your heart to that highest form of
worship which finds expression in loving, trusting,
and reverencing the Lord Jesus Christ as being
the Son of God, one with God, the incarnate ex-
pression of the Beginning of things, the Word of
God made flesh for men. While you thus strive
to draw near to Him, Jesus Himself (doubt it not)
will draw near to you, helping you to love Him
more loyally and to trust in Him more fully. And
then, being made one with Christ through faith, you
will be raised up with Him to the hill of Truth,
whence, looking down upon the history of creation
from first to last, you will be enabled to discern in
part, even through the clouds of sin and misery
beneath you, that all things serve one wise purpose
and conduce to one divine end. The worship of
Christ will then become to you as natural as reve-
rence for parents or as delight in the sunshine.
Whithersoever you turn you will find confirmation
of it; confirmation derived not only from the
Scriptures, but also from the ever-present pressure
of the collective facts of the Universe, from the
whole history of the dealings of the Eternal Word
with mankind, and from the instinctive attraction
by which your soul is drawn towards every visible
manifestation of the Eternal Love. You will wor-
ship Jesus of Nazareth (surely the highest as well
as the happiest mode of worshipping Him!) because
you cannot help worshipping; because past and
THE WORD MADE FLESH.
85
present, because things seen and unseen, because
heaven and earth, alike agree in bearing witness
unto Him, and in re-echoing the passionate decla-
ration of your own inmost heart: Whom have I
in heaven but thee? and there is none on earth that
I should desire in comparison with thee.
HOPE FOR THE LIVING.
And now abideth Faith, Hope, Charity, these three.—
1 COR. XIII. 13.
So far from being always considered a virtue,
Hope has been stigmatised as a dangerous deceiver
or as a luxury not to be indulged in by the weak.
Hope, says the Athenian in Thucydides, the pro-
curess of peril, cannot indeed destroy, though she
may harm, those of her employers who have a reserve
to fall back upon: but to those who risk their all
upon the issue of her services-and a costly servant
she assuredly is-she unmasks herself only in the
moment of their ruin, when her victims have no
resource left to defend themselves against her re-
cognised treachery. Poets in the same strain cry
shame upon this delusive phantom, and protest that
they are-
tired of waiting for this chymick gold,
Which fools us young, and beggars us when old.
Yet the common sense of mankind tells us that
life would be but a poor shrunken thing without
HOPE FOR THE LIVING.
87
hope; and even the poet who reviles its chymick
gold, marvels at the fascination which it still
imparts to the future in spite of our monotonous
and oft-repeated experiences of the flat unprofitable
past:
Strange cozenage! Who would live past days again?
Yet all hope pleasure from what still remain.
Surely the common sense of the world is right.
While recognising that hope may be an evil if it
makes us careless or indolent, trustful to chance
or to luck or to interpositions of Providence rather
than to our own energies and skill, we cannot fail
to see that hopelessness is a still greater evil,
paralysing energy and neutralising skill. No
business in life, however purely intellectual, can
dispense with hope as a stimulus to activity. That
impulse which the immediate pressure of pleasure
or pain gives to irrational animals, hope gives to
human beings, who are endowed with the faculty
or necessity of looking forward. Who could toil on
through threescore years or more in hopelessness?
Work without hope, says Coleridge, draws nectar in
a sieve and, indeed, what possibility is there that
any human being, however richly endowed with
genius, should ever produce the durable results
that come from harmonious and continuous effort,
or give birth to anything but the perishable ex-
pressions of a mere spasmodic outburst, if he had
no durable hope of anything in heaven or earth!
Let us not be put off with the answer that
88
HOPE
.
F
"Hope is a matter beyond our control; a result
of physical temperament, according to which some
may be constitutionally sanguine, so that they
cannot help being hopeful, others constitutionally
phlegmatic or melancholy, so that they cannot
succeed in being hopeful." We know, on the
contrary, that hope is, to some extent at least,
within our own power. By dwelling more on the
bright side of things and less on the dark side, we
may gradually accustom ourselves to a hopeful
habit of mind, which will, in time, become a second
nature.
66
Obviously, however, we have not yet touched
the bottom of this question; for we shall be met
with the retort: "What right have you to dwell
on one side of the truth to the neglect of the
other? In this imperfect world every subject that
claims our serious attention has a dark as well as
a bright side: is it honest or truthful, then, to
neglect one half of the Universe because it happens
to be unpleasant?" So arguing, our objectors
may complete, and turn against us, the quotation
we just now used against them-
Work without hope draws nectar in a sieve.
Yes," they will say, "but-
Hope, without an object, cannot live.
"What is the use," they will ask, "of bidding us
hope without giving us first some certain or pro-
bable reality to hope about? The faculty of hope
is like the faculty of reason so far as this, that
FOR THE LIVING.
89
both must have some foundation of facts wherein
to work. Give us a permanent and reasonable object
of hope and we shall only be too glad to hope; but
without such an object we must be content to be
hopeless. We cannot allow ourselves to be fooled,
even though the fooling may lead us along a path
of happiness. Better the hopeless path of truth
than the Fool's Paradise of comfortable delusions.
""
Now one answer to this is, that hope is in some
sort a necessary condition of life. All men, if
they wish to avoid madness, must in some measure
exercise their power of attending more to the
brighter than to the darker side of nature. We
know, for example, at this very moment, while we
are assembled here in health and strength and peace,
that throughout the world thousands and tens
of thousands of souls are either passing away in
the last gasp of death, or writhing under agonies
of disease, or pouring forth unavailing lamenta-
tions under the despair of desolating bereavement;
others, again, are plotting or perpetrating frauds,
schemes of oppression, treacherous villanies, foul
and unnatural crimes; others, again (most pitiable
sight of all), are trembling upon the brink of
sin, making a half-hearted resistance, lifting up
tremulous hands to a seemingly unanswering
heaven; and even while these words pass into
your ears, Satan perhaps has prevailed and a
soul has fallen, and a life is cast away. Who can
suffer his mind to rest on such scenes as these for
the same time and with the same attention as on
90
HOPE
scenes of happiness and righteousness, and yet
expect to retain the balance of reason?
These things must not be thought on
After these ways: so, it will make us mad.
Still there is something reasonable in the demand
for an "object of hope," and the intention of the
last two discourses which I have preached here has
been to show that the whole universe, when illum-
inated by the light that streams upon it from the
Cross of Christ, furnishes us with a durable object
of hope in the Fatherhood of the Maker of the
world, who, in the course of many ages, is conform-
ing man to the divine image. The hope of the ulti-
mate perfection of all things, based upon the sense
of the divine Fatherhood, is the source of all healthy
activity in men. In the strength of this hope we
can look all evil in the face without blenching, and
beneath the abyss of sin discern the vaster abyss of
the divine love.
When we realise, and not till we realise, that
the Fatherhood of God in various shapes and
disguises is the only true object of hope, we
shall be able to distinguish good hopes from bad
hopes. For hope, like faith, is in itself neutral and
colourless, neither a virtue nor a vice, taking its
colour and its quality from its object; and, if
centred upon an unworthy object, hope itself be-
comes unworthy. Thus, for example, hopes of
wealth may engender avarice, and hopes of ease
indolence; and hopefulness of this kind, so far
FOR THE LIVING.
91
from being the sister of faith and love, is the
legitimate offspring of selfishness and the enemy
of all brotherhood.
But the hope that is based upon the sense of
God's Fatherhood is not only filial towards God,
but also brotherly towards men; and this hope is
the nurse of every social virtue. This hope
deceives no one, lures no one to peril, encourages
no one in indolence, or presumption, or self-conceit.
This hope is not a hope that God will be a Father to
us, but a Taskmaster or Judge to our neighbours:
it is a hope that He, being the common Father of
all, is doing, and will hereafter be shown to have
ever done, the best for all beings, for those that we
call bad as well as for those that we call good. Again,
this hope is not a hope that God will let us off the
natural consequences of our sins and transgressions
in this or some future existence; nor that He will
suspend His laws to let our carelessness pass un-
punished; no, the hope of which we speak is based
upon a reverent trust in His laws as being an ex-
pression of His will, and it implies a readiness to
be chastened by them because they proceed from
Him; because His justice is kinder than man's
mercy, and His punishments more beneficent than
man's rewards.
Never did such a hope as this lead any human
worker to neglect any part of duty or effort in pre-
sumptuous reliance upon some special interposition
of supernatural help. O the strength and the
blessing of the hope in God's Fatherhood! Do but
92
HOPE
take an example of a dog, says the Essayist, and
mark what a generosity and courage he will put on
when he finds himself maintained by a man, who to
him is instead of a God. How true! and how much
more true of men who find themselves maintained
by no substitute for God, but by God Himself!
Who has not, even in the course of his own
existence, though far too rarely, experienced the
presence of mind, the vigour physical as well as
intellectual, the freshness of interest and freedom
from anxious strain, which the most imperfect of
us enjoy when in our purer moments we are con-
scious that our work is under the supervision of
One above, on whom, when we have done our poor
utmost, we can cast all the burden of our cares,
and, who, out of our failures and through our
imperfections can work out for Himself a perfect
result?
-
What shall we say, then, to those who tell us that
about the future we may reason but have no right
to hope? Our reply will be, that we cannot reason
about the future without taking into account the
evidence that the world was made by a good and
wise Being who has given us many faculties tend-
ing to happiness and righteousness, which faculties
He cannot have intended to fust in us unused; and
among the highest of these faculties stands hope.
Furthermore we may point out that healthy natural
hope, though it may work through illusions, does
not delude. There is no deception in the divine
providence which leads the human soul from the
#
FOR THE LIVING.
93
cradle to the grave under the guidance of unful
filled hopes. Hope, like faith, may be literally,
but it is not spiritually deceptive: the spirits of
heaven are not like the fiends-
That palter with us in a double sense,
That keep the word of promise to our ear
And break it to our hope.
Of the word of God's promises we may assert the
direct opposite. That word is never kept to our ear
and never broken to our hope. Just as the faith or
trust of the child in the father (who to him is as a
God) is not a delusion but a truth enwrapped in
illusion, so it is with the natural hopes of child-
hood and of every age; with the aspirations of a
generous youth and the ambitions of a virtuous
man. These neither fool us when young nor beggar
us when old; but, on the contrary, each bright cloud
of hope, breaking as the traveller is allured onward
by it from one to another stage in his life-long up-
ward journey, reveals a brighter included cloud, to
break in its turn and to disclose a still brighter
interior splendour, till at last those heights are
reached where all clouds shall vanish away, and
the mind shall be prepared to receive the direct
rays of the Sun of righteousness.
Let us put this theory of hope to a practical
test by applying it to ordinary life, especially to
our relations with these men and women about
whom it is most difficult to be enthusiastically
hopeful. How does hope affect our relations with
94
HOPE
F
the common-place, the ridiculous, the vulgar, the
silly, the selfish, the dishonest, the impure? Will
our theory oblige us to shut our eyes to these im-
perfections, and to make ourselves the admirers of
every fool, the dupes of every impostor? Not so.
Whenever we form a hope about any human being,
we shall erect it on a sure basis, and with our eyes
open. Our basis will be the belief that each human
being, even the worst, has a divine substratum of
goodness in him, some chord of unselfishness in his
heart, which will respond to the touch of the true
cunning musician, though it may not respond to
our unskilful handling. To use the metaphor
more common in theology, our hope is based on
the belief that every man is made in the image of
God. The recognition of this image in the heart
of every human being, though it will not prevent
us from simultaneously recognising the accumu-
lated sins and defilements that obscure and almost
efface the stamp of divinity, will nevertheless
effectually prevent us from regarding any of our
fellow-creatures with contempt, or with that kind
of pitying despair which is almost as fatally
effective as contempt itself in depressing and
degrading those who are the objects of it.
Furthermore, we shall not be shutting our eyes,
but opening our eyes to one of the patent truths of
human nature by bearing in mind that all hope or
trust of one man in another tends to justify and
fulfil itself by making the person trusted trust-
worthy. To those who believe in a God, the
.
G
FOR THE LIVING.
95
success of hope and faith in enabling man to raise
up his brother men is no less a proof that hope
and faith are in accordance with God's spiritual
laws, than the success of a scientific experiment is
a proof that the principle upon which the experi-
is based is in accordance with the laws of material
nature. Why do we believe in the law of gravita-
tion? Because it works. And for the same reason
we ought to believe in hope and faith because they
work.
Whenever, therefore, we see a knave, though
we shall think of him and treat him in all sin-
cerity as a knave, yet we shall also treat him
and think of him as a being capable of becom-
ing, and destined ultimately to become, some-
thing better than a knave. More than this:
sometimes where fault has been committed under
strong temptation, or where we have so powerful
an impulse to trust an offender that we feel
we can honestly (and not in a mere servile and
lifeless imitation of the words of our Master)
pronounce that best of all formularies of for-
giveness, I trust you for the future, we ought to
surrender ourselves willingly to the impulse in the
belief that it will be blessed by Him who alone can
vitalise our poor attempts at bearing the burdens
of one another's sins.
But, in other cases, where we feel that we cannot
honestly pronounce those solemn words, we shall
humbly and sadly acknowledge our inability to
ourselves, and (avoiding hypocrisy in forgiveness
96
HOPE
more than in anything else, because, as forgiveness
is the noblest, so the parody of it is the vilest
of actions), we shall simply strive to deal with
our brother in as kindly a spirit as is consistent
with perfect sincerity. Yet, after all, we shall
not do well to be too fastidious about our reputa-
tion for clear-sightedness, or too timidly cautious
against occasional imposture. Woe unto us if we
are never taken in at least two or three times in
our lives by exorbitant claims upon our sympathy
and forgiveness:-
K
Better trust all and be deceived
And rue that trust and that deceiving,
Than ne'er to trust, where, if believed,
One had been blest by thy believing.
One advantage of hope in dealing with offenders
is, that it takes away from blame and punishment
all the essence, and much of the appearance, of
vindictiveness. Not that blame is likely to be
diminished; on the contrary, it is likely to be
increased by the hopeful spirit, in proportion as
hope suggests a higher ideal to be contrasted with
present imperfection: but he who finds fault in
a hopeful spirit will never become thereby cen-
sorious or sour or malignant, because he will
never either blame or punish save for the purpose
of amendment.
Another great advantage of hope will be that
as we shall always be looking forward to the future,
we shall not be so apt to be disappointed by
FOR THE LIVING.
97
unreasonable expectations about the present.
Thus we shall avoid many errors in our judgment
of human nature, and especially in estimating the
actions and dispositions of the young. The pic-
turesque ignorance of childhood and the attractive
inexperience of youth will not so far deceive us as to
make us misunderstand ignorance for innocence, or
inexperience for unworldliness. So far from assent-
ing to the gloomy dictum of that strange genius-
so sanguine in science, in morals so despondent-
who tells us that, Age doth profit rather in the
powers of understanding than in the virtues of the
will and affections, we shall rather recognise that,
until men have known and resisted the temptations
of the world, they can scarcely be called virtuous
except as it were by courtesy and on the score of
promise. Thus our hope and trust in the training
and developing powers of age will prevent us from
being too exacting in our claims on childhood and
youth, and from entertaining expectations of a
premature harvest of gratitude or thoughtfulness
or sustained goodness.
H
Old
On the other hand wrinkles and signs of the
world's wear and tear imprinted upon the counte-
nance, and possibly some moroseness of manner,
will not so far cloak from our eyes the secret history
of the growth of an inward life as to prevent us
from discerning that few men indeed are the worse
for having lived past youth; and that many a
man has been taught by old age that lesson of life
which neither childhood nor youth nor vigorous
98
HOPE
manhood had power to inculcate. And reasoning
from a large majority of such hopeful instances we
may not unreasonably extend our inference to those
few exceptional cases of apparent hopelessness,
where, to all appearance, a life of almost unmixed
evil has been closed by an unrepentant death.
Without anticipating what falls more properly
under the subject of hope for the dead, we may at
least say this, that such few exceptions illustrated
by the light of the general hopeful tendency, ought
not to prevent us from trusting that even in such
lives as these there may be causes and connections
in the past, and uses and ends in the future, which,
when known, will justify the ways of God to men.
The eye of a Christian, like the eye of an artist-
however it may delight in typical faces of un-
ruffled beauty-will not find that the portrait of
any individual has acquired its highest interest
till it has shown marks of suffering, conflict,
and thought.
A great writer of our times contrasting youth
and age gives, it is true, the superiority in interest
to the latter; but the interest is the interest of
pathos: I hardly ever look at a bent old man or a
wizened old woman, but I see also with my mind's
eye that past of which they are the shrunken rem-
nants; and the unfinished romance of rosy cheeks
and bright eyes seems sometimes of feeble interest
and significance, compared with that drama of hope
and love which has long ago reached its catastrophe.
Let us rather believe that the drama of hope, not
FOR THE LIVING.
99
yet played out in old age, has but reached the
fourth act, where the action hangs in poise for a
while and the catastrophe is still impending; or
rather let us regard life as a poetic prophecy, and
old age as the summing up and conclusion of
the poem, wherein every wrinkle and white hair
becomes eloquent as the handwriting of the
Chastener of mankind predicting not an earthly
but a spiritual glory for the tenant of the decaying
fabric.
Finally, let us take a lesson from one of the
most hopeless and melancholy of men, a man of
whom it was recorded by his friends as a happy
omen that at last after an interval of thirteen
months he was seen to smile; a man who, towards
the close of his last day on earth, when asked how
he felt, replied that he felt unutterable despair;
and who passionately protested almost in his dying
moments that it was torture to him to hear men-
tion made of the mercies of Christ from which he
was doomed to be for ever excluded; and this man
one of the most harmless, gentle, innocent of
mankind! Such a life as that of the poet Cowper
is an enigma, the complete solution of which we
shall never in this world attain. But in con-
templating such a spectacle of gloom, we have at
least to bear in mind that this same man, crying
unto the Lord from the depths of his despair was
inspired by the Holy Spirit to write down words
which have conveyed, and will always convey, to
thousands of his fellow creatures, that sense of
G
1
I
H 20
100
HOPE
hope and trust in Divine Providence which he
himself could never permanently enjoy. If we
had to search through the whole of English litera-
ture in order to select some one passage which
should express most vividly and intelligibly for
the simplest minds the trust in light shining out
of darkness, we should look far before we found
any words more suitable than these:
Judge not the Lord by feeble sense
But trust Him for His grace;
Behind a frowning providence
He hides a smiling face.
Blind unbelief is sure to err
And scan His work in vain ;
God is His own interpreter,
And He will make it plain.
Brethren, if at times you feel dejected at the
thought of your own weakness and your unfitness
to do any work worth doing, take courage from the
thought of this sad poet's destiny, seeing in it a typi-
cal instance of the overruling providence of God.
Provided there be a perfect sincerity of purpose,
your weakness and doubt and perplexity may be
turned by the guiding Hand above to a better result
than could have been achieved by your untroubled
confidence in your ability to deal with all the pro-
blems of modern life. As God inspired Cowper, the
victim of despair, to become a prophet of hope to
thousands of troubled English hearts, so may He in
spite of your weakness, nay, perchance out of your
.weakness, enable you to deliver messages of strength
FOR THE LIVING.
101
to many of your countrymen; and some of you by
feeling now the bitterness of doubt may be prepared
for proclaiming to others a Gospel of glorious
certainty.
Only cultivate the habit of high, unselfish hope-
fulness; for believe me the time is coming when
this virtue will be peculiarly needed by all those
who are called upon to act as guides to others.
Destined as you are to perform the work of your
mature manhood towards the close of a century
and (in the ordinary course of things) after the
close of a long and beneficent reign, you must look
forward to a time when the minds of men will be
far more unsettled than at present, and when mul-
titudes will be ready, perhaps too ready, to welcome
any change. In such a condition of things the
guide who forms foolish hopes will lead to failure,
and the guide who forms exaggerated hopes will
lead to disappointment, but the guide who has
formed no hopes will lead no whither: for there
will be none to follow him; he has forfeited all
claim to lead. He who aspires to be a guide
and leader of others cannot dispense with that
energy which springs from hopefulness and which
will enable him to resist rash innovations no less
than to further wise reforms.
Therefore in order that you may be hopeful to
the last, begin early to put away all false unworthy
hopes. Banish altogether from your heart the
notion that God makes favourites either of nations
or individuals, and crush as entirely unworthy
102
HOPE
the fancy that He will suspend His laws for your
pleasure, or that He will care for you to the
exclusion or depreciation of your neighbours.
Meditate much upon the justice of God, and
accustom yourself to build your hopes upon that;
remembering always that the divine justice of the
heavenly Father can be in no wise inferior to
the justice that was defined by Plato to be the
art of doing that which is best for all.
Then, when you are freed from all petty, puerile,
narrow prayers, when you have put away each
selfish expectation, and each desire that is antagon-
istic to God's orderly laws, you may be sure that your
every hope will be crowned with some fulfilment.
Then nothing will seem too high, nothing too good
and pure to become the subject of aspiration; and
reversing the ordinary language you will be able
no longer to say about your brightest anticipa-
tions, They are too good to be true, but rather They
are too good not to be true.
Yet forget not that hope must go hand in hand
with faith; and faith includes or implies that dull
prosaic virtue which we sometimes find it hard
to practise, the virtue of patience. The man that
hopes can afford to be patient and to wait. Wait
then as well as work. Do not hope to crowd into
the three or four years of your work up here the
formation of all the judgments and principles
upon which you are to base the action of a life-
time. Be content to believe that as regards the
nature and objects of life, life itself may have much
FOR THE LIVING.
103
to teach you; and where books fail you in your
search for truth, determine not to give up the
search as futile till you have taken experience as
your tutor. Wait therefore in hope: wait thou
still on the Lord; be of good courage, and He shall
strengthen thine heart. Trust in the Lord and do
good delight thyself also in the Lord and He shall
give thee the desire of thine heart; trust also in
Him, and He shall bring it to pass.
1
HOPE FOR THE DEAD.
He is risen: he is not here.-ST. MARK XVI. 6.
THE memory of the dead seems intended to serve
as a kind of ladder for the living, whereon they
may ascend from things seen to things unseen.
As we grow older and more imbued with the spirit
of this world, it seems ordained that thoughts of
death and of the dead should grow proportion-
ately stronger so as to imbue us with the spirit
of another world. Infants and children, being
unworldly, do not need, and do not have, this
antidote against worldliness: for the disappearance
of two or three kindly care-worn countenances
from the midst of a child's thoughtless gambols
leaves no permanent impression upon the little
one's mind. But as age brings us more and more
within the danger of the infection of this world,
death presses his keen antidote closer and closer
to our lips.
It is indeed a bitter medicine, the cup of deso-
lation. Those whom we most respected and revered,
those who were to our simple childhood as gods,
-
HOPE FOR THE DEAD.
105
these fall the first. Old and wise friends and coun-
sellors, teachers, parents, pass away, depriving
us of the support and guidance with which we
had supposed we never could dispense. Then, if
not before, gaps are discerned and faces missed
in the rank of our own advancing generation;
brothers and sisters, friends and schoolfellows,
dropping around us, convert pleasant places into
sad solitudes and make a wilderness of a home.
New ties are formed, but they cannot bring com-
plete oblivion of those that each year sees shat-
tered; and even the new ties death sometimes with
his premature touch proves to be as frail as the
old. Such then is one aspect of God's ordinance
of death. It produces a solitude for the living, a
solitude that increases from youth onward till the
grave.
S
Yet God-who Himself pronounced that it is
not good for man to be alone-did not, we may be
sure, ordain this law of the encroachment of deso-
lation for each human spirit without a divine pur-
pose. Accordingly we find that this seeming solitude
has been in reality peopled with active influences;
and the memories of the dead have been very
potent workers in the hearts of the living. The
influence of the dead upon the living has appa-
rently prevailed in proportion as the human being
has risen above the brute creation. With the
beasts of the field it is less powerful: with them,
as with children, to be out of sight is to be
out of mind. Yet even in some of the higher
106
HOPE
brute creation there are traces of a permanent
sorrow. Much more among the human race,
whether we regard the development of national
or individual character, do we find the memory
of the dead to be a purifying power. Death
has increased, instead of diminishing, the activity
of the greatest prophets, poets, statesmen, and
teachers and all unknown and unrecognised,
death, in the circle of every human family since
the creation of the world, has tended to amplify
the wholesome parental influence which too often
has not been realised or appreciated by the child
till the parents themselves have been withdrawn for
ever. More than this, death has not only intensified
the influence of the dead upon the living, by modi-
fying our thoughts of life and our actions in life;
it has also lifted men's thoughts from a place of
the living to a place of the dead. While making
us homeless here, it has prepared a home for us
elsewhere, pointing us to an eternal citizenship in a
city that shall never be changed. Such is another
and a brighter aspect of God's ordinance of death.
But hopes concerning the dead are necessarily
connected with opinions concerning the life after
death, or in other words concerning the states
commonly called heaven and hell: and it is, there-
fore, mainly about these that I would ask your
attention. That the belief in heaven has been
perverted and has wrought mischief, is probable;
that the belief in hell has been mischievous is even
more probable: none the less, it by no means
FOR THE DEAD.
107
follows that either of these beliefs, in its unper-
verted shape, is mischievous or false. I shall
endeavour to show that both beliefs are natural,
wholesome, and probable; and indeed that the
anticipation of a retribution hereafter, for good
or ill wrought here, so far from being irrational,
is the logical and necessary outcome of a belief in
a just and righteous God.
We may begin by dismissing, with something
like contempt, those objections against the belief
in heaven which are based upon the metaphorical
illustrations with which that belief has been set
forth by seers and prophets. Golden harps, palm
branches, and white robes, and amaranthine crowns
-why should not these images be used to prefigure
the harmonious triumph of undying righteousness?
Who but a half-taught and conceited child will
base a doubt as to some ultimate Day of Decision
or Judgment, on the metaphor of a trumpet em-
ployed to describe the final summons to the solemn
assizes of the world? Let it be once understood
that by "white robes " we mean purity or right-
eousness, or if we must needs be very precise-
something in a more perfect state corresponding to
what we call purity or righteousness in this imper-
fect state and then what room is left for mockery or
satire? As well assail a mathematician for using
his x or y to denote the unknown quantities of his
problem! He will reply that his symbols are in-
tended to facilitate the process of reasoning: and
so are our symbols likewise intended to facilitate
C
108
HOPE
T
¡
the process of imagination. The full recognition of
the meaning and application of the principle of pro-
portion seems absolutely necessary for the illustra-
tion of theology. It is said that Plato would have
excluded from the study of philosophy all those who
were ignorant of geometry. If a similar ban had
barred from the writing of theological treatises all
students or amateurs who were ignorant of the
principle of proportion, how greatly would the
vast literature of our theology be diminished, and
our small store of theological certainties increased!
The principle of metaphorical or proportional
interpretation, once thoroughly understood and
freely applied, will deliver us from two opposite
errors-first, the error of supposing that heaven
and hell must needs be merely brighter and darker
repetitions of earthly existence; and secondly, the
error of supposing that there can be no kind of
correspondence between this world and the next.
Nothing could better indicate the middle path
between these two errors, nothing could better
illustrate the vast difference between the future
and the present, and yet at the same time the
dependence of the future on the present in strict
accordance with the laws of cause and effect, than
St. Paul's metaphor of the seed.
First for the difference. As different as the
flower is from the seed, so different (we are taught
to believe) is the present life from the life to come.
When we are tempted to think that in the next
world all will go on as in this world, only upon a
FOR THE DEAD.
109
larger scale, let us sober ourselves by remembering
what earth-buried, sense-bound creatures we are in
comparison with our future efflorescence. Has it
ever occurred to any of you, when reading St.
Paul's metaphor, to frame an imaginary dialogue
between two seeds freshly cast into the ground,
pondering the imminent destruction of their in-
teguments, and discussing the novel changes which
they may perchance experience in that higher
existence of which they have anticipations, but as
yet no knowledge? Just as they might ignorantly
descant upon the destined enlargement of their
present capacities of expansion and absorption in
that future state, limiting their anticipations to
their experiences, and all unaware of the burst of
brightness and of beauty awaiting them in the
upper region, even so, or not much less gross
perhaps, may be our purblind conceptions of heaven
as compared with the divine reality.
Yet, in spite of this difference between that
which is and that which shall be, St. Paul's
imagery teaches us that there is a continuity of
cause and effect. Such as the seed is, such will be
the flower. Grant that the seed is described as
earthly and the flowers as spiritual: Eye hath not
seen, nor ear heard the things which are prepared
for us by the Father. True, but the Spirit reveals
them to us; and St. Paul's words, as well as the
general teaching of the New Testament, and the
testimony of the laws of the world, indicate that
there is a correspondence between the earthly seed
>
110
HOPE
and the spiritual flower, a proportion between this
life and the life to come. The great law of retri-
bution upon which is based all the teaching of
Christ, is not to be violated but to find its supreme
fulfilment in the Day of Decision. Each man is to
receive the things that he hath done in the flesh.
What things we shall thus receive, the senses cannot
reveal to us. But if we confine ourselves to state-
ments of probabilities, not about things, but about
the proportions of things, we seem to be within
the province of sober reason.
Proceeding in this way, we infer that it is im-
probable that the present diversity of human beings
will be hereafter merged in one monotonous iden-
tity. It seems more consistent with what we know
of God's laws here, as well as with what we glean
from the utterances of Christ Himself, to believe
that the seeds sown below, instinct with diverse
natures from the first, and exposed to diverse in-
fluences of earth and rain and air and sunshine,
will not all blossom into the self same flowers
with every leaf and petal, every hue and streak
precisely similar. More likely that every present
cause will be reproduced in some future effect.
Our earthly drudgeries, our poor efforts and paltry
successes, perchance even our honest failures and
sincere repentances, will all appear in future trans-
mutation, evolved from darkness into light, ex-
panded and diversified by God's grace so as to
contribute to the celestial colours of God's garden
of the souls above; and not one hour of unselfish
FOR THE DEAD.
111
toil or patient suffering upon earth but will re-
appear, according to God's laws of cause and
effect, a blossom of glory bright to all eternity
in heaven. What is there irrational or unworthy
in this belief? Nay, what is there that must not
be logically admitted as probable by all those who
retain the blessed instinct of a belief in a Father
in heaven who works by law and is never guilty of
waste ?
But, it may be urged, this continuity of cause
and effect, before and after death, is a source of
terror as well as of consolation. If we are to reap
hereafter what we have sown here, how full of
fear should be the harvest for many of us! Yes,
there is a fear here; but a legitimate and whole-
some fear, not to be lightly put aside. He must
have read Nature ill and history ill, who can
suppose that the training of mankind, as long as
men are in their present imperfect condition, is
intended to proceed without the influence of fear.
But we live in an age which regards with some
impatience any attempt to reform men by fear
or pain, and which consequently, while ready to
believe in a heaven, or retribution of joy, refuses
to believe in a hell, or retribution of suffering.
But is not this very inconsistent and absurd?
Clearly it is; and the inconsistency is attribut-
able to two causes-first, in some slight degree
perhaps to the effeminacy and luxuriousness of
the present times which shrink from even whole-
some and necessary pain, but secondly, and in
112
HOPE
|
ト
​a far higher degree, to the generally prevailing
misconception of the meaning of judgment and
punishment.
Judgment is not the mere utterance of an arbi-
trary verdict backed by brute force. To judge is
to separate between truth and falsehood, between
righteousness and unrighteousness: and the ideal
judgment is that verdict which is pronounced by
the judge with such a force of conviction, that the
offender himself anticipates its utterance and con-
fesses its justice. Again, the ideal punishment does
not consist in accumulation of torture for infinitude
of time; it is penalty adapting itself in kind and
amount to each offence (upon which it follows as
an inevitable consequence) and so adjusted as to
produce the maximum of improvement with the
minimum of pain. Such judgments and such
punishments as these, what sane man can pro-
nounce irrational or dare to laugh at, even as
possibilities? What! Because we no longer con-
fuse metaphor with literalism, because we cease to
apprehend tangible flames in a material pit, does it
follow that God's laws of cause and effect are to be
suspended, that spiritual seed is to produce no
spiritual fruit, that sin shall cease to bring forth
sorrow and ill-doing to breed remorse? We blas-
pheme God when we degrade His just mercy into
a weak connivance at imperfection, as if for the
sake of a little family circle He would put a veto
on His divine laws of retribution, or nullify the
fundamental principles of redemption for the
-
FOR THE DEAD.
113
purpose of giving a few select favourites a pass into
Paradise.
Not in the seventh heaven of heavens, not in the
bottommost abyss of hell, can we hope to escape
from law or banish the presence of love. But do
law and love preclude punishment? And does
punishment cease to be awful because it is spirit-
ual? How weak and sterile must be that man's
imagination who can realise none but material
punishment and has never learned to dread a
spiritual hell! Has it never happened to any of
you, in a moment, in a flash of thought, to realise
and to pronounce judgment on, some inward base-
ness of your hearts, suddenly lit up by the convict-
ing Spirit of God? And, if it has, only imagine
such a moment of shame and sorrow protracted
into an age and intensified by the new contrast
between your imperfect self and a newly revealed
ideal of perfect righteousness. Think of it. To
sit alone, contemplating a wasted and misused
past; to sit self-exiled, apart from those whom you
love and honour, brooding over what might have
been; apart from light yet longing for the light;
stretching out thoughts in vain towards the one
infinite Goodness which you yourself have banished;
loathing evil, yet realising evil within yourself as
an alien nature naturalised in your own soul by
your own act; and in the midst of all your agony
to find yourself confessing. "Yes, this is best for
For this wilderness of pain I myself have
shaped and prepared myself. Such as I now am,
me.
I
114
HOPE
for this state only am I fitted, this is just, this is
righteous; and as the best do I accept it at Thy
hand, O Thou that judgest rightly "-is not this,
or something like this, natural enough to provoke
no laughter and terrible enough to inspire even an
honourable man with a sober and a purifying fear?
It may seem a paradox to speak of such a fear
as being hopeful; but yet it is certain that if you
give up all fear of the future you will inevitably
end in giving up all hope also. It is not right nor
reasonable that you should expect for yourselves or
for the great majority of your infinitely diversified
and imperfect fellow-creatures, that when you die,
you will all immediately be transmuted into one
identical perfect image. If you expect this, you
expect what is not just, and you form a conception
of an unjust and undiscriminating God. But if
your conception of God is thus lowered, your faith
in Him is lowered also; and thus all your hopes of
eternal communion with Him become pallid and
faint. Do not be misled by the baser meanings of
which this word fear is susceptible, so far as to
suppose that it is always a baseness; you are not
yet in a condition, most of you, to cast out all fear.
One of our own poets rightly connects the
deepest affection with reverent fear; he strove, he
tells us, to gain his friend's praise because-I had
such reverence for his blame. And the Psalmist
still more clearly expresses the connection in the
words: There is mercy with thee; therefore shalt
thou be feared. We cannot apprehend, much less
FOR THE DEAD.
115
appreciate, God's mercy, if we deprive Him of His
attribute of justice and impute to Him a partial or
indiscriminate indulgence. Surely we sometimes
err in rejecting awe and reverence, confusing them
with cowardice and servility. But there is a wide
difference. There is a heart-searching awe, there is
a purifying fear, but there is no servile crouching,
in the apprehension of a hell which can no more
exclude God's mercy than heaven can exclude His
justice.
But, it may be urged, these considerations sug-
gest not so much hell as purgatory. Is that then
to be believed? My reply would be that we do
not know enough, and, as it seems to me, we are
not intended to know enough, to proceed to details
in the map-making of the life to come. Such few
expressions as bear upon this subject in the few
fragmentary pages that make up what we call the
New Testament, being most of them metaphorical,
all of them coloured by context, and some of them
difficult to bring into exact conformity with others,
appear to supply far too slight a foundation whereon
to build up a dogmatic structure of doctrine in the
many mansions of the life to come; so that, for my
own part, I find myself unable to side with those
who are called Universalists, or Annihilationists,
or with those who believe in a Purgatory, or
with those who enter into any detailed dogma on
this subject.
ū
Yet, though we may not have knowledge enough
to construct a detailed map of the future, we
I 2
116
HOPE
assuredly have a compass which may enable us to
determine directions. That compass is the faith in
the goodness and justice of God, as partially re-
vealed to us by the goodness and justice of men
whom He has made in His own image. Starting,
then, from human patterns of cruelty, vindictive-
ness, excessive and unwise punishment, we may
say, "Certainly God's punishments cannot be such
as these." Again, starting from human patterns of
goodness, justice, wise and useful punishment, we
say, "God's chastisements may doubtless be in-
finitely better, more just, more wise, and more
successful than these; but at least they cannot fall
below these." Just as we know that two straight
lines cannot inclose a space, though infinitely
produced and yet we have never seen them pro-
duced to infinity-in the same way we know, as an
axiomatic truth, that cruelty, injustice, or unwis-
dom, perpetrated on how vast soever a scale, can
never become divine, can never gain the right to be
called God's handiwork; and, on the other hand,
that no goodness, justice, mercy, and wisdom,
though they be the highest ideals to which human
imagination has aspired, can ever approach the
goodness and justice, the mercy and wisdom, of the
Supreme.
With this understanding, and in this faith, we
may be well content to trust ourselves and the
souls of those who are dearest to us, into His hands,
without haggling about the exact amount of pain
or punishment that He in His loving wisdom may
FOR THE DEAD.
117
think fit to inflict upon us. There is a phrase,
somewhat too common perhaps, which speaks of
God as having two kinds of mercies for His chil-
dren. If we may be permitted without irreverence
to use that phrase, we might say that for those
who really love God as a Father there can be no
hesitation in trusting both themselves, and all the
multitude of the human dead since the creation of
the world, to the uncovenanted mercies of God. And
if, indeed, we have at any time realised, however
faintly, but for one moment in our lives, what it
must be to be admitted into the circle of the Eternal
Mercies, and into communion with the Everlasting
Love, can it seem even to the best and purest of
us, other than the highest privilege after long and
various stages of waiting and working and suffer-
ing, at last, clinging like a child to the border of
the garment of the Holy One of God, to be drawn
in with Him into some inferior corner of the abode
of the Presence, where one may sit down as it were
upon sufferance, well pleased to catch a far-off
glimpse of the splendour of the unapproachable
throne ?
-
Let us apply these thoughts to our relations with
the dead: will they not bear the test? Armed
with these hopes of a just heaven and (as we may
now say without paradox) armed with these fears
of a merciful hell, may we not stand in faith by
the dead body of a commonplace human being,
and, without any hypocritical or conventional
exaggerations, find power to think of him in the
118
HOPE
༔
جا
calm certainty that the cessation of respiration
has not withdrawn that immortal soul from the
merciful chastisements of a Supreme Being, whose
hand is not shortened by accidents of oxygen and
carbon? Too often an English funeral leaves a
sterile dreariness in the hearts of every member of
the household, when the survivors can discern for
the departed no mean between the hopes of perfect
bliss and the dread of infinite, endless agony. For
to the majority of average men and women and
children how strangely inapplicable must appear
either extreme!
Imagine yourself by the deathbed of such a
one as we are describing; an ordinary human being,
not without faults and failings, not without vices,
not without occasional grievous sins; one who has
often stumbled and fallen, but has striven to rise,
and has gone through life always fighting, some-
times victorious, sometimes conquered; sinned
against at least as often as sinning; tainted with
worldliness, yet at times generous and noble; by
no means wholly unselfish, yet not without flashes
of public spirit, and full of affection for an inner
circle of relations and friends; honest according
to conventional rules which sometimes have be-
come dangerously lax, yet never given up to dis-
honesty, never a deliberate enemy of goodness. Of
such a one who can feel sure that the mere casting
away of the corporeal integument has made him
instantaneously fit for the perfect bliss of Paradise?
Yet, on the other hand, what slanderer, Satan
FOR THE DEAD.
119
ಕ
except, can find it in his heart to declare of such
an erring, struggling, well-intending creature, that
he is a mere child of evil, fit for the torments of
an unending hell?
Shrinking from either expression of exaggerated
confidence or exaggerated despair, must we needs
keep utter silence? Standing in the presence of
the lifeless form but lately tenanted by this half-
developed soul, have we nothing to say, no word
of comfort or of hope? Yes, surely. Surely of
such a man, ay, and of a multitude of others by
many degrees more imperfect, we may use with all
sincerity language somewhat to this effect: "Yes,
he had his faults: as we have. He does not yet
seem fitted for the immediate presence of God;
neither do we. Yet he had, as we have, some
better moments, some kindly habits, some power
of loving, some power of welcoming love; perhaps
also some latent self-reproachings, some convicting
aspirations after better things. The seemingly
unfinished lesson of this life who knows but the
great Teacher may resume in the next, and ulti-
mately complete in some future stage of developed
existence! To God, in any case, to God the Maker,
and to God the Father, we may commend this His
creature and His child, as we would commend
ourselves, knowing that He will do that which is
best for all.”
If such a hope as this seems to you couched in
too low a tone or at least too vague and general,
bethink yourselves whether it may not be better
120
HOPE
to have hopes general rather than particular, pro-
vided we can entertain the hopes strongly, after
the manner of certainties, and entertain them also
for all men; rather than to have a thin and tremu-
lous wish oscillating between the highest height
of hope and the lowest depth of despair, a wish
too that can scarcely be reasonably entertained for
more than a small part of a small section of the
human race. And yet, how can a hope be condemned
as vague, or as being couched in too low a tone,
when it commends the dead to the Father of our
Lord Jesus Christ, in the perfect certainty of the
ultimate best?
However, choose, if you will, hopes more de-
fined; only, as you value your allegiance to Christ,
admit no theory of the future that shall be in-
compatible with that good news which He died to
give us, and which, while liberating us from every
bondage, is intended more especially to liberate us
from the fear of death. Are we at this moment
free? Has death no more than its due power over
our minds? Do we live in cheerful memory of
those who have gone before us? Has death no
sting for us when we think of our friends in the
grave ?
The consciences of the greater part of
Christians will not allow them to give to these
questions the answer that they ought to give,
nor to assert that they are freed from the fear of
death. One reason for this is, that we have de-
prived ourselves, in our faithlessness, of one of the
most potent influences which Christ has given us
FOR THE DEAD.
121
to diminish the fear of death and to help us to
look forward with hope: I mean the soothing and
peaceful influence of communion with the dead.
This we have forfeited through our superstitious
faithlessness. Afraid to think of the departed, we
have excluded them from all influence on our
actions, from our conversation, from our quiet
thoughts, yes, even from our prayers. Thus break-
ing God's ordinance we receive the penalty of the
infraction, losing one chief source and fountain of
spiritual strength and peace. The spirit of every
good man and good woman, yes, and of every
imperfect man and woman genuinely loved, is
intended by the divine providence to act upon the
surviving friends through an ideal image purified
by death; and the words of Shakespeare, slightly
modified, hold true of all the dead:
The idea of their life doth sweetly creep
Into our study of imagination;
And every lively organ of their life
Doth come apparelled in more precious habit,
More moving delicate and full of life
Into the eye and prospect of our souls,
Than when they lived indeed.
The man who keeps his mind open to the recep-
tion of these heaven-sent guests finds, year by
year, an unseen spiritual abode widening before
him; which becomes each year more like a home
because it is tenanted by some new dear friend,
and which gently supplants in his heart the growing
122
HOPE
I'
homelessness of the visible world. And what a
stimulus to patience and constancy in honourable
labour, thus to find oneself surrounded and en-
couraged by a cloud of ever-present witnesses !
What an inducement to self-suppression here and
to the steady pursuit of one fixed object, when we
know that the pursuit is not limited by the grave,
and that self-suppression and the abstinence from
distractions here, mean the power to embrace and
enfold vast realities hereafter! Again, what a just
terror of self-indulgence, what a horror of ignoble
luxury and frivolous indolence, not to speak of
darker sins, must be inspired by the thought that
by such base courses we are making ourselves unfit
and unable to be the companions of the Eternal
Goodness, and that every act or word or thought
stamping itself upon our characters is producing
in us a change which will have eternal consequences
in separating us from, or uniting us to, those whom
we most loved and reverenced upon earth! In
our prayers, also, in our secret communion with
the Supreme, how great must be the help derived
from the mention of the dead. There is no need
that
you should pray for them with importunate
entreaties, as though you would wrest them from
God's hands. But to make mention of them by
name, to thank God for their past earthly presence,
to pray God that you and they may meet hereafter,
and to do this with the calm certainty that in
some way, and that the best way, and at some
time, and that the best time, your prayer will be
FOR THE DEAD.
123
fulfilled-what a spiritual freshness and intensity
must this simple habit give unto your petitions!
How helpful are these prayerful memories to ex-
tinguish evil thoughts, to quiet fretful ambitions,
and to destroy doubts and misgivings, by bestow-
ing on the soul some present earnest of the future
unutterable peace!
May God grant unto each one of you, with
growing years and temptations, this growing sup-
port and confirmation to your faith. Death should
be for Christians not an angel of Satan but a
minister of God and to every Christian, mourning
with downcast heart the loss of some dear friend,
the Angel of Death should come with a celestial
message bidding us look up and seek our friend
elsewhere than in the grave :—He is not here; He is
risen. May it be so with you. Whensoever mes-
sage after message comes, reminding you through
some new loss that you must set your affection on
things above, not on things of the earth, may you
find on each occasion the voice of some new help-
ful memory within your soul, enabling you
with all sincerity in answer to the warning, Lift
up your hearts, to make reply, We lift them up
unto the Lord!
Cindy
f
WHAT MANNER OF MAN
IS THIS?P1
What manner of man is this?—ST. MARK iv. 41.
PART I-THE QUESTION.
LET us suppose that Christianity, having become
an extinct religion centuries ago, or never having
penetrated Europe, was now for the first time being
brought to light in this country. Approach-
ing it in precisely the same dispassionate way in
which we should approach any other religion,—
Buddhism, for example-what should we think
of it, and what would be our attitude towards
the founder of it?
The scientific method of investigation would, I
presume, be very similar to the astronomical
method of investigating the cause of a disturb-
ance in the heavenly bodies. Uranus, we will say,
does not move in its prescribed orbit. Careless
astronomers note the deviation, perhaps, and pass
1 This sermon was originally preached in the chapel of Balliol
College; but it has been much altered and amplified.
WHAT MANNER OF MAN IS THIS?
125
it by as an inconvenient anomaly. At last comes
the astronomer who believes that there is no effect
without a cause, and that consequently there must
be a cause for this deviation. The direction of the
deviation being ascertained, it occurs to him that
there must be some hitherto unrecognized attract-
ing body in that direction; and, the amount of
the deviation being also ascertained, he finds it
possible to ascertain exactly the position and the
mass of that attracting body. Nothing now
remains but to turn the telescope on the indicated
spot; and Neptune is discovered.
Approaching the phenomena of Christianity in
the same way, we find that eighteen hundred years
ago there was a great disturbance in the Roman
Empire. Under a ringleader named Chrestus, says
one historian, the Jews raised a tumult. The same
author speaks of a persecution directed against the
Christians, a race of men devoted to a new and mis-
chievous superstition. Another historian also de-
scribes the Christians as a sect hated for its crimes.
The founder of it had been executed by the
Procurator Pontius Pilate; but the destructive
superstition, though suppressed for the time, had
burst out afresh, and, in thirty years from the death
of the founder, had spread from Judæa to Rome.
About forty years afterwards, a governor of
Bithynia speaks of the temples in his province
as being almost deserted, owing to the prevalence
of the new religion. All who persisted in calling
themselves Christians he ordered away for instant
T
4
1
126
WHAT MANNER OF MAN IS THIS?
I
execution. But after investigating the nature of
their crimes, and this with torture, he could detect
no further offence than this, that on a stated day,
assembling before dawn, they were wont to chant a
hymn to Christ as to a god, and to bind themselves
by oath to abstain from theft, robbery, adultery,
and every kind of dishonesty. A true Christian, he
adds, could always be distinguished from one who
had given up the superstition, because the former
could never be induced to curse Christ.
Obviously Pliny, the governor of a province, had
better means than Tacitus or Suetonius for ascer-
taining the nature of the Christian worship and
morals. But still, so far, we only seem to discern
with certainty thus much, that the new sect had
already deified its founder and had connected with
the worship of him some scheme of moral reform.
The glimpse we have gained of the early meetings
of the Christian Church will lead us to search for
further evidence in the books of the new sect, and
especially for evidence concerning the founder,
But, just as the astronomer would have searched
for Neptune in vain if he had known nothing
of the laws of motion, so the student of religious
history will search in vain for the cause of the
phenomena of the Christian Church, if he neglects
the laws that regulate human nature.
There are some beliefs that have a natural
attraction for the human mind, certain motives
that easily impel great masses of men.
of men. For
↑
example, a simple belief is more
readily appro-
G
PART I.—THE QUESTION.
127
priated than a complicated one; and the prospect
of happiness in some shape or other, whether
protection from pain or enjoyment of pleasure, is
so necessary for every part of the life of man that
few religions have succeeded unless they have
promised it either for this world or for the next.
Simplicity, therefore, conformity with Nature, pro-
mise of happiness--these are three points which
we may naturally expect to find in a successful
religion. But these are not all. A religion of
Nature, that is, a religion that deifies the forces of
the material world, being based upon the daily
experience of the divine order of visible things
around him, and therefore commending itself by
the simplicity that underlies its apparent mani-
foldness, does not always need a great Prophet
to inculcate it upon the hearts of the many but
a religion that would ascend above this level,
declaring the unity of God, and appealing not
so much to the external and visible world as to the
invisible world of thought within the human heart,
needs for the most part some Prophet through
whose conscience the new truth must pass to the
consciences of the myriads that are to believe.
Such being the ordinary laws in accordance with
which religions have influenced mankind, we
naturally ask how far the religion of this sect in
Bithynia conformed itself to these laws, and owed
its success to its conformity.
The great historian who has sketched the rise of
Christianity in his history of the Decline and Fall
128
WHAT MANNER OF MAN IS THIS?
of the Roman Empire enumerates five causes for
the Christian successes:
1. The inflexible zeal of the Christians, derived,
it is true, from the Jewish religion, but purified
from the narrow and unsocial spirit which, in-
stead of inviting, had deterred the Gentiles from
embracing the law of Moses.
2. The doctrine of a future life.
3. The miraculous powers ascribed to the primi-
tive Church.
4. The pure and austere morals of the Christians.
5. The union and discipline of the Christian
republic.
But is the historian really thus explaining the
successes of the Christian Church? Is he not
rather enumerating them? Inflexible zeal, purity
and austerity of morals, union and discipline-no
doubt these qualities tend to success; but is not
the production of these qualities in itself the
greatest success of all? And the question for us
is, What was it that produced them? As for
"miraculous powers," one has yet to learn that
the "
ascription" of them, without any basis of
real power, can be of any permanent benefit to
a young society aiming at moral reform, and pre-
vented by purity and austerity of morals from the
practice of fraud. The doctrine of a future life
had undoubtedly a great influence upon the
Christian Church; but it was not peculiar to
Christians. What then was the cause that made
the doctrine so much more powerful among them
PART I. THE QUESTION.
129
than in other societies? May not the successes of
this sect called Christians be attributable in some
measure to the influence of their leader, Christus,
by whose name they were called, and to whom
they sang hymns as to a god?
Even if it prove
otherwise, ought we to assume that he exerted no
influence till we have carefully investigated his life?
Does it seem scientific, in describing the causes of
the success of a religion which cannot be classed
among the religions of Nature, to leave entirely
out of account the character of the founder?
On the contrary, the scientific method would be
to assume, even before investigation, that in all
probability the success of such a religion is at
least partially attributable to the qualities of its
originator. Before turning therefore to the books
of the new sect, we shall be prepared to find not
only some great truth adapted to the needs of
human nature, but also a preeminent Character.
Our scanty evidence from external history tends in
the same direction. Suetonius and Tacitus in their
brief and erroneous statements, Pliny in his closer
view of the new society, seem all to point to a
leader or prophet who was from the first, and even
after death continued to be, the centre of the new
movement. But now, turning from external evi-
dence to the earliest internal records of this religion
(which, remember, we are supposed to approach for
the first time, disinterring it from oblivion as an
extinct religion), we experience something like a
feeling of disappointment at finding in these books
K
¦
130
WHAT MANNER OF MAN IS THIS?
1
1
considerable admixture of the miraculous
element; our first impulse is lazily to put aside
the whole mass of evidence as unhistorical.
a
G
"The explanation," we may say, "is the obvious
and ordinary one. Three causes were at work to
produce this disappointing result, and to obscure
facts in myths. In the first place, the Messianic ex-
pectations of the Jewish followers of this Chrestus,
or Christus, when concentrated on him as their
Messiah, obliged them to believe that he had
wrought miracles after the manner of their ancient
leaders and prophets; in the next place, there was
in those days prevalent among the lower classes
throughout the Empire an inexhaustible craving
for miracles, unchecked by any appreciation of the
laws of Nature; in the third place, the common
worship of demi-gods, such as Heracles, the son of
Zeus, and the practice of deifying the Roman
Emperors after, if not before, their death, would
render it natural to deify the founder of this re-
ligion, and for that purpose to elaborate a web of
miraculous circumstance about his life and death.
It is deplorable, but no doubt at the time inevitable,
and now irremediable. Some truth may possibly
lie beneath these myths; but what it is we shall
never be able to discover."
Possibly we might remain content with pro-
nouncing this judgment, and put the whole mat-
ter aside. In that event, we shall be content to
remain for ever in ignorance of the cause of the
greatest revolution in the history of mankind.
PART I.—THE QUESTION.
131
But perhaps we might be so far interested and
attracted by the doctrines that met us in the books
of this extinct religion that we felt unwilling or
even unable to dismiss them so readily from our
minds. In that case, we might appropriate the
spiritual thoughts of the books without accepting as
historical the facts with which these thoughts were
connected by the writers. "In the sacred books
of this ancient sect," we might say, "there present
themselves precious truths which our consciences
attest to be true: the conception of God as a Father,
and of Eternal Life, attainable by men through
faith in Him; the thought of an ideal Son to
whom men are to be conformed, and through whom
we are to approach the Father; the doctrine that
men have received power from Heaven to forgive
one another's sins, and thereby to impart righteous-
ness to each other; the doctrine that self-sacrifice
constitutes the ideal life for men; and that gentle-
ness, benevolence, and the unsuspicious disposition
of children are not only the most amiable but also
the most powerful qualities in humanity-these
thoughts," we may say, "even considered as
thoughts, are so precious that we cannot afford to
part with them. It is possible that they come to us
through Jesus of Nazareth: possibly they may have
been invented by Paul, or Peter, or John. On this
point we shall always remain in doubt, but as to
the beauty and spiritual truth of these doctrines,
whencesoever derived, there can be no doubt. Let
us therefore be thankful that we have received
K 2
132
WHAT MANNER OF MAN IS THIS?
them without troubling ourselves further about
their source. We regard the Gospels, not as a
history, nor as a drama with a hero in it; but as
an epic wherein the centre is, not a hero, but a
principle. They exhibit the triumph of righteous-
ness through suffering, a triumph ordained from
the foundations of the world. Regarded as a
history, the Gospels must always lose much of
their legitimate influence amid the strife of critics
and theologians: regarded as a spiritual poem they
will possess an undying interest for all ages and
all races of mankind. But as for the founder of
this wonderful religion we have not, nor ever shall
have, the means of answering the question what
manner of man he was.'
""
But surely these somewhat pusillanimous counsels
ought not to be adopted save as a last resort! If,
in the investigation of all that may be called
human religions (as distinguished from religions
derived from material nature), the character of the
founder is for the most part an important element,
more especially does this seem to be the case in
the religion which we are now investigating.
Pliny has told us that the sect met at stated times
to worship their founder. The books of the sect,
though they may not go so far as that, at least
exhibit him as offering himself to his followers as
the representative of the Supreme. Moreover he
seems to have left behind him no code of laws, no
collection of precepts of any length, no stated form
of worship, nothing but a spirit of allegiance to
PART I.—THE QUESTION.
133
himself, and of trust in a heavenly Father whom
he revealed to them. To investigate, therefore,
Christianity without Christ, or to adopt Christi-
anity without Christ-is not this like adopting an
allegiance to a blank, and a faith in a nonentity?
Why not treat this ancient religion with the
same fairness and industry with which any other
human religion, Buddhism, for example, would be
treated by scholars dispassionately investigating it ?
In treating of Buddhism we should undoubtedly
put aside all the miraculous element; but obscure
and mythical as are the traditions concerning the
life of the founder, we should at least make an
effort to elicit from them, and from his precepts,
some explanation of the success of his religion.
A life of Gautama, the founder of the Buddhist
religion, has recently been written in this inquir-
ing and appreciative spirit, and it reveals to us a
character which makes it easier to understand how
Buddhism spread through Asia.' Take first the
following sayings indicative of the intense purity,
unworldliness, and unselfishness of this great
teacher: As a mother, even at the risk of her own
life, protects her son, even her only son: so let there
be goodwill without measure among all beings: The
real treasure is that laid up by man or woman
¹ This admirable little book, which ought to be in the hands
of every student of the New Testament, is entitled Buddhism, a
Sketch of the Life and Teachings of Gautama, the Buddha, by T. W.
Rhys Davids. Published by the Society for Promoting Christian
Knowledge.
134
WHAT MANNER OF MAN IS THIS?
•
through charity and piety, temperance and self-
control; though he leave the fleeting riches of this
world, this treasure a man taketh with him: One
who followeth the Buddha should not be careful
about these things, food, bed, seats, clean robes and
water, like a water drop which adheres not to the
lotus leaf. Take also the following protest against
ceremonial morality :-Not by birth doth one become
a low caste, not by birth doth one become a Brahman,
by his actions alone one becometh a low caste, by his
actions alone one becometh a Brahman: Anger,
drunkenness, obstinacy, bigotry, deception, envy,
self-praise, disparaging others, high-mindedness, evil
communications-these constitute uncleanness, not
verily the eating of flesh: Reading the Vedas,
making offerings to priests, or sacrifices to the
gods, self-mortifications by heat and cold, and many
such like penances performed for the sake of immor-
tality, these do not cleanse the man who is not free
from delusions. It is clear from these and many
other passages that to this teacher had been re-
vealed the sublime secret, that in living for one's
neighbours a man can find his own most perfect
peace. The fabulous story that he gave his own
flesh to feed a starving tigress exhibits the spirit
of his life, and, taken in conjunction with his
doctrine, explains much of his success. No mere
lip-repetition could have so inculcated these spiri-
tual doctrines upon the hearts of millions of com-
mon-place human beings. There was a great
Character at work. One mighty human nature
GA
PART I.-THE QUESTION.
135
served as the sharp two-edged sword to pierce the
souls of men and force a path for the truth. In the
legends (full of fable though they are) which de-
scribe his early meditations, his separation from
his wife for the sake of the truth, his long temp-
tations and his ultimate triumph, we see no less
than in his teaching, an intense pity for the
miseries of mankind, and a passionate desire to suffer
for their sakes and by his pain to diminish the
pains of others. What bigot can be so far possessed
with the Evil Spirit as not to feel some thrill of
sympathy and admiration for so pure and holy a
being? What believer in a righteous Providence
can fail to recognise in this great Teacher the
Eternal Word of God speaking through this pure
doctrine and manifesting Himself through this
sublime life?
But the same source which reveals to us the
causes of Gautama's success indicates with little
less clearness the reasons for his failure. There
was not revealed to him any definite basis for that
universal benevolence which he inculcated on his
followers. He was determined to be benevolent
to all; but he had no sufficient basis to his benevo-
lence. He could bid a disciple thank and praise
his persecutors and murderers for their kindness in
ridding him of the burden of life; but such spas-
modic self-imposture as this could never be a substi-
tute for the Heaven-sent intuition that even in
one's persecutors and murderers there exists the
divine image to which they are destined ultimately
136
WHAT MANNER OF MAN IS THIS?
.
•
to be conformed. He could teach his followers to
act towards all as brothers; but he could not base
the doctrine of the universal brotherhood upon the
truth that all are children of a common Father in
heaven. Patience, not hope, was the basis of his
teaching; or, if hope, the hope of escaping from
pain to painlessness. He could inculcate patience
under bereavement, and resignation under disease
or other sufferings as being the inevitable results
of causes in some previous existence; but he could
not teach that bereavement was but temporary,
and that suffering was a divinely-ordained prepara-
tion for eternal blessedness.
With him, the highest good was to destroy the
natural thirst of humanity; not to satisfy it with
the Waters of life. For the follower of the Buddha
there was to be no pleasure, no desire; for where
pleasure is not, there is neither contentment nor
satisfaction of heart; therefore no passion; therefore
no enjoyment. But where is no enjoyment, there the
saint is very near to Nirwana. This is the philosophy
of Epictetus, the lame slave, an unnatural philo-
sophy, natural only for slaves, and for all that are
melancholy and maimed creatures, placed amid un-
natural surroundings, and bereft of natural joys.
Desire nothing; that thou mayst have all that thou
desirest. But Nature fights day and night against
such philosophies and conquers in the end; and her
voice bids us desire and evermore desire, and hope
and trust and look forward and ever forward from the
cradle to the grave, for some one or for something
.
A
A
I
-
137
PART I. THE QUESTION.
who shall satisfy and not destroy our longings.
Patience; yes, but patience in hope. Wait patiently
for Him and He shall give thee thy heart's desire.
Thus the religion of the Buddha had Nature as
its adversary and on all sides the glory and splen-
dour of the world testified against it. For Gau-
tama, though no ascetic, seems to have considered
the world an enemy, in a very different sense from
that in which the Christian religion speaks of the
hostility of the world. We know that even St.
Paul speaks sometimes of this world as representing
an evil principle; as being present and therefore
antagonistic to the future; visible, and therefore
antagonistic to the invisible. But St. Paul knew
from the Scriptures of Israel that this antagonism
arose from the weakness of the mind of man; not
from the imperfection of the universe, which was
pronounced very good by Him who made the world,
by Him whose glory the heavens declare, and who
made all creatures in His Wisdom. To the Buddhist,
on the other hand, not recognising this consecra-
tion of created things, the world seemed a prison;
and if it was goodly and attractive, so much the
more ensnaring and fatal. To the follower of the
Buddha every natural appetite was a snare; every-
thing of beauty, a trap to catch the soul; every
inducement to exist, a decoy; every sign or token
which seemed to indicate that the world was made
to be our home, was to the Buddhist a sign that
the world was made amiss; and every trace of
what we call order bore witness (for him,) to the
negation of design.
138
WHAT MANNER OF MAN IS THIS?
What manner of man then was this, who on such
a basis of negation and hopelessness erected such
a superstructure of universal benevolence, and
constructed a religion which, even now, numbers
its adherents by millions? Surely a marvellous
man, a soul most richly inspired, and one whom
our Lord Himself would hail as one of His fore-
runners. But we are unconsciously gliding into
Christian language, forgetting that we are for the
present dispassionate students of ancient religions,
and rediscoverers of extinct Christianity. Let us
therefore content ourselves with saying that this
great Teacher, in inculcating universal benevolence
and a life of self-sacrifice as the source of the truest
peace, discovered a responsive chord in the hearts
of men and touched it with a success which shows
that he combined a singular intuition into the
natures and needs of men, with a singular force
of character. He was an almost unique leader of
men, one of the motive powers of the moral world;
and the student who is ignorant of his work, is
ignorant (to use such language as might have
been employed not necessarily by a Christian, but
by a Jewish philosopher, say by Philo) of one of
the highest and purest manifestations of the
Eternal Word of God.
.
Now all that we ask for the founder of Christianity
is that his life and his teaching should be investi-
gated with the same dispassionate fairness with
which we would approach the ancient biography of
the founder of any other religion. Put aside, if
PART I.—THE QUESTION.
139
you will, everything that is supernatural; reject
even those miraculous acts of healing which are
best authenticated and which seem to me most
certainly true; consider Jesus of Nazareth simply
as a man, simply as a teacher, simply as a moral
reformer; then, when you have done this, consider
his influence, after his death, on his Apostles, on
his enemy Paul, on those who have believed in him
for eighteen centuries, on the age in which we now
live: and, when all is considered, ask and answer,
as best you can, the question, What manner of man
is this?
1
"
WHAT MANNER OF MAN
IS THIS?
What manner of man is this?-ST. MARK IV. 41.
PART II.-THE ANSWER.
THE first point that suggests itself to us, on a
closer examination of the books of the New Testa-
ment, is that the miraculous element in the best
authenticated records of the life of Christ is not
nearly so prominent as it at first sight appeared.
The earliest documents of all, certain letters written
by one of the followers of Jesus, contain very little
reference to his miraculous works; and, though
St. Paul undoubtedly asserts (or rather in the most
natural way assumes) that wonderful works of
healing were commonly performed by the followers
of Jesus, he makes no mention of any miraculous
birth, nor of any other kind of resurrection except
that which had been manifested to St. Paul him-
self, that is to say, through the medium of an
appearance.
WHAT MANNER OF MAN IS THIS?
141
Turning to the three earliest biographies of the
founder, we find that they are all based upon some
pre-existing tradition earlier than any of the three.
Disinterring this original tradition from the three
Gospels, we perceive that this early document con-
curs with the Epistles of St. Paul in making no
mention of the miraculous birth or the miraculous
resurrection. In the document that comes next
in chronological order (our St. Mark), we find the
same omissions. In the next (our St. Matthew),
these omissions begin to be supplied, but (especially
in the matter of the resurrection) very briefly;
and the influence of prophecy (before perceptible)
begins to be far more distinctly perceived in addi-
tions apparently intended to give prominence to
fulfilments of Messianic predictions. In the next
(our St. Luke) the important omissions of St.
Matthew on the subject of the Resurrection, are
amply supplied by clear definite narrative. In
the last (our St. John), a wholly new biography
is written from a spiritual point of view, omitting
almost all the miracles of the earlier biographies
and inserting none but a small number, each of
which is obviously the symbolical centre of a
doctrinal context; and here the resurrection is
so amplified that Jesus on earth after death is
exhibited as living with his disciples almost as
familiarly and freely as before he died.
If on the one hand the obvious growth of the
supernatural element traceable in this series of
writings prevents us from accepting the later
142
WHAT MANNER OF MAN IS THIS?
accretions or additions as equally historical with
the former nucleus, on the other hand it must also
occur to us that the original nucleus itself, and
especially that part of it which is free from the
supernatural element, must be peculiarly trust-
worthy. Examining, therefore, this Original Tra-
dition more closely, we find, or think we find, that
the few accounts of miracles (not works of healing)
therein contained may be easily explained as the
result of metaphor misunderstood. But further
we find that, however the miraculous element may
retire into the back-ground, there is never absent
from any page of the earliest records of the doc-
trine of this teacher one remarkable characteristic.
Call it, if you like, self-assertion, but at least recog-
nise the fact; I mean the position claimed by
Jesus for himself as being the necessary centre of
the new religion. His disciples were not merely
to follow him, but to believe in him.
He pro-
claimed a Kingdom of God based upon the faith
that God is the Father of men; but the central
part of the constitution and practical working of
this New Kingdom consisted in this, that the
allegiance of men to the Father in heaven was to
pass through Jesus himself; who, though he called
himself the Son of man, nevertheless by all his
words and actions manifested that he considered
himself the revealer of God, in a very different
manner from any of the former prophets of his
people.
.
Looking further into the nature of this Kingdom,
PART II.-THE ANSWER.
143
we see that it was not a mere ideal, but a scheme
intended to be practically realised, and that its
consequences would naturally be, and ultimately
were, a moral Revolution. It was nothing if not
practical. From the axiom of the Fatherhood of
God Jesus deduced the brotherhood of men. True,
many men were unworthy to be called the sons of
God but all had the capacity to become worthy.
Strictly speaking, indeed, none were worthy, not
even the best; but all by repentance and faith
could be conformed to the divine image. If they
asked, "Faith in what?" his answer was, Faith
in the Father whom he himself revealed to them.
If further the question was asked, by what means
he revealed the Father, the answer was, partly
through the visible works of God, the sun, and
rain, and flowers; partly through the human
relation of Fatherhood; but partly and mainly
through himself. He declared that he himself had
the power of conforming men to the divine image
by purifying them of their sins; but his puri-
fication was not by water or blood or by any of the
well-known means common in ancient religions, but
through simple trust on the part of the sinner. The
sinner had but to trust in him, the Son of man,
and he could at once remove the sins of the most
sinful. Nay, it was to the sinful and to the lost,
or to those who felt themselves such, that Jesus
especially came.
This power of uplifting the sinful is a natural
and recognised power of human nature.
The
•
1
1
144
WHAT MANNER OF MAN IS THIS?
faculty of forgiveness had been in use among men
long before the coming of Jesus, and is in use
among thousands now who have never heard of his
name. But it was a discovery reserved for Jesus
that this power was divinely ordained as the key
whereby all must pass into the divine Kingdom.
He in his own person typified and expressed the
Heaven-sent forgiveness; to him the Father had
given authority to forgive, and not only to for-
give, but also to impart this power to others. And
in his hands and those of his disciples, forgiveness
became so transmuted, exalted, and strengthened,
that we scarcely recognise in it the same virtue as
that which, under the same name, was practised by
those who forgave before the coming of Jesus.
Suffice it to add, that this power so mystically ex-
alted, and so authoritatively claimed, appears to
have answered the expectations of Jesus, and to
have speedily drawn towards him and his disciples
the poor, the wretched, and the sinful throughout
Galilee during his life, and throughout the Roman
empire shortly after his death. Nor did this
attraction mean a mere passing from one religion
to another; it involved a simultaneous moral
reform such as is described by Pliny. In later
times there sprang up among the followers of
Jesus the fancy that he had communicated his
power to none but a few of his disciples, who in
turn were to transmit it to other chosen few; and
thus the faculty of forgiving degenerated into a
sacerdotal rite. But the early doctrine of Jesus is
PART II.-THE ANSWER.
145
1
clear. All his followers were to forgive: and they
were taught daily in their prayers to recognise that
their power to be forgiven depended on their power
of forgiving. It was a spiritual and not a technical
or professional gift. The gift might be more in
some and less in others but none could be
entirely without it who were not also entirely
destitute of the spirit of Jesus.
This aspect of humanity is a very different one
from that enjoined upon the followers of the
Buddha. The latter, if insulted, were instructed
to praise their insulters for not having struck
them; if struck, to praise the strikers for not
having wounded them; if wounded, to praise the
wounders for not having slain them; if persecuted
to death, they were in their dying moments to
praise their murderers for having delivered them
from the burden of existence. But the followers
of Jesus, in blessing their enemies and praying for
their persecutors, were not instructed to praise or
thank them, but simply to wish well and to act
well towards them, as being brothers in whom the
image of the common Father, though for the time
obscured, might be restored by forgiveness. The
former precept enjoins an amiable self-imposture;
the latter enjoins a moral effort based on the truths
of human nature and the divine will. To think
well of the brutal and base was admitted to be a
hard task. It required faith.
It required faith. But Jesus implied
that he could give the necessary faith to those who
trusted in him. Are we disposed to condemn this
L
146
WHAT MANNER OF MAN IS THIS?
"thinking well," as being not unlike the Buddhist
self-imposture? Our every-day experience is against
such a condemnation, proving that this faculty of
“thinking well” about one's fellows justifies itself
by making them worthy of our good thoughts; and
that Jesus increased and almost originated this
faculty in his disciples, is matter of history.
But this difficult task of forgiveness, besides
requiring faith, involves pain. None can forgive
a sinner without sympathizing with him; and to
forgive the sins of the brutal, the base, and the
impure, involves a pain in the forgiver, intense in
proportion to his power of sympathy and his hatred
of sin. That man will forgive most perfectly who
most nearly realizes the sins of others as his own.
If, therefore, Jesus was successful (and who doubts
this?) in the practice of the art of forgiveness, any
student of human nature will admit that he must
have proportionately realised and sorrowed for the
sins of his countrymen. And that it was so the
Christian records teach us. He was filled with
compassion for them; he bore their sins and carried
their iniquities; it was a burden and a weariness
to him to endure that perverse generation. Yet he
did not shrink from the task as if it were out of his
province. On the contrary, he considered this
service to the lowest of the low to be his appointed
work. It was his mission to give up his life for
men, and especially for the lost, the miserable, and
the sinful. So far from claiming exemption from
pain, or immunity from service, because he was the
PART II.-THE ANSWER.
147
leader of others; on the contrary, he claimed for
that very reason that in service and in suffering he
should be pre-eminent. He that will be greatest, let
him be your minister. No mention is made in the
whole of the biography of Jesus of any sacrifice
offered up by him in accordance with the Mosaic
law; but it is clear that the sacrificial spirit
pervaded the whole of his doctrine and his life.
-
Such then was the key that gave admission into
the new Kingdom of God-forgiveness through
repentance and faith. As to the relations of
the citizens among one another, or as to their
conduct towards the external world, Jesus laid
down no
no precise or detailed rules. From a
Jew, brought up under the Mosaic law supple-
mented by minute traditions, we might have ex-
pected some attention to detail. But Jesus autho-
ritatively abrogated the law. Moses had ordained
regulations concerning divorce; Jesus ordained
other and opposite regulations. The strict obser-
vance of the Sabbath seemed to spring naturally
from the Law; but Jesus declared that the Son
of man was Lord also of the Sabbath. True, he
claimed to abrogate the Law by fulfilment and not
by destruction: yet the result was the same. The
whole of the Levitical code was virtually swept
away when Jesus taught, that not that which goeth
into a man defileth him, but that which proceedeth
out of the man. This authoritative abrogation
of the Law-which at once distinguishes Jesus as
altogether different in kind from any of the great
L 2
148
WHAT MANNER OF MAN IS THIS?
prophets of his nation-left his disciples in the
Kingdom of God without any rules to guide them.
What then was to be their guide, and what their
substitute for the Law?
During his life he was to be their guide. They
were to come to him, and he would give them rest.
He answered their questions, solved their diffi-
culties, and instructed them in their duties. But,
besides himself, he pointed to a certain principle or
relation which would help them. He bade his dis-
ciples contemplate childhood: not the ignorance,
nor the selfishness, nor the thoughtlessness, nor
the crudeness of it; but its trustfulness, innocence,
and simplicity. These qualities they must strive
to attain; first, in their relations with the Father,
then, in their relations with their fellow disciples,
next, in their relations with the world. Children,
he said (no less than the winds and the lightning),
were the angels or ministers of the Supreme, and
their angels always beheld the face of the Father.
That is to say, the institution of childhood is con-
stantly conveying to each generation of mankind
messages of the brightness of God's love, conforming
men to the divine image. Placing a child among
a circle of his disciples he styled the little one his
ambassador, even as he himself was the ambassador
of the Father: Whosoever shall receive one of such
children in my name, receiveth me: and whosoever
shall receive me, receiveth not me, but him that sent
me. Thus, in the place of a code of laws, this
Teacher seems to have cast his disciples upon
PART II.-THE ANSWER.
149
nothing but a principle, bidding them live as
children of God and brothers of men, and leaving
to them the task of working out this principle in
detail.
But after the Teacher's death, who was to be
then the guide of his deserted followers? What
was to be then their substitute for the Law? To
answer this question we should find ample materials
in the Fourth Gospel; but in our present sketch,
as we are confining ourselves entirely to the
Original Tradition common to the three first
Gospels, or including only such supplementary
doctrine in the Synoptic Gospels as is readily
credible, the Fourth Gospel lies out of our province.
Yet the account of the Lord's supper, common to
the Synoptic Gospels, suggests an answer, strange,
but undoubtedly historical. We accept in that
account only the parts common to the three
Gospels. The statement in St. Luke's Gospel, that
Jesus ordained this Feast as a Memorial to himself
to be kept up for all future time, we must put aside
as not being supported by the other two Synoptists.
But we cannot put aside the statement found in
the three Gospels, and confirmed by the Epistles of
St. Paul, as well as by the practice of the Church
from the earliest times, that, on the eve of his
betrayal and death, a few hours before his death,
this teacher broke bread and distributed wine to
his disciples and bade them partake of the former
as his body, and the latter as his blood. How are
we to interpret this act? By the light of the laws
།
150
WHAT MANNER OF MAN IS THIS?
of human nature, and in the same way in which we
should interpret a similar act recorded of any other
prophet. If such a narrative, stated by trust-
worthy authorities, and confirmed by the evidence
of an early unbroken practice among his followers,
had been narrated to us of the founder of any other
religion; if, for example, instead of the legend that
he gave his flesh to feed the starving wild beasts of
the forest, this simple well-attested narrative had
been handed down to us concerning Gautama,
should we have found a difficulty in interpreting
it? Surely we should have agreed that the gift
of the body and the blood typified the gift of him-
self, the sacrifice of his life for his disciples and
for the world, the outpouring of his spirit passing
from himself into those for whom he had lived,
and for whom he was ready to die. And this we
should have confidently asserted, even though we
knew that the founder of the Buddhist faith had
not those hopes about a future existence and an
undying triumph of righteousness, which were
common to the Jews in the times of Jesus of
Nazareth, and which find prominent expression
in his teaching. Much more willingly, therefore,
must we accept as historical this account con-
cerning a Teacher whom the unanimous consent
of evidence proves to have presented himself to
his disciples as the source of Forgiveness, the
Redeemer of the lost, the Revealer of the Father,
the Giver of Eternal Life.
We have taken the account of the Lord's supper
PART II.-THE ANSWER.
151
as our basis for an investigation into the attitude
of Jesus towards the future, because that basis is
historically firm. But now-finding in the historical
account of this solemn funeral-feast wherein the
Teacher bequeathed himself to his followers, such
expectations of future influence or future presence
among his disciples, as are probably unparalleled
in history-we pass to the doctrine of Jesus con-
cerning the future, prepared there also to find
(amid some accretions and "prophecies after the
event" added by later writers) much even in the
genuine utterances of Jesus that will
that will seem
unparalleled and unique.
That he should have uttered prophecies about
the coming calamities of his countrymen is indeed
by no means unparalleled. Such predictions were
common among the prophets of his people; and
recently John the Baptist, reintroducing them, had
threatened the tree of Israel with destruction be-
neath the Roman axe, much in the same way in
which Isaiah had spoken of the axe of Assyria.
If, therefore, Jesus considered that the moral
corruption of the teachers of the people must
needs infect the whole of the nation and bring
down from Heaven a national retribution, herein
he was merely following on the lines of ancient
prophetic thought. If, also, he spoke of a Day
of Decision or of Judgment, when the evil should
be separated and distinguished from the good,
herein also he was but treading in the steps of
Isaiah and Ezekiel. If he had not said these
152
WHAT MANNER OF MAN IS THIS?
things, he could not have been a Jewish prophet.
Such sayings as these, therefore, attributed to
Jesus by the earliest records, the student accepts
with perfect faith; and all the more readily be-
cause the earliest record of all contains one of
the most remarkable sayings ever attributed to
any prophet, namely, that Jesus himself did not
know of the day or the hour at which the great
Decision would be consummated.
But along with these prophecies of destruction,
retribution, and judgment, are mingled prophecies
of a Coming of the Son of man. Are we to
accept these too as historical ? Were not these
predictions borrowed from the book of Daniel
where they refer to the Messiah? Was it not
natural that after the death of Jesus his followers,
identifying him with the Messiah, should apply
to him these as well as other Messianic prophecies,
and thus console themselves for his absence by
remembering that he had predicted his return?
In order to answer this question, let us briefly
review the character assumed by Jesus. We
have seen that he spoke and acted as one having
authority, an authority greater than that of the
semi-divine national lawgiver Moses, who was
popularly believed not to have died after the
manner of men. He claimed authority to abro-
gate the Law, to supersede the Sabbath, and to
forgive sins. He offered himself to the disciples
as the type of perfect sonship to God, though
habitually calling himself the Son of man. He
PART II.-THE ANSWER.
153
called upon all that were miserable and sinful to
come to him, and to place their faith in him, and
he would give them rest and guide them to Life
Eternal. In every respect he presented himself
to his followers as the visible centre of their
religion, the image of the invisible Father. This
being admitted as historically true, we are now
confronted with the objection that he is said by
his followers to have identified himself with the
Messiah, and to have predicted his own future
triumph after death, which, say certain students,
he could not possibly have done.
But why not? Here is one who came claiming
to be the Redeemer of mankind. That at least is
undeniable. But the name commonly given by
the Jews of those days to their expected redeemer
was Messiah. Was it not natural then that those
who believed him to be their Redeemer should hail
him by that name, and that he should accept it?
That he should have claimed all, and more than
all, the powers of the Messiah, and yet have refused
to allow himself to be called by that title, could
only have arisen from a disbelief on his part that
any Messiah would come. But such a disbelief,
though possible for a Jew in Alexandria, would
scarcely have been possible for a Jew born in
Palestine. We ought not, therefore, to be led
to doubt that we are still treading on historical
ground, even though we find sayings of Jesus
which assume, though they do not assert, that he
was not only a deliverer but the Deliverer who
154
WHAT MANNER OF MAN IS THIS?
had been for many generations expected as the
fulfiller of the Prophets. We may add that the
account of the manner in which Jesus treated the
Messianic expectations of his countrymen does
not suggest any invention of later times. He is
represented as coming forward at first in Galilee
as a Redeemer of Israel, making no mention of
Messianic claims. For a long time his followers
(if we put aside the Fourth Gospel) seem not to
have identified him with the promised Messiah.
Only by degrees did it dawn on them (and we are
left to suppose that possibly only by degrees was
it revealed to him), that his Redemption made all
other redemptions superfluous, and that no other
could be Messiah if he was not. But this does
not savour of invention. Inventors would have
made Jesus proclaim, or his disciples confess,
or perchance prophets predict, even from the
very first, that the new Teacher was not a mere
teacher, nor a mere prophet, but One greater than
a prophet, the Christ of God. But none of these
additions can be found in the Original Tradition.
We pass to the doctrine of Jesus concerning death.
He is recorded to have taught his disciples to consider
it of no account. In those days the doctrine of the
Resurrection was commonly held by the masses of
the people, and it was taught by Jesus no less than
by the Pharisees. He is said to have exhorted his
disciples to fear not the death of the body, but only
the death of the soul. Physical death, says the
latest of the three Synoptic Gospels, was not to be
PART II.—THE ANSWER.
155
regarded as even a trifling inconvenience: Some of
you shall they cause to be put to death: but not
a hair of your heads shall perish. The record is
a somewhat late one; but the saying sounds far
too bold to be a late invention. And this view of
physical death is consistent with the Teacher's view
of all material things-of bread, wine, corn, fire,
leaven, and the like. They were all—so he taught
his followers-of no account except so far as they
corresponded to spiritual realities. Earthly life
was of no avail except to be spent or thrown away
for the purpose of obtaining heavenly life: He
that saves his life shall lose it, and he that loses
his life for my sake shall find it. Students of
the life of Jesus may condemn such utterances
as fanatical, but they cannot deny the historical
probability, or even certainty, that they were
indeed uttered, not by the pupils, but by the
Master himself. It is a consistent, nay, it is
a necessary, part of the doctrine of Jesus to
proclaim the triumph of life over death.
But if this was the doctrine of Jesus concern-
ing the life of his disciples, we may expect to find
indications that he had similar thoughts con-
cerning his own life. If it was true of his followers
that by casting aside their lives, they should find
them, and that though they might be slain yet not
a hair of their heads could perish, we may expect
to hear about himself also that he defied death to
injure his work, and predicted his own triumph
over it. Here, however, we are met with a
156
WHAT MANNER OF MAN IS THIS?
prophecy imputed to Jesus, and this too by all
the Synoptic narratives, a prophecy which no
dispassionate student of history, approaching it
from the natural side, can accept as historically
probable, without some explanation. He is said
not only to have predicted his death, but also that
he should rise again on the third day.
Turning, however, to the books of the Prophets
we obtain an explanation of this apparently un-
natural prediction. Not the most sceptical of in-
vestigators will find any difficulty in believing that
Jesus, looking forward to an ultimate triumph
over all obstacles, adopted and appropriated as
consolation for himself and his followers in
moments of depression and seeming failure, the
latter part of the well-known words of the prophet
Hosea: Come and let us return unto the Lord;
for he hath torn, and he will heal us; he hath
smitten, and he will bind us up. After two days
will he revive us; in the third day he will raise
us up, and we shall live in his sight. Whether
Hosea used the words in the third day literally,
or (as the expression is used of past time in
Hebrew) loosely to denote "in two or three days,"
that is, in a short time-this matters nothing for
our purpose. It suffices to know that this prophecy
of the third day existed, and might naturally be
appropriated (without any stress upon the literal、
meaning) by a teacher who undoubtedly considered
that the prophecies pointed to himself.
Consider, also, how naturally and, so to speak,
PART II.—THE ANSWER.
157
undramatically, without any tinge of sensational
invention or mythical exaggeration, the predictions
of Jesus concerning his own death are recorded in
our earliest histories. Had they been invented,
we should have expected some mysterious hint
or prediction of death from the very first, even at
the outset of his career. The shadow of the cross
would have been depicted over the cradle at Beth-
lehem or in the carpenter's shop at Nazareth. And
so indeed it is in one of the later Gospels, which, in
the earliest Christian hymnology, causes the aged
Simeon, even while blessing the infant Jesus, to
foretell the sword that is to pierce the mother's
heart. Similarly, in the latest Gospel of all, while
performing his very first miracle-the production
of the blood of the grape-Jesus is related to have
uttered a hint of that future blood of the grape
which could not be poured out as yet because his
hour was not yet come. But in the earliest records
there are none of these hints or foreshadowings.
Not a thought of ignominious death clouds the
brightness of the early pages of the Original
Tradition. Only after the death of John the
Baptist does it seem borne in upon the mind of
Jesus that he too must anticipate a violent end.
The anticipations of death, and the growing
apprehensions of treason on the part of one of
his followers sensibly modify the later doctrine
of Jesus; and there is plainly perceptible a con-
sequent development of the sadder aspect of the
Kingdom which is totally inconsistent with the
158
WHAT MANNER OF MAN IS THIS?
supposition that these anticipations of death were
subsequent interpolations. They are integral parts
of his life and doctrine, and only improbable to
those who have not realised the circumstances in
which he lived, and the Teacher's method of
interpreting circumstances.
The predictions that he should come again to
judge the world next claim our consideration. But
here the danger for an investigator is, not so much
that he should hastily deny that Jesus uttered
these predictions, but rather that he should hastily
assert that the utterance of them stamps the utterer
as a mere fanatic. The belief that he should judge
the world follows on the belief that he was the
Messiah. "If Jesus believed himself to be the
Messiah, the Son of man spoken of by the prophet
Daniel, then "-such an objector may say-" it was
a matter of course that he should also believe that
he would come to judge the world seated on the
clouds. The pity is, that he believed either.'
As dispassionate investigators of facts, we dis-
claim, for the present, any right to condemn
what we may deem erroneous inferences froin
facts. We are at present trying to find out
what Jesus did and taught, not, as yet, what
people ought to think about him.
Yet we may
here put in a caution for ourselves and others
that, in interpreting the doctrine of Jesus, we
must not first graft our base notions upon his
words, and then condemn his words for our
own baseness. Before, therefore, we express any
رو
PART II.-THE ANSWER.
159
opinion about the predictions of the judgment of
the Son of man, we ought carefully to consider
what Jesus meant by judging.
Having regard to his ordinary use of terms, and
to his constant use of analogy in deducing the
practice of God from that of men, we shall feel
safe in asserting that by judgment Jesus meant
the highest and best kind of judgment that the
human mind can conceive; that is to say, a
perfectly truthful, conspicuous, self-executing ver-
dict passed by the Judge, and simultaneously
acknowledged to be true by the accused. This
judgment is not a mere utterance of superior force,
nor does it require the pomp of power. It is the
invisible influence of righteousness when revealed
to the guilty, parting the souls of men asunder,
and dividing the good from the evil in each man's
nature. It is the convicting influence that comes
to men lying contentedly in a dark prison, when
light is suddenly forced upon them, revealing the
squalor of their prison. If any should be dis-
posed to consider this too spiritual a notion for
Jesus of Nazareth, let him remember that even
the author of the Apocalypse-surely not a more
spiritual teacher than his Master-describes the
sharp two-edged sword of judgment not as being
in the hand of the Son of man, but as proceed-
ing out of his mouth. It was by his word, by
his doctrine, by his spiritual power, and not by
sensible fires and tangible worms that Jesus of
Nazareth proposed to judge and purify the world.
160
WHAT MANNER OF MAN IS THIS?
It follows that-like the other metaphorical cir-
cumstances associated with the Day of Judgment,
such as the darkening of the sun and the roaring
of the sea, which every reader of the Prophets
knows to have denoted spiritual or political, and
not mere material convulsions, so also the seat
on the clouds of heaven must be interpreted of a
heaven-sent and conspicuous but spiritual judgment.
Thus interpreted, therefore, what is the sum
of the predictions of Jesus concerning his death
and future coming? It amounts to this, that
although he was destined shortly to be slain, yet
his work should not be frustrated, but be con-
tinued through retribution and conflict, terminat-
ing in success. Jerusalem, the city of hypocrisy,
must be cast down. Retribution, swift and terrible,
must fall upon the chosen people. The whole world
must also be convulsed before the final Judgment
should come. But at last, at a day and hour not
known to the Teacher himself, his Word should
judge the world. The standard of his righteous-
ness conspicuously set up before all races of man-
kind, should convict them of unrighteousness, and
fill them with purifying repentance. Then, and
not till then, the end should come. Meantime,
let his disciples be of good cheer. His body and
his blood should still be their food; his breath
or spirit should be the breath of their souls, giving
them an eloquence and wisdom which none of
their adversaries should be able to gainsay. What
though he should be slain in Jerusalem? Let
M
S
PART II.—THE ANSWER.
161
1
}
them go back from the Passover to their Galilean
homes in peace and confidence, and they should
find his presence awaiting them there.
Passing now to the history of the followers of
Jesus after his death, and adopting the same
system as before, we begin with the certain and
undisputed, and pass thence to the probable. It is
then absolutely certain, that a few years after the
death of Jesus, his followers believed, and suc-
ceeded in making others believe, that he had risen
from the dead. It is also absolutely certain that
one Paul, an enemy of Jesus, a strict adherent of
the Law, was arrested in the midst of a course
of persecution of the Christians by a vision of
Jesus, which, from an enemy, made him a fervent
disciple. Accepting this as a historical fact, and
seeking a natural explanation of it, we infer that
the mind of Paul was prepared by previous doubts
and questionings to receive this vision. He must
have had, we say, inducements, suggestions of the
conscience, which at first he successfully fought
against; by degrees they became stronger; and at
last, suddenly beating down all resistance, they
produced a revolution in his excited mind, which,
as a natural result created the vision. This natural
explanation we find to be confirmed by Paul's own
account. The vision itself reproaching him with
kicking against the pricks of conscience, reminded
him that he had found resistance a hard task. But
although this explanation makes the vision and con-
version natural, it increases instead of diminishing
M
162
WHAT MANNER OF MAN IS THIS?
our wonder at the influence of Jesus after his
death. Paul had never seen Jesus. Such influence
as he had received from the Teacher of the Gali-
leans, he must have received indirectly, through
Stephen perhaps, and others of the persecuted
Christians. How stupendous then must have been
the personal influence of a Leader who, even after
death, through the diffused force which he exerted
upon the hearts of his followers, could so power-
fully move the heart of an enemy and a persecutor
as to force him not only to become a friend, but
even to see a vision of himself in heaven!
But if so marvellous an effect could be produced
upon an enemy, how much more naturally upon a
friend! Turning therefore to the books of the
Christians we expect to find records of similar
appearances to the disciples of Jesus. Accord-
ingly, in a letter written by Paul himself, we read
that many such visions had been seen by the
Apostles and earlier followers. In each case Paul
uses the same word to describe the vision. Jesus,
he says, appeared to James, to Peter, to five hun-
dred disciples, and last of all to me also. Such an
appearing does not of course exclude the suppo-
sition that Jesus had a real and what St. Paul calls
a spiritual body; but obviously the language of
the apostle neither necessitates nor implies (if
anything, rather denies) that the body of Jesus
was material.
Turning to the Original Tradition we find no
mention of any appearance of Jesus after death.
PART II.-THE ANSWER.
163
But this is not surprising. The appearances were
numerous and seen in circumstances of ecstasy
which would prevent even simultaneous witnesses
from recording, or perhaps even observing, the
same facts: consequently they were at first not set
down in the Common Tradition. The Resurrection
being taken for granted as the keystone of
the apostolic doctrine, the details of it were
omitted. But even the earliest Gospel contains a
promise that Jesus should appear to the disciples.
A vision proclaims to some women, He goeth be-
fore you into Galilee; there shall ye see him. The
Gospel next in order contains an account of an
appearance of Jesus on a mountain to the eleven
disciples, where they saw him and worshipped
him: but some doubted. The third and fourth
Gospels, written at later periods, addressing them-
selves obviously to the task of showing that the
appearances of Jesus were not phantasmal, add
new details which, from our present point of view,
cannot be accepted as historical. But all alike
concur in this, that Jesus appeared to no one
(with the exception of St. Paul, whose vision
is considered alone) whose mind was not already
prepared to see him by deep affection and desire.
From our point of view, therefore, the only obstacle
to our receiving as historical such appearances of
Jesus as are described in St. Paul's Epistle, is this,
that whereas a vision is for the most part seen
only by one, these visions were seen by more than
one simultaneously. But to this only remaining
M 2
i
༔
164
WHAT MANNER OF MAN IS THIS?
objection it may be replied, that the same unique
and unparalleled force which enabled Jesus, in the
course of nature, to convert an enemy after death
may also, in the course of nature, have so thrilled
the hearts of his disciples, with the same creative
desire and the same self-justifying trust, as to repro-
duce, first before one, and then before others who
may have at first doubted-as the Gospel tells us
they did the same image of the risen and trium-
phant Saviour. Thus step by step we are led, as
the result of a dispassionate investigation, to see
that we must accept as historical some kind of
appearance, we will not say supernatural, but so
marvellous that it well deserves some distinctive
epithet, such as preternatural, whereby Jesus after
death converted an enemy to a friend and impelled
the Christian Church on its career of conquest.
The facts of the life of this great Teacher
having been thus briefly considered, we return
once more to the question, What manner of man
is this? To such an appeal the countrymen of
Shakespeare and of Bacon will never be so
dreamily ignorant of human nature or so pusil-
lanimously abhorent of facts as to reply, He was
a myth. Nor shall be able fairly to reply, He was
indeed a great Teacher, but his work is now done,
and we need some new revelation. On the contrary,
the principle that he revealed and vivified for us,
the law of brotherhood among men, is still the
only principle whereby there is any hope of ulti-
mately perfecting the human race. Besides, it
(
PART II.-THE ANSWER.
165
can be shown that, in every case where his religion
has failed, the failure may be explained by some
deviation from the rules prescribed by his spirit.
Again, the errors and corruptions of Christianity
are for the most part removable by time and
experience; so that this religion has hopes of a
constant and purifying development. For example,
Christ taught mankind to forgive, but we (in
some churches) have narrowed forgiveness into
a sacerdotal rite; Christ taught men to imitate
childhood, but we (in some churches) have placed
the preaching of Christ's Gospel in the hands of
celibates ignorant of the love of children; Christ
taught us to despise miracles and signs and
wonders, but we have made them all-important;
Christ emancipated us from Law, but we have
despised Liberty and placed upon our neck a new
Law fashioned from the letter of the New Testa-
ment; Christ taught us that heaven and hell are the
just and inevitable retributions of the things done
here in the flesh, but we have made for ourselves
a vindictive hell and an indulgent heaven, both
of which are incompatible with the conception of
a just God; Christ bade us fix our faith upon
Himself, but we have fixed it on the Church, or
on a Book; lastly, Christ set his face against out-
ward distinctions of rank and unncessary artificial
inequalities, but we have sanctioned them and
obtruded them, formerly in our political institu-
tions, and even now in all our social arrangements,
in our meetings, in our schools, and in our very
1
་
166
WHAT MANNER OF MAN IS THIS?
churches. Each one of these past and present
derelictions of Christians suggests a hope for the
future of the Church. If with a corrupt and
distorted form of Christianity the world has
achieved a considerable progress, what may not
be expected when we return to the pure teaching
of the Spirit of Christ himself?
What manner of man, then, is this? Surely
even those who do not believe in a God must
acknowledge in the Leader of this great social
Revolution-of which we at present are only see-
ing the beginnings-the man who surpasses all
others as a moral force in the world, the man who
best exemplifies self-sacrifice, unselfish love, and
who exhibits humanity in its highest and most
admirable form. And of all the conquerors, states-
men, philanthropists, and prophets who have arisen
to reform the world, surely this man is the one
whom they must love and revere most, and in
whose intuition into the needs of mankind they
can place the greatest confidence.
But the great majority of the human race who
believe in a God-what must be their attitude
towards this, the highest of mankind?
If they
believe that God has been training men through
history, and that Israel was indeed a nation chosen
by God to lead mankind to Himself, what must
they think of this, the greatest Prophet produced
by Israel? If they believe that love is the govern-
ing principle of the world, what must they think
of him who first established this principle upon a
C
PART II.-THE ANSWER.
167
firm basis, and who was himself the incarnate
representation of its beauty and its strength ?
Were we indeed rediscovering an extinct religion,
disinterring the life of the Founder of it from some
mouldering parchments in some eastern monastery,
our natural reverence and affection for a Being so
pure and so unselfish would be chilled by the sad
reflection that his life had been lived in vain, and
that Nature had decided against his teaching. But
Nature calls aloud that the religion of Christ is
according to her Laws. Not by the vulgar test of
superficial success, but by its accordance with the
deepest Laws and satisfaction of the deepest needs
of human nature, the work of Christ approves itself
as being in conformity with the work of the Eternal
Word since the creation of the world. Do men need
to forgive and to be forgiven? He has proved that
he can enable his faithful followers to do both.
Do they need to be freed from the fear of death ?
He has freed all that trust in him. Do they need
some link, at once human and divine, between the
imperfect children of men and the perfect Father
in heaven? He has given them, according to his
promise, his presence in their hearts, triumphant
over death; not the mere visible presence vouch-
safed to James and Peter, and Paul, and the "five
hundred brethren," but
but a spiritual presence
potent for all good, which has inspired countless
multitudes of his worshippers.
Those who even approximately appreciate the
character of Christ must needs, one would think,
168
WHAT MANNER OF MAN IS THIS?
recoil from the thought that his life could have
been a delusion, not so much out of the fear of
lowering their estimate of Jesus, as from a terror
at the tremendous consequences upon their belief
in God Himself. For if you believe that a good
God governs the world, how can you possibly do
otherwise than reject as blasphemous the thought
that He permitted such a one as Jesus of Nazareth
to delude himself with inflated self-conceits, to ape
the divinest attributes of the Supreme, the powers
of forgiving and judging, and to live and die in the
vain imagination that he was the Redeemer of
mankind? Surely, if that were possible, the de-
ceived would be morally superior to the deceiver;
and Jesus of Nazareth would be more worthy of
worship than God.
More worthy of worship than God! Yes, believe
me, there are many things-so debased is the con-
ception that many of us have formed of the Supreme
-which are more worthy of worship than the false
gods that we shape to ourselves from our imagi-
nations; and Jesus of Nazareth, considered even
merely as a man, is far more worthy of worship
than the impure but too common image of a god
who could do whatsoever he pleases, and who can
make wrong right by his will. There is, as yet, a
scarcity of righteous worship in the world. Many
of those who worship God with their lips, and in
their theories of life, are practically atheists or
idolaters for they do not love or trust or reverence
any being worthy of the name of God. There is
PART II.-THE ANSWER.
169
often no hyperbole in the common saying, that
men and women worship wealth, or fame, or plea-
sure, or their children, or the like. These earthly
things are often our gods in practice; and when
this is the case, are we not indeed atheists in com-
parison with the unselfish and laborious philan-
thropist who doubts the existence of a God, yet
worships goodness in his actions? Surely the first
step towards a purer religion is to recognise that
worship cannot be paid to order; that it is the
highest faculty of which human nature is cap-
able; and that where love is absent, worship is
impossible.
Therefore in answer to the question, What manner
of man is Jesus of Nazareth? do not, I beseech you,
content yourselves with answering, He is God,
unless you feel that He stands highest in your love,
your trust, and your reverence. For the conven-
tional answer, satisfying you that you are in the
right path, may possibly make you too easily
contented with yourself and too ready to believe
that you are worshipping Jesus of Nazareth,' when
in reality you are paying Him no genuine worship.
It is far better, if it must be so, that while loving
and reverencing Jesus more than any other human
being, you should yet at times feel some little dis-
trust of His complete intuition into the necessities
of humanity, than that you should be absolutely
certain of His omniscience and omnipotence, and
yet offer Him a worship destitute of any tinge of
love. Be content rather to acknowledge your
N
A
·
170
WHAT MANNER OF MAN IS THIS?
deficiencies and to aim at a truer knowledge of
him; and be sure that if you will but strive to live
in his spirit, He will lead you to the highest worship
of himself of which you are capable.
On the other hand, do not despise the worship
of Jesus of Nazareth as a person, in the belief that
you have found a higher substitute for it in the
worship of Him as a diffused spirit of love knitting
together regenerate mankind. As long as human
fatherhood exists, so long will there abide on earth
the world-wide testimony to the truths of Christ's
religion; but as long as human parents are weak
and human children disobedient, so long will it be
helpful for the disciples of Christ to renew their
faith in the divine fatherhood by looking up toward
heaven, there to behold One seated at the right
hand of the Majesty on High, manifested to be the
perfect Son of God in heaven because He was the
perfect Son of man on earth. God grant that to
each of you this revelation may be given, that in
answer to the question, What manner of man is
this? the experience of your lives and the result
of your studies may combine in making this reply:
"He is one whom I am forced to associate with
the conception of the Father in heaven; He is the
incarnate expression of that governing principle
of the world which the Jews called the Word of
God. Other teachers of divine truths may be
called Prophets, but He seems greater than a
Prophet. He is the truest image of God vouch-
safed to men; and if even of imperfect leaders
171
and deliverers it may be said that, so far as
they partake of the divine image, they may be
called the children of the heavenly Father, then
in a far higher sense, of this unique Leader
and Deliverer, in answer to the question What
manner of man is this? it must be said, God
who in sundry times and in divers manners spake
in times past unto the fathers by the Prophets, hath
in these last days spoken unto us by His Son, by
whom also He made the worlds.
TRULY THIS WAS THE SON OF GOD.
THE END.
LONDON:
R. CLAY, SONS, AND taylor,
BREAD STREET HILL.
May, 1879.
A CATALOGUE of THEOLOGICAL BOOKS,
with a Short Account of their
Character and Aim,
Published by
MACMILLAN AND CO.
Bedford Street, Strand, London, W.C.
Abbott (Rev. E. A.)—Works by the Rev. E. A. Abbott,
D.D., Head Master of the City of London School:
BIBLE LESSONS. Second Edition. Crown 8vo. 4s.6d.
"Wise, suggestive, and really profound initiation into religious thought."
-Guardian. The Bishop of St. David's, in his speech at the Education
Conference at Abergwilly, says he thinks "nobody could read them without
being the better for them himself, and being also able to see how this difficult
duty of imparting a sound religious education may be effected."
THE GOOD VOICES: A Child's Guide to the Bible.
With upwards of 50 Illustrations. Crown 8vo. cloth gilt. 5s.
"It would not be easy to combine simplicity with fulness and depth of
meaning more successfully than Mr. Abbott has done."-Spectator. The
Times says "Mr. Abbott writes with clearness, simplicity, and the deepest
religious feeling."
CAMBRIDGE SERMONS PREACHED BEFORE THE
UNIVERSITY. Second Edition.
Second Edition. 8vo. 6s.
3,000 5 79.
:
2
THEOLOGICAL BOOKS.
1
ABBOTT (Rev. E. A.)—continued.
THROUGH NATURE TO CHRIST; or, The Ascent of
8vo. 12s. 6d.
Worship through Illusion to the Truth.
"The beauty of its style, its tender feeling, and its perfect sympathy, the
originality and suggestiveness of many of its thoughts, would of them-
selves go far to recommend it. But far besides these, it has a certain
value in its bold, comprehensive, trenchant method of apology, and in the
adroitness with which it turns the flank of the many modern fallacies that
caricature in order to condemn Christianity."—Church Quarterly Review.
Ainger (Rev. Alfred).—SERMONS PREACHED IN
THE TEMPLE CHURCH. By the Rev. ALFRED AInger,
M.A. of Trinity Hall, Cambridge, Reader at the Temple Church.
Extra fcap. 8vo. 6s.
"It is," the British Quarterly says, "the fresh unconventional talk of a
clear independent thinker, addressed to a congregation of thinkers..
Thoughtful men will be greatly charmed by this little volume."
Alexander.-THE LEADING IDEAS of the GOSPELS.
Five Sermons preached before the University of Oxford in 1870-
71. BY WILLIAM ALEXANDER, D.D., Brasenose College; Lord
Bishop of Derry and Raphoe; Select Preacher. Cr. 8vo. 4s. 6d.
“Eloquence and force of language, clearness of statement, and a hearty
appreciation of the grandeur and importance of the topics upon which he
writes, characterize his sermons."-Record.
Arnold. Works by MATTHEW ARNOLD:
A BIBLE READING FOR SCHOOLS. THE GREAT
PROPHECY OF Israel's RestorRATION (Isaiah, Chapters 40-66).
Arranged and Edited for Young Learners. By MATTHEW Arnold,
D.C. L., formerly Professor of Poetry in the University of Oxford,
and Fellow of Oriel. Third Edition. 18mo. cloth. Is.
The Times says "Whatever may be the fate of this little book in
Government Schools, there can be no doubt that it will be found excellently
calculated to further instruction in Biblical literature in any school into
which it may be introduced.... We can safely say that whatever school uses
this book, it will enable its pupils to understand Isaiah, a great advantage
compared with other establishments which do not avail themselves of it.”
ISAIAH XL.--LXVI., with the Shorter Prophecies allied
to it. Arranged and Edited with Notes. Crown 8vo. 5s.
Bather.-ON SOME MINISTERIAL DUTIES, CATE-
CHISING, PREACHING, &c. Charges by the late Archdeacon
BATHER. Edited, with Preface, by Dr. C. J. VAUGHAN. Extra
fcap. 8vo. 4s. 6d.
THEOLOGICAL BOOKS.
3
Benham.-A COMPANION TO THE LECTIONARY,
being a Commentary on the Proper Lessons for Sundays and
Holydays. By the Rev. W. BENHAM, B.D., Vicar of Margate.
Cheaper Edition. Crown 8vo. 65.
“A very useful book. Mr. Benham has produced a good and welcome
companion to our revised Lectionary. Its contents will, if not very original
or profound, prove to be sensible and practical, and often suggestive to the
preacher and the Sunday School teacher. They will also furnish some
excellent Sunday reading for private hours."—Guardian.
Bernard.-THE PROGRESS OF DOCTRINE IN THE
NEW TESTAMENT. BY THOMAS D. BERNARD, M.A.,
Rector of Walcot and Canon of Wells. Third and Cheaper Edi-
tion. Crown 8vo. 5s. (Bampton Lectures for 1864.)
"We lay down these lectures with a sense not only of being edified by
sound teaching and careful thought, but also of being gratified by con-
ciseness and clearness of expression and elegance of style."—Churchman.
Binney.—SERMONS PREACHED IN THE KING'S
WEIGH HOUSE CHAPEL, 1829-69. By THOMAS BINNEY,
D.D. New and Cheaper Edition. Extra fcap. 8vo.
4s. 6d.
"Full of robust intelligence, of reverent but independent thinking on the
most profound and holy themes, and of earnest practical purpose.".
London Quarterly Review.
A SECOND SERIES OF SERMONS. Edited, with Bio-
graphical and Critical Sketch, by the Rev. HENRY ALLON, D.D.
With Portrait of Dr. Binney engraved by JEENS. 8vo. I25.
Birks. Works by T. R. BIRKS, M.A., Professor of Moral
Philosophy, Cambridge :
THE DIFFICULTIES OF BELIEF in connection with
the Creation and the Fall, Redemption and Judgment. Second
Edition, enlarged. Crown 8vo. 5s.
AN ESSAY ON THE RIGHT ESTIMATION OF MSS.
EVIDENCE IN THE TEXT OF THE NEW TESTAMENT. Crown
8vo. 3s. 6d.
COMMENTARY ON THE BOOK OF ISAIAH, Critical,
Historical and Prophetical; including a Revised English Trans-
lation. With Introduction and Appendices on the Nature of
Scripture Prophecy, the Life and Times of Isaiah, the Genuineness
of the Later Prophecies, the Structure and History of the whole
Book, the Assyrian History in Isaiah's Days, and various Difficult
Passages. Second Edition, revised. 8vo. 12s. 6d.
SUPERNATURAL REVELATION, or First Principles of
Moral Theology. 8vo. 85.
4
THEOLOGICAL BOOKS.
Bradby.—SERMONS PREACHED AT HAILEYBURY.
By E. H. BRADBY, M.A., Master. 8vo.
IOS. 6d.
“He who claims a public hearing now, speaks to an audience accustomed
to Cotton, Temple, Vaughan, Bradley, Butler, Farrar, and others.
Each has given us good work, several, work of rare beauty, force, or
originality; but we doubt whether any one of them has touched deeper
chords, or brought more freshness and strength into his sermons, than the
last of their number, the present Head Master of Haileybury."-Spectator.
Butcher.--THE ECCLESIASTICAL CALENDAR; its
Theory and Construction. By SAMUEL BUTCHER, D.D., late
Bishop of Meath. 4to. 14s.
Butler (G.)-Works by the Rev. GEORGE BUTLER, M.A.,
Principal of Liverpool College:
FAMILY PRAYERS. Crown 8vo.
55.
The prayers in this volume are all based on passages of Scripture-the
morning prayers on Select Psalms, those for the evening on portions of the
New Testament.
SERMONS PREACHED in CHELTENHAM COLLEGE
CHAPEL. Crown 8vo. 7s. 6d.
Butler (Rev. H. M.)-SERMONS PREACHED in the
CHAPEL OF HARROW SCHOOL. By H. MONTAGU
BUTLER, Head Master. Crown 8vo.
There is nothing
7s. 6d.
"These sermons are adapted for every household.
more striking than the excellent good sense with which they are imbued."
-Spectator.
A SECOND SERIES. Crown 8vo. 7s. 6d.
"Excellent specimens of what sermons should be plain, direct, prac-
tical, pervaded by the true spirit of the Gospel, and holding up lofty aims
before the minds of the young."-Athenæum.
Butler (Rev. W. Archer).—Works by the Rev. WILLIAM
ARCHER BUTLER, M.A., late Professor of Moral Philosophy in
the University of Dublin :
SERMONS, DOCTRINAL AND PRACTICAL. Edited,
with a Memoir of the Author's Life, by THOMAS WOODWARD,
Dean of Down. With Portrait. Ninth Edition. 8vo. 85.
The Introductory Memoir narrates in considerable detail and with much
interest, the events of Butler's brief life; and contains a few specimens of
his poetry, and a few extracts from his addresses and essays, including a
long and eloquent passage on the Province and Duty of the Preacher.
THEOLOGICAL BOOKS.
5
BUTLER (Rev. W. Archer)-continued.
A SECOND SERIES OF SERMONS. Edited by J. A.
JEREMIE, D.D., Dean of Lincoln. Seventh Edition. 8vo. 7s.
The North British Review says, "Few sermons in our language exhibit
the same rare combination of excellencies; imagery almost as rich as
Taylor's; oratory as vigorous often as South's; judgment as sound as
Barrow's; a style as attractive but more copious, original, and forcible
than Atterbury's; piety as elevated as Howe's, and a fervour as intense at
times as Baxter's. Mr. Butler's are the sermons of a true poet.
""
LETTERS ON ROMANISM, in reply to Dr. Newman's
Essay on Development. Edited by the Dean of Down. Second
Edition, revised by Archdeacon HARDWICK. 8vo.
IOS. 6d.
These Letters contain an exhaustive criticism of Dr. Newman's famous
"Essay on the Development of Christian Doctrine.' "A work which
ought to be in the Library of every student of Divinity."-BP. ST. DAVID's.
Campbell.-Works by JOHN M'LEOD CAMPBELL :
THE NATURE OF THE ATONEMENT AND ITS
RELATION TO REMISSION OF SINS AND ETERNAL
LIFE. Fourth and Cheaper Edition, crown 8vo. 6s.
'Among the first theological treatises of this generation."-Guardian.
"One of the most remarkable theological books ever written."-Times.
CHRIST THE BREAD OF LIFE. An Attempt to give
a profitable direction to the present occupation of Thought with
Romanism. Second Edition, greatly enlarged. Crown 8vo. 4s. 6d.
"Deserves the most attentive study by all who interest themselves in the
predominant religious controversy of the day."-Spectator.
REMINISCENCES AND REFLECTIONS, referring to
his Early Ministry in the Parish of Row, 1825-31. Edited with
an Introductory Narrative by his Son, DONALD CAMPBELL, M.A.,
Chaplain of King's College, London. Crown 8vo. 7s. 6d.
These 'Reminiscences and Reflections,' written during the last year of
his life, were mainly intended to place on record thoughts which might
prove helpful to others. "We recommend this book cordially to all who
are interested in the great cause of religious reformation."-Times.
"There is a thoroughness and depth, as well as a practical earnestness,
in his grasp of each truth on which he dilates, which make his reflections
very valuable."-Literary Churchman.
THOUGHTS ON REVELATION, with Special Reference
to the Present Time. Second Edition.
Crown 8vo. 5s.
6
THEOLOGICAL BOOKS.
CAMPBELL (J. M'Leod)—continued.
RESPONSIBILITY FOR THE GIFT OF ETERNAL
LIFE. Compiled by permission of the late J. M’LEOD CAMPBELL,
D.D., from Sermons preached chiefly at Row in 1829-31.
Crown 8vo. 55.
"There is a healthy tone as well as a deep pathos not often seen in
His words are weighty and the ideas they express tend to per-
fection of life."-Westminster Review.
sermons.
Campbell (Lewis).—SOME ASPECTS OF THE CHRIS-
TIAN IDEAL. Sermons by the Rev. L. CAMPBELL, M.A.,
LL.D., Professor of Greek in the University of Glasgow. Crown
8vo. 6s.
Canterbury.-Works by ARCHIBALD CAMPBELL, Archbishop
of Canterbury:
THE PRESENT POSITION OF THE CHURCH OF
ENGLAND. Seven Addresses delivered to the Clergy and Church-
wardens of his Diocese, as his Charge, at his Primary Visitation,
1872. Third Edition. 8vo. cloth.
3s. 6d.
SOME THOUGHTS ON THE DUTIES OF THE ES-
TABLISHED CHURCH OF ENGLAND AS A NATIONAL
CHURCH. Seven Addresses delivered at his Second Visitation.
8vo. 4s. 6d.
Cheyne. Works by T. K. CHEYNE, M.A., Fellow of Balliol
College, Oxford :
THE BOOK OF ISAIAH CHRONOLOGICALLY AR-
RANGED. An Amended Version, with Historical and Critical
Introductions and Explanatory Notes. Crown 8vo. 7s. 6d.
The Westminster Review speaks of it as "a piece of scholarly work,
very carefully and considerately done. The Academy calls it "a success-
ful attempt to extend a right understanding of this important Old Testa-
ment writing."
NOTES AND CRITICISMS on the HEBREW TEXT
OF ISAIAH. Crown 8vo.
2s. 6d.
Choice Notes on the Four Gospels, drawn from
Old and New Sources. Crown 8vo. 4s. 6d. each Vol. (St.
Matthew and St. Mark in one Vol. price 9s.)
Church.—Works by the Very Rev. R. W. CHURCH, M.A.,
D.C.L., Dean of St. Paul's :
ON SOME INFLUENCES OF CHRISTIANITY UPON
NATIONAL CHARACTER. Three Lectures delivered in St.
Paul's Cathedral, Feb. 1873. Crown 8vo. 4s. 6d.
THEOLOGICAL BOOKS.
7
CHURCH (Very Rev. R. W.)-continued.
.
"Few books that we have met with have given us keener pleasure than
this...... It would be a real pleasure to quote extensively, so wise and so
true, so tender and so discriminating are Dean Church's judgments, but
the limits of our space are inexorable. We hope the book will be bought."
-Literary Churchman.
THE SACRED POETRY OF EARLY RELIGIONS.
Two Lectures in St. Paul's Cathedral. 18mo. Is. I. The Vedas.
II. The Psalms.
ST. ANSELM. Second Edition.
Crown 8vo. 6s.
66
'It is a sketch by the hand of a master, with every line marked by
taste, learning, and real apprehension of the subject."—Pall Mall Gazette.
HUMAN LIFE AND ITS CONDITIONS. Sermons
preached before the University of Oxford, 1876-78, with Three
Ordination Sermons. Crown 8vo. 6s.
Clergyman's Self-Examination concerning the
APOSTLES' CREED. Extra fcap. 8vo.
Is. 6d.
Colenso.-THE COMMUNION SERVICE FROM THE
BOOK OF COMMON PRAYER; with Select Readings from
the Writings of the Rev. F. D. MAURICE, M. A. Edited by the
Right Rev. J. W. COLENSO, D.D., Lord Bishop of Natal. New
Edition. 16mo. 2s. 6d.
Collects of the Church of England. With a beauti-
fully Coloured Floral Design to each Collect, and Illuminated
Cover. Crown 8vo. 125. Also kept in various styles of morocco.
The distinctive characteristic of this edition is the coloured floral design
which accompanies each Collect, and which is generally emblematical of
the character of the day or saint to which it is assigned; the flowers
which have been selected are such as are likely to be in bloom on the day to
which the Collect belongs. The Guardian thinks it "a successful attempt
to associate in a natural and unforced manner the flowers of our fields
and gardens with the course of the Christian year.
""
Congreve.-HIGH HOPES, AND PLEADINGS FOR A REA-
SONABLE FAITH, NOBLER THOUGHTS, LARGER CHARITY.
Sermons preached in the Parish Church of Tooting Graveney, Surrey.
By J. CONGREVE, M.A., Rector. Cheaper Issue. Crown 8vo. 5s.
Cotton.-Works by the late GEORGE EDWARD LYNCH
COTTON, D.D., Bishop of Calcutta :
8
THEOLOGICAL BOOKS.
COTTON (Bishop)-continued.
SERMONS PREACHED TO ENGLISH CONGREGA-
TIONS IN INDIA. Crown 8vo. 7s. 6d.
EXPOSITORY SERMONS ON THE EPISTLES FOR
THE SUNDAYS OF THE CHRISTIAN YEAR. Two
Vols. Crown 8vo. 15s.
Curteis.-DISSENT in its RELATION to the CHURCH
OF ENGLAND. Eight Lectures preached before the University
of Oxford, in the year 1871, on the foundation of the late Rev.
John Bampton, M.A., Canon of Salisbury. By GEORGE HERBERT
CURTEIS, M. A., late Fellow and Sub-Rector of Exeter College;
Principal of the Lichfield Theological College, and Prebendary of
Lichfield Cathedral; Rector of Turweston, Bucks. New Edition.
Crown 8vo. 7s. 6d.
"Mr. Curteis has done good service by maintaining in an eloquent,
temperate, and practical manner, that discussion among Christians is
really an evil, and that an intelligent basis can be found for at least a
proximate union."-Saturday Review. "A well timed, learned, and
thoughtful book."
Davies. Works by the Rev. J. LLEWELYN DAVIES, M.A.,
Rector of Christ Church, St. Marylebone, etc. :
THE GOSPEL AND MODERN LIFE; with a Preface
on a Recent Phase of Deism. Second Edition. To which is
added Morality according to the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper,
or Three Discourses on the Names, Eucharist, Sacrifice, and Com-
munion. Extra fcap. 8vo. 6s.
WARNINGS AGAINST SUPERSTITION, IN FOUR
SERMONS FOR THE DAY. Extra fcap. 8vo.
2s. 6d.
•
"We have seldom read a wiser little book. The Sermons are short,
terse, and full of true spiritual wisdom, expressed with a lucidity and a
moderation that must give them weight even with those who agree least
with their author. Of the volume as a whole it is hardly possible to
speak with too cordial an appreciation."-Spectator.
THE CHRISTIAN CALLING.
• ··
8vo. 65.
Donaldson.-THE APOSTOLICAL FATHERS: a Critical
Account of their Genuine Writings and of their Doctrines. By
JAMES DONALDSON, LL.D. Crown 8vo.
7s. 6d.
Sermons.
Extra fcap.
THEOLOGICAL BOOKS.
9
DONALDSON (J., LL.D.)-continued.
This book was published in 1864 as the first volume of a ‘Critical
History of Christian Literature and Doctrine from the death of the
Apostles to the Nicene Council.' The intention was to carry down the
history continuously to the time of Eusebius, and this intention has not
been abandoned. But as the writers can be sometimes grouped more easily
according to subject or locality than according to time, it is deemed ad-
visable to publish the history of each group separately. The Introduction
to the present volume serves as an introduction to the whole period.
Drake.-THE TEACHING OF THE CHURCH DURING
THE FIRST THREE CENTURIES ON THE DOCTRINES
OF THE CHRISTIAN PRIESTHOOD AND SACRIFICE.
By the Rev. C. B. DRAKE, M.A., Warden of the Church of Eng-
land Hall, Manchester. Crown 8vo.
4s. 6d.
Eadie.-Works by JOHN EADIE, D.D., LL.D., Professor of
Biblical Literature and Exegesis, United Presbyterian Church:
THE ENGLISH BIBLE. An External and Critical History
of the various English Translations of Scripture, with Remarks on
the Need of Revising the English New Testament. Two vols.
8vo. 28s.
"Accurate, scholarly, full of completest sympathy with the translators
and their work, and marvellously interesting."—Literary Churchman.
"The work is a very valuable one. It is the result of vast labour,
sound scholarship, and large erudition.”—British Quarterly Review.
Ecce Homo.
JESUS CHRIST.
ST. PAUL'S EPISTLES TO THE THESSALONIANS.
A Commentary on the Greek Text. Edited by the Rev. W.
YOUNG, M.A., with a Preface by the Rev. Professor CAIRNS,
D.D. 8vo. 125.
A SURVEY OF THE LIFE AND WORK OF
Fourteenth Edition. Crown 8vo. 6s.
"A very original and remarkable book, full of striking thought and
delicate perception; a book which has realised with wonderful vigour and
freshness the historical magnitude of Christ's work, and which here and
there gives us readings of the finest kind of the probable motive of His indi-
vidual words and actions.". Spectator. "The best and most established
believer will find it adding some fresh buttresses to his faith."-Literary
Churchman. "If we have not misunderstood him, we have before us a
writer who has a right to claim deference from those who think deepest
and know most."-Guardian.
10
THEOLOGICAL BOOKS.
Faber.-SERMONS AT A NEW SCHOOL. By the Rev.
Arthur FabeR, M.A., Head Master of Malvern College. Cr.
8vo. 6s.
'These are high-toned, earnest Sermons, orthodox and scholarlike, and
laden with encouragement and warning, wisely adapted to the needs of
school-life."-Literary Churchman.
Farrar.-Works by the Rev. F. W. FARRAR, D.D., F.R.S.,
Canon of Westminster, late Head Master of Marlborough College:
THE FALL OF MAN, AND OTHER SERMONS.
Third Edition. Crown 8vo. 6s.
The Nonconformist says of these Sermons, "Mr. Farrar's Sermons
are almost perfect specimens of one type of Sermons, which we may con-
cisely call beautiful. The style of expression is beautiful—there is beauty
in the thoughts, the illustrations, the allusions-they are expressive of
genuinely beautiful perceptions and feelings." The British Quarterly says,
Ability, eloquence, scholarship, and practical usefulness, are in these
Sermons combined in a very unusual degree."
<<
""
THE WITNESS OF HISTORY TO CHRIST. Being
the Hulsean Lectures for 1870. Fourth Edition. Crown 8vo. 5s.
The following are the subjects of the Five Lectures :—I. "The Ante-
cedent Credibility of the Miraculous. II. "The Adequacy of the Gospel
Records." III. "The Victories of Christianity. IV. "Christianity and
the Individual." V. "Christianity and the Race." The subjects of the
four Appendices are:-A. "The Diversity of Christian Evidences."
B. "Confucius.” C. "Buddha." D. "Comte."
""
SEEKERS AFTER GOD. The Lives of Seneca, Epictetus,
and Marcus Aurelius. New Edition. Crown 8vo. 6s.
ઃઃ
A very interesting and valuable book."—Saturday Review.
THE SILENCE AND VOICES OF GOD: University
and other Sermons. Third Edition. Crown 8vo. 65.
"We can most cordially recommend Dr. Farrar's singularly beautiful
volume of Sermons.. ……….. For beauty of diction, felicity of style, aptness of
illustration and earnest loving exhortation, the volume is without its
parallel."-John Bull. They are marked by great ability, by an honesty
which does not hesitate to acknowledge difficulties and by an earnestness
which commands respect.”—Pall Mall Gazette.
CC
"IN THE DAYS OF THY YOUTH." Sermons on Prac-
tical Subjects, preached at Marlborough College from 1871–76.
Third Edition. Crown 8vo. 9s.
THEOLOGICAL BOOKS.
II
FARRAR (Rev. F. W.)—continued.
"All Dr. Farrar's peculiar charm of style is apparent here, all that
care and subtleness of analysis, and an even-added distinctness and clear-
ness of moral teaching, which is what every kind of sermon wants, and
especially a sermon to boys."-Literary Churchman.
ETERNAL HOPE. Five Sermons preached in Westminster
Abbey, in 1876. With Preface, Notes, etc. Contents: What
Heaven is.-Is Life Worth Living?' Hell,' What it is not.-
Are there few that be saved?-Earthly and Future Consequences
of Sin. Sixteenth Thousand. Crown 8vo. 6s.
SAINTLY WORKERS. Lenten Lectures delivered in St.
Andrew's, Holborn, March and April, 1878. Crown 8vo. 6s.
Fellowship: LETTERS ADDRESSED ΤΟ MY SISTER
MOURNERS. Fcap. 8vo. cloth gilt. 3s. 6d.
Ferrar.-A COLLECTION OF FOUR IMPORTANT
MSS. OF THE GOSPELS, viz., 13, 69, 124, 346, with a view
to prove their common origin, and to restore the Text of their
Archetype. By the late W. H. FERRAR, M. A., Professor of Latin
in the University of Dublin. Edited by T. K. ABBOTT, M.A.,
Professor of Biblical Greek, Dublin. 4to., half morocco. 10s. 6d.
Forbes.-Works by GRANVILLE H. FORBES, Rector of
Broughton :
THE VOICE OF GOD IN THE PSALMS. Cr. 8vo. 6s. 6d.
By a Northamptonshire Rector.
VILLAGE SERMONS.
Crown 8vo. 65.
··
• •
·
"Such a volume as the present . is as great an accession to the cause
of a deep theology as the most refined exposition of its fundamental prin-
ciples. We heartily accept his actual teaching as a true picture of what
revelation teaches us, and thank him for it as one of the most profound
that was ever made perfectly simple and popular . It is part of the
beauty of these sermons that while they apply the old truth to the new
modes of feeling they seem to preserve the whiteness of its simplicity
There will be plenty of critics to accuse this volume of inadequacy of
doctrine because it says no more than Scripture about vicarious suffering
and external retribution. For ourselves we welcome it most cordially as
expressing adequately what we believe to be the true burden of the Gospel in
a manner which may take hold either of the least or the most cultivated
intellect."-Spectator.
·
12
THEOLOGICAL BOOKS.
Hardwick.-Works by the Ven. ARCHDEACON HARDWICK:
CHRIST AND OTHER MASTERS. A Historical Inquiry
into some of the Chief Parallelisms and Contrasts between Christ-
ianity and the Religious Systems of the Ancient World. New
Edition, revised, and a Prefatory Memoir by the Rev. FRANCIS
PROCTER, M.A. New Edition. Cr. 8vo. 10s. 6d.
The plan of the work is boldly and almost nobly conceived.... We com-
mend it to the perusal of all those who take interest in the study of ancient
mythology, without losing their reverence for the supreme authority of the
oracles of the living God."-Christian Observer.
A HISTORY OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH.
Middle
Age. From Gregory the Great to the Excommunication of Luther,
Edited by WILLIAM STUBBS, M.A., Regius Professor of Modern
History in the University of Oxford. With Four Maps constructed
for this work by A. KEITH JOHNSTON. New Edition. Crown
8vo. IOS. 6d.
“As a Manual for the student of ecclesiastical history in the Middle
Ages, we know no English work which can be compared to Mr. Hardwick's
book."-Guardian.
A HISTORY of the CHRISTIAN CHURCH DURING
THE REFORMATION. New Edition, revised by Professor
STUBBS. Crown 8vo. IOS. 6d.
This volume is intended as a sequel and companion to the "History
of the Christian Church during the Middle Age.
""
Hare. Works by the late ARCHDEACON HARE:
THE VICTORY OF FAITH. By JULIUS CHARLES
HARE, M.A., Archdeacon of Lewes. Edited by Prof. PLUMptre.
With Introductory Notices by the late Prof. MAURICE and Dean
STANLEY. Third Edition.
Third Edition. Crown 8vo. 6s. 6d.
THE MISSION OF THE COMFORTER. With Notes.
New Edition, edited by Prof. E. H. PLUMPTRE. Crn. 8vo. 7s. 6d.
Harris.--SERMONS. By the late GEORGE COllyer
COLLVER
HARRIS, Prebendary of Exeter, and Vicar of St. Luke's, Torquay.
With Memoir by CHARLOTTE M. YONGE, and Portrait. Extra
fcap. 8vo.
6s.
Hervey. THE GENEALOGIES OF OUR LORD AND
SAVIOUR JESUS CHRIST, as contained in the Gospels of
St. Matthew and St. Luke, reconciled with each other, and shown
to be in harmony with the true Chronology of the Times. By Lord
ARTHUR HERVEY, Bishop of Bath and Wells. 8vo.
IOS. 6d.
Ma
THEOLOGICAL BOOKS.
13
Hort.-TWO DISSERTATIONS. I. On MONOTENHΣ OEOM
in Scripture and Tradition. II. On the " Constantinopolitan”
Creed and other Eastern Creeds of the Fourth Century. By F. J. A.
HORT, D.D., Fellow and Divinity Lecturer of Emmanuel Col-
lege, Cambridge. 8vo. 7s. 6d.
Howson (Dean)-Works by:
BEFORE THE TABLE. An Inquiry, Historical and Theo-
logical, into the True Meaning of the Consecration Rubric in the
Communion Service of the Church of England. By the Very Rev.
J. S. HOWSON, D.D., Dean of Chester. With an Appendix and
Supplement containing Papers by the Right Rev. the Bishop of
St. Andrew's and the Rev. R. W. KENNION, M.A. 8vo. 7s. 6d.
THE POSITION OF THE PRIEST DURING CON-
SECRATION IN THE ENGLISH COMMUNION SERVICE. A
Supplement and a Reply. Crown 8vo. 2s. 6d.
C
Hymni Ecclesiæ.-Fcap. 8vo. 7s. 6d.
This collection was edited by Dr. Newman while he lived at Oxford.
Hyacinthe.-CATHOLIC REFORM. BY FATHER
HYACINTHE. Letters, Fragments, Discourses. Translated by
Madame HYACINTHE-LOYSON. With a Preface by the Very Rev.
A. P. STANLEY, D.D., Dean of Westminster. Cr. 8vo. 7s. 6d.
"A valuable contribution to the religious literature of the day, and is
especially opportune at a time when a controversy of no ordinary import-
ance upon the very subject it deals with is engaged in all over Europe."
Daily Telegraph.
Imitation of Christ.-FOUR BOOKS. Translated from the
Latin, with Preface by the Rev. W. BENHAM, B.D., Vicar of
Margate. Printed with Borders in the Ancient Style after Holbein,
Dürer, and other Old Masters. Containing Dances of Death, Acts
of Mercy, Emblems, and a variety of curious ornamentation. Cr.
8vo. gilt edges. 7s. 6d.
Jacob.-BUILDING IN SCIENCE, AND OTHER SER-
MONS. By J. A. JACOB, M.A., Minister of St. Thomas's, Pad-
dington. Extra fcap. 8vo. 6s.
-
Jellett.-THE EFFICACY OF PRAYER: being the Don-
nellan Lectures for 1877. By J. H. JELLETT, B.D., Senior
Fellow of Trinity College, Dublin, formerly President of the Royal
Irish Academy. Second Edition. 8vo.
8vo. 5s.
14
THEOLOGICAL BOOKS.
Jennings and Lowe.-THE PSALMS, with Introduc-
tions and Critical Notes. By A. C. JENNINGS, B. A., Jesus Col-
lege, Cambridge, Tyrwhitt Scholar, Crosse Scholar, Hebrew
University Scholar, and Fry Scholar of St. John's College; helped
in parts by W. H. LOWE, M. A., Hebrew Lecturer and late Scholar
of Christ's College, Cambridge, and Tyrwhitt Scholar. Complete
in two vols. crown 8vo. 10s. 6d. each. Vol. 1, Psalms i.-lxxii., with
Prolegomena; Vol. 2, Psalms lxxiii.-cl.
Killen.-THE ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY OF IRE-
LAND from the Earliest Period to the Present Time. By W. D.
KILLEN, D.D., President of Assembly's College, Belfast, and
Professor of Ecclesiastical History. Two vols. 8vo. 25s.
"Those who have the leisure will do well to read these two volumes.
They are full of interest, and are the result of great research.”—Spec-
tator.
Kingsley.—Works by the late Rev. CHARLES KINGSLEY,
M.A., Rector of Eversley, and Canon of Westminster :
THE WATER OF LIFE, AND OTHER SERMONS.
New Edition. Crown 8vo. 6s.
THE GOSPEL OF THE PENTATEUCH; AND David.
New Edition. Crown. 8vo. 6s.
GOOD NEWS OF GOD. Eighth Edition. Crown 8vo.
65.
SERMONS FOR THE TIMES. New Edition. Crown
8vo. 6s.
VILLAGE AND TOWN AND COUNTRY SERMONS.
New Edition. Crown 8vo. 6s.
SERMONS on NATIONAL SUBJECTS. Second Edition.
Fcap. 8vo. 3s. 6d.
THE KING OF THE EARTH, and other Sermons,
a Second Series of Sermons on National Subjects. Second
Edition. Fcap. 8vo. 3s. 6d.
DISCIPLINE, AND OTHER SERMONS.
Fcap. 8vo. 3s. 6d.
WESTMINSTER
Edition.
Second Edition.
SERMONS. With Preface. New
Crown 8vo. 6s.
THEOLOGICAL BOOKS.
15
Kynaston.-SERMONS PREACHED IN THE COL-
LEGE CHAPEL, CHELTENHAM, during the First Year
of his Office. By the Rev. HERBERT KYNASTON, M.A., Princi-
pal of Cheltenham College. Crown 8vo. 6s.
Lightfoot.-Works by J. B. LIGHTFOOT, D.D., Bishop of
Durham.
S. PAUL'S EPISTLE TO THE GALATIANS.
vised Text, with Introduction, Notes, and Dissertations.
Edition, revised. 8vo. cloth. 125.
While the Author's object has been to make this commentary generally
complete, he has paid special attention to everything relating to St. Paul's
personal history and his intercourse with the Apostles and Church of the
Circumcision, as it is this feature in the Epistle to the Galatians which
has given it an overwhelming interest in recent theological controversy.
The Spectator says, "There is no commentator at once of sounder judg
ment and more liberal than Dr. Lightfoot."
A Re-
Fifth
ST. PAUL'S EPISTLE TO THE PHILIPPIANS. A
Revised Text, with Introduction, Notes, and Dissertations. Fourth
Edition, revised. 8vo. I25.
"No commentary in the English language can be compared with it in
regard to fulness of information, exact scholarship, and laboured attempts
to settle everything about the epistle on a solid foundation."—Athenæum.
ST. PAUL'S EPISTLES TO THE COLOSSIANS AND
TO PHILEMON. A Revised Text with Introduction, Notes, etc.
Third Edition, revised. 8vo. 125.
"It bears marks of continued and extended reading and research, and
of ampler materials at command. Indeed, it leaves nothing to be desired
by those who seek to study thoroughly the epistles contained in it, and to do
so with all known advantages presented in sufficient detail and in conve-
nient form."-Guardian.
S. CLEMENT OF ROME. An Appendix containing the
newly discovered portions of the two Epistles to the Corinthians
with Introductions and Notes, and a Translation of the whole.
8vo. 8s. 6d.
ON A FRESH REVISION OF THE ENGLISH NEW
TESTAMENT. Second Edition. Crown 8vo. 6s.
2.
The Author shews in detail the necessity for a fresh revision of the
authorized version on the following grounds:-1. False Readings.
Artificial distinctions created. 3. Real distinctions obliterated. 4. Faults
16
THEOLOGICAL BOOKS.
of Grammar. 5. Faults of Lexicography. 6. Treatment of Proper
Names, official titles, etc. 7. Archaisms, defects in the English, errors
of the press, etc. "The book is marked by careful scholarship, familiarity
with the subject, sobriety, and circumspection.”—Athenæum.
Lorne.-THE PSALMS LITERALLY RENDERED IN
VERSE. By the MARQUIS OF LORNE. With three Illustrations.
New Edition. Crown 8vo.
7s. 6d.
Luckock.—THE TABLES OF STONE. A Course of
Sermons preached in All Saints' Church, Cambridge, by H. M.
LUCKOCK, M. A., Canon of Ely. Fcap. 8vo.
3s. 6d.
Maclaren.-SERMONS PREACHED at MANCHESTER.
By ALEXANDER MACLAREN. Sixth Edition. Fcap. 8vo. 4s. 6d.
""
""
These Sermons represent no special school, but deal with the broad prin-
ciples of Christian truth, especially in their bearing on practical, every day
life. A few of the titles are:-"The Stone of Stumbling, "Love and
Forgiveness, "The Living Dead, "Memory in Another World,'
Faith in Christ," "Love and Fear," "The Choice of Wisdom,'
Food of the World."
>>
"The
""
A SECOND SERIES OF SERMONS.
Fcap. 8vo. 4s. 6d.
A THIRD SERIES
Fcap. 8vo. 4s. 6d.
""
Fourth Edition.
The Spectator characterises them as "vigorous in style, full of thought,
rich in illustration, and in an unusual degree interesting.
OF SERMONS. Third Edition.
"Sermons more sober and yet more forcible, and with a certain wise and
practical spirituality about them it would not be easy to find."-Spectator.
WEEK-DAY EVENING ADDRESSES. Delivered in
Manchester. Extra Fcap. 8vo. 2s. 6d.
Maclear. Works by the Rev. G. F. MACLEAR, D.D., Head
Master of King's College School:
A CLASS-BOOK OF OLD TESTAMENT HISTORY.
With Four Maps. New Edition. 18mo.
4s. 6d.
"The present volume," says the Preface, "forms a Class-Book of Old
Testament History from the Earliest Times to those of Ezra and Nehe-
miah. In its preparation the most recent authorities have been consulted,
and wherever it has appeared useful, Notes have been subjoined illustra-
tive of the Text, and, for the sake of more advanced students, references
THEOLOGICAL BOOKS.
17
MACLEAR (Dr. G. F.)—continued.
added to larger works. The Index has been so arranged as to form a
concise Dictionary of the Persons and Places mentioned in the course of the
Narrative." The Maps, prepared by Stanford, materially add to the
value and usefulness of the book. The British Quarterly Review calls it
"A careful and elaborate, though brief compendium of all that modern
research has done for the illustration of the Old Testament. We know of
no work which contains so much important information in so small a
compass."
A CLASS-BOOK OF NEW TESTAMENT HISTORY.
Including the Connexion of the Old and New Testament. New
Edition. 18mo. 5s. 6d.
The present volume forms a sequel to the Author's Class-Book of Old
Testament History, and continues the narrative to the close of S. Paul's
second imprisonment at Rome. The work is divided into three Books—
I. The Connection between the Old and New Testament. II. The
Gospel History. III. The Apostolic History. In the Appendix are given
Chronological Tables. The Clerical Journal says, "It is not often that
such an amount of useful and interesting matter on biblical subjects, is
found in so convenient and small a compass, as in this well-arranged
volume."
CATECHISM OF THE
A CLASS-BOOK OF THE
CHURCH OF ENGLAND. New and Cheaper Edition. 18mo.
Is. 6d.
The present work is intended as a sequel to the two preceding books.
"Like them, it is furnished with notes and references to larger works,
and it is hoped that it may be found, especially in the higher forms of our
Public Schools, to supply a suitable manual of instruction in the chief
doctrines of our Church, and a useful help in the preparation of Can-
didates for Confirmation." The Literary Churchman says, "It is indeed
the work of a scholar and divine, and as such, though extremely simple, it
is also extremely instructive. There are few clergy who would not find
it useful in preparing Candidates for Confirmation; and there are not a
few who would find it useful to themselves as well."
A FIRST CLASS-BOOK OF THE CATECHISM OF
THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND, with Scripture Proofs for
Junior Classes and Schools. New Edition. 18mo. 6d.
This is an epitome of the larger Class-book, meant for junior students
and elementary classes. The book has been carefully condensed, so as to
contain clearly and fully, the most important part of the contents of the
larger book.
18
THEOLOGICAL BOOKS.
MACLEAR (Dr. G. F.)-continued.
A SHILLING-BOOK of OLD TESTAMENT HISTORY.
New Edition. 18mo. cloth limp. IS.
This Manual bears the same relation to the larger Old Testament His-
tory, that the book just mentioned does to the larger work on the Catechism.
It consists of Ten Books, divided into short chapters, and subdivided into
sections, each section treating of a single episode in the history, the title of
which is given in bold type.
A SHILLING-BOOK of NEW TESTAMENT HISTORY.
New Edition. 18mo. cloth limp. Is.
A MANUAL OF INSTRUCTION FOR CONFIRMA-
TION AND FIRST COMMUNION, with Prayers and Devo-
tions. 32mo. cloth extra, red edges. 2s.
This is an enlarged and improved edition of 'The Order of Confirma-
tion. To it have been added the Communion Office, with Notes and
Explanations, together with a brief form of Self Examination and De-
votions selected from the works of Cosin, Ken, Wilson, and others.
THE ORDER OF CONFIRMATION, with Prayers and
Devotions. 32mo. cloth. 6d.
彝
​THE FIRST COMMUNION, with Prayers and Devotions
for the Newly Confirmed. 32mo. 6d.
25.
THE HOUR OF SORROW; or, The Order for the Burial
of the Dead. With Prayers and Hymns. 32mo. cloth extra.
APOSTLES OF MEDIEVAL EUROPE. Cr. 8vo. 4s. 6d.
In two Introductory Chapters the author notices some of the chief cha-
racteristics of the medieval period itself; gives a graphic sketch of the de-
vastated state of Europe at the beginning of that period, and an interesting
account of the religions of the three great groups of vigorous barbarians—
the Celts, the Teutons, and the Sclaves who had, wave after wave, over-
flowed its surface. He then proceeds to sketch the lives and work of the
chief of the courageous men who devoted themselves to the stupendous task
of their conversion and civilization, during a period extending from the
5th to the 13th century; such as St. Patrick, St. Columba, St. Colum-
banus, St. Augustine of Canterbury, St. Boniface, St. Olaf, St. Cyril,
Raymond Sull, and others. "Mr. Maclear will have done a great work
if his admirable little volume shall help to break up the dense ignorance
which is still prevailing among people at large."-Literary Churchman.
Macmillan. Works by the Rev. HUGH MACMILLAN, LL.D.
F.R.S.E. (For other Works by the same Author, see CATALOGUE
OF TRAVELS and SCIENTIFIC Catalogue).
THEOLOGICAL BOOKS.
19
MACMILLAN (Rev. H., LL.D.)-continued.
THE TRUE VINE; or, the Analogies of our Lord's
Allegory. Third Edition. Globe 8vo. 6s.
The Nonconformist says, "It abounds in exquisite bits of description,
and in striking facts clearly stated." The British Quarterly says, "Readers
and preachers who are unscientific will find many of his illustrations as
valuable as they are beautiful."
BIBLE TEACHINGS IN NATURE,
Twelfth Edition.
Globe 8vo. 65.
In this volume the author has endeavoured to shew that the teaching of
Nature and the teaching of the Bible are directed to the same great end;
that the Bible contains the spiritual truths which are necessary to make us
wise unto salvation, and the objects and scenes of Nature are the pictures
by which these truths are illustrated. "He has made the world more
beautiful to us, and unsealed our ears to voices of praise and messages of
love that might otherwise have been unheard."-British Quarterly Review.
"Dr. Macmillan has produced a book which may be fitly described as one
of the happiest efforts for enlisting physical science in the direct service of
religion. Guardian.
""
THE SABBATH OF THE FIELDS. A Sequel to "Bible
Teachings in Nature. Second Edition. Globe 8vo. 6s.
""
"This volume, like all Dr. Macmillan's productions, is very delight-
ful reading, and of a special kind. Imagination, natural science, and
religious instruction are blended together in a very charming way.'
British Quarterly Review.
,,
THE MINISTRY OF NATURE. Fourth Edition. Globe
8vo. 6s.
"Whether the reader agree or not with his conclusions, he will ac-
knowledge he is in the presence of an original and thoughtful writer.".
Pall Mall Gazette. "There is no class of educated men and women that
will not profit by these essays.”—Standard.
OUR LORD'S THREE RAISINGS FROM THE DEAD.
Globe 8vo. 6s.
M'Clellan.-THE NEW TESTAMENT. A New Trans-
lation on the Basis of the Authorised Version, from a Critically re-
vised Greek Text, with Analyses, copious References and Illus-
trations from original authorities, New Chronological and Ana-
lytical Harmony of the Four Gospels, Notes and Dissertations.
Á contribution to Christian Evidence. By JOHN BROWN M'CLEL-
LAN, M.A., late Fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge. In Two
20
THEOLOGICAL BOOKS.
M'CLELLAN (J. B.)-continued.
Vols. Vol. I.-The Four Gospels with the Chronological and
Analytical Harmony. 8vo. 30s.
"One of the most remarkable productions of recent times," says the
Theological Review, “in this department of sacred literature;" and the
British Quarterly Review terms it "a thesaurus of first-hand investiga-
tions.' Of singular excellence, and sure to make its mark on the
criticism of the New Testament.”—John Bull.
Maurice. Works by the late Rev. F. DENISON MAURICE,
M.A., Professor of Moral Philosophy in the University of Cam-
bridge:
The Spectator says, "Few of those of our own generation whose names
will live in English history or literature have exerted so profound and so
permanent an influence as Mr. Maurice."
THE PATRIARCHS AND LAWGIVERS OF THE
OLD TESTAMENT. Third and Cheaper Edition. Crown
8vo. 5s.
The Nineteen Discourses contained in this volume were preached in the
chapel of Lincoln's Inn during the year 1851. The texts are taken from
the books of Genesis, Exodus, Numbers, Deuteronomy, Joshua, Fudges,
and Samuel, and involve some of the most interesting biblical topics dis-
cussed in recent times.
THE PROPHETS AND KINGS OF THE OLD TES-
Third Edition, with new Preface. Crown 8vo.
TAMENT.
IOS. 6d.
Mr. Maurice, in the spirit which animated the compilers of the Church
Lessons, has in these Sermons regarded the Prophets more as preachers of
righteousness than as mere predictors-an aspect of their lives which, he
thinks, has been greatly overlooked in our day, and than which, there is
none we have more need to contemplate. He has found that the Old
Testament Prophets, taken in their simple natural sense, clear up many
of the difficulties which beset us in the daily work of life; make the past
intelligible, the present endurable, and the future real and hopeful.
THE GOSPEL OF THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN.
A Series of Lectures on the Gospel of St. Luke. Crown 8vo. 9s.
Mr. Maurice, in his Preface to these Twenty-eight Lectures, says,—
"In these Lectures I have endeavoured to ascertain what is told us respect-
ing the life of Jesus by one of those Evangelists who proclaim Him to be
the Christ, who says that He did come from a Father, that He did baptize
with the Holy Spirit, that He did rise from the dead. I have chosen the
THEOLOGICAL BOOKS.
21
MAURICE (Rev. F. D.)—continued.
one who is most directly connected with the later history of the Church,
who was not an Apostle, who professedly wrote for the use of a man
already instructed in the faith of the Apostles. I have followed the course
of the writer's narrative, not changing it under any pretext. I have
adhered to his phraseology, striving to avoid the substitution of any other
for his."
THE GOSPEL OF ST. JOHN. A Series of Discourses.
Third and Cheaper Edition. Crown 8vo. 6s.
The Literary Churchman thus speaks of this volume: "Thorough
honesty, reverence, and deep thought pervade the work, which is every
way solid and philosophical, as well as theological, and abounding with
suggestions which the patient student may draw out more at length for
himself."
THE EPISTLES OF ST. JOHN. A Series of Lectures
on Christian Ethics. Second and Cheaper Edition. Cr. 8vo. 6s.
These Lectures on Christian Ethics were delivered to the students of the
Working Men's College, Great Ormond Street, London, on a series of
Sunday mornings. Mr. Maurice believes that the question in which we
are most interested, the question which most affects our studies and our daily
lives, is the question, whether there is a foundation for human morality,
or whether it is dependent upon the opinions and fashions of different ages
and countries. This important question will be found amply and fairly
discussed in this volume, which the National Review calls " Mr.
Maurice's most effective and instructive work. He is peculiarly fitted
by the constitution of his mind, to throw light on St. John's writings.'
Appended is a note on "Positivism and its Teacher."
>>
EXPOSITORY SERMONS ON THE PRAYER-BOOK.
The Prayer-book considered especially in reference to the Romish
System. Second Edition. Fcap. 8vo. 5s. 6d.
After an Introductory Sermon, Mr. Maurice goes over the various parts
of the Church Service, expounds in eighteen Sermons, their intention and
significance, and shews how appropriate they are as expressions of the
deepest longings and wants of all classes of men.
WHAT IS REVELATION? A Series of Sermons on the
Epiphany; to which are added, Letters to a Theological Student
on the Bampton Lectures of Mr. Mansel. Crown 8vo. IOS. 6d.
Both Sermons and Letters were called forth by the doctrine maintained
by Mr. Mansel in his Bampton Lectures, that Revelation cannot be a direct
Manifestation of the Infinite Nature of God. Mr. Maurice maintains
22
THEOLOGICAL BOOKS.
MAURICE (Rev. F. D.)—continued.
the opposite doctrine, and in his Sermons explains why, in spite of the high
authorities on the other side, he must still assert the principle which he
discovers in the Services of the Church and throughout the Bible.
SEQUEL TO THE INQUIRY, "WHAT IS REVELA-
TION ?" Letters in Reply to Mr. Mansel's Examination of
"Strictures on the Bampton Lectures." Crown 8vo. 6s.
This, as the title indicates, was called forth by Mr. Mansel's examina-
tion of Mr. Maurice's Strictures on his doctrine of the Infinite.
THEOLOGICAL ESSAYS. Third Edition.
Crown 8vo.
IOS. 6d.
"The book," says Mr. Maurice, "expresses thoughts which have been
working in my mind for years; the method of it has not been adopted
carelessly; even the composition has undergone frequent revision.” There
are seventeen Essays in all, and although meant primarily for Unitarians,
to quote the words of the Clerical Journal, “it leaves untouched scarcely
any topic which is in agitation in the religious world; scarcely a moot
point between our various sects; scarcely a plot of debateable ground be-
tween Christians and Infidels, between Romanists and Protestants, between
Socinians and other Christians, between English Churchmen and Dis-
senters on both sides. Scarce is there a misgiving, a difficulty, an aspira-
tion stirring amongst us now—now, when men seem in earnest as hardly
ever before about religion, and ask and demand satisfaction with a fear-
lessness which seems almost awful when one thinks what is at stake—which
is not recognised and grappled with by Mr. Maurice."
THE DOCTRINE OF SACRIFICE DEDUCED FROM
THE SCRIPTURES. Crown 8vo. 7s. 6d.
THE RELIGIONS OF THE WORLD, AND THEIR
RELATIONS TO CHRISTIANITY. Fifth Edition. Crown
8vo. 55.
Fcap.
Character of the Warrior,
Fcap. 8vo.
ON THE SABBATH DAY; the
and on the Interpretation of History.
2s. 6d.
THE LORD'S PRAYER, THE CREED, AND THE
COMMANDMENTS. A Manual for Parents and Schoolmasters.
To which is added the Order of the Scriptures. 18mo. cloth
limp. IS.
DIALOGUES ON FAMILY WORSHIP. Crown 8vo. 6s.
ON THE LORD'S PRAYER. Fourth Edition.
8vo.
2s. 6d.
THEOLOGICAL BOOKS.
23
MAURICE (Rev. F. D.)-continued.
SOCIAL MORALITY. Twenty-one Lectures delivered in
the University of Cambridge. New and Cheaper Edition.
8vo. IOS. 6d.
Cr.
"Whilst reading it we are charmed by the freedom from exclusiveness
and prejudice, the large charity, the loftiness of thought, the eagerness to
recognise and appreciate whatever there is of real worth extant in the
world, which animates it from one end to the other.
We gain new
thoughts and new ways of viewing things, even more, perhaps, from being
brought for a time under the influence of so noble and spiritual a mind."
-Athenæum.
THE CONSCIENCE: Lectures on Casuistry, delivered in
the University of Cambridge. Second and Cheaper Edition.
Crown 8vo. 5s.
The Saturday Review says: "We rise from the perusal of these lec-
tures with a detestation of all that is selfish and mean, and with a living
impression that there is such a thing as goodness after all."
LECTURES ON THE ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY
OF THE FIRST AND SECOND CENTURIES. 8vo. 10s. 6d.
LEARNING AND WORKING. Six Lectures delivered
in Willis's Rooms, London, in June and July, 1854.-THE
RELIGION OF ROME, and its Influence on Modern Civilisa-
tion. Four Lectures delivered in the Philosophical Institution of
Edinburgh, in December, 1854. Crown 8vo. 5s.
SERMONS PREACHED IN COUNTRY CHURCHES.
Crown 8vo. IOS. 6d.
'Earnest, practical, and extremely simple."-Literary Churchman.
"Good specimens of his simple and earnest eloquence. The Gospel inci-
dents are realized with a vividness which we can well believe made the
common people hear him gladly. Moreover they are sermons which must
have done the hearers good."-John Bull.
Moorhouse. Works by JAMES MOORHOUSE, M.A., Bishop
of Melbourne:
SOME MODERN DIFFICULTIES RESPECTING the
FACTS OF NATURE AND REVELATION.
Fcap. 8vo.
2s. 6d.
JACOB. Three Sermons preached before the University of
Cambridge in Lent 1870. Extra fcap. 8vo.
3s. 6d.
24
THEOLOGICAL BOOKS.
O'Brien.-PRAYER. Five Sermons preached in the Chapel
of Trinity College, Dublin. By JAMES THOMAS O'BRIEN, D.D.,
Bishop of Ossory and Ferns. 8vo. 6s.
"It is with much pleasure and satisfaction that we render our humble
tribute to the value of a publication whose author deserves to be remembered
with such deep respect. Church Quarterly Review.
Palgrave.-HYMNS.
""
By FRANCIS TURNER PALGRAVE.
Third Edition, enlarged. 18mo. Is. 6d.
This is a collection of twenty original Hymns, which the Literary
Churchman speaks of as "so choice, so perfect, and so refined,-
in feeling, and so scholarly in expression.'
tender
Paul of Tarsus. An Inquiry into the Times and the Gospel
of the Apostle of the Gentiles. By a GRADUATE. 8vo. Ios. 6d.
"Turn where we will throughout the volume, we find the best fruit
of patient inquiry, sound scholarship, logical argument, and fairness of
conclusion. No thoughtful reader will rise from its perusal without a
real and lasting profit to himself, and a sense of permanent addition to
the cause of truth."-Standard.
Philochristus.-MEMOIRS OF A DISCIPLE OF THE
LORD. Second Edition. 8vo. 125.
"The winning beauty of this book and the fascinating power with
which the subject of it appeals to all English minds will secure for it
many readers."-Contemporary Review.
Picton.-THE MYSTERY OF MATTER; and other Essays.
By J. ALLANSON PICTON, Author of "New Theories and the
Old Faith." Cheaper Edition. With New Preface. Crown 8vo. 6s.
Contents-The Mystery of Matter: The Philosophy of Ignorance: The
Antithesis of Faith and Sight: The Essential Nature of Religion:
Christian Pantheism.
Plumptre. MOVEMENTS IN RELIGIOUS THOUGHT.
Sermons preached before the University of Cambridge, Lent Term,
1879. By E. H. PLUMPTRE, D.D., Professor of Divinity, King's
College, London, Prebendary of St. Paul's, etc. Fcap. 8vo. 3s. Ed.
Prescott. THE THREEFOLD CORD. Sermons preached
before the University of Cambridge. By J. E. PRESCOTT, B.D.
Fcap. 8vo. 3s. 6d.
M
Procter.-A HISTORY OF THE BOOK OF COMMON
PRAYER: With a Rationale of its Offices. By FRANCIS PROCter,
M.A. Thirteenth Edition, revised and enlarged. Cr. 8vo.
10s. 6d.
The Athenæum says:- "The origin of every part of the Prayer-book
has been diligently investigated,—and there are few questions or facts con-
nected with it which are not either sufficiently explained, or so referred to
that persons interested may work out the truth for themselves.
"">
Start dat
THEOLOGICAL BOOKS.
25
Procter and Maclear.-AN ELEMENTARY INTRO-
DUCTION TO THE BOOK OF COMMON PRAYER.
Re-arranged and Supplemented by an Explanation of the Morning
and Evening Prayer and the Litany. By F. PROCTER, M. A., and
G. F. MACLEAR, D.D. New Edition. Enlarged by the addition
of the Communion Service and the Baptismal and Confirmation
Offices. 18mo. 2s. 6d.
The Literary Churchman characterizes it as "by far the completest
and most satisfactory book of its kind we know. We wish it were in
the hands of every schoolboy and every schoolmaster in the kingdom."
Psalms of David CHRONOLOGICALLY ARRANGED.
An Amended Version, with Historical Introductions and Ex-
planatory Notes. By FOUR FRiends. Second and Cheaper
Edition, much enlarged. Crown 8vo. 8s. 6d.
One of the chief designs of the Editors, in preparing this volume, was
to restore the Psalter as far as possible to the order in which the Psalms
were written. They give the division of each Psalm into strophes, and
of each strophe into the lines which composed it, and amend the errors of
translation. The Spectator calls it one of the most instructive and
valuable books that have been published for many years.
:(
""
Psalter (Golden Treasury).-THE STUDENT'S EDITION.
Being an Edition of the above with briefer Notes. 18mo. 3s. 6d.
The aim of this edition is simply to put the reader as far as possible in
possession of the plain meaning of the writer. "It is a gem," the Non-
conformist says.
Pulsford.-SERMONS
PREACHED
CHURCH, GLASGOW. By WILLIAM
Cheaper Edition. Crown 8vo.
4s. 6d.
Appleton
•
IN TRINITY
PULSFORD, D.D.
Ramsay. THE CATECHISER'S MANUAL; or, the
Church Catechism Illustrated and Explained, for the Use of
Clergymen, Schoolmasters, and Teachers. By ARTHUR RAMSAY,
M.A. Second Edition. 18mo. Is. 6d.
Rays of Sunlight for Dark Days. A Book of Selec-
tions for the Suffering. With a Preface by C. J. VAUGHAN, D.D.
18mo. Eighth Edition.
3s. 6d.
Also in morocco, old style.
Dr. Vaughan says in the Preface, after speaking of the general run of
Books of Comfort for Mourners, "It is because I think that the little
volume now offered to the Christian sufferer is one of greater wisdom and
26
THEOLOGICAL BOOKS.
of deeper experience, that I have readily consented to the request that I
would introduce it by a few words of Preface." The book consists of a
series of very brief extracts from a great variety of authors, in prose and
poetry, suited to the many moods of a mourning or suffering mind.
"Mostly gems of the first water."-Clerical Journal.
Reynolds.-NOTES OF THE CHRISTIAN LIFE.
A
Selection of Sermons by HENRY ROBERT REYNOLDS, B.A.,
President of Cheshunt College, and Fellow of University College,
London. Crown 8vo. 7s. 6d.
Roberts.—DISCUSSIONS ON THE GOSPELS. By the
Rev. ALEXANDER Roberts, D.D. Second Edition, revised and
enlarged. 8vo. 165.
Robinson.-MAN IN THE IMAGE OF GOD; and other
Sermons preached in the Chapel of the Magdalen, Streatham,
1874-76. By H. G. ROBINSON, M.A., Prebendary of York.
Crown 8vo. 7s. 6d.
Romanes.-CHRISTIAN PRAYER AND GENERAL
LAWS, being the Burney Prize Essay for 1873. With an Ap-
pendix, examining the views of Messrs. Knight, Robertson, Brooke,
Tyndall, and Galton. By GEORGE J. ROMANES, M. A. Crown
Svo. 5s.
Salmon.-THE REIGN OF LAW, and other Sermons,
preached in the Chapel of Trinity College, Dublin. By the Rev.
GEORGE SALMON, D.D., Regius Professor of Divinity in the
University of Dublin. Crown 8vo. 65.
"Well considered, learned, and powerful discourses."--Spectator.
Sanday. THE GOSPELS IN THE SECOND CEN-
TURY. An Examination of the Critical part of a Work entitled
'Supernatural Religion." By WILLIAM SANDAY, M. A., late
Fellow of Trinity College, Oxford. Crown 8vo. 8s. 6d.
<<
E
"A very important book for the critical side of the question as to the
authenticity of the New Testament, and it is hardly possible to conceive a
writer of greater fairness, candour, and scrupulousness."-Spectator.
Selborne.-THE BOOK OF PRAISE: From the Best
English Hymn Writers. Selected and arranged by Lord SELBOrne.
With Vignette by WOOLNER. 18mo.
4s. 6d.
THEOLOGICAL BOOKS.
27
1
SELBORNE (Lord)-continued.
It has been the Editor's desire and aim to adhere strictly, in all cases in
which it could be ascertained, to the genuine uncorrupted text of the authors
themselves. The names of the authors and date of composition of the
hymns, when known, are affixed, while notes are added to the volume,
giving further details. The Hymns are arranged according to subjects.
There is not room for two opinions as to the value of the 'Book of Praise.""
-Guardian. "Approaches as nearly as one can conceive to perfection."
-Nonconformist.
BOOK OF PRAISE HYMNAL. See end of this Catalogue.
Service.
SALVATION HERE AND HEREAFTER.
Sermons and Essays. By the Rev. JOHN SERVICE, D.D., Minister
of Inch. Fourth Edition. Crown 8vo. 6s.
"We have enjoyed to-day a rare pleasure, having just closed a volume
of sermons which rings true metal from title page to finis, and proves that
another and very powerful recruit has been added to that small band of
ministers of the Gospel who are not only abreast of the religious thought
of their time, but have faith enough and courage enough to handle the
questions which are the most critical, and stir men's minds most deeply,
with frankness and thoroughness."-Spectator.
Shipley.—A THEORY ABOUT SIN, in relation to some
Facts of Daily Life. Lent Lectures on the Seven Deadly Sins.
By the Rev. ORBY SHIPLEY, M. A. Crown 8vo. 7s. 6d.
"Two things Mr. Shipley has done, and each of them is of considerable
worth. He has grouped these sins afresh on a philosophic principle..
and he has applied the touchstone to the facts of our moral life...so wisely
and so searchingly as to constitute his treatise a powerful antidote to self-
deception."-Literary Churchman.
·
Smith.-PROPHECY A PREPARATION FOR CHRIST.
Eight Lectures preached before the University of Oxford, being the
Bampton Lectures for 1869. By R. PAYNE SMITH, D.D., Ďean
of Canterbury. Second and Cheaper Edition. Crown 8vo. 6s.
The author's object in these Lectures is to shew that there exists in the
Old Testament an element, which no criticism on naturalistic principles
can either account for or explain away: that element is Prophecy. The
author endeavours to prove that its force does not consist merely in its
predictions. “These Lectures overflow with solid learning."—Record.
Smith.-CHRISTIAN FAITH. Sermons preached before
the University of Cambridge. By W. SAUMAREZ SMITH, M.A.,
Principal of St. Aidan's College, Birkenhead. Fcap. 8vo. 35. 6d.
28
THEOLOGICAL BOOKS.
Stanley.-Works by the Very Rev. A. P. STANLEY, D.D.,
Dean of Westminster :
THE ATHANASIAN CREED, with a Preface on the
General Recommendations of the RITUAL COMMISSION.
8vo. 2s.
Cr.
"Dr. Stanley puts with admirable force the objections which may be
made to the Creed; equally admirable, we think, in his statement of its
advantages."-Spectator.
THE NATIONAL THANKSGIVING. Sermons preached
in Westminster Abbey. Second Edition. Crown 8vo. 2s. 6d.
ADDRESSES AND SERMONS AT ST. ANDREW'S
in 1872, 1875 and 1876. Crown 8vo. 5s.
Stewart and Tait.-THE UNSEEN UNIVERSE; or,
Physical Speculations on a Future State. By Professors BALFOUR
STEWART and P. G. TAIT. Sixth Edition, Revised and Enlarged.
Crown 8vo. 6s.
"A most remarkable and most interesting volume, which, probably
more than any that has appeared in modern times, will affect religious
thought on many momentous questions-insensibly it may be, but very
largely and very beneficially."-Church Quarterly. "This book is one
which well deserves the attention of thoughtful and religious readers.....
It is a perfectly safe enquiry, on scientific grounds, into the possibilities of
a future existence."-Guardian.
Swainson.-Works by C. A. SWAINSON, D.D., Canon of
Chichester:
THE CREEDS OF THE CHURCH in their Relations to
Holy Scripture and the Conscience of the Christian 8vo. cloth. 95.
THE AUTHORITY OF THE NEW TESTAMENT,
and other LECTURES, delivered before the University of Cam-
bridge. 8vo. cloth. I25.
Taylor.--THE RESTORATION OF BELIEF. New and
Revised Edition. By ISAAC TAYLOR, Esq. Crown 8vo.
Temple.-SERMONS PREACHED IN THE CHAPEL
8s. 6d.
of RUGBY SCHOOL. By F. TEMPLE, D.D., Bishop of Exeter.
New and Cheaper Edition. Extra fcap. 8vo. 4s. 6d.
This volume contains Thirty-five Sermons on topics more or less inti-
mately connected with every-day life. The following are a few of the
subjects discoursed upon :—“Love and Duty:" "Coming to Christ;"
THEOLOGICAL BOOKS.
29
>
TEMPLE (Dr.)—continued.
"Great Men :" "Faith;"
66
"Doubts," Scruples;" "Original Sin;”
"Friendship," "Helping Others," "The Discipline of Temptation;"
"Strength a Duty;" "Worldliness;" "Ill Temper;
"The Burial of
the Past."
""
A SECOND SERIES OF SERMONS PREACHED IN
THE CHAPEL OF RUGBY SCHOOL. Second Edition.
Extra fcap. 8vo. 6s.
39 66
This Second Series of Forty-two brief, pointed, practical Sermons, on
topics intimately connected with the every-day life of young and old, will be
acceptable to all who are acquainted with the First Series. The following
are a few of the subjects treated of:-"Disobedience," Almsgiving,
"The Unknown Guidance of God," "Apathy one of our Trials, High
Aims in Leaders," "Doing our Best, "The Use of Knowledge,
"Use
of Observances," "Martha and Mary," "John the Baptist, "Severity
"Even Mistakes Punished,"
before Mercy,
Morality and Religion,
"Children," "Action the Test of Spiritual Life," "Self-Respect," "Too
Late," "The Tercentenary."
""
"" ""
..
"
""
THOUGHTS ON LIFE-SCIENCE.
larged and revised. Crown 8vo. 7s. 6d.
""
A THIRD SERIES OF SERMONS PREACHED IN
RUGBY SCHOOL CHAPEL IN 1867-1869. Extra fcap.
8vo. 6s.
This Third Series of Bishop Temple's Rugby Sermons, contains thirty-six
brief discourses, including the "Good-bye" sermon preached on his leaving
Rugby to enter on the office he now holds.
Thring.-Works by Rev. EDWARD THRING, M.A.:
SERMONS DELIVERED AT UPPINGHAM SCHOOL.
Crown 8vo. 5s.
New Edition, en-
Trench.-Works by R. CHENEVIX TRENCH, D.D., Arch-
bishop of Dublin :
NOTES ON THE
ON THE PARABLES OF OUR LORD.
Thirteenth Edition. 8vo. 125.
This work has taken its place as a standard exposition and interpreta-
tion of Christ's Parables. The book is prefaced by an Introductory Essay
in four chapters:-I. On the definition of the Parable. II. On Teach-
ing by Parables. III. On the Interpretation of the Parables. IV. On
other Parables besides those in the Scriptures. The author then proceeds
to take up the Parables one by one, and by the aid of philology, history,
antiquities, and the researches of travellers, shews forth the significance,
30
THEOLOGICAL BOOKS.
TRENCH (Archbishop)-continued.
beauty, and applicability of each, concluding with what he deems its true
moral interpretation. In the numerous Notes are many valuable references,
illustrative quotations, critical and philological annotations, etc., and ap-
pended to the volume is a classified list of fifty-six works on the Parables.
NOTES ON THE MIRACLES OF OUR LORD.
Eleventh Edition, revised. 8vo. I25.
In the 'Preliminary Essay' to this work, all the momentous and in-
teresting questions that have been raised in connection with Miracles, are
discussed with considerable fulness. The Essay consists of six chapters :-
I. On the Names of Miracles, i.e. the Greek words by which they are
designated in the New Testament. II. The Miracles and Nature-What
is the difference between a Miracle and any event in the ordinary course
of Nature? III. The Authority of Miracles-Is the Miracle to command
absolute obedience? IV. The Evangelical, compared with the other cycles
of Miracles. V. The Assaults on the Miracles-1. The Jewish. 2. The
Heathen (Celsus etc.). 3. The Pantheistic (Spinosa etc.).
4. The
Sceptical (Hume). 5. The Miracles only relatively miraculous (Schleier-
macher). 6. The Rationalistic (Paulus). 7. The Historico-Critical
(Woolston, Strauss). VI. The Apologetic Worth of the Miracles.
author then treats the separate Miracles as he does the Parables.
The
SYNONYMS OF THE NEW TESTAMENT. Eighth
Edition, enlarged. 8vo. cloth. 125.
"C
This Edition has been carefully revised, and a considerable number of
new Synonyms added. Appended is an Index to the Synonyms, and an
Index to many other words alluded to or explained throughout the work.
"He is," the Athenæum says, a guide in this department of knowledge
to whom his readers may intrust themselves with confidence. His sober
judgment and sound sense are barriers against the misleading influence of
arbitrary hypotheses."
ON THE AUTHORIZED VERSION OF THE NEW
TESTAMENT. Second Edition. 8vo. 75.
After some Introductory Remarks, in which the propriety of a revision
is briefly discussed, the whole question of the merits of the present version
is gone into in detail, in eleven chapters. Appended is a chronological list
of works bearing on the subject, an Index of the principal Texts con-
sidered, an Index of Greek Words, and an Index of other Words re-
ferred to throughout the book.
STUDIES IN THE GOSPELS. Fourth Edition, revised.
8vo. IOS. 6d.
This book is published under the conviction that the assertion often
made is untrue,-viz. that the Gospels are in the main plain and easy,
THEOLOGICAL BOOKS.
31
TRENCH (Archbishop)—continued.
and that all the chief difficulties of the New Testament are to be founa
in the Epistles. These "Studies," sixteen in number, are the fruit of a
much larger scheme, and each Study deals with some important episode
mentioned in the Gospels, in a critical, philosophical, and practical man-
Many references and quotations are added to the Notes. Among
the subjects treated are:-The Temptation; Christ and the Samaritan
Woman; The Three Aspirants; The Transfiguration; Zacchæus; The
True Vine; The Penitent Malefactor; Christ and the Two Disciples on
the way to Emmaus.
ner.
COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLES to the SEVEN
CHURCHES IN ASIA. Third Edition, revised. 8vo. 8s. 6d.
The present work consists of an Introduction, being a commentary on
Rev. i. 4-20, a detailed examination of each of the Seven Epistles, in all
its bearings, and an Excursus on the Historico-Prophetical Interpreta-
tion of the Epistles.
THE SERMON ON THE MOUNT. An Exposition
drawn from the writings of St. Augustine, with an Essay on his
merits as an Interpreter of Holy Scripture. Third Edition, en-
larged. 8vo. IOS. 6d.
The first half of the present work consists of a dissertation in eight
chapters on "Augustine as an Interpreter of Scripture," the titles of the
several chapters being as follow:—I. Augustine's General Views of Scrip-
ture and its Interpretation. II. The External Helps for the Interpreta-
tion of Scripture possessed by Augustine. III. Augustine's Principles
and Canons of Interpretation. IV. Augustine's Allegorical Interpretation
of Scripture. V. Illustrations of Augustine's Skill as an Interpreter of
Scripture. VI. Augustine on John the Baptist and on St. Stephen.
VII. Augustine on the Epistle to the Romans. VIII. Miscellaneous
Examples of Augustine's Interpretation of Scripture. The latter half of
the work consists of Augustine's Exposition of the Sermon on the Mount,
not however a mere series of quotations from Augustine, but a connected
account of his sentiments on the various passages of that Sermon, inter-
spersed with criticisms by Archbishop Trench.
""
SHIPWRECKS OF FAITH. Three Sermons preached
before the University of Cambridge in May, 1867. Fcap. 8vo.
2s. 6d.
""
These Sermons are especially addressed to young men. The subjects
are Balaam, Saul," and "Judas Iscariot, These lives are set
forth as beacon-lights, to warn us off from perilous reefs and quick-
sands, which have been the destruction of many, and which might only too
'they are, like all he writes, af-
""
"C
easily be ours. The John Bull says,
fectionate and earnest discourses."
32
THEOLOGICAL BOOKS.
TRENCH (Archbishop)—continued.
SERMONS Preached for the most part in Ireland. 8vo.
IOS. 6d.
This volume consists of Thirty-two Sermons, the greater part of which
were preached in Ireland; the subjects are as follow:-Jacob, a Prince
with "God and with Men-Agrippa-The Woman that was a Sinner-
Secret Faults—The Seven Worse Spirits-Freedom in the Truth-Joseph
and his Brethren-Bearing one another's Burdens-Christ's Challenge to
the World-The Love of Money-The Salt of the Earth-The Armour of
God-Light in the Lord-The Failer of Philippi- The Thorn in the Flesh
-Isaiah's Vision-Selfishness-Abraham interceding for Sodom-Vain
Thoughts-Pontius Pilate-The Brazen Serpent-The Death and Burial
of Moses-A Word from the Cross-The Church's Worship in the
Beauty of Holiness-Every Good Gift from Above-On the Hearing of
Prayer-The Kingdom which cometh not with Observation-Pressing
towards the Mark-Saul-The Good Shepherd-The Valley of Dry Bones
—All Saints.
LECTURES ON MEDIEVAL CHURCH HISTORY.
Being the Substance of Lectures delivered in Queen's College,
London. Second Edition, revised. 8vo. I25.
Contents:- The Middle Ages Beginning The Conversion of Eng-
land—Islam— The Conversion of Germany - The Iconoclasts—The
Crusades-The Papacy at its Height-The Sects of the Middle Ages—
The Mendicant Orders-The Waldenses-The Revival of Learning—
Christian Art in the Middle Ages, &c., &c.
Tulloch.-THE CHRIST OF THE GOSPELS AND
THE CHRIST OF MODERN CRITICISM.
Lectures on
M. RENAN'S "Vie de Jésus." By JOHN TULLOCH, D.D.,
Principal of the College of St. Mary, in the University of St.
Andrew's. Extra fcap. 8vo. 4s. 6d.
Vaughan.-Works by the very Rev. CHARLES JOHN VAUGHAN,
D.D., Dean of Llandaff and Master of the Temple:
CHRIST SATISFYING THE INSTINCTS OF HU-
MANITY. Eight Lectures delivered in the Temple Church.
Second Edition. Extra fcap. 8vo. 3s. 6d.
..
We are convinced that there are congregations, in number unmistakably
increasing, to whom such Essays as these, full of thought and learning,
are infinitely more beneficial, for they are more acceptable, than the recog-
nised type of sermons."-John Bull.
THE BOOK AND THE LIFE, and other Sermons,
preached before the University of Cambridge. Third Edition.
Fcap. 8vo. 4s. 6d.
THEOLOGICAL BOOKS.
33
VAUGHAN (Dr. C. J.)—continued.
TWELVE DISCOURSES on SUBJECTS CONNECTED
WITH THE LITURGY and WORSHIP of the CHURCH
OF ENGLAND. Fcap. 8vo. 6s.
LESSONS OF LIFE AND GODLINESS.
A Selection
of Sermons preached in the Parish Church of Doncaster. Fourth
and Cheaper Edition. Fcap. 8vo. 3s. 6d.
This volume consists of Nineteen Sermons, mostly on subjects connected
with the every-day walk and conversation of Christians.
The Spectator
styles them "earnest and human. They are adapted to every class and
order in the social system, and will be read with wakeful interest by all
who seek to amend whatever may be amiss in their natural disposition
or in their acquired habits."
WORDS FROM THE GOSPELS.
Third
66
A Second Selection
of Sermons preached in the Parish Church of Doncaster.
Edition. Fcap. 8vo.
4s. 6d.
The Nonconformist characterises these Sermons as of practical earnest-
ness, of a thoughtfulness that penetrates the common conditions and ex-
periences of life, and brings the truths and examples of Scripture to bear
on them with singular force, and of a style that owes its real elegance to
the simplicity and directness which have fine culture for their roots."
GOD'S DISCIPLINE. Three
Fcap. 8vo. 2s. 6d.
LIFE'S WORK AND
Sermons. Third Edition.
THE WHOLESOME WORDS OF JESUS CHRIST.
Four Sermons preached before the University of Cambridge in
November 1866. Second Edition. Fcap. 8vo.
3s. 6d.
Dr. Vaughan uses the word "Wholesome" here in its literal and
original sense, the sense in which St. Paul uses it, as meaning healthy,
sound, conducing to right living; and in these Sermons he points out
and illustrates several of the "wholesome" characteristics of the Gospel,
-the Words of Christ. The John Bull says this volume is "replete with
all the author's well-known vigour of thought and richness of expression."
FOES OF FAITH. Sermons preached before the Uni-
versity of Cambridge in November 1868. Second Edition. Fcap.
8vo. 3s. 6d.
The "Foes of Faith" preached against in these Four Sermons are:-
I. "Unreality." II. "Indolence." III. "Irreverence. IV. "Incon-
sistency."
LECTURES ON THE EPISTLE to the PHILIPPIANS.
Third and Cheaper Edition. Extra fcap. 8vo. 5s.
Each Lecture is prefaced by a literal translation from the Greek of
the paragraph which forms its subject, contains first a minute explanation
34
THEOLOGICAL BOOKS.
VAUGHAN (Dr. C. J.)—continued.
of the passage on which it is based, and then a practical application of
the verse or clause selected as its text.
LECTURES ON THE REVELATION OF ST. JOHN.
Fourth Edition. Two Vols. Extra fcap. 8vo. 9s.
In this Edition of these Lectures, the literal translations of the passages
expounded will be found interwoven in the body of the Lectures themselves.
"Dr. Vaughan's Sermons," the Spectator says, "are the most prac-
tical discourses on the Apocalypse with which we are acquainted." ¯ Pre-
fixed is a Synopsis of the Book of Revelation, and appended is an Index
of passages illustrating the language of the Book.
EPIPHANY, LENT, AND EASTER.
Expository Sermons. Third Edition. Crown 8vo.
A Selection of
IOS. 6d.
THE EPISTLES OF ST. PAUL.
For English Readers.
PART I., containing the FIRST EPISTLE TO THE THESSALONIANS.
Second Edition. 8vo.
Is. 6d.
It is the object of this work to enable English readers, unacquainted
with Greek, to enter with intelligence into the meaning, connection, and
phraseology of the writings of the great Apostle.
ST. PAUL'S EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS.
The Greek
Text, with English Notes. Fourth Edition. Crown 8vo. 7s. 6d.
The Guardian says of the work,—“For educated young men his com-
mentary seems to fill a gap hitherto unfilled. . . . As a whole, Dr. Vaughan
appears to us to have given to the world a valuable book of original and
careful and earnest thought bestowed on the accomplishment of a work
which will be of much service and which is much needed."
THE CHURCH OF THE FIRST DAYS.
Series I. The Church of Jerusalem.
II. The Church of the Gentiles.
"III. The Church of the World.
""
Third Edition.
Third Edition.
Third Edition.
Fcap. 8vo. 4s. 6d. each.
The British Quarterly says, “These Sermons are worthy of all praise,
and are models of pulpit teaching.
""
COUNSELS for YOUNG STUDENTS. Three Sermons
preached before the University of Cambridge at the Opening of
the Academical Year 1870-71. Fcap. 8vo.
2s. 6d.
>>
The titles of the Three Sermons contained in this volume are:-I.
"The Great Decision." II. "The House and the Builder." III. "The
Prayer and the Counter-Prayer. They all bear pointedly, earnestly, and
sympathisingly upon the conduct and pursuits of young students and
young men generally.
THEOLOGICAL BOOKS.
35
VAUGHAN (Dr. C. J.)-continued.
NOTES FOR LECTURES
ON CONFIRMATION,
with suitable Prayers. Tenth Edition. Fcap. 8vo.
Is. 6d.
THE TWO GREAT TEMPTATIONS. The Tempta-
tion of Man, and the Temptation of Christ. Lectures delivered in
the Temple Church, Lent 1872. Second Edition. Extra fcap.
8vo. 3s. 6d.
WORDS FROM THE CROSS: Lent Lectures, 1875; and
Thoughts for these Times: University Sermons, 1874. Extra fcap.
8vo. 4s. 6d.
ADDRESSES TO YOUNG CLERGYMEN, delivered at
Salisbury in September and October, 1875. Extra fcap. 8vo. 4s. 6d.
HEROES OF FAITH: Lectures on Hebrews xi. Extra
fcap. 8vo. 6s.
THE YOUNG LIFE EQUIPPING ITSELF FOR GOD'S
SERVICE: Sermons before the University of Cambridge. Sixth
Edition. Extra fcap. 8vo. 3s. 6d.
THE SOLIDITY OF TRUE
RELIGION ; and other
Sermons. Second Edition. Extra fcap. 8vo. 3s. 6d.
SERMONS IN HARROW SCHOOL CHAPEL (1847).
8vo. IOS. 6d.
NINE SERMONS IN HARROW SCHOOL CHAPEL
(1849). Fcap. 8vo. 5s.
"MY SON, GIVE ME THINE HEART," SERMONS
Preached before the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge, 1876
-78. Fcap. 8vo. 5s.
Vaughan (E. T.)-SOME REASONS OF OUR CHRIS-
TIAN HOPE. Hulsean Lectures for 1875. By E. T. VAUGHAN,
M.A., Rector of Harpenden. Crown 8vo. 6s. 6d.
"His words are those of a well-tried scholar and a sound theologian,
and they will be read widely and valued deeply by an audience far beyond
the range of that which listened to their masterly pleading at Cambridge."
-Standard.
Vaughan (D. J.)-Works by CANON VAUGHAN, of Leicester:
SERMONS PREACHED IN ST. JOHN'S CHURCH,
LEICESTER, during the Years 1855 and 1856. Cr. 8vo. 5s. 6d.
36
THEOLOGICAL BOOKS.
VAUGHAN (D. J.)—continued.
CHRISTIAN EVIDENCES AND THE BIBLE.
Edition, revised and enlarged. Fcap. 8vo. cloth. 5s. 6d.
THE PRESENT TRIAL OF FAITH. Sermons preached
in St. Martin's Church, Leicester. Crown 8vo. 9s.
New
Venn.-ON SOME OF THE CHARACTERISTICS OF
BELIEF, Scientific and Religious. Being the Hulsean Lectures
for 1869. By the Rev. J. VENN, M.A. 8vo.
8vo. 6s. 6d.
These discourses are intended to illustrate, explain, and work out into
some of their consequences, certain characteristics by which the attainment of
religious belief is prominently distinguished from the attainment of belief
upon most other subjects.
Warington.-THE WEEK OF CREATION; or, The
Cosmogony of Genesis considered in its Relation to Modern Sci-
ence. By GEORGE WARINGTON, Author of "The Historic
Character of the Pentateuch vindicated." Crown 8vo.
4s. 6d.
"A very able vindication of the Mosaic Cosmogony by a writer who
unites the advantages of a critical knowledge of the Hebrew text and of
distinguished scientific attainments."-Spectator.
Westcott.-Works by BROOKE FOSS WESTCOTT, D.D.,
Regius Professor of Divinity in the University of Cambridge;
Canon of Peterborough :
"To a learn-
The London Quarterly, speaking of Mr. Westcott, says,
ing and accuracy which command respect and confidence, he unites what
are not always to be found in union with these qualities, the no less valuable
faculties of lucid arrangement and graceful and facile expression.
>>
AN INTRODUCTION TO THE STUDY OF THE
GOSPELS. Fifth Edition. Crown 8vo.
IOS. 6d.
The author's chief object in this work has been to shew that there is
a true mean between the idea of a formal harmonization of the Gospels
and the abandonment of their absolute truth. After an Introduction on
the General Effects of the course of Modern Philosophy on the popular
views of Christianity, he proceeds to determine in what way the principles
therein indicated may be applied to the study of the Gospels.
A GENERAL SURVEY OF THE HISTORY OF THE
CANON OF THE NEW TESTAMENT during the First Four
Centuries. Fourth Edition, revised, with a Preface on "Super-
natural Religion." Crown 8vo.
IOS. 6d.
The object of this treatise is to deal with the New Testament as a whole,
and that on purely historical grounds. The separate books of which it is
THEOLOGICAL BOOKS.
37
WESTCOTT (Dr.)—continued.
composed are considered not individually, but as claiming to be parts of the
apostolic heritage of Christians. The Author has thus endeavoured to con-
nect the history of the New Testament Canon with the growth and con-
solidation of the Catholic Church, and to point out the relation existing
between the amount of evidence for the authenticity of its component parts
and the whole mass of Christian literature. "The treatise," says the
British Quarterly, "is a scholarly performance, learned, dispassionate,
discriminating, worthy of his subject and of the present state of Christian
literature in relation to it."
THE BIBLE IN THE CHURCH. A Popular Account
of the Collection and Reception of the Holy Scriptures in the
Christian Churches. Sixth Edition. 18mo. 4s. 6d.
A GENERAL VIEW OF THE
HISTORY OF THE
ENGLISH BIBLE. Second Edition. Crown 8vo.
IOS. 6d.
The Pall Mall Gazette calls the work "A brief, scholarly, and, to a
great extent, an original contribution to theological literature.
THE CHRISTIAN LIFE, MANIFOLD AND ONE.
Six Sermons preached in Peterborough Cathedral. Crown 8vo.
2s. 6d.
The Six Sermons contained in this volume are the first preached by
the author as a Canon of Peterborough Cathedral. The subjects are:-
I. "Life consecrated by the Ascension." II. "Many Gifts, One Spirit.
III. "The Gospel of the Resurrection.' IV. "Sufficiency of God." V.
"Action the Test of Faith." VI. "Progress from the Confession of God."
""
THE GOSPEL OF THE RESURRECTION. Thoughts
on its Relation to Reason and History. Third Edition, enlarged.
Crown 8vo. 6s.
The present Essay is an endeavour to consider some of the elementary
truths of Christianity, as a miraculous Revelation, from the side of History
and Reason. The author endeavours to shew that a devout belief in the
Life of Christ is quite compatible with a broad view of the course of human
progress and a frank trust in the laws of our own minds. In the third
"edition the author has carefully reconsidered the whole argument, and by
the help of several kind critics has been enabled to correct some faults and
to remove some ambiguities, which had been overlooked before.
ON THE RELIGIOUS OFFICE OF THE UNIVER-
SITIES. Crown 8vo.
4s. 6d.
"There is certainly no man of our time—no man at least who has ob-
tained the command of the public ear—whose utterances can compare with
those of Professor Westcott for largeness of views and comprehensiveness of
38
THEOLOGICAL BOOKS.
grasp...... There is wisdom, and truth, and thought enough, and a
harmony and mutual connection running through them all, which makes
the collection of more real value than many an ambitious treatise.".
Literary Churchman.
Wilkins.-THE LIGHT OF THE WORLD. An Essay,
by A. S. WILKINS, M.A., Professor of Latin in Owens College,
Manchester. Second Edition. Crown 8vo. 3s. 6d.
"It would be difficult to praise too highly the spirit, the burden, the
conclusions, or the scholarly finish of this beautiful Essay."-British Quar-
terly Review.
Wilson.-THE BIBLE STUDENT'S GUIDE TO THE
MORE CORRECT UNDERSTANDING of the ENGLISH
TRANSLATION OF THE OLD TESTAMENT, by Reference
to the Original Hebrew. By WILLIAM WILSON, D.D., Canon of
Winchester. Second Edition, carefully revised. 4to. 25s.
"The author believes that the present work is the nearest approach to
a complete Concordance of every word in the original that has yet been
made: and as a Concordance, it may be found of great use to the Bible
student, while at the same time it serves the important object of furnishing
the means of comparing synonymous words, and of eliciting their precise
and distinctive meaning. The knowledge of the Hebrew language is not
absolutely necessary to the profitable use of the work. The plan of the
work is simple: every word occurring in the English Version is arranged
alphabetically, and under it is given the Hebrew word or words, with a
full explanation of their meaning, of which it is meant to be a translation,
and a complete list of the passages where it occurs. Following the general
work is a complete Hebrew and English Index, which is, in effect, a
Hebrew-English Dictionary.
Worship (The) of God and Fellowship among
Men. Sermons on Public Worship. By Professor MAURICE,
and others. Fcap. 8vo. 3s. 6d.
Yonge (Charlotte M.)-Works by CHARLOTTE M. YONGE,
Author of "The Heir of Redclyffe :"
SCRIPTURE READINGS FOR SCHOOLS AND FA-
MILIES. 5 vols. Globe 8vo. Is. 6d. With Comments, 3s. 6d. each.
FIRST SERIES. Genesis to Deuteronomy.
SECOND SERIES. From Joshua to Solomon.
The Kings and Prophets.
THIRD SERIES.
FOURTH SERIES.
FIFTH SERIES. Apostolic Times.
The Gospel Times.

UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN
BA
INT
3 9015 06432 2111
DO NOT REMOVE
OR
MUTILATE CARD
PRINTED IN U SA
Cat No 23 520